How do today's Germans perceive the Nazis

Question: I am curious about the perceptions of Germans today with regard to their country's past? What do they generally  have to say about Hitler and the events of the holocaust?
Answer: This is a pretty complicated topic, made all the more complicated because your question is very vague ("perceptions" covers a LOT of ground). For example:

When you say "today's germans", are you including ~3% Turkish-rooted population or %4 Islamic population?
They come from heavily antisemitic background; and 60% of whom found the way Germans handled their past "rather dounting" vs 25% "perfect")?

Are you distinguishing East vs West Germans (those who grew up under DDR)?
They have different attitudes. I'll scare up references if asked, but DDR had a lot more neo-Nazis, for example, in 1990s-2000s.

Are you talking about Germans who were alive during Nazi Germany time only? Those who were adults at the time only? Generation born right after the war? People born in 1990+? They all have different attitudes.

More specifically, you are conflating having an opinion about Holocaust and feeling personally responsible in some way among those born significantly later (the latter is clearly diminishing greatly as new generations rise)

The survey in Der Spiegel magazine said 60 percent feel neither guilty nor responsible for the Holocaust. But it also found wide support for German compensation payments to Nazi-era slave laborers and said 80 percent believe that only a small minority of Germans are anti-Semitic (source)

You are conflating Hitler and Holocaust. It's entirely plausible that someone can have shame over Holocaust but harbor nationalist feelings that make Hitler less of a hated figure.
While I don't have figures for that in Germany, one needs only to witness positive feelings for Stalin in Russia these days to reject any assumptions that people may not plausibly view Hitler/nazis positively even if they are not in favor of Holocaust.

Different polls find wildly differing results. For example, the above-quoted Der-Spiegel poll is contradicted by AFP poll:

Two-thirds (67 percent) of Germans aged between 14 and 19 agreed with the statement: "It is the duty of my generation to ensure that Nazi history and the Holocaust are not forgotten." Only 32 percent disagreed. Older Germans felt even stronger about this, with 69 percent of those aged 20 to 44 agreeing with the statement and 77 percent of those aged over 45.
The youngest Germans appeared the least concerned that their country's grisly history could repeat itself, with a 71-percent majority of those in the 14-19 age group believing such a party could never again rise to power. In contrast, 57 percent of the age group 20 to 44 and 61 percent of those over 45 took this view.
But it was the 14-19 age group that felt most personally affected by their country's history, with 59 percent saying they were "ashamed of what the Germans did during Nazism.". Other age groups were split down the middle on the issue.

