Why won't the GFCI-protected devices in my kitchen work even though they seem to have power?

Question: I have a GFCI receptacle that will not reset, and all of the switches -- which are to my garbage disposal, dishwasher, and over-sink light -- will not work. I checked it with a voltage detector after shutting the power off and I still had live wires. How do I get this resolved?
Comment: Why are those devices on a GFCI-protected circuit? Motors are normally not GFCI protected for two reasons. One, the voltage spike when they start can trip the GFCI. Two, the purpose of GFCI is to protect you from stuff like dropping an appliance in the water. That won't be happening with a garbage disposal or dishwasher.
Answer: Is this a new outlet where there was not a GFCI before?
Was the unit working before and suddenly stopped working?
There seem to be too many downstream devices on the load side of the GFCI.  I would have expected this list of devices to be on at least 3 circuits.  That may explain why there still live circuits after shutoff to the GFCI.
In general, GFCIs won't reset when

They are wired incorrectly (power to load terminals)
The load side is ground faulted (current leaving the hot side does not fully return on the neutral)
The GFCI is faulty

To isolate the GFCI from any downstream problems, disconnect the load terminals and see if it will reset.


I made salsa and washed jars but did not put in boiling water ? They all sealed? Is this safe

Question: I made salsa and after all done realized I did not sterilize the jars? Is this safe or how can I fix?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Jars of salsa, do I have to boil the jars if they sealed on their own?](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/40097/jars-of-salsa-do-i-have-to-boil-the-jars-if-they-sealed-on-their-own)
Comment: Hi and welcome - I'd suggest that you check out the related answers here: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/35785/first-time-canning-forgot-to-sterilize-my-jar-advice-please?rq=1 It would also help us provide good answers if you can post details of your recipe - whether you're working from a tested, known-safe method is a big factor in canning. Have you made this before? Did you process the jars in a boiling-water bath?
Answer: Quick Answer:
It's a gamble. I would reseal the jars. Just remove the lids, and do the full boil and seal process. Nothing is lost.
Reason:
As mentioned in a similar post, you really need to do the full boil process to ensure all the contents, including the salsa, are safe for storage.
One reason for that is, if you even breathe on the jars, bacteria and microorganisms could have landed inside. The full boil will sterilize all of that.
Happy jarring!


References for use of symplectic geometry in statistics?

Question: I have heard that many problems in Mathematical Statistics can be stated and solved in terms of Symplectic Geometry. Unfortunately this was a pretty vague statement and I am interested in something more concrete. Also there seem to be some books written form this perspective, but I couldn't find any.
Comment: Where did you hear this statement?
Answer: A direct connection would be unexpected: the two fields appear to have little in common.  For example, a modern introduction to symplectic geometry published by the American Mathematical Society appears to make no mention of mathematical statistics at all.
At best it seems any connection would come through mathematical physics.  A symplectic geometry on phase space naturally arises in the Hamiltonian formulation of classical mechanics and that in turn can be used to explore global properties of physical systems.  The study of periodic and near-periodic orbits becomes somewhat statistical (e.g., ergodic theorems).  When applied to a system with many degrees of freedom it would conceivably relate some aspects of symplectic geometry to thermodynamics, which is inherently a statistical theory
Answer: I know nothing whatsoever about symplectic geometry, but a bit of googling brought up a 1997 article in the Journal of Statistical Planning & Inference by Barndorff-Nielsen & Jupp, which contains this quote:

Some other links between statistics and symplectic geometry have been discussed
  by Friedrich and Nakamura. Friedrich (1991) established some connections between
  expected (Fisher) information and symplectic structures. However, his approach and
  results are quite different from those considered here. Nakamura (1993, 1994) has
  shown that certain parametric statistical models in which the parameter space M is an
  even-dimensional vector space (and so has the symplectic structure of the cotangent
  space of a vector space) give rise to completely integrable Hamiltonian systems on M.

The cited refs are:

Friedrich, T., 1991. Die Fisher-lnformation und symplectische Strukturen. Math. Nachr. 153: 273-296.
Nakamura, Y., 1993. Completely integrable gradient systems on the manifolds of Gaussian and multinomial
distributions. Japan. J. Ind. Appl. Math. 10: 179-189.
Nakamura, Y., 1994. Gradient systems associated with probability distributions. Japan. J. Ind. Appl. Math. 11: 21-30.

The article's Introduction says B-N & others have used differential geometry as an approach to statistical asymptotics. Symplectic geometry is a branch of differential geometry (according to Wikipedia). A Google Books search finds several books about the application of differential geometry to statistics and related fields such as econometrics.
Comment: +1 Good finds.  However, most of the differential geometry applications to statistics do not use symplectic geometry.  I think our difficulty in finding references is testimony to how obscure and rare are the applications of symplectic geometry to statistics.
Answer: Symplectic model of Statistical Physics and Information Geometry is given by Souriau model of "Lie groups Thermodynamics":
Lie Group Cohomology and (Multi)Symplectic Integrators: New Geometric Tools for Lie Group Machine Learning Based on Souriau Geometric Statistical Mechanics,
Lie Group Statistics and Lie Group Machine Learning Based on Souriau Lie Groups Thermodynamics & Koszul-Souriau-Fisher Metric: New Entropy Definition as Generalized Casimir Invariant Function in Coadjoint Representation,
(Souriau-Casimir
Lie Groups Thermodynamics
& Machine Learning: A slide presentation)(https://franknielsen.github.io/SPIG-LesHouches2020/Barbaresco-SPILG2020.pdf),
the youtube version
Comment: please add references for your links in case they die in the future


How do I fetch the full filepath that is displayed in browse button

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
Full path from file input using jQuery
how to resolve the C:\fakepath?

I am using multiple file upload in my application and I want to fetch the full file path that is displayed in the browse widget.
For example, say the file path is "home/administrator/Pictures/bird.jpeg". I am able to fetch only the file name (bird.jpeg). Using PHP and Firefox as my browser, is there any alternative to obtaining the full file path?
Answer: You can not get it because of browser security settings.


Why would hinder the government from reclaiming postapocalyptic US?

Question: So I am writing the lore for a video game. It takes place on an island, near the Western Coast. It has been 20 years since the zombie apocalypse and 10 years since the government started reclaiming key cities and spots in postapocalyptic America. The game takes place when the government is nearing the gates of said island. What would hinder them from taking this chaotic island with a unified army?
Comment: Offtopic: Every time i hear about zombies "x years later" i have to think about [conservation of energy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy) - HOW are they moving after all these years? Where is that energy coming from? (and how can we make electricity from them? :) )
Comment: @Jan'splite'K. the obvious answer is the zombie hamster-wheel, with a real live human or two stood, sat or wandering around in front of them to encourage them to shamble in the desired direction .. a ubiquitous feature of all eco friendly post apocalypse offices and shopping malls
Comment: Islands have gates?
Answer: Cost-Benefit Analysis
When assaulting an enemy position, there's a simple calculation that the attackers must make based on two quesions:

What are we likely to gain from this battle?
What are we likely to lose from this battle?

Now, every army has different standards for where the cost benefit ends, but the answer here could be quite simple - it would cost the government too much in the way of lives and resources to take the location in question and the prospective gain in land and resources wouldn't make it worth the trade off.
If you're attempting to reclaim a land from zombies, but the enemy doesn't have anything in the way of resources and controls no vital logistic routes, you might as well ignore them if they aren't making any attempt to fight you. And, even if they are, containment is far, far easier than assault. An island, for instance, hold little in the way of strategic value for either logistics or resources.
Simply put, it's not that they cannot reclaim it, it's that they don't want to. It's just not worth it when there are more important things to go after in a zombie apocalypse and resources are usually assumed to be limited.
Comment: Battles are fought by generals; wars are fought by presidents. The decision to prosecute the war is made by the top leader and that leader's beliefs are critical. A leader may believe that control of the land is most important and will pursue the war even if it leaves the land uninhabited and a wasteland (see Mariupol) while other leaders might have made the decision this answer suggests. Other leaders have sought evidence to justify a war (Gulf of Tonkin, Iraq weapons of mass destruction) when others could not see any such evidence.
Answer: Something worse
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/06/04/monstro

No one knowing what the fuck was going on in the darkness. No one but
us.
Initially, no one believed the hysterical evacuees. Forty-foot-tall
cannibal motherfuckers running loose on the Island? Negro, please.
Until a set of soon-to-be-iconic Polaroids made it out on one clipper
showing what later came to be called a Class 2 in the process of
putting a slender broken girl in its mouth.
Beneath the photo someone had scrawled: Numbers 11:18. Who shall give
us flesh to eat?

Most places in the US, it was just zombies.  Zombies, and rumors, but when the sun came up just zombies.  You can clear out zombies with steady, unified, disciplined people.
But there were still rumors.  Maybe things worse than zombies.  Maybe things smarter than zombies, that knew when those disciplined people were showing up.  Maybe these things were older than the zombies, or had started the zombie epidemic. Maybe they fed on zombies.  Maybe they were amalgams of zombies.  Maybe these things could make you a zombie if one looked at you, or thought about you.  Rumors, even as the country was gradually cleared.
There are rumors about this island.


How can one understand with an example that Newton's law(s) fail in a curved space?

