Why don't Elves like Dwarves?

Question: Is there a specific reason that most elves aren't very fond of the dwarves in Tolkien's writings?
Comment: Because they are elitist bigots with stupid pointy ears.
Comment: If you'd ever tried getting dwarfish beard hair out of your upholstery, you'd know.
Comment: It's because of [a practical joke played by the Elves](http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/theories/cannibal.htm).
Answer: Overall Elves and Dwarves were mutually respectful, if not friendly, in the First Age:

Ever cool was the friendship between the Naugrim and the Eldar, though much profit they had one of the other; but at that time those griefs that lay between them had not yet come to pass, and King Thingol welcomed them. But the Naugrim gave their friendship more readily to the Noldor in after days than to any others of Elves and Men.

They collaborated in works like the creation of the fortress of Menegroth in Doriath:

the Naugrim laboured long and gladly for Thingol, and devised for him mansions after the fashion of their people, delved deep in the earth. Where the Esgalduin flowed down, and parted Neldoreth from Region, there rose in the midst of the forest a rocky hill, and the river ran at its feet. There they made the gates of the hall of Thingol, and they built a bridge of stone over the river, by which alone the gates could be entered. Beyond the gates wide passages ran down to high halls and chambers far below that were hewn in the living stone, so many and so great that that dwelling was named Menegroth, the Thousand Caves.

Thingol's murder was the trigger that changed the relationship - Thingol had thought to combine the greatest work of the Elves (a Silmaril) and that of the Dwarves, the Nauglamir.  He hired dwarves from Nogrod to do so, who seized the Silmaril and refused to return it.  When Thingol attempted to recover it, the dwarves slew him and were then slain in turn:

Thingol went down alone to their deep smithies, and sat ever among them as they worked. In time his desire was achieved, and the greatest of the works of Elves and Dwarves were brought together and made one; and its beauty was very great, for now the countless jewels of the Nauglamír did reflect and cast abroad in marvellous hues the light of the Silmaril amidmost. Then Thingol, being alone among them, made to take it up and clasp it about his neck; but the Dwarves in that moment withheld it from him, and demanded that he yield it up to them. ... they rose up about him, and laid hands on him, and slew him as he stood.
...
Then the Dwarves taking the Nauglamír passed out of Menegroth and fled eastwards through Region. But tidings went swiftly through the forest, and few of that company came over Aros, for they were pursued to the death as they sought the eastward road. ... Yet two there were of the slayers of Thingol who escaped from the pursuit on the eastern marches, and returned at last to their city far off in the Blue Mountains; and there in Nogrod they told somewhat of all that had befallen, saying that the Dwarves were slain in Doriath by command of the Elvenking, who thus would cheat them of their reward.

The two dwarven escapees then incited their people to war over this - the result was the Sack of Doriath, and the destruction of one of the great Elven realms:

the Dwarves held on their way, and passed over the great bridge, and entered into Menegroth; and there befell a thing most grievous among the sorrowful deeds of the Elder Days. For there was battle in the Thousand Caves, and many Elves and Dwarves were slain; and it has not been forgotten. But the Dwarves were victorious, and the halls of Thingol were ransacked and plundered.

After that there was a level of mutual distrust between the races, with occasional thawing of the relationship - Eregion and Moria being another example, as seen in the carving on the doors to the Mines of Moria.
All quotes from the Silmarillion.
Comment: In short, like more or less all of the sorrows and suffering throughout the entire history of Arda, it's all because some folks couldn't share a pretty thing. In a nutshell, the entire Silmarillion is "X and Y both wanted shiny object Z, so they killed each other, thus leading to thousands of years of misery." It's a great book though :P
Comment: Thingol's murder was decidedly *not* the beginning of the problem - see my answer below.
Answer: The animosity between elves and dwarves goes back farther than any of the events mentioned in the other answers, it goes back right to the creation of the dwarves.
From "Of Aulë and Yavanna" (Chapter 2 of "Quenta Silmarillion"):
The dwarves were created by Aulë because he was impatient for the coming of the Children of Ilúvatar.  Aulë wanted:

to have learners to whom he could teach his lore and his crafts, ...

Ilúvatar knew of Aulë's creation and he came to Aulë and chastised him, pointing out that Aulë couldn't create life, only he could do that.  But despite Aulë's overstepping, Ilúvatar gave life to the dwarves, but required that they sleep until after the elves had awoken and he warned Aulë:

"But when the time comes I will awaken them, and they shall be to thee as children; and often strife shall arise between thine and mine, the children of my adoption and the children of my choice."

So basically, the elves and dwarves were rival creations, destined to be at odds from the very beginning.
Comment: That's what I love about the Silmarillion, when Tolkien goes into full mythology mode. This is exactly the sort of mythical stories that would arise when a people, at war with each other for millenia, construct celestial, intrinsic reasons for events.
Comment: Wasn't Illuvatar referring to Men when he refers to "My Children"? So "children of my choice" should be Men right?
Comment: @Mooz Both Elf and Man are Children of Illuvatar. They are both of his choice. He chose to create them as his children. He didn't choose to create the dwarves, but he agrees to adopt them. Elves are the First Children of Illuvatar, Dwarves Second, and finally Man Third. Who does choice refer to: Elf, Man or both? From the words alone, I don't think we can tell, but the events that follow tell us the answer sure enough.
Answer: There's a very long enmity between them. It dates right back to the First Age, when Dwarves murdered the Elf King Thingol of Doriath after a quarrel over the Nauglamir, the Necklace of the Dwarves, which had been set with the last remaining Silmaril, an Elf-made jewel. You can read the full story in The Silmarillion, and in even more details in The Children of Hurin.
Later there was a bit of a rapprochement, especially between the Dwarves of Moria and the Elves of neighbouring Hollin. But the Elves blamed the Dwarves for awakening the Balrog under Moria, and were never friendly again until the events of the Lord of the Rings.
Comment: Steal? He hired them to do the work, and provided the most valuable gem. Then they decided, "nah, I'll keep it."
Comment: Murder?  He was trying to steal the necklace... just deserts if you ask me!
Answer: The History--and ill will--is spoken quite clearly in the Silmarillion; however, I give Peter Jackson props for his little spin on things.  Since he has limited time and many movie goers will not be familiar with the "old" histories (many find the Silmarillion TOO much like a history book) he needed to create the hostility between Thranduil and Thorin.  What better way than to have Thorin see the elves watching their destruction and turning their backs!  Those of us familiar with Tolkien's other works know the whole truth, but for those just enjoying an AWESOME movie?...nicely done Mr. Jackson!
Answer: While Illuvatar did declare there'd be eternal strife between the children of his adoption and the children of his choice in the very beginning, fating it to be so, as the other answers mention, and the dwarves did kill King Thingol, the earthly origin of their mutual dislike is a little more prosaic.
Elves thought dwarves were ugly. The Elven name for the dwarves is "naugrim", meaning "stunted people" - not very flattering. Even their language was, to the Elves "cumbrous and unlovely." (Silmarillion) Friendship between the Dwarves and Elves was always "very cool" for this reason. Even the Noldor, the Elves the Dwarves got along best, didn't do much for them: "for the dwarves were secret and quick to resentment, and Caranthir was haughty and scarce concealed his scorn for the unloveliness of the Naugrim, and his people followed their lord." (Of the Return of the Noldor) They simply had very different values and interests: the Dwarves gave most of their reverence to Aule, and hated and feared the sea; most Elves were much more broad in their reverence and loved the sea.
The first meeting of Dwarves and Elves was in the First Age. The first Dwarves the Elves met were the Petty Dwarves, exiles from the dwarven kingdoms. And how did the Elves treat these Dwarves? Well, by hunting them like animals - because they didn't even recognize they were beings with souls.
From the War of the Jewels:

The Eldar did not at first recognize these as Incarnates, for they seldom caught sight of them in clear light. They only became aware of their existence indeed when they attacked the Eldar by stealth at night, or if they caught them alone in wild places. The Eldar therefore thought that they were a kind of cunning two-legged animals living in caves, and they called them Levain tad-dail, or simply Tad-dail, and they hunted them. But after the Eldar had made the acquaintance of the Naugrim, the Tad-dail were recognized as a variety of Dwarves and were left alone. There were then few of them surviving, and they were very wary, and too fearful to attack any Elf, unless their hiding-places were approached too nearly.

Now, the other Dwarves did despise the Petty Dwarves - but:

they still acknowledged their kinship and resented any injuries done to them. Indeed it was one of their grievances against the Eldar that they had hunted and slain their lesser kin, who had settled in Beleriand before the Elves came there. This grievance was set aside, when treaties were made between the Dwarves and the Sindar, in consideration of the plea that the Petty-dwarves had never declared themselves to the Eldar, nor presented any claims to land or habitations, but had at once attacked the newcomers in darkness and ambush. But the grievance still smouldered, as was later seen in the case of Mîm, the only Petty-dwarf who played a memorable part in the Annals of Beleriand.

