Airport Express Setup for Sound

Question: I have a PC/MacBook setup. I have a decent sound card installed in my PC and therefore, the speakers are connected to that.
But I want to use the PC connected speakers to play music through AirTunes – through my MacBook or iPhone.
Can it be done?
Answer: If you use iTunes 10 or later (either on PC or Mac) you will see the AirPort Express' Speakers as AirPlay option in your iTunes.
If you want Windows to be the "AirPlay Target" so that you can play your music from iPhone over the Windows-Speakers you could use Shairport4w.
Shairport4w will requires Apple Bonjour which is installed with iTunes or you download the Bonjour Print Services for Windows OS if you don't have iTunes on your Windows machine.
Answer: There's a decent sound card in your macbook, it may just be simpler to use that. If it's a physical location thing, I make the playlists on a mac and share the playlist to a windows computer and connect that to the speakers.

Airport Express Setup for Sound


Do non-Muslims have a chance to go to Paradise?

Question: Should people die as Muslims to get the chance to go to Paradise? If they don't die as Muslims, will they get punished in hell forever?
Comment: Related or dupe? http://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/935/if-quran-offers-equal-opportunity-for-muslims-christians-jews-and-sabians-why/1006#1006
Answer: Do non-Muslims have chance to go to Paradise?
If they were following their prophet at his time, then they have a chance to go to heaven. For example Jews have a chance to go heaven at the time of Moses (pbuh) and Christians also have that chance at the time of Jesus (pbuh). But if any one follows any religion other than Islam after Mohammed (pbuh) became the prophet then no chance to go to heaven as stated clearly in Quran:

وَمَن يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الإِسْلامِ دِينًا فَلَن يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ وَهُوَ فِي الآخِرَةِ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ
And whoever desires other than Islam as religion - never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.
[Quran 3:85]

The Tafsir for the above Aya is:

The following was revealed regarding those who apostatized and became disbelievers: Whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him and in the Hereafter he shall be among the losers, because he will end up in the Fire, made everlasting for him.
[Tafsir Aljalalyn]

And from Sunnah:

وَالَّذِي نَفْسُ مُحَمَّدٍ بِيَدِهِ لاَ يَسْمَعُ بِي أَحَدٌ مِنْ هَذِهِ الأُمَّةِ يَهُودِيٌّ وَلاَ نَصْرَانِيٌّ ثُمَّ يَمُوتُ وَلَمْ يُؤْمِنْ بِالَّذِي أُرْسِلْتُ بِهِ إِلاَّ كَانَ مِنْ أَصْحَابِ النَّارِ
By Him in Whose hand is the life of Muhammad, he who amongst the community of Jews or Christians hears about me, but does not affirm his belief in that with which I have been sent and dies in this state (of disbelief), he shall be but one of the denizens of Hell-Fire.
[Sahih Muslim]
Comment: I did not come to this conclusion by my self. This is how the Scholars explains it. I added the Tafsir and a link to it.
Comment: I have many pages which explains this deeply but in Arabic. [this](http://www.islamweb.net/fatwa/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=5750) and [this](http://islamqa.info/ar/ref/2912) and [this](http://www.nokhbah.net/vb/showthread.php?t=5969) and [this](http://www.attaweel.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18364)
Comment: just note that Islam in Quran has a more complex meaning, see [this](http://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/18/what-is-a-muslim-surrendered-and-what-is-a-mumin-believer-safe/759#759), and check the two verses preceding this one where it and its derivatives are used. If the intended meaning of the OP by Muslim is what this verse is referring to then your answer is correct.
Comment: I know it is not just your own conclusion, and I know that some scholars do interpret it that way. I don't think there is anything wrong with your answer (though I don't personally agree with it, and some scholars have interpreted the verse differently) I just wanted to point out the context of the verse. :)
Comment: Thanks for the links, I looked at the fatwas. (btw, for me it is usually more informative to know who has given the fatwa than the name of the site, so I can look the scholar up. :) Similar views are held by some Shia scholars. و الله اعلم.
Answer: As adopilot said, no one on Earth deserves to go to Jannah but Allah is All Merciful.  If He wills someone to go to Jannah than it is up to Him and the same is if he wills someone to go to Hell.  It is said in the Qur'an Allah will not punish anyone who the message was not sent to.

Whoever is guided is only guided for [the benefit of] his soul. And
whoever errs only errs against it. And no bearer of burdens will bear
the burden of another. And never would We punish until We sent a
messenger.
Quran 17:15

But those who heard the message and became or chose a different religion after hearing the truth and becoming aware of it than those are the losers Allah says:

وَمَن يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الإِسْلامِ دِينًا فَلَن يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ وَهُوَ فِي الآخِرَةِ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ
And whoever desires other than Islam as religion - never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the
losers.
Aal Imran Ayah 85

Allah can do as He wills, he can forgive whom He wills and punish Whom He wills and there is no one who can stop Him, and remember if Nations gathered to benefit you, they can only benefit you with what Allah has prescribed for you.
Answer: It seems to me that not all the Muslims (i.e. being titled as Muslim, Shia or Sunni) are easily sent to heaven and not all those titled as Non-Muslims are sent to hell. It depends. Allah has explained this as:

If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah),
  never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter He will be in
  the ranks of those who have lost (All spiritual good).(Aal-Emran:85)

But the point is that Islam here points to being a true obeyer (Tasleem) to God, not necessarily Muslim as is commonly understood from the title. Evidence for this the following verse:

Say: "O People of the Book! come to common terms as between us and
  you: That we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners
  with him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons
  other than Allah." If then they turn back, say ye: "Bear witness that
  we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to Allah's Will).(Aal-Emran:64)

According to Shia Islam, if I'm right, whoever that is not considered as an enemy of God and his friends has the chance to go to heaven, as they may don't know about the God's friends (like the prophet S.A. and his Ahl-ol-Beit A.S.). It is not hard to understand. Someone who is not enemy of another it means he either like him or doesn't know him carefully. For example is it close to impossible that a Christian who respect honesty and trustworthy and forgiveness and any other good attributes dislikes Allah (who has asked him to respect the goods and avoid the bads) and his friends (the best patterns for gathering all the good attributes in one person). Also note the following verses in this respect:

Not all of them are alike: Of the People of the Book are a portion
  that stand (For the right): They rehearse the Signs of Allah all night
  long, and they prostrate themselves in adoration. (3:113)

And

Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is
  right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. If only the
  People of the Book had faith, it were best for them: among them are
  some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors.
  (3:110)

And

And there are, certainly, among the People of the Book, those who
  believe in Allah, in the revelation to you, and in the revelation to
  them, bowing in humility to Allah: They will not sell the Signs of
  Allah for a miserable gain! For them is a reward with their Lord, and
  Allah is swift in account. (3:199)

Also maybe a key explanation of that is the Al-Asr surah whose listener is Man (people) and not only Muslims by title:

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
By (the Token of) Time (through the ages),
Verily Man is in loss,
Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together)
  in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.

And that:

Allah forgiveth not (The sin of) joining other gods with Him; but He
  forgiveth whom He pleaseth other sins than this: one who joins other
  gods with Allah, Hath strayed far, far away (from the right).
  (An-Nesaa':116) -- (similar is also An-Nesaa':48)

Godspeed
Comment: very nice one. But what does Godspeed mean? :-)
Comment: related question! According to what I looked it up, it relatively means GOODBYE (maybe an old phrase).
Answer: The answer to your question is no. But that does not mean every Muslim will go to heaven.
It is given in the Quran -

By time,
  Indeed, mankind is in loss,
  Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.  [Surat Al-`Aşr 103:1-3]

It means that there are certain criteria for a person to attain Paradise.
They are -

Those people who do good and believe in doing good for others as said by this part - those who have believed and done righteous deeds
Those people who tell truth and make others tell truth as said by - advised each other to truth
Those people who have patience and tell others to be patient as said by - advised each other to patience

There is also a point said earlier in the Quran -

And whoever desires other than Islam as religion - never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers. [Surat 'Āli `Imrān 3:85]

But that does not mean that all Muslims will go to Paradise. He also has to accept and follow the above 3 points as well.
So in all we need to follow 4 points to be sure of going in Paradise.

Additional Information
But then you might ask -
But how do i know your religion and God is true?
Then I answer-
Take the case of Christianity. Never in the whole Bible did Jesus (PBUH) say that he is God.
Following are his words from the Bible-

I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. [Gospel of John Ch-5 V-30]

Another verse

You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.[Gospel of John Ch-14 V-28]

Here Father is referred to God.
Another verse

My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all [Gospel of John Ch-10 V-29]

Another verse

But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God. [Matthew 12:28]

And another verse

Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. [Acts 2:22]

Also Jesus' ancestor / forefather Abraham (PBUH), who was also a prophet, Allah says in the Quran to worship as he worships.

Say: "(Allah) speaketh the Truth: follow the religion of Abraham, the sane in faith; he was not of the Pagans" (Quran 3:95).

Allah also mentions

Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was true in Faith, and bowed his will to Allah (which is Islam), and he joined not gods with Allah" (Quran 3:67).

Even in Judaism the story is similar. (i have not read any Jewish scriptures so i do not quote from them) I leave a quote from the Quran.

