What is the story of Gaya Tirth?

Question: I have heard a story that Lord Brahma has done Yajna in Gaya on the body of Gayasur. But I want to know the scriptural basis of this story if any or how Gaya, the place, has became famous?
Answer: Chapter 106, 107 and 108 - Part 2 of Vayu Purana describes the story of Gaya in detail.
Gayasura was Asura (demon) who did a severe penance. Devas with Shiva went to Vishnu and at suggestion of Lord Vishnu they went to Gayasura to grant him boon. Gayasura requested Devas to make him holiest of all things.

ऊचुस्तं वासुदेवाद्याः किमर्थ तप्यते त्वया। संतुष्टाः स्वागताः सर्वे
वरं ब्रूहि गयासुर।।१५।।
Vásudeva and others spoke to him- "For what purpose, this penance is
being performed by you, O Gayåsura? We have all arrived here fully
satisfied. You may ask for a boon."
गयासुर उवाच यदि तुष्टाः स्य मे देवा ब्रह्मविष्णुमहेश्वराः।
सर्वदेवद्विजातिभ्यो यज्ञतीर्थशिलोच्यात्॥१६॥
देवेभ्योऽतिपवित्रोऽहमृषिभ्योऽपि शिवाव्ययात्। मन्त्रेभ्यो देवदेवीभ्यो
योगिभ्यश्चापि सर्वशः।।१७।।  न्यासिभ्यश्चापि कर्मिभ्यो धर्मिभिश्च
तथा पुनः। ज्ञ(य)तिपवित्रेभ्यः पवित्रः स्यां सदा सुराः।।१८।।
Gayåsura spoke– In case you are pleased with me, O Gods, Brahmā, Visnu
and Maheśvara, may I be ever holier than these– than all the gods and
Brähmanas; than all the Yajñas, tirthas and Silocaya (mountains); than
all the sages; than even the unchanging Siva; than all the Mantras;
than all the lords of Devas; than all the Yogins; than all the
renouncers; than all the performers of holy rites; than all the
religious ones; than all the sacred Yatis.

As he became holier than Devas, Devas were devoid of work and went to abode of Vishnu. Vishnu said,

गत्वाऽसुरं प्रार्थयस्व यज्ञार्थं देहि देहकम्। विष्णूक्त: ससुरो ब्रह्मा
गत्वाऽपश्यन्महासुरम्।।२४।।  "Go and request the Asura thus, 'Give
your body for the purpose of a sacrifice'." Urged by Visnu, Brahmá
went there accompanied by Devas and saw the great Asura.
ब्रह्मोवाच पृथिव्यां यानि तीर्थानि दृष्टानि भ्रमता मया। यज्ञार्थं न तु
ते तानि पवित्राणि शरीरत:।२८।।  Brahmā replied— All the tirthas
(places of pilgrimage) seen by me while on the prowl, are not as pure
as your body, for the purpose of sacrifice.
त्वया देहे पवित्रत्वं प्राप्तं विष्णुप्रसादतः। अतः पवित्रं देहं त्वं
यज्ञार्थं देहि मेऽसुर।२९।।  By you in frame, purity has been
achieved by the grace of Visnu. Therefore, O Asura, you offer to me
your pure frame for the purpose of a sacrifice.
गयासुर उवाच धन्योऽहं देवदेवेश यद्देहं प्रार्थ्यते त्वया। पितृवंशः
कृतार्थो मे देहे यागं करोषि चेत्॥३०  ।। Gayāsura replied— I stands
blessed, O gods of gods (Devadeveša) that by you, (my) body is being
solicited as such. In case you offer a sacrifice over my body, the
manes in my family shall be contented.
त्वयैवोत्पादितो देहः पवित्रस्तु त्वया कृतः। सर्वेषामुपकाराय यागोऽवश्यं
भवत्विति।।३१।।  By you alone has been created this body (of mine)
and by you only, it has been rendered sacred or sanctified. For the
benefit of all, may the sacrifice comes to an existence.
इत्युक्तवा सोऽपतद्भूमौ श्वेतकल्पे गयासुरः। ब्रह्मा संभृतसंभारो
मानसानृत्विजोऽसृजत्।।३२।।  Having said so, the demon Gaya,
collapsed on the ground during the Svetakalpa. He adhered to the
south-western quarter on the Kolāhala mountain.
इत्युक्त्वा सोऽपतद्भूमौ श्वेतकल्पे गयासुरः। नैऋतीं दिशमाश्रित्य तदा
कोलाहले गिरौ।३३॥  Having turned the head in the north and having
directed the feet in the south, Brahmā, having requisites gathered,
created the mindborn sages.

Devas then started Yagna and thereafter Brahma asked to bring Sacrificial pole to fix in nearby lake (Brahmasara) and asked Dharma to place a slab on head of Gayasura. Gayasura, who was gullible, asked Devas to press the slab with their feet. All Devas with Rudra, Brahma and Vishnu stood on the slab to stabilize it.

आगत्य विष्णुः क्षीराब्धे: शिलायां संस्थितोऽभवत्। जनार्दनाभिधानेन
पुण्डरीकेतिनामत्। शिलायां निश्चलार्थं हि स्वयमादिगदाधरः।५५।।
Having come from the milk ocean, Visnu himself, became stationed over
the stone slab, with the name of Janārdana and also by the appellation
of Pundarika. The primordial mace wielder himself stood there to
steady the slab, for stabilising (the demon).
निश्चलार्थं
पञ्चधाऽऽसीच्छिलायां प्रपितामहः। पितामहोऽथ फल्ग्वीशः केदारः
कनकेश्वरः।५६।।  ब्रह्मा स्थितः स्वयं तत्र गजरूपी विनायकः।
गयादित्यश्चोत्तराकोँ दक्षिणाकस्त्रिधा रविः।।५७।।  For stabilising
(the demon Gaya), Brahmâ divided himself into five, viz. Prapitāmaha
(Great-grandfather), Pitāmaha (Grandfather), Phalgvíša (Master of
Phalgu), Kedara and Kanakešvara. Brahmā in the form of an
elephant-normed Vināyaka (i.e. Ganeśa) stood there. Gayāditya,
Uttarārka and Daksinārkathese were the three manifestations of Sun.
लक्ष्मीः सीताभिधानेन गौरी च मङ्गलाह्वया। गायत्री चैव सावित्री
त्रिसंध्या च सरस्वती॥५८॥  Laksmi stood there in the name of Sitā,
Gauri in the name of Mangalâ and Sarasvati stationed herself in three
forms, viz. Gāyatri, Sávtiri and Sandhyā.
इन्द्रो बृहस्पतिः पूषा
वसवोऽष्टौ महाबलाः। विश्वे देवाश्चाऽऽश्चिनेयौ (मारुतो विश्वनायकः।
सयक्षोरगगन्धर्वास्तस्थुर्देवाः स्वशक्तिभि:।५९।।  Indra, Brhaspati,
Püsan, the eight highly strong Vasus, Viśvedevas, the two Ašviní
Devas, Maruts, the leader of the universe accompanied by Devas, Uragas
and Gandharvas stood there along with their respective Saktis
(powers).
आद्यया गदया चासौ यस्मादैत्य स्थिरीकृतः। स्थित इत्येव हरिणा
तस्मादादिगदाधरः।।६०।। Since the Daitya was brought to stagnation
by the primordial club and Hari stood there, on that account, he
became famous as ĀdiGadādhara.

Gayasura finally realized that it was a ploy to trick him. Devas then pleased with his sincere devotion gave him the boon that holy city would be named after him (as Gaya) and they (Devas) perennially would stay there.
Comment: @Tezz yeah. Footnotes of that chapter say that Gaya is one of the three places where lord Vishnu placed his foot.
Comment: Very nice & neat answer. Five stars to the answer.
Comment: I had also heard that Gaya is among 3 places where Lord Vishnu himself placed his feet on earth....
Comment: The line "Sarasvati stationed herself in three forms, viz. Gāyatri, Sávtiri and Sandhyā." is interesting.  First of all these are the names of the three goddesses that we worship during the three Sandhyavandanas that we do every day.  But what interests me more is that I've heard a story, which I think is in one of the Puranas, where during Brahma's Yagna in Gaya, Saraswati was not present, and Brahma needed a wife to complete the Yagna.  So he found a local cowgirl in the area and married her - she became the goddess Gayatri, because she was made a goddess in Gaya.
Comment: I've also heard a story about Saraswati getting angry that Brahma was performing a Yagna without her, so in the form of the Vegavati river she tried to flood the agatha site.  In response, Vishnu manifested in three places, including the site of the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kanchipuram, to stop the river with his body.  But that story seems to take place in South India, so it may be different from the story of the Yagna at Gaya.
Comment: @KeshavSrinivasan The curse you are talking is explained in [Padma Purana](http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/11499/3500) but i don't think that story happened in Gaya.

What is the story of Gaya Tirth?


Why was a meta discussion about another user's suspension deleted?

Question: Why has this meta post been deleted? What is the reason for this censorship? Is it merely so that future visitors don't find out what has happened? Or was it accidental? Please undelete it.
Answer: Firstly, the question shouldn't have been asked in the first place, there's no real point to discussing suspensions on meta in the way outlined by the post.
Such posts basically serve as a public shaming. It's a record that a user had done something bad; which we really don't need to have around. As mentioned here, it's best to discuss actions, not users; behaviors, not people.
So it was deleted.
In addition, there were some unnecessary edits made to one of the answers. Twice in the past week. They gave the impression that it still was an open issue. It isn't. There was no point whatsoever to bump the thread.
Answer: There's too much banging of people's heads againts brick walls that we know won't budge around here. There are network-wide policies in place about suspensions which are there for a reason and we should not be asking for exceptional insider access for any particular one - any user of this site may well wind up thanking those policies, either from within a suspension or because of someone else's.
However, that isn't to say that there is a community that cares about Ron Maimon's presence. Yes, he was very often curt, to say the least. But he did some great physics. And many of us appreciate the physics he did on this site. The deleted question is a testament to that.
I just reached 10k rep today. I am offering a small testament to the great physics that Ron did here. It isn't much, but I've been bugged by the pure complaining for some time. Thanks for the great physics, Ron, and hopefully see you around here next year.
Answer: I'd like to point two things out about the deleted discussion.

