Do wordpress create a new file for each new post?

Question: Assume that I have a wordpress blog website.My question is,do wordpress create a new php file for each post I create or does it simply inserts to database and fetchs from database by query string?
I read that it stores posts in database.But is it SEO-friendly?
Answer: You're asking several questions:

Does WP create a new PHP file for each post? No, it does not. Your statement, "[insert] a database [record]," is correct. The record it creates for a post (and also many other post types) is in the wp_posts (your prefix may not be wp_) table.
Is it SEO-friendly? This is a much more complicated question. The short answer is, "yes," but only if you get a lot of other things right.

There are times when WP uses a separate PHP file for a particular post (look in the Codex under Theme Development) but WP does not normally create any PHP files.
It seems that you think that having an individual PHP file for a post and the post being SEO-friendly are related. This is not really the case. Search engines don't really care much about the physical implementation of your website, just the HTML that's created.
There are many resources on making your site SEO-friendly. Most of the work is between the theme and the content on the site but there are many plugins that can help you.
This is a fairly complicated subject and specific methods change over time. If you can't find a good plugin that addresses your needs you may consider consulting a person or firm with SEO expertise to help.
Do know that a significant portion of the Internet runs WP and it is definitely possible to make WP SEO-friendly without a lot of modification. Also keep in mind that many SEO plugins are some of the most-used plugins in WP and therefore some of the most frequently attacked.
Answer: No, it is just pushing one record into the database.
And about SEO friendly is or not depends upon the quality wording you have written in your post. And the images also matters a lot in this case. If you want a make a post SEO friendly make sure you are writing the image description, alt text, etc.
Comment: Thanks for further information.Why I wonder this was because I have a website build from scratch called https://www.sosyosapien.com  and I was confused about how to store posts that members post.Now I store it in database like wo do.But I dont know how to fill alt tags while images are being shared by members


Switch - Can I buy a DLC on my main account and play it with the game owned by a second account?

Question: I play Animal Crossing with a digital copy in a second profile linked to my friend's account.
I want to buy the DLC on my main account. This DLC will be shared to the second account in this situation? I don't own a copy of Animal Crossing on my Main Account.
Comment: Related: https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/355460/if-i-buy-and-download-a-game-through-second-nintendo-account-do-i-own-it-on-my-m and https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/303993/breath-of-the-wild-dlc-account-based-or-console-based - probably answers your question
Comment: Thanks Timmy. It seems possible, but after reading I am still not sure if the DLC bought by the Main Account will be available for playing with the digital copy of a second profile/account
Answer: I cannot say for certain if it works with Animal Crossing however, I was in a similar situation for Pokemon Sword and Shield (please see my answer here for a similar question but for Pokemon: Are the Pokémon Sword and Shield expansion version exclusive?)
Basically, I bought the Expansion for both Sword and Shield on one account. My switch has 3 profiles. Every profile could play the expansion on both games, even though it was only bought with the primary.
I would be very surprised if it works differently for Animal Crossing as I feel like this wouldn't be a per game restriction and would be a per device restriction.
However, as you said that you play it with the digital version on the second account, it may not actually work, as my experience has been with either everyone using the same phycial version or everyone using the same digital version, not a mixture of both. I sadly cannot test that for you as I am not going to rebuy either Sword or Shield.

Extra Speculation, not guaranteed to be true:
If it helps, I have had some experience with a modded switch and the ID of the game is not different depending on if it is a digital version or a physical version, so that may mean the DLC will work with both. But please do note, this part is pure speculation.


Rename the [style] tag to [beer-style]?

Question: Currently style's description and usage is exclusively to talk about beer styles, but wine has different styles as well when referring to taste profiles and production methods.
I think that the current tag should be changed to be beer-style, or that its description be opened up to not be purely about beer.
Comment: can you give us an example of what you think the description of the tag should be ? As I agree to opening up the description to refer to all alcohol not just beer
Answer: style is a redundant tag and should be removed.
We already have style specific tags such as stout, schwarzbier, imperial-ipa and style is really just a meta/redundant tag in my opinion.

Rename the [style] tag to [beer-style]?


URL routes - registering problem

Question: I've been using ASP.NET MVC for a few weeks, looking screencast, reading tutorials and so on. It turns out to be very interesting technology for me and I started to experimenting with it. I wrote simple web application which simply gets data from one table and shows it.
All works fine on my dev environment, but when I tried to "deploy" my simple web app onto my hosting I encountered a problem - URL routing was not working. After some digging into the problem I discovered, that for some reason Routes table is empty.
What may cause the problem? Why Application_Start method would not be called? And how to solve this problem?
P.S. I created my test web app using ASP.NET MVC 1.0 // template ASP.NET MVC Project.
IIS7 runs in Intergrated mode, and I do not have access to its administration (only via web.config files).
Answer: Turns out to be deployment problem - I was not copying Global.asax file among the others.

URL routes - registering problem


Kinematic equations script fail

Question: I added the kinematic equations to my code and now none of it works.   I get the error rigidbody.torque assign attempt for 'Enemy' is not valid. Input torque is { 0.000000, NaN, 0.000000 }.
UnityEngine.Rigidbody:AddTorque(Vector3)
EnemyBehavour:FixedUpdate() (at Assets/_Scripts/Baddies/EnemyBehavour.cs:61)
it should be fine as far as I can tell, please help.
//speed of enemy
public float speed = .5f;
//base distance enemy will attack player
public float range = 3f;
//how far back enemy will stand
public float stopDistance;
//what the enemy will pursue
private GameObject target;
//targetable Enemies
private GameObject[] targetable;
//itself
private Rigidbody self;
//distance to check against
private float saveDistance;
//get the mass for physics stuff
float mass;
//gets drag for physics
float drag;
//gets angular drag for physics
float adrag;
//checks distance
float distance;
//the player
GameObject player;
GameObject[] turrets;
//the base
GameObject playerBase;
EnemyShoot Shoot;

void Start () {
    //get own rigidbody
    self = GetComponent<Rigidbody> ();
    //playerbase should be obviouse
    playerBase = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag ("Base");
    target = playerBase;

    Shoot = GetComponentInChildren<EnemyShoot> ();

    mass = self.mass;
    drag = self.drag;
    adrag = self.angularDrag;
}

void FixedUpdate () {
    target = FindFoe ();

    //checks range and
    if (Vector3.Distance (transform.position, target.transform.position) > range || target == playerBase) {
        target = playerBase;
    }
    Vector3 acceleration = AnglularAcceleration ();
    Vector3 torque = new Vector3 (0f, acceleration.y * mass,0f);
    print (torque.ToString ());

    //look at the pursueing target
    self.AddTorque (torque);
    //move towards the pursuing target
    self.AddForce (transform.forward * speed);

}

Vector3 AnglularAcceleration () {
    // the variables to figure out
    Vector3 AnglAcc;
    float radius;
    Vector3 theta;
    float time;

    //get the radius
    radius = Vector3.Distance (transform.position, target.transform.position);
    //get the dot product between the two points
    float dot = Vector3.Dot (new Vector3 (transform.position.x, 0f, transform.position.z),new Vector3 (target.transform.position.x, 0f, target.transform.position.z));
    //get the arccosine of the angle and convert that to radians
    theta = new Vector3 (0,(Mathf.Acos(dot))*180,0);
    print (theta.ToString ());

    //now find the time
    time = (2f * theta.y) / speed;
    AnglAcc = new Vector3(0f,(speed * speed) / (2f * theta.y),0f);

    return AnglAcc;

}

//checks if turrets or player is within range
GameObject FindFoe() {
    distance = range;
    targetable = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag ("ETarget");

    //sets player base as default target

    foreach (GameObject test in targetable) {
        GameObject testing = test.transform.parent.gameObject;
        print (testing.ToString());
        saveDistance = Vector3.Distance (transform.position, testing.transform.position);
        if (saveDistance < distance) {
            distance = saveDistance;
            print (saveDistance.ToString());
            target = testing;
        }

    }
    return target;

}

}
Answer: { 0.000000, NaN, 0.000000 }.
NaN smell of division by zero.
check AnglularAcceleration ()
AnglAcc = new Vector3(0f,(speed * speed) / (2f * theta.y),0f);

AnglAcc.Y will be NaN when theta.y =0
Comment: I think the NaN could also enter one step earlier, depending on the positions used as input. If the value of `dot` goes outside the interval [-1, 1] (ie. beyond the domain of the arccosine function) then `theta.y` will become NaN, which then propagates to `AngleAcc.y` becoming NaN.

