What does "plus ultra" mean in My Hero Academia

Question: The credits for My Hero Academia add "plus Ultra" after the series name.  Occasionally All Might shouts "plus Ultra!" as sort of a battle cry when he is about to strike a foe.  From context, I guess it means "extra power" or "boost", but "plus ultra" seem so random. Is there more meaning to the two words than this? Is this just something which does not translate well from Japanese?
Comment: I believe they explain "plus ultra" on the first school day, at least they did so in the manga.
Answer: "Plus Ultra" is actually a Latin Phrase. It translates to "Further Beyond." In My Hero Academia, it has been adopted as the school motto of U.A. High. It's uncertain in-universe whether or not the motto was around before All Might, or if he's the one who came up with it, and his alma mater adopted his personal motto.
In-context, it is an extremely gung-ho statement that tells you to push past your limits and go further than you think you can.
It also happens to be the national motto of Spain, previously the personal motto of King Charles V. Which he adopted as a rejection of the words inscribed on the Pillars of Hercules "Non Plus Ultra" (Nothing Further Beyond) after the discovery of the Americas.
Even IRL, it carries that same sort of gung-ho "You told us there was nothing beyond this point...let me prove you wrong!" sort of sentiment.
The fact that it sounds cool to Japanese Ears by using a pair of English-adopted words that they like is bonus points. But this phrase is not, in-fact, "English" gibberish as anime/manga occasionally produces on account of their writers not being entirely fluent in English. It's a Latin phrase with real-world history.
Comment: And it's fairly accurately translated in the source, too (更に向こうへ = further beyond).
Comment: Thanks for the info guildsbounty and @JAB too. It did not even occur to me that "Plus Ultra" was anything other than modern English words.  Well, I'm not sure *ultra* is a word on its own, but a common prefix (ultrasonic, ultramarine, etc). Then we frequently nowadays to grab the prefix to emphasize words; even though the result is not an actual word, the meaning is understood (ultra-big, ultra-sexy, etc.). I feel ignorant not realizing that "Plus Ultra" is the national motto of Spain.  Maybe I just missed it in my 4 years of Spanish classes.
Comment: I found this connection to "plus ultra", when looking up the dollar sign. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_sign
Answer: Even in Japanese they say "Plus Ultra!". It is more a reference to when All Might saved many people despite being tired, while having a smile in his face, because he always goes beyond his limits. Plus Ultra is (as far as I concluded from Season 1) when he does something with all his power and more. When he gives his all doing something and even a bit more is when he shouts it. Going beyond his limits. The others adapted to it as their favourite slogan from their almighty hero. That's why they always shout it too. It reminds them about All Might and gives them courage to push forward or to give that little extra more that's needed. But yeah at the end of the episode it can be compared to fanboy/fangirl behaviour.
Answer: It means "Above and Beyond!" which is All Might's motto and his ideal vision for all heroes to aspire to.
Also, the English words "plus" and "ultra" sound kinda cool to the Japanese audience already, and combining them together is double trouble :)
Answer: As others have said, the phrase relates to giving it more than your most, rather than just "more power".
This is personified in All Might's fight with Nomu, as Deku notes that each of All Might's punches are more than 100% of what he can give.


What was your impression of the first "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) event?

Question: Do you have any suggestions or improvements for the next one on the 12th of July?
Comment: note there is some discussion/ evaluation after the 1st mtg in chat transcript incl by DavidZ & Daniel Sank et al
Comment: Good point @vzn perhaps a link to that discussion/evaluation would be appropriately discussed here?
Answer: I enjoyed the chat session and I will certainly attend future AMAs. I've long felt the chat room is an underused resource and it was nice to see the chat room so lively.
But ... (there's always a but on these occasions) ...
I don't think we attracted many people bar the regulars. I went through the log and I counted 31 questions (after eliminating the frivolous ones). The askers were:
<code>vzn          11 (doing his bit as chairman :-)
secret        5
obliv         4
3075          3
qmd           2
constantine   2
daniel        2
mafia         1
me            1
</code>
Around half of the questions were non-technical e.g. Why did you decide to study physics?. Of the remainder the majority were fairly general e.g. what are the major areas or unsolved questions.
Having said this, there was quite a bit of discussion on CTCs and for me this was the most interesting thing about the AMA. We could have just declared a one hour chat session on CTCs, but I suspect that would ramble a bit. I thought it worked well that much of the meeting was in effect ask Sam about CTCs as that kept things focussed.
So I don't think we learned a lot about CTCs, and I don't think it was an effective exercise in evangelising. But is was fun.
For the record here are the 31 non-frivolous questions I counted. I don't guarantee I haven't missed any or that my definition of frivolous is trutsworthy:

Obliv: @slereah Do you live in france? (since you got a degree at a french uni)
3075: @Slereah Why did you decide to study physics?
vzn: did your MS thesis have connections to CTCs or did you do a lot of separate research in the area? how did you get into/ specialize in CTCs in particular?
qmd: @Slereah What advice would you give to an undergrad student or someone who has just started studying physics?
MAFIA36790: @Slereah: Do you want to go to other country for phd?
Obliv: @slereah Do you think the job market for physics research in France is more difficult than in the U.S. or other countries?
secret: What is the major research topic in riemannian space in your thesis, i.e. what is the problem your thesis is going to address in terms of the GR research field (or differential geometry in general)?
obliv: @slereah What other subject of study interests you, outside of physics?
secret: I see, what are the major results you found during your research in the thesis?
3075: @Slereah what is your profile image?
vzn: S did you do a masters thesis presentation/ defense with advisors? guess that happens "usually" in US, dont know EU/ france...?
vzn: @Slereah how long was the session? how many advisors or attendees?
obliv: @slereah when did you and @0celo7 start a blog together at einsteinandtheevidence.wordpress.com
Constantine Black: Greetings. I see there is a discussion about the system of Master and PhD. May I ask your opinion on how the system works? Would you say you were satisfied in general and maybe if there are certain problems that need to be addressed? Thanks.
vzn: @0celo7 do you have any plans for blog S? news to me that you (co)contributed. (encourage everyone who chats frequently to experiment with blogs, it doesnt take much more effort & allows math formulas etc) =D
qmd: @Slereah If you could go back to your first year at university, would you still do physics? why or why not?
secret: In your opinion, what are the major areas or uunsolved questions that any aspiring CTC researchers need to focus more on?
vzn: @Slereah what would you say about CTC vs string theory researchers? small overlap? compatible somehow?
Constantine Black: chronology protection conjecture : Do we need a quantum gravity theory to attack this problem and why would you say so? Why GR isn't enough. Thanks.
John Rennie: If you have a spacetime you could imaging geodesics flowing through it almost like streamlines. A CTC would then look I suppose a bit like a vortex in a flow. Wouldn't there be some very strange behaviour at the stagnation points?
vzn: @Slereah whats your take on hawking? modern near-einstein? what about his pop science books/ rep vs hard core science? (0celo7 is lately studying him intensely although will prob not admit it) :P
vzn: @Slereah did you see "theory of everything"? any reaction? have you heard opinions on it from others? etc
vzn: @Slereah re "not that big on string theory" ... ie somewhat skeptical?
vzn: @Slereah lol (nope! still have ~15m!) slereah re your admitted collaboration with 0celo7 on blog, if you could cowrite a book with him, what would it be?
3075: @Slereah did you know much physics in high school?
secret: (this is more of a general public style question) What is the most important difference between CTCs and the popscience and scifi notion of stable time loops? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StableTimeLoop
DanielSank: At some level then, you learned the mechanics of stochastic integration and use it effectively? No need to get into the details?
vzn: @Slereah re books, youre a big collector, how many do you think you have on physics anyway? do you also use ebooks?
DanielSank: @Slereah Would you say this book can be understood by a physicist with typical math background?
vzn: @Slereah sounds a lot like virtual particles though!
secret: @vzn but since the time evolution of a quantum state is deterministic, then it should not be a big deal?
Comment: Thank you for your most excellent listing and categorization of these 31 "non-frivolous"   questions. Any suggestions on improves for the next one?
Comment: actually the physics chat room is quite unusually busy relative to other SE sites, hence some of my own attraction, but agree (as the novel/ unprecedented session demonstrates) that it is "underutilized" in the sense that it has a lot of untapped potential wrt science communities and maybe much more is possible. also eg [here](https://vzn1.wordpress.com/chat/) is some writeup of SE chat dynamics/ highlights over several years. as for "chairman" title, thx for the esteem, but am leaning more toward "co-coordinator" or "co-organizer" and we all appreciate everyones different contributions!
Answer: Even if sadly I could not attend, I had the impression from the post-session comments that it was not so easy to follow the Q-As because of the "background noise" made by side comments, or independent hbar chatting.
And @DanielSank (if I recall correctly) suggested a solution: posting AMA questions in boldface, and answering using the reply feature of the chat.
I will reprise that suggestion:

AMA questions to the guest should be in a single post (if possible, or contiguous posts) with boldface letters (** at the beginning and end of the post).
Answers should also be either in one post or in contiguous ones (not so easy at times), and contain the appropriate reply tag.
Comment: I like the idea +1 and thank you for accepting to be our next "speaker."
Comment: Putting questions _and_ answers in bold defeats the point, as nearly everything would be in bold. I think it's better to have only questions in bold; after all, the point is to make the questions stick out, both so that it's easy for you (the guest) to see them, and so that it's easy for readers to find convenient starting points.
Comment: @DavidZ Ok, I see. I will edit my suggestion accordingly
Comment: @DavidZ I see your point; however there was a distinction between bold and slanted bold ;-) Probably your suggestion would do as fine (or maybe the answer may be slanted, to distinguish it from common chat talk/comments).
Comment: @yuggib Well, I intended to imply that the italicization doesn't matter - if we put both questions and answers in bold, it will be overwhelming regardless of whether there is any use of italics. Answering in italics wouldn't be so bad (although I personally would find it a bit hard to read).
Comment: often in printed/ published interviews, often the questions are in bold and not the answers. but also in these interviews, the interviewee answers at more length. however, it is difficult to achieve the coherence of an interview in the chat room. also, some of the side commentary can be seen as a colorful "feature" and not "bug" of this format. agreed it can feel near-random/ distracting at times but the cyber audience is very diverse and think it will be tricky to get/ achieve more streamlined dialogues or formats.
Answer: I suggest to change the title.
"AMA" ask me anything
I think it should be changed to "AMAT" ask me appropriate things.
And then the phrase of appropriate should be elaborated or I suggest that the questions are posted one day before the session for recognizing their appropriateness by competent people.
Comment: Is there some particular inappropriate type of question you're worried about?
Comment: @EmilioPisanty Thank you very much because of your attention! First, I am sorry because of that day! I hadn't use bad words. I apologize. Second, I am not worried. They didn't let me to ask my question yesterday because of  inappropriateness . And I wondered because of the phrase of *"any"*. So, I posted this answer.
Comment: To be honest, this is very hard to evaluate (at least for me) without knowing what the question was. That said, the AMA format typically has rather few restrictions (with the option left for the speaker of simply dodging questions they don't want to discuss), so if the organizers are unduly restricting the topic then there is something weird there.
Comment: @EmilioPisanty Sorry, but I think you use phrasal sentences so much and I cannot get your comments meaning completely. BTW, I can understand approximately what is your mean. Do you want to see my (yesterday) question?
Comment: To be unambiguous: yes, you should provide your question.
Comment: @EmilioPisanty May we continue in h-bar chatroom?
Comment: OK, but keep it short and concise.


Setting up Distortion on an Amp

Question: I'm new. I've been trying to play the song 'I Stand Alone'. I can read tabs and I can get my guitar in drop C, I am just not getting the heavy distortion noise. I'm wondering how I should adjust my amp to achieve that? I  have a Dean Markley K-20X. Is my amp is even capable of sounding like that?
Comment: if that is the song by Godsmack, then "no" you will not be getting that distortion effect from the amp by itself.
Comment: No my amp just makes it louder don't actually affect the distortion much
Answer: The K20-X manual has a pretty thorough explanation of how to get overdriven sounds. http://www.deanmarkley.com/Info/LegacyAmps/Manuals/D1015.pdf
In brief, an amp like this has two stages of amplification: the first stage "preamp" feeds into the main amplification stage. If you turn up the level of preamp, then there will be some distortion in the preamp itself, and also you'll be putting a powerful signal into the main amp causing further distortion there.
Turn knobs marked "gain" or "overdrive" all the way up. Turn other volume knobs down to get the loudness you want. Once you've proved you can get heavy distortion, dial things back to find the tone you want.
Some amps won't distort at low volumes. If yours is like this, either just play loud, or consider getting a pedal to provide distortion.
Sometimes, in order to distort well  an amp needs a stronger signal than your instrument can provide. In this case, consider getting a boost pedal, or since you're buying a pedal anyway, a distortion pedal.
Answer: I looked around for info about this amp and I found this picture of the amp:

Based on this picture it looks like the drive switch will give you some distortion, although I doubt it will be the amount you want.
This amp does not have the traditional gain knob so customizing the distortion would be hard. I would advise getting a better amp that can handle distortion better or getting a distortion pedal if you want more distortion.
EDIT: As suggested by Ulf Åkerstedt, try flipping the drive switch and adjusting the volume knob. It may up the distortion.
Comment: Isn't the "Volume" knob the gain of this amp; so you can crank that up high to get distorsion, and adjust the output volume with the "Master" knob?
Comment: This isn't a k20-x.
Answer: Get a more traditional amp like a fender rumble and then turn up your gain and overdrive for more distortion. The way people usually turn up distortion in the middle of a song is by turning up the bridge pickup.

Setting up Distortion on an Amp


In referring to a website's appearance, how would I say Skin or Theme?

Question: What the title says, pretty much. This is for a website with a formal tone.
Answer: For "theme" what is used is:

tema

You can see the use of the word "tema" in iGoogle.
For "skin" you can use "apariencia" as suggested by Laura.
Comment: @Icarus here at my work if we ever have to use the word "skin" we use the English word.
Comment: You can use "apariencia" for "skin"
Comment: +1. How would you translate `skin` in this context? I was thinking about `piel` but it sounds weird. I think I would stick to the anglicism in this case.
Answer: The five most used words to describe a website's appearance are: Theme, Template, Skin, Design & Style.
In Spanish each would translate to:

Theme = Tema
Template = Plantilla
Skin = Apariencia
Design = Diseño
Style = Estilo
Answer: For an informal tone you could very well get away with just using 'skin' (without translating it).
Since you want a formal tone you could use tema or apariencia as suggested by Alfredo, or diseño or estilo.
Comment: It is posible to use as **decoración** o **aspecto**.
Answer: As long as "theme" and "skin" refer to technical concepts, it's necessary to be careful not to invent yet another fancy translation instead of using the one that is commonly used in the technical environment.
Regarding "theme", there is little discussion. It translation would be "tema". The links point to their Wikipedia entries, which also point to one another as their respective translations.
Regarding "skin", I would translate it neither as "piel" (weird) nor as "apariencia" (understandable, but not technically specific). As a matter of fact, the Spanish Wikipedia article is "skin". Again, both entries point to each other.
However, both Spanish articles start with:

tema: Un tema (skin, piel en inglés)...
skin: Un tema (skin en inglés)...

And their content is almost the same. On the other hand, the English versions are quite different, but they don't explain or make it easy to understand the difference between both concepts, as illustrated by this StackOverflow discussion.
So, if I had to translate either concept I would consider the following:
When the specific website has a single mechanism to control its aspect and you can refer to it either as "theme" or "skin" in English, I would use "tema" in Spanish.
When the website has two different mechanisms to control its aspect (named "theme" and "skin" in English), I would translate them as "tema" and "skin" respectively.


My webcam flips the picture, how do flip it back?

Question: On my ASUS ul30vt with Maverick installed I have the problem that the webcam shows the picture flipped. What can I do to make it normal?
Answer: According to this post on the Asus UL30 team's mailing list you can use this PPA to fix the webcam in 10.04. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be information on how well this works with 10.10.
I recommended joining the team, posting on the mailing list since you'll find a bunch of UL30 owners there, and then updating your progress here so that we can point people to the right information. This information should at least get you pointed in the right direction.
Answer: Step 1 would be to check for a firmware update for your hardware. I've seen this specific problem corrected in firmware, although not specifically your model. If that doesn't work, look into module "quirks" settings for your video device.


Why does my car sometimes blow cold air while the heater is on?

