Nefesh, neshama and ruach as words for "soul"

Question: All three words can mean something like "soul", e.g., neshama in גלגול נשמות, and ruach in  וַתְּחִי רוּחַ יַעֲקֹב אֲבִיהֶם (Bereshit 45:27). So, what is the difference?
Comment: Footnote 41 http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:690200/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Comment: Lev, since each of these words can have very different meanings in different contexts, please include in the question references to the appearances of the words to which you refer or their contexts.
Comment: For instance, according to Rambam, when used as a description of God, Ruach refers to Hashem's Will. Like in (Gen.1:2) ... and Hashem's Ruach was hovering over the surface of the water.
Answer: The names of nefesh, ruach, neshamah, yechidah, chayah (in that order) is from Bereishis Rabba 14:11.
I wish to add two more positions to the discussion.
The first is Rav Saadia Gaon's (Emunos veDeios 6:3). Rav Saadia Gaon was an Aristotilian rationalist, although to a lesser extent than the Rambam, who had to deal with the topic when writing a commentary to Seifer haYetzirah:

.. When [the soul] is attached to the body, one can see it three abilities:
  - the power of choice
  - the power of desire
  - the power of anger
  Therefore it is called in our language by three names: nefesh, ruach and neshamah.
It is hinted in the name "nefesh" that is has the power of desire, "for the taavah of your nefesh" (Devarim 12:20), "his nefesh was satisfied of desire" (Iyov 33:20).
And it is hinted in the name "ruach" that is has the power of being annoyed and angry, when it says "do not become empty through your ru'ach by getting angry" (Qoheles 7:9), "his entire ruach brings out foolishness" (Mishlei 29:11).
And it is hinted in the name "neshamah" that it has the power of wisdom, as it says "the 'Neshamah' of Shakaai will understand them" (Iyov 32:8), "and the neshama of who came out of you" (Iyov 26:4)
Because of these [seprable] abilities, the one who made it to be two parts erred, that one of them is in the heart and the other in the rest of the body. Rather, all three are in the soul (nefesh) alone. So the language added two more terms, they are "chayah" and "yechidah". It is called "chayah" because it exists through that which its Creator persists it. But it is "yechidah" because there is nothing like it among all the [other] creations, neither in the heaven, nor on earth.

According to Rav Saadia Gaon, there is one indivisible soul, but it has three sets of abilities -- the emotions that draw us to people and things (desire), those that drive us away from them (anger), and thought. The soul has different names, depending upon context, upon whether we are talking about one of these three abilities, its ability to persist, or its uniqueness
The other opinion I wish to add or perhaps two opinions, is that of the Vilna Gaon and R' Chaim Volozhiner:
R. Chaim Volozhiner explains Nara"n based on the breathing imagery used in Bereishis 2:5:
וַיִּיצֶר֩ ה אֱ-לֹקים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֗ם עָפָר֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים וַיְהִ֥י הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּֽה׃
And Hashem G-d formed man of dirt from the ground and He breathed into his nostrils a living neshamah; and the man became a living nefesh.
Rav Chaim writes (Nefesh haChaim 1:15):

Our Rabbis za"l already compared the three-fold living ru'ach of man to the making of a glass utensil to reviving the dead. They said, "It is a qal vachomer (a fortiori) argument from a glass utensil, which is made by the breath of flesh and blood… Flesh and blood, which is made by the breath of HaQadosh Baruch Hu, how much more so!"…
  For the message must be similar to the metaphor. When we study the breath of the mouth of the worker into the glass container when he makes it, we find in it three concepts. The first idea is when the breath of air is still in his mouth, before it goes into the opening of the hollow tube, we can only call it then a "neshimah". The second idea, when the breath enters the tube, and continues like a line, then it is called "ru'ach" (wind). The third, lowest, idea, is when the breath goes from the tube and into the glass, and inflates in it until it becomes a container to fit the will of the glass-blower, then his wind stops and is called "nefesh", a term of rest and relaxation.

The soul is likened to the breath of air that a glass blower uses to inflate hot glass. The Nefesh haChaim, following a far older metaphor, breaks down both processes into three parts. The first is the air, as it is still in the glassblower's cheeks. This corresponds to the neshamah, the part of man which is most connected to Hashem. When the air leaves the glassblower's mouth, it flows down a tube. The tube connects the glassblower and his work. In the same sense, the ru'ach dwells in the connection between the physical and the spiritual. This flow, a wind, is the ru'ach. From the tube, the air enters the glass, "dust of the ground". This is the nefesh, giving shape and purpose to our physical selves.
This metaphor gives us another description of how the ru'ach, by being the decisor, also becomes a source of desires. Recall that I started this series with the notion that the ru'ach, man's existence in the world of his own mind and in a relationship to himself, was a the person between the angel and the little devil propped on his shoulders. And yet now we're saying it has desires too! The ru'ach is the connection between the nefesh and the neshamah, it exists because of the tension between being both Divine "breath" and clothed in earth. Yet, because it sits in this middle world, the ru'ach is also an entity in its own right.
The the Vilna Ga'on is in his discussion (Peirush al Kamah Agados, Koenigsburg ed. pg 10b) of the following gemara:

[The elders of the School of Athens said to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chanania,] "Build us a house in the air of the world." He pronounced a [Divine] Name, and [thereby] suspended himself between heaven and earth and said to them, "Send me bricks and cement from down there."
  They said, "Can anyone find the ability to lift them to there?"
  [R. Yehushua] said, "Can anyone find the ability to build a house in the air?"

The Gaon explains that the house in the air is clearly a reference to the ru'ach, suspended between heaven and earth. (After all, the word "ru'ach" also means "wind".)
The ru'ach has the ability to decide, and thus the concept of Free Will. With will comes a desire to see that will implemented, to make the worlds outside ones head match the world as we imagine it could be. With will comes a hunger for power and control. Rather than being the means to get things done, they can take over and satisfying them can become an end in itself.
A person has control over an object when he possesses it. And money gives a person more opportunities to get more of his dreams accomplished. When, sadly, someone turns it into an end in itself, they can never be satisfied. The hunger is for a means, which can only be put to trying to get more. "He who has 100 zuz, wants 200."
This is an aspect of the nefesh as a whole. It's clear that the role of mitzvos between man and himself are not given the same central role in Jewish discourse as those between man and G-d and between man and other people. This is because they are not an end. The point is not self-contemplation. To be the perfect self is to be perfect in one's relationships, the same three relationships.
… including the relationship with oneself. This self-reference is a concept that comes up often when dealing with the concept of intelligence. And self-awareness, consciousness of one's own thought, is the essence of the nefesh, of making Free Willed choices.
Answer: Accoding to the Rambam in "the Guide of the Perplexed", (and WAF above), the meaning of the words
in each individual case are to be determined by the
context."
Ruach:

Ruach is a homonym, signifying" air," that is, one of the four
  elements.

"And the air of God moved (Gen. i. 2).

It denotes also," wind." In this sense the
  word occurs frequently.

"And the east wind (ruach) brought the
    locusts" (Exod. x. 13):" west wind" (ruach) (ib. 19).

Next, it signifies" breath."

"A breath (ruach) that passeth away,
    and does not come again" (PS. lxxviii. 39) wherein is the breath
    (ruach) of life" (Gen. vii. 15).

It signifies also that which remains of man after his death, and is
  not subject to destruction.

"And the spirit (ruach) shall return
    unto God who gave it" (Eccles. xii. 7).

The Hebrew ruah when used in reference to God, has
  generally the fifth signification: sometimes, however, as explained
  above, the last signification, viz., "will."

Nefesh:

The Hebrew nefesh (soul) is a homonymous noun, signifying the
  vitality which is common to all living, sentient beings.

"wherein there is a living soul" (nefesh) (Gen. i. 30).

It denotes also blood," as in

"Thou shalt not eat the blood (nefesh) with the meat" (Deut. xii. 23).

Another signification of the term is "reason", that is, the
  distinguishing characteristic of man, as in

"As the Lord liveth that made us this soul" (Jer. xxxviii. 16).

It denotes also the part of man that remains after his death
  (nefesh, soul)

"But the soul (nefesh) of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life" (I Sam. XXV. 29).

Lastly, it denotes" will";

"To bind his princes at his will" (be-nafsho) (PS. CV. 22): "Thou wilt not deliver me unto the will (be-nefesh) of my enemies" (Ps. xli. 3):

and according to my opinion, it has this meaning also in the following passages,

"If it be your will (nafshekem) that I should bury my dead" (Gen. xxiii. 8):" Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my will (nafshi) could not be toward this people" (Jer. xv. 1), that is, I had no pleasure in them, I did not wish to preserve them.

When nefesh is used in reference to God, it has the meaning "will," as we have already explained with reference to the passage,

"That shall do according to that which is in my will (bi-lebabi) and in
    mine intention (be-nafsht)" (I Sam. ii. 35).

