Is every appearance of a product in a movie sponsored?

Question: Inevitably products that are on sale pop up all the time like cars, whisky and phones. If the props department happens to use an Audi, Jack Daniels or an iphone, do they get in touch with them and see if they can get them to pay for it? Or threaten to use their competitors products?
Comment: Good question. I've noticed quite a few times where the actors are holding products, but with the labels not showing. Though you can clearly tell a coke can even if the label isn't showing. For those times the labels do show, I wondered if they were sponsored or not.
Comment: Good question, but maybe a little broad, as I imagine that every production studio has their own way of handling these things. And the answer to "Is _every_ appearance of a product in a movie sponsored?" is clearly no, and finding a single counterexample should be easy. But knowing this site, I am sure someone will come up with a good answer to cover the whole topic.
Comment: "*to use an Audi, Jack Daniels or an iphone*": has this been sponsored? :)
Answer:
Is every appearance of a product in a movie sponsored?

No.
Free promotion for undisclosed reasons
You'll see plenty of movies where characters use Apple products, however Apple have claimed (via the Washington Post) that they aren't paying for it:

Apple said it does not pay for product placement and would not discuss how its products make their way into television and films.

Though DailyTech claims they achieve this by giving the products to those producing the film:

While most companies have to pay to have their products featured in a TV show or film, Apple has managed to do so for free by simply offering as many free iPhones, iPads, and Macs as needed.

Famously, FedEx didn't pay for the use of their brand in Cast Away, as noted on the Wikipedia article.
Parodies and references
We've also had a related question about mocking companies in Idiocracy, and from the interview posted it sounds like they weren't paid for the (almost) use of their names.
Self promotion
There are also cases where a studio can advertise their own products for free, for example Sony Pictures Entertainment (and their child company, Columbia Pictures) often show off Sony products in their own films, such as The Smurfs and Casino Royale.
Other examples would be when a character is watching TV (usually the well-timed news broadcast) and the News channel is one that the studio own. For example Fox's 24 will only ever show Fox News or Sky News (in Live Another Day), both of which they own.

Do they get in touch with them and see if they can get them to pay for it?

Presumably, yes, if they need the money. Financing films is hard, and independent film-makers have nothing to lose by trying, though I have found plenty of articles saying it's very unlikely companies will be willing to contribute to a film unless they have a reasonable expectation of making their money back (for example having famous people working on the project that will draw an audience).
Comment: *Seinfeld* creators [always claimed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld#Consumer_products) they didn't get paid for mentioning all those brand names on their show (sometimes basing entire plots around them); they simply thought they were funny little slices of Americana.
Answer: I worked for Ben Affleck's studio LivePlanet (Project Greenlight, The Running Man) for a year.  We did have a few sponsorships for each of our shows. In general, we just went to great lengths to exclude any brand references, because in made-for-television content, conflicts with sponsorships can be a problem.
For example, if one of our shows happened to pan across a Coke can, but the television network had a lucrative Pepsi ad deal, we might have to go back and blur the can or even edit out the scene.  It's much easier to just keep all brand references out.


RAID 1 Status

Question: In a RAID 1 that is going bad what does the status's "Current" and "dropped" mean?
Answer: You'll need to provide a lot more detail.  What controller?  What OS?  What tool?  What context?
Generally I'd say dropped would mean a bad drive (failed, faulty, etc), if its listed beside a drive.
Answer: As Steven and David has already mentioned, you have not provided enough information for anyone to be able to help you.
I'd suggest that you read Eric Raymond's essay How To Ask Questions The Smart Way and then edit your question to provide more detail.
Answer: You will need to give more details (OS, hardware RAID controller or software? which controller/software?, how are you reading these status?, can you give a fuller readout instead of just those two words?, ...) to get a genuinely useful answer.
If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that "dropped" indicates a drive that the controller/software has determined is bad and has been dropped from the array and needs replacing.

RAID 1 Status


Fastest Delaunay triangulation libraries for sets of 3D points

Question: Which is the fastest library for performing delaunay triangulation of sets with millions if 3D points? Are there also GPU versions available? From the other side, having the voronoi tessellation of the same set of points, would help (in terms of performance) for getting the delaunay triangulation?
Comment: Have you tried the implementations in the CGAL and TRIANGLE softwares?  Both include $O(nlog(n))$ algorithms, which are (theoretically) the fastest available (albeit not in parallel).
Comment: Jonathan Shewchuk also has a streaming version for 2D that can handle ridiculously large datasets if you can add some extra data to your stream. What are you using this for?
Answer: For computing three-dimensional Delaunay triangulations (tetrahedralizations, really), TetGen is a commonly used library.
For your convenience, here's a little benchmark on how long it takes to compute the terehedralization of a number of random points from the unit cube.  For 100,000 points it takes 4.5 seconds on an old Pentium M.

(This was done with Mathematica's TetGen interface.  I don't know how much overhead it introduces.)
Regarding your other question: if you already have the Voronoi tessellation, then getting the Delaunay triangulation is a relatively simple transformation.
Answer: gStar4D is a fast and robust 3D Delaunay algorithm for the GPU. It is implemented using CUDA and works on NVIDIA GPUs.
Similar to GPU-DT, this algorithm constructs the 3D digital Voronoi diagram first. However, in 3D this cannot be dualized to a triangulation due to topological and geometrical problems. Instead, gStar4D uses the neighborhood information from this diagram to create stars lifted to 4D and performs star splaying on them efficiently on the GPU. By extracting the lower hull from this, the 3D Delaunay triangulation is obtained.
The fastest 3D Delaunay implementation is gDel3D, which is a hybrid GPU-CPU algorithm.
It performs parallel insertion and flipping on the GPU. The result is close to Delaunay. It then fixes this result using a conservative star splaying method on the CPU.
Both these methods are robust, so they can handle any kind of degenerate input. They can handle millions of points, if you have GPU memory large enough to hold the intermediate data structures.
Disclosure: I am the author of these algorithms and implementations :)
Comment: Welcome to SciComp.Se, Ashwin! In the interest of full disclosure, you should add that you are the author of this software (see http://meta.scicomp.stackexchange.com/a/342/1804).
Answer: I would recommend trying CGAL
http://www.cgal.org/Manual/latest/doc_html/cgal_manual/Triangulation_3/Chapter_main.html#Section_39.2
, as Paul suggested above.
CGAL is a robust and well-supported library that has been around quite some time. I've used it happily in the past, even on point sets with co-linear and co-planar points. I don't know if it's the very fastest today, but it is certainly a good place to start.
The link above also includes some performance numbers: it can do a million points in about 10 seconds, and 10 million in about 1.5 mins.
Comment: Also, could you expand on why you recommend it?  Do you have experience with it?
Answer: If you already have the voronoi diagram of a set of points, then computing the Delaunay triangulation will only take you O(n). Equivalently, given a voronoi point, you can obtain its Delaunay triangle in O(1). They are dual so try exploiting this situation whenever is possible.
Answer: You can try the geogram software that I'm developping:
http://alice.loria.fr/software/geogram/doc/html/index.html
It has a parallel algorithm that computes the DT of
14 million vertices in less than 19 seconds on an Intel Core I7
(for 1 million vertices it takes around 0.8 s)
Comment: Welcome to SciComp.SE! In the interest of full disclosure (and to show that you know what you are talking about), you should mention that you are the developer of this software.


Does cgminer have to be on for me to solo mine for bitcoins

Question: I see my antminer has cgminer built into it.
Do I need to have cgminer on my computer screen while "solo mining" for bitcoins ? or can I just have the antminer on and hashing straight through the router ?
Comment: Related: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/36845/solo-mine-with-an-antminer?rq=1
Answer: cgminer is just the client software to control your ASICs. Where cgminer gets it's work from is your question and that depends ...

You can run your own full node and point your hashing power there
or way easier would be to just use some hosted solo pool like http://solo.ckpool.org/

On the website you finde further information on how to solo mine.
Answer: The basic idea of mining is that there is a node which has work (actually calculating hashes) to distribute to (usually a pool of) workers. Your Antminder would typically be such a worker, i.e. it is usually configured to ask a pool for work, do work and report results back.
The idea of solo mining typicalls means to run your own local pool on your machine (which of course doesn't charge you anything) and run just one worker.
What that means related to your question:
Theoretically, an Antminer ist a computer after all, so it should be able to run a node which distributed work to itself, which is what solo mining is all about. Just I haven't seen any option to enable this in the Antminer GUI. This maybe due to the fact that if was probably academic anyway as solo mining will not generate any coins for you anymore. Also it may be an issue if your Antminder would have sufficient storage capacity to run a node.


good application to detect drive failures

Question: Right now, i've got a machine with several drives in it, of various size/make, in various configurations.  I'm running Windows 2008R2 server.
Every once in a while, i will hear one of the drives click intermittently, but I don't know which one (I cannot manually reproduce the problem, though it happens all the time).  The configuration is so convoluted that my ability to actually boot and run the system properly without one or more drives is difficult at best so I can't localize the problem. I'm positive its a hard drive and not a fan or CDROM or something.
S.M.A.R.T. is enabled in my bios, though NOTHING has been throwing any errors.  Any drive scanning tool i've run has failed to spot any problems - yet the clicking continues.
Can someone suggest a util/approach to find out whats going on?
Comment: Have you tried tools that show the SMART parameters?
Answer: Have you looked at SpinRite?
Comment: Great program. Some drive makers have their own tools as well. Check the web site of the maker for diag tools.  I know Western Digital and Seagate both have them.


