Touch screen not working

Question: I cracked the screen on my android A13 Allwinner tablet so I got new screen and put it on the tablet but the touch screen is not working at all. Can someone help me please.
Comment: Sounds like you didn't fit the new screen correctly. That's something that can only be fixed with physical access to the device.
Comment: It doesn't do just to "put it on". You also need to take care for the contacts etc. to be connected properly. If you're not sure on what should be done where, it might be a good idea to use a service which does.
Answer: maybe this could help:
fix digitizer issues - Google-Suche
https://www.google.de/search?q=fix+digitizer+issues
Possible fix for digitizer/touch screen issues - xda-developers
http ://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1459569
[Resolved] Touch screen/digitizer issues (random inputs/not accepting touch input) - Android Forums
http ://androidforums.com/htc-one/728735-resolved-touch-screen-digitizer-issues-random-inputs-not-accepting-touch-input.html
Fix digitizer problems yourself
http ://www.thoracic.org/education/mobile-musings/articles/August-2006.php

Touch screen not working


Life-support for plants: How can I re-grow my plants from half-dry stems

Question: So, I got a couple of roses, ivy, holly, jasmine, porthos and gardenia plants back in December, but now they all seem to be near-death. I have tried several times to resurrect some of my plants using their stems but no success to date. With half-dry stems, can I still get my plants back? I would appreciate expert help in getting this right this time please.
Comment: What's happened to the roots then, that you're trying to generate new plants from half dead stems? Are the roots compromised? Are they in pots, in the ground? Need much more info please...
Comment: Do you have pictures and do you have an idea *why* they are near death? No water or too much, insects, frost bite or sunburn, fungal disease, run over by a lawn mower...
Answer: I am no expert but what I have used for grape vines is this rooting powder.
I took the extra step and shaved the bark from the donor stem about an inch from the bottom before dipping the stem into the powder and then planting. The planted vines started right off and are showing great promise after only a few months.


Stealing items in Morrowind

Question: I heard there is a way to steal any item (even while you are being watched) without being attacked in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. How is that possible?
Answer: The easiest way would be to stack Chameleon spells and effects (via Alchemy, enchanted items, or a custom spell), until you have a total chameleon value of 100% or more. With 100% Chameleon, you can basically do whatever you want with impunity, as nobody can see you, and unlike invisibility, Chameleon does not break when you interact with the world around you.
See also: UESP Wiki on Chameleon in Morrowind
Comment: I really should play that game again.
Comment: If I remember correctly there is an amulet near Gnisis which gives you _heavy_ Chameleon effect. It's related to a quest with a woman which asks you to find her ring in a pool of water if I remember correctly.
Comment: @dreamlane: 10 brew potions that raise intelligence, 20 drink them, 30 goto 10.
Comment: Alchemy was so broken hehe... I don't recall precisely how, but you could just get like 379234765293 stats with alchemy and pwn the world haha. good times
Answer: First of all, please notice that this severely affects game balance, so don't read further if you prefer to play the game as it was intended to.

That said, there is a really sneaky way that works without any spells. Pick up the item of your desire and hold it in your hand. If you were to push it into your inventory now, you would get attacked immediately if someone saw you take their property.
However, instead of moving it in your inventory, open the game menu and save the game. As you reload the game, the item will not be put back to its original place but in your inventory. And since nobody actually watched you stealing, you won't have any trouble.
This exploit was never fixed to my knowledge, and enables you to get seriously powerful items early in the game for free.
Still, notice that people will get suspicious if you wear stolen unique items that belong to them, and likely attack you after a while, so make sure to not gear up in a town with the items you grabbed there. This does not affect common items though, if I remember correctly.
Comment: IIRC the only ones attacking you for wearing something stolen are Indoril guards when you wear their armor, since that implies you killed one.
Comment: Also, if you are not visible or out of line of sight with the owner when you steal the item, they will not turn hostile.  This is sometimes as easy as jumping onto a counter top before doing so, or hiding behind a pillar.
Comment: If I recall, the entire point of the Telekinesis spell effect was to extend your interaction range so you *could* abuse LOS.
Answer: I don't recommend doing this as it's not fun playing when you're cheating because it breaks the balance and kills challenges, but here is what I have found out long ago while playing.
You can jump on the head of a character(you need to balance on it or you'll quickly fall down) or on a high object and enter stealth mode and if you are high enough you will be considered out of npcs' LoS for some reason. Maybe this only works inside buildings and maybe it also works with levitation.
But the easiest way is casting chameleon 100% for 1 second in stealth mode and opening inventory as it pauses the game and then puting things within your reach to your inventory. And be careful with the stealth icon, because if it's not there you might get caught even if supposedly invisible.
Answer: What I used to do is I would enchant two items (it could work with spells as well) that I bound to the hotkeys. One would give me instant invisibility and the other one would give me telekinesis (both constant effect). Sometimes you can even go without invisibility if you can go behind a wall where the mob who you are stealing from can not see you.
Answer: If you are not in the field of vision of anyone, you can steal anything in your reach, even when the item is visible to its owner.
Comment: OP clearly says "even while you are being watched".

Stealing items in Morrowind


Ad Dlo Yoda  measurments

Question: What are the many Halachic options of doing the Mitzvah of drinking on Purim please quote sources? Meaning what are the diffrent the definitions of ad Dlo Yoda?
Answer:
"Ad delo yada" is not accepted as halachah at all. (Taz, Orach Chaim 695:2)
It means to drink enough that you sleep, and then you don't know the difference between "cursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai." (Maharil, cited in Rema there)
Which is the greater benefit that Hashem granted us: that Haman was degraded and executed, or that Mordechai was elevated? Go back and forth praising Hashem for this so much that you lose track of which one is more important. (Taz ibid. :1)
Reach a state where you can't calculate that ארור המן = ברוך מרדכי in gematria. (Magen Avraham ibid. :3)
It means "ad" - "up to" the point where you might get confused, but don't cross that line, because then you won't be able to properly thank Hashem for the miracle. (Yad Ephraim)
There was an old piyut that told over the story of Purim in rhyme, with alternating refrains of ארור המן and ברוך מרדכי. Reach the point where you lose track of which verse you're up to. (Aruch Hashulchan 695:3)
Comment: Thanx, and again amazing answer as Usual
Comment: 4,5&6 would allow for being pretty drunk...
Answer: Get drunk enough that you are not mentally competent enough to be included in the command to drink.  Ad d'lo yada is the point at which you are in a temporary state of being exempt from the mitzvah because you are drunk.  If you sober up, get right back in there, buddy! (Emek Beracha quoting R' Yisrael Salanter)
Comment: This would fit with the sleeping explanation.
Comment: Is he quoting if I recall he is citing a story.
Comment: @mevaqesh I don't have it in front of me but I think he starts with שמעתי בשם... oh wait, I have it somewhere on my harddrive... yes it stars with שמעתי בשם הגאון ר' ישראל סלנטר ז"ל
Comment: @DoubleAA he cites that Rambam, along with another diyuk from the Rambam - he says the Rambam wrote יאכל בשר but שותה יין, in לשון הווה, because the drinking is not just one and done, but it is ongoing.  Then he brings the sleeping bit.
Comment: Nitpicky, but I would call that citing something heard rather than quoting.
Answer: Additional answers:
1) No obligation but just a good thing: (Raavya; vol. 2 ch. 564, Hagahos Mainonis; Hil. Purim 2:15, Maharil; responsum 56 citing Maharash, in turn cited by Darchei Moshe, and other acharonim).
2) It is merely an exaggerated expression (Meoros to Megillah 7b).

Ad Dlo Yoda  measurments


What are the benefits of attending international conferences at student level

Question: Is it beneficial to attend international conferences at student level, and what are tips to follow when attending such international conferences?
Comment: Your questions in the title and body don't match. What would you like to know? Be specific.
Comment: I hope I did not destroy your initial intention behind the question with my edit.
Answer: It is hard to tell - it depends on the conference!
Possible benefits (amongst others) can be:

Learning more about your field and getting more motivation for your studies
Learning about different countries and cultures
Learning how scientific conferences work
Preparing your own scientific contribution for a conference
Networking with well-known people in your field (usually there are some invited speakers)

I would strongly recommend to submit your own contribution to such a conference in order to participate fully.
For the "tips"-section:

Hang out with people you did not know before
Find a good mixture of new / unknown topics and things which are close to your fioeld of interest
Attend every social event
Don't hesitate to talk to foreign people.
Answer: But do watch out: Not all conferences with "International" in their name are legit. There are many predatory conferences out there that are only interested in your money, not science. Ask a faculty member, your mentor, or your advisor. That's what we are here for, training and guiding young people! That being said, I started attending national conferences as a student and presented my (diploma = master's) thesis work at an international conference.
In addition to the suggestions above, try and formulate one question for every presentation you attend. And then get up the courage to ask at least one a day!


