Is Luke's "Theophilus" An Actual Person or an Allegorical Person?

Question: I've always wondered if there's any persuasive evidence either way for Theophilus whom Luke addresses in Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1 being an actual person or an allegorical personification?  I mean my command of Greek isn't great but doesn't Theophilus mean "Friend of God"? However I'm sure it could also be a given name in Luke's time.  So is there any strong evidence of an actual human being named Theophilus?
Answer: The name "Theophilus" may indicate a primarily Gentile audience, perhaps in Rome,  given its decidedly Greek nature and that Luke's account ends with Paul's arrival in Rome. However, Theophilus could have just as easily been a diaspora Jew living in Rome.  Heinz Joachim Held takes this perspective further by hypothesizing that Luke's intent was to reach the wealthy lost, and not to berate wealthy Christians.
Against this, Theophilus could also have been the wealthy patron who funded Luke's work and was probably a Christian.  Luke would have, in turn, perceived Theophilus as a representative of his intended readers which is why he has such an interest in developing the theme of appropriate use of wealth, especially in the face of poverty. As a (relatively new) Christian, Theophilus would have been interested in aligning his values with those of God and the Christian community.  This, in turn, would mean that Luke's intended audience included wealthy Gentile Christians who had some familiarity with Christian beliefs, rooted in Old Testament understanding.  Once again, this may serve to explain the author's preoccupation with highlighting those Gentiles who acted in accordance with Old Testament principles as "God-fearers." Regardless of the identity of Theophilus, the presence of his name in both prologues is a key, unifying factor for Luke and Acts.
Esler believes that Luke writes to "legitimate" the decision to convert to this belief system and that the lifestyle change associated with it was correct. Esler notes that legitimation necessarily occurs after the institution's establishment, in the cycle of group dynamics, as a means of justifying itself to its members.  This perspective would include both the wealthy and the poor since both classes were included in the earliest Christian community, which would have needed encouragement as to the legitimacy of their allegiance in the face of mounting opposition. Esler also eliminates the probability of an audience consisting of "outright pagans" based on the almost immediate presence of Old Testament Judaism (in Luke's Gospel) that persists until the end of Acts.  This comports well with the perspective that Theophilus could have been not only the sponsor of the work, but also the representative of the audience that Luke envisions.
Dibelius understands the purview of Luke's writing to include Christian audiences, and the libraries of those who specialized in literary education. He follows the argument that Theophilus, as patron, would be responsible for distribution of the volumes to their intended outlets. These outlets, Dibelius argues, would be different than those of most historians given Luke's divergence from the practice of his contemporaries, whose rhetorical style drew attention to themselves. It is because of this that Dibelius can claim that Luke never really fully engaged the historiographical process, but remained an evangelist.
Dibelius chooses to differentiate the intended audience along a line of social sophistication rather than finances. Instead of the more traditional poor and wealthy divisions, Dibelius sees the audience falling into either the category of "humble circumstances" or those of "higher social understanding."  It should be noted, however, that Dibelius only holds this distinction for Acts, since Luke's Gospel doesn't fit his understanding of what constitutes a literary piece.
Though there are many suggested purposes for Luke's writings,  God's role in salvation and the ongoing impact that he has on the community of believers is the most overarching description of Luke's intent.  Because of this, any minor themes should be read through the lens of this primary agenda that Luke has. Within this agenda, though, there may be room for Luke addressing any person feeling the tension of interacting with a largely Jewish belief system (for Gentile God-fearers), or the lack of Jewish response to the gospel (for Jews and Jewish Christians).
Schottroff and Stegemann view Luke's perspectives as reflections on an ideal from a past era. As such, they serve as motivators for a primarily wealthy audience to follow suit with the characters and divest themselves of wealth and possessions in some regard. To this end, they see Luke as a critic of the wealthy, but one who still holds out hope for their salvation.   Pilgrim also sees Luke as a critic of the wealthy. However, he views Luke as relatively unconcerned with presenting a moral framework within which his audience should operate, preferring to challenge the wealthy to come to grips with appropriate use of their possessions,   especially since the rich in the Roman Empire did not hold charity to the poor as a high value.
Metzger's analysis of the history of interpretation of Luke finds two general positions. The first finds no imperative for the wealthy to "completely divest" themselves as either a means or expression of salvation.  This would essentially allow for the wealthy to retain their possessions as long as they act in accordance with the behavioral norms of the group.  Though the second perspective still sees no mandate to the wealthy to completely give away their wealth, it does sees "encouragement" to generously practice almsgiving in some capacity. Almsgiving is further divided into the dual categories of either an extension of the Jewish custom of almsgiving, or a more extravagant form of charity specifically designed to upset the contemporary patron-client system.
Within this second perspective there is also another subdivision with regards to the purpose of almsgiving. One perspective focuses on Luke's intent to portray Jesus' particular concern for the poor and dispossessed. This is achieved either by meeting their immediate practical needs or through redistribution of resources and wealth. The other perspective has the spiritual health of the wealthy in view and sees Luke's concern primarily focused on their eternal destiny by encouraging them to secure eternal riches through almsgiving, demonstrating an acute sense of trust in God. Metzger wisely notes that these perspectives are not necessarily mutually exclusive, finding concern for the poor as a primary motivation, yet recognizing the transformational benefit for the wealthy's newfound trust and reliance upon God.
Metzger is critical of the methods used by many of the authors whom he cites in his overview of past works. Though he finds worthy and beneficial contributions from them, he also sees ways in which they have used texts out of context in order to create conceptual links throughout the text. The overall focus of his study is to evaluate four parables which he views as the core of Jesus' teaching throughout Luke's "Travel Narrative" (Luke 12:13-21; 15:11-32; 16:1-13; 16:19-31) concluding that Jesus was particularly critical of overconsumption.  His criticisms and research fertilize the ground for a study in Luke's specific intent for including the strong theme of wealth and possessions in both Luke's Gospel and Acts.
A mediating view of Luke's intent can be derived from his wealth ethics. Instead of seeking an explicit, overarching response from his readers, Luke is more likely contextualizing his wealth ethics to provide an application across socio-economic statuses. In Luke, instead of explicitly demanding divestment from the wealthy alone, disciples from each class were expected to divest themselves according to their means and ongoing vocation.  As we will see, this perspective nicely complements the texts in question, as well as the historical context of the emerging Christian community.
Community in Luke's Gospel is also colored by the introduction in which Theophilus ("loved by God") was called "most excellent" (κράτιστε).  This term was commonly used to refer to the Roman equestrian class who were members of the wealthy aristocracy below the patricians, but above the populace.  Perkins argues that Luke's intention is to counter any negative reports that Theophilus has heard. Luke, then, is appealing to the upper middle class to demonstrate that Christianity is not as subversive as it may appear,  and perhaps gaining an influential ear in the social elite. This is a different (and older) perspective than the one that sees Theophilus as a wealthy publisher of Luke's content for the spread of the gospel. That Luke never mentions his own name is the basis for Perkins' rejection of the benefactor/publisher hypothesis as it indicates that he wasn't close enough to Theophilus to request such a service.
If Theophilus is a member of a wealthy, upper-middle class who has heard negative reports of Christians, Luke's purpose would be both apologetic and corrective. This helps explain what appear to be idealized presentations of the community, as well as the ethic enjoined upon its members by Jesus.
 note: These are excerpts from the first chapter of my thesis. Some of it may flow and some of it may not; I copied and pasted what appeared to be significant portions related to Theophilus. This represents significant research compiled over many months with many sources. I'd be happy to get a list for anyone interested.
Comment: Thank you for that excellent and thorough response.  I had always wondered about "most excellent". I assumed it had some special meaning and wasn't just flattery.
Answer: Theophilus was certainly used as a given name by people in the right era: there was a High Priest in the early first century named Theophilus and a bishop of Antioch in the late 2nd century named Theophilus.  Unfortunately, neither of these Theophilus's (nor any other known Theophilus) lived during the time frame that most scholars think that Luke was written in (80s AD).  As far as I know, there's no known examples of people in the 1st or 2nd century using Theophilus as an honorary title, but everyone seems to grant that it's a reasonable possibility.  So, sadly, there's just not much conclusive evidence either way.  We really don't know whether Theophilus was a title or a name.
Comment: Good to know, at least, that it's not a dumb question. :-)
Answer: In the book "New Testament in its world", by Michael Bird and N.T. Wright, one can read that 'Theophilus', whose name means 'friend of God', could be symbolic for everyone who seeks such friendship. But this is the hypothesis that they point as more likely

Yet it is more likely that Theophilus is actually Luke's patron, sponsoring his literary enterprise, or maybe even a disciple of Luke to whom the teacher writes.

