Leaking faucet connection (inside vanity)

Question: I just discovered the faucet connection inside the vanity is leaking. The leak appears to happen at the top of the connection (where the black pipe meets the white of the vanity. What could be causing it, and how can I fix it?
Photos:
Comment: FYI. I believe It is not the  *faucet connection* that is leaking, it is the **drain connection**. Did you install this ?, if so did  you use plumbers putty on the top side under the drain flange ?  Have you tried tightening the big black nut that compresses the rubber gasket to the underside ??
Comment: This happened after I hired someone to replace the old vanity top with new. I don't know what they used. I tried turning the nut, but it appears to be tight all the way. Should I turn off the water if I want to experiment with opening the nut?
Comment: No need to turn off the water because the drain connection is not part of the water supply to the faucet.  If the nut is tight then it is most likely that there is no plumbers putty on the other side of that connection, if you look in the top of the sink you'll see the chrome metal ring down against the bottom of the sink, the installer should have put plumbers putty underneath that silver or chrome ring.
Comment: My answer below addresses what has to be done, but now that you shared you hired someone, they should come back and do it right. It wasn;t done right. Also, since the vanity top is new, this emphasizes my point about the basin & top being level. You can get it leak free even if not level, but its far better in every way to get it level, then reconnect the drain.
Answer: First observation I see is that the basin is most likley not level as the the black drainpipe is not entering the trap flush. (it is cocked sideways and this is most likely because the basin isn't level). So to this note, is the cabinet firm and secure? Is anyone (small child or a teen) climbing up onto the countertop or basin? If so, put an end to it. If water is being allowed to sit on the back of the counter, it will over time rot the back portion of the wood which will weaken it, allowing the same thing to occur. You should clean out under the sink, get a bright flashlight and check for any water damage or areas where the counter is separated from the backsplash or wood supports. *(sometimes these are just wooden blocks glued on).
Once you've fixed or confirmed the stability and levelness of the basin, remove the sink drain and black pipe. Check the drain/pipe for any cracks, replace if necessary. Check the seal/quality of the black rubber/foam gasket, replace it if necessary, and clean all surfaces. Also, pickup some fresh plumbers putty at the local hardware store and apply fresh new putty graciously under the drain where the drain and portion that penetrates into the basin. This will help tremendously.
Reassemble everything, firmly, (tight but not overtightened), and clean off any excess. Make sure putty does not impede or protrude fromthe botton of the basin before you re-secure the washer and black nut. If you overtighten it, the drain, the nut, the tubing, may crack and you'll have to replace it.
Once reassembled, everything should be square, and you should be leak free. If not, inspect your work and redo it.


What does 'random phase' means in a triac driver?

Question: I'm using  this triac driver  to control a triac. In its datasheet it says 'provide random phase control of high current triacs [...]'. What does that mean? It doesn't have zero-crossing detection?
Comment: "random" in this context seems to mean "arbitrary"
Answer: Yes, it means it doesn't have zero-crossing detection. The latter is useful for purely resistive loads, where the current is in phase with the voltage. For reactive loads, inductive or capacitive, this doesn't offer an advantage.
"Random" just means the triac switches on at the time you signal it to switch on, whatever the voltage phase at that moment. So its actual meaning is that it can switch on at any time.

A note I made earlier on zero-crossing switching:
You may have noticed that incandescent bulbs always fail when they're switched on. That's because the mains phase can be near its maximum when switching on. Combined with the low resistance of a cold bulb this results in a high current peak, which may burn the filament. When you switch on a zero crossing you avoid these peaks.

Random switching is needed if you want to build a triac-controlled dimmer, where you want control of the phase angle where you ignite the triac over the full 180° of a half cycle.
Comment: Random means "can be switched on at arbitrary time", not "switches on at some unpredictable time".  Much like "random access memory" means "can be addressed in arbitrary sequence", not "accesses things in whatever order the memory chip feels like".
Answer: "Random phase" is just a marketing term for, as you suggest, "hasn't got the sophistication of zero crossing detection".
A random-phase driver will provide a trigger signal whenever the input trigger conditions are met. Mains voltage can be at any point in its cycle and will trigger immediately. With a TRIAC the device will remain turned on until the next zero crossing point is reached - about 0 to 180 electrical degrees later.
Random phase has the advantage that controlled voltage can at least notionally be varied more finely that zero crossing triggering allows. Zero crossing only allows whole half cycles so on periods are in multiples of 10 ms (50 Hz mains) or 8.33 ms (60 Hz mains). In most cases this is not an especially important advantage.
Zero crossing triggering minimizes RFI, notionally stops inductive transients and will place less loads on e.g. lamp filaments. With highly reactive loads (inductive or capacitive) current and voltage are not in phase so zero crossing switching still leaves problems to be solved.
Comment: @Stevenh -(1) Yes- Thanks - I seem to have had trouble dividing a second by 100 and 120 :-). (2) ...s... is fine spelling where real English is spoken - I'm happy to leave it that way. Not all the werld spiks US Engrish. Whatever :-) (2) Siemen :-). (Yes, that's arguable and has been argued long and fruitlessly elsewhere :-) ).
Comment: The "S"/"s" for units is not debatable. SI says units are lowercase *except* eponymous units, i.e. units derived from a person's name. So "S" means Siemens, derived from the man's name, "s" for second should *always* be lowercase, like the base rule says. As for the "s"/"z", my Firefox spelling checker seems to be US English, I should change it to International English, I guess.
Comment: @Stevenh - S/s I was not debating - it was a typo on my part - I would never purposefully use S for "second" although a number of such no doubt creep through unawares. // Siemens / Siemen I was :-). Pure pedantry on my part, and people will trot out standards based chapter and verse to support both points of view and hotly argue it by the hour. I lean towards no 's' on proper name named units (Volt, Ampere, Ohm, Joule, Siemen, Farad, Newton, ...) , other's chapter and verse to the contrary notwithstanding :-). Incidentally, lumen is often incorrectly rendered lumens and sometimes even Lumens.
Comment: Oh, I see. But in this case the final "s" is part of the guy's name, Werner von Siemens, actually. And so is the unit: 1 Siemens. I wouldn't dare to add a plural-"s" to units.


What's wrong with the bike

Question: My boy uses a bike for work all was fine until yesterday when he went to use it the pedals and chain go around ok but the back wheel doesn't move
Comment: So the chain turns the cogs at the wheel, but the wheel stays still? I think this question had the same problem: https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/56137/bike-chain-slips-in-a-strange-way
Comment: Sounds like a bad rear hub.
Answer: Daniel is right - it sounds like the mechanism in the back that allows coasting, has failed.    This means the chain is driving the cogs forward, but there's no connection between the cogs and the hub of the rear wheel.
There are no good fixes short of replacing the rear freewheel or freehub, depending on what the bike has now.   A deep clean and relube can help, but it may not, and even if things improve they soon deteriorate again.
To test this, take the back wheel out of the bike, and rotate the cogs by hand.  Yours will probably turn both ways, when they should only turn anti-clockwise.  When you try to spin the cogs clockwise, they should not move at all.
The replacement you need will depend on what you have.  Either show us a photo of the cogs when the wheel is out of the bike, or just take it to a LBS and ask for a new freewheel.  Its not a big job to fit to your wheel, but does take one or two special tools.
This is fixable.
Answer: I've hat that kind of failure with freewheels with two different causes.
What is happening is that the ratcheting mechanism is failing to engage. In the freewheels that I have disassembed, the inside of the cogs have some "ramps" and the center of the wheel has pawls that engage with the ramps when rotating in one direction but slip when rotating in the opposite direction.

