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October 29

https

How to http: and https: relate these days?

If a server prefers https, and I follow a link that has http:, the server will (always?) substitute https:. But what about the reverse? Not all websites have made the change. Will a http site do the right thing with a https: address? —Antonissimo (talk) 03:37, 29 October 2026 (UTC)

See Transport Layer Security (TLS). This is the underlying tech that maintains privacy for the communication between a user's computer and the server. While some servers are configured to allow unencrypted (plain http) mode as fallback, doing so has security implications: this would make a man-in-the-middle attack feasible. For example, attacker eavesdropping on a user's connection half-way, taking the HTTPS request packet, and do something to it to make it fail to force a fallback to plain HTTP. 海盐沙冰 _{/ aka irisChronomia / Talk / Uploads} 05:29, 29 October 2026 (UTC)

The automated upgrade from http: to https: may be due to your browser, rather than the server.  ​‑‑Lambiam 08:21, 29 October 2026 (UTC)

It can also be in a router and corporate packet inspection. From the browser to the web server, there is long-standing history of automatically converting http traffic to https without asking the user.

But, I wanted to answer the question about how they relate. If you use http, your web request is unencrypted in transit. If you use https, your web request (the same request you made in http) is encrypted in transit. The standard format of encryption is TLS. What is important here is not that it is encrypted from your computer to the server. It is encrypted from your web browser to the web service running on the web server.

I also wanted to respond to the statement that not all website have made the change. That is true. It is expensive to implement https because you need a secure certificate on the server. You either pay in money or time. For around $1000, you can easily purchase a certificate that lasts years. For $0, you can spend hours fiddling with cryptic broken websites to try and get a certificate that lasts a few months and then you have to start over again, trying to run through the maze of more broken links, broken forms, and broken instructions... and tons of advertising that covers up that one button you were supposed to click five screens ago. Therefore, if you don't feel you need encryption on your website, why deal with it? ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 11:50, 29 October 2026 (UTC)

October 31

Diagram explaining PHP2Shell

Would https://www.akamai.com/blog/security-research/understanding-php2shell-everything-you-need-to-know and https://outcomeschool.com/blog/php2shell be considered reputable sources if I wish to draw a diagram explaining how PHP2Shell works, in a similar style to this explanation for Heartbleed? cmɢʟee τaʟκ (please add {{ping|cmglee}} to your reply) 00:13, 31 October 2026 (UTC)

Akamai Technologies is a reputable company with long-standing expertise in the area of cybersecurity, so I think it can be considered a reliable source. I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the explanation on the website of Outcome School by its founder, Amit Shekhar, a graduate of IIT (BHU) Varanasi. This school is a prestigious engineering institution, but I do not have evidence that Amit Shekhar has specific cybersecurity expertise, so it is less clear that this page can be considered a "reliable source" in the specific Wikipedia sense. As it aims at a more general public, it may still be a valuable resource in understanding the more detailed technical explanation on Akamai's security blog and condensing it to a simple diagram. CVE-2026-109619 is essentially a dangling pointer issue, so the (static) diagram in the article Dangling pointer may, perhaps, also be a source of inspiration.  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:53, 31 October 2026 (UTC)

I have thought about this because I've had to explain the PHP2Shell bug. The issue is that most people don't have a good feel for how the server handles multiple requests. So, the explanation is a lot of handwaving. What you really need is a non-computer scenario where an order is placed in a slot of some kind and that order is marked active/inactive. Under normal conditions, the order comes in. It gets marked active. The order is completed. It gets marked inactive. The slot is cleared. The PHP2Shell scenario is an order comes in. The slot is marked active. The order fails and the slot is cleared (this is the bug: the slot should be marked inactive as well). Then, an order for something you shouldn't be allowed to order is put into that slot. It is active, so the order is completed, the slot is marked inactive, and the slot is cleared. What is expected is that the illegal order comes in, the slot is checked, it is illegal, blocked. But, because the previous failed order left the slot active, the illegal order is assumed to have been checked. In my mind, I think it can relate to a diner run by simplistic robots following command loops. A customer orders 999 hamburgers. It fails. The customer orders $200 and the order is fulfilled. ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 14:05, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

I've been thinking about this further and while my previous example shows how an error in error handling can allow access to things the user shouldn't access, the description is wrong. In PHP2Shell, the big issue is that memory is marked "available" but is not cleared. So, to make it something physical, memory should be trays (for some reason). Users ask for something. A tray is marked "in use" and something is put on the tray. The user gets what their stuff and returns the empty tray which is marked "available." What if there is an error in filling a tray? It SHOULD empty the tray and mark it as available. The PHP2Shell bug was that it marked the tray "available" without emptying it, so the next person to use that tray would get not only what they asked for but whatever was still sitting on the tray. There are many ways to exploit that in real-world scenarios like a betting station or a sushi bar or a mailbox system... ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 13:46, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

November 8

Split a string at spaces into n roughly equal-length strings

In a translation project, I would like to translate labels into many different languages. The number of rows of text in each label is fixed but the number of words (delimited by spaces) in the translation is variable. As the Python script cannot tell how wide characters are, assume that each character is the same width (monospace). Instead of linewrapping to a fixed length, I prefer to make each row approximately the same length.

Can someone please describe an algorithm (preferably in python Python 2 with standard libraries) that can split a string into n roughly equal parts at its spaces? If there are fewer than n−1 spaces, the number of rows is reduced (it doesn't hyphenate).

A naive way is to wrap the text at spaces to lines of at most ⁠string length/number of rows needed⁠ characters. That would fail with, say, "AAAAA B CCCCC DDDD". Ignoring spaces, the length is 15. For 3 rows, the ratio is 5, thus the first row output is "AAAAA". As "B CCCCC" also exceeds 5, the second row output is "B", leaving "CCCCC DDDD" on the third. It should output either "AAAAA B`CCCCC`DDDD" or "AAAAA`B CCCCC`DDDD" ("`" denote hard returns) instead.

An alternative is to brute-force all partitions and choose the one with lowest maximum row length. However, with, say, 10 words and 3 rows, one has to check 120 combinations. Is there a more efficient way?

Thanks, cmɢʟee τaʟκ (please add {{ping|cmglee}} to your reply) 13:01, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

The best partition according to some criterion can be computed in quadratic time, using dynamic programming. Think of the potential split points as nodes in a graph, including the point at the start and that at the end of the string. For the string "AA B" of 4 symbols (we treat a space as a symbol) we get something like

•A•A• •B•,

with 5 nodes. The graph is directed, with an edge running from each node to each later node. For n nodes, there are 1⁄2 n (n − 1) edges.

Each edge has a non-negative weight, representing an edge cost, and the idea is to find the cheapest path from the starting point to the end point, that is, with least total path cost. This problem is an instance of the shortest path problem in a directed graphs with nonnegative weights (reading "cost" for "length" and "cheapest" for "shortest"), but slightly simpler because the nodes are already topologically sorted. Each edge corresponds to a string segment, and the path determines a partition. A segment that is too long to fit has a very high edge cost, say +∞, so that no path will be selected with such a segment. A segment that fits precisely gets edge cost 0. A segment that fits but leaves space gets a real edge cost, depending on how much slack it leaves. One cost measure is the length s of the slack, which will tend to minimize the number of rows. Another measure is s², which I expect to be esthetically more pleasing. A compromise between these desirable properties is obtained by adding the measures: s + s².

Edges corresponding to segments of only blank space will be treated differently in the final phase. When turning the partition into a sequence of rows, they must be skipped. Their edge cost is 0.

The algorithm determines, from right to left, the path cost of the cheapest path from each node to the end point, labelling the node with the path cost. Let the nodes be numbered from 0 to n.

The path from node n to itself is the null path; it has path cost 0. For node i < n, each path from that node to n consists of a first edge from i to a node j < n, followed by a path from j to n. In the cheapest path from i, the path from the next node j will also be a cheapest path. So the path cost of the cheapest path from i to n is equal to

min_{i +1 ≤ j ≤ n} edgecost(i, j) + pathcost(j).

Whenever, in a loop considering j = i + 1, j = i + 2, ..., the value of edgecost(i, j) reaches +∞, the loop can be broken prematurely, since nothing further on will be any good. This will effectively make the algorithm linear time.

After this right-to-left scan, we are positioned to determine the optimal partitioning in a left-to-right scan; the same loop can immediately produce the output.

Set i equal to 0. Then, while i < n, repeat:

Find j > i such that

edgecost(i, j) + pathcost(j) = pathcost(i).

Output segment edge(i, j), unless totally blank.

Set i equal to j.

