What is known about the new HSK 3.0 (2021) format?

Question: I found a brief note on Wikipedia that since 2020, HSK is going to be restructured. It links to a tweet, which shows a page in Chinese. Is there any more information compared to what Wikipedia currently states? If not, are there any educated guesses that can be made based on prior two changes to HSK structure and the way Hanban works?
Comment: Yeah, you're right. Doesn't look like a resource request to me. I've protected it now, but that doesn't necessarily stop close flags.
Comment: I saw two close votes claiming I'm asking for learning resources here. How's this question about HSK2020 structure different than others?
Comment: I don't see anything about this on chinesetest.cn.
Comment: It's also astounding that there's very little information on this change available in English from Hanban and related organizations. For those advanced it shouldn't be a problem to read the Weixin posts and that paper, but for those just trying prepare for the entry levels (1-2-3...) it must be infuriating.
Comment: They've finally realized that HSK6 is basically just CEFR B1-level. This could mean that jobs would now require HSK >6 levels and people who'd given up studying once they've got their 6 need to get working again.
Answer: TL;DR (28 December 2023): According to the official standards (watermark removed; English translation (paid)), there are 9 levels (elementary: 1,2,3; intermediate 4,5,6; advanced; 7,8,9).  The standards introduce three new components: spoken Chinese, translation (to Chinese), and handwriting.  The first level-(7,8,9)-combined exam was on the 26th November 2022.  This didn't have a handwriting component, but this may be due to COVID.
Levels 1-6 will not be immediately adjusted, but will be gradually adjusted over the next 2 to 3 years.  This is actively discussed in detail on Chinese-Forums.
Resources: Chinese Zero to Hero course (paid, includes vocabulary [incomplete] and grammar); Mega Mandarin flashcards (paid); HSK3.0 vocabulary by A-V-A-Weyland along with other sources such as Chinese Forums (free), and github (HSK-official-Query-System (free) and elkmovie (free)); and ChineseTest.cn via the link 《标准》查询 (free); Anki decks (free) e.g. 1 2 and Hanzi and vocab; TofuLearn (free) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7-9a 7-9b.
Textbooks: Quick Vocabulary Handbook 《词汇速记速练手册》 for levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7-9上, 7-9下; handwriting 《汉字书写手册》 for 初、中、高等; grammar 《语法学习手册》 for 初、中、高等; and a dictionary 《国际中文学习词典》 for levels 1-3 (初阶) on Taobao.
There's also a new official HSK app called Wo Hui Mandarin, and practice exam website HSKMock.

At the time of writing, the best guess is that the HSK 3.0 vocabulary list is in the recently-published book:

汉语国际教育用词语声调组合及轻重音格式实用手册
A Practical Manual of Tone Patterns and Formats of Stressed and Unstressed Syllables in Mandarin Words for the Application of Teaching Chinese to the Speakers of Other Languages
刘英林, et al.

(Edit: Note this manual is different to the official standards, e.g. 爱 is level 1 in the official standards, while 爱 is level 2 in this manual.)
A redditor posted images of some of the pages from this book on Imgur (from this post; I transcribed some of it here).  I bought this book from JingDong (also available here), and posted about it on Reddit.  The guess is primarily based on a tweet from an account called HSK Official:

HSK is about to be reformed. #HSK In 2020, the Chinese Proficiency Standards will usher in a new change: a hybrid paradigm of "Three Stages and Nine Levels" characterized by integration and all-in-one.

There are also reports on QQ: here and here.  (Note the tweet links to the first QQ post, which mentions 刘英林 and other authors.)  These posts use screenshots from the recently-published paper:

汉语国际教育汉语水平等级标准全球化之路
刘英林, et al. (available here)

[Edit (6 August 2023): I deleted this part to reduce my character count.  Check the version history.  This book is not very relevant nowadays.]
Update:

18 July 2020: A Redditor posted an Anki deck containing levels 7 through 9.

3 August 2020: One Redditor posted a visualization of the change from HSK 2.0 to HSK 3.0 in the context of CEFR:

Another Redditor posted another visualization of the change from HSK 2.0 to HSK 3.0:

2 November 2020: the Redditor goeastmandarin (from the company Go East Mandarin) posted a photo of a meeting about HSK3.0 (also on Twitter).  The photo in the slide is identical to the table above.  The Chinese says:

汉语国际教育汉语水平等级标准
[My translation:] Chinese international education Chinese-level standard grading
HSK3.0只增加7-9级,1-6级不变
HSK3.0 only adds levels 7 through 9, levels 1 through 6 are unchanged

Above, "unchanged" seems interpretable as "unchanged as a whole".  (Specifically, if a vocabulary word belongs within levels 1 through 6 in HSK2.0, then it will belong within levels 1 through 6 in HSK3.0.)  The numbers in the table are not consistent with individually unchanged HSK levels.
Redditor A-V-A-Weyland includes a Dropbox link to the HSK3.0 vocabulary (i.e. from the abovementioned book).

18 November 2020: Redditor A-V-A-Weyland provides Pleco flashcards for the HSK3.0 vocabulary (i.e. from the abovementioned book).

1 April 2021: There was an official announcement of changes to the HSK, and it includes a 260-page document describing the changes in detail (see also: version with watermark removed).  The changes are reported to be implemented on July 1, 2021.
The changes are summarized in a GoEast post: New HSK levels for learning Chinese (Update April 2021).  What we didn't expect already is item 4 from this post:

4: Hanzi handwriting and translation skills are added, in addition to listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills

13 April 2021: Anki decks containing the new HSK vocabulary and characters are provided via Reddit. Ninchanese has a "fact vs. rumor" post.  They point to this Tweet by the official HSK account (made in March this year):

There will be no changes for HSK 1-6 this year

15 April 2021: Chinese-Forums user mungouk claims to have received an email from chinesetest.cn, stating:

The current HSK 1-6 levels will not be changed for the present.
Under the premise of ensuring the stability of HSK 1-6, the advanced HSK (level 7-9) is under development, which is mainly aimed
at international students who are majoring in Chinese language and
literature, and international students in other majors with a high
level of Chinese, overseas Sinology researchers and so on.
The advanced HSK (level 7-9) is scheduled to be launched as early as the second half of this year.

The latest information about HSK will be released on our official
websites (http://www.chinese.cn/ and http://www.chinesetest.cn/),
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HSKTestOfficial-107674817613428)
and twitter (https://twitter.com/HSKTestOfficial), please keep an eye
on our official publicity.

22 April 2021: A HSK Official tweet asserts:

目前正在实施的HSK1-6级近期不会调整,考试效力、考试内容、参考词汇及考试形式不变,将继续稳定实施。参加HSK1-6级的考生成绩仍然有效,已取得的证书效力不变。
[Google Translate]: The currently implemented HSK 1-6 levels will not be adjusted in the near future, and the test effectiveness, test content, reference vocabulary and test format will remain unchanged and will continue to be implemented stably. The scores of candidates participating in HSK 1-6 levels are still valid, and the validity of the certificates already obtained remains unchanged.

They also discuss the HSK7-9 rollout in a QQ post:

依据《标准》科学研制HSK7-9级需要一个过程,目前计划于2021年12月试考,2022年3月正式推出考试。
[Google Translate]: It takes a process to scientifically develop HSK Levels 7-9 according to the "Standard". Currently, it is planned to take the test in December 2021 and officially launch the test in March 2022.

~2021: Chinese Zero to Hero has a searchable webpage with the HSK7-9 vocabulary, including e.g. English translations.

2 March 2022: A new textbook 国际中文教育中文水平等级标准·语法学习手册(初等)has been released (see also news at chinesetest.cn).  It's a grammar textbook for the HSK 3.0 levels 1-3.  It's available for purchase at Jingdong, Taobao, and Dangdang where you can preview some pages (the Dangdang link has the whole table of contents).  The QQ page states that the intermediate and advanced levels will be released in the third or fourth quarter of 2022:

《语法学习手册(初等)》已于2022年1月出版,中等和高等分册预计2022年第三、四季度出版,欢迎订购及持续关注。

1 April 2022: There's a new official HSK app called Wo Hui Mandarin which I think is related to the HSK 3.0.  It's in development and you can sign up for a test account.

18 May 2022: New HSK levels 7-9 had a trial run (see QQ page):

2022年5月15日,国际中文水平考试HSK高等(7-9级)考试进行了试测。本次试测共在全球9个考点同时举办,来自韩国、日本、泰国、越南、美国、俄罗斯等国的500多名考生通过线上居家网考的形式参与了此次试测。
[Baidu Translate]:   On May 15, 2022, the international Chinese Proficiency Test HSK advanced (level 7-9) was tested. The test was held in 9 test sites around the world at the same time. More than 500 candidates from South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the United States, Russia and other countries participated in the test in the form of online home online test.

汉考国际将根据试测结果和考生问卷分析,优化试卷结构及试题内容,今年下半年正式推出HSK高等(7-9级)考试。目前正在实施的HSK1-6级考试在未来几年内不会进行难度调整,考试内容与考试效力不变,将与即将推出的7-9级考试同步实施,欢迎广大中文学习者根据自身情况报考相应级别的HSK考试。
[Baidu Translate]:  According to the test results and the analysis of candidates' questionnaires, CETC will optimize the structure and content of the test paper, and officially launch the HSK advanced (level 7-9) test in the second half of this year. The hsk1-6 test currently being implemented will not be subject to difficulty adjustment in the next few years. The test content and effectiveness will remain unchanged and will be implemented simultaneously with the upcoming level 7-9 test. Chinese learners are welcome to apply for the corresponding level of HSK test according to their own conditions.

20 May 2022: a Reddit user describes their experience taking the trial HSK7-9 exam:

The set up was the same as that of the current take home HSK tests - download the software, and film yourself in a group video conference. But I didn't appreciate the significance that you had to download different Chinese input software, which meant I couldn't type answers and had to withdraw halfway. Previously this input software wasn't required.
Fortunately there are no more grammar questions. Just comprehension questions.
...
They had a section in which you had to put whole paragraphs in order in an essay. Which seems like something that should be very coachable.
The software was sogou pinyin.

