Does submitting a paper in Latex format enhance the chances of acceptance?

Question: If there is an option to submit your paper in either Latex or Word, which format should be given preference? Does it affect the chances of acceptance? My paper relates to computer science & engineering, with a few mathematical formula, diagrams, and tables.
Comment: This is very field-dependent. Many non-STEM publishers don't even accept LaTeX manuscripts (unfortunately).
Comment: @henning in (organic/synthetic) chemistry many journals don't accept it either. And I agree with them here since it's even more work to write the drafts in LaTeX than in word and they do the formatting anyways.
Comment: This question just makes me think of [this](https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/archive/scigen/).
Answer: If both are allowed then both will be fine. I would choose the one I am most comfortable with. Using a program you are less familiar with increases the chance of making a silly error. Such errors are much more likely to work against you than the choice between Word or LaTeX.
Comment: @DanRomik In my field (sociology) papers are primarily judged on their content rather than their looks. Not because sociologist are superior human beings, but because most journals put quite some requirements on the submitted paper (double spaced, graphs and tables placed at the end of the document), which makes all papers look pretty ugly, regardless of what program was used to create it. You can still make errors, as you mentioned, and that will work against you, but the best way to prevent errors (in the short term) is to use the program you are most comfortable with.
Comment: I very much agree that the answer will depend strongly on the field (which is why I asked OP to specify the field, and refrained from writing an answer myself since OP has so far not provided that information). My experience is that there are even fields where many people are so used to Word documents that (to my amazement) they consider them superior to LaTeX-prepared documents.
Comment: _If both are allowed then both will be fine._ I disagree. It is also allowed to submit a poorly written or poorly formatted paper, but that does not mean that all papers have equal chances of being accepted regardless of how they look. Considering that LaTeX and Word produce very different looking documents, saying "both will be fine" does not sound like very helpful advice.
Comment: But you cannot deny LaTeX looks way better tha Word.
Comment: @ShaunHan I do deny that. see my comment  above: most journals I submit to have so many requirements that even latex documents look exceptionally ugly.
Answer: This is coming from a more engineering, physics and mathematics point of view. In many sub-area of these fields, LaTeX papers have a more distinct professional feel. This is mostly related to the formatting of the equations and the symbols. Furthermore, numerous authors in mathematics are openly LaTeX advocate. As such, I believe (but this is no hard fact) that you might get a slightly more positive bias using LaTeX than Word. Keep in mind that the most important part is to submit a clear well-written document and that the format is second to this former fact.
Comment: I do not believe this is an issue. Allow me to explain. I believe LaTeX produces a much better typesetting and formatting of equations than Word. It makes the equation much more readable, better formatted, more structured. For the same reason you could prefer a paper to another because the figures were presented in a much better fashion, I believe you can be slightly biased toward a paper due to its good use of LaTeX formatting. When I see a poorly made Excel graph in a paper compared to a perfect matplotlib graph, I get a negative bias for the excel paper. Same for LaTeX and Word...
Comment: *you might get a slightly more positive bias using LaTeX than Word* If it's true, don't you think that's an issue?
Comment: Do you find it equally unproblematic that I view LaTeX formatted papers in my field as likely coming from the Math/Physics/CS world whose decided to apply their field's tools to my field's problems - usually with an incomplete understanding of the state of the field, the context of the problem, and most of the complexities involved? Or does this clearly apply to the "prettiness" of a well-laid-out LaTeX document?
Comment: To me it is only a matter of equations and symbols being better formatted. I would not feel the difference between a well written word paper using MathType for instance and the same paper written using LaTeX.
Answer: Let's start by acknowledging that there is a very good reason why LaTeX is the standard system for writing papers across all of math and large parts of computer science, physics, statistics, and other technical areas. No one has yet come up with a system that produces better-looking, more esthetically pleasing, well formatted documents that do as effective a job of communicating complex technical ideas, especially those involving lots of mathematical symbols and formulas. By contrast, documents generated by Microsoft Word are generally... meh (and if they contain math formulas... double meh).
With that said, I believe that the answer to your question is: yes, LaTeX papers and Word papers are far from equivalent in terms of their chances to be accepted to a computer science journal. I see several issues here, some direct and some indirect:

One effect is that, as I was opining above, a properly written LaTeX paper will simply do a better job of communicating the content of your ideas to the reader than the same paper written in Word. Thus, the cognitive load on the journal editor and referees that stands between them and understanding what you are trying to say and what the contribution of your paper is will be higher with a Word paper. This will translate to a difference in the chances of acceptance (better chances for the LaTeX version).
Another effect involves the fact that if you are writing a technical computer science paper in Word then it is extremely likely that you are a very inexperienced researcher, possibly from outside of academia. That by itself makes it a lot less likely that your paper is well-written (aside from which software it is written in) and that the ideas in the paper are good enough to make it worthy of accepting. And the editor and referees know that, and are likely to take the paper less seriously as a result (this is the bias alluded to in other answers, and lamented by some), subconsciously and/or consciously, even if you are in fact an experienced researcher. This would again translate to a reduced chance of acceptance for a Word paper. Perhaps this bias is unfair, but there it is.
Even without the bias I mentioned above, for the reason explained in item 2 above I still predict a clear statistical correlation between the Word/LaTeX typesetting information and the quality of the paper (and therefore the chances of acceptance). This correlation of course does not imply causation; without the bias, it would not be the typesetting system that was used that caused the paper to be rejected, but the overall low quality of the paper. Nonetheless, the fact remains that by writing your paper in Word, you would be choosing to join a group of authors whose papers have a statistically lower rate of acceptance, even if your situation is somehow different than most of them.

As a final caveat, if your area of computer science has papers with very few mathematical formulas, then what I wrote above is probably still correct, but to a lesser extent, i.e., the chances of acceptance would be closer to equal, but I still predict a small advantage for LaTeX.
See here (including many relevant thoughts in the comments section) and here for related discussions.
Comment: Counter-example: In some aspects of what I do, "Author did some clever math but utterly misses the practical applications and scientific relevance of their question" is highly correlated with a LaTeX formatted paper. If I get a LaTeX formatted paper from an author I don't recognize, my first (and admittedly biased) feeling is "Ugh..."
Comment: @jpou No I haven't considered it because it's not true. You can achieve similarity in superficial things like choice of font, but Word and LaTeX (more precisely, TeX) use completely different algorithms for line breaking, word spacing, line spacing, page breaking and more. TeX's algorithms are described in detail in Knuth's The TeXbook (a masterpiece of ultra-geeky writing btw). If you read it you would start to understand more in depth why TeX achieves such great results. Word simply cannot (or rather, does not attempt to) replicate this type of careful optimization in document preparation.
Comment: @Fomite: LOL. Reading your "ugh" comment I feel like I'm staring into a looking glass world, but at the same time your description of how pure math people think is right on the money - hilarious!
Comment: "No one has yet come up with a system that produces better-looking, more esthetically pleasing, well formatted documents" at least in chemistry publishers do all the formatting, it just doesn't matter how the submitted manuscript looks. Some even require you to submit in one column, double line spacing for the review while the papers are two column with less line spacing.
Comment: I always love talking to computational/mathematical colleagues. It is a little bit like staring into a mirror universe.
Comment: "Another effect involves the fact that if you are writing a technical computer science paper in Word then it is extremely likely that you are a very inexperienced researcher, possibly from outside of academia" - care to substantiate this?
Comment: @jpou the first link at the bottom of my answer provides a good bit of evidence, at least for theoretical computer science. I am reasonably confident the claim is true for most if not all other areas of CS, but not sure how to substantiate that.
Comment: @DanRomik have you considered the fact that by using proper template, your article will look exactly the same, regardless if it was prepared in LaTeX or Word? All IEEE publications have uniform styling and look the same regardless if they were typeset using Word or LaTeX.
Comment: As for IEEE publications, I will hazard a guess that the uniform look is because they are all typeset in LaTeX, including the few occasional papers that are submitted in Word but converted to LaTeX prior to publication. But that's just a guess, and I'm open to seeing it challenged by anyone who's more knowledgeable about such things.
Comment: @DSVA For biomedical journals as well. There's nothing quite as effective as reading a raft of LaTeX formatted papers to make me happy to return to the warm embrace of professional typesetters and layout artists.
Answer: The final look and feel of your paper must look like it belongs in that journal, regardless of which software you use to produce it.  I will, as a reviewer, subconsciously bias towards a reject if I find that the paper looks amateurish. This means it is an uphill climb to change my recommendation to an accept.
Comment: OP is talking about the version submitted for review, how is the look relevant? The journal will edit the typesetting before publication anyway.
Comment: @Cape Code most papers in my area are submitted in the format of the final version.  Personally, I hate papers that look like an undergraduate report.  So 'look and feel' can be interpreted as a paper written by a professional either using MS Word or LaTeX.
Comment: I think this is probably accurate in many fields (although I really wish it wasn't).
Comment: @Prof.SantaClaus what other things completely unrelated to the content do you *hate* in papers you review?
Comment: I agree that having a professional look and feel consistent with journal and discipline expectations is important. I just note that in other fields (e.g., psychology and APA style). This look and feel is more about conformity to a style manual (e.g., double spacing, consistent paragraph formatting, headings consistent with styles, etc.). Word processors can sometimes make it easier to conform to these idiosyncratic requirements.
Answer: If you are comfortable using Latex (i.e. it won't slow you down to use it), and it is well-supported by the journal (i.e. they provide a style file), I would recommend it, as it produces a paper that is much easier for the referees to understand. Reducing any barrier to referee understanding is great!
But just because a journal accepts both Latex and Word, doesn't mean there isn't an internal preference. Sometimes you have to dig a little bit to find this. Look at the publishing details: some journals will waive part of the publication fees if you give them a Latex file; others state they will take longer to move from acceptance to publishing with Latex than Word.
Personally, I think that the advantages of Latex in terms of appearance and bibliography-handling are large enough that I put up with its other annoyances, and use it whenever possible.
Comment: I think "it produces a paper that is much easier for the referees to understand" is something of an unsubstantiated claim. I've received well-formated, clear manuscripts in either format, and unintelligible garbage in both formats.
Comment: Fair point, but does not match my experience. This is probably half selection bias, but I have never seen a truly hideously formatted LaTeX submission in my field (where there are standard templates for many journals, which everyone uses). Meanwhile, even very respected groups have sent me Word-prepared docs that are just awful (figures in random locations, separated from captions, etc.)
Answer: No.  Following submission instructions found in "Instructions to Authors", whatever they may say, will pretty much insure that your paper gets reviewed, and not whatever the digital equivalent of "returned unread" is, but reviewers generally see a pdf, and couldn't care less how you wrote the paper.  They will care if you gave the manuscript the attention it merits, regardless of the tools you use to prepare it.
As an aside, when you choose to work in Latex, you need to think about how that interacts with any collaborators who will need to edit and mark up your documents.    It's certainly not undoable to work with Latex nonusers, but it does require thought and planning.
Answer: Note: this answer comes from someone who does not review computer science articles. There seem to be a strong belief in your field that using LaTeX is The Way to go. I would suggest to comply for your career's sake. My answer still applies to other fields.