In my case I've had the freewheel fail suddenly and under load. That is the pawls break so they no longer engage. This rarely can be repaired because the pawls cannot be obtained as a spare. I was able to recover some from previously broken freewheels. (I only had access to really cheap freewheels so I broke 2 or 3 per year)
The other failure mode is intermittent and sometimes banging the rear wheel or bouncing it on the ground temporarily restores its functionality. In this case what happened is that the type of grease that I had used had some solvent that eventually evaporated, leaving a thick paste behind, so it was sticky and would prevent pawl movement. When this happens, squirting a lot o penetrating oil inside the freewheel may help for a quick temporary fix (allows you to use the bike for a few days or ride it to the shop)
The permanent solution was to disassemble, clean, re-lube and reassembly. This however was a time consuming task requiring some solvents, a pan and a brush (I Improvised the way to unscrew the freewheel retainer). The time consuming part was the tiny, loose ball bearings. Had to fish then out of the dirty grease, and improvise a way of holding them in place while putting it all together. A freewheel commonly has two bearings, one per side.
At the time I was just a teenager so I hat a lot of available time and just used what was around the house, so I lubed it with automotive gear oil and this time it lasted a long time before another pawl broke.
In conclusion the solution may be to change the freewheel. They are not expensive and usually available in a range of quality levels. They are normally threaded on the hub so no special tool is required for installation but it is required for removal of the old one. (I used to get around that by disassembly of the freewheel until only the center piece remained, gripped it on a bench vise and rotated the wheel counter clock wise. Yes, it damaged or destroyed the center piece)
The removal tool looks something like this: (Depending on the freeweel type)

In this case it is the same tool used to remove a Shimano cassette lockring.
With the use of the correct tool, replacing the freewheel takes no longer than 5 minutes (if nothing is stuck).
All of this can happen to a freehub, but I've never had to open one. In a freehub the ratcheting mechanism is not in the cog set, but inside the right side of the hub.

What’s wrong with the bike


Why was "Superman Returns" filmed in Sydney, Australia?

Question: Is there a specific reason why Superman Returns was shot in Sydney, Australia? You can tell because some locations are obviously Sydney, Australia.
Comment: Tax cuts and incentives, probably. Not an answer, just a reasonable guess.
Answer: You could pose this question for many tentpole releases, and with regards to my own country (UK), the late 70's saw the beginning of a trend which saw many large studios invest in the UK due to the large stages, spaces, local production talent and financial incentives that the London studio lots offered over Hollywood and L.A., attracting many large scale fantasy projects from Star Wars and the Salkind Superman releases right through Alien, Aliens and the Indiana Jones saga to Batman in 1989.
According to Wikipedia, the films producers were already looking at Australia as Warner Bros. considered shooting Superman Returns at Warner Roadshow Studios in the Gold Coast, Queensland. After filming, this could have been used as an attraction for the adjoining Warner Bros. Movie World theme park, but the idea was scrapped for being too expensive.
When this initial plan went through, the Fox facility in Sydney (which was still virtually brand new at this stage and most likely was actively attempting to attract big projects) seems as good as anywhere else, especially if Warner Bros. had already started to invest in the country and its production talent.
Comment: The UK is still basking in that paradigm shift to this day. All the Star Wars, the Disney live-action & lots more, still being made here.
Comment: Oddly, I've never been to Shepperton, but spent half of last summer at Pinewood, Dumbo & this year on 'Headliner' [name not released yet] & I'll be visiting those hallowed grounds at Elstree tomorrow.. Eastenders - though not exactly Hollywood ;-)))
Comment: yeah - they're not keen on it at all. I've got some from Jack Ryan 2, but I can't have them until after broadcast ;-)) oh... Headliner is now 'known' - [The One and Only Ivan](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3661394/) Interestingly, the weeks at Pinewood aren't listed in 'locations' yet.
Comment: Too right, and while I may never live to visit the legendary lots in Hollywood's studio zone I feel mitigated by having such easy geographical access to Pinewood, Shepperton and Elstree - as a child of the 80's (I was born in 1979) they have as much if not more reverential value with regards to the films I grew up with and still pursue.
Comment: Cool as Tetsujin! - shame there's nowhere you could share photos
Comment: Sweet - I'll keep an eye on that one for sure


copy tables and contents of database

Question: I have created a database on my remote hosting server. It has the same name as my local database on my laptop. I don't know how to create a script or transaction to copy all tables and tables' contents to my new remote database. This script or transaction should not create a new database, just create the tables and tables' contents the same as the local database. I am using SQL Server 2012.
Comment: Take a full backup and restore it to the target server?
Comment: Hi @ JamesZ  thanks for reply, i am using Godday and it difficult to do as you mention at least i may don't have that experiences, but if it can be as a text then it can be easier one time before i do it but i couldn't remember how it was it just few click by mouse into ms sql
Answer: If this is not needed to perform on each and every day but sometimes, I suggest the following procedure:

Open the source server in Management Studio. Right click the database. Choose "Tasks" and "Generate Scripts". In the wizard choose either "entire database" or "specific objects" (and choose your tables).
Click Next.
Click Advanced.
At the property "Check for existence" choose "TRUE".
At the property "Types of data to script" choose "SCHEMA AND DATA".
At the property "Script Drop and Create" choose "Script Drop and Create" (this (re-)creates the (all|selected) tables with the current structure).
Click OK.
Decide if you want a file created or just the script opened in a new window.
Click OK / OK.
Run the script in your destination server and you are done.

copy tables and contents of database


how improve website mainpage loading

Question: I'm using [feed to post RSS Aggregator] and get posts from 44 sites. main page loading is too slow. I checked GTmetrix and it seems good but I don't know how can I improve my website loading. http://akhbartop.ir/
Answer: Loading RSS feeds over network is extremely slow operation. WP's fetch_feed() has built-in caching for it, but it won't help much if one page has to check feeds in number of dozens.
This is likely unsolvable without fetching feeds completely asynchronously from page load (not something WP can natively do) and without plugin you use making proper use of that.
Though guessing the performance bottleneck is rarely certain. You should figure out what takes time in your case specifically. There is range of tools for that from WP plugins (such as Query Monitor) to proper PHP profilers (such as Blackfire).
Comment: Hello, this is the first time I attempt to do this. Could you please guide me step by step for troubleshooting this using the Blackfire or Query monitor plugin?

Thanks again
Comment: No, Unfortunately this troubleshooting performance isn't something that can be reduced to step by step instructions. Look up the tools, start to use them, ask about specific challenges you are facing.
Answer: Try also different WordPress caching plugins.
In fact, caching plugins are often very complex. It may be a trouble learning how to use them at first, but it may pay out later.
It will take a lot of nerves and lot of coffee, but eventually you will prevail.
In theory, it looks easy:
Comment: now im using wp rocket plugin and its awesome

how improve website mainpage loading


How to remotely log into google account?

Question: I lost my phone and the person who found it, logged out of my google account. Is there a way to make my devive log into google account? (so that i can use "find my phone" to find it.)
Answer: I am sorry but if the Google account has been removed from the phone it is now no longer related to you.
That is the reason you should protect your phone at least with a PIN code. Then your Google account can't be removed from the device that easily. Of course a factory reset can still be performed but then the "finder" of your device runs into the Factory reset Protection (FRP).
Comment: Thanks for your answer.


FireFox 3 line-height

Question: Firefox 3 has introduced a new behavior in which line-height, when unset, differs from how other browsers render it. Thus, a critical section maybe render too high in that browser. Setting a global percentage doesn't work, since it's basis is different. Setting a unitless value such as "1" doesn't work either. Is there some way to normalize this dimension?
Comment: Perhaps an example page or something? I haven't had this problem.
Comment: Indeed. No such problem here; question is insufficiently specific.
Answer: The computed value of line-height: normal varies between platforms, browsers (and different versions of the same browser, as you state), fonts, and even different sizes of the same font (see Eric Meyer's article).
Setting a unitless value such as...
body {line-height: 1.2;}

...should work to normalize the spacing between browsers. If this is not working, can you provide a more-detailed description of your stylesheet?
It's hard (impossible?) to get "pixel-perfect" results, but in order to get results that are as predictable as possible, I try to use a line height that produces a nice round value when multiplied by the font-size. We can't know the user agent's default font size, but 16 pixels is somewhat common.
body
{
    font-size: 100%;
    line-height: 1.5;
}

