What is the origin of the worship or deification of cows in India?

Question: Too far back to remember, the deification of cows in India seems to have existed. Are there some possible events in history which would explain this?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Why are cows sacred in India?](https://mythology.stackexchange.com/questions/2305/why-are-cows-sacred-in-india)
Comment: Cows are in fact one of the very few animals in India that are _not_ deified, just revered/venerated. There are (what an irreverent person would call) snake gods, monkey gods, elephant-headed gods, bird gods,... but no "cow god". At best, there are stories of divine cows like Surabhi/Nandini/Kamadhenu, but these are nothing exceptional.
Comment: In "[The Horse, the Wheel and Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horse,_the_Wheel,_and_Language)", which traces the origin of the proto-Indo-European language, archeological evidence suggests early indo-european herders consumed profoundly more wild horse and other game meat than cow meat, and it seems likely slaughtering cows may have been more reserved for ritual sacrifice and feasts. (There is evidence of mass slaughter of horses, similar to American plains buffalo hunting, but not of cows.) Which might be a factor in later status of cows as holy in India specifically.
Answer: TL;DR
While the cow has always been treated with veneration in Hindu mythology and literature, the roots of the sacred status that it now enjoys are primarily because it was a convenient symbol of mobilization, first to counter the rising tide of Buddhism and then in the nationalist pre-independence movement. Rational arguments based on the economic value of the cow to a rising India were primarily an afterthought justifying more primitive religious and cultural arguments-- though the cow was a great source of wealth and value for millennia.
The long version:
A few snippets from the past:
Mythology and Literature
In the Puranas, the earth goddess Prithvi (a cow) was milked by Prithu to end a famine and provide food for humans. It also mentions Kamadhenu, the mother of cows, the source of prosperity.
The Rigveda calls cows aghnya- "that which may not be slaughtered". Several stanzas indicate that cows were treated with reverence and should be protected. This is possibly because cows were heavily relied upon- for their products (dairy, dung)- and treated as the caretaker of the home- gau mata. A vast array of words were dedicated to refer to them in different stages.
Many stories revolve around Krishna, a.k.a. Gopala "the cow protector". Cow milk is stated as Sattvic (i.e. cleansing).
History
Vedic period: 1500 - 500 BCE (sourced from Brown)
Cattle were a measure of wealth, and a key part of war booty. The usefulness of the cow/ox in terms of milk, flesh and agricultural assistance are stressed in the Rig Veda. Cattle had ritualistic significance too; they were the main sacrificial animals, and their products were used as offerings. Scholars debate whether the cow is beginning to attain inviolability, for all but the Brahmans. The end of the Vedic period coincides with the rising popularity of the Ahimsa (do no harm) philosophy, as well as an increased literalism in the sanctity of cows, by some records.
500 BCE - 500 AD
Manu's laws forbid the eating of consecrated flesh (that which is not sacrificed); though he stresses the value of the cow and lists her many virtues, this still seems like a part of the broader Ahimsa philosophy. He who eats the meat of any animal in this world will be eaten by that same animal in yonder world.
According to legend, a Chola king who was a follower on the Manusmriti executed his son to provide justice to a cow.
The Mahabharata (~400 BCE) states that he who kills a cow lives as many years in hell as there are hairs on the cow's body, basically urging you to shave the cow before killing it. Both Ahimsa and cow worship are treated as established doctrine and extolled as desirable.
The Arthashastra (~200 BCE) recognizes meat-selling as legal, but states that cattle were not to be slaughtered, possibly unless they were economically worthless.
By the 4th century AD (Gupta dynasty), the sanctity of the cow is established in Brahmanical circles.
Much of what happens between 500-1500 AD is similar-- the cow is venerated in Hindu kingdoms, but is often sacrificed or killed to honour guests. Beef-eating is largely treated as a sin.
1500 - 1857 (Mughal Empire)
During the Muslim invasion, Hindus are recorded as often being shocked by cow-slaughter.
In the 1600s, Maratha (Hindu) chieftain Shivaji treated cow protection as a key part of his rule.
1857
Rumors of cartridges being greased with cow fat lead to a Sepoy mutiny.
1882
Swami Dayananda Saraswati establishes Arya Samaj and publishes Gokarunanidhi where cow slaughter is opposed as anti-Hindu act. They are helped by the rise in easy transport (trains, buses) and printing presses to spread the message. The first Gaurakshini sabha (cow protection society) is set up in Punjab.
1888
The Allahabad High Court rules that cows are not sacred as per section 295 of the IPC and hence their slaughter was not illegal.
1893
An estimated 31-45 riots over six months broke out between Hindus and Muslims, mainly in present-day UP, but also in other parts of the country. 107 people were killed.
1930s-1948 Gandhi - "The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection"
1950 The Directive Principles of the Constitution of India suggest that cow slaughter should be abolished.
1966 "Hindu" organizations led by a fasting Shankaracharya demand a ban on cow slaughter as per the (unenforced Directive Principle). A mob of allegedly over 10000 people tried to storm the parliament, eventually rampaging through New Delhi, leading to a 48-hour curfew.
All of this and more is described in great detail in:
Mukul, Akshaya. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India. HarperCollins Publishers India, 2015.
Further Analysis
Brown, W. Norman. "The sanctity of the cow in Hinduism." The Madras University Journal 28.29 (1957).-- cows were offered in sacrifices, and were not inviolable in Vedic times.  This is an excellend, short reference that answers the bulk of this question (valid until 1964).
Jha, Dwijendra Narayan. The myth of the holy cow. Verso, 2002. deals with the early history, but glosses over medieval India.
Ambedkar, Bhimrao R. "Untouchability, the Dead Cow and the Brahmin." Collected Works of BR Ambedkar 7 (1979): 185-207. -- For the Brahmin everyday was a beef-steak day. The Brahmins were therefore the greatest beef-eaters
Describes how the roots of Brahmins vegetarianism lies in the conflict between Buddhism and Brahmanism. Eventually, the "holy cow" became a cultural symbol for mobilizing Hindu nationalists.
You may also wish to read this post describing how the cow gained political significance in modern India. This paper describes a debate on whether the cow is sacred for "irrational" or "calorific" reasons.
Comment: You have done well JEDI, much research and thought, and useful information  in your answer, you could say that it is a  tradition that has been going on & on & on ---udderly  forever---pun  intended.
Comment: This is ridiculous. For the same of making a far-fetched point you have a transparently reductive "History" that jumps from "2nd century BCE" to "1857". Maybe you'd like to reflect on why those rumours would cause a mutiny if the attitudes were so different before 1857.
Comment: @ShreevatsaR, the fact is that broad questions lead to reductive answers, which is why they're rare on SE websites. This answer is just an accurate listing of events over a large timescale, admittedly with an important gap that needs filling. In retrospect, it does seem like I read more into the question than I should have. I will try to edit this post soon to address your valid concern, though edits or new answers are welcome.
Comment: @Jedi Thanks for taking disagreement so well. Respect! Actually Norman Brown's article is roughly fine, especially the sections starting at "In Indic Civilization" (p. 247). As he says, "The bulk of mediaeval Brahmanic literature and even the later strata of the Mahabharat treat Ahimsa and the sanctity of the cow as established doctrine", so this is not something that started in 1857.
Comment: Downvoted, because answer contains only one instance from history which is *cause*, all others are effects. Answers the questions incompletely, even though the links are a nice feature.
Answer: This is a simple narrative to explain many of the mysteries of religions. According to our X , Y chromosome genetics, see for example;
https://phys.org/news/2011-11-genographic-humans-migrated-africa-arabia.html,
all humans and even homo-eructus before, all migrated out of the horn of Africa to Asia via the Red sea, Yemen, Arabia and the rest of the world(see the maps produced by the National-Geographic above). And according to the genetic studies of archaeological sites, ancient humans reached, with the exception of few places, to all parts of the world driven up and down, east and west, by the antagonistic conditions of climate change,predators, prey, other food and diseases. This is example of the many good researches surfacing recently; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOj170kogg0&t=3241s.
The early human society was based on the grandmother and siblings groups. Loosing her is strong among what started religion. First by believing that when people die they join grandmother. Then believing that she might come back to life and started taking a good care of the dead with good dresses, possessions and even food left in the grave. Left over from this system is still seen in isolated societies and some in our modern ones too- as in the rule of queens, the feminine names of things, towns and even some tribes. This started the worship of the ancestors and how it is spread all over the ancient world. Worshipping the cow/bull/calf/goat etc came next. Because the cow is gift to humans at difficult times- eating the poorly nutritious grass and giving back plenty of protein rich products. It fed the babies with milk and replaced the mother when she died too. So the next extension to religion was the worship of a range of animals. This also served to stop people killing for food these life saving animals. There are nomad tribes in Africa travelling all the way from its east coast to the west coast on the Atlantic, living mainly on cows. They use their urine for medicine and for washing their hair. This is in addition to using the dung to build their houses. The bulls high regards were clear in Mesopotamia, Europe and Asia.
The harsh environment conditions enlarged the religion further to worship the forces of nature like the wind, water and then the planets starting with the sun and the moon. That is why the sun is depicted in many religions around the ancient worked and the modern world too. Many flags still carry the sun, the moon and the stars. The lunar and solar time systems, the horoscope cults, and even the names of the days are a reminiscence of those times- like Sun-Day, and Moon-Day. The names for these days sounds differently in other languages, but also refer to the sun and the moon. With the growth in the population group numbers, strong rulers appeared and needed to reduce the Gods to one to avoid multiplicity of authority and this is how the unification religion appeared and spread all over the world- since the days of Abraham for example.
Now, because habits die hard, and religion is just one, people between time and time revert back to the more ancient version of the religion- mainly when the existing versions at the time get corrupted and abused- mainly by rulers. It remains to say that religion was the precursor to philosophy and science. Like them, religion also was trying hard to understand the world around so as to do what is needed to protect people and survive. Science at the moment is continuing this important path and as such, we should consider science to be the final version of all human religions.
Answer: In ancient Afro Asiatic culture, the bull was a symbol of an aged corrupt king (manifested by winter imprisoning the sun queen) that was ritually slaughtered every spring. Cattle worship was later present throughout the Mediterranean including Mesopotamia (remember the golden calf incident in the Bible, the Egyptian bull ritual in 25 yr cycles). The Harappans, the precursors of the Hindus, emigrated to India from Mesopotamia after exploring the sea from the Tigris and Euphrates and would have taken Mesopotamian culture with them, as well as sharing culture through trade.  When the Aryans invoked the Brahmans to create the upanishads, some historians claim their attachment to bull worshiping was strong enough to make it an important tenant, which has never weakened.  (Much of the other Hindu mythologies were Indo European from the Aryans). Interesting that the Minoans practiced a form of bull fighting (leaping) - and in Spain and Latin America - like conquering an enemy. Modern Spanish art symbolizes the bull as the anti-Christ (see pictures of the bull bowing to the glowing infant). So bulls/cows are good gods, corrupt gods, devils, symbols of brutal original sin, and slaughtered by the billions for food.
Comment: Citations are needed.