Question: This started about a week ago. I put the heat on and about after driving a couple of miles with the heat on it would randomly blow out cold air. Sometimes if I turned the heat off or switched it from cold back to hot it would work again. How would I go about fixing this or even knowing what the cause of the problem is? Also, this is the first time this has ever happened to me and I have owned the car for a little over 4 years now. 2001 Nissan Altima.
Comment: My 2007 Chrysler Aspen is doing the same thing... did you ever figure it out?
Comment: Do you have a manual or automatic air conditioning in your car?
Answer: Does your car overheat too?
If so, you could have a faulty thermostat, an air pocket in your cooling system or maybe even a leak somewhere.  My truck's heat would only work while I was driving, then stopped working altogether while the engine started to overheat. I changed the thermostat, then the heat would blow hot/cold/hot/cold, I didn't realize you had to bleed the air out of the system after changing the thermostat. I did that and now the heater and engine run great.
Answer: First check would be that the engine has sufficient coolant. (NB Do not remove the radiator cap when hot). Second check is that the engine is reaching operating temperature - does the temp gauage rise and show hot?. If these items pass inspection, then the very probable fault is with the AirCon module. When you turn the AirCon on, the module shuts off the flow of water to the heater. When you turn the AirCon off, the module opens the flow of water to the heater. A mis-behaving module would give you the heater performance you are experiencing. A system scan of the AirCon should highlight the fault.
Comment: All the cars I'm familiar with leave the heat alone when the A/C is switched on since conditioned, warm air is sometimes required (example: defogging windshield).
Comment: I suspect newer vehicles with thermostat-based climate control systems may shut off the heat when the AC is on, except of course in defrost mode. So this answer seems at least plausible.
Comment: There is no need to shut of heat when yiou are defrosting. The AC core is before the heater core and it will first cool down the incoming air (thereby dehumidify it) and the heater core can increase temperature again so the air can be in a state where it can carry even more moisture when it hits the windshield.
Answer: You may have air in your radiator core but this does not go inline with putting air condition cold/hot fixing it. It is possible that the air mixture flap of the heater core is somehow loose perhaps? or if it is automatic climate control, the flap motors or some valves may be faulty.
Automatic air conditioned cars have some valves/flaps which regulate the air conditioning system.
For example in some jaguar cars the DCCV (dual climate control valve) valve may get broken and the solenoids stick and this will cause giving out hair all of a sudden. While your situation the problem is cold air, it may be how this system gets stuck in your car. When you put all the way to hot-cold-hot again, the solenoid can get loose and start working again for a while.
Also cars use flaps to regulate air mix from heater core (it is in your dash somewhere) to achieve correct temperature. The temp. sensor in the vent checks the temperature and tries to set the amount of air passing through the heater core. Most automated flaps use motors with variable resistance devices so the computer can adjust how much the flap is open based on the resistance value. These resistors wear out in time and may give wrong signals if the resistance track is damaged. Again, moving it back-and-forward all the way by setting hot-cold-hot can make it work for a while.
Your car computer may have information about this. Eg. in VW cars the climatronic system can record the flap position values and figure out if there are strange values and record this. But this wont cause an engine light to be on.
It is unfortunately difficult to guess what may be the actual problem with so little information.


Can't attend conference due to canceled travel grant

Question: I am a postdoc fellow and my abstract has been accepted for present at an international conference. I also paid the registration fee and now my name is on schedule of talks. Unfortunately, I was informed that the provider of my scholarship has already canceled the travel grants for all postdocs (because of shortage of money). Due to long distance between the country where I am staying and the country where the conference will be held, therefore, the price of tickets is too high and I will not able to buy the ticket on my money. On the other hand, I believe that having a presentation in this conference will have an excellent effect on my C.V. Is it possible to ask the conference to keep my abstract in their book of abstracts if I can not go there?
Comment: Bear in mind as well that sometimes organizers of conferences can also provide grants.
Comment: Well, you won't actually present it, unless you can arrange a video hookup (which has been done in the past).
Comment: The accepted answer is sensible. But if time permits, also look for other sources of funding!
Comment: Dependending on the country/town try explaining the situation addressing a letter to the mayor. The town might have some money. I did it successfully few times. Once the money came from the mayor, once from a youth & sport department, and once from the governor. It won't work in my country, simply because the letter won't even get attention. But there are better places. Worth a try.
Answer: It may be possible, actually, to do more. You might ask if a remote presentation can be arranged. This is possible for some conferences, but would require some setup on your end as well, perhaps in coordination with the university.
But for your actual question, yes, you can ask and explain the circumstances. Some conferences will say yes, some will say no, and some will have other suggestions. But it would be a mistake not to open a conversation with the conference committee.

Note also that not showing up without notice will probably result in the worst possible outcome.


GFCI position in the line

Question: I am installing a GFCI.  There are several other outlets in the same line.  How can I find out which of the other outlets is downstream from the GFCI?
Answer: First ascertain the complete set of outlets that are on the circuit by testing which ones go off when the main breaker is turned off.
Now turn the breaker back on and then press the TEST button on the GFCI. The result of this is that all the outlets that are connected to the LOAD terminals of the GFCI will go off. Those that are up still powered are those that are upstream from the GFCI.
Answer: Get a bunch of dollar store night lights, the kind without an automatic light sensor.  if it has a switch, turn the switch on.  You can use any other device you may already have, as long as it's easy to tell if it's on or off.
Turn off the circuit at the breaker.  Stick a nightlight in every receptacle.  If the nightlight turns on, that receptacle is not on that circuit.
Turn that circuit back on at the breaker.  All the nightlights should be on.  If any are not, you have a separate problem.
Now take a guess at which is the receptacle "electrically nearest" the panel.  Shut off the breaker and disassemble the receptacle, unhooking one "hot" wire and capping it for safety. Put the nightlight back in it.   Turn the power back on.
If you guessed right, all the nightlights are now off, except maybe at this location.  If this light is on, the hot wire still connected and its neutral are LINE.  If it's off, they are LOAD.
If you guessed wrong and a light is still on, then the first one in the chain must be one of the lights still on.  Guess again.

GFCI position in the line


System resets after swap memory is consumed partially

Question: My System resets even if swap memory is consumed partially. What can be the reason for this?
How can I can overcome this situation?
I am using Suse Linux Enterprise Edition
Answer:
What can be the reason for this?

Lots - mostly hardware related.

even if swap memory is consumed partially

Sounds like a red-herring - unless its only ever happenning at a certain amount of swap usage. Replace your existing swap (pasrtition or file) with a new swap file - if problem still occurs then its probably not to do with the swap / disk.
C.
Answer: I would suggest an extensive hard drive test. If you wish to delve even further into troubleshooting this you could redirect output to a serial console and watch what happens when the server reboots (google is your friend here).
HTH


For dog owners, what do you use to pick up after your dog on walks?

Question: Since we use reusable bags now, we don't have many disposable plastic bags to use in cleaning up after our dogs. This isn't really a problem in the yard, but what is the easiest way to pick up after your pet when you're out on a walk without using plastic bags? I hate buying lots and lots of those plastic poop baggies (I really don't buy it that they are biodegradable).
Comment: Why don't you believe they are biodegradable?
Comment: Well, I suppose I believe that they breakdown somewhat and perhaps disintegrate to the point where they are no longer recognizable as bags. I'm just not sure that the plastic waste bags that are labeled as biodegradable break down to the point where it helps the environment. I've been seeing a lot of studies mentioned in the news that discuss this topic, although I'm definitely no expert.
Answer: I would consider using a small bucket with a cover.
They can easily be carried and the cover will restrain the smell. Also they are easy to clean with some water outside.
For practical considerations: You could take a small shovel in it, or just use the cover to get the poo in the bucket, although I think the latter will require some exercise before it can be done properly without spilling some on the outside of the bucket or cover.
Comment: I like this idea! I'm going to keep an eye out for a bucket that would work for this.
Comment: In Belgium, every major food store sells yogurt in such little buckets. I have an abundance of them and gave them for several interesting uses. I even drink hot chocolate out one of them :)
Answer: On walks, we just use the disposable plastic bags in a roll that are made for dog waste.
They aren't biodegradable, but since we dispose of the waste in the municipal trash, I don't think it makes any difference - modern landfills aren't designed to promote biodegradability. The local municipality specifically forbids dog waste in the municipal compost bins, they want it disposed as trash.
Since the dog waste bags are smaller than plastic grocery bags, if you were previously using the 'free' grocery bags, there's still a net environmental win by using the smaller dog waste bags.
When I used to live in the city and had a much smaller dog who would generally poop close to home, I would take a Kleenex doubled over and use it to pick up the waste, then I'd flush it when I came home. I'm not sure if that an environmental win for the environment due to the water usage.