One thousand people were surveyed for the poll, half of whom were between 14 and 24.
Some related further reading: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/164
Comment: Isn't it also illegal to express support for Nazis, thus making it hard to collect objective survey data? Hard to answer a question honestly when you might go to jail as a result.
Comment: "that Nazi history and the Holocaust are not forgotten" - this statement is very ambiguous, it is unclear, what does it mean. Someone may be opposing to Nazism and because of that not wishing it being forgotten. Similarly someone of nationalistic views can wish the Holocaust to be forgotten as "non-issue".
Comment: Mostly good points. Though you really can't separate Hitler from the Holocaust. His whole agenda and raison d'être was a war of extermination against the "jewish race" and you can hardly find any policy that was not directly or indirectly linked to that. That wasn't a "side project" but he really stirred up a total war of "us" vs "them" and I mean that literally. He ran a totalitarianism with that theme so there's hardly anything in that domain that is not tainted by that.
Comment: @JonathanReez The questions in these polls don't seem to be related to outright support of the Nazi Party or their goals, it's rather about how one should deal with that, so that's a fair question. Also it's different to publicly support that and answer a poll question. So there's no legal trouble and probably no afterthought for those answering those. After all freedom of speech and opinion still allows for parties like NPD and AfD to exist which ride on razors edge in terms of legality so between an organization of criminals and a criminal organization.
Answer: I'm an American who grown up in Europe and is living in Germany now, and this is a personal account on how I experience it day to day.
For most people I talk to the Nazi era is a source of considerable guilt, shame and regret. Most people have grandparents who were involved in some way, and there is often an uncomfortable silence if they bring them up for some reason.
"Oh right, my grandpa told me that story about the wolf too when I was little."
not...think...about...that other stuff
People know it's not their fault, but they do know they are living in a culture that gave rise to the Nazis, and that is an uncomfortable part of their identity. Compared to, say, Switzerland, there is a considerably greater sense of gloom in how everyday life feels.
This is slowly giving way to a new identity of being one of the architects and cornerstones of the European Union, which fills them with considerable pride, and, I think, a sense of atonement.
It's noticeable how this progresses year by year. People wave more flags at the world cup and it's okay to be proud of the winning team. The Residenztheater played an electronic-music inspired version of Goethe's Faust recently and people love it when you bring up the anti-authoritarian shit the man wrote. ("The church has a good stomach, gobbled up countries, never overate"*). Electronic Music itself is positively huge and counterculture is on the rise.
In short: They're reinventing themselves.
*Okay not everyone loves this but there are plenty
Comment: Yes, absolutely; there is a series of extremely emotional interviews from retired German politicians who said they *had* to make the EU succeed, because they *never* could let something like the Nazis ever happen again.
Comment: Fascinating observation. If France seeded the EU to take control of the European narrative and avoid another regional war on French soil; did Germany seed the EU as a form of rapprochement? I think you've touched on cultural introspection being organic and always in flux towards something else.
Answer: Although this question is a little ignorant, it's akin to asking "What do Americans think about slavery, do they feel ashamed about it?" I will answer it.
Germans are for the most part, ashamed about that part of their history.
To make sure that Germans never forget that part, German schoolkids are obligated to visit the concentration camps like Auschwitz, Dachau, or Bergen-Belsen at least once during their school career, age 9-18.
At the same time, many Germans especially the younger ones feel that they can't be blamed forever for what the Nazis did. During the European Championships of 2000, there were some instances of British hooligans shouting stuff about how they should be able to riot in Belgium and Holland (not part of Germany) because they liberated these countries. Many Europeans were shocked by this.
On a personal note: My parents took me and my brother to Dachau. I was six, I understood what had happened but it didn't have an impact on me because at six, you don't get the full extent. The one thing I remember clearly was my brother, age 9, asking my mom inside the gas chamber if it was allowed to cry.
P.S. Consider that Jews in present day Germany are treated about 100 times better by Germans, than that African-Americans are treated by white Americans. There's no institutional (governmental) bias against Jews like there is against African-Americans. I hope this gives you some pause to not ask these type of questions again.
Source: Wikipedia, history books.
Comment: **-1.** It really isn't your place (GwenKillerby) to both answer _and_ dismiss the question on basis of not wanting to answer it - and then throw in an incendiary statement about US racism to spark a long comment chain. Stage magicians call this distraction.
Comment: It actually isn't obligated (http://www.welt.de/politik/article7821654/a). It's weird to only ask for governmental racial bias, especially for you free-marketing believing Americans - e.g. "The Mark of a Criminal Record" by Devah Pager, "The Great Service Divide: Occupational Segregation and Equality in the New York City Restaurant Industry" by Bendick . About that acting white thing: http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2013/01/acting_white_theory_black_academic_achievement_based_on_other_factors.html
Comment: Besides, the post script is extra deceptive considering that Germany [isn't exactly a paragon of safety](http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/01/08/8-worst-countries-black-people-travel/) for people of African heritage. Sort of deflates the whole "Nothing to see here, move along" attitude that this answer has _and the other answers do not._
Comment: Also, -1: you presented no evidence that Germans are ashamed; NOR that once-in-10-years visit to the concentration camp memorial somehow guarantees being ashamed or feeling guilt.
Comment: I think the obligation for german schoolkids to visit former concentration camps was only for the DDR; it certainly didn't exist in the BRD in the 1970s/80s. And I request a citation for it existing today in every country.
Comment: Afaik there is no obligation to visit a concentration camp as part of the German school curriculum, I haven't for example. That being said many schools nonetheless do it and it's next to impossible to pass a German school without being taught about the holocaust in a history class at least once. With regards to how it is to be black in Germany, you'd probably need to ask a black person that, German people will tell you it's fine, but in that regards their perspective doesn't matter and with regards to the U.S. at least from afar it's a mixed bag of more or less progressive.
Answer: As said there are strong mandatory school programs to teach the young German about Nazism.
This is a very complex question because it may also vary from Bundesland to Bundesland and of course it will strongly depend on which generation you consider. The 'recent' generations usually are not interested to consider the matter and they just ignore the topic. So I would say they really absolutely don't care about that Nazi past But if some people think that "Germans are for the most part, ashamed about that part of their history" as mentioned in an other answer, this is not correct: German people are never ashamed of anything considering Germany, the German people and their history but they can wipe out their memories and simply not consider the matter.
On the opposite as I was Munich resident for several years and was often in the city of Dachau ( not far from Munich ), I was constantly shocked to see American tourists and schoolkids having fun and laughing in Dachau making fun of everything including the gas chambers while they were visiting the place. They were the only ones to behave like that.
Answer: Disclaimer: Not really sure an individual German person can answer that, as their answer is inevitably only reflective of their own cultural bubble which, in a country of 80+ million people, is not necessarily representative, no matter what they end up stating. And in terms of polls, I'd be surprised there are many polls like "Do you like the Nazis"... Like the answer you're supposed to give (... and not in the sense of any sort of legal force or whatnot, but out of moral considerations)  is: "NO!"! And I'd hope that was self-evident. So the polls that likely get highlighted are those where there's a deviation from the default. So this could also give you a warped perspective.
Anyway... First of all, because it's still somewhat of a surprise to some (despite it being mentioned everywhere, where this question is asked, including the other answers), no, talking about these topics is not a taboo. Germans do know about the Nazi era, the regime and it's crimes, the holocaust and so on. It's not being silenced, it's not being a taboo, in fact you can't successfully pass any school in Germany without having it in at least the history curriculum at least once, often in "German (language courses)" (grammar, orthography and literature, etc) it might come up as well and so on. On top of that schools might have extracurricular activities that educate about the topic, visit historical sites related to that or have a survivor of the holocaust tell their story (that becomes more difficult due to many of them dying by old age, but it was still a common thing).
The latter parts are often very insightful, because it's easy to get away, after abstractly being told, with a feeling of "Yeah I know that's bad. I got that the first time you told me". And it's something else to visually and emotionally realize the full impact and the size and scope of that. Like 6 million Jews and millions of other minorities, those are huge numbers, but the figures alone aren't really able to express the millions of individual lives, where each had a unique story of it's own. So being aware of those stories and being aware of the fact that there are millions more of those makes you realize much closer how you cannot even fathom the full extend of that crime and that it must never happen again.
Or the part that it were crimes and not an accident. Like you can find famines where similar or more people died, but these deaths were planned. These people were murdered. And they were murdered in such large numbers that they didn't just need to muster the inhumanity to slaughter someone else. Which is already the highest crime in most legal systems and something most people would think they are incapable of. They needed to solve problems of logistics. This was an industrial genocide. They had killing factories. Not just concentration camps where death was acceptable, but death camps where murder was the purpose of their existence.
Seriously those are levels of inhumanity that probably leave even some murderers appalled.
Where another part comes into play, namely that it's easy to think of those things in the abstract, in the far away, either far away in the past or far away in space. But for these millions of people you have a larger number of friends, families, neighbors, acquaintances etc who's lives have been impacted by that. Like even the tiniest villages in Germany had Jewish people being discriminated against and disappearing, if they hadn't fallen victim to progroms earlier and people have taken their property, businesses, houses etc. Even if they didn't know about the death camps, they certainly knew enough to suspect as much, given from what was happening already in their immediate vicinity and from the hatred that was officially propagated.
Those things aren't abstract, they are very real and to this day victims and perpetrators are often still alive, that's how close it actually is to today. And that's a part that is often much harder to grasp, that the loving grandpa has passed through the Hitler Youth, that another might have been in the Waffen-SS, that even if they weren't directly involved with the killing (and a lot were), they nonetheless contributed to upholding the system that did that and which was apparently doing that. Not in much secrecy or at least even the parts that were said out loud would have been more than bad enough.
Or that when it comes to "de-nazification" the occupying forces had ambitious plans but soon gave up due to cold war conflicts, leaving lists such as that:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_ehemaliger_NSDAP-Mitglieder,_die_nach_Mai_1945_politisch_t%C3%A4tig_waren
of members of the Nazi party who were still able to be involved in politics after 1945 including 2 presidents and a chancellor. Which largely ended up pardoning each other even those guys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naumann_Circle
Or how the organization tasked with the protection of the constitution was riddled with former Nazis https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/ns-vergangenheit-und-verfassungsschutz-ueber-die-seilschaften-der-altnazis-1.1150775
How pretty much most of all companies existing in Germany during the Nazi era, used slave labor and/or contributed to the war or even the genocide. Or how many were build on stolen funds.
These things have long been kept secrets and were not talked about by the immediate after war generation that tried to keep a low profile and pretended to be busy with the rebuilding of Germany and the economic growth, so it often took decades or is happened now that these things are being researched and investigated while a lot of perpetrators got away scots free.
So even though they look far away from today's perspective, 91 years since the Nazis had taken power, they are often much closer than people realize and certain things that war accepted as the status quo might still have tangible connections to that era.
That being said probably the vast majority of Germans would not see themselves as Nazis, would condemn the crimes of the Nazis and unequivocably reject their ideology. After all it sounds very anachronystic. Like the original Naziism played on topic and conspiracy theories of it's time, of a conservative believe in strong hierarchies and the leadership principle, of a bastardization of the Marxist idea of a class struggle with racist ideas to a race struggle where only one can win, of hero cults, eugenics, pagan esotherics and obviously the strong believe in a Jewish world conspiracy.
Apart from die hard Neonazis these things are rather repelling than attracting. And even they usually rather pretend the holocaust didn't happen, than to acknowledge that killing by industrial genocide was their plan according to a completely fanatic following of a completely bullshit conspiracy theory (as well as probably a large part of opportunists that took advantage of that fanaticism). That being said, in order for their quest of national pride, they still have a hard time acknowledging a failure of those epic proportions, so they can't let go of it and either must identify with the perpetrators and pretend it's a good thing or pretend that it didn't happen in the first place, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Though while dangerous with regards to their potential for crime and violence these kind of people are usually scarce in numbers.
That being said what is taught in school is not only the crimes of the Nazi era, but also crucially how they got there and what we can learn from that. Because while Hitler and parts of his inner circle might have been committed fanatics who willfully drank the lunacy of an (even at the time) already disproven conspiracy theory, it's too simplistic to just say "oh they were all mad as hell". No they won't. On the one hand there's method to the madness if you take their fucked up premises (which you absolutely shouldn't), so it's not just lack of intellect that is the problem. On the other hand it was not just the effort of committed lunatics, there were plenty enough people who were sane and intelligent enough to see what they were doing and who did it anyway. You don't start with a country high on antisemitic conspiracies to the point of a frenzy where they think genocide is an acceptable solution to a problem of their own imagination.
You start with a country where conspiracy theories against minorities are acceptable, were fringe hate groups are no longer treated as threats democracy, to the peaceful coexistence and the equal rights codified in most constitutions, but as "a valid opinion", where violence against minorities is no longer seen as a threat but "as long as it's not me... meh" or even "the less they have the more I have" or "they probably deserved that. Those [insert scapegoat] are all criminals anyway".
Where those messages are no longer contradicted but multiplied. Where it's acceptable to opportunistically throw other people under the bus for ones own benefit.
Where swift, hard and mass appealing actions trump any reasonable compromise and function independent of their actual use. Where it's no longer about a peaceful coexistence but an "us" vs "them".
Where you end up no longer talking to each other but about each other.
And while the specific themes of the Nazi brand of fascism are likely to be a matter of the past, their tactics, concepts and practices are still haunting modern politics and not just in Germany. "Us" vs "them" narratives, easy populist narratives, "strongman leaderships", looking the other way when people are thrown under the bus and seeing it as a nuissance rather than vital when the protest, fabricated conspiracy theories to perpetrate hate and all the like are still things that occur in the political discourse and far right parties are still again scoring double digit numbers. Yet there's also democratic resistance and recently millions of people protested against for example the rise of a more and more neofascist party and their ideas of "remigration" read deportation(!) of "foreigners" including those with German passports.
So TL;DR the Nazis have a pretty bad reputation in Germany, but that doesn't mean that democracy is not something that people actively need to fight for. Though with respect to Weimar Germany, there are nowadays a lot more people in favor of democracy than back then, let's hope it stays that way.
PS: Also as people here mention "shame" and "guilt" a lot here. You should probably set that in context. Like "guilt" is something experienced by the perpetrators of a crime who is aware of it being a crime. Like even the generation born during or after the war is barely in a position where you could attribute "guilt" to them. Though the generation of the perpetrators who have actively or passively contributed to the system is much more prone to that feeling of guilt. So not talking about it, keeping a low profile, starting your company chronicles after 1945 that is emblematic of a feeling of guilt. They knew what they had been doing and that it wasn't the right thing to do.
So when people complain about being guilt tripped with the Nazi crimes, they usually are not speaking about their involvement in the actual Nazi crimes, you usually hear these statements from far right politicians who like to continue where the Nazis left off, who want to go back to a untainted pride for their country and are willing to just ignore the dark parts. So again that guilt does not relate to the historic Nazis that relates to their present actions and their unwillingness to accept the past for what it is.
Similar things apply to "shame", which you experience if you regret the crimes you did or which may be pushed upon you by attributing you to a group of criminals. So feeling shame for the Nazi crimes usually means identifying yourself with them. Now here it gets tricky, because on the one hand a "wasn't me", is correct and a not identification with that is a valid position on the other hand just saying "wasn't me" also tends to ignore the legacy effects of that where despite it not being you, you are still living in the world where this is a past event that shaped the course of history. Like there was a case where a heir to a German company just said how they just wants to enjoy the luxury of their heritage and people pointed out how that heritage comes from the fortune their parents and grandparents made by slave labor during the Nazi era. Which they denied but later research confirmed. So despite not being a Nazi yourself you might still find yourself in a situation where you're current position builds upon Nazi crimes.
Though is that a reason to be ashamed or shame someone? Not really, again it's not their personal guilt, what matters is what they do with the situation, whether they take their own path forward and try to set things right as best as they can or whether they deny or even glorify that past and build up their own crimes.
Also, while not being taboo in Germany and being extensively taught in school and outside of it. It might still get annoying for Germans if all you ever talk about are Nazis. Like after all that era officially ended almost 80 years ago and since then lots of shit happened in Germany that current day Germans are more able to tell you about then about things they haven't witnessed themselves and just learned from others. Like it's tiring if the default meme for Germans is one from 80 years ago, like it would be nice if people memed something more recent. Which of course isn't meant to downplay what happened or meant to silence anybody asking good faith questions.
And with respect to national pride. To some extend Germans take pride in an anti-pride. Like Schopenhauer put it nicely essentially saying national pride is for people who have nothing else to be proud of, if you'd be good at anything or actually involved in something you'd realize how much potential for improvement there is and would work towards that, while if you're really that miserable that pride in your country is all that makes your life, then you end up defending even it's most egregious flaws with vigor.
So there a sense of pride in not having a national pride. Germans still love it when their soccer team occasionally remembers how to play well or wins a world cup or how Made in Germany signals quality (at least it used to). So there's plenty of subtle pride without having a flag at every house.
So with regards to "shame and guilt" the position is usually not one of personal shame or guilt for the actions itself, but seeing it more as a task to do your best to never repeat that, because that's something the current and future generations are able to do, without a time machine.
PPS: Also this rejection of national pride can actually also be quite liberating. Like in many cultures there's a cultural burden on people's shoulders. Where the ancient generation is presented as "the golden generation", like the U.S. literally named people born at the start of the last century The Greatest Generation. Like that is a comparison you can only fail to. Like how can you improve upon such a superlative? Like sure it might serve to some as an inspiration to be better, but then again, they were the greatest... Also if you look too close you might find out that not all they did was great either. So if in comparison your ancestors fucked up beyond repair, you kinda have a clean slate in terms of "make your parents proud" and "you are the last in a long standing history of success, don't you dare to fail". Instead whatever you do, at least you didn't commit the holocaust, which is a bar that shouldn't be too high... And if grumpy old people complain about the good for nothing millennials you could just subtly drop eh "Well let's talk about what you did when you were my age..." or "Who again did you had as your mentors?"?
Answer: I am a foreigner living in Germany since some years. Thus, I can see them with an external eye.
I am watching them, because I am curious. Not for this Hitler-thing. I am only curious, what are they thinking.
I explain, what I've found.
There is a multi-layer nothing in the heads.
Taboos.
The first layer of the nothing in their minds are the taboos. Not only Hitler & WW2 topic is a total taboo, also all political matter. And anything what even neighbours politics. Everything. The main stand of the today's Germans, that they don't talk about politics. They don't talk about the economics of their countries. They don't talk about that the traffic control lamps are badly organized in their home city.
It is also strongly advicable to avoid these topics with them, because as a foreigner I have to follow their ways and not they mine.
However, sometimes they talk, but they do only rarely. It can also happen, that on some indirect way, sometimes, becomes clear what are they thinking. These are rare opportunities, as we can get a simple moment, what is in their minds in the rare moments, which is something.
Fear.
The second layer of the nothing is the fear. It is not a visible, direct fear, for that they have the custom defense mechanism (the taboos). It is visible only in indirect ways or in some extraordinary cases. It has mainly two reasons:

