Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2014 April 5

= April 5 =

Federal driver's licenses in the USA
Have there ever been federal driver's licenses in the USA? I'm imagining something for residents of Enclave Clause territories ( US Constitution Article I, Section 8, the clause beginning with "To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever") with laws specifically set by Congress, rather than by a more local entity such as a territorial government or DC City Council. Driver's license in the United States says that all US non-state licenses are currently issued by territories, but it doesn't address former practices. Nyttend (talk) 02:17, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I have no clue what your reference to Article I, Section 8 is about. That deals with the enumerated powers of the federal government, as opposed to the states, which have "police power", which is to say, the power to do whatever they like, notwithstanding higher power, in this case the Constitution. Section 8 says nothing about drivers licenses... in areas like territories, or otherwise non-state areas, Congress does have police power to impose things like driver's licenses. Are you interested in pre 20th century driver's license legislation? Shadowjams (talk) 07:40, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I was looking for drivers' licenses in areas like territories and other non-state areas, since that specifically gives Congress the right to have the police powers outside the states. Licenses issued directly under act of Congress, rather than licenses issued by a congressionally-devolved government such as a territory or DC City Council.  Nyttend (talk) 22:18, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

History of British Summer Time dates
I've had a look at the British Summer Time article but this isn't entirely clear to me. What year did the current start/end dates (last Sunday of March - last Sunday of October) for British Summer Time start? And what were the start/end dates before that? 58.109.41.22 (talk) 15:59, 5 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Here is the NPL archive.--Shantavira|feed me 19:32, 5 April 2014 (UTC)


 * You might also like to read Summer Time in Europe. I can remember when the exact dates used to be announced by the government every year, but in 1981 we started following the German dates.    D b f i r s   20:54, 5 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks! 58.109.49.48 (talk) 07:09, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

The tz database includes, among others, these entries for the transition to summer time in the UK and Ireland:

Rule  GB-Eire 1948    only    -       Mar     14      2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1949    only    -       Apr      3      2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1950    1952    -       Apr     Sun>=14 2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1953    only    -       Apr     Sun>=16 2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1954    only    -       Apr     Sun>=9  2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1955    1956    -       Apr     Sun>=16 2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1957    only    -       Apr     Sun>=9  2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1958    1959    -       Apr     Sun>=16 2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1960    only    -       Apr     Sun>=9  2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1961    1963    -       Mar     lastSun 2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1964    1967    -       Mar     Sun>=19 2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1968    only    -       Feb     18      2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1972    1980    -       Mar     Sun>=16 2:00s   1:00    BST Rule  GB-Eire 1981    1995    -       Mar     lastSun 1:00u   1:00    BST Rule  EU      1981    max     -       Mar     lastSun 1:00u  1:00    S

And these entries for the transition the other way:

Rule  GB-Eire 1948    only    -       Oct     31      2:00s   0       GMT Rule  GB-Eire 1949    only    -       Oct     30      2:00s   0       GMT Rule  GB-Eire 1950    1952    -       Oct     Sun>=21 2:00s   0       GMT Rule  GB-Eire 1953    1960    -       Oct     Sun>=2  2:00s   0       GMT Rule  GB-Eire 1961    1968    -       Oct     Sun>=23 2:00s   0       GMT Rule  GB-Eire 1972    1980    -       Oct     Sun>=23 2:00s   0       GMT Rule  GB-Eire 1981    1989    -       Oct     Sun>=23 1:00u   0       GMT Rule  GB-Eire 1990    1995    -       Oct     Sun>=22 1:00u   0       GMT Rule  EU      1996    max     -       Oct     lastSun 1:00u  0       -

Here, for example, means "March 19 if that was a Sunday, or the first Sunday following". Note that starting in 1996 the UK and Ireland began following the EU rules. So, from those tables, the answer to the question is 1996; from 1981 to 1995 the start date was the same as now, but the end date was either the same or a week earlier, depending on the specific year's calendar.

I've only shown the rules from 1948 on; before that it gets more complicated, what with double summer time.