"Acts of the Apostles" (AYBC), by Joseph A. Fitzmyer, also points towards that last hypothesis. There, one reads

though he is otherwise unknown, there is no reason to doubt his real existence. In the Gospel, he is hailed kratiste Theophile, "Your Excellency, Theophilus." The adj. kratistos was the Greek equivalent of Latin egregius, a title often used for the ordo equester, the "knights" of Roman society. It is used of the governor Felix in 23:26. It at least implies that Theophilus was socially respected and probably well off (L. Alexander [The Preface, 191–98] calls him the head of a house-church). He might have been Luke's patronus, one who would have financed the copying and publication of the Lucan work, even if dedication in ancient writings did not always imply that. Dedication to him hardly means that the work was intended solely for private reading. Theophilus may have been a catechumen or Christian neophyte and undoubtedly represents the kind of reader for whom Luke was writing.
Answer: A lot can be inferred it seems from just two words that appear in Luke 1:3-4:  κατηχέω  and κράτιστος .
The word in Luke 1:4 translated as "taught" (ESV,NIV) or "informed" (RSV) is κατηχέω (katēcheō), which could also be translated "instructed".  It is not a common word, appearing only eight times in the New Testament and not at all in the Septuagint.
Though possibly not used in that sense in Luke's time, the related term catechumen was one who was being instructed in the faith, and referred to Christians who had not yet been baptized.  The process of instructing new Christians eventually came to be referred to as catechesis.  These terms are used in this sense to this day in the Greek Orthodox Church.
It seems, then, that Theophilus was either a new Christian or someone who was on their way to becoming a Christian.
It is also possible that Theophilus was some sort of official, perhaps high ranking.  This is implied by the word κράτιστος (kratistos), and may imply that Theophilus might have even been some sort of governor.  The term is only used in three other places in the New Testament, always as a kind of honorific for a state official:

Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent (τῷ κρατίστῳ) governor Felix, sendeth greeting (Acts 23:26, KJV).
We accept it always, and in all places, most noble (κράτιστε) Felix, with all thankfulness (Acts 24:3)
But he said, I am not mad, most noble (κράτιστε) Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness (Acts 26:5)

Similar usages can be found in the Septuagint (e.g. Amos 6:2 LXX, Psalm 15:6 LXX).
From these things, Lawrence Farley pieces together the following profile of Theophilus:

I would suggest that Theophilus was not yet a Christian, and that the "instruction" he had received was of an informal kind.  Certainly a man in the process of preparing for Christian baptism would have known the basic outline of the life of Jesus, and the apologetic note of assuring him about the Christian movement (one of Luke's aims in writing) would have been unnecessary.  I suggest that Theophilus was a highly placed friend of Luke's, possibly holding some state position, who had heard many reports about the new Faith, from Christian and pagan alike.  Christians had perhaps spoken to him, as well as the foes of the Church.  Luke dedicates the work to him, and hopes thereby not just to secure Theophilus's support for the Christian Faith, but also to commend it to pagan society at large.
The Gospel of Luke: Good News for the Poor (Conciliar Press, 2010), p.25
Answer: I have been doing research in theological history and philosophy of the first century and stumbled across another strong theory as to whom Luke may have been addressing as Theophilus.  I believe it could have been the full name of Philo Judaeus of Alexandria also known as Jedidiah HaCohen.  Jedidiah was Philo's Hebrew name ... meaning friend or beloved of God ... and this hints at the possibility that Philo was a shortened version of Theophilus ... having the same meaning.  Combine this with the fact that Philo was the greatest religious philosopher of the first century ... perhaps the Great Teacher mentioned in the writings of the Essenes ... for it was clearly the eclectic teaching and exegesis of Philo and his "Logos" that laid the spiritual foundation upon which Christianity, Gnosticism, Rabbinical Judaism, Islam, Theosophy and Hermeticism are outgrowths.  Philo's teachings created the various streams of religious philosophy that have rained down upon civilization with such force as to replace pagan polytheism with Abraham's monotheism all across the world. Jesus taught the Logos ... the Word of God ... and declared it to be "The First Begotten Son of God" ... an idea originating with Philo and stated with such eloquent force that the Roman Emperors had to quit fighting it and embrace it in order to get their grip on it and change it from within ... so as to make it more conducive to Roman Imperial designs.
I have also discovered hundreds of allegorical clues hidden in the works of Philo  that suggest he had a very close relationship with Jesus or Yeshua of the Nazarenes ... who very likely grew up in Alexandria during his flight from Herod.
Because Philo was a Roman magistrate ... he was not able to come forward with what he knew about the early life of the historical Jesus without drawing Imperial attention to himself ... but the Life of Jesus is mirrored and traced throughout Philo's writings ... especially in his theology and focus on the Essenes.  It appears to me very likely that both Jesus and Philo were descended from the last Hasmonean Princess of Judea ... King Herod's captive bride ... Queen Mary or Mariamne I.
It appears that Philo and his brother Alexander the Alabarch were not only high ranking Princes of the Hasmonean/Herodian dynasty ... but Roman magistrates working as Alexandrian customs agents and ambassadors to the Judeo/Claudian Imperial Family of Rome ... and intermarried with the family of King Herod Agrippa ... also a descendent of Queen Mary/Mariamne I ... the captive bride murdered by Herod.
We can see Philo's teachings in the Book of Hebrews ... in the writings of Luke, in the first paragraph of John's Gospel and in Macabbees IV.
If Luke was addressing Philo Judaeus as Theophilus ... or perhaps Jedidiah ... then it means that Luke was writing prior to the time of Philo's death ... possibly around 50 A.D.
The works of Philo Judaeus and Flavius Josephus are important supplements to the New Testament ... which cannot otherwise be fully understood ... having been adulterated, mistranslated, censored, taken out of context and contorted for religious and political motives until canonized by Imperial Rome ... just prior to the Dark Ages that soon followed.  Combine this knowledge with the archeological discoveries of the past 300 years ... and artifacts such as the shroud of Turin ... it leaves no doubt that Jesus ... Yeshua the Nazarene ... was and is a historical figure who impacted the world in many ways beyond what the New Testament describes ... a spiritual/intellectual/philosophical tour de force with the One God of Abraham at the summit.  Exactly what Philo intended.
Comment: While this answer is interesting, and seems like the start of a very good answer,  we typically like answers that cite the references references. Don't just tell us *what* you know, tell us *how* you know it and note  that "[showing your work](http://goo.gl/VRkT4c)" is [required](http://goo.gl/BoMPLJ).
Comment: Dugan King commented: My references on Philo are secretive and based on my original research for a book I am writing about the plausibility that Philo was the secret identity of Jesus ... who changed his name from Theophilus to Jesus when he was baptized in the Jordan.
Comment: I think in order to support your theory you would have to demonstrate convincingly that Luke could have written his Gospel and Acts during Philo's lifetime. My understanding is that Philo died around 50 AD and that Luke wrote his works sometime after 60 AD.  Also, I don't think that Philo held any kind of office within the Roman Empire that would merit the title of κράτιστος.  My understanding is that he wasn't actually any kind of ruler, but was elected as a representative of the Alexandrian Jews for one specific delegation to Caligula.  I am happy to be corrected on any of these points.
Answer: I have since listed some sources of my research on a Facebook page: The Secret Identity of Jesus.
Good question about the dating. How certain is any first century dating. Is it possible that Luke was writing in the mid 40s of the first century during the reign of Claudius? I need to research the dating of Paul's ministry because I feel certain that the brunt of his preaching occurred during the reign of Claudius.  Do we really know the birth or death dates of Jesus or Philo ... or the date of the crucifixion?
If Philo was a brother to Alexander the Alabarch ... then there are several elementary deductions we can make ... aka no brainer assumptions ... that they were royal descendants of the Hasmonean/Herodian dynasty ... descended from Herod 1 and Queen Mariamne 1 ....raised in the Imperial Palace of Rome under the influence of Caesar Augustus, his wife Livia, his sister, Octavia and his niece, Antonia Minor.
As foster children of the Imperial family, they were trained to be Roman Citizens and future "Client Kings" of their home provinces.
Philo's Aramaic name appears to be Jedidiah ha Cohen ... translating into Friend of God the Priest.  My suspicion is that Philo was a priest or likely the Roman appointed Chief Rabbi of the Great Basilica Synagogue of Alexandria as described in the Talmud and Philo's own works.
Philo's brother, Alexander (or possibly a nephew) was close to Emperor Claudius and managed the Egyptian estates of Antonia Minor ... besides his important appointment as the Alabarch of Egypt.
Alexander had two sons ... Marcus Alexander was married to Princess Berenice, daughter of Herod Agrippa 1 of the Hasmonean/Herodian Dynasty ... a family where marriages were often arranged between cousins in order to keep the royal bloodline intact.
Based on my research I believe Alexander the Alabarch and Herod Agrippa 1 were first cousins and Philo's nephews.
Alexander's apostate son, Tiberius Alexander,  is recorded as  a high ranking Roman equestrian ... holding positions such as Prefect of Egypt, Procurator of Judea and 2nd in Command to Titus during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
I believe this recorded evidence is heavy in supporting the contention that Philo was of Jewish Nobility ... Roman Citizenship and holding high rank if not the highest as a Roman appointed High Priest of the Great Synagogue in Alexandria.
It also appears that the allegorical works of Philo are regarded by a number of scholars as the root theology of Gnosticism and Christianity.
Paul's ministry as a self proclaimed Apostle to the Greeks and Romans ... eliminating the laws of the Hebrew Torah ... caused quite a disturbance among the Judeo Christians of the Diaspora who were loyal to the Torah and expecting a Messiah Jesus to save them from Roman persecution and establish God's Kingdom ... a ministry that appears to be the reason Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome.
Perhaps Theophilos had inquired of Luke to discover what exactly it was that Paul was teaching to attract so many Gentiles and cause an uprising by the Judeo-Christians of the Diaspora.
Comment: Welcome to BHSX.  Thanks for your answer.  Do not forget to take the tour.  Please also take the time to add some references to support your claims.


Civimail sparkpost extension stats / is my mail being delivered?

Question: We are using the cividesk sparkpost extension on civicrm 5.5.3 and wordpress 4.9.8.  In the last few days, we have sent 2 emails to the full list which is about 6,000 emails each, so it should be showing around 12,000. Civimail shows almost all of the mail is successfully delivered. However sparkpost's summary report for the last 7 days shows 167 accepted, 12 bounced, 0 rejected, 256 rendered, and 179 targeted.  What do those numbers mean?
Comment: If you can't see 12,000 in Sparkpost then either a) CiviMail is configured to send them a different way, or b) Emails have not been received by sparkpost.
Comment: Also check that you have no filters active (except the date) when viewing the stats in Sparkpost
Answer: Found the answer, thanks @MatthewWire for the hint.  Emails were going out using the "backup mailer" defined at civicrm/admin/setting/smtp because we had the wrong API key installed for sparkpost.


Finite dimensionality of certain $C^{\star}$-algebras

Question: In the discussion about the question Finite-dimensional subalgebras of $C^{\star}$-algebras the following separate question came up:
Let $H$ be a Hilbert space and $a_1, \dots, a_n \in B(H)$ be self-adjoint operators. Consider the operators $x_1a_1+x_2a_2+\dots + x_n a_n$ , where the $x_i$'s  are complex variables and assume that there is a polynomial $p(z,x_1,\dots,x_n) \in \mathbb C[z,x_1,\dots,x_n]$ such that $z$ is in the spectrum of $x_1a_1+x_2a_2+\dots + x_n a_n$ if and only if $p(z,x_1,\dots,x_n)=0$.

