Why is my question about future web censorship closed as opinion-based?

Question: I have asked a question about coming censorship. I, as a web-developer intend to be prepared to that, so I was asking whether it is true, if so, whether there will be a source of information besides reading laws and whether there is a technical way to prevent abuses the said censorship intends to protect users against. The question was downvoted many times and closed as it is opinion-based. However, I was not asking for opinions, but rather for facts. If the facts are unknown, then there is no need to write an answer until the facts will be clear. As about protection against the specific rules of censorship might be broad, but I do not see how is it broad. These rules - if already defined - can be translated into technical rules and if so, then the necessary technical steps can be defined as well.
Comment: The question isn't censored (if it were, I would have deleted it and never told you to go to meta). People disagree with your view that the question is on-topic on Stack Overflow. And you haven't even waited for answers yet.
Comment: This is not only POB, but also off-topic.
Comment: This is one of the most wildly off-topic questions I've seen in a long time. It's a very interesting question, but super duper definitely not for SO. http://quora.com might be an option
Comment: @LajosArpad the question in offtopic whatever you see as it is not about programming
Comment: @Kyll, then I will not remove the questions, as the answer is the most important.
Comment: Okay, I will remove both questions and conclude that on SO this question is censored :)
Comment: @ColdFire, so we do not have to write code to comply to the terms?
Comment: @LajosArpad i said programming not code , the site faq says that is offtopic
Comment: @MadaraUchiha, point taken, did not mean to offend anyone with my sarcastic remark.
Answer: I am the original close-voter, and I cast a [cv-pls] review request in SOCVR.
First I would like to apologise for the now-deleted comments under your post. As you can see from here and below, we have a don't-pile-on rule that was not respected this time.
Here is your main question:

If websites/apps allowing abuse to women of any kind, what is the definition of abuse, is abuse to men falling into this censorship, is there a way to make sure that this will not be used as a pretext to shut down normal sites and how to comply to them as in, what are the automatic ways or policies which could detect the presence of abuse or even better, forecast potential abuses and what is the way to cope with already existent abuses so that service providers can protect their users against abuse and themselves against censorship?

We can divide it as follows:

what is the definition of abuse?
is abuse to men falling into this censorship?
is there a way to make sure that this will not be used as a pretext to shut down normal sites?
and how to comply to them? As in:

what are the automatic ways or policies which could detect the presence of abuse?
or even better, forecast potential abuses?

what is the way to cope with already existent abuses so that service providers can protect their users against abuse and themselves against censorship?

1 and 2 are purely legal questions. These are off-topics because we are not lawyers (this answer is about software licensing, however pretty much all legal questions fall under this category. See also the [legal] burnination).
3 is about the impact a legal policy will have on some category of websites, which really is not answerable by developers. It's also fairly speculative as we'd have to guess the future.
4 and 5 are about how to comply to a policy. While this could be on-topic in some way, asking for ways or policies which could detect the presence of abuse is simply too broad, as there's dozens of algorithms and strategies and system abstractions and maths papers about this subject.
Do also note that asking multiple questions in one SO question exponentially broadens its scope.

Some of your questions may find a better home on our Law SE.
I am not familiar with their rules and culture though. You could ask them in chat.
Comment: I still don't think Stack Overflow is the right forum for this, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate your information-sharing initiative and effort. We have evolved a fairly specific Question / Answer format which is suitable for many topics, but this doesn't appear to be one of them. Perhaps you should have a blog instead?
Comment: @Kyll you summed it up perfectly
Comment: @tripleee, I was going to do that, wanted to actually do a research in the subject and if no better answer comes in the meantime, to write the answer to share the info, but given the way my constructive approach was received, I will do this research for myself only.
Comment: @Kyll FWIW I also close voted the question and headed to SOCVR to ask for cv but you were a bit faster. As far as don't-pile-pn rule, I retracted my dv after I saw question accumulated 12 of them. But maybe it was downvoted so much because it is hugely off-topic question posted by high reputation user that should know better what is on and off topic here.
Comment: I will keep my questions with the sole purpose of keeping your answer, however, unfortunately the real question remains unanswered. I will know the answer in time, but I am not motivated at all to share it, as I can see it will not be received well.
Comment: Do not worry, I will know the answer in time. Wanted to help people who might not know about the approaching problem, but this place seem to unwelcome the question.
Comment: Maybe revisit with a question / answer pair when you do have the answer.


How do the wages affect the employment

Question: If we have a condition where employment is lead by the wages does it mean that a wage reduction will cause unemployment?
Comment: The article is indeed helpful thank you!However I was referring to a hypothetical economy where every factor is stable and only the wages can be changed.I think it is somehow related to Keynes theory about the accomplishment of full employment.
Answer: Are you referring to real life circumstances or in a hypothetical world? There is an interesting article about the correlation between wages and unemployment found here: https://www.stlouisfed.org/On-The-Economy/2014/December/Are-Wages-and-the-Unemployment-Rate-Correlated
Essentially this article states that higher levels of wages are weakly correlated with the unemployment rate based on data that was compiled and published in The Regional Economist. They also argue that when business conditions shift, it impacts both the unemployment rate and wages.
Comment: Hi Dima, welcome to Economics.SE. Your answer is what we call "link-only" answer. It is impossible for us to evaluate the quality of your answer without clicking on the link. But links tend to disappear. Could you edit your post to include a summary from the content of that link, which relates to the question? By the way, I'd recommend taking the [tour] and maybe have a look at the [help].

How do the wages affect the employment


How can I remove that "Ctrl" sign when I using Wacom pen in Photoshop CC?

Question: when I using Wacom pen in Photoshop CC (Windows 10) and clicking "Cntrl" button it appears "Cntrl" sign which distracts attention and annoying, is there a way to remove it? I was trying to make some adjustments in Wacom Tablet Properties but without success.
Answer: It's because of Windows Ink.

Good news: it can be disabled
Bad news: this might break pressure sensitivity in Photoshop
Good news: this can be fixed

First of all, open your Wacom preferences, find Use Widows Ink option and disable it:

Next, restart Photoshop and see if pressure sensitivity works normally. If it doesn't:

paste this path to File Explorer: %appdata%\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2019\Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings (change 2019 to your version if needed): this will open Roaming user folder;
create a new text file in there called PSUSerConfig.txt;
in this file paste these lines:
# Use WinTab
UseSystemStylus 0

and save it. This directive says to Photoshop to use WinTab driver instead of Windows Ink.

Restart Photoshop and pressure sensitivity should work fine.
Comment: this is fantastic. Really appreciate your help. Thank you
Comment: If the answer worked for you please check it as an accepted answer for everyone to find it. Cheers!
Answer: There's a strong likelihood that your settings for the mouse are set to show the circle. Open your control panel or use the search feature for Mouse, select Pointer Options and turn off the checkbox.  The above information was derived from isunshare web site.


Can you express $\ln(x)$ as a series with negative or fractional powers of $x$?

Question: I read in my book that $\ln(x)$ cannot be written as a power series.  That is a series whose terms contain only non-negative integer powers of $x$.  But can $\ln(x)$ be written as an infinite series whose terms contain negative or fractional powers of $x$?  Then there is the bigger question.  Can all functions be expressed with such terms?
Answer: I think you're probably referring to an expansion about the value $x=0$, correct? If this were possible, then we would have what we call a Laurent series for $\log z$, where $z\in\mathbb{C}$. Laurent series are essentially power series expanded about singular points.
The problem with $\log z$ in the complex plane is that it is a "multi-valued function", so we must specify what range of values we are considering the function to have. Because we must make this choice, the function fails to be continuous in any (punctured) disk about $z=0$, and thus is not (complex) differentiable in any neighborhood about the point. However, we have that any convergent Laurent series is (complex) differentiable in some annulus about the pole at which it is centered.
So in conclusion, the answer is "no", because the $\log$ function is badly behaved in the complex plane. I hope this helps answer your question; if not, I suggest reading up a little on complex analysis.
Answer: You can have $\log(x+1)$ expressed as series with negative powers of $x$, when you expand it at $x=\infty$:
$$
\log(x+1)=\log(x)+\frac{1}{x}-\frac{1}{2x^2}+\frac{1}{3x^3}\cdots
$$
See here.
Comment: Hmm, but this in fact requires computation of $\log(x)$ to get $\log(x+1)$... seems kind of pointless, and not really expansion _in powers of $x$_.
Comment: @Ruslan I agree on the problem of using $\log(x)$, but the OP asked "an infinite series whose terms contain negative ... powers of $x$"...
Answer: The "problem" with Taylor series is, that they (have to!) converge in discs around the point of expansion. Laurent series have the same "problem" (rings around the point of expansion). In both cases the multi-value property of the ln function cannot be represented. To have any chance of convergence we have to restrict ourselves to a cut plan.
An example of a series with convergence in a cut plane is a series of Padé approximants (converges in complex plane without the negative real axis). And indeed, the Padé approximants converge to the main branch of the logarithm.
Such approximants consist of a polynomial devided by a polynomial. Eg
$$P_6^6(x) = \frac{7 \left(-7-132 x-375 x^2+375 x^4+132 x^5+7 x^6\right)}{10 \left(1+36 x+225 x^2+400 x^3+225 x^4+36 x^5+x^6\right)} .$$
This is the (6,6) Padé approximant around the expansion point 1. If you plot it, you will see, that it already resembles the logarithm farely well for small phases of the complex argument.
Note that the main Padés are equivalent to continued fractions. So if you don't like the term Padé approximant you might also say, that the logarithm can be represented as a continued fraction.
Comment: Wow, never thought that Padé approximation is so powerful!