It started nine months ago, and was closed 8 months ago.
The OP of this question was not a member of SE when that discussion took place.

This discussion should probably end there. But since it hasn't, I will say that these discussions are never useful. That particular question was essentially an invitation for users to discuss how wonderful and useful a particular user was, and to object to his suspension solely on the basis of how wonderful and useful he was. Many users obliged. They argued essentially that that particular user should not have been suspended because of his reputation and value to he community. Never mind that the mods found him to be engaging in antisocial activity. The mods are not allowed to discuss the reason for that suspension, and they are the only people with that information. So it's really a one-sided discussion. Unless some other, non-privileged, user has some pertinent information, there really isn't any point to discussing the case. There was also another user suspended at the same time. No one complained about that suspension, which makes me think these arguments were either not in good faith, or were not fully thought through.
There is a line of thinking that there is something wrong with a particular suspension. That is a really odd way to think about it, though. The mods don't suspend users arbitrarily: they have to either see the bad behavior themselves, or it has to be reported to them by another user. We have 5 mods currently. I haven't seen one of them in some time, so maybe we only have 4 active mods. They all come to a consensus on suspensions. So if you think there is something wrong with a suspension, you're saying that they all screwed up. And that can happen, I suppose. If you think that happened, you can write to the SE Community team. I have seen at least three of them around. They out-rank our local mods. Ultimately, there are several levels of review that a suspension will go through. If you think all of those check don't work, or that all of those people are engaged in a conspiracy, then you think this system really doesn't work. Since you're still using the system, I don't believe that you really think these checks aren't working. This paragraph applies to everyone complaining about this particular suspension.
I will admit that, whenever I see a suspended account anywhere on SE, I will engage in a bit of rubbernecking. This usually consists of looking at the offending user's Activity page to see what they were writing before they were suspended. Sometimes I can guess, sometimes I can't; the mods usually scrub most of the offending material. In this particular case, it was really obvious. I believe that the mods are actually incapable of removing the evidence of the wrongdoing in this case.
Answer: Should never have been. Too bad. I was reading usenet news stuff long before my children learned computers .... And I am old enough that they learned them from me. I was on BBS and I was a member of AOL when it was Compuserve.
Never was this hard. We are only trading characters on mostly intellectual endeavor. Why do we need ban these fine folk or deny a few pages of text.. Certainly is getting pretty annoying ... I started a scientist but ended up a lawyer. You are free to do what you want with your site. But you will regret, I suspect, with these authoritarian approaches
Answer: The answer to this question can be found in the answers to the following questions:
"Why has Ron Maimon recently been suspended for a year?";
"Why is there no academic freedom on Physics.SE"


What is the meaning of this?

Question: Please, I will like to know what kind of Christianity is going on in this place. Simple questions I keep asking here... And the focus is like this is not the kind of questions to ask. What is Christianity in this form all about? Am I in the wrong place for God sake?!!!
Comment: or as the help center puts it: `This site is not a church! It is neither sanctioned by any church nor sponsored as a ministry site. It is a secular site for asking and answering questions about Christianity. If you are more inclined to resent rather than celebrate the differences between different Christian traditions, then this may not be the site for you.`
Comment: Welcome, Yufenyuy, to the site. We deal in questions that can be objectively answered here, often of the form "What do X group of Christians believe about doctrine Y". It takes some getting used to, but if we answered questions about what is the truth, it would generate disputes. We do have a chat feature, where you can discuss personal viewpoints, but that would not be the place to seek specific advice, either.
Comment: Please visit the help center (https://christianity.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) to see what type of questions you can ask here: `Christianity Stack Exchange is for committed Christians, experts in Christianity and those interested in learning more. You may ask questions about any area of Christianity. Your own beliefs do not not preclude you from asking questions, but all questions must be directly related to Christianity.`
Comment: This site is not teaching/preaching any type of Christianity exactly, rather it is a place where you can ask questions about a particular denomination, biblical basis of a belief, or a combination of the two. If you are interested in learning more about a particular denomination you can ask a question and if it isn't a duplicate question you will get an answer written by an expert in that particular denomination.
Comment: ***People shouldn't take pleasure in just downvoting others questions with no tangible reason*** People should refrain from attempts at mind reading, and assuming malice where none is present.  You only get to make one first impression. If you mouse over the down vote button, you will read the text which tells you what a down vote means.  [Please read this to understand some of the boundaries of this SE site](https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/a/6103/24204).
Comment: @depperm, please, are my questions not related to Christianity? And what do you mean by committed Christians, experts in Christianity and those interested in learning more?
Comment: @depperm, thank you very much. That notwithstanding, did I say the contrary of whatever history you have copied and pasted above there? Nope! So let me make it clearer to you again that my questions have nothing to do with any church and also, that I don't really care what Christian traditions any given Jack is from.
Thanks.
Comment: People shouldn't take pleasure in just downvoting others questions with no tangible reason. Questions that just need us to talk in a community... as followers of Christ, very simple. I read the whatever health center and my question does not violate it in any form.
Comment: @KorvinStarmast Thank you. I know about hovering the down vote. I only get to make one first impression, thanks. But the question is "Am I seeking your first impression approval?" I don't think so, my brother. Thank you too for the link.
Comment: One other point, regarding complaining about how others vote, both opposes the general policy on voting, and bumps up against the [Be Nice](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/help/be-nice) policy.   What this community has found out over the last five to seven years is that it takes a particular kind of structure and set of community norms to prevent arguments and inter-denominational bickering.  The limitations are in place to keep positive engagement foremost.  It takes a little getting used to (at least it did for me). *pax vobiscum*
Comment: Good! @KorvinStarmast. Very good, thank you. I also believe I already have 'pax'. Consequently, I need not any *pax vobiscum* wishes.
Comment: When I Muslim friend of mine offered that he wished for Allah's peace to be upon me, I took it in the spirit offered. ;)  Just a thought.  Best wishes in all things.
Comment: @KorvinStarmast thank you for the peaceful wishes. I wish you same.
Comment: I need more downvotes to my question above, please.
Answer: I see your question was moved out of Christianity Stack Exchange into Christianity Meta and that this question has been given a "discussion" tag:

"The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus."

I am new to Christianity Stack Exchange and it takes a while to navigate around the site to understand how it works.  Frankly, asking questions is harder than answering them!  However, what I have observed is that this site is for seriously minded folks who are not interested in pushing their own particular beliefs but who genuinely want non-judgmental and objective answers that can be supported by external sources and/or the Bible itself.
If you go back to the Christianity Stack Exchange site and click on "tags" you will discover a wide range of Christian-based subjects that attract questions and answers.  It also helps to open up the "Questions" link to see what sort of questions attract answers - and what sort of questions don't make the grade!
Once you've framed your question (to comply with the guidelines) you can then find the appropriate tag/s to attach to your question.  I'm still learning how to do this properly.  For example, perhaps I should just have added a comment rather than give an answer.  Making mistakes is often the best way to learn, though.  I do so hope you will persevere because this site contains a lot of really good, well researched information about Christianity in general and various denominations in particular.
Comment: Thanks, @Lesley. This sounds friendly and less harsh to me. I could just upvote but I like to post my opinion clearly.

What is the meaning of this?


can a word be written with different kanji?

Question: i was looking for the word meaning to be lit which is 付く but as a looked at the meaning it said to see 点くwhich i found to also mean 'to be lit' so are they both the same or are they different? and can i use them both in any case or are there exceptions?
thanks for any help and sorry for my frequent questions
Answer: There are words which can be written using different kanji. In your example, 付く can be used for a variety of meanings, one of them being the same as 点く. The first is a very common verb and is many times used as a suffix to other verbs. The latter is specifically for saying something is lit or catches fire.
These meanings can easily be differentiated by looking at the meaning of the words in the dictionary. But, there are several more verbs with the same relationship, in which the dictionary would show the different ways of writing the same word to have the exact same meaning. Take 見る for example. It has the same relationship with 看る as 付く has with 点く. But the dictionary shows 観る and 視る (miru and miru) to simply be different ways of writing the verb 見る. Although this is true, these different ways of writing do have an emphasis on usually one of the meanings of 見る. To determine what's the emphasis, you have to look at the meaning of the kanji used for that writing (and usually at the context of the word too). 視 means "inspection". 視る will thus have one of the meanings of 見る with an emphasis on that.
That's for the kunyomi writing. Words read with the onyomi writing can be written with different kanji and have the exact same meaning. In literature the author might use the different kanji in a way to produce the right feeling of a word for his work. It's not similar to the kunyomi's "emphasis" stated above, but is purely aesthetic. There are also a lot of outdated kanji which you should ignore for now (or forever).
Comment: Don't forget 覧る for みる!
Comment: are you looking for aesthetic when you wrote "better word for that"?  by the way, great answer and great use of the different kanji for みる.
Comment: 覧る for みる is relevant to know in the case of 御覧 for sure.
Answer: I don't disagree with holyeyeolo's answer, but I want to suggest a slightly different way to look at.
First off, drop the word "word" with respect to this problem. Instead, let's split things into:

orthography = how we write something down.
pronunciation = how we say it.