 ​‑‑Lambiam 10:29, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

I suggest looking at the Knuth–Plass line-breaking algorithm. ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 13:40, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

The above is basically a simplified (and arguably higher-level) description of that algorithm, with the innovation of starting with a right-to-left scan.  ​‑‑Lambiam 21:18, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

Thank you very much, Lambiam. In case it's useful to anyone else, I've used dynamic programming to implement the auto-wrapping below. cmɢʟee τaʟκ (please add {{ping|cmglee}} to your reply) 12:34, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

def split_to_rows(text, n_row): ## split text to up to n_row roughly equal rows
 words  = text.split()
 n_word = len(words)
 if n_word <= n_row: return words
 i_char_breaks = [0]
 for word in words: i_char_breaks.append(i_char_breaks[-1] + len(word))
 ## segment_length returns length of words[i:j] when joined with single spaces
 def segment_length(i,j): return i_char_breaks[j] - i_char_breaks[i] + j - i - 1
 target = float(segment_length(0, n_word)) / n_row
 ## costss[k][j] = minimum cost to split the first j words into k parts
 previous_cutss = [[    None    ] * (n_word + 1) for k in range(n_row + 1)]
 costss         = [[float('inf')] * (n_word + 1) for k in range(n_row + 1)]
 costss[0][0]   = 0.0
 for   k in range(1,n_row + 1):
  for  j in range(k,n_word - (n_row - k) + 1): ## j leaves >=1 word in each part
   for i in range(k - 1,j):
    length = segment_length(i,j)
    cost   = costss[k - 1][i] + (length - target) ** 2
    if cost < costss[k][j]: (costss[k][j], previous_cutss[k][j]) = (cost, i)
 ## Reconstruct the chosen parts
 (cuts, j) = ([n_word], n_word)
 for k in range(n_row, 0, -1):
  j = previous_cutss[k][j]
  cuts.append(j)
 return [' '.join(words[cuts[-(k + 1)]:cuts[-(k + 2)]]) for k in range(n_row)]
def split_to_row(text, n_row): return CR.join(split_to_rows(text, n_row))

Sometimes, brute force is a lot less complicated:

:import textwrap
:my_text = 'asdf asdffasdf asdf asdf asdfsdfasdf asdf asdfasdfasdf asdfa asdf' * 10
:target_number_of_lines = 8
:max_width = 200
:text_list = None
:# Try wrapping with increasing widths until we get the right number of lines
:for width in range(1, max_width):
:    text_list = textwrap.wrap(my_text, width)
:    if len(text_list) <= target_number_of_lines:
:        break
:if text_list is not None:
:    print('\n'.join(text_list))
:else:
:    print(f'Text requires greater than {max_width}')
:

Alien878 (talk) 14:21, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

@Alien878: Clever idea, thanks! cmɢʟee τaʟκ (please add {{ping|cmglee}} to your reply) 02:51, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

Resolved

November 8

Black gemstone displaying aventurescence

Is there any pure black and opaque gemstone, mineral, rock, or something like that, displaying aventurescence? I have a rock I picked up from a hobby shop on a road trip once that looks almost like a tiny pebble of jet, except not quite as shiny, and with a strong sparkliness to it. Does that sound like any real kind of stone that exists, or is this just some hobby shop’s way of ripping off amateur geologists with some glitter glue and a backyard rock? Cheers, 𝔰𝔥𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔯 ^{(𝔱𝔞𝔩𝔨)} (any/all) 03:04, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

A cursory web enquiry suggests Black sunstone – "a plagioclase feldspar variety that ranges from a dark gunmetal gray to a true, deep black", and a 'quartz/graphinite' called Black aventurine – "while green aventurine is the most famous, quartz can form in dark gray and pure black varieties." Searching those on specialist minerology sites might yield results.

I can imagine Black opal, which has quite a variety of patterns, approaching an appearance of aventurescence, though I have never seen any. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 03:28, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

Goldstone, while aventurescent, is not a true gemstone but can pass as such. Since it can be made in basically any colour, one can make black goldstone gems, like one depicted here – actually a very dark blue.  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:47, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

I think that’s what it is based on the picture of the dark blue ones at Goldstone (gemstone). Thanks for the replies, all! Cheers, 𝔰𝔥𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔯 ^{(𝔱𝔞𝔩𝔨)} (any/all) 03:44, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Mohs scale can be informative if you willing to scratch things with other things. Sean.hoyland (talk) 12:57, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

November 9

Euler's gamma function

I was always puzzled by the definition instead of that seems much more natural. Someone knows how it arose? Thanks ~2026-56087-11 (talk) 11:24, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

Perhaps I have understood ... as a particular solution of f(x)=x*f(x) ... sorry for the disturb ~2026-56087-11 (talk) 12:53, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

This paper cited in our article on the gamma function attributes this integral form (as well as the notation) to Adrien-Marie Legendre. I suspect that it was chosen so that is defined for all rather than all , but without having seen the actual original paper by Legendre, that is pure speculation on my part. GalacticShoe (talk) 14:24, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

Do you not mean Gamma function with a capital gamma? JRSpriggs (talk) 15:11, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

Many sources use "gamma function".  ​‑‑Lambiam 20:26, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

I thank the author that has revised my formulae ~2026-56087-11 (talk) 20:48, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

The article

Philip J. Davis (1959), "Leonhard Euler's Integral: A Historical Profile of the Gamma Function", The American Mathematical Monthly, 66:10, 849-869, doi:10.1080/00029890.1959.11989422,

after introducing Legendre's definition and noting that, as defined, the function satisfies the identity whenever is a positive integer, contains a footnote that reads as follows:

Legendre's notation shifts the argument. Gauss introduced a notation free of this defect. Legendre's notation won out, but continues to plague many people. The notations , , and ! can all be found today.

It does not present a known or suspected rationale for Legendre's shift.  ​‑‑Lambiam 20:55, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

@Lambian: Thanks, always very useful as in the propagandist/plugger case for the Murdoch mysteries

October 29

why did Leopold II of tuscany ally with Piedmont during the first war of Italian unification instead of siding with his Austrian allies?

i find it confusing how Leopold made the move to side with the piedmontese cause during the first Italian war, I could understand that it could be do to the pressure of his subjects, and to gain the favor of the piedmontese, who were growing in influence and industrial power, but why would he actively fight his Austrian allies? he was a hapsburg after all, it seems out of line for what's documented of him. Mdz10 (talk) 14:17, 29 October 2026 (UTC)

Leopold II sided with Piedmont in 1848 because Italian nationalist sentiment and political pressure within Tuscany made neutrality or open support for Austria dangerous. He was trying to preserve his throne and remain popular, not to break permanently with Austria. When the revolution became more radical, he moved back toward the Austrian camp. ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 14:51, 29 October 2026 (UTC)

October 30

Given What you know about the guy

How a/be/unamused would John Adams have been to discover on the 200th year after his death, he shares real estate on something called a "website" with a factoid about a gay Jesus porn movie? Maybe he'd be too interested in reading an encyclopedia article about himself 200 years after the fact to scroll down, I know I would... Americanfreedom (talk) 15:35, 30 October 2026 (UTC)

Read the top of this page:

• We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.

~2026-54318-85 (talk) 15:43, 30 October 2026 (UTC)

King Arthur's Table

The anonymous A Handbook for Travellers in South Wales and Its Borders (1860) pp. 102–103 tells me that near the park of Moccas Court, Herefordshire lies a substantial cromlech with a collapsed capstone measuring 18 foot by 9 foot. It is also mentioned in various other 19th-century books, the earliest I think dating from 1818, but in the 20th century the trail goes cold. Geoffrey Ashe wrote in 1983 that he had searched for it but failed to find it. Admittedly he says he was looking in the park of Moccas Court, Brecknockshire, which was the next-door county, but I don't believe there are two Moccas Courts. A substantial cromlech should, I would have thought, be a scheduled monument, but there are none such in Moccas, nor can I find any modern record of a King Arthur's Table there. What's happened to it? Has it been destroyed? Does it still exist under another name? Has it been decided that it's a natural group of rocks and therefore of no interest? Or that it's a fake antique run up perhaps by Capability Brown when he landscaped the park in the 18th century? I'd be glad of any references that would solve the mystery or that would give any other information about this supposed cromlech. --Antiquary (talk) 17:05, 30 October 2026 (UTC)

Google search AI managed to hallucinate such a monument for me, though following up the sources just found a different menhir and Moccas Court mentioned in the same publication. It did, however, lead me to the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, whose website https://www.woolhopeclub.org.uk/ has extensive searchable archives covering that area. -- Verbarson  ^talk_edits 20:18, 30 October 2026 (UTC)

It must be Arthur's Stone, Herefordshire, near Mocca's Court, and a good match for the description in the old text despite not being a cromlech. Warofdreams talk 21:46, 30 October 2026 (UTC)

It looks like a cromlech "A structure of prehistoric age consisting of a large flat or flattish unhewn stone resting horizontally on three or more stones set upright; found in various parts of the British Isles, esp. in Wales, Devonshire, Cornwall, and Ireland. Also applied to similar structures in other parts of the world." (OED) to me. DuncanHill (talk) 21:56, 30 October 2026 (UTC)

I knew about Arthur's Stone but hadn't thought of identifying it with Arthur's Table, what with there being Arthur's this and that all over Wales and the Marches. Arthur's Stone is only two or three miles from Moccas Court (how far the park extends I couldn't say) and does stand on a hill. This article seems to clinch it: "Arthur's Stone, or 'King Arthur's Table' as it is sometimes termed". Well, if Geoffrey Ashe was fooled as well I needn't feel too bad about it. Problem solved, I think. Thanks, everyone. --Antiquary (talk) 10:05, 31 October 2026 (UTC)

Our dolmen article says: "...dolmen has replaced cromlech as the usual English term in archaeology".

I have added a brief note about the "King Arthur's Table" name at the Etymology section. Alansplodge (talk) 13:20, 31 October 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip. It is well to disguise one's extreme obsolescence. --Antiquary (talk) 14:23, 31 October 2026 (UTC)

If English has now followed other languages by distinguishing between dolmen tombs and cromlech cirecles, then our articles need a bit of work to make this clearer. Johnbod (talk) 19:38, 31 October 2026 (UTC)

According to the OED it hasn't. "Dolmen: The French name, used by some English authors, for a cromlech n. a prehistoric structure, consisting of a large flattish stone supported upon two or more smaller upright stones.". DuncanHill (talk) 19:46, 31 October 2026 (UTC)

The OED is about a century behind in tracking these sort of changes. Johnbod (talk) 22:53, 31 October 2026 (UTC)

To User:Shantavira, this is true, & the OED staff are pretty frank about it, although the website doesn't shout about it. Unless their budget has been cut again, the teams working on revising and checking existing words started in the middle of the alphabet about a decade ago, and are spreading out in both directions, which will take at least 20 years. Do not confuse this with the new words & new meanings teams, who are much more up to date, and whose work is used to generate publicity. A high proportion of word entries have not been looked at properly since the first edition, mostly in the 19th century - this is very easy to check with a print copy. Johnbod (talk) 02:11, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

By way of a reference:-

cromlech This term has fallen out of use in Britain, but like the term 'dolmen' it was once used to indicate a simple megalithic structure consisting of uprights supporting a capstone - especially when there was no extant covering mound. In France and Iberia, the term cromlech is used to identify a quite different class of megalithic structure: rings of free standing stones such as those found in the Carnac Region of France or the Evora region of Portugal. RJA

A Dictionary of Archaeology (2008) Ian Shaw, ‎Robert Jameson eds. Blackwell, Oxford. Page 182.

