Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 December 20

= December 20 =

regional demographics
Greetings. I am searching for data on the number of ethnic groups in multiple regions, for example: How many ethnicities are represented / can be found in: Los Angeles, Miami, NY, London, etc. I have looked on the US census but have not found thorough / complete lists. Thank-you, Mike —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.181.158.143 (talk) 03:58, 20 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm afraid the answer to your question is basically going to be "all of them." No, there probably aren't any Hi-Merima people wandering around New York, but it's almost certain that every European group is represented, along with most Native American tribes and at least one (usually more) ethnic group from every country in the world. That's quite a list, and it's impossible to compile in full because so many people are of mixed ancestry and don't know their family history (and that's assuming that you could, somehow, survey every person in New York). Cities like New York, London, and Los Angeles are not only huge, they're also immigration hubs and population magnets, so they'll inevitably have a diverse populace. You might find it easier—and more interesting—to look up information on randomly selected small cities, since they sometimes have unexpected concentrations of specific ethnic groups, and it's quite interesting to look at immigration patterns on a small scale. --Fullobeans (talk) 06:01, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

So my mother is terminally ill
My mother is possibly terminally ill with cancer. She might die within a few years. If so, that'll make my father a widower. This is quite uncommon, isn't it? I mean, it's more common for the man to die first, but out of my parents, it's almost certain my mother'll die first, yet they're still married and they're about the same age as each other. Is this the case? Please, tell me.-Nubile Servant (talk) 04:33, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
 * See List of countries by life expectancy and find where you live. In the more affluent parts of the world, the women outlive the men on average.  In poorer countries, the gap is smaller, and in some cases, the men actually outlive the women.  This is usally due to the inherent difficulties in child birth; in countries with poor medical care MANY more women die in child birth than in countries with good medical care.  Incidentally, there was a time in the not-too-distant past when worldwide men, on average, were expected to outlive women.  For example, in research I dug up while working on the article Plymouth Colony, historian John Demos quotes statistics showing that men usually outlived women in 17th century New England.  Men there lived, on average 7 years longer than women (in modern USA, that number is about flipped, with the women outliving the men by 7 years) and women only had a 70% chance of seeing their 50th birthday.  Men had an 85% chance of reaching the same age. --Jayron32. talk . contribs  05:06, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
 * (edit conflict, because I always get distracted before clicking "Save page") Apparently the life expectancy in Scotland is 75 for men, 80 for women. That's not too much of a difference, especially compared to extreme cases like Russia, which has a life expectancy of 59 for men and 73 for women. Worldwide, the five-year disparity seems to be fairly average (see: List of countries by life expectancy), and suggests that women have a slight tendency to outlive men, but not by much. Some families have a history of gender-specific disease, though, which will cause the life expectancy of someone in that lineage to differ from the national average. There are also local cultural factors which can come into play ("All the women in my neighborhood hang out smoking menthols at the bingo hall", "All the men in my town work in coal mines, shoot meth, and play Russian roulette on Tuesdays after work"). But here's some original research: the US has the same male/female life expectancy as Scotland, and I know quite a few men who've outlived their wives (though not in my family), and quite a few women who've outlived their husbands. I also know quite a few women who've beaten cancer, so here's hoping we can add your mom to the list. I'm sorry she's sick—that's never easy—and I wish you both luck. --Fullobeans (talk) 05:30, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
 * One thing to remember when talking life expectancies is that there also tends to be an age gap between couples. On average, the male tends to be older then the female. For examples the Age at first marriage shows a nearly 2 year gap in the US and slightly over 2 years in the UK. Obviously we're talking about averages here. If a 50 year old woman marries a 30 year old man, it's hardly surprising if the woman dies first. Nil Einne (talk) 12:18, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

As a quick way of getting some statistics, I just downloaded the raw data file for the biographies section of the Internet Movie Database. It lists marriage data for many of the people in the database. Of these marriages, 12,177 are listed as being ended by "his death" and 4,630 by "her death".

However, this may be unrepresentative of the statistics for people in general for several reasons. First, marriages in show business may really be different. Second, I expect the database contains more men than women, and the reason for termination of a marriage is more likely to be known if it is the death of the person who the database entry belongs to. Another source of error is that if both spouses happen to be in the database, their marriage will be counted twice unless one of the entries happens to be incomplete.

Incidentally, the number of marriages shown as terminated by divorce is 22,274. --Anonymous, 07:09 UTC, December 20/08.

St.Paul
After the baptism of St.Paul given by anania ,which city did st. paul go first?THANK YOU —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.252.237 (talk) 12:28, 20 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Paul says only that he went to "Arabia" for three years. Presumably he means Arabia Petraea (as opposed to Arabia Deserta or Arabia Felix, so I'd assume he went to Petra. Adam Bishop (talk) 12:41, 20 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Actually, in Acts 9:19-30 it describes Paul's first days after baptism. It states that he spent some time in Damascus (which is where Ananais lived and baptized him) preaching in the synagogues.  The Jews in Damsacus ran him out of town, whereupon he went to Jerusalem; however the Christians there feared him(since like, a week before, he had been having them tortured and executed!), and threatened to run him out of town.  Barnabas stood up for him, and sponsored him.  From there he went to Caesarea and then on to Tarsus.  There have been a LOT of questions lately about Paul, most of this stuff can be looked up in the Bible.  I tend to use this one online: Biblegateway.  Its fully searchable, and you could just, you know, read Acts (which is about 2/3 about Paul anyways) or any other book you wish... --Jayron32. talk . contribs  01:44, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Ah, I was reading the Wiki article which points to Galatians. Adam Bishop (talk) 07:41, 21 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It has long been noted that Acts of the Apostles' statements about Paul often contradict his own in the epistles. Luke may be the better - and more dramatic - writer, but Paul is the more reliable. For instance, Luke tells the Road to Damascus story three times in Acts, but with contradictions between versions. Paul never mentions such an event. B00P (talk) 09:32, 21 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Ah yes, Galatians. Well in there, it does say he went to Arabia first.  Well, regardless, the answers are quite findable in the Bible.  You could just look it up... --Jayron32. talk . contribs  03:16, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Minefield → Shiretoko
 flaminglawyerc 22:44, 20 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It's nice to put a link when we do that. --Milkbreath (talk) 16:07, 21 December 2008 (UTC)