21 May 2022: An elementary-level (levels 1,2,3) learner's dictionary 《国际中文学习词典》 was released (JingDong; sample page).

21 May 2022: A YouTube video (in Korean and Chinese) gives a description of the HSK7-9 trial exam.  If it's correct, the exam has 4 sections: listening (3 parts); reading (3 parts); writing (2 parts); speaking (2 parts).  Translation is into Chinese, and is part of the writing and speaking sections.  She didn't mention handwriting.  There's more about this at Chinese-forums.

3 July 2022: Chinesetest.cn now has a webpage with the HSK 3.0 vocabulary (click 《标准》查询).

14 July 2022: A series of videos discussing the reform is here.  The video by 黄蕾 includes how levels 7-9 break apart:

19 July 2022: A paper 《国际中文教育中文水平等级标准》的中国特色和解读应用 by 刘英林, 李佩泽, and 李亚男 was published about the standards.  Of most relevance to the readers here are:

它有两个重要标志:一是建立现代汉语规范口语主导型的新型等级标准,以词语的通用性作为最重要的标准——初等水平和中等水平略倾向于普通话口语,高等水平略倾向于普通话书面语。

This highlights how the post-reform levels 1-6 will lean towards oral Chinese, whereas levels 7-9 will lean towards written Chinese.

They discuss HSK 3.0 design decisions, and in particular highlight the above proportionality.  (音节 = "syllable"; 汉字 = "hanzi" (Chinese characters); 词汇 = "vocabulary" (vocabulary items); 语法 = "grammar" (grammar items); 音节与汉字比 = "proportion of syllables to hanzi"; 词汇与汉字比 = "proportion of words to hanzi".)
The also comment that the elementary level is also called a "popularization level" (初等水平也称为普及化水平), depending on how you translate 普及.

21 July 2022: An English translation of the official standards is now on sale; see report:

英文版由上海大学外国语学院张新玲教授团队翻译,内容充实详尽。其词汇表涵盖"三等九级"整个框架,共收入约1万个词语,每个词语不但标注拼音、词性,还以英文列出了从本义到引申义的所有义项,词汇表几乎相当于一本简明汉英词典;语法等级大纲的所有例词、例句均有英译,文字通顺地道,帮助读者通过实例掌握较为抽象的语法知识。

The book is described as having definitions and parts of speech, and is equivalent to a concise Chinese-English dictionary.  It can be purchased at JingDong, DangDang, SinoBook; etc.  (Thanks to shawky.nasr at Chinese Forums.)

7 September 2022: It may not be related to the HSK 3.0, but the paper version of the HSK in 中国地区(含港澳台) (China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan) in 2023 (starting January next year) is reported to require the HSKK (汉语水平口语考试):

报名HSK3级须同时报名HSK口试初级。
报名HSK4级须同时报名口试中级。
报名HSK5、6级须同时报名HSK口试高级。

This is the current situation for at home exams outside of China and within China.

28 September 2022: The intermediate grammar textbook 国际中文教育中文水平等级标准·语法学习手册(中等)has been released; available for purchase here.

20 October 2022: The inaugural HSK 7-9 exams have been announced!  They're reported to start on 26th November worldwide, and there's currently there's no paper-based test.
The format of the HSK 7-9 exam is given below:

It says the testing time is 210 minutes long in total; it's a very long test:

See my post at chinese-forums for a translation.

26 October 2022: While the chinesetest.cn website enables you to enroll for a mock HSK7-9 exam.  I tried it just now and it doesn't start, and instead gives the popup:

准考证号或密码错误,请重新输入!
Wrong examination certificate number or password, please re-enter!

3 November 2022: The website HSKMock.com has been launched, with mock exams for HSK levels 1-6.  See announcement in English and Chinese.

3 January 2023:  There are two new vocabulary textbooks 国际中文教育中文水平等级标准 词汇速记速练手册  (something like "rapid vocabulary learning") at levels 1 (JD, Tianmao) and 2 (JD).

13 January 2023: The 语法学习手册 grammar textbook advanced 高级 is now available, e.g. at JingDong and TaoBao.
A handwriting manual 汉字书写手册 is available in beginner 初级 (JingDong; TaoBao), intermediate 中级 (JingDong; TaoBao), and advanced 高级 (JingDong; TaoBao).
I note the HSK-(7,8,9) practice exam is available on YouTube: part 1 and part 2; I'm not sure if these are intended to be "leaked" online.

31 July 2023: A meeting regarding "HSK reform and development" is advertised for August 5.  The two presentations are:

黄蕾,HSK发展历程与新发展趋势 (HSK development course and new development trends)
罗莲,对HSK1-6级考试题型的思考 (Thoughts on the HSK 1-6 exam question style)

6 August 2023:  I watched the livestream of the above-mentioned presentations, and tried to jot down what I thought was relevant (apologies for any mistakes):

黄蕾 mostly talked about the history, and transitioning from HSK 1.0 to HSK 2.0, and the number of test takers.  She emphasized HSK 3.0 will focus more on communication, academia, and Chinese culture.  She said the work to 修订大纲、词汇 (revision) will begin in 2023, and 开展 (launch) will begin in 2023 or 2024.  She mentioned mock HSK7-9 exams for 2024.

罗莲 shared her ideas for HSK1-6 reform.  She systematically went through the four sections listening 听, reading 读, writing 写, and speaking 说 (but not translation), and the six levels HSK1-6, and how they might change.  There was way too much info being presented to keep up with.

听: She said HSK1-3 does not include enough 书面语, but HSK4-6 contains too much 书面语 and the talking speed is too fast; she mentioned HSK4-6 might also contain accents and dialects.

读: Like with listening, she said HSK1-3 does not include enough 书面语, but HSK4-6 contains too much 书面语.  She strongly criticized how there is pinyin on the HSK1-3 exams.  She criticized the HSK6 语病 ("faulty wording") questions, saying they give you four unrelated sentences, and she would prefer a paragraph.  She praised the HSK6 "fill in the blank with a sentence" section.

写: For HSK1-4, she gave examples where the student is given a sentence, and they're asked to rewrite it using a particular grammar pattern (I recall 是……的 and 宁可……也 in particular).  For HSK4 I saw mention of cloze sentences and different writing styles.  She criticized how HSK5 students are not writing long sentences, and specifically criticized the "five words" writing section of the HSK5.  She criticized the HSK6 缩写 section as only having one task, and listed 3 writing tasks, including 中长篇 and 读后写.

说: (She was running out of time, so we had to rush.)  She strongly emphasized how 朗读 (reading aloud) is only suitable for elementary students.  She also wanted speaking to be more interactive.

Beyond this, there was mention of handwriting (but I didn't catch anything specific), and writing better reports (to give students better feedback).
The biggest surprise for me was: she talked about collaborating with AI companies.  (Again, the relevant conversation was really quick, due to time.)  She talked about using AI to interact with students in the oral section, and she flashed up a slide, and it appears that they're thinking about doing virtually all the HSK exam marking via AI (it listed ~5 uses for AI in the HSK 3.0).

Edit (14 January 2024): Notes for the livestream are here.  A screenshot of a slide discussing the listening section is here:

They also describe the use of AI thusly:

另外,罗老师还介绍了HSK2.0改进过程中基于AI的测试研究,以及考试大纲与新标准的衔接问题。
[Google Translate]: In addition, Teacher Luo also introduced the AI-based testing research in the improvement process of HSK2.0, as well as the connection issues between the examination syllabus and the new standards.

1 November 2023: A sample HSK7-9 exam is available from chinesetest.cn: script and audio.  (Thanks to u/yoshimelaine for pointing this out.)

21 December 2023: Mega Mandarin created this nice HSK 3.0 vocabulary graphic (sourced from their Anki deck demo):

28 December 2023: HSK7-9 vocabulary textbooks are now available for sale: 上 and 下.

17 January 2024: A HSK3.0 Anki deck was posted on Reddit by u/ChickenSoup_and_Rice.

29 February 2024: A beginner (初级) grammar textbook for teachers is now for sale here; see this for details and screenshots (here's an example for the measure word 场).
Comment: The usage of a dot to indicate 轻读 is quite common in printed dictionaries, such as 现代汉语词典. To be more precise, the introduction in the dictionary says that it means "一般轻读", meaning that even though a word is listed with a full tone, it's common to reduce it anyway.
Comment: I'd put a warning at the top of your post to remind people to wait for Hanban/Confucius Inst. to confirm the vocabulary lists before rushing to buy a book that could cost up to $50 with shipping, fees, etc. depending on the location. I don't see anything official on the new test on chinesetest.cn, but a lot of speculation on forums and social media. Let's wait until Hanban bureaucrats finally post something thorough, concise and complete, and not just drop some selective info on social media.
Comment: So more is expected for the exam than what is being taught? That seems odd.
Comment: Reddit link to the Pleco Flashcards is incorrect - it's pointing to his profile. Link to the thread is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/juncoq/pleco_flashcards_new_hsk_11092_idioms_by/
Comment: Ah, the Pleco flashcards link seems okay (it's the same link (?)), but the one to the comment about the Dropbox link wasn't correct.  Anyway, I'm guessing it's okay to just link directly to the Dropbox file now.
Comment: The whitepaper by Liu et al. that you linked to explicitly cites an earlier book published by Hanban in 2010 as the source of the proposed vocabulary list. I believe the book you describe is derived from the vocabulary in the 2010 book. I have an explainer on my [website](https://megamandarin.com). I hired a freelancer to transcribe the vocabulary from the 2010 book, and Weyland has been sharing a cleaned-up copy.
Comment: See also this [Chinese-Forums thread](https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/59991-hsk-30-new-new-hsk/?do=findComment&comment=470793).
Answer: 《国际中文教育中文水平等级标准》发布
2021-03-31 来源:教育部
http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/202103/t20210329_523304.html
The web page has a link to a PDF of the 260-page draft standard.  Official implementation date is 1 July.
Comment: People on [Chinese forums](https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/59991-hsk-30-new-new-hsk/page/8/) are also getting OCR versions, making Pleco decks, etc. if anyone is interested.
Comment: Is this the CCP equivalent of a legislation draft bill that would take effect upon publication on July 1?
Comment: It's an educational standard. I don't understand the question about CCP.
Answer: There are a bunch of new things coming to HSK starting June 1st. Heres a list of new things that'll change going into the new HSK!

There will now be 9 HSK levels instead of 6!
There will be 300 new characters
Because of this, the amount of new words in each level vary
But, this will lead to level 1,2,3,4 becoming much harder
Achieving a HSK9 would mean you have to know 5636 Mandarin Chinese Words!


