When applying for an Australian temporary worker visa (457), how can you get extra days before and after the contract duration?

Question: I will apply for an Australian temporary worker visa (457) soon and my contract is for 6 months. I also plan to do some traveling around the country before and after the contract, so I will need a visa to cover the extra days. Is it possible to request those extra days during the application?
Comment: I requested my bonus two weeks in a letter I attached to my file, but I don't know yet whether it has worked.
Comment: @lafemmecosmique my other plan is to 'pad' the stay with two tourist visas, but not sure if that's legal
Comment: They encourage you to do that, at least they did on the phone. However the website states that short tourist holidays may also be permitted if they fall outside the timeframe of the work. Definition of short isn't given.
Comment: Update for me, I asked for 2 weeks of holiday before a 2 month temporary work visa (400, not 457, though) and I was granted clearance for a full 3 months. I think that the time allocated comes in chunks -- so you may be granted a full 6 months and have to get extra time on your own using an ETA or tourist visa. You are allowed to do that but afaik you have to leave the country if you plan to switch from one clearance type to the other (e.g. ETA --> 400-class work visa). But I might be wrong, so this isn't enough for an answer.
Comment: @lafemmecosmique I'm confused. So in order to use your 457 after the 400 you will have to fly out the country? Or can you do an implicit switch? It sounds like you were granted exactly the thing I was looking for.
Comment: I applied for a 400 (only) and in that application I asked for an extra two weeks of tourist holiday. Since the 400 is granted for up to 3 months, and my work was about two months, I asked for 2 months and two weeks. I was granted the full 3 months. I have heard from another friend that it's okay to enter on an ETA, and that you can fly to New Zealand to switch to your work visa after. But I'd definitely call the embassy first to verify whether that's the case.
Comment: @lafemmecosmique could you add this as an answer?
Comment: Yes, sure. I wasn't sure if it's relevant or definitive enough for one but I'm happy to add it.
Answer: I have a semi-answer.
Anecdodal part: I applied for a 400 Temporary Highly Skilled Work Visa for some work I will be doing for a period of about 2 months. I asked for an extra two weeks in my application for tourist activities (NB: my personal time is before the work begins, not after). According to the website for 400-class visas:

Combining a holiday with your intended work or activity may be allowed if the holiday is of short term duration and secondary to the main purpose of your visit. You must indicate in your visa application if you intend to combine your work or activity with a holiday, as the period of stay considered will generally be only for the period that allows you to undertake the work or activity.
Alternatively, you can consider applying for a Visitor visa to have your holiday in Australia. To do this, you may first apply for the Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist) visa (subclass 400) to undertake the work or activity and then a Visitor visa (once you are in Australia) for your holiday.

In my case, since my holiday was short and since it all fell within the lower 3 month boundary, I was granted the extra time. One should note that I also requested extra time in case my work is delayed, and that my tourist holiday was for before the work (normal and potential extra) began. Basically my model was 2 weeks of holiday before 2 months and maybe + 2 weeks of work.
I was just today granted a three month duration visa which takes effect on the day that I land in Australia.
Also note that the case for you may be different because your contract is 6 months, and so your tourist time will push you further along than 6 months.
In your case, it would seem that you can apply for the visitor visa during your work time in Australia, from Australia, if it is not granted already by your visa application.
I added a letter of clarification for the ECO in terms of my dates of work, including the proposed 'extra time' for the work, and the 'extra time' for tourist activities. In my case it seems to have worked, however I am from a country which constitutes 'low risk' (i.e. I am from a country which is able to get an ETA).
As your visa (457 rather than 400) is generally granted for a longer period of time, it's possible that the ECO will take your circumstances into account if you let them know that you are seeking extra tourist time (and the dates of said tourist time). I would encourage you to explain the circumstances in a letter.
If they do not grant the visa including the proposed tourist time, I would encourage you to apply for a visitor visa whilst in Australia as per the guidelines above. Note that you cannot switch from an ETA to another type of visa while already in Australia.
I have heard anecdotally that it's possible for you to enter on an ETA and then leave Australia, flying back to activate your new working visa before you work. But I can't seem to find any sources which confirm this, and you should call the embassy to ask.


Why keyword position is different for search console & live results?

Question: Search console shows the position is 15.7 but in live even it's not in 100 positions.Why this is happening.
Comment: Search Console is showing an average position based upon many search queries. You cannot simply compare it to doing a single keyword search in your browser. They are not the same. I get that it is confusing. Google should be making this clearer. Cheers!!
Comment: Checkout the date of position, because it might be old. And use ignite mode to check position.  When the position is 15.7 then it might be on 15 to 20 position on different country of Google.
Answer: Try and filter by Country. Also switch off private search results if you're using Google yourself to search as this will bump up results that are more relevant to your user profile (which tracks location, search history, interests, etc.)
It will also show an average of all results, which includes bonuses/penalties from private results. If many local users lean toward using another site similar to yours, you'll find yourself bumped down in comparison for those users. Your average will appear lower. The same is true if many people favour your site - which bumps it up despite your actual rank appearing lower.
As Google has stated many times, there's no definitive ranking list. Each SERP is generated on the fly from many different metrics. Your 'rank' will appear in constant flux and will not be the same for all users.


What is the use of Brahmins in settlements?

Question: I was working in my settlements and found my first Brahmin in Starlight Drive In. After some research on the internet, I found a way to keep it in one spot using the feeding bathtub, but still, WHY do I keep it? Nobody on the internet seems to have the real answer. Does it add food? Does it makes people happy?
Basically, what is the use of Brahmins in my settlements?
Comment: One of the Abernathys mentions that their brahmin gives them free fertiliser, so the increased productivity mentioned by the answers below might be due to the abundance of cowpats in a settlement with brahmin nearby.
Answer: According to this post on the Steam Community forums brahmin increase the productivity of the settlement.

The game doesn't tell you what purpose the brahmins serve when they initially start spawning in your settlements. However, once you randomly start running into the wastelanders on the road who want to sell you one, you can find out in their dialogue options. They state that having a brahmin will increase the productivity of the settlement it is located in.
As well, as stated in the game's help menu, increasing the happiness of a settlement results in an increase to its productivity, apart from preventing its revolt. So, my guess is that once you naturally increase a settlement's happiness to a certain level (I don't know the cut-off point), and therefore increase its productivity, a brahmin will spawn, as the concepts of "happiness," "productivity," and "brahmins" are interconnected.
I have only bought one brahmin so far, but I have six of them in my various settlements.
Comment: Damn! I'd like to have this conversation on screenshot.
Answer: They can be used to carry caravans around and can be killed for their meat as said here. They can also be used to see dialogue actions and seemingly help boost productivity as well as said here:

"The game doesn't tell you what purpose the brahmins serve when they initially start spawning in your settlements. However, once you randomly start running into the wastelanders on the road who want to sell you one, you can find out in their dialogue options. They state that having a brahmin will increase the productivity of the settlement it is located in." (This quote plus the link comes from @SlashTag)
Comment: Second link (and quote) was posted in earlier answer.
Answer: Brahmin is way more important than you thought. As we know that the best way to get rich is selling purified water. But the problem of selling water is purified water is heavy. So here is another way to get rich:
1. Feed as many as possible Brahmins
2. Brahmin will produce fertilizer (in your workshop)
3. Use fertilizer (and plastic) to make Jet
4. Selling Jet
Jet's weight is only 0.1 and it's expensive than water.
Better to use these 2 ways together, so that you can use purified water to exchange plastic.
Answer: First of all I'm pretty sure Brahmin don't just spawn in your settlements, there is an NPC walking around selling Brahmin for 100 caps, and this person can usually be found anywhere between Sanctuary, Starlight Drive-in and Abernathy Farm.
I bought a brahmin off her and had to choose which settlement to send it to. I chose Starlight Drive-in and sure enough my Brahmin was there when I showed up so I built it a feeding tub.
I don't believe it's wise to buy brahmin for slaughtering purposes, I know they provide meat and leather but it isn't worth 100 caps a head. I do believe that brahmins produce fertilizer (shows up in 'junk' in your workbench).
Also, contrary to what many believe, you do not need brahmin to establish supply lines, I think you only need Local Leader perk (level 1) to do that, and supply line brahmin spawn automatically.
Comment: I never bought any Brahmins so they DO in fact spawn there!
Comment: @KeineMaster Really? Interesting, I have already paid for 2 of them, I wonder what the prerequisites are to get them to spawn for free.
Comment: same here, I've never bought one, and they seem to always spawn stuck inside my houses/shelters
Answer: I believe they also give your settlements Brahmin meat in the Workshop inventory.
Answer: After enough settlers and food troughs they will start coming in and killing them is only hurting you. Get as many as you can for they add to happiness and productivity. As well as they give you fertilizer which you can use to make ammo and jet which can be sold to make a load of caps.
Answer: The Brahmin produce fertilizer.
Answer: I believe only give you fertilizer and count as a settler , and you can only have 10+ what every you cha is in settler
 .


What are the opening times of ticket vendors in the bus terminal in Guayaquil?

Question: The website of Terminal Terrestre Guayaquil Fundación is sparse and in Spanish. There's a bit at the bottom saying 6:00 to 22:00, but in my experience different parts of a terminal open and close at different times. What are the opening times of the ticket vendors?
Answer: Post-travel answer for posterity: the bus terminal, including ticket offices, but excluding catering, is open and guarded at all times. The safest place seems to be the platform where the buses stop because only people with tickets can access it.


Why does dragging the middle mouse button sometimes translate my selection instead of rotating my view?

