In a Society of Immortals, How Would Leadership Work?

Question: This is sort of a vague question, and I do not have a specific setting in mind. However, if you had a society whose members were immortal, how would you ensure that the leadership was dynamic and efficient? Do you have mandatory term limits, and replace a certain part of the leadership every year? If so, how would you implement it? The officeholders would probably resist giving up their power, due to both greed and because they would probably see the new bureaucrats as stupid and inexperienced. Would you have the old officeholders and new office-seekers compete freely? If so, few young people would get into positions of power, as the old guard would be more experienced and would be able to use the accumulated influence and experience of eons to keep their posts. Also, getting rid of the old would be disruptive to the functioning of government, as they know how to run society smoothly, but not rotating them might result in stagnation, as they hold fast to old ways and reject progress.
Comment: @Renan Dorothy Parker said if physical strength counted for everything, then stevedores would run the world. It's noticeable they don't.
Comment: I'll take a page from good old tabletop RPG system GURPS, 1st edition: everything else being equal, leadership would be based on physical strength.
Comment: GURPS... @Renan, that really takes me back....
Answer: Good leadership is a quality that we find elusive even now, after millennia of trying, in part because we all have a different view of what 'good' leadership is.
Is it the ability to choose to do what's best for the nation?
Is it the ability to get things done, no matter the cost?
Is it the ability to compete with neighbouring nations?
Is it the ability to preserve the cultural heritage / religion of the nation?
Is it the ability to conquer one's neighbours and assimilate them?
To be frank, I'm not sure what good leadership is and none of the people I respect have any idea either. There are only two things that all my friends and I agree on;
1) None of us want to be leaders as the responsibility is too much
2) There's no way we'd trust anyone seeking leadership with the position if it was up to us.
All this having been said, the answer to your question largely relies on defining what good leadership is to you.
If it's strength, then leadership would be a contested position, probably via a fight to the death in an arena. An 'election' (and I use the term loosely) would be an event between two candidates that you sell tickets to, and both candidates (probably an incumbent and a challenger) fight for the right to lead. The strongest is the one who's still alive when the other isn't, and then takes on the role.
If it's sacrifice, you have a mechanism where leadership is paid for through the removal of one's immortality. In other words, you can live forever as a subject, or you can live a normal lifespan as a leader. This would have the added advantage of ensuring renewal in the role on a regular interval.
If it's the willingness to give back to the people, then you offer leadership as a calling rather than a job. You can only become leader if you give up all personal belongings and live on the goodwill of the people. You get no wage, you get no house, no palace, no warm blankets as part of the job. You only get clothes, food, blankets, shelter from those willing to contribute to your wellbeing. If they're having a bad year and have nothing to offer, then your year is going to be a lot worse.
If it's command, you can only become leader through the military chain of command. You must start at the base rank, and work your way through the ranks until you reach a flag rank, at which point there is a regular general election among the officers as to who from flag rank should be the leader for the next period, and you're now eligible for election.
If it's scientific prowess, you might make a person's candidacy for leadership contingent on the number of papers they publish on a given topic, or the number of times they are referenced in the papers of others. As someone gets more references (because they are writing more relevant work) they get the leadership.
Ultimately, the answer comes down to what you think are good and bad ideas, and what you mean by renewal. Things like economic policy have to change with the reality of resource availability, innovation and international diplomacy. On the other hand, the basic tenets of the criminal code (murder, theft, assault, etc.) have been in societies for a very long time because they work.
The important thing here is that you know what's important to your nation and the health and prosperity of its people. If you know that, then you design your leadership selection process around that and you're good. If the selection process emphasises what you want your leader to do, then it's far more likely that you'll get the leader you need (but not always the leader you want).
This last point is perhaps one of the most important, and one of the chief failings of democracy as a selection process. The leader of a nation HAS to have the best interest of the nation at heart, not necessarily the best interest of its people (especially as individuals) at heart. Democracies struggle with this because sometimes necessary reforms are deeply unpopular, and therefore those suggesting them are never given leadership. Often the reason why it was necessary is only evident to most of the populace with hindsight. Whatever your selection process, retaining the faith of the people in the office if not the officer is paramount.
This usually means a good education system and the ability to explain policy choices to people in a way they can all understand. This is a lot easier said than done, which is why I wouldn't make a great leader and I know it. That said, there's a lot of poor leaders out there who think they're spectacular at it. The real trick, regardless of your final selection process, is weeding out the latter.
Answer: Are you sure there'd be much of a government?
The single biggest problem with immortals is that you must strictly limit (if not outright prohibit) progeny — otherwise in very little time you have a planet-sized population.  Let's assume you don't have this problem for whatever reason.  What this means is...

No babies
No children
No teens
No schools in the traditional sense
No driver training
No geriatrics
No minor healthcare
No welfare (as we understand it)

It literally means that a proverbial 50% of the reasons government exists ... don't exist.  But what's really odd is...
It appears you're applying mortal behaviors to immortal people
Which isn't all that uncommon.  You'd be surprised how often people make god in their own image.  I found it curious when you said, "officeholders would probably resist giving up their power, due to both greed and because they would probably see the new bureaucrats as stupid and inexperienced."  Except the newcomers are immortal... which has the effect of evening out inteligence and experience over the millennia such that nobody is particularly better at anything than anybody else.
Let me give you an example: I'm in my 50s.  It's actually difficult for children to sneak up behind me and startle me by screaming, "boo!"  Why?  Because I've experienced the moment so many times that even when I'm not prepared to experience it again, my brain simply reacts with a yawn.  I don't see the world like 10-year-olds do (who still see most of the world as something they've never experienced... something new).
Now imagine a whole culture of people who have lived thousands of years, experienced basically everything thousands of times over, who have become educated in scores of careers, lived those careers, and become bored with those careers.  People who very frequently never think through what to do next — they simply react to it based on what an unfathomable amount of time has taught them to do.

Relevant movie/TV quote #1: Groundhog Day, "Maybe God has just been around a long time and knows everything."
Relevant movie/TV quote #2: Agents of Shield, "That's why you'll practice it over and over until you've got it down cold. Muscle memory. Don't think about the action; let the action help you think."
Relevant movie/TV quote #3: Star Trek: Voyager, after hearing no dialogue in the Q-continuum... "Because it has all been said. Everyone has heard everything, seen everything; they haven't had to speak to each other in ten millennia. There's nothing left to say."

I'd be surprised if much government was needed at all
What does it mean to be in charge?  From the base-human perspective, it means having the power to do what you want, when you want.  From the somewhat more enlightened perspective, it means meeting your population's needs for safety, residency, productivity, education, and entertainment.
Honestly, the base-human need is the funniest to think about.  A bunch of immortals (gods, perhaps without the convenient thunderbolts) are all listening to some bragart trying to impress them with his/her strength, mental accuity, whatever — and yawning after they've been momentarily amused.  They've seen it all before, know perfectly well how to rid themselves of the nuisance, and move on with their daily lives.
Because the base-human leader needs to foce the population to his/her demands, and that requires power.  In small communities, this can be achieved by your own sword arm.  In bigger communities it requires sycophants/devotees/zealots/followers.  It helps to have a military dedicated to the ideology that happens to reflect your personal tastes for power.  They think they're supporting the nation.  But remember — immortals — they've seen it all before, know who you are (really well!), and are a whole lot less likely to be convinced to simply follow Simeon (you know, "Simeon Says...") when he/she proves to be a megalomaniac.

Relevant movie/TV quote #4: Star Trek: Voyager, "Oh, we've all done the scarecrow. Big deal."

By the way, that ST:VOY episode is "Death Wish."  You should go watch it.  Watch it so many times that you can quote it without thinking.  Then you'll understand why your statement about newcomers being stupid and inexperienced was so odd to read....
The more interesting government is one who meets everyone's needs, but what needs do immortals have?
Not education, they can supply that for any junior member quite readily.  In fact, rather than K-12+college schools, all you'd have are research centers, and all too likely personal research centers where a few like-minded individuals gather to hash out stuff I can't even imagine thinking about.
Not welfare, if they're still alive after a couple of millennia then they've worked out how to feed/clothe/house themselves without dependency on the government.  Perhaps there's no greater crime than living thousands of years and STILL being unproductive.
Not a lot of things.  What would be the point of incarcerating people for eons?  Capital punishment would be the only thing that meant anything to immortals, so your judicial system becomes very simple.  Mind your manners or we take your head.

Relevant Movie/TV Quote #5: Highlander, "Each man's thoughts and dreams are yours to know. You have power beyond imagination. Use it well my friend. Don't lose your head."

In the end, what leadership would be necessary would be driven by the all-too-predictable actions of the inferior mortal races
You really don't need much of anything other than an oversight committee to make sure there's water in the pipes and a general to rally the troops when the Morlocks and Vogons come marching.  (Yes, this is a bit simplistic, but you know what I mean....)
What most people don't realize is that, unless things in Heaven are very different than here, immortality would be unbelievably boring.  How long can you play Halo 4 a harp, really?
It might be the most egalitarian society on the planet, because everybody really is equal.  Only in the most dramatic cases will one intellect outstrip all others, and so forth for all other skills/talents.  But why would such people strive for leadership when there are so many competent people to do the boring stuff?

