watching myself everywhere?

Question: During meditation sessions, morning 4 to 5, I have started watching myself everywhere. I didn't experienced it before. The garden where I am used to take a morning walk after meditation, there I saw my duplicates, same me in different-2 attire, casual-formal-pyjamas-with friends-cycling.
There was a moment in real world when I thought that if I could see everyone as me then I can percieve real peace. I think that thought merged into meditation and showed me the same but it was very different. I was so attached to myself when no one other was present as a special appearance. I want to know 'was that of my thought was wrong or right ?
Comment: My english is still weak. Don't hassitate make a correction. I'd be thankful. Regards & Love.
Answer: When meditating you might get imaginative experiences which might seem very real. Just do not give any importance to them. Just be aware that you are experiencing something. These experiences has sensations associated and if you get attached to them unsatisfactory experiences will follow. Whenever you get some experience just see if you like or dislike or neutral towards the experience and the sensations that follows.
Comment: I myself manytimes, give suggestions to other just per my own Experience. I am here at buddism section to get references of his, the buddha's real teachings. Please try get me into that on this matter if it is there in buddhism. Regards & Love.
Comment: Best is that you take a course http://dhamma.org
Comment: Thank you. My phone isn't compatible. Once I will complete that, i'd be back. Regards & Love Sir.

watching myself everywhere?


How do you ask how old a building is?

Question: I know to say to a person how old they are you can say "你多大" or "你几岁". But, how could you express "how old is this building?"
Would you say "这楼有几年的历史?" Or would that only be used for something grand like 故宫?
Answer: You're correct that 历史 is too splendid a word for an ordinary office building. Besides, you cannot put it together with 几年 without humor, because the question word 几 usually stands for a small, namely one digit number. (几十年 or 几百年 is acceptable.)
(EDIT: It's a universal fact in Mandarin that you should use 多少 for asking a truly indeterminate number of anything.)
"How old is this building?" would be:

这楼有多久了?
  这楼盖了有(多久/多少年)了? (How / How many years) old is this building since it's been built?

(EDIT #2-1: 有多少年 doesn't seem as much approvable as 有多久. In fact, none of them exactly mean "how old (a thing) is". The former is "how many years it has", and the latter, "how much time lapse it has". Using the former alone has a risk to meet with "How many years of what?" kind of response, depending on the context. At least, I prefer this to that, and moreover prefer the second example to the first.)
But I can also imagine I'd ask:

这楼多少年盖的? In what year was this building built? (See better solution in 杨以轩's answer)
  这楼什么时候盖的? When was this building built?

(EDIT #2-2: Here you can see that I ran into another difficulty since Chinese doesn't really have a casual question word exactly equivalent to "what year". In this sense, 杨以轩's choice is far better than mine, and what is more, he seems to be a realtor.)
Comment: Why not just say ...有多少年了?
Comment: Very good point. Please see my updated answer.
Answer: In addition to broccoli forest's answer, you may use 屋龄[wū líng] to refer to the age of a building.

这楼的屋龄有多久? What's the age of this building?
买屋龄老旧的房子再大翻修,还是买新成屋比较好? Is buying an old house and renovating
  extensively better, compared to buying a brand new house?

If you want to inquire about the exact year, you can use 年份 to get yourself understood:

这楼是什么年份建的? Which year was this building constructed?
Answer: you can say informally:
这楼多老了?
how old is the building.
这公寓多少年前盖的呀?
How many years ago did people build this apartment.
formally you can say:
故宫建成多久了?
how long have it been since 故宫 was completed.
Anwser: 故宫始建于1420年。
Gugong was built in 1420

How do you ask how old a building is?


Route all traffic through a VPN using the OpenWRT firmware

Question: I have a home network with a number of wireless clients, including laptops, a media server, and some consoles.
Just 4 days ago my world changed: My the country i live in signed in to ACTA.
As i refuse to take part in this personal assault of a legislation, i want to route all of my traffic through a VPN to another country where this problem does not exist.
I'd like to accomplish this using the openWRT firmware, which i have successfully installed on a Netgear N600 wlan router.
I see a number of docs explaining how to use openWRT as an openVPN server, but none on how to use it as a openVPN client.
Could anybody be so kind and explain how to achieve a setup where either the VPN is up and running, or i am cut out of the internet?
Thank you.
Answer: Check this: OpenVPN Termination on OpenWrt, it is a different router, but should be similar
Comment:


What factors should be evaluated when determining a desktop software price?

Question: What factors should be evaluated when determining a desktop software price?
Comment: What factors have you got so far?
Comment: @FrustratedWithFormsDesigner: Competitors' price
Comment: What about the price your target demographic (you do have a defined target demographic, right?) is willing to pay? What about how much it costs you to *make* the product? If your competitor's price is below the point where you'd make money, you won't be in business for long.
Comment: Related: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/95946/how-should-i-determine-my-rates-for-writing-custom-software
Comment: @Anna Lear: I mean the factors when setting the price for a complete product, for example the price of winzip
Comment: Are you trying to determine a selling price, or a purchase price? (The question is not quite clear -- my guess from you comment is selling price...)
Comment: @Jay Elston: Selling price....
Comment: @DeeJay, thank you for the bounty.  I didn't think the answer was complete enough to qualify, but I'm glad it helped.
Answer: Take it away, Mr. Spolsky: Camels and Rubber Duckies.

...One of the biggest questions you're going to be asking now is, "How much should I charge for my software?" When you ask the experts they don't seem to know. Pricing is a deep, dark mystery, they tell you. The biggest mistake software companies make is charging too little, so they don't get enough income, and they have to go out of business. An even bigger mistake, yes, even bigger than the biggest mistake, is charging too much, so they don't get enough customers, and they have to go out of business. Going out of business is not good because everybody loses their job, and you have to go work at Wal*Mart as a greeter, earning minimum wage and being forced to wear a polyester uniform all day long.
So if you like cotton uniforms you better get this right.
The answer is really complicated. I'm going to start with a little economic theory, then I'm going to tear the theory to bits, and when I'm finished, you'll know a lot more about pricing and you still won't know how much to charge for your software, but that's just the nature of pricing...
Comment: I don't usually condone single-link answers, but this one is spot-on. Especially since any sane summary would effectively be equal to "it's complicated".
Comment: It's a good article, but in the end even Joel admits it's hard to price software well. I guess in the end you need to be reasonable when setting a price.
Comment: That article is indeed brilliant. And though it does not give a definite answer (or method), it does contribute a lot of angles that need to be worked when pricing software. In the end, it will be a matter of economic factors and what your gut tells you (do you want to undercut competitor's prices at any cost ? / do you want to have a 'fair' price and take your chances in the market ? / etc, etc. +1 to this answer.
Comment: Joel is the man regarding software!!
Comment: Wow, what a fantastic article! Well worth a read, although determining how to accomplish the things he discusses is something else...
Answer: The market?  Like any other product see what the going rate is for something similar.  See if you can find trusted clients and ask them what they think it is worth.
Answer: Some factors to consider:

Is your market a small niche of users who really need this particular product, or mass market?
Can you divide the feature set into basic and premium (tiered pricing)
What are the obstacles to adoption, and what would it take to entice customers to dip their toe in the water?
Are there network effects, such that a high adoption rate makes the product more useful to other users, or is each customer isolated?
Are you trying to shift customers away from competing products or do you have an open field?
Will word of mouth or advertising be more effective at spreading the word?
Will you be providing frequent upgrades, and how will you distribute them?
What OS are you targeting?
Are the customers business, government, or consumer?
Can you sell subsidiary services, such as support, plugins, templates, etc.?
Can you leverage a community of users to help each other, and monetize the community via advertising etc., rather than the bits themselves.
Answer: Some factors I would consider:

Going market price of similar software.
Margin of profit you wish to make.
Cost of bringing software to market (i.e. distribution costs).
Third-party licensing costs (if third-party software is used).
Answer: Try to estimate approximate productivity gain of customers with the software in terms of currency. And also how much post-sale support you are offering. Combine that with your development, marketing and all other cost. You can also consider your reputation. Then you should get a reasonable price. Consider price points for different versions and number of user per licences.
Answer: I take it, you're entering a market with a well-placed competing product. So a big piece of the cake you want to get, is already using another product. For them, switching to your product represent an investment:

Assuming, you provide a real alternative, it will probably take them a while to get used to.
Anyone who chooses tools, attaches himself.
They have already paid for the competitor's product.

Therefore, you should try keeping the actual monetary cost for switching low, and possibly provide some tutorials for users coming from the other product.
Pricing models you should consider:

A subscription based payment model.
Charging for upgrades.
Charging for extra features.
Answer: In addition to what have been said:
A- Calculate your cost accurately (documentation, web site, licensing software, support) this is of course in addition to programming cost so that you set your break even price.
B- Make different license costs based on how many users are using your software. If you don't do that mid-size corp. users will not be tempted to buy the software.
C- Consider the total cost of ownership to the user. For example, factor in the cost of database, and any other costs the user is required to pay to make the solution work. Compare that with similar products (if any) on the Net.
Answer: People will pay whatever they think is a reasonable price.
You need to do a survey of similar products, customer needs for said software, and have a good sale team.  I have seen software being sold for several tens of thousands per item and it be cheap.  I have seen software being sold for $1 and it being an utter waste of money.
Answer: After you have finished reading the article by Joel Spolsky take a look at this Software pricing demystified
Edit
To quickly summarize the info from the article, pricing a product is hard to do in the first attempt (especially if this is your first product). The best thing to do is to start with a good guess and then optimize.
You need to think about your product and determine:

what's the objective value of your product
what's the perceived value of your product
who are your customers / the size of the market

Objective value of your product is easy to determine: SavingsByUsingYourApp - AppPrice = Objective value. The perceived value is a little it more complicated:

Perceived value can be different than objective value, and it can
  affect sales in ways that the demand curve does not predict.  For
  example, when buying a brand-name product, you are intentionally
  paying a premium because the perceived value is higher, even if the
  objective value is the same. Some brands purposely price higher in
  order to increase the perceived value and thus sell more.

