How could Queen Victoria of England marry her first cousin?

Question: How could Queen Victoria of England marry her first cousin?  Isn't it forbidden by the church to marry one's first cousin?
Comment: That's the rules for the Catholic Church, not the Church of England, nor the laws of the kingdom of England.
Comment: "is forbidden by church to marry first cousin" Can you give a reference for that?
Comment: i found the source it is  "canon law 1091" it says it is not possible.
Answer: In the Roman Catholic Church canon law forbids marriage between first cousins. The same applied in England before the Reformation, but since then the Church of England has allowed marriage between first cousins. Even within the Catholic Church it is possible for a dispensation to be granted allowing marriage to occur in specific cases even when forbidden by canon law. In the case of European royalty, in several countries, the Pope granted dispensations allowing marriage between first cousins and even between uncles and nieces. As Tapestry points out, many genetic defects have been ascribed to this practice.
The English Reformation got off to a slow start and the initial schism between England and Rome was over marriage rules.
Catherine of Aragon married Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII of England.  The hope was that when Arthur became king, Catherine would be his Queen, and having a Spanish princess  married to the King of England build alliance and preserve peace.
Sadly Prince Arthur died before his father. The new plan was that she marry the new heir, Prince Arthur's younger brother, Prince Henry. However it was against canon law for a man to marry his brother's widow. Pope Julius II granted a dispensation and, when Prince Henry became king, as Henry VIII,  he and Catherine were married.
Catherine had seven pregnancies. There were two miscarriages, two stillbirths and two babies died. Only one daughter, Mary, survived. Henry wanted a male heir. England, it was widely held, needed him to have a male heir.
Leviticus 18 v16 says a man must not have sex with his brother's wife. Leviticus 20 21 warns such marriages will be childless. Was the lack of a male heir an instance of the curse? Was God angry that Henry had married his brother's widow? Yes, said Archbishop Cranmer of Canterbury. Influenced by the Reformation on the Continent they came to believe that, in marrying Catherine, Henry had defied God's law. In granting a dispensation the Pope had tried to usurp God, he had no right or power to overrule the Bible. The Pope's dispensation was invalid, so Henry's marriage was invalid, so he was free to marry Anne Boleyn.
This led to schism between England and Rome. As the Reformation and Counter-Reformation progressed the Church of England and the Church of Rome pulled away from each other in different directions, but the first salvos were on marriage laws and Papal power.
This , I hope, explains why there are different rules in the Church of England than in the Roman Catholic Church. The Church of England bases its bans on Leviticus chapter 18. This lists several types of relative a man cannot marry. There are some implicit rules for women. A man cannot marry his mother. This implies a woman cannot marry her son. He cannot marry her so she cannot marry him. The idea that sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander led the Church of England to say that if a man cannot marry his mother, then a woman should not marry her father.
Also Leviticus bans certain in-laws from marying and the Church of England extends this to all very similar relations. A person cannot marry a grandparent, parent, sibling, child, grandchild, aunt/uncle or nephew/niece. The same applies to a former spouse's grandparent, parent, sibling, child, grandchild aunt/uncle or nephew/niece; and the former spouse of a grandparent, parent, sibling, child, grandchild, aunt/uncle or nephew/niece.
There is nothing in the Bible to prohibit marriage between first cousins. Therefore there is nothing in the Church of England to forbif it.
Albert and Victoria were both Protestants, he was a Lutheran who converted to the Church of England,  the church of which she was already, at the time of their marriage,  Supreme Governor.
Comment: I think this would be a better answer if it stated in the first few lines "The church of England's rules are different'.
Comment: @DJClayworth When I said  it was the same in England before the Reformation I meant to  insinuate but not since, but as you point out, it would have been better for me to say so explicitly. I have changed it. Thanks.
Answer: Queen Victoria was not Catholic but Anglican.
Most royal houses married to keep peace between 2 countries,
genetically this caused many mental and physical illness within the royal
bloodline. So even the natural law has rules and if you don't obey them
 well things like sickness in the children will point that out to you.


Google play fails to install application with RPC:S-5:AEC-0

Question: Someone has reported me that he cannot install or upgrade applications on Google Play. It fails with error RPC:S-5:AEC-0
What does that mean? How to fix this?
Answer: I found this working answer on Androidcentral: Remove and re-add the main Google account
Answer: User @rds has given the correct answer about how to fix this problem, but I can tell you that this issue happens mainly after stopping Google Services Framework (this is a practice that some people recommend in order to be able to get OTAs when delayed to be available for your phone).
I had Android 4.2, but I was trying to get a recently released bug-fixing 4.2.1 update, so I just did this (stop Google Services Framework), but after updating Android and restarting my smartphone, I got that infamous [RPC:S-5:AEC-0] error when trying to get some updates for my apps.
First I tried, unsuccessfully, what @Anthony says. Then I did what @rds says (removing/adding my Google account) and the problem has gone!
Let me add: this is not the first time I get that error, but it is until now that I realize both the reason and the solution, so I'm sharing this with you.
Comment: I agree. That Android Services Framework was the root cause in my case. I did that clear data for all things Google, uninstalled all updates, removed and re-added Google account but to no avail, until I realized that I blocked various Play Services including Services Framework from start-up using AutoStarts. I simply unblocked them, restarted, and *voila*! everything came back  to normal. What a mess!
Answer: Go to Settings>Apps>Google Play Store>Uninstall Updates
Then reboot phone.
Answer:
Go into SETTINGS
Select Apps (select the 'ALL' tab)
Select 'Google Framework Services' and Clear Data (please only clear data; Do not delete Google Services Framework completely)
Select Google Play and Clear data there too (the same process as above)
Reset your tablet by switching on and off

Try resetting your home router just to be on the safe side.
Comment: Didn't work for me sadly.
Answer: The server error RPC:S-5:AEC-0 can be worked around by going to the 1Mobile App Market and downloading free apps only via that service. Not ideal, but at least it's enabled me to get BBC News, BBC Media Player and Skype.
I've done a fair bit of searching and just can't find an answer for this server error problem.
The SO-question Android error while retrieving information from server 'RPC:s-5:AEC-0' in Google Play?
might provide some help. Several of the answers suggest removing and then re-adding your Google account to the Play Store will fix the issue (a reboot may be required).
A similar advice can be found at AndroidCentral:

added my second Google account. I then went to the Play Store > [MENU] Accounts and selected the new account I had added, followed by switching back to the previous account. This resolved the issue for me.

Alternatively it's just waiting for Google to fix the issue.
Answer: I have this issue with my tablet and found that saving all my important info and factory resetting the tablet. once I had done this I set up a new g-mail account. so basically starting a fresh. this worked and did not show the error msg any more (RPC:S-5:AEC-O). HOPE THIS HELPS
Comment: This is a really extreme solution. It certainly works, but is probably the thing to do if everything else failed


KVM/QEMU SDL output to framebuffer

Question: I want a KVM guest with SDL graphics on a host that does not run X. From what I've read, SDL supports output to the framebuffer, but I can't find much on the topic.
Answer: You need to check if the applications developed in SDL implemented this feature because it's not automatic. (for example, vlc --vout fb)
If it concerns one of your project, this page shows how to develop SDL using FB : http://www.libsdl.org/intro.en/usingvideo.html

KVM/QEMU SDL output to framebuffer


Matching wood stain to paintable plastic

Question: I have stained cedar siding on house.  Recently installed new HVAC system with paintable plastic covers on the exterior of house.  How do I match the stain on wood to paint on covers?
Answer: The best way to match it is to remove a small piece of the siding and take it to any paint store that offers computerized color match. I/E: A piece of window trim, a loose knot hole, or use a painters 5-way tool to chisel out a very small piece from the bottom of a corner board or other inconspicuous place. Also, you might try calling a local paint distributor like Sherwin-Williams. Tell them you are considering some paint upgrades and you would like them to come out and match up the color with a fan-deck so you can weigh your options. If they think there will be a big future paint sale at stake, they will send out one of their road reps to speak with you and match the color. Remember to use a primer on that plastic before you paint it.
Answer: I am afraid that would be impossible to match.  Stain is absorbed into the wood and not uniform across the entire surface. It is very dependent on the grain of the wood and the red hue in the wood shows up.
You could get an approximate match but the two will always look visibly different.
Answer: I agree with Quoc Vu, the match will never be perfect. Acceptable? Perhaps, but that is quite subjective. An alternative approach might be to pick a complimentary color and make it an accent/feature. For example, matching the color of soffit/fascia/gutters instead of the siding.


Can I remove one spring from my suspension fork?

Question: my new below-entry-level MTB came with a basic coil-spring front suspension, with 2 super firm/rigid springs. 2 new soft springs would cost like $50, so I was wondering, can you simply remove a spring from one side, thus effectively halving the spring rate?
Look, I made a fancy picture too :)
Comment: On a low priced fork the springs may already have more than slight differences and put fork and front axle under stress. Removing one spring will worsen the situation. Note on the side: for that reason always check the proper tightening of the front axle (either nuts or quick release) before a ride.
Answer: No, i would not advise doing so. If it is a dual spring fork like your image illustrates one spring-less leg would put the entire thing under constant stress. This seems like a horrible idea all around. It may loosen up some after time, and you may be able to adjust some settings if that is the same fork in the image.
Does is have any knobs on the top of the legs like those in the image?
I would advise either buying softer springs if available, a new fork, or just learning to deal with it. Inexpensive fork are not really made to be adjusted or tampered with generally and i would not trust them to perform after doing so.
Comment: It's a dual spring fork with preload and lockout. I usually ride rocky gravel roads and soft suspension on my previous bike seemed to mitigate the stress on my hands. So that's why.
Thanks for your help, really appreciated! ;)
Answer: I'm inclined to think that removing one fork spring will not work very well, and I definitely think there is significant potential for catastrophic and dangerous failure of the fork.
The side with the spring will experience a resistance force but the side without the spring will not. The axle will therefore only be supported on one side, which will place stress on the slider axle dropouts and axle itself. The alloy slider dropouts could crack and break off.
if that happens You'll lose the front wheel and go over the bars. Having seen (and helped) a couple of people who face-planted into tarmac I can tell you you don't want to do it, no matter how good your dental insurance is.


text editor that starts out in view mode?

