What causes mold to grow on frozen meats?

Question: About 8 months ago we had a beef processed a meat processing plant.  When we picked up the meat it was all pre-packaged and frozen.  We immediately put it all in the freezer when we got home to be sure it stayed frozen.  Now I am finding packages of ground beef that has blue and green mold on the meat while it is frozen.  How does this happen?  We have had to throw away at least 15 pounds of ground beef.
Comment: Is it possible that you you had a freezer malfunction at some point in that 8 months?
Comment: Was it frozen at -18°C or lower?
Answer: Frozen food does not necessarily stay edible forever. There are some microbes that love (even extremely) cold climate. Such microbes are called cryophiles and can survive or even need temperatures as low as -15°C. There are microbes that show activity at temperatures as low as ~-200°C (http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Colwellia_psychrerythraea).
However, if you store your food at at least -18°C, most microbes will go dormant and you can store it for a long time without problems. Above that, however, there are several microbes that can and will grow and spoil your food, though I can't tell you which ones in particular. That's the reason frozen food bought in a store (in germany at least) has a label how cold it has to be stored for the minimum shelf-life to apply (often includes a table for minimum shelf-life at various temperatures as well).
Comment: According to your link, *c. psychrerythraea* is not pathogenic.  Are there known cryophylic pathogens?   Food also degrades in quality faster at warmer temperatures, which may be the real motivation for shelf life recommendations.   It seems vanishingly unlikely that cryophyilic bacteria are at the root of visible moldy fruiting bodies.
Comment: I personally do not know of pathogenic cryophilic microbes. My point was that there are cryophilic ones and that it therefore makes sense that there may be molds that can grow even slightly below 0°C, which is why I asked him in the comments at what temp he froze the meat. Of course, his freezer may have malfunctioned or there was simply a prolonged power outage in his absense. I was simply giving the best answer I could think of with the given information.
Answer: That blue and green"mold" was likely edible ink used to identify and stamp an inspected seal on the beef carcass.
Comment: An interesting conclusion.  I've seen people get confused on whole meat when the ink's gotten blurred for some reason (eg, after being in a marinade).  I've never seen there be so much ink that it was noticeable when ground, though.  I guess there's a chance that the ground meat got most of the trimmings w/ the stamps .... and in this case,the question sounded to me like it was a case of the farmer having a cow slaughtered & packaged ... would it have been inspected and such as it wasn't going to be sold?


Connecting to Tor network through any Application/Script without installing Tor browser bundle?

Question: I am planning to develop an application that must use Tor network connection. I am connecting with Tor browser bundle and then using the socket(9050/9150/whatever). Now I want to connect to Tor network directly without Tor browser bundle. Is it possible. If so, please someone help me.
Answer: Yes its possible with Vidalia plus Tor combination.
But you need add this to your torrc file:
C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Local Settings\Application Data\Vidalia and open torrc file with Notepad and copy paste this.
SocksListenAddress 127.0.0.1
SocksPort 9150

Then you can use with another programs with IP 127.0.0.1 and port 9150 as proxy without the Tor browser bundle. But be careful if the program have a bug its can show your real IP. Such as do not transmit properly through the Tor. Works with only TCP protocol but won't work with UDP protocol Like Torrent, and Skype. If you want better and safer condition, use a Proxy management program like Proxyfier or proxycap. This forces the program to always go through with the Tor so there is lower probability to connect to the selected program directly without Tor.
Answer: Yes, you can use it without browser. For that you must run an application with -f key and choose path to your configuration file, as for example, using tor -f torrc, where is torrc path to your configuration file.
Answer: You have several possibilities here. You can

deliver an own Tor binary. So your application can either bring a copy of Tor with it or can download a recent copy of it.
test if the user has installed it and if it runs. Depending on the test you give a feedback to the user.

When Tor runs, make sure that SocksPort in the torrc is set. Your application can now connect to the SocksPort and use it as SOCKS proxy.
Comment: if I were to choose the first option, do you have any guidelines or documentation on how to create my own binaries for Tor?
Comment: I don't have any guidelines, but I'd suggest to ask the Tor Project and write a mail to .


What are Pot Odds, and how do I determine them?

Question: I understand this is the relative value of playing vs. winning, but how do I determine the values?  Am I supposed to count the pot?  Does the cost of playing include hands already played, or just the next draw?
Comment: When calculating pot odds, only the cost of the next call matters. The value of calling using pot odds however is only measurable when trended over an extended period of time.
Comment: @one.beat.consumer Future perceived actions/calls matter too so that's not strictly true as pot odds can be further categorized into "Explicit" and "Implicit" varieties.
Comment: @toby Already noted in my answer below. Also, call it semantics but as I understand `Pot Odds` are strictly explicit and "right now". `Implicit Odds` odds are your estimates of pot odds on future actions, but until others have acted and it is your turn again, they are just "guesstimates", not pot odds.
Comment: @one.beat.consumer It's hierarchical. You just said it yourself. You noted that implicit odds are "estimates of your pot odds", thus implicit odds ARE pot odds, just a deeper category. I'm not being nasty, :) Just clarifying everything as this is Beta.
Comment: @Toby no problem at all. i like learning and love discussion. :) What's annoying is when folks downvote a better answer to protect there own. My answer is the only mathematically correct one posted. Oh well. :)
Answer: What are Pot Odds?
Pot odds are the value of the pot (how much you stand to win) in comparison to the cost of you calling, and are most often used to evaluate the value of making the considered call.
Calculating Pot Odds
Pot odds are a ratio, Pot Value : Call Cost
To convert this ratio to an equivalent percentage, divide the Call Cost by the sum of the Pot Value and Call Cost:
$10 / $10 + $50 = 16.7%

To convert a percentage back to a ratio, subtract the Pot Odds Percentage from 100, and divide the remaining number by the Pot Odds Percentage:
(100 - 16.7) / 16.7 = 4.98   -or-   5:1 odds

Using Pot Odds to Calculate Value of a Call
Example: If the pot is $50, and the cost to call is $10 your pot odds are 50:10 or 5:1 (16.7%) when reduced.
If the odds of you drawing the winning hand are greater than 5:1 (16.7%), there is positive value in calling the bet. If the odds are less than the pot odds ratio/percentage, there is a negative value.
Miscellaneous
Obviously, even if the expected value of calling is positive you may still lose the hand... but over extended sessions these value calculations will be true statistically.
The trick often happens when using pot odds early in a hand (ex. Flop or Turn in Texas Hold'em) where the pot odds and chance of winning the pot may change again... this brings up the concept of implied odds and can be read about on Wikipedia and all over.
Comment: I think there should be parenthesis here `$10 / $10 + $50`. Or at least that would fail on programming world since higher operators are evaluated first (I really don't know real-life math, so it could be different)
Comment: @ajax333221 Yeah, it's wrong in "real-life math", too. `$10 / $10 + $50` is `$51` and `$10 / ($10 + $50)` is `~0.163` anywhere.
Answer: Pot odds are a way of determining whether it's worthwhile to continue with a hand.
Suppose that the pot contains $10 at the river and your opponent bets $2. You think that there's a 20% chance that you have the best hand, and that if you raise your opponent will fold a worse hand or reraise a better one, so your options are to call or fold. What should you do?
It will cost you $2 to call the bet, to win a pot of $12 (the $10 already in it, plus the $2 your opponent just bet), which means you're getting pot odds of 12 to 2 (or 6 to 1). Since you expect to win 20% of the time, you only need odds of 5 to 1 to break even, so you should call the bet.
If this wasn't the river, you would also need to calculate implied odds: the amount you expect to be put into the pot on future hands (which could push you towards either calling or folding).
Comment: Good explanation of using pot odds for value, but the Pot Odds here would be `10:2` or `5:1` reduced. Your percentage value is `1/6 (16.7%)`. Otherwise your example still holds true - %20 chance of taking the pot means you beat the pot odds and over time will earn money.
Comment: Right you are; realized the error after I left for the day. And to think I used to do math research..
Comment: I used to rock calculus like a second language... now i struggle to remember % / * = + !  or anything else :) take care.
Answer: Let's take a concrete example, so it's a bit easier to understand.
You are playing with Alice and Bob. The blinds are 50/100. You are the big blind, Alice is under the gun, and Bob is the small blind.
You post 50, and Bob posts 100 blind. Alice calls 100. Bob raises to 400.
Currently, the pot contains 550. To call, you would need to add 350 to your 50. If you call, the pot will be 900. Therefore, the pot odds are 350 to 900 - you pay 350 to get a chance to win 900. If you believe that your odds are better than 350/900 (38%), you should call - that is ignoring anything that happens after the call.
Comment: You don't count your call in the odds - you are risking 350 to win 550.
Comment: No, the 50 from your blind is not yours, it is in the pot.Your current decision, from a pot odds perspective, is risking 350 to win 550. How that translates to your equity in the hand, or your odds of winning, is another matter.
Comment: Depends on what you're comparing it against; I find the maths a bit easier when you do count the call. And if you think about it this way - you pay 350 now to have a chance to win the entire pot (900) in the future - it all works out fine. It's like the difference between "two to one" and "one in three" odds.
Comment: @ChrisMarasti-Georg You always count the call amount in when calculating pot odds. The ration you're talking about is not "pot odds" but another methodology for value betting, and the numbers aren't right either - using your perspective, you would be risking 400 to gain 500 (or 850 if Alice calls too).
Comment: `You are the big blind, Alice is under the gun, and Bob is the big blind.` Who is the big blind?
Comment: @StuperUser: Oops, fixed
Answer: Pot odds are the ratio between the amount of money available to win, and the amount you have to call.  You should be counting the amount in the pot as the hand progresses, since you will not be allowed to touch the pot, and it usually can't be counted for you, during the hand.
For instance, if the pot is $25, and someone makes a $5 bet, your pot odds are (25 + 5) to 5, or 6 to 1.  This means you can win 6 dollars for every 1 dollar of your call.
Relating it to your decision, you would need to be able to win at least one time in 7 to make the call profitable.
Answer: Pot odds are the odds you get when you make a call after a bet (or a raise) and it concerns a single hand.  It is totally independent of the hands already played.
Am I supposed to count the pot?