You obviously need to determine who are your customers. Also, research the market and your competition. Sales and marketing strategies for selling an app to a big company are almost certainly different than selling e.g. a mobile app for kids.
Comment: @gnat expanded my answer a little bit so it's not a link-only answer.
Comment: would you mind explaining more on what it does and why do you recommend it as answering the question asked? ["Link-only answers"](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/tags/link-only-answers/info "what's this") are not quite welcome at Stack Exchange
Answer: Pick your positioning strategy. Do you want to be:

pricier but comes with richer features software provider?
or cheaper and lesser features software provider?
or be a sticky competitor, i.e. always following your nearest competitor foot steps in terms of selling price and product features. You could be slightly cheaper/pricier than others. Features imitation are always feasible, unless there are patents/legal barriers.
Answer: License, with respect to the long tail.
Answer: Here are a few things to consider based on the information given:

Price of a desktop computer. Never charge more than the price of a PC except for the Enterprise Edition. You don't want there to be sticker-shock.
Cost of the Box. Nothing says, "Our company has been around a long time." than selling your software in a cardboard box. This should be no more than 10% of total cost.
Number of programmers.  This doesn't have to be the actual number of programmers who worked on your app, but the number you can make the customer "think" worked on your app. The more you have the higher the cost. Anywhere from 50 - 100 US Dollars per dev.
Time to Boot Your App - The more software there is the longer it takes to boot-up is a software axiom for years to come. More software means more money. You will get back some of the losses due to extra hardware (See #1).

I realize these are just some general guidelines, so you may just want to consider $85.50 plus shipping and handling. What the heck, if you buy one now, you'll get another one free. Just pay the shipping and handling.
Comment: What about the number of private islands in the Caribbean you want to own?
Comment: @DonalFellows - I want them all of course.


Does longer brewing time with hot water negatively effect flavor?

Question: I've been reading the answers to related questions, but I'm still confused about the variable of the length of brewing time. I've heard that when using a Moka pot, one should turn off the flame immediately upon hearing the very first gurgle sound because if it brews a little bit longer (before the pot starts spurting coffee) the resulting liquid coffee can taste more bitter. I've also read that one of the benefits of the Aeropress is that the "brewing" time is so minimal that the coffee tastes better and is "cleaner". If less brewing time=less bitter,then does coffee made with a french press inherently taste more bitter than other methods? (Maybe people that use the french press prefer more bitterness?) I also read a post elsewhere from a person who says she bought a single-cup coffee filter holder with three holes at the bottom rather than the typical one hole, and that the coffee tasted better because the water drained more quickly. Does the faster the coffee passes through a filter make it less bitter? If so, I wonder why the three hole filter holder isn't more sold more frequently. The art of coffee brewing can be so mysterious ;/
Comment: Welcome to [coffee.se]. Nice concept, and it would be improved if you were to focus on on brewing method. Do feel free to link to one or two other questions that you had been looking at. I assume one of them is [this one](http://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/14/what-is-the-process-to-reduce-bitterness-in-coffee), which points to degree of *extraction* as a primary bitterness factor (and extraction itself is influenced by time).
Answer: As discussed further in this question about bitterness, degree of extraction is one significant factor in bitterness in your cup. There are a couple of other links to coffee bitterness in that question also.
Keeping other major factors constant (e.g., same temperature of water, same beans), time and grind level are the easiest to modify to reduce bitterness. That is: shorter time and coarser grind will (generally) result in less bitter coffee. While you certainly can't expect to get a reasonable brew from barely chopped beans in 15 seconds, small changes in time and grind level can have a noticeable impact on outcomes, especially for immersion-style brewing methods like French press, Aeropress, pour-over, and to a lesser extent stovetop methods like percolator or moka.
Specifics vary by brewing method. For instance, some bitter-tasting compounds are filtered out by paper filters, so paper-filter pour-over will generally be less bitter than French press, for example. Also, your average paper filter will allow brewed coffee to filter more quickly with a coarser grind (finer grinds will more quickly clog the filter) so you might have to vary your pouring method to keep the total brewing time constant.
You might enjoy trying to vary one parameter at a time: trying coarser- or finer-grind coffee, then with a shorter or longer period of time, in both cases trying to vary only one parameter at a time.
Comment: I'll experiment w/ grind level. Since exposure to air degrades coffee flavor, I only grind enough beans per cup I'll immediately drink. My grinder doesn't have grind level settings. The longer I push down, the finer the ground. Will it make it harder for me to consistently grind the coffee to the precise level of grind I preferred in my initial taste testing? Can I get close enough using the second hand on my watch? How discriminating is my palette to notice slight variations in grind time? Rather than grind all the beans in advance in the market, I should buy a decent grinder with settings?
Answer: The comment on the Moka pot I believe has a bit more complex answer than what you are indicating.  Moka Pots are almost more similar to an espresso brewing method than a french press or a pour over system.  Water very near boiling is forced through a coffee puck at some level of increased pressure which brews your coffee.  Just looking at the mechanical system that is being used, it appears to me that if you were to leave the pot on the stove just slightly longer than intended, your coffee would brew with a higher temp water, at higher pressure.  Both of these can cause bitterness.  I think the comment stating that increased time on the stove = more bitter coffee doesn't have to do with brew times, but rather, has to do with water temp and pressure.
A lot of what you are asking comes down to the chemistry of the molecules in the coffee grounds.  When water is applied to the coffee grounds, the first compounds to extract are citric and malic acids followed by more complex (and less soluble compounds).  The compounds which contribute heavy body tend to have high atomic weight, and are not very soluble.
Presuming your grind, water temp, ratios etc are all the same, then the longer you steep the coffee grounds in water, the more body will be contributed to the final extraction, while a very fast extraction will contribute lots of brightness and acidity.
French press is on the far end of the spectrum for brew times, so the resultant coffee has lots of body, but the lighter flavors tend to be muddled, and the acidity seems blunted.  An additional factor on the french press is that the filters are all in all pretty poor, so you end up with lots of fines in your cup of coffee.  Fines are not dissolved solids, and don't really contribute to anything but mouth feel.  They might lend a bit of body, but really, they leave that nasty last sip of grounds in the bottom of your cup.
Typically drip / pour over are a bit more balanced.  They filter fines, and brew time (ie water contact with grounds, not necessarily total brew time) is shorter, which contributes to a 'cleaner' cup of coffee where the acid and finer notes can be easily perceived, and the body doesn't completely take over.
Comment: Thank you very much for the fascinating information! It helps me understand the interconnected variables better.
Answer: Many variables, all have effects. Find the ones that result in coffee you like, and don't get too concerned with it.
I have been using a french press exclusively for several months now. I don't particularly like bitter coffee - but I also don't use water nearly as hot as is common with other methods (or pretty much required for them to move water at all, in some cases) - sometimes I let it cold-brew overnight, and otherwise I stick to water at a temperature I can drink without being scalded after it brews for 4-5 minutes (without adding any cold water or milk products.)
I also use a mild/medium roast, not any of the darker roasts. With moderate temperature water, another 10 minutes does not make a big difference over my usual 5. I'm not slaved to using a timer and sometimes I get to doing other things while the coffee steeps.
If you want a harsh, bitter brew, use boiling water in a french press and leave it a long time. Using a dark/burnt roast could only help. I'll pass ;-)
Comment: Ah, yes, water temperature, variable #18.  ;-/
Comment: I muse in a comment above that I don't have grind settings for consistency. I also don't have a water pot with settings. Then again, as you say, it doesn't pay to obsess about the precision of every variable. However, I do venerate highly skilled baristas. ;-) I generally drink lighter roasts because sometimes I trade "body" to get more caffeine.


Why do impurities lower the melting point of an isolated substance?

Question: It is known that impurities in a desired isolated product lower the melting point of the mixture, even if the impurities' melting point is much higher than the desired product. Why is that so?
Comment: It's what a TA told me after my observation in the organic lab; indeed a synthesis product wasn't exactly pure.
Comment: I think your question is too vague. F'x gave you a great answer on the subject of metal mixtures, but you could get one equally good on colligative properties of solutions, or on thermodynamics. What particular case are you thinking of? A synthesis product not pure enough? A solution of glucose in water?
Comment: Indeed this is a very common phenomenon, not limited to alloys. This is basis for use of mp as a kriterion for substance indentity and purity. There are exeptions (very few in organic chemisty) eg when the impurity and the substance make up a compound (salt). Nick T 's explanation by thermodynamics of mixed phases is the right one.
Answer: It's a very general statement, but it's not always true. I'll explain why it's often true, and give a counter-example at the end.

Your majority component B and the impurity (let's call it A) form a binary system. In most cases, such binary mixtures exhibit a solid–liquid phase diagram as follows:

(image taken from these lecture notes).
This binary phase diagram has pure A on the left, pure B on the right. A and B form, somewhere, a eutectic. It is the point here at concentration e and temperature y. Because the existence of a eutectic point is guaranteed for any A/B binary system, and because the eutectic corresponds to a lower temperature, your liquidus curve decreases with increasing impurity concentration, and the impurity thus lowers the melting point.
However, not all binary mixtures form a eutectic. In the words of Wikipedia:

Not all binary alloys have a eutectic point; for example, in the silver-gold system the melt temperature (liquidus) and freeze temperature (solidus) both increase monotonically as the mix changes from pure silver to pure gold.

