Can expertise for a skill be obtained via training?

Question: I know that if a character spends enough time and gold in game they can gain proficiency with something they aren't already proficient in, but is there a similar mechanic for expertise?
Comment: Which rule are you using that allows training in a skill? The downtime rules I know only allows training in a tool or language.
Comment: @Erik The DMG has an alternate reward for training skills as well.
Comment: @Erik they didn't say "training in a skill" tho. They said "gain proficiency with something they aren't already proficient in". A tool proficiency fits the description.
Answer: Yes, if you are a human, half-orc, or half-elf
These are all of the official ways to get a doubled proficiency on checks (like Expertise) except through the following ways:

Dwarf racial trait: Stonecunning [History of stonework only]
Bard class feature: Expertise
Cleric (Knowledge Domain) class feature: Blessing of Knowledge [two of Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion only]
Fighter (Banneret1) class feature: Royal Envoy [Persuasion only]
Ranger class feature: Natural Explorer [Intelligence and Wisdom checks related to favored terrain only]
Rogue class feature: Expertise
Rogue (Scout) class feature: Survivalist [Nature and Survival only]
Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline) class feature: Dragon Ancestor [Charisma checks with dragons only]
Prodigy feat

1: This is the generic name for the Purple Dragon Knight found in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
So how to train it?
The Dungeon Master's Guide (Chapter 7) offers an alternate reward called Training where, as a GM, you can reward quests or the like with:

special training ...
A character who agrees to training as a reward must spend downtime with the trainer (see chapter 6 for more information on downtime activities). In exchange, the character is guaranteed to receive a special benefit. Possible training benefits include the following:

The character gains inspiration daily at dawn for 1d4 + 6 days.
The character gains proficiency in a skill.
The character gains a feat.

(emphasis mine) So if you are awarded this Training and chose the Prodigy feat (must be human, half-orc, or half-elf), you could train to gain a feature similar to Expertise (albeit only for skills).
Answer: It sounds like you're asking whether you can acquire an Expertise-like effect (i.e., adding twice your proficiency bonus when using a particular skill/tool/etc.) purely through the Training downtime activity, spending only time and money (plus whatever narrative is required to acquire a trainer) rather than feats, class features, and so on.
There are two things called 'training' in the rules.  One is the downtime activity listed in Xanathar's Guide (p.134), where you can spend gold and downtime to gain proficiency with a language or tool. This does not provide a mechanic for gaining new skills or feats, nor anything like Expertise.
The other is a non-treasure reward listed in the DMG (p.231), which can get you a new skill proficiency or a feat, among other things, at the cost of training time alone (no gold required, as it's a reward in lieu of treasure). While it doesn't specifically have a way to directly give you Expertise, the listed benefits of Training are only suggested possible rewards, so the DM could certainly have the 'expertise' effect be the benefit of this form of training.  If you meet the prerequisites and the DM allows it, you could also gain that effect by acquiring the Prodigy feat (though that seems like a very roundabout way to get there since the DM could simply grant Expertise as the training reward).
Expertise could also be a valid reward to get as a Blessing (DMG p.228) or in a custom magic item (make sure it requires attunement so the party can't just trade it around), but that's going a long way from the 'mechanic similar to training' you requested.


Would it be possible to convert low-end ASICs designed for mining Bitcoin into Litecoin mining rigs?

Question: My friend and I have been discussing trying to mine Bitcoins or an altcoin. We've come to the conclusion that at the current difficulty one gigahash per second Litecoin mining will net ~$5 USD a day. Now, there are some low-end Bitcoin ASICs out there (such as ASICMiner Block Erupters which get 333 MH/s) that would literally take years with the current Bitcoin difficulty to regain the cost of the machine mining Bitcoin. Would it be possible to configure an ASIC of this type to mine Litecoin? Would the hardware be capable of supporting that?
Answer: Nope, ASIC implies a physically designed chip only meant for doing 1 thing. And bitcoin ASICs are only capable of SHA hashing while litecoin demands scrypt hashing.
Answer: No. The hardware would be ineffective, as it is designed to only calculate sha256. Try a different sha256 coin and convert it to Litecoin.


How do you win the zombies mode in Call of Duty Black ops

Question: The zombies game in Black ops (FPS one, not the top one) seems to have one obvious goal at the beginning: Restore the power. I've looked around the net and not seen any explanation of whether this is all you need to win or whether it then gets worse from there or what... Can anybody explain the progression of the game? are there limited rooms? Is there a win condition? Or do you just see how far you can go before being taken down?
Answer: The goal is to see how long you can last. Turning the power on just gives you access to fun toys around the map like traps and guns and whatever.
Answer: Zombie mode is a strange game. The only winning move is not to play
Ultimately, you will lose to the horde. The point is simply to see how long you will last. TUrning on the power activates the power up
Answer: Winning is not always achieved at finishing something; winning usually in the form of enjoyment. For this game, to be able to achieve that, you must play cooperatively. Don't do something stupid that would make you overrun by the zombies or piss-off your team-mates just like what those think they were already "Pros" on this game.
Always try to communicate with others and observe from those who already know this game.
Try to come-up with a good strategy and don't get in the way of other players. ^_^


Which meat is halal and which is not in Islam?

