Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 September 11
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September 11
[edit]Refunds from health insurance companies
[edit]A few weeks ago, some health insurance companies were supposed to send refund checks to their customers. Is there a list of the companies that were supposed to do that? Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 01:35, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- To clarify, in the US, "Obamacare" included a provision that health insurance companies must spend a certain percentage of their premiums on actual medical care (health insurance companies spending money on health care ? what a novel idea !). Those who failed to do so must refund a portion of those premiums, until they reach that goal. StuRat (talk) 02:16, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- Here's a list of insurance companies and how much each must refund: [1]. However, note that the refunds don't have to be mailed out as checks. Instead, they can be applied to current or future premiums. StuRat (talk) 19:14, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks, that is very helpful. Our current heath insurance is not listed, but one we had a few years ago is. But they probably didn't make it retroactive back to then. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 19:28, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- You're welcome. It's an interesting concept, that insurance companies must be forced to spend 80% of their income on health care, versus administrative and advertising costs.
- I've noticed that you can get a company that goes all out on ads and thus their product becomes far more expensive. One example in the US seems to be Clorox bleach. It used to cost about the same as any other brand. Then they started advertising it. Next they reduced their gallon container to a smaller size, and upped the price. Now they seem to be playing the concentration game (first double the concentration and cut the size in half, then, when nobody is looking, reduce the concentration back down to the original, while leaving the bottle half-sized). It now costs something like 3X as much as other bleach, but, apparently, when people see it in ads they think it must be somehow better than the others.
- This is fine for bleach, since nobody is going to die from paying 3X as much for bleach. But, in the case of health insurance, skyrocketing costs due to them all advertising to try to poach each other's customers could, indeed, lead to people dying, if none stick with the low-cost, no advertising model.
- In any case, can I now mark this Q resolved ? StuRat (talk) 19:42, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
Yes, thanks. And the FAQ there said it went into effect Jan. 2011 (IIRC), so our old ins company is off the hook, as far as we are concerned. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 02:47, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- @ StuRat, enjoyed your commentary. Marketdiamond (talk) 08:25, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks ! StuRat (talk) 08:30, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
Additional unit assigned to DaNang AB Vietnam
[edit]Hi during the period from at least 1967 (possibly earlier) and after Feb 1969 there was a unit on the base designated Air Force Office of Special Investigations Detachment 5003. I was in that unit from 68 to 69. It was not included in the known units assigned there. Thankks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.143.9.33 (talk) 03:59, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- Not included where? At the top of the article that disappoints you, click "Talk" and raise the issue there. —Tamfang (talk) 06:59, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- Presumably Da Nang Air Base#Other known units. Alternatively, you could just edit the article itself and add your unit to the list. --Viennese Waltz 07:31, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- And here is supporting reference that you could use, although there are no other in-line references in the whole article. Alansplodge (talk) 22:35, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- Presumably Da Nang Air Base#Other known units. Alternatively, you could just edit the article itself and add your unit to the list. --Viennese Waltz 07:31, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
Font on cover of Ploughshares
[edit]What is it? Or, at least, the font in this image. 67.164.156.42 (talk) 07:01, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- I tried it at http://www.whatfontis.com/ and got Baker Signet. There are a few similar fonts, so try it yourself to see what result you find best. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 09:26, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- Identifont says Baker Signet is the most likely one as well. The 'P' and 'g' in particular are distinctive and look like perfect matches. None of the other fonts it suggests seem to match. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 12:22, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- You could use the Ploughshares comment form to ask: http://www.pshares.org/about/contact.cfm --Dreamahighway2000 (talk) 22:42, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
"Work made for school"?
