Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 July 17

= July 17 =

Can someone help with about something I want to mail to my friend who lives near Boston
Hi! I live in Canada and I know this will sound strange but I would like to send a painted egg shell as a craft project. (I know it's not Easter.) How can I send this to US without customs taking it out of the box? 207.81.164.119 (talk) 05:04, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * You can't. Look here: "Mail entering the United States from abroad first arrives at a United States Postal Service (USPS) Sorting Facility. The Postal Service then sends packages to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for examination and to assess duties and taxes, if any is owed. CBP processing is required for civilian parcels as well as those sent from overseas military postal facilities (APO/FPO)."  Without checking, I'm certain the same rules would apply to courier companies like FedEx. --69.159.11.113 (talk) 07:54, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Also, if you correctly declare the contents as an egg, it will almost certainly be examined, as there are restrictions on mailing birds' eggs.--Shantavira|feed me 08:53, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Do CBP really open and inspect the contents of every single package entering the US? Don't they have other methods, like X-ray? --Viennese Waltz 12:06, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * No, there's way too much mail for hand inspection of each article, given CBP's level of resources. Articles are selected randomly for hand inspection, and things deemed "suspicious" are flagged for inspection as well. The criteria are unsurprisingly not public, to avoid helping smugglers. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 21:52, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * If I put a note on the box on saying their is an egg in it, will that make a difference?

207.81.164.119 (talk) 15:34, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * You would be better describing it as as a decorated egg shell, and stating the species. You could also mention that it is not a food item, and state the source of the shell if it is a protected species.  The more open you are about the contents, the less likely it is that customs will open the box, but there is no guarantee.  You should also indicate that it is fragile.  Dbfirs  15:45, 17 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Rather than depending on strangers on the internet, you should go to your local post office and ask them for advice. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:23, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * If it's irreplaceable, the best thing really is to retain a courier or couriers that specialize in transporting precious items. They'll likely transport it themselves over the border. This might be expensive, but, well, you get what you pay for. If you have family or friends willing to do so, or can do it yourself, you could hand-carry it through the border and then hand it off to a transport service in the U.S. (But be prepared with any necessary customs paperwork, and expect delays.) Standard postal and courier services (USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc.) tell you extensively that there is no guarantee against breakage or loss of items in transit. You can purchase insurance to insure a shipped item for its monetary value, but of course if something is irreplaceable insurance can't un-destroy it. On the other hand, if you won't be that upset in the off-chance it's destroyed in transit, just pack it securely and ship it normally. It may be opened for inspection, but CBP doesn't go around destroying things just for the fun of it. (As others have noted, there are non-invasive ways, such as X-raying, of inspecting items.) Honestly I'd be more worried about having it wrecked in transit by employees throwing boxes around or whatever. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 21:52, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Punched card
Sorry guys if I go back, but someone please take away this doubt. If you look at the ballot and decide to vote for the candidates who have the respective forum, the classical votes are naturally expressed, but in the part of the ballot with the "useless" space that advances for the write-in candidates, what happens? Do voters tear off that part of the ballot, or do poll workers do it before the voters put the card in the ballot box? Or, again, the election workers do it later, I know, in the counting station? Thank you very much, to those who want to take away this curiosity! https://www.google.it/search?biw=1768&bih=887&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=3BgvXbzbIc_XwAL1662YAQ&q=ballot+punch+card+voting+machine&oq=ballot+punch+card+voting+machine&gs_l=img.3...18254.22018..22244...0.0..0.81.1693.25......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i19j0i8i30.k4YoNkAh190#imgrc=CteO-RrXuykk0M: — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.41.100.198 (talk) 13:03, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * AFAIK, nothing is torn off. The entire ballot is fed through the machine to be read.  Procedures for counting write-in candidates vary from state-to-state, but as a VERY general idea, usually individual write-in votes are only counted if it would matter; that is if the "write-in" option actually wins on an automated ballot (like a punch card ballot or a Optical mark recognition ballot with spaces for write-ins) then workers collect the paper ballots and manually count them.  If a pre-marked candidate wins outright, it isn't actually necessary to count the write-in candidates, you only need to go back and count the individual write-ins if that spot on the ballot beat out all other candidates.  Write-in candidates are not, AFAIK, statistically significant; they have in isolated cases actually won a few elections, but the number that have has been historically EXTREMELY small.  This article in WaPo goes into more details on a state-by-state basis.  -- Jayron 32 15:44, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Thank you very much, a very last question: the part of the ballot of the write-in candidates, then, is folded inside it to hide the tractional vows that is the perforated holes, can it be? I mean: can everything act as a "system" that protects the privacy of the classic vote? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.41.100.198 (talk) 16:42, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I don't think they would want you to fold the punch card. If you did, it might not read at all, and would likely be discarded. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:51, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I don't remember how it was done for punch cards ballots. I'm an election official, and I've counted optical scan ballots with write ins. This past session we even had a write-in candidate win a seat in the Vermont Senate. Privacy folders are available for voters to put their ballot in as they walk from the table where the ballot is filled out to the voting machine where the ballot is scanned and stored in a secure bin. The voters put their own ballots in the machine. Election officials watch from a discrete distance. Jc3s5h (talk) 22:08, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

