How do I refuse to work on military-focused contracts?

Question: I'm applying to programs in Computer Science and Robotics and would feel very uncomfortable working on defense-focused or funded projects.
Is it unrealistic (in terms of funding opportunities) to refuse to work on such projects?
If not, at what point in application/admission does it make sense to make this expectation clear?
Comment: Are you applying for a master's or Ph.D program? Only in the USA?
Comment: @mkennedy Applying to both, more interested in PhD
Answer: This answer is for the US, based on my experience with US admissions.
I would say that this is generally not an applications/admissions question, only because it's unlikely to be meaningful to admissions committees. Many graduate departments in computer science work on a cohort-admissions model, where a group of students are admitted each year and then are expected to find a faculty adviser once accepted. In this model it is up to you to find a research program that personally motivates you and then to persuade an adviser to take you on. It is at this stage that you would (and should) make it clear to a potential adviser that you're not willing to work on defense related projects. However, at this point it's probably moot because you're going to be talking to potential advisers based on your perceived compatibility.
What might be a better thing to do during the application process is to ask whether a candidate department conducts any defense related research. Then you can just not apply to defense-related organizations rather than make it a point of contention with programs that you're interested in. Additionally, most CS research is not defense related, and most all broad-based research departments will have plenty of research opportunities that are not defense projects. Consider that about 60% of US PhD students in Computer Science are foreign nationals and ineligible for this kind of work anyway. You will have no problem finding non-military projects to work on.
Some places are well-known as defense-related institutions- for example the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory, or the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. It is usually obvious from these organization's websites that this is a focus of theirs, and you can just avoid them. However, if you wanted to apply to a place such as this I would definitely discuss your personal ethics eariler rather than later, and your ethics definitely don't disqualify you. These labs do a lot of research that is "defense-related" in the sense that it provides for the common defense of the country, not because it's a military project. They work on everything from actual weapons systems to civil defense projects like weather satellites, making the energy grid more robust, and information security.
Comment: _Consider that about 60% of US PhD students in Computer Science are foreign nationals and ineligible for this kind of work anyway._ Foreign nationals are not necessarily ineligible to work on defense-funded research. It depends on the specific project, and a lot of them have no such constraint.
Comment: That seems like an unfounded assumption. The OP said "defense-focused _or funded_ projects", which are not necessarily export controlled.  (For example, some foreign students in my research group are working on an Army-funded wireless networks project which has no such restrictions.)
Comment: I'm sorry, but this is not accurate, "Additionally, most CS research is not defense related, and most all broad-based research departments will have plenty of research opportunities that are not defense projects." I have spent the last 3 years of my life submitting more than a hundred federal applications for more than 30 CS faculty at a top US university. DOD is becoming the norm. Unless your PI does only very strict theory, expect DOD in their portfolio.  DARPA is even expanding into hospitals. My faculty always say, "NSF stands for 'Not Sufficiently Funded.'" It's not actually a joke.
Comment: @ff524 Yes, that's true in general. My statement is based on the loose assumption that the technologies that the questioner wants to avoid are roughly encompassed on the ITAR export control list and that many foreign nationals in CS are from China (which is a prohibited country under ITAR). We have tremendous numbers of such students, and they have no problems finding research projects they're able to work on.
Comment: @ff524 I am betting that, despite what they said, OP doesn't intend to exclude all defense funding, just "military projects". Anything that would fall under the "Fundamental Research" exception of ITAR is not going to be a project that OP will have an ethical issue with. Most people not familiar with the research enterprise are not going to realize that DARPA and the DOD sponsor basic research. Regardless of what OP's mind is on this, our discussion should sufficiently illuminate it for them.
Comment: Also not accurate: "Consider that about 60% of US PhD students in Computer Science are foreign nationals and ineligible for this kind of work anyway." Foreign people can work on DOD grants. There could be some restrictions, but nothing like 60%.  DARPA often has an e-verify clause in the contract.
Answer: Ben Kuipers, a Michigan faculty member that does not take military money, has some advice on this topic in "Why don't I take military funding?":

...there are plenty of options for supporting yourself through graduate school without military funding. You can be a teaching assistant; you can be a research assistant to a faculty member with other kinds of funding; you can find work maintaining computers for a lab in another department; you can get a part-time outside job; and so on. Generally, rejecting the single largest funder will require you to be more creative about looking at other funding possibilities. This creativity will serve you well. One of the fortunate things about working in computer science is that you have a practical skill that is needed by people in many different areas, and they are often willing to pay for your services....
On finding faculty with similar beliefs, I would suggest just asking. A quick scan of each faculty member's web page, and especially the acknowledgements on publications, will tell you where they get their funding. Find a few people whose research you find attractive who have non-military funding, and talk to them.
Personally, I find it most productive to be clear and straight-forward, without being judgmental or confrontational. You will very likely find plenty of people who are very sympathetic to your values, but who aren't willing to make what they perceive as too large a sacrifice. In my personal opinion, it is more important to encourage people to see their choice of work, how it's funded, and what it's used for as an important moral decision that must reflect their own fundamental values, than to pressure them to make the same moral decisions that I have.
Answer: You may lose a position, but be open about not wanting to work for defense-oriented projects. Don't hide it, you do not gain anything by that (as mentioned above in the comments). Some people may not want to work with a "picky" person, anyway, so you do not lose anything, but it is better than unsaid suspicions about why you would not get clearance.
Some bosses may have understanding and offer you non-defense-based contracts, but you need to decide beforehand whether you are happy to work in a group with mixed funding sources, where, while you won't, others may be funded by defense contracts. Some academics will welcome your attitude. It is an idea to check on the websites of your prospective employers for hints of whether the funding sources are mixed, or whether the academics possibly even explicitly avoid defense funding.
Comment: Not just on their websites - look at the Acknowledgements section of recent papers they wrote to see where their grant funding usually comes from.
Comment: @ff524 Yes, good point.


Does energy conservation apply to Casimir effect?

Question: If you cancel out some quantum field modes using two 'Casimir' plates you decrease the average energy density in the region and gain potential energy in Casimir force approximately proportional to the plate areas and inversely proportional to plate separation to the fourth power? Is it enough to make up for the supposed loss of energy in the form of vibrational energy of quantum fields?
Comment: Casimir effect has nothing to do with quantum fields: "*the description in terms of van der Waals forces is the only correct description from the fundamental microscopic perspective, while other descriptions of Casimir force are merely effective macroscopic descriptions.*" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect#Relativistic_van_der_Waals_force
Answer:  Short answer: yes
Yes, energy conservation does apply to the Casimir effect. The Casimir effect is present in ordinary QFT in flat spacetime, in which the Hamiltonian (the total energy operator) is independent of time, so energy is conserved in every situation, including situations involving the Casimir effect.
 Using what we're able to calculate to draw inferences about what we wish we could calculate
Energy conservation says that the total energy of the system does not change with time. Calculations of the Casimir effect typically use a short-cut in which the material plates (which would be made of some complicated arrangement of electrons and nuclei) are replaced with idealized boundary conditions on space itself. In that short-cut, the "force" between the boundaries of space is defined in terms of $dE/dx$, where $E$ is the energy of the ground state (with the given boundary conditions) and $x$ is the distance between the boundaries. Because of the nature of this short-cut, the concept of energy conservation doesn't strictly apply, because the whole situation is static (not time-dependent). That's a trivial form of energy conservation, not what the OP is really asking about.
To see the form of energy conservation that the OP is asking about in an explicit calculation of the Casimir effect, we would need to consider material plates constructed from dynamic ingredients (quantum fields, like electron and nucleon fields), and the calculation suddenly becomes prohibitively difficult. Even constructing a state that describes such material plates is prohibitively difficult, not to mention calculating its time-dependence.
However, if we assume that a theory like QED + QCD is sufficient for constructing such a state, and if we assume that the boundary-condition short-cut calculation is a fair proxy for the Casimir force between actual material plates, then we can immediately conclude that the Casimir effect conserves energy. Energy is manifestly conserved in QED + QCD, where the Hamiltonian is explicitly known and explicitly time-independent. Recall that the Hamiltonian is both the total energy operator and the generator of time-evolution.
 No magic
By the way, QED + QCD can be formulated rigorously in continuous time (so that energy is still exactly conserved) after replacing space with a discrete lattice. So, in principle, the aforementioned calculation could be done completely explicitly — except that it's still prohibitively difficult. However, the boundary-condition short-cut still works on a lattice (using a discrete-derivative version of $dE/dx$), and the short-cut still leads to the conclusion that there is an attractive force between the plates (with the correct distance-dependence), so the preceding argument still holds in this perfectly well-defined formulation.
I thought this might be worth mentioning because sometimes the Casimir effect is described using magic-sounding language about renormalization and infinities, but in the lattice formulation, everything is perfectly finite so that no magic is involved.

 Appendix: Relationship to the van der Waals force
As emphasized in comments by safesphere, the Casimir effect is related to the van der Waals force (or is a manifestation of the van der Waals force, depending on which subculture's language we use). Since this may help put the energy-conservation question into a clearer perspective, I've incorporated the content from my comments into this appendix:
Casimir effect typically refers to an attractive interaction between closely-spaced plates. van der Waals force typically refers to an attractive interaction between neutral molecules. Whatever names we use to describe them, these are electromagnetic interactions. Words like "vacuum energy" are often used for the Casimir effect, but this over-emphasizes what I called the "short-cut" above. Describing it as an extension/special case of the van der Waals force is better. The paper https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0503158 says it like this:

The Casimir force (per unit area) between parallel plates... the standard result [which I called the short-cut], which appears to be independent of [the fine structure constant] $\alpha$, corresponds to the $\alpha\to\infty$ limit. ... The Casimir force is simply the (relativistic, retarded) van der Waals force between the metal plates.