Question: Is the subalgebra of $B(H)$ which is generated by the operators $a_1 , \dots, a_n$ finite dimensional?
Answer: This is an interesting question. The set is call multiparameter spectrum of the tuple g, it also called projective spectrum in my paper
"http://www.worldscinet.com/jta/01/0103/S1793525309000126.html".
The paper didn't address this particular question, but said something in general.
Ron


How do I prevent OS X 10.8 from autoconnecting to a specific wireless network?

Question: I have two wireless networks at home. I want my Mac to autoconnect to one of them, but not the other. However, I do not want to remove the other network from my preferred list, since I want to keep the SSID/password saved for when I do need to connect to it. I've listed the network that I want to connect to at the very top of my preferred list, but my Mac still chooses to connect to the other network about 50% of the time. Is there any way to prevent it from connecting to that network while still keeping that network's credentials saved?
Answer: From another answer: How to disable automatic wifi connection?

The only way to stop from automatically joining a preferred or known wifi network, is to not store the password for that network and type it in each time without clicking the "save password" button.

If you have a network remembered, and the credentials stored, there does not appear to be a way to prevent the system from trying to connect to it on sight.
Another answer with a somewhat related conclusion that may shed more light on the way the wifi autoconnect works: Prevent my Mac from connecting to an unsecure Wi-Fi network?
Answer: Consider removing the network from your preferred network list (although I know you would like to avoid this) and create a new Keychain item in the Keychain Access App. Use the SSID as the Account Name. This will save and secure your password in the same way that all of your saved passwords are saved. It may add an extra step to joining this secondary network (i.e. retrieving your your credentials from Keychain Access) - but your password is saved and secure.
Answer:
Go to Open Network Preferences
Click Advanced
Select your preferred network for autoconnection from the Preferred Network List and drag it above the network you do not want your pc to automatically connect to.


Is eating spicy food bad for health?

Question: There is already a superb post about "hot" spices like cayenne/pepper.
I am not asking specifically about these spices, but in general all the spices.
Spices can include a variety of items like cloves, black peppers, bay leaves, turmeric, ginger, garlic, etc. If you know what "Masala" means then I don't need to elaborate on this.
My friend told me that eating too spicy a food can damage organs in the digestive system. I wanted to understand if this can be true?
Comment: you can read about "capsaicin"
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Is eating spicy hot (pungent) food (hot chilli & peppers etc.) healthy or harmful?](http://health.stackexchange.com/questions/178/is-eating-spicy-hot-pungent-food-hot-chilli-peppers-etc-healthy-or-harmfu)
Comment: As I mentioned in the question I am seeking answers on spicy food other than capsaicin derivatives.
Answer: It may have to do with the chemical structure and how they bind to specific receptors (see:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin on capsaicin) causing a "sensation of burning" and irritation. It does also seem to directly affect the GI lining:
"Many substances directly irritate the lining of the esophagus and can contribute to heartburn. These include spicy foods, citrus fruits and juices, tomatoes and tomato sauces, cigarette smoke, aspirin, and ibuprofen (with brand names such as Motrin and Advil). Some of these foods can also increase the production of stomach acid and decrease the LES pressure, leading to heartburn."
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/script/main/mobileart-emh.asp?articlekey=59146&page=3
Comment: Good answer, and it is important to emphasize the word "CAN" - the effects depend on the individual's anatomy/physiology, as well as the quantity, timing, accompanying foods, etc.
Comment: CAN is not a direct term. It's also important to remember than CAN does not mean it will or won't. It's a wishy washy term that has a vague definition. It's scientifically not accepted as a proper term in many fields of study. It's just more of an outword comforting term for a patient, and a scapegoat word to avoid implicating yourself into an incorrect diagnosis if that situation occurs.

Is eating spicy food bad for health?


Live view from my laptop

Question: I am an intermediate photographer and I want to shoot some models in a cityscape. I want to frame my shots on my laptop and then shoot the image. How can I do this. Do I need any specific software? FYI, I'm shooting with a Canon 450D.
Answer: The feature you're looking for is known as "tethering."  There is a lot of software support for tethered shooting, including Canon's own EOS utility and others.
Answer: Your camera should have come with some software, which is includes the EOS Utility. This software allows a canon camera to be connected, via USB to the computer. Live view is possible. With the camera on and connected to the computer, the program will automatically detect the connection.
Features include:

ability to save to camera and computer
live view
ability to control exposure etc.
interval shooting
Answer: You could use Adobe lightroom for tethering. Supporter cameras https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/tethered-camera-support-lightroom-4.html
Comment: Please explain how to use Lightroom for tethering, and advantages and disadvantages.
Comment: @damnedtruths https://photographylife.com/mastering-lightroom-how-to-tether-your-camera
Comment: All information that helps to answer the question should be in the main body, not comments. Also, please include a summary of the link as well (you don't need it for the first link because it is a list)

Live view from my laptop


How do I change the default sms font size? (ICS)

Question: I know I can change (in settings) whether or not the volume rocker can change font size, but is there a way I can change the default to be different? (I'd rather not have the volume button change function) I want the smallest size, but I can't seem to get it to stay that way
Answer: The default appears to be simply what the phone itself is set to use as Font Size under Settings > (Device) Display. Change that to Tiny and your messages will display that way, but obviously everything else on the phone will also be impacted.


How to place existing Story Issues under an Epic Issue in Jira?

Question: In Jira I have some existing Issues that are Stories.
How can I place them under an Epic?
Answer: You can enable the Epic Link field to be shown (in your projects screen scheme).  Then every card will have a field UI for selecting which Epic it is associated with.
This is the modern / current convention.
Answer: You can also configure the Board to group the cards by Epic in Configure Board->Swimlanes->Base Swimlanes on Epics.
To really put issues "under" an Epic the Structure Plugin might be what you are looking for.
Answer: Under Jira GreenHopper (v6.0.6) there is a new feature. Jira > Agile > board > Plan, drag and drop the Story Issue onto the Epic.
Answer: Using an old view, navigate to the story page. There should be a Epic Link field. Clicking on it and changing the value of it, should move story to the appropriate Epic.


Can we just get rid of vgv8?

Question: It's been clear for a while that he/she is posting solely for the purpose of trolling, so instead of just a suspension, why not delete the account altogether?
Comment: I'm a little uncomfortable with this - isn't the definition of a troll subjective? And couldn't someone determined to troll a site just register a few sockpuppets and carry on?

It's clear that they disagree with the way the site is run in some areas, and their kicking against those boundaries annoys us but does that make them nothing but a troll.
Comment: My question to everyone is this - are you monitoring his account and downvoting everything he posts? If so, then that's also an abuse of the system as well (following someone for the express purpose of up/down voting their answers), so be careful where you tread.
Comment: OK, the word troll aside - vgv8 is still irritating a LOT of people, generating a lot of moderator flags, not contributing anything beneficial to the site and being a general nuisance - all after being warned about his behaviour, and suspended twice. I'd go as far as IP banning him (provided he isn't on some ISP using DHCP). At the end of the day, call him a troll, call him something else - it all boils down to him being a pain in the ass.
Comment: Sure, "troll" and "trolling" are somewhat subjective, but I think most would agree that someone is trolling when the main intent of their post is to get a reaction.  They might be being deliberately obtuse, or posting stuff they know is bogus, and a number of other things would qualify.  We could debate which posts of vgvh's are examples of which type of "trying to get a reaction," but I think there's a clear pattern of posting things that don't make sense unless the goal is to get a reaction.
Comment: @MarkM - what would the text say? Simply **vgv8**? :-)
Comment: @Robert - Well, he is working on his second ban here, and is currently serving a 30-day over at SU and MSU as well as having previously served a ban at MSO. He's been boxed on every site and hasn't learned and is now on his second ban.
Comment: He's banned until Oct 13 on SF and MSF.
Comment: @John and @Farseeker - I don't think the issue is that anyone is following him to downvote, but the number of edits he makes causes his questions and answers to be on the front page a lot. Many of his questions would receive 1 or 2 downvotes if they were from any other user, as most of us would look at it and feel like the people that voted before us took care of it and we would quietly move on. With vgv8, the problem is that his questions are always very visible and his confrontational attitude is one that causes people to "pile on" with the downvotes when they might normally just move on.
Comment: Which looks like is a result of this: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/62743/when-my-account-is-suspended-and-im-addressed-in-a-comment-please-notify-the-us swim with the big sharks, get eaten.
Comment: Yeeeeaaaaah. He's crossed the line into "stick around to annoy the crap out of us" territory. a.k.a. Trolling.
Comment: How does the troll tag not have a wiki entry?
Comment: @Ben: Are you saying that [pain-in-the-ass] should be a tag synonym for [troll] or vice-versa?
Comment: @Robert - He has made sockpuppets. Those have been banned as well.
Comment: @Mark - Oh I know about the sockpuppets. Kinda makes the point about whether or not a ban is worthwhile doesn't it? The guy has problems, there's no doubt about that. The question I'm leading up to is whether or not he's so poisoned the well that we're unwilling to give him a chance and see everything he does through that lens. Totally his own fault, I agree, but that path leads to the site being dominated by cliques.
Comment: Ward, I've been quite active in down voting and voting to close poor questions from this person. I'm not defending their posts as much as I am wondering two things. See my reply to Mark for the first rather than me repeating myself, and for the second... how do you deal with a determined troll? Would a ban solve the issue?
Comment: It's worth noting that anyone systematically downvoting ANY user is wasting their time, as the system will detect that behaviour and automatically and quietly reverse such votes. I don't know if the same applies to close votes though.
Comment: Addendum: I can't believe the [troll] tag has stuck around this long. Someone please wiki. Anyone? Bueller?
Comment: FYI - he is banned on MSO until February now
Comment: Based on that it looks like pizdets is vgv8's latest user name.
Comment: And pizdets got the ban-hammer too.
Comment: @sys - Unless I am mistaken, that translates to "pussies." Can we start agreeing that he *is* actually trolling?
Comment: @sysadmin1138 - he was banned from MSO after a confrontational post that's since been deleted. I think 6 months is a bit harsh, but hey, I don't make the rules.
Comment: @Farseeker, considering the number of times he's been banned already; and has defied those bans through sock-puppets; escalating the time frame to 6 months seems appropriate.
Comment: @Chris - I wasn't aware he was making sockpuppets till I read his post below. 6 months sound quite fair now.
Comment: Ok, I'll say he's crossing the line into trolling territory now. I agreed with the whole of sysadmin1138's post below as to where I think he's coming from but it's clear that VGV8 doesn't react in a constructive way to criticism. There comes a point where you have to cut your losses with someone.
Answer: Too long for comment...
vgv8 has all the hallmarks of someone completely self-taught, and proud of it. Unfortunately for him, his knowledge is full of holes and misunderstandings and he doesn't have the personality to weather the process of having those hammered out of him without some indignation on his part. Okay, a lot of indignation.
In another life I have had to deal with people going through the unlearn/relearn process. It is hard, and when people who have ego invested in the fact that they know their stuff get told that they don't know jack they get defensive. When told they don't know jack in a way they perceive as demeaning, they get very defensive; very defensive people either clam up until they stop getting yelled at or return fire. Vgv8 chose to return fire rather than clam up.
I've dealt with that kind of person before, just not in a technical learning context. What I've found to work best is to take them aside and have a long talk. If you seem like you're actually coming to hear their side rather than the Official Voice Of Orthodoxy to Smite The Unbeliever, they'll vent like a volcano about the injustice they've experienced. This is likely to include unkind language. Once you've gotten through that process and they've calmed down a bit, you can start working on the core of the problem: they don't know that they don't know jack.
Start with a single concept and dig into it. Find out how they think it works and how they came to that conclusion. Then explain how it really works, and why that's the case. There may be defensiveness. You may have to gently invalidate their sources, or explain how their deductive methodology was fundamentally flawed. Repeat for a few more concepts and you stand a good chance of convincing them that they really don't know jack, and that sticking around is actually a good idea if they want to change that.
This is an intensive one on one process that involves a very deep understanding of the topic at hand on the part of the person doing the taking-aside.

