Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 May 14

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May 14

Children of King George V

Pertaining to the article, "Ancestry of Elizabeth II" and pertaining to the chart, Ancestor Table, Generation 3 (Grandparents): It notes that George V and Princess Mary of Teck had 2 children. It is my understanding that King George V and Princess Mary of Teck had six children. Please confirm/verify. Thank you.Hamradio66 (talk) 03:10, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

"Father of 2" means the father of the person numbered 2 in that list, i.e. George VI. It does not refer to the number of children he had. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 04:28, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Educational records in the UK?

My son in law needs records of his education and of his A levels. He graduated 10 years ago. He is being told they don't exist. There must be records somewhere . It makes no sense. Here in the US and in Canada records are available for a very long time, and in the UK records are often available for centuries. He wants to go to university but this is causing big concerns. Does any one have any advice or thoughts on this where he might find these kinds of records Thank you for any help you can give.(76.76.228.132 (talk) 04:26, 14 May 2012 (UTC))

I doubt we can answer your question from the information you've provided. My understanding supported by the GCE Advanced Level article is there are a number of Examination boards who are responsible for the A-level so it will depend precisely who your son-in-law did his examination with. Our articles lists 5 main current ones although it mentions (as to the various articles) that there have been various mergers over the years so the board/s your son-in-law did his A-level with may be none of those 5. It also mentions many schools mix and match exams from different boards. A simple search for 'a level lost certificate' find [1] for the AQA and [2] for the OCR. If your son-in-law is not aware of the examination board he did his A-level with, he will need to check with the school he went to about what board/s they were using when he went there. If theythe school no longer exist, I guess he'll have to look for historical information or make enquires with the boards (since there's seemingly only 5 of them now and he could try all 5 although it's not entirely clear if the 5 exant boards have records for all historical boards). Alternatively, try asking old friends. As for records of his 'education' whatever that means, if the school he went to can't help (really can't help as opposed to 'we're too lazy to find them'), I'm doubtful anything can be done as it's unlikely the records are centralised. Realisticly it seems to me many universities aren't going to care about much about his earlier education beyond possibly his A-level results 10 years later.(Seems I'm wrong, see below. Note when I said records of his 'education' I presumed the OP was referring to records other then exam board records, like internal school exam results, co-curricular activity participation etc; not centralised-exam records which as stated you can get from the exam board once you work out which one.) P.S. There is also University of Cambridge International Examinations who offer A-level but in other countries only. Nil Einne (talk) 06:20, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Records are preserved for a long time and it is possible to track them. The school or college can easily, if they want to, find out when your son-inlaw attended and what exam boards he did his GCSEs and A levels with. If it was a maintained (non fee paying) school, ask the education authority for help. Under data protection legislation you have a right to see your own files. Itsmejudith (talk) 07:28, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) ... and if this is in England or Wales, and all else fails, Local Education Authorities and central government started keeping individualised records of pupils achievements via UPNs (Unique Pupil Numbers) twelve years ago. See herefor details. Dbfirs 07:34, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Just in case this causes confusion, in the UK the word 'graduation' is only used in the context of a university-level degree - it would not be used to describe leaving school or passing A-levels. 81.98.43.107 (talk) 09:13, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

I recently needed copies of my certificates for a job application and feared I had lost them. I discovered tat my secondary school had copies of my GCSEs and they could help me find which exam boards I would need to contact. However, the exam boards charge a not-insignificant fee for making a new certificate for you, I'm afraid. 130.88.172.34 (talk) 12:11, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Thank you very much everyone this has been very very helpful.(76.76.228.132 (talk) 12:30, 14 May 2012 (UTC))

OLYMPIC FLAG

There are five rings on the Olympic flag. They represent fife continents. Could you tell me which colour of the ring represent which continent? thank you175.157.218.178 (talk) 08:07, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

I quote from http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/symbols/flag/index.shtml.

Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, explains the meaning of the flag: "The Olympic flag has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red. This design is symbolic; it represents the five continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colours are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time." (1931) Combined in this way, the six colours of the flag (including the white of the background) represent all nations. It is wrong, therefore, to believe that each of the colours corresponds to a certain continent! -- SGBailey (talk) 08:25, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Note that this is also found in our article on Olympic symbols -- what I'm curious about, though, is how "five [inhabited] continents" was arrived at; US educational convention is that there are six inhabited continents plus Antarctica. I assume Eurasia was mashed together? Or perhaps the Americas? — Lomn 19:40, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

The Americas. Olympic symbols#Olympic rings says: "Prior to 1951, the official handbook stated that each colour corresponded to a particular continent: blue for Europe, yellow for Asia, black for Africa, green for Oceania and red for America (North and South considered as a single continent); this was removed because there was no evidence that Coubertin had intended it."[3] See also Continent#Number of continents. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:07, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

And maybe because "yellow for Asia, black for Africa" was a bit too unsubtle. Although I wonder, what's with the blue for Europe? Because of the long, frigid winters? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:51, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

From my studies of Avery Brundage, I don't think the Olympic Movement had arrived at that degree of enlightenment in 1951.--Wehwalt (talk) 01:29, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Oy! ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:04, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Police killed in the line of duty in Germany

I read an article recently about how German police fired 84 shots total in 2011, and I wanted to compare this to police deaths in the line of duty. I can find this information for the US, but is there a central source that will show me all law enforcement deaths in Germany by year? Thanks! Meelar (talk) 20:26, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Maybe not the complete answer, but according to this source: [4] 118 police officers were killed in the last 30 years and this source: [5] gives 392 as total number killed since 1945 in Germany.194.105.120.70 (talk) 05:44, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Gay Romney ad

A pro-Mitt Romney TV ad has Robert C. Gay, who was an employee of Romney at the time, stating that Romney helped find his missing teenage daughter, by taking time off work to set up a command center to track her down. My questions:

1) Is this true ?

2) Why was she missing ? Did she run away ?

3) What is her name ?

4) Do we have an article on her ? StuRat (talk) 21:48, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

It's true. I was kinda amazed myself when I heard it.[6]173.32.168.59 (talk) 22:55, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. The complete lack of any mention of the reason why she disappeared made me suspicious that they were hiding something. Apparently they were hiding that she went to a rave, took a massive dose of ecstasy, and shacked up with some random boy she met. I believe this might be considered inappropriate behavior, at least for a Mormon girl. :-) StuRat (talk) 00:33, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Every politician has skeletons in their closet.--WaltCip (talk) 01:20, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Snopes has a good article on this. I'm not Romney fan generally, but this was a remarkable thing he did. http://www.snopes.com/politics/romney/search.asp. 130.88.172.34 (talk) 09:56, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Walt, Gay doesn't appear to be a politician and this is the very opposite of a skeleton in Romney's cupboard. --Dweller (talk) 12:31, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Agreed that this will generally go over well among Americans as it is presented in the ad, but to me it seems kind of a weirdly inappropriate use of corporate resources. Romney basically shut the company down, or at least its executive functions, and directed the executive team to concentrate on the personal concerns of one of its members who, like Romney, happened to be a Mormon. This would be more impressive, though still inappropriate in a corporate setting, if the girl in question had been the daughter of a lowly employee. I strongly doubt that Romney ever went out of his way for an ordinary, non-Mormon employee of Bain. What this episode says to me is that Romney as president would be prepared to put the work of governing on hold in order to devote the full resources of the White House to addressing the needs of (one of) his (superrich) cronies. Marco polo (talk) 15:51, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

He would?--WaltCip (talk) 19:57, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

It is indeed a very strange ad. Since he has no problem whatsoever with depriving countless people of their jobs, hence jeopardizing their families' well-being, I suppose the ad is intended to demonstrate that he actually does have a beating heart, at least in some circumstances. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:53, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

It's somewhat similar to Ronald Reagan, who would personally help individual poor people who he met, while simultaneously signing bills certain to make their lives worse (say by cutting unemployment insurance, job training, student loans, Medicade, etc.). ...except that Romney didn't help a poor person, but rather another rich guy. StuRat (talk) 04:14, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Question appears to be asked and answered. Last I checked this wasn't Wikipedia:Reference desk/PoliticalForum. --Onorem♠Dil 04:33, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Last time I checked, you hadn't been officially appointed a wiki-nanny. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:06, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

But then, why have rules, policies and guidelines if nobody is ever allowed to refer to them without being accused of what you just said to Onorem? -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 00:19, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Ono's approach (above) was not so good. Stu's approach (below) was good. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:19, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

OK, let me mark this resolved in an attempt to stop any fights from breaking out here. StuRat (talk) 00:24, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Resolved