Relevant movie/TV quote #6: Flash Gordon, "Ah, well, who wants to live forever? HAHAHAHAH! DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!"
Answer: In an immortal society everybody would sooner or later have a chance to be part of the government. Therefore, members of any government could be chosen at random from the population. They would serve for a certain number of terms, then leave government. This would continue until everybody else had their chance to be in government.
Please note this system describes appointing people to government. Leadership is always more difficult. Leaders would have to be chosen from among members of the government. Essentially this is based on a parliamentary system of governance.
With a random selection process to chose government, there will need to be mechanisms for some people to opt out on either a voluntary or compulsory basis. There will be many who never want to be in a government. There will also be people who should never be allowed to govern. For example, persons with authoritarian personalities. That way dictatorship lies, so it should be avoided.
Also, persons who have been in government and prove themselves manifestly incompetent at running a society at whatever level they held. These types of persons will need to be identified and proscribed from government.
On the converse is also true. There will be some persons who are exemplary in government. However, they should be kept in office forever. It would be better if there was a sufficiently large body of persons competent at government who would be prime candidates for selection. A slight bias in favour of their selection to ensure there is always a core body of them in any government.
There is every practical reason that the government of an immortal society should be a unitary entity. There can be many tiers of government, each with their own periods of office. Plus there will need to be a public service, probably, public services plural, to support the arms of government. By having overlapping periods of office and tiers of governments and public services will allow continuity and stability of governance.
Since being part of the government there will be a civic duty and responsibility of all immortal citizens, there can be high levels of education and training in all areas of government, leadership and public administration. Also, the members of an immortal society will all have opportunities to fill every level of governance and administration. From garbage collector, parking ticket inspector, being Lord Mayor, clerical duties, planning committees, and upwards to the premiership of their nation.
The random selection process will prevent cliques and cabals forming within governments. It will also block corruption of officials and members of their parliaments.
In conclusion, leadership is nebulous concept, therefore, this answer has concentrated on sketching a form of government where all citizens can participate in its running and at every level of governance and administration. The random selection of citizens into government positions will ensure maximum experience and knowledge of all levels of government.
Answer: The following assumes that the discovery of immortality happens in free market post-modern society in which we live now. In this settings, the leaders don't lead in a way to define values, the good and bad, the way of living. Since the end of Cold War ideology has negative connotations. Instead, MONEY drives everything, allows WILL TO POWER to rule all values: the stronger apply their power onto weaker and the leaders are no exception. Today, the constant grow of consumption and waste became the true religion and as a such, it is the main tool for world leaders (the oligarchs) to manage others including politicians. I think that the immortality would change this, but it depends on the type of immortality. I would consider three classes of it:

A: Immortality as cure of death by age people still could be killed and can die by disease, could went paraplegic, could kill themselves. Eventually some kind of death would happen, so there would be something like statistical lifespan.
B: Immortality as a perfect body could involve many improvements like perfect regeneration (to fix limbs or eyes lose, heart attacks, cancer, maybe even death by gun or fall), perfect immunity (no diseases), perfect resistance (to avoid death by radiation, explosion, too high or low temperatures, vacuum). The chance of death by unfortunate circumstances would be lowered, but end of life could happen with some effort.
C: Immortality as a consciousness preservation or as a life backup by means that death would be impossible.

Price of immortality as a tool to manage ("lead") others
A: It would be more expensive than space travel. The price could resemble 50 years mortgage affordable only by high society people. Leaders would be more powerful, but eventually they would die. Power shifts in society would be less often.
B: The risk of dying would be much lower, so the price could grow much higher: if high society people needed to sign a contract to pay all their money for 1000 years, it still would be too cheap. The slavery period would probably be shorter at the dawn of the technology since nobody is planning that long, but later when immortal merchants were selling it, it might constantly grow to 50.000 years and beyond (it is still worth it). The leaders would find a business model to enslave others, the hope for eternal life (supported by market) would be a new opium of humanity and used to replace religion.
C: There could be no price tag for this since the advantage has infinite potential. It would be obtainable probably only by power. The very few most powerful people at the dawn of the technology would ensure that nobody else would get into the club, so the cake of power is not divided anymore.
Effects on society and immortal "leaders"
A: Jails would lost their meaning, other punishments (death penalty, slavery, limb cutting) would need to replace it. Mortgages and student loans period could pass 50 years, but since the leaders still could easily die, there would be no qualitative difference from the world we live in.
B: Same as A plus education period as "preparation for life" could be prolonged. People would work less if they could go without food or bed. Everything mandatory or necessary would be way more expensive, because people could work for that for extended period of time. This would make the standards of living worse for 99%. Many strikes would happen, but the 1% would be too powerful to be overthrown. Eventually, the power distribution would remain settled and rigid and people would get used to slavery in time. They would probably sooner or later lose interest in most things that we connect with certain age, including having babies. The Earth capacity for people would grow multiple times. In space time the limits of environment on planets would grow much faster than the number of human beings.
C: The struggle for ultimate power would start as everybody knows that it is the last war and the winner will be eternal. Eventually, there would be only one or very few god-like immortals, the rest of the world or universe would be enslaved by their "laws of physics" which would create the ultimate barrier for their growth and make them to create resources for the deity. If some infinite energy resource were discovered, the free market would lost its point, the gods would lose their interest in humanity and start to live without them, ensuring that they can not follow their way in the future to threaten them.
Comment: This is an interesting essay on the impact of immortality on society, but I don't see where you are addressing the question of leadership.
Comment: @Law29 if the model of "free market" prevails in the future, then "leadership" is nothing but struggle to power. In modern western society, the leadership doesn't mean more than that (the leaders don't lead, they implement their power onto the weaker). From that perspective, the "leadership" is just the fight for power and immortality would supply new tools for that fight, which I fantasize about.
Answer: The Old Monsters Never Die
I am going to assume by immortal you mean "Cannot Die." This is a very, very terrifying prospect. Imagine Hitler, and Genghis Khan have a few beers and end up deciding they're bored with year 45888 of their existence so they decide to start the 27th Reich back up for shits and giggles. If we have a horrible monster walking around today we know that at the very least if nothing else works we can just wait a few decades for nature to take its course and rid us of them. Not so in a world with true immortality, Caligula would still be burning Christians alive at his garden parties, and worse yet, they can't die either. So if you fall into the clutches of such a person guess what? You have centuries of misery and suffering to look forward to performing as a mad man's screaming garden torch.
Point being, in a society with true immortality on an infinite timeline everyone would eventually have the opportunity to be in charge of the whole shebang. This prospect is terrifying to me, because not everyone SHOULD have the opportunity to be in charge. Imagine if a guy like Kim Jong Un could keep coming back to terrorize humanity every few centuries or so for all eternity. Perhaps a method of punishment would need to be devised that if it can't kill them, can at-least remove them from the equation for a long, long time. Perhaps if somebody proves them-self a horrible enough person we could entomb inside of a reinforced concrete block and then dump them off into the deepest part of the ocean to keep them from public influence for at-least a few thousand years. Of course, when they come out they might be stark raving mad and even worse to deal with than when they went in.


commentary on deut. 18:22 Ramban

Question: I'm looking for an english translation of commentary on deut. (18, 22) by Ramban. Where is it possible to find it?
Thank you
Comment: There is no Ramban to Devorim 18 (22) not in my Chumash nor in Sefaria.
Comment: Ask the particular question that you have on that pasuk to find what Ramban or others might say on the subject, as it may be written on a different pasuk.
Comment: @AvrohomYitzchok strange as this sounds, but I think you answered the question!
Answer: Ramban on verse 22:
If.. the oracle does not come true, that oracle was not spoken by HaShem. And this answers the unspoken second question as well. With any prophet, we expect what ge says about the future to come true. If it does not, we know he is a false prophet and must be put to death. We need not "stand in dread" of his wisdom or skill in performing a sign. If everything he says does come true, then we know he is "trustworthy as a prophet of HaShem" (1 Sam 3:20), and we must heed him. We must obey if he tells us to violate the Torah, if the situation calls for it, as with Eliyah offering sacrifice on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). The prophet must confirm that he is "like Moshe," either by performing signs (as Moshe did in Exo 4:30-31) or by accurately predicting the future (which itself is a sign). If he does so, then "if anybody fails to heed the words he speaks in My Name, I myself will call him to account" (verse 19); see talmidim discussion on B. Sanh. 89b. I don't think Rashi is correct when he says that such a prophet must be known to be "perfectly righteous". It is merely that his prophecies are considered trustworthy because up to now they have proven true. That is as much the"sign" by which a prophet proces himself as a sign performed in front of us. Perhaps Rashi meant what Maimonides (Rambam) says in the Mishneh Torah: when a prophet is sent, he is given a sign that will convince the people that G-d truly sent him. But not everyone who performa a sign is believed, unless he was already known to the people as someone whose wisdom and pious behaviour, greater than anyone else of his generation, made him worthy of receiving prophecy. If such a person performs a sign, we are commanded to heed him. Admittedly, not every such person really is a prophet: there may be something else going on. Nonetheless, if he is a man worthy of prophecy, we must take him at his word and heed him, just as we decide cases in court on the word of two qualified witnesses. They might indeed be lying, but since they are qualified witnesses, we give them the benefit of the doubt. As such matters fall under the category of "concealed acts concern HaShem our G-d (29:28)" and "man sees only what is visible, but HaShem sees into the heart (1 Sam 16:7)."
Translation: The Commentators Bible - Deuteronomy - The Rubin JPS Miqra'ot Gedolot; by Michael Carasik.

commentary on deut. 18:22 Ramban


Terraria Mobile - Valentine Ring?