The entire StackExchange framework is designed around breaking the very process that can reform users like vgv8. Intensive one-on-one interactivity is exactly the kind of thing that StackExchange is NOT. It is Q/AAAA, not Q/AAA/Q/AA/Q/A/Q/AA.
The taking-aside process is something that can only be done by full up Moderators, and vgv8 is already convinced that the mods are biased against him. The one thing I know of that can cause true behavioral change can not be done because of how the site works. All we are left with is to ban him into the corner until he learns that shutting up in the face of injustice is wiser than railing against it. This is, shall we say, very unlikely with his kind of personality and we're much more likely to get one of two outcomes:

He will go away, never to trouble us again.
He will stick around, just to annoy the snot out everyone as vengeance, complete with sock-puppets to get around bans.

The environment where I faced this kind of thing before did not employ community-sourcing for its administration, which actually made it easier to handle. Here any 3K user can vote to close, and practically everyone can downvote or flag-for-attention, which means that if 'the mods' decide to attempt to reintegrate him into the community the community can vote to have none of it.
Which they seem to have done. When October 13th rolls around some of the userbase heat may have waned, but it will take very little effort on his part to rekindle anti-vgv8 sentiment and he'll get banned again.  Considering what I've seen of this user, it may be kinder to put him out of our mutual misery and perma-ban him.

Time has passed, a ban has been experienced, and now there is evidence that he has fallen into the second response possibility I lined out above. Once the sock-puppets start arriving, it's time to ban his IP if possible. Good riddance.
Answer: I don't believe vgv8 is a troll, merely an uneducated person playing in a field he/she is unfamiliar with, to say nothing about unqualified. Elsewhere vgv8 claims to have 25 years of IT experience, yet every utterance contradicts that claim. This person may possibly be a developer at some level but is certainly not a sysadmin.
The fact that this one individual has created such an outcry and is the only one I've seen suggested for complete removal must be a bit of a clue. While I have little doubt that vgv8 will return under some new name I still feel that in this instance the damage being done is sufficient to warrant a ban, together with a deletion of all his/her posts.
Comment: now that six more months have come and gone I hope you know that this user has terrorized the network up and down. I'm sure, at 11.9k, that you do.
Comment: @drachenstern, and your point is?
Comment: ~ I believe networkwide ban was the consensus after that. Additionally, he got himself banned on twitter.
Answer: I'm with Farseeker, while also respectful of Ward and Warren's statements.  One thing I like a lot about the network is that everyone gets multiple chances to prove that they're beneficial to the community before even getting binned.  (Yes, others would argue this, especially on MSO).
I also don't necessarily agree that vgv8 is trolling but it was apparent to me that as much as he thought he was trying to help the level of aptitude just wasn't there.  That coupled with a certain level of arrogance when being corrected became degrading to the quality of the site.  Answers were just plain wrong and conversations with OP's were completely misleading.  It's easy for new people to spot trolls who are intentionally degrading the quality of the site.  I think incompetence is much more detrimental, especially to someone who's new to the site or new to the topic they are posting about.
He's been binned here, on SO, on MSO (at one point I believe) and now on SF.  I don't agree that this needs to be a permanent thing, though.  I'm an advocate for second (and third) chances.  That said, however, I don't mind the binning durations getting exponentially greater as Jeff has already stated in other venues.
Comment: I think the main problem I have is not whether he is trolling, it is the fact that he will best plain wrong answers, but when corrected will react angrily to this, if he would admit he is wrong and take it graciously, and be willing to learn then I would have a lot more time for him.
Comment: @sam I completely agree
Comment: I hate the idea of locking someone out of the site.  But it's a better option than driving away multiple people with incorrect information and unexplainable rage.  Sometimes the cost is just too high.
Comment: @Kara completely agree there as well.  I hate creating the air of exclusivity that comes with suspension, even timed suspensions.  But like you hint at, there is still the fact that the community has a standard of acceptable behavior.
Answer: No.
vgv8 is a conundrum to me. I'm honestly not convinced that they're a troll - primarily because I've seen them make valid contributions in the past.
Sure, they don't understand how the system works and they get a bit emotional about it but that's not a reason for a life-long ban.
Also, vgv8 does come to Meta, so I suggest that you be prepared to have this dicussion with them face-to-face (as it were).
They're a bit like Evan Carrol from m/so.
Comment: If we cater to abusive users, irrespective of what you want to call their behavior, we're degrading the quality of the site as a whole.  I see no reason to attempt to justify their behavior, as they are not providing a positive contribution to the site.  There is no need for this to be a contentious subject.  A 5% positive contribution does not negate the other 95%.
Comment: In addendum, I really, really don't want this place (Meta, that is) to be like MSO when I first started participating there. I felt like an outsider, that nobody gave a shit and they were all running around in their own private space and refused to acknowledge outsiders. It's different there now, but I die a little bit inside each time I see something like that happen here.
Comment: Not everyone can ignore him though. His answers are generally full of inaccurate info which could be harmful to users that are used to this site containing useful and generally responsible answers. A single downvote seems to send him into a tirade, nevermind explaining why.
Comment: I did ignore him for the most part.  Again, his behavior does not justify his continued presence.  I think you're getting off track here.  Everyone's not entitled to participate.
Comment: @Warner - you don't have to cater to him if you don't want to. Just ignore him. I'm actually a tad annoyed because he allegedly had an answer to a long-outstanding question I have on SF and now I'll never know what it was. Of course, he could have just been pulling my tail but I'm trusting like that.
Comment: Even if they're not always trolling, someone who - like vgv8 - is willing to spend the time it takes them to argue with everyone is a big distraction.
Comment: Fair enough. My point was that I don't believe he's being deliberately malicious, and I don't believe he's trolling, because if he is he's the most advanced version of a troll I've ever seen. I believe his behaviour is mostly innocent, and thus deserves more than once chance. This site is totally different to any other forum on the intertron so it might take a while for new users to wrap their head around. Hell, I've even chastised him myself. But I don't believe anything he's done is in malice and thus doesn't deserve a lifelong ban (yet).
Comment: You're entitled to your opinion and I respect it.  In this case, I disagree.  Hopefully if he returns on Oct 13, he demonstrates behavior deserving of your understanding.
Comment: @Warner - I hope he does too. I'm inclined to agree with what you didn't say, and that is that he probably won't. But let's wait and see. If he continues like this on his third chance, **then** I will agree with you.
Comment: @MarkM - there's two distinct issues in your comment: 1) Bad answers. These are already taken care of with downvotes by the community. Nothing to be done here. 2) Emotional responses to said downvotes. This is part of the reason why he's in the sinbin I'm guessing, so let's see if his attitude changes in the future.
Comment: @Farseeker - Not really, it's one problem, since with him they are bundled together. You're right that with a normal user these are two separate problems. Part of SF is trying to explain to people where they are wrong so that they can have a better understanding going forward, or at the very least so that the OP understands why a specific answer is wrong. This is impossible to do with vgv8, due to his attitude. This can lead down two roads - 1)No one responds to him and the OP thinks his advice is correct. 2)People respond to him and he starts a verbal battle.
Answer: I'm convinced that vgv8 is not a troll; in the traditional sense (though the question does not accuse him of this; other answers have specifically addressed it as though the question did). He is however very misinformed, unprofessional, verbally abusive, and deconstructive of social norms (see most of his posts for examples).
I am not in favor of a lifetime ban; people do change over time and nothing he has done yet specifically warrants such extreme measures.
I am in favor of continuing to ban him any/every time he gets out of line (and possibly for longer durations each time). This puts additional responsibilities on moderators to inform him why he's been banned (again); but that is the penalty we pay for being publicly accessible (and I very much prefer that we do stay open to the public).
Answer: I thought I would add my own answer, partially to collect my thoughts from various comments, and partly to summarize what's been said.
Having re-read some of the previous posts and the recent posts and comments (vgv8 is currently posting  as pizdets), I still think they are mostly trolling: I think the intent is mostly to get a reaction, not to have a discussion and gain an understanding.
I understand and appreciate the "no, don't ban permanently" answers, and since vgv8's recent posts as pizdets are mostly reasonable, perhaps the people with more faith that this is mostly a misunderstanding will turn out to be right.
OTOH, the lucidity of some of the pizdet posts makes me think that unfamiliarity with the english language was not an issue in some of the complaints (as has been supposed).  Another thing that occurs to me is that someone who loudly proclaims "this place sucks, you guys all suck, I'm leaving!" and then keeps coming back isn't being consistent.
Comment: Going over various posts I'm starting to think vgv8/pizdets is more than one person. Some posts are in fairly good English, whereas others are little more than gibberish. I'm wondering whether it's a group of people, only some of who can speak reasonable English, working together to make a nuisance of themselves just for kicks. In the meantime these sites suffer.
Comment: He's also bitching about the trilogy on other forums - if you Google for Vgv8, you'll see he has hit a bunch of MSDN groups asking questions, with links to the same question on SO/SF where he didn't get answers that he liked.
Comment: @mfinni, it must be difficult for one perfect individual to have to live on the same planet as the rest of us. ;)

Can we just get rid of vgv8?


is it possible to go and install a suspension onto a bike that dosen't have any suspension?

