Metric units in Google Maps?

Question: Is it possible to tell Google Maps to use metric units? I know that for instance the German version does use metric units, but I'd rather use the English one.
Answer: When you select get directions a link shows up under the input boxes for the addresses for your query that is titled "Show Options". If you select that link you see two check boxes below and on the right of those is a section that says miles / km. You can switch between US standard and metric by selecting the appropriate unit.
Answer: As of Aug 2017 you can click the scale bar (in lower right-hand corner of browser-based Google maps) and it will switch from Imperial to metric. Also, MaQleod's answer works for a single session, but now when you get directions you need to click on "Options" (not "Show Options") under the input boxes for the addresses in your query. Neither of these actions work beyond a single session, however, due to how Google determines default units through localization schemes that don't seem to be customizable (yet).
Answer: If you use a VPN (e.g. tunnel bear) to fool your browser into thinking you're in a metric country, you can get Google Maps to use metric units in the scale bar by default (in the lower right-hand corner of the browser window). But doing so doesn't seem to change how the units in direction query results.
Whether your browser thinks it's in a country with a metric or Imperial measurement system, Google's localization scheme seems to determine the default ("automatic") units for your directions based on the starting point in your query. For example, a query for directions from Seattle (USA, Imperial units) to Alberta (Canada, metric units) provides distances in miles; but a query from Alberta to Seattle returns distances in kilometers.

Metric units in Google Maps?


Random Wallpaper Folder

Question: I've been shuffling random desktop backgrounds with the built-in Windows 7 feature. What I want to do is shuffle backgrounds from a folder; where I'd drop in pictures at different times and the new wallpapers will automatically be used.
I've set the folder to my wallpaper folder, but I'm not sure if new wallpapers will be automatically added. Do I have to open up the Desktop Background window to update the wallpaper collection with the folder contents or does this happen automatically?
If this doesn't happen automatically, is there a 3rd party random wallpaper shuffler we can use?
Answer: To answer my own question, wallpapers will be automatically updated with the folder contents.

Random Wallpaper Folder


Punishment for mesirah

Question: For someone who commits an act of "mesirah" (giving over a Jewish person to law enforcement) What punishment if any does such a person (the "moser") receive? Or could/should he receive? Where is the punishment stated? Is being put into cherem a possible punishment?
Comment: related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/6260/what-are-the-limits-of-mesira
Comment: [Shulchan aruch choshen mishpat 388](http://www.sefaria.org/Shulchan_Arukh,_Choshen_Mishpat.388) is about these laws
Answer: In general, the concept of "mesirah" is not "giving over a Jewish person to law enforcement" as much as giving an innocent person over to a ruthless, corrupt, and brutal power. See e.g. Rabbi Yitzchok Grossman:

The topic of Mesirah in the modern era is a very fraught area of Halachah. On the one hand, Shas and Poskim have traditionally condemned Mosrim in the most drastic terms: they are included (along with apikorsim and those who have sinned and caused others to sin) in the list of those who suffer for an extended duration in Hell,1 are worse than apostates,2 and cannot (at least according to some opinions) ritually slaughter animals,3 or write Sifre Torah4 or Gittin.5 And, of course, they may be killed "anywhere, even in contemporary times" after being duly warned, if they are threatening to inform. But on the other hand, it is clear that much of the Halachic literature on the topic was written in the context of regimes that were vastly more ruthless, brutal and unprincipled than modern Western democracies, and of Jewish communities that had much more autonomy and capability of internal regulation than today's post-Enlightenment diffuse and acculturated ones.

See also Rav Herschel Schachter, shlita:

If the non-Jewish governmental authorities know that one Jew is
  concealing information about another Jew in order to save him from
  punishment, the Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 28:3) considers this a
  situation of chilul Hashem. Similarly, for many generations it was the
  practice that if a gneiva had occurred, and suspicion had fallen on
  the Jewish community, rather than allow that suspicion to hover over
  the entire community, the roshei hakehol, with the permission of the
  rabbonim, would inform the non-Jewish authorities who might possibly
  be the real ganav (Be'er Hagola, Choshen Mishpat 388:12).
Even if one is guilty of a crime and deserves a punishment according
  to the laws of the land, but due to anti-semetic attitudes he will
  probably suffer more than if he were a non-Jew; or, the (state) prison
  conditions are such that he will suffer at the hands of the other
  inmates (or at the hands of the guards) in a manner that is not
  proscribed by law, then turning the offender in would constitute
  mesirah, since his added suffering will be shelo kadin. However,
  mesirah is permitted in situations where one is a public menace (see
  Shach to Choshen Mishpat 388, 59), or if one is physically or
  psychologically harming another individual (for example, in instances
  of sexual abuse of children, students, campers etc., or spousal abuse)
  (see Shach to Choshen Mishpat ibid, 45).
The Jewish community does not have the ability to investigate these
  types of cases. Wherever there are raglayim ladavar that there seems
  to be a problem, the proper government agencies should be contacted to
  investigate.
Just as in other areas of halachah, one should consult a competent
  moreh horaah when faced with such a shayla. Just because one is
  knowledgeable in Yoreh Deah vol. I or one delivers a good pilpul shiur
  on sugyos in Nashim or Nezikin, it does not necessarily follow that
  that individual will be qualified to pasken on hilchos mesirah -
  lehakel or lehachmir.

That said, giving an innocent person over to a ruthless, corrupt, and brutal authority (such as the pagan governments that existed at the time of the Talmud) would confer upon the culprit the status of a rodef, murderous pursuer where we save the victim by any means necessary, including with the life of the pursuer (see e.g. Bava Kama 117a and Teshuvoth HaRosh 17:1).
Finally, the halacha is that killing a rodef when a less violent means could have accomplished the same end (e.g. yachol l'hatzilo b'echad me'eivarav "he could have saved him by [injuring] one of the [pursuer's] limbs") constitutes full murder. The equation then of a moser to a rodef suggests that if indeed a moser could be stopped with just a cherem (ostracization), violence would be prohibited by halacha.
See also JLaw's article on the topic.

1     Rosh Ha'Shanah 17a, and see Shach CM 388:53.
2     Shach ibid. and #62.
3     Shach ibid., citing Shulchan Aruch YD 2:9.
4     Shach ibid., citing Shulchan Aruch YD 281:3.
5     Even Ha'Ezer Siman 123: Get Pashut #7 s.v. le'inyan mumar u'malshin, and Yeshuos Ya'akov (short) #9, cited in Pis'chei Teshuvah #4.
Answer: Shulchan aruch choshen mishpat 388 is about these laws
If he gave over money: he needs to repay.
if he gave over money or people he does not have a part in the world to come
If he gave over 3 times money or people: we try to kill him passively.
If he will do it: we can use any means to stop him even to kill him (is a mitszva, first one to come gets to do it) even in our times (shulchan aruch said this) (but not after he did it, if he is not going to do it again)
(There are exception when it is permitted to give over a Jew).
(If you want a sposific law translation/details ask for it in the comments).
It seems that a Bais din can put him in chairem

Punishment for mesirah


Is there any way to "align left" the label for each field?

Question: I can't see a way but am very new to all this. Currently all the labels are centered and I need them to align to the left.
Answer: I am a developer for Cognito Forms.
By default the labels for each field are left aligned they should show up just as they do in the build page when building your form. If you have embedding your form on your website, a CSS rule might be aligning the labels to the center rather then the left.
I understand you might not want to share your website via a public forum, if you would like help with the CSS rule that is effecting your from I would be happy to look at it via a Bug Report. I would then be happy to post the CSS correction here once we have identified the issue.


Exclude specific javascript files or themes from Asset Optimizer

Question: Is there a way to exclude specific JavaScript files from Asset Optimizer. I know you can globally turn off Asset Optimizer or even do it at a site level. Is there a way to do it a file level or even the theme level?
Comment: You can upload pre-optimized files and then turn off the Asset Optimizer for your site.
Comment: Unfortunately SXA has multiple javascript files in the base theme that are not in our code base since we are including it.
Answer: There is no configuration to enable/disable asset optimization on a theme/file level. SXA Theming and the Asset Optimizer considers the files uploaded under Scripts and Styles for optimization and to load on the website. You need to upload your file outside this location and refer accordingly.


Crossover Value and Genetic Mapping

Question: In my textbook and most of the sources I have checked, it is stated that recombination frequency in eukaryotes give us knowledge on the location of the loci. I don't understand the direct correlation between the distance between the genes we are investigating and the recombination frequency. Assume that the recombinant gamete frequency of is around 35%, why does it mean that those genes would be located on the opposite ends of the chromosome? Do all crossover events take place with a single break on one chromosome? I have searched the crossing over mechanism for a bit and have seen diagrams in which two breaks occured and the DNA chunk acquired seemed to be transplanted, although it was in general a tad too complex for my understanding. If you have a link to a clearer and more concise explanation of the mechanism, it would be much appreciated! Please forgive my ignorance if that's a very basic question, I'm just a high school student.
Comment: Welcome to Biology.SE! For this question, you should be able to find answers quite easily from reliable sources and as such this question seems to fit this sites criteria for ["homework"](https://biology.stackexchange.com/help/homework). I encourage you to start with the basics — see my next comment for suggestions. That will allow you to ask more focused questions and make you have the background to understand the type of answers you are likely to get here. ——— Please also take the [tour] and then go through the help pages starting with [Ask] questions effectively on this site. Thanks!
Comment: I have found that when learning about a new area starting with a relatively accessible and reliable source like [Khan Academy](http://khanacademy.org/science/biology/) is very helpful. Wikipedia is also generally a good starting point and you can then check their references. Online platforms called MOOCs offer free (or very low cost) courses on a wide variety of subjects — two I am familiar with are [Coursera](http://coursera.org) and [edX](http://edx.org). Finally, textbooks with a good level of detail are also freely available online e.g. from [NCBI](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/).
Answer: As a silly example:
Let's say that you are traveling along a road where you know there are bandits and thieves. You want to finish your journey quickly, and spend very little time on the road, because the more time you spend on the road, the more likely it is that you are robbed and they take your money away. If there are more thieves around one day, you still want to spend as little time on the road as possible, it's just that the risk is higher.
Using this logic, you can then try to figure out how far away two cities are on the road by how likely you are to be robbed by thieves while traveling between them.
Just substitute "chromosome" for "road", "crossover" for "robbed by thieves". You measure how far away two loci are by how likely there is to be a crossover between them.
It may help to think of it in a different way. There is nothing preventing multiple crossovers, but having more crossovers saturates with increasing distance. Here is one plot of how you can think of linkage (I just generated this, it's not mathematically accurate, only for demonstrating simple point):