Remove & reinstall summary fields

Question: We're running Joomla 3.6.2 and CiviCRM 4.7.11, however we recently made some adjustments that prompted us to uninstall the Summary Fields extension. Essentially, it was installed in a different directory than the default settings. We reset the paths and that cause problems. So, we uninstalled and reinstalled, so extensions are now in the default directory. The problem is that when we configure summary fields and set it to update "when the form" is submitted, we receive the error "Error adding custom field 'contribution_amount_last': DB Error: already exists" (same error for other fields as well, like "last donated", etc.). Is there a way to do a complete uninstall of this, or is there a better way to handle this error?
Comment: Working through an uninstall, we've tried to disable the extension in the UI but are presented with the error "DB Error: no such field" and resulting URL is http://ourdomain.org/administrator/?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/admin/extensions

No custom fields are visible in the custom fields area, and the tab for summary fields doesn't appear on the contact record. All of the files appear in the default directory for joomla, media/civicrm/ext (previously it was media/civicrm/extensions and it broke when we reset the paths.
Answer: We ended up disabling the extension via phpmyadmin, which enabled the "uninstall" link in the UI. Un-installation went fine, and we did a fresh install and now everything appears to be working fine.

Remove & reinstall summary fields


What type of screws should I use?

Question: I am going to build a set of shelves for my wall to hold my bead jars.  The shelves are narrow 4" nominal and very close together 3" is the farthest apart they will be.  I'm using quality pine 1"x4"x3'.  I'm extremely new at this, but am assuming I should use screws instead of nails.  Any help would be fabulous.
Comment: Not sure what you are asking about. Are you screwing boards together (sides or backs on the shelves) or are you asking about hanging hardware?
Answer: Depending how you make your joints, if you choose to use screws, they need to go into the joining piece at least 3/4"-1" deep, and deeper when going into the end of a piece, 1 1/2" is a good depth, For this you can use a 2" screw, countersunk a little.
The drawing below, may have a little more info than what you are looking for, but it will give you options if you choose.

I would suggest putting a 1/4" thick plywood back, thinner will work too if available. I have cut this with a razor knife if you do not have a table saw. The back can be nailed on with 1' brads after the shelves are assembled

If you are not concerned about the looks and it will be a utility type shelf these are the screws I would use. Still nail the back on with 1" brads

Any of these countersinks will do what you need, make sure you keep your drill perpendicular to the wood and in the center of the shelf for the thickness, about 3/4" from the edge from the front and back.
Comment: Jack thank you for the information and diagrams.  One more question, what tool do I use in order to counter sink the screw?  I know this will sound ridiculous to most, but I want to learn and do this right.
Comment: I will add the illustrations to the answer above, they are called countersinks. They come in various sizes and styles. there is a chance you will need to purchase a set, most likely you will not be able to get the single one you need, which will be for a 6 or 8 gauge screw. The counterbore as they call it, the recess made by the countersink will be 3/8" in diameter. there are wood plugs that are ready made to fill the hole (counterbore), or you can fill the hole with putty to make it less utilitarian of a look.
Answer: As a newbie, I'd do it like this:
Get 4 pine boards and screw them together into a nice shelf sized rectangle.
Nail a piece of 1/8" fibreboard or plywood to the back to stabilize the shape.
Get more boards for the individual shelves. (these'll have to be cut about 1/2" shorter than the inside of the case's rectangle to accomodate hardware described below)
Get some bookcase shelf supports and strips: Like this:
You'll need a total of 4 strips, and 4 supports for every shelf you want.
Look around for these, prices vary greatly, but they shouldn't be all that expensive.
Screw the support strips into the inside of your wooden fram, and put in the shelf supports where you want them. You're done.
This design has the advantage that when you suddenly find yourself with some 5 inch bead jars, you'll be able to adjust the shelving without starting an entire new woodworking project.
I use 2" drywall screws for all my rough carpentry projects. They offer plenty of support, without having to do any routing. 5/8" woodscrews will serve to attach the strips to the sides of the shelves. Oh yes, always drill pilot holes when screwing deeply into pine. The wood loves to split.
Comment: +1 for pilot holes.  Oak (also available in shelf-size boards at the local big home improvement store) is a bit more forgiving. :-)
Answer: Wood screws are probably your best bet.  They don't need to be huge, but at least 1-1/4" or so.  I'd also highly recommend predrilling holes with a wood drill bit prior to setting the screws or you could crack the wood.  Nails would probably work too.

What type of screws should I use?


Do scriptures record changes in the practice of Hinduism?

Question: Ancient linguists recorded changes in Sanskrit, while simultaneously holding on to "eternal Sanskrit" theology.  Similarly, practices like Ashwamedha Yagna seem to have been conducted in the past but have died.  Do any scriptures or secular works talk about Hindu practices that have been discontinued/changed/simplified?
Comment: Ashwamedha yajna was performed by Puṣyamitra Śuṅga (185 – 149 BCE)...I believe foreign invaders and later on formation of Republic Govt affected the practice of Ashwamedha yajna...
Comment: I guess the word "modernity" is taboo as the answer.  Some grammarian laments poor usage of Sanskrit in Patanjali's time - is there a similar lamentation about decline of ancient religious practices?
Comment: The Ashwamedha Yagna (Horse sacrifice) can only be done by a King. The Brhadrananayaka Upanishad talks in its opening verses about the horse sacrifice and how to equate the different parts of the horse to different meditations and how the horse sacrifice can be done mentally. The Satapatha Brahmana has two recensions, the Kanva and the Madhyandina. The Brihadaranyaka U. forms the concluding portion of the Arnayakas of both recensions. (Swami Nikhilananda).
Answer: do-scriptures-record-changes-in-the-practice-of-hinduism?
Yes , Hinduism scriptures do record changes in its practice . This  answer is related with  change of practice  in Yajnas or Sacrifices.
So let us see these two changes in practices of Hinduism from scriptures. These two changes in practice of Hinduism is mentioned in Shreemad Bhagvat Purana .

offering  the remaining part of Yajna Or Sacrifice to Lord  Mahadeva or  Lord Shiva or to Lord Rudra as his share . .

This change of practice of offering the remaining part of Yajna to Lord Shiva /Mahadeva /Rudra is from the famous story of Daksha yajna as told in Bhagvat Purana.
After Virabhadra's destruction of Dakshas sacrifice in which he did not invited Mahadeva , Brahmadeva and other gods went to mount kailash (the abode of lord Shiva ) in order to pacify him . They assured him that from now on , Lord Rudra/ Mahadeva /Shiva will be the eligible receiver of his share in the yajnas, and the remaining part will be his .
Thease are the verses teling us about this change/alter in the practice  of yajna.

एष ते रुद्र भागोऽस्तु यदुच्छिष्टोऽध्वरस्य वै । यज्ञस्ते रुद्र
  भागेन कल्पतामद्य यज्ञहन् ॥ SB 4.6.53॥ - See Page 454
eṣa te rudra bhāgo 'stu yad-ucchiṣṭo 'dhvarasya vai  yajñas te
  rudra bhāgena kalpatām adya yajña-han
53 O Rudra ! Whatever will Remain after the sacrifice shall be your
  share . Oh Destroyer of the sacrifice let this sacrifice be
  consummated today with ,this share assigned to you.

This change in practice is also reflected at many places in same Purana.
There is story of Nabhag and Ambarisha in Shreemad Bhagvatam , Where it's again mentioned that once all Rushi's & Deva's in Daksha Yajna decided that , the remaining part of share of Yajna w rightfully will be belonging to Rudra

यज्ञवास्तुगतं सर्वमुच्छिष्टमृषयः क्वचित् ।  चक्रुर्हि भागं रुद्राय
  स देवः सर्वमर्हति ॥ SB 9.4.8 ॥
The father of Nabhaga said: Whatever the great sages sacrificed in the
  arena of the Daksa-yajna, they offered to Lord Siva as his share.
  Therefore, everything in the sacrificial arena certainly belongs to
  Lord Siva.

   - # And Rishi Chavana enabling the Ashivini Kumara the Physicians of gods s to receive part of the sacrificial share . i.e. Yajna Bhaga.

There was practice of not allowing share  of offerings in the Yajnas to  Doctors OR  Physicians.  And gods excluded Ashvini kumaras from receiving their share before.

अन्वजानंस्ततः सर्वे ग्रहं सोमस्य चाश्विनोः । भिषजाविति यत् पूर्वं
  सोमाहुत्या बहिष्कृतौ ॥ SB 9.3.26॥
anvajānaṁs tataḥ sarve grahaṁ somasya cāśvinoḥ  bhiṣajāv iti yat
  pūrvaṁ somāhutyā bahiṣ-kṛtau
Although the Aśvinī-kumāras were only physicians and were therefore
  excluded from drinking soma-rasa in sacrifices, the demigods agreed to
  allow them henceforward to drink it.

But Rishi Chavana  ,after Ashvini Kumaras restored his youth included Ashvinikumara in the Yajnas and allowed them to receive their share.

सोमेन याजयन् वीरं ग्रहं सोमस्य चाग्रहीत् ।
  असोमपोरप्यश्विनोश्च्यवनः स्वेन तेजसा ॥SB 9.3.24 ॥
somena yājayan vīraṁ grahaṁ somasya cāgrahīt asoma-por apy aśvinoś
  cyavanaḥ svena tejasā
Cyavana Muni, by his own prowess, enabled King Śaryāti to perform the
  soma-yajña. The muni offered a full pot of soma-rasa to the
  Aśvinī-kumāras, although they were unfit to drink it.

So these two practices which were previousely were not there were introduced later on.
i.e. Fixing of Lord Rudras share in Yajna and allowing Ashvini kumaras to receive their share in Yajna.
Comment: Yes , I know , but  History is retold in Hinduism with Mythology. So Mythology is history of religion itself i think :-)
Comment: This is mythological and not historical.  https://books.google.com/books?id=y2luAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=are+yajnas+performed+today&source=bl&ots=JJyjMIgaV-&sig=KE5LtdUv2fKJ0kSf87NYOgCYV4Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKkrbA86fZAhWqq1kKHQMwA9Q4ChDoAQhDMAY#v=onepage&q=are%20yajnas%20performed%20today&f=false  "those performed in the distant past have been forgotten"
Comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnicayana  " but by the 11th century, the practice was held to have been discontinued, with the exception of the Nambudiris of Kerala.