Question: I would like a text editor that works like the Google Docs app, where you start out viewing a file and if you want to edit it you specifically have to click an "Edit" button.  The reason this would be useful is that the keyboard pops up automatically if you are editing text.  90% of the time, I simply want to view the text file and not make changes.  Or maybe I want to view the file and decide if I want to make changes after I see it.  Dismissing the keyboard or being prompted to save the file every time is annoying when I only wanted to view it.
Answer: You can install Google docs in your Android device.
Also you can use an editor called INKPAD, that works your way, the keyboard only is showed if you want to edit the note.
Comment: Thanks but I'm specifically looking for an editor for .txt files, typically files I've downloaded from my Dropbox account.  I don't think either Google Docs or Inkpad can view .txt files.
Comment: Google Docs can import .txt files.
Comment: Also you can see
https://market.android.com/search?q=dropbox&so=1&c=apps
Answer: MiniNoteViewer (https://market.android.com/details?id=jp.gr.java_conf.hatalab.mnv&hl=en) basically works the way I want.  There's no explicit switch between "Edit" and "View" modes, but it doesn't pop up the keyboard until you tell it to.  Good enough.
Also Jota View (https://market.android.com/details?id=jp.sblo.pandora.jota) can be set to not pop up the keyboard when you are viewing a note (Preferences->Input->Viewer), though the app is overcomplicated IMO.


Name of Pharaoh that we were enslaved to in Mitzrayim

Question: Do we know what the name of Pharaoh (i.e. king or president) whom we were enslaved to when we were in Mitzrayim was?
Comment: Great question, and well asked! I saw an article a while back that voiced a few theories; let me see if I can find it again.
Comment: Not sure what the convention was for naming cities then (i.e. if after the monarch) but he did have them build Pithom and Ramses (which might be why I think Ramses is chosen in pop culure as the name of Pharoah).
Comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaohs_in_the_Bible#Pharaohs_in_the_book_of_Exodus should be a good start...I haven't checked their references, though.
Comment: Related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/13136
Answer: According to this article by Mitchell First, if one accepts the chronology presented by I Kings (6:1), then combining that with other historical sources would lead to the conclusion that the Pharaoh of the exodus was Thutmose III. This assumes that the exodus took place in the 15th century.
If one is willing to suggest an error in I Kings, then First suggests that the Pharaos in question were likely Ramesses II and his successor Merneptah. This assumes that the exodus took place in the 13th century. Of course they were in Egypt for centuries, so during the course of the servitude multiple Pharaos would have ruled.
See First's article at length for a discussion of the merits and problems of the various theories.
According to this article, Prof. Yehuda Elitsur was of the opinion that the Exodus took place in the 15th century during the reign of Amenhotep II (the son of Thutmose III). (Interestingly, he identifies Moshe's adopted mother, Bitya, with Hatshepsut).
Interestingly, this (Christian) article, argues for Thutmose III. Based on Biblical and historical sources.
Answer: R. Aryeh Kaplan (The Living Torah, Ex. 1:8), suggests that it was Ahmose.
Answer: According to many modern professors and evidence found in Egypt and many other places (and based of different parts of Tanach) Dedumose II was the pharaoh of yetzias mitzraim.
According to them 2 Pharaos before him was the one that raised Moshe and the one before him was the whom torah said about him "ויקם מלך חדש" (it a machlokes rav and shmuel if its literal or not).


Tax: 1099 paper form

Question: This is more of a question of pure curiosity and convenience.
Why do 1099s have to be submitted on the special paper forms and not just printed out in multiple copies or purely digitally? Everything else can be edited or printed, but a 1099 is special requiring special printers and software even for a professional tax preparer.
Answer: You can print them on any IRS-approved paper, you don't have to use pre-printed forms.
The IRS publishes specifications for paper that is approved for use for these kinds of forms (109*, W*, etc).
Here's the reason why it is important:

Even the slightest deviation can result in incorrect scanning, and may affect money amounts reported for employees.

Note that some portions of these forms are in different color (1099-MISC copy A). This is important, and using incorrect color will affect the IRS OCR mechanisms.
Forms for individuals are less complicated with regards to technical specifications, because individuals must file them, and as such any complication will unnecessarily burden the citizenry. All the 109*, W* etc forms are not legally required to be filed by all citizens. You're only required to file them if you chose to do business, or chose to employ others. As such, using professional software and special forms is a cost of doing your business, and not a tax as it would be had it been mandatory to everyone.
Mistakes in individual forms due to OCR failure or something else will be noticed by the taxpayers (less/more refund, etc) or through the internal matching and cross-check.
However, forms 109* and W* feed that matching and cross-check system and are considered source of truth by it, and as such their processing must be much more reliable and precise.
Comment: Thank you for your clear answer. I seems like all of these could be alleviated by filing digitally so scanning wouldn't be necessary. Is this just a case of the IRS being out of date? All hard copies seems like a massive inefficiency.
Comment: @yaymuffins 1099 can most definitely be efiled.
Comment: Almost: pub 1141 specifies paper, ink, fonts and *exact* layout for W-2 and W-3; pub 1179 does so for 109* and a few others. It's layout and possibly fonts that (usually?) require special software. +@yaymuffins you are indeed allowed and encouraged to file electronically, and *required* if you do more than 250 forms per type per year; see pub 1220 for 109*, but W-2/W-3 go to SSA not IRS so for those look on www.SSA.gov under "employers". You have much more flexibility on "statements" to *recipients* aka copy B; basically just use the correct box number for each data value.

Tax: 1099 paper form


New Year 2015 resolutions for this community?

Question: first and foremost ,Happy New Year 2015 to all .So what are your new resolutions for this site .Mine will be to spend at-least half an hour daily for this community ,helping folks .Any innovative ideas or resolutions for this up coming year?
Answer: Mine is to help more people learn to code!
Answer: My resolutions for 2015 are to
A) Be a better person & a better developer :) than I was last year
B) Help others more
C) Learn from others more
D) Evangelise Salesforce1, Mobile SDK and Lightning more than ever because I strongly feed that although these are some of the most commonly used frameworks, they aren't promoted/ backed enough.
Answer: I'm going to have to say, try to learn more from other people.  I keep finding out interesting tidbits from other posters answers/questions, but I never manage to look more into what I learn.  One example was Frameworks.  I really want to spend some time researching some.  The TriggerX framework looked really nice...


YouTube Network Partnership Needed for Minecraft Tutorials?

Question: Copyrights around video games videos are complex.  If I want to create and post tutorials for a video game on YouTube (specifically Minecraft), do I need to have a partnership with a YouTube Network?
Comment: (This isn't a real answer. It's just info.) I've been making YouTube videos since 2006, but I don't do gaming vids so this information is second-hand. What I heard is that your video MAY be flagged for copyright infringement if it uses someone else's content -- either videogame visuals or the music from the game. If you're in a network (especially a gaming one like Machinima), they have agreements with the copyright owners. Tha can eliminate the copyright claims ... but check with the networks you're thinking of joining.
Comment: Where did you hear this?  The only thing I am aware of is that some companies, such as Nintendo, will submit take down notices for footage from their games if you aren't press affiliated, but that's them specifically, not anything that I'm aware of Youtube doing systematically.
Comment: By the way, down vote is because the question isn't clear in it's current state.  I'll remove it if you can clarify what you're asking so that we can make it a more useful question.
Answer: For Minecraft you don't need to be on a Youtube Network.
Mojang says you can monetize your Minecraft Youtube videos.
Even if you use the game's music in it (however you can't use the music outside the video).
The Minecraft EULA says:

If you upload videos of the game to video sharing and streaming sites
  you are however allowed to put ads on them.

And the Mojang brand guidelines says:

You are allowed to put footage of our game on YouTube or any other
  website. In fact, we like you doing so.
  ...
  ...
  you may make money using your videos of our game by, for instance,
  through ad revenue, as long as you also add your own unique content
  to the video, such as audio
  commentary.
Answer: It depends entirely on the policies of the game manufacturer and what they tell Youtube to do.  Some game makers claim copyright over any content produced using their game.  Some do not allow any video to be posted, some allow only videos from certain networks, some allow videos from anyone as long as they aren't monetized and some allow anyone to post videos regardless of monetization.
We can't speak to the policy of any particular video game maker.  You would have to inquire with them what they consider to be allowed or you could simply make a video and post it and see if it gets a take down notice.  There is no blanket YouTube policy that I'm aware of though, they just take down content if a take down request is submitted.  (They also do have some automatic filters for detecting music in clips that have previously been taken down.)
Comment: And let me emphasize something @AJHenderson wrote:  "some allow only videos from certain networks". To put it another way, some networks (like Machinima) have agreements with certain gaming companies that allow you to upload their copyrighted content. That doesn't apply to all networks, and it doesn't apply to all companies. But it's worth noting.
Comment: Having said this, Minecraft's EULA specifically states it's ok to post commercial (monetised) videos - BUT CHECK FOR YOURSELF!


Gypsum and ........... Equals drywall mud?

Question: What can I add to gypsum to make drywall "mud"? I have a whole bag of gypsum for my garden, is that the same type to make "mud"? Also, is tape need to use mud? And what is the dry time on something like that? I'm looking to fix various nail holes before painting and this atrosity .
Comment: Garden gypsum cannot be made into drywall mud. Save it for your garden or give it away.
Comment: how does the picture relate to the question about gypsum?
Comment: Jsotola, that is one of the holes in my wall left after baseboards were ripped out. I am trying to fix that as well as various nail holes before painting.
Answer: The compound is a complex combination often including water, limestone, expanded perlite, ethylene-vinyl acetate polymer, attapulgite, and other ingredients, this was from online ,  but it answers the question of what's it made of.