If the user agent's starting font size is indeed 16 pixels then the line height of 1.5 comes out to a nice, even 24 pixels. Users can and do change the default font size or the page zoom, though, and different browsers have different methods of scaling the page. Nevertheless, I think I've had reasonable success for a majority of the users. If I can't make the line height come out exactly, then I shoot for a little above the integer rather than a little below, because some browsers seem to truncate values rather than round them.
Also, note that if you use a percentage for the line height, it behaves differently when the value is inherited.
body
{
    font-size: 100%;
    line-height: 150%;
}

p
{
    font-size: 75%;
}

Starting from a base font size of 16 pixels, the line height will be 24 pixels. Within a
 element the font size becomes 12 pixels, but the line height does not become 18 pixels, rather it remains 24 pixels. This is the difference between line-height: 1.5 and line-height: 150%. When body {line-height: 1.5;} is used, the line height for
 is 18 pixels.
Comment: Yes, setting the attribute as you've shown helps, as does line-height: 120%. This does not, however, product pixel perfect results. Maybe this is as good as it gets. Anyone know why Firefox changed this behavior?
Comment: I believe the changes to Firefox relate to improvements in their rounding algorithm, so FF3's computed results should more-closely match Mozilla's intentions.
Answer: There is absolutely nothing you can do. Every browser has there way of rendering CSS and content. You can use a "Master" reset (as cowgod suggests), but even then, that's not ultimately going to fix the alignment issues. They are there because of actual rendering engine. Apple the CSS to your existing website and test it. Tell me if it makes pixel perfect across the board. It won't.
The only way to actually achieve pixel perfection is to implement specific CSS for specific browsers. Mozilla has the @-moz-doc, IE has it's own hacks, but none of these are part of the W3C specs, and we all know standards are important. So not much of an option.
As David said above, it's hard. I'm inclined to think impossible actually. And I've spent hours trying, trust me! Almost went mad more times than I care to count. It's a hard pill to swallow, but there is just no way around it, unless everyone used the same browsing engine (which would actually take the internet a great leap forward in my opinion). I mean, it wouldn't be that hard to slap whatever interface you want on your browser, so long as you plugin [gecko][webkit][presto][trident][whatever] to handle the backend... Since the good ones are all open source, you could merge the projects and really get going. People need to learn to play nice together ;)
Answer: You CAN solve this:
Set line height to 1, then zero in your text using padding-top and padding-bottom, and set height to auto.
.zeroed_in_element {
    padding: 4px 2px 5px 2px;
    height: auto;
    line-height: 1;
}

Answer: You should always "reset" styles to eliminate all browser inconsistencies with element styles.
I like Eric Meyer's CSS Reset.  Yahoo has one also.
Comment: What would the reset value be in this case? 0? Then add line-height to ever text container? I think this is a different type of issue from margin and padding.
Comment: If you're going to use the Eric Meyer reset, make sure you use the most current version - http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/index.html

FireFox 3 line-height


web3j transactions with value

Question: I'm using web3j to analyze transactions.
How can I get transactions of a specific contract (assuming I got it's address) in some time frame (or blocks interval) and how can I know if ERC20 tokens were transferred in a transaction once I get it?
Answer: You could use an API like the one provided by EtherScan or get an Infura account, but, alas, these are centralised solutions.
A fully decentralised method would be to run a full node and use the JSON-RPC commands.
Now you can query the list of transactions for your contract address. You can take their inputs and decode them, provided you have the contract's ABI. Here's some sample code doing that for an ERC20 transaction on Ropsten.
If you know the contract adheres to the ERC20 standard and the name of the function is transfer when the input is decoded, that's an ERC20 token transfer.
Comment: Thanks, I'm asking though specifically about a web3j (Java implementation) method of doing that.
Comment: I see, it might be worthwhile to mention you're looking for an implementation per se.
Comment: The title and the question body mention "web3j", which is a java implementation for web3. You might have missed that part.
Answer: The way to do this with Web3J is something like
Optional<TransactionReceipt> transaction = web3j.ethGetTransactionReceipt(transactionHash).send().getTransactionReceipt();
assert transaction.isPresent();
String toAddress = transaction.get().getTo();

web3j transactions with value


Should we implement the accesskey HTML attribute?

Question: I'm researching whether to add accesskeys to our site and was wondering if they are commonly used nowadays for accessibility. I checked out the source code on a dozen or so large websites and didn't see them used in any of the sites. Is it considered best practice to implement them for navigation, search, etc.?
Answer: Keyboard access is on the way down. My suggestion would be. If your site is like a forum or a game, where a user may constantly repeat the same actions, then you could help them by providing an access key.
Otherwise only a few buttons such as Search would benefit from it.  Here are some concerns from developer.mozilla

Accessibility concerns
In addition to poor browser support, there are numerous concerns with the accesskey attribute:

An accesskey value can conflict with a system or browser keyboard shortcut, or assistive technology functionality. What may work for one combination of operating system, assistive technology, and browser may not work with other combinations.
Certain accesskey values may not be present on certain keyboards, especially when internationalization is a concern. So adapting to specific languages could cause further problems.
accesskey values that rely on numbers may be confusing to individuals experiencing cognitive concerns, where the number doesn't have a logical association with the functionality it triggers.
Informing the user that accesskeys are present, so that they are aware of the functionality. If the system lacks a method of notifying the user about this feature, the user might accidentally activate accesskeys.

Because of these issues, it is generally advised not to use accesskeys for most general-purpose websites and web apps.
Comment: I get so frustrated when I'm editing a post here on Stack Exchange and ctrl-G doesn't "find aGain" like it is supposed to and instead triggers image upload. A real world example of the conflicts that can happen and be bad for user experience.


Make timer for game to run for 2min

Question: I'm trying to make a game using C++ (in Visual Studio 2015).
I want to make the game run for X minutes and then end.
I have a function play() that calls all other functions required and I need to make play() run for 2min.
I've tried putting play() in loops that run for some time, but none of them work. I am not able to find any other question that addresses the problem I'm facing and so any help would be appreciated.
Comment: It's also helpful, when describing attempts that didn't work, to specify *in what particular way* they didn't work. Compiler errors, never stopping the game at all, stopping the game too early / too late, re-starting the game instead of stopping it, preventing the game from running normally, crashing the game/computer, catching fire... all of these are possible failure modes, and each one tells a different story about what might be going wrong. ;)
Comment: Could you show us what's in `play()` and how it is called?
Answer: If you record the time once at the start of your game:
time_t startTimeSeconds = time(NULL); // must include 'ctime'

Every update (game loop iteration) you can check to see if the elapsed time has exceeded two minutes:
if (time(NULL) - startTimeSeconds >= 120) // two minutes
    stopGame();

Comment: In case the `time` function does not give enough precision, consider using `QueryPerformanceCounter`. Follow [this link](http://www.songho.ca/misc/timer/timer.html) for a nice example.
Answer: Your play() function not necessary should not be executed in the loop. Instead, you can use this function, to loop your game. Here is some minimal example, how you can use it:
#include <chrono>

void play()
{
    // record the time, as soon you entered the function
    auto startTime = std::chrono::system_clock::now();

    while(!isGameOver())
    {
        // here you can paste your time consuming game logic
        //  i.e. function calls

        auto endTime = std::chrono::system_clock::now();
        // check, if two minutes are over
        if (endTime - startTime > std::chrono::minutes(2))
            gameOver(); /* in this function paste your 'end of the game'-logic */
    }
}

The main advantage in using std::chrono instead of ctime is that your time-checking calls are less cryptic, therefore better understandable, especially in initialization part.
Compare auto time = std::chrono::system_clock::now() and time_t startTimeSeconds = time(NULL);

Make timer for game to run for 2min


android apk built with Unreal intstall on emulator fails - INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS

Question: From unreal I built Android Multi apk. With drag and drop it fails to install on x86 emulator and with the command file on unreal build directory it fails as well with following error:
<code>C:\Users\_\Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject\Builds\Android\Android_Multi>C:\Users\_\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe  uninstall io.Github.BigbangKing.Test
Failure [DELETE_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR]

Installing existing application. Failures here indicate a problem with the device (connection or storage permissions) and are fatal.

C:\Users\_\Documents\Unreal Projects\MyProject\Builds\Android\Android_Multi>C:\Users\_\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe  install MyProject-armv7.apk
Performing Streamed Install
adb: failed to install MyProject-armv7.apk: Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS: Failed to extract native libraries, res=-113]

There was an error installing the game or the obb file. Look above for more info.
</code>
Unreal Engine generated amrv7 apk. How can I build apk compatible for x86 emulator and newer arm processors?
note: It installs and works on a phone.
Answer:
Open your project in Unreal Engine Editor
Edit -> Project Setting
Scroll to Platforms -> Android
Scroll to Build -> Check Support x86_64
It requires Github source. Good luck !


