why a testosterone pill can't be effective?

Question: Why estrogen, progesterone etc. in the contraceptive pills survive the acid environment of the stomach and all the digestive enzymes, while testosterone needs to be injected or spread with a gel on skin?
I have no idea of why this difference in assumption, because I know testosterone and "feminine" hormones have the same steroid based structure...so I can't pick up why testosterone differently from "feminine" hormones can't resist the digestion.
Comment: Testosterone *can* be administered orally as undecanoate ester (brand name Andriol). The big challenge of oral steroid hormones is not the acid degradation, but liver first pass metabolism. (Which is mitigated by adding alkyl group at the alpha-17 position, or use of fatty acid ester; see for instance ethinylestradiol, levonorgestrel, or estradiol valerate)
Comment: so why the testosterone pill is very rarely prescribed? It is proved that the female pill with the chemically modified hormones is effective. So why the testosterone pill is not considered enough effective in the oral form so that It is rarely prescribed.
Comment: Probably depends on where you live, it isn't rarely described here in the Netherlands, although transdermal gels are winning terrain. I think an argument from a pharmacological point of view would be the varying bioavailability of oral testosterone undecanoate.
Answer: As stated in the comments by Eliane B., testosterone can actually be administered orally when an undecanoate ester is attached. The reason regular testosterone cannot be adminstered orally is because it undergoes extensive first pass metabolism (oxidation of the 17b-hydroxyl group to a 17-keto group, catalyzed by 17b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzymes, which are active in the liver). The undecanoate ester makes the substance lipophilic enough to be transported by the lymphatic system to the circulation after absorption by the intestines. Without the ester it will first reach the liver via the portal vein, thus exposing it to first pass metabolism. Nevertheless, bioavailability of oral testosterone undecanoate is estimated to be less than 10% [1].
Besides that, there are also derivates of testosterone which have a high oral bioavailability. These derivates have an alpha-oriented alkyl group, usually methyl, at position C-17, which retards hepatic metabolism. However, this can lead to hepatotoxicity [2].

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3770015 (note, the subjects were women, but in the literature it is assumed that similiar bioavailability is obtained in men)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27372877


Is it necessary for ladies to cover their head while performing ablution?

Question: l have heard that during ablution it is necessary for ladies to cover their head otherwise their ablution will not be performed. but i have searched and didn't get any exact hadees related to it.
Comment: Neither have I. And unless there's no proof, the fact is not true.
Answer: As we take a look on the bases of islam. Islam not allowing a woman to discover her head in so places there is an irshad "the woman who never covers their heads are the wife of iblees(shitan)."
The thing you said ablution is not performed while women head is uncovered...?
So how can we perform ablution with uncovered head?
Although your ablution is performed but it's good to cover your head not only for ablution for all the time. Thanks
Answer: In https://islamweb.net/en/fatwa/89914/ it says:

It is not an obligation on a woman to cover her head while performing
  ablution except if she is in the presence of marriageable men.

If the lady can be seen by non-mehrams while performing ablution then she needs to cover her head. Otherwise it is not necessary to cover her head since ablution itself is not part of prayer, ablution is valid as long as its obligations are performed which are listed in the Quran.

O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your
  faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and
  wash your feet to the ankles.


Is Quality Important In a Beta Site?

Question: A Round of Applause to Our Community
If you're a member of PMSE and have posted a question, an answer, upvoted or downvoted something, left a comment, opened or closed a question, or posted in meta and helped contribute to our quality scope changes, give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back!
So are we done now?
No! We are not done. We're not out of the woods yet. Starting something new is exciting, thrilling, and energizing. But maintaining those newfound strengths and wins takes courage, patience, and persistence, even in our weakest of moments, and I don't want to see our site slip back into the world where anything goes. That will not lead to graduation.
I understand that the principle concern, the perceived elephant in the room, is that Stack Exchange may close our site down because there aren't enough questions.
The community managers have never, ever, not even once said that quantity is more important than quality, yet these falsehoods persist. I understand that this is your worry, but time and time again I've seen the same statements repeated by the SE team that they don't judge sites based on Area51 metrics.
For instance, when Bicycles SE was still in beta, someone asked Must we have 15 questions per day and over 1,500 visits per day to graduate?.  Here is Robert Cartaino's answer:

We find that the best way to attract user to a site is by highlighting your most intriguing questions. Most users find this site through search engines. So, as long as you are asking QUALITY questions, users will continue to find the site and, hopefully, become contributors of their own.
That's why quality is so important at this stage. You want to ASSURE that users who stumble across one of your questions will see your front page and say "Wow, this is the site for me!" — and that's how the site will grow to graduation.
Don't panic. It will happen soon enough. Just keep the quality high and use those social bookmarks.

Example Launched Site With "Needs Work" Metric for Questions per Day
One thing I see on just about every beta site on our network are people arguing the point that it's okay to sacrifice quality for quantity. Some of you have made this argument here on PMSE. I may have even succumbed to this line of thinking on occasion, but it's just plain wrong.
I want to share with you something that I hope proves my point, or at least strongly supports the idea that the Stack Exchange team won't shut our site down just because of the questions per day metric:
What they've been telling us is true, that the little red "Needs work" Area51 metric isn't something we should fear. Here's why:

Source: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/2305/bicycles
Bicycles SE launched in July/August 2011, and were in beta for almost a year! At the end of their beta, most of their stats were just a little lower than ours. Most importantly, they had that little red "Needs Work" message appearing as their questions per day metric.
Here is a post from Robert Cartaino that explains the minimum that is required to leave beta and launch.
Please read this carefully. It's important that we understand that QUALITY is of the utmost importance if we are to succeed!
Answer: So this is more a "build and they will come" (albeit slowly) thing.
OK, I'm good with that.
Answer: From your post, it seems that quality is very important.

Is Quality Important In a Beta Site?


Can more than one person use the same type of Take Over magic?

Question: In Fairy Tail there are Take Overs like Satan Soul, Beast Soul, etc. Would it be possible for more than one person to use a specific type of Take Over magic (like there would be 2 users of Satan Soul)? I wasn't sure if this magic changes depending on the individual so that all users have their own type of Take Over or if it is just learned this way.
Answer: Take Over is an advanced Caster-Type Transformation Magic. The different type of take overs shown in the Manga/Anime are Beast Soul, Animal Soul, Machina Soul, God Soul and Finally the takeover done by animals such as the Vulcan.
The description that we receive is that one can only take over the forms of "things" that you "know". In addition to these there may be other requirements for this magic. Most of the times its the defeat of the target is necessary.
In the canon ALL the Take Over Magic have been shown by unique users. The exact way to obtain any of the transformations is currently unknown. Thus it is unconfirmed if multiple users can use the same Take Over Magic.
However, from the nature of the transformations I personally classify them into the following. Thus it would be speculation to say if any of them are unique, I consider them to be of either kind. However, I consider the Lost Magics to be most unique. The answer below follows mostly my logic and speculation.
Beast Soul: Known User Elfman; Not Unique
Animal Soul: Known User Lisanna; Not Unique
Machina Soul: Known User Jenny; Not Unique
Satan Soul: Known User Mirajane; Unique
In the battle against Tartarus we learned a bit about Mirajane's abilities. It seems that she has some form of "Demon Factor" that allows her to use this powerful take over. She is immune to the Demon control techniques even opposing them. Thus it seems to be a unique transformation for her.
God Soul: Known user Dimaria (Spriggan 12); Unique
In this case we have a clear source of the unique nature of her takeover.

As the Valkyrie summons the ancient God of Time into her own body, Chronos explains to their audience that he has chosen her as his host as she is a descendant of the people of Mildian, an ancient city that worshiped him, also claiming that he and his host are a single being in this form. Source: Chapter 475

Thus the god Chronos chose Dimaria as the Vessel.
Answer: There isn't anything in the manga/anime which prevent this. Since the power is acquired by fighting the creature, there could be multiple users of the same take over. Although I don't remember any.
Answer: The ability to learn a takeover comes from their will also. The example I'll use is when Elfman tried to use Beast Soul the fist time and ended up killing Lisanna by accident. There are restrictions on what people can use based on their own will power and partly physical power to contain the Takeover in general. This is why Mirajane has a more powerful takeover than Elfman, she has more raw talent and a stronger will so she's not as easy to get taken over by the beast she is becoming.


What to do with old tires?