Here's a related Physics Se post that emphasizes the same point:
Van der Waals and Casimir forces
Comment: Would it be correct to state that in your answer the Casimir effect is caused by quantum fields? If so, would it not be worth mentioning that this effect also can be explained as the relativistic van der Waals force without any reference to quantum fields?
Comment: @safesphere Both names (Casimir effect and van der Waals) refer to attractive forces between closely spaced surfaces and/or individual molecules. By any name, it's an an electromagnetic interaction. Whether or not it can be calculated using a model that doesn't involve the *quantum* EM field is unclear to me (I'd need to think about that more carefully), but I'll say this: I don't like the "vacuum energy" wording that's often used for the Casimir effect because it over-emphasizes what I called the "short-cut." Describing it as an extension/special case of the vdW force is better.
Comment: @safesphere The paper https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0503158 says it like this: "The Casimir force (per unit area) between parallel plates... the standard result [which I called the short-cut], which appears to be independent of [the fine structure constant] $\alpha$, corresponds to the $\alpha\to\infty$ limit. ... The Casimir force is simply the (relativistic, retarded) van der Waals force between the metal plates."
Comment: Related: [Van der Waals and Casimir forces](https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/11544) (https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/11544)
Comment: Great. Thanks for your insight!


How can I improve this image?

Question:
I want to improve the resolution on this dragon, it's from an old game, so of course its highly pixelated, how can this be made smoother, more modern?
Comment: So if you don't need to actually make the image any bigger, you could try to add anti-aliasing to the edge, which would slightly improve it, but not by much: [Example](https://i.stack.imgur.com/byVXc.jpg). I did that by: **1.** Cutting the background off the image. **2.** Duplicating the cut-out image layer and adding very tiny amount of blur. **3.** Duplicated the blurry layer many times, until I was satisfied with the edge.
Comment: I clicked this question as useful, even if some users might not like it. It is a typical question which new users will encounter when they get into graphics. And a lot can be learnt, if the veterans come up with workable answers. I often wish for some magic bitmap booster...
Comment: The question here is: Do you know what you want to achieve? Pixelart is a very sophisticated game of optical illusion where the artist has moved the pixels around until it works. It is not given that it is even possible to get a useful result. In my opinion it is a dead end, BUT there are some scaling methods which actually give tolerable results: https://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/viewtopic.php?t=23046#p96498. (but the coolest looking scaling methods are not really accessible I'm afraid).
Answer: Use SmillaEnlarger, which you can find here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/imageenlarger/
Of course you should not do this. You should not even want to do this. But I hate it myself when people try to tell me what to want.
=== an aside ===
The best way is to paste this bitmap into Inkscape and take some time (yes) and trace it and make a new vector graphic. That way you can even add some minor changes and have your own colours and possibly avoid copyright issues (I am not an expert on how much you would need to change to make it your own.).
Then export from Inkscape as a PNG and you have a phantastic new, crisp bitmap in any resolution you need.
=== back to my main answer ===
We have used SmillaEnlarger when we absolutely had to. Not ideal, but the best tool we have found and used so far, for boosting old bitmaps for quick jobs. It takes time to learn about Smilla and its settings-options. So if this is just about this one illustration, your time might be better spent by tracing the dragon. hth

How can I improve this image?


molecular orbital theory

Question: i read in my textbook that the energy diagram of moleculal orbits is different for atoms nitrogen and below them.
my question is which one of the energy diagrams to use in heteronuclear compounds like CO?
Comment: I'm assuming you only looked at homonuclear molecules ($\ce{O2}$, $\ce{H2}$) so far. The atomic orbitals are of rather different energies in $\ce{C}$ and $\ce{O}$ just because the nuclear charge is different (consider the ionization energies). That is why I don't expect anyone to produce a decent orbital diagram without performing some quantitative computational chemistry first.
Answer: (In heteronuclear diatomic molecules, atomic orbitals only mix when the electronegativity values are similar.)
(While MOs for homonuclear diatomic molecules contain equal contributions from each interacting atomic orbital, MOs for heteronuclear diatomics contain different atomic orbital contributions.)
(Orbital interactions to produce bonding or antibonding orbitals in heteronuclear diatomics occur if there is sufficient overlap between atomic orbitals, as determined by their symmetries and similarity in orbital energies.)
Answer: It depends on how many electrons your compound has. In $\ce{O2}$ , there are 16 electrons.
Likewise all compounds with more than 16 electrons follow the $"\ce{O2}"$ diagram and those with less than 16 follow the other diagram.

molecular orbital theory


Advantages to working at a start-up?

Question: I'm considering working at a 1-2 year old start-up, and I'm wondering what the benefits will be. We haven't gotten to negotiations yet, but I am getting the sense that the job will be a lot of work due to the newness of the company. Am I wrong in thinking that, from my perspective, this will mean a lot more work for me, all so that the people at the top can one day sell the company and make their own profits? How is this better than something more "stable"?
Comment: If they are not giving you stock options then for the same salary I would go with a more stable company every time.  Be aware of reverse splits.  I feel like you learn more in a structured company.  I did two start ups that went no where and yes I learned to wear a lot of hats but I did not gain much marketable technical skills.
Answer: Cons:

You will be working long hours
You will experience periods of instability; company finances, growth, strategy changes, etc.
You will be asked to wear many hats
You will have to learn new tools, techniques, processes, etc.

Pros:

You will be working long hours creating something new, cool, awesome, needed, important (hopefully)
You will have the opportunity to learn new skills in new roles
You will work with new tools, techniques, processes, etc.
You will have less bureaucracy to deal with (hopefully)
You will be able to have a distinct, definite, and significant impact on the success of the company.
And on and on

If financial stability is something you put high on your list of needs from a job, a true start-up might not be for you. If you like challenges and new experiences, a start-up might be for you.
As to "lots or hard work for those up-top to sell and make lots of money". Negotiate a salary you are happy with and equity or options which will allow you to share in the company's eventual success. If those "up-top" aren't busting their humps as hard or harder than you -- don't join that start-up, it will fail.
Answer: Startups are more likely to offer some sort of stock options if they make it big one day than a stable company. And "stable" companies get bought all the time, but they tend not to fail as often as startups. That's how you get to be a stable company I guess.
You have to decide what you want and what you're willing to do to get it. If you're so caught up with the negative notion that your work makes other people money, get over it. Bill Gates made more off of Microsoft than just about anyone else, but the company did create a couple of other billionaires and over a thousand millionaires. None of this includes the people who use their software (like programmers) and make way more money off of their software than they paid for it.
Even if you own a company that gets bought out, the company you sold it to will get even more money if they sell it again. Maybe you should consider working for non-profits?
Answer: As someone who has worked in both types of organizations, I would like to provide some perspective.
Some advantages of startups include:

Usually more recent, and therefore marketable and interesting
technologies and other technical aspects of work (such as supporting
project management, version management tool etc)
Generally, more interesting, energetic, proactive, competent people
unafraid to venture into uncharted territory, from whom you can learn
a lot.
Exposure to make more difference and participate in the formative
stages of new product development, which, if it does take off, can
make you exponentially more valuable in the organization later on.
Office perks such as nice coffee, nut racks, ping pong and foosball
tables, all the way up to even a beer fridge or even a liquor cabinet
(seen it all)

Disadvantages include:

Your job is less secure
You are expected to have no work-life balance and most startups
nowadays have a somewhat arrogant approach that their mission is so
cool that you should forfeit the rest of your existence to it.
As it is an entity in development, work flows are usually less firmly
determined, meaning less protocol and more demands on the fly.  This
bothers some people more and some people less.  I tend to like more
structure. This can also be an advantage if you like participating in
devising work flows and processes and especially if you are into dev
ops or configuration management, you can really provide lots of
building blocks.
Answer: From the way you phrase that question, I suspect you would not find a start-up compatible with your personal needs.
The cons of a startup as I see them (and admittedly They are not my preffered place to work) are:

Your paycheck is not guaranteed. All too many people I have known who
worked in startups have had a period of one or more months when they
didn't get paid. The one time I worked in what was a partial startup
(our part of teh business was a start-up) we actually tried to beat
each other to the bank (we got actual paper checks) to make sure ours
would not bounce if there weren't enough funds to cover everyone.
You will work long hours. And by long I don't mean 45-50 I mean more
like 60-80 hours a week. Some startups actually encourage you to
sleep in the office.
Start-ups fail at an alarming rate. When they start to fail, things
get really bad, really fast. And it isn't easy to look for another
job while you are working an 80 hour week.
Start-ups often have unprofessional managers who can't figure out the
business side of things. They also tend to have a frat boy atmosphere
that I find personally repellent but which I suppose is ok if you are
a signle white guy who is not yet 30.

Pros:

Usually the work is interesting
Most people seem to prefer new dev to maintenance
You really get to stretch your skill set
If you negotiated well when you came in, there is a possibility of a
big payoff if the company wildly succeeds.

They do have less bureaucracy. This is both a plus and a minus. Great when things are going well, really bad when they are not.
Questions to ask before taking a job at a startup:

What is their product(they may require a signed non-disclosure to
divulge). Use this to evaluate what you think is the probability of
success.
How are the funded and what is their business plan? Even if they
won't give you the exact numbers, they should be able to give you
enough detail that it shows they are being managed professionally as
opposed to those start-ups who are just playing.
What type of equity in the company will you get? When will you be
fully vested?
What type of working conditions.Stay away from the ones with super
amazing workplaces with all sorts of games and cool things, they may
have put their moeny into the wrong things and are far more likely to
fail. Look for the ones that put their money in the project and the
actual computer equiment you will use to build the product. So hot
tub - probably a risky place, 3 monitors for every dev - much more
focused on getting the work done, so less risky.

If you are going to a start up, I recommend having several months salary saved (or immediately starting to save it) because when they fail, they fail fast and you may need that money. You are taking a risk, if you aren't the kind to mitigate that risk throughyour own actions, you are taking a much bigger risk.

Advantages to working at a start-up?


