What alcohol beverage goes well with a certain type of smoking?

Question: Some beverages go well with different foods.  White wine with fish, red wine with ... Is there such a thing as beverage and smokes combinations that suit the taste buds?  For example, beer with certain types of cigarettes or cigars; what kind of difference would there be and how would I aim to please?  The specific smokes I had in mind are the different cigarettes, cigars.  The most simple combination that came to my mind is coffee and a cigarette.  But I'm interested in alcoholic beverages and smokes.
Comment: Marijuana is legal in some parts of the world. Would  marijuana pairing be permitted?
Comment: Whisky and cigars
Comment: @user6035379 I have proposed a Cigars SE. You might be interested in it as there seems to be no other SE site where questions about smokes are on topic. http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/104111/cigars-and-other-smokes
Answer: Smoke and drink like a pirate.

Rum and cigars both hail from the Caribbean, so it's no coincidence that they work well with one another. Match the spiced and sweet molasses undertones of this full-bodied dark spirit with creamy cigar, like a flavorfully nutty and cocoa-infused Casa Magna. Yes, we know there are clear rums as well but, in all honesty, most combinations with this spirit will be subpar. - Best Cigar Pairings with Beer & Alcohol Drinks

For those into E-Cigarettes here is a suggestion:

A British e-cigarette manufacturer has a new option for those who enjoy a smoke with their favorite alcoholic beverage. London Fox recently rolled out two new e-cigarettes, the Silver and the Refresh, meant to be paired with beers, cocktails or wine. - This E-Cigarette Offers Suggested Drink Pairings.

Here is some pairings for Marijuana, for those interested and where it is legal to smoke: How To Pair Beer And Marijuana: A Match Made In Hazy Heaven.
Comment: I had totally forgotten about E-cigarettes.  It brought vaporizers to mind.  They have many flavors for vaporizers (is that what they call them)?
Comment: I have a vape (now I have two addictions!), and when I use the fruity flavored liquid, to be honest it tastes no different when 'vaped' than any other liquid.  And somehow it just doesn't quite 'cut' it 'do the job' of a sit down with a drink and a cigarette...
Answer: A good cigar pairs well with a neat snifter of whiskey or aged bourbon. Tobacco is a naturally occurring plant, and whiskey is a byproduct of naturally occurring plants as well. What you'll find is that each complements and enhances the flavors of the other. The flavors of the cigar will take on new, invigorated life, and the whiskey will offer you great flavors that would otherwise be too subtle without the discerning presence of the cigar.
Beverages to Pair With Your Favorite Cigars
Comment: Excellent idea.  If I didn't already pick an answer I would have chosen yours.
Answer: Keep in mind that smoking diminishes one's ability to taste(I'm not sure about Vaping). I haven't found any literature that explains if just only one cigarette will change your sense of taste, but anecdotally I believe it will have an effect.
Smokers' bitter taste buds may be on the fritz
This a large reason that smoking and drinking often go together.  Alcohol tastes less potent to smokers.  As an obvious result, more potent liquors like moonshine or absinthe will go do down a little easier for smokers.
In my mind, the most classic pairing of smoke and alcohol is cognac or regular brandy and a cigar.  Often people dip their cigars into brandy before drinking.  Generally, this is considered a faux pas and unnecessary given modern humidors. The origin of this tradition was to add moisture to the cigar.  The dipping can take from the nature flavor of the cigar.  However, I recommend it for particularly cheap or unpalatable cigars, or if you don't like them at all but are smoking one anyway.  Be careful though, it can be a little like putting ketchup on Filet Mignon.
Nonetheless,  The flavor of cognac/ brandy compliments cigar smoking quite nicely.  You can sip them and enhance the flavors of the cigar.  My preference is Grand Mariner(made from cognac and bitter orange), and a cigar, although I am not cigar aficionado so I don't have a specific cigar to recommend.  The Grand Mariner flavor rests on the tongue after drinking and creates a very rich mouth feel, particularly in combination with smoke.
Vaping seems prime for pairing with alcohol.  Given the myriad flavors available, I think match flavors would be good.  Consider the vape juice flavor as an ingredient in your cocktail.  Jack and Coke? Try vanilla vape juice and it will be reminiscent of Vanilla Coke.  Try Cake Vape and Gingerale and Vodka to create the impression of Cream Soda.
Answer: There are lots of articles and blogs regarding tobacco and beverage pairing. These usually focus on cigars and pipe tobacco. In general, pair tobacco to alcohol in the same way one would pair food and alcohol. Fruity food pairings = fruity tobacco pairings, etc. In theory, mentholated tobacco would go with any minty food/alcohol pairings (no experience with this one.)
Due to the mass-production of (and chemical additives in) most cigarettes, they are generally not considered. However, organic and artisan cigarettes can also achieve a nice pairing with some beverages. Personally, I enjoy a full-flavored, organic tobacco Natural American Spirit with a Guinness, when I can.
With Marijuana, these turned up in a quick search...
Marijuana and wine pairings.
Interview regarding Beer and hash pairing.
Comment: From my own recent research I have found that a sweet drink adds greatly to the smoking experience.  Examples of sweet drinks are easy to find.


What's up with all the QR codes?

Question: Just bought $5 of Bitcoins from CoinBase. How do I spend them? I gather it has something to do with QR codes. . . .
Answer: don't worry -- they're there for convenience only.
Scanning the QR code helps reading either a public key (to verify) or your private key (to spend your bitcoins) into whatever application you are using to verify or spend from your balance respectively.
Copy-and-paste works as well, doing the same for you as those QR codes you see everywhere...

What's up with all the QR codes?


How easy is it really to do IP spoofing?

Question: I read a lot about IP spoofing but I am not sure how easy it is really to do. Let's say I am in Spain, can I somehow connect to a server in the US with an IP address that is allocated to Mexico? Won't the routers simply refuse to forward my traffic?  I know you won't get any response as it would be routed to Mexico but I am confused how you can contact the US server at all with the wrong IP.
Comment: possible duplicate of [What security risks does IP spoofing bring?](http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/1009/what-security-risks-does-ip-spoofing-bring)
Comment: @Xander I don't think my question is answered in the linked question.
Comment: There's a discussion on Stackoverflow that yould be interesting for you, maybe you could take a look [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12736872/can-someone-spoof-an-ip-address-to-any-number)
Comment: @Caffeine http://spoofer.cmand.org//summary.php looks interesting, thank you. Most of the replies I see talk about the problem of getting bidirectional traffic. But I don't see how you can even get unidirectional traffic working (to do a DOS attack for example).
Answer: Actually, you can't. Whenever you need IP traffic to be bidirectional, IP spoofing is no use. The contacted server would not reply to you but to someone else, the address you spoofed.
IP spoofing is then normally "useful" only to disrupt communications - you send harmful packets, and you don't want them being traceable to yourself.
In specific situations you can use a double spoofing to gather a measure of bidirectionality. For example let us suppose that we know of a system somewhere that has poor sequence generators - whenever you send a packet to it, it will reply with a packet containing a monotonically incrementing number. If nobody was connecting to the system except you, you would expect getting 1, 2, 3, 4... .
Now let us further suppose that you're interested in whether another system is replying to specific packets (e.g. you're running a port scan), and you wish to receive some information but don't want the target system to have your real address. You can send to that system a spoofed packet pretending to be from the poorly-sequencing machine.
Now there are three possibilities: the target system does not reply, it replies, or it actively counterattacks and (e.g.) scans the pretended source to determine the why's and wherefore's of that first packet.
What you do is, you scan - without spoofing - the poorly-sequencing machine (PSM). If nobody except you has connected to it, which means that the target machine hasn't replied to the PSM, you'll get 1-2-3-4-5. If it replied once, you will get 1-3-5-7 (the packets 2, 4 and 6 having been sent by the PSM to the TM in response to the TM-PSM replies to the spoofed packets from you to the TM. If the TM made more connections, you'll get something like 2-11-17-31 or such.
The PSM knows your real address, of course, but the TM does not. This way you can spoof a connection and still gather some information. If the PSM's security level is low enough, this, combined with the fact that your "scan" of the PSM is harmless, is (hopefully) enough to prevent consequences to you.
Another possibility is to spoof a nearby machine. For example you are in network 192.168.168.0/24, have IP 192.168.168.192, and you have promiscuous access to some other machine address space, say 192.168.168.168. You just have to "convince" the router serving both you and the .168 machine that you are indeed the .168 machine, and take the latter offline or disrupt its communications (or wait until it is offline for reasons of its own, e.g. a colleague logging off for lunch). Then the replies to the spoofed .168 packets will sort of whizz by past you, but as long as you can sniff them while they pass, and the real .168 isn't able to send a "That wasn't me!" reply, from the outside the communication will appear to be valid and point back to the .168 machine.
This is sort of like pretending to be your front door neighbour, while that apartment is really untenanted. You order something through mail, the packet gets delivered to the other's front door, you tell the deliveryman "Oh yes, mr. Smith will come back in half an hour, I'll just sign for him" and get the package.
Comment: I notice the linked question says " many routers are configured to drop traffic with an obviously wrong source IP." So does IP spoofing rely on incorrectly configured routers?
Comment: Thank you but even when you don't need the traffic to be bidirectional I don't get it. Won't the routers in Spain simply reject traffic that appears to be coming from a Mexican IP address?
Comment: Yes, but many routers actually do *not* perform so-called "egress filtering". More modern hardware probably will, since memory, computing power and update bandwidth is cheaper now than back in the times, but large parts of the Internet still run on "vintage", more than "ill-configured", hardware. IP spoofers are a minority, and checking *all* the traffic to cope with it is often not cost effective enough for many ISPs and carriers.
Answer: Say I want to write a letter to a friend in China. On the back of the envelope, I write my home address, which is in Australia. If I post the letter while on vacation in Egypt, would you expect the postal service to throw my letter in the bin, because the return address may be spoofed?

