What is this exterior wood finish?

Question: We (our local athletic association) bought a pre-built building, but we had to relocate one of the doors.  We replaced the panel with a matching piece, but we're not sure how to finish it so that it matches the rest of the building.  I guess the manufacturer is no longer reachable (which doesn't give me a great feeling), so we're left to guessing.  Any ideas?  Original is the yellower material on the left side and the thin strip on the top by the green metal roofing. The new panel is on the right (paler color).
Comment: Which side is the top, left or right?
Comment: @Michael Karas I edited it to hopefully make it clearer
Comment: Was my question too hard to answer? The edit you did was nothing toward an answer to the question!!
Comment: @Michael Karas, sorry, no, your question was not read correctly by me, and also too quickly.  Top is left
Comment: Thanks for clearing that up. I edited your question to properly orient your picture so that top is top. It is confusing to look at buildings sitting sideways unless it has been recently subjected to a tornado.
Comment: It looks to me like the new material was pre-primed for painting. Can you sand it a bit in an inconspicuous spot and see if that exposes normal wood color like the original appears to be?
Answer: I would do the following, assuming you have some scraps from making the panel:
Print out the photo and take it, along with a small scrap, to your local store with outdoor paint stains.  (big box, hardware, or paint store) and see if you can match the color.  If you are lucky, a person there might be able to narrow down the choices based on the type of wood. Purchase a few of the smallest cans that might create the same results.  On some of the scraps stain them with the different stains and let them dry.  Compare them with the original stained piece.  If they are not close enough, repeat the process.
If you still end up with differences, try getting it close and stain the new part of the door.  Then apply a covering type stain over both the old and new.
Answer: It's resawn T-1-11 plywood exterior siding with 4" grooves. It comes in 4' x 8' sheets and 5/8" thickness (actual thickness is slightly thinner).
It is made of plywood veneers laid up in a 5-ply pattern and glued together. Then the top veneer is "resawn" to roughen the exposed face to give it a rustic appearance. Then grooves are cut into the face at 4" or 8" oc. to give it a "board" appearance.
It's made with shiplap edges (on the 8' side) so it can fit together to give it a uniform "board" appearance, but has a square edge top and bottom, (4' side) which usually has "Z" metal installed to flash the horizontal joints.
It's installed over a moisture barrier (building paper) because it leaks at the shiplap joints. The moisture barrier should be installed over a sub-sheathing, like 1/2" plywood, but some install it without the sheathing, (this is called "single-wall construction"). If you use single-wall construction, then studs should be 12" oc, (the net thickness of the siding is about 3/8" due to the grooves cut into it.) Otherwise it can be installed on studs at 16" oc or 24" oc with sub-sheathing.
It use to come in 9' and 10' lengths, but now only available in 8' lengths.
It has a high failure rate because the grooves are cut into the second ply, which has gaps in it, which allows moisture to lay in the gaps and rot the inner plus.
It is still available. Contact your local lumberyard or the APA, American Plywood Association.
Comment: I thought the question was about what kind of varnish (etc) is needed to make the colours match.
Comment: Oops, I thought they wanted to match it.
Answer: I think the stuff on the left is pressure-treated (impregnated with chemicals to deter insects and rot), while on the right is the same material, but not treated. But I can't guarantee that. Photos can do funny things to colors.
If that's the case, then there's not much you can do besides removing the new piece you just added, and replacing it with equivalent PT material.

What is this exterior wood finish?


Best choice of solver for a large sparse symmetric (but not positive definite) system

Question: I am presently working on solving very large symmetric (but not positive definite) systems, generated by some certain algorithms. These matrices have a nice block sparsity which can be used for parallel solving. But I can't decide whether I should be using a direct approach (like Multi-frontal) or iterative one (preconditioned GMRES or MINRES). All my studies show that iterative solvers (even with pretty fast convergence of 7 inner iterations) fail to beat the direct '\' operator in MATLAB. But in theory, direct methods are supposed to be costlier. How is this happening? Is there any up to date document or paper for such case? Can I use block sparsity in parallel systems using direct methods as efficiently as flexible iterative solvers like GMRES?
Comment: I don't think people can really effectively comment on this without knowing more details about your specific matrix. What are the dimensions? What is the sparsity pattern like?
Comment: A lot depends on what you mean by large.  Is the number of variables, $n$, in the hundreds of thousands?  millions?
Comment: This question overlaps considerably with http://scicomp.stackexchange.com/q/81/276; you may find useful information there. Also, based on that question, it might be useful to talk about the spectrum of your operator (or the spectrum of your preconditioned operator).
Answer: The MUMPS sparse direct solver can handle symmetric indefinite systems and is freely available (http://graal.ens-lyon.fr/MUMPS/).
Ian Duff was one of the authors of both MUMPS and MA57 so the algorithms have many similarities.
MUMPS was designed for distributed-memory parallel computers but it also works well on
single-processor machines. If you link it with a multi-threaded BLAS library you can
achieve reasonable speedups on shared memory, multicore processors.
You didn't say how large "very large" is but MUMPS also has an out-of-core capability to
handle problems where the factored matrix will not fit in the available memory.
Answer: The general problem that direct solvers are suffering from is the fill-in phenomenon, meaning that the inverse of a sparse matrix may be dense. This leads to huge memory requirements if the structure of the matrix is not "suitable".
There are attempts to work around these issues, and MATLAB's default lu-function employs a few of them. See http://www.mathworks.de/de/help/matlab/ref/lu.html for an overview of permutations, diagonal scaling and such.
The same holds true of course for more advanced packages like MUMPS (http://graal.ens-lyon.fr/MUMPS/).
In general, though, if your problem is large enough, you will hit that memory boundary, and you'll have to use iterative (Krylov) methods.
If your problem is symmetric and indefinite, MINRES may be the obvious choice. Note however that it may suffer from loss of orthogonality in the underlying Arnoldi process. GMRES can help here. In exact arithmetic, it does the same thing as MINRES, but tends to cope with orthogonality issues better. This is at the expense of higher memory requirements than MINRS. Some people regard GMRES as "the best implementation of MINRES".
In any case, you'll probably profit from preconditioning your system. If you don't want to spend time on tailoring a preconditioner, incomplete LU-factorization preconditioner (ILU) might already get you somewhere.
Answer: Any iterative solver can beat direct methods only if the problem is sufficiently large (large, depends on several factors such as storage required, efficiency of implementation). And also any krylov method (for example GMRES) are good only if you use an appropriate preconditioning (in practice). If you are not using any preconditioning, krylov methods are of no use in general. I too work with block sparse matrices (these come from PDE applications) and observed that block preconditioned(overlapping additive schwarz) krylov solver (either restarted GMRES or BiCG-Stab) coupled with a coarse grid correction (or a multigrid) are scalable for these type of matrices.
Answer: Matlab '\' operator is highly efficient due to top notch programming. You may see some of the idea and how they used all possible short cuts in Timothy Davis's book.
In matlab you can use gmres, which is well developed and stable. Probably minres, which theoretically should be ideal for your case, may not be that reliable (at least my experience says so). You should be getting equal or higher efficiency from matlab gmres if

Your system is large enough (at least few thousand by few thousand).
If you are using right kind of parameters(RESTART, MAXIT, X0). No clear guidelines are available for this. Use your experience.
Use a good preconditioner. You may use ILU or even cheaper, a block Jacobi. This will cut the effort considerably.
MOST IMPORTANT: If your matrix is sparse, use matlab sparse format. Matlab gmres is ideally built for that. It will cut cost to a large extent.

For even bigger systems, use a tool like PETSc.
Answer: If your matrix has dimension in the mid tens of thousands or less, use a direct method, although there aren't many freely available direct methods for indefinite symmetric systems (actually none that I know of are open source). There's MA57 from the HSL, but that's only free for academic use. You can certainly ignore symmetry and use UMFPACK.
At around the low tens of hundreds in dimension, the memory use of a direct method starts to exceed what a typical desktop computer can reasonably handle, so unless you have a beefy shared memory machine, you will need to move to iterative methods. For indefinite problems, you can specialize BiCG (biconjugate gradient) for symmetric systems, although breakdown is possible. There is a recently released MINRES-QLP for symmetric systems which provides more numerical stability.
The two methods require rather different implementations, since for direct methods you actually need to form the matrix, while in the iterative approach, you usually won't form the matrix explicitly.
There are a number of reasons why one approach might be faster than the other, especially as a function of matrix dimension. For highly ill conditioned systems, iterative methods can stagnate pretty badly. For not-so-sparse matrices, direct methods end up creating lots of fill-in, which slows things down a lot. Also, the direct methods in Matlab are highly optimized (it uses UMFPACK or MA57 internally), while iterative methods are usually coded directly in Matlab, and there's fewer opportunities to exploit level 3 BLAS since the bottlenecks are the application of matvecs and dot products.


How can I control the order of Drupal.behaviors?

