Are there scheduled flight connections operated with a helicopter?

Question: I know that you can charter a helicopter, it is expensive but possible. But can I go on a scheduled flight with a helicopter? If so, which connections?
Comment: @Ankur, lo and behold: [Copterline runs 10 scheduled flights a day](http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/3070/are-there-scheduled-flight-connections-operated-with-a-helicopter/3075#3075), according to their website.
Comment: Given the costly nature of helicopter flights and capacity of most commercial helicopter models, I would be surprised if any company offers *scheduled* helicopter flights. It just doesn't sound economically viable! Which is why I think most helicopter flights are charters.
Comment: There used to be a scheduled heli service between Freetown airport (Lungi) and Freetown, Sierra Leone. When the Russians (pilots) blew up the chopper, the serviced ceased to be.
Answer: Copterline operates a frequent helicopter service between Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia. They advertise it as follows:

FAST CLASS by Copterline is the fastest, most efficient way to travel
  between Helsinki and Tallinn - from city center to city center in 18
  minutes.
Ten scheduled flights each workday put you above the inconveniences of
  other transport, allowing you a full day at work without a half day
  spent traveling.

With a quick look, one way prices are 89 - 270 €, depending on flexibility and cancellation options. (This is pretty expensive compared to the abundant ferry services between the cities–it's clearly aimed primarily at business travellers.)
Some history: Copterline Oy, a Finnish company, operated a regular and fairly popular service between the capitals from 2000 to 2005. In 2004, for instance, they carried 75,000 passengers. The operations came to a dramatic halt in 2005 when their Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopter crashed into the Gulf of Finland near Tallinn, killing all 14 people onboard. There have been attempts to restart the business over the years, but it seems they only managed to do so in late 2011. (Now the service is run by Copterline OÜ, a different company apparently, which is Estonian but wholly owned by Finnish FastClass Ltd.)

Update (April 2012): I just tried, on a whim, flying with Copterline from Helsinki to Tallinn, so I can now confirm that these scheduled flights indeed take place! This was my first time in a helicopter and all (so forgive me being hyped about it).
There were 8 passengers in total (12 seats) on my flight. The sole helicopter forming the current fleet is an AW139. In Helsinki, the copter leaves from a small heliport in Hernesaari (IATA code: HEN), complete with a security checkpoint and waiting lounge. One must check in 10 mins before scheduled flight time at latest. In Tallinn, the heliport (IATA: CHE) is located adjacent to Linnahall, a strange Soviet-era ode to raw concrete. Service was nice overall; this is certainly very convenient compared, say, to spending 2-3 hours in a packed ferry & terminals.
Some photos I took:

Passing one of the competing travel options (Tallink's M/S Superstar) overhead:

Looking west (the side windows coloured everything blue):

Passing another ferry:

Approaching Tallinn; you can see the heliport on the left:

After landing:

The 18 minutes in the air set me back 169 €, and I'm not planning to make this a habit. (I booked the ticket the same day; might've been slightly cheaper otherwise.) Also, I'm very happy this time there were no accidents whatsoever!
Answer: (Edit - February 2020)
Not lots of airports, but lots of rich people:
Heli Air Monaco used to operate a regular flight between Nice airport and Monaco every 30mn. Fee was 105€ from Monaco to Nice and 120€ from Nice to Monaco, or 210€ for both.
As of 2020, regular line is operated by Monacair. Flight frequency is 15mn and fee is 140€.
Answer: In the past there was such a service in New York. I was booked on it once to get to Newark from LaGuardia and once between JFK and LaGuardia. Both times the weather was "bad" - helicopters set a really low bar for "bad" - and I had to make the connection on the ground. I am not sure if the service still runs but New York, with lots of airports and lots of rich people, is the place to look for it.
A quick search finds this: http://www.newyorkhelicopter.com/airport-transfers/ but I assure you I did not pay $800/person for whatever I had booked a few decades ago.
Comment: You're probably remembering US Helicopter, which briefly operated schedule helicopter flights at various fares as low as $90. The business model was not sustainable and they went under.
Comment: @JoelSpolsky - This reminds me [Coogan's Bluff](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coogan%27s_Bluff_(film)) movie where a helicopter company operated between the roof of the Pan Am Building and some airport. According to Wikipedia, the company was [New York Airways](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Airways).
Answer: The Scilly Isles, off the tip off Cornwall, UK have such a service.  Further information on the British International Helicopters page on Wikipedia.
Answer: When I was in Vancouver earlier this month, I noted it was possible to do a flight from either Vancouver Harbour, or indeed Vancouver International Airport to Victoria, with Helijet.  So it's a viable connection there, if pricey - a quick search for a flight next month revealed around $290 one way...
Answer: Sky Shuttle flies between Hong Kong and Macau every 30 minutes from 9 AM to 11 PM, seven days a week.  Flights take 15 minutes.  At HK$3700 (~US$475) a pop, it's not exactly cheap though, especially given that ferries cover the same distance in an hour and cost around a twentieth of the price!
Comment: Sky Shuttle also run between Macau and Shenzhen Airport on the mainland. Price is $618 USD or 4,800 HKD.
Answer: Pity that I only learned about this service, AFTER returning from Morocco :( There is a regular helicopter service between Europe and Africa. INAER offers regular services between Malaga/Algeciras and Ceuta, and that already for 12 years.
I even found two youtube films this one and this one.
The service seems to connect with flights arriving at Malaga airport in Spain, as well as with Algeciras on the Bay of Gibraltar.
Comment: The prices are relatively cheap too (even if it's twice the price for non-residents of Ceuta)! Ceuta-Algeciras 54 € one-way.
Answer: There are scheduled helicopter flights twice daily between Værøy Heliport and Bodø, Norway.  Flights are operated by Lufttransport.  The same company also has flights between the settlements of Svalbard.
Booking a month in advance yields round trip prices of 1852 NOK (€205).
There are also many settlements in Greenland where the only form of scheduled public transportation is by helicopter.


Did George Mason plan to escape?