Kinematic equations script fail


MDP Value Iteration choosing gamma

Question: What are the tradeoffs of choosing larger/smaller gamma when performing Value Iteration for MDPs? Will different values of gamma result in different policies?
Answer: Different values of gamma may produce different policies. Lower gamma values will put more weight on short-term gains, whereas higher gamma values will put more weight towards long-term gains. Asymptotically, the closer gamma is to 1, the closer the policy will be to one that optimizes the gains over infinite time.
On the other hand, value iteration will be slower to converge.
The best gamma depends on your domain. Sometimes it makes sense to look for short term gains (e.g. money gained sooner is actually more valuable than the same amount earned later), other times you want to look as far ahead as you can.
And i would say that for a given MDP, there is probably a point (for high values of gamma) where the optimal policies will stabilize (no longer change when you increase gamma even more).
Comment: In terms of utility, i think this means that the delta U(s) effectively becomes 0, this will depend on the number of timesteps, as gamma gets smaller, the delta =0 is further out. So if you give a static number of steps say 10,000,000 for smaller gamma's the optimal policy may be found at step 100, but at gamma .99 its closer to 1,000,000, at .999 maybe thats the 10,000,000.
Answer: There is already a good answer to this question, but I would like to add something more to it.
The gamma(discounting factor) is a reflection of how you value your future reward.
Choosing the gamma value=0 would mean that you are going for a greedy policy where for the learning agent, what happens in the future does not matter at all. The gamma value of 0 is the best when unit testing the code, as for MDPs, it is always difficult to test the behavior of an agent when number of horizons increases.
On the other hand, choosing the gamma value=1 would mean that you don't have any preference about when you want to get the reward; that is to say, for example, if you are given a reward in time step 3 or in time step 7 would be of equal value to your agent.
These are the edge scenarios, but you would like to have something in between to find an optimal policy. In my several years experience with MDPs, the most common value of gamma I have seen, is 0.9, though the value always depends on the requirements of the problem domain.

MDP Value Iteration choosing gamma


Why aren't all judicial powers stripped, why only capital punishment?

Question: Why is capital punishment only adjudicated when the Temple is standing? If it is because the Sanhedrin needs to convene at the designated location described in Devarim 17:8, then wouldn't the rest of the judicial powers/abilities of the rabbis also be stripped with the destruction of the Temple? Why only capital punishment?
Comment: Who said it's only capital punishment?
Comment: @DoubleAA Question re-phrase: Why is capital punishment (and other things) abolished, and not all?
Comment: Did you mean "corporal punishment"? Because lashes were also abolished.
Comment: I remember someone else asking that, and I answered, that technically, under foreign rulership, Jewish communities were only allowed to decide on civil matters, while the criminal matters were the prerogative of the rulers. Eventually, the Talmud makes it look reasonable as if it relates to the dismission of the Sanhedrin.
Answer: For the most part the judicial powers are no longer in practice   in any area today. But that is not because Sanhedrin is no longer in the Beis Hamikdush but rather because we don't have Semicha anymore. The members of a Beis Din must have semicha to be empowered to administer most judicial punishments.  We don't give lashes anymore either even though that only requires a Beis Din of three  because even a Beis Din of three needs at least one member who has the original semicha for it to be a Beis Din with the power to give lashes.
In fact nowadays due to the lack of a Beis Din whose members have proper semicha, even on monetary cases,  Beis Din only rules  if they  meet the following four criteria  (1) there is a monetary loss, (2) it is a  common scenario , (3) is not primarily about  bodily injuries due to bodily damages (4) it is monetary compensation as opposed to a monetary penalty  (Bava Kama 84B and shulchan Aruch CM 1:1) Reason being the lack of ordained judges.
אל'ים בעינן וליכא is the way the Gemera explains it
The Sanhedrin voluntarily stopped sitting in the Lischas Hagozis forty years before the Beis HaMakdush was destroyed so that cases of capital punishments would no longer be judged (Avodah Zora 8B)
Comment: I don't quite see how this answers the question
Comment: @DoubleAA See [here](https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/82476/17821)
Comment: @Yehuda I don't see how that answers the question either?


CloudFoundry / Nginx / Grails and the X-Forwarded Header (Missing)

Question: Using CloudFoundry with Nginx, we're trying to get the X-Forwarded for header out in grails, but we can't seem to do so. It's either blank or the IP address of the Nginx server.
We often create sites where users are allowed to vote, and we want to be sure that they only vote once. Therefore, we'd like to use a combination of their network gateway (router) ip address and their X-Forwarded-For (internal) ip address so that we can check if people have already voted without having to block their entire network from voting because of one vote.
Unfortunately cookies have proven unreliable as users tend to use incogneto windows to make their votes. Using local storage has also proved unsuccessful as clients tend to delete their "website data" in order to vote again. The only other option is forcing them to create an account and verify their email address which is too much of a barrier to entry.
Is there a way that we can get a list of X-Forwarded for IP's in the chain (without Nginx stealing them), or is there a way we can create a service on Nginx that we can query to get the X-Forwarded-For header for the request, or can we create a "plugin" for Nginx to create a new header (X-Nginx-Forwarded-For)?
Answer: I've never worked with Nginx, but it looks like you can add custom headers to the proxied request to the end server very easily. http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpProxyModule


Upper bound for quantile a random variable

Question: Let $X$ be any random variable (maybe symmetric or asymmetric). Let $Z = (X - E(X))/Var(X)$. Is the following inequality always true ?
$$
P(Z\le -a) \le 2P(Z\ge a),
$$
for any $a>0$.
Thank you for your answer.
Comment: Suppose you have a distribution that satisfies this inequality. What happens when you reflect that distribution about zero?
Answer: Suppose your inequality is true. Let $X$ be a random variable with $E(X)=0$. Let $X'$ be the random variable such that $P(X'=y)=P(X=-y)$ for all $y$. In other words, let $X'$ be the random variable drawn from the distribution of $X$ after reflecting it about zero.
Since $E(X)=0$, we also have that $Z=X/Var(X)$. Let $Z'=X'/Var(X')$ be the analogous quantity for $X'$. We immediately have the following four equalities (noting that $Var(X')=Var(X)$):
$$P(Z\leq -a)=P(X\leq -a\cdot Var(X))$$
$$P(Z\geq a)=P(X\geq a\cdot Var(X))$$
$$P(Z'\leq -a)=P(X'\leq -a\cdot Var(X'))=P(X'\leq -a\cdot Var(X))$$
$$P(Z'\geq a)=P(X'\geq a\cdot Var(X'))=P(X'\geq a\cdot Var(X))$$
But we also have that, because of our choice of $X'$,
$$P(X\geq a\cdot Var(X))=P(X'\leq -a\cdot Var(X))$$
$$P(X\leq -a\cdot Var(X))=P(X'\geq a\cdot Var(X))$$
which overall means that
$$P(Z'\leq -a)=P(Z\geq a)$$
$$P(Z'\geq a)=P(Z'\leq -a)$$
If the inequality is true for $X$, then
$$P(Z\leq -a)\leq 2P(Z\geq a)$$
but from the above equalities we must also have that
$$P(Z'\geq a)\leq 2P(Z'\leq -a)$$
which contradicts the original equality for $X'$,
$$P(Z'\leq -a)\leq2P(Z'\geq a)$$
so the statement cannot be true for arbitrary distributions.


What's the purpose of the band-pass filter in an RF transmitter?

Question: What is the purpose of the marked band-pass filter?
Comment: Prevent the transmitter from emitting additional frequencies that are out of band.
Answer: The output of an AM (Amplitude Modulating) mixer contains a number of frequency components. These components are 1) the modulating signal. This signal is typically audio frequency, and in the diagram is the signal that comes out of the DAC and passes through a filter before reaching the mixer. The second component is the carrier signal, which is provided by the LO (Local Oscillator) in your circuit. The third and fourth components are the lower and upper sidebands. These are new components that are created in the mixer, and are neither the carrier, nor the modulating signal.
The purpose of the filter between the mixer and the (RF) radio frequency amplifier (in your circuit, labeled "PA") is to attenuate (reduce the amplitude of) the modulating signal, so that very little of it appears at the input of the RF amplifier. The filter between the mixer and the RF amplifier should not remove the carrier or either side-band in an amplitude modulated signal in an AM (amplitude modulated) system. There are other types of modulation, such as SSB (single-sideband suppressed carrier) where the carrier is suppressed, and one of the sidebands as well. Finally, there are systems such as phase modulation and frequency modulation that sometimes generate an AM signal as an intermediate stage. However, your diagram does indicate that the output of the mixer is used in any of these ways.
Answer: Every mixer produces quite a deal of unwanted frequencies.
These include:

frequencies contained in both input signals
the above frequencies multiplied by various integer numbers
all of the above added to or subtracted from each other
as well as some amount of a honest noise

Some of these may even be stronger than the "payload" signal.
In the general case, we don't want to propagate the unwanted frequencies down the stages.
In your particular case, the unwanted frequencies will:

be transmitted in frequency bands that the device is not allowed to transmit, interferring with other radio communications. This leads to the second point:
In the general case, transmitting radio is heavilly regulated by law. A device that emits too much radio power outside of its intended frequency band may not be allowed to operate. And, in the general case, "too much" is in fact very tiny amount.
require (and waste) additional power from the source powering the final amplifier. The available energy is a limiting factor in a lot of designs.
the next stages in the circuit (PA in your case) may misbehave in a number of ways when fed with unwanted signals along with the wanted signal - e.g. they may lower their efficiency, generate additional heat, stop working altogether, etc, etc...