Question: Is it true that Newton's law is not valid in curved spaces? If yes, how can I understand it and explain to a high school student preferably with an example? I tried to think about the motion of a marble placed on an inverted bowl and tried to disprove first law by arguing that it rolls down in a curved path instead of a straight line. But then I realized it is not a force-free motion. Gravity is present. Can we think about motion in curved spaces without forces and disprove first law?
Comment: What do you mean by a "curved space" if you are still treating gravity as a real force?
Comment: @mithusengupta123 The fact that the mechanism of gravity is space curvature does not necessarily imply that gravity is not a force. A force is something that accelerates objects in ways that they would not be accelerated in the absence of the force. Gravity does that.
Comment: Newton's first law *is true* in curved spacetime.  But the definition of 'straight line' must be made more general.
Comment: @Asher Since gravity is not a force and there is no other force (neglecting friction), the motion of the marble in a curved path on the surface of an inverted bowl shows that Newton's first law is not valid. Is that what you're saying? Do you have some example in mind where no force is present (not even gravity) but the motion is not along a straight line? Or would you argue that curved spaces would not exist in absence of gravity?
Comment: I actually only asked you a question, which you've apparently applied some intent to. You can use Newtonian physics to explain the motion or you can use general relativity to explain the motion. Either case will involve forces between the bowl and the marble. Which part confuses you?
Comment: @Asher I just want to understand motion in a curved space without forces.
Comment: @mithusengupta123 you're going to have a hard time with that, as it's the forces that cause the motion to curve.
Answer: Gravitational lensing of light is probably the most straight forward example of a difference between Newtonian gravity and General Relativity which would seem to get at the distinction you are trying to illustrate. It can also be illustrated very compacting and convincingly with an image of a Einstein Ring such as the following from Wikipedia taken with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Answer: I think there is a little misunderstanding here. It's not that Newton's law (of gravitation) doesn't apply in curved surfaces, it's that Einstein proposed that Newton's law isn't correct and actually everything follows geodesic paths on a curved spacetime. Also, it doesn't say anything about Newton's laws (which are separate from the law of gravitation), so long as you reinterpret "straight line" as "geodesic".
It is also very hard to picture, mainly because it requires a 3+1D curved surface in more than 4 dimensions if you want to actually think about real gravity. Something similar to the bowl and a marble is what most people use as demonstration.
The main idea is of geodesics which generalise straight lines. If we are in flat space then a straight line just keeps going forever. However, if we live on a sphere then a geodesic is a great circle, which comes back to the starting point (much like a perfect orbit).
There are just too many dimensions to keep track of. Even if we throw away 1 space dimension we still have 2+1 = 3D curved spacetime in which our geodesic lives. Reducing to 1D of space and talking about gravity then doesn't make sense. This is why most people end up using marbles in bowls.
Answer: If I understood your question you claim that:

Newton's first law doesn't work on curved spacetime

But if that is your point I believe you got things wrong. First and foremost because the example you cite you are talking about curved space and not curved spacetime by the way.
So let's clear this up: Newton's laws hold good in Classical Mechanics. This means that for bodies that are not on the atomic scale and which are moving much slower than the speed of light, you won't find anything wrong with Newton's laws.
The inconsistency between Maxwell's Electrodynamics and Galilean Invariance from mechanics lead Einstein to formulate Special Relativity and the notion that time isn't absolute. This lead later on to the idea of Spacetime by Minkowski.
At the low speed limit of Special Relativity one then recovers Newtonian Mechanics.
Now, a further inconsistency there was, related to gravity. One way to think about it is that in Newtonian Mechanics gravity acts instantaneously while Special Relativity naturaly imposes one maximum speed for one event to influence another: that of light.
So Newton's universal gravitation theory was inconsistent with Special Relativity. This lead to a reformulation of the theory of gravity in the relativistic context - General Relativity.
The key point of General Relativity is this: gravity isn't a force, it is a property of spacetime.
So one then generalizes Newton's first law: in Newtonian Mechanics, in the absence of forces, particles move in the straightest possible trajectory (you can already see that if the particle is constrained to move on curved surface, that it won't be a line, for there is a constraint on the system. It will follow a geodesic of the surface though: the straightest path on the surface).
Since we now think of Gravity as a property of spacetime we generalize this as: freely falling particles (those influenced only by gravity, and hence just by spacetime) follow geodesics on spacetime. And geodesics are the straightest possible paths, but now are throught spacetime and not just through space.
Special Relativity is then the weak gravitational field limit of GR and Newtonian Mechanics is the low speed limit of SR and hence the low speed and weak gravitational field limit of GR.
So, there is nothing as disproving Newton's law. It is just all about the domain of validity of the theory and understanding that in a sense, Newton's first law is carried over to GR with important adaptations obviously.
Answer: Curved space and Newton's laws are not mutually exclusive.
Firstly, as noted elsewhere in comments, General Relativity thinks of gravity as a manifestation of space time curvature, not curvature of space alone. However, that quibble is an aside from your question, because there is definitely spatial curvature in most non-flat solutions of the Einstein Field Equations.
Secondly, Newton's and Euler's laws of motion very much live on in General Relativity. The modern interpretation of Newton's first law is as an assertion of existence of inertial frames, which are defined as frames at rest relative to small rigid bodies (small enough not to disturb the gravitation of the surrounding spacetime) which are free from the influences of force. Motion of point particles is defined by the generalization of the notion of a straight line to non Euclidean geometry, i.e. by geodesics in the curved spacetime. Example: the path of a satellite freefalling around the Earth. A slightly more complicated notion is that of a frame that is "Lie dragged by the vector field exponentiating to the system of geodesics": that is a bit of a mouthful I know and quite technical, but you can think of its defining nonrotational motion in the case where the small body in question is a nonzero extent, rigid body rather than a point mass. Newton's second law generalizes to covariant statements about acceleration relative to geodesics resulting from nett force on a body; Euler's second law analogously is about rotation relative to the Lie dragged frames induced by nett torque. Energy-momentum is locally conserved in General Relativity (i.e. it applies over length/time scales small compared with the reciprocals of the curvature tensor components) and so Newton's and Euler's third laws, formulated in terms of conservation of momentum and angular momentum, also keep their validity.
At last we arrive at Newton's law of gravitation. The issue here is that General Relativity, with its description of gravity as curvature of spacetime as opposed to an instantaneously acting inverse square force, replaces Newton's law as the most accurate predictor of experimental results. However, Newton's law is not logically intrinsically incompatible with notions of curvature in the following sense: one could write down a covariant form of the gravitational Poisson equation (the differential form of Newton's inverse square law) that could hold on a curved manifold. It's simply that, experimentally, we find that such a thing does not predict gravitational behavior accurately if the curved manifold in question is the spatial part of a spacetime solving the Einstein field equations (at least, we can do this over small but nonzero length scales; sometimes space and time do not split into a so called "foliated manifold" globally). Therefore, such a thing would not have a physical interpretation.


Do we need a comma in the phrase "old derelict house"?

Question: Suppose that we have a simple sentence: "Our family lives in an old derelict house."
Do we need to put a comma between the adjectives "old" and "derelict"? I would be glad if someone explains me the appropriate rule for this case.
Comment: I think not. I think you can use one if you are trying to make your reader say it with the comma. We saw an old derelict house on that street. We arrived at the old, derelict house at the end of the twisted path. I cannot explain the rule.
Comment: Alex - You shouldn't [accept an answer so fast](https://ell.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1307/not-so-fast-when-should-i-accept-my-answer).
Answer: The conventional rule is that if two adjectives both modify the noun, then you put a comma between them. But if an adjective modifies the following adjective, you do not put a comma between them.
For example:

It is an old, woman's hat.

This is a hat that is old, and that is for a woman. The hat is old. The age of the woman is unspecified. You could have an old hat for a young woman.

It is an old woman's hat.

This is a hat that is for an old woman. That is, it is the woman that is old, not the hat. You could have a new hat for an old woman.
However, even in the first case, where both adjectives modify the noun, if there is unlikely to be confusion the comma is often left out.
So I think technically, you should say "a derelict, old house". But if you omit the comma, it doesn't make sense to say that the oldness is derelict, so there's no ambiguity in saying "a derelict old house".
Answer: In this case, you will be well understood with or without the comma.
However, the adjective order would seem more natural if you wrote derelict old house without a comma OR used a comma (old, derelict house).
The comma creates a slight pause in reading and can be helpful when putting the adjectives in a nonstandard order, which you might want to do if you're trying to emphasize one aspect over another or show closer connection between this sentence and one before or after it that emphasizes the closer attribute.  For example (fiction):

Our community was settled hundreds of years ago, and little has been updated since.  Our family lives in an old, derelict house.  Half its shutters are missing and the front door swings in the breeze, barely attached by half a hinge.

Adjective order is not that easy and is somewhat flexible.  This unsourced answer clearly puts quality before age, while this sourced answer does not have an explicit category for "quality" but puts judgment/attitude adjectives before age, with an explicit example of a rustic old ... cottage. Having a derelict old house is a straightforward application of the example.

Grammar Girl explains the rule as a difference between cumulative and coordinate adjectives, where cumulative adjectives modify the noun to form a new concept which is then modified by the adjective before to further modify the concept.  In the case of cumulative adjectives, the comma is omitted.
Comment: Wgat about "and"? An old and derelict house?
Comment: @SovereignSun That is also an option, which puts even more separation between the adjectives and emphasizes them distinctly, which seems less appropriate in a case where the author may intend to imply that the two attributes are related to each other.
Comment: I agree that the comma is optional here. Insofar as order goes, I think _old_ should come before _derelict_ in this case (partly because of how age might influences the degree to which something is "derelict"), whereas with I'd probably reverse the order in _charming old house_. As for that bit about the pause, I don't think that's good guidance as to why a comma should be omitted or included. Lastly, the OP asked for an appropriate rule; I think [Grammar Girl](http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/commas-with-adjectives) explains this one pretty well.
Comment: @JR As a native speaker, "derelict old house" flows more smoothly than the opposite adjective order for the same reason as in "charming old house."  I think the pause test is appropriate guidance, and it's what I received from several instructors over several years.  Thanks for the link.
Comment: @WBT - I've heard the pause test, too, but then I've read some pretty sharp criticism of it in recent years. If you [Google](https://www.google.com/search?q=commas+pause+myth) `commas pause myth` you'll find some interesting results.


Is it better to create persistent stores, or use fixed files for data?