PNG shadow shows as white border on android device

Question: I am creating few icons with Drop shadow blending option in Photoshop. Then I save the icon as PNG with Transparency as 'chekced' and Matte as 'None'. The shadow looks fine on desktop but when my developer places those icons in his app, and runs on android device, all the shadows show as solid white border instead of transparent shadow. What changes should I make in my Photoshop settings to produce correct images?
Comment: A pretty basic question: does the software on the Android actually *support* transparency? (Because this is *exactly* what you would get if it does not.)
Answer: In HTML, the place where you have the dynamic image, add a border tag to 0.
example -
<code>border="0"
</code>
Comment: The images will be output on android app. the developer is doing native android development using Java. I think there is no border tag there.
Answer: You should use "Save for web" and then choose png24 instead of png8 there. it would save your image transparency pixels more acuire.
Let me know if it helps you
Answer: If the image looks ok on your computer there's nothing wrong with the PNG file. Can you save the icon as a GIF instead, or does it offer to few colors?
Comment: GIF also looks fine on computer. But my developer says he is not able to render GIF on the android device. His other designer always gave him PNG only. Sorry, I am quite new to designing for android app. This is my first project.


Locally static IP address

Question: I would like to create static local IP addresses so I can ssh and network Pis easier.  I've found some tutorials online for how to make static IP address such as for setting up a public server.  Because I'm only networking Pis across a switch, I don't need the extra work of making them publicly accessible.  What is the most minimalist way to create only a locally static IP address on raspbian?  What range of addresses can I use?
Comment: While there are other methods,like manually configuring the pi wi a static address, the DHCP solution mentioned in two answers (so far) is really the best.
Answer: You need to set up a DHCP reservation on your router. DHCP is the protocol used by routers to dynamically assign IP addresses to devices on the network. You can tell the router the MAC address of your Raspberry Pi and the IP address you want it to have, and it will always reserve this address for the Pi, even if it's disconnected for a time. This doesn't require any configuration on the Pi's end.
Routers have all kinds of different interfaces, but I am pretty confident that this is a feature all will have. I can't give a guide for all routers, but here is a tutorial that might help, and Googling around with the name/model of your router will probably turn up more specific results.
As far as I know, you can use just about any IP address in the private network range. I would go for anything with 192.168.1.X where X is from 2 to 255. 192.168.1.1 is usually reserved for the router itself. If you want more info see the Wikipedia article about Reserved IP addresses.
Answer: Add the addresses to /etc/hosts on each machine.
Something like
192.168.1.66  machine_1
192.168.1.67  machine_2

The 192.168.X.X addresses are non routeable so are quite safe to use.
Comment: Is the 192.168 part unique to each router?
Comment: Doesn't this just map dynamic ip to a hostname, so restarting machine_1 could make this not work?
Comment: I think you will want to do this in addition to DHCP reservation. This just tells the client machines how to interpret the names of the Pis as IPs. Most routers use 192.168.X.X, some (like Apple routers) use 10.0.X.X.
Answer: I believe this command is the true easiest way to set a static IP address
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 your_ip_addr

source: https://www.linux.com/component/content/article/9400?format=pdf
Answer: STEP 1 Find your default gateway IP by
$ route -ne

Under the Gateway column, you will find  your Default Gateway IP (192.168.1.0 in my case) for each interface .
Note it down .
STEP 2
Find out the IP addresses of your domain name servers by
$ cat /etc/resolv.conf

note down the IP's displayed
( simply copy numbers n text (may be ) after nameserver , ( there will be one / many , just copy them
Generated by resolvconf
nameserver 192.168.1.1       (copy 192.168.1.1 )
nameserver XXX.xx.XX.xx:ff   (copy XXX.xx.XX.xx:ff )
nameserver xx.xx.xx.xx       (copy xx.xx.xx.xx)
for me i got only '192.168.1.1 '
STEP 3
Editting dhcpdc.conf
$ sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

you will find few lines with # in the beginning , scroll to the end
and add these lines
> IMPORTANT THIS IP'S ARE AS PER MY HARDWARE <
interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.1.100 #your desired static IP (eth0)
interface wlan0
static ip_address=192.168.1.99 #your desired static IP (wlan0)
static routers=192.168.1.1 #default gateway IP address (from STEP 1)
static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1 XXX.xx.XX.xx:ff xx.xx.xx.xx #IP's  found in the /etc/resolv.conf file,(from STEP 2) Seperate each IP with a single space.
Save the changes made
Ctrl-X and Y
STEP 4
$ sudo reboot

STEP 5
check that everything is working correctly
 lets ping Google
 sudo ping www.google.com

Answer: As others have mentioned, one way to do this is to configure it at the router, and assign a static address that way.
Alternatively, ssh into the pi and set the appropriate settings in your /etc/network/interfaces file. Before you begin you can examine the existing settings by running cat /etc/network/interfaces.
Here's pretty step by step tutorial for how to customize this config for a static ip.
One other thing to be mindful of-- set your static IP to something not already taken, I.E. not your gateway or another computer or you'll run into trouble. It is generally easier to find unallocated addresses in the IP range on the higher end of the spectrum.
Answer: Also You can create network interface alias:
iface eth0:1 inet static
address 192.168.1.81
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.254

Answer: I believe what OP has marked answered is correct only for temporarily setting it. It will reset on reboot?
The way to do it is to
    sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.backup
    sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

In the nano editor file, ensure you enter the following:
    #This is a static IP configuration
    auto eth0
    iface eth0 inet static

    #Your static IP based on your router config
    address 192.168.1.xx

    #Leave the netmask as usual
    netmask 255.255.255.0

    #Your router IP
    gateway 192.168.1.x
    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback

Make sure you save by CTRL+O to writeout and save.

Locally static IP address


Ask a friend to carry on Shabbos

Question: Suppose there are two friends: one holds of the eiruv and the other doesn't. Is the second allowed to ask the first to carry for him?
And if the first anyways carried it, can the second benefit from it?
Comment: Closely related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/14600
Comment: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/14600/may-i-rely-on-the-halachik-leniency-of-others#comment27379_14606
Answer: Harav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach paskens quoted in Meor HaShabbat Peninei Homer 3:8 in regards to opening up bottle caps (which some are makpid not to open on Shabbos) if one may open it for someone else who is makpid not open them. Rav Shlomo Zalman says that it depends on whether the one abstaining from opening it does so because they hold that it is inherently forbidden according to halacha, if yes then it is forbidden to ask someone else to preform the melacha for you.
However, if the person is doing it only as a personal stringency because of the minhag of his Rabbis or father, then it is perfectly permissible to open the bottle cap for them.
Thus, in this instance if the one not carrying is refraining because personal stringency, it is permitted. However, if he is doing it because he holds that there is no basis halachically to rely on this particular Eruv, then it is forbidden to carry for them.
Comment: @Zvi http://halachipedia.com/index.php?title=Opening_bottles_and_cans#cite_ref-23
Comment: do you have a source for that? I believe he held that one should never ask another..
Answer: There are different reasons why some people do not use Eruv's.
If you do not use it since you hold that it is no good, then you would have no right to ask someone else to carry for you, as you are according to your belief causing him to be Mechalel Shabbos. However if you hold that really it is good, however you do not use it in order to remember there is such a Halacha as Hotzaa on Shabbos or for whatever other reason, then there is no problem asking someone else to carry for you.
As always CYLOR
Comment: +1; this all sounds eminently plausible; but do you have a source for any of it?
Answer: Being in this exact scenario, I asked my Rav this same question about two years ago. His answer was that, since my friend relied upon our 'eiruv, his carrying from reshut to reshut on Shabbat on my behalf is permissible. He added that, just because I hold that our 'eiruv should not be relied upon, does not forbid his carrying on my behalf - because according to his Halakhah it's kosher.
This is brought down as Halakhah in Qitzur Shulhhan Arukh - Yalqut Yosef, Orahh Hayim 301:1 (my translation):

ומכל מקום גם המחמירים בזה רשאים ליתן את הטלית או המטפחת למי שנוהג לטלטל, אפילו הוא בר מצוה, והנח להם לישראל.
In any case, even those stringent in this matter are permitted to give their tallit or scarf to one whose custom it is to transfer between domains, even if he is a Bar Mitzwah - and "let Israel go their way".
Comment: I fail to see the analogy at all. There is no asking in the meat case.
Comment: Fair enough; removed poor analogy and added citation.

Ask a friend to carry on Shabbos


Starting rider mower

Question: Hi is it safe  to start my rider mower inside a shed with the doors wide open in order to drive it out?  Rather than push it out to the lawn  manually and then start.
Comment: What do you call safe? You will not die instantly of it, but if you do this every day, it could cause premature death due to bad lung health.
Answer: What could go wrong?

Starting it inside the shed doesn't have enough ventilation, so you breathe a toxic amount of carbon monoxide. This seems like a relatively small problem as long as you get moving quickly. You'll probably have to use your own judgment here based on how your lungs feel after driving it out once or twice.
With the motor running, perhaps the blade also moves and it slices into the ramp as you exit the shed. I guess you'd only do that once before figuring out how to disengage or adjust the ramp or drive at an angle so this isn't a problem.
You hit reverse instead of drive (or vice versa) and end up smashing through the wall of the shed.

And, as always, you should wear personal protection equipment while riding the mower such as hearing protection, eye protection, and close-toed shoes.
Answer: With the doors of the shed wide open there should be no problems in starting it up inside the shed to drive it out under its own power.  Those blades better be separate from the drive forward and reverse of the engine.
How much of a tilt is your ramp?  Does your mower sit in the shed flat?  Do not add gasoline/oil within the shed.  If your mower doesn't start on the second ignition then get it out of the shed.  I did this with Harley motorcycles, easier to back down a ramp while on rather than neutral.  Do not store flammables if you are wanting to start in the shed.  Do not smoke?
Easier to back it into the shed after done to roll down going forward the next time you use it.  Clean under the deck and allow to dry before replacing in your shed.  Whenever messing with maintenance always disengage the spark plug.  Remember how they started those propeller antique planes?  They cranked on the propeller and it started the engine and propeller?  Same stuff.  Tilt towards the oil fill of your mower, not away.
Empty your bag of grass and allow it to dry separate from your mower.  Change filters often.  Sharp blades always.

Starting rider mower


When on New Caprica, can a crisis effect move a player from Detention to the Medical Center?