The Ruin of Doriath can only be understood in this context. Elves and Dwarves never had much trust or much liking for each other. Their relationship began with genocide. They stood together insofar as they both (well, mostly) opposed Morgoth. This can also help us why even the Wise would blame the Dwarves for stirring up the Balrog in Moria (again telling that the Elvish name for the greatest of the Dwarven cities is "black pit") even though it's irrational: Elves are predisposed by nature and thousands of years of history to be prejudiced against dwarves.
Actually, Moria is a great point. Even the Elves friendly with the Dwarves graffiti-ed the greatest of the Dwarven kingdoms with the words "black chasm" - shows you what they thought of it. ;)
Answer: When Hurin was released from Morgoth's seat, Morgoth had planted in his mind that Thingol and Melian of Doriath had sent his children to their death and his wife to a life of wandering. He went to the deserted Elven kingdom of Nargothrond, which had been overthrown by a dragon when his son, Turin, was there. He slayed Mim the petty-dwarf who had taken up abode there but had also been an earlier enemy of his son. Hurin stayed there several days and then left taking one item with him.
He then went to Doriath and came before Thingol and Melian, handing over to them a necklace made for a dead Elven king by the dwarves, in order to pay them for taking "care" of his wife and children.
Melian released him from the lies of Morgoth and he realised that they had only ever helped his family. He still gave the necklace of the dwarves to the Elf king.
Thingol had obtained one of the three silmarils from Beren as a dowery for Luthien. It had ever grown on his mind and he wanted to be with it often (much like the rings later on in Middle-Earth history). After examining the great workmanship of the dwarven necklace he went to the refugee dwarves who worked as smithies in his kingdom. He told them that he wanted them to fasten the silmaril into the necklace so that he could wear it.
The dwarves did as instructed but lusted for the silmaril and the necklace. Thingol came to watch their work ever often. He was there when the necklace was completed and went to take it from them. The dwarves would NOT give it to the king saying that it had come from a robber of men and the original necklace HAD NOT BEEN CREATED FOR THINGOL.
Thingol got mad and insulted the dwarves, up to calling them "stunted people." The dwarves grew angry and slew the king. As they made their escape WITH THE NECKLACE, elven warriors came upon them and slew several of their numbers. The rest fled to their people and told their cheif that THINGOL originally had attacked them. An army of dwarves was gathered and sent to slaughter the elves of Doriath.
Answer: The reasons may also be differences in their attitude, worldview and such things. First:

dwarves are very warlike race while elves prefer peaceful life (though when pressed by dangers they become great warriors and sometimes distrustful of strangers often they isolate themeselves, like many Wood Elves, Noldor can be more aggressive and overall elven individuals can show intolerance or prejudices like in the case of Feanor and his relatives ;) or other proud elf lords of the Elder Days)

dwarves love treasures and things made by hands more than nature and plants, elves on the contrary they love nature more (even though elves too like treasures and crafting, Sindar learned from them much in smithing weapons, Teleri liked silver and white jewels and Noldor were delighted in crafts making many beautiful things out of gold and jewels, yet they were less greedy, this interest in smithing, mining and many other crafts is what brings Noldor and dwarves together, elves just love to make things, just like dwarves so it's a natural common ground, Elrond is said to not approve the desire for gold of the dwarves but still he was eager to help Thorin's company)

the elves as immortal and wise may seem arrogant to mortals, in fact elves many times make fun of "clumsy mortals", some of the elves are almost childlike, joking laughing, mocking and sarcstic, while dwarves are more serious, obsessivelly interested in their self esteem, proud and stubborn (pride and stubborness are not exclusively dwarvish of course, many elves are like that, Sam described the elves as "Some like kings, terrible and splendid; and some as merry as children." Dwarves also can appreciate lighter side of life, enjoying feasting, songs and music, untarnished beauty of earth itself, caves, stones, mountains. Noldor too appreciated stones and beautiful caves, like the caves near the river Narog which became Nargothrond. You see though seemingly antagonistic, each race has similar characteristics, in similar proportions :)

elves think often that dwarves are "grasping and ungracious", dwarves think that the elves are strange and aloof (also dwarves did not give their trust easily as a secretive folk)

power and corruption of the Seven Rings (quite possible, even though Sauron could not directly control them because of their strong resistant nature, he could influence them to greed, anger and after a while to madness which could affect the relations between the peoples of elves and dwarves, if their kings were so unreliable and emotionally unstable, and of course Sauron's policy of dividing his enemies too took its effect, even elves were not wholly trusted by men in late Third Age if Lothlorien was rumored to be evil place and Galadriel was considered a sorceress)

As for historic events, ohh boy lots of them (some already mentioned):

Sindar hunting the Petty Dwarves thinking them to be strange beasts (Petty Dwarves were exiles and outcasts from other dwarven communities, lesser in size, aggressive, they attacked elves first taking them for intruders in their lands, Petty Dwarves came to Beleriand first according to their tales and did not tolerate the newcoming elf hosts)

murder of king Thingol and sacking of Doriath

dwarves not helping the Noldor in Eregion during War of Elves and Sauron (it's my own speculation, because we don't have any accounts on their involvement beside the line in Tale of Years, "1697 Eregion laid waste. Death of Celebrimbor. The gates of Moria are shut. Elrond retreats with remnant of the Noldor and founds the refuge of Imladris."). Apparently some military help was lent to elves of Eregion after all, but it wasn't enough to defend the land against Sauron's forces

dwarves releasing Balrog (many elves of Lothlorien escaped south to Edhellond, this means that Balrog must have made an impact on the inhabitants of the region, elves thought it was dwarves fault and their greed for mithril, Tolkien explained that Balrog was already awakened by Sauron's rising in power and dwarves only reached his hiding place unleashing him)

dwarves cutting down woods in the valley of Nanduhirion (dwarvish Azanulbizar, after the battle with orcs they used the wood to burn bodies of their countless fallen, Wood Elves probably took this not overly enthusiastic, even though in The Hobbit we have accounts of elves cutting trees in Mirkwood in need and many other elvish communities needed wood for various tasks, from lighting fires to building homes)

events of The Hobbit, imprisonment of Thorin and company in halls of Thranduil (here in the book we have also mysterious reference to "wars for treasures" which Elvenking Thranduil waged with dwarves, question of price for some unwrought gold and jewels was mentioned, there are speculations that it's only a hidden hint to Thingol and First Age but who knows, we don't know much about history of Woodland Realm in Mirkwood, maybe they did have wars with the dwarves in their time, Tolkien make lots of suggestions to such mysterious events that not appear in any official timeline, adding to the depth of his imaginary world)

So the reasons are two-sided, two races are guilty of their hard relations, but thanks to the course of story in Lotr books we see that they can overcame their strife and see past the things that divide them and become good friends.
In the case of destruction of dwarf-kingdom of Erebor by Smaug, it's possible that elves sent no help because they were not even asked for it. Many dwarves were slaughtered by dragon and survivors immediately fled to Iron Hills to live with Dain or wandered alone in Rhovanion until they gathered after some time, following Thrór to Dunland and later Thrain to Blue Mountains. Mirkwood elves were more isolated and constantly defended themselves from darkness spreading all over the forest and especially from evil creatures that inhabited it. Secondly, no army even of beings as fast and agile as elves could not arrive at Erebor so quick after Smaug's attack, it was several days journey from Long Lake and Mirkwood lays some miles further from it. After Smaug's death dwarves had lots of time to prepare themselves for the coming armies (not to mention that Thranduil was asked to help Lake-men of destroyed Esgaroth and this delayed them even more).
And in the War of Dwarves and Orcs they did not asked for help treating it as a matter of honor (so movie Thorin accusations towards elves, that they betrayed his grandfather or that they looked on and did nothing when orcs plundered Moria made me laugh, but hey it's a Peter Jackson vision not Tolkien's).
Answer: Tolkien says that the main catalyst was the Nauglamir and its resulting rui of Doriath and murder of Thingol in the first age.
The exact circumstances of this event are covered in other answers, but here is a quote of Tolkien explicitly saying that it's what led to the animosity thousands of years later.

But in far distant days the Dwarves were secretive and had few dealings with the Elves. In the West at the end of the First Age the dealings of the Dwarves of the Ered Lindon with King Thingol ended in disaster and the ruin of Doriath, the memory of which still poisoned the relations of Elves and Dwarves in after ages.
The Peoples of Middle-earth - "Of Dwarves and Men"
Answer: Read Tolkien's "Silmarillion."  When Elves marched against Morgoth Dwarves (who had allied with the Elves) brought up the rear -and when the dark forces engaged the Elves the Dwarves attacked the Elves' flank, betraying their alliance.  If memory serves that is the genesis of LOTR lore.  Dwarves started it!
Comment: I'm afraid "if memory serves" isn't what we're after here. Please quote the relevant bits; don't, as you did, just tell us to read the book.

Why don't Elves like Dwarves?


What techniques were used to make rings in medieval times?

Question: There is a lot of information on the internet regarding the process by which rings are made today using modern tools. What techniques were used before the 17th century to do it?
Comment: What kind of rings? for jewelry? chain? armor? putting in a bull's nose?
Answer: By using soldering techniques to join the ends of the ring into one complete loop.

There is evidence that soldering was employed as early as 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Soldering and brazing are thought to have originated very early in the history of metal-working, probably before 4000 BC. Sumerian swords from c. 3000 BC were assembled using hard soldering.
Soldering was historically used to make jewelry items, cooking ware and tools, as well as other uses such as in assembling stained glass.

So, the same techniques used to create stained glass, metal drinking/storage/votive vessels, etc., just smaller and more intricate.
For solid gold rings, an impure form of gold was used as a filler because it melts at a lower temperature than pure gold.
Medieval jewelry techniques

The higher the impurity of gold, the more quickly it will melt, and as such the impure gold would melt before the pure and could then be used to attach two or more pieces of purer gold
Comment: Ancient castings made from gold also exist; then one simply makes the mold.  Changes to the size can be made with a shaping rod, similar to the end of an anvil, or a modern vice.  Of course, if all else fails, brazing or soldering are available.


Basic Cell Fracture not appearing to work

Question: I'm new to Blender, and am using Blender 2.78b, and I thought I would try cell fracturing a cube. I turned on the Cell Fracture add-on in User Preferences and subdivided the cube a  couple of times. I tried to use the Cell Fracture add-on, and it seemed to be working like it did in the tutorial I was watching, but when it was done the cube returned to its original state. Does anyone know how I can fix this?
Comment: Works fine and dandy (even without subdiv). Check *Layer 2*.
Answer: I am noticing on 2.77 that Cell Fracture will add the fracture cells to the outline, but they are not visible.  If I save the blend, restart Blender and load the blend, then the cells will show up.  I don't know why this behaves this way and would love to know if there is a fix.
Answer: Maybe that's because the Fractured Cube was moved to the second layer (if you were in the first one). The Cell Fracture Addon with the default settings move the fractured object to the next layer. Anyway, I don't think using Cell Fracture Addon to Fracture Things in Blender is a good idea. It's slow and it doesn't work sometimes. Use this custom Build:
http://graphicall.org/1148
It's way Faster due to the fact that's developed in C, and you can use different tools to fracture your object instead of the Boolean one. This means less artifacts in the fractured mesh and way faster fracturing.
Answer: Switch to the next layer or re-do cell fracture after unchecking "Next Layer" option. (video link)
The fractures are most likely on a new layer, because you possibly forgot to uncheck "Next Layer"

You can switch to layer 1 or undo and repeat with "Next Layer" unchecked.