Also Germany has lost 5-6 million lives in the war. It means, that most currently living German has family members, who actually, really, died. This topic also I avoid. Other ww2 topics I avoid only because it is here the custom.
There is also an existential fear. They fear that if they say something badly, they may be stigmatized, even if they didn't think so. And stigmatization leads to social marginalization, and to the loss of his/her well-paying job. Having seen the late, softening communism with my own eyes, I think I can compare the two. Our fear, from the commies, was lighter, as the existential fear of the Germans today. (Btw: consolidated dictatorships work mainly by simple existential threat in the all-days, they pull out the police baton only in extraordinary situations.)

Simple ideas. Too simple ones.
In average, yearly 1-2 times I have the opportunity that I can talk with a real German with real politics. We, middle/east Europeans, are probably extremists in their eyes. They are soft, unmotivated in my eyes. They know a lot more, as they say, but nothing really serious. For example, Merkel's popularity index sunk from 40% to 35% after she (maybe intentionally) catastrophically botched the handling of the so-named "migrant crysis". This was their collective reaction. And now Merkel will likely win again. In my home country, the government had collapsed for far less and that minister-president, who botched it, never had been elected again.
Their ideas are simple. A good measurement of the complexity of the political views, if you see, how long are the causility chains in it. Their are short and naive.
Practically all of them refuses the nazi past.
They really refuse, not only say. Nobody wants war, dictatorship and similar bad things. They want peace, calmness, prosperity. They focus much more on economical things (= money, tax, etc). Politics stinks here, money and job is what is important (what is also taboo, but on a different reason).
Comment: Living in Germany all my life I made the complete opposite experience in every single one of your main points.
Comment: I'm really curious in what alternative version of Germany you are living.
Comment: Holy shit *what* kind of a weird view do you have of the world as a whole? Anyway. The correct use of air quotes there is *refugee "crisis"*. That's about all I still have to say.
Comment: Did you honestly just now present a socialdarwinistic, fascist thought as something that be genuinely important? Right when I thought your warped view of reality couldn't get any worse but it seems like the pieces are all falling into place. Maybe I'm actually beginning to understand where you get your first two nothings from and let me assure you that many others, foreigner or German, would have extremely different experiences. Which also explains why Gnasher, Philipp and I don't understand which Germany you were talking about.
Comment: There is indeed a multi-layered nothing. This answer has nothing to do with German reality on any of the layers you bring up.
Comment: @Philipp I am sorry to hear it. Maybe also our viewpoints differ a lot. :-)
Comment: @gnasher729 Sorry for the late react. Note, to get to the fourth layer of the **nothing**, I already had to decode 3 layer of it. Possible, that the refusal is not so strong. But what they are really thinking, is hidden so deeply below the taboos, the fear and the idiotism, that I don't believe it could really matter.
Comment: @Jan If you think so, you are free to vote the post down. I am sorry to say, but exactly this is what I see in you. Possibly you cover your opinions much better as I could see that, but honestly all my human knowledge says, that you have not too much to hide. For example, that Merkel could survive the 2015 "refugee" crisys with 5% popularity loss, that says everything.
Comment: @Jan Btw, sorry for violating your taboos, but I think in such a context it is not so bad as it would be IRL. Someone said on the internet :-) what is really going on, is that you are doing everything perfectly. As there was the WW1, you served your empire perfectly. In the WW2, you served the "Reich" perfectly. In the cold war, the DDR was more hard-line communist than the CCCP was. And now, in the liberalism... you are more liberal than San Francisco. Problem is, that odds are that this is the last world system what you serve perfectly.
Comment: @Jan Finally I understood, what is going on! I think, your problem is that the text makes clear that I am not a liberal. That is right, but please note: 1. it is not a focal point of the text, only you can see that 2. I similarly oppose all the other systems what you served so pretty well in the last centuries. | I think, some critical tone would be very important in the sense of the long-term survival of your people; a ruling ideology is never your friend, it is its nature.
Comment: @Jan (Btw, not very directly attaching the post, but might be important: instead of vehemently hunting the "nazi past", and any enemies of the system, I believe you should work on to make your country lesser idiot. Most the Germans I have worked with, were simply... lazy and stupid, and completely lacked *eigeninitiative*. They did very precisely their work task, and that makes you still very good, but here their comparative advantage on the job market ended here. This stupidity has economical consequences, you know? No, not the current war makes the current... *krise*,
Comment: @Jan the cause of the current *krise* is that you stopped thinking, you stopped create companies, all of you, including the company owners, only see the others what they are doing and copies that. I think, also your political negligence roots imho there. I have no idea, what could have made that with you and I am sure that it will have consequences soon.


Display and Edit stars in Visualforce

Question: I need to Display 5 stars in visualforce then click edit button and select 3 stars then change any object number field have 3
EX: http://jsfiddle.net/grv_bajpai/msLLQ/8/
This link wise display images and select stars are store in a field
If any idea
Comment: So.... You're halfway there. What is the question exactly ?
Comment: Hi CloudHugger, My question is display 5 stars in visualforce after that click  edit button and select 3 stars But save 3 stars into any object  number field have 3
Comment: Hi CloudHugger,If you know any idea can you please give me suggestion
Comment: @mohith suggestion looks like would work fine. If you dont want the libraries and javascript and want to stick with standard visualforce, you would need to have two images available - grey star and yellow star. Your page would retrieve value at setup, and then use loop to render 5 stars. Use conditional image url depending on whether loop value is equal or less than field value. Each image would have link action associated with it to pass value if clicked back to controller, and then refresh the panel the stars are in. This is relatively straight forward code so will leave with you to write.
Answer: Here is a small implementation of how this can be done .It uses Javascript remoting in SFDC and uses a jquery based plugin.
There is a unmanaged package to get the code .Please download from here
Comment: The git has all code .inspect element the browser to see if it is importing all js files directly
Comment: Hi Mohith, I need to convert from number field into star rating format. Ex: i create Rating__c number field(5) in account object that field is possible to get the stars(5) rating format in visualforce page using jquery.If you have any idea about that can you please give to me examples

Display and Edit stars in Visualforce


Trying to identify a baby bird seen in Palermo, Sicily

Question: I'm trying to identify a baby bird that i saw in a pond in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Unfortunately i did not see any parents!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Robert
Answer: It looks like the chick of a Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) or Coot (Fulica atra), probably the former. Both species are common on ponds.
Comment: The moorhen chicks on the picture here indeed have this similar German/Belgian flag coloured beak: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Gallinula_chloropus_-Regents_Park%2C_London%2C_England_-chicks-8.jpg
Answer: it's a chick of Common Moorhen. Shape and color of the bill allow to tell it apart from the coot's one.
Also the behaviour can help: the moorhen often walks on floating vegetation whereas the coots prefer to swim.


iPhone 4s change Apple id

Question: A friend has given me his old iPhone but it still has his Apple id on iTunes and the cloud and won't allow me access. How do I erase this and input my details instead
Comment: iCloud, messages, facetime, iTunes and Appstore and game center are all locations in settings where logins using appleId's exist.  All of them need to be changed to your appleID.   If findmyiPhone is activated the previous owner will need to supply his password in order to log out of iCloud.  You might also want to consider wiping the phone and setting it up from scratch (Settings > Reset > Erase all content and settings), however again you will need the previous owners appleid password if findmyiPhone is active.
Comment: Have your friend read through this & unlock the device, then wipe it & start with your own fresh Apple ID - https://support.apple.com/en-is/HT201351
Answer: Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store, click on the Apple ID at the top and you will be presented with the option to sign out of the currently logged-in account. Sign in with your account and you will then be able to add your own apps, music etc.

iPhone 4s change Apple id


Does Time Machine do file level backup and restores?

Question: If I were to backup my Mac with Time Machine does it do a file level backup or a block level backup? I don't want want some deleted files on my Mac to be stored on my backup HDD and even for restores. For example if I put back the data on the HDD to my Mac does it do a file level or block level restore?
Answer: It does file-level versioned backup. It is intended as a set-and-forget type of universal backup, so as long as your backup drive is at least as big as your OS drive, all you need to do is keep it available and backups will be taken care of. When you need to restore a single file, you can use Time Machine to enter the restore browser, but if you need to recover a complete system, you can either do that from the macOS installer or the recovery mode.
Answer: Time Machine works with individual files and folders. You can set up Time Machine exclusions in System Preferences → Time Machine → Options. Any files or folders in this list won't be backed up and won't be restored.


