Is quantum cryptography safer than classical cryptography?

Question: Quantum computing allows us to encrypt information in a different way compared to what we use today, but quantum computers are much more powerful than today's computers. So if we manage to build quantum computers (hence use quantum cryptography), will the so-called "hackers" have more or fewer chances of "hacking" into the systems? Or is it impossible to determine it?
Comment: Related: [What makes Quantum Cryptography secure?](https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/51311/what-makes-quantum-cryptography-secure/51314)
Answer: If you are talking specifically about quantum key distribution (quantum cryptography being an umbrella term that could apply to lots of stuff), then once we have a quantum key distribution scheme, this is theoretically perfectly secure. Rather than computational security that much of current cryptography is based on, quantum key distribution is perfectly secure.
That said, it is only perfectly secure subject to certain assumptions relating mainly to lab security. These same assumptions are essentially present in the classical case as well, just that because the quantum experiments are a lot more fiddly, it might be harder to be completely on top of all the possible attacks. Realistically, these are already the directions in which cryptography is attacked, rather than trying to brute force a crack. For example, exploits relying on a bad implementation of a protocol (rather than the protocol itself being flawed).
What quantum crypto, or post quantum crypto, is aiming to do is sidestep the loss of computational security implied by a quantum computer. It will never avoid these implementation issues.
In a completely shameless plug, you might be interested in my introduction to quantum cryptography video. It talks a little about this computational vs perfect security question (although doesn't really talk about possible hacks of QKD).
Comment: @JanVdA BB84 and other schemes might be "provably secure", but it's provably secure subject to assumptions. Particularly, that both parties have secure labs. For instance, if someone else can see your monitor, they can read your decrypted message. It doesn't matter how good your cryptography is. But in the quantum case, there are some very subtle (hardware dependent) things that can happen. that yield something similar. For instance, in BB84, if it takes some time to change the basis in which you're sending photons, time analysis can reveal what basis is being used.
Comment: I just had a short presentation about [BB84](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB84) which is a quantum key distribution scheme.  So my understanding is that this is "safer" (even stronger it is "provably secure") than any classical cryptography.  So I am just wondering what you mean by "_because the quantum experiments are a lot more fiddly, it might be harder to be completely on top of all the possible attacks_".
Answer: Most attacks now on classical computers don't actually break the encryption, they trick the systems / communication protocols into using it in a weak way, or into exposing information via side channels or directly (via exploits like buffer overflows).
Or they trick humans into doing something (social engineering).
I.e. currently you don't attack the crypto itself (because things like AES or RSA are very well tested), you attack the system built around it and the people using it.

All of these avenues of attack will sill be present when computers communicate via quantum encryption.  However, with quantum encryption theoretically giving perfect security instead of just computational security, tricking a system into weakening its encryption (by using weak keys or wrong keys or keys you already know) shouldn't be a problem.
Possibly there will be weaknesses that systems need to avoid in quantum crypto, especially practical implementations that work over imperfect channels.

TL:DR: When quantum computers can practically attack RSA and the world switches over to quantum crypto for communication without a pre-shared secret, we'll be back in the same situation we are now: the crypto itself is not the weakest link.
Comment: Welcome to quantum computing! It's worth adding/mentioning that in theory, there is the potential possibility of a quantum computer someday cracking classical encryption entirely. However, I agree that this answer explains that actual issues in cryptography in that the encryption method is no longer (currently) the weakest link
Comment: @Mithrandir24601: I meant *currently* you don't attack the crypto, thanks for pointing out the ambiguity in the way I put it.  Updated to clarify.
Answer: There is one big difference between quantum cryptography and quantum computing. Yes, both belong together but when talking about quantum computing and cryptography most people mean implementing a quantum algorithm to attack currently used cryptographic schemes (RSA, ECC, AES) using factoring, calculating discrete logarithms or implementing a fast search algorithm which searches in O(sqrt(N)). Quantum cryptography uses entanglement to create correlations in a state and uses this as a resource for 1) detecting whether there is an attacker on the channel (QKD), 2) secret sharing, anonymous transmission etc in quantum networks and 3) verifying that the network state distributed is really the state (or sufficiently close to the state) which is desired and necessary to implement a certain protocol. Yes, the results can also be used for theoretical foundations in quantum information/computation but still both are different. I think there is one quantum key exchange protocol which does not rely on entanglement and only uses the No-cloning theorem for its security proof but I am not entirely sure about that. The security of QKD relies on detecting when the key is intercepted and throwing out that part of a potential key. The security after the key exchange relies on the one time pad which is mathematically secure when using a truly random key and using it only once. The randomness is again guaranteed by creating entropy for a quantum source in the first place. Using it once is upon the user.


Is it okay if I wrote a story based on true historical events?

Question: I had a story in mind that basically came from a true historical event in the 1930's. I won't be using real people for the characters but the main storyline is somewhat based on what actually happened. I'll try making it a little different, a little modern, but I think it'll be obvious where the idea about my storyline came from. Will that be considered rude or insensitive of me since actual people did die during those times in the past?
Comment: It comes to my mind a movie about a fictional couple whose love blooms before and during probably the most famous ship wreck in history...
Comment: people die everyday, every minute. You can't avoid writing about any time period, even two minutes ago if you are afraid of offending the dead. If you are talking about something terrible, like say, the Holocaust, well....there was a little Oscar winning picture called "La Vita Bella" or "Life is Beautful" about two fictional people falling in love in Fascist Italy and enduring the Holocaust
Comment: Welcome to Writing.SE *Allis*! If you have a moment please take the [tour] and visit the [help] to learn more about the site. Have fun!
Comment: Sure, why not?  Shakespeare did it all the time.
Answer: Historical fiction based on real events is a huge part of the genre of historical fiction. In fact, the taste today seems to be for stories that are as close to historical events as possible, with authors often basing their stories on one particular character (famous or otherwise) and often including notes almost apologizing when they rearrange actual events to make the story work more neatly. Historical fiction, in other words, is increasingly becoming documentary fiction.
Answer: I may be interpreting OPs intent incorrectly, but I think the other answers are a little off, as I don't think this is historical fiction but rather a modern retelling based on a historical event.
As an example, I see it as perhaps -- what if I had two characters like Bonnie and Clyde, but it is set in the 2000's. They are still a couple and go on a crime spree with similar events as to what actually happened and though their names are different, people who are familiar with Bonnie and Clyde would see the link.
Another way of viewing it, would be that if "Romeo and Juliet" had actually happened (as opposed to being a work of fiction itself), then OPs story would be "West Side Story".
And, yes this type of writing is quite common.
Comment: Welcome to Writing.SE *Glen*! If you have a moment please take the [tour] and visit the [help] to learn more about the site. Have fun!
Answer: What you describe, if I understand it correctly, is historical fiction. That's a genre with a long and proud tradition. It includes works as diverse as Ivanhoe, War and Peace, The Three Musketeers, and All Quiet on the Western Front. It can be close to historical events, which, as Mark Baker points out, is the modern trend, or it can be as imaginative as Dumas' works. How true you stay to historic events is entirely up to you.
I would draw your attention in particular to Catch 22. It's hilarious (in parts). It's a satire. And it's about the soldiers in WW2. People died during those times. Quite a few of them, in fact. The tragedy doesn't mean you have to treat the time period like it's somehow sacred. You can write about it, people should write about it (otherwise, it would just be forgotten), you needn't be afraid to find the beautiful, and the funny, and the grotesque, in a hard situation.
If you go and imply that nobody in fact died in the ugly period you base your story on, or if you go "it's great that they died", people might get upset. Otherwise, have fun.
Comment: Sure, but in comparison, a lot of historical fiction has fictional *characters* surrounded by the real characters from history.  I was surprised when I first learned that there really *was* a Porthos, Athos, D'Artagnan, etc.
Comment: *The Three Musketeers* is certainly imaginative, but it's astonishing how accurate it is in broad strokes and how well tied in to the story details the real historical events are.
Comment: @Wildcard broad strokes - yes, quite. The details - not so much. For instance, by the time the real Porthos became a musketeer, Athos had already been killed in a duel.
Comment: @Wildcard good point.
Answer: Yes, this is commonly called "Alternate History"
To cite from Wikipedia:

Alternate history or alternative history (Commonwealth English), sometimes abbreviated as AH, is a genre of fiction consisting of stories in which one or more historical events occur differently. These stories usually contain "what if" scenarios at crucial points in history and present outcomes other than those in the historical record. The stories are conjectural, but are sometimes based on fact. Alternate history has been seen as a subgenre of literary fiction, science fiction, or historical fiction; alternate history works may use tropes from any or all of these genres.