Question: I have a huffy 3.0 fortress mountain bike, I have to ride on some bumpy roads and trails, I have a friend who has a bike that has suspension. I rode it once and it was very smooth when I went over a speed bump. So I wondered if it was possible to install a suspension onto my bike. I tried to search it up, but I didn't find anything helpful. So I decided to see if any of you can answer that.
Comment: Certainly it can be done.  Rather silly from a financial standpoint, however, since a new bike would almost certainly be cheaper.
Comment: For the fork see:  http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/7472/is-it-possible-sensible-to-add-a-suspension-fork-to-an-old-mountain-bike
Adding a suspension fork, even if all clears, could change the geometry and handling.
Answer: You could add a suspension fork (this bike seems to come with a very low quality one) or suspension seatpost or suspension stem.
On such a low end bike though, only the suspension seatpost would make sense -- for the other options, you're more likely better off getting a new bike.
Another option is to get the biggest tires that fit and run them at a low pressure, which should provide some shock absorption. But this bike wasn't intended for use off-road really -- just to be ridden a few miles on road.
Comment: The advantage of a seatpost with suspension is that it is easily removable and can be transferred to another bike later.  This is also a significant downside.   Plus the cost of a good one could exceed the whole purchase price of a BSO.
Answer: You can but if it was ME, I wouldn't do it.
The fork would cost more than the bike is worth. You may be able to find a used bike that accepts larger tires at the or near the same cost as a good quality fork. I ride with a bike shop mechanic that has a bike with 4.25 or 4.5 + size tires and it is surprisingly softer on bumps than most full suspension bike. I rode it and was amazed. You also, have the added benefit of not having to replace expensive suspension parts when they wear out
Comment: True, but fat tyres are significantly expensive, locally double the cost of ~2" tyres.
Answer: If you add front suspension you must worry about geometry and handling changes.
Is it possible/sensible to add a suspension fork to an old mountain bike?
A paralellogram seatpost is helpful.  Until recently, only Thudbuster was available by their patent ran out and now there is plenty of identical looking competition.
I was doing a lot of off road riding on a Surly Crosscheck.  I got a Thudbuster seatpost.  It helped a lot for the shocks on my rear end.  But it didn't help at all for the shocks on hands and through hands to head.  After about a year I developed a focus problem in one eye.  Got a full suspension bike and have never looked back.
Now I went the opposite way.  I put aerobars on the MTB, which is great for long distance mixed terrain riding, so that I can take the weight off my hands now and again on the road parts.
Comment: the reason of why i had posted this is because that it said on my bike "huffy 3.0 fortress trail rated" so i thought that it was a mountain bike, and it had oversized wheels. i think 2.0 and so i tried it and at the time it was good, but later i had started to notice, "if it is a mountain bike, then why dont i feel any suspension?" i checked out some other questions similar to this, and i saw the one where it told you how to ride without suspension, it kind of worked,


What happens after the penalty if a player is snookered behind a free ball?

Question: What happens after the penalty is applied when a player is snookered behind a free ball? This question pertains to the rule when a free ball has been nominated, but the player not only fails to sink the free ball, but also snookers the other player with it. In that case the rule says:

Not potting the free ball incurs no penalty, so the striker may play a
  snooker using the free ball, gratis. However, if said snooker is
  achieved by having the free ball obstructing the ball on, then the
  strike is a foul and a penalty of the value of the ball on is awarded
  to the opponent.

Okay, but that still leaves the player snookered. For example, let's imagine Player A has a free ball and nominates the green ball. He snookers the cue ball behind the green. So, in that case Player A will have fouled and Player B receives 4 points. What happens then? Player B will still be snookered behind the green. Does B have to try to escape the snooker, even though he was awarded points for the foul?
Answer: Player B gets a free ball, because he is snookered after a foul.


How does work ergative structure and how often is it used?

Question: I want to know how works the ergative structure and if it's often used or not and please could you give some examples like 院子 里 停着 车。
Literal: Courtyard-in park vehicle.
Translation: In the courtyard is parked a vehicle.
It's said a sentence where you can start it with the location and so go on, sorry cannot help more, but i didn't find more information but some articles.
Comment: Maybe it would help to define "ergative".  It's a new word for me.
Comment: Is it an English question? According to dictionaries, an 'ergative' verb can be used as either transitive or intransitive. E.g. The door opens. She opens the door. 'open' is an ergative verb here.
Answer: Ergative constructions (作格结构) is one name for a phenomenon where the one subject argument in the intransitive version of the construction is the same as the direct object of the transitive version. These ergative verbs are variously called labile verbs, unaccusative verbs (非宾格动词), anticausative verbs; they have even been posited as reflecting a sort of middle voice (distinct from the more usual active and passive voices for verbs).
For example in Chinese:

TRANSITIVE: 他开了门。
TRANSITIVE-DISPOSAL: 他把门开了。
INTRANSITIVE: 门开了。
Incorrectly inferred: 他开了。

This parallels what happens in ergative-absolutive languages, where the morphosyntactic alignment is like this by default.
This kind of pattern is only defined for those verbs that can both be transitive in some instances and intransitive in others, also known as ambitransitive verbs.
There are some cases where some Chinese verbs can appear ambitransitive where English cannot be. This is often called the "notional passive":

TRANSITIVE ACTIVE: We defeated them. 我们打败了他们。
TRANSITIVE-DISPOSAL: 我们把他们打败了。
INTRANSITIVE (Chinese only) = NOTIONAL PASSIVE: 他们打败了。
TRANSITIVE PASSIVE: They were/got defeated. 他们被/给打败了。

However, the sentence used in the original question is not even from one of these ambitransitive verbs, as I can't think of a case where 停 alone acts as a transitive verb. Rather the two forms are:

SUBJECT - LOCATION - VERB: 车在院子里停着。
LOCATION - VERB - SUBJECT: [在]院子里停着车。

This is called locative inversion by linguists. In Chinese, it is very often used, although not as frequently as the standard order. Note that it is possible to drop the 在 in the form with location at the front. It can give off an atmospheric, almost poetic vibe, and is a beloved technique of narration and storytelling. This is not too dissimilar to English.
Answer: The nearest you'll get to ergative is the Chinese use of 把:you could argue 把 marks ergative case, but just as easily, you could say, 把 marks accusative case and ergative is accusative under another name!
(你快点儿) 把作业做完!
Mostly, 把 gets used like this: 我把门开了。
So is '把门' accusative, or ergative, or both, or neither?
Since there really are no case markings, and no case in Chinese, for example:
我看你。
你看我。
there is also no ergative case.
Look at 被 for passive. Sometimes, you could argue 被 marks ergative case:

我被晒伤了。
太阳晒伤了我。(but 2. is not very "Chinese", everyone knows the sun burnt you!)

Chinese is more intelligent than our 'case-based' languages!


Android: Force Music Application to Refresh List of Playlists

Question: How can I force the built-in Music App in Android to refresh my list of playlists. Even after I delete one from my SD card, the playlist will still appear in my list of playlists.
Answer: Go to settings, applications, manage applications, [menu button], filter, all
Find the Media Storage app, and clear data.
This deletes everything! artists, albums, playlists. (data still on card)
Plug in, mount usb. Eject. Go back into music, and wait (a lot if you have more than a few tracks.)
Note: If the music app shows no changes, try force stopping the Media Storage app. The app showed no cache or data to clear, but force stopping it then opening the Music app worked for me.
Answer: I have a Moto Droid, and believe it or not, I had to do a factory reset on the phone (Settings -> Privacy -> Factory Data Reset) to get rid of the playlists that I erroneously put on the SD card.
After the phone rebooted, it reactivated my service and restored the apps I had previously downloaded from the Android Market.  The customizations I had made to my home screen needed to be redone, and the device needed to re-fetch all of my Google data (contacts, calendar, etc.)
They really need to come up with a better solution to that, but thankfully, I hadn't done much with the phone, so I didn't have many things that I needed to setup again.
Comment: This is definitely troubling. I hope this is fixed soon.
Answer: There is an application that deletes unused playlists from the database.  See http://roryok.com/blog/2010/07/23/clearing-out-deleted-playlists-in-android/


Can Saitama breathe in space?