Question: I recently upgraded to puncture resistant tires on my road bike. The previous tires are old, but still usable. Is there any value to doing anything other than throwing them out? For instance, is there any reason to keep them? Is it possible to sell used tires? If no one wants them, can/should they be recycled?
Comment: Check if there's a place that "recycles" bikes for the needy near you.  Otherwise you can probably drop them off at a tire store for recycling, if you ask nice.
Comment: In the UK there are quite a few people who make trouser belts from old tyres. I have a knobbly one (which is a pain to use and plays havoc with the belt loops on my jeans). Road tyres make the best belts. Maybe see if a similar crafty person near you wants them?
Comment: You could take them to a community bike repair shop.  These guys aren't super close to Irvine but maybe there is something similar closer to you. http://www.bicyclekitchen.com
Comment: Just burn them.
Comment: I don't know about tires, but tubes make good fire starter when camping in wet conditions. Just cut them in 1cm wide rings.
Answer: I usually gift them to people who need them.
Edit: To expand more on my answer, I use rather expensive tyres and I want them in mint condition. So after a couple of months I'll most probably change them. The old tyres can still give 6-12 months of quality riding time to someone. So I'll post on local riding forums with closeup photos of the tread and usually people will get them.
Comment: It's surprising to see how stuff that is useless for us are quite valued by those who sometimes can't afford even the bare minimum.
Comment: @DanielRHicks: You obviously assume that I ride a city bike to commute to work. Your statement would then be valid.
Comment: sounds like he's hooked up or else adopting the Sky approach of marginal gains :)
Comment: And how do you find people who need them?
Comment: @Joe: I post in local riding forums. Also see updated answer.
Comment: Seems kind of pointless.  A good tire remains good until it's damaged or the rubber wears thin enough that it risks puncture.
Comment: It's true of just about any tire, under most riding conditions.  Maybe if your ride on ice or some such it would be different.
Comment: Bold statements party!
Comment: @DanielRHicks Higher end road tires have a slight V in them to reduce their contact with the road.  Once they are warn the form of a U shape.  This increases the contact patch with the road.  I am not sure what the performance impact of this is.  The tire U or V would be great for commuting.  Maybe less so for road racing?
Answer: You could use your old tires for when you are on the trainer and your new tires for road riding.  That way your trainer wont wear out your new tires.
Comment: +1 for people who live in places with a season of bad weather,  but for me personally, I don't have a trainer (why wouldn't I just ride outside) and changing tires frequently is a PITA.
Comment: Yes it would be a pain to change tires, but if you had a spare wheel it might be a more useful suggestion.   I live in the ME, even the cold season isn't too cold to go out on the bike, but still sometimes preferable to stay indoors, especially when it rains.
Answer: New tires are puncture resistance, not proof. It is possible to cut them so they can not be used. I keep old tires, as a quick fix for such situations until I can buy new ones. Also I frequently go to the cottage house with bicycle (cca 60km). So I keep one old spare tire there.
Answer: Tyres have steel or aramid beads in the edge.  If you cut that off with workshop snips or similar (not dressmaking scissors!) then it becomes a ~2 metre long fairly flat length as opposed to a hoop.  This flattened tread can be cable-tied or screwed onto things that need a bumper or buffer.
I've used dead tyres for packing/padding things, and protecting things.
Have also tried to make some rubber tyres for our council wheelie bins because they're horribly loud when rolled.  That kind-of worked but simply plating the outside of the plastic wheel with tyre tread was of minimal gain.
The underside of your bike's downtube might benefit from stone protection, and the right chainstay could get some defense from chain slap.
Some tread patterns can suit costumes or simulate other textures.
MTB tyres have much more material, so can cover more area per tyre.  Skinny road tyres are a lot less surface area and also tend to be thinner so can fit closer to a corner
Finally, if you used slime or stan's inside a tubeless setup, be aware that it will still be inside the tube and can interfere with glues and paint, and possibly stain whatever you mount the tyre.
Answer: In case your idea of tire reuse goes beyond reusing them on a bike, this or that can help.

Main points from links that pertain to tyres and tubes:

tyre liners
"handy things around the house" like rubber bands.
fashion accessories (belts, bags, wallets, elbow patches)
Resurrect them (patch the tubes and reuse them)
Recycle at the local bike shop / car tyre shop (maybe)
waterproof cover for a book
creative jewellery
Bike tube purse
waterproof Tool roll
cover a chain
make sandals for your feet (modern variant of the huarache or other name)
Comment: If you could, try to condense and present what your links suggest rather than just linking them.
Comment: @WTHarper done.

What to do with old tires?


Formula in a database row - Java

Question: Either this requirement is weird or i should be confusing myself too much
I have a rule table with 30 columns. Every row from a feed file is compared against some or all conditions based on the type of feed. The domain is banking and the application is for loan reporting (say, reporting the amount of total secured loans and unsecured loans)
This is my problem :
<code>If the (total of collateral amount)> loan principal amount, then consider the principal amount for consolidation

Else if the (total of collateral amount)<loan principal amount, then consider only the amount covered by collateral
</code>
I have some 5 scenarios like this (which should be customizable) by users (say, if the collateral is cash/equities, then consider only cash collateral/equity collateral).
POssibly more of this scenario is expected. I am not sure how i should approach this problem. My plan is to create a column in the rule table and have some preformatted simple english conditions in them (document and teach users of this), parse them using Regex and convert it into numbers later. I have no knowledge/experience with DSL and this is the best??!! what i can think of. Any help will be a great source of knowledge to me. Thanks. Arun
Answer: You can use business rules engine to implement this instead of implementing your own parsing logic or writing a DSL.
Refer to Business Rules Engine for details. Most rule engines will allow you to create a grammar in plain english to define such rules. We use ilog JRULES for defining such rules. There are several other commercial and open source rules engines available. One popular open source software is drools.

Formula in a database row - Java


Is not husband having no right over wife's salary a bit injustice?

Question: Suppose i am married with a earning wife. We both earn the same. I am only son of my parents and she is also only issue of her parents. Now as i have to look after her expenses and also my children i can hardly give 10% of my earnings to my parents. But my wife gives all her salary to her parents as she need not to give any money to run our family according to Islam. So i cant help my parents as much as she can. Isn't this a injustice to me or my parents? Why my parents will get lesser from me just because almighty gave them a son not a daughter?
Comment: It is not injustice. I don't see a reason why neither of you need to give money to parents. If they need money yes give them, if they need a place to stay let them stay with you.
Comment: She could afford her parents good treatment when sick but i could not provide same due to lack of money though we earn same..she sent her parents to hajj but i could not. she gave good healthy food to her parents i could not. How this can be a justice that a women can give all of her money to parents and men must bear expense of family. @AmericanMuslim
Comment: There are many poor people who can't afford things, that is life, deal with it. An alternative plan would be to try to get an education for a better job, if that is an option!
Comment: So there is no rule in islam which handles this inequality... :( . though islam has a very good rule about asset distribution among daughter & son
Comment: @ZahanSafallwa The best thing is to discuss your concern with your wife nicely and to solve that issue Like if your parents need treatment due to health conditions then you should support them but if you are lacking money (which means you are out of money now) then with your mutual understanding you both could make a way out of it without being jealoused of someone getting more and whynot mine and recite this Tasbeeh mentioned in following Hadith
Comment: A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, I work hard and I hardly earn anything. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to him: What about the tasbeeh of the angels? They asked: What is it? He said: "If you say tasbeeh one hundred times before you pray Fajr, (saying) Subhan Allah wa bi hamdihi, subhan Allah il-'Azeem, Allah will send your provision (rizq) to you thereby even if you do not want it." (Ibn al-Jawzi in al-Mawdoo'at)
Answer: Well your question could have two possible aspects: the POV of shari'a and the aspect of partnership  (this is also a more or less of Shari'a POV) and the love and mercy between husband an wife.
From a sharia'a point of view:
it's clearly the husband who has to support his family even if the wife is working (for example in Quran), but as good as he can. This means if he is poor he isn't asked to support his family above his possibilities. And the same situation is when taking care about your parents you'll have to support them as good as you can!
Therefore at first place you have no right over your wife's salary and she and your children have the right of being supported by you!

According to the following Fatwa (Arabic) a wife is neither asked nor should be forced to support the family of her husband even if she was wealthy. But she could do it to gain reward أجر by Allah.

I would be glad if someone could add information supporting that this isn't an injustice, or maybe I'll try to edit this answer and if i found enough information and arguments to explain this.
But now we come to an other Point:
A few words about Marriage in Islam
When we read in Quran the Verses about the relationship between husband and wife and family matters we always find the words "و ان خفتم" ="And if you fear that ...".
This means that as Allah brought you together in love and mercy both of you should care for an other and try to forgo or at least be kind to each other as we can conclude by reading Quran Verses line in Surat an-Nissa' and Surat ar-Rum. And as there are duties of a husband there are also duties of a wife. But the most important thing is (And do not forget graciousness between you وَلَا تَنْسَوُا الْفَضْلَ بَيْنَكُمْ)  which is stated in a Verse talking about divorce. But the word الْفَضْلَ means more the graciousness in Arabic: it's something above the usual this means in such a relationship each partner should try to give his counterpart (if possible) much more then he would expect from him!
So yes according shari'a no right over your wife's salary, but if you live in a true relationship this shouldn't be a problem if you both are neither selfish nor having negative feelings for each other because of this matter.
In my case Alhamdulillah we passed true a very bad (financial) situation and my wife and even her family helped me out (without me asking her) and would do it at any time if i asked her and vice versa! In a relationship each part should have his/her goals but never forget that there are common goals whom will need both parts to co-operate!
And Allah knows best!
Comment: So according to islam if the wife ensures good life for her parents but doesnt help father in law or mother in law (financial) she wont be commiting a fault . Am i right?
Comment: @MediSaif MashAllah


SharePoint Online 2013 Send Email at specified time?

Question: I have a workflow that sends out email reminders for items that have a specified due date.  If the items are due 30 days out it sends a reminder every Monday.  If they're 7 days out or under it sends reminders daily.  This part works through looping and pausing for a week or 24 hours depending on the due date.  The problem is that the emails send depending on when the items were created and then kick the workflow off, and the requirement is that the emails send before 8:00am.  Is there any way to force the emails to send out a specified time of the day?  I can pause the workflows until a specified date AND time, but since the date will be dynamic this isnt an option.  This is for an SPO O365 environment.
Answer: You don't get workflow scheduling with the ootb workflow engine.
We had a very similar requirement where list items needed to be checked daily to see if they were due/overdue and send notifications as such in O365. It was a workflow previously but didn't work well. We converted it to a console application that is scheduled to run every day.
The console application uses CSOM to do the same thing that the workflow was doing. We made it a bit more dynamic in that email templates are stored in lists so the administrators can change up verbiage as necessary without needing to recode and compile the application.
Comment: Yikes, I was really hoping to avoid going that deep with this.  Thanks!
Comment: Another option is remote event receivers. This method gave us more control over the process. You might be able to do it with the looping options in the 2013 workflows if you don't want to venture down the development route.
Comment: I was hoping to modify the existing workflow rather than build out anything custom at this point.  The looping portions of the existing workflow allow for emails to send out weekly/daily and work great, but since the items are created at various times throughout the day there doesnt seem to be a way to set a "Pause Until" portion to accomodate that (e.g. if an item is created at 1:00pm I could pause for 12 hours, but if the item was created at 9:00pm that would push it past the desired window).
Comment: Are you able to use retention policies? If so then usually the timer job would run during the night which is when the workflow would fire.

