Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 September 16

= September 16 =

Thank you signs for firefighters
I've recently been cataloguing images on wildfires. One category that's stayed with me is thank you signs and displays thanking firefighters in the United States for their work. I've found they've stuck with me deeply, a kind of folk art about overcoming adversity. (The ones in California and other states where wildfires are particularly common are, understandably, often particularly complex and striking.) I've also seen them after hurricanes and COVID, but not as often.

There's a lot of images of these signs already on Wikimedia Commons; firefighter and National Guard photographers seem to try to take pictures of them when they can, and I've built a category on Wikimedia Commons, which now has over 60 photos in it. Are there sources on this phenomenon for a Wikipedia article? I've found it hard to Google but if it's possible to build an article on them I'd love to do it. Blythwood (talk) 01:52, 16 September 2022 (UTC)


 * "I've found it hard to Google" = almost certainly unnotable. Signs in support of this, that and the other thing are pretty common. What makes firefighters unique in that regard, and more importantly, what's there to say about the topic in a standalone article? Clarityfiend (talk) 02:06, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Maybe the fact that they can be killed by their occupation. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 03:59, 16 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Maybe an article with wider scope? No idea what you’d call it, but the touching phenomenon goes behind signs, there’s a Thank a first responder day and a Firefighter appreciation month. Some recent news coverage:, , . 70.67.193.176 (talk) 17:56, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Whatever the wider scope, you'll still need sources that cover the topic itself in depth. Coverage of instances is not sufficient. (One can find news articles about cases of marriage proposals being interrupted, but that is no basis for an article Interrupted marriage proposal .) --Lambiam 20:22, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

Vajont dam
Alberico Biadene, the Italian engineer and one of the Vajont disaster's major responsables, born in 1900, died in 1985. Can you help me to find the day, month, and cause of death? Thank you very much. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.207.148.25 (talk) 13:16, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

How do I get sources for making map videos?
Hello, if anybody knows Emperortigerstar, I want to make videos like he does, but I don’t know what sources to get from, of course, Wikipedia is the first thing I go to for sources, but I kinda need more than that, I have checked some of the citations on the wiki but most are books I need to buy or are way back machine links which half of the time don’t work. (By the way, I want to make a map video about the [|Ottoman conquest of Cyprus]) Thank you to anyone who responds. Oh and if you have any sources for the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus please link them, that would be great! Thank you again. Natieboi (talk) 14:25, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Are you just looking for maps themselves, or are you looking for sources to make new maps? -- Jayron 32 14:33, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

government directions.
could government policies/guidelines/contracts/rules be considered statutory merely because it's issued by a public body? who's responsible to enforce something like so that isn't backed with the force of law? Grotesquetruth (talk) 19:59, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
 * No, the administrative actions of government are not statutory unless produce statutes. You seem to be chronically confused about the different between the executive, administrative, legislative, and judicial elements of government. As a former UK civil servant, my understanding of the situation is:
 * Executive - this is the taking of substantive policy decisions which will inform actions taken in other spheres. The right to do so resides with various government ministers, and there are laws which set this out, but the making of policy is not, itself, a function of the legal system any more than a liquor license makes selling beer part of the legal system. This power is frequently partly devolved to junior ministers and senior civil servants.
 * Administrative - these functions of government are also enumerated by law, but again, they are not themselves functions of the legal system (except when the administration in question is the administration of justice, for example). Administration is mainly conducted directly or indirectly by civil servants, in pursuit of both the laws and the policies set out by the other parts of government. It can also involve the enforcement of civil law, and some civil servants - such as planning inspectors in England and Wales, for example - may have specific powers equivalent to those of the judiciary in order to carry out those roles. However, exercising those powers is not the main work of these individuals, but rather one of several tools at their disposal.
 * Legislative - while the government proper leads on legislation, it generally requires the involvement of the whole legislature, and many legislatures may have mechanisms (such as Private Members' Bills) for legislation to be initiated separately from the government itself. This bit is the making of statute law. The primary legislation thereby enacted may enable the creation of secondary legislation - statutory instruments, rules and regulations - in which the administrative arm will be significantly involved. But the majority of administrative activity resulting from legislation is not, itself, law-making.
 * Judicial - this is the interpretation of the law, primarily by judges but also by civil servants with limited judicial powers, as discussed above. The precedents thereby established (in a common law jurisdiction) will also become part of 'the law' in the broad sense, although if detailed legal responses from government are called for, the judge may direct the legislature to put forward a new bill addressing the issue.
 * The law is not magic, and while in principle the law covers all aspects of life, in practice most activities, including activities of government, are not themselves part of the legal system. GenevieveDEon (talk) 20:35, 16 September 2022 (UTC)


 * A statutory rule is a rule that is laid down in a statute. A set of rules is only called a "statute" if it has been issued by a legislative body. Government agencies are not legislative bodies, so the rules they issue are not statutory. --Lambiam 20:47, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
 * However, in Northern Ireland the term "statutory rules" is used for delegated legislation – rules that are not enacted by a legislative body, but that nevertheless have the force of law because the authority to impose such rules has been delegated (by statutory law) to some other body. --Lambiam 17:41, 18 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Maybe a carryover from the fact that in Ireland, as in Britain, this form of legislation used to be known as Statutory rules and orders (S.R.O.)? 2A00:23C3:9900:9401:8073:C144:2B11:6CDD (talk) 13:40, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
 * The ultimate answer is that every jurisdiction uses its own vocabulary in its own peculiar way; and we can't answer universally what makes some laws a "statute" or a "regulation" or an "ordinance" or whatever. Depending on jurisdiction, there may be different uses of all of these similar words.  -- Jayron 32 18:05, 19 September 2022 (UTC)