Luckily, most of the unwanted ingredients of the mixed signal lie well outside of the useful signal frequency band and can be attenuated to the needed low level just by applying a frequency-dependent filtering.
This is why every mixer in a sane radio frequency diagram is always followed by a band-pass filter.
Answer: Before sending the signal to the antena the signal's bandwidth must be limited using a band pass filter in order to avoid interference with adjacent stations.
Most of the RF spectrum is regulated by an agency or a goverment body within a country. Among the regulated attributes of a RF tranmission, there is the channel size. For example, the channel spacing of AM broadcast in North America is 10 KHz; so there is a station bradcasting at 540KHz and another one broadcasting at 550KHz. Therefore, the bandwidth of both stations must be limited to 10KHz (i.e. station 1 from 535 to 545 KHz and station 2 from 545 KHz to 555Khz) to avoid both stations to interfere to each other.
Another example is WiFi that has a 20Mhz (or a multiple of 20 MHz) channel bandwidth. Using channels is possible to have multiple routers in a neighborhood without interference.
Answer: This is the basic configuration of a radio transmitter which actually generates the modulation digitally in the computer. The output of the DAC can have for ex. data which is amplitude-phase modulated to a carrier which has low enough frequency to be handled by math (=DSP).
The first bandpass filter (=IF) limits the output of DAC to a certain bandwidth which is narrow enough to fit in the allowed bandwidth to the becoming radio signal, but also wide enough to carry the modulated data so that it can be later extracted.
The mixer shifts the filtered output of the DAC upwards in the frequency. The 2nd bandpass filter kills non-ideal mixing products that practical mixers always make. Only a mixer which does an ideal multiplication is free of non-ideal mixing results (assuming LO outputs a pure sine wave). Fortunately proper mixer design and selection of frequencies make possible to filter out all non-ideal mixing products so well that there's low enough spurious emission level.
The ideal mixing result still contains 2 components - the upper and the lower sideband. The names are taken from DBS-modulation, because essentially this DSB modulates to LO frequency what the 1st filter (=IF) outputs.
If the passband of the 1st filter is far enough from 0Hz, the 2nd filter can in practice be made to remove also the lower sideband. In that case this radio transmitter really outputs what is got from the output of the 1st filter, only every frequency component of its spectrum is moved upwards. The shift for every component is = the LO frequency.
Not asked: In radars the same LO output should be used in the receiver to ensure perfect coherency between the making of the transmitted signal and mixing down & detecting the echoes.


Can I start a question with a pronoun?

Question: Is there any special case where the following question would be correct?

She is the lady of the house?

Instead of the normally accepted

Is she the lady of the house?
Comment: Look up **declarative questions**.  (Most likely it would be contracted to *she's*, by the way.)
Answer: declarative question
A yes-no question that has the form of a declarative sentence but is spoken with rising intonation at the end.
Declarative sentences are commonly used in informal speech to express surprise or ask for verification. The most likely response to a declarative question is agreement or confirmation.
source: http://grammar.about.com/od/d/g/Declarative-Question-term.htm
thanks to snailplane
Answer: The declarative question response is spot on, but in everyday usage the intonation that poster describes does not necessarily need to come at the end of the sentence (though it usually does).
One way to sound more fluent is put emphasis on the verb. So in your sentence,

She is the lady of the house?

you could pronounce it with the stress as follows,

SHE'S the lady of the house?

Although the more stress you put on "she's" the more incredulous you seem. So if you really don't believe that the subject is the lady of the house, then you can use more stress or even raise your voice on that syllable.

Can I start a question with a pronoun?


Have any Avatars been shown to employ the sub-techniques of the four elements? (Metal bending, blood-bending, lightning generation, etc)

Question: I think that Korra could heal using water-bending, but what about blood-bending, etc?
Comment: Aang and Korra definitely haven't used Bloodbending, as they both consider it to be an abomination.
Answer: As far as I know we have never seen an Avatar bend blood, metal or lightning. As you say, Korra knows how to heal with waterbending, but that isn't a very rare ability.
It is not known exactly how Avatar Aang was able to overcome Yakone bloodbending him, but it is possible he overpowered him by bloodbending himself while in the Avatar state.
I think it's worth mentioning that these other "sub-techniques" aren't really that different, they just require more skill. Bloodbending is bending water in the blood, metalbending is bending the earth impurities in metal (hence why it doesn't work on pure metal) and lightning is a very powerful form of fire.
The Avatar has to learn all four bending disciplines, plus all the spiritual jazz, and also travel the world solving problems, so he or she doesn't have the time to devote to learning these extremely difficult techniques. But there's no reason to think that he or she couldn't do with enough training.
Comment: That third paragraph is important.  For some reason people act like the "sub-techniques" are different abilities, when really they seem more like the difference between writing and calligraphy: a matter of quality and expertise, not a different field entirely.
Comment: Korra is able to metal bend in series 3.
Answer: No Avatar has been shown using the advanced techniques of any element that is not the element they were born into, with two notable exceptions.  Korra was born to waterbenders and is the only Avatar known to be able to heal with water.  As gentle and caring as Aang was, the fact that he was never shown to be able to heal is rather telling, to me.  Likewise, Korra should likely have learned to use lightning, given her strong affinity with fire despite her waterbender birth.
Notable exceptions to using advanced techniques:  Aang did "see with his feet" using Earthbending against Phoenix King Ozai.  Presumably, that can count as "a niche use of earthbending" any Avatar can learn if they're inclined and not an advanced ability, since Toph invented it at a very early age and didn't create metalbending until she was, according to herself, the greatest earthbender in the world.
Number #2 can also be justified, but it's a stretch.  Aang also redirects lightning during that same battle.  He never creates lightning, but he does redirect a bolt.  Perhaps, again, you can call it a niche use that you don't need to learn to create lightning to do (I'm not even certain you see Zuko ever throw lightning, even though he also learns to redirect it), but it might be a little harder to see.
Comment: Korra becomes a metal bender in season 3.
Comment: @Ellesedil yes, and I'm rather offended.  If Avatars can learn all the advanced techniques, why did we never see Aang heal?  Kind, loving, wants-to-help-everyone-and-everything Aang, what, just couldn't be bothered to learn how to heal people?  Healing might be a special exception, since it seems rare despite its extreme usefulness; but if so, surely the other elements have an exception as well.  Balance is kind of a key aspect of the Avatar's world.
Comment: Well, during *The Last Airbender*, it is constantly noted that Aang slacks off when learning the other bending disciplines. Even in season 3, both Katara and Toph comment that he needs more practice on both water and earth bending. This seems to indicate that Aang doesn't have the time to learn any of the specializations prior to facing the Fire Lord, with the notable partial exception of lightning redirection. In *Legend of Korra*, we see Aang for all of 5 minutes as he fights a blood bender, so there's no real opportunity to see if he has developed any specializations by then.
Comment: @gatherer818: Based on dialog in "The Deserter" I suspect that healing is not something you can learn how to do: Jeong Jeong says "The great benders of the water tribe **sometimes have** this ability."  That makes it sound like something you're born with rather than something you learn to do.  Also, Katara first healed herself by accident, and Jeong Jeong had to explain it to her.  I don't think she knew anything about healing before that.


One of my co-authors is an "IEEE Life Member" can I add this to my IEEE transaction manuscript?

Question: I just finished a Transaction Manuscript, and one of the co-authors is a "Life member IEEE". Initially, I inserted "Senior Member IEEE" just after his name in the manuscript, but he pointed out to me that he is a life member. So my question is, can I remove the "Senior Member IEEE" and insert "Life Member IEEE" even though I haven't seen any paper having "Life member IEEE"?
Comment: Do you have any reason to believe that your coauthor is lying to you?
Comment: Search for the latest papers by Professor Anthony Ephremides.  You will see he is a 'Life Fellow, IEEE' or 'Life Member, IEEE'
Comment: @JeffE no, I have no feeling he is lying, he is my co-mentor, and up till now, I never knew you could add that in a paper. I thought after Senior Member, then next thing that goes into the paper is Fellow. But with Prof. Santa Claus' comment, I can see that it is possible to put that on a paper.
Answer: Being a new graduate student, I never knew that you could add "life*" to the paper. I felt you can only add member, senior member, follow. After googling, for a while, I found out that one can add life member, life fellow, or life senior member to an author's name.


Why was the tag [arras.io] deleted?