I truly hope it doesn't. It would be extremely unprofessional for reviewers and editors to favor their pet typesetting tool when assessing the content of a paper. Especially knowing that in many cases, the paper will be re-written from scratch by the typesetter and thus it becomes irrelevant.
But possibly, writing papers with LaTeX might reduce your research output, and thus the quality or number of the papers you submit since it's been observed* that using LaTeX is less efficient than MS Word to write academic papers (with the exception of a small subset of fields).
So, unless your document is made mostly of equations, data suggests you will make fewer errors and spend less time writing your paper using MS Word than LaTeX.
*See: Markus Knauff, Jelica Nejasmic (2014) An Efficiency Comparison of Document Preparation Systems Used in Academic Research and Development PLOSONE
Comment: If only people would stop uncritically linking to that paper. Their conclusion is in no way supported by their study (unless you are in a field where you do a lot of retyping text written by others).
Comment: I am not sure who "we" are (I certainly have no idea), and I also don't know how "we" have this idea.
Comment: How is something being hard to test properly an argument for drawing conclusions based on something only vaguely related? The only conclusion one can draw from that study is that we still have no idea if LaTeX is worth it for people outside a few fields, not that it is not worth it (I mean, the study even barely disguised its accusations that everyone who uses LaTeX is irrational).
Comment: @TobiasKildetoft I think we have a pretty clear idea that using LaTeX for documents with mostly text is a big waste of time. Especially since in many fields, the typesetting is redone by the journal anyway.
Comment: @TobiasKildetoft The retyping is to be able to standardize the task. I find it to be an appropriate proxy for writing, in absence of something better. I will amend my answer if new experimental data weakens their conclusions.
Answer:
The area is computer science & engineering with few mathematical formula, diagrams, and tables

You need to use Latex. Full stop.
Even when you don't know Latex, you are supposed to learn basic math formula, figures, tables in less than a day. (Tables are pieces of cake with this online tool http://www.tablesgenerator.com/)
I never heard of anybody in Computer Science that does not know Latex. Call me a jerk and down vote if you like, but such a person will become a topic of a joke.
If one can't prepare a document in Latex, how can (s)he do any programming? And if they can't do programming, I can't take their Computer Science research very serious.

UPDATE:
Everybody is talking about how Latex produces beautiful math equations etc, and forget how it is efficient even on basic tasks. I was once a Word user. In fact, I wrote my undergraduate thesis using Word 2003, and it was a painful experience, even though I didn't have any math equation in my thesis.

Creating a Reference section, and citing a paper in Word is painful, and time consuming.
Changing reference format from John Smith to J. SMITH (ACM style) is also painful, and it can take you days. Changing the citation from (Smith 2003) to [1] is also painful.
Referring to a figure is also painful.
Formatting (pseud-do) code is also painful.
Keeping the format Heading1, Heading2 etc is really painful.

The list does not end here. All of these are pieces of cakes in Latex, and the most important thing is it gives you the feeling of total control of your text.

But possibly, writing papers with LaTeX might reduce your research output, and thus the quality or number of the papers you submit since it's been observed* that using LaTeX is less efficient than MS Word to write academic papers (with the exception of a small subset of fields)

I don't care if anybody/paper says preparing documents in Word is more efficient. It's like saying typing with two fingers are faster than typing with 10 fingers. It is true for some people, but it will become a joke for many people.
Comment: _And if they can't do programming, I can't take their Computer Science research very serious._ WHAT??????
Comment: Scott Aaronson, in his blog at http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=304, agrees with your general advice to use TeX; he lists non-use of TeX as the first in his list of "Ten signs a claimed mathematical breakthrough is wrong".  But in that context he also mentions two respected computer scientists who don't (or didn't at that time) use TeX: David Deutsch and Lov Grover
Comment: Why would you assume people who don't use LaTeX are those who "don't know LaTeX" or "can't prepare a document in LaTeX"?
Comment: @CapeCode I am agree with you. If a computer scientist does not use LaTeX, it doesn't mean that (s)he can't learn it.
Comment: @AndreasBlass note that I linked to that same page (and another slightly relevant one) at the bottom of my answer.
Comment: @AndreasBlass Deutsch is a physicist though, not a computer scientist. He has forayed (a little) into CS but I very much doubt he'd describe himself as a computer scientist.
Comment: @qsp Endnote and other reference managers make managing references and moving between reference formats trivial. Word has styles which are trivial to use. You just need to learn to use them, which many users do not. I'm not saying LaTeX does not have benefits. But if you're able to learn LaTeX, then it would be trivial to learn how to use Word more effectively.


Should we require a tag that which specifies difficulty of a question?

Question: It's usually hard for me to find questions to answer here because 99% of them are above my level (calculus 1). Should we make a set of tags specifying difficulty to go along with the question? For example: Level 1/easy: Questions from calculus 2 and below. Level 2/medium: Undergrad questions. Level 3/hard: graduate questions. What do you think about this?
Comment: (1) What is "Calculus 2"? This is not a U.S.-only site. (2) Some calculus questions are actually harder than some graduate level questions. (3) Difficulty is subjective anyway.
Comment: By the way, it's natural that you can't answer many questions at this point- you're just starting out.  There's plenty of rep to earn in pre-calc and calculus, though, if that's what you're after.  (More than the harder disciplines, in fact.)
Comment: I remember that, at least at some point in time, StackExchange decided to discourage meta tags on main sites. See [here](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/08/the-death-of-meta-tags/). I don't know if this policy is still valid. Tags like homework or reference-request seem to be exceptions anyway.
Comment: [Sophistication level tags?](http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/2089/sophistication-level-tags)
Comment: I think it's a bad idea.  Say I have a question from my graduate complex analysis class which, from the standpoint of anybody who knows complex analysis, would be considered trivial.  Is this a level 1?  level 3?  (level 3-1?  How far down the rabbit hole would we go with this?)  Seems like an awful lot of effort to put forth when one could just as easily sort by [tag:complex-analysis] and decide which questions are above his level and which ones aren't.
Comment: @AlexanderGruber I was referring about labeling the question about where it comes from, not about the content. For example, you might have a level 3 algebra/precalculus question. So you would labed it algebra-recalculus, level 3
Comment: @40votes That was just an example, but I said Calculus 2 because I think that's usually the highest-level math taught in high-school in most countries, not just U.S. So my categories are essentially high-school difficulty, undergrad, grad. And as I said above, I was more referring more to the difficulty of the question, rather than the actual content. For example, you could have a level 3 algebra-precalculus problem, or a level 1 complex analysis. And difficulty is subjective, but this system is not meant to definately categorize questions, but just to give an idea to potential answerers.
Comment: The number $99\%$ is an overestimate by quite a bit.
Answer: Personally, I think the current tagging system is fine for you to filter the type of questions you want - you should just be able to favorite the tags relevant to the topics in your Calc I module and then you can browse questions sorted by those tags.
I think the general idea of having an additional system as you have suggested wouldn't work well for several reasons:

Sorting questions out by high-school/undergraduate/graduate problems isn't well defined because the types of courses offered at these instiutions differ from country to country, and particually at University, some institutions may offer courses at an undergraduate level whereas others leave it until postgraduate studies to do so;
Sorting questions out by their difficulty is (for the most part) a subjective activity - what defines a question to be hard? For a hypothetical example, the OP of a question may think that a question is hard and challenging whereas the answerer may think it is a trivial application of some lemma or theorem they have already learnt (or possibly the reverse could apply also);
Using tags to try and categorise the OP's ability/knowledge would possibly give new users to the site less of an incentive to actually describe themselves what they know so any potential users attempting to answer the question will be able to give a much more useful response to the OP

I think there are a few other points against, but they follow the general jist of such a tagging system not being well defined.
Comment: I think your answer makes sense, the tagging system would be a little too ambiguous


How to get the candies from the candy box?

Question: How do you get the candies from the candy box when it is open ? I have tried clicking the candies and I have defeated every boss and enemy and have all items, but I can't get any candy!
Answer: You don't get Candy from the box, you get it from the computer (Which is the option next to the box)
Type "help" to see commands. You can add any quantity and type of candy you desire.


