Was Anne Frank's story common?

Question: I've been reading the Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. Prior to reading it, I always assumed that her story was somewhat typical of Jews living in countries that Germany occupied, or even in occupied Holland, during World War 2, but I'm finding a few signs that things seem a bit unusual. First of all, it seems that the Franks must have had a large supply of cash to be able to afford the food and other supplies during their time of hiding. Secondly, they were hidden within the boundaries of a city, in a warehouse/ office complex. How typical were those conditions compared to other Jews living in the same area, in hiding? I know there were others in hiding, but I'm just trying to gauge how typical their situation was. It seems to me that they were actually fairly fortunate compared to others in their circumstances, excepting of course how the story ends, and I'm wanting to get a further opinion as to how true that might be.
Comment: Anne Frank lived in occupied Holland, not Germany.
Comment: There were others like her. I have heard of a book (or documentary) called something like "The Last Jews in Germany" which documents some of their cases which you like.
Comment: Just to add a relevant point for recent political discussions - they tried to go to the US, but the US was nervous about the potential for German agents sneaking in, so made it very difficult to get refugee-like status.  Had they gotten a US visa they would have survived.
Comment: You may also enjoy a book called "A Chance To Live" by Pieter Kohnstam. During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, when he was six he lived with his parents in the apartment below the Franks in Amsterdam, and they became good friends. Anne would babysit and play with Pieter often. The Franks even offered to have the Kohnstam family to come hide with them when the time came, but instead the Kohnstam family walked across Europe to Barcelona. This, in fact, saved their lives as, sadly, only Otto frank survived. As Pieter was only six at the time, he asked his father Hans to recall the account
Comment: Depends on your definition of "common", but in the Netherlands thousands of Jews and tens of thousands of non-Jews evaded the Germans in the same way as the Frank family. In Dutch it is called "onderduiken" (Literal translation "diving underwater")
Comment: Changed to "countries that Germany occupied". Thanks for that catch.
Answer: No, Anne Frank's story is completely exceptional - both in circumstances and the fact that she hid for so long (and her father survived).
This is a typical case of Survivorship bias. Most Holocaust victims left no memoirs (and no surviving relatives either), and did not even have their names recorded as they were murdered.
This is why just about everyone knows about Auschwitz which had a forced labor section and thus quite a few survivors, but few have heard of death factories like Sobibór, Treblinka,
Bełżec, Chełmno, Maly Trostenets, Majdanek where survival rate was on the order 1:100,000.
Even fewer are aware that only about 50% of murders happened in the camps. East of the Molotov-Ribbentrop line people were mostly shot at random places
(1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
&c &c - some sites were uncovered relatively recently!), by Einsatzgruppen/Police Battalions/Wehrmacht/Local Collaborationists, not gassed in central facilities, and most of those places are still undiscovered.
See "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin" by Timothy D. Snyder.
Comment: Surviving required *luck* and *help*. Of course, being rich helped. Of course, living in a large complex house helped. Of course it was not typical.
Comment: +1 for mentioning death factories like Sobibór, Auschwitz was horrible but Sobibór and the rest were even worse and few people know about them
Comment: @Pablo: yes indeed, that was the purpose of dismantling the facilities (some were captured intact though).
Comment: Well, good point, good examples. And the asker of question apparently found it the best answer. However I would like it if in also an explicit answer was given to the question. I'm guessing it would be: "No, Anne Frank's story was NOT typical, Anne Frank was indeed in relatively good circumstances. This was one of the reasons she was able to write a book at all.

This is a typical example of survivo...".
Comment: Among survivors, or even those in hiding for such time, is her case even remotely common?
Comment: Surviving is already not common, so of course her specific case is not common.  It's basically asking "Are rare diseases common?"  "No, they're not."
Comment: Nazis destroyed most death factories so people wouldn't know about them am I right?
Answer: For survivors who went undercover the whole time, her story is not all that untypical. The German term for such people was "illegals" or "U-Boote". They needed helpers, they needed hiding places, they needed money for bribes. Wikipedia quotes estimates that several thousand survived that way in Germany.
For a Jew who lived in Germany or German-occupied Europe, her story is untypical, because she survived so long.
Comment: @Thunderforge, I was trying to say that there were many similar experiences among the survivors who were hiding the entire time and decided to tell their story. That's a weaker statement than "other survivors generally had the same experiences."
Comment: "Not all that untypical" seems an apt phrasing.  The scale of the holocaust was in the millions — so even if only, say, 1% of the intended victims survived in hiding in ways similar to the Franks, that's still tens of thousands of people.  So while it wasn't typical by any means, it was far from a one-off.
Comment: To clarify, saying that her story is "not all that untypical" means that her experiences were very similar to other survivor experiences, right? I'm having a hard time parsing the phrase.
Answer: There is of course no such thing as a typical holocaust story. There are six million stories and each one is different. The Anne Frank story is special because it was warm and personal enough to have been palatable to the general public in the 1950's, while still being sufficiently tragic and moving to illustrate the enormous evil that was the holocaust.
But as important as this diary surely is, it does not serve as an overview of the holocaust in general. It is short on such important elements as physical cruelty, degradation, acts of great personal risk and fear, hunger, starvation and death, well...I'm not trying to be flippant, you can't just read it through and say "now I understand the holocaust."
Answer: Anne Frank's story was "uncommon." It's true that she died like many others, but in other ways her story was exceptional.
1) She lived in the Netherlands, a country where urban Jews were not rounded up in ghettoes (as they were in Poland). She also came from a relatively wealthy family who could pay for their hiding, and lived in a country that was less anti-Semitic than some others. These factors made her discovery (summer of 1944) later than others' (early 1940s), and the term of her imprisonment shorter.
2) She died in February-March, 1945. That's a tragedy of course, but she lived closer to liberation day than most. A rescue date three months earlier, and she probably would have survived.
3) Most important, her diary lived on, even though she did not. Many others kept diaries, but few, if any, of them were as famous as hers.
Answer: First of all the book is called The diary of Anne Frank. She grew up (until her hiding time) on a nice square (Merwedeplein), where in front of the house where she lived is put a copper plate with her name and the names of the members of her family who died in the deathcamps, and in in he middle of the square, on a big piece af grass, you can see a black statue of her, smiling while holding a suitcase. Every year many flowers are placed there. I also grew up in that neihgbourhood and in general it´s not a place for the wealthy. But I don´t think the writing af a diary is a matter of having money.
Her diaries were discovered after the war (the story goes the man was in doubt throwing them away) in the house where she was hiding, and I think every girl could have written it. The house where she hid wasn´t on the boundary of the city, it was in fact in the very centre of it (Prinsengracht, the Canal of Prinses). It´s turned into a museum and there are always long rows to get in. Short before the liberation of Holland someone felt the urge to let the nazis know her and her family´s hiding place.
Like I said, I think the book could have been written by any Jewish girl in that time, but she is the one that almost everbody knows about.
Big money is made out of her diaries.
I hope there won´t come something like Anne, the musical!
Comment: The title of the book in Dutch is ``The diary of Anne Frank``, so that´s the title that comes closest to the original Dutch title, and if the family had enough money I doubt, because at the time she went undergound most jews were stripped of their properties. And why should a girl whose parents didn´t have enough money (the people where they found sanctuary provided them with food) shouldn´t be able to write a diary? And of course she didn´t it for the money, that money making stuff all happened after she died, and I don´t think she had money in mind to be made from it in her situation.
Comment: I've seen it called both, the more accepted name is "The Diary of a Young Girl". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl The point of my question wasn't to ask if she wrote the Diary for money (She didn't), but rather to ask if her family having money lead her to live the life in hiding she had.
Answer: The story was common that they did hide in houses, but not many of them likely had as good of a hiding place as a business office.
Comment: H:SE isn't really a place for discussion and "I think".  We're looking for research and evidence, not discussions and opinions.
Comment: Ok, I see it was a type of merged discussion/answer.
Comment: Changed it to try and fix it ^^

Was Anne Frank's story common?


Automatic logout when typing password

Question: I think it may be due the graphic card driver I installed. Is there anyway I can get in through a back door to the admin so I can uninstall the driver?
Answer: well you can enter.
while your system is in booting at GRUB menu choose Restore option.Then in the next step you'll get some options and there choose drop to root shell. There you are as admin and you can do there.
But Be careful with what ever you are doing. don't touch any unless you dont know clearly.
Hope that helps.

Automatic logout when typing password


What are some alternatives to fruitlessly ringing my bell at a motorist?