Alansplodge (talk) 22:52, 1 November 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, but I'm not quite sure where this leaves us. Johnbod (talk) 02:11, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

From my archaeological readings – including The Megalithic European (2004) Julian Cope, Element (HarperCollins) London, which happens to be at hand and which corresponds to Shaw above – a 'dolmen' is a structure of several (often three but sometimes more) upright stones supporting (still or formerly) a horizontal capstone (or several of them) forming a chamber, all of which was originally covered in an earth mound now usually eroded away. They take various different forms depending on both their age and their location both in and beyond the British Isles. Cromlechs by contrast are groups of stones adjacent and associated, but not originally buried.

Both terms are used in various European countries with the expected spelling variations (cromeleque in Portugal, for example), and the distinction above may often not have been used in the past. Where sites include one or the other word in their recognised names, we cannot vary those names, although descriptive texts might need to make a clarification. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 03:33, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

The English term was borrowed from French, where its further origin is obscure. Here is a translation of the lead section of the article dolmen on the French Wikipedia:

A dolmen is a generally megalithic tomb, originally enclosed within a tumulus, containing a burial chamber intended to hold multiple interments.

This word, probably of Breton origin, has been adopted into several European languages. It has become a generic term used in prehistoric archaeology to refer to a wide variety of architectural types. The imprecise nature of its original definition and the diversity of terminologies adopted later by specialists, now lead to it being replaced it with the expressions "megalithic tomb" or "megalithic burial", but the word remains very common in everyday usage.

Dolmens and menhirs are the two most common and iconic megalithic types in the world. Dolmens, particularly those built throughout the Neolithic period, are found mostly in Europe, particularly Western Europe. Numerous similar structures exist in North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Near East, and the Far East, but these were built in more recent times.

 ​‑‑Lambiam 08:32, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

Further to this, Google AI summarising Britannica (so, pinch of salt) states that 'cromlech' comes from Welsh and combines crom (feminine of crwm – bent) and "llech" (flat slate), presumably referring to the horizontal capstone. (A borrowing by French via Breton might be suspected.)

It also implies that 'dolmen' referred to the mound that the stones appeared to surround. The meanings of the original (Brythonic?) words may have drifted over the centuries, just as the originally covering earth mounds eroded, and there evidently have been different applications of the two words by different people (archaeologists or otherwise) at different times in different countries. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 00:02, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

Thanks all. I did an edit at cromlech" which I'm sure can be improved on, and will copy the recent bits here to the talk there for permanence. Johnbod (talk) 14:59, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

November 6

Elon Musk's $500MM midterm election spending

People are saying Musk spent $500MM on the midterm elections and his party still lost and therefore the spending didn't work. Of course that's a non-sequitur: it might have prevented an even bigger loss, in which case it worked, just not as well as he hoped. As a general question, is there ever post-election analysis of this type of question that is any good? And more specifically, is there some for this recent election? The GOP actually did flip at least one seat away from the Dems if that matters to anyone, a House seat somewhere in Texas. Obviously most flips were the other way. ~2026-56703-29 (talk) 21:55, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

There is voluminous political commentary on question like this after every election. Whether it is any good you would have to judge for yourself. People who care the most (politicians and parties themselves) hire their own analysts as well as reading what it in the papers, newsletters and magazines. Eluchil404 (talk) 23:11, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

An attempt at a generic analysis will be somewhat futile, since there are too many factors in play (including confounding ones).

Most of Musk's spending this election went to high-profile candidates who lost their races anyway. In Texas this included Ken Paxton for Senator and Greg Abbott for Governor. In Ohio, Jon Husted for Senator and Vivek Ramaswamy for Governor. Further, in Michigan Mike Rogers for Senator and in Georgia Rick Jackson for Governor. Some news articles that may have more detail and analysis: BBC; PBS; Fortune.  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:33, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

November 7

Winston Churchill's Possible Retroactive U.S. citizenship

Hi. I saw an interesting discussion about Winston Churchill's citizenship today, but I'm still not sure which side is correct.

(Churchill was made a Honorary citizen of the United States, but that's a completely separate thing from Citizenship of the United States for the purposes of this discussion. Let's just assume that everyone in the discussion was well aware of the honorary citizenship and its non-applicability.)

Level 1: Winston Churchill was a British citizen.

Level 2: Actually, Churchill was also a U.S. citizen thanks to his mother being a U.S. citizen.

Level 3: Churchill was not a U.S. citizen because at the time of his birth, the Naturalization Act of 1855 specified that a child born outside of the United States is a U.S. citizen only if the child's father is a U.S. citizen. Churchill's father was not a U.S. citizen.

Level 4: Actually, the Equal Nationality Act of 1934 made it so that U.S. fathers and mothers were treated equally under the law. U.S. citizens now pass down citizenship equally, regardless of gender.

Level 5: Churchill was not a U.S. citizen because the Equal Nationality Act of 1934 only applied to children born after May 24, 1934, so it did nothing for Churchill.

Level 6: Winston Churchill was born a U.S. citizen because the Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994 added section 301(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which retroactively made him a U.S. citizen from birth.

(Don't bother using AI for this. Every AI I tried gave a level 1 to 4 answer.) Epideurus (talk) 04:10, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

I don't know about the US, but I think in most countries you are only a citizen if you are registered, at birth or by a subsequent application. Churchill presumably never did this, so was at best eligible for citizenship. Johnbod (talk) 04:42, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

I have a vague recollection that Churchill was giving a talk at some American university where he had received an honorary degree or some such. He said that if his father had been American and his mother British, instead of the other way around, "I might have gotten here on my own!" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:06, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

Ha. It was actually part of Winston Churchill's address to the United States Congress (1941). ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:28, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

I think there are people who are born in Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK) who are unaware that they also have (or are entitled to) Irish/EU citizenship, as Northern Ireland is effectively subject to both the laws of the UK and Ireland for citizenship purposes. Ireland (the whole island) used to have birthright citizenship for people born before 2005. JuniperChill (talk) 11:01, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

I very much doubt there are many "unaware that they also have (or are entitled to) Irish/EU citizenship" in NI. People in mainland UK, sure. The NI people are entitled only, until they apply for an Irish passport. Johnbod (talk) 14:04, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

The 1994 statute does say that persons described by section 301(h) of the Act “shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth.” However, 8 CFR § 301.1 contemplates an application and an oath of allegiance before a certificate of citizenship can be granted. Of course, Churchill never applied and likely would have been unwilling to give the oath. John M Baker (talk) 07:27, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for actually reading all the regulations and sincerely engaging in the discussion.

8 CFR § 301.1 contains the following phrases: "who desires to be documented as a United States citizen pursuant to section 301(h)" and "who desires to be documented as a United States citizen under section 301(h) of the Act". I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like the process is for the purposes of "to be documented as a United States citizen", as in, someone is already a U.S. citizen, and the whole process is just to obtain the documents to that effect.

Take a hypothetical example, John Doe is born a U.S. citizen outside the US. He never registers or becomes documented as a U.S. citizen. He is still a U.S. citizen despite never obtaining a certificate of citizenship or a U.S. passport. John later becomes a trillionaire and owes billions in income tax to the IRS (despite never setting foot in the U.S.). In such a case, it doesn't seem likely that defenses like "John never made use of their U.S. citizenship" or "John never swore the oath" would work.

The 8 CFR § 301.1 process is kinda like coronation for a British monarch. Edward VIII was briefly the monarch even though he never had a coronation.

Not really - EVII was ceremonially proclaimed within a few days of his father's death, as is usual. That is when a person legally becomes the monarch. The coronation is just religious/an excuse for parties. It seems we don't have an article on this one, though we have all the others between George V and Proclamation of accession of Charles III. Johnbod (talk) 14:12, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

The first two sentences of that article are: "Charles III became King of the United Kingdom and of 14 other Commonwealth realms upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on 8 September 2022." and "Royal succession in the realms occurs immediately upon the death of the reigning monarch."

Both sentences seem to suggest that moment of death = moment new monarch activated.