The corresponding phase diagram is as follows:
Comment: Anyone have a copy of the lectures notes he links? It's now defunct.
Answer: Thermodynamically, you're considering the chemical potentials ($\mu$) of the liquid and solid(s), specifically the temperature where they're equal.  In a mixture, the potential is lower as the disorder (entropy) has increased, so all things equal, it will favor the liquid over a purer solid where there can be more disorder.  Chemical systems seek to lower their potential through spontaneous chemical changes (e.g. of phase), minimizing the free energy ($G$).  Equilibrium occurs where $dG = 0$.  In a constant temperature, constant pressure system,
$$dG =\sum_i\mu_idn_i$$
$\mu$ is the chemical potential of a given species (some compound in some phase) and $n$ is the amount of that compound.
Assuming our solid generated is pure (valid sometimes, not always), our reaction (freezing) is
 $$\require{mhchem} \ce{A_{(l)} -> A_{(s)}}$$
so the relationship between the two species is equal and opposite (generating one mole of solid consumes one mole of liquid).
$$-dn_{(l)} = dn_{(s)}$$
therefore,
$$\begin{align}
dG = 0 &= \mu{(l)}dn_{(l)} + \mu{(s)}dn_{(s)}\\
 &= \mu{(l)}dn_{(l)} - \mu{(s)}dn_{(l)}\\
0 &= \mu{(l)} - \mu{(s)}\\
\mu{(s)} &= \mu{(l)}\\
\end{align}$$
As the solid is pure (prior assumption, note: $\star$ denotes pure compound),
$$\mu{(s)} = \mu^\star{(s)}$$
In an ideal mixture (assumes interactions between all components are equal) with mole fraction $\chi_A$ and $T$ being the freezing point of the mixture,
$$\mu{(l)} = \mu^\star{(l)} + RT \ln \chi_A$$
(If non-ideal, a general $a$ term is used $\mu{(l)} = \mu^\star{(l)} + RT \ln a_A$).  All together:
$$\begin{align}
\mu^\star{(s)} &= \mu{(s)} = \mu{(l)} = \mu^\star{(l)} + RT \ln \chi_A\\
\mu^\star{(s)} - \mu^\star{(l)} &= RT \ln \chi_A\\
-\Delta G^\star_{m, fus} &= RT \ln \chi_A\\
-(\Delta H^\star_{m, fus} - T \Delta S^\star_{m, fus}) &= RT \ln \chi_A\\
\frac{\Delta S^\star_{m, fus}}{R} - \frac{\Delta H^\star_{m, fus}}{RT} &= \ln \chi_A\\
\end{align}$$
If the mixture is pure (freezing point at $T^\star$), $\chi_A = 1$, so $\ln \chi_A = 0$,
$$\begin{align}
-\frac{\Delta H^\star_{m, fus}}{RT^\star} + \frac{\Delta S^\star_{m, fus}}{R} &= 0\\
\frac{\Delta S^\star_{m, fus}}{R} &= \frac{\Delta H^\star_{m, fus}}{RT^\star} \\
\end{align}$$
Combined...
$$\begin{align}
\frac{\Delta H^\star_{m, fus}}{RT^\star} - \frac{\Delta H^\star_{m, fus}}{RT} &= \ln \chi_A\\
\frac{\Delta H^\star_{m, fus}}{R}\left(\frac{1}{T} - \frac{1}{T^\star}\right) &= \ln \chi_A\\
\frac{\Delta H^\star_{m, fus}}{R}\left(\frac{T^\star - T}{TT^\star}\right) &= \ln \chi_A\\
\end{align}$$
As $T \approx T^\star$ and if we define $\Delta T$ as the change in equilibrium temperature (melting point) from the pure substance,
$$\begin{align}
\frac{\Delta H^\star_{m, fus}}{R}\left(\frac{\Delta T}{T^{\star2}}\right) &= \ln \chi_A\\
\end{align}$$
This can be taken further to derive the coefficient for the freezing point depression, but from here we can see that because $\Delta H$, all $T$'s, and $R$ are positive and $\ln \chi_A$ is guaranteed to be negative ($\chi_A$ must be less than zero), $\Delta T$ must be negative.
To recap the assumptions, this is an ideal mixture and the solid formed is pure.  Addressing the first, if non-ideal, we can use the general $a_A$ instead of $\chi_A$.  The mole fraction can never exceed 1, but I'm not sure about $a$; if it does exceed 1, then there would be a freezing point elevation.
As for the second, if the solid formed is a mixture (e.g. a metal alloy), the that throws another wrench in the works that I don't definitively know how to address.  I believe it would then be based on the difference of interaction between the components in liquid phase versus solid phase as well as the relative concentration in each.
Comment: +1 very detailed answer. Read this answer and mine, you can extend your discussion of idealities into a discussion of why some binary mixtures don't form eutectics…
Comment: It really doesn't have anything to do with eutectics, although you are quite right that many systems don't have eutectics.  The derivation above is quite sufficient to show that the addition of any impurity in small quantities will lower the melting point.  Another reason is the entropy of mixing, which when one component amount is small is always positive.
Answer: The two above answers are academic/scholastic. I'll give an intuitive one.
When impurity is in a solid, it usually (not always, as said in Answer 1) weakens the connections/forces between molecules, and hence makes it more vulnerable to heat (read lower melting point). A solid is like an army in rank and file. When you put a civilian in the army, it doesn't matter whether that civilian is as strong as Arnold Schwarzenegger, the formation will be messed to some extent.
However, weaker intermolecular forces do not mean that solid will becomes softer. It may become harder and more brittle. An example is that copper is changed to a harder bronze if tin is added.


Does exiling a morph card face down for the turn bring it back face up?

Question: For example, if I play Akroma, Angel of Fury down for its morph cost, then a Momentary Blink on the face down creature, does it come back into play face up?
Comment: The Astral Slide deck from long ago abused just this very interaction.
Comment: The interaction still appears every now and then in Modern decks, eg White Weenie. If your deck already uses Flickerwisp or Restoration Angel for Blace Splicer, why not?
Answer: If you exile a face-down creature, it will enter the exile zone face up, and if it returns to the battlefield, it will enter the battlefield face up.
The first important thing to consider is that face-down is a status. Rule 110.6d says

Only permanents have status. Cards not on the battlefield do not. Although an exiled card may be face down, this has no correlation to the face-down status of a permanent. Similarly, cards not on the battlefield are neither tapped nor untapped, regardless of their physical state.

In addition, rule 707.9 says

If a face-down permanent moves from the battlefield to any other zone, its owner must reveal it to all players as he or she moves it. If a face-down spell moves from the stack to any zone other than the battlefield, its owner must reveal it to all players as he or she moves it. At the end of each game, all face-down permanents and spells must be revealed to all players.

And finally, rule 400.7 says

An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

If we put all of these together, they mean that when the face-down Akroma is exiled, it's owner reveals it. It then moves to exile in a state as described by the card that exiles it. Momentary Blink doesn't say to exile it face down, so it's exiled face up. Once it is in exile, it is just an Akroma, Angel of Fury card, with no memory of its existence on the battlefield. Then it enters the battlefield as a creature with no memory of its previous existence on the battlefield or in exile. The effect that puts it on the battlefield doesn't say that it enters face down, so it enters face up.
Comment: Is this better?
Comment: Correct. It wasn't on the battlefield, then it was, so it entered the battlefield. It was never face-down (it was created face-up), so it wasn't turned face-up.
Comment: Can you clarify a bit? I assume that by "exiled face up" you mean that it will be face-up while in the exile zone; but it sounds like you're saying that it is face up when you exile it.
Comment: @murgatroid99 So any effect saying when the creature enters the battlefield would go off? But not any effect saying When this card is turned face up.
Answer: Whenever you create an object on the battlefield, it enters untapped, unflipped, face-up and phased in (unless otherwise instructed).

110.6b Permanents enter the battlefield untapped, unflipped, face up, and phased in unless a spell or ability says otherwise.

The state of the permanent last represented by the card has no bearing on the state of this newly created object.

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule: [...]


Why doesn't the U.S. Federal Government auction their retired but memorable aircraft?

Question: The U.S. Federal Government has scores of old aircraft waiting for dismantling. Why doesn't it auction some of them? Some people might be very much interested in planes such as the B-52, and would be happy if they get it at some considerable price (though, I have no idea what it may be!) to keep them as a memorabilia. Also, this and this suggest that civilians can purchase and fly military aircraft. So why doesn't the federal government give this a shot?

Source
Comment: It would be a challenge to find adequate storage space for your private B-52. Right after WW II, many airplanes were auctioned off at these locations, and some people made a small fortune just from the leftover fuel in them.
Answer: There are a few reasons for this.
First off they may not want the public, or more importantly potentially enemy nations obtaining a large quantity (or any quantity for that matter) of military planes. Even old war birds can still do a lot of damage if equipped by a person with intent on doing damage.
Secondly, the boneyard you have pictured serves a few purposes. For one it houses aircraft that have reached their life time limit. To keep an airplane flying it takes not only money but a supply of parts (or the resources to make your own under certain FAA rules). Out of service planes may be tough if not impossible to keep flying for no other reason than you cant get airworthy parts for them.
Thirdly, some of the planes in these bone yards are scrapped (or kept there) for reserve parts for the planes still in service. Again airworthy parts are not as simple to get as going to your local car parts store. There are many more regulations around them. In this case you can pull parts from an airworthy plane (if you know the cycles its been through) and use them to fix another plane.
Lastly, and this is mainly speculation, maybe the government is hidings its back up planes in plane sight...
On the note about buying old war birds, rules have changed over time and its not as easy to get ahold of government property as in days past. Some military equipment that sees its way to the public hands actually left the US as a sale to another country then that country sold it into public trade as well. For what its worth Trade-a-Plane has a whole section just for war birds.
Answer: In the Eighties and Nineties there was a concerted effort to reduce the nuclear arsenal on both sides of the Cold War. This resulted in a load of B-52s being dumped in the desert and being partly dismantled - wings cut off, etc. These aircraft had to remain there so that the Russians could verify by satellite that the US was adhering to its side of the relevant treaty.

"B-52s chopped" by federal photographer - AMARC. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikipedia
Wikipedia covers the START treaty and includes images of these bombers. I imagine the Russians had similar arrangements.
The USAF could still cannibalise these machines to keep other B-52s airworthy, but attempting to buy one is likely to be, shall we say, suspicious.
Comment: [AMARC on Google Maps](https://email@example.com,-110.8348759,42m/data=!3m1!1e3).
Answer: To put stuff into context, It was rumored (so I cannot guarantee the authenticity of this claim) that my university declined an engine to go with their old donated F16 out of security concerns, i.e. that some people and organizations would have become a little too 'interested'.
The fact remains that many countries have any old American aircraft, yet are not (or no longer) 'allies' of the United States. They have a correspondingly difficult time to get hold of parts.
For instance:

Iran has F4, F5, F14s and C130s.
Venezuela has F16s
Pakistan has F16s.

Needless to say, none of these could really be considered 'allies'.
Even a seemingly irrelevant piece of metal (that you say would like to use for furniture or what not else) could have value to somebody who has difficulties or limitations in acquiring spare parts for their jets.
Comment: I think Pakistan would be quite upset to hear itself not considered an "ally" of the United States :p The US is the second-largest foreign supplier of military equipment to Pakistan after China.


What is needed to make Payflow Pro Recurring Donations work?

