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September 29

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Why is this called Swastika, not Hakenkreuz?

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Hello there, according to the talk page of Swastika, why is this term, common name, instead of the Hakenkreuz? How do we know that this is a longstanding practice starting about 50 years before Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in English Wikipedia? Could Hakenkreuz be a English loanword, similar to Swastika, which is borrowed from the Sanskrit language? Mannymations12 (talk) 23:50, 29 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewing Newspapers.com (pay site), it seems that "swastika" was in common use several decades before the term "Hakenkreuz" first turned up. A close equivalent in English to describe the Nazi version was "twisted cross". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots02:16, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
See for example here, in a book from 1834, or here, in a US government publication from 1895. The term is borrowed from Sanskrit, which was a dead language already some 20 centuries before Hitler was born. The meaning in Sanskrit was something like "lucky charm", applied to many things which included, but was not reserved to, the symbol 卐. See on Wiktionary the entry for स्वस्तिक.  ​‑‑Lambiam 08:23, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed, the emblem was already well known in the Anglosphere before Hitler and his chums got their hands on it; see Western use of the swastika in the early 20th century. Alansplodge (talk) 16:00, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Alansplodge: I'm not going to discuss Anglosphere, but the 'Poland' section of the article you link above mentions the Boreyko coat of arms' dating back to ~1400, and the 'Latvia' section says The Latvian left-facing swastika or Thunder Cross dates back to Bronze Age. Both those countries' areas are in Europe but probably not in Anglosphere. --CiaPan (talk) 20:37, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, but we're discussing why it's called "swastika" in English. Alansplodge (talk) 17:10, 1 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Alansplodge Yes of course. Mannymations12 (talk) 21:39, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Various versions of 'the emblem' have been used widely in Europe and Asia for thousands of years, and there will be many different names for it in many languages in many eras. When translating particular mentions of it from another language (perhaps of another time) into English, the name for it most commonly used in English at the time of the translation will naturally be used, perhaps also with a literal translation into English of the term being translated.
British heraldry traditionally used the vocabulary of Norman-French (because it was invented when the Normans had recently conquered England), so would have used terms like Croix gammée or croix haquée, but the device is so rare in British heraldry that the mis-read term fylfot was mistakenly adopted for it in the 19th century. I only know of one family, Chamberlayne (from the Southampton area), that has it in their arms. It happens that I live close to a pub called The Chamberlayne Arms which, some years ago during a refurbishment, received a new sign featuring those arms with fylfots: it was discreetly replaced with a written sign a couple of years later. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.153.108 (talk) 02:27, 1 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I've seen lucky coins from the 1920s (minted in US or UK) that had the swastika on them as one of several lucky signs. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:19, 1 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Khajidha I never seen this, I never discovered the lucky coins until 2025. Mannymations12 (talk) 22:47, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
OED has swastika from 1823, hakenkreuz only from 1922. Hakenkreuz is listed only in the Nazi sense, swastika both in its original religious sense and the Nazi one. DuncanHill (talk) 19:28, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think I've ever seen Hakenkreuz used in actual running text in English, only as the German name of the symbol. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:23, 1 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Should you desire to see such a use, look here.  ​‑‑Lambiam 10:15, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
While the overall work is in English, those usages come from a character who is German and is using German words to describe German things. Not exactly what I was looking for. This is just the common trope of immigrant characters peppering their speech with words from their native languages. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 11:15, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The fictional character has lived in England before the war and is proficient in English. One may assume, though, that his interior monologues (which are presented in third-person form) as well as dialogues with other fictional German characters are in German. But (as is usual) the author of the novel has conveniently written these products of his creative imagination in English – not translated from German, since no German version ever existed. These passages are not peppered with Germanisms in this novel; it is all grammatically and idiomatically proper standard English, except for terns of address (Fraulein) and a few terms like Reichsfuhrer and Wehrmacht. The lack of typographical distinction (such as italics or quote signs), the uncapitalized rendering and the English plural form hakenkreuzes instead of the German Hakenkreuzen all argue against code-switching.  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:53, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Not the absolute smoking gun I was looking for, but you've convinced me that it is close enough. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:42, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Lambiam @Khajidha Reichsfuhrer and Wehrmacht? What do these words mean? Mannymations12 (talk) 21:40, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
See on Wiktionary Reichsführer and Wehrmacht.  ​‑‑Lambiam 01:07, 9 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for this. Mannymations12 (talk) 23:28, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