Question: I want the JavaScript code from module X to run only after the one from module Y has run. Whats the best way to do this?
Answer: The JavaScript code used by Drupal 7 is the following:
Drupal.attachBehaviors = function (context, settings) {
  context = context || document;
  settings = settings || Drupal.settings;
  // Execute all of them.
  $.each(Drupal.behaviors, function () {
    if ($.isFunction(this.attach)) {
      this.attach(context, settings);
    }
  });
};

Drupal 6 uses similar code:
Drupal.attachBehaviors = function(context) {
  context = context || document;
  if (Drupal.jsEnabled) {
    // Execute all of them.
    jQuery.each(Drupal.behaviors, function() {
      this(context);
    });
  }
};

If JavaScript would guarantee that object/array properties are always traversed in the same order they are added, then the values would be passed from jQuery.each() to the function used as its second parameter in the same order they are inserted in the array passed as first parameter.
This would mean that the first behavior inserted in Drupal.behaviorsis executed first.
In this case, to allow the behaviors defined by your module to be executed first you could use a lighter weight for it. If you want they are executed before the other ones, the module weight should be set to -50; other values can work too.
If you are using Drupal 7, drupal_add_js() allows to associate a weight to the JavaScript code; JavaScript code with a lighter weight appears first in the HTML output. This is not possible with Drupal 6, thought.
JavaScript doesn't guarantee that properties are traversed in the same order they are added. This means that different JavaScript implementations would present the same properties using a different order; it also means that the same order could change in different versions of the same browser.
Comment: You can always just check in the system table - try `select name, weight from system where type = 'module' order by weight ASC, name`
Comment: I once found a page that listed the weight used by some modules. I don't remember the URL of that page, and if the page included only particular modules, or it was exhaustive. If I find that page, I will report here the link.
Comment: Unfortunately I need my module's PHP (mymodule) to run before the other module's (vertical_tabs) PHP, but mymodule's JS to run _after_ vertical_tab's js. Is there a purely javascript based way to weight behaviors?
Comment: @cam8001: I know that, but that would mean you should install all the modules, to know the lighter weight used by a module. The page I found listed the module weights, and it could be useful when you need to know which weight you should assign to your module to be executed before every module. I know, you could simply use an extremely light weight, but you would use a weight that is lighter than it is needed.
Comment: @cam8001: In that case, there is no way to accomplish what you are trying to do, except altering the order of the objects contained in `Drupal.behaviors`; as I reported `$.each(Drupal.behaviors)` lists the objects in the same order they are inserted, not basing on their identifier.
Comment: All of this is just not true. Javascript gives you no guarantee of the order of traversal of properties of an object. The order in which the behaviors are applied is just totally undefined in the current code.
Answer: Use the Behavior Weights module.
(Please give it some testing before you use it on a production site)
The module allows to attach weights to behaviors, and then it hijacks/replaces drupal.attachBehaviors with a custom implementation, that does respect the weights.

Why not module weight instead, as suggested in the other answer?

module weight is quite a heavy tool. It applies to all hook implementations (php) and behaviors (js) of the module, while we are only interested in one single behavior.
the order of properties in a js object is not guaranteed by the spec (although it is implemented as-you-would-expect in almost all browsers).

See
Is the order of fields in a javascript object predicatble when looping through them? and
Elements order - for (… in …) loop in javascript.
Comment: @kiam,
If I make this a module "behavior weight" ("bewgt") on drupal.org, would you join as a co-maintainer?
It's probably going to be quite a small module, but probably better than let it be shipped with something else.

I have a sample implementation locally for D6, seems to work.
Comment: just done it..
you are still invited :)
Comment: http://drupal.org/node/1302126 -
I hope this will be in core in D8 :)
Comment: It would be an interesting module, but I have to first update the code of some of my modules, for which I didn't write a line of code from ages. After that, I could be free for co-developing a new module.
Comment: Just saying, people are asking for use cases.
http://drupal.org/node/1302126#comment-5911632
Answer: For Drupal 6 -
A simple solution, if this does not need to be portable is to put the JS you want to run last in to the theme template.php file. Theme drupal_add_js calls are always called after modules.
If it does need to be portable the "cleanest" solution in drupal 6 is to add a new module that has different weight than your module with the php. You could even have the two modules in the same folder, make the first module dependent on the first, and adjust the weights in the install/update hooks. None of which is necessary, just makes installation easier.


Effect of urbanization on weather events

Question: At what stage is the studies on effect of urbanization on weather events (eg: Rainfall, Temperature, UHI) are now? There has been a number of observational and modelling studies around the world and it has been found (In my understanding) that urbanization cause increase in frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall, higher temperature, heat island, changes in boundary layer etc. in urbanized region, mainly due to land-surface change.
Now, What challenges and possibilities are there in this particular research field?
Answer: I did my undergraduate capstone on observational moisture changes around cities.  It's an interesting field, though it certainly seems fairly challenging to draw out and explain changes given the incredible spatial and temporal variability.  So that's definitely one of the challenges to it.  Another is the current observational density, as there are very few micronets setup and satellite resolution probably isn't helpful to diagnose variations on small time/distance scales.
But, while it definitely doesn't have near the attention (or money) that climate modeling itself does, there are a few sharp folks working in the field at least.  From my experience, having dabbled on the topic but having incomplete research familiarity particularly over the past decade, it would seem that theoretical microscale modelling might be the most fruitful research direction.  Computing power and models continue to step up, and there's much better room for experimentation.  But then, it'll still be very hard to demonstrate that those idealized simulations match reality, and impacts to connect changes definitively to theory/causes.
Indeed, if somehow sharp links can be made that are powerfully convincing, then work could be directed into reshaping urban planning to address such changes.
Answer: This is a very interesting topic, since climate and land surface model is becoming more powerful and with higher resolution data available, it is possible to include urban land tiles in the model.
The biggest difference of urban region and natural region is the surface albedo and heat capacity. Buildings and roads with dark surfaces have a lower albedo and absorb more sunlight and heat. Building material especially concrete has a lower specific heat capacity than the natural vegetation, it can heat up easily and warm the surrounding at night, which create the heat island effect.
High rise buildings cluster in the city centre also create an urban boundary layer on the near surface atmosphere, this has altered the wind speed and hence affect evapotranspiration and the heat diffusion. Consequently it also traps air pollutants causing photochemical smog.
Traffic and factories in urban area create high concentration of aerosol, NOx, CH4 and it produces ozone through secondary pollution. Ozone gases at the troposphere is extremely dangerous to living organism, it can trigger asthma and reduce plants' photosynthesis. The dust and PM2.5 particles could also induce higher precipitation because it acts as hygroscopic nuclei for rain droplets to form.
Urban area is usually built with efficient drainage system to avoid flooding. This however reduce the evaporation and transpiration from rain event and cause lower relative humidity.
These properties of urban area are incorporate into the land surface model. One of the model that did this is the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES). It has a land tile that is specifically dedicated to urban area [Young, 2014, presentation].
It can be used to test the urban canyon effect, heat island effect and the impact of building green roofs and sky garden etc.
More detail about the model can be found here: http://jules.jchmr.org/content/about#overview
Answer:
Now, What challenges and possibilities are there in this particular
  research field?

Now that urban effects on regional weather can be observed, modeled, and to a large degree verified, all that remains on the science side is improving forecast resolution.
Serious work, however, is being done on the policy side given these new cause and effect scenarios, although how seriously this effort is being taken is largely nation-dependent: China's response to Beijing's consequences of creating its UHI is a lot different than how the US responds to Atlanta's.
To give you another example, consider how basic mortality data for a heat wave is tabulated for Paris versus New York City. For similar events, Paris records heat-related deaths that are orders of magnitude higher than in NYC, for the simple reason that in NYC, according to city records, the elderly die of "natural causes" regardless of weather. By contrast, in Paris, if a spike in deaths is concurrent with a weather event, the weather event is held accountable.
Comment: For some corroboration, please note the following: "However, the lack of standard adoption of the national criteria for heat death may be contributing to a lack of identification and official coding, resulting in underestimation. (from: 2015 NIH publication "The Two Ways of Assessing Heat-Related Mortality and Vulnerability", found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4605200/
Comment: You are right to challenge my statement and ask for proof. I can only offer that after surviving heatwaves growing up in NYC as well as the 2003 heatwave in Paris, I was surprised by the huge disparity in heatwave mortality and was further surprised by it's basis: reporting error, as detailed in a public health article I'd read around 2004 (which I cannot find). In looking for this publication, I've found that coroner's offices are now far more careful to call out "hyperthermia-related" deaths, as well as mitigating circumstances.
Comment: Do you have a source/personal experience for this "natural causes" claim, or is this more of hearsay?
Comment: Great find.  If you wish to update your answer to better reflect this, that'd be +1 worthy in my eyes.


Software to add images to video?

Question: I have a video where I want to put images on my hand (in the video) and have them fly all over the video screen. Is there any software for Ubuntu 11.10 to do this or at least to insert an image into the video in a custom position?
Answer: kdenlive is more like a video editor which supports lots of audio/video/images formats, including mpg, flv, ogg, jpg, mp3, avi, wav, etc.
It is more like Sony Vegas in Windows and it allows you to merge between file formats/sources, this way you can put an image with transparency over a running video, change original audio and include effects, transitions, pan, zoom, crop, and other video effects. Color correction is also supported and it works project based, which allows you to create full scenes in a project and insert projects in a final project without rendering.
Some screenshots of my desktop are provided here to illustrate what you want to do: I am placing a png with transparency image over a video, zooming and positioning over the video.

Here we can see the media tracks, a video and a png image.

In this screenshot I am using pan and zoom plugin in order to resize and position the png over the video.

And we are using the composition video transition all over the png image's duration in order to place it over the video.
BTW: Pan and Zoom and other interesting plugins/video effects supports automation, which is useful for your desired "to put images on my hand (in the video) and have them fly all over the video"
A video editor is what I suggest you for this task, any of them are fine but if you are used to Movie Maker, Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, and these kind of software, you will feel comfortable when using kdenlive.
Good luck!
Answer: FfDiaporama, (Windows equivilent - Pro-Show Gold) is an application for assembling photos and videos. It is inspired by presentation software such as Impress or Powerpoint . It can read all image formats, a majority of cameras and camcorder video formats, and the most commonly used music formats.
It includes 140 transitions and a device database for the generation of videos with more than 50 models of video viewing devices (including smartphones, tablets, and home cinema systems). ffDiaporama can manage several hundreds of slides. Every slide can contain several tens of shots and several tens of blocks. Every shot contains its own block settings. The application calculates all the shot transformations.
Check it out Here
Openshot Video Editor is something else you might want to consider, but it a bit more basic

Software to add images to video?


