Can a convert mourn for their Jewish parents?

Question: Consider someone who was born to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother who then converted to Judaism with his mother. It seems pashut from the Shulchan Aruch that one who converts is considered a "tinok shnolad" and therefore has no obligation to mourn for their parents. Therefore it seems obvious to me that aninus is definitely not an issue. The question is that if a convert in that situation would wish to mourn could they mourn and to what extent. The Taz seems to indicated that one may willingly mourn for someone as long as they accept the mourning completely and do not transgress any negative commandments in the process. Does anyone have experience with this type of issue?
Comment: While I sincerely hope that this is not a practical issue for you, your writing style makes me caution: CYLOR.
Comment: Jake, welcome to Mi Yodeya and thank you for your important question. I look forward to seeing you around!
Comment: Bli Ayan Hara both of my parents are alive and well. Of course I would consult a posek before doing anything practically. I am just trying to gather information.
Comment: I do not think so. when a ger is given an aliyah. they are called up as ben avraham. a ger's parents are avraham and sarah. another question related to this subject was whether a ger would say yizkor for avraham and sarah?
Comment: related http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/3842/759
Answer: The mishnah in Sanhedrin (top of 46b) states that even the family of someone killed by Beis Din, for whom shiva is FORBIDDEN, may engage in anninus, since that is entirely internal. Halacha specifically recognizes internal emotion as a separate sphere or mourning and chooses not to regulate it in this case. It would seem that anninus would be entirely appropriate in your case, but you already knew that. :)
I had an unfortunate situation in a slightly different direction. The direction given us was that no minyan could be held, we could not call our open-house a "shiva," and there were no requirements of shiva placed upon the relatives. It was... okay, I guess. The guideline was passive behaviors were permitted, active ones were not.
HOWEVER, we could voluntarily chose to observe customs of shiva without a formal acceptance since that has no real halachic import. In our case, Kaddish could be said (one of the weird technicalities we dealt with).
But as always, CYLOR.


Secondary constraints leads to the value of lagrange multiplier

Question: From Lagrangian I got two primary constraint $\phi_i$ and $\phi$. And my Hamiltonian in presence of the constraints becomes- $$H_p=p\dot q-L+\lambda_i\phi_i+\lambda\phi$$ here the $\lambda_i$ and $\lambda$ are Lagrange undetermined multiplier. Now from $\dot \phi_i=[\phi_i,H_p]$ I got secondary constraint $\Sigma_k$ and from $\dot \phi=[\phi,H_p]$ I got another secondary constraint $\Sigma$ . To satisfy the consistency condition I calculated the $\dot \Sigma_k=[\Sigma_k,H_p]$ and $\dot\Sigma=[\Sigma,H_p]$.
$$$$ From the relation I have $\dot \Sigma\approx0$. But the $\dot \Sigma_k$ gives the value of of $\lambda_i$. Now can anyone help me how can I further analyze the constraints in this case? Do I have to put the value of $\lambda_i$ in the equation of $H_p$ and calculate the commutation again? An example would be lovely.
Answer: With the validity of the Dirac's conjecture, all first-class constraints are generators of the gauge transformation, all the secondary constraints and the primary constraints should be added to the Hamiltonian $H_E$, called as an extended Hamiltonian. Otherwise, the answer given by Vahid is valid. It is worthy to notice that the calculational process of the time consistency of new constraints has to be continued except with the three results: (1) $0=0$, (2) a linear combination of other known constraints, and (3) the corresponding Lagrange undetermined multiplier is determined.
Answer: As I know, from the time consistency of $\Sigma_i$ you will not get another constraint. You have to substitute the Lagrange multiplier in the Hamiltonian by what you got. But I can not understand what you want to say by $\dot{\Sigma}=0$. If you mean 0=0, it is the end! But if it gives you an expression you have to continue and consider $\dot{\Sigma}=0$ as a new constraint. Check whether this new expression does not be a linear combination of other constraints. Generally It is not necessary to add secondary constraints to the complete Hamiltonian ($H_p$).


Looking for an iPhone app for working out chess problems

Question: I'm looking for an iPhone app that will allow me to set up a chess problem and work out its solution.  I've seen apps that present me with a battery of chess problems but don't allow me to set up my own.  I've also seen apps that allow me to play chess starting from the opening position.  But I haven't seen one that will allow me to configure the board as I choose.  Admittedly I haven't tried every existing iPhone app but none of the ones I've looked at allow this.
Comment: Smaller Stack Exchange sites often allow them, if they're reasonably scoped. I'd certainly vote to close a question like "What's the best chess app for Android?". This one is a gray area; I'd leave it open but if the community wants it closed, fine by me.
Comment: @Brandon_J I would like to see the question left open.  The fact that five others have tagged it as useful in the first few days indicates that it is of interest.  Moreover I didn't regard the answer as a recommendation but rather information about one way to do what I wanted.  I would be quite happy to have received a number different answers and tried them all.
Comment: @Glorfindel I was under the impression that we weren't supposed to do product recommendations on CSE.
Answer: The only chess app on my iPhone is Stockfish, and it has a menu option Game -> Edit position where you can set up your own board. You'd also have to change the Level/Game mode to 'Two player'.

It's a free app.
Answer: Mastersoft makes a Chess app, with similar modes to Glorfindel's answer.
I do not remember if it was free.
Comment: @RewanDemontay bizarre i hit share/copy in app store
Comment: @RewanDemontay tried the old one and youre correct it didnt work... as i said, bizarre


LCD BENQ monitor brightness

Question: I have BENQ 15 inch LCD monitor. When I turn on monitor, contrast or brightness dialog is automatically displayed on screen and I cannot remove this dialog. If I increase brightness, automatically decrease brightness. Most of the time on/off, contrast button of monitor do not work. What should I do?
Comment: RMA if it's still under warranty?
Comment: No, it's not under warranty.
Comment: Further suggestion please!!!!!!
Answer: Replace it. There's nothing much you can do, tbh. Maybe hit the reste-factory-settings on the OSD, if it's there

LCD BENQ monitor brightness


Is it possible to energize a steam rocket enough to go to space?

Question: So I've been making small steam rockets and I was just wondering if I had a huge power plant connected to an electrical heater inside the rocket and heated enough to bring the pressure and temperature to a super heated state or even plasma will I be able to shoot it out into space ?(suppose we have a super indestructible material that can hold the water it). How much energy do we need?
Comment: What would you use to power the electric heater?
Comment: By "go to space", do you mean a sub orbital mission, or reaching orbit? The later is [an order of magnitude more challenging](https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/).
Answer: Interesting thought. You'd need to store the steam at high pressure.
The highest pressure used for (helium) gas cylinders is 1000 bar, so if we use that as the limit...
We need the phase diagram for water:

At 1000 bar, water exists as a liquid. At the nozzle, the water would flash to steam. So far so good. But how much energy can we get from this?
Steam rockets have been considered. At reasonable temperatures, Isp is very low so it'd be an inefficient engine. At very high temperatures, Isp gets better but water at high temperatures is corrosive.

The specific impulse will be very low because the specific heat of water is much much lower than the heat of combustion of, say, kerosene. Hot liquid water can hold something like 5J/g/K of energy (so cooling it from say 300 C to 0C as it expands in the nozzle could give you, say, 1500J per gram of water. The heat of combustion of kerosene is about 50000 J per gram!
Answer: The difficulty of doing this by storing steam in a pressure container is already covered in the answer by Hobbes.
However, it is quite a bit easier if we can boil the water and generate steam in-flight. Apart from the boring way to do this, to burn hydrogen and oxygen to get water, as in a regular chemical rocket, there is another interesting possibility:
Chemical reactions have a very high energy density, so finding something else that can outperform regular rockets is difficult. But there is one other option, Nuclear thermal rockets.
Passing a stream of propellant through a reactor to heat it is not something revolutionary. In fact, working prototypes of nuclear rocket engines where built 50 years ago, by both the US (NERVA), and the Soviet Union (RD-0410).
Although hydrogen is the most commonly discussed propellants for an NTR, water is perfectly fine. Water has an $I_{sp}$ of 420s, a bit less than a LOX/LH2 engine, but better than LOX/methane.
Nuclear rocket engines are normally not considered for the first stage of a launcher, because they have a relatively low thrust to weight ratio. The thrust is in fact improved by using water, as the approximate relationship between thrust and $I_{sp}$ at constant reactor power is that $I_{sp} \cdot Thrust = constant$.
Answer: Take a look at hydrogen peroxide rockets.  H2O2 decomposes in the presence of a catalyst into water (H2O) and free oxygen (O2) at very high temperatures (300-600 C).  Water at that temperature is steam, and acts as a reasonably good propellant by itself, though has a low ISP of about 161.  As an example, it was the propellant for the Bell Rocket Belt.
The most successful H2O2 rockets use a "bi-propellant" blend of some sort of hydrocarbon (kerosene, alcohol, etc.) mixed in some proportion with the peroxide.  This cocktail is passed over or mixed with a catalyst (depending on if its solid, such as silver, or liquid, for which I can't think of an example; potassium permanganate, perhaps), the hydrogen peroxide decomposes in to steam and free oxygen, the free oxygen mixes with the hydrocarbon at the high temperature and ignites, producing a secondary reaction of heat, and it all gets directed out the back of the rocket nozzle to produce thrust (phew!).  According to the Wikipedia article on one of these engines, the decomposition with kerosene goes like this: CH2 + 3H2O2 → CO2 + 4H2O
Answer: yes in theory it is possible... one of best fuels for rockets is hydrogen+oxygen which results in steam, if you add similar or more energy to water by some other means than normally comes from reacting hydrogen with oxygen you have steam rocket that can go to outer space.
A fission nuclear reactor or subcritical fusion/fission nuclear (fusion reactor generates neutrons, fission shell multiplies the energy) we might be able to make with current technology, the main problems are radiation leakage, radioactive waste leakage and even more radioactive waste if rocket has problem and explodes.
Comment: It should be noted that hydrogen-oxygen rockets nearly always run very fuel rich, with the exhaust containing a majority (by molar fraction) of unburned hydrogen which is heated by the hydrogen that does burn. A nuclear thermal rocket has the problem that, at temperatures we can achieve without melting available materials, the Isp of steam is abysmal, once again worse than common chemical fuels.


how to read NMEA 1083 data over USB on Pi?