Question: In the second episode of Season 2 of 24, George Mason, the director of CTU reads a threat assessment which concludes that there is a 89 - 93 % chance of successful detonation of nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. After this, he leaves to Bakersfield to follow up a lead, or at least this is what he tells to the second-in-command, Tony Almeida. Did Mason try to escape the nuclear blast or did he really follow a lead?
Answer: After George Mason read the document, he looks frightened. After some hesitation, he takes his jacket and briefcase and appears to be determined to leave.
On his way, Tony Almeida tells him

George, where are you going? (...) If you're just trying to get outside the blast radius...

Based on George's vague answer and behavior, he really seems to be wanting to escape L.A. (while it's never said explicitly) where a bomb is said to explode soon

Later, still in episode 2,

 on his way to (supposedly) Bakersfield, George happens to be irradiated with radioactive particles and has no more than a few days to live. He then decides to be back fully and help the investigation as much as he can.

In episode 9,

 George tries so hard to get things move along at CTU that Tony (Tony doesn't know GM is dying) tells him "I don't get you. One minute you're trying to save your own ass. The next you're trying to act as if you give a damn about anybody but yourself."

That kind of confirms that George Mason was really trying to escape from the blast.

Did George Mason plan to escape?


Thank you note after interview

Question: I just had a job interview for a tenure-track position where I interviewed with several people from the department. As far as I know, I'm supposed to send a thank you note after the interview. Should I send one to each person I've interviewed with or would this be perceived as excessive?
Comment: *"As far as I know, I'm supposed to send a thank you note after the interview."* Really? I have never sent nor received a thank-you note so far, but I am willing to believe that this is customary in other places.
Answer: If you feel that you want to thank members of the panel for their time and consideration, go on and send them a brief note. In my experience, it is usually impossible to exclude one or two people from the list without irritating someone, so I would say — write to all of them or none. It is natural to feel that a communication like this is "meaningless", "time-stealing" and "unnecessary" — long story short, it is not.  A senior academic receives a ton of spam and unrelated correspondence, which they delete with a grunt. Make your message short and positive, and they will delete it with a smile.
Comment: @StrongBad: All it takes is one committee member saying to another, "I got the nicest note from Dr. ..."
Comment: Have you really seen search committees compare who they got notes from?
Comment: @StrongBad You are right, it is quite unlikely. But in general, it may be a good habit not to exclude anyone when appreciating a group's work.
Answer: If you are planning on sending the notes because you think that it will improve your chances of being hired, don't waste your time. If two candidates were equally good in terms of their CVs, and equally collegial during the interviews, which they never are, then maybe, and only maybe, would the thank you not matter. As soon as one candidate is even a hair better than another, then the thank you note is not going to matter.
If you want to send thank you notes because you appreciate the time they took out of their schedule and you enjoyed talking about their research, and would like to potentially collaborate with them, ask them for feedback in the future, etc, then send them a thank you note. Job interviews, even if you do not get the job, are a great opportunity to network. A thank you note is a way to continue the conversations that were started during the interview. They are not an effective way of increasing your chances of being hired.
Comment: Not all of these decisions are made on the conscious level.  It's quite possible that very minor things can create a positive or negative impression that will unconsciously bleed over into consideration of the rest of someone's file.  I wouldn't argue it's essential to send thank you notes (I never have), but I think it's harder to rule out it making a positive effect than you make it sound.
Answer: I think the only way it would be excessive would be if you thanked people whom you had no reason to thank.
Considering the phrase "thank you for ___":
If you can fill in the blank with something reasonable like "inviting me for an interview" (to the person who actually sent the invitation,) "taking the time to meet with me," or "showing me around the campus," then it would be nice to send a brief note to the person saying as much.  These days I think e-mail would be perfectly appropriate.
On the other hand, if all you have to thank someone for is considering your application, then there would probably not be much of a point in sending a thank-you note to that person.
Answer: A thank-you note can be useful if you're trying to gauge the department's excitement about your interview.  An effusive and excited response might indicate a sincere interest in the candidate, whereas a terse, closely-guarded response could indicate a tighter competition for the position (or a lack of interest ... or an antisocial professor ... or a bad hair day).
I'd chasten against reading too much into the response - it's easier to ask directly from someone in the department with whom you have made some contact.  In fact, this is much better than a "thank you" note, as it does not suggest an unduly attempt to influence a decision.

Thank you note after interview


requests.exceptions.SSLError: hostname 'boxfwd.com' doesn't match either of 'nycmsk.com', 'www.nycmsk.com'

Question: Very simple example on python:
import requests

c = requests.get(u'https://boxfwd.com').content
print c

And on my local computer all works fine.
But on server I see this error:
requests.exceptions.SSLError: hostname 'boxfwd.com' doesn't match either of 'nycmsk.com', 'www.nycmsk.com'

Why I see this error on server ?
In browser I see certificate to *.boxfwd.com
Answer: It seems that in your server another domain (nycmsk.com) is also hosted and requests picks up that certificate.
Look here for a potential solution: https://2.python-requests.org/en/master/community/faq/#what-are-hostname-doesn-t-match-errors
Also probably duplicate with: using requests with TLS doesn't give SNI support
Answer: Same type of error I was getting while integrating my HAProxy with Datadog for monitoring.
Stacktrace:
 haproxy
    -------
      - instance #0 [ERROR]: '(\'Connection aborted.\', BadStatusLine("\'\'",))'
      - Collected 0 metrics, 0 events & 0 service checks
The reason was my EC2 box url was accessible with https that causes ssl was enable.After adding 'disable_ssl_validation: true' in my haproxy.yaml in data-agent/conf.d/haproxy.yaml it worked


Possible to create and attach extra body parts to a human (e.g. wings)?

Question: I have a loose grasp that only some modifications to human DNA would have an actual change to a person, but would it be possible to simply bypass DNA and create a body part? Take wings, would it be possible to bypass genes and engineer an actual pair and then attach the muscles, bones, nerves, etc... Assuming we could, would we be able to use them, because "theoretically" it would be like learning how to walk since there are nerves attached that we just haven't used.
Comment: i don't think this is exactly on topic but human beings can't have wings like angels.  The muscles for wings are not on the wing but are on the chest.  This space is already taken up by our arm's muscles.
Comment: I don't really understand what you are asking.
Comment: Keywords for a websearch are: Transhumanism, Body Augmentation.
Answer: Yes. It's possible and probably easier than you think. Our brains have plasticity and adapt to the loss of a limb, but also remarkably will adapt to "sensing" a tool as an extension of the arm, called peri-hand extension.