In Ghosts of Saltmarsh, how do the players obtain a ship?

Question: In Ghosts of Saltmarsh, there is a lot of information about ships, naval combat, and the sea in general. However, I can't find any information on how to get a ship in the first place. I want to run this adventure compilation, and I don't want to have to sideline the game for 30 minutes to find out how to get a ship in the first place. Could someone please explain how my players can get a ship?
Comment: Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already, and check out the [help] for more guidance.
Comment: [I think this applies to this question](https://rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/q/5270/22566) because a standard DM procedure before running a published advenure or a module is to reaad through the adventure ahead of time to familiarize themselves with the content.  There is no need to derail the adventure; you need to know how it flows to run it successfully. (PS: I am running this adventure as DM and it's a lot of fun)
Answer: This answer comes from a DM perspective, and thus is full of hopefully-minor spoilers.

The Sea Ghost is the logical choice
During the first adventure of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, the Saltmarsh Town Council asks the characters to take deal with some unsavory types on a ship. The adventure's conclusion provides the following suggestion (p. 59):

 Royal agents might also claim the [Sea Ghost], but at your option, if the characters have proven eager to aid the crown, they are given the ship and pledged the service of a contingent of sailors to man it for one year.

When I ran Ghosts of Saltmarsh, my players completed this part of the mission in the second four-hour session. A map of the decks of the Sea Ghost is available on page 53, along with rigging diagrams for all your swashbuckling needs!
Subsequent adventures start with a journey by ship
If the Sea Ghost doesn't work out*, there are plenty of other opportunities to offer the party a ship. All of the adventures in Ghosts of Saltmarsh (except the first one) mostly likely begin with a journey by sea:

Danger at Dunwater starts with a three-hour trip by sea or a twelve-hour trek over difficult terrain (p. 65-66). The adventurers are offered the use of a keelboat, but it would be easy for the Saltmarsh Town Council to provide them with whatever type you please.
Aubreck, the quest-giver in Salvage Mission, has already hired a ship to take the PCs to a derelict ship (p. 88). When I ran the adventure, Aubreck offered the use of a ship, but had no problem with the party using their own. Note that the PCs probably won't be able to salvage the derelict, because:

 the ship is attacked by a giant octopus - two minutes flat from floating to sunk!

The party undertakes the quest in Isle of the Abbey on behalf of the local mariners' guild, who could easily provide the party with a variety of ships - perhaps in exchange for their help. In particular, the party will need some transportation (p. 98) to:

 the titular isle - a six-hour trip by rowboat.

The Saltmarsh Town Council will provide a keelboat in The Final Enemy (p. 112), though this could logically be any type of ship.
Tammaraut's Fate expects the characters to travel by sea to a nearby village, though it doesn't provide a strong hook. If the party only books passage on an existing ship, the village council can provide a large rowboat (p. 145):

 for the three-mile journey to Firewatch Island, where the adventure primarily takes place.

The Styes takes place in a port town, but doesn't provide the party with a ship. They will likely need a small one later on (p. 183) in order to:

 travel the mile or so to Landgrave's Folly.

* The first adventure has an entire sidebar (p. 52) about the party cutting a hole in the Sea Ghost or burning it to the waterline. The authors definitely paid attention in Player Psychology 101!
Answer: In addition to the fine explanation by Red Orca, the simplest answer would be 'you are the DM, and so you give the party a ship by whatever means you find convenient'.  They could find an abandoned boat on the shore.  They could charter a boat from a fisherman or other sailor.  They could encounter pirates and 'confiscate' the pirate ship.  Endless options, really.  Remember, you aren't bound by the strict terms of the book.  In the words of a famous pirate movie franchise: "Think of the Code more as... guidelines than actual rules."


Auto spacing in Firefox search bar does not work

Question: As the title says, the auto spacing feature does not work in Firefox search bar.
This issue seems to be related only with that bar, because auto spacing works fine
in forms or text fields in web pages and it works in the other apps too.
My Android version: 4.4.2
I hope somebody else has already experienced this problem.
Comment: What keyboard are you using?
Answer: This is a known bug.  It seems like it was introduced with 4.2.2.  Downgrading to before that is not a good option, but might be available to you.
It affects multiple browsers with multiple keyboards, so I assume the issue must be with the specific type of text field used for their address bars.  I used to encounter this with Chrome but haven't lately, so you could also try that browser instead of Firefox.  In the thread above, someone also mentioned that the stock Google keyboard did not cause the issue for them.
Comment: This isn't a bug, this is by design. The application, in this case the browser, sets input type hint for the URL bar to be text box for entering a URL, and the keyboard switches to URL keyboard, which provides helper keys like a `.com` key and disables autospace since URLs usually don't have spaces. If you have a relatively recent device, use the Home Button Search (by default this is usually to Google Now or S-Voice, but can be customized to launch Firefox Search).
Answer: as @MatthewRead says, this is a known bug. Here are some more details:
Apparently, for some reason the phone thinks that browsers are only for typing web addresses. Since URLs don't have spaces, the phone disables auto space by default. This make sense since many browsers use the same box for both searching and the URL, but often causes inconveniences. The only possible solution is to either go to your search engines website, or looking for and trying other browsers.


Can US legitimately stop being a democracy if president will not concede?

Question: After watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZWRhLW7Y8w, I was surprised that US Constitution effectively does not protect country from stop being democratic. Will actions described in video (for example, using US Army to hold the power) be lawful and constitutional?
Comment: Define "legitimate". Do you mean without breaking any laws, without being unconstitutional or do you mean whether it can physically be done? Also, is your question based on the assumption that the constitution is the only existing line of defense against things that aren't legitimized? If you're asking whether this is constitutional or not, then of course the constitution is the only relevant source. But if you're asking about _legitimacy_, that's a different ballgame.
Comment: "Constitution effectively does not protect country from stop being democratic." — Strongly disagree. Why do you think so?
Answer: No.
It does not matter if President Trump never concedes this election.  If, as expected, a majority of the Electoral College votes votes for Mr. Biden, then Trump's term will end on January 20.
The machinery of the federal government, including the armed forces will recognise Biden, and not Trump, as the President, and will act accordingly.
Comment: @AskarKalykov _"Wouldn't that be a felony if military won't follow orders of President in power?"_ That question hinges on the definition of "in power". As per this answer, assuming the majority Electoral College votes for Biden, Biden would be the president in power come Jan 20, regardless of who physically sits in the chair in the Oval Office. Concession is not a necessity for that power to transfer from one elected official to the next.
Comment: @Flater has it: Regardless of anything else, Trump's first term automatically ends on Jan 20th when the certified winner of the 2020 election is officially sworn in. *He does not have a say in this*; it happens whether or not he's present, or whether or not he acknowledges it.
Comment: Wouldn't that be a felony if military won't follow orders of President in power?

> "The machinery of the federal government, including the armed forces will recognise Biden"

What is the base for your assumption? What stops current military like National Guard from forcing President to do what he has to? What defines the deadline when armed forces can switch serving from current President to President Elect? Is there any?
Answer: The Electoral College is part of the constitution.
But if this time the Electoral College can't state a winner, maybe because one or more states have two delegations claiming to be the correct one, then the decision is transferred.
If there the GOP has the majority, ...
The constitution is older than the internet, so it doesn't consider everyone knowing how the states had really voted.


High-tech vehicles: Equipment or Device?

Question: In Mutants and Masterminds (3rd ed), are high-tech vehicles (pg 221) Devices or Equipment? With a simple vehicles like a truck it seems rather straightforward, by say I wanted a large space ship or a time-traveling DeLorean. It would make sense that things like that be classed as devices, but the rulebook doesn't seem to say that, and the positioning of the section on vehicles (both in the rulebook and on the official character sheet) seem to suggest that all vehicles are classed as equipment. Can someone please give me a definite answer? Thanks in advance
Comment: Just pointing out the page with vehicles on it for convenience, and yes it is the hero's handbook.
Comment: You don't even need to go particularly high-tech, just *big*: does the *Emma Maersk* make sense as a piece of equipment? :P
Answer: Vehicles are Equipment, not Devices.
On the first page of Chapter 7 "Gadgets & Gear" in the Hero's Handbook, there is a nice explanation of the difference between Devices and Equipment.

There can sometimes be a fine line between devices (Removable powers) and equipment (relatively mundane technology). The primary differences are: Devices are part of the character's traits. They grant effects beyond the capabilities of normal equipment, and they're only ever lost or taken away temporarily. If an item is integral to the character's concept or abilities, it's probably a device.
Equipment, on the other hand, is limited to fairly "mundane" things, can be taken away or even destroyed with impunity, and merely supplements the character's traits. Equipment doesn't grant "powers" per se (although equipment does provide certain effects).

Some examples of Devices and Equipment are listed. Then it says:

Ultimately, it is up to the GM whether or not a particular item is considered a device or equipment (or neither), depending on the nature of the series and the characters.

Devices are meant to represent removable superpowers.  If some piece of technology is mundane (e.g., a police officer's pistol) or can't be represented as a removable power (e.g., a market-grade laptop computer), then it is classified as Equipment.
For example, let's say a character wears a high-tech battlesuit, packaged with Protection, Speed, Flight, Enhanced Strength, and several Sense powers. Because it's armor, it gets the Removable 1 flaw. The battlesuit counts as a Device.
Devices are purchased and upgraded with Power points, whereas vehicles are purchased and upgraded with Equipment points. Chapter 7's section about Vehicles mentions this consistently.
Vehicles are unique from most other equipment. A vehicle possesses individual traits (Size, Strength, Speed, Defense, and Toughness). There are many ways to interact with a vehicle, such as putting passengers in it, or firing lasers at it. These game mechanics don't fit Devices; even if you design a vehicle with its own superpowers, it counts as Equipment and not a Device, and you spend Equipment points to purchase the superpowers.


