Skiing near Frankfurt 18-23 February

Question: I will be in Frankfurt on business in February. What are the nearest ski resorts that cater for beginners and kids? Is there snow at that time of year?
Comment: I have to admit I'm surprised to find that there are quite a few ski resorts nearby, though they are all very low altitude (none go over 1000 m), so ski conditions must be very very dependent on weather, and you most probably can't be sure if there will indeed be enough snow to ski at any given date. If you want guaranteed snow you'll have to travel much further, going to the Alps in Switzerland, France or Austria.
Answer: Have a look at this map:
https://www.bergfex.de/deutschland/
As you can see there are two really small ski areas in the Taunus mountain range right next to Frankfurt. But the chances of them being open while you are there are essentially 0. Note that those small areas would also usually only be open on weekends.
So this leaves you with a bit of travel. If you have a car, you can reach the Hochsauerland area (Willingen, Winterberg, Neuastenberg. Elevation 600-900m) to the North, the northern Black Forest (Mehliskopf, elevation ~1000m) to the South or the Rhön mountains (Wasserkuppe, elevation 950m) to the East within 2 hours. They should all have snow around that time. However, with climate change you never know. Willingen at the time of writing is pretty green (https://www.skigebiet-willingen.de/page/webcam.php), but they seem to be using artificial snow, so you should be able to ski the biggest slopes.
The closest ski area to surely have natural snow and some more advanced slopes would indeed be the Feldberg area in the southern Black Forest, around 4 hours by car.
All those areas are kid friendly. No dangerous slopes and lots of ski schools around. I've been there.
Answer: You can find here the ski resorts in Hessen (is the State of Frankfurt), but i think there is in that time very little snow. You can go to Feldberg in the Black Forest, which is 3 hours from Frankfurt. I think there is a lot of snow and there are very good ski resorts.
Comment: Please note that there is the (Grosser) Feldberg in the Taunus mountains, right next to Frankfurt. What sulox32 is referring to is the Feldberg in the Black Forest. It will most surely have snow whereas the Taunus one might or might not have.
Comment: Webcams from Feldberg: https://www.liftverbund-feldberg.de/Webcams-Wetter
Comment: Note that it takes closer to 3h30-4h (driving) and 4h30 (by train and bus) to get there from Frankfurt (according to Google Maps).

Skiing near Frankfurt 18-23 February


Trello Limitations for free accounts?

Question: I have signed up trello few days back and just looking for limitations for the free version. Is there any limitations for the free signup ? And if yes , what are those ? I belong to institute and want to use it for research collaboration. Any suggestions ?
Answer: For the normal usage of Trello there is absolutely no limitation. With the free version you can create any number of boards, lists and cards.
However there are some extra functions you may decide to subscribe in order to help the team behind Trello and have extra control on your boards:

Gold account will let you upload attachments bigger than 10MB and change the background image of your boards.
Business Class subscription will give you further control over your Organization; managing accounts centrally, additional features to integrate with Slack, Github... and all users belonging to your organization becomes automatically Golden.

Trello Limitations for free accounts?


Posting large swaths of Wikipedia as answers

Question: I know Wikipedia has the answers to a lot of the questions posed here, but I've been seeing a lot of answers by people just posting large paragraphs from there or say, on a Star Trek question, from Memory Alpha without adding much more of their own explanation. Even if they cite the source and put it in block quotes, why not just rewrite into your own words? We might as well all go over to wikipedia if we're just going to copy and paste those pages into our answers.
Answer:
We might as well all go over to wikipedia if we're just going to copy and paste those pages into our answer

<fe>Yes, please!</fe>
Or for those who don't get my sense of humor: I think people should stop asking questions that can be answered by a copy & paste from Wikipedia!
In my opinion, if a c&p from WP is sufficient to answer the question, then that's all that should be done. The OP didn't bother to make that little bit of effort before asking, after all. Why should the person answering work harder than the asker?
Comment: Using http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/1164/is-the-time-war-introduced-only-in-new-doctor-who as an example (since I asked and you answered): I'm reluctant to read that Wikipedia page, since it almost certainly contains spoilers (i.e. outlines the entire plot, not just where the plot starts).  There's also information in one of the answers that's not (from a quick search; again: don't want to read it) in the Wikipedia answer.
Comment: There's tons of questions that could be answered by reading the entire Wikipedia article, isn't the idea of Q&A that you don't have to?
Comment: I'm going to have to agree with Ivo. There are going to be a lot of questions posed here that could be answered by memory alpha or Wiki pedia, but that won't always give you the context or nuance of having someone here who is an expert on that subject give it to you in their own words. Everything is Googleable.
Answer: I don't think we can stop this, but what we can do is encourage people to write better answers by simply upvoting well-written answers, in the author's own words.
The best writing will use several sources aside from the popular wikis.
Answer: It seems that this will always be a significant problem, because Wikipedia/Wookiepedia/MemoryAlpha (etc) have been around for a long time, and have a lot of high-quality information.  This was not the case with (e.g.) SO, where there were well-documented (e.g. early SE podcast episodes) problems with the existing sites.
However, while SE sites are wiki-like, they are not designed to be an encyclopedia.  There are significant differences between an encyclopedia and Q&A, for example, scope (questions are specific), depth (questions hopefully look for more insight), and impartiality (questions care less about this than a 'dry' encyclopedia).
I think @neilfein is right: voting is the way to fix this.  If there doesn't appear to be any way to answer the question well without regurgitating another site, then comment on the question, down-vote it, and/or vote to close it.  If the question is ok but the answer is not, then, again, comment on it, down-vote it, and/or edit it.
All SE sites have poor answers.  As long as there are also many good answers, which will float to the top (via votes/acceptance), then that's not a serious problem.
Answer: This is partly the nature of the site and partly the nature of the questions.
The site: stackoverflow, superuser and so on are "how tos", which Wikipedia is not.
The questions: if you ask factual, closed questions, "which is the most", "what was the name of" etc you are more likely to get Wikipedia copy/pastes. If you ask open, "why" questions you will get less or no Wikipedia copies.
This is partly the reason for my question, "What about subjective questions?"
Comment: Just because the answer is on a wiki, doesn't mean you instantly know where to find it
Comment: I agree with this, but then ... we get "oh this is a subjective question, blah, blah, blah." I really think SE is verging into a new type of Q&A site but aren't willing to experiment and see what works for a site like this. Hint: it might be that different kinds of questions work here as opposed to Stack Overflow or Superuser. Instead, we have moderators forcing it into a cookie cutter of this is how we do it here at X, so we have to do it exactly the same way for Y and Z. Really? You don't.


Is SF an appropriate place to ask any question about telco network?

Question: As far as I know SE has no specific site to ask question about telco network like GSM/EDGE network. More of less SF deals with computer networking, system etc. Is SF an appropriate place to ask any question about Telecommunication network?
Comment: Yes. There was a telephony site that got closed as a duplicate (or merged into) ServerFault, so any telephone system that fits in the FaQ and site scope is OK here.
Answer: If you're asking questions about working on the telecommunications network, especially the mobile network, then certainly it's within the scope of Server Fault.
However, the problem is that it's a somewhat specialized industry and for some questions there may not be anyone here who can answer. Some questions may get no response, or be closed as too localized.
While you ask your question, keep in mind that we prefer practical questions. It's right in the FAQ: Ask questions based on actual problems that you face.
Answer: I'd say, why not? If you referring to GSM, just tag it accordingly. I'd be happy to answer SS7, GSM and GPRS related questions as long as there's no better or designated SE site for it.
Comment: Yes, I did. So, what did I miss then?
Comment: Would it help if I compile a list of usecases to proof my claims? I don't want to troll around, start a flamewar or make people angry. I just feel that this is the right place. Networking professionals. A lot of people might be into it.
Comment: Have you even read the FAQ?
Comment: The part where it describes what kind of questions are on topic for SF.
Comment: Yes, I read it. "Network routing, switches, and firewalls". OK. It's not specifically related to telecommunication networks. But anyway, I just figured out that meta.SF is not something I'd like to spend too much time into. I just take the chance trying to give useful answers in the case something about telecommunication pops up, taking the risk to be downvoted.
Comment: Taken on its own that sentence from the FAQ almost looks like telco questions would be on topic but things change when you read that same sentence in context with the rest of that section.
Comment: The telco business changed a lot in recent years. SS7 isn't not only transported exclusively via PCM30 any more, but via SIGTRAN, which is transported via SCTP, which is an IP-level protocol. Does that make it valid? And looking into the GTP-U protocol, which transports user-plane IP-traffic from the Radio Access Network to the GGSN - if that's not IP-networking, then I don't know.
Answer: Only questions that fit the defined parameters described in the FAQ are on topic for SF. I really can't imagine any GSM/EDGE questions meeting those criteria but if they do then by all means post them. I think the telephony questions that are on topic will generally be more about systems such as Asterisk but feel free to prove me wrong.
Comment: @Alexander, you need a lot better reason than just the lack of a more suitable site. I don't think there is an SE site about eating lunch, so do you think questions on that topic should also be allowed on SF?
Comment: I don't see why those kind of questions couldn't be posted to SF as long as no better SE site is available.
Comment: [EE](http://electronics.stackexchange.com/faq) may be an OK place to ask some GSM/EDGE questions (relating to the protocols themselves) - It may even be more appropriate than SF when talking about the wire-level stuff underlying our traditional networks. I'd check with them first though (the same way you did with us) before jumping in: I don't spend enough time there to know if they'd consider this stuff wholly in-scope or not.
Comment: @voretaq7 To be honest... the telco-protocols aren't really related to electrical engineering. If I want to connect a call via ITUP I don't care miuch about what resistors are there to pull up the line. These are real protocol running over multiple ISO-layers (and: ISO by design, not by definition, like in IP) and if you ask someone who has to set up a GGSN router, if he cares about the line level encoding of his Gn-interface, he'll just say: "WHAT? It's a friggin' TenGigabitEthernet interface on a Cisco 7600!"
Comment: Note: I don't want to start a flamewar. I just want to say that telco protocols are really not much different from what we're used to when we talk IP. It's just different. You have a hard time finding people on the Internet who really know about SS7-protocols or how the whole GPRS-stuff is really working. It'd be a shame to alienate those people just because it's not IP. We don't scare off people using Netbios, or are we? (ok, this might be disputable...;)
Answer: With the caveats that you ask questions in accordance with the FAQ, and bear in mind that specialized questions of that type may only attract tumbleweeds, I'd say go right ahead.
I've seen questions on here about PBX systems (not VOIP) and we even have a PBX tag, so questions about cellular networks (as related to professional systems administration) seem to me to be at least as on topic as questions about that dinosaur technology.
Comment: @AlexanderJanssen  Uh, no.  PBX systems (first created in the 60's) would be the "dinosaur technology" in that sentence.
Comment: "dinosaur technology"? Why are questions about SS7 and GPRS considered like that? Without those technologies mobile internet wouldn't be possible.
Comment: OK, I was wondering, because the OP was specifically reffering to the "GSM/EDGE network".