How to interpret big picture of testing with automated test results

Question: We use Meliora Testlab to get test results from automated tests which are run on Selenium. We use the requirements module to track the user stories. For manual tests this works great - I need to see how user stories in each sprint are tested, but now that we are planning to replace some of the manual test cases with automated ones, I'm wondering how I should interpret the results. Should I handle the automated and manual tests cases as equal? Or is it just easier to start using two different reports. I suppose we will not get so much failing automated tests as manual ones, so what will I learn?
Answer:
I suppose we will not get so much failing automated tests as manual ones, so what will I learn?

Automated tests are not there to detect new bugs. They serve the purpose of certifying  (checking ) the intended functionality is working as per the verification rules incorporated in the test suite.
Manual testing is actually intelligent testing and can find more bugs going beyond what is written in test case descriptions. Automated cases save effort/resources when you are repeating in every sprint faithfully doing the job of checking every time.
In way think automation more from point of view of a quality gate. Of course one can keep on investing and improving this quality gate by learning from failed manual case and incorporating the new rule of verification in all cases.

I'm wondering how I should interpret the results. Should I handle the automated and manual tests cases as equal? Or is it just easier to start using two different reports.

Since the purpose of manual (intelligent) testing to discover bugs and automated testing to do the checking they should be treated differently.  It's not only easier to use two different reports but its useful while doing root cause analysis for understanding and planning focus areas and improvements.


Rear derailleur has trouble switching gears on the way up, but works perfectly on the way down?

Question: I noticed an issue with my gears switching recently so I decided to try indexing them. I've gotten to the point where going from the smallest cog to the largest works perfectly, but in the other direction it doesn't want to move from gear 1 to 2. If I keep shifting up it shifts normally, only a gear behind, until it gets to gear 8 and the chain skips the 7th cog. Does this point to an issue with the derailleur itself?
Answer: This sounds like classic derailleur cable friction. The cable gets stuck inside the housing and stops or delays the derailleur moving to smaller sprockets. This is caused by dirt contaminating the housing, or perhaps corrosion of the cable.
The fix is to remove, clean, re-lube and re-install the cable, or replace the cable and housing altogether.
Comment: As soon as I started pulling cables out I noticed how much dirt had gotten into my housing, especially right behind the derailleur. I wiped it off, re-lubed with chain lube, and then sprayed out my housing with WD-40 and compressed air. After letting it dry and putting it back together it shifts almost like new. Thanks!
Answer: Welcome to Bicycle Stack Exchange.  As Argenti Apparatus suggests, the most common cause of ghost shifting (which is the issue of switching gears you refer to at the beginning of your question), and problems shifting--especially down the cassette, low to high--in general, is excess cable friction.  Lots of causes such as dirt within the cable housing, corrosion or fraying of the internal cable, kink or other anomaly (flat spot) of internal cable especially in the areas where they enter or exit housing, ferrules (metal, plastic or rubber end-caps on the ends of the lengths of external housing) can also wear and start to hamper the internal cable's movement, and if your bike directs the cables along the bike's downtube and underneath the bottom bracket shell, the bottom bracket cable guide can be a source of excess friction.
Another possible cause of difficult shifting to higher gears (larger to smaller sprockets) can be excess cable tension.  In this case, turning the barrel adjuster clockwise a half-turn at a time and checking the shifting between adjustments (basically its an aspect of indexing, i would say), may be the answer.  Obviously the excess friction should be ruled out first. Links to a few references:
Servicing/tensioning a rear mech
https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/rear-derailleur-adjustment
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html


Dell Poweredge 2970 Performance problems

Question: We have dell poweredge 2970 with 16GB ram, running windows server 2008 enterprise, running Hyper-V with two VMs using total ram of 4GB. It's also running SQL server 2005.
One of the VMs is a web server and the other an exchange server.
This machine for no reasons freezes sometimes and we have to manually restart it.
Any ideas why this is happening?
Answer: Most server-grade hardware platforms contain a hardware event log that you can probably get into on the BIOS screen; look into it the next time you need to reboot the machine. With any luck, this will give you some indication of where to start looking for a hardware issue, which will make it easier to get an engineer onsite to verify and fix the problem.
Answer: Yes. Either outdated drivers, or a case of RMA need. Or, in simple words: either your sysadmin did not do his job keeping drivers current, or the hardware is broken and needs to be repaired / replaced.
Could be anything in the hardware. MOtherboard, RAM. Start testing if you want. If it is warranty, just call Dell.
Btw., system freezing is not a performance problem.
Comment: blaming you overworked sysadmin is not a good way to solve problems.
Answer: I only upgraded the BIOS, it was so old and so far everything is working fine.
Thanks.
Answer: One of the many components of Dell OpenManage will tell you if any hardware errors occured, such as an unrecoverable ECC Memory error or CPU fault.
Dell Server Update Utility will tell you what needs updating.
If your SysAdmin didn't install any OpenManager components, or hasn't run SUU lately, ask him or her why, and what they are using instead. If Windows updates are run regularly, they ASSUME that corresponding BIOS and driver updates are installed along with them. If Windows Update is run regularly and other components are not updated, you will have new problems occuring on an irregular basis.


Is there any proof of Karma theory & rebirth?

Question: Non Abrahmic religions like Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism & Sikhism believe in Karma theory & rebirth.

I'm interested in knowing the proofs of Karma theory & rebirth presented by Buddhism.
Comment: Why downvote??? There were no evil intentions behind asking.
Comment: @Dhammadhatu we can deliver to the world if we can give proofs of Karma theory.
Comment: There is no evidence the questioner is not aspiring for deliverance of living in a conditioned world. If the questioner was aspiring for deliverance from the conditioned world; they would have asked another type of question.
Comment: I see this is a nice question seeking knowledge asked from student aspiring for deliverance of living in a conditioned world. +1. My advice to the questioner is, this is a public forum knowledge/opinion should be taken with discern, these answers represented some of the schools' teachings. These schools are, such as Mahayana (teachings recorded in the Chinese Classical Sutras and very rarely trending in English Buddhist communities), Vajrayana (Tibetan), or, modern Theravada (based on the Pali Canon).
Comment: In my opinion, Abrahamic religions also teach reincarnation, in that they teach that a permanent essence migrates to a different vessel/body (i.e. "heavenly body") upon the death of one body.
Answer: Buddhism differs from others in that rebirth is not a transmigration of a Soul, nor of any specific entity. It is more of a statement that perceived experience being subject to conditions - finding itself empty of any and all self referential properties - cannot logically be seen to either have a concrete beginning nor a concrete ending, whilst the conditions for the arising of said experience are present.
When the notion of an Essential, Independent and Unchanging Atman/Soul is taken at its word, then at birth and death, that Soul must either appear from somewhere, or disappear somewhere, respectively, as Essentialist religions infer.
The Buddha's aim was to show that what is directly perceived - impermanence and non-self - does not allow for termination of the conditioned (as that would be a process with a permanent conclusion), nor does it allow for some unconditioned and unexperiancable entity flirting off to invade somewhere else, as that is not directly perceivable by entities that depend on conditions for their perception..
The point is that there is no duality of 'cessation of the conditional'+'non-cessation of the non-conditional'. There is simply the continuation of conditionality. Ending the process of rebirth is the act of removing whatever conditions make up the necessary support for some conditionally-defined object: there is no 'rebirth' for my desire to drink, because I have removed the necessary conditions for this conditioned entity called 'me' to lunge for booze - the condition removed is craving for beer. This craving is removed volitionaly - volition being the arbiter of Kamma and its fruit: empty of volition? Empty of Kamma and hence empty of rebirth.
(I will be the first to say that this logic works a lot easier for 'beer' than for the entity labeled 'me'. But there is no concrete dividing line between the two concepts - as for any two concepts - given that true Independence is not possible within conditionality, so the beer example should be a decent starting point!)
Comment: Personally I would say that in order to start thinking about rebirth, as within the Pali Canon, one must have a very good grasp of anicca and anatta, as the theory of rebirth deals with a conditioned process. MN109, especially the last quandry: "So — form is non-self, feeling is non-self, perception is non-self, fabrications are non-self, consciousness is non-self. Then what self will be touched by the actions done by what is non-self?", as thought by a monk - is often how people attempt to tackle rebirth imo.. "If no permanent self is directly perceivable, then what gets reborn?"
Comment: Can you suggest me Sutta to understand this concept better?
Comment: But I don't think the Buddha would have framed rebirth solely on non-self (and certainly not 'self', as the above questions do to a degree), but on non-self and impermanence together. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/wheel248.html#great I would read to get to some of the more intricate points the Buddha made on Kamma. Insight into rebirth is left within the canon for very advanced meditators (which to outsiders can sound like needing a theta level 12 or whatnot in scientology), but if you first focus on understanding anicca, anatta and kamma, rebirth should be less awkward!
Comment: I'm not one of those super meditators btw, my post is really more my current understanding of rebirth.. I mainly put rebirth aside when I found the suttas - at least until the core insights mentioned above were relatively well understood. (it's either one of the more advanced insights of the Buddha, or a later corruption of the texts - deciding either way, for yourself, requires a good base understanding of the whole message!)
Comment: Okay thanks. I've searched online. It is being a matter of debate whether not self is egolessness ( no identification ) or devoid of self. Both versions have their own explanations, even Gautam Buddha didn't say clearly - he said both extremes are hurdles...
Answer: There are many, especially in the western world, who'd rather have Buddhism without rebirth because they do not believe in rebirth. They are turned off by the concept of rebirth because most major religions are based on three levels of existence: This life, and one of two eternal stages of life thereafter.  It is either heaven or hell for eternity based on what one does in this life. Also they just cannot fathom the possibility of being reborn as an animal
The concept of rebirth is a paradigm-changing concept, and one needs to put aside all preconceived notions to understand this core message.  The reason rebirth is a core message is that this life is only but an insignificant time in the cycle of rebirths that we have been on from eternity.
The sense of urgency to follow diligently in this Dhamma Path comes when one realizes suffering in many of the lower realms of existence is much worse than that in the human or even the animal realm. When one gets more and more into Dhamma, one realizes that rebirth is an inseparable part of being a Buddhist in the truest sense.
The Pali word for Buddhist means "a person trying the stop the rebirth process" ("Bhava+uddha" = Bhauddha). One meaning of Buddha Dhamma is "path or method of removing bhava and thus stopping the rebirth process". Buddha means, "one who has removed bhava (and attained Nibbana)".
For evidence of Rebirth one can refer to the research done by the late Professor Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia. He has done over 20 years of research on the authenticity of rebirth accounts. Also refer to Professor Jim Tucker's books about rebirth. A good book is "Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation" by Ian Stevenson.
There are hundreds of youtube videos on rebirth stories and also many on child prodigies and hypnosis-based curing of certain ailments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMfsjXiZGis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGHDpgBc9Dk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQHp9bGVDB8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk7biSOzr1k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w2MCpzE8u0
We can see various levels of human happiness/suffering around us. We see some people live with relatively higher levels of health, wealth, and happiness, while others live in poverty, ill-health, and misery. This in itself is proof of Kamma.
A child may die prematurely, or someone may get brutally murdered. What could be the underlying causes for such misfortune. Nothing happens in this world without a reason or without a cause.
Does it just happens that X is born healthy and wealthy, Y is born healthy but poor, and Z is born handicapped and poor? There must be REASONS why X, Y, and Z are born that way. Many times a person born rich can become poor, and vice versa. Or a person in good health can die suddenly in an accident or by a heart attack. The laws of kammā can explain all the above.
Comment: +1. "... they just cannot fathom the possibility of being reborn as an animal..." insightful and true. whilst Stevenson or Tucker's understanding is not the Buddha's so the Buddhist in exact, just a progress or hint. "The laws of kammā can explain all the above" is a bit abrupt, many factors are playing, its easy to be misinterpreted as a declaration of fatalism.
Answer:
Non Abrahmic religions like Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism & Sikhism believe in Karma theory & rebirth.