The largest discrepancy in the history of science

Question: I watched a cosmology lecture given by Leonard Susskind that convinced me to put my money on dark energy being a pressure caused by energy that is evenly distributed throughout the "vacuum" of space. However, quantum physics predicts that there should be a much larger energy density (i.e. many magnitudes larger). Have there been any more recent findings or theories that could shed light on this discrepancy?
Answer: There are roughly two possibilities: either there isn't a large vacuum energy, this would imply that there is something missing from quantum field theory. We don't know what it could be.
Or the zero point energy really is as large as QFT predicts, but there is something else that prevents it from having a large cosmological effect. We have no idea what that could be.
We might get more of an idea if we find out what Dark Matter consists of, or a good quantum theory of gravity we might know more.


How to Embed / Attach screenshots when each step is executed in Cucumber

Question: I need to take a screenshot after each step of execution and embed them in results. I have tried using the "After" method but it captures only the last screen and displays it at the end of the report.
Answer: It seems you are already able to do most of the screenshot, the After you are using will only take a screenshot after everything, instead of after each step.
You need to do an @AfterStep inside your hooks file:
<code>@AfterStep
public void doSomethingAfterStep(Scenario scenario){
}
</code>


Is there any reason why the race takes place on Roboworld?

Question: Roboworld is a dangerous place for the racer. When they announced that the race was to be held in Roboworld, the President of Roboworld directly stated that they would not allow the race to be held there, and they would destroy any outsider who entered their territory by any means necessary. They know that Roboworld had many troops and weapons to stop the race. One of the racer even stated that Roboworld troops were the meanest troops in the galaxy. So why did they still decide to race there? Was there a reason behind it or did they just want an intense race?
Answer: Being attacked by the local military made the race just that much more exciting.
The racing culture seemed very counter-culture or anti-authority as well, so holding the race somewhere they were forbidden from just jived that much more with their ideals.
Anyhow, there was a nearby refugee moon where they were basing out of (if I recall correctly) so it wasn't too hard to pull off logistically... especially considering some of the race organizers literally had magic on their side.
But to answer your question, I don't think there was any single, specific, reason.


Various ways to choose bonds for a butterfly strategy?

Question: What are the various ways to choose bonds for a butterfly strategy? For eg., I already know the most common one i.e., choosing short and long term for the wings (barbell) and the medium term for the body (Bullet).
Answer: It really depends on what you're trading on.
Very often, butterfly trades are simply mean reverting trades. For example, you may look at 2s/5s/10s (typically on a regression or PCA-weighted basis) and see whether it's trading at "extreme" levels relative to history (i.e., are 5s trading rich or cheap relative to where 2s and 10s are trading). This can be done for any butterflies, as wide as 5s/10s/30s, or as narrow as Feb17s/Aug17s/Feb18s.
Other times, butterfly trades are convexity trades. For example, 5s/10s/30s duration neutral barbell would be a long convexity trade (because 30s are far more convex than either 5s or 10s).
Butterfly trades could also be macro or Fed trades. For example, if you believe the fed will keep the front end of the curve anchored in the near term, but future growth outlook is improving very dramatically, causing the belly of the curve to underperform, then shorting a 2s/5s/10s butterfly would make a lot of sense (this kind of trades worked very well this year).


One tracking code for many domains

Question: I am a newbie when it comes to GA. I've created a new project that is available on the web through 6 different domains. I want to measure which domain gather the most traffic. To easily compare traffic between all the domains I was thinking about using one Google Analytics code for all the domains. But then in stats visits for every domain are acumulated togheter under one endpoint "/". How should I set it up properly?
Comment: This YouTube video has instructions on one way of handling this, perhaps it'll be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiXonqX5asU
Answer: your title states subdomains, however your post states domains.
If you wish to track a domain and/or it's subdomains and to be able to easily compare the traffic, this can be done with a single GA Property and it's tracking code with the single, same tracking id (eg UA-123456-1) placed onto the domain and it's subdomains. If you copy/paste the tracking code from the GA interface, by default, the snippet should already have the cookie domain set to auto.
Following GA "best practices", keep the default All Website Data view without any filters applied to it.
Create a new view, and apply a filter that prepends the Hostname to the Request URIs in the GA reports. It will prevent the issue you mention of the pageviews being reported in aggregate as if via a single domain.
Filter Type: Custom filter > Advanced
Field A --> Extract A: Hostname = (.*)
Field B --> Extract B: Request URI = (.*)
Output To --> Constructor: Request URI = $A1$B1
Click Save to create the filter.

You then also have the option of creating further Views and applying an Include Hostname filter to each one, applicable to the particular subdomain, should you wish to also track each of the subdomains separately.
If they are each different domains, the same above method can also be used, however be sure to add each domain to the Property's Referral Exclusion List.
If you need to track visitors moving between different domains via links between the sites or similar, then you need a cross domain tracking setup in order to share the cookie information and session and referral data.
Answer: First of all, as I understand, you want to track multiple site in single dashboard for comparison of analytics.
You can do this in two way.
use single account
You can use single account and single property to track analytics data from different site also can keep it in saparate view

Google allows you to have 100 accounts, each account can have maximum of 50 properties and each property can have maximum of 25 views

You can generate Google analytics code say for one site
In Google analytics account id, you can use
UA-12345678-1 and  UA-12345678-2 and upto 25
And use it on different sites you have.
with different account
You can create different account under admin section of Google analytics and create different properties under it, you can then create a dashboard to put components from each accounts there to compare and so.

I have found these point on link
  https://www.webnots.com/add-multiple-site-in-google-analytics/

Let me know if this works for you.
Your question is really interesting and helpful for many. Great.

One tracking code for many domains


Preposition cluster "all up in"

Question: What exactly does the string of words functioning as a preposition "all up in" (many many Google hits) mean in modern American slang usage?
Answer: All up in is generally used to refer to someone being overly nosey, annoying or disapproving.

Mom's all up in my face trying to get me to do my homework.

It can also be used more generally to show that something or someone is completely committed or present in a place or situation.
Answer: Green's Dictionary of Slang offers two possibilities, either "sexually involved with" or "interfering, involved with". The former is American campus slang and the latter American teen slang.

Preposition cluster "all up in"


'Load more' data option

Question: In a list with loads of records, I have implemented a 'Load more' control for user to load the next batch of records to join the previous visible ones.
Can't use the pagination as the records need to be accessible easily when loaded completely.
Should the load more button be disabled or hidden on completion of records?
Answer: I'm not a big fan of disabling the button and leaving up to the user to figure it out.
I always recommend that if all the records are shown, hide the load more button and display a message like: All records/articles/products/items have been loaded

'Load more' data option


Difference between Buried Photodiode and Pinned Photodiode

Question: What is the difference between Buried Photodiode and Pinned Photodiode?
I understand that the P+/N/P structure where the P+ and P layers have the same potential is the Pinned Photodiode.
So what is the buried Photodiode?
Comment: Is this a "pinned" photodiode or a PIN (P/Intrinsic/N) photodiode?
Answer: This is a commonly misunderstood misused set of terminologies.
First off these are not PIN Photodiodes - which stands for P - Intrinsic- N.  These have large depletion regions for higher internal QE (Quantum Efficiency)  and faster response.  You can't make an array with this design though.
Pinning, refers to fermi-level pinning or pinning to a certain voltage level.  Or also the forcing or prevention of the fermi-level/voltage from moving in energy space.
You can get surface state pinning from the dangling Si/SiO2 bonds providing trapping centers.  A buried PD (Photodiode) has a shallow implant that forces the charge carriers away from these surface traps.  The Si/SiO2 surface  contributes to increased leakage (dark current) and noise (particularly 1/f noise from trapping/de-trapping).  So confusingly a buried PD avoids pinning  of the fermi-level at the surface.
A pinned PD is by necessity a buried PD, but not all buried PD's are pinned.  The first Pinned PD was invented by Hagiwara at Sony and is used in ILT CCD PD's, these same PD's and the principles behind this complete transfer of charge are used in most CMOS imagers built today.
A pinned PD is designed to have the collection region deplete out when reset.  AS the PD depletes it becomes disconnected from the readout circuit and if designed properly will drain all charge out of the collection region (accomplishing complete charge transfer).  An interesting side effect is that the capacitance of the PD drops to effectively zero and therefore the KTC noise \$ q_n = sqrt(KTC) \$ also goes to zero.  When you design the depletion of the PD to deplete at a certain voltage you are pinning that PD to that voltage.  That is where the term comes from.
I've edited this Answer to acknowledge Hagiwara-san's contribution. It has long been incorrectly attributed to Teranishi and to Fossum (in CMOS image sensors)
Comment: "QE"?
Answer: The first Pinned PD was not invented by Teranishi at Sony. Teranishi was not in Sony. He was in NEC.
The first  Pinned PD, in the form of P+NP sensor element on Nsub structure with the N layer floating for complete charge transfer, was invented and filed in Japanese patent by Hagiwara at Sony in 1975, and was used in his FT CCD imager in 1978 with P+NPsub sensor element, in which both P+ and P are connected.
Later, Teranish at NEC disclosed his ILT CCD   PD's  later, Sony introduced HAD sensor, P+NPNsub photo  elemnent  video camera on the market. Sony now enjoing the big sensor business with the back illuminated CMOS imager with the HAD sensing element which was Hagiwara's invention.
Confusingly, HAD sensor and the pinned PD, Teranish's ITL CCD PD's, and Haiwara's P+NP transistor structure on the Nsub  are all the same thing. And the VOD punch thru mode waas naturally expected by Hagiwara' original 1975  P+NPNsub photo sensing element structure patent.  So who is the inventor?
Comment: Welcome to EE.SE! This information is interesting, but it is not a direct answer to the question at the top of the page. Would you please edit this to address the actual question?
Comment: It is important that this reply stand for context and to correct for a historical error and misreporting. One cannot understate the importance of how significant his techniques and efforts have been.  Even if this doesn't align with the EE.SE . In the previous form of my answer, I was reporting on the narrative that has been promoted in the image design community. Attribution is imortant.
Answer: There is no difference in Pinned Photo Diode and Buried Photo Diode.Confusingly,
SONY called it by another name, SONY original HAD ( Hole Accumulation Diode )
as SONY brand name for SONY original image sensor products.
They are all confusing,
but they are all the same thing as Prof.Kagami in Tohoku university said so in
his technical presentations. SONY made a big business of SONY HAD CCD image sensor and is now making SONY HAD CMOS image sensor with thinned die by back light illumination.
SONY image sensor business has been protected by HAGIWARA two Patents on
basic Pinned Photo Diode and could win two big  patent-wars agaist Fairchild and NEC.
Hagiwara filed two Japanese  patents on Pinned Photo Diode in 1975, one patent
(JA 1975-134985) on the P+N-PNsub junction (thyristor type) Photo Diode with vertical overflow function  and another patent ( JA 1975-127647 ) on the NPNN+ junction type photo diode with back light illumination.
See for details  Aiplab
Answer:
So what is the buried Photodiode?