According to Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion (admittedly, not the best source.)
The Neshama goes up to Hashem (olam ha-ba and techiat hamatim), and both the ruach and nefesh remain on earth. The Ruach stays with the body and never leaves it. The week after death, the nefesh wanters between the deceased's' home and grave, then infrequently comes returns to the grave until it is weaned from the grave by the end of a year.
Comment: sure. Volume I:  Ruach - Chapter 40. Nefesh - Chapter 41. (also related: Chai - chapter 42)
Comment: can you point out where in the Guide to the Perplexed this is discussed?
Answer: In this Youtube video (5:49 seconds in), Rabbi Chaim Miller explains that:

Nefesh == Instincts of the Soul
Ruach == Emotions of the Soul
Neshamah == Intellect of the Soul

He does not bring his source.
Answer: In Kabbalah or Chasidut  Nefesh means a bodily soul, or instinct, or inate. (All created things have nefesh).  Ruach is often used in the context of "Ruach Hakodesh", which is a sort of divine inspiration, or an aspect of godliness /correctness of thought (morality is one example of that).   Ruach can also be the basic life force of any living thing.  Neshama is the higher level soul which is connected directly to Gd, it exists only in humans.
Outside of Kabbalah, Nefesh is the life force of any living being.  Ruach is the animator of life, its what allows things to move, and Neshema is the combination of Ruach and Nefesh.
Answer: I've seen it explained as follows (in Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge:
basic concepts of hasidic thought):
Nefesh - Every creating thing in the world has a Nefesh, the G-dly force that gives it life. Inanimate objects (such as rocks) have only this. (see here)
Ruach  - Every living thing has a Ruach as well, the life-giving force that animates the living thing. (see here)
Neshamah - Referred to in Tanya as "an actual part of G-d". This is only found in the Jew. (see here)
Note: I've linked to the snippets view of google books searches. This is not ideal. If anyone knows of a better online source that says the same thing, please let me know.

The Maharsha in his Chidushe Aggadot (Berachot 3A, d"h "Mishmorah Rishonah Chamor") says almost the exact same thing. He says that there are 3 parts of the soul of man which are called "The Natural", "The Life", and "The Intellect". He says that Kabbalists call them the "Nefesh", "Ruach", and "Neshamah". See there for a little more elaboration.
Comment: This to me is mindblowing stuff... Is there anywhere in the torah we can see That everything has a ruach?
Answer: Nefesh can mean either "breath" or something like "life force". "Ruach" is usually used to mean "spirit" in the sense of "enthusiasm" or "vigor". Not sure about neshema and how it differs from nefesh.
EDIT: Wikipedia has a concise summary of the kabbalistic usage:

Kabbalah separates the soul into three elements: the nephesh is related to instinct, the ruach is related to morality, and the neshamah is related to intellect and the awareness of God.
Comment: Ernest, can you cite references for your translations? As I commented on the question, these words have very different meanings in different contexts (and indeed at different points in the history of Hebrew language and usage).
Comment: How different are the usage of the words within the context of "soul"?  True, the words didn't always refer to a soul, but once they did, I don't think there is -that- much variety in the context or meaning.
Comment: Each word definitely has specific shades of meaning. My first paragraph is about common usage in my shul, which is why I can't quote any source. But the Wikipedia link summarizes how they're used in Kabbalah, where they do have very specific meanings. The Kabbalistic meaning of "refuah" is consistent with the common usage I mentioned.
Comment: @avi Yes, the specification of the meaning "soul" definitely helped. But when it comes to fine nuances, it is important to isolate the _meaning_ of the words as much as possible, to ensure that context or other circumstantial influences are not confounding those distinctions.
Answer: Nefesh is the brain, so it can die.  Thinking animals have a nefesh.  However, ruach is immaterial; not physical.  Ruach is your holographic-like personality software that develops in your nefesh hardware brain.  Animals do not have a ruach with higher level thinking and consciousness.  As software can be transferred from one computer through a network to another computer, when you physically die, your ruach will be transferred from your hardware brain through the logos (universal neural network) to either Heaven (New Jerusalem) or Hell (the grave Place of Torment, and later the Lake of Holy Spirit Fire).  People have often wondered how the nefesh and ruach can be different if they both think and feel emotion.  Now you know, it's because the ruach is the personality software that develops in the nefesh hardware.
Comment: source?.........
Comment: Yes, this doesn't sound mainstream :) Is it according to a specific school of Kabbalah?


Do subdomains help/hurt SEO?

Question: If I have example.com, and blog.example.com, do search engines see those as one site or two? Will using subdomains hurt SEO? I have some technical reasons why I can't use example.com/blog.
Answer: From Vanessa Fox, an ex-Google employee:

Google is no longer treating subdomains (blog.widgets.com versus widgets.com) independently, instead attaching some association between them. The ranking algorithms have been tweaked so that pages from multiple subdomains have a much higher relevance bar to clear in order to be shown.
It's not that the "two page limit" now means from any domain and its associated subdomains in total. It's simply a bit harder than it used to be for multiple subdomains to rank in a set of 10 results. If multiple subdomains are highly relevant for a query, it's still possible for all of them to rank well.

It's unclear what the "some association" part is -- but the parent and child domain like a.example.com and b.example.com obviously have a relationship of some kind, far beyond what two websites named example-a.com and example-b.com would have.
I don't think any Google penalties can go upstream to the parent, otherwise a lot of web hosting services would quickly find themselves delisted, by this (sensible, IMO) logic:

In this instance I'm talking about the exception given to protect free hosts from penalties, particularly those who give their users subdomains such as Hypermart, Xoom, Wordpress.com, Blogger, Tripod etc. This exemption can't only cover the popular free hosts otherwise no new freehosts would ever stand a chance. As soon as they got a single spammy user their whole site could get banned and poof goes their legit business.
Likewise algorithmically it can't cover all free hosts because then the big ones like Wordpress.com and Typepad would all be penalized. On a foresight this would also include profile based social sites such as Myspace and outbound linking social sites such as Delicious.

Therefore penalties can only go downstream to the child subdomains from the parent.

Primary domains can pass a penalty to subdomains. Subdomains can't pass a penalty to a main domain unless the main domain holds a clear relation to the subdomain.

It's not entirely correct to say that a.example.com and example.com are unrelated (as far as Google is concerned). But it does appear that only penalties, not bonuses, are ever transferred across.
Comment: So if I have myapp.com, and I want to help it get found by getting people to link to my blog, will links to blog.myapp.com help myapp.com get shown in search results?
Comment: @notdan yes of course, links between two sites always help rank -- assuming either site has "more" authority than the other to transfer
Answer: 2007: Here what Google's Matt Cutts has to say about sub-domains vs folders:

My personal preference on subdomains vs. subdirectories is that I usually prefer the convenience of subdirectories for most of my content. A subdomain can be useful to separate out content that is completely different. Google uses subdomains for distinct products such news.google.com or maps.google.com, for example. If you're a newer webmaster or SEO, I'd recommend using subdirectories until you start to feel pretty confident with the architecture of your site. At that point, you'll be better equipped to make the right decision for your own site.

2012: Here is what Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz says about sub-domains vs folders:

Subdomains SOMETIMES inherit and pass link/trust/quality/ranking metrics between one another
Subfolders ALWAYS inherit and pass link/trust/quality/ranking metrics across the same subdomain

2017: Google's John Mueller's webmaster video:

Google web search is fine with using either subdomains or
  subdirectories.
Making changes to site's URL structure tends to take a bit of time to settle down and search so I recommend picking a set up that you can keep for longer.
Some servers make it easier to set up different parts of a
  website as sub-directories. That's fine for us this helps us with crawling since we understand that everything's on the same server and can crawl it in a similar way. Sometimes this also makes it easier for users to recognize that these sections are all a part of the same bigger website.
On other servers using sub-directories for different sections like a blog and a shop can be trickier and it's easier to put them on separate
  subdomains. That also works for us you'll need to verify subdomains separately in search console make any changes to settings and track overall performance per subdomain we do have to learn how to
  crawl them separately. But for the most part that's just a formality for the first few days.
So in short, use what works best for your setup and think about your longer-term plans when picking one or the other

2018: Google's John Mueller during office hours:

We see these the same.
I personally try to
  keep things together as much as possible. If it's the same site, try to put them out in the same site essentially. Use subdomains where things are really kind of slightly different.
There are lots of really strong opinions on this.  From my point of view this is something that could go either way. If you have really strong reasons to go one way or the other then obviously that might be what you'd want to watch out for.  On the other hand if you're like, "well I don't care either way," then I would just keep it within the same site.

Personally, I tend to use subdomains sparingly.  I use folders for most things, but I use subdomains in some cases:

When the software that powers it is hosted by a third party or can't be easily hosted on the same server.  This is common with blogs, forums, press releases, and company job openings.   You can point DNS for a subdomain to the other server or have the third party handle running the software, but still have the content be part of your site.
For internationalization.  I recommend sub-domains for translated content because it enables you to set up a server in the country that you are targeting.  You can do that transparently to your users at any point.  It is just a DNS change.
When content needs to be hosted by a content delivery network (CDN).  This is very common for images of a site.
When you don't want the same cookies to be sent.   Cases such as different logins for different sections of your site, or when your www cookies are large and you create a different subdomain that won't get them for performance reasons.
When you may not want to fully vouch for the content.  For example you give each of your users a subdomain and let them have free reign with the content that they host there.