Likewise, for live-births in the US, moment of birth = moment U.S. citizenship activated. But for births outside the U.S., the situation is less clear since there's an additional registration step. Epideurus (talk) 14:42, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

Oh, that's true. But legally the proclamation, following a decision of the Privy Council etc, is the moment of legal confirmation, comparable to a US swearing-in etc. After that the monarch can start "assenting" to legislation and so on. The coronation, several months later, actually has very little if any legal effect. Johnbod (talk) 17:09, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

That's why we don't know what time Queen Elizabeth became queen, because we don't know what time her father died. Hayttom (talk) 17:01, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

(This is just my personal understanding. I'm more than happy to learn about other points of view and to be corrected.)Epideurus (talk) 09:49, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

Also just speculating wildly, but I suspect those wordings have more to do with national security and treason than tax. Johnbod (talk) 14:12, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

I'd have thought that 'desires to be documented as a United States citizen' would be taken at face value. It would be rather strange to be making people citizens against their will (apart from anything else, some countries don't allow dual citizenship), and what it means is an individual has the right to citizenship if they ask for it. Is there evidence that Churchill ever expressed such desire? Because if he didn't, somebody can't retroactively ask for it on his behalf. AndyTheGrump (talk) 14:18, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

see Rogers v. Bellei and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy manual, Volume 12, Part H, Chapter 3:

Until the Act of October 10, 1978, persons who had acquired U.S. citizenship through birth outside of the United States to one U.S. citizen parent had to meet certain physical presence requirements to retain their citizenship. This legislation eliminated retention requirements for persons who were born after October 10, 1952. There may be cases where a person who was born before that date, and therefore subject to the retention requirements, may have failed to retain citizenship.
An officer should determine whether a person acquired citizenship at birth by referring to the applicable statutory provisions and conditions that existed at the time of the person’s birth. These provisions have been modified extensively over the years.

the footnote says refer to the Nationality Charts, which may be Nationality Chart 1 - Children Born Outside the United States in Wedlock which seems to say the residence requirement is "Not Applicable". Which i read the footnote to that as your "level 6" being correct, but to really know for sure i think we'd need to find a court case on point. My reading of the policy tho is that the 1934 act is irrelevant because citizenship is acquired according to the law at time of birth, except for the gender equality provisions of Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994 which are applied retroactively. But see also, Miller v. Albright where gender differences were upheld by the Supreme Court for births out of wedlock. misread that, Congress applied the 301(h) amendment retroactively, not gender quality provisions.

a person born before noon (Eastern Standard Time) May 24, 1934, outside the limits and jurisdiction of the United States of an alien father and a mother who is a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, had resided in the United States.

and according to the policy there are no requirements to retain citizenship. fiveby(zero) 14:37, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

Oh jeez, you are discussing CFR § 301, not the Immigration and Nationality Act § 301. Sorry about that, but a Certificate of Citizenship is evidence of citizenship, not the status of citizenship. fiveby(zero) 16:06, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

Kitchener, military secrets, the Cabinet, their wives, Lloyd George, and other people's wives.

There is an alleged quotation which pops up from time to time on the internet. It is ascribed to Lord Kitchener, the famous poster, and is on the lines of "It is no good telling Cabinet Ministers military secrets as they would go home and tell their wives—except for Lloyd George, who would go home and tell someone else's wife". I have been unable to find a good source for it. To be honest it doesn't sound like him. Too loquacious. Anyway, can anyone come up with a good source? An earliest use? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 22:39, 7 November 2026 (UTC)

The complete lack of sources revealing on what occasion Kitchener is supposed to have said this, or when, or to whom, strongly suggests that this relatable quip is yet another apocryphal quotation.  ​‑‑Lambiam 12:28, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

Indeed, but it would be nice to run it down to earth. DuncanHill (talk) 17:47, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

I'm relying on GB snippet views here so I may be misunderstanding something, but Beaverbrook's Politicians and the War (1928) has "'My colleagues', said Kitchener, "tell military secrets to their wives, all except —, who tells them to other people's wives.'" A. J. P. Taylor, friend and biographer of the Beaver's, said that the dash concealed "the Q.M.", i.e. the Quartermaster-General, Sir John Cowans. --Antiquary (talk) 18:40, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

@Antiquary: Thank you. Page 63 in my copy (London: Oldbourne Book Co Ltd, 1960), there it is. It's in the chapter "A Kitchener Crisis". Yes, Cowans would make sense. DuncanHill (talk) 19:11, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

And now I find Philip Magnus says K said of of Asquith, which would also make sense. DuncanHill (talk) 19:36, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

November 8

Locate Everest North Base Camp on 3D map

Tom Patterson's map

In this featured image of Mount Everest, the South Base Camp is labelled as "Base Camp".

Can someone please point out (upload an annotated image, add a marker, give coordinates in the original JPEG etc) where the North Base Camp should be drawn?

Thanks, cmɢʟee τaʟκ (please add {{ping|cmglee}} to your reply) 16:19, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

@Cmglee:. Well no...it is way off the image. Here's https://maps.app.goo.gl/z86ZKxGKpYNqJsdh7 a zoomed out google maps view (should show Everest Base Camp in Nepal but not sure if you'll see the same labels). The base camp would be at the end of the Rongbuk Glacier (RONGBU BINCHUAN). There are two advanced base camps, for the North Face route ABC would be on the east side of glacier at the base of Changtse, just above the 'i' in the label on your view. For the North Col route it would be on the west side of East Rongbuk Glacier where it turns toward North Col. I cant find any maps showing all the Tibet and Nepal camps. Here's a 3D viewer showing the camps on the north and south routes. fiveby(zero) 22:33, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

Thank you very much, @Fiveby: guess I'll just leave the current map as is. cmɢʟee τaʟκ (please add {{ping|cmglee}} to your reply) 23:32, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

November 10

Questions

1. Why have French overseas regions (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion and Mayotte) not become sovereign states unlike most British overseas territories in that region, and could they become such in the future?
2. Why have Faroe Islands and Greenland not become sovereign states yet, and could they become such in the future?
3. Has Russia ever been a full democracy in its history?
4. Has any Christian country ever held elections on Christmas Day?
5. Is Egypt a Christian country, since it has a large Christian minority that existed prior to spread of Islam in that region?
6. Why do Chinese autonomous regions (Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Guangxi) not have status equivalent to SARs (Hong Kong and Macau), with directly elected legislatures? --40bus (talk) 22:40, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

   2: Greenland has been in de news quite a bit in the last two years. They want independence, but not now. The reason is mostly economic. Greenland has to import almost everything and has very little to export, so if independent, the cost of living could get very high (or the standards very low). What's more, once independent they could easily be colonised by someone else (the US government has expressed interest) and their relation with the Danes isn't that bad. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:56, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

   2. The Faroe Islands and Greenland possess the political potential to become sovereign states, and theoretically, they could become sovereign at any time if needed. Currently, they are autonomous territories within the Kingdom of Denmark, and their failure to achieve sovereign status is primarily due to economic interdependence and a shared defense and foreign policy framework. Furthermore, internal political divisions regarding full independence have also played a role. Stanleykswong (talk) 11:12, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

   1. In theory, these territories could have become sovereign states; in practice, however, they did not. This is because they have been fully integrated, both legally and administratively, into the French Republic as Overseas departments and regions of France.  Furthermore, the vast majority of their local populations have historically chosen to maintain this status. Stanleykswong (talk) 11:18, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

In addition, Mayotte chose to stay in France via a referendum, instead of joining other nearby islands that form the Comoros. And the OP did not mention New Caledonia, which has a strong native independence movement and has become increasingly autonomous in recent years. Xuxl (talk) 18:37, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

1. 3. No, from the perspective of modern political science, Russia has never become a fully democracy. Stanleykswong (talk) 11:22, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

   The closest Russia has been to being a democracy may have been the brief period, February 20 – June 3, 1907, of the second State Duma. It was dissolved by a coup d'état.  ​‑‑Lambiam 13:17, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

   6. These regions do not share the same historical and legal origins as Hong Kong and Macau. Stanleykswong (talk) 11:26, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

1. Sure, they could.

2. Sure, they could.

3. The closest thing to it might have been between the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Vladimir Putin.

5. Check Religion in Egypt for a clue.

←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:56, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

4. Yes, Pope Pius IV was elected head of the Papal States on 25 December 1559. There may have been others but that's the only one listed in December 25.

Although that was the result of a papal conclave. Most democratic countries try to avoid holding elections on big public holidays, as it makes things more complicated (just finding enough electoral workers willing to give up their holiday would be a huge problem, for example). Xuxl (talk) 18:37, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

5 The State religion of Egypt is Islam.

AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 15:06, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

References

November 11

Referring to court that doesn't have jurisdiction?

Not seeking legal advice or thinking of anyone in particular (cough) but let's say you commit a bunch of US federal crimes that are also against international law. You get a presidential pardon so you're off the hook for the US charges. International charges are handled by the ICC, right? The US doesn't recognize ICC's jurisdiction but can you somehow get sent there anyway? The ICC article mentions the possibility of being referred by the UN security council, so in a theoretical scenario where the US doesn't veto such a referral, can you end up on trial despite the US's non-signatory status? Where do they lock you up? There might have been an analogous situation with Slobodan Milošević but I'm not legally clueful enough to make a close comparison. Thanks. ~2026-56703-29 (talk) 03:32, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

Any "State Party" can issue a referral. In the case of Netanyahu, the original referral was by the State of Palestine in 2018, The complaint was followed in 2023 by referrals by South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, and Djibouti. If you are arrested and extradited, you will be locked up in the ICC Detention Centre, located in Scheveningen, a district of The Hague.  ​‑‑Lambiam 13:42, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

The short answer to the question is yes… you can be pardoned (or deemed innocent) in one legal jurisdiction and yet still face charges in another. Blueboar (talk) 13:50, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

Hmm, thanks. I saw at the beginning of the ICC article, "The ICC can generally exercise jurisdiction in cases where the accused is a national of a state party, the alleged crime took place on the territory of a state party, or a situation is referred to the Court by the United Nations Security Council." Palestine is in the list of state parties so it might have referred Netanyahu under allegations of crimes in that state's territory. So if someone's crime isn't in any state party's territory (e.g. they bombed some civilians in international waters) it's still unclear to me that they can get referred by someone other than the UNSC. And since the US has a UN veto, the US would really have to be willing to throw the person under the bus for such a referral to be issued.

I guess the US ambassador to the UN would be the person on point, and he or she is part of the US govt's executive branch, answering to the POTUS. So this means a future POTUS willing to go after members of a previous one's administration. Does that seem about right? Idk if it's a likely scenario but it's at least scientifically possible from what I can tell. I think it historically hasn't happened much, e.g. Ford pardoned Nixon.

Added: hmm, another not-so-likely possibility is that the US later accedes to the Rome statute and becomes a state party. Can it then refer someone for crimes committed while it was a non-party? ~2026-56703-29 (talk) 03:04, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

Who represented Portugal at the burial of the French Unknown Soldier?