Question: Earlier, I posted a question that had the now nonexistent tag arras.io. Now this tag is gone. I also saw another question (that probably got deleted) about not being able to connect to "Extended Arras" (whatever that is) that also had the tag arras.io. Why was this tag deleted, and is it possible for somebody to re-add it since I am not at 300 reputation yet?
Answer: Your question was edited to remove the arras.io back on June 20th, 2022 with the reason being:

Arras.io seems to be just context not what is actually being asked about

Since the other question you mention was deleted, the tag no longer had any questions, which means it was deleted automatically once the automated process ran.
Comment: @Ender since you need 300 reputation to create tags - yes.  But read the reason provided by pppery as to why they edited out the tag in the first place.  Is the question _really_ about arras.io? It seems the diep.io tag is really all you needed.  No need to spin up extra tags.  If you find yourself asking a question _specific_ to arras.io, then ask it, and someone with 300+ reputation can add the tag (usually OP's will leave a comment on their question asking for someone to create the tag).
Comment: Ok, thanks for the help! You are a very helpful moderator on this site :)
Comment: @Enderman it's a background job that runs everyday at that time. It's apart of the Stackexchange network (it runs on ALL SE sites). We have no control over it.
Comment: How would I re-add the tag back? Do I have to get to 300 reputation first and then create it?
Comment: Also, what do you mean by "the automated process ran?" What automated process? How does it work?
Comment: Ok, thanks for the info!

Why was the tag [arras.io] deleted?


How could dryads realistically grow plants out of their body?

Question: My fantasy world includes non-traditional dryads who are pretty much just humans that have a stronger connection to nature, as well as the ability to grow plants out of their skin. Is there any way to realistically store plants inside a human body, and how would the plants exit the skin? My current explanation is "magic" because the dryads can do magic, but I'm looking for a possible realistic explanation for growing plants out of their body.
Comment: Welcome to worldbuilding! Please take a moment to visit the [help] and familiarize yourself with site policy. We're heavily structured by the standards of most Q&A sites. One of those restrictions is a prohibition on questions looking for help brainstorming or generating ideas. You seem to have an explanation which within the context of your world, a world with magic, is realistic. Do you have some specific problem with saying "plants just grow from their skin" that you'd like help resolving? If you [edit] your question to focus on that instead I think it will be a much better fit.
Comment: You've not told us much about dryads in your world (there exists no definitive source for a description, no certain form or type in mythology as - many cultural influences). All we know is that they have "skin". We're not sure what you mean by skin in this context, it could be something like bark or orange-peel. Please review the [ask] part of the [help] and then [edit] to fill in more details that we would need to answer.
Comment: Are the plants separate from their body, or are the plants part of their body? Like there are some conditions where skin can be hard and bark-like, or where people's bones can grow outside of their skin, but that wouldn't be a "plant" by the normal definition.
Comment: There is a real life animal that stores plants inside their bodies. The [eastern emerald elysia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysia_chlorotica) sucks chloroplast from plants and holds onto them. They then continue to photosynthesize food _inside_ the animal. So, dryad with translucent skin with chroloplast in cells could work. The plants exiting doesn't make much sense in this context, since the whole plant isn't inside the animal, just the useful bits. Having anything like bark grow on top of the skin would negate any effect the chloroplast has.
Answer: Under the assumption that dryads look and function like Earth humans do aside from being able to use magic (which is a thing that does stuff? idk I'm just an Earth human)...
The readily apparent answer would be that they function the same way any existing human parasites do and would have the same options for entering/exiting fairly easily through existing orifices or less easily through creating their own opening.
I suppose you could also have some very fine plants that replaced the hair on the body and 'exited' that way.
As intestinal parasites the plants would be able to obtain nutrients by taking them from food ingested by the host - it could also be possible that the plants produced enzymes that assisted the dryads in processing materials not normally considered food like a modified pitcher plant rooting in the stomach and taking over the function of that organ.
If the plants extended outside the body (perhaps a nice bushy mustache descending from the nose, or by mimicking hair and extending from pores) they may be able to use photosynthesis as many plants currently do. They could also be hooked into the bloodstream and obtain nutrients from there.
Answer: Horny Protrusions.

The Dryad has horny protrusions all along the body. There are small holes in the horns. The plants grow out of these holes with their roots anchored to the lattice structure on the inside.
The Plants are like orchids. They do not need soil. They get everything they need from the air.
Answer: Who's to say that on your fantasy world life has taken a different path leading to blurring of lines between what is a plant and animal?
You mention your fantasy dryads basically just humans with a strong connection to nature. All life here on earth is made of the same basic DNA just coded differently.
A possible explanation could be the "gene library" if you will has expanded to include the production of plant cells. Similar to how trees can regrow branches your fantasy Dryads could include growth nodes that generate plant matter?
Answer: I would say there are two routes you could take.
The first of which would be a combination of Euglenoids, endosymbiotic theory, and an advanced (or just different) endocrine system. I wouldn't necessarily say they "store" the plants within their skin, but rather ambient plant growth within the skin is a natural part of their metabolism. This method would mean that on a cellular level the dryads are both plant and animal, and that the plant growths are more or less a benign teratoma of sorts focusing on plant growth rather than animal growth. This concept is similar to mitochondrial structures apparent in eukaryotic organisms. Euglenoids exhibit both plant and animal characteristics, and if we combine that with endosymbiotic theory, we can extrapolate that some macro organisms could have developed with Euglenoidal DNA. Exercising control over the growth becomes the hard part, but we can further extrapolate that the endocrine system of said Euglenoidal organisms would likely have developed some way to communicate with the plant structures on a hormonal level. Just like adrenaline is used to stimulate ATP synthesis within mitochondria, a hormone "like" adrenaline could have developed to stimulate the plant side of the Euglenoidal organelles. The draw back to this explanation would be there would likely be many different species other than humans also capable of this symbiotic phenomenon. You could use that as an explanation for dryad-like creatures as well. Such as an ent, or a powerful woad spirit like a stag with druid levels. You could even have evil dryads have malformed or malignant plant growths.
My second explanation is that the dryad capabilities are caused by an entirely different creature. Such as a parasite or mutualistic micro organism. To this effect the only reasons humans have these capabilities is because their bodies are host to another organism that grows the plants. You could explain that the misconception that dryads are their own species is caused by infants being born with symptoms of the infection. Infection being a loose definition of what was actually at play. If the dryad creature was actually mutualistic or commensalistic you could use something akin to chimera syndrome as an explanation. Our bodies have natural ways to fight off infections like this. So if you really wanted to get down into the "meat and potatoes" (pun intended) of it, the dryad creature would need to be immune to our biological defenses.
In either case I would say the plant growth is relatively slow, and only expedited with magic.
Answer: Maybe they don't grow the plants "out of their skin", but merely "on their skin"? Like lichen that grows on trees or ivy that grows on walls. Maybe their skin secretes some nourishing sweat-like substance that allows the plants to grow on the dryads body. If they can voluntarily control that process they can manage the plant growth in the way they like. If the spores that produce the plants are just everywhere in the air, especially close to where other dryads already have them, and if they grow really fast, then it might look like magic, when a dryad just wakes up in the morning, "full of plants", after deciding on that when going to bed the evening before.


Microsoft Windows Store quit on start

Question: I'm on Windows 10. Suddenly Windows Store quit on start. The behavior is the same with this video uploaded by another guy. Running WSReset doesn' t help. How to solve this problem?
Answer: Oh. I found the solution at the video comment:
Delete any files from C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8b bwe\LocalCache would fix the issue.
Answer: A user on twitter asked Microsoft the following question on September 11th 2015.

@windowsstore @Microsoft I can't open the windows app store in my 10
  tablet, the app starts to open, then crashes, even after a reboot.

Microsoft replied with the following response:

We are actively investigating this issue and should be back up and
  running soon.

Additional Information:

If you fire up the Windows Store on Windows 10 right now, you will
  notice the app force closes within a few seconds while loading. You
  are not alone. We've been receiving emails from tipsters informing us
  of this issue (thanks Clarence and Markus!) and no word from Microsoft
  as to why this is occurring.
Let's hope Microsoft resolves this issue before the start of the
  weekend. Are you experiencing this issue too? Let us know in the
  comments below. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.
Update: Microsoft has responded via Twitter saying they are looking
  into the matter. The Windows Store app appears to be working again, at
  least for me. How about you?