Fiber paper curved on arrival?

Question: I recently bought my first box of Ilford Fiber B&W 8x10 paper. Even though the box is straight and undamaged, the entire ream of paper is curved. This seems like it will make it hard to ensure even focus and development. Is this normal? If it is, how do folks deal with this while printing?
Comment: Perhaps you can contact Illford and inquire if this batch has had others finding the same issue.
Answer: A freshly opened box of photo paper should not curve upward. Likely the paper has stored under adverse conditions. The only way to use this paper will be to slip it in an easel that shields the borders i.e. makes prints with white borders. Such easel are the mainstay of any darkroom photo lab. If you don't have one, get one.
Comment: thanks for your response. Do you know what condition caused this? Heat? It may be that I can't mail order this type of paper during the summer if so.
Comment: Photo papers consist of several coats on the paper base. Each has a different shrink / expand rate. The coats absorb moisture from the air, this changes the amount each layer expands or contracts. Likely the package was not properly sealed so it absorbed or lost moisture. The layers then microscopically slide opposed to each other, at different rates. Maybe if the box is stored in the crisper of your refrigerator, maybe this will help.
Answer: Agree with what's been said so far.  Just as long as you use an easel, you won't have any issues because the easel will keep the FB paper flat during the exposure.  Once exposed, the curvature is irrelevant during the development.

Fiber paper curved on arrival?


Final Hircine Totem Quest Glitch

Question: Okay, so I asked for the final quest from Aela to find the last totem but when I clicked the mission to highlight it and have it mark on the map of the place to retrieve the totem, it wouldn't mark it. I Googled and found the place for it, but the big Boss battle didn't happen and the totem was not anywhere. I don't know how to fix it. I have tried reloading the game and everything. I am playing on PS3.
Comment: "I have tried reloading the game". How far back did you go? Do you have a save before getting the quest from Aela?
Answer: Gathering the Totems of Hircine a radiant quest. Radiant quests select a random dungeon as the target location. Whatever you found on google is unlikely to also be the location selected by your game.
The UESP page for this quest offers this advice if you take this quest and can't see the map marker:

If Dragonborn is installed, some radiant locations may be on Solstheim. If you are in Skyrim, you will not receive a quest marker pointing you to the quest location, but must travel to Solstheim first (at which point any quest markers you have to quests in Skyrim will lose their quest markers).

I suggest that you travel to Solstheim and see if a map marker appears! If that doesn't help, the page I linked has other notes, bugs, and workarounds.
Answer: I had the same issue with some vampire quest. It is possible to convert your PS3 save to a pc compatible one. You use some commands and transfer it back to the console. It is the only way I know so far.
Comment: Can you remember the commands or where you found those? That will be helpfull

Final Hircine Totem Quest Glitch


Safari won't open in Yosemite

Question: I recently got my computer re-imaged. Everything was working fine on Yosemite until about an hour ago when my Wi-Fi abruptly disconnected. The AirPort icon gave me the rainbow spinner, so I restarted my computer. The Wi-Fi issue disappeared upon restart, but Safari (which had been open as my default browser before the restart) now refuses to open. When I click on the app in my dock, applications folder, Launchpad, and anywhere else, it doesn't open. The icon doesn't bounce, and the app won't work even when I click on a link in an email or something. There's no crash log. Any fixes for this?
Comment: Can you start Safari from Application folder?
Answer: I would check Activity Monitor while you are clicking the Safari icon. See if there are any processes like "Safari" or "Safari Web Content" that is showing up, and see if there is a red "not responding". This probably will not happen if the app does not even bounce, but it's worth a try. You can also try basic things like right clicking, clicking "Show all windows" or going to Options and clicking asking to this desktop. Also, have you been working with multiple displays recently? The safari window may be "stuck" on the other display, so you should check it out by plugging any back in.
Comment: I actually just fixed it using a new software update from the App Store that I'd forgotten to install. Sorry for the trouble!
Answer: Not sure if this will help - but I had a (sort of) similar issue.
When I opened Safari, it would sit in the dock and nothing would happen. No window, nothing. I was perplexed.
What I didn't ever realise is that there was no window defined.
I right clicked the icon in the dock and selected 'New Window'.
A massive Homer Simpson 'Doh!' ensued.

Safari won't open in Yosemite


How are Borg Ships constructed?

Question: How would you say Borg ships are constructed in Star Trek? Are they built in shipyards like most ships or do they assimilate other ships that they come into contact with and just grow from there?
Comment: It's not canon so this is not an answer but: In the game "Star Trek Armada" you can play the Borg and there they use a fairly common shipyard to construct cubes. This is of course due to the game engine and, as I said, not canon, but I don't think there is a canon source on this except tiny hints and little clues in VOY "Endgame".
Comment: Through the collective hive mind, pouring resources together to form a new ship?  Just pure speculation, but based on how they *repair* their ships, which in other instances (e.g. Federation) is similar to the construction of a ship (consider a major repair/upgrade of a Federation ship to its being built)
Comment: I agree with the hive mind thing. That does seem quite likely
Answer: The foundation of Borg technology is nanotechnology. They have also incorporated the technologies of all the species they have conquered or encountered, which includes material synthesis.
I would think that the correct term would be ship-worlds, as all they would need is a resource world or two to consume in the process of creating their ships, with the occasional import of elements that they can't synthesize.
Reference Grey Goo as the basis for that hypothesis.
Comment: Based on the repair of their ships, I would guess you are correct. I'm not sure if they show it in such a way during Voyager, but the idea of "resource planets" getting fed into grey goo sounds like something the collective would do.

How are Borg Ships constructed?


Downsides to using an adapter allowing me to use car oil filter on motorcycle?

Question: I saw this video recently on adding an aftermarket oil filter adapter to my motorcycle. Are there any downsides to using this type of product? Should I have a concern about using a car oil filter on my bike? If so, please specify the possible negative impact.
Comment: Unless designed properly, the adapter/filter combo could impact the oil pressure in the bike.  I have no experience with this product and can't comment on whether that is likely.  One question I have though is, why would anyone bother?  Re the Vstrom in the video, a Suzuki OEM filter is actually cheaper than the purolator filter shown in the video.  A larger, higher quality auto filter might have some benefit in extreme situations (dusty off road), but for road vehicles, it would be overkill IMHO.  So, if it isn't cheaper, and there is no benefit, why bother?
Comment: I really don't see as you will have any issues, though I'm not an expert in this area. You may want to ensure you get a "good" filter (way too many opinions on this, though). Secondly, the only thing which they did wrong in the video is they did not put a thin coat of fresh oil on the filter o-ring. This is a good way to ensure you **will** have a leak. This looks like a good alternative to paying gobs of money for manufacturer specific oil filters.
Comment: As long as the oil pressure Is correct, no problems. Adding the larger capacity filter will increase the cooling of the oil, keeping the viscosity at its prime range - which is life of the oil before breakdown.
Answer: An FYI it is a very bad idea to use automobile oil in your motorcycle. The reason behind this is because auto oil often has additives in it that when used in a motorcycle with a wet clutch (which most do) will wreak havoc on your clutch.
Given that, auto oil filters may be comprised of more fibers/elements that can perhaps cause higher/lower oil pressures in your motorcycle.
In my honest opinion, why risk such an investment like your motorcycle in saving a few bucks when buying an OEM filter?
Comment: I believe only energy conserving oils (labeled EC on the container) are a problem for wet clutch.  The EC oils include extra friction modifiers that make the oil a bit too slippery for some clutches.  I have used non-EC automotive oil in my SV650 (essentially just a smaller version of the Vstrom 1000 engine) for the last 9 years with no ill effect.
Comment: Based on other comments I think I may go ahead and give it a try in any case. I mean engine/oil/filter seems like these are similar requirements in any motor vehicle. If I can improve oil life then it might be worthwhile. I'll check other forums before making a final decision. Thanks for the insight.
Answer: For the original poster @Tommie C., do you know the thread size/pitch for the OEM Suzuki pipe where it goes into the engine? It seems like the pipe adapter from another Japanese bike engine such as Honda or Yamaha which both use the more common M20x1.5 on the filter side and have a separate thread (unknown pitch) may work for the engine side. The places that market the Suzuki adapter are apparently no longer in operation or do do not have the part for sale.


Is it possible to send an extended version of a low-tier conference paper to a high quality journal?

Question: In Computer Science, it is common for extended version of conference papers to be submitted to journals. In this case, is it relevant which conference the paper was published in, for acceptance to a high quality journal? For example, is it possible for the extended version of a good paper from a low-quality conference to be accepted by a high-quality journal?
Comment: Is the extended paper that good? Because if the original paper was mediocre (and this is why it was send to a lower-tier conference) extending it might be not enough to salvage it.
Comment: @Alexandros Yes, the original paper was good too -- but had to be sent quickly because of time constraints.
Answer: The short answer is: yes.
The journal review process is generally completely independent of the conference review process.  You will likely face additional skepticism from the reviewers, who may well be rightly prejudiced against the original publication venue.  If your paper really is solidly good enough for the journal you send it to, however, it's likely to do just fine in review there.


Would this patent prevent a patent of the same type of product made from a different material? Would that be considered a variation of this patent?

Question: In reference to the patent: US5265515
Comment: It has lapsed and is not a design patents
Answer: The cited patent has expired. Thus, it does not inhibit you from making a product as specified in its claims. Whether you can obtain a patent for the same device with a different material is harder to assess. The challenge is obviousness. Would someone knowledgeable in the field think it an obvious substitution? My guess is that if you are simply changing one plastic with a similar one not mentioned in the patent it wouldn't be patentable. If however there were some unexpected benefit then it might be. It should be pointed out that there is every possibility that there are other patents or prior art that may impact the evaluation of patentability.