Put in simple terms, while using a tool the brain believes the tool is an extension of the arm (photo is from link above). Remove the tool and the brain has a lingering distorted perception of the body's shape. A scientist Alessandro Farné has published his research but unfortunately I only found it behind a paywall. A google search will lead you to pop-science articles and summaries of the research.
The brain creates a dynamic bodymap for motor control, and this map will update to include a sword at the end of your arm, Crutches as an extension of your "legs", and the full size of a car when you are driving ("Car Body" Phenomenon). FWIW, the location of this map in the brain is likely the cortical homunculus.
"Awareness" of the wings is in the brain, not in the wing's nerve endings. As when you drive a car, the actual mechanics of pulling levers and pushing on pedals becomes unconscious. You just focus on "driving" – that is, you just think about maneuvering through traffic using your spatial awareness and senses, no different (at least consciously) than running through a crowd. Meanwhile your brain has broken down dozens of arbitrary mechanical activities into muscular control (rotate a wheel to turn left), and is adapting your sensory information to the specific task (visual distance to the next car, the sound and vibration of the tires on the road). Learning to operate a bicycle, is mentally very different from riding a bicycle. Once you learn it you don't think about it anymore.
With your wings, the flyer's brain has to learn to operate the wings and interpret the sensory information for the task. The actual signal from the nerves are simplistic (like a repetitive tapping noise), and there might not be much signal difference when feeling the tip of the wing graze against furniture and the wing vibrating from an updraft during flight, but the brain will interpret those nerve signals very differently while walking around the room or flying. Other senses play an enormous role in confirming sensory information too. Your flyer's brain will be interpreting the feeling of wind on the skin, the sound of the air rushing past, the pull of muscles on the wings, as well as visual cues to determine speed, height, balance, etc. The whole brain works together to coordinate the sensory information, so your artificial nerves might be simpler than you think.
Comment: I like this answer +1. I learnt new things, peri-hand extension, that's very helpful for my understanding of how human cognition system works :)
Answer:
I have a loose grasp that only some modifications to human DNA would have an actual change to a person, but would it be possible to simply bypass DNA and create a body part ?

Do you wear glasses ?  I wear these extensions to my body most of the time.
So, yes, we can do some things like that.

Take wings, would it be possible to bypass genes and engineer an actual pair and then attach the muscles, bones, nerves, etc...

Could we build wings ?
Yes and No.
Building actual biological components that would blend into our own bodies does not seem at all practical.  Our hearts and lungs are not designed for this extra muscle and circulatory system.  The skeleton would be problematic - we're designed for certain types of stress distributions and where or how you'd meld additional load bearing support is hard to imagine.  The joints to existing structure would be critical and almost certainly prone to failure without significant re-engineering.
You'd essentially be building a new body.
Would they work well ?
Not really.
We lack the muscle power to drive wings - and that includes what your cardiovascular system can support.  We lack the skeletal structure to support ourselves for extended periods while flying in that way.  We probably could not flap wings in a useful way without severe strain on our cardiovascular system.
But we do have hang gliders already, so we do in fact have wings you can acquire relatively easily and employ relatively easily (if, unlike me, jumping off heights makes sense to you :-)).
A hang glider, plane or glider is, in a sense, exactly what you want : an extension of your body to allow controlled flight.
There's the famous jet pack.  Not exactly wings, but flight.
I dare say in the future we could in principle build a powered suit capable of flight using wings in a more compact stored form - you need quite a lot of wing to support a human so deployed you need something like a (yep) hang glider's wing area.

Assuming we could, would we be able to use them, because "theoretically" it would be like learning how to walk since there are nerves attached that we just haven't used.

This is a different issue : control mechanisms.
We don't have a way to directly control devices by neural impulses, although there have been research projects and some specialist devices that do this is a limited way - see Neuroprosthetics.
But flying is complex.  It's not something we're natural at.  It is claimed that humans have some instinct for walking, running, climbing and even swimming, but not flying.
It's hard to imagine a straightforward way to do that using some kind of neural interface (something we're still learning the basics of).
A hang glider (them again :-)) is a relatively natural extension of your own body in terms of control.  Shifting your weight does things that, by practice, becomes natural.  The control system is relatively simple to learn.
Devices like hang gliders are so much simpler to deploy that it's hard to see any advantage in attaching wings permanently.  Not that that ever stopped anyone doing something.
There are indications that we could in principle retrain nerves to control artificial limbs, but that's research and by no means a certainty.  What we lack is spare nerves to control extra limbs.
Engineering that as a "graft" would require altering your brain.  This is the sort of over-complex bio-engineering I don't see as useful.
We're much better at designing clever gadgets we can use and remove when we want.  Why do something that's not easily reversed when the existing approach (tech you wear) works so well ?
Answer: Absolutely. We are already making body parts (not important organs, though) for people born without them. If you are able to artificially shape the new organ in a desired way and then properly implant/attach it, this will work. The new organ needs to be made up of cells with the same DNA as your host, to avoid any rejection issues.
Comment: Some citations or videos of demos of this in action could be great!
Answer: There is absolutely no doubt that it could work in theory, people do transplantations all the time btw, but no sane person would implant biological wings. It would certainly make biological reproduction hard because you basically become a monster in the eyes of most people. Also be aware that a lot of regular human stuff works because we do not have wings (have you ever been in a crowded train, on a plane or sat down on a chair?), winged people would face problems everywhere.
But please consider that people are currently working on translating thoughts into something a computer can interprete, here a very popular example, please forgive me if it isn't scientific enough:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528733-300-stephen-hawking-trials-device-that-reads-his-mind/
Yes, you could in theory and given let's say 100 years of scientific progress design a completely new biological body part, but there is an easier solution that I think is much more likely to actually happen: A biological/mechanical hybrid. Have an biological/mechanical interface of some kind (and I mean any kind, let's leave it as broad as this) control a mechanical apparatus. Transplanting a leg or something that humans actually have is one thing, but you already mentioned that one would need to "learn how to fly" if you come up with a whole new body part. If you have a machine with decent programming behind it, one could fly almost immediately. The best thing would be that it should be possible to have your wings (or whatever, I personally think a computer would be most useful) detachable.
Answer: One would need to make a distinction between adding or accessorizing and integrating. Grafting on additional biological structure is one level of problem. Ignoring compatibility issues, the new tissue needs biological support - oxygenation, nutrition, waste removal etc. from the host which will have limits to its capacity.
Assuming the musculature of the new wings could be integrated into the circulatory and nervous systems and adequately anchored (graft in a keel bone among other things), our brains are probably plastic enough to learn how to use them - after all when we become skilled at driving cars and flying airplanes they practically become extensions of ourselves.
But there are at least a couple of other issues:
Human bodies have one relatively unique specialization - we are excellent at persistence hunting - efficiently and relatively tirelessly covering long distances at modest speeds. It means our bodies and metabolism aren't exactly optimized for the sort of demands placed by flying. We don't have hollow bones to make us as light as possible and we can't rev up our hearts and lungs to the extent needed to take off and sustain flight. Maybe we could live with a pair of wings, maybe even do a little gliding with them, but without serious modifications to the entire body, we'd likely never be able to actually get ourselves airborne with them.


