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October 27

The Euro

As I sit here with an Irish Euro that I received in my childhood, I wonder...

What is the purpose of the Euro?

Whilst it makes sense to be used in some countries (and, for sake of argument, I'll include Ireland as one of those countries, due to its previous currency not being all that individually culturally-marking) it doesn't make sense to replace all of the individual currencies of Europe with this bland "Euro" concept. This isn't the Roman Empire here; everyone does not need to use the same currency.

Why would anyone wish to throw away their cultural currencies and replace them with a lone, generic currency?

I understand the reasons behind the adoption of the Euro in countries like Germany, where the historic currency was failing, but shouldn't that be a temporary thing? Y'know, where the historic currency is reintroduced after everything is stable again.

Or... is that the ultimate goal of the Euro; to be temporary?

I highly doubt that either way, because by the time such a point of return to the original currency could be reached, no one would really remember the original currency anyways. By that point, all would be lost.

So, might someone with more knowledge on this subject be able to clear some of this up for me?

Thanks in advance! Tharthandorf Aquanashi (talk) 01:14, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See Euro, Customs union, Currency conversion, accounting cost, devaluation, economic efficiency and economic integration. μηδείς (talk) 03:04, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Let me correct some erroneous assumptions, though. First, the German currency was anything but failing when the euro was introduced. It was widely considered the most solid and stable of European currencies. In fact, German public opinion was largely opposed to replacing the German currency (the mark) with the euro. The government pushed it through because German businesspeople wanted it. Second, the euro is not meant to be temporary. It is meant to be the permanent currency of the European Union. As for the reasons behind the adoption of the euro, see the article on the currency that Medeis linked. Regarding your question about why people would "throw away their cultural currencies", in fact, there was reluctance among the public in some European nations with long traditions of sovereignty, such as France, the Netherlands, and Germany, about giving up their historic currencies. (This was less true in Ireland, where many saw the pound (or punt) as a legacy of British domination.) But it was not, generally, "the people" of those countries who decided to adopt the euro; rather it was economic and political elites who did so, generally on the basis of cold, rational arguments (again see Euro), which, however, overlooked one key feature missing from the Eurozone but shared by the world's most successful currencies, an oversight that is directly responsible for the Eurozone crisis. Marco polo (talk) 14:29, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Just to note, the Euro was not a novel idea. You can see at Currency union, there are several multinational currencies which predate the Euro by decades. What makes the Euro somewhat unique is that states retained a greater degree of fiscal independence vis-a-vis its member nations. But other (mainly 3rd world/developing nations) have regional currencies which have been in use for almost half a century or longer by now. --Jayron32 16:31, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Marco polo Then that's madling! What kind of sheisty, corrupt suits would do such a thing? Tharthandorf Aquanashi (talk) 18:28, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See also Latin Monetary Union, Scandinavian Monetary Union - it's not a new idea. -- Arwel Parry (talk) 22:35, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

dividing an exponential curve

(Question moved to WP:RD/MA by OP. Apologies for the mistake everyone!)

Coffee

I've independently invented a simple coffee recipe, for which I would like to know whether there is a precedent. A long black, with a half-teaspoon powdered cocoa, and a pinch of smoked paprika. I've found plenty of references to a spice rub for meats, but no reference for a beverage which approximates this recipe. Plasmic Physics (talk) 03:56, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have any links, or such, but as a frequent coffee drinker, I think I've tried mixing at least a hundred different things in with my coffee, or with the grounds - from cayenne to orange rinds to just weird stuff, some good, some bad. I can't say if anything tried what you did, but I imagine that unless you are doing something absolutely outlandish, it's been done, probably by many. --(add a few more things, actually, and it sounds a lot like how a friend tried approximating raktajino for a DS9 party we had...) Phoenixia1177 (talk) 06:00, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Be that as it may, I was about wondering whether that particular combination or something similar, is sufficiently popular to have earned a itself a name, like "Cacao Caffè Messicano", or a place on menu. Plasmic Physics (talk) 08:11, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt that that exact combination has, but I'm sure there are related ones. Aleppo Souk and Moctezuma from [1] sound similar, there's also [2] and [3], this [4], and this [5]. I'm sure that if we had an index of all the various coffee houses and restaurants, we could find something even closer.Phoenixia1177 (talk) 08:20, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, these are great. Plasmic Physics (talk) 09:03, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Mocha Paprikasz (PAH-pree-kash), compare Chicken paprikash. μηδείς (talk) 00:32, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't milk a key ingredient of all mochaccino variants? While we're on the topic of Hungarian, what is that voiceless phoneme created in the same way as "sh", but performed with the central part of the tongue instead? Plasmic Physics (talk) 04:05, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