The 1975 Nambudiri Agnicayana filmed by Frits Staal has been criticized by Andhra Śrautins since the Nambudiri omitted animal sacrifice, which is an essential element.[7]"  I am not looking for mythological boilerplate - but actual documentation of of the actual practice of real Hindus.
Answer: Read S.Dasgupta's A History of Indian Philosophy, available here - http://consciouslivingfoundation.org/ebooks/13/CLF-HistoryOfIndianPhilosophy.pdf. Chapter II says:

THE VEDAS, BRÂHMANAS AND THEIR PHILOSOPHY
The Vedas and their antiquity.
The sacred books of India, the Vedas, are generally believed to be the earliest literary record of the Indo-European race. It is indeed difficult to say when the earliest portions of these compositions came into existence. Many shrewd guesses have been offered, but none of them can be proved to be incontestably true. Max Müller supposed the date to be 1200 B.C., Haug 2400 B.C. and Bâl Ga@ngâdhar Tilak 4000 B.C. The ancient Hindus seldom kept any historical record of their literary, religious or political achievements. The Vedas were handed down from mouth to mouth from a period of unknown antiquity; and the Hindus generally believed that they were never composed by men. It was therefore generally supposed that either they were taught by God to the sages, or that they were of themselves revealed to the sages who were the "seers" (mantradra@s@tâ) of the hymns. Thus we find that when some time had elapsed after the composition of the Vedas, people had come to look upon them not only as very old, but so old that they had, theoretically at least, no beginning in time, though they were believed to have been revealed at some unknown remote period at the beginning of each creation.
The place of the Vedas in the Hindu mind.
When the Vedas were composed, there was probably no system of writing prevalent in India. But such was the scrupulous zeal of the Brahmins, who got the whole Vedic literature by heart by hearing it from their preceptors, that it has been transmitted most faithfully to us through the course of the last 3000 years or more with little or no interpolations at all. The religious history of India had suffered considerable changes in the latter periods, since the time of the Vedic civilization, but such was the reverence paid to the Vedas that they
  had ever remained as the highest religious authority for all sections of the Hindus at all times. Even at this day all the obligatory duties of the Hindus at birth, marriage, death, etc., are performed according to the old Vedic ritual. The prayers that a Brahmin now says three times a day are the same selections of Vedic verses as were used as prayer verses two or three thousand years ago. A little insight into the life of an ordinary Hindu of the present day will show that the system of image-worship is one that has been grafted upon his life, the
  regular obligatory duties of which are ordered according to the old Vedic rites. Thus an orthodox Brahmin can dispense with image-worship if he likes, but not so with his daily Vedic prayers or other obligatory ceremonies. Even at this day there are persons who bestow immense sums of money for the performance and
  teaching of Vedic sacrifices and rituals. Most of the Sanskrit literatures that flourished after the Vedas base upon them their own validity, and appeal to them as authority. Systems of Hindu philosophy not only own their allegiance to the Vedas, but the adherents of each one of them would often quarrel with others and
  maintain its superiority by trying to prove that it and it alone was the faithful follower of the Vedas and represented correctly their views. The laws which regulate the social, legal, domestic and religious customs and rites of the Hindus even to the present day [early 20th century] are said to be but mere systematized memories of old Vedic teachings, and are held to be obligatory on their authority. Even under British administration, in the inheritance of property, adoption, and in such other legal transactions, Hindu Law is followed, and this claims to draw its authority from the Vedas. To enter into details is unnecessary. But suffice it to say that the Vedas, far from being regarded as a dead literature of the past, are still looked upon as the origin and source of almost all literatures except purely secular poetry and drama. Thus in short we may say that in spite of the many changes that time has wrought, the orthodox Hindu life may still be regarded in the main as an adumbration of
  the Vedic life, which had never ceased to shed its light all through the past.
Classification of the Vedic literature.
A beginner who is introduced for the first time to the study of later Sanskrit literature is likely to appear somewhat confused when he meets with authoritative texts of diverse purport and subjects having the same generic name "Veda" or "S'ruti" (from s'ru to hear); for Veda in its wider sense is not the name of any particular book, but of the literature of a particular epoch extending over a long period, say two thousand years or so. As this literature represents the total achievements of the Indian people in different directions for such a long period, it must of necessity be of a diversified character. If we roughly classify this huge literature from the points of view of age, language, and subject matter, we can point out four different types, namely the
  Sa@mhitâ or collection of verses (sam togeher, hita put), Brâhma@nas, Âra@nyakas ("forest treatises") and the Upani@sads. All these literatures, both prose and verse, were looked upon as so holy that in early times it was thought almost a sacrilege to write them; they were therefore learnt by heart by the Brahmins from the mouth of their preceptors and were hence called s'ruti (literally anything heard)[Footnote ref 1].
...
The Brâhma@nas. [Footnote ref 2]
After the Sa@mhitâs there grew up the theological treatises called the Brâhma@nas, which were of a distinctly different literary type. They are written in prose, and explain the sacred significance of the different rituals to those who are not already familiar with them. "They reflect," says Professor Macdonell, "the spirit of an age in which all intellectual activity is concentrated on the sacrifice, describing its ceremonies, discussing
  its value, speculating on its origin and significance." These works are full of dogmatic assertions, fanciful symbolism and speculations of an unbounded imagination in the field of sacrificial details. The sacrificial
  ceremonials were probably never so elaborate at the time when the early hymns were composed. But when the collections of hymns were being handed down from generation to generation the ceremonials became more and more complicated. Thus there came about the necessity of the distribution of the different sacrificial
  functions among several distinct classes of priests. We may assume that this was a period when the caste system was becoming established, and when the only thing which could engage wise and religious minds was sacrifice and its elaborate rituals. Free speculative thinking was thus subordinated to the service of the
  sacrifice, and the result was the production of the most fanciful sacramental and symbolic system, unparalleled anywhere but among the Gnostics. It is now generally believed that the close of the Brâhma@na period was not later than 500 B.C.
The Âra@nyakas.
As a further development of the Brâhma@nas however we get the Âra@nyakas or forest treatises. These works were probably composed for old men who had retired into the forest and were thus unable to perform elaborate sacrifices requiring a multitude of accessories and articles which could not be procured in forests. In
  these, meditations on certain symbols were supposed to be of great merit, and they gradually began to supplant the sacrifices as being of a superior order. It is here that we find that amongst a certain section of intelligent people the ritualistic ideas began to give way, and philosophic speculations about the nature of truth became gradually substituted in their place. To take an illustration from the beginning of the B@rhadâra@nyaka we find that instead of the actual performance of the horse sacrifice (as'vamedha) there are directions for meditating upon the dawn (U@sas) as the head of the horse, the sun as the eye of the horse, the air as its life, and so on. This is indeed a distinct advancement of the claims of speculation or meditation over the actual performance of the complicated ceremonials of sacrifice. The growth of the
  subjective speculation, as being capable of bringing the highest good, gradually resulted in the supersession of Vedic ritualism and the establishment of the claims of philosophic meditation and self-knowledge as the highest goal of life. Thus we find that the Âra@nyaka age was a period during which free thinking tried gradually to shake off the shackles of ritualism which had fettered it for a long time. It was thus that the Âra@nyakas could pave the way for the Upani@sads, revive the germs of philosophic speculation in the Vedas, and develop them in a manner which made the Upani@sads the source of all philosophy that arose in the world of Hindu thought.

I would recommend reading all of The first few chapters for an understanding of the development and changes that occurred. As Prof. Gupta says, although some of the more elaborate ceremonials are not carried out with the same frequency as before, the daily rituals are the same. Historical accounts of changes is something that has occurred as a study only in the last few centuries in both the East and the West and was something that was of no real interest of the peoples in either hemisphere.


Why is the site name with the logo written with a lower-case 'b'?

Question: Is it on purpose that the name of Biology.SE and Biology.meta are written with a lower-case 'b'?
Answer: It's on purpose.
When the site got its design back in May 2015, Stephane (SE's senior product designer) posted a discussion about the proposed site design (Site design for Biology community). Since its first revision, he proposed the site logo with a lower-case "b"

Logo & Identity
For the logo, as [suggested by the community][3], I was looking for a unique symbol that represents DNA. It might not represent all of biology but it's the most popular symbol though I tried to get as far as possible from the original shape while keeping it recognizable.
Along with the logo, all the illustrations work as a whole to mimic molecules. They grow in a seamless non-geometric pattern to convey an organic feeling.

Since then, while there were some feedbacks on the site logo, no one touched the letter casing. Thus, it's what we have until now.


Word/phrase that represents "unknowingly Arguing against something/explaining something based on false statement X given"

Question: I'm looking for a word or phrase that encapsulates the action of defending statement X of opponent, despite X having no validity, or unknowingly arguing/explaining based on a false statement X.  For example:

*Adam, a cat person, says that all dog people must manually lick dogs
mouths clean, and this is why dogs are a disgusting pet.
*Jill, who
hates cats, but doesn't own dogs, argues against Adam, saying "at
least the dogs mouths are clean for it, and dogs allowing people to
get that close to them just shows how much they love them. Cats lick
all over themselves and are disgusting, no one would lick their
mouths. Plus they are selfish".

Notice here, Adam makes a statement that is loaded/begs the question, but Jill doesn't know enough or simply assumes what Adam says is true, and tries to come up with reasons on the spot why X is justified, despite never seeing/experiencing it herself, in the pursuit of showing that cats are worse than dogs.
I'd expect a phrase that follows this to be something like "Falling for the X" and used like so in the following context:

Ruth, a dog lover, overhears the conversation between Adam and Jill, and turns to say: "Adam, No dog owner is forced to lick the mouth clean of their dogs. Jill, I appreciate the sentiment, but you just [Fell for the X]."

