Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2015 December 27

= December 27 =

placename element etymologies website
Is there a website that deals with placename element etymologies of different regions and nations like in Bangladesh, you have places with -pur (e.g. Rangpur, Pirojpur, Sherpur), -hat (Lalmonirhat and Bagerhat), -ganj (e.g. Sirajganj), -na (e.g. Pabna and Khulna), -gram (e.g. Kurigram), -ail (e.g. Tangail and Narail), -khali (e.g. Noakhali and Patuakhali), -bazar (e.g. Moulvibazar), and -para (e.g. Tungipara and Ullahpara)? Donmust90 (talk) 00:00, 27 December 2015 (UTC)Donmust90Donmust90 (talk) 00:00, 27 December 2015 (UTC)


 * United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names will point you to the closest resources that exist for a centralized global research effort on toponymy, though I don't think their present efforts are long on etymology. Similar databases exist for specific regions and languages which will vary widely in how much they devote to the evolution of particular toponyms and the morphemes they share in common.  However, if you combine more general historical/comparative morpheme databases with the geographic databases, you'll often be be able to answer a good many questions which may be driving your search.  Perhaps if you would like to tell us the purposes which you hope these etymologies might serve, we might be able to present a specific combination of research databases that would fit those needs.  You also might contemplate moving this thread to the languages desk, as you may be more likely to get more eyes knowledgeable in this area there.  S n o w  let's rap 05:43, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

The reason I asked this question is because I want to know what are these places mean and in English language what are their counterparts like is -pur is to -ton, is -hat is to -shire and such. Donmust90 (talk) 23:22, 27 December 2015 (UTC)Donmust90Donmust90 (talk) 23:22, 27 December 2015 (UTC)


 * See Category:Lists of placename etymologies.—Wavelength (talk) 23:43, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

Map or table of total number of civilian firearms per state
I'm trying to find a map outlining the number of guns owned by civilian in each state. Alternatively a table of such data would also work since I can crate the map myself. Also alternatively a guns-owned-per-capita map/data would also suffice since I can just multiple it by the state population.

I found a couple of "gun ownership" maps by state, but they count "percentage of population who are gun owners", so it's a slightly different statistic.

I found this map and table pair but unfortunately they're not helpful since they assume that guns are equally distributed to each state.731Butai (talk) 09:52, 27 December 2015 (UTC)


 * As shown in Gun laws in the United States by state, a number of states don't require registration. The question then becomes, how closely (if at all) the federal government tracks the manufacture and distribution of firearms. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:13, 27 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Many of the countries listed in Number of guns per capita by country, including United States, don't have mandatory gun registration, and yet we have statistics on all of them. I never expected an official count, since there is none; an authoritative estimate is perfectly fine. 731Butai (talk) 03:39, 28 December 2015 (UTC)


 * I see the value of the per capita distribution per state, but the absolute numbers seem meaningless, to me. That will mostly just reflect the population of each state. StuRat (talk) 03:47, 28 December 2015 (UTC)


 * It's useful in cases like when a gun manufacturer is deciding where to locate their distribution center, which should ideally be closest to where most of their customers are. Looking at the per capita map would have you placing the distribution center between Wyoming, Montanna, and Idaoh, where gun ownership are the highest. But that's clearly wrong due to the low population of those states.
 * I'm fine with either per capita or absolute numbers, since I can convert between them myself like I mentioned in the OP.731Butai (talk) 04:07, 28 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Then you'd want to know the density of gun sales per area. Still, you might do better to locate in a gun-friendly state, like the ones you mentioned, to avoid problems with the law and lawsuits.  Guns are rather portable, and can be shipped for a tiny portion of their price, so there's no need to produce them where they are to be sold.  StuRat (talk) 04:33, 28 December 2015 (UTC)


 * The Wikipedia reference desk: your go-to source on why your question is unanswerable or not worth answering. -Elmer Clark (talk) 20:50, 1 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Note that the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey are considering the United States a state, so they are not being helpful either. --Askedonty (talk) 22:11, 1 January 2016 (UTC)
 * This seems to be answering the request - (I just wonder if the data is accurate?) --Askedonty (talk) 22:43, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Looking for ideas for things that might affect share price
Hi all, I was watching this and it gave me an idea. The video says that after beating Kasparov, IBM's share price went up 15%. So I thought of using the idea for a speaking game for my ESL students. I'll explain the game/activity, then say where I need the help.