What you want to do is perfectly normal.
As long as you are not trying to make it a comedy and thereby being insensitive towards the groups of people that have died in that time you are free to write whatever comes to your mind.
Comment: What Allis is describing is straight up historical fiction, not alternative history. Alternative history is when you ask what would have happened if a major historical event had turned out differently, such as if the South had won the American Civil War.
Comment: @MarkBaker The OP is "making it a little different, a little modern", so they are changing the history and they are basing their story on "a true historical event", which means they are presenting an alternate version of historical events. Historical fiction on the other hand wouldn't care too much about real events, but more about the mannerisms of the time depicted in the story. At most there would be allusions to real historical events.
Comment: @WhiteEagle The OP is concerned about being perceived as insensitive when changing things that are inspired by events where people were killed. To not be perceived as insensitive you should try not to turn it into ridicule. (I hope those are the correct words. Basically, "Don't make fun of the dead.")
Comment: What do you mean by "As long as you are not trying to make it a comedy and thereby being insensitive towards the groups of people that have died in that time you are free to write whatever comes to your mind?" Are you saying if I turned an alternate history into a comedy, would that illegal or would it just be unethical?
Comment: @Secespitus, as a paid up long time member of the Historical Novel Society and occasional contributor the their magazine and attendee at their conference, let me assure you that this is not the case. Historical fiction cares deeply about real events and constantly debates just how much deviation from them is acceptable. Most historical fiction today sticks as close as it can to real events, but does, often, modernize attitudes and ideas of its central characters to make them more acceptable to the prejudices of the modern audience.
Comment: @Secespitus Ah, thank you. Wasn't sure what you meant there.
Comment: @Secespitus there is of course "Catch 22", which goes and makes fun of the US military during WW2...
Comment: @Galastel If that's the style you want or you are simply not afraid of being perceived as insensitive then there is absolutely no problem with satire. But as the OP specifically doesn't want that I'll stick with "Don't make fun of the dead."
Answer: Yes, people do this all the time. In science fiction, especially I think, there are lots of stories where someone took the fall of the Roman Empire and reworked it to be the fall of the Galactic Empire, or someone took Columbus discovery of America and reworked it into Earth's discovery of an alien planet, etc etc.
Yes, there are people who get offended when a work of fiction discusses some brutal reality of life, like murder or kidnapping or torture or rape. But if we're going to banish all things bad from fiction, what would we have left? Children's stories about Sally's first visit to the zoo, I guess. Even that some people would complain about the mistreatment of animals in zoos.
Answer: A good historical novel is well grounded in history, including "true historical events." The part that should be fictitious is that "your" characters are doing the heavy lifting.
You might have a major character that was a bodyguard to General George Washington. You should not have your character "lose" George Washington to the enemy (that would be historically inaccurate; a "near miss" is ok). Instead, the bodyguard character then uses his access to Washington for his own personal and professional development.
In most historical fiction, major characters in history should be minor characters in your novel, and major characters in your novel should be minor characters in history (as in the case of Washington and his bodyguard). The exception would be if your main character was a historical figure; George, or at least Martha Washington.


Do professionals all edit their pictures heavily?

Question: I am wondering how many serious photographers do heavy editing in Photoshop after taking those pictures. Do all or most professional photographers do that? Or they just do a simple cropping and adjusting a brightness and contrast compare to those doing like removing an object from a picture to make it perfect, etc.?
Answer: Like Joanne, I can't really speak for pros either. I think it really depends on the person, as some people like to do post-processing, and others are real sticklers about doing everything in camera, with minimal (if any) post processing.
A couple landscape photographers I like span the range. Joseph Holmes is a great photographer who doesn't seem to do much in the way of post processing. A lot of his work is film, but is more recent stuff is digital. All of it looks pretty much the same (an amazing feat in and of itself to keep your digital work and film work similar.)
Marc Adamas is widely considered one of the greatest landscape photographers of our time. It is quite clear from his work that he does some fairly ample post processing of his images, which these days are all digital. His work is excellent, and particularly saturated and vibrant. Some of his works are compositions of a few shots (such as his image of a high mountain river with the milky way in the background.
In my own work, I've gone through a couple phases. For about 6-8 months after I first started photography, I did some pretty heavy post processing. I would spend hours fine tuning each pick, even more hours trying to use HDR to create "better" photographs, etc. My tactics have changed entirely in my more recent work. I have switched to putting more time into each shot, making sure I am using the correct lens (often taking the same shot with a variety of lenses and focal lengths), making sure I have exactly the correct exposure (resorting to graduated ND filtration rather than HDR when a scene escapes the bounds of my cameras dynamic range), using live view and treating my camera like a large-format view camera to get precise composition and perfect focus, etc. My latest work requires FAR less post processing, and is notably better than my early work where I relied more heavily on post processing. Where I could spend days working an HDR image and its tone mapping to get an ok result, graduated neutral density filters eliminate the need, and produce more pleasing results strait out of the camera. I spend maybe 5 minutes or so figuring out what filtration to use, and getting it placed in front of my lens. Ultimately, I am more satisfied when I put the time in out in the field to work the scene, find my vantage point, and meticulously prepare and take my photographs. I also enjoy having more time on my hands at home since I am not spending hours working my images just to get them to look "decent". I can now put that time into making them look like "mine"...a stylized, artistic signature of who I am and how I see the world.
A simple rule of thumb is, outside of basic exposure control and white balance, if you didn't get it right in camera, you generally can't fix it post-process. If your focus is off, if you blow out your highlights or block your shadows (or both in very high contrast scenes), if you didn't compose the scene properly, if you didn't even capture the most interesting scene (i.e. try different focal lengths), then there is little or nothing you can do in post processing to fix it. Basically, post-processing isn't a replacement for good camera work, although it can often enhance good camera work.
That said, some things can't be done in camera. A lot of stylistic, personal trait, or artistic elements of a photograph can only be done during post processing. While certainly no replacement for getting proper composition and framing, focus, dof, etc. in camera, you have a lot of artistic freedom when working with your images on a computer. The possibilities are almost limitless, from simply pushing saturation to the limit like Marc Adamas, to moderate image cleanup that removes unwanted elements from an image (i.e. using Photoshop CS5 Content-Aware fill to remove unwanted or unexpected ugly objects from an otherwise great photo), to complex photomanipulation that takes elements of one or more photographs (and possibly artificial elements), and blends them together to make something entirely new and unique.
Post-processing is ultimately a personal choice, and a fundamental element of ones personal style. You can choose to put all your effort into capturing the perfect picture strait out of the camera, or you can put some effort into turning what you capture with the camera into a unique, stylistic work of artistic perfection that is readily and clearly recognized as "your" work. Neither is the "correct" way, neither is the "best" way, any route you take is simply a part of your personal style, a factor of your work.
Comment: Marc's work is absolutely amazing.
Comment: Marc Adamus rather looks a lot like the Dave Hill of landscape. Some pretty stunning shots there.
Answer: I can't speak for the pros, though I would tend to think that if they're selling it, they probably spend some time on it. Of course, if they're shooting for advertising, then it is pretty much assured that the image is going to see a lot of post-processing work...
For myself, it depends. In general, for most, I feel that if I have to spend more than a few minutes on the image, than I haven't taken a good enough shot. Usually I do some curve adjustments, perhaps noise reduction, sharpening (since RAW needs it), and maybe some minor saturation adjustments. Mind you, I'm not about to be featured in a photo magazine for my brilliance, so take my approach with that particular grain of salt. :)
Now, if I'm going for something "artsy" that just uses the image as a base, I'll spend more time on it, quite a bit sometimes. I didn't used to do that kind of thing, but then I came to the conclusion that I'm not a photojournalist, that I'm trying to create art, and so using one of my photographs as a base for that is just fine. I can't draw or paint, so I have to start from something!
Answer: It will always depend on the type of photography, but I'd suggest there is a scale:
With virtually no post-processing (so maybe keywording, maybe lens calibration adjustments) you get the world of the Stock photographer - most agencies prefer unsharpened pictures, as it would be normal for their client to go on and make final adjustments ready for their media.
With a bit more processing (so we're adding in things like sharpening for final display, or tweaking levels for greater artistic expression) you get your landscape photographers.
Then you're into the realms of portraiture, which generally needs the most attention; Wedding shots must be colour corrected (there's nothing more embarrassing than a white wedding dress coming out cream, or the groom's white shirt appearing pink). Wedding shots generally have wildly changing lighting conditions whilst at the same time having to get the shots in quickly, so it's difficult to get this right in camera - personally, I always shoot weddings in RAW, and tidy up the white balance later when the camera gets it wrong. Some wedding photographers will also tidy up skin blemishes, or marks on the dress much like...
Finally you get your studio photographers, dealing with either inanimate objects (food/product shots/etc.) or models under controlled conditions - this means they can nail things like exposure and white balance "in-camera", and focus post processing on getting the correct textures and sheens.
As a general rule, I, like many of the the other photographers I've spoken with, like to do most of the work "in camera", as it is generally faster in the long run, and with better results.
Comment: Great answer, although there seems to be a recent trend in landscape photography towards heavy photoshopping
Answer: The standard answer is "it depends". Sometimes you get everything right and only minor adjustments are needed, and sometimes you want to make sure it's perfect in every way because you want to print it large.
For me it depends on the nature of the photograph. I spend more time cleaning up portraits, and almost nothing if it's just a family snapshot. And by "almost nothing" I mean correcting white balance and cropping, and that really is minimal.
I do think that all digital pictures could always use some processing, even if it's a simple curves adjustment, to bring them to life. It is a major advantage of digital photography.
Answer: For me it really depends - I have been trying to improve my shots on camera and then the plan is only to heavily process a shot if I am looking for a distinctive look.
I do tend to spend more time cleaning up portraits, making sure the skin tone is even. Occasionally a spot of photoshopping to remove blemishes.
When I first started I used to think that heavily processing shots was cheating in a way - I now understand that it is a methodology for enhancing what you have already done. I wish my editing skills were better
Answer: In general, less is more is your friend. It is really going to depend on the type of photography you do. I shoot mainly events and portraiture.
For events, beyond correcting white balance and adjusting crops (which includes leveling the photos at times) I do very little.
For portraits, after making selects, I will do some more post-processing, but in general less is more. I might remove minor blemishes, whiten the teeth and eyes a bit and adjust levels if my exposure was off.
Something to keep in mind, post-processing a bad photo will not make it better. At best, it might elevate a mediocre photo to passable. Even with heavily processed HDR work, unless the composition is awesome to begin with, you're not going to make it awesome by doing tons of tone mapping. If you polish a turd until is shines, at the end of the day, it's still a turd.
Answer: Not for certain type of Pro. Images represent the publications that they appear in and it is not usually up to the photographer to decide what level of manipulation is needed.
It is up to the photo-editor to decide when changes are acceptable and when they should be applied. Most of the time, it is limited to cropping to fit the aspect ratio of the required format. Contrast and colors are only touched to allow images to print correctly.
In some publications were are not even allowed to edit (in the selection sense) which photos get seen by the photo-editor. They require all images to be handed-in and the editor chooses which part of the story is to be told. It is extremely important that the magazine can represent images as truthfully as possible as the reputation depends on this greatly. One manipulated photo may be all it takes to discredit a publication for years.
Answer: It depends on what your goal is as a photographer and how much work your willing to put into it. When i first started photography I had asked the same question and when I did my research I found out pretty much what the other commenters are saying; the large majority do edit. Because most of the professional (digital) world edits I wondered if it was possible at all to get incredible work without editing at all, just using the camera's internal settings and abilities.
8 years have passed and I have yet to post process an image. I've done several weddings, professional race tracks as well as professional jobs for fashion designers and even major sports events. Just as in most cases in the professional world; if you have the product that meets the standards then it doesn't matter how you got there as long as you are there. I would say it took me a much longer time compared to editors to get to the point where I felt comfortable sharing my work. Since I never edited it pushed me to learn the faults and strengths of my camera and now I use it like an extension of my self. If you'd like to judge my work for yourself just check out my website.
So to go back to the beginning. My intention/goal as a photographer was to focus entirely on the camera work (I did not want to do anything that did not involve the moment I took the image). Secondly, I had an extreme excitement and desire to challenge myself and see how far I can go with only the tools I had at the moment of the shot. Because I followed both of these things I do not and will never regret not making this decision. The proof is that I'm still excited about the process and I'm even now on the search for my next camera to dominate.
Answer: It depends on the photographer, client, intended use, etc. ad nauseum. Some types of photography - high end commercial, for example - will be highly post-processed by a professional image editor. A real estate photographer (like moi-self) might prefer to spend as little time in post as possible, although I do my own post-processing. (I, in fact, use presets in Lightroom almost exclusively because post adds no profit to the job.)
It just depends.
Answer: There's a Nikon endorsed photographer named Cliff Mautner, and he said in couple of places that he does not do post processing. All he do is cropping and minor changes and he just chooses a good natural light and go with it. Apart from him, I have not seen anybody who claimed not to post process. So it really depends on the photographer but I think 95% of them do edit pictures. Pictures don't always look good if you shoot RAW so you have to process them anyway.