September 30

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Question about economics and finance

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How have the prices of common consumer goods (like milk, bread, or gasoline) changed over the past 50 years in the United States, adjusted for inflation? PriceMaker36996 (talk) 23:55, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Consumer price index in the United States does not directly and specifcally answer the details of your question, but may provide some leads to follow. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.153.108 (talk) 02:31, 1 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]


All the data are here: [[1]]. DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 03:27, 1 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Correction: All the data WERE there, until some jerk decided to stop funding economic data gathering and other "woke" governmental functions. DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 23:13, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 1

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Recent music genres

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Are there any recent music genres emerged in 21st century and 1990s? Gold or Lurk (talk) 23:28, 1 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'll nominate Symphonic metal for the 1990s. Although there were isolated precursors, perhaps even stretching back to Deep Purple's 1968 Concerto for Group and Orchestra (I don't think The Moody Blues' 1967 Days of Future Passed can be categorised as metal), the genre was not recognised as such until the 1990s. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.153.108 (talk) 02:28, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
K-pop. 196.50.199.218 (talk) 08:07, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Many, many. Post-rock emerged in the 1990s; Trap music as currently understood appeared in 1999; Grime music emerged in London in the early 2000s, as did Dubstep...
For more information, try reading the various '[decade] in music' articles, such as 1990s in music. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 08:50, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Yep. Gold or Lurk (talk) 10:13, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 2

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Fifth Liners

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In The New Limerick (1977) by G. Legman, this is № 502:

In Chicago a lady named Anna
On her torso wore just a bandanna.
When she met some Fifth Liners
(They're much worse than Shriners)
She was last seen sprinting through Montana.

Casual searching yields no likely meanings for Fifth Liners. Is it a Chicago thing? —Tamfang (talk) 01:09, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Is the last line as printed? I can't make it fit the appropriate scansion, since 'sprinting ' stresses the first syllable. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.153.108 (talk) 02:33, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It's not the only one in the book with strange scansion. —Tamfang (talk) 04:05, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Looking at Newspapers.com (pay site), evidently the term "Fifth Liner" refers to someone who constructs Limericks, maybe especially someone who comes up with the punch line. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots03:45, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, the assistant that Edward Lear didn't have. (In many of his limericks, unless I'm thinking of someone else, the last line largely echoes the first.) —Tamfang (talk) 04:07, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You are correct. Lear for some reason is also often credited with inventing limericks, which Legman went to great lengths to disprove by the order of centuries, though he is "credited" with popularizing the namby-pamby clean limericks you can print in English school books. Matt Deres (talk) 18:40, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Do Canadian schoolbooks regularly include obscene limericks, then? Are children there brought up to recite The Ballad of Eskimo Nell? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.153.108 (talk) 01:36, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Of course not. It would have to be 'Inuit Nell'. 'Eskimo Nell' would be ... improper. -- Verbarson  talkedits 15:53, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
No, hence my use of the words "can print". :-) But it's one thing to print some namby-pamby limericks to teach kids the form and it's another to tell or imply something that's incorrect.

A young man from Sault Ste Marie
Said, "Spelling is all Greek to me.
Till they learn to spell 'Soo'
Without any U
Or an A or an L or a T!"

- The namby-pamby Canadian limerick I learned in school. Matt Deres (talk) 13:58, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
There once was a man from Peru,
Whose limericks stopped at line two.
 Card Zero  (talk) 15:01, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
This limerick stops at line one. -- Verbarson  talkedits 18:16, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
There was a young man from Verdun. Matt Deres (talk) 18:41, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That's a different sort of song. -- Verbarson  talkedits 20:37, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I don't understand your reference. In collections of limericks that include the Peru one above, the Verdun one is sometimes added below as a kind of meta-joke. Matt Deres (talk) 16:47, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The one below the Verdun one is easily overlooked.  ​‑‑Lambiam 23:54, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It makes it sound as if Verdun was the tragically early end of the story - true for too many young men. Perhaps that was not the intention: I'm sorry to have rained on your limerick. -- Verbarson  talkedits 19:38, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 3