Windows Store on Windows 10 currently force closing, no explanation why

Microsoft Windows Store quit on start


'This computer does not have enough space for temporary files...' error 0x80070103

Question: I am trying to install windows server 2008 r2 a computer with multiple drives. My c drive has 3gb space, and I have 2 other hardrives with more than 100gb space.
The error is telling me I need about 1gb of space to install windows server.
I have looked at trying to set the partition as active through the computer management console, but an asterisk message saying 'only mark partition as active if it has a functioning operating system..." All of the other drives have the partition as active. I am worried the computer will stop working if I set the partition as active. Any way to test and see if it has an operating system?
What should I do to solve this?
Answer: Setting a partition as "active" means it is the boot partition when that drive is booted.  It does not mean anything else.
You can test for a bootable partition by setting it active and trying to boot it.  If it works, then it is is bootable.
However, the "active status" of a partition has nothing to do with the problem of disk space.  Whether a partition is bootable or not does not change whether windows is mounting the partition and making it available for use.
Usually a windows install process, especially when it is from a Microsoft product, requesting a particular amount of space means on the system partition.  Most non-Microsoft products install just fine and work on other partitions.
Your options for installing windows server are to make another disk the primary disk (by swapping the drives around on the cables) and install the OS onto it, making use of available space—though be aware the default installation option is to blow away the entire partition before installing, or to use the current primary disk by deleting enough stuff to satisfy the installation program.


When does voltage drop occur?

Question: Why or when does it occur in a circuit? What does it imply when you speak of a voltage drop across a resistor? (Obviously, it probably means that the current's voltage before the resistor is higher than the voltage after the resistor, but why does this drop occur?)
Answer: Voltage is the unit of electric potential, the electric potential difference (in your case, the potential difference between the two ends of resistor in a circuit) can be called the voltage drop.
The potential difference produces an electric field $\vec{E}$, and the direction of $\vec{E}$ points from high potential to low potential. The electric field applies a force on charged particles (i.e. electrons in circuits) such that the electrons are driven by this force and move, thereby producing a current. So you can see the potential (voltage) difference is the reason why there is a current. By the way, you cannot say the "current's voltage", since the current is defined as $I = dQ/dt$. That is, it only describes the flow of charge per unit time.
When electrons move through a resistor they are scattered by the other electrons and nuclei, causing the electrons lose some of their kinetic energy. But the presence of the electric field will then accelerate the electrons again. We can calculate the average kinetic energy statistically, and assume the electrons are moving at a single average velocity.
Thus after each collision there is a loss of kinetic energy (it is converted to heat) but which is recovered due to the work done by the electric field. And this work is equal to the potential energy difference. You can see that the electrons have the same kinetic energies both when they enter and when they leave the resistor, but different potential energies. So we can say the voltage drop at the two ends of a resistor is caused by the potential energy difference.
Comment: manifests as heat in the resistive element.
Comment: Or if you're using the circuit to power a motor, some of the energy goes into mechanical energy produced by the motor. Or if you're using it to charge a battery, some of it goes into chemical energy.
Comment: Good explanation! Sorry for my ignorance, but where does the lost energy from the voltage drop go to?
Comment: @Jing "You can see that the electrons have the same kinetic energies both when they enter and when they leave the resistor, but different potential energies." Shouldn't the potential energy and kinetic energy of an electron always sum to a constant. In my mind, voltage can be modeled using three charges. A positive one is fixed on the left, a negative one is fixed on the right, and a point charge moves between both charges. With this model in mind, shouldn't the electrons kinetic energy increase as its potential energy decreases (towards the circuit's end then) and vice versa?

When does voltage drop occur?


unanswered questions

Question: I had a look at the unanswered question, but I noticed half of them seem to have an answer after all, some even two. Why are they listed there?
Answer: You need an answer with at least 2 upvotes before it is considered answered. The assumption being that if it has not received 2 upvotes it is not answering the question well.
Comment: While this may be true, it is kind of dumb... A lot of the time, there are no votes on any answers whether they are good, bad, accepted, or otherwise. The wording needs changed to provide better clarification. For example, rather than "unanswered questions" why not "unresolved questions"? An answer is an answer whether it is good or not.
Comment: OK, that's clear, thanks.
Comment: I thought it was necessary to have an accepted answer, but this way seems smarter
Comment: @clabacchio - There are quite some OPs who fail to accept answers. In that case it's a good idea to rely on the community.
Comment: @stevenvh, I am looking for a solid source that I learned this from a year ago, I believe them accepting an answer also marks it as answered. It used to be a major component of determining how a beta was going so it was of interest until we graduated. Now that we are graduated we have less worry, although keeping the number up is always useful.
Comment: @KurtE.Clothier I dont agree, if a question does not have an accepted or upvoted answer then it has not been answered yet, makes sense. If the answer was good then it would have upvotes, if you click on the question and it has a good answer, upvote.
Comment: @Kortuk I'm not disagreeing with your concept, just the language in use. "Unanswered" is not the same as "No good answers" and that language is confusing to users who don't understand what is going on. Besides, it has already been well established in meta that EE.SE users are not very good at upvoting...
Comment: @KurtE.Clothier some of the community feels we are poor voters, not that we are all bad voters. We are discerning. It is semantics in my opinion. Unanswered means no answer. You define that as non posted, I define that as no answer that meets the criteria of the question. I will stop beating a dead horse, maybe a small explanation on the side of the screen.
Comment: The naming is just plain WRONG.  Semantics and personal preferences have little to do with it.  Just below this comment box is the bread and butter box of SE and it is clearly labelled ANSWER.  If that box has been used the QUESTION is no longer unanswered.  We all agree that some answers are no good but they were entered as answers.  The trivial fix is to have two listing parametrs, one for unanswered and one for unresolved then all are happy and the engineers "logic in unassailable".
Comment: @KalleMP I cant count the number of times someone asked a question in the real world and someone responding did nothing to answer it. If there is something written, but no one agrees it is an answer, they asker is still lacking an answer.
Answer: Once you open the unanswered questions list, you have to click on "no answers" tab to see questions which don't have any answers.
Comment: I'd never noticed that before, I'd always just pressed the unanswered tab from the main questions page and hadn't paid much attention to the seperate unanswered page assuming they were the same.

unanswered questions


WIX Installer UI: Tooltip for Icon/Bitmap

Question: I'm using WIX toolset to build an installer for my product.
I would like to place the question mark icon next to Edit to show the tooltip with the explanation of why this value is needed.
I've tried to do it with Icon, Bitmap, and Text, but hovering mouse on them doing nothing. My code is:
<Control Id="EditToBeExplained" Type="Edit" X="40" Y="65" Width="220" Height="15" Property="IMPORTANT_PROPERTY" Text="{80}" ToolTip="Used for very important stuff."></Control>
<Control Id="ExplanationIcon" IconSize="16" Type="Icon" Text="infoIcon" X="265" Y="65" Height="16" Width="16" ToolTip="Used for very important stuff."/>
<Control Id="ExplanationBmp" Type="Bitmap" Text="infoIconB" Height="16" Width="16" X="285" Y="65" TabSkip="no" ToolTip="Used for very important stuff."></Control>
<Control Id="AgentTempPathEditExplText" Type="Text" Text="{\WixUI_Font_Bigger}?" X="316" Y="65" Height="16" Width="16" ToolTip="Used for very important stuff."/>

I'm doing something wrong? Tooltip on Edit is displayed, so tooltips itself are working. I also checked the Control table with Orca, Help column values are correct.
So.
How I can force msi to show these tooltips?
Or, if this is impossible
Any ideas, how to show this explanation to user?
Answer: It sounds like you've done your homework.  MSI SDK says that the help column is ToolTip|Help with the second part reserved for future use.  WiX SDK says that the Help attribute is reserved for future use in case MSI ever uses it ( translation never ).
I searched the MSI SDK for caveats on tool tip usage but didn't come across any.  If you see the column being populated correctly in ORCA then I'd say this is just one of the undocumented unsupported by MSI edge cases.
You could use an external UI handler if it's important enough to you.  Personally in 20 years I don't recall ever using this feature.
I just did some playing and it seems I can only get tool tips to work for things you can actually interact with.  Edit,  PathEdit, DirectoryList, Pushbutton and so on.  Things like Line, Text and BitMap don't seem to work.  This kinda makes sense but I don't know if MSFT documented it anywhere.


Does weapon weight in Fallout 4 affect anything other than carry weight?