Question: I doubt that motor-vehicle drivers can hear the "ding" sound that a bicycle bell makes. What are some better alternatives?
Comment: Can you describe under what conditions are you ringing your bell at motorists? The bell is mostly useful for pedestrians.
Comment: @unforgettableid, in such a circumstance, I think you would be better off with a much brighter headlight. Even a blast with an air horn might not be enough to keep a motorist from merging in front of you simply because they're not expecting an airhorn as a traffic warning device. On the other hand a sufficiently bright flashing light will get their attention even in the day time.
Comment: @Angelo: Here's the most recent example in which I wanted to communicate with a motorist. It was completely dark outside. I was on a lit four-lane arterial road in Toronto, wearing a yellow reflective vest. My headlamp was a cheap 2 x AA LED flashlight that cost $1. I'd taken the outer lane. A motorist was stopped in the inner lane at a red light. The motorist activated their turn signal. About five seconds later, they started to change lanes directly into my path. (Do you think the motorist had even seen me?) I yelled as loudly as I could, and the motorist aborted the lane-change attempt.
Comment: @heltonbiker: When I decide to go through a busy intersection on a yellow light, I sometimes loudly sing a favorite song while doing so. This keeps my hands free and might be louder.
Comment: I use to ring my bell continuously while in traffic among cars ("ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring..."), and it mostly works with a loud bell, but sometimes the traffic is too loud and something else would work best.
Comment: @heltonbiker: By the way, when you're in traffic among cars, do you normally [take the lane](http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/chapter2a.htm#narrow)? Lane control is normally the best way to make sure cars notice you: drivers are very good at seeing obstacles centered directly in front of them.
Comment: My most frequent commute is along a two-lane busy avenue. I usually take the lane when traffic is slow, keep in the "gutter" when I am slow, and ride between lanes when I am much faster than cars. Since right-turning and parking-spot-seeking drivers slow down the right lane, the constant speed changes of autos and the constant repositioning I have to make to acount make some sort of sound signaling very useful (ring bell for now in my case). I am sure most drivers can hear it, although I'd like it to be louder.
Comment: @heltonbiker:  Did you mean to write "a four-lane avenue" — a road with two lanes in each direction?
Comment: Yes, I meant two lanes to each side (no parking, and a bidirectional bus-rapid-transit corridor in the middle).
Comment: You could always give them a Bronson kick.
Comment: @Angelo: Thank you for the tip. I've been meaning for a while to order a [95-lumen multi-mode flashlight](http://dx.com/p/tank007-tk-566-3-cree-q2-wc-3-mode-95-lumen-led-flashlight-with-extension-tube-1-aa-2-aa-18626) and a bicycle mount for it. You provided the final push; I just placed my order with DealExtreme.
Comment: @Angelo: A followup: The DealExtreme flashlight is not ideal for cycling. It sometimes changes modes when I hit a bump. I'm now using a 2AA Maglite LED flashlight, which works well. I plan to replace it with a bike-specific headlamp: perhaps such a headlamp will be less spot-concentrated and have a more floody beam.
Answer: I'd go for the air-horn, for example the AirZound.
It is my opinion that screaming and yelling (the primal scream) can cause a lot of unnecessary social distress, and is not a good alterntive for traffic communication and signalling under normal conditions. It ends up being more effective when you're in "panic" as said, which is barely a day-by-day acceptable situation to be.
Air horns, on the other hand, save your throat, are MUCH louder, and have a more emotionaly neutral sound, adequate for signaling in traffic, specially heavy urban traffic.
One single thing is paramount, based in my experience with bell-rings: the activation lever must be easily, instantly accessible by your thumb when the hand is in braking position. If you have to move or reposition your hand in order to activate the horn, it will be underused and practically uneffective.
Hope this helps!
Comment: @bmike: When a motorist cuts off another motorist by making, say, a right turn not in safety, then the aggrieved motorist often honks. Do you agree that this is acceptable? And do you agree that it's acceptable for a cyclist to do the same?
Comment: Air powered horns are certainly the best way to make a racket on a bike, but you'll want to be sensitive to the situation - avoiding retaliation or use in anger. Even then, it's hard to see bikes ever making the same noise footprint as motor vehicles if a fleet of agro/militant pedalists all decided to air-horn up and let out some anger.
Comment: I guess I couldn't resist saying that some people shouldn't use horns. I should have assumed positive intent and just not commented, but hopefully we're all in agreement - sometimes you need a loud horn for safety. I actually wish operators on US roads used horns more freely to let someone know they are there - some foreign countries do this much better than we do. "toot toot" - i'm here can be very useful.
Comment: @bmike:  Sorry:  I expressed myself wrongly.  Let me try again.
Comment: @bmike: Sometimes a motorist cuts off another motorist by making, say, a right turn not in safety. After both parties have cleared the intersection, the aggrieved motorist often honks as a way of saying, "You made a mistake: don't do it next time." Do you agree that this is acceptable? And do you agree that it's acceptable for a cyclist to honk in the same situation?
Comment: Wholly agree with the recommendation. Note that over here in Germany, horns are not a legal replacement for a (required) bell. If an accident is caused by making people jump into your path, well, you have to use them carefully.
Answer: Screaming is faster and much more effective: I suspect it's usually best. Or use an electric horn or air horn.
About screaming:
The BHSI writes as follows.

We don't find that horns do much for safety on a bicycle. Your voice is faster to react and adapts better to different situations. The primal scream produces good adrenalin-based reactions in motorists and is probably your best defense in most bike/car situations. It requires no evaluation by the driver, since the panic in your voice is obvious, and it can move a car over a lane almost instantly. Curse words will not improve on that, by the way, since you will get a quicker reaction when the motorist is scared, not angry.

My usual yell is the interjection "C'mon", yelled loudly enough that I'm in pain for a couple minutes afterwards. Cars hear it fine and react quickly. (Disclaimer: I've never needed to try yelling at a driver with his stereo blasting.)
Here in Canada, drivers are relatively polite. I try not to yell at a driver unless they make a mistake, such as trying to change lanes into my path. Since I learned to ride a bike, I've yelled at dozens of drivers. No driver has ever retaliated.
Sometimes, instead of yelling, I use my voice to mimic a car horn: I loudly say, "Meep, meeeeep". Sometimes I even pinch my nose while doing so: that way, others can look around and see that it was clearly me who made the sound.
About horns:
If you cannot yell — for example, if you insist on wearing a face mask — invest in a high-decibel horn. Some accept rechargeable batteries. Air horns require you to fill and carry an air bottle. Neither type is as reliable as your voice.
Comment: @mattnz I think any bell or horn is only effective when the button or lever is reachable by the thumb in the most frequent hand position, usually the one that allows you to brake. Since I don't have front derailers in my both commuters, I have a lever bell turned upside down so that the position is the same of the thumb position of a rapid fire. I can even keep ringing the bell while braking (do it all the time).
Comment: Agreed - the last thing you do in an emergency is take a hand off the bars...... (pun intended)
Answer: I have noticed that shouting (whatever words you use) is often taken personally by the drivers. It's probably the most effective and quickest to use in an emergency as described.
I've seen several cyclists with a football whistle on a lanyard round the neck (mine is on my helmet strap) that can be held loosly between the teeth.
Comment: I'm hesitant about the "yelling" approach that seems to be getting a lot of votes. Many drivers will take this as a personal affront and as stated elsewhere, a car outweighs a bike by a LOT. While the whistle seems to be overused by those that carry them, I've not seen any bad reactions to them and drivers DO hear them.
Comment: I have a whistle velcro'd to the side of my mirror.
Comment: @KenHiatt that's exactely what I think. If there is a standard, impersonal, anonymous "traffic law" way of negotiating between vehicles (traffic signs and lights, lane paintings, horn, directional lights, etc.), then screaming in panic is, for sure, a noise rather than a signal, and a disturbance instead of useful communication. EXCEPT, of course, when drivers behave dangerously or the rider is otherwise in real danger, which should not happen often. (whistling could be maybe a form of cheating, but as you said, it's harmless, and works!)
Comment: Whistles have the added benefit of being able to signal for help in emergency situations. They are louder and easier to sustain than shouting in the event of an accident or injury. Sets of three blasts on a whistle are a fairly universal signal for "HELP".
Answer: Alternative to bells and horns is to ride more defensively.  Specifically that means anticipating what might happen and proactively reacting, or at least minimising the reaction required to avoid whatever might happen.
That means riding out from parked cars by an open door width.
Slowing down or speeding up to merge with traffic should there be a pinch point or road works.
Anticipating hazards like gravel, potholes,or obscuring water puddles and getting around/over them safely.
And directly looking at the face/head of drivers who have to give way to you but might not.  The human brain is wired to perceive eyeballs more, so look straight at someone with your whole face is more likely to break through the wall of perception.  Dark sunglasses decrease the effectiveness of this.  (I wonder if googly eyes on helmet or shirt increase this effect?)
Louder horns don't help when modern cars have loud stereos and a lot of sound isolation insulation.