Yes.  They are typically expressed in "... to one".  For example, if the pot has $15 and someone bets $6 in it (typically not a strong enough bet but that is not the point), then now the pot has $21 in it and if you have to pay $6 to call, you're getting 3.5:1 on your call ($21 divided by $6 gives 3.5).
It's a convenient way to determine if your call makes sense compared to your hand, especially if your hand is a draw-hand (for example you're trying to hit a flush or a straight).
Note that the pot odds are also called "explicit odds" and it's not enough to only take into account these odds: you typically also want to take into account what are called the "implied odds" (but that is a topic for another question).
Answer: Pot odds are the ratio of the current size of the pot to the cost of a contemplated call.
They are very closely related to explicit odds (fully and clearly expressed odds on offer right now) and implicit odds (not expressly stated, pertaining to probable explicit odds in later scenarios).
Specifically, odds relate to costs. Explicit pot odds relate to how likely your hand will win now versus the cost, and implicit odds relate to how likely your hand will win later (considering outs for you and your opponent/s) in the future.
Answer: Getting 3:1 pot odds means we have to win 1 in every 4 times to break even. To give some intuition, if we win 3 times what we risk every cluster of 4 hands, our net gain looks like
(-1 -1 -1 +3) + (-1 +3 -1 -1) + (+3 -1 -1 -1) + ... = 0

Anytime we win more often, we are making money.
More formally, we can derive this directly from our familiar equity inequality. We require px - b(1-x) > 0 to be true to justify a call, where p is the size of the pot, b is the size of the bet*, x is the probability we hit our outs, and 1-x is the probability we miss. We interpret this as: we win px when our outs hit and we lose b(1-x) when we miss, and we want the net win to be positive. Simplifying, we have px - b + bx > 0, then x(p+b) > b, and finally x > b/(p+b). That is, the probability of our outs hitting should be greater than the bet divided by the new pot size, or we should be getting pot odds of (p+b)-b:b, which is just p:b. In other words, saying that we have correct pot odds to call is equivalent to saying that calling is a positive expectation action.
* When future bets are considered, we use the term implied odds. Otherwise pot odds generally refers to immediate or expressed odds.


Orbot stops for no reason on my Android 7.0 phone

Question: Orbot starts and works fine alongside with Orfox and Twitter but it frequently stops (it does not crash, it just stops working): the persistent notification icon disappear and Orfox issues the typical "the proxy server is refusing connections" message. I have been using Orbot and Orfox since I had an android 4.0 device but I am experiencing this problem with my Android 7.0 phone. Is it a known issue or it's just me and my jinx?
Answer: I just installed orbit and orfox from the guardian repo on fdroid. I have a OnePlus 3 on lineage is 14.1, Android 7.1.2. It is working just fine for me. What device and os are you using?


C1q attachment to antibodies

Question: After reading about complement pathway and the complement components, I was wondering, does the C1q component attach to the Fab fragment or to the Fc fragment? The pictures in Janeway's Immunobiology are confusing and the text don't mention about this.
Comment: You said Fab fragment twice.
Comment: @ChrisStronks While I agree about the closing - an article in a bad grammatical style or with too much typos will never reach the reviewers. It will be sorted out by the editors when they do an initial review.
Comment: Can you please edit your question for clarity?  Right now it is unclear what you're asking.
Comment: I think voting for question closure based on a typo is a bit harsh. If journal referees would start rejecting manuscripts on that basis even Nature would have trouble filling its pages  =)
Answer: Complement factor c1q binds to the constant Fc portion of an antibody (Duncan & Winter, 1988). Indeed, the constant (Fc) tail of the antibody is where other proteins involved in immune responses typically bind, most notably the Fc receptors (e.g., Clynes et al., 2000) found on immune cells such as B lymphocytes. Fc receptors mediate the recruitment of immune cells to a site of infection. The primary role of the Fab region is antigen binding as it contains the highly variable antigen binding domain. See the following figure (from the site of Invivogen) for the Fab and Fc region showing the constant and variable regions of antibodies:

Figure legend from Invivogen): The Fc region mediates effector functions, such as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC). In ADCC, the Fc region of an antibody binds to Fc receptors (FcγRs) on the surface of immune effector cells such as natural killers and macrophages, leading to the phagocytosis or lysis of the targeted cells. In CDC, the antibodies kill the targeted cells by triggering the complement cascade at the cell surface. I

The constant regions of antibodies are located on the heavy chain (CH1,2,3) and the light chain (CL). These constant regions are potential binding sites for other immune molecules as they are constant between antibodies, irrespective of the variable region in Fab. Most of the constant regions are found on the Fc region explaining its major role in binding other molecules involved in the immune response, including complement factor c1q. However, the constant regions in Fab (CL) may also provide binding sites for other proteins and indeed some bacterial compounds are known to bind to this region (Bouvet, 1994). However, I have not found evidence of c1q binding the Fab region.
Comment: So Fab fragments can't activate the complement?
Comment: No, not as far as I am aware.

C1q attachment to antibodies


Low Voltage Photosensor

Question: I'm looking for a photosensor/photo IC part (combination of photodiode, linear amplifier, Schmitt trigger and output transistor) that can be powered with 3.3V. Fairchild QSE256/257/258/259 is almost exactly what I need, except that it requires 4-16 volts supply voltage and not working very stable at 3.3. I know that there is a number of parts usually used in the infrared receivers, but they contain demodulator (from 38KHz) which I don't need. Anyone here knows a good alternative to Fairchild part?
Answer: In this thread is explained that a photodiode doesn't need a voltage across it to generate a photocurrent:

Do you need all the functions integrated into one IC? You have plenty of options if you would pick a common photodiode plus a comparator. Comparators exist for DLV (Damn Low Voltages™) these days; Digikey lists more than a thousand which will happily run at 3.3 V or less. The MCP6546 is the cheapest I found:

1.6 V to 5.5 V power supply
open-drain output
internal hysteresis

If the 30 mA current sink is not sufficient you can use the MCP6541, which has a push-pull output, from which you can drive an external transistor. This would also allow you to switch much higher voltages, as well as set your own hysteresis levels. In this answer I explain how to calculate the required resistances.

Low Voltage Photosensor


Can adding a blog be an effective method for improving SEO?