Question: we're trying to read data from a digital yacht AISnet base station on a Pi. From what I've read, Digital Yacht has drivers for both osx and windows (but not linux for this unit) and their job is to create a virtual com port so that the device can send an NMEA 1083 stream as if it's doing RS-232 serial communication. We are OK with parsing the NMEA data ourselves, but I don't know much about drivers. Wondering if anyone has any experience getting NMEA data from a digital yacht or similar device in to the Pi?
Comment: There is a chance the GPS unit will just spit out the sentences over the USB as serial data.  Have you tried plugging it in?  What do `dmesg` and `lsusb` report?
Answer: Well, I'm answering my question because it was easier than I thought. The linux "gpsd" project provided everything we need, because GPS units use the same protocol, NMEA 1083. I found all docs I needed on the gpsd site:
http://www.catb.org/gpsd/
You can install the gpsd daemon, and then connect to it with client code or with telnet and see all the AIS messages it picks up, already parsed to json messages. Fantastic!
Comment: So basically it operates like every other GPS device.  You plug it in and it spits out the sentences.
Comment: yup! I had no idea what I was looking for was GPS (we're using an AIS box) so it took while to discover that gpsd did what we want.
Answer: Getting GPS's Data: GPS receives data from output NMEA0183, tcp: // 2947, class: TPV & amp; tag: GPGGA.
Next is the step in the terminal to access GPS data:

Install: gpsd, gpsd-clients. (Note: install both use apt-get install)
Reboot (sudo reboot or sudo init 6)
Sudo dpkg-reconfigure gpsd (Note: configuration baudrate = 9600, 8 N 1 data format).
Serial tests with the command: gpspipe -r or cat /dev/ttyS* or /dev/ttyUSB* (Note: the * sign matches the read, use command ls /dev/ttyS*, /ttyS*, /ttyAMA* or /ttyUSB* or others).
If point 3 fails, stop and disable socket 2947 for a while. Try to type with the command & then reboot Raspberry Pi immadiately:

$ sudo systemctl stop gpsd.socket
$ sudo systemctl disables gpsd.socket

Then start and enable gpsd socket with command:

$ sudo systemctl start gpsd.socket
$ sudo systemctl enables gpsd.socket

Start daemon using command:

$ sudo gpsd /dev/ttyS0 –F /var/run/gpsd.sock

For live straming:

$ cgps –s or $ cgps or gpsmon

In practice way to get stream data GPS from NMEA Output, you can also use a simple command:

$ timeout 10s gpspipe -w -n 10 |  grep -m 1 speed
$ timeout 10s gpspipe -w -n 10 |  grep -m 1 speed | jq

Using json query / jq for pretty printing.
In python script:
<code>def getGPS():
    gpspipe= "timeout 10s gpspipe -w -n 10 |  grep -m 1 speed"
    p = subprocess.Popen(gpspipe, stdout = subprocess.PIPE, shell = True)
</code>


Revert sister looking to get married ASAP

Question: I'm a revert sister who is getting married ASAP but I don't have wali as none of my family are Muslim so who can be my wali? Can my soon to be husbands dad be the wali as if really like him to be or does it have to be someone who's not related to his family?
Comment: Salam and welcome to Islam SE the Q&A site about Islam. To learn more about our site and model consider taking our [tour] and checking our [help]. Also take a look at [ask]:
Answer: A Muslim lady in Islam needs a wali to get married based on the view of the majority of scholars, with the exception of imam abu Hanifa who holds the opinion that an experienced woman (who for example was married before based on this hadith) can marry herself, as she knows best what she wants. The order of who can be wali has been discussed in Who can be wali, and in what order?. Proofs from the Qur'an for the necessity of a wali can be found in Why do only women need a wali for nikah?.
The same ruling applies for a marriage between a Muslim and a chaste lady from among people of the book, but in this case the wali can be her father etc..
Now in case of a convert or revert the ruling says that no non-Muslim can be a guardian for a Muslim therefore you need a Muslim wali. This is based on:

...and never will Allah give the disbelievers over the believers a way [to overcome them]. (4:141)

Again here there's an order the first you need to ask is a Mulsim authority or a deputy of this authority for example in a non-Muslim country the head of your local Muslim council or Mosque or an Imam or a person appointed by any of those beginning with the person of higher rank in this community. If none of these can be present or is available you may chose a good Muslim as your wali based on firstly the hadith declaring the authority as a guardian of those who have not:

"Any woman whose marriage is not arranged by her guardian, her marriage is invalid, her marriage is invalid, her marriage is invalid. If (the man) has had intercourse with her, then the Mahr belongs to her in return for his intimacy with her. And if there is any dispute then the ruler is the guardian of the one who does not have a guardian." (Sunan ibn Majah)

And secondly based on this fatwa:

But if she is living in a country where there is no Muslim ruler or Muslim judge or guardian, as in the case of Muslim minorities in the lands of the disbelievers, then the head of the Islamic centre may arrange a marriage, if they have an Islamic centre, because he is like the ruler in their case. The head of the Islamic centre should examine her situation and arrange her marriage to a good and compatible man, if she has no guardians and there is no Islamic judge (qaadi). (Source: islamqa #247217)

and finally this fatwa (My own translation take it carefully) which explains some more:

فإذا كان وليها غير أهل للولاية عليها تولى نكاحها السلطان أو من ينوب عنه ، فإذا عدم أيضا زوّجها رئيس المركز الإسلامي أو إمام المسجد أو خطيبه أو عالم من العلماء ، فإن لم يوجد أحد من هؤلاء زوجها مسلم عدل بإذنها . (Source islamqa #175987)
  If her guardian (wali) is not eligible for guardianship the Sultan (authorithy) or who ever can be considered in a similar position can arrange her marriage, and if even this was not available the head of the Islamic Center or the Imam of a mosque or the person who holds the Friday sermon or a scholar can do so, And if none these is available a good trustworthy Muslim can arrange her marriage with here agreement.
Answer: I am not a faqeeh or jurist. However, you question reminded me the case of Maraym Jameelah who was an American Jewish convert to Islam. Like you, she also did not have a wali. However, her landlord becomes her wakeel. She writes that "Mrs. Usmani's eighty year old father who explained to me in very clear English that he was going to be one of my wakeel or witnesses. " At Home in Pakistan (1962-1989): The Tale of an American Expatriate in Her Adopted Country p. 298
The ritual of her nikah was performed by Abu A'la Maududi, a famous Muslim  jurist, journalist and imam.
Therefore, as for as I understand anyone can become you wakeel as for as you trust at him and he trust at you.
Allah knows the truth.
Comment: Do you have any evidences to support your claim that anyone can become her wakeel? Note that a wakeel is only a person who acts on behalf of somebody elseo who appointed him so this is simply wrong. She needs a wali first before having a wakeel if this would be necessary, but isn't!
Comment: "No marriage contract can be concluded without the presence of a Wali. A Sultan (authority figure) can act as a Wali for those without one." (see Ibn Majah and Imam Ahmad, Hadith number 1880; also in Salih al-Jaami', hadeeth number 7556.)  According to this hadith a wali can be a sultan. Means a community leader.
Comment: This hadith doesn't answer my question nor support your claim! As nowhere you mentioned that the father of Mrs. Usmany is/was the community leader. Whatever abu 'Ala' al-Maududi has done is unclear to me as his presence if there is a wali and witnesses is not necessary unless it was him who was the wali! What I wanted to say with my former comment is that you seem to misunderstand the difference between wali and wakeel.


DVI and pixel mapping

Question: In LCD monitors, is DVI mandatory in order to get 1:1 pixel mapping? Or is it possible with any VGA input?
Answer: 1:1 pixel mapping is intrinsic to DVI when resolutions are matched, but it's definitely possible to get the same result with VGA by calibrating your display. Here's how I do it:

Find or make a 1px black and white checkerboard, like this one, and display it on the monitor in question at full size. If the monitor isn't calibrated, it will display a strong moiré pattern or display as blurry grey.
Check that you're feeding the display at its native resolution
Spend some time adjusting the coarse size controls on your monitor, then adjust position to match the edges of the panel. This is critical, especially if your monitor's auto-adjust doesn't function well. Once the size is correct, the image should look good or slightly blurry.
Use the fine tuning controls to sharpen the image.

In the end, each pixel in the image from the computer (and the checkerboard) should match up with a pixel on the display.
Answer: In theory it could be possible using VGA with very precise calibration, although in practice yes you need the digital signal of DVI or HDMI running at the native resolution of the display for 1:1 pixel mapping.
Answer: This is difficult to answer. At least, I can say, that VGA cannot be sufficient, because VGA is an analogue signal which has never heard of pixels.
DVI may be sufficient, but then, the monitor must not use overscan. Oversacan "zooms" up the picture to display a borderless image (mostly on CRT). But many LCD panels still have this overscan mode for backwards compatibility.
Answer: DVI is not mandatory. What is mandatory is that the monitor should be capable of handling the resolution as produced by the video card. This monitor resolution is called native resolution, meaning that optimal display quality can be reached only when the signal input matches the native resolution.
DVI is a video interface standard designed to provide very high visual quality. So, depending upon the quality of your video card and your monitor, you may need DVI for viewing on the monitor high resolutions issued by the video card at 1:1 pixel mapping.
If your monitor is not capable of displaying the maximum resolution as produced by the video card, DVI or any other technology will not make native resolution display possible, and you'll need to lower the video-card resolution in order to get, as per your question, 1:1 pixel mapping.
Answer: 99% of LCD panels with VGA just calibrate to the timing signals in a VGA signal and deliver 1:1 pixel mapping out of the box. Most panels do it automatically, some have a "Auto adjust" button. The amplitude of the RGB brightness is analog, but the timing is pretty accurate, so a monitor can fairly easy see what pixel belongs where, and this does not differ much from a digital signal. I don't understand the critics in other answers about the VGA signal being analog. The only real problem of the analog amplitude in the VGA signal, is the colour accuracy and the gray-ramp gamma, not the pixel mapping.
Things to watch: make sure the VGA signal is in the right resolution AND frequency. Most LCD panels need 60Hz signals, and nothing else.