Keeping original sender in inter-contract call

Question: I have a token contract (let's say it TC) and creating a contract Wallet. Now, is it possible for a user to call Wallet's entrypoint deposit which will do an inter-contract call to TC's transfer entrypoint to transfer some of the user's token to the Wallet? Since TC will check that the sender is the owner of those tokens, it'll require keeping the sender the same when doing the inter-contract call.
Answer: SENDER always points to the caller's address.
SOURCE points to the implicit account that initiated the current transaction.

SmartPY example: https://smartpy.io/ide?cid=QmevNhUmzeDBzi5uYyxcWdMphrqurJz8TGiVQpeJRgKu58&k=1adea9375ecba75eaab6
Comment: Since I can't change the token contract, any suggestion to implement the `Wallet` contract? Or the user has to explicitly call the transfer entypoint everytime to transfer tokens to the `Wallet` (even then how will my `Wallet` know that this user transferred those tokens)?
Answer: You might want to have a look at a feature called "tickets". An application of tickets is to use them as authentication tokens that can be transmitted across contract call chains.


Need to export animations into FBX without interpolations (need just keys solely )

Question: Im creating animations in Blender (2.77) to export the model into FBX file to read it later using Assimp library in c++ to do calculate interpolations while run-time, but the problem is I can't understand the proper way to, or better to say, NOT to export interpolated data, I need just key translations and rotations. I found one way to do that - to use Key-> Interpolation Mode->Constant, it exports the keys the way I want to BUT the time value retrieved is quite wrong and doesnt match the timeline at all, and I need exact time (ticks) as it is in Blender for my animation code. Is there any ways to make it works, by ways I mean - or straight option to create animations without interpolations exported, or keep the correct time ticks while exporting the model with constant interpolation mode? Thanks for any tips :)
Comment: Given that the keys are coming out correctly I'd guess that the problem is related to frame rate rather than interpolation.
Comment: thanks for the guess, what do you mean by frame rate? Do you mean ticks per second parameter of the animation in Blender?
Comment: Each "tick" in the timeline is a frame. FBX files store frame rate on export. Try changing the frame rate.
Comment: framerate didnt seem to change anything at all - I apply screenshots displaying a bone animation progress and its time reflection in the Visual Studio - all data is framed in red, in VS screenshot the ticks are 4 (why?) - at 15, 16 , 47 and 48 frames. In Blender its fixed at 0, 16 and 48. Can it be an exporting issue? If it is so I just go some other direction then :)             [link](http://imgur.com/a/NTVbR)      [link](http://imgur.com/a/1UV9A)
Comment: the thing is also  if Im using Bezier or Linear all time ticks are correct.
Answer: I seem to find out this time values order - while exporting constantly interpolated animation every framekey is presented as a pair, the first one's tick is -1 by number then the actual frame's tick in dope sheet and it contains the translation and rotation BEFORE the actual frame tick value, while the second data in this framekyes pair shows actual trnslation and rotation at the actual time in dope shit, to clarify:
3 actual framekeys with constant interpolation:
Assimp gives 6 stored keys, first couple is, lets say, 8th tick first  and 9th tick second, this first keys means BEFORE 8th time value all previous ticks the model has translation and rotation it contains. The second one, that shows 9th tick is actual framekey change...Following this the next pair will contain, lets say, 18th and 19th time ticks, and that means that between 9th and 18th tick the bone had stable translation and rotation while at the 19th tick its going to change again. Every second framekey data will repeat every first framekey data in the next couple - this is just an interval where bones were not transfromed because of constant interpolation. Every second is actual translation/rotation of the bone. Just in case someone faces the same strange at first sight Assimp FBX loader behavior :)


Riddle: Where does a Non Jew have more Halachic power than a Jew?

Question: When a Non Jew does something it would work according to Halacha, however when a Jew does the same thing it is useless.
Answer: Negating an avoda zara.  If a non-Jew takes an idol and says "I reject this!" and damages it, the idol is no longer prohibited from benefit.  A Jew can't do that.
Answer: If an animal was mostly slaughtered by a Jew (the majority but not all of the trachea & esophagus were cut) and the animal is not dying, a non-Jew can kill it however he wants and the animal will be kosher.  If a Jew shechted the rest of the way, it would be a shihiyah b'miut batra (a pause in the final portion) and the animal is neveila (not kosher).  But since the slaughter of a non-Jew is nothing, the majority slaughtered by the Jew is all that counts.
(See Shulchan Aruch YD 23:5)
Comment: Welcome to Judaism.SE, and thanks very much for that fascinating bit of Halacha!
Answer: If a non-Jew does m'lacha for himself on Shabas, a Jew can use the result immediately; not so if a Jew does. (As always, CYLOR.)
Answer: A non-jew can taste a mixture of food to tell if the prohibited substance (e.g. milk in meat) inside gave taste.
Comment: If a Jew did so for some reason (e.g. he had a blood-sugar emergency), we would trust him, just as an Ashkenazi can trust a Sefardi who trusts a non-Jew, or we can taste a fleishig-sliced onion for meatiness.
Comment: Avoda Zara the non jew changes the status - by tasting food the jew still is the one who determines whether the food is Kosher.
Answer: A non-Jew can run a kosher establishment without the certifiers worrying (as much) about him owning chametz over pesach, toveling all the kelim, etc..


Word for theories that can neither be proven nor disproven scientifically

Question: I'm afraid I know nothing about philosophy. However, for a part of my course I'm currently studying the mind body problem. Many of the theories I come across can neither be proven nor disproven by scientific means. Is there a word to describe this phenomenon?
Comment: It is unfortunate that this is too old to migrate because again this is a question looking for a domain specific technical language. Philosophy.SE is the best place for this.
Comment: *Conjecture* ? ...
Comment: @CamilStaps. Given the context of the question, I don't think satisfactory definitions would necessarily be found at an English Language site. There may not be a satisfactory "word," yet a helpful reply. This seems like the right place to ask.
Comment: If it can be neither proven nor dis-proven then it is non-scientific.
Comment: @Mitch That's where it came from. I don't know whether the migration to EL&U can be rejected after all these years. Anyway, it looks just as acceptable as any other SWR here.
Comment: @F_D In case the theories can neither be proven or disproven by any means, I would name them *undecidable*. - In case the theories cannot be proven or disproven by *scientific* means I consider them typical theories of the humanities. - Possibly you could name in your post some of these theories. I assume one can weigh by argument the pros and cons of the known theories concerning the mind-body problem.
Comment: I take it that it can be scientifically proved that theory T1 say can neither be proved nor disproved?
Comment: By definition of *philosophy*, philosophical theories are not provable/disprovable by scientific means; theories that are subject to such testing are scientific, not philosophical.
Answer: the term you are looking for is unfalsifiable, according to Collins Dictionary:

unable to be shown as false, although possibly not true

Attribution: Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Comment: Can you please explain how this word works here?  Surely it is perfectly possible to falsify something that cannot be proven.
Comment: https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/178/Unfalsifiability
Answer: First, I am not aware of some "technical" term for such theories... and perhaps one is not needed beyond "untestable theory," which is, of course, commonly used in science.
In physics, for example, there are hypotheses, such as quantum entanglement, string theory, or parallel universes that arise out of logical extensions of given theories and problems, but present serious challenges for the experimental verification scientists require. In such cases, conceiving of such a possible experiment can require great genius and imagination.
I may have this a bit wrong, but in the case of entanglement, first thought to be untestable, Bell's theorem provided an experimental scenario, recently applied. In the case of string theory, the verdict is out, and in the case of parallel universes, it may be logically impossible to test. Caveat: Again, I am not up on the latest here.
Generally, it is considered "reputable science" to propose new theories only with accompanying proposals as to how they might be confirmed or falsified, as Einstein famously did with general relativity and his proposal for detecting the gravitational bending of light. Because such an experiment had not even been thought of before, and was considered highly unlikely, the positive results found by Sir Eddington carried great conformational authority for Einstein's theory.
Aside from "untestable theory," what else might such explanatory speculations be called? Well...speculations, for one.  Or they might be called logically-linguistically "meaningless" if they are proposals with no correlating "real content." They might be dismissed as "metaphysical," if they entail entities without causal or other "physical" properties, and are therefore obviously untestable.
We might also refer here to Kant's "Antinomies of Pure Reason," conflicting propositions that are not susceptible to solution by use of reason, let alone experimental proof. Kant's examples included the existence of God or a "necessary being" and whether or not the universe has a beginning in time. Oddly enough, the discovery of cosmic "background radiation" by researchers is now considered evidence for a datable "beginning" of the universe. So the expanding framework of science may alter what sorts of theories can or cannot be tested in accord with scientific method.
Again, short answer: "untestable theory..." or, for greater emphasis, "bucketful of moonbeams."
Answer: Empirical means "derived from or guided by experience or experiment" or "provable or verifiable by experience or experiment" (here).
You might call a theory not testable empirically a nonempirical theory.
Even better, in contemporary philosophical parlance, metaphysical usually connotes being beyond the orbit of scientific, empirical testing. Thus you might call a theory not testable empirically a metaphysical theory.
Answer: There is no natural native word in English to describe this situation. In informal thought, it is somewhat vague what 'scientific' means, and 'proven' and 'disproven' sound like math terms.
But in the domain of academic philosophy, these terms have more technical meanings. 'Scientific' has come to mean, over hundreds of years of philosophical argument, using sensory data (and by extension tools that transform sense data) to support a statement.
Also, a universal statement is difficult to prove (you'd have to test everything which is just not possible), but it could be disproven (a single counterexample/a failed test). An existential statement can be verified by giving a single tested example. The first is falsifiable and the second verifiable.
You're wondering what to call a statement that is neither falsifiable nor verifiable. This is at the heart of the 'demarcation' problem between science and non-science (or what is sometimes called metaphysics).
Things which cannot be proven/verified or disproven/falsified are then called metaphysics or metaphysical.
Pejoratively they might be called 'unscientific', 'philosophy'
'Untestable' is less pejorative and leans towards the one-sided 'unverifiable'.
Comment: How about "indeterminate"?
Comment: @tautophile You may want to give that as your own answer with extra explanation of why you think that works.
Comment: Mitch, my response was not so much an answer as a suggestion.  Since, in the OP's question, you can't prove or disprove--determine the validity of--a certain theory by scientific means, it would seem that the theory is "indeterminate" or "indeterminable" in scientific terms.  However, I realize that using the word that way *might* be stretching the existing meaning(s) of "indeterminate" beyond acceptable limits.
Comment: @tautophile I think that word is a good suggestion, but since it is somewhat distinct from mine, I thought it would work better as a separate answer.
Answer: All of the following are untestable: all opinion, all normative statements or values, and all metaphysics/philosophy.
Just because things are outside the domain of science does not mean that values, philosophy, normative statements and opinion are not real and/or not important. One might not approve of all such things, but no one can function without any philosophy, normative statements, or values.
Comment: This was already given in [another answer](https://english.stackexchange.com/a/449587/36710) on this page.  Please take a moment to [tour] the site and see the EL&U [help].
Answer: unprovable
From Merriam-Webster:

unable to be proved : not provable

Literally, the word suggests exactly the notion that something cannot be proved (one way or another).


Generic auto-increment foreign key

Question: I'm writing sql scripts which I would like to run across platforms (mostly mysql and postgres). The problem I see is I cannot arrive at a common one for auto-increment primary keys which are used as foreign keys. Is there a way to do this ?
<code>table t1 ( column c1 )
table t2 ( column c2 )
</code>
c1 is auto increment and c2 is a foreign key referenced on c1.
I tried keeping c1 as SERIAL and c2 as bigint/bigint unsigned/numeric , but no luck.
Answer: Really, it is futile to try to get SQL code to work across multiple database platforms.  There are just too many variations on the language.
In fact, the syntax for a stored procedure differs significantly between the two.  So, you are going to have to write separate scripts for each database you want to support.

Generic auto-increment foreign key


Front Vent Always On Regardless of Vent Setting 1997 Civic LX

Question: My 1997 Civic LX has an issue where no matter the vent setting (feet only, defrost/feet, defrost only) the front vents are always blowing. I'm not talking about the little vents either that point to the driver/passenger door glass but the actual four outter and inner vents. When switching to non-front vent modes I do get what I select but it's always in addition to the front vents. I'm assuming it's a bad connection or board somewhere under the dash. Thanks!
Answer: I made a mistake as I double checked the operation of the vents and it turns out the middle vents do turn off when they're supposed to. I was under the impression the outter vents would turn off as well but they don't as they're tied directly to the mini-vents that point towards the driver or passenger window. I just closed the outer vents to direct more flow to the mini-vents. Thanks for the details though as maybe it may help someone in the future.
Answer: The vents are operated by cables which are connected to the lever controls behind the dash. They can become dis-connected at thier ends. A simple refit of the cable(s) may be all is required.


A question regarding the offside rule in soccer

Question: My question is simple, why does the offside rule require 2 rival players between the attacker and the goal line rather than 1 non-goalkeeper? Is there a specific goal (i.e. A scenario where it makes the game more fair) to it or is it just more convenient to have it worded like that? Seems its just makes things unnecessarily complicated sometimes
Comment: I'm not sure about the origin, but the rule makes sense whenever the goalie is not on the line. Having to pass only one defender is too easy compared to a defender + goalie or two defenders.
Comment: The origin of offside is to force attacks which control possession, instead of punting the ball long and hoping your own player got there first. One can look at rugby union for a hint of how much and how often the field position would change in football without the use of offside. @dly
Answer: Football's rules originally defined the goalkeeper as "the defending player who was closest to their own goal line".  Having a player who was specifically the goalkeeper, and held that role regardless of where they actually stood on the field, is a relatively modern concept in the history of football.
Therefore, it made no sense to specify "a non-goalkeeper defending player" instead of "two defending players" because the first was equivalent to the second, and the second is much easier to understand.
It still makes more sense to define offside that way, because it covers situations where the goalkeeper is not one of the rearmost defending players.

In general, when reading the offside rules of any sport, one must bear in mind the purpose of the rule: forcing attackers to maintain possession in order to successfully score, in a game where it is very easy to advance the ball (or puck, in ice hockey) up the field (or rink).
Using the proposed definition would undermine that purpose, making it easier to attack using strategies that are considered undesirable or unattractive.


How to reduce the likelihood for user to sell and buy account?

Question: So let us suppose that I am designing a service that allow user to buy options on their account. And that they will keep those option indefinitely.
What measure should I take to reduce the likelihood for user to sell and buy account?
Answer: Unless this represents a HUGE difference ( and I mean HUGE), I'd recommend not to care about it. You'll waste time and resources and look quite desperate.
However, if you still want to do it, you can tie the account to a mail account. Then if you notice IP blocks have changed radically, send a mail like

"some suspicious activity has been detected with regards to your
  account, please [do something] in your profile"

since it will be highly unlikely the user sells the account AND the mail, you'll catch most cases of this.
You can do this with a phone instead of a mail, and it's way easier: just detect the location and match it with the phone's number (including country and city) and you'll catch these accounts in a snap.
Finally, if you want to go hard on this, you could use CC number. While mail account can be sold and phone # calls can be cheated (if the seller has good will), nobody will give CC number information. Just tell them

"for security reasons, we'll make a small charge to your card, just
  [do something] and we'll refund it immediately"

Don't forget to add the whole "this is for you, we're worried about your safety, we love you, yadda yadda yadda" gibberish and you'll be OK.
Answer: I think the best way to prevent a user from being able to sell the account is change of name, followed by preventing the user from changing their email address on their own. Then, the user would have to contact support to request an email change. But you may run into issues where you prevent them from changing their email address, because people have a tendency to use their work-related email address - email addresses can be changed by a user at will when they so choose. A user may want to switch from Outlook to Gmail or some other service. If you would require them to contact you with a request for email address change on their account, this would create additional overhead, and thus additional headache for you as the site admin.
But overall, there is no foolproof way of preventing them from selling the account. Even with a specific name bound to the account, a user may not care about the user name but moreso about the content. And it's the content that would be the reason for the purchase.
You could also perhaps put regional IP address restrictions on the account, but you run into issues with this as well in which a user may be traveling. Even though the user acquired the account in the United States, they may travel to Europe for the Summer and would like to access their account. If you bind the account to a particular region and block it elsewhere, then the account cannot be accessed by the valid user.


File extraction errors

Question: I have a gigabyte 970 motherboard.  A 64 gb SSD, a 1tb HDD and an AMD fx6200 CPU.  Graphics AMD Radeon hd 6870.  8 gb ram. Nothing is overclocked, everything is stock.  So I downloaded a few large archives (saved to the hdd) and I extracted them with 7zip and I got a CRC error. I Tried using winrar and for the same issue.  I tested my ram with memtest and moved my hdds around, used new data caves, replaced the drive, reinstalled windows.  And it fails still. Sometimes I get a bsod error 101.  I changed ide and ahci setttings to try to fix.  I was able to extract them from a network drive fine, so the files are fine.  Windows runs fine, so there isn't a CPU problem.  I updated bios to f8e.  I do have indexing data stored on the HDD, but that shouldn't do anything. HELP!
Answer: Run a memtest from a Linux LiveCD to eliminate the RAM as a potential source of corruption. Also check SMART data from your HDD to see if it is failing.

File extraction errors


Dhritarashtra's role and the way he died in the Mahabharata?

Question: How did Dhritarashtra die in the Mahabharata? I couldn't get the answer in Wikipedia unfortunately.
Answer: The death of Dhritarashtra is described in this chapter of the Ashramavasika Parva of the Mahabharata.  Fifteen years after the Mahabharata war, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti, Vidura, and Sanjaya all went to the ashram (hermitage) of the sage Vyasa in order to become Sanyasis, in order to escape the sorrows they had suffered.  Vidura died first in the ashram.  After that, the rest of them decided to go to Gangadwara (modern day Haridwar) and engage in Tapasya on the banks of Ganga river.  one day there was a forest fire, and Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, and Kunti all allowed themselves to be consumed because fire is a fitting death for Sanyasis.

