Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 June 11

= June 11 =

last renaissance Painter
who was the last renaissance Painter?--87.27.156.88 (talk) 08:12, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Renaissance art says that the death of Raphael in 1520 "is considered by many art historians to be the end of the High Renaissance period, although some individual artists continued working in the High Renaissance style for many years thereafter." So he's one contender. The article goes on to say that Titian "continued painting in a generally High Renaissance style until near the end of his career in the 1570s." --Viennese Waltz 08:51, 11 June 2019 (UTC)

Environment
Give 3 reasons why "man modifies his environment". 2401:4900:314D:3C86:4C77:D3FF:B7A4:2EA1 (talk) 09:46, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Sorry but we won't do your homework for you. --Viennese Waltz 09:53, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * but, we will direct you to some helpful links: cause reason modification Environmentalism Antihumanism propaganda Gem fr (talk) 10:44, 11 June 2019 (UTC)


 * (1) Because he can; (2) because sometimes he has to; (3) because sometimes he just wants to. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:37, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * "always" rather than "sometimes" in (2): simply being in existence (you don't even need to live for that!) makes you change your environment. Whether you like, love, hate, want, etc. it or not. Gem fr (talk) 17:21, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * That would be true for any creature. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:45, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * and things you don't even call a creature (rock, atom, galaxy...). So what? I guess I should add a few more links: barometer question rhetorical question (this one because, normal use of questions in curriculum is to test/hone competence; this question doesn't; its only purpose is to hammer down "man modifies his environment" until the guilt-handle to control the future adult is firmly in place. Catholic church approves.). Gem fr (talk) 20:49, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * How many entities modify the environment on purpose? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:56, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * those word "on purpose" are not in the question. and my answer would be zero: changing the environment is a mean or a byproduct of me eating or building a house or even making a show-off of environment-changing ability. The purpose is always something else. Gem fr (talk) 21:32, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, with any luck, the OP is now sufficiently confused that he's regretting having asked. :) However, the OP asked "why", and the answer to that is certainly not "zero". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:26, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, there are beavers that do modify their environment, in massive ways even. Creating wetlands that in turn are used by many other animals as well. And that does happen on purpose and as a by-product of them building a 'house', storing food and so on. Fascinating really. So, there is one other 'landscaping' animal at least. 91.97.247.167 (talk) 04:27, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
 * If you believe the Azolla event hypothesis, a lowly fern had a huge impact on global climate... AnonMoos (talk)

South Africa quote
hello, I dimly recall in a book about South Africa some late-Apartheid politician or maybe military was quoted as saying something to the effect that they could "retake the whole country" the next morning but have no plan for the time after that ("but then what?") Does someone know who said it and what the exact wording was? also, if you used a search engine, could you say just what you googled/duckduckwent (give a man a fish etc...) Aecho6Ee (talk) 09:57, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * While I can't be certain, may I suggest that it may have been Jan Breytenbach. I make this suggestion based on his position within the military at the time and his notoriety.  I hope this helps.  Geneit U dag.  Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 08:30, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

Sammarinese dictator
Building off above — San Marino has two heads of state in a form descended from the Roman concept of two consuls. Is there any record of a Sammarinese version of a Roman dictator appointed in a crisis? I didn't see the string  at History of San Marino or any of the lists of captains regent. Our lists are quite spotty in the first hundred years (just 29 names are given, out of the total 200), but I suppose if there had been a crisis warranting the appointment of a dictator, his name may have been remembered better than those of "ordinary" captains regent from the same period. Google's rather useless; I'm getting tons of results for food dictators, Mussolini, and miscellaneous dictators in Second and Third World countries, but almost nothing that even talks about San Marino except in passing. Nyttend (talk) 22:31, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Roman dictatorship was an institution used when a war fared bad enough, and quite rare, even though Rome was in war most of the time. San Marino has been in peace/neutrality since, like, for ever. Gem fr (talk) 09:19, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, not quite. Obviously they wouldn't have needed a dictator that time, but maybe in the more remote past, especially as Roman dictators could be (and were) sometimes appointed for other purposes.  Nyttend (talk) 12:14, 12 June 2019 (UTC)


 * We have a List of Captains Regent of San Marino, 1700–1900 and the only time that the office was held by only one person was from the end of October 1739 to 5 February 1740: "Gaspare Fogli, gonfalonier (during Cardinal Giulio Alberoni's invasion)". Whether a gonfalonier had dictatorial powers or not, I cannot tell. If anybody can read Italian, Fogli gets a mention at Manifesto del signor cardinale Alberoni intorno al fatto di S. Marino (p. 65) Alansplodge (talk) 19:06, 12 June 2019 (UTC)