Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2008 June 1

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[edit] June 1

[edit] stock

how old do you have to be to purchas buisness stocks? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.14.124.175 (talk) 02:05, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Anyone can buy stocks. Just contact a broker and they should set up an account for you - although if you're under 18 (or 21 in some places) one of your parents would need to sign off. See this. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 10:24, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
Basically, you need to be old enough to legally sign a contract. That age and ways around it (having a parent sign for you) depend on where you live. -- kainaw 19:16, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Veto power in the United Nations.

I have a question. I know that the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, France, the People's Republic of China and Germany have the veto power in the UN. But my doubt is: for example... If the Security Council imposes a sanction on China. Could China save itself using the veto power?. Thanks and if the answer is 'Yes'... the UN is the curse of our World! Maru-Spanish (talk) 04:01, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean the United Nations Security Council veto power? In that case Germany does not have a veto. Otherwise, yes, China can veto sanctions against itself, although I don't know if imposing sanctions is within the jurisdiction of the Security Council. The veto page has a bunch of examples of the US, USSR, and UK vetoing actions which were against their own interests, so such an event would hardly be unique. Adam Bishop (talk) 04:38, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
The Security Council has the power to impose economic sanctions, like those on Iraq, or on Rhodesia earlier. There was absolutely no chance that the UN charter would have been adopted in 1945 without the veto, it was a major struggle at San Francisco to restrict it only to substantive, non-procedural matters. In the old Council of the League of Nations every member had a veto. Not vetoing threatening actions would be the surprising thing, the Korean war and the Soviet Union being the only such case. China has used the veto very little. And of course, the veto hardly made the UN the curse of our world, more the reverse.John Z (talk) 07:15, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
China has used the veto six times, less than any other member of the Security council. (According to that page, France has vetoed 18 resolutions, the UK 32, the US 82 and the USSR/Russia 123. Russian vetos were most frequent in the Cold War and US vetos in the 70s and 80s. Another chart on that site shows vetoes were most common overall in the Cold War, and although the data only goes to 1992, it looked like the trend was for vetoes to affect fewer and fewer of the total number of UN resolutions over time. WikiJedits (talk) 15:05, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
As I recall, some of the more surprising non-vetoes were a result of non-attendance. For example, the Korean War intervention vote wasn't vetoed by the Soviets because they were boycotting the council at that point. — Lomn 18:49, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sennosuke Yamaguchi's Fujiya Hotel Book 1939

I found this book a while ago and have not been able to find out any information on it. The title is in cursive Japanese kanji and is very difficult to make out, but the book was published in 1939 and autographed by the author, K.M. Yamaguchi, in 1947. From what we can figure out, K.M. Yamaguchi is a relative of Sennosuke Yamaguchi who founded the Hotel in 1878, but we have not been able to find out anything further. The book is a detailed history, in Japanese and English, of the Fujiya Hotel with pictures and hotel statistics. I was wanting to find out if there is any other information regarding this book, such as title, the author and Yamaguchi family. Basically, anything anyone can come up with will be helpful. Thank you very much,

Rachel —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.61.84.54 (talk) 04:12, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

How about asking them? Oda Mari (talk) 15:24, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

I did, but no one has gotten back to me as of yet. I was trying every venue open to me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.164.50.119 (talk) 01:52, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] buddhism

please give some information on the impact of buddhism and jainism on literature ,art and architecture in India.124.7.76.158 (talk) 10:12, 1 June 2008 (UTC)Sagnik Mukherjee,India

Here you go Sagnik: Indian literature, and more specifically Pali Canon, Charyapada, and Tamil literature; also follow the links in all those articles. Indian art and Indian rock-cut architecture. Indian architecture#Buddhist_and_Jain_architecture. WikiJedits (talk) 14:51, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] economics

what is ASSESSIBLE VALUE ?? how do we calculate INCIDENCE OF TAX ? Mmsr (talk) 11:37, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Have you read Tax incidence? From a quick google search, it looks like "assessable value" is an asset's value for tax purposes (see this). Zain Ebrahim (talk) 12:39, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
The incidence of tax (aka "tax burden") is determined by the elasticities of demand and supply. For example, the quantity demanded of luxury goods tends to be highly sensitive to changes in price. So, when the government imposes a tax on luxury goods, producers prefer to pay the tax via reduced profits rather than to pass the tax on to consumers via higher prices. Conversely, the quantity demanded of gasoline tends to be relatively insensitive to changes in price. So, when the government imposes a tax on gas, producers prefer to pass the tax on to consumers via higher prices rather than to pay the tax via reduced profits. The interesting conclusion is that the government has no control over who ultimately pays a tax. For example, in the US, the employer "pays" half of a worker's Social Security tax while the other half is withheld from the worker's paycheck. In fact, studies have shown that workers end up paying the entirety of the Social Security tax via reduced wages. Wikiant (talk) 12:49, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The term for In courtship, to open the legs and invite the male...