In real life I've seen this play out across both science questions and political discussions.
In the recent US presidential election, 538 claimed 20,000~ votes all for Biden in Philadelphia county in Pennsylvania. One person said "Look at what happened in Pennsylvania! Not one non Biden vote? Clearly this shows voter fraud".  Other people said "Well people are more likely to vote for biden in mail, so definitely not suspicious!".
In this case, it was basically statistically impossible for this to happen.  It also turned out the votes were legitimate, they were just batched by candidate accidentally in the unofficial tally, the next batch had 2x times Trumps normal margins.  The people responding assumed an actual batch of only Biden votes really happened, but in order to support there was no voter fraud, they went on to support the faulty assumption that a group of 20,000+ mail in votes was entirely Biden. People were trying to defend the claim that 20,000 votes came in from a normal mail in sampling distribution entirely for Biden, despite the claim those ballot counts were sampled from normal mail in order was completely false.
In a similar manner, this question on physics stack exchange https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/593122/why-are-red-and-blue-light-refracted-differently-if-they-travel-at-the-same-spee has many answers from people who take Op's assumption (two wavelengths of light will always travel at the same speed no matter the medium), and try to explain why refraction is different only with the equation tautology, implicitly affirming Op's misconception.
Another example, a reddit thread in askscience somebody wanted to know how scientists knew electrons were the same in the result of quantum tunneling. Someone added that it is because of properties like spin. In reality scientists only experimentally verified/discovered this at the macro level when testing the implications of Shrodingers equation. No scientist actually looked at a single electron to discover quantum tunneling.
The closest thing I can think of is pulling "Pulling something out of your ass" to explain something, but that doesn't seem to quite fit the actual core message that needs to be conveyed, it isn't about a lie, its about the assumption in the first place being wrong, and you just tried to argue/explain something assuming it is true.
Comment: I think this is called "stupidity".
Comment: @HotLicks Oh I know lol, but it happens a lot, and I want to let someone know they did this with out actually insulting them hopefully, and not having to spend too long looking for the words to describe what they did.
Answer: There is a word that describes the witless and uncritical acceptance of ideas. It comes from French "fly-swallower" and is:

Gobemouche =
A credulous person, especially : one who believes everything he or she hears
Merriam Webster

The gobemouche, having accepted the flawed premises, then goes on to argue on the basis of them.
Regrettably, it is not well known and in explaining it to someone you may, unless you are very careful, make them feel insulted.


What are the definitions of translational, rotational and rolling motion?

Question: What are the exact definitions of pure translational , pure rotational and rolling motion? I am a class 11th student ... I find it difficult to exactly make a distinction between translational, rolling and rotational motions in my dynamics questions. So I want definitions that can fit in any situation.
Answer: Theese concepts usually arise in rigid body mechanics. So consider a rigid body which is a set of points in which the distance between any two points do not change. If this is too abstract you can just think of a piece of rock.
One talks of translational motion when the body moves along a straight line, or more exactly when every point of the body travels on paralell lines. Easily put, it means sliding your rock on a table's surface. Rotational motion means that your body moves around a fixed axis, for exapmle consider the rotation of the Earth. Rolling is a special kind of motion, when a body is rotating around a moving axis. The axis is translating, while the body is rotating around it.
Comment: suppose there is a rod rotating about an axis through one of its ends and perpendicular to the rod . By your definition it is rotational motion and we can apply rotational equations of motion but we can see that its centre of mass is also moving so we can also apply translational equations of motion . So is it a combination of both the motions ?
Comment: @Varun Chandra In that case, the rod is rotating about its center of mass while the center of mass is revolving about the fixed end. So it is two rotations combined, which you can reduce to one rotational motion to make things easier. You cannot call it rolling since the center of mass is not translating.
Comment: @thedude How can you say that centre of mass is not translating ? I have the frame fixed on the axis I specified . Accordingly the centre of mass is covering distances with the passage of time so it should be translating .... centre of mass is in circular motion so it should be translational also .......
Comment: ,, One talks of translational motion when the body moves along a straight line, or more exactly when every point of the body travels on paralell lines." So no, that is not translational movement at all. The center of mass is always moving during rotation, except when the rotational axis moves through it.
Answer: I haven't given the exact definitions, but instead given examples on what each of the three are. This will help you get your head around the topic, and be able to get more understanding when you encounter the problem again later.
Translation is when the centre of mass of a body moves from one point to another. An example is just pushing a book along a surface.
Rotation (without any translation) is just a body spinning in place, with its centre of mass fixed. An example would be a spinning top, or coin, spinning but staying in one place.
Rolling motion would be when a body is both rotating and moving. Imagine a ball rolling down a hill. It has rotational movement, but also is moving along a path.
I didn't use any equations to keep it simple, but feel free to ask if this isn't clear!
Comment: Suppose a rod is rotationg with the axis at one of its end . Its centre of mass is moving and it is rotationg also so is it a rolling motion ?
Answer: The first (accepted answer) gives a good definition of translational and rotational motions. I have added this answer as I believe I can expand on Rolling motion a bit more. I know the OP asked for a definition of rolling but what I add here is more of an explanation since the physics of Rolling can be quite confusing. For a circular object (considering the wheel of a car for example) to roll (without slipping) there is translational velocity and rotational velocity.
Consider a wheel of a car moving to the right; At the top of the wheel the vectors corresponding to the translational and rotational velocities add together as the they are moving in the same direction as the wheel (or car) moves along to the right.
To understand this better; One must realize that the wheel rotates counter-clockwise, which must be true due to Newtons' third law of motion such that the ground (earth) will exert an equal but opposite force on the wheel in order to make it move forwards (to the right). So the earth is essentially rotating clockwise (negligible due to mass difference of course). But this means that the rotational velocity vector at the top of the wheel is to the right just as the translational velocity vector is also.
Whereas the bottom section of the wheel is rotating in the opposite direction to which the wheel is moving along (as the car moves); The vector corresponding to the rotational velocity is in the opposite direction to which the car moves. So these two vectors subtract and they subtract to give exactly zero. This must be the case as the point of contact of the wheel with the ground has a net velocity of zero. If this were not the case we would have skidding (or slipping).
If you drive a car you will understand this intuitively; Since if you were to brake suddenly the wheel would move (translate) forwards as there is no longer any rotation of the wheel as the brakes have been applied. So you would get skidding or (slipping).
Answer: Pure translation : Object's motion has fixed direction.
Pure rotation : having fixed axis of rotation
Pure rolling : pure rotation + pure translation


Why did Obama tell Trump that North Korea would be his toughest task?

Question: I have seen a few references to Obama telling President Trump that North Korea would be his toughest challenge. With all the other activities going on such as Russia meddling with US elections, ISIS and the Syrian Civil War, why would North Korea be at the top of the list?
I am asking why it wouldn't all of the above at the time.
Comment: NK is crazy. Crazy is always a challenge.
Comment: What @blip said. They don't conduct international relations like anyone else. Most of the normal tools to apply leverage and negotiate with other countries do not work on them. They are almost totally isolated, do not care much for the well-being of their people, and peace and cooperation are so foreign to them that they are utterly reliant on perpetuating a state of war. They view other countries not as equals but potential victims, standard tactic is to threaten and extort concessions, then break their promises so they can extort more concessions. In short, they are crazy.
Comment: And we can't ignore their threats because, even without nukes, they have enough conventional weaponry aimed at Seoul to level it.
Comment: More importantly, North Korea may really attack the US if they manage to develop long-range missiles in the long run so it's sort of a "better safe than sorry" approach.
Answer: I can't find that Obama quote you mention except behind a paywall, but the differences between ISIS and North-Korea are staggering. ISIS or Assad doesn't have the capability to attack Seoul –  a metropolitan area of over 25 million people – with nuclear weapons. North-Korea does. Even all the terrorist attacks of the last twenty years combined pale in comparison to that.
Seoul is a safe bet because it's so close to the North-Korean border, and although the exact range and capabilities of the missiles aren't known, it's very likely that North-Korea can attack a whole lot more than just Seoul.
As I mentioned in a previous answer, an actual nuclear war is not likely, but it's not impossible either. And right now North-Korea is the most likely to actually use their Nuclear weapons in some escalation with one of its perceived enemies, which is basically the entire world minus China, but their favourite enemies are of course South-Korea, Japan, and the United States.
There are also no easy solutions in sight; it'll be near-impossible to take out all the nukes and diplomacy also hasn't proven very useful.
Trump seems to agree with Obama on the scale of the problem, by the way.
Comment: As an additional point on this, North Korea has significant emplacements of conventional weapons within range of Seoul.  They could devastate the city and surroundings without needing to resort to nuclear weapons.
Comment: "Trump seems to agree with Obama on the scale of the problem" - I guess that he fell out of [love](https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-says-he-north-korea-s-kim-jong-un-fell-ncna915436) ;-)
Answer: North Korea has a unique combination of "can do catastrophic harm," "has enough crazy," and "has nothing to lose" that almost any other entity out there does not.  The leadership has been so sheltered and disconnected from reality, that's it seems like they actually believe a lot of their own bluster, hype and propaganda, which most other players probably do not.
As much as Obama was criticized for taking the long-view on a lot of his foreign policy, his less showy but more thoughtful responses to Russia on other issues did them real harm, either in standing, influence or economically.  They have a lot to lose, all over the world, so their actions are somewhat tempered by that.
ISIS and Syria, while troublesome are really not problems that directly threaten US lives or security, for the most part, and are largely contained and not of a huge scale in the damage that they are capable of, no matter how much news organizations want to hype someone driving a truck into a crowd, for example.  The recent gas attack, if Assad is responsible, is still small, in scale, compared to what an all-out artillery shelling of Seoul would be, or a short-range missile attack with chemical munitions from the North.
Comment: "`North Korea has a unique combination of "can do catastrophic harm," "has enough crazy," and "has nothing to lose" that almost any other entity out there does not`" - I'll see your North Korea and raise you donald
Comment: @MawgsaysreinstateMonica - Trump being a complete nut, himself, doesn't somehow de-nuttify North Korea, so I'm going to assume that this isn't a rebuttal as much as an observation.
Answer:
why would North Korea be at the top of the list?

Unlike many of the adversaries we have faced, N Korea is the first country that has the capability to hit back and hit back hard.
Plus, it has the backing of Russia and China.
Their close proximity with S Korea and Japan doesn't exactly help.
Comment: I don't think it's quite accurate to claim that North-Korea "has the backing of Russia". The relations between Russia and North-Korea are slightly warmer than the North-Korean relations with most other countries, but this is hardly saying much. There are embassies, some treaties, and trade, but this hardly classifies as "backing". Russia also joined in many of the international sanctions and has at times even been vocally critical.