Personal story - I rode an electrified MTB for a while and it was capable of 45 km/h with pedalling.  Being doored at that speed on a 30+ kilo bike would have made a mess, hence riding out from parked cars all the time.
Drivers pulling out could see a fat bloke on an old MTB approaching, but they were forever underestimating my speed.  I could cover 50 metres in 4 seconds (which is 30 seconds walking time)  So I learned quickly to be in the lane and prepared to brake.
By eyeballing directly the driver you get a clear idea of whether they have seen you or not.  Its not confrontational or threatening, its "I see you and you see me, and we each know that the other has seen us."
Comment: I agree with @Criggie. Its best to ride defensively and anticipate traffic. A horn might be useless because, as Criggie pointed out, cars cabins have noise insulinsulation and drivers won't hear it.  It will damage your hearing because you don't have any ear protection and are closer to the horn...
Comment: Moreover, when in danger I prefer to use brakes than ring.
Comment: Good points; +1. ❧ One quibble: Surely a horn as [loud](https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/21200/are-there-sirens-horns-that-are-like-a-car-horn) as a car horn would work — right?
Answer: Depending on the situation, you may be able to "flash" your front light by covering and uncovering it with your hand. I've managed to make drivers dip their headlights with this technique, but it's not that easy to do in a rush or when braking. Of course it will only work when you're facing the car.
Comment: And an aside to your aside, if you have an especially bright front light, consider covering it with your hand as you pass other bikers (last 50 - 100'). Otherwise the light will ruin their night vision and unless they have an equally bright light, they will be pedaling by braille for the next couple of minutes.
Comment: As an aside, having an especially bright front light (my best one is a Hope Vision One) seems to make drivers take me more seriously. I'm not sure if they think I'm closer than I am, or that I'm a motorbike or that they're just a bit dazzled seeing so play it cautious, but it seems to help.
Comment: @KenHiatt - Required on dark bike paths.  Probably not while on the roads as your light will be about the same brightness as car headlights.
Comment: Good suggestions, but I'm not sure about riding one-handed for however long it takes to pass the other biker. Perhaps I should make some kind of flip-down flap or filter.
Comment: You can get lights with a shaped beam which solve the problem of dazzling other riders while still giving plenty of visibility. http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?389285-REVIEW-Busch-amp-Muller-Ixon-IQ-Premium-Warning-Photo-Heavy
Comment: @JamesBradbury: Car low-beam headlights point towards the ground. [(Source.)](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/12038/explain-the-choice-of-the-verb-dip-in-dip-your-lights#29699) If your front light is bright enough that it can blind oncoming cyclists or motorists, you should point it towards the ground as well. To do otherwise is not just impolite — it's also slightly reckless. (If your light isn't that bright, I apologize and ask you to please ignore this comment.)
Comment: @unforgettableid: Yes, these days I only use a shaped beam with a cut-off well below the eyes of other traffic these days (similar to a dipped/low-beam car headlight). I only use the floodlight when there is no oncoming traffic.
Answer: After a few years of riding in the streets, I have found that cars will do stupid things no matter how obvious you are to them. Have you ever seen a car pull out in front of a semi? I have, those things are BIG!! For the most part, you might be able to get someone's attention after a few attempts at whatever you decide to use, sounds or lights, but in the end, you should know that it is YOUR ability to avoid the other car that will save your life and not your ability to get the driver's attention. If you try unsuccessfully to get their attention, do NOT just go in front of them and say, dang, I tried...
I spent a few years in San Francisco as a street rider, before the X-Games we rode BMX in the streets, jumping curbs and such. We just have to assume that cars WILL NOT SEE YOU! We learned to ride in a way that the cars could not hit you even in they were trying. There are some riders that are jerks and cut cars off, but those are the few (same percent of road bikes I am guessing). I even ride a big cruiser motorcycle with extra loud pipes and over bright headlight and still have people cut in front of me, it will happen no matter what you do.
The most important thing is to stay safe. Try and get their attention, but if you can't don't insist on the right of way, figure other ways around the situation.
Comment: You make many good points. But one — that motorists "will not see you" — is misleading. It may be true for trick riders. But as for me, for years, I've [taken the lane](http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/chapter2a.htm#narrow) while commuting. Many times, perhaps tens of thousands of times, a motorist has caught up to me from behind. Not one has ever failed to see that I was ahead of them in the middle of the lane. Some have honked in frustration. But never once has one hit me from behind. Moral: If you take the lane, motorists will normally see you.
Comment: Please edit your answer so that it does not imply, in general, that motorists "will not see you". Because, as my previous comment shows, if you take the lane, they _will_ see you. If you remove that implication, then ping me. I may then vote your answer up, since it contains many other good points.
Comment: Thanks for helping me making my answer more precise. I wish "taking the lane" in "normal" situations was ALWAYS safe. My brother on a MTB was run over while in a left hand turn lane waiting for the light after "taking the lane". The driver leaned out and asked him directions to some location, while my brother was pinned under his bike still under the car's tire. It was an older man, seemed nice, so I hope it wasn't road rage. I've never been hit, but my brother, following all the rules, did. I can't lead readers to think that doing tricks is the problem. I hope my edit is still acceptable.
Comment: I hope that you see I am trying to help, bicycle safety is important! I ride with 2 rules: 1) Assume cars can't see you; 2) Assume the few that can will try to hit you. I have had a car turn around and come at me, and ran off the road to try and hit me on purpose! I was NOT doing tricks at the time, he was just mad that I was on the road and made him slow down. (there was no shoulder). In MOST situations, you should be OK taking the lane, this only happened once in my 25 years of riding, but that incident, with my brother getting run over, makes me want to warn people that things CAN happen.
Answer: I've always just used my voice as a warning to pedestrians about to step in front of me, and a few instances over the years to a driver or two who wasn't paying attention to their driving. I just use a loud/sustained a "Hoooooooo", repeated as necessary, ( like Santa's Ho, Ho, Ho ), to get someones attention. It can be loud enough to attract attention and doesn't sound confrontational to pedestrians like a loud "Hey" might, and can be louder for a driver with the windows rolled up. It's quick and keeps both hands on the bars in case an avoidence move is needed. Never had problems using this method, plus there's no weight added to the bike and no maintenance ( batteries/air ) involved. Additionally, always be polite and when overtaking pedestrians on a walking path, give them a "On your left, or on your right" as needed before you pass them from behind. If bikers want respect, we must also give it!
Answer: I think the Loud Bicycle horn is potentially a fantastic answer to this problem. It's as loud as an air-horn, but has the characteristic dual-pitch that makes a car horn instantly recognizable. Nothing triggers a motorist's reflexive braking like the sound of a car horn pointing in their direction.
There are lots of awesome features:

(reasonably) light weight at 23oz
non-removable
weather-proof
runs via a rechargeable battery which holds a charge for one to two months
can be honked for 30 consecutive seconds on a charge.

Disclaimer: I am not associated with the product beyond having backed the Kickstarter, and thinking that it's a great product.
Comment: There are [various devices](https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/21200/are-there-sirens-horns-that-are-like-a-car-horn) on the market which can make a car-horn sound or other loud sound. ❧ Note that Arne [adds:](https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/21200/are-there-sirens-horns-that-are-like-a-car-horn#21205)  "The downside of having a car horn, instead of another noise-making device, is that nobody will identify a cyclist with the horn sound.  I think the AirZound which Cole mentioned is a better approach, because it actually sounds _less_ like a car horn."
Answer: The only case I really needed to communicate my anger was some bold type consistently parking on a dedicated bicycle lane, forcing me to move into car traffic at that place every lovely morning.
I stopped carefully, took out my mobile phone and made a good photo of the vehicle emphasizing the number plate, him watching this in silence. Then I pushed the bicycle over the street around the parked car and rode away without saying a single word.
This stayed my personal photo. I thought to report to police but next day I did not find the car on my way. There was no car on the day after as well. I decided there is no need to report to police. The bicycle lane is free in the mornings now.


Why is dialogue a hard problem in natural language processing?

Question: I've just started learning natural language processing from Dan Jurafsky's videos lectures. In that video, minute 4:56, he is stating that dialogue is a hard problem in natural language processing (NLP). Why?
Answer: Dialogue is a hard problem because it requires pretty advanced cognitive functions. Leaving aside all the lower levels of language analysis (phonology if dealing with speech, morphology and syntax), you quickly run into interpretation problems that require a lot of world knowledge.
Simple question and answer is fine, and restricted domains are somewhat easier as well. As soon as you get into a normal conversation, you will refer back to things you said before, so an NLP system would have to recognise that and resolve the reference accordingly. Typically in a conversation you would use variations of reference terms: the first time you mention an object you might describe it fully, but subsequently you will use shorter terms to refer to it.
There is also a structure to conversation. This is typically modelled as conversational moves, and usually moves will have corresponding response-moves. For example, a common sequence would be greeting - greeting. Then you might have question - response - feedback. This sounds fairly easy, but once you try to annotate a dialogue with such moves you will find that it is pretty hard. As far as I am aware, there is no 'grammar' equivalent of describing the structure of conversations.
Often, pragmatic meaning is interfering with the 'surface' meaning of utterances. A statement can actually function as a question, or a question can be a command (or a statement). The pragmatics of utterances depend on the context and also the relationship between the interlocutors. If I talk to my manager, I will use language differently than when I talk to my children.
Dialogue/conversations are hard to analyse. Because of that, descriptive frameworks are still fairly limited. You need to keep track of what has said before, as that can change the way an utterance has to be interpreted. Grammatical analysis is a fairly solved problem, and word sense disambiguation as well. But pragmatics and conversational structure are still on the bleeding edge of linguistic research; at least they were when I was still teaching Discourse Analysis at university a few years ago.
For that reason, chatbots are generally not very good. Sometimes they can fool people into believing they are human speakers, but this is usually done through trickery ("smoke and mirrors") rather than competent handling of conversational structures. It's all in the little box in nbro's answer labelled "DM"...
Answer: First of all, I am not very familiar with details of NLP and NLU systems and concepts, so I will provide an answer based on the slides entitled Natural language understanding in dialogue systems (2013) by David DeVaul, a researcher on the topic.
A dialogue system is composed of different parts or modules. Here's a diagram of an example of a dialogue system.

Each of these modules can introduce errors, which are then propagated to the rest of the pipeline. Of course, this is the first clear issue of such a dialogue system. Other issues or challenges include

ambiguity of natural language (and there are different types of ambiguity, i.e. see slide number 5),
synonyms (i.e. the dialogue system needs to handle different words or expressions that mean the same thing),
context-sensitivity (i.e. the same words or expressions can mean different things in different contexts)
semantic representation (i.e. how to represent semantics)
spontaneous speech (i.e. how to handle stuff like "hm", pauses, etc.)


6th generation iPod Nano video out

Question: Is the 6th/7th generation iPod Nano capable of sending video out through the 32 pin connector into a suitable digital dock?
If so, could the camera adapter kit be used as it can for the iPad to stream digital video out to a DAC?
Answer: 6th and 7th gen iPod nanos aren't capable of playing videos to the screen, so I highly doubt they'll output any video to the dock.
(They're probably entirely missing the video decoding hardware needed to do either.)

6th generation iPod Nano video out


What enemies can Thoughtlock turn or not turn into allies?

Question: Simply put, what enemies in game can Maya Thoughtlock?  I know she can't thoughtlock bosses, but are Constructors included in that category?
Answer: Thoughtlock works on anything that can be "held" with Phaselock (anything that doesn't take direct damage instead of being levitated). So most bosses, large enemies like Drifters and Constructors, Buzzards and others. If you can't Toughtlock a target it will take damage from the Phaselock instead just like from a normal Phaselock. It can however affect the majority of Badass/Super Badass enemies just like Phaselock, making them very good targets.
One thing I'm unsure of is whether Sub-sequence will target "unholdable" targets which seeking a next phaselock target. In my experience it won't, but it's hard to tell since non-phaselockable targets are uncommon.
Answer: I think all enemies that used to be grappled by the old phaselock are affected, that excludes constructors. one nice trick: thoughlocking surveyvorbots makes em heal you.