Smoke viewport Display in 2.81a

Question: Just started to play with smoke in Blender 2.81a, I did not use the Quick Smoke, but start from scratch.
Here are the steps I took:

Create a sphere as Flow object
Create a Cube as Domain (sphere is inside Domain)
Create a Principled Volume Shader and link it to the volume of the sphere

Then press Space to run the simulation.
In Layout tab, I can see the sim only in Wireframe or Shade Mode, but not in Material Preview nor Render Mode.
In Blender 2.81a volumetrics seem to be ON by default in the Render Properties, so I don't know why I can't see it in Render Mode.
Answer: OK I got it, you need to put the shader on the Domain, not the flow object.

Smoke viewport Display in 2.81a


What is the specific functional group in MDMA that caused addictive effect on user?

Question: First of all, the reason I'm asking this is because I'd just done an experiment detecting MDMA in a urine sample with GC-MS for my internship program. I'm having difficulties figuring the functional group which cause the said effect as in my question. I've read two journal Shulgin and Nichols and I thought they explored more of the hallucinogen effect from N-methylation.
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it would be much better suited for Biology.SE, and is a very poor fit for Chemistry.SE.
Answer: Firstly, MDMA is widely regarded not to be physically addictive, which simply means that the compound (actually the absence thereof) will not cause potentially life-threatening symptoms on discontinuation, as is the case with alcohol or morphine. Note however that this does not make any statement on the addictive potential of the substance, as e.g. cocaine also falls into this category of substances, which are called psychologically addictive.
In general psychological addiction (which is not necissarily associated to substances, but can also involve habits such as gambling or eating) is widely believed to be strongly associated with the dopamine system and the overstimulation that dopamine facilitates during the addictive actions.
Which brings me to the second point:
The active site of the molecule. In a way, looking at both structures you will notice a set of similarity between dopamine and MDMA. It is not that simple however. The effects of MDMA are quite complicated and due to its status as illegal substance research is kind of limited.
Known effects are:

Known and experimentally confirmed increase in dopamine levels, although the mechanism is not known.
Serotonine release from vesicles to synaptic cleft (has effects on dopamine levels through mediation/coupling)
MAO inhibition (decreases dopamine and serotonine degradiation - among others)

Other effects like oxytocin response are also proposed and may also have effect on dopamine levels. But in this case the effect could as well be a down-regulation.
Which structural component is responsible for all of this? All of them, as you can tell from the complexity of the physiological reaction on the substance, especially if compared to similar compounds with in some regards drastically different physiological effects. Think of (meth-)amphetamine(very high dopamine response, next to no serotonin effects) or mescaline(direct agonist on specific serotonin and dopamine receptors, as well as dopaminergic effects). (It would really blow the reach of this question, but taking a look at other compounds, such as 2-CB or 3,4-CTMP will make this picture even more complicated, but also more complete...)
These substances can give you at least some hints at two honorable mentions in terms of 'addiction-causing functional group':

(N-Me-)Phenethylamine
3,4-(+M)-substitution pattern on the aromatic ring

A small sidenote on the difference between physical and psychological addiction: I am not 100% sure about the current research in that topic, but afaik in both cases there is in overexpression of receptors that causes the addiction, only that in the case of a psychological addiction the effects of the receptor-agonist is not live-threatening. In that sense the terminology which kind of suggests that psychological addiction is not associated with any changes in brain structure is somewhat misleading.
Answer: It's not really any particular functional group that causes addiction. For example, the only functional group in ethanol is the alcohol. While mdma has a methylene dioxy group and an alkyl amine.
Both of the above mentioned drugs are addictive. And their addictiveness can be associated to biochemical changes in the body. Such as the over/under expression of certain genes.


indifference curve

Question: Suppose my preferences are such that I like more of both goods, but only up to a
point. After I have 5 units of both goods, that's as good as it gets, and I'm indifferent if I
get more.
how do u draw the indifference curves? it seems that any bundle with more than five units of both goods are the same, so any line in that area is useless
Comment: Perhaps the "curve" is not a line, but an area then?
Answer: The area from $(0, 0)$ to $(5, 5)$ would be just like any other two-good indifference curve. Then since the area $\{(x, y): x \geq 5, y \geq 5\}$ has the same utility, they're all on the same "indifference curve" (so that's more like an "indifference area").
Not sure what the indifference curves would look like, say, at $(80, 2)$ though since you didn't specify if that's better or worse than $(5, 5)$.
Answer: This is an example of a satiation point or bliss point. Basically you want a particular point and getting further away from this point decreases your utility. The indifference curves look like concentric circles around a specific point, in your case (5,5) is the bliss point.
Comment: I think the bliss point is a different situation, in this question the point (5,5) is indifferent to the point (6,6). as more isn't better in this situation. But in a bliss point case, more is actually worse as u get away from your bliss point, so the point (6,6) would be worse than (5,5)

indifference curve


iMessage freeze and crash

Question: I am having this problem where I open up iMessage on my iPod Touch 4th Gen iOS 6.0.1 and it freezes after 3 seconds. There is a specific message that is causing this. This app opens up at this conversation by default. Before the three seconds passes, I can press back to the list of conversations and do stuff on that screen normally. But when I try to delete that specific conversation it reppears! I have tried to sign out and sign back in but the problem still remains. I have tried every possible method I could think of. If anybody knows how I can delete this conversation or fix this problem I would be grateful.
Comment: Can anybody please help me with my question?
Answer: After many attempts trying to fix this glitch I have finally found the answer.
I will explain step by step.

Open up iMessage
Quickly go back to the list of conversations before iMessage freezes
Go into the conversation that causes the crash
Click edit
Clear all messages
Go back before iMessage freezes
Delete the conversation
Completely close iMessage by opening up the Multitask bar and hold onto the icon until the icon jiggles.
Tap on the delete button on the top left of the icon
Wait 10 seconds then open iMessage again

After these 10 steps iMessage should be working find now.

iMessage freeze and crash


What should the voltage of a fully charged lead acid battery be?

Question: I don't have a proper lead acid battery charger...  But I own a small Yuasa 7Ah battery.  I am using a 13volt 1.5A wall wart to charge it.  And I have a volt-meter to check the voltage.
At what voltage should I take the battery off the charger?
Answer: See my stack exchange answer to "Lead Acid Battery Charger Design Factors" which relates, and follow the link there to the Battery University site which will tell you far more than you knew there was to know about lead acid (and other) batteries.
From the above answer note the quotes from the above website. Especially in this context

The correct setting of the charge voltage is critical and
ranges from 2.30 to 2.45V per cell.
Setting the voltage threshold is a compromise, and battery experts refer to this as "dancing on the head of a needle."
On one hand, the battery wants to be fully charged to get maximum capacity and avoid sulfation on the negative plate; on the other hand, an over-saturated condition causes grid corrosion on the positive plate and induces gassing.
To make "dancing on the head of a needle" more difficult, the battery voltage shifts with temperature. Warmer surroundings require slightly lower voltage thresholds and a cold ambient prefers a higher level.

2.30 x 6 = 13.8V
2.45 x 6 = 14.7V
13.8V is the nominal voltage that many automobile systems operate at.
 14.7V is higher than you'd usually meet but around 14.4V is common for "topping" mode charging which is used to equalise charge in series connected cells. See the Battery University site for MUCH more information.
If you charge to only 12.6V as several people have recommended your battery will not ever be at full capacity and will have a shortened life.
See also Safe operating area for different types of battery chemistry?
And also Can I charge a 12v sealed lead acid with an old wall-wart (not made for charging)?
And also Charging lead-acid batteries?
Comment: I love battery University.
Comment: I love Mongkok :-). [Non sequitur. May never see it ever again. So it goes.] D700 coming. Some compensation for Mongkok. Just as well I don't drink. :-).
Comment: @Kortuk I love BatteryUniversity as well.
Answer: Deep Cycle Batteries charge on 3 stages: bulk charge, topping and float charge. During the bulk charge,  the current density (A/cm² or A/dm²) is very important. If the current is smaller than  needed for the surface of electrodes, crystalline structure will appear. Sponge material is reversible, but crystalline material is irreversible and this is very important  for PbSO₄ too.
After the battery gets charged to 80%,  then the current decreases and during float charge is less than 1 Ampere.
The best choice is using a Smart Charger. The way a battery is  used and maintained can  change the battery life from  6 months to 7 years.  Never let a discharged battery rest uncharged;  discharging the battery at 50% before recharging can prolong the battery life by 2 to 3 times.
Answer: When in the armed forces, and frequently abroad for between 2 weeks and 6 months, which ruined car batteries, I purchased a variable voltage transformer (5 amp). Ensured battery fully charged (negligible charge indicated on ammeter when running engine)Connected trickle charger and voltmeter to battery, plugged charger into output from variable transformer. Then wound transformer voltage down until voltmeter indicated approx. 12.6/12.9 volts( I.E. slightly lower than ideal?). Was away nearly 5 months. Quick check: power still on and voltage not changed; electrolyte level appeared unchanged. Unplugged everything, hand pumped fuel up to the carbs. Engine started , battery seemed not to have aged and ammeter was very quickly showing normal fully charged indication while engine was running. May not be theoretically sound or perfect but proved very effective. Never had a problem using that system: it paid for the transformer, and my car was always ready to go (after I had checked tyre pressures).


An alien world with medieval level technology and some sort of mechanism or mode of space travel

Question: The title says it all. How would one go about creating a planet with aliens that have medieval grade technology (windmills and carts and stuff.) No high level technology. However, I want the aliens to be capable of space travel. I feel like a portal of some sort might work but I really don't want anything magical; all science please.. Thanks :)
Comment: [*The Road Not Taken*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_story)), a famous short story by [Harry Turtledove](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove) (1985). *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Earth is attacked by a space-faring race which can manipulate gravity and travel faster than light; but it turns out than the invaders use late-medieval level weaponry and technology. It appears that gravity manipulation and FTL travel are actually very easy, and it was just a historical accident that we didn't discover them in the Antiquity...
Comment: "A portal" might work, but you don't want any magic? Isn't that a bit of a contradiction, especially given the constraints of the specified level of technology?
Comment: You might be interested in my old question [How can I explain space travel being accepted and supported in a typical fantasy setting?](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/61765/29)
Comment: I'm reminded of this question from SFF SE: [Short story of a race who discovered primitive but subtle interstellar travel][1]. It's probably worth a read.