Are Aksobhya and Bhaisajyaguru the same buddha?

Question: This page by Venerable Husan Hua says yes; this page by Zhuoge Rinpoche says no.
Answer: Apart from both being blue, the iconography of the two Buddha's is completely different - different mudras and implements for example. Their "function" is also different. One represents wisdom (Akṣobhya) and the other compassion (Bhaiṣajyaguru). if they are supposedly the same, then why are they so different?
Answer: This post on Dharma Wheel says that, at least in Japan, Aksobhya was venerated the same as the Medicine Buddha (i.e. as the Buddha to appeal to for dealing with this worldly medical problems) until news of Bhaisajyaguru's sutras arrived in Japan.
In any case, Shakyamuni is often described as a doctor and the Dharma as a diagnosis and prescription for what ails us.
Answer: Depends on which dimension of reality one talks about. From the mundane dimension, both Bhaisajyaguru and Aksobhya are Buddhas of the Eastern Pure Lands. And according to the Amitabha Sutra, there're countless Eastern Pure Lands Buddhas:

..."Śāriputra, thus do I now praise and extoll the inconceivable merit of Amitābha Buddha. In the East there are also Akṣobhya Buddha, Appearance of Sumeru Buddha, Great Sumeru Buddha, Radiance of Sumeru Buddha, Wondrous Sound Buddha, and thusly as many buddhas as there are sand grains in the Ganges River...

Then from a supramundane dimension, all Buddhas have transcended all wrong views (not-I), all cravings (not-mine), and all conceits (not-myself) ( ~~AN 3.32 ~~ ) and as a result, all notion of sameness or difference no longer applies.


How can you balance a system without making it bland?

Question: In one of my long-term PvP LARP games, we've done a lot of work trying to balance the system we're using, either by banning certain "classes" or "powers" or by altering their specs slightly to make them less "overpowered" so that people who choose to go this route don't have an automatic advantage over the other players.  At what point does the crusade to provide balanced powers and whatnot for all types of characters tip over into nerfing cool wooj to the point that the players spend more time missing what they don't have available anymore than enjoying what's left?  Essentially what strategies can you use to balance a game fairly while keeping it fun for everyone?
Comment: What system are you balancing?
Comment: Well, the question was meant to be more of a general discussion, but the game I'm in is Vampire: The Requiem.
Answer: Balance in Roleplaying games is an illusion. It doesn't truly exist.
Even in Tabletop, using point based systems, balance is illusory. The best balanced game out there is probably Hero System 5E. But, given 100 points and no character disads, I know guys who will be pulling off 16d6 ranged killing attacks, and others struggling to get 6d ranged killing attacks. And I know guys who will do more with those 6D attacks than the guys with the 16D attacks...
In LARP, the issue is even worse.
In non-contact LARPing, it's pretty much the same issue as Tabletop gaming - some will make better use of the mechanics than others. But, because so little is resolved mechanically, the charismatic and/or brilliant players will get much more accomplished.
In Boffer LARP, some people are inherently better at the various physical actions than others, so any balance in the combat mechanics is usually much overwhelmed with the various skills of the players.
The only real test for class balance is the standard three-fold test for Tabletop:
Does everyone want to play it?
Does anyone want to play it?
Can you play without it?
Ideal answers are No, Yes, and Yes. If it's seriously underpowered, no one wants to play it. Seriously overpowered, and no one wants to play without it, and almost everyone will take it.
Comment: -1. I strongly disagree. The issue is not that there is no such thing as balance in RPGs. The issue is that most mainstream RPGs (D&D, Shadowrun, vampire) have laughably poor game balance. Use competetive online games as a model - they are mechanically very similar to tabletop RPGs, but the good ones are much better-playtested and more professionally tuned than your average tabletop game.
Comment: There are also PvP social challenges to consider in addition to combat, depending on the RPG system.
Comment: @RMorrisey while entitle to disagree, I think you're suffering from a severe fallacy - that RPG's are about combat. Most RPG rulesets (including many LARP ones) are *not* combat centric. And combat-balance is easily broken by creative players in even the best balanced TT RPGs and LARPs. Something not possible in the constrained and *fundamentally non-role-play* environment of so-called "online RPG's" they're as much a RPG as Ski-Doo is a motorcycle... the similiarities under the hood belie major differences in how and where used, as well as stability and performance.
Comment: Game balance in a "D&D-ish" PVP RPG is about combat. Non-combat only requires balance insofar as making the difficulty and reward of obstacles (e.g. 4E skill challenges, 3E traps, RP rewards) appropriate to the abilities of the PCs. I agree that combat is not the most important, nor even the most interesting, aspect of an RPG, but that isn't the question being asked.
Comment: While I agree with the arguments you use, I strongly disagree with balance being an illusion. With the same attitude you could call balance in video games and in tabletop RPG the same illusion, as it always involves some amount of real-life skill.
Comment: In board and video games, balance is much easier to create - the available action space is vastly more open in tabletop RP. In board games, having he same number of actions and the same magintude of outcomes is real, tangible balance; in an RPG, because of the variables not controlled in the rules, and the interpretive nature of the GM's and Player's interactions, any such balance is an illusion caused by not looking outside the implied but non-extant limits.
Answer: I substantially agree with @Aramis's answer. There are some important caveats though.
Balance, in a LARP, is not about power. Balance is about activity. Make sure everyone's choices allows them to provide a real contribution to problems they choose to be able to solve. No one player should obscure many other players at what they choose to do.
The critical thing to accomplish in your balancing act, especially if adapting from a table-top RPG, is to remove "I win at everything" abilities. The beauty of a socially focused larp is that characters who win at combat are useful and marginalized. Allow people to "win" at combat, but make sure that they require the other players to function.
Having played in a 3.5 derived larp for a couple years, the first thing to do is to not play in a 3.5 larp. Barring that, don't allow all the sourcebooks.
Instead, find a minimal set of rules that allow players to express what they want to do. Players express what they want to do by showing that their characters are good at those activities. By having simple rules, there will be less conflict between those who choose to read the rules and those who don't. By avoiding splatbooks, you avoid the rules-based aggrandizement that people who are willing to invest the time into system mastery almost naturally get.
Have simple, flexible rules that can handle all manner of conflict, rather than martial combat, and that prohibit anyone from winning at more than one thing, and you'll have a solid basis for a larp.
Comment: Also, never ever have a 7th level character lead an assault on Asmodeuous's lair. Especially don't require that he take a bunch of first level mooks along, and *especially* don't allow arbitrary resources. If you do, make sure that there are consequences besides "you win because plot requires it."
Comment: Every player needs opportunity, and access to activity.  It is only gross imbalance that is the biggest problem.
Answer: It's possible to balance an RPG. How much work you want to spend doing it, or how important you think it is, is up to you.
The thing to remember about balancing an RPG is that you're working with a mechanical rules system. In order to achieve game balance, codify the rules, as if it were an ordinary board game, and figure out how each power or character build plays out. Most RPG authors are so interested in the theme of the game that they don't spend a lot of time thinking about the nitty, gritty mechanics of the system.
I would strongly recommend looking to video game balance as a model. My experience is that competitive online games are almost universally better balanced than tabletop RPGs. This is because the nature of the medium makes balance more important, and imbalance more glaringly obvious. You can play 4-8 League of Legends matches, each one consisting of dozens of individual battles, in the time it takes to have one battle in D&D. Consequently, it's a safe bet that LoL is better balance-tested, even if D&D has been around for years.
An article on gamasutra that might be of use to you:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2843/applying_risk_analysis_to_.php
A couple of important points:

Players don't like it when you take away their stuff. Rather than banning powers, you should find ways to tune them, and bring them in line with the existing metagame.
Come up with hard numbers, and stick to them. No player should be able to do more than X damage per turn at level Y.
Most competitive games have some sort of rock-paper-scissors feel. Ensure that every character build has a counter. In Magic: The Gathering, and similarly balanced games like Guild Wars, each color (character class) is given a certain subset of the different power mechanics the game has to offer. The more a particular deck (character) diversifies their powers across colors, the less power they have in a specific area.