Question: Which meat is halal and which is haram in Islam? Which specific animals are allowed to be eaten? Also which are factors that distinguish the halal meat? Is it only the procedure (zabiha) that makes the meat halal?
Comment: Very nice question. Every islam follower must know this
Comment: Duplicate of [What are the foods forbidden for Muslims to eat and the reason?](https://islam.stackexchange.com/q/1159/17163) perhaps?
Answer: As a brief answer, haram meat creatures are divided into several categories (in general):

All of the sea creatures which do not have scales.
Among land creatures, pigs, dogs, predatory creatures which have
sharp teeth and claws and talons, like lions, foxes, rabbits, wolves,
elephants and so on are considered as haram. However all sorts of
sheep, camel,, deer, cow, goat and wild donkeys are considered as
halal, and on the other hand, horse and domestic donkeys are makruh.
Birds which flap their wings less and glide more than they flap are
considered as haram and birds which flap their wings more than they
glide while flying are considered as halal.
All of the insects are considered haram except for locusts.

As more detailed answer:

In general, haram meat creatures are divided into several categories:
  A. Sea Creatures: Fish that have scales are the only type of halal sea
  creatures. Other sea creatures and fish are haram.1 B. Land
  creatures are divided into two categories, wild and domestic: Domestic
  Land Creatures: Among all domestic land creatures; sheep, cow and
  camel are halal, but eating horse and donkey meat is makruh and the
  makruhness of horsemeat is less than other makruh meat. The rest of
  domestic land creatures such as dogs, cats, etc. are haram. Wild Land
  Creatures: Deer, cow and mountain goat and wild donkey are all halal
  and eating the meat of wild predatory animals that are predatory in
  essence, have strong and sharp nails, claws and fangs such as, lions,
  leopards, cheetahs, wolves, or animals with less sharper fangs such
  as, foxes and hyenas as well as rabbits, even though they are not part
  of the predatory category, are considered haram. Also insects and
  reptiles, such as snakes, mice, lizards, hedgehogs, fleas, lice, etc.;
  the examples for which are uncountable, are all haram. Animals who
  have undergone maskh (metamorphosis) such as, elephants, monkeys,
  bears, etc.[2] are haram as well and the reason why is a tradition
  narrated from the Prophet (A.S.).[3] C. Birds: Halal meat birds have
  two indications, making anything else other than that haram:
  1. Birds that flap their wings more than they glide while flying are halal; but birds that glide and spread their wings more while flying
  in the air instead of flapping their wings are haram.
  2. Birds with a corp, gizzards and spurs at the back of their feet are halal. (Note: Birds with sharp claws such as eagles, hawks, falcons,
  etc. are haram.)[4] D. Insects: All insects are haram.[5] (Note: If a
  locust is caught by hand or any other means, it is halal after
  dying.)[6] Eating halal meat creatures is sometimes haram:
  1. If a creature has fed on a najis substance: An animal that has fed on human feces.[7] However, eating najis substances other than human
  feces does not make it haram.[8] An animal is considered haram for
  feeding on human feces when the sole thing it has fed on has been
  human feces and nothing else.[9] (Note: An animal that feeds on a
  najis substance will be pure and halal to eat once it undergoes
  istibra'.)[10]
  2. Being the object of intercourse by a human.[11] In a tradition Imam Ali (A.S.) says: "Eating the meat of an animal that has been
  penetrated by a person is haram."[12]
  3. An animal that suckles the milk of a female pig to such an extent that its flesh and bones grow from it and gain strength is haram.[13]
1 Imam Khomeini, Tahrir al-Wasilah, vol. 2, pg. 137, book of foods
  and drinks, issue 2; al-Mukhtasar al-Nafi', pg. 251; Sharayi'
  al-Islam, pg. 169. [2] Ibid. [3] Jawahir al-Kalām , vol. 36, 294. [4]
  Tawdih al-Masa'il (annotated by Imam Khomeini), vol. 2, pg. 594, the
  rulings on foods and drinks; Tahrir al-Wasilah, vol. 2, pg. 139, issue
  8. [5] Tawdih al-Masa'il (annotated by Imam Khomeini), vol. 2, pg. 603. [6] Tawdih al-Masa'il (annotated by Imam Khomeini), vol. 2, pg. 593, issue 2622. [7] Tahrir al-Wasilah, vol. 2, pg. 140, issue 15. [8]
  Jawahir al-Kalām , vol. 36, pg. 271. [9] Wasa'il al-Shiah, vol. 24,
  chapter 24 of the chapters on haram foods and drinks, hadith 2, pg.
  160. [10] Tawdih al-Masa'il (annotated by Imam Khomeini), vol. 2, pg. 568, issue 2583. [11] Tawdih al-Masa'il (annotated by Imam Khomeini),
  vol. 2, pg. 601, issue 2632. [12] Wasa'il al-Shiah, vol. 24, pg. 170,
  hadith 3. [13] Tawdih al-Masa'il (annotated by Imam Khomeini), vol. 2,
  pg. 69, issue 86.