Figure 1.
Basically, the closer two loci are, the less likely it is that there will be a crossover between them. So if you compare three loci, two of which (A, B) are close when the third (C) is far away, you will see few AxB crossovers/recombinants but many AxC and AxB crossovers/recombinants. This is because the probability of crossovers is fairly uniform across the genome. The more distance, the more opportunities for crossover.
Another confusing feature is that the maximum number of recombinants (usually) is 50%, because at that point the two loci are assorting independently, e.g. completely unlinked and behave as if they are on different chromosomes. However, two loci can be "unlinked" and still be on the same chromosome, they are just quite far apart then.
This is not really changed by multiple crossovers. The same principle of "loci further away" --> "weaker linkage between loci" is the same no matter how many crossovers occur in a chromosome. More crossovers just means that the map is "expanded", because everything is more weakly linked than with fewer crossovers per chromosome.
Update:
It may help to be very specific about what we mean by "same chromosome" vs. "different chromosomes". Recombination happens between two molecules that can be considered the "same chromosome" even if they are different molecules. We call them "homologous chromosomes" because they pair and recombine. On the other hand, when we talk about 23 chromosomes in human cells, those are "different chromosomes", but they are actually 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes, so there are in total 46 chromosome molecules, which can be arranged in 23 homologous pairs. For each pair, we get one from each parent ("paternal" and maternal").
Recombination only occurs between homologous chromosomes.
So when recombination happens, the locus doesn't transfer to a different chromosome. It stays on the "same" chromosome, it's just a different version of the same chromosome. See this image (Figure 2):

Figure 2.
You can think of a chromosome as a collection of loci in some linear order. This will arrangement will be the same (or close enough, for our purposes) for each chromosome of a homologous pair. It may have different versions of the locus on each chromosome of the pair. We call these different versions "alleles", which in Figure 2 are labeled "A" and "a" for locus A or "B"/"b" for locus B. So we start with types AB and ab, but if recombination happens then we would observe types Ab and aB. The loci didn't move between chromosomes, they just exchanged alleles.
In terms of how loci "split", think of them as two chains of the same length. When recombination happens you cut one link of each chain, exchange pieces, and rejoin the chains. See Figure 3:

Figure 3. single recombinant: a single recombination event occurred between maternal and paternal chromosomes at coordinate x = 1.0 to yield a recombinant. Double recombinant: two recombination events occur, at x = 0.8 and x = 1.0
Comment: Thank you a lot for the detailed answer sir, the analogy did help a lot! What I can't fully grasp is how a crossover incident between two loci guarantees that they would end up in different chromosomes. For example, for A, B and C genes located in that order on a chromosome, if a crossover happens on the gene B, does it automatically mean that A and C would be split?
Comment: @TarıkAkçin if there is only a break at B, then yes A and C would always be on different chromosomes. However, it's entirely possible that there could be more breaks between  A and B or B and C and whether A and C ended up on the same chromosome would depend on whether the total number of breaks between A and C was odd or even.. The probability of additional breaks depends on the distance between A, B, and C. In human chromosomes there is always at least one crossover, and typically between 2 and 4.
Comment: @TarıkAkçin see update to answer.
Comment: @TarıkAkçin and to directly answer your comment question, the answer is "yes" as long as the number of breaks is odd, and "no" if it's even. I am hunting for a good image that shows this.
Comment: @TarıkAkçin I gave up and made it myself. see figure 3.
Answer: There are two main question: (a) dependence of the frequency of recombination with the distance that separates genes and (b) do all crossover events take place with a single break on one chromosome?
Let's give some context. In gametogenesis, chromosome crossover takes place in every tetrad in prophase I. Tetrads are constituted by a pair of homologous chromosomes which are paired by a particular complex (synaptonemal complex). Such complex allows one chromosome to be very close to the other. This intimacy permits chromosome crossover to occur between non-sister chromatids and sister chromatids. This interchange is random and can potentially take place in any place of the chromatids and it begins with the breakage of the two chromatids in a common site, so there are two breaks per event (question b). It must be said that there are generally multiple chromosome crossover events per tetrad.
Even though chromosome crossovers can potentially take place at any site, the probability of such events occurring is proportional to the distance that separates two genes, which implies that genes that are separated by a great distance (one in the p-arm and the other in the q-arm, for example) are more likely to be split apart than any pair of genes which are closer to each other. The classical explanation is that there are physical impediments to the formation of chiasmata when genes are close to each other, such that the chromosome crossovers between neighboring genes is unfavorable, while the formation of chiasmata when the genes are far away lacks such physical impediments, and is therefore more favorable (question a).

    https://i.stack.imgur.com/2LbJT.png. A non-sister chromatid with three distinct genes (A, B and C). In addition, 1,2,3 and 4 are other genes.
A more intuitive way of understanding such dependence is by considering that chromosome crossover is random. Let's consider a non-sister chromatid, like the one in the figure above, whose genes A and C are far from each other. In order for recombination to take place between A and C, there would have a break in the space between the two genes. Because this distance is big, such break could take place in 1, 2, 3 or 4 (and many more), in the other hand, if we consider a recombination between the genes A and B, the only possible way to achieve this is by a break in 1. Because crossover is random, since there are a lot more possible sites of breakage between distant genes, it is more likely that one of these many places is selected as the site of crossover. Crudely speaking, it is analogous to the throw of a dice. The probability of getting a 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 on a single throw is much bigger that the probability of getting a 1, simply because there are more possible outcomes in consideration.
Regarding the mechanism, it all depends in the depth you want to cover, nevertheless, I would advise to read the section of chromosome crossover in Introduction to genetic analysis by Griffith

Crossover Value and Genetic Mapping


Industry Name For This Image Setup?

Question: Wondering if there's an industry known name for this very common three column image setup below header banners. It's seen on almost every site nowadays so I assume it has coined a name by now?
Comment: Though it doesn't answer your question about terminology; it could just be that so many sites use Bootstrap or a derivative and they all look the same because of that: http://adventurega.me/bootstrap/?utm_source=designernews
Answer: Organizing information into small bite sized pieces is nothing new, it's a  prudential tactic that arises from our inherent desire to segment information for readability.
As far as an industry term, the closest would be "info boxes". Further specifying that these particular info boxes would be center justified and using circular masks to crop the associated images.
Answer: I don't think there is a specific word to describe the layout but I have seen people say Icon Box when they are defining this layout. You will primarily see Icon Box said when looking at Wordpress Shortcodes.
Comment: I have seen "Icon Box" used in Wordpress Visual Designer only. In my experience, no one would know what you meant if you said "Let's put icon boxes on this web page"

Industry Name For This Image Setup?


How to find the list of blocks that must be added to white list after patch 6788 is applied

Question: In our multi store magento we have many blocks which some are disabled. Is there any way that provides the list of blocks which need to be added to white list instead of going through all cms blocks one by one?
Answer: Please find How to check which modules are affected by security patch SUPEE-6788 and check the introduced community tools. I used https://github.com/peterjaap/magerun-addons to get a list of used block vars. Use n98-magerun dev:template-var to get the needed list.
Another approach is https://github.com/rhoerr/supee-6788-toolbox. It is a shell script to search all used block vars.
Comment: Actually I tried the magento_appsec_file_check.php, but it prints in ...,app/design/frontend*  affected file 0. It did not provide any list of cms block. The thing is that if I disable the cache everything works well but with cache enabled only header and footer appears.
Comment: where exactly should I create .n98-magerun/modules?


What are the differences between battens and ribs?

Question: What are the differences between battens and ribs?
Comment: Look carefully at the top image especially and you can see a subtle splaying of the battens, possibly to account for spanwise flow, or perhaps it's necessary to support a flexible curved training edge, like a battened boat sail.
Answer: A flexible airfoil's battens have the same purpose on a sailboat, windsurfer, hang glider, iceboat, landsailer, 17th century windmill, or anything else.  The mast or spar adds stiffness to one dimension (transverse to  airflow), the battens to the other (parallel to airflow).
On a rigid airfoil covered by fabric or film, ribs have the same purpose.  (Some recent sailboats have such rigid airfoils instead of flexible sails, too.)
The main difference between ribs and battens is that battens usually stiffen only the aft part of the foil.  On something that sails on both port and starboard tack, that lets the front part of the foil flex appropriately.  (If you found a hang glider that dared to fly inverted, the same would apply.)  On a hang glider that doesn't fly inverted, leaving the front part unbattened avoids stress risers and, at any rate, it's only the aft part that would be prone to fluttering like a flag and contributing no lift, were it not stiffened.
Comment: Given timestamps it may be you answered the first version of the question, so my critique may be at fault. Anyway it should be noted that a batten can run the full length of chord, ad it will conform to it's designed profile regardless of the side the airflow comes from. In sail "flipping" them may require a yank on the sheet if the winds are light. Full length battens are by no means a rarity. Batten profile can be designed in such a way, that it will help the sail assume an optimal profile, even better than in a partially battened sail, or wing, this being Aviation Stack Exchange :)
Comment: Ummm... I don't think this answers the question... and regarding battens, they can either be full chord or partial, and they are flexible and conform to both tacks on a sailboat and would in a wing too. A rib is a different thing , at least in my mind: ribs are rigid, and can not change their profile.
Comment: Ah, I'd overlooked that you meant a **swept** leading edge.  Thank you.  I've deleted my previous comments.


Superhuman muscles that can stop bullets; would they look vastly different?