Does the intro sequence to the Game of Thrones TV series have any meaning?

Question: The intro to Game of Thrones episodes includes a model mechanical world sprouting up buildings at Kings' Landing, Winterfell, and other key locations.  Does this have any significance other than something cool to look at?
Comment: Pretty sure that was the heart tree of Winterfell's godswood.  The books explain more about the details of godswoods and heart trees, but they don't play a major part in the story (however there are hints that they may come into play later on in the series).
Comment: I myself wonder about that white tree springing up in Winterfell.  Do we ever see it?
Comment: @Billare I think we saw it in the first episode.  The Starks had a chat beneath it.
Comment: Yes, it means that the best show ever is about to start. Dun dun, da da dun dun, da da duuuuuuuun!
Comment: It does change depending on events that have happened.  After Winterfell was sacked, for instance, the model in the intro was trashed and spewing smoke, and as the story moves in emphasis to different areas, they get shown or omitted from the sequence.
Comment: @Keen @Beofett Interesting, I discounted that tree because it didn't look to me like it was within the city walls...
Answer: George R. R. Martin's blog had a link recently to a site with some information about the title sequence. It includes an interview that gives some insight into the process of building the sequence.
Game of Thrones (2011), Art of the Title
To summarize:

The original idea was to show a map, but this was too… flat. So the artists decided to depict intricate miniatures — denoting top-notch craftsmanship as a metaphor for GRRM's writing.
The style evokes the kinds of miniatures that could have been built with about the technology in the story. It's as if a talented and devoted artist from the GoT world had made them.
The world is shown as the inside of a sphere to make the "camera" movements look better — zoom out from a location, rotate the camera, zoom into a different location, without risking showing an edge of the world.
The miniatures depict locations that are seen in the episode. Thus the intro sequence varies from episode to episode: it depends on the visited locations. In addition, there are minor variations in the cuts, just to introduce a little unpredictability.

They don't explain how the title music is able to lodge in your brain and linger there for days after you watch an episode though...
Comment: I think the relevant phrase here is "Cities and towns rise ... their mechanical growth driven by the gears of politics and the cogs of war"
Comment: I also find it wonderful that they include backstory in iconic form on the rings that revolve around the »sun«.
Comment: True! I love the harpsichord(?) quietly echoing the main theme after the crescendo leading to the title drop.
Comment: I have heard that it will also show the House symbols of those who will play a part in this episode. So if it's a Dragon it will be about Daenerys, if it's a Wolf, it will be about House Stark, etc. etc.
Comment: I always thought of the intro map being the inside of a sphere as a toss back to when Old Nan told Brann that the world was all the inside of a blue-eyed giant.
Answer: One interesting thing to note, the intro changes in each episode. It shows only the aspects of the world that will be shown in that episode. Watch episode 5 intro and you will not see anything across the narrow sea in the intro, but you will see a closer view of the Eyrie.
Comment: Indeed, it took me a few weeks to be sure I wasn't imagining the changes. I love that it's dynamic like that.
Answer: If you look carefully at the center of each "city",  the ruling Houses' Crest/Symbols are shown.  For instance, at Winterfell, you can see the DireWolf,  King's Landing has the Stag of Baratheon.
Comment: All the actor's names also have their character's family crest in front of their name.
Comment: Well then it will be interesting to see how the crests during the intro change as the game progresses.
Answer: As far as I can tell, the only point of the intro sequence is to show the viewers the map of Westeros, so that they have some idea of what happens where.  I think the mechanical castles are just there to look cool.
Comment: I would agree with that. Many of HBO's shows have had very flashy intros (Rome, Carnivale, Deadwood, etc.), and I don't think any of them revealed much in the way of the plot.
Answer: One important interpretation I made from the title sequence was that how much it makes Westeros look like a little kid's build yourself kind of puzzle. That really reinforces the concept that the whole thing is a game, with different players and locations being game pieces.
Answer: It appears that the title sequence was originally intended to be used as transitions to indicate the movement of the plot to different parts of the world.  Unfortunately it disrupted the narrative flow too much, so they decided to use it as titles instead.  Interestingly the map is on the inside of a sphere with a light source in the centre.  It would be difficult to impossible to replicate this as a real world object, so it's fairly safe to assume that any design features are there to make for a more interesting visual experience rather than any plot related reason.  The proportions of the map are from original maps drawn by Martin himself.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110202-Game-of-Thrones-Map-Sequence-Intended-for-Scene-Transitions
Answer: After the Season 6 Finale we also see that the orbs and rings we see in the opening are most likely an astrolabe (aka armillary sphere, armilla, or armil).
We see the same object hanging in the Citadel at Oldtown. This can be determined by seeing the same markings on the rings.
The meaning of this is still not fully known, but there is an interesting fan theory...

"The overarching saga is called A Song Of Ice And Fire after all, and in the world of Game of Thrones songs are used to pass on heroic stories and legends. So does that mean somebody is telling this story of Dany, Jon, Arya, Cersei, and the rest to future generations?"
"If that's how it ends, some fans might be mad about the set up of the story. But if this theory is right, does it make sense for Sam to be the one that devotes his life to passing along the heroism and cruelty of everyone in Westeros? Or could it be Sam's son who was told the story by his father and then passes it on to his own children? If this theory is accurate, there are any number of options that would make sense. But for now it is just another theory."