Question: It seems like these days everyone is preaching about adding a blog to your website to benefit your SEO, but just how effective is it? I know it will depend partly the on content etc. but with everyone starting up their own blog's all of a sudden, do they still have much impact and do they really help improve your SEO?
Comment: Who is preaching about this? I haven't seen anyone saying this for *years*. And all of a sudden? This myth has been around as long as blogs have.
Answer: A blog can be beneficial to SEO, IF it contains quality content. Lets face it: Getting backlinks to a "boring" corporate website can be extremely difficult. I mean, who is going to link to your "About Me" section? Who is going to link to your website on the basis that they thought that your "Services" page was well written?
A blog can provide you with the platform to write about things that people will link to. i.e. Interesting articles that relate to your niche.
Comment: But this isn't because it's a blog. It's because it's quality content. The format is irrelevant.
Comment: Yes, it can. But what I'm saying is the blog format isn't what's key here. You can produce quality content without it being a blog.
Comment: I agree with you on that point. However, the question is "Is a blog really that effective for improving SEO?" The answer is: Yes, they can be, IF it is done correctly.
Comment: Are there other platforms that would allow a local business website to generate quality content? I mean, an "About Me" section could contain quality content, but the likelihood of it being linked to is almost null. I think it is worth noting that a blog is the easiest method for a business-based website to generate **fresh** quality content.
Comment: Certainly it is. Our site is rather dry and informational by necessity. It's quite formal and I wouldn't expect anyone to link to us, customer or not. But by adding a "blog" format, we can loosen up, focus on trending issues, even put in a little humor that we can tweet about. For me, it seems to be a tone issue. If your site's tone is appealing, no need to add a blog to generate backlinks. But if it necessitates dry content like ours does, consider adding some character elsewhere.
Comment: And the quality content has to be published on a consistent basis. Google likes fresh, new content daily.
Answer: Blogs, in-and-of themselves, have no SEO benefits inherit to them. Just having a blog on your site does not offer any SEO benefit and the blog format offers no inherit value either. This myth started when WordPress sites were becoming popular and were ranking well. But this was due to the  code being well optimized and the content being good. It had was not because they were blogs.
Comment: That is definitely *not* true.
Comment: The idea that has always been suggested was the more pages the better, but obviously having the content counts as well.
Comment: Might be worthy to note that though this way the blog might not contribute, people might continue to browse your site after the blogitem, which could have a possitive efect
Comment: Blogs have a lot of features that make content creation through them easier and automatically search engine friendly. There are other ways to achieve that, but a blog is often a good choice.
Answer: I would say a blog help you mainly to earn new clients because you can get some traffic from search engines for the long tail (more keywords than your actual ones). A blog helps you to make a good and large reputation for your business in a field you know well. With a good blog, you can create or participate to a community about your field of expertise.
For SEO, it also helps because your site grows up (a new page for each new article). Moreover, your site is considered by Google with "fresh" content (if you often add some good articles with original content). This last point is important for SEO and when you have a site where you can't add new pages easily, a blog is a good solution. Moreover, indirectly, your readers can like your original content and share it by creating backlinks to your articles.
Answer: Should you regularly post articles in your subject area that users would find helpful?  Yes, absolutely.
Does it have to be a blog?  Not necessarily, but a blog can be a good choice for doing so:

Blogs are generally ordered by published date (newest first) which encourages you to keep them updated.
Because blog posts fall off the front page eventually, it doesn't hurt to write about something and see if it gains traction.  A blog is usually seen as a less formal setting than your main website and can be a great place to experiment.
You can post to a blog from a web interface.  Once it is set up, you don't need to get a server administrator involved to push new content live.
Blog software generally has decent SEO up front.  Blogs can start getting traffic from search engines within a couple weeks of publishing a few posts.

If you already have quality content available to search engine bots on your main website and are adding to it regularly, a blog probably won't do anything for your SEO that you are not already doing.
If you currently have a five page website and it is harder to write content for your current website than it would be to write blog posts, then a blog can really ease that friction and get you rolling on content creation.
Answer: If you write answers to questions your customers are searching for then yes. Just remember to add a direct link (with a price and picture) to your article so you actually get conversions, not just seo.
If you write about random stuff that is just filled with random keywords then no.
Have a look at what Matt Cutts (who responsible for the search department in Google) says about blogs.


How do you simulate frictionless movement?

Question: I am building a game in which I want to simulate smooth movement of an object upon pressing a key or any other event. Could someone advice me to get that feel of gliding of an object, sliding on a frictionless surface. How could I have that?
Answer: The idea is that friction is actually an explicitly added step, additional logic. So the answer is, "You don't". You just build for the basics -- forces, velocity, mass, collision response and then you will be able to play with frictionless bodies. The simulation is the theoretical "perfect" environment.
Answer: Fundamentally frictionless movement is just playing with inertia.  In whatever your movement code is, don't stop the player immediately when they release their button/analog stick.   Instead you want to very slowly reduce their velocity to zero.  Or if you wanted to be truly frictionless you never reduce their velocity.
Comment: The moving part will still very, very, *very* slowly lose energy (and thus, slow down) due to Van der Waals forces between their particles even with perfect lack of any friction. Alas, I've yet to see a *game physics engine* which would include them.
Comment: Wouldn't Van der Waals forces be a form of friction?
Comment: @Nathan Reed: Kinda, sorta. If you leave them out, the object's molecules fall apart rather quickly. :)
Answer: Well, simulating a frictionless object is really just like simulating an object with friction, except you leave out the friction.
Seriously, the only sensible interpretation I can make of your question is that you've either forgotten Newtonian mechanics since high school, or that you're still in school and haven't studied it yet.  In either case, here's a quick refresher on motion under constant acceleration:
Let x(t) be the position and v(t) the velocity of the object at time t.  Then the position and velocity of the object after a time step Δt under constant acceleration a are:

v(t + Δt) = v(t) + (a × Δt)
x(t + Δt) = x(t) + (v(t) × Δt) + (a × Δt² / 2)

You can express these quantities in any units you like, as long as they're consistent.  For video games, a common choice is to measure time in update steps (which might typically occur, say, 20 to 60 times per second for smooth-looking motion), position in pixels, velocity in pixels per time step and acceleration in pixels per time step squared.  This simplifies the formulas, since, in particular, Δt = 1.
Also, if the time step (and/or the acceleration per time step) is small enough, the (a × Δt² / 2) term will be so much smaller than (v(t) × Δt) that it can be left out of the second formula without anyone really noticing.  A lot of games do that, since it makes the formulas even simpler.
And, before you ask, usually the positions, velocities and accelerations will indeed be two- or three-dimensional vectors.  This is not a problem — you just apply the formulas to each component of the vectors separately.  It's also perfectly okay for any or all of these quantities to be negative.
Answer: Your basic game code should be organized like this:
IntializeGameState
while (GameIsRunnnig)
begin
  handleInput
  updateGameState
  DrawNextframe
end

For the simualation of a moving object, you should store your objects current position, movement speed and direction.
When initialzing, set the movement speed to 0.
During handleInput, check if any inputs from the user have been made and if so, modify the movement speed and direction of the controlled object accordingly.
Then, during UpdateGamestate, add the current movement vector to the current postion.
Now, redraw your object at the new Position.
This are the basic steps to do. You will need some kind of timer to make your animation smooth by making each step of the animation take an equal amount of time.
Answer: Not sure if this is helpful, but this is the code I used in my asteroids game:
if (input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_W))
    {

        dx += Math.sin(Math.toRadians(image.getRotation())) * delta * 0.01;
        dy += -Math.cos(Math.toRadians(image.getRotation())) * delta * 0.01;

    }

    x += dx;
    y += dy;

    dx *= 0.98;
    dy *= 0.98;

Increasing the values of the *= on dx and dy decreases the "friction" the player receives. The clever part is that there isn't any top speed, the ship just slows it's accelration down until it's not noticeable. Of course, in a true frictionless environment you could accelerate infinitely, reaching ludicrous high speeds. In that case, you would simply remove this:
   dx *= 0.98;
   dy *= 0.98;

Comment: I did that through using the delta variable, which in most frameworks means frame time.
Answer: Store the current velocity of an object with each object. Each frame use that velocity along with the frame time to calculate how far to move it.
Acceleration (thrusters) and deceleration (brakes, or friction) simply modify the velocity to a new value.


How do I stop my dog from barking at people through the fence?

Question: What is the best way to stop my fenced-in dog from barking at people who are passing by on the street?
Comment: Being inside the fence it doesn't make much sense
Comment: Is putting him/her on a leash an option here?
Answer: This is a very tricky problem for the simple fact that your dog gets rewarded every time it barks at a passerby. In the dog's head, it's all very simple.
Person approaches, dog barks, person leaves.
Yay to the power of barking!