Question: I've plans for somewhat 'realistic' (and that's already quite a stretch of the word) superhuman characters whose muscles have the strength, density, and tensile strength that can stop most low-powered firearms (probably a 9mm pistol at the most). I figured that strength and density doesn't play a huge role with stopping bullets, but do offer some defense against stabs and slashes (and the super strength thing). An object's tensile strength is usually what stops bullets, but a muscle's tensile strength is usually quite low (no matter how much you weightlift), so I was wondering if having bullet-stopping tensile strength on one's muscles would drastically change a character's physical characteristics? Specifically, would it change what they look like? Would they still even look human?
Comment: Why not have high tensile strength in the skin? Seems a bit rubbish having bulletproof muscles if every time you get shot up chunks of skin and fat get torn off and superficial bloodvessels get torn open. Also a bit unfortunate if you get shot somewhere with no overlying muscle, but I guess everyone has to have weak spots...
Comment: Upvoted because you did the research and incorporated it into the question!  It's also a good question but you might be surprised what percentage of questioners don't research at all before posting.
Comment: yeah i also think maybe it better to make a bullet proof vest or gambeson kind of skin to absorb the bullet impact while covered with your type of muscle like ceramic vest, your type of muscle alone may can still make an internal injury from the impact such as cracking your bone or internal organs if they dont have the same characteristic like the muscle.
Comment: I still want them to be able to die, and get injured.
Comment: isnt they still can get injured or die from high powered firearms though?beside concusion can be fatal if you get shot on the head. in my opinion just muscle without impact absorbion properties will direct the impact to your internal organs, which make them not exactly protective but this just my opinion though, i am not knowledgeable about this, i only know that a soldier that get shot in the vest still get hurt or broken bone usually the rib they just not die or get a gaping hole.
Comment: Yeah, exactly, they're far from invulnerable, which adds to the drama.
Comment: ah....ok if that is the kind of body you desire/want :)
Comment: To add to starfish many important blood vessel are on top of muscle not underneath it, so your superheros still have a decent chance of being killed by gunshots.
Answer: My friend, grab graphene and roll it. Voilá! nano tubes.
These are posed as real world wonders that can make almost anything (except leaving the lab so far.... )
Artificial muscles made from nanotubes.
The mechanical upper limits are dictated by the weakest part of the chain. In this case, since the material that makes the muscle can take TONNES per strand of hair, your ligaments will snap.
Say your ligaments are anchored to the bone using nano tech too.....Your bones snap. So you add a graphene matrix in your bones. Now you can take a hit.
Lets distribute that energy even further.
Add non newtonian layers that hardens on violent impact like
suspended silica or calcium on some liquid.
Liquid armor on the wiki
The end result?
Get shot, your skin outer layer gets damaged but as soon as it hits the subdermal muscle tissue, it inflicts pressure. The pressure makes the suspended particles push the strata out and harden. Since this is contained on a material taht can hold tonnnnnes of kilograms in tension, won't burst.
Possible cons would be how to get a surgeon to operate you in the event you have a medical issue. Run of the mill tools won't cut it.
Also you take all the energy since even a 50 cal won't pass!
A full auto machinegun will push you, since it will transfer almost all the energy to you.
A 50 cal could hurt your brain due to clashing inside your skull. Most common injury on traffic is when your organs hit your ribcage or brain hits the inner skull.
Instantly accelerating as effect to .50 MBG to the triceps will mess your internal organs something fierce.
9Mil parabellum will be a risk on your head since your eyes lack protection. Also your fingers lack any real muscle group to shield them.
All in all, a real dangerous individual who can take thousand of Nato 7.62 and lower bullets to the gut/arms/legs.
And stands a fair chance to take a 50 cal and tell the tale.
Not to shabby, eh?
Comment: These materials are great for armor, but don't mix well with muscles. Going this route, I'd suggest moving them to dermal structures that you only have in places where your skin doesn't need to move too much or else your muscles risk hardening every time you go for a jog(liquid armor), and won't be able to stretch enough to move without exerting tons of force on them(graphene).
Answer: There are 3 general ways to make something more bulletproof:
 1. You can make it harder so that it can disintegrate the bullet on impact
Your muscles' ability to give and flex is vital to motility.  Making them hard enough to disintegrate a slug would make them useless as muscles; so, I highly recommend avoiding this approach.
2. You can make it thicker so that the bullet needs to ablate more material to penetrate it
Thicker muscles would make you slightly more bullet resistant.  A low calibre round that has to go through thicker pectoral muscles is less likely to make it past your rib cage to hit a vital organ, but muscles would have to be obsenely thick to actually stop anything bigger than a .22.  Again, you run into the issue of mobility vs protection.  As many bodybuilders can tell you, by the time your muscles get that thick, you lose most of your flexibility.
3. You can make it better at impact distribution.
This leaves impact distribution.  Your muscles are already great shock absorbers. It is why a person with good muscle tone can take a punch to the gut so much better than someone who is out of shape, but muscles have a weakness when it comes to being penetrated by bullets. They are striated.
This means they are made out of parallel fibers optimizing their ability to pull along their needed vector.  Along that angle you can punish them all you want with relatively little risk of injury.  However, bullets generally hit muscles along the sides which allow them to force themselves between the muscle fibers with relatively little force.  If muscles were woven more like kevlar, they would be immensely harder to penetrate.  Unlike thicker or harder muscles, woven muscles would not significantly reduce flexibility, but you might suffer a bit of a reduction in pulling strength since you are no longer pulling straight.
Perhaps a better option for natural armor without seeming less human would be reinforcing your person's entire body with dura mater.
Dura mater is the outermost protective membrane that covers your brain and spine. It is exceptionally strong, flexible, and made out of irregular cross-woven fibers. A report from the New Jersey Public Health System shows that the dura mater of rats can withstand 1.3 million Pascals of stress, which is a lot especially given their size. By layering dura mater between your skin and striated muscles, your person would look, feel, and move very much like a normal person, but when shot by a low caliber round, the fibers of the dura mater would distribute the impact across a large cross section of muscles instead of letting it just pierce between them.  With the impact distributed, your muscles could do what they do well and compress.
By distributing the impact across a larger surface, you'd probably have torn skin, plenty of bruising, and some some serious muscle inflammation after getting shot, but the bullet be a lot less likely to be able to impact in major organs.


How do I remove molding with out damaging the molding or the wall?

Question: I am installing wood flooring in my bathroom and want to remove the molding without damage.
Comment: Caveat: it isn't always possible to reinstall/reuse molding. Wood can warp over time, and it may simply not want to go back where you took it from. Also, "without damage" is relative; some nails will pull through, for example, which may require some patching/refinishing. I tried to save some hundred-year-old baseboards when I altered my living room, and the carpenter made a valiant try but finally gave up and put new ones in.
Answer: (after slicing the paint/caulk seam...) A wooden shingle slid behind a small prybar (http://www.hardwareworld.com/SharkGrip-Prybar-~-8-pGJXJX8.aspx) is ideal.
It also helps to find the studs and use the prybar over them because
   1) that's where the nails in the molding are most likely to be, and hence lessen the chance of damaging the trim
   2) the sheetrock will be less likely to break in those places as well.
There's also often a sort of order that it is installed, and is most easily removed in the reverse order. So take a look at which way the pieces overlap at mitered seams.
Answer: Cut the paint line / caulk line on the top and sides with a utility knife.
To pry, put a metal blade drywall knife against the drywall. On that, use a small pry bar to get behind the top of the trim. (You might have to gently tap the pry bar into the gap with a hammer.)
Assuming you're re-using the trim, pull the nails through the back of the trim with a pair of pliers.


Does the domain owner get contacted if someone else back-orders the domain?

Question: I'm trying to purchase a domain name that I like. I noticed that the domain is about to expire and has only been registered for a year now, Nothing really shows on the page when going to the site. It's not a very common domain name but I like it and wanted to know if back-ordering it notifies the current owner that someone else back-ordered their domain?
Answer: This may vary depending on the registrar but I know that GoDaddy doesn't inform to current owner of this. They do, however, contact the current owner with a lot of emails trying to get them to renew the domain.
Answer: It sounds like what you're referring to is actually expired auctions. Most registrars have expired auctions where you can bid on domains that have expired. A backorder is way to try and register a domain after it has been deleted (domains are usually deleted 40 days after expiration if they're not picked up in an expired auction). Then, you try to catch the domain as it's re-released.
Either way though, the owner will not be contacted if someone bids on their expired domain in an auction or requests a backorder for their domain.


How do you transfer Minecraft PE save files to PS3 save files?

Question: How do you transfer Minecraft PE save files to PS3 save files? I want to be able to play the same files on PS3.
Comment: @TheCodingMonster that happens sometimes. It doesn't make it a bad title - in fact, it means that the title lets other users know exactly what sort of help the poster is looking for. Sometimes there aren't a lot of details to be added in the body of the question. There is nothing wrong with posting it this way.
Comment: Can you not put your question as your title?
Comment: @TheCodingMonster Why not? It makes perfect sense as a title.
Comment: @AshleyNunn But it is like half of the question as the title
Answer: You can't. There are blocks in PE that don't exist in PS3 and vice-versa. Also, the saves are coded differently. Oh, and did I mention it is impossible to load any sort of save into a PS3?
Comment: If loading saves were possible, you would have a very little chance with converting it. For example, you can load PC maps to PE by converting them. Some blocks get removed tho.
Comment: @ardaozkai That is true. That is what allows you to load MC:PE on PC
Answer: Simple:
You can't
You can't because the 2 versions are at different states of development and they are programmed slightly differently.
Comment: I think *slightly* would be an understatement.
Answer: It can be done with consoles...
Convert from pe to pc then pc to console
Or revese order if you want your console world on your mobile.
Pe to pc...
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/MCPE/comments/1y996x/tutorial_how_to_convert_worlds_from_pe_to_pc/
Download tool chest & watch the video...ps3 rage save compatability is still under development...
Xbox is working 100%

Use a usb stick to copy your save files and tranfer between console + pc & BACKUP/COPY your save files to your pc before any modding!. ..
Comment: Could you summarize the information provided in the link and video in case either of those links ever die?