Also mention in the Book (the story of) Moses: for he was specially chosen, and he was a messenger (and) a prophet.
   And we called him from the right side of Mount (Sinai), and made him draw near to Us, for mystic (converse).
   And, out of Our Mercy, We gave him his brother Aaron, (also) a prophet. [Surah Maryam  19:51-53]

Allah considers Moses, the most important prophet in Jewish scriptures, as his own prophet and Allah even says that he was specially chosen as a messenger to spread the word of Allah.
Even in Hinduism there is said to be a Muhammad Veda which says a lot about the prophet and his teachings (I haven't much researched on this topic)
Comment: Hinduism say only those people will go to heaven who have done good deeds for all(religion), please read the concept of karma, rebirth and liberation, and remove the last line from your answer.
Answer: It depends on what you mean by Muslim. The term in Quran has a complex meaning and often used to refer not to the followers of our prophet and the set of laws that he was given (i.e. the Muslim used these days) but to refer to those who truly submit to God's will. The followers of the prophet are typically referred to as "الذین آمنوآ" i.e. "those who believed". See my post here for further explanation of the usage and meaning of the words "Muslim" and "Islam" in Quran.
If your intended meaning is the later one, then then entering seems hard and regarding this meaning, Quran says in verse 3:83-85:

أَفَغَيْرَ دِينِ اللَّهِ يَبْغُونَ وَلَهُ أَسْلَمَ مَن فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ طَوْعًا وَكَرْهًا وَإِلَيْهِ يُرْجَعُونَ
Do they seek for other than the religion of God?-while all creatures in the skies and on the earth have, willingly or unwillingly, submitted to his will, and to him shall they all returns.
قُلْ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَيْنَا وَمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَمَا أُوتِيَ مُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰ وَالنَّبِيُّونَ مِن رَّبِّهِمْ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُمْ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ
Tell: "We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in what was given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord: we make no distinction between one and another among them, and to God do we submit."
وَمَن يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الْإِسْلَامِ دِينًا فَلَن يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ وَهُوَ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ
If anyone desires a religion other than submission to God, never will it be accepted of him; and in the hereafter he will be among the losers.

(Though it will be God's decision and he may forgive whomever he wants to, so this phrase doesn't mean they may never enter paradise.)
Regarding the other meaning of "Muslims" which is more common these days and is probably what you meant, i.e. the followers of the prophet Mohammad (PBUH), in verse 2:61 Quran states:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَىٰ وَالصَّابِئِينَ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
Those who believe [in you, i.e. Muslims], and those who are Jewish, and Christian, and Sabians, whoever believes in God and the last day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.

This has been interpreted as stating that whomever believes in God and the last day and does good will go to paradise. So according to Quran, non-Muslims can go to paradise.
There are also verses where it stated that those who are called Muslims (i.e. following the Islamic culture and laws) may go to hell. From Quran's perspective, what is mainly important is believing in God and the last day and doing good, being member of a culture or a religion doesn't imply much by itself. For example, verse 2:214 says:

أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُم مَّثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِن قَبْلِكُم ۖ مَّسَّتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَاءُ وَالضَّرَّاءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ
Or did you think that you would enter the garden [of paradise] without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you? they encountered suffering and adversity, and were so shaken in spirit that even the messenger and those who believed with him said: "When is the help of God?" Know, the help of God is close.

Or in verse 29:2 it says:

أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوا أَن يَقُولُوا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ
Did people think that they will be left alone [with no problem] [just] because they said: "we believe" and that they will not be tested?
Answer: Nobody on earth who lived do not desert to go to paradise without Allah's mercy.
According to this only Allah dž.š. can only judge who will be in Paradise.
There is one story about men who lived nice Islamic life devoted to Allah and when he died, He was asked do you want to be judged by God's mercy or according to your works. Man said I want to be judged by my works. Then he was told your works and life value only as your one eye.
Idea of this is story to told us, everybody is depend on Allah's mercy.
We have Qur'an , Sunnet to follow and to hope for the Best at Judgment Day, nobody beside Allah should   declare someone inhabitant of hell or vice versa
Answer: According to Shi'a Islam, the answer is Yes.

Islam classifies non-Muslims into two groups,

To whom the message of Islam has reached and who have understood its
truthfulness but are stubborn and don't accept the truth.
To whom the message of Islam has not reached, or it has been
presented to them in a very incomplete and untruthful manner.

The latter group i.e. group 2, have a chance to go to heaven, if they satisfy certain conditions.

For more information about the conditions, please refer

http://www.al-islam.org/religiouspluralism/
http://www.al-islam.org/faith-and-reason-ayatullah-mahdi-hadavi-tehrani/question-13-non-muslims-and-hell/

http://www.al-islam.org/faith-and-reason-ayatullah-mahdi-hadavi-tehrani/question-50-religious-pluralism-and-different
(About different religions and their simultaneous validity)
Answer: This answer can also be found under this thread [ Do disbelievers automatically go to hell? ]
Traditional scholarship tend to have this opinion that anyone who is not a Muslim, doesn't have any chance at salvation. The evidence that is brought forward for this is from Ale-Imran.

And whoever desires other than Islam as religion - never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers. [Surat 'Āli `Imrān 3:85]

However, IMHO this opinion stems from a misconception that Islam started with Muhammad and only a person who follows this brand of Islam has a chance at salvation.
Quran negates this concept. It emphasizes that titles or relation with a certain sect is not a basis of salvation. It gives the example of Abraham, by saying that he was neither a so called "Muslim", a "Christian" or a "Jew" but was a true believer.
Islam according to my understanding is not a separate religion per se, but a continuation of all that was revealed before. As far as Quran is concerned, 'Muslim' is not a title. A person despite belonging to any of the above groups would be a Muslim if he performs the act of submission. It doesn't limit salvation to any group but lays down 3 criterion in Al-Baqarah:62.

belief in God,
belief in the Day of Judgment,
and righteous action in life

Now all that being said, what about those people who still miss on some of the above criterion? For example, Agnostics, Polytheists, Atheists, etc. Do they have no chance at salvation?
To answer this, we have to rely on our common sense, natural law, and sense of justice. When Quran speaks about Justice, it's not speaking of it in sense that is alien to us. It talks about justice exactly how we under what justice is. If somebody is unable to fathom or understand to his satisfaction any of the above defined criteria, his case rest with Allah. Since Allah proclaims that he is Just, he would stay true to the requirements of Justice as we know it in this world. If somebody have valid reasons, and justice demands that he be pardoned, He would do it.
A major problem that I find with most traditional understandings is that they tend to adopt a very strict opinion from the word go. And when that opinion doesn't fit our sense of justice in certain valid situations, exceptions are introduced to the original opinion. I don't mean to offend any one but simply want to point out the answer given above by @RehanUllah as an example of introducing such exceptions.
From the translation Muhammad Asad:

(2:62) VERILY, those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ], as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Christians, and the Sabians [49] - all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous deeds - shall have their reward with their Sustainer; and no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve. [50]

[50] The above passage - which recurs in the Qur'an several times - lays down a fundamental doctrine of Islam. With a breadth of vision unparalleled in any other religious faith, the idea of "salvation" is here made conditional upon three elements only: belief in God, belief in the Day of Judgment, and righteous action in life. The statement of this doctrine at this juncture - that is, in the midst of an appeal to the children of Israel - is warranted by the false Jewish belief that their descent from Abraham entitles them to
  be regarded as "God's chosen people".

Another scholar Javed Ahmed Ghamdi has emphasized the same fact in his book Meezan, which is in Urdu. I am pasting a link to an article (in English) written by one of his colleague from his website.
http://www.javedahmadghamidi.com/renaissance/view/will-christians-enter-paradise-or-go-to-hell
Comment: Contrary to what you are saying the Qur`an *does* call Abraham a muslim: **maa kaana ibraaheem yahoodiyyan wa laa nasraaniyyan walaakin kaana haneefan musliman wa maa kaana min al mushrikeen**, "Abraham was not a jew nor a christian, but he was a true in faith **muslim** and was not of the polytheists." (3:67)
Comment: You should try and read the full post instead of running away with a sentence and leaving its context behind. Now read the following from the previous and next paragraph.
**However, IMHO this opinion stems from a misconception that Islam started with Muhammad and only a person who follows this brand of Islam has a chance at salvation.**
**As far as Quran is concerned, 'Muslim' is not a title. A person despite belonging to any of the above groups would be a Muslim if he performs the act of submission.**
Comment: Reading this back 6 years later, don't remember why I neglected to respond back then. But I pointed out an error in your answer, your response to that is "look over there". There's still a factual error in your answer...
Answer: For all we know, non-Muslims may indeed have a chance to avoid hellfire. The actual statements regarding hellfire are directed in the first instance against those who are Muslim, telling them that they must not abandon Islam. Hellfire properly awaits those who reject the truth. It is not clear what happens to those who never hear the truth.
As for paradise, it is a reward for those of faith who do good. Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) could direct non-Muslims to paradise though I doubt it. It would seem to me more just to simply make them non-existent, especially if that is what they believe will happen to them anyway. But why should we worry about what happens to them? It is not for us to judge the judgement of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى). Furthermore, how do you know that at the exact moment of death every living thing is not given the proof that is necessary to see the true path?  We must have faith that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-just, all-merciful. If Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) wills it, it will be done and remember that a true unbeliever will reject Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) even when the unbeliever acknowledges the truth.
In addition, you must remember that the Quran was revealed orally to a community and it was to that community that it was directed. That is similar to statements in the Bible. Basically, once a Muslim, always a Muslim. As to the rest, well, the Quran does not really speak too much about them directly. Why should it? It does indicate that other people of the book are saved if they follow their book because those were also given by prophets. The Quran is directed at those who hear the word. By the way, one should not read it in translation anyway.
Muslims spend too much time worrying about what happens to others and what will happen to themselves. This is a very narrow view. A proper approach is submission. Submit to the will of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) and trust His judgment.


What was the first set produced by The LEGO Group?

Question: What was the first Lego set produced, and when was it first released?
Comment: While it is OK to post separate questions asking different things, there is no need to say things like "I have yet another question". Just ask!
Comment: @BoltClock Ok, sounds good!
Comment: You'd think it would be number #1, but, nope.
Answer: Some of the earliest "LEGO brick" sets I could find were these three on BrickLink from 1954:

As other answers have noted, there were earlier sets than this, but they were referred to as "Automatic Binding bricks". It wasn't until 1953 that the bricks were officially renamed as "LEGO bricks" (i.e. "LEGO Mursten").
These sets were using precursor designs of the "modern" plastic LEGO brick without the hollow underside tube. It wasn't until 1958 that the brick design we all know and love today was created. It was officially "born" at exactly 1:58 p.m., January 28, 1958, when it was first patented.
So, if you're looking for the earliest official "LEGO bricks" using the modern stud-and-tube design, these are the sets you're looking for:
Comment: @Kramii:  Godtfred Kirk Christiansen himself refered to the bricks with interlocking that was patented in 1958 as the "real" Lego brick (ref: [1958 timeline](http://brickfetish.com/timeline/1958.html)).
Comment: @Kramii: I never said the earlier bricks weren't compatible, but the *official* branding as "LEGO bricks" occurred, as you said, in 1953. Therefore, the sets I list above are the earliest I could find that could *officially* be called "LEGO bricks". The company made other building sets earlier, as you point out, but called them by a different name ("Automatic Binding Bricks").
Comment: I stand corrected. +1
Comment: -1: LEGO started producing sets of bricks in 1949, branded them LEGO Bricks in 1953. Whilst the bricks lacked the "tubes" that were patented in 1958, the earlier bricks are fully compatible with the modern ones.
Answer: A detailed timeline of Lego's history is layed out here dating back to the initial birth of the company.