Name on domestic flight ticket in India

Question: I booked an Indian domestic flight with my wife. I entered her first name as "Lakshmi" but her identification card says "Chaitanyalakshmi". Will this difference cause any problems?
Comment: I don't know about India, but in Europe and the US they will _not_ let her fly if the ID does not match the booking. I recommend you call the airline and explain it and get it corrected. They normally accept that if it is still time to the flight - they will probably _not- accept it the last days.
Answer: I faced this issue a couple of years ago on an IndiGo flight within India. My last name did not completely appear on the ticket because technically there was a space in my last name and the booking server did not allow that. I explained the situation at the time of check in and there was no issue.
However, the problem is actually being able to enter the airport as there is a verification at the entrance where they match the names on the ID card and the ticket. They are authorized to deny entry if they find this suspicious.
The best method is to call the airlines and get it corrected. It should not cost you any money.
Answer: As far as my experience goes with domestic flights (Indigo, SpiceJet, AirAsia). I haven't faced any issue neither while entering into airport or while taking boarding pass. My wife has her surname (before marriage) in her passport while I always enter surname (after marriage).
so, I don't think that could be problem specially when you have got enough time to explain your issue in case you have been asked.
Comment: @pnuts I have just got response from my friend and he said that they usually ignore cases which seems to be legit, they aren't that strict for domestic flight but this is a serious concern for international one. I recommend you to keep copy of necessary documents along with you in case need them). **Though, I got a affirmative response claiming the generosity of security towards authentic cases but that's is still not recommended and airlines/airport authority holds all rights to refrain you from travelling.**
Comment: @pnuts I keep you informed that I have sent to this query to my friend who handle International/domestic airport security and immigration check in India. I will let you know his response as soon as I get it. I can't say that it would be authentic (because legally you can not travel with incomplete name or incorrect name) but his response can give you assurance about worst case which may happen and how usually they handle it.
Comment: @pnuts Her first name is same but her surname use to be different from passport. Though, at airport they keep surname first but still no one had have complained about it yet (I had done around 8 domestic air travel with my wife in past 2 years). But as a saftey measure I keep my marriage certificate along with me.
Comment: The one I use to book tickets online. Lets say her name before marriage was " PQR, ABC" (the same is written on her passport, assume that ABC is her name and PQR is her old surname ), so when I am booking tickets online I use "Tripathi, ABC". Now, Even though surname appears in front I had have never been asked about the name.
Comment: @Pnuts Yes you are absolutely correct. Passport is still in her maiden name while I use her married name, always. Usually, I carry both passport with me and handle to officer whenever asked. No one has asked me anything about surname issue. I think, it is not show stopper for domestic airlines and even if that catch their eyes you can justify yourself. (I don't want to scare you but I personally found that staff of "Air India" is quite rigid in terms of policies but I have never seen or faced any issue with SpiceJet, Indigo or AirAsia).

Name on domestic flight ticket in India


How to place multiple blocks in one column in bootstrap theme

Question: I am using bootstrap theme. I have 4 blocks: block1, block2, block3, block4. Bootstrap has 12 columns grid. I would like to place block 1 in first 7 columns(using bootstrap class "col-md-7"). I would like to place block 2,3,and 4 to the right of the block 1. Can you please advise how to achieve it?
Comment: Please mention the Drupal version, this would help other members to provider better answer.
Comment: Drupal Version: 7.
Answer: This approach might suit your case.
Create 2 new regions in your template info file and render them in your page.tpl.php

If you are using a bootstrap subtheme, this file will be located in
  siites/all/themes/bootstrap/templates/system so you will have to copy
  it and put in your templates folder under you subtheme folder.
  Remember to clear the Theme Registry cache after this.

So I would do this like below
info file
regions[main_block] = 'Main Block Region'
regions[side_block] = 'Side Block Region'

page.tpl.php file

    <?php print render($page['main_block']); ?>

    <?php print render($page['side_block']); ?>

After go to the blocks admin interface and select the blocks to show on the correct region. Also for the Side Blocks render all three blocks you need in the Side Block Region and use the correct weights to sort them as you like.
Answer: You need to override/create tpl files depends on your situation. After that use the Bootstarp class you need to use.
See bootstrap_subtheme/templates/README.txt.
You should put those files in yourtheme/templates/ (no sub-folder) and a quick cache clear after that.


Volatility indicator

Question: Is there an indicator for the volatility of a stock?
When I say indicator I mean like P/E ration, book value etc.
If yes, where can I find it? I follow yahoo finance by the way.
Comment: are you looking for one that is pre-packaged or one that you can calculate yourself? What level of granularity do you need? Is this for intraday trading or to invest over the medium to long term?
Comment: I would like it pre-packaged. I would also like to know how to calculate it. I would like to know the volatility of the stock let's say the last 5 years so I can swing trade
Comment: prepackaged is off topic for the site but I can give you a hint in the answer to the second question. By granularity I meant whether you need the volatility on a tick, end of day or end of week basis. If you are swing trading you probably need tick data which is a pain. Have a look at RiskGrade (TM) volatility. I don't work for them and it isn't a recommendation as I'm not sure about their methodology.
Answer: Beta is the measure of volatility and typically available on most stock and often mutual funds information pages.
For a full explanation of Beta
The chart for FB on yahoo finance:
Comment: no -1 but beta isn't very useful when trading between markets as it is a reflection of the volatility against the stock's market.
Comment: If you had said "a measure", it would have been a closer call, but "Beta is **the** measure of volatility" gets a definitw -1 from me.
Answer: To calculate it yourself you need to calculate the standard deviation (or variance but that is just the standard deviation squared) of the returns. Unfortunately the returns on stocks are distributed log-normally rather than normally but that isn't a problem as you can simply calculate it by log(p_t)-log(p_t-1) where p_t is the price for the current period and p_t-1 is the price for the previous period. This is simple to do in excel with a small catch; since you probably need intraday volatility for swing trading since you won't be holding the position over a significant time period you will need tick level data to calculate this and there can be billions of ticks a day for liquid stocks in a lively market. I have been writing an R script that does this, amongst other things, and calculates the Value at Risk (VaR) of the position which is a related measure at a set quantile of the distribution. R copes more than admirably with these calculations, other programming languages are likely to be about as good.
If you look at different methods of calculating and estimating VaR you'll get a good idea of how professionals quantify risk. Also see the Quant stack exchange.
If you're looking for something prepackaged have a look as RiskGrade volatility which is calculated similarly but which may be expensive and not available for all stocks or markets.
Note that beta mentioned in another answer is not ideal if you are trading between markets as it only takes into account the volatility compared to the market so doesn't include things like systemic risks which are removed by the expected market rate of return (read about CAPM for more details).
Answer: There are two:

Implied Volatility - the volatility in the underlying market implied by the price of options; and
Historical Volatility - the volatility of the underlying security based on its recent history.

Implied Volatility is shown on the Yahoo Options Screen for each option:

Historical Volatility can be calculated, but will depend on your calculation methodology.  Some brokers provide historical volatility information in their trading platforms.
Comment: Could use a discussion of beta and more explanation of implied and historical volatility, but +1

Volatility indicator


Is there a canonical reference for business cards?

Question: I'm getting fairly close to graduation and thinking that I might make some business cards for when I go to internship fairs and the like. Is there a canonical reference for their design and content?
Comment: Good question, but I think it could have a better title, specifying that you're looking for design/content standards.  I originall thought it was about a global listing of people's business cards ...
Answer: Modern business cards really have no formal canon anymore - I've seen a range from simple and tasteful to multicolor polka dot with pastel text that made my eyes bleed.
What you'll probably be creating are personal / contact cards (referring to you as a person/applicant) so there won't be any company/title information on them, but the "rules" are pretty much the same.
Wikipedia has an article on some business card conventions, but it's rather sparse.
Scobleizer also has some tips which I generally agree with.

Some things I personally look for in a business card:
Clean layout
Tell me the company, the person (and their title/qualifications), and relevant contact info (email, phone, fax, web, postal address).
As a general rule don't put your cell phone number on your card - you can always write it in later.
The back of your card should be blank. If you absolutely must put something on the back of the card put it in a corner or make it unobtrusive enough that I can still write notes on the card.

Legibility
Use a font I can read if I'm sitting at my desk, without having to pick up the card.
Use colors that are easy to read (Black or a dark color on white or a very light color).
If your card has graphics, make sure they don't interfere with legibility!

Size
Standard business card size, please, or else I don't want it.
(You'd be surprised how many people's cards are bigger/smaller than standard. It doesn't make you stand out, it makes me hate you and your odd card!)

Composition
Good heavy cardstock. White. UNLAMINATED, ESPECIALLY ON THE BACK for the love of kittens please don't hand me a shiny glossy card that I can't write notes on!
If you absolutely must have a laminated card, laminate the front ONLY.
If I can't jot notes on the back of the card I will hate you.
If you can't jot down your cell number on the back of the card for that special recruiter to call you you'll hate yourself.

I happen to have two cards from UL on my desk which are pretty nice in my opinion (though one of them commits the unforgivable sin of having a graphic back that you can't write on - it's dark red).
I've also included a redacted version of my personal contact card which I hand out when I'm not acting in connection with my employer.  It's a bare-minimum card designed for me to write additional information on, and I have the printing done by a shop on heavy (100#) business card stock
Answer: Keep in mind that some people will scan the cards into a database. The simpler the construct the better. Strange colors and graphics frustrate the OCR software.
If you only have cell phone, put it on the card. Don't put contact info that will be useless after graduation. So no college email address, or college phone number.
Comment: Good point about cases where your cell is your only phone.  The advice in my answer about not including your cell phone number is more about not putting your *personal* cell number on a business card your employer gives you to be handed to clients (otherwise your cell will ring at all hours and you'll have no semblance of a work-life balance)
Comment: Better yet, get a google voice number and keep it for life!
Answer: I think you want to be relatively conservative in the design of your personal cards for most professions. The exception is for people who will be working in the arts. My cards for my day job are very vanilla, the cards I give to gallery owners are a mini-portfolio of my art (see moo.com, if you want to do this) and that way they can pick one they really like to remember me by and I always have a portfolio with me that fits easily in my purse.
And proofread, prooofread, proofread. They can't call you if the phone number is wrong.
Comment: +1 for tailoring your card to the audience - especially if you have distinct/diverse audiences. Bear in mind what @mhoran_psprep said about OCR though - It's not as big a concern if you're handing your creative stand-out card to a gallery owner, but if you give it to the head recruiter at IBM and it doesn't scan I doubt they're going to hand-enter it to call you :-)
Comment: The phone number is wrong in my current company business card (it happens ;). We never bothered to replace them, because I don't usually interact with clients and when I do it's via email. The mistake is very easy to spot (some extra digits) and it's always funny when someone first notices.
Answer: Resist the eye candy offered by the on-line sites. Some of their templates are beautiful, but the purpose of a business card is, business. A plain white card, on heavy stock, with black printing makes a clean impression and gets across all the information you need.
Put on your card the contact information you want to share. Nobody keeps cards these days, if the card doesn't have a QR code; the card is usually scanned. Once your email address and cell phone number are in someone's database, you can expect it to be in everyone's. I once fired an operator for selling email addresses and phone numbers out of my database. It happens all the time, everywhere.
Ten years ago I expected a plain back where I could scribble notes. Today I put my notes on my phone. I expect a QR code on the back, with an eCard that I can scan and then add notes.