One day, that best of kings proceeded to a spot on the margin of Ganga. He then bathed in the sacred stream and finishing his ablutions turned his face towards his retreat. The wind rose high. A fierce forest-conflagration set in. It began to burn that forest all around. When the herds of animals were being burnt all around, as also the snakes that inhabited that region, herds of wild boars began to take themselves to the nearest marshes and waters. When that forest was thus afflicted on all sides and such distress came upon all the living creatures residing there, the king, who had taken no food, was incapable of moving or exerting himself at all. Thy two mothers also, exceedingly emaciated, were unable to move. The king, seeing the conflagration approach him from all sides, addressed the Suta Sanjaya, that foremost of skilful charioteers, saying,--'Go, O Sanjaya, to such a place where the fire may not burn thee. As regards ourselves, we shall suffer our bodies to be destroyed by this fire and attain to the highest goal.' Unto him, Sanjaya, that foremost of speakers, said,--'O king, this death, brought on by a fire that is not sacred, will prove calamitous to thee. I do not, however, see any means by which thou canst escape from this conflagration. That which should next be done should be indicated by thee.'
Thus addressed by Sanjaya the king once more said,--'This death cannot be calamitous to us, for we have left our home of our own accord. Water, fire, wind, and abstention from food, (as means of death), are laudable for ascetics. Do thou, therefore, leave us, O Sanjaya, without any delay. Having said these words to Sanjaya, the king concentrated his mind. Facing the east, he sat down, with Gandhari and Kunti. Beholding him in that attitude, Sanjaya walked round him. Endued with intelligence, Sanjaya said,--'Do thou concentrate thy soul, O puissant one.' The son of a Rishi, and himself possessed of great wisdom, the king acted as he was told. Restraining all the senses, he remained like a post of wood. The highly blessed Gandhari, and thy mother Pritha too, remained in the same attitude. Then thy royal sire was overtaken by the forest-conflagration. Sanjaya, his minister, succeeded in escaping from that conflagration:

So only Dhritarashtra's minister and charioteer Sanjaya survived.
Comment: Did Dhritarashtra obtained highest goal as was mentioning in the above context even with his bad deeds done (dice game, not supporting droupadi alias Krishna while dushyasana removing her clothes at her menstual period etc) to Pandavas through out his life
Comment: @NagaVemprala Well, Duryodhana and the Kauravas all went to Devaloka despite everything they did, because they died a Kshatriya's death in the battlefield.  So similarly Dhritarashtra may have achieved a great result by dying as a Sanyasi in the fire.


Connecting to a VPN on the Guest OS

Question: I'm trying to connect my Virtual Machine (Windows 10) only to a VPN IPsec server.
I can successfully connect to that VPN (IPSec) through MacOS. I could connect Mac to the VPN and then share the connection with guest. However, my whole system would be connected to the VPN. I'm trying to connect only guest to the VPN.
When I try to connect to the VPN on the Windows VM, however, this happens:
I have contacted Parallels, and they sent me these steps, which I have followed correctly (I think):

Please perform the following steps,
1) Open Configuration Editor and create a new Network Adapter using
  "Add" button 2) Set Bridged mode for one of them and Host-only for the
  other.
Connect to VPN from Windows, using these steps:
1) Open the Windows Control Panel -> Network Connections. 2) Click
  'Create a new connection' link on the left-hand side of the window. 3)
  Click Next, then choose 'Connect to the network at my workplace' from
  the list and click Next. 4) On the Network Connection page of the
  wizard, choose the 'Virtual Private Network connection' and click
  Next. 5) Enter a name for the new VPN connection in the 'Company Name'
  field and click Next. 6) In the 'Public Network' window: If you choose
  'Automatically dial this initial connection' as default option, the
  VPN connection will always be initiated even when the computer has not
  been connected to Internet yet. If you choose 'Do not dial the initial
  connection', Internet connection will be established before the new
  VPN connection is initiated. Choose one of these options and click
  Next. 7) Enter the name or IP address of the VPN remote access server
  to connect to, and click Next. 8) In the "Connection Availability"
  window you will see two options: 'My Use Only' ensures that Windows
  makes the new connection available only to the currently logged on
  user. 'Anyone's use' option makes the connection available to anyone.
  Choose one of the options and click Next. 9) Click Finish. The new VPN
  connection information has been saved.
On Mac side use Internet Sharing in System Preferences to share
  Host-guest adapter connection with Mac network interface. Note:
  Firewall should be disabled on Windows side.

Any suggestion?
Comment: Firstly, welcome to Ask Different! :)  I hope you come to find this site has a lot to offer! In case you haven't already, it's worth taking the time to read the [tour](https://apple.stackexchange.com/tour). All the best!
Answer: Solution was editing registry: https://github.com/StreisandEffect/streisand/issues/291

Connecting to a VPN on the Guest OS


Types of Independent Clauses

Question: I am curious if anyone is aware of a list of different types or categories of independent clauses. By comparison, there are four types of sentences (simple, compound, complex, and compounds complex), and many types of subordinate clauses (comparative clauses, that-clauses, contact clauses, etc.). However, I haven't been able to find a breakdown of different types of independent clause. I'm especially interested in a categorization by structure. For example, some sentences have compound subjects, others have compound predicates, others have the verbs omitted, etc. I have tried on my own, but I fear I'm reinventing the wheel. Your help is certainly appreciated.
Comment: There is one, or a handful, or a few dozen, or thousands, or infinite, depending how you count them. Consider reading the first few chapters of Chomsky's (1957) [Syntactic Structures](http://ewan.website/egg-course-1/readings/syntactic_structures.pdf). The book is said to be a classic.
Answer: To say "independent clause" is to say "simple sentence". A single clause that stands by itself is a main clause, and that's all you need for simple sentencehood.
There are many different things one can do to a main clause,
but normally independent utterances are classified by pragmatic function:

statements (declarative) He closed the door.
questions (interrogative) Did he close the door?
orders (imperative) Close the door.
blessings (benedictive) May this house be safe from tigers
curses (maledictive) May you spend eternity rollerskating on cobblestones

The names in parentheses are often called "moods" because Latin (and other ancient languages) had special verb forms for them and gave them these names. The technical term for them is "speech acts", and they're different in pragmatics -- use -- but not really in semantics -- meaning.
That is, there's no real semantic difference between the first three sentences; they refer to the same idea in the same words. The difference is in what the speaker expects the listener to do:
believe the statement, answer the question, or obey the order.
Comment: Didn't Bob Hope say in _Road to Utopia_ "I'm not in a benedictive mood, I'm in a woundin' mood"?
Answer: Since an independent clause is a simple sentence, the answer you seek would basically be a list of possible subject structures combined with a list of possible predicate structures1. These lists have not been commonly combined, but studied and categorized separately.

1Wikipedia does not include a link to Carlson's full 1977 paper. Here is one.
Answer: Another way of looking at this is as follows:
5 Arrangements of Basic Elements of Independent Clauses
1) Subject + Intransitive Action Verb
2) Subject + Transitive Action Verb + Direct Object
3) Subject + Transitive Action Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object
4) Subject + Linking Verb (+ Possible ADV or ADV Phrase)
5) Subject + Linking Verb + Subject Complement
*** All could of course have extra phrases or other modifiers, but these are the basic parts
Comment: There of course could also be compound Subjects or Verbs or Objects.  But as far as I can tell, All independent clauses are 1 of these 5.  Exceptions are questions where the order of the parts is rearranged and those clauses with implied (you) subject.
Comment: Hi @nathandessonville, please cite any relevant source(s) to back up this answer. _Thanks!_

Types of Independent Clauses


Do comment upvotes affect your rep?

Question: When your comment is upvoted, does it increase your reputation or does it not have any effect on it?
Answer: No. It does not affect your rep at all.  But, you can get badges for upvoted comments:

Commentator: Left 10 comments.

and

Pundit Left 10 comments with score of 5 or more.
Comment: Comments are supposed to be weightless for the most part, for discussion and clarification purposes.
Comment: Any specific reason why it's that way? Seems like it would make sense to increase the reputation of the user if they have a good comment.
Comment: Indeed. Thank you for your comment clarifying that. :)
Comment: no problem @ThiagoM. :)
Comment: I could have sworn you used to get +2 rep for each comment... Another site maybe?
Comment: @Luke nope. Never has happened, never will. I think you're thinking of th +2 rep you get when you accept an answer.
Comment: @studiohack Might have been. But I do understand why they shouldn't be worth rep, but I think they should after say, +5 votes or +10

Do comment upvotes affect your rep?


is electricity smell from microwave after metal was put in it mean the microwave is ruined?

Question: A spoon was placed in the microwave.  No sparks were noticed but now when you use the microwave for more than a minute, there is a smell of electicity.  The microwave still heats food.
Answer: No. If the microwave still heats, it's not ruined.
Here's a nice video of the aluminum coating of a CD being burned off by a microwave.
Notice the plasma balls rising to the top of the oven. They'll produce ozone, which has an electrical burning sort of smell.
You can get the same plasma balls using a match or candle. That doesn't wreck the microwave either; makes a heck of a scary sound though.
You can also smelt aluminum, or even silver and iron in your home microwave without damaging the device.
If you make a habit of doing things like this, it's best to have a dedicated oven for the job, as melted plastics, heavy metals, and metal oxides do not mix well with food.
Washing out the microwave's insides should take care of any residual smell for you.
Answer: What does electricity smell like?
Honestly I have no idea what you mean with a "smell of electricity". :)
If you mean it smells of smoke or burning, then there is something to be concerned about. Metal can but won't with 100% certainty reflect microwaves or damage your microwave. Mind you it is still a very bad idea to put metal in a microwave, it just does not spell its doom right away.
If you do smell burning or smoke, you need to have it checked, as it is possible microwaves were reflected back to the magnetron and caused damage. Although if it still functions and heats food, this means the damage is most likely minor and prolonged use will simply fry a cable or something and you will have to replace it.
EDIT: I am sorry to do this, but i don't have 50 reputation to comment on "Wayfaring Stranger"'s answer and i feel i have to say that NO appliance is working fine and is completely undamaged if after use it smells of electricity (or anything but food). Although the damage or problem could be minor, you might want to have it checked out just in case or to prevent potentially having to buy a whole new microwave in the near future.
Comment: There's a sort of smell from an electrical discharge that's associated with ozone, but it's more likely that the smell is related to scorched plastic.