Measuring Volatility from Execution Prices

Question: I was told of a way of measuring the volatility of a stock by looking at the reported execution prices (from Level III or Level II data.) I'm well aware of how to measure volatility by looking at the mid-quote or similar but I have never heard of a way that would use solely the prices of the executions.
Unfortunately, I cannot find any paper that would either use such method or define it. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Answer: Possibly you might be able to first estimate the bid-ask spread from execution prices, using the method of Roll (1984), and then adjust the volatility for this.
Essentially the bid-ask bounce adds to the underlying volatility, so knowing an estimate of the b/a and the apparent volatility, the underlying volatility could be recovered by subtraction.
Roll(1984)
Comment: I already know the bid and ask spread since I can rebuild the book from Level III data. Moreover, there is no such thing as bid-ask bounce since each execution is linked to a specific limit order.
Answer: Do you mean the "realize measure" of volatility using the intraday Transaction-and-Quote data? If that's the case, just trade data, or mid-quote would be sufficient.
Looking at Level II and level III data really introduces a lot of noises (hudge cancellation rates, orders placed by HFT blindly to gain time-priority advantage). Using those data to calculate some weighted-average of price is not a sound approach to me.
Comment: Thank you for you feedback but I'm a little confused by your answer. I'm not sure what do you mean when you talk about "... some weighted-average of price...": can you clarify? Also, what is a "hudge" cancellation? Is it just a typo? Moreover, If I'm looking at the execution prices in Level III data what does the cancellation rate of limit orders or the HFT submission strategies have to do with the reported execution prices? Finally, when you talk about TAQ data, are you suggesting to use transaction prices sampled at some interval to compute the returns?


Lost my space car in gta v

Question: Ok so I got the space car and was driving it and got cops. Then when they killed me I lost the space car. Is it gone forever or how can I get it back or get a new one?
Comment: You mean the Space Docker? Anyway this question can be generalised for any car in this situation really? I don't believe there is any specific rule associated with this particular car.
Comment: It's really in gta five
Answer: Usually unique vehicles will end up at the Impound Lot if they're lost or stolen.  The Impound Lot is on the east side of Los Santos, and its icon is a picture of a car.  It's a bit north of Franklin's garage, if you're playing as him.  The Impound Lot only stores the last two vehicles, though, so you should probably hurry if you think it might be there.
If it's not there, you can also check the special vehicles section of Franklin's Garage, (Right on the D-Pad when you're inside) as I've read that some people had luck finding it there after losing it.
However, I've also read several reports that the Space Docker is a one-time thing, and if you lose it, it's gone for good.  Thus, you have to be very careful to make sure you take it to the garage after you collect all the parts or you're likely to lose it forever.

Lost my space car in gta v


Can one write down a Hamiltonian in the absence of a Lagrangian?

Question: How can I define the Hamiltonian independent of the Lagrangian? For instance, let's assume that i have a set of field equations that cannot be integrated to an action. Is there any prescription to construct the Hamiltonian of a such system starting from the field equations?
Comment: It sort of depends on what you mean by a hamiltonian. If you mean 'is there a system whose dynamics can be rephrased as Hamilton's equations, but for which there's no lagrangian that reproduces the dynamics and transforms into the correct hamiltonian?', you should express that in the question. (If not, use a similarly precise statement.) That case is answered in the negative by linear hamiltonians such as $H=p$.
Comment: I think what you are asking about comes under the general heading of the 'Inverse problem for Lagrangian/Hamiltonian mechanics'. There's a theorem due to Douglas (1941) that gives a set of necessary and sufficient conditions under which a there exists a Lagrangian for any given ODE. I'm sure you can then extract the conditions on the existence of a Hamiltonian from this. The problem is much harder for general PDE systems -- but I think this is still quite an active field of research.
Comment: ok, let me provide the simplest example that i can think of. Consider that I have the following field equation for a symmetric rank-2 tensor $h_{\mu\nu}: \eta^{\rho \sigma} \partial_\mu \partial_\nu h_{\rho\sigma} + \eta_{\mu\nu} \partial_{\rho} \partial_{\sigma} h^{\rho\sigma}$. Obviously, such a field equation can come from $L = \eta^{\rho\sigma} \partial_\mu h^{\mu\nu} \partial_\nu h_{\rho \sigma}$. But if I change the relative coefficients between two terms in the field equation, then you can no longer find a Lagrangian for such a field equation.
Comment: @JohnDoe Your example is in principle interesting, but is the field language actually necessary? Surely the issue is the fundamentals of the mechanics, and there should be at least a discretized version - hopefully a single-dof one - with the same core issue. Also, you mentioned "equation" but you didn't actually display any equals signs.
Answer: Comments to the question (v2):

First of all, let us stress that OP is correct, that a given set of equations of motion does not necessarily have a variational/action principle, cf. e.g. this Phys.SE post and links therein.
On one hand, if there exists a Lagrangian formulation, then one may in principle obtain a Hamiltonian formulation via a (possible singular) Legendre transformation. Traditionally this is done via the Dirac-Bergmann recipe/cookbook, see e.g. Refs. 1-2.
On the other hand, if we have a (possible constrained) Hamiltonian formulation, of the type discussed in Refs. 1 and 2, then it is possible to give a Hamiltonian action formulation, which in itself can be interpreted as a Lagrangian formulation, e.g. after integration out momentum variables along the lines indicated in my Phys.SE answer here.
In other words, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations traditionally go hand in hands. Thus it is unclear what precisely OP is looking for.

References:

P.A.M. Dirac, Lectures on QM, (1964).
M. Henneaux and C. Teitelboim, Quantization of Gauge Systems, 1994.
Comment: (-1) Any set of equations can be put into a Lagrangian setting by adding additional unobservable degrees of freedom. For $F(x)=0$ add new variables $y$ and take $L=\langle y|F(x)|\rangle\>$. Variation of $y$ gives $F(x)=0$, and variation of $x$ gives $F'(x)^Ty=0$ which in many cases is equivalent $y=0$ - which makes it unobservable since it never changes.
Comment: The Lagrangian side (and its general feasibility) has been discussed extensively in several threads here: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/20188/   http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/4749/ http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/167027/ http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/147341/
Answer: The field equations must be conservative in a fairly precise sense in order that this can be done in a physically appropriate sense.
Then there are several Hamiltonian approaches to field theory: the De Donder-Weyl formalism and the multisymplectic formalism. Although both formalisms can accommodate Lagrangians, the can also be understood without any Lagrangian, in a purely Hamiltonian form. Both formalisms can be made fully covariant.
This holds for classical fields. How to quantize a theory in one of these formalisms is very poorly understood.


Decimated parts falling into each other

Question: I created a plane, subdivided and decimated it. After that I edge split the plane to create multiple triangle. To give them a 3rd dimension solidify was used.
When I now want to animate the triangles falling down on a rigid plane, everything works fine so far except that the triangles fall into each other. Is there a way to prevent this? I played around with self collision but nothing I did helped. Do you have any tips?
Answer: Since you are using a single object, you have to enable Self Collision to allow parts of itself to collide with itself.

However, you will need a lot of accuracy and samples. The situation of many rigid pieces would be better suited with a Rigid Body Simulation.
Comment: Thanks for you answer. Can you elaborate accuracy and samples? Where do I find these settings? I just started using blender and some settings are confusing. What is actually doing the physics simulation? Is it the render engine?

If I used rigid body simulation I would need to seperate the plane in to parts. Is there a quick way to apply rigid body to all these parts in one go?