Basic hardware for iPhone development

Question: I am new to Mac. If I want to start a iPhone development, what is the basic hardware I require? Would Mac Mini be good enough?
Comment: Don't forget a Mac keyboard if you get a mini.
Answer: A Mac mini will serve you just fine. I taught a course last semester that did iPod touch programming (another college had iPod touches available for educational use, so I figured programming them would be educational). The only thing I needed was to buy four Mac minis to put in the lab. The Macs didn't need to be advanced, just new.
One note: Prepare for some major headaches getting your first "Hello, World!" app over the wire and onto your iPhone. Doing so requires the proper public/private keys and certificates. I used a university license program, but you will probably need to spend the $100 on the single developer kit. The development tools themselves are free, and you can work on the simulator right away.
Comment: Yes, I remember that headache! :)
Answer: You need a Mac.  Almost any Intel based Mac will do, if it has memory enough, where "enough" depends on how willing you are to wait.
At least 2 Gb RAM and better if more.
You will need to download the appropriate iPhone SDK from Apple to write code.  For any non-trivial application you will need a physical device too, as the emulator is not 100% accurate.
Answer: I currently use a MacBook Air with the 258GB SSD, 1.8GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB and it's been serving me very well. I've also found compile time to be a lot faster with an SSD.
As for the basic hardware, obviously you need an Apple-labeled system running Mac OS X and a the latest version of Xcode (4). I would also say the minimum amount of RAM to use would be 2GB as Xcode sure knows how to eat up memory! If you can splash some extra cash then I'd also suggest investing in an SSD as they really do increase compile times.
Answer: Almost any Intel Mac that can run OS X 10.6 will do (even used Macs 2 or 3 years old).  You will need around at least a dozen or so GB of free storage just to download and install the SDK.  An Mini on a KVM will work just fine.  Display size real estate is probably the most valuable hardware spec, but I've even been using an MBA 11 for iOS apps development.

Basic hardware for iPhone development


can you make dua inside of salat in any language if you are not a native?

Question: Is it okay to make dua inside of salat like while prostrating or in tahsahhud in any language that you speak if you do not know Arabic?
Comment: This is related if not a duplicate https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/36674/is-it-acceptable-to-perform-istakhara-in-english-if-so-how
Comment: I am sorry but the question answer you mentioned does not answer this specific question in any way. what I wanted to know is that, is it valid to say any other language inside of salat for making dua? I have heard somewhere that speaking any other language is not valid inside salat but Im not sure. Thats why I needed the clarification. Thank you
Comment: The statement about dua' in that answer is universal, beside I wonder if your question is not answered somewhere on the site!
Answer: Of course you can speak any language when making du'a in salat. We are recommended to make du'a to Allah frequently, but never is it stated that this must only be in Arabic. Each nation was sent messengers who spoke their language. Other books were sent in, for example the Torah, in Hebrew not Arabic.
It is recommended to learn Arabic in order to study the Quran in its original language, as it is the final message from Allah, the final Book sent to humankind, and has not been changed or adulterated. Meanings can be lost or misconstrued in translation, so it is best if more Muslims learn Arabic to contribute to their knowledge. Also it is best to learn a few basic surahs of the Quran to read in salat, because this is the language in which it came, and the language of Prophet Mohammad.
But this does not mean you are prohibited from calling upon Allah in your own language including in salat. Also you do not have to say your du'a aloud in that case either. But if you so it would seem a not-too-loud approach would be best. (The Quran recommends this.)
And of course, Allah hears and understands all things and all people, regardless of language. And you are ultimately praying and making salat to Allah with no intermediary. No translation therefore required. Allah created people of many nations and languages that we might know each other; it would make no sense to handicap so many Muslims in their salat.


Increasing the 'caramel and coffee tones' of my porter

Question: A pub and brewery in town does a delicious porter with caramel and coffee tones. What particular ingredients do I need to add to my mash to achieve this?
Answer: Black malt and Roasted Barley will deliver coffee notes.  Using anywhere from 0.5lb up to 1lb of either (or in combination) per 5 gallon batch is the norm.
Caramel notes are easily delivered from crystal/caramel malts.  I have used a full pound of Crystal 60L in a brown ale and it had a real nice toffee/caramel punch to it.  Using less than a pound of caramel or crystal malts is the norm per 5 gallon batch. Crystal malts come in a range of color/flavor values.  Try a mix of C60 and C40, or a combination of C60 and C80 for more of a darker fruit flavor.
I also find that black malt with crystal malt is the best way to get coffee tones.  As black malt alone tends to just taste like heavy roast.  The crystal character really helps carry the flavors to a nice place.
Comment: I made a stout with a full pound of black malt, and it was barely drinkable. However, the same amount of roast barley is just fine.
Comment: For the caramel flavor what about taking out the first runnings and reducing them down like some people do for Scotch ales. Did this for a recent Scotch ale and it tastes great.
Comment: I always get more coffee flavor with roasted barley, and more "ashtray" from black malt, but I may be using things in the wrong ratio.
Comment: Reducing down a gallon of first runnings to a syrup will develop caramel flavors, and I have done it for Scottish Ales.  But it takes time and more energy (propane) to reduce it.  I certainly wouldn't consider it with ALL the first runnings.  One gallon will be plenty.  However with the wide range of caramel and crystal malts available, I find it easier to just really dial in the flavor I want using more of them than normal.  e.g. the full pound of C60 in that brown ale I mentioned.
Answer: Im not sure how much coffee flavor youre going for, but Ive been reading a lot (mostly on stack exchange) about making beer with coffee. You could cold press some coffee and add it at bottling. Another suggestion Ive read which I plan on trying this week is to "dry hop" during primary or secondary fermentation with some coursely ground beans in a muslin bag.


Did Clemenza kill the elevator operator

Question: In the baptism/murders sequence at the end of the Godfather, Clemenza is seen firing his shotgun into the elevator car twice, however there were three people in the elevator car- Don Stracci, his underboss, and an elevator operator. Does anyone know if Clemenza shot the operator offscreen?
Answer: We don't know but probably not.
If you look at the screen you can see that the elevator operator is shielded from the shotgun blasts as he is standing to one side by the controls.

The shots are fired straight ahead and so would be unlikely to spread to the side that much.
Of course, it's possible that Clemenza finished him off and disposed of any possible witness off-screen but we have no information on that.
Comment: I don't think they cared about the witness. Because when Moe Greene is killed it was only him and not the massager.

Did Clemenza kill the elevator operator


Is a player allowed to hold their hands across the "line" at the poker table?

Question: Is a player allowed to hold their cards across the "line" so as to suggest that they are going to fold in order to get a read on others at the table? Are they allowed to continue doing so hand after hand, or can the dealer call the hand dead?
Answer: This is a very good question. In a very technical sense a hand is not "folded" until it is released over the line. They key word being released. As long as a player is holding their cards or has them protected with chips on top of them it is not a dead or folded hand.
That's not to say you might not get a ruling otherwise, you might depending on where you play, and how much your opponent shenanigans are considered angling under the local rules and how fed up the dealer and the floor person are with the player etc.
However the only upside I see calling for a decision on something like this is that it might be a fun and effective counter needle for the player.
As you play more poker your are going to run into Donkeys like this all the time, doing all kinds of little angles. The particular angle you are asking about is a total fools angle. Some green players fall for it sure, but for more experienced players it is very telling stuff, as most amateur angles are. So learn what a player like this is telling you about his hand when he pulls the BS and take advantage of it to relieve him of his hard earned money rather then letting the player get under your skin with the stupid tricks. This player is telling you things, use the information and don't discourage their stupid moves.
Answer: So as a dealer, I've had this situation occur many many many times. To put it bluntly if it's angle shoot, as you said to try get a reaction out of a player, I'm informing the player not to do so and calling floor to get a round penalty once the hand is over. No questions asked.
Now I'm certain most dealers, and myself included, would give any player a chance. You can tell pretty quickly if a player is new to live casino poker, and in that case most dealers will be fair, inform the player they can't do that, explain why and give them another chance. I tended to give players 2 chances, on their 3rd time I punished.
The above is only for players who are clearly new. Most casinos, tournaments and cardrooms have what is called a forward motion rule, and it's to stop exactly what you're describing. When a player is knowingly doing this to get a reaction, in any place worth playing they're breaking the rules and angle shooting. The same applies for chips, i.e. moving chips forward and then moving them back. So will the hand be killed, no it shouldn't be, but the intent was clear as a fold, and then not to fold the intent is clearly an angle shoot. Which is cheating.
If your dealer doesn't call floor, don't forget you have the option as a player to call floor too if you want, so do so.
As for a dealer calling a hand currently in a players hand dead, not just to this situation, I believe only a floor has that power when they suspect cheating or foul play, so you know.
Answer: Different casinos may have different rules, generally the players are meant to have their cards behind the line.
Other players will normally not have a problem with a player that has their cards over the line as long as the cards are not being moved in a forward motion.
If a player is making a tough decision and he starts to push his cards forward while staring at his opponent without the intention of folding, then this is clearly against the rules (or an angle if there are no rules against it).
It is ultimately up to the dealer and the floor whether or not an action is legal in their poker room. If you come across this again, I would suggest that you call the floor over if the player is consistently pushing his/her cards forward without folding.
Comment: pit bosses work in the pit not the poker room. They are called floor people.


Why do the Shadows ships look similar after several thousand years, given that technological advancement should have made ships look very different?