See my answer here. It explains how Buddhism is a practical religion and not based on blind belief.

I'm interested in knowing the proofs of Karma theory & rebirth presented by Buddhism.

The only proof obtainable is by practicing insight meditation thereby seeing with your own eyes how phenomena arise and cease and how they can cause new phenomena to arise.
Comment: @Aghori. The workings of Kamma is one of the [*Four Imponderables*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acinteyya). The Buddha taught that one should not think about these things as they will only agitate the mind. Only a fully enlightened Buddha can understand Kamma.
Comment: "how Buddhism is a practical religion and not based on blind belief." - I didn't ask that. You got aversion when you saw names of other religions. Kashmiri Shaivism which I follow too have practical techniques & so other Indian schools like Sankhya, Advait Vedanta Etc. Rituals are not blind beliefs, just that can't be proved... "The only proof obtainable is by practicing insight meditation thereby seeing with your own eyes how phenomena arise and cease and how they can cause new phenomena to arise."- it doesn't prove rebirth & complexity of Karma theory, although gives hint to cause - effect.
Answer:
Non Abrahmic religions like Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism & Sikhism believe in Karma theory & rebirth.

Rebirth is not the same as reincarnation. Reincarnation refers to the belief that a soul at the termination of life enters a new physical body. Jainism, Hinduism & Sikhism may believe in reincarnation where as original Buddhism (before the later day variations) believes in rebirth.

I'm interested in knowing the proofs of Karma theory & rebirth presented by Buddhism.

In Buddhism, kamma & rebirth is a doctrine of moral efficiency. The teachings state:

And what is the right view with effluents, siding with merit, resulting in acquisitions?
There are fruits & results of good & bad actions (kamma). There is this world & the other worlds. There are spontaneously reborn beings [due to actions/kamma]...
MN 117

For example, a free man robs a bank, is caught & is reborn as a prisoner is a prison. This is the proof of kamma & rebirth, where the free man later takes spontaneous (immediate) rebirth as a prisoner & treated like an animal in a zoo.
Or a normal person takes drugs & becomes a drug addict & then a thief or prostitute. Here, the humane being is reborn in a ghost & animal birth. They are reborn as a ghost because they always must search for drugs, never content, & they are reborn as an animal because they must always perform bestial depraved acts to obtain money for drugs. This is the proof of kamma & rebirth.
Buddhism teaches at least five destinations of rebirth due to kamma (motive & action), namely, humane (sane), godly (exalted), ghost (addiction), animal (lack of self-control) and hell (suffering), as follows:

Intention, I tell you, is kamma. Intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech & mind.
Sense contact is the cause by which kamma comes into play.
And what is the diversity in kamma? There is kamma to be experienced in hell, kamma to be experienced in the realm of common animals, kamma
to be experienced in the realm of the hungry shades, kamma to be
experienced in the humane world, kamma to be experienced in the world
of the gods. This is called the diversity in kamma.
AN 6.63

In Budddhism, the word 'birth' ('jati') refers to 'production' ('abhinibbatti') of the idea or view of a 'person' ('puriso'), 'self' ('atta') or 'being' ('satta'). 'Re-birth' is the continued production of these ideas or views of 'self', 'persons' or 'beings', which generally occurs due to 'kamma' ('motive & action').
For example, kamma is made to successfully make money. Here, the mind is 'reborn' as a 'god', thinking: "I am rich; I am successful; I am special; I am upper class".
Then later, there is a collapse in the stock market & loss of wealth. The same person in reborn in hell (suffering), thinking: "I am poor; I am a failure; why didn't I do this; why didn't I do that!".
Each thought of "I am" is a "birth' ("jati"), created by the craving & motive that drives kamma (intentional actions).
This is kamma & rebirth. People are reborn into different mental states of self-identification due to their kamma (motives & actions). They are reborn as rich, poor, husband, wife, divorcee, widow, etc, due to their kamma that leads to self-identifying. The teachings say:

The craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual
pleasure, craving to be, craving not-to-be: This, friend Visakha, is
the origination of self-identification described by the Blessed One.
MN 44

Each act of 'self-identification' is a 'birth' or 'rebirth' & each 'birth' will bring suffering. In his first words, the Buddha said:

153. Through many a birth in samsara have I wandered in vain, seeking the builder of this house. Repeated birth is indeed
suffering!
154. O house-builder, you are seen! You will not build this house again. For your rafters are broken and your ridgepole shattered. My
mind has reached the Unconditioned; I have attained the destruction of
craving
Dhammapada
Comment: Your questions here have no relevance to real Buddhism. Real Buddhism is about ending suffering. The kamma & rebirth teachings are peripheral (additional) to real Buddhism. Buddha taught such things to the ignorant people in the villages  so they would not harm themselves & others. These teachings are no different to Christianity or Islam teaching about heaven & hell. As I explained, "death" is an idea created by the mind. When the mind is empty, it will understand "death" is only a thought; nothing more.
Comment: I am not sure that your question about biology is relevant. The Alagaddupama Sutta states: "Bhikkhus, both formerly and now what I teach is suffering and the cessation of suffering." In original Buddhism, the word "death" ("marana") means the idea or view that a "self-identity" has died, which is suffering. The termination of life without any self-identification is not suffering. To quote the Dhammapada: "21. Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful die not. The heedless are as if dead already."
Comment: To quote again from Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta: "Bhikkhu, 'I am' is a conceiving; 'I am this' is a conceiving; 'I shall be' is a conceiving; 'I shall not be' is a conceiving. Conceiving is a disease, conceiving is a tumour, conceiving is a dart. By overcoming all conceivings, bhikkhu, one is called a sage at peace. And the sage at peace is not born, does not age, does not die; he is not shaken and does not yearn." https://suttacentral.net/en/mn140
Comment: You're saying there is no physical body after death? Only 1 life.
Comment: @Aghori What body? What "after"? What death?  Death is all the time. Where does one's body begin and end? Wouldn't any answer be an assumption based on past experience? What past experience?
Comment: @Dhammadhatu But I've been reading Buddhism believes in rebirth. Buddha too had many previous births, we find in Jātaka tales. I can't believe Gautam Buddha didn't believe rebirth. He clearly talked about other lokas & stages of enlightened where one go after death according to his maturity in Dhamma.
Comment: @Dhammadhatu. Maybe you could provide clarification to this [*question*](https://buddhism.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2104/respectful-inter-school-dialogue)?
Comment: Rebirth is real not metaphorical
Comment: Yes, rebirth is not metaphorical. But to believe "rebirth" is physical (aka reincarnation) is metaphorical. Many suttas say love is born, hate is born, rapture is born, etc, None of these suttas are metaphorical. They are literal. My answer to the question is literal. But your comment is superstition because there is no evidence for it. What blocks the mind from verifying the truth of my post is this very birth of egoism. Ego opposes non-ego.
Answer: While this answer might be controversial on this site I myself have struggled with this question for a long time. This is my perspective, nothing more.
The answer is no, currently, there is not a proof of karma or reincarnation that I have found to be convincing.
However, the inverse is also true... there is not a proof that eliminates the possibility of karma or reincarnation that I have found to be convincing.
The conclusion I came to was that the timetables involved of lifetimes of rebirth made it impossible to set up an experiment that proved the issue one way or another. Believe me, I tried, for ~3 years I made myself the experiment. It was an existential adventure I do not regret.
Now it is said that some people after a certain point in the path remember all their past lives, and to them, that would be a personal proof. But to me it is anecdotal, and I could not accept it as proof unless I myself experienced it. Even if I experienced it myself, I would not consider it a proof for other people for the same reasons.
Answer: I feel as if there are some huge misconceptions regarding "karma" as described in the west. So many consider it like a kind of moral retribution and never recognize its true essence. Karma is momentum.
All things are interrelated ... like a massive wall of gears and pinions. Some turning one way, others another way, some shafts protruding at 45 degree angles, and some vanishing into space or even time. Once one turns one direction then it is affected and affects others (all others to some extent). Some things it will affect in a negative manner, some sideways, some additive, and some barely at all. Positive actions tend to do positive things on down the line and help in many areas while negative things tend to wreak more havoc or be more isolated. That is karma. Not some moralistic determiner.
As for rebirth. ugh. OK. The dualism we find specified between mind and body is also a bit of a misnomer. It's consciousness and body. Only the body is that identity that "rebirths". The consciousness, or chariot driver from the aisha upanishad, is itself limitless despite being housed by the vessel of the body. Limitless in space and time. When unconstrained it may merely reoccupy the same body it came from, or another, or something completely different. The why behind that ascension is debatable. We DO come back like we are now and we DON'T come back like we are now and we ARE back like we are now and this will continue until the damage is fixed to the universe and it goes back to unity.
Comment: I dont mind negging at all. Just please tell me where you disagree. I have no ego investment in this discussion. I am still a student of life as well and can use any pointers people might provide!! I come to learn.
Comment: Please dont place me in the middle of some tussle between different schools of Buddhism. My views are my own. My path is the one I have discovered on my own with no assistance other than my own curiosity. So I am not trying to one-up anyone else's views. This is just how I see it.