Question: When on New Caprica in the Pegasus expansion, can a crisis effect move a player from Detention to the Medical Center?  The Cylon players allowed it in the individual instance to try and keep the game running and fun, but we had some doubts about whether or not it is legal to be forced out of Detention simply by a crisis forcing the current player to move someone on New Caprica to the Medical Center.
Answer: I'de say no.  Even thought the rules don't spell it out explicitly I think it's clear enough.
First, detention and the bring are treated to be the same thing, especially for player powers.
Second, according to the FAQ (page 2, bottom of the first column) nothing can move a player out of the brig except a successful skill check for the brig location action.  So by extension this applies to the detention center.
Third, thematically it didn't happen (spoiler follows).

 When Tigh was in the detention center and Cavil ripped his eye out, he left him there.  Even when he kicked the snot out of him as well he left them there.  He totally should have gone to the medical tent but didn't.
Comment: Thank ya--the FAQ listed there had the full answer in it:  Q: Do forced-movement effects such as Louanne "Kat"
Katraine's "Stim Junkie" ability or the effects of crisis
cards that force a player to move to Sickbay affect
characters in the "Brig" or "Detention" locations?
A: No.
Answer: I remember seeing an FAQ somewhere that addressed this. No effect can move a player from detention/the brig short of a political card providing the means for it, or passing the skill check. That's it.


Is BBS used for generation of keys for any modern cryptosystem?

Question: Is there any (current) cryptosystem or digital signature or cryptographic primitive that uses the BBS PRG in order to generate its secret keys?
Comment: Why do you ask?
Answer: I don't know of any implementations that use BBS.  I hope no important system is using BBS.  BBS is a poor choice for practical use.  The only benefit it has is that it comes with some security proofs -- but it turns out that those proofs are useless for all practical instantiations of BBS (for realistic parameter settings), so they're pretty much irrelevant in practice.  See Blum Blum Shub vs. AES-CTR or other CSPRNGs for details.
Comment: @111, right, but: if it doesn't have a security proof, then BBS has no advantages over competing schemes, so there would be no good reason to choose BBS.
Comment: I saw the link you suggested, and I understand that BBS with a "logical "modulus (say at most 4096 bits) does not come with a security proof, which does not imply that it is not secure.
Answer: I am not aware of any implementation of this proposal, but it should be secure: Usually, when theoretically designing a cryptosystem, one assumes access to a good (pseudo)randomness source without precisely specifying its nature. It is certainly possible to use a Blum-Blum-Shub generator, but care must be taken that its modulus and initial state are chosen in a secure way: the generated random sequence is just as weak as the seed, so a system that does this must have access to a good entropy source, which you could just use instead. In case this is undesirable (for instance, when the entropy source yields bits very slowly or becomes unavailable after initialization), stretching an initial high-entropy seed using any cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generator should be good. However, Blum-Blum-Shub is very slow compared to other generators (such as, for instance, Keccak/SHA3), which is likely the reason this design is not used in practice with Blum-Blum-Shub.


Does doubling counters trigger Hardened Scales?

Question: I have a Hardened Scales and Setessan Oathsworn with no counters on the battlefield. I cast Solidarity of Heroes on the Oathsworn, it gets three counters from it's heroic trigger which happens while the Solidarity is still on the stack. When the Solidarity resolves will it have 6 counters total or 7? Does doubling counters translate to "add as many counters as it has" or is it some special rule that changes the count without "adding" (thus not triggering the Scales).
Answer: When the card says to "double the number of +1/+1 counters" on a creature, it means that you should place on to that creature as many +1/+1 counters as are currently on it. This means that Hardened Scales applies, so Setessan Oathsworn will end up with 7 +1/+1 counters on it.
Unfortunately, I can't find a rules reference to back this up, but the basic idea is that after Solidarity of Heroes resolves, there are more counters on the creature than before it resolved, and the only way that could have happened (from the point of view of the game rules) is if you put counters on it. There is no other applicable action that has that result.
Comment: Put another way, in order to double the number of counters you have to add counters equal to its current number of counters. When you attempt to do this Hardened Scales' replaces that effect with the alternative.
Answer: The relevant rule seems to be:

121.6. If a spell or ability refers to a counter being "placed" on a permanent, it means putting a counter on that permanent while it's on the battlefield, or that permanent entering the battlefield with a counter on it as the result of an effect (see rule 614.1c).

It is not entirely clear, but my understanding is that it means that "placed" includes all ways one or more counters may end up on a permanent (including the initial placement from entering the battlefield).
Thus, doubling the counters will trigger the ability as long as there were any counters in the first place (i.e. doubling zero counters does not place counters).
Answer: To double any type of counters, you place an additional number of counters on the permanent equal to the number of counters that are already on the permanent.
By definition, to "add" a counter, is to place an additional counter. Thus, to place an additional counter, is to "add" a counter.


What was the surname of the Pandavas?

Question: Please somebody tell that what was the surname or title of the Pandavas? Was it Chakraborty because they were also called "Chakraborty Samrat"?
Comment: "Kuru" seems closest ("YAdava" for Krishna).
Comment: "Chakravartin" refers to an ideal ruler(an emperor) who rules a huge amount of land & people,much greater than those ruled by ordinary kings.So the "Chakravarty" in "Chakravarty samrat" does not refer to a surname.It denotes a title.
Comment: They were all Kurus. They are called as Pandavas in order to differentiate them from the kuru sons of Dhritarashtra. They were known as the sons of Pandu that's why called Pandavas but actually "Pandavas" and "Kauravas" all were "Kuru".
Answer: The Surname is modern concept , in ancient times all the Dwijas (dwija jaatis) used to have similar surnames according to their varnas. When a dwija greeted somebody he used to recite adhivadan to the other respected one like a Bramhin would say

abhivadaye name (sharma) ahamasmibho (ManuSmriti 2.122)

The Sharma is to be replaced by Verma for Kshatriyas and Guptas for Vaishyas. So In case of pandavas they would've acknowledged themselves as