My understanding was that mocha was just coffee and cocoa, while mochaccino would be milky capuccino with chocolate. (The link disagrees.) I used a Polish orthography since it is the most convenient I know with which to convey Rusyn, and ths sz is to indicate what is sh in English. Spanish has an ess-like phoneme, between English ess and esh. Perhaps that's the Hungarian sound you're referring to? In any case, Polish and Hungarian mean different sounds by sz. IPA for paprikasz the way my mother (who cooks it is ['paprikaʃ) with the arr as in the single flapped /r/, not the English /ɾ/ or /ɹ/ and the stops all unaspirated, with /k/ approaching /g/. μηδείς (talk) 05:20, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Can anyone name any films from England or any foreign films that don't have a North American distributor?

For example The_King's_Speech is a UK-based film but IMDB lists under company credits it lists The_Weinstein_Company and Anchor_Bay_Entertainment companies affiliated with it which are North-American based. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1504320/companycredits Venustar84 (talk) 04:21, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Film festivals are generally full of films made by small production teams who are desperately seeking a distributor - so I would imagine that any of a very large number of them would have this problem and are only able to get their movies shown to limited audiences negotiated on a theatre-by-theatre basis. I don't have time to go and search - but I'd bet that if you looked through films shown in small film festivals you'd find plenty without distributors of any kind. SteveBaker (talk) 13:58, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Foreign? HiLo48 (talk) 19:54, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

To North America, it seems from the header. And presumably she means films you can find somewhat distributed within it. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:09, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Complimentary hotels on connecting flights/delays

Is there any obligation for airlines to provide complimentary hotels for connecting flights with long layovers? Hack (talk) 06:27, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How long are you laid over and what airline? I work in the hotel industry and am by an international airport, I have yet to see anything indicating that airlines are compelled to (by law, or other) - it seems to be their discretion, so it would needs be handled on a case by case basis of which airline and where.Phoenixia1177 (talk) 06:34, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Nine hours on Etihad at Abu Dhabi. My travel agent is suggesting the airline will provide a hotel voucher at the transit desk. I'm interested to see if this is an industry-wide thing or something unique to Etihad. Hack (talk) 06:40, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This is the best I could find [6]; it appears some airlines have stopped, so it is not the case for every airline.Phoenixia1177 (talk) 07:02, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that. I'm guessing my deal must be a special deal coinciding with Etihad's recent arrival in my city. Hack (talk) 07:07, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Many years ago (1993) on Malaysian Airlines, flying from HK to the UK, we had a stop in Kuala Lumpur, but the plane arrived late because of a late take-off on account of a typhoon in HK, so we were offered a free room in a hotel, as well as some spending money to have a night out in the city. I thought this was a pretty cool deal, but unfortunately they scheduled another flight for us..... KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 07:26, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I got stuck at ATL one night because my first flight came in after my connecting flight had left. The airline gave me a voucher to use on a room for the night, but I had to actually ask for it, and if I recall correctly it was only for like $40. I opted to hang out in the airport all night, which in retrospect was kind of dumb. I'm not sure what, if anything, the airline's legal obligation would be, but I imagine it's pretty limited, and subject to a number of laws. US domestic flights are probably mostly governed by federal law, while international flights probably involve some treaty obligations as well. —/Mendaliv/^2¢/_Δ's/ 07:53, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We receive a lot of vouchers at my hotel; though, I don't know of any strong obligation to issue them - and they don't always. Sometimes they issue "discount" vouchers that can be used at hotels to get a room cheaper than usual, but still at the traveler's expense. I'm sure the specific airlines have their own policies that they go off of, rather than some law; this indicates as much, [7].Phoenixia1177 (talk) 08:53, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I and my father did get a free night at a hotel near the airport when our flight from Helsinki to Reykjavík was delayed an entire day because the airplane's engines broke down and they could only get a new airplane the next morning. The only bad thing was that the flight was so early that we had to wake up at 02:30 AM, but it was still better than having to drive home and then back to the airport in the middle of the night. JIP | Talk 22:32, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Delays