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Gems and mineral differences

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Hello, what are the differences between gems and minerals? SaveStone83 (talk) 23:48, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As the gem article makes clear, gems are are a subset of minerals used in jewelery etc. AndyTheGrump (talk) 23:54, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 5

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Street name signs

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Are street nams signs ever mounted onto wall of buildings in US and Canada like they are commonly mounted in Europe? I have not seen them being mounted in US and Canada in pictures. --40bus (talk) 20:34, 5 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Here's the Commons category Street signs on buildings in the United States.  Card Zero  (talk) 21:05, 5 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Notwithstanding those examples, it is extremely rare for street name signs to be mounted on buildings in the United States. John M Baker (talk) 03:53, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Same in Canada. Most municipalities have bylaws that require setbacks from the street; as a result, buildings are rarely close enough for such signs to be practical. You would only find them in older neighborhoods pre-dating most zoning laws. Xuxl (talk) 13:45, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I just wish more buildings had easily visible numbers on them. Many buildings have none at all, and many others are too small to really be useful from the road. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 17:06, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hear, hear. But in parts of the US that don't get much snow, you sometimes find building numbers painted on the curb where they're easier to spot. --08:02, 7 October 2025 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.112.140.137 (talk)

Impact of teleprompter use

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Resolved

I just watched the KQED film of Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his address "The Other America" to Stanford on April 14, 1967. As The Stanford Daily observed, King gave the 46 minute speech from memory with no notes, citing numerous facts, figures, statistics, and anecdotes, all in an almost perfect recitation, staring at those assembled the entire time and maintaining a warm connection with the audience who sat in rapt attention. This kind of special relationship between a speaker and listeners is unheard of today, with the reliance on teleprompters and printed notes considered standard procedure. I'm curious how the modern reliance on teleprompters today has changed the political discourse, and how it might be elevating bad "actors" to the role of leaders to the detriment of society as a whole. Has anyone studied the use of teleprompters and its impact on civil society? Viriditas (talk) 22:18, 5 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Is this a pun on wikt:bad actor, transferring the literal meaning (sense 4) to one of the other meanings?  Card Zero  (talk) 04:27, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Why would a bad actor (sense 4) be a bad leader? When giving a speech from memory, someone who can make up the "facts" on the spot while looking confident performs better than someone who hesitates to recall the facts or even admits to have forgotten something, but I prefer the latter type as a leader. Rhetoric is the art of gaining approval, whether one deserves it or not. It's not the way to get good policies approved. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:21, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
As is implicit in the preceding response, the impact (if any) may equally well be the reverse of that suggested in the question. King was a preacher and as such used to giving sermons without notes; like most preachers, he did not speak "off the cuff" but delivered carefully constructed and then memorized sermons, probably practicing before public delivery. King was exceptional in both textual craftmanship and oratory skill, and used both to good effect also for his political addresses. One cannot expect a typical politician to match this, and to be a good politician requires other skills than the ability to deliver rousing speeches. In the current world, leading politicians have an entourage, including a staff (if not "handlers") with spin doctors and speech writers. There is no reason to suppose that a speaker's ability to establish a rapport with the audience is correlated with their honesty. The acting skills of a natural con man may help to evoke a warm connection, signaling the message, "I am one of yours". A teleprompter will only stand in the way.  ​‑‑Lambiam 12:32, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
One of "yours" what? Or did you mistype "youse"? Clarityfiend (talk) 22:22, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your replies. It is interesting to see people read things into what I wrote that I wasn't talking about. MLK wasn't making up facts, he was citing them. He did help get good policies approved, indirectly. What I am getting at is what Nicholas G. Carr was asking in 2008 about the impact of the internet on human brains. Are teleprompters giving us bad actors instead of good leaders? Does the literature say anything about this? In the example of MLK, he knew the issues, talked with and politely debated the issues with supporters and opponents (this is discussed in the cited speech and forms the basis of his objection to "bootstrapping" and promotion of UBI), and engaged his audience based on his direct understanding of the topic. Contrast this with teleprompters, which gives us an empty suit who can read anything they are told to read, has no incentive to personally involve themselves in the actual issues, and can be paid to say whatever others want them to say. My question is could teleprompters be partly responsible for the decline of political leadership? If teleprompters were banned from all debates, discussions, and speeches, we would have to contend with people who were forced to learn the subjects and engage with the topic. Viriditas (talk) 18:23, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