Implementation of Time Machine Feature in grails application

Question: I am trying to implement a 'time machine' feature in my grails application. The feature would allow user to select a date in past and would display the interface of the application that was on the selected date. How do I implement this feature? I was thinking of adding a 'dateCreated' field for all domains, so that in the time machine feature, I could query all the results with created date before the selected date. I think this would work but as the data would grow, the size of database would grow and at that time the application would be heavy. Is there any other way to do this ?
Thanks
Answer: You could maybe draw some inspiration from this related question:
How to manage object revisions in Grails?
Answer: You should look at the http://grails.org/plugin/audit-logging plugin since it will allow you to keep all versions of domain class instances. But implementing this feature will be pretty tricky since object don't exist in isolation - you'll need to not only display the data as of the previous date, but its related data (e.g. the author's books collection) as of that date too. It will make the queries quite complicated.


Has there been a anime that used its OP as ED and/or vice versa?

Question: Running along the list of unanswered questions, I came along the question about different EDs each episode. And I wondered, has there been an anime that actually switched its OP and ED during the runtime of the show? And if so, which one(s) would that be?
Comment: I don't know about switching both around but in Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 10 rather than the ED play the OP is played at the end and Magia didn't play as the ED until episode 3
Answer: This is not uncommon - a number of shows will have a first episode with no song at the beginning, and with the OP at the end of the episode. I'll pull in some examples of this later.
There are also somewhat more unusual cases like Madoka (as Memor-X points out in the comments), in which "Connect" (usually the opening) was used as the ending song in episode 10.

But, for a particularly amusing example of this, look at Hanamonogatari. In the Monogatari series, OPs are always sung by the voice actors, and EDs are sung by other singers. Hanamonogatari's OP was "the last day of my adolescence" (by Kanbaru Suruga / Sawashiro Miyuki), and the ED was "Hanaato -shirushi-" (by Kawano Marina).
Since Hanamonogatari was broadcast as a continuous ~2-hour long special, the OP and ED each only ran once - but the ED was played at the beginning, and the OP was played at the end! Imagine that!
(I think this is because the OP visuals and lyrics are spoilery for Hanamonogatari, whereas the ED visuals/lyrics aren't? But I'm not sure about that.)
Comment: i wouldn't think saying Connect playing at the end of episode 10 isn't a spoiler itself, the reason why it does i would believe would be
Comment: @Memor-X Hm, yeah, I guess not.
Comment: For two more random examples I watched recently, Asobi ni Iku yo and Wagnaria both play their openings at the end of the first episode.
Answer: This questions seems answered to me, but since it isn't accepted yet, maybe I can add some more info.
From this question I have a local copy of the database powering ANN's encyclopedia. So with this in hand I looked for titles, that had the same songs as both OP and ED (at some point, not necessarily the same episode).
All title comparisons are done case insensitive to catch annotation inconsistencies. There are no checks for episodes - as long as an OP becomes and ED or vice versa at some point during the anime, it counts (once). The code can be found here.
Results
If we only take the song's title independent of the artists performing it, there are 233 cases from 216 animes. You can see the full list of titles here. If we only consider cases where not only the title was swapped, but it was also performed by the same artist, there are still 210 cases from 194 animes (full list here). In other words, there are 23 titles that not only swapped positions, but at the same time also got a new artist. Then again, upon manual inspection only 14 of these cases turned out to be true, the rest can be attributed to some kind of inconsistent annotation by ANN.
It is probably safe to assume there are more errors, but the numbers should at least be roughly correct. I did my best catch all of the systematic inconsistencies. (The results also confirm the three cases mentioned in senshin's answer)
Most swaps:
The only title to have three songs swapped is Major. The openings Saraba Aoki Omokage, Play the Game and Kokoro e were used as endings in 4 episodes in total, even with the same artists. The full lists for the number of swaps per anime is here (including same artist, title only).
Comment: Awesome information, senshin's answer did not trigger a alert for me. Strange ;s. Oh well guess i should pay more attention next time, and awesome information there ;)


Does render samples matter when using imported images in Compositor?

Question: I rendered out an .EXR image sequence (300 frames) at 2000 samples. I opened up a brand new blend file and imported the images to add a "glare" effect in compositor. When I re render out these images (with the glare effect) does the render samples affect the output? Better yet, What in the render tab effects the image sequence with any added effects?
Comment: Samples are a Cycles Rendered exclusive setting. If you are not rendering from a 3D scene, and with Cycles specifically, they should have no influence
Answer: Samplings do not count in the Compositing process.
If you don't have any RenderLayer Node in the NodeTree, the 3D scene won't even be rendered, but the nodeTree will so, it doesn't count. You can have strange artifacts in glare if the Quality of the node is set to low.


What are stories on awakening while practicing teaching the Dhamma?

Question: Teaching the Dhamma (Dhammadesana), having heard the good, is one of the higher meritorious deeds, practiced by instructed, not regarded as useless question & answer ways, as from outsider often thought, but after hearing the Dhamma, one of the five ways to gain release, awakening.

..."Further, it's not that the Teacher or a fellow person leading the holy life teaches the Dhamma to the monk. But the monk teaches the Dhamma to others in detail, as he has heard it, as he has learned it. And in whatever way he teaches the Dhamma to others in detail, as he has heard it, as he has learned it, in just that way the monk, with regard to that Dhamma, is sensitive to the meaning, is sensitive to the Dhamma. In him—sensitive to the meaning, sensitive to the Dhamma—joy is born. When he is joyful, rapture is born. In one who is enraptured at heart, the body grows calm. When the body is calm, one feels pleasure. Feeling pleasure, the mind becomes concentrated. This, monks, is the second opening to release… Vimutti Sutta

Maybe one or another likes to teach about such occasions, as he had heard, shares stories of how it came to release.
What are retelling of occasions where the one who taught gained paths and fruits?
[Note that this isn't given for stacks, excange, other world-binding trades but for release from this wheel]
Answer: One example comes from the Khemaka Sutta:

That is what Ven. Khemaka said. Gratified, the elder monks delighted
in his words. And while this explanation was being given, the minds of
sixty-some monks, through no clinging, were fully released from
fermentations — as was Ven. Khemaka's.

Before he taught them, Ven. Khemaka was not an arahant. But after he taught them, both he and his audience became arahants.
Comment: What was the taught about, good householder?


What are some main lines of the Horwitz Defense (d4 e6) besides the French?

Question: I'm not the most experienced player by a long shot and appear to be below average, but I know how to play the French Defense quite well and I tried e6 in response to d4 a few times because I don't really know many d4 openings and got a French out of it. How do I respond to c4 or any other common ones (maybe Nf3 or g3?)? I've looked at opening databases and know popular responses, but I want to know why these moves were made. If anyone knows of a video describing it well, that'd be preferable, but I'll gladly take any advice I can get.
Comment: In my experience this is mostly played by Dutch players who want to avoid 1. d4 f5; 2. Bg5
Answer: Basically, you have a lot of options left to transpose into other openings. I remember having read a book calling this opening the Franco-Indian for this very reason. I do not expect that many White players will actually play 2. e4; they played 1. d4 for a reason and are usually not experts in the French opening.
After 2. c4, you can:

transpose to the Orthodox Queen's Gambit with 2... d5
transpose to the Dutch opening with 2... f5 (but you lose the ability to play the Leningrad system)
transpose to the Nimzo-/Queen's Indian with 2... Nf6
transpose to the Benoni with 2... c5 (thanks @user1583209)
2... Bb4+ is about the only independent line.

2. Nf3 (and to a lesser extent, 2. g3) offer similar transpositional options.
Comment: And the Benoni is another option.
Answer: I play this a lot, as I'm happy to play a French defence 2. e4 d5. My personal solution has been to learn ideas from the Dutch Defence so have an interesting, attacking game with 2. c4 f5 or most other quieter second moves from White.
Answer: It makes sense to think in terms of the future development of black pieces.
As you know, in the French defense Bishop f8 goes either to e7 (classical, gets rid of g5-d8 pin) or b4 (Winawer, typically leads to exchange on Nc3). So in d4-e6 openings you may have the same choice (say, orthodox Queen's Gambit Declined vs. the Nimzo-Indian or maybe Ragozin defense).
Next, your c8-Bishop can easily get stuck in place because of pawn e6. You can leave it as is, or develop it by fianchetto b6-Bb7 (or even Ba6). The latter is probably the Queen's Indian or Tartakower-Makogonov-Bondarevsky system in QGD.
Next, after e6 you probably have no immediate plan to play e5, as it's just loss of tempo (or even loss of a pawn). So Black wants to move the d7 and c7 pawns first. Thus we may have basically three pawn formations: e6-d5-c5, e6-d5-c6 and e6-d6-c5.
e6-d6-c5 makes sense if you develop a bishop on b7 (so it's not stuck behind your pawns and has control of e4 square), so this is essentially the classical Queen's Indian defense formation.
e6-d5-c6 is an (in)famous solid triangle which is typical for that Semi-Slav defense or whatever you call it.
And e6-d5-c5 (which is also normal in French defense) will probably be the Tarrasch variation of QGD (if Black plays Be7) or Nimzo-Indian defense (if c5 played after Bb4).
Now about White's unusual plans. First of all, White may postpone Nc3 (typically by playing Nf3 first), so Black can't go Nimzo-Indian with Bb4-Bxc3 and has to play QGD or Queen's Indian (or maybe even Bogolyubov defense with Bb4+) instead.
Another idea is to play some "black" game with one additional move. For example, a so-called London system where White plays c3-d4-e3 which could be viewed as the Slav (or Semi-Slav defense) played by White.
Considering the g3 move, if White plays g3 along with d4 then it probably ends in some variation of openings mentioned earlier (actually g3 can be played in any of them at some point), because White has to support the d4 pawn by moving c2 and e2 anyway.