Opening astrolabe

Citadel astroslabe
Answer: One thing I noticed about the way the titles were designed was that, when they showed the name of an actor, they put the sigil of the house of the character he/she is playing before it. For example, in front of Sean Bean we see a direwolf, in front of Mark Addy a stag, in front of Peter Dinklage a lion and so on.
Answer: The map is clearly westeros, and all the houses and their seats, also the free cities and such, but the important is the sun, with the rings around it, it tells the story of westeros, like aegon's conquest, or roberts rebellion..
Answer: There is also the consideration that in Book 1 of the series, when Bran is unconscious and at the tipping point of death, he takes a metaphysical journey through the 7 kingdoms, accompanied by a three eyed raven; the narrative describes scenes extremely close to this title.  Also, if you notice, there is a kind of 'blinking' during the opening sequence; I see this as a 'Dragon's-eye view of Westeros.'
Answer: I think the idea behind the rising and falling elements (doors, drawbridges, walls, ladders, etc.) used around the map is to emphasize the levels of complexity in the Westerosi political system.  It is a complex world.
Answer: No one has figured this out yet?
Did no one notice it seem like almost a a board game map from the sky's POV. Someone was close and thinks its from a dragons pov, but what is constantly mentioned, and never actually shown? Who is behind fate and characters coincidently being the trigger of something or another.
For example, all briennes mistakes and embarrassment led her to what she wanted the most, all the red womans mistakes landed her in the right place to bring jon snow back to life.
Who is behind the magic that gives life to the whites and the white walkers their power? the unseen force that gives magic to dragon glass, why are dragons the trigger for magics abundance in game of thrones? what is giving everyone dreams that subconsciously influence their choices? What gave life to the dragons that were turned to literal stone? Just fire? Or the magic that resides in the fire?
Cant believe people arent asking, what is creating the magic in westeros, and how do things happen that a dont seem random.
The gods. Rhllor and the great other. are very similar to kwil and rhynn. Kwil bestows his hand upon corum, another eternal champion, and rhynn gives corum his eye, and combined can raise undead slaves. Rhynn, even has a similar name to Rhllor. I mean, it cant get any more obvious.
and from what we know, there are two. The opening is like a chess game being played between two gods, the same kind of chess game being played by the lost gods kwil and rhynn in the elric story Elric: the Balance lost, and thats what the whole show is depicting. Also its very much like eru and melkor in LOTR.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/aoz9SSWaWrHAjElMX50EJYu1LnpGdQCS0wukIPWTIyi8z3PfalRa-3HAvvde0Lmi8tWYtwPNrFwhsB0CJqKlGL89i44_5Im57Z4C_Z2E1RWH2IDmD03Aqs8HopiwugFTebP1VQ=s1600
With forces beyond the characters understanding moving them to make decisions, they dont understand. So all of davos time put into stannis was a waste? Or was preparation and the direction he was being pushed in by fate to end up being jon snows right hand.
Or Jon being there to be the ONLY one who could put an end to dany's tyranny before it ever begun.
Jon snow WAS the prince who was promised, but the darkness in that prophecy, wasnt the white walkers, it was dany and her dragons.
Thats why it was arya who killed the night king, and sure we wish it was jon that fought the night king & took down the white walkers, but dany was always the biggest threat, considering her first reaction was to burn anyone that didnt immediately kiss her ass. As soon as she was in a situation where it wasnt handed to her or she had people that didnt devote themselves to her based on her mere presence and bend the knee, she lost it. Because that was her fate and what her life taught her she should do. She was only doing what she would of done had she never had anyone around her to stop her from burning her enemies alive, and jon snow not questioning her and doing what everyone else did, is what cost him and allowed her to become power mad, absolute power, corrupts absolutely.
Had jon snow got on a dragon and took her down, he could of prevented the massacre of kings landing. The life dany had, was pointing her in the direction of eventually losing herself to her power. She was always going to go bad, because it was apart of the game, being played by two unseen gods.
Same with jon, his patience and willingness to forgive his enemies and make them his allies was the stark in him, and the very thing that directed him to being the only one who could take dany down, and both were where they needed to be because of the way the gods used them in the game.
With the characters being the game pieces themselves, like in The balance lost, whih shows all the characters of moorcocks multiverse, as game pieces, and its alot like SW in that a select few are directed by the force to either oppress or save the entirety of the galaxy and its people.
The ice devil, and the fire god. Opposite in element toour own gods, They are two opposing gods or forces forever playing a chess match with the lives of these people. forever in eternal war. They even tell you. Which is why they go to the darkness when they die, its limbo for waiting to be brought back in another form, an absence of life, a waiting room, once their physical bodies die. Probably to be brought back in another vessel to go through the same thing all over again, which is why events constantly repeat themselves in westeros. I mean what gave bran and the green seers their power? I think all the gods in westeros, the old gods, are merely vessels for the two actual gods, to play their games and sew chaos, orde, and create division, or unity, and start wars, to play their game.
I like to imagine GOT is in a pocket dimension, its two omnificent beings created to wage their war, forever at odds using their creations and world to go to war instead of directly fighting each other.
With jon snow and his side being the avatars of light, and the night king and his minions and power the avatars of darkness ice and death. The night king was death, a necromancer, powered by the same force that makes up the other. with a similar power to corum and kwil.
Theres actually precedence for this in work that highly influenced GRRM, even to the point that they mentioned elric of melnibone's swords name in the episode joffery gets widows wail. The sword name of elric was called out, storm bringer, when joffery was taking name suggestions from the crowd, which is coicidence, considering storm bringer, i bring the storm, is a term used multiple times in game of thrones, to give us a int at a larger picture. Its meant to give us reference to the micheal moorcok stories, that delve even deeper into the expanded universe of the novels, Its a deliberate arrow pointing at the back story behind the eternal war of the elric multiverse and the eternal champion, which is the champion who takes many forms through out the multiverse, but is simply the avatar for waging war on the behalf of the two gods Kwil & Rhynn.
the targaryens are actually based on Elric in terms of their appearance: silver hair, pale skin and purple eyes. For Elric has pale skin, white/silver hair and red eyes.
In one of the books, elric goes to another dimension, a realm behind the multiverse he inhabits, where he witnesses two gigantic gods of order and chaos playing a chess match, and each piece is character from the multiverse and multiple books that connect to the story of elric. His being there, is the characters defiance of these gods will.
And to stop them, he has to figure out a way to stop them from engaging in their war, to turn their attention on him, and stop using the eternal champions as their pawns.
The opening sequence, is a visual representation of the game of thrones, being played by two great gods who either reside in the darkest parts of westeros, or outside of it.
Maybe the blue eyed giant named macumba, is the name of one of these gods? and it really is outside of their perception, playing a game with the fire god or the ice god, using the lives of the beings who inhabit planetos.
*Edit
Elric has white hair, like the targaryens, jon has black hair, he has a white wolf companion, elric is called the white wolf, he names his sword, elrics sword is alive and has a name. even speaks to him.
Jon snow is strong, elric is weak. But hey are both called the wite wolf. Plus the opening sequence, IS a game board, the writers D&D had referenced this tons of times during their interviews in the earlier seasons. Elric is an emperor, who doesnt want his throne, jon snow is a king, who doesnt want his throne.
Maybe you should read the elric of melnibone series, and find out for yourself.
But the world of ice and fire, talk tons of times, about the lore and rumors of where the actual gods reside in westeros, from the yellow hp lovcraft dream king of fire, and the other, maybe residing in pace. Also theres refences in the 1000 worlds novels.
its honestly way to much information to cite here. Try to figure it out yourselves. But it is two gods playing a game, not just because visually its telling you, but because melisandre comes right out and tells you. We are meant to think she is an unreliable sorce of information, but thats how they misdirect you, when they tell you exactly what is happening.
Plus you can see theres divine power at play, its not just speculation. WHy does the magic of the white walkers glow blue? what is animating them?
What animated jon from the dead? Just nature?
No, it tells you their are two gods, and like in real life, people assume because what they see is physical, theres no meta physical aspects of  the nature of the thing.
When there are elements to ours and asoiafs worlds, that can not be quantified by simple explanations.
If you pay attention, and I can speak personally having died, the universe is conciousness, and consciousness itself, is a unexplainable phenmenon, we can define energy, matter, atoms. But what gives it life, what powers it? the power behind the power?
Consciousness, the universe. the cosmic nature of reality. or cosmic force. While we can be sure if theres some kind of metaphysical being behind it, in westeros, there is, because the fire god, talks back through the visions in the flames, and answers the red witch, with everything she is able to do for jon snow. the whtie wolf.
Elric, is even called the kin slayer. Almost everything from the elric series, was taken by GrM and put through a filter of his own world. Considering the two gods eternally at war, was actually explored in the elric series. It provides more evidence then is needed that that is what is perpetuating war and conflict on planetos.
Comment: Hi, welcome to SF&F.  There's a lot of detail here, and you've obviously put a lot of thought into it, but without some evidence that this is intended it seems a bit speculative. If you have any support for a chess game between the fire and ice gods you should [edit] it into your answer.
Comment: I added more, check out the comic elric:the balance lost, and research GRMs comments on his love for elric. and check out the moments i mentioned in the show. specially the mention of storm bringer, the nickname of elric, the white wolf, and read the eternal champion and elric series. You will find tons of similarities between the two series.
Comment: And pay attention when the red witch is talking to princess shereen. After reading the balance lost, and research the parallels between the thousand world GRRM novels and their baring on game of thrones. Game of thrones, could be very similar to elric series, in that theres a science ficiton basis, for everything in the series, and its blended with magic.
Answer: I think the music is the actual Song of Ice and Fire. Think about it. It starts with slow, cold cello notes interspersed with fiery violins. Then the two elements dance for awhile, before reaching a climax and petering out into a harpsichord.
Comment: Do you have any sources to support your viewpoint?


Is it required to uphold ties of kinship with non-mahrams?

Question: I know it is obligatory to keep relationships with our relatives which are blood related. So is it obligatory for me to keep relationships with my uncle's wife or aunt's husband because they are not connected by the connection of womb? Is it a obligation?
And also my female cousins are not Mahram for me, should I have talk or text with them frequently? Is it a obligation?
Answer: These relatives are not mahrams, see Who are the women that a man is forbidden to marry? .
There is however difference of opinion on the relatives with whom silat al-rahm (upholding of the ties of kinship) is required:
One view is that it includes only those who are mahrams to you if you assume yourself to be a male or female. For example it includes your uncles (parent's brothers) because they would have been your mahrams if you were female, and it includes your aunts (parent's sisters) because they would have been your mahrams if you were male.
The other view is that it also includes cousins etc. And the evidence of that includes:

إن أبر البر صلة الرجل أهل ود أبيه
The finest act of goodness is that a person should treat kindly the loved ones of his father.
— Muslim

Talking with your non-mahram relatives is not prohibited, provided that Islamic requirements are observed and there is no risk of fitna. So you may talk to them for example in the presence of a mahram, or inquire about them through a mahram intermediary such as their or your parents.
Also upholding of the ties of kinship is not limited to talking or visiting. Rather the weakest form is at the least not breaking the relationship. Other forms include greeting, visiting, helping out - including financially etc. So you can act on a different form as deemed appropriate.
Also see: https://islamqa.info/en/answers/125089 and https://www.islamweb.net/ar/fatwa/119364/
Answer: Assalam o alaikum, Brother.
Keeping in contact with relatives, doesn't mean you'll have to be in contact with non mahrams, rather be in contact with mahram relatives such as males of your families. Contacting or talking to non mahram, without need, is dangerous and sinful or may lead to many sins, due to our own nafs and influence of shaitaan.
You can talk to male cousins or brother or father of your cousins, to be in contact with relatives. As for Uncle's wife, She is not your mahram. However, aunt's husband is. You are a male, for you all males are mahram and the females that have been mentioned.
Comment: Is it obligation for men to have talk with aunt's husband
Comment: It is your own will. As you are a male then obviously what's even the issue.?