DVI and pixel mapping


Income Tax Deduction / Reimbursement of Rs.15000/- per year

Question: Can the purchase of medical equipment like Blood Monitor Machine, Blood Sugar Machine etc. be claimed under the medical reimbursement or income tax deduction of up to Rs.15000 per financial year for individuals in India?
Comment: Can you edit and add country tag.
Answer: Medical Reimbursement benefit of Rs 15,000 is only allowed if claimed via employer. i.e. you cannot claim this directly while filing tax returns.
Medicines, diagnostic tests, small equipment, hospital treatment etc are all covered.
However this needs to be taken up with the policy of employer; he may have more stringent rules, i.e. he may ask for a prescription from doctor that such an equipment is required.
Answer: From April 2018, Medical reimbursement tax benefit is gone.
However, there is Section 80D (Preventive health checkup) which allows 5000 Rs for the cost incurred for preventive health check-ups for self, spouse, children or parents. So I guess you are covered.


OllyDbg can't set permanent breakpoint

Question: I am relatively new to the world of RE.
So, I am playing with a program, which relies on multiple dlls.
I am using 32 bit OllyDbg 2.01, and can't put permanent breakpoints in one dll, others are fine, just this one is making problems.
Olly accepts breakpoints in session, but forgets their locations after the program gets restarted (meaning all BPs get deleted in this one dll).
Analysis of this dll outputs in olly message "Quick statistical test of module reports that its code section is either compressed, encrypted, or contains large amount of embedded data. Results of code analysis can be very unrealiable or simply wrong. Do you want to continue analysis?".
I have tried using PEiD and nothing was found.
I can open dll with a simple hex editor and find all op code hex data, so I think the dll is not encrypted or packed, and it has to do with Olly dbg.
Can anyone give any suggestion?
Comment: try to use dynamic bp, at every run set a script to toggle a bp on start_address+offset where the offset is constant, if the code is polymorphic you should lean to some unobfuscator/unpacker
Answer: Is this library dynamically loaded? (At runtime, e.g. using API like LoadLibaray, LdrLoadDll)
Then you may need to set your breakpoints dynamically as well. For example, using Olly's scripting capabilities. If the library is always loaded at the same offset, memory breakpoints could also prove useful.
Comment: Hi,
Yes, dll is dynamically loaded, but Olly usually does not have a problem with that. There are at least 10 dlls that get loaded, and only this one is making BP problems.
I don't think dll is packed, or in any way protected, otherwise one could not open it with hex editor (like notepad++) and find hex notation of OP code.
I'll try to find some resources which explain how to set dynamically BP via scripts.

OllyDbg can't set permanent breakpoint


Sync profile/data/software for multiple computers?

Question: Is it possible to sync all the user settings (interface settings, program settings), as well as programs for multiple computers? Data is not as important, though the settings (which is technically data, but not that kind of data, like music, files...) and applications are. Also, it will not sync the drivers. (Example: 1 computer uses bumblebee and the other uses ATI catalyst, and maybe there's different network drivers.. etc.)
Answer: I think I have a plausible answer for you; enter rsync. If you have multiple machines you would want to use this in a script; You would want to ensure that the package, 'openssh-server' is installed on all of the target machines and you would run:
rsync -ar -e ssh /home/* user@destination_hostname:/home
In the above example user would be a user with write permissions to the destination /home filesystem. After each run it will only synch the diffs. You would need to run this on the system that is going to act as the source system along with the target user account having write permissions to /home.
For multiple systems I would throw all of the target hostnames in a file, 'hosts.txt' run this shell code:
for i in cat hosts.txt
do
   rsync -r -e ssh /home/* user@$i:/home
done


What are some resources for region-dependent planting schedule/calender?

Question: Is there a website that has planting calendars for various regions?  Is this sort of information more typically acquired through books, or just by word of mouth?  I'd like to have a list of crops, sorted by safe first sowing date, also by transplanting date, and perhaps also by last sowing date.  Obviously this is quite dependent on local climates, and even micro-climates, but perhaps there is a resource out there that could serve as a rough guide.  I'm located in Maritime Canada, but am hoping that this can be a good general question for people in a variety of regions.
Answer: I do not know of any websites that provide customized regional calendars. (And it would need to be customized for just about for every town -- if not every person. Our spring temps can be quite different than people who live just 15 miles away.)
Even if they did have a "canned" calendar that was appropriate for your region, different varieties of plants can have special needs.
What I typically do:

Get a plain-old blank calendar.
Mark my last frost date. (If you don't know this for your area, there are websites that have this data; see for example this page that has charts and a calculator. Or talk to other local gardeners and see when they plant.)
With my favorite gardening book(s) and/or seed packets in hand, for each thing I'm planting:

Look up the number of weeks that is recommended before or after last frost to transplant. Mark that date on my calendar, e.g. "transplant tomatoes" or "start corn".
For transplants, back up a week from that and mark, e.g. "harden-off tomatoes"
For transplants, look up the number of weeks that the plants should grow inside before transplanting. ("How to Grow More Vegetables" by John Jeavons has a convenient set of charts with this exact information near the middle of the book.)

For vegetables that should go in "as soon as the ground can be worked", I pretty much know when that day will arrive, but I also look in my journal for the past couple of years to remind myself of the dates. Mark that tentative date on the calendar. E.g. I expect that around April 1st the snow will be melted and I might be able to plant peas and an oat cover crop.
Now back up a few weeks prior to the first thing that needs to be planted, and mark order supplies and seeds.
Now back up another week and mark take inventory -- so you know what you need to order for seeds, tools, and supplies and they'll have time to arrive well before you need them.
Then, zoom forward, and use the "time to maturity" dates on your seed packets or from the seed catalog to mark expected harvest dates on the calendar. So if you plant corn on June 1 and it matures in 75 days, then you're going to write "harvest corn" on August 15 (it would be a tentative date, but a helpful reminder).
Then, if you're obsessive like me, you can flip forward to your expected first frost (in the fall) date and plan when you should start your fall crops -- using a procedure similar to the one above. (Or you can use this to know when to stop making succession plantings of frost-sensitive plants.)

It's actually a good idea to wait to mark your harvest dates in case weather causes you to miss (or move up) your planned planting date. (It often does!)
If you use a greenhouse, cold frames, or other season extenders, your experience will tell you how much you can move up the spring planting dates (and move back the fall planting dates).
Answer: I use the below resources to help jog my memory and get me thinking what I need to do next:

St. Louis Monthly Gardening Calendar
Garden Calendar for Zone 5

Have you tried your "local" Botanical Gardens or University Extension Office (or similar in Canada) websites for similar resources?
Answer: There is a  monthly planting schedule for Maritime Canada and New England, together with some interesting links, here. It doesn't meet all your criteria but should prove useful.
Comment: Neat reference, but confirms the point in my answer: that calendar is suitable for *coastal and Southern* New England. (I can't speak for the Maritimes.) In inland northern New England (NH & VT) there's still snow on the ground in late March.
Answer: try worldfoodgarden.org, I am hoping this site will have exactly what you want!
Comment: Welcome to the site! Please note that if you are associated with the site you've linked, you must disclose your affiliation, per the [faq](http://gardening.stackexchange.com/faq#promotion). Also, instead of just linking to the front page, it would be useful if you could add a bit of info to your answer about: (a) how to get to the regional planting calendar, (b) what regions of the world are supported, and (c) a more direct link to the calendar instead of the front page. With a disclosure and the extra information, this answer would get my +1 -- it looks like a useful tool.
Comment: @Eve that does look like a useful page but I'm with bst please give us more information.


How do I disable an HDD password?

Question: I set up an HDD password on an Asus GW75 laptop, and I want to remove it.
I don't see an option in the BIOS for this.
I have two hard drive bays and when I physically installed a new HDD it asked for the HDD password. When I enter it, it states "invalid".
With the original HDD only installed it will accept the password and boot up.
Answer: Change the password and simply leave it blank ( press enter ).

How do I disable an HDD password?


Site Template MIA

Question: I have uploaded an external template (.stp) to the site templates folder in the Galleries section, but when I go to create a site it isn't showing up anywhere.  Any thoughts what I am doing wrong?
Answer: It could be that the site template you have acquired was made using a site definition that you do not currently have.
where did you get the site template? Does it state if you need a particular site definition deployed?
Answer: i have seen this before and here is what my observation was.  I saw a template in a gallery(lets just call it templateABC)  However TemplateABC was not appearing under the custom tab on the site provisioning page.  I isolated the issue to the fact that the definition that this template was based off was removed from the farm.  This obviously was the issue.  I was able to determine this by opening up the stp as a cab file and exploring the file a bit.  In my case the definition was pointing to a fab 40 that was uninstalled.  I want to say it was the Helpdesk template.

Site Template MIA


How best to manually uninstall a program in windows 7/vista

Question: I have a program whose uninstall program is giving me grief, it has an error partway through uninstall, stops and rolls back.
I would like to uninstall this product manually so what is the best way to go about doing this?
Answer: Revo Uninstaller is your best bet

With its advanced and fast algorithm, Revo Uninstaller analyzes an application's data before uninstall and scans after you uninstall an application. After the program's regular uninstaller runs, you can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer. Even if you have a broken installation, Revo Uninstaller scans for an application's data on your hard disk drives and in the Windows registry and shows all found files, folders and registry keys so you can delete them.