Identifying statistically significant gene rich and gene poor regions

Question: I am just wondering If there any adapted way of Identifying significant gene rich and gene poor regions in each chromosome for a given genome say mm10?
Comment: What research effort of your own have you put into answering this question? We ask that all posters here do some of their own research, report what they've performed and what they found out, and then specify a question that  focuses on something specific about a topic that they still don't understand. Please update with some of your own research effort findings and sharpen your question some. Thanks!
Answer: Interesting question. I don't myself know how to do this but a literature search returns some older papers on how this was achieved for pig and chicken genomes over a decade ago. The best way to do this today is to look through annotated genomes (like the mouse mm10) and use a gene density metric. You can achieve this with R code, writing your own code, trying to use some of the rich features provided in-browser at the UCSC genome browser (for mice, otherwise start here), or perhaps try to search literature for gene density stuff. I defer to others for more specialized answers.
PS. Since you're also interested in determining statistical significance, you probably will need to apply this over a sliding window across chromosome lengths, and this kind of question has been answered often elsewhere on SE (example). Sorry I can't be of more help; good luck!
Comment: Thank you for your comment. I found that `coverageBed` from `bedtools`  has some useful output for identifying gene densities.


Female Disconnect to Fix Mower Ignition Connection

Question: I have an older Craftsman Riding mower that I have to wiggle the wire connector to get it to start.  The ignition switch is working properly (I checked it with a multimeter) so I think the issue has to be in the wiring connector.  Is there any reason why I can't remove the wiring connector and replace the connections using female disconnects?  A new wiring harness is $70 and I am looking for an alternative.
Answer: Yes, they went out of their way to use a standard type part so you could do that.
Those connectors do have 3 different widths, so watch out what you are buying.
Answer: When I am faced with this kind of situation I evaluate time, money and the likelihood I will be doing the job again and also the cost of a new system.
That said $70 is your basis + your installation labor + you might need to replace the female connection and wiring.
So that said one option is to replace the connectors Male / Female with a better quality and more standard available connector such as the below link.
MS5015 Amphenol Connector
These connectors are rugged and the MS 5015 link shows units acceptable for Military Ground Equipment , there are other higher quality units used in Military Aircraft as well - but you don't need that.


Exercising a leg with a broken femur

Question: Should the leg with a broken femur (which has been treated with surgery) be exercised when the swelling of the leg has sufficiently decreased, but the muscles still hurt?
Comment: Welcome to Health. Your question as it was written initially is too personal and thus of-topic. I've allowed myself to edit out information to make the question adhere to the scope. Feel free to reject the edit or [edit] the question yourself.
Answer: This is a question to ask the surgeon who operated on the leg. Eventually, once the femur heals, you should be able to exercise on it unless there are some unusual individual circumstances. However, you do not want to start exercising if the bone has not healed yet. Whether the bone is healed or not will depend on (a) how long it has been since the surgery (a day? a year?), (b) how bad the break was, (c) the type of surgery performed to repair it, and (d) the general health of the patient. Pain is generally a warning sign that means "be careful" so if your leg is in pain, you should listen to that warning sign and avoid stressing the area. So, in summary: (1) Talk to the doctor who operated and ask how long you need to wait before you can exercise, and what types of exercise would be appropriate; (2) After your doctor clears you for exercise, consider talking to a physical therapist about the best way to strengthen the area. Exercise is great for improving many aspects of health, but you need to be careful if you have a broken bone.
Comment: Great answer. Also I want to highlight physical therapy. Almost always after surgery physical therapy is done to rehabilitate, as there is going to be atrophy etc.  Strong muscles help support bones and joints.  Don't do weight-bearing exercise without a doctor or PT's advice!  Follow their instructions!

Exercising a leg with a broken femur


What works analogous to works of mercy do Buddhist monks practice?

Question: In Christianity monks and nuns practice works of mercy which include caring for the terminally ill or doing what St. Teresa of Calcutta did. What works analogous to what St. Teresa of Calcutta did do Buddhist monks practice?
Comment: This link might be of some interest... https://www.parami.org/buddhist-community-welfare-organisations/
Answer: I believe monks are enjoined to do the same for each other -- Kucchivikara-vatthu: The Monk with Dysentery
But  not to act as doctors for lay society in general -- reference

Thus, bhikkhus should not become doctors, full-time nurses or attendants to invalids. They were supposed to live a simple, unencumbered life sustained by sufficient nutriment, appropriate medicines and advanced health standards for the full-time pursuit of spiritual liberation."
"When the Buddha referred to tending the sick, he was referring to fellow monastics. The Commentary,... [has that] a bhikkhu may prescribe and supply medicine to... his parents, to those caring for his parents, to lay-attendants of the monastery and to those residing in the monastery preparing to ordain; a bhikkhu may also [etc.]

Some will act like chaplains occasionally, if invited to -- visiting someone terminally ill and their family in hospital.
Other "acts of mercy" are a fairly rigorous discipline of being harmless, including not killing animals or insects -- and accepting charity (on the theory that it's good for laypeople to practice charity) -- and teaching the doctrine -- and so on, carrying on the Buddhist discipline and relaying the doctrine.

What the Missionaries of Charity did or do is a bit unusual among Christian monastics, though as the French proverb says, "If they didn't exist one would have had to have invented them."
There may be some analous organization among Buddhist monastics, here for example -- Fighting addiction at a Thai monastery -- that's maybe a close parallel but unusual/atypical too though.
Answer: My teacher - a Tibetan Buddhist monk - is constantly visiting the sick and dying and consoling the relatives of those who are afflicted among the lay community.  I know other monks and nuns who minister in prisons, who counsel death row inmates, who work with struggling youth. You can find monks and nuns who work on social justice issues, who work with interfaith organizations, who are constantly busy teaching and spreading the Dharma to all those who could benefit from it.
It is not hard to find many, many examples of Buddhist monks and nuns both contemporary and throughout history doing such work, but few are as famous as St. Theresa of Calcutta. Generally speaking, Mahayana monks and nuns train there whole lives to be living Bodhisattva's working for the benefit of others.
Comment: Your Tibetan teacher: was he born and raised in Tibet and disciplined in Tibetan monasteries?
Comment: Yes, he escaped Tibet as a young adult and was trained at Sera Jey monastic university in India and received his Geshe degree and now lives in the West.


How do I know when I've run out of gas programmatically?

Question: This keeps coming up on the gitter forums so I thought I'd ask and answer this question:   How do you know when you've run out of gas?
Answer: There currently isn't a clear signal that you've run out of gas.  A log message is being added to some future release.
Currently what I do is check to see if gasSent == gasUsed.  This requires your code to remember the amount of gas you sent on a particular transaction and wait for the transaction to be mined.  If gasSent == gasUsed, you most likely ran out of gas.  In my javascript code I throw an exception.  This has saved me several embarrassing forum posts and quite a bit of time.
In theory the transaction might be mined if it takes exactly the amount of gas used.   There's no way I can think of to figure that out right now, perhaps someone could add to this answer.  If you are running that close to the edge of running out of gas you should probably be sending more gas anyways.
I offer gratis some code I used to extend web3 functionality that waits for a transaction to be mined by a local node.  It uses promises but adapting it to callback style shouldn't be difficult if you don't want to use promises.  I plan on extending this in the future to await consensus from a plurality of nodes but I probably won't share that.
You won't be able to copy and paste this code in your code if you haven't instantiated a log or made a helper function to see if a var is set.  If you haven't done those already, you should...
It should be much smaller code to write this for contract-contract calls, so I won't show that example.  Same concept - just check to see if gasSent == gasUsed.
(And yes, Promise aficionados, I'm using a promise anti-pattern.   I just haven't gotten around to rewriting it.  The functionality is correct.)
Object.getPrototypeOf(web3.eth).awaitConsensus = function(txhash, gasSent) {
var deferred = Promise.pending();
ethP = this;
filter = this.filter('latest');         // XXX make async
callstack = new Error().stack;
filter.watch(function(error, result) {
    // this callback is called multiple times, so can't promise-then it
    ethP.getTransactionReceiptAsync(txhash).then(function(receipt)  {
    // XXX should probably only wait max 2 events before failing XXX
    if (receipt && receipt.transactionHash == txhash) {
        filter.stopWatching();
        log.info({txreceipt: receipt});

        if (js.isSet(gasSent)) {
            // note corner case of gasUsed == gasSent.  It could
            // mean used EXACTLY that amount of gas and succeeded.
            // this is a limitation of ethereum.  Hopefully they fix it
            if (receipt.gasUsed >= gasSent) {
                log.error({ badReceipt: receipt });
                log.error({ originalStack: callstack });
                throw(Error("ran out of gas, transaction likely failed!"
                                                                + callstack));
            }
        }

        deferred.resolve(receipt);
    }
    });
});
return deferred.promise.timeout(60000, "awaitConsensus timed out after 60000ms")
        .catch(function(e) {
            log.error(e);
            process.exit(1);
        });

}
Comment: Receipts now have a `status` field (I updated my answer) and you may be interested in updating the code :)
Comment: Yes, a lot of stuff going out of date with web3.js v1.0, probably in thanks to lots of feedback on this forum.  Not sure what to do with those.  Perhaps should start meta-discussion rather than one for each relevant question.
Comment: Good point about web3.js v1.0 and posting it on meta. My comment here was you can remove the timer and just check the `status` field in Byzantium.
Answer: Since block 4370000 (Byzantium) eth.getTransactionReceipt(transactionHash) will return a status field that has a value of 0 when a transaction has failed and 1 when the transaction has succeeded.
Here's an example showing the status field:
{ blockHash: '0xb1fcff633029ee18ab6482b58ff8b6e95dd7c82a954c852157152a7a6d32785e',
  blockNumber: 4370000,
  contractAddress: null,
  cumulativeGasUsed: 21000,
  gasUsed: 21000,
  logs: [],
  logsBloom: '0x00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000',
  root: null,
  status: 1, // **** HERE IS THE STATUS FIELD *****
  transactionHash: '0x1421a887a02301ae127bf2cd4c006116053c9dc4a255e69ea403a2d77c346cf5',
  transactionIndex: 0 }

(Blocks before 4370000 will have a status of null.)
More details here.
Comment: I am using web3j Neither transaction receipt nor transaction object has field status
Comment: @rahul I'm not sure about the status of the Java implementations as they are primarily community efforts; a suggestion is to file an issue in their Github repo.
Comment: are there other reasons that a transaction can fail besides out of gas?  If so, then there's still some additional checks for determining why the transaction failed.
Comment: @PaulS The other errors, for example invalid opcode, won't be encountered if a decent compiler is used https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/2307/why-does-a-solidity-throw-consume-all-gas  Yes, it's possible that a `status` of 0 means something else than Out of Gas but currently people interacting with handcrafted EVM assembly is rare. Still helpful that you point this out, and a reference for errors is https://ethereum.github.io/yellowpaper/paper.pdf with search term "exceptional".
Answer: Here is my Python code to check this using Populus and web3.py:
from web3 import Web3
from populus.utils.transactions import wait_for_transaction_receipt

class TransactionConfirmationError(Exception):
    """A transaction was not correctly included in blockchain."""

def confirm_transaction(web3: Web3, txid: str, timeout=60) -> dict:
    """Make sure a transaction was correctly performed.