We see from this that the first Lego-like bricks was the Kiddicraft Self-Locking Building Brick marketed by Hilary Fisher Page in England in 1947. This was the forerunner to Lego, and in 1949, the Lego company begins production of Automatic Binding Brick in Denmark.
This is the Automatic Binding Brick set 700/3.
Here is a detailed article on the origin of the first patented Lego bricks from 1958, designed by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, who had just taken over as Director after his father. This is the first Lego bricks as we know them today that got a unique system that improved the interlocking dramatically. This new design would become the modern, or as Godtfred called it, the "real" Lego brick. It was the beginning of Lego as we know it today.
The patent was presented at the Danish patent office at January 28th 1958.
Lego considers this date to be the birthday of the Lego Brick.
Here is the first box image used for all the earliest sets from 1958.
The actual set contents were indicated on the inner tray.

This set is 700/5.
Answer: The first plastic bricks produced by TLG were in 1949, known as Automatic Binding Bricks.  The bricks themselved did not have LEGO printed on them.
By 1952 the Automatic Binding Bricks sets started having the LEGO logo (the small fancy one used on TLG wooden toys) in the lower right corner as an added decal, but continued having Automatic Binding Bricks on the box top.
Then in late 1952 they added "LEGO Mursten" to the top of the box (instead of a decal), but continued with the Automatic Binding Bricks box logo.
It wasn't until 1953 that a new box design came out with just "LEGO Mursten".  Since "Mursten" is the same word for building bricks in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, as those countries came online to LEGO sales (Nov. 1953 for Norway, Mar. 1955 for Sweden) they also had LEGO Musten on the box top (although some early Norway sets had Automatic Binding Bricks on the boxes).
Then in late 1955 LEGO boxes started having new box designs with "LEGO System of Play" in the local language on the box tops.  German LEGO sales started in March 1956, with Switzerland and Netherlands coming online in early 1957.
Boxes had "System i leg" for Denmark, "System i lek" for Sweden/Norway, "System im Spiel" for Germany/Austria, Systeem bij het Spel" for Netherlands, and "System im Spiel"/"System dans le jeu" for Switzerland.  By the time Belgium and Portugal came online at the end of 1957, the decision was to switch to international "LEGO System". The countries already in the local languages had their boxes switch over to the international writing by 1960 (everyone else was done by 1959, but Denmark was the last holdout by 1960).
When the first bricks (2x2 and 2x4 sizes) were introduced (as Automatic Binding Bricks) in 1949, they had no LEGO markings anywhere on the bricks.  By 1953 the first bricks had "LEGO" printed only on the hollow underside of the brick.  In 1953 1x2 and 2x3 bricks were also introduced, only only found with the logo on the underside.  In 1954 the 2x8 and 2x10 bricks were introduced, and the 4x4 corner, (shortlived) 2x12 and 2x14 bricks, and 1x1 round and square bricks were introduced in January 1955.
Then by mid 1955, the new Town Plan series of specialty parts (including 4 types of macaroni bricks, 1x6/1x8 bricks with and without names) and large LEGO plates were introduce.
The first LEGO baseplates were 10x20 size... introduced in 1950 in a 1/2 brick thickness.  By 1953 the thin 10x20 was replaced by a 1 brick tall baseplate, and produced for many years.
Gary Istok
(Information used in my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide (1949-1990s), confirmed by TLG Archives in Billund.
Answer: According to Brick Fetish:
Sets of "Automatic Binding Bricks" were first produced in 1949 in Denmark. Sets included 700/1, 700/2, 700/3 and 700/4, with 700/1 being the largest of these sets and 700/4 being the smallest.
In 1950 the 700/3A (between 3 and 4 in size), 700/5 and 700/6 sets were released. The gift sets were boxes of elements hand packaged in a zig-zag pattern in a shallow box.
The bricks themselves didn't carry the LEGO branding - it wasn't until 1953 that the bricks would be called "LEGO Mursten" (danish for "LEGO Bricks").
Comment: I don't have a problem with the downvotes, but would appreciate someone leaving a reason.


How to Move Project Management site to production server from local

Question: Right now I am learning Sharepoint 2010. I have developed simple project management site.
Really I don't have any idea about how to move this site to production server(another server)
from my local machine with all the Library documents.
Answer: It depends on what you have. As for the content you can use site templates (save and import it). Also you'll need to deploy all customs WSPs and activate all custom features before using you site.
If it is a publishing site you need to copy the WSS_Content database. Still custom features should be activated seperatly


Calorie intake vs. Number of meals a day

Question: What is most important, completing my daily calorie intake regardless of how many meals I eat in a day, or eating 5-6 meals a day?
Comment: I'm sorry, but what is your calorie intake and goals exactly?
Comment: I'm skinny and want to put on muscle. I'm using this app called MyFitnessPal. My goal is to gain 1lb/week. So, my daily calorie intake, according to the app, should be 2,240. But, I could finish this, and more, in less than 6 meals.
Comment: You won't be able to eat too much in less number of meal so dividing is a good option.
Answer: The frequency of your intake of food doesn't matter. It's a myth suggestions that your metabolism is heightened and keeps your body "burning calories".
Actually the levels rise depending on the quantity you eat. Making the sum all the same in the end of the day.
With that said, eating your total daily calorie intake in one meal in the morning probably won't keep your hunger away for the whole day. So try to spread it out so you aren't hungry.
For some people 3 meals is fine, for others 6 smaller meals is better. But in the end, If the calories are the same the results will be the same.
Comment: But you need to stoke the metabolic fire, bruh! jk, +1
Comment: @LarissaGodzilla - Good to see you back! :)
Comment: @JohnP: Oh look, people know who I am ;) Anyway, thanks for the welcome back.
Comment: Thanks a lot. I've been dividing my meals to at least 5-6 times a day. I found it quite fulfilling too. Aside from actually seeing that I hit that calorie goal for the day, it also gives me the good feeling that I'm doing something right, and finally gonna build the body (and health) I've always wanted.
Answer: As long as you meet your calorie goal, how you eat them doesn't matter. However, how you eat might affect how easy it is to eat a lot, apparently, some people have a hard time eating a lot ;)
Comment: Yeah. It takes a lot of training on your stomach to at least eat 5 meals a day. I'm pushing it to receive 6 now.
Comment: How does this work for you compared to eating a lot in a few sittings? Like having large amounts of pizza twice?
Comment: Well, I try to at least reach 500-600 cal for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and divide the rest over in-between snacks/meals. And, thankfully, my stomach wouldn't allow me to eat past two slices of pizza, so eating another anytime after is just overkill for me.
Answer: Multiple small meals just make it easier to shove a lot of food in your face and reach your caloric goal without resorting to "nutritional garbage" (which can be delicious but void of interesting macro or micronutrients and full of calories). By having 6 or 7 small meals, you can keep them "healthy" and make the most of it. But that's it, if you can reach your macros in 3 meals all the better for you.
Comment: Ha. I actually did this last night. I had about hit my calorie intake when I had an afternoon meal, which was my 4th meal, and then I resorted to just eating 2 slices of pizza with milk for dinner instead.
Answer: Chris Aceto (nutritionist, he was working with Jay Cutler back then) advices to eat 6 meals per day with a lot of carb with the breakfast and after the workout. For the 4 other meals keep the carb "low". Keep your protein intake the same for each meal.
I don't have his book under my hand but i give your its name : http://www.amazon.com/Championship-Bodybuilding-Chris-Acetos-Instruction/dp/0966916808
Comment: I'm not arguing the point. It worked for Cutler and many others, I don't doubt that. But right now, we'll just have to take your/Aceto's/Cutler's word for it with no chance to check (without buying the book) and that's just not a good answer, in my opinion.
Comment: -1, as it stands, this is an appeal to authority and anecdotal evidence at best.
Comment: @LarissaGodzilla : your book says : get your 3000 kcal no matter what. Chris Aceto says : better get a carb load at the breakfast and after your workout and low carb during the day. Who's wrong ? who's right ? ;)

PS : You can't avoid a tips coming from someone who did the diet to one of the best bodybuilder.
Comment: @LarissaGodzilla If you check the previous response, you'll see that no one drop an interesting link to their "eating 3+ meals is a myth".

I advice the book because that's something solid, that you can base your diet on and NOT "oh.. maybe try this or that" or even "3+ is a myth"
Answer: From what I can gather about meal frequency is that:

Over 3 meals a day, the benefit diminishes greatly
Below 3 meals a day, and more meals benefit much more

If you can easily eat the amount of healthy food to hit your calorie goals while also hitting your macronutrient goals in 3 meals, use 3 meals.
I know of a couple people who feel physically ill if they try to eat more than a certain amount at a time.  For them, higher meal frequency worked better because they were able to get the calories they needed from good food.
Some people find that higher meal frequency interferes too much with their life and struggle to get all the meals in.  For those people, fewer meals work better.
Bottom line:
Go with at least 3 meals, and get your food from good sources 90% of the time.  (That can translate to 3 cheat days a month, or however you want to divide it up).  Choose a meal frequency that will work for you and your lifestyle, because sticking with your plan is more important than which of several good plans you choose.