Halacha Works Their Differences

Question: What is the difference between rambam, shulchan aruch, mishnah brurah, pninei halacha?
Comment: Not certain whether this is off topic as request-for-psak or too broad, but I'm fairly certain that it's off topic for one of those reasons.
Comment: @Salmononius2 It is no longer a request for Pesak...
Comment: @רבותמחשבות Definitely still too broad. Just because these sefarim are all on the same general topic doesn't mean they have anything else in common.
Comment: @DonielF agreed.  That's why I voted to close.  But I just accidentally voted to reopen (and for some reason can't rescind my nomination), we'll see what happens
Answer: The Rambam's Yad Hachazaka was the first truly systematic compilation of Jewish Law, that although initially was met with reservations, has been accepted worldwide. However, its compilation and its style of of codification, most notably being without sources raises with it a large amount of issues, as many commentators had no idea where the Rambam derived his conclusion. This led to a myriad of interpretations, and divergent opinions being quoted.
Furthermore the Rambam largely ignored other opinions (most notably the French Tosafists), as was his right for obvious reasons. But from a halachic perspective this would leave the sugya (topic) severely lacking.
Wikipedia on this:

Maimonides intended to provide a complete statement of the Oral Law,
  so that a person who mastered first the Written Torah and then the
  Mishneh Torah would be in no need of any other book. Contemporary
  reaction was mixed, with strong and immediate opposition focusing on
  the absence of sources and the belief that the work appeared to be
  intended to supersede study of the Talmud. Maimonides responded to
  these criticisms, and the Mishneh Torah endures as an influential work
  in Jewish religious thought. According to several authorities,2 a
  decision may not be rendered in opposition to a view of Maimonides,
  even where he apparently militated against the sense of a Talmudic
  passage, for in such cases the presumption was that the words of the
  Talmud were incorrectly interpreted. Likewise: "One must follow
  Maimonides even when the latter opposed his teachers, since he surely
  knew their views, and if he decided against them he must have
  disapproved their interpretation."

Thus enters the Shulchan Aruch, or prior to that the Tur Shulchan Aruch which was an attempt to blend the learning styles of the Rif (who lived before the Rambam), his father the Rosh (who lived in both among the Ashkenazim and the Spanish Sefardim) and the Baalei Hatosfos, the Ashkenazi commentaries on the Talmud
Wikipedia explains this quite well:

In the Arba'ah Turim, Rabbi Jacob traces the practical Jewish law from
  the Torah text and the dicta of the Talmud through the Rishonim. He
  used the code of Rabbi Isaac Alfasi as his starting point; these views
  are then compared to those of Maimonides, as well as to the Ashkenazi
  traditions contained in the Tosafist literature. Unlike Maimonides'
  Mishneh Torah, the Tur is not limited to normative positions, but
  compares the various opinions on any disputed point. (In most
  instances of debate, Rabbi Jacob follows the opinion of his father,
  Rabbi Asher ben Jehiel, the Rosh.) The Arba'ah Turim also differs from
  the Mishneh Torah, in that, unlike Maimonides' work, it deals only
  with areas of Jewish law that are applicable in the Jewish exile.

A further difference is that the Rambam dealt with laws that didn't apply in the Jewish exile, but the Tur was limited only to laws applicable B'zman Hazeh (as with the rest of the works explained below)
The most prominent commentary on this work, the Tur Shulchan Aruch, is the magnum opus of Rav Yosef Karo, known as the Beis Yosef, which attempts to review all the relevant material and come to a final conclusion, something that the Tur Shulchan Aruch did not always do.
However the Beis Yosef was a long, running commentary that was very hard to fully digest, especially if it was meant to come to a final practical conclusion. Therefore, Rav Yosef Karo authored the Shulchan Aruch, as we know it today, which is a summation of the Beis Yosef. This has been accepted as the defacto halachic work, and all halacha that is decided today uses it as a jumping off point.
The Mishna Berurah, compiled by the Chofetz Chaim, his son and his students, is considered by many (most prominently, Rav Ahron Kotler zt"l and the Chazon Ish zt"l) as the posek acharon (final halachic decisor) for our generation, and thus binding on everyone (or at least Bnei Ashkenaz). Famously Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin disgareed and held that it was the Aruch Hashulchan. But even they agreed that the Mishna Berurah decisions needed to be reckoned with and not easily ignored or disgarded. The Mishna Berurah, like most modern day halachic works, attempts to apply the decisions of the Shulchan Aruch to modern day situations. For the Chofetz Chaim was a rare figure that has been accepted as a Tzaddik and a Scholar by literally all the Jewish People.
The Peninei Halacha, authored by a modern-day Rabbi - Rav Eliezer Melamed, is a compilation of halachos, including summaries, but also features modern day questions that were not discussed in the Shulchan aruch itself, but applies the Shulchan aruch, and other sources as well to these new questions.
However, Rav Melamed, recognized as a Talmid Chacham, is not a widely accepted authority that his halachic decisions are considered binding (as opposed to the Shulchan Aruch). However, if you consider him to be your Rav, that is your choice, just as someone may accept upon himself the psakim of Rav Ovadia, or Rav Shlomo Zalman (though they both are greatly more accepted among a larger swath of the Jewish people than Rav Melamed). Obviously this means that you may not pick and choose when to follow his opinions or not. As once you have accepted him as your authority it is binding. (This is admittedly not a simple issue, consult your local Rav)

Halacha Works Their Differences


Can a super-duper massive black hole eventually eat an entire galaxy?

Question: Might there be some roaming black galaxies out there eating up other galaxies?
Answer: The black holes at the centre of galaxies are tiny compared to the galaxy around them. For example the black hole at the centre of our galaxy has a radius of about 1.25 micro light years and the Milky way has a radius of around a hundred thousand light years. So the Milky Way is about eleven orders of magnitude larger than the black hole.
Even a black hole with the mass of the while Milky Way (about $10^{12}$ Solar masses) would have a radius of only a third of a light year, which is still about a million times smaller than the galaxy.
So the black hole isn't going to eat the whole Milky Way any time soon for the simple reason that it's tiny compared to the galaxy. In fact it's likely the Milky Way will mostly evaporate due to dynamical friction long before Saggitarius A$^*$ eats more than a small fraction of the stars in it.
This makes it very unlikely there are galaxy sized black holes wandering around snacking off other galaxies.
Comment: How does dynamical friction cause evaporation of the galaxy?
Comment: probably will get the check mark from me, but i'll see if there are other answers.  thanks, John.
Comment: @CountIblis: that would be a new question. [There is a related question here](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/274505/do-many-body-systems-fall-apart-eventually)
Answer:
Angular momentum conservation prevents Sagittarius A* from capturing anything  of the Milky way but a tiny fraction, which happens to be on collision course.
Although it is a totally unrealistic scenario, it is nevertheless fun to estimate the extremality of a Kerr black hole
with$^1$
$$ \text{mass } M~\sim~ 10^{11} M_{\odot}\qquad\text{and} \qquad\text{angular momentum } J~\sim~ 10^{67}Js\tag{A}$$ of the Milky Way. The relevant dimensionless fraction is
$$ f~=~\frac{cJ}{GM^2}.\tag{B} $$
The value $f=1$ corresponds to an extremal Kerr black hole. If we plug in the numbers (A) for the Milky Way, we get
$$ f~\sim~ 10^3, \tag{C}$$
i.e. a naked singularity, which violates the cosmic censorship hypothesis.

--
$^1$The numbers (A) are extracted from the Wikipedia page. We exclude dark matter, partly because its angular momentum is not known experimentally.
Answer: No one so far seems to have touched on the long term future of the universe. Between the end of the stelliferous era when stars are still forming, and the dark era or true heat death of the universe, there is a long era of cooling matter and black holes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_universe#Stellar_remnants_escape_galaxies_or_fall_into_black_holes NB: only 1-10% of galaxies are ever consumed by their central blackhole. Still, a significant fraction.
Black holes evaporate in proportion to their surface area, but their energy scales with mass. So while small blackholes like proposed small 'primordial blacholes' would have evaporated, all other types wouldn't, and supermassive ones will be among the longest lived atructures, when most baryonic matter has degeneeated
Its worth saying, there is a lot we don't know about blackholes https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/black-hole-nasa-supermassive-size-big-bang-gemini-mass-universe-beginning-a8095801.html Gravitational astronomy may hold key insights
Answer: yes, a super duper massive black hole with mass nearly 90000 solar masses can engulf a medium sized galaxy. As we know that when a black hole engulfs matter in large quantity then it grows in size and tends to engulf more matter and also produces quasars.
Comment: A black hole with a mass of $90,000$ Solar masses has a radius of about half the distance from the Earth to the moon. You'll need to explain how something that small can eat an object $100,000$ light years across.


Where does energy for Higgs field come from?