Now, I'm going to tell you a myth. A long time ago there was a language called "old Japanese" that was spoken (it had a pronunciation) and it probably did not have a writing system of its own before then (see here).
Then, the Japanese imported kanji (multiple times actually) as a way to write (and developed kana from the kanji as a way to write down pronunciation).
So they had something pronounced "miru" and they matched that to several Chinese characters for slightly different meanings of miru: 見る、観る、視る、看る. As time passes, two related things happen. First, people begin to think of a kanji when they are saying "miru" (and thus they are no longer just thinking "miru"). Second, people start to wonder whether they need two different characters in some cases or if one is fine. (One version of the second one is that the Japanese government maintains a list of kanji that it thinks people should know/use).
These two forces collide in every case and result in three basic patterns:

One kanji is general and the other ones are subsidiary: 見る vs. 観る、視る. I could be wrong but my sense is that you usually won't be wrong but won't always seem erudite if you always use it. e.g. 映画を観る is better than 栄華を見る or so I'm told. (See https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A6%8B%E3%82%8B%E3%83%BB%E8%A6%B3%E3%82%8B%E3%83%BB%E8%A8%BA%E3%82%8B%E3%83%BB%E7%9C%8B%E3%82%8B-392966. There's technical contexts where only one is appropriate, but you'll be completely safe when speaking!) (看る has a meaning of "to look after / attend to" and doesn't seem to fit this pattern)
Two (or more) kanji remain on equal footing but it's important to know which one to use in different circumstances, because the meanings are seen as pretty different at this point.  票 vs 表 or 表す vs 現す.
Several kanji exist, many of which are specialized, such that there's no "safe" kanji to pick when unsure so people including native speakers end up using the kana, for instance とる. (取る、撮る、採る、捕る ...). Many of the different kanji have a specific use, but good luck with that (https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%8F%96%E3%82%8B%E3%83%BB%E5%9F%B7%E3%82%8B%E3%83%BB%E6%8E%A1%E3%82%8B%E3%83%BB%E6%8D%95%E3%82%8B%E3%83%BB%E6%92%AE%E3%82%8B%E3%83%BB%E6%91%82%E3%82%8B%E3%83%BB%E8%84%B1%E3%82%8B-344420 , https://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/summary/kotoba/uraomote/111.html)

Are these different orthographys for something pronounced in the same basic way, different "words"?  I think that depends on how much of the two factors post-import have happened. (I'm having trouble finding it but there's a question somewhere on this SE about what a word is in Japanese where several of our native speakers contributors show how hard that is to answer)
Comment: so the kanji might be used in the same way sometimes but have slightly different meanings? is there like a list for the kanji used most commonly for each word?
Comment: Maybe a better way to think of it is that some words have broad meaning 見る (to see, to look, to consider) where as other kanji have narrower meanings (撮る is for taking a picture whereas 取る is for most kinds of taking).
Comment: I'd just like to emphasize that the "old Japanese own writing system" (*jindai moji*) is considered to be a late forgery by linguists as well as archaeologists.
Comment: @leoboiko improved! thanks. That's definitely not my area of expertise.


How can I disable or password protect my device's 'factory reset' function?

Question: Is there any way to prevent a factory reset, like password protection? I would basically like to protect my phone from resetting if it gets stolen.
Comment: I'm doubtful this is possible... as they say "physical access is root access", if they physically have your device they will most likely be able to get around any measures that protect it.
Comment: I would assume that it's by design. The encryption is there to protect your private data not to brick your device in case you've lost the encryption passphrase.
Comment: Even if you somehow render the phone useless to a thief, I doubt you're going to get it back.
Comment: You will always be able to get ADB access to the device if you have physical access by going into recovery mode, which means that no, you can't stop someone from doing a factory reset.
Comment: I've actually contacted Samsung about the fact you can still factory reset devices even when there encrypted, they said they would let the "hire up" security team know. Otherwise, just dont lose your phone or anyone could reset it like its new!
Answer: Not possible on any stock recoveries that I have seen.  A custom recovery would be needed for something like this, although there would be nothing preventing someone from flashing a different Recovery that doesn't have password protection.
Honestly though, factory resetting your device is probably the best thing a thief can do, since this wipes your personal data (at least the portion that's stored on the phone's internal memory.)
Answer: "Device Protection" or "Factory Reset Protection" added in Android 5.1 can prevent your device from being usable by a thief even if they factory reset it.  Essentially, it keeps the device locked after a factory reset until you enter the Google Account credentials that were on it before the factory reset, locking out the thief (unless they know your account password).  See this article for more details.
Note that if your bootloader is unlocked, or if you have the "Enable OEM unlock" developer option checked in Settings, the thief may be able to flash a ROM and evade this protection.  Note also that it does not preserve the Android Device Manager, so this is merely to deter/frustrate thieves and not to help you retrieve your device.
Answer: I believe it's possible to protect your phone from the hard reset in case it's stolen from you or something related to that.
I would recommend avast! Mobile Security for your mobile phone. It contains a lot of features including the "anti theft" provision. In case your phone is stolen, you can remotely control it using other phone numbers. You can also activate the hard reset protection on your phone and thieves won't be able to activate the hard reset or factory reset on your phone. You can also decide how your phone should behave after the SIM has been changed. For example, the app can close all access to the phone settings, hence closing all acts of trying the factory reset and the hard reset protection simply recovers all data if a hard reset is attempted.
It has worked for me, and I have recovered my Android phone twice now.
Comment: Partially correct, read the answer provided by Chahk (wrote 13 months earlier). Also check out Matthew's answer. Your solution is merely an app installed in userspace, read the comments by Firelord in response to user52240's answer.
Answer: Apart from using the Anti-virus which might or might not work, I think you should try applications that can protect certain area of your Android while allowing access to some.I use applock to protect access to my messages and gallery, I think you could also use this application to lock access to settings that lead to factory reset.I think that's the only way for now.There are other applications too that can work much better if you do some research.
Comment: Also, as mentioned clearly by OP that the situation is when the device gets stolen. The thief doesn't have to be tech-savvy. Go to some local phone repair shop and ask there to flash the OS. (If the device is a typical Mediatek phone, then all your app security measures will fail against "SP Flash Tool". )
Comment: But this app will work only when the system is running. You can still go into Recovery and do the reset, thereby removing the app itself as well. Of course, if this app or any other (for that matter) uses encryption on the files, then reset from recovery won't do any good for thief to recover the data.
Comment: @Firelord Great comments, +1 on that second comment.


Can I find out who is +1ing my website?

Question: So I finally took the plunge and added a +1 button next to the Facebook "like" and Twitter "follow" buttons on most of my websites.  The +1 count seems to be going up but I'm wondering if I can tell who is doing the +1ing
Comment: Its 2014 and I have yet to see who besides myself does g+ on my blog when I g+ my own posts. The only time I see who does g+ is when I don't, and they do.
Answer: I don't think I've seen anything about a full-on reporting utility around +1s. (Yet?) But if what you're looking for, like site name, is unique enough, you can fudge this a bit with a site-limited search, eg. http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aplus.google.com+techcrunch
But that requires that users have made their +1s public so they show up in the tab, and also searches across their entire profile, so you'll also get people who have the term in their Posts or Buzz tabs, too. Depending upon whether you specifically want only +1s or just want to see who's supporting you, that may not actually be a bad thing. Obviously people who aren't publicizing their +1s won't be  returned by this, but then they probably wouldn't be by any other method either, I guess.
Just last week, someone in the Google Webmaster forum suggested it'd be possible to grab identities through the button and a Google employee popped in basically saying "okay, prove it." Given it would've been simple enough for him to just confirm(if that were the case), I'm going to guess the real answer to your question is either no, or that it at least shouldn't be possible at the moment.
Comment: Great response.
Answer: If you want some analytics on +1s (as well as Facebook/Twitter), give AddThis a try. You can easily add those 3 services and they also include decent analytics for shares and clickbacks.
Answer: You are going on right track. By adding +1 to your website you are being social. Its better to active on Google plus as well. As Google started counting your social presence to increase your ranking , you should work on social media as well.

Can I find out who is +1ing my website?


Problem when cherry picking actions - Proximal Policy Optimization

Question: I am using the implementation of PPO2 in stable-baselines (a fork of OpenAI's baselines) for a Reinforcement Learning problem.
My observation space is $9x9x191$ and my action space is $144$. Given a state, only some actions are "legal". If an "illegal" action is taken, the environment will return the same state. Think of it as the game of Go, where you try to place a stone on an intersection that is already occupied.
When a legal action is taken, it can result in a state that is completely different from the state before. It can also result in legal actions that are completely different. So it is not as in Go, where the stones stay on the board.
I currently feed the model a vector containing the legal actions (a multi-hot-vector, 1 for legal, 0 for illegal). When the model samples the actions, I first run the action means through a sigmoid so they all become positive but still keeps relative size order. Then I multiply the means with the legal action vector which sets the illegal actions to zero. The model then samples from only the legal actions with argmax. I do not change the underlying probabilities of the actions, so when calculating the neglogs of an action, they will be the true neglogs.
This works well for some time, but after a while I get the following error:
tensorflow.python.framework.errors_impl.InvalidArgumentError: Found Inf or NaN global norm. : Tensor had NaN values

The error is thrown when I calculate the tf.clip_by_global_norm:
grads, _grad_norm = tf.clip_by_global_norm(grads, self.max_grad_norm)

I am guessing that the grads become infinitely large.
A general trend is that new and old neglog action probabilities starts to increase (which means that the action probabilities for the new and old policy starts to decrease). The Kullback Leiber distance also increases rapidly between them. This will lead to the ratio (r(θ) in the paper) to increase, which also will lead to a very volatile policy loss.
If I increase the number of steps before update, it can run for longer, but eventially it will crash.
I have tried to punish illegal actions instead of removing them, but the convergence is very slow.
My questions are:

What might be the reason for the grads going bananas?
Can it affect the model in an unexpected way if I cherry pick the legal actions?
Is there any other, better way that limit the action space to just legal actions? I have not found any papers that analyze it. Does anyone know how AlphaZero handles illegal actions?
Answer: I believe that alphazero handles illegal actions by masking out the illegal logits before feeding to the final softmax output.


Crypto-Currency price API with price listed in USD?