As for pausing you could fix that with several if to see if the time is within X then pause for Y hours( Would require at least two if statements)
Comment: Edit to the above comment: meant to say several IF statements
Comment: That was my original thought, but I havent been able to find a OOTB way to grab the current time to compare against via workflow.  There was an interesting post showing how to make a REST call via workflow and then parsing the return header for the current time, but yeah...lot of work for a seemingly simple process.  Unfortunatley it doesnt look like there are any "easy" options to make this work.
Answer: Just wanted to update with my solution in case anyone comes across this.
I ended up having enough data available in the workflow to perform what I needed, which was to send emails during a specified window.  If you needed to send at an exact time you may be able to expand off of this...
I set my initial variable to the time the item was modified, which will update if the item is modified and triggers the workflow at a different time.  Return as ISO formatted.
Set Variable:time to Current Item:Modified

Grab the hour as a substring from the first variable:
then Copy from Variable:time, starting at 11 for 2 characters (Output to Variable:Substring)

From this point you can use Variable:Substring as needed.  Time is ISO formatted and will be in UTC, so keep your timezone in mind.  For my case I needed to send during a specified window, so I needed to compare the value against my window.  SharePoint doesnt allow you to compare a string against a number, so I had to do a calculation to turn the string into a number:
then Calculate Variable:Substring plus 0 (Output to Variable:Calculation)

From that point I was able to use Variable:Calculation to compare against the window I needed by running an if greater than and if less than statement.  If the variable did not fall into the desired window I sent the workflow through a loop that would pause for an hour and then loop through the process again.  Once it hit the desired window it would process the workflow and hit the rest of my pauses I had previously used, so as bad as it may be to loop x amount of items through a workflow every hour, it only needs to be done initially and then if the item itself is modified.
Again, the biggest gotcha is that returning the date/time in ISO formatting returns a UTC date/time, but you can either do the calculation in your head or modify it during the calculation step.  I chose the latter so that when I look back on this in a few months Ill remember that portion.
Not perfect, but somewhat functional considering what was available.


What happened to Homura and Shizuku in "Bleach the Movie: Fade to Black"?

Question: At the end of the movie, Homura and Shizuku are giving their goodbyes to Rukia before appearing to pass away. But what happened to them? They are half soul, half hollow, so did they reincarnate to The World of the Living due to their soul half or was their existence completely wiped away?
Answer: As explained by Rukia using her Chappy drawings,  hollow are souls who have been corrupted by sorrow.
Shinigami's job is to purify these negative souls so that they becomes plus. A plus soul can enter Soul Society and wait for their turn for reincarnation.
Thus, to answer your question, Homura and Shizuku was purified (forget whether it was Ichigo or Rukia). Thus, they would become plus and wait for their turn for reincarnation.


BlackBerry Professional Software - using Exchange Server

Question: Will the BlackBerry Professional Software allow me to get my work email (Exchange Server) and be able to send/receive?  What about contacts and calendar items?
Answer: Blackberry Professional is a small-scale version of Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES). It will sync email, contacts, and calendar entries from Exchange to Blackberry devices. It's limited in its license quantity to 30 handhelds but has almost the same features as BES. Here's a nice feature comparison from RIM: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/professional/#tab_tab_compare
Answer: If you are trying to get your work email to work on your BB the BB Professional Software needs to be installed on your works network connecting to the Exchange server as a privileged user as the BB Professional Software accesses the mailboxes on the Exchange Server.  I would ask your Network/System team and see if they can set you up on your BlackBerry.  If not, you can use BB Desktop Manager and use the Redirector.  It connects with your Outlook and syncs your email/contacts/calendar.  But your computer needs to be on connected to Outlook/Exchange for it to work...
Comment: of note: the desktop redirector app will NOT send attachments


What are the rules regarding play of a singleton?

Question: A player waited 3 minutes to play a singleton.  We were playing 3 NT and an opponent paused 3 minutes on the second trick leaving 2 minutes to play 11 tricks.  What are the rules regarding this unethical play?
Comment: I removed irrelevant tags.  You're clearly asking about time limits; is this in a particular tournament setting?  ACBL for example?  Online/in person?
Comment: Slow Play is subject to penalty. https://www.acbl.org/conduct-and-ethics/active-ethics/#slow
Comment: In what context?  Was this a tournament with a director?  Why is there a total time limit for the hand?
Comment: If this was on-line, then many a distraction could explain this. But, then you also have remedies. Occasionally I, unwittingly (it never became a reflex, and now I'm too old to learn it), may hesitate with, say Queen third in a suit where declared just tried to finess the queen from partners hand. The way my brain is wired I am already thinking about the continuation. On BBO, when I see what happened, I will send the opps a chat message "Sorry about the delay, no problem in this trick", and play the queen. This has never caused a scene.
Comment: A friend and a highly qualified TD told me that on-line you really cannot read anything into hesitations because there may be a connection problem. And should not be quick to blame. If I unwittingly hesitate with a singleton in an on-line game, I think it is proper to alert the opps (but not my partner) what happened.
Answer: Let's look at the relevant Bridge Laws.
Law 16B1 says:

Any extraneous information from partner that might suggest a call or play is unauthorized.This includes remarks, questions, replies to questions, unexpected alerts or failures to alert, unmistakable hesitation, unwonted speed, special emphasis, tone, gesture, movement or mannerism.

(a) A player may not choose a call or play that is demonstrably suggested over another by unauthorized information if the other call or play is a logical alternative.

Law 73D1 says:

It is desirable, though not always required, for players to maintain steady tempo and
unvarying manner. However, players should be particularly careful when variations may
work to the benefit of their side.

Law 73D2 says:

A player may not attempt to mislead an opponent by means of a question, remark
or gesture; by the haste or hesitancy of a call or play (as in hesitating before playing a singleton); by the manner in which a call or play is made; or by any purposeful deviation from correct procedure (see also Law 73E2).

Law 73E2 says:

If the Director determines that an innocent player has drawn a false inference from a question, remark, manner, tempo or the like, of an opponent who has no demonstrable bridge reason for the action, and who could have been aware, at the time of the action, that it could work to his benefit, the Director shall award an adjusted score

Law 74A2 says:

A player should carefully avoid any remark or extraneous action that might cause annoyance or embarrassment to another player or might interfere with the enjoyment of the game

Law 74C prohibits "violations of procedure" including 74C7:

varying the normal tempo of bidding or play for the purpose of disconcerting an opponent

The above are all from the most recent (2017) Laws of Duplicate Bridge. All boldface is my addition. The laws for contract bridge are very similar except for mentions of a director.
All club and tournament games have time limits for each round. So do all online games that I know of.  A three minute hesitation in play, especially when holding a singleton of the suit led (not at trick 1, when there might be a need to plan the play) is very much longer than usual, and would usually be considered quite improper. A director or club management would have discretion whether to take action. It would be normal to ask, after the hand is over, what reason there was for the delay. If there was not a good reason, the player might be warned, or even removed from the game or barred from the club or event. A warning would be usual for a first offense. If damage seems to have been done, an adjusted score would be awarded.
Note, however, that such action is only "unethical" if it is done with intent to secure an advantage or disconcert or annoy opponents. If the player was belatedly trying to plan the defense, that is not unethical, although 3 minutes is excessive.
Online and tournament timing is usually 7-8 minutes per hand, including the auction, with the time limit applied only at the end of the round, often 2 or 3 hands, although it may be as few as one or as many as 5 or more hands long. Club play time varies widely, but many clubs use a rough figure of 7 1/2 minutes per hand. Online "speedball" events are typically 15 minutes for three hands.
Answer: There are two issues with this pause:

it's too long just in general, with a timing issue (but I would caution people that my "I thought for 15 seconds" is the opponents' "it was 2 minutes" was probably actually closer to 35-40 seconds)
"hesitation with a singleton" is frequently a problem especially not at trick 1 (as Tom says, declarer is expected to pause 15-30 seconds before playing from dummy at trick 1, and third hand should take that time (whether or not dummy is played quickly) to work out the defence.).

David points out the law issues with "players should be particularly careful when variations may work to the benefit of their side."  Sometimes it happens (at least twice this week I've "tanked" with a singleton, because I was reviewing their card after making the opening lead, and then reviewing trick 1 after T2 was played.  IRL, it's obvious, because I'll request the cards stay up until I'm ready.  Online, not so much.)  It causes problems, that one should try to ameliorate (I PM'ed declarer to explain.)
If this happens in a sanctioned game, call the director and have them sort it out.  If you're concerned just about running out of time (rather than the "with a singleton" part), call the director and make her aware of who was taking the time.  The ACBL has this to say in their online regulations (other sponsoring organizations will have their own rules for this situation):

Unfinished hands: A hand that is partially completed when time expires is adjudicated as equitably as possible to both sides. Any doubtful point will be resolved against the partnership that is considered most responsible for not finishing in time.

In a non-sanctioned game, or where time is not a factor, commenting on it, marking the person in your notes, and knowing better next time (or maybe not playing with them next time) is your only resort.
But remember that you not being able to see a problem (looking at your 26 cards) doesn't mean that the opponent doesn't have a problem (or doesn't think he has a problem).  It might even be a problem that you (or I) can't see exists, because this player is so much better (or so much worse) that we are.  That's why the Laws are written the way they are, and why it's the director's job to determine "discernable bridge reason" "unauthorized information" (and potential use thereof by partner), "improper deception" (deliberate or otherwise), and so on, not yours (or theirs, or mine, when I'm a player).
Finally, I'll emphasize what David said about ethics.  A very high ranking TD in the English Bridge Union said this about proprieties and ethics, and I have always felt it is a perfect way to see the world:

Doing something proscribed by the Proprieties (Laws 72-76, they used to be a separate section) is improper.
Doing something improper deliberately is unethical.
Doing something unethical, knowing it's unethical, in order to gain an advantage is the c-word.

You don't know that this was done deliberately - what if the opponent had a phone call come up, or a kid trip down the stairs just then, or a "false disconnect", or just lost their mind and thought it was partner's play?  Sure, they should probably let the table know that, but how do you know?  Also, how do you know that they didn't have a bridge problem clearing up trick 1 (granted, with a singleton is a problem, 3 minutes is a problem...)?  You can point out the time issues (once), call the director and explain the issue, and then when it turns out to be a (non-obvious) singleton, you can point that out to the director if you misplayed as a result - but that's the end.  The TD worries about the ethics, you worry about your bridge and your partner and not the opponents.  Remember,

A player should carefully avoid any remark or extraneous action that might cause annoyance or embarrassment to another player or might interfere with the enjoyment of the game. - Law 74A2.