What are the origins of using "bee" to mean a competition, as in a "spelling bee"?

Question: I find it interesting that they decided to call a spelling competition a spelling bee. How did the word bee come to also mean a competition, not just an insect?
Comment: @MrHen I've reopened given the false etymology in your answer—as it happened, I checked a few dictionaries and all provided the same etymology with no mention of the false one, so that's why I closed it originally.
Comment: @waiwai: You mean the false _entomology_?
Comment: I agree that this is pushing the General Reference border but think that the word (and answer) is interesting enough to warrant a reopening. The origin of _bee_ in this sense is contested and, as such, a simple General Reference search is unlikely to provide an accurate picture.
Comment: @waiwai: No worries. That was my initial reaction, too. I just got lucky in that the two sources I checked disagreed.
Comment: @waiwai @MrHen -- Very interesting. Thanks for digging deeper into it
Answer: The bee part isn't restricted to competitions; it more generally means a gathering:

A bee, as used in quilting bee, working bee or spelling bee, is an expression used together with another word to describe a gathering of peers to accomplish a task or to hold a competition.

Etymonline offers this history:

[...] Sense of "meeting of neighbors to unite their labor for the benefit of one of their number," 1769, Amer.Eng., is from comparison to the social activity of the insect; this was extended to other senses (e.g. spelling bee, first attested 1809; also hanging bee "a lynching").

Wikipedia's entry contests this:

Because the word describes people working together in a social group, a common false etymology is that the term derives from the insect of the same name and similar social behavior. According to etymological research recorded in dictionaries, the word in fact probably comes from dialectal been or bean (meaning "help given by neighbors"), which came from Middle English bene (meaning "prayer", "boon" and "extra service by a tenant to his lord")

They have Merriam-Webster listed as a source. Thus, the specific origin of bee in this sense is ambiguous. The term spelling bee, however, is just a variation of the usage and appears to have been introduced in the early 1800s.
Comment: This [World Wide Words article](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-spe2.htm) offers some further fleshing out of that tale.
Answer: The term "bee" originally meant:

a community social gathering at which friends and neighbors join together in a single activity (sewing, quilting, barn raising, etc.) usually to help one person or family.
  The earliest known example in print is a spinning bee, in 1769. Other early occurrences are husking bee (1816), apple bee (1827), and logging bee (1836). Spelling bee is apparently an American term. It first appeared in print in 1875, but it seems certain that the word was used orally for several years before that.

So a "spelling bee" doesn't refer so much to a competition as such, but more to a gathering of people in order to partake in the singular action of spelling.
Comment: and an apple bee would be a gathering to eat apples?
Comment: It was a gathering for [preparing apples for drying](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apple+bee), usually in the North East/New England.


Fed, Asset prices, and the Economy

Question: Often you hear people speak about how the Fed has created a fake economy, or one that is propped up with their support, and that they have artificially raised asset prices. What does this exactly mean? How as QE created a fake economy?
Comment: Welcome to Econ.SE! Please add references to your question. Who said this? Debunking a [straw man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man)'s opinion might not be very helpful.
Answer: As a comment noted, without a reference, it is difficult to give a definitive answer. However, I have often run into similar phrasing in financial market commentary, so I will offer an initial guess as to what you read. This answer is just giving an initial idea as to what topics you could search for to get more information.
This phrasing is often used by members of the Austrian school of thought in economics. (The name "Austrian" refers to the fact that many of the founding members of the school of thought came from Austria.)
The Austrian school is very free markets oriented, and highly critical of government interference in the economy. The Austrian Business Cycle Theory - which I am not an expert on - argues that interest rates are important for planning in the private sector. If the central bank sets the interest rate away from the "correct" level (I am unsure how they phrase this technically), this leads to distortions in private sector activity (away from where the private sector would have naturally been). This leads to imbalances and eventually a crisis/recession. Since the economic activity is not "natural", it is often referred to as "fake." (Since interest rates are determined by the price of bonds, this is the link to asset prices and QE.)
The Mises Institute link to website would be probably the best site to learn about Austrian economics.
However, the Austrian school is not well-represented in academia at present. Most other economic schools of thought currently do not take the Austrian criticisms very seriously. Austrian thinking has not changed much over the past decades, and most non-Austrians view them as having been debunked a long time ago. As a result, it would be difficult to find recent authoritative criticisms of Austrian business cycle theory. In other words, it would be probably be hard to find criticisms of the idea that QE has led to a "fake economy." For example, from the post-Keynesian perspective, it is unclear how we can even define "fake" in this context.
I believe that if you wanted to pursue this, you would need to look further into Austrian theory, and ask a narrow question about a particular topic.