Question: I was playing Terraria on my mobile device, when I came across an item called the Valentine Ring. I purchased it, thinking it did something cool (the tooltip wasn't being displayed for some reason), but I can't figure out what it does. Can somebody explain it to me?
Comment: This question is outdated due to the Terraria 1.13 mobile update.
Answer: According to the wiki there is no item called the Valentine Heart. But if it were it'd be added in the Valentine update.
Maybe you mean the Broken Heart Crystal?. It summons a cupid pet, which is pretty much the same as the Wisp in a Bottle, i.e., a moveable light source.
It's probably not a Heart Arrow (which stuns enemies) or the Valentine Ring (which gives you extra jump height and 50% health regen if it were given to you by another person). Those two items are the others added during the Valentine Update.
If it is called a Valentine Heart I'd love a screenshot to find out more =p
Comment: Sorry, it was the Valentine Ring. Editing my post to say this.
Answer: Dropping it on the ground and picking it up again should activate
The powers mentioned by Kevin van der velden, according to the wiki.
-edit-
To drop an item in pocket edition, drag the item to the ground from your hotbar
while your inventory is closed.
Comment: How would I do so?
Comment: Um... I don't actually know. That's all the wiki said
Comment: ._____________.
Comment: Press and hold on it while its in your hotbar (with your inventory closed) and drag it to where you want to drop it. Your character will throw it in that direction.
Answer: You could just put it into a chest and then take it out, r you could drop it then pick it up.
It gives a 50% increased jump height and an increased health regeneration. The helpful tooltip will show after you activate it by doing what I mentioned above.
This website might help: http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Valentine_Ring

Terraria Mobile - Valentine Ring?


What is the best tutorial to convert a substrate-based standalone chain to a parachain?

Question: What is the best tutorial to convert a substrate-based standalone chain to a parachain?
Answer: There are a lot of tutorials on https://docs.substrate.io/tutorials/
Here is one to convert
https://docs.substrate.io/reference/how-to-guides/parachains/convert-a-solo-chain/
Answer: In addition to the tutorials mentioned by Sam, this workshop is very thorough as it explains all the steps of taking your solochain to a parachain as well as building the front-end for it. It even ends with demoing the entire application.
Skip to this part to get an overview of the steps you'll need to take to convert your solo-chain to a parachain connected to a live relay chain.
Answer: You can check out this presentation which has Centrifuge's solochain to parachain migration as a case study
(Sub0 Online: Storage Migration - Standalone chain to Parachain
):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIgvyRFs-N4
Answer: Checkout the docs on how to convert a silo chain to a parachain: https://docs.substrate.io/reference/how-to-guides/parachains/convert-a-solo-chain/
Note that you must perform state migrations on your new parachain_starting from genesis_ to populate the desired state on the parachain. You cannot simply "flip a switch" on a running chain to become a parachain.
https://docs.substrate.io/reference/how-to-guides/parachains/runtime-upgrade/
It is likely you need to evaluate your benchmarking closely and fit into the much more strick and limited weight requirements for parachain operation, compared to solo chain operation as well. You may need to redactor or when prune functionality based on those investigations.
https://docs.substrate.io/reference/how-to-guides/weights/add-benchmarks/


Will getting a second credit card from Citibank lower my average account age on my credit report?

Question: I just got a new credit card from Citibank (double cash back card). Whenever the Citibank Visa for Costco is available, I would like to get that too. When I get the Costco card will this lower my average account age?
Answer: The new card (Costco) will lag the old card by only these few months, but, you now have two cards that are newborn, and start the clock on both. If you have 4 cards with a 10 years average, you're now at 6-2/3 years. Worse, If you just had 1 10 year card, no others, you're at 3-1/3 years average after getting these 2 new cards.
In the big picture, this will only impact by a small number of FICO points, but if you are a deal chaser, you can have a card age that never gets to the 10 or so years to maximize your score.


Curve25519 Endianness

Question: According to the original paper form Bernstein public/private keys and the shared symmetric key are stored in little-endian. However, the WolfSSL of WolfSSL supports both, little-endian and big-endian. What is the reason for this? May there be any security issues?
Comment: I believe that the practical differences are minor; the various choices exist because of history (when some engineer was designing something, they made a choice, and everyone after that followed the same choice for compatibility)
Comment: To support the existing big-endian CPUs? Fun fact [Simply explained](https://geekandpoke.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d3df553ef01543533e604970c-pi)
Comment: And wiki ; `Big-endianness is the dominant ordering in networking protocols, such as in the internet protocol suite, where it is referred to as network order, transmitting the most significant byte first. Conversely, little-endianness is the dominant ordering for processor architectures (x86, most ARM implementations, base RISC-V implementations) and their associated memory. File formats can use either ordering; some formats use a mixture of both.`
Comment: Thanks for your answers! Why there is (usually) a difference between networking protocols and processor architectures? Is there any good reason besides, "it is just standard to do so"?
Comment: Because of having different requirements in different systems and we want simplicity in the design?
Answer: We want to answer "How many wolves are coming to attack?" by "twenty one" (big-endian), not "one twenty" (little-endian). That can be a matter of life and death, and perhaps natural selection of memes¹ made that the convention in many languages (German is an important exception). Big-endian is thus used in most human positional numeral systems.
When it comes to algorithms for exact addition of large integers, it's much easier to start with the low-order digits. Little-endian thus makes sense in some areas of computing, including making a desktop calculator, which was a motivating application of early microprocessors, and got Intel started in that business. That's why little-endian is sometime called the Intel convention.
In network routing according to packet destination address, the low-order bits of a destination address typically does not participate in the routing, and comes last is the destination address field. That could² me made even so slightly advantageous: having the high-order bits first allows to find the destination earlier. That's how I remember big-endian is called "network order".
In computing, the farther away from hardware, the more big-endian. Because predators.
In crypto, both still coexist, but there's a perceptible trend towards big-endianness. MD5 is little-endian (that made the very first collision exhibited wrong), SHA-1 and later hashes are big-endian. That's the NIST order. And ASN.1 integers are big-endian, thus it has won for many practical purposes.
Bernstein has an history of being a skilled low-level programmer of Intel-compatible CPUs (even recommending some), and generally opposes NIST. That's how I remember Curve25519 is nominally little-endian. OTOH, that's a mere convention that should be without cryptographic significance. When adding Curve25519 to something existing, it's possible to get it big endian (by accident or design), and keep/have that as an option.

¹ I know no evidence big-endianness went genetic!
² The tale of traders making special network equipment to crush the last nanoseconds of latency could use that. I can't pinpoint any network equipment, much less a modern one, that does. But I like the idea, and still hope something (a supercomputer cluster maybe) would use it.
Comment: I would disagree on your speculation why network order is "bigendian"; every network device I have worked with receive the entire packet before looking at the IP addresses, hence the ordering of the bytes within the IP address is irrelevant.  It is more likely that they went with bigendian because the original IP network device (the "Internet Message Processor") handled 16 bit words in bigendian order.
Comment: To be clear, German only screws up the ordering for for the last two digits. 1337 is "one thousand three hundred seven and thirty". In French (at least in France, I believe this particular bug is fixed in the Belgian and Suisse versions, albeit in incompatible ways?) on the other hand you have the delightful quatre-vingts which will be a real headache for your hypothetical  character beset by wolves.
Comment: I take it you are not well acquainted with the German language then? (Even English does not consistently use big-endian ordering for numbers.)
Comment: @poncho: I was careful to word this as the way I remember network byte order, because I fail to exhibit a concrete example. I think I was told this in the 1980's.
Comment: @poncho: ['cut-through' switches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-through_switching) were popular for a long time, although I haven't noticed any recently, and they don't read the whole packet -- but they do read the whole _header_, and thus don't care about endianness.
Comment: @dave_thompson_085: I almost put in a cavaet about switches (which I sort of recall); however I have never worked with them, so my comment is still accurate :-)
Comment: @Maeher: You guessed it, I took English and Spanish. Thanks to you I learned something about German. Maybe it's little endianness is why many great mathematicians speak it! That answer, especially the beginning, is a little tongue-in-cheek anyway.

Curve25519 Endianness


What is the meaning of the word "ONE" in the Bible?

Question: In the Bible it talks of Jesus being one with the Father John 10:30 but also says that we should be one with them John 17:11. In the Bible's original Greek text, is the same word used for both, or is the word that describes our oneness with them different? The scriptures that speak of our heavenly Father and Jesus as being one are often used to prove the doctrine of the Trinity. (The Trinity being of one nature and one substance.) Does the original Greek word denote a physical oneness in substance, or a oneness in unity, purpose, action, and nature?
Comment: It seems you are asking about specific verses, rather than the entire Bible, as implied by your question's title. Please edit your question's title to reflect that.
Comment: @Nelson: Is there a good reason you can't just use the [edit](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/posts/24852/edit) function?
Comment: I've reopened this here as it's been rejected by BH, I'd recommend clarifying your question to indicate what doctrinal frame of reference is appropriate.
Comment: I wish to delete this question and repost it in a different form.
Answer: Working in unison, living in unity.
Mark 10:8 8

and the two will become ·one body [as though they were one
  person; T one flesh; Gen. 2:24]'. So they are no longer two, but one.

John 10:16

16 I have other sheep that are not in this ·flock [fold; pen; C a
  reference to future Gentile followers of Christ], and I must bring
  them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock
  and one shepherd.

John 10:30

30 The Father and I are one."

Judges 20:11 (ASV)

11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit
  together as one man.