A buried Photodiode is a PNP junction type photodiode, with the charge collecting N layer being buied in the silicon scystal. The signal charge in the buierd N storage region is to be completely transfered to the adjacent charge transfer device (CTD) which is either CCD type CTD or CMOS type CTD.

What is the difference between Buried Photodiode and Pinned Photodiode?

Pinned Photodiode is a Buried Photodiode with the surface hole accumulation P+ lyaer with the surface potential being  fixed (pinned) with no surface electric field. The surface electric field is very bad generating the surface dark current, degrading very imaging quality and creating chip yield problems.
Pinned Photodiode is always a Buired Phtoodiode. But Buried Photodiode is not by necessity Pinned Photodiode. Hagiwara at SONY invented P+NPNsub junction type Pinned Photodiode in his Japanese 1975-134985 patent with (1) very high blue sensitivity, (2) pinned surface P+ hole accumulation layer with no surface dark current, (3)complete charge transfer of the buried N layer to the adjacent charge transfer device (CTD) and (4) Vertical Ovefleo Drain Fucntion (VOD). SONY HAD is PPD + VOD. Hagiwara invented in 1975 the Buied Photodiode, Pinned Photodiode and Hole Accumulation Diode (HAD).

I understand that the P+/N/P structure where the P+ and P layers have the same potential is the Pinned Photodiode.

Hagiwara at SONY reported  in his SSDM 1978 paper the P+NP juntion type Pinned Phtoodiode (PPD) where the P+ and P layers have the same potential. SONY used this PPD in Frame Trandfer CCD image sensor in SSDM1978 paper. NEC used the PPD  in interline transfer CCD in IEDM1982 paper, and named Buried Photodiode while  Kodak used also this PPD  in interline transfer CCD in IEDM1984 paper and  named this P+PN structure as Pinned Photodiode. Sony developed the P+NPwellNsub structure and used it in interline transfer CCD and named this PPD + VOD structure the SONY Hole Accumulation Diode (HAD).
PPD has the pinned surface potentail as well as the pinned emopty potential well of the complete charge transfer operation resulting the no image lag picture quality for fast action pictures. Hagiwara invented Buried Photodiode, Pinned Photodiode and SONY Hole Accumulation Diode (HAD). The evidence are give in Japanese 1975-127647 and 1975-134985 patents and Hagiwara SSDM1978 paper on the P+NP PPD used in Frame Trandfer CCD image sensor.


What with content copied from wikipedia?

Question: I came across an answer that consisted of nothing but a paragraph copied from wikipedia. Someone had downvoted for that reason. Can we expect answers to have original content or is parroting allowed?
Comment: That is 100% okay if they reference the source and cite it. Same as our site policy.
Comment: @Johan.A The answerer is donating time to the person asking to give them an answer. The asker is asking for our time to help them find an answer. If an answer is not useful you just skip it, if a question is terribly researched you dont answer it. Not specifically this question, but, generally, a section of wikipedia with a link might be a full valid answer with a link for further reading. I would grade it on how well it answers the question, not source.
Comment: I looked at that question, and I while I didn't like that answer being just a copy from elsewhere, I decided not to downvote it since it is at the bottom already anyway. Instead, I upvoted the question and the two answers that contained original text.
Comment: Show me where and I'll downvote it too.
Comment: @Kortuk: on the other hand questions can be closed if they "don't show any research effort". How can you then tolerate laziness in answers? :) While downvoting may be harsh I don't think such answers deserve upvotes.
Comment: It shouldn't be hard to see that the widespread habit of demanding more information when someone posts a link-only answer is in many cases an invitation to plagiarism - and not just from sites where the content can be easily licensed.
Answer: I think people get the wrong idea about what should be voted up or down. Posts should not be rewarded based on effort, but based on utility. If someone writes 10 pages of crap over the course of a week and rambles on and on without answering the question, that answer is as useless as an ejection seat on a helicopter. I would much rather have a succinct and correct post, even if its just a (correctly cited) quote.
Why should we demand that people always paraphrase their source? What utility does that add?
Or worse, why would we think that writing an answer from memory is any better than from a reliable source? I've seen posts that are just plain wrong written out of thin air with no research, and people blindly upvote them if they are from a high rep user or posted first. Giving incorrect info is even worse than giving no info at all.
If you see that someone has plagiarized, just add in the citation yourself, leave a non-hostile comment and move on. If it at least partially answers the question and is useful, vote it up. Otherwise, vote down.

Giving the parrot 10 points is an insult to the people who spend more
  time on answers.

No, its a indication of utility. You're taking this way to personally if other people's upvotes are insulting you.

I wish I could vote for the answer and the person independently (the
  latter depending on how much effort he seems to have put in it).

This is entirely contrary to the Stack Exchange model. If you want to praise other users or rage on them, go to one of the jillion forums. Here, we evaluate the utility of the post, not the user.
See What to do when plagiarism is discovered? (more detailed list of actions)
and I've been accused of plagiarism. What do I do? (good link to refer offenders to).
Comment: "Why should we demand that people always paraphrase their source?" Especially Wikipedia, the **whole point of which** is to freely enable copying forever and ever without paraphrasing.  That's why it has a free license, and why Stack Exchange has a free license.
Answer: If the question is just "how does X work?", where X is a thing that is well understood, documented on the internet, and probably well-explained by Wikipedia, then I vote to close the question as too broad. How people answer is irrelevant. The point of closing a question is to prevent answers, which will invariably be bad by the nature of the question. To read them may be a waste of time; to evaluate them is not productive; to downvote them is redundant; and if there was an answer that I thought worthy of an upvote, then I wouldn't think the question should be closed.
If the question is good, then maybe an insightful quote is useful. If the quote is properly cited, and answers the question well, then I upvote it. Sometimes knowing where to look is the hard part. Often, Wikipedia is well-written and accurate, and someone who has quoted it as endorsed it as such. If they could do better, then they should edit Wikipedia, then quote it.
If the quote is not properly cited, I flag it for plagiarism.
If it doesn't answer the question, I downvote it, just like any other answer that does not answer the question.
Comment: While I agree with this post, is there a "flag for plagiarism" option somewhere? This is something of a crying need on this site: some members blatantly copy content without citing source. Or, do you just flag with reason as "Other"?
Comment: If the post can be made better just by adding a citation, and you have already found the source (catching the plagiarism) it is an very small effort to simply add the citation. We were given the power to improve other people's posts with the edit feature, so we should use it. In many cases, people may just be being forgetful, or too inexperienced to understand correct citation. In that case, they just need a small correction, not a spanking from a mod. If the OP *refuses* to allow proper citation, e.g. by rolling back the edit, then yes, it is time for a mod flag.
Answer: Kortuk says "I would grade it on how well it answers the question, not source", and I understand that. An upvote then means "this answer is useful".
On the other hand the 10 points are not just for the answer, the answerer gets them as well. The way I see it is that it is a reward for the delivered effort. And here I have a problem: I don't think somebody who just copies wikipedia content (less than 1 minute's worth) deserves the same reward as someone who takes the trouble and time (maybe 20 minutes or longer) to write a comprehensive answer, possibly drawing a schematic. Giving the parrot 10 points is an insult to the people who spend more time on answers.
I wish I could vote for the answer and the person independently (the latter depending on how much effort he seems to have put in it).
Comment: Sometimes knowing what to look for in Wikipedia is a valuable contribution. (Not necessarily for that particular question, though).
Comment: The old joke about the plumber and the cruise ship owner. The plumber takes 3 minutes to diagnose and fix an issue on the cruise ship and charges the owner a few thousand bucks. When the owner complains, the plumber says "It's now what I did, but knowing why that should be done in the first place". The owner shuts up and writes the check. The point being is that when something accurately answers the question, the perceived effort shouldn't matter. Work smarter, not harder.
Comment: But if it answers the question clearly, why not give it to them? **Just because they copied the material doesn't mean they didn't do any work; they may have read up on the subject quickly and then used different keywords the OP didn't.** Like what @ThePhoton said, *Sometimes knowing what to look for in Wikipedia is a valuable contribution.* It is hard to find some things, and if it helps the OP...
Comment: @Passerby, except when the answer is more clear and to the point. Wikipedia has to be general, answers here can be specific to the question, with the required details.
Comment: If it takes someone 3 hours to answer a question that 2 minutes and a paragraph on wiki will properly explain, I think that person doesn't deserve the points either tho.
Comment: @Passerby: Stop worrying about the points.  They're not useful for anything anyway.  Rep is just a way to remind people that their contributions are helping others, to motivate them to contribute more.
Comment: @endolith, "Rep is just a way to remind people that their contributions are helping others," even this remark strongly indicates we should strive to attain rep points (indication of helping others) and build a system where reputation accurately indicates amount of helpfulness. Anyway, what difference does it make how someone regards rep points? Let people find motivation or enjoyment where they will, the ends justify the means.