Question: I'm just wondering whether Saitama could live in space, just like Superman or Goku, without needing oxygen to breathe?
Answer: No, he can not breathe in space.
In the chapter 47 (35.2), Boros punches Saitama so hard that he is sent flying towards the moon. When he lands there, he does his best to hold his breath:
Comment: Your blood wouldn't start boiling for a while. The fluid in your eyes and mouth on the other hand, will in fact suffer.
Comment: The real question is "can he resists space radiation?"
Comment: His resistance to punches kind of implies resistance to pressure changes.
Comment: The pressure would kill a person anyway :p
Comment: I don't think short term exposure to outer space is dangerous for radiation first. Rather, insanely low temperature.
Comment: Space, which is a vacuum, has very low pressure. This drops the boiling point of water to very low temperature. Therefore, the first side effect of outer space will be that your blood start boiling. There are better ways to go!
Answer: Based on the anime, Saitama first looks around calmly, realizes he's in space, then covers his nose. While this isn't solid evidence, the fact he just didn't even realize this is probable evidence of one of two things: either Saitama does not require any breath and had passively stopped breathing at all, or he is simply such a broken character that he ignores logic until he realizes it's even there in the first place. Either way the air should have escaped from his body within seconds, so based on a logical standpoint I can only assume that yes, Saitama can breathe in space.
Answer: No he can't. He had to hold his breath while in the moon. That means no. However he can travel through space without external help. He got shot to the moon and he got back without a rocket. His durability and endurance is enough for that.
Answer: No matter how strong he may be, Saitama wasn't holding his breath until after a few seconds of being on the moon. the minute he left the atmosphere, the air inside him, which is normal oxygen and nitrogen, would be sucked out. Strength has nothing to do with his oxygen deprivation. No breath holding equals no oxygen, so no reaction to oxygen loss equals no oxygen dependency. Saitama can't die from space.

Can Saitama breathe in space?


The battle between the gods and demons led by Tarakasur

Question: Why did the battle between the gods and the demons, led by Tarakasur, happen and how did it start?
Comment: Please don't ask for as many sources as we can. It is mandatory to cite sources on the site. It is unnecessary stuff in the question. We are not providing a list of sources or references. We are just a Q&A site.
Comment: ok, I am sorry.
Answer: As per Shiva Purana: RUDRA SAMHITA: PARVAT KHAND,
Why did the battle between the gods and the demons, led by Tarakasur happen?
Tarakasur wanted to rule the heaven.

Tarakasur demanded two boons - there should be no man as powerful as him and except Shiva's son nobody should be able to kill him. Lord Brahma blessed him by saying 'Tathastu'.
After receiving the boons, Tarakasur returned back to Ronitpur and was crowned as the king by Shukracharya. He then defeated the deities and drove them out from the heaven. Now it came under the rule of the demons.- English translation source

How did it start?
It started long back:

Narada was curious to know about Tarakasur. He asked Brahma to narrate his tale.
Brahma said-
"Kashyapa-the son of Marichi, had thirteen wives Diti was the eldest among them. She was the mother of Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha. Both her sons were killed by lord Vishnu in his incarnations of Nrisimha and Varaha respectively. Diti became very sad by the death of her sons.
After somtime she again became pregnant but the foetus was destroyed by Indra's weapon- Vajra in the womb itself. However Indra was not able to destroy the foetus completely, but was only successful in dividing the foetus into forty-nine parts. These forty-nine parts, later on became famous as 'Maraudganas'.
Again Diti gave birth of Vajrang, who was very valiant and brave. When he grew up, Diti ordered him to defeat the deities. With his mother's permission and blessings, Vajrang defeated the deities and held them captive. He fastened all the deities. With strings and himself became the king of heaven.
Seeing the pitable state of the deities I (Brahma) went to Vajrang accompanied by Kashyapa and requested him to free the deities. Vajrang agreed to free them but said he did not have any aspiration of becoming the king of heaven, he only wanted to teach a lesson to Indra.
Vajrang returned the heaven to the deities. Later on the married Varanji who had been created by me (Brahma). While Vajrang was of virtuous nature, Varangi was not."
Varangi gave birth to Tarakasur, the valiant and brave demon. During the time of his birth, the world was affected by inauspicious events like earthquakes, cyclones etc. His name Tarakasur was given by Kashyapa.
After he grew up, Tarakasur went to Madhuvan to do penance. His tremendous penance scarred the deities. Becoming pleased by his penance, lord Brahma appeared before him and asked him to demand anything. (See first part of Question which explains what Tarakasura demanded). - English translation source


local variance of Markov decision processes

Question: Does anybody know the notion of "local variance" of Markov decision processes? Any reference would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Comment: I haven't heard about that - but would you link me to a reference where you saw this notion?
Comment: I saw once, but I simply forgot it; this is why I asked.
Answer: The beauty of Google is that you can search for "local variance of markov decision processes" and find what you need.  Humorously the first hit was this question on StackExchange.  But I found this paper and you can see from the abstract that local mean and local covariance are discussed in it.:
Optimal Control of Stochastic Hybrid Systems Based on Locally
Consistent Markov Decision Processes
Xenofon D. Koutsoukos
Abstract
This paper applies a known approach for approximating
controlled stochastic diffusion to hybrid systems.
Stochastic hybrid systems are approximated by locally consistent
Markov decision processes that preserve local mean
and covariance. A randomized switching policy is introduced
for approximating the dynamics on the switching boundaries.
The validity of the approximation is shown by solving the
optimal control problem of minimizing a cost until a target
set is reached using dynamic programming. It is shown that
using the randomized switching policy, the solution obtained
based on the discrete approximation converges to the solution
of the original problem.


Overpaying my mortgage monthly payment

Question: I have a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage.  Yearly interest rate is r. If my initial principal is P and monthly payment is p, but this month i decide to pay p+Delta, how do i calculate how much of the (p+Delta) goes to the principal, and how much goes to the interest?
Comment: Delta goes to the principle. To the best of my knowledge, there's no option to even make such a distinction, certainly no reason to make it.
Comment: Don't do that.  Specify that all of your extra payment is applied to the principal.
Comment: @littleadv - I am just remembering, but when I had a coupon book to pay my mortgage, it had a line for "extra to principal" (or something) and a line for total payment.  I was under the impression from high school econ that they bank didn't have to apply the extra amount.  Things change though...
Comment: I think they're not allowed to do it now. I have several iterations of mortgages and HELOC, and they all say explicitly that any extra is applied to principle, as long as the payments are made on time. If I'm late - *then* they don't have to do that.
Comment: I guess we are talking about US. In quite a few Asian countries, there is a option and one has to specify ... there is minimum amount [typically equal to one or three EMI] that needs to be paid towards principal. Also one can pay EMI in advance if one knows he is not able to pay in future due to some reason. The excess is held by the bank and applied on due dates
Comment: Even in the US, the bank may offer options of both paying down principal (to reduce cost of the loan) and prepaying future installments ( to avoid penalties if you think you are likely to be late on a future payment). I would suggest either making absolutely sure you know what their default is, or making sure you include a note with each additional payment directing that it be applied to the principal... just to make darned sure nobody gets confused.
Answer: The bank, upon request, should give you an amortization table.
The remaining principal dropping a bit each month which means the next month, the payment will have a slightly lower amount going to interest. The table will show you each month's principal, and each month's interest.
The addition payments you're trying to make will go 100% to principal.
I recall an example, $200K 6% 30year mortgage, the Payment was $1200. Very early on in the mortgage, this was $1000 interest, $200 principal. If you paid $200 extra that month, you'd skip ahead a full month on the amortization table. By looking ahead at the next month's principal, you might keep this up for a number of years, effectively paying 2 months off at a time with this slightly higher payment.
Years ago, I wrote an amortization spreadsheet, which would help illustrate my response, and let you tinker with the idea of prepayments. It was part of a series to counter a mortgage acceleration scam, at that time sold as "Money Merge Account" and reincarnated more recently as "Wealth Unlimited". In a few hours, I wrote a spreadsheet that reproduced what either of these $3500 products claimed to do.
Comment: Yes. And they did. The moment you make a full payment, you and the bank are even. You owe them the remaining principal, of course, but you are 'even' on accruing interest. At that moment, you can pay what ever principal you wish. And interest then accrues on the lower amount.
Comment: You claim `Delta` all goes to the principle, but does not bank need to get interest on this `Delta` which i have loaned from them for up til now since the initial loan agreement?
Comment: You should make the term (15 yrs vs. 30 yrs.) adjustable parameter. Not two fixed realization.
Answer: Delta is always applied to the principal. The only thing that increases monthly is how much of p is applied to the principal.
Answer: Suppose on the day the payment is received the accrued interest on you loan is $200, then $200 of your payment goes to interest and the rest to the principal.
Comment: Keep in mind, most mortgages do not save you interest by making even every payment, say, 20 days early. Nor will I end the mortgage with leftover payments to make if I make every payment the day before it turns late (usually 15 days past the due date). Yet, if mortgages were calculated on a daily accrual basis as HELOCs are, that's exactly what would happen.
Answer: One thing that you may want to check is if you are penalized for pre-payment or not. From the bank's perspective, if you pay down principal early they lose out on interest, so some lenders penalize for this.
Answer: There have been cases where banks choose to keep the extra payment "on account" and not apply it directly towards the principal, so it pays to be specific.
Comment: I've paid extra--simply a larger check, no note.  Two mortgage companies, in both cases it worked exactly as expected.
Comment: This sounds more like a comment than an answer. Additionally, I have never heard of nor experienced that happening on a mortgage. On other loans, such as a car loan, that can be the case.
Comment: As @littleadv stated, this actually might have been the case, but I agree the laws now force banks to apple extra money to any late fee (of course) and then to principal. I have a payment I make by computer, and I track the extra going to principal, with my making a note any place.

Overpaying my mortgage monthly payment


Does a person own his/her body?