[edit]Is a work created by a student as part of an assignment generally considered a "work for hire"? 68.173.113.106 (talk) 20:45, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- "work for hire" here being a reference to... Copyright law? Tax? Or something else we might be able to assist you with? - Jarry1250 [Deliberation needed] 20:53, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- I'm referring to copyright law. If I create a paper for school, does the school (or worse, the Board of Education) own the copyright? 68.173.113.106 (talk) 21:06, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- This depends entirely on your particular situation. My school had no explicit policy, but work submitted for external examination was provided alongside a license which granted the exam board pretty extesive rights. My university took limited license where necessary e.g. to allow internal publication of undergraduate dissertations, but was otherwise fairly supportive of students and staff retaining their own IP. I believe at least some universities claim ownership entirely. 92.236.250.154 (talk) 21:16, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- The NYC school system doesn't have a policy for this as far as I know. 68.173.113.106 (talk) 21:23, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- Need I mention this appears to be a very direct question about how legal facts apply to a specific situation, a.k.a. legal advice, which we cannot answer. I can point you though towards our article on the subject. Work for hire lists the specific requirements in the copyright act. Shadowjams (talk) 22:46, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- The NYC school system doesn't have a policy for this as far as I know. 68.173.113.106 (talk) 21:23, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- This depends entirely on your particular situation. My school had no explicit policy, but work submitted for external examination was provided alongside a license which granted the exam board pretty extesive rights. My university took limited license where necessary e.g. to allow internal publication of undergraduate dissertations, but was otherwise fairly supportive of students and staff retaining their own IP. I believe at least some universities claim ownership entirely. 92.236.250.154 (talk) 21:16, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- I'm referring to copyright law. If I create a paper for school, does the school (or worse, the Board of Education) own the copyright? 68.173.113.106 (talk) 21:06, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- Attending school is not a form of employment. Unless you've signed something that says that what you produce in school belongs to the school, or that you've granted them some sort of rights, there's no reason to assume your copyright would be assigned to the school a priori. (Usually this sort of thing is explained quite explicitly as part of employment contracts. I've signed away my copyrights, patent rights, and other rights numerous times over the years in the name of paying the rent...) --Mr.98 (talk) 01:56, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- The situation may be different in the UK in higher education. Only your academic institution can answer your question. --TammyMoet (talk) 08:54, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- It is common for UK universities to claim quite extensive rights to student's work. You can see the rules from my old uni here. It's not clear from your question where you are or what kind of school you mean, so there is no way for us to know the answer in your particular case. --Tango (talk) 11:12, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- I am talking about a public high school in New York City (Stuyvesant). 68.173.113.106 (talk) 20:31, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
ebay selling
[edit]so, a little while ago, I went to sell something on ebay, but decided against it part way through and stopped, leaving a nearly complete ad all organised and written out. I have since decided to try selling it now, but it seems they have deleted what I had done before, is there any way of getting it back and finishing it off, rather than having to start all over again?
79.66.102.171 (talk) 23:27, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- Did you contact someone at eBay about this? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:56, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
you mean you can actually do that? Kitutal (talk) 09:45, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- Sure you can. I had a problem with a DVD box set that I was selling, which was reported as being a bootleg. It wasn't, it was a pressing issued by an obscure label. I had a long email conversation with a real person and eventually they accepted the DVDs were legit and reposted it. --TrogWoolley (talk) 12:40, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
libya
[edit]Why did the US support Islamist terrorist "rebels" in libya and syria with known al quida affiliations? Arent we taught to learn from history so we dont make the same mistakes again? Are own leaders cant even do it. Now stuff like this is happening http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19562692 --74.74.255.141 (talk) 23:48, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
- Some points:
- 1) Only a small portion of the rebels in Libya and Syria appear to have an al Qaeda affiliation.
- 2) The US is so far refusing to arm the Syrian rebels, for fear that they will use those weapons against the US or allies (especially anti-aircraft surface-to-air missiles).
- 3) The US is providing humanitarian aid and communication equipment to the Syrian rebels.
- 4) The current Syrian government supports US designated terrorist organizations, like Hezbollah and Hamas, either directly or by funneling weapons and money to them from Iran. They have also been directly implicated in terrorist activity inside Lebanon, including a car bomb that killed a major anti-Syrian politician, and a recent foiled attempt at multiple bombings.
- 5) Consider that the US wants to be seen as on the rebel's side, in case they win.