The idea is, I take events like the above, fictionalise them slightly, then give the information to students, as it existed before the final result. So the Kasparov game would involve authentic news reports, with a few details changed. Then they would be able to invest in IBM shares, and bet on the outcome of the chess match. This depends on them not knowing what actually happened (from general knowledge or from using their smartphones), which is why some things would have to be fictionalised. They would do a bit of reading of some articles, news headlines at, say, the half-way point of the match, then do their buying and selling. In short, they will have information A, B and C, and use it to guess the outcome of events E, F and G, and then decide from that whether to buy shares in companies K, L, or M.

The bit where I need help is finding suitable events. I don't need to know the exact effect of event A on the share price of company K. I can make that up, and give it to students beforehand (e.g. "If event E has outcome O, the share price of K will rise 10%"). What I need is suitably "big" events, so there is a record on the internet of key articles and updates from before the final outcome. Those are the reports I want. So for the actual IBM thing, I would want examples of press releases while the match was still going, including information on the mood of both camps (were they optimistic? pessimistic? excited? etc.). Possible things would include major legal cases involving companies, and major product releases, and maybe even wars and so forth. Looking forward to your insights. IBE (talk) 22:51, 27 December 2015 (UTC)


 * The day in December 2008 that Google Maps announced a version that would run on smartphones, the share price of Garmin (a maker of dedicated GPS navigation devices) dropped from around $110 to $60 - and within a year to just $15.
 * Earlier this year, when it was discovered that Volkswagen had falsified emissions reporting in their engine management software, their share price dropped from $160 to $100 in a matter of a day or two.
 * SteveBaker (talk) 23:50, 27 December 2015 (UTC)


 * From the looks of IBM's stock price, there was a similar jump in early January 2011 when it was leaked that IBM's 'Watson' computer had beaten the two best human Jeopardy! players. That's not such a clear jump though because the stock market increase started when it was announced that the match would be held but the results were kept fairly secret until early February. SteveBaker (talk) 23:59, 27 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Last month, Rite Aid's stock jumped when they were bought out by Walgreens. Going the other way, Pets.com crashed spectacularly at the height of the dot-com bubble. I'm pretty sure that Microsoft's share price dropped when the Dept. of Justice filed an antitrust suit against it in 1998; for that matter, I expect AT&Ts stock fell when the government split them up into the "baby Bells". Bankruptcy reorganizations should also have some good examples: I recall K-Mart and Sears in the past 10 years, and General Motors in the 1980s. OldTimeNESter (talk) 10:15, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions. I should add that the examples should ideally be larger, "ongoing" stories, ie. those that took a while to unfold, where there was some real uncertainty about the outcome. The chess one is ideal, because it captured headlines, and was in doubt until the last game. Then, it is also good because the possible outcomes are a set of discrete possibilities, i.e. win lose or draw.

For my particular game/activity, it doesn't actually matter whether I use events which did in fact affect the share price (as I say, I can fictionalise that bit) but they should be important enough that they could affect the share price. I'll be giving the information to students in a form something like this (using the chess example): "Inspiration Machines' (IM) computer, the TechWiz 5000, is playing world chess champion, Slobodan Sligomarovich, in a battle for supremacy between man and machine. The match stands at 2.5 all. If the computer wins, IM shares will climb 20%. If it loses, they will fall by 10%. If it's a draw, they will stay the same. Here are the headlines/feature articles/ summary of important points, as we go into the final game." In other words, I'll just invent the share price stuff, but I want the information to be as real as possible, with basically just the names changed. So the suggestions you are offering are possibilities, but not ideal, because, eg. in the VW case, the share price dropped (I think) when the news broke. It should ideally be something that unfolds over a few days to even a year, and where it was big enough that I can get articles from the course of the event, while it was uncertain, not at the finish line. If it has discrete outcomes, that's a bonus. Any suggestions? IBE (talk) 18:17, 28 December 2015 (UTC)