Are there any comprehensive undergrad level philosophy books about definitions?

Question: Although I believe that I now have some vague idea about what the fundamental subject matter of philosophy presumably concerns, I (nevertheless) still occasionally come across philosophical writings that demonstrate the insufficiency of my knowledge about certain specific areas of philosophy. One area in particular concerns the philosophy of word definitions. I have come across books (logic texts, for the most part) that provide very brief analyses of the subject of definitions right in the middle of a lot of subject matter unrelated to definitions, but I have found no undergraduate level text that exclusively covers the subject in detail. Nor have I come across any graduate level Philosophy Of Language text that does so either. So, can someone perhaps provide some titles of philosophy books that (hopefully, exclusively) provide comprehensive coverage of the subject of definitions?
Comment: (This should be confirmed by another user) Isnt Quines 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism' dealing with definitions?
Comment: @Lukas Quine's "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" is not an expository text. Although it does give a review of some of the history behind the analytic/synthetic distinction, it is primarily a challenge to the distinction.
Answer: I know of no such book. Your best shot is probably Circularity, Definition, and Truth by Gupta and Chapuis. From the blurb:

This volume consists of eighteen new essays, written by distinguished scholars, on topics that are of great interest to logicians and philosophers: definitions and the concept of truth. The essays fall into three groups. The first group defends the logical legitimacy and fruitfulness of circular definitions. The second group contributes to the philosophical debate over deflationism. The final group is concerned with recent logical theories of truth.

Alternatively, the SEP entry on definitions provides an introductory overview and is quite detailed.
Answer: There was a book by Robinson (I believe), titled just DEFINITION.  Also, try THE GAME OF THE NAME, by ??.  S. Barker's ELEMENTS OF LOGIC (last edition, 4?, & now out of print) had an especially lucid discussion with extensive end notes.


Difference between perpendicular and transverse loads?

Question: What is the difference between perpendicular and transverse loads? I saw this on a forum for 3d printing, but I couldn't find any online explanations on what the difference between both measures of loading was.
Answer: 3D Printed objects are made of layers, and are intrinsically weaker in one direction, as you can 'pull the layers apart'. In this case 'transverse' means 'in the vertical direction as built', and 'perpendicular' means 'in any of the horizontal directions as built'.
The graph in question is with reference to infill patterns - these are generated in the slicer and can either be 2D (eg hexagonal tubes, the cross section is the same from one layer to the next) or 3D (eg cubes on their corners). This non-uniformity of the 2D patterns is why the patterns fail in compression (what the graph shows) differently according to the orientation. Imagine crushing a toilet roll tube from the top vs from the side.
Comment: This implies that they're weaker in tension perpendicular to the layers than they are in compression along the same axis -- is that so?  In general, or are there processes where that's less the case?
Comment: The graph shown refers to FDM printing (it's from a CNC Kitchen video if I'm not mistaken). These prints are always weaker in tension on the Z axis.
Comment: I edited to discuss how the infill pattern also affects the non uniform strength of 3D prints
Comment: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=upELI0HmzHc This is the source FYI


Can you dedicate a book to your parents or children?

Question: Assalamualaikum...
I often see that the authors dedicate their books to their parents or beloved one.And one of the muftis in our country say that you can't dedicate anything to anyone as dedicate means sacrifice.And his logic is that every sacrifice should be for Allah..
So according to his it's a shrik.
Answer: Everything we do is for the sake of Allah (ﷻ) so the niyyah (intention) of an author writing a book should be that the writing of the book is for Allah's (ﷻ) sake and cause, not for a human's sake. I would agree with the Mufti in this sense that if the author wrote it for the sake of other than Allah (ﷻ) and then verbalized this in the 'dedication' page, it would be incorrect.

Qur'an 6:162: قل إن صلاتي ونسكي ومحياي ومماتي لله رب العالمين.
(Say, "Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds).

That said, it is proven from the sunnah that you can do an act of charity for the sake of Allah (ﷻ) and then dedicate the reward of that to a specific person. (e.g., knowledge from a book that benefits people is an ongoing charity and per my understanding, it is fine to dedicate its reward to someone).
So in this sense, for an author to write a book for Allah's (ﷻ) sake and then use the 'dedication' page to say he wishes the reward for a loved one should be okay inshaAllah as I'm not aware of any pieces of evidence that indicate otherwise.
So it depends on how you are approaching the 'dedication' page. I hope this helps.
وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله وبركاته


How to discretize the advection equation using the Crank-Nicolson method?

Question: The advection equation needs to be discretized in order to be used for the Crank-Nicolson method. Can someone show me how to do that?
Comment: Welcome to SciComp! The scope of your question fits this site very well. To get good answers, however, you should be more specific. Please indicate, what in particular you don't understand. Your code looks well structured and documented, but for answering your question, maybe a smaller code snippet will do.
Comment: Sorry guys, but the Crank-Nicolson method is totally inappropriate for an advection problem. Stability and accuracy of the local differential approximation unfortunately do not guarantee consistency. You will get the solution of a different problem. In some trivial cases you may get lucky but the advection equation is in general unforgiving. Check the numerical analysis textbooks. The Crank-Nicolson scheme is never used. People still have to adopt it in some engineering problems, because of the stability, but there they have to control the solution as it evolves and have heuristic to test erro
Comment: It might make your debugging simpler if you use a test case where your input vector has, say, 5 elements, and you step through the code with a debugger like gdb and ddd. Doing so might help narrow down the source of the error. I think that most code debugging questions don't work very well here because the majority of the work involves figuring out where the bug is in the first place. Once you find it, the explanation is frequently (but not always) straightforward. Can you run a unit test to figure out if there are any bugs in Tridiagonal that might be causing this behavior?
Comment: Have a look at this [example](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crank–Nicolson_method#Example:_1D_diffusion_with_advection_for_steady_flow.2C_with_multiple_channel_connections) in the Wikipedia entry on the Crank-Nicolson method. If you set $k$ and $D_x$ to zero, it will turn into a plain advection problem. It remains to incorporate the boundary conditions...
Answer: Starting with the advection equation is conservative form,
$$
\frac{\partial u}{\partial t} = -\frac{\partial (\boldsymbol{v} u)}{\partial x} + s(x,t)
$$
The Crank-Nicolson method consists of a time averaged centered difference.
$$\frac{u_{j}^{n+1} - u_{j}^{n}}{\Delta t} = -\boldsymbol{v} \left[ \frac{1-\beta}{2\Delta x} \left( u_{j+1}^{n} - u_{j-1}^{n} \right) + \frac{\beta}{2\Delta x} \left( u_{j+1}^{n+1} - u_{j-1}^{n+1} \right) \right] + s(x,t)$$
Regarding the notation, subscripts are for points in space, and the superscripts are for points in time.
The points at $n+1$ are in the future: they are unknowns. We now need to rearrange the above equation so that all knowns are on the r.h.s and unknowns are on the l.h.s..
Making the substitution,
$$
r = \frac{\boldsymbol{v}}{2}\frac{\Delta t}{\Delta x}
$$
gives,
$$-\beta r\phi_{j-1}^{n+1} + \phi_{j}^{n+1} + \beta r\phi_{j+1}^{n+1} =  (1-\beta)r\phi_{j-1}^{n} + \phi_{j}^{n} - (1-\beta)r\phi_{j+1}^{n}$$
This is the advection equation discretised using the Crank-Nicolson method. You can write it as a matrix equation,
$$
    \begin{pmatrix}
      1                 & \beta r         &         &        &          0  \\
      -\beta r      & 1           & \beta r        &          &  \\
                 &  \ddots     &   \ddots    & \ddots &              \\
      &                   & -\beta r        & 1         & \beta r          \\
                 0      &                   &          & -\beta r   & 1            \\
   \end{pmatrix}
   \begin{pmatrix}
u_1^{n+1} \\
u_2^{n+1} \\
\vdots \\
u_{J-1}^{n+1} \\
u_{J}^{n+1} \\
   \end{pmatrix} =
    \begin{pmatrix}
      1                    & -(1 - \beta)r          &           &                  &   0            \\
      (1 - \beta)r        & 1                    & -(1 - \beta)r           &              &                     \\
                    &  \ddots        &   \ddots      & \ddots     &                     \\
         &                            & (1 - \beta)r        & 1                   & -(1 - \beta)r \\
                 0         &                            &            &(1 - \beta)r        & 1              \\
   \end{pmatrix}   \begin{pmatrix}
u_1^{n} \\
u_2^{n} \\
\vdots \\
u_{J-1}^{n} \\
u_{J}^{n} \\
   \end{pmatrix}
$$
Setting $\beta=1/2$ will give you trapezoidal integration in time, so for Crank-Nicolson this is what you want.
A few words of warning. This is basic solution you wanted, but you will need to include some sort of boundary condition for a well-posed problem. Also,
Crank-Nicolson is not necessarily the best method for the advection equation. It is second order accurate and unconditionally stable, which is fantastic. However it will generate (as with all centered difference stencils) spurious oscillation if you have very sharp peaked solutions or initial conditions.
I wrote the following code for you in Python, it should get you started. The code solves the advection equation for an initial Gaussian curve moving to the right with constant velocity.