Why is thymine rather than uracil used in DNA?

Question: What is the advantage gained by the substitution of thymine for uracil in DNA?  I have read previously that it is due to thymine being "better protected" and therefore more suited to the storage role of DNA, which seems fine in theory, but why does the addition of a simple methyl group make the base more well protected?
Comment: I have now posted the original question, ["Why is uracil, rather than thymine, used in RNA?"](http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/57990/why-is-uracil-rather-than-thymine-used-in-rna) separately, as promised.
Answer: One major problem with using uracil as a base is that cytosine can be deaminated, which converts it into uracil. This is not a rare reaction; it happens around 100 times per cell, per day. This is no major problem when using thymine, as the cell can easily recognize that the uracil doesn't belong there and can repair it by substituting it by a cytosine again.

There is an enzyme, uracil DNA glycosylase, that does exactly that; it excises uracil bases from double-stranded DNA. It can safely do that as uracil is not supposed to be present in the DNA and has to be the result of a base modification.
Now, if we would use uracil in DNA it would not be so easy to decide how to repair that error. It would prevent the usage of this important repair pathway.
The inability to repair such damage doesn't matter for RNA as the mRNA is comparatively short-lived and any potential errors don't lead to any lasting damage. It matters a lot for DNA as the errors are continued through every replication. Now, this explains why there is an advantage to using thymine in DNA, it doesn't explain why RNA uses uracil. I'd guess it just evolved that way and there was no significant drawback that could be selected against, but there might be a better reason (more difficult biosynthesis of thymine, maybe?).
You'll find a bit more information on that in "Molecular Biology of the Cell" from Bruce Alberts et al. in the chapter about DNA repair (from page 267 on in the 4th edition).
Comment: @fredsbend the 2'OH of the ribose and the methyl group of thymine are pretty far away from each other, there is no obvious way they would affect each other.
Comment: I always just assumed that ribose better attached to uracil and deoxyribose better attached to thymine. As far as you know, this is not necessarily true?
Comment: @user338907 either I don't understand how evolution works, or that paper doesn't (assuming you paraphrased it accurately). As far as I know evolution doesn't need to "see" any future possibility, it simple rolls the dice and whatever works get passed on.
Comment: I think it's justified and relevant, I'm just surprised to see that claim from professionals. I'm a layperson when it comes to biology so I'm sure they know better than I do. I would have though the U-T mutations could have occured, perhaps been useless and benign but persisting to some offspring, and then later the offspring developed the advantageous UNG enzyme and both mutations then propagated through the population. I suppose I don't see how some future knowledge of the advantageous result is required.
Answer: The existence of thymine in DNA instead of uracil is apparently due to evolution process which made DNA more stable.
Thymine has greater resistance to photochemical mutation, making the genetic message more stable. A rough explanation of why thymine is more protected then uracil, can be found in the article

Arthur M, L., Why does DNA contain thymine and RNA uracil? Journal of Theoretical Biology, 1969. 22(3): p. 537-540.

which gives three major reasons for it to happen:

"Excitation  energy  in  DNA  is  mobile,  and  is  eventually  transferred  to
thymine  residues,  which  are  the  sites  of  radiation  damage."
"Uracil but not thymine forms a stable photohydration product. The dimerization of thymine can be partially photoreversed by irradiation at relatively longer wavelengths, while this process is less effective for uracil dimers because of the competing photohydration reaction"
"Photochemical  mutation  is,  or  at  least  was  at  one  time,  a  serious
problem,  since  there  exists  a  series  of  enzymes  to  repair  radiation  damage.  Therefore  resistance  to  radiation  damage  was  an  important selective  advantage."
Answer: Thymine has a greater resistance to photochemical mutation, making the genetic message more stable. This offers a rough explanation of why thymine is more protected then uracil.
However, the real question is: Why does thymine replace uracil in DNA? The important thing to notice is that while uracil exists as both uridine (U) and deoxy-uridine (dU), thymine only exists as deoxy-thymidine (dT). So the question becomes: Why do cells go to the trouble of methylating uracil to thymine before it can be used in DNA? and the easy answer is: methylation protects the DNA.
Besides using dT instead of dU, most organisms also use various enzymes to modify DNA after it has been synthesized. Two such enzymes, dam and dcm methylate adenines and cytosines, respectively, along the entire DNA strand. This methylation makes the DNA unrecognizable to many nucleases (enzymes which break down DNA and RNA), so that it cannot be easily attacked by invaders, like viruses or certain bacteria. Obviously, methylating the nucleotides before they are incorporated ensures that the entire strand of DNA is protected.
Thymine also protects the DNA in another way. If you look at the components of nucleic acids, phosphates, sugars, and bases, you see that they are all very hydrophilic (water soluble). Obviously, adding a hydrophobic (water insoluble) methyl group to part of the DNA is going to change the characteristics of the molecule. The major effect is that the methyl group will be repelled by the rest of the DNA, moving it to a fixed position in the major groove of the helix. This solves an important problem with uracil - though it prefers adenine, uracil can base-pair with almost any other base, including itself, depending on how it situates itself in the helix. By tacking it down to a single conformation, the methyl group restricts uracil (thymine) to pairing only with adenine. This greatly improves the efficiency of DNA replication, by reducing the rate of mismatches, and thus mutations.


How could Hiramekarei defeat Samehada?

Question: Refer to episode 31, boruto.
Hiramekarei stores chakra and then release it in shapes.
Why then, Samehada don't just absorb all that chakra? How could it defeat Samehada at all?
Comment: Have the 7 swords been ranked based on the power ever? I thought it always would depend on the wielder
Comment: Which episode or chapter does this question comes from?
Comment: @絢瀬絵里 Boruto ep 31
Answer: There is no "specific power ranking" for the seven legendary swords, and as stated in the comments, a weapon is only as powerful as its wielder. Choujiro proved this when he defeated one of "new generation -seven legendary swordsmen" with a normal sword.
Apart from the fact that it was Shizumas first time attempting to use Samehada, it is important to note that

Samhehada is the only living weapon among the seven legendary swords, and as such, it has its own consciousness and personality. Therefore its actions can affect the tide of battle. Samehada was already absorbing all their chakra using the "bloody mist absorption technique" but that only made it want more chakra.

Samehada is actually a greedy Glutton, that loves chakra more than anything else, and it takes a large amount of will power and experience to tame it. Unfortunately for Shizuma, he could not control Samehada and so it took over his body and started going on a rampage. At that point, Shizuma was not thinking straight and he was also at a disadvantage going against two "Jonin level" kids.
The loss was not because Hiramekarei is stronger or weaker but merely due to the circumstances in which the battle took place.
Answer: It all depends on the wielder. A true strength of any weapon always does.
If Boruto and Kagura had fought Kisame instead of Shizuma, they would have definitely lost.
Kisame brought out the true power of the sword that is why any chakra based attacks was useless on him and Gai needed to open the seventh gate to defeat him.
Shizuma had just got the sword and could hardly bring out it's true power.On the other hand Kagura had a better understanding because he had been training with the sword for a while now. So he brought a little bit of it's true power. Which is the reason why Shizuma lost.
The winner hear was not Hiramekarei it was Kagura and Boruto
Answer: Who says Hiramekarei has to defeat Samehada?
The question is similar to asking how can Fire defeat Water? It cannot (under normal circumstances). Fire has an advantage against other elements which are in turn stronger than water. Similarly, Hiramekarei could be stronger than other swords, which in turn could be stronger than Samehada.

How could Hiramekarei defeat Samehada?


If Yhwach has absorbed all of soul kings powers, does it mean that he absorbs Mimihagi and Ukitake as well?

Question: Since Ukitake becomes the right hand of the soul king and fuses himself with Mimihagi, will Ukitake's soul be affected after Yhwach absorbs the soul king?
Answer: The specifics of what happened are not clear, but what is clear is simple.
Warning heavy spoilers ahead, because the anime has stopped before the latest arc Thousand Year Blood War.
SPOILERS

In chapter 620, Yhwatch proclaims he will take everything that was the soul kings, including the right arm. IN chapter 621, we witness Mimihagi, the soul kings right arm, separate from Ukitake and he is left unconscious on the ground. Therefore, though it is speculation, it is probably a safe assumption that the Mimihagi was absorbed, while Ukitake was left alone and not absorbed. A Shinigami's Body is their soul, and even though Ukitake combined with it, it still separated from him fairly easily. We also know one more thing, A few chapters earlier, shortly before Mimihagi stabilized the soul king, Ukitake stated he should have died when he was 3, were it not for Mimihagi inhabiting his body, and halting the lung disease he suffered. With it gone, he is no doubt completely incapacitated, and probably not far from death unless one of the scientists of the Gotei can heal him, if not dead already.