5-hour layover in Denver

Question: If one has a 5-hour layover in Denver, is there enough time to go to the city and wander around for some time? Or is there a better way to spend those 5 hours? The flight is domestic.
Comment: My carry-on bag ended up being checked at the gate, so I felt obliged to go to the city. I spend around 1h 30m around the Union Station, and when I returned, I had 1 hour before boarding after going through security. Also, I've seen some people returning to the airport offer their 1-day passes for free to those near the vending machines (I got a ticket in this way as well). Otherwise a 1-day pass costs $10.50. The way tickets get checked is an officer goes through the train and asks to show the tickets. There are no automated systems like in subways.
Comment: Also, I've seen a huge "Luggage Storage" sign near the security point entrance, but it seems it was closed.
Answer: Not much.  You'll have to take a train (RTD A line) to downtown (Union Station).  It is about a 40 minute trip with trains at intervals of 15 or 30 minutes depending on the time of day.  Plus, it takes some time to get from your gate to the train station (there is an underground people mover).  On the return, you'll have to allow time to go through security, which can be long.  Also, I'm not sure that there is any place to store your luggage during the journey. (There are conflicting reports online as to whether storage is available; I've never checked it out myself.)
Taxi or car would not be very much faster, and a lot more expensive.
I think you'd be lucky to be able to spend 1 hour in the vicinity of Union Station.  It's a moderately interesting city center, but I don't think there is anything really iconic that you'd be able to do or see in that time.
If you stay within the airport (airside), there is a fairly good selection of food, drinks, etc, including some bars with local beer.  Note that you can move between the A,B,C concourses via the underground people mover (but don't go to the "terminal / ground transportation / baggage claim" stop, as you will find yourself landside and have to go back through security).  The airport has free wifi which is pretty fast, and you can usually find a quiet place to sit (I like the upstairs waiting area of the C concourse).  You can get some exercise by walking the long concourses - the B concourse is nearly a mile from end to end and must surely be one of the longest buildings in the US.
Comment: Yep. Definitely not worth the time & hassle just to bum around LoDo for an hour.
Comment: @AndyT: Renting and returning a car at the Denver airport would be quite time-consuming, so OP probably wouldn't have time for that anyway.
Comment: @Strawberry - It's a bit of a bleak place, but good to go round in a car with a long wildlife lens on your camera. Doubt it'd be worth the car hire for a 5 hour layover though, so you're probably reduced to the hikes (I've not tried them).
Comment: OTOH, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge looks awesome
Comment: I would suggest staying at the airport and heading directly to Steve's Snappin Dogs in Terminal B Gate 24, since the Denver airport is so dang far away from anything cool.

5-hour layover in Denver


Better to use one large plist or many small plists when developing for iOS?

Question: I'm creating a simple "find one of our locations" app for iOS 4, for which I have a list of >70 places, complete with addresses, business hours, etc. Is it better to put all of this data in one large plist or many small ones?
Answer: Core Data or sqlite would probably be best, but between the two options you mention, I'd favor one large plist over many small ones.  Maintaining and tracking 70 files is probably much more error prone than one, and the loading code would be much easier with one also (you can load the whole file into a big NSArray or NSDictionary with only a couple lines of code).
Answer: Premature optimization is the root of all evil. Do whatever is simpler/easier (depends on what form the data is in now), and then see how it performs. Even 70 items probably wouldn't take up much memory (assuming it's all text and no images), and I wouldn't be shocked if a naïve linear search is fast enough when you're finding the closest location. And if it isn't fast enough, a binary search probably is. (In fact, if you stored all 70 in an array, then created two "index" arrays that are just the indexes of the first array sorted by latitude and longitude respectively, you would probably perform just as well as a full-blown SQLite database.)


How do I install and configure a DHCP server?

Question: How to install and configure a DHCP server in Ubuntu 12.04?
I need a step-by-step tutorial if somebody has one.
Comment: "Note that, in Ubuntu 12.04, ISC DHCP server is a transitional package for dhcp3-server."
http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=Network_Boot_-_NFS#Configure_DHCP
Comment: This might be the same but ... http://comtech247.net/2012/05/01/how-to-set-up-a-dhcp-server-on-ubuntu-server-12-04-lts/
Comment: I prefer `dnsmasq`, a DNS and DHCP server with simple configuration file syntax.
Comment: not the most user-friend but: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/dhcp3-server
Answer: The first thing You need to do is install the packages we need.
Open up a terminal and type:
sudo apt-get install isc-dhcp-server

There are two main files /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server and /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf which we will need to configure so lets take the first.
Open up a terminal and using your favorite text editor type:
sudo vim /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server

You should get the following:
#Defaults for dhcp initscript
#sourced by /etc/init.d/dhcp
#installed at /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server by the maintainer scripts
#
#This is a POSIX shell fragment
#
#On what interfaces should the DHCP server (dhcpd) serve DHCP requests"
#Separate multiple interfaces with spaces, e.g. "eth0 eth1".
INTERFACES="eth0"

Replace eth0 above with the name of your network interface that you want the server to lease addresses on. Onto the next file.
Open up a terminal and type:
sudo vim /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

which should give you the output below.
#
#Sample configuration file for ISC dhcpd for Debian
#
#Attention: If /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf exists, that will be used as
#configuration file instead of this file.
#
#
....
option domain-name "example.org";
option domain-name-servers ns1.example.org, ns2.example.org;
option domain-name "comtech.com";
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
log-facility local7;
subnet 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 10.0.0.150 10.0.0.253;
option routers 10.0.0.2;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 10.0.0.254;
option domain-name-servers 10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2;
option ntp-servers 10.0.0.1;
option netbios-name-servers 10.0.0.1;
option netbios-node-type 8;
 ......
}

This needs a little bit of explaining.

Adjust your settings according to your network requirements.
The option domain name is your dns zone name. For example mine is set to comtech.com.
Range should be the range of ip addresses that you want the server to give out to clients.

Now restart the dhcp service by typing:
sudo service isc-dhcp-server restart

Thats it!! Your dhcp server should be running, however it is best to check. Open up a terminal and type:
sudo netstat -uap

which will show you something like the following (look for dhcpd, nmbd, and named):
Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address State PID/Program name
udp        0      0 10.0.0.255:netbios-dgm  *:*                   1016/nmbd
udp        0      0 10.0.0.255:netbios-ns   *:*                   1016/nmbd
udp        0      0 *:bootps                *:*                   4525/dhcpd
udp        0      0 *:netbios-dgm           *:*                   1016/nmbd
udp        0      0 *:netbios-ns            *:*                   1016/nmbd
udp        0      0 chris-desktop:domain    *:*                   1273/named
udp        0      0 chris-desktop.lo:domain *:*                   1273/named
udp        0      0 chris-deskt:netbios-dgm *:*                   1016/nmbd
udp        0      0 chris-deskto:netbios-ns *:*                   1016/nmbd
udp6       0      0 [::]:domain             [::]:*                1273/named

Comment: Just a word of caution, make sure to use `/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf` and **not** `/etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf`
Comment: When I restart the service this message is shown: `stop: Unknown instance: isc-dhcp-server start/running, process 3027`. I am not able to start the service. I use Ubuntu 13.10.
Comment: good . but make sure you've assigned static IP b4 starting DHCP service
Comment: This is not so hard, but using `dnsmasq` is easier if you ask me.
Answer: Additional things can be included in the accepted answer

Assign static IP before starting isc-dhcp-server service .
You can reserve IP for devices like printers and linux machines by adding MAC id in the below format inside the particular subnet.
------
host bla1 {
        hardware ethernet DD:GH:DF:E5:F7:D7;
        fixed-address 10.0.0.10;
}
----

Dhcp3-server Community Wiki
Ubuntu DHCP server
Answer: From the Ubuntu community page dhcp3-server by Contributors to the Ubuntu documentation wiki:

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network service
  that enables host computers to be automatically assigned settings from
  a server as opposed to manually configuring each network host.
  Computers configured to be DHCP clients have no control over the
  settings they receive from the DHCP server, and the configuration is
  transparent to the computer's user.
Installation
At a terminal prompt, enter the following command to install dhcpd:
sudo apt-get install dhcp3-server

You will probably need to change the default configuration by editing
  /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf to suit your needs and particular configuration.
You also need to edit /etc/default/dhcp3-server to specify the
  interfaces dhcpd should listen to. By default it listens to eth0.
Configuration
The error message the installation ends with might be a little
  confusing, but the following steps will help you configure the
  service:
Most commonly, what you want to do is assign an IP address randomly.
  This can be done with settings as follows:
nano -w /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf

# Sample /etc/dhcpd.conf
# (add your comments here)
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
option routers 192.168.1.254;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.2;
option domain-name "mydomain.example";

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.1.10 192.168.1.100;
range 192.168.1.150 192.168.1.200;
}

This will result in the DHCP server giving a client an IP address from
  the range 192.168.1.10-192.168.1.100 or 192.168.1.150-192.168.1.200.
  It will lease an IP address for 600 seconds if the client doesn't ask
  for a specific time frame. Otherwise the maximum (allowed) lease will
  be 7200 seconds. The server will also "advise" the client that it
  should use 255.255.255.0 as its subnet mask, 192.168.1.255 as its
  broadcast address, 192.168.1.254 as the router/gateway and 192.168.1.1
  and 192.168.1.2 as its DNS servers.
If you need to specify a WINS server for your Windows clients, you
  will need to include the netbios-name-servers option, e.g.
nano -w /etc/default/dhcp3-server

option netbios-name-servers 192.168.1.1;

dhcp3-server and multiple interfaces
multiple interfaces example
Interface
nano -w /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

mapping hotplug
        script grep
        map eth1

iface eth1 inet dhcp

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
    address 10.152.187.1
    netmask 255.255.255.0

auto wlan0
  iface wlan0 inet static
    address 192.168.1.1
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    up     /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 mode TTTTTT && /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 enc
restricted && /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 key [Y] XXXXXXXX && /sbin/iwconfig
wlan0 essid SSSSSSSS

auto eth1

Select Interface card
nano -w /etc/default/dhcp3-server

INTERFACES="wlan0 eth0"

Configure Subnet
nano -w /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf

ddns-update-style none;
log-facility local7;

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

        option routers                  192.168.1.1;
        option subnet-mask              255.255.255.0;
        option broadcast-address        192.168.1.255;
        option domain-name-servers      220.127.116.11;
        option ntp-servers              192.168.1.1;
        option netbios-name-servers     192.168.1.1;
        option netbios-node-type 2;
        default-lease-time 86400;
        max-lease-time 86400;

        host bla1 {
                hardware ethernet DD:GH:DF:E5:F7:D7;
                fixed-address 192.168.1.2;
        }
        host bla2 {
                hardware ethernet 00:JJ:YU:38:AC:45;
                fixed-address 192.168.1.20;
        }
}

subnet  10.152.187.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

        option routers                  10.152.187.1;
        option subnet-mask              255.255.255.0;
        option broadcast-address        10.152.187.255;
        option domain-name-servers      220.127.116.11;
        option ntp-servers              10.152.187.1;
        option netbios-name-servers     10.152.187.1;
        option netbios-node-type 2;

        default-lease-time 86400;
        max-lease-time 86400;

        host bla3 {
                hardware ethernet 00:KK:HD:66:55:9B;
                fixed-address 10.152.187.2;
        }
}

Check Route
ip route

192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0  scope link
82.16.TT.0/24 dev eth1  scope link
10.152.187.0/24 dev eth0  scope link
default via 82.16.TT.UU dev eth1


Is there a cap or soft-cap in % chance to find magic items?