Reference:
www.islamquest.net
Answer: [ The following is according to Hanafi school of thought of the Sunnis ]

Meat is halal when it is of a permitted animal and is killed by Dhabiha, which is the Islamic ritual slaughter. The (brief) essential conditions of Dhabiha are:

Must be done by a Muslim or Kitabee
Allah's name must be pronounced while cutting. Forgetting is excusable but not intentionally omitting it.
An incision should be made in the throat, cutting four of the major vessels: Carotid artery, Jugular Vein, Windpipe and Esophagus. The spine should not be cut until the animal is dead.

Cattle (Sheep, Goats, Cows and Camels) are halal, as long as they are slaughtered Islamically.

احلت لكم بهيمة الانعام الا ما يتلى عليكم
Lawful for you are the animals of grazing livestock39:6 except for that
  which is recited to you.
Quran 5:1

Pigs are haram.

حرمت عليكم الميتة والدم ولحم الخنزير
Prohibited to you are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine
Quran 5:3

Animals which evoke repulsion and consume filth and impurities are haram. These include insects, scavengers, rodents, reptiles etc.

ويحل لهم الطيبات ويحرم عليهم الخبايث
makes lawful to them the good things and prohibits for them
  Al-Khaba'ith (impure things)
Quran 7:157

نهى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم عن اكل الجلالة والبانها
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) prohibited eating the animal which feeds
  on filth and drinking its milk.
Sunan Abu Daud

Predatory animals are haram. Hanafis include Elephants in this as they use their tusks to attack.

نهى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم عن كل ذي ناب من السباع
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) prohibited the eating of all fanged beasts of
  prey
Sahih Muslim, Book of Hunting and Slaughter

Predatory birds which hunt with talons are haram.

نهى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ... وعن كل ذي مخلب من الطير
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) prohibited the eating of ... all the birds
  having talons.
Sahih Muslim, Book of Hunting and Slaughter

Chicken are halal when they are domesticated and fed on grain or pure feed.

عن ابي موسى ـ يعني الاشعري ـ رضى الله عنه ـ قال رايت النبي صلى الله
  عليه وسلم ياكل دجاجا
Narrated Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari: I saw the Prophet (ﷺ) eating
  chicken.
Sahih Bukhari

Fish are halal. According to the Hanafis all other aquatic animals are haram. According to the Malikis and Shafis all animals living purely in water are halal.

احل لكم صيد البحر
Lawful to you is game from the sea ...
Quran 5:96

Locusts are halal, when they feed on grain.

غزونا مع النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم سبع غزوات او ستا، كنا ناكل معه
  الجراد
We participated with the Prophet (ﷺ) in six or seven Ghazawat, and we
  used to eat locusts with him.
Sahih Bukhari, Book of Slaughter and Hunting

Donkeys are haram. The Hanafis and Malikis take Horses to be Makruh, the Shafis consider them halal.

والانعام خلقها  لكم فيها دفء ومنافع ومنها تاكلون
And the grazing livestock He has created for you; in them is
  warmth and [numerous] benefits, and from them you eat.
والخيل والبغال والحمير لتركبوها وزينة  ويخلق ما لا تعلمون
And [He created] the horses, mules and donkeys for you to ride
  and [as] adornment. And He creates that which you do not know.
Quran 16:5 & Quran 16:8

نهى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم عن لحوم الحمر الاهلية
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) forbade the eating of donkey-meat.
Sahih Bukhari, Book of Slaughter and Hunting

Rabbits are permitted.

قال انفجنا ارنبا بمر الظهران، فسعوا عليها حتى لغبوا، فسعيت عليها حتى
  اخذتها، فجيت بها الى ابي طلحة، فبعث الى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم
  بوركها وفخذيها فقبله.
We provoked a rabbit at Marr Az-Zahran till it started jumping. My
  companions chased it till they got tired. But I alone ran after it and
  caught it and brought it to Abu Talha. He sent both its legs to the
  Prophet who accepted them.
Sahih Bukhari, Book of Slaughter and Hunting

References and further info:
Hidayah, [ english translation  ]
Radd al Muhtar
Comment: Can you give a source for Malikis excluding Eel of being halal? هو الطهور ماؤه والحل ميتته https://www.sunnah.com/urn/500420 was quoted among my first lessons at school! See also https://www.sunnah.com/urn/510640