And now, As of the end of the manga, Ukitake's fate was revealed:

 After separating from the right hand of the soul king and being left unconscious, he died. As shown in the 2nd to last chapter in the manga, 685, Shunshi was visiting his grave.
Answer: Yhwach has only absorbed that part of the soul which was in the crystal . when you read bleach 612 manga , you see that in the crystal the soul king doesnt really have his left or right hand . so we could say since the soul king doesnt have either of the hands to begin with it is not possible that he absorbed ukitake and mimihagi.
Comment: He did absorb Mimihage separately however, but ukitake's body (which technically is his soul) was left in soul society in a pretty bad state having been seperated from the thing that was keeping his life stable.
Answer: I do not think Ukitake's soul will be affected by Yhwach.
As we have seen that Soul King's right hand absorbs the soul of Ukitake completely and that is the end to Ukitake.
Yhwach absorbing the soul king is complately different and has nothing to do with Ukitake's soul
Comment: Perhaps you'd like to cite some sources to back up your answer, as it seems it is more opinion than based on anything.


How does Buddhism explain consciousness if there is no self?

Question: One major differing point between Hinduism and Buddhism is the understanding of the self. Buddhist reject the Brahminical notion of an eternal, non-material soul substance that is distinct from the mind, body and sense organs. How then, is consciousness explained? Acts of cognition must occur from a cogniser, a subject that knows, because consciousness does not belong to the body or the mind. Could it not be therefore inferred that this cogniser exists as the self - a non-material soul? How can Buddhism explain  consciousness?
Comment: Welcome to the site. I hope you find it helpful.
Answer: Acts of cognition do not require a "cogniser, a subject" that knows (apart from the mind itself), because consciousness belongs to the body & mind.
The original question contains an implicit assumption that is invalid.
Cognition results from consciousness; just as a mirror reflects without a self.
Buddhism explains there are five aggregates (khandha) that compose a human life. SN 22.81 explains the idea of 'self' is ignorantly created by the 'sankhara khandha' (mental forming aggregate) and not the 'vinnana khandha' ('consciousness aggregate'). SN 22.59 clearly states each aggregate is 'not-self'. The sankhara created 'self' is a temporary product of ignorance (SN 22.81) & suffering (SN 5.10).
Despite ideas contained in later-day Buddhism about 'relinking' or 'stream of consciousness', the Pali suttas report the Buddha taught there can be no arising of consciousness without sense organs (MN 38), without other aggregates (SN 22.53) and without a mind-body (SN 12.67).
Also, the suttas do not explain a 'cause' ('hetu') of consciousness, i.e., the parts or sub-elements that create consciousness (similar to how water, clay & pain are the parts used to make a cup or how ignorance, craving & attachment mix together to create suffering). The suttas only state consciousness has a requisite 'condition' ('paccaya'), which is the mind-body ('nama-rupa') & sense bases ('salayatana').
Answer: Remember the Buddha refuses to answer "Is there a self?" and "Is there no self?". He frequently points out things which are not self which is in line with his teaching "sabbe sankhara annata" (All compounded things are not-self).
What you experience as consciousness is not-self because you cannot control it which is explained in the annata-lankana sutta

Bhikkhus, consciousness is not self. Were consciousness self, then this consciousness would not lead to affliction, and one could have it of consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus.' And since consciousness is not-self, so it leads to affliction, and none can have it of consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus

Consciousness is also impermanent. You can theorize all you want about whether consciousness is a self but if you attach to the way your consciousness is then you will suffer. When you go to sleep your consciousness stops, that is a sign of impermanence. When you drink a lot of alcohol you can fade in an out of consciousness, your consciousness is hazy, if you were attached to your consciousness being a specific way then when you drink you'll suffer.
Answer: In Buddhism, a being is subdivided into five aggregates.
Rupa(Body/Form)
<code>1. Rupa - Materiality(earth element, water element, fire element, air element etc.)
</code>
Nama(Mind)
<code> 2. Vedana  - Feeling(pleasant, unpleasant, neutral)
 3. Sanna - Perception(of form, of sound, of smell etc.)
 4. Sankhara - Mental Formation(greed, anger, delusion, love, kindness etc.)
 5. Vinnana - Consciousness(eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness etc.)
</code>
'Consciousness' here means the bare awareness. Awareness is a caused phenomenon just like the rest of the five aggregates. It is not under your domain.
ex: when you open your eyes, you cannot prevent from being aware of form. If you close your eyes or if there's no light, you cannot make eye-consciousness to arise. If you can control awareness you should be able to be aware of only pleasant sights, sounds, smells, tastes etc. But you can't.

"Acts of cognition must occur from a cogniser"

Not! That is an assumption one makes due to paying unwise attention(Ayoniso Manasikhara) to experiences. When congnising happens, it should be noted in the most unadulterated form. It is simply 'cognising'.
"I am cognizing" is a fabrication or a perverted thought. It does not reflect reality.
According to Buddhism there are 4 such false views of 'self'.

Owner
Dweller
Doer
Experiencer

'Consciousness' is merely a momentary mental phenomenon that arises due to causes and performs the task of being aware. Nothing more, nothing less!
Answer: One way to view consciousness is e.g. as described in this Wikipedia article: Vijñāna.
My paraphrase is there are three things for each of the six senses:

An internal sense-organ (e.g. "ear")
External sense-objects (e.g. a "sound")
Corresponding sense-consciousness

There's something translated as "contact", if and when all three touch (e.g. if an "ear" and a "sound" contact each other, together with "auditory consciousness").
I suppose you can theorize that any of these three might (or might not) exist independently of such contact: e.g. maybe a sound-object exists even where there isn't an ear, or an ear without a sound, or ear-and-sound without consciousness, or consciousness without ear-and/or-sound, etc.
Anyway there's "contact" when all three coincide. Contact is something with arises-and-dissolves.
I say "six senses" because I think that "idea and mind" are viewed as a sixth "sense": i.e. the mind perceives an idea (or series of ideas), in a similar way to the eye perceiving a sight (or series of sights).
So, given those definitions ... is such consciousness (i.e. sense-consciousness) "me", is it worth viewing it as self or as a non-material "soul"? Would you say for example, "there's a sight, and there's an eye seeing it, there's contact/consciousness of seeing it, the object being seen has the form and name of (i.e. it is, and it is called) "a tree" for example, or "a car", or whatever the external object is?
Is such consciousness "eternal", in your opinion? And would viewing consciousness as "self" lead to liberation and/or realization?
Buddhism argues that views of self (i.e. seeing anything as "me") leads to a "thicket of views" and other problems -- for example, quoting from the Alagaddupama Sutta

"You may well accept, monks, the assumption of a self-theory[27] from the acceptance of which there would not arise sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief, and despair. (But) do you see, monks, any such assumption of a self-theory?" — "No, Lord." — "Well, monks, I, too, do not see any such assumption of a self-theory from the acceptance of which there would not arise sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair."

My paraphrase of that is, "You're welcome to have a view about the self from which sorrow doesn't arise ... but do you see any such view? Because your answer is 'no', because you don't see such a view (i.e. a view of self from which sorrow doesn't arise) then don't assume such views (don't assume views of self from which sorrows do arise).
Answer: In the teaching of the Buddha consciousness and mind aren't strictly distingushed, mind (mano) is subsumed under consciousness (vinnana) which constitutes one of 5 aggregates (khandhas, processes which comprise the entire human experience)
An act of cognition is performed by consciousness being conditioned by contact (phassa) of the 5 senses with the phenomena or of the mind with ideas. There's no necessity in existence of a permanent independent entity for the act of cognition.
Answer: This is how consciousness happens in Buddha's teachings.
Seeing

There is object to see
Eye

When Eye and object meet, consciousness of seeing happens. This moment is very short and consciousness of seeing is stop being exist and replace by memorize. After memorization is done, judging happens whether the object seen is good or not. After judging, deciding happens whether the seer likes the object seen or dislikes.
From this sequence, the moment of consciousness of seeing is very short not even last for a second. If you are looking for notion of an eternal, non-material soul substance that is distinct from the mind, body and sense organs in that sequence, you will find none because it does not even exist. For example, there are few people who is blind at birth. The consciousness of seeing will never happen for him/her.
The sequence of mind for Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, Touching, Thinking follows the same way as Seeing does. In Buddhist literature this is called Law of sequence of mind and it is constant and not mutable by any means. You cannot find "self-ness" in this sequences what you everyday have. Collectively, you can say "I see", "You see", "He/she see", but upon disintegration to details level, you cannot find the idea of "self" called Atta which is your own, controllable by you or which is own by the creator, controllable by creator. Because of this pure sequence of mind, you cannot find the sense of cogniser in anywhere.
Answer: Consider this.
Without thinking or thoughts, there is no thinker.
Without experiencing or experiences, there is no experiencer.
Without an object, there is no subject.
These things are like 2 sides of a coin. The subject/consciousness cannot stand alone. "Who hears/sees?" is not a valid question based on a wrong assumption. A valid question would be "How does hearing/seeing occur?". All processes without an inner core.
Quote:
in many ways I have said of dependently co-arisen consciousness, 'Apart from a requisite condition, there is no coming-into-play of consciousness.'
"Consciousness, monks, is classified simply by the requisite condition in dependence on which it arises. Consciousness that arises in dependence on the eye & forms is classified simply as eye-consciousness. Consciousness that arises in dependence on the ear & sounds is classified simply as ear-consciousness. Consciousness that arises in dependence on the nose & aromas is classified simply as nose-consciousness. Consciousness that arises in dependence on the tongue & flavors is classified simply as tongue-consciousness. Consciousness that arises in dependence on the body & tactile sensations is classified simply as body-consciousness. Consciousness that arises in dependence on the intellect & ideas is classified simply as intellect-consciousness.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.038.than.html
Answer:
Acts of cognition must occur from a cogniser