Home rebuild and demolish

Question: I own a half acre in a very convenient and lucrative area and have for years now. I still owe on my mortgage and my home is in good condition.  My family is quickly outgrowing it.  The home builders making the new neighborhoods in our area totally screw you so I won't be doing that.  I want to build a home in my back yard WHILE living in my current home then demolish the current home.  How would I get a loan for that?  I have been in construction commercial and industrial and a little residential for 15 years so I'm not concerned about the know how, and a close friend would be my "general contractor"
Comment: I have proposed an edit whose *main* purpose is to change "demo" to "demolish".  I initially read it as "demonstrate".  I have also done a bit of copy-editing here and there to improve the flow.  Feel free to reject my changes, but I really think "demo" to "demolish" is important.
Comment: Comment because it has nothing to do with the loan: I had looked into doing something similar, the differences for us were somewhat smaller lot, and we would have built the new house in front of the old one (old one is very far back in the lot) What ultimately got me to abandon the idea was that to be approved we'd have to arrange everything so the old house was still fully accessible by fire crews/paramedics etc every step until demolition, and the lot was too narrow to reasonably do this without also tearing down additional trees and the garage I wanted to keep.
Comment: You go to the bank, tell them your plan and how much money you need? This is not an uncommon process. Where is the difficulty?
Answer: Honestly, if your current home is in good shape, you'd be better off, financially-speaking, not demolishing it.
Your options, as I see it:
Build an extension on your house. This should be significantly cheaper/faster, and this is a common enough thing to do that you shouldn't have trouble getting a loan.
Build the new house, move over, then either sell or rent your old house. The benefit here is that you can get a lot of money this way, though you do lose access to what would be your front yard.
Build the new house on a different lot, then sell or rent your old house. This costs a bit more up front, but you should get that back once you sell/rent your old place, because it should be a bit more valuable due to the extra land. (This also gives you the opportunity to re-evaluate your current location, and move to a more convenient location if you want.) Building a house on a lot is also a common thing to do, and you shouldn't have trouble finding a loan.
In general, though, demolishing a perfectly-fine house is not a financially-sound decision.
Comment: Your 2nd & 3rd options assume the land is zoned for multiple residences, which it may not be.
Comment: @GamerGypps fair enough, but the first sentence is more of an absolute, which seemed to frame the answer that way to me.
Comment: "demolishing a perfectly-fine house is not a financially-sound decision" maybe not in general, but it's a common sight in some hot urban areas. I remember running through a park in suburban Houston where half of the houses were old small ranch homes, 40% were new multi-story homes and the rest were demolished (transforming the former to the latter).
Comment: As an example, if I can buy a lot with an old house on it for $0.5 Million, spend 10,000 on demolition, build a house for $2 Million and sell it for $3 Million that's a pretty good return.
Comment: @DStanley Isnt that exactly why he says 'In general' ?
Comment: @GamerGypps The question is about getting a loan, not the viability of the plan. I was just trying to offer a rebuttal to the first sentence (and the premise of the rest of the answer).
Comment: @DStanley The problem though is you are describing a situation that the op has not even mentioned. He has not stated he wants to demolish then build another house to flip at the old plot. You could potentially mention that in your own answer though.
Comment: @DStanley There's a difference between razing a house and then immediately rebuilding another one in the same spot and what OP is talking about doing which is to build a house with underutilized land then demolishing, what would then be, an underutilized house.  Perhaps, to your point, OP would then demolish their old house to build yet another new house on that exact spot for those returns you mentioned.
Comment: @DeanMacGregor My point was that it's not impossible for razing a house and building a new one in it's place to be a _good_ investment. I'm not saying that's what the OP is doing - I'm refuting the premise of the answer that it's not wise in any scenario. The last sentence softens that stance a bit but it may be a good financial move in the OP's situation.
Answer: Your literal question is,

How would I get a loan for that?

Ultimately, you'd have to talk to lenders in your area to answer that. I've never heard of a construction loan to cover the exact scenario you're describing (without some additional factors, like subdividing the lot first, or demo'ing the old house first), but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
That said, I can see some obstacles:

Zoning and setback requirements may make it really hard to site a second home on the parcel, depending on where your current home is. A half acre isn't gigantic and you may find there literally isn't a spot where another structure could go, unless the current home is shoved all the way into one corner and you're going to build all the way in the other corner.
Your local zoning may not even allow a second (large enough to live in) structure on one parcel. Many local governments don't like multiple independent single family homes on one residential tax parcel because the property basically becomes un-marketable (how many people, when shopping for a primary dwelling, want to buy two houses at once? Not many).
Subdividing would avoid issues with not being zoned for multiple dwellings, but it may be difficult depending on the site layout - for instance, if you don't have enough road frontage for both homes to have their own driveway, etc.
You'd have to arrange for water, power, and sewer for the second home. If you're on septic or a well, then see bullet #1 (it's even less likely you'll have space to site the second home if you've also got to find space for a second well or second septic).
A lender won't want to leave your current mortgage intact, since that would mean there is no way for them to get a first position lien on the new construction (again, unless you subdivide). If you have enough equity, you could consider doing the construction on a home equity loan on the first house, but that leaves you with a problem once you're ready to tear down the first house (doing so would be destroying the collateral on your existing mortgage and on the HE loan).

Depending on the equity you have in the existing home, this may be a show stopper: a lender isn't going to want to lend in a way that causes them to have a larger outstanding balance than the property is worth at any point during the project (or after it). You need a loan big enough to pay off your current mortgage but also to finance the construction. So, basically you need two houses worth of mortgage, but you will end up with only one house. How does a bank assess the value in order to determine LTV? They can't assess based on any scheme where both structures' values are included in the appraisal, if you're going to knock the old one down (because then you'd likely be upside-down after the first house was removed). They can't assess based on only one house, unless you have a ton of equity, because then you wouldn't have enough cash to finance the construction after paying off the original mortgage.
Ultimately, the most straightforward solution is probably to subdivide, and build the new house on the new parcel following typical construction loan processes (as if it was any random parcel but just happened to be right next to your current house). This lets you treat the new home and the old home separately from a lending perspective, which makes everything nice and clean. Just be aware that you'll have to be able to pay off the mortgage on the first house before you can (legitimately) tear it down, otherwise the bank will likely be able to accelerate the mortgage (basically, put you on the hook for immediately paying the entire balance). So, before talking to lenders, you may want to talk to your municipality's zoning or planning department.
Also , as a footnote, it sounds like you're planning on using a friend as a "general contractor." If, by including that in quotes, you're trying to indicate that you intend to do much of the work yourself yet have his name on the paperwork, be careful with how you describe this arrangement to your bank when seeking a construction loan. Lenders tend to be afraid of self-builds hidden as "yeah, my buddy is the general contractor, wink wink."
Comment: This is the best answer as the loan is an ancillary issue for the reasons mentioned. We lack particulars on OP's location (zoning, lot proportions, etc.) but being able to build a second primary use building on a half-acre lot makes me raise my eyebrows.
Comment: Ultimately I think the ancillary issues lead up to a real answer to the actual question of "how do I get a loan?" because the answer is basically, "if you can address these things, then a bank will be able to give you a loan."
Comment: An anonymous user proposed an edit to this answer which I voted to reject because I felt it removed meaningful content (it also left behind two sentence fragments which didn't seem to make sense to me). If anyone would like to discuss any issues with the answer or potential reasons for changing or improving it, I'd love to hear from them here in the comments.
Answer: If the city or county planning-commission will approve the project then the banks can make a construction loan on it. Then after final approval, the construction loan can be converted to a mortgage but the new mortgage must also include the payoff of the other mortgage. Actually, I think the construction loan would have to include payoff of the other mortgage.
A project like this would not be unusual if the new construction matches other upscale development in the neighborhood. The unusual aspect is not demolishing the older house as a first step.
Comment: The disadvantage of not demolishing first, is that the new house will be further back from the road, so the back yard will be smaller (and the front yard correspondingly smaller).  Most people prefer more back yard because of increased privacy there.
Comment: @MartinBonnersupportsMonica That part could stop the whole thing from being approved in many areas that are particular about structure set-backs.
Comment: @MichaelSeifert If they back to other residential property there is certainly a minimum from the back property line as well.
Comment: A site plan, including water drainage, would be more complicated with two houses but possible. The site plan would have a temporary aspect and a permanent aspect. And the one-half acre lot is fairly small even if the older house is temporary. The lot probably does have a rear set-back line.
Comment: @HartCO:  I'm not sure I've ever heard of a *maximum* setback as opposed to a minimum one, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's an HOA somewhere that has mandated such a thing.
Answer: We have this scenario near me a lot and I even went over it and decided not to build - for specific land reasons.
Some of the advice you have on here is just flat out wrong.   You do demolish a perfectly good house if the cost of doing it plus the cost of building new are going to be lower than the future value of the new house.   Banks will give you a home loan for this.   You have to walk into the bank with the plans and the costs of construction and an appraisal.   The banks will send their appraisers out and if you can cover 20-30% and have good credit your chances are very good.
But the whole premise of not demo'ing a good house is ludicrous.   If the "good" house gets in the way of future gains, get rid of it.   If it is "that good" and still proves to not warrant keeping there are tons of ways to make money on salvaging pieces.
The other option you have is to basically build new house on top of the old one.   Pick a wall and join the two houses there.   So as long as you are abiding by property line rules the city doesn't have much to say because the "new house" is treated like an extension.  I have seen this done 20+ times in my area and most of the time it looks good.   I almost bought one in fact and it was done well - the old house was basically the front of the new and had mudroom, laundry, office, small sitting room.
Now the other option that you have is an addition.   In 95% of cases an addition on a house is a long-term loss.   You really have to be in a high valuation area to gain on an addition.  You put a 1000 sq foot addition in for 100k expect your house to be worth 80k more in most areas.   That is why I suggested building on top of - that is almost always a winner as building a 2500 sq ft house might be 175k compared to 100k addition.
So it is really about appraising right and math.
Demo cost + Building cost < Value of new house ... if false...
Building new house on top of old < Value of new super house ... if false...
Sell house and go buy new house in the area.
Any other reasoning is sentimental and does not belong on a money advice site!

Home rebuild and demolish


What is the purpose of the 60-second shutdown timer in macOS?