Depending on the size of your garden, if none of TildalWave's suggestions are an option, you might have to temporarily keep your dog in the house while you're not at home and in a room that doesn't allow him to bark at passersby through the window.
The long-term approach is to use desensitisation and counter-conditioning, that is, slowly get your dog used to strangers coming near the fence and start to associate strangers with good things happening(TM).
You'll have to recruit some strangers (to your dog) and ask them to approach the fence to a distance that your dog is comfortable with. Reward your dog for noticing the stranger but not barking at it. Slowly move the dog and/or stranger closer together and keep rewarding good behaviour. Try to set your dog up for success as much as possible. The less often you get your dog's threshold wrong, the quicker it'll learn.
Also, it is very important for the stranger not to move away if your dog does start barking, as this will only reinforce the unwanted behaviour. Just ask the person to stay still and move your dog further away from the fence. Most of all, exercise plenty of patience as it might take a while.
Comment: Your desensitization method sounds best. She is almost 5 years old and we just moved to a new house. She's always had a fence but never one that sits up against the street. I'll try this method first
Answer: Dogs are territorial and will protect their area whenever there is some natural or an artificial border separating their territory from not their territory. Most of them aren't too aggressive at that tho, and if you opened the fence doors you'd likely observe your dog bark while a passer by walks next to the fence, and stop soon after they pass by the open door. That might not be possible to do in your case, but you have probably observed this behaviour previously with other dogs behind fences.
I'm describing this to somewhat lower your expectations, because you're unlikely to stop your dog barking at passers by when they approach some barrier they learned to protect, adopted as their territory. When I say learn, large part of this behaviour would be preconditioned and greatly depends on the dog species, and when I say their territory, some dog species that are more lenient to strangers approaching might be more permissible in all of this.
So one way to prevent that would be distancing your dog from the fence itself, maybe by building a kennel within that fence but far enough from it for the dog to feel comfortable with strangers passing by (it would depend on each individual dog really, even their pecking order if you have more than one), but I would advise against chaining your dog or anything of that sort, not to cause it further inconvenience. The dog is really merely doing its job when barking at strangers. And strangers here means any passers by that the dog didn't yet successfully identify on their approach. Different dog breeds will have different sight, smell and hearing abilities, so this will vary too.
Alternatively, if at all possible, move your fence to be slightly protruding onto the street, at least a bit more than your neighbour's so the dog can see, smell and hear incoming passers by before they nearly brush against your fence and surprise your dog, making it bark even more vigorously. Or even the other way around, recess your fence inwards so there's enough of space between the pathway beyond the fence and the fence itself. Anyway, there are many ways to help prevent or lower the frequency of this barking through the fence, once you know where this behavior originates from.
Observe your dog, allow it to move freely on your lawn and take a mental note of when the dog doesn't feel threatened by passers by, and when it does. Then apply these rules learned to whatever would keep your dog from barking through the fence. Some breeds tend to be more nervous while others might be easier to apply any of these rules to and mitigate this problem. Terriers are particularly territorial (not where the name comes from, tho), also shepherds but usually when there's something else than themselves to protect within the protected area, and some hounds or similar might not even give any attention to passers by. As a general rule of a thumb though, bigger dog breeds tend to be more confident in themselves and be slower, less energetic in their reactions to strangers. Unless they feel they really have to. So, learn your dog's ways and you two will work together on it, figure it out. ;)
Comment: @ElefantPhace - Territorial _is_ about attention. The dog is guarding _your_ area and makes sure _you_ know there is a stranger approaching. The dog wants to get your attention to the stranger. You would do good by being there with the dog, but not too close to the fence, and _turning your back_ towards the stranger. That is a signal you give to your dog; ignore the stranger. If you go to the fence and talk to the stranger that means to the dog that it did well and will bark again next time.
Comment: Thanks I'll keep all this in mind as we try to correct this behavior. She doesn't do it really to be territorial, is more for attention
Answer: Get an old 12 oz soda can rinse it out then place around 10 pennies inside of the can, and tape it off at the mouth. I find electrical tape or silver duct tape works the best. Now that you have that finished the next steps are the most important. The next time you are out front with your dog and a person approaches your fence whether they are by themselves or walking their own dog and your dog starts barking, you take the soda can and under toss it gently towards the general direction of your dog. DO NOT throw it at your dog!
The purpose of this is NOT to hurt your dog but to startle your dog instead. It's to snap them out of the "bad" behavior that they're doing and get them focused on something else other than the passerby. In a sense it's like resetting their brain. The noise the can with pennies will make is loud thus triggering their brains to forget about what they are doing at the time. When your dog stops barking at the person is when you want to give positive praise and or a treat for their good behavior. As time progresses your dog will associate his/her (in our minds negative behavior of) barking with a loud sound that he/she doesn't like and eventually the barking will cease.
Just remember to toss, NOT throw the can in the direction of your dog, NOT at your dog. This technique has worked for every dog I've ever owned and my friends dogs as well. And believe it or not... none of them are scared of soda cans! Good luck and I hope this helps you and your dog with the barking issues at hand.


How do you score a word that has multiple bonuses?

Question: How do you score a word that begins on a triple word space, ends on a double word space and uses all seven of your tiles?
Comment: Are you asking whether it's possible, how to establish a situation to enable it, are you looking for examples, or something entirely different?
Comment: You score zero, because it's apparently impossible in the rules and therefore cheating if you've done it regardless.
Comment: My best score ever was tzarinas over two triple word score squares. That rocked. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Triple and double words count, so you multiply those. Bingoes only count once. I'm suspicious that your scenario could actually happen.
Answer: Note that this is something that is impossible to pull off in a standard game as the only row/column that has both a triple word and a double word is the one with the starting space and you need 8 tiles to get from the double word space to the triple word space.
According to the Scrabble rules you would take the value of the word and multiply by by 6, and then add 50 points. (The rules don't explicitly state this due to it being impossible, but they do account for 2 doubles or 2 triples so there is no reason to think that a triple and a double would work differently)
Answer: It depends on which letters were already on the board, and which ones you added.
When you place a word in Scrabble, it must attach to existing words (except for the very first play of the game). When you add to an existing word, you score any letters that were already on the board again, but you do not score any triple or double word or letter points for the spaces underneath already-existing letters; only for spaces that you just covered up for the first time.
If you mean a situation where your own letters were used to cover up both the triple and double word spaces, then this is impossible. The only places on the board where a double and triple word score exist on the same row or column use the center space; and if you were going there as your first move, you cannot reach a triple word score with only 7 letters.
Either way, you would add 50 points to the normal word score for having used all 7 of your letters.
Answer: Ignoring the board configuration, scoring works in the following way:

For each word created or extended by the placed tiles:

Double/triple letter multipliers under newly placed tiles are applied to the tiles.
The score [including multipliers from (1)] for the letters in the word are added together.
For each double/triple word multiplier under a newly placed tile in the word, the score from (2) is doubled/tripled.
We'll call the resulting number the word score.

The word scores for each new/extended word are added together.
Finally, if all 7 tiles were used, you add 50 points.

In other words, the important point is that letter multipliers are applied first, word multipliers are applied next, and the tile bonus is applied last.

Let's have an example. Look at the following situation. The board looks like this:

The light/dark blue squares are double/triple letter.
The beige/red squares are double/triple word.
Let's say you play the following word:

You'd score two words: "grenades" and "stickers". You didn't modify "aisle", so you don't score it.
Let's do "stickers" first. Ignore the double letter and double word spaces, since they've already been used up. Only tiles placed this turn activate bonus spaces.

There are no letter multipliers.
Add the letters together: 14.
Apply the triple word multiplier from the S: 42.
The word score is 42.

Now "grenades". All of the bonus tiles are new, so we apply them.

Apply the double letter modifier to the N, making it worth 2 instead of 1.
Add the letters together: 11
Apply both triple word multipliers from the G and S: 99.
The word score is 99.

To finish up:

Add the word scores together: 141.
Add the bonus 50 for using all 7 tiles.

The turn score is 191.
If you were playing on a board that made it possible to apply double and triple word bonuses to the same play, you just multiply the word for each one. The order doesn't matter; it'll be x3 and x2, so x6 either way around.