(Carr: Is Google Making Us Stupid?)  Card Zero  (talk) 18:43, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
No one said King was making things up. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 19:39, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It was implied as part of his style up above: When giving a speech from memory, someone who can make up the "facts" on the spot while looking confident performs better than someone who hesitates to recall the facts or even admits to have forgotten something, but I prefer the latter type as a leader. Viriditas (talk) 19:58, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It is interesting to see you read things into what people wrote that they weren't talking about. That was about bad actors (sense 2), not MLK. 207.11.240.38 (talk) 09:38, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It is the bad actors who use the teleprompters in my example, so your explanation makes no sense. People who give speeches from memory like MLK were not making things up or inventing facts. Viriditas (talk) 18:06, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't mean to suggest tot Martin Luther King made things up. Even in Europe we've heard about his importance for the American civil rights movement. I only implied that an environment that rewards giving speeches from memory benefits liars. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:03, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The famous "I have a dream" segment of his march-on-Washington speech was not in his prepared notes. He spoked it seemingly off-the-cuff. Except he had delivered that same segment of the speech at another event some months earlier, only it didn't get the publicity that the Washington speech did. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots13:50, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
American historian Barbara W. Tuchman and other argued the complete opposite. They thought the teleprompter created an environment for deceit as it "allows an inadequate, minor individual to appear to be a statesman". Keith Yellin called for research into the question in 1989, believing that it makes "deceit inherent in ghostwritten discourse". Yellin cited Ernest Bormann, who wrote a 1961 paper about the ethics of speechwriting, which he argued was dishonest and unethical since the candidate was portrayed as someone they were not with the words of another person. Yellin believed the use of the teleprompter could escalate this process and contributed to the success of Ronald Reagan, a bad B movie actor who became president. Viriditas (talk) 18:34, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
So a good A movie actor would have been a good president? PiusImpavidus (talk) 08:36, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I seriously doubt the comprehension of anyone who reads that text and comes to that conclusion.--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 15:49, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, doubt away, as I disagree. Viriditas (talk) 18:07, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You appear to assume that the audience can and will check (or even cares) whether a speaker's statements are factual. There happen to be politicians who, as soon as they open their mouths, produce a steady stream of egregious lies and other misinformation and yet are quite popular.  ​‑‑Lambiam 13:05, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
When you tell the audience what they want to hear, facts don't much matter. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots13:50, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Here in the UK, skilled politicians sometimes deliver major speeches without notes, in an attempt to look as though they believe in what they're saying. An example is David Cameron's 'Nothing, and no one, can stop us', speech at the 2005 Conservative Party Conference, which secured him the leadership of his party. Alansplodge (talk) 16:57, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That’s a terrible speech, which is the problem. Viriditas (talk) 18:10, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I thought the putative problem was the reliance on teleprompters and printed notes. I'm losing the thread.  ​‑‑Lambiam 23:52, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
To refine: Yellin called for empirical research into the question in 1989. I am trying to find out if any was performed. Viriditas (talk) 17:41, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Here, behind a paywall, is an article on the topic.  ​‑‑Lambiam 20:46, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Perfect! Viriditas (talk) 20:57, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 6

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Most viewed news article

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what is the most viewed news article outside Wikipedia? How many views, does this news article have? 100 users edited the article (talk) 23:46, 6 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It seems like that would require news sites to publish article-specific page view counts, which seems unlikely. Searching for things like most viewed news article tends to bring up "trending" stories, which is only tangentially related and provides no answer to your question. Matt Deres (talk) 20:30, 7 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Matt Deres Yep, include journals too. 100 users edited the article (talk) 11:30, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
"Yep", what? Journal article views are not a thing. If you're interested in the relative impact of journal articles, our article on citation impact says the winner involves the Lowry protein assay. Matt Deres (talk) 22:37, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
If by "viewed" you mean "seen by people," then I assume the most seen news articles would be a tie for all the articles on the back page of "The Recurring Newspaper." It was used in thousands of television shows and movies as a standard prop, so it has been "viewed" by millions of people. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 11:38, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 8

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Credit card reimbursement

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Please note that this is a hypothetical situation, and therefore not a request for legal or financial advice.