Question: Is there a cap or soft-cap in % chance to find magic items? Should I stop stacking MF items at some point?
Comment: A follow up question would be, what does a 100% (or more)MF do? It's probably not possible... Edit: I can see this has been answered here: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/66303/what-is-the-base-chance-to-find-magic-items
Answer: Old question already answered, but since the game has seen some changes since, an update seems necessary for the newcomers:

Currently in patch 1.0.7, the hard cap on Magic Find is 625% (300% soft
  cap + 75% NV stacks + 250% MP 10 on Inferno).
Starting in patch 1.0.8 however, the Magic Find bonus from shrines
  will be able to exceed the "soft cap" of 300% that players can achieve
  from a combination of their own gear and their follower's gear. In
  patch 1.0.8 we're also adding a buff to multiplayer games called
  "Strength in Numbers" which allows for a 10% bonus to Magic Find, Gold
  Find, and experience per additional player in a multiplayer game, up
  to a maximum of 30% in a four-player game. The Magic Find and Gold
  find bonuses of this multiplayer feature can exceed their respective
  300% cap as well.
So after patch 1.0.8, if you have 300% Magic Find from your gear and
  your followers, have 5 stacks of NV (+75% MF), are playing on Inferno
  at MP10 (+250% MF), have a Fortune Shrine buff active (+25% MF), AND
  are playing a four player multiplayer game (+30% MF), you can hit the
  maximum of a 680% bonus to Magic Find. Shiny!
Keep in mind that this cap will be lower for if you aren't playing on
  Inferno and/or aren't using Monster Power level 10, etc.

Source
Answer: Jay Wilson, Game Director of Diablo III, mentioned during a Best Buy Developer Chat that magic find will not be capped:

Guest-446: Will certain areas in Diablo 3 have different treasure
  classes like they did in Diablo 2 for finding higher items or does it
  just come down to how far you have progressed into the game and is
  there a diminishing effect of the amount of mf your character can have
  eg. like a mf cap?
Jay Wilson: I don't really know how to answer the treasure class one,
  lots of areas have different treasure classes but we try to make areas
  relatively equal depending on challenge and monster level. MF is not
  capped, though.
Comment: This answer is no longer correct ("treasure class" is more directly a function of MP level now, and there absolutely is a cap on MF).


Search additional user fields?

Question: When using the search form, by default Drupal searches Content nodes, and there's a toggle to search Users (search/node vs. search/user). But the search/user appears to only search the default fields for the User nodes (username and email). I've added additional fields (Admin > Config > People > Manage Fields) to User nodes, but those don't get searched. How can I make the default search/user find users by those additional fields?
Answer: As far as I know, the easiest way to do this is with views. You can set up a user view with exposed filters for any user field that you need to search. If you want to get a link to your your view on the search page form then, a form alter in a custom module would do it. Obviously make sure your view has a page with a proper path setup. search/your_view etc will work.
Here is a quick example of adding a custom markup field to the search form in drupal 7.
function CUSTOMMODULENAME_form_alter(&$form, $form_state, $form_id) {

 if ($form_id == 'search_form') {

   $form['usercustomsearchlink'] = array(
  '#type' => 'markup',
  '#markup' => 'Search User Fields ',
  '#weight' => 1,
   );

   }
}

That should put a link underneath the search box on the form (after a cache clear). However, I havent been able to figure out how to make it appear only on search/user pages yet so, that link will appear on all search forms.
Answer: I recommend to use Search by Page module. You can search user fields by adding which roles are to be added to index and which role is to be used when doing the indexing. The results are added to the default search page by adding another search tab in addition to "Content" (nodes) and "Users".
This module also has an API to help add other things to index. But making user fields searchable can be done with configuration alone via included sub-module.
Search by Page:

This module is an enhancement to the core Drupal search module, which adds a new tab to the core Search page or can also be used in stand-alone mode. The differences between Search by Page and the existing tabs in the core Search module lie in what is indexed for searching and how it is indexed:

Search by Page indexes the content of your pages as rendered by your theme (Search indexes the default rendering you would have from an unmodified theme).

Search by Page allows you to omit content from indexing (such as "database table" node types that should never be viewed as stand-alone content).

Search by Page allows you to index non-Node pages, including user profiles, file attachments, and Views.

Search by Page is language-aware, so it only shows you results in the current language.

Search by Page has multiple search "environments", so you can have different search pages/blocks to search different things.

Search by Page does not know what the pages of your site are, so it doesn't index anything by itself. You will need to enable and configure at least one sub-module that lets you add paths to the search index, in order for this module to do anything.

Search additional user fields?


Target addresses in Kademlia

Question: I'm currently trying to understand the Kademlia protocol implemented in Ethereum in order to discover other peers in the network. If I understand these lines correctly, a nodes uses both random addresses as well as his own address as target address. It then sends this address to its neighbour peers which in turn will return their closest addresses to this target address.
Does a node periodically ask their neighbour peers about their closest addresses to his own address? Wouldn't that be wasteful as the answers will not much change over time?
Answer: It performs this lookup with its own address as target address only when the table is empty.

Target addresses in Kademlia


Cant display dropdown values on drupal commerce review page

Question: I have a some dropdown fields on on my commerce checkout page where the key is different than the value. I need this to be the case, because at checkout completion, I am submitting the values to an external database, and it expects the key value, not the display value.
However, I've found that the review page is listing the values (which is an uninteligble code and therefore useless to the user). I have not found a way to change this. If you inspect the array building the review page, it contains an array element 'data' which stores all the markup, and I see no way of modifying the display.
How can I display the dropdown keys on the review page?
EDIT:
To perhaps make this a little eaiser: by backtracing, I found that this function
customer_profile_type_ui/includes/customer_profile_type_ui.checkout_pane.inc:74:function customer_profile_type_ui_pane_review($form, $form_state, $checkout_pane, &$order) {

was calling this one
commerce/modules/customer/includes/commerce_customer.checkout_pane.inc:315:function commerce_customer_profile_pane_review($form, $form_state, $checkout_pane, $order) {

If you examine the code there, you will see that the review pane is being populated directly from the profile object, and the profile object is only storing the values (which makes sense). So, is there any way for me to obtain the keys?
Answer: You could use
hook_commerce_checkout_pane_info_alter
and set a different 'review' callback for the relevant checkout pane.
You can then control the output from your review callback.
See hook_commerce_checkout_pane_info for the option detail there.
You could also try theming the review page with

THEME_NAME_preprocess_commerce_checkout_review(&$variables) {} or
THEME_NAME_commerce_checkout_review(&$variables) {}


What equipment and software do I need to read raw civilian GPS signals on my Mac?

Question: This is a hobby project to learn more about GPS technology.
Comment: Hi and welcome!  The connection between GPS and Amateur Radio is a little weak so your question might end up on a different Stack Exchange site (say EE).  Have you done any research into GPS receivers? They are plentiful in the hobbyist market.
Answer: I will answer this question from a "technology of radio" perspective, because half of the question is very much related to the technology of radio. The other half is related to the decoding of a data stream from multiple GPS satellites, and that is beyond the scope of this site.
In order to receive the data from the GPS satellites, your best bet would be to have an outdoor antenna at a good height (to be able to see as much of the horizon as possible), tuned to the frequencies on which the GPS satellites transmit.
According to the Wikipedia page on GPS signals, there are two frequencies: the so-called L1 frequency is 1575.42MHz, and the L2 frequency is 1227.60MHz. Your antenna would need to be able to receive both of these frequencies. Either a discount antenna designed for use up to 1.6GHz, or an actual GPS external antenna, would do nicely for this.
Actually decoding and turning the received radio signals into data is something that is beyond the scope of this site (being specifically for "amateur radio" in the strictest sense), but in order to turn the received signals at radio frequencies (RF) into data that you can work on on your computer, your best bet would probably be an SDR receiver (these can be found very cheaply - search for RTL SDR for plenty of information) and some SDR software (perhaps GNU Radio or similar). Once you have turned the RF into a data stream, you can then work on decoding it in software.
Comment: There's GNSS-SDR, which was based on GNU Radio years ago and is a very capable software to do exactly what is described. You need that software (which is easiest to install under Linux), some SDR, and typically an active antenna (which is an antenna with a built-in amplifier), the rectangular GPS antennas you might have seen. To feed that active Antenna with power, you'll need a *Bias-Tee*, too.
Comment: The RTL-SDR blog has a nice overview and tutorial covering basic equipment/concepts and using GNSS-SDR: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-gps-decoding-plotting/
Answer: Start with a GPS receiver that outputs NMEA data. This data will be made available through a serial connection such as RS-232, USB, or Bluetooth. Pick a serial connection that you can use with your MAC.
On the MAC you will need a serial terminal emulation program (not to be confused with the MAC terminal program). A program such as Serial would do the job.
Configure the Serial program to access the port to which the GPS receiver is connected. You will then begin to see the raw NMEA data from the GPS receiver in your Serial program. All sentences begin with a "$" sign and all fields are comma separated. Here is an example from the above link:

$GPGGA,181908.00,3404.7041778,N,07044.3966270,W,4,13,1.00,495.144,M,29.200,M,0.10,0000
  *40

This information in this string can be broken down as follows (again taken from the earlier link):
GP represent that it is a GPS position (GL would denote GLONASS).
181908.00 is the time stamp: UTC time in hours, minutes and seconds.
3404.7041778 is the latitude in the DDMM.MMMMM format. Decimal places are variable.
N denotes north latitude.
07044.3966270 is the longitude in the DDDMM.MMMMM format. Decimal places are variable.
W denotes west longitude.
4 denotes the Quality Indicator:
13 denotes number of satellites used in the coordinate.
1.0 denotes the HDOP (horizontal dilution of precision).
495.144 denotes altitude of the antenna.
M denotes units of altitude (eg. Meters or Feet)
29.200 denotes the geoidal separation (subtract this from the altitude of the antenna to arrive at the Height Above Ellipsoid (HAE).
M denotes the units used by the geoidal separation.
1.0 denotes the age of the correction (if any).
0000 denotes the correction station ID (if any).
*40 denotes the checksum.
Comment: @ScottEarle You may be right but given the sophistication and depth of the question, I thought this might be an appropriate path.
Comment: The problem here is that this answer is talking about how to provide *processed* GPS data, where the question was asking for *raw* GPS data.
Comment: This is also a great answer depending on what the OP is after. To go deeper in this route, I'd recommend learning about RTK afterwards since it's a pretty cool technique based on the underlying signaling but with pre-built hardware support also available. SparkFun have an article https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/what-is-gps-rtk/all and NavSpark offer some even cheaper hardware for it.
Comment: @GlennW9IQ fair comment :)


Evidence of Pali Canon's Origin

Question: Are the Buddha's words the source of the Pali Canon? What evidence is there of the Pali Canon's origin? What do scholars say?
Comment: Is this question different than e.g. [Finding Authentic Suttas](http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/11359/254)?
Comment: The question of "What do scholars say" might be partially answered by [this answer](http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/11386/254), which says, "There is no external evidence for the Buddhist texts before Asoka".
Comment: The texts themselves are external evidence ...What's external evidence?
Comment: I thinks that "external evidence" is a term that historians use. For example, imagine there were a piece of paper which says, "This paper was written in 10,000 BC" or "The author of this paper lived for 700 years." Those statements are in (i.e. they are internal to) the paper in question. Asking for any "external evidence" for those statement means asking for evidence outside or apart from that paper. E.g. is there any archaeological evidence that supports those statement? Or any written history from other independent sources (e.g. mentions by neighboring cultures)?
Comment: Yes, the texts can have "external evidence" I think because of  unintentional patterns in the words especially when compared to the Agamas.  Scholars who attempt to measure the authenticity can tell things just from the grammar, frequency of certain words and the Pali Canon's relativity to other documents as well as relativity to itself.
Answer: I encourage you to read the following: Bhikkhu Sujato & Bhikkhu Brahmali. The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts.
In this work, their project is to investigate the question of authencity systematically. In that, the approach is quiet academic and might be to your liking.
Page 7, they state a feature of the early Buddhist texts:

The Buddha's presence as a living figure in the EBTs is overwhelming
and unmistakable. It stands in stark contrast with all other Buddhist
literature, where the Buddha has faded to legend.

Page 8, they assert that, although they accord with the meaning of Buddha Dharma...
> We are not denying the obvious fact that the texts bear all the marks
> of redaction and editing, and that they have been optimised for the
> oral tradition.

Page 151, they state what we owe to the early Buddhist texts:
> We know when the Buddha lived, where he lived, who he associated with,
> how he lived, and what he taught. We know these things with greater
> certainty than for almost any other historical figure from a
> comparable period. And we know this because of the EBTs. All other
> historical and archaeological information about the period depends on
> the EBTs to make sense.
Their overall conclusion is that although the Pali canon "bears the marks of redaction and editing", the meaning accord with the intent of the Buddha. Bhikkhu Sujato and Bhikkhu Brahmali expose various argument (sorted out by chapters, that all constitute different angles: geographical, historical, and so forth) in order to highlight the proximity between what is written in the Pali canon and what the Buddha [presumably] said.
Answer: You can find a scholar to support almost any view, but the consensus seems to be that the Pali Canon - the only complete version of the early Canon that has survived to the present day - originated shortly after the passing on (parinibbana) of the Buddha (circa 400 BCE); continued to be collected, edited, and revised at least until the middle of the third century BCE, when it achieved its final Pali form more or less; was written down in the first century BCE; and continued to be copied over the intervening centuries, perhaps with fairly minor changes and, of course, errors of transcription, till it was codified during the Fifth Buddhist Council in 1871 and again in 1954.
No definitive critical edition of the Pali Canon has been produced in accordance with Western scholarly criteria, though I believe one is in the early stages of development.
Many scholars consider the first four nikayas - the Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya, Samyyuta Nikaya, and Anguttara Nikaya - to be the most ancient and essential parts of the Canon, along with the Vinaya perhaps, but nothing in the Pali Canon should be considered to be the literal Buddhavacana ("Word of the Buddha") and all of the suttas of the Pali Canon represent an indiscriminate mixture of early and late textual traditions.
Some people think that the parables of the Buddha are the most authentic, much as some Biblical scholars think that the parables of Yeshua (Jesus) are the most authentic.
The shortest interval between the Buddha's death and the earliest date for the codification of the Canon is about 150 years, which would correspond to the year 180 in terms of the development of the Christian scriptural tradition for comparison. This is the age of the early Church fathers and well after the period of the canonical gospels of the New Testament. Thus, the Pali Canon incorporates the Buddha's original teachings subject to at least five (or eight) "generations" (but only two lifetimes) of interpretation, codification, and exegesis, arising out of an historical process that was clearly contentious from the very beginning.
While Pali linguists can distinguish later from earlier texts to some extent, no one can accurately identify the "original teachings" of the Buddha based on any kind of objective heuristic, and those who pretend to do so are usually pursuing a sectarian agenda. Moreover, the simplistic equation of lateness with wrongness is a grossly naive hermeneutic, comparable to the discredited notion of "authorial intent."
Per contra, the view of those who maintain that the Pali Canon is actually recent, based on the paucity of early mss., is also untenable, since many Pali texts were translated into fairly early Chinese, Tibetan, and even Sanskrit versions that correspond quite well with the Pali texts. Although each of the early schools had its own canon, they all seemed to share and accept a common collection of suttas that were very similar to each other and to the Pali suttas that we have today in the Pali Canon.
Another relevant point is that the Pali language is not the language actually spoken by the Buddha, but is a hybrid artificial language developed by the early monastics to preserve the teachings of the Buddha and communicate with each other, which clearly indicates that the Canon originated as a result of cultural and geographical differentiation. Scholars generally consider Pali to be closely related to the language of the Buddha, however. Pali linguists have identified earlier and later meanings of certain Pali words that can be used to "date" the texts that contain them, and to a limited extent elucidate their meaning.
The Canon also travelled from north-east India to Sri Lanka through successive phases - first, a westward expansion, then moving south and finally into Sri Lanka, during which it presumably picked up cultural influences from western India, south-western India, and Sri Lanka itself. It was also preserved by monastics, so we may assume that it was influenced by this fact as well.
Finally, every point in this summary will be disputed by someone!
Comment: Thank you, Alexander. The actual question of Pali being a language is at minute 34 to 37 in the movie.
Comment: I'm surprised to read your remark, that "Pali .. is a .. artificial language .. developed by the early monastics...". I always understood, that Pali was an (artificial) language, but with a more similar function like the Kisuaheli in East africa, which is also somehow "artificial" but spoken by many people and used for commercial, governmental and general purposes. And thus I thought Pali was more generally used than only by monasteries (and possibly their environment). Could you kindly provide some more insight?
Comment: My understanding is what I have written.The vernacular languages from which Pali was developed were presumably used for broader than monastic purposes. It's an interesting question, but I havent encountered any discussion to that effect. Of course, I havent read everything so its always possible to find new information. If you do, let me know.
Comment: Hmm, I see in the (english) wikipedia, that I might have gotten that idea by reading something from Rhys Davids or Wilhelm Geiger. It is stated that there's no consent yet, what characteristic that Pali-language had, so I assume it is indeed still open... If I should find something more, I'll add it here in a new comment.
Comment: The following video gives a very good summary of the orthodox Theravadin view of the origin and preservation of the Pali Canon, some of it I suspect from outside the PC itself. Note: I am not stating that I agree with this presentation, only offering it as a point of interest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9HSraZiBiY
Answer: Are the Buddha's words the source of the Pali Canon? What evidence is there of the Pali Canon's origin? What do scholars say?
My answers to the questions are based on known facts. Thus I define the Pali canon as follows:
Sets of the Pāli Canon in English Translation and in Pāli (Tipiṭaka).
My answers to the three questions are as follows.

Are the Buddha's words the source of the Pali Canon?

Indeterminate.
The question is for the 'Pali canon'. The Pali Text Society publishes a Pāli Canon.
Buddha (the Buddha) is an English word with multiple meanings [Oxford Dictionaries]. It is obviously not in the Pali canon.
PTS Pāli Canon has over 9000 references to the term "bhagavā". Of the 9000 references, only 60 occur in the Abhidhamma Pitaka.
The term bhagavā is defined by the following expression:

'itipi so bhagavā arahaṃ sammāsambuddho vijjācaraṇasampanno sugato lokavidū anuttaro purisadammasārathi satthā devamanussānaṃ buddho bhagavā'ti.

The words attributed to Bhagava in the Sutta and Vinaya Pitakas appear to be the major source for the Pāli Canon.

What evidence is there of the Pali Canon's origin?

