How does batch normalization enable larger learning rates (according to the original paper)?

Question: I struggle to understand how batch normalization (BN) enables larger learning rates during gradient descent according to the original paper. I am aware that some of the explanations given in the latter have been debunked, but I would like to understand the logic behind them anyway.
The central claim is that BN has this effect on the learning rate because it prevents exploding gradients. I find the intuition behind this best explained in a video by Ian Goodfellow, where he uses the "simplest possible network" for illustration:
$\hat{y} = abcde$
so, a network that consists of 5 one-unit layers (where $a/b/c/d/e$ are the respective weights of the units), and which does not introduce non-linearity through activation functions. Obviously, during forward propagation, the value of $a$ will determine the statistics of the activation at $d$, as Goodfellow explains. Similarly, during backpropagation, the value of $d$ will influence the gradient of $a$ since the derivative w.r.t. $a$ is
$\frac{\delta \hat{y}}{\delta a} = bcde$
so far so good. Adding normalization steps before/after each layer prevents this interaction between layers and keeps the gradients from exploding (due to the normalized value range). This way, gradient descent can make large modifications to parameters, without having to adjust to the propagated effect of said modifications in later iterations, causing more linear progress and less oscillations. Am I correct so far?
Now, I have been trying to apply the same logic to the network shown in the below picture (taken from this article):

Here, the partial derivative of the cost function w.r.t. the weight $w_{1}$, is given by:
$\frac{\delta J}{\delta w_{1}} = \frac{\delta J}{\delta \hat{y}} \frac{\delta \hat{y}}{\delta z_{2}} \frac{\delta z_{2}}{\delta a_{1}} \frac{\delta a_{1}}{\delta z_{1}} \frac{\delta z_{1}}{\delta w_{1}}$
if the $ReLU$ is used as the activation function and considering that $z_{i} = w_{i}a_{i-1} + b_{i}$, this becomes (leaving out $\frac{\delta J}{\delta \hat{y}}$ for simplicity, and assuming that $z_{i} > 0$):
$\begin{align}
\frac{\delta J}{\delta w_{1}} &= \frac{\delta J}{\delta \hat{y}} \cdot ReLU'(z_{2}) \cdot w_{2} \cdot ReLU'(z_{1}) \cdot x_{1}\\
&= \frac{\delta J}{\delta \hat{y}} \cdot 1 \cdot w_{2} \cdot 1 \cdot x_{1}
\end{align}$
My problem is that in the original paper, BN is applied before the activation, so $BN(w_{i}a_{i-1} + b)$, i.e. $BN(z_{i})$. However, $ReLU'(z_{i})$ is always 1 or 0. And if a different activation is used, such as the sigmoid, then $\sigma'(z_{i})$ is always $\leq 1$. Point being, that I'm struggling to imagine how normalizing $z_{i}$ can make such a big difference, since the value range of $g(z_{i})$ is anyway very restricted for any activation function $g$. In the explanation by Goodfellow, the normalized values go into the multiplication unmodified, so it makes more sense to normalize them.
PS: I have asked a similar question about exploding gradients before ... so I guess the idea just confuses me.
Answer: $$\frac{\partial BN(aWu)}{\partial u} = \frac{\partial BN(Wu)}{\partial (u)} $$
$$\frac{\partial BN((aW)u)}{\partial (aW)} =(1/a)*\frac{\partial BN(Wu)}{\partial W}.$$
These are the formulae from the paper.During backpropagation, weight matrices get multiplied so, when W has values greater than 1, gradients need to be made smaller and when it has values smaller than 1 gradients need to be made larger which is done by a. Since, vanishing and exploding gradients are thus mitigated, learning rate can be increased. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.11604.pdf see this link for further reference on how BN helps in increasing learning rate.
Comment: At least check whether your purported formula have been typeset correctly.
Answer:
Typically if large learning rates are used, overshooting local minimum might happen or due to large or small values of weights exploding or vanishing gradients occur respectively. But in case of batch normalization based on scaling of weights, gradients magnitudes also changes accordingly preventing vanishing and exploding gradients so, learning rate can be increased.
Comment: You can use mathjax for math typesetting. https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5020/mathjax-basic-tutorial-and-quick-reference Please don't paste images, as they are harder to edit, harder to read, and not useful to people who use screen-readers.


Why are Buddhist monks not as extreme as Jain monks when it comes to non-violence?

Question: Why are Buddhist monks not as extreme as Jain monks when it comes to non-violence? For example Jain monks sweep the floor in front of them to avoid stepping on insects/microbes. As far as I'm aware, Buddhist monks don't do this. I'm guessing it is just that the traditions of the two religions through time have been different. But wouldn't it make sense for the Buddhist monks to be as extreme as Jain monks as they also try to avoid harming any living thing? Or maybe Buddhist monks could justify not doing these things as it would eat up more time in their day thus leaving less time for meditation practice? Thoughts anyone? Thanks
Answer: Buddhist monks aren't practicing properly if they willfully commit bad karma to save time. Whatever practice is done in that saved time would be done on top of   bad karma. The more bad karma a practice has behind it the more likely it leads the practitioner towards suffering and away from wisdom.
In the Buddha's teaching, any action that
involves karma comes with volition (cetana). Action without volition is neither bad nor good.
For example, the blind monk, Cakkhupala, killed some insects while doing walking meditation. He did not have the
volition(cetana) to kill any insect so no bad or good karma would have arisen. Even though Cakkhupala  stepped on them, no bad intentions arised. In this way Cakkupala did nothing wrong.
Answer: Mahavira aka Nigantha Nataputta, the founder of Jainism, taught that physical karma is more blameworthy than mental karma.
The Buddha however, taught that all karma begins from the mind, thus it is mental karma that is most blameworthy.

"Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta describes the physical rod as being the most
blameworthy for performing bad deeds, not so much the verbal rod or
the mental rod." .....
"I describe mental deeds as being the most blameworthy for performing
bad deeds, not so much physical deeds or verbal deeds."
MN 56

This can be found in the verse from the Dhammapada:

All mental phenomena have mind as their forerunner; they have mind as
their chief; they are mind-made. If one speaks or acts with an evil
mind, 'dukkha' (suffering) follows him just as the
wheel follows the hoofprint
of the ox that draws the cart.
Dhammapada 1

The commentary to Dhammapada 1 tells the story of Ven. Cakkhupala, a blind elder arahat monk who accidentally and unintentionally killed some small insects by stepping on them.
The Buddha said that Cakkhupala did not have the (mental) intention to kill the insects, hence he was not guilty of it.
However, based on Jainism, mentally intending to kill insects without actually performing the act is not as bad as accidentally killing the insects without mentally intending to. Or at least this is the case, according to MN 56 (quoted above).
In MN 101, the Buddha debunked the following teachings of the Jains:

All the happens to a person is due to past karma
Elimination of past karma is possible by penance
Elimination of karma is possible by not accumulating new karma
With emptying of all past bad and good karma, suffering would end

In other words, the Jain way is emptying the karma account in order to end the cycle of rebirth, which is suffering.
The Buddha's path is that of the purification of the mind to end suffering, and not emptying of the karma account.
The Jain idea is that suffering is sustained by karmic balance. The Buddhist teaching is that suffering is sustained by craving and ignorance.

"Mendicants, there are some ascetics and brahmins who have this
doctrine and view: 'Everything this individual
experiences—pleasurable, painful, or neutral—is because of past deeds.
So, due to eliminating past deeds by mortification, and not doing any
new deeds, there's nothing to come up in the future. With nothing to
come up in the future, deeds end. With the ending of deeds, suffering
ends. With the ending of suffering, feeling ends. And with the ending
of feeling, all suffering will have been worn away.' Such is the
doctrine of the Jain ascetics.
I've gone up to the Jain ascetics who say this and said, 'Is it really
true that this is the venerables' view?' They admitted that it is. ...
But since you don't know any of these things, it's not appropriate for
the Jain venerables to declare this.'  ...
Such is the doctrine of the Jain ascetics. Saying this, the Jain
ascetics deserve rebuke and criticism on ten legitimate grounds.
MN 101
Answer: Good householder. There are "many" monks who would abstain to sweep the soil, fearing to 'dig' into it or useless harm and kill. There are also those using a broom. However, hypocritical moral has no place within the training, yet it's for sure not easy to know ones mind, especially if not Noble yet.
Answer: But wouldn't it make sense for the Buddhist monks to be as extreme as Jain monks as they also try to avoid harming any living thing?
Buddhism is famously a "Middle Way" (Wikipedia), which is said to mean, "avoiding the two extremes".
That Wikipedia article mentions that there are suttas which criticise the Jains for some of their relatively extreme practices.
That said there are rules for Buddhist monks to avoid harming living things -- for example they are not to dig earth (unless it's clean gravel or sand or something). And I think there is sweeping in some places, to keep the paths clean, but I suppose it's situational, and is not a ritual to be practiced always (in fact, "rites and rituals" in general is considered one of the "fetters").


