Which is faster for flashes, radio triggers or optical triggers?

Question: Assuming you have a line of sight to all your flashes and both methods will trigger the flashes with 100% reliability, is it faster to use radio triggers or optical triggers to set them off? Or put in other words, how does the delay time for radio triggers compare to optical triggers, and does the delay, if any, have an appreciable effect on photos?
Comment: I'd like to suggest an edit to your question. Rather than straight-out asking "what's better", you may want to reword it to ask "what's faster, radio or optical, and is the difference significant?" "Better" is such a wide term that it's really impossible to answer. However, if you're really mostly concerned with delay, you can reword your question to focus on that and get a better set of responses.
Answer: Good radio wireless remotes, like PocketWizards, fire extremely fast, well within the time the shutter opens; I pushed mine a long ways past 1/1000 before I saw problems with a black bar beginning to creep into the image.
I think they're both adequate for normal situations. It's when you get into adverse situations that you'll see one work better than the other.
If you're in an area with a lot of radio/electromagnetic noise or need to shoot through a metal mesh fence an optical trigger will probably blow away the radio trigger.
If you're not line of sight, or dealing with dust, rain, snow or fog or at a distance that the optical can't cover, then radio triggers will win.
I have PocketWizard remote triggers because I needed something to work in really lousy conditions outdoors. I've used them in the rain, dust, heat, cold, up in grandstands, running all over the place, without needing to worry whether I was where the trigger could see me.
I think reliable triggering for your shooting conditions is the most important thing, over speed or whether it's radio or optical.
Comment: You can do it on a Canon 1D, which syncs at 1/500 minimum. Many bodies can actually go higher if you are shooting manually. I was testing in a small area so the signal only had to travel about ten feet to the strobe head and remote trigger. I was actually testing duration on a WL1600 head at 1/4 power seeing if I could stop the fan blades on a ceiling fan, when I realized I was well over 1/1000 and the image was still sharp and I didn't have black bars. That 1/500 sync is a great reason to keep one of those bodies around because it lets you drop ambient by one stop more.
Comment: how exactly are you able to shoot at 1/1000 sec without seeing black bars? What camera do you use? The average SLR has a sync speed of 1/250. Anything faster than that will yield blackened areas in your frame, unless you use High Speed Sync mode (which, AFAIK, is only supported in newer PW's).
Answer: Optical slaves are considerably quicker - easily measured with a 'scope. Radio slaves offer longer range and more varied working conditions - unaffected by bright light and so on.
Good radio slaves introduce a delay of around 600 microseconds (0.6 milliseconds), some are slower - I measured mine at 1.2ms, which surprised me (it was longer than I expected). Still, even with that delay, I only have to drop the D700 down to 1/200 to get rid of any black bars. (at 1/200 sec, the shutter is open for 1ms longer than at 1/250, and the D700 is actually good for 1/320 sync with a hardwired flash.)
Optical slaves will introduce under a tenth of that delay, of the order of 60 microseconds, and may be regarded as more or less instant in practical terms in most situations. You can mix radio and optical triggers without worrying about the extra delay - e.g. trigger a distant flash by radio, and have it trigger several flashes near it optically, at worst you might have to drop back to 1/160 sec shutter speed on one of the modern cameras, but probably not.
Optical trigger which are trying to eliminate metering pre-flashes etc. might well introduce other delays, but simple "dumb" photodiode triggers are quick. Optical triggers which understand the pre-flash protocol properly for e.g. Canon's ETTL or Nikon's iTTL will be able to trigger at the correct point for all supported shutter speeds, obviously. So my Yongnuo 568EX flashes, optically triggered, will work at all shutter speeds (switching seamlessly to FP mode for speeds faster than 1/320) and my manual Yongnuo 560-II will optically sync up to 1/320 without banding, but, when the camera's in iTTL commander mode, simply refuses to fire at faster speeds (as that flash doesn't do FP sync, but seems to understand enough of the preflash protocol to know not to fire.)
Answer: Your question is what's FASTER, radio or optical?; the answer is that it depends on the trigger more than the mechanism.  Radio waves and light are essentially the same thing and therefore travel at the same speed.
Radio triggers include more circuitry and processing since they often accept multiple channels, etc.  PocketWizard advertises that the response time of their MultiMax trigger is as low as 1/3000th of a second, due to their "ultrafast microprocessors".  I had a hard time finding solid data on the response time of a typical "dumb" optical slave (like a Wein), but I saw commentary on it ranging from 0.1 sec to just 1-2ms.  So, in spite of the additional electronics it would seem that the radio option will be faster, but surely this depends a lot on what type of photodiode/resistor is being used in the trigger.
All that said, none of this likely matters unless you are attempting to capture something that happens incredibly fast and without warning.
Typically in high-speed photography applications you are triggering a flash pulse based on some event; often either sound or interruption of a beam of light.  Given that, you should be able to compensate for the 0.3ms delay of a PocketWizard simply by subtracting that time from your trigger... That'd be a matter of dialing it in if you're using something fancy, or if you're using a light/sound-based system just move the trigger ever-so-slightly closer to your subject.
For example, if you're triggering a flash based on the sound of a balloon popping, moving the microphone closer to the balloon will cause the flash to fire sooner since the sound has less distance to travel.  Sound being slow (relative to light), you wouldn't need to move it very far to make up for 1/3000th of a second... maybe a few inches?
The second part of your question, will it have an appreciable effect on photos?... Most likely not, since it isn't the response time of the trigger that makes the image but rather it's the duration of the flash itself.
Answer: This was of some interest to me because I have been getting the horizontal bars, so I did a lot of research and some testing. My camera has a nominal sync speed of 1/200 and I am using Britek PS-200 and PS-250 strobes which have a flash duration of 1/1500s. My interest was because I noticed a significant difference when firing just one strobe with a radio trigger and using the built-in optical slaves on the others against having radio receivers on all of the strobes.
I did some testing and worked out that my curtain speed (the time from the curtain starting its travel to the time it finishes) is about 3.7ms, which allows just 1.3ms of the shutter being fully open for the flash to trigger, at a shutter speed of 1/200, before the rear curtain starts moving. I'm assuming that the camera triggers the flash immediately after the front curtain is fully open.
This means that, if my trigger mechanism induces a delay of more than 1.3ms, the rear curtain will have started moving before one or more of the strobes has fired. Although most radio and optical systems don't induce this kind of lag, if you use (as I did) a radio trigger on a master strobe and then optical slaves on the rest, the lag is compounded, and I occasionally found I was getting the black bars at 1/200 shutter speed. The weird thing is that it is not consistent and I have no explanation for that. I can fix the problem by using all radio triggers or dropping the shutter speed down to 1/160 or slower.
By the way, the significance of me mentioning the flash duration for my strobes is that, when using the shutter speeds close to your sync speed and if your strobe has a long duration - some have up to 1/500s or more - it is almost certain that the rear curtain will start closing before the strobe has finished firing. Instinctively, I would expect this to cause somewhat graded exposure across the image. My strobes have a fairly fast flash duration and I haven't noticed this effect but has anyone run across this?
Answer: What's better? That depends on a few factors... However, when considering the pros and cons, you have to look at a few different things. A couple that I found really relevant in this was:

TTL support. The major brands offer this through optical control, in your camera, but that does mean your camera either uses the built in flash or a mounted speedlight to do that. Radio triggers offering this are much more expensive than the ones without, but gain by not requiring line of sight. That's the trade there, though you mentioned line of sight (which I think is actually unreasonable in a lot of shooting scenarios) not being an issue.
Separated control. I do some macro stuff, notably water drops, and my technique uses off camera flash and long exposures in a dark room. If the optical option is used, the flash fires when the shutter opens, but if I go radio, I can use the commander off the camera with the test button. Subtle, true, but actually quite powerful for the right application.

Anyways, these were the "biggies" for me and in the end, I found the radio option to be much more flexible in my usage than optical despite the fact that I couldn't get TTL support for Pentax. Individual mileage, however, may vary. :)
Comment: I only have manual flashes, and I didn't say that the line of sight was not an issue, only that in this particular case, to make all variables even, we'll assume line of sight so that the flashes can trigger off an optical trigger.
Comment: @Daniel - Line of site is entirely relevant to the discussion though, it is the single biggest advantage that radio triggers have over optical and so to make it "even" means, well, it's even and the essential question becomes irrelevant: they both do the job at the speed of light.
Answer: The speed of optical versus radio has much more to do with delays and latencies in camera and flash electronic systems, than the type of waves traveling between the systems.
EM waves are so fast as to have no effect at typical photography exposure times. To know the speed differences of any system you have to know the electronic specs of each, radio or optical. I doubt the details of such are published by most manufacturers, but they would know best if you can get them to divulge.
Answer: An optical trigger reacts to the transition from normal lighting to flash lighting.  Short of any additional circuitry (like pre-flash avoidance) we are talking about something like 10000 Watts appearing within dozens of microseconds due to a large gas discharge triggered by a strong ionizing pulse.  There is nothing overly remarkable coming afterwards, and the speed of light travel does not really add anything significant to the equation.
A radio trigger does not work with anything near that power.  Instead it uses a modulated signal at a speed and modulation frequency the detecting circuitry (often microprocessors) can reliably recognize and deal with.  The signal-to-noise ratio is way way worse than the rather unsubtle action of an optical flash and it needs to be reliably detected even when disturbed by the electromagnetic interference of an actually firing flash at the same time.  So the time frames the detection and decoding circuitry are working with are way longer in order to make a reliable determination.
For speed, simple optical slaves should be hard to beat.
Answer: Also, one needs to be aware that radio slaves not meeting the definition of "good" in other answers (eg simple 16 Channel 433MHz ISM devices) can be "slower" than expected, sometimes to the point of requiring you to go one or two shutter speeds below the camera's specified sync speed in order not to get partially exposed frames. This behaviour can be nondeterministic (one trigger even will be delayed several ms, another won't be delayed as much).
Likely, these receivers do not use a proper protocol with error correction but simply use statistical/lowpass filters (if there is enough radio energy with a recognizable modulation pounding on it in a given timeframe, they trigger - if there is interference, it will take longer; if there is bad reception, it will take longer). Be aware that ISM devices do not have any exclusivity on a radio band, a lot of other things (HAM radio, Microwave ovens when using 9xx MHz bands, WiFI on some bands) can interfere with communications at any time and require retrying the transmission, delaying it in the process. If the receivers were too liberal about accepting dodgy/interference-riddled looking trigger signals, that also would leave a bad quality impression - you would frequently have them triggering on interference itself, in the worst case setting off a strong studio flash right into a bystanders face (startling annoyance at best, an injury hazard at worst!).
I would not put it beyond the cheapest devices to use superregenerative receiver circuitry (itself an interference source!) or sloppily calibrated TRF circuitry (which can very easily degrade into a half-functional state).