Question: I don't know what's causing this, but sometimes when I have faces or vertices selected in edit mode I will drag the middle mouse button to rotate my view but it will translate the selection instead. I don't press G or anything. Is there some Blender shortcut I'm not aware of that I'm activating by accident?
Answer: Try changing the mouse. The mouse might be faulty


Which is better -to save money or pay down debt?

Question: Generally speaking, if you've come into a little bit of money (for example, the profit from the sale of real estate), is it better to use that money to pad your savings account or pay down your debt leaving behind very little in your savings account? What factors should be considered?
Comment: I'm surprised there's not a good dupe here. I've found some that deal with similar situations (pay down debt vs. save for house/retirement) but none answering the general question.
Comment: Related: [Oversimplify it for me: the correct order of investing](https://money.stackexchange.com/q/47856/10997)
Answer:
What factors should be considered?

How much do you have in an "emergency fund"? If you have enough cash on hand to handle most true emergencies (maybe a few thousand dollars in case your A/C goes out or your car loses its transmission), then put everything else towards the debt. If you have a huge emergency fund but are paying interest on debt, then that money is costing you in interest payments.
Why do you have debt in the first place? If you use this one-time income to pay down credit card debt but don't solve the underlying spending problem, then you'll just be back where you started at some point. Make sure you spend less than you make (ideally by not using credit cards at all) and get a grip on your budget, or your efforts will be in vain.

Remember that you "earn" money by paying off debt equal to the interest rate that you pay off.  For example, if the annual interest rate on your debt is 10% and you pay $1,000 to it, you "earn" a roughly 10% annual return on that $1,000 by saving you $100 in interest over a year (plus a small amount due to compounding).
Answer:
Generally speaking, if you've come into a little bit of money ..., is it better to use that money to pad your savings account or pay down your debt leaving behind very little in your savings account?

Yes!!

What factors should be considered?

The interest rate on the debt.
If it's hair on fire CC debt... then absolutely put most of the money against that debt, leaving a minimal ($1,000 or so) Emergency Fund.
If it's a 0.9% car loan, then... there's no urgent need to pay it off instead of socking it in the bank at 1.5%.
If it's an 8% personal loan... then yeah, pay as much off as you can, but keep a larger Emergency Fund.
Answer:
What's the interest rate of the loan
What interest rate can you get for your savings
How much would have left over if you pay off the loan
What other sources of cash do you have (credit cards, family, friends)
What are your expenses
How likely is it that you will have a jump in expenses
How secure is your income


Possible training approach while in holidays

Question: My workouts consist of weight-lifting followed by a moderate cardio session. I'm pretty used to it, but I have a growing concern; I'm visiting my folks for the holidays and I plan to stay there for 11 days. And I won't have access to a gym while over there. Is pure cardio enough for these 11 days? Or should I use stuff around the house to have something to lift?
Comment: Bodyweight exercises are always good as you don't need very much. Just find a tree and you can do pullups/chinups. Pushups don't need anything more than the floor. Squats without weights are still good. Chest dips can be done on an inner corner of a benchtop or between two stools
Answer: If your workout session is limited to the gym, you need to be introduced into the world of Calisthenics
Let me whet your appetite with a few links:

Bar Brothers

Barstarzz

Essentially,

Any strong, horizontal overhead bar is your equipment for building strong back, lats, arms, biceps, triceps, and shoulders via pull ups, chin ups, and muscle ups.
Your staircase hand rails (if it's narrow enough or putting two chairs across each other) is your dip station to build bigger triceps and chest
The floor is always available for for various types of push ups.
The floor is always available for core exercises.
Fill up a 5 gallon bottle with water and you can perform front squats, one-arm bicep curl, and overhead press with it.
A lot of neighborhoods (especially in the US) have playgrounds with bars. Go nuts!

My point is simple: there are ample exercise equipment around you outside the gym; recognize them, use them, and you'll never be limited to the gym.
Wait.....there's more!

If you have your personal dumbbells (or an EZ curl bar with disc) and you're driving to your folks, you can easily take those with you.
While jogging is the de facto running mode, sprinting is a better way for you to keep in shape. Interweave sprinting with knee jumping for maximum cardio.
Yoga and pilates are also wonderful alternatives. You can use the time to stretch your body, joints, and muscles.

Where there's a way, there's a kickass way to stay in shape.
Comment: without having watched the video, how do you do chest dips on a staircase?
Comment: @Aequitas It depends on how narrow the staircase is; if it's narrow enough for you to lift yourself, you can easily do it.
Comment: oh right, on the hand rails you mean right? derp I was trying to think of a way to do it on the actual stairs
Comment: @Aequitas I'll update my answer to ensure others know I was referring to hand rails.
Answer: I think best way is to go for HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) along with some band exercise. HIIT is all about body weight training with no equipment, however the focus is on short bursts rather than long cardio exercises. Try these:

Burpees
Squats
Pushups
Jumping Lunges
Vertical Jumps

Do every exercise as hard as possible for 45 seconds and take a 15 seconds break and move to the next exercise. Try completing 3-5 sets of these exercise and you will melt away fat.
Answer: Honestly, 11 days isn't going to destroy your gains and you may even benefit from the break.
Consider just going for a run, to keep on schedule and not feel like garbage. You could also drop ~$30 on a knock-off TRX, or run to a playground somewhere and knock out some pullups. Or rig up the suspension trainer on a nearby tree.
If you're doing real strength training in a gym, you're not going to be able to simulate that in any practical sense without a gym.
Another real option, if you have the cash to drop (or have them already) would be a couple of heavy kettlebells. I'll use my 53LB for swings, snatches, and other such lifts. Tossing in some sprints, pushups, and pullups, it's not a bad workout.


Citizenship Status

Question: I am a permanent resident. Recently I was doing research about how to get my citizenship. I found some informations on uscis.gov saying that someone might already be a US citizen if the person who petition for you is a citizen and you entered the US under 18 years old.  My dad is a citizen, he petition for me and I was under 18 when I came to the US. Now my question is, am I a US citizen even if I'm currently using my  green card? Please tell me how do I find out?
Comment: What is your date of birth?
Comment: When did that happen?
Answer: If, at any moment in time on or after February 27, 2001, you were 1) a permanent resident (doesn't matter how you became a permanent resident), 2) under 18, and 3) living in the U.S. under the custody of a U.S. citizen parent, then at that moment you automatically became a U.S. citizen, even if you didn't know it.
Here is an official reference
Comment: This looks like a good answer. Could you add a link to an official reference that explains this?
Comment: @GregHewgill: added

Citizenship Status


Are the first humans black

Question: I have been doing some studies and I believe humans where black before they were white. Black has the ability to create all colors where as white derives from no color so white couldn't have been first. What do you think?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [How did some humans evolve to be white?](https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/70326/how-did-some-humans-evolve-to-be-white)
Comment: "Black has the ability to create all colors where as white derives from no color so white couldn't have been first" – permanent black skin pigmentation was an adaptation to constant UV exposure of hairless skin. Our furry hominid ancestors didn't have much of a selective pressure to produce eumelanin (the black pigment) in the skin itself, which is why the logic is not as straightforward as you put it in your question.
Comment: Which one would you consider "the first" in your question?
Comment: Related found (after typing my own answer): https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/61141/why-did-evolution-make-peoples-skin-dark
Comment: Welcome to SE Biology. This is a science site for questions and answers based on scientific principles. It is not a discussion site, so that statements like "I believe" and questions like "what do you think?" are good indications that a question is off-topic. I am afraid that supporting your belief with an argument like "Black has the ability to create all colors where as white derives from no color so white couldn't have been first" cannot be regarded as scientically appropriate here. Please re-read the Tour and the help on asking questions.
Answer: It very much depends upon what you call "first humans". Before there was any hairless hominids, the skin under the fur might have been very different from the skin colour of a human 30,000 years ago.
It appears that extant sister species of Homo sapiens sapiens tend to have a light skin under its fur according to a number of popular article I could find (e.g. this and that). Here is a picture of a hairless chimpanzee from the St-Louis (Missouri; USA) zoo

It suggests that the MRCA between humans and chimpanzees had a pale skin but please realize that this claim is based upon my research of poor quality references and it contradicts John's claim in the comments.
It sounds reasonable to me to think that humans skin evolved a darker skin when they started to lose fur and when their skin got more directly exposed to sun. Some human lineages have then "evolved back" lighter skin (see How did some humans evolve to be white?).
You can read more about the evolutionary forces controlling skin evolution in this answer.
Comment: chimps actually show both skin tones, as well as a selection of "inbetween patterns" although pale is the most common.  Gorilla on the other hand are far more often dark skinned. s we really don't know what skin tone our common ancestor had.
Comment: @John I would love a reference for these claims. I failed to find any good reference so that's why I went with popular sources and a zoo picture only.
Comment: Tanning does not work the same in chimps as it does humans (or gorilla for that matter), chimps can tan to a completely black color, unlike white humans they actually have the genes to produce dark skin even when pale. Since chimps are forest delling it makes sense savannah living humans might evolve a more permanent solution. http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/levin/bio213/articles/skin_deep.pdf
Answer: The first (African) humans with low body hair/fur (compared to apes) almost certainly acquired black skin pretty quickly, probably in a simultaneous process with shedding of hair/fur. This is based on genetic evidence, such as the low variation in the "African black skin gene". From Jablonsky and Chaplin (2010):

The near absence in African populations of functionally significant variation in the coding region of the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), one of the major genes regulating human eumelanin production, indicates the action of purifying selection maintaining dark pigmentation under intense selective pressure (Harding et al., 2000; John et al., 2003; Makova and Norton, 2005). The evidence of functional constraint on MC1R in African populations is unusual in light of the high levels of polymorphism observed at other loci in African populations (Makova and Norton, 2005).  [...]
The loss of body hair in humans was accompanied by enhanced barrier functions of the stratum corneum (Montagna, 1981; Elias, 2005), including the evolution of other epidermal keratins (Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium, 2005; Moll et al., 2008), which reduced the skin's permeability and improved its abilities to resist abrasion and microbial attack. The rapid divergence of genes responsible for epidermal differentiation was one of the most significant results to emerge from the initial comparison of human and chimpanzee genomes (Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium, 2005). Changes in skin pigmentation also accompanied loss of body hair, and multiple lines of evidence indicate that permanent, dark, eumelanin-based pigmentation evolved soon after the emergence of the genus Homo in Africa (Jablonski and Chaplin, 2000; Rogers et al., 2004).