Really?  The shining of the sun is happening naturally without the need for a "shiner"
Where does cognizing happen?
Or even better, if you drink a cup of tea, where is the drinker?
Is the drinker in the hand?
In the tea?
In the cup?
Buddha Shakyamuni taught that there is no independent, lasting self, which is what selflessness alludes to from the perspective of pure wisdom.
The fact is, even a single action by a single person requires the rest of the universe to come into alignment at all.
Now, when coming to consider our very personal and intimate experience of the world, we find that we all have proclivities, patterns, and pathways or courses through life that are distinct and fairly individual.  However, all beings wish for freedom from pain and discomfort, and yearn for bliss and happiness, we all just go about it in ways that may be contrary to our goals, and the Buddha taught true causes, true effects, true pathways to where we want to go.  One of the contemplations taught by the Buddha was the contemplation of selflessness.
Without faith, it is not possible (in my limited perspective and ignoramus opinion) to realize selflessness.  With doubt we can sharpen our perception and acumen to a degree, but when one sits down to try and realize truths that were illuminated by the Lion of Speech (another pet name for the Buddha), doubt is a huge obstacle.
So rather than doubt whether or not selflessness is true, we can doubt the notion of a self.
We can investigate: if there is a self, where does it dwell?  Does it dwell in the body, does it dwell in the mind?  Is it the same as the body?  Is it the same as the mind?  When your attention is focused on a sound or on a flavor or on a taste, would this experiencing be a Self?  What happens when the experience dissolves or the rest of the cosmos transitions.  Where did this "lasting self" go?  Was it ever actually there?
We may be fooled and think selflessness means that we have no agency or power in the universe, but it is precisely because identity is not a static thing that we can grow and make our way towards Awakening.
So consider with any phenomenon: where is its self nature.  Does it perhaps come into being based on all the phenomena around it?  Does this computer exist in the way we think it to, or does it arise due to the circumstances and all the parts and intentions coming together?
anatman may be translated as selflessness or identitylessness and both terms are great for meditating.  If they are difficult to accept as truth or reality, then we must contemplate them over and over and ask questions.  Finally, when we have faith that there is no alternative to all forms of existence exhibiting the (three) marks of existence [selflessness/identitylessness being one of the three marks] then we can sit down to meditate with great faith and inspiration and gratitude to the Buddhas.
Answer: On some levels this entire discussion causes me sadness. I have spent decades considering just this issue and it wasn't until I stepped back and used some objectivity that I found my answer.
First, it is neither my place nor even my intent to disparage the understanding and beliefs of others. We each have our own worlds that we build and reside within and while they do affect one another I feel we should respect that others may see things in a different light than ourselves.
That said - I take solace in the views of Buddha concerning attachment. Shakyamuni Buddha understood that his views themselves may be improved upon or further expounded. Thus we see avenues of divergence such as the Theravada and Mahayana views on the anatman. There is certainly nothing to say that these are the only two views that may be taken. Far from the case actually.
I have settled upon another view taken from study of the upanishads and the dhammapada. While I agree on the 5 aggregates of existence, I differ on most views regarding the 5th skandha - consciousness. I consider the consciousness to be the self so referenced in the Katha upanishad. The chariot driver. The one which is AWARE. In fact, I believe it much more accurate and eases understanding to just call it "awareness".
Thousands of years ago we were not blessed with the scientific knowledge that we have today. We did not understand the biological basis behind many of the things that we defined such as feelings and urges and desires. With ALL of the physical stripped away we still have the "experiencer". The driver. And at that point we can identify all of the physical components so listed in the 5 aggregates - leaving only awareness.
At this point is where we find the conflict of "self". I find the eternalism view here to be the correct one for MY understanding. As proscribed in Isha the "self" is one and everywhere. But it would be, again, more accurate to merely refer to this as pure awareness. Much like collecting air in a bag and closing off the open end. Awareness that WAS everywhere and one now has a portion trapped in a vessel of limited perceptions. Whereas before it was eternal and everywhere, now a portion of it is subjected to limitations and the ravages of time. This is actually the self. And it IS an illusion. Because it's really not an individual any more than a bottle of water is different from the ocean. Once free of these constraints it may emerge back into the whole again - provided it is not colored (for lack of another word to use) with karma that keeps it from remerging into the ether.
There are many areas of confusion that arise in the definitions of words from culture to culture and century to century. One must learn not to be overly attached or bound to specific words and focus more on the machinations and ideas themselves and see how they comport with what we understand today. As our science and even philosophy and social knowledge increases we lend credence and support to many teachings of the past as well as discovering misgivings in others.Physical basis for consciousness? new studies
Answer: Without repeating everything above, I'd like to add something very simple to the discussion, amongst the many quotes from suttas and texts :-)
Consciousness is an Illusion. The assumption that one's experience of the Universe somehow necessitates "Consciousness" is not valid, since it requires an absolute.. aka. Consciousness, to make it.
It is an infinite regress, and thus must be illusory. Or.. at least.. that conclusion seems closer to Truth.
The question becomes then, if Consciousness is illusory, what the heck is going on? How are any of us even making assumptions in the first place?
And that is just what Buddhism is trying to figure out. I suppose we'll all be let in on it when it does :-)


Public vs Private Repositories

Question: Say I am developing an app for sale.  Does it make sense to use a public repository for this project?  Doesn't default copyright protect the code from someone else using it?  If so, what advantages are there in paying for a private repository?
Answer: If your application is closed-source, it should go in a private repository. Copyright might protect you legally, but if someone decides to steal your code, they likely won't care. Then it's up to you to be able to find these people, be able to identify that they've used your source code in their application, and prove it to a judge.
This is especially problematic if you're doing something new. Maybe you've created a new algorithm of sorts, or combined web-services or APIs in a way not yet done. You're releasing your application for money, and leaving a comprehensive how-to guide online for all to see, significantly damaging your competitive advantage.
If you're handling user security in any way, any mistakes you made (and you will have) will be much more easily found and exploited if attackers can read your source code. Some online repositories have bug trackers -- people can follow that, and it will point them straight to the vulnerabilities that have been found, and will have a window to take advantage of them (the time it takes you to fix the bugs, and for your users to apply a patch).
I should also mention that if you have a team of five people or less, you can host your code privately with BitBucket for free. There are other services I'm sure, I just know of that one because I use it.
Comment: BitBucket is really nice. I have an academic account with them and really like it for private repos.
Answer: Private repo is, well... private. :-)
Being something of an open-source fanatic, I'd differ somewhat with Carson. He's perfectly right in a sense, but it is (in my humble opinion anyway) no big deal to open source private software either.
For all intents and purposes you could keep it unlicensed on github and it'll make no difference: the github traffic to your repo will be about zero until you release. And then, you never know -- some user/coder might bump into it and volunteer a patch, a suggestion, a feature request, etc.
Unless you're building the billion dollar application, nobody will care about your code in a material manner. And if you do, you'll have your billions already and won't care much if they have access to it. The value of your application will come not from its source code but in your ability to market, support, and maintain it.
Answer:
Doesn't default copyright protect the code from someone else using it?

Here I go again. I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Basically, there is nothing preventing anyone from looking at the source code and creating a derivative work from it. At the very best you can have a check-box or a registration form to restrict access if you have put this in a public repository. And then, here's the kicker, it is upto to you to establish your claim that the other party has created the derived work. It is not up to them to prove them that they didn't look at your source code; besides, it's counter-intuitive isn't it and it essentially sets up the scenario where it is your word against their word.

Does it make sense to use a public repository for this project?

Based on the above, it would not make sense to create a public repository. It has to go into a private repository where you can control access to the source code. Most large companies extend access control to a much larger extent - typically a developer would have access only to the projects that he deals with, i.e. access is provided on a need-to-know basis. Anything else is asking for trouble, especially if some of the features constitute intellectual property and are being patented, or for that matter happen to be the secret sauce that lends competitive advantage to the company.

What advantages are there in paying for a private repository?

Apart from the ones listed above, the typical advantage lent by a private repository is that the contract between you and provider would essentially include a NDA. If you do not have one, then you are only paying for the services of having a repository that is supposedly private. After all, there is nothing preventing a member on the operations team of the provider from peeking into your sources and creating a derived work.
Answer: If you're going to sell the application, I wouldn't use a public repository since you're showing the whole world HOW to bypass your licensing system without spending any huge effort. If they really want to crack it, they'll get there at some point, but the investment will be much higher and thus less likely to happen right away (without going further offtopic on obfuscation etc).
The only point in which you could host the source in a public repository, is when the application should be bought in a marketplace (iphone, android, wp7, ..) and you don't have to worry that much about licenses, ... And even then I wouldn't recommend it, since people can just download the source and publish it themself (with some minor changes, ...) or install on an unlocked device.
For the copyright issue: I'm not a lawyer, but at some point you'll have to be able to prove your code was there first if you want to fight over copyright. Timestamped version history might help you a bit, but there are ways to bypass that (private hosting, ..) If you keep it private, people can't steal it (only the idea, not the actual implementation), and you won't have to deal with it.

Public vs Private Repositories


What nondairy milk does not curdle when heated?

Question: I like to heat my milk for coffee (and use the microwave to do so) but I find with Soya Milk it curdles. Does anyone know of any other non-dairy milk that one can heat in a microwave please?
Comment: Curdles during heating, or curdles when mixed into coffee (which some brands of soymilk have a known tendency to)?
Comment: Hi, thanks for your comment (taken me a while to figure out and get into the site) yes I think you're right, it curdles when  mixed with the coffee. Must be some kind of chemical reaction presumably as soya milk is absolutely find in tea.
Comment: related https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/94595/why-does-coconut-milk-separate-in-coffee
Answer: Assuming the curdling happens when added to the coffee:
Hot soymilk is even more sensitive to curdling from acids than dairy milk. UHT (soymilk, not dairy) varieties are generally considered less prone to that effect, trying these might be worth it.
Oatmilk is often considered the best nondairy alternative for this scenario.
If palatable, this trick could also help:
Why does salt prevent soy milk from curdling in hot coffee?
Comment: Very interesting! I'll definitely try the salt test. But equally will try some oat milk - not sure I've even seen it in the supermarket but will go on a hunt. Thanks!