Public accusations of behaviour being unethical violate this Law and are themselves imProper.
Answer: On the opening trick, a "pause" is justified, even when a player has no problems because of the forced play of a singleton. That's because everyone ought to be spending time to study the dummy. Thus should not take place at the second trick, although an inexperienced player may be excused for doing on the second trick what should have been done on the first.
But that pause should be more like 30 seconds; three minutes is too long for most tournaments, and probably many "home" games as well. One way to demonstrate that the pause is for studying the board is for the person to pull the singleton from hand, turn it face down, study the board, and then turn in face up at the end of the 30 seconds.


Uninstalling ubuntu from one hard drive and installing on another

Question: I currently have ubuntu installed on a hard drive which already had windows and now I've installed a slave drive I was wondering how to remove or at least move ubuntu onto the other drive so one drive is windows and the other is Windows XP
Answer: Copy the partitions over to the other disk.  Boot.  Update-grub so it sees both as bootable.  Fix your fstab on the second one.  Make sure it's only using the second disk with df.  Once it's working delete the old partitions.
Answer: use a tool called a remastersys to backup ur existing system and create a bootable iso which u can put it into a usb and re install with all your settings and file restored...
PS clean up your home congaing personal files to make iso smaller


"Lung/brain cancer/tumours"

Question: When people talk about illness, they tend to say they have lung cancer instead of lung tumours, or brain tumours instead of brain cancer. Why is this?
Comment: I hear 'brain cancer' all the time.
Comment: @Mitch - a google search for "brain cancer" gives about 6.5m hits.  "brain tumor" OR "brain tumour" gives 19m hits.  So the term brain cancer isn't as rare as I thought.
Comment: Could it be in the nature of the tumor? That those in the brain are fewer and more defined, for example?
Answer: Tumors in the lung are much more likely to be cancerous than a tumor in the brain. Further, the lung is much easier to biopsy than the brain, so you're much more likely to know for sure that a lung tumor is cancerous than a brain tumor.
I think people are just being accurate. When they know the tumors in their lungs are cancerous, they accurately refer to it as "lung cancer" or "cancer of the lung". When they have one or more tumors in their brain and are not sure the tumors are cancerous, they accurately refer to it as a "brain tumor". You certainly do hear the term "brain cancer", and it's generally used when one knows the tumors are cancerous.
For example, if someone says "I have a pituitary tumor", that means that they have a tumor in (or on) their pituitary gland. Likely they don't know if it's cancerous, and often they're non-cancerous.
A person with hamartoma of the lung has one or more lung tumors. But they do not have lung cancer.
Answer: I am not a doctor, but!
A tumour has to be malignant to be called a cancer.
Lungs may have a few small tumours without affecting the quality of life at all (depending on the locations of the tumours, of course). I suppose people may have some lung tumours without ever knowing about them.
Even a small tumour in the brain is more likely to have very adverse effects. Impaired cognition, paralysis and hormone imbalances are just a few examples. A brain tumour is bad enough even if isn't cancerous. The number of people with brain cancer is a small subset of the people with brain tumour. I guess this is why you've heard "brain tumour" more often than "brain cancer".
Answer: Others have pointed the possibility of a tumor not being necessarily cancerous. I would have thought that another difference is that a tumor is always localized to a small part of the body, but cancer can (and unfortunately often will) spread out. Lung cancer at least has the tendency not to be confined to a small part of the lung.
The difference is, of course, even clearer in the case of leukemia.
Answer: On a neuroscience perspective, cancer cells are carcinogenic, often characterized by metastasis, pervading throughout the human body. These cancer cells are often malign and estranged to human body. On the other hand, tumors come in either lenient, innocuous form or malign, detrimental form. In some health conditions, doctors would only give recommendation for a patient to undergo an operation, until the cancer cells already incur severe damage to a particular body organ.
If the tumor doesn't lead to cell mutation, or noticeable physiological changes, the doctor will not give the recommendation for a surgery or any forms of treatment.It seems common for individuals to have certain forms of tumors these days without receiving a treatment, because some tumors are innocuous to be left untreated. A person needs to get tested to see if the tumor is positive or negative.
So for cancers, most cancer cells are metastatic and often uncontrollably propagate to the rest of the body organs. The earlier the detection, the more promising the results. It's unlikely cancer cells can be left untouched. Even after chemo and operations, cancer cells share a common feature to retrogress.
in general, cancer cells and tumor cells mutate and differ in their severity in damaging human body, so one shouldn't mix up a tumor with a cancer.
Comment: Hi Nick. Welcome to EL&U. All that you say is true, but it doesn't really answer OP's question about why we're more likely to speak of lung *cancer*, and brain *tumour*, rather than the other way around. I will vote for @David Schwartz's answer because he gives a reason which seems quite plausible.

"Lung/brain cancer/tumours"


Is it possible to find the hydrogen atom's radial wavefunctions?

Question: Is there a way to actually find the equation of $R(r)$ without looking at a table with these equations already given? I'm given $n$, $\ell$, and $m$.
Comment: "Is there a way to actually find the equation of $R(r)$?" Yes... plug the separation of variables ansatz into the Schrodinger equation. Alternatively, you can use the angular momentum operators to construct a Schrodinger equation satisfied by a particular state.
Comment: @JamalS that should probably be an answer
Comment: Hi jerry2144: Welcome to Phys.SE. Is your question essentially _How do I compute the radial wavefunctions $R(r)$ of the Hydrogen atom from first principles?_
Answer: An electron with total orbital angular momentum of $L^2 = \hbar^2 l(l+1)$ will experience a centrifugal force in addition to the Coulomb force from the nucleus. The result is that, in the frame rotating with the electron (don't read too much into this), the electron will see an effective potential energy given by:
$$ V_l(r) = - \frac{e^2}{4 \pi \epsilon_o r} + \frac{\hbar^2}{2 m} \frac{l(l+1)}{r^2} $$
where $r$ is the distance between the electron and the nucleus. I put the subscript $l$ on the potential $V_l(r)$ to stress that this effective potential will change as the orbital quantum number $l$ of the electron changes.
The radial wave function $U_{ln}(r)$ obeys the ordinary 1D Schrodinger equation for a particle in a potential $V_l(r)$:
$$-\frac{\hbar^2}{2m}\frac{d^2}{dr^2}U_{ln}(r) + V_l(r)U_{ln}(r)=E_{ln}U_{ln}(r)$$
The energies $E_{ln}$, as you can see, are the energy eigenvalues for an electron in an effective potential given by $V_l(r)$, one for each value of $n$. By convention we arrange these eigenvalues so that higher $n$ quantum numbers correspond to higher energies${}^*$.
There are fancy techniques for finding the $U_{ln}(r)$ in terms of familiar mathematical functions, but there is also nothing preventing you from writing a computer program to calculate these functions to arbitrary accuracy.
Once you find these $U_{ln}(r)$, the to calculate the probability $P(r_o,r^{\prime})$ that an electron with quantum numbers $l$ and $n$ (independent of $m$) is found in some spherical shell between $r_o$ and $r^{\prime}$, we only need to calculate the familiar integral:
$$P(r_o,r^{\prime})=\int_{r_o}^{r^{\prime}}dr \left|U_{ln}(r)\right|^2$$
This works provided the function is properly normalized:
$$P(0,\infty)=\int_{0}^{\infty}dr |U_{ln}(r)|^2=1$$
Typically the radial wave function is expressed in the form $R_{ln}(r)$ so that the probability $P(r,\theta,\phi)d^3x$ to be found in a small cube of volume $d^3x$ at the point $(r,\theta,\phi)$ is given by:
$$P(r,\theta,\phi)d^3x=\left|R_{ln}(r)Y^m_l(\theta,\phi)\right|^2d^3x$$
It is easy to show that the two functions are related by the equation:
$$R_{ln}(r) = \frac{U_{ln}(r)}{r}$$
${}^*$ sidenote : It turns out by some mysterious coincidence that the lowest energy eigenvalue for an electron with a given $l$ is equal to the second lowest energy eigenvalue for an electron with an angular momentum quantum number of $l-1$. Because of this, it is convention that for each $l$ we begin counting from $n=l,l+1,l+2,\ldots$ so that it is sufficient to only specify $n$ (independent of $l$) to know the energy of the eigenstate.


If the husband disappears without a trace, who is obliged to spend on his wife?

Question: What should a wife do if her husband has abandoned her but she wants to remarry? By this, I mean that a husband has disappeared without a trace and has been gone for a year. He has not left any maintenance for her. Are his family obliged to pay the maintenance? In any case,the wife now wants to remarry but how can she when she can't  divorce him because he is missing?
Answer: If the husband is missing, in other words, if there is no word of him and his whereabouts is not known, then the wife should go to the Islamic judge, who can stipulate a specific time period, after which he may be presumed dead, according to whatever he sees fit. If that time period expires without any trace of him being found, then the judge may rule that the husband is presumed to have died, and his wife should observe the 'iddah of one whose husband has died, which is four months and ten days. After doing that, it will become permissible for her to remarry.


White screen of death on admin pages after moving wp-config up two levels for security

Question: I moved the wp-config to the hosting root and put it in a new directory and then I included it from the WordPress directory like so: include("../../my-fast-cars/fast-cars.php"); this gave me white screen of death on admin pages and some other pages, moving wp-config back to the WordPress directory immediately solved it. What could I be doing wrong?
Comment: Also, there was no problem in moving it up just one level from the WordPress directory.
Comment: Most likely because the site was cached, and it wouldn't have continued to work. Why do you need to move it?
Comment: For extra security. No cache was cleared. WordPress automatically looks for wp-config one level up.
Comment: I don't see a security need to do that. (And this is more of an opinion, than an answer.)