Aggregate function / Group By - invalid column error

Question: Using classic ASP and MS-SQL server 2008
What I am trying to do is select duplicate records, and count them so I can then update the first one and delete the rest.
My query selects the duplicates OK but as soon as I try and introduce a count it stops working with the message "Column 'calendar.id' is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause."
I have tried to rewrite this and added the count to the second SELECT and adding the id to GROUP BY (and as many combinations of this sort of thing as I can think of but I still get errors. The answers I have looked at on stackoverflow for a solution seem to be a little complicated and not really applicable (or I'm not looking for the right thing)
Where am I going wrong with this?
(also is this the best method to look for and edit duplicates in a smallish table (200k rows?)
Dim strSQL_dup, rsSQL_dup, SQL_dupRecords, RecCount

            strSQL_dup = "SELECT id, COUNT(id) AS RecCount FROM calendar WHERE start_date IN ( SELECT start_date FROM calendar WHERE pId = '" & pId & "' GROUP BY start_date HAVING (COUNT(start_date ) > 1) )  "
            Set rsSQL_dup = conn.Execute(strSQL_dup)

            While Not rsSQL_dup.EOF
                If RecCount = 1 Then
                        'will eventually update the row
                        response.write(rsSQL_dup("id")) ' id of first'
                Else
                        'will eventually delete the other rows
                        response.write(rsSQL_dup("id")) ' id of subsiquet rows
                End If
            rsSQL_dup.MoveNext
            Wend

Comment: @Mihai - It's calendar.id, no underscore
Comment: Not related to the question comment: You code is (probably) very prone to SQL inject attacks. Try to put that inside a SP and avoid to use (no parametric) dynamic queries.
Answer: The issue is that COUNT is an aggregate function, so whatever argument you pass to it needs to be in your GROUP BY clause.
If id itself is your key to determine uniqueness, you can change your query to
SELECT id, COUNT(id) AS RecCount FROM calendar group by id having count(id) > 1

If the date matters for filtering a subset of your data e.g. to search in a particular period only, you can include it in a WHERE clause. On the other hand, if date and id together determine uniqueness, you will need to include both fields in your GROUP BY clause.
Answer: It seems you are missing GROUP BY in the main query:
SELECT id, COUNT(id) AS RecCount
 FROM calendar
WHERE start_date IN (SELECT start_date FROM calendar
                     WHERE pId = '" & pId & "'
                     GROUP BY start_date
                     HAVING (COUNT(start_date ) > 1) )
GROUP BY clalendar.id

(The last line can be of course GROUP BY id I just wanted to highlight the link between the last and first lines)


Office 365 mailbox marking items as read when they aren't

Question: A client of ours has a mailbox in Office 365 and per his request, we've added that mailbox to his assistant's Outlook to help him weed through his sales emails. Whenever she clicks send/receive and receives new mail, it gets marked as read on the original user's Outlook. Even though the mail hasn't been read by either party. Tried changing reading pane settings, no fix.
Comment: I've seen this happen when adding an iPad to an exchange server, setup as connecting to exchange server (without reading it).  It would help to note whether the assistant is setup with IMAP or POP.  Also, is the email setup on any other devices/computers besides the assistant's computer?
Answer: If the assistant is using POP to check for mail, it may mark them as read when it downloads new messages. IMAP and Exchange wait until the message is flagged as "read" by the client or web app.
Comment: @IvanViktorovic The question stated "Whenever she clicks send/receive and receives new mail, it gets marked as read", not "as soon as she changes the selected item"
Comment: This was the correct answer. Thank you very much NoChecksum!
Comment: Using the default Outlook setting it will mark mails as read as soon as you change the selected item, unless you change that setting.
Comment: Yep, you are right.
Answer: If it is configured as an exchange account there is a setting you can change this behaviour in Outlook.
In Outlook 2013 Go to File -> Options --> E-Mail
On the right side there is a menu point "Outlook-Sections". You will find in this section the option "Reading Pane". Click this button an you get a new settings window. In this box un-select the option "Mark item as read when selection changes" (or something like that). As well you may un-select the option "Mark items as read when viewed in Reading Pane".
If you have done this setting the mails will stay unread as far as you only use the quick read area. To set the mails as read you will need to double klick (open) the mail or set the mail as read using the conxext menu.
I hope this will help.
Comment: You can as well read how to do this here http://www.msoutlook.info/question/250


Any ideas on hiding a TV in a coffee table?

Question: With 1080p and now 4k Tvs its a waste of technology to watch it from 14'+ away.  Sitting under   6' way from a 50+ inch HDTV is the only way to enjoy all the pixels.
The only way I can think to have a TV that close to the sofa is to have it in the coffee table.
Ideally I would like it to lift out of the top of the table but the screen is too high for a coffee table and I really dont want to cut a hole in the floor. Other option is to hinge the top of the table and mount it on the bottom. Use 2 actuators to help lift.  Does anyone have any ideas on how to mount it or about anything else.
Comment: "is the only way to enjoy all the pixels" = perhaps...but can you enjoy the actual movie like that? :)
Comment: why would you need to enjoy all the pixels?
Comment: What about putting rollers on the couch and rolling it near the TV when viewing? Just brainstorming.
Comment: There are lift mechanisms out there, but to get a screen size in under the height of a coffee table is a really tall order. The HD or 1080 is a waste on screens smaller than 32", the pixels are already small enough to get  a great picture on that size screen. It is only marketing hype. Picture this, a beautiful picture on a 64" LED tv at 1080p OR 1080i, you can have the exact same beautiful picture at 720p or 720i. This is what I have read on the tech sites about setting up home theaters and the like. What is the size of tv you were thinking?
Comment: Wait for the long-discussed flexible [roll-up TV](https://www.google.com/search?q=roll-up+tv) screens to make it into production?
Comment: Toshiba lists a recommended viewing distance for different screen sizes [here](http://www.toshiba.com/us/recommended-tv-viewing-distance). Some companies also make [under-the-bed TV lifts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTRACAivf7M), but they might unbalance a coffee table. (I have no affiliation with any of the above companies I mentioned.)
Answer: Something like this?
http://www.justlaine.com/2011/01/17365.html

It wouldn't be too difficult to make.  For a 50" TV, you'll have to build a big one.
Answer: Ideas:

Move the couch closer to the TV.
Get an 80 inch TV (or projection TV).
Mount the TV to the ceiling with a system of counterweights that extend into the attic.
Answer: http://tvtracksystems.com/
We have a couple of TV tracks in my Boston office.  I would suggest that to you.  You can have your insanely close viewing and when people come over you can scoot it back.  Plus it is cool.
Comment: I like but $5k. I wonder if I can make it myself.
Comment: @JustinK - def a DIY idea.  I would ask it as a different question.  It doesn't need to be remote because how much do you move your tv.  I thinka  really good ball bearing and track would do it.  I'm sure there are others better with metal than me that would have ideas.
Answer: You could mount the TV flat, face up under a glass top coffee table.


Setting up a VLAN isolated from outside

Question: I have been tasked with creating a vlan on a HPE 1920 switch that has no access to the outside world but can access all other devices connected to the switch, how do I go about this? I have some limited experience with Cisco routers but none with HPE.
Comment: Did any answer help you? If so, you should accept the answer so that the question doesn't keep popping up forever, looking for an answer. Alternatively, you can provide and accept your own answer.
Answer: A VLAN is a Virtual Local Area Network, i.e. a layer 2 network.
Hosts within a LAN (being it Virtual or not) need a router to reach other networks (other VLAN or outside world). I.E. a layer 3 network.
So what you need to do is configure access-lists on the router that tells which networks the hosts from this VLAN are allowed to communicate with and forbid all other communication.

Setting up a VLAN isolated from outside


Is it really necessary to solve a system of linear equations in the Finite Element Method?

Question: When we solve some boundary value problem by Finite Element Method, the appropriate system of linear equations is built, $$Ax=b.$$
Usually we use the solution x just for plugging it into some inequalities describing conditions which need to be satisfied, $$F(x)>0.$$
The solution itself does not interest us. And what if we would try to check these conditions without finding solution of the linear system. That is we need to develop algorithm for checking solution instead of obtaining it. Why not to do that?
Comment: Please avoid [cross-posting (here only math.SE)](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/4623451/does-it-really-necessary-to-solve-a-system-of-linear-equations-in-the-finite-ele) or at least link all versions of the question to each other. This avoids duplication of effort in requesting additional information, providing helpful hints and answers.
Comment: What do you mean by "solving a boundary value problem" if not obtaining an approximation to the solution?  What's the context in which you only care about satisfying inequalities $F(x)>0$?
Comment: What do these conditions that need to be satisfy represent?
Comment: My question concerns why we solve boundary value problems at all. Generally, we find a solution not to just look at it. For example, you have to verify that stress field in elasticity problem is not over the yield stress, that is, you should plug stresses into some yield criterion given by inequalities. But what if you try to prove the correctness of these inequalities without finding a solution (stresses). Just as you do not think to compute the inverse matrix for solving system of linear equations, you do not aim to compute solution of that system for checking inequalities.
Comment: It's impossible.
Answer: I think your question is actually pretty fundamental and deserves a thoughtful answer.
Paraphrasing a bit, your question is perhaps motivated by the observation that engineering design is often performed over objects that can be described using low-dimensional parameter spaces: a handful of geometrical parameters (lengths, thicknesses, angles, etc) plus a handful of material parameters (stiffness, viscosity, permeability, etc). And the performance of these objects is typically characterized using a handful of quantities of engineering interest that are similarly low-dimensional (maximum load of the truss, input impedance of the antenna, etc). Why should we fuss with mapping out this relationship using a high-fidelity/discretization-based method like FEM, that require a "solution" (x) in such a high-dimensional space? Why can't we seek a more direct (low-dimensional) relationship between our parametric description of an object and its performance?
The answer is.. nothing stops you, it's been done that way for ages! Every engineering discipline has these low-dimensional relationships codified into practical "thumb rules" that govern different classes of objects. A structural engineer knows that a cantilever span of a truss should be less than half of the anchor span, an RF engineer knows that the beamwidth of a parabolic dish is roughly 70deg*lambda/diameter, etc. These rules are everywhere. But they do have drawbacks baked-in, that they are only narrowly applicable to some small class of objects, whose performance is probably restricted to a similarly narrow range. Their accuracy is basically unknown as you depart from these ranges.
This is where physics-based computer simulation (eg FEM) comes in. These tools are applicable over an arbitrarily wide range of objects, basically as long as you can draw an object and attribute it with the appropriate material properties, you can predict its performance reliably using a suitable modeler. Simulations are universal thumb rules. They are also error-controllable in a way that a thumb rule really isn't, in that you can reasonably expect an FEM model to converge closer and closer to the exact/continuum response as it is refined. In turn, this means that physics-based simulation is a great "factory" for extracting reliable thumb rules for new/unknown classes of objects: parameterize your geometry, sweep over the parameters and perform FEM on each instance, observe the locus of output/performance, and discover/extract the low-dimensional relationships. A particularly popular trend is to completely automate this process, and use high-dimensional models (like FEM) to train a low-dimensional model (in the AI/ML sense of the word), with no humans/thumbs in sight.
This has grown long, but I'd say the bottom line answer is: you're right, solving PDE's is really just a means towards the end, the reliable automation of engineering design. But unfortunately, that reliability bit is rooted in convergence arguments based on high-dimensional/highly-refined solutions.
PS: I think your last sentence, that we should seek algorithms for checking solutions instead of obtaining them, is also worth reflecting upon. The PDE itself (or at least our discretization of it) is essentially our most robust "checking" mechanism: does x satisfy physical law or not? The next Socratic question is, if x does not satisfy physical law, how could I change it for the better? If you squint, these two questions/actions (form residual, update solution) are the pebbles that trigger the entire landslide of iterative solution techniques (stationary iterations, Krylov methods, preconditioning, all of it). One of the reasons that FEM is so successful is that, as "checkers" go, it's pretty fast due to sparsity properties.