  [1]: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/7184/short-story-of-a-race-who-discovered-primitive-but-subtle-interstellar-travel/7187#7187
Comment: @QuavoTwinkletoes Remember that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and any sufficiently explained magic is indistinguishable from technology. You're asking for interstellar travel so it's effectively magic.
Comment: doesnt have to be a magical portal...could be a blackhole portal thing-y, i guess...checking out The Road not taken
Comment: agreed. when i said portal i meant like a blackhole. I've been reading abt how spacetime travel is/could be possible with a blackhole, or a wormhole. cant remember which
Comment: It could be possible that the aliens are naturally capable of transporting themselves over interstellar distances. While this is by no means realistic in a scientific sense, having a biological ability allowing them to travel through space would explain the lack of other technology.
Comment: A portal is your only solution.  Actual space travel requires substantial mathematics, engineering, chemistry, material science, even biology, none of which could exist in a medieval setting without completely compromising that setting.  Teach a nation how to produce the thrust to get you off planet and the math to get you there and back safely and you just taught them ballistic missile tech, which would quickly scale down to tactical rocketry and explosives.  From the perspective of your aliens, space travel is magic, no matter what it really is (all due respect to Harry).
Comment: Have your medieval culture find alien tech. They learn how to use, but not necessarily how to reproduce it. Its a sci-fi trope.
Comment: If you hadn't said wind mills specifically, I wouldve suggested a species that evolved on very small objects with little gravity and reason to stay on
Answer: It's called Stargate SG-1.

A long forgotten race of Ancients built a network of Stargates. They eventually evolved to a higher plane, but left behind many of their working portals to other planets. Subsequent species discovered the network, some of whom trafficked in less-developed species as slave labor.
Over the centuries the political landscape shifted and the parasitic species abandoned the planet leaving the primitive worker species to fend on their own. Eventually the primitive species discover the Stargate and conquer the galaxy with gumption, the spirit of friendship, and a series of unlikely scenarios where far more advanced societies are easily befuddled by aliens with only medieval technology and a simplistic understanding of science.
Comment: The beauty of the stargate / ancient artifact approach is that the OP aliens who built them are long gone.  If you are not digging the portals, your aliens could find a very durable spaceship buried under a mountains and by trial and error figure out how to fly it.
Comment: Sounds like the beginning of a franchise.
Comment: @QuavoTwinkletoes It sounds just as realistic as medieval aliens that are space-faring.
Comment: Very interesting thought..Thank you
Comment: I feel like the portal might lack "flair" tho. How would aliens with medieval type tech achieve space travel. I'm writing a medieval era alien invasion story and i dont want overpowered aliens. wouldn't be nice to send knights out against dudes with blaster. Please share your thoughts :)
Comment: lol...this very durable spaceship doesn't sound very realistic
Comment: Damn, beat me to it!
Answer: Wetcircuit has given a very good answer on the portal front, but a non-portal alternative might be that the alien world is in fact a very low gravity planet.
Imagine (if you will) that life formed on a moon that was around half the mass of our moon, orbiting a brown dwarf which in turn is orbiting a main sequence star. The brown dwarf still gives off some heat, which in turn is supplemented by the main sequence star for at least some of the orbit of the moon, meaning that it's possible that you could have liquid water, and therefore life, even complex life.
I say possible because many things would have to be in place to support this life, not the least of which is protection from the radiation from both the brown dwarf and the primary star; this is a very unlikely scenario but mathematically possible. To continue:
You only have to look at the Apollo lander launches to tell that the gravity well of such a moon requires FAR less energy to escape. Getting off Earth took a full 3-stage Saturn V rocket. Getting off the moon in the lander took an engine bolted to the bottom of the lander. On a moon with half the mass, the energy requirement would be even lower and could be possible with gunpowder technology. Is that medieval? Perhaps not European, but certainly Chinese.
You could then at least escape the moon's gravity well and orbit the brown dwarf, possibly explore a little more of this increasingly interesting solar system with probes and the like.
As for actual 'manned' space travel, this would also likely be possible because such a low gravity planet likely has a low atmospheric density, meaning you don't need a particularly strong pressure vessel to carry your crew. Blacksmiths were definitely a part of medieval society, and it's possible (although not perhaps realistic) that they could build a metal 'carriage' that could hold sufficient atmosphere for a limited journey, say a few orbits of the moon. That would still count as space travel, albeit limited.
I haven't run any numbers on atmospheric density, minimum mass of a pressure vessel, or even energy requirements for escape velocity, so I can't give you a specific boundary of technology or gravity well at which this all becomes possible, but it's certainly another option to consider.
Comment: Some very good ideas,fam..but space travel isnt just abt liftoff. theres other concerns . navigation, life support etc. these problems are kinda dealt with by modern technology
Comment: This is all true; certainly there is an argument that *long range* space travel is impossible without understanding relativity. I'd argue though that if all you're really doing is orbiting, a simple rule of thumb may be 'are the stars in front rising at the same speed as the stars behind are falling?' to determine that your orbit is relatively stable. Also, re-entry is less of a problem with a much thinner atmosphere so precise trajectories are less important. Your point is valid though and any astronaut from this moon would have to be VERY intrepid.
Answer: Some ideas:
Precursor civilization
The planet has been either visited or inhabited by a spacefaring civilization at some point in the past. Now only their machines remain, and at least some of those are still functional.
This is seen in:

Steven Universe;
Stargate (as seen in wetcircuit's answer);
Starcraft, at some point in the Protoss history;
DC Comics - in some stories (War of the Light, if I recall correctly), the Daxamites gave up on spaceflight and destroyed all the related tech on their planet. This was not enough to keep some of them from eventually leaving the planet, though.

A gift from the aliens
Aliens in a low-tech scenario are given the means to travel to space by a more advanced power.

The Green Lanterns do it all the time. It is kinda their thing.
In the Fallout series of videogames, a cowboy, a samurai and a 21st century soldier live in a UFO.
Some crackpots imply here and there that some humans have been taken to space by the Anunnaki.

Simple, raw oppression
Humanity is kept at a low technological level by a higher power. People may go to space if they have permission - or if they steal a ship.

In the Old Man's War, the supranational, spacefaring government of Earth separates humankind in two groups: those who leave the Earth, and those who don't. The latter are kept in the dark about interplanetary affairs and are not allowed to build their own ships, nor communicate with aliens.
In the Marsbound trilogy, a post-singularity civilization renders electric and electronic machines powerless on Earth. To add insult to injury, they disintegrate the Moon into dust and put its remains in various LEO's, so that anything that attempts to go into space will disintegrate upon hitting that powder. A martian ship is allowed to land on Earth and later leave it, though.

And if none of those suit you...
Chelonauts
The Discworld is a flat, discoidal planet. The various civilizations of this world enjoy technologies ranging from fire & wheel to victorian, averaging on medieval. In the second book, the astronomer-priests of one of the rim islands send a mission to space, to find out some important things about the underside of the disc:

Tumbling past, totally out of control, is the bronze shell of the
  Potent Voyager, a sort of neolithic spaceship built and pushed over the edge by the astronomer-priests of Krull, which is conveniently situated on the very rim of the world and proves, whatever people say, that there is such a thing as a free launch. (...) Plunging along some two miles above (...) is Rincewind the wizard, in what on the Disc passes for a spacesuit. Picture it as a diving suit designed by men who have never seen the sea.

If your planet is not flat, then you need at least two catapults. The larger one will shoot the smaller one outta the atmosphere. The smaller one then acts as a launch-stage and shoots the spacefaring vessel proper, giving it the delta-v it needs for a stable orbit or escape trajectory.
Answer: Building from the low gravity answer...
Imagine a bunch of rickety, wood and iron barrels sealed with pitch, exploding through the sky using Orion-project style propulsion that uses black powder instead of nukes.  The barrels join up in orbit to form a shanty town of a space station.  In the center are great brass chambers with glass skylights, some ornately stained with religious imagery, letting light shine down on farm plots.  Many of these stations are destroyed by careless docking accidents, mishandled propellents, spontaneous decompression, and wood worms, but fortunately this race is as ambitious as it is prolific, and there are always more astronauts to send up!
Navigation would typically be a real challenge for such a primitive folk, but you don't need driving directions if you don't have a destination.  These are explorers!  Like the spores of a mushroom, they spread out in their rickety death traps across the cosmos, hoping to find a rock to land on.  Many of these vessels wander the vacuum of space for hundreds of years, with generations of passengers living out their days in the cramped vehicles.
Would help if aliens had slow metabolism, high radiation tolerance, and healthy dose of crazy.
Answer: solar sailing and gravity currents
This is based on those little solar windmills that you can make (the ones that spin when they hit sunlight) it takes that same idea that makes those things spin and you make a sail out of it. idk how they get into orbit but once in orbit these sails can catch the sunlight like a sail boat catches the wind. the crews are exports at using the gravity of interstellar objects to speed around, but the craft itself would be carved out of a solid piece of obsidian (can't have air inside the walls because then it would explode)
Answer: I like the idea of a low-gravity world as a starting point for this, as well. The Saturn V rocket was needed in Earth level gravity. Earlier ideas included firing a person in something similar to a hollowed out cannonball or shell (shaped like a bullet, but huge), so this was the legitimate precursor to rocketry. A gigantic cannon capable of shooting a gigantic cannonball several miles was created in the 1600's, I believe, but had no practical military purpose as it could not be aimed. In lower gravity, something of this nature, with just enough modifications to actually launch people in space shells to other places could have been done. Remember that Isaac Newton and other reasonably advanced people lived before 1700, while the general level of technology was still comparable to the medieval age. To make the space shells more capable, and steerable, a secondary system of propulsion either of gun-powder or a Grecian-fire type substance could be implemented. It's hard to imagine any full life-support system other than captured air, but perhaps some native plant could be used to recycle the "stale air" aboard the craft. This would have to produce oxygen better than any known Earthly plant, including Devil's Ivy. The windows would also have to be thick enough to survive being fired out of a huge cannon. They are already over 1 ft thick on conventional spacecraft, but they must be thicker and made of more resilient glass. Silvering of glass should be viable, as metal-based paints were created fairly early. The spacecraft could be insulated with an asbestos like natural substance, like a natural ceramic wool. Imagine if our planet only produced "safe" asbestos. This scenario considers that some person is capable of scientific pursuits, and is fairly advanced in exotic subjects such as math and science in a relatively primitive world. The space program of such a world would involve king or queen type leaders with otherworldly political ambitions, other similar nearby low gravity worlds, and some early scientifically minded persons which are caught in the midst of it all as facilitators of these political ambitions. Like the politics of any medieval world, aligning with the political will of leaders is rewarding, and falling out of alignment with such political will is deadly. This could be motivation enough for early space travel. In all other respects, the world would be medieval, with castles, drawbridges, knights, and all the other typical medieval technology. Innovation can be very uneven if the results come from inspired scientists and highly motivated leadership. Perhaps an unusually high technology for the period such as a full metal foundry could be used, involving something like a blast furnace, for the express purpose of crafting cannon-craft and the associated cannons. The production of large metal objects was very difficult during the medieval times, but uneven development is always a possibility.