Question: In the episode "Matters of Honor", Delenn was asked to identify a Shadows ship. She later remarked to Sheridan she has never seen one but it fits the descriptions from the Last Great War which occurred thousands of years ago. With technological advancement, how can ships thousand of years ago look similar to ships thousands of years later? Don't the Shadows advance with time? Can you imagine today's Boeing planes looking similar to the first plane made by the Wright brothers 100 years ago?
Comment: What you're looking at is a *"technological plateau"*. Once tech reaches a certain level, often there's no need (or even capacity) for it to advance further. My microwave oven, for example, is functionally identical to a 1940s Radarange.
Comment: The Boeing Dash 80 (first flight: 1954) and the Airbus A350 (first flight: 2013) look remarkably similar despite more than half a century of rapid development in flight technology.  There's a reason for that.
Comment: @Mark: And for a bit longer timespan, ichthyosaurs look remarkably like dolphins :-)
Comment: @PlasmaHH actually, aside from the deliberately unusual cylindrical prototype, they mostly look like regular microwaves. The primary technical requirement is that you must be able to put containers of various sizes and shapes inside it.
Comment: @Valorum: And my microwave oven does date from the '80s :-)  The only real difference between it and the new one my friends bought this spring is that it uses a blue LED display, while mine's an LCD.
Comment: @PlasmaHH My point stands. Aside from one prototype, most solid state microwaves pretty much look like what you'd think. A box you put food inside with some buttons to press.
Comment: While I appreciate the checkmark, and it's your prerogative to choose the answer that you think answers your question the best, I still think that Darren's answer is the best one based on the evidence that we see presented in the show.
Comment: @Dranon I think your answer makes the same point as Darren's but does it better :-) Yours is the only one I've upvoted here.
Comment: @Valorum: Valid point in the concept, but the example not quite. We have been using magnetrons (essentially vacuum tubes) for ages, but solid state microwaves are beginning to enter the market. With that comes redesign of the form factor, which was largely a compromise between aesthetics, market requirements and technological needs. The later will now change, thus giving more room for different designs. google image for for "nxp solid state cooker"
Comment: @barbecue: We are just at the start of ss microwave technology. The primary benefit for a designer is that there is no more the constraint to have specific dimensions and geometry of the inside as well as no need anymore for a spinning table on the inside. From the view of the question, the primary concern was that the ships look very similar, identifiable from ancient descriptions. If you give a description of a contemporary microwave to someone who has no idea of that technology, they would not be able to identify that cylinder as a microwave.
Answer: The Shadows effectively lay dormant for the thousands of years between wars.
It is revealed that

the Icarus awoke the Shadows when it visited Z'ha'dum.

So there wouldn't have been any technological advancement in the intervening years.
Comment: 3x08, _Messages from Earth_, pretty much confirms that there's been no advancement, whatever the reason is.
Answer: In addition to Darren's correct answer, one of the themes of Babylon 5 is that the societies of the Vorlons and the Shadows have stagnated. They have spent so long concentrating on winning the galaxy through the actions of the younger races that they no longer focus on much else, so it is plausible that they haven't improved their technology much.
Valorum's comment on your question is also plausible — the Shadows could have hit a technological plateau. While modern aircraft don't look like the Wright Brothers' original flyer, they are actually similar in many ways. And modern aircraft do look substantially similar to aircraft made in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
It's also possible that the Shadows simply like the mutant spider-crab look of their ships. Perhaps the technology has improved over the years, but the technology and the appearance are independent. Despite technological improvements, modern passenger aircraft are constrained in appearance by aerodynamic requirements, so they all look broadly similar. If there's no restriction (no need to be aerodynamic in space), the ships can be shaped however they like, and they like that look.
Maybe they even do change the appearance, but the younger races don't notice that shorter or longer legs are in this season because they're too busy being slaughtered. (I'd better post this answer before I get any sillier.)
(Note that this entire answer is somewhat speculative. The first paragraph is drawn fairly closely from what we see and are told in the show, the rest not so much. It should be taken as a supplement to Darren's answer that is drawn entirely from the show itself.)
Comment: *And modern aircraft do look substantially similar to aircraft made in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.* Not just aircraft. Take the vast majority of modern firearms and they'd be fully understood by a gunsmith from a hundred and fifty years ago after a few minutes of examination. Externally, most passenger vehicles today don't look very different from cars in the 1990s when aerodynamics and fuel efficiency became very important. And someone from 50,000 years ago would have no problem with an axe.
Comment: @StephenG "This would be more like a roman soldier seeing an RPG or a tank" -> no, this is more like a 17th-century grenadier seeing an RPG, who would probably have a rough understanding of how it works. You can't assume a "soldier" is "someone who knows how all military stuff from his era works." Does a 21st-century rifleman know how a hydrogen bomb works? Regardless, your "Roman soldier" could still go back 2k years to the Bronze Age or forward ~1500 to the 17th century and discuss swords just fine.
Comment: @StephenG: You're missing the point, which is that technological development has limits, which are approached asymptotically.  Your Roman soldier might not understand an RPG (though a WWI soldier probably would), but he would understand a 19th century Japanese katana perfectly well.
Comment: Hand an RPG to a roman soldier for a few minutes and the only use he'll have for it is as a club.  And the gap between a culture of thousands of years cannot be made up by a few minutes of casual inspection by anyone - this is a popular sci-fi myth.
Comment: @StephenG: _"This would be more like a roman soldier seeing an RPG or a tank : perhaps impossible to understand in a lifetime for him, much less a few minutes"_ Roman soldiers weren't stupid. Romans weren't neanderthals. A modern human goes from knowing nothing about humanity to potentially knowing how to use an RPG or a tank, in the space of say 20 years. There's really no reason that a Roman couldn't do this, *and he has a head-start* (by not being a newborn)!
Comment: @LightnessRacesinOrbit 11-12 year olds are perfectly capable of using RPGs and do use them. They may not be able to *build* them.
Comment: @LightnessRacesinOrbit [Neanderthals weren't stupid either](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2017/01/24/neanderthals-underrated-genius/); Be careful with your comparisons lest you offend some of our extinct relatives ;)
Comment: @keith-morrison You're talking about similarities across decades, but the issue is over thousands of years - quite a different thing.  This would be more like a roman soldier seeing an RPG or a tank : perhaps impossible to understand in a lifetime for him, much less a few minutes.
Answer: I was going to just comment, but I can't yet...
In his comment, Valorum mentions the concept of technological plateau. Dranon further notes that one of the themes of B5 is that the Vorlons and Shadows have both stagnated. What I wanted to add to this was the connection between these two things, as well as one additional point: The Shadows are repeatedly referred to as "the oldest of the First Ones." This makes them billions of years old. After so long, 2 things will be true:

For a race that is billions of years old, it's highly unlikely there is any further technological advancement available to them. One of the things we note is that while the Vorlons use normal hyperspace jumpoints/jumpgates, the Shadows do not - they simply "shift" in and out of hyperspace without opening jump points. They're way beyond even the Vorlons - even after a few thousand years dormant. There's just no technological room left for them.
And even if there is, they are SO OLD that they are simply going to change very, very slowly. Lorien later says that he was waiting for them on Zha'Ha'Dum for millions of years. These races do not do things quickly, and for such races, even 10,000 years is the blink of an eye. It's reasonable to think that over the few thousand year period we are talking about, they simply haven't changed at all.
Comment: +1. I'd add that even the Vorlons are so far ahead of the younger races that why would they need to advance? They and the Shadows ended up in a technological stalemate -- in my opinion -- and shifted to competing by proxy. Plus they had advanced into technologies whose unintended consequences were universe-threatening, like the interdimensional gate the Vorlons made, that humans stumbled onto in hyperspace. Almost destroyed everything a second time. Further technological advance was very risky and unnecessary.
Comment: @Wayne yesterday indeed, as they say "necessity is the mother of invention" and by this point, there is simply no need.
Answer: May I contribute that AFAIK both Shadows and Vorlons used organic, living ships that didn't rely on technological innovation in a usual sense. It definitely takes more than a thousand years for biological evolution to take place. So, with the masters in hibernation (someone already mentioned it), there would be no way for these ships to change.
This was sort of an obvious explanation ... less obvious would be that neither Shadows nor Vorlons actually wanted to evolve any more themselves. They wanted the younger races to evolve as quickly as possible, so they'd be released from their role as guardians. All they wanted was to join the other "first ones" beyond the rim. Their conflict with each other was about ways to speed up evolution around them!
Comment: _"It definitely takes more than a thousand years for biological evolution to take place"_ Citation needed. We witness generations of viruses and bacteria mutating almost in front of our eyes. The difference of course being the vastly reduced lifespan (and accordingly vastly increased reproduction rate), relatively speaking.
Comment: I think the Shadows always thought of themselves as being in the parent role even when Lorien was still actively parenting the first ones.  The Shadows being the next oldest would be like a teenager helping babysit the first one babies in the family.   Eventually Lorien said to them its ok to go out and have your own life.  The grandkids don't need babysitting they can be parents themselves now.
Answer: The answers here are good, but there is something else to consider: the overall goal of the Shadows.
At the end of the day, if the Shadows wanted to just kill everyone, they could do that. They could have whipped out their Death Clouds and went on a rampage across the galaxy way back at the beginning of the series. But they didn't. And not just because the Vorlons would have in turn whipped out their planet killers. It simply wouldn't further their ends.
What the Shadows wanted was to encourage wars, "kick over the ant hills", and so forth. To teach the lower races by getting them to "evolve" to evade destruction.
Past a certain point, being that kind of force simply doesn't require improvements in technology. So long as you have weapons that can one-shot the enemy's best ships, you're doing OK. If the younger races have become stronger, just add more ships.
And if things go sideways, you always have those Death Clouds to fall back on...
Answer: Actually I'd go one further. Both the Vorlons' and Shadows' tech did keep growing. But the Shadows keep their ships the same because they themselves weren't operating them. They used the younger races they made their servants/allies (depending on how you perceive them). And they wanted the younger race to know who they were and to eventually win or overcome each war, otherwise they would have failed in their mission.
The planet killers were proof of this, plus when you learn from the movies about 3rd space and that the Vorlons can actually freeze time around their homeworld or even move their homeworld to another star system if they choose to.
Both the Vorlons and Shadows were equal in tech according to Loran.
Comment: Hi, welcome to SF&F.  Do you have any evidence for your opening statement, or is it just a theory?  Note that several of the other answers propose other reasons - technological plateau or stagnation - that they tie to sources.  Do you have evidence that their tech was still advancing?  That the planet killers are new?


