Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2009 February 25

= February 25 =

Did Zionist political violence stop in 1948?
Did Zionist political violence stop with the establishment of the state of Israel? I am unclear how to answer this question, as neutrality is so hard on this sensitive subject. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.96.148.42 (talk) 02:56, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * After May 1948, there was a widely-recognized state with an organized military in uniform which fought at least four conflicts with the organized militaries in uniform of other states, so the proper term for such violence would generally be "war". AnonMoos (talk) 03:15, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * You are The OP is perhaps thinking of the 1948-to-present coöpted usage of the term "Zionism" by some antagonistic factors as a label (e.g. "Zionist entity") for that state and its supporters, on charges of the imperialistic usurping of native rights, or when objecting to the policies and practices of the State of Israel. This is employed to distinguish "anti-Zionism" from outright antisemitism directed at the Jewish people whether in Israel or the Diaspora. -- Deborahjay (talk) 05:51, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I guess this is a sort of RfC. The editor is in the middle of dispute with user:Jayjg on Talk:Zionist_political_violence.  --JGGardiner (talk) 07:42, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin? --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 18:57, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

What book is this?
Does anyone know what this science fiction/fantasy novel is? IIRC it was relatively recent (probably later then 2002) and I believe the author was British. It has a short Prometheus insipire subplot where the brother? of someone who considers himself a God is required to keep pushing up a rock up a hill. I believe the brother eventually escaped. But he wasn't the primary character although the 'God' may have been the primary antagonist. I believe it involved multiple worlds, possibly including earth and someone who somehow travelled between worlds. Nil Einne (talk) 06:12, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Was there a character named anything like Sisyphus? That's the guy from Greek mythology who was required to keep pushing up a rock up a hill, watch it roll down again, and repeat the process, forever.  He was no sissy.  --  JackofOz (talk) 06:40, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * It's possibly not what you're thinking of but Terry Pratchet's Eric does involve a section in the latter part of the book of someone damned to do as Sisyphus but first has to undertake the more horrifying task of reading volumes and volumes of Health & Safety manuals first. Nanonic (talk) 07:00, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * In Gene Wolfe's novel Soldier of Arete the hero rescues Sisyphus by, as I recall, splitting the rock. Rhinoracer (talk) 11:09, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

animal rights quote
I am looking for the quote of a biologist that said that you cannot compare the suffering of animals. I know it is used by animal rights advocates, but I can't find it anywhere on the internet. I hope this rings any bell to you. Thank you in advance. Maziotis (talk) 13:13, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * It may be found on this site. MarquisCostello (talk) 16:14, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Do I pay Sales tax
I have started a business making rock candles that I sell at art and craft festivals. Most of the shows are in Ga. sometimes the surounding states. I need to know if I have to pay the sales tax for each county that I do the festival in. I have heard that since I pay tax on the raw materials that I only pay tax on my profit quarterly or yearly.

Having trouble finding an answer. Thanks for the help. FWilson —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elbewilson (talk • contribs) 16:38, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * This google search has several links which may or may not answer your question. I have no idea if you have found these sites.  If you cannot find information yourself, then your best option is either to contact a lawyer or accountant who specializes in tax issues, or to contact the Georgia Department of Revenue yourself, which has a website located here.  There is a "contact us" bit in the menu bar.  --Jayron32. talk . contribs  17:11, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Natural disasters/wrecked environment in literature
T. C. Boyle's A Friend of the Earth is set in a future, in which all kinds of pollution have destroyed the environment. Does anyone know any other novels, short stories or even poems dealing with dystopian visions of nature and environment? --95.112.166.243 (talk) 18:49, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * In several of Isaac Asimov's novels, earth is depicted as irradiated to the point where it is no longer habitable. Originally, there were some vague allusions that this was due to nuclear war, but his later novels retconned an explanation that it was a deliberate act designed to encourage earthlings to leave earth and colonize the galaxy.  As another example, in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein depicts earth as on the brink of Malthusian catastrophy with some cities so over-populated that they are literally packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people.  There are probably many others as well. --Jayron32. talk . contribs  18:59, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * IIRC, a number of Philip K. Dick's books were set in dystopian futures or presents. --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:11, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * The '07 Pulitzer winner, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, takes place in a post-apocalyptic future in which life has been all but eradicated due to unexplained circumstanced. Nature is kaput, at any rate, though there are still some people staggering around being horrible to each other. --Fullobeans (talk) 19:26, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * There must surely be very many. On the Beach (novel), Riddley Walker both came to mind. --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:29, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately the List of dystopian literature is categorized by date, not by type of dystopia. --Anonymous, 19:54 UTC, February 25, 2009.