All 10.10 apps will work after going to 11.04?

Question: As many of you, i use my ubuntu machine for work, in my case, development. As i am very anxious to go 11.04 as soon as it goes live, will my previous 10.10 applications work on 11.04?
Answer: In my case every application just worked. In the worst scenario you still have Gnome2 (instead of the default Unity), so I guess you will experience no problem running your applications.
Answer: Every application of yours that worked in 10.10 should work perfectly fine with 11.04 as well, as even GNOME 3 (which is dramatically different from GNOME 2.x both in looks and under-the-hood) has strong backward compatibility with classic GNOME apps. The problem might occur in vice-versa case, when you develop an app that targets particularly the Unity or new features of GNOME 3.


Can you use a readied action to teleport out of the way of a weapon attack?

Question: Let's say that a player uses the ready action and says "If a character aims at me with a weapon, I'll use Teleport to move behind cover."
What happens? Does this work? If not, please cite the rules to explain why not.
Answer: Yes, you can avoid the attack with that wording.
PHB p.193 explains that the Ready allows you to decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Your reaction happens right after the trigger finishes.
Your stated trigger is "If a character aims at me with a weapon, I'll use Teleport to move behind cover."
The act of aiming at you with a weapon is a "perceivable circumstance", which occurs before the act of firing a weapon happens. It thus triggers the reaction before the attack has a chance to resolve. There is no requirement for the attack to occur, because you did not state your trigger to be "when I am attacked".
Giving up your Action to prepare a Readied Action is a risk, and has the reward of giving you finer control over your activity in combat at the loss of some amount of agency. If the trigger never occurs, you lose any action at all, for instance. You also lose multiple attacks if you have them.
Another risk of stating a Readied action that finely is that the anticipated action might never occur. For instance, an enemy could be raising his weapon to cast it aside or to signal his folowers to stand down. Stating "when a spellcaster starts casting" as a trigger could cause you to use it when the spell caster is about to raise his arms in surrender or to ask for a parlay, if the action looks enough like spellcasting, Some DM interpretation is warranted.
To support this view, here is a relevant tweet from Lead Designer Jeremy Crawford (emphasis mine):

Jonathan Ripper @Webfactor8
Can silence interrupt a spell caster? I.e. cleric
  readies silence, trigger is enemy begins spell casting.
Jeremy Crawford @JeremyECrawford
As DM, I'd allow a readied silence spell to interrupt the casting of a
  spell with a verbal component.
Comment: Assuming your interpretation is correct, the attacker would then be free to do whatever they wanted with their action, correct? Including moving to a point where they could see you and attacking you?
Comment: Also worth noting is that's an 'as a DM' ruling from Crawford, not necessarily one to be taken as an official ruling.
Comment: @CTWind I intended it as a reinforcement of my interpretation, not as a ruling, otherwise I would have led with it. (note the wording: "to support this view"). I had already cited the rule in the PHB.
Comment: @Miniman Depending on the specifics, that might be possible. It might require a perception roll for a Misty Step move, for instance. Stating "I move 20 feet if the archer raises his bow" wouldn't do much for you either.
Answer: It doesn't work

... you decide what perceivable circumstance
  will trigger your reaction.
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your
  reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore
  the trigger. (PHB p.193)

The smallest perceivable "chunk" is an action (exception: each attack in an Attack action), bonus action, reaction or movement that changes a creatures location (i.e. about 5 feet) - 5e time is no more granular than that. Therefore each of these is an indivisible whole which is completed before any contingent Ready action occurs.
Being "targeted" is not perceivable - being "attacked" is. Choosing who to attack is part of the attack, it is not something that happens without there being an attack roll.
Features that allow interruption of these things are specific about this timing, for example, Shield and Counterspell.
Related: Timing of the Ready action when the trigger is associated with spell casting? and Is it possible to interrupt spellcasting in 5e?
Alternatively, Misty Step has a casting time of 1 bonus action and is ineligible to be readied - only actions can be readied but.
Comment: Some of the answers in the questions you link disagree with your interpretation. Also, the wording of Ready specifies a "perceivable circumstance", not a "perceivable action". Your claim that "The smallest perceivable "chunk" is an action..." I find a bit problematic. It is true that each of these is the smallest division of player activity, but a "circumstance" is not an "Action". A circumstance could be an instantaneous event: "When the candle goes out", "When the orc opens his mouth to speak", or "When the Spellcaster moves his hands". I know many tables that interpret this way.
Comment: Could you add a citation(s) or other support for how you conclude that only indivisible actions or 5-foot increments of movement are "perceivable circumstances"? The answer hinges on that, but only provides it as an assertion.
Answer: This is a solid 'maybe'.
Warning: this is going to get a little bit into the murky areas between game and metagame.
Game
Recall that Ready requires that "you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your action." (PHB p.193, "Ready", emphasis mine) From the rest of that paragraph it's pretty clear that the "you" intended is you-the-character.*
So, your question partly hinges on "can my character perceive when they are targeted with an attack?"
And I think this gets us firmly entrenched into the muck of what constitutes an attack, combat movement and positions, the nature of rounds and turns, &c.
Because for some an "attack" might be a single swing of a weapon; for others it represents a couple of feints, parries, and attempts.
Keep in mind that "in combat, characters and monsters are in constant motion." (PHB p.190, "Movement and Position")
If you and your GM think an attack is a single swing, then it's completely reasonable to declare that as your trigger. Recalling that Readying a spell includes the entire casting, and only a (presumably instantaneous) release of the effect.
But if you and your GM think an attack is more-complex, perhaps there'd need to be a perception or insight check to decide whether you're being targeted versus just observing the normal bob-and-weave of combat.
Metagame
But there's another level to consider: targeting, discrete attacks, triggers... these are all just abstractions that allow us, the players, to quickly narrate the actions of characters without having to act it all out in real time. For some it's entirely reasonable to say "a character trained and experience in combat can recognize when an attack's coming their way."**
Just as Alice's declaration of "I target Bob with my..." is our shorthand for all the movement Alice does to get in position, lining up weapon, feint..., "my spell will trigger if Alice targets me" can be our shorthand for all the movement Alice does to get in position, line up her weapon, fake me out....
I suggest...
that you and your table decide together to take the metagame/abstract approach. 5e just isn't trying to be so super-fine in its details. Unless you want to zoom to the level of declaring every second of your characters' lives---which level of magnification 5e doesn't really support---then let meta-actions be valid triggers.

* - I have made it a practice in the PHB to interpret the target of "you" anew on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis. That's usually useful, though there remain plenty of examples where this obviously breaks down.
** - True story: the one bar fight I've been in I was literally yanked out of a split-second before a punch flew past my face. I'd never been in a bar fight before that. I'd never been in any fight before that. I had no idea the fight was starting--nay, had started--when the guy to the right of me wound up to punch the guy to the left of me.
My companion, more experienced than me, saw the targeting happening. I did not. My companion, luckily, was quick enough to yoink! me to safety. Thanks, Cutler.
Answer: Consider different approach
There will be situations not covered in the rules, in every game. The purpose of the DM role is to represent the game world itself. To do that, DM uses a bunch of tools, including the rules. That's the major difference from computer role-playing games.
"Whatever the DM says, goes", even when it contradicts the rules - is known as "Rule Zero" or "The Golden Rule". DM simulates reality of a fantasy world and have to use their common sense, in addition to the rules and/or the plot.
What situation we are trying to simulate here? Two men confront each other. The crossbowman aims the mage. The mage tries to teleport away.
The possible options:

The mage is about to cast Teleport, the crossbowman doesn't even bother and shoots someone else.
The crossbowman aims to the mage, he teleports away. The crossbowman shoots someone else.
The crossbowman aims to the mage. He is about to pull the trigger. The mage teleports away right before the bolt passes.
The crossbowman aims to the mage and pulls the trigger. The mage desperately tries to teleport away, but got shot.

Option 1 totally depends on the crossbowman intentions. Options 2 and 4 are basically the same situation, where the result depends on who is faster. Which has already been decided through the initiative roll.
Now the question is - what's the likelihood of the 3 option?
The Teleport spell has a verbal component and a casting time of one action. At least a couple of seconds (up to six) the mage have to chant mystic words in order to start the teleportation. It seems impossible to do that the very same moment the crossbowman pulls the trigger.
However, the Ready action description says:

When you ready a spell, you cast it as normal but hold its energy, which you release with your reaction when the trigger occurs.

So, you have to cast the spell in advance, and then release it as a reaction. That seems more plausible in our "crossbowman vs. mage" scenario. Still, it isn't easy to react right before your enemy pulls the trigger, until you are extremely lucky. You said "if he aims me", but he could aim (but not shoot) as a free action, not as a part of an attack.
Assuming it's the matter of luck, how would I resolve the situation: Ask the mage player to roll d20. On 19 or 20 it will be option 3. Otherwise, it's option 2.