How close to death is my hard drive?

Question: I ran Crystal Disk Info to look at the SMART information on my external 2 TB drive and it's reporting a "Caution" health status. The specific error is the Current Pending Sector Count, which is 196. I have tried power cycling the drive, and it didn't get fixed. Should I be worried yet? Is this a situation where I should immediately buy another hard drive and back everything up or is there a way to fix it?
Comment: Regardless of how close your hard drive is to death -- yes, you should back up everything.
Comment: I agree, and in fact this drive is primarily used for backups of other things.
Answer: Quoting from SecurityNow! podcast number 81:

STEVE: The problem is, and in fact the reason that we've always used the slogan "SMART is dumb" at GRC, is we see dead drives all the time where the SMART system says, oh, everything's fine.
LEO:  It's all working, no problem.
STEVE:  Exactly.  The drive can die spontaneously while SMART is completely happy and sees nothing going wrong.  At the same time there are drives which look like they're on their last throes from a standpoint of the SMART data that just keep on going for years.

Long story short, you cannot rely on SMART data in any meaningful way. If you want to play it safe, back up your data, if you want to be really safe, back up and get a new drive.
Comment: Some (most?) manufacturers will replace (under warranty) drives with SMART errors.  If the drive isn't out of warranty, it would be worthwhile to explore that option.
Comment: I checked, and it is indeed under warranty, so that's exactly what I'm going to do.
Answer: As you can see here, a warning in Current Pending Sector Count indicates potential bad sections.
For those high density disks, a bad sector can spread really soon, so you should start backing up now.
Answer: From Wikipedia:

Current Pending Sector Count
  Count of "unstable" sectors
  (waiting to be remapped, because of read errors).
If an unstable
  sector is subsequently read successfully, this value is decreased and
  the sector is not remapped. Read errors on a sector will not remap the
  sector (since it might be readable later); instead, the drive firmware
  remembers that the sector needs to be remapped, and remaps it the next
  time it's written.

Basically the drive has detected that sectors could not be read and as such has been marked as potentially unsafe with the intention of either retrying the read at some later point (and putting it back into use if it succeeds) or remapping it with one of the store of reserved spare sectors the next time it is written to.
That high a number does not look like a good thing to me, it could be a sign of the drive failing. As mentioned SMART is not necessarily a reliable indicator of drive health though some indication that it may be failing is better than none.

How close to death is my hard drive?


Where does IE9/Vista store cookies?

Question: I'm testing my website on my local computer and I can't find the cookie in the Temp Internet Files folder. But there is definitely a cookie somewhere, because when I close browser and open again, I'm still logged on at my website. I'm using vista by the way.
Comment: Why can't you clear cookies the normal way though the internet settings page?
Comment: @Scott Chamberlain: I need to monitor the cookie content.
Answer: View cookies in Internet Explorer by viewing the Temporary Internet Files. Open your IE browser. Click "Tools" then select "Internet Options." Click "Settings" under Browsing History. Click "View Files" to view Temporary Internet Files. Further if you want to look into the Folders checkout THIS
Comment: Hi I have found it in the "Low" folder as described in the article.
Comment: @Aperture: this answer is [incomplete](http://superuser.com/a/726565/33589).
Answer: To delete all cookies click on the gear in the top right corner and go to internet options.
On the general tab, under browsing history, click delete....
In the new window you can check the box to delete all of your cookies.

If you want the "Temp Internet Files folder" by default it is
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files

but you can move it. You can find the current folder  by clicking settings in the browsing history section from the first part of this answer and click View Files. You can delete cookies individually from that folder if you wish.
Comment: There's [another folder in which Windows hides cookies](http://superuser.com/a/726565/33589).
Answer: The answers by Vima and Scott are incomplete. I've deleted cookies the official way, and was surprised to see that Gmail still remembered as what user I was last logged in. That was because you must remember to uncheck the deceivingly-looking "Preserve Favorites website data" button in the Delete Browser History dialog:

To completely wipe out IE9 cookies, do this:

Wipe out %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies and its Low subfolder
Wipe out %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files

If by some odd chance a site still seems to have access to cookies, press F12 for the developer tools, then from the Cache menu, select "Clear cookies for domain". For your curiosity, you can choose "View cookie information", to see where they were, then wipe out that directory too.

Where does IE9/Vista store cookies?


Recognising lunar month only by looking at the sky

Question: Suppose somebody went on an island and don't have sense about time, dates, months. The only thing he has is seeing the sky. Is it possible to recognise which lunar month it is by just looking the sky?
I ask this because I know how to see beginning of the lunar month, but how to recognise which month is it? So we can look at the Sun, Moon, the stars. Is there a way to figure that out?
Comment: By "lunar month" do you mean "Muharram", "Safar" etc? Ie the month of the Islamic calendar?
Comment: As @JamesK notes, it depends on what kind of lunar month you mean. If you mean something like "Frost Moon" or "Harvest Moon", yes, someone could, provided they could observe the Sun as well, and were in a region where seasons exist (ie, outside the tropical zone).
Comment: The very-not-easy approach: observe the relative position of some "fast-moving" stars compared with a reference star chart from, say  1000 CE.  Various software apps can generate star positions for any date you desire; you could run a match against that.
Answer: Not easily.
The Lunar Islamic calendar is based on a strict succession of months, with each month based only on the position of the moon, and no intercalated months or months extended to 31 days in order to keep the cycle of months aligned with the solar year. The start of the months are determined by the moon, the names of the months are not defined by any astronomical feature.
So to determine which Islamic month it is you need to know the actual amount of time that has passed. Now the positions of the planets change day by day, and by careful observation of the planets, and given a detailed ephemeris of their positions, one could work out the exact date, and therefore the Islamic month.
This is similar to determining the day of the week by astronomical observations, since the start of the day is based on the motion of the sun, but the name of the day is not defined on any astronomical feature.
Comment: OP does not indicate a preference between this and [lunisolar calendars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar) which add a 13th month every 2 or 3 years.
Comment: Yes, I decided I wouldn't wait to see what he meant. Since he mentions "I know how to see the start of the month by looking at the sky" I assume he means a month that begins when the crescent is first visible, not astronomical new moon. By far the most common such calendar is the Islamic calendar. If OP clarifies their question, I can edit or delete.
Comment: This answer assumes that "lunar month" means "islamic month", as this is the lunar calendar most widely used.


Wiring a Heater, Vent Fan, Light for bathroom

Question: So I am trying to get my new bathroom vent/light/heater installed. I have been up and down in my attic so many times and have had one of the functions working each time, but never all three. I got the heater to turn on and off. I got the light to turn on and off. I got the vent to run, but it would run no matter like there was no switch. I am thoroughly confused at this point.
Comment: They are using the 3 colors in the /3 cable as the 3 switched hots to the fan/light/heater.   They are using the neutral in the /2 cable.  This is an illegal configuration, you can't send power up one cable and back down another: the current return for each device must be back in the same cable so the currents and magnetic fields in each wire cancel each other out.   otherwise you get heating on any nail or strap between the cables (a fair bit due to the high current of the heater) and the cables vibrate due to magnetism, which will fatigue them, causing arcing and fire.
Comment: Can you replace the cable between switch box and fan? This whole deal would be 10 times easier if you were using /4 cable instead of /2 and /3 cable.   Also it would be more legal.
Comment: Well I guess this is what happens back in 1998 ha.  Thank the lord there hasn't been any kind of fire yet, but makes me nervous about how the rest of the house is wired.  I am going to fix tonight, thankfully I won't have to get back up in the attic.  That would also explain why I could never get the configuration right at the unit.  Should have looked at the switch earlier.  Live and learn!
Comment: Can you post photos of the wiring at the switch box, and post the install instructions as well?
Comment: Yes, where does power come into this for that matter?
Comment: Will post a picture of the switch tonight. I guess I could run a new wire up there but that is how it was originally setup so I am trying to use them.  It is on its own circuit and the power comes from the breaker.
Comment: Can't tell for sure without model # to check but you have a white == neutral on the switch which probably shouldn't be there. Except for Smart switches normally just black hot on one side and the colored switched hots on the other.
Comment: I think with how I have it wired at the unit I can take the white out at the switch and tie it in with the other whites and then put the other black in where the white was and that should complete the circuit correctly?
Answer: Hard to tell from the pictures what you currently have. But here is (roughly) what you need.
Updating based on newly posted installation diagram
Assumptions

Installing 3 switches in one box Note: I do not know much about how much you can stuff in a box. There are some experts here who can speak to that - when I did this in my own house, my electrician dealt with those details (and many more). I got something like this Decora 15 Amp 3-Rocker Switch which can fit in a single gang box, but be warned that a single gang box is likely not big enough for all these wires (code or practically speaking).
Everything on one circuit - i.e., a single 15A or 20A circuit as appropriate based on the requirements of the fan/light/heater - primarily the heater is the determining factor

In the switch box:

Cable 1: From the main panel: Black (hot), white (neutral), ground. Hot goes to all three switches. Neutral will connect to neutral from all three devices.
Cables 2 & 3: To the devices: Typically 2 cables. One black/white/ground (this is the /2 - 2 wires + ground), one black/red/white/ground (this is the /3 - 3 wires + ground). (Technically this could be done with one bigger cable or with 3 black/white/ground cables or with a bunch of individual wires in conduit, but it looks like you have the typical 2 cables already, so that's good).
Connect all the neutral (white) wires together with a wire nut.
If your switches have three pairs of screws then connect three short black wires (same size, easiest to just strip a section of Romex and chop off 3 pieces of black wire) together with the black wire from the panel with a wire nut and connect each to one screw. If your switch has a common hot then you connect the hot from the panel directly to it.
Connect each colored wire from the cables 2 & 3 to a switch. Two switches get black, one gets red - these are all switched hots.
All grounds are connected together.