Question: CiviCRM supports comes with PayFlow Pro but it doesn't support recurring payments.  I looked at the code and there's code for recurring.  What is needed to finish this part of the payment processor?  An IPN segment?  I already know that it will take time, money and developers.  I'm looking for what these items would be used for.
Comment: To be clear re: the bounty: I already know that http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Payment+Processors says: No code written but processor can support it.  I know Lobo's quoted 20 hours of work.  I'd like details on the exact work.
Comment: I saw that there was code to support recurring payments, too. I have a sneaking suspicion that the recurring check-box on the contribution page is hard-coded to display only for Authorize.net and PayPal Pro, but I haven't dug in to find that bit in core.
Comment: No, each payment processor can specify if they handle recurring or not (stripe and sepa for instance offer recurring).
Answer: This issue from 2009 seems to be the one to add payflow into the core:
https://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-5536
per Eileen comment:

"Although the code is there to upload recurring transactions the
  customer opted not to complete the recurring payment side of things so
  this should be turned off in the payment_processor_type table for now.
(code works but on-going querying of outcomes in incomplete)."

I would suggest you add a comment to this issue or contact Eileen on chat.civicrm if you want to know more about what's missing or an estimate of the number of hours need to make the recurring happen


What are the belt colors of Tae Kwon Do in order?

Question: What are the belt colors of Tae Kwon Do in order? Also could you add the degrees, I have had a hard time finding a reliable site?
Answer: In ITF Taekwon-do, the coloured belts are numbered from 10th kup (also gup) to 1st kup. Black belt grades are numbered from 1st degree (also dan) to 9th degree.
In the organisation I'm a member of (P.U.M.A, in the UK), the colours used are:

10th: White
9th: Yellow stripe
8th: Yellow
7th: Green stripe
6th: Green
5th: Blue stripe
4th: Blue
3rd: Red stripe
2nd: Red
1st: Black stripe

The stripes are also called tags in some schools or organisations; historically, our stripes were insulating tape wrapped round the end of the belt! Now, though, striped belts have the lower colour as the background with the higher colour forming a band along the length of the belt (that is, a 9th kup belt round the waist of a student would have 3 parallel lines of white - yellow - white from top to bottom).
Our degree/dan grades use roman numerals to identify a black belt's grade (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VII, IX). Grades above 4th degree have vertical black stripes on the arms and legs of their dobok and masters (above 7th degree) have badges on their shoulders.
This page on Wikipedia has a good explanation of the ranks I'm used to!
Answer: Smartass Answer
Here:
TKD Belts
Serious Answer
Depends on the school/association.  Some have over 10 colored belts before you even get to first degree black.  Some have much fewer.
An example:

White
Yellow 1st and 2nd Degree
Green 1st and 2nd Degree
Blue 1st and 2nd Degree
Brown
Black 1st Degree through 9th or 10th

The fewer belts the school has, the more time you can expect to spend on each one.  For example, if one school has 10 colored belts, you will probably move through two belts in the same time that it would take you to move through one belt in a school that only has 6 or 7 colored belts.
You could conceivably narrow down the answer to your question if you would specify which association you're talking about. ITF, ATA, WTF, will each have their own list of belts. Then again, if you knew that, you could just look it up on each respective organization's official website...
Additionally, some individual instructors, whether they are affiliated with an association or not, may have their own belt list. So there's really no way of answering your question definitively. Best thing to do is to find a school you're thinking of joining and ask them what their belts are.
The most important thing I can tell you is this: if you see a camouflage belt anywhere in the school, you are in a McDojang.  WALK AWAY!
Comment: Part of the testing requirements for camo belt is doing ten round kicks without spilling your beer.
Comment: @TonyD
The American Taekwando Association has a camouflage belt in their lineup. http://ataonline.com/taekwondo/belts/index.asp They get some ridicule for it.
Comment: @SeanDuggan - Some of it is marketing, but if you look at the meaning for each belt, it fits in. ATA compares the colored belt levels to the growth of a pine tree (Songahm, the ATA style, means pine tree and rock). Camouflage is the first level where light contact sparring (as opposed to one steps) is introduced, and the accompanying belt meaning is "The sapling is hidden among the taller pines and must new fight its way upward". Agreed, most belt colors are arbitrary anyway. The old adage about a black belt being a really dirty white belt doesn't account for orange, blue, purple, etc. :p
Comment: "if you see a camouflage belt" - I'm confused... which one was the smart arse answer? ;-]
Comment: @TheWudangKid:
:) Funny. While I see the camo belt as a silly marketing thing, I have to say that I really don't see it as any different than most of the belts. My understanding is that belt colors are essentially arbitrary choices that people have created backstories for rather than having any meaning from the start.
Answer: I can't comment as I don't have 50 reputation yet, but unfortunately coltonon is incorrect.  He says "eight official color belt ranks registered by the kukkiwon and the wtf" and that those ranks are certified and recognised worldwide.
The Kukkiwon doesn't care about colour belt ranks and doesn't certify them.  There is no system in place to get the certificates from them or register promotions with them for coloured belts.  There is no Kukkiwon defined syllabus in place for coloured belt tests, nor any rules/regulations relating to them (except for the requirement that they are given by a Kukkiwon 4th dan or above)
The WTF doesn't care about ANY ranks, it is purely a sport organisation.  For all matters relating to rank it delegates these to the Kukkiwon.
So any kup ranks may or may not be accepted in 164 countries, but it's at the instructor's discretion and not Kukkiwon or WTF certified/registered.
Source: Taekwondo 5th Dan Kukkiwon, my school is a Kukkiwon Member, I'm a regular member of the 2012 and 2013 World Taekwondo Leaders Forum and I'm a Kukkiwon-certified Master Instructor with Citation.  All certificates are on my website.
Comment: It is specifically stated in the Kukkiwon promotion regulations.  [Article 20](http://www.kukkiwon.or.kr/english/examination/examination08.jsp#20)
Comment: I don't believe you have to be a 4th degree to conduct a colored belt test. You do (or have to bring in people) for dan testings, but I believe for colored belts you can be under 4th dan and still conduct the testing.
Comment: Ah, cheers! I missed that when I was reading through yesterday.
Comment: That's not to say there aren't a lot of organisations out there that let below 4th Dans perform coloured belt testing, it's just not Kukkiwon rules compliant to do so.  As my answer was specifically about Kukkiwon practices and Kup certificates "registered by the kukkiwon" I'm strictly limiting my answer to that.
Comment: Got it. And yes, a lot of federations allow Dan ranks to promote to a dan rank two below them. (3rd to 1st, 4th to 2nd, etc.), with high ranks (4+) needing a testing panel.
Answer: Simple answer: the gup.
So what the h&$@ is a gup?  It's a taekwondo rank.  There's gups and dans.  My school has 8 gups.  That is, eight official color belt ranks registered by the kukiwon and the wtf ( world taekwondo federation). We have other ranks, but only 8 are certified and recognized by 164 countries worldwide.
Gups go in opposite order.  For example, an eighth gup is a hin tdi, or white belt.  A 7th gup is a norang tdi, or yellow  belt.  This goes up to red belt, aka bbalgong tdi, or first gup.   Once you hit black belt, it goes up.  For example, a 1st Dan is the lowest rank of black belt, where 10th Dan is the highest.  A fourth degree black belt aka fourth Dan is called a master.  A sixth degree is a grandmaster, and an ninth degree is a great-grandmaster.  Hope this helps.
Source- myself, a taekwondo 1st dan, trained for four years.
Comment: You left out poom ranks, as well as that not all TKD associations recognize 4th dan as Master, some are higher.
Comment: Yes, but a poom is not a color belt.  Not all schools have pooms.  I also stated  **my school**
Comment: You talk about Dan rankings, they are not color belts. And you seem to treat the Kukkiwon as the sole arbiter of belts in TKD, which is far from the case.
Comment: I discussed gups. The kukkiwon is the most popular, and most recognized. I am not that familiar with other organizations, thus i opted to not mention any.
Answer: I've been training through the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) for 8 years now, and I am currently a second dan black belt. It seems to me after reading through these responses, every club has a different variety of belt colours, so that is why every answer is somewhat different. Anyways, here's what my club goes by.
First of all, there are three different ranks you can obtain in WTF taekwondo. There is Gup, Poom, and Dan. Gup is coloured belt rank, Poom is junior black belt rank, (under 15 years old), and Dan is just full black belt rank. (15 years old and up.)
For the coloured belt order in my club it goes:
-White belt
-Yellow belt
-Yellow belt with green stripe
-Green belt
-Green belt with blue stripe
-Blue belt
-Blue belt with red stripe
-Red belt
-Red belt with black stripe
Okay, those are all of the Gup ranked belts. (Coloured belts.) For black belts, there's 1st degree all the way up to 9th degree. Whether it's a Poom or a Dan depends on your age, as I've said above. In our club, you can test for your next coloured belt every three months. For black belts on the other hand, you need to wait however many years your current belt rank is. For example, if you're a 1st degree black belt, you'll need to wait 1 year to test for your 2nd. If you're a 2nd, you need to wait 2 years to test for your 3rd. That's why it's extremely rare to become a 9th degree black belt! To become a master, you'll need to be a 5th dan or higher. Our club has 3 masters currently teaching!
Answer: My school does ITF-style TKD. This is my school's belt order:
10 gup- white. They learn the form Chon Ji and students spend a minimum of 3 months here (same for all gup ranks except 1st Gup).
9- yellow. Dan Gun
8- orange. Do San
7- green. Won Hyo
6- blue. Yul Guk
5- purple. Choong Gun
4- brown. Toi Gye
3- red. Hwa Rang
2- high red (this is a poom belt for juniors in other systems. Our adult and junior students wear this rank)- the belt is half black and half red. Choong Moo
1- probationary black belt. Kwang Gae. Our school uses this rank, which is a minimum of 6 months. Kwang Gae is a 1st degree black belt form (there are 3), so our school has this probationary period with one of the forms. Probies are treated as black belts but are not a full BB. They don't get a new belt or dobok.  I compare it to being a student teacher in a high school- you're learning what is expected and making the transition.
Then Dan ranks- 1st to 9th, with a minimum of that many years before being eligible to advance (i.e. 1st degree must spend at least one year at that rank before being eligible to test up to 2nd). Our Dans wear black collar doboks with belts with stripes, and each Dan rank has 3 forms to learn (plus the extra form Juche, which was a 2nd degree form, but I think my instructor moved it back to 4th Dan now, reverting back to original Ko Dang at 2nd).
Answer: The ATA uses:
White
Orange
Yellow
Camouflage
Green
Purple
Blue
Brown
Red
Red-Black (Recommended Black Belt)
And then 1st through 9th Dan black belts.
Answer: WTF system:

White
Yellow
Orange
Green
Blue
Brown
Red
Advance Red (black red one)
Black Red 1
Black 1st Dan to 9th Dan
Answer: Here are the colors that I went through when I was training with Lee's TKD Federation, who follows WTF rules and regulations:
White,
Orange,
Yellow,
Green,
Blue,
Purple,
Purple with white stripe along the top and bottom,
Brown,
Red,
Black (unless the person was under 16, which is then poom, black belt with red along the top and bottom).
From there it's gold stripes on the ends for each additional Dan rank, capping off at a 10th Dan. Grand Master Lee was going for his 8th Dan when I had to leave due to personal circumstances
Answer: My school uses:

White
Yellow
Orange
Green
Blue
Purple
Brown
Red
Black
Black 1st degree-9th degree.
Comment: Could you add what style your school teaches and/or what organistion it belongs to (national or international)?
Comment: I'm not sure what style it belongs to, it might just be private. We don't go to or have any competitions.
Comment: I'm intrigued. What style do you practise?
Comment: `I'm not sure what style it belongs to` _My post two posts above this_
Answer: The Belt order at my school is:
White, Yellow, Yellow-green, Green, Green-blue, Blue, Blue-red, Red, Red-black, and Black
Comment: Would be helpful if you could add whether your school is ITF or WTF.
Answer: ATA uses
White
Orange
Yellow
Camoflouge
Green
Purple
Blue
Brown
Brown 2
Red
Red 2 (1R) (Reccomended Black Belt)
Black1-Black9
Comment: [Already answsered](http://martialarts.stackexchange.com/a/7327/82)
Answer:
White
Yellow (10, 9 or 8 degree)
Blue (7, 6)
Green (5)
Brown (4, 3)
Red (2, 1)
Black (1 through 10)
Comment: It would be helpful to list what organization this is for and to list kyu and dan ranks rather than just numbers.


Can I use an image sequence with offset frames as a texture on array items

Question: I'm creating an animation of a film bed with a film strip running through it. The film strip is basically just an array object with a curve modifier. What I want to do is use an image sequence for the material that is being tiled along the array object, and offset 1 frame for each duplicated array object. Thus giving the effect of moving images on the actual film strip.
I hope this makes sense, and I'm just assuming that this is a python requirement, as I can't think of anything to do it with in the Blender toolkit.
Comment: You could try unwrapping the UVs of the film strip, and then put together a really wide texture of all of the frames lined up side-by-side.
Answer: To expand on Dan the Man's comment, one way to do this would be to use an external tool to append the image sequence into one wide image.
One tool that might be good for this is Image Magick.
instructions for installing Image Magick on Windows
to append an image sequence on Linux, one way would be like this:
<code>cd /path/to/directory/with/images/
convert `ls -v -w 1` +append /path/to/output/file.png
# this assumes the images are named in alphanumeric order
</code>
Once you have your image strip,

Apply the array modifier on your film object.

unwrap your film object with U > Project from View (Bounds).

which unwraps the strip nicely, provided your original array object matched the aspect ratio of the image sequence:

Add a simple material with the strip as a texture:
Answer: Instead of using the the Array modifier

Link the material to object.
Create a individual linked duplicates.
Select the duplicates, Object | Make Single User | Materials+Tex (or UT)

You might want to setup a nodegroup first to make future changes to the material easier.

Now increment the texture offset for each material.


Store product data in session variable or access db every time?

Question: I have my database storing lots of information about products (year, name, release_date, volume, etc. etc.).  I currently load all of the products once and store them in a session variable - right now there's only 8 products but the list will grow as time progresses.  The reason why I did this was to (perhaps foolishly) save HDD reads every time the products page was accessed.  Am I shooting myself in the foot by storing this information in the session?
Answer: Yes, you're probably shooting yourself in the foot. If every user session stores all the product information, you may run out of memory once you have a lot of users and a lot of products.
I'd suggest using something like memcached to cache the queries against the product table, so that you're not hitting the disk too hard but you're not running out of memory either.
But it really depends on what kind of scale you're expecting -- if you're only going to have 50kB of product data and 500 simultaneous user sessions, then you'll only be eating 25MB, and you can probably get away with it. If you're expecting 50MB of product data and 50,000 user sessions, then you'll be using 2.5TB of RAM, which you probably won't have.
Comment: I'm currently on a shared hosting plan with Bluehost; is memcache something I'd have to talk with them about or is it something I can install myself?
Answer: If you only have 8 products you don't need a database :-)
If you want to use the database (which is probably a good idea if the site is going to grow) you may as well use the database and simply point a session product key array at it. Having duplicate information in the session is a pain and unecessary -- why have it in two places?
If the database is frequently being accessed all the product table information is most likely to be in memory anyway, so you don't need to add in any further complexity. For most sites, memcached is just a way of trying to speed up really badly designed database queries or ORMs.


How could Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai eat from the carob tree?

Question: The gemarah (Shabbat 33b) states that when Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son Rav Elazar were hiding in a cave a carob tree miraculously sprouted from which they ate. How could they eat from this tree within the first three years of its growth, for doesn't that transgress the laws of orlah?
Comment: http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pagefeed/hebrewbooks_org_47442_136.pdf
Comment: How could they stay in the cave for 12 years straight without tefillin, Sukkah, matzah etc?
Answer: Stuff that grows by itself on public property is exempt from the rules of orla. Source: Radvaz's commentary to Rambam, Maaser Sheni 10:6 (though it's pretty clear from the Rambam himself, 10:5).
Comment: cf ShA YD 294:27
Answer: Another answer (suggested here in the Sefer "Kerem Efraim") is that because the tree was created through a miracle, it was not obligated in Orlah. He brings support from the Radak (Malachim Beis 100:4) who writes that the oil that was miraculously created for the wife of Ovadia did not require Maaser to be separated from it.
He explains that for the first three years of a tree's life, the powers of evil rule over it and this is the basis for the prohibition of Orlah. However, the Gemorah (Sanhedrin 59b) writes that nothing impure descends from heaven, and therefore the tree miracoulsy created for the Rashbi could be eaten from immediately.
Answer: Reminds me of this (Sanhedrin 59b -- summarized and text below):
Rabbi Shimeon ben Chalafta was walking on the road when lions met him and roared at him. Thereupon he quoted from Psalms: "The young lions roar for prey and to beg their food from HASHEM," and two lumps of flesh descended from heaven. They ate one and left the other. This he brought to the study hall and propounded: Is this fit for food or not? The scholar answered: "Nothing unfit descends from heaven." Rabbi Zera asked Rabbi Abbahu: "What if something in the shape of a donkey were to descend?" He replied: "You 'howling yorod,' did they not answer him that no unfit thing descends from heaven?"
מי איכא בשר היורד מן השמים אין כי הא דר"ש בן חלפתא הוה קאזיל באורחא פגעו בו הנך אריותא דהוו קא נהמי לאפיה אמר (תהלים קד, כא) הכפירים שואגים לטרף נחיתו ליה תרתי אטמתא חדא אכלוה וחדא שבקוה אייתיה ואתא לבי מדרשא בעי עלה דבר טמא הוא זה או דבר טהור א"ל אין דבר טמא יורד מן השמים
בעי מיניה ר' זירא מר' אבהו ירדה לו דמות חמור מהו א"ל יארוד נאלא הא אמרי ליה אין דבר טמא יורד מן השמים

(Edit: Oops realized someone already referenced this!)
Answer: Rav Yisroel Reisman suggests in Parshas Kedoshim (5779) that

1) Rav Shteinman says that Ba'xur is not really edible. It is not a
  normally harvested fruit. The Gemara says that it is Kashe L'guf
  K'charavos. I don't know how that fits with other Gemaros, but at any
  rate this is what he says.
2) When HKB"H put a Ba'xur tree in a cave, Hashem miraculously created
  a three year old tree. It was in truth just a day old but Hashem
  created a three year old tree.Teshuvas Chacham Tzvi in Teshuva Tzaddik
  Gimmel or so, he has a question if someone creates a Golem whether
  that person can count for Minyan. He does not deal with the fact that
  that person is not 13 years old. If he created a Golem he is one day
  old. This is because if someone is created miraculously as a 13 year
  old, then he is a Gadol. If a tree is miraculously created as three
  years old then the tree is past Orlah.
Comment: https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Peah.1.5 https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Maasrot.1.3 https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sheviit.4.10  .........
Answer: In my opinion has said above, since this tree grew "al pi ness" there is no issur orla bound to it; also since it was  fully grown -like a 4 years old tree, obviously a miracle- there should not be any issur. On top of it, if HKB"H sent these fruits to save their lives, He "managed" to give them some eatable stuff, and not any issur.
Comment: If I uproot and replant a 10 year old tree then the orla count starts over. It doesn't matter how big the tree is.


Merge complex-analysis and cv.complex-variables?

Question: We have distinct tags complex-analysis and cv.complex-variables, of which the latter is the arXiv standard name.  They seem to mean the same thing.  Should they be merged?
Comment: This was already proposed more than a year ago http://meta.mathoverflow.net/a/1087/ by Andres Caicedo. One might entertain a similar idea for [tag:real-analysis] as  commented there. That being said this extra visibility might be a good thing.
Comment: I am not entirely sure merging these two tags is appropriate as, in principle, the tag 'complex-analysis' is supposed to be more specific than the tag 'cv.complex-variables'. In practice, though, the tag 'complex-analysis' may provide little extra information.
Answer: I think they should be merged, as choosing one tag instead of the other seems to convey little information.
I think we should also add the expression "complex analysis" in the tag wiki excerpt of cv.complex-variables for clarity so that it would read:

Complex analysis, holomorphic functions, automorphic group actions and forms, pseudoconvexity, complex geometry, analytic spaces, analytic sheaves.
Comment: I made the tag wiki excerpt edit suggestion and it was approved.
Answer: I have merged the tags. I didn't try to track how many experts in complex variables (whether in one or several variables) weighed in, but to my non-expert eyes the proposal seemed reasonable.