Subdomains can be just as good for SEO as subdirectories, as long as Google knows they are part of the same website.   To make sure they look like they are the same site to Google:

Link between the subdomain and the main site in the navigation menu, and visa-versa.
Put the same copyright statement on the bottom of each
Link each to the same terms of service, privacy policy, and contact page
Use the same logo on each
Use the same look and feel: colors, fonts, and layout
Add the subdomain to the same account in Google Search Console
Use the same Google Analytics and adversiting accounts (such as AdSense) on each

Source: my answer from this duplicate question
Answer: If you have a reputation management problem and want to occupy multiple page 1 positions for your brand. or
You have a Panda problem, and need to move low quality pages off your primary domain.
Outside that, subdomains are a problem. For purposes of authority, Google treats them as separate sites. For purposes of relevance, they do, too. As far as I know the only difference is that, for purposes of trust, Google sometimes passes history to the subdomain. That just means you may not see the same lag to indexation you'd see on a brand-new domain.
But if you're trying to get ranking for a competitive term, a subdomain only splits your efforts. Trust gets you indexed. Authority and relevance get you ranked.
Comment: How Google treat them as separate site when all Google employee said we treat them as same in most of cases. Please check above answer. Site own by same guy, it share same search console account, it also link between it, and one surprise for you that, those links between sub domain are also [consider as internal links](https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2011/08/reorganizing-internal-vs-external.html), then how Google treat it as separate site? Please stop believing in marketing blogs. They will never accept that yeah that's wrong things we have said to you.
Answer: Yes. It duplicates your search engine results and can result in lowered search engine rankings.
Comment: This question is not about duplicate subdomains, but asking about creating a subdomain for the content vs hosting the content in a folder.   In general, one line answers are not good enough here.   It is always helpful to provide information about your experience with the problem or links to references.

Do subdomains help/hurt SEO?


How to file patent in India

Question: I'm from India, And have some uniq prototype work that I want to patent. Does any one have idea about filing an patent in India!
Answer: The Indian Patent Office should be your first port of call.
Check out their basic manual chapter 3, sections 1 to 6, and follow the instructions.

How to file patent in India


How are scientific names (binomial nomenclatures) written in Japan, if they are?

Question: I assume that they would use normal roman letters, but is there a way that scientific names for plants and animals to be written other than the Latin script?
Comment: You mean like "Homo sapien" and "Quercus alba" right?
Comment: Yes, like *Homo sapiens sapiens*
Comment: As a note, Homo sapiens sapiens is ヒト属ホモ・サピエンス・サピエンス
Answer: For international understanding, Latin can be used, but in Japanese texts Japanese words are normally used either by itself or together with the Latin name (depends on context), regardless of whether or not the name has only been transliterated from other languages, or if actual Japanese words are used. From Kingdom down to Class Kanji are used, whereas from Order down to Species, katakana is used (there might be exceptions to this). Thus for the binomial nomenclature (Genus species) katakana is always used. The Latin names are referred to as 学名{がくめい} whereas the Japanese names are referred to as 和名{わめい}
界{かい}   : Kingdom
門{もん}   : Phylum
亜門{あもん}     : Subphylum
綱{こう}   : Class
目{もく}   : Order
亜目{あもく}     : Suborder
科{か}    : Family
亜科{あか}  : Subfamily
属{ぞく}   : Genus
種{しゅ}   : Species
Comment: For the  和名 it can either consist of actual Japanese words written in Katakana, or it can be a transliteration from Latin if there are no Japanese words to cover this species. The simplest method is to look it up on Wikipedia and then just translate the article to Japanese. E.g. Ursae arctos (brown bear) is クマ属ヒグマ or P. taeniolatus -> ウィーディ・シードラゴン which is transliterated from the English colloquial name. The Japanese names seem to be either transliterated OR translated from English colloquial,Latin scientific, or based on previous Japanese words already existing. idon't know if there are rules
Comment: Thank you, so would it be written, for Genus and species, would it be the actual japanese name of the animal written in katakana, or would it be the latin name transliterated into katakana?

I am very unexperienced in how Japanese interacts with foreign langauges.


Cheap option for recording HDMI output

Question: I have been looking for a way for my PC to record HDMI output so I can record my gaming console without buying an expensive capture card. I already have a HDMI splitter I'm just looking for some cheap software.
Comment: This question would probably be better suited on the Hardware Recommendations site.
Answer: An HDMI splitter is not what you need. You need either an HDMI capture card, or a standalone HDMI video recorder. The cheapest HDMI video recorder you're going to find is the Atomos Ninja Star, for $250 on B&H: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1285811-REG/atomos_atomnjs001_64_ninja_star_recorder_with.html
HDMI capture cards start around $130. Here is a good one from Blackmagic, for $137.50 on B&H: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/964122-REG/blackmagic_design_decklink_mini_recorder.html

Cheap option for recording HDMI output


How to backup 20+TB of data?

Question: We have a NAS server at the company I work for that is being used for storing photography sessions. Each session is approximately 100gb. Over the last couple of years this server has accumulated 10+ TB of data, and we are increasing the amount of photoshoots exponentially. I estimate that by the end of next year we will have 20+ TB stored on this NAS. We are currently backing this server up to tape using LTO-5 tapes with Symantec BackupExec. Since the size of this server has grown, full backups of this server are not completing overnight. Does anyone have any suggestion on how to backup this amount of data? Should we be backing it up to tape? Are there any other options which may be better?
Comment: Why are you performing Full backups every night? Why not run a Full backup once a week and run Incremental backups the remaining 6 days a week?
Comment: That is what we are doing, sorry I did not mention that... the weekly full is the one not completing.
Comment: Does a weekly full need to complete overnight? It is not uncommon for weeklies to take more then 24 hours for a sufficiently large dataset.
Comment: Are you sure the increase in photoshoots is *exponential*?
Comment: What type of NAS are you using?
Comment: @joeqwerty - took the words out of my mouth
Comment: Also consider doing a differential instead of an incremental backup.  You'll need more storage, but restores will be easier, faster, and less error-prone.
Comment: I've never seen the value in Differential backups in relation to backing up user data. Why backup the same user data if it hasn't changed since the last Full or Incremental backup? It may take more time to restore a complete set of user data, but how often does that really occur? Most users want only a single file or a few files restored. The cost savings (time and backup media) of Incremental backups outweighs any convenience that a Differential backup provides IMO.
Comment: Have you looked into Amazon S3? And just not worry about any of that.
Comment: As a suggestion, try storing the originals with lossless photo compression. That will save you some space.
Answer: You need to take a step back and stop thinking "I've got 20TB on my NAS I need to back up!" and develop a storage strategy that takes into account the nature of your data:

Where is it coming from and how much new data are you getting? (you've got this in your question)
How is the data used once you have it?  Are people editing the pictures?  Do you keep the originals and generate edited versions?
How long do you need to keep all the data?  Are people still making changes to pictures from 2 years ago?

Depending on the answers to the last two questions, you probably need more of a Archiving System than a radically different backup system.
Data that is static (e.g. 2 year old pictures that you retain "just in case") doesn't need to be backed up every night, or even every week, it needs to be archived.  What you actually do might be more complex, but conceptually, all the old pictures can be written off to tape (multiple copies!) and not backed up any more.
Based on your comments, some additional thoughts:

Since you keep the originals of each shoot untouched and work on a copy, and assuming that at least some of the original pictures are duds, you might be able to cut the amount of data that needs to be backed up in half.
If you still can't finish a full backup within whatever window of time you have, a common way to speed things up is to do a disk-to-disk backup first and then later copy the backup set off to tape.
Comment: +1 Well said. I'm surprised how the difference between Backup and Archive is, in general, poorly understood.  I do full and incremental backups of my system and ephemeral data such as email & documents, but archive my photography (1.2TB and growing :-).  Wish I could give another +1 for the disk-to-disk suggestion as well.
Comment: +1 I'd bet that 80% of the data on the NAS is never used more then once.
Comment: The original shoot is stored untouched, then another copy of the photoshoot is used for editing. The data may need to be kept about 2 years.
Comment: +1 The best option here is to do daily and even hourly disk to disk delta transfers to capture changes and then ship the full or incremental backups off to an archive or off-site provider/location on a weekly or semi-weekly basis.  We used to take delta backups of our SQL files every 15 minutes to reduce the amount of data loss in a DR scenario.
Answer: You have two options:
Option 1:

Buy another NAS
Give your users RO access to the new_NAS
Move all files older than 2 years to new_NAS
Keep backing up old_NAS as usual
Every 6 months move files older than 2 years to new_NAS

Option 2:

Buy another NAS

Run rsync every hour: old_NAS -> new_NAS
or, better use something like rdiff-backup which does rsync + keeps deltas with file changes (you can restore older versions of the files)
rdiff-backup  user1@old_NAS::/source-dir    user2@new_NAS::/dest-dir

Every 6 months clean old files running something like:
rdiff-backup --remove-older-than 2Y    old_NAS::/dest-dir

Answer: Why do your backups have to complete overnight? Fileserver performance? You might be able to constrain the bandwidth of your backup software to limit impact during the day. Or dedicate an interface on your NAS to talk to the tape drive to limit impact on other traffic.
Can you run full dumps on weekends and only do incrementals during the week? If the problem is changing tapes on the weekend when no one is around, a cheap tape library/autochanger costs a lot less than paying someone to change tapes.
Can you segment your data into multiple groups that are small enough to complete within your backup window?
We have about 50TB of data on a our NAS and it takes over a week to get a full dump of the entire thing using 2 tape drives (one volume takes nearly a week itself because it contains many tiny files). What we do is replicate our data to a second NAS. Our secondary NAS is on-site (but in a different datacenter from the primary), so we still spool data off to tape for off-site backup. We run backups from that secondary NAS so backups don't slow anyone down.
If you can colocate your secondary NAS far enough away, then it can be your backup, no tapes needed.
Answer: I'm just in doubt about the size of each shooting session, is it really 100gb / session? How many sessions does your company do each month?
Since you're mostly storing old sessions that won't be used frequently, etc, and probably don't need to recover that information that frequently, I would suggest you to use the services from some company to take care of that task for you.
Just for example, storing those 20TB using an online service like Amazon Glacier would cost a bit more than $200/month. If you need to retrieve those archives frequently, or even recover then in full, it would hit some time / cost constraint. If you just store those things "to be sure they are stored", perhaps using a third-part could make your life easier (and even cheaper than buying another NAS, tapes, etc)
Comment: 100 GB per session sounds a little high to me, but not unreasonable. We commonly had 32+ GB session where I used to work, and our equipment was medium-tier.
Answer: full backups of this server are not completing overnight
Then try incremental backups? One full backup every xx days, incremental the rest.
Harddisks are inexpensive, faster than tapes and can be used for backup.
Also there are good alternatives for cloud backups now so its not required to keep adding more and faster tapes.
For example:

Red-Gate Cloud Services
Amazon backup storage
Support for Amazon Glacier (cheap long-term storage)
Comment: I guess its a matter of opinion if $2400/yr is a lot for 20TB relatively safe and fully maintenance free storage. No power consumption, no cooling, no failing hardware, no SLA, doesn't take up rack space. And as with most systems you should expect around 0 full recovery operations. And if you need a recovery the price is more like $1800 than $36000 (not sure where you got that number from).
Comment: Look at the comments - it's the weekly fulls that are not completing.  Additionally, cloud backups for 20TB of data... not a good idea.  The "cheap" option of Amazon Glacier will cost ~2500/yr, and retrieving all that data will cost ~$36,000.
Comment: That's not actually alot.
Comment: For glacier, the $36K is pretty close. I roughly calculate it as $42K for retrieval costs on 20TB. It's still not alot though. The bandwidth is more of an issue.
Answer: I think the best solution for this is what we do with our payroll data, which should take a minimal effort for you to implement.

Initially, it's kept with the rest of the server data that's backed up daily.  Our retention period on those backups is 13 months.
Once we no longer expect that the data will need to be modified, (two pay periods later, IIRC) the data is (via script) saved off to an archive volume that's excluded from the regular backups.
The archive volume is backed up to tape yearly, and the tapes are sent off to Cintas for indefinite storage.

This allows us to have easy, online access to that unchanging data (so we don't have to call in a tape anytime an accountant wants to look at something), while maintaining indefinite off-site archives of data we may need to keep forever, and without crushing our backup system.  Sounds like the same type of setup could work for you, though you might want to adjust the amount of data you keep online, depending on your needs to access this data in a timely fashion - 20TB of enterprise-grade storage is a lot more expensive than archiving it to two or three sets of LTO5 tapes that you store in off-site vaults.
Answer: Maybe you can build your own Backblaze Pod: 135Tb for 7384$
Click here for more information: Backblaze Pod building info
You can buy the needed pieces and build it by yourself.
Maybe you can build 3 of them, and keep 2 onsite, and 1 offsite.
Then you can use one pod as the "online data", the second onsite pod as a backup of the first pod, and the third offsite pod as an emergency offsite backup.
With 135Tb of storage for each pod you can even think about keeping some history of the change...
135Tb / 20Tb = 19 full backup copy.
Alternatively you can keep 10 full backup plus a ridiculous amount of differential backup.
Naturally, if you want an offsite backup, you'll need some kind of big bandwidth... :-)
Comment: If your data and your job are important to you, you should not try to build your own backblaze pod from scratch.  It seems like a good idea, until you realize that you are putting all of your eggs in one really big basket.  Worse yet, that basket has not been tested as an integrated whole thoroughly.  The backblaze secret sauce is the software replication across many pods, which allows for entire pods to fail seamlessly.  I would instead recommend a supermicro storage server, centos, xfs and rdiff-backup.
Answer: My coworker purchased a Synology 8-disk NAS. It runs a hybrid RAID. He purchased eight 3TB Seagate Barracuda from NewEgg a few weeks ago for $89 each. You could rsync mirror from the production NAS to this new NAS over GigaBit. Since you are only transferring the differences, the transfer will take a shorter time. Then you can use the backup NAS to perform full or incrementals. Cost to you would be under $2000 out the door for a backup NAS.

How to backup 20+TB of data?


Is it possible to use neural networks with Arduino?

Question: I've got a project in university to build a vehicle on Arduino and I'd like to implement reinforcement learning for it. The processors on Arduino, of course, are too slow for this task so here is my question. Is it possible to perform all the learning in the cloud which will communicate with the vehicle via wifi? And if so, I would really appreciate some hints or references. Thanks.
Answer: In general, yes. Just create the network so that it can be run on another machine or the cloud for training. Training basically consists of running many, many test scenarios through the network, and this gradually assigns values to each 'neuron' and connection (I oversimplify slightly).
Once the network is trained, you can copy the trained network onto your Arduino device and use it in your 'real world' experiments. There will be some saved document or file that contains all those weights and biases for the network. The TensorFlow neural network library, for example, has a guide for saving the weights and biases at https://www.tensorflow.org/programmers_guide/saved_model
However, I do not know which neural network libraries can run on Arduino as well as other platforms. And as a sidenote, if you have a budget you may want to look into Nvidia's Jetson platform/chip at http://www.nvidia.com/object/embedded-systems.html    as it is made for both deep learning and embedded systems (arduino is a low-end form of an embedded system). It's not as expensive as I expected, but still may be out of budget and the community isn't anywhere near as large - but it's good to know that the hardware already exists.
Answer: If you are looking for training a neural network on Arduino, it might not be a very good idea. For this purpose, i would suggest a device with higher computation power, such as your own computer or a Raspberry-Pi .
However, if you wish to run a neural network on Arduino after training it and using the obtained weights, it can be done and there are a few libraries on the web that can help you out.
For the purpose of using cloud-based data, Tensorflow would be a good starting point.


Why is the heart adversely impacted by chronic psychological stress, yet it benefits from routine physical exercise?

Question: Chronic psychological stress is commonly said to be deleterious to the heart, and predispose one to cardiovascular disease. Yet the opposite is said about regular aerobic exercise. Physiologically, What is the difference between psychological stress and physical exercise, with respect to their impacts on heart function/health? Both involve an increase in sympathetic cardiac input, and thus more vigorously contracting cardiac muscle; but how is one damaging and the other beneficial?
Comment: That's a interesting question. If in a few days, you still haven't got an answer here, you might to give it a try on [Health.SE](health.stackexchange.com).
Comment: they involve different hormones, I would start there, I know stress hormone damage a lot of things, not sure about exercise ones.
Answer: From the perspective of sympathetic nervous system

Exercise induced adaptations of heart

A common phenomenon in endurance athletes is the athlete's heart /athletic heart syndrome

Once athletes stop training, the heart returns to its normal size.

You must understand why this type of adaptation is happening in them:
Firstly the athletes train to produce work output at near maximal levels/ sub maximal levels of work done which cannot be physiologically achieved in a day.So the increased heart rate generated by the sympathetic stimulation is sufficient to fulfill oxygen demand of the body only at certain levels of work done by raising the heart rate
As the grade of work done nears submaximal level the oxygen demand increases in the body and the increased sympathetic stimulation (which also restricts the cardiac muscle efficiency by decreasing diastolic time,coronary blood flow) is no longer able to suffice it.Such high oxygen demand is responsible for the useful adaptations of the heart in the form of athlete's heart.Athlete's heart reduces the need for sympathetic stimulation to increase cardiac output .

During intensive prolonged endurance or strength training, the body signals the heart to pump more blood through the body to counteract the oxygen deficit building in the skeletal muscles. Enlargement of the heart is a natural physical adaptation of the body to deal with the high pressures and large amounts of blood that can affect the heart during these periods of time.

Comparison with chronic psychological stress

During stress the body may or may not have high oxygen demand (the principal stimulus for adaptation) because the sympathetic stimulation is psychological and not in response to physiological work.So the heart instead of adaptating gets afflicted with detrimental pathophysiological effects of prolonged sympathetic stimulation.

stressors' contributions to diverse pathophysiological changes including sudden death, myocardial infarction, myocardial ischemia, and wall motion abnormalities, as well as to alterations in cardiac regulation as indexed by changes in sympathetic nervous system activity and hemostasis.

From the perspective of cortisol (stress hormone)

Effect of psychological stress on athletes

When we are talking about the detrimental effects of psychic stress it is important to note that it may override the cardiac adaptations and severely affect performance like,for example high cortisol levels in blood released in response to stress (physical/ psychological).Although cortisol levels in the blood observe a circadian rhythm in normal healthy indivituals, some reports claim that exercise reduces detrimental effects of high cortisol levels on the heart.However,stress may override exercise induced effects in athletes but this is a prospective study, subject to greater research

A prospective study found a clinically significant increase in overnight urinary cortisol:cortisone ratio during a high training load period in triathletes, who subsequently underperformed and reported fatigue

REFERENCE TEXTBOOKS:

Exercise Physiology And Ergonomics (An Introduction) Asis Goswami Academic Publishers.Pg-39 to 57