Question: Yesterday I read that there is a field called Higgs field in space like every other field. But this field has oscillation even without any external energy and reacts to electron with left spins.   Some external source is needed to make waves in EM fields. So there must be some sort of energy needed to make waves in higgs field too. But where does that energy come from. Also space is expanding meaning there is more and more energy needed to make waves in Higgs field (also to make the space itself expand). Are those energy coming from any unknown infinite source.
Comment: Please  note that in contrast to classical fields, the quantum fields of the particles in the standard model , obeying GFT, do not have energy, the electron field, the muon field etc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_Model_of_Elementary_Particles.svg . They exist all over space similar to coordinate systems. A particle is created with a creation operator  and  annihilated with annihilation operators, described in the feynman diagrams of the interactions. The Higgs field is an underlying coordinate system too.
Comment: I think your last sentence is kinda circular, but AFAIK, the non zero value for the Higgs field is a given, the same as why the electron is the mass it is, there isn't an explanation. I asked a similar question a while back.
Answer: This question consists of various components.
Firstly, physics rarely has satisfying answers to questions of the kind 'why does x exist?'. That is more of a philosophical question. Within the Standard Model the Higgs is considered a fundamental field, i.e. not composite. The orthodoxy is that it is a field that has existed since the Big Bang, and that it obtained a non-zero vacuum expectation value after the electro-weak phase transition in the early universe, when the universe's temperature fell below a critical temperature. This event also coincided with the gauge bosons of the weak force obtaining mass (informally by 'eating' three of the four Higgs particles).
I'm not sure I know what exactly an 'oscillation' in the Higgs field would be; can you provide a link to the article where you read this? It could mean various things.
From the group theoretical perspective the Higgs is a $SU(2)$ doublet with an associated weak hypercharge. This presumably determines the manner in which it interacts with electrons, but my group theory is rusty.
The impact of an expanding universe is challenging to deal with in the context of QFT, because there is a fundamental tension between the notion of energy in QFT and GR. Searching on this site will lead to useful information. But shortly, there is no need to introduce 'an unknown infinite source' of energy.


how to reset monitor settings

Question: I am absolutely new to linux and started with elementary on a HP probook just now. I am amazed by the easy installation process and the look and handling of elementary. Congratulations!
I now wanted to join a second monitor, connection no problem, but the presentation on the second screen was too big. Then I tried different modes in monitor setting and quickly ended up with "eingebaute Anzeige" or "inbuilt monitor", which I can not reset to the original settings. If I undo the connection, I do have the original presentation on my notebook. If I join the external monitor I end up with a very big presentation, too big for the monitor on both items. But there is no chance to go back to different monitor-setting within the settings on my notebook. The Scaling factor is LoDPI.
Thanks for an answer and happy new year!
Answer: Have you found a solution? I'm faced with a similar situation and the only workaround I have is to create a new user account ♂

how to reset monitor settings


Comparing pixel values at a given point in two rasters

Question: I have two raster images, one for land use and one for NDVI, i would like to calculate LAI based on land use. So i need to compare the pixel value in the NDVI raster and Land use raster then select which formula to use. How do i approach this in python? I am a beginner.
Comment: What do you want as an output? Do you just need to compare the two values somewhere, or do you want to calculate a new raster?
Comment: Do you have any code to start from? Do both rasters have the same cell size, extent and origin? Can you give an example of a couple of NDVI and Land Use combinations and their related formula? It would make it easier to give example code if there were a few conditions taken to conclusion.
Answer: The question you are asking is quite complex to answer comprehensively, but I can give you some structure and you can fill the gaps. My answer is using arpcy, that comes with ArcGIS. You can achieve something very similar with rasterio (see commented lines)
First of all, I always like to work directly with the numpy arrays. This can be achieved in arcpy by:
import arcpy

raster_path = 'C:/blablabla/raster_bla.tif'
raster = arcpy.Raster(raster_path)
raster_data = arcpy.RasterToNumPyArray(raster)
# import rasterio
# raster = rasterio.open(raster_path)
# raster_data = raster.read()

raster_data is now a numpy.ndarray containing all the pixel values.
Before proceeding to the next steps, you should perform some tasks to make sure everything is what you expect:

load both rasters (of course!)
using the meta = arcpy.Describe(raster) method you can check things like width, height, pixel_size and others to make sure that both rasters are actually aligned perfectly. If this is not the case things will not work. Some background on the Describe method can be found here
You may want to check that your arrays are 2D (e.g. the have only one band)

Next step would be something like:
def leaf_area_index(land_use, ndvi):
    result = ndvi.copy()
    for lu in np.unique(land_use):
        results[land_use == lu] = _calculate_lai(ndvi[land_use == lu], lu)
    return result

where:

land_use == lu is pretty much selecting pixels belonging to each of
your land use values
_calculate_lai() should be a function that
gets the NDVI values and the land use code, and returns the
leaf_area_index (I suspect each land use code will have different
exponents to relate ndvi to lai)

After that you probably want to save the output raster. In arcpy this can be naively achieved by using something like this:
def np_to_raster(array, raster_ref):
    """Utility to convert a numpy array to a Raster object using another Raster as reference

    Arguments:
    -----------
    array : np.ndarray
        data to convert
    raster_ref : arcpy.Raster, or str
        reference raster or path to reference raster

    Returns:
    -----------
    out : arcpy.Raster
        converted Raster object
    """
    if not isinstance(array, np.ndarray):
        raise TypeError('The input must be a numpy array')
    meta = arcpy.Describe(raster_ref)
    cell_size_x = meta.meanCellWidth
    cell_size_y = meta.meanCellHeight
    lowerleftcorner = meta.extent.lowerLeft

    out_raster = arcpy.NumPyArrayToRaster(array, lowerleftcorner, cell_size_x, cell_size_y, 0)
    return out_raster

this should be called by your main function to covert the numpy.array to arcpy.Raster object.
in rasterio you can do
def write_img(array, raster_ref, outpath):
    newprofile = {
        'count': 1,
        'crs': raster_ref.crs,
        'dtype': 'uint8',
        'driver': 'GTiff',
        'transform': raster_ref.transform,
        'height': data.shape[0],
        'width': data.shape[1],
        'blockxsize': 256,
        'tiled': True,
        'blockysize': 256,
        'nodata': None
    }

    with rasterio.open(outpath, 'w', **newprofile) as dst:
        dst.write(data)

In summary (this is NOT a working code, you need to fill the gaps)
def run(land_use_path, ndvi_path, output_path):

    #here you load your stuff
    land_use = arcpy.Raster(land_use_path)
    lu_meta = arcpy.Describe(land_use)

    #here you test the rasters to see if they are aligned
    assert lu_meta.height == ndvi_meta.height

    #here you get the data out of the raster
    lu_data = arcpy.RasterToNumPyArray(land_use)

    #here you do your calculation
    lai_data = leaf_area_index(lu_data, ndvi_data)

    #here you convert the result to raster
    lai_raster = np_to_raster(lai_data, land_use)
    lai_raster.save(output_path)
    # or write_img(lai_data, land_use, output_path) if you are working with rasterio

Hope this will help!
Comment: That's all very nice but the OP doesn't appear to have Esri software, the question is about GDAL in python.
Comment: rasterio is pretty much gdal


What were fig cakes / raisin cakes?

Question: I Samuel 30:12: 'and gave him a piece of fig-cake and two raisin-cake'.  The are many references to fruit cakes given as gifts and in payment for goods or services in the scriptures.  I am wondering what these cakes looked like.  Were they compressed fruit that could be easily transported and sliced as required? Was it a method of preserving the fruit?  Did they come in a particular size?
Comment: @DoubleAA I think "what is this thing that's talked about in Tanakh" (or Talmud or...) is on-topic here.  For recipes the asker should go to [cooking.se]. :-)
Comment: Is this on topic? What does this have to do with Judaism?
Comment: My question is asked to help me understand what I am reading in the scriptures correctly and more fully.
Comment: "Were they compressed fruit that could be easily transported and sliced as required?" Yes! The Talmud goes into some detail about this (Bava Metziah), but yes, they are basically storage units of preserved fruit.
Answer: From Wikipedia  (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Israelite_cuisine#Figs )

Figs were an important source of food. Figs were cultivated throughout
the land of Israel and fresh or dried figs were part of the daily
diet. A common way of preparing dried figs was to chop them and press
them into a cake.
Raisins were also pressed into clusters and dried as cakes, which kept
the interior raisins softer
Figs are one of the biblical Seven Species and are frequently
mentioned in the Bible (for example, 1 Samuel 25:18, 1 Samuel 30:12
and 1 Chronicles 12:41).[34] The remains of dried figs have been
discovered from as early as the Neolithic period in Gezer, Israel[42]
and Gilgal in the Jordan Valley.[43]
The fig tree (ficus carica) grew well in the hill country and produced
two crops a season. Early ripening figs were regarded as delicacy
because of their sweetness and were eaten fresh. Figs ripening in the
later harvest were often dried and strung into a chain, or pressed
into hard round or square-shaped cakes called a develah, and stored as
a major source of winter food. The blocks of dried fig were sliced and eaten like bread

What were fig cakes / raisin cakes?