Question: I am working on an app that will display the current price of crypto-currencies in a similar fashion to the stock app in iOS 8. The app is written in Swift. I am looking for an API that will allow me to get the price of the many crypto currencies (not just bitcoin) in USD.
This API must either be web-based, or have a library provided in either Objective-C or Swift. It must be free. It must not force me to login or make an account to use it.
So far, all the API's which support multiple currencies I have found list the prices in terms of Bitcoin instead. I am aware that I can convert the Bitcoin price presented to its USD equivalent, however this would require bringing in a second API, and considering the fluctuation in price of Bitcoin, and the extra API calls that would have to occur, this to me is a non-option.
Is there an API out there that supports my needs?
Answer: The Shapeshift API is your friend: https://shapeshift.io


Maple Beer I notice it turn cloudy today

Question: I am about to bottle my first maple beer,and I notice it turn cloudy today.. There was froth starting on it for the past two days. Is this normal?
Comment: How did you make it?   If the froth was during fermentation: sure it's normal - if that's the case wait *at least* until the foam goes away, plus 4 days before bottling, but it's better to use a hydrometer to check fermentation progress.
Answer: If I were you I'd wait a bit.  Ideally you want to be taking gravity readings so you'll know when primary fermentation is done.  Then sometimes secondary fermentation will cause foam/bubbles, you'll want to let that finish.  It's harder to measure, but I go with 1 week after primary and secondary should be done.  And note that secondary doesn't mean you have flip fermenters, it's going to happen.  Putting your beer into a secondary fermenter is a good idea to get a clearer beer, but is extra work, more risk of infection, exposure to 02, etc.  I do it for some beers, but I usually let primary and secondary happen in one fermenter.
On a side note it's one of the many reasons I switched to kegging.  Even if I put it into the keg a little early there is zero chance I'm going to make a bottle bomb, which can happen if bottling happens too early.
Comment: Thanks for the answer sniperd. Yes this is second fermentation when these foam bubbles started and then turned cloudy at that point. I had  transferred beer into another fermenter. I will taste it to make sure if is still Tasty before bottling


(How) can I prevent pasta water from boiling over with the lid closed?

Question: I always cook pasta with the lid of the pot open, because otherwise foam starts to build up and eventually boils over, maikng a huge mess. I would prefer to keep the lid on for energy saving purposes. Is this possible at all? What makes the foam build up, why does it not when the lid is open?
Answer: You can use a larger pot. I always use my 12 qt stock pot to boil pasta in. I fill it anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 full and have no problems with boil over. I too always use it with the lid on. Granted, you're going to use more energy to heat a larger quantity of water, but meh. I'd bet that your refrigerator and A/C use gobs more energy than your range.
As to why it happens? I'm speculating here, but maybe it's the back pressure on the foam bubbles when the lid is on. With the lid off the bubbles can expand rapidly, and break. With the lid on, there is slight back pressure which could restrict the bubbles ability to expand as quickly.
Comment: A/C does use more energy than the range but whatever you pay for the range you will pay double for the A/C to pull it back out of the air.
Comment: It might be currents rather than pressure - the lid could prevent a rising current from helping carry anything away? That would keep the air right above the bubbles hotter and more saturated with water vapor.
Comment: +1 Absolutely true, a larger pot expecially with a larger diameter does the trick.
Comment: @Jefromi: Yes, it's probably a bit of both.
Comment: @Jefromi - We just covered this in my chemistry class. Leaving the lid on increases vapor pressure in a closed system. This is similar to how a pressure cooker works. Leave the lid off and the boiling water stays at the same temperature. Keep it on and the water gets hotter.
Comment: @ssaki: Ah yes, vapor pressure is the forgotten term I was looking for!
Comment: @ssakl: Oops, now you made me look bad. That's where I was heading with the "saturated with water vapor", just didn't want to be too technical. (I was a math/physics major.) Thanks for filling in the gaps!
Comment: For the A/C argument: many people live in areas where A/C are uncommon in private households …
Answer: Use the pasta cooking techniques in this answer:
Pasta: is simmering equivalent to roiling boil?
Bring just enough water to cover the pasta to a boil, put the lid on and let it sit.
Use less water, less energy, and it can't boil over if it's not boiling.
Comment: Like Mies said: "Less is more".
Comment: "Bring just enough water to cover the pasta to a boil, put the lid on and let it sit." Doesn't that take long to get to a boil?
Answer: Once the water reaches a boil and you've added the pasta you can also turn down the heat on the burner; this should reduce the creation of foam. I do not have the problem, though I also add salt and olive oil to the water and typically do not have foam.
Comment: I remember another answer on this site explaining why salt or oil is added, not to change the boiling point or keep the pasta from sticking, but to solve the foaming issue - but I can't find the link right now.  Just wanted to semi-back up your claim with some anecdotal evidence...will comment again with the link if I can dig it up. :)
Answer: You can use a boil over preventer, also known as a milk watcher, among other things. It's a disk with a raised edge and a notch at one side, which you place at the bottom of the pot. It works by collecting a lot of the bubbles from the bottom underneath, enclosed by the raised edge, and releasing them as fewer, larger bubbles through the notch, so that they don't cause the foam that leads to boiling over.
Original post:
Cooking pasta without boiling over is very simple if you have a simple little piece of "pottery" called "Boil Master".  I bought this in a shop somewhere when we were traveling. It is approx. 2" in Dia. and Approx. 1/2" thick. The little card that came with it said it was called "Boil Master" and was made in New Mexico by Mountain High Pottery.  I have not been able to find the company or the product.  It works like magic every time.  It has never boiled over and I have used it for years.
Comment: Could you include a more detailed description, or better yet, a picture? Without that, it's not really much of an answer; the dimensions along with a name no one else uses and a local pottery shop with no online presence don't really let anyone else know what to look for.
Comment: Thanks for the suggestion, David - I figured out what this is usually called, and edited a helpful description into your post.
Answer: you can use a lid with holes in it - i use it for cooking and it works pretty good
Answer: If the only reason you put the lid on your cooker is to save energy, then I'd recommend just not putting the lid on.  You're not "saving" anything.  Your burner will be running the entire time you are cooking, lid on or off.  Furthermore, regardless of whether the lid is on or off, you will be cooking your pasta at the same temperature -- 100 deg (C).
Comment: Of course, removing the lid does not reduce energy usage, but I don't need to have the burner on (or have it on lower heat) if the pot doesn't cool off too quickly, and the lid might help with that. For my specific case of cooking pasta, however, this has been rendered irrelevant by Sobachatina's post pointing me at the cooking instructions where you just turn the heat off completely after bringing the water to the boil.


Asking query performance questions

Question: What information should be provided when asking how to improve the performance of a query?
Answer: As many of the following as possible:

Formatted text of the query/procedure/function.

Indenting SQL by 4+ spaces on each line is usually best.

Schema (CREATE TABLE); use text, not images

Table, index, and constraint definitions (scripts).
Even better:  A link to a demo that reproduces the core of the problem.

The performance or query-optimization tag.
Query plans

Ideally the post-execution variety, containing runtime information.
Estimated execution plans (if obtaining a post-execution plan is not practical).
Anonymized plans are acceptable but may limit answer quality.
A picture of execution is occasionally enough (but discouraged).

Environment

Database product, precise version, and edition.
Hardware (e.g. memory/CPU/storage) and OS information.

About the issue

What is the intent of the query
Current and desired performance levels.
Things you can and cannot change (e.g. can add indexes, cannot change the query).
The tuning steps followed so far.

Further reading

Slow Query Questions, Using EXPLAIN, Performance Optimization (PostgreSQL Wiki)
How to create a Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable example (MCVE)
Help us help you : keys to getting good answers.
Comment: I'm hoping to keep this answer to a manageable size. Please contribute, but prioritize brevity over comprehensiveness. Feel free to add additional links to the **Further reading** section at the end.
Comment: "Maneageable size" -- I added structure since there are only about 6 things.  I can answer most query performance questions given only the first 2.  (The 3rd, a tag, is to get my attention.)
Answer: Instructions for PostgreSQL Performance Questions
Copied from the postgresql-performance tag info.
About improving / explaining the performance of existing queries. May concern particular query techniques or the setup of your hard- and software. Tag with postgresql as well.
Questions about trivial queries should rather go to stackoverflow.com. See DBA Help about suitable questions.
Consider basic advice on Performance Optimization and Slow Query Questions in the PostgreSQL Wiki, including the section "Things to try before you post". EXPLAIN is particularly important.
When posting questions, include:

Your Postgres version, at least the major version like "15" or "9.6". (Since Postgres 10, the major version is just the leading number.) Find out with: SELECT version();

Your actual query / queries. In a readable format and as brief as possible, but don't remove anything that might be relevant. Describe the expected result. Include an example for simple cases.

Table definition(s): Preferably a CREATE TABLE script showing data types and constraints for relevant columns and CREATE INDEX scripts for relevant indexes. (The output from \d+ tablename in psql is a less useful fallback.)

Cardinalities (rough number of rows) in involved tables. Cardinalities (rough number of distinct values) and typical distribution in crucial columns.

Query plan(s) obtained with EXPLAIN (BUFFERS, ANALYZE, SETTINGS). (Before Postgres 12 just EXPLAIN (BUFFERS, ANALYZE).)
Consider pasting plans on explain.depesz.com, and include the resulting link.

Link to an online demo at db<>fiddle or similar, populated with the schema, some sample data, and the query.

Only where relevant, a brief mention of your hardware and system, like: "CentOS 6.1, Xeon E5-2450 with 64GB RAM, 4-disk RAID 10 of Intel X-25E SSDs". Or more details if your question is about hardware.
Answer: Taken from a comment by Wilson Hauck on a MySQL performance issue question.
Instructions for MySQL Performance Questions

Computer specifications

RAM size
SSD/NVME versus HDD on MySQL Host server

Please post on pastebin.com and share the links.  (Or similar product.)

Additionally from your SSH login root, text results of:

SHOW GLOBAL STATUS; (after minimum 24 hours UPTIME)

SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES;

SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST;

a complete MySQLTuner report

Windows version: github.com/pmachapman/mysqltuner
Linux version: MySQLTuner-perl

SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS;

SELECT name, count FROM information_schema.innodb_metrics ORDER BY name;
required for server workload tuning analysis to provide suggestions.