Do German Ashkenazim sit or stand during kiddush?

Question: Do German Ashkenazim sit or stand for kiddush and is the custom the same in the evening and day and for Shabbas and yontif?
Answer: They sit during all kiddushim. Source: Personal experience from countless families, including Rav Shlomo Breslauer of Beis Tefilla, Monsey, NY. Beis Tefilla is the large Jeckische (German Ashkenazi) synagogue there (other than the Frankfurter synagogue, KAJ).
Answer: According to the Yekkish site KAYJ:

... another minhag that was in the past and today is more common, is to stand both at night and in the day, throughout the whole Kiddush

(It also mentions the same for Havdalah)


Engine grease fell into combustion chamber

Question: I was changing a spark plug out on a 2000 Ford Expedition with a 5.4L Triton, with the coils on the plugs (COP), and I'm worried about how dirty it was. I was being as careful as possible, but I know a little bit of dry grease fell into the combustion chamber. It's difficult for me to know how much. I can guess at maybe 3 to 5 pinches, or to express it another way, maybe about 1 mL. I know this can potentially scratch at the chamber wall, what I don't know is, since I've driven it since then, does grease eventually burn to ash and emit out of the valve, or will I need to employ some method of cleaning it out? It seems like with COP setups, a little bit of grease falling in can be fairly common, but I suppose I could be wrong.
Comment: If it is big try blowing it out, if you can't blow it out, forget about it. That's what your mechanic would do. :)
Comment: The stuff you get into your engine by crankcase ventilation over the lifetime of the engine is far more detrimental. It will eat up your little grease right away. I wouldn't worry about it. Carefulness is more of a concern when creating a clean area for a proper seal of the plug.
Answer: The only real way to get the debris out without it causing any damage at all would be to remove the cyl head. Its the extreme way but the only definite way to know that the bore, rings & valves etc won't be subject to it.
Second best would be to leave the spark plug out, rotate that cylinder so its approaching top dead centre if required and see if there's any possibility of fishing the culprit out with a grabber type tool etc or blowing it out with compressed air.
In reality though as you've driven the vehicle, and I'm assuming its still running ok without misfiring etc, this bit of dry grease is unlikely to be a problem.
If it was going to be problematic a bit of dry grease may have perhaps just held the exhaust valve open temporarily before being squashed, burnt and any remains blown out of the exhaust valve.
If however you're still concerned, do a compression check on that cylinder just to make sure everything is as it should be.


How can I find beer or wine shops online in India?

Question: I am a passionate traveller, and this is all I ever wanted. But the only problem I face in the new place is finding the beer shop. Is there any way of finding one without any hassle? My journey is always incomplete without beer.
Comment: Perhaps try travel on SE.  I appreciate that you are new (we all were once), maybe ask a question about Indian beers, everyone here loves new questions and stories, but we do have to keep to the rules of the site.  Oh and one more thing, Welcome to our little corner!
Comment: Eh, a search engine?
Answer: Yes, finding a nearby beer shop or nearby wine shop is hassle free now all because of Nearbytheka.com.
NearbyTheka is India's first online portal where you can locate the list of nearby beer shops, pubs, bars, wine shops, cafes, and thekas close to your location just within a click. All you need just to search your existing location through GPS and explore the nearby beer shops, just like that.
The motto of NearbyTheka is to provide a hassle-free way out to search nearby wine shops. Along with that, they believe to provide a platform for all daaru lovers to spice up their life with the list of nearby thekas, yummiest nearby chakna, nearby cafes, pubs, bars and daaru party theme merchandise with the latest daarubaaz trends at amazing prices.
Answer: How can I find beer or wine shops online in India?
First of all, try using a search engine and employ the Punjabi language or some other popular Indian language. Many languages are employed locally or are used in very particular regions of India.
Here are 3 Websites to Order Alcohol Online in India:

You can order alcohol online in India with these websites.
Let's take a quick look at the laws in India to order alcohol before we share the list with you.
In India, the retail industry has bloomed a lot in the last ten years, from selling clothes to eyewear, anything and everything can be bought online. But, there is one question that troubles a lot of people especially the youngsters, Can you purchase your drinks online?
The short answer is YES, you can buy and sell alcohol online. But, in order to sell it online, you need to seek permissions from the state government and ensure that your business model complies with the state laws. You also require permissions to buy/sell liquor in public places. Every state has different age restrictions regarding hard drinks, hence selling or buying drinks depends on the age restrictions.
Prohibition is incorporated in the Constitution of India among the directive principles of state policy which means that legislative powers of alcohol consumption are under the power of respective states. Recently, Bihar had prohibited the sale and consumption of country liquor in April 2016. The Liquor online business model is a risky model but it can be done if you comply with state laws you can run a successful business.
Here are few online alcohol vendors, who are running a successful online Alcohol portal:
Madhuloka is probably one of the most famous outlets for ordering alcohol online. Based in Bangalore, Madhuloka has a wide range of drinks including premium brands as well. The vision of Madhuloka is to provide their guests with best and widest range of wine and spirits. They operate only in Bangalore.
Madhuloka Wine Boutique is about wines to drink – not just wines that impress at tastings. We particularly emphasize drinkability and try to offer wines, which do not just impress on first taste but leave you wanting another glass.
Whiskey Marketplace (India)
Probably the best place to buy whiskey online, the website is 100% secure and safe for buying rum, cognac, vodka, gin, and Armagnac. The feature that makes the website unique are the filters, age and price filters which allow the users to buy aged whiskey. The website also contains filters for the retailers you want the drinks from and the age of the whiskey you wish to purchase.
For people who wish to know about the latest trends and events, detailed analysis of the liquor industry they can browse through the Spiritz Magazine. The website also informs the users about the latest fashionable drinks available in the market.
Go on, shop your drinks online!!!


What does "master of death" mean?

Question: Towards the end of book/movie 7, Harry becomes the master of all three hallows, thus becoming the "master of death". But what does that mean? Did he become immortal? Or simply that he became unafraid of death?
Comment: It's one up from "Lord of the Dance"?
Comment: @Jeff You mean *[Lord of the Shadows](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8949.Lord_of_the_Shadows)?*
Answer: Using the Harry Potter Wiki as a reference:

 While it is generally assumed that becoming the Master of Death refers to some form of immortality, the true Master of Death truly accepts the fact that death is inevitable, and that there are other things worse than dying.

I don't remember the books clarifying the point at all. But then, I also got the impression at the time that

 the whole Master of Death thing was not actually true; that the most likely explanation was that the three wizarding brothers had simply created the three powerful artifacts; and that everything in the fairy tale, and the lore about the Master of Death, were simply rumors and misinformation.
Comment: You thought the H*s were fake? :)
Answer: In the magical world, for centuries it was assumed that a  Master of Death is the one who possesses the three Deathly Hallows, i.e. the one who unites the Elder Wand, the Cloak of Invisibility and the Resurrection Stone.
As quoted by Xenophilius Lovegood in the Seventh book,

"That is a children's tale, told to amuse rather than to instruct. Those of us who understand these matters, however, recognize that the ancient story refers to three objects, or Hallows, which, if united, will make the possessor Master of Death"
"Master or Conquerer or Vanquisher whatever you say"

Possessing the hallows doesn't make one immortal. As in the Tale of the three brothers, nor were the three brothers immortal. It was said that the last thing that could conquer the master of death was Death itself!
However, at the end of the same book, with the small chat with Harry in his dream after Voldemort killed him, Dumbledore clarified the point behind being a true Master of death.

...because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He must accept that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.

