The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXIV

[Traitorfish]

Worth remembering, "West", in American geography, doesn't mean "West". It means "not the East coast".

It's like how the "Middle East" of Eurasia is actually in the Western half of the continent, because "East" just means "not Europe".

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Why is England named after the Angles and not the Saxons?

 

[Arakhor]

Short answer: it's not known for certain. Long answer: Here.

 

[Traitorfish]

I don't think anyone's really sure. Apparently the Germanic-speaking peoples in the British Isles were originally grouped together as "English Saxons" to distinguish them from the Saxons in Germany, which I suppose implies an "English-land" for them to be from.

Oddly, the Gaelic names for England and the English are derived from "Saxon", as is the Welsh name for the English, although they use an unrelated name for England itself.

 

[Borachio]

Short answer: it's not known for certain. Long answer: Here.

Ahem, Arakhor.

That's not terribly helpful to most of us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angles

 

[Zelig]

So that is your point?

You can also say that a game does not exist. That makes as much sense as your point.

My point is that you don't own digital goods in any meaningful sense. Is that particularly confusing?

 

[Synobun]

I have recently applied to a part-time job as a virtual administrative assistant. My responsibilities would include customer service, bookkeeping, filing, photocopying, and processing invoices.

I have no experience in these things (besides customer service and photocopying), mainly because the nearest office to me is over 40 minutes away by car. With that said, the job advertises that no experience is required because there is a month of mandatory training no matter how many credentials you may have, so at the end of your first month you're going to be at the same spot anyways.

Now, I don't want to be completely out of the loop here. Since it's virtual, everything would be done on the internet. Assuming they get back to me, what should I know? How does one file and bookkeep? How does one process an invoice? I assume it's rather easy stuff once you learn, but I'm just completely lost on it. Wikipedia does help a little bit when it comes to bookkeeping, to the point that I've done similar work before in the past but never really knew it was that.

So my question is, what do I need to know/learn/hear about being an administrative assistant?

 

[Borachio]

I don't think you need to know anything beyond how to read, write and add up.

Processing invoices are something that's likely to be peculiar to the particular organization. But in any case it's trivially easy. Usually just keeping a record of each one and a running total for each customer that they're addressed to.

Filing is just a matter of knowing where to put stuff. Do you, for example, file The Lion King under The, Lions, Kings, films, shows, or miscellaneous?

 

[Synobun]

I don't think you need to know anything beyond how to read, write and add up.

Processing invoices are something that's likely to be peculiar to the particular organization. But in any case it's trivially easy. Usually just keeping a record of each one and a running total for each customer that they're addressed to.

Filing is just a matter of knowing where to put stuff. Do you, for example, file The Lion King under The, Lions, or Kings?

So it is essentially an adult version of 'fit the block in the hole' from kindergarten?

 

[Borachio]

I'd say so, yes.

Keeping the job, if you get it, is likely the hardest - since after a week or two you'll feel like your brain is beginning to ooze out of every orifice.

It's the sort of job, which if you don't get, you shouldn't take personally. Though it's hard not to. But maybe it's not like that where you are.

 

[bhsup]

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (pronounced [medsɛ̃ sɑ̃ fʁɔ̃tjɛʁ] ( listen)), or Doctors Without Borders, is a French secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

If it's headquarters are in Switzerland, doesn't that make it Swiss, not French? It's kind of irrelevant when it was originally formed and by who, isn't it?

 

[Joecoolyo]

Maybe it was the French speaking Swiss who founded it?

 

[bhsup]

That would make most companies in the USA "English" companies...

 

[Joecoolyo]

The Swiss are a strange people

 

[Lord Baal]

If it's headquarters are in Switzerland, doesn't that make it Swiss, not French? It's kind of irrelevant when it was originally formed and by who, isn't it?

Founded by a Frenchman in Switzerland, if I remember correctly.

 

[Borachio]

Aren't there plenty of organizations with headquarters in Switzerland that aren't Swiss?

Here's a few.

 

[Grisu]

The Swiss are a strange people

Founded by a Frenchman in Switzerland, if I remember correctly.

That's probably it, I guess it depends a lot on how you define the 'nationality' of an organization. HQ would be one way, but that doesn't seem to be accurate for organizations such as FIFA, UEFA, IOC, etc. I wouldn't call those organizations Swiss but international. Same for the Red Cross, for example.

Or would you call the UN american?

With Médecins sans frontières they probably call it french since it was originally founded by a bunch of french doctors. Today it's an international organization as well.

 

[bhsup]

No, I wouldn't call the UN American. International makes perfect sense. It was just calling it "French" while not being based in France that makes no sense to me.

 

[Joecoolyo]

As an American, I reserve the right to antagonize the rest of the world by calling them strange.

 

[shadowplay]

Why do they ask you to lean forward and keep your head down in the event of a plane crash?