Essentials Of Exercise Physiology (4th Ed.) Victor L.Katch,William D.McArdle,Frank I.Katch pg-302-333
Answer: I have an answer, but it is not ideal because science's current understanding of the answer to your question is somewhat limited.
The detrimental influence of physiological stress upon the heart is thought to occur because the physiological stress causes the cardiovascular system to prepare to meet anticipated energy needs by 1) increasing pulse and blood pressure, which can cause a heart attack that immediately follows the stress and and 2) increasing the production of glucocorticoids, which are thought to cause atherosclerosis, thereby increasing the likelihood of future cardiac maladies. Why do glucocorticoid levels increase in response to stress?  That is somewhat controversial.  See this article:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10696570.
What about physical exercise?  To some degree, whether the exercise is favorable or not is dose-specific.  Comparatively moderate exercise (relative to what the body is capable of) will have a favorable effect, while exercise that is too strenuous will not.  Physical exercise also increases pulse and blood pressure, which can also cause a heart attack that immediately follows the stress.  But if the exercise is of moderate severity, there will be two sources of beneficial effect upon the heart:
1)  There is the general phenomenon by which muscle fibers become stronger in response to the imposition of stress upon those muscles, whether those muscles are skeletal or cardiac muscles.
2)  There is the phenomenon of hormesis which is characterized by a general improvement process to all cells (including cardiac cells) at the cellular level in response to many different kinds of stress, including physical exercise and caloric restriction, both of which are sources of stress that have a hormetic effect at the right doses.  Edward Calabrese has been the most prolific researcher in demonstrating the hormesis effect, but its mechanism is not well-understood.
(A difference between psychological stress and physical exercise is that I do not think even moderate doses of psychological stress offer these two benefits.)
Answer: I believe the best answer to your question is that psychological stress increases the levels of a chemical compound called cortisol in the body (a glucocorticoid stress hormone) while physical exercise tends to decrease the levels of this "stress hormone".  Of course, physical exercise also positively affects muscles and the heart in other ways, so this is another factor. The benefits of low levels of cortisol vs. the deleterious effects of high levels of it are explained and outlined at length in links below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol#Regulation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037


Adding Images to Latest Articles module

Question: I am looking to display my latest articles on my joomla website. Using the module latest articles I can display the articles titles but I am wondering is there a way to display an image along with the title of the article. At the moment it all looks very bland and boring.
Answer: You're going to need to learn how to use template overrides for this (or find ones other people have made). It's probably the easiest way into Joomla, and a good way to gradually learn (at least a bit of) PHP; apologies if this isn't the case, but I'm going to assume you aren't overly familiar with it just in case. For the record, the documents for this are here - they're worth reading if you want to understand a bit more, but they can be quite impenetrable at first.
I've whipped you up a quick version though, you can use it if you want. For these examples I'll use protostar, but replace protostar with whatever the name of your template is.
As you want to override how the Latest Articles module is displayed, the file you need to find is:
/yourJoomlaInstall/modules/mod_articles_latest/tmpl/default.php
You need to copy this file into a new folder in your templates folder.
Inside your templates folder create a folder called html if there isn't one already, and inside that /html folder you have to create a folder with the same name as the module you're overriding (in this case mod_articles_latest). For example:
*/yourJoomlaInstall/templates/protostar/tmpl/html/mod_articles_latest/
Now copy the default.php file from the module's folder into the one you just created for it in your templates folder.
Time to edit it. I recommend getting Notepad++ if you don't have anything better (if you don't know if you have anything better, that means you don't).
I've pasted the new code below. If you copy all of it and paste it over all the existing code in your template's copy of default.php it should work. You'll get the Intro Images from your articles displayed under their link, but if you want to style it a bit more it'll be worth trying to understand at least some of it (for example, you can make the picture a link too by putting it inside the  tags).
I've put in some PHP comments to show you the changes I made and what they do.
<?php
/**
 * @package     Joomla.Site
 * @subpackage  mod_articles_latest
 *
 * @copyright   Copyright (C) 2005 - 2016 Open Source Matters, Inc. All rights reserved.
 * @license     GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt
 */

defined('_JEXEC') or die;
?>
<ul class="latestnews<?php echo $moduleclass_sfx; ?>">
<?php foreach ($list as $item) :  ?>

        <a href="<?php echo $item->link; ?>" itemprop="url">

                <?php echo $item->title; ?>

        <?php // Inserted code starts here ?>

        <?php // This gets the image data associated with the article and processes it so PHP can use it properly. ?>
        <?php $images = json_decode($item->images); ?>

        <?php // This checks the Intro Image exists and isn't empty. ?>
        <?php if (isset($images->image_intro) && !empty($images->image_intro)) : ?>

            <?php // This displays it. ?>

                <img src="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($images->image_intro); ?>" alt="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($images->image_intro_alt); ?>" itemprop="image"/>

        <?php endif; ?>

        <?php // Inserted code ends ?>

<?php endforeach; ?>

Adding Images to Latest Articles module


Why doesn't Gardening & Landscaping have a banner image?

Question: Some other SE groups I'm part of, eg. Bicycles has a colorful themed background behind it. Presumably they can only be a good thing, making the site look more professional and retaining users.
 How would the gardening and landscaping group go about designing and choosing a background?
Comment: Do you mean as a background image for the space already allocated above the question title and below the black, without removing the links? IMO, few sites on the Internet have memorable/significant banner images. They were popular in the late 90's, but I haven't seen much of them (by *comparison*) for years. They can potentially take up vertical space, too, which may bother utilitarians, if they're not really thin banners with integrated menus or something. However, the site already looks equipped to handle a banner there, if we keep the stuff that is there on it and visible.
Comment: A relevant post (on this meta) by one of our Community Managers from last week: [Custom Gardening & Landscaping design and logo - Information gathering](https://gardening.meta.stackexchange.com/q/961/37696) :)
Comment: Update: [Your new site design is live!](https://gardening.meta.stackexchange.com/q/982/37696)
Answer: All SE "Beta Sites" are displayed in the Blueprint theme. When the site graduates then it can produce and display it's own unique design. If you would like to get involved, this Meta Discussion would be a good place to start.


the different between"the first to do "and "the first who ever did"

Question: I want to know the different between the phrases the first to do and the first who ever did.  Please give some examples.
Comment: What is the source of your confusion? The difference between _"I was the first to jump in the pool."_ and _"Chuck Yeager was the first person to ever break the sound barrier."_ seems pretty clear.
Comment: It sounds only like a difference in emphasis. Can you give an example or two of sentences where you've seen these phrases?
Answer:
We both wanted to see that movie, but I was the first to see it. Two weeks later she saw it too.

This means an action done first within a limited group of actions.

John Doe (the director) was the first person who ever watched the completed movie.

This means the first time anyone saw the completed movie.
The comment by ColleenV above makes the same distinction.
Comment: Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first man who ever walked on the moon. Like they said, the main difference is emphasis and exclusivity. "Who ever" is more exclusive. I wasn't the first person ever to see the movie, just the first person out of me and my friends. But no-one else can be the first human to walk on the moon. First woman, first person of color, first dog--sure. But not first human. That is only Neil Armstrong.
Comment: OK, a bad example. I edited my answer.
Comment: Oh, I wasn't saying it was a bad example. I was just adding a little to it.
Answer: "The first to do vs the first who ever did"
Semantically, these phrases seem to be similar, but they significantly convey different senses.
The former phrase is used in an ordinary sense whereas the latter is used  in an extraordinary sense. We often hear in our daily life "you were the first to solve this question; he was the first to come to the meeting; I was the first to arrive, etc. etc.
On the other hand, we use the phrase "the first who ever did" when somebody does something exceptional that nobody did before. for example, Muhammad Ali was the the first boxer who ever beat more champions; Nixon was the first American President who ever visited China, etc.


Do online colleges give you the same experience needed for programming or is it better to go on campus?

Question: I don't know whether I should go online for my game programming degree or to be on campus.  The closest college that offers game programming degree is in a different state 6 hours away.  Any advice?
Comment: If you are considering college, I really do hope you can type better than that, and this time you were just being lazy. Either way, people here will be more willing to answer questions if correct spelling and grammar are used.
Comment: yeah sorry about that I had to be quick to go help my cousin get his deer out of the woods.
Comment: @wolf:haha, lol, shall i give yu a +1 dear? :-p
Comment: @ vishnu: Nice one. XD
Answer: The online college will deprive you of the opportunity to build relationships with professors and industry professionals. While they try to mimic the classroom experience through webcams and chat rooms, those will only take you so far. You will likely not get to know your peers as well as you would if you had to endure painful all nighters in a lab with them. These relationships may lead to job opportunities in the future as well as potential partnerships.
Answer: Attending college not only builds your skills as a programmer, it gives you an opportunity to build your social, communication and teamwork skills. Just the social aspect of being with other people is a necessary experience for working in teams inside a company.
Beware of online school scams, however (same goes for some colleges, but there are alot of online ones which are just scams). They'll take your money, give you a pass and hand you a diploma, but that diploma won't be recognized by any company once you graduate. Be careful!
Answer: In my experience, college classes are nowhere near as helpful as actually meeting other students. In most of the classes I've taken, the teachers teach everything extremely slowly. While your teachers are busy telling you how multi-threading is "too hard", you can make friends with other students and learn from them. Most of what I've learned in my classes is a result of me and friends doing homework in strange ways to entertain ourselves. I see that as a huge advantage over online classes.
I would say it would be better to just make friends with a couple programmers and skip college entirely, but what you really want are other people at a similar level as you, and an environment that will get you in the mood to do programming.
Answer: As with any college or university program (online or otherwise), you're going to be spending a shockingly large amount of money -- probably more than your first car, and at least with the car you probably took a test drive and kicked the tires. So be sure of what you're getting!
Unfortunately there is no single concept of "online class," it varies by school. Some schools consider "online" to equal "self-taught": as in, you get the textbook, teach yourself, hand in the exercises, and some remote instructor who is just a glorified grader gives you a score. Some schools include more content, everything from text to podcasts to video lectures, possibly even "live" remote lectures with courseware that simulates you being in a physical classroom. Some schools expect you to do most of the work on your own, but the instructor is expected to be there as a resource for you if you need help or get stuck.
If there is a specific school you're considering, find out more about their program. Find out exactly what is involved, what a typical class looks like, what kind of level of support you can expect, what your rights and responsibilities as a student are. If they can't tell you or they refuse to show you... run away!
Caveat emptor.
Answer: Do online colleges offer a similar curriculum as traditional colleges? Probably
Do online colleges offer a similar experience as traditional colleges? Probably not.
In my experience, a lot of online courses will try to mimic the classroom experience through software like digital whiteboards, video conferencing, etc., but it's never quite the same as being in a classroom. To me, online courses fell more rigid, professors fell more distant, and classmates seem less like classmates and more like passers-by. Not to mention the countless social opportunities and interactions you'll miss out on.
Given the choice, I would definitely choose to pursue a degree on campus, unless there is some particular reason you need/want to stay in your area.