Clearly Man Made
https://www.google.com/maps/@-30.0090582,21.1001285,580m/data=!3m1!1e3

https://www.google.com/maps/@-30.0294716,21.0902475,689m/data=!3m1!1e3

I have reviewed our article relating to The Lost City of the Kalahari as well as our article on Verneukpan and still feel rather underinformed in relation to the “former agricultural contouring” and ask if anyone is able to shed further light on this matter. Regarding, the first link provided especially, it would appear to me to have a very similar pattern to those seen here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nazca+Lines/@-14.739027,-75.130005,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipPZ7B3GYCvSSJGLETM6-2qTsHN6qTi-D4hdGDQm!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPZ7B3GYCvSSJGLETM6-2qTsHN6qTi-D4hdGDQm%3Dw203-h135-k-no!7i1271!8i847!4m5!3m4!1s0x91141e46ccb532ad:0x1802d2b96697b591!8m2!3d-14.7390267!4d-75.1300049

I also note that both are in regions with a similar climate and while the prior does not share the same obvious animal motifs, both are on flat desert floors with a nearby or perennial water source. I am not by any stretch a conspiracy theorist and merely suggest that if one is agricultural contouring and can be further explained it may go someway to explaining the other. Please be so kind as to provide me with any and all information you have in relation to the first two links which while labelled by Google maps as The lost city of the Kalahari, Google searches do not reveal any valid results other than those linked to our article by the same name. Thank you Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 14:09, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

P.S. Also the vegetation seems to be in very man made lines, almost fingerprint like pattern just to the west on Grootvloor, here: https://www.google.com/maps/search/grootvloor/@-29.930423,20.549568,411m/data=!3m1!1e3 Thanks Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 14:37, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

https://www.google.com/maps/place/De+Niel,+South+Africa/@-29.9660146,20.4338355,360a,35y,39.09t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x1c28a4ee07eaf951:0xf509d0600895c0d4!8m2!3d-29.9831893!4d21.3498688 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.131.40.58 (talk) 14:43, 17 July 2019 (UTC)


 * What is your question? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 15:09, 17 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Please be so kind as to provide me with any and all information you have in relation to this. Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 15:16, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * You've already linked to it. If you have a further question, please say what it is. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 15:22, 17 July 2019 (UTC)


 * I think most of us here know only what is given in the articles to which you link, but it's possible that some expert might eventually read your question and be able to direct you to more technical details.  D<i style="color: #0cf;">b</i><i style="color: #4fc;">f</i><i style="color: #6f6;">i</i><i style="color: #4e4;">r</i><i style="color: #4a4">s</i>  15:25, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Please allow me to clarify. I would like to know how the features seen can be used for agricultural purposes, and then based on this, if there could be any correlation to the similar marks seen in South America. Thank you Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 16:40, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * This type of terrace (agriculture) is all about the water and there are water-related features near the Nazca lines like puquios as our article points out, noting some theories about the lines relate to water management. Rmhermen (talk) 17:22, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Misplaced answers
''The two answers below are clearly aimed at different, previous queries, not that titled 'Clearly Man Made' at whose foot they first appeared. I have created this new 'not query' to mark them off (together with JackofOz's subsequent flag-up), so that their authors can reposition them where they actually intended. Given the experience of both editors, I suspect there has been a glitch in the Matrix (or at least Wikipedia's software) rather than two unusual coinciding errors by them.''


 * What if you mailed a fertile chicken and a paint and brush kit?Hayttom (talk) 18:04, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Absentee ballots are usually made of paper. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:33, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * ?? Are those two posts for the thread above? --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  23:10, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

{The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.177.55 (talk) 23:15, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I doubt Hayttom would object if you moved this section to the right place. Although if sending an egg across national borders is problematic, imagine the hassle involved in sending a living creature. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:49, 17 July 2019 (UTC)