Under sink drain vent odors

Question: I work in maintenance at a home for abused, neglected, etc children. We have 20 bathroom sinks (4 sinks per house with 5 houses) this facility was built 6 years ago. All the sinks use an under sink vent, not vented thru the roof. Recently some of the bathrooms have developed an odor which gets stronger the closer you get to the vent. Can these vents be cleaned out somehow or should I just replace them as odors arise?
Comment: These sell for $15-$25 each; times 20 is $300-$500. You'll have to figure out whether the cleaning job is worth the money. You might try replacing one and seeing if it fixes the problem; you can then experiment with cleaning the removed vent without leaving the pipe unsealed.
Answer: Sometimes these charity facilities have work "donated" to them, and it might not be the most experienced plumber, electrician, or whatever doing the job.  You might want to get a trusted, experienced plumber to look over the install to make sure there's not something fundamentally wrong.
That said, and assuming the vents are installed correctly, the design of your particular vent will determine if it can be cleaned or not.  In a lot of cases a plumber would just replace the vent because it's not worth their time to try and clean it, and hope it still works.  If you're a full time maintenance person at the facility (or a DIY'er), you have time to try and clean them and then replace if they don't work since you're there all the time any way (no trip charges, driving, etc).
For instance, in this article, the guy just replaces the vent because it was so nasty, but maybe he could have soaked it for an hour and scrubbed it out.  Or maybe he just knew it would never work right because he'd done it before...
Short version:  Try to clean them if you think it's worth it, but you might just have to replace it anyway.

Under sink drain vent odors


Stress energy pseudotensor of the repulsive gravity of an exotic matter

Question: Postulating the existence of a hypothetical negative mass, would the pseudotensor of its repulsive gravitational field have a negative stress energy? If so, why?
Answer: Relativists don't really talk about negative mass, they talk about energy conditions. If you were going to talk about negative mass, you would have to specify carefully whether you meant inertial mass, active gravitational mass, or passive gravitational mass. Stress-energy is a tensor, not a scalar, so again, it doesn't really make sense to talk about it as positive or negative; we can talk about whether or not it violates certain energy conditions. You can talk about the Newtonian limit, where only the 00 component of the stress-energy is nonnegligible, but in the Newtonian theory, the gravitational field of a positive mass has negative energy density.
Comment: While I agree with what you're saying here, this should be a comment, not an answer post.
Comment: We could also talk about the local *eigenvalues* of the stress-energy tensor.
Answer: Yes, it would, according to Gerard t'Hooft: "...it could have been that Newton's constant G turned out to be negative. Gravity would be a repulsive force but that does not seem to contradict anything. Until you compute the energy of gravitational waves: that energy would have been negative, which would be somewhat disturbing from a physical point of view."
Source:
http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~hooft101/gravitating_misconceptions.html


File deletion very slow in Sharepoint 2010

Question: File deletion is very slow in Sharepoint 2010. It takes approximately 5 mts. to delete a 56KB file. What could be the cause and how to fix this?
Comment: I would guess there are around 1,000 factors which could affect this.  I don't know the answer, but you will surely need to give a massive amount more information to diagnose this.  What/where is the server?  The hardware?  The client?  How is the connection between the two?  How big is the site collection/site?  How many files?  How many security principals?  Etc.. etc..
Comment: do you have any event receiver attached to your list that trigger e.g. item deleting or deleted
Comment: i think you have to check file versions..
if you are frequently updating file then each time create new version. so it may be slow, you can set maximum version limit.
Comment: There is no event receiver attached to the list
Answer: In my experience 99 of 100 performance issues you find the error on SQL Server, since SharePoint is a SQL Server intence product. Monitor the SQL Servers performance in terms of memory usage, processor usage, disk usage and network usage.
There is also a superb Wiki on the topic where you can start called SharePoint 2010: Tips for Dealing with Performance Issues where the three first is very general:

Get to know your application, it's usage, and it's response times by studying the IIS logs. One of the ways to do this is to use the free SharePoint Flavored Weblog Reader (SFWR) tool: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/The-SharePoint-Flavored-5b03f323
Monitor performance counters that are relevant for SharePoint. The gallery post http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/PowerShell-script-for-59cf3f70   shows an overview of a set of relevant performance counters that have been established after careful research, and a small PowerShell script for reading them. Also see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff758658.aspx   for a different perspective.
Even if your environment is already up and running, do capacity planning. This way you can check if you're crossing any important limits that might threaten performance. Check out http://sharepointdragons.com/2011/12/05/sharepoint-capacity-planning/  and http://sharepointdragons.com/2012/02/03/more-capacity-planning-links/   . Also check out http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Maxer-for-SharePoint-2010-8cd0f26f    , Maxer for SharePoint 2010 is a tool that checks for capacity boundaries in existing SharePoint farms.  Do remember that content database limits include remote BLOBs (if you use them) and that auditing has a great impact on capacity planning: http://www.sharepointedutech.com/2011/07/11/sharepoint-contentdb-guidance-too-many-shades-of-gray-along-with-a-little-brown/

Further down the list you find more "hands-on advices":

Use SQL DMVs to analyze the state of your SQL database server, also taking into consideration the performance of other applications unrelated to SharePoint, but hosted on the same database server.
If you're allowed to: enable SQL Profiler to check SQL Server database problems on the fly.
Shrink the SharePoint content database transaction log files if they become too big or when it's size increases abnormally: http://sharepointdragons.com/2012/02/08/managing-sharepoint-2010-log-files/
Enable BLOB cache. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261797.aspx   , http://www.ittreats.com/microsoft/aspnet/configure-blob-cache-for-sharepoint-2010-web-applications.html
Enable Profile cache. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261797.aspx
Enable object cache. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261797.aspx
Enable output cache.

I hope that gives you something to start with!


How do you get to the tower in Chaper 12 ("Abducted") of Uncharted 3?

Question: In the Abducted chapter (the shipyard area) you get to a big area of water surrounded by large ships and containing a few small boats. I killed all the enemies but have circled the area many times and can't figure out where to go next. Where am I supposed to go?
Answer: Head towards the far right corner by the mounted gun.

You can climb up the ship to the side of the mounted gun, look to climb a ladder up the ship's mast.

You will have to take out some bad guys and can then make your way backwards over the wall.
Comment: I'll add some screenshots that I had already put together.
Comment: Was going to answer my own question (as I did finally figure it out) but got called away after I asked it!


z-score of one variable, but for two groups

Question: I need to transform the score of a variable to z-scores, because of two different scales that were used according to the subjects' age. However, there are two groups: control and diseased.  Do I compare the variable score to the mean and standard deviation of the control group i.e. z-score = (score - control mean)/SD in control group for each scale?
Answer: It depends on what your purpose is. If you want to compare individuals with different scores within the same treatment group, you would use the mean and standard deviation of the treatment group they're in. If you want to compare the average score between treatment groups, you would use the overall mean and standard deviation. If you standardized within each group, the mean difference would be exactly equal to 0 (i.e., because the means of the Z-score within each group would be equal to 0). To retain the differences between the treatment groups, the Z-scores should be computed with respect to the whole sample.
Comment: Thanks.  Yes, I want to compare the two groups.  Previously I was told that standardization had to be done in reference to the control group.
Comment: Then it doesn't matter which mean you subtract from the scores and which standard deviation you divide by the scores, as long as you use the same mean and standard deviations for all units in the sample for each measure. Standardization just changes the units; there is no better or rose mean and standard deviation to use. You can use the mean and standard deviation of the whole sample, or of the control group, or of the treated group. It might be best for you to do what is most commonly done in your discipline.


Update Database Fields Based On Date

Question: I need a trigger that updates a table row field by checking date that is stored in their own field without any interaction of user. i.e I am working on a project where I have to book rooms for user for a particular date and time and at that case I want to show room status as "booked" but after expiry of that date and time our database automatically update room status "booked" to "available". means I want that database keep track of their record and update it automatically. How I can achieve this?
Comment: Don't use a trigger for this. Just put whatever logic you were going to put into the trigger to determine this into the `SELECT` query instead. You can encapsulate the logic in a (non persisted) computed column on the table.
Comment: And one important point I forgot to mention is that you can't create a trigger that fires at a specific time anyway.
Answer: As Martin Smith said in the comments, there is no Date/Time based trigger, therefore you have two options.

Batch Update - Use a batch process to update the data.  This requires determining how often the data needs to change and then creating a batch process that runs at least that often to update the data.  If the information changes once a day this might be acceptable, but as the update need gets more frequent this solution becomes less usable.
Dynamic Evaluation - As Martin Smith suggested, determine availability when the information is requested.  This can be in the select statement itself or you can use a computed column on the table.  In either case the data will be as up to date as it can be.
Answer: In MySQL, I have used Event Scheduler. There is a similar function in SQLServer 2008, see Creating and Attaching Schedules to Jobs.
For your purpose, you can set it to start everyday at 00:01.

Update Database Fields Based On Date


Can player characters get turned into zombies? And if they can, what changes?