Enable the mysql slow query log (MySQL-5.7, MySQL-8.0, MariaDB). This can be done at runtime (in addition to the config file for next restart):

SELECT @@slow_query_log_file, @@log_output; to see what the filename (if @@log_output is FILE) will be. Change if required before enabling with slow_query_log.
SELECT @@long_query_time; to see what the time in seconds for the slow queries are. The default of 10 seconds is rarely useful; change to 1.
SET GLOBAL slow_query_log=1 /*M!100005 , GLOBAL log_slow_verbosity='query_plan,explain' */;
use mysqldumpslow -s t or pt-query-digest to summarize the important ones.
Post the most important queries along with EXPLAIN {query} and SHOW CREATE TABLE {tablename} for each table in the query.  (Please do not use the less-descriptive DESCRIBE.)

Please use text, not images.
Comment: You need also to post an EXPLAIN SELECT .... to see if and which indexes where used. Further a cull CREATE TABLE with INDEXES is qalso helpful.
Comment: @nbk You can add the details to the answer yourself. It's a ***community wiki*** answer and as such can be edited by anyone/everyone.

Asking query performance questions


Why doesnt my flute tone improve?

Question: So i have been playing the flute for 5 years and a couple months ago, I purchased an intermediate level yamaha flute. I practice every single day for a minimum of an hour and i try to do long tones as often as possible. However my flute tone doesnt seem to be improving. It is very frustrating especially considering how much time i put for practicing. My tone for notes above third octave D  become VERY airy. As i said, i am not a beginner however i have tried almost everything to fix my tone but nothing seems to work. Any suggestions?
Comment: Do you have a teacher?
Comment: Look for a different teacher; sometimes one simply does not resonate with the style of a teacher to make sure, you don't exercise the wrong things. An airy sound could indicate, that embouchure needs to be tweaked. While 5 years are considerable, they are not yet a guarantee for master level  when starting as normal human.
Comment: Model of flute?  Amount paid?
Comment: What specifically are you practicing related to improving your tone? Just because you are practicing doesn't mean you will improve in all areas, just the ones that are being practiced.
Comment: I used to have a teacher up until a few months ago but the only advice she gave me about this issue was to play with more air with isn't helpful when trying to play third octave notes at pianisimo.
Comment: Well I practice the pieces that we perform in wind ensemble or any other band that im in. I also spend time on warmups but not for a huge amount of time
Answer: A standard rule that your teacher should have told you is

"Practice does not make perfect.  Good practice makes perfect."

It may well be that your embouchure is not quite correct, and a teacher should be watching that -- and you might try playing in front of a mirror to observe any failing of position.
One thing to try: play the lower registers and verify that you have a clean attack and a full "non-airy/breathy" tone.  Then play a couple notes higher.  Don't play any higher than that until those notes are clean.  This way you will slowly build both ability and confidence in your playing.  Reaching the top octave &1/2 or so on the flute is not easy, so patience is necessary.
Comment: @JohnDoe well said.
Comment: A better way of saying this is, "Practice makes *permanent*", meaning whatever/however you practice becomes the normal for you.
Answer: As someone that worked in a band instrument repair and sales shop for eight years, I wanted to append my answer to Carl's, which is very good from a technical standpoint.
From an equipment standpoint, there are a number of things to look at.
Used or new? How old is the flute? Is it "brand new" (as in the flute could theoretically be five years old but never taken out of the box)? If it's used, when was the last time it saw the inside of a NAPBIRT-Certified band instrument repair technician?
The biggest influence on how you sound is you: lung capacity, sinus cavity shape and size, mouth shape, etc. You and I could play the exact same setup and get completely different sounds. Therefore, even if the flute is brand new, just because it's a Yamaha (which, admittedly, is a good brand, assuming it's not super old) doesn't mean that it's a good fit for you.
Before you purchased this flute, how many other flutes did you try? If you're thinking about purchasing any sort of musical equipment, you should be trying as many different varieties of that equipment as you can find.
And don't immediately disregard an instrument because it's "student-level" or a brand you've never heard of. Obviously, there are what I would refer to as ISOs: instrument-shaped objects. The really obvious ones are the ones where they take a well-known brand name and change one letter. Before purchasing any piece of equipment, consult a trusted NAPBIRT-Certified band instrument repair technician.
As for other brands you may want to try, here's a list:

Yamaha (within the last 20 years)
Jupiter (within the last 20 years) (yes, they make non-student-level instruments)
Gemeinhardt
Azumi
Armstrong
Powell
Amadeus
Pearl
Trevor James

I want to make special mention of a brand that we sold in our store: Di Zhao. Don't be put off by the fact that it's a Chinese instrument. The price-to-sound-quality ratio of these flutes is, in my opinion, unmatched by any other flute brand. In other words, there are better-sounding flutes, and there are less-expensive flutes, but you're not going to find a better-sounding flute at the prices that you'll find Di Zhao.
Answer: I would be surprised if the problem was your flute. Leaking pads, the most common issue, will kill your low register but often don't affect the high register as much. (Check that the headjoint cork is in the right place though.)
Carl's answer is good; I have some details I'd like to add:
In general, a high register that sounds bad is probably due to too much tension in your embouchure and airway. It's pretty natural to tighten up and close your throat when reaching for those high notes, but that doesn't help and will make for a shrill, breathy, unpleasant sound.
Practicing harmonics can help. An exercise I learned recently, that has really helped my high register become more open and pure, goes something like this:

Play a long tone on low D. Try to get the note sounding as full and resonant as possible, which means you'll create lots of space inside your mouth and throat.
Now, WITHOUT MOVING OR CHANGING ANYTHING, not your fingers or your embouchure, try to play up the octave to middle D. It's possible - the trick is to just slightly increase the pressure of your airstream. Engage those core muscles and use your diaphragm!
Once your harmonic middle D is secure, try for the A above that, then the 3rd octave D.
If you need to "cheat", use your lower lip to do so. Everything else stays put. The point is to practice maintaining that space inside your mouth and throat.
Try other notes for your fundamental, and practice them the same way - slowly work your way up the harmonic series, as far as you can go without tensing or forcing anything.

Hopefully that will help, but a good teacher will be able to offer you more specific and personalized advice, seek one out if you can.

Why doesnt my flute tone improve?


What is wrong with asking the angels for a blessing in Shalom Aleichem?

Question: In the artscroll zemiros book they mention that the Gra and Rav Emden either did not say or modified the shabbat song Shalom Aleichem because there is a stanza which requests that the angels bless us. My question is what is wrong with asking angels to bless us? Yaakov does exactly that when he struggled with the angel of Eisav.
Comment: The pasuk never says it was an Angel. Perhaps (Yaakov thought) it was a man.
Comment: It seems that Rashi holds that Yaakov wasn't asking the angel to bless him, and the angel didn't actually bless him see Rashi to [Bereishit 32:27](http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8227#showrashi=true&v=27) and :29
Comment: Related: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/56502/8775
Answer: Angels can only do what they're programmed to do, they don't work for us. Hence it's questionable if I have any business asking angels to do anything.
I would assume that if Yaakov is minding his own business and is suddenly attacked by an angel, the angel is now running a program called interact_with_Yaakov. Somehow Yaakov reasoned that the  interact_with_Yaakov program included something like if (must_bless == True) then bless_Yaakov. Hence he asked for it. But the angel won't give Yaakov his name as it's of no use -- once the sun comes up and the angel flies away, interact_with_Yaakov is no longer running and thus the angel no longer has a job interacting with Yaakov, hence Yaakov can't summon it or make any requests.
As for how Yaakov deduces that the angel has a bless_Yaakov routine, the approach of the Sforno and others is that Yaakov realizes that G-d is sending him this struggle so he can learn a message of hope -- either that he's personally stronger than he thinks, or that his offspring will overcome adversity. Either way, the message isn't truly complete until he can force his adversary to bless him.
Comment: Stack Overflow has way too much influence on this site. :)
Comment: The way I see it, it's just being polite. I am welcoming them into my home to do their job, after I first bless them and pray that peace should rest upon them -- i.e. that their job should indeed be to bless me with peace. First I say שלום עליכם to the מלאכי השרת; that is a blessing which is a prayer that Hashem put peace upon them. Then I call them מלאכי השלום because I assume my prayer was accepted and I welcome them and instruct them to do their job, and then I escort them out to continue with their job of blessing people with the peace they have been given to bless with.
Comment: This answer (and R' Yaakov Emden too, for that matter) assumes that the angels coming to your house on Friday night aren't coming there to bless you. Who says? Why are they coming otherwise, if not to bring you blessings of peace?
Comment: @DovF The objection formulated in the Sefer Keser Rosh (# 93) from R. Chaim of Volozhin (and presumably reflecting the Gra mentioned in the question) states that the angels are forced (by God) to either bless you or curse you. The problem with Shalom Aleichem, then, is that you are asking the angels to bless you, which makes no sense – if God told them to bless you they will have to do so even without your request, and if God told them to curse you they will have to do so despite your request.
Answer: First of all, according to Rambam and Ralbag the incident with Yaakov and the angel didn't actually happen. It was a prophetic vision.
Guide for the Perplexed 2:42

The same, I hold, is the case when it is said in reference to Jacob,
"And a man wrestled with him" (Gen. xxxii. 25); this took place in a
prophetic vision, since it is expressly stated in the end (ver. 31)
that it was an angel.
(Friedlander translation)

Ralbag Genesis 32:25

ונראה לו בנבואה מלאך ה' כאילו הוא איש
And an angel of Hashem appeared to him in a prophetic vision as if he
were a man.

(I am assuming that if someone does something wrong in a dream it does not count as doing something wrong.)
Furthermore, when Ralbag discusses the blessings that Yitzchak gave to Yaakov, he states that a blessing can only be one of two things – a prophecy, or a prayer.
Ralbag Genesis 28:9

וזה כי כבר יסופק על ענין זאת הברכה אם היא הודעת מה שעתיד להיות או היא
כמו תפלה ובקשה מהשם יתעלה שיברך זה המתברך כי בזולת אלו השני פנים לא
יהיה תועלת בברכת הנביא
And this is because we are already uncertain as to the nature of this
blessing, whether it was a revelation of what would be in the future
or if it was like a prayer and request from
Hashem-He-Should-be-Exalted that he should bless this person that was
blessed. For besides these two choices there cannot be any benefit in
the blessing of a prophet.