 * The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel is considered on of the first instances of apocalyptic literature where the apocalypse is triggered by science in particular. --140.247.243.27 (talk) 20:57, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien is often set by high school teachers (well, it was back in my day). Gwinva (talk) 21:22, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Two I remember, though I think the cause, in each case, was nuclear war, are David Brin's The Postman and Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. // BL \\ (talk) 23:57, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The subgenre you're looking for is the Dying Earth subgenre. The article has a short list of examples, but google might turn up more. Steewi (talk) 00:02, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The dying earth subgenre is something rather different from what (most of, I don't know all these books) this thread is about. For example, dying earth stories are much further in the future, and the dying is not normally a result of human activity. Algebraist 00:08, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * In C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength, N.I.C.E. (National Institute of Coordinated Experiments) want to sterilize the Earth and put up "art trees". Enter Mr. Bultitude. --Milkbreath (talk) 00:16, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
 * In his The Magician's Nephew there is also a world where all life was destroyed by a powerful magic word. The sun is put out in The Last Battle. Also in Byron's poem Darkness (poem), the sun goes out and the entire world freezes over. Wrad (talk) 00:20, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * And we must remember Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes, originally published in French as La Planète des singes. // BL \\ (talk) 00:35, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * We read The Chrysalids in high school (although the intended reading age is probably younger than that). Adam Bishop (talk) 02:23, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh, also, The City Underground by Suzanne Martel (I should have asked about that on the RD, someone else probably could have found "underground Montreal year 3000 nuclear war" faster than me!) Adam Bishop (talk) 02:44, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Oh wow, thanks for all the answers! -- 93.132.161.2 (talk) 06:43, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. Julia Rossi (talk) 12:46, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I suspect the first of this genre I ever read was Robert Silverberg's Time of the Great Freeze where folks live in an underground city protected from the new ice age. --—— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk  -  13:16, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * There are tons of novels in this genre. Have you had a look at Science fiction and Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction? A recent best-seller, with a movie on the way, is Cormac McCarthy's The Road. There are some novels set in times so post-apocalyptic that no one remembers the apocalypse, except perhaps the "remembering machines", and the earth may have returned to a fruitfulness but for certain aspects we notice and the characters do not (e.g. sterile oceans); try Ursula K. LeGuin's Always Coming Home.  Others are set near our times, with the apocalypse coming towards us like a freight train, which the protagonists may or may not be able to head off; e.g. desertification and collapse of the water table has fostered a draconian political situation in Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing, also set in California. Some of Margaret Atwood's novels deal with the theme of social collapse after natural or man-made disasters, notably Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Tale.  Marge Piercy, who anticipated cyberpunk with Woman on the Edge of Time in 1976, dealt with these themes head-on in He, She and It (aka City of Glass). I could go on....


 * I was prompted to look up Suzanne Martel, mentioned above (the things you learn on Wikipedia!), and found this in The Canadian Encyclopedia: "The City Under Ground (1964) is a science fiction story about brothers who leave the underground world where people have lived since a nuclear attack and discover the world of nature." Good luck and happy reading! BrainyBabe (talk) 16:27, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Jewish MPs (UK)
Hiya :-) Does anyone happen to know how many Jewish people there are in the British House of Commons, who they are, what positions they hold (ministers, shadow cabinet?) etc.? Thanks so much! ╟─ Treasury Tag ► contribs ─╢ 19:14, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * See List of British Jewish politicians. I know for a fact that Jack Straw, Michael Howard, Oliver Letwin, Margaret Hodge,David Miliband,Ed Miliband and Lynne Featherstone still sit in the House today.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by MarquisCostello (talk • contribs) 20:55, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * No, I saw the list, thanks, but it's a question of who's still in the House, which that list doesn't state. Someone might know ;-) ╟─ Treasury Tag ► contribs ─╢ 21:53, 25 February 2009 (UTC)


 * There has always been a definitional problem with Jewish Parliamentarians in that some identify as Jewish by religion, while some who have Jewish parents are not religious. You may however be interested in the recently published book "Jewish Parliamentarians" which profiles all who probably meet the description. Sam Blacketer (talk) 15:29, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

looking for a book I read 10 years ago
I can not remember the title. It was about climbing a mountain in Switzerland that was supposedly unclimbable. The main character's father had died trying to climb it earlier. It was a fictional work. I don't recall anything high tech in the book like cars or helicopters, so it was probably set in the 19th century or perhaps early 20th but I could be wrong on that. It was in English. Any ideas? 65.167.146.130 (talk) 21:57, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman? It was made into a Disney movie, Third Man on the Mountain. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:05, 25 February 2009 (UTC)