life without refrigerator

Question: I'm a student living in a dorm without a refrigerator. I decided to change my diet and be a pescetarian starting this year. But most of the food sold nearby doesn't fit my diet or my budget so I'll have to cook my own food. I'm not quite sure what items I can stock on because I have no refrigerator. I don't wanna live with preserved food either since the reason for my shift is to eat healthier. Can you guys help me? Do you have any tips on living fridge-less?
Comment: If you have a roommate you may want to discuss your changes with them, if you are going to start microwaving smoked fish in your room that's going to impact them.
Comment: Banding together with others and buying a damn refrigerator for the dorm is not an option? You could sell it to administration as something conducive to student health...
Comment: Does canned fish count as "preserved"? What about rice, beans? @GdD I'd have an issue if someone just wanted to eat canned tuna in my room all the time. Smell makes me sick.
Comment: Many US dorms don't allow microwaves due to fire concerns @rackandboneman, and some few don't allow refrigerators. However in my college town decent used mini-fridges were a dime a dozen and they were legit.
Comment: What cooking methods do you have available (hotplate, full stove, oven, toaster, toaster oven, microwave, crockpot, rice cooker, instant pot, etc?) ... and how much cooking experience do you have?
Comment: This is a fair point @Catija, I'm not a fan of canned fish either.
Answer: One idea would be to look to cuisines that are heavy on pantry staples (or have quality canned/jarred alternatives to fresh ingredients), with only a few fresh ingredients required.
For example, staples in a lot of Latin American cuisine include onions, garlic, beans, and rice, none of which require refrigeration. Canned tomatoes are often better than out of season tomatoes, and there are many shelf-stable sauces you can buy to vary the flavors. You can keep a bunch of cilantro fresh in a cup of water for more days than you would think. From there, you can always swap in different proteins (fish, cheese, eggs) as desired. Don't forget that many fruits common in these cuisines are also fine to store at room temp for a few days (plantains come immediately to mind).
Another example is Japanese cuisine. Often people think of the sushi/sashimi, but many dishes in traditional cuisine are heavy on pantry staples like rice, noodles, dried fish, dried seaweed, dried mushrooms, soy sauce, rice wine and its vinegar, and more. There is shelf-stable or dried tofu available, and lots of different kinds of dried or canned fish for protein. Don't forget that many common items like pumpkin, carrots, ginger, and garlic are fine without refrigeration for weeks, if properly stored in a cool, dry place. Again, you can vary these ingredients a lot of different ways with one or two fresh ingredients.
Finally, you'll have to learn to shop a bit differently and plan menus a bit more carefully. It's easy to whip something up when you have a fridge full of goodies, but you'll need to think a little farther ahead. You can't just buy that lettuce or fish unless you're going to eat it today. You'll also have to buy smaller amounts of these kinds of ingredients and probably shop more often. You can't just make a big batch of something (soup, pasta, whatever) because you can't safely store most cooked foods, so you'll have to cook more often, again in smaller portions.
I hope this helps, and I'd be glad to develop the answer further.
Answer: I turned the fridge off years ago (noisy, waste of electricity). Equipment I've found handy:

A food dehydrator (or the sun when available) as many foodstuffs dry well. (Possibly also mosquito netting or screens, as bugs love to get into e.g. tomatoes.) Don't overlook things like mushroom stems as these can be dried then used to make stock. Downside: noisy when running.
With a oven (or toaster oven?) you could also dry or roast things, e.g. dandelion roots.
Tins and plastic containers. Lots of these. Space may be an issue in a dorm, or get creative and stash them under a raised bed. Lentils, beans, rice, chickpeas, etc.
Rubber gasket jars, possibly with airlocks, great for salt ferments (mince onions, 2% saline solution, let sit a few days). Roommates who only like modern sterile food (e.g. food with no smell) may be problem (find a better roommate). Moroccan preserved lemons (chop lemons lotsa salt wait a few weeks) are also possible in these. Use the lemons quickly when ready.
Glass jars with airlocks, to make a juice made from honey.
Old peanut butter jars and coffee filters are good to keep around, as you can sprout beans in these. Metal lids however mix poorly with vinegar preserve solutions (the acid eats them away) e.g. grated ginger root into vinegar will preserve the ginger for a few weeks, or even homemade mustard can be a problem with a metal lid.
Stock pot to simmer down stocks. Bonus: winter humidification of the room. Smaller versions of these may not be as good as a heavy pot on a stove or standalone burner, though.

Various foods ideas:

Tinned fish is quick and easy, e.g. bread crumbs + tinned mackerel + crushed walnuts + apple cider vinegar + soy sauce + dried shiso leaves + roasted chillies mix and then heat briefly. (Modern industrial soy sauce is vile, try to find the traditional version if possible.)
Load up on spices: make your own mustard, dried or roasted chillies keep well, ajwain is yummy in lentils with some dried stinging nettle and ghee (buy unsalted butter, simmer down, spoon off the white foam, stash in a glass jar).
See what you can forage for; in my area, rosemary grows like everywhere and nobody has (yet) objected to my dandelion harvests from state property. Check local laws for details, and don't harvest downstream from e.g. parking lots on account of the toxins from the cars.
Dried kale can be snuck into soups, egg dishs, etc.
Maintain a sourdough starter. 1/3c ground whole wheat (or also rye) grains per day plus water; use discarded half of this with equal amount flour and with a toaster oven you could probably make pita bread or pizza crusts, or cream of wheat soups, etc. Bread with flavor, what a concept!

Physical/Social ideas:

Join or form a food club. Networking, possible bulk pricing on food, etc.
If the dorm rooms are unsuitable for food storage (too warm?), are there other areas in the building that are, and are the Powers That Be open to such non-modern-traditional uses of the space?

A selection of my current stock:
Comment: +1 : might not be useful for someone living in a dorm, but good advise for everyone else.  (but I'd try to grow my own herbs if I had a window with sufficient sunlight.)
Answer: It's hard to give more specific recommendations without knowledge of what methods you have to cook with, but a couple of things to help:

In a grocery store, any of the produce sold that isn't on ice or in a refrigerated case hold up just fine for a couple of days at room temperature, so long as it didn't show signs of spoiling when you bought it.  And make sure it's dry if it's going to be spending time in a bag -- I hate it when I'm just about to grab something, and then the sprayers kick in.
Things that have been cut into will spoil faster than uncut things. Instead of buying cabbage, buy brussel sprouts so you can more easily portion out the appropriate amount.  If you have something like lettuce, get a variety other than iceburg so you can break off the outside leaves as you go.
Some things will last longer if you keep the roots / stems in water.  (I use this for celery ... trim the bottom and put it in water ... but I keep it in the fridge; don't know how it'd hold up at room temp).  It works with most herbs that have sufficient stem left on them.  Change the water daily, though.
The US is one of the only countries that insists on keeping eggs refrigerated.  The concern is partly due to condensation from moving cold eggs to warm air ... so I tend to get eggs in paper containers to better regulate moisture.  I've heard advice that a day at room temp ages them about the same as a week in the fridge ... so if you get eggs that are stamped many weeks out, you should be able to keep them a few days.  If you're immune compromised, or in a very warm climate, I can't recommend this, though.
If you're in a sufficiently dry environment with sufficient air movement, you can try evaporative cooling with a zeer.  There are instructions online.  It won't keep things down to fridge temps; it's more like an old fashioned root cellar.
If you have the necessary equipment and space to host, consider cooking for like-minded friends.  If you all take turns cooking, you can get a bit better economy of scale going.  (and use things up faster, without your cooking the same dish over and over again through the week).
If you have access to an oven, consider baked goods -- muffins and 'healthy cookies' can last a few days at room temperature in a well-sealed container.  (although many of the 'healthy cookie' recipes use strange or expensive ingredients)

life without refrigerator


Do we need a a Clue and a Cluedo tag

Question: Can these tags be consolidated? Or is there enough value in differentiating the US and Uk versions?
Comment: Blame me for that... I tagged my question with both names and I assume I created the clue tag in the process.
Answer: I think we should use a tag synonym.  I assume the differences are very minor.  They have a post about this on the StackOverflow Blog.  Unfortunately, we need some users with 1,000 reputation before we can get those set up ourselves, but the Stack Exchange team can probably do it for us.
Comment: We have some users with 1000 rep now, although this number will likely start growing much faster when the Public Beta starts in 3... 2... 1...
Comment: You need at least 2500 rep to create tag synonyms... so those of us with over 1000 can't do it yet.
Comment: @Brian Campbell Yeah, I'm not sure why I said 1,000.  It is 2,500.
Comment: @Brian: I see you got tired of waiting until you had 2500 rep and just removed the clue tag.
Comment: @Powerlord Yep, was just looking for any tag cleanup that needed to be done and did that. I will add the tag synonym as soon as I have enough rep; I was thinking that since `cluedo` already had two tagged questions, and is the original name, I'd go with that as the official tag and `clue` as the synonym.
Answer: It's a funny one, but no, they shouldn't be consolidated.
I wasn't even aware Cluedo went by a different name in the US - I doubt many other Brits would either.
EDIT: A tag synonym would be a good fix (although it might still cause confusion to some), but the question is, what should be the 'main' name. The original name, or the US name?
Comment: Up-vote for the edit.  I'm on the U.S. side, and never realized that "Clue" was actually an alternate name made just for us.  We should definitely keep it around.  Deciding which is the "primary" tag may be tricky, though.
Comment: Upvote for the edit; they should be consolidated, as they're the same game, but as a synonym. Of course, how do we pick which one to use; do we standardize on British spelling, American spelling, or always pick the original name if they differ? I asked about this on bicycles.se a few days ago, and it seems that tag synonyms with the US spelling are preferred: http://meta.bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/165/american-vs-british-english-in-tags
Comment: Cluedo goes by a different name in the US because we don't have [Ludo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludo_%28board_game%29) over here, and thus the parody of its name was lost on us uncultured Yankees. ;)
Comment: @Powerlord Didn't even realise it was a parody!

Do we need a a Clue and a Cluedo tag


About the "knower" disappearing during vipassana

Question: When inner conversation disappears, the "doer" disappears. How does the "knower" disappear, during vipassana meditation?
Answer: Knower dissapears when "knowing" disappears.
How to achieve this?
Complicated answer is: with stopping craving.
Simple answer is: with calming of the mind and letting go completely.
Answer: The distinction between idea and experience falls away. Samsara and Nibbana are actually seen / known to be one thing. It just happens. Concepts and questions no longer hold one's attention for long.


Why was Sean Divine embarrassed with his friends in Mystic River?

