Miscellaneous desk
< October 9	<< Sep \| October \| Nov >>	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.

October 10

how can i help the kurds?

For an american citizen in the united states, what kind of opportunities for that are there?Rich (talk) 00:28, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Contact your congressman and/or senator, and ask them to speak out on your behalf. Directly, there are a number of charitable relief organizations accepting donations in the United States for the benefit of Syrians affected by the conflict, and some of these are quite highly rated: see [1] and search for "Syria". However, none of these have a specific focus on providing assistance to Syrian Kurds. Someguy1221 (talk) 02:17, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Domino

A friend and I are trying to solve the domino test. And we’re having a hard time solving this one https://unsee.cc/3fbccf42/. Anyone could help? We thought of 3/4. Miss Bono^{[hello, hello!]} 13:40, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

4 inside and 3 ouside. it runs clockwise 2...3...4...5...6...2...3...4... etc. Thanks Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 15:22, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

What things do we do or say now that could be considered politically incorrect in the future?

This forum is not for predicting the future

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Since it changes pretty much every 5-10 years. 1.54.193.41 (talk) 14:19, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"I'm taking a flight to the Virgin Islands for a holiday with my girlfriend." Ericoides (talk) 14:43, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"We have three children"

"Yes I'm the only occupant of this pickup, and no I'm not going to carry a load in the back"

"He only has a part-time job" -- Q Chris (talk) 14:58, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know, but I do clearly recall as a child being taught that the appropriate term for someone with a physical disability was to say that they were crippled. Then later in my teen this was seen as taboo and I was told that they should be called psychically disabled, now days I have been informed that such people like to be referred to as otherwardly-abled, and that crippled in deeply offensive. The same refers to those of a mental disability where the procession went from Retarded to Special to mentally handicapped and now most recently I have heard this referred to again as retarded, being the politically correct term, and so it would appear to me, and it may just be that I am an old man, and stuck in my ways but I suspect that this is cyclical due to those referred to never being happy with their own lot. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.131.40.58 (talk) 15:37, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That would be the euphemism treadmill. That is, if something really is bad, like being mentally retarded, or is perceived as bad, like being black, then any term for it will eventually acquire a negative association, and be replaced by another. So then, to answer the OP, any words we currently use that describe things which are bad or perceived as bad will eventually become offensive.

Of course, that's not the only way things become politically incorrect. Just as it's now considered politically incorrect to refer to the race/ethnicity/religion of a person unless somehow relevant, the same may eventually occur with gender. This would require gender-neutral terms like "newspaper carrier" be used instead of "paperboy" or "papergirl". SinisterLefty (talk) 18:38, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

See also Intellectual disability#Terminology. "Mentally retarded" was itself a replacement for 'moron' and 'imbecile'. When and where I was growing up, parents and teachers preferred the term "special needs", so naturally kids used variations on that as an insult. Someguy1221 (talk) 21:24, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I like the term "slow", which means the same thing as "retarded", but can't be altered to the highly offensive "retard". "Slow" may still be a euphemism, though, since it implies that the only deficit is in the rate of learning, not the maximum level which can be achieved. SinisterLefty (talk) 16:50, 12 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Swimming

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Aktash,+Altai+Republic,+Altai+Republic,+Russia,+649743/@50.31111,87.59917,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipPuwThAlwJ_kVty_HuuStRmJrNShv0Na3IIvT81!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPuwThAlwJ_kVty_HuuStRmJrNShv0Na3IIvT81%3Dw203-h270-k-no!7i1536!8i2048!4m5!3m4!1s0x42c8381cfb19251d:0x39a29d3f35acbe67!8m2!3d50.3111598!4d87.599144

Is anyone able to shed any light on this pond. I would like to know what has created the blue colour, what created the circles and is it safe to swim in, and if so, why is no one swimming in any of the pictures? Thanks Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:19, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Since it's a cyan color, how about cyanobacteria ? As for the circular shapes, perhaps this was from old wells, from when the water level was lower (the one in front being presumably the most modern) ? As for swimming in it, it's somewhat small, stagnant, mostly too shallow, and likely slimy, perhaps with leeches. Doesn't look like a place I'd like to swim. And some species of cyanobacteria are toxic: [2]. SinisterLefty (talk) 18:45, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It could be an ice circle, although obviously without the ice. A slow-moving current in smooth water can cause these. Although the surface film is usually thought of as ice, they can form with bacterial films too. Foam doesn't tend to form these (as the other common surface covering in watercourses), as it's too easily spreading and adhesive at the edges, so foam circles tend to weld themselves back together. Andy Dingley (talk) 00:10, 11 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]