But, for a pro/con discussion of this issue, see https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/58391/is-moving-wp-config-outside-the-web-root-really-beneficial .
Comment: @BootUp WP only looks 1 level up, it doesn't look 2 levels up
Answer: wp-config.php includes files, it's not just a config file, and WordPress isn't built to allow putting the file 2 levels up.
However, WordPress already supports loading wp-config.php from 1 level up.
With all of this in mind though, this is only really a protection if you're worried about mis-configuring your server. Unless PHP execution is turned off, which would be a major issue in of itself, wp-config.php won't leak any information.

this gave me white screen of death on admin pages and some other pages

A WSOD is a HTTP 500 error code, to see the real error message you have to look in the PHP error logs. It's the difference between a plane disappearing, and finding its flight recorder/black box.
Answer: wp-config needs to be accessible to the public.. I'm guessing that 2 levels up means above the public_html folder (cpanel) at the /home level. If you found a work around to allow access to it at that level you're potentially compromising security. Best to leave it at the same, or only one level up.


Comparing ELO ratings between different countries

Question: I've noticed (empirically) that American players tend to be weaker than Israeli players with comparable non-international ratings. Is there a tool for converting one country's Elo rating to that of another? Or of otherwise verifying this claim?
Answer: When you say 'comparable non-international ratings' do you mean USCF ratings?  Or perhaps Israeli ratings? There is no valid way to compare the ratings of players if they don't use the same rating system.  Even if they use the same system things can get odd when groups of players are isolated from one another.
While ELO isn't perfect (what is?), players' ELO ratings can be (and are) compared directly.  There is still the 'pool' problem especially at the lower levels but at least the system is the same.
Edit - my answer makes the assumption the entire ratings lists of both countries aren't available.  If they are available, a mathematical approximation can be made.  It will not be very accurate for the ends of the bell curve.  For example, I would not use this to compare the strongest GMs in each country.
Answer: 50 % answer, 50 % comment on Tony's answer: While it is true that the ratings of different rating systems are not directly comparable, there is always a very high correlation between players' ratings in two systems, and someone with access to the data should be able to get an approximative conversion formula. With hard work, you might be able to google some approximations (I didn't find anything more than forum discussions without any sources). For example, many national chess federations use some chosen formula to convert the Fide ratings of foreign players to initial national ratings.
Comment: It would certainly be possible to scale one rating system to another, if one had the data to do so.  Basically, manipulate the numbers to make one population/rating bell curve match the other.
Comment: Making ratings of the whole populations match sounds a bit dangerous, if I understand what you mean. I'm quite certain that e.g. the average strength of USCF rated players is significantly lower than the average strength of FIDE rated players, because many weak amateurs do not play in FIDE rated tournaments. Instead, the data should contain players that have ratings in both rating systems.
Comment: Agree - I would not try to compare a professional organization's rating with an amateur organization's ratings.  For example, the USCF and FIDE.


link up unanswered questions from a launchpad mailing list to askubuntu?

Question: Is there a way to hook up unanswered questions from a launchpad mailing list to askubuntu?
I thought the poor man's solution would be to just copy+paste the mailing list question to askubuntu and reply to the mailing list with the askubuntu URL, but maybe there is something better out there.
Answer: LP Answers currently doesn't have a way to connect to an external source (such as AU) to a project.
We've discussed this at a UDS and currently it's on a "wow this would be great to have" column, but it wouldn't be useful if we were trying to do this by hand as it would be confusing to people unless we did it right.

What was discussed, and what was the outcome of the Ask Ubuntu UDS-N session?
Comment: it would be really cool to have some method to give reputation to answered launchpad questions, even if both are kept separate


What work needs to be done before reusing Falcon 9?

Question: In this article Elon Musk said that first stage of Falcon 9 which landed on the barge in April will be reused in June. Launching and landing wears material down, what parts need to be replaced and what other work must be done on the engines and the rocket body?
Comment: Interesting question - that darn Elon, always saying he's going to do stuff (and then does it). The quote can be heard at around 08:00 in the CRX-8 [post landing press conference](https://youtu.be/Nz60GcmKOvc?t=465). paraphrasing: *hopefully10X test firings while still at Cape Canaveral followed by orbital launch in May or June*.
Comment: *Update*: according to [June 7 Tweet](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/740296489532948480) from *Elonmusk* "...Aiming for first reflight in Sept/Oct."
Answer: At the moment no one knows, since no one has done quite this task before.
SpaceX is learning alot with each recovered core. In this image of three of the recovered cores in the LC-39A HIF building you can see different levels of wear on each stage.

You can see that some of the engines have been removed for likely testing on the initial Orbcomm mission stage (far left).
Just for fun lets contrast that with a brand new stage, all shiny, pretty, and new:

SpaceX is 'lucky' in that they have landed 4 stages as I write this (Orbcomm OG2, CRS-8, JCSat 14, and Thaicomm 8 missions) in a variety of different states. One landed on land (Orbcomm OG2) in a low velocity mission, so no salt water exposure for a week coming back to port. Three landed on the OCISLY ASDS but from three fairly different mission profiles.
The JCSat 14 stage is said to have come in, right at the edge of survivability, and thus has taken the most 'damage' along the way. SpaceX plans to stress that stage to see when it fails and what fails and in what order it fails. Elon Musk has said they will test fire it 10 times to see what work is needed to allow that. Testing the most stressed stage, will give more confidence in reuse to SpaceX.
Thus the answer to your question is not yet known, but SpaceX is conducting a large scale experiment to find out, and fix the issues as they come up.
People have observed on the GTO missions (Thaicomm 8, JCSat 14) that the 'boots' get burned up pretty badly on the engines. These are covers that look like Kevlar like bags, covering the gimbals and some of the engine externals, that could do with a little thermal protection.  It is expected that a more temperature resistant material will be coming off the line soon enough for those.
In the Thaicomm 8 landing, it hit hard, and over extended a leg, such that the leg used up the contigency aluminum crush core. Clearly that will need to be replaced, but that is what it was designed for, so not that big a deal.
With each stage recovered SpaceX is learning new things, and likely will integrate fixes and tweaks into new stages as they come off the assembly line, possibly even retrofitting some onto already built stages for coming missions.
SpaceX is also in a unique position where the landing is totally a bonus. They are paid to throw the stage away. If they manage to recover it, excellent. If not, no actual financial loss yet. (Once they reduce costs to account for reuse that changes of course).
They have the ability to test ideas, see what works, what does not, and narrow down the optimum solution. They have in theory 18 launches planned for 2016 and all are meant to be recovered.  It is unlikely they will get 18 launches down in 2016 but 10 or more seems very likely, so expect lots of learning and minor tweaks to make everything last better based on that experience.
Now that Thaicomm-8 has been moved to the LC-39A HIF you can see all four cores in this image, and you can see how shiny the far right core (Thought to be Orbcomm OG2, getting ready to ship to Hawthorne for static display outside the factory) is, which shows that likely washing was all that was needed to clean up the stage. Though the interstage is still pretty dirty.


When does a website require a privacy policy and/or terms of use?

Question: I am curious to know if every website should have a privacy policy and/or a terms of use page. What are the legal implications if a site doesn't have them? Are there certain categories of websites that legally require them?
Comment: You might also be interested in this question: http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/216/what-are-some-good-resources-for-generating-privacy-policies-and-terms-of-use
Answer: Google Adsense requires a privacy policy.
Comment: Why was this downvoted? It's a correct answer to the question.
Comment: It answers the question that got me here too... "Why did Google reject my site as incomplete?" +1.
Answer: This is just my opinion but I would say any site that allows visitors to interact should have a privacy policy and terms of use page.  There are really 3 kinds of sites that go from least to most well documented in my mind.

Sites that allow visitor interaction like posting comments without an account
Sites that allow visitors to create accounts and interact with the site
Sites that allow visitors to spend money on things like buying goods, buying services, or donating money.

I think you will always want, if you are not required by law (this part I don't know), to have a privacy policy and terms of use for a site that allows money to change hands.  Luckily this is usually done for you by companies like PayPal if you partner with them. In general though you will probably want to have your own terms and privacy policy policy even if it just points to the processors.
The main purpose of the privacy policy and terms of use are to cover the site owner from legal actions.  When the site only allows comments there is not much to worry about.  If the site allows users to login and create content then there is some room for concern and a small terms and privacy doc are good to just cover yourself or your company from a disgruntled person.
In the end I think having terms and a privacy policy is kind of like having internet security.  Web Security is always a function of the strength of what you have against the number of people that want to break it.  The bigger a site gets the more likely it is to come under scrutiny by others either looking for a free money or to take advantage of something/someone in a position of power.
Comment: I think all sites should let people know what the web server records, at least, but great answer.
Answer: Whenever you collect data from users that they may want kept private, Most commonly E-mail addresses, physical addresses, and payment information.
Answer: If you're storing any information about user activity data (including but not limited to: identity information, email addresses, user-agent strings, IP address information, dates and times of user activity, cookies and user preferences, and much much more), you need to consider having a privacy policy.
Have a look at the sample privacy policies from this thread and see if any of the elements they refer to, you refer to your site.
Privacy is a huge area of activity. Check out the EFF site for informations of concern.
Answer: Some jurisdictions require a privacy policy (at least for business sites) by law. You maybe should consult a lawyer for specific advice to your particular site.
Answer: Coming to this late in the day, but the 3 definitions given by the first answer-ee really nail it in my opinion.
Rather than simply being an 'insurance policy' against legal/regulatory action, I think website owners should view this rather as an opportunity to show themselves as transparent and responsible. In a crowded market, this brings with it a competitive advantage.
In the UK, I would say every site should at least have a privacy/cookie usage policy, company number and contact details as a minimum standard of disclosure, whether you're capturing user data or not. Just like if you have a shop, you have an address, name of proprietor and a letterbox for correspondence.


Where and how to forage the Goo in Ryzom?