Oneness usually implies oneness of mind, actions, and so forth.
1 Corinthians 1:10 (In contrast to modern setting.)

10 But I urge and entreat you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
  Christ, that all of you be in perfect harmony and full agreement in
  what you say, and that there be no dissensions or factions or
  divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in your common
  understanding and in your opinions and judgments.

Colossians 3:13-14 (Note relationship between love and unity (oneness))

14 And above all these [put on] love and enfold yourselves with the
  bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in
  ideal harmony].

In a deeper sense, just as a Husband and Wife are ONE through a God-ordained arrangement, the Christ is ONE with the congregation. This principle is especially important, because its necessary in saving through unity:
1st Corinthians 7:14 (Note the saving aspect of oneness)

14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the
  unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother: else were your children
  unclean; but now are they holy.

In this way the congregation (Christ's bride, loved as his own body) is also cleansed by the Christ due to marital contract and attains everlasting life.

Conversely, the "Harlot" separating, disuniting from the Christ, unifying with Satan's world, becomes one with the world, and they share sins all the way back to Abel's murder.  Luke 11:51, Revelation 17:2 COMPARE TO: 1 Corinthians 6:16
Answer: From the contents of your question I am assuming you are making reference to:
John 17:22  KJV

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

Very often in order to understand the meaning of any particular Scripture it is necessary to take into account many other Scriptures, and that is true in this case. This verse must be read along with not only what is said in chapter 17, but has to reach back to what the whole situation was at the time and especially what Jesus was conveying to his disciples.
In order to take in the whole concept we have to start with:
John 13:1  KJV

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

Beginning here Jesus is telling them not only what is going to happen, not only in the immediate future, but giving them encouragement for the persecution to come.
He begins by showing them how important humility is by washing their feet, and gives more emphasis to it when:
John 13:6, 7 and 8  KJV

6   Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
7  Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
8  Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

So what does humility have to do with oneness?
Matthew 20:28  KJV

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Here Jesus is telling them; that in order to be like him, they have to give up self and serve others.
John 13:14  KJV

If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.

He goes on further to say:
John 13:16  KJV

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

And again you wonder what does that have to do with oneness. well just hang on I'll get there.
John 5:19  KJV

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

Here Jesus is telling them that he does not arbitrarily do things, that the father is a part of everything he does, and that they are patterned after the ways of the father.
John 13:34 and 35  KJV

34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

The purpose of this command is pretty self evident in that in order to represent Jesus they must assume the characteristics of Jesus.
John 14:10 and 11 KJV

10   Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11  Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

Here Jesus is saying in effect by now you should know by now, after seeing all my miracles; that the father and I are part of the same God, but if you don't believe me you at least ought to believe it because of the miracles.
John 14:19 and 20  KJV

19   Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Here Jesus is telling them that once he goes to the Cross and ascends to the father, that he will again be spiritually united with the father, and that his spirit will be united with them, so that they all become a common spirituality.
From this point up until chapter 17 he warns them of the travail about to beset them, and so that they will not be blindsided and lose faith. And in the first part of chapter 17 he is in effect telling them that after he has gone to the cross and ascended that he will give them a new eternal life.
John 17:1 and 2  KJV

1   These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
2  As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

Finally we get to your  Scripture:
John 17:21 and 22  KJV

21   That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

So to answer your question what Jesus apparently meant when he said "be one" was he was referencing being one Spirit for eternity.


OPENVPN route all traffic - Synology

Question: I have a synology NAS that is my OPENVPN server.  I am always on the road and I want to route all of my traffic through my house.  Here is my config and my log.

config file
dev tun
tls-client

remote XX.XXX.XXX.XX 1194

# The "float" tells OpenVPN to accept authenticated packets from any address,
# not only the address which was specified in the --remote option.
# This is useful when you are connecting to a peer which holds a dynamic address
# such as a dial-in user or DHCP client.
# (Please refer to the manual of OpenVPN for more information.)

#float

# If redirect-gateway is enabled, the client will redirect it's
# default network gateway through the VPN.
# It means the VPN connection will firstly connect to the VPN Server
# and then to the internet.
# (Please refer to the manual of OpenVPN for more information.)

push redirect-gateway def1
route 192.168.0.25 255.255.255.0 net_gateway
route 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0

# dhcp-option DNS: To set primary domain name server address.
# Repeat this option to set secondary DNS server addresses.

push dhcp-option DNS 10.8.0.1
push dhcp-option DNS 192.168.0.25
push dhcp-option DNS 22.214.171.124
push dhcp-option DNS 18.104.22.168

pull

proto udp
script-security 2

ca ca.crt

comp-lzo

reneg-sec 0

auth-user-pass Dontbelazy.txt

log file
Tue Mar 19 13:55:35 2013 OpenVPN 2.2.2 Win32-MSVC++ [SSL] [LZO2] [PKCS11] built on Dec 15 2011
Tue Mar 19 13:55:35 2013 IMPORTANT: OpenVPN's default port number is now 1194, based on an official port number assignment by IANA.  OpenVPN 2.0-beta16 and earlier used 5000 as the default port.
Tue Mar 19 13:55:35 2013 WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled.  See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.
Tue Mar 19 13:55:35 2013 NOTE: the current --script-security setting may allow this configuration to call user-defined scripts
Tue Mar 19 13:55:35 2013 LZO compression initialized
Tue Mar 19 13:55:35 2013 UDPv4 link local (bound): [undef]:1194
Tue Mar 19 13:55:35 2013 UDPv4 link remote: XX.XXX.XXX.XX 1194
Tue Mar 19 13:56:35 2013 TLS Error: TLS key negotiation failed to occur within 60 seconds (check your network connectivity)
Tue Mar 19 13:56:35 2013 TLS Error: TLS handshake failed
Tue Mar 19 13:56:35 2013 SIGUSR1[soft,tls-error] received, process restarting

Answer: Try change
push redirect-gateway def1
route 192.168.0.25 255.255.255.0 net_gateway
route 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0

to
redirect-gateway

and
push dhcp-option DNS 10.8.0.1
push dhcp-option DNS 192.168.0.25
push dhcp-option DNS 22.214.171.124
push dhcp-option DNS 22.214.171.124

to
dhcp-option DNS <YOUR_ROUTER_LOCAL_IP_ADDRESS>

OPENVPN route all traffic - Synology


What is different between 'build eosio from source' and 'using pre-build binary'

Question: setting eos with pre-build binary is super fast with less errors.
What is good thing with building from source?
Answer: Just make sure that you trust where the binaries are downloaded from. I personally prefer to build from source and if you are building on a common distribution of Linux such as CentOS, you probably won't face any new errors that others have not already faced.
Binary installs are always bad security practice unless you can verify the site you download the binaries from is under strict control. Source code downloaded from a git hub repo is much "easier" to trust.
Answer: Its only really useful for developers of EOS.IO code, or for people who want to see the code and understand it to help them develop dApps.
I always dive into the source code to figure out how things work on a deeper level in order to better write my smart contracts.
Answer: You can use some plugins provided by the community (eos_zmq_plugin for example) while building from source.


Solution to Harmonic Oscillator

Question: The damped oscillator is governed by the equation of motion: $\ddot{x} + 2\beta \dot{x}+\omega _{0}^2x=0$ where $\omega _{0}=\beta$ for an oscillator with critical damping. The solution is $x(t)= e^{-\beta t}[C_{1}e^{\sqrt{\beta ^{2}-\omega _{0}^{2}t}}+C_{2}e^{-\sqrt{\beta ^{2}-\omega _{0}^{2}t}}]$ . I see in the textbook I use an exercise to finding an alternative solution to the equation of motion by Considering $\beta =\omega _{0}+\epsilon$ and Expanding the solution in $\epsilon$ in order to demonstrate that for small values of $\epsilon/\omega _{0}$ , one can obtain the solution in the form $x(t)\approx e^{-\beta t}[(\tilde{C_{1}})+\tilde{C_{2}}t]$. I was wondering if anyone knew of alternative solutions to the equations, or how to represent this solution for small values of $\epsilon/\omega _{0}$.
Comment: Is there a typo? $\omega_0 = \beta$? This isn't true in general.  Are you asking about the critically-damped oscillator?
Comment: Are there factors of $i$ missing from the exponentials in these equations?
Comment: I was asking about the critically damped oscillator. I don't think there are factors of i missing from the exponentials but correct me if I am wrong.
Answer: The solution set of a second order differential equation must be the combination of two linear independent solutions. When solving it, one arrives at 3 possible outcomes:

If $\beta > \omega_0$, then solution will be a linear combination of the basis $\{e^{-\beta t}e^{\omega t}, e^{-\beta t}e^{-\omega t}\}$.
If $\beta = \omega_0$, then solution will be a linear combination of the basis $\{e^{\beta t}, te^{\beta t}\}$.
If $\beta < \omega_0$, then solution will be a linear combination of $\{e^{-\beta t}\cos\omega t, e^{-\beta t}\sin\omega t\}$.

So, basically, there are only those solutions. Its easy to mathematically formally prove this statement.