Proving that a ring has only finitely many prime ideals

Question: Let $D$ be a Dedeking domain, $\mathfrak{i}$ a nonzero ideal of $D$ and let $B=D/\mathfrak{i}$ be the quotient ring. Then $B$ is a noetherian ring, and every prime ideal of $B$ is maximal. I have proved the following facts:
1) In $B$ every ideal contains a product of prime ideals;
2) Applying 1) to the zero ideal, we get that there exist distinct prime ideals $\mathfrak{p}_1,\ldots,\mathfrak{p}_n$ of $B$ such that
$$\mathfrak{p}_1^{a_1}\cdots\mathfrak{p}_n^{a_n}=(0)$$
for suitable $a_j\geq 1$;
3) Applying Chinese remainder theorem for rings, we get an isomorphism of rings
$$B\cong \frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_1^{a_n}}\oplus\ldots\oplus\frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_n^{a_n}}$$
What I can't prove is the following:
4) ideals $\mathfrak{p}_1,\ldots,\mathfrak{p}_n$ in 2) are all the primes  in $B$.
What I did is this: let $\mathfrak{q}$ be a prime ideal of $B$. I want to show that $\mathfrak{q}$ is actually one of the $\mathfrak{p}_i$'s. If we are in the case: $\mathfrak{q}\supseteq\mathfrak{p}_i^{a_i}$ for some $i$, then i've proved that $\mathfrak{q}=\mathfrak{p}_i$, for some $i$. What I can't prove is the other case: suppose that $\mathfrak{q}$ does not contain any of the $\mathfrak{p}_i$'s. Then $\mathfrak{q}\neq \mathfrak{p}_i$ for every $i$. Then $\mathfrak{q}$ and $\mathfrak{p}_i$ are distinct maximal, hence coprime. Then by CRT
$$\frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_1^{a_1}\cdots\mathfrak{p}_n^{a_n}\cdot\mathfrak{q}}\cong \frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_1^{a_n}}\oplus\ldots\oplus\frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_n^{a_n}}\oplus\frac{B}{\mathfrak{q}}$$
But $\mathfrak{p}_1^{a_1}\cdots\mathfrak{p}_n^{a_n}=(0)$, thus $\mathfrak{p}_1^{a_1}\cdots\mathfrak{p}_n^{a_n}\cdot\mathfrak{q}=(0)$ so that
$$B\cong\frac{B}{(0)}\cong \frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_1^{a_n}}\oplus\ldots\oplus\frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_n^{a_n}}\oplus\frac{B}{\mathfrak{q}}$$
Putting together i find
$$\frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_1^{a_n}}\oplus\ldots\oplus\frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_n^{a_n}}\cong \frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_1^{a_n}}\oplus\ldots\oplus\frac{B}{\mathfrak{p}_n^{a_n}}\oplus\frac{B}{\mathfrak{q}}$$
I want to deduce from this last equation that $\frac{B}{\mathfrak{q}}=(0)$ so that $B=\mathfrak{q}$, a contraddiction, but i don't know how to deduce this. Could someone help me please?
Answer: Well ${p_1}^{a_1}\cdot ... {p_n}^{a_n}=(0)$ and so is contained in $\mathfrak{q}$. $\mathfrak{q}$ is prime, and so doesn't it immediately follow that for some $i$, $p_i \subset \mathfrak{q}$?


How to calculate implied vol for next trading day?

Question: We can seem to get implied vol for a period from now to option expiration, but does anything tell us implied vol for the next trading day ?  Like if fomc is tomorrow the next day implied vol would be much higher.
Comment: You can always call your prime broker for an OTC 1-day straddle quote.
Answer: I'm going to start an answer on this and see if it generates discussion:
Firstly you can't get the implied vol to a specific period unless there are options that are liquid and traded around the period you are interested in.
you have four periods of vol, but you don't have listed options between the time periods (usually).
from now until the close of market, from close of market until open of market, from open of market to fomc inclusive, from fomc to next day close.
you might have information about the implied vol from now until close of market today (say there is an expiration on that day) and implied vol from now until close of market tomorrow.
then
totalVol = integral(sigma_instantenous(t)^2*dt, 0, T)/T. We can substitute sigma_instantenous(t) = implied vol, then totalVol = impv^2/T. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realized_variance
totalSigma(now until eod tomorrow) = impv(now to eod tomorrow)^2*t(now to eod tomorrow)
totalSigma(now until eod today) = impv(now to eod tomorrow)^2*t(now to eod tomorrow)
totalSigma from eod today to eodTomorrow = impv(now until eod tomorrow)-impv(now until eod today)
note this period includes both the overnight return and the fomc event. This might give you an idea.
An alternative method is to take the model approach. Fit a model such as sabr to the implied volatility surface, you can interpolate to different time periods. Granted this will likely not nicely take into consideration your fomc event:) See for example http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/system/files/private/active/0/On%20expansions%20for%20the%20SABR%20model.pdf


How much juice can you get from an orange?

Question: I wanted to make fresh orange juice using a squeezer and wanted to know how many oranges it takes to make an 8oz glass of juice?
Answer: you know better than I do, it depends on the orange and type of orange. My mom, an executive chef, used to say that you'd allow 1-2 lb of oranges for 1 drinkable cup of orange juice.
I really think, that it's highly dependent on the type of orange. I know naval and blood oranges are the juiciest compared to other varieties.
Answer: The amount of juice you get from an orange will depend on a number or things:

Size of the orange
Juice content of the orange
Whether you use the pulp or remove all the bits

May be you should be asking what oranges are best for producing the most amount of juice and how do I get the most juice from them?
The easiest way to find out how many oranges you need is to buy a bag of them and then start squeezing till you have a glass full :)
Answer: A medium sized orange will have roughly 2 oz of juice.
Comment: Which is just a tad shy of a 0,6 dl.
Answer: One way to get more juice from citrus is to juice it when warm. Cold fruit doesn't release as much juice. I put a skewer hole in my citrus (for safety issues) and then microwave the fruit for 20=30 seconds before cutting and juicing.
I'm also partial to Valencia oranges for juice.
Comment: i also microwave citrus for 15-30 seconds (depending on size) before squeezing, especially if i'm using my hands instead of a juicer.
Answer: With a masticating juicer, I've averaged 56% juice from unpeeled oranges (navel).
Answer: This will depend upon various factors and some of them I will list here:

The freshness of the orange
The size of the orange
The type of the orange
The type of the juicer

When it comes to freshness the main problem here is that oranges lose a certain percentage of their juices if they stay for too long. Basically, they dry like everything else.. No brainer really..
The size of the orange is the obvious one.
Now when it comes to the juicer type there are really many if them out there but you should be looking for the citrus juicer. Citrus juicers are designed to extract the most out of citrus fruit such as oranges. Usually most of them will do the work but I recommend the one I linked. You can also take a look at masticating juicers because they are known for their ability to extract the juice with no loss in quality. Besides masticating juicer can squeeze every drop out of the orange, but you will have to peel it. Still this can be profitable because if you buy 5 oranges you will want to drink as much juice as possible and leave little to none to waste.


What the advantage of a 'bakers couche' for proofing bread and is it safe?

Question: A bakers couch is just floured fabric, whats the advantage to using it?  King Arthur's site says that it promotes chewy, crunchy crust -  how's that?  If I'm just keeping it floured and not washed all the time, isn't there a risk of some kind of bacteria, or should it just be too dry?
Comment: Bacteria have a hard time getting established when all there is active yeast growing
Comment: Even if some bacteria do get onto the crust of your loaf, your next step will be to put it in a hot oven until it gets to a temperature that's easily hot enough to kill them.
Answer: The bakers couche is not just floured fabric, it is usually a hard wearing canvas
It is used to allow the dough to breath, and hold it's shape while your actual bread moulds are being used in the oven. The all over air gap allow the crust to dry slightly. A dry crust  makes it easier to handle and bakes slightly more crispy
The flour is there to stop the soft dough from sticking to the canvas, but a with careful handling and a well worn in couche this should not happen
If you keep the couche dry it should not develop mold or mildew. Even if it does, leave it out in the sunshine, so that the UV light can deal to it. I can't imagine that the occasional normal household mold is going to form dangerous toxins that can survive the oven!
After use, give the couche a good brush down with a clean fine bristled brush, and store somewhere dry
If you have plenty of the fine perforated steel moulds, you wont need to use a couche, just use the pans


Is block evasion a sin?

Question: Let's say your account on Facebook or Wikipedia has been blocked by site administration. Is it a sin, according to Judaism, to create new account in order to evade the block?
Comment: It's certainly a pain in the neck for the administrators.
Comment: Is getting blocked a Din in the gavra or the cheifetz?
Comment: Does the site allow this?
Comment: I think that your question is a good one Henry. Would the reason for being blocked be a factor?
Comment: Very related: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/6534/false-portrayal-on-an-anonymous-qa-site
Comment: @mevaqesh Pretty sure no, but plenty of people do it anyway.
Comment: Related: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/14396/is-ad-blocker-software-permissible
Answer: I'll assume that the blockage under consideration was the result of violating the site's terms of service and/or that creating a new account to evade the block is itself a violation of the site's terms of service, as one or the other is generally the case when accounts get blocked on websites.
It seems to me that participating in any sort of forum where the identity (account, in this case) under which one is participating is itself a violation of that forum's rules is inherently dishonest. At least as much as they prohibit or justify specific actions, a forum's rules create a sense of expectations shared by everyone who participates. Violating the rules covertly subverts those expectations.
Thus, it seems to me that such participation would constitute geneivat da'at, the overall prohibition against deception.
Here is an excellent survey of the literature on this prohibition, by R' Binyamin Zimmerman at Yeshivat Har Etzion. Here are some pertinent sources among those listed there:

Chulin 94a (with my translation):

דאמר שמואל
  אסור לגנוב דעת הבריות ואפילו דעתו של עובד כוכבים
As Shmuel said, it is forbidden to deceive people, even idol-worshipers.