Question: In the Monster Manual it does not say you can't, but it does not say you can either. Сan player characters be turned into zombies? And if they can, what changes?
Comment: Are you asking as a DM or player? What's the goal of becoming or turning into a zombie?
Comment: You might want to tell a bit more what you are after. Zombies are quite specific type of monster in D&D. There are also at least Ghouls, Ghasts and Revenants which might qualify as "zombie" in some other pop culture context, for example. Please edit the question clarify!
Comment: I'm a DM and player.
Comment: I'm hoping not in the same game.
Answer: Yes, but maybe not like you think
In Dungeons & Dragons, zombies are not contagious and being bitten by one does not turn you into a zombie. This is why you do not see anything in the Monster Manual about players being turned into zombies.
Zombies are created primarily through use of the Animate Dead spell. This spell targets "a pile of bones or a corpse of a Medium or Small Humanoid within range." Players qualify, so can be turned into Zombies by doing this. What changes is basically that the player character stops being a player character and becomes an NPC monster under the control of whomever cast the spell.
(Of course, in order to be targeted by this spell, the player character already needs to be dead.)
Comment: @PoutPoutFish123: Just to mention that a _DM_ can, of course, come up with new ways of zombie creation if desired for the purposes of Plot. A campaign of mine had a magical artifact that loosed a zombie "plague", creating modified zombies. These zombies could infect others with a disease that added exhaustion levels every day of failed Con saves until the victim died, at which point they arose as new (infectious) zombies. Such zombies should be higher CR, and PCs are likely to have ways of removing disease, but it served as a desired plot device!
Comment: And just for the record, there *are* other non-zombie undead that can turn the player characters into them (shadows, for instance) but the resulting monster still wouldn't be a playable character.
Comment: There is also the [UA Revenant subrace](https://media.dnd.wizards.com/upload/articles/UA%20Gothic%20Characters.pdf). It's not quite a zombie, but the PC will be undead and still under the control of their player.
Answer: Yes.
The steps are:

Kill them.

Cast Animate Dead on the corpse.

You now have a zombie under your control and the player gets to make a new character.
D&D Zombies are not TV Zombies
D&D zombies are corpses animated by magic - they are not animated by zombie viruses and are therefore not contagious.
Comment: For those just tuning in, the original question title was "Can players get turned into zombies? And if they can, what changes?"
Comment: @Slagmoth Then it's not a helpful answer. The correct answer would be along the lines of *they will likely get agressive and hard to play with*.
Comment: FWIW, a few years ago I had a DM whose zombies were animated by a virus and who our cleric could not use "turn undead" against. When that turn undead didn't work I'll just say that all of the players were somewhat taken aback.
Answer: Here's a bit of background that might be helpful. D&D was initially written and published (1974) just a few years after the release of the movie Night of the Living Dead (1968). As Wikipedia notes:

Although the film is regarded as one of the launching pads for the
  modern zombie movie, the screenplay itself never uses the word.

What is used, in a news report near the end of the film, is the word "ghoul" in reference to the monsters. And that's reflected in original D&D: ghouls may turn victims into more ghouls (after killing them), but zombies don't do that.
Answer: Per the Monster Manual: a Wight can when using life drain
When the wight uses the life drain attack, it may end up killing the character.  If the character is a humanoid then the character slain by life drain can be turned into a zombie by the wight.

A humanoid slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a zombie under the wight's control, unless the humanoid is restored to life or its body is destroyed. The wight can have no more than twelve zombies under its control at one time.  (MM, Wight; Basic Rules, p. 159)

I have done this via a wight as the DM twice in the past few years; once to a PC and once to an NPC.  In both cases the party encountered them during a subsequent adventure.  (As an aside: a wight leading a band of zombies is a fun encounter, or can be).
A simpler way is to use the animate dead spell on the PC's corpse, as noted in @Erik's answer.
What changes?
Normally, their stat block is now identical to the zombie stat block, and they become an NPC/Monster under the control of the DM.
If your players want to play as that monster, they can if you let them but there's no mechanical tool available for them to have classes, get levels, etc.  In that respect, do what's fun.  (I mean, how much fun is it to work for a wight? Depends on the player, I guess).


Sending questioners to other sites

Question: If I know that an off-topic question can be answered on a third party website/board, is it OK to send the Asker there?
Answer: Yes, it is.
If something is explicitly off-topic on Stack Exchange, there is no harm in sending the asker elsewhere.
However, do not use this for self-promotion. Do not promote a forum of your own this way.
People usually mention other sites in comments, rather than answers.
And, of  course, if something is on-topic on another Stack Exchange site than it is posted on, by all means flag to migrate, and leave a comment for the asker.
Comment: 'there is no harm in sending the asker elsewhere' well...  'I need an answer off the net, but I can't be bothered to find a good place to look/ask... I know!  I'll post it on SE and some drone will find a good place for me!  While I'm waiting for my slaves, is the bar open yet?'   It's a bad idea give any kind of impression that we do research for free - the vamps will latch on immediately.   Try very hard to not attract any more crap - there is no shortage as it is;(

Sending questioners to other sites


how to show the existence of root for a system of polynomial equations?

Question: I come across a system of polynomial equations. Although I can solve it by Mathematica (numerically), I wonder whether it is possible to prove this root indeed exists. Any general method to do it?
For example, $f(x_1,x_2)=0$ ; $g(x_1,x_2)=0$ ; $f$ and $g$ are polynomials of $x_1$ and $x_2$, and I compute an approximate root $(x_1^*,x_2^*)$ by some numerical method. How can I show there indeed exists a root around this approximate calculated root? I just wonder whether there exist some general theories in doing so.
Comment: Could you perhaps tell us the system? In some cases you can guess the exact algebraic solution after you solved the system to high accuracy and then check the algebraic solution in exact arithmetic. Sometimes Smale's Alpha Theory helps.
Comment: Real root or complex root? How many equations/unknowns?
Comment: real and two equations with two unknowns
Answer: The magic words are: Cylindrical Algebraic Decomposition.
Comment: I have the impression that in the zero-dimensional case that Grobner bases plus picking out the real solutions works better.
Comment: @arsmath I am not sure, but it is certainly true that the zero-dimensional case is special...
Answer: For polynomials you can, though the details are technical.  For a single univariate polynomial you can use the technique of Sturm sequences to find out how many real roots there are, and put bounds on the roots.  For a system of that has finitely-many solutions, you can use the theory of Grobner bases to find all complex solutions, and then there are special techniques to pick out the real solutions.  Sturmfels' book has details in chapter 4.
In theory you can do it even if you have infinitely many solutions, though it's much much harder.  This goes under the name of Tarski's quantifier elimination for real closed fields.
Comment: The cylindrical algebraic decomposition mentioned by Igor Rivin is a more computationally efficient quantifier elimination algorithm than Tarski's.
Comment: I used to be in computer algebra, and back then people used "quantifier elimination" for any algorithm to decide the theory of real closed fields, including CAD.  That was a while ago, so maybe that usage as died out, or maybe I hung out with a bunch of weirdos.  (It was only a long time later that I learned that "quantifier elimination" was a general concept in model theory.)


What is the difference between 401k and Roth 401k?

Question: New to the 401k stuff. I just saw Roth 401k; what is the difference from a 401k? I already have a Roth IRA from Fidelity. Is that the same?
Comment: Have you done any research yourself? This should be fairly easy to answer with a few internet searches.
Answer: You fund a Roth 401(k) with after-tax money but then you do not pay any tax on it (or the gains) when you take it out at retirement.  You save taxes at retirement but pay the full amount now. This is smart if your income (and therefore tax rate) is relatively low today (and may be higher when you retire).
A traditional 401(k) is funded from pre-tax money.  This lowers your tax bill today. But then you will pay income tax on it and the gains when you take it out at retirement.  This is smart if your tax rate today is higher than it will be at retirement.
If you are in your peak earning years, a traditional IRA is likely to be a better choice for you.  If you are just starting out or otherwise making much less than at other times in your life, the Roth option is likely to be better.
This is very similar to the Roth and traditional IRA situation.  However, while the Roth IRA does not have a required minimum distribution, Roth 401(k)'s do, just like traditional 401(k)'s.  This means after you turn 70.5, you will be required to take a certain amount out of your Roth 401(k) each year.  For most people this is not much of a concern.
Comment: I think in general no one has any real idea what the tax brackets will look like come retirement time, and as such, it is not a terrible idea to fund a little bit of both Roth and traditional accounts, if you can.
Comment: so does the term "Roth" means when used in these types of accounts as "after-tax money" or tax-free money you can trade with without paying taxes on your trade gains?
Comment: Roth means it was funded with after-tax money, which will not be taxed when it is pulled out.  You can also move money from a traditional IRA or 401(k) into a Roth version by paying tax on it at the time you move it.
Comment: It's also possible, in some plans, to put after-tax money in traditional 401(k), although the growth will still be pre-tax.


Seeking a much simpler words to replace " forced" and " dispersal" in the sentence below

Question: Most of the defendants at Monday's hearing were detained during clashes which erupted in the southern province of Minya after the forced dispersal of two Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo on August 14.
Comment: It doesn't get much simpler. See [forced](http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/forced?q=forced) and [dispersal](http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/dispersal?q=dispersal) in a dictionary; these links are to the Oxford Dictionaries Online.
Answer: "Forced" is a very basic word in English. If English vocabulary was like a box of crayons, "forced" would be in the eight-crayon box.
"Dispersal", on the other hand, might only be in the box of 64. A simpler term might be "scattering". As with all words, though, these synonyms are not identical. They don't mean exactly the same thing; they are only similar enough in meaning so that one can take the place of the other in certain circumstances.