Car accident and now charged Assault

Question: This took place in NJ.
So I was in a minor fender bender car accident with a mid age woman.
I was at fault being that I hit the rear bumper.
I right away asked her if she was ok and she asked me to call her husband since she didnt have her phone. So I dialed the number and gave her my phone (Galaxy s10 XL).
She just walked off with it When I asked for my phone back she said NO...had to wait 30 min for the cops to come so I can get it back?
At one point she was holding it by the edge I attempted to grab my phone.
Now she's claiming I assaulted her, and she has a bruise. I didn't touch her, none of this is on the initial police report, but I received a summons for assault charges.
Im freaking out, could anyone make an assault claim just like that? What is going to happen, could I get fined, placed in jail etc?
Comment: You could go to court, where you would tell what happened - that you tried to retrieve your property from a person who wasn't willing to return it to you. You'd be well advised to take a lawyer.
Comment: The worst thing that can happen is that you are run over by a truck and die just before you reach the court building. What would probably happen depends on whether you take a lawyer or not.
Comment: @gnasher729 you didn't help or answer the question.  I'm going to court I just want to know worst case scenario and or what would probably happen.
Comment: I'd suggest filing a theft report for her refusal to give you back your phone.
Comment: I agree with @AndrewLazarus that you need to file a report against her for theft.  I'm unsure whether that report would change the assault charge, but it could certainly be argued that in addition to the theft she was denying you your own call to 911 if you want to start stacking the deck.
Answer:
What is going to happen, could I get fined, placed in jail etc?

Your summons should have explained the specific violation you're being charged with, and you could look up the relevant sections of the law.
Assault is defined in Chapter 12 of the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice.  There are several types, and again, your summons should explain which one you are being charged with.  My guess is it will probably be "simple assault", paragraph (a) (right at the beginning).  This is defined as a "disorderly persons offense".
Upon conviction, a disorderly persons offense is punishable in New Jersey by a term of up to 90 days in jail and probation, (section 2C:43-2 (b) (2)), and a fine of up to $1000 (section 2C:43-3 (c)).
This represents the maximum.  I do not know what kind of sentence is actually likely.  It could depend on common practice in the state, the prosecutor's opinion of the severity of the crime, and the judge's discretion.
A lawyer would be best qualified to help you find out how to contest the charge, or to receive a lesser sentence if convicted.
Comment: @PatrickHughes: No comment.  I'm just trying to help show what the law says, not to reach any conclusions about how it applies in this case.  That would be for OP's lawyer to help them with.
Comment: The charge is 2c :12-1a (1) what does this mean?
Comment: @JosephWit: See my first link.  Title 2C, Chapter 12, Section 1 of the Code covers assault.  (a) covers simple assault, and paragraph 1 describes a particular form of simple assault: "Attempts to cause or purposely, knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury to another".  So that's what you're accused of doing.
Comment: After a theft, surely attempting to recover your property is the Intent and not trying to cause injury for its own sake?

Car accident and now charged Assault


What is ربا (Riba) according to the Quran?

Question: What is Riba according to the Quran?
Please also state the verses in the Quran that hints to the term.
Answer: There is no clear-cut definition of what riba is in the Qur'an. The understanding based on the reading of verses is that, it is some form of an increase in a loan, that might end up doubling or quadrupling the debt, and that it is not to be confused with trade/sale. The ahadith are where you will find a more detailed explanation of the term.
There are four places in the Qur'an where Allah mentions usury:
[Surat al-Baqarah 2:275-76, 278-79] Those who swallow down usury cannot arise except as one whom the Shaytan has prostrated by (his) touch does rise. That is because they say: Trading is only like usury, while Allah has allowed trading and forbidden usury. To whomsoever then the admonition has come from his Lord, then he desists, he shall have what has already passed, and his affair is in the hands of Allah; and whoever returns (to it) - these are the inmates of the fire; they shall abide in it.
Allah does not bless usury, and He causes charitable deeds to prosper, and Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner.
O you who believe! Be careful of (your duty to) Allah and relinquish what remains (due) from usury, if you are believers.
But if you do (it) not, then be apprised of war from Allah and His Messenger; and if you repent, then you shall have your capital; neither shall you make (the debtor) suffer loss, nor shall you be made to suffer loss.
[Surah Ali `Imran 3:130] O you who believe! Do not devour usury, making it double and redouble, and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, that you may be successful.
[Surat al-Nisaa' 4:161] And for their taking usury though indeed they were forbidden it and for their devouring the property of people falsely, and We have prepared for the unbelievers from among them a painful chastisement.
[Surat al-Rum 30:39] And whatever you lay out as usury, so that it may increase in the property of men, it shall not increase with Allah; and whatever you give in charity, desiring Allah's pleasure - it is these (persons) that shall get manifold.
Comment: Interest itself added to the principle amount leads to doubling & redoubling. Interest of 1% or even 0.1% will eventually lead to doubling & redoubling. I think its pretty clear that interest, no matter how much, is not forbidden.
Comment: If it's limited to doubling and redoubling, does that mean that low interest is exempted?
Answer: Riba, translated as interest or usury, is strongly forbidden in Islam to the extent that there is a declaration of war from God and His Messenger against the one who practices it (Holy Qur'an 2:278,279).
However, the concept of Riba is a lot wider than is commonly understood. The term Riba need not be restricted to any amount charged on cash, but can also mean any kind of excess given over and above any commodity. So any excess paid by a borrower of, say, wheat, to a creditor also implies riba.
If you think a little harder, riba is an anomalous charge that creates absurd situations in society. To take an instance, most nations today have central reserve banks (like the Fed in the United States) that retains the sole right to print currency. It then loans out these monies to banks with the understanding that the latter will return the same amount + interest on these monies. But since the central bank itself retains the right to create currency, there is no way that the banks will be able to return the interest amount except by getting it by fair means or fowl from the other banks (and the consumers). This fact itself is a losing proposition for any society that has a central bank as such.
Comment: Is it interest or usury?
Comment: @Gracchus, there is absolutely no difference between interest and usury: they both mean the same. To put things in context, European banks in the 17th century started using the term "interest" to differentiate themselves from private money-lenders who, according to the newly established banks, charged "usury," which (again, according to them) meant higher interest rates. However, insofar as Islam's position is concerned, anything charged over and above the principal is interest or usury, regardless of the interest (or usury) rate. HTH.
Answer: I think there's another way to look at it, especially if you look at the principles mentioned throughout the Quran.
Riba meaning Increase
If you think about equity, justice, fairness mentioned throughout, it would suggest that it's not fair to increase one's wealth without some 'active work'. As phoenix mentioned in his quotes if I deposit some money and make a profit without putting effort in then it's obviously unfair. However if I make a loan to someone with the intention to make a profit based on some risk I've taken (of default), and analysis of the business etc, then I'm making effort and I will be duly recompensated.
That can then be applied much more widely to any kind of work. Wherever there is (free) reward without a risk then it's an increase in wealth without justification.
Comment: How is it different from managing rent?
They both require effort on one's behalf;
So I'll agree to disagree that Riba has the notion of increase.
Answer: A Prelude to a Discussion on Riba (part 1 of 2) https://commentaryforhealing.blogspot.ca/2018/03/a-prelude-to-discussion-on-riba-part-1.html
Comment: Welcome to Islam SE. Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, [it would be preferable](//meta.stackoverflow.com/q/8259) to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.
Answer: Professor Farooq in this article makes a good case in a thorough scholarly analysis that riba was really the oppressive increasing (redoubling) of outstanding debt by moneylenders on poor debtors who could not repay their debt when due. The original markup was not riba. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1412753
The conclusion would be that reasonable interest in modern markets is not riba, but exploitive loan sharking and predatory lending on the poor is riba.
Answer: RIBA: According to The Holy Book Quran. Not limited to Muslims but this is for the whole humanity/universe.
RIBA: Chapter 2 Verse 275,276,277,278 & 279.
2:275) Those who participate with others for profiteering from them instead of sense of caring and sharing for humanity they have no real basis to stand upon rather they have taken the same stand as of those who have been enslaved by the wicked ruler with ambitions and desires for power and wealth against the declared will of Allah. That is why they claim, hoarding for trading is same as hoarding for profiteering, but Allah has made trading for benefit of others lawful and profiteering at the expense of others unlawful. He who has received advice from his Lord and has mended his ways may keep his previous gains and Allah will be his judge in future as per his guidance. However those who keep going on the same way shall be companions of those who end up in agony wherein they will stay unless they repent or perish.

2:276) Allah has deprived hoarding for profiteering of goodness for humanity and instead blessed using what one can to help others with prosperity. And Allah supports not those who oppose or transgress against His declared will.

2:277) Those who commit to working for peace in the land and take appropriate actions whereby they establish divine rule in order to free mankind from all manmade ills, for them is great reward with their Lord that they will have nothing to fear or to regret once divine rule is brought into operation and is properly maintained.