Why is the notation $\sin^{-1} x$ so common?

Question: $\sin^{-1} x$ means the inverse of $\sin x$ (it is also often called $\arcsin x$), but it can fairly easily be confused with $\sin(x)^{-1}$. Why is it used, when $\arcsin x$ is easier to type and is not easily confused with other things?
Comment: The answer is tradition, see MSE thread http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/30317/arcsin-written-as-sin-1x "This is simply a fact of life, like an irregular conjugation of a verb. As with other languages, the things that we use most often are the ones that are likely to remain irregular" writes Carl Mummert. Gauss already objected to this notation, and yet it is still around.
Comment: @NikolajK My guess is that $csc$ etc. is used far more commonly.
Comment: @Conifold I only partialy agree. One often use sinus in a context of multiple iterations, so it does make sense to use the inverse notation in this case. arcsin is there for every other case, but then we're back with what you very well explained on languages.
Comment: While I agree that $\sin^{-1}(x)$ and $\sin(x)^{-1}$ can be confused due to fact that they share the symbols, I'm fairly sure that many formulas could be understood easily if we didn't have all those names for similar and related functions. Why do we have a name for $\csc(x)=\frac{1}{\sin(x)}$ but not one for the naturally appearing functions $\log(1-x)$ or $\sin(2\pi\, x)$?
Answer: Here's some detail.
From Herschel's 'On a Remarkable Application of Cotes's Theorem', Philosophical Transactions, 1813:
'
Gauss wrote a review of this article in the Göttingsche Gelehrte Anzeigen (reprinted in Werke, vol. 4, p. 361):

I will translate the last sentence:

What the author says about the notation $\cos^2 A$, which some newer mathematical writers use for the square of $\cos A$, totally against all analogy, as accordingly this should mean the cosine of an angle $= \cos A$, has our total approbation.
Comment: Ahhh, so Gauss was protesting against the arithmetical notation, not the Herschel's. I am not sure it's "totally against all analogy" though. This issue would arise every time more than one "multiplication" is defined on a set of objects, in principle $f^n$ may refer to any of them. But since arithmetical multiplication is the most elementary, and most frequently used, it makes sense for it to have the benefit of the simplest notation.
Answer: If you want someone to blame blame John Herschel, son of the famous astronomer William Herschel. The father in 1781 gave us the planet Uranus, the son in 1813 gave us the dubious symbol $\sin^{-1}(x)$ for the inverse sine. As precedent, he cited the 'operator powers' notation, like ${d^n}f$ from calculus, so according to Herschel we should write $d^{-1}f$ for $\int f$. "The symmetry of this notation, and above all the new and most extensive views it opens seem to authorize its universal adoption", he wrote. Herschel was aware of the potential confusion with arithmetical reciprocals, but apparently thought that the benefits outweighed the downsides.
First notation for the inverse sine was proposed by Daniel Bernoulli in 1729, it was $AS$, Euler shortened it to $A$ alone. Lagrange was first to introduce $\operatorname{arc}.\!\sin$, and with the dot eventually removed it became the standard in the continental Europe. And US and Britain would have followed suit too... if it wasn't for Herschel Jr.! When he published Traite de la Luminere in French in 1829 he himself used Lagrange's $arc.sin$. Perhaps it was a leftover of the Newton-Leibniz priority dispute and/or cultural rivalry between Britain and the continent, but British often insisted on being notationally different, feet and pounds are another example, as are the long division symbol, $\tan$ vs $\text{tg}$ for tangent, and $\sinh$ vs $\text{sh}$ for hyperbolic sine.
Answer: Florian Cajori has it in A History of Mathematical Notations Vol. II Paragraph 533 that "John Herschel's notation for inverse functions $\sin^{-1}x$,... etc., was published by him in the Philosophical Transactions of London, for the year 1813." Cajori goes on to indicate that Hershel gave specific instructions to not confuse the notation with the multiplicative inverse.
His justification for the notation, revolves around a "symmetry" with other notations like, for example, writing $\Delta\Delta\Delta x$ as $\Delta^3x$, and he lists several others. I refer you to the literature for the full description.
Now in the same, Cajori notes that "Some years later, Hershel explained that in 1813 he used ...[these notations]... as he then supposed for the first time. The work of a German analyst, Burmann, has however, within these few months come to his knowledge, in which the same is explained at a considerably earlier date."
There is much more detail in this reference, in particular explaining the logic of the notation.
Comment: It amuses me to no end that [this notation is justified in operator-like terms](http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1024280/most-ambiguous-and-inconsistent-phrases-and-notations-in-maths/1025217#1025217).
Answer: Notations of this kind are determined by high school textbooks. I noticed that
$\sin^{-1}$ is common in the English-speaking countries, while in many European countries they prefer $\arcsin$. This is consistent with the remark in the end of Conifold's answer about nationalistic reasons for this difference.
I was educated in Ukraine (then a part of the former Soviet Union) and I have never seen $\sin^{-1}$ before I came to the US.
Comment: A third of my students are from the eastern part of Europe and Russia. All of them are oriented toward "arcsinus" and so forth, and none of them are familiar with this notation at first. Usage wise, I can confirm your experience, although one of my students brought his father's old 80's ti calculator back from Macedonia over break, and guess what notation was on the calculator. :). I suppose it can't be wholly unfamiliar to them, but most of my European students are not big calculator users.
Comment: I suppose the old 80-th calculator was not MADE in Macedonia:-)
Comment: Indeed not. :))
Comment: @J. W. Perry What was the symbol for tangent on that calculator? I bet it was the inauthentic $\tan$ :) –
Comment: I'll ask him to bring it in again. It was an old solar calculator.
Answer: First because of Herschel, second because of the designers of pocket calculators. Unfortunately many pocket calculators give $sin^{-1}(x) = arcsin(x)$.
That is incorrect. Also Wikipedia has it wrong.
$sin^{-1}(x)$ means $\frac{1}{sin(x)}$ like $sin^{2}(x)$ means $sin(x)\cdot sin(x)$. Otherwise it would be highly inconsistent to write $sin^{2}(x) + cos^{2}(x) = 1$, as also Wikipedia does: $sin^2(x)$ = $(sin(x))^2$.
The inconsistency of Herschel's mis-design is also acknowledged by this Wikipedia article.
Further it would be confusing to write $sin(x)^{n}$, in particular $sinx^{n}$ if the parentheses are not written as is often done.


Pros and Cons of Interest Only Loans

Question: I currently have a home with an FHA loan which require me to make mortgage insurance payments for the next 4 years. I am considering a refinance and have came across the idea of interest only mortgages. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this. I do not see myself being in my home for another 5 years and expect that there would be significant equity once I am ready to relocate. Is this something that I should consider?
Answer: Pros:

Your mortgage payment is lower

Cons:

Your mortgage payment is artificially low, nothing goes towards principal.
The rates are adjustable; given that rates are historically low, where do you think they will go?
Given the variable rates, and nothing being paid to principal, you greatly increase your risk of paying on a home.

Before the housing bubble the conventional wisdom was to buy as much home as you could afford, thereby borrowing as much you can afford.  Because variable rates lead to lower mortgages, they were preferred by many as you could buy more house.
This of course lead to many people losing their home and many thousands of dollars.
A bubble is not necessary to trigger a chain of events that can lead to loss of a home.  If an interest only borrower is late on a payment, this often triggers a rate increase.  Couple that with some other things that can happen negatively, and you are up $hit's creek.
IMO it is not wise.
Comment: I think the limited scope of Pete's answer is still the majority of people.  Is it worth mentioning that interest only loans were created to help home builders?  They are **very likely going** to sell a house for more than they borrowed and pay the loan in full after a short period of time. (not 8 years!)
Comment: Your advice is for a limited scope of the population and doesn't map out the true pros and cons.
Comment: @blankip to give the best opinion I can, to educate with the smartest answers I can give.  My opinion is that your method is risky to a degree that it should be clearly called out.  You aren't wrong, but I think Pete's advice on this question was better.
Comment: @MrChrister - is the purpose to warn the masses from the site or to give them an education on making money?
Answer: Given the current low interest rates - let's assume 4% - this might be a viable option for a lot of people.  Let's also assume that your actual interest rate after figuring in tax considerations ends up at around 3%.  I think I am being pretty fair with the numbers.
Now every dollar that you save each month based on the savings and invest with a higher net return of greater than 3% will in fact be "free money".  You are basically betting on your ability to invest over the 3%.  Even if using a conservative historical rate of return on the market you should net far better than 3%.  This money would be significant after 10 years.
Let's say you earn an average of 8% on your money over the 10 years.  Well you would have an extra $77K by doing interest only if you were paying on average of $500 a month towards interest on a conventional loan.  That is a pretty average house in the US.  Who doesn't want $77K (more than you would have compared to just principal).  So after 10 years you have the same amount in principal plus $77k given that you take all of the saved money and invest it at the constraints above.
I would suggest that people take interest only if they are willing to diligently put away the money as they had a conventional loan.  Another scenario would be a wealthier home owner (that may be able to pay off house at any time) to reap the tax breaks and cheap money to invest.
Pros:

possible free money, especially given low interest rates
lower payments (wrong reason to do it)
more liquidity and options in your money
chance for significant gains if you have cash to pay for house and can funnel most "interest" payments to Roth IRA or 401K
bank takes more of the risk from home market fluctuation
bank takes more risk for something catastrophic happening
no issue with variable rate if you don't plan on being there long