One of the tricky things about RPGs is that the game encourages you to bend the rules. If you want a truly balanced game, you have to curb this tendency, and let the characters' powers dictate how well they fare in an encounter. If you introduce things like movable scenery, hazards, et cetera, make sure they have codified rules, and they're considered in the game balance. Since there's no way to simulate everything out there in the world under one rules system, you'll have to make judgment calls about fairness versus freedom to improvise.
Comment: I think it's an appropriate metaphor, but I don't really think the video game argument is the core of this post.  I think he makes a lot of good points about game balance after that metaphor is used.
Comment: I was definitely thinking of the rock-paper-scissors weapon balance in games like Fire Emblem.
Answer: Boom! I was just writing on (a smaller factor of) this today, and it comes up again.
Balance requires balance.
As funny as this sounds, it's something we often don't consider. For balance to work, we have to consider intraclass, intrarole, and intracharacter balance, a trifecta of parts that go from large to small. It's important to consider exactly how balance will work without thinking we know it.
Intraclass balance strictly refers to specific outcomes. Can one guy built with a high Pistols skill compare to another guy built with a high Pistols skill? Many games do this by managing abstraction, but some will provide differentiated but (hopefully) equivalent pathways to accomplishing the same goal.
Intrarole balance refers to a specific type of activity. Typically, the focus of this is combat. The general rules of this in terms of balance are that there are several methods of achieving an end-goal. In traditional combat, this means damage, defense, attack rate, attack coverage, and health. A sorceror's fireball may do good damage and have an area of effect, but takes more time and can't be used as often as a fighter's standard melee attacks (I'm analogizing to D&D here; the question you're asking is game-design based and can be difficult to translate to LARP).
Intracharacter balance refers to all types of activity holistically. If your game is focused heavily in a certain area of play, characters will need to be able to be competitive in that way (D&D, for instance, has all player characters be adventuring/combat focused). If not, you need to consider if you want characters to all have identical intrarole balance or if it's okay to allow them to have separate roles that are not necessarily performance-equivalent.
Determine Importance
You want to figure out what's the core element of your game and what players will want to have be an outcome. When crafting a game, for instance, you may need to include a mechanical consequence for failing in certain areas. I'm working on a Gothic fantasy game that has a penalty for bad social standing just as penalties are granted for being injured or stunned. Why? I want people to have to focus on social interactions, and if that means they have to either keep a dedicated talker to keep the group and its members from falling too far into disrepute or each be able to prove their valor and honesty, so be it.
Another thing to consider that I've seen in my studies is that a lot of games fall into a fallacy of reward variables that are extrinsic to play; this doesn't necessarily hinder balance, but it's something to consider outside of simply "who does the most damage in combat". For instance, in D&D characters often wind up using a lot of magical items, but some builds can't take advantage of this. These characters will lose a chance to shine if they can't compete with the winners of the dump truck lottery or they don't have intrinsic benefits to make up for the external assistance of magic tools.
Similarly, in your LARP, is it strictly combat, or are there certain goals? One thing I'd consider is studying something like Counter Strike or Flashpoint and looking at how in an environment filled with guns and knives the best solution is often the least violent one; sneaking past the bad guys, picking open a locked door, or talking down an enemy is superior to combat, and depending on how deep you go in mechanical modeling you can consider things like that.
Answer: Balance does not equate to bland.  Though you might conflate balance with equality or sameness, really balance is more that each character class, skill, treasure, power, etc, has strengths, but is balanced by providing a commensurate weakness.  That weakness does not have to be direct, but can be from a cycle derived imbalance.
Think about the simple game rock-paper-scissors, and ignore the 'meta-game' strategem that you know that alice always picks rock.  There is a cycle where paper > rock, rock > scissors, and scissors > paper.  That simple game has balance.  Each game element has (ultimate) strength (rock > scissors), and (ultimate) weakness (paper > rock).  Expanding the game by adding lizard and spock, and you gain a much more complex game, but with the essential balance preserved.  Not a balance of equality, but a balance of opportunity.
Every Rpg and yes, that includes Larp, can have cyclical balance, but the problem is that it takes playtesting, willingness to change and be flexible, and a certain analytical bent.  Many folks who play Rpg are analytical, but most Rpg and Larp gamers are very creative.  And though analytical and creative are not opposed, they are independent.


How to create default Logic Pro sound using EXS24 and .wav file?

Question: In Logic Pro X, Apple provides many default 'Clap' sounds, like the Atlanta drum kit clap for example. How can I create that same sound by loading a .wav clap into EXS24? What configurations do I need to make?
Answer: You can create your own kits by opening a new instrument and assigning an audio file to it. Here´s a simple way to do it:

In the plugin screen, click the "Edit" button next to the instrument selector

In the instrument editor, click "Zone" and select "Multiple Samples"

After choosing your sound file, you can adjust various settings (e.g. if you want to modify loop points, etc.)
Save your new instrument by clicking "Instrument" and "Save As". After that, your instrument will show up in the instrument selection menu.


Why did my cherry juice turn directly into vinegar while never being wine?

Question: These canned, additive-free cherries are packed in their own juice, watered down.  I previously left this juice in a plastic water bottle while drinking it, for only three days, and it became pleasantly bubbly - carbonated juice.  A honey and water mix used for eye medicine turned into a strong alcohol over just 1-2 weeks (it was only one ounce of mixture).  This time, I used the extra, way-too-high amount of yeast to put in the juice, but after two months, it is still just sour juice, and no tasteable bubbles.  So I added a very small piece of kombucha SCOBY - maybe it will become kombucha-like or become fizzy juice.  One week later, it tastes exactly the same.  Two weeks after that, it is vinegar.  It was never wine and it was never kombucha.  Why?
Answer: It's difficult to answer why fermentation did not complete without further information.
It's quite possible the sugar content was too high and pH to low for whatever yeast was added to survive and begin fermentation.
Vinegar however is created when bacteria that produce acetic acid are present in an environment with a sugar source and oxygen. They will thrive off of the sugar just like brewer's yeast, but will also produce acetic acid as a byproduct of their life processes.
If you wish to make cherry wine, I would suggest diluting the juice down to somewhere in the range of a sugar concentration of 10 percent, measuring with a hydrometer or refractometer, and using a yeast, possibly a dry wine yeast, that can withstand alcohol in ranges of 10-14 percent abv.
Comment: As you can see by reading the post, the sugar content is exactly the same in both cases because both came from the canned cherries.  In addition, as you can see by reading the post, the juice is already very highly watered down.  Complete and 100% information was already given so it obviously is not possible to give "more".  The yeast, as mentioned in the post, came from when there is too-high amounts of yeast, which means that the only possibility of a place it can come from is the kombucha.
Comment: Becoming a millionaire as well as spending literal tens of dollars for an ounce or two at a time of some kind of valid fermented drink (yes preferably wine but once again the first bottle of juice also just became carbonated) is obviously not a valid or reasonable thing to do, and of course anyone who has such a huge amount of money at one time could also simply buy alcohol, even if they wanted healthy/non-toxic alcohol.  The "juice" cab be drank on it's own though tastes much better when fermented as in the first bottle, and presumably as wine as well.
Comment: If the problem would be allegedly merely that "the yeast did not survive", then this should result in the same result as happened the first time.


Why is second-order Gaussian called Laplacian Gaussian?

Question: We usually use Laplacian of Gaussian as the filter for edge detection or blob detection. But the filter itself is essentially a second order Gaussian. So why do we call it Laplacian of Gaussian? Is there some other meanings behind it?
Comment: HINT: A second order of **what** operation on a Gaussian?
Answer: Applying a Gaussian filter is a linear operation, also taking any type of derivative (finite difference) like Laplacian are also linear operations. Now considering the order of applying these operations doesn't matter (a property of convolution), you could combine them in many different ways, e.g. take Laplacian at first then take Gaussian or Gaussian first and Laplacian next, also you could apply Gausian on Laplacian or Laplacian on Gaussian and find a LoG Kernel, then apply the obtained Kernel on image once, which is more efficient in number of computations.
Comment: More efficient in number of operations, but also much more precise. With the LoG you compute the exact Laplacian of the blurred image, rather than a finite difference approximation of the Laplacian.
Answer: I think it's calles LoG because as you wrote you take the second derivation of the gaussian filter.
A laplace operation is a derivation in 2 (or more) dimensions .  In 2 dimensions it's what you do when creating the kernel. You derive the Gausskernel with the laplacian operation.
For more details on the laplacian operator see laplace operator wolfram alpha.