This was evident from the fact that the third brother who possessed the Invisibility cloak, didn't run away from death, but greeted him as an old friend.
P.S. Harry was never the possessor of all the three hallows during any time at once. Though he had the cloak and the stone, and also was the owner of the Elder wand, he never physically possessed it. Moreover, about the time when he had the Elder wand, he had dropped the resurrection stone in the Forbidden Forest.
Comment: That's why I said mastered and not possessed
Comment: Is there any canon statement to the effect that a (single) person who just possesses the three Hallows may not become the intended Master of Death as the Tales of Beedle the Bard says? The three brothers in the tale had them only separately.
Comment: @NUnnikrishnan You have to _win the allegiance_ of the Elder wand, remember? Merely possessing it (along with the other Hallows) may not make you a Master of Death.
Answer: The legend was that uniting all three made one "Master of Death".  It was, in other words, trying to outsmart Death.  For example, the two older brothers chose items that would 'humiliate' Death, not realizing in their arrogance that they were playing right into his hands.  Only the 3rd brother asked for a gift that showed wisdom, seeking to evade Death, but the request showed reverence, even respect, in that only Death's own cloak could work against Death himself.
An individual who owned or won the gifts, but, did not lose to them could essentially be considered a Master of Death.
The Wand:  Harry won the wand and used it to defeat Voldemort - but, he didn't want it.  He used it to repair the phoenix wand.  Therefore, Harry was master over the Elder wand as it did not hold him sway.  He gave it back.
The Cloak:  Belongs to Harry as it belonged to his father before him.  Harry inherited the Cloak, therefore is its master.
The Stone:  The real proof of Harry's mastery of Death lay here.  Harry took the stone and used it not to bring others back from the dead, but, to have them give him the courage to face his own death.  Dumbledore insisted that Harry didn't realize how special he was because he could love.  Harry, in this very instance, shows the greatest possible love by laying down his own life.  This is how Harry masters the stone, because he uses it to give him the strength to allow Voldemort to slay him, thereby breaking the curse (destroying the piece of Voldemort's soul that had attached to Harry as a child, thereby making him the seventh horcrux) and proving the prophecy (...he shall have power the Dark Lord knows not).  Because Harry used the stone to willingly face Death - the very thing that Voldemort feared - Harry proves that he is Master of Death.  Additional proof of Harry's mastery over the stone is that Harry did not keep the stone, either.  He discarded it in the forest after his loved ones escorted him to his destination.
The scenes with the horcruxes, however, are not the only ones in which Harry shows that he has an equal footing with death.  In PS, Harry defiantly tells Ron and Hermione that Voldemort with have to kill him, because he was never joining the dark side.  In CoS, after the basilisk has bitten him and he is slumped against the stone wall, Harry muses that '...if this is dying, it's not all that bad...) [paraphrase]  In GoF, when readying himself to fight Voldemort, Harry decides that he is going to die fighting, standing tall like his father.  In OotP, when Voldemort attempts to possess Harry in the hope that Dumbledore will sacrifice Harry in order to kill him, Harry, suffering from the pain of the connection with Voldemort, mentally begs Dumbledore to kill them, reflecting that death would be better than this pain and that he, Harry, would be able to see Sirius again.  In HBP, in his hatred and sorrow, Harry screams at Snape, calling him a coward and dares Snape to kill him like he killed Dumbledore.
Throughout the entire series, after he learns how his parents truly died,  Harry continuously proves that he has been prepared to face death all along.  He does not willingly seek death; he is not suicidal.  But, he does not fear death and he understands, as Dumbledore stated, that there are far worse things than death - something that Voldemort never understands.  This makes Harry a Master of Death.

What does "master of death" mean?


Reconciling Young Earth Creationism With Racial Diversity

Question: I'm wondering whether the Young Earth Creationism can be reconciled with the racial diversity found on the globe. How, can a young Earth accomedate, in a manner consistent with science, Noah's descendants going from being whatever race they were, (presumably of middle eastern appearance) and becoming of Chinese, Japanese Vietnamese & similar. Can environmental factors really account for such changes in such a short span of time? Would people of disparate races really return to the original race just from returning to its environment?
Does this Creationist belief claim that all humans descend from the land of Israel?
Comment: "Explain, in a manner consistent with [current] science, an aspect of this philosophy that is inconsistent with [current] science."
Comment: Similar http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/432/759
Comment: Welcome to Mi Yodeya J.J! Consider learning more from this [short Beginners' Guide](http://meta.judaism.stackexchange.com/a/3887/8775) to the site
Comment: There are medrashim that state that the different races all descended from the three children of Noah and that they then congregated together based on appearance and culture as a result of the dispersion after the Tower of Babel. Before then people of different colors and appearance were distributed among the population.
Comment: In Judaism All people stem from 3 sons of Noach (and their wives), and all the racial differences come from environmental changes: temperature, humidity, winds, sand etc.
Answer: First, Young Earth Creationism is a position officially invented and held by Christian Bible believers. However, it is true that many Jews do believe (based on Torah and tradition) in some form of limited history for the Earth. For instance, the Jewish calendar is now 5777 years since Creation (Anno Mundi).
But, many Jews will say that 5777 are the years since Adam was created, not since the world was created. Therefore, if you follow the interpretation that the 6 days of Genesis are not literal 24 hour periods, but rather epochs/stages called "days" then YEC is not needed for anything pre-Adam.
There are two approaches to your question (assuming we wish to examine a defense for YEC as applied to racial diversity presented in the OP):
1) The flood was a local Mesopotamian event (not covering the literal globe). The "whole Earth" of the flood was the portion of the planet that was populated by the evil descendants of Adam (except the righteous Noach etc.) Also, Adam may have been the first real full "man" with an intellectual soul. However, the species of man may have already existed earlier on the 6th day without a full human intellectual soul. Therefore, there were many more humans populating the world besides the "Adam's family".
For the former to be true, consider that the Talmud and Medrash explain that the dove sent by Noach found the olive branch in the land of Israel, because the flood did not reach there. Similarly, the sage Rabbi Yochanan says that Og escaped the flood by entering (the land that would become) Israel. There are other possible proofs to a local (or incomplete) flood.
For the latter idea to be true, consider Genesis 4:17 which tells us that Cain built a city. This guy was a farmer turned real estate developer? Cool. But who was he building condos for? He lived far away from his parents in eastern Nod and he killed his brother...is there anyone else left to sell the units to? :) There are more possible proofs that the "Adam's family" were unique among a larger human population around them.
These ideas in interpreting the Biblical narrative, would allow for the biological diversity and development noticed by scientists, who claim the races of mankind needed about 30,000 years, and a larger population, to develop.
2) The other approach is that the science of the human genome and racial anthropology etc. is a very new branch of research. It is constantly correcting itself and making new discoveries. No one knows if they can trace with accuracy, the exact number of years it would take for certain genes to change in the population.
Furthermore, G-d may have simply diversified Noah's three sons and increased their offspring supernaturally to make up for the flood and to provide faster racial diversity.
The Biblical account is primarily a spiritual teaching clothed in our reality. It may mention worldly events or scientific truths in passing, but it is not meant to be a historical or scientific textbook. So, it doesn't stop and explain itself like a manual. That doesn't mean it is a contradiction to anything.
However, it is interesting to note that "science" does say that humanity can be divided among three major races - Asian, sub Saharan African, and India/European. Many have pointed out the interesting correlation to Noah's three sons Shem (Middle East - Asia), Ham (Africa), and Yapheth (Indo-Euro).
Also, the origins of the Indian and European language connection was not known until the study of Sanskrit by Sir William Jones in 1786. He proved that the Europeans and Indians were descended from the same common people who spoke PIE (proto-Indo-European). Finally, in the 1980's Colin Renfrew, professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, revealed that the best evidence suggests that the original speaker of PIE lived in Turkey.
If the mountains of Ararat (mentioned as the landing spot of the ark in Genesis) are in Turkey (as many believe) then your last question is also answered.
"All humans" (Noah's descendents) descend from the land of Turkey. :)
Hope this helps
Comment: Whether or not Indo-Europeans came from Turkey (which is [not necessarily the case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_homeland)), that doesn't at all mean that all humans come from Turkey. It means that a certain people at a certain point in time came from Turkey.
Comment: I liked your answer but I agree with @ba that Proto-Indo-European is just one of many language groups.
Comment: @ba the point I was making: the 3 groups of humans in science, seem to match the 3 groups of the Bible. Now if you want to know why Indians and Europeans are a group?? Why are there not 4 groups?(they are so diverse and separated geographically as opposed to Semites and Africans...) then the answer is PIE. That was the main point. The OP asked also if according to the Bible, all humans descend from the land of Israel? The answer is the possible Biblical "Arrarat" location being Turkey. The fact that scientists offer Turkey as origin for PIE is just sugar on top.
Comment: @DavidKenner There is no such thing as 3 groups of humans in science, or 3 groups of languages
Comment: @Cyn thanks :) see my comment to ba. Also, if PIE can be explained to have a common original source in merely the time it took to diversify languages (which science admits is only 6+ thousand years ago, not 30k+ thousand) then the concept that Semites and Africans could possibly have done the same and also possibly be sourced in a proto population (of the Ark survivors in Turkey) is also understandable. – David Kenner 7 hours ago
Comment: @DavidKenner it's a lot more complex than you think.  And language goes back further than 6K years.  There are multiple language families, some associated with migrations much older than this supposed limit.  Think of the Americas and Australia.
Comment: @Cyn I did say6+ :) Yes, but didn't the Americas and Pacific get populated by Asian migration? ... I am not a scientist of any caliber so I won't argue too much on these details. I actually like my first part of the answer which simply admits the world is much older pre-Adam.
Comment: Yes, you said 6k+.  But it's more like 70k+ for the first waves of migration out of Africa.  I liked the first part of your answer too.  :-)


How old does a child need to be to sit separately from parents when flying?