Potted sweet peas have shot up quicker then expected

Question: Please help i've  never grown sweetpeas and wasn't sure what to expect when I chucked the seeds that had started to grow in the packet in with the ones i'd started already and now they have all grown to about 2ft already all 3 packets and the pot is over crowded but I don't know if I should risk planting them in the Garden now or wait till the weather is better
Comment: It's necessary to know what part of the world you're in before giving an answer to your question.
Answer: If you are going into winter in the northern hemisphere, sweet peas are usually planted as seeds directly in the ground outside.  You probably would do better just getting more seeds and direct sowing. In the southeast US they are usually sown in November or December. As you get further north (Mid-Atlantic or northeastern US for instance) sweet peas are usually planted in late winter - ~February (again, direct in ground as seed).
In the southern hemisphere going into spring it MIGHT be possible to move the plants outdoors. Success rate will probably not be very high due to the amount of growth already. Best method would be to pinch them back hard, then gradually harden them off (daily increase of time outdoors in increased light and cold) and then transplant into the ground.
As above, knowing where you are growing them will result in much better answers. All gardening is local.
A good article on sweet peas is http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/hortupdate_archives/2005/mar05/Sweetpea2.html
Edit: just saw that all the plants are in one pot - this reduces success rate from transplanting further as at 2 feet tall their roots are completely entangled. You won't be able to separate the plants. Best bet there would be to cut off all but 2 or 3 stems at ground level, and follow the other suggestion for hardening etc. Or, better still, go with direct sowing.


Will you please delete me

Question: I have discovered that this site is not what I had thought it to be, and am therefore asking you to remove as a poster. I had envisioned this as a site to comply with the great commission, and now that I have learned that it is not; I have no more reason to associate with the site. My preference as a Christian is to aid in enlarging the Kingdom and will devote my efforts to that end on another site.
Comment: This has been like four times since [the first about a year ago](http://meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/3577/is-it-possible-to-delete-cecil-beckum).
Answer: As Mr. Bultitude said we do actually need you to trigger the delete yourself by following the steps in the help. Even as a moderator I can't actually just remove your account. When you do delete there will be a 24 safety timer to make sure you meant it, then it will go away. I believe you would need to do this separately for here and your Biblical Hermeneutics account if that is your intent.
Know that there will not be any hard feelings on this end. You have been a valuable contributor—but at the same time I do understand the conflict of purpose. I feel it too often enough, and most of my life's efforts are elsewhere: places where to great commission can be focused on. This site is only for a niche need and if your purposes don't happen to mesh with that niche then it may not be worth the investment.
I wish you the best wherever you go.
Comment: ditto. Well said, Caleb ;)
Answer: If this is what you're set on doing, use the contact form and select "I need to delete my user profile" from the drop-down.
But I would encourage you to either stick around, or at least keep your user profile up. Though this site is not here for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission, I think the fact that it exists to aid in the proliferation of knowledge/information about Christianity is a great aid to those seeking truth. There are many committed Christians here (including me), and I think that is in large part because we see the value of these questions and answers as an aid to our individual fulfillments of the Great Commission (and other aspects of daily Christian living).
But there's only so much we can do to convince you to stick around, and I understand if you want to head somewhere that has the Great Commission as its goal, where you can participate in that directly. It makes sense.
As for where you might go afterward, if you haven't yet figured that out, you might consider:

http://ChristianForums.com/
http://BaptistBoard.com/
http://ChristianAnswers.net/
http://Forums.CARM.org/

Whatever you decide, all the best to you.
Answer: How about a cooling-off period?
Why don't you and I, along with all three moderators, @curiousdanii and @fredsbend grab a chat room and chat it up a bit? I'll make the chat room public so everyone can participate. Let's focus on what's wrong with this site and what we can do to make it better.
I don't want to lose your contribution and I know that a majority of Christianity.SE users feel the same way.
Comment: Cecil (User BYE) is mostly blind. He cannot effectively use the chat (at least that's what he told me). Further, I don't think anything is wrong with the site, though I'm flattered that you see me as important in this respect. (btw, [there's actually five mods](http://christianity.stackexchange.com/users?tab=moderators)).
Answer: I'm willing to change this site's charter if it means that you'll stay and won't self-delete yourself.
Please tell me how we've failed you, and I'll see what we can do.
Comment: This user has articulated their complaint many many times and its always basically the same. And he is right! But changing the site to be Great Commission friendly is just not in the cards and this answer is an empty promise at best.
Comment: @Caleb after having given myself a long period to reconsider my course of action, I have concluded that I am going to just you no longer use the site. It would be unfair to all of those people to whom I have given reps to take those away from them. I wish to thank you that you have acknowledged the validity of my objections. continued
Comment: @BYE Actually I'm pretty sure I **do** get where you are coming from re evangelism. I really do. But in spite of your seemingly perpetual optimism that this site would be conducive for that, I am convinced it's a bad match and will always be problematic. This sites' format and what it tries to accomplish is simply much more specialized. I'm not saying you are wrong to want what you want (I respect it quite a lot actually) I only think that you are mistaken to think that it would ever work here.
Comment: @BYE I appreciate all the work you do put it to opening the Scriptures to folks in spite of the extra work it requires and I hope you find a venue in which that investment can be used effectively. I'm sure there are sites with more forum-like discussion formats where your knowledge of and heart for the Word would be well placed.
Comment: @bye I must comment, as a grammar and format obsessivist, I am quite content with your answers in that respect. And considering your disability, you forward much more to being clear and neat than probably most people even notice. I have appreciated your efforts to this site, thus far, and if you do continue, focusing on questions that ask for the "biblical basis" is probably the best type for your knowledge set.
Comment: @Caleb I do however believe that you may have misunderstood my meaning concerning the great commission. I did not and do not wish to see this site become evangelistic. However, I do believe that we should spread the gospel and by that, I mean that answering questions using a scriptural basis should be more than acceptable. As a personal note, the effort that it takes me to answer questions such are even to comment requires that I first put down my thoughts in Microsoft word then copy and paste and to the site. continued
Comment: @Caleb continued There are two processes in what I have to do, one is to dictate through a speech to text software, then have it read back to me through a text to speech software. This is necessary for error checking, but it is quite time consuming. It is frustrating to go to all of that work, and then have someone be little my efforts. While I realize, that many posters are not aware of the difficulty in my posting, however; I still find it abrasive. Perhaps I am too sensitive; but am unable to control my reaction. Therefore, I feel this is the best course of action. thanks for understanding.

Will you please delete me


Is anyone using GPS for time sync?

Question: I've come across a handful of GPS NTP servers, as well as some inexpensive solutions using off-the-shelf receivers and software. Right now I'm just using NTP with a list of servers over the Internet. What is the advantage to using GPS instead (considering the alternative is free)?
Comment: Geek bonus points?
Comment: @dbasnett Erm, I think you are actually misinformed... There's no such thing as a "Stratum 2 / 3 clock", all hardware sources are inherently Stratum 0. Perhaps a quick read through [RFC 958](http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc958) would be useful.
Comment: It is amazing to me how much BS was pumped in this thread.  Stratum 0 indeed.  At the OP.  If you have an operation that depends on a highly accurate time source then invest in a good Stratum 2 / 3 clock, based on the accuracy required.  Pay attention to holdover specifications.
Comment: See RFC 1305.  You might want to check out the USNO site and any number of manufacturers (http://www.symmetricom.com/)  They obviously did not get the memo about there not being stratum 2/3 clocks.
Comment: @dbasnett I think you might want to have another look at the RFC 1305:
`Stratum (sys.stratum, peer.stratum, pkt.stratum): This is an integer indicating the stratum of the local clock, with values defined as follows: 0 unspecified; 1 primary reference (e.g., calibrated atomic clock, radio clock); 2-255 secondary reference (via NTP)` which indicates that stratum 2+ is not a clock source per se, but rather clock that references other NTP clock. Whatever you saw on symmetricom page is taking time from NTP and passing it down the net.
Section 3.2.1 of https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1305.pdf
Comment: @dbasnett Also, same PDF and section: `Reference Clock Identifier (sys.refid, peer.refid, pkt.refid): This is a 32-bit code identifying the particular reference clock. In the case of stratum 0 (unspecified) or stratum 1 (primary reference source), this is a four-octet, left-justified, zero-padded ASCII string, for example (see Appendix A for comprehensive list): [here be table] In the case of stratum 2 and greater (secondary reference) this is the four-octet Internet address of the peer selected for synchronization.`. If the reference clock id for stratum 2 is IP addr, how can it be hw clock?
Answer: I've used them at a gambling operation so we could keep accurate time but still have a true air gap between the production network and the internet/corporate network.
With the revenue generated per hour and that on one occasion a single remote sales rep came into the office and plugged in his infected laptop to the corp network and brought it down within minutes (production was unaffected). The effort of using things like gps time to allow for an air gap was worth it.
Comment: GPS signals are one-way radio transmissions from satellites, so no external network connection is required.
Comment: If you are on an air gap, how do you obtain the GPS time? Wouldn't that require connecting to a network?
Answer: With a GPS ntp server you'll be getting a stratum 0 clock source. the advantage is accuracy and lower jitter. The downside is cost. There are very few circumstances that require this level of accuracy. in general you want to make sure your systems are in sync with each other. So syncing all your servers against a pair of internal ntp boxes that sync against external lower stratum ntp servers is usually sufficient.
The only time I've been involved in using a GPS ntp box (for a PKI system), we never actually used them. We couldn't get permission to mount the antenna on the roof of the datacentre and get the cabling back to the ntp box.
Comment: @dbasnett, it's considered Stratum 0 if the source is hardware based (as GPS is). That doesn't guarantee accuracy, but there's no inherent jitter from using a computer network like the Internet. Note: the computer attached to the hardware is still Stratum 1 (the lowest a NTP Server can be).
Comment: Stratum 0???  Not likely.
Comment: The Stratum is really the distance from the reference clock and I agree that it has nothing to do with quality.  In the past we chose clocks based on Stratum and what would happen if we lost the reference(GPS).  The clocks we chose all had Rubidium backups.
Answer: We do have a pair of stratum 1 time servers using GPS for NTP.
Does it make a difference in our day to day business vs when we had no NTP servers?  A little, for example, on the client support side, the phones, both digital and voip and all the desktops now have the exact same time.  Which cuts down on all the why do all these clocks have different times and can I fix it questions.
On the server side, when we aggregate logs we know that our timestamps are all the same. So if something happened at 12:37:15.34 on two servers we know that it really was at the SAME TIME, not 30 seconds to a minute appart.
Did we need GPS based NTP to do this?  Probably not, we could have used any NTP source.  We know everything is synced perfect and the time never drifts. Also if our internet connection is down, or laggy it's still perfect. Any NTP would have been an improvement over the lack of NTP we had though.
Comment: "A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never
sure."