How quickly this (combined process) happened is a matter of some debate, in particular because we don't know how quickly hair was shed (that also depends on the environment of ancestral hominids, which itself is somewhat contentious) or how quickly a (mostly hairless) species would die out (or evolve) because of skin cancers, in the absence of eumelanin protection. Greaves (2014) summarizes:

Early hominin evolution in East Africa at some 2–3 Ma was associated with a dramatic loss of the body hair development that is retained by our primate cousins. Hair growth was retained on the head—the most UVR-exposed part of the body of a bipedal hominin. Some exotic explanations have been entertained for this dramatic phenotypic shift, including avoidance of fur parasites or of catching fire, a response to wearing clothes or an adaptation to an aquatic way of life. But the most likely major adaptive advantage would have been for thermoregulation or facilitation of sweating and heat loss for physically active, hunter–gatherers in the savannah But what colour was the exposed skin of the first hairless hominins? Not black it would seem. The skin of our nearest primate relative, the chimpanzee, is, under the fur, essentially pale or white with melanocytes restricted to hair follicles. The exposed and relatively hairless face and hands are also white in infant chimpanzees of three Pan subspecies (but black in Pan paniscus) and they become facultatively pigmented with age. It has therefore been considered very likely, albeit not unambiguously so, that the first African hominins to discard hirsutism were also white- or pale-skinned. [...]
Rogers et al. [2004] proposed that, around the time that humans first became hairless savannah-dwellers, the now common allele swept to fixation under the influence of potent environmental selective pressure. They calculate a minimum date for the time since that sweep occurred of approximately 1.2 Myr  which is not too discordant with the time estimate of 1.7 Ma when hominins (Homo ergaster or Homo erectus) were believed to have first inhabited the savannah. The adoption of the more open savannah as a habitat may have resulted from climate change and consequential shifts in forestation and faunal species abundance.

With those estimates there's a 500,000-year gap between moving to savannah and getting black skin. What happened in between is a matter of conjecture. (Neither skin nor hair are preserved in the fossil record.) A more recent study (Tishkoff et al., 2017), which further analyzed black skin DNA variation in Africa, concludes:

Skin pigmentation is highly variable within Africa. Populations such as the San from southern Africa are almost as lightly pigmented as Asians, while the East African Nilo- Saharan populations are the most darkly pigmented in the world. Most alleles associated with light and dark pigmentation in our dataset are estimated to have originated prior to the origin of modern humans ~300 ky ago. In contrast to the lack of variation at MC1R, which is under purifying selection in Africa, our results indicate that both light and dark alleles at MFSD12, DDB1, OCA2, and HERC2 have been segregating in the hominin lineage for hundreds of thousands of years. Further, the ancestral allele is associated with light pigmentation in approximately half of the predicted causal SNPs; Neanderthal and Denisovan genome sequences, which diverged from modern human sequences 804 kya, contain the ancestral allele at all loci. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that darker pigmentation is a derived trait that originated in the genus Homo within the past ~2 million years after human ancestors lost most of their protective body hair, though these ancestral hominins may have been moderately, rather than darkly, pigmented. Moreover, it appears that both light and dark pigmentation has continued to evolve over hominid history.

And speaking of Neanderthals, it is estimated by Lalueza-Fox et al. (2007), based on genetic evidence, that they developed an arrays of skin colors as well, by a mechanism similar to modern humans:

The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) regulates pigmentation in humans and other vertebrates. Variants of MC1R with reduced function are associated with pale skin color and red hair in humans of primarily European origin. We amplified and sequenced a fragment of the MC1R gene (mc1r) from two Neanderthal remains. Both specimens have a mutation that was not found in approximately 3700 modern humans analyzed. Functional analyses show that this variant reduces MC1R activity to a level that alters hair and/or skin pigmentation in humans. The impaired activity of this variant suggests that Neanderthals varied in pigmentation levels, potentially on the scale observed in modern humans. Our data suggest that inactive MC1R variants evolved independently in both modern humans and Neanderthals.

And if the wide-variation of skin color within Africa (from recent studies) confuses you in relation to MC1R's [gene] lack of variation in Africa (it did baffle me for a while), Martin, Henn, et al. (2017) explain it as:

As
  observed previously, we find a strong correlation between absolute
  latitude and average skin pigmentation reflectance caused
  by melanin content. We also observe that populations with lighter
  skin have reduced variation within any given study: populations
  furthest from the equator have narrower distributions, while
  populations closest to the equator have wider distributions.
  These patterns suggest that selection is acting differently at
  different latitudes. In equatorial regions, strong directional selection
  for darker pigmentation has shifted the distribution means in
  some populations to M indices >90, but with wide variances. This
  is consistent with a ''threshold'' model (Chaplin, 2004) in which
  the protective benefit of melanin needs to meet some minimum
  threshold but with no penalty to darker pigmentation; alternatively,
  diversifying selection could maintain the wide variance.
In stark contrast, pigmentation in far northern European and
  Asian populations has been under directional selection for
  decreased melanin production, reflected by very narrow distributions.
Comment: Great answer, though I find the last citation a bit odd: "We also observe that populations with lighter skin have reduced variation within any given study: populations furthest from the equator have narrower distributions, while populations closest to the equator have wider distributions. These patterns suggest that selection is acting differently at different latitudes." The authors seem to ignore that non-African populations (1) have had less time to diversify and (2) have experienced bottlenecks. These factors should've been pointed out when discussing variation in non-African populations.

Are the first humans black


Flickering issue in external monitor when used with Acer Aspire One D260 netbook (Intel GMA 3150)

Question: I recently purchased a Acer Netbook, Aspire One D260. It runs flawlessly. Yesterday I bought a Samsung 23" TFT with a native resolution of 1920x1080. According to the information found in the internet and my local computer dealer, the Intel chipset can handle the native resolution of the monitor.
However, this is only partly the case. I use the VGA cable to connect, the monitor instantly switches to the native resolution and now the problem: Occasionally, especially the first 2 hours after booting up, I have a flickering all over the screen, sometimes the entire screen is shaking and spinning around like crazy. I figured out that lowering the resolution avoids the flicker but this helps only for some time.
I can rule out that it's the monitor's problem since I found no issues with another notebook.
Right now, I have no problems with the Netbook, for about 30 minutes I didn't experience any issues... But I don't know for how long, it occurs without warning :-)
I'm worried that if I would bring the Netbook back to the dealer and explain my problem, after testing it on an external screen in the local shop, everything works just fine... And I won't get helped with the problem because I can't prove it. (I'm currently in Thailand and over here, customer service is nothing like back home in Germany)
What can I do? Is this a driver related issue? (I installed the latest GPU driver)
Is it because of the VGA cable? (But why does it work sometimes without any problems and with no issues on the other notebook) I monitored the GPU/CPU temperature, nothing changes really over time.. Can it simply be a faulty GPU and is a replacement justifiable?
I'm really stressed now because for the time I'm writing, the flickering didn't occur... but for sure, soon or later it will happen again..
I forgot to mention, the problem also happens if the Netbook runs on battery, unplugged. So the only hardware that is plugged is the TFT screen.
...........and here it comes again, flickering has just begun.
Answer: A few things to try:

Try a different (known good) VGA cable
Try to set a higher refresh rate
Try disabling the effects on your desktop


Why can't I resize my text box in Illustrator CS6?

Question: The resize tool just don't appear. When I try to resize, it only turn out that I only move my text box. Is there something wrong with my software?
Comment: Hello Cheslea, welcome to GDSE and thanks for your question! This sounds most like a bug in Illustrator, and you'd be way better off asking about those in the [Adobe Illustrator forums](https://forums.adobe.com/community/illustrator). Because of this, this question might be put on hold soon. Please, don't be discouraged, we are aware that using this site can be a learning curve, but we *are* happy to have you. Keep contributing and enjoy the site!
Answer: Try choosing View > Show Bounding Box from the menu.
Answer: I've done this myself, the bounding box is hidden, to turn it back on the shortcut is Ctrl/Command + Shift + B
Answer: I was having this problem as well. The select tool SHOULD show you a box with points that you can manipulate. But I've had to Command/Shift/B to show this bounding box. Problem solved - but a pain that the Select Tool doesn't perform the way it should.
Answer: I had the same problem and I think I fixed it by going to Type>Area Type Options and manually adjusting the height and width of the text box without distorting the contents.
Hope this helps!
Answer: In my case resizing the text box was shrinking the text. The solution was:

Open the Type menu.
Click Convert To Area Type.
Answer: I had a problem like this I kept trying to make a font larger but it would not stay at the larger size I though it was some issue with a keyboard command. Turns out there is a maximum font size of 1296 pts which was keeping me from making the fonts the size I needed (signage project)
Answer: Select your object, Sometimes a larger selection box appears when you zoom out you will see it, stretch it, then deselect, select again, and it start working again, Stupid but hey, at least it start working again.