Question: I just took a transatlantic Aer Lingus red-eye flight with my 4-year old. When checking in, the agent gave my child and me seats that were on opposite sides of the plane, separated by about 5 rows. When I asked for adjacent seats she told me that the flight was sold out and I should have paid to reserve them in advance. After a little bit of grumbling, she reseated us next to each other. Are there any rules relating to this? Can I really seat a 4-year old next to innocent strangers and let them, and the flight attendants, deal with the resulting tantrum?
Comment: @JamesRyan that is part of the motivation of the question. It seems unfair to sell a pair of tickets, knowing one is a child's ticket, and then say sorry you cannot use these because you did not pay an optional charge.
Comment: Be careful what you ask for. They could totally agree with you and not allow you on the plane at all if there are no adjacent seats left. :)
Comment: Now with bounty !
Comment: You need seats together--it's not an optional charge in your case.  I do agree it's wrong--the airline should simply refuse to sell a ticket to someone that young without the assigned seating.  What you're after is unfair in the other direction--you're getting something (sitting together) without paying the price the rest of us pay.
Comment: @StrongBad It sounds as if you are the one who requested them to be adjacent, not a requirement from the airline.  I do not see the airline saying "you cannot use these."
Comment: @LorenPechtel the way I saw it, they (1) will actually allow me to sit my kid alone next to you, (2) sold me the wrong ticket, or (3) seated me incorrectly. My assumption was they seated me incorrectly, but I came here to ask about (1) because that seemed like it was a lot more likely than your claim/wish that it was in fact (2). I guess I could ask the other way: Can I pay to reserve a 4 year old a seat that is half a plane away from the seat I give myself?
Comment: If I had a child sitting next to me I would quietly say to the crew that in the event of an emergency I am not willing to take any responsibility for the child
Answer: There's no definitive answer to this and it will vary by country and airline.
This is what the UK Civil Aviation Authority says:
http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=2207&pageid=12706
From a safety point of view children (it doesn't specify an age) SHOULD be seated CLOSE to their parent/guardian.  The reasons are many but if you imagine a decompression for example, where the oxygen masks deploy, you want someone to be able to fit the mask to the child.  Parents may not trust a random stranger to do this for their offspring.
If there was an emergency evacuation, you don't want parents having to move around the aircraft trying to get to their children to ensure they are evacuated etc.
Once the child gets to an age where they are responsible enough to look after themselves in the event of an emergency, then you can consider this to be reasonable.  This will vary depending on the child to some extent but perhaps age 12 would be reasonable.
Of course if you have 6 children as we do, you will invariably be separated by at least a row or an aisle, we always try to seat the youngest ones closest.
In the past airlines (at least the ones I've flown with) would always try to seat families together but now that a lot of them charge for reserved seats they are less helpful in this regard.
Comment: I have an impression airlines purposely assign seats separate so that even adult couples/groups will have more motivation to pay for reserved seats.
Answer: Any person above 2 years must have a seat, but where is that seat? That's something left for common sense and not covered by any policy I am aware of.
Seating policies usually go like "every effort must be made to ensure that families are seated next to each other" and that's it, and as we know, as long as that "effort" costs money, airlines might ignore it! Many airlines make extra money from allowing passengers to reserve seats. They will not implement policies that will add extra responsibilities to them and let them lose some good money.
However, out of personal experience, it will not be that hard to find a passenger who is willing to switch seats to let a mother sit next to her kid. Just give the cabin crew a hint about that and let humanity deal with the rest.
Comment: Or ask humanity directly if the crew dismisses your request
Comment: @AndréPeseur basically you are saying parents can avoid paying seat reservation fees just because they are parents.
Comment: @chx However you get a +1 from me because it is very annoying when people ask me to move because they did not make adequate preparations for their own seating.
Comment: No. That's not what I am saying. I don't know where you get this from
Comment: @chx Yes that is possible with some airlines.
Answer: In booking another transatlantic flight with British Airways, there online system is more informative. It says

If you don't pay to choose your seats, British Airways will allocate seats to passengers travelling with children (aged 2-11 years) approximately three days before departure. We aim to seat families together; however where this is not possible children will at least be seated with one adult in the same booking.
Answer: Happens often enough that there appear to be no rules at all about seating children other than not in the exit rows. The airline seat-reservation model certainly has no exceptions for age, but if you call the reservation line they will probably accommodate you next time.
If not, maybe enough of:

Can I really sit a 4 year old next to innocent strangers and let them, and the flight attendants, deal with the resulting tantrum?

will convince the airlines to change things.
Comment: Could the 4 year old not be escorted off the aircraft before take off to avoid this problem?
Answer: In the good old days when I was younger and travel was more .... civilized and less reliant on technology, family seating was a non issue. We were 6 kids and two adults and were all seated together. In fact, the row of seats that had baby bassinet hooks were exclusively reserved for families.
These days, the only rules that airlines absolutely must follow are:

Any person 2 years of age or older has to have separate seats.
Any person deemed unsuitable (due to age, language or other restrictions) cannot be seated in an exit row.

Other than that you are at the mercy of the airline and your fellow passengers. These days I find that it is often cheaper to rely on humanity than to pay for reserved seats.
Another interesting twist on this idea happens often in the Middle East (but I am sure elsewhere as well, since its a Muslim issue) where it is not allowed for women to be seated next to unrelated males.
Some families are very strict about this; others not so. I have seen this often where the poor cabin crew are left to play musical chairs trying to satisfy everyone's needs. This really becomes an issue on full flights (usually during the busy summer season).
So, what can you do to ensure a safe flight for you and your children?

Book as early as possible, to get preferred seats.
Pay for seat selection.
Ask the crew, but ask them once everyone has boarded - try not to create a bottleneck when there is a large queue of people standing in the isle.
Ask the person sitting next to your child. You will find that most people are very understanding. Offer your seat for theirs before asking your neighbor to move.
Answer: In the USA, starting this month, there's new legislation on family seating. Inclusion of the language on family seating in the FAA reauthorization bill comes after similar legislation last year called the Families Flying Together Act of 2015 was introduced. The legislation directs the U.S. Transportation Secretary to look at establishing a policy directing airlines to allow children age 13 or under to sit next to an accompanying family member who is older — at no additional cost. In addition, the TSA can no longer separate parents from their children during screenings.
Comment: Please, do not start discussion here
Comment: So far as I can tell, the [legislation](https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2658/text) only requires airlines to clearly disclose that tickets may not be for adjacent seating, along with the airline's policy on seating families together (see Section 3113).  It doesn't actually require families to be seated together.
Comment: Welcome to the site! Please take a look at our short [tour] to see how this site works. Unlike other sites you may be used to, we're not a discussion forum so we're _only_ looking for answers to the question at the top of your page. I've edited your answer to remove the parts that seemed to be a discussion of points not related to the question.
Comment: Does the legislation apply to international airlines flying in and out of the US?


Are Linux VirtualBox images legal to distribute?

Question: I have a website with adsense.
Can I share Linux distro VirtualBox images with users?
Is this legal?
Will it affect my adsense account?
Answer: You need to be careful. Linux - as in the kernel - is licensed under the GPL. This means you are free to distribute it, but you are under an obligation to supply the source code used to build it if requested - though you may charge a fee to cover your costs when doing so. Of course, it is unlikely you will be asked, but you might be.
The wider operating system - sometimes referred to as GNU/Linux - will be covered by a variety of licenses and I am sure it is this, as opposed to the kernel, you wish to distribute. Depending on your jurisdiction (software patent law is very different in the EU from the US, for instance) and the software used you may not be free to distribute that at all eg you may have software which is built using combined GPL and non-GPL code (you can build this but you may not distribute it in this form) etc - you need to check all this thoroughly.
Answer: Well, the legal situation is certainly more complicated than "Linux is totally free", but in this case, there are likely to be no problems.
Distributing Linux is not a problem. It is published under a license that is created just for this purpose. For details, read the GNU General Public License , which practically all Linux software is distributed under.
What you may not do is distribute copyrighted material (i.e. software, videos, music, images etc. that are not under a free license) inside your VirtualBox images.
Oh, and I don't have VirtualBox's license documents handy, but if you don't use the OpenSource edition but Oracle's own edition, I'd read its license very thoroughly. Might well be possible that there are catches in there, too.
Comment: I want to provide only installed linux virtual box images not with other softwares.
Just install linux and create image and upload.
So it's mean I can do this.
Answer: Linux is totally free and you are welcome to distribute Linux in one way or another unless your distro images contains proprietary software.
Comment: I want to provide only installed linux virtual box images not with other softwares.
Just install linux and create image and upload.
So it's mean I can do this.
Answer: If you've only installed packages from the official Ubuntu repositories (that doesn't include Canonical's partner repostiory), it'll be legal to distribute. That's a requirement we have for all software we include in Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/licensing
Same goes for Debian main and contrib: http://www.debian.org/social_contract
Answer: The stuffs you need to be careful about when distributing linux image is proprietary software. Common ones that you need to double check includes:

Adobe Flash Player
Proprietary Video/Audio codecs
Proprietary Games
Drivers

This list is incomplete, and even some proprietary softwares may allow redistribution, you will need to check the licenses of the softwares installed in the image. This could potentially be a lot of reading, although there are some shortcuts, all packages in the 'main' and 'restricted' for Ubuntu allows free redistribution. So you'll only need to read the licenses for softwares not installed from those repositories.


Are military and jet pilots given any extra training before entering commercial aviation if yes, then how?