Fed, Asset prices, and the Economy


Getting Data From ASP.NET MVC Membership Provider With AngularJS

Question: So I am using the built in ASP.NET MVC membership provider for the authorization of users in my web application.  I added several fields such as first name, last name and customer number to the default fields that it comes with (email, password).  I am able to register and log in users but now I want to get some of the information of the added fields for the user and use it in my AngularJS controller.
I have been working with learning AngularJS and have been successful with using the WebAPI to get and post data to the server but I am stumped on how I can get the information of the current user who is signed in to my application.  I am assuming it is stored in a session token of some sort but I do not know how to access it and work with that information from an angular standpoint.
Any help is appreciated, I can provide whatever code is necessary but at this point I only have the basic built in code that asp.net uses to register and login users and my empty angular controller. Thanks.
Answer: To get the current user from anywhere on the server side, use
<code>HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name;
</code>


Gas in oil 2015 FZ-09

Question: I have a 2015 FZ-09 with 1000 miles on it.This next part makes me sick. This weekend the bike fell over in driveway and was down for several minutes. I stood the bike up and off I went to ride with my son. In my haste I didn't check to see if fuel entered crankcase, anyhow after a 75 mile ride we parked the bikes and yes this is were it gets ugly. The sight glass is full of gas ,and after talking to dealership were I bought bike, I still can't get a straight answer if I need to rebuild motor. I do have full insurance to cover cosmetic damage from the drop, but not sure they will pay for engine rebuild. The bike seems to run ok, can someone tell me what I'm dealing with?
Answer: Obviously, first line of business is to change out the fuel laden oil with fresh oil change. With a 1000 miles on it, it was probably due for a change anyway. With the gas in the fuel, it will probably run out very nicely, as well as leaving the crankcase very clean. After you've filled the crankcase with fresh oil and changed out the filter, you'll want to do a compression check to see if there was any damage to the rings. I found this video showing them testing (a well used, I might add) FZ-09 engine which was posting compression in the 190-200psi range. Seems about right. If yours is in the range or higher (may be higher due to it being a newer engine), no issues.
From what I'm reading, the manufacturer's recommendation is to be easy on the bike for the first 1000 miles (I've seen some which are much more complicated than that, but we'll leave it there for now). Considering your last 75 is with the weakened oil, I'd suspect you've had very little effect on the engine itself. Is it good for the engine to run it with gas thinned oil? Absolutely not, but it doesn't mean you've killed it. Do the compression check. If it comes out good and you aren't hearing any real noises, you've dodged a bullet. I doubt the engine will require a rebuild.
Comment: I'll head your advice and post my findings after fresh oil and compression test. Thanks again
Comment: The bike had oil change at 600 miles and I appreciate the advice, the compression test and new oil makes perfect sense., my biggest concern is premature engine failure in the future
Comment: good advice : change the oil, do the comp test and as for longevity : no-one can say, might fail for other reasons or may continue for years. Just look after it properly...  Not implying you didn't before though.
Comment: @Eddy99 - I really don't think you've done much if any appreciable damage to the engine. It definitely isn't good for the engine, but realistically I don't think you're going to have any issues. Run it like you stole it and call it a day :o)
Comment: The fuel laden oil  has been in the bike for several days, without sounding like a complete idiot, is it doing any harm sitting in bike until I can do maintenance?
Comment: @Eddy99 - Drain it as soon as possible. It's not doing the engine any good at all. I don't think it would necessarily hurt anything, but get it out of there as soon as possible. And for goodness sake, don't run the bike anymore with it in there.

Gas in oil 2015 FZ-09


Configure jQuery datetimepicker with attributes

Question: I have lots of forms in my MVC3 application that require the user to input dates.
The requirement of the date given could be one of many cases, i.e a Date with a time, just a date, a date in the past, a date and time in the past, a date in the future, a date and time in the future etc...
So, at the moment I give the  a different class depending in what is required.  For example....
$("input.input-date-past").datepicker({ numberOfMonths: 1, showButtonPanel: true, maxDate: -0 });

...configures a date picker that restricts the users choice to date in the past only.
All this is working OK, but I was wondering if there was a better way.
I'm thinking that I could give the view model properties an attribute that would define what type of input was required. i.e
[Required]
[PastDate]
public DateTime SomeDateFromThePast { get; set; }

[Required]
[FutureDate]
public DateTime SomeDateFromTheFuture { get; set; }

[Required]
[FutureDateTime] // Requires a time to be given i.e "01/01/2012 09:00"
public DateTime SomeDateTimeFromTheFuture { get; set; }

etc..

Then in an Shared/EditorTemplate with @model System.DateTime, which will interrogate the attributes given to the property and set the class of the  as required.
Does that sound OK?  Or does it stink?
If OK, how do you interrogate the attributes given to the property?
If it stinks, any other suggestions?
Many thanks,
ETFairfax.
Comment: Francesco's awesome [MVC Controls Toolkit](http://mvccontrolstoolkit.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Data%20Annotations) can do this via DateRangeAttribute. I email Francesco so he will probably chime in.
Answer: You can write your own hooks into ASP.NET MVC's unobtrusive validation to write to data- attributes.
This tutorial should get you started.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/275056/Custom-Client-Side-Validation-in-ASP-NET-MVC3
Answer: Have you considered writing a custom DateTime validation method (there are a number of tutorials if you search Google)? That way, you can have it look only at items DateTime.Now() depending on whether you want to look into the past or the future.
As to your question of whether this is a good idea or not, well, I think it is good in one sense that you should check your input on the server-side. However, I don't think, from a usability standpoint, that it is a good idea to not have the client-side validation. If you don't want users selecting dates in the future, then I think it is good that you're limiting their ability to select dates in the future.


Can I sue E-ZPass for excessive charges?