Understanding Irish marriage certificate register abbreviations?

Question: I have a question re the use of abbreviations in Ireland perhaps on a broader scale too with other countries too.  Attached is an image of a signature which looks like James Byrne on a marriage cert (of my great grandmother) for Esther as a witness to the marriage in Dublin (Kingstown then, now Dun Laoghaire) 1903.  My problem is that I believe her father may be a gent named Garrett and James may be his relative as in brother and stand in who is listed under the parent section but who may have been present at the registration.  I have checked register abbreviations in Ireland and UK but have had no luck...maybe someone has insights on this, to me it looks like E1=James Byrne....in joined script?
Comment: Surely that is an address? St James Square? Since I can't see the full document, I've no idea of the context and an address followed by a trade seems a bit odd to me, hence I'm just writing this as a comment.
Comment: Tks Adrian, I have added a close up of the witnesses James Byrne as well as Patrick O'M,  The designation E1(?) is sometthing I have not seen on many registrar entries I have worked thru on a myriad of ancestors etc.  The marriage took place in an RC church, I have checked abbreviations there but no luck, maybe time for a revisit. I believe James Byrne is a stand in for the father of the bride who may have been away (understood he was serving on a merchant ship for his job).  I believe the designation E1=  is the key!
Comment: Oops. Egg on face with my interpretation of that as an address! At least I did realise that the sequence of address then trade didn't make sense. *However* I do not understand your suggestion that column 8 refers to a witness or a stand-in. Column 8 is for the *father* of the party. It's purely documentary, there is no need for a stand-in if the father is absent or deceased. Or at least, that's the legal side of things. What happens on the religious side, I have no idea.
Comment: Can you please give the details of the marriage - names of parties, year and SR District/Reg Area (place) then I can look at the full image on irishgenealogy.ie? The rest of the writing on that certificate may help to decipher the letters.
Comment: Have added full close up of cert, Cumberland Street is a relevant street in Kingstown 1903 (Dun Laoghaire now), I have seen entries writeen across into other fields but cannot find where an equals sign has been added so do not think this is St? Have compared with other joined writing but nothing conclusive, is the second letter a 1, an I etc..
Comment: Look at "St Patrick" further down. I am convinced that the squiggle is "St" but with an extra dash. This guy separates the cross bars on his "t". Further if the squiggle belongs to the name then the address reads "19 Cumberland" with no Street or Road or anything - that makes no sense to me. The guy has left no room to add the word "St" underneath, so it's been continued into the next column. I still can't read that father's name, though.
Comment: I agree, I believe its St as you say.Fathers name is James Byrne / other name Patrick O'Malley,  I am going to go with St,  Tks, J O'
Comment: Also fyi learnt more re cumberland street and some confusion re streets, the whole area was being demolished around this time and being replaced with better accomodation instead of what were old tenement buildings that were built to accomodate many workers etc. that came to build the two great piers in Kingstown Dun Laoghaire from 1840s on.
Comment: I agree with @AdrianB38; I think it's "St" and it goes with "19 Cumberland" to make "19 Cumberland St." The thing that looks like "=" is probably just to separate the end of the address from the beginning of the name, which is almost certainly James Byrne.
Answer: I think it is "St." from the address "Cumberland St.", which encroaches on the next box. The bar of the "t" is detached, as in "Cottages" in the groom's address, and the dot is elongated, so that it looks like "S=" overall.
If you look at "St Patrick" on the top line of the full certificate, the overall form is the same, except it doesn't have a dot/line after.
Edit:
I've snipped out the examples of "S" and "E" from the certificate to compare with the "mystery" letters:

This sort of comparison with other parts of the text can often help with identifying an unknown letter. By looking at letter shapes, and the path that the pen took, you can often whittle down the options and reach a clear conclusion.
I think it's clear that the first letter of the clipped unknown section is formed in the same way as the "S" - it starts at the top right, follows a typical "S" curve, forms a tight loop at bottom left and ends at bottom right. The "E" starts centre left and loops around before descending, and does not have the tight loop at bottom left. "S" and "E" are quite distinct characters when blown up like this.
The second letter could be a "1" or an "i" or similar, but the overall form of the vertical and the upper dash does resemble "t" in the rest of the text. If you cover the lower dash with your finger, the rest does look a lot like "St" in the examples. And when you add in the information about "Cumberland Street" it seems quite likely to be "St" encroaching from the previous box.
That does mean that the lower dash is something else, rather than forming an equals sign (which is not something I've seen on such records before). I am supposing that it symbolises the contraction of "Street" to "St". Customarily that's a dot, which may simply be elongated here. Or the writer may have used a dash to signify the same thing.
If you're still unsure, it may be worth perusing other records in the set, if available, to see if the writer used similar forms elsewhere. As @HarryVervet points out, this entire certificate appears to be written in the same hand (it's a copy of the original) so there's a decent chance the same person wrote multiple copy certificates in the same time frame.
Comment: I have struggled with what I see as an E and do undertsand the argument for S and t but have checked other froms and seen E like this, would agree that St makes sense given address and cumberland that I know is always said as cumberland st.  I just dont get the equals sign as I said earlier as I have not seen that elsewhere with other documents. Tks for help.
Comment: Apologies for a late update, I've been away for several days. I hope this eddit clarifies things.
Answer: I agree with Andy's assessment, that the mystery abbreviation is the "St" from Cumberland St.
I know very little about the archiving process of Irish marriage records, but I would add that this appears to be a copy of a register, rather than the original. All text including signatures are in the same hand. There will be an original document containing original signatures, usually archived with the church itself or a local archive. Although in this case I think the problem is solved, it would be interesting to compare the original register to this copy of the document. The original may be in a different hand which could be easier to read, or have all the words in their appropriate boxes.


Product or method that will allow me to schedule all heavy background tasks (updates, scans, etc)?

Question: So, frequently I notice my computer is running like a dog and check task manager to find out that google desktop is indexing, virus scan is running, windows update is downloading stuff, other programs (java, google pack, etc) are downloading or applying updates, etc.  Is there any way to get all these intensive background tasks set up to run at the same time every week, or to run only when I ask them to, or something of that nature?  I am running Windows XP unfortunately.
Answer: Windows Update is scheduled from the System Properties control panel. Schedule this to run last thing early in the morning.
A good virus scanner has scheduling features. I have mine scheduled to update at 2PM and scan at 2AM.
Java Update Scheduler can be tamed by removing it from startup, and then using Task Scheduler to launch it at whatever time you want. You would also need to schedule some task to kill the process again though.
Whatever you end up doing, don't schedule everything to run simultaneously. Everything will be competing for CPU time. Figure out approximately how long things take to run and stagger them out so that they don't run simultaneously, or at least not for very long.
Here's the daily schedule I use:
2:00 PM - antivirus definition update
11:00 PM - backup
2:00 AM - antivirus scan
3:30 AM - defrag
5:00 AM - Windows Update
Answer: The Task Scheduler is a good way to get programs to run at a specific time.  However it might be difficult to force specific applications which themselves do not support scheduling.
For apps that do not support any scheduling I would recommend using process explorer to lower the priority of the process so that the processes you care about get first shot at the CPU time.  As it turns out there is no unix style "NICE"/"RENICE" command within windows that seems to work all that well.  Cygwin can spawn a windows process with a modified priority but it seems to lack a renice command to change the process priority of an already running process which you probably would want to do in this case.
Process Explorer here
Comment: this is good too.


Combining numeric columns with dataframe

Question: I have int type columns with dataframe.
I want to make a new column that will hold text representation of the row.
df['text'] = df[['project', 'from', 'to', 'score']].apply(lambda x: '_'.join(x), axis=1)

I am getting following error TypeError: ('sequence item 1: expected string or Unicode, int found', u'occurred at index 0')
How I can add casting to string with my text generation function ?
Answer: Try cast to str by astype:
df['text'] = df[['project', 'from', 'to', 'score']]
                .apply(lambda x: '_'.join(x.astype(str)), axis=1)

Or:
df['text'] = df[['project', 'from', 'to', 'score']]
                 .astype(str)
                 .apply(lambda x: '_'.join(x), axis=1)


Why did the Ringwraiths not fly the winged beasts to the Shire instead of riding the whole way there?

Question: It seems like it would have been much faster and they probably would have caught Frodo before he was alerted, no?
Answer: The answers might end up being opinion based but to me it seems they did this to be more stealthy.... Remember that the Ring Wraiths looked more like cloaked figures when riding the Horses which seemed to me to be far less alarming then hooded guys riding giant Fellbeasts towards The Shire...
If they did try to go after The Shire on these beasts, there would have been reports of seeing them going towards there which would have led to Gandalf trying to get Frodo and the company out of there even faster... Heh maybe he would have even used his giant Eagles to begin with...
I also noticed this...
According the the LOTR Wikia on them
It seems that the Fellbeasts were not introduced until after the horses were gone...

When the Nine Nazgûl (the Ringwraiths) were thwarted at the Ford of
  Bruinen near Rivendell, they were riding coal-black horses. Those
  steeds were destroyed in the flood caused by Elrond's intercession
  that vanquished the Nazgûl as they pursued Frodo. When next the
  Nazgûl took form their steeds were these winged creatures, ancient,
  natural creatures whose origin and appearance were told by Tolkien in
  the novel The Lord of the Rings, most clearly in his description of
  the one ridden by the Lord of the Nazgûl (the Witch-King) at the
  Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

A quote from the LOTR book says :

And behold! It was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all
  other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it
  bear, and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned
  fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older world maybe it was,
  whose kind, lingering in forgotten mountains cold beneath the Moon,
  outstayed their day, and in hideous eyrie bred this last untimely
  brood, apt to evil. And the Dark Lord took it, and nursed it with fell
  meats, until it grew beyond the measure of all other things that fly;
  and he gave it to his servant to be his steed.