Question: I'm prototyping a simple sports sim game for iPhone which will use Core data.
One the biggest challenges I'm facing is how to get the data into Core data in the first place.
The second biggest challenge is whether I should use core data's persistent stores or use fixed files (JSON) for pre-fixed game data.
--
Concept
The general concept is that a player can start a new game or continue an existing one.
When they start new game they would use pre-fixed data. (IE. A database which is read-only.)
When they continue game they would use a different database (the game database).
I am not sure how to deliver such a feature.
--
Prototype
Currently, I am experimenting with this prototype:

PHP Web App -> 2. API -> 3. iPhone

A local PHP web app which acts as a CMS.
A basic API which lets me expose specific data in a JSON format.
Read the JSON into Core Data using TouchJSON/other tools.

I have no intention of making the API public/online (for various reasons), so the method I have described is a only meant to ever be a one-way process.
This will of course cause a problem because I need to make the data read-only.
--
In sports sim games you will often find them using fixed files (.txt, .csv, .dat, etc) and then they read this data into memory or a database.
Therefore, using this concept I could:
Save the JSON as fixed files and read them at run-time into memory/core data.
And then whenever the player starts a new game, the existing core data store will simply be wiped.

However, having said that I've heard that you can use persistent stores as a method to overcome this problem.
Therefore I was thinking of setting up 2 persistent stores;
1) A pre-fixed read-only persistent store
2) The actual game store (which gets overwritten if you start a new game).

But which is better?
Creating JSON fixed files for consumption, or using 2 persistent stores?
I apologize if my question/concept is overly complex; but would welcome better/simpler solutions where possible.
Answer: I think you can use Core Data for applications that is going to store data on it and the database is empty when it starts but if you needed you data store to be pre-populated with data it is better to load it from fixed data like sqlite or xml files.
Comment: Thanks for your comment and idea. Core data can indeed be used with it starting out as empty (and if not you can empty it if required). I am interested however in whether it is better practice to make Core data to do all the heavy lifting or use a fixed file to reduce memory/processing loads.
Comment: I am now working with a fixed json file (on the document) for the current time.


Bootstrap version conflict 3 with 4 for wordpress theme and plugin

Question: I've developed One new wordpress plugin, using Latest Bootstrap (4) and latest FontAwesome (5) version. Is now looking good. All design is complete. Now When I install this plug-in with another website. Which website theme using old bootstrap (3) version and old fontawesome version. Then my design or existing theme design will be broken, It's version conflict 3 and 4. So How can I resolve this issue? How can I load this bootstrap 4 only for my plugin? Or how can I avoid 3 or 4 version conflict? Please suggest me.
Answer: Although this is possible, you really don't want to load multiple versions of libraries as it's going to make your site slow to load.
You could try and use Bootstrap with a pre-processor like SASS with mixins to target just your plugin code and not the rest of the theme.
FontAwesome 4 and 5 seem to use different prefixes fa- and fas- so you could load FA5 before FA4 as per this post.
Lastly, you could
Answer: Bootstrap is a framework that is theme driven.  For that reason, it would probably be a good idea to bundle your custom template logic with your plugin.
Lets say you desire to have this new BS4 template bundled in your plugin, and you want users to use it instead of their existing BS3 template.  In regards to that relationship, here is one possible way to achieving this.


What does QE do in a modern agile web development environment?

Question: What are the key tasks and responsibilities of the Quality Engineering group in a modern Agile web development group?
Comment: @dzieciou - it looks like the OP is trying to build a question with a canonical answer because we tend to get a lot of questions along these lines. Voting to keep open because the key tasks/responsibilities tend to be similar and limited across environment.
Comment: Lisa Crispin perhaps?
Comment: What is the reason you're asking this question or what is the problem you're trying to solve?
Comment: @KatePaul Can you link those questions here? Still to me this is oferly broad. I would rather ask what are good books covering this topic. And the book of Lisa Cristina would be in the answers.
Answer:
Review application and test code PRs*
Document bugs in a bug tracking system
Pair with developers on new feature tests
Continually build business domain knowledge
Investigate and fix Intermittent test failures
Write new feature specs for existing functionality
Refactor existing tests to improve test code quality
Write and configure mobile specific test automation
Document procedures and workflows in wikis for all
Manually test staging before production deployments
Get feedback from real users to drive usability efforts
Develop tools and infrastructure to test mobile devices
Aid in defining and monitoring company quality metrics
Pair with developers on test plans for new features and bugs
Champion and evangelize good quality development practices
Contribute to Agile processes from Sprint Planning to Retrospectives
Champion good quality practices through presentations and Lunch and Learns
Champion and demonstrate accessibility and usability issues and good practices
Ensures all the testing quadrants are covered: Unit, Functional, Performance and Exploratory

* Pull Requests
Answer: Some of the different things I do on a regular basis other than standard 'QA'

Act as a flex developer
Review Check ins and monitor the code base
Groom stories
Focus the team's efforts
Optimize the team's time
Demonstrate changes to end users
Act as liaison for the team
Create release documentation
Create release procedure and steps
Verify release
Ensure backlog is clean and prioritized
Deep understanding of all stories (Business and Tech side)
Deep understanding of all integration points
Work with other teams regarding integrations
Comment: A developer when needed essentially.
Comment: I know who  Flex developer is, but "flex developer"?
Comment: Yeah there is Flex which is a powerful, open source application framework, but here we are just talking about flex as in flexibility, i.e. ability to change


Can the Killing Curse be used to commit suicide?

Question: If it is, are there any known cases of this form of suicide in the Harry Potter universe?
Comment: Yes. You could cast it at Harry Potter.
Comment: [Obligatory picture of wizard committing suicide](http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/147/198/avdakavda.png)
Comment: @Valorum LOL. Joke of the century..
Answer: I think it could probably be used to commit suicide.
The only example anywhere in the canon comes from the video game of Deathly Hallows: Part 1. There's a YouTube walkthrough which shows the Tale of the Three Brothers, and Cadmus Peverell appears to commit suicide using the Killing Curse. (It isn't explicitly stated, but he turns his wand on himself, and dies with a flash of green light. It seems to fit.)
However, the games aren't necessarily canon. In the movie animation, he hangs himself, and the method of suicide is unspecified in the original tale:

The second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her.
And so Death took the second brother for his own.

I don't know of a better example in the canon than this.
Could it work? I suppose you might fall afoul of the rule "a wand cannot kill its master" that trips up Voldemort at the end of Deathly Hallows, but I don't know if that still applies when it's you doing the casting. I think if somebody is competent in the spell and feels strongly enough that they want to die, then they could probably commit suicide this way (and if not with their own wand, certainly with somebody else's).
Comment: If it weren't for the fact that Voldemort had already made Horcruxes and was therefore more or less immortal, his own wand _would_ have killed its master when he tried to kill Harry. I don't think there is any such blanket limitation that a wand cannot kill its master; rather, it cannot be used by _others_ to kill its unwilling master. Going from memory, doesn't Voldemort use the Elder Wand to kill Harry in the Forest? That is, I would argue, only be possible because Harry _allows_ him to.
Comment: I think that rule (about the wand killing its master) applies only to the elder wand, but +1 for your answer and research
Comment: @ava I agree, a wand not being able to kill their master its absolutely not true. Theres no other basis for it apart from the elder wand. Plus we see owners wands used again them on a few occasions. Hermione using Bellatrixes in the manor after Dobbie steals it. And Harry using Draco's against him.
Answer: I would say yes. The Elder Wand can not be used as an example, as it is a special case. However, there are no quotes in canon, so canon-based speculation will have to do. A wand cannot object to casting the killing curse, nor can it sense who it is being cast against, with the exception of the Elder Wand. Being semi-conscious, the wand probably just assumes that it is being cast to kill something/someone else until it is too late.
However, I imagine most witches/wizards that attempt this may struggle with the intentions part of it. As Bellatrix Lestrange says

"You have to mean it, Potter!"

Most people only convince themselves that suicide is what they desire, but the wand can see into their deepest hearts' desires, and if it is nothing less than true, pure wanting to die, then the wand will not perform the curse.
But if one truly means it, then yes, someone could use Avada Kedavra for that purpose. Here are ways to do this without Avada Kedavra, by magic.
-A well placed Stunning Spell
-Using Wingardium Leviosa to bring down a large object on one's head
-A reductor curse
-A body-bind curse, but another wizard will need to use "Bombarda" or "Bombarda Maxima" after you are successfully stunned (this is what Molly Weasley did to Bellatrix Lestrange, at least in the film version)
-There are a lot more, pretty much any spell could be used in this way.


Why can't poor countries just print more money?

Question: I know this is a really silly question that is really obvious, but what's stopping a country from just printing out a few more billion of their own currency and then using that money to buy goods from other countries? Is there a certain rule they have to follow? And what are the impacts to the economy if they did do that?
Comment: This question is more apt on economics.se and would be offtopic here.
Comment: @Dheer could u kindly transfer this question over there,you could flag it to moderator :)
Answer: Printing money doesn't mean that their wealth increases. It just devalues the money they already have. So it will just take more money to buy goods from another country.
Printing money will also lead to over inflation which has its own set of problems such as:

Higher interest rates
People will buy durable goods to store wealth such as gold
Cost-push inflation
Comment: Other examples: US dollar worth 35 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/06/12/one-us-dollar-z35-quadrillion-as-zimbabwe-phases-out-old-currency.html Currency collectors have other examples: http://www.collectorscurrency.com/collections/inflation-notes also http://polkadotpapershop.com/index.php?ka=inflation+currency (not an endorsement, just google results). Also google "wheelbarrow full of currency to buy bread" (no quotes). There's even a humorous (maybe true) anecdote:a man left a wheelbarrow full of money outside.. someone stole the wheelbarrow and left the money.


Mini pageLayout popup not displaying for Extenal Object

Question: Mini page layout is working fine in Salesforce Standard & Custom objects.
But, I need to create Mini PageLayout for Exernal Object, which acts when hOver to the link of the record in child record It'l  popup a mini page with respective record
Answer: My understanding is mini page layout only work for external objects when you hover over 'recent items' and not lookup fields or child records. I would love to be proven wrong here. So you might have to either consider this as system limitation now or go for something custom (which is not a feasible approach here).