Decimated parts falling into each other


Rhyme in Elizabethan sonnets

Question: In sonnets from the Elizabethan period, "move" rhymed with "love" although they don't today.  Recognizing that changes in spelling rarely keep up with changes in pronunciation, how were "move" and "love" pronounced in Early Modern English?
Comment: I don't know the answer to your question, but bear in mind that poets and songwriters often use imperfect rhymes, so the fact that two words that don't quite rhyme are used as if they do doesn't prove that at that place and time they were pronounced differently.
Comment: I have no good citation for this, but both rhymed with *drove* prior to the [Great Vowel Shift](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift).
Comment: @combread ninja: Does _drove_ rhyme with  _love_ today?
Answer: If you believe David Crystal's reconstructions of Elizabethan pronunciation, you can check out the Romeo and Juliet recording on this page. There both "love" and "remove" are pronounced with a vowel very much like that in the modern "love", but shorter. I know his work is well-respected enough that the Globe has used it in a few productions, but I believe it's not universally agreed with, so treat this with a moderate amount of skepticism.
Comment: According to the comments in this [John Wells blog posting](http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2011/02/rhymes-for-love.html), Crystal says they had the IPA vowel [ɤ] in Shakespeare's time, which isn't very close to the modern pronunciation of "love", even though it's close to where [ʌ] is supposed to be on the IPA vowel chart.
Answer: Rhyming words based on spelling when they are not pronounced the same is called variously "eye rhyme", "sight rhyme", or "visual rhyme".
This may occur due to historical changes in word pronunciation, where words in the rhyme were once pronounced the same, but no longer are. However, it is also a valid poetic device; the presence of eye rhyme does not necessarily mean that the pronunciation of words has changed.
This resource indicates that the love/move/prove rhyme results from a change in pronunciation, but does not say which words changed.
According to "Early Modern English" by Charles Laurence Barber, the vowel o in love had already reached its current pronunciation /lʌv/ (same sound as in cup, luck), but an alternative pronunciation /lu:v/ was in common use by poets (same sound as in blue).
Answer: Certainly the following piece¹ is not a complete answer to your question, but, for the reason that there is an interesting fragment on the drift of "ove", I decided to post that as a little contribution.

In England the Great Vowel Shift, as it is generally and somewhat
  misleadingly called, happened later, roughly around the time of
  Chaucer. Textbook discussions of the shift can sometimes leave us with
  the impression that people pronounced their vowels in one way up to a
  certain date and then suddenly, as if on a whim, began pronouncing
  them in an altogether different way. But of course it was never as
  simple as that. Many of the pronunciation changes reflected changes
  that had begun centuries before in the time of King Alfred and some of
  them are not complete to this day. (Shove and
  move may one day be pronounced in the same way; it would make sense.) So, although it is true to say that these constituted some of
  the most sudden and dramatic changes English had ever undergone, we
  should not lose sight of the fact that we are talking about a period
  that spanned, even at its most rapid, a couple of generations. When
  Chaucer died in 1400, people still pronounced the
  e on the end of words. One hundred years later not only had it become silent, but scholars were evidently unaware that it ever
  had  been pronounced. In short, changes that seem to history to have been almost breathtakingly sudden will often have gone unnoticed by
  those who lived through them.
No one knows why this vowel shift happened. As Charlton Laird has
  succinctly put it: "For some reason, Englishmen started shoving
  tense vowels forward in their mouths. Then they stopped. And they have
  remained stopped. Nobody knows why they started or why they stopped."
  For whatever reasons, in a relatively short period the long vowel
  sounds of English (or tense vowels as Laird called them) changed their
  values in a fundamental and seemingly systematic way, each of them
  moving forward and upward in the mouth. There was evidently a chain
  reaction in which each shifting vowel pushed the next one forward: The
  "o" sound of
  spot  became the "a" sound of
  spat, while
  spat  became
  speet, speet  became
  spate, and so on. The "aw" sound of
  law became the "oh" sound of
  close, which in turn became the "oo" sound of food. Chaucer's
  lyf, pronounced "leef," became Shakespeare's
  life, pronounced "lafe," became our
  life. Not all vowels were affected. The short
  e of
  bed  and the short i of
  hill, for instance, were unmoved, so that we pronounce those words today just as the Venerable Bede said them 1,200 years ago.  [...]
   Before the shift
  house was pronounced "hoose" (it still is in Scotland),
  mode was pronounced "mood," and
  home rhymed with "gloom," which is why Domesday Book is pronounced and sometimes called Doomsday. (The word has nothing to do with the
  modern word
  doom, incidentally. It is related to the
  domes- in domestic.) But as with most things, shifting vowel sounds were somewhat hit or miss, often because regional
  variations disrupted the pattern. This is most notably demonstrated
  with the "oo" sound. In Chaucer's day in London, all double
  o words were pronounced to rhyme with the modern word  food. But once the pattern was broken, all kinds of other variations took  hold,
  giving us such anomalies as
  blood, stood, rood, and so on. Most of these words were pronounced in different ways by different people from different places
  until they gradually settled into their modern forms, although some
  have never truly settled, such as
  roof  and
  poof, which some people rhyme with goof  and others pronounce with the sound in  foot. A similar drift with "ove" accounts for the
  different sounds of
  shove,
  move, and
  hove.

¹ Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson, Penguin Book.
Comment: Bill Bryson is wrong about "Domesday" not being connected to "Doomsday," the Day of Judgement. See the [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesday_book)'s mention of Richard FitzNigel in 1179.
Answer: Hmmm.....I think you are referring to Sonnet 116, yes?  Well then, let's see: first off, without going into a very long lecture about the Great Vowel Shift, let me summarize that William Shakespeare the man would have sounded absolutely nothing like what you hear from old recordings of the Royal Shakespeare Company, not even close.  Unfortunately that very formal pronunciation is a leftover fron the 19th century. It did not occur to the performers and intelligentsia of London that their great Bard was from rural Warwickshire and had more in common in his accent with  farmer's daughters acting as servants in their households than with their clipped RP; the same is incidentally true of a lot of the actors and writers in London circa 1594. Many of them spoke with their native dialect. Many of these (Marlowe, Shakespeare, Thomas Nashe, very likely Will Kempe) were born in the countryside and would have spoken normally onstage (a few pages of the handwritten piece of the play Sir Thomas More is thought to be Shakespeare's in part because his spelling reflects the spellings used at the time in Stratford-Upon-Avon, which in turn reflect his speech.)
So, without further ado, let me show you a rough approximation of what Shakespeare would have sounded like using Sonnet 145, spelling phonetically. (This is also one of the few poems we have of his where the world is 100% certain who it is addressed to-fifty points if you figure it out ;)

Those lips tha' luff's oon 'and did mek,
Breetht farth  tha soond tha se' "I hey't" [glottal stop on t]
To me tha' laangwisht furr hurr sek,
Buh whain she sahhw me whoa-full stey't , [glottal stop on t]
Strey't  in urr art did mare-seeee coom, [glottal stop on t in "straight"]
Choy-din' tha' toong tha', e'er swate,
Wuz yooused in givin' gin-tul doom,
An' taahh i'thus a-nyoo tuh graate [roll the r very slightly in "greet;" "taught" is totally transformed as "tahhh"]
"I hey't" she ahl turrd with an ainnd [flat a on first syllable of "altered," as in     "cat'", another glottal stop on "hate"]
Tha followed i'as gin-tul deey,
Doth follow noy'it  oooh, loik a faiined  [barely pronounce the t in "night"]
Frum hee vun to hee-all is flone a-wheey.
"I hey't," frum hate a-whey she throo, [roll the r very slightly in "threw."]
An' sayft me loif, sayin' not ewe.

A lot does not work in the poem if you read it in RP or most modern English dialects: doom does not rhyme with come, sweet does not rhyme with straight, and generally reading it in RP throws off the timing (most speech in Shakespeare's time was rhotic:  Swallowing the r's changes the flow of the words and the intonation of speech.) In fact, if you read the poem without the original pronunciation, you miss the likely addressee of the piece, because in RP nobody drops the d at the end of a word, like "hand".  Shakespeare liked to hide little puns in both his plays and poems that come alive if you read it his way, and mining for them can be fun....who knows, perhaps to Shakespeare a woman wrapped in a tiger's hide is actually a woman wrapped in a tiger's EYED?
Answer: I have read that in the times before U and V were distinct letters, whenever a U and a V occurred together, it was common practice to draw a line over the one that was a vowel.  So the words love and move were spelt something like mūue and lūue.  Eventually, people's quick writing caused the ū to appear like an o.  Later, the lower case v was introduced in place of the second u.
Comment: Have a source ?
Comment: How does this answer the question about pronunciation?

Rhyme in Elizabethan sonnets


Can a sharp picture with a kit lens plus post processing rival a "pro" lens?