Who pays for sovereign ratings?

Question: Does the "issuer-pay" model hold also for sovereign credit ratings?
Do States pay for having their bond being rated?
Comment: If this was for me: no, no idea. And my remark was not sarcastic only .. ;) it really is a good question.
Comment: good question .. not "too" quant but good ;)
Comment: any idea where I can find an answer?!
Answer: The "issuer-pay" model works like this: The Rating Agency goes to the issuer and says "We heard that you are going to issue bonds. We can give you a rating if you pay us XXX dollars. It will help you a lot to have our rating". The Issuer of course is free to refuse this offer (after all this is just a rating agency, not the Cosa Nostra). In this case the rating agency can still rate the issuer if it wants to (for a variety of reasons, for example to allow comparison with other issuers).  I believe the big countries (United Kingdom, USA, etc.) fall in the latter case: they never pay for ratings, so they are rated gratis (at no charge). In general it will depend on the country's judgement of whether they need a rating or not.
Comment: Could you provide me some paper or some relevant and reliable sources talking about this topic? Because I cannot find anything on the web, and there are a lot of people claiming for the contrary..
Comment: It is quite disconcerting to read the most famous italian Mafia Group here, since i'm italian and passionate crime-films watcher. But this is off topic. I think all rated countries pay for the rating, otherwise, if I don't pay for a rating but i'm rated anyway, no one will pay for a rating.

Who pays for sovereign ratings?


Why can't I see who all my friend shared a post with?

Question: When a friend shares a post privately on Google+ and I'm one of the ones they shared it with, I can click on the "shared privately" link and it will show me everyone the post was shared with and then at the bottom it says "+2" Why can't I see who those other two people are? Did my friend block me from seeing who all they shared with, or did those people block me from being able to see that they are part of my friend's circles?
Answer:
Shared privately: The post was shared with specific people or circles. You won't be able to see all of the people who got the post. Only the person who posted can view that information.

See who you shared a post with


What kind of life insurance is cheaper? I'm not sure about term vs. whole vs. universal, etc

Question: What kind of life insurance policies are the cheapest? what are the features of different kinds of policies out there? What should I be looking for?
Answer: Term is the way to go. Whole/universal are basically a combo of term and savings, so buy term life insurance and invest the difference in cost yourself. You should make a lot more that way (as far as savings go) than by buying whole life. By the time term life gets too expensive to be worth (when you're a lot older) you will have enough saved to become "self-insured". Just don't touch the savings :)
You really only need insurance when there is income to replace and debts to cover - house/mortgage, kids/school, job income, etc.
Answer: Whole life in most instances is a very bad plan. It's marketed as a life insurance policy wrapped in an investment but it does neither very well. The hidden caveat of whole life is that the investment goes away if you die.
Say for example I have a $100,000 whole life insurance policy and over the years I have paid in enough to have a $15,000 cash value on the policy. If I die, my family gets $100,000 and the cash value is lost.
With term life you can get a substantially higher amount of coverage for a smaller payment. If you invest the difference you end up not only with better coverage, but a better cash value from the difference if you don't die (which is what we all hope for anyways). As JackiYo said, your insurance should be designed around replacing lost income/value.
You should get 10x your annual income in term life insurance.
Comment: Properly invested a 10% per year rate of return in a normal market isn't incredibly difficult. In fact, getting higher than a 10% is realistic which will help compensate for when down markets do end up hitting (and they will). It's incredibly important though to work out the details with your financial adviser especially so that when a down market does hit that it doesn't screw up plans too much.

The target is to live off of the gains as you stated, but you have to be careful with how you manage investing and withdrawing the money.
Comment: Somebody has been listening to Dave Ramsey.
Comment: If income replacement is the goal, wouldn't 10x your annual income imply you'd need to earn 10%/yr on the proceeds to replace the income?  Or, are you assuming some principal is used as well?
Comment: You only have to make 10% per year if you never want the principal to go down.  You can spend more than your investments earn if you are willing to spend it down before death.  Also, presumably your dependents will be able to earn money (kids grow up and get jobs, spouses get social security, etc.).  Not arguing for or against the 10x rule, just against the assertion that it implies a required 10% annual return, which is likely to not be achieved.
Answer: Wow, very amused by some of the answers. I will comment on those later.
To directly answer your question, here is a link to a brochure that explains the three basic typs and is written in straightforward language.
link text
That is step one.
Step 2 is a question, cheapest when, initially or for long term?
Without a doubt term initially is the cheapest. However every 10 years or 20 years it increases in price. As the name term implies it is temporary. Coverage will end at some point, 75, or 80 depending upon plan design chosen. It is possible that if you choose Term you can outlive your coverage and all you have are a bunch of cancelled cheques.
Young people with a mortgage, children and other debts should buy a lot of term as the mortgage will be paid off, the kids will no longer be dependent. These needs are temporary.
However some needs are permanent. What about leaving a Legacy at Death to a Charity? Insurance is a good solution and can provide a tax deduction too. Term isn't a good fit.
Or a business owner wishing to transfer his/her business at death to their children. Taxes will be due and permanent insurance such as Whole Life and Universal Life can be arranged to provide cash to pay tax whenever this happens.
Let me ask you who received 10% in the last ten years on their equity portfolio. Almost zero people did.
However a Whole Plan would have generated a guaranteed return of 3.0% plus a non-guaranteed return via dividends that the combined internal rate of return  on a combined basis would be about 5.6% AFTER TAXES. Life a bond portfolio yield. (Internal rate of return is dependent on age at buying, years of investing. All insurance comany software can show you the internal rate of return.) IRR is essesntially: what is the return after tax that you must get to equal the equity or death benefit from a permanent insurance plan.
Someone mentioned by Term and Invest the difference. That is what universal life is, Term and Invest the difference except the difference is growing tax sheltered.Outside investments with comparable risk are taxable!
There is no easy answer for what type is right, often a combination is. The key question you should ask is How Much Is Enough? Then consider types based upon your needs and budget.
Here is a link where you can calculate how much you need.
I hope this helps a bit.
Answer: All life insurance is pretty much the same when it comes to cost. You can run the numbers over certain time period and the actual cost of insurance is about the same. A simplified way to explain life insurance and the differences between them below:
The 3 characteristics of life insurance:

All life insurance is a variation of annual renewable term insurance (ART).
Life insurance typically gets more expensive as your age, and it is very expensive when you reach a very old age.
The major differences between them are: how long it will lasts, if it has cash value, and how is that cash value credited.

There are 5 popular types of life insurance and they are:

Term

Whole Life

Universal Life

Variable Universal Life

Indexed Universal Life

But first, one must understand the most basic life insurance which is called Annual Renewable Term:
Annual Renewable Term (ART):

This is a policy that covers 1 year and is renewable every year after. The cost of insurance typically increases each year as the insured ages. So for every year of coverage, your premium increases like in the simplified illustration above.
This is the building block of all life insurance, term or permanent. There is no cash value; all premium goes to the cost of insurance.
Term:

This is an ART that spans over a longer time period than 1 year (say 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 years). All the cost is added together then divided by the number of years of coverage to give a level premium payment for the duration of the policy. The longest coverage offered these days is 30 years.
There is no cash value; all premium goes to the cost of insurance. The premium is fixed (level) for the term specified. If the policy comes to an end and the owner wishes to renew it, it will be at higher premium. This can be seen in the simplified illustration above for a 15-year term policy.
Permanent Insurance