Is it plausible that there could be an alien species that has the capacity to mate with and share genetic material with many other alien species?

Question: Kind of a "universal donor" or "universal recipient"? Aliens that can take on the qualities of several kinds of species and recombine them to make a kind of "super" being?
Comment: *Yes*, because *everything* is possible given the *right circumstances*. And with that: Welcome to WB.SE :)
Comment: Just a thought, but viruses are especially good at altering their structures to become compatible with different organisms. Why not put a species genetic material inside a virus-like organism, when the virus "mutates" to fit the hosts biology, the other creatures genes are passed on too, forming new life.
Comment: Are those species ("donor" and "recipients") alien to each other, or are they just alien to Earth, but might be closely related?
Comment: check out the Asari in the mass effect series http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Asari
Comment: I'm aware that certain cephalopods do rob others for their DNA and assimilate it much like the Star Trek Borg. And unless unless their chromosome pair up else all your offspring if any would be sterile.
Comment: Thank you all for your insightful comments.  I was reminded of Stem Cells also, while I was reading, and some sort of natural control over stem cells within the organisms that are hybridizing might add an interesting twist to this world.  Thanks again!
Comment: A shape shifting species that can completely take on the DNA form of what it shifts too yet still maintains it's ability to change shape.
Answer: Sorta yes. It may be possible, but not likely.
One issue is that we don't know if all life would be the same handedness. There is no reason it should be, in fact it should be about 50/50. How much the handedness of compounds matter can range from not mattering at all to being very potent toxins where if you expose someone to a compound that is left handed it will really be beneficial, but if its right handed it will kill them instantly.
But let's say all life works on basically the same RNA/DNA system. Well, then you're pretty much down to the programming analogy. Basically, there is no reason for some 4 bits to be one command and another be a different one. You're just randomly asigning them, but all PCs can run most OSs because they all use roughly the same base level command structure. Assuming there is limited amount of options for what those biological commands are (which as faras I can tell that is the case) then it should be possible to give birth to a given species by alien species (ignoring other issues). As in if bob the human mated with Susan the martian, susan could give birth to a human, but she could not give birth to Human-Martian hybrid from just this, because the commands are only for a human or a martian, not both. 1 BIOS can run at a time and 1 OS can run at a time...
So how do you get a hybrid? Shells. You can run a shell program which allows you to run another BIOS/OS on the same computer while running the main OS. The Shell OS can make alteration to the files and such just as the main OS, but the main OS is in charge and also you are expending more resources to run both. Is this possible with biology? I see no reason why not.
So you'd then get a hybrid Martian-Human, but the Martian would be dominant to the point where you might as well not call it a hybrid.
The alien from the movie Species and the Asari from Mass Effect both seem to work in outward appearance similar to this.
Comment: Saying all life works based on the same RNA / DNA system is a huge, unlikely assumption that can make or break this question. Otherwise accurate
Answer: "Is it plausible that there could be an alien species that has the capacity to mate with and share genetic material with many other alien species?"
No. Biology doesn't work like that. A human-Vulcan hybrid like Mr Spock couldn't arise via normal reproductive mating, but it could happen via biotechnology assisted reproduction. Fairly advanced biotechnology, but it's not inconceivable.
"Kind of a "universal donor" or "universal recipient"? Aliens that can take on the qualities of several kinds of species and recombine them to make a kind of "super" being?"
Again no. But again this could happen via genetic technologies whereby genes can be shared (assuming the alien species involved have reasonably compatible molecular biology or, as we used to call it biochemistry).
Genetic hybrids already exist and current genetic engineering techniques can make them. Aliens with advanced technology could carry this process to the nth degree. They could make some interesting recombinant organisms. These could be better adapted to a wide range of environments. But could this lead to making a "super" being? Very doubtful. The concept of a "super" being is a mirage at best.
Comment: You seem not to have taken your own conclusions to their logical extreme. If something is possible via "fairly advanced biotechnology," then it's possible to use even more advanced biotechnology to create an organism that can do it "naturally".
Comment: @Azuaron. An interesting thought. Glad you put "naturally" in quotes. This would be the equivalent of incorporating advanced biotechnology into your anatomy. It might be doable for limited ranges of biology; gene-plucking from Martians, but not Venusians (sort of). Keeping the advanced biotech extrasomatic might be both convenient & more effective. If it was possible, the organism might be overdeveloped for that one function.
Answer: On its own, no.

Genetic material is not compatible. DNA is not compatible with structures of not only different chemicals, as would likely be present, but also different, non-helix shapes, making the combination of genetic structures extremely improbable if not statistically impossible.
If the genetic material is somehow adapted by exchanging most of the molecules for compatible chemicals, and changing the shape (which your organism, however complex, probably cannot do), the genes produced will not have the same meaning to decoding enzymes or machines. What may mean blue eyes for species A could be decoded as an exoskeleton for species B.
If you make the genetic molecules compatible, and make sure the genes represent what they are supposed to do, the offspring will likely be grotesque and
malformed. Cross a human and a cow and you will not get
a cow with a human head or a human with udders. Things will mix in a
number of unpredictable ways and kill the organism. Picture a human with a compartmentalized stomach, fur, a skewed metabolism, and a circulatory system that doesn't go through the entire body, effectively killing the creature at birth.
If the body somehow functions, which is very very unlikely, the brain still probably won't. It will not have regions corresponding to every organ in the body, as a random combination of genes means not every organ gets representation. Additionally, it may have redundant regions that evolved to control something that this hybrid creature doesn't have.
Finally, if all of the above conditions are met, and through impossible statistics, the organism is able to develop and survive, it will die in utero. The mother organism will create the child using the nutrients it knows how to process for its own kind. It will not process the nutrients the other organism inside of it needs to grow effectively.

However, complex machines can always solve your problems.
Answer: ... I'm pretty sure there is an organism (not sure if single-celled or multi-cellular... though single-celled is more likely) which 'borrows' DNA from other organisms to add genetic variation & abilities due to being asexual reproducers. (From a quick google search i found that i might be referencing bdelloid's as they have this behaviour).
So it is possible to take genetic information from other organisms and use it to reproduce, the problem lies in whether your aliens have DNA/RNA or if their genetic code is compatible with other organisms.
I hope this answers your query.


Why is AWS ALB not talking to an ingress controller?

Question: I'm taking TechnoWorld Kubernetes Administration class, where we learn to create a Kubernetes cluster from scratch using one Ubuntu EC2 for master node, and two Ubuntu EC2s for worker nodes. The course guides us into installing the different Kubernetes components - containerd, kubeadm, kubelet, kubectl, Weavnet etc. - on each pertinent EC2. We use NGINX as our simple application that are running on our worker node pods. I have the infrastructure set up where I can actually, for example, do a curl <pod IP address> from my master node and get the "Welcome to nginx" greeting as a response. So far so good. I even created a Terraform script to set this up. I even setup test Kubernetes LoadBalancer service that's accessible to the outside world, put it's IP:port on the browser and see "Welcome to nginx" proving that the networking (VPC, subnet, security group) is correct.
Here's the traffic flow of the fundamental infrastructure we're trying to build.
Internet-facing AWS ALB(port 80) -> ingress controller LoadBalancer service(port 80:32111 mapping) -> ingress -> ClusterIP service -> EC2 worker with NGINX pod
So a user puts an ALBs DNS name on the browser and gets the "Welcome to NGINX" greeting.
However with my setup, when I put the ALB's DNS name, I get a "This site can't be reached" message.
I set up my internet-facing ALB to serve port 80, forward to a target group on port 32111 (ingress controller port) that has the 2 EC2 worker nodes registered as targets.
Any pointers on how I can debug this seemingly simple/fundamental setup?
TIA
Answer: Assuming everything is running and working fine on AWS, the key pieces of information you mentioned above are the DNS record and the Ingress.
I would assume you have defined the Ingress Name based virtual hosting.
Then you'd also need to add, in AWS Route53, the appropriate DNS records to point the the ALB.


Which was the first sci-fi story to feature human transfer of consciousness into an artificial body for eternal life?