I guess as a secondary question, inspired by some of the responses above and personal experience, what would be the obligation of an airline where a delay has occurred causing a passenger to miss a connecting flight a) on the same ticket or b) on separate tickets? 08:03, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

In general I would guess "none at all". As an example, EasyJet doesn't even guarantee connections between its own flights: see para 3.16 of its Terms and Conditions: "We do not guarantee or accept liability for missed onward carriage on a subsequent Flight or on the flights of other carriers" (though as a matter of goodwill they may try to help out people who are affected). AndrewWTaylor (talk) 08:47, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That kinda doesn't surprise me. It seems like every few Thanksgivings you see pictures of hundreds of stranded passengers sleeping on cots at O'Hare. Even if there were hotel rooms for all those people, I can't imagine how much it would cost the airlines to pay for them. In fact, that situation itself suggests to me that state and federal law wouldn't want to guarantee anything. The solvency of the entire industry could hang in the balance. —/Mendaliv/^2¢/_Δ's/ 08:57, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Would the answer depend on whether it was a "legacy" carrier or a discount carrier? Hack (talk) 08:59, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It has to do with length of delay and the specific issues - I've seen vouchered passengers from about every airline that exists. There are plenty of times throughout the year where an airline will be looking for a 100 rooms, etc. Usually it is during summer, not winter, that we see the most; when everyone is stranded, they tend to do less, when it is a specific issue with a specific flight, they tend to. The latter case is more specifically "their fault", whereas snow is not something they control (as opposed to a messed up engine, etc.)Phoenixia1177 (talk) 09:04, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) In terms of airline policy, maybe. But I think in general it's more likely to differ by airline, and possibly even by case. —/Mendaliv/^2¢/_Δ's/ 09:05, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Air France paid for a hotel room when we missed a flight - in this case we had a joint train ticket/plane ticket, and the train to the airport was delayed so we missed the flight. The hotel was in the middle of nowhere (it wasn't actually in Paris, of course - I don't think it was even in Roissy), but hey, it was free. Adam Bishop (talk) 09:13, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Air France is bound by the EU rules on missed connections and flights. If (the departure is from an EU airport), OR (arrival is to an EU airport, AND the carrier is EU-based), then you can claim compensation CAA (UK) advice. Low-cost carriers claim that the tickets are bought separately, not as a through-ticket, and thus they don't have to help you if they make you miss your second flight. I don't know if this has been legally challenged or not. CS Miller (talk) 12:04, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In my recent experience, airlines are much more forthcoming when replying to social media than they are to phone calls or emails. Hack (talk) 03:58, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That's because with phone calls and emails, no one can hear you scream. Clarityfiend (talk) 20:21, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

ICC

In icc division 3 2014 match of usa vs nepal is abandoned due to rain.usa ha made 204 run..should nepal chase same target or usa will play whole innings again?????? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Diwas Sawid (talk • contribs) 15:33, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We are sorry, but we can't make predictions here, or offer opinions. μηδείς (talk) 00:27, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

He's not asking for a prediction or an opinion, he's asking for clarification on the rules in that particular situation. The English is not perfect ("should" is incorrect), but it was pretty obvious to me, and should also have been so to you. --Viennese Waltz 08:41, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Since the match was abandoned on Monday without the minimum number of overs being bowled to constitute a completed match, it has started anew. The rules determining this are laid out in the playing conditions for the tournament, eg, see Section 12 in these playing conditions for a similar level tournament. Abecedare (talk) 03:33, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The specific playing conditions for this tournament are here. Hack (talk) 03:40, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]