Question:
What's the purpose of having a 60-second timer for the shutdown dialog in macOS? Why automatically shut down the user's computer if they leave the dialog box open?
Comment: Good question.  It assumes that you are going to accidentally choose to shut down your computer.
Answer: Some thing can be done remotely when a user is logged on, this allow a cancel to save work. Also it can be used in unattended installs.
Answer: Ubuntu (Xubuntu at least) has something similar but 30 seconds.  It's mainly an "are you sure"  that doesn't prevent the user clicking shutdown and leaving the machine (what happens if you shut the lid of a laptop with this open? I'd expect it to shutdown rather than sleep on a mac).  I (as an example) often hit save on a big piece of work, stand up, then hit shutdown and walk away, losing sight of the screen an instant after htting the button.  Another user may tap the physical power button.
But it serves another purpose in this case.  That checkbox for restoring the session.  You have to have the chance to tick it.  A less user-friendly approach would be to have a dialog box like
<code>___________________________________
|Shut down                        |
|---------------------------------|
|Are you sure?                    |
|[no] [yes]                       |
|[yes, restore session next time] |
|_________________________________|
</code>
without a timer.  that gives you the same potions, except the impatient user comes back later to find the screen saying "are you sure?"
Answer: I assume it serves two purposes: confirmation that you want to shut down, but also in the case of if somebody clicks the shutdown button and then walks away from the computer, expecting it to shut down, it isn't just stuck on the confirmation option.
Answer: Though I do not use mac, I would take an educated guess, that the purpose of this is for, clearing active memory instruction runtime's, ending; operations, functions and tasks, shutting down the kernel, shutting down the gui, shutting down the system.
It is basically the same reason it takes time to boot up. You will never have a computer that just turns on in less then a second, all computers require time to boot up, and all computers require time to shut down.
The visual timer on the mac is a visual cue showing you how long till system shutdown.
That would be my guess anyway.
Comment: Not sure if it's a timer to clear all of those processes for two reasons:
first because a user can skip the timer and press Shut Down, not giving time to the system to clear all those processes and second, from time to time, the computer can take more time to shutdown processes, taking more than 1 minute to close them.
Comment: Also the user can hit "cancel", it which case they probably want those processes.
Comment: This is entirely incorrect. The timer is not counting down until shutdown is complete, but counting down until the "Shut Down" button being pressed will be *automatically assumed*. The user can shut down the system at any point by pressing the button. The actual shutdown (whether user-initiated or timer-initiated) is shown with a black screen and a spinner, and typically only takes a couple of seconds (certainly not 60!). Chris H and Troy Troy have provided the correct answer.
Comment: if the user can skip the timer process, then my second guess is it is there for aesthetics. I can not think of another reason apart from a design aspect of the Mac OS.
Answer: The Timer appears to be a countdown for the user ( to change their mind), before the computer goes into shutdown.
There is a "Shutdown" button to over-ride the countdown.That appears to confirm the purpose of the timer.
However My Imac Doesn't shutdown if you click the "Shutdown" (over-ride timer) button.
(It used to but not anymore.)
The Finder Bar disappears and the desktop stays there assumingly forever unless you hit and hold the power button or pull the plug. However if you let the timer run to zero it goes into shutdown and shuts down.
So for me it's easier to let the timer run down.
Answer: To make sure that's what you wanted to do, so you don't lose unsaved work. Probably a bit less relevant currently. This warning used to come up when first pressing the power button. But, really it's like would you really like to shutdown the machine at this momemnt.


Why does a satellite with a higher mass fall slower?

Question: I was doing simulations in GMAT and I could observe that if I increase the mass of the satellite, the satellite falls slower ... and if I reduce the mass of the satellite, then it falls faster (I only changed the mass, the drag area, the initial altitude, etc, everything stayed the same).
What is this all about?
Comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_coefficient
Comment: Suppose you have a water jug that you use 1 litre a day.  Instead of using 4 litre jugs, one day you use a 12 litre jug.  You notice it lasts much longer.  Why? Drag=usage rate, capacity=mass.
Comment: It can be helpful to wait 24 hours before accepting an answer, in this case would suggest considering if you want to move your accepted  tick to uhoh's answer that delved deeper into the math.
Comment: @PeterCordes  I can't edit! Another edit is awaiting approval. Can you?
Comment: @PeterCordes Great! For sure it will be accepted! Thanks.
Comment: @PeterCordes It can be the case though, as I stated in my answer, that what the title suggests is true.
Comment: @descheleschilder: we can remove our comments now that the title is fixed.  (In hindsight I wish I'd been less accusatory in my phrasing in the earlier comment; mistakes happen.  Sorry for being blunt about it.)
Comment: @RicardoCasimiro: What GMAT Atmosphere Model do You use?
Comment: Jacchia Roberts
Answer: That's a great software-based experiment!

What is this about?

It's about drag and Newton's 2nd law of motion!
$$F = \frac{dp}{dt} = ma$$
but in the context of orbital mechanics.
We can re-arrange Newton's law as $a = F_D/m$ where $F_D$ is the drag force, and the drag equation is
$$F_D = \frac{1}{2} \rho v^2 C_D A$$
where $\rho$ is the density at that altitude, $v$ is the speed, $C_D$ is the drag coefficient of the spacecraft's shape (usually between 0.5 and 1.0) and $A$ is the cross-sectional area of the spacecraft viewed from the direction of motion.
Put the two together and you get
$$a = \frac{1}{m}\frac{dp}{dt} = \frac{1}{2m} \rho v^2 C_D A$$
note: If you re-run your simulation in GEO where there is essentially zero atmospheric drag because $\rho$ out there is extremely close to zero, you'll see that you can drop the mass even further without detecting much loss of altitude. But with very very low mass, if you have photon pressure turned on in your program then sunlight could start to do strange things to your orbit, because you've effectively built a solar sail.
Other effects like gravitational perturbations from the Sun and the Moon will always be present, but those accelerations are independent of mass of the spacecraft because it cancels out (i.e. drop a feather and a hammer on the moon and they accelerate the same).

If this were a linear problem, you'd stop here and say that the deceleration was inversely proportional to the mass.
But in orbit things work counterintuitively. While you'd think that you lose linear momentum $dp/dt$ you actually speed up as you lose altitude and drop deeper into Earth's gravitational well.
You can read further at: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/rocket/newton2r.html
Comment: lose, not loose
Comment: @RossPresser done, thanks! That one is hard-wired in my brain (along with several others). It's a constant battle... :-)
Comment: This relation between drag and mass is taken to a relative (for satellites) extreme in GOCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Field_and_Steady-State_Ocean_Circulation_Explorer which I think needed to be close to Earth to accurately sense the changes in gravity, but "streamlined" (have a low frontal surface area) to not decelerate too much in order to reach a mission duration of at least 20 months. Some called it "the Ferarri of Space" https://phys.org/news/2013-09-ferrari-space-fall-earth.html
Comment: @a.t. I'm intrigued, so I've just asked [Exactly how "Ferrari-like" were (was) GOCE? Was its drag coefficient as low as the car's?](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/46144/12102)
Answer: From Force=Mass*Acceleration for a given starting drag force (from the constant drag area, altitude and velocity) increasing the mass will reduce the acceleration (deceleration in this case) slowing the satellite and causing the perihelion to lower.
So being heavier does not directly make the satellite fall slower, but does change how quickly atmospheric drag reduces the orbit.
Comment: would be improved by incorporating [Organic Marble's comment](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/46122/at-greater-mass-does-the-satellite-fall-slower#comment150284_46122)
Answer: This is not always the case. Suppose the satellite with the higher mass has, say, the form of a sphere, and the lighter one that of a long massive spear with a sharp point gradually extending to the small diameter of the spear, which has a higher mass at the front than at the back. On entering the atmosphere, the spherical satellite will experience more friction than the spear-shaped satellite.
The spear-shaped satellite will, due to the friction forces, adjust its orientation, so it is heading to earth vertically, thereby experiencing less drag force. Therefore it will arrive on earth before the lighter satellite.
Of course, it also depends on the ratio of both masses, but if the mass of the spear-shaped is not too much lower than the spherical one, it will surely arrive on earth faster. Which means falling faster.


In categorical logic, why must any argument with two negative premises be invalid?

Question: Capaldi PhD Columbia, Smit PhD Catholic University of Leuven. The Art of Deception (2007).

Why's 1 true please? I prefer an intuitive explanation, not one with Truth Tables or Formal Deduction.
Answer: Here is the best short answer I can offer. When there are two negative premises, one of two things generally happens: either the premises define two sets that are mutually exclusive, or the two premises define sets that are irrelevant to each other.
In either case, the content of the premises prevents any connection between them; so the reasoning fails.
This answer can be tested by preparing Venn diagrams for syllogisms where there are two negative premises: e.g., EEA, OEI, EOO, and so forth. The diagram will give you a picture of what the premises actually say, and illustrate why the conclusion must fail.
Answer: A syllogism needs three terms and three propositions (two premises and a conclusion). The predicate term of the conclusion, 'P', is the major term, the subject term, 'S', of the conclusion is the minor term, and the term common to both premises, 'M', the middle term. But let's put all that into an example :
All [human beings] (middle term) are [fallible persons] (minor term)
Some [philosophers] (major term) are [human beings] (middle term)

Some [fallible persons] (minor term) are philosophers (major term)
That's as formal as the answer gets !
Lacking a middle term there is no way in which a syllogism with two negative premises can link the minor and major terms together as subject and predicate in the conclusion - or indeed get any valid conclusion at all.
E.g.
No cats are vegetables
No vegetables are fruits

? - no conclusion is deducible
Or try :
No vegetable is a fruit
No fruit is a mouse

Conclusion ? - no conclusion is deducible
Someone might think that from 'No vegetable is a fruit' and 'No fruit is a mouse' we can deduce that 'No vegetable is a mouse'. But we can't : it doesn't follow, because no vegetable is a fruit and no fruit is a mouse, that being a non-fruit makes a mouse a non-vegetable.
The first para. of Mark Andrew's reply gives you the theoretical explanation in terms of sets. It is excellent. My answer might help - no more than that - as an illustration of the problem of two negative premises. I hope it counts as an intuitive explanation. At least it contains no truth tables.


Can the following construction be used to measure countable sets?

Question: New Edit: The Measure has several problems. My answer is stated below the post
I previously stated:

"I manipulated the Construction so that if $T_1=T_2$ then $\mu(T_1)=\mu(T_2)$. If the construction can be
  improved let me know."

I was wrong. I cannot manipulate the construction to have a consistent measure for equivalent sets with different non-reduced forms. However, if the equivalent sets had different reduced forms, their measures would be the same.
Moreover, to compare the size of non-equivalent sets, the sets must be simplified first. See the section "Sets Must Be Simplified Before Being Measured"
The construction of the measure is similar to Natural Density and Counting Measure.
Consider a group of countably infinite sets dense in $[a,b]$
$T_1=\left\{\left.a<\frac{M_1(n_1)}{R_1(q_1)}<b\right|n_1,q_1\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ $,T_2=\left\{\left.a<\frac{M_2(n_2)}{R_2(q_2)}<b\right|n_2,q_2\in\mathbb{Z}\right\},...,$ $T_m=\left\{\left.a<\frac{M_m(n_m)}{R_m(q_m)}<b\right|n_m,q_m\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$
I want to create a measure that compares the "size" of each countable dense set to all the sets.
User @Mikhail suggested:
"It is indeed possible to get measures that behave in a nontrivial fashion on countable subsets, and indeed the axiom of choice or some weaker forms thereof are relevant here.  Namely, one can get a finitely-additive (not $\sigma$-additive) measure $\xi$ on the set of subsets of $\mathbb{N}$ such that $\xi(S)=0$ for any finite set $S\subseteq\mathbb{N}$ and $\xi(S)=1$ for any cofinite subset (i.e., subset with a finite complement). Here $\xi$ takes only two values, zero or one. For sets that are neither finite nor cofinite, the measure behaves in a nontrivial way but always exactly one of a pair of complementary sets has measure one. Such measures are used in ultraproduct constructions."
However, due to my lack of understanding of ultra-product constructions and axiom of choice, I created an alternate construction which may or may not follow the principles of measure theory. The construction below involves cardinality and ratios.
The Construction
We begin by taking the cardinality of $T_c=\left\{\left.a<\frac{M_c(n_c)}{R_c(q_c)}<b\right|n_c,q_c\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$  (where $c$ is an integer and $1\le c \le m$)
\begin{equation}
\left|\left\{\left.a<\frac{M_c(n_c)}{R_c(q_c)}<b\right|n_c,q_c\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\right|
\end{equation}
The countably infinite set can divided into an infinite union of finite sets.
\begin{equation}
\left|\lim_{t\to\infty}\bigcup_{q_c=-t}^{t}\left\{\left.a<\frac{M_c(n_c)}{R_c(q_c)}<b\right|n_c\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\right|
\end{equation}
The union can be modified inorder for the "compactness" of $R_c(q_c)$ to be included in the measure; however, $T_c$ must be simplified first (There is a section below defending simplification). Here are the steps to fully reducing the set.