No white wires to the switch unless it is a smart switch that uses neutral
If your switch has backstab connections and screws always use the screws.
At the fan:

Connect the neutrals for the light & fan (whites that are paired with the blue & black wires) to the white in the /3 cable.
Connect the neutral for the heat (white that is paired with the red wire) to the white in the /2 cable.
Connect the black (fan) wire to the black wire in the /3 cable.
Connect the blue (light) wire to the red wire in the /3 cable.
Connect the red (heat) wire to the black wire in the /2 cable.
Connect all grounds together (as always)

Color-coding: Because the heat uses a lot more power than the light & fan, it gets the /2 cable. Harper recommends (and it is a good idea) marking both ends of the /2 black --> red and both ends of the /3 red --> blue. That will make all the wire colors match, which will help with any future troubleshooting. However, you must make sure that the whites go to the correct (/2 for heat, /3 for fan & light) whites - neutrals & hots must be matched together.
That should leave you with nothing extra hanging out. And you should have each switch operating a separate function in the fan/light/heater.
You also need to vent the fan properly. I had my electrician do that too (not a fun job in my attic). You definitely do NOT want the fan venting into the open area of your attic. If you had another fan before then you may be able to reuse the ductwork and the hole in the roof. If not, that may be the hardest part of the job.
Comment: I fixed it! And it works!!! So happy.
Comment: I think it was the line to the bedroom in case someone wanted to put a switch on wall right the plugs on the back wall. I got them tied back together and got the new triple switch hooked up and it works like a charm. So happy.
Comment: So the only thing I don't have connected the way you mentioned is I don't have all the whites (three from unit and two from switch) connected with a nut. I have the heater white connected to one white and then the light and vent white connected to the other.  Is this what is causing the issue maybe? I have the switch you referenced above already installed. I am going to check the switch box tomorrow.
Comment: I got part wrong - each cable neutral gets connected to the neutral(s) of the matching colored wires - that is the white with black/red connects to neutrals of the devices that have their colored wires connected to that black and red. It sounds like you got that part right.
Comment: So if that is the case then my issue is probably in the switch. I'll take a look tomorrow. What would be the issue in the switch that is causing the fan to just run no matter and none of the switches to work?
Comment: Thank you for the update and edit above.  How you just said is exactly how I have it set up now and the vent fan runs without any switch turned on and when you try to turn anything on nothing happens.  I figure the problem must be in the switch then, does that sound like it could be the case?  If the switch is just letting the power flow straight through.  I will check tonight to make sure it is set up correctly.
Comment: Do you have **three** switches? Each one should have 2 screws. The pigtailed black hot wires go to one screw on each switch. The colored cables from the /2 and /3 each go to one screw on one switch. To troubleshoot, disconnect **ALL** wires from the switches. Connect one hot black to one switch. Connect one colored /2 or /3 to the other screw of that same switch. (Cap everything else with wire nuts before turning the breaker back on). See if it works. Repeat for each of the other switches.
Comment: Um so I found out that the wiring is actually on two different circuits. A line comes in that is associated with my back room wall. I think I blew the fuse for the heater when I switched it on. Ugh.
Comment: So I suspect in the end it was NOT actually two different circuits, and just that you had something "backwards", right?
Answer: You need some colored electrical tape.
On the /2 cable, on both ends of the cable, mark the black wire with red tape.
On the /3 cable, on both ends of the cable, mark the red wire with blue tape.

In the heater, attach the /2 cable first.  Red goes to red (heater hot) and white goes to the heater's white wire which should not be connected to the fan or light's white wire.
In the heater, second, attach the /3 cable to the remaining wires, super simple, same color to same color.

Down in the 3-switch switch box, all the grounds from all cables go together.  All the neutrals (whites) go together.
Now one of the cables in the switch box is the supply.  That one's hot wire needs to be split 3 ways, e.g. By being wire-nutted to 3 pigtails.   You have 3 switches with 2 (non-green) screws each.  Each pigtail goes to a different switch, and attaches to one of the screws.
Still unattached are the black, red and blue coming from the fan. 2 of them have been relabeled with tape, use the tape color not the native wire color.  Each switch still has a remaining screw unused.  That is where those 3 wires go; one per switch.
And you're done.
Comment: The red won't be in the /3 wire after you mark it blue.  Colors in cables are not there to help you, they are there as a necessity of cable manufacture. You can re-mark them *to suit your own purposes*, and it'll make your life easier if you do, and make it clearer next time you are in there.  The one in the /2 **cable** needs to be red because that /2 needs to power the heater, and red is the color the manufacturer selected for heat.  Do it that way, the colors match and it's easy mode.  Don't underestimate the value of simplicity when dealing with an octopus like this.
Comment: It almost looks like they hooked up a white as a hot wire instead going up to the unit.
Comment: Well the red is in the /3 wire with another black and then there is a black in the /2 wire line.
Comment: What Harper is saying (and I agree) is to **mark** the black wire in the /2 **red** - and from that point on all references to "the red wire" refer to that (formerly black) wire. Similarly, **mark** the red wire in the /3 **blue** - and from that point on all references to "the blue wire" refer to that (formerly red) wire.
Comment: That makes sense and I believe that is how I have it connected at the moment.  For some reason I think the problem might be in the switch.  I am going to check and make sure the switch layout is correct tonight and it may just be time to replace the switch.


Workflow wont trigger an E-Mail notification on current date

Question: I have a workflow that is supposed to send an email when a date (Reminder Date) equals today's date. However, when the date comes up the workflow fails to trigger the workflow. What is missing?
Answer: Workflows only trigger either when an item is created, or when an item is changed.
You will either need to have a dummy field to enter any old text into to "trigger" the change, or you will need to use powershell to make it automatic (a bit tricky).
Comment: How would set this up in Sharepoint designer using the dummy field?
Comment: So have a field, called "change" (or whatever) and display it in a datasheet view, and then change it to something (like "1"), and then drag that box down like you would in excel to all the required items.

So because the item(s) have "changed" it will trigger the workflow. (As long as that workflow is set to trigger when changed). This is still a manual method, and may not be what you're after - so maybe a powershell option is the go.

This is how I archive big lists to other lists that I want to keep smaller.
I do this periodically (once every month, or so)


Do you have to install Hearthfire to adopt kids?

Question: I want to know if it is possible to adopt a child without installing Hearthfire, and how do you adopt the kids that aren't at Honorhall?
Answer: If you don't have Hearthfire, then you'd have to install mods like Adopt a child to allow adoption of children. This mod, in particular, will allow you to adopt a child from the Honorhall Orphanage in Riften.
I've checked out Skyrim Nexus and it seems that the current available mods there that allow adopting of kids not from Honorhall require that the Hearthfire DLC be installed.
Comment: The second part of this answer is either phrased in a way which is confusing to me, or it's contradictory - either way do you think you could try and clarify it slightly?
Comment: @AliceRees I've edited the answer.
Answer: It's possible to adopt children without Hearthfire [WARNING: PC ONLY! IF YOU'RE ON XBOX, YOU CAN ONLY USE HEARTHFIRE FOR THIS METHOD!]. There is a mod called Adopt a child mod which allows you to adopt from the Riften Orphanage, and same requirements. There are also some adoption mods like Clover the Orphan which allows you to adopt Clover.


Grass v.dist tool error when measuring distances from line segments to lines

Question: I am using QGIS version 3.18.1-Zürich.
I am trying to measure the distance from various lines I created using the intersection tool, but I keep getting this error when using the v.distance tool:
WARNING: The combination of types is not supported by all formats.
WARNING: No attribute table found -> using only category numbers as attributes
Exporting 33990 features...
5..11..17..23..29..35..41..47..53..59..65..71..77..83..89..95..100
v.out.ogr complete. 33990 features (Unknown (any) type) written to  (GPKG format).
C:\Users\Matthew\Documents>v.out.ogr type="auto" input="vector_6070f4eda0a0f311" output="C:/Users/Matthew/AppData/Local/Temp/processing_WyqhMr/6573a748916e4ed884cb14f26484b549/from_output.gpkg" format="GPKG" --overwrite
ERROR 1: Wrong field type for fid
ERROR: Unable to create column

when I run v.clean on the pipe_incre line layer, as shown in picture below,  I get:
ERROR 1: Wrong field type for fid
ERROR: Unable to create column
C:\Users\Matthew\Documents>v.out.ogr type="auto" input="errora163fd5da5aa4b04b4590ec4cb90f3a6" output="C:\Users\Matthew\AppData\Local\Temp\processing_WyqhMr\ef8d0e593e064397973c1fb3065e7b93\error.gpkg" format="GPKG" --overwrite
WARNING: No attribute table found -> using only category numbers as attributes
Exporting 4918 features...
5..11..17..23..29..35..41..47..53..59..65..71..77..83..89..95..100
WARNING: 4918 features without category were skipped. Features without category are written only when -c flag is given.
WARNING: Output layer is empty, no features written
Answer: I removed the fid field from the attribute table and it now works.


AWS RDS connection count

Question: I am using AWS RDS with MySQL for a project and have a "large" instance. The documentation is clear on what this means as far as compute resources and RAM goes, but I can't find anything that documents how many open database connections that I can have. The app that I am using is PHP and it utilizes PDO with persistent connections. This means that the number of open connections could reach the maximum number of PHP child processes running at any given point. How do I ensure that my RDS instance has a max connections setting high enough to be comfortable with this?
Answer: According to this 2011 blog post, the max connections on RDS instances come out this way:
t1.micro: 34 connections ($0.035)
m1.small: 150 connections ($0.115)
m1.large: 640 connections ($0.455)
m1.xlarge: 1263 connections ($0.920)
m2.xlarge: 1441 connections ($0.655)
m2.2xlarge: 2900 connections ($1.315)
m2.4xlarge: 5816 connections ($2.630)

No AWS docs I can find demonstrate this information is current, but other sources suggest if it isn't, it's very close. You can find your instances max connections with:
show variables like '%conn%';

from the mysql terminal, or via an SDK.
Comment: thanks I'd scoured the docs with no luck. Great find!
Answer: You can always check actual value in AWS console. Open RDS -> DB Parameter Groups, probably you have only one parameter group there, e.g. default.mysql5.5. Then, check max-connections parameter. In my case it is {DBInstanceClassMemory/12582880}, ie ~50 connections for micro instance, ~150 for small etc.
Answer: From RDS Console > Parameter Groups > Edit Parameters,
You can change the value of the max_connections parameter to a custom value.
Answer: We can change the limit but the connection is not extending for RDS instance type t3.medium. Max 100 connections are there. After that web server goes down. Can anyone suggest to increase the connection limition?
Comment: As it's currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer).