Solution to Harmonic Oscillator


Dojo DEPRECATED dojo.moduleUrl

Question: Hellow I have one project and while running it I got some warnings:

DEPRECATED: dojo.moduleUrl() use require.toUrl -- will be removed in
  version: 2.0

but where is no "moduleUrl" uses in my project, does anybody know how to fix it ? Thanx
Answer: Some code in the dojox package still uses this function.  Are you using anything from the dojox package?
If you want to find out what code is calling it, use the uncompressed dojo files and put a breakpoint in dojo/_base/kernal on ~line 282 (depending on version).  When the breakpoint is hit, look at the call stack.
This message is only a warning and not an error, so your code isn't broken.
Answer: You don't say what version of Dojo you are using, but I assume it is 1.9. According to a quick scan dojo.moduleUrl() is used in the dojox section about 40 times. dojo.moduleUrl itself is reporting that it is deprecated.
I would expect that when Dojo 2.0 comes out all the dojox widjets will be upgraded accordingly and your worries will be at an end.
Update: Just noticed a similar answer has been posted while I've been thinking of mine :-)

Dojo DEPRECATED dojo.moduleUrl


Usage of 'à' and 'de'

Question: Why do you say 'mon expérience de' and not 'mon expérience à'? When do you use 'à' and when do you use 'de'?
Comment: Could you give an example? It's not clear what you mean. In the right context, you could say "*mon expérience avec des enfants*" for example, or "*mon expérience à l'étranger*".
Answer: Quite simply because à is primarily (as its root sense, before it began "diluting") a locative preposition that is far more commonly found connecting two verbs than two nouns, and when connecting nouns, it's usually because the expression derives from a verbal one.
You would not write mon expérience à unless you specifically mean experience acquired in a certain place as opposed to your global experience of an object/event/place.
Answer: I'm also still a student so this might not be the most reliable advice,
nonetheless, you're asking a good a good question, the two prepositions are often confused by most
students. They can both vary significantly based on context.
Here are some examples:
*de is normally applied in instances involving the from or those including of,
e.g.

Je viens de la boulangerie (I'm coming from the bakery)
Lucas est un de mes amis (Lucas is a friend of mine)

Whereas à is usually used in instances involving: to, at or in propositions.
i.e.
1. Je suis à la maison (I'm at home)
2. Je vais à Toulouse (I'm Going to Toulouse)
3. Je vis maintenant à Paris (I now live in Paris)
I guess the best way to understand them better is to familiarize yourself with multiple examples comparing both under
different contexts, hope this helps, all the best.

Usage of 'à' and 'de'


Wire type for robotic tendon?

Question: I'm working on a small project where an armature is actuated by a servo via a couple feet of tendon. The servo+tendon needs to be able to pull about 5-10 lbs. There will be springs at the endpoints to allow some flexibility and shock absorption, so I don't need the tendon to incorporate much flexibility of its own. What's the appropriate type of wire to use for the tendon? Should I use Nylon? Or stranded steel? I see a lot of projects using tendons, but I don't see much description of what's the best material to use to avoid snapping and breakage.
Answer: I have successfully used a non-stretch polymer known by various names such as Dyneema, GelSpun or Spectra for a similar purpose. It is easily purchased from most fishing supply stores.
The material is extremely strong and non-elastic - some care is needed with termination since it is slippery. Crimps, wire loops and model aircraft clevises are all good terminations.
Comment: Those brand names are the good stuff for this purpose. The material is also known as UHMW-PE, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene, although the "ultra high" aspect is open for discussion. It's the same stuff, generally speaking that one finds in disposable grocery bags. I can attest to the low stretch aspect as well as the slippery part. I had some 3 mm wide x 1 mm thick rated at 700 pounds breaking strength.

Wire type for robotic tendon?


Nonhomogeneous Poisson and Heavy tail inter arrival time distribution

Question: What is the relationship between a Nonhomogeneous Poisson process and a process that has heavy tail distribution for its inter arrival times?
Any pointer to a resource that can shed some light on this question would be hugely appreciated
Answer: Well, if you have a point process that you try modeling as a Poisson process, and find it has heavy tails, there are several possibilities.  What are the key assumptions for a Poisson Process:
-There is a constant rate function
-Events are memoryless, that is P(E in (t,t+d)) is independent of t and when other events are.
-The waiting time until the next event is exponentially distributed (kinda what the previous two are saying)
So, how can you violate these assumptions to get heavy tails?
-Non-constant rate function.  If the rate function switches between, say, two values, you'll have too many short wait-times, and too many long wait-times, given the overall rate function.  This can show itself as having heavy tails.
-The waiting time is not exponentially distributed.  In which case, you don't have a Poisson process.  You have some other sort of point process.
Note that in the extreme case, any point process can be modeled by a NHPP - put a delta function at each event, and set the rate to 0 elsewhere.  I think we can all agree that this is a poor model, having little predictive power.   So if you are interested in a NHPP, you'll want to think a bit about whether that is the right model, or whether you are overly-adjusting a model to fit your data.
Answer: In general there is none. A Poisson process has inter-arrival times that are exponentially distributed, which does not have heavy tails.
Comment: That is only true for homogeneous Poisson Processes. If you have a Non-homogeneous Poisson process (that is not equivalent to some homogeneous Poisson process), then the inter-arrival times will not be exponentially distributed.
Answer: The assumption that

Heavy tail distribution for its inter arrival times

along with the assumption that each inter-arrival time is independent, you have a renewal process. There are different ways that a renewal process can have a inhomogeneous marginal rate. Most frequently this is done by stretch time (time-rescaling theorem), or scale the hazard function (multiplication of the rate and the hazard function at each time point). Poisson process is a special case where the inter-arrival time is exponential as user549 answered. However, making inhomogeneous Possion with either method results in the same inter-spike interval distribution.
In summary, inhomogeneous Poisson process cannot have heavy tails.


How do I advance a quest through Gibbed's Save Editor?

Question: I am trying to configure a save file to advance a quest but I have no idea how to use Gibbed's Save Editor. Someone care to walk me through? I need to advance through a problematic part of a quest. Pics would help.
Comment: Could you provide more details? What platform is the corrupted save file from? What's the issue with the corrupted save file?
Comment: I have a mac, but I am going to migrate the file to a PC to work on it. http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/111790/my-true-vault-hunter-mode-is-bugged    That's the question I set up for my broken file.
Comment: If it's corrupted, you dun goof'd.  It means that for some reason something (usually through a modder or editor of some sort) messed up, and your account's pretty much a goner.
Comment: @JonathanChow Could you upload the save file through a file hosting website like Mediafire, and edit in the download link in your question? This is so people can test it with Gibbed's Save Editor.
Comment: @retrosaur I was just playing the game. This was before I even discovered gibbed's save editor
Answer: Firstly you will need to open your save into Gibbed's Borderlands 2 save editor and move your way to 'Raw' to edit your characters Raw Data.

Now scroll down until you see MissionPlaythroughs. When you find, it navigate your way to the arrow that will open up the collection window. Image below will give assistance if needed.

Now that you've opened up the collections list you will notice 3 MissionPlaythroughData the first one is Playthrough 1 (Normal Mode), the second one is  Playthrough 2 (True Vault Hunter Mode), and the third one is most likely the 'Something Interesting thing' that Gearbox Is planning on when they raise the level cap which will be a Playthrough 3 no doubt. Depending on what playthrough you're on, choose from 1 of 2 existing options available since Playthrough 3 has no data yet. Once you've clicked one of these navigate your way to the MissionData collection arrow. Image below will assist you if needed.

Once you're in your quest information you will notice a lot of quests. There are two ways to look for the quest you REALLY want to edit, #1 is looking to mission on the right this will show you the name or "Codename" of the mission, and #2 is seeing if the mission is Active, Not Started, or Failed. Once you've found the mission you want to edit look to Status and change the mission to ReadyToTurnIn if you want to instantly complete the mission. If you want to complete a few sub objectives, or objectives you will need BL2 to reference the number of requirements. You can access these options by looking to ObjectiveProgress and SubObjectiveSetIndexes opening one of these will show a set of numbers depending on the quest.
Like I said before you will need BL2 or a wiki to reference the 'complete' number of the mission requirement. Once you have something to reference from you can then modify the numbers and set a certain objective to 'Complete' some missions may be different though whereas 0 Is incomplete and 1 is complete - remember that! Image below will give assistance if needed.

It may take some time to get a hang of, but its really not that hard if you think about it. It also comes in handy if you have a quest that you're having a really tough time with such as; finding rare monsters or killing a hard raid boss. It also comes in handy if you're making a save from the ground up.

Source: Borderlands 2 How to Edit Quest Data [PS3/360/PC] by Seth | gamecrave.forumotion.com


Visiting UK shortly before Tier 2 application

Question: I'm planning on (or rather, my employer is planning on) making a Tier 2 application for me to work in the UK. They already have the certificate of sponsorship and all that's left is for me to show up at the visa application centre with my docs. However, shortly before the biometrics appointment I plan on making a trip to the UK for a quick vacation (I currently live in France). I have a Canadian passport, so I don't need a visa to enter the UK as a visitor, but (1) would this negatively impact my chances at getting the tier 2 visa and (2) could I run into potential issues at the border when I try to enter for holiday?
Answer: Under the circumstances, that you are a non-visa national, Canada, with residence in France, a visit to the UK is not likely to adversely affect the Tier 2 decisionmaking process. Actually, with all of the plans underway and the COS issued, it would make sense that you might want to be in the UK for a short time to sort out accommodation and other logistics in advance of the transition.


Are there cases where an accepted paper is retracted for lack of originality?