So perhaps after the original steeds were destroyed Sauron created the Fellbeasts for his Ring Wraiths...
Comment: Almost definitely this, yes.  The winged Nazgul also seem to have a more limited range - the furthest we see one from Mordor is the one Legolas shot down after Lothlorien.
Comment: I remember that one was sent to Isengard to collect Pippin after seeing him in the Palantir, so they have a somewhat longer range.
Answer: This is all described in the essay entitled The Hunt for the Ring published in Unfinished Tales.  All supplied quotes are from that source.
At first the intention was indeed to be stealthy, because Sauron did not want the Wise (i.e the Elves and Istari) to know what he was up to:

Yet this weakness they had for Sauron's present purpose: so great was the terror that went with them (even invisible and unclad) that their coming forth might soon be perceived and their mission be guessed by the Wise.

From there they went invisible through Rohan, passed the Sarn Gebir and the Nazgul of Minas Morgul met up with the Nazgul of Dol Guldur.

This was (it is thought) about the seventeenth of July. Then they passed northward seeking for the Shire, the land of the Halflings.

The last point is important here: at this stage the Nazgul did not yet know where the Shire was.
From here they passed north up the Anduin and began searching, finding the old Stoor villages (presumably those formerly inhabited by Gollum's people) and their best guess at the time was that the Shire was somewhere near or even within Lórien:

They were told also by Khamûl that no dwelling of Halflings could be discovered in the Vales of Anduin, and that the villages of the Stoors by the Gladden had long been deserted.
  But the Lord of Morgul, seeing no better counsel, determined still to seek northward, hoping maybe to come upon Gollum as well as to discover the Shire. That this would prove to be not far from the hated land of Lórien seemed to him not unlikely, if it was not indeed within the fences of Galadriel. But the power of the White Ring he would not defy, nor enter yet into Lórien.

From here they continue searching north and finding nothing, until they meet messengers from Mordor; here we learn that Sauron had found out about the dream-prophecy in Gondor, Boromir's leaving, Saruman's deeds and capture of Gandalf.  Now Sauron panics and orders the Nazgul to Isengard:

From these things he concluded indeed that neither Saruman nor any other of the Wise had possession yet of the Ring, but that Saruman at least knew where it might be hidden. Speed alone would now serve, and secrecy must be abandoned.

Yet again, they still don't know where the Shire is, but on the advice of Saruman (who did know but didn't tell them) they search Rohan for Gandalf, come across Wormtongue, and from him they finally learn the general direction it lies in:

Spare me! I speak as swiftly as I may. West through the Gap of Rohan yonder, and then north and a little west, until the next great river bars the way; the Greyflood it is called. Thence from the crossing at Tharbad the old road will lead you to the borders. 'The Shire,' they call it.

Finally some time past Tharbad they come across some fugitives and learn from one of them (who also turned out to be a servant of Saruman's) where it is:

One of them had been used much in the traffic between Isengard and the Shire, and though he had not himself been beyond the Southfarthing he had charts prepared by Saruman which clearly depicted and described the Shire.

This is the first point at which they actually know where the Shire is; they did not know before then and had to search the various lands they travelled through for it, and - of course - travelling back to Mordor to pick up some Fell-beasts at this late stage would just incur further delays.
So to summarise:

At first they wanted to be stealthy.
When Sauron learns what's going on he panics and they abandon stealth.
And all this time they do not actually know where the Shire is until they are almost right at it's borders.

And:

Flying directly to the Shire is impossible because they don't know where it is.
They needed to conduct a careful search on the ground, as well as waylay travellers and obtain information from them, both of which would have been difficult if not impossible if flying.
The initial need for stealth was not abandoned until the Nazgul were far out of Mordor.
Comment: Re. Grima and the fugitives: these events come from different (and I think contradictory) versions of the essay. How are you reconciling them?
Comment: @IanThompson - they come from the same primary version; I've restricted my citations and references to that single version.
Comment: My mistake; I'd forgotten about the fugitives in version A and was mixing them up with the Dunlending in C. Still there is an interesting question here: why do you take A and not C to be canon?
Comment: @IanThompson - it doesn't matter because it doesn't change the main point that the Ringwraiths didn't know where the Shire was until a significant time had passed; neither version is contradictory on what matters for the purpose of this question, just on details of how the Nazgul found the information.
Answer: I think Sauron and the Nazgul were not ready to show themselves in entirety. They favoured stealth over a brazen show of strength. Probably Sauron was doubtful as to whether any of his adversaries knew about the Ring. So, such a venture would have alerted them to its existence or so he felt, which is why he sent them as Riders dressed in Black. Remember they have a palpable aura of Black magic around them.
Answer: We can provide four conclusions, first one: Possibly the Nine themselves weren't ready or strong enough to ride the Fell beast yet.
The Nine were physically weaker at first (in Fellowship of the Ring) and also their aura was weaker.

They were surrounded by an aura of terror, which affected all living
creatures; their aura (called the Black Breath) could be toxic to
those hapless enough to come near them.

We could clearly see that when Gandalf was fighting them of on Weathertop and when Aragorn drove them away with two burning sticks. This would prove impossible later in the books as the Nine became even more powerful then they previously were.

...they would become vastly more powerful. However, it is unclear as to
how. However, as Sauron's strength grew through the books, the Nazgûl
became obviously more powerful. In the Fellowship of the Ring, the
Nazgûl's cries were simply unnerving to the hobbits (this may possibly
be explained because it was important that the Hunt of the Ring
remained in secrecy so they might have diminished their auras, and
they did not have the rings of power), and they appeared to be
physically weak, as five of them were driven off by Aragorn with two
burning sticks. Additionally, Gandalf the Grey managed to hold off the
entire Nine single handedly on Weathertop. In The Return of the King
however, their cries are powerful enough to send all but the most
stout-hearted of Gondor's defenders into a state of helpless terror,
and the Witch King in particular has become so powerful that he is a
match for Gandalf the White (which of the two is the more powerful is
not revealed).

The second conclusion we can provide is that Sauron and the Nine wanted to keep their task as secret as possible. This in many ways would be logical as they took on a disguise as riders in black on black horses. It would have been too obvious if they were flying around on Fell beasts, they couldn't have easily stopped to ask for directions. Imagine popping round the garden on a flying beast and spreading terror. Anyone who saw a Fell beasts would surly have been struck with fear and terror, the word would have quickly spread around and so would have Saurons intentions. Those horses were enhanced and twisted by evil, they could ride them to no end. Handy even to a wraith.

(this may possibly
be explained because it was important that the Hunt of the Ring
remained in secrecy so they might have diminished their auras, and
they did not have the rings of power)
One other major use of the Fell beast was spreading Fear. From the
very beginning, Fell Beasts are terrifying creatures; combined with a
Nazgûl's screech

Additionally, Fell beasts are a weapon themselves, a powerful war instrument that isn't just bread as a simple mount, a transport beast.
Third conclusion is that simply the Fell beasts weren't ready to be ridden just yet. For some unknown reason maybe the beasts themselves weren't strong enough to carry out the task, but as Sauron's powers grew, so did their strength. For as we know the strength of the Nazgul grew with Sauron's powers.
Forth conclusion is that they underestimated the task of bringing the One Ring back to Mordor. They thought that a hobbit would pose as no threat to the task at hand, which didn't prove as easy since they lost their horses in the flood which Elrond and Gandalf made possible. Then the Nine walked back to Mordor where they received improved new mounts that wouldn't stop them at anything, the Fell beasts.
Comment: All interesting points.  I especially like the Fourth Conclusion due to its simplicity.


Open D5 tuning for guitars

Question: Will experimenting with tunings (specifically tuning my guitar to open D5) have any affect on my guitar or the strings? I've read a few comments that claimed it would. I tried searching on the internet for an answer, but couldn't really find anything.
Comment: We need to know what sort of guitar it is - classical (nylon strung) acoustic (steel strung) electric, or electro-acoustic? It will also depend on what gauge strings are already on.
Comment: A general acoustic guitar (steel strung). I should've mentioned that.
Comment: D5 tuning means going down in pitch - but where exactly? For each string?
Comment: Okay the tuning (D5) that I'm talking about is:
Higher E from standard tuned down to D,
B tuned up to D,
G tuned up to A,
D unchanged,
A unchanged,
E tuned down to D
Answer: There area some concerns that could be associated with different tunings for you guitar but in lots of situations those are negligible.  As mentioned in the comments, the potential for these concerns would largely have to do with what type of guitar you are playing.  The things that come to mind immediately are the concern of breaking strings or that of affecting the guitar's neck and potentially bridge and body.
Tuning your strings up will increase the potential to break them.  The increased tension goes beyond that which the strings are rated for, which can cause breakage or decreased longevity.  The further up you tune from the intended frequency, the more like you are to break a string.
The more concerning potentials are that of the long term effects to the instrument but they are less likely to happen, depending on the severity of the change.  The bridge, neck and body are all intended to hold a certain range of tension and when there is a large enough difference, damage can occur.
If your tension is too high, it can pull your neck in such a way that it will bow to the point that the action (distance between strings and fretboard) will increase.  If this goes too far it could be irreversible but that isn't incredibly likely.  This is most likely to happen when a guitar is left tuned and unplayed for an extended period of time and can occur even if it is in standard tuning.  This should take quite a while to happen but the higher you tune the strings, the faster it will occur.
The bridge could potentially get ripped off.  This is less likely on an electric guitar.  I had a classical acoustic (nylon string) that someone decided to put steel strings on and the bridge ripped right off.  This most likely happened because of the difference in tension that the steel strings required compared to the nylon.  So this would be less likely to happen with a steel string acoustic bit still more likely than with an electric, due to an electric have screw that can have a deeper anchor in the body, while an acoustic does not have this option.
Lastly, there could be concern for the body of the guitar but this seems the least likely.  You would need to have such drastic difference in tension across the strings that one side is pulling much harder than the other and the disparity of tuning the I imagine would require this would probably not have any functionality.  Again, this is considerably more likely to happen on an acoustic than an electric.
In short, you probably don't have anything to worry about (as far as damage goes) when tuning just a step or so up.  The things to avoid would really be increasing tension very drastically and leaving it tuned for an extended period of time without playing.  Getting strings that are more properly gauged for the tuning you are playing can greatly reduce the change in tension from a standard tuning.
As a side note, the biggest problems that a guitarist will face in using different tunings would be intonation issues and strings not sustaining the notes or sounding floppy/getting fret noise from being too loose.  When a guitarist intends to consistently play in alternate tunings, I recommend taking it to a luthier to have it set up properly to maintain intonation across the neck and all strings.  Ideally you would have a guitar dedicated to each alternate tuning to have the best intonation from song to song.
Comment: What about a decrease in tension?
Comment: @jason328 - As far as damage to the instrument, a decrease in tension should only be a real concern if it is countered with extreme increase in tension elsewhere and is unlikely (what I'm alluding to in disparity of tuning in 3rd to last paragraph).  Beyond that, if the string is too loose, you can have intonation issues and increased string noise against the frets.  If a string is too low tension, it will not have the proper support to vibrate and create a clear resonance, which will affect tone and sustain (mentioned in last paragraph).  Increased tension is the real concern in this case.
Comment: Glad I could provide a suitable answer for you! I would suggest taking it to a luthier either way (if you can afford it) because they would be able to tell you all of the specifics of the tunings you are looking to play in and what ways those tunings may affect the intonation and resonance, even if you don't intend to play a lot of songs in that tuning or have a dedicated guitar for it. What a luthier has to say will be specific to your instrument and if an issue is found, such as increased fret noise, they may be able to offer a suitable middleground between different tunings on 1 instrument.
Answer: I play Open D5 exclusively and have been studying the tuning for years. I get my classical to D5 by cheating and tuning to open C5 and then using a capo on the 2nd fret. There's no tension on my neck at all.