If you look at what the angel responded to Yaakov, all he said was that Yaakov's name will no longer be Yaakov, but instead it will be Yisrael. That does not sound like much more than a prophecy, which would not be problematic as the whole issue with angelic blessings is that it ascribes power to someone other than God. If the angel is simply stating that something will happen there would be no issue, and in fact throughout Tanach angels tell people that things will happen.
Also, R. Yaakov Emden (Siddur Rabbi Yaakov Emden Vol. I p. 565) actually lists nine potential objections to Shalom Aleichem and the accompanying prayers, and the one about praying to angels is possibly the least significant.

He never saw his father recite these, and they are not mentioned in any of the writings of the Arizal.
It is forbidden to make "requests" on Shabbos, to the point that the Sages even removed all the "request berachos" from Shemonah Esrei on Shabbos despite it being an institution of the Anshei K'neses Hagedolah.
One will read the text by the light of the candle, especially the parts with lengthy unfamiliar text, especially the first times that one recites them.
Prayers to angels are inappropriate. However, he states that this issue is somewhat mitigated by what he wrote about prayers to angels in his commentary to the Tur O.C. siman 3 (that as long as one acknowledges in the prayer that the angels are merely agents of God it is not really a problem).
How can we innovate something that our ancestors/Sages never set? Why should we be "wiser" and more "righteous" than them?
It is perhaps a violation of Bal Tosif (do not add to the mitzvos).
There are grammatical issues, such as the "ב" in בבואכם and בצאתכם.
The phrase ממלך מלכי המלכים (with the מ in the beginning) makes no sense.
Why would you ask the angels to leave?

He concludes by stating that his personal custom is to simply say the following one line:
שלום עליכם מלאכי השרת מלאכי עליון מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא


TV strong station has no signal when coax is connected

Question: Right, not directly ham radio related, but this puzzles my ham brain.  I have several TVs connected to a distribution amp connected to an outside antenna.  All but one work fine, and the one won't pull in the strong stations, but does fine with the weaker ones.  If I unscrew the F so that only the center conductor touches, it gets the strong stations as well.  I've been trying to come up with an explanation, but have failed so far.  I tried disconnecting all the other TVs (thinking it's a ground loop or something) with no success.  What would cause that and how would I fix it?
Comment: Have you tried a different port on the amp?
Comment: Have you disconnected both ends of the coax and checked for a short between shield and center conductor?
Comment: I looked again, and isn't a distribution amp, it's just an inline amp and then a 4-way splitter.  I did try a different port on the splitter with no change.  I'd think if it were a short then none of the channels would come in.  This TV has a signal meter.  On one "solid" channel, the signal is steady at 71-72.  On one of the "bad" channels (which is stronger than the "bad" channel), the signal goes from 0 to 87.  But like I said the "bad" channels are solid on other TVs on the same splitter.  I'm baffled.
Answer: I'm not at all sure about the exact situation, but I predict that you will find that the cable between the distribution amplifier and this particular TV set is damaged.
In general, when you omit the shield connection to a coaxial cable, it starts operating more like an unshielded single wire — a monopole antenna, if the other end is disconnected. For example, if you have a piece of coaxial cable that is not connected on either end, and connect it to a receiver (using a F, RCA, or "UHF" connector, or other type with a protruding center pin), it will function as an antenna until the shield makes contact and then it will be silent.
If your cable works better without the shield connection, that strongly suggests that there is damage which means that it cannot function as a proper coaxial cable but can function as "a piece of wire", and the TV signal works in that case because of some combination of direct capacitive coupling and antenna behavior.
Answer: You may be overloading the front end of the "faulty" TV, creating adjacent channel interference or some other kind of distortion.  The loss you introduce by only loosely coupling the receiver may be bringing down the signal level to a point where it is no longer impairing the receiver.  The fact that a distribution amp is inline with your television probably plays a role in your problem.
I used to work for a company that supplied tuners for digital televisions and I have worked personally with TV manufacturers in Japan, Korea, China, and the U.S. I can tell you that there is huge variation in the quality of DTV front ends.  The performance standards that TV sets need to meet in the U.S. are minimal.
There is a standard for receiver performance called A/74, but compliance is not mandatory for TV sets.  Compliance was mandatory for the so-called "coupon" converter boxes, but testing at my company's lab identified major manufacturers who weren't complying, including LG and a company that manufactures for Walmart.  We met with the FCC, several Congressmen, and a Senator to raise the issue.  Everyone was polite, but no one did anything - even though tax-payer dollars were subsidizing non-compliant boxes.  So if that was the industry response to a standard that was mandatory, you can imagine the response to one that isn't.
Even if the set meets or exceeds all ATSC performance standards, it still is no guarantee that there wouldn't be a problem.  It's possible that all of the sets meet A/74, but the problem set doesn't have as much margin.
 There is a really good overview of interference mechanisms at work for ATSC here.  The author (Charlie Rhodes), who is very well respected in the industry, makes the case that even if standards are adhered to, they may not be adequate.
Some distribution amps have a variable gain setting.  If you have it set to the max (or even if not), you might try backing the gain down a little and seeing if that improves the situation without losing the signal on your other sets.
Answer: Problem resolved.  I put a splitter in before the amp and put the problem TV on one output and the input of the amp on the other.  Now all TVs have all the appropriate channels.  I could probably have accomplished the same with an attenuator on the TV itself, but I don't have one so I went with the no-cost solution.
Comment: Thanks for following up!  Please feel free to accept your own answer by clicking on the check mark.
Comment: I think you may haves proved that you had too much signal hitting the front end of your TV.
Answer: Looks like a massive overdrive of the receiver's input (frontend).
To validate I'd suggest to (experimentally) attach some potentiometer (wiper shorted to one end) parallel to the receiver's input. Thus you would be able to variably load the incoming signal - bringing the level down.
Looks a bit as if the frontend were stuck at it@ highest gain - any means of attenuation (some AGC) being inoperational.


Notification not show any button

Question: how to fix notification not show button?
When i receive file via bluetooth, notification is show but don't have any button for accept or cancel.
Answer:
i can not accept. If i click it, do nothing.
Answer: These are just notifications, letting you know that something happened, not dialogues expecting your actions.
Answer: Yes, you cannot do anything with or about it from that notification. If you want to do anything regarding the notification, you must go to the option it is referring to, in your case, it is the bluetooth option. This  might seem weird for an ex-windows user that is used to getting an action upon clicking the notification but this is how eOS works.
Comment: if i use ubuntu desktop and open bluetooth settings, i can receive files from my phone. But if i use pantheon desktop and open bluetooth settings, i can not. So, this is the bug in pantheon desktop (maybe bluetooth settings is bug)
Comment: Yes, you cannot do that. I just checked. You should try using some application for sharing files instead. Check out this list for the same: https://alternativeto.net/software/shareit/?platform=linux

Notification not show any button


Why were bloody religious wars so incredibly frequent in Europe in the century following the Reformation?