Because life insurance gets very expensive as you reach old age, life insurance companies came up with a way to make it affordable for the consumer wishing to have coverage for their entire lifespan. They allow you to have interest rate crediting on the cash value account inside the policy.
To have cash value in the first place, you must pay premiums that are more than the cost of insurance. The idea is: your cash value grows over time to help pay for the cost of insurance in the later stages of the policy, where the cost of insurance is typically higher. This is illustrated above in an overly simplified way.
Whole Life WL
This is a permanent life insurance policy that is designed to cover the lifespan of the insured. There is cash value that is credited on a fixed interest rate specified by the insurance company (typically 3-5%). The premium is fixed for the life of the policy. It was designed for insuring the entire lifespan of the insured.
Universal Life UL
This is variation of Whole Life. There is cash value; it is credited on a fixed interest rate specified by the insurance company, but it does fluctuate year to year depending on the economy (typically 3-6%). The premium is flexible; you can increase/decrease the premium.
Variable Universal Life VUL
This is basically a universal life policy, but the cash value sits in an account that is invested in the market, normally mutual funds. Your interest that is being credited (to your account with your cash value from investments) is subjected to risk in the market, rise/fall with the market depending on the portfolio of your choosing, hence the word "Variable". You take on the risk instead of the insurance company. It can be a very good product if the owner knows how to manage it (just like any other investment products).
Indexed Universal Life IUL
This is a hybrid of the UL and the VUL. The interest rate depends on the performance of a market index or a set of market indices. The insurance company states a maximum interest rate (or cap) you can earn up to and a guaranteed minimum floor on your cash value interest that will be credited (typically 0% floor and 12% cap). It is purely a method to credit you interest rate. It takes the market risk out of the equation but still retains some of the growth potential of the market.
Summary
Term policy is designed for temporary coverage. There is no cash value accumulation. Permanent policies such as whole life, universal life, variable universal life and indexed universal life have a cash value accumulation component that was originally designed to help pay for the cost of insurance in the later stages of the policy when the insured is at an advanced age, so it can cover the entire lifespan of the insured. People do take advantage of that cash value component and its tax advantages for retirement income supplement and maximize the premium contribution.
Always remember that life insurance is a life insurance product, and not an investment vehicle. There is a cost of insurance that you are paying for. But if you have life insurance needs, you might as well take advantage of the cash value accumulation, deferred tax growth, and tax-free access that these permanent policies offer.
Comment: Is your advice in the last targeted towards everybody, or just a subset of people?  (Nice answer by the way.  Very complete.)
Comment: I hope to target everyone, I have seen life insurance being mis-represented by agents and misunderstood by consumers. Thanks for the comment.
Answer: TL;DR:
Only term is pure insurance and is the cheapest.  The rest are mixtures of insurance and savings/investment.  Typically the mixtures are not as efficient as doing it yourself, except that there can be tax advantages as well as the ability to borrow from your policy in some cases.


Are there any organisms that are made of more than one (~5-12) cell?

Question: Prokaryotes and eukaryotes are unicellular, made of one cell. Great. Eukaryotes are unicellular or multicellular. But the typical examples of multicellular eukaryotes we have are made of, often, trillions of cells, like us humans. Ants must still be made of many millions of cells. Are there known eukaryotes with very few cells that make them up? Like, 5, or something? Or maybe a dozen cells making up the whole organism in its fully developed state?
Comment: Does this answer your question? [Are there oligocellular organisms in nature and, if so, what are they like?](https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5477/are-there-oligocellular-organisms-in-nature-and-if-so-what-are-they-like)
Comment: Well, there are multicellular prokaryotes too but they are not obligately multicellular. You may find the case of [*Caulobacter cresentus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulobacter_crescentus) interesting. You can describe it as a bicellular bacteria however it exists as a single cell in one of the stages of its life cycle.
Comment: It seems like there's overlap, but they are not the same. That question is about what oligocellular organisms are "like", whereas this thread seems to simply involve listing them out, as many as we can, and focusing on just how small, really, they can get. I think it's valuable to have both of these up.
Answer: There's Trichoplax adhaerens, a Placozoa, made of a few thousand cells. Then there is Dicyema japonicum, a simple mesozoan, made up of 9 to 41 cells. Arguably, the simplest multicellular organism is the algae Tetrabaena socialis, whose body consists of 4 cells. Then, there's the parasitic Myxozoa which have 7 cells.
Comment: An interesting follow up question would be: at this scale, how do we draw the line between unicellular and multicellular? E.g. can you kill a Myxozoa by splitting up the cells? What would that tell us?
Answer: This nematode always has either 959 or 1031 cells.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caenorhabditis_elegans
Comment: An interesting note is that the nematode is the smallest multicellular organism with a nervous system.
Answer: Species from Gonium genus are typically 4-16 celled. Gonium pectorale is 16 celled.
Arakaki, Yoko et al. "The simplest integrated multicellular organism unveiled.", vol. 8,12,  e81641. 11 Dec. 2013, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0081641
Also, there is four celled Basichlamys sacculifera. See this picture for reference
Answer: There is a whole class of organisms called "oligocellular" organisms, see also here on SE.


How often should you overseed a lawn?

Question: I'm unclear if this is something that should be done only when a lawn has problems, or as part of normal maintenance every X years? I guess you could even do it every spring but I imagine that's overkill and puts the lawn out of use for a few weeks just as you want to start enjoying it!
Answer: Well it all depends on what kind of lawn you want and the effort you want to put into it.  If your ambition is to have Perfect grass: perfectly flat, no weeds, no dead spots then over seed twice a year, every year.
This keeps the turf thick, helps out compete weeds and doesn't take very long to do.
If you don't care so much then just over seed in the fall in the bare or patchy spots and then top dress with compost or organic matter.
Comment: Sure you can, the birds love it.  Most people don't try more than a few times without covering the seed or using coated seed
Comment: ...And you can get most of the effect without even adding seed - the compost helps to feed the grass and renew the lawn, Adding seed helps if you seek a monoculture or have thin spots, but simply providing compost will help the grass that's there fill in smaller spots, too.
Comment: Can you overseed _without_ top-dressing?
Answer: You don't overseed the lawn, you let it grow long (say 6 inches), then cut it back drastically (say 3 inches), but not so drastically that it will kill it off (say 1.5 inch), because if you do that the grass can evaporate from the surface a lot quicker than the grass can take it in. It will fill in the gaps that are in the grass, and you won't need to do anything to fill in the gaps.
I experimented where I used to park my truck, even though it's coming back some I noticed it come back considerably when I let it grow to the top of my shoes, then cut it back to 2.5 inches, and it "suckered up" very thick all over the lawn, and looks incredibly healthy now. The concept works for trees, because if you remove a lot of growing points on the tree, because you took away a lot of the growing points for the tree, so I thought why not with grass.

How often should you overseed a lawn?


How can I cook a perfect deep-fried Mars bar?

Question: I've seen on Internet the description of deep-fried Mars bar (dish originated at chip shops in Scotland), and I wonder how can I do it at home.
Comment: http://revision3.com/bites/friedmarsbar (not an answer because I don't have time ATM to write it up properly)
Answer: The trick is to chill the Mars bar in a fridge for a few hours before cooking.
Prepare a batter mix (the kind you deep fry fish in) and get your oil heated to temperature. Here's a batter recipe I've used before:

Basic Fish Batter (Delia Smith Online)

(You can't fault Delia!)
You can use sparkling water to introduce more bubbles into the batter which gives it a nice texture.
Remove the Mars Bar from the fridge and immediately coat in the batter and cook in the oil right away. Cook until the batter is golden and serve with a scoop of ice-cream.
You can also do this with Snickers bars. It's also worth trying with miniature Mars and Snickers bars.
As a Scotsman I must apologise for inflicting this culinary delight on the rest of the world :)
Comment: Fridge huh? Whenever I've done that they come out too soft and explosively hot and runny. When I do the freezer for a few hours, they come out perfectly.
Comment: Depends on what setting your fridge is at. Mine runs at just above freezing.
Comment: Delia has a deep fried mars bar recipe !!!!!!
Comment: Can you edit in an example of an appropriate batter mix?
Answer: The deep fried mars bar is the chippies answer to the chinese takeaway's doing Banana Fritters and the like, but the true Zenith of deep fried confectionary is the Deep Fried Snickers Icecream.
A twist on the mars bar is to get some really sour green eating apples and press slices into the sides of the marsbar before coating it with batter.
And whatever you do don't fall into the trap of a deep fried creme egg, those are evil!


What are the best ways to avoid data roaming fees when travelling abroad?