What is the definition of a troll in the legal context?

Question: Most commonly one hears the term in the context of the phrase "copyright troll," but what is the essence of a legal "troll"?
Comment: Where have you heard the term in a formal legal context?
Comment: Why must it if  have been used in a formal context?
Comment: @JosephP. Because your question is about the definition of a troll in a legal context and laws are formal & carefully written
Comment: Yes, and they are discussed by those interested in the field in both formal contexts like courts, and informal contexts, like blogs and pubs, as well as in between contexts like lecture halls where many different rhetorical devices may be used to explain and illustrate concepts.
Answer: Another term sometimes used in place of "copyright troll" or "patent troll" in order to be less pejorative is "non-practising entity"1 (moreso in the patent context). These terms refer to a family of characteristics, not always present in every particular instance. These are not well-defined legal concepts but are used colloquially (mostly in academia and journalism) to describe a kind of behaviour in the legal system. Some legal opinions have used the term "troll".2 And some statutes even aim to assist defendants subject to claims from trolls.3
Some features:

they do not licence or produce the material themself
they adopt aggressive, vexatious, and frivolous litigation tactics to attempt to get high value settlements
they initiate claims or demands beyond the scope of their rights or despite fair use defences
litigation awards and settlements are a significant part of their revenue

Because these terms (copyright troll, patent troll, troll, non-practising entity) do not have a precise meaning, good academic work that uses such a term will provide a definition of how they are using the term within their work.4

1. This is also somewhat imprecise, but by non-practising entity, this refers to entities that do not "practise the patent." This is an odd phrase, but to practise a patent means to actually use, make, or sell the patented invention or products incorporating the patented invention (as opposed to merely excluding others from doing so).
2. I haven't done my own independent research for this and am not providing a list of cases, but see footnote 17 of Brad Greenberg, "Copyright Trolls and Presumptively Fair Uses", 2014. It lists a few judicial opinions from the United States using the term, often in quotation marks. The opinions relate trollness to "costly and expansive discovery to need to oppose a fair use defence", that one party was not a troll because it "actually produced the [works] and did not merely acquire the copyright therein to enforce against infringers", that "copyright trolling" uses litigation "not to make the copyright owner whole but to provide a new revenue stream". There are likely many more examples.
3. See for example Washington State's Patent Troll Prevention Act. They use the term only in the short title because of its popular connotation. The term does not appear in the text of the statute. Instead, it prohibits what is considered "bad faith" assertions of patent infringement and includes a description in a preamble of what the legislature considers the nuisance to be.
4. Greenberg's operational definition is: "a copyright owner who: (1) acquires a copyright—either through purchase or act of authorship—for the primary purpose of pursuing past, present, or future infringement actions; (2) compensates authors or creates works with an eye to the litigation value of a work, not the commercial value; (3) lacks a good faith licensing program; and (4) uses the prospect of statutory damages and litigation expenses to extract quick settlements of often weak claims."
Comment: This conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/139757/discussion-on-answer-by-jen-what-is-the-definition-of-a-troll-in-the-legal-conte).
Comment: A distinction I think does a good job of distinguishing copyright trolls from non-trolls is whether they seek to derive a larger fraction of their income from people who honor their copyrights, or from people who violate them.
Answer: People like Richard P Liebowitz
Richard P Liebowitz was, until his indefinite disbarment in November 2021, responsible for "a growing body of law in this [Southern District of New York] devoted to the question of whether and when to impose sanctions on Mr. Liebowitz". At least Two Judges called him a "Copyright Troll" in official filings in at least 3 cases.

Judge Lewis Kaplan quoted in November 2019 a colleague from the same court in an opinion in Sands v. Bauer Media Group USA LLC, S.D.N.Y, defining the concept

Indeed, another judge of this
Court has referred to Mr. Liebowitz as a 'copyright troll' - one who is

'more focused on the business of litigation than on selling a product or
service or licensing their copyrights to third parties to sell a product or
service. A copyright troll plays a numbers game in which it targets hundreds
or thousands of defendants seeking quick settlements priced just low enough
that it is less expensive for the defendant to pay the troll rather than defend
the claim.'

Moreover, Mr. Liebowitz has been sanctioned, reprimanded, and advised to 'clean
up [his] act' by other judges of this Court.

Judge Denise Cote in late February 2018 in her opinion in Steeger v. JMS Cleaning Services cited another opinion that had come out days earlier:

[Plaintif] is represented by Richard Liebowitz, who has been labelled a copyright "troll." McDermott v. Monday Monday, LLC, 17cv9230(DLC), 2018 WL 1033240, at *3 n.4 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 22, 2018).

That case was also in front of Judge Denise Cote, so... well, she quoted herself, but it seems to be the earliest paper that officially alleges that he was a troll:

"Plaintiff's counsel, Richard Liebowitz, is a known copyright "troll," filing over 500 cases in this district alone in the past twenty-four months." McDermott v. Monday Monday, LLC, 17cv9230(DLC), 8-9 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 22, 2018)
Comment: Wow, even the picture on the Wiki doesn't do this guy any favors...


Do prayers offered to anyone but God the Father go unheard?

Question: What is the opinion of the LDS Church concerning prayers offered to Saints, Mary, and Jesus Christ? Are they simply vain words? Are they in anyway acknowledged? Is it considered unrighteous to pray to anyone but God the Father?
Answer: First of all, God is the one who decides which prayers he answers, not us. I take it for granted that he hears all prayers, and it would be presumptuous to say prayers addressed to X go unheard.
Nevertheless, Christ taught that we ought to pray the Father, in his name. Let's just do it and not wonder whether he will answer other people's prayers or not. Generally, I feel Church doctrine is more about defining what is right, than to define what is wrong. Praying the Father in the name of Christ is the right thing to do, because Jesus said so.
Additionaly, I feel that God deserves the honor that we address him directly.
References:
John 16:23-27

23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto
  you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it
  you.
24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall
  receive, that your joy may be full.
25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time
  cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall
  shew you plainly of the Father.
26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that
  I will pray the Father for you:
27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and
  have believed that I came out from God.

And, while not directly related, I'd like to add:
Isaiah 8:19

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar
  spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a
  people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

What I am trying to say is this: Do people pray to Saints because they think God himself won't hear/answer them? What are they trying to achieve by this?
Also slightly unrelated, this is part of what the Bible Dictionary has to say about prayer:

Christians are taught to pray in Christ's name (John 14:13–14; 15:7,
  16; 16:23–24). We pray in Christ's name when our mind is the mind of
  Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ—when His words abide in us
  (John 15:7). We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant.
  Many prayers remain unanswered because they are not in Christ's name
  at all; they in no way represent His mind but spring out of the
  selfishness of man's heart.

Personally, I feel this is far more likely to be the cause of unanswered prayer than some formality coming from being taught one way or the other.
Comment: "Additionaly, I feel that God deserves the honor that we address him directly." - See [John 5:23](http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Jhn&c=5&v=23&t=KJV#s=1002023)
Comment: Does this represent the teaching of the LDS?  If so, please make it explicit and add some references.  If not, then unfortunately the answer is off-topic.


Is it halal to wear tights under jeans during Winter?

Question: I want to know if it's halal or haram to wear tights under jeans during Winter?
Comment: Would you mind explaining: what makes you think it is haram?
Comment: I don't know i just wear them only in winters to stay warm..
Comment: Are you walking around only wearing them in front of none mahram people?
Comment: I just want know are  tight haram to wear under jeans or pants with reference.!!
Comment: No i don't do that...!!
Comment: Then i really wonder what makes you think it is haram? Maybe because it is also known as something women wear ... But as far as I understand, you wear it like inner cloths.
Comment: @Medi1Saif It's not that hard to guess. He doesn't know what haram means ...
Answer: Considering your young age I'll try to make my answer as clear as possible.
First thing, what is Haram ?
Haram, from its root word : H-R-M

Hans Wehr 4th ed, page 201

Ok so Haram things are everything that is forbidden for a submitter [to God] i.e Muslim. These Forbidden/Unlawful things or actions are defined by Allah and Allah only.