Passing C# window handle to unmanaged code - Cross-thread exception

Question: I've run into an issue recently where attempting to implement a real-time video capture with a video capture library and capture card.  The unmanaged library is much faster at processing the data than I can manually, so it seems the way to go.  The unmanaged library is looking for a window handle for a control to update.
The Platform Invoke for the source works fine on a one-off update and when I thread it with my own Invoke, so I know the types are all correct and that it's marshaling properly.
The main issue is that when I attempt to thread the operation and pass the window handle directly to unmanaged code, I get the dreaded "Cross-thread operation not valid" exception.
I understand the problem, just not quite sure how to fix it.  So, how do I use a delegate and "BeginInvoke()" method on control when unmanaged code just needs the window handle?  Is it even possible to arrange this?
Here's a snippet of the unmanaged library functionality:
<code>class Video
    {
        [DllImport("video.dll", EntryPoint = "imagePlot", SetLastError = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        private static extern int imagePlot(IntPtr windowHandle, byte[] imageBuffer);

        private PictureBox _control;
        public Video(PictureBox control)
        {
            _control = control;
        }

        public void CaptureAndUpdate()
        {
            // capture video
            byte[] video = Capture();

            // plot video
            imagePlot(_control.Handle, video);
        }
    }
</code>
Answer: You can only change properties on UI elements from the main UI thread. Check this url,


What is the difference between HostingEnvironment class and HttpRuntime class?

Question: As you can see here ASP.NET Application Life Cycle, there are two pictures. On the first there is created HostingEnvironment class in AppDomain, on the second is created HttpRuntime class in it. From their definitions i dont understand the difference between them. When is created one and when is created the second during application life cycle? What is the difference between HostingEnvironment class and HttpRuntime class in context of apllication life cycle?
Answer: You cannot inherit a HostingEnvironment class and it provides application-management functions and application services to a managed application within its application domain where as HttpRuntime class provides a set of ASP.NET run-time services for the current application.
MSDN


Has George Lucas ever confirmed Palpatine was anti-woman and anti-alien?

Question: I think I remember the Star Wars Expanded Universe saying Palpatine hated women and aliens. I know Pellaeon mentions it in The Hand of Thrawn at least. I guess writers based this on no girls or aliens on Star Destroyers in the original trilogy. But in the prequels Palpatine is chummy with loads of aliens (Darth Maul, the blue guy in Episode 1, the Viceroy) and girls, well, girl (Padme) so I'm wondering whether GL ever spoke up about it.
Comment: This question was asked from an out-of-universe viewpoint, while the other questions about Palpatine come at it from in-universe. The other questions ask about Palpatine the character, using the totality of his "history" of all canon elements, especially including the expanded universe. This question is asking about the intention of George Lucas himself and whether he had given a viewpoint about Palpatine and his bias, which aren't evident in the films themselves, of which George Lucas has repeatedly said show his definitive version of Star Wars.
Comment: I would out that the Viceroy (and I believe Darth Maul) were both betrayed by Palpatine... wasn't he already corrupting Dooku when Maul was sent to fight two Jedi?
Comment: "I don't read that stuff. I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that world. That's a different world than my world....When I said [other people] could make their own Star Wars stories, we decided that, like Star Trek, we would have two universes: My universe and then this other one. They try to make their universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions." - George Lucas, from an interview in Starlog #337
Answer: No, there has never been any confirmation from George Lucas regarding Palpatine's xenophobia or chauvinism. In fact, the portrayals of Palpatine in the the prequel trilogy have encouraged a ret-conning of Palpatine as not personally prejudiced, but following policies set by his advisors. The use of a clone army also encourages a pro-human outlook.
The idea of Palpatine as xenophobic was developed primarily by Timothy Zahn in Dark Force Rising and Mist Encounter, with other EU authors adopting it. Kevin J. Anderson added the chauvinism in Jedi Search. This was done to explain the lack of aliens or women in Imperial forces in the films, which was due to budgetary and technological limitations. With those limitations gone, Lucas expanded on alien - though not greatly on female - roles in the prequel trilogy, as well as The Clone Wars.
This is not to say that there is no evidence that Palpatine was anti-alien. In the novelisation of Revenge of the Sith for example - while written by Matt Stover, Lucas had final say over the novelisation's contents - Count Dooku is revealed as being very speciesist, with a plan to recreate the Republic as an "Empire of Man." Stover may have been making an homage to Zahn's 'Dominion of Man' in the Cobra series with that quote. How many of his apprentice's views Palpatine shared is debatable, but the evidence that he was at least mildly xenophobic is there.
Comment: In the novel *Plagueis*, it states that Palpatine purposely organized the Separatists to be composed of powerful organizations led by non-humans so that he could rid them of their power.
Comment: @jliv902: Interesting. I haven't read that novel yet (and given the current state of the *EU* hadn't planned to, to be honest). Odd then that he would have several non-humans as close aides.


All In A Name : Going off-topic when you're a niche community

Question: I'm starting up a small community, and I currently have a very brandable name which is very suited to the type of posts I'm going to be ( primarily ) making.
I use the word Primarily here bacause I think it's important to have a bit of diversity with this type of site, and I would like the opportunity to work with other audiences in the very near future.
The problem as stated before is that my website name is very niche specific, meaning that readers may be confused by the name.
Think of it like having a heavy ( death ) metal music website called Sounds from the grave, and trying to open this to a classical music audience. Maybe this is a bit of an extreme example, but imagine the site is:
http://soundsfromthegrave.com/main/...
http://soundsfromthegrave.com/classical/...

Here you are clearly stating that the second site is Classical, but it still has the association of sounds from the grave.
So is this important, and are there any ways of making it a bit clearer that even though the 2 are part of the same website, they are clearly 2 different entities?
Answer: I would suggest creating a landing page for your website, which clearly details that Sounds From the Grave is a website for metal, but also features another section for Classical. Introduce ways to navigate to other parts of the website, like having a button to access the Classical part, and have a short description saying something like...

Enter the classical zone, where you can browse a large variety of classical music that fits your more refined tastes.

Sounds From the Grave doesn't necessarily have to be "music from death," it can also be music that was created by now-deceased artists, which is what classical music really is, isn't it? Bring that vibe forward, showcasing the music of old, but not forgotten artists. This name ambiguity can serve you well, and you can refine what Sounds From the Grave really means.
Classical can then have its own landing page, or maybe just an informational header, that briefly explains (in better detail) what that section of the site is about.
Stack Exchange does this as well. When you first access Stack Overflow (you may want to log out to see it in its glory,) it completely explains what Stack Overflow is, and highlights its unique Q&A content. Since Stack Overflow is the hallmark part of the network, it gets quite the introduction. Another site on the Stack Exchange network, Science Fiction and Fantasy, has a simple header that briefly introduces you to the site, and allows you to join it with the press of a button.

Notice that the art style is entirely different to what Stack Overflow normally presents. The color changes very clearly indicate to the user that they're on another site entirely, and just as they're browsing the art, they'll come across that header, which explains what the site is about and how it's used.
If you want to make your classical audience not feel like a sideline, make sure that users who visit that part of the page feel like they're a part of the main site, but are their own little community. Enable them as much as you can, but make sure you're not detracting from your mainstream, death metal audience. You can do this by ensuring that the death metal lovers' discourse or music doesn't flow over into Classical's site, and the opposite doesn't happen either.
Make sure your presence, as the website owner, is known on both parts of the site, so that both of the communities that are there feel welcome by the owner him/herself.


A question on Characteristic polynomial of complex $n\times n $ matrix

Question: On one of linear algebra book i found the problem which need to determine the characteristic polynomial of the complex $n\times n$ matrix
$$M=\begin{pmatrix}
0&1&1&\cdots &1\\
1&0&1&\cdots &1\\
\vdots&\ddots &\ddots &\ddots &\vdots\\
1&\cdots &1&0&1\\
1&\cdots &1&1&0
\end{pmatrix}
$$
I don't have any concept to find characteristic polynomial of such kind. Would you say something about it? Thank you.
Comment: If you know the definition of characteristic polynomial, and you know about mathematical induction, that should get you started. You could also try doing a few small cases first. Another way to get there: it should be easy to find the eigenvalues.
Answer: A possible approach is the following. Letting $I$ denote the $n \times n$ unit matrix, then
$$
M+I=\begin{pmatrix}
1&1&1&\cdots &1\\
1&1&1&\cdots &1\\
\vdots&\ddots &\ddots &\ddots &\vdots\\
1&\cdots &1&1&1\\
1&\cdots &1&1&1
\end{pmatrix}.
$$
Clearly the image of (the linear map associated to) this matrix is one-dimensional, so its kernel has dimension $n-1$, which means $n-1$ eigenvalues $0$. And the (row) vector $(1,1,\dots,1)$ is an eigenvector with respect to the eigenvalue $n$. So $M+I$ is similar to
$$
\begin{pmatrix}
n&&&\cdots &\\
&0&&\cdots &\\
\vdots&\ddots &\ddots &\ddots &\vdots\\
&\cdots &&0&\\
&\cdots &&&0
\end{pmatrix}
$$
(off-diagonal zeroes omitted), and $M = (M+I) - I$ is similar to
$$
\begin{pmatrix}
n-1&&&\cdots &\\
&-1&&\cdots &\\
\vdots&\ddots &\ddots &\ddots &\vdots\\
&\cdots &&-1&\\
&\cdots &&&-1
\end{pmatrix},
$$
which yields the characteristic polynomial
$$
(x - (n-1)) \cdot (x+1)^{n-1}.
$$
Comment: Self-comment: working out the cases $n=1, 2, 3$, as suggested by @GerryMyerson might have helped pointing in this direction.
Comment: Thank you. After all I will use it.
Answer: This is a special case of a question that is treated more generally here.
There are not many transformations of a matrix that have easily predicted effects both on  matrix itself and on the characteristic polynomial (the main operation that leaves the characteristic polynomial invariant is any change of basis, i.e., conjugation by some invertible matrix, but even in the simplest cases this combines row and column operations so I wouldn't classify this as having an easily predicted effect on the matrix). However there is one such operation: adding a multiple $cI_n$ to the matrix shifts all roots of the characteristic polynomial up by $c$ by the very definition of the characteristic polynomial, in other words it substitutes $X-c$ for $X$. In this case doing this for $c=1$ is a good idea, because it gives the all-one matrix which I shall call $A_n$.
Since all columns of $A_n$ are equal, its rank is $1$, which imples that its kernel, which is the eigenspace for the eigenvalue $0$, has dimension $n-1$. The unique remaining eigenvalue must have as eigenspace the column space of $A_n$, and an immediate computation shown that the associated eigenvalue of $A_n$ is $n$. Therefore the characteristic polynomial of $A_n$ is $X^{n-1}(X-n)$. The charecteristic polynomial of $M$ is obtained from it by substituting $X+1$ for $X$, giving $$(X+1)^{n-1}(X+1-n).$$
Comment: Thank you all. I think now every thing is okay.