Question: Beginning in 1520, right after Martin Luther's Reformation, bloody religious wars began that kept recurring almost yearly for over a century. The Reformation's rapid spread drew battle lines accross Europe as Catholic armies were fielded to crush the Protestants into submission, engulfing the continent in intermittent war from the 1520s to the 1640s. But what was the real cause of these recurring wars? In other words, "Why not live and let live?"
Comment: Is there any religion, or sect of a religion, that actually believes in "live and let live"?  Seems to me that as soon as the Romans stopped killing Christians, they started killing each other over doctrinal issues, while of course joining forces against non-Christians.  I suspect the relative peace prior to the 1520s was simply an artifact of the mainstream Church having temporarily suppressed all dissent.
Comment: @Mark Not just the Eastern, really. Europe's polytheistic religions used to be quite similar (though often a bit less refined). It's really the abrahamic religions that stick out like a sore thumb with their "there's only one God, and it's our God, and we're the chosen people and you are liars/heretics/servants of evil and what have you". The basic idea in the polytheistic religions was more like "Sure, you have your gods, but our gods are going to kick your gods' butts." :P It's kind of inevitable that when you have One True Word of God, any dissent turns rather bloody.
Comment: @jamesqf, the Eastern religions tend to be fairly "live and let live".  The big historic wars in Asia were usually for other reasons.
Comment: It is an error to presume that the wars were wholly religious.  That's a convenient label for a historian to use, but it is imprecise since the wars involved entire kingdoms/empires, and there was an incestuous relationship between church leadership and state leadership.  I make this comment due to your question being overly simplistic.  (But  not a bad question, as why they kept fighting over this can seem puzzling to the modern mind).
Comment: Technically most wars have been to some extent "religious" because religion has historically formed an integral part of the lives of Europeans. Those who wage "religious wars" most often have ulterior motives than just suppressing those of other religions. It is convenient for propaganda purposes for leaders to make use of religious differences of enemy nations in order to justify invasion. In this case, between Catholics and Protestants
Comment: There was nothing unique about the 16th century - back in the 11th century Pope Urban the 2nd acknowledged that the church celebrated warfare and encouraged slaughter in the name of god as good for the soul. After that you get many crusades and purges of heretics - its a rather bloody history. At best you could say it was simply that there were enough Protestants that they could successfully fight back (unlike groups like the Cathars).
Comment: Can you demonstrate that religios wars were less frequent in Europe before the reformation? There was a lot of conflict between Orthodox and Catholic at the time of the crusades, which partly occurred in Europe. There were also heretical uprisings like the lollards, cathars, etc, and the reconquista.
Comment: @Mark that's a very fair point actually
Comment: @NeMo The Reconquista was a war/extended campaign against the Muslim occupiers of Spain, not another Christian denomination.
Comment: He said religious wars, not intrachristian wars.
Answer: Religious war in Europe may be understood in light of the existing order. First of all, the state and the church were vitally connected. This relationship had existed for centuries.  Whether Protestant or Catholic, the state exercised its responsibility to protect and promote the religion of its domain.
Second, religious toleration was at first nearly nonexistent. The idea that two or more religions could exist in the same country at the same time was considered neither possible nor proper to the sixteenth-century mind. This explains the conflict between Catholic and Protestants. But it also explains the intolerance among some Protestants, such as when certain Lutheran rulers persecuted Anabaptists.
Finally, the religious wars were fueled by the political ambitions of the kings of Europe, who saw the highly motivated armies under region's banner as tools to advance their political goals. Nowhere is this more evident than in the 1640s when French Catholics fought Spanish Catholics to aid German Lutherans and Dutch Calvinists.
Comment: Ok, so they tend to fight; we knew that. But why the decrease and then increase in certain specified time range? That's the question!
Comment: @JDługosz as always, religion was used as a way to rile up the population to take up arms against a political opponent (or social group you don't like). Such things tend to come and go depending on social and economic stability in an area.
Comment: to the sixteenth-century hive mind, I guess?
Comment: I like your question, but this answer gets -1. Medieval states didn't believe in toleration any more than renaissance-to-reformation ones did...  and you still haven't demonstrated that there was more religious conflict, or more conflict per se, after the middle ages than during them.
Answer: Religion was just the tool, mostly.
The real conflict was over who had the "monopoly on violence" - sovereignty. In medieval Europe, the state formed a useful alliance with the church - the church attested that the king was God's chosen (and thus the only rightful ruler of a given land), and provided a certain level of inter-national balance by keeping the individual fiefdoms, kingdoms, duchies and what have you small (and weak) enough.
But the medieval age was ending as the states gained more power - mostly through trade and craft, which were a lot easier to manage than the huge fiefs. Now you had three strong main powers - the landed, the burgeois and the clergy. And the pope started to feel a lot less important to the rulers who now had a solid power base without relying on their "divine right to rule". The pope didn't like this very much - not because of theological reasons, but as a simple matter of worldly power; if he let the reformation take its place without challenge, he would lose everything. While each of the "reformed" christianities had its own motivations, they pretty much all agreed on one thing - the pope shouldn't dictate what we can or cannot do. Think of how your own countryheads would react if half the people just went "we're not going to pay taxes anymore, thanks".
So on one side, you have people fighting for some sort of freedom, and on the other, people very much happy with the current state of things. The catholic rulers were promised reward in return for their contributions to the wars (as well as continued support in the "divine" department), while the various "reformed" wanted to break that power block apart (some actively, some defensively - my country's Hussites were mostly said to be concerned with keeping the Bohemian crown lands sovereign and letting everyone else do whatever; they got a Crusade for their troubles). And worse, the countries rarely switched "en masse" - so you might have half-catholic, half-reformed people fighting each other, which has historically often resulted in very bloody wars. The catholic church never head a threat of this scope - if they wanted to keep any power at all, they had to do everything they could to hold on. They saw the reformation as a challenge to their rule - which was true, of course, to various extents. Both the worldly and the divine rulers were just humans, despite what the church claimed - and they didn't want to lose any power.
This of course isn't unique to religion. Any time you have someone with violent power, they're going to severely resent anyone challenging that power. The main thing that made the Reformation stand apart was that it was rather sudden (at the timescales usual for change in medieval times) and engulfed pretty much all Europe almost at once, while also being combined with many other "partisan" groups - people were getting a taste for freedom and started challenging their traditions. Why should only the clergy drink the Lord's blood in the church? The Bible said all the people are supposed to eat and drink Lord. Needless to say, literacy had its influence on this - more and more people could suddenly read the Bible for themselves, rather than having it orated by some clergyman; and don't get me wrong, there were clergymen that were quite unhappy with the state of things as well (such as Jan Hus, whose death basically started the Hussite wars).
Other examples of similar bloodshed were in the jacobin revolutions ("democrats") and communist revolutions ("socialists"). It's probably not a surprise that they were mostly civil wars - few safe havens, lots of mistrust even on "friendly ground", lots of fervour. The length of the wars itself was just an artifact of their time, though - even during the 16th century, wars were still rather small, long and drawn out, with few battles that could be considered "decisive", with an almost endless supply of new soldiers and a lot of maneuvering, and still very much seasonal. You avoided fighting in harvest season and cold weather, which only gave you a month of two of warring every year - while the armies were already large enough to require supply trains rather than relying on "foraging" - something already stretched by fighting so much on "home territory", where you didn't want to anger your own people, basically.
Comment: Do you have a source for a monopoly on violence being posited in the 1600's?
Comment: @notstoreboughtdirt It's nothing special. We still have that legal monopoly today, and it has existed as long as the state, really. Don't read too much into that - it's just the idea that the only one who has legal right to use violence is the state (e.g. theft is illegal, unless it's done by the state, murder is illegal, unless it's done by the state etc.).
Comment: Sure that's how it works now. But my understanding was that it was somewhat different previously. It probably should be separate question, but I was hoping you had a source about that consolidation.
Comment: @notstoreboughtdirt The sovereign is legally the "highest authority", but it also delegates that power. The ruler doesn't come to arrest you personally - there's a whole hierarchy of power leading from the legal and executive powers all the way down to the policeman cracking your head open with a club. A typical feudal society delegated the *local* power to the individual feudal lords with considerable freedom, but they always had to answer to their own superiors, all the way to the head. Think less "I can punch Fred", more "I can tax Fred without telling the sovereign".
Comment: @notstoreboughtdirt Of course, in practice, the legal power doesn't necessarily translate to *actual* power. 1600's century France was nominally and legally under the sovereignty of the one true king, but if he actually tried to excercise the sovereignty, his "underlings" would replace him. Even the strongest rulers (like the Pope or the HRE Emperor) had to fear revolt if they pushed their "reports" too hard - but that's really just people fighting for sovereignty ("We'll pay taxes to A, not B!"), not against the idea. The later centralised absolutism just made those ideas more pure.
Answer: Most of the answers have revolved around the interconnection of Church and State and power politics, which is definitely a main part of the answer.
But the other factor which  is very hard for a modern person to get their head around, is that people back then really believed in heaven and hell and the idea that failing to defend their faith against heresies could damn them forever.
How else to explain the number of people who chose to be burned at the stake or worse, rather than becoming apostates in the eyes of other members of their faith and their God? To a modern person, even to many "true believers", an oath taken under duress is not an oath at all. Back then, it was different.
Perhaps the small life expectancy back then was part of this. It was rare for a man to reach "threescore years and ten" even in peacetime. It was common for children to die before reaching adulthood, for wives to die giving birth, for anyone to die at any time of all sorts of ailments and illnesses. If life was short and uncertain, and eternal life the reward of the faithful, faith would be stronger. These days, most people live long enough to experience the downsides of a long life. Has eternity lost its appeal?
Comment: While an interesting answer, it is unsupported and unsourced.  Please provide support and sources to support this line of answering the question as asked.
Comment: I like your line of thinking, but as this is an SE site sourced and supported answers are de rigeur.  (I am not saying you are wrong, or right, just that I'd like to see some support ... as I am tempted to up vote it).
Comment: I've also just remembered, that belief in the divine right of kings was also very strong. It was to the advantage of church and state alike that common men didn't appreciate that kings were not actually divine. So fighting for your king was by a common man's definition, fighting for God, and damnation would follow from not doing so. Right or wrong was not his to judge: kings were right by definition.
Comment: Some of it is personal deduction, and we cannot really know what people thought rather than did. I doubt that many committed their true thoughts to paper; doing that would very easily get them dispossessed, exiled or executed.  Recently I read a book on the Tudors. Unfortunately borrowed, returned, and I can't remember the author. Amazon shows many books titled "the Tudors" or similar. Unlike most histories, it was more about the society of those times than about who did what when, and what came over was that the mind-set of those times was very different and almost incomprehensible.
Comment: I think I'd have to write a book ... and do a lot more research first ... the mindset of the people of a byegone age isn't something one can justify or refute with a few paragraphs. I've read several books, one recently and several longer ago, and this feeling is what I came away with. I felt this was being missed by people who thought the question could be answered in terms of a modern analysis of power politics.
Comment: Indeed, nigel, but even citing the titles of the book that inspired your point (like a bibliography kind of reference) would be helpful.
Comment: I'll post the book details if they come back to memory  or if the book I mentioned crosses my path again. Unfortunately I tend to rely on Google and Amazon to track down books whose details I have forgotten. This time there are far too many books called something like "The Tudors" with the same official portraits of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I on their covers! (Also no "look inside" on Amazon history books ... why? ... the chapter list would be all I needed. All were aspects of society, not times or people.)
Answer: I'ts not about religion, it's about power and money
(Disclaimer: First of all, english is not my main languaje but i'm gonna give it a try, now let's go to the point of this answer.)
It's all start with the fall of Constantinople (1453), with the fall of the "horn of gold" sereval stuff trigger, but for our purposes, it also signified the fall of "Haga sophia", the great Cathedral of Eastern Christianity in the hands of the Muslims, the consecuences of this are several and in a variety of planes.
Culture
Now in that time knowledgment already means power but not like in today standard, it was a way (specialy in italy and if you where a member of a powerfull family) to show the rival powerhouse than you are, not just a good citizen -because you pay to an artist to make things for you- but also you are clever and richer enough to identify good works and to keep them with your sources, and nobody, specialy (but not limited to) that geographical area want to have clever and rich enemys.
With the fall of Constantinople the Pontificial States under the banner of the Pope Nicholas V, also known as Tommaso Parentucelli, (which was a member of a pro florentian family) saw something than they didn't see coming, the fall of an important place of faith, wich also means a strike in the moral of the Christian Kindoms, Christianity because of that was lose some points (i know, it's seems hard to believe for today standards of religion, but for them this was an important thing) and a new Christian "Main Temple" must be build, Muslims have the Meca in this time and, of course, it wasn't acceptable not have an emblematic temple to all Christianhood, so then it begin, the modifications of the Sn't Peters Chapel now known like the vatican.
Also several lettered Greeks escaping from the Turkish come to Rome, here, finally with ways of get good translations of Greek, and also with the recovery of some text than weren't exactly recovered since the times of the barbarians invations, the renaissanse start (have in consideration than in that times it wasn't easy to copy text, and the other tecnical limitations they have before wonder why).
This is not the only pope implied in this business, he's not gonna be the one who start the building, not the one who finished, as they have a tendency to change with some frecuency in this times, but have in mind than at this time, some time before and several times after all the popes are gonna be part of some of the powerfull familys of the European boot, the duration of this is the same than the duration of the pontifician states (751 - 1870), which was the reason why the powerfull familys in europe are gonna be willing and trying to take power over it when they can.
Economics
As you can guess, to change a little poor roman Chapel into what is now is not an easy task, it takes money, time and also political stabilty, it is going to take some time before in 1513 the pope Leo X actualy start the building of the St' Peter's Basilica, and so by that times, they start to raise taxes from abbods and similar stuffs, this ones in time transfer the cost, ask for donations and etc..., by that same time (1513) Germany was both a lot more poor and less educated than italy, so certain guy in charge of an economate (Martin Luther) in 1517 complains about the tax raises and other ways of payment demanded by the vatican, he also see the opulence of Rome and knowing the poor economical status of germany, well, he complain, this -in not so much time- bring the famous 95 thesis to the news at the time also.
Politics
But Pico de la mirandola in fact create 900 thesis 30 years before luther, the difference?, well, they aren't "more radical" or something, part of the 95 are contained in the 900 with ease, what really happend is than certain German prince saw this like an oportunity to have more power and remove the power of the King of Germany and spain in that time, no other than Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.
You see, opose to a king was opose to the god's chosen-to-be-king in the social imaginary of the Hierarchy and order (Charles Taylor), once removed you can justify easier your conquer if you where a noble, an thus, justify to govern, but it wasn't like that if you fail, if the king is justify in the eyes of him's population and you want to take him out the throne you need to make him dominion weaker, so you can archieve this in three ways:
1) Or "something" take out the king and you are the next in the succession line. (not the case of this future-to-be protestant kings)
2) Or you are a person with enough military power to take over the territorys (not the case of this guys either, not every region of germany are unified with this idea, several of the german princes where actualy pro king, so you have a civil war between your hands and with the plus of the king's Spain army, plus German army attackig you in your own fields, clearly not a possible victory)
3) Or you make him lose legitimacy in order to try to expell him's power, at least of germany, after all, he is Spanish by birth.
This was the one who run, some german princes go in favor of this thesis and use them to burn down the legitimacy of the king and gave themself legitimacy on them own.
This is notoriusly evident when you think than after the reform was already started and start the religius war in germany field, when Luther says "no violence" nobody gives a damn (between the princes) or when the princes, arguing than the divine will rest on them hands make them peasants work without rest, and in sundays, and luther say something about it, nobody -again- gives a damn.
This is also evident when another protestant groups start to appeard in the area, because maybie you don't want to use the justification of your rule in one guy who is saying stuff than you don't want to be a case, so you take some other bishop or some other guy who have enough credibility to do it, and go and support him, that's why several, i mean, a lot of the combats in the religious wars in germany where between different protestant groups.
To be all fair, Luther also send some letters specificaly speaking about anabaphtists, calling them "dogs with sarna" between other names and calling to the destruction of those 'filthy peasants' than opose the rule of them princes, yeah, i'm speaking about that two years period of the Campesine Revolts inside the religious wars (150 years aprox).
In somewhat justice to the plan of the German Princes, the fact than the Spanish empire where that big and the thing than the German prince where playing local can help them to win, in that sence there was a good think, but the guy's simply never put themself together to the start, and that cause a lot of pain, to a lot of people, in fact, nobody can be happy when family fight against family or neiborgh against neiborgh.
Comment: This is a neat answer, but the core tensions that led to the cited religious wars can be traced back to the [Guelphs and Ghibellines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guelphs_and_Ghibellines) a few centuries before the fall of Constantinople.
Comment: You can do that tracking if you want, but if you do that you still need to justify why this conflict happend in german territory and not in the italian boot, personaly, i tend to interpret it more like a internal problem of the states and powers involved in the germanic territory rather than an eclessial conflict, the part of Pico de la Mirandola must somewhat be a reflection of why this is not really an italian problem at territorial level, at least, and also the strong adherence against the reformist inside italy also speak against the Guelphs and Ghibellines intepretation, i think.
Answer:
Ok, so they tend to fight; we knew that. But why the decrease and then increase in certain specified time range? That's the question!