Say: "My Lord has made unlawful...." 7:33

Note that everything that shouldn't be done, for some reason, isn't necessarily Unlawful. But all that is Unlawful shouldn't be done, by any means. If you get the difference, we are good to move on to the next part.
What are the ACTIONS that God made Unlawful/Forbidden to a submitter ?

Say: "Come let me recite what your Lord has made unlawful for you: that you should not set up anything with Him - and do good to your parents; and do not kill your children for fear of poverty, We provide for you and for them; and do not come near immorality, what is public of it and private; and do not take the life which God has made forbidden, except in justice. That is what He enjoined you that you may comprehend. And do not come near the money of the orphan, except for what is best, until he reaches his independence; and give honestly full measure and weight equitably. We do not burden a soul except with what it can bear, and if you speak then be just even if against a relative; and regarding the pledges made to God, you shall observe them. This He has enjoined you that you may remember." 6:151-152

Translation: The Monotheist Group (The Quran: A Monotheist Translation)

Say, "My Lord forbids only: Indecent shameful deeds, open or secret, actions that hurt the 'self' and drag down the individual and collective human potential (Ithm), unjust aggression, associating others with God (Shirk), for which He has sent down no authority, and that you say things about God that you do not know." 7:33

Translation: Shabbir Ahmed (Quran As It Explains Itself)

Note that there are also Unlawful things concerning Food, Marriage, and trade.
I hope this answer helps you and anyone else in the long-term.
Now to answer your question: No, God didn't make unlawful to wear tights under your pant in winter or in any other season. Just bare in mind it has nothing to do with the Divine instructions.


How to create a virtual command-backed file in Linux?

Question: What is the most straightforward way to create a "virtual" file in Linux, that would allow the read operation on it, always returning the output of some particular command (run everytime the file is being read from)? So, every read operation would cause an execution of a command, catching its output and passing it as a "content" of the file.
Answer: There is no way to create such so called "virtual file". On the other hand, you would be
able to achieve this behaviour by implementing simple synthetic filesystem in userspace via FUSE. Moreover you don't have to use c, there
are bindings even for scripting languages such as python.
Edit: And chances are that something like this already exists: see for example scriptfs.
Comment: Then, what is `cat /proc/cpuinfo` ?
Comment: @MichaelCole: cpuinfo is not an isolated file, it's part of proc filesystem. The other difference is that procfs is implemented in kernel, while this question requires a solution in userspace.
Comment: Thanks, scriptfs seems exactly what I was looking for :-)
Answer: This is a great answer I copied below.
Basically, named pipes let you do this in scripting, and Fuse let's you do it easily in Python.

You may be looking for a named pipe.
mkfifo f
{
  echo 'V cebqhpr bhgchg.'
  sleep 2
  echo 'Urer vf zber bhgchg.'
} >f
rot13 < f

Writing to the pipe doesn't start the listening program. If you want to process input in a loop, you need to keep a listening program running.
while true; do rot13 <f >decoded-output-$(date +%s.%N); done

Note that all data written to the pipe is merged, even if there are multiple processes writing. If multiple processes are reading, only one gets the data. So a pipe may not be suitable for concurrent situations.
A named socket can handle concurrent connections, but this is beyond the capabilities for basic shell scripts.
At the most complex end of the scale are custom filesystems, which lets you design and mount a filesystem where each open, write, etc., triggers a function in a program. The minimum investment is tens of lines of nontrivial coding, for example in Python. If you only want to execute commands when reading files, you can use scriptfs or fuseflt.
Answer: No one mentioned this but if you can choose the path to the file you can use the standard input /dev/stdin.
Everytime the cat program runs, it ends up reading the output of the program writing to the pipe which is simply echo my input here:
for i in 1 2 3; do
    echo my input | cat /dev/stdin
done

outputs:
my input
my input
my input

Answer: I'm afraid this is not easily possible. When a process reads from a file, it uses system calls like open, fstat, read. You would need to intercept these calls and output something different from what they would return. This would require writing some sort of kernel module, and even then it may turn out to be impossible.
However, if you simply need to trigger something whenever a certain file is accessed, you could play with inotifywait:
#!/bin/bash

while inotifywait -qq -e access /path/to/file; do
        echo "$(date +%s)" >> /tmp/access.txt
done

Run this as a background process, and you will get an entry in /tmp/access.txt each time your file is being read.


Oort cloud blocking light?

Question: Is the Oort cloud blocking a substantial amount of light in the visual spectra, making it harder for observers seeing outside the solar system?
Comment: I think that is because the density of objects in the Oort cloud is very small, just like asteroid belts have a very low density. I have to add that anything concerning the Oort cloud is very conjectural though.
Answer: I don't have a figure for the total area subtended by the objects in the Oort cloud, and I think it would be very difficult to get even within an order of magnitude estimate for this, since we don't know a lot about the Oort cloud.
However there is a simple answer to your question. All we have to do is ask how often we see stars occluded by objects in the Oort cloud, and the answer is never. That tells us that the amount of light blocked by the Oort cloud is insignificant.
Answer: That last rezponse had flawed logic. Just because we never see an Oort object eclipsing a star does not mean the perspective from outside our solar system is the same. Rather it is like we live in a spherical fish bowl that is not perfectly clear because of tiny dots drawn its surface. the sphere of stars is vastly larger than our tiny fishbowl.From a sufficient distance a powerful telescope looking back towards the solar system would see a diffuse ring around the system (the edge of the Oort fishbowl). The amount of light diffused by our Oort clou would be significant enough to alter the perceived spectral lines of the sun, distorting the perceived chemical makeup. An alien with a telescope might think our sun has water and methane and other minerals it should not have due to this distortion. It is the presence of such elements and compounds that tells us which stars have oort clouds since they cannot survive in the stellar furnaces.
Now, the scattering of light might be in the decimal region, but considering the apparent diameter of a star in relation to the size of an Oort-like sphere, a sensitive space-based telescope could detect the presence of the cloud by the inconsistency between the mass and diameter of the star and the amount of light expected and received. Not sure if Hubble is good enough. But the point is that "significance" itself is relative to not just measurement but also WHAT one is measuring.
Comment: This should be a comment on that response, not an answer.
Comment: @HDE226868 The user who posted the answer didn't have enough rep to comment.
Comment: @CJDennis I understand; I meant that it should not have been a answer at all.

Oort cloud blocking light?


How to open windows 7 file explorer window in the position of a current file explorer window

Question: I regularly use the Ctrl+N hotkey to launch a new file explorer window, but this new window opens 'far' from the currently open explorer window. What I prefer is that the new window open exactly overlapping the current/prior window.
Answer: Whenever you open a new file explorer window (whether you use the shortcut/hotkey or not) it will always open with the last used window settings. So an easy way to do it is:
Method 1

Open a new file explorer window.
Resize and position it however you prefer.
Close the window (so the settings get saved as the last used settings).
Open a new explorer window, and you should see it open exactly as the one you closed.
If step 4 went well, use the hotkey/shortcut and it should work.

Method 2
Open a new window, right click on taskbar and click on Cascade windows, now simply use hotkey/shortcut and the new window should be right on top.
Note: I'm on Windows 10 OS and it works, so you'll have to try.
Comment: It often opens at the same position/size, other times not. It seems random. Guess i'll have to live with it.
Comment: Well, I found another way. Having your windows with any position/size, right click on the taskbar and click on _Cascade windows_, it will literally put all of the opened windows in that way. After this use the hotkey/shortcut and it should work. **Don't give up just yet :D**.