    Confirm that

    * The transaction has been mined in blockchain

    * The transaction did not throw an error (used up all its gas)

    http://ethereum.stackexchange.com/q/6007/620

    :raise TransactionConfirmationError: If we did not get it confirmed in time
    :return: Transaction receipt
    """

    try:
        receipt = wait_for_transaction_receipt(web3, txid, timeout)
    except Timeout as e:
        raise TransactionConfirmationError("Could not confirm tx {} within timeout {}".format(txid, timeout)) from e

    tx = web3.eth.getTransaction(txid)

    if tx["gas"] == receipt["gasUsed"]:
        raise TransactionConfirmationError("Transaction failed (out of gas, thrown): {}".format(txid))

    return receipt

Answer: There are 2 main cases of errors after a transaction has been mined

the evm run out of gas: indeed the best way to test is gasUsed==gas
the deployed contract failed to deploy: getCode(address)==0x

For systematic use of these cases I have wrap these in a npm package ethereum-web3-plus for who wants.
it is used like this:
web3.waitFor(  web3.newInstanceTx("Example"), // your txHash
             function(tx, contract, error) {
                  console.log("callback:", tx, contract, error);
                  // Possible errors : full gas used: <gas used>
                  //                   created contract has no bytecodes
                  if(contract) E = web3.instanceAt("Example", contract);
             } );

Answer: Perhaps a naive question - what is the reason this is not just included as a flag in the transaction receipt. the receipt is generated once the block is mined (hence the txn receipt contains the block number) and also contains the gas used so clearly at the time the receipt is generated the transaction has been run..so why does the receipt not require a confirmation of whether the transaction completed? Seems a bit scary that contract calls can execute with such little visibility around whether the state was indeed updated per the expected contract behaviour
Comment: Hi there. I'm afraid you'll need to ask this as a separate question, rather than posting as an answer to an existing question.
Comment: Welcome to Ethereum! If you have another question, please ask it by clicking the [Ask Question](//ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) button.


Where do Database Snapshots store the information what pages have been copied to the snapshot files?

Question: Database snapshot files are sparse files. Only when a page is modified the sparse file is being written to. Reads of the snapshot must be able to know whether the sparse file contains a copied page or not. How does SQL Server know where to read from? Where is this information stored?
Answer: From the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Internals book:

The snapshot files contain only the data that has changed from the source.  For every file, SQL Server creates a bitmap that is kept in cache, with a bit for each page of the file, indicating whether that page has been copied to the snapshot.  Every time a page in the source is updated, SQL Server checks the bitmap for the file to see if the page has already been copied and if hasn't it is copied at that time.  This operation is called a copy-on-write operation.
The bitmap is stored in cache, not the file itself, so it is always readily available.  When SQL Server shuts down or the database is closed, the bitmaps are lost and need to be reconstructed at database startup.

When performing reads, SQL Server checks the snapshot bitmap to determine where to read from.
Comment: Thanks! I failed to find this particular source. It looks like on startup the bitmap is reconstructed by querying NTFS (there is a Windows API for that). The bitmap is surprisingly small. 10TB file = 160MB bitmap (10*2^40/8192/8/2^20).
Answer: Background from the documentation:

Source database

  For a database snapshot, the database on which the snapshot was created. Database snapshots are dependent on the source database. The snapshots of a database must be on the same server instance as the database. Furthermore, if that database becomes unavailable for any reason, all of its database snapshots also become unavailable.

Sparse file

A file provided by the NTFS file system that requires much less disk space than would otherwise be needed. A sparse file is used to store pages copied to a database snapshot. When first created, a sparse file takes up little disk space. As data is written to a database snapshot, NTFS allocates disk space gradually to the corresponding sparse file.

Location
Specify the default snapshot location on the Snapshot Folder page of the Configure Distribution Wizard. If you create a publication on a server that is not configured as a Distributor, specify a default snapshot location on the Snapshot Folder page of the New Publication Wizard.
To modify the default snapshot location

On the Publishers page of the Distributor Properties -
dialog box, click the properties button (…) for the Publisher for
which you want to change the default snapshot location.
In the Publisher Properties -  dialog box, enter a value
for the Default Snapshot Folder property.
Comment: Did you simply copy and paste material from [the official documentation](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175158.aspx)?
Comment: It's not a problem, you should just attribute the source of text if it came from elsewhere. I'll show you how.
Comment: First two paragraphs are from official documentation to make an intro. I didn't want to post the link and write read this. Last part is what you wanted to know, and someone who is reading this maybe doesn't know the terminology of sparse file and source database as snapshots concerned. If that's a problem for you I'll edit the post and just leave the last paragraph.
Comment: How does SQL Server know whether it needs to copy a page it wants to write to or not? I can't tell from the text quoted here.
Answer: This information about the publisher and distributor screens seems very wrong, as if you have to replicate a db in order to use db snapshots. It looks like this entry is conflating replication snapshot files with database snapshots.


Noobie question about stocks

Question: If almost everyone can earn money on stocks using good strategies. Why does a company shares profit or losses(or i do not know what the proper term is). What benefits company received? I came here because i cant find or not satisfied by the answers given by google.
Comment: "using good strategies". In a certain sense, it appears the best strategy is no strategy. Buy a little bit of everything. That's feasible today with ETF's; costs can be as low as 0.1%.
Answer: The company gets the investors' money when it issues and sells the shares (but it's not involved when the shares are later repeatedly resold on the stock market). That's a common way for companies to raise money for expansion or capital investment. In return for that money, the investors get ownership of the company.
Answer:
The shareholders are the owners of the company.  Any time you buy shares in a company, you become a co-owner of that company.  So if the company makes a profit, as a co-owner, you will want some part of that profit in the form of a share dividend.  If you never get anything, you will vote out the board that's running the company, and vote in somebody who will share the profits.
If a company wants to expand, it can do that buy creating and selling new shares.  The company can use that money raised to invest in the business.  But nobody would ever want to buy shares if they didn't get anything in return.  So the bargain is that if you buy the shares, then you will get some of the profit created by the newly expanded business.
Answer: A company is paying stock owners a sort of historical debt. When the company issued their stocks the first time it has been given free money by the investors but it also gave away a part of the company to these investors. These parts of the company can since then also can change ownership and thats the main motivation behind stock trading: You hope to get part ownership of a profitable and growing comoany to profit off their profits.

Noobie question about stocks


Can I change the location of the iTunes iPod Photo Cache folder?

Question: I want to sync photos on my Windows desktop with my iPad but when I set iTunes to Sync Photos from the My Pictures folder, iTunes creates an iPod Photo Cache folder (which is about the size of My Pictures folder which is 6 GB).  Letting iTunes create the folder is not the issue but I am syncing the "My Pictures" folder with my laptop and other computers and I do not want to have the iPod Photo Cache folder to also sync across my other computers.  Is there a way to change the location of where iTunes will put the iPod Photo Cache folder?  I did not see a setting in iTunes for it.
Comment: This belongs on SuperUser
Comment: @dani this is allowed here because the focus is on the gadget, not the PC. Some gadgets interface with the PC..
Answer: Purpose of this folder:

When iTunes synchronizes photos to your iPod, it actually converts and resizes them into 16-bit bitmaps in resolutions appropriate for the iPod. It stores the converted photos in the iPod Photo Cache folder before transferring them to the iPod. This basically allows iTunes to quickly add/remove photos from your iPod without having to reconvert them every time. If you remove a photo album/folder from your iPod (by unchecking the box in iTunes preferences), it will still leave the pictures in the cache in case you want to add them again in the future.

Possible workaround:

Move the iPod Photo Cache folder to the location of your choice, and make an alias (shortcut) to the folder in its new location. Place the alias in the folder where the iPod Photo Cache originally was (usually in the Pictures folder) and make sure the alias is named "iPod Photo Cache". When iTunes looks for the iPod Photo Cache folder in the Pictures folder, it will instead find the alias, directing it to the new location.

You didn't specify the OS of the computer but on Windows that would be a junction point.
Comment: Isn't that a symbolic link since Vista? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link
Comment: I tried that but it didn't work.  Windows Live Sync still began syncing the contents of the junction point (which I thought was very strange and possibly an issue with Windows Live Sync).
Answer: You need a second step to hide it from Live Mesh and also to make sure it doesn't show up in your Pictures view of Windows 7, etc.

Sync your photos, allowing iTunes to create the folder in your Pictures folder as usual
Copy that folder to a location out of the way, I like to use where iTunes keeps the rest of their data (and should put the photo cache IMHO):

C:\Users\User Name\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media
NOTE: You can put it on a share or other drive if you wish, as long as you use a soft link (which we do below)
3.Create the symbolic link. I use MKLINK from the Windows SDK.
Open the CMD window as Administrator and type:
cd C:\Users\User Name\Pictures
MKLINK /D "iPod Photo Cache" "C:\Users\User Name\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\iPod Photo Cache"
Then, you will see the folder appear in your Pictures folder with the familiar "Shortcut" arrow.
4.Right-mouse-click that folder and select "Hide Folder"
When it asks if you want to hide it just for that folder or all folder and files pick only for this folder
TADA! Your iTunes (which knows the name and looks for it in code) will find the file and update the database correctly in it's new location, but any picture / file services (Zune, Windows Explorer, Live Mesh) will not pick up the directory.


