Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 November 23

= November 23 =

World map without country labels
Can I get a copy of this map without the country labels? I've found numerous world maps on the internet without country labels, but I want this exact map. Thanks, --Viennese Waltz 06:52, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Is File:1-12 Color Map World.png the "exact map" or, if not would it do? It's the same projection anyway. Thincat (talk) 07:35, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Excellent, thanks. --Viennese Waltz 07:46, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Tax rates in Western Europe
I am trying to corroborate, or negate, a statement made by someone that we pay much more in tax as percentage than before, and would therefore like to look at the evolution of tax rates in Western Europe (eg. Italy, France, (West) Germany, UK, Spain, Portugal, Holland) since the 1960/70s up to present day, such as VAT, property tax, inheritance tax, wealth tax and company tax, and also contributions to government health care and new taxes introduced by respective governments. Are there any webpages on which I can find this information? - if possible, in graph form, to see the evolution. Also, can anyone here comment whether this is the case in general terms in Europe and also USA/Canada as a comparison? Thank you. ZygonLieutenant (talk) 12:21, 23 November 2016 (UTC)


 * You are looking for what is known as the "tax burden" - which can be measured against GDP List of countries by tax revenue as percentage of GDP or against income - http://taxfoundation.org/article/comparison-tax-burden-labor-oecd-0 There is a table in this document http://www.nber.org/chapters/c5981.pdf (page 350) showing how tax as a percentage of GNP has increased - but it isn't up to date and only gives US figures. Wymspen (talk) 12:51, 23 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Some UK specific information at Institute for Fiscal Studies - Long-term trends in British Taxation and Spending and Office for National Statistics - Fifty years of the effects of taxes and benefits on household income. Alansplodge (talk) 17:44, 23 November 2016 (UTC)  Alansplodge (talk) 17:44, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * And some recent taxation history at European Commission TAXATION AND CUSTOMS UNION - Taxation trends in the European Union. Alansplodge (talk) 17:48, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * And some useful information at Tax Freedom Day. 86.134.217.94 (talk) 18:53, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Payment platform vs. payment gateway
In what way do the concepts Payment gateway and Payment platform correlate to each other? We have no article on the latter, but examples like Leaf (payment platform) and Alipay (payment platform). --KnightMove (talk) 14:36, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * There is no "official" definition, so the terms will be used carelessly and inconsistently, whichever way an author feels like on the day.
 * If there is any difference at root, it's that a "platform" processes payments by providing module(s) of code which are then tightly coupled to the application software through an API, executing within the same server group. It runs on the application's hardware.
 * A "gateway", in contrast, is more loosely coupled. It runs on the gateway provider's servers and is connected to by a wire protocol, transmission over the 'net, rather than program API calls. It will be physically distant, in a different data centre.
 * A platform often requires careful attention to data security for the application, as it's handling and maybe storing sensitive customer financial data. This is difficult for a small website to implement competently, in a provable manner. For a gateway though, all the sensitive data can be kept at the gateway, under the control of financial specialists.
 * A gateway may also (most easily) be visible to the user (the web customer sees a popup or framed page recognisable as the gateway), whilst use of a platform remains largely hidden. This is often an advantage, in terms of customer perception: customers trust a small "Bob's Widgets" store more if they see that the payment gateway is coming from a trusted household name such as Paypal or SagePay.
 * Of course there's huge overlap and counter-examples. A platform may also use a gateway at the back end. A gateway may be built upon a platform. Andy Dingley (talk) 15:27, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

"Fusionism" in France, 1871?
I was reading a book called The Paris Commune of 1871 by Frank Jellinek, and I came across this passage:

'Everyone knew Babick-or Babicki, for he was of Polish extraction- the "perfumer of the rue de Nemours," an eccentric but harmless " character," devotee of a strange religion called " Fusionism," a mixture of the elements of many odd cults'

When I try to look up Fusionism, I get an article for the American political term, and I don't see an article about Babick. Does anyone know what they might be referring to?

Reccanti (talk) 17:39, 23 November 2016 (UTC)


 * French Legitimists and the Politics of Moral Order in the Early Third Republic'' by Robert R. Locke (from page 32) describes a party of about 50 "monarchists without party attachments" who, unlike the extreme Right and the Right-Centre, favoured "a fusion among all monarchists in the Assembly" and "became the real driving force at Versailles behind the effort to restore the monarchy". They don't get a mention at French Third Republic, but seem to have facilitated the (ultimately unsuccessful) compromise between the Legitimists and the Orléanists. Alansplodge (talk) 18:13, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Here's something on the religious doctrine ("doctrine fusionienne" or "religion fusionienne" in French) . Its founder is Louis Jean-Baptiste de Tourreil (1799-1863), but there doesn't seem to be much information available about him either. --Xuxl (talk) 18:49, 23 November 2016 (UTC)