abhivadye Yudhishtir Verma Ahamasmibho

In other words they would take verma as their last name, since it is vedic convention.
About their family lineage they were descendants of Puru Dynasty which was a chandravanshi Dynasty. So basically Pandavas have a Generic identity as Chandravanshi Kshatriya Kaurava /Puru vanshi which ended up with nanda dynasty
Important  the abhivadan is not limited to the lines manusmriti mentions it includes recitation of your gotra pravaras/Raja Rishi lienage etc.(Raj Rishi is used for Kshatriyas instead of Normal Rishis). That is why I have posted another question on abhivadan/abhivadyae.
Chakraborty or Chakravartin is not a surname rather it is a word to depict a great/righteous ruler.
More Information on Kuru Kingdom
Comment: @AmitSaxena No Sharma verma and Gupta are ancient surnames/terms which are mentioned in manusmriti, and other texts(like Bramhanas). When the abhivadan rule is given Sharma is added for bramhana... and so on for other varnas. Since abhivadan is very ancient concept so the Sharma Verma and Gupta concept is also ancient. I think it may be mentioned in some Bramhanas or Ghriyas sutras like Sankyayan Ghriya sutra of Rig veda as well, as in manusmriti and other dharma shastras. More on abhivadan http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/10497/how-to-do-abhivadan-in-sandhyavandana.
Comment: Aren't Sharma and Verma modern conceptions?
Answer: I am not sure if folks in that time had more of surname as such.. Like before last 100 years, families would be known by some "family/caste/denomination" names.. I remember my family had one of that family name.. For many families, those names still carry forward as a proper last name/surname and for many others, they chose another good surname ..
To attempt an answer for you - I think those times Kings had more of "dynasty" name as family name rather than first name and last name to fill the forms.
Yayati was the King who had 2 sons - Puru and Yadu and Yadu was elder and Puru was younger...  legends follow that the "Puru" was the winner of the throne and his sons and grandsons rules the Dynasty of "Hastinapur" whereas "Yadavs" never took over.
So years and years after, in times of Pandavas and Kauravas - all descendents of Yayati's younger son -"Puru" are known to be "Purus"
So I would say - "Yudhisthir Puru, Bhim Puru, Arjun Puru, etcc :)
 ~~~ This is a view of what I understood from various sources including own life experiences, there may be better explanation/justification.
Comment: FYI, Chakraborty  is a title of Respect or you may call it as earned degree.. Like now a days people put PMP with their names everywhere..
Comment: What is PMP? Is it some kind of abbreviation?
Answer: Kuru is the name of the clan to which Kaurav's and Pandav's belonged. King 'Yayati', their forefather and ancestor was the descendent of Lunar Lineage or Chandra Vansha. During that time surnames were not used, rather "Varna" was used to describe the caste/community of a tribe to whom one belong. The Kuru clan, thus belonged to 'Kshatriya' Varna. Also, pls note that during the 'Yagna' or Marriage the clan was known by the Guru or Maha-rishi they followed. Guru Dronacharya, although their chief Guru/Seer/Sage of Kuru Vansh or Kul, but he was only their Teacher and not their Kul Guru.
All the current descendent of Kuru vansh has only these 2 Surnames - Tomar/ Tanwar and 2 Gotras - Attri or Vyaghra - Both were their Kul Gurus. Sage Attri was Kul Guru of Yayati and Sage Vyaghra was Kul Guru of last Kuru's. Most of the today's clan of Kuru Vansh is found in Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Comment: Welcome to Hinduism SE! Kindly add references to your answer!
Answer: I think  Chakraborty is right because this is truth that the Pandavas were also called Chakraborty Samrat. My guru told me that Chakraborty was non-other than the surname of the Pandavas. Chakraborty families are Brahmins and also Kshatriyas and Pandavas too. I am himself from a Chakraborty family,so I know that Pandavas were my forefathers. Believe me and this is truth!
Comment: Chakraborty is a *title* not a surname, whichever king conquered the rest of the kingdoms was called as Chakravarti.

What was the surname of the Pandavas?


Deleting InProgress Registry key from windows registry

Question: I am using Adobe flash professional cs6 for developing facebook Apps while installing the Adobe Flash professional cs6 It can't installing throwing System Error,When googling I found that the solution to the problem is to delete the InProgress registry key But I don't found any InProgress Registry key In Windows 7 Registry to delete please let me know how to delete the In Progress registry key
Answer: One reason could be if you've used one of those free "registry cleaners" on your PC. You might still be able to download from IE if this is the case.


Restore Unity Greeter

Question: I've installed XFCE Desktop environment, but when I decide to switch back to Unity, while uninstalling the XFCE packages, the LightDM keep starts like XFCE, and I want to restore the Unity one. I think that is called Unity Greeter. Can someone help me?
Comment: Could you take a picture so we could see exactly what you mean?
Answer: I installed xubuntu-desktop on top of normal Ubuntu 14.04. Then I also noticed that the greeter had changed. I still use the xubuntu desktop, but I changed the greeter back by adding a line
greeter-session=unity-greeter

into /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/10-xubuntu.conf.
Update: Now on a new install of Ubuntu 14.10 + xubuntu-desktop on top of that, there is no directory lightdm.conf.d under /etc/lightdm. But following advice from here I created the directory /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d and a file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-myconfig.conf with contents
[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity-greeter

and I get the unity greeter back.
Comment: This works on 16.04 too. Thanks!
Comment: works on 16.10 as well
Answer: I didn't test it, but I suspect that @SampoSmolander might have the best approach.
Alternatively, I had success by removing the gtk greeter -- apparently this is what XFCE uses.
sudo apt-get purge lightdm-gtk-greeter

There still remains the tricky issue of getting rid of XFCE's mouse-themed greeter wallpaper:

How do I change the wallpaper of the login screen?
How do I set the LightDM wallpaper in Ubuntu 14.04?

Note: It looks like multiple desktop environments install the lightdm-gtk-greeter package (including XFCE and MATE).  Interestingly, once you remove that package, the configuration files that @SampoSmolander discusses are no longer present.
Answer: I had a similar problem. @SampoSmolander's answer might be the right way.
When using Ubuntu 14.04 you'll have to add the line
[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity-greeter

into /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-myconfig.conf
I wrote a detailed how-to, but I don't know if it works, because LightDM reconfiguration seems to have solved the problem for me.
Answer: cd /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d && sudo ln -s 50-unity-greeter.conf 99-unity-greeter.conf and reboot the system.
The problem is caused by lightdm-gtk-greeter installing file called 60-lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf which overrides the unity greeter. I guess we should be able to just do sudo update-alternatives --config lightdm-greeter and select unity-greeter but unity-greeter package is incorrectly built and it does not support update-alternatives.
The above command workarounds the problem by creating a symbolic link with higher number so it can override the incorrect greeter selection. I'm using symbolic link to be better prepared for the future in case the file 50-unity-greeter.conf is ever upgraded by system package.
Answer: Try:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

Comment: I've tried that. Same login screen :(
Answer: You could try enter this in the terminal, and it might fine this way I say:
 sudo apt-get autoremove lightdm
 sudo apt-get install --reinstall lightdm-gtk-greeter

if this dos not work you could try enter again:
 sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a lightdm-gtk-greeter

and it might work fine this way too.
Answer: I had a similar problem, I lost the greeter on user switch.   The solution was in the package light-locker. Just reinstall, (or install if it was removed)
sudo apt-get install light-locker

In my case it was uninstalled, but the key is the package.
Answer: To set the unity greeter as default, in Ubuntu 16.04 login screen, edit the file
/usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/60-lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf

and change the "greeter-session" line to "greeter-session=unity-greeter"

Restore Unity Greeter


About the island of Knights and Knaves

Question: On one of the Islands of Knights and Knaves you land for the purposes of an anthropological survey. The Island has Knights who always tell the truth ( if they know enough information regarding a question put to them) and Knaves who always lie ( also if they know enough relevent info.) ( Of course a Knight or Knave could respond with a respectively true of false statement even if they didn't know enough relevent info.) Also on the Island are the Tax-collectors , inhabitants who sometimes lie and sometimes tell the truth. The thing is these tax-collectors are very good at hiding what 'type' of inhabitant they are. For example if you ask directly a person whom you don't know is a tax-collector 'What is (2+2)?', If he answers 4 and you ask him again in one hour he won't say 5. The tax collectors have great memories and even if he forgets a previous response he might say, 'What did I say before'? You're wondering if there is one sure fire yes-or-no question that if a person responds you can tell what 'type' they are. Is there such a question?
Answer: A simple counter example would be the horrible island of all tax-collectors, who all mimic knights perfectly - always tell the truth about everything, except pretending that everyone on the island is a knight.
You could have a lifetime of questions on this island and could never find any difference to an island full of actual knights.
Answer: Intuitive Answer
Assuming "sometimes lies and sometimes tells the truth" means that a tax collector will lie for at least one question and tell the truth for at least one question, then we can have the following two tax collector collections:

Tax collectors of type #1 will give the same answer a Knight gives except for "does 1=1?", where they'll say "no".
Tax collectors of type #2 will tell the same answer a Knight gives except for "does 2=2?", where they'll say "no".

The first question cannot distinguish #1 from Knaves or #2 from Knights. The second question cannot distinguish #2 from Knaves or #1 from Knights. For any other question, the tax collectors are functionally identical to Knights and cannot be distinguished. So the answer is no, no single question is enough to distinguish Knights and Knaves from Tax Collectors.
Note that using "answers like a Knight" instead of "tells the truth" means we don't have to think about tricky meta questions ("what would you say if I asked you 'does 1=1 AND is your answer to 2=2 false'?"), because the tax collector will treat the entire thing as if it were a Knight, not break it down and answer each piece like a tax collector.
Math Answer
There are three possibilities: Knight, Knave, tax collector. There are two possibilities for an answer: yes, no. So for any given question, one answer must map to Knight/Knave and the other must map to Knight or collector/Knave or collector. So you can't distinguish them with just one question.
Comment: There are at least 3 possible answers ; yes , no and some response equivalent to maybe. Just because you ask a yes or no question you can't stop the inhabitant from saying 'maybe' or 'I don't know' or 'that's a good question'. I said in the question, you want to ask a 'yes or no' question and from their response ( whatever it is) you can tell what type they are. I noticed hovercouch made an excellent point that a Knight wouldn't say 'maybe', though I think a Knave could say 'maybe' (if is not the truth).
Comment: Well put.  If a tax collector is indistiguishable from another type of person, there is no way to establish a difference between them.  Maybe you learn what they are *not*, but it is not enough to infer who they are with a single question.
Answer: From the formulation I would conclude that a tax-collector can answer whatever he finds reasonable, using any unknown algorithm to generate answer. This includes random generator algorithms for questions which are asked a first time (and the next time, he will repeat the answer).
In this case, it is quite obvious that the answer is no. There is no useful information that you can extract from a tax-collector answer independently of what you are asking. This includes information about the type of the asked person.
(Though, if you know somebody who is not tax-collector you can ask about a person you are interested in "what would you answer if I ask you what type is this person?".)
Comment: @user128932 I think we, the puzzler answerers, might be misunderstanding the question. Tax collectors can follow a strategy, right? If so, that doesn't work, because a tax collector can have the strategy "give the same answer a knight would give" and say no.