Is malt + wheat still a SMaSH?

Question: Say if I add Extra Pale malt, then add some wheat, oats, or something else to add body/weight only to the beer, can it still be called a SMaSH?
Comment: nope forget it!
Comment: Hey as long as the wheat and oats are unmalted, it's still technically single malt, right?
Answer: I would think not. SMaSH means single malt and a single hops. The point is simplicity and purity, where emphasize the flavor of a single malt and single hops. Adding additional ingredients will change the attributes of the beer, which will means that it is no longer a single malt.
But IMO, the more important question is why do you care? Beer is a beverage that should be enjoyed. If you feel that adding additional grains will give you a more enjoyable beer, do it. In fact, one of the main reasons why people homebrew in the first place is to experiment with different flavors and to create a beer that can me more enjoyable than what is offered as standard, so making a SMaSH beer which isn't exactly SMaSH makes it YOUR beer.
Answer: According to Drew Beecham's article in November/December 2012 Zymurgy and associated presentation (subscription required), the term SMaSH was coined on homebrewtalk.com and, of course means, Single Malt and Single Hop.
Your question highlights part of the problem with SMaSH recipes...they can be boring or lacking a quality you desire.
So although adding an additional grain to your recipe would disqualify it as a SMaSH recipe, Drew proposed Brewing On The Ones, which allows for a single malt plus a single color or flavor malt or adjunct.  Still one hop, but additionally, one spice, one sugar.

Drew's rule (for Brewing on the Ones): You get one choice per "category". That means one base, one adjunct, one hop, one yeast and one surprise.
Answer: Generally a SMASH is a simple recipe to experiment with a single ingredient at a time
To be true to the acronym one would only be able to play with base malts and bittering hops. But this isn't the case.
IMO it was never intended to be strict to the acronyms meaning. Single malt, single hop.
But rather single malt, single hop aside from a well known base malt and bittering hop or better yet hop extract for bittering.
So to explore how ingredients effect and add to the simplest recipe.
SMASH base beer.
X lb 2-Row.
X ml hop extract at 60 min.
One then could add their specialty malt OR hop addition to explore the effects.

Is malt + wheat still a SMaSH?


PHP Image gallery that integrates well into custom CMS

Question:
Possible Duplicate:
Which Content Management System (CMS) should I use?

I've been trying to find an image gallery that plays nice with our custom CMS. I've evaluated a number of them, but none of them seems to have the feature list that I would like:

Run on LAMP environment
Free software or low license costs (the website belongs to a non-profit organisation)
Multi-user support
Multiple albums. We're posting concert pictures, and would like an album per event.
Pluggable authentication system. I want to reuse the accounts we have for our CMS. Permissions can be done inside the gallery itself, but I want to have a single sign on solution in a maintainable manner, by writing my own plugin/add-on for the software.
Upload support (multiple images at the same time)

And preferrably also:

Can be integrated into a PHP page layout without IFRAMEs
Automatic resizing of uploaded images to a maximum size
Ability for visitors to place comments

This combination is proving hard to find, especially the authentication requirement. I don't want to mess around all over the place in the source code to make it use the existing authentication. A plugin would be ideal, but alternatively a well thought out software design that allows for maintainable surgical changes would be acceptable.
Any suggestions on which software I should take a closer look into?
Answer: Try Coppermine Photo Gallery: it seems to have all the features you need.


Map of user locations?

Question: Maybe this has been brought up before and I'm not finding it, but is it just me, or is almost crazy for this site (or dare I say all SE sites) to not have some sort of map of user locations? Not one of those cheezy ones you see on old-skool forums where it maps your IP address and puts a little flashing dot where it thinks you might be, but something based on modern, open API (like determining which one to use wouldn't start a holy war, huh?). Users have the option of adding their location in their profile, and if I remember correctly, it even validates it for you, right? That location could then be used to put them on the map. Thoughts from the SE team on this?
Comment: Needs to be a opt-in option for users.
Comment: @mapperz - agreed, however, they are already putting the info out there textually in their profile.
Answer: To be honest, you opted in when you placed your location information in the location field in the profile information. I have created some code to scrape the location field (in Python) and it is accessible here. (As a note, feel free to update the code to your hearts content)
I'm pretty sure this data is already acessible from the data dump anyway. You could download that information and make maps to your hearts content (and use other information as well).
Although I wouldn't mind to see a feature like this, I would think users on this site would be able to whip up some pretty cool maps on their own.
Answer: Location already exists in the profile, and is cross-referenced using the Yahoo Placefinder API.
We already went through all profiles on the network and auto-mapped the ones we could.
Location in profile was changed without edit or knowing
Assuming you enter something it can parse, there is a hidden field that contains the coordinates. You can of course enter "The Moon", too, it's just a text field.
Comment: Gotcha, but what about having a actual map of all user locations (pins on a Google map), using that hidden field that contains the coordinate? User can opt out of being on map.

Map of user locations?


How to monitor child's SMS messages?

Question: Is there any way to have my son's phone set to where any text message that he receives or sends comes to my phone too.
Comment: I would consider this a serious interference with the privacy of your son, if he isn't aware of the fact that you are monitoring his personal text messages.
Answer: I use DeskSMS on my phone, which will forward all texts to an email address of my choosing (which could then be received on another phone) and also allow responding through email, but it will appear to that person as a standard text from your phone. I found it really handy when I was working in a secured office that didn't allow personal cell phones. I could leave my phone in my car and still be notified of any texts and still respond to them, and the person wouldn't have any idea I was using email to respond.
In using it on your son's device, it is relatively easy to disable, so if your son doesn't want you to see things and is technologically inclined, he could probably find ways around it. But I think if the kid is smart enough, just about any app is able to be bypassed. It isn't made for monitoring, but it would work just the same.
I believe there is a $5 yearly charge (I am pretty sure it comes with a 30 day trial), because of the costs involved in running the server that processes everything.
Answer: A similar approach to the one suggested by bassmadrigal would be to use the app SMS Backup + that 'backs up' SMS to a Gmail account. You can then view them via Gmail on any device.
Comment: Does it back them up as they are being received or is it something that has to be run manually on the phone?
Comment: It backs them up as they are received. I think there is a configurable delay period (i think the minimum is 1 minute). I almost never open the app manually.
Answer: Not exactly to your phone, but there are several "child care" apps available in the playstore which can be used to monitor activities. Take e.g. a look at Care4Teem, Best Parental Control Android, or ParentalFlux Parental Control. Most of these kind of solutions offer a dashboard on the provider's website, where you can check logged acitivities such as calls, messages, etc. Some additional monitor the location and even allow for "geo-fencing" (sending you an alert when the kid leaves the "permitted zone").
Answer: Yes, you can spy on your son's phone without him knowing with the help of mobile tracking software. I have been using this spying app for watching my kids to be sure that they are where they supposed to be. Through this tracking app you can spy on his text messages, calls, every activity on his cell phone. Another thing regarding privacy - as you are really concerned about your son and you take care of him, you have the right to monitor his SMS messages. I think software will help you.
Comment: "…you have the right to monitor his SMS messages." Just wanted to clarify that this is **not true** in Germany (and in other parts of Europe and likely other countries with a sane privacy law). A child could sue you if you do so without its consent
Comment: Actually, is some countries, it's allowed as parents have complete right over child's property before they are 16\18 (depends where you go). In other words, the parents are free to monitor whatever, whenever they want. A child can by that not sue their parents, because the child has almost zero rights in therms of ownership.

How to monitor child's SMS messages?


How do cold air masses reach South America?