Completely uninstalls the program, and if it cant deletes all registry entries and files associated with that program
Comment: Its is now fully compatible with all recent versions of windows
Answer: If you really want to uninstall manually, find the install log, usually in the application folder. It is a difficult to read plain text file that tells you what files where installed where and what registry keys were created. If the program you want to uninstall has a pretty simple install with not many actions reading it and uninstalling this way is not very difficult. There are potentially many caveats using methods other than the program's own uninstaller. The log file will not contain references to registry keys or files created by the program. There could also be files that are shared system files. Leaving a few files may be more unwanted than harmful. Many vendors uninstall programs do not get everything when they uninstall. Maybe it would be best to try looking for online support from the program vendor, or post the program, error and when you get it here and see if someone can help you run the uninstall successfully.
Answer: When the computer errors began, have you made any changes in your computer, like uninstalling other programs? If you uninstalled a program yesterday and today your computer is acting up, there's a good chance that the errors are due to the uninstallation.
In that case, you have two options: Either you perform System Restore or reinstall the program. If you have a good System Restore point from before the failed uninstallation, roll your computer back to that time. Your software and related settings will return and your computer will be happy once again.
Reinstalling, on the other hand, can also be an effective fix. What commonly happens is that your previous removal of your other softwares may have included software dlls which are needed by the current program you're planning to remove. Therefore, you need to reinstall to bring back those needed dlls. Reinstalling the software and then uninstalling – without allowing the removal of the shared system files – should solve the computer error.
Finally, some uninstall programs only partially uninstall the program, leaving behind registry entries and empty folders. While you can safely delete empty program folders, use extreme care when attempting to clean out the registry values. Only advanced users should attempt such a cleaning on their own.
To make things easier, you can just use a software to perfectly uninstall and completely clean-up registry and program fragments to free you from the hassle. You may check this guide on uninstalled program error for more info.
Answer: Use the Programs and Features tool in the Control Panel and uninstall from there.
If that still fails, uninstall from Safe Mode.


Users posting questions with an initial attempt that doesn't try hard enough

Question: Has anybody else noticed this trend?  I think some users have gotten wise to the requirement that they attempt to solve their issue before posting a question.  So they post something with an initial attempt and then in essence throw their hands up and say something like "I don't know how to proceed from here."  I still consider a lot of these questions to be closeable due to insufficient detail.  Am interested in others' thoughts.
Comment: There *is no requirement that users make an attempt to solve their issue prior to asking*. Some of Stack Overflow's best, most-popular, most-upvoted questions have no attempt. Depending on the question, an attempt may help clarify and/or narrow the question such that it's not "Needs details or clarity (Unclear)" or "Needs more focus (Too broad)", but an attempt is *not required*. Narrowing/clarifying the question can be done with just text, or the question can inherently be sufficiently narrow/clear. OTOH, some code can be an easy and effective way to communicate what the OP wants.
Comment: Yes, that's not a trend - I think it has been there for quite a while. We demand to show an attempt when a user posts a "give me the code" type question, they do the least effort thing possible. Not necessarily malicious in intent, but there is little to nothing that can be done about it. Close and/or vote and move on, I guess
Comment: There are also people who have 100+ questions in one tag over multiple years and still act as if they have no clue about anything related to being a developer.
Comment: I've edited the title a bit to be clearer, while sticking to the intent of your question as I understand it. Please feel free to rollback if it's not an improvement.
Comment: @Scratte: No direct duplicates, probably, but the "lacks effort" mythical close reason has been around for a long time.
Comment: I guess this doesn't have any duplicates here on meta ;)
Comment: It's been a problem since before I started moderating ~2-3 years ago (IIRC, at which point it was already established). This is by no means a new problem, just hoomans being hoomans, and I genuinely believe it's unavoidable unless you fix people in general. Also means there's not much to do about it-they've been given resources and help, as well as volunteers who often point in the right direction when asked, and _chose_ not to take it, even when it's in their faces (meaning it's actually a conscious choice: "read this and try to fix my post, or walk away and consider complaining on twitter?")
Comment: I would be interested if there is a difference between the various tags? It's quite common in php that there are questions that almost feel like the person hasn't even bothered to try to do any research (a valid down-vote reason),so does this mean that the question can be downvoted (an indication of a bad question) but not closed?
Answer: When faced with a question of the form "How can I do ...?", the important thing is whether there is enough detail in the question for it to be clear what the OP wants. The problem also has to be sufficiently narrowly scoped, and it has to be a programming question, etc.
Whether the OP shows their attempt doesn't actually matter unless that attempt is needed to make it clear what the question is. This means a question could have no attempt at all, and still be a useful, on-topic question. These questions typically require a clear explanation of what the code should do, as well as some examples of input and output. You can always downvote the question for not showing effort, but the lack of an attempt is not by itself a reason to close a question.
Conversely, a question could have an attempt, but still be unclear as to what is required, or the question could be too broad. In that case it should be closed for either lacking clarity, or lacking focus. You can always upvote the question for showing effort, but the existence of an attempt is not by itself a reason to leave a question open.
It's true that you will often see comments like "show your attempt" on questions that don't need it. This is unfortunate, as that can even harm the quality of a question. If it's clear what the OP wants, their faulty attempt is often just noise, and it can easily be interpreted as a debugging question, which is useful only to the OP in most cases. Of course, the comment is perfectly valid on questions where showing an attempt would make the question clear, and I guess that's the intent of the comment in a lot of cases.
Comment: Couldn't agree more with this.  *Demonstration of effort* has never been a prerequisite for asking a question here, only that the question contain enough detail and clarity to be answerable.
Comment: With all the "show your attempt" comments (often accompanied with close votes), it is not surprising that people start adding nonsensical attempts to their questions.
Comment: (That said, lack of effort is often strongly correlated with insufficient detail or clarity.)
Comment: "You can always upvote the question for showing effort" - but shouldn't.
Comment: @RobertHarvey That's very true; there's a strong correlation between them. So strong in fact, that users conflate that with a close reason. It's always a bit disappointing when I see a question closed for that "reason", though I understand this comes about from a frustration with having to curate large numbers of low quality questions.
Comment: This is the correct answer.  Whether or not it is the most popular, it is the correct answer.  I was going to leave a similar answer but obviously @cigien beat me too it.
Comment: @cigien if a question's only good property is that it shows effort, it's not a useful question. And if it's useful for a different reason, upvote it for those. Effort can be a contributing factor, but not sufficient.
Comment: @JohnDvorak May I ask why not? Showing research effort appears to be one of the reasons stated on the upvote tool-tip. It doesn't prevent the question from being closed, or deleted, if that's a concern.
Comment: @JohnDvorak the good old "is required, but not sufficient" conditional. I love it.
Comment: Nice clear answer. Don't know why my brain always wants to reject this notion of demo of effort not being a pre-requisite.
Answer: Anyway, the reason for this is the lack of a requirement for showing effort. Not having this requirement made perfect sense back in the day when Stack Overflow actually attracted users who were capable of asking questions that were more theoretical in nature, or that encompassed a large amount of research and dead-ends that would've just cluttered the question.
We no longer live in that better time, and nowadays 99% of questions posted that don't show effort are also questions that expect us to do the asker's work for them. Hence the "requirement" to show effort evolved: it's a quick-and-dirty litmus test to determine if the asker merely neglected to provide context to answer their question, or if they're just trying to take advantage of this community.
The problem is, asking/requiring effort to be shown is a waste of time. If the person asking the question hasn't provided enough context to answer it - and failing to show effort is almost always a lack of context - that shouldn't be your problem. If they wanted an answer, they should have written their question properly in the first place, so vote to close, downvote, and move on.
Always remember: close reasons don't matter; getting rid of bad questions does. (Until or unless we get a close reason that allows us to stab people in the face over the internet, of course.)
Comment: I refuse to endorse a "the ends justify the means" philosophy when closing questions. Our current close reasons already do a really solid job of covering pretty much every "bad question" case; we don't need to resort to abusing close reasons for so-called "noble" purposes.
Answer: What you are "seeing" is our lack of quality floor, the bar that questions must muster to have the privilege of an answer. Sadly, the most effective way of doing that is being denied by SE since it's perceived unwelcoming (which it is). The downside of that is that we don't have tools to actually enforce a quality standard.
Luckily for SO, it's big, so you can impose standards on certain tags without worries. The bigger the tag, the more likely to be noticed, so seek refuge on smaller tags.
Comment: @cigien no, it's a balancing act. People are asking thousands of people to read their question. They need to make those people worth their time. Asking questions is essentially free and the asker stand to get all the benefits. Low quality post rarely benefit the most important person: the future reader. We need to align our behavior to the ones that give more benefit for all those groups, so a quality standard is a must. After all, ["\[the\] fastest way to kill any Q&A site is to flood it with low-quality questions"](https://stackoverflow.blog/2011/06/13/optimizing-for-pearls-not-sand/)
Comment: 1) You seem to be suggesting that the "*bar that questions must muster to have the privilege of an answer*" is showing an attempt. That's not the case, and closing question *solely* because they lack an attempt is an abuse of the CV privilege. 2) You also appear to be suggesting that the OP use this criteria on tags with less traffic so that this abuse goes unnoticed, which I have to say, is not really the right spirit in which to approach curation.
Comment: "*the most effective way of doing that is being denied by SE*" - which is what?
Comment: The irony here is that those who would have agreed with you have all since left active participation here behind out of frustration.
Comment: @Bergi whatever prevents those questions from getting answers.
Comment: @anonymous I mean, there are plenty that agree, so their species isn't dead yet.