Question: If I am able to take a relatively sharp picture with a kit lens, and boost the vibrance and or saturation during post processing, will that picture be comparable to ones taken from an expensive "professional" lens?
Comment: Let me try an analogy - Can two sticks start a fire? I think so. But can a waterproof match start a fire? Almost certainly and in a greater range of conditions and in more favorable form for most people.
Comment: What exactly do you mean by "comparable"? You mention vibrance and saturation, but the real difference between a cheap kit lens and a multi-thousand dollar pro lens is not so much color, but image clarity, sharpness, and background blur. Professional lenses cost a lot because they do a hell of a lot more to maximize resolution and offer smooth, soft background blur. No matter what you do in post, if you don't start out with detail, you can't fabricate it after the fact...you can only try to enhance what you have, which will never be the same.
Comment: How would you correct bad bokeh (background blur) ? Some kit lenses's bokeh is "textured" (you don't want that), there's no known way to make that creamy and buttery as a good lens would have done it.
Answer: There are so many variables here, it would be impossible to give you a precise answer. It depends entirely what you are wanting to do...
The kit lens can, in many cases, give a satisfactory photograph, however there are two main areas in which the kit lens suffers in competition against a pro lens:

Aperture.  Kit lenses are slow.  They are usually about f/3.5 on the wide end and by the long end have stopped down to f/5.6 or so.  This means that it makes your job a little harder to get a good photograph in say low lighting, indoors, or in the dark.  It also means you can't open wide enough to get that shallow depth of field which helps make some photos.
Lens quality.  As kit lenses are so mass produced, they do not get subjected to the same rigorous quality checks that pro lenses do.  The design too, means a cheap lens which whilst perfectly usable, has certain flaws.  These will be in the areas of things like:

Sharpness
Chromatic Abberation
Flare
Distortion
Robustness (eg. build quality - it will take the knocks, a bit of rain won't hurt it, etc).

You will find a pro lens design helps to reduce all these things, whether it be clever design and months and months of curing the glass and polishing it to within an inch of its life, to the coatings that they put on them.  You will find that a pro lens is generally much sharper towards the edges of the frame, and that things like barrel distortion is greatly reduced (except on say, a fish eye where it is actually a desired effect).
If you took your 18-55 kit lens, set it to 55mm, stopped down to f/8, and took a "pro" lens such as the EF 24-70 f/2.8L USM, and ALSO set it to about 55mm, f/8, and took two identical photos of the same thing, with the same lens with the same camera settings, you would I have no doubt see a very similar image.  However they won't be quite the same.  You will find the sharpness of the L lens better than the kit lens.  You may find the colours are richer.  If there is a light source such as the sun, or a light, you may find the kit lens exhibits more flare than the L lens.  The edges of the frame should be sharper with the L lens too, and you'll have less barrel distortion.  Looking at areas of high contrast such as the edge of a building and the kit lens will be much more susceptable to things like chromatic abberation which appears as a green tinge along one side of the area of high contrast, and a reddish tinge along an opposite area.  The pro lens should handle this better, if not eliminate it (though its sometimes near impossible).
All that said -- post production software like Adobe Lightroom is getting better all the time.  I notice it has options for things like Lens Correction Profiles, and "Removal" of chromatic abberations.  How effective that is I'm not sure but it all helps.
So.....yes. Difficult to say really.  The cheap kit lens starts way behind the pro series lens for all those reasons and maybe more.  But if you like the photo you took with it, and process it well in post - why not hold it up alongside a photo taken with a Pro lens?
Besides - YOU are the magic ingredient in your photography.  A better photo will be taken by a skilled photographer with cheap kit, than a total novice who doesn't know what they are doing even if they do have fantastic uber expensive kit!
Comment: I would add, go there: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-S-17-55mm-f-2.8-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx and check comparison of 17-55 f2.8 to 18-55 kit lens - the first costs $1k the other aroud $180.
Answer:
If I am able to take a relatively sharp picture with a kit lens, and boost the vibrance and or saturation during post processing, will that picture be comparable to ones taken from an expensive "professional" lens?

No. not consistently.

You would have been surprised if somebody suggested otherwise :-)
You can get some results that are similar some of the time. But in the whole range of situations that you'll meet in real life a superior quality lens will produce superior quality pictures (when used correctly in each case). An expert with a kit lens may well get better results than a beginner with a high cost / high quality lens.
If it was possible on a consistent basis to even reasonably approach the capabilities of a "pro" lens costing say $2000 up by post processing the results form a lens in the $200 or so range then people would do it and there would be few sales of "pro" lenses.
In absolute terms the differences are often not vast - but in terms of 'distance from perfection' a pro lens may be very substantially superior to a cheap entry level lens.
A good way to see what sort of differences exist is to read some good quality lens reviews eg from here
All that said, a kit lens or cheapish third party lens may be able to produce extremely acceptable results - and sometimes a given lens my manage to be much better than its price would indicate, but you should always be able to clearly see the lens quality in the final image when comparisons are made. Otherwise, why would people but the high cost lenses and carry around such super heavy pieces of glass?
Test: Look at the Olympic photographers whose images and equipment you'll see on TV screens worldwide at present. How many lenses that might just conceivably be kit lenses do you see being used? Ask yourself why. [For his sins one of the top Geddy Images photographers is using an upmarket non-SLR compact camera at the Olympics. BUT that's due to promotional considerations. He's going to very much be the off man out.
Have a look through these Beijing Olympics photos
 A few MAY have been able to be achieved with kit lenses. But, not many.
With experience and effort very good results can be achieved with some kit lenses. But that will make you want a pro lens even more.
Comment: Can you give some specifics of the advantages / differences?
Answer: You can certainly improve an image significantly with post processing, however sharpening can introduce artifacts (halos) that would not be present in a truly sharp image so the result will never quite be as nice. There are many other attributes of a high quality lens that are difficult to make up for, corner sharpness (when lenses get really sift in the corners there's often no detail to recover), contrast (pushing this too far results in noise and other artifacts), microcontrast (another important factor in image detail), and bokeh.
If it were the case that you could PP away all the defects from a consumer lens then professionals wouldn't buy "professional" lenses, being businessmen (and women) at heart they'd save their money - build quality alone is not enough when you consider you could buy 12 copies of the Canon 50 f/1.8 for the price of one 50 f/1.2L!
Answer: Yes, especially if you stop your kit lens down. The advantage of pro lenses is they allow you to shoot sharp images in more situations, for example because they are faster, have faster focusing motors, and are less prone to get broken.
Answer: That depends heavily on the "kit lens" in question. Since I'm familiar with them (and they happen to have an interesting variety) I'll pick on Sony for the moment.
When Sony first came into the DSLR market, their standard kit lens was an 18-70mm f/4.5-5.6. It had somewhat wider range than most (18-50 or 18-55 is more common), but frankly quite poor quality (with one notable exception -- for a zoom it was quite resistant to flare). Most pictures taken with this are almost instantly recognizable based only on their unusually poor quality.
After that, they joined the crowd, so to speak, and designed an 18-50mm f/4.5-5.6 that was quite a bit better -- IMO, it was a little better than those from Canon and Nikon -- but not much.
For the A77, Sony introduced yet another kit lens -- a 16-50mm f/2.8. This particular lens is good enough that there's been quite a bit of speculation about why it wasn't given some sort of "pro" designation. The big difference seems to be slightly inferior QA, so there's probably more sample variation.
If you look carefully, you can probably still find a 50mm lens being sold as part of a "kit" too. This will typically be an f/1.7 or f/1.8, so it's slower than the "pro" f/1.4 (or faster) lenses, but otherwise thoroughly competitive (at, say, f/2 these are often even a little sharper than the more expensive versions).
So:

18-70: clearly inferior
18-50: somewhat inferior to borderline competitive under the right conditions
16-50: better than most "pro" zooms
50mm: about as good as you can get (optically -- not nearly as nice mechanically)
Answer: Yes, if you hit the sweet spot where the kit lens is at its best, then the image quality could be comparable to a much more expensive lens.
There is generally two main differences between cheap lenses and professional lenses:

Professional lenses gives a good result all over the range, while the image quality drops off more quickly in a cheaper lens.
Professional lenses are more sturdy, to cope with daily use, and that doesn't affect the image quality.
Answer: There are some great answers here but here's my two cents, specifically on post processing: PP can improve the results of any lens. Yes, that means the results from your kit lens can be made to look better, but remember that the "pro" lens results will also look better.
Answer: I'd say depends on situation.
If you shoot a side-lit landscape, post-process results really good and post image on the web - results will not differ much from "pro" lens, because with image size of some 1000px you will barely notice the difference.
But, if you will try to print that image in high resolution - "pro" lens will certainly win.
Also, as mentioned above, kit lens doesn't play well in other styles of photography, like portraiture for example


How do you know if a contract is destroyed?