Orthogonal polynomials of the second kind

Question: Let $L:  \mathbb{R}[x] \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ be a positive definite linear functional and let that $\{s_n\}$ be a positive semi-definite sequence such that $L(x^n)= s_n, n\ge 0.$ Given a positive definite sequence, I was able to use the Gram-Schimdt orthogonalization method to construct a sequence of orthogonal polynomials $\{p_n\}$ whose leading coefficient is positive due to the  positivity nature of the sequence given. It turns out that this sequence of orthogonal polynomials  $\{p_n\}$ satsifies a three term recurrence relation given below
\begin{equation}
xp_n(x) =b_np_{n+1}(x)+a_np_n(x)+b_{n-1}p_{n-1}(x) , \quad n\ge 0
\end{equation}
We can see the sequence $p_n(x)$ as a solution to the three term recurrence relations stated above. Akhiezer http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/papers/akhiezer.pdf as my reference introduced another solution to this three term recurrence relation by defining another solution by \begin{equation} q_n(x)= \displaystyle L\left(\frac{p_n(x)-p_n(y)}{x-y}\right)
\end{equation} where the  quotient $\frac{p_n(x)-p_n(y)}{x-y}$  is a polynomial in $x$ and $y$ and $q_n(x)$ is a polynomial in variable $x$ and its degree is $n-1$ for any $x,y \in \mathbb{R}$ so that we have $ \displaystyle xq_n(x) =b_nq_{n+1}(x)+a_nq_n(x)+b_{n-1}q_{n-1}(x), n\ge 1$ with $q_0(x)=0$ and $q_1(x)= \frac{1}{b_0}$
My question is how can the  linear functional $L$ be defined on rational functions since its domain is $\mathbb{R}[x]$. I have troubles understanding  this definition even though I actually confirmed the definition is true by computing $q_1,q_2$.You can please check Akhiezer page 8 for more clarification. Details and explanation will be much appreciated.
Answer: It seems like the term in brackets in the left
\begin{equation} q_n(x)= \displaystyle L\left(\frac{p_n(x)-p_n(y)}{x-y}\right)
\end{equation}
is actually a polynomial due to the Taylor series, just replace \begin{equation} p_n(x) \end{equation} by its Taylor series at y.


Can I publish (online) a photo I took of someone else's house?

Question: I have a collection of photos that I have taken while touring through display homes that were part of a home-design show.  I want to publish the photos online to share with others the architectural design that inspires me.
Photography was allowed in the homes by the administrators of the tours.  I may have agreed to some type of restrictions by purchasing the ticket, but I did not sign anything.
I have read other legal questions here to attempt to gain an understanding of this issue, but I want to make sure there are no other restrictions that apply to this specific case.
My questions are:

When taking photographs of someone else's property, can I still publish the photo legally?
What about when taking photographs on someone else's property?
If the property in the photo is "identifiable" as belonging to someone else (or as the work of some architect or designer), does that change things at all?
If the "conditions" of the ticket purchase did place some restrictions on photography, but the ticket holders do not sign anything, will that still hold up?

I realize that if I were to commercialize my endeavor, I would be well-advised to talk to a lawyer (and I may need to anyway), but I am just looking for some starter advice here.
Comment: See also http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/10601/has-there-ever-been-a-ruling-on-the-necessity-legality-of-a-property-release-fo
Answer: The Short answer is No, you don't need permission: The following is from danheller.com's advice on photos of trademarked and copyrighted works:

The reason property tends to rarely ever need a release is because inanimate objects like buildings, unlike people, are not legally protected under publicity or privacy laws. Regardless of what the property is—a pet, a house, a building, or a work of art—such items do not require a release because they don't have inherent rights of privacy or publicity like people do. That they are owned by people is entirely irrelevant. People have rights of privacy and publicity because they are specifically written as laws. In no federal or state statutes is the word "property" used along side of "persons", "privacy" or "publicity."
So, though it may shock you to hear it, there is no such thing as a "property release." Well, they certainly exist, but they are almost all entirely useless legally. That's right, I said, "almost." Such items can be protected, and the mechanism to do so is via copyright and trademark registration. All this translates to a rather simple rule: property has no protections (hence a photo of property can be published) unless that property is protected by copyright or trademark. But it's not that simple either—the copyright and trademark protections only apply if the photo of the article could imply an association with the publisher. And that brings us full circle to the first paragraph above. So, the easy way to think of this stuff is this simple process:

Does the photo of the "thing" imply an association or advocacy of whoever puts the photo into use?
If so, is that "thing" protected by copyright and/or trademark?
If so, is the nature of the copyright or trademark one in which the test for "association" (step one) could harm or otherwise misrepresent the owner of the "thing?"
Comment: I don't see any mention of a jurisdiction here. Does this information also apply in, say, Germany?
Answer: Your right to publish photos of someone else's house changes between countries, states and even between houses (as far as I understand, some buildings are copyrighted).
I think you best course of action is to contact someone from the organization that organized the tour and ask - they probably have a policy about this.
This is the polite thing to do and it will save you the cost of a lawyer.
Property owners can say "no" when they don't have the legal right to do so — and in that case you have the option to get a lawyer and do whatever you can do legally or to not be a jerk and just move on with your life.
Do you really want to get into a long and expensive saga just so you can use your legal rights?
As it stand now you don't know what you are legally allowed to do; knowing that requires an intellectual property lawyer, detailed info on the pictures and houses and whatever terms and conditions documents that may or may not exist (and the validity of those documents, etc.) — just knowing what you are legally allowed to do is expensive (I don't believe good cheap intellectual property lawyers exists).
So, your options are:

spend a good sum of money and lots of time finding out your exact legal rights.
post the pictures without knowing if you're allowed to and hope you don't get sued (not a bad option but don't blame me if it gets you into trouble).
ask; I know it sounds strange but if you are polite and nice to people they tend to be nice to you back, so just send a short e-email like:

I've been on your (ABCDEF) tour and enjoyed it very much, I've taken some pictures during the tour and I want to upload them to (my flicker stream/my personal web site/whatever) to show my friends, is it ok with you? thanks.

Note this message is designed to make it easy to say "yes" (who would say you can't share your wonderful experience with friends?). Don't ask about publishing rights unless you want to get lawyers involved. If they answer this with a "no", it's likely there is something you agreed to by buying the ticket anyway.
Obviously this only applies to art/personal use but I don't think anyone will even look at buying a picture for commercial use without a signed release.
Comment: It's very likely that they will say "no" even if (legally) they don't have the right to say that.
Comment: @Renesis - I've edited my answer - 1. they aren't "very likely to say no" if you ask the right question (see edit in answer) 2. how much time and money are you willing to waste just to be right? (or, if this is cheap and quick in your opinion - I want your intellectual property lawyer phone number)
Answer: I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but my understanding in Canada and United States, at least, are:
A1. Photos of others property may be published, advertising or other commericial use may require a release, however.
A2. If they allowed you to do so, then yes. If you took photos against expressed desires, then you run the risk of trespassing. In general, I prefer explicit permission as being safer rather than assuming in the absence of signage or statement to the contrary.
A3. AFAIK no, if it is in the public eye. However, be cautious. For example, the Eiffel Tower in Paris is pretty aggressive on this front. So there are definite jurisdictional implications to this question.
A4. I would be surprised if it didn't. It's an implied contract as a condition of purchase and I think the courts would hold you to it. At the very least, you could be charged with trespassing as a result if it is private property.
The big caveat to my answers are that it's personal/artistic use. As you said, if you want to commercialize it, get a lawyer. If you're at all in doubt on any front, get a lawyer.
Comment: Interesting that you say taking pictures against expressed desires that it could be termed trespassing.  I wouldn't have thought so, but you may be right.  Looks like they would have to prove some sort of "damage" being done.  If it were technically trespassing, could they do anything other than tell you to stop?
Comment: @MikeW - I think if the permissions defining you allowing to be there include no photography, then you could stumble on trespassing as a result of violating those conditions. Jurisdictions may vary, however, in this regard.
Answer: If you are on private propery without permission, you certainly might land yourself in trouble for any images you took.
If you are on private property with permission, but they have stated you aren't allowed to take pictures, but you do take pictures, they have the right to remove you, but I'm not sure they could force you to delete the pictures.
In any case you were there with permission and photos were allowed.  They might have terms and conditions that state you can't use them for commercial purposes, or even that you can't reproduce them at all.  Whether or not they can enforce that, if those were the conditions, you accepted them by purchasing the ticket, and should respect them IMO.
I don't think "Fair Use" comes into play, unless their designs are copyrighted.  Even if so, I would think a positive blog post praising the design would be welcome.  You could contact the designer perhaps for permission.
If you wrote negative things, of course you could get a lawsuit, even if you're in the right.
For non-commercial use, common sense says you should be ok, but if you intend to write something positive, might as well be safe and contact those involved for permission.
Answer: I would be very careful on this. If the owner has his property broken into, you could be attributed to assisting, if the owner believes your posted photos gave info on entry points of the property and he never gave you permission to post those photos. Even Google grants owners privacy for this reason and will block access to pictures from its street view info at the owners request.
Answer: My short answer is yes as long as the owner of the house permits you to do so.
Comment: What happens if you ask for such permission, and then your photo becomes famous (used in an advertisement, say), and then the owner says "I didn't mean _permitted like that_!" and demands money?


Calling the Police on a fellow Jew in the United States

Question: Is it halachically permissible for a Jew to call the police on a fellow Jew if a person is threatened with imminent violence in the United States. I know there is an issue with informing on a fellow Jew and I was wondering how this pertains to this.
Comment: Possible duplicate https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/6260/759
Comment: IMHO, there's an important distinction in this practice between the ancient world and today's reality: back then the society was largely tribalized and there was a clear separation between "us Jews" and "them, gentiles", because the ancient police weren't democratized, they only represented the ruler,  so the idea of "Mesira" described transfer of a Jew to foreign control. In our countries, the police is a social construct, something like "Tuvey Ha'ir", people's representatives, so there's no "Mesirah" per ce.
Answer: The sefer "Making It Work" has a full chapter on mesira (chapter 20). In it, R' Ari Wasserman lays outs the guidelines very clearly about what is, and is not, a problem of mesira. I recommend his work highly.
On Pg. 387 he writes:

Rav Yaakov Bloy write that if there is no other way to pretect
oneself, it is permitted to call the police without first turning to a
beis din under any of the following circumstances: if one is being
attacked; if he has reasonable grounds to suspect that he is going ot
be attacked; and certainly, if he has received threats against his
life or safety. This is true, says Rav Bloy, even if the assailant
will be fined or imprisoned as a result (Pischei Choshen, Lichos
Nezikin, Chapt. 4, footnote 18)


Why was the production of the animated TV series "Invincible" suspended?