Question: Because a jet pilot is habitual of flying super sonic aircraft, which can possibly go in any direction and do many maneuvers, which commercial aircraft can't, are they given any special training before entering commercial aviation?
Comment: Of course a pilot needs to be trained and rated for the aircraft that they are going to fly. You can't take an F-16 pilot and drop them in a 787 and expect that they will conduct a safe flight. They need to go through as much training as non-military pilots, save for a few that have time in type (like Air Force 1 pilots)... The biggest difference is that military flight time counts towards ratings and commercial/ATP.
Comment: Its also important to note that a military pilot is not an FAA certificated pilot, in order for that to happen you have to go through [a conversion process](https://www.transportation.gov/careers/veterans/pilots).
Comment: Apart from flying the aircraft itself, there are a lot of FAA regulations and the airline's own operations rules to learn too. Even a pilot who moves from one airline to another would need some training.
Comment: I had a friend who was a Marine C-130 pilot, when I first got my CFI.  I took him up in a Cessna 172.  It was really interesting because his judgements were way off, but I only had to correct him once for ANYTHING.  He tried to fly the approach at 110 kts (one comment and it was fixed).  He tried to flare at 150 ft (show him once and it was fixed).  I find that a good and experience pilot can very quickly be trained to fly a different aircraft.
Comment: @anshabhi The question as asked is very broad  and basically requires answers to explain all of the training for type ratings and line checks.  You would definitely learn more if you did a small amount of research ahead of time and asked questions about what you don't understand.  As I recall, Cockpit Confidential has almost an entire chapter on commercial pilot training.
Comment: @RonBeyer @Pondlife; your comments are valid but please note that the FAA only regulates aviation in the USA, not in the rest of the world. The OP is not from FAA land.
Comment: @DeltaLima Very true, but if you remove "FAA" from my comment I think the point is still valid, regardless of who the regulator(s) involved are.
Comment: @CodyP hmm yeah.. But a consice answer should be good enough..
Comment: @anshabhi Its difficult to give a concise answer without a focused question. Could you at the very least narrow it down to a country?
Comment: @RonBeyer let's take USA then.. (Sorry for late reply)
Answer: Watch out for the words "centerline thrust only"!
The overall answer to your question depends on the military pilot's background and experience.  Military heavy jet pilots (bomber and transport) will have very little difficulty converting over to civil airliners, as civil airliners and military transports of equivalent role are close cousins in flight characteristics, and many bombers aren't that far off either.
Fast-jet pilots, however, can run into one specific difficulty when transferring to civil jet aircraft.  Most (albeit not all) twin-engine tactical jets have their engines mounted very close to the aircraft centerline.  This means that there is very little yaw when an engine fails in a tactical jet, which is quite difference from the response of an airliner, or even most light twins, during an engine failure.
Hence, a pilot whose sole multi-engine experience is in twin-engine tactical jets may receive a "centerline thrust only" restriction on the CPL/AMEL certificate they are issued on the basis of their military experience.  This restriction must be lifted before they can fly or receive a type rating in a non-centerline-thrust aircraft (even a DC-9 yaws enough on engine failure not to count).  Thankfully, it's not a hard restriction to lift -- in the worst case, it's simply a matter of passing the multi-engine checkride in a light twin with wing-mounted engines, and may be liftable as part of a type rating course for a non-centerline-thrust multi-engine aircraft for that matter.
Answer: Note: this answer is based on googling, I am not a pilot.
Military pilots in the USA can apply for some civilian aviation qualifications on the basis of their military qualifications and experiance.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/61.73
Sepcifically these include
Commercial pilots licenses.
Instrument ratings
Type ratings
Flight instructor certificates (for those who have been flight instructors in the military)
Whether those qualifications will be sufficient will depend on what they want to do. Many larger commercial operations will require type ratings (which can be converted but only if the planes match up) and Airline transport pilot licenses.


Are Jehovah's Witnesses Protestants?

Question: Are Jehovah's Witnesses Protestants, or are their own separate category?
Comment: @kris Not necessarily. The [Old Catholic Church](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Catholic_Church) considers itself Catholic. The Catholic Church doesn't. I think a survey of other views isn't unreasonable.
Comment: This is answered in the FAQ on jw.org: [Are Jehovah's Witnesses Protestants?](https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/are-jehovahs-witnesses-protestants/)
Comment: From whose point of view? Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants, some other group?
Comment: @MattGutting I guess an overview of different opinions would be best.
Comment: @MattGutting  if JWs say they are not Protestant that kinda makes an overview irrelevant does  it not?
Comment: What a church says about itself is not always true, and certainly not all other churches accept what any church says about itself.
Answer: No,Jehovah's Witnesses do not consider themselves a Protestant religion.
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition, defines Protestant as

a member of any of several church denominations denying the universal authority of the Pope and affirming the Reformation principles of justification by faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, and the primacy of the Bible as the only source of revealed truth."

It is certainly true that Jehovah's Witnesses deny the universal authority of the pope and fully support the primacy of the Bible but they  differ from Protestant religions in many significant ways. In fact, The Encyclopedia of Religion refers to Jehovah's Witnesses as being "distinctive."
There is this brief explanation of 3 basic differences between Protestants and Jehovah's witnesses on our official website JW.Org

First, although Protestant faiths reject certain features of Catholic worship, Reformation leaders retained certain Catholic dogmas, such as belief in the Trinity, hellfire, and the immortality of the human soul. Jehovah's Witnesses, however, believe that those doctrines not only contradict the Bible but also promote a distorted view of God. —See pages 4-7 of this magazine.
Second, the religion that Jehovah's Witnesses advocate is, not one of negative protest, but one of positive instruction. They take seriously the Bible's counsel: "A servant of the Lord is not to engage in quarrels, but has to be kind to everyone, a good teacher, and patient. He has to be gentle when he corrects people who dispute what he says." (2 Timothy 2:24, 25, The Jerusalem Bible) Jehovah's Witnesses do point out contradictions between what the Bible says and what many religious groups teach. Yet, their goal in doing so is not to reform other religious organizations. Rather, their goal is to help sincere individuals to gain accurate knowledge of God and of his Word, the Bible. (Colossians 1:9, 10) When people of other persuasions insistently disagree with them, Jehovah's Witnesses avoid engaging in fruitless debates. —2 Timothy 2:23.
Third, unlike the Protestant movement, which has splintered into of denominations, Jehovah's Witnesses have maintained a united global brotherhood. When it comes to Bible doctrine, Jehovah's Witnesses in over 230 countries follow the apostle Paul's counsel to "speak in agreement." There are no divisions among them. Instead, they are genuinely "united in the same mind and in the same line of thought." (1 Corinthians 1:10) They strive within their own ranks "to observe the oneness of the spirit in the uniting bond of peace." —Ephesians 4:3.
Answer: The official literature and web-site of the Jehovah's Witnesses show that they do not consider themselves to be Protestants. Neither do they consider themselves to be Catholics. They like to stand apart from those two main Christian groups.  Both those groups believe in the doctrines of the Trinity, hellfire, and the immortality of the human soul but Jehovah's Witnesses believe that those doctrines not only contradict the Bible but also promote a distorted view of God. They warn against every group that promotes such doctrines, claiming that they are in a separate category. They have old literature that identifies such groups as part of the 'Babylon the Great' of Revelation, which they warn everyone to flee before God starts His war of Armageddon. More recently, they have stopped used strident language to condemn Protestants and Catholics, which is why I now give some chronological quotations from their literature, to show the current stance.
To grasp the significance of the following quotes, bear in mind that the Jehovah's Witnesses think in terms of God's modern-day organisation, and not in terms of denominations. Once you understand who they claim is God's modern-day organisation, you will see how they are putting themselves into a separate category from Protestants (and Catholics).

"Similarly, Jehovah is using only one organization today to accomplish his will. To receive everlasting life in the earthly Paradise we must identify that organization and serve God as part of it." Watchtower Feb 15, 1983 p12
"Only Christian witnesses of Jehovah who successfully pass this test
  will survive and come forth like fire-refined gold for God's use in
  his precious new order." Watchtower March 1, 1985 p14
"Only Jehovah's Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the "great crowd," as a united organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer, have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil." Watchtower Sept 1, 1989 p19
"Do not conclude that there are different roads, or ways, that you can
  follow to gain life in God's new system. There is only one. There was
  just one ark that survived the Flood, not a number of boats. And there
  will be only one organization - God's visible organization – that will
  survive the fast-approaching "great tribulation." It is simply not
  true that all religions lead to the same goal. . . You must be part of
  Jehovah's organization, doing God's will, in order to receive his
  blessing of everlasting life." You Can Live Forever In Paradise On
  Earth, revised 1989, p255
"But if we were to draw away from Jehovah's organization, there would
  be no place else to go for salvation and true joy." Watchtower Sept
  15, 1993 p22
"Directing Bible Students to Jehovah's Organization  - They must appreciate that identifying themselves with Jehovah's organization is essential to their salvation." Kingdom Ministry internal leaflet, November 1990
"Direct Interest Progressively on Bible Studies – The primary purpose
  of a Bible study is to teach the truth of God's Word. It should also
  build in the student an appreciation for Jehovah's organization and
  make him aware of the vital need to become part of it. ...The weekly
  Bible study should include instruction that will help students
  appreciate the organization and take advantage of provisions for their
  salvation." Kingdom Ministry internal leaflet, April 1993
"During the final period of the ancient world that perished in the
  Flood, Noah was a faithful preacher of righteousness. (2 Peter 2:5) In
  these last days of the present system of things, Jehovah's people are
  making known God's righteous standards and are declaring good news
  about the possibility of surviving into the new world. (2 Peter
  3:9-13) Just as Noah and his God-fearing family were preserved in the
  ark, survival of individuals today depends on their faith and their
  loyal association with the earthly part of Jehovah's universal
  organization." Watchtower May 15, 2006
"But Jehovah's servants already belong to the only organization that
  will survive the end of this wicked system of things." Watchtower Dec
  15, 2007
"If we stop actively supporting Jehovah's work, then we start
  following Satan. There is no middle ground." And "We need to obey the
  faithful and discreet slave to have Jehovah's approval." Watchtower July 15, 2011

As Jehovah's Witnesses have been consistently teaching for over 100 years now, no Protestant denomination (nor any Catholic group) is part of Jehovah's modern-day organisation which they insist is their own organisation and to which you must loyally belong if you can hope to survive Armageddon. That certainly proves they put themselves in their own, separate category.
Comment: Very clear and factual.
Answer: The word Protestant is used with a number of different meanings.
In one meaning it refers to those churches that took part in the general dissociation from the Catholic Church during the Reformation, and those churches descended from them. In that sense Jehovah's Witnesses do not consider themselves Protestant.
However the word is more generally used to refer to all non- Catholic and non-Orthodox churches that have developed in the West since the Reformation. By this classification Jehovah's Witnesses are usually counted among Protestant churches. Reading church history works you will usually find them listed as part of Protestant groupings, and treated as an offshoot of other Protestant churches.
Comment: "Reading church history works you will usually find them listed as part of Protestant groupings, and treated as an offshoot of other Protestant churches." Do you have a specific source?
Comment: Would this mean that "the church" views JWs as Christian or does it mean  "the Church" views all Protestants as non Christian?
Comment: "However the word is more generally used to refer to all non- Catholic and non-Orthodox churches that have developed in the West since the Reformation." What evidence do you have for this? I don't know anyone who would use Protestant to mean that.