Question: I've heard meteorologists say that the cold air masses that reach South America during the winter months don't originate in the polar region.  I always thought they crossed the strait of Drake and reached the continent at Tierra del Fuego. From there, depending on their strength, they might reach very low latitudes.  If these cold air masses don't come from Antarctica, where do they come from?
Comment: It can be confusing because a lot of times people in NH forget about this. When I first read this I was immediately thinking the winter months in NH and I had to remind myself this question is about winter in SH. No offense meant.
Comment: @gansub  None taken. But let me remind you that meteorological phenomena are not regulated by the calendar.  Winter in the SH is the time whe insolation is shorter, and those months could have been given any names or any dates. Scientists chose to call those specific months "June, July, August...but imho this has nothing to do with the formation and migration of cold air masses. In a nutshell, to say that winter in SH is from ..to...is irrelevant since winter is always winter irrespective of the months we have chosen for it both in the NH and SH. Even without any existing calendar we can still
Comment: South American winter is from June 21 through September 21st.
Comment: @gansub   Yes, and John Lennon died at the age of forty.
Answer: The Pacific coast of South America is affected by the Humboldt Current, a wind-driven "upwelling" system running counterclockwise that is cold and windy but nutrient rich..
The "six o'clock" position indeed touches Antarctica, and then the right edge of the "clock" reaches Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, as far north as the Galapagos Islands near the equator, making those areas cooler than equivalent latitudes on the Atlantic coast.
The reason the currents don't "originate" in the Antarctica is because they are part of a circular system that spans a whole ocean in the southern hemisphere. But they "make stops" there.
The ocean and atmosphere mutually interact to create a "coupled" system that brings about the so-called ENSO El Nino (La Nina) Southern Oscillation, with its characteristic weather changes.
Comment: Why would the cold air mass need to come from somewhere outside of the region?  Cold does not really need an outside origin, it is the absence of warm.  In winter conditions, non-tropical locations will experience cold due to the absence of solar or stored thermal effects unless they receive warming currents.
Comment: Could you answer the question?    Where do the cold air masses come from and how do they make their way to the Argentinean and Brazilian atlantic coast?
Comment: can you add how this current affects El Nino or La Nina ? We have a coupled system right ?
Comment: @Centaurus: It's a circular, counterclockwise process, with one "clock" in the Atlantic ocean and the other in the Pacific Ocean. See my link to the Humboldt current for more details. Brazil and Argentina are on the west side of the Atlantic "clock" so they receive hot, moist air from the tropics; west Africa gets cold air from the Antarctic.
Comment: Tom, you seem to have missed my question.  During the winter months a cold or very cold air mass reaches central Argentina and from there, depending on the barometric pressure at its core, it migrates north,  Sometimes these masses move north along the Atlantic coast and may reach 10-15ºN in Brazil and other times when they are massive, they move north along the Atlantic coast as well as along the central parts of the continent and may even reach the southern parts of Amazonia.
Comment: One way or another, they are always east of the Andes.  And the question is: if the cold air masses do not cross the Drake Passage, how do they get to the Argentinean Atlantic coast ?
Comment: @Centaurus: You didn't talk about Argentina in your question (Tierra del Fuego is in Chile.) I don't know the answer to "Argentina," only about the Pacific coast.
Comment: @TomAu    Tierra del Fuego has been equally divided between Chile and Argentina.


What is the difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy?

Question: Both have hints of existence in life, however what is the difference? One is made up and want to have as (Fantasy) and the other is in the technology uncovered by Science or other lobotomy (Science Fiction). Is there a deeper representation of where the line is drawn between these 2 genres which sometimes even mesh and join forces, or is it just a vague idea in the minds about their distinctive properties?
Comment: Relevant: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4FcxgdvdQP45D6Skg/disguised-queries
Answer: The most traditional division between science fiction and fantasy (Which, admittedly can be blurred), is that for science fiction it is something that is based in reality and might be possible. Fantasy is not grounded in reality, so is not possible.
So, despite Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd law - "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", if it is based in rules of reality, current scientific knowledge, it will be classified as science fiction. There are also "divisions" in science fiction, such as soft and hard sci fi. Soft science fiction is more concerned with characters and society, hard science fiction places a much greater emphasis on being based in actual science.
There are also divisions in fantasy, such as low and high fantasy. Low fantasy is based in our world with magical elements (Terry Brooks Shannara series), High fantasy is based in an alternate/made up world (Tolkein 'verse).
Comment: Thank you, this clears up my confusion.
Comment: I personally think it's separated more by aesthetic. Star Wars for example is usually considered scifi due to its space setting and heavy use of technology, even though most of its tropes are much more heavily associated with fantasy, and it is heavily focused on magic use i.e. the force.
Comment: Before episodes 1-3 happened, there was no explanation for the force, it was presented completely like magic, and yet people still called Star Wars scifi even then.
Comment: @Kai - The force is not magic. It is specialized cells. Which in theory, could eventually be cloned/replicated/reproduced. The tropes may be fantasy (although everything is a hero's quest), but the underlying theme is all science fiction. I can see your point, but the points above are the generally accepted ones (AFAICT anyway).
Comment: @JohnP - The Force is magic. It's specialized *magic* cells. Adding sciency words to something doesn't make it science...I see this a lot.
Comment: Also, the distinction you make between high and low fantasy is not the one I'm familiar with. I've generally seen definitions based on degree of magic or on how "heroic" the story is.
Comment: @Adamant - That may have changed over time. That was the distinction that was used in my college classes. I will spare you how long ago that was. :)
Answer: Two points: First, SF can't be "fiction based on the possible" because as far as we know, 99% (at least) of what people think is SF is not possible.
Second, it's not possible to neatly divide fantastic fiction into "Fantasy" and "SF" since much of it obviously is a bit of both.
So, a better way to talk about it is to say:
A story is SF to the extent that it depends on fictionalized science or engineering, where "science" is understood to be any systematic, rational body of knowledge about objective reality.
A story is Fantasy to the extent that it depends on fictionalized magic or the supernatural.
Note that what makes a story SF, for instance, is that it depends on a fictionalized science. If it's just a mundane Western where the Bad Guys have blasters, then it's not really SF at all.
Likewise, a story that depends on real science for its impact -- the movie Apollo 13 for instance, isn't SF either, though many readers of SF still loved it.
And stories can be simultaneously SF and Fantasy when, for instance, magic is treated as a science in the stories (e.g., Randall Garret's Lord Darcy stories of de Camp and Pratt's Enchanter series.)
Comment: "If it's just a mundane Western where the Bad Guys have blasters, then it's not really SF at all" - this is the sound of stampede of billions of Star Wars fans rushing to be mean to you.


What is our universe expanding into?

Question: From inflation theory and other theories explaining the birth of the universe, the universe is expanding and recently it's been discovered that the expansion has been accelerating. My question is simple, what is happening on the boundary of our inflating universe and what is that 'space' that is experiencing that boundary?
Comment: Related: http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/5960/does-the-universe-have-an-edge, http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/2137/what-is-the-name-of-that-which-exists-beyond-the-universe, http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/128271/does-the-universe-have-an-edge-boundary-barrier-if-yes-what-is-at-the-edge and links therein.
Comment: also see http://www.giyf.com/what+is+our+universe+expanding+into
Answer: It's a rather difficult concept to grab but, in short, the image of expansion you have in your mind is wrong. It's not your fault, it's everywhere out there, the inflatable balloon etc. And it's terrible :)
Another way to look at it is that the universe properties are changing. Whether it is infinite or finite, its size (as measured within itself) changes. Things are pulled appart. You could imagine that free vacuum keeps being generated between all objects but that would be a misrepresentation of the theory.
The most simple way I see it is actually what the equations say. It's lame but sometimes the math are the simplest way to understand a phenomenon. The equation say the metric is expanding. It means two point in the fabric of the universe are measured at increasing distances over time. As a result, unless objects are pulled to each other with sufficient force, they tend to drift appart. It's a property of the universe that has not been explained yet (at least not completely), and we still are on the fence as to what influences the expansion rate.
Ultimately, this concept is very easy to accept when you cease to represent the universe from outside of itself. The universe is everything that is so if any image in your mind represents the universe from outside, it won't give you a good picture. Balloons are especially bad :). If you need an image, draw a grid or take a notebook, draw some points here and there on it and imagine the grid keeps getting bigger and bigger. But don't look at the whole page, forget the page limits, focus on the grid. And keep in mind that the points do not expand, only the grid does...
Comment: +10.  I had this exact question come to mind today, and this is an excellent answer.  As a statistician, I appreciate the mathematical explanation too!
Answer: There is no boundary there is no outside to be expanding into. Only slightly misleading is the usual analogy of the expansion of the universe is that of the surface of a balloon as it is blown up, which just gets larger but has no boundary.
One problem with the balloon analogy is that with a balloon we can see that it is embedded in a 3-space, but there is no need for such a 4-space embedding for the Universe. Another problem is that the surface of the balloon is very definitely finite, we don't really know if that is the case or not for the Universe.
Comment: What is the state of that expansion? If it's infinite expansion then it beats the logic of a beginning.
Comment: @Ken I don't know what you mean by "infinite expansion", please be more precise. Are you asking is the universe finite or infinite? Will the expansion go on forever (whatever that might mean)? Or what?
Comment: Yes, will it last forever?
Comment: #Ken, probably but forever is a very long time and I would not guarantee what will happen in the very far future.
Answer: The universe isn't expanding into anything. It is just the distance between the galaxies is increasing continuously, but the galaxies are relatively still but space between them is moving. However the universe is infinitely big enough to begin with and remain infinite, it's size doesn't change. For e.g. consider 1,2,3... upto infinity. If you multiply it with 2, then 2,4,6.... upto infinity. Here we can say that distance between adjacent has increased, but total extent of numbers remain the same.
Answer: Most of the Astronomers and the community of Astrophysics, will agree that the fate of planet earth is "The Big rip, most comparable to The Big Bang;but polar opposites.Where the universe is expanding to it's breaking point, total expansion of the know universe.
Comment: The Big Rip is entirely hypothetical and inconsistent with the standard ΛCDM cosmological model. It's theoretically possible, but I severely doubt that "most" of the astrophysics community will agree that it's remotely likely.
Comment: You are making up your own question, this does not address the question being asked here
Comment: Tbe (hypothetical) Big Crunch is generally considered the be the opposite of the Big Bang, not the Big Rip.
Comment: Thank you HDE226868 for your correctional suggestions it kept me awake last night, wondering if I clarified both the rip and the bang!!  :)

What is our universe expanding into?


What apps/programs/daemons on OS X use my ~/.ssh/id_rsa* keys?