How does Titan maintain its atmosphere?

Question: Titan, which is smaller than Mars, has an atmosphere but Mars is not able to maintain its atmosphere. Even Luna (the Moon) doesn't have an atmosphere. Why is Titan able to hold an atmosphere, despite being smaller than Mars?
Comment: Old question, but I don't see it mentioned below.   Titan's atmosphere may be replenished by out-gassing from it's icy surface, crust and perhaps, methane lakes.    That may partially explain Venus' atmosphere as well, though with Venus, the process is very different.     http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7080/abs/nature04497.html
Answer: You are right that it's surprising that Titan, being just a moon, has a thick atmosphere. Usually, the answer includes magnetism: Earth has an atmosphere because the liquid iron in the outer core produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field changes the paths of the particles in the solar wind, thus preserving the volatile gases intact. Mars did use to have an atmosphere, just like Earth, but it being farther away from the Sun, the magma froze and lost its magnetic properties.
Titan itself doesn't have a magnetic field, but Saturn does. Saturn's magnetosphere is produced by the motion of the super-compressed hydrogen gas inside the planet (metallic fluid). The field is so strong it encompasses the satellites, including Titan.
Saturn doesn't have the same magma as Earth. Earth is a rocky planet. This means that it was formed so close to the sun that light gases (such as hydrogen) could not coalesce due to the high temperature and the solar wind. Therefore, the inner planets (Mercury to Mars) are composed mostly of rock and metal. It's the liquid iron in the outer core that makes Earth magnetic.
Gaseous planets instead have a small solid metal/rocky core (therefore, no magnetic field from there), and a huge layer of light gases (hydrogen and helium). The gases are not usually magnetic, but under such an enormous pressure they take a "metallic" structure, which means they can conduct electricity like a metal. This same property allows them to generate a magnetic field.
Comment: No mention of escape velocity or temperature?
Comment: The magma cooling has little to do with the distance to the Sun, it is about the size/mass and the composition of the planet.
Comment: Why did saturn's magma didn't freeze? It is even more farther than the mars from Sun
Comment: The answer was a bit long, so I just inserted it into the answer above. The last two paragraphs.
Answer: Solar wind (a flux of charged particles emitted by the star) is the main cause for celestial body losing its atmosphere. So, to keep an atmosphere celestial body would need a magnetosphere, that it, a magnetic field which deflects protons and electrons of solar wind and prevents them from giving molecules an energy to escape from upper layers of atmosphere.
According to current studies, the source of planetary magnetic field are eddy currents in liquid metal of rotating outer core, caused by convection and Coriolis force, so called "geomagnetic dynamo".
Now, Luna is pretty much geologically dead now. For the case of Mars, it has been hypothesized what its "dynamo" stopped by some reason, in any case it is a fact what Mars has weak and irregular magnetic field. But in case of Titan (which doesn't even have much metal in core), a gas giant with powerful magnetic field comes to rescue and protects its atmospheres from adverse effect of solar wind.

As an interesting trivia note, it has been hypothesized what this neighboring with radiation belt is the cause of higher hydrocarbons abundance on Titan.
Comment: What about Venus? It has no magnetic field and is much more exposed to solar wind than other atmospheric worlds. (I'm sorry to ask about Venus, since the answers about it generally seem to be: "We don't know")
Comment: Again, no mention of the basics of escape velocities and temperatures, which contribute to the answer.
Comment: This also doesn't explain why the Galilean moons of Jupiter lack atmospheres, despite sitting inside Jupiter's very strong magnetic field.
Comment: @LocalFluff, you got me on that! Seriously, it's a really good question and I'd really like to know the answer for (and I wish there would be more Venus studies instead of daydreaming about Mars). Care to post that as question?
Comment: It isn't useful to ask questions about it, since there are no answers. Venus is kind of a planet non grata, maybe because it is most like Earth. It is an outlier in most theories. IAU should've defined Venus, not Pluto, to be not a planet. If you like to learn about what is not known about Venus, I recommend Dave Stevenson, here's non-informative lecture of his: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORUkiyoYy0E
Comment: That is partially because Jupiter's magnetic field actually makes it worse, because it traps solar radiation and every moon but Callisto is in the radiation belts, and partly because of the higher temperatures there
Comment: For reference, a question on why Venus still has its atmosphere exists here; https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/10189/18324
Answer: It's cold out by Saturn, which reduces the tendency of gases to evaporate off into space.
Black body temperature of solar system objects:

Earth: distance D = 1 AU (288 K) 16°C
Mars: D =1.5 (232 K) -40°C
Jupiter: D = 5.2 ( 134 K) -138°C
Saturn: D = 9.5 (103 K) -169°C
...........Titan  (94 K) -178°C -measured vs calc for others
Uranus: D = 19.2 ( 73 K) -199°C
Neptune: D = 30.1 ( 63 K) -209°C
Ganymede, massing 1.5X10^23 kg, vs Titan at 1.3X10^23 kg, has no substantial atmosphere, but it's also a lot warmer due to its proximity to the sun. Nitrogen boils at −196 °C, so it's not impossible that cold days on Titan involve nitrogen rainstorms. Methane and ethane have even higher boiling points
Answer: The magnetic field answers don't explain the fact that Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter with similar size and mass to Titan, doesn't have an atmosphere. Jupiter, like Saturn, has a strong magnetic field. IMHO the answer is more likely the difference in surface temperatures of the two moons. Titan's lower surface temperature means slower movement of gas molecules in its atmosphere and lower chance of them exceeding its escape speed. Generally a planet (or a moon for that matter) can retain a gas if the escape speed is at least 6 times greater than the average speed of the molecules in the gas. Plugging figures for Titan, Ganymede and the Nitrogen atom into these formulas:
Kinetic energy
$$E_k=\frac{1}{2}mv^2$$
$$E_k= \text{kinetic energy of a gas atom or molecule in } J$$
$$m=\text{mass of gas, atom, or molecule }(\text{kg})$$
$$v=\text{speed of gas, atom, or molecule }\Big(\frac{m}{s}\Big)$$
Kinetic energy of a gas atom or molecule
$$E_k=\frac{3}{2}kT$$
$$E_k=\text{kinetic energy of a gas, atom, or molecule }(J)$$
$$k=1.38\times10^{-23}\;\Big(\frac{J}{K},\text{Boltzmann constant}\Big)$$
$$T=\text{temperature of a gas }(K)$$
Escape velocity for a spherical body of mass M and radius R
$$v_{\text{escape}}=\sqrt{\frac{2GM}{R}}$$
I got $\frac{v_{\text{escape Titan}}}{v_{\text{Nitrogen atom on Titan}}}=6.44$ while $\frac{v_{\text{escape Ganymede}}}{v_{\text{Nitrogen atom on Ganymede}}}=4.55$
Comment: The factor 6 'requirement' is a simplified, completely arbitrary (you can make it 7 or 8) requirement, and not an on/off-switch, as the particles in the Boltzmann-tail of the velocity distribution scales linearly with $v_{\rm esc}/v_{\rm particle}$, when that parameter is larger than ~3.5. So while a commendable initiative, this answer does not show why Ganymede has no atmosphere, while Titan has one. AFAIK a definitive answer to this very interesting question doesn't exist, but it will have to do more with evolutionary and formation aspects than a slight difference in the escape parameter.
Comment: Comparing Titan & Ganymede is interesting because the radii, masses, densities, values for gravity & escape velocities for both are very similar to each other. Where they differ from each other are the values for bond albedo, solar irradiance, black body temperature, the composition of their atmospheres & the densities of their atmospheres as well as the composition of the celestial spheres themselves.
Comment: Also radiation Jupiter's magnetic field traps radiation and three of the moons are in the radiation belts
Answer: Simply said, the ability of planet or other body to maintain atmosphere depends on three factors:

Its gravity
Atmosphere temperature
Chemical composition of atmosphere

You can estimate that using the simple formula
$$kT \ll \frac{GMm}{r}$$
Where $k$ is Boltzmann's constant, $T$ is absolute temperature of the gas, $G$ is the gravitational constant, $M$ is planet mass, and $m$ is the mass of particular molecule.
If gas molecules satisfy the formula above, their kinetic energy is much less than the depth of potential well of planet's gravity, therefore they cannot escape. So the planet will keep its atmosphere.
In case of Earth, for example, its gravity is not enough to keep Hydrogen and Helium, which have smallest molecular masses ($m$=2 proton mass).
In case of cold atmosphere, the mass of celestial body able to keep it may be quite small. This is the reason, that Titan or Pluto have an atmosphere but Mercury or Moon have not.
Comment: The answer to the question has nothing with the solar winds or magnetic fields.
Comment: http://www.castlerock.wednet.edu/HS/stello/Astronomy/TEXT/CHAISSON/BG305/HTML/MP0502.htm is another readable explanation of what this answer says.
Comment: It depends on the radius of the object, not just its gravity.
Answer: Wikipedia has a section addressing this question that hasn't been covered by the other answers.
The summary is that the disparity between the atmosphere of Titan and similarly sized objects is not fully understood, but the main theory currently is that Titan has also been losing atmosphere over its lifetime, but as it started out in a much colder spot than Mars or the Moon, it was able to accrete a lot of nitrogen and ammonia which are too volatile to accrete in the warmer orbits of Mars and Earth, and so started out with a much thicker atmosphere and a lot more atmosphere forming nitrogen compounds below its surface. At its distance from the Sun atmospheric erosion is slower, but still its original atmosphere may have been many times thicker than even the thick atmosphere it has now.