Are Jehovah's Witnesses Protestants?


Predicting Flaw in users action and giving feedback to user

Question: Recently when I was using Gmail i ought to notice that Gmail runs an algorithm by which if user types " I have attached " in a mail and does not actually attach mail it shows a dialog confirmation asking "it seems like you forgot to attach file" which is actually a very good experience keeping users in a mind .
Google may have done a lot of research about this surely.
But why limit it to just one sentence prediction.
I tried Using "PFA" "Attach" "Please find attachment" but I never saw a dialog in this case.
what may be the use-case for this?
Answer: "I have attached" is a very specific phrasing. If you search for 'attach' it will also f when you type "we still need to attach the showerhead" and PFA as acronym can also mean dozens of other things.
So the idea is to only stop users when you are very very sure that they are going to make a mistake. You don't want to ask them when they're not making a mistake, because A) that's a distraction/annoyance and B) it will train them to ignore it which raises the likelyhood they'll some day automatically click away the warning when they DO make a mistake.
In fact I think their solution might not be all that great because it slightly trains reliance on their error catching. If you write that specific sentence it helps you, which means you might pay less attention to attachments next time. And if you use different phrasing next time it won't catch you. Or if you attach one file but forget the second file.
In short, I feel detecting this stuff from language is too uncertain. You.either miss a lot of errors, or you have a lot of false positives. This kind of error catching is better suited to specific actions; "You have unsaved changes, exit anyway?".


Probability that the convex hull of random points contains sphere's center

Question: What is the probability that the convex hull of $n+2$ random points on $n$-dimensional sphere contains sphere's center?
Comment: Related: [video](https://youtu.be/OkmNXy7er84) from 3Blue1Brown
Comment: @Noldorin: What makes you think this question is not suitable here?

(Unrelated comment: this result (Wendel's theorem) is also proved (similar to the answers below) in *The art of mathematics: coffee time in Memphis* by Béla Bollobás, [p. 315-317](http://books.google.com/books?id=ButlynVk25MC&pg=PA315) (currently inaccessible).)
Comment: On the surface of the sphere? (And a 1-dimensional sphere = circle right?)
Comment: @KennyTM: The circle is the two dimensional sphere, I think. Otherwise the answer would be 0.
Comment: @Jens fixed, thanks (for 1-dimensional sphere should be 3 points, of course)
Comment: @KennyTM Yes (to both questions)
Comment: This is probably a question more suited to Math Overflow.
Answer: This problem is discussed in J. G. Wendel; A Problem in Geometric Probability, Mathematica Scandinavica 11 (1962) 109-111. Wendel showed that the probability of $N$ random points lying on the surface of the unit sphere in dimension $n$ all lie on one hemisphere is
$2^{-N+1}\sum_{k=0}^{n-1} {{N-1}\choose k}$
I've found this here.
Comment: interesting generalization, thanks
Answer: This is one of those old chestnuts that come up again and again.
To be precise, the probability that the convex hull of $n+2$ points in $S^n$
(the unit sphere in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$) contains the origin is $2^{-n-1}$.
There's a brief argument at Wolfram's mathworld which I don't find
entirely convincing but which certainly can be patched to form
a convincing argument. In brief, show that for random points $P_1,\ldots,P_{n+2}$
on the sphere, then with probability one, exactly one choice of signs
will put the centre in the convex hull of $\pm P_1,\pm P_2,\ldots,\pm P_{n+1}$
and $P_{n+2}$.
Added (3/8/2010)
Thanks to Grigory for his comment. Changing the notation slightly,
one can show that under some fairy weak hypotheses, if we choose $m+1$
points randomly and indepedently in $\mathbb{R}^m$ the probability their convex
hull contains the origin is $2^{-m}$.
Take a probability distribution on $\mathbb{R}^m$ and choose a sequence
of points (which we identify with vectors) independently from that distribution.
Our first condition on this distribution is that $m$ vectors $v_1,\ldots,v_m$
chosen independently from it are linearly independent with probability one.
This can fail if say some point occurs with nonzero probability or the
distribution lies in a hyperplane through the origin. Assume this condition.
Now a sequence $v_0,v_1,\ldots,v_m$ of random points chosen according to
our distribution are linearly dependent: there are reals $a_i$ not all zero with
$\sum_i a_i v_i=0$. By our condition, with probability one, the sequence
$(a_0,\ldots,a_m)$ is unique up to constant multiple, and moreover all the
$a_i$ are nonzero. So we may assume $a_0=1$ and $a_1,\ldots,a_m$
are nonzero and uniquely determined. Then the convex hull of the $v_i$
contains the origin if an only if all the $a_i$ are positive.
Now we introduce another condition: that the distribution is centrally symmetric;
in detail the probability that a random vector $v$ lies in a set $A$ equals
the probability that $-v$ lies in $A$. A condition like this is clearly necessary;
it stops the distribution being supported on a small region far from the origin.
This condition shows that all the $2^m$ possibilities of signs
for $a_1,\ldots,a_m$ are equiprobable; since changing the sign of some
$v_i$ changes the sign of $a_i$.
To conclude, if our probability distribution on $\mathbb{R}^m$ satisfies
these two condition, the probability that the convex hull of $m+1$
indepdendently chosen points contains the origin is $2^{-m}$.
These conditions are satisfied by the uniform distribution on a sphere
with centre at the origin, but also by many others.
Comment: To make it more convincing one may add some words about barycentric coordinates: a point O lies inside a convex hull of $P_1,...,P_{n+2}$ iff all of its barycentric coordinates (w.r.t. these points) are positive (and switching sign of $P_i$ is almost the same thing as switching sign of i-th barycentric coordinate of O).


Since when are question votes different from answer votes?

Question: Just got this message:  Have question votes always been treated differently than votes on answers?
Comment: Since today! (:
Comment: see: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/90378/answers-questions-votes-cast-rules/90431#90431
Answer: Ah, should've figured this would be on meta.SO.
Separate vote pools for questions and answers
So now it's 30 votes per day for either questions or answers + 10 additional votes only for questions.
Comment: The answer is always on MSO, the difficulty is (usually) in finding it.
Comment: I've stopped visiting MSO because of all the irrelevant noise. This is why I believe that MSO should be for Stack Overflow only, and things that affect *all* sites should have their own Meta
Comment: I find meta.SO to be too hostile to outsiders, unless you're a regular you can't take part in the discussions.  The only good thing about it is that when something has been discussed and "decided" you can usually find a question about it or a duplicate question with a link to the earlier discussion.
Comment: For a while I thought it was just me but it looks like others are seeing MSO the same way I am. i.e. Not a nice place at all. There should really be a dedicated site for announcements that affect the entire network.
Comment: @Mark I can only agree with you here. As the sites all get bigger, I don't think its doing either the SO users who regard that as *their* meta or the rest of us who have to remember to visit it for any meta meta discussion any favours.
Comment: @John, unless you're already epic on SO or mSO, they're extremely hostile. Also, don't even *think* about addressing a problem that's outside the scope of SO, there are no other SE sites but SO to those on mSO. They've got a pretty extreme case of Programmer [Groupthink](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink) going on.
Comment: @chris too true. On Meta Stack Overflow, if its not a problem for stack overflow itself then it isn't a problem at all, as far as I can see. For example the utter indifference when us and SF complain about being bad question dumping grounds - MSO don't care (as a group effect anyway, there are of course decent individuals there), their toilet is flushing away the bad questions just fine!
Comment: @Robert, I've been on SF for a year and 10 months, yet have never seen mention before of blog.stackexchange.com being the place where system wide announcements are made. The point of course is that this kind of information has been made anything but obvious. It's not mentioned in the FAQ and the site name certainly doesn't hint at it being an announcement site. In short, the information has effectively been hidden. Can this please be rectified?
Comment: @Jeff: Aren't you somewhat involved in StackExchange?  I expect you to instantly recall everything that has ever happened on the entire network of sites, including the fact that most serverfault-related meta questions were migrated off meta.SO over to here: http://meta.serverfault.com/users/6177/ward
Comment: @Jeff some more: I haven't been too badly abused in my own questions, e.g. http://meta.serverfault.com/questions/285/whats-wrong-with-serverfault (but I still don't think it was really a duplicate) and http://meta.serverfault.com/questions/285/whats-wrong-with-serverfault  Before meta.SF existed, it was certainly almost impossible to get SF-ers to comment on questions, you'd ask a question and get lots of misinterpretations by SO-ers.
Comment: @Jeff even more: In one case I did feel set-upon and deleted my question.  Anyway, the best example of SO vs. SF was the attempt to ask SO-ers not to blindly migrate lousy questions to SF.  I think that's what most of us think of when we think of "how meta.SO thinks of SF."
Comment: @Ward your last example was certainly what I was thinking of when I said that the vibe on MSO is: "if something isn't a problem for SO users then it isn't a problem full stop". Usually with an added "now would you interlopers like a cookie and a sarcastic comment before you go back to your cute little websites?" to follow :-(
Comment: @ward that's odd.. putting aside the "everything you can think of has been asked and discussed 6 times by now on meta.so" burnout factor, what examples would you give to support this.. anything from http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/130540/ward
Comment: @John Gardeniers: The dedicated site for announcements is the blog: http://blog.stackexchange.com. If that does not provide enough detail, there is a "Recent Feature Changes" list: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/59445/recent-feature-changes-to-stack-exchange. Beyond that lies meta.Stackoverflow, which gets into the really nitty-gritty, insider-baseball stuff. Three resources to pick from, depending on your level of interest in this stuff.
Comment: @Robert: there's nothing on the blog about the voting changes, this is the first I've heard of the new features list (maybe there should be a link somewhere obvious?), and meta has problems as previously mentioned.
Comment: @Robert Cartaino - I've favourited the MSO question you mention, which helps keep track of that but it doesn't alter the fact that this was effectively sprung on the majority of SF users by surprise. It doesn't alter the fact that its a (imho) *bad* idea, and it doesn't alter the fact that MSO is an unfriendly place for people from other SE sites which makes going there and trying to find info/get questions answered an incredible chore for those of us who don't 'live' at SO.