Outlook-style rule engine

Question: I am trying to construct a rule-based system for interpreting data. However, I am having issues deciding on a way to construct the logic for storing and interpreting rules.
Currently, there is a database structure that quite complex, but will deal with all aspects of storing the rule data. The idea is that the system will be able to mimic the way that MS Outlook allows a user to add rules.
My problems are as follows:

What pattern should I be using to store these rules inside objects?
Should I use eval() or proper object orientation to execute the rules?

And example rule might be:

Dog must have collar in area park

Where each element (dog, must have, collar, in area, park) is a separate piece of logic to be interpreted.
Any general advice to the above questions is much appreciated!
Answer: I've never implemented a system like you describe in a "real world" context, but I have played with them a considerable amount as hobby projects.  My preferred approach is to use some kind of logic language like Prolog to make assertions and check them.  You'd have assertions for where the park is, what it means to have something, what a dog is, and then you'd make a rule pretty much exactly like your example in parentheses at the bottom of your post.  I'm sorry my Prolog is too rusty to give you a useful example... I've been playing with home-grown inference languages too long.
There are Prolog interpreters available for embedding in most languages, though I'm not sure about PHP5.  You could throw together something simple that does forward-chaining inference on rule data structures of your own creation in fairly short order, if you can't find a Prolog interpreter.  You may be interested in these notes on automated inference.
Comment: Prolog would probably be taking it too far from PHP, but this is a good idea. Could you perhaps suggest an implementation for First Order Logic?
Comment: What do you mean by an "implementation for FOL"?  The last link in my post is basically a how-to on implementing your own FOL inference engine.  You may also want to check out the Cyc project: http://www.opencyc.org/
Comment: Yes, I was hoping perhaps someone may have already made something that implements this logic process. At least so I can review how they constructed the code base of it!
Answer: Probably this answer is too trivial / obvious for you but I just thought on how I would solve something like that in my current existing project which is a Zend Framework application. I thought of the filter- and validatorChains ZF uses. I assume you have a finit number of possible input objects, a finit number of conditions/constraints and a finit number of actions. In that case you would first instantiate an object and run it against a chain of conditions(validators), if all the conditions are satisfied you run the object against the actionChain. Here I would probably have to implement some kind of action priority system since some actions have to be carried out before others. Like 'sending a notification' and then 'delete' the object in question. So in ZF I would build a custom validator for every condition/constraint. I don't believe the Outlook system is very intelligent meaning that I don't think the validators are very generic.
In the db there could be a table for actual rules, one for the conditions and one for actions. Then there could be two many-to-many tables linking the rule with all needed conditions and actions.
Comment: The idea of using chains is very interesting actually, containing the chains inside one object which could then be chained into another chain and so on

Outlook-style rule engine


Activate and Deactivate Boolean Django

Question: I have a model called "People", which has an attribute called "State" that is of type Boolean. In this model I call in the model "Birthday". What I want is that when a person is inactive in their "State", they disappear from the "Birthday" model, and that when they are activated again, they appear in the "Birthday" model.
It should be noted that in the Django administrative panel, when I enter the "birthday" model, all the people registered in the "People" model are displayed, even if they are active or not due to their "State" (Boolean). Maybe it could be solved with a condition.
class People(models.Model):
   Name = models.CharField('Name', max_length = 20, blank = False, null = False)
   Last_Name = models.CharField('Last Name', max_length = 20, blank = False, null = False)
   State = models.BooleanField('Active Client', default = True)

   class Meta:
      verbose_name = 'People'
      verbose_name_plural = 'People'
      ordering = ['Name']

   def __str__(self):
      return "{0} - {1}".format(self.Name, self.Last_Name.capitalize())

class Birthday(models.Model):
   People_Birthday = models.OneToOneField(People, on_delete = models.CASCADE)
   BirthdayCalendar = models.DateField('Birthday', blank = False, null = False)

   class Meta:
      verbose_name = 'Birthday'
      verbose_name_plural = 'Birthdays'

   def __str__(self):
      return str(self.People_Birthday)

Answer: You can override the get_queryset method of a model manager.
class BirthdayManager(models.Manager):
    def get_queryset(self):
        return super().get_queryset().filter(People_Birthday__State=True) #Not recommended

    def active(self):
        return super().get_queryset().filter(People_Birthday__State=True) #Recommended

This isn't really recommended, since it will also affect the adminsite. (If you override get_queryset())
You can create another method though, and always use that.
This is on a manager, but it's better to put stuff like this on a queryset in my opinion.
class BirthdayQuerySet(models.QuerySet):
    def active(self):
        return self.filter(People_Birthday__State=True)

This way you can append it at all times to your queryset. As opposed to only a manager, which does not allow you to use the method after filtering for example.
With a queryset, you can still do Birthday.objects.filter(date__range=your_date_range).active()
With a manager that would error.
To use a queryset on your model add this attribute to your model:
objects = BirthdayQuerySet.as_manager()

To use a modelmanager:
objects = BirthdayManager()

You can use both, but that's out of the scope of this question.

Sidenote:
Person is singular. People is plural.

Activate and Deactivate Boolean Django


What is the point of Rengar vs Kha'zix anymore?

Question: There is a mini-quest in LoL that when there's a Kha'zix and Rengar on opposite teams, a duel between them is initiated somewhere along in the game. The question is, what's the point of it anymore if Rengar doesn't lose stacks anymore even if he dies.
Comment: related or duplicate : http://gaming.stackexchange.com/q/154804/61395  Unless Riot changed how "The hunt is on" ends (changing item or Rengar or buff to Khaz), it's still adds a little something.
Comment: @JonathanDrapeau maybe a (very)little relevance but not a duplicate, i think?
Comment: I'm more inclined over duplicate since you ask what is the point of the quest while that point hasn't changed. It's still the same quest.
Comment: That's like saying it's pointless to have the ninja secret if all ninjas got buffed by one base HP. It's just something there to add some fun for those who notice or know of it.
Answer: The point to it doesnt change, its still the same as before - Just a little extra fun and lore interaction.
The only difference is that with rengar not being able to lose stacks, The Hunt is more likely to happen now.
The Hunt occurs when Rengar has atleast 10 stacks, and Khazix has used 3 evolution points.
Whoever kills the other first gains an additional bonus.
Rengar gains "The Head of Khazix", which is a fully stacked necklace. You can skip from 10 to 20 stacks if thats how many stacks he has.
As of patch 4.14 Rengar also gains additional vision in brushes with the head of Khazix.
(Thanks Caffeinated Cake)
Khazix gains an additional evolution point if he wins.
Comment: Moreover, as stated in the patch note 4.14: "Rengar now has increased vision range while in a brush with the Head of Kha'Zix" [(link patch note)](http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-414-notes)


How are fluorochromes conjugated to proteins such as antibody?

Question: How are fluorochromes like FITC conjugated to antibodies? Are they covalently bonded? If they are covalently bonded, will low temperature (-20 Celsius or lower) break the covalent bonds and detach the fluorochrome label from the protein?
Answer: Fluorochromes are covalently bound to the antibodies to form stably labelled molecules. This paper describes it in great detail, from the abstract:

Fluorochromes can be covalently conjugated to antibodies through
  reactions with thiol or amine groups. Typically, fluorochromes
  containing isothiocyanate, succinimidyl ester, or sulfonyl chloride
  reactive groups are conjugated to amines on the antibody molecules.

These covalent bonds are stable at room temperature and are also at -20°C. It's more likely that repeated freeze-thaw cycles damage the antibody.
Comment: most of the direct-conjugated antibodies for cytometric analysis I've purchased usually specifically point out "Do not freeze". I am recently staining FITC labeled peanut agglutinin for B220+ B cells. The labeled PNA was stored in 4C but when I took it out, it was in frozen form. I've tried dilutions to 1:1000 but there doesn't seem to have enough negative population compared to negative control. Almost all stained populations displayed fluorescent intensity over 10^2. I was worried if the freezing caused the fluorochrome to detach from the PNA protein.
Comment: @AlexB I think it is more the repeated freeze-thaw cycles which are problematic for the antibody. The labelling is pretty stable as far as I know.
Comment: @AlexB is the FITC-PNA in DMSO or aqueous solution? If it's DMSO, it'll freeze at 4°.


what's the different of usages of [そう, ああ, うん, いいよ]?

Question: I know the meaning of [そう, ああ, うん, いいよ] but I don't really know about the different usages of the interjection [そう, ああ, うん, いいよ], what are the nuances between those words?
Answer:
そう

This is an abbreviation of そうか, そうですか or そうなんだ, whose meaning is "Is that so" or "I see".
So そう is a common reply when you heard something new.
Be careful that sometimes it sounds like the speaker is not interested in what he/she heard, because そう does not include any emotion or opinion of the speaker.