What is the meaning of "poor in spirit" in Matthew 5:3

Question:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. - KJV Matthew 5:3

How can the "poor in spirit" get the kingdom of heaven? Is there a similar usage else where?
Comment: I bet many of Jesus' audience at the time had just the same questions!
Comment: As an aside, this is normally understood to be a Matthean addition considering the more plain reading in Luke's parallel. However, the point still stands.
Comment: This is the link to my discussion about this verse on B-Greek:  https://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=157#p582
Answer: Poor in spirit means that you feel you have no moral riches and are in need.  You feel you need 'spiritual' life. 'Poor' (πτωχός) used in this verse means 'reduced to being a beggar'.  This makes sense and we can confirm its meaning by comparing other statements of Jesus, for he often said the same things in many ways.
One good match that seems to bring light to the phrase is:

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (NIV Mark 2:16-17)

Those who feel they are sinful or 'morally sick' and so cry out to Jesus to be saved, are 'poor in spirit' thus they are the ones and only ones that inherit God's kingdom. Those who are self righteous are morally confidant and rich, these Jesus can not save.
This makes sense that Jesus would make this the first attitude of a Christian because it is by being poor in spirit or 'reduced to being a beggar'. That you actually 'begin' the Christian life with this explains why it is the first be-attitude. It also fits and explains the second attitude of mourning which is the other side of the same coin. It naturally follows for a Christian once recognizing his poverty due to sin, he will mourn on account of it.
God will make happy, or 'bless' such people with inexpressible spiritual riches and joy. This is the core message of the gospel.
Comment: I am not sure that the core message of the gospel is to bring happiness.
Comment: @libertas: We have to be careful about the way it's phrased, but John Piper makes [a strong case](http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/the-happiness-of-god-foundation-for-christian-hedonism) for that position.  Welcome to _Biblical Hermeneutics_, by the way.
Comment: @JonEricson Thanks for the welcome, I think that happiness is something that can come and go on this earth, joy of course is a fruit of the Spirit. But the *core* message of the gospel, that is, the ultimate cosmic purpose, is the marriage of Christ and the Church after the destruction of earth, happiness will be there for sure, but it's far from the main point.
Comment: @libertas: If you'd like to continue this conversation, let's do it in [The Library](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/1505/the-library).  (I don't mean to cut the discussion off, but it's getting off-topic. ;-)
Comment: @JonEricson agreed, I'll drop by sometime soon :)
Comment: @libertas - By the way you took my words a little too literally - in a court of law I would probably say 'a core' not 'the core', 'or approaching the core' - Of course Christ himself is 'the core' and all our happines depends on his glory in it, and our faith in him - but recognizing this is being 'poor in spirit'. Cheers.
Comment: @Mike I figured as much, and good point, prior to rebirth all are spiritually dead.
Answer: There are a few presumptions we have to put into question.
Blissful are the poor in spirit.

Which is the cause and which is the effect?

The blissful are consequently poor in spirit?
Or, are the poor in spirit consequently blissful?
Is blissfulness a reward for being poor in spirit?
Or is being poor in spirit the reward for being blissful

Perhaps, more accurately, the poor in spirit are the two sides of the same coin. The apparent duality of particle and wave properties of a photon even though they are but a singularity. The seeming duality of works vs faith, even though they are but a singularity in phenomenon.
Will this perception of mutual predisposition descend into arguments of predestination. It should not. They are the spontaneous rewards and consequences of each other. Just like saying "bright is the sunlight". It's an observation.
Diogenes' apparent perception that Civilisation's pomposity is a degenerative trait. Pomposity has no useful function to the purpose and existence of the human race. Pomposity unnecessarily consumes resources that could otherwise further fuel the progress of the human race. One should deny oneself the unnecessary luxuries and rituals in order to attain progress.
If you see someone in need, provide help. If you see someone's feet smelling wash them - don't wait for a ritual to begin, don't wait for a special holiday to do it. If you see a package fallen off the supermarket shelf, pick it up and put it back onto the shelf. Don't wait for the supermarket associate to have to do it themselves.
But, I'm afraid that some unfortunate souls may have turned the washing of feet into a pompous ritual.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