According to the Sri Lankan Mahavamsa, the Pali Canon was written down in the reign of King Vattagāmini (Vaṭṭagāmiṇi) (1st century BCE) in Sri Lanka, at the Fourth Buddhist council. Most scholars hold that little if anything was added to the Canon after this [Wikipedia}.

What do scholars say?

Scholars generally agree to the origin of the Pali canon as mentioned above.
Comment: 'Buddha' is a Pāli word; often when referring the the Buddha the texts use the compound 'Sammāsambuddha'
Comment: Buddha as a Pali name, form of address occurs twice in the Sutta Pitaka. Buddha as an English word is defined in almost all English dictionaries
Comment: You said it was "obviously not in the Pali canon." But now you say it occurs twice and for some reason you are not counting 'Sammāsambuddha' which occurs many times.
Comment: I am sorry about "obviously in the pali canon". I was referring to the English word Buddha in that sentence.
Comment: "you are not counting 'Sammāsambuddha' which occurs many times": The word 'Sammāsambuddha' does not occur in the Pali canon. However the word ''sammāsambuddho' occurs over 400 times in the canon. It is used as a name of Bhagava in the Buddhanussati text: Itipi So Bhagava Araham Sammasambuddho...Here Araham is highest purity and Sammasambuddho is the knowledge of Cattari Ariysaccani.
Comment: 'Sammāsambuddho' is just a declination of 'Sammāsambuddha', no? Anyway I think I'm done with this discussion. Best.
Comment: 'Sammāsambuddho' is the original Buddha (who attains enlightenment via his own effort & starts the Buddhist religion). 'Buddha' can be a generic word for any fully enlightened being.
Answer: The scholar Hans Wolfgang Schumann in his (german) monography "Der historische Buddha - Leben und Lehre des Gotama" (1995) ("the historical Buddha - life and teaching of Gotama, 2005") gave a paragraph on the characteristics of "Pali" as a language. I'll try to translate it correctly to english from the german version (pg 296):

"The language which the Rajagaha-council used and in which it canonized
  the Word-Of-the-Buddha, has been "Pali", a higher form of the Maghadi,
  which avoided local terms ("mundartliche Formen") and which had
  enriched its vocabulary with terms of related languages in India.
  "Pali" has been a conversational language, which was only spoken by
  educated people, but understood by the common people. The north-indian
  rulers used it as language for governmental and jurisdictive purposes
  - thus it was also well known to the Raja's son Siddhattha Gotama from his early youth. Also Upali and Ananda were likely able to speak it
  fluently.(...)"

A more involved consideration, which references many authors, can be found in this Was ist Pali topic on Aloys Payer's web site (unfortunately there is no english version of it and I cannot do the translation, but Google Translate can translate it adequately).
Answer: In my opinion, all we can know for certain are words spoken or written down by 'a Buddha' (i.e., an awakened enlightened mind) rather than by 'the Buddha' (i.e. Gotama). The only way we can know this is via personal realisation.

"Knowing thus and seeing thus, would you say, 'The Contemplative says this. We speak thus in line with the Contemplative's words'?"
"No, lord."
"Is it the case that you speak simply in line with what you have known, seen & understood for yourselves?"
"Yes, lord."
"Good, monks. You have been guided by me in this Dhamma which is to be seen here & now, timeless, inviting verification, pertinent, to be
  realized by the observant for themselves."
Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta

For example, at www.accesstoinsight.org, there are four translations of the Four Noble Truths, each one is different and not one of them accords to any meditative experience or realisation. Therefore, not one of them can be regarded as the words of a Buddha.

in brief, the five bundles of grasping-fuel are painful - Peter Harvey
in short, suffering is the five categories of clinging objects -
  Ñanamoli Thera
in brief the five aggregates subject to grasping are suffering -
  Piyadassi Thera
In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful - Thanissaro
  Bhikkhu

However, the confusing translations above of 'saṃkhittena pañchupādāna'k'khandhā dukkhā' does not mean a Buddha did not speak the words 'saṃkhittena pañc'upādāna'k'khandhā dukkhā', which should simply state: "In summary, attaching to the five aggregates is suffering" or "the five attachments to the five aggregates is suffering" (which emphasizes 'attachment' as suffering or the problem rather than the neutral aggregates).
Comment: Sorry, the second half of the answer isn't clear to me. Is it the translations which you don't regard as the words of the Buddha? What do you think of the Pali, *saṃkhittena pañc'upādāna'k'khandhā dukkhā*?
Comment: Thanks for clarifying. Incidentally I think that this [this dictionary entry](http://www.buddha-vacana.org/gloss.html#upadanakkhandha) translates it more-or-less as they do (i.e. as a pair of nouns or a compound noun), while explaining it more-or-less as you do (the explanation uses 'attaching' as a verb).

Evidence of Pali Canon's Origin


Chinese equivalent of expression

Question: In English, if someone explains a simple joke that should be obvious they get the nickname "Captain Obvious", as the Wiktionary and Wikipedia say. Is there an equivalent expression in Chinese? If so, what is it?
Comment: There are lot of useful Chinese dictionaries online, check e.g.: http://www.iciba.com/captain_obvious
Answer: I couldn't think of any generally accepted expression in Chinese.
Usually, people would just exchange eyes or say something like
"原来是这样啊,我还没明白呢" in sarcasm. "I didn't get the joke at first place, THANK YOU!"
"为了解释清楚,你也是蛮拼的" in sarcasm as well, "You really try hard on explaining to us."
Answer: When someone says or explains something obvious to other people, they usually say "显而易见", which means "it is obvious to everyone" or "it is easy to see".
Comment: I don't think so. "Captain Obvious" is a derogatory term for "too obvious", with the subtext "it is unnecessary to say". Chinese equivalent should be "过于显然,不必废话".
Answer: Actually there are no exact equivalent in Chinese. The accepted answer only explained it literally and didn't get the culture background across.
I think the closest one you can get is 装逼犯.
装逼 means show off your knowledge that everybody knows.
犯 means prisoner. (People hate 装逼 so much. Some even say that it should be considered as a crime. Hence they call the one who is showing off a 犯)
If you are looking for Chinese equivalent of "Thank you, captain obvious!", try "装逼遭雷劈" (If you 装逼, you will get struck by a lightning). Well, we don't show our gratitude to 装逼犯.
The meaning is close and the cultural background is similar. But you can not use it everywhere. The problem is that 逼 literally means woman's sex organ so any 逼-related words are considered as swear words.
Answer: The term " Captain Obvious" has no equivalent in Chinese, it is part of a sarcastic  phrase : " Thank you, Captain Obvious!"  not commonly be used by itself.
A Cantonese sarcastic phrase, " 鬼唔知阿媽係女人咩?" ( who doesn't know  mother is woman?)  express a similar meaning. We say it when someone said something painfully obvious.
in Mandarin, it would be " 誰不知娘親是女人?"

Chinese equivalent of expression


Speaking in English in class

Question: Educational institution compels the non-native students to speak only in English inside the classroom. While this might help a few smart students, I found many students are anxious about attending the class. Even though some students attempt to speak broken sentences, they fail to learn correct usages. What is the best practice to be followed inside the classroom?
Answer: The issue of student anxiety is fairly significant. Having taken many language classes myself I know that it can be scary to try and speak the new language. It is extremely important to make it clear that it's OK to make mistakes.
One way to get students to speak up is to use games as a regular part of the class. The students may get caught up in the game and forget to be nervous (I've seen it happen).
Another method you could try would be to get them to learn English songs (e.g. they could each come to class with a pop song and then explain the lyrics). Poetry may work as well, depending on the ages and linguistic abilities of the students.
Regarding the broken English: this is a problem which will only improve with practice and immersion. For most students it's better to speak a lot in broken English than to be paralyzed by fear of making mistakes. By immersing the students and introducing various inputs which include correct grammar (e.g. books, TV shows) you will probably help them eventually work out the correct way to speak and be understood. If this doesn't seem to be working you could try grammar-based games and assignments.
Answer: The best way to learn a language is by prolonged usage of the same. Ask the students to speak English, irrespective of their fluency. Let them make mistakes. Only then will they learn about the mistake. But make sure their mistakes are corrected, so as to ensure that they don't grow learning incorrect usages and words.

Ask them to write essays or something, in class. If the students can write without many mistakes, they will learn to speak the same way.
You could also conduct reading aloud exercises, and correct their mistakes, all very gently. Also, you could also ask the rest of the class to correct the reader. That way, the reader stands corrected, also, the listening students will not make the same mistakes when they speak in English.
You could assign them books to read, and then conduct book reviews, both oral and written.
You could use dramas, discussions and debates also.
Encourage kids to read the newspaper, and maybe ask them to do a news presentation. This is double-win, as they are updated with the news, and their language is also improving.
Conduct 'Find the errors' programs. Make a passage with errors, both grammatical and pronunciation-based. Ask the students to identify the mistakes and correct them.

There are many more ways to do the same. But these are a few very effective ways to help children in a classroom learn the language faster, and more efficiently.
Comment: Great answer and welcome to Language Learning Varun!
Answer: Keep on using English of course! Practice makes perfect and that is true for lots of things such as perfecting a language. Allow the students to only speak English regardless of their current skill. Better students can help out the newer students on lots of topics such as tenses, pronunciation, and proper word usage (like for instead of four). Most learners learn in a variety of ways such as:

Watching movies, dramas, plays, or some type of show
Using flashcards
Reading
Writing
Talking to themselves and others
Proofreading each other

For group type learning, I recommend:

Writing to each other (such as writing letters)
Group/Popcorn Reading
Social Activities that includes lots of talking

Teachers should also participate and occasionally fix the mistakes. It is best to let the students to find out for themselves as they can reflect and learn and get better.

Speaking in English in class


When did the African-American population become Christian?