Cons:

this is not for those with poor ability to save and invest money
there is inherent risk when playing the market
this is a long term strategy and might not pan out well in the short term
your home loan will not be locked in at historically low rates
if you do not save the "extra" money then you may never have a down payment to buy another house

Sidenote:  If people ask how viable is this.  Well I have done this for 8 years.  I have earned an extra 110K.  I have smaller than $500 I put away each month since my house is about 30% owned but have earned almost 14% on average over the last 8 years.  My money gets put into an e-trade account automatically each month from there I funnel it into different funds (diversified by sector and region).  I literally spend a few minutes a month on this and I truly act like the money isn't there.  What is also nice is that the bank will account for about half of this as being a liquid asset when I have to renegotiate another loan.
Answer: The advantage of interest only mortgages is that they can increase your cashflow as you are only paying the interest and not any part of the principle. We have most of our investment loans on interest only for 10 years. When we got the loans about 6 to 7 years ago our LVR was only 60% and the property prices have increased by about 40% in that time. We also place our excess cashflow into offset accounts linked to the investment loans, so there is extra cash available in case things go bad.
The disadvantage of interest only mortgages is that you are not paying off any principal for the length of the interest only period. If you are over extended this could cause problems as you need to rely totally on the price of the property going up for your equity to increase. As you are currently paying mortgage insurance leads me to believe your LVR is above 80%, so you would not have much equity available in your home. With an interest only loan this could pose you some problems. You should never try to over extend yourself, the slightest thing that goes wrong could get you into financial troubles. Always try to have some buffer to help you stay on your feet if circumstances do change for the worst.
Comment: Not just paying mortgage insurance, but FHA mortgage insurance, which likely means his LTV is closer to 96.5%. If it had been less (5% down payment), then he couldve gone for a conventional loan with a substantially smaller pmi.
Comment: My LTV is about 83% but in any case even if it was to drop below 80% FHA does not allow you to remove the mortgage insurance until 60 payment have be made.
Comment: @AntarrByrd Why did you go with an FHA loan in the first place? When did you close? What options did you have at the time?
Comment: @tjb1982 FHA gave me the best possible rate. I was probably just over a 620 at the time so a conventional loan would be have a higher rate. Closed in January 2013
Answer: The main disadvantage is that interest rates are higher for the interest-only loan. It's higher risk to the bank, since the principal outstanding is higher for longer.  According to the New York Times, "Interest rates are usually an eighth- to a half-percentage point higher than on fully amortized jumbo loans." They're also tougher to qualify for, and fewer lenders offer them, again due to the risk to the bank.
Since you can always put extra towards the principal, strictly speaking, these are the only
 downsides.
The upside, of course, is that you can make a lower payment each month. The question is what are you doing with this? If this is the only way you can afford the payments, there's a good chance the house is too expensive for you. You're not building equity in the home, and you have the risk of being underwater if the house price goes down.
If you're using the money for other things, or you have variable income, it might be a different story. For the former, reinvesting in a business you own might be a reason, if you're cognizant of the risks. For the latter, salespeople on commission, or financial industry types who get most of their income in bonuses, can benefit from the flexibility.

Pros and Cons of Interest Only Loans


Does something need to happen in every single chapter?

Question: My style of writing is - I think - more investigative into characters and what drives them. I think however that this could be problematic for readers because nothing major happens in every single chapter. I feel like a lot of writers suggest just moving right through the story but I am not sure that I can do that with my story without it becoming overly simplistic. I am writing a story with a world that has a lot of details, so I'm not sure that I can really just move through it without everything becoming to 'easy' for my characters. What do you think?
Comment: You might try James Michener. He would spend about 80,000 words doing character development and then move into the story. His books were long, but he was a frequent bestseller. You're not inventing the wheel. If you were to read one, I'd pick *The Source,* *The Drifters,* or *Alaska*
Answer: That depends.
That depends on whether you want to write a good book.  The key rule of Strunk& White's The Elements of Style is Omit needless words!  Presumably this goes for chapters too.  If you have a chapter you don't need, it should not exist.  Burn it and throw the ashes into the ocean or outer space.
However, the definition of "needing" a chapter is not solely based on plot.  Characters and setting are important too.  So stick by this folden rule: If a chapter or segment does not advance the plot or develop the characters, cut it. If you find a segment that advances only worldbuilding, cut it and integrate said worldbuilding into other, more interesting parts (in other words, Show don't Tell).  The ideal chapter advances all three--plot, characters, setting--equally and at the same time.
Answer: That's up to you. Whether you decide to advance the plot in each chapter or not is entirely your call. Your readers may disagree with your decision, but frankly that's their problem. Ultimately, what you write is yours. If your goal is to sell copies, then by all means appeal to the common denominator. If your goal is to convey meaning, not everybody is going to "get" it anyway.
Personally, I actually find that almost always, my favorite parts are the parts where nothing happens in the common interpretation of plot advancement, but instead we see exposition. For example, in Michael Crichton's The Great Train Robbery, there's a part where, in the course of the titular heist, the main character decides to run atop the train, and jump between cars.
Crichton breaks what many readers would implicitly consider a pretty important rule: he tells the reader something exciting is happening, but then takes a pretty lengthy unexciting detour before resolving the tension. He goes into detail about why this character decided that running on top of the train was not a terrible idea. Crichton explains concepts of fluid dynamics, which actually shed light on real-world phenomena that lots of readers have probably wondered about (and in fact, I ended up asking my high school physics teacher about it and learned about all kinds of stuff as a result). Then he explains that the character's application of these concepts is fundamentally flawed and it actually really was a terrible idea after all.
It's by far my favorite part of the book. It could have been an entire chapter and I would have loved every word of it, even with Mike "leaving me hanging" on the action. Maybe some other readers didn't care and were put off by it but, like I said above, that's their problem. If Crichton had left it out for their sake, I wouldn't have enjoyed the book nearly as much.
So, if you feel like there's a way you can add meaning, don't be afraid to spend time (pages? chapters?) not advancing the plot to do it.
Answer: Define chapter where nothing happens?
Even if there are chapters that do not have a lot of action, perhaps a group is sitting talking, or people are simply walking down a side walk observing things, etc, each chapter needs to have a purpose.
Seeing your explanation in the comments, I believe what you are thinking about is what some call a "filler chapter." Filler chapters serve as important transitions from one major plot point from the next, and they sometimes don't really have much going on. But, they do a lot for the purpose of the novel, sometimes teaching you about the characters, the setting, adding depth to the work.
Major plot points do not need to happen in each chapter, but there should not be any chapters that can be omitted without consequence.
Answer: What do you mean by "nothing happens"?
If you mean "nobody gets killed, there are no car chases, and nothing blows up", then certainly you can have chapters where "nothing happens". There are lots of books that have no action of that sort at all.
I suspect you mean something more like, "there are chapters that are entirely the heroine considering what she wants to do next". If that's the case, then of course that's totally legitimate and may be very interesting.
The question is not, "Does this chapter have action in the sense of people engaging in vigorous physical activity?", but rather, "Are the things that happen in this chapter likely to be interesting to a reader?" If, after honestly considering what you have written, your answer is, "No, this is boring and irrelevant", then it's not a good chapter. Throw it away or rewrite. But if the answer is, "If they care what's going on inside this character's head -- and they should be because I've tried to build up psychological conflict or character development -- then yes, this chapter should be interesting", then great.
Of course what you find interesting and what a potential reader finds interesting may not be the same thing. You might fight an account of a character struggling to decide whether to wear a red dress to the party or a blue dress to be a fascinating subject, while someone else would think that's boring, "just pick one already". But that's a big piece of what writing is all about: trying to come up with a story that will interest the reader, or at least some number of potential readers.
Answer: I think your suspicions that this approach may be problematic for readers is correct. However, it is entirely possible to have an investigation into character motivation that still doesn't have chapters where nothing major happens.
What exactly do you mean by chapters where nothing major happens? In this case, whether something is major or not is defined by how it affects a character, not how it affects the world. Typically, events cause a character to act, and your investigation can enter at that point, letting us know the interior aspects of a character.
You also mention that your story takes place in a world with a lot of details, but I'm struggling to see how that makes things easy for your characters. World details ground the character and give the readers context. Difficulty may arise from that, but it's not directly related.
I feel like more specificity may yield better answers.
Comment: You're right to ask for more details so I'll try my best to provide them. So pretty much by 'chapters where nothing major happens' I mean to say nothing happening in the way of leading the character on her journey to discover the heart of the mystery she's trying to solve. Things happen in the way of her meeting people that will help of course  - and things in her personal life, but nothing so direct as to be her taking a big step towards the discovery, its more like segways that will eventually lead her there. And I'm not sure i it really comes across as important overall..
Comment: What I mentioned about the details... the story takes place in a fantasy world for half of the narrative. I feel like if I just get on with the steps towards her discovering the heart of the matter without having her face other issues (that might not be so directly related to the conflict) it comes across as far too easy for her to figure out. I guess, I don't want the details of the world to become simplified by not supplying her enough conflicts to resolve before she can move forward to the main issue. Am I making sense? haha
Comment: Both of your replies are helpful. I'm pondering how to improve my answer based on them.
Answer: Yes, there must be substance to every chapter, or else what is the point from including it in the book? Padding?
Do not mistake things happening though, with action. A chapter (or scene) can be about a soldier in a battle; the soldier's musings in the hospital tent, after taking an injury; his emotional struggles and major decision he made on the march back home; and an exploration of the capital once the army reaches it.
Answer: Does something need to happen in every chapter? Yes.
Something needs to happen in every paragraph.
Something needs to happen in every sentence.
The story must advance. A story needs more to advance than physical action by the characters, however. It is the telling that needs to advance. Actions are merely one device for advancing story. Description, reflection, and conversation can all advance the story. One the other hand, action does not always advance the story.
Description, reflection, conversation, action, and all the other parts of human life are matter for story. The right use of any of them advances the story and the wrong use of any of them retards the story. Action may seem like a easy and reliable way to advance story, but story is about the arc of a character and you can have action galore without advancing the arc of a character. Thus many big action blockbusters fall flat, while many quieter slower-paces movies become hits.
Every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence must propel character along the arc of story. How is entirely a matter of the nature of the story itself.
Answer: I think you are wrong in thinking that nothing happens in your chapters. As you said, you are focusing more on the characters, and when you develop your characters, there is something "happening".
It shouldn't be underestimated, chapters to let the reader delve in the mind of the character. It creates a much needed sense of connection, and not only that, but a deeper understanding of who they are and what they think.
A book is not an action movie. You can take your time. Describe thoughts, describe things, describe scenes. It's your imaginary playground, and it is your job to populate it with as much depth as you find necessary.
You see, i am Brazilian, and our classic literature has a lot of this sort of thing. We have entire chapters used to describe how beautiful the love interest of the main characters. We have poems describing the beauty of the arms of a beautiful woman. The arms for god's sake!
There is a chapter in a brazilian book called "Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas" or, as the english translation goes "The Postumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas". In the book there is an entire chapter where the main character describes his delirium. One entire chapter, nothing happening story-wise, not even deepening the character in any way. Just describing his delirium, describing what he saw and thought. I'm going to translate the first paragraph of this chapter, because i think it that what the narrator-protagonist says sums up well what my point is:

I believe no one has described his own delirium yet. So i'll do it myself, and let science thank me! If the reader is not keen on the contemplation of such mental phenomena, then by all means, skip this chapter, head straight back to the narrative. But, no matter how little curious you are, i believe it is interesting to know what was going on in my head for 20 or 30 minutes.

Of course, that is a rough translation, used only to get the point across. Yes, some people will find it boring, but no matter how uninterested you are, is always good to see what goes on in the mind of the character.
TL;DR
No, you don't need to have a major plot point in every chapter, in fact, in my own opinion, having a couple of "break" chapters, that focus only on the thoughts of your characters make them feel way more alive.
Answer: My answer is no, I don't think something "needs to happen". Instead, what you need is to be interesting. Five minutes online is all that's needed to find thousands of stories which stink despite having much happen. Conversely, my favorite author, Dostoevsky, wrote many, lengthy scenes where nothing "happened" because it was all dialogue.
While any one story won't interest everyone, a good story will interest some people and a bad story will interest no one. You should aim to be interesting to a specific audience rather than to have something "happen" in every scene.


Can high schools legally withhold transcripts when a student tries to apply to college?

Question: I graduated a year ago (June 2014) and took a year off to explore the world. Having finished my year, I went to apply to colleges, but my high school refuses to provide the transcript. In my best attempt to summarize the emails with the guidance department, accessing my grades has become inconvenient, and they wish me the best of luck getting them from elsewhere. Is this legal? What are my options?
Comment: You have indicated you are looking for a New York transcript. Assuming it is a public school in NYC, see http://schools.nyc.gov/RulesPolicies/StudentRecords/Transcripts/default.htm
Comment: New York State, not NYC
Comment: @Viktor: There might not be a law. But surely the duty to release transcripts must be addressed by the ***administrative code*** that binds the school district.
Comment: I think you should contact your district'ss school board officials and the principal of the high school in that case. I do not know of any law or regulation that would force the high school to issue a transcript.
Answer: From the comment banter under the question, I see that the school has enlisted a third party service to manage transcripts.
There are several primary reasons for this:  first, it offloads a large record-keeping job from the school administration, it provides a level of standardization to the transcript format, and finally, perhaps most importantly, it provides a verifiable chain of control for the document that excludes the student.
This last is the most important.
It also sounds like both the school guidance counselor AND the representative at the third party are misguided as to your rights to the information, and their responsibilities vis a vis the information.
Comment: @TheEnvironmentalist: Thanks to this answer, it sounds like the missing piece here might be that the ***guidance counsellor*** needs to contact Naviance on your behalf and not you, directly. That makes all the facts fit. Try that approach. But seriously, get everything in writing and build your paper trail starting right now.
Answer: Their response sounds preposterous.
I can't imagine a public school would be allowed to withhold transcripts. A private school might be a different matter. (Your question doesn't clarify which.)
If I were you, I would consider this response to be an error made by a low-level, perhaps undertrained, employee. I would set an appointment to meet in person with their immediate supervisor and bring a copy of your original request, their response and a new request written by you and addressed directly to the supervisor. If that fails, I would go to successively higher levels of authority (e.g., vice-principal, principal, school board, city council, board of supervisors, mayor or board of directors if a private school) until somebody does their job and gives you that transcript.
If the records were, say, lost in a fire for example or their servers were accidentally wiped, I would demand they use their best efforts to reproduce to the best of their ability what the transcripts would or should say. You can use your old report cards, personal recollection and the memories and grade books of your old teachers to do so. Have it signed by an official person and always keep a copy in your files.
If that still doesn't get you relief, I would consult an attorney or your local legislative representative (city council member, state legislature representative or state senator). That's ridiculous.
Comment: @TheEnvironmentalist: Then I would get Naviance's position in written form. (The shortest path to getting it in writing is to send your Naviance contact an email summarizing your understanding of what they told you.) Then take that documentation back to the guidance counsellor. Then follow the procedure I described in my answer. The key to all this is to create a paper trail of documents that you can lay in front of someone. That documentation and paper trail is what will get you action. (Because it's clear, traceable and a potential law suit minus the cover sheet.)
Comment: @TheEnvironmentalist: You should have mentioned Neviance in the original question. That's a pretty important fact. Then I don't see what the problem is. You're still comfortably within the 3-year time window. Why don't you just contact Neviance for the transcripts then?
Comment: This was the head of guidance at the school. The school is certainly a public school, in the state of New York. The reasoning given is that transcripts are handled through the service Naviance (which depending on your familiarity with the Common App, you may or may not be familiar with). Naviance is essentially a middleman for sending transcripts and recommendations to colleges, and holds on to records for three years after students graduate. The school claims that they no longer have access to any of my information, and working with Naviance would be complicated and time-consuming.
Comment: You also might want to ping @gracey209. I'm curious what she might say.
Comment: I have. Naviance has indicated the burden falls on the guidance counselor


Signs of Bad Character Development

Question: When creating a character, what red flags would show me that I'm creating an unbelievable or unsympathetic character?  I know that to be believable and sympathetic a character must not lean too much to a single extreme or be a caricature.  Besides paying careful attention to character traits when reading, how can I learn more about what constitutes a caricature?  What signs might there be that I'm writing an unbelievable character or one no one will care a thing about?
Answer: Well, first and foremost - do you believe in the character? Do you think he/she is sympathetic? If so, you're already in a good position - because you have a believable, sympathetic character, you just haven't convinced your readers of that yet - meaning, if you get negative critiques on the point, you just need to figure out why you like the character, and focus on bringing those elements out more strongly.
But that's not what you asked - you asked about warning signs. Here are a few:

"I know this sounds unlikely, but Real Person X really did that/acted this way, so it's believable." This logic is tempting, but it doesn't hold - your readers have never heard of Mister X; they won't be as accepting of the implausibility as you are. Either have him do something else, or justify it so it's no longer implausible.
"So in chapter 15, Audrey reveals that she's actually a judo master..." Any major revelation about a significant, well-exposed character should mesh well with the rest of the novel. For example, Audrey shouldn't turn out to be a judo master in chapter 15 if we've known her as a snarky housewife until then, with no hint of this extraordinary talent (and especially if she's been complaining about not going to the gym enough in the first five chapters). Dropping sudden, out-of-the-blue bombshells on readers can make them lose their trust, and make it feel like the character is being invented as you go along, rather than being portrayed as a believable, complete, consistent individual. Consider establishing the "revelation" earlier, as part of character exposition, or else providing appropriate foreshadowing so that the Big Surprise clicks together.
"My protagonist is kind of an asshole. I know - I'll give him a puppy he really loves!" A common stratagem is to give the unlikable character a single redeeming feature. Sometimes, this can work marvelously. But if it's done as a patch, and not invested in enough, then the redeeming feature might feel artificial and unconvincing - leaving the character unlikable and making the author look kind of silly. Don't assume that the "Asshole/Evil + Redeeming Feature" formula guarantees a likable character - consider the character concept as a whole; make sure the redeeming features get real play and affect the story; make sure you haven't just laid down an embarrassingly obvious patch.
"Jerome is an intelligent guy, and he's also got a great sense of humor!" Well, does he? This is a specific "Show, don't (just) tell" issue - when you introduce a character by telling us what kind of person he is, but you don't actually show him acting in accordance with the description you've given us, then the character becomes less believable, and might even come off as arrogantly claiming virtues he doesn't possess. So the charming hunk had better actually act charming; the intelligent guy had better actually know a lot; the alleged bully had better do some actual, cruel bullying, or else the main characters will look awful trying to get back at him. So, whenever you find yourself describing a character explicitly, make sure he matches that description (or at least, that there's a good reason he's being described misleadingly).

That's what I've got at the moment... Hope these are helpful :)
Comment: This is definitely the kind of information I was looking for.
Comment: @TomAu : Definitely! Pretty much anything can be made plausible, with justification. What I meant here is when _you the author_ feel the behavior sounds unlikely, or unconvincing, and the reason you're willing to let that slide is because "Real Person X really did that." If you were to leave it at that, _without_ delving into the reason behind it (as you say), then that'd be poor character development.
Comment: If "Real Person X really did that/acted this way, so it's believable," there is a reason. Then you need to understand/convey to the reader that reason.
Answer: I think, the worst way to introduce a new character is starting by detailed description of her/his background and motives before the character starts acting.