Fluid, type liquid ignores domain when inflow

Question: Just to start off and explain things, I have two objects one is a ico-sphere which is the fluid emitter and the domain is a skull which I baked both setting and mesh. when I hit play it works fine, the skull disappears and the fluid emitter emits fine with the exception that it ignores the domain. Because domains disappear, I had duplicated the skull (see image). The skull normals are looking outward, and I notice that the small cube that appears when ever an object becomes a domain appears outside, instead of inside, is that the issue?. Thank you
Answer: I learned that the fluid simulator domain is always square. I am treating the skull as an effector now but the liquid is falling through ignoring the obstacle completely. I've checked the normals of the skull and they are all outward. My scale is set in all objects.
Answer: Fixed the problem with an addon that has an obstacle Inverse feature. The addon is called FLIP Fluids.


Ionization rate in atomic hydrogen

Question: In perturbation theory (QM), i found the graph of ionization rate with various parameter like momentum of ejected electron, intensity, frequency, field strength of incident laser field. But i am unable to extract the physical meaning out of it.
Answer: Ionization is when an EM neutral atom gains EM charge by gaining or losing electrons.

The interaction of atoms and molecules with sufficiently strong laser pulses leads to the ionization to singly or multiply charged ions. The ionization rate, i.e. the ionization probability in unit time, can only be calculated using quantum mechanics. In general, the analytic solutions are not available, and the approximations required for manageable numerical calculations do not provide accurate enough results. However, when the laser intensity is sufficiently high, the detailed structure of the atom or molecule can be ignored and analytic solution for the ionization rate is possible.

There are two types:

Tunnel ionization

Tunnel ionization is ionization due to quantum tunneling. In classical ionization, an electron must have enough energy to make it over the potential barrier, but quantum tunneling allows the electron simply to go through the potential barrier instead of going all the way over it because of the wave nature of the electron.

Multiphoton ionization

In practice, tunnel ionization is observable when the atom or molecule is interacting with near-infrared strong laser pulses. This process can be understood as a process by which a bounded electron, through the absorption of more than one photon from the laser field, is ionized. This picture is generally known as multiphoton ionization (MPI).

In both cases, the electron is ejected and the atom becomes an ion, but in tunneling, the  electron needs a sufficiently strong laser field to go through the potential barrier, and with MPI, the electron absorbs multiple photons to overcome the barrier.
Please see here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionization
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1412/1412.7974.pdf

Ionization rate in atomic hydrogen


salesforce Org and group level security

Question: A company has 2 franchises, both of which are a part of the same Salesforce org. The CEO manages both franchises, and should be able to see and communicate with all users. The CEO further needs to ensure other users can only see users from their own franchise. Please provide a comprehensive solution that meets all the above requirements.
Comment: I think you may need to use two separate orgs if you need to hide the users from other users and allow some user to see other user. You scope is not clear so that is about all that can be said at this point.....What to you mean by "see' and "communicate" are you talking chatter? If that is the extent then someone may have an answer for you
Comment: We have only one org and two franchises. "see" means He can see user records,"Communicate" means he can perform some opertaions on users record.
Comment: I agree with Eric, people with "Manage User" permission will be able to see and manage all Users. you can apply any sharing setting over there. So best is you need to have 2 separate org. Else you can specifically identify Admins (a handful) that have manage user permission and that can EDIT all the users details.
Comment: There are successful implementations of this, including one of salesforce's most senior clients, Merrill Lynch, which has 25,000 total licenses (last I heard), with small branches of about 5-10 people (a single office worth of financial advisors) where all data is completely isolated from every other branch-- they are effectively running thousands of orgs within a single combined instance. I've also heard of smaller projects, but the names escape me, of companies that have successfully pulled off the one physical org, two virtual org look.
Answer: This is perfectly possible with at least Enterprise Edition. You'll want to start by setting all sharing settings to private. Then, fashion your role hierarchy so that the CEO is at top, with two branches, one for each organization; assign the appropriate users to the right roles. Create some sharing rules so that each branch has the necessary access to related records. Configure user sharing so that a user in a particular branch can only see other members in their branch.
Setup delegated admins that can reset passwords, etc, for users they can see. No user should have Modify All Data or View All Data, but instead be set to the top level role for the appropriate branch for sharing purposes (use the Hierarchy Sharing feature of the organization wide defaults). At this point, all that's left is to build out page layouts and profiles for the appropriate groups on each side. A properly configured org will appear as two distinct orgs to users that are not the CEO (e.g. they will only see their own data), but will appear as a merged view of both orgs to the CEO.
This type of setup is non-trivial and requires careful planning. If you have any doubts, try contacting a consultant, or engage technical support. They can help with the most basic questions on how to set this up correctly. As noted in comments, users with System Administrator profiles will have full access to all data. Usually this is one or a few limited number of users that are mutually exclusive to either org (in other words, they are isolated from employees of both orgs so that data won't leak), and are trusted not to take advantage of the data in either org. It's also possible to lock down System Administrator users so they can only login from certain locations, or at certain times, to reduce the risk of data loss/theft/corruption/etc.

salesforce Org and group level security


How can cell phones location be detected?

Question: Specifically: cell phone not connected to internet, not used to talk, just powered
on. What if it's powered off?
Comment: If the phone is turned off, you can still detect it visually :)
Comment: If a cell-phone is powered off, it' *can't* be detected.
Comment: @fake- only if you remove the battery! Powering off using the switch doesn't necessarily do what you think it will do. There are some excellent espionage techniques which can locate turned off phones.
Comment: Phones don't connect to the internet directly, they first connect to the phone 'network' first (GSM/NMT/etc) and then connect to the internet over that network. Some phones have build-in WIFI which gives a direct connection to the internet, but that's not a central network that can be monitored.
Comment: @RoryAlsop - I would argue that if your phone can be woken up remotely, or continues to emit some sort of identifiable RF, it's not actually "Off", just sleeping or in a low power state. Ahhh semantics.
Comment: If it's powered on, it'll be registered on (or trying to get on) the GSM network. Then it's just triangulation between cells. If you know more about the specific phone, or can force it to transmit, you can direction-find it.
Answer: When a cell phone is on, its radio talks to base stations, so even at a simple level, the carrier knows roughly where the phone is.
Using triangulation and signal strength to nearby stations you can get a very accurate location fix.
If your phone is turned off then it won't be found (unless it is a target of high level espionage, in which case it might be communicating...
Answer: Even further to what Rory and Andrew said, a cellphone could indeed be detected even if completely powered-off, with battery removed.
Every cellphone contains multiple antennas, which are tuned, resonant circuits. You could (in theory, with the proper equipment) detect the presence of a cellphone in a given direction with radar techniques, detecting a peak in reflection at a particular frequency (maybe slightly off the nominal frequency of the antenna, or where it's supposed to be more untuned/reflective). And with triangulation, you could pinpoint the precise location of the powered-off cellphone (or of multiple cellphones)
Science fiction? Well, just consider that it's similar to the cheaper technique used in RF security tags (where absorption is measured instead of reflection)... If you need an analogy, the difference between RF security tags and what I'm talking about here is the same difference that there's between radiography and backscatter x-ray imaging.
Of course in this way, if the cellphone is totally powered-off, you will only be able to know that there's a cellphone there. You will not be able to identify the cellphone. But again this is supposing there's no backdoor in the cellphone RF chips enabling them to work like an "high-distance RFID tag"... Beaming high power RF to the device could give it enough juice to let it reply with an IMEI...
Is this even more science fiction? Well, something similar it's been done in 1946. Are you really sure a proper passive, high-distance identification is not feasible with today's technology?...
Comment: I wouldn't call "beaming high power RF to the device ... to let it reply with an IMEI" particularly *passive*.
Answer: As well as Rory's answer, many modern phones now have GPS on board and many use Assisted GPS which broadcasts the position.
Also remember that a "switched off" phone may not be entirely off (more of a standby) so may still be maintaining some form of contact with the network. Only if you remove the battery can you be sure it is powered-off
Answer: If powered off you could NOT detect the IMEI. End of story.
With a very focused transmission over a short distance you may be able to detect absorption reflections, but any other wiring or electronic devices would certainly produce enough false positives for this to be unreliable even to 007 over a usable distance, you certainly couldnt detect a specific cell phone.
If were playing the 007 game, you could however bug a cell-phone, a SIM card or micro sd card could be modified to do this in theory, but you would probably need the resources of a fab to achieve in practice.


