Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 June 16

= June 16 =

Arthur Burns, politics, Jimmy Carter
According to the article on wikipedia, while Burns was at the Federal Reserve, he may well have manipulated the United States economy into short-term gains to help Richard Nixon, a Republican, get reelected. Is there any evidence, or even speculation, anywhere that Burns might have done the opposite while Carter, a Democrat, was president, to keep Carter from being reelected?144.35.45.98 (talk) 01:25, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * It would have been difficult, given that Burns left the Fed a little more than a year into Carter's term. --jpgordon&#x1d122;&#x1d106; &#x1D110;&#x1d107; 22:03, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

Mr Carter took office in January 1977, when the Fed Fund (policy) interest rate was 4.6%. It rose steadily throughout the next three years, to 13-14% in January 1980. If one were to assume that higher interest rates – as opposed to higher inflation – would help defeat Mr Carter in the 1980 election, one might expect rates to increase more rapidly than the steady pace of 1977-80. What actually happened is that rates were cut from a peak of 17.6% in April 1980 to a low of 9% in July, then began to rise again, reaching almost 16% in November (the election).

A second possible indicator would be if rates were suddenly cut after the election. What happened was that rates rose to a new peak of 19% in January 1981, fell to 14.7% by March, rose to 18-19% in May-August and then began a long fall. That suggests that no one manipulated interest rates to support Mr Reagan’s candidacy. See: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FEDFUNDSDOR (HK) (talk) 17:10, 19 June 2016 (UTC)
 * thanks good answer!75.162.189.121 (talk) 03:31, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

coursera thing
Heard that coursera is removing their online courses, I read it here, only if they could add their courses in wikiversity. That'd be great. Is that possible to work on? Just asking. :) :)

Cheers from Nepal. :) :) Learnerktm  11:15, 16 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Hi Learnerktm, that's something you would need to discuss with Wikiversity, which is a separate project from us here at the English Wikipedia (although hosted by the same Wikimedia foundation). Try asking at https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Colloquium.  Rojomoke (talk) 13:25, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Read the Wikipedia article about Coursera which is a for-profit company in California that offers online courses. The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization. Coursera's website https://www.coursera.org/ provides a contact page. That would be a place for your proposal which you might address to Coursera's CEO Rick Levin. AllBestFaith (talk) 14:09, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * AllBestFaith courses run free, we need to pay for certificates... wow! talking with CEO. Who'd listen if s/he is CEO? That's why asking here to fellow wikipedians. Actually, wanted to know if that works ... running courses like moocs in wikiversity... :) Thanks anyway. :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Learnerktm (talk • contribs) 14:59, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Right, I think what ABF was trying to say is that it would require permission from *both* Coursera and Wikiversity. I imagine that both places might be very interested in reaching Nepal, but I don't know if Coursera would allow their copyrighted materials to be moved over to creative commons license of wikiversity. As it stands now, you can reach Coursera content, right? So I don't know why they'd want to "give up" their material, so that it can then be changed. This is why ABF brings up "for profit" - coursera's goal is to make money by helping people, wikimedia foundation's goal is just to help people, and asking for money to keep that happening. There's an important difference, which is why you don't see a lot of previously copyrighted material released into the public domain. (Mozilla being an interesting and notable exception). SemanticMantis (talk) 16:16, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

What does it mean Rabbaniyeen (muslim term?)
What does it mean Rabbaniyeen in this video on YouTube? 93.126.88.30 (talk) 15:22, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Sp. Rabbaniyyah = 'Godliness'; on of those immaginary concepts religious types create, to distract attention from what's really going on. (Note: WP:NRS) Muffled Pocketed  15:41, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, RABBANI means divine in Arabian. Rabbani is also a significant given name to muslims, examples: Mohammed Ahmad Ghulam Rabbani Burhanuddin Rabbani (1940–2011) was former President of Pakistan; Burhanuddin Rabbani (1940 – 2011) was President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan from 1992; Khondkar Siddique-e-Rabbani b. 1950 is a Bangladeshi Biomedical physicist and notable for developing the Focused Impedance Measurement method; Abdul Al-Rahim Ghulam Rabbani is a citizen of Pakistan currently held in the United States Guantanamo; Mullah Mohammad Rabbani Akhund (1955 – 15 April 2001) was one of the founders of the Taliban movement; Ali Sina Rabbani is an Iranian footballer. AllBestFaith (talk) 17:37, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

Highest price paid for:
1) Food or Meal or Dining plate meal or whatever that falls into this category

2) Accommodation or Rent or Shelter or whatever that falls into this category

3) Clothes or Accessories or whatever that falls into this category

4) Earnings or Possession of wealth or whatever that falls into this category

Apostle (talk) 19:31, 16 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I fear that your categories are far to vague. Does the ISS count as Shelter? Are the crown jewels Accessories? Does Sir Philip Green's £100 million yacht count as Accommodation? Does it have to be a meal for one person, or does the massive stock of food sent to alleviate a famine count? Wymspen (talk) 19:41, 16 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Maybe if OP would tell us why he needs these questions answered, it would give us a hint as to the type of information he was looking for. Dismas |(talk) 20:23, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm assuming OP is just curious, and would like to know any answers that could reasonably be defended. SO ISS and Crown Jewels are interesting candidates for most expensive shelter/accessories, but that doesn't mean other responses won't also be interesting :) SemanticMantis (talk) 20:37, 16 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Bill Gates has the highest net worth in the world, see list here . SemanticMantis (talk) 20:37, 16 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Saffron isn't usually eaten as a meal, but by weight it is more valuable than gold . SemanticMantis (talk) 20:37, 16 June 2016 (UTC)


 * This guy has a shirt made of solid gold, cost US$235,000. SemanticMantis (talk) 20:53, 16 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure I believe them but The Guardian says you can rent Liechtenstein for $70,000 per night . SemanticMantis (talk) 21:41, 16 June 2016 (UTC)


 * That sounds very low. includes a hotel room allegedly 60,000 Swiss Francs a night and  includes one US$86,094 including taxes (which they say is nearly 100k). Another list  although probably there's a lot of overlap. That earlier list mentions The 13 and  provides details on an alleged price of £70,000 although it sounds like this is fairly speculative. Anyway  is another. Some of these may have other suites of similar price and Liechtenstein isn't that small so it's probably not that hard to spend $70k on accomodation in these hotels even if their most expensive suite is less than that. Chartering a yatch is another option and may be up to $1 million a week . Nil Einne (talk) 15:47, 17 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Cleopatra allegedly had the most expensive meal of all time (to win a bet with Mark Antony): an extremely valuable pearl, which she dissolved in vinegar and drank. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:30, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * There's a fine article on Wikipedia about a painting that depicts this, written by some very clever fellow. I helped out, too.--Shirt58 (talk) 01:13, 19 June 2016 (UTC)


 * There were some $600,000 tyres sold recently. For that price I would want 4! http://mashable.com/2016/06/16/worlds-most-expensive-tyres/#PrOUfAGwrqqW --TrogWoolley (talk) 09:29, 17 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I am pretty sure the highest price paid for possession of wealth is human life, but that is probably not the answer you were looking for. &#40;&#40;&#40;The Quixotic Potato&#41;&#41;&#41; (talk) 10:22, 17 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Good to know. -- Apostle (talk) 19:12, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

Take a look at VeryFirstTo, which has a number of these kind of claims on their site. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 11:04, 17 June 2016 (UTC)

Thank you all so far. Regards. -- Apostle (talk) 05:04, 18 June 2016 (UTC)