Husband and wife traveling separately to US

Question: I'm traveling to the US on a business trip (B1/B2 visa) and my wife (also B1/B2 visa) will meet with me at the destination and stay with me (the hotel is also paid by the company and the reservation is in my name), but because my flight was paid by my employer (non-US company) and we privately paid for her plane ticket, we will have to flight in two separate flights and pass through customs in different airports. Should this cause any problems? Should she say that she is traveling alone?
Answer:
Should this cause any problems?

Why on earth would it?

Should she say that she is traveling alone?

You're over-thinking this. Landing interviews are a conversation with a human being, not filling in a form. If they ask if anyone's travelling with her, she can always say something like, "I'm travelling with my husband but we're on different flights because we had to buy the tickets separately." If they want more information about that, for some reason, they'll ask.
Comment: Or "Yes; I'm going to meet my husband in Albuquerque."   Or wherever.
Answer: hey :) you guys may have already had your trip- just wanted to reach out to your wife. I feel her pain. I go through the same thing with my hubs all the time- we've become booking mavens so as not to fly international alone anymore.
So yeah, she should be very open and straightforward as she goes through customs- Say that she's here with you and you're on business, meeting wherever.. here for however long.. just relax and stay calm. Remember, the officers are just people. Smile and be patient and they're actually pretty nice.
Tips for traveling separately internationally from personal experience:

phone service: arrange cell and data coverage before you go so your phone works when you land. You're going to need to find each other, so both of your phones need to work.
the hotel: list her as a guest on the reservation in case she gets there before you
apps for the  hotel, airline, and uber (and tripadvisor while you're at it)
google maps: allow each other's locations- then you can see each other on the map

Have fun.
And next time Book your tickets at the same time in 2 different browsers. :)
Answer: Yes, because she is technically traveling alone. No one will even know that you two are staying together unless you tell them (or they read this post). My mother is retired Government employee and she used to do this with my dad on a regular basis. Her ticket paid by her work and she would pay for my dad's ticket and they never had any problems or questions asked outside of normal security questions.
Comment: It would be far safer to say "I'm flying alone, but I'm meeting my husband in City X later today."
Comment: **Very** bad idea--what if immigration figures out the hotel is in his name, not hers?  It would be unlikely they would dig that much but having them catch you in even an unimportant lie is not good.  The fact that they need a visa at all already means they're going to draw extra scrutiny--either they have sinned or they're from a high risk country or, very rarely, because they plan to be here over 90 days.


Should I prepare for the GRE if my gpa isn't yet high enough for Epidemiology graduate school?

Question: I'm going to be a senior college student in the fall. My gpa is close but not high enough for the bare minimum graduate school admission criteria (gpa=3.0). I am wondering whether I should wait until I finish senior year and see whether I get a cumulative gpa of 3.0 before I study for GRE/apply for graduate school or whether I should study for GRE now. The disadvantage of studying for GRE without the GPA criteria fulfilled is that I might end up studying for a useless test.
Comment: Is your question "Should I spend time preparing for the GRE now, while I'm not sure if I'll even be able to apply this fall for grad school?"
Comment: yes, that's right.
Answer: I went through graduate school in Epidemiology at a major school of Public Health, and am now the epidemiologist on a number of multidisciplinary admission committees.
Improve Your GPA First
There's no subject-specific test for the GRE for Epidemiology (which isn't surprising, as it's not really a discipline with good undergraduate representation), and the general feeling in the field is the GRE is a supplemental piece of information - a way to maybe push an edge case into "Admit", or to provide context for schools where it's known that the GPA doesn't mean much. My program has gone so far as to seriously consider phasing it out entirely.
GPA cutoffs are also often a function of the Graduate School, or another administrative group where there isn't much room for nuance. If you don't meet the GPA requirements, you're sitting squarely in the "Do Not Pass Go" category. I wouldn't bother investing any time or money studying for the GRE until you're past that line.
Answer: I would not spend time and money in my final year of college studying for the GRE if there was anything more than a small chance I'm not applying that cycle.
Put that energy into improving your GPA and  getting relevant research experience. The GRE and planning materials aren't cheap (it's a racket anyway), and it will be easier on your wallet if you wait until next summer, when you have a full-time job.
Besides, instead of studying for three classes and the GRE, you can focus only on the GRE after you graduate.
And in any case, GRE scores are valid for five years:

For tests taken on or after July 1, 2016, scores are reportable for five years following your test date. For example, scores for a test taken on July 3, 2018, are reportable through July 2, 2023.
Answer: I doubt that studying for the GRE would be useless if you do so effectively. Among other things, it should help you consolidate what you have learned generally.
However, as you suspect, studying for your courses should come first for a lot of reasons, not just your GPA. But don't waste any odd moments during the year doing unproductive things. When you have a few minutes (waiting for a bus, say) have something to study.
Also, take a lot of notes (paper is preferable) which helps you remember and operationalize what you know.
It is also pretty common for a student to get distracted in the final year. Don't let that become a problem.
Answer: Focus on repairing GPA first. Here are a few things that could be helpful when your admission profile reaches the committee: i) your last year's GPA shows an uptrend, ii) you have taken some courses related to epidemiology or public health and did very well, and iii) if there is a serious dip in your GPA some where along the study in the transcript, you have provided a fair clarification in the statement.
So, if credits allow, consider cross-register into some intro-level public health course to see whether the topics speak to you, and work hard to get good grades.
If for some reason you created a gap year/semester while studying for GRE, consider using that chance to work with some researchers, even as data collectors or data entry staffs, to get some field experience. This is particularly helpful if your resume does not have any noticeable relevance to health care, public health, or epidemiology. In additions, be a professional worker and cultivate a good relationship with the team; they could potentially write you a powerful and relevant reference letter.
Also, if you are in the US, I am pretty sure some students with GPA lower than 3.0 did get into public health graduate programs. With public health programs popping up here and there, there may even be more chances. In the US, public health programs are mostly accredited so in terms of contents they don't vary a lot. So, look carefully what the faculty work on and see if their topics speak to you. Sometimes the works that attract you may not be in the top-tier institutes.
Lastly, broaden the options. Do a brief job search on epidemiology-related works, you'll see that this field hires diverse kinds of specialists. For example: economist, policy scholars, psychologists (esp. quantitative psy., questionnaire development, etc.), nurses, computer programmers (data informatics and analytics), statisticians, biochemists, toxicologists, etc. Hopping into one of those options, and then get a Master in Public Health part-time while working may also be a way.
Comment: Am I overqualified to do Epidemiology and would be better off in biostatistics if I'm a statistics major and know the linear algebra behind regression analysis and calculus based probability theory? I heard biostats is programming heaven/matrix analysis/real analysis based. I'm not interested in Computer science and real analysis though.
Comment: In most cases, you will see in the first semester, Epi students need to take foundation in biostat, and biostat students need to take foundation in epi. Use that time to think which one you prefer. Most departments allow for switching before year 2 rolls along.
Comment: @GeniusEuclid There are plenty of epidemiologists that know linear algebra and calculus.
Answer: Accepting the answer of Azor Ahai, I want to add that studying for GRE is not something lasts for months. Those exams of ETS and any other similar tests have always some key tips, in which you learn them and in a short while you get satisfactory results.
I, for instance, used GRE for my applications 3 times, I made quantitative part full, but no one made a fuss over it. It just takes sufficient amount of focus. For verbal part, reading English novels, espcially classic ones help a lot to get the vocabulary. For writing part, I can't say anything but there will be people around you who can at least direct you to improve your writing while improving your GPA at the same time.
GRE assesses everyday skills, so if you manage your own business, here improving GPA, in an efficient way, there will be no need to study GRE, still easy to say as its cost is quite high, though.


Why is my AE storage bus not inputting items?

Question: I have barrels hooked up to my AE network using AE Storage Buses. If I remove an item that is stored in these barrels using my AE Access Terminal, it removes a stack of the barreled item and puts it into my inventory. If I insert a stack of the same item, into the AE Terminal, it puts the stack into a storage drive, rather than the appropriate barrel. How can I fix this without using an Export Bus? The AE website explicitly states that Storage Buses work with both in-port and export, and that they are 100% compatible with Factorization Barrels.
Comment: see http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/124662/how-to-control-where-items-get-stored
Answer: There are two likely causes of your items getting stored in the wrong location, the barrels were not set as a higher priority than the storage drives (use the config tab on the storage buses to change the priority, the buses need to have a higher priority to ensure that the items end up in the correct location) and the system chose the drive at random, or that somehow an item of the type you want to store in your barrel got into the drive and the system is therefore (by design) choosing to fill up an existing storage location first.
Regardless of the underlying cause, getting all of the items to be stored only in the barrels requires that all items currently stored in the drives be removed from the storage system and then put back in in a way that makes sure they will be stored in the barrels, the easiest way to do this depends on the number of items involved.

If the overall number of items is small you can simply disconnect the storage bus from the network while pulling out all the items via the access terminal, then reconnect the bus and put all the items back in.
If you have a large number of items then you can pull the individual storage cells out of your network and put them into an ME I/O Port to pull items into the network with the only storage location available being the barrels.
Answer: That does not appear to be the case with the current version of the Direwolf 20 modpack
The version of Factorization is 0.8.29 and the version of AE is rv14.finale3.
The AE Storage buses are no longer able to ignore which side of he barrel they're attached to. They can only read an inventory if they are attached to the bottom of a barrel and they only read up to one full stack of the item. I don't know if this is an AE issue or a factorization issue, but it's not a user config issue as my system was working fine until I updated and my storage buses could no longer connect to the barrels.