Imagine you're in an unfamiliar city looking for somewhere to eat for dinner. You come across a street filled with restaurants, choose one and eat there. At the end of the evening you ask for the bill, which comes to $50. You ask to pay by credit card. The waiter mistakenly enters $500 as the amount in the credit card machine instead of $50. You don't notice the mistake, enter your pin number and pay the $500. The waiter doesn't notice the mistake either. He hands you the bill and the credit card receipt, both of which you throw away soon after.

Checking your credit card bill the following month, you see an unusual amount of $500. Checking the date, you realise that it must relate to the restaurant at which you ate that night and that a mistake must have been made by the waiter. You google the merchant's name on the credit card bill, but it's just the name of a generic provider of food and drink. You can't remember the name of the restaurant or the street it was on. You no longer have the credit card receipt in your possession. Do you have any recourse to get the extra $450 back from the credit card company? --Viennese Waltz 13:36, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That doesn't sound very hypothetical to me, but it seems that my (hypothetical) first response would be to call the (hypothetical) credit card company and ask them. However, it seems unlikely you'd get the money back from the CC company; it's not their fault, nor is there fraud being alleged. They gave the money to the restaurant. Perhaps you could call the merchant and try to work with them to identify the restaurant? At this late stage, the beef is between the two of you. If the waiter is still there and recalls the incident, an e-transfer could be done. The extra $450 would essentially be his "tip", so he'll likely remember it pretty well unless it was a place that auto-shares the tips between staff evenly or something. Matt Deres (talk) 14:41, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It's going to depend on where you are and what card you used. Where you are, for the legal framework, and what card, for their terms and conditions. Here is the Visa advice for the UK. DuncanHill (talk) 14:53, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I would call the restaurant first and see if they can fix the problem. They should have the original receipt somewhere, and if it's itemized they'll be able to figure out what went wrong. If they stonewall you, then call the credit card company and tell them it's a fraudulent charge. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots15:40, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
As noted above, this is a hypothetical situation – it didn't happen to me. Also as noted, the person can't remember the name of the restaurant, so they can't call it. --Viennese Waltz 16:15, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
What I have difficulty with is the situation of "credit card" and "pin number." A debit card has a pin number. A credit card requires a signature (unless it is a situation where signature is not required - like many tap-and-go terminals). This is an important distinction because credit cards and debit cards often have very different reimbursement rules. From my personal cards: My debit card has no reimbursement. I can close the card. I can personally request a refund from whomever submitted the charge. I will not be refunded by the bank itself. My credit card is very different. I can call the bank and refute any charge I like. They put the charge on hold and then they contact whomever made the charge and decide if they will reimburse me or not. They might reimburse me without getting money back from the end business. This moves into the topic of fraud prevention. I used my debit card to purchase a car for $12k once. I was out of state and there was absolutely no problem. I used my credit card to purchase a PS5 when they first came out and getting one was nearly impossible. Fraud protection kicked in, delayed the purchase, and I missed the chance and had to wait for later drop. What your hypothetical person has to do is call the hypothetical bank that issued the hypothetical credit card (which sounds like it is hypthetically a debit card), and ask the hypothetical customer service agent who is hypothetically going to be in some other hypothetical country where the hypothetical accent will make the hypothetical conversation very difficult, and finally, hypothetically work out what the hypothetical contract for that hypothetical card hypothetically is. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 17:02, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It's only in countries with backward banking systems that signatures are used for credit cards. In the developed world PIN numbers are used. DuncanHill (talk) 17:29, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
More and more frequently here in America, credit cards do not require signatures (nor a PIN). But some individual stores want a signature anyway. As to the restaurant name, I would think that would be on the credit card statement. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots18:17, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
My understanding based on talking with the cashiers, is that if you are using contactless payment, the older point of sale systems required the PIN or the signature, but the newer ones do not. Swiping or inserting seems to require a PIN based on the type of card, for some reason. There's a gas station that I go to that has both the tap to pay and the swipe, and I often experiment to see the difference. One of my cards requires a PIN for a swipe, while the other does not. Now that I write this out, I seem to remember that I can login to the credit card site and enable or disable aspects of the swiping behavior (PIN or not) in the personal settings associated with the specific card, IIRC. I think. Viriditas (talk) 22:29, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Highest rated recipes site?