Comment: @user128932 if Mr. E says 'maybe' you immediately know he's a tax collector, since Knights and Knaves would never say "maybe".
Comment: Say an inhabitant you don't know named Mr. E is you're next interviewee. You might ask if a tax collector was here also ( and Mr. E knows this person) and you ask them both this 'special' question ( if it exists) would they answer in a similar way? If Mr. E is a Knave and the special question 'works' he would say Yes. If Mr. E is a Knight he would No. If Mr.E is a tax collector he might say yes but this would show he is not a Knight. Since he wants to hide his type he might not say yes. Similarly he might not say no. He might say 'maybe'.
Comment: @user128932, I don't understand your point..
Comment: If you meet Mr.E and you as ask him if he had a friend here who was the same 'type' as himself and he asked  the 'special question' ( if it exits) to his friend would his friend possibly say 'Maybe I'm not the same type as you Mr.E'? If Mr.E is a Knight he would say 'no'. If Mr.E is a knave he would say yes. If the person is a tax-collector  he would know a tax-collector might say yes to the question or he might not so in this case a true answer might be 'maybe' if he was speaking the truth. So this is a partial answer to whether there is a question that can tell the 3 'types'.
Comment: If there is no one 'special' question could there be two questions you could ask an inhabitant and by the responses tell what type the person is?
Comment: Is there a question the tax-collector could neither answer yes or no?
Comment: I think these 3 questions would solve the problem of determining what type an inhabitant is..
Comment: Three questions that could determine what type an inhabitant is are; A:'Are you a knight and does '1+1=2 in 'Basic Math?'; B:'Can a tax collector contradict himself?'; C:'Is  it true you are a non-knight or that '1+1 does not equal 2 in basic math ?' A Knight would answer ( yes, yes, no) to  A,B,C respectively. If a tax collector answered yes to B that would be true; yes to A and no to C can't both be true. C is equivalent to 'Is it not true you are a knight and '1+1=2'( in basic math)?' So a T.C.(tax-collector) can't mimic a knight. He similarly can't mimic a Knave.
Comment: @user128932 That wouldn't work. The tax collector's strategy could be "Answer A, B,C with 'yes, yes, no', otherwise say 'no'." Or it could be "answer randomly unless it would lead to me contradicting myself." Or it could be "always give the same answer a knight would." Or it could be "I am able to contradict myself, but I'm not contradicting myself RIGHT NOW."
Comment: He could answer 'randomly' with 'yes' to B but that would be a true answer ( even if it was just random) and if he didn't want to contradict this a 'yes ' to A and a 'no' to C would mean one of his answers to A or C is false. He couldn't answer B 'randomly' with 'yes' ; A and C ,'yes' and 'no'. So he couldn't even randomly mimic a Knight. Similarly with the Knaves answers.

About the island of Knights and Knaves


Can Gmail display error messages for SMTP failures?

Question: For one of my configured email accounts in Gmail I send mail using my university's SMTP server. This works fine most of the time. When my university password expired Gmail was no longer able to send mail via SMTP, but it provided no feedback indicating problems. I wrote and 'sent' messages for a week with Gmail before noticing (due to lack of receipt) that they weren't actually going out. Is there any built-in error log or other mechanism in Gmail that I can monitor to be alerted of sending errors or to help troubleshoot problems?
Answer: I think something is off with your university's mail system. I've tried sending mail using a custom From address and an incorrect password and it's been my experience that Google's mail system tells me that the remote server rejected my credentials via an error message delivered to my Gmail inbox. For example:

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
<email address>
Technical details of permanent failure:
  Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 535 SMTP AUTH failed with the remote server. (state 8).

Two things to try out: 1) Run a quick test in Thunderbird Portable to see what sort of error message might come back from your school's server if you send it incorrect credentials. 2) Contact the IT department and ask them if you should be receiving errors from their system.
It's also possible that you have a filter that archives or deletes messages matching some criterion that Google's errors happen to share. Give your filters a once-over just in case.
Answer: The only answer people seem to be coming up with for this question is to enable the "Refresh POP accounts" GMail Labs feature and then manually refresh your POP connections.  When they fail, you'll be notified with a little red error message at the top of your GMail window.
Comment: Although POP and SMTP are different things, but I guess often you'd be using the same username & password on two servers from one provider.


Can I pay for one traveler's round trip fare to Scotland and use miles for the other traveler's fare on United?

Question: My husband and I are planning a trip to Scotland this spring.  I have enough miles for a round trip using saver and standard awards on United for one of us.  I'd like to use miles for one ticket and pay for the other.  Does anybody have suggestions for how to do this?  So far I cannot find the same itinerary on paid and miles flights.  I plan to call United but with weather delays, their customer service line is jammed.  Wondering if anybody has any tips or suggestions about how to combine paid and miles flights for 2 travelers.
Comment: Presuming one of you is a frequent traveler, be sure to book the paid flight in that persons name, and the award flight in the other persons name - even if the points come from the first persons account.  That way the freq flyer gets the miles for the paid ticket.
Answer: It is of course possible for two travelers to take the same itinerary, one paying with miles and the other with money, but not on the same reservation. Every person listed on a PNR must use the same fare basis, so you must obtain award tickets and paid tickets in separate reservations/transactions. This is a software limitation that exists, to my knowledge, in all global distribution systems, not just United's.
Since frequent flyer award tickets are difficult to obtain, you should first book the flights where they are available, then purchase the revenue ticket separately for the same itinerary. Being separate reservations will impact your trip in certain ways; for example, companions would not "inherit" the frequent flyer status of the primary traveler, and in the event of overbooking or irregular operations there is a possibility that you would be rescheduled on separate flights. But that can work to your advantage as well (e.g. if there is one seat available on two flights the same day, but two seats together not available for three days).
After you have booked your flights, you can call United Customer Service and ask that the record locators for each reservation be listed in the comments for the other reservation. This doesn't "link" them as sometimes reported, but in the event you do get bumped or have your seats changed, an agent would at least be able to see that someone else's reservation is related to yours.
Answer: You can totally do that, you just need to book them on the same departure date and flight number. The one thing that sucks about doing that is usually reward tickets don't allow you to choose a seat in advance, so if they're on separate itineraries, you probably won't be sitting together.
Solution, call United after you book, and ask super nicely. Hopefully you get someone from their super helpful Chicago call center. Enjoy Scotland!
FYI, United's twitter service is wicked fast at getting back to people with basic questions. Try and tweet them and see what they say! @United
Comment: United award tickets certainly DO allow you to reserve seats!
Answer: There is a service called FlightFox that takes into account specific circumstances (dates, destinations, miles, time constraints etc.) much like the ones described in your question.  Several members of the FlightFox community of travel experts then build a set of itineraries  around these stipulations letting you pick the best one.  The fee for the service is low ($25) and could offer you a very pointed and cost effective solution.
https://flightfox.com/
Comment: Sounds like advertising.  Do you know that they are able to accomplish what OP is asking for?
Comment: This is not a specific answer for the question.
Comment: Simply trying to be helpful. They are able to provide an actionable solution to the question.  I am not affiliated with them in any way, but I've used them before to save money and plan complex trips.


Why is there no angle for the $z$ axis in the Bloch sphere?

Question: I see that in Bloch spheres, there is an angle for the $x$ and $y$ axes but not for the $z$ axis. Why?
Comment: You are projecting onto two planes, you can basically think of this as spinning around vertically and spinning around horizontally, therefore you only need two angles in polar coordinates to span the space.

So even though there are 3 axis you only need two rotations.
Comment: I would naively have said that there is just an angle missing  for y instead, as the polar angle theta already is defined with respect to z axis. But another angle from y axis to the dotted line would be equivalent to the azimuthal angle phi.
Answer: This is because we are using a spherical coordinate system. You can think of this coordinate system as specifying a radius, then two angular coordinates $\theta$ and $\phi$.
Pure single-qubit states have a Bloch vector with radius equal to unity, so they only need two more coordinates to fully specify the direction in which the vector points.
When you look at a map of the Earth, everyone moves around at approximately the same radius, but our two angular coordinates can change. You might be familiar with latitude and longitude - these are two coordinates describing where we are on the surface of the Earth, just like the two coordinates $\theta$ and $\phi$ describe where a vector is on the surface of the Bloch sphere.
Another way of approaching the problem: three-dimensional vectors have three free parameters. Once we specify a radius, we only need two more parameters to fully specify the vector.
Answer: Because for a general state $|\phi\rangle = \alpha |0\rangle + \beta |1\rangle$ with $\alpha,\beta \in \mathbb{C}$, we want to describe states with $\langle \phi|\phi\rangle = 1$. There are 4 degrees of freedom, two for the real and imaginary components of $\alpha$ and $\beta$ each.
The normalization condition $\langle \phi|\phi\rangle = 1$ reduces that to 3 DoF and restricts us to a sphere. Additionally, a global phase change (rotation of both $\alpha$ and $\beta$ in the complex plane) by $\theta$ leads to $|\psi\rangle = \exp(i \theta)|\phi\rangle$ and
$$ \langle \psi | A | \psi \rangle = \exp(-i \theta)\exp(i \theta) \langle \phi | A | \phi \rangle = \langle \phi | A | \phi \rangle \text{,}$$
which means that this is an extra degree of freedom, that we also cannot measure in experiments. So we just don't use it and the description as a point on a sphere is valid.


Missing key on blockchain

Question: I created 2 different wallets at block chain. The first one gave me an address for receiving btc. I used that address for a purchase, however, now when I login to my wallet, it no longer shows that address. Luckily, I saved it, and can search for it. It does show the btc I purchased, but requires me to enter the private key before moving them. I thought the entire address I sent for the btc included the private key. I also checked the other wallet I created, and the address I first got is not there either. These are the only 2 wallets I created and I know I received the original address from one of them. I know there are hackers out there, but that is not me. This is MY wallet, and I paid a lot of money for the btc, but clearly I screwed up somewhere. This is the address: 1593pt67xM8KRZ23Akxp2KwCj856fCfWSh
Comment: "I thought the entire address I sent for the btc included the private key." That would make the system fairly useless. Every time you wanted someone to send you money, you'd have to give them the ability to take *your* money!
Answer: Your Bitcoin address and your private key are not the same.
The private key is a random number. You keep that number a secret, and only having it allows you to spend Bitcoins. It is used to sign transactions.
From the private key you derive a public key. It is used to show that you are using the correct private key. It is used to verify transaction signatures.
From the public key you can derive the Bitcoin address, which is a convenient way of encoding the public key. It is more compact, comes with error detection, and so forth. It is used to let people know where to send their Bitcoins to when sending you money.
From a private key you can derive the public key. From the public key - the Bitcoin address, but in neither of those cases can you do it in reverse. If you have lost your private key, your money is lost forever.
However, from what I can see your address has been successfully used for withdrawals, and its balance is currently zero. If you have gotten it from blockchain.info eWallet, you probably should contact the owner of the site with your issues. In Bitcoin world, it is very hard to prove that you own an address without having a private key.