Hodge Index Theorem for  Gr(n,k)

Question: I'm trying to understand the Hodge-Index Theorem at the moment. What does it say explicitly for the case of the complex Grassmannian Gr($n,k$), and can this be established without recourse to the theorem?
Answer: The answer is a happy surprise for me:  The Hodge index theorem for a Grassmannian matches a special case of John Stembridge's $q=-1$ phenomenon, that I also studied in an old paper.
First, some generalities about what is going on, and about when you do or don't "need" the Hodge Index Theorem.  I am following the Hodge Index theorem described in Claire Voisin's book, that says that the signature of a complex $n$-manifold is a certain alternating sum of Hodge numbers.  A Grassmannian is a type of partial flag variety, and flag varieties have Schubert cell decompositions.  That makes it easy to compute both the Hodge numbers, and the signature of the manifold separately so that the Hodge Index Theorem becomes an identity between two calculations.
More precisely, the Schubert cells are a basis for the cohomology: they make a CW complex with even-dimensional cells, which forces the CW differential to vanish.  For complex geometry reasons, the Schubert cells are all in $H^{k,k}$ for some $k$, i.e., all on the diagonal of the Hodge diamond.  The Hodge Index theorem then says that the signature is the alternating sum of these numbers.  At the same time, the intersection matrix of such a manifold is just a symmetric permutation matrix connecting dual Schubert cells.  So the signature is also the number of self-dual Schubert cells.  The Hodge Index theorem thus equates the number of self-dual cells with signed sum of all of the cells.
In the case of a Grassmannian $\mathrm{Gr}(a,a+b)$, the Schubert cells are labelled by partitions in an $a \times b$ rectangle.  The Hodge index formula is the $q$-enumeration of these partitions with $q = -1$.  On the other hand, the direct calculation is the number of self-complementary partitions, where you replace a partition with its complement in the rectangle and turn the rectangle upside-down.  It is easy to calculate the self-complementary partitions in the case.  The lattice path of the partition is symmetric about the middle of the rectangle, so these are just partitions in an $\lfloor a/2 \rfloor \times \lfloor b/2 \rfloor$ rectangle.  Or there are none if $a$ and $b$ are both odd: in this case the signature is trivial a priori because the middle dimension has odd degree.  This combinatorial equality is exactly the $q=-1$ phenomenon.
What I wonder now is whether every case of the $q=-1$ phenomenon, for the $q$-dimension of an irreducible representation of a complex simple or compact simple Lie group, can be explained by a Hodge Index theorem with coefficients, combined with some geometric model of the representation.  This would be sophisticated (to the point of overkill, if you just want the combinatorics), because the involution in general is something called "evacuation", which John related to canonical bases.
Comment: hello, professor kuperberg. I considered your above-mentioned materials several years ago when I was a graduate student. Maybe the following papers maybe of interest to you.

1 http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/search/publdoc.html?pg1=MR&s1=0451273&loc=fromreflist

2 http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/search/publdoc.html?pg1=MR&s1=1817702&loc=fromreflist

3 http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/search/publdoc.html?amp=&loc=refcit&refcit=1817702&vfpref=html&r=3&mx-pid=1923093

Hodge Index Theorem for  Gr(n,k)


Is there any regulation on how often a private aircraft should be washed?

Question: Is there any regulation on how often a private aircraft, such as a Cessna, should be washed?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Is there any FAA Regulation on the washing of private aircraft such as Cessna Skyhawk or Citation?](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/29857/is-there-any-faa-regulation-on-the-washing-of-private-aircraft-such-as-cessna-sk)
Comment: This is definitely NOT a duplicate of that question. That question deals with *who* may or shall wash the plane (and doesn't offer very good answers). This question deals with when it shall be washed.
Comment: I can't imagine why there would be. If there is any, it may be a local airport regulation related to run-off. There is no FAA regulations on washing GA aircraft.
Answer: Yes
...sort of.
There is a general requirement to clean privately operated aircraft as part of the annual inspection. There is no requirement to actually accomplish an annual inspection for a non-flying aircraft stored in a hanger. However, for an aircraft to be airworthy, the mechanic performing the annual inspection shall accomplish the required cleaning as part of the inspection. See 14 CFR 43, Appendix D:

(a) Each person performing an annual or 100-hour inspection shall, before that inspection, remove or open all necessary inspection plates, access doors, fairing, and cowling. He shall thoroughly clean the aircraft and aircraft engine.

Note that the annual inspection is generally the only inspection required of many privately operated aircraft. For aircraft operated commercially for flight instruction or carrying passengers for hire, the 100 hr inspection is also required, which might increase the required cleaning interval.
This regulation applies to all aircraft subject to FAA regulation. There are otherwise no special FAA regulations regarding aircraft washing or cleaning that are applicable to the Great Lakes area.

There may also be manufacturer recommended wash intervals. However, these are not regulations.
Operating certain types of aircraft under an approved maintenance program, the manufacturer could conceivably mandate a wash schedule which would then become mandatory in order to maintain continued airworthiness under that approved maintenance program. Such a mandate could conceivably apply to a specific geographic area based on climate issues. However, in the context of private aircraft, the requirement for such maintenance programs would only apply to certain large, turbojet, or multi-engine turbine aircraft. For this reason, neither of the types originally tagged in your question (Cessna 172 and 208) would be subject to a requirement for an approved maintenance program, though the Citation series originally mentioned in your title would be.
Moreover, if a manufacturer instituted such a change to their maintenance programs, such a change would generally only affect newly approved maintenance programs. Existing maintenance program approvals are "frozen" meaning new manufacturer maintenance program recommendations are recommendations only.

There may be local ordinances that limit water usage or otherwise regulate activities involved in aircraft washing.
Questions regarding EPA regulation are beyond the scope of this site.
Comment: I overheard a discussion about a recent "mandate" from Cessna recommending 15/30/45 day washes depending on location. Specifically interested in the great lakes area.
Comment: @Ross See my edits my answer. Manufacturer maintenance recommendations are not regulatory and are not generally applicable to private aircraft.
Comment: "Yes, there is a general requirement to clean privately operated aircraft at an interval annually."

Got a link for that? Maybe a reg?
Comment: @egid There you go, see edits
Comment: and of course there's a requirement to have good vision through the windows, which translates into washing them when vision is degraded...
Comment: @jwenting Well, to my knowledge there is no explicit regulatory requirement regarding good vision through windows or windscreens outside of current certification standards. Such a requirement might be found in manufacturer recommended maintenance practice, or might be inferred from the requirements of §91.13. However, in the context of this question, "*Is there any regulation...*", no, there is no such regulation.


Is drilling a pilot hole into the plaster wall of an old house hazardous asbestos?

Question: The house was built in the 20's, and I was installing some battery powered smoke alarms today.  I drilled the pilot holes for the plastic screw anchors and the 'A' word jumped into my head after I looked at the powder that came out with my drill bit.  Is drilling into the walls of an old house hazardous due to the possibility of asbestos insulation?  Or, would there likely not be any insulation in the interior walls?
Answer: It is difficult to say
If you are concerned about asbestos you need to go to your local council and tell them you are concerned about your walls being filled with asbestos. They can check records if any occurances of asbestos builds exist in your area. even if nothing shows up it will be worth doing an independent test if you are still worried.
There are asbestos tester kits available also for DIY- but be advised to wear asbestos protective masks and clothing- if it turns out positive you will need to deal with it asap.
If they find asbestos.. well you need to tell the council and there should be grants available to remove it.
Be careful and wear certified masks and gloves at all times during testing and never reuse any of the kit- dispose at once into bag- into separate container. IF tests reveal negative your stuff can be dumped into normal channels.. IF positive you need your council to collect it and incinerate all exposed items.
Comment: This is mostly good advice, but a couple of small points: in the UK you can dispose of small amounts of "lower-risk" asbestos-containing materials yourself at the local tip.  The council website will have instructions for how to handle and wrap it safely.  ACMs are never incinerated (it is fireproof!), just buried separately in marked and sealed areas.
Comment: Also, "you will need to deal with it ASAP" - sometimes the safest course of action is to leave it alone.  If it's a lower-risk material (e.g. asbestos cement) in good condition and it's not going to be disturbed, the risk of leaving it is often lower than the risk of trying to remove it, even professionally.
Answer: It is unlikely that you would have asbestos insulation in interior walls. The powder that you drilled through was probably plaster, which was commonly used (over wooden lath, or directly applied to masonry) for walls before drywall became popular.
Most plaster does not contain asbestos. However some plasters do contain asbestos. A competent home inspector can often tell you, based on the location and construction techniques, whether this is likely. For example, the plaster in our 1893 house contains horsehair, pre-dating the use of asbestos in plaster.
Of course, the only way to be sure is to test it. I'd advise you to test, but from what you've said so far I don't see any reason to panic.


Can light particles be the medium in which another wave travel through?

Question: So, I was thinking about how light wave something act like particles, and I thought, if light is made of particles, couldn't a mechanical-like wave travel through it? Is this possible, and in what situation would it happen
Comment: Interesting thought. But it is more correct to say "something like particles" than "particles".
Answer: I think you are asking if photons can pass energy from one to another the way massive particles do when a sound wave passes, e.g., through a gas.
The answer is "no" in the vacuum and in ordinary media, because photons pass right through each other under those circumstances.  However in the case of extremely intense light and in a nonlinear medium, light can interact with light.   In that case, probably there could be something analogous to a sound wave that propagates through a "gas" of photons.  I haven't seen any theoretical papers addressing the question; it's an interesting idea.
Answer:
So, I was thinking about how light wave something act like particles,

Light is a superposition of zillions of photons, and photons are elementary particles of zero mass.

and I thought, if light is made of particles, couldn't a mechanical-like wave travel through it?