ああ

There are a few usages of ああ:

To express admiration, but not when excited. This is similar to English "oh," I think.
To agree or to answer affirmatively. In this case saying ああ means "Yes" or "I agree."
To say "I see." This is similar to そう but it is often used when you are reminded something you already know.

うん

うん is a common (colloquial and informal) word to mean "yes".
Another usage of うん is as the simplest [相槌]{あいづち} (I'm not sure how to say in English) without any additional nuances. So it may also mean "I see" etc.

いいよ

The literal meaning of いいよ is "It's OK." Its nuance is similar to "no problem."
The two major usages are:

When someone asks you a favor and you are accepting, you can say いいよ (or more formally, いいですよ or 構いませんよ).
You can say いいよ to permit doing something or to forgive someone.
Comment: hai chocolate and faily feely thanks for the answer its help me much if you all dont mind, cant i have your e-mail? i want to ask more about japanese interjection, thanks before


Big number of false positives in binary classification

Question: I am fine-tuning the inception-v3 network(pretrained on ILSVRC) of tensorflow in a binary classification problem. I want to recognize if an image contains food or not. My dataset is imbalanced, the non-food class contains 5 times more images than the food class. I read that in an imbalanced dataset, I should train the network with balanced batches to get right results. So I split the dominant class in 5 splits and when I have to train the network for 50000 iterations I am changing the split every 10000 iterations, so that the batches that are passed to the training are balanced with food and non-food. I am testing the network in a balanced test-set. From the first 5000 iterations I am getting high accuracy in the food images, but the non-food class gives me imbalanced accuracy. I can receive high accuracy in the beginning and then it will be low. By accuracy I mean (number of rightly predicted food) / (number of food) for the food class and respectively for the non-food. Generally the network learns the food characteristics because the softmax can output non-food for a food image, but the localization of food would be right using the weights of food (I made test). To sum up, the network is probably overfitted but I don't know yet. Any ideas of what might be happening?
Comment: Welcome to CS.SE!  What does "the non-food class gives me imbalanced accuracy" mean?  Also, where did you read that you should train the network with balanced classes?  Have you tried using any diagnostics to check for overfitting, or using any techniques to combat overfitting?
Comment: http://cs.stackexchange.com/q/68281/755
Answer: It's hard to know, from just the information you've given us.  It could be any number of things: overfitting, insufficient training data, class imbalance, or something else.  The first step is probably to figure out the source of the problem, then you can explore the solutions.
There are standard diagnostics to check for overfitting (cross-validation, comparing accuracy on the validation set to accuracy on the training set, etc.). I'd suggest you use them to diagnose whether the network seems to be overfitting.  There are many ways to combat overfitting: regularization, early-stop training, dropout, etc.
There are also ways to check if the problem is that you just don't have enough training data.  For instance, you can take different-size subsets of your training set (10K, 20K, 30K, 40K, 50K) and plot how accuracy depends on the size of the training set.  If accuracy seems to be gradually improving as training set size increases and doesn't appear to have reached a plateau yet, that's a suggestion that obtaining more training data might be useful.
Finally, class imbalance might be a factor.  When you have 5 times as many non-food instances as food instances, that's call class imbalance.  There's lots written on that subject and many techniques (undersampling the minority class, oversampling the majority class, using class weights, adjusting the threshold for classification, and more).  I suggest you do some reading about that topic.  It's not necessarily true that you need to train on a training set with balanced classes; that's one strategy, but it's not the only one, and it may not be optimal.
Hopefully this will help you narrow down what might be going on and then ask a more focused question.
Answer: The neural network you're building in Tensorflow does not predict categories. The neural network gives predictions on a continuum. It is then up to you to decide what you want to do with those predictions. Often, the predictions are in the range $[0,1]$ and can be interpreted as probabilities of membership in one of the classes, typically the minority category (but it depends on the exact way you have coded the problem). A common decision rule for those predictions on $[0,1]$ is to predict one category if the prediction is below $0.5$ and the other category otherwise. However, you do not have to use this decision rule. Indeed, receiver-operator characteristic and precision-recall curves exist by varying that threshold and not just using the software default of $0.5$.
There are reasons to evaluate the raw outputs of the model [1, 2], but if you don't want to use the arguably hard-to-interpret measures of performance like log loss and Brier score that are discussed in the links, favoring easy-to-interpret measures like accuracy, you're at least allowed to vary the decision rule and see if your two-stage pipeline of model predictions followed by a classification based on those model predictions yields better classifications than the software-default decision rule. You can even do this without having to worry about the class imbalance giving all majority-class classifications, since you vary the threshold and can have a very low threshold that gives many (even all) minority-class classifications.
You might, for instance, write a loop over all values $\left\{0, 0.001, 0.002,\dots, 0.998, 0.999, 1\right\}$ and plot various classification metrics at the various thresholds in that set of thresholds. My suspicion is that you have gotten poor classification results due to using a software-default threshold of $0.5$ and that you will get better performance with a lower threshold.


Brute-force attack to exe file

Question: I have an encrypted file and the program.exe through which it was encrypted. When I want decrypt file, I need to know the password with which the file was encrypted. Can you help me some tool for brute-force attack to this password, which will be usable for .exe file? When I paste wrong password, I get a popup window displaying message: wrong password.
Answer: The oldy but goldy one is John the Ripper which is open source and can be extended to your "program.exe". Needless to say, you need to know how the executable was encrypted. You cannot use John, or even your own extended version, to decrypt container formats for which the format and choice of algorithms isn't known.
Kerckhoff's principle states that the security of a crypto-system should not depend on static information such as the algorithm. Unfortunately that does not mean that it is necessarily easy to decrypt if the protocol or algorithm is not known or kept secret.
You may be able to identify the format of the file by using the Unix file command, other tools or even a text or hex editor. Looking at the header of the file does indeed make most sense initially, as safesploit muses.
Comment: Thanks but I've got enough files on my computer as it is. I don't need any new ones.
Comment: I can send you this file and program with source code through which file was encrypted if it helps.
Comment: So can you give me some contact to someone who can help me if I send him this files?
Answer: Without more information about how the file was encrypted, I cannot give specifics. Forgot password to 7-Zip archive, may give insight.
Beyond this, I would suggest extracting the file header information. This should contain the hash of the password. Then you could identify the encryption algorithm and rounds used by program.exe and use the same KDF to brute force the hash to identify the password.
Comment: *"...the file header information. This should contain the hash of the password"* - why should any properly encrypted file contain a hash of the password? Some might do this to quickly check if the password is valid before trying to decrypt but this information is not really needed for decryption so most formats will not include such information. Also, how exactly can the *file header* and the position of a maybe hashed password in it be found if the format is unknown in the first place? And why should the file even have a header?
Comment: I'm a bit two-faced about this question myself. For one it contains good info, such as the requirement to first identify the format / algorithms used. On the other hand the part about the hash and the fact that you can always identify the format using the header is simply incorrect. Small hint: writing in third person (so forgoing "I" and possibly even "you") gives a more neutral and scientific feel to answers (but that's just a writing hint).
Comment: @SteffenUllrich It was merely a suggestion from when I needed to brute force a LUKS encrypted partition. Like I stated, 'without more information about how the file was encrypted, I cannot give specifics'.
Comment: @MaartenBodewes This is why I spoke in a passive tone, and used the words like 'suggest' and 'should'. As I was creating a generalised idea. While I do appreciate your point if misleading the readers, I would hope readers would appreciate that I mention about not giving 'specifics'!

Brute-force attack to exe file


How to prove that the $r^\text{th}$ raw moment exists if and only if the $r^\text{th}$ central moment exists?

Question: If $r \ge 1$ (not necessarily be an integer), then how to prove that the $r^\text{th}$ raw moment exists if and only if the $r^\text{th}$ central moment exists? I think I have to apply some inequality but I can't figure it out.
Comment: You should add the self-study tag and read its wiki.
Answer: Two salient properties of real numbers $x, y,$ and $\mu$ are

The triangle inequalities $$|x-\mu| \le |x|+|\mu|$$ and $$|x| \le |x-\mu| + |\mu|.$$
Raising to the $r$ power for $r \gt 0$ preserves order: $$|x| \le |y| \text{ implies } |x|^r \le |y|^r$$ and (therefore) $$\max(|x|^r, |y|^r) = \max(|x|,|y|)^r.$$

Note, too, the simple relationship $$|x| + |y| \le 2\max(|x|, |y|).$$
Consequently for any random variable $X$ and real number $\mu$,
$$|X-\mu|^r \le \left(|X| + |\mu|\right)^r \le \left(2\max\left(|X|, |\mu|\right)\right)^r = 2^r\max\left(|X|^r, |\mu|^r\right)$$
and
$$|X|^r \le \left(|X-\mu| + |\mu|\right)^r \le \cdots \le 2^r\max\left(|X-\mu|^r, |\mu|^r\right).$$
Letting $\mu = \mathbb{E}(X)$ and taking expectations establishes the inequalities you need.
Comment: In the RHS 2^r is included, so if we remove that then RHS can be small/large than LHS, can you please explain this a little more.
Comment: You only need to show that the finiteness of one moment implies the finiteness of the other, not that one is actually smaller than the other.


OpenRAVE ChechCollison command in C++

Question: What is the equivalent code of "env.CheckCollision(robot)" in C++? Even though it is said that conversion of commands from python to c++ is easy and intuitive, where can I find a proper documentation for this conversion?
Answer: Have you checked out this example ?
It illustrates checking for self-collisions. If you also have a look at the CollisionCheckerBase class you can find OpenRAVE::CollisionCheckerBase::CheckCollision to check for collisions between two bodies, among other methods. Maybe that is enough to put the pieces together.

OpenRAVE ChechCollison command in C++


Will erasing G-d's name even in a Tanakh book render it not fit for use?