A long time ago I was reading something about how female lab rats would offer themselves to the male rats by opening their legs and showing their genetalia as if to invite the males. What is the term for this? I think it starts with 'L' and has a 'b' in it. Thanks Rfwoolf (talk) 16:48, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Minerva Minnie Mouse - not a rat but, at least, a rodent - having attended the introductory Lectures to Freudian Principles, given by the famed Professor Ludwig von Drake from Vienna called it "libido". O dear me, I just discover that I am less famous than a non-existing two dimensional psychoanalytical cartoon mouse oops, duck! Sniff, Boooh... --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 21:12, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
Perhaps Lordosis. Edison (talk) 23:47, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
That's it! Thanks Edison. I've been trying to recall the word for a few months now - not ardently though, but when my mind wonders I keep on trying to recall it. Rfwoolf (talk) 03:55, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
Better make that Lordosis behavior; those of us homo sapiens suffering from swayback have a posture problem not necessarily related to come-hither posturing! -- Deborahjay (talk) 21:11, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
Refinement is appreciated. But back in the day I am sure behavioral scientists and textbooks just called it "lordosis" or the "lordosis reflex" [1] [2] [3] when a female rat prepared to be mounted by her suitor. And I have known swayback horses (and humans) who were not averse to courtship and all that it may entail. Edison (talk) 00:10, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Osaka/Kyoto in 1506?

I'm doing research for a novel that's set as per the title above, and so far it's been going well, although I seem to have chosen a rather 'dead' year, with veeery little info on the turn-of-the-century there. Out of the info I've managed to collect has arose a couple of questions: who would have in charge locally? Also from the Shugo page I don't know whether to use the term 'Shugo' or 'Daimyo'...I don't know, I think I've cobbled together a decent picture, but any certain info on what/who was/wasn't there at that time would be nice...?

--Lady BlahDeBlah (talk) 19:54, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Settsu Province and Izumi Province were governed by Hosokawa clan. kyoto was governed by Ashikaga clan. Read Ashikaga shogunate and Muromachi period and Daimyo#Shugo daimyo. Oda Mari (talk) 08:47, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Writing a song as a poem

All songs with lyrics can be considered poems. However, often in songs there are repeated refrains or choruses. If I am quoting a poem that is a song, could I leave out the repeated choruses, or leave out the choruses altogether? Can I state that song "Example X" is the poem "Example X without the choruses" ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.131.181.242 (talk) 21:26, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

I'd say that it depends on what you're doing. It's usual when displaying lyrics to label the chorus as such the first time it comes and just put "chorus" every other time. If I wanted to render a song as straight-ahead poetry, I'd include the full text of every chorus every time. Good poetry bears repeating. --Milkbreath (talk) 22:08, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
Are you writing it as lyrics, or making it into poetry? As lyrics, I'd go with the chorus written once then noted every other time. If a poem turned into a song with choruses, they would be for the purposes of song writing. If you want to find the core poem, I'd leave them out since it's not Greek theatre, or is it? Julia Rossi (talk) 00:36, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Does Bangladesh export medicine to USA ?

Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Industry is a very promising sector for the growth of the Country's economy. Bangladesh exports medicine to a number of countries mostly in Asia and recently to some countries of UK. If any information on the query mentioned above with authentic reference is available that would be greatly appreciated.

regards !

--Riz1 80 (talk) 22:40, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Beximco intended/intends/has. If that helps. Fribbler (talk) 23:16, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mr Ketchum getting hot

After getting help with the name of a movie that I only remembered one scene from, I thought I might try with the author and name of a short story I read as a child. The story is about "Mr Ketchum" (I think) who gets caught while speeding through a godforsaken place somewhere in the usa. he is sent to prison to wait for his trial. There he is served enormous amounts of tasty food, while waiting for the judge (who is supposedly sick) to be able to sentence him. in town there are banners proclaiming "barbecue tonight!", but Ketchum does not realize what is going to happen to him until he is placed in another cell where the walls are burning hot! Does anyone recognize this? /Marxmax (talk) 23:36, 1 June 2008 (UTC) Yes, I do remember it but think it was either a TwilightZone episode or part of a "compendium " film.I've asked my friends and everyone recognises it so a search is going on as I type.hotclaws 14:28, 3 June 2008 (UTC)