Question: I recently started using Git with GitHub and thus discovered that I already have a generated pair of SSH keys, public and private. This leads me to ask: what applications/programs/daemons on my Mac might have caused this keypair to be created? I've never used SSH to log in to another machine.
Answer: Amusingly, your own question includes the answer. GitHub for Mac uses Git via SSH, and will automatically generate unprotected SSH key pairs (e.g. no passphrase) in order to push/pull contents between the remote repo and your local ones.
Answer: The program to create SSH key pairs is ssh-keygen.
Enabling the SSH daemon in the Sharing preference pane does not create a key pair for a user in ~/.ssh/ The SSH daemon only creates a SSH host key pair in /etc/ssh_host*_key*
If you haven't used ssh-keygen to create the keys, maybe some other program did it for you. I don't know which one does that but I haven't used git.
As for using the keys, every program that uses SSH can use the keys. Some, like ssh, use the keys automatically, in some, like Cyberduck (SFTP), you have to select the key file manually.
Answer: To be honest the question is a little bit huge. Your ssh keys could have been generated if you activated the sshd (Remote Login) from the sharing preference pane; as to what could have used (or uses them), it's any program (like Git, Subversion, SFTP, etc) that requires ssh access. Not sure exactly which one could have generated for you, but you can always remove them and see what fails (save a backup!).
Comment: Visitors: Please note this answer is *not* correct. Enabling Remote Login / SSH daemons will generate server side SSH keys, but those are located in `/etc/ssh`, not `~/.ssh/` like the op indicates.
Comment: Remote Login is off (I just checked). I've never used an SSH/SFTP client, and before Git a few days ago, never used a VCS over the network. Thanks for having a go at the question, though. I'd mod you up if I had the rep!
Comment: Anytime, sorry I can't really give you more info. Maybe you activated Remote Login once and then disabled it? The keys would still be there.
Comment: -1 for misinformation (as @JasonSalaz stated). Should be edited or possibly removed.
Answer: Break out
fs_usage(1)

or
opensnoop(1m)

Both of these commands have options to watch a directory, or a path.  Open a terminal and , well, watch ~/.ssh . See who actually accesses that path.  If you find a program that is accessing that path illicitly, then tell us all.  Please.


Does Stan Lee's cameo in Iron Fist have any meaning?

Question: In the Netflix series Iron Fist we have this Stan Lee cameo in the final episode. Does this have any meaning, or is it just random like some other of Stan Lee's cameos? Did the other netflix marvel series have his cameos too?
Comment: Other than he cameo's in most all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Answer: On Netflix, Stan Lee has cameoed as the same character in all of their MCU shows:
His Daredevil cameo:

His Jessica Jones cameo:

His Luke Cage cameo:

And in Iron Fist, which you already spotted

He is just portrayed as an honorable NYPD officer and their marketing face in the MCU Netflixverse. But remember, like all his other Marvel cameos, this one is also not to be taken too seriously and it's just kind of a puzzle for the audience:

Related readings:

Why does Stan Lee play random extras in Marvel films?

How do Stan Lee's random appearances work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Comment: Thank you for listing the other shows, I watched them all but only spotted Stan Lee's cameo in the Iron Fist, Nice answer =)
Answer: Because he is a watcher or works for them. Likely Uatu, the watcher that's assigned to watch Earth. Confirmed by Marvel in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. And keep in mind that the Netflix series are part of the MCU.

Marvel chief Kevin Feige has endorsed the popular fan theory that Stan Lee is playing the same character in all of his MCU roles. http://screenrant.com/stan-lee-mcu-cameo-theory-marvel-kevin-feige/

"Yes, we always thought it would be fun. Stan Lee clearly exists, you know, above and apart from the reality of all the films. So the notion that he could be sitting there on a cosmic pit stop during the jump gate sequence in Guardians was something very fun – James had that idea and we shot that cameo and loved it so much, you know, you see it a couple of times in the movie. It wasn't in for a long time and we put it back in towards the end of the process where he references that time he was a Federal Express agent – we thought it would be fun to put that in there because that really says, so wait a minute, he's this same character who's popped up in all these films."
Comment: Yet this doesn't really adress this specific question too much and seems more of an afterthought than his actual significance in *Iron Fist*.


Remove Excel data link in Visio Drawing

Question: I am creating a server topology for one of our SharePoint farms and thought it would be easy to just link the Excel spreadsheet with our server information to the Visio drawing to auto-populate some things. It didn't work out that well, but the drawing is finished without it now.
I cannot remove the link between the Excel spreadsheet and the Visio diagram. Whenever the drawing is opened the linked excel server list opens in a pane at the very bottom of the window. How would I eliminate the data link? Or just the spreadsheet from view when being opened?
Comment: Have a look at this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829224 which may get help you.
Answer: Found it just to un-linking any reference to the data source, right-clicking the data source pane and choosing Remove Data Source Link.
Answer: Right-click in the data grid and click Data Sources > Remove Link.
Note:  If you right click the frame and not the content of the box, the option does not appear.

Remove Excel data link in Visio Drawing


Buying used tower

Question: I'm thinking about buying a 70' self supporting tower that I can see had a little rust here and there.  Besides minor rust is there anything I should ask the seller before I buy?
Comment: I've never done something like that, but seeing that it is basically a building, and there's engineers that appraise/assess the state of buildings for selling/compensation reasons, I'd ask one to write an expert report. Asking might mean paying him money.
Comment: What is the make and model number?
Comment: All I know is it is a Titan 72'
Comment: [This appears to be their website](http://trylon.com/products/stocked_towers.aspx).
Answer: You should first ask the manufacturer. They should be able to provide the all-important safety, erection, and guying information.
Study the manual and relevant info first, which probably is available on the manufacturer's website.
Answer: I'd be more inclined to ask a local (metal) engineering workshop. I have one near me (Surrey UK) that do a large amount of work for a nearby amusement park. They would be well used to assessing the state of the steel-work underneath the galvanising (I guess it is galvanised). If you pay for their advise you should then have some come-back if things go wrong.
I would also take into account where I was going to site it, in particular where and on what it would fall should the worst happen.
Also - it is described as self-supporting - does this classification apply to all geographical areas? I am thinking here of wind-loading?
A point relevenat for when you put aerials up there.
Oh, and don't forget the base/foundation; the size of which is dependent on the last factor together with the type of soil in your area.

Buying used tower


Features for blink detection in real-time single channel EEG

Question: I am looking to detect blink events in real-time single channel EEG. Classification of a moving window of samples to determine whether a blink artifact exists requires feature extraction (except when using deep learning, I am not experienced enough for this). What features would be useful to extract from a window of approx. 50-200 samples of time series data for detecting a blink event. The blink event can be easily seen in the below picture:
Answer: The EEG signature of eye blinks is typically visible for about 200ms of data. When you want to move a window of 50 to 200 samples, I assume that your sampling frequency is 1000Hz (you should specify this in your next question).
A classical feature for eye blink detection is the peak-to-peak amplitude, which is the absolute difference of the maximum amplitude and the minimum amplitude of the EEG within your window. Another feature could be the variance within your EEG window.
Pseudocode:
<code>peak_to_peak_amp = abs(window.max() - window.min())
variance = var(window)
</code>
Note that both of these features are rather unspecific to eye blinks and will have a hard time to distinguish blinks from other peaks in the data. For this reason, the methods are often combined with filtering of the data and converting the amplitudes in microvolts to z-scores.
For reading I suggest chapter 6 in the canonical book by Steven Luck: An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique


What is the best strobe kit/brand for high speed photography?

Question: I will be planning on doing some more indoor studio shots of motion/fast speed photography and curious on what would be your choice for this kind of project? I am familiar with Bowens, Elinchrom, Alienbees, Impact, etc., but there are so many generic brands I get so confused and not sure which one to purchase. I am planning to get 2-3 monolights as well. Let me know what you use and what would be some pointers for getting the best results.
Answer: For high speed work I would look into the  Paul C Buff Einstein. From the guy behind Alienbees, this strobe was specifically designed for high speed work. Unlike most monolites utilizes tail-trimming whereby power to the bulb is cut after a certain duration to reduce power. This effectively means the lower the power the shorter the flash duration. Other lights tend to use voltage lowering or charge a different number of capacitors for lower power output.
It also has a hybrid tail-trimming/voltage-lowering mode to provide consistent colour across all power settings (though this is not as good for freezing action).
There's a pretty thorough write-up here:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-10053-10715
Regular hotshoe strobes also use tail-trimming and offer very short flash durations at low power, however an Einstein at low power will produce about the same amount of light as a hotshoe strobe on full power!
Comment: I thought that was the norm for strobes? I've never seen one that didnt do that. (granted I havent seen a lot)
Comment: @MichaelNielsen ltage lowering, I have a set of Elinchrom lights that are pretty useless for action because of this as the duration is around 1/400s!
Comment: checked an example I saw recently, at 50% its like 1/3000s and your suggestion is still much faster. http://www.flashogfotobutikken.dk/flashlamper/oubao-dk-800-800w-digital-flashlampe-ledetal-86.html
And the one I used in California started at 1/250s at max strength. Forgot the brand.
Comment: @MichaelNielsen the first half of my comment seems to have disappeared. Tail trimming is common with hotshoe flashes but isn't with most studio strobes, making most of them rubbish for action shots.
Comment: It is studio strobes Im taking about. We ran one off a car battery in the field in CA :)
Answer: You might actually find that a pack-and-head system will do a better job. Most of the major brands (Elinchrom, Profoto, etc.) offer fat, dual-path tube and twin-tube heads (I've even seen a quad-tube head, but not lately), and when they are paired with the lowest-output packs that will do the job, you can approach speedlight macro flash durations. (If both A & B channels are driving fat tubes through separate lines, you'll dump the current very quickly.) The Elinchrom Digital 1200, for instance, through the 6000N or X4 heads will have a t 0.5 of under 1/3000 at full power.
As for the monolights, you really have to pay attention not only to the brand but the model. Matt mentioned that his Elinchroms can't outrun his shutter in any real sense; I've owned Elinchrom monolights that were many times faster (the EL Compact Rs I owned in the '80s were true 1000J units with a max duration of under 1/1600s). Of the current mains-powered units, the lower-powered Style series (300RX and 600RX) are both faster than 1/2000s, as is the 250 BRXi, while the 1200RX clocks in at around 1/1500s. (All times are t 0.5.) The 300RX is about the same power as the Einstein, and while it is more expensive, you get the Elinchrome modifier system (the Rotalux softboxes are truly sweet).
(I know, I know: I sound like an Elinchrom shill. None of their stuff is the best of the best all by itself, except for the indirect softboxes like the Octa, but the system as a whole makes me happy. Everything I bought in '88 still works with everything I can buy today, and they've still got parts for the stuff I bought in '88.)
Comment: If you don't need a lot of light then the Einsteins will give you a much shorter pulse, at 160ws the Einstein reaches 0.1 in 1/3300s compared to 1/400s for the Elinchrom 600RX. I find the t0.1 timings are more useful for predicting how the light will behave with really fast motion. If you need the power then there are pack and head systems that will give you very short durations but at a much higher price!