Question: Why was Sean Divine embarrassed with his friends in Mystic River? He acted as if he didn't know any of his childhood friends, Jimmy and Dave, to his partner although he had cared about his friends all the time. Sean also tries to pretend like they were never close at any time in his life. Why did Sean behave like that to his partner?
Answer: As I see it, there are quite a few reasons for Sean's behavior.
First of all, I think that the neighborhood they came from was a labeled as a working class neighborhood, and he wasn't very proud of it - especially when he was trying to build his reputation as a detective.
On the other hand, you shouldn't forget that the horrible event which he witnessed in his childhood haunted him for the rest of his life - he and Jimmy tried to basically put this "away" and think about it less as possible, each of them in his own way. As they said - this easily could've been anyone of them, and this thought literally haunted them.
I think that this general "condition" led to this approach. He probably lost contact, intentionally, with all of his childhood friends and as the years passed by, they just grew apart - especially when he became a Massachusetts State Police detective and tried to earn reputation and respect within the ranks.
I don't think that this situation is so rare in life - some people, especially those who are trying to "escape"/forget their past (even if it's not horrible) and generally "change the scenery" of their lives, almost always grow apart from their childhood acquaintances, which result a strange behavior, from both sides.
Comment: I think to earn reputation, he doesn't deny the fact being friends with JImmy and Dave, because if this was his intention then he'd have probably not discussed the weird conversation with his wife going for months.
Answer: The childhood abduction and the murder investigation in Mystic River take place 28 years apart, and we don't really know at what point in that gap Sean grew apart from Jimmy and Dave. I was left with the impression that Sean hadn't spoken to either of the other two men in many years, maybe the majority of that time. It could simply be that Sean legitimately did not feel close to his old friends, having moved on in his life.
There are a few other reasons that Sean might have wanted to distance himself from his friends, including Jimmy's past criminal record. It might not look good for a police detective to be long-time friends with a felon. It could also be that Sean felt a little bit of guilt about Dave's abduction, so he wanted to emotionally disassociate himself with the people involved in that incident.
Finally, I think the biggest reason that Sean had for wanting to deny his childhood friendships was a professional one. His partner reminds Sean a couple of times during the investigation that he (Sean) is too close to the people involved with the murder to be objective. He might fear that he'll be removed from the case if he admits to a close, personal bond with the father of the victim and (later) one of the suspects in the case.
Comment: I think that Sean knows about the whereabouts of his friends and has been meeting or talking to them, but avoiding publically or otherwise. He knew Jimmy's daughter and he remembered her which cannot be an outcome if he has had a very long gap with Jimmy. Yeah, but chances are he didn't meet up with Dave as he didn't know his son and also it shown in movie that Dave's window was closing when he returned from those molesters and his friends waved at him.


Positive and negative potential via two power supplies with common ground?

Question: I need to use a positive and negative potential on a circuit including an instrumentation amplifier. My lab only has single supply power supplies (only offers positive voltage). I know that I can reverse the polarity and achieve a negative potential, but this means using multiple power supplies. (I am pretty sure that I cannot reverse the polarity on a single rail to fulfill both my negative and positive potential needs as this will cause a short). I do indeed need to tie the grounds for both supplies to one another, correct?
Answer: Yes, as long as the two supply outputs are floating (i.e. no common connection between them prior to connecting) then simply connecting two terminals together to serve as the common ground is fine.
You would connect the negative terminal of supply 1 to the positive terminal of supply 2, then use the free terminal of supply 1 as positive rail, the connected terminals as circuit ground, and the negative terminal of supply 2 as your negative rail.
Answer: Your belief that the power supplies "offer only positive voltage" is fundamentally flawed. Most lab power supplies have two terminals, with the electric potential difference (colloquially, voltage) between them regulated to some value set by the controls.
Because voltage is a difference, it means they do not have one terminal with no voltage and another one with positive voltage. You can call one 0V and another 5V, if you want. You can also call one -1382787V and the other one -1382782V, if you want. Or \$\pi V\$ and \$(\pi+5)V\$. Or -5V and 0V. Any two numbers \$A\$ and \$B\$ where \$B-A = 5V\$ will do.
This is because every lab supply I've seen has galvanically isolated outputs. See:

What is the COM terminal on a DC Power Supply?
Is voltage a delta? Can it always be treated as a potential difference from a reference point?
What is ground and what does it do?
Help me understand the relationship between positive, negative, neutral and ground in AC and DC
Answer: We can take the two different terminal of the different supplies to connect that as a common and then take the positive and negative supply from the remaining terminals
Just Like:
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQsBjhkP0UbpyK_7Cj5grFbVxWxrKqxAKvsucb_5kO-qMFbdAI8


Can I delete the "~/.cache" file?

Question: I am new to Raspberry Pi and Raspbian. Just curious, can I delete the ~/.cache folder?
What is its purpose?
Can I automate the deletion process for this folder? What's the command/scripts that I can use to auto-delete it once a week?
Comment: Welcome to the Raspberry Pi SE site. Please take a few moments to take ["the tour"](https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/tour) to familiarize yourself with how things work here. Also please read these [guidelines on asking good questions](https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask). A quick search will often yield useful answers to questions, or guide you in asking a "better question".
Comment: this is not an RPI question ..... it is a Linux question .... please use google search `linux .cache` to get your answer
Answer: You can learn a lot more, and with a smaller investment in time, by simply "Googling" for information on what the cache is, and how it's used in modern *nix systems. For example, the following search term in Google yields numerous results that may help you: linux purpose of .cache.
With that out of the way, I'd answer your questions as follows:

What is the purpose of ~/.cache?: The purpose of the ~/.cache is to provide a common area in which applications can store information that may be needed in the future. By storing this information in the cache, the application may be able to do its job more quickly and efficiently. This may save you time, and make more effective use of your RPi's resources.
Can I delete the folder? If you have the requisite privileges, then, "Yes, you can delete the folder." Perhaps a better question is, "Should I delete the folder?" For me, the answer is generally "No". Why? Because I don't feel the need to delete things simply to free resources that I may or may not need. If I had reason to believe or suspect that an application was misusing the cache, then I certainly would delete it (and probably delete the application as well!).

3.a. Can I automate the deletion process for this folder? Yes, you can automate it in one or more ways.
3.b. What's the command/scripts that I can use to auto-delete it once a week? I would use cron for that job. To employ cron, you only need to add a line to your crontab file. You can learn more about using cron through a Google search, and by typing man cron and man crontab at the command line. Try this, and if you have specific questions, let us know.
Comment: Well reasoned and rounded answer but I would caution that deleting the cache folder from `cron` at intervals might run into problems with cache files still being accessed by their creators. I'd mention the `@boot` directive for `cron` in "3b" and possibly add a "3c" suggesting reading up on ways to add a custom script to the shutdown process to tidy up the `.cache` folder.
Answer:
Install bleachbit
Set up  a cron job tu run bleachbit --clean system.cache
at whatever time you wish.

Description: delete unnecessary files from the system
 BleachBit deletes unnecessary files to free valuable disk space, maintain privacy, and remove junk. It removes cache, Internet history, temporary files, cookies, and broken
 shortcuts.
It handles cleaning of Adobe Reader, Bash, Beagle, Epiphany, Firefox, Flash, GIMP, Google Earth, Java, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Opera, RealPlayer, rpmbuild, Second Life Viewer,
 VIM, XChat, and more.
Beyond simply erasing junk files, BleachBit wipes free disk space (to hide previously deleted files for privacy and to improve compression of images), vacuums Firefox
 databases (to improve performance without deleting data), and securely shreds arbitrary files.
Homepage: https://www.bleachbit.org/
Comment: Interesting application... how long have you used it ?  Do you find it improves things much?

Can I delete the "~/.cache" file?


Metal door/ wood screws

Question: The condo board just replaced my old wood door, with a sheet metal door. both having windows. I need to hang blinds and the kit does not have metal screws.  Will my blinds be secure enough if I drill wood screws into the metal door?
Comment: Hello, and welcome to Stack Exchange. I think sheet metal screws would be the best for a sheet metal door, but you should really check with the condo board before you do this.
Comment: Second @DanielGriscom's advice. Downside of condo is that there are rules saying what you can and can't do inside your unit. Upside is that handyman services may already be built into the condo fees.
Answer: If necessary any screw will secure the brackets to the door (in most cases). The reason to use sheet metal fasteners is to penetrate the metal door skin. Once the tip of  the screw is past the metal surface it grabs and drills into the wooden frame work. The wooden skeleton of the door is the 4 outside edges and the 4 sides of the window. Your best bet for successfully attaching to the wood frame is to remember the frame extends about an inch wider than the windows perimeter. Keep your brackets (if possible) under an inch past the windows edge. It's the wood framing that is supporting the brackets. So if you drill an opening in the metal skin any screw will suffice.
Comment: Why is this answer down voted?
Answer: If you can't hit wood, usually just the top inch of the door, you're going to have to do a through-the-door screw & nut setup (like for a peep hole). The metal skin is not enough for an operable blind. Nuts inside the blind brackets is best, but the only other option for through-the-door is to use Tee Nuts on the outside & screw into those. Of course, get the right length screws or cut them down after installation...hacksaw, dremel or bolt cutter, whatever you have room for.
Answer: Drill a small hole and use a nail to find out how much wood behind the metal. If little wood, do not use wood screws, or you will strip the metal or the screws.
I would drill the holes slightly smaller than the diameter of the metal screws (finer thread) you will use. Then get an extra set of metal screws and file the tip a little into a taper. Use your drill with firm pressure at slow speed to tap the metal, just half way.
Throw away the tapered metal screws you used to tap the metal holes. Now you can mount your fixture with the second set of metal screws, using a screwdriver for the last few turns as you don't want to strip the metal, easy to do with an electric drill.
Of course, if you have plenty of dense wood behind the metal, drill a shallow hole through the metal and an undersized hole into the wood for wood screws.
Hope this helps.

Metal door/ wood screws


Are the following expressions the same: "в Мой рук" and "в руки мне"?