AWS RDS connection count


How to deal with questions whose answer is "Just Restart Your Phone!"

Question: I came across many questions which are related to unpredictable behavior of the phone. There are no logical reasons or solutions to help them. Only thing I could have tell them is to restart their phone! Can we develop a way to deal with such questions?
Answer: Paraphrasing a closure reason from Stack Overflow (emphasis mine):

This question was caused by a problem that can no longer be reproduced. While similar questions may be on-topic here, this one was resolved in a manner unlikely to help future readers.

The aim here is to build a list of solutions to problems, so if a problem happens often, or can only be solved by rebooting the phone, I'd consider it on-topic, and have an answer to that effect.
If a problem only happened once, and a reboot fixed it, then I'd consider it more off-topic.


Alcohol and gym gains

Question: I am 19 and looking to build muscle and strength for joining the RAF. I attempt to go to the gym three times a week: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and obviously as being 19 I love my social life and going out Friday to drink and dance. Now I was wondering if it is worth going to the gym on a Thursday as well? Will the alcohol, and poor sleep the next night just make it pointless any advice would be most appreciated.
Answer: Alcohol, poor sleep is against your training anyway. So one more, or less - is not much change anyway. Note that every well done training is better then sitting at home, even if you would not take 100% of it.
Moving from obvious to less obvious things.
Usually people decide not to drink, but that works for older... Young people, like you... Heh - please take care, and do things properly, keep yourself far from injury. Just train. I'm a bit jealous seeing young people training, and their progress. But there is one potential problems - it is quite easy to get injured, and that will stay with you... Note that you are training for particular reason, not to take more then others. Just slowly progress, no shortcuts are here, and potential fast forward can lead to serious problems.
Please ask another questions about your goals, describing what is your plan, maybe that way someone can better help you.
Answer: Whether or not it is benefitial for you to train an additional night depends on your goals. Training the extra night could work out fine, the alcohol and less sleep on friday night will make the recovery process longer though.
Your liver is key in this. Your liver does a lot of things that a essential when you work out a lot (such as metabolising amino acids and converting excess carbohydrates and proteins into fatty acids and triglyceride), and this is be restricted when you consume alcohol because your liver will start working on breaking that down instead.
This means that you could still notice some soreness even during the sunday training.

Alcohol and gym gains


What is the power curve

Question: Someone help me understand this thing in a simple way.
I understand it helps determine Vx.
Comment: Can you tell us what you mean by the power curve? Without any context, it's very difficult to know what you're asking.
Comment: The website [How it flies?](http://www.av8n.com/how/htm/energy.html#sec-power-curve-intro) have a specific section about power curve. You may read this section as it brings complementary information to current answers.
Answer: It's an expression of power required to maintain level flight throughout the speed range of the airplane and forms a U shape.  The lowest point of the curve, bottom of the U, is the point of minimum power required for level flight and is normally just below maximum L/D speed (flattest glide speed).  To go faster moves up the U to the right and requires more power.  To go slower moves up the U to the left and also requires more power.
The main bogey man that pilots have to be aware of is the issue of being on the "back side". If you slow to below min power airspeed, slowing any more will require more power to keep from descending; that's the back side.
This becomes a crisis situation in marginal conditions, especially when flying at very high altitudes, and is one of the things that makes flight at the upper flight levels riskier than at lower altitudes; if you are flying at Min Drag  speed or close to it at service ceiling, say FL410, and fly though some down flowing mountain wave air that is sinking at 100 fpm (nice smooth air that you likely won't notice), the autopilot in ALT hold mode will just pitch you up to keep from descending and the jet will slow down.
If you aren't paying attention and let the speed bleed off too much, you will find yourself in a pickle entering the back side of the power curve, with little reserve thrust to speak of, and will have no option but to tell ATC you have to descend NOW and start down until you can recover your speed.

What is the power curve


Why marbles don't shatter like a glass panel does?

Question: Both are made of the same material, not talking about the tempered glass. But I don't see marbles shatter the way glass panel does, why is that? If I could scale up the marble to the size of a car and strike a hammer on it, would it shatter?
Comment: https://youtu.be/Tmcv45gr-ng?t=99 - yep they shatter.,
Comment: To clarify I'm referring to spherical toy made out of glass, I'll edit the post as soon as I can reach a computer as it seems that I can't edit with my phone.
Comment: Sorry to have wasted your time.
Comment: @Farcher: nothing of sort, I still read it to expand knowledge and it my fault too ;D
Comment: @user6760 I think that your question is a very interesting one and I have made another attempt at an answer.
Answer: The difference is geometry, both in shape and size.
First, consider that the smaller something is, the stiffer it is in general. Take a large rubber eraser and squeeze it (in compression,  not bending) and then cut it in half and squeeze again. You need double the force to get the same deflection with half the size.
Next is the shape, where something flat like a glass pane is allowed to bend which puts the most strain into the material, compared to a sphere that mostly compresses. The details here are complex, but certain shapes are stiffer and certain ones are more complaint. A sphere is exceptional at resisting loading because most of the internal stresses are compressive.
Brittle shattering occurs when the bonds between molecules in a solid break (in tension) causing a dislocation, which then loads up neighboring molecules which in turn break also. In the end, there is a runaway process of crack propagation until the object is fully cracked.
Answer: Let me try again and answer the actual question that was asked.
I am not a material scientist but I do know that glass is a brittle material and fracture by the propagation of crack.
This is more likely to happen if the glass is in a state of tension rather than in a state of compression.
Depending on how the marbles are manufactured on possible explanation is that as the marbles cool the surface solidifies whilst the centre is still molten.
As the cooling process continues the centre solidifies whilst at the same time contracting thus closing up cracks at the surface and so reducing the chances of fracture.
I think this is not the explanation as when a marble does break I have not noticed it breaking explosively into many pieces as happens to a toughened car windscreen.
The video cited by @JohnAlexiou shows marbles shattered by the application of lerge compressive forces using a hydraulic press.
Another video Smashing A Marble Into Pieces with a Hammer!! shows how difficult it is to break a marble with a hammer but it also points to a possible answer to the question.
At approximately [3:30] in the video a larger marble is used but more significantly placed on what looks like a concrete surface where the previous attempts seem to be made on a softer surface.
This time the marble fractured.
So perhaps having two hard surfaces (the hammer head and the concrete floor) distorts a marble enough to open up some cracks which will then cause the marble to fracture.
With the hydraulic press this is done in a more controlled fashion and the compressed marble with a store of spring potential energy fractures explosively as that energy is released.
Just dropping a marble does not cause enough distortion to allow cracks to form and propagate and hence for fracturing to occur.
Further investigation lead me to How to Make Cracked Marbles where factures in the glass are achieved by quenching a hot marble in cold water.
What is interesting is that although numerous cracks are formed within the glass a lot of the time the marble stays as a whole showing that the cracks which are formed are not on the whole "joined up".
Overall I think that to break a glass marble it has to be distorted by quite a degree for it to fracture whereas with a pane of glass any distortion is likely to put one side of the glass under tension and hence make a fracture more likely.
Comment: I think OP might be referring to the toy called [marbles](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_(toy)), which is usually made out of glass.
Comment: Oh dear! I have deleted my answer!


Drag and drop image files to LyX

Question: Is it possible somehow to drag and drop image files from a browser or files directly to LyX when creating a latex document? If not, is there any other editor for OS X that can do this? I find it really slow to add images to a latex document, or if you can tell me an easy approach. Thanks
Answer: No. It is not possible to drag and drop image files directly into LyX. If you keep all of the graphics that you are going to be using in the document in a single subfolder, it is fairly quick to go through the insert graphics dialog since you don't need to search through multiple directories.
I do not use emacs, but apparently somebody has hacked together a way to automate the process of inserting images into LaTeX documents. This is discussed here: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/auctex/2010-12/msg00010.html.
Comment: But note that it seems to be easy to add: http://bugzilla.lyx.org/trac/ticket/4017
Answer: Not by drag & drop, but it is possible with copy & paste. Just put the image in the clipboard and select Edit->Paste Special. LyX will then immediately open a "Save as" dialog, where you can specify where and under which name the image will be saved. However, you can also just press Enter to choose the selected name and path.
Specifically for MacOS there is also the option to Paste as LinkBack PDF, which is enabled if the source application of the image supports the LinkBack technology. Basically, this is what OLE once was for Windows: You can later right-click the pasted image to edit it in the original application. LinkBack is supported by many OS X applications, among them EazyDraw, OmniGraffle, and LaTeXIt.
Comment: I followed your first paragraph, and it works, for the first figure. But when I want to do the same for a second new figure, it does not work, does the same happen to you?
Comment: @flow: It works fine here on my side (LyX 2.0.2 on OS X). Make sure that the filenames you give the images are different, though, here it **always** suggest `pasted1`.
Answer: I think the easiest way to add graphics is to paste them. For example, in a browser right-click and go to copy image. Then go to LyX and go to Edit > Paste Special > Paste as JPEG or Paste as PNG.
This also works for me from copying from open office.
This works for me using Firefox and Ubuntu with the newest (trunk) LyX version.

Drag and drop image files to LyX