Question: Following the answers to this question that it is quite common to inadvertently reinvent the wheel in theoretical/computational research, have there been cases where the decision to accept a paper to a journal/conference has been revoked on this ground, because someone found out later that the results were not actually original? In such cases, how would one distinguish between oversight and plagiarism?
Answer: By "revoked," I assume that you mean retracted. I have often heard of papers being retracted for plagiarism, but never for reinventing the wheel.
I believe that the reason is, there are so many different ways to invent wheels, that it is almost always possible to tell if an idea is actually an independent invention.  A reinvention will likely use somewhat different terminology, have a different formulation of the problem, use different types of evidence, or whatnot.  There will be so many small differences, that it would be clear that the work is original, in the copyright sense, and not an academic fraud.
The fact that is it a reinvention of an idea that was already discovered elsewhere, however, means that it is likely to sink into obscurity once this fact is discovered... except... sometimes, a reinvention is not just a reinvention.  Sometimes, the reason for a reinvention is that an idea has not reached a community.  In that case, the contribution may not be the reinvention, but the importation of a mature body of work from elsewhere, in which case even a reinvention of a wheel may constitute a legitimate scientific contribution, in the form of bringing together two strands of research that complement one another and allow vital new progress to occur.
Comment: The OP doesn't necessarily mean "retracted"; it could be that the paper was accepted, but the editors changed their mind before the paper was actually published. Unlike a retraction, this might not result in them printing a notice.
Comment: @NateEldredge I think that would still count as an ordinary rejection, not in the spirit of the question... but perhaps the OP can clarify.
Comment: @jakebeal I did mean "retract". Thanks for your answer1
Comment: I like the part about bridging disciplines. This happens all the time between math and physics, where obscure mathematical formalisms are employed many years after their development only because some bright mind managed to make the connection to the physical world.
Answer: jakebeal answered most of the question just great, but I would like to comment on this a bit more:

how would one distinguish between oversight and plagiarism?

I think this is no big issue in practice. Typically, people start talking about plagiarism if and only if the similarities (text-wise, or, in rarer cases, idea-wise) are so substantial that it would be very unlikely for the author(s) to have arrived at their text without knowing the original. When authors honestly have "just" re-invented the wheel (as it frankly happens all the time in research), it is very unlikely that the end product would be so similar that they get accused of plagiarism.
Answer: This may differ from computational work, but the concepts overlap, I think. In experimental science, it is traditionally expected that a published contribution is original, to the extent that you often have to sign a document essentially claiming originality upon submission. However, for numerous reasons (nicely explained by John Ioannidis at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0020124, and cited 2400+ times!) replication of work is valuable in the sciences. We all have biases and make mistakes. And it is literally impossible to control for everything that may affect the outcomes of your experiments. So doing the same thing someone else has already done is actually a really nice validation of the previous work. It can demonstrate that two (or more) investigators have done the same or similar experiments and (hopefully) arrived at the same conclusions.
The original work will probably remain the exemplar of the phenomenon explained and garner all of the citations. But the "me too" experiment will make everyone who comes after more comfortable that the phenomenon is a real thing and not just a statistical fluke because of the weather on the day of the experiment or someone wearing cologne or forgetting to wash their hands.


How does Cisco from Flash know the unknown?

Question: Okay so guys, all of the meta-humans on The Flash have been caused by the particle accelerator, right. They got their powers and all of them can be proved, or stopped by physics. But Cisco, how does he know stuff that no one else knows? For example S02e02 he touched the sand from sand-demon and then he found out where he was keeping Patty hostage. I mean what scientific explanation is there for that?
Comment: You're asking for a scientific explanation for superpowers?!
Comment: "The Speed Force".
Answer: He too got exposed to the blast of the particle accelerator. People who got hit got a variety of superpowers: one got the powers of a tar monster, one got deadly gas powers, another got weather powers, Barry got the power of goes fast and Cisco got the ability to vibe.
In short: It's comic book science. It's not intended to make sense.
Answer: He also was a metahuman, but for some reason his ability took a while to manifest, no one (including Cisco himself) realized it until after Barry changed the past for the first time and Cisco remembered Thawne killing him in the timeline that Barry prevented.


Installing grounded light fixture on box with no ground conductor

Question: I'm installing a brand new motion activated security light to an existing box on my garage. After removing the old light, I notice it only has white/black wiring while the new light fixture has of course white/black/green (ground) wires to attach. What do I do if no ground wire is available with the old box?
Comment: Have you tried searching the site? I'm pretty sure this has been answered many times before.
Answer: There's a few options.
No grounding conductor
If there's no grounding conductor at all, there's a few things you can do.
Install a grounding conductor
Obviously, you could install a grounding conductor for the circuit.
Share a grounding conductor
Code allows you to share a grounding conductor from another circuit, as long as the grounding conductor is properly sized.
GFCI protected
If you're replacing a fixture, you don't need a ground if the outlet is GFCI protected.

National Electrical Code 2014
Chapter 4 Equipment for General Use
Article 410 Luminaires, Lampholders, and Lamps
410.44 Methods of Grounding. Luminaires and equipment shall be mechanically connected to an equipment grounding conductor as specified in 250.118 and sized in accordance with 250.122.
Exception No. 3: Where no equipment grounding conductor exists at the outlet, replacement luminaires that are GFCI protected shall not be required to be connected to an equipment grounding conductor.

Grounding via conduit or cable covering or ground in box
At times, metallic boxes are grounded using metallic conduit, or the outer covering and/or internal bonding strip of armored cable. If this is the case, then the box may actually be grounded.
There's also a chance that there's a grounding conductor stuffed in the back of the box.
Extend the grounding conductor
If the box is grounded, you can simply connect a grounding conductor to the box. If  there's a grounding conductor stuffed in the box, you can simply connect to it.
Comment: @Johnny Sorry I missed that.  I've updated my answer.
Comment: If there is no ground available  (because it wasn't required by code when it was installed), is it acceptable to install the fixture without a ground, or does code require that it be  grounded?
Comment: @Johnny No. A **new** fixture must be grounded.  There are exceptions for **replacement** fixtures, but not for new installations.
Comment: I think this *is* a replacement fixture, he said he removed the old light and didn't find a ground wire.
Answer: The box might be grounded on the back. If there's any slack in the cable you might see a ground with a flashlight. I usually wire-up & screw-in an outlet so I can put my outlet tester on to confirm or deny a ground.


Assuming proton decay is false, what's the ultimate fate of a neutron star or white dwarf?

Question: A still unproven theory that protons can decay, and have a halflife of $10^{30}$ years or so, meaning eventually all matter will dissolve because their constituent protons and therefore neutrons will decay. But this is yet to be proven. So assuming this is false, what would be the ultimate fate of a neutron star or white dwarf? What would become of it in $10^{50}$, $10^{100}$ years?
Comment: Note that free neutrons are unstable to beta decay with a mean lifetime of 881.5 seconds (i.e., half-life of 611 s). Neutrons can (of course) be stabilised in a nucleus. And inside a neutron star beta decay is heavily suppressed, as Rob Jeffries explains here: https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/105475/123208 & here: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/23173/16685
Comment: Rob has a nice answer here about neutron star cooling: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/22700/16685 I don't know if we have any answers here about the far future fate of neutron stars (or white dwarfs), but there's some info on Wikipedia, both with & without proton decay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future#Earth,_the_Solar_System_and_the_universe
Comment: I seem to recall that over **very** long timescales (much longer than $10^{100}$ years) cold solid objects in cold empty space evaporate. There is a **very** tiny chance of one atom on the surface acquiring enough energy, purely by chance collisions with other atom to escape. Over a long enough time period even such a tiny chance comes off often enough that the whole star evaporates into space.
Comment: Wikipedia has a short section describing the (possible) [fate of the universe without proton decay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_universe#Future_without_proton_decay).  We do not really have physics models to describe this (or any far future) with any confidence, not least as we do not yet known what dark matter and energy are or how to explain them.
Answer: This is a classic question in physical eschatology, seeing what happens if we extrapolate current understanding of astrophysics forward. The classic papers are (Dyson 1979) and (Adams & Laughlin 1997).
Obviously, over very long timescales white dwarfs cool down, crystallize. and become "black dwarfs". This is fairly well-established from observation and modelling, although the final stages have not been studied much.
If weakly interacting dark matter can be captured, dense objects would acquire internal halos: in this case, if the dark matter is a mix of particles and antiparticles there would be some annihilation, heating the object for a long time. If it is non-annihilating in principle it could build up until the object imploded into a neutron star or black hole. This is highly dependent on the dark matter model, so this should be regarded as conjectural.
However, it is fairly well established that galaxies dissolve due to gravitational interactions over long timescales, and this will dump such objects into the central black hole before they plausibly could undergo collapse, or eject them into intergalactic space where they would no longer acquire dark matter.
The fate of intergalactic black dwarfs and neutron stars without proton decay depends on what other modes of decay and change are possible. In white dwarfs pycnonuclear fusion would continue until all fusible elements had fused. Dyson estimated the timescale until everything is iron to $10^{1500}$ years, although there are environmental effects in white dwarfs that likely speed things up. This can actually make heavier white dwarfs (above 1.2 solar masses) collapse into supernovas on a timescale of $10^{1100}$ years (Caplan 2020).
Dyson noted that over timescales of $10^{65}$ years matter behaves like a quantum fluid due to tunneling. But this doesn't change structure of remaining objects much. A more important issue may be tunneling into black hole states where a small part of the object tunnels together to form a small black hole that evaporates. Adams and Laughlin estimate timescales of $10^{45}$ years for neutron stars and $10^{336}$ years for white dwarfs to evaporate this way.
Even if this does not happen, there is an argument to be made that thermodynamic fluctuations eventually dissolve bound objects since this minimizes the Gibbs free energy $E-TS$: at a finite temperature (which is the standard assumption for accelerating expansion in $\Lambda$CDM) if there is enough space the entropy $S$ can be maximized by separating particles despite some binding energy: tunnelling will eventually dissolve everything. This is similar to the discussion about Herzfeld's paradox of the spontaneous ionization of hydrogen atoms. The mere presence of other matter "outside the lab" normally stabilizes bound systems but in the very far future isolated systems become destabilized. This assumes that (1) temperatures will stay finite (i.e. our understanding of horizon radiation and continued accelerated expansion are right), (2) there are no other limits on dissociation, (3) the Gibbs energy argument is valid in this context. All three can be debated.
Overall, the trend seems to be that entropy maximization will tend to dissolve objects into isolated particles while gravity either just keeps them together or causes implosion into black holes through some pathway, followed by evaporation.
Comment: Thanks for your time and detailed answer :)


Need block content for each menu items

Question: I need to have a separate block for a each menu items in my menu (Add item section).Is there any drupal module can help me or i should write the custom module.Please suggest the possible ways to do.
Answer: There is no module you can use with your situation.
Possible way.