How to Prove Characteristic Function of the Rationals is Discontinuous Using Sequences

Question: The characteristic function of the rationals $$\chi_{\mathbb{Q}}(x)=\begin{cases}1&x\in\mathbb{Q}\\0 & x\not\in\mathbb{Q}\end{cases}$$ is discontinuous for all $x$. I have seen a proof that $\chi_{\mathbb{Q}}$ is discontinuous at all rational numbers $x_0$ by constructing a sequence $\langle S_n\rangle$ of irrational numbers which converge to the rational number $x_0$ as $n\rightarrow\infty$, which is possible because both the rationals and the irrationals are dense in $\mathbb{R}$. Then $$\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}{\chi_\mathbb{Q}(S_n)}=0\neq\chi_\mathbb{Q}(x_0)=1,$$ and thus the function cannot be continuous. My question is this: How do we justify that $$\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}{\chi_\mathbb{Q}(S_n)}=0$$ in a rigorous manner? I understand the definition of a limit of a function using a $\delta-\epsilon$ argument, and I understand the definition of a limit of a sequence, but I am confused as to how to apply a $\delta-\epsilon$ argument to a limit of a function evaluated at a sequence.
NB: I am not looking for an explanation of how to prove that $\chi_\mathbb{Q}$ is continuous by a direct calculation of the limit; I am specifically interested in how to do this using sequences.
Comment: Let $\varepsilon \gt 0$. Then for all $n\in \mathbb N$, $|\chi_{\Bbb Q}(s_n)|\lt \varepsilon$.
Answer: For a sequence a $\delta - \epsilon$ argument is replaced by a $N-\epsilon$ argument.  If somebody claims the limit of a sequence is $L$, you should be able to give them an $\epsilon \gt 0$ and they can find an $N$ where all the terms after $N$ are within $\epsilon$ of $L$.  The idea is the same as $\delta - \epsilon$.  The values of the squence can bounce around as much as they want early, but eventually must all be within $\epsilon$ of $L$.
In this case it is easy because the sequence is identically $0$, so for any $\epsilon$ you can choose $N=1$ and it works.
Comment: Yes, that is correct.  If you pick all irrationals, all the terms are $0$
Comment: So basically we're finding the limit of the sequence $\langle\chi_\mathbb{Q}(S_n)\rangle$ as $n\rightarrow\infty$?
Comment: Thank you so much, that makes sense and I appreciate the quick responses! I have accepted your answer and tried to upvote it, but my vote won't show publicly since I don't have enough reputation yet.


Single-purpose app to prevent .DS_Store creation under Mavericks

Question: Asepsis is currently not working under Mavericks. It's, in my knowledge, the only single-purpose app existing for this job. Therefore, what is the less intrusive solution to prevent .DS_Store creation after the update to Mavericks?
Answer: Asepsis updates have been officially released for Mavericks compatibility - http://asepsis.binaryage.com/
I've personally tested it, working like a charm!
Answer: The free app TinkerTool 5.0, which has many functions, can be used on Mavericks to disable creating .DS_Store files on network volumes, but I do not believe this has any effect on .DS_Store files on your local Mac.
Comment: The setting can also be enabled with `defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool true`, but it only disables creating .DS_Store files on network volumes.
Comment: Actually what TinkerTool does is to provide a GUI that generates many different defaults write files. It also keeps track of the ones that it creates, and it can de-install all of them using the Reset button, which puts all customizations back to their pre-TinkerTool state. This is very useful because otherwise if you create a lot of your own defaults write files, you may not remember what they all are and how to reset things back the way they were.
Answer: BlueHarvest does not prevent the creation of .DS_Store files, but it can delete them automatically.

You can also delete .DS_Store files by using find:
<code>find / -name .DS_Store -delete
</code>
Comment: This is actually the closest solution to what I'm looking for. However, there is a quiet important delay between the creation of a given .DS_Store file and it detection by BlueHarvest for removal. In the situation, for example, where you're a creating an archive for a windows user, this can be annoying...


Container View not available in Xcode Storyboard

Question: Does anyone have any idea why I wouldn't be able to find the Container View in Xcode when on a storyboard?  I've added on in this project, but now I can't seem to be able to add another one
Answer: I think container views are only available in storyboards.  If you are editing an individual view file (an xib), then containers are not available.


How to update Wordpress plugins to latest using SVN

Question: I can get latest WP using latest.tar.gz http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
How to get latest plugins?
I checked about svn i need to know when new version is out and in command svn sw put latest link so thats bad option.
Trunk is bad couse its development so that means it can be not be stable therefore not called stable version.
So for WP ill use link latest.tar.gz
But what to do with plugins? They have one more problem. They dont have latest. I could use svn if there would be a way to auto get latest without checking all plugins im using do they have new version number and entering it in svn external file.
So whats best solution? Is there autochecker? Autodownloader? In website i know but its slow and my server has time limits witch is too small for update to finish.
Answer: If you know Subversion basics and can work with it (and write at least some bash-code), it will be feasible task
All plugins placed in common repo http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org, each plugin is subdir of the root plugins.svn.wordpress.org/PLUGINNAME, published versions (all, not only releases) stored as directories in tags: plugins.svn.wordpress.org/PLUGINNAME/tags/
In order to check new versions of plugins, you have to

Know monitored URL
Find, install and configure commit-monitor (I know none for *Buntu) or perform svn ls plugins.svn.wordpress.org/PLUGINNAME/tags/ + ... + in cron (when ls output will change - you have new version)
Checkout latest tag of lugin
Save it to correct server's location
Answer: I've recently forked a python script to do this, see https://github.com/nikdow/wordpress_plugins

The script follows WP plugin guidelines and parses /trunk/readme.txt to find out the Stable Tag (or trunk) that is the current release. It will switch to a new tag only when /trunk/readme.txt indicates it is the latest stable release. It will sync from trunk under the same conditions that WP will do so when checking for updates, i.e. Stable Tag is set to "trunk" or the tag mentioned in Stable Tag does not exist.
If it's trunk, the script does an svn update without checking whether it's needed.
If it's a tag, it will only execute an svn switch if the Stable Tag has changed from the tag currently fetched.

The reason for using SVN to update plugins (and themes) is to avoid giving apache write access to the directories, which creates a security issue.  Most of the hacks I've seen involve getting apache to write or modify a .php file in the plugin, theme or core directory.
I run the script from root cron:
13 6,18 * * * /home/lamp/wordpress/update_plugins/update_plugins.py
Occasionally because of PHP OPcache it needs service apache2 reload to clear the cache, so you could add that to the end of the script to be on the safe side.


Preloader doesn't work online

Question: My preloading bars work fine on my computer, but get all crazy when put online.. they either stop in the middle and the actual swf doesn't appear, or they don't work at all.
How can i solve this?
Comment: It's hard to say anything without seeing some code
Answer: Have you got event listeners at every stage to make sure all your code is happening in an orderly queue?
If the results online aren't constant, then it's probably because of the order in which things are loading. When you test it on your computer, it all loads instantly, so you don't notice if there is a problem with your load order.
For example, if you aren't checking that your preloader has been instantiated (actually added to the stage) before you try to change the values in it (update the percentage, etc), then you probably won't notice a problem locally, as the preloader will be added quick enough for there to never be a problem. Online, it may take an extra second or two to add the preloader, and that could be long enough for your code to have gone on without it and attempted to update it's values even though it doesn't technically exist yet. It may not be that exact situation, but you get the idea.
Some code would help.

Preloader doesn't work online


Is there a "Restore Down" event in VB.NET

Question: What event would fit when I click the "Restore Down" button in the title bar then it restores down the main form together with the other form with the specific size I declared.
I am new to vb.net and still exploring new functions. Please help!
Answer: Apologizes for c# solution, perhaps this will help you to convert it to VB.Net. I don't know any better solution available but this should work.
private FormWindowState? previousWindowState;
protected override void OnSizeChanged(EventArgs e)
{
    if (this.Bounds == this.RestoreBounds && previousWindowState.HasValue && previousWindowState.Value == FormWindowState.Maximized)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Restored down");
    }
    previousWindowState = this.WindowState;
    base.OnSizeChanged(e);
}

Comment: It gave me some idea. I put my code in the else condition. It worked. Thanks for the help (: @Sriram
Comment: @user3105280 If this post answered your question, please click on the check mark next to it to mark it as the accepted answer.
Answer: Adapted Srirams answer to vb.net
Private Sub MotionManagerDialog_Resize(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.SizeChanged
    If Me.Bounds.Equals(Me.RestoreBounds) And Not PreviousWindowState.Equals(Nothing) And
                        PreviousWindowState.Equals(System.Windows.Forms.FormWindowState.Maximized) Then
        ' Captures restore down action
    End If
    PreviousWindowState = Me.WindowState
End Sub

Answer: To clarify Wylie's answer: You also need to declare PreviousWindowState somewhere:
Dim PreviousWindowState As FormWindowState


Heritage and Inheritance

Question: Could someone please explain to me what is the difference in meaning between heritage and inheritance and give an example of each? Thank you
Comment: This is an interesting question, and I hope you ask some more. That said, it would be nice if you expounded a little bit on what you already understand, and where you are still confused (that way, people won't spend time explaining something that your already know). For more about this feel free to have a look at [this question](http://meta.ell.stackexchange.com/questions/439), along with some of the answers there as well. Welcome aboard!
Comment: A related (but not duplicate) question: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/17769/what-is-the-difference-between-legacy-and-inheritance
Comment: It's amazing the number of random answers –deleted and none–posted by 1 rep users who then go on to disappear.
Answer: Both "heritage" and "inheritance" refer to things that you get from your parents or ancestors or others you have some association with, after their deaths. "Inheritance", when used literally, refers to money, real estate, or other tangible property. "Heritage" refers to intangible things, like ideals, knowledge, and moral standards.
For example, you might say, "My inheritance from my grandfather included $50,000 and a house in Virginia." But, "Our founding fathers left us a heritage of liberty and justice."
The verb "inherit" can be used for either idea. "I inherited my father's antique car collection." Or, "I inherited my father's love of baseball."
Comment: "Heritage" can be used even if the people you got it from are still alive: "My parents have taught me a lot about my Hungarian heritage."
Comment: Or genetics: _I inherited my mother's blue eyes_.
Comment: @Martha You could quibble over that. In your example, your "Hungarian heritage" may have been taught to you by your mother, but she didn't "create" it -- that heritage is something passed down over many generations. Like if I say, "My teacher taught me calculus", I don't suppose that means the teacher invented it. If I said, "My family as a heritage of working in aviation", when the only person before me who worked in aviation was my father and he's still alive ... maybe, but I don't think most people would say that.
Comment: @J.R. "or genetics": Quite true. Might be other things one could "inherit" too -- anything that you get from parents or mentors or other associated people.
Answer: Heritage is something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth or heritage can refer to practices that are passed down through the years, from one generation to the next. While Inheritance is something that has quality, characteristics, or other immaterial possession, received from progenitors or predecessors.
Answer: I think heritage is deeper in meaning. It really has to do with the ideals, morals, way of living, godly or otherwise attributes passed down the line from one generation to another, while inheritance could mean material things inherited or equally passed down the line. Joshua passed down heritage in Joshua 24:15b. That was good.
Answer: By reason of birth do you possess a Heritage, by reason of death do you possess an Inheritance.  Both Heritage and Inheritance can be material or immaterial possessions (the sun, moon, and stars are a heritage), but there is a more etheral quality to your Heritage and a more concrete quality to your Inheritance.
Answer: heritage is any property that is inherited from the past.
heritage comes in different form  natural  and cultural heritage.
the natural features like the sun, moon and any natural feature you know.
cultural  heritage can be intangible and tangible.
the tangibility of cultural heritage centres on our experiencial source of knowledge.
that is things we see, touch etc.
so is food heritage?
yes what ever may be the case, tangible heritage can be seen in our cultures.
our  dresses, food ect. are all tangible heritage.
thank you.