Is perpetual virginity or remaining unmarried superior to marriage?

Question: In Hinduism, is perpetual virginity/remaining unmarried considered to be a higher state of life than marriage?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Is there any rule in Shastras for women to be kanyas even after marriage](https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/20800/is-there-any-rule-in-shastras-for-women-to-be-kanyas-even-after-marriage) and [What is "Brahm" in "Brahmacharya"? How does it relate to celibacy?](https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/20701/1049)
Comment: Regulated sex after marriage & virginity due to no marriage -- are equivalent w.r.t. *Brahmacharya*. Though above Qn is for women, the answer discusses for both the genders.
Answer: Yes, if you're willing to do it, lifelong Brahmacharya has great benefits, at least for Brahmanas.  Here is what this  of the Manu Smriti

But if (a student) desires to pass his whole life in the teacher's house, he must diligently serve him, until he is freed from this body. A Brahmana who serves his teacher till the dissolution of his body, reaches forthwith the eternal mansion of Brahma.... (A perpetual student) must, if his teacher dies, serve his son (provided he be) endowed with good qualities, or his widow, or his Sapinda, in the same manner as the teacher. Should none of these be alive, he must serve the sacred fire, standing (by day) and sitting (during the night), and thus finish his life. A Brahmana who thus passes his life as a student without breaking his vow, reaches (after death) the highest abode and will not be born again in this world.

But it's certainly not a required Dharma; the next chapter of the Manu Smriti describes the procedure for a Brahmachari to become a Grihasti:

The vow (of studying) the three Vedas under a teacher must be kept for thirty-six years, or for half that time, or for a quarter, or until the (student) has perfectly learnt them. (A student) who has studied in due order the three Vedas, or two, or even one only, without breaking the (rules of) studentship, shall enter the order of householders. He who is famous for (the strict performance of) his duties and has received his heritage, the Veda, from his father, shall be honoured, sitting on a couch and adorned with a garland, with (the present of) a cow (and the honey-mixture).
   Having bathed, with the permission of his teacher, and performed according to the rule the Samavartana (the rite on returning home), a twice-born man shall marry a wife of equal caste who is endowed with auspicious (bodily) marks.
Comment: The first word in your answer "Yes" is totally misguiding for any new reader. The answer should start with "No". These concepts are already discussed in 2 posts before.
Comment: @iammilind The answer is definitely yes.  The Anushasana Parva is just using the term Brahmacharya figuratively.  The Manu Smriti is using the term in its actual meaning.  It is clear from reading the rest of that Manu Smriti chapter that what the Manu Smriti is talking about is an Ashrama that involves total abstention from intercourse.
Comment: Is the same order of superiority applicable for all Dwija varnas , is it necessary for kshatriyas to marry?
Comment: What does Brahma here mean?
Comment: @SuryaKantaBoseChowdhury That's somewhat unclear.  Here's what Medhatithi says in his commentary on the Manu Smriti: "The word 'Brahman' here stands, according to the view of the Purāṇas, for the particular God with four faces; and his 'abode' is a particular place in Heaven; while according to the Vedanta standpoint,' 'Brahman' is the supreme Self, and his 'abode' is that Self itself, i.e., becoming absorbed hereinto." https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/manusmriti-with-the-commentary-of-medhatithi/d/doc199723.html
Answer: Perpetual virginity can not be superior to married life. That is evident even from common-sense. For example, if everyone chose to remain a perpetual student (Brahmachari), then there will none here to post questions and answers.
Anyways some scriptural proofs are as follows:

6.87. The student, the householder, the hermit, and the ascetic, these (constitute) four separate orders, which all spring from (the order
  of) householders.
6.89. And in accordance with the precepts of the Veda and of the Smriti, the housekeeper is declared to be superior to all of them; for
  he supports the other three.
6.90. As all rivers, both great and small, find a resting-place in the ocean, even so men of all orders find protection with householders.
Verses from Manu Smriti.

Further proof:

[Divisions of food should be made] for the departed Manes, the
  Deities, the mankind and the insects, etc. Such is the deliverance [of
  Daksha]. Since a householder gives daily sustenance unto the
  Deities, the human beings and the bipeds, the order of a Grihastha is,
  therefore the foremost of all A's'ramas.
The order of a householder is spoken of, as the source of the three other A's'ramas
Daksha Smriti, Chapter 2 verses.

In case someone is willing, he can opt for that path, but calling it superior would mean everyone is recommended to follow such a path,  which is obviously not the case.
Answer: Yes, it is superior. Although in Hinduism faithfully following the path of a married person is way of dharma, scripture says brahmacharya, especially lifelong celibacy, is superior.
The Mahanarayana Upanishad says (78.12):

Brahma Hiranyagarbha considers that sannyas is the means to liberation. Hiranyagarbha is indeed the Supreme. The Supreme alone is Hiranyagarbha (although he is a personality). Certainly those austerities set forth above are inferior [other austerities listed in the preceding verses of this section]. Sannyasa [monks who have taken vows of celibacy] alone surpasses all. To him who thus knows the all-transcending excellence of sannyas precious knowledge is imparted.

and at the end of his commentary on this verse, Swami Vimalananda states:

Sri Sankaracarya at Brahma Sutra III.4.20 (Available here - https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brahma-sutras/d/doc62753.html) refers to this passage as the conclusive authority behind the practice of sannyas. The illustrious acarya is the most outstanding prototype of a Sannyasin. His example and teachings on the monastic tradition as the pattern of sannyas to be followed by others entering the path. A very large section of Hindus believe that sannyasa represents the perfection in religious life which is attained through the gradual progress in spirituality achieved by fulfilment of the condition laid down for the other three stages of life. Sayana states that while the qualities and practices of different aspirants described in the eleven clauses from the beginning of the Section [of this section of the Mahanarayana Upanishad] were made by human beings--learned and wise though they might be--the transcendence of sannyas over all of them is a pronouncement made by Brahma himself--the first-born-- and so it is secretly guarded precious knowledge--upanishad.

And verse 79.16 concludes with:

O Aruni, having become one possessed of knowledge by realizing Him, the Supreme, through sannyasa, and with your mind fixed in the heart, do not again fall a prey to death. Because sannyasa is thus the supreme means of realization, therefore wise men declare that to be above all other means of liberation.

Sannyasa is extolled in Brahma Sutras III.iv.18-20. (Link given previously) with Sankara's commentaries:

18. Jaimini (thinks that in the texts referred to in the last Sutra there is) a mere reference (to Sannyâsa), and not injunction, because (other texts) condemn (Sannyâsa).
In the text quoted in the last Sutra (Chh. 2. 23. 1) Jaimini says that as there is no word showing that Sannyâsa is enjoined on man, it is a mere reference and not an injunction. The Brihadâranyaka text quoted in the last Sutra says that some person do like that. Sruti here makes a mere statement of fact. It does not enjoin Sannyâsa. Moreover, the text here praises steadfastness in Brahman. "But only one who is firmly established in Brahman attains immortality." Sacrifice, study, charity, austertiy, studentship, and lifelong celibacy result in the attainment of the virtuous world. But immortality is gained only by him who is firmly established in Brahman. That is what the text says. Further, there are other texts which condemn Sannyâsa. "Having brought to your teacher the wealth that he likes, do not cut off the line of progeny" (Taitt. 1. 11); "To him who is without a son (this) world does not belong" (Taitt. Br. 7. 18. 12) and so on.
19. Bâdarâyana (thinks that Sannyâsa or monastic life) also must be gone through, for the scriptural text (cited) refers equally; to all the four Âsramas (stages of life).
In the text cited, sacrifice etc. refer to the householder's life, penance to Vânaprastha, studentship to Brahmacharya and 'one who is firmly established in Brahman' to Sannyâsa. So the text equally refers to all the four stages of life. The text relating to the first three stages refers to what is enjoined elsewhere. So also does the text relating to Sannyâsa. Hence Sannyâsa also is enjoined and must be gone through by all.
20. Or rather (there is an) injunction (in this text), as in the case of the carrying (of the sacrificial fuel).
This Sutra now tries to establish that there is an injunction about Sannyâsa in the Chhândogya passage cited. There is a Sruti text referring to Agnihotra performed for the manes, which runs as follows: "Let him approach, carrying the sacrificial fuel below; for above he carries it for the gods." The last clause Jaimini interprets as an injunction, though there is no word in it to that effect, because such an injunction is nowhere else to be found in the scriptures. On account of its newness (Apurvatâ) it is an injunction. Following this argument this Sutra says that in Chh. 2. 23. 1 there is an injunction with respect to Sannyâsa, and not a mere reference, as it is not enjoined anywhere else. Moreover, there are Sruti texts which directly enjoin Sannyâsa: "Or else he may wander forth from the students' life, or from the house, or from the forest" (Jâb. 4).
Again Jaimini himself says that even glorification, to be relevant, must be in a complimentary relation to an injunction. In the text cited steadfast devotion to Brahman is being praised, and so it has an injunctive value. Now is it possible for one engaged in sacrificial rites etc. to be wholly devoted to Brahman? Devotion to Brahman means constant meditation on It without any disturbing thought. Such a thing is impossible for a householder engaged in ritualistic work. It is possible only for a Sannyâsin who has renounced all work, and not for others.
Neither is it true that Sannyâsa is prescribed only for those who are lame, blind, etc., and therefore unfit for ritualistic work. The text cited above (Jâb. 4) makes no such difference. Moreover, Sannyâsa is meant as a means to the realization of Brahman, and it is to be acquired in a regular prescribed way. "The wandering mendicant with coloured dress, shaven-headed, accepting no gifts, qualifies himself for the realization of Brahman." Therefore Sannyâsa is prescribed by the scriptures and Knowledge, because it is enjoined on Sannyâsins, is independent of work.