How do I close all tabs on Safari for iPad after the app crashes

Question: My wife went to a site that tries to load a PDF that crashes Safari for iPad.  After trying to load Safari again, it tries to open up all of the tabs again including the one that is crashing Safari.  While its loading the tab it locks everything up so I can't switch tabs.  How do I break this endless cycle?  How can I close this tab or have Safari not try to reopen this tab?  Is it possible to do this without losing the history?
Answer:
Force-quit Safari (double-tap the home button, then tap and hold on the Safari icon until it shakes, then tap the red minus sign).
Go to Settings > Safari.
Tap Clear History.

This should clear out all open tabs.
Comment: @JasonThompson There is no mention in your original question that you wanted to preserve your history.
Comment: Thanks.  That's what I was afraid I would have to do, but I really didn't want to clear out the history.  Fortunately, I stumbled upon another way of doing this that lets me have my cake and eat it too.
Comment: Thanks for mentioning that.  I wasn't sure if clearing the history was the only option so I didn't preemptively discount that option.  In any case, I updated my question so that others wanting to do the same without losing their history can find this question more easily.  Thanks for the feedback.
Answer: I struggled through this last night and stumbled upon a solution.  Go to Settings > Safari.  Turn on private browsing.  It will ask you if you want to close all tabs before turning on private browsing.  Touch 'yes'.  Next turn private browsing back off.  Voila!  The browser works again!
Answer: I know this question is nearly 5 years old, but in case someone else comes along with the same question... I've had this happen to me a few times, here's what you do.
Completely close Safari (i.e. after hitting the Home button, double-press the Home button to close it completely and remove it from memory). Then go into Settings and turn on Airplane Mode.
Now enter Safari, it will probably complain that it can't load the webpage either because it has no internet connection or because Airplane Mode is on. Since Safari has no internet connection, it can't load the tabs, including whatever code is blocking you from closing tabs, and including the code that's crashing Safari.
Now you can close the troublesome tab. All that's left is to turn Airplane Mode off again, and presto, the troublesome tab is gone while the tabs you want are still safe.
Comment: Good one. I would have just had him clear his history and website data.
Answer: If you know what site froze Safari, go to Settings Safari Advanced, press Edit and scroll down till you find the site, then delete its data. If the site is YouTube or some similar "big" site, it will be easy to find. This worked for me.
Answer: Safari stopped being stuck when I began to recharge my iPad. And there was no need to reset anything, or to wipe the History. No open tabs were lost either.


Five aggregates vs dependent origination

Question: What is the relation between the five aggregates and the dependent origination?
Comment: [This answer to 'Are there any alternative formulations of the five skandas?'](http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/8030/are-there-any-alternative-formulations-of-the-five-skandas/8329#8329) answers your question
Answer: We can't see five aggregates as it is. We can see a men, animals, Devas. Or good thing, bad thing. Or a beautiful thing, a ugly thing etc. But in reality, there is nothing like that. Everything just a thing or collection of several things. We only making things matter to us. Nothing else.
Refer this answer.

If we took a tower build by stones, actually there is nothing called
  'tower' but set of stones. Like wise, if we consider a person, there
  is nothing but set of things. Lets say you are 40 years old now. What
  are the things you have in your body when you are 1 year old? Nothing
  right? But how you can be recognize now as same you in age 1? because
  of the connection between things changed.

How we see
Since we can't see things in their actual state, we make wrong decisions and doing things and making desires, clinging(උපාදාන) etc. (May be a man really loves his parents. May be we will kill animals to feed our children etc). This cause us to rebirth and we will reborn according to Karma we made. This cycle of born and death is dependent origination.
Most of the times lord Budhdha preaches not knowing things correctly is the starting point of the cycle. and then sanskaara, vinnana etc.
Answer: Five aggregates are pratityasamutpana-dhamma (dependent origination or conditioned).  things that come from causal.

when this thing exists (the causal) that thing  exists
when this thing comes to be , that thing comes to be;
when this thing doesnt exist, that thing doesnt exist
when this thing ends, that things ends

Five aggregates are conditioned things.  they exist because their causal exist, and end because their causal end.     Buddha corrected monk Sati regarding his idea about permanent soul.  Buddha said "vinnaya is pratituasamupana-dhamma"
Five aggregates is conditioned, therefore,  they are impermanence, dukkha (ever changing), and non-self.
Comment: What are conditions for 5 aggregates?
Comment: saṅkhāra is a condition for vinnaya (conciousness).   saṅkhāra is one of the most difficult term in pali canon, more so than dukkha.  avijja is a condion for  saṅkhāra.  Buddha talked about a few more steps of conditions but most sutta starts at avijja.
Answer: 5 Aggregates can be consider as a combination of vinnana & namarupa.
Some times the Dependent Origination is consider as a cycle.
Past Life, present life and next life formation.
Also it can used to show the continuity of the thought sequence.
Generally it take avijja(ignorance) - not knowing things(Sunya) correctly - as the starting point - the Main/foundation reason. If avijja is presence then the sankhra (mental formations) arise. It effect to arise Unpure-vinnana(Moha).
When Vinnana(consciousness) is dull it create/accept nama-rupa as a reality (Things). So (she) accept what six faculties produces. what faculties produce is passa(contact), cause to feelings(vedana).
While there is avijja (she) greed to the vedana and attach to the namarupa.
It is called Upadana(clinging). So (she) accsepts continuity of (inside and outside) namarupa, means Bava(Becomming) Simultaneously. That is the view of I, Myself, others, things, world etc(Avijja).
As the result Dukka - birth, decay, ill, die, sorrow,sufferings etc - (Attributes of things) arises.
This is how the 5 aggrigates are connect with other facts of Dependent arising (patchchasamutpada).
Answer: The five aggregates are the factors / activities that make up a "being", what is conventionally called a self.
Dependent origination is the set of natural laws that keep a "being" bound to samsara (cycle of rebirth).
So one could say that the five aggregates continue to exist from one existence to the next due to the natural law of dependent origination.
Answer: Nama rupa is one and the same as the 5 Aggregates, hence the relationship of nama rupa holds for the 5 Aggregates.


How is consciousness measured?

Question: There is a sphere of infinite space and there is sphere of infinite consciousness.
It is easy to comprehend what is infinite space is but it is not clear what is meant by infinite consciousness?
Does it mean infinite history of experience?
Or does it mean infinite presence of sentient beings with consciousness?
Comment: Here there is only infinite consciousness talking to itself grasping at nothing.
Comment: To ask such a question on Buddhism SE actually implies that one already knows and has faith that the infinite consciousness will answer.  :D
Comment: @OyaMist Are you personalizing infinite consciousness as a separate power?
Answer: In MN121 the Buddha explains his step by step method for achieving Liberation or Nirvana. This method relies on the gradual removal or abandonment or "giving up" of objects and any boundaries/limits, any separation, any division. First, the gross objects/limits/separation is removed, then medium-gross objects/limits/separation is abandoned, then subtle objects/limits/separation is "given up", and this process of incremental iterative refinement is repeated and perfected all the way until Final Liberation.
This process can be compared with a loop in a software program, a cycle:
var A = AttendTo(any object);
repeat until(A==Nirvana){
    var notA = FindComplement(A);
    A = AttendTo(A + notA);
}

On each iteration of this loop our current object is A. Next, we find its counterpart, the NOT A. Next, we combine the total of A + NOT A and make that our new A. This is repeated until Nirvana.
The first step of that process is to start where you are. Let's say you are looking out of your window and see a parking lot with cars and people. When you focus on one of those people, that's an A. When you focus on another person, that's another A. Any single person or any car can be your object. Then you try to find the counterpart (or the mathematical complement) of that A, the NOT A. If you take one member of a mathematical set, then the complement is the rest of that set. If you take any one object (person or car) on the parking lot, then its complement is everything else on that parking lot except that first object. Next step is to put together A + NOT A and make that your new A. When we combine our first person with the rest of the parking lot, the resulting A = A + NOT A is "the entire parking lot". This is the end of the first iteration.
The next iteration is when our A is "the entire parking  lot". The NOT A is the rest of the world. The A + NOT A is "the entire planet".
The next iteration is when our A is "the entire planet". The NOT A is the rest of the universe. The A + NOT A is "the Infinite Space". The reason it's called "infinite" or "boundless" or "limitless" is because it is spatially all-inclusive without any borders or separation. It is our first serious attempt at attaining an undivided meditation object.
The next iteration is when our A is "the Infinite Space". This is where it gets a bit more tricky. What is the NOT A, what is the complement of the Infinite Space in an even broader context? Can we expand from the Infinite Space even further out? In other words, if the A of Infinite Space is one member of a larger set, then what could those other members be?
(...drum roll...)
The other members are all other phenomena, all other contents of our consciousness! Then A = A + NOT A is the entire consciousness with the entire totality of all its possible states and objects. When this becomes our new A, our new object of our iterative meditation refinement process, this stage is called "The Infinite Consciousness". Again, the reason it is called "infinite" or "limitless" or "unbounded" is because it is our new standard of all-inclusive undivided object of meditation.
The next iteration of this goes as follows. If A is The Infinite Consciousness, then what is its counterpart? What is beyond all phenomena, beyond all states of mind, all contents of consciousness? It is the complete absence of any content, complete Nothingness. This is our NOT A. And what is the superset of both A and NOT A? It is that which includes both "entire realm of conscious experience, with all its possible states" and "the complete absence of anything". This A + NOT A is called "the realm of neither (just) perception nor (just) nonperception", in other words it is the common ground for both consciousness and nothingness. But what is it, really? It is the point of view that comprehends all conscious experience as well as comprehends nothingness. It is the ultimate reference point.
Finally, taking this last object as an A, we need to work harder to find its complement. Could there be anything beyond the ultimate reference point that comprehends both consciousness and nothingness? It seems impossible to imagine. However, if you look very-very carefully you can realize that this ultimate reference point is nothing but a sign of "I", the sign of "subject". The complement of that A is complete cessation of I-making, complete cessation of being a point of view. Which means, it is complete cessation of interpretation, evaluation, discernment, and recognition, complete cessation of semiosis. This NOT A of "neither perception nor non-perception" is traditionally known as "cessation of perception and feeling". And if we combine these A + NOT A, that is if we find the common ground of both, then finally we are done.
Comment: Excellent explanation of the transition from known to knower to knowing which transcends all points of reference. I've been reading about this recently .Osho used to say that we can continually go from the object (rose flower) to the subject (that which is flowering) till midpoint.But let me highlight that methods are indicative of choice which can keep `I` invested with volition ,probability of getting stuck at one point in an infinite loop ,so in the dynamic life this requires maybe a specific time ,it cannot really fit in real-time  ,Otherwise I salute you for this amazing explanation .
Answer: Everything depending on their causes. If you want to know anything you need to know their causes and effects, so you should comprehend both spheres' dependent origination to understand them both.
What are you talking about is the object of consciousness. Consciousness in  30 spheres are knowing the object.
When the meditator meditated, did karma, infinite-space-meditation. This karma is going to create the only Nāma, resultant consciousnesses and mind factors. This Nāma has infinite-space illusion as object too. There are the other Nāma in Arūpa too, but not it's resultant. So...

