Miscellaneous desk
< April 26	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 27

JCB Classic

When did the JCB Classic finish? Why did the JCB Classic finish? Was the JCB Classic replaced with anything else?

JCB_Classic — Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.148.229.140 (talk) 02:26, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The last year of the JCB Classic was May 31-June 3 2007.[1] In 2008 it was not on the schedule; it appears by closely examining the schedules that it was replaced by the Pine Valley Beijing Open after shifting the dates of a few other tournaments around as well.[2] --Jayron 32 10:49, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Tormented geniuses

Hello. I am searching cases of geniuses tormented by their mental illnesses or mental instability, specially when the suffering led them to death or damaged badly their health. The most blatant example is Kurt Godel, a logician genius who was obsessed of being poisoned, refusing to eat and starving to death. Other cases (though not their cause of death) are John Nash (paranoia) and George Cantor (depression). Thanks. emijrp (talk) 15:17, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

A number of writers fit the bill, among them Friedrich Nietzsche, Guy de Maupassant and Émile Nelligan. We must have an article somewhere. --Xuxl (talk) 15:48, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Have you read this article - Creativity and mental illness? It even lists some examples. Wymspen (talk) 15:56, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Van Gogh? Or doesn't he count? — O Fortuna^{semper crescis, aut decrescis} 16:02, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Nietzsche's hugely productive final year, then sudden madness, is often attributed to tertiary syphilis, where the mental symptoms are secondary to the infectious cause. μηδείς (talk) 18:30, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Evariste Galois may be of interest. Math is a particularly rich field for this... probably not coincidental. Georg Cantor had plenty of issues too, though our article doesn't say much about it. See e.g. here [3] for some comments or see any decent library for biographies of these two. Here are some additional blurbs about mathematics and insanity that may be useful [4] [5]. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:06, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Boltzmann Asmrulz (talk) 16:15, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

John Clare. --Viennese Waltz 16:16, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Many writers and artists have suffered from depression. I'm not sure how one may qualify a "genius", but many leaders in their fields, widely recognized as such, suffered from depression. Robin Williams (comedy, acting), Sylvia Plath (poetry, writing), Ernest Hemmingway (writing), Patton Oswalt (comedy, acting), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (music), etc. --Jayron 32 17:16, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks everybody for your help. I have found a documentary about it Dangerous Knowledge too. emijrp (talk) 20:42, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You might also look into bipolar disorder, formerly called manic-depression. During the manic stages, such people can accomplish a great deal. StuRat (talk) 20:54, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Area of California's 1st congressional district as percentage of the State

I estimate that California's 1st congressional district occupies about 1/5 the land of California. Do you know precisely how much it covers? — Reinyday, 18:02, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

This page [6] has a figure of 74,694 square km for California's 1st congressional district. California's total land area is 423,970 km2. So the district represents 17.6% of the state. --Xuxl (talk) 18:26, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Which would make it closer to 1/6th of the state. --Jayron 32 14:06, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

FWIW, California's 8th congressional district is 85,126 square km, making it almost exactly 20% of the state's land. --M @r ē ino 13:34, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! You guys rock! — Reinyday, 05:29, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

Travel by equestrianism and horse driving

In times gone by, when people traveled by equestrianism or by horse driving, how much confidence could a traveler have that there would be adequate provisions along the way, for example, between the cities of Los Angeles and New York? By provisions, I mean things such as hitching posts, food and shelter (for people and horses), horse tack, and aid by veterinary physicians. Were there horse travel maps? What is the situation today? I am interested in all centuries and all countries. Please provide references.
—Wavelength (talk) 20:07, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on when and where. As people ventured forth, blazing trails, supply stations tended to follow as routes became more heavily used. Read the history of the Oregon Trail, for example. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:21, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In Europe, there were coaching inns along main roads which provided this service. Apparently similar facilities were called roadhouses in the US. If you wanted to run a successful hotel/bar/restaurant, it made sense to put one where there was likely to be plenty of passing traffic. Maps and guidebooks for travellers were published in England from the early 18th century giving advice on where you could stay for the night, I'm sure similar ones would have been available in the US. Some information about American road travel at Historical Background on Traveling in the Early 19th Century. Alansplodge (talk) 22:57, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See Hobson's choice — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.38.221.49 (talk) 08:49, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

As per our Stagecoach article, “stages” were distances along the route, and at each way station would be fresh horses and other provisions. With enough custom, there might even be a Coaching inn, roadhouse or pub. The latter might provide some good cock and bull stories for amusement.DOR (HK) (talk) 12:12, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

And remember travel across the U.S. was so bad for many years, that many would have chosen to go by ship from New York around all of South America to get to Los Angeles. During the Gold Rush some ships were supposedly abandoned at San Fransisco for lack of crews to sail them back east.[7] Rmhermen (talk) 20:25, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

When heading into an unpopulated area of the US, you might see a sign that says "NO MOTORIST SERVICES NEXT xx MILES": [8]. I wonder if they did the same thing regarding horse services, back then. StuRat (talk) 20:50, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, you can be on the NJ Turnpike and see such a sign, even though NJ is the most densely populated state in the US. The problem is that the Turnpike is a state monopoly with a limited number of exits and service areas. The price for most items is highly inflated at the on-route stops. Otherwise one must exit and re-enter, which is not as cheap as a straight run. μηδείς (talk) 20:59, 1 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting! My paternal great-grandfather jumped ship (swam ashore) in San Francisco before the quake, but unable to find work took the train east to Philadelphia in the 1890's. It is known that he was also considering Australia, New Zealand and Canada as places to settle. Thank God he was a patriot, rather than the Queen's future subject. μηδείς (talk) 20:51, 1 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, if he applied to emigrate to New Zealand, he may well have been turned away. NZ had at that time a policy that encouraged immigrants only from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales - see here. A few years later, Chinese immigrants were legislated against and New Zealand remained overwhelmingly British. Between 1900-1914, one-third of immigrants came from Australia and two-thirds from Britain.ref. A "white New Zealand" policy was instituted after WWI with the aim being "98% British".ref. Akld guy (talk) 06:44, 2 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

May be of use to see Livery stable, many of which were later converted to garages and auto repair shops. As far as westward expansion in the USA, folks needed to assume they would not see civilization for awhile and plan accordingly. Montanabw^(talk) 00:52, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]