How can I withdraw Litecoin from a paperwallet?

Question: How can I withdraw my Litecoin from a paperwallet?
I have tried to use blockchain.info but it seems like it is only bitcoin that I can withdraw with that.
I used the bitcoinpaperwallet.com webpage to make the wallet.
Thanks guys!
Answer: Both blockchain.info and bitcoinpaperwallet.com are for Bitcoin, you need a Litecoin wallet and then import your private key to that.
The most reliable way to have a Litecoin wallet is to download and run the official Litecoin Core client, although you can use web based wallets as well but as I have no experience using them I can only give you a search link.
With Litecoin Core you will have full ownership over your wallet and you will not be depending on the service availability of the website, but this also means you will need to backup your wallet as the wallet.dat will contain your coins.
Importing a private key in Litecoin Core is the same as with Bitcoin (based on this question):

click on 'help' in the menu bar (top right)
click on 'debug window'
select the 'console' tab type: walletpassphrase "passphrase here" 600 (only if you set up a passphrase to protect your wallet earlier (you should!))
type importprivkey [private key here]

You will have to wait the synchronization to finish to see your balance.
Answer: I have been struggling with transferring an encrypted paper Litecoin wallet to. I tried first Exodus and after typing the private key manually I could not make it work, Then I tried Litecoin core and using the debug screen (very primitive} typing the keys again I could not make it work. Then I read a suggestion to use Loaf Wallet on my phone and I scanned the litecoin and picked them up. I think I have to be carefull that I move them out because I read this method was not safe. Here is the step by step:
 Loafwallet
Perhaps the easiest method to spend your Litecoin is through loafwallet, the mobile wallet developed by the Litecoin Foundation.
Go to Menu-> Settings-> Start/Recover Another Wallet
Scan the QR code of your private key
Then you're done!
You can either keep your LTC there, or send it to another LTC wallet.  Depending on how you generated your LTC, it may be important to spend the entire balance in your paper wallet.
For example, if you generated the QR codes yourself from a LTC wallet then you should most definitely spend the entire balance in your address.  The reason for this is that wallets typically create "Change Addresses" for your LTC to get sent to if you partially spend your balance.  Because you most likely don't have access to the wallet you used to generate your paper wallet from, the remaining LTC will be lost because you don't have access to the change addresses.
However if you created your paper wallet from liteaddress, this isn't an issue.
From: https://theliteschool.com/lsc/how-to-create-and-spend-a-paper-wallet
Answer: If you have created a wallet on paper wallets like LitAddress and LitecoinPaperWallet then you have got your private key as well.
You can use your private keys to withdraw or send your LTC to any LTC address.
Litecoins official wallet allows accessing wallet using paper wallet (I mean Private Key).
Answer: Go onto a credible website download the HTML then turn off your internet ensure the code is fine.
If browser has privacy turn it on then make your paper wallet print it out then put in fake data as well then clear you browser cache. Recommend you use a fresh browser on USB stick or something as well during this.
Next turn on your internet if you haven't already downloaded some wallet, do so.  Either Litecoin client or some credible wallet if not litecoin client be aware where you download also note their fees, privacy policy, credibility and EULA.
Next search how to import private keys into your specific wallet
for LiteCoin -- help - Debug
importprivkey "litecoinprivkey" ( "label" ) ( rescan )
importpubkey "pubkey" ( "label" rescan )
If your using going to use it continuously after you imported private key should be good to go. If it has extra security you should use it such as pin numbers, 2 part verification. If it's not large amounts at least a pin along with encryption. Your ready to use it for donating to charity or buying things know your countries laws or policy before doing so.
if you only want to put coins into your paper wallet and not spend them you should need only to generate a temporary software wallet put money in it then send it to your public address for your paper wallet.  So your paper wallet private key is never loaded into the wallet.
Comment: There are two downvotes, but no explanation as to why. I think the answer shows a good way of using paperwallet to fill a wallet, and takes security considerations into account.
Comment: I'm guessing the downvotes are because it doesn't clearly answer OP's question.


Is it possible to search for a LaTeX command including its backslash?

Question: I think a search for \widthof on any other command with backsalsh shows also results without considering \. Is it true? How can I make a search for a command and not for its name?
Comment: (Just to clarify) Do you mean searching on this (rather, the main) site?
Comment: I mean searching on tex.stackexchange.com
Answer: The closest that I know of (or actually just found out about) is code:"\widthof". This seems to search only for text that has been marked as code. As for its developmental status:

It's not a secret, but it's not polished either...I was interrupted in the middle of implementing it and haven't re-visited it in a while. You're welcome to use it and we won't remove it. That being said, I don't feel it's 1.0 quality at this point, so haven't added it to documentation as I expect there are bugs I'll find with more testing locally. We're doing a lot behind the scenes right now, when that settles down I'll re-visit search (we have lots of ideas/code in the pipe there). – Nick Craver♦ Sep 13 at 0:07

While I expected code:"\widthof" to return pretty much the same results as widthof (which shouldn't occur as non-code too often, right?), the former only returns 22 results, the latter 108. I haven't checked out where the difference comes from.
Comment: That sounds like a good point for a feature request on [metase], unless there already is one. A `*` wildcard might make sense here.
Comment: Thank you. It helps a little to restrict searches but I think it's a bit strict because it searches for complete words. If I search for `code:"\includegraphics[` only 4 results are shown because they include `\includegraphics[` followed by a ` ` (space) or return.


Facebook login button has gone mad in IE! It's all over the page

Question: Has anyone seen this before. It works perfectly in Chrome, Safari, FF etc. It's like it's a background image that does not recognise the constraints of it's containing div. I put the div around it to constrain it but no difference.
http://nicerworld.com/static/images/ie_error.png

<fb:login-button registration-url="http://nicerworld.com/fb_reg_step_1/" on-login="fb_login(arguments);">{% trans "login with Facebook" %}</fb>

I hate IE so much it's not funny!
Hope one of you can stop me doing something silly!
Answer: The </fb> on the end was the problem. It should have been </fb:login-button>!!
It worked in all other browsers. As usual, MS cost me loads of time.
Rich


How can I repair kitchen counters that are disintegrating?

Question: We have a pretty standard 90s style laminate kitchen counter top.  There are cabinets and a dishwasher underneath, and the counter overhangs them by about a half inch.  The bottom of the overhang is not covered by laminate and has exposed stuff that looks like particle board.  Some of this is right over the dishwasher vent, and the steam is getting soaked up and the counter is starting to disintegrate.  It also soaks up random drips off the counter top edge.  We tried scraping off loose material and then covering the exposed area with white duct tape (see photo), but it didn't stick very well.  Any advice on how we could fix this?
Comment: Similar question and answer here: http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/12730/how-to-seal-stabilize-crumbling-particle-board-counter-top
Answer: If this is the only area that's being damaged then you could try screwing some stainless steel sheeting beneath it to act as a heat and steam shield from the dishwasher.
You'll need to make sure that the very edge of the steel is not exposed so make sure it doesn't protrude out.  And you may need to put some epoxy or similar right to the edge to stop the steam penetrating the wood at that spot.  Then sand it all round to make it nice and smooth.  It might work, short of replacing the benchtop with something more sturdy.
Answer: I'd re-scrape, then smear a layer of white/clear caulk of the tub/tile/sink variety, working it into the 'wood' as much as possible.
Answer: The suggestions were appreciated, but we tried something different.  First we smoothed it out as best as we could with razor blades and sandpaper (it still wasn't very smooth), then I put on 8 or more coats of Rustoleum protective enamel oil based paint.  I'll see how it holds up.

As you can see, it looks pretty ugly from underneath, but you can't see it from above, and I'm hoping it will keep water out.
UPDATE
It's been six months, and is holding up well so far.
Comment: This is basically what we did under our '70s kitchen cabinets. They are chip board shelved and bottomed and we have an electric steam kettle. I used gloss enamel white paint to put multiple coats on all exposed chip board and behind the plywood front and side panel overhang. I preemptively did this way back before it suffered much steam damage and it made for a nice reflective surface when we installed under cabinet LED lighting later.


Install Python 2.4 or newer on Centos 4.x

Question: I would like to use Python 2.4 features in my Django apps running on CentOS 4.7. The default version of Python is 2.3 and I think it would be best not to try replace it. Is there a way to install a newer version of Python alongside and somehow tell Apache to use that for mod_python?
Answer: Yep, just build your own python and put it somewhere else (something like /opt or /usr/local). You'll need to rebuild mod_python, when you do you can specify the new python location.
<code>./configure --with-python=/path/to/python2.4
</code>
Answer: Here is a good post about how what options to configure python with to install it into a different directory
http://binarysushi.com/blog/2009/aug/19/CentOS-5-3-python-2-5-virtualevn-mod-wsgi-and-mod-rpaf/


Text-wrap in Illustrator CS6

Question: I typed out text in 14pt.  I then typed another letter in 131pt out.  I was hoping to have my 14pt text wrap around the 131pt character...but to no avail!  I clicked on both items (and my 131pt. letter was above the layer for the other text) and clicked on "Text Wrap > Make".  Nothing happens.
Am i not doing this correctly?  I even tried to follow a tutorial...it seems so obvious and simple...yet might this be a bug in CS6?!
Answer:
Set the area type box - you must click-drag with the type tool to create a box, then insert the text into the box.
set the drop cap character
if you want the wrap to be rectangular around the drop cap. Select the drop cap and choose Object > Text Wrap > Make

if you want the area type to wrap the contour of the drop cap - Select the drop cap and choose Type > Create Outlines, then choose Object > Text Wrap > Make

When applying a text wrap, you only want to select the object to be wrapped. Nothing more.
Answer: You need to make sure the wrap object (in this case the outlined letter T) is above the text, and in the same layer.

Text-wrap in Illustrator CS6