People who have found singularity in being poor in spirit and being blissful, who have found the singularity of having faith and exhibiting works have already created the kingdom of heaven.
As Alexander the Great supposedly said, that if he were not Alexander he would be Diogenes. Apparently, Alexander knew that Diogenes was blissful in the heaven that he demonstrated in his style of living to the people around him, that they too could create to find the true happiness within themselves.
Diogenes denying himself of unneccesary luxuries and unneccesary burdens of so-called "civilization" to eliminate the clutter in one's life, to be able to enjoy the core values of life and be blissful. And found the kingdom of heaven therewith.
Being poor in spirit affords oneself the neglect of expectations from neighbours and friends or strangers, allowing the freedom to pursue one's course of life unhindered - and that is bliss.
The argument of predestination is a skewed view due to a misaligned perception of predisposition. Predestination's validity depends on the concept of temporal sequence and consequence. If time did not exist or existed in another way, the Calvinist would never have perceive the unneccesary concept of predestination. The term "predispostion" would be replaced by the term "mutual disposition".
The perception of time is due to the 2nd law of Thermodynamics. That our perception of consequentiality must progress in the path of increasing entropy. Throw away all the unneccesary burdens of "civilization", and then justce will flow as a naturally flowing stream as time flows towards increasing entropy. And then you will clearly see the interplay and balance between the potential energy of faith with the kinetic energy of work. And then you would not have to worry if either works or faith is a predestined path towards heaven.
And you would realise that one asymptotic day the increase of entropy will come to a rest - at which point you will achieve the nirvana of Sabbath and you will see your Creator. And being meek is to dispense away with non-necessities and non-essentials, like clouds blocking your view of the stars, to allow you to look at that point in "time" straight into the face of your Creator.
Blissful are the peacemakers, theirs is the enjoyment of the land wherein they dwell.

The whole beatitudes is a singularity of mutual natural response blissfulness and an existence of heaven. Not of any mono-directional vectors of consequentiality. But a whole continuum where each verse is but an intrapolative dot of a sphere. Undeterred by the consequence of time.
Perhaps, my explanation is a little pompous but I feel the allegories were essential.
Answer: Yes, it is those people who do not mistake material wealth (kinghood) for spiritual wealth (priesthood). Priestly obedience must always come first (Abel before Cain). We believe (as obedient, priestly servants), and then we understand (as kingly sons).
"For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, ublind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and wwhite garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, uso that you may see." Rev 3.
Answer: John 6:47-63 records Jesus as saying to his liseners:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
...
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

Jesus, here, distinguishes two aspects of being -- flesh and spirit, and he explains that the words he speaks are food for the spirit, such that whoever consumes them has eternal life, i.e. HAS apprehended the kingdom of heaven, and WILL BE be raised up on the last day.
With regard to whether Matthew has made an addition or not, the form οι πτωχοι is only found in Matthew 5:3 and Luke 6:20, so we can pretty safely say that what is assumed (omitted) by Luke, was stated by Matthew, i.e. that οι πτωχοι are "the poor in spirit"
Who are they? They are those who hunger for Jesus' words. The ones prepared to stay to enquire about a parable, or a hard saying like "Whoever eats my flesh ....". The ones who would hear the Gospel preached and not be offended by it (Matthew 11:5-6), allowing it to find its way to the good ground at the core of their being, such that it would move them to walk a new and fruitful path (Matthew 13:23).
Answer: Update
Note: Since writing the answer below (marked "Original Answer" in the heading) I came across what appears to be the background for the Beatitudes. While I believe my original answer is still relevant I believe this Update section, with the allusion to Isaiah 61 is the more important insight for understanding the Beatitudes.
Before the Beatitudes are given Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61 to explain his mission (or at least one facet):

[Luk 4:14-21 KJV] (14) And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. (15) And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. (16) And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. (17) And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, (18) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (19) To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (20) And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. (21) And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

Notice that the theme of the chapter is the anointing that the Messiah receives in order to be a comforter to God's faithful troubled people by announcing that the day of their liberation, vindication and gladness has officially arrived:

1 The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me,
  because the Lord has chosen me.
  He has commissioned me to encourage the poor,
  to help the brokenhearted,
  to decree the release of captives,
  and the freeing of prisoners,
  2 to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor,
  the day when our God will seek vengeance,
  to console all who mourn,
  3 to strengthen those who mourn in Zion,
  by giving them a turban, instead of ashes,
  oil symbolizing joy, instead of mourning,
  a garment symbolizing praise, instead of discouragement.

Among other things he is alluding to the new covenant which will make of these elect Jews of Zion (Jerusalem) "trees planted by the LORD to reveal his splendor":

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
  trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor.
  4 They will rebuild the perpetual ruins
  and restore the places that were desolate;
  they will reestablish the ruined cities,
  the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

Prosperity and a double inheritance

5 "Foreigners will take care of your sheep;
  foreigners will work in your fields and vineyards.
  6 You will be called, 'the Lord's priests,
  servants of our God.'
  You will enjoy the wealth of nations
  and boast about the riches you receive from them.
  7 Instead of shame, you will get a double portion;
  instead of humiliation, they will rejoice over the land they receive.
  8 For I, the Lord, love justice and hate robbery and sin.
  I will repay them because of my faithfulness;
  **I will make a permanent covenant with them
  ...
  11 For just as the ground produces its crops
  and a garden yields its produce,
  so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance to grow,
  and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations.
  NET: New English Translation ↪
  NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
[Mat 5:3-5 KJV]

(3) Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(4) Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
(5) Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
So to answer the question:
"Blessed are those in a desperate situation, spiritually".
Why?
"Because yours is the kingdom of heaven".
Jesus' mandate was to announce that the time of God's favor had arrived and that God, through his Anointed would reverse things, making the weak strong and the strong weak, the rich poor and the poor rich, etc.:

[Jas 1:9-10 NLT] (9) Believers who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. (10) And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field.
[Jas 2:5 KJV] (5) Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

Hence the pattern:
Blessed are ye...
Woe unto ye...