Our article Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (France) says "It [the coffin] was placed on the gun carriage of a cannon 155, but was not buried until 28 January 1921, in the presence of civil and military authorities, including the marshals who distinguished themselves during the First World War (Ferdinand Foch, Joseph Joffre and Philippe Pétain). Also present were: Belgian Foreign Minister Henri Jaspar, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and a representative of Portugal." Who was that Portuguese representative? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 03:33, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

Search me. Many, many sources in various languages agree that there was a Portuguese representative and leave it at that. It's perhaps worth quoting The Times (29/1/21, p. 9), which lists "great soldiers—Foch, Joffre, Pétain, Wilson, Gouraud, Dubail, and Berdoulat—M. Barthou, Minister for War, with Mr. Lloyd George, Count Sforza, and M. Jaspar, and the Ambassadors of Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, and the United States to represent the Allies". Later General Maglinse is mentioned as one of those placing wreaths, but no-one from Portugal. I suppose he was below ambassadorial level and therefore not worth naming. --Antiquary (talk) 10:48, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

The January 1921 issue of the Larousse mensuel illustré gives a detailed account of the ceremony in the entry Cinquantenaire de la République on pages 343–4, but does not mention representatives.

In another account, we find, instead of Portugal, Italy:

Il y a trois des peuples qui combattirent côte à côte avec nous pour la cause du droit : l’Angleterre, représentée par M. Lloyd George ; l’Italie, par le comte Sforza ; la petite et si grande Belgique, par M. Jaspar et M. Theunis. [...] On le recouvre de la draperie tricolore, on y met le coussin avec les croix et on y dépose aussi les gerbes de fleurs et les couronnes qu’ont apportées les trois délégations de Belgique, d’Italie et d’Angleterre.

This matches the reporting in The Times mentioned above.

Yet another account has an opening bid for Portugal, but then pulls off a switcheroo to Italy:

À la différence des cérémonies parisiennes du 11 novembre, des hommes d’État et des diplomates étrangers ont été conviés à assister à cette dernière cérémonie : le Royaume-Uni, le Portugal et la Belgique — pays qui ont déjà ou qui vont bientôt désigner leur soldat inconnu — ont envoyé des politiques et des diplomates qui participent à la préparation de la future conférence de Londres visant à fixer le montant et les modalités du paiement des Réparations et qui s’ouvrira dans un peu plus d’un mois, le 27 février 1921. Lloyd George, Premier ministre, et lord Cuzon, ministre des Affaires étrangères, représentent l’Angleterre. Le comte Sforza, ministre des Affaires étrangères et l’ambassadeur Bonin-Longare représentent l’Italie. La Belgique a envoyé pour la représenter son Premier ministre, Jaspar.

My working hypothesis is that this last account (possibly an earlier incarnation than the web page) mistakenly substituted le Portugal for l’Italie, and that this mistake was copied in later accounts.  ​‑‑Lambiam 13:02, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

Which makes sense as Portugal was only peripherally involved in the war, and therefore would be unlikely to receive an invitation to send a high-level representative to the ceremony. Xuxl (talk) 18:42, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

But she was un of the "pays qui ont déjà ou qui vont bientôt désigner leur soldat inconnu". DuncanHill (talk) 01:10, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

Obviously someone in the spirit of the occasion: the appropriately unknown representative. Clarityfiend (talk) 02:18, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

October 30

Baorisa hieroglyphica

What is this moth called in the languages (besides English) of the parts of the world where it is native? -sche (talk) 02:04, 30 October 2026 (UTC)

This is a primarily nocturnal moth, rarely spotted, whose habitat preference is high up mountain sides. Here and here the moth is called ngengat Picasso in Indonesian, which is a calque of Picasso moth. I would not expect it to have folk names in local vernaculars.

The "artwork" does not remind me of Picasso; Kandinsky moth would have been a better match.  ​‑‑Lambiam 07:59, 30 October 2026 (UTC)

or even Mondrian. —Antonissimo (talk) 01:59, 1 November 2026 (UTC)

November 2

Questions

1. If English word tee is pronounced /tiː/, then how would English speakers pronounce tii?
2. If English word unique is pronounced /jʊnɪk/, then how would /jʊnɪkjuː/ be spelled?
3. Are there any English words where word-final oo is pronunced /ɔː/?
4. Is would + infinitive a mood in English?
5. Does German ever use masculine forms of titles combined with neuter forms of articles, adjectives and adjectival pronouns as gender-neutral forms, such as das Student (compared with der Student and die Studentin)?
6. How would a nonsense word with no meaning be spelled in Japanese? Would it be spelled in katakana?
7. Can a language have a diphthong where the syllabic and non-syllabic component is of the same quality, such as /ii̯/ and /o̯o/?

--40bus (talk) 00:01, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

1. Maybe like "Wii", that is "wee"?

2. Maybe like "uniqueue"? Keeping in mind that "unique" and "queue" both come from French.

3. Do you mean like the "au" in "caught"?

←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:19, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

2. Like a singular queue, instead of two separate? That might work.

3. Well, Bugs, that would depend on the English dialect, hence the usefulness of IPA, but basically Yes. I could imagine some loanword from Japanese, such as 'bakayaroo' or similar slurs, but I couldn't find anything on Wiktionary.

5. Hmm, from what I can see, the option in German is rather to use the synonym Studierender, which is interpreted as gender-neutral despite its masculine gender.

6. I guess. Katakana at least often seems to be used for pseudo-mystical incantations and such in manga, I think. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 03:23, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

Wiktionary gives [o̞ː] for the ⟨ō⟩ in the pronunciation of yarō. That is the Japanese pronunciation; the English realization (if not a spelling pronunciation) will vary, as it does for the pronunciation of the vocative particle "O", but is unlikely to come out as [ɔː].  ​‑‑Lambiam 07:10, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

Now I came to think of Momotaroo and Urashima Taroo as cleaner examples, although the point may still stand. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 17:49, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

Here is a longish discussion (in German) on the use of the term Studierende, which is the plural of both masculine Studierender and feminine Studierende. This advice on using gender-neutral language gives for the plural, next to Studierende also Studentinnen und Studenten, and for the indefinite singular ein(e) Studierende und Studierender (which does not work for me). A gender-neutral dictionary translates Student as Studi; Mitglied der Studierenden, with plural Studierende; Studis.  ​‑‑Lambiam 07:57, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

1. The same.

2. unicue. —Antonissimo (talk) 06:14, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

4. Some grammarians would call this the English conditional mood.

5. The usual German approach to gender equivalence is to use both the masculine and feminine forms, similar to English's Ladies and Gentlemen or Dear Brethren and Sisters. So for "Comrades!", the German address is Genossinnen und Genossen!   ​‑‑Lambiam 07:34, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

5. is per se not possible due to congruence of gender. If the article is neuter, then the noun is neuter, cf. das Band 'ribbon, belt' vs. der Band 'volume of a book', der Schild 'shield' vs. das Schild 'plate, sign' etc. There are even nouns that can have several genders without changing their meaning, e. g. der or das Marzipan 'marzipan'. So if you change the article the gender also changes, cf. der Mensch 'human being' and das Mensch 'negative and regional for woman'. In German there is a difference between "Genus", i. e. the grammatical gender, e. g. "das Mädchen" 'the girl', "das Weib" 'the woman (old-fashioned)', all neuter, and "Sexus", the biological gender, cf. Mark Twain, "The Awful German Language", dealing with this topic for more than a paragraph.--~2026-58296-07 (talk) 15:55, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

Also die Band 'band, group', I believe, likely due to it being feminine in Romance languages. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 17:47, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

I don't see the connection to the Romance languages; an analogy to die Gruppe or die Bande ("gang") seems more plausible to me. Feminine Band is usually pronounced the English way, so the three genders are homographs but not homophones. --Wrongfilter (talk) 08:02, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

Translation please

Could someone please translate the captions on this cartoon? I believe the language is Russian. There is a caption above the cartoon, and one below. I suspect the wording at bottom right also belongs to it. The cartoon shows David Lloyd George hanged by the neck from the Star and crescent, with Constantinople and the Strait below him. Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 15:26, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

A machine translation is as follows. To be honest, I would be surprised if a native Russian speaker could do a better job.

Above the cartoon:

Russian: «Ближне-Восточный узел.»

Translation: "The Near Eastern Knot." (or "The Middle East Knot.")

Below the cartoon:

Russian: «Узел надежный. Крюк крепкий.»

Translation: "The knot is reliable. The hook is sturdy."

--Viennese Waltz 15:34, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

The text at the bottom right discusses some agreement to establish a Russo-German venture. It may belong to the article whose partially visible headline is "... реакции в Германии." ("... reactions in Germany.").  ​‑‑Lambiam 08:21, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

Thank you both. I think the Russo-German venture would have been Russgertorg (mentioned in Otto Wolff). DuncanHill (talk) 16:55, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

The timing fits: Russgertorg/Росгерторг was founded in October 1922, and Lloyd George resigned on 19 October 1922 over the Çanakkale Crisis.  ​‑‑Lambiam 07:37, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

The Russian name 'Росгерторг' seems to be composed of syllables 'рос-гер-торг' (ros-ger-torg), which is a short of 'российско-германская торговля', meaning 'Russian-German trade'. --CiaPan (talk) 09:56, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

The suspended figure must be an older Lloyd George, who is mentioned in the partial text column to the left of the cartoon. —Amble (talk) 17:42, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

Er, yes - that's mentioned in the question. --Viennese Waltz 18:17, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

Good point! But it still may help the OP to look for additional info in the column to the left, which seems to be related to the cartoon, rather than the text below, which belongs to a different article. —Amble (talk) 21:43, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

What's the most common pronunciation of 'Tuesday' in modern RP?