2:278) O you who claim to commit to peace in the land! Be consistent with each other according to declared will of your Lord and therefore waive what is still due to you from others of profiteering if you have really committed to peace in the land between mankind;

2:279) And if you are not going to do as told then notice of war is hereby given to you by Allah and His Messenger. However, if you stop as of now hoarding for profiteering then you may have original whatever you are rightfully entitled to. Inflict no harm on others and suffer no harm from others.
Answer: [Surat al-Rum 30:39] And whatever you lay out as usury, so that it may increase in the property of men...
[Surah Ali `Imran 3:130] O you who believe! Do not devour usury, making it double and redouble...
According to these verse, that is "usury" and "increase in yhe property of MEN", it stated about usury that made an increasing of one's property. in another verse, by doubling or redoubling. So in my opinion there should be an usury, double/redouble increase in one's property.
So what about government bank, that owned by a state not property of men?


Should I pay credit card balance to ZERO, or just the balance due?

Question: I have a credit card set to pay the balance due in full on the due date automatically, so I don't pay interest. By the time the due date hits, my actual balance is of course, almost double the statement balance. Does having a large balance affect my credit score at all? Does it make sense to pay the entire balance down to zero (or near zero), instead of just the balance due from the previous month?
Comment: Back when I was a bachelor, I wouldn't clean my kitchen every night, but it was always spotless before I had a visitor. The same rule applies here. Consider zeroing it out in the weeks before you have your credit checked, but otherwise don't waste your time.
Answer:
Should I pay credit card balance to ZERO, or just the balance due?

Should you?  Not necessarily.

Does having a large balance affect my credit score at all?

That all depends on how large that large is.  Keep your usage rate (the percentage of your credit limit which you've used) on the date when the bank reports your status to the credit bureaus to less than 20% and everything will be just fine.
The date is usually a few days after the monthly closing date.
Answer:
Does having a large balance affect my credit score at all?

Yes, your credit utilization ratio is a significant factor in your credit score. Many people suggest 30% as a target upper-limit for utilization. This article from creditcards.com suggests that the ideal is 1-9%.

Does it
  make sense to pay the entire balance down to zero (or near zero),
  instead of just the balance due from the previous month?

It depends. If you've got no need for new lines of credit in the foreseeable future, then you might as well take advantage of the full cycle and just pay your balance due, earn yourself a little interest. If you find you are consistently utilizing more than 30% then you could request a limit increase.
If you will be applying for new lines of credit in the near future and have a score that's borderline, then it might be worth paying your credit card balance down more frequently than once a month. Most likely though, the fluctuation in credit score caused by utilization won't be significant enough to change the outcomes with lenders.
Answer: You only need to pay the balance due - there's usually no reason to pay the balance to zero unless you have some specific needs (e.g., a big purchase that will utilize most of your credit line if you don't zero out your balance).
Per this Experian article:

There is a common myth that carrying a balance on your credit card
  from month to month can benefit your credit scores, but that is not
  true. Ideally, you should pay off your credit card in full every
  month.
Leaving a balance will not help your credit scores. All it will do is
  cost you money in the form of interest.
The most important factor in credit scoring is always your payment
  history – whether or not you make all your payments on time. The
  second most important factor is your utilization rate, or
  balance-to-limit ratio. The lower your utilization rate, the better
  for your credit scores.

Paying off a large balance, even if not part of the payments due, can help you improve your utilization rate. This improved ratio might be important if you're applying for a mortgage or auto loan and need a better credit score to get a better interest rate.
Answer: How the credit score is derived is deliberately mysterious.  Discover reports my score as 822.  Navy Federal:  839.
From what I've read, yes, too high of a balance might hurt your credit score.  So might too much available credit.  My Discover credit score has only moved a few points as a result of a high balance.
Payment history and length of credit history also fold into the mix.
Comment: It's not really mysterious. A FICO score is calculated the same way regardless of where it comes from. The difference lies with the information that the credit bureau has to calculate from, like a hard credit inquiry will typically only count and show up on 1 of the 3 credit bureaus' reports, thus only counting down against your score on that report, which not all services will pull from.


How to prove receipt/no receipt of work?

Question: Last term, I collected some important projects from about 200 students. When I returned all of the work the next week, one student claimed that they had submitted their work, but never received it back. A misplaced project was highly unlikely, as they were individually bound in a uniform, bright cover and carried in sealed bags, so I assigned the student a 0. Still, I would like to have proof of "no submit", especially as my supervisor occasionally wants an explanation for failing grades. But not having something is not proof of never submitting. What method can I use in the future to prove that a student did not submit their work?
Comment: There's a [blog post](http://intoverflow.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/crypo-in-the-classroom-digital-signatures-for-homework/#comments) from a few years back about giving out actual physical receipts with cryptographic signature (to prevent forgery). Likely unfeasible with a class of 200, but still worth a read.
Comment: I actually did the cryptographic signature technique that @waiwai933 promotes with a class of ~30 students and it worked fantastically. If you have a TA and do this only for important assignments, then I think this will work very effectively if you split the class up into two. Should only take 8-10 minutes in-class if you take the time to organize the slips of paper to give them.
Comment: @waiwai933 I thought of this, too, but you'd have a signature from *them*. That's harder to set up.
Comment: Would it be possile to additionally have them hand in an electronic copy, even if you for whatever reason need or want to have the physical copy? The electronic system (Blackboard, Turnitin, whatever...) will make it easy to prove (for both parties!) whether something has been handed in or not.
Answer: I doubt this will work with 200 students, but the first thing I do when I collect assignments is check to see whose assignment is missing, and send the relevant students a message via the class messaging system. This does two things:

if there was a slipup at either end, this catches it quickly. Most often, the student says that they're turning it in late (I have an automatic submit-late-and-get-deductions policy).
By using the class messaging system, I'm on record as having asked the student about the missing assignment. If they complain a week later that they did turn it in, I can point to the message and ask why they didn't respond to it.
Comment: This is what we do at my school. Luckily, we have admins who handle this for us so the teachers do not need to track who did not submit. If you want the information and nobody will help you (as the OP's comment on Raphael's question implies), you'll have to do it yourself.
Answer: It's easy to given students the ability to prove that they submitted (some form of receipt only you could have authored). The other direction, however, is harder.

Hightech
Have them submit electronically with a system that you don't control and that stores timestamps with submissions. It does not show up there on time, you did not submit in time.
Lowtech
Have them sign when handing in (make sure to announce that submissions are only valid if signed off). You receive their submission, they sign some form for you (and you sign their receipt). Have witnesses.

In the end, there is no way you can make sure it's their fault; they can beat any system ("I lost the receipt!", "That's not my signature, somebody must have forged it!", "You never told me to sign!", ...). As far as I know, German courts typically rule in favor of students (if there is any doubt), even in ridiculous circumstances. That may be different in other countries, but you may want to check back with your university's legal department to be safe.
Comment: The first method will not work in my case, as much of the content is not electronic. If I tried the second, it would take too long to wait for them to stand in line and submit the work one-by-one.
Comment: @Village Do you have TAs and/or colleagues that can help you out for 20 minutes?
Comment: No, I do not have any TAs.
Comment: @Village That's too bad then. I guess there's no free lunch here.
Answer: A few thoughts in addition to the above:

Is there a departmental office or library that can help with accepting submissions and giving receipts?
Can the department hire a temp for a day to handle the submissions?
Strongly suggest to the students that they copy and/or photograph their work, in case of disaster.  Provide a means for them to upload their photo albums to the department.
Answer: For a large class, without or with receipts, set up 4 (or more boxes) split alphabetically. Students drop off the work and possibly sign a sheet. Either give them a quiz immediately while you double-check that you have all work, or check it later that day and query for any missing work.
If you're using a sign-in sheet, and a student wants to turn in someone else's, he or she discusses it with you directly. That way you don't get, "But I had Lisa turn in my work for me!"
Answer: I require my students to run a particular program to send their homework in. Positive identification of the students is already done when they log into the server. If your students don't use UNIX, the technique easily extends to a web or phone app with some other form of authentication.
The result is neatly timestamped student files all in one place. If you like, add some form of receipt. I take the opportunity to automatically update a web page showing who's turned in what.
Comment: I think OP is asking about submission of physical, dead-tree homework. Electronic submission seems easier to handle, there are many options.
Answer: If you use coversheets:

acknowledgement of all policies and adherence thereto, is checked and signed by the student,
a QR or barcode, containing their student number and name, course number and assignment number, and a timestamp is generated,
the QR or barcode forms part of the coversheet, and is scanned in when they submit, then out when it is returned or collected,
an email gets sent to the student confirming their submission for that assignment.

While it takes some thought to set up, the implementation is as simple as taking a picture on a smartphone, and scales extremely well (increasing returns on effort expended per assignment/course/student/year added).


Raspberry Pi HDMI not Working

Question: I have a Raspberry Pi 3 & a Windows 10 PC. I have extracted the NOOBS file and saved the extracted file on an SD Card. I tried to do the first boot on my Raspberry Pi with the SD Card inserted and also the HDMI cable and Keyboard & Mouse inserted into the USB of the Raspi. Unfortunately my display doesn't seem to show anything and is blank. I know for certain that the HDMI cable & my display works perfectly since they work with my PC. I read on a couple of forums that I must add the following line 'hdmi_force_hotplug=1' to the config.txt file in the NOOBS folder on the SD card. But I cannot seem to find the config.txt file. Below is the screenshot of how my noobs folder looks like.
Comment: You should edit any extra information into your post, not as an answer. I don't know where you read about config.txt, but this is for Raspbian. I can't help with NOOBS - few, if any, of the experienced users on this site use NOOBS, but directly install Raspbian.
Answer: Directly install Raspbian
Because I couldn't use the NOOBs setup either, I strongly recommend you try to install the image of your favourite operating system directly on the sd card.