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I was just looking for a good borscht recipe when I realized what I really want is a site that ranks the highest rated recipes. Is there such a thing? Viriditas (talk) 22:33, 8 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

For the borscht, search for Mrs Kostyra's recipe. That is Martha Stewart's mom. As for websites, they all rate recipes, but the ratings are very unreliable. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 01:14, 9 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, I remember reading about that recipe earlier in the year. It was pretty impressive. Is there really no crowdsourced recipe site that ranks recipes by various criteria (taste, ease of preparation, cost, etc.)? That's something I really would like to have access to in the kitchen. Viriditas (talk) 01:37, 9 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Is it true that it freezes well? Viriditas (talk) 01:40, 9 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Is there no Wikirecipes site, or something equivalent? Viriditas (talk) 02:38, 9 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not as a Wikimedia project. Ratings on a community-sourced site would be hopelessly unreliable anyway.  ​‑‑Lambiam 17:41, 9 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Would it though? Instead of admin rights, you could have chef rights. You could only rank the recipes based on your contribution threshold, article improvement scoring, etc. Viriditas (talk) 20:47, 9 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You appear to believe that there is a standard measure of "taste" and "ease of preparation" and "cost." There isn't. You can argue that cost is standard, but it isn't. Cost depends on supply and in some places supply of certain good items is higher than others. As for preparation ease, that depends on tools. What if all I have is a couple knives. No mixer. No blender. No broiler. No steamer. Preparation can be difficult while, for someone with a stocked kitchen, it can be very easy. Taste is very speculative. For example, I make dishes with tamed jalapenos and some people praise it because they get the flavor without the spice. Others detest it because they demand what they eat today burn on the way out tomorrow. So, even if you have professional chefs giving you the ratings, they are not dependable. They do not tell me how much it costs me, how easy it is for me, and how well it tastes for me. It is just more unreliable internet slop. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 18:28, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You seem to have misread what I wrote (a common occurrence here). Nowhere have I discussed anything about taste. If you read below, you can see that the cookbooks site has already implemented the suggestion I discussed with no problems. But hey, you do you. Viriditas (talk) 20:20, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, it looks like I mentioned taste in passing up above. I had no idea that would even cause you such grief as I don't even remember mentioning it. But the reality is that I did say it, and I still mean it. I don't believe there is a standard of anything; I believe we create our own standards. And if something is salty, sweet, bitter, sour, or savoury, it can easily be categorized that way. I hope I didn't just break your brain. Viriditas (talk) 20:26, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Ratings and categorization are not the same thing. If you meant categorization from the beginning, you should have stated so. If you didn't mean to include taste, you shouldn't have included it. Write what you mean. Mean what you write. Insulting people because they are responding to what you have written is juvenile and unwarranted. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 11:50, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
And some of us just don't like peppers at all. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 14:56, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
See the Wikibooks Cookbook. It doesn't have ratings based on taste or cost, but it does have a difficulty rating for recipes. OutsideNormality (talk) 02:39, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Still curious why there’s no Wikirecipes or Wikifood. It’s such a large part of our lives it seems like an oversight. Viriditas (talk) 18:06, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Outside of Wikimedia there's Recipes Wiki, but on a quick glance it doesn't appear to have a ratings system. --Antiquary (talk) 09:02, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
If it's OK to link to unsatisfactory sites that sound related, publicdomainrecipes.com caught my attention (and has a couple of recipes for borscht). I see problems with a ratings system: everybody submits their own family heirloom recipe for chili con carne, or whatever dish, and we have to hope that the best one is voted up to the top, but what actually happens is that beyond a certain number of recipes new submissions get no attention, and any good ones are buried, and the main ingredient of new submissions after that is spam. The alternative approach is to have a single canonical article for each named dish, with hundreds of subsections to handle all worthwhile variations. But how to resolve edit wars? "Your recipe for chili with liquorice is stupid / no it isn't / yes it is ..."  Card Zero  (talk) 13:08, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You could have a tag system where you could pull up all recipes that include a particular tag. Every ingredient in a recipe would be a tag. Every prep technique would be a tag. Every type of dish would be a tag. You could then input the tags "chili" (or "chili (soup)" to distinguish from "chili (pepper)") and "liquorice" to see if anyone else provided a recipe like that. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 15:07, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 10