Original Answer
The various translations seem to have this problem: The translation is good Greek but bad English. IE: It is legitimate Greek but what does it mean? Where's the OT background? Or a confirmatory NT usage?
The Outline of Biblical Usage suggests this, which if the Greek is sound brings it more directly into the narrative of the whole of scripture:

destitute of wealth of learning and intellectual culture which the schools afford (men of this class most readily give themselves up to Christ's teaching and proved them selves fitted to lay hold of the heavenly treasure)

Perhaps the reference to "in the spirit" was deemed necessary because not every poor person is thereby "saved" but rather he is speaking of those whose minds and attitudes are those of the poor, ashamed even to speak. In both Deuteronomy and Ezekiel Israel is chided because God found them poor, prodigally enriched them and then watched as they became "fat" and proud:

[Deu 32:12-16 KJV] 12 [So] the LORD alone did lead him, and [there was] no strange god with him. 13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; 14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. 15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered [with fatness]; then he forsook God [which] made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange [gods], with abominations provoked they him to anger.
[Eze 16:49-50 CSB] 49 "Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security, but didn't support the poor and needy. 50 "They were haughty and did detestable acts before me, so I removed them when I saw this.

This then links with, which Luke's version is very friendly with since he just says "Blessed are the poor":

[Luk 6:20-21 CSB] 20 Then looking up at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours.  21 Blessed are you who are now hungry, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh.
[Jas 2:1-9 KJV] 1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, [the Lord] of glory, with respect of persons. 2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; 3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: 4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? 5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? 6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? 7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? 8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: 9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
[Mat 11:16-26 CSB] 16 "To what should I compare this generation? It's like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to other children: 17 "We played the flute for you, but you didn't dance; we sang a lament, but you didn't mourn! 18 "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon! ' 19 "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! ' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." 20 Then he proceeded to denounce the towns where most of his miracles were done, because they did not repent: 21 "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago. 22 "But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 "And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until today. 24 "But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you." 25 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. 26 "Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure.

So for me the bottom line seems to be:
"Blessed are the poor in attitude for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"
Or something close to that. IE: Basically I'm agreeing with the most straightforward reading and the translations as far as the grammar goes but interpreting it a tad differently where the "spirit" is the "attitude". Read that way it seems consistent with:

Greek grammar and word usage (I think)
Luke's version
other references to the poor in Matthew
Moses and the prophets
James, etc. when speaking of the poor

BDAG has this usage for πνεῦμα:

ⓒ spiritual state, state of mind, disposition ἐν ἀγάπῃ πνεύματί τε πραΰτητος with love and a gentle spirit 1 Cor 4:21; cp. Gal 6:1. τὸ πν. τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν Eph 4:23 (s. νοῦς 2a). ἐν τῷ ἀφθάρτῳ τοῦ ἡσυχίου πνεύματος with the imperishable (gift) of a quiet disposition 1 Pt 3:4.
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 833). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

If "attitude" doesn't work then I would resort to "destitute in their spirit" though that doesn't communicate that much to me, personally.
Answer: I believe you have found the key in Isaiah 61:1:

the Lord has anointed me to deliver good news to humble people (GW)

the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor (ESV)

The Hebrew word used here has a wider area of meaning compared to English "poor". The BDB dictionary explains: עָנָו n.m. poor, afflicted, humble, meek.
The word was often used to describe orphans and widows because they were in need of help and were willing to acknowledge their need and humble enough to ask for and receive help
We now know that Jesus as a Rabbi made his speeches in Hebrew and the original Matthew probably used this very word. The LXX translated the word with the Greek πτωχός. For this word, BDAG has two senses that are relevant here:

dependent on others for support and 2. being thrust on divine resources

So what Jesus is saying is that people who are humble and acknowledge their need for help in the spiritual realm are Makarios (Blessed=in a good position), because they are the ones who will believe in Jesus, accept his forgiveness and enter the Kingdom of God.
Luke apparently just followed the Greek Septuagint tradition and said "poor" (πτωχός), but the one who translated Hebrew Matthew into Greek was an excellent translator, so he understood that the word "poor" alone would be understood in terms of money, and the spiritual and humble aspect would be lost, so he added "in spirit" to help with the correct understanding.


