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What makes a law "lawful"? Someone who's wrong on the internet (talk) 11:04, 19 October 2026 (UTC)
Perhaps a better question would be: what is an unlawful law? An unlawful law would be one that is contrary to other (higher) laws. For example a local ordinance that is contrary to state or national laws, or state laws that are deemed contrary to that State’s constitution or the national Constitution. Blueboar (talk) 13:54, 19 October 2026 (UTC)
in the short story Striding Folly by DorothyL Sayers there is this bit of dialogue:
‘Let time pass, for, as a great chess-player observed, it helps more than reasoning.’
‘What player was that?’
‘A lady,’ said Wimsey, ‘who played with living men and mated kings, popes and emperors.’

Who is this lady meant to be please? ~2026-56687-99 (talk) 23:35, 22 October 2026 (UTC)
IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 23:42, 22 October 2026 (UTC)The lady is Queen Elizabeth I, who, during negotiations with the French in 1580 concerning a possible marriage, wrote:
“You do not forget, mon tres cher, that the greatest cause of delay [in arranging a match] is due to this [agitation by English zealots against a Catholic marriage], that our people ought to congratulate and to applaud. To bring this about I have let time pass, which generally helps more than reasoning.”
Tokenism is generally targeted at minority groups in disadvantaged positions. Then, for groups in economically disadvantaged positions, does tokenism, such as creating a small number of examples of "class ascent", still produce the same effect? Or does it produce a weaker yet existing effect, or no effect at all? Ataled (talk) 10:13, 24 October 2026 (UTC)
There are two articles Johann Heinrich Waser (mayor) (1600 – 1669) and Johann Heinrich Waser (statistician) (1742 – 1780). Obviously not father and son, but maybe two or three generations apart. The Waser family mentions that the Waser's married into a family of millers, and the younger JHW was the son of a baker. Any ideas? --Lexiconaut (talk) 04:28, 26 October 2026 (UTC)
The miller marriage in the family's own lexicon entry belongs to the country branch, not the city one: Johans Waser (1628–1710), pastor in Dinhard, married Cleophea Schweizer, a miller's daughter, and their descendants ran mills in Dinhard, Ossingen, Stammheim, Neunforn and Altstetten (HLS, "Waser"). The mayor's line is the city line: he was the third of five sons of the Hebrew professor Kaspar Waser (1565–1625) and Dorothea Simler, daughter of Josias Simler (ADB 41, 214; HLS 18055), and the Schild in the Schildner zum Schneggen that he acquired in 1654 stayed with his descendants until 1843 (HLS 023848). For the statistician the immediate family is documented too: son of Heinrich Waser, a baker, and Anna Häfeli; in 1765 he married Anna Cleophea Scheuchzer, daughter of the Landvogt Heinrich Scheuchzer (HLS 26273). Both men are "von Zürich" in HLS. Zurich's citizenry was definitively closed in 1659, during the mayor's own term, so a Waser born in 1742 with city right sits inside the same closed burgher body: one family in name and corporation, and Meyer von Knonau only rules out the close genealogical connection, not a remote one. To settle the remote question rather than bracket it, the family entry names the works that would do it: W. Hofmeister, Genealogische Tabellen der Stadtbürgerschaft 1780–1814 (Stadtarchiv Zürich); Schweizerisches Geschlechterbuch 2, 586–593 and 6, 752–763; M. Waser, Vom Zürcher Geschlecht der Waseren (1941). For the statistician's own ancestry, Emil Anderegg, Johann Heinrich Waser (1932), and H. M. Stückelberger in Zürcher Taschenbuch 53 (1933), 81–190, digitized at e-periodica. One caution, because the trap here is the name itself: there was a third Johann Heinrich Waser (1713–1777), the translator and deacon in Winterthur, born in Veltheim. Three men, one name, overlapping generations — a bare index line for "Johann Heinrich Waser" from this period means nothing until it carries a town or a parent. Waser family is also new (October 2026) and rests on the HLS entry alone, so it inherits HLS's own caveat that the family's origins are unclear and its genealogy has "einige Unsicherheiten". --Talianotes (talk) 10:52, 26 October 2026 (UTC)