Why Certainity Eqivalence in PIH only holds for quadratic utilities

Question: In my current macro economics course, it has been stated that there is certainty equivalence in the random walk permanent income hypothesis ("which implies individuals act as if future consumption was at its conditional mean value and ignore its variation") only holds if the utility is assumed to be on form $$ u(c) = c - ac^2/2 $$
I have consulted the coursebook but could not find any rigorous proof or intuition of this. Could anybody help please?
Comment: Please let us see a reference for your claim.
Comment: @Ali please see for instance *Intertemporal Macroeconomics*, Gernot Doppelhofer, 2009, page 14
Cambridge Essays in Applied Economics. (I believe pdf copies can be found on google)
Comment: Hi: I think it has to do with the conditional mean of x ( which is an expectation )  being equivalent to the projection of x when x is gaussian. If x is not gaussian, then there are non-linear estimators x that have better performance than the conditional mean. In the latter case, taking the expectation is not  necessarily optimal.
Comment: It has to do with the nature of expectations and how the Euler equation simplifies at $\rho = r$. See if my answer is helpful.
Answer: Certainty equivalence in the context of the Permanent Income Hypothesis implies that $u'(E_t[c_{t+1}]) = E_t[u'(c_{t+1})]$, which only holds if marginal utility $u'(\cdot)$ is linear (by linearity of expectations) and thus only if actual utility $u(\cdot)$ is quadratic.
To see where this comes from, consider the utility maximization problem of a representative household over an infinite horizon where consumption stream $\{c_t\}$ and asset holdings stream $\{a_{t+1}\}$ are chosen, taken as given the real interest rate, fixed at $r$, initial wealth $a_0$ and a stream of income $\{y_t\}$. Lastly, take utility to be quadratic over consumption: $u(c_t) = \alpha c_t - \frac{1}{2}c^2_t$ with sufficiently large $\alpha$.
So the household's maximization problem is
\begin{equation*}
\begin{aligned}
& \underset{\{c_t, a_{t+1}\}}{\text{max}}
& & E_0\sum_{t=0}^{\infty} \beta^{t}u(c_t), \text{ where } \beta = \frac{1}{1 + \rho} \text{ , } \rho > 0 \\
& \text{s.t.}
& & c_t + a_{t+1} = (1+r)a_t + y_t & \forall t.\\
\end{aligned}
\end{equation*}
$$
$$
Therefore, the Lagrangian for this maximization problem is
\begin{equation*}
\mathcal{L} = \sum_{t=0}^{\infty} \beta^{t} \{E_t[u(c_t) + \lambda_t((1+r)a_t+y_t-c_t-a_{t+1})]\}.
\end{equation*}
$$
$$
The first-order conditions of the Lagrangian are
\begin{align}
\frac{\partial \mathcal{L}}{\partial c_t} &= \beta^{t} u'(c_t) - \beta^t\lambda_t = 0 &&(1)\\
\frac{\partial \mathcal{L}}{\partial a_{t+1}} &= -\beta^{t}\lambda_t + \beta^{t+1} (1+r)E_t[\lambda_{t+1}] = 0 &&(2).
\end{align}
$$
$$
Solving for $\lambda_t$ using (1) and substituting into (2) gives
\begin{align*}
u'(c_t) = \beta (1+r)E_t[u'(c_{t+1})].
\end{align*}
$$
$$
Take $\rho = r$ in this economy for simplicity. Thus $\beta(1+r) = 1$:
\begin{align*}
u'(c_t) = E_t[u'(c_{t+1})].
\end{align*}
$$
$$
Since utility is quadratic, marginal utility is linear which implies that the expectation of marginal utility is the marginal utility of the expectation:
\begin{align*}
u'(c_t) = u'(E_t[c_{t+1}])
\end{align*}
which implies that
\begin{align*}
c_t = E_t[c_{t+1}]
\end{align*}
since $u'(\cdot)$ is injective. Thus we have certainty equivalence.
Comment: Yes they are notationally equivalent. $E_0$ is more correct as it emphasizes that the consumption profile $\{c_t\}$ is decided at $t=0$ and that there is uncertainty over future consumption in periods $t$. Compacting notation by using $E_t$ makes taking the FOCs easier because it emphasizes that consumption takes place at each time $t$. Also, in my answer I should have noted that the Euler equation for consumption implies that consumption follows a random walk.
Comment: I fixed a bracket typo in the Lagrangian that may have caused confusion.
Comment: Fantastic @Kenneth Rios, that makes so much more sense now, thank you! I would just like to ask for a clarification regarding the expectation signs when we form the Lagrangian. If I understand it correctly $E_t[ ]$ is the expectation at times $t$. So is it then trivial that $E_0[ \sum^\infty_0 \beta^t u(c_t)]  = \sum^\infty_0 \beta^t E_t[u(c_t)]$? Indeed why don't we have to use expected consumption and assets?


Why did the Ottoman Empire not industrialize like France, Germany or Belgium?

Question: Why did the Ottoman Empire not industrialize or not reach the level of those nations?
Comment: Welcome to History:SE. What has your research shown you so far? Where have you already searched? What did you find? Please help us to help you. You might find it helpful to review the [site tour](https://history.stackexchange.com/tour) and [Help Centre](https://history.stackexchange.com/help) and, in particular, [ask].
Comment: One line questions and new user usually equates to homework question.
Comment: Come on guys, the question is not *that* bad... just a little broad but with some edits it should be salvageable...
Comment: It may also be worth mentioning that lack of evidence for prior research is explicitly mentioned as a possible reason for downvotes on the associated tooltip.
Comment: Always difficult to answer why didn't something happen. Given the dearth of research and the difficulty of the question, I doubt this will get answered.  Why didn't she love me? Why didn't I win the lottery?  Why am I not rich?
Comment: @MarkC.Wallace I agree, but you could turn the question the other way around. Why was the Ottoman empire considered the "sick man of Europe" ? Why were it so backwards in development when other European countries did major technical and economical progress ?
Answer: The question is broad, and there's a laundry list of contributing factors that tie in together. (As you go through this list below, keep in mind that I probably missed many other factors.)
The biggest factor is that the Renaissance occurred in Europe. As did the Enlightenment, which introduced the notion of rule of law to boot. The answer I just linked to sketches out a number of reasons why that was with a few references that are good sources for this answer too.
An important point to keep in mind about the late Medieval and Early to Mid-Renaissance is that it was an industrious period from a scientific standpoint, and in many ways a period of agricultural revolution. The period saw developments such as the Three Field System, plowing-related technologies, mill-related technologies, etc. -- all of which contributed to significantly boost the agricultural output. This revolution wasn't as pronounced in the East Mediterranean basin, or at least slower -- which means there was less available labor. The period also saw the advent of universities and the printing press.
Speaking of the latter, on the scientific literacy front, the Printing press did its thing and spread wealths of new knowledge far and wide across Europe. In the Ottoman empire, by contrast, no book was officially published until into the 18th century.
And speaking of science, there was a Muslim attitude change towards the latter at some point between the 14th and the 16th century depending on which historian you ask. Whichever it is, it was in full swing by the mid- to late Renaissance. The Tarqi ad-Din observatory in Istanbul, for instance, was destroyed by a squad of Janissaries by order of the Sultan, on the recommendation of the Chief Mufti around 1577.
The next biggest factor was the circumnavigation of Africa and the discovery of America in the 15th century. Until those two events, the silk road, which went through Ottoman territory, was a key trade route and a source of tremendous wealth for the Ottomans. Bypassing it enabled Europeans to control world trade and accumulate enormous quantities of capital. New trade routes to the Spice Islands, India, China, and the New World enabled Europeans to build the financial backbone that enabled industrialization to begin with.
In passing, on the financial front, innovations out of Northern Italy and, a bit later, the Low Countries, introduced Hindu-Arab numerals, place value, double-entry bookkeeping, bond trading, early stock markets, and early economics.
Another major factor was societal. Side note here: You mention France industrializing, but actually it didn't as much or as fast as the UK or, later, Germany. The reasons are several. Part of it was Louis XIV kicking Protestants out, which benefitted Great Britain, the Low Countries, and Germany. Part of it was that French nobility, in stark contrast with its GB counterparts, basically wasn't allowed to earn money except from land rents.
With this side note in mind, there was some degree of societal inertia going on in the Ottoman Empire too. A group that deserves special mention, I would put forward, are the Janissaries. Early on they were Christian slaves turned into Elite troops. Later on, they became as important and disrupting as the Praetorian Guard were to the Roman Empire, basically making or breaking Sultans as they saw fit and demanding lavish treatment to boot. They were a major source of instability for centuries until they got disbanded in 1826. By then the industrial revolution was in full swing.
A last major factor that springs to mind was simply logistics. No coal was discovered in the Ottoman Empire until the 19th century.
And to some degree, it probably didn't help either that the Ottomans were at war with large swaths of Europe for the better part of its history.
Wrapping up in short:

No scientific renaissance
No capital accumulation
Sclerotic societal problems
No coal
Not friendly to Europe, where the action was happening
Comment: @AllInOne: Intuitively I'd surmise that wasn't such a big factor, to be honest. Usury was also forbidden in Christian Europe, which contributed to Jews turning into moneylenders (and a lot of antisemitism). I'm much less familiar with Muslim history, but considering there were Jews and Christians in the South and East Mediterranean basin, my hunch would be that similar dynamics were at play in those areas too. (I might be entirely wrong on that of course. The honest truth is I've no idea. ;-) )
Comment: +1, on the financial side Islamic prohibition against usury may be a factor as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riba
Comment: @Denis de Bernardy: But I think that the Christian prohibition against lending money at interest had gone by the wayside at about the same time as industrialization really got started in Europe.  Also seems that industriaization was mostly led by the more Protestant areas (who by definition had experience of challenging religious authority), than those that remained Catholic.
Answer: I'll try to give a broad answer to a broad question.
Let's start with the following question, why industrialization started in UK? Maybe the answer is in many sources, but I think that one of the best is Eric Hobsbawm (The age of revolution, the age of capital and the age of empire). The main point is that an industry requires capital (to start the venture), legal certainty (to be sure that your company will be respected by authority) and open markets (you will get a profit). This is only possible in a country with advanced institutions, low corruption and a goverment interested in the industry. Otherwise, the king/sultan/emperor of the country has to be convinced of the benefits of industrialization to promote it.
A nice example might be Christopher Columbus's voyages, where he had to find on the crown the patronage for his project. While in England, starting the industrial revolution, an industrial would be able to find several sources of patronage for his project.
Once industry is developed, you need open markets to sell your products and to buy supplies, to do this you need protection for your business (fraud, assaults, etc) and someone who can open those markets for you. Hence, here you need institutions who can garantee that trade and armies that might open new trade routes.
All these things (capital, industries, trade, armies, institutions) create a positive feedback. Which slowly is carried to other countries and imitated by others.
This progress belongs to the bourgeoisie, which will confront opposition from aristocracy, represented by the crown. That's why French Revolution (or the spring of nations) and Industrial Revolution are tied. The second needs the first one. Countries like the Otoman Empire are going to be reluctant to the industrial revolution, and they won't develop the institutions required, leaving them behind technologically. In these countries, where the crown is too strong, only industries supported by the king would prosper. Same concept applies to other european countries where the king is too strong, because while more authoritarian is a country, harder is to create the change necessary to adopt revolutionary ideas.
Answer: It so happened that scientific revolution and capitaism were introduced in Western Europe. Industrialization was a result, a consequence.
For other countries there was a choice, to follow or not. Some followed, some did not (or followed later, at various times). In the case of Turkey, on my opinion, the crucial role was played by the role of religion in the society.
I do not want to say that some religions are better than others, the important thing
is how much a religion influences the society. All religions resist innovations, especially those adapted from the "infidels". In Turkey, the influence of religion was strong enough
to prevent (or more precisely, to postpone substantially) following the example of the West. (Look, for example when printing press was introduced in Turkey, and why so late.)
Industrialization was postponed in other countries as well, but the time of delay
varied very much. Japan, once it decided to "follow the Western ways" was able to catch in less than one generation. Same happened in Hawaii. In Turkey and Russia and China this process was very much delayed.
Comment: While I'm pretty sure what you say is plausible, some sources would be necessary to backup your statements (also, I'm not the downvoter).
Comment: @Bregaland: it is just my general impression derived from many sources, including the discussion on this site about when printing started in Turkey. I also traveled to Turkey and discussed the matter with the Turks. It is difficult to name one or two sources. And I do not care about downvoting.


Is Blender compatible with Windows 10?

Question: Will Blender still work on Windows 10, and if so, will the full screen functionality still work? Are there any issues with Blender and Windows 10 I should be aware of before upgrading?
Comment: I don't see a reason why Blender wouldn't work on Windows 10. You can use old versions of Blender that where designed for older versions of Windows just fine on newer versions of Windows.
Comment: I think something important to grasp, is that if Windows 10 completely changed the program API from what if used to be, a lot of software companies would probably get a bit angry, and it would be bad for business.
Comment: I feel like you have a fundamental misconception of how Blender interacts with Windows...
Comment: I had issue with Windows 10 and Blender 2.76. Apparently, I have a Microsoft Mouse and when Windows 10 was installed the default behavior of  mouse wheel button became to invoke so-called "Instant Viewer". Because of that I could not pan with pressing mouse wheel in Blender. Changed it to "Middle click" in Windows settings and not it works fine.
Answer: I am running Blender 2.75 on Windows 10 now, the 10240 RTM release, and it is working without any issues compared to my previous run on Windows 8.1.1.
Answer: As far as we know right now, no, there won't be any issues.
Windows probably couldn't afford a major change in their programming API that effect Blender.
It would probably make a few large software companies a bit angry.
As far as the fullscreen functionality, this is something that shouldn't really be effected much by the platform. If it wasn't working on a specific platform (that Blender can run on), it would be a major bug. Lot's of people (including myself) use this all the time to help focus on our work a bit more, and loosing the functionality would probably make half the community extremely angry.
Just a disclaimer, I haven't tried Windows 10, so I can't say for sure that Blender won't work on it, but I am extremely confident that it will.
Answer: I've just installed windows 10 and blender crashes instantly at start up. To make it run I've discovered that one must start the application directly from the directory and specify the graphic acceleration available by clicking the right button of the mouse.
Answer: I have W10 Pro (build 10240)  Blender 2.76 (2015-10-11)
Running multiple instance of Blender 24 hours a day for 1 month. Blender hasn't crashed
Full screen functionality.. not sure what that is. If it is where you CTRL right arrow to change the screen windows, yes can see the 3D view full screen and also drag new windows into it to see multiple views)
(Can pan with middle wheel click.)

Is Blender compatible with Windows 10?


How do you remove a fishhook from a human?

Question: If one is out fishing and someone gets a fishhook stuck in them, what are the different techniques for removing it?
Comment: The best and most obvious method is to seek medical help immediately, leaving the hook in the wound until a medical professional is able to look at it. However, as I assume you're looking for more first-aid remedies, I'll leave this as a comment and not an answer.
Comment: As a side note: Please keep your tetanus shots up to date.
Comment: Very Painfully.
Comment: Great question as a friend of mine once got a good sized fishhook caught in his rear-end!
Comment: @SGRL Technically removing a fish hook is closer to Surgery than First Aid.
Comment: This is a really good reason why removing the barb on your hooks is actually a ***really good idea***. You can either file it off (takes a long time, hard to do on small hooks) or crush the barb down with pliers (may dull the hook). Sharpen the hook with a hook sharpener after crushing the barb. Best of luck.
Comment: What, did you catch one? How long was it?
Answer: I disagree greatly with all previous answers. Pushing the hook the rest of the way through is very painful and takes much longer than the method I describe below.
My preferred method is to wrap some strong wire around the bend of the hook, press down on the eye to disengage the barb and pull on the wire very firmly. The hook will pop right out and not damage tissue. I have employed the method too many times unfortunately, all the way up to size 2 hooks for smallmouth. I wouldn't recommend this for sensitive areas (i.e. Near eyes), but for arms, fingers, necks, etc, this is the only method I will use.