<code>from __future__ import division
from scipy.sparse import spdiags
from scipy.sparse.linalg import spsolve
import numpy as np
import pylab

def make_advection_matrices(z, r):
    """Return matrices A and M for advection equations"""
    ones = np.ones(len(z))
    A = spdiags( [-beta*r, ones, beta*r], (-1,0,1), len(z), len(z) )
    M = spdiags( [(1-beta) * r, ones, -(1-beta) * r], (-1,0,1), len(z), len(z) )
    return A.tocsr(), M.tocsr()

def plot_iteration(z, u, iteration):
    """Plot the solver progress"""
    pylab.plot(z, u, label="Iteration %d" % iteration)

# Set up basic constants
beta = 0.5
J = 200 # total number of mesh points
z = np.linspace(-10,10,J) # vertices
dz = abs(z[1]-z[0]) # space step
dt = 0.2    # time step
v = 2 * np.ones(len(z)) # velocity field (constant)
r = v / 2 * dt / dz

# Initial conditions (peak function)
gaussian = lambda z, height, position, hwhm: height * np.exp(-np.log(2) * ((z - position)/hwhm)**2)
u_init = gaussian(z, 1, -3, 2)

A, M = make_advection_matrices(z, r)
u = u_init
for i in range(10):
    u = spsolve(A, M * u)
    plot_iteration(z, u, i)

pylab.legend()
pylab.show()
</code>
Comment: Actually I saw your earlier question too but it was so general I couldn't answer (when you posted a page of code). In my experience, when you ask good question on this site the people are very helpful. Bon voyage!
Comment:
Comment: I'm just kidding.
Comment: @boyfarrel Is there any chance you have a C++/C version of this. Its fine if no. I don't use matlab much and I don't feel like learning it. Even fortran would be better.
Answer: User 03161 asserts that the Crank Nicolson method is not appropriate for advection problems, but boyfarrell provides a working code with results visualized in a movie. In fact they are both correct, but neither gives the full perspective.
At the beginning of boyfarrell's answer the correct C-N formula for linear advection is written out. In that formula are two important dimensionless numbers. One is explicitly pointed out; it is $\beta$, the proportion of the spatial derivative that is estimated from the advanced time level. The other is denoted by $r$, which is half of what, in a more usual notation, is known as the Courant number, $\nu=\frac{v\Delta t
}{\Delta x}$. This is the ratio between the true propagation speed $v$ and the speed $\Delta x/\Delta t
$ with which information propagates through the grid. For explicit methods taking the spatial derivative only from the early time, the Courant number must be less than 1.0, for reasons of causality.
When the later time is taken into account also, there is no obviously necessary limit on $\nu$, which is why people are willing to go to such methods, that are called implicit and are very costly, especially for non-linear problems in more than one dimension. Nevertheless, there are theoretical attractions.
The correct outcome from a Fourier analysis is that if $\beta$ is chosen greater than 0.5, there really is no limit on the time step. If beta is chosen exactly equal to 0.5 we find neutral stability, which should be ideal. Unfortunately, waveforms get very distorted and large oscillations appear. The results are only acceptable in practice if $\beta$ is made greater than 0.5, unless the data is very smooth. (And in that case you are paying more than you have to)
Use of the C-N method has been very rare (in any application that I know of)
for the past fifty years. However, it still makes an instructive homework problem. But there are a lot of much better advection schemes.
Comment: The Crank-Nicolson method is actually one of the two second-order temporal schemes offered by OpenFOAM for Navier-Stokes equations. The other is BDF2. For diffusion problems Crank-Nicolson is still quite popular. It used to be used in a combination with Adams-Bashforth and now more typically with Runge-Kutta. In such a combination CN solves the implicit diffusive part.
Comment: @Vladimir The question was about pure advection.
Comment: That is true, but the first sentence of the first paragraph is formulated in an absolute way (*"in any application that I know of"*). BTW, CN is also one of the few twmporal schemes offered by OpenFOAM (together with backward Euler and BDF2).


What LiPo C-rating is best for a small 65mm quad?

Question: I have a small 65mm quadcopter which uses 2s batteries. Is there a recommended LiPo C-rating to get for a drone like this? Or is there some way to figure out what C-rating I should get?
Answer: C rating is very much a non-science. There's no real way to compare between brands, so just go off the idea that the higher the C value, the better.
If you want to do it a little more mathematically (though it still won't be completely accurate), find out the maximum current draw of each of your motors and other electronics, add them up and then add a bit (maybe 20%) for some extra safety, and this will be your maximum current draw.
Divide this by the capacity of your battery in amp-hours (so 0.45 for a 450mAh battery) and this will give you your ideal C rating.
Answer: C ratings vary between brands, so it's hard to use it to compare batteries. While it defines the current the battery can provide, there's no standard for whether it means you can regularly fly at this level, use it for a 'short' burst (whatever that means) or whether the battery can manage that current briefly but will over-heat and never do it again.
If you fly with others who fly similar quads, you can see what brands they have tried and which they prefer. There are lots of blogs and videos that review a number of brands, although many are a paid adverts. Otherwise all you can do is buy a number of different brands and see which you like.


Can there be any substance whose number of electrons and protons are different at neutral state

Question: I want to ask that if there any substance that has the different number of electrons and protons at its neutral state
Comment: Something neutral must be uncharged.
Answer: It's certainly possible, you just need other charged particles that aren't electrons or protons.
For example, a positron is positively charged, so something that's made out of an electron plus a positron would work. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onium, or this answer on SE, for a few examples.
Comment: It is worth noting that such substances will not last long.
Answer: Well your question itself is sort of wrong because you assume that individual atoms would have a definite number of electrons... which is usually not the case. In a molecule, electrons can be spread around several nuclei depending on several factors like the atoms' electronegativity or the molecule structure.
In fact, it is not really a matter of how many electrons are around a nucleus but more "how likely" they will be around that nucleus compared to other surrounding nuclei.
Comment: I want to know if there a way in which the different number of electrons can neutralize the charge different number of protons. Suppose there is a neutral atom with 4 electrons and 3 protons.
Comment: @Nick Charge is a fundamental quantity. In normal matter all the charges come from either protons or electrons. The net charge is what you get when you add up all the positive charges from protons and all the negative charges from electrons. So there is no way that 3 electrons can balance the charges from 4 protons.
Comment: @Nick — No, there cannot be a neutral atom with 4 electrons and 3 protons


What exactly happens with Spread Spectrum Modulation

Question: With regard to DSSS and CDMA(DS), what does it mean to spread a signal over a spectrum of frequencies in terms of individual frequencies? Is it about sending the same signal redundantly on multiple frequencies, or is the data stream actually divided and sent as multiple discreet signals over various frequencies? I've read explanations claiming either.
Answer: Direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) is a technique that is used to generate a modulated signal that occupies more bandwidth than would be implied by its information content alone. A DSSS signal is generated via multiplication of a (typically digitally-modulated) baseband signal by another spreading code waveform. The spreading code waveform is constructed such that it is modulated at a higher rate than the baseband signal; this yields the "spreading" of the resulting signal's spectrum.
To see this, recall the multiplication property of the Fourier transform. Let the baseband signal $x(t)$ be multiplied by a spreading waveform $s(t)$:
$$
x(t)s(t)\Longleftrightarrow X(f) * S(f)
$$
where the $*$ denotes convolution. If $S(f)$ is broadband when compared to $X(f)$, then the result of convolving $X(f)$ with $S(f)$ is that $X(f)$'s spectral content is "smeared" or "spread" across a wider region of the spectrum. The amount of spreading is dependent upon $S(f)$ and therefore the choice of the spreading sequence $s(t)$. So, for example, you could take a 1 kbps BPSK signal, which would normally have a null-to-null bandwidth of 2 kHz, and spread it to instead have a null-to-null bandwidth of your choice: say, 1 MHz.
To answer your most pointed question, you're not really sending a single signal redundantly on multiple carrier frequencies, nor are you dividing the input signal into pieces that get transmitted at multiple carriers. In lieu of a discrete multi-carrier approach, DSSS instead is more of a continuous smearing of the input signal over a large region of spectrum.
If the receiver is also cognizant of the spreading sequence $s(t)$, then it is capable of despreading its observation of the transmission and therefore recovering the original baseband signal. As long as the spreading sequence $s(t)$ does equal zero for any $t$, then in principle, the spreading process is perfectly reversible. In practice, this isn't exactly the case, as there will be some distortion between what is transmitted and what the receiver sees, but it leads to an important point that is often misunderstood about DSSS:

No benefit in bit error performance, measured in $\frac{E_b}{N_0}$ (the typical metric used for digital modulation performance evaluation) is offered by using direct-sequence spread spectrum. Since the spreading process is reversible, then the principle of reversibility states that there can be no improvement in performance of the optimal receiver for the spread signal when compared to the performance of the optimal receiver for the original, unspread signal.

So if there's no direct bit-error performance benefit, why would you want to do this? There are a few common reasons:

Multiple access: Code division multiple access schemes work using DSSS techniques. CDMA allows multiple transmitted signals to occupy the same bandwidth over the same time period. Transmitters are associated with separate carefully-selected spreading codes; these are also known by the receiver, which uses them to separate the previously-intermingled-in-time-and-frequency signals. CDMA can be made to seem like the greatest thing since sliced bread, but there are some practical issues (most notably the near-far problem) that limit its usefulness. It is, however, used in some cellular networks around the world, for one example.
Interference mitigation: Signals with high bandwidth are resistant to narrowband interferers on the AWGN channel. A hand-waving time-domain explanation: a wideband signal in the frequency domain will have a narrow autocorrelation function in the time domain, and vice versa. The optimal receiver will use a correlator (often implemented with a matched filter) matched to the transmitted spread-spectrum waveform, so its output (which ideally will contain copies of the signal's autocorrelation function at symbol-spaced intervals) will contain narrow, sharp peaks that will be easy to identify against the oppositely-characterized background interference.
A hand-waving frequency-domain explanation: the spreading process takes the original baseband signal's power and spreads it across a wide region of the spectrum. In the communication channel, narrowband interference finds its way into the signal that eventually is observed. During the despreading process, the DSSS signal is compressed back to the original baseband signal's bandwidth. However, at the same time, the despreading process actually spreads the narrowband interference across the same bandwidth as the original DSSS signal.
So effectively, the narrowband interferer has been transformed into a wideband interferer across the entire DSSS signal bandwidth, which as you recall, is much larger than the baseband (information-carrying) signal's bandwidth. Therefore, much of the interference power is pushed out of band with respect to the signal of interest, which yields a higher signal-to-interference power ratio (and better performance).
"Discreetness": No, not discrete, discreet. DSSS is often spoken of as being able to "pull signal out of the noise floor." This refers to the ability of a spread-spectrum receiver to transform a wideband DSSS signal back to the original, much narrower waveform. For a given transmitter power, as the transmitted spread signal bandwidth increases, the average power spectral density over the DSSS bandwidth will decrease, perhaps to the point where it is difficult to observe using spectral analysis at the receiver. This property can be useful for a number of reasons.
One aim might be to decrease the probability of the emitter being detected (and possibly intercepted) by an adversary. Another might be to mitigate interference with other, narrowerband systems that operate in the same region of spectrum. An example of this approach is in ultra wideband communications systems, which have increased in popularity in recent years.
Answer: CDMA means that multiple signals are spread and "stacked" on top of the same wide-band channel (each signal takes the entire bandwidth). Each original signal can be obtained because the spreading sequences are orthogonal.
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_division_multiple_access#Steps_in_CDMA_Modulation for a good example of how this signal "stacking" works.
Comment: @estolua: "a digital signal modulated, let's say with QAM, would only require one frequency" - This is **false**. Digitally modulated signals do not have zero bandwidth, as would be implied by your assertion that they would only "require one frequency." Your confusion doesn't seem to be related to spread spectrum at all, but instead is a more fundamental misunderstanding of signals and systems.
Comment: so what does it mean for a signal to "take the entire bandwidth"? an analog or baseband signal naturally occupies multiple frequencies, but a digital signal modulated, let's say with QAM, would only require one frequency.
Comment: One carrier frequency, but with a set bandwidth. With DSSS the carrier moves multiple times within the channel. So if you look at it over time, it will occupy the entire channel, e.g. using peak hold on an analyzer.
Comment: @JasonR yes that may very well be the case :) so is there an easy answer why a modulation scheme other than something like FSK would need multiple frequencies? I don't really need to get deep into the subject matter but it seems like this would make a lot of things easier to grasp.
Comment: hmmm, I'm sure there is a better-worded fundamental explanation, but basically finite-time filters must have a non-zero bandwidth (a Dirac delta function, or "single frequency", requires infinite-time/non-causal signal which is not practical).
Answer: Consider an FFT with N bins covering your entire spectrum, and a signal modulated by a constant, say a '0'.  Temporarily ignore the splatter caused by the non-constant modulation required to actually send information.  AM and PM might take up one bin out of N in the FFT result.  An interfering signal in that one bin might take out your signal.  FM might take up 1 out of 2 possible bins, using a different bin for communicating a '1'.
Now consider sending your '0', not in 1 bin, but as an N-dimensional vector using possibly all N bins (and with a '1' as a different mutually orthogonal N dimensional vector).
You might call this "spread" because the total transmission energy is spread out in N dimensions instead of all packed into just 1 bin, making your signal less likely to be found.  You might also call this spread because you still might be able to decompose the sum of more than one N-dimensional vector into some orthogonal components, thereby digging your signal out from among other senders using the same N bins within the same spectrum as you (but hopefully using an orthogonal encoding).
Or in the case of OFDM, you might be using a large portion of all the possible combinations of orthogonal N-dimensional vectors to send some fraction of N bits of information in one fat chunk, and with a much lower modulation rate than required for the same data rate with per-bit AM, PM or FM (which greatly helps with splatter and multi-path issues).
The above thought experiment is, of course, a gross oversimplification, but might provide some insight into why the use of multiple frequency bins might not be just a redundant repeating of the data, but a useful encoding of the data into more than just one or two frequencies.
Comment: @estolua Even though you have accepted hotpaw2's answer, the accepted answer is in fact not relevant to the question "What exactly happens with spread spectrum?" It is instead an excellent answer to a completely different question!  The "grossly oversimplified thought experiment" has little to do with spread spectrum communication as most people view the notion.  See JasonR's answer for a much better description of what spread spectrum is all about.


Can I get live wallpapers on iPhone5(iOS6)?

Question: Does iOS 6 support Live wallpapers?
Are there any apps out there?
Answer: Native iPhone iOS (un-jail broken) does not support Live wallpapers (as in Android). There are numerous apps available for jail broken iPhones in the Cydia app store. An example would be vWallpaper. Obviously you would have to jail break your iPhone to utilize a Live Wallpaper app.
Answer: Unfortunately not. It might be possible if you jailbreak your device, but it's not a feature of stock iOS, and App Store rules prevent third party apps from changing the wallpaper or running in the background, which would be necessary for changing it on a schedule.


Nietzsche challenging traditional morality

Question: What exactly are the challenges to morality Nietzsche presents in the Genealogy of Morality? Is there a specific philosopher Nietzsche is responding to (like Kant, Aristotle, Plato, or Hobbes)? And is it fair to interpret the "morality" Nietzsche speaks about as the same "morality" these other philosophers generally refer to?
Answer: Nietzsche often does not quote and or refer to his sources. At best you can say that he expects to pick up the references, and at worst you can say he is simply purloining the ideas of others without due credit and burnishing his own flame at the expense of others.
One might say, for a man interested in genealogy he's singularly uninterested in the genealogy of his own; perhaps, he sees himself sui generis? That would figure given his eulogy of ubermenschen - and did he count himself amongst them? Maybe, maybe, maybe - we don't know! But he certainly made himself out to be something uber uniqo and uber fantastico; that Greek spirit certainly went his head but whereas most sober up, one wonders whether he ever did...
For example, here's something that I've just read from a footnote in an essay by Ortega y Gasset:

In passing, let us seize the opportunity to see, from the altitude of this vision, the element of frivolity, and even of vulgarity, in N's famous imperative: 'Live dangerously'. Which furthermore, is not N's but the exaggeration of an old Italian Renaissance saying, Aretinos famous motto: Vivere risolutamente. Because N does not say 'Live on the alert', which would have been good, but 'Live dangerously.' And this shows that despite his genius, he did not know that the very substance of our life is danger and hence it is rather affected, and supererogatory, to propose as something new, added, and original that we should seek and collect danger. An idea, furthermore, which is typical of that period called 'fin de siècle'

And mind you, Ortega happened to be a fan of Nietzsche! That didn't stop him from disapproving of his philosophy of excess, of turning words upside down, of giving words wings, and of borrowing the words of others - unacknowledged. I'd have whispered in his ear - Nietschze, do you remember the story of Icarus? But would a man like him take any notice? One very much doubts it.
I also recall reading somewhere that an Irish playwright and politician - unfortunately I don't recall the name right now -  in the 17th C was critical of Machivelli describing Christianity as a religion of slaves. This of course is interesting in the context of Nietzsches philosophy as he famous for saying this (and then his followers and disciples - they don't seem often to get far past this point for some reason). The playwrights riposte, and maybe the politician in him too, was that Christianity made it that much more difficult for tyrants to rule; that they so often do, shows the strength of tyranny...
Martin Luthor King said this philosophy was something he had to struggle through when he was doing his thesis in the seminary. That critique obviously hit home - one might say as it was meant to. Coming from a world only recently emancipated from slavery but still living like second class or third class citizens - it would, wouldn't it?  I mean not only did he come from a family of slaves, and a race of slaves, and that he was the colour of a slave but he was metaphysically a slave! Not just a slave legally, or in fact, but slave all the way through to his soul. No wonder, it jolted him.  I don't recall what he thought in response to it except that he was able to go past it. Given your interest in the challenges that N puts to traditional morality of one kind or another it might be worth looking to see what he had to say about his own struggles with this.
Answer: What is Nietzsche's view of morality? As the name suggests, Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality is concerned with looking at the historical lineage of different moral theories.  Nietzsche holds the view that humans are affected by powerful inbuilt drives, and the most basic drive is the "will to power".  Nietzsche believes that moral codes evolve as conscious normative manifestations of the needs and interests of a particular type of person, and so groups of people tend to formulate moral codes that characterise their own traits as "good" and the traits that they lack as "evil".  He argues that people form these moral codes as a weapon to advance their will to power.  He identifies two main types of people (the strong and the weak) and two corresponding moral codes (master-morality and slave-morality).
Nietzsche is sceptical of the idea of objective morality, and he sees morality as being an expression of codified will-to-power among people with different characteristics.  At one point, he expresses this view of morality with an analogy of the "eagles and lambs":

There is nothing strange about the fact that lambs bear a grudge towards large
  birds of prey: but that is no reason to blame the large birds of prey for carrying off the little lambs.  And if the lambs say to each other, 'These
  birds of prey are evil; and whoever is least like a bird of prey and most like
  its opposite, a lamb, – is good, isn't he?', then there is no reason to raise
  objections to this setting-up of an ideal beyond the fact that the birds of
  prey will view it somewhat derisively, and will perhaps say: 'We don't bear
  any grudge at all towards these good lambs, in fact we love them, nothing
  is tastier than a tender lamb.'  (Genealogy of Morality, pp. 25-26)

What moral philosophy is Nietzsche criticising? In Geneaology, Nietzsche heavily criticises the Judeo-Christian ethic of altruism, which he refers to as "slave morality".  He argues that this morality evolved as a means to allow the weak to denigrate the strong, and revere their own weakness.  He identifies this ethic as originating from the enslaved Jewish people in Egypt, as a weapon for them to undermine their enslavers, but he believe that it has since spread much more broadly and has come to dominate society.  Nietzsche is highly critical of this moral code and he clearly regards it with extreme disgust.  He argues that the slave morality arises from ressentiment, where a weak/inferior person projects their own inferiority and the source of their pain onto the strong.  He refers with contempt to the "priestly caste" that spreads this moral code:

As we know, priests make the most evil enemies – but why? Because
  they are the most powerless. Out of this powerlessness, their hate swells
  into something huge and uncanny to a most intellectual and poisonous
  level. The greatest haters in world history, and the most intelligent, have always been priests: – nobody else's intelligence stands a chance against the intelligence of priestly revenge.
...
It was the Jews who, rejecting the aristocratic value equation (good = noble = powerful = beautiful = happy = blessed) ventured, with awe-inspiring consistency, to bring about a reversal and held it in the teeth of the most unfathomable hatred (the hatred of the powerless), saying: 'Only those who suffer are good, only the poor, the powerless, the lowly are good; the suffering, the deprived, the sick, the ugly, are the only pious people, the only ones saved, salvation is for them alone, whereas you rich, the noble and powerful, you are eternally wicked, cruel, lustful, insatiate, godless, you will also be eternally wretched, cursed and damned!' ...
We know who became heir to this Jewish revaluation ...  With regard to the huge and incalculably disastrous initiative taken by the Jews with this most fundamental of all declarations of war, I recall the words I wrote on another occasion ... – namely, that the slaves' revolt in morality begins with the Jews: a revolt which has two thousand years of history behind it and which has only been lost sight of because – it was victorious ... (Genealogy of Morality, p. 17)


asubha practice

Question: why is it mentioned in the pali canon that Without the direct guidance of a teacher, this practice can be dangerous, as the canon of Buddhist literature includes a story of the Buddha teaching this mediation to pupils, a lot of whom commit suicide while the Buddha is in retreat.does this mean that I being a layperson, can't perform this?moreover, how can I not develop aversion while practising this but still reap it's benefit?
Comment: At the time accepted the answer I had not finished the answer. Below is the finished answer.
Comment: Did a few more adjustments.
Answer:
why is it mentioned in the pali canon that Without the direct guidance of a teacher, this practice can be dangerous,

I am not sure if this is mentioned as dangerous in the canon. It is in the commentaries which say this is dangerous. It can be inferred as dangerous because of the above incident.

does this mean that I being a layperson, can't perform this?

You can do this. Only if done right it is not dangerous.

moreover, how can I not develop aversion while practising this but still reap it's benefit?

This is recommended if you inclined to see beauty in the physical form. That is, when you see something you evaluate it is beautiful you get strong attachment.
What is involved here is perception of beauty and the sensation.
Develope Opposite Perception and View
When you see a certain form or shape as beautiful then develop the perception  and view that is is not. This way, as your practice mature, your mental reaction to something beautiful will lesen. The form can you your form (own beauty or looks), someone else or even imaginary form.

when a monk sees a form with the eye, (in him) the agreeable arises, the disagreeable
    arises, the agreeable-and-disagreeable [the neutral] arises.
...
If he wishes thus, 'May I dwell perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive,' he dwells perceiving the repulsive therein
... mind-object .. mind ...

Indriya Bhāvanā Sutta, Sampasadanīya Sutta
Cemetery Contemplation
Also use external form to reduce attachment to ones own body, again at the level of correcting the perception and view as well as the reflexive response of the mind, i.e., to reduce reflexing arising of craving for sensation due to perceptions on form, and should not lead to reflexing arising of aversion for sensation due to perceptions on form.

he compares this very body with that, thinking:
  "Such is the nature of this body: it will become like that—this is unavoidable."

Mahā Sati'patthāna Sutta
Changes Perception and View due to Internal Content
Also think if what is within the body is external and what was external was inside, you will be chasing animals away from pecking at you flesh! Also imagine what is below the skin. What comes out of the orifices. Imagine body parts piled up. This also a change in perception and view. The last view to break is that the stream of consciousness in internal or self.
Also see: In what Sutta(s) is there a References to Imagine the Body Inside Out and What is Below the Skin, Sampasadanīya Sutta
Whole vs. Parts and Effect on Perceptions and View
The body is made of parts. Sum of the parts are beautiful but not individually. The parts on their own does not have beauty, but put together only the perception and view of beauty arise. This way you reduce the mental reaction and attachment, to the sensation due to the mental reaction, that follows.
Also see: Mahā Sati'patthāna Sutta
Change in Form due To Decay Changes Perception and Views
Developing the view that the body is impermanent, subjected sickness, decay, old age and death. When you see someone beautiful then when they are sick, oozing excretions or on a pile of excretions, old and dead. Again this a way to adjust your perception and view so you mental reaction and the craving that result from the sensations due to how you mind's reactions are diminished.
Also see: Maha Dukkha-k,khandha Sutta, Does any Theravada Suttas / sources refer to Oozing orifices? What are the Suttas?
Method on Insight
Also when you evaluate some form as beautiful, plain or ugly you get a pleasant, neutral and unpleasant sensation. Use this to eradicate you latent tendencies for craving.

On seeing a form with the eye,
one explores a form that gives rise to pleasure,
one explores a form that gives rise to pain [displeasure],
one explores a form that gives rise to equanimity.
...
On cognizing a mind-object with the mind,
one explores a mind-object that gives rise to pleasure,
one explores a mind-object that gives rise to pain [displeasure],
one explores a mind-object that gives rise to equanimity

Sal-āyatana Vibhanga Sutta

the latent tendency to lust reinforced by being attached to pleasant feelings;

Pahāna Sutta
In the methods mentioned above, the 1st can be dangerous (from most dangerous to the lesser dangerous ones), if you develop aversion towards form, due to the pratice. This is what happened to the monks who committed suicide. They got repulsed by their own body. Meditation on repulsiveness is to bring balance to your mind (being equanimous know it is impermanent regardless of the mental reaction) than moving from one polarity to another (i.e., reflexively seeing beauty and develop craving to reflexively seeing repulsiveness and developing aversion). Developing Insight is the safest way to practice this form of meditation as you are not trying to adjust you reactive / reflexive response of the mind with the risk of overdoing it. A experienced teacher may help detect if you have overdone it and reduce the risk.
Also see: Patikulamanasikara, Vipallasa Sutta
Answer: As a layperson, you can practise 'asubha' without a teacher however you must understand its purpose is to end lust rather than to end life. A stock phrase in the suttas is:

Asubhaṃ bhāvanaṃ bhāvehi. Asubhaṃ hi te bhāvanaṃ bhāvayato yo rāgo so pahīyissati.
Develop the meditation of the unattractive. For when you are developing the meditation of the unattractive, passion/lust will be
  abandoned.
MN 62; MN 118

In my experience, the primary issue/problem with asubha practice, as occured in the Vesali Sutta, is not so much aversion but, instead, the loss of positive regard towards physical forms in such a way that results in perceiving life as having no purpose.
Therefore, the Buddha teaches in the Vesali Sutta that once 'asubha' practise has served its purposes in generating disgust towards the physical body & abolishing lust, the mind should then develop Anapanasati to make the mind peaceful & to direct the mind to develop final gnosis.
Answer: The direct danger comes from developing aversion to one's own body and other bodies. In short starting to view your own body and that of others as a "sack of shit" or just a general "sour grapes attitude" towards yourself and others. People have apparently commited suicide as a result of these views.
To avoid it, the contemplation needs to be structured with an element of compassion(Karuṇā) so that bodily vulnerabilities are contemplated and one developes a healthy caring attitute towards the concept of a body. Elements of Metta may be needed to balance out aversion hostility if such was to manifest in behavior. It seems that the aversion does have a natural tendency to manifest itself and a correction from a teacher is usually needed at some point if one is to do it on his own.
If one's mind is powerful enough there can rise alot of visions and signs, which can be used to enter Jhana, but if not done correctly these will be very frightening and uncontrollable and one will go crazy in most cases. IE: Vivid visions of rotting corpses, corpses dragged around, people attacking you etc, not during meditation but during daily life. These states are described as potential complications by Ven. Maha Bua in the book "Wisdom creates Samadhi"
In general it can get tricky, and the meditation is very powerful so there is no saying how a session will affect one. The views can change quickly, changing them back can prove to be difficult.
That being said i think its a wonderful technique if one does it under competent guidance. Preferably someone who has trained it himself and has trained many other people and can react adequately to complications.
I dont think this is something i would recommend to people, i think it has its place and probably is optimal way to train for some personality types if they wanted to train Samatha but in general its not the only option and runs a real, unnecessary risk. I think its worth noting that the bahavior is the last thing to change, views change much faster so by the time the problem behaviors manifest it may be hard to change it back and many teachers wouldnt even know how to do it.

asubha practice


How do we convert the seismic trace wavelet to zero phase which is in mixed phase?

Question: As we know the mixed phase data would not give the "real TWTT" through the medium. We need a zero-phase wavelet that can directly correspond to the time taken to travel in a given media. So my question is how do we convert the seismic trace wavelet to zero phase which is in mixed phase? There must be an important processing procedure to do so.
Answer: My preferred way of doing this (I've been working in seismic data processing and analysis for over 20 years now) is:

Start with theoretical (or notional) source wavelet.
Shape the source wavelet to zero phase (or minimum phase, depending on your
application).
Design a cross-equalization filter that takes the input
from step 1 as the source and step 2 as the target. This can then be
globally applied to your data.