One must be able to factor $h_c$ out of all coefficients of $M_c(n_c)$ and factor $p_c$ out of all coefficients of $R_c(q_c)$.
$h_c/p_c$ must be fully reduced to get ${h_c}'/{p_c}'$. If the denominator is irrational then it must be rationalized.
After multiplying the ${h_c}'$ to the numerator ${p_c}'$ to the denominator we end up with $M_c^{'}(n_c)$ and $R_c^{'}(q_c)$. (All coefficients must not be in the form of fractions)

We end up using ${R_c}^{'}(q_c)$ to modify the previous equation.
$$s_c(t)=\left|\bigcup_{v_c\in \left\{\left.-t\le {{R_c}^{'}(q_c)} \le t \right|q_c\in \mathbb{Z} \right\}}\left\{\left.a<\frac{M_c(n_c)}{v_c}<b\right|n_c\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\right|$$
The function $s_c(t)$ is the modified cardinality of $T_c$. Similarly $s_1(t),s_2(t),..s_m(t)$ are the modified cardinalities of $T_1,T_2,..,T_m$.
If the finite sets in the union of $s_c(t)$ were disjoint, $s_c(t)$ would equal
$$=\sum_{v_c\in \left\{\left.-t\le {{R_c}^{'}(q_c)}\le t \right|q_c\in \mathbb{Z} \right\}}\left|\left\{\left.a<\frac{M_c(n_c)}{v_c}<b\right|n_c\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\right|$$
However, in most cases, the finite sets are not disjoint. Hence $s_c(t)$ would be less than the sum above. This makes the modified cardinalities countably sub-additive.
The "construction" of the measure of $T_c$ ends up being
$$\mu(T_c)=\lim_{t\to\infty}\frac{s_{c}(t)}{s_1(t)+s_2(t)+...+s_m(t)}$$
$$\mu(T_c)=\lim_{t\to\infty}\frac{s_c(t)}{\sum_{p=1}^{m} s_{p}(t)}$$
Sets must be Simplified before being measured
In order to show one set is a subset of another set, both sets must be simplified.
Consider sets $T_1=\left\{\left.\frac{2n+1}{4p+2}\right|n,p\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ and $T_2=\left\{\left.
\frac{8r+6}{16v+12}\right|r,v\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$.
We can prove $T_2\subset{T_1}$, if the numerator of $T_2$ is a subset of the numerator of $T_1$ and the denominator of $T_2$ is a subset of the denominator of $T_1$.
However $\left\{\left.8r+6\right|r\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\not\subset\left\{\left.2n+1\right|n\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ and $\left\{\left.16v+12\right|v\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\not\subset\left\{\left.4p+2\right|p\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$.
We have to simplify both sets! Set $T_1$ is fully reduced but $T_2$ can be simplified into $\left\{\left.\frac{4r+3}{8v+6}\right|r,v \in \mathbb{Z}\right\}$. We find that $\left\{\left.4r+3\right|r\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\subset\left\{\left.2n+1\right|n\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ and $\left\{\left.8n+6\right|v\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\subset\left\{\left.4p+2\right|p\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$.
Hence $T_2\subset T_1$ but both sets must be simplified before being compared to one another.
If we set $T_1=T_2$, with the sets in different unreduced forms, the sets must be simplified into reduced forms. Otherwise the sets cannot be properly compared to one another. Infact, if the equivalent reduced sets were measured, both set would have equal measure.
I will give an example but not go in detail with the calculations. If we set $T_1=\left\{\left.\frac{2p+1}{2q+1}\right|p,q\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ and $T_2=\left\{\left.\frac{2p+3}{2q+5}\right|p,q\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ and compare the size of the sets between [1,2]; both sets are already reduced and should have a measure of $1/2$. This is easy to prove, since the cardinalities of the sets divided into finite unions are the same and so are the elements of the sets' denominators when restricted by $[-t,t]$.
Example for Applying the Measure (If $T_2\subset T_1$ then $\mu(T_2)<\mu(T_1)$)
Say we set $T_1=\left\{\left.\frac{\sqrt{n}}{q^2}\right|n,q\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ and $T_2=\left\{\left.\frac{\sqrt{2m+1}}{r^4}\right|m,r\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ and compare the size of the set between $[1,2]$ (Note that $T_2\subset{T_1}$.)
Since $T_1$ is fully simplified, we can apply the measure.
$$s_1(t)=\left|\bigcup_{v_1\in\left\{\left.-t<q^2<t\right|q\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}}\left\{\left.1<\frac{\sqrt{n}}{v_1}<2\right|n\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\right|$$
$$=\sum_{q=1}^{\left\lfloor\sqrt t\right\rfloor}\left\lfloor(2q^2)^2 \right\rfloor-\left\lceil(q^2)^2 \right\rceil+1$$
(Note we do not sum elements that are undefined or repeated in other finite sets.)
Since $T_2$ is simplified, we can apply the measure.
$$s_2(t)=\left|\bigcup_{v_2\in\left\{\left.-t<{r^4}<t\right|q\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}}\left\{\left.1<\frac{\sqrt{2m+1}}{v_2}<2\right|m\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\right|$$
$$=\sum_{r=1}^{\lfloor\sqrt[4]{t}\rfloor}\left\lfloor\frac{(2r^4)^2-1}{2}\right\rfloor-\left\lceil\frac{(2r^4)^2-1}{2}\right\rceil+1$$
The measure of each set ends up being
$$\mu(T_1)=\lim_{t\to\infty}\frac{s_1(t)}{s_1(t)+s_2(t)}=1$$
$$\mu(T_2)=\lim_{t\to\infty}\frac{s_2(t)}{s_1(t)+s_2(t)}=0$$
Hence $T_1$ has a measure of 1 and $T_2$ has a measure of 0.
Properties of the Construction

If $T_1 \subset T_2$ then $\mu(T_1)<\mu(T_2)$
If $T_1$ and $T_2$ are fully reduced and $T_1=T_2$ then $\mu(T_1)=\mu(T_2)$. (Note that $T_1$ and $T_2$ can be in different reduced forms and still be equal)

(If $>>$ means "growth rate is infinitely greater than as $x\to\pm\infty$", $<<$ means "growth rate is infinitely smaller than as $x\to\pm\infty$", $\sim$ means "growth rate is porportional as $x\to\pm\infty$", and any listed function eventually increases without any bound, the following is also true.)

If ${|M_1(x)|}>>{|M_{2}(x)|}$ and $|R_1(x)|\sim|R_2(x)|$; $|M_{1}(x)|\sim |M_{2}(x)|$ and $|R_{1}(x)|>>|R_{2}(x)|$; or $|M_{1}(x)|>>|M_{2}(x)|$ and $|R_{1}(x)>>R_{2}(x)|$, then $\mu(T_1)=0$ and $\mu(T_2)=1$.
If ${|M_1(x)|}<<{|M_{2}(x)|}$ and $|R_1(x)|\sim|R_2(x)|$; $|M_{1}(x)|\sim |M_{2}(x)|$ and $|R_{1}(x)|<<|R_{2}(x)|$; or $|M_{1}(x)|<<|M_{2}(x)|$ and $|R_{1}(x)<<R_{2}(x)|$, then $\mu(T_1)=1$ and $\mu(T_2)=0$.
If $|M_{1}(x)|>>|M_{2}(x)|$, $|R_{1}(x)|<<|R_{2}(x)|$, and $|R_{1}(x)|>>|M_{2}(x)|$, then $\mu({T_1})=0$ and $\mu({T_2})=1$.
If $|M_{1}(x)|>>|M_{2}(x)|$, $|R_{1}(x)|<<|R_{2}(x)|$, and $|R_{1}(x)|<<|M_{2}(x)|$, then $\mu({T_1})=1$ and $\mu({T_2})=0$