Question: I'm using web3.py to interact with contracts. I was wondering, after calling a function with selfdestruct or suicide(address), how do I find out that the contract is in fact dead?
Comment: Try to call any read-only function of that contract, and verifies that it raises an exception.
Comment: @goodvibration Is there any smarter ways other than relying on exceptions?
Comment: It is indeed not a very reliable method, because the call can fail for other reasons (for example, you're not even connected to the node). So you're bound to check the error message, which may vary depending on your web3 provider.
Comment: Why not just check if there is a contract at the address? https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/a/15642/31933
Comment: @LauriPeltonen Can we do something like this in web3 or evm manager API instead of from another contract?
Comment: ah, a better alternative was already provided.
Answer: You can call eth.getCode to see if there is code at the address. If there is no code, there is no contract. If there is code, there is a contract associated with the address.
Using ether.js, you can see how it works below. The first call was after the contract was deployed and the second call was after it was selfdestructed.
> kovanEthersProvider.getCode('0x761f887ea907DB3FBc13f55867Db2c2c9BDB34F9').then(console.log)
0x6080604052348015600f57600080fd5b506004361060285760003560e01c8063b9554c5914602d575b600080fd5b60336035565b005b600073ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff16fffea265627a7a723158203c431b72fff6bd29b3dd6d5b1c73f87aa200fb5a5029cbc24f45dac0e030d52664736f6c63430005110032

> kovanEthersProvider.getCode('0x761f887ea907DB3FBc13f55867Db2c2c9BDB34F9').then(console.log)
0x

Follow the same pattern with web3.py.


How do I prune/clean wallet.dat for old unused addresses

Question: Are there any easy way to prune wallet.dat? Like, deleting keys for addresses with no current balance and generated more than a month ago?
Answer: Old addresses associated in the wallet will not cause harm.  Is there any specific reason you want to do this other than cleaning up the addresses associated in your wallet?  I would leave them where they are as you will normally always need new addresses for new transactions.
Or are you wanting to prune old addresses imported into a wallet.dat file that are now no longer in use?  In this instance I would be more tempted to find the addresses with funds in the on the wallet and import these into a new wallet.dat file and use this new wallet going forward.
You can use Pywallet to prune old addresses out of the wallet but in the 14.0V of BTC i dont think there is a way.
Comment: @Svante: You'll find a number of other questions on this site from customers who accidentally sent more coins to a previous merchant address, and are angry because the merchant isn't giving them back.  If you don't keep the old private keys somewhere, you'll be that merchant: customers, especially those who are new to Bitcoin, may not be able to comprehend that this is really their fault, nor to distinguish between "merchant can't" and "merchant won't".
Comment: I have a business case where I generate many addresses - up to 1 per second in busy hours. They are not all used for receiving transactions, but could potentially be for up to a couple of weeks. I could write some elaborate address recycle system, but that would be complicated. The problem is my wallet.dat is at 700MB+ and growing.
Comment: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/23828/delete-bitcoin-address-using-pywallet pywallet does seem to be your only real solution for deleting old addresses.  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=561137.0 and  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=911735.0 suggest that pywallet is your only solution.  Or you could start with a fresh wallet.dat by renaming the old wallet.dat file, but i dont think this would be suitable for your business case as you would loose the addresses from the original wallet.dat.  time to make a feature request to the bitcoin devs i think :)


Port 443 is open but IP tables denies it

Question: When I run the following command on my Ubuntu instance:
$ nmap host
I see that port 443 is open:
Starting Nmap 5.21 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-03-19 05:36 PDT
Nmap scan report for [host redacted] (ip address redacted)
Host is up (0.000034s latency).
rDNS record for [ip address redacted]: [host redacted]
Not shown: 995 closed ports
PORT      STATE SERVICE
21/tcp    open  ftp
25/tcp    open  smtp
80/tcp    open  http
443/tcp   open  https
30000/tcp open  unknown

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.13 seconds

However, I'm not able to telnet to port 443. When I do so, I see the following entry in my syslog
Mar 19 05:39:30 localhost kernel: iptables denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=f2:3c:91:ae:c6:7a:c8:4c:75:f5:d6:3f:08:00 SRC=(ip address redacted) DST=(ip address redacted) LEN=64 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=52 ID=23782 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53375 DPT=443 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0

And the output of iptables -L --line-numbers ACCEPT chain:
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
num  target     prot opt source               destination
1    ACCEPT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere
2    REJECT     all  --  anywhere             127.0.0.0/8         reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
3    ACCEPT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere            state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
4    ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere            tcp dpt:www
5    ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere            state NEW tcp dpt:30000
6    LOG        all  --  anywhere             anywhere            limit: avg 5/min burst 5 LOG level debug prefix `iptables denied: '
7    REJECT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere            reject-with icmp-port-unreachable
8    ufw-before-logging-input  all  --  anywhere             anywhere
9    ufw-before-input  all  --  anywhere             anywhere
10   ufw-after-input  all  --  anywhere             anywhere
11   ufw-after-logging-input  all  --  anywhere             anywhere
12   ufw-reject-input  all  --  anywhere             anywhere
13   ufw-track-input  all  --  anywhere             anywhere
14   ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere            tcp dpt:https

I once tried to use UFW, but now that's disabled and I'm just using iptables. I see that on line 14 I'm accepting packets to port 443, but on line 7 I'm rejecting packets. Is the problem with the positioning of the rule? If so, how can I move it further up the chain? Or is it a problem with the rule itself?
When I view the bash history, I believe this was the rule used:
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
UPDATE:
I just solved this by moving the rule further up the chain, and deleting the rule that was appended:
$ iptables -I INPUT 6 -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT # add the rule to the 6th position
$ iptables -L
$ iptables -D INPUT 15 # delete line 15

Answer: Your rules need to go before the reject line and log line
6    LOG        all  --  anywhere             anywhere            limit: avg 5/min burst 5 LOG level debug prefix `iptables denied: '
7    REJECT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere            reject-with icmp-port-unreachable

Should be last. This is because the rules are processed in order and the once it gets a match it doesn't look at any more rules


Plotting means and standard deviations

Question: Does it make sense to look at a scatterplot of means versus standard deviations in terms of looking for outliers or changepoints? So the mean is on the x-axis and the standard deviation is on the y-axis. We would get a clusters of data indicating similar data (relatively same mean and standard deviation). Note that I don't know the sample size or individual observations from which these means and standard deviations were computed from.
Comment: Why not? If you weigh a person 3 times, average that and then use that average instead it should not be that much different from just choosing one weight. It is also interesting to the relation to the standard deviation of those weights as this gives you additional valuable information.
Comment: If, in a final analysis, you are using an aggregate measurement that has imprecision between measurements (less significant for weight, but consider blood pressure), you MUST account for that level of variation in your analysis. Inverse variance weighting is a common approach to this.
Answer: No.
I assume you're examining data from a continuous outcome that is somehow clustered at a group level. An example of this might be inflation adjusted profit margins over years for several restaurants in the same zipcode, though I'm curious what your data represent.
There is nothing fundamentally instructive about the relationship between means and standard deviations unless part of a prespecified analysis plan. Instead, you can display summaries about the spread of data at each aggregate level using a box-and-whiskers plot, or a forest plot with 95% confidence intervals for the observed mean values.

Plotting means and standard deviations


how to start a older car with an automatic choke?

Question: Sometimes my car will not start the first time. I press throttle all the way down then turn the key on but no start how to I start an older car with an automatic choke?
Comment: Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair! Could you please add the year/make/model/engine of the vehicle in question?
Comment: Depending on the temp of the engine how many times you need to stomp the gas pedal to properly prime the engine.
Answer: An automatic choke is just a bimetallic spring. When the temperature gets cold enough the spring will pull the choke closed.
There are two catches here. The first is that while the spring will put pressure on the choke to close it, it doesn't actually close until pressing the gas pedal at least once. Rapidly pressing and then letting go of the pedal spays in fuel using the accelerator pump and allows the choke to close. The choke won't close on its own because the choke is also tied to the high RPM cam. The cam raises the idle speed while the engine is cold. The cam can only move while the throttle is pressed.
The second is that you can't hold the throttle all the way down because the choke pull off will open the choke. This mode is meant to clear a flood condition.
The standard procedure is to rapidly press the pedal once or twice, let go of the pedal then turn the key to crank.
Comment: That's how I've always done it. A couple of quick stabs at the pedal and off you go.


How to create HearthStone Graphic

Question:
is this graphic rendered in 3d or created by Photoshop using bevel and other things..?
if with bevel then how can i add curved in effect?
Comment: Which "curved effect" are you talking about?
Answer: I am almost certain those are 3D objects.
Reason? Hearthstone is running on Unity, pretty much everything in Hearthstone can glitch out because of that. Almost everything you can see in Hearthstone is an object. When you click something in Hearthstone, it will always hit the right thing, because it's not exactly a flat graphic with variable coordinates.
You can surely easily recreate those graphics though with a little bit of time. As you mentioned in your post

how can i add curved in effect?

You can do this using the "Inner Shadow" Layer Style.
Just right click your layer, go to layer styles, and Inner Shadow, play around with the settings a bit. It's not that hard.
If you want to make more than one, I'd advise you to use the "Global Light" setting so your graphics look uniformly.

How to create HearthStone Graphic


How do I get the residuals for a glm with a binary response variable using R?