There are other ways to do this (like with Wiener deconvolution) that make a statistical estimate of what the wavelet should look like, and this was considered acceptable in the industry for many years. However, such statistical processes are not acceptable for all applications, such as 4D (time lapse seismic) analyses, so I prefer processes that are deterministic rather than processes that rely on a stochastic assumption.
Answer: It depends on what your starting information about your seismic data is. For example, if you know that your data contains an impulsive (minimum phase) source wavelet (i.e. the acquisition source was dynamite or a big ol' hammer, or some other impulsive source, and has not been modified) then you can apply the workflow of txpaulm or use spiking deconvolution. But realize that you are making an assumption about the shape of your wavelet's phase spectrum, which is a very good assumption most of the time.
If you don't want to make the minimum phase assumption for your wavelet (i.e. you think you have a mixed phase wavelet), you will need to make some other assumption or incorporate some other piece of information.
A very popular method for estimating a mixed phased wavelet is that of Walden and White (1998). They incorporate additional information from a reflectivity series calculated at a well and then find the impulse response filter that best predicts (in the least squares sense) the seismic data extracted along the well path.
The trick here is that you are assuming that you know the velocity function (time-depth curve) along the well to correctly compare the well's calculated reflectivity series (in depth) with the extracted seismic data (in time). Errors in the time-depth curve will propagate into your extracted wavelet. What you can do is to first approximate the real wavelet with a simple zero-phase phase wavelet extracted from the autocorrelation of the seismic data (or you can use a Ricker wavelet of a reasonable dominant frequency if you want) and make a synthetic seismogram at the well. Then modify the time-depth relation along the well path (i.e. stretch and squeeze your synthetic) until your well is kinda-sorta fitting. Then go back and extract a better constant-phase wavelet (no more Ricker) through autocorrelation and try to modify the constant phase while simultaneously tweaking the time-depth curve along the well. You should already be close the right time-depth curve but this will get you pretty damn close to the answer. Once you are happy with the position of your synthetic with respect to the seismic data, then you can apply the method of Walden and White (1998) to get the best fit filter that gets you from the reflectivity at the well to the seismic data along the well path. This filter is your mixed phase wavelet (at that one well location). If you do this at a couple wells and notice that the wavelet is relatively consistent, you can average the wavelets and apply the method of txpaulm to make your entire seismic data zero-phase.
Ok then, sorry for the long block of text...
Now, what if you don't have wells or don't want to use them for some reason?
Well, you can still estimate the phase spectrum of your wavelet directly from the seismic data by using the method Velis and Ulrych (1996) (and optimized by Misra and Sacchi (2007)) based on 4th order cumulant matching between the seismic trace and an all-pass filter. Since this optimization problem is nonlinear, the method is computationally intensive as it requires a global optimization algorithm (Very Fast Simulated Annealing) and can be sensitive to noise. However, since this method does not require a well, it can be used to test the stationarity assumption about the seismic wavelet.
Mixed-phase wavelet extraction is a very popular field of research and you can probably find more information looking through the SEG and EAGE online libraries.
Good luck!
-Antonio


Is the structure of a crystalized protein the native one?

Question: When one finds the 3D structure of a protein by crystalizing it and then making a X-ray experiment, how does one know that the geometrical configuration of the crystal is the same (or even close) to the structure the protein adopt in aqueous solution?
Comment: @DGS Significant percent of protein structures was obtained with NMR not X-ray. http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/static.do?p=general_information/about_pdb/nature_of_3d_structural_data.html
Comment: Well, it doesn't need to be, be it's still something. NMR is getting structures in solutions.
Comment: @Mithoron And they're doing fancy stuff with proteins NMR, but I don't see how they would get a whole configuration. That would be amazing.
Comment: @Mithoron And to think I have trouble assinging something that weighs around 500 g/mol.
Answer: I'll use quotes from B. Rupp, Biomolecular Crystallography (p. 7-8) to answer.
Generally the structure is similar...

Comparison of many nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) solution structure
  ensembles with crystallographic structure has shown that the core
  structure of protein molecules remains unchanged compared with the
  solution state during crystallization. In addition, enzymes packed in
  crystals even maintain biological activity.

with some parts not visible in the experiment...

The maintenance of the core structure and of enzymatic function shows
  that crystal structures are a very good approximation of the native
  protein solution structure. Nonetheless, highly flexible or mobile
  regions, frequently the amino- or carboxyl-termini of the protein chain or
  flexible loops connecting secondary structure elements, can be
  poorly defined or even absent in the electron density and thus can be
  modeled only with limited confidence.

but beware...

In certain situation flexible and dynamic regions of a protein
  molecule can be rigidly fixed in a specific conformation as a result
  of crystal packing interactions. In most cases this represents just a
  snapshot of one possible conformation out of many and it must be
  understood that such a specific conformation may not locally represent
  the protein structure in solution. A simple safeguard against
  misinterpretations -- which is usually assignment of certain
  biological relevance to regions where that is de facto not warranted --
  is to display all neighboring, symmetry-related molecules in the crystal
  structure and examine if any intermolecular interactions are
  present that are a result of crystal packing. Such packing induced
  artifacts can also hamper for example drug discovery by altering or
  blocking binding sites and thus preventing an otherwise active
  substance from binding.


What are RPG.SE's goals for Hot Network Questions?

Question: Some recent controversy surrounding a decision involving Hot Network Questions has become a big featured question on MSE. This seems like it's eventually going to work towards a "better" version of Hot Network Questions, but what exactly is "better" is a bit up in the air. I thought that we could organize our own goals for Hot Network Questions here, before contributing our thoughts to the question on MSE. What would we like to get out of Hot Network Questions?
Comment: Thank you very much for this!
Answer: HNQ should promote our best content
As it stands now, HNQ–both here and on other sites I've observed–tends to feature the perverse, controversial, eye-catching, or bizarre questions of the site. This results in those questions getting "opinion-swamped" by the masses, with everyone trying to insert their own voice into an already saturated answer space. This has the outcome of bringing even more attention to the topic, but also making the question a disaster for both the querent and moderation. Having to sift through dozens of crappy answers to find which ones not only follow the sites rules, but provide value without rehashing another answer is a difficult task, and not really what anyone wants to use the Stack for.
I think the alternative–and a way to make cross-site featured content valuable–is to instead feature our very best content. Good questions that require a given level of expertise to answer should inherently help combat answer spam while showcasing the value and expertise of our community.
Unfortunately, I don't know what that might look like in implementation. Perhaps there's a moderator or community approval that's required to mark a question viable for HNQ (or its replacement), and then a modified version of the current algorithm selects which to showcase.
Comment: This is a great suggestion. Perhaps there can be a minimum votes tier? Or a new privilege for "Recommended Question for HNQ"
Answer: Find some way to reduce bad answers on popular questions from users coming in from the HNQ
There's a common thing we run into here:

User asks a perfectly fine question.
Question gets a bunch of upvotes/views, causing it to show up on the HNQ.
Lots of people from across the SE network see it on the sidebar.
They come and answer the question.
They don't know rpg.se norms, aren't RPG experts, or whatever, so a lot of the answers are bad.
Bad stuff happens:  The question has to be locked, a bunch of extra moderation work gets created to deal with the bad answers, they get upset about the moderation and start meta drama, whatevs.

Example
This is a pretty crappy experience for everyone involved, but especially for the asker, who didn't do anything wrong besides ask an interesting question, and now has to watch it turn into a warzone.
It would be nice if whatever changes get made to HNQ do something to address this issue.  I'm not sure what the right solution is (Auto-protect HNQ questions?  New review queue?  Kill the association bonus?), but as far as goals go, improving this situation is one of mine.
Comment: Also, along with a bunch of non-expert answerers, we get a bunch of non-expert voters, which makes it even worse.
Comment: I think the thing you're looking for is [protection](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/52764/323179), which prevents answers from "new users", including users whose only rep is from the association bonus. Unfortunately, only moderators would be able to do that if the question is under a day old and/or doesn't have any answers posted by low rep users.
Comment: This is a good description of the current problems, but all of this could be easily addressed by us not being part of HNQ at all. If something like HNQ could have value for us, we should work out what that value might be.
Answer: HNQ should go.
I personally like HNQ, and go to other sites to look at interesting questions.  However, as an adult with a firm grasp of my faculties, I don't contribute answers to sites I'm wildly unqualified to answer on. Sadly, that is not the general approach of Internet users in general.
All SE sites are pretty specific to something.  Ubuntu users, RPG players, people knowledgable in Jewish law. Answers from people that lack that context are, by definition, bad answers and corrupt the target question and site.
This was managed for a while OK, but as the Internet gets generally worse, and as SE sites that require no specific domain knowledge (e.g. IPS) appear, general Internet Buzzfeed-and-comment-section norms intrude on an otherwise civilized site.
We pretty much have to go protect every RPG question that hits HNQ because of the volume of comments and answers from people that don't know jack crap about RPGs.  Which defeats the point of HNQ, as it prevents the new from participating. And it wastes moderator time. Lose-lose-lose scenario.
So, it was a nice thing to have, but it's becoming more harmful than helpful. It either needs to go entirely, or have significant additional restrictions placed around it (you link through it to that site, you're read only for a while?).
Comment: I like the readonly idea; perhaps that could be suggested on MetaSE?
Comment: +1 I agree, HNQ has a terrible effect on our site; it's disruptive and degrades the quality of our site. [I wrote as much on the main MSE post.](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/316934/revisiting-the-hot-network-questions-feature-what-are-our-shared-goals-for-ha?cb=1#comment1038363_316937)
Comment: Alternative approach: Kelly Ellis's voting shares in SE being bought back might be a better path forward. *this is intended to be humorous*
Answer: I've only skimmed the MetaSE post answers, so this suggestion might already be on there, but I think some automated scripts and an alteration to the Protected post status could substantially help on this:

If a post qualifies for HNQ status, the system automatically protects the question. So instead of a mod having to find that there's an issue with the post, the Community bot simply tosses the Protected Question status on it.
Right now, Protected Questions only restrict your ability to answer, we should expand that to include your ability to vote on it. The association bonus isn't counted for the purposes of permitting answers, but it is counted to permit votes. In order to prevent answers that simply sound good from rising to the top, restrict vote counting to only include users whom have earned 15 status on the site. In this way, 100 other stack users from other sites can show up, look at the interesting question and back and forth, but they can't necessarily alter the votes unless the community considers them to have a worthwhile opinion.

Personally, I like HotNQ. I find it serves two purposes extremely well. First it helps me find interesting questions and I like interesting things. Second, it introduces me to other stacks that I didn't know existed; sometimes I find that I've some expertise to offer to those stacks and choose to become a member, other times, I just get to skim through the finer points of what boots are best for hiking thus answering a question I never knew I wanted the answer to.