However, as suggested in a previous question, there is no "best way" of measuring the size of countable sets.
Can the following construction be used to measure countable sets? If not, how can we alter the construction, to make a measure possible?
What other measures can be used?
Comment: This construction doesn't seem to be well-defined at all. First off, the measure of a set should depend on the set only, and not on the presentation of the set in terms of some functions $M$ and $R$. It is not clear at all that your construction is at all well-defined: if I gave you the same set in terms of different functions $M'$ and $R'$, would you be able to show that they give the same measure of the set? The question is hard to answer unless the construction is clarified to the point where its well-definedness may be understood.
Comment: I still don't understand why the construction is well-defined. Maybe could you label in your question where the proof that it is well-defined is?
Comment: Maybe include some of these example calculations to help us understand then? And do it in such a way where you first chose $M_1=2x+1$, and then do the calculation again but now chose $M_1=\ln x$, to show us that you get the same answers no matter which functions you chose for the $M_i$
Comment: Whoever is downvoting please explain.
Comment: @Alqatrkapa If so then why is the following true. If $\left\{\left.M_1(p_1)\right|p_1\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\subset\left\{\left.M_2(p_2)\right|p_2\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ and $\left\{\left.R_1(q_1)\right|q_1\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}\subset\left\{\left.R_2(q_2)\right|q_2\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}$ then $$\left\{\left.\frac{M_1(p_1)}{R_1(q_1)}\right|p_1,q_1 \in \mathbb{Z}\right\}\subset\left\{\left.\frac{M_1(p_2)}{R_2(q_2)}\right|p_2,q_2 \in \mathbb{Z}\right\}$$.
Comment: @Alqatrkapa Is it possible to add that $\frac{M_p(q_p)}{R_p(q_p)}$ must be fully reduced.
Comment: The point is that the number you get as the size of the set depends on $M$ and $R$. So it is not a measure of the set of the infinite set, since it depends on more then the set, namely also on $M$,$R$. If you and I are given a set, and you use your $M$ and $R$, and I use my $M'$ and $R'$, then your measure of the set will be different from mine. This means it is not a good way of measuring sets
Comment: But if its fully reduced it would solve the problem.
Comment: Unless you want a statement like "The measure of the set $S$ relative to the functions $M$ and $R$ is ...$. In which case I suggest you learn measure theory, since it does exactly that; you chose functions that give a measure to sets
Comment: @Arbuja No it wouldn't
Comment: Also, you are taking limits which I expect will just diverge. So you will find that the size of an infinite set is infinity (since your limit diverges). Not sure how insightful that is
Comment: The limit cannot diverge. The modified cardinality of one set is compared to modified cardinality of all sets. I have checked several times. The measure is 1 at most and 0 at least.
Comment: What about $R_1$?
Comment: @user2520938 Here is an example calculation down below.
Comment: @Alqatrkapa The construction is worse than not well-defined. There is a counter-example I found in my answer.
Answer: I found a counter-example to the credibility of my measure that I should have found a long time ago. If we set $T_1=\left\{\left.\frac{m}{2n+1}\right|m,n \in \mathbb{Z}\right\}$ and $T_2=\left\{\left.\frac{v}{4r+2}\right|v,r\in\mathbb{Z}
\right\}$, then according to my measure, $\mu(T_1)=\frac{2}{3}$ and $\mu(T_2)=1/3$.
However, if we change $T_1$ into $\left\{\left.\frac{2m}{4n+2}\right|m,n \in \mathbb{Z}\right\}$ we find that $T_1 \subset T_2$. Hence for my measure to have some credibility $\mu(T_1)<\mu(T_2)$. Morover $T_1$ had to be non-reduced to be comapared to $T_2$, which goes against my argument of simplification.
Hence, my measure cannot be used.
Hoefully someday there will be a measure that can be applied to any countable dense set.


I need help lowering the storage size of a PNG

Question: I'm trying to upload a geofilter for snapchat (it's a PNG btw) and I used photoshop to make my filter, the end result was 689kb but I need it be 600kb MAX. Is there any way I can lower the storage size? ps. I have two texts that says LAGRANGE HIGH and another that says GATOR, they both are in 3D if that matters.
Comment: I really do not understand your question, What filters are you refering to, what is in your png, what is that Lagrange and what 3D format are you talking about... I do not understand anithing at all.
Comment: Have you tried saving for web?
Answer: Jeff Attwood recently recommended looking into Zopfli as a compression tool, but also lists others, including PNGout, of which he says:

Take any random PNG of unknown provenance, apply PNGout, and you're likely to see around a 10% file size savings, possibly a lot more.

... and goes on to say that Zopfli (although slow) gives smaller files still. The link gives figures, and some of them have ratios which will meet your target.
Which lossless compression to use and how effective it is will depend a lot on your files and what compression you've been using hitherto.
Answer: You can use a service like tinyPNG to create smaller PNG files.


Resource Pools and VMTools Best Practices

Question: Are there any published (or non-published) best practices with using Resource Pools in a View environment? Using Shares/Limits etc...Also, when installing the VMTools on a desktop, are there any best practice configurations with running the tools within a desktop?Resource Pools and VMTools Best Practices
Answer: For VMware Tools - always install them and ensure TimeSync is enabled unless you have specific reasons not to.
Resource Pool configuration is highly flexible and there isn't any one size fits all "Best Practice" for View or for any other vSphere environment. Deciding how to partition your resources, what limits and reservations are appropriate and how you want shares to bias priorities amongst groups of VM's is a significant design exercise and the specifics will vary hugely depending on the hardware that you have, the classes of VM (and user) you support, the SLA's that you need to meet and the features you want to support.
The one strong recommendation I'd make is don't enable expandable reservations on pools unless you fully trust all VM admins below the level that you wish to enable that setting because expandable reservation allows such an administrator to take resources from higher level pools at will and those "borrowed resources" remain reserved (unavailable to anything else) until the specific VM's that caused the expansion are either shut down or have their reservations modified. The only other guideline I can think of is the obvious one - make sure the settings you choose deliver the minimum\maximum performance levels that you want specific VM's to have.
Answer: I'm no View expert but certainly I always install all of the vmtools and ensure that timesyc is enabled.


Is the development of "developing countries" evidence against the idea that former colonial powers owe their headway to exploitation?

Question: There is a recurring narrative (especially but not exclusively in left-leaning circles) that today's "developed nations", particularly Western former colonial powers, owe much of their wealth and progress to the exploitation of their former colonies. This is frequently used to counter the idea that the "First World's" headway is due to any inherent superiority, either in culture or social organization (such as capitalism, market liberalism or democracy). The implication, apart from the call for reparations that often follows, is that today's "developing nations" are unlikely to ever catch up, replacing the idea of global progress with one of eternal injustice (barring a revolution, which of course is what many proponents of this narrative are aiming for).
However, to my untrained eye, the current development of many "developing countries" seems to falsify this idea. Is that so? I assume some work has been done on this -- can anyone here point me in the right direction? That would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: The recent development of many "developing countries" and "emerging markets" does not mean that Western colonial powers did not exploit them in the past.
Emerging economies owe their modern GDP growth to cheap labor, as (former) Western colonial powers switched their (expensive) manufacturing bases to countries like China, India, etc. In the past, they were exploited mainly for their natural resources moreso than labor.
The continued GDP growth of Western colonial powers is due to a shift from manufacturing (labor-intensive, low-education professions) to "high tech" industries which require significantly more education (medical research, computer programming, etc.).
The book "Capital" by Thomas Piketty has a far more detailed history of how capital flows shifted from the 18th century to modern times, and the economic interplay between Western colonial powers and the developing nations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_Century
Answer: To complement @rocinante answer the argument described in the question silently assumes that growth can happen only if you steal from somebody. So if the past colonies cannot steal from anybody, they are bound not to ameliorate their material welfare.
Assume two persons, $A$ and $B$, that currently have the same unexploited resources. It so happens that in period $t$ (which may last for decades or centuries- "colonialism"), $A$ manages to ruthlessly exploit $B$, and appropriates a large portion of $B$ resources, which, together with $A$'s resources (and the industrial revolution), create a growth drive for $A$.
Now move to period $t+1$, "post-colonialism". $A$ is currently rich due to past exploitation of $B$, and $B$ is poor, perhaps in a worse situation than he was in the beginning of period $t$. Still, this is a different state of affairs than the one holding at the beginnings of period $t$, when both $A$ and $B$ where poor with unexploited resources, and the industrial revolution had not happened.
$B$ may now benefit from the current status of $A$, thus creating a "growth drive" for himself. For example, $B$ can become the main outsourcer for $A$'s business.
This is up to a point what is happening, and so this specific fact cannot be used in support of any ethical approach to the matter. The situation may still be described by some as "eternal injustice", but "eternal injustice" is a totally different thing than "eternal economic inequality".
For example,assume that $B$ eventually catches up with $A$. Still, one could argue that because $A$ made his riches by stealing from $B$, while $B$ made his riches by working for $A$, the situation is still unjust, even though economically they currently are at the same level of material well-being.
Comment: "assume that $B$ eventually catches up with $A$" - Ah, my favorite kind of argument, where the desired outcome is already assumed to be true. Trickle down economics never worked in the real world, and has been debunked for a while now.
Comment: @rocinante What argument are you referring to? In my answer at least, this was stated as a hypothetical assumption in order to make the point that ethical judgements are more or less unconstrained by any factual outcome.


Environment lighting(Blender internal)

Question: I recently created a simple scene and worked with environment lighting checked on so now that I have completed it, I unchecked the environment lighting but the lighting isn't going away. What should I do?
Comment: I deleted all the files but still there is light in the scene idk why?
Comment: could you include a picture where you show what you checked?
Comment: When settings/check boxes tend to 'stick' to a project, my workaround is to check the poject's folder, see if an extra folder(s) has been created called "BlenderCache" or similar.  Delete those and re-run your animations from frame 1.  Another recommended deletion are all files or folders found in Belnder's  temporary folder. (user prefe'ces under the "File" tab at top.  (I like the photo)
Answer: Tip: Start from a pitch-black scene:

Set all World colors (Horizon, Zenith, Ambient) to Black (hex 000000)
Turn off all other forms of Lighting (ambient, environment, sky, indirect)
Turn off all lamps (or move them to another 3d-viewport) layer

So that your scene now becomes totally blacked out.
Then start adding various light sources from the TOP -> Down:
Global lighting first:

World (sky, horizon, zenith)
Ambient occlusion
Environment lighting
Indirect lighting

then add Local light sources:

Lamps (sun, area, hemi, spot, point)
Turn on any material emission (which bring light into the scene)

En voila... now you know and understand which light source effects what in kind of lighting effect inside your lovely scene.

Environment lighting(Blender internal)


Do users get notified when their answer is being deleted?

Question: Today a new user posted a silly comment as an answer, I flagged it and Kortuk appropriately deleted it (it was too silly to convert to a comment, really). Does this guy get a notification of this? Otherwise I'm afraid he'll post similar things. And most users can't see the deleted answers, but I can, and that's not always a plus.
Comment: Make a silly answer (here) and I'll be happy to delete it for you as a test.
Comment: There is a feature that a moderator message will notify through that but I believe yours did, best way is to make a test here.
Comment: @stevenvh, please post a comment on m.Alin's answer and then flag me to delete it right away. I will delete it and we will see if he receives a notification.
Answer: No, users are not notified of a delete. If a moderator places a comment on the question and then deletes it this will still appear in their inbox, otherwise they had no notice of this action. For science we verified with a moderator comment and ensured all operated as normal. With a moderator comment:

But this would not occur from a user such as stevenvh whom has high enough rep that he was performing moderation, just without the star. This is currently a discussion point on meta.SO, Show some support if you would like the feature also.
Answer: I haven't receive any notification about my answer being deleted.
But I can see my deleted answer:
Comment: You can always see your own answers, also deleted ones. Once you have 10k rep you can see *all* deleted answers, which, like I said is not always a pretty sight. A lot of rubbish at the bottom of pages. Personally I don't see the need for it.
Comment: @m.Alin, there is not notification that your answer is deleted, I know a mod comment will notify through a delete, but that is an intended feature I was notified of a long time ago. Just need to make sure I note on the comments myself.
Comment: @m.Alin, Did you receive an inbox notification for Clabacchio's comment?
Comment: @Kortuk I did, but that comment was before my answer got deleted.
Comment: @m.Alin, that is interesting.
Comment: @Kortuk Interesting because one doesn't receive any notification that one's answer got deleted or interesting for some other reason?
Comment: @Kortuk - Just a remark: I don't see the line "Why was your post deleted..." below in the actual deleted post. Is that OK? Or did you delete that mod comment in the deleted post? (This is getting complicated!!)
Comment: @stevenvh - The screenshot was made by m.Alin, who sees a link to the FAQ section on deletion.  That's not a comment, it's generated by the system and shown to the OP only.  There are no deleted comments from mods or anyone else.