How we can add container for inner pages in magento 2.2.6

Question: How we can add container for inner page template not in home page in magento 2.2.6?
Comment: can you please more elaborate your question little more that what exactly you want so that someone can help you in better way!
Comment: Please check this screenshot "http://prntscr.com/lbn3iu" . how to design this ? please let me know.
Comment: i want to add container class in inner pages layout template...
Comment: inner pages, means only cms pages ? and which layout are you using also do you have separate page-layout for home page? 1column, 2columns-left, 2columns-right
Comment: i am using for home page "custom-home" layout and for inner pages 1column.
Comment: Extened the cms_index_index.xml in your theme
`app/design/frontend/vandor/theme/Magento_Cms/layout/cms_index_index.xml`

and add the remove tag to remove the particular block/referenceBlock/referenceContainer from Home page.
Answer: you can add / update your main.content container in default.xml file with code below, it will add two divs container-inner-a and  container-inner-b after main container.:
<referenceContainer name="main.content">
    <container name="container-inner-a" htmlTag="div" htmlClass="container">
         <container name="container-inner-b" htmlTag="div" htmlClass="row">
            <container htmlTag="div" htmlClass="row" name="div-content-row">
                <container name="columns" />
            </container>
         </container>
     </container>
</referenceContainer>

This is how you need to update you layout file and change div names / numbers as required.
NOTE : this will add additional div on all page / layout. For home page you can get that page css class and change its width accordingly.
Comment: i apply this code but this also applied on our home page "http://prntscr.com/lbne4h"
Comment: yes this will add on all pages, for home page you can add css class to change width . check your page body there you will find class "cms-index-index", using that class change width of home page. otherwise you have to edit all layout files and add this code.
Comment: Please can you explain in detail. on home page our body class"http://prntscr.com/lbnh88"  and for inner pages "http://prntscr.com/lbniwd".
Comment: for example , newly added div class is "container-inner-a" and you are on home page. so your home page body class added is "cms-index-index" then my home page css would be .cms-index-index .container-inner-a container { width : 100% } to give 100% width on home page.
Answer: To write custom HTML into your magento CMS-Pages Just do follow the below given steps.

Just go to Admin(Back-end) > CONTENT > Elements > Pages.
Click on add new page or if you want to edit already existing page click on select > Edit (Please refer this image).
In that page go to Content > Click on Show / Hide Editor to get the HTML editor section instead of the way wysiwyg editor (Please refer this image).
Now you can write your HTML code here into this section (Please refer this image)
To write css for this page you can write css into your default css of your theme
Do click on save button after making your changes there in the back-end & check the front-end for the changes done. If not getting the changes you made there on the front-end, then flush your cache.

For that you can do it from your back-end & also by executing the command from your terminal just run the below command from your terminal.
php bin/magento cache:flush

Thank You!
Comment: i know this method but i want to add by code in all products detail page and other pages..
Comment: Are you working with CMS pages or with the product details page?
Comment: i am working both pages
Comment: This answer is for the CMS pages only, what changes you want in your product details page?

That's why I told you to elaborate your question with proper steps you taken with some screenshots so that someone can help you better with the thing that you are looking for!


Module with a mage's tower that had miniature exercising golems

Question: In the late '80s or early '90s I played an AD&D game session centered on a mage's tower that had miniature golems that were constantly exercising (jumping jacks, jogging in place, etc.).  Our GM used a mix of published materials and home-made adventures but I believe this one was a published module.  I believe the tower was set on a seacoast but I wouldn't swear to it.  If I remember correctly, part of the backstory was that the mage hadn't been seen in some time by the locals and it was suspected that he had passed away.  Does anyone recognize this?  Wish I could provide more details but that's about all I recall.
Comment: Hey, could you accept the answer if you like it?  (green check mark). That's how the site knows a question's been answered sufficiently.
Answer: Yeah, that's at the end of C3 The Lost Island of Castanamir, an AD&D 1e adventure for levels 1-4 put out in 1984.  The PCs head out to explore the lair of the disappeared eponymous mage.  It was a RPGA tournament module published later for home use. It had an extremely simple layout, lots of golems and then mostly the usual low-level adventure suspects. Also notable for the introduction of the Gingwatzim, a batch of critters from the Ethereal. You can get it for a modest sum from various sellers.
Comment: Thank you very much.  Maybe I'm seeing through rose-colored glasses but I remember having had a lot of fun playing this one. I've never run across it in any FLGS and, without knowing the name, I've never been able to find it online either.
Comment: You're welcome. Having many bookshelves full of gaming gear back to the early 1980s is paying off!  :-)


Parameters of Butterworth filter that approximates the amplitude response of a Gaussian filter?

Question: For a given narrowband Gaussian filter with a specific central frequency and filter width, I need corners of a bandpass Butterworth filter whose amplitude response is close enough to the Gaussian filter. How should I choose the order and corner frequencies of the Butterworth filter ? The reason is I need to calculate statistics of the initial part of a time-series filtered with a Gaussian filter. However, the Gaussian filter is zero-phase and always shifts energy back and contaminates the initial part of the time-series. With the Butterworth filter, I can have a one-pass filter so that the filtered time-series is causal and there is no contamination of the initial part of the time-series.
Comment: Why don't you design a causal filter with gaussian frequency response instead?
Comment: You will never get a Butterworth filter to be a Gaussian filter. You need a transitional filter. A transitional filter allows you to adjust the filter's parameters to be as close to a Butterworth, or a Gaussian, as you please, but you cannot get a filter to give both responses at the same time. The "Adjustable Gauss Filter" is an example of such a filter.
Comment: Define "close enough". Also, are you doing this in digital or analog? What was the reason (design objective) to pick a Gaussian Filter?
Comment: @Jazzmaniac so do you think I should have a filter with amplitude response of a Gaussian filter but phase response of a simple causal Butterworth filter ?
Comment: @MarcusMüller the task is narrowband filtering to measure frequency-dependent arrival time of a specific signal using the peak of the envelope of the filtered signal. i am not sure whether it is analog or digitial. But I take the signal to frequency domain using FFT, then apply the frequency-domain response of the Gaussian filter and then do IFFT. For Butterworth filter I calculate the poles of the filter and calculate the response
Answer: The solution is to implement a FIR filter with the coefficients using the Gaussian response desired. The center dominant tap will set the delay of the filter, which will of course not be zero phase, and the result will be the causal one-pass filter desired.
Also related, see my post at the link below on how you can implement this filter as a cascade of 2 tap unity gain filters (it doesn't get much simpler than that!).
Gaussian FIR filter with no multipliers?


Can a smart contract safely store and use private keys?

Question: Is there a way for a smart contract to safely store (and maybe use) private keys from other blockchains?
Answer: No. The Ethereum blockchain is a public, trustless ledger. Everything on the chain can be seen by anyone.
You could encrypt the private key, but the contract would need to decrypt the private key, and people could see that.
At the moment you can not interface with other blockchains from the Ethereum blockchain.


Routing protocols, distance vector vs link state

Question: I'm trying to figure out the differences(pros/cons) between two routing protocols approach and I would be great-full for any help, advice and explanation. As far I can say that it seems like distance vector is more static and more local based routing, since it doesn't know the network state whereas link state is more aware of current states therefore it seems more natural to use it over distance-vector, but I have a feeling like I'm missing something. And I would be glad to here about more aspects and different issues I have to consider while choosing one of them.
Answer: Distance Vector
Pure distance vector protocols are rare; the only one really remaining in any sort of use is RIP. EIGRP, a Cisco proprietary protocol, is also technically distance vector, but it makes use of several optimisations that allow it to overcome the traditional shortcomings of distance vector protocols. Distance vector protocols do not distribute any topology information; they simply advertise the next hop to a route, along with a cost.
Pros:

Minimal configuration required.
Low CPU/memory overhead.

Cons:

Prone to routing loops (less applicable to EIGRP).
Slow convergence time.
Different routers may have different perceptions as to the 'state' of the network.

Link state
Link-state protocols function by advertising each router's connected interfaces to every other device in the routing domain. Effectively, each device builds a database of the full network topology, and uses this database to determine the best path to each destination network.
The two major link-state protocols in use are OSPF and IS-IS; both are based around an implementation of Dijkstra's algorithm. OSPF is the more well-known of the two; IS-IS tends to be found more in service provider networks.
Pros:

All routers in the network have a consistent view of the world.
Loops are essentially impossible in a link-state network.
Fast reconvergence.

Cons:

Higher CPU/memory footprint required.
Difficult to filter routes being advertised to specific routers, as link-state algorithms rely on the entire AS having a consistent view of the world.

Protocol choice
In terms of which protocol type you should use, it depends on your requirements. In general, unless you are being forced to do so by a vendor, RIP should not be used. If you are running an all Cisco network, EIGRP can be brought up with very little manual configuration. If interoperability between vendors is a requirement, OSPF may be a better choice. As mentioned in another answer, if you are going to be exchanging routes with a 3rd party, BGP is the protocol of choice.
One last point: dynamic routing protocols are useful only when your topology is redundant, and you need automatic failover. If you have a single router which supports all of your LAN environments and your ISP circuit, then a default route to your ISP would be more than sufficient.
Answer: Personally I would choose your routing protocol not the way it works. Now days the right answer is practically always OSPF if its an internal network. If its an external network then the answer is probably BGP ( but you wouldn't be asking in that case ). Link state protocols have fast convergence.
OSPF is a link state protocol, an open standard.
RIP can still be used on tiny networks or to redistribute routing from simple devices to more complex devices ( or to inject default routes )
Comment: +1 for BGP for external and OSPF for internal. You'd only want to use anything else in an IP network if your devices don't support those.
Comment: I can see reasons why people may want to run eigrp in a cisco only shop.  I chose routing protocols based on device support and protocol behavior, not on the color of the protocol or the underlying algorithm.
Answer: I'm no expert, but... I seem to recall this old formula for just this kind of thing:
(increasing stabilty) x (decreasing latency) = (weighted score for a route)
Just chipping in .02 cents.  Hope it will help with your considerations.
Answer: I 100% agree with james -- use the routing protocol based on the requirements not based on the technology.
First -- why are you considering a routing protocol?  Are you redistributing routes in a multirouter environment? Are you looking for faster convergence time in a diverse route environment?
If you need complex traffic engineering and you have a complex network with diverse routes and very different link speeds, and if you are in a 100% cisco environment, you might want to consider eigrp.  Otherwise, if you have a complex network and diverse routes and you want reasonable convergence times, you really only have OSPF as a choice.  I guess you could consider ISIS if you want job security...
If you just want to redistribute a bunch of directly connected routes between a bunch of routers, rip is probably fine.  There are quite a few routing devices that only support RIP, such as many wireless APs and cheapo routing switches.
At no point does the actual algorithm used for determining a route or preventing loops really enter into the picture.
Answer: From this page:

Comparing link state algorithm with distance vector algorithm
We know that when a packet arrives to a router, the router indexes a forwarding table and determines the link interface to which the packet is to be delivered. And the routing algorithms are operating in network routers, exchanging and compute the information that is used to configure those forwarding table. The purpose of a routing algorithm is finding a good path from source router to destination router among a set of routers. Normally, a good path is one that has the least cost and it is also the shortest path.
There are some types of routing algorithms such as link states or distance vector routing algorithms. While link states algorithm is an algorithm using global information, the distance vector algorithm is iterative, asynchronous, and distributed. For DV algorithm, each node talks to only its directly connected neighbors, but provides its neighbor with least cost estimates from itself to all the nodes. For LS algorithm, each node talks with all other nodes, but tell them only the cost of it's directly comparison of some of their attribute. There are some aspects for us to compare these two algorithms
Message complexity: With link state, every node has to keep the information about the cost of each link within the network. And every times, if any of the cost is changed, all the nodes. With distance vector algorithm, message is exchanged between two hosts which are directly connected to each other. And if the change of cost in the link which is belongs to the least cost path for one of the nodes, the DV algorithm will update the new value. But if the change doesn't belong to the least cost part between 2 hosts, there will no updating
Speed of convergence: the implementation of LS is an O (|N|2) which need O (|N||E|) message. But with the DV algorithm, it can converge slowly and have routing loops while the algorithm is converging. In addition, the DV algorithm also suffers from the count to infinity problem.
Robustness: For LS, when a router is down, it can broadcast a wrong cost for the closest one. And also, a node can corrupt or drop packet it get as part of a LS broadcast. However, an LS node is computing for its own forwarding table and other node do the calculation for themselves. So it makes the calculation separated in some way within LS which provide robustness. For DV, the wrong least cost path can be passed to more than one or the entire node so the wrong calculation will be process in the entire net work. This problem of DV is much worse than LS algorithm.

And from this page:

Advantages of Distance Vector Protocols
Well Supported
Protocols such as RIP have been around a long time and most, if not all devices that perform routing will understand RIP.
Comment: copy/paste from http://www.helium.com/items/612704-comparing-link-state-algorithm-with-distance-vector-algorithm/print.


What are the main goals of administering preliminary / qualifying exams to graduate students?

Question: If I were a Spanish Major as an undergraduate and decide to pursue a PhD in a completely unrelated field (like Theoretical Physics), it makes sense to give a qualifying exam to check that I had the necessary skills to begin the program.  But if I'm coming from a B.S in math to a PhD program also in math, it doesn't seem to make sense to give a qualifying exam, as if the knowledge I gained in my undergraduate was insufficient.  I presume that one is accepted into a PhD program because he/she has already demonstrated the "qualifying" skills.  Thus, I'm baffled by the notion of the qualifying / prelim exam.   I'm curious about the ultimate goals of these exams, and how they relate to the professional development of a graduate student.
Answer: There are two types of qualifying/preliminary exams, those that cover graduate or undergraduate topics.  I assume you are just talking about the latter (while in my experience the former is a little more common).
As I see it, the big reason for preliminary exams on undergraduate material is that many students haven't actually mastered this material to a professional standard.  At less prestigious schools, many students won't have received straight A's (or the equivalent in other grading systems), so they had gaps or weaknesses in their understanding, and unless they took more advanced courses in the same area they may never have filled those gaps.  Furthermore, it's possible to get excellent grades without true mastery, and students sometimes forget things they knew while taking a course.
The preliminary exam sends a message of "OK, you're in grad school now, and as a professional you're expected to know this material cold.  If you have any doubts about your mastery of it, now is the time to study carefully."  The few students who don't need to study suffer little harm from the exams, and the students who do need to study benefit from the studying.
Answer: This answer serves mainly to corroborate @Anonymous Mathematician's answer.
As she says, the most important thing to realize is that there are two different kinds of exams that go under the name "prelims / quals".  The first of these generally:
(i) tests undergraduate material
(ii) is administered soon after arrival in the graduate program
(iii) used to be used for preliminary weed-out purposes but is now -- at least, in most programs I know about -- used almost entirely for diagnostic purposes.
Probably (iii) is most important: once upon a time, many graduate programs -- even excellent ones, like Berkeley (in fact, especially Berkeley) -- admitted lots of students, as in up to 50% more than were expected to finish.  The idea was to give a large group of people, including those with less than sterling (or ivy) pedigrees, a fair shot.  Then after a small amount of time in the program -- maybe a year or less -- they would take a "prelim" exam, and a significant portion would fail and leave.
This is no longer the way graduate programs work (at least not in North America, which is what I am primarily familiar with, but to the best of my meager knowledge they don't work that way in other parts of the world either).  We pay much closer attention to each student we admit now than in the scenario above, and further our program is judged on retention and completion rates.  A graduate program in 2012 who dismissed a third or more of its incoming class every year would look disastrously bad by these sorts of metrics.  So this "weedout prelim" is, as far as I know, a thing of the past.
In the graduate program at UGA we still give a "prelim exam" to all entering graduate students, but as I said above we use it almost entirely for diagnostic purposes.  In fact we have a certain graduate course designed entirely for students who didn't do well on the prelim, whose purpose is to shore up their undergraduate knowledge ASAP.  Other than being encouraged to take this course, there are no direct consequences of failing the prelim (in fact, I'm not sure that one "passes" or "fails" the prelim in any technical sense).
In contrast, most of the "qualifying exams" that you hear graduate students talking about are something entirely different.  They:
(i) test graduate level material; in particular, most students do not enter equipped with the knowledge to pass most qualifying exams.
(ii) occupy students' attention for a while: in our program, students have up to three years to pass their qualifying exams.
(iii) really must be passed in order for students to advance in the program, in most cases.
I hope this answers your question.  Let me say though that the scores on the "prelim" exam -- i.e., the undergraduate level exam that I mentioned first -- are often all over the place.  All of our entering students have at least an undergraduate degree in mathematics.  So, unfortunately, no, an undergraduate degree in mathematics is not a guarantee of ability to do undergraduate level mathematics...at least not to the satisfaction of a decent mathematics graduate program.  (And a student who does poorly on this entering prelim may yet succeed in doing PhD level mathematics a little later on: that is, the fault often seems to lie with the undergraduate program more than the student.)
Comment: @Paul: unfortunately, yes, the terms "prelim" and "qual" are often used interchangeably, notwithstanding the fact that many departments do have two separate exams!  It's probably best to ignore this then and use "prelim" to refer to the preliminary exam and "qual" to refer to the more advanced exam.  Even this latter exam is not so much a weed-out tool nowadays: we really do want the vast majority of students we admit to complete the program.  But it does have that effect sometimes...
Comment: I've usually heard the terms prelim and qualifying exam being used interchangeably.  So then, in your opinion, a "prelim" is really a diagnostic tool, and a qualifying exam is a benchmarking "weed-out" tool.  I suppose that there is a minimum "quota" of advanced knowledge that is expected of a professional academic, which is the purpose of the qualifying exam.  Correct?
Comment: We had both type at my graduate program and call them the "qualifier" (tested undergrad material and was to be passed within a year of matriculating) and the "comprehensive" (covered the core graduate curriculum wand was to be passed between finishing the core course work and taking up full-time research). Both allowed one do-over, and both saw students dropped. That was in the mid 1990s.
Comment: Also, I would say "in my experience" rather than "in my opinion", while acknowledging that I can only have direct experience with a small number of graduate programs.
Comment: @dmckee: I think that academia has tightened up its game nontrivially even since the 1990s.  That said, things will certainly vary from department to department (and I am only talking about math departments!).  Some places have a reputation for kicking out students who do not pass their exams: the UGA math department, not so much.
Comment: @PeteL.Clark: As a general rule of thumb, is it safe to say that the more competitive it is to enter the graduate program, the more likely they are to use the qualifying exam as a weed-out tool?
Comment: @Paul: no, I wouldn't be willing to say that.  For instance, the Harvard math department (where I did my PhD) is famous for giving students as many chances as they need to pass the quals...and even, in at least one case, looking the other way when a student seemed constitutionally incapable of passing his quals but was able to write a very strong thesis anyway.
Comment: @PeteL.Clark: Wow.  That's amazing... I wouldn't have expected that to happen in such a prestigious school.
Answer: There are two main reasons:

as a "sanity check" to make sure that the student you've admitted is really the student you thought they were; and
as a weed-out tool, in case you've admitted more students than you have spots for in PhD projects in a given department.

Both purposes are significant. The second is the more unfortunate, and could generally be reduced through better selection processes and through better deployment of teaching and research resources and funding within a department. The former use is equally important, in that it makes sure that students don't try to "coast" their way through what the department believes is its core curriculum that students need to know.
Comment: As an addendum to the sanity check aspect, a Phd program at university X might attract students from many other not-X universities, and the qual process ensures that everyone has the same baseline skill set.
Comment: To catch up on their troubled areas...many departments make the old exams available for students to study with. If they look at them the can identify *for themselves* where they are behind the expectation and take steps to fix it.
Comment: In places where it is given after, say, one semester or a year it is also a chance for students to self-remediate, which presumably filters out the students who are both deficient and unable to produce without supervision.
Comment: @Suresh: It makes a lot of sense for that particular situation.
Comment: @dmckee: Could you expand on what you mean by "self remediate"?
Comment: @aeismail: The way you phrase it, it mainly serves its purpose for the benefit of the academic department, and nothing for the student...  Does it serve any benefit purpose to the student as well?
Comment: @Paul: The standard examination-based qualifier doesn't really do much for the student, in my opinion. Especially when the grades given are usually "pass" or "fail," with little guidance as to what might need to be improved (regardless of final score).
Answer: I concur with @Pete L. Clark and @Anonymous Mathematiciar. These exams have names that suggest the darker purposes in their pasts, but they are mainly used as administrative tools by graduate departments.
At the graduate school I attended for chemistry, we took "placement exams". These exams happen for three reasons:
1) to provide the department with a common baseline, as we all did not likely take exactly the same GRE on exactly the same day. Particularly, this provided a means to directly compare the national students with the foreign students.
2) to identify deficiencies, as @Pete L. Clark and @Anonymous Mathematiciar have indicated. In chemistry, the smaller schools occasionally cannot offer courses in all five disciplines: organic, inorganic, analytical, physical, and biochemistry. Rather than punish those students for attending small liberal arts schools, many Ph.D. programs accept them on the premise that they may have to take an undergraduate course to fill in the gaps.
3) to select TAs. All first year graduate students in my chemistry program had to TA undergraduate labs. The placement exams determined which course you got to TA. The highest scorers on the organic chemistry exam were TAs for organic chemistry labs. The highest scorers on the analytic chemistry exam were TAs for analytical chemistry labs, and so on.
Comment: I would argue that there is nothing "dark" about setting much-reach thresholds for students. Indeed, to encourage them to go on with work that they are ill-suited to may do them a bigger disfavor.