Is My Hero Academia: Illegals canon?

Question: Recently I found about  My Hero Academia: Illegals. Is this manga supposed to be canon? Do events from it count for the main My Hero Academia storyline or something from it already appeared in the anime?
Answer: It is canon, according to MHA's English Translator.

Since a lot of people probably aren't familiar, this is a spinoff series to My Hero Academia. It takes place 4+ years before the events of MHA (they say Izuku is in elementary school), and features cameos by Eraser Head, Midnight, Tsukauchi, Ingenium, etc.
It's all canon.
Answer: Well, there is no official source about it. I mean Horikoshi (mangaka) never said it is canon however since he gave ok to the creation of this spin-off and if you consider cameos in it from original BnHA, you can say it's canon.

Is My Hero Academia: Illegals canon?


Can I use a thicker 6th string with other thinner strings

Question: The sixth string on my electric guitar is very loose when I use drop D tuning, but I really like the feel of the thinner strings otherwise- and I play as much in standard tuning.  Would it work to have a thicker string only for the one I sometimes tune down?  If so are there sets of strings you can buy like this?
Comment: Something like Ernie Ball "skinny top heavy bottom" might suit, 10 to 52... but it really depends on what gauges you currently use. Some people think 10 is already 'heavy'.
Comment: If you're going to try out heavy strings, just keep an eye on the nut. Heavy strings don't always sit in the grooves on the nut correctly. Or conversely, if the guitar is set up to use heavy strings, then lighter strings might not fill the grooves well and they could shift around and get detuned easily. If the nut is cheap, you might want to replace it and have the grooves made to fit the string set you like the most.
Answer: I've used non-standard strings for the last 40 or so yrs. Unfortunately, I can't buy them in sets, so I buy 10 of each at a time - making up 10 sets. Price then comes close to 10 standard sets.
That doesn't really answer your question, but to do so, yes, use a slightly different gauge for the bottom one. The guitar may benefit from a tweak of the trussrod, but I doubt it. It may also need the action and intonation checking, with a different string. In the meantime, look around for another guitar, so you can have one standard tuned, and another as you want it. Bargains are worth keeping an eye out for!
Comment: I agree with everything you said (plus 1).  I order single strings from just strings.  I order as many as I can get for the minimum shipping costs.  If you order enough, you can get free shipping.  There are probably other ways to order single strings online.  I think that may be what you meant by buying "10 of each at a time".  Or do you buy 10 sets and mix n match?
Comment: @RockinCowboy - certainly wouldn't buy 10 sets in order to not use some gauges! I have been known to redefine Scrooge! 10 of each works for me. Out of interest, generally - 008, 010, 012, 024, 028, 042. And they stay in tune better than most. Not-so-stressed, see!  Incidentally, Just Strings was the only place in the world who could supply a double ball tapewound low B for a Steinberger headless/fretless I use occasionally.
Comment: I've been very happy with Just Strings.  I play acoustic so my strings are much heavier.  But I like to use 010, 012 as my plain steels and the thinnest G string I can find (for guitar I mean).  But I use much heavier E, A and D strings cause I like to use alternate bass note picking in my strumming patterns and sometimes incorporate bass lines into my arrangement if covering a song that features the bass line (ie The Joker by Steve Miller Band).  I also like to use bass walk downs between chords.  And I like drop D tuning.  Slinky tops let's me play lead lines with bends.
Comment: @RockinCowboy - 'the thinnest G string'. What's that? How can a string be called any letter these days? 50 yrs ago, that's how they were identified, but now, you can but whatever gage you want. You could then use a .007" (poss. .006") gauge string and call that a G. Be quite floppy though!
Comment: FWIW Tim. A common joke used by guitarist performing in bars here in the US -  Whenever we break a string we say "my G-string just broke" regardless of which string actually broke.  Interestingly, the 3rd string (if using a wound string) is the most common one to break because it has the thinnest diameter steel core (significantly thinner than the 1st string).  In standard tuning that would be the G string so the joke is usually accurate.  I keep extra G strings in my guitar case at all times.  Might be a joke that only makes sense to Americans. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-string)
Answer: There is no reason why you cannot mix strings.  You don't need to stick with a standard set, you can create a custom set (I have for years).  If you deviate just a little from a standard set you'll probably be fine.  If you do something severe you may need to adjust the truss rod to compensate for the extra tension.
Answer: I use "heavy bottoms" on some of my guitars and I don't have any issues with floppy 6th string on drop D tuning.  Some manufacturers make sets with what they call heavy bottoms.

But you might not be happy with the gauges the manufacturer chose for the sets that are available.  So what I do is purchase individual strings to get exactly the gauges I want.  There are many string manufacturers who sell strings individually, and while it's more expensive per string than buying a whole set, it's less expensive than buying 2 different sets just to get one set with the gauges you are looking for.  If you only want the low E to be heavier, you could just buy a few of those.

The other consideration is the width of the slot in your nut for the 6th string.  If you get a string that is too thick to properly seat in the slot, you (or a qualified guitar tech) will need to enlarge the nut slot with the proper file. You must be careful not to make the slot too wide because you don't want the string to have room to wiggle around in the slot.
Most electric guitars have adjustable saddles so you may need to adjust the intonation on the 6th string after changing to a different gauge.  You can find information on adjusting your intonation in the answers to this (What is intonation and how can I find out if my guitar has correct intonation?) question on this site.
I would not advise you to go too heavy on just the low E because the increase in tension relative to your other strings at just one side of the neck could possibly twist the neck if left tuned over a long period of time.  If you did go much heavier on just the low E string and want to be sure that the neck will not want to twist, you could leave the guitar tuned in drop D when you weren't playing it.
Or as Tim suggested in his answer, have a dedicated Drop D guitar on standby for any songs you play using drop D.  You will thusly be inspired to add many more drop D songs to your repertoire. And while I don't need much of an excuse to buy another guitar - it never hurts to have one ;-).
Have fun.
Comment: Nut width is an important consideration if you keep swapping strings. Yet another reason why guitars should have that zero fret ! How many guitars does one need? One fewer than one already has...
Comment: @Tim Thanks for fixing the typo.  Surely you meant "one more than one already has.."  You can never have too many!  I did accidentally (should have looked closer at the pics) buy a lefty guitar that I need to unload though.
Answer: Along with the other answers, I will encourage you to do so by giving the example of Shavo Odadjian, bassist of System of a Down. He uses a B string in stead of the E string, also because it would be too loose (they use drop C tuning).
Comment: Really don't know why that bassist hasn't done what I did: took an ordinary 4 string, and strung it BEAD. Very simple solution. Or, better still, get used to playing a fiver... I'm very sceptical about this 'I have to have drop x tuning'!


Why in the construction of power transmission towers , the rods are hinged oblique?

Question: I know if a rod is hinged at its two ends and if there is no load act upon it along its length then the forces exist only along its length but i don't see how  this characteristic comes into play ?
Comment: Probably because those rods are operating in tension (not voltage...)
Comment: A picture would help
Comment: There are different interpretations of hinges. Carpenters interpret it quite differently from engineers. :)
Comment: @Fred I added one
Answer: I think this question is about additional cross bracing.
With a rectangular frame in a vertical plane the ability to carry compressive loads is excellent, but a comparatively small lateral force can deform the rectangle into a parallelogram which will collapse under the same loading. Since the cross bracing will operate to restrict primarily tensile and (to a lesser extent) compressive forces, these struts can be hinged.
If there's a possibility of the main cross bracing struts bending, compressive forces could cause buckling. Additional cross bracing can be applied to the main cross bracing to keep the strut in the line of the force it is designed to restrict. These will also act in tension and compression (mainly tension), and can be hinged.
In both cases the idea of the hinge is to reduce the effect of lateral forces that might bend the strut.
Power transmission towers are pure structure, and have several levels of cross bracing - as can be seen in the picture. Though each level of bracing adds mass, it adds less mass (and less resistance to air flow) than using a thicker beam or a reinforcing plate would to achieve the same rigidity.
Answer: If you imagine a square or rectangular shape made from rods joined with points at the corners.  If those pins act as hinges then the whole shape can easily deform, effectively acting as a 4 bar link.
On the other hand if the shape is a triangle then even if the corners are hinged then it can't be deformed without stretching one of the bars. Also, whichever way  you try to deform it one of the bars will always be in tension. So the  stiffness of the structure doesn't depend on the rigidity of the joints.
This is the fundamental reason why breaking up a structure into triangular sections tends to be an efficient way to make a stiff, lightweight structure.
This approach also tends to be fairly straightforward to design and analyse.
Answer: It could be just to meet a section of a code, or facilitate construction.
Or it could be part of the design that is meant to work with configuration and tension of power cables.
Basically in long truss sections they use L shaped metal profiles and a gusset plate and a set of bolts, but use of hinges is not prohibited.