Question: I am running a glm with a binary response variable (0 or 1) in R, one of my significant predictors is continuous and the other is categorical. How would I get the residuals for this model, especially with the response variable being binary?
Answer: You can use the DHARMa package, which implements the idea of randomized quantile residuals by Dunn and Smyth (1996).
Essentially, the idea is to simulate new data from the fitted model, and compare to the observed data. Details see https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/DHARMa/vignettes/DHARMa.html
Here an example with a missing quadratic effect in the glm, which shows up in the right plot.
<code>library(DHARMa)

dat = createData(replicates = 1, sampleSize = 300, intercept = -3,
           fixedEffects = 1, quadraticFixedEffects = 20,
           randomEffectVariance = 0, family = binomial())

fit = glm(observedResponse ~ Environment1 , data = dat, family = binomial)
res = simulateResiduals(fit)
plot(res)
</code>


How do I connect to an IRC server behind NAT using Android phone?

Question: I use a private IRC server that is behind a NAT. Currently, I SSH into a server with a public address and use a command line IRC client in a tmux session to connect to the private server. Is there a way using only android apps to connect to the protected server using an IRC client on the Android phone through an SSH tunnel? I am not rooted but I am also not against rooting.
Answer: One way to do this:

Run an SSH client on your phone, such as ConnectBot
Forward a local port to the remote IRC server, say localhost port 1234 to irc.server.ip:6666. (Directions for ConnectBot, with screenshots)
Connect your IRC client to localhost:1234, instead of irc.server.ip:6666. If this doesn't work, check that you have permissions.

When your connection's not working, you will have to do some extra debugging to check that the SSH tunnel is still up. But otherwise, you should be able to use any IRC client.


What is this white layer on my 3D printer?

Question: I left my printer to print a circular object and when I came back I saw it didn't print anything but left this layer of white on the surface. I can't get it off, I've tried washing it and scraping it off with the chisel, nothing works.
Comment: Does it effect print adhesion? Might just be a mostly cosmetic issue, trying to clean it may just cause more damage.
Answer: My guess is it's damaged print surface from the hot extruder mashing against the print surface.  Your description seems to indicate that it isn't a layer.
Comment: I'm inclined to agree with @Perry Webb: That looks like heat damage
Answer: If it actually is residue from the material you were trying to print, pressed against the surface so tightly and so thin that you can't separate it, the best way to remove it is printing a new object on top of it, using the same material, with the bed properly leveled (i.e. not smashing the nozzle into it again) and with the bed and nozzle temperature high. If things go well, it will then come off with the print when you're done after the bed cools. This is because printable thermoplastics tend to stick better to themselves than to the bed.
Comment: I have similar marks on my print bed from when I was learning the proper way to level the bed. It has not harmed my prints but it just doesn't look right.
Comment: @GitHub While this is true for most filament materials, it is not true for PETG.
Comment: ABS scrapes off best with the bed hot, but this will distort a print.
Comment: @PerryWebb: What happens with PETG? It adheres better to the bed? I think it might work with PETG if you get the bed really hot -- in my experience, PETG can be difficult to get adhesion between the first and second layer because the bed sinks too much heat out of the material for it to bond well. If not for that, I'd print PETG on a fully unheated bed.
Comment: @GitHub The trouble with 1st and 2nd layer adhesion with PETG is usually caused by the initial z-height being slightly high to keep PETG from sticking too well to the print surface.  If the initial z-height is slightly low without an extra print surface such as a glue stick layer, PETG can stick so well to the print surface that it rips holes in the print surface.  Heating the bed might help.  I would try printing the PETG at room temperature, then heat the bed to get a thermal mismatch for removal.  Of course, this is backwards from getting a good printed object.


Free Org Chart Framework for Sharepoint

Question: I want to create an org chart similar to the one shown on this page. Are there any free Sharepoint frameworks/APIs that I can use to read a SharePoint list or a CSV file and load that information into a dynamic org chart.
Answer: I've also tried to build an org chart on my intranet and unfortunately, I never found any free solution.
I guess the best way to do it for free is to develop a solution internally, if you have the required resources...
I would use the Sharepoint API and build a Sharepoint list with the Employees associated with their managers, and then use JavaScript to display the org chart.
There also might be a possibility using the search people and item display templates, in this link : How to: Create a Simple SharePoint 2013 People Directory
Sorry I can't help you more but I hope this post helps.
Answer: Here is the link that should work for you:
https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/sharepoint-framework-react-based-orgchart-from-sharepoint-list/
Regards,
Chandani Prajapati

Free Org Chart Framework for Sharepoint


Is there a way to get the exact time someone else posted a comment on Imgur?

Question: I am trying to find out when a comment was posted on a picture on Imgur. Neither the comment or the pic is mine. Is there a way to do this?  I have tried going through the API but get an error. Perhaps I am doing something wrong though.
Answer: All you need to do is hover over the approximate time with your cursor to reveal the exact time like this:

In source code it can be found like this:


How can I tell the handedness of a bolt?

Question: I have a craftsman lawnmower (with a Honda engine) and I'm trying to remove the lawnmower blade to sharpen it. It seems really tight. I'm wondering if I'm turning the bolt the wrong direction. Does anyone have a trick to determine if it's a 'normal' bolt or a reverse threaded bolt?
Answer: The torque on the bolt is highest when the blade is engaged. Be careful when thinking of this since as the blade is engaged and accelerates, the blade itself—due to the acceleration (or resistance of that acceleration by the blade itself)—wants to "slip" in the opposite direction. This "slip direction" should be the direction that tightens the bolt. So then loosen the bolt in the same direction as the blade rotates.
Comment: Alas, if it weren't true, the blade would spin off immediately!
Comment: That would be true with well-engineered equipment.  Alas, it isn't always the case.
Comment: Screws are *always* right-hand direction ("righty-tighty lefty-loosy") except if there is torque applied, as in lawn more shafts, bicycle pedals, power tool shafts, etc. In those cases, it's always tightened in the direction of motion (may be right-handed or left-handed, depending on torque direction).
Comment: Thanks Richard, I had to use the impact wrench to loosen the bolt, but it WAS loosened in the direction of blade rotation. In this case, it came free by turning counter-clockwise, as normal.  Thanks for the tip!
Answer: If you can see the threads on the bolt, then look for them to rise away from the nut in the direction of loosening the bolt. To use webcam photo art, looking at the bolt from the side with a nut below:

... you would turn that nut to the right to unscrew it.
For something like a lawnmower where you're exposed to lots of dirt and moisture, I'd hit the threads with some WD-40 to break down any rust. Let it soak in for a while.
And for many devices where there's a fast spinning blade, it's not uncommon to have the threads reversed so that the motion of the blade tightens the nut instead of slowly working it loose. This isn't to say that yours is reversed, just that it's possible and wouldn't be unusual.
Answer: Standard approach is to try the standard direction (counter clockwise) to loosen.  If that doesn't work and there is reason to think it could be reverse threaded, try the other direction.  I would liberally spray the threads and let soak with WD-40 before doing much more.
If there is still doubt because it is stubbornly stuck:

Usually a lawnmower blade nut is open.  If the stud bolt sticks through the nut, or there are exposed threads on the nut, look carefully to determine the actual loosening direction.  For example, this is conventional CCW loosening (see how the threads at back left are higher than back right?):

If the bolt stud and the nut align so that there are no exposed threads, the simplest technique is simply to be more aggressive in stages.  Increase the trial force by like 33% first in one direction and then in the other.  That should be a pretty rugged system able to take some abuse.
If, somehow, it still has not yielded, I would Google the mower make and model for a parts list and see if the nut description indicates whether it is standard thread or reverse thread.

(more)
A guy down the street has several lawnmowers.  It seems most of them use a bolt threaded into the end of the tapped driveshaft.  In that case, looking is not going to identify the direction of the thread, so skip the first bullet point.


What is the Russian for a "coffee sleeve"?