She was and old kind woman. Her five children and twelve grandchildern have trained her in patience and toleration.
A greedy and unforgiving sociopath accustomed to be always right. His father died from heart attack when he [the character] was six so he and his two sisters were grown in poverty. He is sure that his father's alleged cowardice was the root of all bad events of his childhood.
etc.
Comment: Revealing their character fist through actions and dialogue then later with little expository paragraphs (but without breaking flow) is the most natural way of building up a character's story in my opinion.
Answer: It might be a good idea to base a character (atleast partly) on someone you know, or another character you are familiar with. This way there's something real about the character which atleast some readers might relate to
Comment: I like to use actors for this. Imaging Steve Buscemi as your character. Or Paul Newman. Or Jake Gyllenhaal. Or Maggie Gyllenhaal. Each choice gives you a very different character.
Comment: Whenever I try to do this, I run into too much ["hey, that character is me!"](http://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/1602/how-to-avoid-hearing-thats-me-from-your-friends-when-they-read-your-character) from friends.
Comment: The trick is to take bits of pieces from people. Maybe take a quirk from your sister and the personality of the guy down the street. Mix and match different things from different people to make a unique character.
Comment: Agreed, but it can still serve as a nice and helpful template since its important that the author feel that he himself knows the character.
Answer: I like to discover a character like solving a mystery. Provide enough information to figure it out without giving it away. Clues can be provided indirectly. A character may reveal something about herself in one conversaton but omit it in a similar one. What someone doesn't say or do can be equally important.
Their past should be consistent with their actions but not predictable or way off. Indoril Nerevar had a great point on providing too much background before any action. Never thought about it before but it makes sense. That way you identify the character in the story and don't just read a bunch of facts about them with no context.
It's nice to base a character on what or who you know, but you have to be careful how you present them. Unless you can recall how you met this person and learned about them, you may want to have a fresh start and meet someone new. It could provide a better understanding of the discovery process. How did you know they came from a wealthy family? You don't remember seeing the Christmas card of their family in front of that massive fireplace and the dozen questions you asked about it. Now it seems like you've always known, but the reader won't.
Answer:
What signs might there be that I'm writing an unbelievable character or one no one will care a thing about?

If your character is perfect, that is a bad sign.  Your character must have weaknesses and fallacies.  If you're writing a guy who is all good (or all bad), the reader won't care about him or your story because there really is no story to tell.
Answer: Some writers tend to tell us and not show us what the character feels/ acts like/ thinks/etc. your character should be described and should have insecurities. A bad character doesn't have something that moves a reader. Your reader should feel and live within the character and the character should be able to be brought to life. If a character isn't relatable then they are a bad character. They don't really have a purpose in the story. If you want a purpose/ message/ theme, you should show it through actions, thoughts, secrets, etc. you should also use figurative language to give a symbolic meaning to a character which makes the story alive.
Answer: People are multi-faceted, some more than others. You would arguably assign more of this trait to your main characters, and allow very minor characters to by default adopt more of a single faceted approach given they don't take up many words.
For example, one day I might be really raring to go, but other days, for my own personal reasons be unwilling to act on something or hang out with people.
What you may want to do is assign a general template for their temperament and use that to drive how you write their actions and dialogue choices.
For example, in my story, the protagonist is a female smuggler, but she didn't necessarily choose that herself. She was left alone when her father who was killed when she was young. So what this tells me about her is that she is likely not to trust anyone much at all but also yearns to belong, and to have some semblance of a family deep down. She's also tough from years of struggle and has some necessary defensive and mechanical skills. She depends only on herself, but would desperately like to change her life.
This is a non-trivial character in my view. She has many different motivations and trepidations that can drive her story and interactions with other characters in interesting ways, especially the male supporting character.
I hope this helps.

Signs of Bad Character Development


How does Zoro speak with a sword in his mouth?

Question: When using Santoryu (Three Swords style), Zoro holds a sword in his mouth. How is he able to speak normally, without the sword falling?
Comment: anything can be achieved through practise :P
Comment: Have you never see a ventriloquist? It's not the official answer but it is totally consistant.
Answer: The official explanation given by the author, Oda Eiichiro, in his SBS1 column, is that it is Zoro's heart speaking. This may not sound any more convincing than Artistic License, but One Piece regularly relies on such unusual logic, so it is not entirely out of place.

1 SBS (Shitsumon wo Boshū Suru, roughly meaning "I'm Taking Questions") is a Q&A column in which Eiichiro Oda answers questions sent in by his fans.
Answer: I hate how people always ask this question...
Okay, put a pen in your mouth, try speaking
You will be able to speak, despite the pen being in your mouth. Sure, your voice sounds muffled, but Zoro's voice is also muffled when he speaks with a sword in his mouth
You don't need to move your teeth in order to talk, just your tongue, which I'm pretty sure isn't wrapped around Zoro's sword.
I hope I answered your question.
Answer: You know those techinique things? Zoro's "three sword style" technique require him to have a third sword, enableing him to perform that technique
Comment: The question is how can he speak with a sword in his mouth. Your answer does not seem to answer this question.
Answer: I guess yes, it can be done. You know the words won't behaving so much clarity but yes, if you hold the sword hilt with your teeth, you are able to speak out.


How does the chemical potential allow for open systems to be considered?

Question: Gibbs free energy can be defined as: $$dG=VdP-SdT+\sum_i\mu_idn_i$$ where $\mu=(\frac{\partial G}{\partial n})_{P,T}$. Last term, $\sum_i\mu_idn_i$ allows for open systems to be considered (where $dn$ does not equal zero). However, this can also be used for state functions like enthalpy too:
$$dH=TdS+VdP+\sum_i\mu_idn_i$$
But my question is why can this be used for enthalpy, considering that $\mu=(\frac{\partial G}{\partial n})_{P,T}$ (i.e it's a partial derivative of $G$ not $H$). Perhaps it's clearer for me to write the total derivative out like this: $$dH=(\frac{\partial H}{\partial S})_{P,n}dS+(\frac{\partial H}{\partial P})_{S,n}dP+(\frac{\partial G}{\partial n})_{P,T}dn$$ where I have considered a single-component open system (the component may enter or leave the system)
Comment: I am sorry .. I am afraid my errors in our comment discussion on your other post led you to ask this question (which reflects an incorrect assumption that I fear you got from me).  It is in fact perfectly ok to define chemical potential as a partial derivative of other thermodynamic potentials with respect to composition.  Those definitions don't have much practical use (since they require constant entropy), so I had forgotten about them, but they are still completely valid.
Comment: Thanks, Why do they require constant entropy?
Answer: Actually, there is a completely valid definition of chemical potential in terms of enthalpy (I realize your confusion on this point may be my fault, since I initially told you the opposite on another post.)
The correct form for chemical potential as a partial molar enthalpy is (as I think you already suspected):
$$
\mu_i=(\frac {\partial H}{\partial n_i})_{p,S,n_{j\neq i}}
$$
So the total exact differential is expressible as you had originally expected:
$$
dH=TdS+VdP+\sum_i\mu_idn_i=(\frac {\partial H}{\partial S})_{p,n_i}dS+(\frac {\partial H}{\partial p})_{S,n_i}dS+\sum_i(\frac {\partial H}{\partial n_i})_{p,S,n_{j\neq i}}dn_i
$$
  The definition of chemical potential as a partial molar Gibbs free energy is only valid at constant temperature and pressure, so it wouldn't make any sense to write it that way in the expression for the exact differential of enthalpy.
Sorry for any confusion my initial errors may have caused you.  Hope this clears it up.
Comment: Well, I'd phrase it a little differently, but I think you have it essentially right.  Chemical potential can be defined as the partial molar form of any thermodynamic potential, and the variables held constant determine the relevant thermodynamic potential. So if you hold entropy and pressure constant, chemical potential is partial molar enthalpy, and so on.  The Gibbs free energy form (constant T,p) is the most commonly used since those are the most relevant conditions for a wide range of chemical experiments.
Comment: Thank you very much. I think I understand - the chemical potential $\mu$ is a quantity that defines how a state variable changes with composition of the system but the state variable that it describes is dependent on the variables that you hold constant. Do you agree?
Comment: Please see above - comment edited.
Comment: Great, that is what I meant. It makes perfect sense now. Thanks very much.


Request: Links to projects attempting the implementing of a Google Wave server

Question: Rafe Needleman at CNet writes that his knowledgable sources say it is incredibly challenging making a realtime synchronization engine work at scale, and I do not doubt it.
Perhaps, though, a realtime synchronization engine conformant with Google Wave protocol which is limited to 50 messages per day from a total participant pool of 50 users would be would be merely an occasion of long nights and soul-searching.  It would certainly be useful for those who have no sandbox account.
I found one project (through a Twitter search, thanks purserj) named pygowave-server.  Are there others?
Answer: Via twitter search as well: http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/27/cant-wait-for-google-wave-try-these-two-nifty-tools-instead/


Which airplane is the safest?