Open D5 tuning for guitars


Is there a universal medical terms naming convention web resource?

Question: I want to use proper conventional names for known diseases and cell and tissue types in my scientific research. Is there a web resource where I can look the terms up and make reference to this resource?
Comment: Other relevant terminologies are: - SNOMED-CT - Foundational Model of Anatomy
Comment: what is the point of replying when my answers get deleted. How exatly  I did not answer the question?
Comment: @userJT I've told you repeatedly that answers require supporting references. That's been established policy here since 2015. To understand why read [this meta question](https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1/should-we-require-references-to-back-up-all-answers) and the top voted answer.
Answer: Health insurances and hospitals (for the coding of the diseases) often use the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) from the World Health Organisation to standardise the naming of the diseases and assigns them a code.
There is an online available version (ICD-10) here:
http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2016/en
For the classification of tissues and cells, you might maybe find an answer on the biology SE.
Hope this helps!
Comment: Thanks for the source. I ended up using this one and MeSH term dictionary.
Answer: The following are naming conventions that satisfy your question:

SNOMED-CT
Foundational Model of Anatomy
ICD (current version 10, it has national modifications (such as USA's ICD-10CM)
Comment: Provide a supporting reference or this answer will be deleted.


IDA subroutine code running when not being called

Question: Im trying to find where this subroutine is being called in IDA. I use xrefs to see where the subroutine is being called and I NOP the all the calls in all the subroutines in the xrefs. I do this for all the calls in the xrefs so nothing is calling this subroutine but the code in the subroutine is still being ran ingame and im so confused. is there some other place other than the xrefs where the subroutine is being called?
thanks for the help
Answer: The xrefs provided by IDA cover only the common ways to call a function. As an developer you could generate the function address using complex mathematics and then call the function. Such calls can't be detected by IDA - that is the general limitation of static analysis.
BTW: Why do you NOP the function calls instead of just "NOPing" the function itself ?
You could modify the function in a way that it does nothing: the first command jumps to the end of the function or modify it so that it directly exits the function without doing anything. Therefore it would not matter if you manage to find all code positions where the function is called.
Comment: @Idafox: This is not a limitation of IDA this is a limitation of any static analysis tool. There are just tools that find some and other tools that find more references. If you really want all references you should switch to dynamic analysis (e.g. connect IDA to the running process and set a break-point on the function you are interested in).
Comment: I'm reversing a game and trying to find where the subroutine is being called, so I used NOP each one in xref till I find the subroutine that calls that subroutine. Is there no way I can find where its being called due to the limitation in IDA?


How do I measure how hard my water is?

Question: Following on from How can I remove calcium deposits from a drain it looks like my water softener may not be working. How do I measure how hard my water is?
Comment: As a follow up I found a YouTube video that describes using Castile soap. I blogged my results of doing the test: http://blog.wildfiction.com/2015/03/how-hard-is-your-water.html
Answer: Home improvement stores typically carry test kits.  I've found them right by water filters and water softeners. They usually are small paper strips that change color based on levels of hardness. The kit will also come with a legend to allow you to compare the strips.
Answer: Conductivity meters may be found online for about $12 American. They'll give you a direct reading in PPM. Some hardware stores carry the things too, but they'll ask $30 plus for them. I tested my cheap one against known standards, and it works just fine.

How do I measure how hard my water is?


Can getting a long-term visa from another Schengen state solve my 90-day stay problem?

Question: I entered a Schengen state (Latvia) with a short-term tourist visa from Latvia, which allows a 90-day stay every 180 days. However I have to stay 96 days here. Additionally, I got a long-term visa from Estonia on my 80th day of stay in Latvia. So if I exit Schengen from Latvia after 96 days, would this be a problem for me? Would the new long-term visa from Estonia allow an extra 90 days to stay in Schengen for me? Should I exit the Schengen area before my previous 90-day visa expires and re-enter with my Estonia long-term visa again for that additional 6 days?
Comment: In _theory_, there is no lawful way with this combination of visas that you can stay 96 days in Latvia. However, you can stay 90 days in Latvia and then in Estonia another 180 days or a year or whatever the duration of your Estonian visa is. There is no problem leaving Schengen on day 89 and re-entering via Estonia _if you stay in Estonia_. If you re-enter and return to Latvia, you have technically overstayed although it will be hard to catch you. (You don't even have to leave on Day 89, especially if you leave via Estonia after the 96 days, where your long-term visa will not be questioned.)
Comment: Can you go to Russia or Belarus for 6 days during this 96 days period, say, for 3 weekends?
Comment: I should point out, in case the OP does not know, there are no border controls between Latvia and Estonia.
Answer:
The comment by Andrew Lazarus pointed out that your Estonian visa doesn't allow you to stay in Latvia any longer. With a valid national D visa, you can visit other Schengen states as if you had a Schengen C visa, within the 90/180 limit.
96 days is close to 90 and Estonia is close to Latvia. If you manage to get to Estonia over the weekends, say, leaving Latvia on Friday after work and coming back on Monday morning, you might make it work.

Make sure to keep the tickets, hotel receipts, etc. to document your travels if you try that.
Comment: @JonathanReez, I would not advise anybody to *lie* in this regard, both for moral reasons and due to the consequences if he is found out. There might be documentation of the 16 days in question in Estonia, e.g. pay records at work.


How do I sing from chest voice to falsetto without missing notes in between?

Question: I am having difficulty singing in head voice. I am a bass who can also sing very high falsetto. However, when I try singing a scale, there is always a few notes between chest voice and head voice that I can't hit. This is a problem that I have had since I was in 6th grade, and it has continued for two years now. I am wondering if there is any way to regain that part of my range.
Answer: I also have this problem. I am more or less a bass, and my range cuts off in chest voice at around a G or G#, but when I try to sing in that same range with falsetto, the tone is very weak and sometimes I drop notes or crack them when I make the switch between voices. The answer to this problem is very simple:
Practice.
To achieve the fluent motion between voices simply practice pushing the limits of your range. Sing a tone well in the range of your chest voice and slur it up to well above your range by switching to falsetto, and then slur the tone back into chest voice. The goal of this exercise is to create a seamless transition between the two voices, and eventually even blend their two tones so that its harder for a listener to tell where the switch is. I got this exercise from a video I saw a while back, if I can find that video I will post a link here. Goodluck!
Edit: (new exercises)
The past 2 semesters I spent with my vocal professor, I focused almost exclusively on limiting tightness in my upper range. Since your head and chest voice should overlap each other for at least a few notes, I can only assume that you are extremely tight in that range when you sing. To determine exactly where you are tense is slightly more difficult.
Stand in front of a mirror and sing in a range that you tend to struggle with. Look at yourself and check that:

your shoulders are staying lowered
your arms are relaxed by your sides
your head is centered on your torso and looking directly forward
your neck is not extending or compressing

After checking each of these major posture issues, also check these internal variables:

your jaw is relaxed (check by moving gently horizontally and vertically with no specific sense in rhythm)
your tongue is relaxed (check by switching rapidly between the vowels 'ah' and 'ee' without moving the shape of your mouth at all)
your breath support is deep and well-grounded (check by panting in front of a mirror to see that you are breathing from the lower parts of your diaphragm [near your stomache] and that you aren't raising your shoulders or chest)
Your onsets are consistently coordinated (This would take too long to type so I'll link you to this article which describes onsets very well: http://singing.about.com/od/Singing101/fl/Vocal-Onset.htm)

I realize that this could be overwhelming to take in, but I need to stress that singing should feel effortless, and often the key to singing higher isn't about pushing to hit the next note, but rather falling back a note or two to correct your form before you can extend your limits.
Comment: Apologies for reviving a year old post, but did you find this video again? I find myself in pretty much the same position - baritone who needs to be more comfortable above middle C!
Comment: No, I looked for a while and couldn't come across it. Since then I've actually come up with quite a few exercises that could help you! I'm going to put them as an edit to my original answer to accommodate easier reading.
Comment: Thank you, those are great advice! You hear these principles repeated from every direction, but so much of singing seems to be finding techniques to apply them that end up being quite specific to an individual, so it's always good to find new ideas to try! Thanks for taking the time to update your post :)
Comment: I disagree with the practice technique suggested in this answer - look at my answer.
Comment: Everyone is free to practice in whatever way they find helps them. I'm simply relaying what my professors taught me.
Answer: The disconnect between chest and head voice that you experience is completely normal.  It is called the passaggio.
To minimize the difference in sound between the two vocal registers, you must gradually make them meet in the middle.
Chest

For your chest voice, try and raise your overall range in half-step increments.  Use any of the standard effective range extending exercises to sing higher, moving past your target half-step.  (Also remember to always go downward before going upward.)  Do this exercise every day. The goal here is to eventually increase your chest voice so that it overlaps with your passaggio.