Question: To be more specific, i was wondering about the legal aspect of the issue. Does a person own his/her body? If not, who owns it? If yes, then can a person sell themselves into slavery? Prostitution? What legal justifications can be given for such law? (e.g., Harm Principle, utilitarianism, legal moralism, paternalism).
Comment: Do you mean *philosophical* justifications? Otherwise, the question should be moved to [Law SE](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions).
Answer: Self-ownership is sometimes considered the fundamental commitment of political libertarianism.  For example, consider the opening sentences of the SEPH article on "Libertarianism":

In the most general sense, libertarianism is a political philosophy that affirms the rights of individuals to liberty, to acquire, keep, and exchange their holdings, and considers the protection of individual rights the primary role for the state. This entry is on libertarianism in the narrower sense of the moral view that agents initially fully own themselves and have certain moral powers to acquire property rights in external things. [emphasis added]

It's controversial whether self-ownership implies that you have the right to sell yourself into slavery.  Usually this possibility is treated as an objection to libertarianism.  (Search in the SEPh article for "voluntary enslavement.")  I seem to recall that Nozick had some cryptic remarks in Anarchy, State, and Utopia that suggest but don't state outright that you do have the right to sell yourself into slavery.
Libertarians generally agree that prostitution is morally permissible and should be legal.
Two non-libertarian discussions of self-ownership are worth mentioning.  In the introduction to Self-ownership, Freedom, and Equality, G.A. Cohen observes that self-ownership seems to be a central commitment of both libertarianism and the kind of Marxism he was raised with in working-class Montréal.  Over the course of the book, he critically engages with Robert Nozick's version of libertarianism, and ultimately rejects self-ownership.
In Justice, Gender, and the Family, Susan Moller Okin presents a deep feminist critique of libertarianism.  Okin's argument has been neglected in the literature; I wrote a comprehensive review of replies to Okin, with responses to those replies a few years ago.  (I discussed every reply to Okin that I could find, except for one very technical reply that had to be cut due to word limits.)  Specifically, I argued that Okin's argument creates a fundamental dilemma for libertarianism:  either people do not own themselves or justice requires at least some involuntary transfers of property.
Answer:
Does a person own his/her body?

If a person owns his or her body, then it follows that he or she can sell it. But this necessitates the institution of slavery; once I have sold myself into slavery, my owner has the right to have his property protected by the State, so that if I change my mind and flee away, the State has an obligation to return me to my owner.
Fortunately, most, if not all, States have abolished such nefarious institution, and forbidden people from selling themselves. So it seems that most, or all, States do not believe that a person owns her body.

If not, who owns it?

No one? Who owns the Moon, the Sun, the bottom of the ocean, the intellectual property rights to the wheel or pottery?

If yes, then can a person sell themselves into slavery?

Well, anyone can do whatever they wish, including arson, murder, and jaywalking. So the question is, can they legally do this? And the answer is no. If John sells himself to Joseph, this is a fictitious contract. Any time John wants to be free again, Joseph cannot enforce his supposed "property rights" upon him. The State will not enforce such rights for him, and if he tries to do it by himself, he is almost certainly committing a crime. This is true in New York or Berlin, Moscow or Jacarta, Ryiad or Stockholm, and is only less true in those parts of the world where no State authority is able to assert itself.
Contrary to the libertarian fiction, rights only exist where the State upholds them.

Prostitution?

People cannot sell themselves, as seen above, but they can certainly sell their time. Otherwise wage labour would be as impossible as slavery. As such is not yet the case, there must be a fundamental distinction between ownership over one's body, and ownership over one's labour time.
Of course, there is no contradiction between being a slave and being a prostitute. But there is no contradiction between being an agricultural labourer and being a slave. Heck, there is no contradiction between being a philosopher and being a slave; Epictetus was both. But slavery is a formal relation, not a material one. Epictetus was a slave because he was captured, enslaved, and sold, not because he was a philosopher. The same is true of a prostitute; she is a slave if she belongs to another person; otherwise she is something else.

What legal justifications can be given for such law?

For what law? Slavery, or its abolition?
Slavery was legally justified by war; since vanquishers had a life and dead right over their victims, and since in eo quod plus est semper inest et minus, if they could kill them, they could instead spare them as... property.
The abolition of slavery is justified by the contradictions involved in slavery - if a slave is property, then s/he is not a person; if s/he is not a person, then their own illegal actions cannot be framed in criminal law; if their illegal actions are framed under criminal law, then they are persons; if they are persons, then they are not property.
Answer: This is an excellent question. While I find the previous answer linking the question to libertarianism interesting, is it not a little unrelated to the question as asked, which is about the law?
There is a burgeoning philosophical and legal theory of body ownership, wrought in part by the burgeoning science of gene manipulation. Donna Dickenson has an excellent exposition in a Philosophy Bites interview, 15 minutes long. She addresses the legal question.
http://philosophybites.com/2008/05/donna-dickenson.html
Answer: The basis of the law, in Common Law countries, is not philosophy, but tradition.
Traditionally, one's family owned one's body.  In various codes of Weregelt, if you were severely injured, it was not to you that the money or rights were paid so that the infraction could be 'for-given'.  It was to the clan of your extended family.
This moral stance was related to the metaphor behind fealty.  The family had cultivated you, like a crop or a herd animal, and it had earned the right to its product.  You owed them for your childhood, and for keeping you alive in the present.  And in exactly the same way, the clan had cultivated your extended family line.  Exogamous marriage itself was a trade between families or clans, sometimes moving money or rights from the clan of the spouse who left home to live among their partner's people, or requiring a ritual theft or contest that transferred responsibility for that spouse's maintenance to the new family.
Feudalism gave way to the notion of the nation-state, and clans were concentrated up into monarchies, which eventually distributed their power into democracies of some form.  But the traditional basis here remained.  You belong to the entity that protects you militarily.
The institution that guarantees your rights also determines what they are.  And to that degree, you remain the property of the state.  It is their responsibility to educate you and to enable a functional economic system that allows you to leverage your work, by creating some degree of peace and order.  To the degree they succeed, you owe them.  A part of your labor is beholden to them according to the tax code, and they retain the right to make laws that can determine whether you may commit suicide, or sell yourself into slavery or prostitution.
In a democracy, this is joint ownership of all of us by one another, but it remains real enough ownership that most Western democracies have at some point recently had military conscription, even in peacetime.  If you can be ordered to report bodily to an institution that will then determine most of your future actions until they decide they are done with you, you clearly do not own your own body.

Does a person own his/her body?


How do protective coatings affect the lifetime of bridges?

Question: I'm trying to understand the importance of protective coatings on steel structures like the Golden Gate Bridge. For example, if we stopped maintenance on the Golden Gate Bridge today and left it packed with empty cars, what would be its expected lifetime (until a car falls into the water) and the variance of that lifetime? If we additionally removed all of the paint/coatings on any steel parts, what would be the expected lifetime and variance? I'm hoping for a rough answer from an expert in the field.
Comment: "I know it's still a tough question, but that's what the best engineers get paid highly to answer." So you are looking for a million dollar answer given freely and in the limited space here? That might be expecting too much.
Comment: The answer is 42.315 years.  If you don't believe me, you'll just have to run the experiment.
Comment: Wow. That edited question is significantly different. And (in my opinion) almost completely unanswerable. Unless someone on here happens to have carried out a numerical assessment of the Golden Gate Bridge recently, in order to know its reserve capacity, and also feels like doing calculations on corrosion. You ask for variance, requiring some sort of statistical analysis too. Oh, and I should point out that it being full of empty cars is nowhere near its design loading, meaning that's a whole new calculation compared to any assessment of the structure.
Comment: So - the original question was too broad. I'd say the edited question is far too specific. If you want to know about coatings, maybe ask a question about coatings? How about "What coatings are used on steel structures to prevent corrosion?"
Comment: I cleaned up comments, since the question was rewritten.
Comment: What does "normal rust" mean? Or, more precisely, what sort of rust should be considered?
Comment: While there may not be an answer of '12 years' I think that this question could have a useful, informative answer.
Comment: Why is rust to be ignored? Without rust, there are very few things that would cause the structure to be appreciable damaged. You might get some fatigue or you might get abrasion. Neither of those will act as fast as rust.
Comment: If you look at the edits, you will see that I thought rust could not be ignored, but I wanted to also know the next failure factor after rust (I suspected NaCl in-diffusion making the steel brittle).  So, I'll now cross off that last bit from @Air's edit to keep things simple.
Comment: Ok, I'll give up on getting an answer for the Golden Gate Bridge and accept answers for any bridge and any loading condition. I know it's still a tough question, but that's what the best engineers get paid highly to answer.
Answer: If you are really considering catastrophic failure, what you are asking actually has several parts.  The first is the coatings aspect, the second is the metal structure, the third is the connections, the fourth is the cables, the fifth would be the substructure and the sixth is the foundation.  A failure of any one of these systems (with the exception of coatings) could lead to the type of catastrophic failure you are considering.
The Golden Gate Bridge was constructed in the mid to late 1930s (around 1933 to 1938 I believe, see timeline) and I will come back to this in later paragraphs.
It is important to note that the loading conditions currently on the bridge in terms of axle loads and traffic volumes are perhaps magnitudes higher than the original designer could have envisaged.  These loads will have a significant impact upon the risk of catastrophic failure, and for this reason there has likely been significant structural strengthening carried out in the Golden Gate Bridge over the years.
One thing that I noted on the timeline was that there already has been a catastrophic failure of the upper and lower decks due to a 7.1 earthquake on October 17, 1989.