Question: In Saga of Ryzom in the starting area (ruins of Silan), there is a series of quests given by Karavan faction, titled "The Study of the Goo" where one is supposed to either loot phials of goo from corrupted animals, or forage (mine) it. Looting is easy enough, but how does one forage for it? I had tried prospecting in several places, but I cannot find anything, plus the damage from Goo exposure would be too high to even harvest one node should I find it.
Answer: Iirc I believe you cannot really forage them. As you wrote yourself, killing the goo infested animals (Frippo, Capryni, Ocyx) near the contaminated areas suffices.
On a side note, while being on Silan, for all foraging quests you will have a marker in your compass window showing you where you have to go to. If it's no longer there, right click on your compass menu, select the submenu "missions" and then the mission name, NPC, or in this case the area description.
You definitely do not have to wade into a goo infested area for any mission on Silan. As you have experienced, that is a very unhealthy endeavor, and not survived long enough.


What is the correct syntax for large numbers in kanji?

Question: Say I was trying to write the number 3,476,521,893,421 in kanji. How would I go about this? My guess was 三万四千七百六十五億二千百八十九万三千四百二十一 but it looks really wrong to me because it feels too Western to be correct.
Comment: In what way does it feel 'too Western'?
Comment: The whole grouping thing, where I group all of "三万四千七百六十五" under 億. I'm just kind of worried that it might be misconstrued as something else.
Comment: That's how it works, though - you can have 三十億 just as much as you can have 三十万, and it iterates upwards. You do have one mistake here, but that's just having ()万億, which isn't possible - each time you iterate, you replace the 万 slot with the next highest level.
Comment: Ooh okay, thank you. So I would replace the first 万 character with 兆 and it should all be correct?
Answer: The counting system for large numbers is almost the same as Western numbers, except that digits are delimited into blocks of four instead of three. You add "thousand, million, billion, trillion, ..." for each 3 digit, and in Japanese, we add "万, 億, 兆, 京【けい】, ..." for each 4 digit.
The "correct" format to write long numbers depends on the situation.

三兆四千七百六十五億二千百八十九万三千四百二十一

This is the most basic form based on the pronunciation, but too lengthy and less readable. This is on math textbooks for young students, but I think this is generally avoided after we graduate from junior high school.
It's almost like saying in English, "three trillion and four hundred seventy six billion and five hundred twenty one million and eight hundred ninety three thousand and four hundred twenty one". --- Can you understand this instantly?

三兆四七六五億二一八九万三四二一
  三兆四七〇五億二一八〇万三四二一 (= 3,470,521,803,421)

Leave 4-digit grouping unit (万、億、兆、...) and omit 十、百、千. Use 漢数字ゼロ(〇) to represent zero. This preserves both readability and brevity, so this is the preferred style in newspapers. If you don't mind using some Arabic numbers and you are writing horizontally, you can do like this:

3兆4765億2189万3421

Actually this is the most understandable way (even easier than "3,476,521,893,421") for Japanese.

三四七六五二一八九三四二一
  三四七〇五二一八〇三四二一 (= 3,470,521,803,421)

Simply replace Arabic numerals with kanji numerals (again, use 〇 for zero). This is typically used for phone numbers, address, etc., but less readable for generic big integers.


Why fill the glass all the way to the top?

Question: Why is it that when people make kiddush/havdallah they insist on filling up the cup all the way to the top, sometimes till it overflows just a little? Is this a documented minhag/custom etc...?
Answer: The Ram"a brings down in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 296:1 that two customs exist entailing spilling out wine at havdala:

Spilling during the b'racha on the wine to symbolize having an abundance of wine that is overflowing onto the floor
Spilling after havdala to extinguish the flame and "wash [one]'s eyes" to show his love for the mitzva

It could be that overfilling automatically achieves the first one.
Comment: The be'er hetiv in your link brings down various customs- before the bracha, during, the overflow.  One can see the reasonings there.
Answer: The Rema writes (Orach Chaim 183:2) that the cup used for a berachah (the context is talking about the cup of wine for birkas hamazon, but the same applies to kiddush, etc.) should be מלא על כל גדותיו, filled to the brim.
Though Taz (ibid. :4, end) points out that it is (or was, in his times) quite common to leave a space at the top. He questions the propriety of this, but concludes that perhaps it's okay in order to prevent wine from spilling on the food and ruining it.
Answer: See the following article, quoting Rav Tuvia Goldstein, "Remember what is minhag and what is Torah Law," with respect to overdoing the wine-spilling thing. Wasting wine unnecessarily is a violation of Bal Tashchit.
http://www.thejewishpress.com/pageroute.do/15610/
This was in reference to the custom of spilling a bit of wine during mention of the ten plagues. I wonder if it is also applicable to the minhag quoted by the OP.
Comment: Barry, this sounds like it should be posted as a (great!)comment on WAF's answer rather than as an answer to Yoel's question.
Comment: Many who have the custom to overfill their wine cup do so over a plate so that the wine will not be wasted and can later be poured back into a cup.
Answer: I heard that by Kidush it isn't necessary to fill it all the way to the top (its just a nuisance if it spills) just one should have a "Kos Maleh", a "Full Cup", but that probably means how a regualr person will fill up a cup, i.e with some space at the top.
Comment: "No _inyan_": source, please? I've heard that there are differing customs regarding whether to fill the cup completely or merely 'normally'. I haven't a source at hand, though.
Comment: A source for this would be nice.
Comment: Something I heard, I edited it to be clear.


Configurable product on list.phtml page

Question: I want to show configurable products on list page.so instead of going into detail page of products, user can directly add product to cart from list.phtml page.any idea how to imple this?
Comment: I have tried to get all products on list page but didnt succeed
Comment: Can u give me suggestions how to get all ?
Comment: Can you please edit your question and describe, what you want to achive? Add select boxes to the listing, what attributes do you have? How much? ... etc.
Comment: Ok.I will describe in more detail
Comment: maybe this helps. http://inchoo.net/ecommerce/magento/display-multiple-configurable-products-with-options-on-one-page-in-magento/
Answer: I did something similar for multiple configurable products in a lightbox.
First thing you need is your block to show the products configurable html.  You'll probably extend this from Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List.  In this block, create a method
/**
 * Gets the configurable options template if needed
 *
 * @param Mage_Catalog_Model_Product $product
 * @return string
 */
public function getConfigurableHtml(Mage_Catalog_Model_Product $product)
{
    if ($product->getTypeId() == Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Type_Configurable::TYPE_CODE) {
        return Mage::app()->getLayout()
        ->createBlock('modulename/catalog_product_view_type_configurable')
            ->setProduct($product)
            ->setTemplate('modulename/catalog/product/list/configurable.phtml')
            ->toHtml();
    }
    return '';
}

Go ahead and use a layout update to set the template to modulename/catalog/product/list.phtml as well.
In your list template (copied from base/default) you need to get the configurable html with our new method.  You also need to wrap it in a form (make sure the add to cart button is in there).  There should be a product collection somewhere (one for list mode, the other for grid)
<?php foreach ($_productCollection as $_product): ?>
    <form action="<?php echo $this->getSubmitUrl($_product) ?>" method="post" id="product_addtocart_form_<?php echo $_product->getId() ?>"<?php if($_product->getOptions()): ?> enctype="multipart/form-data"<?php endif; ?>>
        <?php echo $this->getConfigurableHtml($_product) ?>
        <?php echo $this->getPriceHtml($_product, true) ?>
        <?php if($_product->isSaleable()): ?>

<button type="button" title="<?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?>" class="button btn-cart" onclick="setLocation('<?php echo $this->getAddToCartUrl($_product) ?>')"><?php echo $this->__('Add to Cart') ?></button>

        <?php else: ?>

<?php echo $this->__('Out of stock') ?>

        <?php endif; ?>
    </form>
<?php endforeach ?>

Now create your configurable block and phtml (as defined in getConfigurableHtml() above)
In your configurable block, override getJsonConfig() to add a container class (each must be unique)
class Namespace_Modulename_Block_Catalog_Product_View_Type_Configurable
    extends Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_View_Type_Configurable
{
    /**
     * Composes configuration for js
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getJsonConfig()
    {
        $config = Mage::helper('core')->jsonDecode(parent::getJsonConfig());
        $config['containerId'] = 'configurable-container-' . $this->getProduct()->getId();
        return Mage::helper('core')->jsonEncode($config);
    }
}

And now in your configurable.phtml, create the select boxes, load the json config, and add your container class
<?php
$_product    = $this->getProduct();
$_attributes = Mage::helper('core')->decorateArray($this->getAllowAttributes());
?>
<?php if ($_product->isSaleable() && count($_attributes)):?>
    <dl id="configurable-container-<?php echo $_product->getId() ?>">
    <?php foreach($_attributes as $_attribute): ?>

<?php echo $_attribute->getLabel() ?>

                    <select name="super_attribute[<?php echo $_attribute->getAttributeId() ?>]" id="attribute<?php echo $_attribute->getAttributeId() ?>" class="modulename-super-attribute-select">
                        <option><?php echo $this->__('Choose an Option...') ?></option>
                    </select>

<img src="<?php echo $this->getSkinUrl('images/option-arrow.png');?>" alt="<?php echo $this->__('option arrow');?>"/>

    <?php endforeach; ?>

<?php endif;?>

Notice a few other things.  The modulename-super-attribute-select classname on the the select, the uniquely named javascript var, and the custom Product.Config().  In all honesty, I was getting a little stuck, so this last part isn't pretty but it should work.
Create and include a JS file via layout update.  What I did was copy and paste the Product.Config object here (copied from js/varien/configurable.js) because I was having trouble extending it.  There was only one thing that needed changing
var ModulenameProduct = {};
ModulenameProduct.Config = Class.create();
ModulenameProduct.Config.prototype = {
    initialize: function(config){
        this.config     = config;
        this.taxConfig  = this.config.taxConfig;
        if (config.containerId) {
            // Add our special classname for the select to it doesn't conflict
            this.settings   = $$('#' + config.containerId + ' ' + '.modulename-super-attribute-select');
        } else {
            // here too
            this.settings   = $$('.modulename-super-attribute-select');
        }
        this.state      = new Hash();
        this.priceTemplate = new Template(this.config.template);
        this.prices     = config.prices;
    // ...