Because the time range is chosen that way and the reason limited to religion? There always are all kinds of war, but it is much nicer for your ego to "fight for the right cause" than for power and possession.
Think of crusades. Think of saxons. Think of the wars led by karolingian princes. But, these just were wars against pagans, not truly religious people, eh? ;)
As for the development necessary to get a decent amount of people with different religious beliefs to form a new church, have a look at clerical history. Pre-Lutherian "dissenters" were called heretics and killed by the church. Took a lot of dissatified people to overcome their fear and speak out loudly. For the rest - see George A. Strieby's answer.
Answer: The printing press.
Information control gives social control. Any new widely available information technology gives a surge in social power to everyone but it risks destroying information control. When social control fails conflicts flare up one way or another, until some kind of social order is re-established.
Religion was a code word for the established belief-system or frame of reference. Controlling the frame of reference of peoples mindset is what gives social power and religion was completely crammed with ways to do that back in the days.

EDIT
If my point would be true then anytime said control would be re-established you would probably be having a real tough time finding any sources of how things were different earlier and the ones you may find would likely not be deemed reputable. Martin Luther was probably not reputable according to the catholic church. Probably a bunch of conspiracy theories.
One way I could try and explain: If you are not especially interested in european history and were born rather recently you would probably not even think of some german monk when you hear the name. It shows that information control can create a shift in narrative which by it's nature is something that limits the thoughts we are able to think.

( Also removed banana. )
Comment: This is a great opening to an answer, in terms of root social causes, but it is incomplete and unsourced.   I suggest you add more detail on how the printing press made a difference, and source the points that support your argument.
Answer:
All apes (including humans) fight each other for no reason at all. Humans are different in the sense that they are able to learn advantages of living in peace - it just takes a few hundred years of learning (*).
Moreover, this time there was a reason to fight: Reformation paved the way for development of commerce and industry and it upended existing order of the things in a big way.

(*)I suspect that 'learning' above is just a regular evolutionary process: as opposed to other apes humans improve weapons quickly so ones who love war have better and better chances to die young.


Where are the customization options for GNOME 3?

Question: Gnome 2.x in Ubuntu 10.10 is highly customisable. How come all this has been locked down in 11.10 and Gnome 3.x? I enjoy using Ubuntu because of this reason. Now am I stuck with what I have when installing 11.10 (Just like Mac and Windows), or am I just being ignorant?
Comment: What specifically do you want to change?
Comment: Currently, you need additional extensions such as gnome-tweak-tool and other to customize gnome 3
Answer: A major reason why Unity and GNOME Shell (which is what I assume you meant by GNOME 3.x) are seemingly not as customizable at the moment is that they are still relatively new software fresh out of development, and developers are still ironing out bugs first before implementing more controls.
That being said, both Unity and GNOME Shell already have a lot of configuration options available. See How can I configure Unity? for information on how you can go about customizing Unity, and extensions.gnome.org for a list of GNOME Shell extensions you can install straight from your web browser to change the functionality and appearance of GNOME Shell. Additionally, GTK+ 3 themes and other aspects of the interface can now be managed using the GNOME Tweak Tool utility (see How do I get and install more themes, icons, and pointers?).
If there is some specific functionality or option you are looking for, please let us know in an edit to your question so we can better address it.


Third party apps doesn't show on slingshot

Question: I've installed some third party apps like google chrome, valentina server, xampp, etc. that is installed via gdebi package installer or eddy. Well, it is installed successfully however, it doesnt show in slingshot. Can you guys help me with it? Pleaseeeee. Thankssss
Answer: I hate when my apps doesn't show up in the launcher too
I think AppEditor can solve your problems, it's a great app for editing our launcher/slingshot entries. Link: AppEditor
I will try to show you a practical example, hope it can help.
Goal: Create an icon to launch the Python Interpreter. As you can see I have no Python Interpreter in my Programming Section.

Step 1. Launch AppEditor.

As we can see there's no Python in Programming here as well:

Step 2. Activate -> Show hidden entries

Wow! Look who's here. Python it self! I will activate the 3.5
Step 3. Activate -> Show in Launcher. Don't forget to Save

Now let's check if it works.

That's it! You can play and change the categories and even edit the myapp.desktop file directly. In most cases this will work, of course we'll find some exceptions.
Manual alternative
Somtimes the .desktop file exists already but there's something wrong in the configs, check if they already exist in your .desktop files directory with the command: ls ~/.local/share/applications Check if there's a myapp.desktop already.
if not, you can create it yourself following the next steps.
Create a .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications/myapp.desktop (you can use AppEditor to create a new one and it will give the same result)
Manual Ex: touch ~/.local/share/applications/chrome-browser.desktop
this example command would create a chrome-browser.desktop or you can use any text editor and just save there.
The contents of the .desktop file:
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=Python(v3.5) #Application name, Chrome for example
Comment=Python Interpreter #This will show up on mouse hover
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/python3.5.xpm #icon full path or the application name ex. chrome
Exec=/usr/bin/python3.5 #path to the program executable
Categories=Development;  #the category it will show up
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true

Example2. My manually crated netbeans.desktop launcher, in ~/.local/share/applications/netbeans.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=Netbeans
Icon=/home/felipe/Downloads/apps/netbeans/nb/netbeans.png
Exec=/home/felipe/Downloads/apps/netbeans/bin/netbeans
Comment=Netbeans IDE
Categories=Development;
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true

The executable is located in my Downloads/apps/netsbeans/bin directory
Comment: Chrome, Valentina Studio, etc. still doesn't exist, it doesn't show in AppEditor too. Help please
Comment: Hi, I'd update the answer for creating it manually. You'll need to know where the app installed are located.

When I don't know where something is installed I use the command find.
ex. ```sudo find / -name "chrome"``` and it will look for everything with chrome than you can point the executable in the .desktop file.
Comment: The funny thing is that Eddy always creates the application launcher for me, never used Gdebi tough.