Let's say I am in Spain, can I somehow connect to a server in the US with an IP address that is allocated to Mexico? Won't the routers simply refuse to forward my traffic?

No, they won't. As far as the router is concerned, this is just another legitimate package destined for the US. Traffic is routed across the internet in a fairly simple way. No party controls the entire route or would even have to be aware of one. Routers do little more than fancy signposts. "North America? Not here. Turn left and ask again at the next intersection."
On closer inspection, a router in Spain might find it suspicious that it received data from Mexico to the US, but it would be a waste of resources to investigate. Every router simply keeps pointing in the general direction of the destination. Eventually, the packet should arrive. Unless of course, the router is configured in the way you seem to expect; it rejects the packet altogether. That's certainly possible, but not very useful to anyone. The router might as well do its job and be done with it.
Comment: The vacationing analogy is flawed. While *most* routers have no practical way to check, routers that only serve known networks **do**. For example my ISP will assign 192.168.x.y to its customers: it will expect no packets arriving from the downlink except those originating by its customers with those addresses.


Proposition to add a tag for "high refresh rate"

Question: I searched for questions about high refresh rate displays and I found that they mostly use the general tag for refresh-rate. I think it makes sense to subdivide it further into questions about 60hz+ rate monitors under high-refresh-rate tag or something.
Answer: No.
refresh-rate is good enough to cover the questions currently there. And there are only under 80 questions using it.
Plus refresh-rate is not as intuitive as high-refresh-rate, and only adds to splitting it up for the sake of splitting it up.
Comment: Well, it *is* about splitting up. I wanted to find all questions that deal with >60hz monitors, and instead I get all of them, even unrelated to what I'm looking for. Why is this not a good reason?
Comment: @user1306322, when you search, you can exclude things you don't want.  If a lot of the undesired hits specifically mention 60hz, you could exclude that to improve the result (even exclude multiple terms).  You can also try adding words like "high" or "high refresh rate" to the search, which might help enrich the results.
Comment: @fixer1234 seems like it could be much more easily fixed by adding a tag for framerates above 60Hz in my opinion


Spittoons - in a friendly wine tasting

Question: We sometimes do a friendly wine tasting. The idea is to discover good, well priced wines available locally - something that you might not have bought yourself.  Everyone brings a bottle, they are taken away by who ever is acting as sommelier for the evening, and then given a number. So, the whole thing is 'blind'.  Scores are given etc etc...  And eventual winners and losers announced (everyone also brings a small prize, so prizes are handed out as well).  The amount tasted is basically no more than a thimble or two,  there is no spittoon.  Would we get different results if we did, or is it OK to do this in our friendly tasting sessions.
Comment: PS:  The prizes make it fun, and we have found some great wines at silly prices which we normally wouldn't have bought - the party works.
Answer: The primary effect a spitoon would have, is less alcohol recpetion (some alcohol will get into the blood via the mouth-mucus). The alcohol could lead to different results for the later wines.
You might get a more intense taste of the wine if you could take more of it into your mouth and "wash" with it. Even more if you take a sip, wash, gulp/spit, take another sip and taste.
Maybe you want to try it, when you drink a glass of wine next time and then decide if the bigger sips / double sipping makes a difference to you.
If it does but you dislike the idea of a spitoon, try reducing the number of wines per evening, so the increasing intoxication is not a problem.
I really like your version of private tastings and might adopt some ideas from it. Have fun!
Comment: Hi.  I live on a boat, normally for these tastings we have no more than 12 people, which of course means 12 bottles.  We have had so much fun, the prizes make it a great evening - only a couple of bucks a throw!
Comment: We tend to tell people that the spittoon is over the side of the boat - but sailors being what they are.......!
Answer: It's fairly common in the wine trade to spit wine when evaluating wine as a buyer, winemaker, sommelier because you will get trashed if you drank everything.
So there are two ways to spit. There is the common spit "bucket" and the paper coffee cup methods. When I taught at our local community college, they had every student spit wine into white paper coffee cups. Some people don't want to touch a common spit bucket and not everyone one is good at spitting with precision, so I recommend the coffee cup approach for beginners. You should see real professionals, they can spit into a bucket from 20 feet!
There is a technique to it that takes a little bit of mastery so you don't end up dribbling wine all down your chin and clothes, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy.
Comment: If I let people try the 20ft spitting thing our neighbors would complain!

Spittoons - in a friendly wine tasting


What does a high operating margin but a small but positive ROE imply about a company?

Question: I'm analysing this company and am curious to what these figures mean about the operation of the company. Can someone comment on this?
Answer: The operating margin deals with the ability for a company to make a profit above the costs of running the company and generating sales. While ROE is how much money the company makes relative to the shareholders equity. I'd be willing to bet that if a company has a small ROE then it also has a quite large P/E (price to earnings) ratio. This would be caused by the company's stock being bid up in relation to its earnings and may not necessarily be a bad thing. People expect the high operating margin to help drive increased revenues in the future, and are willing to pay a higher price now for when that day comes.


Can I change the screen resolution?

Question: I got a laptop with 17 inche screen. However, it is not that comfort as the text appears small. The recommended resolution is 1600x900 but I want to change it to something smaller. My question is: if I change it to something else will that hurt my eyes? as I tried to change it and when I did it seems that the screen is not that clear as it was with 1600x900 although the difference is small.
Answer: With LCD monitors, it's not advisable to use a resolution different from the screen's native one; this creates a lot of problems with scaling, often leading to distorted and/or blurry images, and also doesn't allow the use of sub-pixel rendering for fonts (ClearType).
A really better solution would be increasing the default text size. This setting can be easily reached from the same place where you configure the screen resolution, by selecting the option "Make text and other items larger or smaller".
Comment: No :-) You can use larger fonts on a high-resolution screen, but you can't use smaller fonts on a low-resolution one.
Comment: Good. But first time I notice that 15 Inche screens are better, do you agree with me? :)
Answer: Yes, you can change the resolution to something lower like 1366x768. It'll be slightly blurry, but I doubt it'll hurt your eyes or anything.
You could also try increasing the DPI, which makes on-screen text and other UI elements larger without affecting resolution, but this doesn't work 100% reliably with all programs. Still, might be worth a try. Just type "DPI" into the Start menu search and click on the first result (which should be "Make text or other items larger or smaller").
Answer: keep the recommended resolution but what you can do is from your resolution screen go click on display then you will have a window with 3 size options small, medium, large choose the option that will work for you so that anything that you open will be larger or medium size but still with a good resolution

Can I change the screen resolution?


Does the Qur'an indicate vampires, werewolves, and aliens exist?

Question: Do vampires, werewolves, aliens, etc., exist in real life? What does Quran say about these things?
Comment: Why would you think they exist? Is there any outside (scientific) evidence you have to justify it?
Comment: The question part on aliens has been addressed on the site several times. It is recommended to ask separate questions. See for example: [Do Muslim sources address the topic of aliens?](https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/14436/do-muslim-sources-address-the-topic-of-aliens)
Answer: Questions of the form Is X in the Qur'an? can be answered by searching for quran X in a search engine.  Everything in the Qur'an has been written about extensively online, so there's invariably many obvious hits if something is actually in the Qur'an.
In this case:

quran vampires does not return relevant pages, so we conclude that vampires are not in the Qur'an.
quran werewolves does not return relevant pages, so we conclude that werewolves in not the Qur'an.
quran aliens returns some low-quality hits.  Webpages like this one would love to highlight any clear-cut evidence of aliens in the Qur'an, but since they don't, it's likely the authors failed to find any.
Instead they quote the verse Qur'an 65:12: It is Allah who has created seven heavens and of the earth, the like of them.  Although, it's hard to tell how applicable this is to aliens (if at all)
In fact, this question was asked here: Do Muslim sources address the topic of aliens?  The top answer quotes Qur'an 22:18: Do you not see that to Allah prostrates whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth and the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the moving creatures and many of the people?  Again, it's hard to tell how applicable this is to aliens (if at all).
Answer: There is no reference to vampires or werewolves in the Quran.
With respect to aliens, I assume you mean extra terrestrials and not angels & jinns.

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ خَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَثَّ فِيهِمَا
  مِنْ دَابَّةٍ ۚ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ جَمْعِهِمْ إِذَا يَشَاءُ قَدِيرٌ
And of his signs is the creation of the heavens and earth and what He
  has dispersed throughout them of creatures. And He, for gathering them
  when He wills, is competent.
Quran (42:29)

And angels are not part of that group of creatures.

وَلِلَّهِ يَسْجُدُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ مِنْ
  دَابَّةٍ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ وَهُمْ لَا يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ
And to Allah prostrates whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on
  the earth of creatures, and the angels [as well], and they are not
  arrogant.
Quran (16:49)

And

اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ وَمِنَ الْأَرْضِ مِثْلَهُنَّ
  يَتَنَزَّلُ الْأَمْرُ بَيْنَهُنَّ لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ
  كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَاطَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ
  عِلْمًا
Allah is He Who created seven heavens, and of the earth their like.
  Between them the Command keeps coming down, that you may know that
  Allah is Ever-Determiner over everything and that Allah has already
  encompassed everything in knowledge.
Quran (65:12)

Most importantly, we humans are not even aware of the various creations that Allah has preferred over us:

وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ
  وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُمْ مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ
  كَثِيرٍ مِمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا
And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on
  the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and
  preferred them over much of what We have created, with [definite]
  preference. Quran (17:70)

To summarize, we do not know much about vampires or werewolves as there is no mention of them in either the Quran or any Sahih Hadiths. W.r.t extra terrestrials, there is a healthy conversation among the ulema with the majority not denying that may exist. One of the attributes of Allah is Al-Khaliq and He continues to creates if and when He Wills. He Says Be and It Is.
Comment: Vampires don't exist. They are Transylvanian mythological creatures. I tell you from my own studies and experience.
Answer: We where told about jinns who come in the form of dogs, maybe werewolves, and jinns which fly, maybe aliens and a vampire is someone who drinks blood which we know the shaytaan does
Answer: In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful
All praise belongs to God. He does what he wishes. No one can object Him. He does not require anybody's suggestion. He is not bound by anyone. He is not afraid of anyone. Indeed, all praises belongs to God who dominates all and no one can ever dominate Him.