Question: Is there some source or research on crash statistics for each type of airplane? For example I want to know the number of crashes, fatalities, and the dates. I want to know which type of airplane has the safest record. Is there a correlation between the price of the ticket and the safety record?
Comment: There is no such a thing as "safest plane". There are Russian planes and other planes, always take the non Russian.
Comment: There are a great many variables that go into defining what makes an airplane "safe" or not, and I think too many to be answerable here in a single post. The DC-10 had many early crashes, but after several design flaws were corrected, proved to be very reliable. The Concorde, on the other hand, never got the chance. Besides, I'd be more concerned about unsafe airlines as opposed to unsafe aircraft; poor maintenance or training can turn even the "safest" plane into an accident waiting to happen.
Comment: "Too broad" makes no sense at all for this question. It asks for statistics. It's fair to discuss the problems with statistics but stats exist and there's no way this question is off topic or too broad. It doesn't make the internet better by closing this question.
Comment: Arguably one of the first - some of the 'Wright' planes NEVER crashed.
Comment: @MeNoTalk Nothing against the Tu-154 ! It was not guilty for terrorist plots, cargo overloading or drunken air traffic control. For the only plane capable landing on unpaved (!) airfields in artic conditions it has a pretty good record.
Comment: it would be nice if you left us folks over at the aviation beta (http://aviation.stackexchange.com/) something to answer :) ...
Comment: Even if you know which plane is safer, you have no choice when buying ticket for flight from A to B. Or maybe you will ask "what is the plane" and then choose whether to buy ticket or search for other company?
Comment: *"Is there a correlation between the price of the ticket and the safety record?"* Is the plane less likely to crash because you purchase a business class ticket than an economy class ticket? It's possible that there is a correlation, but it won't be direct; it might well be by proxy of airline maintenance expenditures, though.
Comment: @HeidelBerGensis "Russian planes" means pretty much Sukhoi Superjet 100 and Tu-204 since anything else is discontinued. Both had very few accidents, all of them involved human error. So maybe you should check the facts first before throwing around comments like that.
Answer: All modern aircraft have to go through incredibly stringent safety checks and are essentially equally safe.  Accidents are so rare that any apparent differences in aircraft safety are mostly meaningless statistical anomalies.
Airfleets.net has a chart of accidents per aircraft type, but it's not easy to make any practical conclusions about it.  For example, the Boeing 737 has way more accidents than any other, but that's not because it's unsafe, it's because there are more 737s than any other jet plane.  It's also been around since the 1960s, with many of the old planes still flying in places like Africa with poor maintenance and minimal oversight, which explains why every single 737 accident since 2000 (except one in northern Canada) has occurred in third-world countries.  By some measures, in fact, the revised 737 "NG" (next generation)  is among the world's safest aircraft, with one accident per 16 047 900 flight hours, meaning that, statistically, you'd need to sit in one for nearly two thousand years on average before it crashed.
There are also planes like the Airbus 340, the Airbus 380 "superjumbo" and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that have never had a fatal accident, but they're also relatively new and comparatively rare.  How do you even measure their safety?
All in all, the old saw about the taxi to the airport being far more dangerous than the flight still applies, but if you wish to minimize the odds of being in an accident, looking at the track record of the airline, the size of the plane (basically, the smaller the worse) and the conditions it has to fly in (mountains, bad weather, etc) will be more useful.
Comment: But even the more comprehensive statistics I just quoted don't change the main message of your post.
Comment: Your link to 737 accidents since 2000 only includes crashes that killed people, wrote off the aircraft or were otherwise unusual (see [Wikipedia's guidelinesn air crash lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:PLANECRASH#Aircraft_articles)). The Aviation Safety Network has [a more comprehensive list](http://aviation-safety.net/database/types/Boeing-737-series/database/4). E.g., a 737 cargo plane had a landing gear collapse in the UK in April 2014; a UK passenger 737 had a tail strike landing in Portugal in February; another was damaged in a heavy landing in the Azores, also in February.
Comment: "I think the number of crashes per one million of flight could be a good measure after considering the safety of a airline."

Not really. It would bias in favor of long-haul craft and against short-haul craft. The vast majority of accidents happen during takeoff or landing, so comparing per-flight-hour statistics for a plane with an average flight duration of an hour to those with average flight durations of 8-10 hours wouldn't be very meaningful.
Comment: Pegasus has never had a significant accident, the closest was a landing gear problem resolved with no casualties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_Airlines#Incidents_and_accidents
Comment: I think the number of crashes per one million of flight could be a good measure after considering the safety of a airline.
Comment: Could somebody provide me with the safety record of Pegasus Airlines? I want the number of crashes per one million of flight or per hours of flight.
Answer: Rather than viewing safety as being a function of the aircraft, it's much more accurate to say safety is a function of the airline.  To provide perspective, AirDisaster provides a ranked statistical analysis of selected aircraft by fatal accidents (accurate to 2004, so it omits the more recent models).  Even the Concorde, the worst ranked plane, had a fatal accident only 0.001% of its flights.
<code>Model                      Rate Events No. Flights Rank

Saab 340                   0.33   3   9.0 Million   1
McDonnell Douglas MD-80    0.45   9   20 Million    2
Boeing 767                 0.46   3   6.5 Million   3
Boeing 757                 0.56   4   7.2 Million   4
Boeing 737                 0.62  47   76.0 Million  5
Boeing 727                 0.66  46   70.0 Million  6
Airbus A319/320/321        0.67   4   6.0 Million   7
Fokker F-70/F-100          0.67   3   4.5 Million   7
Embraer 120 Brasilia       0.71   5   7.0 Million   8
McDonnell Douglas DC-9     0.76  42   55.5 Million  9
...
Aerospatiale Concorde      12.5   1   0.08 Million 19
</code>
If you compare that to its statistics on airline accidents, a number of airlines have higher rates than the worst aircraft.  If you're concerned about safety, it's an irrational fear but you can try to mitigate that fear by avoiding airlines with a recent history of fatal accidents rather than trying to avoid specific aircraft.
Comment: I wondered when somebody would mention the Concorde. It went from "safest" to "least safe by a significant margin" in an instant.
Comment: And that's a perfect example of how useless these kind of statistics are. 30 years of incident-free service, one hull loss due to FOD on the runway. How does that make it an unsafe aircraft?
Comment: @Paul Well, to be fair, it was the aircraft design that allowed said FOD to destroy the aircraft. IIRC, the FOD only caused a tire to blow. An aircraft should be able to survive blowing a tire without catching on fire and crashing.
Comment: All this talk of the Concorde is making me incredibly nostalgic, poor Aviation SE enthusiast speaking here :(
Comment: Regardless, from a statistics standpoint you can't draw any conclusions about Concorde's overall safety from one incident.
Comment: @reirab It was less aircraft design and more pilot and operational error that led to the Concorde crash. There was a series of gross operational errors that led to enabling the fod to induce a tank overpressure and rupture (maintenance errors led to igniting the fuel) and a subsequent failure to recover due to W&B.
Answer: The question is for a specific reason senseless, it is like asking what kind of radio is safest in an automobile.
The reason is simply that most fatalities are not caused by the type of plane, but by pilot errors, bad care or environmental influences (downburst etc.). There is no reason to believe some crashes would not have occured with exactly the same pilot, but a different plane. As a crash is always involved with very high speeds, the kind of body protection ("internal safety") a plane offers is also identical...that is to say none.
Naturally there are differences in safety: A small plane like a Cessna or Piper or military jets are much more unsafe than civil jets. But I presume you are asking for different types of civil jets.
What does exist are "safe" airlines: Airlines who have good pilots, new planes with good care and a "better safe than sorry" attitude.
Even if there would be numbers of crashes by plane type, they do not say anything. Because the importance of the type is neglible and crashes are very seldom, the numbers have a poission distribution: One airline X could have 15 crashes and airline Y 0 crashes without any difference in quality.
Comment: @pnuts What was the incident with the Airbus A320's entertainment system? I'm aware of [Swiss Air 111](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Air_Flight_111) but that was an MD-11.
Comment: @pnuts No worries -- I followed your point, I was just unsure about the specific example.
Comment: @pnuts Naturally a simplification, if I continue the analogy if you have a very powerful radio and increase the volume you are risking your safety. Back to the examples: The Comet problem was unknown until the reason was found, the Starfighter is a military craft. The entertainment system caused problems in the A320, a Boeing 757 and a Boeing 767. The ADIRU failure not only occured in the A330, but also a Boeing 777-200. And what was that with the battery problems in the Boeing machines ? Really, it is not something which really impacts the safety in comparison to piloting errors
Comment: The Comet had rivets _punched_ through the skin for the top navigator's window. A punched (as opposed to drilled) hole has a multitude of tiny cracks around just waiting for a few hundred pressurization cycles to start spreading.
Answer: If you run the statistics, you will likely get different answers for:

Safety per trip
Safety per travel kilometer
Safety per travel hour

You need to think about what you really want to know.  You might also think about the causes of air transport accidents that result in deaths. They tend to be more often lapses in judgement, communication or training by the flight crew.  In private aircraft, deaths usually result from overconfidence in bad weather.

Which airplane is the safest?


How to animate text being revealed on the screen

Question:
An animation of an object appears under something small or invisible to camera
Comment: I don't quite under stand what you are asking, nor what your description is pointing at. Could you please be a little more specific with your question.
Answer: From my experience text objects do not work very well with booleans (due to some letters in some fonts being non-manifold).
This is a method that can be adapted to work on anything:

You need to create a gradient mask for your material that will "stay static" despite the object movement (you do that by using object mapping and adding/subtracting the object's position from it):

link to full image
Great thing about a mask is that it can be faded on the interface.
The Add node is just driven by the text position.x.
The mask is used to mix Transparent and any other shader.
If you need to place such Text somewhere you need to parent it to something first and move it through parent.

This is the result:

And the blend file:
Comment: Looking great, though I wonder how to make an animation that simulates a keyboard typing.
Comment: @Gonzou You just need to move the text by increments, that's all, it's not very clear from the question what the intention is..
Comment: Would be non-trivial to define the increments for non-mono-spaced fonts.
Comment: @ajwood yep, very true. That would be a job for another addon or better for the one that exists but improved. It would have to measure the width and spacing of characters and offset the position of text accordingly.
Answer: Not quite what the OP asked..., since in the question the words appear backwards, form end to beginning of the word... (but maybe someone will find it useful...)
There is an addon to make a typewriter effect quite easily.
Get it here: http://urchn.org/post/typewriter-blender-addon
Once you enable it in the User Preferences (CtrlAltU),

Animating the text is quite easy, by changing the value on the character count.

Moving the text as it gets written you can get something like this:

To get a proper typewriter effect set your interpolation for all keyframes Constant.
Answer: There is a typing text addon here: https://github.com/meta-androcto/blenderpython/blob/master/scripts/addons_extern/animate_text.py
I haven't used it in a long time, but it still works in 2.75. The addon claims it is under the tool shelf in the 3D view, but the settings are actually under the text properties. Activate the addon and the new settings will appear at or near the bottom of the text properties.
I made a video describing basic usage. There's more, but I don't know the addon very well. I don't know how to embed on SE, so I guess a link will suffice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrbIHxhNzrY
Comment: seems like this is a newer/combined version of the addon linked on my answer. But I'm trying to play with the **animate text?** options on it but cannot get it to animate anything... Can you please elaborate on your answer as to how it is used?