Heritage and Inheritance


Site search plus google search

Question: I am searching for a way to have the drupal search pull up pages from the drupal site PLUS search results from google in general (not site specific search). Does anyone know some direction how to accomplish this?
Answer: You need to check with this two Google Site Search & Google Custom Search Engine modules.
Comment: Thank you, but I am looking for a way to search all of google, not just specific sites. (it looks like there might be a way with adsence which I am investigating)

Site search plus google search


Static pressure in flowing fluid

Question: I saw in a video that static pressure is simply  hydrostatic pressure which is due to weight of fluid but when we see in venturimeter, fluid  rises in capillary tube due to static pressure. My question is that why fluid rises up while static pressure is due to its weight and there shouldn't be pressure in uppermost point of flowing fluid?
Answer: Your understanding what is a static pressure term in the Bernoulli's equation is wrong. Considering this illustration :

Venturi effect in venturimeters measures static pressure differences between high and low cross-section points, namely :
$$ \rho g (h_{1}-h_{2})={\frac {\rho v_{2}^{2}}{2}}-{\frac {\rho v_{1}^{2}}{2}} \tag 1,$$
here $h_1,h_2$ are water column heights in a measuring tubes above baseline  of a pipe. You have confused them with a depth (inside of pipe or a container). Of course elevation differences also  makes contribution, but usually they can be ignored in most cases, as it is done deriving venturi effect from Bernoulli's principle.
So, as (1) equation shows- differences in static pressure are due to differences in dynamic pressure. If you would stop the flow, then dynamic pressure both terms would be equal 0, and accordingly this would result in measuring tubes fluid height equalization, namely $h_1=h_2$. In this case water level in a measuring tubes should drop to pipe baseline. Hence, main cause of venturi effect is dynamic pressure, and not the static one. Static one is just the consequence of dynamic, due to the Bernoulli's principle which says that these types of pressures must compensate each other.
Comment: Obviously according to bernoulis equation if static pressure decreases , dynamic pressure increases , but my question is that if weight is not responsible for static pressure than what contributes to static pressure
Comment: Seems you didn't follow my argument. Static pressure can't change without a reason. It changes only as response to a dynamic pressure change. For example as in my given picture,- mass conservation of water says that volumetric flow rate $cm^3/1s$ should be same at each cross section of pipe. This gives rise to a greater flow speed in narrow pipe places (like pictured in the middle). Greater speed - is an attribute of greater dynamic pressure. This in turn summons a system response - _lower_ static pressure at these narrow places. I.E. there is no static pressure without dynamic counterpart.
Comment: Pressure change of object submerged inside of a fluid within depth $h$ is called _hydrostatic pressure_. That pressure is not the same as Bernoulli's laws "static pressure" term talks about. Above all things they also differ in $h$ sign,- hydrostatic pressure positive direction is down, while Bernoulli's laws static pressure positive direction is UP. I.e. the higher column in Venturi measuring tube will show a higher static pressure, while in hydrostatic pressure it's reverse - bigger depth shows higher hydrostatic pressure.

Static pressure in flowing fluid


Laravel Homestead vhost configuration

Question: I am using Laravel homestead. For a project I need a special vhost configuration, where should I define this?
Answer: You add a new folder mapping into the "sites" block of Homestead.yml, like so:
- map: myapp.com
  to: /home/vagrant/Code/myapp/public

That's all there is to adding a new vhost. To modify it, edit the appropriate file in /etc/nginx/sites-available. In the above case, this would be /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp.com
See here for example customization of a newly added vhost. Note that the quick tip linked here uses Homestead Improved, a slightly enhanced version of Homestead, as described here.
More Homestead related posts can be found on our site via the Homestead tag.
Answer: I have been looking for a solution for customizing nginx vhosts. You want to do it in provisioning, or better: after provisioning otherwise Homestead will overwrite any changes you have done manually to the vhost files.
One solution is the one I found here:
https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/requests/homestead-provision-deletes-custom-nginx-settings
Basically you create configuration files in a folder in the host machine, map that extra folder to the vagrant machine, then in your after.sh file (which is run by homestead after the normal provisioning is finished) you just copy all of them to nginx's sites_available folder.

Laravel Homestead vhost configuration


No land to start on Agrarian Skies?

Question: I just started on Agrarian Skies, and when I spawn in a normal world, there is no land to stand on. I immediately lose my 2 lives and have to start over. Is this intended behavior?
Comment: I strongly doubt it
Answer: After looking around a bit, there appear to be two possible reasons for that.
Firstly, selecting a new world does not work, since the skyblock is not generated like that. If you don't have a savegame already for some reason, you can download the map here. Put it in your saves directory inside your directory for AS, launch the game and select that world.
If you use that savegame and still spawn in the void, here's a quote by jadedcat herself:

If you spawn and fall through the void swap to creative and fly up. Use /jspawn set to set the spawn to the platform.
Answer: The easier way, on the Maps & Textures tab of the FTB Launcher are the maps available to download. By selecting your Agrarian Skies mod pack in the bottom pulldown (next to the Install button), it will install the maps for you.  FYI, you may have to click the Maps button on the top as it seems to default the Texture Packs list.
Answer: Thanks to everyone who tried to help me out here!  I seem to have found out the answer on my own though.
As far as whether or not the blank world on spawn is intentional, I do believe that it is.  The intention is that you will go and download the world file form this Curseforge link uploaded by Jadedcat, and put it in your saves folder (roughly under the AgrarianSkiesHQ folder, then the minecraft folder in there, unless you changed it at all.
As to where this folder is, it really depends on where you put your FTB folder when you downloaded the FTB launcher and ran it for the first time).  The one that I was looking for (and mostly likely the one any singleplayer would want) was the "Home.zip" download.
This is the map with a barn and what-not, the one that was showcased on the Minecraft Forum blog for a bit.  After this, unzip the file (it has been a bit, but I believe that you need to unzip it) in the saves folder, delete the zip if you so choose, launch AgSkies, and select the newly included map.  Voila! There is land!
This worked for me, but I will see if it works for others before I mark the question as answered.
Comment: Yes it works. Doesn't work if you want to do SMP though. All new player's spawnpoints are at (0, 0) so the Home map only works for singleplayer
Answer: One way, which is probably the easiest, to do it is to spawn in creative mode, hover, then place angel blocks. The angel block/s allow you to then build a little dirt platform, ie skyblock, without having to tamper with mod files or anything like that.

No land to start on Agrarian Skies?


Compounds with aluminum and nitrogen atoms directly bonded to each other as part of an aromatic ring?

Question: Just hours ago, I asked a question about whether aromatic organoaluminum compounds with aluminum and carbon bonded together as part of an aromatic ring would be stable in water. The answer seemed to be that "it wouldn't even work at all since aluminum and carbon have relatively poor pi-overlap, and even then the resulting compound would still end up complexing with nitrogen- or oxygen-based protic solvents due to the high affinity for nitrogen and oxygen of aluminum", implying that aluminum-nitrogen bonds are reasonably stable, at least when they're alone by themselves.
My questions are- do aluminum and nitrogen have sufficient p-orbital overlap to be directly bonded to each other as part of an aromatic ring, and, if they do, how stable are they to different kinds of solvents (protic, aprotic, polar, non-polar etc), and is there any specific compound reported in the literature that is water-stable and in which there is a direct aluminum-nitrogen bond as part of an aromatic ring? (Note that these need not be organoaluminum compounds- that is to say, the aluminum atom in question need not be bonded to any carbon atoms)
Answer: Again no.  The aluminum-nitrogen bond is much stronger as a sigma bond than as a pi bond.
Borazine, with boron rather than aluminum in the six-membered ring, is known as an aromatic ring and even called "inorganic benzene".  Like its benzene counterpart, the borazine ring can be fused to give polymeric structures ultimately leading to hexagonal boron nitride.  But with aluminum nitride, where pi overlap is weaker and the bonding more polar, such a layered phase is not known, this nitride most commonly having a wurtzite structure.  In effect, the Al-N pi bonds are broken up by cross-linking with other nitrogen atoms even where the pi bonded structure is ostensibly aromatic.
Take a cue from this answer.  You are on firmest ground with aromaticity when the elements involved are a subset of boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur.
Comment: @JustAYoungArtist What you're imagining is an analogue of [acac complex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_acetylacetonates). Such complexes aren't aromatic.
Comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NacNac
Comment: I see. Then why does Wikipedia say that "silabenzene has been determined to be aromatic, although in a different way that benzene" (reworded from the article on silabenzene)?
Comment: Those are the best elements.  I would expect less stabilization as we move to other elements.
Comment: Aha. Still, I'm pretty sure that 1-ala-2, 6-diazabenzene would be as aromatic as silabenzene, since Al and Si are only one electron and one proton apart.


Is writing an article about a document that wasn't leaked yet a crime as severe as actually leaking the document in the United States?