Question: I mean things like in that picture - used to grab hot coffee cups.
Comment: They never give it to us with a coffee cup here, in Novosibirsk. So the thing does not have any name in my city. The list of possible reasons: 1. We don't have a tradition to take out the coffee. 2. Sometimes we take out the hot coffee, if it's cold outside and we are going for a walk. I often see that if the weather is chilly but not wet, they take out the coffee from the coffee house nearby and go for a walk. The cup is useful to warm their hands. If it's not so cold outside, they just don't take the coffee, they have an ice-cream. This applies only to my area, in Moscow they can do things i
Comment: Если названия еще не придумали - почему бы не назвать это подстаканником?
Comment: Потому что подстаканник - это другая вещь? :) Плюс, это ведь называют как-то баристы в кофейнях всяких.
Answer: There are two term that are sort of competing with each other so far - which if them will become de-facto standard.
One is "картонный подстаканник".
The other one is - "капхолдер".
There's also such thing like literal translation - "манжет на стаканчик" or "манжет для стаканчика" but de-facto it is less used than first two terms.
Surprisingly, though the second term is direct borrowing from English, in English cupholder is slightly different thing.
Here's what Russian retailers sees as cupholders:

And here's what it actually means in English:

As a side note - this phenomenon is not that rare, it is called pseudo-anglicism and there's a bunch of other neat examples - check out this video for instance (apart from the author mocking pronunciation - it's actually norma that words are phonetically changing).
Comment: Are these really pseudo-anglicisms? (English-like terms that "native English speakers would not readily recognize or understand"). "Face control" and "safing" (from your Wikipedia link) would be pseudo-anglicisms. However a пазл (jigsaw puzzle) is a type of puzzle, although in English the term includes crossword puzzles and other mental challenges. And байкер == "biker": a motorcycle rider (note that a bicycle rider is a "cyclist"). Usually "master" would be used descriptively ("master craftsman", "master chef", "master of disguise") rather than as a standalone noun. All mostly recognizable.
Comment: @ghostarbeiter we can talk of degrees here - some terms like "face control" are pure Russian inventions, some just mean slightly different things in English, some are sort of parts of the full term (like jigsaw puzzle). I'm removing master since to be honest it is unfair example, indeed one can claim this cane to Russian not via English. Biker is incorrect, but puzzle - well, can be considerer pseudo-anglicism. Thank you actually for helping to improve the answer.
Answer: The guy in the coffee shop I patronize calls it манжета.
Brief googling shows he's not the only one to do that.
Comment: The same I've heard in a local Starbucks.


How strong is a Spartan?

Question: In the Halo universe it has never been clear to me how strong a SPARTAN-II truly is, going from not killing a human by punching it in game, to flipping a 66 ton tank, or simply having gun recoil, so, how strong is a Spartan lore-wise?
Comment: With or without the Mjolnir armor?  I presume with, however their physical enhancements provide them with greater strength even without the Mjolnir armor.
Comment: Man.. not a Halo fan but Spartans in Mjolnir armor?  Mix myths much?
Comment: @Paul Well, they needed names for both incredibly well-trained and bred soldiers, and for immense & unstoppable weapons for them to use (anyone claiming that Mjolnir armor isn't a weapon is wrong).
Comment: It's a known fact that a SPARTAN-IV in GEN2 Mjolnir can go toe-to-toe with a SPARTAN-II in GEN1 Mjolnir, because the GEN2 armour is more advanced. Without armour, however, SPARTAN-IIs are far more deadly, and god help anybody who has to deal with a SPARTAN-II wearing GEN2 armour.
Answer: I can't manage to find numerical data trustworthy enough to do precise calculations.
Anyway, the soldiers involved in the SPARTAN-II program were originally 75 children selected based on genetic predispositions. A genetic enhancement process was then conducted on them, increasing their physical and mental abilities even more. The 35 of them who survived the program were given Mjolnir armors, which provide an additional mechanical increase in strength.
To sum it up, the 5 remaining post-war remaining SPARTAN-II are stronger than usual people that were genetically modified and intensively trained during most of their childhood and teen years before being stuck in assisted armors.
So they are as strong as can a GMO ubersoldier with robot limbs can get.
Numerical data is more than welcome, even though I consider the canon fact that a SPARTAN-II can single-handedly flip a Warthog as relevant enough.
Comment: @DCOPTimDowd Yeah, I tried really hard to wrap my head around it, but in the end I guess a FPS without recoil would be kind of dull.
Comment: I think part of the confusion comes from the fact that they **can** flip jeeps and tanks, yet they also have to deal with weapon recoil. You'd think someone strong enough to heave-ho combat vehicles like MC does that they wouldn't have any issue holding a gun steady while shooting.
Comment: @DCOPTimDowd I'm not convinced. Of course arm strength must help to absorb recoil, but that's about it. The recoil is a nearly instantaneous blow of kinetic energy that comes from the gun.The SPARTAN-II we play in the game feels the recoil. He isn't thrown away, he just feels it, it messes with his accuracy and that's about it. Besides, handling recoil is more about compensating that blow of kinetic energy thatn about being basically strong... And the game would have been quite dull if we couldn't have any recoil, anyway.
Comment: Your last point is the only one I agree with. I find it hard to believe that they give the guy a suit that can flip tanks but didn't think to provide any recoil dampeners.
Comment: @DCOPTimDowD Reaction time maybe? Spartans can't react in time to perfectly counter the recoil, and tensing up beforehand would cause the arm itself to shiver from competing muscles, as well as making them otherwise immobile. Not to mention that if you're slightly off in regards to how you expect the recoil to go, you're gonna face recoil anyways. Flipping a tank is "slow" in comparison, and you only have to apply force in a general direction.
Comment: @Spoki0 You're referring the the **person's** ability to fight recoil. I'm talking about the **suit's**. I doubt that the person in the armor is the one actually flipping all the vehicles. I'm pretty sure *every* action is suit-assisted. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Comment: @DCOPTimDowd Yes, and the same can apply to the suit. Just substitute reaction time with compute time. Is there any information on the compute power of the suit? It's also not one gun mounted to the suit, but any gun (including unknown alien guns) held by the person, so adding recoil dampeners is really that easy.
Comment: @Spoki0 I'm glad you agree
Comment: isn't really that easy*
Answer: I couldn't assume any subsequent standard for Spartan strength however using a comparison sake; Champion squat lifters can lift in excess of 1000 pounds with the current real world record at 1,268 pounds. Considering the modifications done to Spartans bodies they can probably lift as much or more with less effort. However their build is considerably average looking, not as heavily built as professional lifters, especially the female Spartans. Never the less, with augmented muscles added to their bodies at childhood and fortified bones, it's safe to say a Spartan can probably bench press well over pounds or more without tearing ligaments or herniating something. John-117 was seen lifting 495 lbs by age 14 after his augmentations.
Comment: That answer could use a quote/screenshot of something, to make it better and more "in line" with the usual way of answering there. For the last sentence, for instance! :)

How strong is a Spartan?


Running power to outside workshop

Question: I am taking power from my 200amp entrance panel to a separate building with woodworking tools. I'll start with 100amp breaker at the panel then travel 75' inside my basement before going out through 1 1/2" conduit another 75' to the building where i'll have another 100 amp breaker at the subpanel.  My question is cable type. I know i'll need URD for outside and am looking at either 2-2-2-4 or 2-2-4-6. Which will suffice?  Also what should i use for wire inside the house between service panel and the exit to conduit?  Thanks for your help
Comment: @JeffPritchard That's not true anymore.  Modern codes call for 4 wire feeders.
Comment: @JeffPritchard Yes, the 4th conductor is a grounding conductor.  If the second panel is in a separate structure, there needs to be a grounding electrode (rod, etc) at the separate building too.
Comment: Why 4 conductors?  Normally this would just be two hots and a neutral?
Comment: @tester101, so the 4th wire is for a ground going back to main panel instead of having a separate ground rod at sub-panel?
Answer: First off, you likely want type UF cable for this application -- URD isn't even a recognized NEC type to begin with, and even URD/USE cable can't be run indoors as per 338.12(B)(1) as it lacks the fire-resistive insulation of NM, UF, and SE cables.
Second -- while 2AWG copper USE has an ampacity of 115A as per the NEC, since you cannot use USE in this application, you must use 1AWG wire here, as UF has a lower temperature rating than USE (60deg vs USE's 75deg) and thus a lower ampacity (2AWG copper UF can only carry 95A, while 1AWG copper UF is limited to 110A).  This may also require you to upsize to 2" conduit in order to keep the conduit fill acceptable.  Of course, since you are doing the run in conduit, 2AWG copper THWN is also an acceptable choice of wire for this task, provided the indoor run is done in conduit as well, and would allow you to keep the existing 1.5" conduit.
As to the neutral and ground wires, a 2-2-2-4 configuration would be used -- this is as per 215.2(A)(1) Exception 2, which would prevent an undersized neutral in your situation when the feeder is fully loaded.  Of course, 2-2-2-2 is also acceptable, and may be easier to manage when working with individual THWN wires in conduit.
If you do decide to use URD/USE for the outdoor run -- you will need to use a different wire type for the run indoors.  You'll either want copper THHN/THWN in conduit (2AWG works), or a 2-2-2-4 copper SE (note, NOT USE) cable, either in conduit or run as if it were NM.

Running power to outside workshop


C++ enum of type char, ignored by the compiler or unexpected behaviour?