Falsetto

For your falsetto, try and lower your overall range in half-step increments.  Use any of the standard effective range extending exercises to sing lower, moving past your target half-step.  The key here is to actively stay in your falsetto.  If you're doing it correctly, you should be singing low-enough where you would feel comfortable slipping into your chest voice.  Stay in your falsetto the entire time.  The overall goal here is to have your falsetto overlap with your passaggio.

Once both of your registers fully overlap your passaggio (and one another as well), you will find that your passaggio disappears.
Hope that helps.
Answer: On reading your question a second time, I realized that you said you can't hit certain notes between falsetto and chest. Without any other knowledge, that kind of sounds like nodes or some other damage to your vocal chords, but you may just be confusing octaves. Don't yell too loud and don't screech, it can really damage your voice fast.
Seriously, a quick google shows that Sam Smith, the singer of "Stay with Me" and Arianna Grande recently had some hemorrhaging from improper form/overuse of their voice. Just be careful is all, don't get too freaked out or anything.
Anyways, I am a singer and a bass. When I started high school, I had trouble with falsetto and making higher sounds, although i could frog out pretty low notes, around F2 or E2 (two octaves below middle C).
The key to falsetto is practice, and personally I learned from singing old rock and roll music. The more I do it the better I get, you should have the same experience.
Falsetto is a lot in the placement of your voice, that is, where it feels like it is vibrating in your throat. I suggest you try and change placements when you sing falsetto, singing really forward in your mouth. Follow the advice on the other post too, like keeping your head straight and all. Onsets are important and people don't do them right, even in good high school/college choirs.


Why is Law unable to use Shambles against Doflamingo and simply drown him in the ocean?

Question: He could've simply replaced a fish in the ocean for Doflamingo. Unless I've missed something.
Comment: Being the DF's weakness, I wouldn't be surprised if Law has no control of anything underwater.
Answer: If I am not wrong, Shambles is nothing but a technique which interchanges positions of two objects! DF can operate on almost anything in the world, but as we know its weakness is sea and sea related things like Sea Stone. Your power becomes null when you interact with the sea. Pushing Doflamingo into the sea will require pulling out some sea water and exchanging its position with Doffy, which clearly is not possible. Think about it: the guy Señor Pink has the ability to swim anywhere and the irony is he can't swim in the sea.
Comment: Then how did Aokiji froze the sea ? How could Luffy use "elephant gun" against kraken ?
Answer: Doflamingo is well aware of how Law's powers work, and he made sure for most of their interactions that Law coulst set uo his Room by keeping him on the defensive. And along with that, he'd need to be near the water first for that to happen and Doflamingo probably wouldn't let that happen.
Also, DF powers don't instantly become inactive when they, or the user touch sea water. This was proven when Aokiji touched the ocean physically, then froze it for miles across when first meeting the Straw Hats.


Steampunk helicopter

Question: In an alternate reality scenario that takes place during the renaissance, how can the world create a helicopter? Aside from the obvious need for machines, factories, and aviation knowledge, what other obstacles would inventors face and how would they overcome them (swashplate, engine, etc.)?
Comment: Do you mean "Renaissance" (pre-industrial era) or "Steampunk" (industrial era)?
Comment: P.S. What has steampunk to do with the Renaissance? Steampunk is usually Victorian / Belle Époque / Gilded Age. There were no steam engines in the Renaissance.
Comment: This borders on [High Concept](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4868/how-to-deal-with-please-develop-my-high-concept-questions) in it's broadness of scope. Also the period confusion makes it notably difficult to even start looking at properly.
Comment: @AlexP To be exceedingly nitpicky, there were no _efficient_ steam engines in the Renaissance. There was the Aeolipile which is technically a steam engine (though a useless one and a technological dead end). There were also a few early atmospheric steam engines as early as 1750 for pumping water out of mines, though they were so inefficient that they couldn't be used for anything else. Of course, efficient steam engines belong by definition to the Steam Age/Industrial Revolution and not the Renaissance...
Comment: Also as other said, Renaissance isn't Steampunk. The common term is Clockpunk, which gives a good idea of the much more severe limitation to available technology - unless you go for semi-magical power sources and engineering, which opens some interesting ways.
Comment: You cannot have machines and factories in the Renaissance. Technology is a mountain, you cannot have the summit without the rest of the mountain. If you have machines, factories, aviation knowledge, advanced materials etc. then you also you have masses of well-paid literate workers; you have an advanced economy; you have good knowledge of mathematics and physics: that world is *not* the world of the Renaissance. One thing historical materialism got right: it is the economic base (including trade, technology, and science) which determines the ideological, artistic, judicial etc. superstructure.
Comment: Sorry, but the reasons you laid out in your question are more than sufficient to make Renaissance helicopters a practical impossibility. Asking for more obstacles is only gilding the lily. Oh, yes, there is the sheer cost too. Renaissance helicopters are technologically, scientifically & economically impossible. Aren't they obstacles enough?
Answer: Forget it.
To make a helicopter fly, you need a relatively high power-to-weight ratio. Early helicopters used piston engines, but most modern designs use gas turbines. Still, they have problems getting their payload airborne, especially in hot and high conditions.
With anything remotely like the renaissance, your power plants will have insufficient power-to-weight. Engines, gearboxes, airframe, everything will be much heavier for the same performance. If present-day helicopters are only marginally able to fly, yours will shake itself apart on the ground. So there are three options:

Improve the technology so that it is "renaissance" in name only. Steel and alloys, precision engineering, industrial-scale chemical engineering, and all that.
Go for a mode of flight that is "easier." Turn an early hot air (or hydrogen?) balloon into a powered airship, cruising along at single-digit mph, maybe.
Tell a story that is so fascinating that readers are willing to ignore how impossible it is.
Answer: As noted, steam engines are fare too heavy (or have a low power to weight ratio), particularly if you are trying to "invent" one in the 1500's. Alternatives like Stirling engines would be somewhat better (since they don't have the mass of the water and boiler to go with them), but not by enough. Relatively high power to weight ratio Stirling engines had to wait until the 20th century, when auto makers considered them as a possible alternative to IC engines for cars. This combined a true need with the benefits of having a large and very sophisticated technological foundation to draw upon.
However, there is one extremely wild handwave which might be barely possible: Leonardo da Vinci creates a turbine powered helicopter.
Leonardo was massively ahead of his time, but most of his inventions were impractical for the period because there was no compact power source available. His clockwork powered "car" does work as advertised, but modern replicas only go about 40 metres before the springs unwind. The team of men cranking away on his "tank" can move modern replicas over flat, firmly packed ground, but there is no possible way it could actually move cross country. The flying machines could possibly work as gliders with the wings outstretched, but no human could ever pump the mechanism fast or hard enough for the flapping motion to make it fly.

Leonardo's car

Leonardo's tank

The Great Bird
However, Leonardo also invented an early heat engine, utilizing the energy from a stove to turn a spit:

Leonardo's roasting jack
If Leonardo were to consider how to harness the energy from the jack to turn the airscrew of the helicopter, there is a (very low) probability that he might generate enough lift to at least hover briefly. Even assuming complete success, Leonardo's helicopter has no real means of control, and likely would be unflyable.

Leonardo's helicopter
The most probable means of success would be to have some sort of clutching mechanism, and spin the airscrew up to speed by an external mechanism, such as a team of horses pulling a rope wrapped around the axle of the airscrew. Once aloft, the pilot engages the clutch and the "jack" keeps the airscrew spinning quickly enough for a relatively controlled descent. The device might "jump" into the air to the height of a low tower (3 or possibly 4 stories) then spin down to earth at a relatively slow speed (enough to walk away from).
Sadly, this story would likely repeat from the Renaissance to the late industrial age (like it did in our time line; the first successful helicopter flights took place just before WWII. Even autogyros did not fly until the 1920's, and they are far easier to create since the rotor freewheels and has no thrust delivered to it).
So Leonardo could put in heroic efforts, but end up with an entertaining toy for the Duke d'Sforza. With the technological base of the 1500's, that is about all that would be possible.
Answer: Propeller speed
Leonardo da Vince, rather famously, sketched out the design for a mock helicopter.