The above picture comes from this article on bishfish.co.nz
Answer: Often the best solution is to get some fine nosed pliers and push the point of the hook out and through, making an 'exit wound'. This is often preferable to trying to pull a barbed hook back the way it went in. Obviously some common sense needs to be employed here... I'm really talking about a small hook caught in a fold of skin.
Of course if you are in any doubt and if it is close to any sensitive areas like the eyes, or if the casualty seems in an undue amount of pain you should just cut off any excess line and seek proper medical assistance.
Equally in this situation there is always some risk of infection as it is difficult to adequately clean the wound and it is very likely that the hook is far from being clean, so even if you manage to remove it you should get the wound looked at and keep an eye on any emerging symptoms such as fever or any signs of redness, inflammation etc. around the wound site.
Comment: This is how the BSA had us train scouts. It's important to note that this would only be for a shallow fishhook. If the hook enters deeply, removal should be left to medical professionals.
Answer: The usual place this happens is a finger, ear, occasional other places.
If you are close to town, and have good insurance by all means, tape it in place to minimize movement, and go see a doctor.  I'm assuming that, given the forum, medical help is not at hand.
Clip the line off the hook. You don't need to make things worse, when someone trips on the rod, steps on the line, or tangles it in a bush.
Wash your hands.
Wash the area with disinfectant.  Hydrogen peroxide works well, but bleach or hard liquor will also work.
Dip the working ends of needle nose pliers and wire cutters too.
Use the pliers to work the tip of the hook out of the skin. You want the entire barb exposed.  Use the wire cutters to cut off the barb.  Back the hook out.  If you can't cut the barb off, crush the hook to the shaft, effectively making the hook barbless.
If you have one of those treble hooks, the hook may be easier to work with with the hooks separated.  Experiment with a spare hook.  At least clip off the ones that aren't yet engaged in skin. (Imagine becoming your victim's Siamese Twin through the agency of a treblehook.)
If this isn't working, use a sterile razor blade or disposable scalpel to uncover the barb.  Remove the hook.  There is a chance of cutting a nerve doing this and having a permanent numb spot, or if you are really unlucky loss of function. Nerves that do things are not generally near the surface.  I have twice suffered injuries that required on the order of 70 stitches.  Both resulted in numb patches in the area of the wound, but no loss of function despite 3/4" depth.
Dry the wound.
Shield the edges of the wound and dust with an antibiotic powder, then fasten it closed with butterflies.  (If you don't shield the edges, you have have the difficult task of sticking bandaids to powder.)
If you have an ointment, apply carefully so that you aren't trying to stick butterflies to the ointment.
If the wound is bleeding freely, let it run for a bit to wash out possible infection.  Infection is especially likely if the hook went through clothing first.
If it won't stop bleeding after several minutes of direct pressure, apply fresh spiderwebs.  The foreign protein will cause the blood to clot almost immediately.  One comment suggests cinnamon. Other powdered spices may work too.  Not sure of the sterility. I suspect that any type of flower pollen would work too, but an allergic response is more likely.
If you don't have a sterile dressing, apply a generous layer of fresh wood ashes.  They are sterile and will soak up the blood.  This is certain to leave a prominent scar.
You can make butterflies out of duct tape.  Try to keep your grubby fingers off the part that is near the wound.
While toilet paper isn't completely sterile, it's likely a lot cleaner than anything out side of a first aid kit.  This makes acceptable compresses to halt bleeding once you have the hook out.  Don't use the first wrap, and keep the edges off the wound.
Comment: @Agent_L I wish you are/were right, but I am not always sure.
Comment: *apply fresh spiderwebs* - This is the most terrifying advice I have ever heard...
Comment: @Sidney Remove the spider first.
Comment: @imsodin Common sense needs no disclaimer.
Comment: This is extremely detailed information about how to proceed *if* you have to proceed by yourself. It sure sounds good, but I can't vouch for the correctness, so I will hold off from upvoting. However a disclaimer at the beginning that you should only attempt the following if you don't have access to professional medical care would certainly be in order.
Comment: The bit about using a razor to expose the barb risks nerve damage if you don't know what you're doing, especially since hooks are commonly caught in fingers, which are dense with nerves. That step needs some strong cautions.
Comment: @CareyGregory I will take that one step further and say that you should never attempt to cut a hook out on your own. If it requires that, quit fishing and find a doctor. I also don't think that is necessary unless you are talk about very large hooks for musky or saltwater prey.
Comment: @CPHPython Fire ash or cinnamon powder...one of these is much more likely to be around in the wilderness than the other.
Comment: **To stop the bleeding**, instead of fresh spiderwebs or wood ashes (which may be hard to obtain, specially when fishing), I suggest applying **cinnamon powder** directly on the wound since it acts similarly to [blood platelets](http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/platelet), it's a natural [anti-inflammatory and it also disinfects the wound](https://authoritynutrition.com/10-proven-benefits-of-cinnamon/).
Comment: @Brad I normally carry a small bag of cinnamon powder in my medical kit. I have used it several times. Also, in many occasions people do not fish in the wilderness and cannot quickly burn available wood in order to produce "fresh ash" to apply in a bleeding wound on time...
Comment: My experience with this is on the Fond du Lac river.  Doctors are days away. Yeah, if you are an hour from town, tape it up, and go to the E.R.  Not all of have that privilege.
Answer: I have seen a doctor perform the removal of a hook embedded in the skin. As most have pointed out, the first best thing is medical attention I won't dare argue against that sound advice. But, one thing I will say is DO NOT PUSH THE HOOK IN FARTHER, DO NOT CUT THAT HOOK, DO NOT CUT THE LINE.
Now, envision this; as long as the hook is NOT embedded in a serious location such as an eye etc, and you haven't been silly enough to try to push it farther in, it WILL come out in a snap as long as that line IS NOT CUT!
OK, you place a finger on the "eye" of the hook, press straight downward so it kind of dents the skin, take THAT UNCUT LINE and feed it thru the "loop" of the bend in the hook, between you finger on the "eye" of the hook, so to make a "sling" from the line. While holding finger on hook with just enough pressure but not too much, grasp firmly the "sling" made from the line, lay the line as close to the skin, in flat plane in line, as possible and yank quickly on the sling. The hook pops right out with minimal damage. Doctor's method. Sorry for the lengthy but without a photo, what else could I do? This is what I have seen done, and read articles on it, and is used by many. It is not my place to advise but since it was asked, I pass on what I know.
Of course, sometimes the line needs to be cut and i've only quoted what I've seen and heard. No difference if you cut the line and use any other line as long as you can make a sling to pull with. Another solid bit of advice is if the hook is embedded too far, this wont work and you'll HAVE to push the hook through enough to cut the barb then extract it back through the hole. Sorry it's not all that easy an answer to the problem nor is it comfortable, choices are limited at this point aren't they? Attached photo-
Comment: I can see the merit in leaving some line.  But right after the incident you have a hook attached to a fishing pole.   Clipping the line reduces the chance of making things worse by having it catch on bush, being stepped on...
Comment: I don't see how cutting the line is a big deal. You need some kind of cord/line/... to put around the hook and pull, but that's not really related to the line still being attached to the hook, is it? Something that I did not get right away, only after googling: The reason to put pressure on the eye is to push the barb away from living flesh such that it doesn't catch anything on its way out. Here is a source describing this and other procedures: http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/0601/p2231.html
Comment: +1 - I accidentally imbedded a fish hook into my skin beyond the barb.  The hook was rather dull and took quite an effort to puncture my skin from the other side to allow me to cut off the barb.  Had I known this technique at the time, it would have saved me some hassle.  I now try to keep my hooks sharper and my body parts out of the way.
Answer: Never try to pull the triangle-ish part near the tip of the hook through any human tissue. It is designed not to come off easily and will only cause additional injuries. Otherwise the hook is just a bent stick that will exit quite easily.
If you need to remove a fishing hook no matter where it is stuck in, it is therefore required that you expose the tip and cut it off. Then gently pull the rest off. Note that it might be easier to cut the tip near the place where the hook enters the skin/fabric if it is not lodged in too deep.
Disclaimer: I certainly don't advise removing the hook yourself, especially it the tip is buried inside living tissue. If at all possible, leave surgical work for professionals. See other answers for detailed procedure for removal.
Answer: While the other answers given do include some good advice, there are a few other points worth making. NB I speak as something of an expert, having stuck hooks in myself (unintentionally) several times and having witnessed several other incidents, including a friend putting one point of a large treble through his finger while we were fishing Lake Nasser in Egypt, hundreds of kilometres away from medical help. (I have a photo, but it would be gratuitous posting it here.)
It makes a great deal of sense to always carry a small first aid kit when you are out fishing. It's not just hooks - a few plasters, some antiseptic wipes and a bandage take up little room in your kit and can save a ruined day otherwise.
If you are within easy reach of professional medical assistance, then by all means take advantage of that. (I live and fish mostly within the UK so medical treatment is free at the point of delivery, so cost doesn't come into the equation.) Having said that, do you really want to pack up and drive to the nearest A&E with a hook stuck in you, only to be used as practice by a bunch of trainee nurses who have much less idea than you do about getting hooks out of living creatures?
My basic advice is that you probably have the skill to remove the hook from a fish with the minimum damage to your quarry, or a more experienced member of your party does, especially if you practice catch & release, so use that skill on yourself or others. There is no practical difference between removing a hook humanely from a fish or a person.
If you normally unhook fish without tools, then consider carrying a pair of fine nosed pliers just in case. Then unhook yourself just as you would a fish.
Sit down first (you might just faint), then practice the move. Go through it in your head. Grip the hook as near to where it emerges as possible and make sure your grip is good. You want to do this once, and get it right first time. The second try will hurt much more. Then roll the hook out. Any pressure should be away from the barb - it is designed to catch on tissue, so try to put pressure on the hook in the plane opposite to the barb. One decisive movement, taking a fraction of a second, firm and quick but not hurried. I have even unhooked myself like this when the hook was down the side of my fingernail, with the barb catching on the edge of the nail inside the finger!
You might want to get a friend to do it for you, even if, say, you have a hook stuck in your left hand and you are right handed and you can reach easily. There are advantages to not having to build up to doing it to yourself. Explain what you would like them to do and emphasise that you really want the first attempt to be the one.


No heat in car blowers

Question: I have a Nissan Qashqai 1.5 dci. My car is not overheating and blowers are blowing cool. The lower radiator hose and the bottom of the radiator are cold. I changed the thermostat and drained the cooling system twice. Still no heat. Any ideas?
Comment: Year and mileage of your car?
Comment: Sounds like some gunk in your heater radiator prevents coolant from flowing through it. Consequently, it doesn't give off any heat. It's not uncommon that grease builds up somewhere in your cooling system, locally blocking the coolantflow.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Blocked water flow in engine?](http://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/22000/blocked-water-flow-in-engine)
Comment: Can you tell me whats the outside and coolant temprature after at least half of an hour driving?
Comment: Is it a diesel? Do you have a EGR thermostat?
Answer: For the heater to be blowing cold, the air must not be encountering a hot heater core. There are a few reasons for this:

The heater core is blocked, it could be corrosion or a mixture of incompatible coolants forming sludge.
The heater valve or its control has failed and the heater is effecting shut off.
Air is trapped in the cooling system and is preventing coolant from passing through the heater core.
Hot coolant is flowing, but very slowly, and the air flow is able to cool it down completely.
Water pump efficiency is down and is unable to push enough coolant through the heater core.

Since you've drained the coolant, the first think that I'd do is to confirm that you've actually got coolant in the heater core. Identify the hoses going to the core (often on the passenger (right) side of the firewall) and remove one of them, check that it seems to have coolant in it and try pouring coolant into the hose (using a funnel will make it easier).
Next check that you can feel warmth when you touch the cooling system hoses. The hoses going to the heater and radiator should be uncomfortably hot when the engine is at temperature. The ones returning should be cooler, but still noticeably warm. It concerns me that you describe the lower radiator and hose as cold. That doesn't sound right (but you also say that the engine isn't overheating, the overall picture is contradictory).
Answer: Sometimes, the servo that controls the temperature mix stops working properly. Here's what I need to do on my '96 Intrepid to change the temperature to either cold or hot:

turn the blower on full speed
quickly change the temperature to the opposite end where it is currently set (change to hot if it's set to cold, change to cold if it's set to hot)
Wait, and listen for a little sound indicating the servo has changed position (different cars will make a different sound, could be a little swoosh, a light click, or a prolonged thud)
If the temperature is currently set to where you want it, enjoy. If you wanted the temperature where it was set when you started, repeat steps 2 and 3.

No heat in car blowers


How much thrust is produced on an A320 at takeoff and during cruise?

Question: Where can you get the drag polar of the A320 at cruise and TakeOff?
Comment: To have an idea of thrust you can check engine public data   (Maximal thrust is usually during T/O)
Comment: resource location is off topic as defined by the [help center](/help/on-topic). You'd better directly ask for the polar instead of its location.
Comment: Are you asking for the thrust or are you asking for the drag polar? Those are two different questions....
Answer: A320 family's engine of choice is the CFM56-5B. Now there are multiple variants of this engine. But on average the takeoff thrust for the models -5B1/B2 and -5B3 are between 30,000 to 33,000 lbf.
Other variants have a lower thrust rating between 21,000 - 24,000 lbf and 27,000 lbf.
The cruise thrust is lower of course since the aircraft has already taken off and now in upper atmosphere, with low drag and running at its best efficiency. Cruise thrust is about 4,700 to 5,800 lbf, although these are the maximum rated cruise thrust, so the engine thrust is always lower than that.
Say if the engine is rated for 5,800 lbs the actual thrust would be roughly about 5,300 - 5,500 lbs, maybe even lower.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
Reference
Cfm technical data
Answer: Takeoff thrust depends on many factors and needs to be calculated carefully. You can take the max values from the manufacturer in orther to have an idea.
Cruise can be calculated roughly. Let's see an example. We know that during cruise phase all four forces are level.
Lift = Weight and Thrust = Drag
We also know that an airliner such as the A320 is very efficient and can easily have a glide ratio of 18:1 This is known as Lift / Drag (L / D) ratio.
If the plane flies near its optimal L / D of 18 at cruise then the CD / CL is 0.055556. The airplane begins its cruise phase after the climb, but we can assume that its mass is close to that of the takeoff minus the fuel consumed for the climb. Say our weight is 44 tons.
With these data we see that the drag force is 1/18 of the force generated by the mass of the plane. Weight is mass multiplied by gravitational acceleration: 44,000 x 9.81 = 431,640 N. Therefore, drag would be 431,640 / 18 = 23,980 N in this phase.
Let's assume that at the end of the trip and before the descent, the plane could have burned 1.5 tons of fuel; in that case the drag will be 23,162.5 N.
These calculated values are the total drag (induced and parasitic) of the plane, but in cruising flight it is also the same value as the engine thrust, since T = D. If we change in lbf we have values of 5,391 and 5,207, far from the maximum rated thrust for cruise.