Answer: Are you saying you received a payment but don't see the address when viewing the Receive Money tab in Blockchain.info/wallet?
That can happen when the funds have been spent, as the address gets archived.  Click the Archive sub-tab to see if the address appears there.
Also you can see all activity for your wallet by clicking the My Transactions main-tab near the top.

Missing key on blockchain


Insurance for travel to the USA while pregnant

Question: I'm five weeks pregnant and accompanying my husband to the USA for two months. Can I get medical insurance? If so, what companies, premiums and coverage?
Comment: Without an indication of your country of residence, and where you're going, we can't answer companies.
Comment: One more thing to consider, many airlines don't allow pregnant women, after certain time in pergnancy, to fly. So your departure day might also be considered when you intend to return back from USA.
Comment: People won't be able to provide information on companies, etc, unless you provide where you will be buying the insurance from.  Even then, that section may be a bit broad.
Comment: @DumbCoder [You're generally fine until after 28 weeks](http://travel.stackexchange.com/q/8815/1264), which suggests no worries here - five weeks plus the eight or nine in the USA leaves her at 14 or 15 weeks, months short of when the airlines start getting concerned.
Answer: Having gone through this with my wife recently, yes, you can still get medical insurance.  However you will need to get in contact with the individual travel insurance providers, as some may not cover pregnancy-related issues as it is a pre-existing issue.  All will generally cover non-pregnancy-related issues.
Answer: My UK's provider explicitly covered any non-routine medical conditions associated with pregnancy, but not the routine ones (e.g. scans, etc.). We haven't tested it luckily.
I guess you need to find a few quotes from your country, call them and ask. It also might be included in terms and conditions (it was in my case).
Answer: Swetha has had her baby by now, but the question came up in the sidebar....
An important thing to consider when buying medical insurance is it usually covers the insured, and only the insured. Swetha was 5 weeks pregnant back in March, if she miscarries while on holiday her treatment will be covered by her insurance.
If you are >7 months and go into labor early, you may discover that your insurance will happily cover your hospital stay but will NOT cover the ICU care for your 6-weeks-premature infant, and that's going to be a LOT of money. The reason is quite simple - the policy is in the mother's name, not the child's. Can't purchase health insurance for someone who doesn't exist yet.
This happened in the late 1990s to an Alberta woman traveling to the states. The government health care back home was eventually shamed into paying the bill.
Comment: It happened back when mobile phones only made phone calls, the internet was a new thing and neighbors bragged about whose dial-up connection was faster. Try the Calgary Herald archives, Ralph Klein was premier at the time.
Comment: Do you have a reference for that Alberta story? I'm curious.


How Do I "Refresh" a Question?

Question: I am interested in software to stitch JPEGs into a movie and found the year old question and answer Recommendations for time-lapse photography software.  I would like to essentially "Reopen" this question, giving a little more detail than the original question, and report on the several programs I tried that did meet my requirements.  Should I ask a new question or attempt to edit old question?
Answer: If your question is very close or essentially the same, and the answers aren't good, either edit it to increase clarity or offer a bounty (which may not work but is worth a try).
If your question is a twist on or a followup to the earlier question, ask a new one and link to the old one as part of your question.
If the existing question is general but you have a specific case not covered by existing answers, offer a bounty for improved answers which cover that case too. Or, if there's a good reason the special case should be considered separately from the general — either your case is too weird, or else the general is too general — then a followup question is appropriate.
In the other direction, if the existing question is very specific and you want to generalize, I suggest looking at the existing answers. If they are steering very strongly towards the general (because the question reasonably was made more specific than necessary, like asking for brand-specific solutions to non-brand-specific problems), then editing the question to also be more general might be okay (used with caution). If the question is specific and the answers are correspondingly targetted, a new question referencing the old one is definitely in order.
Comment: Honestly, I have the same issue as the OP. Quite a few of our questions from a year ago are so outdated now. It stinks when they get outdated because of technology, and even with bounties, no one adds new entries because many times the original question had great answers for the time frame they were given.
Comment: @dpollit "time decay" may be a special case.
Comment: I'd also like to add that overall, if a particular topic has this problem _frequently_, it's an indicator that it's not a really good fit for the site — that's _often_ the case when the question asks for a recommended product or service, rather than asking about concepts or fundamentals.
Answer: You have several options open to you, depending upon how close to the original situation you are in.
Unless you are in exactly the same position as the original asker of the question and you are trying to achieve an identical outcome, my view is you should ask a new question, link back to the original question if you feel it's relevant and include details about what it is you're trying to achieve, along with what you've tried and why it's not what you're after.
Supplying a narrative about what you've tried and how successful it has been in a question asked by somebody else feels very wrong to me.  If you don't want to ask a new question, I would suggest that you post your experiences of what you've tried as an answer to the original question, rather than an edit to it (assuming what you have tried is relevant to the question).  Possible methods that could answer the question, but don't along with the reason why they cause issues are valid and useful answers, because they can help people decide if they want to avoid that route.  It's also worth noting that adding an answer to the question would bump it to the front page in the same way that editing the question would, so this may also encourage other people to add answers to the question...  Particularly when combined with, as suggested by @mattdm, adding a bounty to the question (along with what you're looking for from it).  I would tend to add what you're looking for as a comment on the question, in addition to putting it as the reason for the bounty, mostly because the bounty reason seems to disappear once the bounty has expired.
Comment: I agree that editing an existing question to add a personal narrative is probably not right. In that case, I think it would count as what I describe as a "twist on or followup to".

How Do I "Refresh" a Question?


David's sons served as priests?

Question: 2 Samuel 8:18 says: "...and David's sons were priests."
How could David's sons be priests if he was a Judahite and priests were Levites?
Answer: Excellent question. Let's explore some explanations.
1) The first explanation is simply that they were indeed unlawful priests (c.f. Judges 17).
2) That the text would mention this transgression without consequence seems strange to many commentators who propose a second explanation - that the word "priest" here means "advisor". Let's examine a textual basis for this claim:
Samuel II 20:25-26

Sheva was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; and Ira the
  Jairite was David's priest

This is strange wording because all three priests should have been mentioned in one breath. Moreover, what does it mean that the first two were "priests" while the latter was "David's priest" (the job is not a personal one)?
Targum Jonathan indeed translates the first use as regular "priests" but the second use as "chief". So too many commentators explain that he was an advisor to the king. Indeed most of these commentators use the same explanation for David's sons. Targum Jonathan there too translates as "chiefs".
This sits well with Chronicles I 18:17, which is a match for our verse, although reads

Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelek son of Abiathar were priests; Shavsha was secretary; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; and David's sons were chief officials at the king's side.

A clause in Isaiah 61:10 reads כחתן יכהן פאר which uses the same word "priest" as a verb, but is explained by some commentators there (see Metzudot) to simply mean "make grand". Again, the root "priest" is used as a term of grandeur and position, rather than specifically tribal priest.
3) A third explanation is that they were in charge of the priests. This resolves the conflict and has a textual basis. Our verse in Samuel II 8:18 verse reads

וּבְנָיָ֙הוּ֙ בֶּן־יְהֹ֣ויָדָ֔ע וְהַכְּרֵתִ֖י וְהַפְּלֵתִ֑י וּבְנֵ֥י דָוִ֖ד כֹּהֲנִ֥ים הָיֽוּ׃

The first clause is translated as "and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over both the Cherethites and the Pelethites;" The term "over" isn't mentioned in the Hebrew, but is implied by the context - all previous verses in this chapter mention that Mr. X was over (i.e. in charge of) Y. So the second clause can be read in the same way - and David's sons were over the priests. I.e. They were administrators. Managerial staff for the priestly office.
This textual understanding is due to Prof. Yehuda Elitzur.
4) There are other explanations that I don't think warrant much explanation, although I'll mention them in passing. For example, that similar to Judges 17, at first they were indeed unlawful priests, and then later they were replaced by real priests and became government officials (that settles the difference between Chronicles and Samuel, they discussed different time periods). Another explanation is that they were priests in only part of the sense of the word. Not that they performed priestly duties, but that they were judges and legal adjudicators as per Deuteronomy 17.
Answer: I am working a thesis right now on 1-2 Samuel and the role of the Davidic covenant in moving forward the narrative. This verse may play into a larger theme of a Davidic priesthood that is alluded to in the book and a few other places in the OT (namely, Psalm 110, though possibly also Zechariah).
In 1 Sam. 2:27-35, an unnamed man of God comes to Eli and prophesies not only the end of his priesthood but also its replacement by a priesthood who would be faithful, do according to what was in God's heart and mind, and who would go in and out before God's anointed for the duration of his life (my translation), and who would receive a "sure house."
Most commentators suggest this is fulfilled in Zadok (see 1 Kings and Chronicles), yet Samuel never makes this connection--a Zadokian priesthood receives no explicit attention. Others identify Samuel as this priest, yet his children are rejected and cannot be said to have been given a 'sure house'. Samuel also dies before Saul and David. The author of Samuel makes a deliberate effort throughout the book, however, to paint David in priestly terms (wears an ephod, intercedes for the people, makes sacrifices, uses the urim and thummim (possibly)).
Most significantly, the only other occurrence of "sure house" is in 2 Sam. 7, referring to God's covenant with David. In light of this, that David's sons were priests might be a intended to connect this prophecy in 1 Sam. 2 with its fulfillment in David and his sons (Solomon in 1 Kings also performs a few priestly tasks, but it is more ambiguous). The above explanations are reasonable as well.
Comment: There are enough alternative explanations for the use of כהנים in this verse that make the hypothesis of a Davidic covenant of priesthood very unlikely. I think you would be better off by explaining the current text as a later redaction of an earlier text that was written closer to the time of David when private altars were still permissible and the Aaronic priesthood was limited to the tabernacle. The term כהנים was also used to mean ministers, as the KJV indicates and as indicated in a deleted answer to this OP. Another possibility is that the text originated in a non-priestly tradition.
Answer: Saul's was removed from being King because he performed priestly duties intended for only Priests ( Levi's sons). And at a higher plane, represented the law. Because of the law, people always run short of God's glory. David was a prophet, King and a priest. He represented Grace and truth. He represented the Christ, and the Higher and Superior level of divineness. Christ then come, not from Levi,  but from David's proesthood. Which is superior to the first. David played a Christ-like role. His ordainment was from the Father, rather pure and more divine than the blood lineage of the sons of Levi. Though by blood it is good,  spiritual priesthood offered more salvation for all people.