Useful links:
Raspbian img file:
http://www.chip.de/downloads/Raspbian-Jessie-fuer-Raspberry-Pi_56691903.html
Img installer:
http://www.chip.de/downloads/Win32-Disk-Imager_46121030.html
Answer: As far as I understand, you didn't install any OS to your RPi yet.
I see you extracted files under F:\NOOBS_v1_9_0, but files must be at root, check here for detailed introduction.
btw: config.txt and hdmi_force_hotplug=1 for already installed Raspbians

Raspberry Pi HDMI not Working


Where is Paradise and Hell?

Question: Do paradise and hell exist within the universe?  It's so vast that humans haven't even been the other galaxies.
Comment: I think the answers ain't good at all. The only answer we can really give is that we don't know.
Answer: Paradise cannot be inside current universe of us living in it. Because size of only one garden of one believer in paradise is larger than earth and all the skies (considering our universe is only the first sky).

And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and a garden as wide as the
  heavens and earth, prepared for the righteous http://tanzil.net/#3:133

But Quran also says:

They urge you to hasten the punishment. And indeed, Hell is
  encompassing of the disbelievers http://tanzil.net/#29:54

According to Arabic grammar this verse means that Hell already is encompassing disbelievers. But God has made a barrier between them and fire so that they do not feel it. By death this barrier is removed and they see and feel it. This also the same about paradise.
So where is it? it is in a parallel universe around us that all cannot see it. But only few real pious people can see it. If we try and become a real pious believer we can see Paradise and Hell already before death.
Quran says if one reach to the rank of "knowledge of certainty" by being pious, can see the Hell.

No! If you only knew with knowledge of certainty... You surely see
  the Hellfire. http://tanzil.net/#102:6

According to this verse those who can obtain the "knowledge of certainty" can see the Hell already (before death). And this knowledge is granted by God only to those who are real pious. God himself is teacher of who is pious and teaches him any kind of knowledge:

And be pious about Allah, and Allah teaches you.
  http://tanzil.net/#2:282

There are hadith saying some Sahaba could see the Hell and also currently such people can be found. But they are rare and also try to not be known because being unknown is what God wants:

That home of the Hereafter We assign to those who do not desire
  exaltedness upon the earth or corruption. And the [best] outcome is
  for the righteous. http://tanzil.net/#28:83
Answer: A Jew came to question Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and he told the Prophet that he would accept Islam if the Prophet of Islam gave the correct answers. He asked the following questions:

Does the "Jannat" meaning Paradise exist? If it exists, what is the distance from the earth?
Does the "Jahanam" meaning Hell exist? If it exists, what is the distance from the earth?

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) replied that Both "Jannat" and "Jahanam" meaning Paradise and Hell exist.
The Paradise is up from the earth and 30,000 light years (Noori years) from the earth.
The Hell is down and 7 earths distance from the Earth.
The Jew replied that you are right. It is exactly mentioned in our Holy Scriptures and no one knows except few learned scholars among us. So he accepted Islam.
Comment: Down and 7 earths from the earth ? There is no down in space, and 7 earths away is actually pretty close (closer than the moon), if hell was so close we would have noticed. As for "noori years", I am pretty sure they are nowhere to be found in the holy scripture. It looks made up. Please do not mix astrophysics and religion, it makes you sound like scientologists.

Where is Paradise and Hell?


Is BTC Robot working or is it a scam?

Question: Does anyone have an experience in using BTC Robot? Can it make some money or is it just a scam?
Comment: I'd be suspicious, since the FAQ makes no sense.
Answer: Yes the BTC Robot is a scam. I bought 10 bitcoins when the price was $140 a coin. I used the robot and it brought my bitcoin number down to 2.774 as it made more losing trades than winning trades. I turned it off when I realized what was happening. Despite of this I didn't lose money as the bitcoin price kept rising. If I had simply held my coins and not traded with this stupid robot I would now have almost $10,000 in my account instead of the $2200 that I now have.
When you read the testimonials you can see that if they would have done the math they would have seen what I did and realized how they were tricked, but because they still have more in their account than they initially invested they think the robot is working in their favor.
Comment: Well, what did the robot do when Bitcoins dropped in value? If it made trades that protected you from losses, that might be worth a few trades that cause you to miss out on gains. Testing in only a rising market is an unfair test.
Answer: I would not say it's a scam because it does actively trade bitcoins, however the claims are not substantiated and in fact it has performed very poorly. I had a $500 account at approximately $100 per bit coin and now the current portfolio value: is 949.02 USD with bitcoins trading at $940.79 on MtGox, $838.24 on BTC-e, $838.88 on Bitstamp.
I'll do the math - simply my account should be worth approximately $4500 if BTC Robot was par with the market. They claim huge gains beyond what the market performs at - that's a lie. BTC Robot is performing at approximately 20% of the market.
The algorithm is poor at best. I see a lot of trades but they don't appear to do much. There was apparently a glitch in the system about a month ago. I had manually turned my robot off and should have disconnected it from my account. They did an update and turned my robot back on and I promptly lost $2000!!!!! Now they're promising a big improvement is coming. I'll believe it when I see it.
Bottom line is that it cost me $500 for the robot and it should have paid for itself but it hasn't. My advice is by low and sell high and do not by the BTC Robot.  It has a long way to go and the only ones making money are the Russians that are selling this thing.
Comment: Where do they "claim huge gains beyond what the market performs at"? I only see claims such as a 150% annual dollar return, which it sounds like you got. (Though, of course, I wouldn't credit that to the robot, but to the market.)
Answer: 150% Annual profit? I'd be very suspicious. If it's too good to be true, it's not true. They only offer algotrading on a new asset class, bitcoin in this case. It doesn't matter what is the base asset, this kind of annual profit is unreasonable.
Comment: Well bitcoin now makes 150% in a month for example... the question is whether the bot is working or not.
Comment: If it's working, why would they sell it? They can invest for themselves and just get the money.
Answer: I have bought btc robot (gold membership) in september 2013, it did not make money at all, contrary my account had negative balance up until now. it had too many technical problems with btc robot, it did not traded properly so few days ago i asked for refund, they kept me referring clickbetter site. although, there was not enough time to test robot within 60 days because robot did not work properly , and vendor also kept assuring that robot will make money. As you see now this robot is totally rubbish, i definitely not recommend to buy that robot, stay away from that. BTC robot vendor is cheater for me because they took my money
Answer: Complete ripoff.
Started in mid-2013 w/ 4 BTC.  Although the value went up, the actual BTC amount plummeted to under 1 BTC.  I looked at the trades and it consistently lost money.  The help desk people just kept telling me to be patient and things would even out and go my way.  Wrong!  Like a fool I took their advice and didn't pay attention for a few months, when I looked at my account, I now have only $95 value in my account.  I really believe that they use the Bot to syphon out small % of BTC w/ each transaction and put it into their personal account.  Recently, they stopped responding to my emails, I went to go to the BTC Robot site and its not even there.  Might be a temporary glitch, but it wouldn't surprise me if these Russsians just left w/ everyones money.  Even if they didn't, its a ripoff.
Stay away!
Answer: In the six months that I bought in, I haven't been in the plus territory once! It fluctuates and reflects the market....actually, it performs much worse than the market.  And now, they seem to be down.
Answer: I bought it but the fing thing has been broke for six months and TECH SUPPORT REFUSES TO FIX IT even tho promised 1 year gold membership DONT BUY IT!

Is BTC Robot working or is it a scam?


How to recover Windows files after new ubuntu installation wiped everything?

Question: Well basically I was dualbooting Win8 and Ubuntu 13.04. I wanted to try out 13.10. So I booted a life usb and selected the option "Erase Ubuntu 13.04 and Install 13.10". And turns out the new installation erased everything. Any idea if I can recover any of it?
Answer: You won't be able to, I'm afraid. It would take a forensic data specialist many hours to image your hard drive with dd then to try to recover the NTFS partition, and the chances of success are slim.


How do I figure out the key signature after transposing?

Question: I am trying to transpose the key signature up a perfect 5th from C minor, but am unsure what the new KS would be. The book only tell you to write the new tonic and KS without explaining how the key changes. This lead me to thinking the new key was in G major counting 5 from C (like intervals) or A Major; excluding counting the tonic? - I am probably missing something very simple here, any ideas?
The example (4.1) if from the Trinity Grade 4 workbook
Comment: Do you know what perfect fifth means?
Answer: If you know enough to transpose the actual music, then you know enough to transpose the key signature: You knew that you transposed everything up by a perfect 5th, so transpose the key of C minor (three flats) up by a perfect 5th, resulting in the key of G minor (two flats).
This means counting the tonic as one, which is easy enough to conceptualise: There's no way to transpose by a "zeroth", so not moving at all is the "first" (unison).
Answer: We don't do your homework for you here.   But here are some hints:
If you transpose a tune that is in a minor key, it will end up still in a minor key.
If we're using key signatures, accidentals will be required on the same notes before and after transposition.  Look at your Question 4.  The 7th and 13th notes in the tune (I'm talking a simple count here, not intervals) didn't fit the key signature, so need accidentals.   The 7th and 13th notes of the transposed version will similarly require modification.
When transposing, it doesn't really matter whether the tune is in a major or minor key.  The transposed notes will be the same.   Consider a very simple 3-note tune G, A, B.   Key signature one sharp.    It's to be transposed up a minor 3rd.   Now, it might be in G major.  Up a minor 3rd from G major is B♭ major, so write a key signature of two flats.  There are no accidentals, so the transposed version will be B♭, C, D.
Or perhaps it's in E minor.  No way of telling.  But no matter.  Up a minor 3rd  from E is G.  G minor has two flats, so write that key signature.  The transposed notes will still be B♭, C, D!
(Check your answer to the first question. What's the key signature of C minor?  Which note is changed from the key signature in a Harmonic Minor scale?  What do you get when you 'sharpen' a note that was originally a flat?   And it asks for crotchets.)
(And someone tell the setter that the orchestral convention is that French Horns don't use key signatures.   Difficult to argue why, the traditional reason is well obsolete.  But it is so.)
Answer: For the specified transcription 'up a P5', you either add a sharp, if there are any in the original key, or take away a flat, if there are any in the original key.
Transcribing a minor will be minor in any new key; majors remain majors.
If you're asking about any transcription to any key, it's a long answer, suffice to say use the original root note (with its related key sig.), move it up/down to where it needs to go, find the new key sig.from the new root note. Most players will end up learning the different key sigs. There are twelve, including the relative minors, and knowing the circle of 4ths/5ths will facilitate this.