Question: As someone who's never been to the USA I might be making a completely wrong assumption, but from all the media, it seems that the majority of the African-American population were traditionally Christian. Knowing that most of their ancestors arrived as slaves from Africa, they could not have been Christians upon arrival(right?). Was there a revival or some other major event that brought them into Christianity?
Comment: It's conceivable that some of the slaves could have been Christian when they arrived. There have been Christians in Africa for almost as long as there have been Christians. Ethiopia has been "officially" Christian since 330 A.D., though I don't know that west Africa has the same kind of heritage. [This map](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:African_slave_trade.png) says where some slaves came from, but does not suggest quantities, AFAICT.
Comment: @AffableGeek: can a Christian use *OMG*? Or is this genuinely calling to God? :)
Comment: You need to watch the film 'twelve years a slave'
Comment: And the movie 'Amistad'.  OMG, I cried at the salvation scene.
Comment: @mojo That map is focused on the slave trade to Europe in the 800s to 1500s.  This is about AMerican slavery, which happened from the 1600s to the 1800s.  The patterns are very different.  The vast majority of American slaves came from the [slave coast](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Coast) - aka modern day Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire.  Ethiopia is on the other side of Africa, and has been mostly Christian since almost the beginning.  No scare quotes needed.'
Comment: @AffableGeek I only said it was conceivable, not that it was probable. I don't have any sources in my head that say one way or the other about what the slaves believed. West Africa is not known for is historic Christian heritage, but I don't actually _know_ anything.
Answer: Pretty much the classic study of the African-American Church in America is E. Franklin Frazier's 1964 The History of the Negro Church in America.  Indeed, its popularity can be evidenced by another book, The History of the Black Church since Frazier.
In a nutshell, the history of the black church in the United States is what you'd expect:

Slaves were brought over
They were taught Christianity
What was unexpected was what happened next:
During the Great Awakening, the church grew
Blacks made the church their own
Christians, seeing other Christians not being treated Christian, changed the culture at large.

The interesting part of the story is the motivation and whether the movement was "forced" upon Blacks or whether it was a blessing coopted by them.

Ever since 1619, when African slaves were imported to Jamestown, the slaves were the nucleus of Christian training and education.  The cynical will say it was a means of controlling the population, and the sociologist may argue that the church was written onto the cultural tabula rasa that arose in the absence of any other common tradition or language. (Per Frazier, the American slave population was drawn from the vastly different regions of the slave coast, and thus there was no single common identity from the Old World.)  And, to be sure, there were "purer" motives of "saving the heathens" - both paternalistic and out of genuine concern.
A modern missiologist, however, would most likely argue that the history of the black church is the history of Joseph - what [we] intended for evil, God used to work for good. Indeed, Frazier argues the church rose as much for economic motives (replacing the tribal cultural an massing the strength of the African American community) as religious ones.
But to merely ascribe the rise of the church to "population control" motives misses out on the fact that the black population truly made the church their own is to do African Americans a major disservice. The story of Richard Allen, Absalom Jones and the rise of the AME church, for example, shows that it was not something "forced" upon them.  In the 1780s's, Jones and Allen led a black congregation that met in St. George's Church in Philadelphia in the early morning. Jealous of the success of that church, the white vestry that owned the building made life progressively more difficult, culminating in an episode in which Allen, in the midst of leading prayer, was savagely beaten at the altar.  His congregation moved out and later helped nurse Philadelphia through an outbreak of yellow fever - in spite of the opposition of the establishment.
As to the amazing rise of the church, it should be remembered that much of the slave trade - muchly stopped by the British who made it illegal to transport slaves across the Atlantic in 1808 - coincided with the First and Second Great Awakenings of the 1700s.  The fact that most African Americans today are Methodist and Baptist is indicative of that fact.  (Remember, they were imported into a colony - my own Virginia - that was strictly Episcopalian, and the "E" in AME is Episcopalian, but that "M" is Methodist). The overall rise in religiousity in American culture simply spilled over across racial lines.
I have no argument that slavery was anything less than unmitigated evil. That it was even justified in theological terms (Cursed be Caanan / Gen 10) is reprehensible.  And indeed, if you look at how segregation in churches was the response to the loss of the Civil War, I think it difficult to justify. But, in the same way that God used the sins of Joseph's brothers to glorify Himself, so to the rise the church that was introduced at the lash of the whip came to change the consciousness of the slave owner.  From the Christian Abolitionist movement of the early 1800s to the Civil Rights era of the 1950s (note, there is a reason Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr called it the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the issue of the "black man" was radically redefined when understood in the light of Jesus. To call the church "forced" upon blacks may have been true for a very short period, but they truly made it their own.
Answer: Here is some excerpts from some research I have done for a book I am writing.
It appears that Slavery began at about the time people began to spread out in ths American Clonies.
Slavery spread quickly in the American colonies. At first the legal status of Africans in America was poorly defined, and some: like European indentured servants, managed to become free after several years of service.
English law in the colonies until 1776, and the Revolutionary war, provided that any slave, who converted to Christianity, would be indentured and would; after their owner's expenses were repaid by servitude, become free citizens, and most were after fulfilling those requirements did convert to Christianity.
Christianity spread quickly among slaves, most of whom were from the African Nations, since those were the nations in which tribal life continued and there was a lack of centralized Government.
Many black Churches were formed by those freed during the colonial period out of possible fear that former owners would try to reclaim them as not really converting.
After 1600 many states passed laws making Slavery permanent, however the  Christian movement among the Blacks had by this time gained much momentum, and slaves quite often would gather outside the open windows of their master's churches, and listen to the Sermons.
After the Civil war Christianity abounded among the freed slaves, and in the south where almost no freed slaves were literate Many used what is now called the Cotton patch Bible.
If you are interested there are a multitude of sites on the internet covering this subject. A simple Google search for Black Christianity history will lead to many different sites.
Comment: This is interesting - I was unaware that conversion implied manumission.  Could you cite that?
Comment: @AffableGeek Here are two of the sites I used in my research this is the most informative about manumission.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr3.html and this one will also give some information:   http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/religion/history.html.  It has been several years since my original research and I do not remember all of my sources, some were books and even periodicals from libraries on line. Sorry I cannot be more explicit.
Answer: I think it's closer to the truth to say that the Africans brought to the US as slaves were exposed to facets of Christianity by many who used it as a tool for subjugation (which then brings into question the sincerity of their faith i.e. were they even Christian to begin with?) as the overwhelming violence surrounding the the nature of enslaved African life in the Americas seems to be in stark contrast to any Christian value.
At any rate early enslaved Africans received a mostly myopic teaching of the Bible focused on the subservience of slaves to slave owners despite the fact that the Bible is a book more about freedom from bondage than anything else. Over time the churches of Africans in America came to gain a fuller understanding of the entire word of God.
Comment: Welcome! We're glad you are here, but this answer would be much stronger if you showed, with sources, that it doesn't merely reflect your opinion.  I hope you'll take a minute to review [how this site is different from others](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/a/1809/21576), and better understand how [your answer can be supported](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/q/692/21576).
Comment: Welcome to Christianity.SE. For a quick overview, please take the [Site Tour](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/tour). Though your answer is clearly heartfelt, and probably has some truth to it, it doesn't actually focus on answering the question, but discusses related issues. This is a Q&A site rather than a discussion site. See: [How we are different than other sites](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/1808/how-we-are-different-than-other-sites).


Can non Jews be buried in a Jewish Cemetery?

Question: Can a non Jew be buried in a Jewish Cemetery under any circumstances?
Comment: Why would you think not? Adding your motivation for your question into the question improves the latter.
Answer: Gittin 61 Says we bury the dead of non-Jews with dead of Jews. (קוברים מתי עכו"ם עם מתי ישראל).
This is mipnei darkei shalom
Rashi there comments that the gemarra shouldn't be understood as "with" literally, but "also" like we bury our own, when we find them together.
Rambam brings gemarra down as is.
Tur brings down gemarra and Rashi. Beis Yosef notes the Ra"n that "finding together" in Rashi is lav davka and we bury them even if we find only a non-Jew. The Ra"n however adds, that we do not bury two people on different levels next to eachother (such as a tzaddik by a rasha, even a tzaddik by a chassid) (SA & Tur YD 382) so this should hold the same reasoning (He uses the phrase כל שכן, usually meaning it's a kal v'chomer).
Rambam evel 14:12 and SA YD 382 bring the din we bury, not entering our current discussion.
Bach YD 151 is medayek from the Rambam that it would be permissable (possibly only referring to the case where they were found together - this point comes and goes and I couldn't understand were it was standing when he reached this part).
According to this source (son of Rabbi Y.M. Lau) different chief rabbis discussed the matter, ruling to forbid it. I've heard Rav Ovadia gave a similar psak.
Here it says Rav Goren allowed it.
Finally Rav Dov Lior answered that if a non-Jew was found buried in a Jewish cemetery - he should be moved. (non-Jewish grave found in Jewish cemetery)
Comment: Why do you assume a gentile is a rasha?
Comment: @DoubleAA, nothing to do with it. He's on a different spiritual level and that's that. Compare [above source](http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14272&st=&pgnum=606&hilite=): "אין קוברין צדיק אצל חסיד מופלג".
Comment: I see. Perhaps you should clarify that in the post, although it's not clear to me that it means spiritual level in an inherent sense or level in terms of his accomplishments. In other words, perhaps a very righteous gentile could be higher than a evil Jew or even a so-so Jew.
Comment: @DoubleAA in some of the sources there is a debate if a _chassid umot ha'olam_ is different from a regular _goy_. At any rate, I wouldn't assume a _goy tzaddik_ would be better than a jew, though corrupt (Note the kal v'chomer in the Bach). But I think this is a whole different discussion :)
Comment: Still not totally clear.  I understand that if found together they can be buried together but Rabbi Gorens case seems to be about someone who thought they were Jewish and maybe this is his reason.  My situation deals with a righteous gentile who has been very involved in his local community who wants to be buried in a Jewish Cemetery
Comment: @MordYisroel That would fit Rav Lau's case.
Comment: We could consider as a hazaka that the non jew used to worship idols.
Comment: "*Rashi there comments that the gemarra shouldn't be understood as "with" literally, but "also" like we bury our own.*" This is also a literal interpretation, and a more plausible one from the context; a simple reading of the gemara does not imply proximate graves.