Create separate menu and place them in each block.

Please describe your scenario so that we can discuss more.
Comment: I have jquery menu, when the user mouse over on the menu items, it will show a block on the right side of the menu.
Comment: What you mean by block ?
Comment: jquery menu is to transform your multilevel menus into click and expand menus.
Comment: Block means a set of html content which will display when the user mouse over the corresponding menu item.

Need block content for each menu items


How to display user profile fields on an article?

Question: When using the TinyMCE editor, how can I display the username at the top of an article?
Comment: You don't mean you want to display the article's Author's name, right?
Answer: You can't display dynamic data this way through an article by default, as the editors won't process php.
However, to your rescue, there are plugins for this.
You can install Regular Lab's Sourcerer Plugin, and now you can write php, or other code directly in your articles.
It even supports some of the most common Joomla variables and Objects, which are ready to use. JUser is one of these, so all you need to display user data is a code inside your article like below:
<code>{source}
<?php echo $user->username; ?>
{/source}
</code>
For more info about User Profile see: How to display user profile information?
The other way to display dynamic date in your article is to modify the article's template with an override and put all your php code in there.
Joomla Template/Layout Overrides Links

Layout Overrides in Joomla.
How to override the output of Joomla core
Understanding Output Overrides
Answer: Download, install and enable a plugin name DirectPHP. This plugin gives the facility to write PHP code in article. After these in your article write following code.
<code><?php
   jimport( 'joomla.user.helper' );
   $user = JFactory::getUser();
   echo $user->username;
?>
</code>
Comment: How would you call a custom field
Answer: If you want to see the author on your website you have to change the settings of the article.
System > Global Configuration > Articles
and go to tab: "Articles" and look for "Show Author" and activate it.
Answer: The following extension might help adding user field values to content: https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/edition/user-field-values-in-articles/ .
This extension basically allows you to add user field values to content in Joomla! via a editor button or using placeholders. Some custom field types I see are also supported.


does anyone know how I can setup a server to host my own private shop on the hidden service

Question: I would like to open open my own shop with .onion extention but I'm stuck where to begin. Is there anyone who can give pointers or know if there is an extising guide from buying the server through to server coding and other softwhere pointers?
Should I use laravel or would it have to coding from scratch?
Answer: Most of these questions are far too broad, but I'll do my best.
Setting an onion service is easy. You install the Tor service, tell it to use port 80, get your new onion address and start a web server.  That's easy.  Here is the official guide

if there is an extising guide from buying the server through to server
  coding and other softwhere pointers?

There is probably not a guide written for that. The reason why is because most (though probably not all) people who set up stores on onion services tend to sell illegal things. You can image that people like that are not likely to advertise how they did it.
Your best bet is to take it slowly piece by piece. Create your first onion service on a home computer. Take time to read up on how to harden a web server and best practices for creating onion services. Don't expect an easy step 1, step 2, step 3 guide. If you want a successful onion service, it takes time, planning, and understanding.

Should I use laravel or would it have to coding from scratch?

Is laravel a safe framework for building online stores in general?
Can it be security hardened?
You can use any programming language, framework, or platform that you want. It all depends on whether it is a good fit for what you want to do.
If you have any specific questions, there is a tor-onions mailing list. Nobody will tell you step by step on how to do everything, but if you have specific questions it is a fantastic resource.
Comment: Appreciate your help, the server/computer is being shipped today so I'll start on it's arrival. Thanks @JSEvans, I followed many of your answers on here its much help.


When broths and stocks can't be used interchangeably?

Question: I have seen that sometimes stocks and broths can be used interchangeably in a recipe. I wonder - when can they NOT be used interchangeably?
Comment: This is way too cursory to be an answer, but if I were making any kind of a dish meant to be consumed cold or even tepid, then a stock that had a heavy gelatin content would be problematic, off the top of my head.
Answer: From WIKI they seem to be the same thing.

Stock versus broth
Many cooks and food writers use the terms broth and stock
  interchangeably. In 1974, James Beard wrote emphatically that stock,
  broth, and bouillon "are all the same thing".
While many draw a distinction between stock and broth, the details of
  the distinction often differ. One possibility is that stocks are made
  primarily from animal bones, as opposed to meat, and therefore contain
  more gelatin, giving them a thicker texture.[3] Another distinction
  that is sometimes made is that stock is cooked longer than broth and
  therefore has a more intense flavor. A third possible distinction is
  that stock is left unseasoned for use in other recipes, while broth is
  salted and otherwise seasoned and can be eaten alone.
In Britain, "broth" can refer to a soup which includes solid pieces of
  meat, fish, or vegetables, whereas "stock" would refer to the purely
  liquid base. Traditionally, according to this definition, broth
  contained some form of meat or fish; however, nowadays it is
  acceptable to refer to a strictly vegetable soup as a broth.

A possible difference a broth is a byproduct of cooking and you make a stock.


Multiple versions of sitecore item under the page testing are retrieved from solr index

Question: After the creation a page test for item, which is recorded to SOLR index, in Experience Optimization and creation some page versions to test against (during the test creation), when I get items from that index in code (using indexContext.GetQueryable<SearchResultItem>()) to display their content, I get all versions of the item involved in page test. How should I determine which version to choose and display? And based on what rules are certain versions of pages displayed to certain users?
Comment: Hi bavad - first question I have is to clarify if there are any business rules around your versioning or is it assumed the latest version is to be displayed? If so, you could use the __Updated or __Created fields from your index to select the version. As to the users, I'm not sure exactly that is being asked. Are you asking an for an example, advise or again is there a business process you can clarify for us? Thanks. Best Wishes.
Comment: You can filter by _latestversion version field on query search
Comment: @JustinBradley I don't have any custom business rules around my versioning. Several versions of the item are used to test against each other in page test, so that one version should be displayed to some users, another version should be displayed to other users (I didn't find information if there are any default rules in Sitecore to make it possible or versions are chosen randomly).The question is - how should I determine which version to choose to display to facilitate the correct Sitecore page testing - should I choose them randomly or retrieve some rules from Sitecore and apply them somehow?
Comment: @bavad - Thanks for the details. I personally don't believe this is a good case for using tests like this. One suggestion if you wanted to try it out would be to create a datasource for your items that has a settings field that can actually be executed as a solr query and so for each item it queries a different version based on that field. Does this make sense? Best Wishes. - Justin
Answer: As mentioned above there is a _latestversion bool field if the current search result is the latest version of the language. I didn't find this field in the basic SearchResultItem class so a new class can be created that would use this field. So this field can be used in the condition and also a condition for the language to match the context language should be added:
predicate = predicate.And<SearchResultItem>(item => item.Language == Context.Language.Name);


How do I make a tests pause instead of skipping without using a break point when it fails on a step while running on debug mode - Rubymine cucumber?

Question: I am using Rubymine 6.0 to write cucumber tests using ruby and am very new to it.
When I run a test and a step does not pass , rubymine skips that step and fails the scenario.
This makes perfect sense to me when am running hundreds of tests and I want that to happen the way it is now.
But, How do I make the test pause on that failed step or that particular line of code when running the test in debug mode?
Is there a way around than to put a break point on the step before it fails and then step into it ?
I want the test to pause on that particular point where it failed and let me take over.
Thanks,
RK
Comment: I figured the solution to this problem.found a gem called PRY. it attaches to the debugger and pauses the test at that failed location. I can now take over to see whats wrong with the page. The test needs to be run via cmd though.
Answer: All assertions in all testing frameworks that I'm familiar with raise exceptions of certain types when the expectation is not met (or assertion fails) in the test. RubyMine lets you configure the "exception breakpoints" - to have it suspend execution when an exception of a certain type is raised.
I've just tried on RubyMine 6.0.2 with Ruby 2.1 and latest rspec. Rspec raises RSpec::Expectations::ExpectationNotMetError when expectation is not met (according to the rspec's source code), but for some reason RubyMine doesn't stop on that breakpoint - it doesn't work!
Another solution that did work for me was to set a regular breakpoint in the rspec's source code file: rspec-expectations-2.14.0/lib/rspec/expectations/fail_with.rb, in the method "fail_with" - this method is called when any assertion/expectation fails.
I'm sure you could do something like that with Cucumber: just debug into the assertion method's source code and put a breakpoint there.
Comment: I used a gem called pry and used this code in my hooks file  ..this solved my issue.                          After do |scenario|                                                 if $debug && scenario.failed?
    binding.pry
  end


Can I use the new ReFS file system on Windows 8?