Question: Due to recent experience with games like Destiny and how significantly things have changed since Fallout 3 and New Vegas..I've been wondering if there are any implicit effects induced by higher/lower weapon weight. For instance: would a 10mm pistol that's heavier than a stock version of itself have reduced recoil but slower handling (draw/stow speed)? Perhaps slower reload speed?
Answer: Weapon weight increases the amount of time it takes for you to ADS (aim down sights) or "scope". This is explained in a loading screen tool-tip.
For example having a lighter scoped weapon will allow you to ADS quicker and reduces the fade-out time of the black overlay.
Answer: All of the weapon modifications will highlight what they're changing. Having a "lighter" weapon in itself will not directly change anything, but the modification may impact another statistic. For example;

An advanced receiver increases damage and gives you a better rate of fire
A full stock gives you better recoil
A quick eject drum magazine gives you better ammo capacity and improved reload speeds

Additionally, "heavy" weapons will effect your movement speed while they're equipped.
Comment: I have noticed that some modifications to explicitly state that they change recoil and reload speed but I was wondering if there were instances where this wasn't necessarily explicit. Also, no modifications mention handling at all which is, more or less, where my question arose from.
Comment: Well handling is accuracy, no?
Comment: Not necessarily. What I'm referring to is the draw/stow speed. I will change my question to clarify this.
Comment: All weapons appear to draw/holster at the same speed. At least my two completely opposite examples did (Laser rifle vs 10mm pistol). I expect this to be different for the heavy weapons (minigun, fat man, etc)
Comment: Right, I believe that the difference between handling of a small gun/energy weapon and a heavy weapon is implied but a proper testing environment would be the exact same weapon but with one loaded up with as many weight-adding modifications as possible (I'd do this myself but I'm currently at work - will do later).
Answer: A loading screen tip for the PC version specifically says that weapon weight inversely affects draw speed.  I'll screenshot it if I see it again for support, but I can safely say that yes, weapon weight matters (though it might not matter much).
Comment: I believe the tip refers to ADS speed. ADS is different than drawing. Drawing is pulling the weapon out of its holster. ADS is looking down the sight.
Answer: Most of the mods that increase weapon weight also increase VATS cost.  This includes the heavy receiver (light reduces cost, but anything with "sensitive trigger is better) longer barrels (stub is cheapest), scopes (Reflex is best, focus seems to be keyword there), and stocks as opposed to pistol grips.  Muzzles don't matter though.
Someone also said that weapon weight also affects bash damage.  I haven't really tested this but I have read that Minigun + Shredder + basher perk brutalizes enemies.
Comment: This makes sense, and I think weapon weight affected AP cost in previous games, at least for melee weapons. Have you tested this or corroborated it somewhere?
Comment: Weapon weight has a larger effect than fire rate on AP cost. This is the #1 consideration what to mod a weapon with or not, if you use vats. Max out damage then accuracy, and then add or remove mods until it's as light as possible.
Answer: I asked this question myself recently, and found this posting. After performing my own experiment, I have determined that although heavier types of weapons (gauss rifle v pipe rifle) have slower drawing and aiming speeds, there is no discernable difference between a heavier version of the same type of weapon (fully upgraded pipe rifle v light pipe rifle). I also determined that there is similarly no difference between a pistol and a rifle version of the same weapon type.
In conclusion, the drawing and aiming speed of a weapon appears to only be tied to the type of weapon, and not it's actual weight.
Comment: Was your experiment primarily through "feel" or did you, say, open up modified weapons in the creation kit and examine the stats to prove the lack of difference? If you could do some creation kit research and post some screenshots, that would surely be worth a lot in helping your case.
Answer: There's a loading screen (PS4) that says longer weapons have more accuracy when scoped, but less when fired from the hip. This doesn't directly mention weight, but longer weapons tend to be heavier, so weight usually indirectly plays a part in a weapon's accuracy.


Explanation for glowing eyes

Question: I wish there was more to say, this question was inspired by this image. Now I know that they are robots but is there a way that I could achieve glowing eyes in real biology?
Comment: Are you asking "can" or "why?"  Can is easy: there's plenty of bio-luminescent compounds used in biology today. "Why" is a lot harder, because there's not many reasons to add reflected bright light from things like eyelashes when you're trying to see at night.
Comment: Have you done ANY research on this at all? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum first result from googling "animals glowing eyes"
Comment: Eyes are supposed to detect light, not emit it. I am quite sure it would be hard to design an eye which can glow without blinding the creature.
Answer: Maybe they mimic a species of bioluminescent prey animals who attract mates with light.  So the eyes evolved to lure in food.  If the chemical that luminesces is produced by the brain, then maybe it isn't just their eyes that glow, but their entire brain.  The eyes are just the only place where the light can shine out, and the glowing brain became a survival positive trait when it started attracting food.
Answer: It gives them an advantage in hunting food. Anglerfish have bioluminescent protrusions that attract prey and mates. Glowing eyes are definitely not beyond the realm of possibility since, as @Aify points out in the comments, exist in some animals.

Explanation for glowing eyes


H-L Test: Looking at the data

Question: Can you just eyeball the Hosmer-Lemeshow test (e.g. just look at observed and expected values in each group and see if they agree more or less)? Even if the Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic is significant...can I still say the model fits the data well for my purposes just by observing the observed and expected values in each group?
Answer: Yes. Plot the calibration curve(s) and draw your conclusions from the agreements with the 45° line corresponding to perfect calibration, keeping in mind the distribution of observed and predicted risks. No big deal if your model doesn't calibrate well in high risk ranges if you don't have a lot of cases out there in practice, especially if the event of interest is rare and/or low risk to begin with. One handy tip: if your curves follow a J/U-shape (like a hockey stick — you'll know it when you see it) just cube the probability estimates that your model spits out. This often will straighten out the curves and improve calibration substantially. You might have to experiment with the specific transformation but I've found cubing usually works well.
In my experience, the H-L test is rubbish, and I wouldn't rely on it as an assessment of model calibration, at all. I've managed to get H-L p-values of $10^{-300}$ to near 1 using the same classifier and dataset just by varying the sample size, even though the calibration was nearly perfect visually in all cases.

H-L Test: Looking at the data


Was Jesus actually born at midnight?

Question: In Luke 2, we get a narration of events surrounding the birth of Jesus.  The angels announce the Nativity to the shepherds who are  watching over the sheep in fields, mentioning the Town of David as the location  and the time of the Nativity as ' today '( Lk 2:11) In Biblical times when the concept of 24-hours' day was not in vogue, day and night were separately counted (Mtt 12:40). The shepherds go to Bethlehem to see the Child (Lk 2:15 ) and return after spreading the news (Lk 2:17-2O) implying that they stayed put in Bethlehem  much through the day. It is therefore, possible that Jesus was born in day- time, the news was disclosed to the shepherds after sundown, they set out to Bethlehem  early next morning and retuned during the day. But then, Christmas is celebrated in Vigil Service between 24 th and 25 th December, implying that Jesus was born at midnight. The practice perhaps owes its origin more to tradition than to scriptural narratives. My question, therefore , is : Was Jesus actually born at midnight ? Inputs from scholars of any denomination are welcome.
Comment: Is the intended implication of the midnight service that Jesus was born at midnight? I always just assumed it was to celebrate the date at the earliest possible time
Comment: Well, the hymns and texts of prayers also mention night , as in  'Silent Night, Holy Night....'
Answer: Neither Matthew nor Luke give the time, but He was probably born at night.
The Jews measured a day from sundown to sundown, so "today" is the period from the last sundown to the next sundown.
The announcement is given to the shepherds at night:

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. (Luke 2:8)

The angel says He will be born "this day" (i.e. between last sundown and next sundown):

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)

They went quickly:

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. (Luke 2:15-16)

The hills outside of Bethlehem are only a few miles from the (likely) site of Jesus' birth. The shepherds are told during the night that the Savior is/was born "this day", they decide to set out right away, and when the shepherds arrive a short time later, Jesus has already been born. And since He's lying in a manger, not in His mother's arms, the shepherds didn't arrive moments after the birth, but more likely several hours later.
Unless we really stretch the meaning of "haste", the shepherds are there before dawn or very shortly thereafter, and Jesus is already a few hours old.
Comment: HTTR, Luke 1:39 says " In those days, Mary went in haste ....to visit Elizabeth". So, the use of haste to express an immediate reaction, may not be measured in minutes or hours , and could stretch to days together.
Comment: HTTR,  you seem to suggest that Nativity was announced to the shepherds in advance. Can you elaborate ?
Comment: @KadalikattJosephSibichan to visit Elisabeth, Mary had to travel nearly 100 miles. To visit the babe in the manger, the shepherds probably traveled less than 5 miles. Quickly making preparations for a 100 mile journey would take considerably longer than quickly making preparations to travel 5. I added 1 more verse to my answer for clarity.
Comment: @KadalikattJosephSibichan I used is/was because the angel doesn't say if Jesus has been born already this day, or He will be born this day. I think it more likely that He had already been born when the angelic announcement was given.
Comment: Thanks. I stand corrected. As for the determining the start and end of the day, there are different schools of thought. Going by Genesis Ch 1, the day ended with sunrise. However, Jn 19:38 indicates that Day of Sabbath commenced with  sundown of the immediately preceding day.

Was Jesus actually born at midnight?