Question: I know that erasing G-d's name from a handwritten tanakh scroll, will render it non-kosher, but will accidently erasing G-d's name in a printed tanakh render it not fit for use? If so, does this apply even for non-Hebrew texts?
Comment: @mil, as asked, the question raised a lot of confusion and deserved to be downvoted (though I was not the downvoter). I hope my edit captured your intent.
Comment: What's the difference between "not kosher" and "not fit for use"?
Comment: Fit for what kind of use?
Comment: If I will get downvotes for no reason I will better delete this question too. Either say what made you downvote it or stop doing that again (I am not addressing a specific person)
Comment: I'm one of the downvoters. I downvoted because your question doesn't address @DoubleAA's essential question. Are you asking whether it's ok to read from it? Are you asking if it's ok to use it for _kriat haTorah_. Why do you suspect that the erasure of God's name from one part of the book would affect the other parts of the book?
Comment: @DoubleAA fit to be used for normal reading in the house.
Comment: @Daniel, to the totally uninitiated, it may be unclear what Jews use our holy books for. The simple justification for keeping the question as-is, in my mind, is that someone unfamiliar with our rituals may be unaware that certain books/scrolls are used for public readings, and certain others are (usually) not, and that the "unfitness" for the scrolls may not apply to the books. I think that can be clarified in the answer.
Answer: Mil, You may need to gain some sense on what items are considered "holy objects". I don't recall the full list, but among them are Torah scrolls, mezuzah, tefillin, etc. (I'll see if I can link something later).
The point is that a printed Tanac"h is not within this category of what is called tashmishei kedusha ("holy objetcs"). That doesn't mean that you can treat is as a novel and just dispose or deface it, intentionally. But, even if an entire page were ripped out, you can still use the rest of the book. There is no concept of "fit for use" or "kosher" use for printed books as there is for a Torah, mezuzah or tefillin, etc.
There are two related ideas - *holy objects" and "Mitzvah objects" discussed in Talmud Megillah. I cited this, below, so you gain some understanding of what these area. As you can see, a printed "Tanac"h" is not in either of these categories.
Megillah 26b:22-26 (Sefaria translation):

תשמישי מצוה נזרקין תשמישי קדושה נגנזין ואלו הן תשמישי מצוה סוכה לולב
  שופר ציצית ואלו הן תשמישי קדושה דלוסקמי ספרים תפילין ומזוזות ותיק של
  ס"ת ונרתיק של תפילין ורצועותיהן
Accessories used in a mitzvah [when worn out] may be thrown away;
  accessories of holiness are must be placed in a geniza. The following
  are accessories used in a mitzvah: A sukkah, a lulav, a shofar,
  tzitzit. The following are accessories of holiness: large sacks for
  scrolls of Scripture, tefillin and mezuzot, a mantle for a Sefer
  Torah, and a tefillin bag and tefillin straps.

This article described how to handle tashmishei kedusha, in general and briefly.
Comment: This answer seems to imply that a printed Tanac"h can be thrown away when worn out, which is incorrect. There is a difference between a lulav and a printed sefer.
Comment: @Ypnypn It's not incorrect accd to everyone. Consider http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/159/759
Comment: @Ypnypn The link that DoubleAA provided indicates some leniencies as well as some misnterpretations of what consititutes "Shaimos" that must be buried. B/c of this misunderstanding, numerous shuls have piles of books and similar items that occupy unnecessary space. (My shul, included. Though, in my case, I've retrieved some excellent usable items from the "shaimos" stack that I have used.)


Unable to set printer as default (Error 0x00000706)

Question: I am having an issue where a particular user is unable to set their default printer correctly after a reboot. The machine is running Windows 10 Pro with the latest updates installed.
This computer connects to two shared printers on another machine. Connecting to the printers and installing them works fine, and the user is able to set the desired printer as default without issue. However, once the machine is rebooted and they log back in, the other printer has now become the default and they cannot set the other one back.
The error message provided is 0x00000709. Searching around I've found several possible solutions that I've tried; such as giving full control to everyone on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows, deleting IsMRUEstablished and LegacyDefaultPrinterMode under HKEY_CURRENT_USER and running an SFC and DISM scan. There are no group policies or startup scripts that would be causing this either.
The printer in question is a Brother HL-L2370DW if that helps at all. All the other references to this issue I've been able to find is with HP printers. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: You might want to make sure the "Let Windows Manage my default printer" option is turned off. This setting is located in the Printers & Scanners setting window (Settings | Devices | Printers & scanners). You can find more information about this setting along with a registry setting here.
Comment: Thanks, I've made sure that setting is unchecked and the problem still persists though.


Create lasers beams in Lumion

Question: I'm trying to create laser beams in Lumion.
I tried to create a standard material with emissive option, but it wont create the right effect- it doesn't look like a laser beam, and it won't cast light on the surrounding- just a murky fog that wont light the area.
I've added 3 Lumion rendering and one that I created with Vray, which is closer to what I imagined.
Can someone help me? Do you have any ideas how to create the laser effect?
Answer: Lumion is a premium priced package. Quite few of us can afford it, so it's well possible that you get only guesses (like this) or nothing.
You obviously want nothing physically realistic, but something which is familiar from games or movies. Real laser beams aren't visible if they bypass one's eyes. The glow in the air is illuminated dust, smoke or vapor. Even that's invisible if the laser works beyond the visible wavelength range. Making the air itself to luminate needs dangerous power densities.
You have tried to place thin luminous bars in the 3D space. You should have extremely high luminosity compression (=gamma) to get some visible illumination to the environment and still keep the rays itself darker than the max.brightness. I do not know does Lumion have that capability, but I guess it's a lot better than some entry level stuff that I have. They do not have the needed calculation accuracy, high gamma lifts up very much noise (=rounding errors).
The glow in the air around the rays can be lens blooming, which surely has some adjustments in high end rendering programs. Search for it.
Your last example has differently colored glow around the rays. If you want it, you probably can get it in Photoshop as a layer style. Take into PS to their own layers the illuminated 3D scene and the rays. The rays must have transparent background. Insert to them layer style Outer Glow. I guess you do not want to model it in 3D (=two luminous materials with radial gradient densities). It's still possible that lens blooming has enough adjustments even for it.
Of course it had to be tried, no matter I haven't the software up to the task:

The rays are five luminous bars. There's no other light than those thin bars. The gamma is in the maximum to get something visible, other than the rays. The black dirt is the inaccuracy noise due the poor math resolution. The rays are taken to the Photoshop image two times. The first was the high gamma scene. The second version had gamma=1, there was nothing else visible than the rays on full black background. Black was deleted and the rays got blue outer glow.
More: High end rendering software can allow a light source which isn't at all visible to the camera, no matter it's in the middle of the scene. You could have thicker rays or ones with ultra high intensity - no goofing with gamma would be needed to make the 3D scene visible. You can make the camera to see only the thinner or low intensity versions of the rays at the same place.
Sorry, but this all is only speculation without having Lumion. I think it's better to ask in a site which contains actual Lumion users.
Comment: IIRC, Lumion, like its competitor TwinMotion, is built atop the Unreal Game engine; you could I am sure, find a stylised emissive laser material pre-made in the Unreal Asset Store and apply that. The major thing OP's images are missing is enough GI bounces to have the emission illuminate nearby geometry, and a decrease of the faux-bloom post effect they've applied, IMHO.

Create lasers beams in Lumion


Numbers under a note (guitar)

Question: Hi I am a guitar beginner, can someone help me to understand what does that number (3 under notes) mean?
Comment: You may want to learn how to take screenshots for future question. For Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027213/windows-10-open-snipping-tool-and-take-a-screenshot. For MacOS: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201361. For iOS: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200289
Answer: Since you're a beginner, I would assume you're working in 4/4.
If that's the case, the "3" that connects the eighth notes makes them an eighth note triplet. This means that you fit the E, D, & C all into the timing of one quarter note (in 4/4).
This video explains it fairly well for a beginner.

When I first started learning how to count, it helped if you say "triplet" (pronounce "trip-ah-let" for the timing) in the time of one beat. (So you would tap your foot or finger or have a metronome, and make the syllables individual notes. i.e. in your example, "Trip" = E, "ah" = D, & "let" = C.) That being said, once you're comfortable, you should break that habit and just get used to the timing itself.
If you're new to reading music and still don't fully grasp note values/length in a given time signature, you should really start with the basics (whole, half, quarter, eighth, etc.) then you can tackle tuplets.
Hopefully that makes some semblance of sense.
Comment: The mnemonic I remember was "_one-trip-let, two-trip-let, three-trip-let, four-trip-let_"
Comment: I've never heard of that one lol, but it is definitely the same concept. I guess it doesn't quite matter as long as it is 3 syllables that you can fit into the space of one 1/4 note.
Answer: Diffuclt to be sure without even a complete measure and given the poor image quality, but this is most probably a triplet, i. e. the 3 eighth notes add up to one quarter note.

Numbers under a note (guitar)


Creating a curve from selected edge and extruding?

Question: I'm trying to make a cupboard, and I stumbled upon a problem (I'm a total beginner). I want to convert the edges shown in the picture to curves, bend them a little, and convert back to edge (in order to extrude the whole thing). I created the shown shape using the Knife tool. The reason is I'm trying to recreate a cupboard that has an negatively extruded design in a "smooth fashion" (see pic, kinda hard to explain). I'd really appreciate some help or a link to a youtube tutorial, I can't seem to find an answer to that.
Comment: Did you try "convert to curve"? Here is a short tutorial that might help: https://youtu.be/8Iv6jfyY0aM
Comment: I already seen this video, but apparently you can convert only an Object to a curve, and not just selected edges. I tried copying that selected face, separating it, and converted it to a curve, but for some reason the curve has no handles and I can't edit it :(
Comment: When you first convert a mesh to a curve, it's a simple Poly type. To get your control handles.. in Edit Mode,  Header > Curve  menu > Set Spline Type > probably 'Bezier', then 'V' set the vertex types. 'Free' to begin with, will leave the verts where they are and give you handles.
Answer: Why don't you make the drawers separate meshes? It's more logical and it will facilitate your work. Also, rather than converting curve to mesh, you should just draw the 3D profile with edge loops, then extrude, then bevel, etc...