Thank you for your question. I'll start to answer the first question.
Q-1: Does Quran indicates that vampires exist?
Answer: Vampires are Transylvanian mythological creatures that suck blood from a living beings. This myth it was inspired by an British man, named John Polidori, with his novel The Vampyre launched in libraries in 1819. This novel is pure myth. Pure fiction!!! It is like you're asking wether Santa Claus is real or not.
In Quran it mentions only what exist!!!
In case you don't believe me, please visit the following site:

Vampire

Q-2: Do werewolves exist according to Quran?
Answer: The answer is very simple. No. And I'll tell you why. Because, it is pure fiction. Werewolves are  famous mythological Romanian creatures found in Middle Ages in Europe. These mythological creatures appeared in 1 A.D. by John Polidori, the same writer who wrote the novel about vampires, Dracula...
The following informations is taken from:

Werewolf
Vârcolac
The history of werewolves legend

CONCLUSION: Werewolves, are pure fictional creatures that are originated from  Romania. They are fictional like Harry Potter .
Q-3: Do aliens exist according to Quran?
Now we have reached the final question! There are many signs in the world that aliens do exist.
NASA has discovered on planet Mars a figure that looks like an Egyptian Sphinx, and of course is not man made, is alien made. EXPRESS
In 1963 May 15, Gordon Cooper, an American astronaut, has seen a  glowing, greenish object ahead of him quickly approaching his capsule in space that was coming towards him UFO Sightings by Astronauts
Also, God Said in the Quran:

"And to God prostrates whatever creature is in the heavens and whatever is on the Earth, and also the angels, and they are not arrogant." [The Holy Quran 16:49]

The sentence "whatever creature is in the heavens and whatever is on the Earth", it referred that intelligent aliens do prostrate to God, just like we do.
FINAL CONCLUSION: Werewolves and Vampires are 100% pure fictional creatures. And alien civilizations do 100% exist
Praise be to God the Lord of the worlds the One Who is clear of resembling the creation, all nonbefitting attributes, and all that which the blasphemers unrightfully say about Him
Comment: Can it be certain that Aliens exist? Wouldn't it be safer to say the Quran does not contradict with the existence of extraterrestrial life?
Comment: He means that the existence of Aliens is not explicitly confirmed by the Qur'an, but it certainly doesn't contradict what the Qur'an says as one could read between the lines a kind of confirmation so saying 100% exist sounds a bit exaggerated as I don't know of any reliable Muslim scholar who confirmed this.
Comment: Yeah, also the Quran says whatever is on the heavens and Earth and technically nothing about other planets which is what aliens are generally associated to
Comment: @Riz-waan what do you mean?


My father refuses to let me marry a boy because of caste; is "caste" an important part of marriage?

Question: I'm a Muslim girl and want to marry a Muslim boy who is following Islam properly. So I spoke with my guardian (الولي), that is my father, and he refused the proposal and does not want to meet his family because of difference in caste, as we are jatt and they are mirza. Is cast an important part in Nikkah?
Comment: Short answer: Cast has no bearing over the permissibility of marriage. It's just a personal choice which should rest upon the intended partners.
Comment: Another short answer: Put together the Answers of Aisha, Sayyid and Yousouf Sultan and you have the right and full answer to your Question! Personally I'd put an answer with an evidence from the Quran higher then one with an evidence from the Sunnah.
Answer: Hadith (Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

A woman is married for four reasons: her property, lineage, beauty and
  religion. You should better marry the religious one otherwise you will
  lose.

Sister, caste should never become a hindrance for a marriage.
If the boy has been sent as your partner, then you will get married to him. In Sha Allah
Comment: in sha Allah and jazak Allah for your answer.
Answer: In Islam everyone is equal so caste has no importance.
There is a hadith:
"An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab"
If you say that one should not marry of a particular caste then you are saying that you are better than them and that makes you ignorant.
"He will not enter Hellfire who has the weight of a seed of faith in his heart and he will not enter Paradise who has the weight of a seed of arrogance in his heart."
The first thing we should look for when marrying is how committed the person is to Islam. A good Muslim will help you become a better Muslim and Insha'Allah enter Jannah. Their caste will not help your children learn about their religion.
Answer: In Islam, there is NO concept of Casts. In islam, the division is only based on 2 things, believer and unbeliever(kafir). So all believers are equal in islam. any believer can marry any other believer, without anything like this cast system.
Comment: Brother, they are equal in case of Religion, islam.. equal in a way that none of them come under any type of casts...
Comment: I don't think that all believers are equal in Islam. There is such a thing as piety. The pious man/woman believer is closer to Allah (SWT) than others. Allah (SWT) knows best.
Comment: I think what @HaseebRamish is trying to say is that piety is in different levels with Muslims. So, the better the more who is committed to Islam, this is how our judgement should be for.
Comment: It is also not for us to decide who is pious. Allah knows best.
Answer: The entire purpose of there being different people, tribes, colors, cultures, casts, families etc... So that we all can know one another and intermingle and worship Allah.
Allah said in Surah al-Hujurat 49:14 =
O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you nations and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.
The Prophet himself married with women from other cultures and races and tribes.  All the early Muslims did the same.
To stop people from marrying one another because of being different is haraam and anti-social.
It's a polluted misguided belief that Islam came eradicate.
Comment: I am quite supportive to what you said, just not sure if it is haram to not to marry because of caste, I mean, is there a clear evidence of so?
Comment: I was referring to discrimination.
Answer: No, there is no such kahfu.
In islam, it's clearly mentioned are all equal, created by Adam and Eve (AS).  It's we who created such thoughts and have been living with the thought to get married only for caste.  It means we are denying the Qur'an, Hadith, etc.
Answer: If we look Islamic Sharia their is a term"kahfu" means that one should prefer to marry within their own cast after that he can go for other cast but they should be equal in all aspects. History has witnessed marrying in other cast has not standed long time, their are always conflicts as in every cast their are different atmosphere and it is difficult for other cast to make their adjustment.
Comment: There's no such a term in Shari'a maybe in your local custom but not in Islmaic Shari'a!
Comment: @Syed Ahmad Raza, brother please provide where is that term used and for what? As Medi1Saif pointed out there is no such term, even I have never come across such term. Please provide us with a reference, if any, so that even we will be able to learn something new.


'Install app for SharePoint': Access denied

Question: We get the following error when trying to deploy a SharePoint hosted app in SharePoint Online. It worked fine till yesterday.

Install app for SharePoint:
  Uploading the app for SharePoint...
  Error occurred in deployment step 'Install app for SharePoint': Access denied.
  You do not have permission to perform this action or access this resource.
  ========== Build: 1 succeeded or up-to-date, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========
  ========== Deploy: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

I have full control on the site collection. We tried with other users who have full control. But no luck.
Also, I tried creating a test app with default template on Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 in various machines. No luck.
The problem is limited to one site collection only. I can create apps on another site collection where I have full control.
Answer: In the application, Please try to login to the site before deploying the app. You can login by changing site in Properties tab of the project.
Note: Try to login with different site and then try with your Source site


Avoid clumps in finely ground coffee

Question: I am currently using a Baratza Encore grinder with my Saeco Aroma espresso machine.  I know that neither of these are very high quality products, but I really don't have the budget to upgrade.  The Encore is able to grind sufficiently fine and I have been quite happy with it, however, I get a lot of clumping when grinding for espresso.  It can be difficult to evenly distribute the coffee when you get these clumps, so it would be nice if there was an easy way to avoid this.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I've heard people say that a doser can solve this problem as the rotating sections will break up the clumps.  This is a nice solution, but I don't believe the encore is capable of being upgraded to have a doser.
Comment: You could use a toothpick or something similar to break up the clumps. Tamping should then do the rest.
Answer: I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's not a very high-quality grinder, it does extremely well for the price. The clumping is an artifact of:

Humidity
Heat from grinding
Type and roast of the bean

Grinders that produce almost no heat while grinding, to the point that they do it reliably enough for it to be a listed feature cost ten times the amount that you paid for your grinder. Heat during grind isn't an indication of a low-quality grinder, rather, little to no heat is simply an indicator of a very high-quality grinder. There isn't much you can do about this other than purchase a manual burr grinder and grind by hand very gingerly, which takes lots of time.
Tamping alone should be sufficient to deal with any clumps (at approximately 15kg of force) - if it's not, then you want to take a very close look at the beans you're using, and the level of humidity they're exposed to in storage. Is your grinder normally close to anything that produces steam? Is your kitchen air really humid? Are the beans stored in air-tight containers? If you have clumps that tamping won't take care of, you probably have a moisture problem.
It can also be the bean, some roasts just do not do well for espresso, no matter how fine the grind or how dry the storage.
Both Lavazza and Illy produce a very pleasant medium arabica bean that should work very well in your grinder. They are very consistent in production, delicious, and should give you a good baseline to select other beans that would work similarly well. You can get beans that weren't specifically produced with espresso in mind to work, but it takes a bit of tinkering. I recommend the above beans very often to people just getting started because they're delicious and very easy to work with.
Anyway, try one of those, see what comes out of the grinder. If you're still getting clumps that don't immediately break down when you tamp (tap the portafilter on the sides a few times before you tamp to help this) you could try cleaning the grinder, changing how you store the beans, or looking at a de-humidifier in the area that you keep them.
Comment: Great overview. +1 for "type and roast". My burr grinder (which is of lower quality) has a difficult time with darker roast beans, with the oils causing a buildup at the chute. Lighter-roasted beans, with less surface oils, cause less of this buildup. Humidity is certainly a factor in my case also.
Comment: Anecdote, Lavazza appears to be [the first espresso brewed in space](https://twitter.com/NASA/status/648880267856232449) - It really _does_ work in almost every setup :P
Comment: See also [this q/a about the space espresso device in question](http://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/282/what-changes-need-to-be-made-to-espresso-machine-so-it-can-function-properly-in)!
Comment: I agree that the Encore is great for the price, I was simply trying to avoid the "upgrade your grinder" response.  I hadn't thought about ambient humidity.  My apartment is quite humid in the warmer months (which we are in now), so it will be interesting to see how this changes as things cool off.  I've found that in the meantime, grinding into the grinder container, instead of straight into the portafilter, and then shaking the grounds around, breaks clumps up relatively effectively.  Thanks.
Answer: I have the Baratza Virtuoso myself, and I would stir the coffee up with a spoon in a separate vessel before distributing it into your portafilter. When distributing, generally lightly tapping the side of the portafilter with the palm of your hand until level - should break up anything thing remaining.

Avoid clumps in finely ground coffee


My WordPress site has been attacked, it says "Reported Attack Page!"

Question: Three days back my website ganapatihegde.com has been hacked/attacked by some hacker. Now, when anyone tries to see my website, it says "Reported Attack Page!".
I am using a server provided by Free Hostia. I contacted them, but they say they don't provide any "site script debugging service". How can I get my website back?
Comment: You've got a `JS/TrojanDownloader.Iframe.NJT` on your site – according to ESET Smart Security.
Comment: I too face the same problem, and am also hosted at freehostia, I thought maybe a competitor found a way to get it black listed... in this industry, I wouldn't put it past them.
Answer: Your site currently has some malicious Javascript embedded in the bottom of your site that embeds an iframe in your page. This could infect visitors with malware, attempt to steal their passwords, or do all sorts of other nasty things.
There are a couple of steps you can take to remedy this problem.
Reinstall the latest version of WordPress
It's very important that you keep up to date with any web applications you're using on your web site. Older versions can contain security vulnerabilities that can be used to infect your page with foreign code or content.
Since it looks like your site is using WordPress, I'd recommend reinstalling the latest version and starting from a clean slate. You may lose any previous posts and/or comments, but you also don't want to carry along any of the infection with the previous content.
If you'd like to keep your current post, I would recommend copying them into a text file first, and them pasting them into the new installation as new entries. This way, you can make sure that no residual code is present.
Change your FTP Password
Often, attackers can get in to your web site if you have a weak FTP password. Additionally, if you don't use sFTP, your password is sent in clear text across the Internet and can be intercepted.
Using a strong password (more than eight characters, mixed with numbers and symbols, without any common words) and connecting through secure channels can help prevent this.
Clean out any unfamiliar files
Make sure to check your web root for any files you don't recognize. If your account has been compromised, attackers may leave a backdoor script as a method of re-compromising your site.
Check for any files with odd modification times - times that you wouldn't have uploaded files to your web site, for instance.
Consider changing hosting providers
If you're already following good security precautions, then you might not be at fault. If FreeHostia is running server software that contains a vulnerability, or they don't follow security practices themselves, there is nothing you can do to secure your web site. Make sure to host your web site with a reputable host.
Comment: Good answer. I'd also like to add, be very careful where you install WordPress themes and plugins from. See: http://wpmu.org/why-you-should-never-search-for-free-wordpress-themes-in-google-or-anywhere-else/
Answer: You're using WordPress and haven't updated, your source says 2.8.2.
At the bottom of your page is a script. eval(unescape('%64 ...
Check your theme files and the database, check the WordPress files or maybe try a clean install and restore the database.
Searching 'wordpress eval 64' has lots of results but pretty much you have to clean your files of that. It could just be the footer of your theme though.
Here's a link, http://wordpress.org/support/topic/evalbase64_decode-hacked, to the WordPress forums with links and help.
Answer: You apparently have a security vulnerability in your code.
You need to fix the vulnerability and remove all traces of the attack from your database and/or files.


What is the difference between Federated Login and Single Sign On?

Question: What is the difference between Federated Login and Single Sign On authentication methods?
Answer: Single Sign-on (SSO) allows users to access multiple services with a single login.
The term is actually a little ambiguous. Sometimes it's used to mean that (1) the user only has to provide credentials a single time per session, and then gains access to multiple services without having to sign in again during that session. But sometimes it's used to mean (2) merely that the same credentials are used for multiple services; the user might have to login multiple times, but it's always the same credentials. So beware, all SSO's are not the same in that regard. Many people (me included) only consider the first case to be "true" SSO.
Federated Identity (FID) refers to where the user stores their credentials. Alternatively, FID can be viewed as a way to connect Identity Management systems together. In FID, a user's credentials are always stored with the "home" organization (the "identity provider"). When the user logs into a service, instead of providing credentials to the service provider, the service provider trusts the identity provider to validate the credentials. So the user never provides credentials directly to anybody but the identity provider.
FID and SSO are different, but are very often used together. Most FID systems provide some kind of SSO. And many SSO systems are implemented under-the-hood as FID. But they don't have to be done that way; FID and SSO can be completely separate too.
Comment: Thank you. This makes much more sense to me now (I think), but only after your interpretation, as the FID wikipedia page was not resolving the difference for me. SO, BrowserID is SSO and accessing stackoverflow with a Google account is FID?
Comment: Would it be fair to think of Google Services (Gmail, Drive, YouTube, etc) as a canonical example of SSO, and a "Login with Facebook" button on some random website as a canonical example of FID?
Comment: That's how I would interpret it. Google Login and Facebook Login are federated identity services that provide authentication without revealing your login information to the service that you are accessing.
Answer: SSO allows a single authentication credential--user ID and password, smart card, one-time password token or a biometric device--to access multiple or different systems within a single organization. A federated identity management system provides single access to multiple systems across different enterprises.
source
Answer: Web SSO , can be defined as "you need to enter your credential once and is they are under same cookie provider , you dont need to re enter the username and password if they are also under same cookie provider" eg: Gmail-->google
Federated SSO can be defined as "you may be asked to use an application which is under different enterprise/network or say an other organisation , at this case we need to have Federation , where if you want to use the service of another firms web product eg service now then you will serve as the Identity provider[IDP] and they will be the service Provider[SP]"
Answer: Federation is a principal while SSO is just a use case. SSO may mean different things for different people but the common meaning is "using the same credential to login once per session which is used widely in many enterprises locally". Federation principle comes to solve the problem of many independent enterprises want to let their users to log in to use all their services,  in another word logging across border. From this need comes what is called today Federated SSO which is one type of single sign on.
Answer: Single sign-on shouldn't need explaining! It's a quality of an IT system. You log in once, and for the duration of your session, authorization decisions can be made without you having to re-authenticate.
All of the subtlety comes when you want to enlarge the perimeter of resources covered by the single sign-on. On local machines and intranet domains the battles were won so long ago we've forgotten, but single sign-on had to be implemented in operating systems and domain controllers.
Today's battle is to provide single sign-on to every website in the world, and federated id is one of two architectural patterns used to solve this. The other, simpler and more prevalent, is delegated id. The difference is explained here If, as an authorization server, you're happy to accept an identity token knowing only that it's, for example, an OpenId token, not caring who generated it, then you're doing federated id.
Answer: Single Sign On (SSO): Single Sign On is a characteristic of an authentication mechanism that relates to the user's identity being used to provide access across multiple service provider.
SSO allows a single authentication process (managed by a single Identity Provider or other authentication mechanism) to be used across multiple systems within a single organization or across multiple organizations.
Federated SSO: Federated Identity Management is a sub-discipline of IAM, but typically the same team(s) is involved in supporting it. Federation is a type of SSO where the actors span multiple organizations and security domains.
Federation is the trust relationship that exists between these organizations; it is concerned with where the user's credentials are actually stored and how trusted third-parties can authenticate against those credentials without actually seeing them.
The federation relationship can be accomplished through one of several different protocols including (but, not limited to):

SAML1.1

SAML2

WS-Federation

OAuth2

OpenID Connect

WS-Trust

Various proprietary protocols

You can also check out the list of single sign on implementations
Comment: You must disclose your relationship with the link you provide.
Answer: FID researching in multi parties trusting in same Identity managment system, for example you can log in to Flicar by your Yahoo account; here Flicar depends on Yahoo and trust in it to authenetcate you.In FID it must be there a third party(identity provider) beside the user and the service provider.
SSO is researching in how to login to multi services by single sign in.for example if you login to your hotmail account you will be able to log in to SkyDrive service without need to log in again.
I dont have an example but I think you can either login by SSO to many services using FID or you can log in by SSO without using FID.
Comment: While poorly worded, this isn't significantly different than the better described answer by Mark. The only issue I see is that it implies that federated logins are with public services, but they can also be through non private / corporate servers, etc. It even touches on SSO can be implemented with FID. Doesn't deserve an up more, but shouldn't be a -1.