Auto spinning turbine generator

Question: This might be dumb question but I'm so curious to know if this actually works or is impossible. I was researching how you could generate electricity from magnets and copper wire and also have read how the hydroelectric generators work and it seems like they share the same concept. So if we are able to generate electricity by moving the turbine with water then why not have a some sort of motor which will make the turbine spin by getting power from the generator. I mean first there needs to be some sort of initial mechanical source to make the turbine spin then once the turbine starts moving and the generator gives power, the other motor gets power and it will take over the spinning of the turbine. So that way it will auto spin itself and basically means free energy. Can someone explain why this is not possible?
Comment: Variations on *"then why not have a some sort of motor which will make the turbine spin by getting power from the generator."* are the plan for most every perpetual motion machine ever proposed. Conservation of energy and the second law of thermodynamics kills them all.
Comment: There's no such thing as a free lunch. The same holds for energy.
Comment: You will always lose power due to friction. With a hydroelectric power plant, you gain an advantage. You start with a liquid with great kinetic potential (confined to a small region) and get electricity which is easily transported (sometimes many miles) to do useful work.
Answer: As with virtually all perpetual motion machines, the reason becomes obvious once you consider the thermodynamic efficiency of the components involved. No turbine is 100% efficient, and also no motor is 100% efficient. This means that out of the initial energy you put in to make the turbine spin, only a certain percentage will be converted to electricity, with the rest being converted to heat. Then, out of that electricity, only a certain percentage is converted to mechanical energy to drive the turbine again. Then we go round again, losing some of that energy to heat until pretty soon the whole thing stops turning.
Of course, it would work just fine if you had an engine or a turbine that was more than 100% efficient, putting out more energy than you have to put in to drive it. But then, that's exactly the reason why we know that efficiencies over 100% are impossible: we observed that perpetual machines seem to be impossible, and from that Carnot derived his thermodynamic limits. The resulting theory has stood the test of time since the 19th century.
Answer: If you hook up a motor to your generator output, the motor would not be able to spin fast enough to produce sufficient current to drive the generator in the first place. This is a typical case of law of conservation of energy. You may also need to check Lenz's law first. It says: "If an induced current flows, its direction is always such that it will oppose the change which produced it."(from Wikipedia) This further explains the law of conservation of energy in a system of a conductor and changing magnetic field.

Auto spinning turbine generator


Programatically add "Web part gallery" in a custom web part in SharePoint Online

Question: I have a custom web part that have different tabs. In two of the tabs/pivots I want the user to be able to add a web part from the web part gallery and to do so I need either to programatically add the web part gallery in my code, or add the specific out of the box web parts that needs to be shown (in this case the Stream web part and text web part). Is this possible?
Answer: As far as I know, there is no way to load a web part inside another web part.


Can there be an emergent non-compact gauge field?

Question: Emergent compact gauge fields are ubiquitous in condensed matter theory (like $U(1)$). Are there any examples of an emergent non-compact gauge field, in which case there won't be any quantization conditions and there would be conserved currents and charges which might or might not be physical.
Answer: Emergent gauge fields come about in systems with local constraints $j(\vec x) = 0$, since
$$\int DA \exp i \int j \wedge A = \delta (j).$$
Then in a classic physics move we integrate out the matter instead of the Lagrange multiplier and we get an effective gauge theory for $A$.
If $j$ is quantized, an integer for example, then $A$ must be taken to be $U(1)$ valued. In general, $j$ should behave like a current. If $j$ is $\mathbb{R}$ valued, then $A$ will be as well. You could consider a constant density fluid, for instance, and then $A$ would be something like a "dilaton" gauge field.
I learned this perspective on emergent gauge fields from E. Fradkin's book Field Theories in Condensed Matter Physics.


Purchased PS4 with 170 games and cannot log in....help!

Question: I purchased a used PS4 for my daughter with 170 downloaded games on the previous account.  My daughter eagerly logged in to play before I had a chance to speak with her and switched the main account to hers and lost access to the original owners games. I have all of his account info to log in again but I have no idea how to correct the log in from her account back to the original.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: Easy fix!
There are 2 ways to do this. One of the first is to:

Make a new account, and login as that user. You will get their games. (However, by getting said account, you violate a rule about selling accounts, so bad bad!)
Do a wipe and set that account first thing as the family admin, thus stopping your sis from taking it off. Only family admins can remove family admins, so she can't mess with that again.

Hope I helped!


Would event.timeStamp and Date.getTime have the same reference?

Question: Would event.timeStamp and Date.getTime() return same values if taken at the exact same time?
For instance, could I use getTime() in order to calculate how much time passed since an event occurred, or might it happen that the 2 use different epoch / references?
Answer: No, they're always on the same reference, that is UTC, which is the time zone of all date internal storages.
You can also use Date.now().
Answer: It depends on the browser.
Using the following HTML document I got different results using different browsers:
<!DOCTYPE html>

onclick delay:

<button onclick='var n=document.getElementById("foo"); n.innerHTML="onclick delay: "+((new Date).getTime()-event.timeStamp)+"ms"'>Click</button>

The delay printed on screen is:
Firefox: large number
IE:  -4ms .. 0ms
Chrome: 0ms .. 2ms
Opera:  0ms .. 2ms
=> You cannot really use it if your code should work in different browsers.


Why does EAP-TLS 1.3 not allow for PSK authentication?

Question: EAP-TLS with TLS 1.3 is standardized in RFC 9190. Section 2.1.1 specifies Authentication. The RFC states that PSK authentication shall not be used except for resumption. This is surprising, because TLS 1.3 allows authentication with PSK (and optionally key agreement with ECDHE). Is there a fundamental reason why PSK authentication is not allowed in, or not compatible with EAP-TLS 1.3?
Comment: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-mattsson-emu-eap-tls-psk-00 provides a proposal for EAP-TLS with PSK authentication (EAP-TLS-PSK). The proposal does not identify any fundamental objections to PSK authentication, and simply defines a new IANA method identifier.
Answer: It is not clear why external PSK is forbidden in EAP-TLS with TLSv1.3.
One drawback is that the external PSK identity is transmitted in cleartext which could have a negative privacy impact. The client certificate is transmitted encrypted in TLS v1.3.
(Note that in TLS v1.2, the client certificate is often/usually transmitted in cleartext.)
Moreover, the TLS v1.3 specification requires that each PSK is only used with a single hash function which is not so great from an ergonomics point of view. The proposed importer mechanism mitigates this problem but is currently only a draft.


Electrons scatter light; x-ray diffraction

Question: why accelerated electrons "scatter" light?
From Yale's chemistry open class, the professor said when a light passes by an electron, it "pulls" the electron up and down, and emit radiation in all direction. How does this happen?   And another question is about the X-ray diffraction. From the picture the textbook shows, when X-ray hits an atom, it's reflected, and because X rays hit lost of different layers , it's reflected separately. It's all about reflection, why we call that x-ray diffraction?
Answer: simply put : Scattering is a reflection with change of frequency. From debrogli, Frequency relates to Energy.
Every time the photon collides with an electron, some energy is given to it. How much is determined by quantum mechanics, exactly that much that is necessary to lift the electron to a higher energy state. anything inbetween the original energy and target state does not take place, that discreetness is one of the things that quantum world takes as an axiom.
For this , the energy of the photon is now changed. Thus it's frequency changes.
Now if you have a crystal, where the atoms form a lattice, then you have multiple returning rays, these rays interact like waves falling on each other. you get diffraction.
if you want you can calculate the amounts of each.
Comment: What's the definition of diffraction? Isn't it "the apparent bending of waves around small obstacles and the spreading out of waves past small openings. "
Comment: yes, when ever you have obstacles, they reflect part and transmit part of the wave. These parts of waves behave as if they were emmited by the obstacle itslef, i.e. they "forget" their orginal source (Huygens theory). But the point is, the observable diffraction can only be observed, when the secondary waves (after the so called bending) interact with some other things. Crystallography, it is the interaction with other waves.


I cant get into my iphone 5c, becuase the screen doesnt work, and i want to recover my photos

Question: my phone recently broke, and the screen when I touch it doesn't do anything. But other than that it works, I receive messages and what not and it shows up on the screen, and the buttons work too. I'm very concerned that I wont be able to save my photos. I tried syncing it to iTunes but it wont work unless I unlock it, which is not possible. And I'm positive I made an icloud that shares family stuff but I don't know to view it.
Comment: Go to www.icloud.com from a regular computer and log in using your appleId and password.  Then click the photos icon
Answer: Tyson 's answer will probably work, but it would require that you enabled photo stream before your phone broke. If you didn't, you're kinda out of luck unless you've backed up your phone to your computer previously.
If you have backed it up before, you can use tools like iExplorer (free demo, $35) to read the iTunes backups. They do, however, make you purchase the software if you actually want to pull the photos out, but it may be worth it to some depending on how much they want their photos. Best of luck.