Ritva, commenting there (my paraphrase, per R' Zimmerman):
Deception is prohibited by the Torah in Leviticus 19:11: "לֹ֖א תִּגְנֹ֑בוּ" - "You (pl.) shall not steal." The unqualified way it's presented indicates that it applies to all kinds of stealing, including deception, and to all kinds of targets.
Tosefta Bava Kama 7:3 (with my translation):

שבעה גנבין הן הראשון שבכולן גונב דעת הבריות
There are seven categories of thieves, and the foremost of all of them is one who deceives people.

Rambam, De'ot 2:6 (with Sefaria translation):

אָסוּר לָאָדָם לְהַנְהִיג עַצְמוֹ בְּדִבְרֵי חֲלָקוֹת וּפִתּוּי. וְלֹא יִהְיֶה אֶחָד בַּפֶּה וְאֶחָד בַּלֵּב אֶלָּא תּוֹכוֹ כְּבָרוֹ וְהָעִנְיָן שֶׁבַּלֵּב הוּא הַדָּבָר שֶׁבַּפֶּה. וְאָסוּר לִגְנֹב דַּעַת הַבְּרִיּוֹת וַאֲפִלּוּ דַּעַת הַנָּכְרִי. ... וַאֲפִלּוּ מִלָּה אַחַת שֶׁל פִּתּוּי וְשֶׁל גְּנֵבַת דַּעַת אָסוּר, אֶלָּא שְׂפַת אֱמֶת וְרוּחַ נָכוֹן וְלֵב טָהוֹר מִכָּל עָמָל וְהַוּוֹת:
It is forbidden for a person to conduct himself with duplicitous and seductive words, and he should not have one thing in the mouth and [another] thing in the heart. Rather, his inside should be like his outside, and the matter that is in his heart should be the matter that is in his mouth. And it is forbidden to deceive (literally, steal the mind) of the creatures, and even to deceive the gentile. ... And even one word of seduction and deceit is forbidden. But rather his language should be true and his spirit should be correct and his heart should be pure from all oppression and tricks.

Is block evasion a sin?


What is the term for being able to understand something in only an L2?

Question: I have this little thing with some of my L2 languages that I know that I can understand them in their own language, but not being able to "translate" it over to my L1 and understand it there. Is there a term for being able to understand an L2 and comprehend it as a L2 without being able to translate it back to L1?
Comment: This might be a case of a [lexical gap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_gap), if the reason is that the term doesn't exist in your L1. If it's just that you're unable to translate, I'm not sure of a term... this phenomenon, however, proves that translating is its own skill set, which cannot be assumed based on an understanding or ability to speak two languages.
Comment: @Flimzy It might be a lexical gap sometimes. But sometimes I do understand something in my L1, but I cannot make the connection without "forcing" the translation most of the time.
Comment: Do you mean that it's hard to remember the word or phrase in L1 that corresponds to the L2 one? I don't understand what you mean by understanding the phrase in L1. If you're the one saying it in L1, then by definition don't you understand what you're saying?
Comment: @DanGetz Basically that I cannot make the connection between what is said in the L2 and the L1 equivalent.
Comment: @SMSvonderTann is this when someone else says the L1 equivalent? Or if it's you talking, do you mean before or after you remember the L1 equivalent?
Comment: @DanGetz When someone else is speaking.
Comment: Do any of the current answers answer your question, and if not, why not?
Answer: I tend to say "doesn't translate well", however a term that fits the bill is Realia:

In translation, Realia (plural noun) are words and expressions for culture-specific material elements.
Realia must not be confused with terminology: the latter is primarily used in the scientific literature to designate things that pertain to the scientific sphere, and usually only appears in other kinds of texts to serve a very specific stylistic purpose.

Read this ELU question for more info.
Comment: My interpretation of the OP's question is the *cognitive* difficulty of finding the L1 word or expression for a given L2 word or expression, not the *lexical* difficulty that translators (apparently) call [realia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realia_(translation)). On LL SE, **realia** is potentially ambiguous, because it has a very different [meaning in language teaching](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realia_(education)): "objects from real life used in classroom instruction by educators to improve students' understanding of other cultures and real life situations" (quoted from Wikipedia).
Answer: If this is about what goes on in your mind instead of what's in the dictionary, the usual linguistic term is word finding difficulty.
Word finding difficulties are usually studied in the context of language attrition, which also includes first language attrition or FLA. In this context, you can also come across the term lexical first language attrition. (See for example, Lexical first language attrition (PDF) by Monika S Schmid and Scott Jarvis.
Word finding difficulties in one's native language have also been studied in the context of aphasia.
If the difficulty you are describing is not cognitive but about what's in the dictionary, realia (as suggested by Quill) may be the word you are looking for. (Note, however, that realia in the context of (language) teaching has a very different meaning.)


Dropped connection, when modem heats up?

Question: Can it be a factor? I have a 24 Mbps line, and around 12 computers connected to the modem using 2 switches, and no cooling. Its India, and summer. I lose connection every 10 minutes. The DSL light is on constantly, and I have tried 3 different modems, including complaints to the ISP (BSNL, in case you ask), to check the line quality. Is temperature a factor for dropped connections?
Answer: It could be. It's not unusual hardware reboots/shuts down if it gets too warm (as a safety precaution).
If your router gets too warm and reboots, it'll drop all connections (and most probably it'll be offline for short time).
Comment: +1 - temperature is a factor with any and all hardware, period, ever.
Answer: Definate issue.  Are the switches and modem stacked?  Often see this issue in Canada when modem is stacked on router and/or on switch.  Heat rises and something stops working.
One other possibility.  Are the devices on a UPS?  Have seen brownout send a modem or router into a "hung" state.


Adding a new strategy to an existing portfolio

Question: I wanted some help in looking for suitable articles/literature. Suppose an investor has a bunch (bouquet?) of quantitative strategies already generating trading signals for him. If he comes up with a new strategy, how can he test if it overleverages the securities in his portfolio by generating essentially the same trading signals or is independent of his existing strategies? A rudimentary method might involve comparing the sign of closing and intraday positions of each pair of strategies (long, neutral, or short), but are there any better ways of achieving the same? Further, if a strategy in the portfolio seems similar to the new one, how do you decide if you should swap them, include both, remove both, or discard the new one altogether?
Comment: did you learn more in this regard, the last 2 years?  please advise
Answer: This isn't literature but Quantopian (a crowd sourced hedge fund) selects new strategies if their returns have a low correlation (+- 30%) with other strategies in their portfolio (as well as other performance criteria!). - https://www.quantopian.com/allocation


Why did the Government of India Act create separate electorates for the depressed classes?

Question: The Communal Award, in 1932, conceded to the demands of B.R. Ambedkar and the ilk to have separate electorates for depressed classes. But Gandhji held fast unto death to undo this. So, Poona Pact  resulted in joint electorates for depressed classes with some reserved seats. So, then, why, in the Government of India Act 1935, did the government include separate electorates for depressed classes?
Comment: Not really @Oldcat. The British were not interested in doing any good to the population in India. It is quite clear that by this time their interests lay elsewhere.
Comment: **Every** Englishman hated *every* Indian?  Shocking!
Comment: It could also be a kind of 'affirmative action' to give representation to a class that is depressed due to discrimination..like the Untouchables were by Indian custom at the time.
Answer: This seems to be the rulers' method of "divide and rule", and largely to prevent the Congress from getting too strong:

...ensuring that the Congress could never rule alone or gain enough
  seats to bring down the government..
This was done by over-representing the Princes, by giving every
  possible minority the right to separately vote for candidates
  belonging to their respective communities, and by making the executive
  theoretically, but not practically, removable by the legislature. --
  from
  Wikipedia

It also seems that Gandhi's protests sort of died down:

The Mass Civil Disobedience Movement came to an end from 20th April,
  1934 with a resolution of the Congress Working Committee. The
  commotion created by the epic fast of Mahatmaji undertaken in protest
  against the MacDonald Award granting separate electorate to the
  depressed classes among the Hindus slowly died down on the acceptance
  of the historic Poona Pact by the British Government. Under the new
  dispensations scheduled castes gained double the number of seats
  allotted to them by the British Premier Ramsay MacDonald. ...When the
  Mass Civil Disobedience Movement was called off by Mahatmaji, Sri V.
  J. Patel and Sri Subhas Chandra Bose issued a joint statement from
  Vienna and observed— "The latest action of Mr. Gandhi in suspending
  the C. D. Movement was a confession of failure". -- from The Corridors of Memory by Rabindra Nath Aditya

On another note, since then Reserved Political Positions have remained in some form or the other.
(Full disclosure- the book above is by my grandfather, but has been quoted by Bidyut Chakravarty in his book The Partition of Bengal and Assam)
Answer: One of the primary aims of the Government of India Act was to weaken the rising Indian governing class, specifically, the Congress Party. For instance, Burma was separated from India altogether, and a number of Indian provinces were subdivided for "gerrymandering purposes. The idea of having "separate but equal" electorates for the classes at the bottom was to give them a certain sop to their pride, while dividing them from other Indian classes. Other provisions of the Act were meant to cater to the Princes.
These provisions didn't always achieve their intended purposes because the Indians were actually more united, (or at least less divided) against British rule than Britain thought. But they did represent the "rearguard" actions of a dying Empire.
Answer: You need to realize that the Government of India Act was passed by Britain, not India, since India was a British colony at the time. Whatever Gandhi worked out with the other Indians has no effect on what the Brits do unless they convinced them it's for better for British interests, which they didn't.


Will a muslim be punished if he feeds a dog?

Question: Assalam o Alaikum,
I am an ardent animal lover. I have a few stray dogs outside my house whom i feed everyday, and they stay outside my premises.
my neighbours have started stoning the poor creatures because they dont like dogs and they are "na-paak" in islam. infact they want us to get them killed because they keep coming back to our lane.
I have tried to shooh off those innocent creatures by spraying water on them, and they look at me with such sad eyes as if asking me "why are you doing this to us? what have we done?"
I feel like crying.
what does islam say about feeding and treating dogs? Are they supposed to be so deprived of love and mercy in islam?
And right now what should I do? should I stop feeding them?
Comment: Actually in the maliki madhab dogs aren't even considered najas. There are some hadiths about feeding dogs which is considered as a very good action.
Comment: No, you won't be punished. Instead you get rewards for behaving with pure intentions towards an animal that can't even speak. Feeding anyone human or animal, with pure intentions is a good thing (in Islam and otherwise), except in certain cases(which are too rare). The thing to worry about is keeping them inside the house, or bounds of house.
Answer: There is nothing in Islam that states to hate dogs. We just keep away from dogs inside house because it can be harmful to us. In Quran, you can see dog being a companion of Ashabul kahf (companions of cave, see sura 18). In Sura 5 verse 4, it says that we can use dogs for hunting.
Regarding giving food to dog, there is nothing wrong in it. There is even an hadith in which giving water to dog is praised

A person suffered from intense thirst while on a journey, when he
  found a well. He climbed down into it and drank (water) and then came
  out and saw a dog lolling its tongue on account of thirst and eating
  the moistened earth. The person said: This dog has suffered from
  thirst as I had suffered from it. He climbed down into the well,
  filled his shoe with water, then caught it in his mouth until he
  climbed up and made the dog drink it. So Allah appreciated this act of
  his and pardoned him. Then (the Companions around him) said: Allah's
  Messenger, is there for us a reward even for (serving) such animals?
  He said: Yes, there is a reward for service to every living animal.
  http://www.sunnah.com/muslim/39/210

Your neighbors may be objecting to you giving food from your house because this will cause stray dogs roaming around near your locality and causing disturbance to them. To avoid this, you can give food to dogs in a non residential area.
Comment: "We just keep away from dogs inside house because it can be harmful to us." - could you explain what you mean with "it can be harmful for us"?
Comment: If dogs get into contact with dogs outside, there are chance of them getting infected with rabies.  And through them others in house can also infected. My neighbor died of rabies which he got through this way.
Comment: Where do you live?
Comment: I am from India


Characterizing holomorphic functions in  $L^2(\Bbb C^n)$

Question: One of my homework problems this week is to "characterize all holomorphic functions in $L^2(\Bbb C^n)$". I'm sorry for not being able to provide much work on my progress, but that is because I really don't know where to begin. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Comment: Write down some holomorphic functions (say when $n = 1$ for simplicity) and check whether they lie in $L^2$. Repeat. Make a conjecture. See if you can prove it.
Comment: Well if a function is in $L^2(\mathbb{C}^n)$, what can you say about it as $|z| \rightarrow \infty$?  Then ask yourself what holomorphic functions can satisfy such a condition.
Comment: @MichaelJoyce: I'm not sure what you're getting at but I don't think there is a simple condition satisfied by $L^2$ functions at infinity.
Comment: The mean value problem for holomorphic functions will probably be useful.
Comment: @Eric: Oops, I initially thought $L^2$ + continuous would imply bounded, but that's not the case.
Comment: A variation of Liouville's theorem
Answer: This question is a little old, but for some reason it was bumped to the front page and I thought I'd provide another answer, demonstrating the applicability of some basic techniques from the theory of distributions. The conclusion obtained by Davide is a corollary to the slightly stronger statement that the polynomials are the only holomorphic functions on $\mathbb{C}^n$ which are also tempered distributions. The argument is based on the fact that a holomorphic function $f$ is necessarily a solution to an elliptic PDE, namely $\Delta f = 0$, and the benefit of this approach lies in the fact that it generalizes easily to any solution $f$ of an equation $Lf = 0$, where $L$ is an elliptic differential operator. Denote by $\mathscr{S}$ the Schwartz space in $\mathbb{C}^n \cong \mathbb{R}^{2n}$, and by $\mathscr{S}'$ the space of tempered distributions.
For the proof, let $f$ be a holomorphic function on $\mathbb C^n$ which also lies in $\mathscr{S}'$. One can express the Laplacian $\Delta$ as
$$
\Delta = 4\sum_{j = 1}^n\partial_{z_j}\partial_{\bar{z}_j}, \tag{1}
$$
where the differential operators $\partial_{z_j}$ and $\partial_{\bar{z}_j}$ are defined by
$$
\partial_{z_j} = \frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{\partial}{\partial x_j} + i\frac{\partial}{\partial y_j}\right) \quad \text{and} \quad \partial_{\bar{z}_j} = \frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{\partial}{\partial x_j} - i\frac{\partial}{\partial y_j}\right).
$$
By assumption $\partial_{\bar{z}_j}f = 0$ for $1 \leq j \leq n$, so we see by $(1)$ that $\Delta f = 0$ as well.
Because $f\in \mathscr{S}'$, we can apply the Fourier transform to the equation $\Delta f = 0$, finding that
$$
c |z|^2\hat{f} = \widehat{\Delta f} = 0 \tag{2}
$$
as tempered distributions; here $c$ is a nonzero constant which depends on the particular normalization of the Fourier transform used, and $|z|^2\hat{f}$ is the distribution defined for $\varphi \in \mathscr{S}$ by $|z|^2\hat{f}(\varphi) = \hat{f}(|z|^2\varphi)$. It follows at once from $(2)$ that $\hat{f}$ is supported at the origin: If $\varphi \in \mathscr{S}$ is supported on the open set $A_r = \{z:|z| > r\}$ for some $r > 0$, then $|z|^{-2}\varphi(z) \in \mathscr{S}$, so
$$
\hat{f}(\varphi) = |z|^2\hat{f}(|z|^{-2}\varphi) = 0.
$$
Taking the union of the sets $A_r$, we see that $\hat{f}$ is supported at the origin as claimed. Any distribution supported at the origin can be represented as a linear combination of the $\delta$-function and its derivatives (there is a bit of work hiding in this statement), so in particular we can find a positive integer $N$ and constants $c_\alpha$ such that
$$
\hat{f} = \sum_{|\alpha| \leq N} c_\alpha \partial_x^\alpha \delta.
$$
Now by applying the inverse Fourier transform we see that $f$ is a polynomial. If $p < \infty$, the only polynomial in $L^p(\mathbb{C}^n)$ is the zero polynomial, and the only polynomials in $L^\infty(\mathbb{C}^n)$ are constants, so we get the same result as Davide.
Answer: It's a part of the exercise 1.4 in R. Michael Range's book, Holomorphic functions and integral representation in several complex variables, Springer-Verlag.
We will see that holomorphic is too restrictive for integrable functions.
We use Cauchy's integral formula. Let $f\in\mathcal O(\mathbb C^n)\cap L^p(\mathbb C^n)$, with $1\leq p<\infty$. Fix $a=(a_1,\ldots,a_n)\in\mathbb C^n$. We define $\gamma^r(\theta):=(\gamma_j^r(\theta_j))_{j=1}^n$, where $\gamma_j^r(\theta)=a_j+r_je^{i\theta}$ and denote $\partial_j$ the partial derivative with respect to $z_j$. We get after passing to a volume integral
$$|\partial_jf(a)|\rho^{e_j+1}\leq \frac 1{(2\pi)^n}\int_{[0,2\pi]^n}|f(\gamma^{r\rho}(\theta))|\rho_1\ldots\rho_nd\theta_1d\theta_2$$
and integrating over $\rho_1,\ldots,\rho_n$ from $0$ to $r$, we get
$$|\partial_jf(a)|\leq \frac 3{(2\pi)^nr^3}\lVert f\rVert_{L^p(\mathbb C^n)}\operatorname{vol}([0,2\pi]^n)^{\frac p{p-1}},$$
so letting $r\to +\infty$ it gives $\partial_jf(a)=0$ so $f$ is constant. Since it's $p$-integrable, $f$ needs to be $0$.
For the case $p=+\infty$, we have $|\partial_jf(a)|\leq \frac 3{(2\pi)^nr^3}\lVert f\rVert_{L^{\infty}(\mathbb C^n)}\operatorname{vol}([0,2\pi]^n)$ so $f$ is constant.
Conclusion: $\mathcal O(\mathbb C^n)\cap L^p(\mathbb C^n)=\begin{cases}\{0\}&\mbox{ if }1\leq p<\infty\\\
\{z\mapsto c, c\in\mathbb C^n\}&\mbox{ if }p=+\infty.
\end{cases}$