David's sons served as priests?


How can I tell if homemade ginger syrup has gone bad?

Question: I made some Ginger syrup using the liquid I boiled the root in for candy. It's just water and sugar. I put it in a plastic liter bottle (from soda water) in the refrigerator. How long can I keep it like that and how can I tell if it's gone bad? It has separated so that there are little bits of ginger in the bottom, but when I shake it, it looks fine. Also, is a mason jar better than the plastic bottle?
Comment: I doubt this can / will go bad. Sugar is a preservative.
Answer: How long this will last depends largely on the ratio of sugar to water in the final syrup.  Sugar can inhibit the growth of microbes by reducing the water activity of the solution, but this is dependent on the amount of sugar.  According to a book that I consider quite reliable on these matters, a syrup composed of equal parts sugar and water (by mass, not volume!) will generally keep unspoiled for about 2 weeks.  A syrup with 2 parts sugar to 1 part water will keep as long as 3 months.  These both assume that you're keeping the syrup refrigerated in an airtight container, which it sounds like you are.  Unfortunately, unless you know the exact ratio, it's tough to predict exactly how long this will last.
Discard immediately if you notice any of the following:

Any visible mold (hopefully this one's obvious)
A cloudier appearance (harder to judge since you have some suspended particles; you might try running it through a fine-mesh strainer)
Any gas bubbles or outgassing when you open the container (this is a sign of fermentation)

You might also consider adding a small amount of alcohol.  This provides another hurdle to microbial growth, and would extend your syrup's shelf life to somewhere between 3-6 months.  I generally add about 1/2 oz of 80-proof (40% ABV) vodka per 8 oz or so of syrup.
Regarding a mason jar, the main advantage these have is that they won't trap flavors the way that plastic can when re-used.  A strongly-flavored substance stored in plastic for a time can contribute some of its flavor to the next.  Since you're storing a strongly-flavored ginger syrup in a former soda water bottle (which is nearly tasteless) this probably isn't a concern, but if you used the bottle again whatever you put in it might come out tasting subtly of ginger.  Glass doesn't have this problem.
Answer: What you are essentially dealing with is a simple syrup, which can be saved pretty much 'indefinitely'...however, you probably don't need it 'forever'. It might be more efficient to save some as ice cubes, depending on whether you have more space available in your freezer or your fridge. I don't believe a mason jar would preserve it any longer. (Since it shouldn't 'go bad' I don't expect there to be a way to "tell" it has gone bad, unless it has been contaminated somehow, it which case I would look for the odor to change. You might give the bottle a squeeze. Spoilage will often give of gases that would cause the bottle to inflate...)
Comment: Many people use syrups a little at a time ... so each time he opens the bottle, there's a chance at getting natural airborne yeast in there ... and then the fermenting starts.
Comment: sugar can ferment ... so bubbles or the jar puffing out would be signs of trouble.
Comment: given that the syrup in question was boiled it is unlikely that there would be live yeast to ferment (note: sugar does not 'ferment' yeast use sugar as food for fermentation)


What does a Dividend "will not be quoted ex" mean?

Question: A recent dividend on NYSE:SNE (Sony) is described as "Will not be quoted ex".  What does this actually mean?  Does the dividend have an ex-date or not?  Which day would be the last day to buy this stock to obtain the dividend?
Comment: Where did you see it listed like this?
Comment: It's typically in the comments field of the dividend.  I can't find a public link for the NYSE:SNE one but I have one for the Unsponsored ADR:  http://otce.finra.org/DailyList/DownloadFileStream?fileId=169
Comment: The link shows "(Final) Will not be quoted Ex." in the comments field for SNYFY.
Comment: In the 2014 one, the notice is from 13 Mar 2014, the "JPMorgan Chase & Co., as Depositary for Sony Corporation has set a US record date of March 28, 2014" and "Given the fact that the dividend amount, (if any), and declaration by the Company is subject to Board approval, the ADSs of Sony Corporation will NOT be quoted "Ex-Dividend" on the NYSE."  and "TRADES MADE BEGINNING MARCH 26, 2014 WILL BE WITHOUT THE VALUE OF THE DIVIDEND, IF & WHEN DECLARED BY THE COMPANY."
Comment: Here's one that shows a 2014 dividend:  http://telautographist53.rssing.com/chan-23755991/all_p18.html
Answer: The ex indicator is meant to be a help for market participants.  On the ex-day orders will go into a different order book, the ex order book, which at the start of the ex day will be totally empty, i.e. no orders from the non-ex day book have been copied over.
Why does this help?  Well imagine you had a long-standing buy order in the book, well below the current price, and now the share price halves due to a 2-for-1 split, would you want to see your order executed?
If so, your order should have gone into the ex-book which is only active on the ex-day (and orders in the ex book are usually copied over to the normal book on the day after the ex-day but this is exchange-specific).
Think of it as an additional safety net to tell the exchange: "I know what I'm doing: I want to buy this stock totally overpriced after the 2-for-1 split".
Now some exchanges and/or some securities (mostly derivatives) linked with the security in question don't have this notion of ex or the ex-book, and they will tell you by "will not be quoted ex" or "the ex indicator is missing".
In your case (SNE) it is a sponsored ADR, the ex-date was Mar 28 2016, one day before the ex date of the Japanese original.  According to my understanding of NYSE rules, there is no specific rule for or against omitting the ex-indicator.  It seems to be a decision on a case by case basis.  Looking through the dividends of other Japanese ADRs I drew the conclusion none of them have an ex-book and so all of them are announced as: "Will not be quoted ex by the exchange".  Again, this is based on my observations.
Answer: One occastion where "will not be quoted ex" is used is when a corporate action is occurring such as a spin-off.  In such a case, the rights to, and the spin-off itself may be quoted separately on the home country exchange.  However, if the company is based abroad, it may not be worth the expense for them to have an additional securities listing on the local (US) exchange.
For example:  In November 2016, Yamana Gold (TSX: YRI, NYSE: AUY) announced it will have an initial public offering of a spin-off (Brio Gold, to be listed on TSX as BRIO).  Existing shareholders received a right to one share of the spin-off for every 16 shares they held of YRI (or AUY).  These rights were separately traded in advance of the IPO of the spin-off on TSX under "YRI.RT", but the prospectus they stated that the rights "will not be quoted ex" on NYSE, i.e. there was no separate listing on NYSE for these rights.
The wording seems counter-intuitive, but I suspect that is the attorneys who were preparing the prospectus used those specific words as they may have a very specific meaning (e.g. from a statute or previous case).


Getting started in Sound Design

Question: I have recently became interested in sound design and wanted to get started practicing it. I have a small home studio where I run pro tools. I am looking for advice on how to get started. For field recording what equipment do I need? And for editing the sound in pro tools how show I practice it? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Comment: These answers help a lot. I am waiting for two books on sound design metioned here in the mail. I am interested in sound for film and games if that helps. I have pro tools m-powered, m audio fast track ultra, some mics, and other stuff, I originally wanted to do recording engineer but then found out about sound design and its all I can think about!
Answer: Have a read on this site first.
You could try picking a field next. Take for instance computer games - that's non-linear and quite interactive audio, as opposed to, say, film - linear and well controlled. There's also radio where people generally don't pay attention and programming has very fast turnaround; or theatre where sound is heavily relied on for anything the actors can't do. And there's product design, where you might get involved in things such as how crunchy potato crisps sound and/or how much you can hear a car engine (if you can hear it at all, and if not, what you use to substitute it).
Sound design taps into a variety of other fields from physics to psychology and perception so a general interest in those should give you some headway.
In any case, equipment and software won't come first. Actually, I'd assign priority to a number of important books on areas of the subject (search this site), and a myriad videos that mostly try to explain that sound design is about creative choices rather than microphones, DAWs, and mixing desks. There are a good number of sites tracking the subject and you can find their URLs here too.
Hope this helps.
Answer: Research research and more research. Have in mind what you want to record (georgi.m hit it on the head). Go through this site, designingsound.org and look through peoples profiles here and follow their website links and read more.
Protools is the industry standard so you sound like you already have this covered (depending on what version and stuff you have). Equipment etc to support this depend on what you want to record again, once you know we can help you a little more.
For books I'd start with the three below, great books well worth a read.
Ament, V.T (2009) The Foley Grail: the art of performing sound for film, games and animation. Oxford: Focal Press
Marks, A (2009) The Complete Guide to Game Audio for Composers, Musicians, Sound Designers, and Game Developers. 2nd ed. Oxford: Elsevier (Focal Press)
Viers, R (2008) The Sound Effects Bible. California: Michael Wiese Productions
Answer: Surprised no one has mentioned David Yewdall's invaluable text, The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound. David has worked on some of the most influential films ever to be cranked out of Hollywood, so you can be assured that his stories and advice are backed by experience. I still enjoy reading it and can usually find some nugget that I had previously overlooked.
Answer: hi there ;)
For field recording tips for beginers you should definitely check this http://tinyurl.com/2un3lph article from designingsound.org - it's great and helped me a lot.
Also get your hands on a good book about sound design - I would recommend: David Sonnenschein's "Sound Design - Expressive Power of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema" and Ric Viers's "The Sound Effects Bible"
cheers.
Comment: I'd agree with both the book recommendations, both great reads.

Getting started in Sound Design


What is the single most influential book every designer should read?

Question: What is the single most influential book every designer should read?
Comment: influential is a sort of specific condition, but at the same time a bit vague.. influencing what? If I made a question on what was the most 'useful' graphic design book instead, it would be called a duplicate, right? But nonetheless something like Graphic Design Referenced is very useful, but it's pretty young so it can't exactly be called influential...
Answer: From the standpoint of a designer that must display technical information, there is no better bible than the series of books by Edward Tufte:

The Visual Display of Quantitative
Information
Envisioning Information
Visual Explanations: Images and
Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
Beautiful Evidence

I re-read these books (or page through them) every time I'm stuck with a tricky design problem.
Comment: I started with 'The Visual Display of Quantitative Information'.  Out of the first 3 titles, it has always been the most useful for me when I need to display technical data.
Comment: They're good, but in my experience a bit narrow in focus. I find that all the actual, practical design principles from these are, in my experience, better articulated, better scoped, better organised and better linked to evidence in the excellent **Universal Principles Of Design** (below). Of the four, def start with "Visual Display...". As showcase books, however, they are very good.
Comment: what do you suggest should I start between those books? (in which order?)
Answer: The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst is generally considered the definitive guide to typography.
Comment: Written by a poet, this is a well-written book about typography.
Answer: Don't Make Me Think, by Steven Krug.
Comment: @e100 Which he is. I bet a large percentage of us here are.
Comment: Second that notion - while Steve Krug's book is primarily for web designers, the whole premise holds true for a graphic designer of any sort. Graphic Designers have the job of communicating a message through art/design, so thinking about how the user will interact with ANY piece of communication is a critical task for any designer.
Comment: @e100 - True, but the premise of the book, 'Don't make me think', could be applied to many areas of graphic design.