Question: Is writing an article about a document that wasn't leaked yet a crime as severe as actually leaking the document in the United States? Say you know someone from Wikileaks, and you read a classified document that wasn't leaked yet and you make the mistake of posting the news article before the document gets leaked, is this a crime as severe as leaking a classified document?
Comment: If you are unauthorized and you are reading it then it is, by definition leaked to you.
Answer: Under 18 U.S. Code § 798, leaking classified information is a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
That makes it a more serious offense than publishing legally obtained classified information, which is not a crime at all.
The Supreme Court laid down this rule in Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001), where it held that an individual's rights to free speech and free press are generally unaffected by the fact that the information he disseminates was illegally obtained by a third party:

We think it clear that parallel reasoning requires the conclusion that a stranger's illegal conduct does not suffice to remove the First Amendment shield from speech about a matter of public concern.

The answer might be different if you know someone from WikiLeaks because you work there yourself, or if you induced your friend to acquire the information, or if you accessed the WikiLeaks servers without permission. But you haven't indicated any of those are true in the hypothetical, so the answer to your question is no.
Comment: Bartnicki v. Vopper, did not deal with classified information, and did not by any means establish the general rule that "publishing legally obtained classified information, ... is not a crime at all."
Comment: That's an interesting interpretation, but I think virtually every lawyer with experience in this space would disagree with it. Why would its holding not apply to publishing legally obtained classified information? Why has the NYT not been put out of business for all its felonious publications?
Answer: Simply "writing an article about a document" isn't any sort of crime in the US, whether the document is or is not leaked, or is or is not classified.  However, "disclosing classified information without authorization" can be a crime in some circumstances.  If the article discloses classified information from the document, then that might be a crime. For example 18 U.S.C. § 798 provides that:

Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information

of various specific types commits a crime. Note that the crime is in making the information available, so discussing information already widely published would not fall under this law.


The threat in my series is dead. Where do I go next?

Question: The series I'm writing is a horror comedy, where the first book follows a satanist trying to sacrifice the protagonists to The Devil. In the second book, the protagonists confront The Devil face to face, and kill him. I have a wonderful idea for character drama and arcs I would like to explore in the third book, but I'm facing an obstacle in terms of the external conflict of the book, which is the fact The Devil is dead. I'm considering that maybe the antagonists of the third book could be a cult who wants to carry out The Devil's mission, but I'm wondering if I'm missing a better idea. Thoughts?
Comment: For a series, it's difficult to continue after the main threat is decidedly finished. However, given that your series is a comedy, you have a much great flexibility. You can literally make your characters jump over a shark on water skis - as long you keep it funny.
Answer: Kinda vague, you don't mention much about your story so I'm just going to toss out a few options here (and a question or two).
Are you using the version of the devil where they have many names (Asmodeus, Azazel, Beezlebub, etc...) or the version where all those other names are separate demons?
Second, Does the threat have to be Hell-based (satanists, demons, whatnot)?
And third, do your heroes have any sort of powers (magic, power of faith, resident angel in their head)?
Depending on how your world is built you could have:
An ambitious demon underling looking to fill the devil's job.
An angel looking to punish the mortals for meddling in things above their station.
A fallen angel (who acts righteous but isn't) just looking to cause trouble.
A shady government organization looking to "recruit" the people who brought down the devil.
The devil, he wasn't really dead, after all, how do you really kill an immortal being?
The devil's kid, raised by the cult and out to avenge daddy.
Some other religion's devil or god out to secure territory in the hells.
Answer: Like Teak answered - your question is pretty vague.
But I will try to answer it:
You don't need a bad guy for external conflict.
If the devil is the antagonist in books 1 and 2 but dies before 3, you can have your protagonists try to fix his bad deeds in the 3rd book.
Basically, the protagonists would have to travel around the world, freeing the devil's prisoners, defeating his remaining minions, covering up his footsteps so no one else will follow them, and an interesting idea would be to have the protagonist's reform society into a more just place where evil can not run rampant. This would turn your 3rd's book conflict from devil vs people to people vs society.
Or, if you are committed to a bad guy, here are some options:

One of the devil's followers bring the devil back to life
One of the devil's followers takes up the role of the devil
One of the protagonists betrays the others and sides with the devil's followers
One of the devil's family member or friend, seeking revenge
Devils from other worlds and religions form a team to defeat the protagonists
The devil still controls people from the underworld
etc.

And if none of these ideas work for you - just insert the 3rd book after the 1st and before the 2nd so the devil is still alive.
Good luck!


How can a U.S. citizen open a Canadian brokerage account?

Question: Is there any way to open a Canadian brokerage account while still being a U.S. citizen? I would like to open an online brokerage account if possible in Canada to trade on the TSX (I hate ADR).
Comment: there are american brokers that allow you to trade on international exchanges.
Answer: Although this is technically possible, you may find that foreign brokers don't want your business because the fact that you're a US citizen creates an undue amount of bookkeeping for them. Here are a few things you have to keep in mind:

Since the passage of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), foreign financial institutions are required to enter into an agreement with the IRS to identify any of their account holders who are US citizens. They're required to disclose receipts, withdrawals, balances, etc. U.S. payors making payments to non-compliant foreign financial institutions are required to withhold 30% of the gross payments.
According to Wikipedia, the only countries that have concluded sharing agreements with the IRS are the United Kingdom, Denmark, Mexico, Ireland, and Switzerland. I don't know how this would apply to Canada if they don't have an agreement with the US, but you need to be very careful if you do open an account because you do not want to run afoul of the IRS.
There are numerous additional forms you will need to file with the IRS and the Treasury Department if you do this. Consult a tax professional with experience in such matters to make sure you don't miss something important.
Virtually all of the information I could find advising individuals to open brokerage accounts abroad comes from Jeff Opdyke. Here are two such articles: [1], [2]. I'm a little wary of this glowingly positive advice because he's selling a book concerned with this topic exactly. Maybe it is as easy as he says if you open an account in a developed country like Canada, but he describes opening accounts in places like Cambodia, Zambia, etc. and I can't imagine it's a simple as he makes it out to be, especially not after the passage of FATCA. He suggests using Google to find a good brokerage firm in a foreign country, which sounds like you could easily fall victim to a phishing scheme if you happen upon the wrong broker. I always get spam emails from Nigerian princes asking me to invest with them, so maybe I'll stick with that for the time being.

I recommend you a) find an American broker that allows you to trade on international exchanges, because it will almost certainly be less work for both you and them, of b) find a tax professional with relevant experience to guide you through your first tax season if you choose to pursue opening a foreign brokerage account.
Answer: I have a more pressing reason to get a Canadian brokerage account (I want to transfer my Canadian pension from a previous job in Canada to a self-directed Canadian Locked In Retirement Account (LIRA)) and after two afternoons on the phone I can find no Canadian broker willing to open an account for a nonresident.
It doesn't seem to matter that I lived and worked there recently, and will pay Canada resident taxes this year.
If anyone else finds themselves in this situation, open a LIRA before leaving Canada and before closing your Canadian bank accounts.
Answer: Interactive Brokers allows trading on the TSE directly.
And has incredibly low cost currency and futures trading.
I use it for Canadian preferred stocks.


A Simple way to make a wreath

Question: I am trying to figure out how to make a Christmas wreath in blender. The only tutorial I have found is time elapsed and super complicated. I was wondering if there is an easier way to make a wreath in blender, or if there is some tutorial that I am missing.
Here is an idea of what I want to accomplish.
Comment: "*I was wondering if there is an easier way*" Easier than what? We don't know what tutorial you followed or what method was used. This looks like it could be easily achieved with a particle system distributing a simple pine branch over a torus object. Also have in mind that [asking for tutorials](https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1/what-questions-should-be-definitely-off-topic) is considered off topic here
Comment: Here is the tutorial I was looking at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdHElASfnsA
Comment: There are free addons to generate trees, you can create a pine branch and then distribute it using (eg) dupliverts... about that link: try asking here what particular step of the tutorial is blocking you...
Comment: The tutorial is long and complicated. I was wondering if there is a simple way to do this.
Answer: I made a simple wreath by using a particle system to make the shape of the wreath and only modeling one branch object then distributing it around with the particle system (no combing the particles).

Start with a torus (I scaled it along the Z to make it thinner).
Add a particle system to that torus. All you really have to set in the particle system is the Type (set it to "Hair") Length, and the Number of the particles. There are 1000 strands my wreath.
The important part are the force fields. All the below force fields are in the exact same spot as the torus, except for the two wind ones.

First add a Vortex Force Field, this is to make the strands curve around in more of a wreath shape.
On the left is just how the particle system looks, and on the right is with the vortex force field.

Add a plain Force type force field. This is to enlarge the center hole in the wreath.
Add a Wind force field. Rote it so that it points up. Here you need to set the Maximum Distance so that the wind only affects the strands on the bottom. You want to adjust the strength so that it just pushes the strands on the front or back side of the wreath into shape.
When you have that one adjusted to your liking duplicate it ShiftD, move it to the top and rotate it so that it is pointing down.
In the image below the wreath on the left has no wind force fields, see how the strands stick straight out the wrong way. On the right is what it looks like after adding the two wind forces, the strands are smushed into a wreath shape.

Now model a branch, it can be simple, but keep the length about the same size as the length of the strands. Do note that the stem of my branch has loop cuts all along it (they are the only part selected). That allows it to bend along with the particle strands.

Add a particle instance modifier to the branch you just modeled. The reason I'm using this modifier instead of the more common method of just setting the object in the particle settings is because the particle instance modifier will deform the object, as opposed to the just rendering the object in the particle system, which will keep it straight.

Set the Object to the Torus we added first.
Then check the all important Create Along Paths checkbox. Because I have my branch along the Y axis, the Y axis is selected.

Granted you are probably going to need to tweak your wreath some. Any time you're using force fields to model something it can be rather finicky. For that reason my blend is attached. Look through it, copy the settings, learn from it.
Here is the full blend
Answer: This is 3 years old.  Here's a more recent tutorial: Blender 2.83:
Christmas Wreath in Blender | Beginners Tutorial / Dec. 2020
https://youtu.be/UGkgEFcW8co

A Simple way to make a wreath


How to export IES file to advance the design?