2004 Ford Escape Battery Light

Question: I recently purchased the car from my grandparents, my grandma told me that the battery light would always come on, at random times, for a random amount of time. I've had it die twice complete power loss when I drive, and it will lose power steering, or I'll either have the feather the gas, which isn't good for a fuel injected car. I put in a brand new alternator in today, and the light still is just on now, and won't turn off. I'm wondering if it's my battery being dead from my old alternator or what, if you have any suggestions please help.
Comment: Which engine do you have? The 2.0 and 3.0 have entirely different charging system setups. The 2.0 is a PWM setup and the 3.0 is an internally regulated deal. Can you take some voltage measurements? Battery positive (B+) to  battery negative (B-), Alternator output wire to B-, Engine to B- and Alternator output to B+.
Answer: It sounds like you are dealing with two distinct problems.  Firstly, the behavior you describe about the battery light coming on occasionally and the power steering going off would point at the alternator belt being stretched / perished / not correctly tensioned.  The reason I say this is that this belt is typically responsible for driving the alternator and the power steering pump.
The second issue I suspect relates to the wiring on the back of the new alternator not being correctly fitted, seated or possibly a fuse has blown.
Comment: If the engine is shutting down due to low voltage than you'd lose power steering. I think that's what OP is trying to convey.
Answer: Your owner's manual will give you the exact causes for the battery light to come on. It is at least one of these reasons:

Alternator is not charging
Alternator is OK, but the battery is not charging or damaged
A main fuse in the charging circuit has blown

The root cause(s) can be these:

Bad alternator (internal voltage regulator or just the entire thing)
Damaged wiring to/from the alternator
Bad/corroded battery terminals
Missing/ineffective alternator belt

In this case, it sounds like the wiring was suspect, and now that you replaced the alternator the wiring was jostled enough to permanently affect the connections. Or, perhaps the wiring was suspect and the installation of the new alternator caused a fuse to blow.
Answer: Did you check the ground connections ?
Make sure the battery ground cable is clean and tight.
Also there are grounding straps that needs connected
From the frame to the engine to the body to make a complete loop......

2004 Ford Escape Battery Light


Does the U.S. House of Representatives have the power to block drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)?

Question: In December 2017, a U.S. federal law opened part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska to oil and gas mining (see article by Randy Showstack, 27 November 2018, EOS).  This decision was and remains deeply controversial, and now environmental and indigenous rights groups are hoping that a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives will enable a reversal of the decision.  But there is still a Republican majority in the Senate, which I believe would mean any law needs some bipartisan support.  Does the House of Representatives have the power to block oil and gas mining in the ANWR, or would both chambers of Congress have to agree before the provisions authorising such mining can be revoked?
Answer: Congress, as a whole could pass legislation, and then could override a presidential veto, but the House, itself, is not empowered to act unilaterally.
In that kind of a situation, if there was the political will to obstruct, they could possibly bog the process down by having investigations and hearings about the decision, the process of arriving at the decision, the motivations of those involved, etc, but that would probably be something that would bring a political result (kind of like how perpetual "Benghazi" investigations put a corruption stink on Hillary Clinton in the eyes of the public for the 2016 elections, even though each and every GOP investigation all came to the same conclusion and cleared her of any wrongdoing, each and every time).
So, no, the House can't prevent that, itself.
Comment: @gerrit - The decision to allow the drilling was made because the executive branch had that latitude under the law.  In the past drilling was allowed, and Presidents have put it off-limits, back to allowed, etc., so there is obviously nothing inherent in a decision that makes it impossible to change. If Congress passed a law putting that off-limits, then that would change the legal basis and reverse the past decision, and then, going forward, a President could not make an executive decision to allow it - it would have to be changed legislatively.
Comment: Can they do that, even when the decision was in the past?


When was the short notation for large numbers first introduced and why?

Question: While the long notation or long scale uses multiples of millions to denominate larger numbers (e.g., 10^12 being a billion, a million of millions, thus bi-llion), the short notation (the standard in the US and UK) uses multiples of thousands (e.g., 10^9 being a billion, a thousand millions, which does not match the bi-llion intuition). Most of continental Europe and Latin America uses the long scale whereas most English-speaking countries use the short scale. The difference between the short and long notation is especially bothersome when you are trying to translate between languages that use the long notation and English. Any ideas as to why we have the two scales, why the regional differences and why we ended up with the short scale, which at least to me seems less intuitive?
Answer: I can answer the "when" part of the question at the moment; I'm not yet sure of the "why".
From History of Mathematics, Volume 2, by David Eugene Smith (page 85, emphasis mine):

The French use of milliard, for 10^9, or billion as an alternative is relatively late. The word appears at least as early as the beginning of the 16th century as the equivalent of both 10^9 and of 10^12, the latter being the billion of England today. By the 17th century, however, it was used in Holland to mean 10^9, and no doubt it was about this time that the usage began to change in France.

This indicates that the term was first used in Holland in the 1600s. The word was used earlier, though, but only as part of the long scale, to refer to 10^12.


How can I create, or where can I find a decent neck breaking sound?

Question: So I am currently busy doing the sound design on a student film which has a character snapping another character's neck with her hands.  Thus far I have cut in a sound effect that I found of someone taking a bite out of celery.  The sound effect hasn't worked perfectly, a pitch change to the sound helped a little, but it's still not right.  Chicken bones have not worked for me either. Can anybody tell me a good idea to create this sound, or tell me where I can go to find it, I will be very grateful?
Answer: Think of the physical layers in the actual action eg flesh & skin ripping, cartilage twisting, spine twisting & then breaking - cut layers for each action with careful sync so the action quickly develops to follow the onscreen action & pacing...
It depends how overt it needs to be, but for breaking internal bones try wrapping objects in towelling eg the celery as one element, wrapped in a light towell & twisted can produce interesting 'internal' breakage sounds that are different to EQing... grab the free VEGETABLE VIOLENCE sounds from http://hissandaroar.com and experiment - maybe towelled celery + pumpkin + a little bit of orange?
Comment: I'd put a tinge of tomato in there for good measure... Possibly a bell pepper to taste. :-)
Answer: It's interesting that the idea of celery foley for bone snapping has become so ingrained in people's minds. Many films and TV shows have used this approach, but it cannot be the end-all be-all sound; they key is layering.
How you create the sound design depends on the way the scene was shot, the amount of effort being exerted, the drama of the scene, etc. That being said, a few general comments about this type of sound:

An impact sound may be necessary to convey the idea of violence. Try a punch or body blow that precedes the snap;
Try other foods, like cabbage, watermelon rind or broccoli. Perhaps your should check out Tim's library;
An effort (grunt, exhale, etc) from either person will help attach your design to the image and make it more believable. Often times these sorts of sounds feel disembodied without the proper reaction from one of the characters.

UPDATE:
While re-reading my answer from 2010 (eek, that was a long time ago), I realized that I neglected to mention the easiest solution to your dilemma: Just go out and record one. Duh!
Comment: I spent a good half hour trying to find audio of real bones breaking - nothing like a celery sound, but gut wrenching all the same.  Would be nice to see more realism in violent sounds..
Comment: So anything that causes the demise of more celery - I'm all for it. I really don't have the words to describe how much I dislike celery. It's the pariah of vegetables. Die Celery. Die.
Answer: it might seem a bit silly but for me worked combination of layers: old chocolate! (you know, the one you used to find at your grandma's with this white-ish stuff on the top of it), tiny branches and tuned finger snapping. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the final sound, but I'll try to look again back home.


"misunderstand" vs "misunderstood"

Question: If speaking or writing to someone and it becomes apparent they did not interpret something correctly, is it correct to inform them "you misunderstood" or "you misunderstand"? I'm not sure because the faulty assumption took place in the past but the person is still under the influence of the faulty assumption. On a related note, I was taught that when speaking of something that could happen it is spoken in the past tense but then why does it sound so unnatural to say something like "Since Bob is not a native English speaker he will surely misunderstood the meaning of the letter"?
Comment: This actually looks like two separate questions to me.
Comment: Both of your phrases are "correct", and in many cases either can be used. "Will ... misunderstood" is never grammatical, as models such as _will_, _can_ and _may_ always take the simple infinitive, not the past.
Comment: If speaking / writing to someone and it becomes apparent they did not interpret something correctly, it's probably better to say / write back "I'm sorry, perhaps I'm not explaining this / I didn't explain myself very well."
Comment: I meant "modals", not "models" in my comment above.
Comment: Somewhat related: ["Forgot" vs "Forget"](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/8819/forgot-vs-forget)
Comment: Paint vs Painted.
Answer: I would choose You misunderstood because, as you say, this is an action that happened in the past: it happened when that person interpreted whatever. Besides, it sounds more polite to say You misunderstood (you made one mistake) than You misunderstand (you continue making the same mistake).
As for your second question, it does not sound unnatural: it is plain wrong. I don't know exactly what you were taught, but you cannot construct the future tense using the past tense. Of course, if it is something that could have happened, you would just write:

Since Bob is not a native English speaker, he surely misunderstood
  the meaning of the letter.
Answer: From the first two lines of your question, when someone doesn't interpret what you have said, "Misunderstood" is the correct term to be used, because things have already happened. Since it is a faulty assumption which already took place, we have to use the past tense.
You could use, You dont Understand! when the communication is happening at present.
Since Bob is not a native English speaker he will surely misunderstood the meaning of the letter,
is very wrong.
It must be either,
Since Bob is not a native English speaker he will misunderstand the meaning - if it is going to happen in future
or
Since Bob is not a native English speaker he has misunderstood the meaning - if it has already happened
Answer: It depends on the other words surrounding the misunderstand / misunderstood.
The simple answer to your question: 'You misunderstood' is correct.  'You misunderstand' must have other words before or after the phrase to be correct in your situation (as you indicated that it happened in the past).
For example, if you added 'Did' before your second suggestion of 'you misunderstand' ("Did you misunderstand the question?"), it would be accurate.  In this context, 'did' is a past tense auxiliary verb connected with a root verb.  See (http://www.gingersoftware.com/grammarbook/verbs/do-does-did/ under the section 'The verb to do as an auxiliary verb'.  In your situation (a situation that already occurred), without the addition of 'Did', it would not be correct.
If you don't add anything else to the sentence (regarding a situation that occurred in the past), I would use 'You misunderstood'.  It is a simple past tense verb.  (See http://en.bab.la/conjugation/english/misunderstand under Simple Past Tense).
For the second question, as others have said, it is not correct.  You are using a future tense auxiliary verb (will) combined with a past tense verb (misunderstood).  Instead, it should be a future tense auxiliary (helper) verb combined with the root verb (it is the same concept as the first link above).
I hope this helps.