Question: Windows Server 2012 comes with the new File System ReFS, which is Microsoft's upgrade to NTFS. Is there any way to use this for my Windows 8 partition?
Answer: Microsoft is planning to upgrade ReFS to be capable of being a boot volume, but no time span has been given yet.

With this in mind, we will implement ReFS in a staged evolution of the
  feature: first as a storage system for Windows Server, then as storage
  for clients, and then ultimately as a boot volume. This is the same
  approach we have used with new file systems in the past.
Comment: +1. My answer has a list of other things wrong with it, but not being a boot volume is up there :-)
Comment: Amazing that Server 2016 is coming in a few months and storage spaces + ReFS is still not the standard. Microsoft needs an answer to ZFS badly. Add insult to injury, client storage spaces can't do tiering, so on an enthusiast Windows 10 build you can't tier your 8x 6TB drives under two replicated 2TB SSDs like you can in Windows Server.
Answer: In its current iteration, it is not an upgrade to NTFS.
According to this article by Denny Cherry:

The NTFS features we have chosen to not support in ReFS are: named
  streams, object IDs, short names, compression, file level encryption
  (EFS), user data transactions, sparse, hard-links, extended
  attributes, and quotas.

In my mind, this is a significant list of reasons why you shouldn't even consider ReFS for the immediate future.
If this changes and they support those features, then I may consider changing my mind. But it's a storage-first model at the moment, and I wouldn't touch it for a desktop environment.
Comment: Things like EFS, hard links and quotas are a non-starter in a corporate environment. Personally, I use a number of these features as well, though I do consider myself an edge-case user. But yeah, bootable is important too :-)
Comment: +1. Nice list. I'm not sure what those things are, but if they make it a boot vector and optimize it for consumer user storage, I'd use it.
Answer: With Windows 8.1 it is possible to enable system-wide support for ReFS (including disk manager and format tool) with the following registry key. This will allow you to format exsisting partitions to ReFS.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MiniNT]
"AllowRefsFormatOverNonmirrorVolume"=dword:00000001
Source : My blog
Comment: It won t allow you to read them.


Linux keeping own package manager across the LAN network

Question: We are using Ubuntu machines for our LAN networks. To install some packages for every machine, we use the Ubuntu package manager apt. Let's say about installing git for every machine. Instead of installing git from the internet for every machine, I want to keep our own package manager in one of our machines as a repository. From that repository, I will install the packages for every other machine. I hope there will be a tool exist for this job in Linux. I want to know what are the tools used for doing this job in Linux?
Answer: You have 3 choices - I recommend #2, #1 will work mostly, #3 for only a couple of machines.
Use a proxy that will cache the deb files as they are requested.  First machine gets from internet, others get from cache.  The program apt-cacher-ng can do this for you.  https://www.tecmint.com/apt-cache-server-in-ubuntu/
The second option is to set up a webserver and mirror the distribution repository in some fashion. Depending on what your upstream provides (ftp, http, rsync, etc) how you do this is somewhat up in the air. I chose to mirror over http/https using debmirror and some shell scripts, and then I serve the directory up with a basic Apache install with a properly set DOCUMENT_ROOT directive.
A third option and one I wouldn't really recommend (esp with more than a couple of machines to update) is to share the /var/cache/apt/archives directory from the "master source" machine to the others via network (samba/cifs, nfs, sshfs, etc) and then after the first machine updates/installs the others should see the file as already downloaded, assuming they also mount hte share at /var/cache/apt/archives.  If you do this though you  have to be careful of using the apt-get clean command.


Enabling Task Manager Which Is Disabled By Virus?

Question: I want to enable task manager is disabled by the virus when I enable this it is automatically disable by the virus again I want permanent solution.
Answer: The only permanent solution is to eradicate the virus.
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is excellent for removing viruses.
You can also use an
antivirus online scan such as ESET Online Scanner, Trend Micro House Call and Kaspersky Labs Free Virus Scan. Please note that they might require you to use Internet Explorer as your browser as an administrator, and that each scan may take several hours.
Comment: Can't get more permanent than that.
Answer: I too would recommend use of an anti-virus as a permanent solution. Though you can avoid such future problems by limiting Write Permissions to the registry key :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Note : Delete the DisableTaskMgr value before limiting permissions.


Couldn't find Transmission's web interface files!

Question: I am trying to enable remote access to Transmission on my RPi. This is the error msg when I type 192.168.1.99:9091

404: Not Found
Couldn't find Transmission's web interface files!
Users: to tell Transmission where to look, set the TRANSMISSION_WEB_HOME environment variable to the folder where the web interface's index.html is located.
Package Builders: to set a custom default at compile time, #define PACKAGE_DATA_DIR in libtransmission/platform.c or tweak tr_getClutchDir () by hand.

I can't find any guides on how to fix this.
It worked at one point. I think it stopped working after trying to setup apache2, php, and owncloud.
Any help would be appreciated.
Edit 1:
I have figured out that I am missing the following directories found in transmission-common. Proven here.
/usr/share/transmission
/usr/share/transmission/web
I probably deleted them while trying to reinstall. However now when I reinstall the packages, it does not recreate these folders. How do I make it create all those folders?
Answer: OK I figured it out. I had to run:
apt-get install --reinstall transmission


Mandatory tabs-an unusual pattern?

Question: Sorry if this sounds silly, but have you all ever faced a scenario where one of the tabs needed to be mandatory (picture below), and the user can't submit the form without addressing that particular tab?
Comment: Not silly; I remember a software program years ago that had a pop-up dialog, and a mandatory field on Tab2, with no indication on the tab.  If you clicked OK on the first tab, it didn't give much feedback other than .. the dialog just sitting there, until you started clicking on other tabs!  And worst scenario, in some cases depending on input on Tab1, sometimes a field on Tab4 was required...
Answer: Try using a stepper instead of a form. Tabs are often used as a UI space tradeoff for complex details, and don't imply any actions or sequence.
I might not have the details of your use case, but it seems if it's a form, you want to suggest there's component parts of a total entity.

Using a material stepper is one option, and you can number the steps as an option as well. I'm not sure if your form has lots of optional elements, so in that case you might not need a 'done' checkmark for a section.
Comment: these are effectively tabs but the next one doesn't activate until all mandatory things are filled in in all previous tabs
Comment: @ratchetfreak in that case, you can use prev / next buttons in steppers, that only activate once the required fields have been completed.
Comment: This is a bad solution - whenever I am forced to use these and I need to return to a previous step, I never know if the data that I have entered into the subsequent steps will be saved.  With tabs, the user is led to assume that clicking on a different tab will not erase their data because the page doesn't change and because tabs imply that they are filling out a single form, not a series of different forms.  Also, it is never clear if the numbered circles are links to previous pages, buttons on the current page, or non-clickable; I just don't know what is going to happen if I click them.
Comment: If you have a lot of tabs, you might want to go with a vertical list rather than horizontal - generally to the left side of the form content.  (Whether you choose to force them all to be done in order or not is up to you.)
Comment: @DarrelHoffman good point. Material has a vertical variant as well.
Answer: This is often the compromise between a developer (hopefully not a designer) wanting some flexibility for the user to provide input but still needing to make sure that a lot of information can be submitted without error.
Otherwise they could either create a wizard/progress workflow and simply not allow the user to continue without completing the previous section or break the input down into smaller sections so it doesn't need to be grouped into a tab.
The 'mandatory' tab, or rather a form of 'input group' validation can be a rather unsightly UI pattern but not impossible to understand for the user. I think it also depends on how the content in the tab is designed but unfortunately it is not as unusual as you think it might be :p
Comment: A useful tweak to the approach would be to--rather than indicating which tabs are mandatory--indicate which tabs do not presently contain valid content.  It may be helpful (or perhaps confusing) to have icons which distinguish tabs whose contents are not valid, with tabs whose content is inconsistent with other tabs (e.g. one tab might control settings that may or may not be relevant, based upon the contents of other tabs).
Comment: @supercat I don't know what it's called, but I've seen a proof of concept doing this 2-4 years ago. 8 or so tabs that turned green when they were done, yellow when mandatory information was missing, red when invalid and grey when not completely filled (but the missing information wasn't mandatory). The final tab had the completion step requiring all other steps.
Comment: @supercat do you have examples of this design pattern? Would be good to include in a separate answer :)
Answer: Why using a tab? Use instead a single page with some *mandatory fileds. Or as correctly indicated a stepper
Comment: Underrated answer.  A simple scrollable form with visually separated sections handles a very large amount of data in an intuitive way.
Comment: Showing a large form will decrease conversion rates. Breaking it into digestible chunks / independent parts of a long process can help keep the user engaged just enough for them to complete the task, without overwhelming them with a single wall of inputs. Smaller chunks also let the UI show the invalid entries more clearly (no need for scrolling as much).
Answer: When I faced a similar issue, we created a "General" tab that had everything that was essential to fill out.  The other tabs were options they could select if they wanted to.  This was for the "Edit Assignment" dialog of a course management system, so the general tab had the name, description, due date, and points.  Other tabs were "Scoring" for adding more complicated scoring issues, "Online Submission" for assignments that had online submission and had some options, etc.  The point is that everything that is essential to creating an assignment was visible from the "General" tab, but the more complicated options were in other tabs.
If all of the "essentials" do not fit on one tab, I suggest a stepper like other answers.

Mandatory tabs-an unusual pattern?