Question: Our LED luminaries need to sell to US, according to LM-79 and LM-80 request, it
needs to meet energy star request, how to do that test? How to export IES file to advance the design?
Answer: LSG-2000 Goniophotometer with Rotating Mirror can achieve the testing program of CIE C-γ、 CIE B- β and CIE A-α, IESNA file format output can be transfered by other illumination and luminaire design software. The test report is according to Energy Start request. The LSG-2000 instruments system is developed understand LM-79 & LM-80. You can download the brochure at: http://www.lisungroup.com/Goniophotometer-with-Rotating-Mirror.pdf


jQuery Gallery won't work in any version of Internet Explorer

Question: I wrote my original jQuery code and saw that it wasn't working in any version of IE.
I used JSLint to figure out why it wasn't working in any version of internet explorer.
Here is my new code that I cleaned up using JSLint http://theburnmachinept.com/js/scripts.js.
This still refuses to work on any version of IE. AND to top it off it doesn't work on any browser now. I switched back to the ORIGINALscripts.js file for the time being. Can anyone find anything wrong with my code? The code in question is the gallery code that starts on line 17 and ends on line 126.
I would greatly appreciate any help anyone could offer.
Answer: I think, $('#image').hide(); causes it, try $('#image').fadeOut();


How to update a bulk selection of fields using field calculator in QGIS 2.8.1

Question: I have an attribute table showing vegetation communities.  The table has three columns ("ID", "Veg Comm" and "Area_ha".  Instead of having to copy and paste text after each polygon created into each field (i.e. coastal wattle scrub), is there a way to highlight a selection and mass copy?
Answer: Yes, in the recent versions of QGIS, if you have a selection the 'Only update x selected features' checkbox is enabled as default. Any expression written will be updates to the chosen column of the selected rows. Below picture is from QGIS 2.8.1.
Answer: It's not a direct answer to your question as you are looking for a post-processing step, but as you say that you will do this step "after each polygon created into each field" you may be interested in the setting Setting > Options > Digitizing > Reuse laste entered attribute values. This will set the previously used attribute values as default while digitizing and may therefore remove the need for a post-processing step at all.


Should I use "the queen" or "the Queen"?

Question: I know to capitalize a title when used with the name, i.e. Prince John, and not if it is general - "any prince will do." But if Queen Eleanor has been identified and I write as "the queen" in the same paragraph obviously referring to Eleanor, is it capitalized? The same would work for all church and nobility titles I presume.
Comment: What do British newspapers do when they refer to the Queen? That's where I'd start.
Comment: Related: [Is capitalizing "master" and other honorifics appropriate?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/207354)
Comment: Ultimately, this is a question of style; there is no single right or wrong answer. Adhere to the discipline of your editor, publication, or organization, or in the absence of a house style, observe the guidance of an appropriate [style manual](/a/2579).
Answer:
A noun (when not at the start of a sentence) should be capitalised if and only if it is a proper noun, which refers to a specific person, place, thing or idea without taking a limiting modifier.

Examples:

"The Queen (of England) visited my school."
  Since the word "Queen" is capitalised here, we know that it must be referring to a specific queen. The words "of x country" do not have to be included.

"She dreamed that one day, she would be the queen."
  In this sentence, the word "queen" is not capitalised as it does not refer to a specific person.
Answer: Basically, it seems it's up to you.  According to GrammarBook.com:

Capitalize titles when they are used before names, unless the title is followed by a comma. Do not capitalize the title if it is used after a name or instead of a name.

However, they add a note that:

Out of respect, some writers and publishers choose to capitalize the highest ranks in government, royalty, religion, etc.
Examples:
The President arrived.
The Queen spoke.
The Pope decreed.
Many American writers believe this to be a wrongheaded policy in a country where, theoretically, all humans are perceived as equal.

So, basically, it's your choice.  I don't think anyone will fault you either way.


utilize htaccess to rewrite all indexes

Question: upon a 404 I want to set my htaccess file to utilize another file from another location in lieu of the missing file. The url must remain the same as if the file was in the directory & more importantly it must function as if it where the same location. So my main goal is to have a file directory without an index file. Is there a way to rewrite the file request to do this?
Answer: This might not be the answer you're looking for, but it's a good workaround:
Add your normal 404 error page to your .htaccess file:
<code>ErrorDocument 404 /404.html
</code>
And in the 404.html file:
<code>$Current_Url = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
if($Current_Url == "/Your_directory_here")
{
   require("index.html");  //The page that you want to show.
}
else
{
   //Normal 404 Stuff
}
</code>
In my answer, I'm assuming that your .html files are being parsed by php.

utilize htaccess to rewrite all indexes


An operator inequality

Question: I would be most thankful if you could help me prove the following operator inequality. Let $A$ be an arbitrary linear operator on a Hilbert space, satisfying
$$\left\|AA^{\ast} - A^{\ast}A\right\|\leq 2a$$
where $A^{\ast}$ is the Hermitian adjoint and $a>0$ is a constant. Let $\varepsilon$ be equal to either $+1$ or $-1$. Then show that
$$2\sqrt{A^{\ast}A + aI} - \varepsilon\left(A + A^{\ast}\right) \geq 0$$
Thank you!
Answer: In this answer we assume that $A$ is a bounded operator on a complex Hilbert space $H$.
Sketched proof and hints:

We may uniquely write $A=B+iC$, where $B$ and $C$ are selfadjoint operators. Define selfadjoint operator $D:=i[C,B]=D^{\dagger}$. Then OP's statement reads
$$\tag{1} ||D|| ~\leq ~a  \qquad \Rightarrow  \qquad \sqrt{A^{\dagger}A+aI} ~\geq~ \pm B. $$
Show that (1) is a consequence of
$$ \tag{2}||D|| ~\leq ~a  \qquad \Rightarrow \qquad\sqrt{A^{\dagger}A+aI}~\geq~ \sqrt{ B^2  }. $$
Show that (2) is a consequence of
$$ \tag{3}||D|| ~\leq ~a  \qquad \Rightarrow \qquad\sqrt{A^{\dagger}A+aI}~\geq~ \sqrt{ B^2 +C^2 }. $$
Show that (3) is equivalent to
$$ \tag{4}||D|| ~\leq ~a  \qquad \Rightarrow \qquad A^{\dagger}A+aI~\geq~  B^2 +C^2 . $$
Show that (4) is equivalent to
$$\tag{5}||D|| ~\leq ~a  \qquad \Rightarrow \qquad aI~\geq~  D .$$
Show (5).

An operator inequality


A simple variance question

Question: Say I am paid 1 million dollars per pip on a six sided dice and I roll the dice one time. Now compare this to a game in which I get 1 dollar per pip on a dice, but I roll the die one million times. It seems intuitive to me that a risk averse person would pick the second game, but don't the variances just add because the die rolls are independent leading to the same variance as in the first game? Why is there a difference in variance?
Comment: The variances in the second game add, but the variances in the first game don't (you can think of it as a sum of a million identical (not independent!) dice rolls); if $\sigma^2$ is the variance of a single die then the variance of the second game is $10^6 \sigma^2$ but the variance of the first game is $10^{12} \sigma^2$.
Answer: The standard deviation of the first is $$ \sqrt{\frac{35}{12}} 10^6.$$ The standard deviation of the second is $$ \sqrt{\frac{35}{12}} 10^3.$$ Variances add, not standard deviations, and the variance of a constant multiple of a random variable is the constant multiple squared times the variance of the original random variable.
Your intuition is correct that you are more likely to end up near $3.5$ million in the second case and less likely to get $1$ million or $6$ million.
Answer: Let $(X_k)_{k\in\{0,1...1000\}}$ be a sequence of results for $1001$ independent die rolls.
The variance for the first gamble is:  $\mathsf {Var}(1000 X_0) ~{= 10^6\mathsf {Var}(X_0)\\ = 10^6(6^2-1)/12}$
The variance for the second gamble is: $\mathsf {Var}(\sum_{k=1}^{1000} X_k) ~{= \sum_{k=1}^{1000}\mathsf {Var}(X_k) \\= 10^3 \mathsf {Var}(X_1) \\ = 10^3(6^2-1)/12 }$
The former is the variance of the sum of 1000 dependent random variables (in fact the exact same variable), whilst the second is the sum of 1000 independent and identically distributed random variables.

Variance is not additive; covariance in fact is bilinearly additive.  Consider the simple case for two random variables. Bilinearity of covariance means that:
$$\mathsf {Var}(A+B)~{= \mathsf {Cov}(A+B,A+B) \\ = \mathsf {Cov}(A,A)+\mathsf {Cov}(A,B)+\mathsf {Cov}(B,A)+\mathsf {Cov}(B,B) \\ = \mathsf {Var}(A)+2\mathsf {Cov}(A,B)+\mathsf {Var}(B)}$$
So in the style of gamble 1, both these random variables are in fact the same variable:
$$\mathsf {Var}(2X_0) ~{=~\mathsf {Cov}(X_0+X_0,X_0+X_0) \\ = \mathsf {Var}(X_0)+2\mathsf {Cov}(X_0,X_0)+\mathsf {Var}(X_0) \\ = 4 \mathsf{Var}(X_0)} $$
However, in the style of gamble 2, both random variables are merely identically distributed, but are independent.   Independence entails that the distinct variables are uncorrolated.
$$\mathsf {Var}(X_1+X_2) ~{=~\mathsf {Cov}(X_1+X_2,X_1+X_2) \\ = \mathsf {Var}(X_1)+2\mathsf {Cov}(X_1,X_2)+\mathsf {Var}(X_2) \\ = \mathsf{Var}(X_1)+\mathsf{Var}(X_2) \\ = 2\mathsf {Var}(X_1) }$$

In intuitive terms: Multiplying the result of the roll of one die by a large number is going to magnify the effect of the single result.   Where as the cummulated results of a multitude of die rolls is going to group the result tighter around the average.

A simple variance question