Question: I'm looking for data plans I can use while touring different countries within a region without having to worry about being eaten by roaming fees. If such plans exist at all, I suppose mostly big telecommunication providers like Vodafone or T-Mobile will offer them.
Comment: Pick up a local pre-paid sim or rent a handset in the airport if your phone doesn't support their network
Comment: Are you in the UK? If so, would be helpful to edit your post to reflect that.
Comment: Nope, Germany. This shouldn't really influence the answers though...
Answer: My personal experience has been that it's best to get a SIM card for each country I travel in. Local providers almost always have the best deals, and buying SIM cards is relatively inexpensive.
Especially in Asian countries (where I have more travel experience) you can easily pick up SIM cards at shopping kiosks almost anywhere, and the rates are really very cheap compared to where I live (New Zealand).
Data roaming from international providers is also very expensive; as an example with my New Zealand cellphone provider in China I would pay $US25+ a megabyte, whereas buying a local SIM card it cost me $US8 for 250 megabytes.
Comment: I know this is relatively easy for voice/text, but how well does this work for data connections? Have providers caught up?
Comment: I've used this method as well.  It works great for any unlocked mobile.  However some countries such as Japan don't use SIM cards.
Comment: In northern africa too
Comment: @IntuitionHQ please clarify w/ regards to data options, so I can accept your answer :-)
Comment: Done. Hope that helps.
Comment: I can confirm that this answer is still valid for Europe.
Comment: $US25+ a GB, isn't it? If it is in MB it is insanely expensive...
Answer: It depends on what countries you are travelling to. If the country uses GSM, in most cases the best plan is to make sure you have an unlocked GSM phone, and purchase a pay-as-you-go SIM card in the country you are going to.
If you Google for "International SIM" you will see that there are tons of websites selling pay-as-you-go SIMs, and in many countries, they are easy to purchase on arrival at the airport if you know exactly what you're looking for.
Answer: A possible option is a global sim card, like those from GoSim.  They work in nearly every country.
Another sneakier method, depending on what you need the data for and how fast it needs to be, is a 3G Kindle.  It has free data to download books on Amazon's Whispernet in almost every country in the world, and has a basic experimental web browser on it.  With a bit of effort, I've managed to get GMail, Google Maps, GTalk and more running on it - Facebook and Twitter even mostly work.
Comment: So it's possible to use the experimental browser in another country for free? Surprised no one has hacked the system to turn that kindle into a wi-fi/usb hotspot.
Comment: @kiradotee yep, as long as country is supported by whispernet, but it (when I used it 5 years ago) was SLOW. AS. A. DOG.  Only really useful for checking email, you don't want to be browsing or sharing your connection.
Answer: I guess you might be in the UK based on the networks you listed?
For within Europe, Vodafone are currently pretty good. Vodafone Passport means it's a single charge to answer/make a call, the rest is at the UK rate. If you're on a £40+/month plan, they'll give you 25mb/day/country of data for free, and 10 free texts a day
When I go outside of Europe, I just pick up a PAYG sim card, sling it in a spare phone and use that. Generally works out much much cheaper, and gives you a local number so people can call you easily from the country you're in.
Comment: -1: This answer contains information that is too localized; companies change their plans all the time and without warning, so this answer risks becoming out of date before long.  Remember, we aren't just answering for this person right now, we are building an enduring reference.
Comment: @HedgeMage: Even so, a general idea of the prices will still be useful
Comment: Over the last two years, every change Vodafone has made to European roaming has made it cheaper (eg prices reduced, more things bundled), so there's a chance things will improve compared to the answer over time!
Comment: Exactly -- and if they improve, the answer will no longer be accurate.
Answer: While fairly slow to use, the Kindle 3G web browser works well enough for email and some browsing, and the 3G SIM is contract free and works throughout most of the World. Bar the cost of purchase it makes it free to use the internet for a lot of travelling.
Comment: and keep in mind that the latest versions have disabled the web browser functionality (apart from wikipedia and amazon.com) when using 3G rather than WiFi.
Comment: There's no guarantee that Amazon won't disable general 3g browsing eventually. If you want to use this method, then you should obtain a Kindle 2 or 3
Answer: My own best way to avoid data roaming fees when travelling is simply NOT to bring a cell phone abroad.
Making a phone call is easy from anywhere without a cell phone and internet connections are provided in many places in cybercafés.
Moreover, this is one object that you won't get stolen if it stays at home.
Comment: I do this too. But if I had a smartphone with Google Maps or similar I'd bet I'd want to find a cheap way to bring it.
Comment: quite wise of you, although I normally take my cell phone so as to use the Wi-Fi opportunities which cafés, restaurants and hotels normally offer. Going to internet cafés is more expensive and sometimes you have to queue up.
Answer: Best rates are generally had if you buy a local SIM. Alternatively talk to your friends via a Skype account over the internet. If you just want to make calls then there are a number of voice over IP providers besides Skype. If you want to receive calls buying a SIM locally is cheapest.
Comment: This question is about avoiding *data* roaming fees
Answer: It's not an all-countries-proof method but if you're from the UK you could get a Three sim card, they have a Feel At Home system that allows you to use your plan in other countries*.
* At the time of writing (updated on April 2017): Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Channel Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, United States.
Comment: (+1) Quite an odd list but interesting nonetheless.
Answer: There are quite a few pocket hotspots which have global or multi country data plans at much lower price points than roaming. I have a Glocalme U2, I have heard good things about the Pokefi which seems to be cheaper but covers a lot fewer countries. Also, the Glocalme U2 allows for -- but does not require -- a local SIM. Similar devices include the Skyroam and the Keepgo but I know nothing of those but seem to be much more expensive than either the Glocalme U2 or the Pokefi.
These are data only solutions but the question was about data in the first place, second VoIP is your friend if you need to make phone calls.


According to Charismatic Christians, do those who never hear the gospel of Christ go to hell?

Question: I'd like an overview of what Charismatic Christians believe regarding the unreached. Are people who have never heard the gospel of Christ going to hell? For example: infants, fetuses, mentally disabled persons or third-world inhabitants who've passed.
Comment: I agree with Nathaniel - this is a good question, but too broad to really answer within this sites format as is.  Different Christians will have different opinions and this site can't answer ["truth" questions](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/3527/we-cant-handle-the-truth/).  That is, we can only tell you what a specific group believes about, for example, the fate of the unreached, why evangelize, etc.
Comment: I was posing the question using the limited knowledge I have of both theology and the terminology involved; as well as scripture for that matter. I'm so far removed that I wasn't even aware there was a Christian sect that believed salvation could be obtained through works. I was under the impression that Christianity in and of itself meant salvation through Christ. I'm satisfied --after reading their backgrounds-- that the theologians recommended [Grudem and Williams] are exactly the type who I envisioned asking the question.
Comment: Sorry, this is the one community I thought I had all figured out and didn't read the tour. I had a lot going on in my head about that topic. Sorry folks.
Comment: @knivez No problem. We're happy to help and answer your questions, but they must be within guidelines first. See if this post helps you edit your question into something that is allowed: [Types of questions that are within community guidelines](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/q/3409)
Comment: Charismatic Christianity is a movement that crosses most other Christian divisions: there are Charismatic Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists and Presbyterians. I don't know much about Orthodoxy, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were Charismatic Orthodox Christians too. So that means this question is still too broad.
Comment: @Nathaniel I don't think the issue hinges on Charismaticism at all, so it might as well ask for an overview of Protestant positions on this question. Which would probably be okay, I'd guess that there are only a few families of positions (universalism, the option to be saved through other revelation, the option to be saved through good works, no option to be saved.)
Comment: @curiousdannii Yeah, you're probably right; the charismatics might be slightly more likely to fall into the "saved through other revelation" camp than others but so far I haven't found any of that anyway.
Comment: I'm voting to reopen. While I believe @curiousdannii is correct about the variance of views, it is clear that Knivez was interested in charismatic views, which is as valid as if someone were to ask for LDS views.
Answer: I'll provide answers from a couple charismatic theologians, Wayne Grudem and J. Rodman Williams.  Williams is the author of the first charismatic systematic theology, Renewal Theology, and I'll quote from it and some of his other writings.
Original Sin
First, both writers affirm the doctrine of original sin.  Williams describes it as follows:

"Original sin" refers to the fact that the human race is sinful in nature. [...] [T]he important feature is that man does not come into the world as an innocent or neutral creature but is affected by sin in all aspects of his being (Psalm 58:3; cf. Psalm 51:5). Indeed, by virtue of this fact, man is vitiated in every area of his nature—body, soul, spirit—so that he is utterly incapable himself of restoration and salvation. His only hope is in Jesus Christ.1

Referring to the people who are "without excuse" from Romans 1, Williams writes:

These are people of all times and places, who on their own account and to their own guilt and judgment, turn away from the living God.2

The clear implication here and in the rest of Williams' writing is that the unreached face judgment.
Grudem agrees, and writes more regarding the general revelation mentioned in Romans 1:

[E]ven without the Bible, all persons who have ever lived have had evidence in creation that God exists, that he is the Creator and they are creatures, and have also had some evidence of his character.  As a result, they themselves have known something about God from this evidence (even though this is never said to be a knowledge that is able to bring them to salvation).3

Salvation of Infants
However, both Williams and Grudem specifically refer to the case of infants as a potential exception to this rule.  First, Williams writes:

I suggest you look at Matthew 18:2-4 and 19:13-14. Note especially the words "Let the
children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven
belongs to such as these." Since Jesus graciously received them during His ministry,
surely He will do so in heaven. This does not mean that little children, or infants, are
innocent, but they have no ability to make a decision for or against Christ, which is the
requirement for salvation.4

Grudem goes into more detail.  He says that even infants have sinful natures, citing Psalm 51:5, but he notes the example of John the Baptist in Luke 1:15, saying:

Yet it is certainly possible for God to bring regeneration (that is, new spiritual life) to an infant even before he or she is born.  This was true of John the Baptist [...] We might say that John the Baptist was "born again" before he was born! [...] It is clear, therefore, that God is able to save infants in an unusual way, apart from their hearing and understanding the gospel, by bringing regeneration to them very early, sometimes even before birth.5

He cautions against taking this too far, but finds this as evidence that infants who die may be saved:

We must, however, affirm very clearly that this is not the usual way for God to save people.  Salvation usually occurs when someone hears and understands the gospel and then places trust in Christ.  But in unusual cases like John the Baptist, God brought salvation before this understanding.  And this leads us to conclude that it certainly is possible that God would also do this where he knows the infant will die before hearing the gospel.5

Summary
In summary, these two charismatic theologians believe in original sin, and thus that judgment is due to all men because all men have sinful natures and act sinfully.  However, they suggest that provision may be made for children who die in infancy.  One could speculate, based on this reasoning, that similar provision might extend to the mentally disabled, but neither author addresses that situation.  But extending this logic to mean salvation for the unreached peoples of the world is certainly outside the teaching of these two theologians.

References:

Williams, Theology Q and A, page 31 (See also Renewal Theology, 1: chapter 11, "The Effects of Sin.")
Williams, Renewal Theology, I-272.
Grudem, Systematic Theology, ch. 7, p122.
Williams, Theology Q and A, page 32
Grudem, Systematic Theology, ch. 24, p500.
Comment: @knivez That indeed is a tough question. [Romans 9:19-23](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%209&version=ESV), if you believe it applies to individuals, is difficult for us to understand. There's more regarding this [on another question](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/1763/21576) as well.
Comment: I stepped away and didn't know there was a time limit... Thank you. I was already familiar with the concept of original sin and what I think Christians also refer to as 'sin nature'. I read Romans and understand what the scripture says and agree with both theologians' interpretations. Leaves me to ask, if salvation isn't possible, even though they may believe 'God' gave them life, are they damned without a relationship with Christ? Why bring them into this world given the fact that they're doomed from the start? Like being setup for failure. Thank you again. I'm going to do further reading.
Comment: Had I found that link earlier I probably wouldn't have asked this question. There are a lot of very specific answers in that post. I appreciate everyones', and thank you. I'd definitely direct other, similar questions to that link.
Answer: The people who have never heard the Gospel of Christ most certainly can and will attain eternity with God. This is clarified in a few places, but the most common place to read scripture is Romans 2:12-16

Romans 2:12-16 = "For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."