With two clocks it is impossible to identify a false ticker. But don't take my
word for it, [Section 5.3.1 of the ntp
faq](http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Support/SelectingOffsiteNTPServers#Section_18.104.22.168.):

__"This is actually the worst possible configuration -- you'd be better off
using just one upstream time server and letting the clocks run free if that
upstream were to die or become unreachable."__
Answer: While not used for time sync so that all devices are using the same time for logs, GPS time sync is commonly used in carrier class wireless transmission hardware. It allows access points to sync and all transmit/recieve simultaneously, so that they won't be causing interference or raising background noise when listening for transmissions from clients.
Answer: The cost is not small (relatively)  and the benefits are few. The only places I've seen running their own stratum-0 time source had extremely high expectations for the quality of the input, and a lack of trust in external time sources.
Comment: I eluded to the two advantages in my post. A lack of trust in the input and a lack of trust in the external infrastructure. But, I've only seen those in .mil and financial services sectors.
Comment: There ARE advantages. Otherwise no one would run them.
Comment: Alluded ... and who's to say he's not in either? +1 for trying.
Comment: I presume he's not in either of those sectors because he's currently syncing to NTP servers on the Internet and is only now considering this solution. If he were in those sectors, standards would have likely dictated that he not do that. Thanks for the spelling correction.
Comment: Unless you have toured the USNO it is not likely you have seen a Stratum 0 clock.
Answer: Great answers so far! I can say that I've seen GPS time sources used on multiplexers, and certain types of crypto ... it was used for NTP, just because it was already there.
The advantage for using a local GPS NTP server would be

High Accuracy
Not dependent on an Internet connection

How much does one of these things cost anyway? It shouldn't be that expensive. GPS + Linux + NTP ...
Wow, $1000 - $3000, do you need it that bad?
Comment: $3000 is about the cost of Windows 2008 Server Enterprise with 25 CALs, RHEL AP for one server with 24/7 support, or (fully loaded) a $100k/year employee for four days.  If you require accurate time in a non-Internet-connected network, and your PHBs won't give Symmetricom what they're asking, please try to avoid slicing a wrist open on their pointy hair -- it's quite sharp.
Comment: If it's just because you really like accurate time, your fixation is worth $0 in this sort of economy.
Comment: I just really really like accurate time. So far I've had zero luck convincing TPTB that my accurate time fixation is worth that much.
Comment: Well said! +1 For putting it into perspective.
Answer: A couple years back I looked at whether it was possible to use a cheap GPS (~$200-$300) to get accurate time on a server.  I'm sure that at the time Garmin or one of the other companies had software you could run on Windows to read the time on a computer to read the time from a GPS connected to a serial port.  I was going to ask if anyone has used this as a cheap alternative to a purpose-built NTP server.  It should be accurate enough and only a few hundred bucks.
Comment: Nope. The delays introduced with such equipment would give a lower precision than just using any ol' NTP server out there on the Net; the price tag of a purpose-built GPS receiver is not just for the pretty logo.
Comment: Yes. Though Windows makes a poor NTP server because of the "tick" frequency (more or less analogous to kernel ticks in the *nix world). A Garmin 18x LVC with a little DIY soldering can be attached to a serial port for well under $100. The BSDs make the best choice of the widely used OSes (roughly nanosecond precision), though Linux is still within a millisecond (good enough for most applications).
Answer: A neutrino detection experiment I worked on used GPS for the primary time signal to our Data Acquisition system. They used a fairly expensive system supplied by someone in Japan.
This as part of a world-wide effort to provide high precision information about the different arrival times for the neutrino and photon wave-fronts from big supernovas. Lots of cool physics in that, if you can get precise enough data.
Answer: We use them because of their "deadman's" feature (won't correct more than a few seconds so that if something goes wrong your whole infrastructure does not move 12 hours into the past) and security; NTP is totally insecure; spoofing, man-in-the-middle, etc.
Comment: Have you actually tried faking ntp answers? At least with the unix reference implementation, that will be quite hard. NTP default is hardened and you can add cryptographic signatures to add authorisation.
Comment: Note that GPS isn't "secure" either: there are constellation simulators out there, which would allow manipulation of the signal as desired.
Answer: It gives you a Stratum 0 NTP server, under your control. You can then configure a few machines as Stratum 1 servers, syncing from your GPS-clocked server and have slightly less traffic needing to leave your network.
It's been around 10 years since I last had one of those (that I know of) in my network, but at that point, we didn't have a good antenna position and while it mostly saw a GPS signal, it did occasionally lose the signal, requiring a reset of the receiver equipment. With a better antenna placement, that would most probably not have occured.
Comment: There's no such thing as a "Stratum 0 NTP server". Stratum 0 is a hardware source outside NTP. The NTP server it's connected to is thereby Stratum 1 since it's 1 step away from the reference clock.
Comment: @ChrisS I've always interpreted the strata as being specifically only within NTP. But I am happy to change my understanding. Thank you.
Answer: The advantages are you can get real seqence of events logging.
An example is in critical infrastructure. All electrical utilities should be using stratum 1 time for their databases. Stratum 1 time is critical to working out what made something fail on the scale of local utility downtime, to figuring out who caused the Northeast Blackout of 2003. NTP is often passed up in favor of PTP (IEEE 1588) for synching to the microsecond level.
Answer: At my old job we used GPS for timing a lot of different equipment. each piece of equipment had their own GPS receiver, which allowed perfect sync where latency was not an issue. Using GPS practically eliminates network-factors in the accuracy.

Is anyone using GPS for time sync?


Why does my object not show up?

Question: This is meant to solve this problem once and for all. What is every reason an object isn't showing up in a render or viewport in when using the cycles render engine?
Comment: Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/53632/render-result-is-completely-blank
Comment: Another possibility, it could be misplaced far away.
Comment: [Why is part of my model not being rendered?](https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/33787/2217)
Answer: This is the overview. I am breaking up the parts into individual answers that we can link to from other questions. This is a community wiki, so feel free to add ones that need to be addressed completely in another answer. If you decide to add another answer, please follow the pattern that I used with the first individual answer. This will make it easy to send people to this question or a particular answer while knowing that their question will be answered completely.
Invisible to the render

Camera icon is disabled in the outliner

Render layer not showing in the compositor

Render layer does not include scene layer or the objects are in a layer that is not renderable.

Scene layer not selected

Cycles camera visibility disabled in object settings

Cycles material disables visibility to the camera

Objects are not within the range set by the camera clipping

Using the wrong scene

Strips present in the VSE, and the sequencer box is enabled in the post process section

Cycles: Exposure setting in the film section set to 0

Depth of field not set properly making the whole scene blurry

Object blocking the camera view

An object has been set as the active camera.

There are no lights on the scene or they are on a different layer.

Objects have no faces

The Solidify modifier takes over the object and is disabled in Viewport

Duplication type set to 'Group' and no group is selected.

Duplication issues (under the Object tab in the properties panel), e.g., duplication type is not 'None', and object has no childen, or set to 'Group' and no group is selected.

Render layer In Node editor is muted (disabled)

Cycles materials don't have a shader node

Camera is not pointed at object

Save your data to .blend before rendering with Cycles/Eevee (Blender 2.8)

Object has a particle system with emitter visibility disabled and/or no particles

Cycles Filter is active

Run out of maximum amount of lights in EEVEE

Particles of rigid body world is not baked.