There are a number of laser light experiments, where the frequency is fixed, that show interference of light waves. Note that interference is not interaction, just that the amplitude in space of the supposed beams changes , and these changes can be made periodic and be fitted with a different wave pattern.
In this video one can see how the pattern of interference changes, for example. One could use interference to generate wave patterns.  In this sense light can be the medium of another waver.
Actually there is something simpler, as we are using radio frequency electromagnetic waves to transfer music, this is also mathematically described by  wave solutions.
So the "particles of light" are used to carry other wave solutions.
Is this possible, and in what situation would it happen
Answer: Photons do have properties that describe both waves and particles, but in the case of photons, these characteristics usually are for separate situations. Photons do have wave characteristics, usually when they travel. But the particle characteristics of photons are visible when they interact with other particles, usually when they are absorbed by an atom (electron).
Usually the medium that you are talking about is made of particles that have rest mass. Usually these mediums are made up of composite particles, atoms and molecules. We do not know of mediums that are made up of only elementary particles that do not make up composite particles. What you are talking about would be a sea of electrons or a sea of photons. There are no mediums like that, at least not in nature. The only occurrence of these type of elementary particle mediums are:

sea of photons after the big bang
inside a neutron, there is a sea of quarks and gluons. Yes, it is a misconception that neutrons are made of three quarks. Those are what you get if you net out the sea of ever changing quarks and gluons, and the three quarks left are called valence quarks.
inside a neutron star
inside a black hole (where gravity is so strong, that composite particles cannot exist in their normal form because of spaghettification and the crush of gravity)

Now a medium that you are talking about would be made of photons, but those photons do not have rest mass and are traveling at speed c in vacuum when measured locally. How could a wave travel inside a medium that travels at speed c?
The only solution that we know about is GWs. According to QM, gravitons are hypothetical particles, that like photons, do not have rest mass, and travel at speed c.
These GWs are possibly made up of gravitons, so that gravitons are the quanta of GWs. If gravitons are the quanta of GWs, then the GWs themselves are traveling in a medium made up of gravitons.
Please see from wikipedia:

However, if gravitons are the quanta of gravitational waves, then the relation between wavelength and corresponding particle energy is fundamentally different for gravitons than for photons, since the Compton wavelength of the graviton is not equal to the gravitational-wave wavelength. Instead, the lower-bound graviton Compton wavelength is about 9×109 times greater than the gravitational wavelength for the GW170104 event, which was ~ 1,700 km. The report[16] did not elaborate on the source of this ratio. It is possible that gravitons are not the quanta of gravitational waves, or that the two phenomena are related in a different way.


Civ V and City State Allies

Question: Ok, i am very far into my game of civ v atm, i have many allies. The problem is with the Byzantinum Empire. It seesms that any city state connected to their borders gains some sort of static influence toward them Byzantium is completly bankrupt and in negative GPT yet every so often they will supplant me as city state ally. In that occasion i will buy back influence.(I have a strong economy) I would just like to understand why this is happenning, if there is some sort of policy or tenent, or something that is specific with the byzantium empire.
Comment: If you found the answer to your own question, please post it as an answer.
Comment: RESOLVED: Byzantium has gunboat diplomacy ( they are of the autocracy ideology)
Comment: They could've just completed quests for the city state, like clearing barb encampments, connecting a certain resource to the trade network, amass the most culture/faith within a certain period....
Comment: @Kevin this is possible, but it doesnt seem likely as it isnt outputting 40 influence for the civ, and it happens way to often.
Comment: You have all three Civ 5 expansions tagged; which one are you actually playing? And what era are you and Byzantium in?
Answer: It can be a result of gunboat diplomacy, but there are other factors that also play a role here, such as:

if these city-states share the same religion with Byzantium, their influence decay will be slowed down by 25%;
if Byzantium has patronage opener, influence decay will also be slowed down by 25%.

If Byzantium has these factors but you don't, then their influence decays slower than yours, so effectively their influence is gaining every turn relative to yours.

Civ V and City State Allies


if rebirth/reincarnation is true then what is your first birth/incarnation?

Question: I think the question is clear so no further explanation is needed.
Comment: this question falls under "Acinteyya" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acinteyya ,
Comment: actually I think it is a duplicate of http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/9973/first-life-in-samsara/14660#14660
Comment: Question closed due to being primarily opinion-based and too subjective in nature. Please see [*"What types of questions should I avoid asking?"*](http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask) in the Help Center.
Comment: @Lanka I think this question should be reopened. The Tibetan Buddhist answer to this is specific, and I believe the other schools of Buddhism are in agreement that there is no first cause, no first birth.
Comment: @Hellyale. I will reopen the question as I see it has gained upvotes and that 3 users have submitted reopen-votes. I still think the question is lacking content and is too subjective in nature. Lets see what happens from here.
Answer: Do you think someone might have asked that question before?
According to Access to Insight, many of the suttas include the following quote,

At Savatthi. There the Blessed One said:

"From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on.

In other words the "first" is not evident (or, I'd read that as, it's not evident that there is a first).


Using cut command to remove multiple columns

Question: given input

 echo 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,...100

If I want to cut columns 5  I can do

cut -d, -f-4,6-

what if I want to cut multiple non consecutive columns like 5, 7,etc
is there a one liner?
Answer: You should be able to continue the sequences directly in your existing -f specification.
To skip both 5 and 7, try:
cut -d, -f-4,6-6,8-

As you're skipping a single sequential column, this can also be written as:
cut -d, -f-4,6,8-

To keep it going, if you wanted to skip 5, 7, and 11, you would use:
cut -d, -f-4,6-6,8-10,12-

To put it into a more-clear perspective, it is easier to visualize when you use starting/ending columns which go on the beginning/end of the sequence list, respectively. For instance, the following will print columns 2 through 20, skipping columns 5 and 11:
cut -d, -f2-4,6-10,12-20

So, this will print "2 through 4", skip 5, "6 through 10", skip 11, and then "12 through 20".
Comment: `6-6` probably works, but is more conventionally written as `6`.
Comment: @JonathanLeffler Yeah, I know - but I kept the `6-6` in the example the show what it would look like to use a wider-range of columns. For instance, if the OP wanted to skip 5 and 10, he would need `-f-4,6-9,11-`. This may (or may not) be visualized if I collapsed it to just `6`. However, I edited to add an example with sequential columns too - so thank you for the tip =]
Answer: Sometimes it's easier to think in terms of which fields to exclude.
If the number of fields not being cut (not being retained in the output) is small, it may be easier to use the --complement flag, e.g. to include all fields 1-20 except not 3, 7, and 12 -- do this:
cut -d, --complement -f3,7,12 <inputfile

Rather than
cut -d, -f-2,4-6,8-11,13-

Answer: You are able to cut all odd/even columns by using seq:
This would print all odd columns
echo 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 | cut -d, -f$(seq -s, 1 2 10)

To print all even columns you could use
echo 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 | cut -d, -f$(seq -s, 2 2 10)

By changing the second number of seq you can specify which columns to be printed.
If the specification which columns to print is more complex you could also use a "one-liner-if-clause" like
echo 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 | cut -d, -f$(for i in $(seq 1 10); do if [[ $i -lt 10 && $i -lt 5 ]];then echo -n $i,; else echo -n $i;fi;done)

This would print all columns from 1 to 5 - you can simply modify the conditions to create more complex conditions to specify weather a column shall be printed.
Comment: Using in  Mac Os (Darwin):
echo 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 | cut -d, -f$(seq -s, 1 2 10)
I get this error
cut: [-cf] list: values may not include zero
but if I run:
echo 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 | cut -d, -f1,3,5,7,9
the error disappear.
Could someone try to explain this? Why if seq is used gives this error?
Comment: This is more complicated and less flexible than every other answer on this page.
Answer: The same could be done with Perl
Because it uses 0-based-indexing instead of 1-based-indexing, the field values are offset by 1
perl -F, -lane 'print join ",", @F[1..3,5..9,11..19]'

is equivalent to:
cut -d, -f2-4,6-10,12-20

If the commas are not needed in the output:
perl -F, -lane 'print "@F[1..3,5..9,11..19]"'


Does the Torah tell us what to eat at the Purim meal?

Question: Since we know that the Torah instructs us in every aspect of our lives, are there any instructions about what to eat at the Purim meal?

This question is Purim Torah and is not intended to be taken completely seriously. See the Purim Torah policy.
Comment: Cholent!!!![15]
Comment: [Vayikra 26:7-10](http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0326.htm#7) is clearly referencing Purim, which is just under a month before the Korban HaOmer.
Comment: related http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/80501/759
Answer: Of course there are! In the מדרש הנעלם here the Rabbis tell us that the Purim seudah should consist of five food items:

1) Challah - Naturally the first food item is bread, since every festive meal must have bread. But on Shabbos and Festivals it is not called bread, but Challah. The reason for the difference is because the *mispar katan mispari gematria** (MKMG) of the word for bread (לחם) is 6, a number which relates to six non-holy days of the week. But the MKMG of חלה is 7, which relates generally to the holiness of Shabbos.

*A method of gematria where the total numerical value of a word is reduced to one digit by adding up the gematria values of the letters. Should the sum of these numbers exceed 9, the integer values of the total are repeatedly added to each other to produce a single-digit figure.