Why is my interior Animation flickering/noisy?

Question: I rendered an animation and the frames by themselves don't look noisy, but when I put them together in a video every frame seems to be flickering and really noisy. The lights are purposefully flickering when the objects get pulled together, but not before. 128 samples, 1080p, tile size 256, default noise treshold, openaidenoiser, light bounces all on 10. Increasing the samples doesn't make a difference.
https://we.tl/t-1CPYqX7jlt
Comment: Hello and welcome. While files, images, and external videos or links may be helpful additions they should not be the only way to obtain information about your issue. Don't make understanding your question rely on downloading a file, watching a video or visiting an external site. Use the builtin tools to upload [images](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491) or [gifs](https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/963), along with thoroughly explaining the problem in written form so it can be indexed and searched for thus helping future visitors with similar issues.
Comment: Do you have this issue on individually stored frames or on a video?
Comment: The frames by themselves look fine but when they are played in a video like in the link, mainly the wall are flickering and noisy. I rendered them as pngs.
Comment: You write that increasing the samples doesn't change anything. To what number have you increase/tested the sample count already?
Answer: There is nothing inherently wrong with your render, your Sample count is just too low. When rendering an Image, the longer you render the less noise an image will have. When using the inbuilt denoiser, this noise pattern gets interpreted individually frame by frame. the more noise visible the more the denoiser has to guess how it should look like on every frame individually. In other words, the noisier the image the more the denoiser has to guess. As it guesses every frame individually (technical term: not temporal stable) the denoiser creates different patterns for each frame.
This is a normal behaviour of any denoiser that is not temporal stable.
What you can do to fix the issue:

Increase the sample count of your render. Try double the amount and only render 3 to 4 Frames of the animation. play these frames back and see if the artefacts persist. increase the number until you're happy with the result. then render the full animation. I recommend to choose the frames when the things are bundled up in the air.
Uncheck the denoiser in Blender and just render the noisy images. Then Use a denoiser in your editing software if yours does have one. Davinci Resolve (the paid version) does have one for example. These denoisers are temporal stable and will denoise your video not frame by frame but rather as a sequence. please be aware that this will not correct a video that is very noisy.
Use a paid Add-on like Pidgeon Tool Bag (https://blendermarket.com/products/pidgeontoolbag) To denoise your render temporally inside of Blender
Use a different Render Engine like Redshift (if my memory doesn't fail me) that has a temporal stable denoiser. This also costs money and i'm not sure if the denoise option of Redshift would actually be available in Blender
Render it using a Render Farm. Just google "Render Farm Blender" and you will find a bunch of options. This will cost money but let you increase your sample count to high numbers as they have very fast hardware.


Phone keeps restarting while system updating

Question: My samsung galaxy core 2 got a system update so I installed it. Eventually it kept going to 90% until it said error and then restarted the whole process. It kept doing the same thing get to 90% say error and restart and continue the cycle. I cant even use my phone anymore. Please help me.
Answer: Try a factory rest, and install the update again.
How to Enter Recovery Mode on Galaxy Core 2 and how to do a Factory Reset
1) Take your phone and turn it off.
2) From your smartphone press and hold (at the same time) the power, volume up and home buttons for a few seconds.
Recovery mode should be eventually displayed on your Galaxy Core 2.

3) Release held keys when the Samsung Logo appears on the screen
Then select from Recovery Mode menu "wipe data / factory reset" using Volume buttons to navigate and Power button to confirm.

4) Choose "Yes -- delete all user data" to confirm the whole operation.

5) You can return to Android by selecting "Reboot system now".

Images used are not mine but are taken from this webpage
Comment: It always opens into the system update page instead
Comment: Are you sure your in recovery mode?


how do I make the FROM box on a bulk email show the same list as a single email?

Question: I toggled the yes/no box "Allow mail from logged in contact" to yes, but it doesn't affect the "new mailing" screen which is really the most important one for me. Can I change this somehow? Is there another yes/no somewhere? If not can I put in a feature request for it?
Answer: I guess the "Allow mail from logged in contact" option is for sending Email Activity or Contribution receipt but not bulk emails. Might be because if the bulk emails are not send using site domain address than it end ups in users spam box.
Its a good idea to raise for a feature request on https://lab.civicrm.org/ or you can implement an extension to include logged in users id.


What is the origin of the concept of "reaping" souls?

Question: A concept related to death is the idea that souls are "reaped" using a scythe by an entity like the Grim Reaper as though they were farm crops.  Where did this concept come from, and what is the underlying basis of this concept?
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not about a fantasy or sci-fi character or plot device.
Comment: Come to think of it, I think this is indeed off-topic (see http://meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/5014/can-i-ask-about-mythology). It's not specific to a particular sci-fi/fantasy work or series of works and is really closer to folklore and mythology than SF/F. Feel free to close it, but don't delete it as it can still be a useful reference. This is one of those edge cases which aren't readily apparent to someone new to the site.
Comment: As requested, I added pictures. Sorry it took a bit, I had classes after work.
Comment: @AndresF.: This is a bit borderline to me—see http://meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6763/is-question-39423-origin-of-reaping-souls-on-topic for discussion
Comment: Like I said in meta, yes, that's why I voted to close. BTW, don't take it the wrong way, I think it's a genuinely interesting question, just not suitable for this site :)
Answer: One of the earliest incarnations for death was Thanatos from Greek mythology (Brother to Hypnos), and during that time they were portrayed as young men, and death was not the "frightening" imagery that is seen today.
If you look at the art of the era, the Black Plague (1340ish to 1350) changed the depictions. Death was no longer something that happened, but because of the depredation and the impact, death and disease were now something to be feared. As the plague progressed, the art changed to reflect the public perception.
Death was shown with a few different types of weapons during this time, eventually settling on the scythe, and there are some paintings that depict death literally "mowing" down people with the scythe. In the book of Revelations in the Bible, death is the only one really described, and the only one pictured with a weapon.
Note: This is almost purely from the Christian/Catholic perspective. There are many other interpretations. For example, in Irish Celtic mythology, death was known as the dullahan, which was a race of creatures that carried their head under their arm and drove carts around collecting people. Almost every religion has their own interpretation, but because of the invasive nature of Catholicism (especially during the Crusades), it is one of the more prevailing images.
As requested:
Thanatos in marble - As you can see, very human in appearance, with wings and a sword. Typifies the view that death was a natural progression and nothing to be feared. The second image is that of Thanatos as a friend leading the deceased away

After the plague erupted, you can see the image changes - The first is still pretty humanoid, but already distorted and the scythe has appeared. You can see the more definitive death one in the other post (I did not relink it), and then you can see it has been pretty well entrenched if you look at art such as totentanz and granger in the 1850s.
Answer: The concept of Death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. Depending on the culture He was considered to be a natural and necessary force. Depending on the religion, He would even claim the Gods in the end.

In English, Death is often given the name Grim Reaper and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood.

If I were to posit why around the 15th century, he would acquire a personification and clothing:

Anthropomorphism, sometimes referred to as personification, is a well established literary device from ancient times. It extends back to before Aesop's Fables in 6th century BC Greece and the collections of linked fables from India, the Jataka Tales and Panchatantra, which employ anthropomorphised animals to illustrate principles of life.

I would consider the time of the Black Death (1348–50 CE) which occurred three hundred years before as a devastating cultural force laying waste to the countryside and killing everyone. It wasn't just people who suffered, businesses, trade and economic prosperity was also claimed by Death.

With Death and its effects so prevalent and strongly felt for centuries after that, it was as if people fell "as wheat before the scythe". It would only be after many generations where there was enough distance where people could attempt to personify Death, making him less terrifying and easing the sting of its force-of-nature-like aspects.

It is also given the name of the Angel of Death (Malach HaMavet) or Devil of Death or the angel of dark and light stemming from the Bible and Talmudic lore.

The Bible itself does refer to "The Angel of Death" when he reaps Egypt's first-borns although he is not connected to Satan. There is also a reference to "Abaddon" (The Destroyer), an Angel who is known as the "The Angel of the Abyss".

In Talmudic lore, he is characterized as archangel Samael. One of Samael's greatest roles in Jewish lore is that of the angel of death.
Comment: By giving Death a scythe, he could be seen as a natural working element of the Universe, a working man in many ways just like men. The Scythe is part of the personification of Death. Men are his wheat... It was not about the souls. It was about the bodies.


Which boxes on IRS Form 1040 Line 6 need to be filled?

Question: Is it one box per bullet? And then a separate box for the non-bulleted item? This one always confuses me. I am married filing jointly. I have a child from a previous marriage that I claim every other year, and 2016 is my year to claim her. She lives with me for almost exactly 33% of the year
Answer: Each dependent should only be included in one of the three box totals in 6c.  As a result, you need to decide if this child would be included in the "children who lived with you", "children who did not live with you due to divorce or separation", or "dependents not entered above."
This is explained in the Form 1040 instructions in a section of the Line 6 instructions called "Definitions and Special Rules: Children of divorced or separated parents."  (It begins on page 18 of the PDF instructions.)
You'll need to read through that section to see what applies to your specific situation, but the way I read it, based on the information that you've given, you are considered the non-custodial parent because the child spent the majority of nights at the other parent's house.  There are a list of requirements that you must meet to claim the child as a dependent.  It seems to me that, as the non-custodial parent, the child would be included in the "did not live with you" box total.
Answer: The "filing status" and "exemptions" sections are barely related, and follow different rules.  I'm sure the UX stackexchange would have some ideas lol.
In filing status, you choose one only, it's radio buttons.
In dependents you check every one that applies, and the total checked must match the right column.
It's one of those weird forms where they ask you to describe details of entities in one grid without asking how they differ, then ask about the differences in another area without asking which ones differ.   Happens a lot in the nonprofit forms too.