Should I replace my bicycle tires if they have not been inflated in multiple years

Question: A little over 5 years ago I bought a Magna bicycle. Within the first summer of riding it the rear brake fell apart. I finally got around to having he brake fixed this past month but I am worried about the quality of the tires as the bike (which has been hanging in my un-insulated garage for 5 years with many cold winters) has not had the tires inflated in 5 years. I recently checked the PSI on the tires with my gauge and it is 2 PSI. I'm wondering if I should get the tires replaced. I haven't tried putting any air into them as I don't want the tires to pop. Any help is appreciated.
Comment: Five years is not that old for decent bike tires.  So long as they weren't sitting flat on the floor for an extended period and weren't exposed to strong petroleum fumes they should be OK.
Comment: If you're just tootling about your driveway then there's not far to go if you have a flat.  Which is a different matter from being miles from anywhere, or a blowout while rolling fast.   Where are you intending to ride this bike ?
Answer: If the bike has been hanging rather than sitting with weight on the tyres (and hence damaging the sidewalls), there is a good chance the tyres are still ok.
You can check the tyres by going around and looking for hairline cracks in the rubber and feeling if the rubber is brittle/flaky.
If they look ok then go ahead and inflate them and recheck the following day.  If they still show no obvious signs of damage then I would go ahead and ride them.
Comment: The tires won't blow up - the carcass that gives the tire strength will not have substantially degraded. The rubber does degrade however so the worry is fast wear and decreased grip. The tubes may have degraded also. If you inflate them them may rupture. If they do just replace them.
Comment: Also: I'd be much more worried about a garage in blazing sunlight during hot summers than about cold winters. Five years is about as long as as tire rubber stays good if it's not heat treated too much. So the tires may still be fine, but they likely won't stay fine for long.
Comment: Manual pump vs compressor doesn't really matter - if anything I find compressors inflate slightly slower than by hand.
Unless you are very heavy its actually rare to want to inflate a tyre to its maximum rating, modern trends are towards lower pressures.
Comment: -Would you recommend using a manual pump over an air compressor? I'm assuming I shouldn't inflate the tires to maximum PSI on the first day and if all is good the second day and the tires are holding the air I can inflate to maximum?
Comment: At the risk of getting a little sidetracked, I wanted to respond to where @Ai_OB commented: "I shouldn't inflate the tires to maximum PSI on the first day and if all is good the second day and the tires are holding the air I can inflate to maximum?" Depending on where/how you're riding, you may *never* want to inflate to the maximum on the sidewall - it's literally just the maximum and is probably too high for many people/bikes/rides. Here's a good guide: https://www.bicycling.com/repair/a20004232/how-to-achieve-the-perfect-bike-tire-pressure/
Answer: I agree with Andy P. If the tires are hanging, then I would check the side walls for cracks. If all is good, then I would inflate to see what happens! If they do take air I would get new tubes before taking the bike out of walking distance, because I do not trust old tubes.
Answer: There are ways tires get damaged other than by having weight on them.  For example, ozone and ultraviolet light can cause dry rot.
If the tires were stored in a cool area, out of sunlight, and not near any electrical equipment, they're likely fine.
If, however, they display cracks, or are brittle, or were stored in sunlight or near electrical equipment, I'd recommend replacing them along with your tubes.
Answer: I assume it's very unlikely that a tire gets damaged because of not being inflated. I would be more worried about how brittle and hard the rubber got during the years. Some tires are more - some less affected by this. Especially when you are planing to ride also in the wet a front tire with hard and brittle rubber can be a serious safety issue.
Answer: In my experience, it is not the winter that ruins tires but rather the harsh summers. Heat causes the tires to expand. Although vinyl is elastic, it has certain limits.
I would say ride for about a mile. Check the tire afterwards because some cracks are insignificant and were probably going to develop either way. Other cracks do not last long.
I received a bike with cracked tires one and I had the same question but it lasted me several months.
There are two important parts to a tire, the tread and the inner tire. When tires are no good,the inner tire is typically fibrous and falls apart. Tires are not good when the tread is depleted. Only way to figure any of this out is to actually strain the tires and go from there.
I would inspect the tire tread and inner tire before riding and then after riding. When the inner tire fibers have come loose, the tread will wear out easily despite excellent tread. This is because the fibers hold the tread in place while riding and prevent significant deformations.
I would even go as far as saying the inner tire is more important than the tread here because tires with excellent tread will still deform when riding if the inner tire has loose fibers. Also, loose fibers will cause the tread to rip. Cracks tend to occur in tires simply because of the constant deformation that tires go through and then weather imbalances the chemicals inside of it. So it is possible that the tire has cracks but the fibers still hold up.
Thicker tires such as those on mountain bikes and the like will often have cracks but still be good. With road bike tires, cracks tend to be more common with loose fibers. So if a road bike, these cracks have a higher chance of loose fibers than does a mountain bike. Mountain bike tire have very strong inner tire fibers. You might not even notice the fibers because they may be covered in any bike or they might be uncovered.
But like I said, ride the bike and take notice of any changes. If fibers cannot be observed, try deforming tire by folding it around the cracks and fold it at other locations where there are no cracks. Two things should happen. Cracks shouldn't form where they weren't, and cracks shouldn't worsen where they are.
Comment: Welcome! Don't forget to take the [tour]. If you break things down into more paragraphs that would help the readability.
Comment: I'd like to know more about the fibers and vinyl
Comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li-MKobBg5w
Comment: Vinyl is used for inflatables The fibers are typically composite materials. Lastly the tread is made out of synthetic rubber(I am not sure about this). Most bicycle tires are meant for speeds under 20 mph/35 km/h. Past this limit tires will rip more easily the faster you go. Quality has nothing to do with materials and is affected by the fibers in the tire. The fibers do 2 things, 1) they keep the shape of the tire, and 2) they "help" deform the tire by compressing against current movement for a comfortable bike. The quality of tire is all in the fibers(fibers don't rip easily on good tire)
Answer: Tires should be ok, just ck for cracks as said above.
Use the airchuck.
Remove the wheel.
Inflate to about 5 psi so you can squeeze with your hand.
Check that the tire bead is set around the whole rim, and spaced fairly evenly.
Inflate to 15 psi
Roll the tire on floor and ck bead again.
Inflate to at least 20-25 psi
For hybrid tires 35-45psi
Road tires 80-120
Hope this helps :)


Understanding Dot and Cross Product

Question: What purposes do the Dot and Cross products serve?
Do you have any clear examples of when you would use them?
Answer: When you deal with vectors, sometimes you say to yourself, "Darn I wish there was a function that..."

was zero when two vectors are perpendicular, letting me test perpendicularness."
Dot Product
would let me find the angle between two vectors."
Dot Product (actually gives the cosine of the angle between two normalized vectors)
would let me 'project' one vector onto another, or give the length of one vector in the direction of another."
Dot Product
could tell me how much force is actually helping the object move, when pushing at an angle."
Dot Product
could tell me how much a vector field is 'spreading out'."
Cross Product
could give me a vector that is perpendicular to two other vectors."
Cross Product
could tell me how much torque a force was applying to a rotating system."
Cross Product
could tell me how much this vector field is 'curling' up."
Cross Product

There are actually a lot more uses, but the more I study vectors, the more and more I run into a situation where I need a function to do exactly something, and then realize that the cross/dot products already did exactly what I needed!
Comment: Any more use cases you've discovered since 4 years ago?
Comment: Bump, what CMCDragonkai said :p
Answer: The dot product can be used to find the length of a vector or the angle between two vectors.
The cross product is used to find a vector which is perpendicular to the plane spanned by two vectors.
Comment: Find the square of the magnitude (length) of a vector.
Answer: Two more uses that I haven't seen mentioned yet:  if you want to find the area of the parallelogram formed by two vectors (each vector gives a pair of parallel sides), then you would use the magnitude of the cross product of the two vectors.
One use of this is to aid in defining a surface integral.  Let x(u,v) be a parameterization of a surface.  Then at each point, we can find tangent vectors Tu =  ∂x/∂u and Tv = ∂x/∂v.  From the idea of a linear approximation, Tu and Tv will define a tangent plane at that particular point.  Consider the parallelogram formed with Tu and Tv as sides.  Informally, we can see that each area element will be |Tu x Tv| du dv.  Then a function f(u,v) integrated over this surface is ∫∫ f(u,v) |Tu x Tv| du dv.
As for the second use, if you wanted to find the volume of the parallelepiped having the three vectors a, b, c as sides, then you would use the magnitude of the scalar triple product |a ⋅ (b x c)|.
Answer: If you want me to name 2 concepts that are used in engineering calculations so frequently, they will be dot and cross products.There are several interpretations of the dot and cross product and can be applied in various scenarios: Angle between vectors, Projection of one vector in the direction of another as mentioned in the above posts.
Going a few steps above, interesting facts to remember are that the cross product of two vectors can be written as the product of a matrix(skew symmetric) and a vector.The norm of a cross product can be expressed as a determinant.
The triple product of three vectors namely a.(b$\times$c) represents the area of a parallelopiped and this triple product can also be written as a determinant.This useful fact can be used to prove collinearity of 3 points (of course after representing/considering them as vectors)

Understanding Dot and Cross Product


Left luggage storage in Frankfurt (Main) train station or airport

Question: Is there a left luggage facility at the main train station or (not as ideal but it will do) the airport?
I'll need to leave the luggage there (a small suitcase) for about three days as I take a little detour on my journey.
If it is possible, what type of storage is it (lockers?) and what will it cost to store a small suitcase for that long?
Answer: Frankfurt Airport offers luggage storage in both terminals, at 7 EUR per 24 hours for normal bags. It sounds like it's a staffed service, not lockers.
As for the train station lockers mentioned by Gagravarr, be careful because they actually have a maximum storage time of 72 hours, so if your "about 3 days" is a little longer, you might have some hassle getting your luggage back from the lost&found. Additionally, you need to have the correct coins for the fee.
Answer: As with most things rail related in Europe, your best bet is often Seat61. In this case, the Seat 61 page on Left Luggage in Germany:

most other main stations in Germany have small & medium lockers, open 24 hours a day, for €3 & €5 per 24 hours

For your specific case of Frankfurt Main, you need the Bahnhof page for the station which shows that they have left luggage lockers (Schließfächer) there
So, 3 days will set you back either €9 or €15, depending on the size of locker you need


Why are we not fluent in Greek philosophy anymore?