Would a National Army of mercenaries be a feasible idea?

Question: Would it be practical for a small, largely isolated country to have a drafted army to be hired out to other countries as guards for caravans or a policing force? The soldiers would all serve around 4 years, not counting training. How would this work... would the patrons pay the rulers of the country or the soldiers themselves? Is this a practical idea for a nation with fewer resources to get money? (the Country from which the mercenaries come originally is peaceful, and doesn't need a standing army beyond a small policing force.) Any ideas of what would keep an ordinary low ranked soldier loyal to the original country if he's not being paid directly? (Besides fanatical nationalism) How would this work in regards to international relationships?
Comment: I was thinking the French Foreign Legion.
Comment: Feasible? Yes. Smart? Only if you are richer than your enemies and the mercenaries aren't too gullible (like being offered control of the country if they do X for an opposing country).
Comment: So like, any protectorate of the US. Or the Pinkertons, Blackwater, Halliburton... ? The wild wild west basically was another country, and those other two do exactly what you're talking about, if you pay them money.
Comment: @JustinThyme But I don't think they operate during the day when a lot of battles are normally fought. :P
Comment: And if the soldiers can't operate armed within their own borders, or have families who could be at risk if they went rough? They're not richer, but they are more stable, since the other countries frequently have civil wars.
Comment: McKinsey Military Assistance Corporation  Elizabeth Moon Vattta's War It would b a professional force, career soldiers.
Comment: The Nights Templar
Comment: This is also the plot of the video game Metal Gear series, where the antagonist seceded from all governments to form an independent nation of mercenaries where soldiers could fight for the causes that they chose rather than be told by useless bureaucrats who to fight and kill while sitting from the comforts of their offices.
Comment: Unless I am mistaken Israel still requires mandatory military service of all citizens.
Comment: Just want to point out that in a medieal-ish world draft/conscription cannot work, you need 90% of population working the fields, and some more for other crafts.
Answer: This practice was done all the time in Medieval Europe, the most famous being the Swiss Guard which was formed in the late 15th century and were stationed as guards in foreign courts until 1847 amendment to the Swiss Constitution outlawed all foreign military service with exception to the Pontifical Swiss Guard (The Swiss Guard that protects the Pope to this very day).  The Swiss also had mercenary regiments in foreign armies and they were considered to be the best until 1515 when Germany's Landsknechte contracted to France beat the Swiss mercenaries in the Battle of Marignano of 1515.
In fact, if you're a US questioner, you should know that one of the most famous actions in the Revolutionary War was taken to defeat German Hessian Mercenaries.  Washington's crossing of the Delaware and subsequent Battle of Trenton was to catch a large contingent of Hessians sleeping off a Christmas Party and was so successful, the Continental Army filled their re-enlistment commitments that were about to expire in the next week and cripple their war effort.  The fact that the Hessians' recruitment by the British to such a degree that they represented 1/4 of their fighting force in the Revolutionary War was a really sore point for a lot of Colonials (From their point of view, Britain had hired Germans to kill British) that it was listed as one of the 27 grievances in the Declaration of Independence (The Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, but the Colonists weren't fighting for Independence until 1776...). The Hessians were one of, if not, the final straws that made the Colonials settle on full independence from Britain, rather than one of several other options.
Edit:  It should be pointed out that mercenaries were used as supplemental forces, rarely full armies.  Machiavelli pointed out the ups and downs of using them, and favored that their use be carefully watched.
Comment: It's not just the Swiss, but the Swiss just have a reputation for doing it well... There were lots of small kingdoms and republics in Central Europe (Modern Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy) that exported mercenaries as it allowed them to raise an army, train them, and not overtax their smaller economies compared to the larger European Powers.
Comment: ...I love learning details about things I think I know really well already.
Comment: Yeah.  When I was reading the question, I was thinking, "Hey, aren't you describing Switzerland?"
Comment: I should also point out that Switzerland has a modern standing army and air force, and Swiss citizens may not join foreign militaries UNLESS they are part of the Pontificate Guard OR they have dual citizenship with the country they are joining.
Answer: This sounds rather similar to the Gurkha soldiers;

The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (/ˈɡɜːrkə, ˈɡʊər-/) with endonym Gorkhali
  (Nepali: गोरखाली) are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent of
  Nepalese nationality and ethnic Nepalis of Indian nationality
  recruited for the British Army, Nepalese Army, Indian Army, Gurkha
  Contingent Singapore, Gurkha Reserve Unit Brunei, UN peacekeeping
  force and war zones around the world.

As to whether it is practical depends on so many factors I cant list all of them. Personally I think the Gurkha Contingent in Singapore is an excellent example.
The Gurkha contingent has its own living area within Singapore and are prevented from integrating into the society at large due to their use as a neutral peace-keeping force. At the end of their tenure, as they are temporary, the soldiers must go back to their country.
The temporary aspect is likely what keeps them loyal to their own country, and the reason many enroll to be part of the contingent is due to it being

considered highly honorable to serve as a GC member back in Nepal

As well as

The good income, their way of life, and affordable education for their children (or future children) are further draws.