Is it possible to change original filename of an exe?

Question: We are using an application control solution which denies access for some exes according to their original filename. Is it possible to change original filename with hex editor or another method?
Comment: I'm uncertain if frkntn is trying to create a security system or bypass one.
Comment: Basing a security solution on the immutability of a property and then asking if that property can be changed trivially seems to be in scope indeed. OP asks "Is it possible?" not "How can I do it?"
Comment: To the OP: If you want a solution that is more difficult to defeat, you may want to use some kind of code signing.
Comment: Have you noticed the "Remove Properties and Personal Information" in your screenshot? Try clicking on it and select "Original Filename".
Comment: If I want to run something you don't want me to run, I'l be rather annoyed but recompile it from source with a different name. Good luck matching that.
Comment: Yeah, I tried it, It couldn't remove original filename for cmd.exe.
Answer: Yes. There is a tool on GitHub here that can change that information. It supports both 64-bit and 32-bit.
The syntax I used: rcedit-x64.exe cmx.exe --set-version-string  OriginalFilename "cmdx.exe" --set-version-string FileDescription "details are irrelevant"

Therefore, your solution may be efficient against beginners, but not against people with IT knowledge.
Comment: If people are allowed to download and run arbitrary applications from the Internet, there's little point in preventing them from running specific apps on the local machine. "The other side of the airtight hatchway"...
Comment: Does this invalidate code signing?
Comment: Yes, it should invalidate it because the cryptographic hash is also used to validate integrity and file CRC changes after such alteration.
Comment: @IMil you can also make the change with notepad (though not practical if you want to change it to something longer). It's just a lot easier with this dedicated tool.


Where to buy previous years' bikes

Question: Every now and then I see on a bike shop's website that they will have last year's version of the same model of another bike, but it's marked down by a few hundred dollars.  Unfortunately, from what I've seen these are usually pretty few and far between.  Is there a good place to look that has a good selection of outdated bikes (preferably road bikes)?
Comment: Where are you? USA? Europe? ChainReactionCycles and JensonUSA have some pretty good deals with free shipping.
Comment: Usually, you need to wait til the next year's model comes out and look at the bike shops that sell the brand -- many brands can only be sold by authorized dealers in store.
Comment: In the northern US I've had moderately good luck shopping in late summer/early fall.  This is before the new models have come out, but after the spring/summer buying rush is over.
Comment: I live in Western/Upstate New York in the US.
Comment: Western/Upstate New York is a bit ill defined. Are you in Buffalo?
Comment: I am in Rochester
Answer: Here in the Toronto area, you can find these bikes either at a spring bike show or (more commonly) fall bike show. They are generally priced aggressively to clear out stock and you won't find many in the stores in the coming years.
Most shops will not have previous model years around as they make money selling bikes and want to move stock.
I also managed to find my girl's bike on Kijiji the same way that a shop just wanted to clear out last years model. 40% off.
The final option is a few bike stores that sit on stock for years and they won't move on the price regardless and you won't convince them.
Comment: Is [this](http://www.bicycleshowtoronto.com) the show you are referring to?  That's not too far from me, I might consider checking that out.  I like the idea of being able to try it out in person before purchasing so that I can get the fit right.
Comment: That is the one.
Answer: Bike shops from one area to the next can be as different as oranges and orangutans. The same can be true of bike shops within a given area.
Here in the "Olympia Washington Metroplex", there are seven bike shops: Deschutes (on Custer), Deschutes (on 4th), Joy Ride, Old Town, Bike Tech, Falcones, REI
There are a couple of different bike collectives: Evergreen College Bike Shop, Build A Bike, Intercity Transit's program (which is aimed at kids).
There are also a couple of bike builders here in town, but that's probably off topic from what you want.
Falcones, I'm told, can be a good place to find previous year's models still sitting in boxes--sometimes bikes from 10 or more years ago. I got a previous year's model for my son at REI 2 years ago, and I've seen previous year's models for sale at most of the local shops. Deschutes specializes in used bikes and upgrades, so they are my shop of choice.
Some of this information might be found online at BikeForums, Yelp, etc. However, the best way to find it out is by visiting the local shops. Go to Google Maps, enter "bike shops in " without the quotes. Check out their hours, make a day of it, and visit them all. Go in without any plan to buy. Just visit, see what they've got, get a feel for the place. Some places might rub you wrong. Others might feel like they were put there to serve you.

Where to buy previous years' bikes


Kings and check

Question: Is it ever legal for a king to put the other king in check, even if after the king is taken by the opposing king, the king doing the taking puts himself into check?
Comment: *Is it ever legal for a king to put the other king in check* **Never**, it is that simple :)
Answer: Simply, no. The rules do not allow this.
BUT, there are two occasions where this is allowed:

Some Chess Variants : Losers Chess for example.
In Odds Chess. A not so popular odd was to give the weaker opponent's king two squares to move. Thus, it is possible to check the other king.
Answer: This is illegal. A king cannot capture another King. The king is the only chess piece that cannot be captured like other pieces, where they are physically removed from the chess board.  The kings cannot be on adjacent squares, that is on squares next to each other.
Please note that my response is for normal chess not the other variants where such moves are allowed.

Kings and check


How should one read the bible as a muslim?

Question: Jesus is a prophet in Islam but the Bible is said to be either corrupted or superseded by the Quran.
In that case is it forbidden to read the Bible; or if can read it how should it be interpreted?
Answer: First of all ,Quran Torah and Gospel have much similarities in common than they have peculiarities and as muslims we have to believe in this books.
In Surat "A'li Imrān"(3:3) and (3:4), we read :

نزل عليك الكتاب بالحق مصدقا لما بين يديه وأنزل التوراة والإنجيل من قبل هدى للناس وأنزل الفرقان إن الذين كفروا بآيات الله  لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ وَاللّهُ عَزِيزٌ ذُو انتِقَامٍ

Also Quran says :

The messenger believeth in that which hath been revealed unto him from his Lord and (so do) believers. Each one believeth in Allah and His angels and His scriptures and His messengers - We make no distinction between any of His messengers - and they say: We hear, and we obey. (2:285)

So,on the one hand, we should believe in Bible.
On the other hand,it turns out that There is a problem for muslims when they try to read the Bible;indeed,the Bible was falsified or at least not well "maintained"...
When reading books such as the new Testament or other similar books you don't know what is true and what is false (i mean what was falsified and what is kept as it was).
If one muslim that is not aware of such fact,it can be misled or even worse,dismayed in his belief.
That is the reason why The Hadith explicitly prohibits reading such books :

عن جابر بن عبد الله رضي الله تعالى عنه:  أن عمر بن الخطاب -رضي الله تعالى عنه- أتى النبي -صلى الله عليه وسلم- بكتاب أصابه من بعض أهل الكتب، فقرأه النبي -صلى الله عليه وسلم- فغضب فقال: أمتهوكون فيها يا ابن الخطاب، والذي نفسي بيده لقد جئتكم بها بيضاء نقية لا تسألوهم عن شيء فيخبروكم بحق فتكذِّبوا به، أو بباطل فتصدقوا به، والذي نفسي بيده، لو أن موسى -صلى الله عليه وسلم- كان حيا ما وسعه إلا أن يتبعني  أخرجه الإمام أحمد في المسند.

Even more, if these books were not falsified they are nonetheless obsolete as superseded by the Quran.

ما فرطنا في الكتاب من شيء
We have not neglected in the Register a thing. (6:38)

But if one muslim that is aware and well-acquainted read carefully this book he will gain faith
in God.
Either way ,it turns out that we need to read such books for an important reason : to disprove and refutate the arguments advanced by the enemies of Islam by using arguments drawn from their own books (by "enemies" i mean those who hates Islam )  !
Didn't hear about "Ahmed deedat" ? this guy is an expert in how to use Bible to make Islam spread more and more  !
So we can read these books but we have to be careful .
Answer: I think it's okay to read these books. As long as you understand Islam and want to know how and why certain things are rendered obsolete. It's not about reading a book, but interpreting it in your mind. Some people who have little knowledge of Islam might not grasp the concept behind certain parts of these books, which may in turn put them in doubt.
Answer: My understanding of the Qu'ran is that Isa was a loyal Practitioner of the Torah; as any good Jew should be.  The notification to Mary Mother of Isa similar/same in Bible. Quotes from Jesus (Isa) in the Gospels (Injeel) don't seem to contradict the teachings in Islam.
Though some controversy, The 'prior' was confirmed... Wasn't it said, 'Tell them (Jews) you believe as they do'?
Helping Christians and Jews better understand both their Scriptures and what Islam believes is good; no?? For, in the end, aren't all to be united (when the Messiah returns)? To that end, didn't Our Lord Allah create differences among us for (all) our benefit? Will He not judge all in accordance to the best of belief? Did He not say Christians,Jews,Muslims doing righteous deeds and believing will get their rewards?
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Answer: I dont think it would be wrong but still if you are a muslim you should keep the quran higher than the bible well because jews and Christians follow the same god and all of these religions are based of the hebrews and all talk about the prophets but if you are a muslim you should keep the quran the highest
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