There is a sphere of infinite space

It is a sphere of the consciousness being which knowing the object, infinite space.

there is sphere of the consciousness.

It is a sphere of the consciousness being which knowing the object, consciousness which knowing infinite space.
What is infinite space?
The infinite space is the special illusion which created by the 4th jhana master's mind when he practice infinite space jhāna.
Without the fourth jhāna, you can not create this illusion by yourself.
Why it is called in finite space?
Because the forth Jhāna master uses the space between Kasina to be basis of this Jhāna and because this is no matter, Rūpa, so the forth Jhāna master must ignore Kasina, which basing on Rūpa, by knowing only space illusion.
What is infinite consciousness?
There is no infinite consciousness actually. In the KN. Patisambhidamagga's commentary there is two definition...

anantaṃ viññāṇanti taṃyeva ''ananto ākāso''ti pharitvā pavattaṃ viññāṇaṃ ''anantaṃ viññāṇa''nti manasikarontoti vuttaṃ hoti. manasikāravasena vā anantaṃ. so hi taṃ ākāsārammaṇaṃ viññāṇaṃ anavasesato manasikaronto anantaṃ manasi karoti.

The consciousness which knowing the consciousness as object. This object is consciousness which knowing infinite space, so it is called infinite-(space-object-)-consciousness.

The consciousness which knowing uncountable  consciousness as object. This object is uncountable
space-object-consciousness, so it is called infinite-(space-object-)-consciousness.

It is easier to go to Pa-Auk forest monastery to practice it directly
But if you want to understand by reading, see the path of verification in SamādhiNiddesa.
Comment: I am asking what is infinite consciousness? I am not asking to know the conditions depending on which the perception of infinite consciousness arises. Make me understand what is infinite consciousness and not how it came to be... Hope I am clear.
Comment: I edited the answer.
Answer: To measure is to assess. Consciousness exists to assess, to make choices. One assesses to gain more. Gaining more, consciousness grows. The measure of consciousness is what we gain.

DN15:15.2: Suppose there were totally and utterly no assessing for anyone anywhere. When there's no assessing at all, with the cessation of assessing, would desire and lust still be found?"

Suffering creates limits:

SN41.7:6.2: Greed, hate, and delusion are makers of limits.

So we have then an apparent paradox with "infinite consciousness." How can consciousness be infinite if it is limited by assessment?
Infinite consciousness cannot be measured or assessed because any such measurement or assessment would be a limit. But infinite consciousness can be perceived.

AN9.41:13.10: 'Suppose that, seeing the drawbacks of the dimension of infinite consciousness, I were to cultivate that. And suppose that, realizing the benefits of the dimension of nothingness, I were to develop that. It's possible that my mind would be eager for the dimension of nothingness; it would be confident, settled, and decided about it. And I would see it as peaceful.'
Comment: I am no pali expert but the English translation says that there is a perception of infinite consciousness. What does infinite means ? Infinite means something without a boundary. In a sense infinite measures. It measures the boundlessness. Suppose I say Infinite Space , what does that mean? It means I occupy a space which is without boundary in any direction. Of course this space is anatta but it is nevertheless found as a perception. Perception of the size of space and consciousness is integral part of knowledge gained by the meditator.
Comment: "Beyond measure" is indeed a measure. But it's also a measure without increase.:D
Comment: interesting observation...
Answer: Please keep in mind my answer comes from my personal experience alone, and not from a study of Buddhist texts. Also, I want to establish terminology because conversations like this can get very confusing if we aren't extremely clear about what we are talking about.
When I say consciousness, I am talking about a specific sensate experience I can most directly explain as a combination of lucidity and identification. In my experience, consciousness is impermanent. When I am conscious, I am most likely observing thoughts who's content kick off a process of identification (I am this not that, etc). I identify as a particular aspect of experience when conscious. In a deep sleep when I am aware of only awareness itself, consciousness is not present. But once the automatic process of self identification occurs upon waking, consciousness tends to arise.
The quality of "lucidity" that is present in consciousness is one that I can only describe as "the will or ability to act". When I am lucid, I feel as if I now possess the ability to freely act, like during waking experience. When I am not lucid, I feel experience and actions are occurring autonomously, like during a dream.
Based on my definitions I would say the following.
When I am in a deep sleep, I am aware but not conscious. There are no experiences to identify as and I have no will to act.
When I am dreaming I am aware but not conscious. There are experiences to identify with, but there is no will to act.
When I am lucid dreaming I am aware and conscious. When I am awake I am aware and conscious. In both there are experiences to identify as and I have the will to act.
So to finally answer your question now that terminology has been laid down.

It is easy to comprehend what is infinite space is but it is not clear what is meant by infinite consciousness? Does it mean infinite history of experience? Or does it mean infinite presence of sentient beings with consciousness?

In my experience, it doesn't mean either of the options you suggested, if I'm understanding you properly.
Whenever infinite space and infinite consciousness are paired together in conversation, I always immediately think of the altered states of consciousness that arise during deep concentration meditation. Specifically two particular Jhanas.
Infinite space is very clearly known during what I call the 5th Jhana. In this state, most of the 6 senses have dropped away, but I am left with a feeling of being a single point of consciousness, sitting within an infinite space. I physically feel the experience of space all around me, that seemingly goes on forever. The experience of consciousness is very small in this state in comparison to the experience of space.
Now in the 6th Jhana, I experience what I would call "infinite consciousness". In this state, the single point of consciousness shifts into the space. Consciousness no longer feels like a point within space, but feels as if the entirety of infinite space is conscious/who I am. Some people describe it like the space becomes luminous, which I wouldn't disagree with. If the previous state was described as "a point of consciousness within a sphere of infinite space", this state would be described as "a sphere of infinite space that is conscious".
There are other explanations of what could be meant by infinite consciousness, but they are normally talked about by people with different definitions of consciousness. When people talk about infinite consciousness from the pre-enlightenment perspective, This is what I believe they are referring to.
Comment: @TheWhiteCloud from my perspective, awareness is the "source" of dependent origination. we label and divide awaress into the 6 senses. our interpretations of the content within our 6 senses brings rise to all conceptual phenomena, including the distinction of the senses. by the statement i mean within awareness, an experience of feeling/touch arises id classify as spaciousness. This spaciousness is experienced not as external or internal, but as your source of being. In the moment, I am not experiencing any sight, thoughts, feelings, etc that can be interpreted to be the body or mind.
Comment: @TheWhiteCloud We as humans tend to chop up and conceptualize phenomena and make things more complicated as we add layers. Instead of viewing existence simply, we create concepts that obfuscate the true nature of reality. Going from source down, the mapping looks something like this: Awareness->6 Senses->The World. The 6 senses live within awareness. The senses can not exist if there is no awareness of them. The body, mind, and material world all live within the 6 senses. Without feeling, hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and thinking, you would be unable to know the body, mind, or world.
Comment: Although I do not agree with the answer, I think it is a good attempt. Consciousness is that through which we experience pain and pleasure. Without consciousness there is no experience of pain or pleasure. For example when we loose consciousness in an accident we do not experience any pain..we experience only when we regain our consciousness.
Comment: "a sphere of infinite space that is conscious"...by this do you mean you rxperience consciousness outside of body-mind?
Comment: @SacrificialEquation from my perspective, you are describing the natural impermanence of the 6 senses. I see consciousness as a process that unfolds through other phenomena, not as something that actually exists. Either way, I hope my perspective was helpful in some way! Good luck on the path brother
Comment: @w33t Good answer.
Answer: As i understand it, It is like perception of infinite space but without the space.  There is then only the conception & perception of a boundless pleasantness.
There is the concept of infinity in play, consciousness is delineated due to the pleasantness of it's [boundless] perception.
Answer: Good householder,
infinitive means that it has no border, no end, not even a perception of such. And like Upasaka Vorapol (Bonn) tried to transmit. Coming from a merely outwardly infinitive perception of space, the object, one turns at this stage toward the "subject", the consciousness, that of what knows, be aware of, mind.
And of course, at least philosopical, infinitive is not measureuable.
Of course one can categorize diverent perceptions, individual, conventional...transcendent and sort them into minor and more sublime, like as from blurry to sharp.
After infinitive "mind at knowing" one turns to even more sublime perceptions, giving up knowing as well.
To get things really known, one needs to practice: Sila, Dana, Bhavana (reflecting the heard Dhamma). Concentration is something that has a cause, would not arise without. So one concentrates on give the cause for it.
[Note that this isn't given for stacks, exchange, other worldbinding trades, but for escape from this wheel]
Answer: These two infinite spheres that you ask about are the same.
They are the same because they are imaginative attempts to conceive of something about reality: one which you say you can comprehend, and the other you ask about so that you can comprehend it.
They are the same because ultimately, they speak of reality, which has no pieces, aspects, parts, characteristics, etc. Only that which is held to occupy space is like that.
You say you can comprehend infinite space but that is not reality. It is an artifact of modern science which conflates infinite time and space together as spacetime in order to attempt to define the 'laws' of motion of things that inhabit space-time. Thus you see it as something that will take 'forever' to traverse. If that is what you want to comprehend, you should seek out Physics Stack Exchange.
You have trouble with "infinite consciousness" because you have been confused by scientists who, limited by their understanding of reality as just a big space-time filled with things that interact physically, consciousness must be in the brain. Thus, how can it be infinite.
But these two 'spheres' mean "not-limited". What is not limited? Even the universe of science has edges, and thus, limits. So in that realm, you must always envisage another 'level' of reality that contains the lower level.
"Not-limited" means not conceptualizable, not comprehensible, by intellect.
To properly understand these statements about that which is not limited by the intellect, which are made, not in an attempt to describe something, but rather, to point the way forward for the understanding as it develops through a meditative practice, is to meditate, meditate, meditate.
And that process is unlimited in what it can bring.
Answer: Consciousness cannot be measured. Because all is measured by itself, but measured things cant measured the instrument of measurement i.e. consciousness.
Consciousness is a pool of whole, we are part of that. When individual consciousness ceases altogether, with cessation of I, it finds itself a part of universal consciousness. So, then question of coming & going, being & nonbeing ceased totally.
He see all beings are part of him. He doesn't harm any creature with his body, mind and speech.
(Human beings are exactly the same, wherever you go. We are one single unit, but due to ignorance perceive different than others. That's where the work of Religion starts, to bind the world together as one family.)
Peace!
Answer: After a long wait , I gained some understanding of the meaning of infinite consciousness. Infinite consciousness means infinite mental fabrications. This includes historical , momentary, conceptual, phenomenal etc.
There are as many fabrications as there are dictionaries and any kinds of combinations of the words. Therefore consciousness is infinite.
Answer: What about all the perfected ones, the fully awakened Buddhas who lived in the past? Have you comprehended their minds to know thatKiṃ te, sāriputta, ye te ahesuṃ atītamaddhānaṃ arahanto sammāsambuddhā, sabbe te bhagavanto cetasā ceto paricca viditā:those Buddhas had such ethics, or such qualities, or such wisdom, or such meditation, or such freedom?"'evaṃsīlā te bhagavanto ahesuṃ itipi, evaṃdhammā te bhagavanto ahesuṃ itipi, evaṃpaññā te bhagavanto ahesuṃ itipi, evaṃvihārī te bhagavanto ahesuṃ itipi, evaṃvimuttā te bhagavanto ahesuṃ itipī'"ti?
"No, sir."
https://suttacentral.net/dn28/en/sujato
I asked a similar question in Dhamma Wheel.
Can stream of consciousness naturally come to an end?
https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=36287&hilit=Infinity+consciousness
Comment: @SacrificialEquation Infinite is not a numerical quantity  Infinity is an abstract notion.
Comment: The answer is nowhere close to what I asked. I am asking what is meant by infinite consciousness? Infinite is a numerical quantity. Boundless. But in what sense ? In what sense is consciousness boundless?
Comment: @TheWhiteCloud Do you want to debate the technicalities or seriously try to give me a picture of Infinite consciousness? (BTW have you solved infinite series sums in maths or sums of infinite in integral calculus .... I am not an idiot...we will discuss infinity in maths some other day ... for present day understand it as boundless... I have made clear what I wish to understand..)
Comment: @SacrificialEquation chill bro....i have solved series and integrals...doesnot help here...quiet a while back ruben2020 asked this question https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/41378/are-the-higher-arupa-jhanas-supernatural-states-expanding-beyond-the-physical-bo?r=SearchResults based on our discussion. This question in complete is similar to yours. The answers are not satisfactory. IMO only way to know for sure is by getting thrre.