Question: I heard the expression "в руки мне" (=into my hands, genitive plural) in a song. As far as  I know, to say "into" we have to use accusative case. But in that expression it is in genitive case. Can we rewrite that expression like:"в Мой рук" (accusative plural) ?
Comment: You can write **"в мои руки"** (proper spelling of accusative, plural), Keep in mind, it should agree with the rest of your phrase.
Comment: You should give us more context at where you wish to use this phrase.
Answer: Let us see where your confusion starts.One hand is рука, the genitive from it is чего?руки, the accusative is во что? в руку.And all these are singular.
Now two hands is руки(nominative ),нет чего? рук (genitive plural),во что? в руки (accusative plural).
Рука is feminine, so it can't be *мой--accusative singular +рук (genitive plural ).В руки is correct.
Answer: A small clarification to the answers.
These words are spelled the same but pronounced differently:
ру́ки - nominative or accusative plural, accent on the first syllable. "в мои ру́ки"
руки́ - genitive singular, accent on the second syllable. "взмах руки́"
Answer:
"в руки мне"

Here руки is in Accusative plural, not Genitive. The word order is non-default, the default would be мне в руки.
The singular form would be

в мою руку or мне в руку

At the same time,

"в Мой рук"

is ungrammatical.
Answer: Are you talking about this song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGSBJXxmbNg
Songwriters and poets usually have a freedom to bend regular grammar rules, so their texts sound better. Thatswhy songs and poems can hardly be translated literally. I would definitely not learn russian grammar from song lyrics, esp. from old folk music.
As V.V. said, "в мой рук" is definitely wrong. Read his answer for the correct explanation of grammatical cases.
Answer:
I heard the expression "в руки мне" (=into my hands, genitive plural) in a song

It means "Give me in [my] hands". "Мне" is Dative and "в руки" is Accusative plural.

Can we rewrite that expression like:"в Мой рук" (accusative plural) ?

It seems you just confused which form is which. "Рук" is Genitive plural, not Accusative.


Should employees and customers use the same or specialized interfaces for completing the same tasks?

Question: A company previously had one application that customers could use to access their account, pay their bill etc. Alternatively, customers could call, and an employee would answer the phone and do all of that work for you. That employee had a separate interface, an enterprise app for expert users. Recently, the company integrated these systems, so now internal employees are using the same interface as external customers. As a result, the time that it took for employees to complete tasks went way up. They've asked if there is research into the pros and cons of using different interfaces for internal and external audiences completing the same tasks. Has anyone seen any studies about this?
Comment: Since you have specifically asked for studies I am not writing this as an answer. I do not know of any studies. Most definitely having the same interface for normal and higher privileged power users is not a good idea, you've already correctly spotted the problem with it. However more than usability there are other factors at play. It is like developing another UI and sometimes API layer for this, which may not make sense financially for the customer. Considering all aspects such decision is taken. If you ask from purely UX standpoint, I don't think it's a good idea to have same for both.
Comment: Implicit in the question is that the external UI is known effective for external customers?  If you don't have this as a baseline, then any such comparative research could be difficult to map.
Comment: The employees, especially in CR, must be familiar with the customer interface and they should be able to switch between both at any time. The drop in efficiency may of course also simply indicate a customer UI much worse than the expert UI.
Answer: Companies frequently make this mistake for naive reasons.
Examples:  "our internal users should understand what external users see", "we should eat our own dogfood", "it's a cost saving", "it would betray our brand if we use other software".
The truth is: the difference between internal and external users is the same as the difference between any two user groups.
Therefore, UX suitability follows the same principles as with any other user groups.  If the workflow and needs of your internal guys are similar to those of your customers, then it's more likely that the same UX can be used.  But, in the real world that is almost never the case.  Usually internal users have expert capabilities and/or different roles (e.g. admin, account management) so external UX is rarely appropriate for internal use.
Arguments around brand fidelity, product accountability, etc. are usually based on a poor understanding of customer service (e.g. Ferrari employees don't all drive Ferraris, and customers wouldn't benefit if they did), and an obtuse desire to place corporate needs above customer needs (if a different internal UX will serve the customer better, then that is the correct solution, period).
You asked for specific studies, and this is a long way of explaining why I don't think those studies exist in the way you think they do.  Once you accept that internal vs external is no different from any two user groups, then it follows that what matters more is the difference in workflows so there is no reasonable way to do a study of "internal" vs "external" because the use cases vary dramatically between companies.
Any comparative usability study or approach can be used to measure the differences for your company's specific flows.
Comment: Agree. The TL; DR; version is that the best data is the key metrics for these specific  UI's and these specific user groups.


Covered vent under a floating wood floor

Question: How do I find a covered floor vent under a floating hardwood floor?!?!.....magnet not picking it up, and can't hear it through a stethoscope
Comment: Can you get to the vent from below?
Comment: Did you true a metal detector?
Comment: have you tried turning up the heat and seeing what part of the floor gets warm. Its worth a try if the vent is hooked up
Answer: Couple ideas come to mind:

Focus near windows, this is the typical location of an HVAC vent. Compare the room with others to find common locations, spacing from the wall, and typical number of vents in the room.
If you believe you have located it, a deep sensing stud finder may identify edges of the vent if you start in the middle.
Try loud sound/music directed into another vent.
Look from below the floor, making a small access hole in the ceiling below where you suspect the vent may be located.
Since the floor is floating, pull the trim and lift up the last few rows. The floor can be put back without any impact, and the trim will just need some caulk, nails, and touch up paint.


Does USB tethering degrade droid batteries?

Question: I want to know if tethering with my Xperia Neo V via USB will affect the battery capacity in any negative manner other than the usual.
Answer: No. There's no relation between those two things.
If you connect your phone via the USB it gets charged. It doesn't matter if you don't use the USB connection at all or transfer files or tether your data connection or do any other stuff while it's connected.
The charging circuit doesn't even know that it's connected via USB and that there's data flowing. It just happily charges the phone with the power supplied via USB.
Side note:
The battery (LiIon) degrades over time, if you use it or not. There are however differences in the speed of degradation, depending on usage, storage temperature and charging state (best is around 60-70% charged as far as I know). This is however the usual degradation which you asked not to factor in. And this degradation definitely doesn't change if you tether or not.
Comment: I think the phone does not actually *charge* even if seems to be charging. That is the reason they ask you to have *more than 50%* battery before you update via USB. Isn't it?
Comment: The charging circuit will stop charging and the phone will be powered over USB (if it doesn't draw more than 500mA), so the battery should ideally be idle as soon as it's charged (i.e. no current flow).
Comment: I disagree. Of course does it charge, USB provides 500mA (USB3 and some ports even more). That 50% limit has no reason to exist at all. My old xperia even runs without battery, including the ability to upgrade
Comment: just some thoughts. :)
Comment: Thanks for the info I was just worried that the constant charge and discharge when tethering might degrade the battery other than anything usual
Answer: All batteries have some recharging cycle. If you repeatedly use USB that means you are charging repeatedly. This reduces battery life by consuming recharge cycle early.
And contrary to manufactures demand to have 50% battery for updating the software, you can updated it even with 5% if it lasts until your software update is complete. I've done it in my Sony W8. In Sony W8 I've updated in just 10% of battery, even though Sony is worst performer in battery.
Answer: yeah it would certainly shorten your battery's life. Every battery has a maximum number of charge-discharge cycles. So when the phone is tethered via USB, battery is charging.
The more FREQUENTLY you charge your battery, the more you shorten its life.  This applies not only to tethering/data transfer, but also to the habit of many of charging phones for a short duration, then again discharging it , then again charging it.
This drastically reduces the battery's lifespan.
The best habit is , Charge the phone to 100% . Then use it till its down to 15-20%. This is the best time when you should plug in your device. Mind that discharging to 0% also has adverse effects on backup of a battery.
So IMO Bluetooth tethering is the best solution for 3G speeds.. It is available since ICS . If you want to utilize full 4G speeds, prefer WiFi tethering. While tethering, when the phone's battery comes down below 20% , consider charging it. It's always handy to carry a spare battery with your Droid.
Comment: Any external reference for your claim/statement?
Comment: My phone's help section says "Charge your phone often. This will not affect the lifespan of the battery."


Insert Page break ^L automatically after specific number of lines/characters?

Question: How could VIM (script?) insert ^L (page break) and /r  on an empty line, automatically after every 30 Lines OR 1800 characters while writing? Any ideas?
Answer: Your idea might not work how you want it to, because if you go back and earlier parts of your file, your page breaks are going to end up in the wrong places.
I think a better idea would be to set up an autocommand that resets the page breaks whenever you save the file.
Here's a quick one that sets them every 30 lines whenever you save a file with a  .txt extension. If you also want it to work for every 1800 characters you're going to need to write a more iterative function that steps through the file keeping track of characters and and newlines and places the page breaks in the appropriate places.
function! ResetPageBreaks() abort
  " Remove existing page breaks
  execute "g/^\<C-L>$/d"
  " Add a page break every 30 lines
  %s/^/\= !(line('.') % 30) ? "\<C-L>\r" : ''
endfunction

augroup PageBreaks
  autocmd!
  autocmd BufWritePre *.txt call ResetPageBreaks()
augroup END

Comment: Rich, it works! The idea is to have 30 lines on one page. Although the page could take more - 40 to 45 lines - using only 30 lines give enough space to add a few more lines on every page. (Reason:  (:ha) prints always same layout of pages which helps in correcting from hardcopy.)
Comment: @ThomasD If the answer works for you, you should accept the answer (click on the check mark beside the answer to toggle it from greyed out to filled in).


How to say "when their ears stopped ringing"?

Question: The best I could come up with was 等他们的耳朵不响了, which just seems wrong and inadequate. I was wondering whether there was a specific term for it.
Comment: searching **ichacha**  with "ears ringing":
    i have a ringing in my ears    我耳朵嗡嗡作响,a drumming in the ears    耳鸣, ( **iciba** :...耳朵里(久久)地回响着),once Chinese text is available, for further usage examples search **bkrs** :耳朵嗡嗡作响:耳朵嗡嗡响|耳朵嗡鸣,耳鸣:many more examples:tinnitus; ringing in the ears; syrigmus; singing:
神经性耳鸣 nervous tinnitus
我耳鸣。 My ears are tingling (humming; ringing; singing). **etc.**
Answer: "Ears ringing" translated into Chinese is "耳嗚"

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%80%B3%E9%B8%A3
係指外在環境沒發出聲音卻聽見聲音的一種狀況 (hearing sound when there is no external source of such sound)
最常見的原因是因噪音型聽力損失 (most common cause of this impairment of  hearing ability is loud noise )

"when their ears stopped ringing" could be translated as "等他们的耳嗚停止时"
But "耳嗚" is quite a formal (medical) and literary term. The more colloquial term for "ear ringing" is "耳中嗡嗡作响" therefore,   your sentence could be translated as "等他们耳中的嗡嗡响声停下來时" (when the buzzing sound in their ears stopped)


How to rid toxic all purpose cleaner?