God judges man's heart which is the motivational source behind any person's actions. So those who don't have "The Law" (meaning, they've never heard the Mosaic Law found in the first five books in the OT, or heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ), still have "written on their hearts" the natural law, or can be better described as "common sense". For example, you don't have to hear or know the story of Christ to feel compelled to help someone lying on the ground helpless with visible injury. Nor do you need to have read the Ten Commandments to know it's wrong to murder another human being. This things are "common sense" or "written on our hearts" from God, in which God uses on the day of judgement.
Even Jesus himself showed this example every time it's recorded that he interacted with certain individuals. He's been tested on several occasions and he always penetrated through the "doing" of that individual, and went right to the "source" of the individual's doing - the heart. He never condemned the action which the person was guilty of, he condemned the hardened heart. I believe this is further confirmation that people who've never heard of Jesus will still get a fair judgement from God, and included in judgement is always God's unimaginable passion, love and unwavering grace.
Comment: Welcome to Stack Exchange.  If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out the [site tour](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/tour).  This site is [a little different](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/1808/how-we-are-different-than-other-sites#1809) than other sites around the web.  It isn't a discussion forum, but rather a place to ask and answers factual questions.  Does your answer reflect a Charismatic position?  If so, can you edit your answer to provide references to show this?  If not, then your answer is off-topic.


When do I use all the words meaning "song"?

Question: There's 歌, 曲, 歌曲, 唄, etc. I was about to give a few example contexts, but in English there really doesn't seem to be more than one way in which we refer to a 'song'. I do see different words being used in different places but I can't place exactly why they're used there.
Answer: Regarding the difference between 歌 and 曲:

An (entire) work of vocal music, A track (with vocal): Both 曲 or 歌 are used interchangeably, but the former is more common.

ビートルズの[曲/歌]が2つ入ったCD

A work of music without vocal (e.g. a piece of classical music): 曲

シューベルトの曲を演奏する

Music (as opposed to lyrics/vocal), Melody: 曲
Song (as opposed to melody/lyrics), Vocal: 歌

Xが歌詞を作り、Yが曲を作り、Zが歌を入れた。
  (≒the lyrics written by X, the music made by Y, and sung by Z)

And there are other words:

楽曲: A work of music with or without vocal. Sounds a bit technical.
歌曲: Technically it refers to Western classical songs including Lied. Besides this, I think it's a very rare synonym for "楽曲 with vocal".
唄: Basically just an alternative kanji for 歌 as vocal music, which may look poetic, literary, or traditional.

And 歌 may also refer to waka and haiku.
Comment: 歌曲 generally refers to (Western) classical music I think, but not only German (Lied); イタリア歌曲 suggests Bellini and other composers from the 18-19th centuries. But the OP missed out masses of other Japanese words for song: e.g. カンツォーネ means an Italian song, particularly 19-20th centuries. リート refers to a German, シャンソン to a French, ソング to an English language song, and probably others.
Comment: A piece of music without meaningful lyrics is not called 歌 as a whole, although one can say there's a short 歌 (or 声) in it. When in doubt, you can always use 曲 :-)
Comment: To clarify, if a piece of music uses minimal vocals or uses vocals as an instrument (such as much electronic music for the former and Adiemus for the latter), would that typically be 歌, or would it be contingent on the speaker's own preference at that point?
Answer: 歌{うた} - This word means "song", but it includes vocals. You wouldn't use it for musical instruments. 歌う{うたう} means "sing", after all.
曲{きょく} - Melody, tune, etc. This one is for instruments, like a song on the piano.
歌曲{かきょく} - I imagine this is a general word for "song", but I don't have much experience with it. I think it's relatively rare.
唄{うた} - I'm not very familiar with this either, but my dictionary lists it as an alternate form of 歌.
Comment: 歌 doesn't necessarily require music to be valid, it can be 'poem' also.
Comment: Thanks, the distinction is clear. Strange thing about 曲 though: I recall seeing it used in a context where people were talking about the lyrics of the song, and 曲 was sometimes used in place of 歌詞, making it seem like they were talking about the whole song (with lyrics included and all). As far as I can remember, 歌 was not once used.


Varnish returning 503, FetchError (could not get storage)

Question: On the current setup we're running into a problem with Varnish, we're running a CentOS 5.7 x86_64 xenpv, with Cpanel WHM, hosted at VPS.net.
Sometimes we will recieve a Guru Meditation from Varnish, and when we look in the varnishlog with the following command varnishlog -d -c -m TxStatus:503 it returns output similar to the following:
   15 VCL_call     c recv
   15 VCL_acl      c NO_MATCH devs
   15 VCL_return   c pass
   15 VCL_call     c hash
   15 Hash         c ****
   15 Hash         c *************
   15 VCL_return   c hash
   15 VCL_call     c pass pass
   15 Backend      c 12 default default
   15 TTL          c 1835862523 RFC 0 -1 -1 1332454056 0 1332454055 375007920 0
   15 VCL_call     c fetch hit_for_pass
   15 ObjProtocol  c HTTP/1.1
   15 ObjResponse  c OK
   15 ObjHeader    c Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:07:35 GMT
   15 ObjHeader    c Server: Apache/2.2.21 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.21 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_fcgid/2.3.6
   15 ObjHeader    c X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.9
   15 ObjHeader    c Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
   15 ObjHeader    c Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
   15 ObjHeader    c Pragma: no-cache
   15 ObjHeader    c Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
   15 ObjHeader    c X-Cacheable: NO:Cache-Control=private
   15 FetchError   c chunked read_error: 12 (Could not get storage)
   15 VCL_call     c error deliver
   15 VCL_call     c deliver deliver

As far as I have could gather, we could try increasing the nuke_limit, but currently we have a nuke_limit of 500, and when running varnishstat -1 -f n_lru_nuked we "only" get a total of 1031, even though we have seen the error happen on several pages.
When we then run top to see how much memory Varnish is using, it only shows that it is using 763m, although we've set it to be allowed to use 1200m.
Any ideas of what the problem can be?
Answer: "Could not get storage" suggests to me that Varnish couldn't store your object that it wants to fetch. Did you hit max cache size? Can you post the output of varnishstat?


Why are list questions allowed if they're not asking for lists of works?

Question: Why is it that only lists of works are off-topic? See for example this question, which has answers that are just as useless as those to a question asking for lists of works. Surely all questions asking for lists should be off-topic, regardless of what is being listed.
Comment: "List questions" are *not* restricted to just lists of "works", but exceptions *are* often made if the list is relatively finite. The vagueness of this is something I personally generally disagree with, but that's just how it goes.
Comment: The close reason itself is badly worded, IMO
Answer: List questions are not necessarily off-topic just by nature of being a list question. They are off topic because, in most cases, list questions don't have a definitive answer. There's a lot of related questions on meta, including my own, as well as this earlier one.
List questions that have a short, finite, and objective set of answers that can be easily listed and explained are more likely to be on topic that lists that may change, that have lots of answers, or where membership in the list of answers is subjective or debatable.
The question you point to is actually not a very good example of an on-topic list question; I would call it "borderline acceptable", primarily because there's a chance that the answer may change, since the show is still airing new episodes. However, historically, the list in question changes very rarely, so it's not likely that the answer will change very much, just possible. It also meets the other criteria for a "good" list question -- the list is short, finite, and there is a simple and objective measure to determine what belongs on the list.
Lists of works, on the other hand, usually fail to meet at least one, if not several, of those criteria. Questions like "lists of movies with a strong female lead character" not only changes every time a new movie with a strong female lead character is released but can lead to arguments like "is the lead character in Nymphomaniac a strong female character or an exploited victim?". Those things make the question unanswerable, so it becomes off-topic by definition.
In the end, it's a very subjective decision by the community if a list question is "answerable enough" to be on topic or not, but it is a per-question decision. It's definitely not as easy as "lists of works as off topic, other lists are ok."
Answer: The off-topic close reasons contain an "other" category which "list" questions which are not for lists of works could go into, but my own feeling is that they - in cases where they are objectionable (which isn't always) - are more usefully closed as "too broad".
The example cited in this question seems valid to me because it's finite and because someone with a good familiarity with the work in question could produce an answer.  Of course, that answer may be rendered invalid by future events in any ongoing series, but it's still an answer.
That to me establishes the key criterion:

Is it actually possible to answer this question?

List-of-works questions can only be a "no" here because nobody has read every single work, and there may be one (or one million) obscure work(s) which fall through the cracks for whatever reason.
Other list questions aren't so cut-and-dried, but if of sufficiently narrow scope are answerable and may seem valid to remain open.


Can we use name "Aleem"?

Question: My name is Farhan Alim. Al- Aleem as we know that the name of Allah. Now my question is that can i use the word Alim in my name? Is it permissible in Islam? What scholars say about it?
Answer: Khâlid ibn al-Walîd's name means "eternal", he didn't change it. Ultimately it depends on your intention (nyia). I don't suppose you consider yourself "all knowing".
One opinion says "anything besides Allah and Rahmane is allowed".
Another opinion is more explicit but still says the same thing: Anything that can apply to other than God is okay; but something (like Ghafûr) that only applies to him is forbidden. And they site "Hakeem" as not only applying to him, so, I guess Alim can be considered that way too.

Can we use name "Aleem"?