Does using a VPN completely stop MITM (man in the middle) attacks? If not, what other defences should I consider?

Question: Just for added context, I am curious about connecting to a remote desktop using a VPN but if there are any major differences that can be highlighted for other services I would be interested in that too.
Answer: Assuming that you have a properly configured and behaving VPN client, using a VPN will prevent MiTM attacks from occurring between your computer and the VPN server. There is still a chance of a MiTM attack occurring between the VPN server and the desktop you are connecting to.
Assuming that the both the VPN and desktop are inside your company's private network, connecting to the desktop via VPN is as secure as connecting via any other network connection inside your company's network. Likewise, if the VPN and desktop are not within a private network, then the connection is open to MiTM attacks on the public internet.
Answer: Not necessarily. It depends upon the VPN configuration and the security settings on the client and the server. For expand, if the network is secured by Diffie Hellman, than someone can engage in a MITM attack. If the VPN is secured by an RSA certificate, then it depends on the nature of the channel. If the client has been provisioned with the server's public key via a signed certificate and uses that cert (it doesn't rely on a 3rd party CA), then it is secure to the extent that you've used a large prime (2048, for example). If the client has a basket of root certificates and the server sends its cert over during VPN session setup, then it is possible to be attacked in the middle.
Is DH insecure? Not necessarily. However, one needs to be careful how these things are deployed. Is RSS secure? Again, depends upon usage.
Options:
For RSA, provision the client side of the VPN with the server certificate and don't rely on CAs. This means the server cert may be self signed.
For Diffie Hellman, change the group and use a large group. What does that mean? Use a large (1024 or 2048) Safe Prime (p=2q+1, where p & q are prime) and a g (generator) that is good for the group. Find some software that generates these for you. Don't do it on your own. Don't reuse common DH parameters from the world: IETF or given to you by a vendor. That's how NSA has broken so many protocols through passive means.


How a computer ensures that a location in RAM is empty

Question: When we declare a variable, how does it get stored in a memory? How does the compiler know from within millions of memory locations which ones are currently not in use or are empty so that it can store the variable there? If it traverses each memory location the whole memory address space and checks on each location whether it is used by some other process or not, it will take like forever until it can allocate memory for a single variable.
Comment: I think the most generic answer to your question would be that the compiler has arranged the positions of all the other variables in the memory as well, so whatever algorithm it's following will make sure that the next place chosen will be free.
Comment: @enobayram: I guess that the question is more about RAM locations not being used by other processes.
Comment: When your code is compiled, there are no variables left, each variable is replaced with the reference to a location in the stack.
Comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_management_(operating_systems)
Answer: In a multitasking system, every process receives its own virtual address space, i.e. the system maps the addresses from $0_h$ to $FFF\cdots F_h$ to available storage space which can reside partly in RAM memory and partly on disk (physical storage). The mapping is made for every process independently, allocating whole pages (typically 2K bytes) at a time.
The compiler is completely unaware of where the data will actually be stored and is free to use the whole address space. The system does the necessary housekeeping and ensures that there are no conflicts.
Actually, the mapping is completely dynamic and pages are moved between RAM and disk, following the needs of the processes and in a way to optimize the access speed. There is not even a relation between the size of the virtual address space and the amount of RAM and disk available.
To summarize, memory allocation is transparent to the compiler, as if the process was alone; only the system knowns which physical pages are free or allocated to a particular process.
Comment: By system you mean Memory management module of kernel.
Comment: @Ankur, yep a component of the Operating System.
Comment: So it's the Operating system then.But still, it sounds like a mystery that which algorithm the OS follows to know which location in RAM is empty and not a part of a page allocated to a process so that i can start at this location and end at some other location in RAM to create a new page
Comment: @WithASpiRIT; obviously the system maintains a list of free pages and pages in use.


Can I read/watch something that contains superpowers?

Question: I am very interested in such things and I know that you shouldn't watch what contains magic. But I want to know if superpowers would also be under that category of magic and are also prohibited.
Also, if there is a part of the story that is against Islam (I read a comic that contained prophecy) can I just skip that part and read the rest? The story is a Webtoon and it's called MicroHunter.
Allah knows best and I'm trying to improve. Thank you for reading.
Answer: Yes, kids can read these things to. It just fo entertainment. This isn't magic because magic is from Jinns. Be careful if a person has weird number codes or someone that ask who is ur mother. Satan does the opposite of Allah.
Comment: Thank you :) , but can I get a source just to be sure.
Answer: Salaam,
Of course it is ok. It is for fun and its not like you actually believe in it. Remember, Islam is a simple and beautiful religion. We complicate it ourselves. There is nothing haram about watching these movies. It haram if someone actually practices black magic and/or approached someone to perform it for them. hope this helps. :)
MuslimGap
Comment: I heard that watching magic is haram? Is that true? What would you say to those people? If what you said was true then thank you for relieving me from this stress. May Allah guide us all.
Comment: There are always judgemental and strict people. Personally, I don't think it is haram such as eating Pork. If you are stressed, pray and Allah (swt) will show you the right path and answer. :)
Comment: Oh thank you so much. This is the best way! Barakallahu fiki wa jazaki kulla khair. :)
Comment: of course! Jummah Mubarak and I pray that Allah (swt) guides you and answers your duas:)
Answer: Yes you can easily watch this because it is just entertainment  not reality.
Comment: Oh thank you  :)


Cardinal directions in solar system?

Question: Does the solar system also have cardinal directions? Which one is North and in what direction does it point?
Comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic_coordinate_system#Primary_direction
Answer: There are a bunch of different measurements for celestial coordinates, but in regards to the solar system - or specifically the Sun as its "master" - there's the ecliptic celestial coordinate system.
In that system, centred around the sun and our solar system by extension, the North pole is in the constellation Draco. According to Wikipedia, the coordinates from Earth are right ascension 18h 0m 0.0s (exact), declination +66° 33′ 38.55″.

Source
Comment: @posfan12 There is a coordinate system for the solar system, and if there was a "North" it would probably be called $\mathbf{\hat{z}}$; the normal vector in the $+z$ direction. If you would like to call $\mathbf{\hat{x}}$ "North"(or South)  that's okay, but in a Stack Exchange answer it's best to stick to standard, established terminology so as not to confuse future readers.
Comment: Actually, I am more interested in the horizontal directions. So, my "North" would be toward the vernal equinox. Anyway, are there any official labels for the six cardinal directions?
Comment: [Is the representation of Earth oriented correctly in this image?](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/15295/6031) It seems to be.
Answer: Generally you use celestial coordinates, which are analogous to longitude and latitude, but instead use right ascension and declination. Right Ascension uses hours, minutes, and seconds, and Declination uses degrees, minutes, and seconds. Longitude and latitude are the same no matter where you are on the Earth. If you are at the North Pole, then the coordinates of New York City are the same as if you were standing in Beijing. However, with celestial coordinates it changes based on where you are, but the difference is very very small if you stay within the solar system and nearby stars. The difference gets larger when you are far away from our Sun, so generally you would need to declare a reference frame. For example, the location of Sirius from the Earth would be different than the location of Sirius from...say...Polaris. Also, due to the proper motion of the stars and the Milankovitch cycles (notably axial tilt), the coordinates would need to be updated every 50 or so years.
On the ISS, they use North, South, East, and West (they predefined where those pointed), and they also use Zenith and Nadir for the up and down directions, since you can move in three dimensions.

Cardinal directions in solar system?


Do I have to turn off "everything" when replacing thermostats?

Question: I am about to replace my two thermostats. There's a lot of switches on the "control panel" (litterally) for my heating system and I am not familiar with procedures and afraid to turn something off that won't come on again properly. Maybe I only need to turn some of it off? See picture below.
Answer: You should turn off the breaker/fuse that powers the furnace as you could accidentally short circuit the 24V transformer when installing the new thermostat.  If this ever did happen there is usually a 5A fuse on the circuit board you can replace.
Comment: Thank you for that. I did not know there was a separate breaker for furnace (I onky have basic DIY knowledge), but you were right, there was. Turned off power and put up the thermostats. Back on and working !
Answer: This isn't it.  These are cutouts for individual features within your heating system.  This will not de-energize the heating system.
You do that over in the circuit breaker panel.  One breaker (per furnace?) will shut off the 24V transformer that powers your thermostat.
24V is not hazardous, and if you did manage to short 2 wires together, the worst thing it will do is make a call for heat, A/C, fan, etc.  One exception: do not short R and C, unless you like baby arc flash, foul smoke and replacing transformers.
My advice would be to remove R, Rh and/or Rc first, cover it/them with electrical tape to insulate it, then remove C, cover it also with electrical tape, then handle the rest naked. I wouldn't even bother turning off the furnace.


Did the Soma drink contain psilocybe cubensis?

Question: Russian archeologists claim to have discovered the recipe of Soma or Haoma. How strong is this claim?
Comment: Realated: [This](https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/26640/277) and [this](https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/7968/277)
Comment: Soma is not a physical form of a juice.   It is a BLISS or Amrita or ambrosia , mentioned in an esoteric manner as Soma (https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/36543/3869). @braindead
Answer: In 2009 Russian archaeologists while excavating a burial chamber in Mongolia discovered a woollen textile dating back two thousand years. Parts of a carpet composed of several cloths of dark-red woollen fabric.
On that fabric, there are pictures one of which is of a priest and a king, where the priest is presenting a mushroom to the king.
According to Russian researcher Natalia V. Polosmak, this divine mushroom is similar to psychoactive species psilocybe cubensis. And they are saying that the drink soma has been  prepared from the mushrooms of family Strophariaceae.
For the sake of asserting "how strong is this claim?" we have to look into how scriptures as well as some modern-day findings and conclusions are describing the plant, from which the drink soma was prepared.