Comment: Fair enough, but it makes me think you are a programmer ;-)
Comment: @e100 As a web/user interface designer, it's difficult / unwise not to be somewhat of a programmer as well these days.
Answer: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.
Answer: Universal Principles of Design
Comment: This book really is brilliant and underrated: evidence-based, brilliantly presented, just the right level of detail to be usable as a reference when facing a difficult problem. Also it's not too specific: ultimately good design practice is rooted in human behaviour and cognition, and this shows very well how the same principles work and can be applied across many fields.
Comment: absolutely! I loved it at first sight, and learned a lot of useful things.
Comment: YES, The first time I saw this book, I bought a case of them (12 or so) and gave them away to friends and colleagues. It started a bunch of spin-offs.
Answer: Megg's History of Graphic Design: This is a textbook, but it's a great resource if you can get your hands on it.  It's a fairly comprehensive rundown of the major events of Graphic Design history, which is something any aspiring designer should be familiar with.
Also, I would check out the recommended reading section on Jason Santa Maria's blog--any of those titles would be well worth checking out (I'm still working through them myself.)
Answer: I'd certainly recommend Problem Solved: A Primer in Design and Communication by Michael Johnson. It's a good introduction, with real case studies of client briefs. The problem - solution format is likely to be quite appealing to users of this and other SE sites, too.
The johnson banks website and especially blog might give you a bit of a taster.
Answer: Robin Williams - The Non-Designer's Design Book, PeachPit Press. Very good.
Comment: There is now "The Non-Designer's Design and Type Books", which contains both.
Answer: On the psychological side, i'd like too add :
Colin Ware : Visual Thinking for design
Stephen Kosslyn : Graph design for the eye and the mind.
Answer: 'Visual Grammar' by Christian Leborg
and
Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual
by Timothy Samara
and
[How Designers Think, Fourth Edition: The Design Process Demystified][3]
by Bryan Lawson
The above are must-reads...I will post longer, category-wise list later.
Answer: The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts, 20th Anniversary Edition by, Rudolf Arnheim and Interaction of Color by, Josef Albers.
Answer: I'll promote it till i am blue in the face. Logo Design Love is a great book. Everyone should own it. Given it is pretty limited to logo design but ideas from it can be useful for any graphic design job.
Answer: I have to go with a classic in this case:

Müller-Brockmann, Josef: Grid Systems in Graphic Design.
It predates the web -- but everything is still pretty applicable.
Many contemporary remixes and revisitations are available to adapt Mr. Müller-Brockmann's practical opus of pragmatic design to the internet era, should the reader want or need such a thing.
Srsly kids, get one today. You won't regret it.
Answer: E. F. Schumacher, A Guide For The Perplexed.
It has nothing to do with your work, and yet, it will affect everything that you do.
Answer: Any of the books that Jason Santa Maria has on his recommended reading list for designers, such as:

Making and Breaking the Grid by Timothy Samara
Graphics Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines by Graphic Artists Guild
And of course as mentioned above, The Elements of Typographic Style
by Robert Bringhurst
Answer: How Buildings Learn is literally about architecture, but conceptually fits into a lot of concepts--especially in the context of web design and software design in general. It's one I've recommended for a long time.
Answer:
Robert Bringhurst: The Elements of Typographic Style (already listed, but not to be missed)
Jost Hochuli: Detail In Typography (to complement the first one)
Adrian Shaughnessy: How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul


Embedding/scraping the Rotten Tomatoes "Tomatometer" score on another site

Question: I run a local community site, and one of our services is a movies page with showtimes for local theaters, as well as links to the official site, IMDB page, Rotten Tomatoes page, etc. for each movie. However, I'd love to be able to directly display the Rotten Tomatoes score for each movie we list. I've turned up numerous references to scraping that content for things like XBMC and other programs, but not for embedding on a website. I'm not sure if doing so would be against their terms of service, or is even possible, but would like suggestions on how I might go about doing so if it is in fact legal.
Answer: Why bother scraping when you can use their official syndication methods?  This is much less likely to piss them off, and should be fairly easy for any developer to parse and integrate into your site.  This way a change to their HTML doesn't break your site.  This is also much less likely to piss off the RT guys, meaning you're less likely to get banned.
Comment: "official syndication methods" are no longer available.
Answer: You could create in iMacros for Firefox/Chrome macro that gets the macro, and embed the macro on your website. If the user clicks on the embedded macro, it runs in the browser and gets the data.
Of course, that is not the same as really embedding it. But as it runs on the users' machine it is 100% legal (your IP will never show up in their server logs).
Comment: Would that only work for users who have the iMacros extension installed?
Comment: Yes, but it is a free addon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863/


What is the logic behind the execution procedure in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them?

Question: The process of execution as shown in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, looks very complicated. First, they put in a happy memory in the liquid-thingy below the floating chair, and then the person sits on the chair, only to have the highly-corrosive liquid then engulf them? Why such a complicated measure? Couldn't they have used a sedation spell or something?
Comment: I just assume is very pretty and very cinematographic
Answer: I would wager that a death sentence in the wizarding world isn't as quick and easy as one might suspect. Unforgiveable curses are exactly that- they are lawfully unforgiveable. Although we learn that some unforgiveable spells are mostly used for torture, we know that Avada Kedavra is 'the killing curse' and, although this would do the trick as it causes a painless, instant death, the effects of using this spell are strong for the caster. Not only that, but the use of any Unforgivable curse on a human would carry the punishment of a life sentence in Azkaban.

"The Cruciatus, Imperius, and Avada Kedavra Curses were first classified as Unforgivable in 1717, with the strictest penalties attached to their use."
  —- Professor Dumbledore's Notes from The Tales of Beedle the Bard

It is interesting to note too that, as Voldemort had utilised horcruxes and still died by Avada Kedavra, he described the event as 'pain beyond pain', and as if his 'soul had been ripped from his body', hence why the spell leaves only a dead body without any signs of physical trauma, much to the confusion of many muggles in history. This may be considered an unfit death, as it changes the state of the soul. Something the Ministry undoubtedly would choose to avoid.
As well as this, from the same source;

"This is not the only spell that can prove fatal; Fiendfyre, Sectumsempra, Confringo, Diffindo or even Stupefy in exceptional circumstances. Antonin Dolohov invented an unnamed curse that could also prove fatal. However, [Avada Kedavra] is the only known spell whose sole and primary application is death."

I believe, as nothing is explained regarding the method of the death sentence, this is the most humane method to use, and one which has no accountability. There are no hangmen or guillotine operators, only a nurse who (very creepily) uses a spell to remove happy memories, placing them into the large basin (much like a pensieve, it seems), coaxing the person deemed punishable by death to sit upon the chair, which is then engulfed with a rising, egg-shaped form. It is supposed that this would kill her, however much like a cremation, this may simply be a respectable and tasteful method to 'say goodbye' to the person, to watch them happy one more time, before the person is removed from the room via the chair and egg, then executed in another location. At this, we can only postulate given the information, however it is safe to assume that this is a humane, painless death.
Source: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Killing_Curse
Comment: This is all reference to UK (magical) law, not USA.
Answer: Well, you'd think that the US/Muggle/non-Mage method of execution could be much simpler -

First an anesthetic is injected.
Then a paralytic agent is injected.
Then some form of drug that will stop the heart is injected.

You'd think that just whacking them on the head or throwing them into a tank infested with laser-beam equipped sharks would be simpler, but the complexity arose from general moral discomfort with the idea of execution, and the desire to somehow make it more "humane."
I'd guess the convoluted wizard/witch process arose from similar types of concerns and considerations, if you want an in-universe explanation of how that could happen.
Answer: The potion kills by encasing a person in a sphere then ingnting them. Perhpas unforgivable curses are not used or known in the US. Burning was once a way to execute witches. It could be a cross between electric chair and gas chamber.


Does seeing the same dream several times indicate something?

Question: If we see God in our dreams telling us the same thing again and again, does that mean anything? Is God in a way trying to say say something through dreams?
Comment: You are not allowed to just change your question into a completely different question.  If you have a new question on a different topic, then create a new post, don't edit an old post.
Comment: You shouldn't change the post entirely. You should ask a new question. The upvotes you received is for your previous question. So, this new question doesn't deserve those votes. This is system abuse.
Comment: @RavenNight As said by @ sinister, you shouldn't change the post completely, If you have a new question, ask it separately.
Answer: Abhimanyu's wife was Uttara, daughter of the Matsya king Virata, in whose kingdom the Pandavas spent their year in hiding.  At the end of the year, Virata offered Arjuna his daughter's hand in marriage, but Arjuna refused, saying that he viewed Uttara as his daughter.  So Arjuna accepted her as his daughter-in-law instead.  The marriage of Abhimanyu and Uttara is described in the last chapter of the Virata Parva of the Mahabharata.

And then the nuptial festival set in between the families of the Matsya king and the Pandavas. And then conchs and cymbals and horns and drums and other musical instruments appointed by the Pandavas, began to play in the palace of Virata. And deer of various kinds and clean animals by hundreds were slain. And wines of various kinds and intoxicating juices of trees were profusely collected. And mimes and bards and encomiasts, versed in singing and legendary lore, waited upon the kings, and chanted their praises and genealogies. And the matrons of the Matsyas of symmetrical bodies and limbs, and wearing ear-rings of pearls and gems, headed by Sudeshna, came to the place where the marriage knot was to be tied. And amongst those beautiful females of fair complexion and excellent ornaments, Krishna was the foremost in beauty and fame and splendour. And they all came there, leading forth the princess Uttara decked in every ornament and resembling the daughter of the great Indra himself. And then Dhananjaya, the son of Kunti, accepted Virata's daughter of faultless limbs on behalf of his son by Subhadra. And that great king, Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, who stood there like Indra, also accepted her as his daughter-in-law. And having accepted her, the son of Pritha, with Janardana before him, caused the nuptial ceremonies to be performed of the illustrious son of Subhadra. And Virata then gave him (as dowry) seven thousand steeds endued with the speed of the wind and two hundred elephants of the best kind and much wealth also. And having duly poured libations of clarified butter on the blazing fire, and paid homage unto the twice-born ones, Virata offered to the Pandavas his kingdom, army, treasury, and his own self. And after the marriage had taken place, Yudhishthira, the son of Dharma, gave away unto the Brahmanas all the wealth that had been brought by Krishna of unfading glory. And he also gave away thousands of kine, and diverse kinds of robes, and various excellent ornaments, and vehicles, and beds, delicious viands of various kinds, and cardinal drinks of diverse species. And the king also made gifts of land unto the Brahmanas with due rites, and also cattle by thousands. And he also gave away thousands of steeds and much gold and much wealth of other kinds, unto persons of all ages. And, O bull of the Bharata race, the city of the Matsya king, thronged with men cheerful and well-fed, shone brightly like a great festival.
Comment: The actual question was different, just roll backed.