Question: I don't have an E-ZPass account, so during the beginning of Covid19 the state of NJ or E-ZPass decided to suspend Toll collection. Every day I drove one exit north to get to work, each way was a dollar charge. At the end of a 5 day work week 10 mailed invoices would be mailed... what a waist. Anyway some of those invoices came to my mail box late, just over 30 days, turning some of those $1 toll charges into $52.00 now totaling $781.00!! All within in a 60 day period... Do I have a case?
Comment: You can't sue them for sending you bills; its for them to sue you and you to defend yourself. We can't offer legal advice as to the strength of your case (unless someone knows of a precedent on point), but I would suggest you check for an appeals process. Failing that, write with an explanation and offer to pay the original $1 invoices.
Comment: @PaulJohnson: They don't necessarily have to sue; in many cases they can suspend your driver's license or auto registration over unpaid bills.  In that case, I assume, OP would indeed have to sue to get the license or registration reinstated.
Answer: The New Jersey Turnpike Authority suspended cash collection as of 10:00 p.m. March 24th, stating that "All tolls will be collected electronically". They explain that

If you do not have an E-ZPass tag, the equipment in the lane will
capture a photograph of the license plate on the vehicle you are
driving, and an invoice for the cost of the toll will be mailed to the
registered owner. You will be billed at the cash toll rate; no
additional administrative fees will be charged if you make payment by
the date specified on the invoice.

and they also explain how to open an account. You presumably paid the charges that you received on time, and the issue is the ones that arrived late - 30 days??? I presume that the delay arose from a postal delay, not them sticking the notice in a corner and mailing it a month later. You can yell at the post office, but you can't sue them: from a legal POV, you were notified when they mailed the notice, even if it took a month to get to you. Also from a legal POV, the administrative charge (late fee) is not illegal, and might well be justified given the actual costs of hunting down a violator. I don't see any case at all. However, non-legal remedies may be available (they may dismiss the administrative fee).
Answer: Technically, You can Sue But It's a Complete Waste of Your Time
Paul Johnson is correct in terms of realistic terms.  You usually don't sue someone that you owe money to but technically, you can sue them.  Yesterday, I wrote that I forgot what it was called (my law school professor would probably yell at me for not knowing but it's been 20 years).  It's called a Declaratory Judgment.
The Purpose of a Declaratory Judgment
In court, the court would determine that the person who might be owed money is declared to not have such a right.  Why does such a legal mechanism exist?  Well, there are many reasons why this might be needed.  For example, say a big company like Verizon threatens to sue another for infringement of Verizon's patent.  But, the other company truly believes that the patent doesn't apply to their product but before spending a $100 MM dollars to build a factory to manufacture their product, they want to be sure.  They will sue for a declaratory judgment, barring Verizon for suing them for patent infringement in the future for the product this company wants to sell.  Imagine if they spend $100 MM to build the factory and they spend another $200 MM on other expenses, and then they make $1 B dollars.  Then, Verizon sues them for patent infringement.  Guess what happens?  You're right.  They will have spent all this time and energy to make and sell this product and will have have lost a ton of money.  Declatory judgments aren't just something conjured up by lawyers to waste people's time.  It really does serve a valuable function sometimes.  I agree with you.  I agree that the legal system has gotten out of hand and so much money is wasted on complete nonsense.
It's Scary at First But Realize Everyone Gets Those Letters
I know you are pissed off by the shocking amount in the mail.  It scares and stresses you out, right?  You'll get used to it.  I get those letters all the time and I'm an E-ZPass customer!  They just make a lot of mistakes.
At first, I used to call E-ZPass and they would tell me to just mail in the amount I only owe.  But, I soon found out that even that took too long as the wait on the phone was too long.
Just Pay the Small Amount You Owe and Nothing Else will Happen
Choose the easiest option.  Simply mail them a check for the actual amount that you owe and checkmark the box that indicates you don't owe them the administrative fees.  Or, add a simple note explaining what happened.  The E-ZPass employee opening the envelope will just mark your account paid in full and take off the administrative charges.  I feel sorry for the dumb folk that actually pays those administrative charges when they don't have to.
By the way, why don't you have an E-ZPass account anyway?  I truly want to know.  I never understood why people simply don't register for E-ZPass.  It's free, isn't it?  Why wait in those long lines to pay the toll in cash?  I never understood that.
My Question
Uh..why did I get a downvote?  Please let me know.
Comment: Most of this is truly irrelevant commentary. Law Stack Exchange is a Q&A site, not a Q&A&C or Q&D site. What little content actually might be useful, is so vague as to be unhelpful in the particular case asked about.
Comment: There is only one other answer and it has no upvotes at all. As stated, you're getting downvoted because of the random rant and irrelevant commentary. Fix the problem and you might get somewhere positive; there is little sympathy for not following the rules.
Comment: StackExchange is really screwed up sometimes. I'm new to it but I actually wrote the correct answer and I get downvotes. I've realized that you have to put down the answer that people want to hear, not what is true. For example, the 2nd answer that has 2 upvotes is completely wrong.  Of course, you can sue them.  You shouldn't do so since it's a waste of your time but it's legally permissible. But, how does that guy have 2 upvotes? In my answer, I state the actual legal remedies as well as practical options. I tell him specifically what to do.  That's pretty important too, no?


I accidentally failed to disclose a school I briefly attended. Have now been admitted to grad school; how to proceed?

Question: When applying to grad school, I did not think enough about the requirements of disclosing past education.  I failed to disclose a school I attended because it was so short and brief and I received all W's, there is no GPA, but there is a transcript.  I did not realize how big a mistake this was at the time.  Now, I have been notified of acceptance from the department, still waiting official acceptance from the institute, and I am very nervous that this will all get messed up.  What should I do?  Tell the school? Decline offer and reapply next year with correct info?
Answer: Your options seem to be: tell them, don't tell them and hope for the best, or withdraw.
If you tell them, the worst that can happen is they revoke your admission and invite you to reapply next year. If you withdraw, this will happen for sure. So, I wouldn't even consider withdrawing.
I usually suggest not over-analyzing things, but in this case, I wouldn't just let the sleeping dog lie. You don't want this hanging over your head for the rest of your career. So, I would just send a brief e-mail saying exactly what you did above (and just as concisely) and asking how to proceed. I expect they will say that they will update your record and do not anticipate any problems -- but you should prepare for the worst-case scenario just in case.
Answer: Given that grades weren't assigned, there is no way to evaluate your work based on the transcript. I doubt that it matters much whether you inform them or not. Full transparency would suggest that you do, of course.
But if all the grades are W, meaning "withdrew", you might need to explain why.
They have judged that your supplied material is sufficient to decide you a candidate for success. I don't see how the additional information can change that. The same would be true of any informal self-learning you engaged in.
But, IMO, it is a pure judgement call. If you don't tell them and are called on it, your explanation here would likely be sufficient. If you do tell them it would be a bit of embarrassment, but not a deal killer.
Comment: In which case revealing it with an explanation and an abject apology might be best. But if there is any way to speak with someone informally first, it might be worth the effort.
Comment: Actually, I was more thinking of a faculty member rather than the "establishment".
Comment: That is the frustrating part.  They ask for all transcripts and note that failure to provide can disqualify.  This transcript has little to hide, I am just worried about being called out if it is discovered.
Comment: you mean like the admissions office?  if i call them will they talk about it without considering it an official admission of wrongdoing?


what is the difference between mindfulness meditations and focusing on other things?