How to prevent batteries leaking out in devices?

Question: Is there a common method of preventing batteries from leaking out and destroying the device?  Why does this happen in the first place?  I have laid another head lamp to waste because it was sitting in my truck unused for several months.  Could it be because of the lack of use?  In that case, should the batteries be taken out in anticipation of less use?
Comment: Almost all battery packages say "*Store in a cool dry place*". While your truck may be [cool](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_(aesthetic)), it probably is not the [cool](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature) they are referring to (especially in the summer).
Comment: Years ago when I was in emergency services, I learned that one brand was far less likely to leak than others. Maybe they use thicker metal in their casings or better sealant, but with the reductions in power requirements of modern technology, the problem of batteries corroding before dying (and ruining much more expensive equipment) is only going to get worse. I've never bought any other brand since. I don't need to advertise by mentioning the name. We all know who they are. (BTW - There's a certain other, very old, brand that I've always found to be the worst about premature leaking. You don'
Comment: I had two Sony "Cyber-Shot" Ni-MH batteries leak inside a camera and corrode one of the four contacts. A bit of white vinegar on a cue tip cleaned it up nicely.
Answer: Acid cell and Alkaline Batteries function by a process of controlled corrosion of two different elements which creates a voltage potential and a current if the circuit is completed.
This process is in continuous motion from the day of manufacture, while it sits on the shelf in its packaging, while installed in the equipment during off/idle periods. It accelerates with higher discharge rate during use, and continues after the cell is unable to produce useful power to run the device
Alkaline batteries have a sealed container that serves as one of the electrodes. While it undergoes a lot slower corrosion than the case on the old Acid cells, it still corrodes. It is part of the process that allows the battery to function. You don't prevent it.

Dead batteries should never be left in equipment, their process is nearly complete and the shell is close to breach.
Live batteries have a date on them for a reason. Chemical reaction occurs even if the battery is live and able to run the equipment. Often with today's LED technology, for example, the batteries will corrode through and start leaking long before they become too weak to run the flashlight.
Prevention is worth a pound of cure. Remove batteries from the device when not in use for extended periods of time. If it is part of a crash kit where you need batteries with the device at all times for emergency use, store them in a separate ziplock bag and check their dates periodically as well as for leakage.
Don't mix different cells in a device which takes more then one cell. Alkaline cells tend to leak when a potential voltage is applied, i.e. when you try to charge them. This can happen in devices with more than one cell in series if some of the cells have less capacity than others. This is why one should never mix cells by type, brand or age in devices where the cells are connected in series (which is virtually all devices that take cells in the same compartment).
Comment: In emergency services, you learn not to rely on rechargeable batteries. You use Alkaline batteries as a bootstrap to get up and running till you can establish a charging power source. Alkalines are always ready to run, self-discharge means that a good portion of your idle Ni-MH batteries are on partial charge after a week or two. Once you have the charger going pull the Alkalines and run rechargeables for the extended duration. Li-Poly systems are better due to the low self-discharge and much higher power density. You still need a charger power source.
Comment: I agree completely. And alkaline batteries are obsolete anyway--rechargeable NiMH and Li-ion batteries have comparable or higher energy densities and can be reused hundreds of times.
Comment: "Still useful" and "obsolete" are not mutually exclusive. There are a number of reliable cars from the 70s that are still useful, but that doesn't mean there aren't better options. I think lithium batteries would be a better (but pricier) "always ready" choice because they store more energy, but cost is always important. As battery tech improves, I suspect it will become more efficient in the future to just carry low self-discharge rechargeables and swap them out like alkalines until charging is possible.
Comment: if you store them in glass, even if they leak, they won't get through the glass
Comment: @FiascoLabs Actually, even back when you made your comment, [low self-discharge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2%80%93metal_hydride_battery#Low_self-discharge) NiMH batteries had been around for quite a few years. (Sanyo introduced Eneloop in 2005.) These do have a slightly lower capacity than high self-discharge NiMH batteries of the same size, but it's not a significant difference.
Answer: Yes on battery removal.  I've had better luck with name brand batteries.
Before you pitch the lamp, try some vinegar, scraping off the scale ( I used a cotton swab soaked in vinegar) then neutralize with baking soda and finally rinse with water.  I just resurrected a kitchen timer this way.
I think ( but don't know), that the battery chemistry is more likely to leak after a use that fully depletes them, or heats them thru a hard use.
Comment: +1 - I too have rescued multiple devices by using the vinegar cleaning technique. My experience is that this works fairly well as long as the battery has not leaked onto a printed circuit board. The chemicals like to eat the copper traces right off the circuit board and it can take some serious rework to get it functioning again -- if ever. I had to toss a computer mouse with this corrosion problem.
Answer: It is generally always recommended that the batteries be removed from devices that are not in use. Even the device manufacturers recommend this.
I'm not sure what actually leads to batteries leaking other than a failed seal. It is possible that a device exposed to wide temperature excursions may make the battery seals more prone to failure.
There is more information at this link as to what kinds of things can lead to battery seals failing. Like all things on the internet there may be some points made there that are not fully valid ... but the electrical engineer in me tends to agree with these points:

Do not mix batteries of different sizes, brands, remaining charge level and age.
Be aware that a sharp drop or case deformation (denting) of the battery could lead to degradation or failure of the battery seals.
Use common sense and check condition of the batteries in a device fairly often. If a device is to remain idle for an unknown time then play it safe and simply remove the batteries. You can put them in a zipper lock plastic bag so in case they leak you can keep the caustic chemicals contained in a safe place.
Comment: Batteries operate by controlled corrosion. Even if sealed, the outer container on Alkaline and Acid batteries corrodes through, releasing the mess into the equipment that contains them. If they aren't in the device, they can't destroy it, as you point out.
Answer: The best way to avoid battery leakage is to:

Use newer batteries that are not expired,
Keep them out of hot places, and
Don't mix battery types such as Duracell with Energizer.

Using name brand batteries will also help prevent battery leakage.  Make sure to change batteries often.
Answer: One option could be to use rechargeable batteries. From what I understand, they're better designed to prevent leaks. NiMH batteries have improved over the years and the newer ones last longer and have a better standby life (such as the Panasonic Eneloop line).
Answer: A few more thoughts:
While alkies may leak, the crud they exude is alkiline, not especially damaging to the device and isn't too hard to clear away. Old-style/cheap (zinc-carbon?) Batterues use an acidic electrolyte, which is more destructive if it escapes.
Batteries can go bad before their nominal date I have a package that should have another year on it but that has started leaking.
NiNH is indeed aomewhat less likely to leak, partly because the chemistry is a bit scary (especially when fast-charging)