   But the number 7 also specifically relates to the special day of Purim, because even though it is called פורים in the plural, we see from the verse in Esther 9:26 עַל-כֵּן קָרְאוּ לַיָּמִים הָאֵלֶּה פוּרִים עַל-שֵׁם הַפּוּר that this refers to the two days of Purim and Shushan Purim, but each individual day is called פור, and the MKMG of פור is 7.
2) Wine - An essential part of every festive meal, but even more so on Purim, because the days of Purim are called days of מִשְׁתֶּה וְשִׂמְחָה (Esther 9:17), and the word משתה relates the word שתיה (drinking), and so Purim are days of rejoicing with drinking. But whereas we start with wine (at Kiddush) before the challah on Shabbos and Festivals, because of the rule ונהפוך הוא (it was reversed) on Purim we have the wine after the challah. And it should be noted that the MKMG of יין is also 7!
3) Fish - The Mazel (Zodiac sign) of the month of Adar, and therefore eating fish at the Purim seudah is a סימן טוב. And not surprisingly the MKMG of דג is 7.
4) Liver - No festive meal could be considered complete without some Fleishig (at least for non-vegetarians), but on Purim we are told that this should be liver. The reason for this is that liver in Hebrew is כבד which relates to the word כבוד (honor) and another word for honor is יקר. Thus, liver alludes to the posuk in Esther 8:16 לַיְּהוּדִים הָיְתָה אוֹרָה וְשִׂמְחָה, וְשָׂשֹׂן וִיקָר - "The Jews had light and gladness, and joy and honor".
   But there is a dispute about which liver is the best to use. One opinion is to use turkey liver, because turkey is called הודו (give thanks), and thus alludes also to the thanksgiving of the day to Hashem for saving us. But others disagree because bird meat is not really meat, as it says in the Torah Bereishis 15:10 וְאֶת-הַצִּפֹּר לֹא בָתָר. Therefore, they hold that one should use beef liver.
5) Soufflé - The last thing is a fluffy dessert which the Rabbis explain is made from flour, eggs, almond milk and sugar, and what we would nowadays call a soufflé. It is not clear what this dessert alludes to.

These then are the five essential food items which we should have at our Purim seudah. And in order to make it easy for us to remember them, the Rabbis incorporated them into a song with a very catchy tune:

♫Challah, Wine, Fish, Liver, Soufflé   ♪Liver, Soufflé   ♪Liver, Soufflé♫
  ♫Challah, Wine, Fish, Liver, Soufflé   ♪Liver, Soufflé   ♪Liver, Soufflé♫
  ♫Ad She, Ad Shelo Yoda   ♪Ad She, Ad Shelo Yoda   ♪Ad Shelo Yoda♫
  ♫Ad She, Ad Shelo Yoda   ♪Ad She, Ad Shelo Yoda   ♪Ad Shelo Yoda♫
Answer: Since we all know from Toras Imecha - aka Der yiddishe mama - "Drinking in the middle of a meal will fill you up!".  Therefore the Rabbi's did not enact what we should eat by the Purim meal, since the main mitzva is to drink and they knew der yiddishe mama would get in the way were there certain traditional foods required to be to be eaten.
Answer:
One must eat Carobs (which sounds like swords in Hebrew)
One must eat eyes (which see - Lirot - which also mean "to shoot")
One must eat barbequed meat on a skewer.

All to remember the battle

One must also eat a young sheep to remember how Haman was hung.
Comment: Two points (har har): 1. Carobs also look like swords. 2. Can we fulfill the requirement for eating carobs by eating carbs?


Cross Border Work Visa Requirement?

Question: I'm a Canadian citizen tour guide that will be picking up a group in the US and touring them for a week in the US before we enter Canada to finish the trip for another week in Canada. Do I require any Visa for such cross-border work? My employer is a US travel company.
Comment: Did someone *really* flag this as suitable for expats. I don't think leading a toru group for a week counts as wanting to "live" in a country.
Comment: Actually Canada is the bigger pita in this issue, as they require Canadian licensed guides for tours in Canada that are not transiting (ie enter from US, visit Canada, go back into US).  This probably plays into the decision to hire a Canadian guide to lead the trip.
Comment: Possibly so, on the basis of a TV show I saw *(but it was pre-NAFTA)* about a bus company that hired a certain tribe of American Indians to drive its cross-border routes; as they were dual citizens by treaty.
Answer: As a Canadian, entering as a business visitor you do not need a visa. While I can't find official documentation for this particular case, you can find the following on the How Do I Enter the United States as a Commercial Truck Driver page:

Canadian citizens entering the United States as visitors for business do not require either a passport or a visa. However, each applicant for admission is required to satisfy the inspecting officer of his or her citizenship. An oral declaration may be accepted or the inspecting officer may require supporting documentation, for example, a birth certificate, certificate of citizenship or a passport (valid or expired). In addition, all travelers should carry some form of photo-identification.

That's crystal clear. Now the only question is, are you a business visitor? Well, let's read the law § Sec. 214.2(b) Visitors has this under NAFTA:

tourism personnel (tour and travel agents, tour guides or tour operators) attending or participating in conventions or conducting a tour that has begun in the territory of another Party. (The tour may begin in the United States; but must terminate in foreign territory, and a significant portion of the tour must be conducted in foreign territory. In such a case, an operator may enter the United States with an empty conveyance and a tour guide may enter on his or her own and join the conveyance.)

Looks like your case is explicitly covered and yes, you are a business visitor. Go ahead, good luck! (The same page also tells you don't need a visa but it's written in unreadable byzantine legalese so I found the CBP truck driver page better to explain that.)
Note that the relevant Canadian guide about Cross Border Movement of Business Persons misses the section in () above and as such is completely misguiding. However, the law certainly trumps any informational pages.
Comment: I must add: originally I only found the Canadian guide and wanted to add "dura lex, sed lex" (the law is harsh but it is the law) but apparently the law tilts in your favor this time; still it's such a cool way expressing a fundamental concept I couldn't resist adding this phrase in this comment at least.
Comment: CHX - you are the man!! I couldn't get a clear answer from my employer and even chatted with US Immigration who thought there might be some exception for my case but really didn't know. You have solved the case in style and I am in you debt.
Comment: The Cdn guide seems to say that if one gets us sourced compensation this NAFTA provision may not apply. s. 101(a)(15)(B) of the INA Act also talks to meeting other "source of compensation" requirements. Seems to suggest that the tour guide provisions will not apply if being paid by a US company for the tour???

Cross Border Work Visa Requirement?


What's the difference between Google Plus Instant Upload and the new Google Photos?

Question: Google Photos is a newly launched application from Google that now backs up all your photos for free (as long as you're ok with their being 16MP and 1080p). But I also have Google Plus with Instant Upload enabled. Are these two completely different services, and is there any way to get my Google Plus Instant Upload photos (which is a lot) into Google Photos?
Answer: Google Photos is basically just a rebrand of Google+ Photos. Same data, different apps handling the backups.
Answer: Google Photos is Google+ Photos rebranded to be more generic (and not limited to the G+ network).
If you access Photos from your Google+ profile, it will redirect you to the new Google Photos service (photos.google.com), where all your photos from G+ will be. I noticed that after I first accessed Google Photos, it appears that it took several hours for all my photos from G+ to be available through the new service.
Google Photos is also more closely linked with Google Drive, with a specific option to import media from Google Drive.


How do i know a table size and row counts for each month, for the past six months?

Question: Using sql server can i get the row count and size of the table as well as the database size for the past six months?
Comment: If you have datetime as a column and not modified, you can get the row count. Post your table definition.
Answer: Unless you are tracking tables, table size can not be known. To get current size:
sp_spaceused 'TableName'

To get row count:
Select count(*) from 'TableName'

To get row count with a timestamp field:
    Select
          DATEPART(YEAR, 'timestamp_field') AS 'Year',
          DATEPART(MONTH, 'timestamp_field') AS 'Month',
          DATEPART(DAY, 'timestamp_field') AS 'Day',
          COUNT(*) AS Check

    from
         'TableName'
    group by
         DATEPART(DAY, 'timestamp_field'),
          DATEPART(MONTH, 'timestamp_field'),
          DATEPART(YEAR, 'timestamp_field')
ORDER BY  'Year',
          'Month',
          'Day'

Database growth:
SELECT
[database_name] AS DB,
DATEPART(day,[backup_start_date]) AS Day,
DATEPART(month,[backup_start_date]) AS Month,
DATEPART(year,[backup_start_date]) AS Year,
AVG([backup_size]/1024/1024) AS "Backup Size MB",
AVG([compressed_backup_size]/1024/1024) AS "Compressed Backup Size MB",
AVG([backup_size]/[compressed_backup_size]) AS "Compression Ratio"
FROM msdb.dbo.backupset
WHERE [database_name] = N'AdventureWorks'
AND [type] = 'D'
GROUP BY [database_name],DATEPART(m,[backup_start_date]),DATEPART(d,[backup_start_date]),DATEPART(y,[backup_start_date]),backup_start_date;

for database size details. Check this link
Create table size tracking report
Comment: >>>updated the code<<< The code that calculates backup size still adds all the years under the same month
Answer: If you did not set up Data Collector or any custom job that saves periodically database/table sizes you cannot get these sizes in the past
Answer: There's no built-in mechanism for SQL to track table or database growth over time. Lots of 3rd-party monitoring tools can do this.
Where I work we have custom daily SQL jobs that query the database sizes (and lots of other info) on all our servers and store it in a DBAInfo database so we can query it later if necessary.
If your table has a "created_date" column or something equivalent, then you can use that to get some results for your table:
SELECT YEAR(created_date) as yr, MONTH(created_date) as mth,
       COUNT(*) as rws
FROM mytable
GROUP BY YEAR(created_date), MONTH(created_date)
ORDER BY YEAR(created_date), MONTH(created_date)

(WARNING: this query will run for a very long time on a good-sized table.)
To estimate table size growth per month, just use the above row counts by month, and divide by the total table size, which you can get from sp_spaceused 'TableName'.
If you want the actual row sizes as stored in your table, that's much more difficult, you'd have to do some weird stuff with DATALENGTH(), see this post for some ideas.
EDIT: To use the output of sp_spaceused, set up a temp table, then parse the string:
create table #tbl(
  name nvarchar(128),
  rows varchar(50),
  reserved varchar(50),
  data varchar(50),
  index_size varchar(50),
  unused varchar(50))

insert into #tbl exec sp_spaceused 'dbo.AccountLogons'

select name, rows,
    convert(int, substring(reserved, 1, len(reserved)-3)) as reserved_kb,
    convert(int, substring(data, 1, len(data)-3)) as data_kb,
    convert(int, substring(index_size, 1, len(index_size)-3)) as index_kb,
    convert(int, substring(unused, 1, len(unused)-3)) as free_kb
 from #tbl

drop table #tbl