What's the most common pronunciation of 'Tuesday' in modern RP? The former or the latter from these: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/tuesday_n ? Or even different one? ~2026-58381-85 (talk) 22:20, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

I was thinking "TYOOZ-day", and there are some American regions where it's said that way too. But the OED didn't look far enough, as many Americans say it as "TOOZ-day". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:54, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

The 18th edition of Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (2011) gives the coalesced forms first, saying, In words like 'tune' and 'dune', where earlier editions have recommended /tjuːn/ and /djuːn/ for BBC pronunciation, it now seems /tʃuːn/ and /dʒuːn/ are more widely used and these pronunciations are given priority for most such words, with the /tj/ and /dj/ pronunciations as second choice (pp. xviii–xix). Nardog (talk) 23:31, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

I think for RP the first, /ˈtjuːzdeɪ/ TYOOZ-day. I remember teachers in the 80's of last century rather deprecating the /ˈtʃuːzdeɪ/ CHOOZ-day pronunciation, as fit only for a day on which toffee is consumed. I also think you'll find a lot of -dee not -day in the UK, but that's definitely not RP. DuncanHill (talk) 23:49, 2 November 2026 (UTC)

It depends on whether it comes immediately after "Ruby". --Trovatore (talk) 00:01, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

The change from [tj] to [tʃ] is known as yod-coalescence. The difference in articulation is small; I think the actual realizations are not a binary choice but may be thought of as falling on a spectrum.  ​‑‑Lambiam 07:44, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

In my opinion, CHOOZ-day is more typical of Estuary English than RP which is conservative by definition. Alansplodge (talk) 12:52, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

RP can be modern, though ~2026-58950-87 (talk) 23:21, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

This is not exactly on-topic, but it reminds me of the first time I went to the UK and I was wandering around London by myself, somewhere around what they call "The City" but isn't San Francisco, and I wasn't sure how to get somewhere. Someone who may have been a pub owner or some such told me to take the [tʃyːb]. For you respellers that would be something like CHÜÜB with a long drawn-out version of the vowel from German fünf or French une. I made him repeat it a couple of times, but I wasn't making fun of him; I just couldn't figure out what he meant. It finally filtered through to me. --Trovatore (talk) 19:03, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

November 3

Musical note values in Canada

Does English-speaking Canada use British names for musical note values (semibreve, minim, etc.) or American ones (whole note, half note, etc.)? ~2026-58493-72 (talk) 14:46, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

My Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) Celebrate Theory book uses American note names even though it is a Canadian publication. I do not think it is altered for American audiences. I believe that it is the same book that I would have received if I purchased it in Canada. ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 18:52, 3 November 2026 (UTC)

My only significant involvement in music is some piano lessons in my youth, but I've never heard of the British terms until now. I'd be totally shocked if we didn't use American terminology due to our close ties with the giant gorilla to the south. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:36, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

The weirdest thing about the British nomenclature is that a note so long that it takes up two whole measures in most common time signatures has a name that means "short". --Trovatore (talk) 23:58, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

This is because the system originates in mediaeval church music (hence also the Latin/Italian names) in which notes were usually very long by modern standards. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 23:51, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

Taking Presto (music) ♩ = 120  as a yardstick and applying this to the mensural maxima

= 32 × ♩,

we get a duration of 16 seconds. That is implausibly long for any note to be held. Surely, the typical duration of these originally mensural notations was originally not that long but increased in the course of time, even as their names did not, a duration inflation comparable to, but more drastic than, the pitch inflation.  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:11, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

I have heard, for example, modern heavy metal singers hold a note that long, and in plainchant choirs it might have been done by a 'vocal relay' so to speak.

[Edited to add] Musical instruments, such as organs, can of course also do so. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 23:38, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

A "post" by one voice at the end of a barbershop tag can certainly go that long, but the idea of notating it by a single note seems—not particularly practical. --Trovatore (talk) 23:52, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

Maybe we could switch, if only to say fuddle duddle to the Orange One. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:40, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

That happened last Tuesday. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:46, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

Why wasn't it in the news? I guess it was not considered important.  ​‑‑Lambiam 08:36, 9 November 2026 (UTC)}

November 8

British word or expression for "water park"

Cambridge says "water park" is mostly American: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/water-park

What's the British equivalent then? Trotvantani (talk) 12:43, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure they exist here. DuncanHill (talk) 13:08, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

How come? Are there no water parks in the UK? If they do exist, what do you say if you want to suggest going there? Trotvantani (talk) 13:18, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

I can't tell whether that was British irony, but Sandcastle Waterpark (Blackpool) implies that the same word is used. I'm not sure on whether the spaced distinction would be considered important. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 13:19, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

@Wakuran, @Trotvantani: I may have mistaken @DuncanHill's intention, but I don't think it was irony. Category:Water_parks_in_the_United_Kingdom suggests there are a handful of these entities in the UK which seem to use the word as part of their branding, but I don't recall the term "waterpark" being used as a generic term. Nobody has ever said they'll meet me at a waterpark. Common terms used here are leisure centre (often with one or more pools, other exercising facilities, and British English pronunciation and spelling), and lido (think British weather, not Italian). Bazza 7 (talk) 14:04, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

I had never heard of a water park, or a waterpark, in the UK. That's why I said what I said. Swimming pools, baths, lidos, leisure centres, theme parks, and the like, yes, we have those. DuncanHill (talk) 14:14, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

A quick Google suggests that most British facilities that call themselves "waterpark" are indoors, for obvious reasons given our temperate climate. An exception is the New Forest Water Park which seems atypical of waterparks found in warmer latitudes. Alansplodge (talk) 18:13, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

Interesting: I find I have lived 19 miles from the location of this facility for 35 years, and had never before heard of it. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 01:25, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

I've (also) heard 'waterpark' many times, but never used it in the UK, simply because its not a thing here. Perhaps I've sometimes been using American words like train station rather than railway station. Or using the month first in dates but never in the short format, (noting the fact that its currently 9/11 in the European date format) JuniperChill (talk) 12:06, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

It certainly is a thing. The Cotswold Water Park is an extended area of lakes (mostly former gravel pits) in S.E Gloucestershire and N. Wiltshire. MinorProphet (talk) 12:52, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the Costwold Water Park, with open water lakes with ducks, geese and swans, and surrounded by nature trails, is not the same kind of thing as the Water parks found in the USA, which have chlorinated swimming pools, various water slides, and other water-based entertainment and activities largely aimed at kids. Astronaut (talk) 16:19, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

November 9

Apply to, or apply for

An expression I've seen in American novels is "apply to a job". This sounds odd to my antipodean ears. In my world, one applies TO a potential employer, but one applies FOR a job.

Is 'applying to' interchangeable with 'applying for' in US-speak? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:07, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

No. Your third sentence is correct. Maybe "apply to a job" was a thing at some point, but I doubt recently. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:25, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

I came across it twice in The Wedding People (2024), which I've just finished. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 10:36, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Bizarre. Maybe it's a thing in the author's generation? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:09, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Kids these days, no respect for the norms. —Antonissimo (talk) 20:15, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Curiously, the novel also uses "apply for (a job)": "It did not feel okay when they were at a faculty event, and someone suggested she apply for the new tenure-track job in English."

Unrelated, but even curiouser: there is a book on Google Books by the title The Woman Who Came for the Wedding: A Woman's Reckoning at a Cliffside Inn by prolific author Marlowe Quinn Steele, whose content (as far as I have checked) is identical to Espach's novel, except that the names have been altered; the protagonist is not named Phoebe but Evelyn, Grandpa Jim is Grandpa Frank, and the wedding is not the Wedding of Lila and Gary but of Daphne and Martin.  ​‑‑Lambiam 20:18, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

It might be worth someone looking more deeply into the œuvre of "Marlowe Quinn Steele" and her publisher "Joseph W Stafford". DuncanHill (talk) 20:37, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

"Evelyn" is still a professor of literature from St Louis, and she's still choosing to stay at the Cornwall Inn. Aren't these coincidences simply amazing! -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:18, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Sounds like a good writing technique to enhance productivity. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 23:01, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

I have a vision of Jack's ghostly head, roughly 8000 miles across, sharing space with our planet à la Kitty Pryde, in such a way that his left ear is at the antipodes of his right ear. Should I talk to someone about this? --Trovatore (talk) 00:08, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

It's a frightening vision, but I guess we just must remain phased... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 02:48, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

November 11

Is "d" in the "hidden" a flap [ɾ] or an ordinary [d]?

I wonder how to pronounce "hidden" in GA. Should I use a flap [ɾ] or an ordinary [d]? Menarediscriminateda (talk) 21:53, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

You say it with a short "i" and a single "d" sound, followed by an "n" sound, like "hid'n". Whether that's a "flap" or not, I dunno. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:23, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

I don't want to be rude, but what's the point in giving unhelpful answers like that? If you "dunno" whether there's a flap or not, then this question isn't for you Menarediscriminateda (talk) 23:21, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

I'm telling you how to pronounce it. If you can't tell if that constitutes a "flap" or not, that's on you. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:24, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

I have to go with the OP on this one. Saying it's like "hid'n" doesn't really explain what it sounds like. If you're going to answer phonology questions it might help to learn some phonology.

I'm not sure of the answer. It's definitely not an ordinary [d]. I feel like it's articulated fairly far back, maybe a voiced postalveolar flap. I almost want to say there might be a hint of a glottal stop at the same time. I'll upload a recording and let you judge. --Trovatore (talk) 23:47, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

Here ya go: --Trovatore (talk) 23:52, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

The word "hidden" as pronounced by a speaker of American English

Yes, exactly as I described. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:52, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

Yeah, but Bugs, look, I knew what you meant. But that's because you and I both speak GA. The questioner presumably does not. So what good does it do to give them a spelling that only another GA speaker will understand?