How does Titan maintain its atmosphere?


In Naruto Shippuden, why did Sasuke became evil?

Question: I understand that Sasuke learns Itachi was motivated by his desire to protect the village. Itachi only slaughtered his clan because they were plotting a rebellion. And thus Sasuke's motivation for killing Itachi was slightly misguided. Since Tobi told him about Itachi, why does he want to destroy Konoha? Itachi died protecting it so why does Sasuke wants to destroy it?
Comment: it's uchiha curse of hatred , , , love can become hate easily for them.
Answer: He wants to destroy the village that put his beloved brother in the position to choose between his family and his village.
Sasuke can legitimately be thinking that if given a command to kill all of your relatives, the people who gave that command are evil and should be destroyed.
Don't forget that when it comes to family, very strong feelings can easily be affecting Sasuke.
Really, Itachi choosing the village over his family was the abnormal decision.
Answer: Both times, it was revenge.
Initially, he wanted to avenge his clan's murder from his brother Itachi and later, on knowing that the attack was ordered by the Leaf Village elders and, in order to protect Sasuke, Itachi had to kill the entire clan by his own hands, his revenge spirit was against the entire Leaf village as a whole.
In the manga, the Second Hokage has mentioned that the Uchihas love their family more than any other any ninja. In fact their Sharingan evolves when they fight for their loved ones and also have this tendency to go evil and on an irrational blood feud when their loved ones are harmed or killed. The same happened with Madara Uchiha when his brother was killed.
Answer: Its Revenge for his family and his Clan.
& He call him self avenger for same.
He chose to leave village and become student of Orochimaru because he wanted to become stronger than his brother and then Kill him(Itachi). & In order to Kill Itachi he have to be powerful enough so he joined Orochimaru to gain power and learn new jutsu. So he can take revenge to Itachi.
When Tobi(Obito) tell him false tale of How leaf village commanded Itachi to murder whole Uchiha clan which turn Sasuke's feeling to avenge Whole Village for forcing his Brother to do this cruel act. & decided to destroy leaf village.
I think these two things make Sasuke Evil because
first he was wanted to revenge his brother for sake of his Clan & Family in any cost.
& then Secound when he come to know about Itachi's sacrifice of whole Clan & family for sake of Village.
Answer: From the first show Naruto in season 1, episode 29, the snake that bit sasuke in the neck made a mark of evil, soon he was gonna release or seal the snake power.
Answer: Sasuke wanted to get revenge on itachi and restore his clan and family,in order to gain new Justu, he had to leave the village and team 7.
Comment: This does not explain how Sasuka became 'evil'
Answer: sasuke undersand that danzo  force itachi
 to kill his clan becase there is no one is stronger itachi so the use him say wepone and kill whole uchiha clan but he could kill his own brother and sasuke hate him before he dnot know turth but toib told him all turth he lies so that why he tries to destroy leaf but itachi told him and now try toprotect leaf


Can conflicting applications be considered for determing the obvious of a later-filed application?

Question: Conflicting applications are earlier-filed and later-published applications to a the claimed invention (later-filed).
It could be prejudicial to the novelty but not obvious of the claimed invention in EP and CN. Here is the question, can it be considered for determining the obvious of the claimed invention((later-filed))?
Answer: Yes: in the US, intervening rights can be used for both novelty and non-obviousness rejections.
An example timeline
Let us talk of two applications: P1 and P2, having the following dates:
1 Jan 2015: P1 filed at USPTO.
1 Feb 2015: P2 filed at USPTO.
1 Jul 2016: P1 published by USPTO.
So in a European context, P1 would be novelty-only prior art for P2. But P1 is not full prior art, and therefore could not support an inventive step objection.
The law for prior art
The meaning of prior art is provided in 35 USC § 102(a):

A person shall be entitled to a patent unless—
(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention; or
(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.

So § 102(a)(1) corresponds to conventional prior art (that is, published before the effective filing date). P1 was published after P2 was filed, and is therefore not § 102(a)(1) prior art.
§ 102(a)(2) corresponds to (what the Europeans sometimes call) intervening rights (that is, filed before but published after the effective filing date). P1 was filed before P2. Once P1 publishes, and assuming P1 names a different inventor, P1 would be § 102(a)(2) prior art. As a practical matter, even before P1 publishes, the examiner may raise a provisional rejection.
The law for non-obviousness
The requirement for obviousness is provided by 35 USC § 103 (emphasis added):

A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.

Thus the non-obviousness requirement refers back to the prior art definition in § 102 with no further provisos. Accordingly anything which is prior art for § 102 can be used for an obviousness attack under § 103.
Answer: I'll give you a light answer: The examiners will certainly take it into account, or in some cases, both they and you will only know after the document is published. That is why it is best file as quickly as possible to get yourself a priority date.


What happens if an executable file intended for Windows Mobile is run on a desktop Windows operating system?

Question: Just purely out of interest - if an executable intended for Windows Mobile is run on a standard Windows operating system, what happens? I ask because when downloading an installer package intended for Windows Mobile onto my Windows 10 machine, Explorer shows the description and developer info in a tooltip.
Answer: I think you'd get a "This app cannot run on your PC" as the majority of Windows Mobile devices use an ARM processor, and the majority of PCs use x86/x86-64 arch
Answer: The actual binary files (.EXE, .DLL, etc.) will either not work at all (if they are compiled to native code) or - if they're purely .NET intermediate language - will start to load but possibly fail to get very far because the runtime libraries between the phone and desktop OS are somewhat different. UWP apps that are not compiled to native code can work on both the PC and the phone, assuming they aren't flagged as only supporting one or the other, or require hardware the PC lacks.
The format of both the executable binaries (PE format) and the application packages (.APPX or .APPXBUNDLE, which is just a ZIP archive with some required contents) are the same between the phone and the PC. This means that tools (such as Windows Explorer) that read the metadata of such files will have no problems. However, that doesn't mean the code within those files is compatible across all platforms; in most cases it will not be.
The most significant hurdle would be - as @theLMGN pointed out - that phones run ARM CPUs, while (most) PCs run x86/AMD64 CPUs. AMD64 is backward-compatible with x86, but neither one can run ARM machine code (without an emulator).
Answer: My bet is that executable files use the same format, but rely on different libraries, so you'll see some error message about missing libraries or functions. If Windows developers detect these files specifically (like 16-bit executables), you may get more meaningful error messages.
Either way, you won't be able to run the files.
Answer: You probably could run it. UWP runs on a standardized format, .appx, and all the code used to run it is the exact same excluding touch drivers. Yes, The other answers are right about arm, But the Windows for ARM project has shown that .appx works on all platforms. myTube for example. Same code. Different Types. If it does fail I'm assuming it'll be a Touchscreen initialization failure.


Why there is considerable difference in moving speed between touchpad and usb mouse?

Question: Why there is considerable difference in moving speed between touchpad and usb mouse? The mouse is ok, but touchpad is very slow. Why is this happening and how to fix it?
Comment: I don't have a real answer, but you might find [this](http://askubuntu.com/questions/3719/how-can-i-set-different-sensitivities-for-two-mice-at-the-same-time) useful.
Answer: You can adjust your speed settings a couple ways. First, use System > Preferences > Mouse.