Question: Why is it that the Rishonim and many Achronim used to be fluent in philosophy (mainly Greek) and these days it's unheard of? Is it due to our weakness, and it is really allowed?
Comment: Many current Talmidei Chachamim study science (the modern equivalent of Greek philosophy) today too. Not so much the Charedi ones, but plenty of other Jews are sticking to tradition.
Comment: I believe studying the Rishonim studying Greek philosophy would be equivalent to rabbis today being well-versed in the sciences. Wouldn't you agree?
Comment: How many "rishonim" do you know exist, today? If you're discussing Talmud, a lot of it was written during times of Greek and Roman influence, so you see some discussion of their philosophies mentioned. Perhaps, that necessitated rishonim to understand aspects of that philosophy so they could translate and discuss things more effectively?
Comment: Note as well that nowadays there is so much technical knowledge that it's generally thought no one will ever again know all that is available to be known. eg. http://proto-knowledge.blogspot.com/2010/11/last-man-who-knew-everything.html This can contribute to specialization in Judaism, just as it does in academia.
Comment: http://seforim.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-much-greek-in-greek-wisdom-on.html
Comment: May be that nowadays there are also rabbanim which use philosophy. But today psychoanalysis has a greater notoriety than philo. and sciences are separated from philo, so philo is less central in occidental culture.
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/42354/discussion-on-question-by-s-r-greek-philosophy-and-judaism).
Comment: Who is nowadays fluent in Greek philosophy? You mean that Jews only leaved it?
Answer: Aside from all the other answers, it's worth mentioning that no one studies Greek philosophy today. The thinkers that were so respected by (some of) the Rishonim are mostly irrelevant even to secularists.
Their views on science were, well, wrong. For instance, Aristotle seems to have believed that a heavy object falls faster under gravity than a lighter object (see https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/7664/how-did-people-believe-aristotles-law-of-gravity-for-so-long), it took Galileo to do careful experiments to begin getting the rules right. They struggled along with epicycles.
Rejecting many of the things the ancients believed about the infinite was the basis of Cantor's Set Theory. [See, for instance, https://mathworld.wolfram.com/NonstandardAnalysis.html for how this has altered mathematics.]
Coming to a better understanding of how axioms work allowed the development of non-Euclidean geometry, closing an issue (the "Parallel Postulate") that had been a problem since the time of Euclid.
In short, those Rishonim who studied Greek philosophy did so because they wanted to be up-to-date on the science of the day. That isn't true in our time; if you want to be up-to-date there're a whole lot of other things that are more urgent. We are more likely to study it so that we can read the beginning of Chovos Halevovos.
Personal note: Some of us once went to Rav Yaakov Weinberg z"l, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel, and asked if he would give a regular chaburah on Moreh Nevuchim. He answered that a lot of the sefer deals with issues (Aristotle's philosophy, the Kalam, ...) that were great concerns in the Rambam's time, but not today.
Comment: are you sure Kalam is Aristotelic?
Comment: No, no, I meant that those are two different systems that the Rambam discussed in the first chelek. Kalam is kinda the flip side of Aristotle, I think. No real rules, G-d does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. But ask an expert.
Answer: This question asks about shifting attitudes over many centuries, and is somewhat open ended, so I will begin with general historical overview:
The vast majority of philosophy and non-Talmudic study was by the Geonim and their intellectual successors, North African and Southern Spanish rishonim (such as Rabbenu Chanael b. Chushiel of Tunisia, and Rambam of Cordoba.) Mention must also be made of the scholars of Provence in Southern France who absorbed this positive attitude towards philosophy. This breed of rishonim pretty much died out, after Babylonian academies diminished tremendously by the 12th century. That same century saw the al-Mohades invade the South of Spain, effectively ending Jewish cultural life there.
After that (13th-14th century) "Sefardi" Jews continued in Northern (Christian) Spain and were very different from the Sefardim of the past, and were very influenced by the Northern French Tosafists. The leaders of this period were Ramban and R. Yonah of Gerona. Their students; Ra'ah, Rashba, and Ritva were all heavily influenced by the French. The French, like Ashkenazim in general, were generally anti-intellectual and opposed to philosophy in particular, and anything non-Talmudic in general. A case in point is Rashba's (admittedly non-universal) ban on the study of philosophy. This attitude expressed itself not just in the absence of study of philosophy in the strict sense of the word, but also of the study of astronomy, mathematics, and other sciences. It even resulted in decreased study of Scripture among Ashkenzim!
To quote Prof. A.S. Halkin:

The essentially negative attitude toward philosophy, characteristic
  of the rabbis of the Franco-German tradition, penetrated
  Provence and Spain during the thirteenth century, together with
  their method of Talmudic study, which was being adopted, and
  their views on that study. The role of Rabbi Asher ben Yehiel,
  a German Tosaphist, who was making his way to Spain at this time
  to become the Rabbi of Toledo, was significant in galvanizing the
  energy of the leaders to act, as it was in creating an atmosphere of
  piety in Spain. His feelings about philosophy were decidedly
  hostile, and he disliked secular studies, of which he admitted he
  knew nothing, as intensely as philosophy. (Yedaiah Bedershi's Apology p.183)

At the same time Jewish mysticism developed into what became known as "Kabbalah". From its infancy in 12th century Provence it continued with the publication of the Zohar in Spain at the end of the 13th century. Kabbalah became increasingly popular in the ensuing centuries, especially Lurianic Kabbalah which continued to increase in popularity, peaking in 17th century Poland. (Whereupon interest waned somewhat following the tragedy of Shabbettai Tsevi, a kabbalistic false Messiah, who sparked cults and movements devoted to him that were very influential throughout the 18th century).
However, it would be a mistake to see Kabbalah as the cause for anti-rationalism. This fails to appreciate that the Ashkenazi culture was averse to all non-Talmudic study and was in general superstitious, even before the rise of Kabbalah. More accurately, the rise of Kabbalah was itself a reaction of these Ashkenazi tendencies, although the popularity of Kabbalah certainly succeeded in spreading Ashkenazi anti-rationalism.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Arba'ah Turim written by an Ashkenazi immigrant gains great popularity in the increasingly Ashkenazi Spain, until the Spanish expulsion of 1492. In the next couple of centuries Ashkenazi culture continues to dominate, while its population grows. Eventually more than 90% of world Jewry lives in Poland. That culture originally in Babylonia, then in N. Africa, and S. Spain, then watered down in N. Spain, was largely eradicated and replaced with a culture hostile  to it.
Nevertheless, from the 16th-19th century, (following the Renaissance), Italy maintained a positive attitude to philosophy and the like, while late 18th century Germany saw a similar shift in attitude. 19th century Italians include Shemuel David Luzzatto, 19th century Germans included R. S. R. Hirsch, R. E. Hildesheimer, and at the end of the century R. D. Z. Hoffman. These trends continued in the 20th century with what became Modern Orthodoxy in America, and are present to a much higher degree in the Religious Zionist world in Israel.
Rather than being based on a chance halakhic dispute over the legitimacy of studying philosophy, as outlined these differing views were the product of radically different worldviews. It seems safe to note that the Ashkenazi anti-intellectualism was more similar to that of their Catholic neighbors, while the Babylonian, North African, Spanish attitude was more similar to that of their neighbors; the Muslim Caliphate, which was for several centuries the world leader of culture and intellectual development.
However, it certainly affected their interpretation of various relevant Talmudic passages. Ashkenazim tended to read them broadly (overly so, as demonstrated by R. Shaul Lieberman z"l in Hellenism in Jewish Palestine). Sephardim, on the other hand emphasized that these statements generally focus on the limiting the teaching of philosophy to children, rather than presenting a wholesale ban. See this article for a discussion of these respective views.
Comment: I am happy to elaborate on any of these points, @s.r.
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/42188/discussion-on-answer-by-mevaqesh-greek-philosophy-and-judaism).
Answer: If it just knowledge it is permitted to be learned (to add to your Torah learning and fear of heaven) even though most of your learning should be in Torah (if you are not learning Torah you should not learn it)
But it is regarding G-d and his connection with the world then
It is and was forbidden, but there are exceptions for example if the philosophy is being used against Jews/Judaism then it needs to be learnt to be able to save Jews/Judaism, but in our generation Jews/Judaism are left alone and respected, there is no need to learn it
Source Shulchan aruch harav hilchos Talmud Torah 3.7 (his sources you can see in the link)
Partial translated

The mitzvah of learning Torah (day and night) means you should not be learning other things, but sometimes and a little bit it is permitted for a talmid chachom to learn other knowledge, since he can learn from them Torah and fear of G-d but not other people (only a talmid chochom)
This is only if they are not books of minim which are books of philosophers of the nations of the world which were minim and kofrim of "G-d's care of the world" and of prophecy, since it is forbidden to read and (or) look in them always even to learn from them some musar and fear of G-D, so even when their words are brought in Jewish books, you need to be careful (to stay away) from them, and about them our sages said "the one that reads outside books does not have a portion in the world to come, the only reason some sages delt with them was to answer them and to strengthen our religion, and in those times the time needed it, to answer the minim of the nations of the world, that where in those generations argument with the Jews, but not in out generations.