Getting an email when a new result is posted on CodaLab

Question: Is there any way to set CodaLab so that one's get email when a new result is posted on CodaLab in a given competition?
Answer: This isn't currently possible with the free hosted version of CodaLab Competitions.  However, you can always download the CodaLab Competitions source code yourself, add the feature, and deploy the modified version on your own web server.
Of course, changing the CodaLab Competitions source code makes sense only if you're the one running the competition.  If you're a participant in someone else's competition, there's nothing you can do other than write a script that periodically fetches the results page, compares it against the previously fetched version, and e-mails you if it notices a new entry.


Date Field format in a Publishing layout

Question: I have created a publishing layout for SP 2010 Publishing site.  I have created it based off a page layout publishing content type.  One of the field is the standard OOTB Date field.  Using SP Designer 2010 to create layout I added the page field to the layout.  SO here is the issue.  When a user creates a page using this layout they select the date from the standard calendar picker.  When the page is saved it displays in the format mm/dd/yy  I need to have ot look like April 1, 2011.  How can I achieve this?
Answer: I had to do something like this a hwile ago.
You'll need to create a calculated column in the content type used by your page. The formula should be something like =TEXT([ArticleDate], "MMMM DD, YYYY") - call your calculated column something like "FormattedArticleDate". Set this column to update lists where it's used.
Then, in SharePoint Designer, you'll want to use EditModePanels to show the ArticleDate field when in Edit Mode, and then your Calculated Column when in Display Mode.
The calculated column will not show in Edit Forms, as it's calculated on the fly when data is added.
HTH
Comment: Spot on. Just thought it was worth mentioning for the benefit of people arriving here who only want to change date format locale (a common request in the UK); you can do this in Site settings->Regional Settings.
Comment: James,

I am new to edit panels in Designer.  I see where it is an available control.  However I also see an editmodepanel that is already in layout. However it isn't wrapped around any fields.  Looks like just a standard part of layout.  So I guess my question is where to position the panels in relation to the layout.  Also fuzzy on the syntax of the code I need.
Comment: You put the controls you want hidden or shown within the panel. The panel can go anywhere in the layout as long as it's within an asp:Control tag. You'll need to create two panels, one with `DisplayMode="Edit"` and the other with `DisplayMode="Display"`. Simply place the two panels next to each other on the page to have them render in the same location when the page is in either mode.
Comment: Awesome...Worked.  One last point.  When I add a page based on the layout and new Ctype  I see a a date like this December 30, 1899.  I want the page to be have no date.  You can go into edit mode and select new dates and they appear on the page fine.  My question is what is up with the initial date I see on the page.
Comment: That'll be what's returned when it's blank. Solution I think is to make the article date field compulsory.
Comment: Another option that I used was to default to todays date.  They can than go in and change accordingly.  At least by doing this you won't see that odd date.


Branch a Truffle test into various Ganache blockchain states

Question: I am currently testing a contract that can evolve in different ways, depending on the interaction between parties. But all these possible scenarios share the same initialization.
So, the question I have is the following. When I am writing a test for this contract in Truffle/Ganache, is it possible to run a single chain until the decision point, then create several copies of the test blockchain state, one for each possible scenario?
I know that Ganache offers the evm_snapshot and evm_revert RPC calls. But it is not clear to me how to use them and how it interacts with Truffle and Mocha.
Also, can I use nested contract directives, as we can nest describe in Mocha?
Ideally I would like to do something like this:
var Contract = artifacts.require("./Contract.sol");

contract('Contract', function(accounts) {
  beforeEach(async function() {
    // launch contract
    let contract = await Contract
        .new({ from: accounts[2], gas: 2000000 });

    // let users interact here
    // ...
  });

  contract('Agreement', function(accounts) {
    it('Payment is processed', async function() {
      // test that payment was processed
    });
  });

  contract('Disagreement, see who is right', function(accounts) {

    contract('Alice right', function(accounts) {
      it('Punish Bob', async function() {
        // show that Alice is right and punish Bob
      });
    });
    contract('Alice right', function(accounts) {
      it('Punish Alice', async function() {
        // show that Bob is right and punish Alice
      });
    });
  });
}

You see that we are testing three different outcomes, but they share the same initialization. I would like to avoid starting three fresh chains, one for each test. Is it possible and how one does it?
Answer: After testing here, I realized that the above code works in the following sense. Truffle will automatically snapshot and revert the two tests above. Some important observations:

One should not nest the directive contracts inside one another in this case, since there is only one contract being tested. We should instead use describes inside contract.
Using before does not work properly with snapshots. One should instead use beforeEach as stated in the question.
In the code above I forgot the keyword async in some function declarations. It should be present in each describe and it directive.


Does light hardness affect color saturation?

Question: I've read in couple of sources that level of hardness of light affects color saturation somehow - harder the light more saturated colors are. Is this actually true or not?
Comment: How do you define light's "hardness"?
Comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_light
Answer: You get strong color saturation when the colored areas are exposed as midtones. So it's exposure that determines whether colors are saturated, not the hardness of the light.
So soft light and hard light that result in the same exposure will result in the same level of color saturation.
Answer: The definition of saturation can vary a little... this is what CIE (international commission on illumination) defines it as:
"17-1136 saturation
colourfulness of an area judged in proportion to its brightness
NOTE For given viewing conditions and at luminance levels within the range of photopic vision, a colour stimulus of a given chromaticity exhibits approximately constant saturation for all luminance levels, except when the brightness is very high."
http://eilv.cie.co.at/term/1136
Pay attention to the note... if you can see it, then luminance does not notably affect saturation.
Technically, color saturation is the bandwidth/frequency of light from a source. Hue refers to the color of the image itself, and saturation describes the intensity/purity of that hue. Again, luminance/illuminance does not change this (other than the color of the illuminance/lighting if not full spectrum).
But what many tend to mean when they say "saturation/saturated" is what one might call the "richness of the colors" or some such; but there really is no definition of/for that... In general, this refers more to exposure; e.g. underexposing a sunset to improve the colors/saturation.
Answer: Well, if we put it too simply colors are just reflected light, different surfaces reflect light differently and human eye decodes those reflections as colors. Of course light intensity affects our perception of color: too much light(for human eye) shifts colors to white, while lack of light shifts them to black, thus color will change accordingly. Most saturated colors will get when exposure is just right, not overexposed and not underexposed but somewhere in between. There is also color of light that must be taken into consideration as color of light will shift reflected colors to lights original color. For example: Neon white lights will shift colors to cooler side, while more warmer candle light or setting sun light will shift then to warmer side.


How can I Patent features, functions, and devices without details?

Question: I invented a chair with a mechanism that has functions and features ( using a controller ).
The problem is there are a lot of ways or designs to make each detail.
 I wrote the provisional patent application as "a method for making" without reaching to details like screws positions and controller details.
Is it enough to be protected?
Answer: You try to make the claims as broad as possible without covering anything from the prior art and only provide concrete examples in the description. Then you make narrower versions of the claims as dependent claims in case you missed some prior art.
-> You can patent anything as broad as you can describe it without including prior art in the claims and only have to provide a few examples to support the claims.


Can I drive an LM334(Z) from an Arduino with AnalogWrite()?

Question: I need programmable current control, fading from zero to 2 milliAmps.  I was hoping to use Arduino's AnalogWrite(), which uses Phase Width Modulation (PWM) to simulate analog output with a sawtooth wave on a duty-cycle; to control an LM334Z to deliver a slowly ramped low current delivery.
[The application is a TransCranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCS) micro-current delivery to the human scalp. Jumping straight to 2 milliAmps is uncomfortable].
Will PWM work? Or, do I need some sort of smoothing circuitry to soften the PMW before it is applied to the LM334Z's Rset pin to accomplish the above?
Comment: an LED glued to the face of an LDR converts voltage to resistance, but a digital pot would be simpler to calibrate. I'm using a MCP41010 with the 334, which works very well and cost me ~$1us
Comment: an LM317 can provide 0-2ma CC with common 1/4watt resistors, look at the datasheet.
Comment: On Arduino, PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation, *not*  "Phase Width Modulation"
Answer: If you don't need super high accuracy, using a MOSFET's ohmic region, plus a smoothing filter on the output of your PWM (analog out), could be a solution.
Answer: You control the LM334 with a resistance, not a voltage. The current is set by multiplying the current through the resistor.
Maybe you can do what you want by replacing the Rset with a digital potentiometer?
Answer:
LM334Z's Rset pin to accomplish the above?

Most of that type of circuit has its operations be determined by the current In or out of that pin. So a voltage signal may not work - you will need to experiment. I have had some success with analogs dds chips and linear programmable osscillators.
So try it on your chip. Nothin to lose.
Comment: since it's output current is independent of any voltage, that will not work, it needs a resistor.


How can I edit the torrc file permanently (persistently)?

Question: I am using Tails 2.9.1, and edit the torrc file at etc/tor/torrc. I have enabled persistence and edit as administrator. Edits to that file function for that session only, and are gone the next time I boot Tails.
Answer: You cannot, the persistent storage does not cater to this kind of editing, for good reason.
The ability to edit persistence is something that can be done from the amnesia user. This user is intentionally unprivileged by default. If the amnesia user was able to make persistent changes to torrc this would allow an attacker who managed to exploit a process running in the context of the amnesia user to permenantly alter the state of the system and allow them to bypass the Tails' packetfilter rules, allowing them to make arbitrary outbound connections, effectively poking a hole in it's protections.
Any changes to the filesystem (outside of the encrypted persistent storage) are only stored in ephemeral memory and are thus discarded on shutdown. The root filesystem itself it's stored in a squashfs file and is extracted on boot. While it's likely technically possible to open and manipulate the squashfs to make changes, it's possible that in doing so you'd accidentally break some more of Tails' protection (more so than you already are by editing the torrc and reducing your anonymity set).
Instead, it might be easier to approach the problem by building your own Tails image and making your customizations to it that way.