Firstly let's see some claims about the identification of soma plant, whether this is a plant or a mushroom or something else.
R.G. Wasson in 1960s, with his friend a french  Indologist  Louis Renou and Wendy Doniger O' Flaherty identified  Soma as the 'fly-agaric' (Amanita muscaria). Mr. Wasson visited India several time during his research. He also extracted Soma juice from Amanita muscaria , the mashroom. According to Wasson's study the Rig-Vedic soma had no leaves no flowers or its blossoms, no fruit, seed, no roots and called as 'ek pād' or single footed.The claim of Russian archaeologists is very similar to that of Mr. Wassons.
Here is the PDF Soma, an Enigmatic, Mysterious Plant
of the Vedic A
–
ryas: An Appraisal detailing the findings of Mr.Wasson.

A well-known scholar Mr. David Frawley in his book Soma in Yoga and Ayurveda is clearing some of the doubts about the Soma plant. He states that Soma plant described is not a single plant throughout times and various locations. He also proposes various ideas about which exactly is Soma plant and also as it's use as plant metaphor. According to him the Vedic Soma is not a mushroom. Page 326.

The view we will propose here is that Soma  was never simply a single
  plant. Soma referred to several plants , sometimes a plant mixture or
  preparation and more generally to the sacred usage of the plants
  overall , to the  extent that it is plant metaphor.
The great ancient Ayurvedic doctor , sushrut , mentions twenty-four
  types of soma plants found in the mountain ranges of India. Soma,
  therefore, was part of the entire science of sacred plants and not
  just one plant in particular.  The one and the same divine Soma plant
  may be classified into twenty-four species according to the difference
  of habitats, structure, epithets and potencies.
Some modern scholars emphasize the plant Ephedra as the main soma
  plant. Ephedra commonly grows in different places in India even today
  and sometimes even called as "Somalata or Soma creeper" . but does nor
  prove that Soma Ephedra was the only soma plant, nor does Ephedra
  resemble the characteristics of the primary Soma plant described in
  Rig-Veda.
Other scholars propose that the original Soma was the Amanita muscari
  mushroom , which is used by many shamans , particularly in Siberia .
  While i can not say for certain that this mushroom was not one of the
  many kinds of soma , the Vidic somas are described in different ways
  and mushrooms are rarely used medicinally in traditional Ayurvedic
  medicine or known to be common food of Yogis or overall. On the
  contrary, mushrooms are usually not recommended for pure yogic diets.
  The vedic soma plant is described with leaves, which mashroom do not have and said to be fibrous (amshu-man) , with filaments. It is
  often said to grow in water like lotus or lily.  Another candidate of
  the non-hallucinogenic, stimulant hypothesis is a species of the genus
  Ephedra.

Similarly, In 1971, Vedic scholar John Brough from Cambridge University rejected Wasson's theory and drew attention to ephedrine (in particular to that extracted from Ephedra sinica), and noted that it "is a powerful stimulant, and would thus be a more plausible preparation for warriors about to go into battle than the fly-agaric.
Here is the list of possible candidates of Soma plant proposed by various scholars.

Now if we look at the actual Rig-Veda and other scriptures where this Soma plant is mentioned , we find the results which are opposite to that of obove mentioned ones.
Green Tinted -:
Mr. Wasson also prepared that soma juice , which we can see is of red color in the pitcure. But in actual Rig-Vedic hymns the juice is said to be of green color.

तं सानावधि जामयो हरिं हिन्वन्त्यद्रिभि: | हर्यतं भूरिचक्षसम् ||5 ||
The priests plunge Indu, honey dropping, green-tinted , vigorous,
  exhilarating into the waters for indra. (H.H.Wilson).

In Rig-Veda at several places we found this mention of the soma juice being of green colour in mandala 9 .

Further evidence of Soma plant being creeper comes from Mahabharata- Shalya Parva-Chapter 36 . There is story of three rishies in Mahabharata where it is mentioned that Triti one of them, when fallen in deep well, imagined the Soma creeper as he was known for the sacrifice of devatas.
There is also mention of this Trita rishi in Rig-Veda 9.34.4. It is said that this rishi Trita discovered the soma plant and its juice.

Although the pit was dry, the sage imagined the existence of water and
  of sacrificial fires there. Constituting himself the Hotri (in
  imagination), the great ascetic imagined the creeper he saw to be the
  Soma plant. He then mentally uttered the Richs, the Yayushes and the
  Samans (that were necessary for the performance of a sacrifice).

Mention of Soma growing in different lands in Rig-Veda.
Rig-Veda in its 9 th mandala-Sukta 65 mentions that different soma plant grew at different places, near the Saraswati river or far away lands. This shows that the soma plant mentioned in Rig-Veda has regional variations. The below mantra prays for the soma juice from various places be auspicious to them.
22 May this soma-Juices which are effused at a distance or nigh or on Saryanavat (lake).
23 Or amongst Rijikas or the Kritwas, or in the neighbourhood of the river Saraswati, etc. or in the five castes.
Difference in methods and ingredients according to region.
There is also the possibility of difference in methods of preparation or addition of completely different ingredients while preparation of this drink soma according to regional variation and availability of those ingredients apart from the main plant.
Soma could be the common name of the drink, derived from  different species of plants like creeper or Mushrooms etc. , having a similar effect

 In conclusion part  of the above PDF  it's said that Vedic people used two different plants as soma in two different time intervals.

By about 3700 BC the Vedic Āryas possibly used the fly-agaric, a
  mushrrom, Amanita muscaria to prepare Soma drink. And, when it became
  rare in nature and was only available at far off distances and on
  mountains, the Falcons Śyena) birds were used to collect and bring it
  to their masters. The collection of Soma by the SOMA, AN ENIGMATIC,
  MYSTERIOUS PLANT OF THE VEDIC ARYAS 39
Falcons is very well recorded in the gvedic hymns. Perhaps, Wasson did
  not give any importance to this fact, which actually well  supports
  his findings that Soma as the plant like  fly-agaric, which is small
  red and colourful and quite distinguishable and could easily be lifted
  and brought by the Falcons. By about 2500-2000 BC, they used ephedra,
  cannabis and poppy together as Soma.When they were in the mountainous
  region they had to use only ephedra, as Soma, which was plentifully
  available but cannabis and poppy were not available, and, they had
  completely forgotten even the use of Amanita muscaria as Soma.In India
  when they had spread eastwards and southwards in the plains, ephedra
  was not available so they had to used other plants as substitute and
  surrogates.

This above theory is supportive to the Aryan migration theory. But those who do not accepts it will not accept the above.
Conclusion - So, in conclusion we can say that at this point we can't surely claim either the theory put forward by Russians is completely true or false. There are numerous findings and several hypotheses put forward by scholars and Indologists. But considering all the above evidances we can conclude that this Soma plant mentioned in Rig-Veda is a plant /creeper and not a mushroom. So there is very slim chance of  this mashroom as a true candidate of Soma plant of vedas if we completely are concluding from vedic scriptures and not considering the falcon theory that vedic people send a falcon to bring soma mashroom from a distant land to where they previously migrated.


How to transfer Minecraft PE Worlds from Android to iPhone

Question: I just got a new iPhone, and after downloading Minecraft on it, I wanted to transfer my Minecraft worlds from my Android tablet to my iPhone. Is there a way to do that?
Answer: From my knowledge, no.
Android and IOS device are two different devices, and if you have tried to edit any files on the IOS device, it's more complicated than the Android. I don't think you can even transfer worlds between the same devices on IOS, making it far less likely to transfer them between IOS and Android. Hey, I could be wrong though. :P
Comment: As of recent updates it is now possible between iOS and android.


Does rootstock need segregated witness to work?

Question: Does Rootstock need segregated witness or any other bitcoin improvements not currently included for it to work?
Answer:
No, Rootstock does not need segregated witness.
Yes, Rootstock does need another Bitcoin improvement not currently available on mainnet.

Details below:
Rootstock & segregated witness
Segregated witness (segwit) eliminates all known third-party transaction malleability, which is an extremely useful feature but something that's only required in cases where a transaction has to be created before all of its parent transactions have confirmed.
For example, in a Spillman-style payment channel, the refund transaction is created and signed before the deposit transaction is broadcast---which is dangerous because if the deposit transaction is mutated (malleated), the refund transaction becomes invalid.
However, for a two-way pegged merged-mined sidechain like Rootstock is planning to use, the design makes the peg transactions robust against double spending (by waiting for many confirmations) in a way that also makes them robust against malleability.
Segwit also increases the maximum possible transaction size, which can make it more a bit more affordable to use sidechains, but not in any significant way and it isn't a requirement.
Rootstock & other Bitcoin improvements
Rootstock wants to use a two-way-peg merge-mined sidechain (also called a decentralized sidechain).  There is no current know way to do this with just the opcodes currently enabled on Bitcoin mainnet, so this is not possible today.
Broadly speaking, there are a few different proposed approaches to enable this:

Extend Script's flexibility: add one or more generic opcodes to the Bitcoin Script language to allow it to validate what are called SPV proofs or merkle proofs---the kind of data that SPV clients use today to determine if a transaction is part of a chain of block headers.
Add a special SPV proof opcode: give Bitcoin Script the ability to directly validate SPV proofs.  This would make the sidechain contracts simpler and cheaper, but to some engineers it feels a bit weird to add opcodes specialized for one purpose.
Add a special reverse peg opcode (drivechain): give Bitcoin Script a special opcode that says, "I trust miners".  Anyone who pays this opcode allows miners to spend those funds however they would like; then arrangements could be made with miners to only spend that money if they followed the sidechains rules.