PS it is possible that some Jewish sages know it but it does not mean it was permitted for them to learn, even if you ask them they might confess that it was wrong
Comment: Note that the claim that Rishonim engaged in philosophy only to combat heretics, makes for nice apologism, but is simply not historically true. Numerous Rishonim discuss why (they hold) learning philosophy is important, and they do not say that the only reason is to combat heretics.
Comment: @mevaqesh the Shulchan aruch harav probably saw your sources and still wrote what he wrote, I am just bringing his opinion, (I think he is respected in Judaism enough not to be deleted)
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/50247/discussion-on-answer-by-hazoriz-why-are-we-not-fluent-in-greek-philosophy-anymor).
Comment: pvery interesting regarding the changes through periods and the changes between orthodoxy and secular-accademic world. There is a lot reflection needed upon the topic.
Comment: nowadays sciences are more mandatory than philosophy in the stream of the society
Comment: A fascinating subject but too difficult for me
Answer: I understand the question to be (1) why the Rishonim were so interested in studying philosophy and (2) why don't we do the same today.
The reason for (1) is because there is much wisdom in Greek Philosophy. The Rishonim such as the Rambam were not so interested in Greek philosophy but rather in sifting the truth from the falsehood in it. The benefit in studying philosophy in general is that, properly done, it allows one to study the Unity of God as explained in the Chovos Halevavos Shaar Yichud.

"The philosopher spoke truth when he said: "no one can serve the Cause
  of causes and Beginning of beginnings except the prophet of the
  generation with his senses or the primary (perfect - TL) philosopher
  with the wisdom he acquired, but others serve other than Him, since
  they cannot conceive what exists (without beginning - TL), but rather
  can only conceive that which is composite (i.e. created things - TL)."

(and since there is no prophecy since the destruction of the temple, then according to this the only way to know Gd is through rational inquiry, i.e. philosophy)
Dr. Avraham Apatow, a former professor of Greek Philosophy explains in his introductory thoughts there:

I will share a short story that perhaps illuminates this point. When I
  came to Jerusalem, I had the opportunity to study with one of the
  leading teachers of Kabbalah in the english speaking, orthodox world,
  Rabbi Moshe Schatz. I was in a shiur (class) of his where he presented
  an overview of the principles for understanding the Eitz Chaim. To my
  great surprise nearly everything he said in terms of understanding the
  structure of the Ari's system were principles of wisdom I had learned
  in philosophy. I asked him where he learned those principles. He told
  me in the Eitz Chaim itself and he explained to me how. Rabbi Schatz
  had to learn principles of philosophy in order to understand Kabbalah
  and he discovered that those  philosophical principles were contained
  within the holy boundaries of Kabbalah.... The mark of a classical
  education is one that leads a person to experience the awesome nature
  of the intelligence that pervades every aspect of thought and the
  natural world in a magnificent harmony. Modern education does not seek
  to reveal this, because modern education is secular. Classical
  education was founded upon the perspective that the world is the  work
  of the genius of the Creator, the Almighty G-d. Included in this
  magnificent creation is the most remarkable work and power, the human
  mind, the very "eye" that beholds G-d's beautiful handiwork. After
  studying the creation in all its beauty, the ultimate study is to turn
  one's attention to beholding the nature of the Creator Himself and His
  oneness. However, this study is the top rung of a ladder that few have
  climbed today

(2) the reason it is not studied today is because many Rabbis discouraged it (ex. Vilna Gaon) since it is so easy to err. The Chovos Halevavos quoted about also says "the primary philosopher" i.e. among the most brilliant philosophers of the generation since these matters are extremely difficult to grasp.
Comment: The only part of this that answers the question is the last line, and it is completely unsourced.
Comment: I saw the main question as "is [the fact that "these days ["be[ing] fluent in philosophy (mainly Greek) is"] unheard of"] due to our weakness but is really allowed?" Is that not what you see? Are you taking the latter horn?
Comment: @DoubleAA i saw the main question as "Why is it that the Rishonim and many Achronim used to be fluent in philosophy.." i.e. why were they so interested in learning philosophy. and separate question why dont we study it today
Comment: source for vilna gaon?
Comment: @DoubleAA actually main answer which is completely sourced: "The philosopher spoke truth when he said..." from there we see the importance of studying philosophy since no prophecy today. you may not agree but that's what he says. the entire first gate of Chovos Halevavos is mostly philosophical inquiry
Comment: @DoubleAA now that you mention it, not sure myself what the question is. whether like u said only or also like what i said. OP should explain more though i suspect he may not be sure himself
Answer: There's a famous story attributed to numerous rabbonim (I saw it years ago in the name of Rav Yisroel Salanter, subsequently I've heard it attributed to chassidish rabbonim as well.)
According to the story, a maskil once asked Rav Yisroel how come in the olden days all of the gedolim were also great philosophers like the rambam?
Rav Yisroel answered, "I was thinking about this myself recently. How come in the olden days all of the great philosophers were also gedolim, like the rambam?"
It's a cute story, but I think the point is very true. Very few people can be outstanding in all fields.
Partially because there is so much information out there, as mentioned in other answers to this post; and partially because of yeridas hadoros. People are much weaker today and have a harder time focusing, concentrating, remembering etc.
(When you hear stories even from pre-war Europe, about yeshiva bachurim routinely learning 10+ hours at a stretch, it helps appreciate how they learned torah back in the day!)
Once we'll say that it's hard to master everything, the first priority becomes learning Torah. Then comes the issue of practical secular knowledge needed for functioning in today's world, including earning a job. (Obviously different community's balance these two differently, and the proper balance probably depends on the individual. but this is for a different post.)
After we've established the need for learning Torah, and the need for practical secular subjects, then we can discuss the question of greek philosophy.
Even here- many of the issues are dealt with in Jewish hashkafic sources. I can be familiar with Aristotle's view of the world from reading the Rambam's critique of it.
And again- my first obligation is to have clarity in the fundamentals of Judaism. That means first and foremost, being clear in the Rambam's conclusion, not so much the logical argument he used to arrive there. (Just like in halacha- the first step is knowing what to do. Learning the halachic steps takes training and comes later, hopefully.) Especially when engaging in philosophy, where there's so much room for apikorsus and heresy, it's important to have clarity.
And- there's no schar for ameilus in greek philosophy. Unliked Torah, we don't get rewarded for the effort put in to understand the concepts.
When you put this all together, we get:
1) A much smaller capacity for understanding wisdom (both because there's a lot more out there, and our abilities are less)
2) Greek Philosophy is a much lesser priority than either limud hatorah, or practical secular subjects
3) A lot of the concepts are anyway familiar through the Jewish sources who discuss them
4) The first priority in studying philosophical subjects is making sure we have halachically sound hashkafos, which makes learning the rishonim more important than the greeks who first discussed the idea
5) We don't get reward for toiling in understanding the greeks; at best it could help our comprehension about Hashem and the world, but that requires a lot of time to understand it properly to avoid heresy/apikorsus.
(This could be the underlying point Rav Yisroel was making as well. Not just that it is hard to know everything, but philosophy itself takes people away from the torah because of the heretical aspect. I don't know about this last point.)
Comment: See the sourced answer I will post.
Answer: In this book, the author mentions that the pious in earlier generations (i.e. Rambam, Chovos Halevaos, Sefere Haikarim) maintened a different level in holiness as well as intellect. Through this elevated level, the were able to grasp the Truth in such a way. However, in the current times, where the intellect is very weak comparatively, many people fail in reaching the Truth in this way. Thus, he proposes, to follow the general Kabbalah in Jewish tradition (Chazalic literature), and simple belief.


Can I be forgiven forse all of the things that I've done?

Question: I know that this isn't the theme of the discussion But I wanted to confess  what I've done and I wanted to know if I can be forgiven.
I watched porn ,hentai and I masturbated watching them 3 times without knowing that they were haram.
I discovered that they are haram acts like one month ago and I regret all of the things that I done.
I will NEVER do them again from now on But I don't know if I'll be forgiven.
I feel really bad for really thinking that they weren't haram.
I feel so stupid But here in Italy and in the West it seemed pretty normal.
Could I ever be forgiven?
(Sorry for eventual errors)
Comment: @Italian Girl - Allah (ﷻ) forgives those who sincerely repent, whether their sins are major or minor, few or many. So yes, you could be forgiven :)
Comment: Islam SE is not a peer support group. Therefore this question is off-topic.
Comment: [39:53](https://quran.com/39/53)
Answer: It is hard to tell whether this is a sincere question or you just a troll. But as Islam preachers always give benefit of the doubt as we don't know what is inside another person's heart.
So sister, the issue of pornography is not limited to Italy or the western world. Unfortunately with advancement of technology and the ever increasing presence of smartphones it is a world wide epidemic.
One to thing to note is that in Islam, all sins can be forigiven by Allah except Shirk. Even for shirk, Allah is His All-Encompassing Mercy has said if one repents sincerely (before death or it's signs appear) , the person starts with a clean slate.

And those who do not invoke with Allah another deity or kill the soul
  which Allah has forbidden [to be killed], except by right, and do not
  commit unlawful sexual intercourse. And whoever should do that will
  meet a penalty.
Multiplied for him is the punishment on the Day of Resurrection, and
  he will abide therein humiliated
Except for those who repent, believe and do righteous work. For them
  Allah will replace their evil deeds with good. And ever is Allah
  Forgiving and Merciful.
And he who repents and does righteousness does indeed turn to Allah
  with [accepted] repentance.
Quran (25:68-71)

Also in another place w.r.t shirk of Christians, Allah says:

They have certainly disbelieved who say, " Allah is the third of
  three." And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist
  from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers
  among them a painful punishment.
So will they not repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness? And Allah
  is Forgiving and Merciful.
Quran (5:73-74)

Coming to your "confession". If you are a muslim, please understand that unlike the Catholic church there is no real concept of confessing one's sin before another individual.