These database entries can be found by downloading this file, unpacking it using gunzip and tar (on UNIX or Linux that's how, anyway), and examining the file "europe". Note that there are many comment lines in addition, and that for each location the entries are shown sorted by year rather than grouping the start-summer-time and end-summer-time lines as I've done here. --50.100.193.30 (talk) 07:22, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Memoir of Soviet General in Southern European Theater
A few years back I read the memoirs of a Soviet General who commanded Red Army forces in the campaigns from Ukraine into Romania and Hungary. It covered the period 1944-1945. It was published in English by a western publishing house. Anyone have an idea what this book might be? --Gary123 (talk) 16:28, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * This Wikipedia article -- Operation Bagration -- has a list of the main Soviet commanders during Operation Bagration in 1944. Perhaps it might help you here. Futurist110 (talk) 07:12, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Likewise, this Wikipedia article -- Budapest Offensive -- has a list of the main Soviet commanders who were fighting in Hungary in late 1944 and in early 1945. Futurist110 (talk) 07:14, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I did a search of WorldCat http://www.worldcat.org/ and found this book: Stalin and his generals: Soviet military memoirs of World War II, by Seweryn Bialer. Published in1969 by Pegasus in New York. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dreamahighway (talk • contribs) 22:25, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Is the white population of South Africa increasing?
Has there been a recent increase or a decrease? --Euinoite (talk) 19:04, 5 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Hi, you can compare the data given in our articles South African National Census of 2001 and South African National Census of 2011 which show an increase of 293,000 over those 10 years. 184.147.128.82 (talk) 21:34, 5 April 2014 (UTC)


 * I'd have hoped that South Africa would have been trying very hard to stop classifying people by the colour of their skin. HiLo48 (talk) 21:55, 6 April 2014 (UTC)


 * How can you tell if things have got better for the formerly-oppressed part of the population if you stop checking? AlexTiefling (talk) 22:20, 6 April 2014 (UTC)


 * If you eliminate the mindset that skin colour is a meaningful identifier of part of the population, there's nothing to check. Thinking skin colour mattered is what got South Africa into trouble in the first place. HiLo48 (talk) 22:40, 6 April 2014 (UTC)


 * We Aussies are hardly in a position to judge other countries. Our own indigenous people have always been massively, shockingly disadvantaged (let alone massacred, not even considered members of the population = non-humans, stolen from their birth families, .....) and governments of all kinds have been seeking to right these wrongs for a long time now.  But to do so means measuring their progress against a range of indicators, and it isn't at all useful to come at this issue from the standpoint that we're all humans and skin colour doesn't matter.  It shouldn't matter, I agree; but historically it has mattered, and the centuries of injustices cannot be undone in a weekend, or by just naively wishing them away.  Anyway, this isn't the place for a debate on this issue, so I'm hatting it.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:55, 6 April 2014 (UTC)


 * I agree with the hat, but I thought the wording of the hat itself was needlessly blunt, so I changed it. Especially since this seems to cause a certain amount of friction, I thought it better to take the trouble to change the tone. IBE (talk) 03:48, 7 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Keeping this outside the hat, I do wonder how meaningful the figures are. Precisely what questions are asked in the South African census, and are the responses reliable? Are people really asked about their skin colour? In the Australian census, responders get to nominate an ancestry. One option is "Australian". 33% chose that option at our last census. You can draw your own conclusions as to what that means. Does anyone know what the equivalent options are in South Africa? HiLo48 (talk) 04:05, 7 April 2014 (UTC)


 * The answer is in one of the SA government documents included as a reference in the 2001 Census article:


 * "'Statistics South Africa continues to classify people by population group, in order to monitor progress in moving away from the apartheid-based discrimination of the past. However membership of a population group is now based on self-perception and self-classification, not on a legal definition. Five options were provided on the questionnaire, Black African, Coloured, Indian or Asian, White, and Other.'" Valiantis (talk) 13:38, 7 April 2014 (UTC)