Iphone sequential animation with setAnimationDelay

Question: I'm trying to chain animation events. The application I'm coding for work has a multiple choice quiz. First you pick your multiple choice answer. The quiz view fades away. Then a label ("correct" or "incorrect") fades in and then fades out. Finally the quiz fades back in again. The events are called and handled by a main viewController. I know I can chain events with the setAnimationDelegate and setAnimationDidStopSelector but I think it'll be easier and more clear to simply use setAnimationDelay so that all animations have time to finish before the next one fires.
I made this function that exists in the class that holds the "correct" "incorrect" label.
<code>- (void)showIncorrect:(float)duration withDelay:(float)delay{
labelView.text = @"Incorrect!";
labelView.textColor = [UIColor redColor];

[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDelay:delay];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:(duration/2)];
    self.alpha = 1.0;
[UIView commitAnimations];

[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDelay:(duration/2+delay)];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:(duration/2)];
    self.alpha = 0.0;
[UIView commitAnimations];
</code>
}
Can someone tell my why the first animation block is ignored? I've tried to nest one animation block into the other and this does not work either.
Answer: When you animate this way, you're actually setting the relevant value immediately, and telling what's onscreen to animate to catch up to that new reality. So whatever value you set in the first animation block is being effectively ignored, because you've overwritten the fact that alpha == 1 by the fact that alpha == 0.
For doing more complex animations, it is worth building and adding the animations using CoreAnimation. It is a little more work, but you get lots more control.
In this case, you want to use an instance of CAKeyframeAnimation. You'll probably also want to use a CABasicAnimation to animate in your new quiz view. You can use a CAAnimationGroup to make sure that multiple animations that you add are synchronized.
Answer: I've hit similar issues, what seems to happen is the iPhone is optimizing the drawing which occurs in the same function.
What you can try doing is splitting the function up and performSelector. For example
<code>[self performSelector:@selector(hideMessage) withObject:self afterDelay:1.0];
</code>
I've used this a few times with good results.
If you want to see an excellent write up on doing great game style effects check out the Formic example code in iPhone cool projects.  Wolfgang really pushes views for very pleasing game style effects.
Google books has it, but the book overall has some really great techniques.
Heres the google book link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=_9qtPLmQxf8C&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=wolfgang+ante+formic&source=bl&ots=-vxvV3oLap&sig=G0BLW1RpItws-fwmXDI3mIjje4U&hl=en&ei=tVnzSt-3MImEMpL_8OgF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=wolfgang%20ante%20formic&f=false
Rich


what do I need to do with "man: can't set the locale; make sure $LC_* and $LANG are correct"

Question: I typed man sudoers but got
man: can't set the locale; make sure $LC_* and $LANG are correct
No manual entry for sudoers

What does this mean?
Comment: I had similar problem on OS X and was able to fix it by commenting out `SendEnv LANG LC_*` in `/etc/ssh/ssh_config`.
Answer: Your locale isn't set. In Debian-Base you should use dpkg-reconfigure locales to set it.
Some of packages depend on locales package and its variable such as LC_* series ...!
It means $LANG is empty.
Comment: On my system `$LANG` wasn't empty when I got the message from `man`. I ran `dpkg-reconfigure locales` and let it process, but nothing changed.
Answer: Your locale settings as indicated by environment variables uses locale names that are not available on your system.
Locale settings control the character set used by commands and terminals (LC_CTYPE), the collation order (LC_COLLATE), the format of dates (LC_TIME), numbers (LC_NUMERIC) and amounts of currency (LC_MONETARY), the language of messages (LC_MESSAGES), etc. The values of these variables are locale names. On most systems, the name has the form xx_YY or xx_YY@variant or xx_YY.charset where xx is a two-letter language code and YY is a two-letter country code.
Run the command locale to see your current settings.
Run locale -a to see the available locale names.
If the locale you'd like to use is missing, you may need to generate it. This is distribution-dependent. For example, on Debian, run dpkg-reconfigure locales as root. On Ubuntu, run locale-gen xx_YY to generate the locale xx_YY.
Answer: Below is an addition to the recommendation to use dpkg-reconfigure locales, which failed for me (my hunch is that if it were working, I wouldn't have this problem.
The problem
me@pc:~$ man
man: can't set the locale; make sure $LC_* and $LANG are correct
What manual page do you want?

First try to solve it, fails
me@pc:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
    LANGUAGE = (unset),
    LC_ALL = (unset),
    LANG = "en_US"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
Generating locales...
  en_AG.UTF-8... up-to-date
  ...(lines omitted)...

Second try, succeeds. I still get an error on en_ZW, but I don't use it.
me@pc:~$ sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8 && sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
...
me@pc:~$ man
what manual page do you want?

No more LOCALE errors on the man command!
Answer: This means your system does not know in which language the info should be displayed.
Paste the output of locale -a probably you haven`t generated the locales this is a bit distro specific but usually running locale-gen will generate the locales for you hence removing the error. Take a look on this link.
Answer: Still a problem in 2020... On my system (Kubuntu 20.04.1), the solution was simply export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 in my ~/.zshrc. I imagine the same would work in .bashrc.
I think there are other variables which need to be set (probably those reported by locales), but they seem to have all been handled by the desktop environment.
Answer: If you're using a raspberry pi, this can also be fixed by using sudo raspi-config, selecting "Localisation Options", and then setting your appropriate locale.


Touch Bar to only showing my customized layout at all times

Question: How do I configure the Touch Bar on the new Macbook Pro's to only show my customized layout at all times?  Forgive for the question if I can't.
Answer: In System Preferences/Keyboard, you just set the "Touch Bar Shows" drop-down in the Keyboard tab to "Expanded Control Strip", and use the Customize Control Strip button to set up that expanded control strip however you want.
Comment: Good catch! Not sure if "expanded control strip" is what he means by "customized layout" but it's a solid guess
Answer: I believe you're referring to a customized view you made on one app applying to all your apps. If not, skip this section.
The touch bar is configured separately for every view you are in within each app (so there are multiple configurations within the same app such as composing and reading mail or example) but there are also system settings for the 4 icons that always show up on the right of the touch bar and the icons that show up when you click the arrow next to those. These can be customized in Settings -> Keyboard -> Customize Control Strip.
So you can't choose one layout to display at all times, for example somebody asked if they could add emoji to touch bar globally and I explained you cannot.
--
If asking about the "Expanded Control Strip":

Settings -> Keyboard and set it so "Press fn key to" - "Expand Control Strip". Helpful trick!
"Touch Bar Shows" > "Expanded Control Strip" (kudos to @mike-scott for reminding me)


Why does lightning generate multiple branches?