Question: The first season of Invincible (TV series) had eight episodes.
The second season had only four episodes, and the story ended inconclusively.
Why was the production of the animated TV series Invincible suspended?
Answer: There were unspecified 'production problems' that delayed the second season, presumably because the show was more successful than Amazon thought it would be, and the second season attracted a larger budget (mo money = mo problems).

"It's a little bit of the production process just because ramping
things up has taken a lot longer than we thought," he said.

The show was 'paused' mid-season because the show is being aired weekly (in order to promote subscriptions to Amazon Prime Video). A delay in starting the show would have meant that the last four episodes would have encroached on the 'crowded' Christmas period, during the time that Amazon wanted to promote their Christmas films and shows.

Kirkman then explained why the hiatus will be timed well. "With
everything going on in that time of year with Thanksgiving, Christmas,
New Year's, and a lot of family time, I think a lot of shows get lost
in the shuffle there, and so I think it's good to take a pause. And
narratively, it's gonna make things hit a little bit harder. And
people will know what I'm talking about when the season launches."
Beyond the logistical reasons, he believes that, with how the story of
Season 2 is structured, a mid-season break may be just what fans need.
He specifically sites another series based on his work, The Walking
Dead, as an example of how such a split can build anticipation with a
shocking plot point that leaves viewers both catching their breath and
clamoring for more. "But also this is something that we've done with
every season of The Walking Dead, and I think narratively, it's kind
of cool to have that pause to digest what you've just experienced," he
added. It seems Invincible has just that kind of punch in store before
it'll go on hiatus. "And when you see Episode 4 of Season 2, you may
need a break. It's a big episode. It's definitely a mid-season finale
kind of episode."
Collider: Robert Kirkman Explains Why 'Invincible' Season 2 Was Split Into Two Parts

Simply put, Invincible, a show boasting "frequent graphic, gory, and brutal violence" is not something you want to put next to Candy Cane Lane on posters.

The 'split' was largely due to having the first four episodes ready and the second four not ready. Normally they would have simply delayed the airdate, but Amazon seem to have pressured them to get something out, even if it meant delaying the second half.

THH: Invincible Season 2 has finally arrived but we only got to see half of it, was this always meant to be a 2 part thing or was the
decision made afterwards?
SIMON: The decision was made afterwards. As we started producing the show, some issues came up, talked to Amazon, so we thought this
was the best way to present the show, now, with these 4 episodes
instead of making audience wait even longer. We will come back after a
few months and give you the rest.
Co-Showrunner Simon Racioppa Talks About 'Invincible' Season 2
Comment: I haven't watched CCL, but a cross-over might be interesting. :)
Comment: @Barmar - I would watch that film
Comment: On a double bill with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Answer: Apparently it was not suspended at all, but Season 2 will be broadcast in two halves of 4 episodes each:

The first half of the season, consisting of four episodes, premiered
on November 3, 2023, with the last four set to debut in early 2024
Wikipedia - Invincible: Season 2 (2023–24)
Answer: While the answers here are good, they seem to ignore a lawsuit brought on by the Invincible comics colorist, William Crabtree for royalties. This info comes from a Hollywood Reporter article from November 29, 2023:

'Invincible' Profits Showdown Heading to Trial
William Crabtree accused famed comic writer Robert Kirkman of duping him into signing a contract that characterized his contributions as a "work-for-hire," leaving him with no ownership stake in the series.

The crux of the lawsuit is William Crabtree's claim that Robert Kirkman supposedly "tricked" Crabtree into signing his rights away via a "work for hire" agreement; thus cutting him out of royalties for derivative work such as the Amazon series.

Crabtree's breach of oral contract claim was also allowed to proceed, with Frimpong siding against Kirkman on arguments that it should be time-barred based on his repudiation in 2012 that Crabtree isn't entitled to 10 percent of revenue generated from film or TV adaptations. The four-year statute of limitations started on the claim, the court found, when Kirkman in 2020 refused to pay Crabtree for Amazon licensing the comic.

And this additional info comes from a Yahoo! Entertainment article from December 6, 2023:

According to U.S. District Court Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, Crabtree cannot move ahead with any statute of limitations on copyright disputes and fraud claims. But he has been permitted to claim that the Certificate of Authorship is invalid and Kirkman had breached the oral agreement between them by not paying any royalties over the Amazon deal. Now, the trial will begin in 2024 unless the two parties agree to settle before that.

That said, I can't find a direct reference to this lawsuit resulting in production delays to the Amazon series. But one can assume that the lawsuit has had an impact on the series production.
Comment: It will have resulted in the makers having to spend time in depositions and meetings with their lawyers, if nothing else.


When should I plant parsnips in Boston?

Question: I live in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and would like to know when to plant my parsnip. I use this site and wanted your answer and opinion on the site's answer. https://www.growmigo.com/
Comment: I am going to play with this site for a month and then quit...maybe.  Good resource but I always consult at least two resources when in doubt...if not three.  I am glad they are using Cooperative Extension Services!  Not bad info but they need to give lots more in detail.  I think they are new...and will get better.
Comment: Welcome to the site! Could you please summarize what you learned at growmigo? That way we can compare it right here. Links can go down at any time and people won't know what you were referring to. Also, I had a look at that site and don't fully trust it, especially since paid membership is required to unlock the full features. @stormy's brilliant, and is going to sign up for it, so she can tell you what she thinks, but we do need our questions to have as much detail as possible. We have a great [help]. Start with [ask], and if you have any questions about what we do, leave a comment here!
Comment: I'm not assuming or intending to insult you at all, but if you're affiliated with that site in any way, please let us know. Thanks!
Comment: I'm getting the card out.  I'll let you know.  This is just like another resource and I've spent the bucks on books so I should spend a bit on internet resources.
Comment: @koolgro3456  Well, I thought it would be a whole $8 but, no, I had to pay for 12 months!  But good news, their information seems to be solid.  Lacking in depth but they will probably be upgrading as their site matures.  The math is on THEIR end along with their continuing sources such as Cooperative Extension Services.  What I looked up was correct.  I gave them lots of comments for improvement.  Companion planting is NOT necessary and they shall be explaining their lists of good and bad companion planting.  They will also be talking about rotation, water, insects, fungus and soil preparation
Comment: Wow! thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it. This is my first day every to use stackexchange and did not expect people to even answer....Their information was consistent to what I read. Thank you soooo much. By the way, I chose the monthly option and not the annual option...Ap
Answer: I plant mine in the spring. Takes a bit longer than other seeds sown into the garden soil to see germination but I am just now getting great parsnips and rutabagas...have you tried rutabagas?  Wonderful mashed with potatoes and made into fries.
I live in zone 1b.  Our winters are tough so anything that needs to be allowed to overwinter has to be started earlier, such as cover crops for barren beds.  Garlic just didn't work here but I shall try this fall for next year because we now have a proper heated and skinned greenhouse.
I haven't looked at your site as yet, I am assuming they want you to plant in the fall?  Need to know your zone and circumstances.  I grew parsnips and rutabagas in zone 3 beneath 11 feet of snow...and they were fine in the spring!  Amazing.  They did fine where the potatoes did not.
I'll check out the site you sent and let you know if I've any more information.
Comment: Interesting.  I have serious doubts that anything in the plant and gardening world could every be predicted with an algorithm, I'll have to sign up to test it.  Experience is far better in my opinion.  Humans do better than computers in the natural world for now.  I am dying to see the inputs for this formula.  Meanwhile, let this brain know more about your plans.  Are you using pots on a balcony?  Critical to know as plants do not do well in pots over winter.  Their roots, the most vulnerable part of any plant are exposed to the cold in a pot.  You HAVE to use potting soil, not garden soil...
Comment: Hi stormy! Please let us know what you think of that site. I don't fully trust it, but you're the absolute expert, and I don't want to make bad assumptions, especially if it could end up hurting koolgro3456's feelings. Thanks!
Comment: I am an expert and being an expert we know we don't know huge amounts of stuff!  Just combining the world of gardening and landscaping with using formulas instead good old hands on experience bothers me greatly.  This is contraindicated for newbies!  Similar to our kids learning math by using a calculator without learning how to do math longhand and in one's head.  There is a major disconnection between human and plant and soil and other animals, insects.  Beautiful landscapes and productive gardens are a by product of a close, physical relationship.  We need being a part of the environment.

When should I plant parsnips in Boston?


Are voltage and current the same when it comes to device protection?

Question: Perhaps I'm not thinking about this correctly, but I've never understood if there is really a distinction between voltage and current being harmful to an electronic device of any kind. Obviously, current is the the actual moving electrons which we know can transfer energy in the form of heat which can be dangerous in large amounts. Voltage on the other hand, is just a potential difference, but the force that causes current. So yes, without a voltage there would be no current; but if we could apply a voltage across some electronic device and stop all current, the device would be fine no? Isn't it ultimately the current that causes damage or can destroy some electronic device?
Answer: Damage is created in semiconductors when the dielectric breakdown triggers a negative resistance current breakdown.  But ESD diodes are typically small and faster so only rated for 5mA so they use 2 stages of D:R impedance ratio using 10k to limit transient current and diodes limit incoming voltage thus SCR current latch up effect. SCR effects trigger with negative resistance fold back and rising current with reducing voltage, thus negative slope.
TVS protection shunts with very low Rs better but depends on source impedance of V=Q/C and ESR of source ( ESD vs lightning)
So damage is protected by impedance ratios to reduce current going in with series R to bypass diodes to Vdd,Vss or TVS to ground.  Thus higher current yields higher voltage from incremental conduction of diode law but is logarithmic then cascade effects attenuate further.
also C ratio of source matters as C has some finite ESR which affects voltage transfer ratio.
So Voltage is the trigger, but follow-on current does the damage.
Power line grids use ground wire above Line then air gap arc SCR like suppressors to shunt over voltage on Line. Dual protection.

ground wire and tall wire antenna act as deflectors of E field to shunt bypass arc to ground.

then Arc suppressor air gaps shunt line voltage transients to prevent arcs down the grid to local bypass to gnd.
Comment: I really appreciate the answer and it certainly seems like you know what your talking about, but this went way over my head.
Answer:
Obviously, current is the the actual moving electrons which we know can transfer energy in the form of heat which can be dangerous in large amounts.