Location of berryboot's config.txt

Question: Related to another question I've asked earlier:
Where is the berryboot's 'config.txt' physically located on the raspberry pi? And how would I access it via command line or similar?
Comment: Have you solved your problem? If so, please mark the answer that helped you, or if you solved it on your own, create a self-answer and mark it as such. We are trying to get the site Q:A ratio up and marking answers is what does that. If you resolved it and mark then people in the future will be able to profit from what you did *and* it helps move the site closer to graduation. Thanks!
Answer: First of all 'Raspberry Pi' is not an operating system so you have to tell the name which linux distribution you're using.
I'm using BerryBoot to boot my 4 linux distribution which are installed on my USB disk.
To find out where the config.txt and to modifying it, you have to mount BerryBoot installed device. It's formatted as FAT32.
Find the device name;
root@pi:~# fdisk -l |grep dev
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 3904 MB, 3904897024 bytes
/dev/mmcblk0p1               2     7626751     3813375    b  W95 FAT32
Disk /dev/sda: 16.4 GB, 16441671680 bytes
/dev/sda1          131072    32112639    15990784   83  Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
/dev/sdb1              63  2930272064  1465136001    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Then mount the device somewhere and look for config.txt
root@pi:~# mkdir /berry
root@pi:~# mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /berry
root@pi:~# ls -l /berry
total 45092
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    30776 Feb 12 08:48 LICENSE.berryboot
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  8170528 Mar 11 04:29 berryboot.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    17816 Jul 19 17:10 bootcode.bin
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      134 Jul 19 16:25 cmdline.txt
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      133 Apr  9 21:53 cmdline.txt~
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      173 Jul 19 17:25 config.txt
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     5886 Jul 19 17:10 fixup.dat
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     2032 Jul 19 17:10 fixup_cd.dat
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     8842 Jul 19 17:10 fixup_x.dat
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  2805264 Jul 19 17:10 kernel.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  3609232 Mar 11 03:50 kernel_a10_aufs.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  9616160 Jul 19 17:10 kernel_emergency.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  2753200 Mar 11 04:29 kernel_rpi_aufs.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12294570 Mar 11 04:29 shared.tgz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  2690164 Jul 19 17:10 start.elf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   469208 Jul 19 17:10 start_cd.elf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  3657572 Jul 19 17:10 start_x.elf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      413 Feb 25 00:24 uEnv.txt

Answer: You had to create a partition and put berryboot's files there on install; these also contained a config.txt. I suspect your question asks how to access this from within one of the distributions you installed.
Under openelec it's in /var/media/<some id>, raspbian and archlinux on arm install it under /boot/. A semi user friendly console editor is nano which you would start with nano <file>.

Location of berryboot's config.txt


Uniformly Sampling from Convex Polytopes

Question: How to choose a point uniformly from a convex polytope $P \subset [0,1]^n$ defined by some inequalities,  $Ax < b$? (Here $A$ is an $m \times n$ matrix, $x \in \mathbb{R}^n$, and $b \in \mathbb{R}^m$.)  I imagine that you could start with a uniformly chosen point in the cube and do some process to get a point with $Ax < b$.
Answer: See the answers to this question — uniform sampling from polytopes forms the basis for the known algorithms for calculating their volumes. The methods from the papers mentioned in those answers mostly take the form of a random walk inside the polytope; they differ in the details of the walk and in the analysis of its mixing time.
Answer: Hit and run sampling will perform much better than rejection sampling for higher dimensions.
It converges to a uniform distribution in polynomial time. The basic idea is to start at any point $x_0$ inside the polytope, then follow the following procedure iteratively:

pick a direction $\alpha$ uniformly at random.
find the minimum and maximum value of $\theta$ such that $x_n+\theta\cdot\alpha$ is contained in the polytope
pick a $\theta^*$ uniformly at random from $[\theta_{min},\theta_{max}]$
your new point is $x_{n+1}=x_n+\theta^*\cdot\alpha$
Comment: Is this the kind of thing you were looking for? https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265952538_Convergence_properties_of_Hit-and-Run_samplers
Comment: Can you suggest a reference for the analysis if this algorithm, please?
Comment: Is this implemented somewhere?
Answer: Rejection sampling will definitely work. Take a hypercube that you know contains the polytope, sample from the hypercube, and accept only those samples that belong in the polytope. However if the relative volume of the polytope is small you'll end up rejecting most samples, and the method might get painfully slow. Depending on your needs you might want to find, e.g., the smallest enclosing ball first, so that you can draw your uniform samples from that instead of the hypercube.
See Boyd & Vanderberghe's book on Convex Optimisation (it's online) for finding smallest enclosing sets.
Comment: For practicality it might be better to cover the polytope with boxes. Doing this optimally is hard/ill-posed/etc, but I would imagine it wouldn't be too challenging to fix the number of elements in a cover (start with a uniform "layering" of the hypercube) and minimize volume of the cover under the constraints of fixed cardinality and no overlap. Then rejection sample from that.
Comment: Also, you might set up the box covering by taking a uniform mesh on the hypercube, then discarding boxes that don't intersect the polytope at all. Keep indices for the remaining boxes as well as a supplementary Boolean variable to indicate whether or not the box is entirely contained in the polytope. Sample uniformly on indices, then rejection sample or uniformly sample on the resulting boxes depending on the Boolean variable you've already set. This middle road is probably close to the best you can do in silico.
Comment: @SteveHuntsman: The idea of covering the polytope with small rectangles is simple, nice and really powerful. Great!
Comment: That idea won't work if you reject 999,999 out of a million samples.  There must be some intrinsic way of doing this.
Comment: John: if you want an intrinsic mechanism, you can use MCMC techniques to sample from the density asymptotically. For example, it would be be fairly easy to implement Gibbs sampling, but it might take a long time for the chain to converge.
In general the problem you want to solve is very hard, computationally speaking.
To find an efficient algorithm, you are going to make some assumptions about the structure of your polytope, or to use some preprocessing to find out more about it. That's what Steve is suggesting.
Answer: If you use MATLAB cprnd on their File Exchange solves the problem.
Answer: Rejection sampling.
Answer: Rejection sampling definitely works if you are able to find a superset $Q$ of the polytope $P$ from which you can sample. If you sample a point from that superset, the probability that it gets accepted is equal to the ratio $\frac{\text{Vol}(P)}{\text{Vol}(Q)}$, so $Q$ should be as small as possible. For instance, it is sample to sample from $Q$ if it is a box or a ball.
In the case where the polytope is specified as a list of inequalities, finding the smallest enclosing ball can be quite hard.
Contrary to what Simon Barthelmé mentions, Boyd and Vandenberghe do not deal with this problem. Actually they deal with the case where the vertices of the polytope are available. Going from the list of inequalities to the set of vertices is also hard (I am actually looking for a MATLAB implementation of that).
One possible approach is to find a small box enclosing the polytope. The box is defined by a set of coordinates $(b_i^{\text{min}},b_i^{\text{max}}), i=1\dots n$, and each coordinate can be found by :
$$ b_i^{\text{min}} = \arg \min_x x_i \quad \text{subject to } A x \leq b $$
$$ b_i^{\text{max}}= \arg \max_x x_i \quad \text{subject to } A x \leq b $$
Those are linear programs for which you can use your favourite solver.
Comment: Additionally, having to convert to a list of vertices is going to be slow even in principle, since the number of vertices can explode exponentially in the general case.
Answer: A case with a fast simple method: to sample the "right simplex" $\ \sum{x_i} \le 1,\ x_i \ge 0$:

sample in $\sum{x_i} = 1$ by taking i.i.d. exponentials scaled to sum 1
scale by random-uniform$^\frac{1}{dim}$.

(I have no idea how to generalize this.)

In Python with NumPy, this is
<code>def random_simplex_sum1( N, dim ):
    """ N uniform-random points >= 0, sum x_i == 1 """
    X = np.random.exponential( size=(N,dim) )
    X /= X.sum(axis=1)[:,np.newaxis]
    return X

def random_simplex_le1( N, dim ):
    """ N uniform-random points >= 0, sum x_i <= 1 """
    return random_simplex_sum1( N, dim ) \
        * (np.random.uniform( size=N ) ** (1/dim)) [:,np.newaxis]
</code>


How large will our Sun get during the red giant phase (ie which planets will it engulf) before the helium flash?

Question: I have read that our Sun will increase in size to a red giant.  But after it goes through the helium flash it will contract somewhat.  Then after that grow again to be even larger before finally losing its outer layer as a planetary nebula and becoming a white dwarf.  I've seen estimates that the red giant phase will consume Mercury, Venus, and probably Earth.  (Even with Earth's expanded orbit due to the Sun losing mass to the solar wind.)  My question is how large will that first stage be prior to the helium flash?  Which planets, if any, will it engulf?
Answer: Low mass stars like the Sun do become very large prior to He ignition in the core. The exact value depends a bit on models for mass loss from the extended atmosphere (e.g. Guo et al. 2016), but estimates of 250 times its current size are possible (Schroeder & Smith 2008; Spiegel & Madhusudhan 2012).
At this radius both Mercury and Venus are engulfed. The mass loss from the Sun means Earth would orbit a bit further out than now. Nevertheless, it too would be engulfed in Schroeder and Smith's model at that point, because tidal drag dissipates energy from the orbit and it "falls" into the Sun very quickly.
Interestingly, the Sun achieves its maximum size at the tip of the RGB, rather than in the AGB phase.
Comment: @BrooksNelson I suspect the detail of which gets bigger - the RGB or AGB depends exactly on how much mass is lost during the RGB. Different models may yield different results. The whole calculation is as well mass-dependent, so whilst this may be true for the Sun it may not be true for stars of different mass or composition.
Comment: So the red giant phase is where the Sun reaches it's maximum size, not the asymptotic red supergiant phase?  That's surprising, I assumed the description supergiant would have meant bigger!  I had wondered if the Earth would survive the red giant (not Mercury or Venus though) and the horizontal branch, but be engulfed during the asymptomatic phase.  The sci fi thought experiment I always have is an advanced species using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_lifting to prevent Earth being engulfed and through shading of the sun protect life there.  Thank you!
Comment: @Brooks The Earth will become uninhabitable long before the Sun leaves the main sequence. It will be rather unpleasant here in a billion years or so, and the planet will be pretty well baked by around a billion years before the Sun starts its red giant phases. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future#Earth,_the_Solar_System_and_the_universe for details.
Comment: @PM 2Ring Yes, which is why I mentioned shading the Earth from the Sun.  But if we use star lifting techniques to reduce the Sun's mass now, even at a low rate.  The Sun would stay on the main sequence longer, develop a smaller red giant, and Earth's orbit would move further out.  All of which would extend life's time on Earth by many millions of years and prevent Earth from being engulfed by the Sun.


