Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 August 1

= August 1 =

Movement of money
The recent thread on "Different pounds from different parts of the British Isles" [I don't seem to be able to link to reference desk threads?] got me wondering if there has been research on the geographic movement of coins and bills. I tried to Google this but only came across money laundering stuff. If an ATM on Oxford Street spits out 100,000 quid on a Monday, do we have any notion of where it will have been distributed a month later? I wonder how much will be still in London, how much will be in Glasgow, and how much will be in Toronto? Hayttom (talk) 00:17, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * See Where's George? for a project in the US on the movement of individual bills. —/M endaliv /2¢/Δ's/ 00:40, 1 August 2019 (UTC)


 * There's a "Canadian Money Tracker", lets you find where certain bills show up, but it's dependent on user reports, so not comprehensive or reliable, more just neat. Also Where's Willy?, apparently. Thanks, Mendaliv. InedibleHulk (talk) 01:06, 1 August 2019 (UTC)


 * In "see also" section of Where's George? there is a link to Currency_bill_tracking, itself linking to DoshTracker for GBP. Not the most popular, though. Gem fr (talk) 12:00, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Great-grandparents
Has anyone ever known (or at least lived alongside) all 8 of their great-grandparents? 2001:8003:5C3E:7E00:C59C:2C6A:4438:FD95 (talk) 08:48, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Probably Yes because many generations of isolated Indigenous peoples such as the Sentinelese have lived in close proximity throughout their lifetimes, with high probability of remembering their ancestors, living and dead. DroneB (talk) 10:34, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Here's one example: Mathew5000 (talk) 12:38, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

I'd be curious to know what's the world-average number of living grandparents, and g-grandparents, at birth. For me, it's 4 and 0. 67.175.224.138 (talk) 07:23, 8 August 2019 (UTC).

The White Man's Burden
Colleagues such a question, "The White Man's Burden" is a pure notion of Kipling, or was it a official slogan of the British colonialists? --Vyacheslav84 (talk) 12:36, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * The poem was originally written in 1897, about paternalistic imperialistism ideology in general; Kipling reworked it in 1899 to reflect America's new "burden" after acquiring the Philippines following their 1898 victory in the Spanish–American War. AFAIK, the term originated with Kipling. 2606:A000:1126:28D:C961:9E02:5182:5AE4 (talk) 14:42, 1 August 2019 (UTC)


 * check Jules_Ferry
 * "it is a right for the superior races, because they have a duty. They have the duty to civilize the inferior races."
 * Gem fr (talk) 15:02, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * As a phrase, it predated Kipling by a few decades, the first known use, according to Merriam-Webster is 1865. This source notes that the phrase was already in use before Kipling wrote his poem, though the poem gave it much greater exposure.  As a concept (rather than a specific phrase), it is much older, often called Paternalism, though that concept is a bit larger, and covers issues beyond "racial paternalism", which is Kipling's meaning.  You can find clear evidence of similar attitudes as Kipling's in writings of people such as Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda over 300 years earlier.  -- Jayron 32 15:13, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Also interesting that ngram results show the spike in print appearances beginning in 1895-6 rather than in 1897, suggesting that perhaps Kipling had seen the phrase before he used it, or was tapping into a Zeitgeist. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 15:45, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * 1882: first appearance of phrase in google corpus
 * 1893: 0.0000000303%
 * 1894: 0.0000000303%
 * 1895: 0.0000000980%
 * 1896: 0.0000010809%
 * 1897: 0.0000016296%
 * 1898: 0.0000018399%
 * 1899: 0.0000024012%
 * 1900: 0.0000026124%


 * If you turn off smoothing there's none whatsoever in 1897, a little in 1898 and a huge spike by 1899. Though the hugest spike of all was 1944 when the kilos of books per "white man's burden" ratio reached 10. You have to tick case insensitive to get that though, most of the usages were uncapitalized. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:34, 1 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Regardless of first usage, I don’t think the phrase was ever adopted as an “official” slogan. Blueboar (talk) 20:05, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Idiomatic translation
Hi Folks, Can somebody give me an idiomatic translation of this sentence please. It is in German. It is a quote. Thanks

Ich denke, ich soll Sie vertreten, Herr Kollege, und nun erscheinen Sie selbst? Der Besucher, offensichtlich verblüfft, scheint nicht zu begreifen. Warum ist er so verlegen? Seine Haltung ist ohnehin merkwürdig unsicher, als krümme er sich, hätte Magenschmerzen.

 scope_creep Talk  15:43, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I suspect this is missing some punctuation - the first sentence looks like direct speech, the rest like a description of the reaction to that. "I was given to understand I should cover for you, and now you are here yourself?" The visitor, obviously stunned, does not seem to grasp the situation. Why is he so embarrassed? He seems insecure, bowed over, as if he had stomach ache.  This might be a bit too literal... --Stephan Schulz (talk) 16:07, 1 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Suits me. It is really hard to judge. Thanks Stephan. scope_creep Talk  16:55, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * You are welcome. One thing that makes the English version a bit artificial is the present tense - in German, this is not infrequently used in narrations. In English, I think, it is much rarer - narratives there are usually in past tense. Wether you want to do that transfer depends on context and on the purpose of the text. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 18:50, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Side note: I agree that it is somewhat uncommon, but the historical present (or "narrative present") is definitely a thing in English.  Used judiciously it can bring a sense of vividness to a narration.  Use it out of place and it sounds affected.
 * (The stories of Damon Runyon are written almost entirely in the historical present, including the direct quotes. I think Runyon never uses a past tense verb in all his living days.  When I first begin to read them, as a youth, this causes me no little consternation, but before long I find it natural and agreeable.) --Trovatore (talk) 17:57, 2 August 2019 (UTC)
 * "... a bit to literal"? --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:40, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Or is that being a bit to pedantic? ;-) Alansplodge (talk) 20:50, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * No't atalll. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  21:01, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * It's not my fault that your language uses the exactly same word with two different spellings. That would never happen in rational German *cough*das/dass*cough! Depressingly, I'm still making that error although I'm very much aware of it. And it's even in one of my papers that won a best-paper-award, and apparently slipped by the reviewers there. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 21:29, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * :) -- Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  23:06, 6 August 2019 (UTC)