Question: Everyone have seen and knows how lightning occurs. But then I realized that lightning never occurs in straight lines but it follows branching. But Why is that so? Why can't lightning goes in straight line rather than generating multiple branches just likes in this picture ?
Comment: It's a great question with a very interesting answer, which I unfortunately don't have time to write right now. However, you might find some useful information by searching for the term "dielectric breakdown", which is the general term for the breakdown of an electrical insulator. (Lightning is a specific example.)
Comment: Why do many rivulets join a river? because of the gravitational potential and the variations in the ground topography which is variable. The current follows lines of least resistance, i.e. where there is a breakdown in the resistivity of air, due to various causes ( from ground topography, to cosmic rays passing through, the fields are not uniform and breaks can be random. see this  spark in the lab https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5mmw9qphkE
Comment: Please note that editing your post every so often by adding or removing a space, especially in an attempt to bump the question on the active page, is generally frowned upon.
Answer: I know this is a little more than you asked for, but lightning is very interesting.
A lightning event is usually called a flash and lasts about 0.5 seconds. It consists of a near-invisible stepped leader followed by a very bright return stroke backwards along the path of the stepped leader. Following the first stroke, there may be additional strokes in the flash, following nearly the same path of the first one. There may be slight deviations due to other dim leaders called darts.
Over half of all lightning flashes happen within a cloud and are called IC discharges. The type of flash of most practical importance is the cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning. Other rarer types of lightning are cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-air flashes. Note that the bright flash that we see is the return stroke, so cloud-to-ground lightning will appear to start near the ground and zoom upward; the initial stepped leader happened first, starting in the cloud.
The typical charge separation in a cumulonimbus cloud results in the top of the cloud having a net positive charge, near the bottom having a net negative charge, and occasionally the extreme bottom edge having a small positive charge. The overall effect is that a large negative charge (of magnitude 15 coulombs) is closer to the ground than the positive charge. This charge structure causes the ground to become positively polarized as negative electrons are ``pushed'' away by the cloud.
Air is normally an insulator, but if the charge separation per distance is too large (either because of large charge or small distance), it can become a conductor. The initiation event is unknown, but scientists currently speculate that either atmospheric radioactivity (from Radon-222) or creation of ions from stratospheric reactions with cosmic rays (solar protons, other charged particles, or high energy photons) can trigger a flash.
In any event, negative charge moves in steps about 50 meters long through a small conductive pathway in the air, pausing from 20 to 50 microseconds at each step, reaching the ground in a few hundredths of a second. The current in this leaders is between 100 and 1000 amperes. After each step, the leader shifts direction as a new conducting path opens.
After the leader reaches the ground, a tremendous burst of energy is released in the return stroke along the path of the leader as the positive ions in the ground and electrons in the leader combine. This recombination produces a current of 20000 to 30000 amperes, and a temperature as high as 30000 K. The temperature of the surface of the Sun is 5800 K. This tremendous release is accompanied by a bright optical flash, an electromagnetic pulse, and the rapid expansion of heated air.  The typical size of the return stroke channel is 1-2 inches in diameter.
If the initial stroke doesn't resolve the charge separation, more charge from the cloud will travel to the ground along the original path. This is called a dart leader. When it reaches the ground (about 10 times faster than the stepped leader), an additional return stroke occurs along the path. The time between strokes is on the order of hundredths of seconds but could be as long as a tenth of a second.  Anyone watching a lightning storm has seen multiple strokes along the same pathway.
Comment: Very interesting answer, but I still don't really understand the branching. Could you explain that again, or point out where is it in your answer? Because "*After each step, the leader shifts direction as a new conducting path opens.*" for me explains why the path is not a straight line, but not the branches.
Comment: If more than one pathway opens at a particular step, you could have the nest step go in 2 or 3 directions to a new electrical equipotential layer in the atmosphere. These equipotentials don't need to be geometrically flat.
Answer: Lightning branches so that it can reduce the resistance of the path it takes to the ground. As you know, when you attach two identical resistors in parallel, the equivalent resistance is lesser than that of the two in series. Branching essentially does that. It creates more and more parallel paths by which the electrons can flow, thereby reducing the total resistance of the journey from sky to ground.
The mechanism of how it branches is similar to that of rivers branching. The water streams branch when they approach a solid mass so that they can move with lesser obstruction around the mass.
Answer: This is a slightly delayed answer, but since the theory of lightning is still under development, there should be no harm in speculating about it a bit more.
As was mentioned in other answers, a lighting between a cloud and the ground typically starts at a cloud as a negative current heading downwards.
Let's look at it in more detail.
First, we need to understand where these negative charges are coming from?
Those charges are not likely to be free electrons and are not likely to be water molecules: they are negative ions of air molecules. There are always a few of negative and positive ions floating around, but when they are sped up by the field created by a charged cloud, they split neutral air molecules and can initiate a chain reaction that ionizes the air along the field lines.
While the negative ions are rushing toward the ground, making more ion pairs along the way, the positive ions rush back toward the cloud doing pretty much the same thing. But while the negative ions have a long way to go, the positive ions start returning to the cloud and neutralizing the charge in the cloud as soon as the process begins.
As the cloud gets neutralized around the origin of the lighting, new charges from other parts of the cloud are rushing in to keep things going. But they are not going to arrive instantaneously, so we could speculate that the field pushing the leader out will weaken a bit following the initial burst. Perhaps this could cause the leader to pause and wait until the charge at its origin in the cloud is replenished. I am not claiming that this is the explanation of the bursty nature of the leader, but just making an observation.
Since, as we are suggesting, the current of the leader is formed by air molecules moving upward and downward and making a lot of collisions, we could expect that this fast moving air (wind) will create a lot of turbulence around its path.
With that in mind, it is only natural that some of the ions could stray from the straight path and, if they are energetic enough, could possibly initiate alternative paths.
So, even if the air was perfectly uniform before the lighting got started, it will be thoroughly disturbed as the lightning progresses, creating multiple opportunities for branching.
I don't know if branching tends to occur at the end of the "steps", but if it did, it would not be illogical, since the arrival of a new wave of energy could require multiple outlets.
Answer: It doesn't branch. It merges, much like water flowing downhill. Because the charge moves from a large spread out space (the earth) to a small concentrated space (the cloud), much as a stream merges into a river flowing into a larger river meets ever greater capacity for erosion and less resistance. The branching is a sign that the charge is mostly moving UP, not down.
Answer: Because air in some way like a monument wall for electricity , imagine if you have an air bubble in closed volume in solid wall and the tension of pressure in this bubble is increasing then when the tension will be big enough the pressure is crack the wall, so crack is appear and to understand deeper we need to understand that this wall have structure like solids, so it cracks in specific path according to inner structure, in this way air or vacuum is a solid wall for electricity, also this process in some way chaotic , physics is certain science but there is a chaotic processes which unpredictable, because of to many parameters or parameters that outside of the system.
Comment: I don't think your answer or comments have any basis in reality.
Comment: Gases don't have structure.
Comment: Air is many bubbles, but between them is vacuum , and vacuum is like the solid wall for electricity. Does vacuum have structure? :) Specially when it looks from the point of electricity (vacuum behaves like wall for electricity and like superconductor for matter, so to electricity it does have a structure and for matter it free media). Air is the most consist from vacuum that is in lightning upwards. And if you compress and cold the air will it became solid or not? I think that is. For electricity air is wall.
Comment: In air we do have a chaotic movement and think that there is no structure, but in true there are an atomic (classical physics) resonance.
Comment: Nuclear resonance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_magnetic_resonance
Comment: Atomic orbital https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Atomic_orbital By the way does you have all answers of nature, if i wrong , prove it.
Comment: Actually, since you are the one making ridiculous claims, it is up to *you* to prove that anything you've said is right.
Comment: I can take two conductors and make a discharge between them, vacuum behave like a wall from an electricity point of view (very high resistance), atoms that in gasses does have a structure (they only chaotic) and rest is vacuum. I can`t prove that vacuum has a structure based but from experiments air behaves like wall, so we may propose that vacuum have structure. Space is superconductor-plasmic (liquid , gas) both for matter, but for electricity it wall. And on Earth electricity moves freely superconductor-plasmic (liquid, gas) but wall for matter.
Comment: And by the way you need to be more decent even if you have a PhD and don`t judge especially if you not propose any explanation on subject. Thanks Timur.


How does Nine from the Boku no Hero Academia movie have All for One's quirk

Question: I was watching the movie Heros Rising and while they were describing how Nine got his quirk it briefly shows "The Doctor". He explains to Nine that he has All for One's quirk, which means he can have nine quirks as well as his own. It's never explained how this works, so I was wondering if anyone caught onto it and look into it more. My only theory is that All for One is just like One for All, where it can be transferred, but that is immediately shut down because the movie has almost connected to the show itself. After all, it would affect the storyline too much. If someone could explain, it would be appreciated.
Answer: He gained it through the experiment

he became the test subject of Dr. Daruma Ujiko's experiment, which granted him the Quirk known as All For One, allowing to steal and use up to nine different Quirks.

This is on Wikia,
Nine - My Hero Academia Wikia
The doctor is a mad scientist who experiments on people frequently. Not much is really known other than this and it might be explained more in the future as we know that Shigaraki will inherit All For One's power. And has already started to

Tomura's second Quirk is the original version of All For One used by his master. It allows him to steal other people's Quirks and use them as his own. All For One's first user intended to have Tomura inherit his Quirk

This is both here:
Tomura Shigaraki
And here:
All For One (Quirk)
Perhaps it's given to Nine the same way as a test to see how it could be transferred to Shigaraki. It's complicated but it seems like All for One can definitely be transferred in a way just like One for All just Maybe not by DNA unless it's a different form of DNA such as blood possibly. We don't know what happened during the experiment so I can't say for sure whether blood transfusion was a part of the process or not but it may very well be. Hope this helps.


Is the 'Nikon pronunciation' question relevant?

Question: I'm surprised more people haven't queried the relevance of the How should Nikon be pronounced question - surely this is way off topic? Rowland Shaw has posted a link to the Japanese Language site in the comments - should this perhaps be migrated?
Answer: I think how to pronounce a common brand of camera is quite relevant to a photography site.
Answer: Despite the fact that Nikon is a Japanese company, that does not necessarily mean this is a question about the Japanese Language. Pronunciation is of a word is generally dependent upon the language it is spoken in, and therefor it will be spoken differently in different locales. There is no single site that this question really belongs at, as it could fit on our site, the Japanese Language site, or even the English Language site. It could be migrated...but to which one? At least here on PhotoSE, it does fit regardless of language...it is a question about a camera manufacturer, and while pronunciation is not specifically on topic, the community doesn't seem to think it is particularly off-topic in this case either. If a new SEN language site pops up in the future where it would actually fit (i.e. General Languages and Usage), I could see it being migrated where there, as it would be a better fit.
Comment: Well, I try not to just go around closing questions until the community has had a chance to respond on their own, or I get a bunch of flags or comments about topics in chat. I'd prefer to let the community voice speak first. Even though it isn't an art or science question, it is still directly related to photography, since gear (and the names of gear) are the third leg of the tripod of photography. ;) The question has five upvotes, and the first answer has 13 upvotes. I would prefer not to take contrary action on my own, and I think there are different views on the "on/off topicness" here.
Comment: "the community doesn't seem to think it is particularly off-topic" - that's what puzzles me! I don't think it relates to the art or science of photography at all, if you apply the rules strictly pedantically. It may be that there isn't a specific site for this sort of question, but that doesn't mean it belongs here. Given the speed with which other OT questions are closed, I'm just perplexed.
Comment: Thanks for your thoughts - I'll file under 'nowt so queer as folk'!
Comment: You say Tomato, I say...