- So, so far the US has decided to give weak support for the Syrian rebels, although Obama hinted that, if Syria breaks out the chemical weapons, then "the gloves will come off". StuRat (talk) 00:00, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
yes, but why did they support AND arm the rebels in libya? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wrk678 (talk • contribs) 00:26, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- I don't know that the US armed the Libyan rebels. What they did do was provide air support (along with NATO). Kaddafi was a nut job implicated in the terrorist bombing of a jet over Lockerbie, Scotland and the earlier German night club bombing. However, the West had largely made peace with him by the time the Arab Spring took hold. Still, when given the choice, the US chose the rebels over him, perhaps to prevent a massacre, perhaps to get rid of a long-time enemy. StuRat (talk) 01:10, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- I think that the main reason that the U.S. helped the Libyan rebels was to prevent a large massacre, including of civilians, and to keep the momentum of the Arab Spring going since it felt that seeing the Arab Spring stop while a lot of resentment against the Arab dictators stayed could have led to weaker support for the U.S. among people in the Arab world if the U.S. continued supporting those dictators, which would have meant more problematic relationships with the Arab world once these dictatorships would have gotten overthrown eventually. Futurist110 (talk) 02:41, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
One man's terrorists is another man's freedom fighter. In this case they are/were freedom fighters to the US, a few years ago the some of the very same people were considered terrorists, the CIA delivered them to Gaddafi. Count Iblis (talk) 00:34, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- I think that it were only the al-Qaeda ones who were delivered to Gaddafi by the CIA. Futurist110 (talk) 02:41, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- Though I disagree with the Libyan policy the last few years "entangling foreign alliances" and all, to be completely fair from what I have read the majority of arab terrorist groups members seem to have been preyed upon with the promise of money, food, supplies, status and to the extent they somehow agree ideologically to what is basically a serf or employee relationship it is mainly about how that ideology translates to the local village or province. For other reasons I disagree with any assistance directly, indirectly or that could be acquired by them, but on the ground and especially in klannish areas or warlord run regions sometimes my enemy is the enemy of my other enemy and for the limited purposes of the ends they are an ok means. It is some of what Washington and Jefferson warned us about. Marketdiamond (talk) 08:21, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
Interesting, but off topic, discussion.
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- I think the basis for supporting the rebels is pretty simple - as a rule, democracies don't go to war with each other. (I think there's a name for that rule, anyone...?) The idea is that if you get rid of the dictators, you get rid of the violent armed resistance to the dictators, you get rid of Al Qaida, you get rid of these crazy incidents. Al Qaida's attacks started with the despotism of Saudi Arabia. Wnt (talk) 04:31, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
- It is often claimed that "no two democracies have ever gone to war with each other," but the problem with that is that it often reduces to the No true Scotsman fallacy: defining a "true" democracy is tricky to do, and any historical examples of democracies at war with each other can be dismissed by claiming that one or the other was not a "true" democracy. For example, the Spanish-American war was fought between Spain, which was a constitutional monarchy at the time, and the U.S., which is usually considered a fairly democratic republic. But then one could claim that the Spanish constitutional monarchy was heavily tilted towards vesting the Monarch with wide sweeping powers, and that Spain didn't have the sort of civil freedoms one expects of a democracy, etc. etc. We know what principles are defined as being democratic principles, but when you get down to drawing a line in the sand, it is hard to put countries strictly on one side or the other. --Jayron32 04:47, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
- Yes, major problem of Rudolph Rummel's Democratic peace theory.John Z (talk) 07:42, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks! That was the name of it... and a nice long thorough-looking article. Wnt (talk) 22:27, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
- Yes, major problem of Rudolph Rummel's Democratic peace theory.John Z (talk) 07:42, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
- It is often claimed that "no two democracies have ever gone to war with each other," but the problem with that is that it often reduces to the No true Scotsman fallacy: defining a "true" democracy is tricky to do, and any historical examples of democracies at war with each other can be dismissed by claiming that one or the other was not a "true" democracy. For example, the Spanish-American war was fought between Spain, which was a constitutional monarchy at the time, and the U.S., which is usually considered a fairly democratic republic. But then one could claim that the Spanish constitutional monarchy was heavily tilted towards vesting the Monarch with wide sweeping powers, and that Spain didn't have the sort of civil freedoms one expects of a democracy, etc. etc. We know what principles are defined as being democratic principles, but when you get down to drawing a line in the sand, it is hard to put countries strictly on one side or the other. --Jayron32 04:47, 13 September 2012 (UTC)