Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 February 20

= February 20 =

Who was the original person?
Who was the original person? Who was the first human to be called a "person"? Ebaillargeon82 (talk) 15:50, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid this question, the way you asked it, hardly makes any sense and is certainly not answerable. Can you explain a bit more precisely what you mean? Fut.Perf. ☼ 15:56, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
 * ... also, you will get different traditional answers in different cultures (for example "Adam" in one culture). As FP says above, the question is not answerable in a scientific sense.    D b f i r s   16:12, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The original meaning was, the mask that an actor wore so you could know whom he represented. So, who's the first actor? Unfortunately, acting is a much older trade than writing, so nobody wrote his name. Jim.henderson (talk) 16:26, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The concept of personhood was first applied to Jesus Christ (although his existence has been questioned). It was soon after applied to all human beings. The first "person" whose existence hasn't been questioned was most likely Basile the Great, since he was the person most responsible for creating the concept of personhood (and applying it to Jesus in 381), and the most likely person, aside from Jesus, he would apply the concept of personhood to would be himself. So the answer is Jesus or Basile the Great, depending on your criteria. VRtrooper (talk) 16:49, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Where are you getting that from? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:14, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
 * See Person, Prosopon, Hypostasis, and Basil of Caesarea. Apart from St Basil having died in 379, VRtrooper is basically correct. Tevildo (talk)
 * The OP needs to clarify just what he's asking, or at least whether any of the responses answer the question. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:34, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Well, VRtrooper's answer pretty much nailed it. Ebaillargeon82 (talk) 08:30, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
 * So you're talking literally about the word "person". So be it. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:36, 22 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Presumably, the first human to called a 'person' was called that by someone who spoke early modern English. KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( もしもし！ ) 18:26, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Maya numerals
We've got a query at Commons:Commons:Help_desk that is totally outside of our purview (basically someone claiming to be expert, telling us we have some things seriously wrong). The contributor of the files in question is long gone. If someone here knows the subject and can weigh in, it would be greatly appreciated. - Jmabel &#124; Talk 17:05, 20 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Don't know the subject, but the poster looks to be correct according to Maya numerals. Have a reference for the names:

Ifrah, G., & Bellos, D. (2000). The universal history of numbers: From prehistory to the invention of the computer. New York: Wiley. pp. 303-4.
 * 1 hun
 * 2 ca
 * 3 ox
 * 4 can
 * 5 ho
 * 6 uac
 * 7 uuc
 * 8 uaxac
 * 9 bolon
 * 10 lahun
 * 11 buluc
 * 12 lahca
 * 13 ox-lahun
 * 14 can-lahun
 * 20 kun kal (hun uinic, "one man", in some dialects)
 * 21 hun tu-kal one (after) twentieth
 * 22 ca tu-kal two (after) twentieth
 * 30 lahun ca kal ten-two-twenty
 * 31 buluc tu-kal eleven (after) twentieth
 * 40 ca kal
 * 60 ax kal
 * 80 can kal
 * 100 ho kal
 * 400 hun bak
 * 8,000 hun pic
 * 160,000 hun calab
 * 400 hun bak
 * 8,000 hun pic
 * 160,000 hun calab
 * According to the text tho, the third place multiplier was not 400 as in our article, but instead 360."The “third floor” should have been used for values twenty times as great as the “second floor” in a regular vigesimal system. Just as in our decimal system the third rank (from the right) is reserved for the hundreds (10 × 10 = 100), so in Maya numbering the third level should have counted the “four hundreds” (20 × 20 = 400). However, in a curious irregularity that we will explain below, the third floor of Mayan astronomical numerals actually represented multiples of 360, not 400. Ibid., p. 309."&mdash;eric 18:40, 20 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Hee hee! I saw the top of the list and thought, "I wonder whether I can check that in Ifrah (which I recently unboxed) or in Zahlwort und Ziffer." —Tamfang (talk) 06:20, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

Reverse-psychology
As a PM (or whatever), should you be seeking for public votes for certain decision(s) that you yourself was given the entitlement for? If yes/capable of doing so/out of generosity, than for this particular topic i.e. known as EU Referendum, should[n't] you be asking people first before you entered into an agreement with the third party(s)?

How does this new style of voting system (i.e. good) works?

P.S. - Am I thinking it the wrong way? I did not mind when public votes were taking place for Donald Trump; it was a sensible think to do as a leader... But this EU Referendum voting style. Also the party that are campaigning for UK to vote "no"

Apostle (talk) 20:26, 20 February 2016 (UTC)


 * What anyone "should" do is not anything this Reference Desk can help you with. Our role is limited to tracking down published sources of information.
 * Maybe some political forum elsewhere on the internet would be the place to ask these sorts of questions. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:46, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Or a political subforum. InedibleHulk (talk) 02:27, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Sorry. Its just that I voted for him; the first person I ever voted -- Apostle (talk) 20:44, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
 * You voted for who? I don't live in America but I think that the United States presidential election of 2016 is scheduled for November 8, 2016. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 11:30, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The only name mentioned is Donald Trump. People have been voting for him in caucuses and stuff.  (Apparently, people have a democratic right to vote for ... someone like that.)  --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:09, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * You guys give me jokes...
 * I was talking about David Cameron, that I voted for him... And the voting for Donald Trump that took place so that he doesn't enter UK...
 * Jaaaaack Tongue.png
 * Apostle (talk) 23:01, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Apostle (talk) 23:01, 25 February 2016 (UTC)