What is the difference between Opera Mini and Opera mobile?

Question: What features does Opera Mobile have the Opera Mini doesn't? Are there any other differences such as speed?
Comment: Also, Opera's take at explaining the difference: http://www.opera.com/mobile/specs/
Answer: Opera Mobile is a "full" browser performing all rendering activities on your Android device.
Opera Mini passes your requests through Opera's servers to render/scale/"tweak" for your device.
Opera Mini tends to be faster.
Opera Mobile tends to hit your device's resources harder.
Security folk cringe about Opera Mini and your traffic going through 3rd party (yet Opera) servers. Think about that before doing your online banking with Mini...
Read more in the comparison chart here: http://www.opera.com/mobile/features/
Comment: If my bank is stupid enough to use plain HTTP (otherwise it won't matter either way), I'd feel safer using Opera Mini when connecting through an unsecured WiFi hotspot (assuming the Opera guys encrypt the traffic to their own servers, of course).
Answer:
Size: Opera Mobile is ~20MB, Opera Mini is barely 900KB.
Rendering: Opera Mobile downloads HTML from web server and renders the website on your phone, Opera Mini downloads an optimized version (in Opera's Binary Markup Language/OBML) of the website from Opera's proxy.
Opera Mobile is more resource hungry, on Opera Mini many of the rendering task is done on the proxy server, which cuts the amount of processing, bandwidth, and memory requirement
Data Usage: Opera Mini downloads a OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language) from Opera's server, which compresses pages by up to 90% (according to Opera). Opera Mobile downloads the whole webpage from the original site, which can amount to quite a bit of bandwidth (note that Opera Mobile can also use Opera Turbo, which can also reduce bandwidth usage).
Last I checked, zooming in and out and rotating the screen in Opera Mini wouldn't reflow the text.
Opera Mobile has full Javascript support, Opera Mini only supports a very limited subset of Javascript

In short, Opera Mini is much faster and much leaner, which is especially noticeable on less powerful devices and on slow networks; however Opera Mini is not a full-featured browser (and is never meant to be). Opera Mini is much faster on slower network and slower phones.
Opera Mobile is a full-featured browser. It has full Javascript, it connects to websites directly instead of going through Opera's server, and it is usable to access intranet websites that Opera's proxy server cannot access.
Answer: From my experience:

Opera Mini is faster, opera mobile is slow.
However if you are too conscious about security use mobile instead.
Answer: If you are running net on 2g SIM then I recommend you Opera mini. But if you are running net on 3g or WiFi, then Opera mobile would be the best option.
Comment: Could you give a little more information? Why do you recommend one or the other? The question does specifically ask what feature differences they have. That would make your answer a lot more useful.
Comment: Also, please spell words completely. Avoid leet-speak and other "funny stuff". Not everybody here is a native speaker.
Answer: i use nokia 5320 and i used opera mobile and mini  opera mini is faster than opera mobile and low power consuption and less data usage opera mobile use more than battery and more than data usage opera mini is better than uc and other browsers   so i suggest every one use opera mini when you have a limite data plan when you have unlimited data plan  you used opra mobile .


How can one download the initial Blockchain data files securely?

Question: I see several sources for binary downloads of the Bitcoin blockchain.  Can any of these be used securely?
Comment: Does Checkblocks help at all?

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74858.0
Comment: No. Even at the highest -checklevel, signatures are not verified.
Comment: URL for the blockchain data files from Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/
Comment: I believe the best answer to this question is "by letting bitcoind download it from the network" (note that you can use -addnode or -connect= to connect directly to a known reliable node). Also, I have a patch ready for 0.7.0 which will allow importing a blk0000?.dat file directly, with the same verification as done for blocks downloaded from the network. It is hardly slower than downloading though, as the index needs to be rebuilt.
Answer: So far as I know, there's no conceivable attack model if you're going to use the block chain to seed the regular Bitcoin client. It won't accept an invalid block. And it understands that the "longest" block chain wins. So a compromised file that was longer than the official block chain cannot exist, and a compromised file that was shorter would just be rejected as soon as the client connected to the network.
On startup, the client checks to make sure the chain is basically valid and contains the most recent checkpoint.
If there is any attack that works in this way, it's a defect in the client. Because someone could send you the same "broken" blockchain over the network too.
Comment: The checks performed can be divided in three groups: A) block validity, B) linking and C) script validity. A includes rules like proof-of-work, amount generated, ... B is about whether transactions are not double spends. C is whether spends are done using the correct key. When downloading blocks, A and B are performed, and C after the last checkpoint. At startup, only A is performed on the last 2500 blocks. Since 0.6.0, you can use -checklevel=N (with N>1) to verify some of B's rules as well at startup.
Comment: Many more checks are done on blocks received from the network than blocks read from disk; startup would be unbearably slow if a complete check of the blockchain was done every time you start.
Comment: I was under the impression a full check was done on every block after the last checkpoint. If that's not true, ...
Answer: [Update: With the Bitcoin client v0.7, -loadblock= will allow the client to import blockchain data, securely, from a local blockchain archive rather than from the network.  The blockchain download from BitcoinCharts.com can be used for this.  Copy the blk*.dat from that download to a temporary directory and start Bitcoin-qt -loadblock=temp/blk0001.dat   and watch the blocks load fast.]
Going to try to answer the question myself.
Recent copies of the blockchain data files are made available (and digitally signed) by one of the core developers of the Bitcoin.org team.

http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/

The URL isn't SSL but there is a digital signature that can be used to verify that the binary downloaded matches.
When using these I am trusting that the developer is honest and has not altered the blockchain.  If this developer were to try, invalid data could be injected into the blockchain data file which would then trick my client into verifying transactions that would elsewhere be reject as being invalid.
There is even a slightly older archive of the Blockchain from the Bitcoin Sourceforge distribution site as well:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/

I now see others providing binary blockchain data as well.

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78925.0
http://pro2host.com/cryptocoin/blockchains

This site doesnt' use SSL nor is it there a digital signature to ensure the download is the same as the one the author hosts.
While these methods aren't generally considered secure, there may be situations where security can be traded off for the convenience.  For instance, if you only will be spending previously received coins and not receiving, there is little risk in using one of these blockchain files.
Answer: Short answer: If the client checks the blocks it's fine. Clients won't usually do this this and the lack of certainty about database is risky. What attack is possible will depend on client specifics but attacks most likely exist.
You would either have to trust that person and have a data integrity measure or revalidate the downloaded chain yourself. Do remember that the default client treats already downloaded blocks fairly differently from downloaded blocks.
A "low-tech" solution could be to run the bitcoin client twice, one with and one without the downloaded chain. Set them up to connect to eachother. Now one of the two will download & verify the chain locally. Not the most efficient way but it is as trustable as downloading from the web.
Edit: after a discussion with Pieter Wuille I'm sure I'm not sure about how safe downloaded chains are and removed claims towards safety.
Comment: I don't agree entirely: if a popular blockchain download site would hand out a corrupted blockchain, and a significant portion of the network would use these, there is a risk for a split the second on the of the corrupted transactions are split.
Comment: I don't quite see what you mean. Do realise that the miners are organised in pools and that these pools will have legitimate chains. These pools' contribution determine the longest chain, not the end-users. After a few confirmations a transaction can be fairly trustworthy, as with all other transactions.
Comment: But if 10% of users use the same corrupted download in their nodes, one transaction could seem invalid to them, after which they ignore the real longest chain. If they have some mining power as well (p2pool users, for example), they will create a block chain fork (albeit very slowly, initially.
Comment: I see. The client will have to evaluate the scripts but that is default behaviour. So popular a bad chain could easily be spotted, but that's a weak argument. It is fairly stealthy as many transactions could still process normally. This is a fair danger. Checking whether the most-recent mercle hash is the same as one published somewhere should counteract this attack. Checkpoints also kill these bad chains, as they no longer line up. Introduce daily checkpoints?
Comment: I see. Shouldn't connecting with random other nodes get you the legitimate blocks as if you're on just-any fork? The blockchain forks a little all the time, that gets resolved very decently. The part after the latest checkpoint must be considered a potential fork, downloaded or not.
Comment: Merkle hashes are inside transactions, we are talking about blocks. And all checkpoints do is guarantee that when a particular block is downloaded, its hash is correct, locking that and every part before it in the chain. However, if you download the entire block database in final form, all these checks have already been performed. They are not performed again at startup after download... 0.7.0 will introduce a way to load blocks from a file (while checking them entirely). Without that, downloading a block database should be considered risky.
Comment: Interaction with other nodes doesn't help a thing. If your blockchain database is corrupted, you already have the blocks. They will not be downloaded again, as your client doesn't realize that the ones you already have are invalid.
Comment: let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/3344/discussion-between-lodewijk-and-pieter-wuille)
Answer: There is a recent archive with raw blockchain data and instructions how to get your bitcoin-qt client running fast at:

https://github.com/dailyblockchain/bc

I've followed the instructions and it worked perfectly. I had my client up and running in under 3h