If you want to answer these sorts of questions, you need to do it using representations that have standardized meanings the questioners can either understand or look up. You could do this with anatomical terminology (the manner of articulation is plosive, the place of articulation is post-alveolar ) and so on, or if that's too annoying (which it is) you can just use IPA. I don't understand why you seem to have such an aversion to that. You don't have to learn it all at once; if you follow these discussions you should pick it up bit by bit. --Trovatore (talk) 05:30, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

November 4

stephen dillane macbeth (2005)

on the Wikipedia article for stephen dillane, it says he was in some sort of production of macbeth in 2005, but I couldn't find much on what this was, nor his role in it, what was this retelling of macbeth, what role did he play, and where could I watch it? Mdz10 (talk) 19:12, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

This is a review of it in Variety. ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 19:18, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

@Mdz10: It was Macbeth (A Modern Ecstasy), a CalArts Center for New Performance production directed by Travis Preston and performed by Stephen Dillane alone: he spoke the entire text of the play, every character in it, which is why the role column in his article says "Various" rather than "Macbeth". CalArts describes the staging as making "the entire performance text of Macbeth" into "a 'score' for a single performer", with a trio of musicians led by Vinny Golia and a set of sand and water by Christopher Barreca.

It played at REDCAT in Los Angeles from late 2004 (Mark Swed reviewed it for the Los Angeles Times on 3 December 2004; Variety followed on 5 December), then at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2005, and at the Adelaide Festival and in Sydney in 2006. Dillane's 2006 Helpmann Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play was for it. On watching it: it was a stage production and I cannot find any commercial recording or stream of it; the CalArts project page carries no video, and the reviews are what survives. The 24 November 2004 Backstage interview with Dillane and Preston is the fullest account of the intent, and it is also where the subtitle is explained: "a modern ecstasy" is a phrase of Ross's describing Scotland after Macbeth takes the crown. SaoriWalks (talk) 21:42, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

November 5

Tony Curran

I just read the article about Tony Curran. While enwiki doesn't have his birthdate: dewiki and imdb state that he was born on 13. Dezember 1969. I know I can't cite neither, and googling didn't help. Maybe some of you can help finding a sources? Or some guidance, where I can look instead. Thanks. Maresa63 ^Talk 12:30, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

I had a look around. What is actually findable:

• The Herald, 9 October 2016, arts interview ("From Red Road to Hollywood Boulevard"): "Born in December 1969 in Glasgow's south side". A reliable source for month and year, and it matches the Holyrood Secondary / postman details, but it gives no day. Under WP:DOB that supports "December 1969" and nothing finer.
• Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television (Gale) carries an entry reading "Born December 13, 1969 (some sources cite 1968), in Glasgow, Scotland", reproduced at Encyclopedia.com. Note that it hedges the year itself. It is likely the ancestor of the 13 December date in dewiki and IMDb, which makes it the reason the date circulates rather than proof of it. If you want to cite the full date, the printed Gale volume (check library holdings) is stronger than the online mirror.
• Places a full date might appear in citable form: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland graduation records (he graduated there in 1993), BFI person pages, National Library of Scotland theatre-programme collections (The Soldier's Tale, Waiting for Godot), and Scottish Youth Theatre's 1985 cohort (he says he and Gerard Butler were there at 14).

The short version: full date needs a published reliable source, so if "December 1969" is all you can document, that is all the article should say. dewiki having the full date does not itself get enwiki there. SaoriWalks (talk) 21:50, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

@SaoriWalks Thank you for your efforts. I will leave the article as it is for now. Maybe I'll put something on the TP and link to this very informative thread. And I think dewiki just got the date from IMDb. Maresa63 ^Talk 13:06, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

November 8

"Split" constructor in Formula One for chassis and bodywork

Have there ever been cases in Formula One history where the chassis and the bodywork of a car were built by different entities? Maybe a privateer team building a new body on the chassis acquired from an established constructor? --KnightMove (talk) 10:37, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

I remember this as being relatively frequent in the golden age of privateers (roughly from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s). Those were basically "kit cars" built on an existing chassis. March used to supply those, and there may have been others; the buyers then tried to put together a competitive car starting from that base, with varying success. That's how Hesketh Racing got its start, for one. Xuxl (talk) 14:34, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

Indeed, this helped, thank you.

Do you know by any chance if nowadays the entrant & chassis constructor is also obliged to build the bodywork? Of could, for example, the engine manufacturer also take over the bodywork, if both sides want this? --KnightMove (talk) 07:33, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

My sense is that today, F1 cars are so sophisticated that a competitive one cannot be built without huge investments in wind tunnel time to finagle the smallest details, and so on. I don't think you could achieve this while having two different entities build those two components. In any case, I'm not aware of anyone trying to do so and achieving any sort of success. Xuxl (talk) 23:19, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Sounds reasonable, thank you. --KnightMove (talk) 08:40, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

The Making of the Video Rhythm Divine" Enrique Iglesias (1999)

The Making of the Video (1999)

The "Making of the Video" episode for Enrique Iglesias's 1999 hit "Rhythm Divine" was featured on MTV's series *Making the Video* (Season 1, Episode 14), premiering on October 4, 1999.

Artist: Enrique Iglesias  

Song: "Rhythm Divine" (from the album *Enrique*, 1999)  

Director: Francis Lawrence  

Starring: Enrique Iglesias and Claudia Mason  

Dancers: Robbin Quevedo and Charleigh Bryant-Stelly  

Locations: Filmed in the stunning landscapes of Hawaii, Malibu, and Chinatown, with behind-the-scenes glimpses showcased on MTV's Making the Video.  

In this visually captivating music video, the passionate pursuit of Enrique Iglesias for the enchanting American supermodel Claudia Mason serves as a powerful symbol of ambition and desire.

Although controversy arose not from the song itself or its mesmerizing video but from a high-profile lip-syncing and vocal talent scandal months later, Iglesias's team stood resolute, affirming that live performances with a real band defined his artistry in concerts and U.S. television. Enrique humorously brushed off the incident, suggesting that if the tape was real, it captured him in a moment of spontaneity during a lively soundcheck, where the surrounding energy was so overwhelming he could hardly hear himself. ~2026-59318-30 (talk) 23:02, 8 November 2026 (UTC)

Courtesy link: Making the Video#Season 1

What do you expect us to do with the above unreferenced (and I suspect copyright-infringing) information? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 01:17, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

November 9

Italian localization of LEGO Friends (1999 PC game)

Hello everyone,

I am researching the 1999 PC game "LEGO Friends", developed by Flipside Creative and published by LEGO Media for Windows 95/98 (the game centered around the girls' music band, not to be confused with the more recent LEGO Friends theme).

I am trying to figure out how the game was localized in Italy back then (for example see here: , ). Specifically:

• Was the game fully dubbed in Italian (including voice acting and dialogue)?
• Or was it released with English audio and only Italian text/subtitles?

If anyone owns the original Italian big box release, CD-ROM, or has access to the game files to verify this, I would greatly appreciate your help!

Thank you in advance. DanielParoliere (talk) 19:36, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

November 10

What IS Slow Pitch Softball?

I wanted the answer to the question in the title. I searched for Slow Pitch Softball and ended up at Softball through a redirect, which was quite useless. All it told me was that the rules are different from Fast Pitch Softball but didn't tell me in what way. Can somebody, firstly, answer my question, and secondly, fix the confusion please? HiLo48 (talk) 06:15, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

In the Softball article, under Gameplay, Pitching, there are sections for Slow pitch and Fastpitch. That's the core of the difference between the games, but not the only difference. It seems like the lead could at least include a summary distinguishing the two. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:13, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

The short section on the softball page should be enough to answer your question. It's not really that complicated. In slow pitch, the pitch is lobbed. Depending on the league, I think the pitch normally has to released beneath the waist and reach a point higher than the batters head, but still land within something like 18" from the back of the plate to be a called strike. The picture on the article shows a typical mat that would be used to aid the umpire with making that call. It's all going to be league specific. --Onorem (talk) 12:19, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

A more comprehensive look is available in Comparison of baseball and softball, which has separate columns for slow pitch and fast pitch. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:25, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Yeah, that's useful. Thanks. HiLo48 (talk) 03:04, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

Newspapers

Before Internet age, were there any English-language newspapers in non-English-speaking countries in Europe? Or are there any such English-language newspapers aimed at native speakers of country’s main language (such as English-language newspapers in Germany aimed at German speakers)? --40bus (talk) 06:29, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Some British newspapers were exported to other European countries, to sell to British people living abroad or foreign people with a particular interest in British news. Places selling newspapers often had a few foreign (including British) titles. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:16, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

See Category:English-language newspapers by country, which contains four sub-categories pertaining to European countries, some of which likely include newspapers founded before the Internet. I doubt that this is a comprehensive list. For example, two English-language newspapers were published in Germany from 1945, and a third from 1950, though all three were produced for US military forces and their families stationed in Germany. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 11:50, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Were, and are, there any English-language newspapers aimed at the native speakers of the country's main language then? --40bus (talk) 12:21, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

As our article on the International Herald Tribune writes, by the 1990s "the majority of its readers were non-American".  ​‑‑Lambiam 20:33, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

Another one not named on that category page is the 19th-century Galignani's Messenger, published in France.--Antiquary (talk) 13:09, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

November 4

US elections overall combined vote by party

As everyone knows, in the US elections for many different offices are held on the same day, such as this week when people voted for many governors, state legislators, and municipal offices as well as the federal legislators that make the main news. Most of these elections are based on the Democratic and Republican parties. What I'm curious about is whether anyone tabulates the total number of Democratic votes vs. the total number of Republican votes, across all these simultaneous elections. Is such a total available for any past elections (whether midterm or presidential), so that I should expect to find this information for this week's voting? --~2026-58577-41 (talk) 17:43, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

The first clarification will be your definition of "vote". If I vote for a senator and a representative and a governor and an attorney general and a sanitation official, did I cast one vote or did I cast five votes? I am one voter, that is clear. I cast one ballot, that is clear. But, how do you quantify the votes? ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 17:51, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

Those are clearly five votes in five different election. You can vote for a senator from one party and a governor from a/the other one. The question is rather whether it makes sense to simply add up all those votes, in particular if some elections are state-wide and others county-wide. --Wrongfilter (talk) 18:01, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

In this case I (the original poster) would be happy to see the statistic based on either interpretation. --~2026-58672-70 (talk) 20:00, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

You can get most of what you want from the FEC. For example, this is their report on 2022. It has tables that sum up all democrat and all republican votes. You can add those up. ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 20:28, 4 November 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! (Original poster) --~2026-59634-93 (talk) 19:00, 9 November 2026 (UTC)

Digressions

Do they also report on the number that didn't vote? HiLo48 (talk) 01:43, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

I expect there is data on total turnout vs. total number of registered voters. It won't be by party, though, just overall. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:19, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

This 'registered by party' concept is weird in European terms, since voter registration here never requires a declaration of political affiliation.