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What are these metallic boxes in the streets of Helsinki, Finland?

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I can't find any images so these are links to Google Street View (I hope they work and are allowed here): Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, Example 4.

I don't think these are the typical electrical or telecommunications street utility boxes (like this one) because they don't seem to be connected to to the ground. The boxes have hinged doors. The placement seems random. I presume they are from the government. Aloysius Jr (talk) 10:56, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Edit: Here is the same exact box again: (Example 5). See how it is sitting askew on the tiling. Next to it is an electrical distribution cabinet. Aloysius Jr (talk) 16:15, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

They seem to be too heavy to be floating in the air, and there are no signs of them being suspended, so, maybe, they are connected to the ground.  ​‑‑Lambiam 14:49, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I really think they are not connected to the ground. See in Example 3 the little metallic legs it's standing on. These boxes can be found in strange places on concrete tiles no even angled properly. Aloysius Jr (talk) 13:16, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I suppose I missed your joke but for confirmation by connected I mean electrically connected. Aloysius Jr (talk) 16:05, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
They are electrical distribution cabinets. See here, here, and here. DuncanHill (talk) 15:02, 10 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I recognise those. None of the pictures had this specific box. Aloysius Jr (talk) 13:16, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
My guess is that it is a box for mail delivery, where mail carriers pick up mail so they don't have to return to the post office to pick up the next batch for their route. Like this. Long is the way (talk) 21:26, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Those in the picture seem to be standing on legs. If this is for mail, then every postman in Helsinki will be able to confirm. This doesn't appear to be common in other cities though. In my country (Netherlands), mail is delivered by van to depots the size of 20 foot containers, from where mail is delivered by bike in a 2 kilometre radius. The postman returns to the depot as often as necessary. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:57, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Boxes like that are definitely used by mail carriers in some countries. E.g. here is one from Canada and here is one in a different part of Finland. As Samoasambia points out below, it could also be for newspaper or leaflet delivery. Long is the way (talk) 15:24, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Paging 40bus, who ought to know. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.153.108 (talk) 07:27, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
They are likely post boxes. A standard post box is orange. --40bus (talk) 07:58, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
We should also page JIP. --Viennese Waltz 08:26, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I have seen them all around Helsinki as well, and I don't know for sure what they are. I have always assumed they are some sort of telecommunications support stations or electronic transformers. JIP | Talk 09:06, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
They appear a bit smallish for transformer boxes. I don't know the voltage on the Helsinki distribution grid, but I suppose 6 kV to 20 kV phase-to-phase. Each box transforms about a megawatt down to 400 V phase-to-phase or 230 V phase-to-neutral. Those boxes are bigger than that, at least one metre cubes. And transformer boxes need a high voltage warning sign, one of those lightning symbols. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:39, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think those boxes are where newspapers/advertising leaflets are stored for distributors. It's often a part-time job (a few hours a week) so the distribution routes are short and that's why these boxes are a common sight. Addressed mail is distributed separately so you won't find letters etc. in there. Samoasambia 11:44, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank y'all! There was a picture of them here on Wikipedia! (Thanks Long is the way). Aloysius Jr (talk) 22:48, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 11

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Native American Restaurants?