Fair enough, but forget about electrons. Just deal with the concept of current.

Voltage on the other hand, is just a potential difference, but the force that causes current.

Correct.

So yes, without a voltage there would be no current; but if we could apply a voltage across some electronic device and stop all current, the device would be fine no?

You have described a switch.

Figure 1. Knife switch (as used by Dr. Frankenstein, et al.). Credit AYL.

Isn't it ultimately the current that causes damage or can destroy some electronic device?

Not always. Insulation breakdown can occur when too high a voltage is applied. This could be, for example, the insulation on copper windings (the clear varnish type) or the insulation between the gate and substrate on an FET transistor. On the former the insulation breakdown will be followed by a short-circuit which will lead to high currents and burn-out. In the latter the device just won't operate and you may not even smell the smoke.
Note, you might see insulation breakdown rated in kV/mm. Roughly speaking, if I had a 100 V rated cable and an insulator of 5 kV/mm then I would need 0.02 mm of insulation. In practice we have to allow for stretching, minor damage, tolerances, etc., so the result may be quite a lot thicker.
Comment: The molecules / atoms of the insulator are being torn apart and split into ions. Ions are charged. Moving charges are current. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_strength.
Comment: Can you possibly explain how that is though? So if voltage is just this potential difference, what is physically happening that causes this insulation breakdown you described? Unlike current, I'm having trouble understanding what too high of a voltage really means, or the physics behind how this can cause electronic damage.
Answer: In terms of protection, when we talk about voltage, the breakdown voltage or the permitted operation voltage is of interest. It means, how much voltage can be applied across the terminals of a device in steady operation, without causing the insulation to breakdown or the device to malfunction.
The current becomes relevant when power loss and increase of temperature is of interest. For example, when considering a transmission line, in most cases you have a small voltage drop across the line, while the current depends on the connected load and causes losses in the line. The thermal specifics of the line then determine how much current it can tolerate.
To summarize, there is almost always a (nonlinear) relation between voltage and current for a certain device. In some cases, it makes more sense to describe the limits of the device in terms of current (like the transmission line). You can determine a maximum allowable voltage across the line, but it's not good practice. In the case of insulation breakdown, it doesn't make sense to talk about current, since there isn't any current till you reach the breakdown voltage and the electrical discharge (current) happens. The nonlinear relation between voltage and current in this case makes the voltage a suitable criterion to describe the device's protection level.
Comment: Simple answer. Current flow does the damage. Without current flow (hence power) it's almost impossible to damage anything. To enable the current to flow (and release the magic blue smoke) an excessive voltage needs to be applied. The current then does the hard work !


$* vs $@ positional variable in linux

Question: What is difference between $* and $@ positional variable in linux. I read somewhere using $* is is security risk. Is it true.
Answer: Basically they're the same except when the variable is enclosed in double quotes.  Then $* expands to a single word and $@ expands to separate words.  I don't see any merit to claims that $* is a security risk.
From the bash man page:
   *      Expands  to  the positional parameters, starting from one.  When
          the expansion occurs within double quotes, it expands to a  sin-
          gle word with the value of each parameter separated by the first
          character of the IFS special variable.  That is, "$*" is equiva-
          lent to "$1c$2c...", where c is the first character of the value
          of the IFS variable.  If IFS is unset, the parameters are  sepa-
          rated  by  spaces.   If  IFS  is null, the parameters are joined
          without intervening separators.
   @      Expands to the positional parameters, starting from  one.   When
          the  expansion  occurs  within  double  quotes,  each  parameter
          expands to a separate word.  That is, "$@" is equivalent to "$1"
          "$2"  ...   If the double-quoted expansion occurs within a word,
          the expansion of the first parameter is joined with  the  begin-
          ning  part  of  the original word, and the expansion of the last
          parameter is joined with the last part  of  the  original  word.
          When  there  are no positional parameters, "$@" and $@ expand to
          nothing (i.e., they are removed).

Comment: I don't get your sentence "It should always be quoted, of course" unless you are referring to "$@".
Comment: Fair enough.  That was needlessly and perhaps confusingly broad.  Redacted.
Comment: The security risk I can think is expanding to the wrong thing. Suppose you have a file list with two files "rm" and "-f /". `$*` will expand to "rm -rf /" while `$@` will expand correctly to "rm" and "-f /". That's a crude example, but you can see how `$*` can go wrong on a `for` loop or related.

$* vs $@ positional variable in linux


How the shots belonging to the same job are scheduled to run on IBM quantum devices?

Question: How the shots belonging to the same job are scheduled to run on IBM quantum devices? Suppose my job has 1000 shots. Will all shots be executed in series, or is it possible they will be interleaved with shots corresponding to jobs submitted by other users?
Answer: In general, jobs submitted by users are added to a queue, and the quantum computer processes jobs in the order they are received. If there is high demand for the quantum device, you may experience some wait time in the queue. The execution of your shots may not happen immediately, and there might be other users' jobs interleaved with yours.
But once your job is submitted, it runs the circuit for the entire duration of the number of shots you have given.
For Example:
Suppose you have sent a VQE model to train, and once you run the circuit for one time for num_shots=1000 you receive one value which is then sent to the classical cost function to evaluate which then changes the Rotation gate parameters.
In this case, the first iteration of the quantum circuit will run as a whole, no matter how many shots you have defined (the max being 8192). Then once it runs, it'll give a number that will be sent to the cost function, which then evaluates and the optimizer changes the rotation gates parameters. Then, the next iteration of the quantum circuit will be queued behind the other circuits (if any).
This can also be seen if you click on the Jobs section of the IBMQ page, and select any of the previous jobs you have run.
You can see the number of shots there:


Pass command output as argument in grep

Question: I want to compare two text files for changes line by line. If the files are store locally I know I can do it with
grep -Fxvf file1 file2

I have a problem because file 2 is in Hadoop File System. I can read this file with the command
hadoop fs -cat /filepath/file2

So naturally I want to feed this result to grep. I tried something like
 grep -Fxvf file1 ${hadoop fs -cat /filepath/file2}

but I get

-bash: ${hadoop fs -cat /filepath/file2}: bad substitution

I tried to use xargs also but with no luck. I appreciate any help.
Answer: Thanks to @dsstorefile1 I solved it with
grep -Fxvf <(hadoop fs -cat /fielpath/file2 ) file1

Pass command output as argument in grep


Catholic vs Protestant Support for Nazism in Germany

Question: The German population before WW2 was roughly half Catholic half Protestant. Before and during WW2, was there any significant disparity between the support for NSDAP across the religious line? In other words, was one of the religious groups more Nazi than the other or was it pretty even?
Comment: There's a pretty good section on what @Paul is talking about [here on Bonhoffer's WP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer#Confessing_Church) page, and in this full article on the [Confessing Church](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessing_Church). Yes, the Nazis subverted and took over the German protestant church, first with a political pressure group, then by fiat. They eventually started doing crazy stuff, like banning the whole Old Testament (it was Jewish after all...)
Comment: This is a very misleading question, as the Nazi's took control of the 'church' and thus it was not a 'church' but a government institution.  The 'church leaders' were puppets of Nazism.
Comment: We should pay attention to the time vector though. This all happened in 1932 and 1933, after or simultaneously with the elections mentioned in jwenting's answer.
Comment: I don't have a fully sourced answer but I offer a few fragments: the Catholic Church and Nazi Germany agreed to the [*Reichskonkordat*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskonkordat) meaning the Catholic Church would remain confessionally independent but apolitical (as an extremely brief summary). The nazis took or tried to take over the protestant churches but did not succeed in the cases of Hannover, Bavaria, Württemberg and Westfalia. In places where the protestant church was taken over, the Confessing Church often formed a more or less underground replacement.
Comment: @Paul, it's a very clear question, and very bottom line. If more perecent of one group supported the Nazis, then that leads to the answer. Cut and dry. Seems like you don't like the answer would rather deflect to moralization about causality
Comment: So altogether there were three types of protestant christians and the catholics. I assume the German Christian churches (those taken over by nazi affiliates) being highly pro-nazi, the confessing churches obviously anti-nazi and the 'intact churches' (Hannover, Bavaria, Württemberg and Westfalia) like the catholics likely being partially supportive. However, this doesn't say much about the corresponding populations.
Comment: @Paul, is it not also relevant that Hitler used anti Atheist rhetoric to great effect in his rise to power? And that for the most part church leaders were quiescent towards him? They got away with outright opposition to T-4, which suggests that they were not quite as firmly under the thumb as you're suggesting. Compare Stalin's Russia for real suppression of the church, and likewise a better example of brave opposition to a terrifying dictator.
Answer: This article shows maps of the German census and election results of 1932, showing what appears to be a clear link between Protestanism and Nazism.
BUT, this only reflects the 1932 elections. These were held during a time when the Vatican forbade Catholics from support fascism and naziism.
By the time of the November 1933 elections that put the NDSAP in power and Hitler as Reichskanzler, this had been changed and the Vatican now condoned fascism and naziism.
As a result the 1933 election results show near universal support for the NDSAP across religious lines (when taken by general area) though still less in the border regions with France, the Czech Republic, and Austria).
My guess is that many Catholics didn't vote NSDAP in 1932 because of the strictures placed on the party by the Church, and once those strictures were lifted voted what they wanted, NSDAP.
Wikipedia article on the  November 1933 elections
Comment: Hitler became chancellor on January 30, 1933 and seized absolute power with the "Enabling Act" on March 23, 1933. By the November 1933 elections, all opposing parties had been banned, so the results are meaningless.
Comment: "the Vatican now condoned fascism and naziism" Is there a go-to source for this I can read up on?
Comment: "_[...] once those strictures were lifted voted what they wanted, NSDAP._" This kinda implies "Catholics wanted to vote NSDAP". I'm not religious myself, but coming from an area where at least one church and several schools and streets are named after [a beatified catholic martyr who was killed by the nazis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaus_Gross), this seems like a harsh generalization to me.
Comment: Famous perhaps, but not definitive. ("The author has been praised for attempting to bring into the open the debate on the Catholic Church's relationship with the Nazis, but also accused of making unsubstantiated claims and ignoring positive evidence. The author has moderated some of his allegations since publication of the book. ") The best one can say about Pius XII is that he tried hard to find compromises; it was a very ambiguous relationship.
Comment: @thosphor - Probably the most famous work covering this is [Hitler's Pope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_Pope). The part that's novel to me is that the church was ever against it. As near as I can tell, there was some bad blood between the Catholic church and the Prussian (protestant) power structure in Germany dating back to Bismark's time. Perhaps the Nazis, being the German Nationalist standard bearers, inherited that.
Comment: @R.Schmitz the Catholics were as taken aback by the persecution of priests as everyone else. Same in the USSR where it also kinda came as a surprise when Stalin started sending them to the Gulag en masse. And then the Chinese started doing it after their civil war brought the Mao to power and again they were surprised when the Church was suppressed and priests sent to the camps. I think we can see a pattern here...
Comment: Great, but the OP asked about `Before and during WW2` (probably he meant immediately before), this only answers about 1932. Also you seem to be confounding the 1932 and 1933 elections (if the 1933 ones counts at all).
Comment: @Dennis and yet the NSDAP only got a smidgen over 33% in the November elections, with those other parties taking the rest...
Comment: That was in 1932, not 1933.
Comment: Caution. Statistic correlation does not mean causality.
Answer:
The German population before WW2 was roughly half Catholic half Protestant.