Besides Naruto, Jiraiya and Minato, who else is in contract with Toads?

Question: Besides Naruto, Jiraiya and Minato, which people were/are in contract with Toads?
Comment: Unless you can read Japanese, then you might be able to read the names. In the manga it was never shown or said who the rest were, and I think it wasn't mention in the anime either.
Comment: Aren't the toad sage and hagoromo in contract? Thought the so6p can summon toads.
Answer: Yes. We don't know who they are, but the Toad contract Naruto signs lists down names, which are more than those 3.
Naruto Chapter 92. Pg 19.
Answer: There are possibly have 6 summoners of the toads. Here are a clear image of the scroll.

Apparently the last 3 are Jiraiya, Minato and Naruto. While the first 3 summoners haven't been seen in the series. You can't really read or recognize the first 3 summoner's name as the writings are just completely chicken writings. It's probably the way or style of old generations write their name.
Comment: I suppose unless they appear in Boruto they were just made up for some random reason
Answer: I suspect and this is speculation that there where other toad summoners among the Senju clan. The naruto wiki mentions that

"The Mount Myōboku, the Ryūchi Cave and the Shikkotsu Forest are
  called the "Three Big Unexplored 'Sage' Regions" (「仙人」三大秘境, "Sennin"
  Sandai Hikyō), despite there being no apparent connection between
  Senjutsu and the snails of the forest.[1]"

Seeing as the Senju clan was renowned for their Senjutsu it makes sense that they could have spent some time in one of these three places in there attempts to master Senjutsu.
In the anime when the second Hokage gets reincarnated, he shows that he has good knowledge of Senjutsu and the toads of Mount Myōboku. He even compliments Naruto on his skills with Senjutsu.
Although not conclusive I think you can at least speculate on the other toad summoners
Answer:
Gamamaru
Hagoromo (To Mount Myōboku with Hamura Otsutsuki)
Fukasaku
Jiraiya
Minato (Since he can summon Toad during Obito and Kyubi invasion)
Naruto
Comment: how do you know this? why would toads write their name in this thing?


Biochemical conversion of ethanol to acetic acid

Question: I have questions about the involvement of the electron transport chain (ETC) in the biochemical conversion of ethanol to acetic acid. In which of the reaction steps is the ETC employed?
Comment: I just made a question from your water comment..    as it merits a separate question  http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/69388/in-the-production-of-vinegar-where-does-water-come-from     Hopefully somebody here will know/post an  answer.  You can comment on it if you want, though i'm not sure if 16 points will be enough rep to, but if not and you want to comment then you could do so here as it doesn't require much rep to comment on your question or an answer to your question.
Answer: The principal conversion of ethanol to acetaldehyde takes place in the cytosol of liver cells, no ETC involved directly. This is mediated by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). However, the NADH produced as a consequence would indeed deliver its electrons to the ETS, an electron transport chain.
The acetaldehyde is then metabolized to acetate in the mitochondria. Again, the involvement of the ETS is in accepting electrons from the NADH that is also produced in this step.
Here's the details: https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh294/245-255.htm
Comment: Also There's a water molecule in the second reaction where acetaldehyde goes to form acetate. Where does this water come from as it is not produced in the first step.
Comment: Also further, acetate can react with Co-enzyme A to form acetyl coenzyme A. Which is used in a reaction with oxaloacetate to form citrate. Coenzyme A will form a thioester bond and can later be used in a reaction in conjunction with NAD+ and alpha-ketoglutarate to form succinyl-CoA and NADH.
Comment: @Bob. True. I limited my response to the OP's purview.
Comment: Of course! I just thought I'd add a little extra since I personally would have also been curious about where the carbon goes.
Comment: Many thanks guys for the input. I really appreciate it.
Comment: Also I notice that link mentions the liver, i.e. human cells doing it. And human cells of course have mitochondria which have an electron transport chain. But does this answer cover the case of for example, the conversion of alcohol that is done in the production of vinegar,  where the conversion is done by the bacteria Acetobacter aceti?
Comment: @Lobell this may help http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/69388/in-the-production-of-vinegar-where-does-water-come-from
Comment: @Lobell. The water is abundant in the aqueous solutions these reactions occur in.


Publishing research using only high-school mathematics

Question: I performed some research yielding useful information.
I only used the mathematics that I learned in high school; I did not use any program or any scientific experiment.
Is it possible to have my research accepted by a journal from Elsevier, even though it is my first research?
Can a reputable journal accept research with simple equations?
I'm 18 years old.
Comment: You should read this question and answers [How to write a white paper for a non academic](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8121/how-to-write-a-white-paper-for-a-non-academic?noredirect=1&lq=1) and see if that answers your question. [Can I write a paper out of a simple idea](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48585/can-i-write-a-paper-out-of-a-simple-idea) may also be relevant.
Comment: I suggest you expand beyond Elsevier.
Comment: In what broad field does this research belong?  Depending on this, it is not impossible to have some interesting things to say with a little bit of conditional probability or basic differential equations. On the other hand if it is in maths or physics there's little chance that you have found something not already well-known.
Comment: Depending on the problem you have been working on also this question might be relevant [I believe I have solved a famous open problem. How do I convince people in the field that I am not a crank?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18491/i-believe-i-have-solved-a-famous-open-problem-how-do-i-convince-people-in-the-f).
Answer: You don't need credentials (or age) to publish mathematics in a reputable journal. You need a paper that is acceptable to the editor with advice from a set of reviewers that they depend on.
But in general, a math paper needs to be "interesting" to mathematicians. It can be interesting in one of two ways (at least). The first is that the result is new and non-obvious. In particular something that might be applied to other lines of thought to continue advancing the art. Classical unsolved problems, while not new per se become new if a proof can be devised.
The second way that a result can be interesting is when its proof is new in some way, even when it already has another proof. It doesn't need to use advanced techniques, but it needs to combine them in some novel way to arrive correctly at the result. A new way to attack an old problem can lead to other advances.
In many ways new proofs are more important than new results, since the insight that produces it can, perhaps, be applied to other problems in the field. My dissertation had such a proof (though quite advanced, in that case). I had two different proofs in hand, but one was quite different from the standard way of attacking the problem at hand.
You can certainly submit your paper to a reputable journal (Elsevier or other), but it is up to them what to do with it. You might hear back from the reviewers that it is trivial, in which case it is just a good learning experience of you and perhaps an incentive to continue. The first "paper" I ever wrote was like that, and not published. There was something that I didn't know about (math induction) that made the work rather trivial. But it was fun and induced me to follow the math genie wherever it went.

An example: The Four Color Theorem, has a proof that is unsatisfying to a mathematician since it depends on an analysis of a large number of cases in which a computer was used as part of the solution. While accepted, it is more brute force than elegant. A solution that depended only on simple ideas would be highly valued. Many people my age (old) worked on that for a bit and thought about it a lot but didn't have the insight required to crack it.


Windshield leak

Question: I appear to have a leak near the upper right hand corner of my passenger side windshield. At least that my guess. The leak was really only noticeable whilst driving down the road into heavy rain. Can/should I fix this myself? what should I use?
Answer: The areas for checking the leak are the window channels, the grooves which the glass slides in, are fully in place to the top of the window frame; The glass is sitting in the window channels squarely, adjustment can usually be made on the glass retainers behind the doors trim panel; The door aperture seal is correctly fitted and in good condition, the aperture seal is the usually rubber tube like affair fitted to the door aperature and which the door closes against.
Answer: Another area to pay attention to is if you have a sun/moon roof installed in your vehicle. These have drain tubes which can come loose and allow leakage inside the vehicle in odd places. You'd probably need to remove the sun roof to figure out if this has happened. I would not suggest you try it if you've never done it before, as a small leak is much better in the short term than a large hole.

Windshield leak


What should be covered in a poetry workshop?

Question: I may take on the task of leading a one session (2 hour maximum) workshop on poetry. What would be the most important aspects that should be covered in such a workshop? I would assume that most folks going to a workshop like this would be beginner-intermediate level.
Answer:
The kinds of poetry: blank verse, free verse, structured
(limericks/sonnets/haiku etc.)
Rhyme and meter: when they matter, when they don't, when to violate, when Mr. Pritchard should be told to suck pipe
Sounds: beginning/ending, alliteration, repetition, opening/closing
and rising/falling vowels, consonants, how syllables create or
interrupt flow and rhythm
Puns, double entendres, and other wordplay
My poetry teacher always talked about paring away: remove as much as
you can, distill as much as you can, so that every word is meaningful
and no words are extra.
Shakespeare, because you can't talk about poetry without talking
about the Bard

More advanced:

Enjambments: how to use them and violate them for effect and meaning
How to use extra white space, extra returns, and oddball formatting
for effect and meaning
Answer: I have attended several (and run a few) poetry workshops. They were all about writing poetry -- not talking about writing poetry, not discussing approaches, but actually writing poetry. None of the things mentioned by Lauren Ipsum were mentioned unless they pertained to what had been written by someone in the group.
It does depend on your audience and what they expect. Most of the workshops I have attended were for intermediate to expert writers. The workshops I have conducted have been for beginners and experts. I largely took what I had tried in the workshops I attended and used it with the participants in my sessions.
Comment: I think I'm looking for a mix of topics to cover and exercises for the participants to do and which would hopefully touch on some of the topics. Do you have suggestions for exercises?
Comment: I am in the process of writing web pages about creative writing exercises, including poetry ones. The explanations are quite long and I can't see myself writing a detailed answer here because it would just take too long.