At least one of the approaches above would need to be enabled for Rootstock to follow their plan; Rootstock's current preference is for #3, drivechains.
It's worth noting that if Rootstock wanted to use federated-pegged (fedpeg) sidechains, such as those implemented in the Elements Project, then no changes would be required to Bitcoin today.  However, fedpeg sidechains rely on trusted signers for every block and so are not decentralized.
Comment: Fed peg is fine for smart contracts because you need to have trust in oracles or other federated groups for smart contracts anyway.   I see no pressing need to remove this constraint.
Comment: "Add a special reverse peg opcode (drivechain): give Bitcoin Script a special opcode that says, I trust miners". That's not how Drivechain works at all. Drivechain is a consensus upgrade that adds a special type of output which is escrowed by hashrate over the course of dozens of thousands of blocks. Saying it's trust-miners kind of output is the most misleading thing possible. You don't need an opcode to trust miners.
Comment: @fiatjaf Trusting miners over thousands of blocks is obviously a subset of trusting miners.
Comment: If you are going to say that then you must concede that Bitcoin is entirely based on trust in miners -- and there's no "I trust miners" opcode in Bitcoin.
Comment: @fiatjaf Users have the choice of fully trusting miners (e.g. accepting reorgs of any length) or of enforcing rules that were not previously specified (e.g. using invalidateblock on a too-long reorg).  That means security depends on what we expect users to do, and I expect that users in general will not choose to reorg a block chain where miners steal from drivechain users.  If my guess is correct, that means a drivechain opcode is equivalent to trusting miners not to steal your funds.  If you want to continue this argument, feel free to ping me in the B.SE chatroom.


How to create a tile with diagonal lines in Photoshop?

Question: How does one draw a tile with diagonal lines that can be seamlessly tiled with Photoshop?
Answer: Diagonal lines is definitely something that's a little more painful. But, I would recommend using similar techniques as to tiling photos. By using the offset feature you'll be easily able to tell if it tiles, if not adjust it.
Alternatively, there are some great free resources on the web that will create tiles diagonals for you with a huge level of control, my best recommendation is: http://www.stripegenerator.com/
Answer: Please look on google before asking a question, it is fairly easy one :)
I do diagonals lines in three ways:

Pixel by pixel
Line tool
Pen Tool
Comment: Thanks for your answer. I think you're missing the more important part of the question. How do I ensure *tileable* diagonal lines?
Answer: Stripe generator I use as well. But if you want to teach yourself, open a new file in photoshop. Make it small, maybe 10x10 pixels. Zoom in until you can start to see the grid that represents pixels. Using the marquee tool, highlight exactly one pixel and use the paint bucket to fill in that pixel with a color. This will ensure crispness of the line. You can make a diagonal line with these pixels.. When you think you have something, go to the menu 'edit' and choose 'define pattern'. Name it something you remember. Then open a new file and add it as a layer style. For example... draw a rectangle, double click on the rectangle in the layers palette to show the layer styles, choose 'pattern overlay' then choose your stripe pattern you just created. this will then repeat it across your rectangle.
Answer: Here's a way to create hatched / diagonal pattern in Photoshop. You can also download a sample file. Check this out!
http://iiiji.com/psd-hatched-slash-diagonal-pattern/
Comment: Hi denn15, could you please explain a bit more what we'll find behind the link you provide and why it answers the question? That way, your answer is still of value in case the link breaks at a later time. Link rot is the main reason we really dislike link-only answers here. Thanks for your effort and keep contributing!
Answer: The pixel by pixel line tool and pen tool are not the easiest or best ways to do this at all.  especially if you are going for a precise look that has transparency and other effects.    Tutorials are the way to go.
Another thing to consider is learning how to create tile images from scratch, there is a separate tutorial for that.
Comment: Where are these tutorials may I ask?


Why does the official say "prior to the pass" or "after the pass" when calling a defensive holding?

Question: Is there a difference in enforcement if the holding penalty happened after and not before a pass? This is NFL if it makes a difference.
Answer: Yes.  Most defensive fouls on eligible receivers, most commonly "illegal contact", are only penalized prior to the pass being thrown.  From NFL Rules 2020, 8.4.7:

If the quarterback or the receiver of the snap demonstrates no further intention to pass the ball (i.e., hands off or pitches the ball to another player, throws a forward or backward pass, loses possession of the ball by a muff that touches the ground or a fumble, or if he is tackled) the restrictions on the defensive team prohibiting illegal contact, or an illegal cut block, against an eligible receiver will end, and a defensive player is permitted to use his hands, arms, or body to push, pull, or ward off an offensive receiver, pursuant to Rule 12, Section 1, Article 5.

Illegal contact, further, is not penalized if the quarterback leaves the pocket, though defensive holding still is.

If the quarterback leaves the pocket area with the ball in his possession, the restrictions on illegal contact and an illegal cut block both end, but the restriction on defensive holding remains in effect.

As such, Defensive Holding is "prior to the pass", and Illegal Contact is "prior to the quarterback leaving the pocket" or "prior to the pass" depending on if the quarterback left the pocket or not.
As a side note, neither foul actually requires a pass being thrown; it is very common for a sack or a scramble to occur on plays which have a defensive holding or illegal contact play being called.  It simply requires it being legal for the quarterback to pass, and that he did not clearly abandon passing by his actions.
I'm not sure if it's technically possible to have defensive holding after the ball is thrown (except on an interception), but if it were it would have a very different set of rules; most of the cases that would qualify as defensive holding prior to the pass being thrown are either legal or become (the usually more serious) defensive pass interference.
Comment: I think it would be?  A defensive player can in theory commit holding against a lineman, for example (which wouldn't be pass interference since the lineman isn't eligible).  And once the ball is caught, it is also possible to hold against any offensive player blocking downfield.
Comment: @KurtWeber For the most part, you can't get a defensive holding call on a defender on the line.  They're pretty much allowed to do whatever they want, as long as they are trying to improve their position (and not *solely* obstructing), and there's no real incentive to obstruct.  From 12-1-5: `ARTICLE 5. LEGAL USE OF HANDS OR ARMS BY DEFENSE A defensive player may use his hands, arms, or body to push, pull, or ward off offensive players: (b) when an opponent is obviously attempting to block him;` for example.
Comment: They can be called for illegal use of the hands, for things like grasping the facemask, but that's a different foul.  For the most part, a defensive player would have to tackle an offensive player *who was not trying to block him* in order to get called for holding, which is why it's so rare.   (In any event, in the case of the question, the foul is in relation to an eligible receiver, so this is moot.)

Why does the official say “prior to the pass” or “after the pass” when calling a defensive holding?


How can I stop a water leak in my basement?

Question: I have an unfinished basement in 40 year old home.  Block walls are extremely clean and show no signs of water having come down or through them from ground outside but when it rains for a couple of days, I have a small puddle, and by small, not even a half inch deep or a foot wide, on floor by wall.  Since I have ruled out surface water, where is it coming from?  Could it be coming in where the flor meets the wall from some underground source and if so, why only when it rains?  Is there something I can use to seal the joining of wall and concrete floor or seal block? I would like to finish basement but don't dare put in insulation and drywall with this unresolved.
Answer: We can only guess at this point, but one theory is that when it rains, you have water seeping down the outside of your foundation until it hits the footer, at which point it's seeping into your basement.
At the point where you have this puddle, what is outside? Is there a gutter downspout there? Or perhaps the ground is sloping towards your house at that spot? Check those things first.
Answer: I had the same problem on one side of the house. I even dug down by hand on the outside to the bottom of the foundation and put a few pieces of drainage pipe into the ground, to motivate the water to drain away from the foundation. It did not solve the problem.
In the end, I was successful with a combination of measures:

I put a 4-foot wide concrete apron along the foundation
I installed a dry well for the nearest down spout
I re-graded the side of the yard for better surface drainage away from the house

This solved the problem for good and I have not seen any more standing water or even wet spots in the basement. It wasn't entirely cheap, though.
My takeaway: this is usually a combination of

soil at the bottom of the foundation being less permeable than the soil that was used to backfill along the foundation walls (from compaction during construction, and because it was undisturbed)
poor surface drainage along the foundation

As a result, even though there is no drainage problem visible at the surface, water will back up at the bottom of the foundation, seep underneath the foundation walls, and enter the basement through the floor or through the gap between foundation walls and the concrete floor.
One other thing to consider: If the house is built on the slope of a hill, it is also possible that you have water draining towards the house below the surface, which would require additional measures.
The picture shows the problem - water coming down the downspout on the back corner cannot drain away from the house because of the pool and poor grading - and parts of the solution - the form for the concrete apron going in. It does not show the drywell in the front of the house and the drain pipe from the downspout in the back that is already in the ground here. The concrete apron is sloped in 2 angles - away from the house and by about 6 inches from the back of the house to the front.
I agree - you have to solve this before you finish the basement. Unfortunately, it cannot be solved on the cheap from the inside.