Moreover, in the UK every head of household is required by law to answer periodic enquiries from their local government body (a town or district or city council) as to the ages and names of every resident over 16, so that they can be placed or maintained on the electoral register from age 18. (If there are no changes since the last enquiry, no response is needed, so I last responded about 35 years ago). Apart from electoral purposes, the electoral register and the 10-year National Census tells the local authority its area's population so that it can plan services properly.

The local authority is legally responsible for maintaining the electoral roll, so for someone eligible to not be registered, someone would have had actively (or by inaction) to have broken the law.

Sometimes due to changes of address, such as a young person going to university, a person might be on two different electoral registers. As long as they don't vote in both constituencies (which would be illegal) this is not a problem. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 08:15, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

It is a misconception that because you CAN register to vote as a member of one of the political parties, you MUST register to vote as one of the political parties. The reality is that it is completely optional and it doesn't alter your actual vote in any way. For example, you can register as a Republican and vote entirely for Democrat candidates if you like. Nobody will be looking over your shoulder and trying to "correct" your votes. ~2026-54318-85 (talk) 16:58, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

:Yes, I should have written "includes" a declaration of political affiliation. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 23:40, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

I suppose most Europeans don't know what registering as a voter with a particular party affiliation means. I suppose it may have something to do with primaries, but that's another alien concept.

We in Europe obviously have party memberships (most people are no member, but this varies quite a bit by country), which are an internal party matter and won't force you to vote for that party. You can be a member of multiple parties (it's quite common) or be a member without having the right to vote. And voter registration is (in my country at least) mostly automatic. If you're registered as a resident and have the right to vote (be an EU national, at least 18 years old, things like that), you'll get the invitation to vote automatically. PiusImpavidus (talk) 18:08, 5 November 2026 (UTC)

And in Finland, as well as other Nordic countries, this is even simpler than in the US or some other European countries, as no separate voter registration is needed, since everyone is registered with a home address to the population register. --40bus (talk) 20:55, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

Yeah, party registration here is optional, but it's free and it lets you vote in that party's primaries (there are exceptions and intricacies about this but it's approximately true). So lots of voters do register in a party. I've heard that in the UK, you have to pay annual dues to be in a party, so enrollment is much lower.

Party organizers obsess about turnout and what their party's registered voters are doing. E.g. if you're a registered Democrat and cast a ballot in the last 3 consecutive elections, in campaign jargon you're called a "3D", and similarly for Republicans ("3R"). This year they noticed that the 3D's and 4D's (the most reliable Dem voters) mostly voted early, while the 3R's and 4R's didn't, so the Republicans had a big GOTV effort to get those R's to the polls on election day. They were heartened by seeing that they in fact got good turnout, but then oops, quite a few of those reliable R's went and voted D this time. VPOTUS J. D. Vance (whatever one thinks of him politically) posted some interesting analysis: saying basically this. ~2026-56703-29 (talk) 03:59, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

Each state has its own rules about declaring for a party and voting in primaries. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:35, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

Correct. That is another misconception that the United States is just one big country. In the United States, the country is literally a united union of independent states. Election laws in one state have nothing to do with election laws in another state. It is similar to how election laws in Germany have nothing to do with election laws in France even though they are both in the EU. The problem that I see often in foreign press is they will look at a law, usually in California, and apply the idiocy of the law to the rest of the states. How would all of Europe like being judged as an equivalent to Greece? ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 12:30, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

I totally get your point, but some aspects of state election law ARE superseded by federal constitutional law; I think under 'equal protection' and so on. Hayttom (talk) 17:10, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

That is correct. It is very complicated, so it involves a lot of lawyers pocketing a lot of tax dollars to work out when a state law is acceptable or it is preempted by a federal law. My cynical opinion: They usually don't want to reconcile those issues because that means the case is over and there's no more money to make. ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 17:41, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

November 6

grocery shortages??

I went to Trader Joe for some frozen vegetables and saw very low stocks or OOS for many items, plus price increases and some popular products seemingly discontinued. Last time I saw that was at the start of covid-19. Is something going on? Are people prepping for a Democratic crackdown after the midterm election? Supply chain interruption due to tankers of chicken fried rice being intercepted in the Strait of Hormuz? This is kind of puzzling, I haven't noticed anything in the news about this. Thanks. ~~~ ~2026-56703-29 (talk) 03:47, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

Added: another observation, I went around 6pm (Northern California) when the store is usually very crowded, but this time, it wasn't crowded at all. There were people in the store but I didn't have to wait at the register, while there is usually a long line at that time of day. ~2026-56703-29 (talk) 06:16, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

Did you try asking them? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:33, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

Disruption of global fuel supplies (as from Hormuz and Russia–Ukraine) can cause significant knock-on disruptions to the logistics of supplying all types of goods.

In Europe we have also been suffering this week, in multiple countries, from cyber attacks on a number of food store chains' computer-controlled refrigeration systems, leading to hundreds of thousand of Pounds/Euros/Dollars-worth of frozen and chilled food having to be disposed of. Any of this in the USA yet?

In the UK, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been advising us to stock up on tinned and other storable foodstuffs, and water, in preparation for possible future 'disruption' – whether from adverse weather conditions or action by unnamed (*cough* Russian *cough) foreign actors is being left vague.

We are living in interesting times. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 07:52, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

The same advice in the Netherlands. The government's favourite example of a disruption is a power failure lasting more than three days (mains power is available 99.9997% of the time, so people aren't really prepared) and I think adverse weather (excessive sunshine) could indeed cause a power failure (unlikely to last more than 12 hours though).

Fortunately I know a farmer just a 10 minute bike ride away selling fresh vegetables directly to consumers and another 20 minutes away selling milk and cheese. Cut out the middle man, you know. And the local windmill still sells flour from locally produced wheat, but that may not be enough to feed the whole town. PiusImpavidus (talk) 16:13, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

I was more surprised on the fact that fridges/freezers can be affected by cyber attacks than the event itself. Domestic fridges cannot connect to the internet so I was surprised how this is even possible. I thought fridges/freezers were set to failsafe and cannot be set higher than 5c (sorry, idk in imperial), but then would require electricity. Surely those things need a backup generator in case these of a power cut. JuniperChill (talk) 17:40, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

Actually, I believe some of the most 'modern' domestic refrigerators can connect to the internet, so that you can control or inventorise them in some way while out, via a smart phone.

Commercial refrigerators in store chains are, as we have learned from these attacks in (at least) 7 different countries, now often computer-controlled from a central headquarters. In some of the affected chains, the appliances in the stores were set to a (maximum) temperature of 50 degrees Celcius, which is presumably used for rapid defrosting.

Hospital blood banks have also been attacked. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-56420-06 (talk) 23:33, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

Another common one in these days of climate change: supply chain disruption due to lack of water. It affects transport by ship over rivers and canals, including the Panama Canal. Some of my local rivers and canals have been hit quite hard this summer. PiusImpavidus (talk) 16:22, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

Maybe the stocking staff was home, sick? My Northern California Trader Joe's was packed with both groceries and customers yesterday. DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 16:30, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

ADD: And, today. DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 22:50, 6 November 2026 (UTC)

November 10

Metric weather forecasts

Before major English-speaking countries such as UK, Canada and Australia metricated in the 1960s and 1970s, were there any English-language newspapers with metric weather forecasts (e.g. temperature in Celsius) anywhere in the world? --40bus (talk) 22:16, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

When did newspapers start publishing weather forecasts? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:59, 10 November 2026 (UTC)

I meant weather forecast pages where the temperatures are listed. --40bus (talk) 05:41, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

I expect every sizeable country has some English-language newspapers or editions, including metric-speaking countries. For example, the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) has been published in English since 1903. I do remember US newspapers having weather forecasts but I don't know how far back that goes, or whether it is still a thing. ~2026-56703-29 (talk) 07:44, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

The Met Office was using metric units for some measurements well before 1962, including millimetres for rainfall and millibars for atmospheric pressure. (As for the silly notion that newspapers didn't publish weather forecasts: The London Chronicle published fortnightly weather forecasts since the 1700s. It was not abnormal. It was normal as 'will it rain this week' is just as much news as 'will the big pothole on main street get fixed this week'.) ~2026-46630-01 (talk) 13:18, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

November 11

Time 22:22

Do any English speakers consider it significant when the clock shows 22:22 (four 2's), even the ones who have 24-hour digital clocks? --40bus (talk) 20:48, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

Clock oddities are sometimes observed with some small amusement, but not really "significance". Any seemingly meaningful combination of numbers can be interesting in a trivial way. Such as the time 11:11 or 12:34. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:01, 11 November 2026 (UTC)

The only really significant clock configuration that comes to mind is the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month that signaled the end of World War I. Is there a clock version of calculator spelling? Clarityfiend (talk) 02:24, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

I wonder what percentage of the public is even aware of that fact about today, Veterans Day (i.e. Armistice Day). ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:45, 12 November 2026 (UTC)

It gets pretty widely publicised every year in Commonwealth nations, such as the UK, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. HiLo48 (talk) 04:44, 12 November 2026 (UTC)