Is there currently an easy way to root Sony Xperia S with stock ICS 4.0.4 ROM?

Question: I'm looking for an easy way, which doesn't need Unlocking bootloader or flashing Roms, just like root solution for SE 2011 devices (one click). It's because I currently use my Xperia S for development purposes and can't afford bricking it! please tell me if there is a solution. Thanks!
Comment: @Potential close voters: [We don't close vote rooting questions as duplicates any more](http://meta.android.stackexchange.com/questions/790/should-we-revisit-our-how-do-i-root-x-policy)
Answer: There's a guide on Rooting Xperia S ICS and GB over at XDAs. Not having any XPeria device, I cannot verify -- but the comments on the thread confirm it working. It does not even require the bootloader to be unlocked.
Requirements for that method:

Windows
Net framework 3.5 or later

Preparation:

Application Settings: [Unknown sources] checked {Allowed}
Application Settings: Development [USB debugging] checked {Allowed}
Application Settings: Development [Stay awake] checked {Allowed}
Settings -> Display settings [Screen timeout] Set to 30 minutes
If your screen goes off just once then you won't be able to return to the installation properly. Very important!!
Please think about your battery and try to keep the display brightness to a minimum.
Please use a regular picture for the background. Do not use the default live wallpaper.
Charge the Xperia S's battery to 80%.
Use the Generic CH (1257-3740) XPERIA S LT26i ROM (6.1.A.0.452).
Can be found here along with the latest FLASTOOL link: XDA FileServer
Net framework 3.5 or later
Gingerbread part 1 and part 2

It also mentions a Root Toolkit.
Installation Process:

Flash Gingerbread firmware wiping data and cache only if you are not on gingerbread
Run Step 1.bat
Install ICE CREAM SANDWICH without wiping anything
Run step 2.bat

To enter CWM recovery you have to tap on sony logo at start few times.
If it does not root properly first time run it again
Thanks to Bin4ry for the files

Alternative: Unlocking the Bootloader
An alternative method involves the SDK, and is described at AndroidPit (German; Google Translate 2 English here). this method, however, involves unlocking the bootloader -- so be aware of Sony's harsh politics when it comes to warranty in this case.
Comment: thanks for your answer, but I have currently seen this tutorial. I mentioned in my question that I want a way without any need to flash other ROMs than my current ICS stock rom.
Comment: Unfortunately I could not find such solution -- so I thought it would be better than nothing. With some luck somebody else finds a more convenient solution we all have missed -- but if not, you at least have two fall-back solutions noted here. I'd rather love if root came pre-installed, like with our desktop systems...
Comment: Added variant #3 -- found a one-click solution for you :)
Comment: thanks again, unfortunately that wasn't for "Xperia S", but for Xperia Arc (my previous phone) from Xperia 2011 series. I'm aware of this site rules and I researched really hard before posting my question here, but found nothing, just some tuts like your answers.
Comment: Ouch -- OK, sorry for that; if you say it isn't applyable to your Xperia S, I better remove it from the answer to avoid confusion. On the page it said "Xperia Arc S" (to keep the link for reference: [PocketPC.CH](http://www.pocketpc.ch/sony-ericsson-xperia-arc-root-rom/159013-root-fuer-ice-cream-sandwich-geraete-oneclicksolution-bin4ry.html)). Maybe you should include with your question what sources you already checked -- you didn't say so, so it's hard not to post anything you already found yourself ;)
Answer: Ok, at last, the mighty user of XDA, Bin4ary, has released a very nice and easy toolkit to root ICS JB roms of most sony phones, including Xperia S.
I used the tool and easily rooted my phone. Very fast and painless. No need to flash or unlock bootloader or anything.
If you are also interested, this is the page on XDA:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1886460


Is the ratio between earth's distance from the sun and the speed of light just a coincidence?

Question: I was doing some calculations to see how hard it would be to observe the speed of light and discovered an interesting correlation between the speed of light and the average distance from the earth to the sun. In my example, an object would be placed in orbit around the sun so that its  shadow would pass over the earth at the speed of light.  After doing some math, I found that an object roughly 1 km above the sun, orbiting at 2 m/s would achieve this.  I though that these numbers were a bit odd, so I took a closer look at the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s) and AU (149,597,871 km.)  I found that 299,792,458 / 149,597,871 = 2 within a .2% degree of inaccuracy.  To me, this seems too close to be chance.  Is there an established relationship here, or is this just luck?
Comment: Something 1km above the Sun does not "orbit at 2m/s".
Comment: I remember some values with pi as the basis. The root of ten is pi. There are ten million times pi seconds a year. And so on. Within a % or so. Its just random mnemonics. But Johannis Kepler describes how he happened to recognize a certain number, 400 something, at two places in his endless manual calculations and how that made him curious and put him on track to realize that planets have elliptical orbits, which became the foundation of physics, so never say never.
Comment: The French who defined the meter 200+ years ago, knew both the speed of light and the distance to the Sun. Maybe it was considered? One in fourty million of the length of the equator is a bit odd choice for a definition. But the French do have a 20 kind of base in their language, as does English with the "teens", so maybe 40 is quite square to them?  (Stupid spell checker suggests "forty" I refuse to use that ugly abomination).
Comment: The square root of ten is not pi. They may be close but 10 is algebraic over the rationals where as pi is not.
Comment: @Rob Jeffries, very true.  It falls like Tech stock on Black Tuesday.
Comment: It means that the sun is 500 light seconds away. OB xkcd https://xkcd.com/1047/
Comment: I still like how something so random and so grand can have such a clean value by our measurement system.
Answer: It is a co-incidence. The units are what you need to look at, in both the speed of light and the distance of the Sun the units of length are the same (m) (your ratio is $\approx 0.002 s^{-1}$ when you use metres as the unit for the distance to the Sun). The definition of the second is in a sense arbitrary and is a consequence of how we have chosen to sub-divide the day into smaller units of time (there is nothing cosmic in dividing the day into 24 units each subdivided into sixtieths which are again subdivided into sixtieths).
If we had chosen to take as our basic unit of time $1/100000$ of a day rather than $1/86400$ the nice round answer vanishes (if my calculations are right the $\approx 0.002$ becomes $\approx0.0023$)
Answer: Pure coincidence. Your result of 2 is better written as 2 meters/kilometer/second. If we had six fingers on each hand we would probably use base twelve rather than base ten. A base 12 metric system would have 1728 (in our base 10) meters in a kilometer. Your coincidence would vanish in a twelve-fingered world.
Our Earth takes 86400 seconds to make one rotation with respect to the Sun. Your coincidence would vanish if our day was longer or shorter (but we still divided the day into 86400 seconds).
Our division of the day into 86400 seconds is a historical oddity that results from

The ancient Egyptians and their infatuation with base 12. They divided day and night into 12 parts each, hence the origin of our 24 hour day.
The ancient Babylonians and their infatuation with base 60. They divided the circle into 360 parts (degrees), that into 60 parts each (minutes), and that into 60 parts each again (seconds), hence the origin of our division of an hour into 60 minutes, and a minute into 60 seconds.
The not-so-ancient French revolutionaries and their infatuation with base 10 failing to catch on with regard to time. They tried to metricize time and angle, but unlike the length, area, volume, and mass, metric time and angle didn't take hold.

Your coincidence would vanish if the French metric time had caught on, or if those ancients hadn't been so numerologically inspired, or if they had been inspired by a different base.
Comment: Here is another strange coincidence involving our system of time and distance:  it takes about an hour for the earth's surface to rotate 1000 miles.


Mining with Laptop with only one graphic card

Question: I have HP Elitebook 8460p with Radeon GPU and without additional integrated intel graphics in CPU. Is it possible to run GPU mining on it?
Answer: You need a minimum of 2GB VRAM to mine ether. Since the laptop you mention has only 1GB of VRAM in the Radeon, then no, you cannot mine ether. As for other cryptocurrencies, you will get abysmal hash rates (speed at which you mine) so it won't be worth it.
You'd need a beefier GPU for mining to be worth your while. Here's an example of ether mining on a laptop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8OgNTOsRfQ
Answer: I recommend trying: BitMinter.
<code>"If you just want to check that everything is working on your computer or what
  hash rate it will run at"
</code>
Answer: It depends on your goals.
In my opinion, that sort of "rig" isn't going to create financial success but you can run the software to learn how things work.
You can also get a feel for what winning would look like by mining on testnet where it's less competitive. In my experience, I've always been able to pick up a few testnet coins by using just Geth or Mist and letting a laptop CPU mine overnight.
Comment: I installed Minergate, but could not mine with GPU. On other hand with another laptop, which has 2 cards (1-Radeon, 2 intel integrated) I could.
Answer: You can mine very effectively on testnet using the Ethereum Wallet.  Very few people use testnet and you can use an ordinary machine to mine thousands of ether.  These have no monetary value, but you can use the to write and test code.