Question: I recently used an all purpose cleaner that I found out was a highly toxic un-vetted product, according to the EWG. I used it on a couple of shelves. I obviously threw the product away, but how do I know rid my shelves of this toxic, is simply washing it enough? Link to product. http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/1545-SimpleGreenConcentratedAllPurposeCleaner
Answer: I did some reading on this. Wikipedia says the following which I checked elsewhere:
2-Butoxyethanol usually decomposes in the presence of air within a few days by reacting with oxygen radicals.[12] It has not been identified as a major environmental contaminant, nor is it known to bio-accumulate.[13] 2-Butoxyethanol biodegrades in soils and water, with a half life of 1–4 weeks in aquatic environments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-Butoxyethanol
The product "Simple Green" is considered to have low toxicity, which means there isn't much to worry about. Only with extreme concentration is there a concern.
From what I read, allow the shelf to air out over a few days if you have concerns.
Comment: If *you* consider this highly toxic (though as mentioned by @dmcdivitt, it is not), then why did you write, "I obviously threw the product away,", when it should have been disposed in a safe manner, e.g. municipal HM collectoin? See http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/hhw.htm .
Answer: My advice is to clean the shelves again with homemade non-toxic and eco-friendly cleaner. There are tones of recipes on Pinterest. Most of the time I mix some liquid dishwashing detergent and warm water. Or you can call and ask your local cleaning company.
Answer: 2-butoxyethanol evaporates pretty quickly once you wipe up the excess. If your shelves feel dry, they are dry and there's no more there to worry about.

How to rid toxic all purpose cleaner?


WE need YOUR suggestions for help text (#1 - "Asking a good question")

Question: TL;DR To help stem the tide of bad/off-topic Q's, we need your
suggestions for help text which pops up for users asking a question for the first time (see this post and related sister meta post).
Yes, we need YOUR thinker to give us words! How important do YOU feel now? Your words could be a permanent fixture on our site! Helping swathes of confused users stumbling in the dark! Your shimmering words lighting up the path, slowly but definitively spelling out your immortal words… "JOG ON, YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE" …or, you know, whatever you want it to say. There are no "wrong" answers, I suppose.
ENOUGH! To business...
Given the recent tidal-wave of off-topic questions asking things like "how do I pick my teeth with my 1/8" headphone jack?", it's about time we customized these snippets of guidance that adorn the question asking process. These helpful chunks of information are the same for all SE communities, but can be customized if needed, as many other communities have done. The right help text at the right moment will help quell the tide in a clear, tight and informative way.
There are TWO such help text displays we can customize:
1. The "Asking a good question" modal. (which we're discussing right here ↓)

2. The "Step 1: Draft your question" right-panel help pane. (which we're discussing in a sister meta post)

The "Asking a good question" modal…

What is the "Asking a good question" modal?
This modal pops up when a user asks their first question. It's the same for all sites, but we do have the option of changing some of the text to make it more in-line with our site-specific guidelines. (if you want to see the modal - use a private web browser and click "ask a question" as I did above)
What can we change?
Please read this answer, it explains things way better than I ever could!
Read it? Good… So in summary, we can change the first two paragraphs and remove the last bullet point, if we wish to do so. Although it's a bit more work, we can add HTML to the paragraphs (lists, links, etc) - refer back to the real world examples in the answer you just read.
Why does it need to change?
We are getting a lot of questions where the user doesn't seem to have read or understood what is on-topic and what isn't. We get questions about home theatre, consumer stuff like mobile apps and questions asking how to do something on a particular device which can be found easily in the manual or with a quick Google search. So we need to add more explicit guidelines in the help text. Hopefully the user will read it before they post.
Some real-life DATA to hone your sword against:
Closed Questions
I encourage you to spend some time scrolling through this list of closed questions to get an idea of what close reasons pop up regularly and what could be said to these users to collectively nip these questions in the bud.
Bad Questions
In addition, it would be helpful to scroll through this list of questions with a negative score to get an idea of bad questions, and what could be said to these users to help improve their questions.
Finally…
Please read this post mentioned earlier before submitting any suggestions, it's extremely informative on the subject and the process and includes successful examples from other communities.
Answers
You can give full answers, or you can just suggest points you think should be included or sentences or paragraphs to consider.
The community answer can then be updated with any popular suggestions.
You can even vote to not change the "Asking a good question" help text modal if you wish. If there is already a "don't change it" answer, just upvote and give your reasoning in a comment.
I'll start the ball rolling with the community wiki answer - this is where we'll mould the suggestions to a complete answer. Feel free to add your own complete answer, though - it will be just as valid an answer.
Timescale
If we get support for a particular layout after a month, we'll pass it to the CMs for review.
This is your chance to help mould our site into a better repository of knowledge for the world of sound design and production!
Answer: Community Example: Can be updated and changed as more suggestions come in.
DEFAULT:

REVISED:
Asking a good question
You are ready to ask your first question, and the community is here to help! To get the best answers, we've provided some guidance:
While we'd love to hear from you, remember, this is a Professional/Enthusiast community and as such:

This site is NOT for consumer audio questions
We are NOT here to read equipment manuals and search Google for you (maybe ask the manufacturer?)
We ARE here to help with...(?) your sound design and production questions that others would find helpful(?)
We expect a detailed, well researched question with links to audio clips where appropriate.

Before posting: Make sure your question is on-topic and hasn't been answered. If you're still unsure, request advice in chat.
When you're ready to write your first question, be sure to:

Summarize the problem
Provide details and any research
When appropriate, describe what you've tried
Answer: "If there isn't a suitable tag, it's likely off-topic"
Comment: I'm not so sure about this - I'm a supporter of creating a tag once enough questions on that topic make it worthwhile, but that doesn't mean a lack of tag means it's off topic.
Comment: Yeah, you're probably right there ;)


How does the hash of a coinbase transaction differ for the same miner?

Question: Based on the format of a coinbase transaction described here: What is the format of the coinbase transaction?, I don't see how the all the coinbase transactions for a given miner do not all have the same hash assuming the miner was just using a single pubkey and the block rewards were the same. If they all have the same hash then when you spend one of them, you effectively use them all because that transaction hash has now been used as an input. Clearly that wouldn't make sense, so how are they ensured to be unique transaction hashes?
Comment: Closely related, almost duplicate: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/30764/why-block-height-is-required-in-coinbase/30780#30780
Answer: The script of the input to a coinbase transaction can hold up to 100 bytes of arbitrary data. After BIP 34, the block height must be the first thing in that script. Since each block has a different height, this rule ensures that each coinbase transaction is unique as the block heights will always be different.
Furthermore, since miners can put whatever arbitrary data they want in that input script, they frequently use that as an extra nonce. Instead of reselecting transactions when all of the nonces are exhausted, miners will increment a value known as the extranonce which is put in the input script.

Also, before BIP 34 activated, there were in fact cases of identical coinbase transactions in different blocks. Only the outputs from the most recent of these identical coinbase transactions are spendable. Spending outputs from these transactions does not spend all of the outputs, only the ones from the most recent one. This means that the outputs from the earlier coinbases are unspendable and those coins are provably lost forever.
Comment: I see, that makes sense. Just to clarify one thing, block heights are only guaranteed to be different for a coinbase transactions for the _same_ miner because coinbase transactions for different miners could potentially have the same block height in the case of a temporary fork?
Comment: Yes, block heights are only different for the same miner.


Difference between oz vehadar regular shas and the murchevet edition?

Question: What are the differences between Oz Vehadar regular shas and the murchevet edition? Also has anyone seen the handcrafted chosen has that's 4500 NIS? Is it very nice? Thanks
Answer: I believe the following additional features are included in the Murchevet edition. I admit I may be missing a few.
In no particular order:

Tosafos HaRosh. Some volumes also include Tosafos Rabbeinu Peretz and/or Tosafos Rid
Mevo'os HaTosafos (summaries of the gemarros that Tosafos bring)
Chiddushei HaBach
Sefer HaMikraos (a listing of all the verses quoted, with a very brief commentary)
Ein Mishpat HaMaleh (full listing of rulings from Rambam/Shulchan Aruch that come from the gemarra)
In the Kodshim masechtos, they include the Chofetz Chaim's Likkutei Halachos
Sefer HeAruch

Basically, anything you'd find in the big red gemarros they sell. Not sure about the hand crafted set you're referring to.


'I'm dressed warmly' or 'I'm dressed warm'?

Question: There are some controversies about the word usage in this context. So, which example is grammatically correct: "I'm dressed warmly" or "I'm dressed warm"?
Answer: Both "dressed warmly" and "dressed warm" are correct and commonly used. Since dress here is a verb, you need an adverb to modify it. "Warmly" is the more common adverb, although in informal language, "warm" is also used adverbially in a restricted range of contexts.
Another example would be "wrong". Compare:

You spelled that word wrong/wrongly.
Comment: But _greeted one another warmly_ not _*greeted one another warm_
Comment: @MvLog Exactly, hence "in a restricted range of contexts."
Answer:
Be sure to dress warmly for skiing. [written style]
They were dressed warmly but still felt cold. [written style]
"Hey, don't forget to dress warm when you come up North." [colloquial, spoken]
"My advice? Dress warm and don't forget your gloves!"
Answer: Both are used and both are controversial. In a grammar-critical situation like an English test or formal letter, I would avoid both of them and rephrase the sentence.
The purported problem with the adjective "warm" is that there isn't a noun to be modified. One could argue that "warm" modifies "I" but it's arguable whether this is accepted usage.  The purported problem with using the adverb "warmly" to modify "dressed" is that "warmly" isn't a quality of the action "dressed" but rather a quality of the unnamed clothes I'm dressed in.

I know it's freezing outside but I'm dressed to stay warm.
Comment: Scantily dressed, warmly dressed, barely dressed [ha ha], fully dressed, etc. Warmly does not need to be a quality. It needs to answer the question: How is one dressed? Also, dressed to stay warm means something different.
Comment: `Dressed for the cold [weather]`?