"misunderstand" vs "misunderstood"


Is it possible to delete a smart contract if selfdestruct() not implemented in it?

Question:
Please explain how can i use delegatecall or callcode. Thanks !
Answer: You might be asking this because your goal is to delete a smart contract that didn't initially have a call to selfdestruct(). If this is the case, you can't achieve your goal.
The note says that a contract can still execute selfdestruct() if delegatecall or callcode to another contract is executed. That is to say, another contract is already referenced from your contract, and that contract can call the method, even though it hasn't been referenced in the original contract.
You can't just delete any arbitrary contract on the network once it's been published, i.e., after deployment, without already designing this in. If anyone could do that, it would undermine the basis for all smart contract behavior. First, if a non-owner could call a non-existent selfdestruct(), they could remove the contract. Obviously, this isn't possible, but still a thought exercise. Second, if an owner could arbitrarily blow up any contract and recover funds, then the owner could effectively "revoke" all smart contracts that they entered into, making them null and void.
Let's say you had a contract that held community funds and decided where those funds were based on some internal logic. When you notice that the funds will probably go to someone you don't like, you can't just choose to blow up the contract because you made it. Everyone agreed on the internal logic of the smart contract, and that logic never gave you an "out" that you could use. Just like a real life contract, you can't terminate the contract without a termination clause built in.
Answer: You have to delegate the call to another contract (hence the name delegatecall()).
The following would allow B to self-destruct by calling into A:
pragma solidity ^0.4.2;
contract A {
    address owner;
    function A() {
        owner = msg.sender;
    }
    function destroy() {
        selfdestruct(owner);
    }
}

contract B{
    function call(address a) {
        a.delegatecall(bytes4(sha3("destroy()")));
    }
}

Answer: By simply calling selfdestruct(<address>) in contract.
function destroyContract() public onlyOwner{
        selfdestruct(owner);
}

But be careful selfdestruct() method.
Check below link
How does the delegatecall method work to call to another contract's method?


One to one correspondence

Question: Let $\{B_i\}_{i\in I}$ and $\{C_i\}_{i\in I}$ be families of sets. If $B_i$ is in one-to-one correspondence with $C_i$ for each $i\in I$, $\prod B_i$ is in one-to-one correspondence with $\prod C_i$.
Comment: That's true. Do you have a question?
Answer: Let $f_i\colon B_i\to C_i$ be a one-to-one correspondence.
Recall that if $I$ is an index, and $\{A_i\}_{i\in I}$ is a family of sets, then
$$\prod_{i\in I}A_i = \left.\left\{\strut f\colon I\to \cup A_i\,\right| f(i)\in A_i\text{ for each }i\in I\right\}.$$
Intuitively, you want to define $\mathbf{g}\colon\prod B_i\to\prod C_i$ by saying: "given $f\in\prod B_i$, let $\mathbf{g}(f)$ be the function that takes $i$, maps it to $f(i)$, and then uses $f_i$ to send $f(i)$ to $C_i$. This will give me a function from $I$ to $\cup C_i$, and since $f(i)\in B_i$ and $f_i$ sends things in $B_i$ to $C_i$, the resulting function will be an element of $\prod C_i$."
Try to write that down and see if $\mathbf{g}$ is a bijection.
Comment: I had problem with constructing g, now i proved thanks!
Answer: $\newcommand{\Zobr}[3]{#1\colon#2\to#3}$If we have a map $\Zobr {f_i}{A_i}{B_i}$ for each  $i\in I$ then the
Cartesian product of these functions is the function $\Zobr{g=\prod\limits_{i\in
I}f_i}{\prod\limits_{i\in I}A_i}{\prod\limits_{i\in I}B_i}$, where
$g(f)$ for $f\in \prod\limits_{i\in I}A_i$ is given by
$$g(f)(i)=f_i(f(i)).$$
You should have look at the definition of Cartesian product of arbitrary system of sets at Wikipedia or in Arturo's answer. If you understand the definition of Cartesian product of a system of sets, you should be able to understand the definition of product of functions given above. (You should also try to compare this with the case when $I$ is finite, which is much easier.)
The proofs I wrote bellow are formal, they won't be very useful to you unless you acquire the intuition about these things - in my opinion it could be good if you try to understand the finite case first.
Lemma.
Let $\Zobr {f_i}{A_i}{B_i}$ be functions for each $i\in I$.

(a) If $f_i$ is injective for each $i\in I$, then $\prod\limits_{i\in I} f_i$ is injective.
(b) If $f_i$ is surjective for each $i\in I$, then $\prod\limits_{i\in I} f_i$ is surjective.
(c) If $f_i$ is bijective for each $i\in I$, then $\prod\limits_{i\in I} f_i$ is bijective.

Proof.
Denote $g:=\prod\limits_{i\in I}f_i$.
(a) Suppose that all $f_i$'s are injective. Let $f,f'\in \prod\limits_{i\in I}A_i$ and let $g(f)=g(f')$.
This means that for each $i\in I$ we have $g(f)(i)=g(f')(i)$. By the definition of the function
$g$ we get for each  $i\in I$ the equality
$f_i(f(i))=f_i(f'(i))$ and the injectivity of $f_i$ implies
$f(i)=f'(i)$. Thus the functions $f$ and $f'$ are equal $g$ is indeed an injective map
(b) Let each $f_i$ be surjective and let $f\in\prod\limits_{i\in I}B_i$.
Then for every  $i\in I$ there exists $a_i\in A_i$ such that $f_i(a_i)=f(i)$.
In the other words, $\{a\in A_i;
f_i(a)=f(i)\}$ is a system of non-empty sets.
Using Axiom of Choice we have that there exists a function
$h$ defined on  $I$ such that $h(i) \in \{a\in A_i; f_i(a)=f(i)\}$, i.e. $h(i)\in A_i$  a $f_i(h(i))=f(i)$ for
each $i\in I$. The last equality means that $g(h)=f$.
We have shown the each $f\in\prod\limits_{i\in I}B_i$ has a pre-image
and thus $g$ is a surjective function.
(c) Follows easily from (a) and (b).

In case you haven't learned about Axiom of Choice yet, you can read that part as: we define $h(i)$ as an arbitrary element $a$ which fulfills $f_i(a)=f(i)$ (we know that at least one such element exists) and simply ignore the point that this axiom was used.

You only asked about the third part. You should be able to find a simpler proof of this, if you know that a function is bijective if and only if it has an inverse function. If you know that for each $f_i$  there is and inverse function $f_i^{-1}$, could you guess what is inverse to $g=\prod\limits_{i\in I}f_i$? Can you show that this function is indeed inverse to $g$?

One to one correspondence


lost reference to all webparts after site creation using template

Question: I have taken backup of http://mysite:300/ site and restored it in some other server say http://newserver:300/. when I have created subsite using template already exist, site creation is successfull but all the webparts got disturbed so am not able to view the page. what may be the cause or is there any other way I can do this??
Answer: If the webparts are custom webparts then you need to make sure they are installed and deployed to the new farm. Check out solutions or other applications that you deployed on the original farm and find the one that contains the web parts. The assembly and class of a particular web part you can find in the site collection web part gallery.
The pages only contain references to the type of web-part and the configurable properties set for this instance; the web part implementation class must be installed.
Answer: What version of sharepoint are you using?
I've experienced this issue where it will use the same GUID's for the lists, even though they are not in the current context/are duplicates. Try copying a site and see if the problem is the same. If so, avoid copying webparts until you upgrade to 2010 (assuming your on 03/07).
To fix the issue for the pages/sites you've already made try going into designer and deleting/modifying the webparts. I don't believe simply changing the GUID will work as it needs to actually be generated by creating a new webpart.


I scratched my rim against a curb. Will I still be able to drive long distances or should I get it fixed before I hit the long road?

Question: I scratched my car's wheel against a curb and I'm not sure whether to fix it immediately or if I can wait it out.
I'm planning a road trip and I need to know if it's safe to drive with a scratched rim.
Comment: The 'scratch' is not really a problem, if there is a crack that you can't see there could be a problem.  Best get it checked by a wheel specialist.
Answer: Fortunately that damage is mostly cosmetic. That style of wheel, where the spokes run out to end flush at the very rim of the wheel is a pretty stiff geometry, so you're unlikely to have deformed the ledge and face that the tire seats on and seals against. Wheels where the lip is projected out from where the spokes attach are far more prone to bending with an impact at that point.
I'd choose to grind away the displaced metal that's up against the tire, it'd be easiest to do this by letting the pressure out of the tire, so that it can be flexed away from the lip, pack some cardboard or similar behind the lip and go at it with a Dremel or similar until the edge is fairly rounded. Make sure there's no shavings left before you re-inflate.
  There's still the possibility that the wheel has suffered some distortion, and may have lost enough material to put it out of balance. I'd just check for any vibration, but taking it to get re-balanced might be worthwhile.
There doesn't seem to be any damage to the surface of the tire, and the direction of impact doesn't look to have pinched it in a way htat could damage the sidewall plies.
Answer: You are probably fine, it doesn't look very deep however that is a bad place to get a scratch since it can affect tire integrity. For nothing else but peace of mind  on your road trip you should probably get it repaired or replaced. That can probably buff out. Many tire shops can have you in and out in 15 minutes.
Answer: Wheel looks OK, but that sharp edge should be ground down. If it were my car, I would try to get a small tool between the tire and the wheel and pull  the very edge of the scraped area out just enough to get in there with a file and take the sharp edge off.  If you don't have the tools, or don't feel comfortable with that, then take it to a shop that does tires and have them remove the tire and grind down the edge where the scrape is.
Answer: As the others said, the edge should be ground and the tire inspected closely for any cuts in the side-wall.
But, one more thing: You should get your wheel re-balanced. When you hit the curb, your rims can get warped a little and if the wheel is not probably balanced, you can get an unpleasant wobble and wear out your wheel bearing much faster.