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Hi to Wikipedians, is there a way for visitors and foodies to discover cities, town, or streets, that have indigenous restaurants in United States? Why is this not very common among other eateries in United States? But why is this unlikely found in popular restaurants, unlike Mexican, Korean, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, British, Hawaiian, and French cuisines? Is there a progression? 75.39.165.140 (talk) 21:45, 11 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[WAG alert] There is no single Native American culture, so no single cuisine either. And tribe-specific cuisine isn't particularly rich. Being mostly(?) hunter-gatherers isn't conducive to developing great dishes. Also, no beef, no chicken, no pork. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:05, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
While one might think there is a single Chinese culture, there very definitely is not a single Chinese cuisine, and the cuisine considered "Chinese" outside China often is rather different from what one might find in China. While dishes offered in Chinese restaurants abroad have their roots in dishes that originated in China or among Chinese migrants, these restaurants typically adapted the recipes to local tastes and locally available ingredients. A good example is chop suey. If you ask for 杂碎 – the etymon of the term chop suey – in a restaurant in China, they may be offering you very different food items, such as pork kidneys. The Italian cuisine in New York would not be recognized as Italian by tourists from Italy, and several "Mexican" dishes originated in the U.S. I see no a priori reason why dishes from the indigenous cuisine of the Americas cannot be likewise adapted to cater to the American taste. The section Indigenous cuisine of the Americas § Restaurants consists of a gallery of seven Native American restaurants. More can be found in our Category:Native American restaurants in the United States and the Commons Category:Native American style restaurants in the United States.  ​‑‑Lambiam 07:47, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Some glimpses of menu items at that commons category: I see for pork there is javelina, for chicken, duck (see caption on that image), and for beef, bison. Also actual pork and beef and chicken get involved too, inevitably.  Card Zero  (talk) 13:34, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Such restaurants may not be common in the U.S. but they are found in all major Canadian cities. Featured dishes often feature game meat (e.g. elk, buffalo...) and freshwater fish, and various local ingredients such as berries, herbs, wild rice and such. Xuxl (talk) 13:53, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
When I lived in San Bernandino desert, there were plenty of Native American restaurants. Most identified as Navajo, but there were others. There was very little difference between Mexican food and Native American food. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 18:34, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 12

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Apartment numbers

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Are apartment numbers used in postal addresses in France, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Czechia, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland or Austria? Article about addresses in different countries does not mention them. --40bus (talk) 20:07, 12 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

We don't have apartments in the UK; we have flats, and flat numbers are invariably included in UK postal addresses. I can't think why they would not be or why the articles you refer to would even need to mention them. Shantavira|feed me 07:35, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
In Germany (specifically Hamburg, but I believe throughout Germany), apartment numbers are not used in addresses. My mailbox had to have my last name clearly labeled and my mail had to have my last name clearly marked. Further, because I have the most common German last name, I had to include my initials on both my mailbox and my mail. This topic came up because I argued with the mail lady that life would be so much easier if I could just have apartment 22 put on my mail. No! It has to be name. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 12:13, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
What do they suggest you do if there are multiple people at the same address with the same last name and the same initials for their other names? --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 15:11, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Traditionally then a sausage duel takes place to decide who has to move out.  Card Zero  (talk) 16:08, 13 October 2025 (UTC) [reply]
Myron Cohen used to tell a story about a secret agent going to an apartment building to meet a fellow agent named Goldberg. He observes that there are two Goldbergs in the building. He speaks to the first one in a coded greeting. The guy says, "I'm Goldberg the tailor. You want Goldberg the spy. He's on the fourth floor." ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots17:08, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Netherlands: For more independent apartments (also known as flats if in high-rise buildings), every unit has its own letterbox and its own house number. For more integrated apartments (nursing homes, ordinary houses converted for students – yes, you can squeeze 15 students in a house designed for a single family in the 1930s; it's a goldmine), there's normally a single letterbox with a single number. An apartment number could be added, but would be ignored by the postal service. Normally, a name suffices. Very rarely one encounters multiple letterboxes on a single house number, labelled in whatever way the manager of the place deems fitting, with all the trouble described by 68.187.174.155. PiusImpavidus (talk) 20:14, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 13

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Sanskrit being spoken on some countries

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Hello, is Sanskrit still spoken in any of these countries in modern times? How is it being revived? Mannymations12 (talk) 22:51, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, read the section entitled 'Modern era' in the article. AndyTheGrump (talk) 23:10, 13 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

October 14

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