Second, install gpointing-device-settings so you can use System > Preferences > Pointing device. The advantage here is that you should be able to set different speeds for your different mice and touchpads.
Answer: I'd say that this is because of the drivers for the mouse and the touchpad. Try going to your touchpads website and see if there are any installation documents for Ubuntu.
It may work, but it may not, it's just a hunch actually.


How does a telescope measure parallax angle?

Question: I know how stars' distances are measured by using parallax, but I want to know how the actual telescope measures the parallax angle. Any helpful links/ explanations are needed.
Answer: No, the telescope doesn't measure the parallax. A sextant or any other angle measuring device fit on the telescope does.
And, we don't(can't) directly measure the parallax angle. Instead, we just track the position of the star/object throughout the year. A little bit of spherical astronomy math shows us that the path of a star in the celestial sphere defined by a fixed reference through the year is an ellipse around it's mean postion, called the parallactic ellipse

Here is a link which does the rough math involved.
The semi-major axis of this ellipse is equal to the parllax angle P, while the semi-minor axis is equal to P*sin(b), where b is the stars ecliptic latitude.
EXTRA NOTE: These parallactic ellipses are often rotated and parameters modified as the abberational ellipse is superposed on it. In practice, things get nigh complicated.
Comment: Perhaps it's worth adding that the mean position is usually not fixed, but (for single stars) moves (nearly) on a line. This motion is called *proper motion* and measured from the same type of data (stellar positions over several epochs) as the parallax.
Answer: In addition: It's often better to measure the angular distance to reference stars, instead of absolute angles, because those angles can be measured with much higher accuracy.
Comment: Very true. That is what I meant by "celestial sphere" fixed with some reference(as in the reference stars) :)
Comment: @Cheeku As you already indicated in your answer, things get hugely more complex, when improving accuracy or looking to more distant stars in the order of 10s of thousands of lightyears. Everything is in motion to each other, including gravitational aberration, even by bodies within our solar system. The Gaia people are struggling with (and are defining) a reference system taking all those effects into account.


How can I shoot good quality macro photos with my fuji finepix S5200

Question: I have a Fuji Finepix S5200 and I really want to shoot sharp macro photos. I've been playing with this setting for several years. My camera has other settings that I have not explored yet. It has a 'P', 'M', 'S', 'A' nightime setting, landscape, and an 'N' which I don't know what it does. I would like to try and shoot macro in manual instead of auto. Which settings under manual do I use? I am mostly interested in photographing flowers from close distances. What f-stops should it be set at? I've been googling macro photography like crazy lately but most of the articles deal with macro lens, diffusers, more complicated equipment. The Fuji Finepix S5200 doesn't have a way to add lens. It's fixed. I am looking for step-by-step of how to set my camera for shooting flowers up close. With Summer coming up I want to shoot the best photos possible. And like I said want to explore the other features on my camera instead of the auto setting which doesn't always give me good results.
Answer: You'll have to dig in the manual and experiment a lot if you want to understand all the ins and outs of what your camera can do.
I expect most of the more experienced photographers here use mainly the P, A, S, M modes. Those are the most basic modes, where the camera does not do any "special" post treatment. Those special treatments are useless anyway when you use raw files, as they are only applied to the camera-generated jpeg file. Those four modes are more or less automatic (I assume no flash for what follows):

P mode is "fully automatic": the camera selects shutter speed and diaphragm/aperture (F value) (and possibly even ISO value) depending
on the light situation.
A and S mode give you a bit more control: you select aperture (in A mode) or shutter speed (in S mode), the camera sets the other
based on the available light;
in M mode, you're fully on your own: you decide which speed and aperture to use, the camera will just follow your orders (but can
indicate if exposure will be correct according to the light metered).

Even in P, A or S mode, you can influence what the camera does through "exposure compensation" (EC), where you basically tell the camera: "act as if there is more (or less) might than your meter tells you" (if you are in "A" mode and set +1 EC, you tell the camera to expose twice as long as the meter tells it to)
The macro setting limits the distance over which the camera will focus, to avoid moving all the time over the full focussing range. But you still have to select P, A, S, M or one of the other shooting modes.
In macro photography, there are two main problems: amount of available light, and Depth of Field (the two are related). When you get closer, your depth of field becomes very small, so you want to use a small aperture (large F number, say F16). But (especially if you zoom in, so you use a large focal lenght) you need a high shutter speed to avoid motion blur. And you want to stay with a low ISO setting for best quality...
In practice, this isn't possible, so something has to give: either you use a flash, or you go to a higher ISO setting (which means more noise, among other things). The on-camera flash may or may not work: the lens can in some cases partially block the light from the flash (but that's easy to check).
Or you use a tripod or other support (like a small bean bag). Highly recommended for macro work, especially for flowers (they won't run away while you set up your equipment, contrary to insects). To get the best results, you either need a remote release switch, or use the self-timer on the camera (so the shot is taken 2-10s after you push the button). And keep in mind that flowers tend to move as soon as there's a bit of wind (leading to motion blur).
When using a tripod, I usually set my camera to the lowest ISO setting, and use F16 or larger in "A" mode. If the shutter speed really gets too long I increase the ISO setting, but I wouldn't recommend going over ISO 400 with your camera. If you have a large, rather flat flower (like a daisy, or one of its larger relatives), I'd probably use a lower F value (F8 or so) if there isn't all that much light.
When I don't want to use a tripod (like when trying to photograph butterflies), I make sure my shutter speed stays faster than 1/250. F8 or smaller is still needed to get enough Depth of Field, so that means that I have to increase the ISO setting (up to 800 or 1600)
From what I see, your camera should be able to get good pictures of most flowers, except the smallest.
When you start looking for more information, keep in mind that normally the term "macro photography" is used when the magnification is larger than 1:1, which means that the image on the sensor is at least as large as the subject you are photographing. And that requires specific equipment... You will probably get better results when searching for "close up photography".
Comment: thanks for your comments they are very helpful. I'll get busy with them and practice.
Comment: This would be a good general macro answer, but I think maybe it's a little misguided regarding [the camera in question](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujifilm_FinePix_S5200) being used for flower pictures. At that crop factor, the apertures you mention are somewhere between diffraction limited and non-existent, and DOF is unlikely to be an issue compared to other aspects of image quality. :)
Comment: Indeed, larger apertures (lower F numbers) can still provide enough DoF for such a camera. For the rest, the best way to find out the limits is by testing (indoors, with any object of a size camparable to the flowers you want to shoot). Fortunately, all that takes is a bit of time, not like in the film days, where the costs counted much more.
Answer:
I am looking for step by step of how to set my camera for shooting flowers in macro.

It's easy: get the camera as close to your subject as you like, then shoot.
Then if you encounter problems such as unsatisfactory results, you can come back here with an actual image and a question stating precisely what it is that you do not like about that image, and people will try to help.
I am not at all being sarcastic, by the way. Your camera is very smart and can figure a lot of things out on its own. See this, for example (I assume this is the sort of image you are aiming for; perhaps not as "macro" but the idea is the same):

Do you think I used a lot of fancy settings to get it? Nope, much more important is to be at the right place at the right time, and to keep an eye for interesting things. The camera will handle the rest well enough for now.


Can I make the it ring from my phone speaker instead of the headset when I have a bluetooth headset connected?

Question: When I connect my headset to the phone all of the ring, notification and alarm signals go through the headset speaker. This makes it quite hard to hear the phone ringing when I take of the headset while it's still connected to the phone. Is it possible to choose that all ring, notification and alarm signals always should go through the phone speaker even when a headset is connected?
Answer: No. Once a bluetooth device has successfully connected to the phone, it determines that you want to have the ringer pumped through the connection.
The only other distinction the phone makes while connected to a bluetooth device is whether or not it is A2DP enabled. If it is not A2DP enabled, music will play through the phone's speaker while the ringer will still go to the bluetooth device.
Depending on how long you plan on taking off the headset, you could turn off bluetooth for the duration. This can be done very quickly using an app that pins the Bluetooth settings page to your start screen. I personally use Network Dashboard (link below) and it allows me to toggle bluetooth on and off pretty quickly.
Marketplace: Network Dashboard
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/96e6649a-5582-45a3-9c5b-a71881e18334
Answer: No, this is currently not possible. Also, in the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK there is no way to determine where sound is played: if a headset (cable or bluetooth) is connected, sound will be there, else the on board speaker is used. Hope this changes, because I have a software need for being able to make sounds on one, the other or both.