I'm not saying this specific design would work, I'm saying that the Renaissance definitely had people with the knowledge and the drive to make such helicopter if they felt like it. The math required isn't complex The main problem is that you specified steampunk, which, while a fantastic genre, uses steam powered engines. And those are heavy. Really heavy. To the point where they wouldn't work.
Helicopter lift follows the equation: L = .5p(v^2)ACL, where

L = Lift (Newtons)
p = air density (kg)
v^2 = speed of the spinning blade (meters per second)
A = disk area of the rotor (meters)
CL = Lift coefficient (this is a coefficient that must be calculated based on the angle of the rotor and other factors - I don't know much about it, but it's between .2 and even up to 1.75)

Of course, the large the disk area, the slower it goes because it's heavier and the motor can't catch up. A steam engine is very heavy - and takes a lot of fuel. According to this website, that all adds up to 12 gross pounds per horsepower, and yes, that's not for all helicopters, but it's a good starting point. 5443g to 745.7 watts or 7.3 grams per watts, and that gives us a maximum weight to power ratio of 137 W/kg. Which no steam engine has. So you just need to cheat. That's fine. The rule of steampunk is that you get one free pass, so all you need is an engine that works absurdly better than any steam engine has a right to do so.
Answer: As mentioned in other answers, it'd be very hard to bypass the required mass-to-thrust ratio. But do you really need the helicopter to take off on its own power?
Autogire
Basically, an autogire (or a gyrocopter) is an unpowered rotor in autorotation. In other words, moving around generates the rotation of the rotor (duh) which creates again some lift. It is to helicopter what a glider is to a plane.
Autogire could be used with an engine-powered front rotor or as a way to slow down free fall while gaining some horisontal speed. Basically, jumping from a height (or from a dirigible) with an autogire should be possible, esp. if the wind direction is helpful.
Next, even if quite insane, idea is to launch autogires in a similar way to gliders, i.e. with an external power such that the device does not need to haul the engine. Railway-launched gliders and autogires, anyone?
Comment: This is probably the most realistic way to do this. You could use them as long range scouts or something.
Answer: Pulsejet-powered tipjet monocopter!
I have recently asked how early could pulsejets been built, assuming the knowledge of their existence and designs were to be magically known. Turns out that while inventing and designing them is hard and requires modern science, they can be surprisingly easy to build from plans! The consensus seems to be that Renaissance manufacturing (and possibly as early as the Roman empire) should be up to the task.
Now look at the gyroptère: a 1913 single-blade helicopter concept, inspired by maple seed, where the entire craft, engine included, is rotating. There was a system for having the engine exhaust blast (counter-)rotating the useful charge (in that case, the pilot cabin), instead of the conventional system where the craft and charge are immobile and the rotor is rotating separately.
The concept was alas too ahead of its time, with engines of the time not having sufficient power-to-weight ratio - then it was killed by WWI and the need to expand on existing technology (namely planes) right now. After which they couldn't get funds to develop it, and then conventional helicopters were developed.
Someone apparently built a pulsejet-powered one at some point, because why not. The point is, the concept works. It has been abandoned because other technologies overtook it. But assuming those Renaissance people managed to have a running pulsejet, someone could similarly be inspired by maple seed and make one of those.
Pulsejets are nasty beasts. They run hot, are inefficient, hideously loud and vibrate like mad. Tipjets are energetically inefficient compared to conventional systems. Renaissance engineers wouldn't have access to modern steel, ball bearings or high-precision manufacture of the Industrial Revolution, and the thing would probably have high fuel consumption, high maintenance, low reliability and low lifespan, but Leonardo da Vinci should be able to build one of those.
In practice, it would probably have been more complicated, and other factors may have made it impossible in our world. But this should be plausible enough for non-magical Clockpunk.
Answer: There may be one way to make a "helicopter" with steampunk technology: hybrid lift.
As noted in other answers, a steam engine can't come close to lifting itself, even if you use highly refined liquid fuel and a closed vapor system to minimize the weight of water -- but if you have a large, slow rotor made like a dirigible envelope (rigid structure enclosing bags of lifting gas), it doesn't have to move very fast to produce a tremendous amount of dynamic lift.
In the end, this would probably be less efficient than a steam powered Zeppelin, and even more vulnerable to weather, but you could handwave it to at least fly.

Steampunk helicopter


decision about 'tithi' (e.g. pornima, pratipada, etc.)

Question: Regarding which 'tithi' (hindu date) is today, it is said that whatever tithi is seen by the rising Sun, is the tithi for the day.
e.g. if 'pournima' had started yesterday morning 'after sunrise' and ends today after sunrise, then today is pournima. (and yesterday was not pournima)
Is this right? If not, what is the rule?
Comment: @Sarvabhouma - thanks for adding the correct tag (panchang). I was looking for one, but could not find a suitable one.
Answer: Let's start with the below table for Sukla Paksha (brighter fortnight) and Krishna Paksha (darker fortnight).
<code>Sukla Paksha    Krishna Paksha    Name of Tithi
-------------------------------------------------
     1st             16th           Pratipada
     2nd             17th           Dwitiya
     3rd             18th           Tritiya
     4th             19th           Chaturthi
     5th             20th           Panchami
     6th             21st           Shashti
     7th             22nd           Saptami
     8th             23rd           Ashtami
     9th             24th           Navami
    10th             25th           Dasami
    11th             26th           Ekadasi
    12th             27th           Dwadasi
    13th             28th           Trayodasi
    14th             29th           Chaturdasi
    15th              -             Poornima
      -              30th           Amavasya
</code>
The tithis in the above table start from Sukla Paksha, i.e, the lunar month ends on Amavasya, this method is known as Amanta followed by states in South India, North Indian states follow a different lunar month calculation in which lunar month starts from Krishna Paksha and ends on Poornima (full moon day) and hence called Purnimanta.
The above numbers are index which we will see how to calculate below, they are used to ascertain the running tithi. A lunar day, also known as tithi, means the difference between the longitude of sun and moon changes by exactly 12 degrees, when it happens, a new lunar day or a new tithi starts. A lunar month consists of 30 tithis.

How to figure out Sukla Paksha?

When Moon is ahead of Sun by an amount between 0 degrees and 180 degrees, it is known as Sukla Paksha or brighter fortnight. This is the time when moon is waxing. It is calculated by finding the difference between the longitude of Moon and Sun.

How to figure out Krishna Paksha?

When Moon is ahead of Sun by an amount between 180 degrees and 360 degrees, it is known as Krishna Paksha or darker fortnight. This is the time when moon is waning. It is calculated by finding the difference between the longitude of Moon and Sun.

Moon & Sun Longitude Difference

At the end of a lunar month, the difference between the longitude and latitude will be 360 degrees (30 x 12), it means at the start of the month, both sun and moon will be at the same longitude and after 30 lunar days advancing 12 degrees a day, moon will be back at same longitude as sun. At 360 degrees, one cycle is complete and a new cycle starts.

Procedure to Calculate Tithi

Find the longitude of Moon and Sun and calculate the difference. If the result is negative, add 360 to it as we need a value between 0 and 360 and we can add 360 because 360 means one complete cycle.
Divide the result by 12, we do this because a tithi changes whenever there is 12 degree change in the longitude difference between Moon and Sun. The quotient you get is the value we need for further calculation. Ignore the remainder.
Add 1 to the quotient and the value you get is between 1 and 30 and now you can refer the above table, look for the number you just got and you will know the running Tithi. For example, if you get the number 4, we can see from the above table that it falls in Sukla Paksha and the Tithi is Chaturthi so we call it Shukla Chaturthi, the number 19 also corresponds to Chaturthi so if you get 19, we call it Krishna Chaturthi. We first write the fortnight name followed by tithi (Sukla Ekadasi, Krishna Ashtami etc..)

Example

I use Stellarium Software to find out the current positions of Sun and Moon (and pretty much every other planet / star / few galaxies in universe). At the time of writing this answer, the longitude of Moon and Sun is
Moon: +10 degree 08 minute

Sun: +182 degree 24 minute

For illustration purpose, I will be using decimal (.) in place of degree from now on so if I say +10.08, read it as 10 degrees and 8 minutes.
Now let's follow Step 1 and find out the difference between longitude of Moon and Sun.
+10.08 - (+182.24) = -172.16
We can determine by the above value that Sun is at a higher longitude than Moon which is why we are getting negative value. As per Step 1, we'll have to add 360 to it because number is negative so adding 360 to -172.16 gives 187.84
Now we need to convert this value to decimal degrees. The formula to do this is
Decimal Degrees = degree + (minute / 60)
                = 187 + (84/60)
                = 188.4
Now as per Step 2, the above value has to be divided by 12 so 188.4 / 12 is 15.7, we can ignore the remainder and the quotient is 15, as per Step 3, we add 1 to it and the final value we get is 16.
We now refer the above table and find that number 16 means the current tithi is Krishna Pratipada!
The tithi on 24th September was Poornima which started after Sunrise and Poornima was on the same day as well and not on 25th!
Comment: In astrology, nature of anything is determined by the time it is born. A solar day is born at sunrise time. Therefore the thithi at sunrise is treated as having a significant  bearing on the nature of that solar day. So even if only a small portion of the solar day is pournima,  if solar day started on  pournami tithi, that day will get the properties of pournami from an astrological assessment perspective for that day specifically.
Comment: Excellent explanation @Chinmay Sarupria . Thanks. I was not knowing this in depth. From this, I gather that the notion of "just rising Sun's tithi is the tithi for that day" is incorrect. Whatever comes as per mathematical calculations, is the tithi for that day. Am I right?
Comment: In Ur answer Thithis start with Shukla paksha so I believe it's Amanta Panchangam and not Purnimanta..can u pls mention that in answer bcz in most of the Indian states Thithis start with Krishna paksha so it might be confusing for them..
Comment: @YDS Ok have added a note below the tithi table.
Comment: @Vineet Tithi changes happen after sunrise as well. For example, tithi may be Ashtami at the time of sunrise but it could be Navami after 2 hours. So yes, that sunrise tithi notion is incorrect. Whatever tithi you get by mathematical calculation is the correct one and all tithis last for a set duration, i.e, 12 degrees longitude change between Moon and Sun.
Comment: while surfing, just found out 2 websites claiming the "sunrise fundaa". http://cs.annauniv.edu/insight/Reading%20Materials/astro/longcalendars/pancha~1.htm     and   https://shrifreedom.org/vedic-astrology/tithi/  ; don't know from where they have gathered this.
Comment: @Vineet Sunrise funda is to link tithis to solar days. Because we live by solar days. We have holidays and festivals by solar days. For example, Anant chaturdashi tithi might be from 1pm of one solar day to 12 pm of next but we can't have holiday like that. For festival and holiday purposes,  the DAY of Anant chaturdashi will be the day whose sunrise happens during tithi of Anant chaturdashi.
Comment: hmmm.. .. now it is getting more confusing for me now... diverse opinions from respected contributors...


What are the requirements for a teacher in the Baptist church?