Question: I did a little test with an enum, here is what I have:
enum anyoldname : char
{
    aa = 'a', ab = 'b', ac = 'c', ad = 'd'
};

int main()
{

    anyoldname i_have_an_enum_here = aa; // Would expect i_have_an_enum_here to be of type char?

    std::cout << i_have_an_enum_here << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Output is: 98, unless I cast explicitly to char like so:
std::cout << (char)i_have_an_enum_here;

Or change anyoldname to char.
Why is the value 98 printed instead of b ?
By the way sizeof() returns 1, ie; 1 byte, a char.
Comment: Sorry, it should have been `aa`, and `aa == 'a'` is true
Answer: Without the cast, the compiler first searches for an appropriate member function of std::ostream, and it finds one -- the one for an int. So it implicitly converts your 1-byte number of type anyoldname to an int and calls the member function.
Compiling your program with g++ 4.8.1, two definitions for ostream::operator<< are seen:
     U std::ostream::operator<<(std::ostream& (*)(std::ostream&))@@GLIBCXX_3.4
     U std::ostream::operator<<(int)@@GLIBCXX_3.4

The first one is for endl and the second one is for your enum.
With the explicit cast to char, the compiler is able to find a perfect match in the global std::operator<< function that takes an ostream and a char as an input. It then uses this function rather than doing an implicit cast (to an int again) in order to call an ostream member function.
The two symbols become:
     U std::ostream::operator<<(std::ostream& (*)(std::ostream&))@@GLIBCXX_3.4
     U std::basic_ostream<char, std::char_traits<char> >& std::operator<< <std::char_traits<char> >(std::basic_ostream<char, std::char_traits<char> >&, char)

and your values are printed as characters rather than their decimal values.
Answer: If you are going to read The C++ Standard (I have only C++11 right now) section 7.2 paragraph 5:

Each enumeration defines a type that is different from all other types. Each enumeration also has an
  underlying type. The underlying type can be explicitly specified using enum-base; if not explicitly specified,...

Particularly this mean that your anyoldname actually a separate type which size the same as char (because its underlying type specified explicitly in a declaration). So, no reason to be implicitly convertible to char!
Comment: This is true, but the compiler must have implicitly converted the enum type to *something*. That's why he got a print out, rather than a compiler error complaining about the lack of an `operator<<` for the new type.


If a problem Q is NP complete, is another problem reducible to Q also NP complete?

Question: Let's say $\mathcal{P}$ is a yes/no prolem with an existing reduction to the problem $\mathcal{Q}$ (with time complexity $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$). $\mathcal{Q}$ is NP complete. Does this mean that $\mathcal{P}$ is also NP complete?
Comment: What you are saying is equivalent to: "I can't solve $Q$ in polynomial time. I can solve $P$ by solving $Q$, therefore $P$ cannot be solved in polynomial time". It does not necessarily mean $P$ cannot be solved in polynomial time.
Comment: To show NP-completeness of $P$ you need to show $Q$ is reducible to $P$ in polynomial time
Answer: Not necessarily. Any language in $\mathbf{P}$ is poly-time many-one reducible to any non-trivial language (i.e., all except $\varnothing$ or $\Sigma^\ast$); see here, for example. The latter language (i.e., the one you are reducing to) is, in this case, the $\mathbf{NP}$-complete $\mathcal{Q}$. For all we know, your language $\mathcal{P}$ could be any language in $\mathbf{P}$ and, therefore, not necessarily $\mathbf{NP}$-complete (even under the assumption $\mathbf{P} = \mathbf{NP}$).


Switch to classic and modern

Question: Is it allowed to create a root site as classic experience and switch back to modern and vise versa
I can't find the switch link for experience in SharePoint online
Answer: You can switch list and library experience using following way.

Check the full Microsoft article here.
Answer: There is a link for switching site layout to classic in 'Site Contents'. You can go from the gear like button on the top right corner of the sharepoint page, then click on site contents. On the redirected page at the bottom left most part of the page, you can see a link "Switch to classic" then you can also switch back to modern if you are in classic from there.
IF your goal is you wanted a page / create a page that is a classic, you can just go to site pages then click on webpart page. It will create a classic page and do some usual sharepoint classic stuffs on that page.
Hope the concept helps, Happy Learning!
Answer: Every site template supports both classic and modern experiences in SharePoint Online.
A SharePoint Online site uses modern experience for lists/libraries by default.
In normal occasions, you will find a link under the left navigation that allows you to switch between these two experiences temporarily.
(This is not available in Communication sites since they do not have left navigations.)

And to switch to another experience permanently, you need to change it via List/Library Settings > Advanced settings > List experience.

Switch to classic and modern


How do I have one page in portrait and the rest in landscape in Google Docs?

Question: I am working on a school project and I need one page in portrait and the rest in the landscape. I would rather not have multiple documents though. Any suggestions?
Answer: Unfortunately, this is not possible. You can either have Portrait mode or Landscape mode. Combination of both modes in one document is unlikely. (you may try to create such desired document in desktop MS Office Word 2016+ and then drop it into Google Drive and convert it into Google Docs, or maybe you will get lucky with OneDrive and MS Online Word instead)


Is the hit die supposed to be rolled?

Question: I understand that hit points are linked to the "hit die". But is the hit die a constant number (for example: if my PC has 1d8 hit die, I have 8 HPs), or do I need to actually roll the die to see how many HPs I have?
Answer: For player characters, hit die are rolled once for each hit die achieved.
Every time a PC acquires a new hit die (which is generally exactly once per level at the time of level-up), they roll the hit die and add the number rolled to their hit points (plus additional modifiers).  For example, when a fighter gains a level, he rolls 1d10 and acquires HP equal to the amount rolled.  Hit dice are only rolled once, and the result is permanent and binding.
Player Characters acquire max HP at 1st level.
As an exception to the rule, the amount of HP a player gains at first level (for their first hit die) is equal to the maximum amount of the hit die without rolling.  For example, a 1st level fighter would gain 10 hp (plus relevant modifiers) by simply "pretending" that he rolled a 10 on 1d10 instead of actually rolling.  Subsequent levels would have him roll as noted above.
Monsters can sometimes use shortcuts.
Often, it is impractical to roll the HP for every individual monster.  While they technically use the same rules, it is also acceptable to use an average amount of HP for them without rolling.  The Monster Manuals automatically give you what this amount would be in parentheses for your convenience.  If you don't feel like rolling, simply use these amounts for all monsters.
Certain House-Rules subvert these rules.
Player Characters can use the rule of using the average amount without rolling as well if the DM so desires.  This means keeping track of fractional amounts of HP which don't count until they make a full HP, due to the fact that all of the die-sizes in the game have an even number of sides.  For example, "half" of a d10 is 5.5 (not 5, which is actually in the lower half of the range).  Therefore, a Fighter using this rule would gain 10 HP at level 1 (still using the max HP at 1st level rule), 5 HP at level 2 (with an extra 0.5 in reserve), 6 HP at level 3 (using the two halves of an HP to make an extra 1), and then continue to alternate between 5 and 6 on subsequent levels.
As an alternative, one can used a revised version of those house rules and just round the numbers up to the next highest whole number.  That way, you don't have to deal with fractions, and characters only end up half of an HP stronger than average - a good tradeoff if you just don't like math.  That means that d4 = 3HP, d6 = 4HP, d8 = 5HP, d10 = 6HP, and d12 = 7HP.  Don't forget to add the correct modifiers at each level as well, as well as use the max amount for 1st level.
Comment: It might be worthy to note that, at least in PFS, animal companions ["receive average hit points per hit die."](http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/faq#v5748eaic9os4)
Comment: Also, PFS (Pathfinder Society) uses fixed hit points gained based on a chart.  (I believe the chart just follows a formula of "die average rounded up" but I don't have it in front of me.)
Comment: @Zachiel: I don't believe there are d4 HD classes in Pathfinder, although your point still stands to a degree with the d6 classes
Comment: Another way to avoid using fractions, you can just alternate between high (full dice) and low (1hp) which adds up to average as well.
Comment: Having used the d4=3HP homerule in a campaign of mine, be aware that that method favors the d4 guys. You get 0.5+(maxHP-1)/2 hit points per level, which translates to 0.5+2.5 for a wizard and 0.5+6.5 for a barbarian. 0.5 is an higher fraction of your max HP for the former (1/8) than for the latter (1/24), giving higher than average HP to each, but more for the wizard.
Comment: The retraining rules actually allow you to increase your hp if you don't have hp = maximum possible hp. Expensive, but possible :-/
Comment: "expensive" depends on the level. char lvl * days training (3 for hp) * 10 = 30 * lvl. At level 2 that's only 60 gp / hp. At level 5 that's 150. So if you can, train early, gets more expensive later!
Answer: Short answer:
Hit die after the first can be rolled or you can just use the max value for the die when determining hit points. Overall it isnt too much of a power difference unless you are comparing someone who managed to roll all 1s versus all max values. Using the max value just alleviates player stress on something that is "within their hands but completely random can completely screw over a character permanently". Ever see an unlucky barbarian? Its not a pretty sight, seeing a meat shield that has as much hp as a commoner because of crappy rolls.
Personally my groups always use the Use max hit die for the level method. Its just less stressful. However it is up to the DM entirely to use this method for determining HP.
Just be sure to remember all the modifiers either way (Con mod, favored class, toughness if applicable)

Is the hit die supposed to be rolled?