Sankara's commentary on 18 also references scripture on life-long celibacy, not merely after taking a vow of brahmacharya or sannyas.
Lifelong celibacy is especially extolled. In fact if you look at Brahma Sutras Chapter III, section IV contents, you will see that Adhikarana X, XI, and XII discusses those who lapse.
Answer: No, it can't be superior.
Brahmacharya attained during perpetual virginity can be equal at the most to the Brahmacharya observed after marriage.
The meaning & equivalence of Brahmacharya is already discussed in following posts:

Is there any rule in Shastras for women to be kanyas even after marriage
What is "Brahm" in "Brahmacharya"? How does it relate to celibacy?

In nutshell, it relates to "regulated sex" (dharmic) and not "no sex".

Why permanent virginity cannot be superior?

A person is born, when his/her parents had mated; Parents were also born in the same way, and so on. Hence a newborn is already a part of the DhArmik cycle of reproduction. Breaking under normal circumstances is not Dharma, as it's not self sustained.
A person usually is born with various debts (runa); One of them is pitru runa (debt to manes); In normal circumstances, a person is ought to fulfil that to get freed up. Refer this:
Can I please have a scriptural reference for Pitru Runa?
If person avoids the whole act of reproduction, then such renunciation results in "ignorance" (tAmasika tyAga) and if given up due to fear of pain, then that's a wrong renunciation (rajas tyAga):

BG 18.7 - Retiring (sannyAsa) from assigned duty (niyata karma) is not justifiable. Giving up that through delusion is declared to be based on ignorance (tamas)
  BG 18.8 - Actions given up due to pain or physical suffering, is termed as renunciation of passion (rajas); Results of such renunciation is not acquired

Hence, a person must have unavoidable reasons to remain lifelong virgin to be able to fetch the fruits of Brahmacharya.
e.g. the character of Bhishma from Mahabharata


GFCI won't reset

Question: I was installing tile spacers in an outlet to make it flush with the wall after installing a backsplash in my kitchen. The next 2 outlets stopped working. The 2nd outlet is a GCFI outlet. So I went back to the initial outlet that I had installed spacers in & noticed a black wire had broke. I fixed it.  I checked the next outlet which is standard, it now worked. So I checked the next one which is a gcfi with a gfci receptacle tester. It showed 1 light on the right indicating open neutral and then it tripped. It will not reset. Any suggestions on my next move?
Comment: Sounds like you broke a white wire too (open neutral).  A GFCI won't reset if either the hot or neutral coming to it is broken, it must have power or it won't reset.
Comment: One already broke and now there's another problem? I'd be pulling all new wire between those outlets, but I get to work with EMT, whereas otherwise that's probably not feasible. I'd at least be taking a *real* good look at all the wires.
Comment: @tyson this should be an answer+
Answer: Sounds like you broke a white wire too (open neutral). A GFCI won't reset if either the hot or neutral coming to it is broken, A GFCI must have power (hot and neutral) or it won't reset.
Comment: @Mazura the GFCI was not tripped when the OP broke the upstream white wire, the OP then tripped the GFCI with the tester but discovered open neutral before tripping it.  Once tripped, it will now not reset because of the upstream wiring fault.  I only suggested this in a comment originally however Ed Beal suggested I turn it into an answer.
Comment: This is a good tip, but if it lit up an outlet tester then the CB was on.
Comment: Ditto.  GFCIs will not reset without power.

GFCI won't reset


how to create a static front page for my blog in wordpress

Question: I need the php code to create a static front page for my blog. How do I do it with php in WordPress?
Comment: By the way, did you try to [search the site for this question](http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/search?q=static+%22front+page%22&submit=search) before posting?
Comment: @SANS780730 - When entering a new question, it automatically searches for you based on your question title.  There's a number of relevant results when I tried the same title (they're a little lower down, but still there).  I suggest next time you search first and ask questions later.  Also, member for 14 days, 19 questions asked, 0 answers given, 2 accepted answers, and 2/3rds of your rep is negative - you may want to rethink your approach here.
Answer: From @Ray Mitchel's answer the tutorial shows you how to set a specific page in your blog to be the front page.
Assuming you're using the TwentyEleven theme, you need to learn about page templates. The WordPress site has an article: http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages#Page_Templates.
So you can create a page template by starting by copying the home.php file and renaming it to my-page.php and put the following at the top of the page:
<?php
/*
Template Name: Snarfer
*/
?>

Once you have saved the file, in any page you can switch the page template, and in the drop down you should now be able to select 'Snarfer'.

Now the correct name for the front page is front-page.php. If you call your file that, the page that you have set to be the front page will automatically use the front-page.php file without you having to set the page template.
Even further to this once you've named your file front-page.php you don't have to bother setting a specific page to be the front page as the front-page.php file will get called instead of home.php (the standard home page). Below you can see why, which is thanks to the WordPress Template Hierarchy the front-page.php file comes above the home.php file if you leave it to display posts on the front page (which is the default):
Answer: You don't have to make any template or other programmatic changes just to use a static Page as your site front page:

Create a static Page, give it any arbitrary name (e.g. "Front Page", but it can be anything), and add whatever content to it that you need/want
If you need to display a blog posts index, create a second static Page, again give it any arbitrary name (e.g. "Blog", but it can be *anything). No need to add any content to this page.
Go to Dashboard -> Settings -> Reading
Change "Front page displays" from "your latest posts" to "a static page"
Using the "Front Page" select dropdown, select the static Page you created in Step 1
If you need to display a blog posts index, using the "Posts page" select dropdown, select the static page you created in Step 2

That's all you need to do. Your site now displays a static Page as the front page.
Answer: In your theme directory you can add or modify your front-page.php file et code in whatever you want.
Comment: i do not known about wordpress.i known only little bit.so tell me how do it? can u give me example code or tutorial link.
Answer: Is this for a theme you are developing, or are you using an existing theme?  Quoting from the WordPress codex "Creating a virtual static front page does not require editing or coding of files or templates." In most cases, you can have a static front page by changing the settings in the administration area.  Here is the link to that section http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page
Comment: i am asking how to post the data to home page programmatically..
Answer: There are a few right answers to your question.  It just depends on how custom you want that home page.  What I do is create a home.php file and start with what is contained in my page.php in my theme.  Then, I customize it the way I want. If the theme has a home.php file, it uses it for your home page.
For most of my sites I like to start with a slider of some kind, then have maybe three "action" boxes with a photo, headline, link and some text.  I accomplish this with a custom post type.  Some times I may want to list some of my posts in a small box, sometimes I would like a sidebar, others not.
The point is that I can customize my home page just by customizing this home.php.  I will give you one of my standard home.php files below and you can dissect it to see how I use it.
<?php get_header(); ?>

           <?php echo do_shortcode('[royalslider id="2"]'); ?>

<?php $recent = new WP_Query("post_type=homebox&showposts=3");  while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>

<?php the_title(''); ?>

<a href="<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'ecpt_link', $single=true) ?>" ><img align="middle" src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'ecpt_boxphoto', $single = true); ?>&w=230&h=150" alt="<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'ecpt_titleofbox', $single=true) ?>" />

<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'ecpt_boxtext', $single=true) ?>

<a class="more-link" href="<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'ecpt_link', $single=true) ?>" ><?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'ecpt_linklabel', $single=true); ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

<?php $recent = new WP_Query("post_type=welcome"); while($recent->have_posts()) : $recent->the_post();?>

<?php the_title(); ?>

      <?php the_content(''); ?>

  <?php endwhile;  ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Comment: `home.php` is not necessary the front page. The name is misleading. Use `front-page.php` instead.
Answer: For that you have to create one PHP file is known as page template in wordpress.
page template always start with :
<?php
/*
Template Name:Your Home Page Template Name
*/
?>

After that you have to write all other code in page template.
after creating page template file, create one page and switch on page attributes box in this box one drop down list with the name template and select your page template
after that publish your page.
for create a static front page read this
http://codesmeister.blogspot.in/2011/10/how-to-make-homepage-front-page-in.html


Level designer responsible for q3dm17

Question: I'd like to know the author (or authors) of a Quake 3 FFA map called "The Longest Yard" (q3dm17).
Comment: Found this somewatish related info reading about [Levelord](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gray_(game_designer)) on Wikipedia: *He created the first suspended platform, aka "void", deathmatch called HIPDM1 or "The Edge of Oblivion" for the Quake add-on pack Scourge of Armagon. This "islands in space" design of this multiplayer map became a staple in Quake III Arena and many other deathmatch games.*
Answer: There is not 100% sure info about who exactly did it, though we can make a list of level designers, who worked on the game. This map is one of the original maps released by id Software in 1999. As stated in the credits here, these level designers are:

Christian Antkow
Paul Jaquays
Tim Willits

They were helped by:

Kaai Cluney
Brandon James

The very same question was asked on Quora.com, and it has an answer: Brandon James, which is also on the previous list above.
When searching info about Brandon "KillMe" James, nothing is found about which maps did he worked on. Also, he left id Software during the development of Quake 3, leaving a number of unfinished maps, as stated here and here.

How will this affect Quake 3? Brandon James's incomplete maps and
  other responsibilities will be divided up between us.
Comment: Normally, I wouldn't trust a Quora.com answer, but this one seems signed by [Timothee Besset](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothee_Besset) himself (a former id employee) so... :)

Level designer responsible for q3dm17