Question: For example:
While I'm studying(or doing anything in my life), my brain wanders around(daydreams, stresses, remembers unpleasant memories and thinks negatively about the future) so I notice that and then bring it back to focus again in studying. Isn't that the same thing as mindfulness meditation? in both things, we focus on or attend to something and when the brain wanders around, we bring it back.
I read articles before 1 2  that say the difference is that in mindfulness, you let things(that you attended to) go after you finish without thinking about it again.
Does that mean that I can call studying a mindfulness meditation if I stopped thinking about it after finishing?
Answer: It is question I've been asking myself as well in my experience with mindfulness meditation.
Meditation is not manipulating experience, it is simple noticing it. Furthermore it focuses on sensory experience which seems to be inversely correlated with our narrative experience(Farb et al., 2007).
Being focused on studying involves planning and invariably it adds a narrative feature to our experience. Mindfulness increase grey matter in areas associated with executive control(Hölzel et al., 2011), hence we can hypothesize mindfulness is good for more effective studying.
There might some type of false placebo effect in studies reporting increased focus due to meditation.
Farb, N. A. S., Segal, Z. V., Mayberg, H., Bean, J., McKeon, D., Fatima, Z., & Anderson, A. K. (2007). Attending to the present: Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2(4), 313–322. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsm030
Hölzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., & Lazar, S. W. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research, 191(1), 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006
Comment: Thank you for the answer. When you said "Mindfulness increase grey matter" and "mindfulness is good for more effective studying", Did you mean "mindfulness meditation"?
Answer: First,  mindfulness meditation is a practice that involves attention regulation and adopting a particular orientation toward one's experiences in the present moment [1]. Your example has largely described the first component—paying attention to the current moment. The second component has been described as relating to one's experience within an orientation of curiosity, experiential openness, and acceptance. The consequences of this component include cultivating a non-reactive and non-judgmental attitude [2].
Second, there are formal mindfulness practices like mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program [3], and "informal" mindfulness practices namely mindfulness of everyday activities (e.g., mindful eating, mindful walking), mindful reading, in your case.
In short, mindfulness meditation cultivates focused attention, and focused attention is part of the practices involved in mindfulness meditation.
[1] Bishop, S. R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N. D., Carmody, J., ... & Devins, G. (2004). Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical psychology: Science and practice, 11(3), 230-241.
[2] Baer, R. A., Smith, G. T., Hopkins, J., Krietemeyer, J., & Toney, L. (2006). Using self-report assessment methods to explore facets of mindfulness. Assessment, 13(1), 27-45.
[3] Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full catastrophe living: using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain and illness. New York: Delacorte.


Are privacy policies and terms of service copyrighted?

Question: Can I just copy a site's privacy policy and terms of service and do a global search & replace for the name? They all pretty much say the same thing anyways.
Answer:
They all pretty much say the same thing anyways.

That's a bad legal error to make on two counts:
1) All written material on a website (or really anywhere, be it a book, magazine, App, etc.) is copyrighted from the moment of creation. Read I have a question about copyright. What should I read before I ask it? You could be liable for copyright infringement if someone finds you have copied their work.
2) Privacy policies and terms of services for websites, businesses and governmental entities are more than likely drafted by lawyers, paid to cover all the bases in terms of privacy, liability and as such are legally water-tight (as much as possible) to protect both the entity and the user, like you. They are individually written for each entity because the legal devil is in the details of each service or business, and each and all liabilities must be addressed.
"...all pretty much say the same thing" isn't correct. They don't all say exactly the same thing. (Caveat: unless they're generated by a service, see below).
If you copy and paste, you run the risk of being liable for what you excluded or otherwise didn't consider in your policies, as those policies are now your legal documents, and are contracts for use of your service. See What is a contract and what is required for them to be valid? . (As well as being liable for copyright infringement).
Google will show you all kinds of services such as https://termsfeed.com/terms-service/generator/ These are useful for personal sites where your liability is nil and privacy is mostly moot if you don't collect data on visitors or allow them to contribute to the site. Such services require you to sign away liability to use their policies.
But if you're running a real business with real money and user content, you have real liability, so get a lawyer.
Comment: True, and I doubt anyone would ever sue over a copied TOS unless there was an ulterior motive. I answered in a by-the-book fashion; I think if I would have answered in a "maybe" fashion, that maybe copying a TOS would be copyright infringement, I would get comments protesting that. It can be a gray area.
Comment: I wouldn't be as unequivocal. For example, law firms that have tried to assert copyrights in their demand letters have not prevailed. In the area of law, expression of an idea may have to have a certain form in order to have a particular precedent established legal effect, and the need not to protect the idea may trump the protection for its expression. This might even be justified on the "lack of creative content" even though that justification doesn't really square with the case law in other areas. It would be almost unprecedented to sue for infringement of TOS/privacy policy language.
Comment: My city's website has many pages that were likely copied from elsewhere.  When they did the search and replace for the city name, they missed a few instances.  That said, the wrong city name is a rare city name, so perhaps they purchased templates from a vendor that provides such things to cities.
Answer: No. As literary works they have copyright protection.


What Second Language Confers the Greatest Cognitive Benefit

Question: If I were to learn a second language which language in the world would confer the greatest cognitive benefit to a native English speaker? Would, say, Japanese confer greater benefit than Spanish due to being more different from English?
Comment: What do you mean by "cognitive benefit"? And how could it be measured?
Comment: Everybody has their own, unique, internal representation of their own, unique, history of speaking and listening. That means that some people will derive almost no cognitive benefit (whatever that might mean) from any given language, while others will derive a lot. And there's no way to predict. So you might as well learn one you want to speak.
Comment: By "cognitive benefit" I mean increasing mental flexibility, problem solving ability, keeping Alzheimer's disease at bay, and other similar things. Haven't there been studies showing that these traits improve by learning foreign languages? As for how it could be measured I don't know maybe IQ test score differences between people with different second languages.