How to mount a drbd/gfs logical volume from Xen VM?

Question: Any hint on how to do this for primary/primary? I have drbd and gfs running ok, I can see the logical volume from the DomU but dont know how to mount it. Should I install gfs on DomU and mount???
Thanks
Cris
Answer: Is DRBD running on Dom0 or on the DomU?
If DRBD is running on Dom0 then you want to mount the block device within the DomU's then format with GFS. Within the DomU's it's be something like /dev/xbd[n]
If DRBD is running within the DomU's then you should be able to format the block device as GFS on the DomU's but  it's be called something like /dev/drbd[n]
I am assuming that you have the Xen root partition on a separate device and the gfs partition will be an additional mount point?


Can 11,000 be written 1.1万?

Question: I have seen 11,000 written as 1万1000, but not as 1.1万 (the way one may write '3.5 millions'). Is this possible?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [What is the equivalent in arabic numbers of 3.2千](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/59293/what-is-the-equivalent-in-arabic-numbers-of-%ef%bc%93-%ef%bc%92%e5%8d%83)
Answer: Yes, we do sometimes utilize a large number as a unit for brevity, and of course it is customary to use powers of 104 (万, 億, 兆...) in Japanese, instead of those of 103 (thousand, million, billion...).
The decimal representation could be seen everywhere I think the English counterpart would be used except when the discrepancy of order matters; for example, beneath a viral tweet usually shown:

which is in the Japanese UI:

where you can see a decimal is followed by 万 (ten thousand).
As an aside, in some fiscal or statistical documents they use 103 scale (such as 123.4千円 or 56.7百万人), in order to align the order with the international convention. But this is quite unusual practice outside the field.
Answer: I think you can but it's somewhat uncommon in general usage. However, it can be used often in some scenarios such as when one is renting a property. Here are some examples I found:

人口1.1万(2010)(From the デジタル大辞泉 entry for the city of 夕張)
仕事後の寄り道 月1.1万円 (From a Nikkei article)
家賃5.5万円以下物件特集ページ (From a rental page)

However, I don't think this construction is used a lot in general. You can surmise this from the number of questions on Chiebukuro about similar constructions.
Answer: If you put 1.1万 into google you will see how it can be used. It is possible to use it but from all of the examples I saw on the first 5 pages of google it seems to mostly be used in a statistic rather than normal messages or replies. So if you are putting it in a statistic I would say it is ok, other wise 1万1千 seems to be the go to or just 11,000.
Hope it helps.
Comment: I assume 11万 is a typo for something here...?
Comment: 11万 is a very different number. Should be 1万1千 or other equivalents.
Comment: Thanks yushi for catching that. You are right, it should be 1万1千. I will edit that now.

Can 11,000 be written １.１万?


YouTube videos buffering second time. Why?

Question: I have a slow internet connection so I can't play video directly, I need to pause and wait for few minutes to buffer. I keep buffering in small player mode after buffering a while I make it full screen mode to watch. Now the problem is when I make it full screen some videos are starting to buffer second time from the point where I made it full screen and few of them are not.
Why?
Answer: Some videos on YouTube are uploaded in a high resolution, for example 720p (720 pixels vertical resolution). However, the player window itself is just around 380 pixels high.
When you watch the video in the small player, it doesn't make sense to buffer the high-quality version. You wouldn't see all the pixels anyway.
When you switch to full-screen, notice that the resolution indicator in the bottom right can change, for example, to 480p or 720p, which is a completely different stream. Therefore, it has to be re-buffered.
You can change this behavior under Settings » Playback Setup » Video Playback Quality:
Comment: Settings require a YouTube account. If you don't want to register, just [manually set the resolution](http://webapps.stackexchange.com/a/22874/1646)
Answer: The default resolution for small player mode is 360p, while switching to fullscreen will switch to 480p. In order to counter this, click on the resolution symbol and choose a resolution of your desire:

The lower the resolution, the faster it loads. Also once you modify the resolution, this video will stay in that resolution (and keep/continue preloading) even after switching to fullscreen or back.


Dictionaries with example sentences for each entry

Question: I am looking for offline or online English-to-German dictionaries that provide example sentences for each entry. This would help me learn the usage of each word. For example: I searched for the word admit and it shows different German words, but without the usage of those words, I can not understand the proper meaning of the very English word in German.
Comment: Besides example sentences, another good way to go about this is to look up the different German words for an English word in the reverse direction (i.e., German to English). There will be multiple English translations for every German word as well, and that will often give you a good idea about the actual meaning (and possible usage).
Answer: I recommend you to use at least two web pages: one for translation and one for example sentences.
Translation:

dict.cc
pons.eu
dict.leo.org

... you name it
Example sentences:
linguee.de
Furthermore it's possible to search for words with the aid of google. Just type site:bla.de word.
For instance, use news sites such as focus.de or faz.net.
In addition to this you could use a monolingual dictionary for clarification:

dwds.de
duden.de
wiktionary.org
Answer: DWDS ist ein großes, aufwendiges Lexikon mit Definitionen, etymologischem Teil und einem Teil mit Beispielmaterial (sehr viel).
http://www.dwds.de/?qu=schlagen
Jeden der Teile kann man scrollen.
Auf der Startseite (dwds) findet man eine Kurzinformation zum DWDS (Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache).
Answer: Leo and dict.cc are good german/english dictionaries.
Also, you can get the book Mastering German Vocabulary as a free pdf if you google it. It is good for clarifying the use of many similar words. There is also another book by a similar name which cannot be found online for free (as far as I can see) but I've bought it and it is quite good.
Comment: As it stands, this does not answer the question, which was specifically asking for resources with exapmle sentences and as far as I can tell, none of the resources you name provides those. Moreover, I am skeptical about *Mastering German Vocabulary* being available online legally.
Answer: I'm afraid but there is no good online dictionary for this purpose. Especially no bilingual dictionaries.
The already suggested dictionaries dict.cc and dict.leo.org are very popular, but in my opinion they are only good for people who speak both languages good enough and only want to quickly look up a word.
A better dictionary is Pons, because they at least categorize the translations according to different meanings of a word. (Choose "Deutsch<->Englisch")
Another dictionary that provides a few examples is Collins
You can find some examples in monolingual dictionaries on Duden, Wiktionary and Pons (choose "Deutsch als Fremdsprache"), but there you have to look up the German word.
Answer: Not exactly what you are looking for, but linguee.de has real-world translations with context in both languages.
Answer: Though no D-E dictionary of which I am aware provides illustrative sentences for every entry (this is quite unnecessary and would be extremely costly) the Muret-Sanders Encyclopedic dictionaries have abundant illustrative material. I am a professional German-English translator and use the Muret-Sanders quite frequently. If you are looking only for German, the Grimm Wörterbuch is  enormous, and a good resource. A dictionary such as you describe would be gigantic, running to hundreds of thousands of pages.
Another good resource is Farrell's Dictionary of German Synonyms (3rd ed, 1977, Cambridge U Press). It explains the usage of various German terms that translate the same English word.
Comment: Interestingly, many monolingual Japanese dictionaries provide example sentences for at least a good portion of all entries. The bilingual Japanese-English "Green Goddess" also provides many examples in English and Japanese. My hard-print copy is almost 3000 pages at font size 10/12, and each page is 27x20 cm with no margins... but I've grown to love those examples in Jap. dictionaries.
Answer: Disclaimer: I am the developer of the website.
A few days ago we added this functionality for the http://dreiartikel.de/dictionary
About 48K German definitions and about 51,5K English definitions. In both cases we are talking about words and short expressions.
The examples are coming from the European Commission's DGT Translation Memory project.
The big advantage of this is that the translation quality is at professional level and the examples help you build a very "hoch Deutsch" or technical/specialized English vocabulary.
One disadvantage is that more or less colloquial words like "Lust" don't find themselves in these documents that the Commission creates. Another one is that the examples are not always ideal because maybe they represent just titles.


What happens to a short position when a company is nationalized?

Question: The title speaks for itself. Would this be the same as shorting a company that goes bankrupt? So you basically get to keep all your money?
Answer: It would depend on what 'nationalized' means - it could mean a lot of things.
It is hard to imagine that in the US, the government would 'nationalize' a company by declaring all shares in the market as void - sure, that would mean all share owners lose all their money, but that government would be in dire straits in the next election.
On the other hand, they could buy out all share owners, like a normal take-over, and then each share holder gets his value in cash, which most would find acceptable.
This would probably include forcing all short sales to close out the positions within some time limit.
Answer: Nationalization carries a broad range of meaning.  In some cases a government might choose to nationalize a company or even an entire industry (Jose Lopez Portillo did this in Mexico in the 1980s when he nationalized the banks to seize the dollar accounts that Mexican citizens could keep in Mexican banks) and provide compensation in whole or part, or maybe nothing at all.
When Portillo acted to do this in Mexico with the banks,he didn't give the owners anything at the time, so essentially everyone who held a stake in those banks lost everything.
Nationalization is an extreme action and doesn't happen often, mainly because it rarely has the intended consequence the government hoped for and also because it serves to undermine confidence in that's industry's sector in particular and in the economy of the country as a whole.
I don't see any scenario (reasonable, anyway) under which the U.S. government would ever nationalize a company.  The nearest examples to this might be AIG following the financial collapse in 2008 and the GM bankruptcy, but in both cases the companies went through the bankruptcy process with the government's backing and support and reemerged with the government as one of the largest shareholders.  Eventually the government bled off its stake in those companies and, in both cases, actually managed to post a small profit on them.
What happens to your short position in a nationalization all depends on how it happens, to be honest.  There's no blanket answer that anyone can give.  The government may seize operational control of the company but still allow it to trade in the public markets or any other combination of possibilities - who knows?
Comment: Granted the question was about the US, but: Were there people shorting those Mexican banks and did they indeed achieve max profit (relieved of the need to buy to cover)?