Question: I was reading about Galaxy Express 999 (1978), and I saw this manga featured the idea of human transfer of consciouness into an artificial body for eternal life similar to Altered Carbon or with some similarities to Ghost in the Shell. I assume this story isnt the first one to feature that idea but it is the first one I've heard of. My question is, which was the first sci-fi story to feature human transfer of consciouness into an artificial body for eternal life?
Comment: I don't know if this counts, but there's a 1931 story about a guy who achieves immortality by having his **brfain** transferred to an artificial body.
Comment: I was thinking of "The Jameson Satellite" which is mentioned in M. A. Golding's answer.
Comment: I suppose it counts, how is it called? It is worth a reply, even if it isnt sure it is the first one
Answer: Introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and back story filled in by The Tin Woodsman of Oz, the Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodsman and his counterpart, Captain Fyter, had immortal (if rust-prone) metal bodies with their original consciousness preserved (their original meat parts, still alive because nothing could die in Oz, were glued together into a misshapen human form known as ChopFyt).
The first Oz book (which contained enough of Chopper's story to show the transformation that lodged his consciousness in the metal form) was published on May 17, 1900.
Comment: The OP asked for transfer of CONSCIOUSNESS not transfer of brain.   That is why I said "The Jameson Satellite" comes close but isn't an exact match.
Comment: ChopFyt had a brain (though it didn't work very well).  I took that to mean even the original brains were replaced with metal.
Answer: People being granted immortality in non-human forms is a recurring theme in Greek Mythology
Upon Heracles' death Zeus brings him up to Olympus and makes him a god.
Narsissus pines away and is transformed into a Narsissus flower.
Baucis and Philemon grow old together, and upon their deaths are transformed into an oak and a linden tree intertwined.
You could probably debate how much these qualify as "consciousness transfers", since trees are not particularly known for their thinking.  But the seeds of the concept are there.
And it wouldn't surprise me if there are other myths that do include a deliberate body modification to give someone a conscious immortal body.
Comment: In almost every case here, the consciousness isn't transferred from one body to another; the original body is *transformed* into a new body, with the consciousness otherwise staying put.
Answer: According to the Wikipedia article, Mind uploading in fiction, there are two plausible candidates given as the earliest example, depending on whether transfer to biological or artificial "brains" is required:

The Altered Ego by Jerry Sohl (1954) invovles "brain records" taken as backups that can be placed into either a restored or a new brain after the original's death.
The Tunnel Under the World by Frederick Pohl (1955) involves electronic scans of brains being uploaded into computers and robots.
Comment: Finally an answer that cites sources and focus on the actual _mind upload_ instead of physically moving the brain.
Answer: Two early examples that come rather close are:

Neil R. Jones's "The Jameson Satellite" Amazing Stories July 1931 in which super advanced aliens revived the long dead brain of Professor Jameson and put it into a robot body.
E.E. Smith in The Skylark of Valeron Astounding stories (August 1934 to february 1935) had the spaceship Skylark of Valeron equipped with a super computer of almost human intelligence.  Richard Seaton had a mind reading helmet he used to control the computer and the ship.  When he captured his arch enemy Dusquesne he ripped the mind reading helmet off of his head lest his desire to kill Dusquesne be turned into action by the computer.   Reading that scene I instantly thought that similar technology could be used to copy a person's memories into a sufficiently advanced computer so that their copy could live on in the computer.

I assume that some readers had the same thoughts back in 1935 and thus there could have been stories featuring memory upload (or is it download?) to computers as early as 1935.
The earliest movie I remember with transferring or copying memory to computers or  robots is The Creation of the Humanoids (1962), which suggests that written science fiction probably had memory copying long before 1962.
The Star Trek episode "What Are little Girls Made Of?" October 20, 1966, also had memory transfer to robots.
According to the Technovelgy.com website, Lord of Light (1967) by Roger Zelazny is the first story to have scientific reincarnation, transferring memories to a new biological body and brain.  Which is somewhat similar to transferring memories to a new cybernetic body and brain.
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=13701
But so far I haven't located any reference to the first written story with memory transfer to a computer or robot.
Comment: I think Arthur C Clarke used this idea in the book 2001 A Space Odyssey?
Comment: I'm blanking on the name of a story that I thought was EE Smith (but definetly from around that era) where the explorers *did* transfer their consciousness into robot bodies (that absorbed UV energy from the sun - so there was an excuse for a plot device for these people to run around naked).  When these explorers returned to Earth they faked needing to wear space suits to contain the radiation their new bodies were emitting.
Answer: One could argue that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was the first example of transplanting a brain from an old body to a "recycled" one. Published in 1818.
Comment: Brain, yes -- but Adam didn't remember being human before his "birth" from Frankenstein's vat of fluid.
Comment: The OP asked for transfer of CONSCIOUSNESS not transfer of brain.


The color variations of Mirabilis Jalapa flowers

Question: I have few Mirabilis Jalapa plants on the side of  my yard. The colors of their flowers are pink, white,yellow, and orange. But,only the plant with the orange flowers grow well, while the others seem to dying no matter I do. Maybe because of too much watering or the lack of sunshine and wind nowadays. Is there a solution for these ?. O yes, back to the original topic. Could I make a multicolor flower (in a single flower) by using these single-colored flower plants ? Is it true that a single mirabilis jalapa flower could contain 4 or 5 distinct colors ?
Comment: It would be helpful if you could add a photo your existing Mirabilis to help diagnose the problem.
Answer: Four-o'clocks have 3 basic colors, red, white and yellow. But they cross so there are 3 mixed colors .But the colors tend to be distinct in each flower ; so there is not a solid pink -there is red with white patches and there is white with red patches.  Some plants will show all 3 colors. The flowers on a bush are not all the same ( using the same red/white example) ; that is some will be mostly red with some white and some will be mostly white with some red. In my location the red seems to be more dominant , more than half of my bushes are red or red + another color although I prune out reds. Also ,mixed color plants will produce some pure ( red,white, or yellow ) seeds.
Answer: In Java, Indonesia, as far as I know all four-o'clock plants all have single-colored flowers. So, here  a four-o'clock plant with red flowers will always produce red colors and only red colors, same for white, yellow, and orange colors. Here, four-o'clock plants with orange flowers are very very rarely seen(!). The only multi-color flowers I found here are red color with white patches/dots , or white color with red patches / dots. I observed that four-o'clock plants will grow well and have large leaves and flowers if there are enough sunshine, wind , and water.


Do plasma B cells express the BCR or only produce soluble antibodies?

Question: Is the B cell receptor still expressed on a B cell once it has begun to produce soluble antibodies? Is there a gene change that prevents the membrane-bound form from being produced anymore?
Answer: B cells can secrete antibody before they are terminally differentiated into plasma cells, so there is a phase during which both membrane-bound and secretory antibodies can be produced by the same cell:

When a naïve or memory B cell is activated by antigen (with the aid of a helper T cell), it proliferates and differentiates into an antibody-secreting effector cell. Such cells make and secrete large amounts of soluble (rather than membrane-bound) antibody, which has the same unique antigen-binding site as the cell-surface antibody that served earlier as the antigen receptor (Figure 24-17). Effector B cells can begin secreting antibody while they are still small lymphocytes, but the end stage of their maturation pathway is a large plasma cell

--Molecular Biology of the Cell. 4th edition.
Plasma cells, generally speaking, have little or no surface immunoglobulin, but it's been claimed that some subsets of plasma cells do have surface Ig:

Surprisingly, although IgG PCs downregulated surface IgG expression, IgA and IgM PCs expressed their respective isotype both intracellularly and on the plasma membrane (Figure 1A, lower panel). Importantly, concordant Ig's were also detected on the plasma membrane of IgA and IgM, but not IgG, PCs isolated from BM or colon LP indicating that this property is a characteristic of PCs present in their physiological niches

--A functional BCR in human IgA and IgM plasma cells
Answer: Once B cell starts secreting soluble antibodies, it is no longer a B cell, it is called a plasma cell hence normal B cells do not secrete soluble antibodies before becoming plasma cells. It is the BCR that is secreted. B cells can either differentiate into memory or plasma cells.  Plasma cells produce soluble antibody molecules closely modeled after the receptors of the precursor B cell. The plasma cell continuously produces soluble antibodies.
I hope this helps since I did not directly answer your questions because they were based on inaccurate information/bases. Please let me know if any other questions based on the information I provided
Comment: Welcome to Biology.SE! Your answer sounds reasonable, but it is much more likely to receive a favorable response if you include supporting references (primary literature is best). Without that support non-specialists in immunology will have difficulty in verifying your claims. ——— That you for taking the [tour], however you may also benefit from consulting the help pages for additional advice on [Answer] effectively on this site and then edit your answer accordingly. Thanks!


Where do you put human contacts on the Organization entry?