Oxygen in beer due to airlock

Question: I just noticed that my airlock opened up within the past day and I was wondering if it is ok to bottle still today?
It has been fermenting for past 2 weeks which is supposed to be enough but I am not sure if oxygen has ruined it.
Answer: What do you mean it "opened up"? Airlocks have to be open at both ends to work. Do you mean you somehow lost enough liquid that it's open all the way through? If so, you should be OK as long as you re-fill the airlock. CO2 is heavier than air, so there should be a "blanket" of it over your beer, which will minimize the chance of oxidation. If you caught it within a day or two, there's a very good chance there's no damage at all. I'd be more worried about what happened to the airlock -- where did the liquid go? If the temperature dropped enough that it got sucked into the beer, that indicates some fairly wide temperature swings that may have caused your fermentation to stall out. Be sure to check your final gravity before you bottle!
Answer: Well its likely fine.  You may have some oxidation, but its not worth dumping the batch over at this point.  Just learn from it and move on.  Bottle your beer as normal and see what you get.
You should be monitoring the gravity and not relying on time to decide when to bottle.  It should in a normal range for finished beer.  If this was from a kit there's usually a suggested final gravity range somewhere.
Lastly, you should also rely on taste.  If you wonder if something may have gone wrong with a beer you don't really know until you taste it.  Taking a sample for graivity readings also serves to give you a chance to taste the progress.  In time, you'll learn to predict how the taste related to issues that may come up later... like oxidation.
Answer: I presume you mean water evaporated out of the airlock or the rubber stopper detached enough to let air in contact.  Either way, as long as you haven't disturbed the fermenter and the room doesn't have a lot of moving air, you're fine.  C02 is more dense than regular air so it tends to stay in place.  Even if the C02 is gone, it's probably going to be fine unless you shook the thing up with the airlock open. Even then, it's probably still drinkable. Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.

Oxygen in beer due to airlock


Can we predict about bitcoin network?

Question: What will happen to the bitcoin network once all 21M of bitcoins have been mined? The bitcoin network will cease to exist? or the bitcoin network will continue to function the same way with miners being compensated with transaction fees when users spent their bitcoins?
Comment: I think you answered your own question.   Why would you think the network would cease to exist?
Answer: I don't think anyone can predict anything, especially that it's estimated to happen somewhere in 2140 ;)
But I'll share my take on it.
Please note that the number of BTC rewarded will he halved few times until then: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/12tR_9WrY0Hj4AQLoJYj9EDBzfA38XIVLQSOOOVePNm0/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true
So the proportion of BTC reward to transaction fees will be less and less - and the network will adjust.
Also - what is important - that this is self-regulating. If the reward was to disappear, some miners would leave the network (because of the cost bigger than transaction fees earnings). But then the difficulty would decrease, and mining cost to profit should more or less equalize.
So, unless bitcoin network is abandoned for some other reason*, the disappearing of block reward should not have a significant effect on the network itself.
BTC is like every other money - if people believe it's money, then it's money. Same with Bitcoin - doesn't matter if mining has any extra bonus or not.
(*) the biggest challenge to bitcoin seems to be the block size, which limits the network throughput. If you wanna read more thoughts on that - check my other answer here https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/39477/why-is-there-a-possibility-to-increase-block-gas-limit/39479#39479

Can we predict about bitcoin network?


How do I convert a person in a photograph to an all-black silhouette?

Question: I want to convert my image to solid black.

to
.
How can I do this in photoshop?
Comment: How did you create the second image?
Answer: Here are two easy ways, but first, convert your image to grayscale (Image > Mode > Grayscale).
In each case what you're trying to achieve is increased contrast, i.e. fewer gray levels between white and black, while preserving a few gray levels between black and white (see the gradual transition from black to white on the back of the subject's neck in your second picture.)
Levels — Image > Adjustments > Levels
In the Levels dialog, everything left of the black point on the left becomes black, and everything to the right of the white point becomes white. When you move then closer together, contrast increases. Moving the gray slider increases or decreases contrast between midtones and blacks or whites.

Gradient Map — Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map
The gradient map is another interface for doing the same thing. After selecting the submenu, click on the gradient strip to edit the gradient. Set the left slider to black and the right slider to white by clicking on each one, then slide them together to increase contrast and control the black-to-white transition.
Comment: Then you'll need to either re-photograph with the subject against a light background, or paint it out by hand. You don't have enough distinction between subject & background to do it automatically.
Comment: I'm still in mind of the old joke, asking a farmer for directions. His reply begins, "Well, you don't want to start from here..."
Comment: Thanks for your Answer. But I want to make only Solid Black who is in the man in the Image not the background. I mean, I want to change only Man in the black not the background to black
Comment: @Tetsujin You could possibly do it with an HSL tool. Even when you reduce the saturation of the separate colors to minimum (no saturation), you can still control the luminance for each color separately.
Answer: If you have photoshop, or a free equivalent you could trying using a smart selection tool to select your friend, then use the burn tool to make him into a silhouette.
Answer: Make the photograph again, but not against a complex backdrop but with a flat one, like a flat wall, preferably white, or with a flat color, that is different from the skin tone or the clothes that the person is using, in the reference image what makes the black and white image stand out is the white sky behind it.
Then It would be easier to separate the person from the background. Once you separate it from the background then you can make it into black and white
If you absolutely need to work with the photo used in the question then you could use a color selection tool to select all of the green and make it white, then you need to carefully mask all of the other elements (trees and ground) and make them disappear as well, so that you are left only with the figure in the foreground. There is no automatic way to do this.
Once you separate foreground and background just turn it into black and white and increase the contrast using levels or curves.
Answer: You have to start by creating a mask of the person.  You can do this with the Magic Wand selection tool. Once you have the user selected, you can create a mask from the selection. (If you want to spend a few dollars to make your life easier, you can buy Topaz ReMask to make this job easier.). Once the mask of the person is done, hit Ctrl-i to invert it.
Once you have a mask, you can independently process the user and the background. To get the effect you want, create either a Levels (simpler) or Curves (little more complex but more powerful) adjustment layer. Copy your mask to this layer. Adjust the sliders as described in @onacosmicscale's answer to get the effect you want. With the mask in place, your changes will only affect the area not masked, i.e. the person.
If you want the silhouette to be black and white, then you can use a Hue adjustment layer to lower or remove the colour as well.  Again, copy your mask to this layer.


What is happening in the first episode of Black Rock Shooter?

Question: I've been trying to get into Black Rock Shooter but I can't get passes the first 3 episodes because I get really confused. Could someone explain what the first episode is about? It sorta goes all over the place and I'm not sure what they are trying to show.
Comment: Personally I don't think it has any meaning to it. It's just a pure action, no plot.
Comment: if you want BRS with plot just play PSP game version
Comment: it's been a while since i've seen the series but from what i remember it's revealed later on that BRS, Dead Master, Chariot and the like are "other selves" or the human characters and their fights match to what's happening in the real world, ie. Chariot detaining Dead Master = Kagari's possessiveness of Yomi. Chariot dropping Macaroons on the beaten BRS with Kagari;s voice saying "go home, go home" is from when Kagari was hostile to Mato visiting Yomi and Chariot carving that heart into Dead Master's chest is what heppened in the real world (when Kagari used a needle to carve it into Yomi)
Comment: (cont.) and it's later revealed that when people like Chariot and Dead Master are killed their real world selves loose their memories which later leads to the main crisis later on when which threatens the "other world" and revealing that there are human characters who are fully aware of their "other world" and it's nature
Answer: They are showing fighthing between.... I suppose those creatures are something like mental entities or something at another dimension but still connected to the humans. When there's a problem with the main character, for example tension between her and her friend, the representation of them in another dimension are shown fighting. The story itself doesnt really make sense, but if you stick to the actual human character's story, i think it'll be more understandable and enjoyable.


Is there a language that can be Turing-reduced from all languages?

Question: I don't think so, because $A_{TM} = \{<M,w>\mid \text{M accepts w}\}$ is not Turing-decidable. Is this the right way to think about?
Answer: I assume you're asking if there's a language $\Omega$ such that, for all $L\subseteq\{0,1\}^*$, $L\leq_T\Omega$.  In that case, the answer is "no."
For any language $\Omega$, the languages that Turing-reduce to $\Omega$ are those that can be decided by a Turing machine with an oracle for $\Omega$. For brevity, I'll say "$\Omega$-Turing machines" instead of "Turing machines with an oracle for $\Omega$." $\Omega$-Turing machines are at least as powerful as ordinary Turing machines (exactly as powerful, if $\Omega$ is decidable; strictly more powerful of it isn't).
The same argument that shows the undecidability of the ordinary Turing machine halting problem also shows that any machine model that is at least as powerful as Turing machines can't decide its own halting problem.  So, in particular, no $\Omega$-Turing machine can decide the halting problem for $\Omega$-Turing machines.  In other words, for any language $\Omega$, the halting problem for $\Omega$-Turing machines isn't Turing-reducible to $\Omega$.
This means that there's no "hardest language" (or class of languages) to which all languages are Turing-reducible. This is related to the concept of Turing degrees, which form an infinite hierarchy of ever more difficult languages: start with the decidable languages, then the languages decided by Turing machines with an oracle for the halting problem, and then iterate by making each subsequent level be the languages decided by Turing machines with an oracle for the halting problem corresponding to the previous level.
Comment: so I can just show halting problem still leads to a contradiction to prove there does not exist such a language $\Omega$?
Comment: @Anonny No, you need to use specific variants of the halting problem. For example, if you take $\Omega$ to be the halting language for ordinary Turing machines ("the halting problem"), then obviously $\Omega$ is reducible to itself -- all languages are.
Answer: No. If there exists such a language, say $\Omega$, then for any language, there exists a TM $M_L$ with the ability to query to $\Omega$ that recognizes $L$, and obviously the mapping from $L$ to $M_L$ is an injection. However, the set of languages are uncountable while the set of TMs are countable, which leads to a contradiction.