In any case, I thought that if it is learning the new concepts and ways of thinking in the new language which produces these benefits then increasingly dissimilar languages should confer greater benefit. Is this not true?
Comment: @Silhalnor do you want to know the most difficult language to learn or the most distant language from English?
Comment: @Anixx I am looking for the most beneficial, which I predicted would be the one most distant from English. I do not know if this prediction is correct or not however.
Comment: IQ tests are notoriously linguistically and culturally biased and are a terrible choice for measurement.
Comment: There is probably a trade-off between choosing a language the most different to English vs. choosing one which is not too difficult. The kinds of differences which follow a logic different to English's logic would be good, but having many exceptions to rules would be would require lots of rote memory rather than anything usefully cognitive. Other factors might be whether you expect the language to be useful for anything other than cognitive exercise. Japanese, Arabic, and Georgian are all very different to English but you'll have the least need for Georgian perhaps.
Answer: You seem to be a bit confused about your own question. You can't really tell us what you mean by "congative benefit" or how one would measure it. I think you may mean one of two things, so:
Linguistic Relativity
This is the assumption that the language you speak affects the way your brain works. That maybe one language makes math easier to comprehend and perform or that maybe another is better for thinking about spacial relationships. This is what's known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (specifically, the strong version). It has been widely studied and, unfortunately, largely disproven.
What you can find evidence for is that language provides very superficial differences. A popular experiment is to compare the adjectives generated by native speakers of two different languages when showed a noun that is masculine in one and feminine in another. These speakers tend to generate adjectives associated with the noun's gender in their native language. You can listen to this NPR clip, but know that this program is a bit misleading because it presents this research as new (it isn't) and also know that this effect is not nearly as significant as the program tries to make it seem (it's not that speakers of a language where "bridge" is feminine can't see its masculine attributes or that they think those attributes do not exist, it's just that they show a statistical preference to generating feminine attributes). Also there is evidence to suggest that language plays a large role in colour perception (starting on page 11).
For this perspective, learning a language what classifies nouns differently than your native language could theoretically broaden your perception of objects and colours. However, don't get too excited. Most of the research is done on native speakers of languages. According to the critical period hypothesis, by the time you're an adult your brain is pretty set in it's ways so I would expect any Sapir-Whorfian boost to your cognitive skills from learning a foreign language to be minimal.
Alzheimer's
While Sapir-Whorf is a more detailed and interesting answer, I heavily suspect that what actually happened is that you read an article saying that bilinguals delayed onset of Alzheimer's related dementia and then extrapolated from there. Looking at that article we see similar vague references to cognative skills without explaination so to what it means:

Learning a second language and speaking it regularly can improve your cognitive skills...

I actually found the original paper for this research. The papers is rather unclear about at which age the bilingual patients acquired their second language, which I find a bit suspicious since language acquisition in children is very different from language acquisition in adults. Reading between the lines (and knowing the demographics of Toronto), it seems that most of the bilingual patients are immigrants to Canada, meaning many may have learned English as an adult. This is good news you for you.
However, there is another problem. The paper talks about bilingualism as being a factor in "building a cognitive reserve", but they don't claim it's the only factor. Surely there must be other activities or combinations of activities that provide just as great a benefit. In fact, the paper draws a link between bilingualism and multitasking, that having to switch between the languages is what helps the patients.
Conclusion
So which language is the most beneficial? Well, so far as I can tell no research has been done on this. Your intuition seems to be that the most beneficial language is the one which is most different from your native language. While that certainly is logical, the common thread in the research I'm seeing is that the language that you learn is not nearly as important as the fact that you learn another language.
I can tell you from experience that learning a language very different from your native language is difficult and frustrating and makes you likely to want to give up (I'm a native English speaker learning Korean). If the benefits are equal, you might as well learn something more closely related to your native language.
Comment: Thank you very much! It sounds like I could learn something like Esperanto (an invented language designed to be easy to learn) and probably gain most of the same benefits as any other language. This was an informative and detailed response, certainly more detailed than I would have expected for a question that scored negative 2. I guess I was too vague? I haven't really gotten a handle on how to ask questions on this site yet. I think I'm used to being able to elaborate until I am understood.
Comment: @Silhalnor A big part of these studies, particularly the Alzheimer's one, is continued usage, not just studying it for 6 months and then forgetting it. One of the problems with Esperanto is that there are so few speakers (however there is **some** evidence to suggest that the early success gained from Esperanto builds confidence and motivation for learning other languages). I would suggest thinking about your existing friends. Do any of them speak another language? Would they be willing to converse with you in it? Are any of your friends willing to learn a language along with you?
Comment: @Silhalnor A good question should have a clearly defined scope and be answerable with facts, not opinions (and including any research you've already done helps). That's why in my answer I gave academic sources supporting my answer. However, I also had to guess what you meant by "cognitive benefit" (thus my two interpretations). If people need to guess what you want then your question isn't clear and you need to hit the "edit" button and add more detail. That's why we leave comments asking questions. Even if you don't know "official" terms, just be specific in what you want to know.
Comment: My statement about Esperanto was really more theoretical. In practice I am fully aware that I will not be able to keep up my motivation for just _any_ language, just the ones I have an interest in. Except maybe Esperanto if I can learn it really fast. You are right though that continuing to use it afterwards would be difficult so I will consider those factors. As for the quality of my questions, I will be sure to keep it in mind in the future. Especially poorly defined terms.
Answer: Honestly, if you're looking for maximum "cognitive benefit", what you'll want to do is maximize how proficient you become in the language, which means choosing a language that you'll work hard to learn and not give up. So choose a language that you're interested in, and actually learn it. Even if there is a difference between languages in terms of their benefits, gaining fluency in the least helpful will be more helpful than spending three weeks learning the most helpful, then giving up.
Comment: That's a good point, although it doesn't strictly answer the question I posed. Indeed, it may turn out that my assumption that some languages are more beneficial than others is wrong and thus the question would have no real answer. I will accept this answer for now unless someone provides evidence that there are significantly more gains from learning one language over another and why this is.