I'm looking for a painting featuring a large orange sun, with almost rectangular rays of light drawn out from it. There are small, simplified human figures in the painting, some kneeling, some running, some cowering. The sun takes up much of the painting. The orange of the sun and the darker color of the almost-stick like people are the main colors. I believe it was some kind of impressionist style. Can you help me find it? ~2026-57050-26 (talk) 08:39, 26 October 2026 (UTC)
I once asked Gemini if it was possible for the U.S. to bomb Beijing city. And Gemini said, no, it was not possible, because just before arrival, China could sense the incoming bomb, alert everyone on an emergency, and then fire bombs to all major U.S. cities and bases, destroying both nations. Wow. Humans have evolved to a level of mass destruction. If it is just an Indigenous American group, then they are completely controlled by the U.S. government, and their land reservations are made legitimate by the U.S. government; they actually have zero sovereignty over land and require imports from the U.S. to survive. So, all the skies are patrolled? Is this what they call airspace? How far does it stretch? What about space satellites? Yrotarobal (talk) 13:42, 27 October 2026 (UTC)
i recently played as Leopold II of tuscany in a model united nations crisis committee (in which I luckily got best delegate) and after, I've begun to wonder about how Leopold II actually conducted himself diplomatically and politically, I know that he was brother in law to the king of the two sicilies due to his second wife, but I'm curious about how communications with other monarchs actually were like? Mdz10 (talk) 14:31, 27 October 2026 (UTC)

This is the image on our mouth breathing article. What is he wearing? It looks like it's made of a sofa. Marnanel (talk) 14:49, 27 October 2026 (UTC)
Charles Darwin wrote for (The?) Agricultural Gazette in 1877, at the invitation of John Chalmers Morton.
Morton, who died in 1888, was "editor of the Agricultural Gazette on its foundation in 1844... and the post continued for the rest of his life".
Various online dealers offer copies of The Agricultural Gazette from the early 20th century.
Our article The Gardeners' Chronicle tells us that that journal was founded in 1841 and called The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette from 1856–1873, after which it was simply The Gardeners' Chronicle.
Were the titles related? What is the publishing history of The Agricultural Gazette? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits; 17:02, 28 October 2026 (UTC)
i find it confusing how Leopold made the move to side with the piedmontese cause during the first Italian war, I could understand that it could be do to the pressure of his subjects, and to gain the favor of the piedmontese, who were growing in influence and industrial power, but why would he actively fight his Austrian allies? he was a hapsburg after all, it seems out of line for what's documented of him. Mdz10 (talk) 14:17, 29 October 2026 (UTC)
How a/be/unamused would John Adams have been to discover on the 200th year after his death, he shares real estate on something called a "website" with a factoid about a gay Jesus porn movie? Maybe he'd be too interested in reading an encyclopedia article about himself 200 years after the fact to scroll down, I know I would... Americanfreedom (talk) 15:35, 30 October 2026 (UTC)
The anonymous A Handbook for Travellers in South Wales and Its Borders (1860) pp. 102–103 tells me that near the park of Moccas Court, Herefordshire lies a substantial cromlech with a collapsed capstone measuring 18 foot by 9 foot. It is also mentioned in various other 19th-century books, the earliest I think dating from 1818, but in the 20th century the trail goes cold. Geoffrey Ashe wrote in 1983 that he had searched for it but failed to find it. Admittedly he says he was looking in the park of Moccas Court, Brecknockshire, which was the next-door county, but I don't believe there are two Moccas Courts. A substantial cromlech should, I would have thought, be a scheduled monument, but there are none such in Moccas, nor can I find any modern record of a King Arthur's Table there. What's happened to it? Has it been destroyed? Does it still exist under another name? Has it been decided that it's a natural group of rocks and therefore of no interest? Or that it's a fake antique run up perhaps by Capability Brown when he landscaped the park in the 18th century? I'd be glad of any references that would solve the mystery or that would give any other information about this supposed cromlech. --Antiquary (talk) 17:05, 30 October 2026 (UTC)