That's not strictly true. According to Population by Religious Denomination (1910-1939) from the GHDI, 62.7% of 1933's population identified as protestant, while 32.5% identified as catholic; the Protestants outnumbered the Catholics almost 2:1.

Before and during WW2, was there any significant disparity between the support for NSDAP across the religious line?

Support for the conservative and politically Catholic Z/BVP—the Catholic Centre Party— was practically constant in the last five free general elections (December 1924, 1928, 1930, July 1932, and November 1932), changing from 15.1%, to 14.8%, to 15.7%, to 15.0%. They also remained largest party in predominantly Catholic constituencies, implying that a large portion of the Catholic minority voted for Z/BVP.
Meanwhile, support for non-Z/BVP conservative parties and non-NSDAP right-wing parties diminished severely. In December 1924, the nationalist-conservative DNVP, the right-wing liberal DVP, the far-right NSFB, the conservative WP, and right-wing LB together occupied 38.2% of the seats in the Reichstag. In July 1932, the aforementioned parties and three other minor ones (CSVD, DL, VRP) held only 8.7% of the seats, while the NSDAP managed to seize 37.8% of them.
Sources:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstagswahl_Dezember_1924
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstagswahl_1928
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstagswahl_1930
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstagswahl_Juli_1932
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstagswahl_November_1932

In other words, was one of the religious groups more Nazi than the other or was it pretty even?

It's much harder to answer that question. It also depends on what definition of Nazism you're using.
If you simply mean voting for the NSDAP, that seems to be the case. Center-to-right Catholics didn't switch to the NSDAP nearly as much as center-to-right Protestants did. Left-wing voters mostly kept voting for left-wing parties anyway...
If you mean the historical definition of Nazism (the political principles of the NSDAP), I'm not so sure anymore. Note that one of these political principles was anti-Communism, which caused even Pope Pius XI to express support for the Nazis by saying

I have changed my mind about Hitler, it is for the first time that such a government voice has been raised to denounce bolshevism in such categorical terms, joining with the voice of the pope.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_XI#Relations_with_Germany_and_Austria
More or less at the same time, the Catholic Centre Party unanimously voted in favor of the Enabling Act, through which Hitler seized absolute power in March of 1933. Of course, all of this support was based on false promises to leave the Catholics and the Centre Party alone...
If we go by the modern definition of Nazism (based on what they actually did, not just their political principles), I'm not so convinced that that many people were Nazis in the first place.
The Great Depression, the record unemployment rate in 1933, and the repercussions of The Great War made people susceptible to the propaganda of the National Socialist German Workers' Party; they hoped Hitler would save them and—at least at first—they didn't care what they would have to give up in return or how it affected other people. In the last free election (November 1932), after the NSDAP had been the dominant party for only three months, they went from 37.3% of the popular vote to 33.1%, so it seems many people had already realized that they made a mistake...
Comment: Also, Communism was the big bogeyman in the 1920's-1930's. For some people, anything was better - for Christians perhaps more so, since Communism was atheistic.
Comment: Of course, when one party has hundreds of thousands of stormtroopers terrorizing politicians of other parties, and murdering them by the dozens, which was in fact the situation with the Nazis in Germany in 1931, you certainly can't call the subsequent election a fair election, nor a free one.


Why do we sweat after drinking water and running?

Question: Why do we sweat after running?
Also we sweat sometime after drinking lots of water. Why it is so?
Can someone please enlighten me in this regard?
Answer: Exercise, such as running, increases muscle activity.  This increases the energy demand of these tissues, which increases the rate of cellular respiration.  Respiration releases heat as a by-product, therefore the body is hotter during and after exercise.
Sweating is a homoeostatic mechanism to keep core body temperature constant. It is a response to lower the body temperature. When the body becomes too hot, sweat is released onto the surface of the skin.  The water from the sweat then takes some of the excess heat energy from the body and uses it to evaporate.  Because water has a relatively large specific heat capacity a lot of heat can be carried away by this method.
Comment: @gpuguy Do you mean you sweat after exercise even if you drink water? Or do you mean that at rest, in a cool room when one wouldn't usually sweat, you drink a lot of water and then begin to sweat?
Comment: But I sweat even after I lots of drinking water.... what could be the reason here?
Comment: i meant: "that at rest, in a cool room when one wouldn't usually sweat, you drink a lot of water and then begin to sweat?" (especially some time after having dinner/lunch)
Answer:
If the meal you eat is hot, you will get some heat and if your body will consider it as excessive heat, it will try to get rid of some by making you sweat.
Drinking water and sweating after a meal may be coincidentally related and probably caused by hot meal rather than water. A side note: When you are dehydrated, you sweat less and when well hydrated you can sweat "normally," but drinking water by itself does not stimulate sweating.
Some people with "reactive hypoglycemia" can sweat and get anxious after meals. In this case, after a meal, food passes through the stomach rapidly to the small intestine, where glucose from the food is quickly absorbed and raises blood glucose level considerably. This triggers excessive insulin release that allows quick uptake of glucose by the cells resulting in drop of blood glucose under the normal level (hypoglycemia). This triggers the release of adrenaline, which breaks down some glycogen from the liver to produce glucose. Adrenaline also triggers sweating.
Certain underlying neurological conditions (not necessary diseases), such as increased tonus of the vagal nerve (that supplies the gut) can make you sweet more in certain circumstances.
A meal can be a "stress" (psychological or physical) which can trigger the release of adrenaline, which makes you sweat (just like in anxiety from any cause).

Sources:
Diaphoresis (excessive sweating) Ehealthstar.com
Reactive hypoglycemia Mayo Clinic


What are the Reserved Keywords in Kotlin?

Question: I've walked through https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference but I could not find reserved keyword, used in Kotlin. How many keywords does Kotlin have?
As long as we know Java has its own keyword list like here:
Comment: After all this time, there's still no definitive simple list of "character strings you should not use" for kotlin.  Sheesh!
Answer: UPD: The keyword reference was added to the Kotlin docs: (here)

An auto-generated list of hard keywords for the current version can be found in Kotlin Github repo: (here)
There are more soft keywords, which behave like keywords in certain context, like it, field, object, access & member modifiers.
More about context in which soft keywords are treated as keywords can be found in the grammar reference, along with the whole grammar, including hard keywords in their places.
Comment: what is the difference between a keyword and a soft keyword?
Comment: @lmiguelvargasf A soft keyword is treated as a keyword only in certain context, and not anywhere else. For example, you can declare a `val override = 1`, but `override ` is also treated as a a keyword when it is in front of `fun` in a function declaration.
Comment: Thus you should NEVER use a "soft" keyword as an identifier because it's easy to change the context as code gets modified over time and people tend to forget these minute details.  Aaannnd therefore there's really no such thing as a "soft" keyword--they are just keywords.  And there's a LOT of 'em.
Comment: Link to kotlin github repo is broken, tried to find it but file no longer exists, now it's this: https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin/tree/master/core/descriptors/src/org/jetbrains/kotlin/renderer
Answer: There is a grammar reference https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/grammar.html
So anything in double quotes is a keyword (like "class") or an operator (like "%"). However many keywords are "soft" (like "file"), meaning that they depend on their syntactic position and still may be used as function names, etc.
Answer: Quick def: Reserved words in programming languages (sometimes called keywords) are character strings that have special and specific uses only.  Compilers use these words as landmarks when parsing code.  Programmers should not name variables, functions, nor classes using these words.  Of course, using them in comments is perfectly fine.
There are LOTS of keywords in Kotlin.  But there's no definitive number because:

The definition of keywords (reserved words) in Kotlin is poorly
defined.
Kotlin is so new, the number of keywords keeps changing (and not getting smaller!).

The "official" keywords are generally divided up into categories: hard, soft, and operators.  Soft keywords are character strings that may be a keyword, depending on the context.  Any programmer with any experience will never take the risk of using a soft keyword for obvious reasons.  So at the time the number of keywords in Kotlin are
31 (hard) + 48 (soft) + 41 (operators) = some number too big to keep track of
Yup, that's 120 keywords.  Or 79 if you don't count operators.  By comparison, K&R's C language has 28 keywords with 22 operators = 50.  And that's good enough to write Unix.
And we haven't even started talking about Annotations (the sly way of slipping in lots and lots of keywords without really having to officially declare them)!  Like Kotlin's parent, Java, Kotlin uses Annotations liberally, and there is no limit to the number of them--you can even make your own!
That said, a list of "required" annotations should be included as part of Kotlin's reserved words, but I'm feeling lazy.  Let's just say that there are about two dozen.  This brings our total of reserved words to... 144 (waaaaay more than I can keep track of).  Thanks kotlin, for simplifying my life!