Question: When you create a new contact for an organization on CiviCRM, there does not seem to be any place to add the name of a human contact. Am I missing something?
Answer: Both organizations and individuals are 'contact' entities in CiviCRM (a household is also a 'contact'). An organization is a separate 'contact' from the individuals related to that organization.  By having the organization entity separate from the people in/related to that organization, you can specify the nature of the relationships those people have to the org.
You'll want to create an organization (Top menu > Contacts > New Organization, as you have done) then separately create individuals (Top menu > Contacts > New Individual) who have relationships to that organization. You can connect the individual(s) to the org with either the Current Employer field or using the relationships tab on a contact's summary screen once a contact has been created.
You can read more about contacts and relationships here: http://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/4.6/organising-your-data/contacts/
Answer: You don't. a human contact is a contact type "individual", what you create is an organisation.
If you want to create a human, create an individual, and set the current employer as the organisation. it will automatically create 2 contacts, the individual and the organisation, and create a employee/employer between them
you can as well later on update the relationships between organisations and individuals from the relationship tab. You can even create new type of relationships (volunteer, member of the board...) on the top of the standard employee.
X+
Comment: Thank you! I still feel this is not as smooth as it should be. There should be some space on the organizational page to put an individual contact. I have both personal addresses and organizational addresses for several individuals on our mailing list.
Comment: you don't need space for a single contact, but possibly way more. you can already mix organisations and individuals in your mailing (they are both contacts)
Answer: I also often like to have an individual associated with an organisation, but don't want to create a separate record for them, although that is clearly the more flexible option.
So I have created a simple Custom Data field that I call "Main Contact" that appears on the Summary page of an Organisation contact type, with a simple text field for the main person associated with the organisation. It's not hard to do and fits our use case much better than creating a whole new record for that person. It also means you can customise the Email or Postal Greeting to have something like "Dear Mr Smith, Duke Street Church".
Answer: For email & snail mail I use the main contact for the email address, addressee and and greetings in the Organization record.


sulfur hexafluroide as a greenhouse gas and its atmospheric journey

Question: Maybe a simple question, but if sulfur hexafluoride is 6 times heavier than air then how does it get into the high atmosphere. All be it in low quantities now, but there is a large stock of the stuff in potentially vulnerable and prevalent infrastructure such as substations of the electricity grid. If there was a much larger leak of the chemical than is now observed would we expect it to reach the upper atmosphere to become a dangerous greenhouse gas at that position in the atmosphere... as i understand potent ghg's induce greater warming when high in the atmosphere. Anyone know more about this? its mode of transport there, what activities are getting it up there? Ive done some research on existing and past growing concentrations but wonder if its Global warming potential is dangerous unless it can actually accumulate significantly high in the atmosphere?
Answer: Carbon dioxide is heavier than air but is found in nearly equal proportions throughout the well-mixed portion of the atmosphere. Xenon is much heavier than air, almost as heavy as sulfur hexaflouride, but it too is found in nearly equal proportions throughout the well-mixed portion of the atmosphere.
Turbulence is what makes the well-mixed portion of the atmosphere be well-mixed. It is only in the uppermost layers of the atmosphere, where the air is very thin, that turbulence fails to keep things well-mixed. The turbopause, which marks the border between the well-mixed lower portions of the atmosphere and heterogenous upper portions of the atmosphere, is about 100 km above the surface. The stratosphere is only 10 to 50 km above the surface, so it is well within the well-mixed portion of the atmosphere.
Comment: @ideatank17 There are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that have molar masses similar to that of SF6, and those CFCs that contain bromine can have an even greater molar mass. All CFCs have a molar mass that is greater than the mean molar mass of the atmosphere. Despite these high molar masses, those CFCs manage to make their way to the stratosphere. One way to look at it: gases have a near infinite potential to dissolve other gases.
Comment: (So if I read ideatank's question right, he suggests there is data to show some $SF_6$ in the upper atmosphere [if not, perhaps the question should be altered])... are you suggesting the process that got it there is that it mixes up to the turbopause, and small amounts get above the mixed realm and settle just above that?
Comment: I should have stated just atmosphere instead of atmosphere, i really just meant off the ground as i thought SF6 would constantly fall to the ground and stay there. But the data does indeed state that it is measurements of the troposphere so im assuming the SF6 is at altitude. Many thanks
Comment: Excellent point, thankyou. Id been doing a fair bit of research on SF6 but wasn't sure how it contributes to the greenhouse effect if it was so heavy and whether or how it could get into the high atmosphere. It falls into the same category as other chemicals with high GWPs such that they are currently leaking from existing infrastructure. It is a great concern since such infrastructure like electric substations are at risk from damage from extreme weather events and sea level rise that i wonder how high on the agenda we should place this risk in order to consider installing alternatives. Thnx


How should I cite an invited paper?

Question: My discipline is Telecommunication engineering and I am writing a paper for an IEEE journal. I want to cite an invited paper published in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. My question do I need to mention in my citation that the paper is invited? If yes, how? As part of the original article name or the journal name or somehow else? Same with correspondence papers which are not full length articles, but short ones on some emerging area. What does IEEE say about it?
Answer: No, cite it as you would any other paper. You do not mention the paper status ("invited paper", in your case; "review paper", "perspective", "editorial", etc.) in the citation, unless that is formally part of the title (which it typically is not), or unless the citation style explicitly calls for it (IEEE does not, and I know no citation style that does).
In IEEE's templates and LaTeX classes, the only place which mentions invited papers is a command to indicate when your paper is an invited paper (here for IEEEtran):

Special paper notices, such as for invited papers, can be declared with:
<code>\specialpapernotice{(Invited Paper)}
</code>
Comment: A nitpick: "paper *status*" sounds to me like something that includes "in review" or "submitted", both of which *should* be mentioned to make clear that e.g. a seemingly conference-published paper is not yet accepted at the time of the citation. (I am not sure what to call "invited paper", though; maybe "paper type" (sounds fine for the other examples you provided), or "paper submission mode".)

How should I cite an invited paper?


Names of wedding reception and ceremony in Mexico

Question: How do Mexicans refer to the wedding ceremony and the celebration following the wedding? I am attending a Mexican wedding and would like to refer to these events properly.
Comment: You actually also say *la boda*, because actually nobody cares about the religious ceremony (unless you are over 60 years old), but about the party thereafter; that's for me the most common word. I'd use only that, unless I want to sound too elegant.
Answer: You can safely refer to those as "Recepción" or "Banquete" for "Wedding Reception" and "Ceremonia" for "Wedding Ceremony".
Personally, for the first part I'd use "Recepción", it's more adequate in all cases, because the word "Banquete" can be awkward if the mentioned event is actually a small and humble one.
Answer:
The wedding ceremony: "la boda", "el matrimonio" or "la ceremonia".
The celebration following the wedding:  "la fiesta", "la recepcion" or "el banquete".
Answer: If they are Mexicans is probably that the mass will be in a catholic church, that's a "misa" [mass], and then the party will be just the party because "boda"[the wedding] envolves both mass and party but it's normal to call it "la boda" since a lot of people just go to the party "la boda" is accurate for the party, if the day after they make another party in the morning will be "lavado de olla" [Whashing pot] or "recalentado" [reheaded] depending on what part of Mexico they are. "Recepción" and "Banquete" are American concepts but since they live in the US I assume that it will be understood.


Can I transfer trophies and data to a new account?

Question: Okay I have created a sub account on my ps3 as a new user. I wanted to change my psn online id. So I have copied all game data from the old account to my new account, but when I go to play the game it still says the trophies and data belong to the old account. I don't want to delete the old one and lose all my saved games and trophies, is there a way to either unlock and allow my new user to own the data and trophies or transfer the trophies and data so that my new account may own it?
Comment: relevant http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/36629/can-i-rename-my-psn-account.
Comment: Be mindful there are also certain, permanent restrictions on sub accounts. For instance you can not convert them to regular accounts, and they may not be able to access some content on a PS4. Your best bet is to just create a second, normal account. That alt account will still be able to access all of the content downloaded on your PS3, it just may not be able to play some on-line games that need a PSN account specific token.
Answer: At present, there is no way to transfer trophy information from one account to another (still). Logically, it doesn't make sense for trophies to be transferable. This person earned this proof that they did something - what meaning would these have if you could transfer them to someone else? This would certainly allow for a shim to act as a psn id change, but that would be the wrong solution to the problem.
Some few saves and other data can be copied over but often, like trophies, these are usually non-transferable as well. To determine which data can be transferred, you would have to go through each and try it. The logic behind this is probably the same as trophies and possibly even related to how much easier it is to cheat trophies with someone else's saves.
You still cannot change your psn id and there are no practical workarounds. All you can do is start over. Sony might have reasons, but it is a hotly discussed feature that exists on the Japanese PSN. There has never been an outright denial of the future possibility (only statements that implementing this feature is "very technically complex").
On PS4 you can sort of get around this by changing your real name, but that doesn't allow numbers or special characters and will not help you on PS3.
Comment: Thanks it's so stupid you can't change it without having to reset all game saves and data. I guess I'll just have two accounts and just use the new one for all new games I purchase and leave the old one for when I wanna play the old games I have saved on it.


What are all the directories for?

Question: Drupal 8 re-arranged all the directories and locations of modules/themes etc. Where do things go now?
Comment: For Drupal 5, 6, 7, check http://drupal.stackexchange.com/q/11410.
Answer:
/core contains all the files provided by core that doesn't have an explicit reason to be in the / directory.
/libraries contains third-party libraries. It's not used by Drupal core, but it's commonly found in many sites.
/modules is the directory into which all custom and contributed modules go.
This directory contains the contrib and custom sub-directories, which can be used to make easier to keep track of the modules.
/profiles contains contributed and custom profiles.
/themes contains contributed and custom (sub)themes.
/sites is the directory used for running Drupal multi-site setups and it's used in the same way as in Drupal 7. Modules and themes in /sites/all/modules and /sites/all/themes will override the ones in the base modules and themes directories. Modules in /sites/SITENAME/modules and /sites/SITENAME/themes will override others for the given site.
/vendor is the directory where Composer dependencies go, for example Symfony and Twig.

Details on the /core directory, primarily useful to know for new core hackers:

/core/assets - Various external libraries used by Core. jQuery, underscore, modernizer etc.
/core/misc - Frontend code that Drupal Core depends on.
/core/includes - Functionality that is to low level to be modular. Such as the module system itself.
/core/lib - Drupal Core classes.
/core/modules - Drupal Core modules.
/core/profiles - Drupal Core installation profiles. Minimal, Standard, Testing and Testing multilingual installation profiles by default.
/core/scripts - Various CLI scripts, mostly used by developers.
/core/tests - Drupal Core tests.
/core/themes - Drupal Core themes.
Comment: What about the folder for (uploaded) files?
Comment: Excellent question, there's also the new configuration files to take into account. I'll add those as well.
Comment: @unor Fixed now. :)
Comment: Have an upvote for the /libraries tip. Honestly that should be a bare directory with the core install so it is clear thats where things go... it wasn't clear to me at first.

What are all the directories for?