Question: A while ago, I read this academic paper by Casey Schutt. Although the entire paper was about evangelism ethics in the workplace and how self-identified evangelical/born-again Christians go about doing that in contrast to the religiously pluralistic workplace environment, I got a little interested in how Casey Schutt could just visit a Baptist church and teach 3 different classes. What are the requirements for a teacher in the Baptist church? How trained are they? Do you have to be baptized under the right formula to teach?
Comment: @Bye That's the kind of stuff (*with links*) that should be in your answer. You are one of our Baptist experts, so it should show in your answers.
Comment: What kind of teachers are you asking about? Sermons? Sunday school? Bible studies? Adult training classes?
Answer: One of the key distinctives of Baptist churches is that they are congregationally governed and generally non-creedal. That means there's no overriding "Baptist" policy on who can and cannot teach in the church. You can be fairly certain that most Baptist churches will require a person to have been baptized as an adult in order to teach, but there are exceptions even to that. It's up to the individual church, and usually would be specified in the church's bylaws (or, if not, up to the discretion of the pastoral staff).
This isn't to say that Baptist churches are universally lax about who can teach, only that their standards aren't unified. Besides baptism, the typical requirements would be based on 1 Timothy 3 and similar passages, which hold leaders to high moral standards and require a certain level of respect and standing within the community.
Some of the more conservative Baptist churches would also exclude women from all teaching roles except that of teaching children. This is becoming less and less common, as even those churches that exclude women from the ordained pastorate often will permit them to teach in some capacity. Of course, many Baptist churches also fully affirm women in pastoral ministry. Again, it's up to the congregation.
Answer: You seem to be laboring under some misconceptions about the Baptist church. We Baptist do not believe that ours is the only faith which will wind up in heaven, nor do we believe that we are the only ones which worship the true God.
Not just anyone can teach, nor can just anyone preach in a Baptist Church, even though we do occasionally invite some Christian authorities to give instruction to some of our members, and they may not be Baptists but are well known Christians.
As an example we might have a professor of Theology, teach a class on salvation, to a group of youth. However, he would have to present some kind of credentials, and his lessons would most definitely have to be approved either locally or at some higher level.
We do also from time to time have a guest who has a peculiar witness to tell our congregations of their experience, a process which we know as witnessing.
As far as the article you quoted please give us a page number citing the incident so that we can check it out for ourselves. Also as I read the paper it is about Evangelism, and few Evangelists are limited to a particular Church. Evangelism is all about giving the path of salvation to the unsaved, and is generally accepted as nondenominational.
Baptists are happy to welcome anyone to their services in hope that the Holy Spirit will touch the heart of someone who needs it. after all Jesus said:

Mark 2:17  When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

In most of the Baptist churches I have attended the purpose of the sermon is to explain the word of God to the members and allow the Holy Spirit to do the calling. Very few services do not end with an Alter call, where those seeking salvation are given that opportunity. Even many Sunday school sessions end that way, and if the message that someone not a member of the Church is evangelistic we would certainly welcome any accredited Christian teaching the way to enter the Kingdom of God.
Baptist services are a celebration of God's grace and we welcome all who desire to celebrate with us regardless of their denomination. Nor do we discourage people from choosing any other denomination. The God we serve would never deny Heaven to anyone by saying even though you trusted my son for your salvation you cannot enter because you chose the wrong denomination.
John 3:16 in the New King James translation, says:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And nowhere in the Bible will you find any Denominational requirement.
You can learn about the curriculum and lessons published for Baptist Sunday school teachers which are designed so that they can be taught by laymen at the following web site http://www.lifeway.com/n/Bible-Study/Sunday-School-Groups?CMPID=Adwords-lifeway%20sunday%20school%20lessons_sunday-school-lessons&s_kwcid=AL!4443!3!26284083117!e!!s!!lifeway%20sunday%20school%20lessons&gclid=CPXXh-343cMCFYNDaQodFm0ArQ&ef_id=VM1RrQAABMp7ojeb:20150213030839:s
Hope this helps.
Comment: Though this might be true, I think you need to provide a corroborating source. It just looks like your opinion.
Comment: Sources make answers stronger.
Comment: @fredsbend/Double U added website info for research. does that give any corroboration to my answer?


Are Terrapins sold in the UK?

Question: I am from the UK and I was wondering if I can get terrapins. i have looked on all the websites of close by pet stores and none of them know where to get them from.
Comment: I made some minor wording changes to your question.  As originally written it was a shopping question which generally don't work well on StackExchange sites. The basic premise remains the same, but now it is a better fit for the site.  See [help asking](https://pets.stackexchange.com/help/asking) for more details
Comment: Look for pet shops dealing in exotic animals.
Comment: an other common name is red-eared slider so if you ask the petshops for this you might find it.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-eared_slider
Answer: I have found out that there are many species which you can purchase legally in the UK, it was just the pet stores around where I live do not have them.
Answer: It looks like this breed is banned in the UK and EU, so there is no legal way to get this type of turtle in a pet shop, and it is not legal to breed red eared terrapins either: https://www.petgazette.biz/11350-red-eared-sliders-banned-uk/

Are Terrapins sold in the UK?


Fitch Proof - Logic LPL 13.11

Question: I am currently doing questions for my course from LPL Chapter 13.11.
I have posted the screenshot of what I am trying to do.
I am quite stuck and I can not think of a way to get to ~Tet(a). Any hint and help would be really appreciated.
Comment: Welcome to Philosophy.SE! Are you sure this is right? From the two premises, it does not follow that there is an x with ~Tet(x): the premises are true also when for all x Tet(x) holds.
Comment: Yes, after like an hour of thinking I am really questioning whether this is a typo :/ But this is straight out of the textbook.
Comment: In a world with 1 Tet and nothing else the premises are true and the conclusion false.
Answer: This must be a typo in the text book: in the case that ∀x: Tet(x) ∧ ¬Cube(x) the premises are both true (provided there is at least one x), but the conclusion obviously does not hold.
However, you can prove that the promises entail ∃x: Tet(x).
Answer: Its purposely not suppose to work out. I would recommend using Taskis world to make something like this to prove it wrong
Comment: The counter example is there in the image:  When the domian is of several tetrahedrons and nothing else, then the premises are both satisfied but the existance of a non-tetrahedron is not satisfied.
Comment: Would you be able to provide that counterexample.  That would strengthen your answer and give the reader more information. Welcome to this SE!
Answer: When you introduce a new term a, don't use a completely different term b.  You introduced it for a reason.
You appear to be trying rules at random hoping to hit on something.  Examing the premises and target conclusions.
 |  Ax (Cube(x) v Tet(x))    Premise
 |_ Ex ~Cube(x)              Premise
 |  :
 |  Ex Tet(x)                Somehow

[Note: presumably the target should be Ex Tet(x) because Ex ~Tet(x) is not entailed by the premises. ]
Your premises are an existential and a universal of a disjunction and your target is another existential.  That suggests some of the rules of inference you might need are  Existential Elimination, Universal Elimination, Disjunction Elimination, and Existential Introduction.
 |  Ax (Cube(x) v Tet(x))    Premise
 |_ Ex ~Cube(x)              Premise
 |  |_ [a] ~Cube(a)          Assumption
 |  |  Cube(a) v Tet(a)      Universal Elimination
 |  |  :
 |  |  Tet(a)                Disjunction Elimination
 |  |  Ex Tet(x)             Existential Introduction
 |  Ex Tet(x)                Existential Elimination

Disjunction Elimination is a Proof by Cases: You require two subproofs, assuming in turn the left and right cases of the disjunction, and deriving the conclusion in each.  In the right case it is trivial (the desired conclusion is the assumption).  In the left case the assumption contradicts an earlier assumption, so you may use the principle of explosion (what your proof checker names "contradiction elimination").
  1.|  Ax (Cube(x) v Tet(x))    Premise
  2.|_ Ex ~Cube(x)              Premise
  3.|  |_ [a] ~Cube(a)          Assumption
  4.|  |  Cube(a) v Tet(a)      Universal Elimination (1)
  5.|  |  |_ Cube(a)            Assumption
  6.|  |  |  #                  Contradiction Introduction (3,5)
  7.|  |  |  Tet(a)             Contradiction Elimination  (6) (ex falso quodlibet)
  8.|  |  +
  9.|  |  |_ Tet(a)             Assumption
 10.|  |  Tet(a)                Disjunction Elimination (4,5-7,9-9)
 11.|  |  Ex Tet(x)             Existential Introduction (10)
 12.|  Ex Tet(x)                Existential Elimination (2,3-11)

[ You should notice that the original conclusion Ex ~Tet(x) just could not be reached from this point.  If you assume Tet(a) and have no active contradictions, then ~Tet(a) cannot be derived. ]
So ends the lesson.

Fitch Proof - Logic LPL 13.11


Percentage matching of queries in sharepoint 2010 search

Question: I was just wondering if it's possible to make sharepoint search results show entries very similar to the query entered. I just realised this when i came across this possibility when i ran a search for 'Jon' instead of 'John' by mistake. I realised it could have far reaching impact on our business. Do help me out with your thoughts. Stemming is already active so I'm looking for something different, for mostly names or spelling mistakes.Thanks!!
Comment: Are you thinking about this for content besides people search?
Answer: SharePoint 2010 offers phonetic people search. According to a technet article here :
Phonetic name matching and nickname matching
Users can search for a person in the organization by name without knowing the exact spelling of the name. For example, the search query "John Steal" could yield "John Steele" in the search results; results for the search query "Jeff" include names that contain "Geoff." In addition, nickname matching makes it possible for a search query for "Bill" to yield results that include "William."
Also for more information, you can check out the blog posts here and here
Answer: You could use the thesaurus for this.  But you will have to manually manage it.  It works by expanding your search, so if you searched for "Jon", you could make it search "Jon", "John", "Johnny", "Jonathan" etc...
Adding everyone's nicknames to the thesaurus could be difficult and time consuming so I'm hoping there's a better solution around :)