Coatings
Generally speaking coatings are designed for a given service life.  Provided that they are applied with adequate workmanship and quality, for a given material in a given environment the performance is fairly predictable; ie they will lose their protective capability over time due to oxidation, temperature, solar radiation and abrasion effects. Many designs are geared towards a certain loss in terms of mils/yr, so that for a 10 year service interval there will be a certain dry film thickness of coating specified.  NASA  Kennedy Space Center has detailed documentation on these issues.  Once this protective measure is breached then corrosion of the underlying steel may take place.  So it is important that coatings are renewed at regular intervals.
Structural Steel
Structural steel generally has a well defined atmospheric corrosion rate for a given environment and this is based upon it's proximity to the sea.  Studies done by NASA in Florida on metal coupons from seafront to a distance inland about 30 km indicate that the danger zone is within roughly 1000 m of the sea. After that the atmospheric corrosion rates dropped off significantly.  But the Golden Gate Bridge is clearly within a danger zone.  From NASA data, Pont Reyes, California would have an expected atmospheric corrosion rate of about 20 mils/yr.  Certainly Caltrans will have similar research data.  If left unprotected by coatings, and if this number were valid for your immediate environment, then you could take the thickness of the structural section and reduce exposed surfaces by 20 mils/yr to roughly estimate what would happen to an unprotected structure with time.  Of course the NASA studies are using modern grades of steel, the Golden Gate steel was produced in the 1930s, so there could be a greater annual loss. This is atmospheric corrosion; the structural steel that is within range of the seawater spray and splash zone will actually experience a more severe corrosion condition, and protective measures there will likely include sacrificial anode systems in addition to coatings.  That is, an anode material such as zinc is electrically connected to the structural steel in seawater spray exposure zones because it is more susceptible to corrosion.  It is sacrificed in order to direct corrosion activity away from the structural steel.  These also must be replaced at intervals.  There are also impressed current systems too, these are called cathodic protection and they work in a similar fashion.
Now what does this mean for the structure? A structural analysis would be required to determine where the critical loading point occurs; ie where the force of a fully loaded bridge would exceed the ultimate loading capacity of the corroded, diminished sections.  When structural elements oxidize, the oxidized portion of the section can no longer support load, and the remaining sound steel under the corrosion product is the issue of importance.  But you can see that if coatings/protective measures are not reapplied when required then the  corrosion rate of structural steel could endanger the structural capacity of the bridge very quickly, perhaps within a few years.
Connections
Structural connections are very sensitive to fatigue and this also exacerbates their sensitivity to corrosion.  In other words elements of higher stress cycling are also more susceptible to corrosion.  The two factors are quite significant in determining lifespan.  For this reason, and I do not have any specific knowledge of this matter for the Golden Gate Bridge, I suspect that the connections in the bridge today have been essentially entirely replaced, perhaps several times at high stress locations, since initial construction.  These are the most critical part of the structural steel framework for the bridge, from a load and lifespan perspective.  If they fail, then catastrophic failure follows.  It is also possible that additional protective measures are taken for the connections in terms of additional coating thickness or specialized treatments.
Cables
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge so the cables are an integral part of the load capacity of the structure.  These cables normally would have a protective sleeve around them to ensure that they are isolated from the environment, and cable sleeves today are typically filled with protective lubricants. I do not have any knowledge specific to the Golden Gate Bridge but I would expect that the design does include protective sleeves, at least for the main cables.  Corrosion of cables can very quickly lead to very serious structural problems and for that reason they are inspected frequently.  One of the problems with sleeved cables is that the cable itself is hidden from view, unlike other elements of the bridge, so the inspection would require non-destructive techniques that may include ultrasonic and radiographic testing.  I am not aware of any loss per year allowances for cables, if they show any signs of corrosion then I would expect they will be scheduled for replacement or repair.
Substructure
The concrete substructure (foundation piers) elements would take the brunt of the most severe exposure condition, that is sea spray and splash zone.  Wetting and drying conditions in the sea environment are the most corrosive.  Here any exposed concrete may degrade at the surface due to salt scaling effects and this, along with carbonation (ie conversion of calcium hydroxide to calcium carbonate in the concrete) can reduce the effective protection of reinforcing steel in the concrete by reducing the thickness of the protective concrete cover.
There are generally well known formulas for concrete in sea splash and spray zones for time to corrosion of reinforcing steel.  Pioneers in this field (among many others  since) were Beaton and Stratfull (1962) and Stratfull (1964 and 1967) of Caltrans. More recently Collepardi and Clear have introduced improvements (Collepardi introduced diffusion theory in the early 1970s and Clear's work in the mid 1970s was a refinement of the Beaton and Stratfull analysis).  These formulas are used at the time of design and can be used throughout the life of the structure for estimating remaining life.  This has to do with the concentration of chlorides with depth in the concrete, that are carried into the concrete by seawater and increase in concentration with time.
For this reason protective coatings and other systems such as cathodic protection are used to prevent reinforcing steel corrosion.  I would suspect that one or more of these treatments are in place at the Golden Gate Bridge, and I would also expect that portions of the concrete and reinforcement have been replaced in the past.
Nonetheless, if the corrosion were to be left untreated in the substructure then there could be a very serious catastrophic failure.  If left completely untreated, the concrete of the type used on the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930's would probably reach a critical stage within 25 to 30 years.  The age of the bridge, being some 75 to 80 years of age means that this substructure concrete has likely had substantial repair, replacement and protective treatment by now.
Foundations
Concrete foundations, if permanently below the low tide line, generally are not at high risk, but can present problems.  It is not commonly known, but the concrete of foundations of the Golden Gate Bridge contain Pozzolans, which was an advanced technique for its time.  Pozzolans are usually added for improved durability, but they can play a major role in reducing temperature related distortions that can lead to cracking.

In fact one of the more tragic bridge collapses in history occurred for this very reason during May 1980.  The Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa collapsed killing 35 persons.  The engineer's investigation concluded that the cause of the collapse was directly attributable to cracks in the below water pier foundations due to the high temperature of the concrete at the time of construction.
Comment: Wow, this is great and therefore will take me a few days to digest...  I hadn't even been thinking about the earthquake risk, which as you pointed out, is determining the lifetime!  So, please let me also assume that there are no earthquakes (or nuclear blasts or whatever), so that my underlying reliability lifetime concern stays.
Comment: @bobuhito Today when a bridge of this nature is conceived, there will be a design basis that includes stated lifetime goals.  For example the designed service life may be specified as 150 years, coatings may be specified as 10 or 20 years, and other aspects, such as mechanical elements, expansion joints, etc, may be specified as something else.  There may also be maintenance intervals, say not less than 50 years.  So for a given structural purpose or function, the design will be implemented according to life requirements, and this will also largely govern the cost of construction.
Answer: The goal of using protective coating/paint is to reduce corrosion of the metal framework. The degree of corrosion varies from the top to sea level and depends on several parameters such as salinity of rain/ocean, humidity, avg. temperature, the acidity of rain, so on so forth.
The principle behind protective coatings may differ in terms of layers, but often, a primer containing a less noble metal is applied directly onto the metal whereto a top and even a middle layer is added, which contributes with resistance to UV light, moisture, etc.
Edit 1 - additional info
If this was insufficient, here is a detailed explanation of the principles of coatings. Here is what I known from courses and through my work at Hempel.
The composition of paint is build from four components:
 1. a binder,
 2. a solvent,
 3. pigments and
 4. additives.
The binder

The binder functions as an adhesive and is non-volatile. The transition (of the paint) from liquid to a solid is determined by the binder as well as other parameters such as chemical, weather and corrosive resistivity.

The solvent

The solvent contributes with low visocity so that the coating me be applied more easily. Solvents are volatile compounds, that during the curing, evaporates leaving the 'film' behind. The film consist of intertwined molecules forming a polymer. While common, solvents are not a necessity, as the binder may contribute with a proper viscosity. Notice that water can be used as a solvent (waterborne paints), however a compound must be present in order to mingle the dispersed particles.

Pigments

Pigments are added to achieve a desired color. An other function of filler material is to reduce production cost.

Additives

Additives contributes with product-enhancing attributes such as
extending shelf life, reduce curing time, improve moisturization of
pigments, etc.

Coatings are classified into two groups on basis of curing: physical drying or chemical curing. In brief, paints containing evaporating solvents are classified as physical drying, in contrary to paints that requires oxidative processes, as these are classified as chemically curing. This happens as gas species such as $\text{O}_2$, $\text{H}_2\text{O}$ and $\text{CO}_2$ causes oxidation which starts the polymerization process.
Corrosive protecting coatingsTo briefly describe why corrosion happens, one must look at the chemistry of oxidation. It is energetically more favorable for a metal to be oxidized. I. e. in the presence of water or air, the following reaction will eventually occur.
\begin{equation}
\text{Fe} + \left[\text{O}\right] \rightarrow \text{Fe}^{++}+2\text{e}^-
\end{equation}
There are generally 3 ways used to prevent the above reaction.

Formation of physical barriers that retards the diffusion of water and $\text{O}_2$. Barrier effect.
Different compounds are used to achieve this effect: epoxy/bitumen/tar produces a barrier with low permeability for the water. Large pigments can produce an effect similar to, where the pigments are aligned parallel to the surface, resulting in a longer path the water must travel before reaching the metal surface.
Ensure contact between a less noble metal and the metal-surface thus achieving a galvanic effect. Galvanic effect.
To protect iron, metallic zinc is often used in abundance. This however requires the zinc throughout is in contact with it self and the surface. Zincprimers are not used in submerged surfaces, as the zinc salts are easily soluble.
or ensure the water reacts with compounds inside the paint forming a inhibiting surface-layer. Inhibitor effect. Pigments in used to achieve the inhibitor effect are often basic or water soluble, such may be various zinc derivates.
Comment: Thanks, this helps a lot.  But, in line with my question, it leaves me wondering things like how long it takes for enough oxygen (or calcium) to get through your best paint to cause significant weakening of the steel.  But, this is a function of at least (1) paint technique including number of applied coats, (2) temperature and temperature cycling, (3) humidity, and (4) saltwater exposure.  If you just quantified this effect roughly for the San Francisco area, I'd probably mark this as the answer, but I know that alone is difficult.


How do the 3 sannin know about using Five Elements Seal on Naruto?

Question: In the Anime, during the Chunnin exams, Orochimaru attacks Sasuke inside the Forest of Death. When Naruto came to rescue, Orochimaru identified that he was the nine tails and places the Five Elements  seal on Naruto. Later it was unsealed by Jiraiya. In the Search for Tsunade arc, Orochimaru tells Kabuto that the seal can be placed or removed only by the 3rd Hokage and the sannin. Were the 3 sannin taught about this by the 3rd Hokage?
Comment: I'd just like to point out that saying "3 sannin" is incorrect. Sannin in itself means 3 people, with the explicit understanding that they're 3 ninja. See [the comments below this answer](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/5618/1330) for more info. That would mean that saying "3 sannin" is the same as saying "3 3 (ninja) persons".
Answer: Apparently so. It's possible that other people were able to use the seal (for instance, Kushina, who was a sealing expert, or the Second and First Hokages, who knew advanced sealing techniques, but passed away).
It's possible that they referred to only living shinobi for that purpose (it makes sense, because they were trying to figure out who unsealed it).
I believe the technique was passed down to (or invented by) the Third, and he in turn taught it to his disciples.
Note that Minato never used the Five Element Seal.