And that should do it.  I haven't completely tested this since my situation was a bit different, but it should get you started.
Answer: Here is a step-by-step tutorial displaying configurable product options on category list page and adding configurable product to cart from list page.
I tried this on Magento CE 1.9 and it's working fine.
http://catgento.com/2012/02/09/adding-configurable-product-options-to-category-list-in-magento/
Answer: To achieve this you need to do a lot of work.
You need to look at the configurable json output you have at product view, because you need to write your own output for this.
You should be sure, that you dont have the case, that any product has different prices depending on the chosen configurable, because to reimplement this is a real pain.
You should look for a working module, if you really want this. Else plan to need a few weeks to understand how configurables work at all and how to implement the existing js functionality, everything else will lead to buggy code which will break your shop regularly.

Configurable product on list.phtml page


Reduce power of popcorn popper for roasting coffee

Question: I've been roasting coffee for a couple of years now, and I've always used a popcorn popper.  I'm interested in taking things a bit more seriously and would like to be a bit more meticulous when it comes to roast level.  I find that my popcorn popper (1200 W) roasts coffee a little too quickly, to the point that it becomes difficult to get a precise and consistent roast level from time to time.  Does anyone know of anyway that I could reduce the power of the roaster?  If it roasted at a lightly slower pace I feel like I would have better control over the process.  I've heard people suggest plugging it in through an extension cord or a power strip, which will reduce the power going to the popper.  Is there a more principled or controlled way of doing this?  Some sort of device that goes in between the popcorn popper plug and the outlet that would let me adjust the power at a fine granularity would be ideal.  Does this sort of technology exist?  Perhaps a sort of light switch dimmer would work?
Comment: The problem with reducing power/voltage/current in the way you're suggesting is that it will slow the fan/motor in addition to making the heating element less hot; you'd really like to be able to control just the temperature/heating-element while keeping fan speed constant. PSA: Be careful with electricity. ;-)
Comment: That is a good point, I completely overlooked the fact that reducing the power would reduce the strength of the fan.
Answer: Rather than playing with electricity and wiring you could actually just move the roasting bed/area away from your heat source and accomplish close to the same thing.
I started roasting with a popper as well.  The hole in the popper was roughly 3 inches so I got a 3 to 4 inch duct adapter, a 4 inch flour sifter and mushed it all together, similar to this.  The result was that I moved the coffee away from the heat source.  The sifter also allows you to stir and get more even results.  I think I went from 4 to 5 minute roast time to 7 or 8 minutes with this method and the parts were very cheap.
I believe the forum post for that picture actually has additional mods close to what you may be looking for if you actually want to take your popper apart and try rewiring it.
Comment: Those are some pretty clever ideas.  I'll definitely be giving this a try.  Thanks.
Answer: I'm a little surprised that you need to reduce temps on a 1200watt device. I had the opposite issue but similar techniques might help you. I looked at the system as having 3 basic variables: temperature, airflow, and volume of beans. Alter any one and you can achieve a different result. In my case I was unable to achieve high enough temps with my Air Crazy; particularly in cold weather since I roast outside. This is what I did:
1) Change the thermostat. I did it to increase temps but this is how I'd achieve a lower temp also. I switched the thermostat on my Air Crazy popper to increase the temp at which the element was turned off. If you pull it apart there is likely a thermostat on the chamber that opens the element circuit.  It should be marked in some way to indicate it's properties. Mine was riveted on. IIRC I bought a higher temp thermostat and also spaced it off the chamber a little. I used small stainless machine screws/nuts to reattach.
It's going to have 120v passing through it so make certain it is secure and the terminals are not contacting/energizing any other component like the actual roasting cup or popper case.
If you do not have thermostat of some type in your element circuit (you almost certainly do) they are readily available online in a large range of temps. I believe mine opens at 210C now; I think it was 180c when I bought it. 210C is pretty hot and the whole popper gets rather hot but it works for me. You need one that resets, not a single use piece.
I think these are what I used as I have 2 in my desk drawer right now.
In your case if you need to reduce the temps you may try thermal compound for CPU fans or a similar substance to increase conductivity and contact area at the thermostat, possibly turning off the element at a lower temp.  If not they clean up easily.
2)I altered the airflow also by closing some of the vents on the popping chamber, I've forgotten if I did this prior to upping the temps.  Same amount of air through fewer louvers resulted in higher velocities. Mine has louvers on the sides creating a swirling airflow to agitate the beans.
3)I added mass to the bottom of the popping chamber in an attempt to stabilize the overall temps. A few layers of heavy foil tape were enough.
4)I attached screens (actual window screen pieces) to intakes on bottom of it to stop the chaff from entering and burning on the element. I credit this for the 2 yr of usage I've gotten from this popper. Other elements have burnt open much faster.
5) I played with volume of beans to find max I could do without having uneven results. Too much and airflow was insufficient, too few beans seemed to greatly affect the quality.
In current practice I usually need to manually shake the popper every 20 sec or so up to first crack, from there the dried beans circulate well. I like very dark roasts so I also often restrict airflow somewhat later in the process by pressing the popper into a thick towel.  It is the easiest way I know to alter airflow (and thus temperature) on the fly.
This was several years ago so memory may be inaccurate. I'm not currently with the popper but can get it if you want more info or pics. I should buy another and better test these methods individually.
Answer: I've wired a dimmer switch to my Presto Poplite in series with the heating element to controllably reduce heat. Slowing the roast has greatly improved consistency and flavor.
More details
I used a 1000W-rated dimmer switch. There wasn't room inside the popper to install a wall-mount device so it's in a small electrical box in-line with the power cord.
The popper has a split heating element with one part doing double duty as a voltage-limiting resistor in series with the fan motor. Since the fan needs to run all the time, my dimmer only controls the other ~2/3 of the heating element so it's not possible to reduce the heat all the way to zero. But I'm happy with the outcome.
My biggest process improvement, however, has been manually stirring the beans. With this particular corn popper, the power of the fan is such that forced air circulation doesn't start working well until the coffee beans have expanded, and I dealt with multiple batches of scorched beans along the way to figuring that out.


Does price of stock reflect earnings

Question: If a company's earnings keep rising and the stock price keeps falling because of other factors such as lawsuits, tariffs etc., is there any guarantee that the price will rise eventually? When does this correction usually happen and how long would it take?
Comment: Do you not remember [Enron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron)?
Comment: I think that the OP is referring to legitimate accounting rather than cooked books :->)
Comment: "Is there any guarantee that the price will rise eventually?"   The only guarantees are death and taxes.  Everything else is subject to interpretation.
Answer:
is there any guarantee that the price will rise eventually?

Absolutely not. There is no guarantee of anything in the business world.
A stock's price should be based on future expectation of earnings (real cash earnings, not just "accounting" earnings), not past earnings. So even if a company posts earnings growth in the past, things like tariffs and lawsuits as mentioned in your question can certainly reduce future earning potential.
Comment: "price should be based on ....."  I think even that is controversial.  The only "actual" value of a stock is that in theory if you get enough of the paper, you can gain some or all control of the company.
Answer: Firstly guarantee is a strong word; you should think of the market price of a stock as an offer to sell. Rationally speaking if the value is less than the price you should not buy and if the value is more than price you should buy. There some basis in fundamentals for the price, but it is mostly psychology.
If you can speculate the lawsuits, tariffs and the like to blow over then you can speculate that it is possible to likely the price will recover eventually, though this may be a long time or the company may go bankrupt in that time. To quote Keynes: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."
Answer: Theoretically, a price includes current expectations. The price would only rise if the performance of the company, in some respect, exceeds current expectations. It's entirely possible that the rise in future earnings and perhaps even a decrease in lawsuits and tariffs is already priced in and so when the expected happens, the price will not change significantly. You can even have an increase in earnings and still see the price drop if the increase in earnings was less than expected.

Does price of stock reflect earnings


Is there anyway to tell if a glass bottle of beer is carbonated without opening it?

Question: It would be great if I didn't have to ruin a bottle of beer by opening it to test to see if it carbonated.  Is there any way to tell?
Comment: Ah the famous Schroedinger's Cap question :)
Comment: had this problem myself once. Bought crappy bottles with grolsch style caps and some of them leaked. It would be great to be able to figure out if a particular bottle had leaked so I could recarbonate it and exchange the cap to something better.
Answer: No.
If you are that dire for things to happen quickly fill one plastic bottle each time you bottle.
It will be firm once the beer is carbed.  You can simply re-use 16-20oz soda bottles for this, or buy plastic beer bottles with screw on caps.
Comment: I had no clue that it was possible just to use plastic soda bottles.  That is a good idea.  My local home brew store does not carry plastic bottles, so this a good way to go.  I'll definitely try this.
Comment: @CLJ:  It really isn't an option for ALL of your homebrew.  Everything I've read has said to avoid plastic as much as possible, let alone for the bottling/conditioning process.  This is for two reasons: (1) plastic tends to scratch, leaving places for unwanted microbes to live and survive your sanitizing step, (2) the slow ramp up of pressure would likely cause the bottles to explode.  My initial feeling is that the bottles would simply be impossible to sanitize the the degree required for an unspoiled beer, thus the "fill one" bottle statement.
Comment: brewchez may correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the point of the suggestion to fill one plastic bottle is to treat that bottle only as a gauge of carbonation, and to throw away the contents once you are satisfied that the batch is carbonated.
Comment: I've been using plastic better bottles for primary and secondary fermentation since I started homebrewing and I have yet to get an infection...I am an over-sanitizer with a spray bottle in my holster at every step.  Plastic bottles of soda or water should be more than sufficient for this, and I don't think you'll need to dump it out either unless you have the habit of sticking sharp things inside the plastic bottle prior to filling it with beer.
Answer: A time test is your best bet.
Bottle carbonation should be pretty mechanical unless you're experimenting with conditioning yeasts.  If you're not doing anything fancy with the carbonation, it should be safe to assume that your beer is done carbonating after two weeks.
Comment: @CLJ -- then homebrewing might not be the best hobby for you; patience is key
Comment: @CLJ: brew more.  Then when you're waiting for one batch to carb up you can drink your older batches.  They key is to keep yourself waist deep in delicious beer!
Comment: yeah, but I don't want to wait that long...
Comment: @CLJ- Start kegging if you can't wait for bottle conditioning.
Answer: This is possible, but not in a scientifically measurable way.
Try this:

Hold one of your bottles of beer up to the light so you can see the air gap that expands from the top of the bottle down to the top of the beer in the bottle.
Quickly turn the bottle upside down then back again, with a slight amount of force, but no need to shake it.
Observe the air gap in the bottle and notice the amount, if any, of bubbles forming at the top of the beer. If the beer is lighter in color, also notice the bubbles floating to the top.
Through trial and error, I have found this method to be fairly accurate in predicting the level of carbonation in a bottle, but as I said, it's not something you can measure.