How is consciousness measured?


Tridion 2013 SP1 Publishing

Question: I am working on Tridion 2013 sp1 and publishing was working fine. But the network team did some changes on server where we have deployer setup, after that the publishing stopped working. Seems the logs are also not generating now. I did verify all the config file, all looks good to me. Please help, not able to figure out the issue. I'm trying to publish single page only, it doesn't seem a package size issue.
Comment: could be firewall blocked, deployer endpoint not accessible from cms/publisher servers. check the cd_core logs of the transport service. also validate using telnet command to check deployer endpoint is accessible from cms server.
Comment: Did you Try to restart the transport and publisher services and try to Publish again.
Answer: Please check following:

network firewall
certificates
restart transport service
connectivity between CM and broker DB
connectivity between CM and Deployer server [if CM and Deployer servers are different]
Check incoming folder in deployer server. is it receiving any package. in current situation it should not be. but it's worth to check.
revisit all connection strings in config files
Answer: Based on your comment that "the network team did some changes on server where we have deployer setup" the most likely issues will be:

Deployer not running (is it a service or an HTTP upload web application?
Firewall blocking the Deployer port from other servers (if the Deployer server is a Windows Server most likely it is the Windows Firewall blocking it)

The error indicates that the transport service is unable to connect to the deployer, so telnet first from the Deployer server itself to the port, if that works try to telnet from the CMS server to the deployer server and port.

Tridion 2013 SP1 Publishing


What money to use for a tour in North Korea?

Question: A friend in Australia is on a trip to North Korea soon, and has the problem that she can't get local currency in advance.  Is there any way to do this before hitting the country, or is it perfectly acceptable to take Euros and USD?  This is implied on at least one tour site however there's no indication that you can withdraw more while in the country.
Comment: I will happily accept a report of that trip as a question on Meta. :)
Answer: Euros are your best bet.  The North Korean won is not convertible, and all facilities for tourists price in and accept euros.  Koryo Tours, the largest operator of DPRK tours, says:

Currency The official exchange currency in DPRK is now Euros (USD were taken out of circulation in 2003 but can still be used though we advise you bring Euros). It is possible to exchange other currencies (such as Pounds, Yen, Renminbi, HK Dollars) in the hotel but be aware that the rate will not be in your favour, better to change the money before entering the DPRK. We do not recommend taking in travellers cheques as they are difficult to cash. Economic reforms at the end of 2002 mean that the DPRK Won is now valued at roughly 165 won to 1 Euro. It may be possible to get hold of real DPRK money in the hotel but the best currency to use when buying goods remains the Euro.
Comment: Im going next March, is this answer still applicable? Your link is now broken. My guide recommended Renminbi, but also recommended dollars or euros, think I'd rather stick to a currency I'm familiar with, but unsure which one to use.


How common are stock/scrip dividends (as opposed to cash dividends) in US equity markets?

Question: Coming from a background in Chinese equities I'm familiar with the idea that dividends can come in the form of either cash or stocks. As far as I can tell, they seem to exist in the US as well, but I can't find any information about them on popular finance websites like Yahoo/Google Finance. Can anyone point me to a source where I can look at historical stock dividend payments for a given company?
Comment: I would like to say that Australian dividend stocks telling information about Cash Dividends. It helps to concern about quality stocks, which are consistently giving cash dividends. i must say that they are worthful for shareholders.
Answer: Check out the NASDAQ and NYSE websites(the exchange in which the stock is listed) for detailed information. Most of the websites which collate dividend payments generally have cash payments history only e.g. Dividata. And because a company has given stock dividends in the past doesn't guarantee such in the future, I believe you already know that.
Comment: @mhoran_psprep, An option to reinvest dividends is different than a stock dividend. (At least in the USA). A stock dividend is like a mini stock split. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stockdividend.asp?lgl=no-infinite
Comment: Why would websites collect cash dividend data only? Is it because stock dividends are so rare they're not worth bothering about?
Comment: I have always been given the option of accepting the cash or reinvesting the dividends.
Answer: There's not usually a point to issuing new stock as a dividend, because if you issue new stock, it dilutes the existing shareholders by the exact same amount as the dividend: so now they have a few more shares, great, but they're worth the exact same amount.

If you're giving dividends, you might as well give cash dividends.
If you can't afford cash dividends, you might as well not give dividends.
If you need to raise capital by selling newly created shares, do a follow-on public offering or something. Then you're not complicating your existing shareholders' taxes.
If your share price is too high, just split the stock.

(This assumes that all stockholders are equal. If there are multiple share classes, or people whose rights to a stock are tied to the stock price in some manner - options, warrants, or something - then a properly structured stock dividend could serve to enrich one set of shareholders and other rights-holders at the expense of another. But this is usually illegal.)
If this sort of dividends are popular in China, I suspect it is due to some freaky regulatory or tax-related circumstances which are not present in the United States markets. China is kind of notorious for having unusual capital controls, limitations on the exchange of currency, and markets which are not very transparent.
Answer: I am going to answer the first part of your question regarding the frequency of stock dividends versus cash distributions.
Firstly, let's define our time frame:  I have arbitrarily chosen one year - 20180901 through 20190901.
Securuties that have been listed on a major market listings on NYSE, NYSE Arca, Nyse American, Nasdaq, Cboe BZX, and IEX for the last two years.
Total number of securities: 8490
Total number of stock dividends that occurred whilst these securities were major-exchange listed:
17
Total number of cash distributions/dividends that occurred whilst these securities were major-exchange listed:
27342
Total number of securities that paid out one or more stock dividends whilst major-exchange listed:
16
Total number of securities that paid out one or more cash distributions whilst major-exchange listed:
5603
Source:  Internal databases at Norgate Data.


What is the datatype of dna sample?

Question: What is the type of data you get when analyzing dna of a person? If you want to store them in a database, what type of field you will need (text,number,hex)? And what should be it's length?
Answer: Assuming that you are looking at data used to describe the differences for a new individual, as opposed to a human reference genome build:
A fastq file is the typical format of data from a sequencer.
It would require a text field of some sort as they can be quite large, even for single reads.  If you had a specific sequencer in mind with very short read you might use a fixed length field for the data column, but its probably not worth it.
After the data is processed, then the data is currently usually exchanged in the form of Variant Call Format files (a vcf file) which only documents differences versus a reference genome build.  This fits nicely into an SQL table with relatively small columns.
Answer: It will be a simple string of text. The length, however, is completely arbitrary and will depend on the source of your sequence data. Anything from 1 to several billion can be a valid sequence length.
We could help more if you explained where the data is coming from.
Answer: Realistically, you aren't going to store the genome as one long string of text.  Depending on how you do the sequencing, you probably won't be able to resolve repetitive regions anyway.
What is much more realistic is you will store all the differences you are confident of between the sample and a reference sequence.
If you use some kind of genotyping chip, you'd store the genotypes at each locus.

What is the datatype of dna sample?