Objects has keyframed position, rotation, scale, or is otherwise animated

Invisible in the viewport

Object is hidden.
3D view clipping distance set too high/low.
Scene layer not selected. / Collection is hidden.
Using the wrong scene
Object is moved far away
Using local view
View Border is active (Alt+B)
Cycles Filter is active (same as #24 for the "render" list above)
Cycles Render Preview: Ray visibility is disabled for camera or visibility is set as Holdout or Shadow Catcher
Object is a "helper" without geometry (including but not limited to cameras, empties, armatures, curves without faces, force fields tec.) and Extras are disabled in Viewport Overlays.
Object has modifiers with disabled viewport visibility (Monitor Icon)
Bug with AMD graphics cards - objects are not visible with subdivision modifier and GPU subdivision
Camera bounds outside of viewport region

Questions about problems that have not yet been addressed
Why Does My Object Not Show in Rendered Shading Mode?
Why do some objects not show up in the camera view?
Comment: @Delagone The "H" is already mentioned. That is just a shortcut to disable the "eye" icon in the outliner. Local/global view is important, though. I'll add it soon.
Comment: @Leander That's fine IMO, but I edited it to improve the flow a bit.
Comment: I'd like to add that if a object is hidden (by pressing 'H' when selected) it could also result in an incomplete scene, especially when your workflow uses the isolate parts function ' / ' alot.

NOTE: There have been some bugs reported concerning this in the past. So it might be difficult to replicate.
Comment: Also, this happens to me all the time, maybe it should be added to the answer: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/88765/object-doesnt-render-layer-conflict
Comment: @MicroMachine Why don't you go ahead and edit this answer?
Comment: @JakeD all done :)
Answer: 2. Render layer not showing in the compositor
Documentation: https://www.blender.org/manual/render/post_process/layers.html#render-layers
There are actually a few different ways to run into this kind of problem. I will divide this up into different cases. If the Use Nodes button is not checked (in the node editor), you will not have any of these problems.
Case 1:
What it will look like
The render layer image output is not connected to the composite (final output) node.

How to fix it
Connect the nodes in some way (this is the simplest case...there will likely be other nodes in between).

Case 2:
What it will look like
The wrong render layer is selected by the render layers node.

How to fix it
Change the render layers node to the correct render layer.
Answer: 1. Camera icon is disabled in the outliner
Documentation: https://www.blender.org/manual/editors/outliner.html#object-level-restrictions
What it will look like
The object will not be able visible in the final render, but it may or may not be visible in the 3D view render and the 3D view's solid mode.

How to fix it
Enable the render icon in the outliner for the object, or (with the object selected) hit Ctrl+Alt+H.
Answer: 6. Using local view
This one is a bit trickier, but is pretty easy to avoid. Nevertheless, if you happen to hit the Numpad / key, you may hit this so it's important to put here.
What it looks like
When you switch to local mode, only the selected objects become visible in the active 3D view.

How to fix it
Switch to global mode by pressing Numpad /, or use View > View Global/Local.
Answer: 1. Object is hidden
Another reason why something might be invisible in the viewport is because it is hidden. Usually what triggers this is an accidental press of the H key, or Shift+H. The H key hides anything selected from the viewport, whereas the Shift+H hides anything not selected.
What it will look like
You won't be able to see the object in your viewport. In the outliner, there will be a greyed out eye next to the object.

How to fix it
Pressing Alt+H will make any hidden objects appear again. Also, you can enable the eye icon in the outliner.
Comment: I already had this one in the overview list...I just didn't call it the same thing.
Comment: Gotcha, i didn't even realize that the eye icon and Hothey H did the same thingxD
Answer: 15. Objects have no faces
What it will look like
A mesh may have edges and vertices, but no faces.

How to fix it
Right-click to select a few vertices, then press f to make a face that spans them.

Alternatively, you could add a skin modifier:
Answer: 22. Save data to .blend before rendering with Cycles/Eevee
I think it hasn't been mentioned that, at least in Blender 2.8, you need to save to a .blend before you can render the smoke (and before you can bake it).
Answer: Cycles Filter
The cycles filter will restrict elements from being visible in viewport rendering and render. If you uncheck the Surfaces or Volume for example, no surfaces or volumes will show.
Answer: 8. Using the wrong scene
What it will look like
An empty scene is selected. In this example, the scene "Scene" is empty, and a different scene "Scene 2" has things in it.

How to fix it
Use the drop-down to the left of the name to select a different scene:

Note that you can set Blender to set the current scene to be the same for when you switch screens by enabling "Global Scene" in the user preferences (User Prefs > Interface > Global Scene). Make sure to save the user settings.
Answer: Ray visibility is disabled for camera:

Or visibility set as Holdout or Shadow Catcher:
Answer: Object has keyframes
Objects might have keyframes for some properties with some values that would make them not visible in renders. This could be visibility, location, scale or something else. In this scenario one may move or adjust the objects to their liking and hit render, but since new keyframes are not set, the objects would return to their previous state making it seem as if they disappear upon rendering, frame change or reloading the file.
It's possible to see if an object has animation data in the Outliner and animated properties are colored dark orange to indicate the value is changed but not keyframed:

You should select the object(s) with animation and search( F3 ) for Remove Animation operator:

It's also in 3D Viewport header menu - Object > Animation > Clear Keyframes
One could also just delete the animation data in the Outliner by right-clicking and choosing Clear Animation Data.

Be sure to check parent objects as well. Sometimes the object itself may not be animated directly, but it might be parented to another animated object, like an empty, armature, or other meshes that are themselves animated.
Look for any parent objects, along with drivers and constraints both on the object and parents, to ensure none are inadvertently affecting your objects.

Why does my object not show up?


Triangular grid with 4 edges per vertex

Question: I am trying to create a triangular grid/mesh for a rectangular domain in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with the property that each vertex is shared by (at most) four edges. Is this possible to accomplish?
Answer: Only if you have few enough triangles.  You can split the domain with a diagonal into two triangles and each vertex has at most 3.  It helps to think about the total angle around the vertices.  You have four vertices at the corners that contribute a total of $2\pi$ in angle.  Each vertex on the edge of the rectangle contributes $\pi$ and each vertex inside the rectangle contributes $2\pi$.  If you have no added points, you need two triangles to supply the $2\pi$.  Each point on the edge adds $\pi$ to the total angle, so adds one triangle.  Each point in the interior adds $2\pi$ to the total angle, so you need two more triangles.  You can only have twice as many edges as vertices, so letting $V_a$ be the number of vertices on the edge (including the corners), $V_b$ the number of vertices inside, $E$ the number of edges, and $F$ the number of faces (one more than the number of triangles to count the exterior region) we have $V_a+V_b-E+F=2, F-1=2+(V_a-4)+2V_b, E \le 2(V_a+V_b)$, so $2V_a+3V_b-E=3$.  Clearly $V_b$ has to stay small.  It works with $1,2$, but not with $3$
The above assumes that it is not acceptable to have a vertex in the middle of one side of a triangle.  If that restriction is removed, you can have more points in the interior, as shown below.  You can also cut up the rectangle in other ways.

Answer: I don't know what requirements you have for your "grid"; but here is a way to triangulate an arbitrary convex quadrilateral with vertices $A_m^0$ ($m \in \mathbb Z_4$) with any number of triangles such that every vertex of the resulting figure is the meet of either 3 or 4 edges. Let $O$ be an interior point of the quadrilateral. At stage $n$ ($n \in \mathbb N$), for each $m$ in $\mathbb Z_4$, draw an edge from $A_m^n$ to an interior point $A_{m'}^{n+1}$ of the line segment $OA_{m'}^n$ , where
$$m'=\begin{cases}
m+1 & \text{ if } n \text{ is even,}  \\
 m-1& \text{ if } n \text{ is odd.}
\end{cases}$$
The process can be interrupted when you have the required number of triangles. This method allows considerable choice in the shape of the triangles, although some will perforce be very small or very thin if the number is large.

Triangular grid with 4 edges per vertex


Difference between 游学 and 留学

Question: As in the topic, I would like to know what are the differences between 游学 and 留学. As far as I know a student going studying abroad could use any of them. Could he? When aren't they interchangeable?
Comment: many readers of Chinese do not remember ever having come across 游学, while familiar with 留学,cf. bkrs:
游学to study away from home or abroad (old)
 (旧) study in some other place or abroad
Comment: jukuu: 游学 15 samples,  留学 100 samples
Answer:
留学 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/20426/
to study abroad

'留' = 'stay'; '學' = 'study'
'留学' means 'stay (abroad) to study'
If you say: "我要去留學" (I am going to study abroad), it implies there is a clear destination. e.g. "我要去美国留学" (I am going to America to study). In this case, you are going to enroll to a particular college or university in a particular city in a foreign country
'游学' is short for 一邊游历一邊學習 (learning while traveling). It is a very general term.
'游学' could mean you are traveling across your own country and learn new things as you go, from serious study like taking college courses, to casual learning like learn to make wonton noodle soup from a restaurant owner; It could also mean you go to many foreign countries and studying in many different universities or taking apprenticeship under different masters.
'四方游学' is a common phrase that describe 'go to many places to study' or 'traveling the world and study along the way'   . But there's no such thing as '四方留学'
Answer: Nowadays, both 遊學 and 留學 mean "study abroad" but their periods are different.
遊學 means "travel and study". It is usually brief and only lasts from a few days to a month. It is usually arranged by some travel agency or something alike under the name of 遊學團. The content varies.
留學 means "stay and study". It usually spans over from one year to several years and stay in school, college or university.
Note: Simplified Chinese merges two characters 遊 (travel) and 游 (swim) to 游. And that means 遊學 is simplified to 游學 in mainland China.
Answer: If you understand the meaning of the characters, and radicals and their importance..the former has a lot more of a fluid meaning, and frees up space.  As opposed to a more stressful situation.  That is my opinion.

Difference between 游学 and 留学