Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 November 5

= November 5 =

UCV buildings
In the northern United States, Grand Army of the Republic halls and other GAR-related buildings are everywhere (see Grand Army of the Republic Hall for a few that have been named historic sites), and they can even be found in some southern towns that attracted sufficient numbers of GAR members moving south. But what about the United Confederate Veterans? Did they construct lodge halls, memorial buildings, or other community buildings? Confederate statues and other war memorials are plentiful in the South, especially on courthouse lawns, but I don't remember finding or reading about buildings constructed for UCV local chapters. Google finds 123,000 results for "GAR Hall", while "UCV Hall" finds just 35 results (it says 380, but it ends at page 4) — and a lot of those are OCR errors or other false positives. Nyttend (talk) 00:41, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * I've found Confederate Memorial Hall, Vanderbilt University in List of monuments and memorials of the Confederate States of America. Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  01:10, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * But how is that related to the UCV? What I mean by "memorial buildings", by the way, is stuff like Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall (Ironton, Ohio), places that the GAR built as memorials and as their own meeting places, in contrast to places that they funded for other people's use or places that they funded purely for their own use.  Nyttend (talk) 01:20, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * It isn't neccisarily, its merely the closest thing to it, I have yet to find anything matching your description. Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  01:28, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * A number of confederate-related sites have been renamed in recent decades (example) as the Confederacy has become less glorified. 50.0.136.56 (talk) 03:24, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Cannibalism or Starve
Looking for any confirmed historical accounts or examples of people choosing to starve rather than resort to cannibalism given the option. Thanks 2601:602:9602:70C0:C3A:5118:4B2:5A44 (talk) 06:06, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * I think you'll find that isn't particularly well documented due to a lack of witnesses, however if you search for parents refusing to eat children you may find more luck. Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  06:30, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * All sieges and all famines. Sleigh (talk) 08:08, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * David Pisurayak Kootook and the reference. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 14:13, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Nice, just what I was looking for. Appreciated! 2601:602:9602:70C0:195D:64AA:F71F:241F (talk) 15:42, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Straightened and Sharpened Bicycle Spokes as Weapons
Looking for references to this. First came across it in the context of apartheid era South Africa as a tool for sneaky assassinations but having trouble finding confirmation. Jab the point into the back of someone's neck. Thanks! 2601:602:9602:70C0:F576:4B59:2DA9:4CF2 (talk) 16:30, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Friedrich Glauser,, --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:40, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Major nuclear accident during the fall of 1958?
I'm looking through the old archives of Svenska Dagbladet, and I come across this headline from their March 19, 1959 issue: "Reactor accident in the Ural mountains with hundreds of casualties". At first I thought it was referring to the Kyshtym disaster, but it goes on to say "an accident at a Russian atomic reactor in the fall of 1958 caused 192 casualties - 172 people were badly burned, and 20 went completely blind" and that "an area the size of 8 000 square kilometers was contaminated with radiation". Svenska Dagbladet attributes the story to the Viennese newspaper Die Presse. I can't find this specific incident in any of the articles listed on "Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents". Any idea which accident the newspaper could be referring to? Gabbe (talk) 21:31, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * I suspect it would be that accident. It wasn't publicised by the USSR until 1958 and although fallout measurements by the West (who were monitoring mostly to try and study effluent from the working plant, thus to work out what they were doing) revealed it much earlier than this, Western military secrecy in turn kept it from Western civilians, for some time, and with much detail. Andy Dingley (talk) 22:02, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Ah, I see that this source confirms it's Kushtym. Thanks! Gabbe (talk) 22:16, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Royal Marines Crest
How come the Royal Marines crest isn't centered around UK? It appears to be centered around somewhere in Pakistan/India and UK is barely visible on there. Is it remembrance for some significant event that happened there?

What projection is the map using? A lot of the countries are misshaped. Pizza Margherita (talk) 22:21, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * This page explains the meaning of all of the elements of the crest. It does not attach any special significance to the orientation of the globe.  -- Jayron 32 00:31, 6 November 2016 (UTC)
 * What it looks is like a view of the world that includes as much inhabited land as possible while keeping north or less at the top and not pushing the UK all the way to one edge. This is an outright guess, though. For related concepts see land and water hemispheres and geographical centre of Earth.  --76.71.5.45 (talk) 04:41, 6 November 2016 (UTC)


 * According to our article, "The "Great Globe itself" was chosen in 1827 by King George IV in place of Battle honours to recognise the Marines' service and successes in multiple engagements in every quarter of the world." Note that in 1827, Britain had just captured Singapore, Malacca, and Burma and the British Empire looked something like this. Given that the Royal Marines main purpose was to fight overseas, it makes sense that the globe would focus on the sites of great Marine victories. Smurrayinchester 09:26, 7 November 2016 (UTC)
 * (The map projection looks like a bit like a stereographic projection to me, but I don't think it's a mathematically accurate one. Rather, I think it's just an artists impression of a globe - don't forget, the crest is usually rendered in 3D, and extremely crudely.) Smurrayinchester 09:31, 7 November 2016 (UTC)
 * See also The empire on which the sun never sets. Alansplodge (talk) 11:26, 7 November 2016 (UTC)