You can compare store bought beer bottles to get an idea of what to look for, but keep in mind that different styles yield different levels of carbonation.
Comment: awesome suggestion!  I love it!
Answer: I usually wait a couple weeks then look for trub in the bottom of the bottle.  If it's there, the yeast finished the job.
Comment: Wait a couple weeks - yes.  But sediment at the bottom of the bottle only indicates that yeast have fallen out of suspension, and doesn't necessarily say anything about the carbonation.  An uncarbonated bottle could have trub, and vice-versa.
Comment: However, no trub means you aren't bottle conditioning and should be able to know explicitly how much CO2 you put in. :)
Answer: I often open one after a few days, and then I'll often open one every day or two after that.  I find it interesting to see how it changes in the 2-3 weeks while it's carbonating.  How many bottles are in the batch?  Is it a big deal if you lose a few before they were completely ready?
Another thing you can do is determine the carbonation level roughly by the noise and feel of removing the cap.  If it seems under-carbonated, just immediately put on a new cap.  That bottle will end up slightly less carbonated than it would have been if you'd left it alone, but the difference will be tiny.
Comment: I'm doing 5 gallon batches, so loosing one is not a big deal, but if I could prevent it, I would.
Answer: When I brew, I usually will do a number of mini bottles. Like the OP, I'm not one for patience. :)
 This allows me to have test bottles with minimal waste.
Answer: I combine the bubbles and yeast idea. Observation is a scientific approach. If you turn it upside down quickly and make some bubbles , there is definitely co2 released by the yeast. Oxygen alone may produce a little amount of bubles, but co2 bubles rushes up for a few seconds. You may notice a bit of this activity after the 1 week and it should be doubled in week 2. At the same time, even when the yeast at the bottom may only means the end of it's suspension it also means that the sugar frenzy was over and now yeast rest in peace. Also be patient and wait 2-3 weeks,that is part of the craftsmanship of making beer. Also, take notes of all the steps you've made during the process so you can share in a forum what you did exactly and by looking at the later you may also figure out what went wrong.


JDBC resultset memory not freed up

Question: I realized that the memory used by a ResultSet is not freed up even after its close() method is called. I absolutely need to free the memory used by ResultSet after extracting its data. I tried to close the connection then establish a new one, but the memory is still not freed. Could somebody help me out?
Answer: Make sure you're closing everything you opened, not just the ResultSet. In particular, any Statements, PreparedStatements, etc.
Also make sure you close everything in the opposite order to opening (otherwise bugs and exceptions could occur).
See also: this MySQL bug report
Alternatively, maybe java's garbage collector is to blame...

JDBC resultset memory not freed up


Query lower bound for Majority function using the quantum adversary method

Question: Using the quantum adversary lower bound technique, how can one calculate lower bound for Majority function $f:\{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ such that $f(x)=0$ if $|x|\leq n/2$ else $f(x)=1$, $|x|$ is the hamming weight of $x$)?
Comment: Hi. Welcome to Quantum Computing SE! Please use [MathJax](https://quantumcomputing.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/49) for properly typesetting mathematical expressions and use the [appropriate tags](https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/tags). Go through [How to write a good question?](https://quantumcomputing.meta.stackexchange.com/q/370). I've [edit]ed it on your behalf this time.
Answer: First, note that for functions that do not change their value upon permutation of their inputs—or in other words, functions that only depend on the Hamming weight $|x|$ of the input—it is known that the polynomial method tightly characterizes the query complexity, see Beals et al. In particular, this can be applied to the majority function $MAJ(x_1, \ldots, x_n)$ to obtain a tight $\Theta(n)$ bound of the query complexity.
As you asked specifically for a derivation of the $\Omega(n)$ lower bound via the adversary method, one can proceed as follows, following Ambainis' initial paper about the adversary method (note that ever since, there were numerous further developments regarding  the adversary method, see for instance Belov's thesis and the references cited therein):
Theorem 2 in Ambainis' paper asserts that a lower bound can be shown if one can identify a hard distribution for the function $f$. Technically, this means to find two sets of inputs $X, Y\subseteq \{0,1\}^n$ that lead to different evaluations of the function (i.e., $f(x)\not= f(y)$ for all $x\in X$ and $y \in Y$) and a relation $R \subset X \times Y$ (which makes sure that the two distributions are close in a suitable sense), such that the following hold:

For every $x\in X$, there are at least $m$ different $y \in Y$ such that $(x,y) \in R$,
for every $y \in Y$, there are at least $m'$ different $x \in X$ such that $(x,y) \in R$,
for every $x \in X$ and $i \in \{1, \ldots, n\}$, there are at most $\ell$ different $y\in Y$ such that $(x,y)\in R$ and $x_i\not= y_i$, and
for every $y \in Y$ and $i \in \{1, \ldots, n\}$, there are at most $\ell'$ different $x\in X$ such that $(x,y)\in R$ and $x_i\not= y_i$.

If all this holds, then the query complexity of $f$ can be lower bounded by $\Omega\left(\sqrt{\frac{m m'}{\ell \ell'}}\right)$.
For $MAJ$, one can define an adversary as follows: let $X = \{x : |x|=n/2\}$, $Y = \{y : |y|=n/2+1\}$, and define the relation as $R = \{ (x,y) : |x \oplus y|=1\}$. Then clearly each fixed $x$ can be extended in at least $n/2$ ways to obtain an element in $Y$ that is related to $x$, i.e., $m\geq n/2$. Similarly, $m' \geq n/2$. For a fixed $x$, and a fixed location $i\in \{1, \ldots, n\}$ there can be at most one bit-vector $y$ that has Hamming distance $1$ from $x$ (namely, this happens precisely when $i$ is not in the support of $x$), so $\ell=1$. By a similar argument, $\ell'=1$. Putting is all together yields the lower bound of $\Omega\left(\sqrt{\frac{n/2 \cdot n/2}{1 \cdot 1}}\right) = \Omega(n)$.


Lisbeth and the title

Question: In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Lisbeth plays an important lead role. But why is she so important to the story that the movie is named after her? Even Mikael found the killer without Lisbeth informing him. She just helped Mikael in the case, and also researched about him before. Why is she so important?
Comment: Note that the movie uses the title of the English translation of the books, the Swedish original is titled "Men Who Hate Women". Most likely that title was chosen because it is more mysterious and less "on the nose" like the book's original title.
Answer: Yes.

Mikael found the killer without Lisbeth informing him.

But what's great in that? He is an investigative journalist. It's his job to find out/solve a case he's given. He can either succeed or fail. That happens in everyday life.
He has lost a case against someone. He couldn't prove his claims.  But, what can he do, his opposition is powerful. We are also familiar with such incidents.
Everyone of us have been wronged in our life at some point. This is also a common thing about our lives. But how many of us plan to pay back the person who have wronged us? Or, how many of us succeed in punishing the wrongdoers?
Here, on this point, Lisbeth turns out to be no ordinary person. She has suffered trauma in her past and she's still insecure about her past, but she will not play the victim. She will strike back in a way you would've never imagined.
She has a dragon tattooed on her shoulder. She is very much like that dragon-we don't know her past or where she came from, but if you make her angry, you will feel her wrath (just like a dragon fires fireballs).
So, this is a pretty common story, Lisbeth makes it extraordinary, with her skills, action, determination and mysterious character.
P.S.: Also it was Lisbeth who did a background check on Mikael for Henrik Vanger. If she didn't have convincing facts from her background check, who knows if Henrik Vanger would have hired Mikael in the first place!
Comment: I disagree with the key assumption that Lisbeth isn't vital to Michael's work. Although the book and the two movie versions differ in the detail of where she helps the journalist, in *all* versions her work is essential for his conclusions. In some she provides the clue unlocking the bible versions, she also does the research on the women and is the key to finding the link to Martin. She is central nt Michael.
Answer: Lisbeth has a more important role than you giver her credit for.
There are several reasons why the English title is what it is, but one of them is that Lisbeth is a central character propelling the action and much of it would not have happened without her involvement. This is clear in the books (and perhaps would have been in the English version of the movie had the original movie been followed, as intended, by sequels). A large part of the action in subsequent books reveals a conspiracy involving Lisbet and her father but also involving key characters who appear in the first book (such as her replacement guardian who not only rapes her but is involved in the conspiracy to conceal the role of her father and the security services clandestine operations).
But even in the English movie, Lisbeth is central in enabling Mikael to follow some of the key clues. She provides the hint that unlocks the bible verses and she provides Mikael with support in his mission in several other ways (plus offering him a route to get revenge on the businessman who won the court case).
Plus she is a more interesting character on which to base the name of the movie than Mikael. Would the English versions of the books or the movie have worked if they were named after him ("Investigative journalist" is his defining characteristic; "Men who hate women" sounds a little too prosaic in English, besides Lisbeth is the central woman who has suffered from that hate!)
Lisbeth's centrality to the events is more obvious in the sequels, but the key hints are there even in the English version of the movie. And, heck, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is a great damn title.
Answer: I think the contribution of Lisbeth to Harriet's case was fundamental, if she wouldn't have provided the biblical citations and the connection to the female deceased it would have been impossible for Mikel to move forward. Actually when this connection was revealed to the policeman ("Oh! they were not phone numbers!!!!!"), he changed his mind entirely and started helping.

Lisbeth and the title