Narrated Abu Huraira: "I heard Allah's Apostle saying. "All the sins
  of my followers will be forgiven except those of the Mujahirin (those
  who commit a sin openly or disclose their sins to the people). An
  example of such disclosure is that a person commits a sin at night and
  though Allah screens it from the public, then he comes in the morning,
  and says, 'O so-and-so, I did such-and-such (evil) deed yesterday,'
  though he spent his night screened by his Lord (none knowing about his
  sin) and in the morning he removes Allah's screen from himself."
  (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Good Manners and Form (Al-Adab), Volume
  8, Book 73, Number 95)"

To receive forgiveness from God there are three requirements:

Recognizing the offense itself and its admission before God.
Making a commitment not to repeat the offense.
Asking God for forgiveness.

If the offense was committed against another human being(s), a fourth condition is added:

Recognizing the offense before those against whom offense was committed and before God.

2.Committing oneself not to repeat the offense.
3.Doing whatever needs to be done to rectify the offense (within reason) and asking pardon of the offended party.

Asking God for forgiveness.

Apologies if my answer might have offended you in any way or form. I have no such intent. But I wish you the best and inshallah your faith will stronger as you learn more about Islam from the Quran and Sahih Hadiths.
Salaam!
Answer:
Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Prophet
  of Allah said: "There was a man from among a nation before you who
  killed ninety-nine people and then made an inquiry about the most
  learned person on the earth. He was directed to a monk. He came to him
  and told him that he had killed ninety-nine people and asked him if
  there was any chance for his repentance to be accepted. He replied in
  the negative and the man killed him also completing one hundred. He
  then asked about the most learned man in the earth. He was directed to
  a scholar. He told him that he had killed one hundred people and asked
  him if there was any chance for his repentance to be accepted. He
  replied in the affirmative and asked, 'Who stands between you and
  repentance? Go to such and such land; there (you will find) people
  devoted to prayer and worship of Allah, join them in worship, and do
  not come back to your land because it is an evil place.' So he went
  away and hardly had he covered half the distance when death overtook
  him; and there was a dispute between the angels of mercy and the
  angels of torment. The angels of mercy pleaded, 'This man has come
  with a repenting heart to Allah,' and the angels of punishment argued,
  'He never did a virtuous deed in his life.' Then there appeared
  another angel in the form of a human being and the contending angels
  agreed to make him arbiter between them. He said, 'Measure the
  distance between the two lands. He will be considered belonging to the
  land to which he is nearer.' They measured and found him closer to the
  land (land of piety) where he intended to go, and so the angels of
  mercy collected his soul".
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
In another version: "He was found to be nearer to the locality of the
  pious by a cubit and was thus included among them". Another version
  says: "Allah commanded (the land which he wanted to leave) to move
  away and commanded the other land (his destination) to draw nearer and
  then He said: "Now measure the distance between them.' It was found
  that he was nearer to his goal by a hand's span and was thus
  forgiven". It is also narrated that he drew closer by a slight
  movement on his chest.
Riyad as-Salihin, The Book of Miscellany Arabic/English book
  reference  : Book 1, Hadith 20

It is not apparent, perhaps, but the deep gist here is that as long as one is sincere with his/her repentance, even killing all those people can be forgiven—to the point that Allah is willing to break the laws of physics to that end.


Windows Powershell stsadm

Question: I am quite new to windows powershell.  I have tried to run the following command "stsadm -o setadminport.  I get the error that the Term stsadm is not a recognized cmdlet, function etc.  My reading tells me I need to change the path.  I'm not sure how to do that.  Powershell opens to c:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.bma>  The stsadm.exe file is in c:\program files\commonfiles\microsoft shared\web server extension\12\BIN  I would sure appreciate some help on the steps to get this path configured so I can run the command.
thanks,
Answer: PowerShell is the replacement for stsadm.  If you need to use stsadm, which is located at c:\program files\commonfiles\microsoft shared\web server extension\12\BIN, use a standard cmd window not PowerShell to execture your commands.
Answer: Hey, you can add the stsadm path to the system enviornment variables the same way you woud for the old command prompt. You need to right click on your Computer, go into advanced settings, and then click the Enviornment Variables button. Just add the path to stsadm to the path. Use a semi colon ; to delimit the values. This works for both power shell and cmd.
Answer: stsadm was the sp 2007 way, although it still comes with sp 2010.  The new way (2010+) is powershell.  Although you can do most everything with just powershell, there is a way to use powershell to run stsadm.  Check out this excellent tutorial complete with screenshots.  It shows you how to create an alias for stsadm so you can use its commands too.
Also note, that if you have sp 2010, your stsadm will be here, instead (notice the 14 instead of the 12):
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN\STSADM.EXE

Windows Powershell stsadm


Why do many manga artists prefer to use pen and paper over digital drawing?

Question: It seems that many renowned manga artists still prefer using traditional "hand drawn" methods rather than using technology to draw. Even people who use technology to finalise their art rely on  pen and paper to sketch their initial outlines. What are the limitations of drawing using digital methods?
Answer: There are two primary limitations to an artist switching from traditional to digital media:

Adjustment
Money

That's really all there is to it.
The two reasons go very much hand in hand; most artists will start with traditional media because quality digital media is expensive. There's no getting around it. A basic setup requires a computer with good graphics support, a software package that can be used for comics/manga production, and a graphics tablet (typically a higher end one like Wacom's Cintiq).
On the other hand, anyone can pick up some free scratch paper and a pencil or pen and start sketching. There's virtually no barrier to entry for learning traditional media. Once you start to get more serious about it, yes, traditional media can also get expensive (comic/manga art boards, multiple pens and brushes, various types of inks, screentones, alcohol markers for color pages, and so on), but you don't have to spend a dime to start.
There's a process of adjustment that takes time when switching from traditional media to working digitally. The two feel different, even if you're working with something like a Cintiq where you don't have to disassociate your hand position from what you're seeing. You're learning a new medium, and it always takes time to adjust to it. An active manga artist is working on a strict publication schedule, and isn't necessarily going to have time to go through that adjustment period; artists who are extremely popular will have greater demands on them, and those who are just starting out will have no ability to ask for schedule changes or additional assistants to work through the transition.
There are artists who do use digital media (Hiroya Oku, Asano Inio, Natsume Ono), and certainly there are some who would be interested in making the transition, but for many, it may well be simply a preference that keeps them from making the shift. They prefer the feel of a pen or brush on paper to a stylus on screen, and therefore have no motivation to sink either the time or cost into transitioning to digital. Working digitally has an additional limitation when it comes to assistants: either you are now a one-person show, or you have to sink money into a workstation with tablet for each assistant on your team. Particularly with popular artists who depend on their assistants to meet deadlines, there may be no choice but to stick with paper that can be passed around between the people working on the title.
There are no technical limitations. Multiple companies make Cintiq-like graphics tablets at various price points and functionality, allowing for a more "traditional" workflow for the artist. Multiple companies publish software that can be used to create manga pages, including screen tones and tools that emulate traditional media very effectively; any of these programs can export into any number of standard formats that can be read by the publishing company, which is undoubtedly using digital versions of all pages, regardless of how they're produced, to assemble their magazines. The only limitations are in the cost of transitioning, both fiscally in actual money spent, and the investment of time needed to adjust to the new media.
Sources: Manga Answerman - What Tools Does A Mangaka Use To Make Manga?, personal experience with various hardware and software
Answer: It is expensive and a new technology that would even cost the printing companies money. They would need new hardware and/or software to get the files in those formats, much more space on their machines (files in any graphic format are very large). It is actually so much more money for good digital animation art, especially when Manga artists each have a style. They have used "pens" for drawing and inking since they start drawing. Kubo, the creator of Bleach, always drew in school; he still will say he draws to draw cool stuff. So, I imagine most drew in class or at home with standard writing tools, and maybe a set of inking pens and color if they were into it.
As far as the monitors for drawing, yes they are cool, but artists often don't have one for the same reason I don't, they are expensive. They could probably get money through crowd funding faster than I could, but they would need something very expensive, not to mention the drawing programs. Anime studios don't use them (usually on weekly airing shows especially); the first draft and sketch is generally done on paper, the same way it has been for probably almost if not 20+ years. Drawing it, scanning and then adding color. I can imagine that actually take more time as well. Most well known artist/writers have an aid and maybe a few others helping them with the inking. Transition to all digital would be so foreign, I doubt we will see it happen, at least until graphic tablets, monitors ect. are easily available and the price is lower than now. A good one could be $1K, maybe $600, but they can be 3 times and even more. So if they want it to feel right, look right and be efficient it's probably going to be a lot of testing of different monitors, programs, brush add-ons, and more. It's not really feasible right now. I guess if one happens to have started using them a while ago and feels comfortable and can work more efficiently with the style remaining the same or better, they are not going to use it unless their work is better. They can't afford to show Toei an idea that was done differently than the usual methods so their style, and maybe even flow of work would not be the same.
Not to mention coloring would look way different. Would shading style change at that point? In manga many kinds of shading and small details are used. Think the parallel lines very close together and straight, that form of shading is unique to the art. With a graphic program you would need to place every line pixel perfect; they could use snapping or magnets, but that would throw off the next line to draw if it's a persons face or something.  On a monitor instead of drawing those lines they could just pick a lighter color, or shade, grays would be everywhere.  Maybe more color, but it wouldn't look the same; maybe close with the right brush, but not exact.
Expenses, tradition, experience, style, comfort level, and efficient work all play a role.
Comment: Please include relevant sources/references.
Comment: This whole answer is based on nothing but fallacies; sorry, but you don't seem to be familiar with the technology that's available currently.