I hope this helps and you can find much more information through the links!
Answer: The United Nations peacekeeping forces work kind of like this.
Of 106,576 UN peacekeeping personnel...

Bangladesh, Ethiopa, India, Pakistan and Rwanda currently contribute
  the largest number of peacekeepers - having a share of 36 per cent of
  the UN's force. The US and Russia, meanwhile, only contribute around
  70 personnel each, and the UK contributes a further 289. This takes
  the total for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to
  just 4,438. These countries have significantly larger defense budgets
  than the countries topping the list, although Washington pays for more
  than 28 per cent of the UN peacekeeping budget.
  The developing countries who donate large numbers to UN peacekeeping can use it as a source of income, helping explain their large
  contributions.

Bold emphasis mine.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/11898603/UN-peacekeepers-How-many-personnel-does-each-country-contribute.html
If sending your country's soldiers to work for an outside entity and getting pay in return makes them mercenaries, then these UN peacekeeping personnel are mercenaries.
Comment: Well, if they're not there just to keep peace... i.e. if one country paid them to fight another, or to support their military in an invasion?
Answer: It could be a system similar to the Dorsai of Gordon Dickson, which was actually based loosely on medieval Swiss practices.  The Swiss were notable mercenaries through the Renaissance, getting shout outs from Machiavelli and Shakespeare.
It doesn't have to be a mandatory thing for it to be an important export to the country.  If being a soldier is a good way for a second or third son to get enough money for his own farm/mill/bakery/hookah parlor then there will be lines out the door.  Men in their late teens/early 20s are infamous for being aggressive and short sighted.
People who enjoy warring and are good at it could come back and use their earnings to recruit younger men into squads of their own.  After a couple of successful campaigns, their recruits could afford to front money for recruits of their own as well as pay a percentage up.
Eventually, it becomes time to retire to the simple life selling cuckoo clocks and chocolates and telling stories of that time that Tex was confused about what size coin to give the prostitute.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_mercenaries
Answer: As hszmv mentioned, Machiavelli strongly advised against using mercenaries in his theoretical work "Il Principe" since they are in their essence unreliable. It is of course much more comfortable to pay mercenaries than to train your own troops, but in the end you can never be sure that mercenaries will actually fulfill their promise. In times of peace they will hang around and gladly take your money but when the tide turns for the worse you cannot be sure of their loyalty.
They are only in it for the money, which means they can always be paid off by your enemy. And even if this does not happen, battle morale of such troops can always be expected to be worse than that of troops with family/financial/etc. ties to your realm. When a mercenary is faced with the option to either fight and possibly die or flee and take the money with him, the outcome will be the latter one in many cases.
For these reasons Machiavelli stated that a good ruler should always field his own army, even though the initial investment is high.
Comment: After serving in far off places for a decade or two, what loyalty would a merc have toward his nation of birth?
Comment: Yes, but i'm asking the question from the Mercenary's country's POV... not the people who hire them... whatever the consequences my be.
Answer: Already existed and it was way more awesome than you imagine.
The city state of Urbino under the rule of Federico da Montefeltro in what is today Italy was famous for having the best mercenaries on the planet. Education and loyalty made them amazing, to the point eventually places started paying them preemptively just NOT to fight on the other side. They made so much money this way it supported one of the best universities in the world at the time.
It worked for 3 reasons, all interrelated.

Federico da Montefeltro was undefeated in his entire life.

they were 100% honorable with contracts, if you paid them that was binding and no amount of money would change that.

Federico inspired amazing loyalty in his men by paying pensions, widows, orphans, and providing medical services. He was also loved by his populace.


Missing words in parshas zachor or parshas parah

Question: If someone didn't hear words (or perhaps even an entire verse) from Parshas Zachor or Parshas Parah, are they yotzee b'dieved? I'm specifically asking in this case since Parshas Zachor is d'oraisa and there are some who say Parshas Parah is also d'oraisa. However I suppose the question could apply as well to Parshas Shekalim or Parshas HaChodesh.
Comment: There __might__ be some who think Parshas Parah is d'oraisa. We've never actually found anyone who said that.
Comment: Do you have any reason to think that someone who didn't hear something can fulfill the mitzva of hearing that thing?
Comment: The idea is the ikar
Comment: A parasha sheet I picked up at shul writes the following: "השומע פרשת זכור וחיסר כמה תיבות, כל ששמע עיקר ענין זכירת מעשה עמלק יצא ידי חובתו (הליכות שלמה)" If I had a copy of הליכות שלמה and could look it up in the primary source I would make this an answer.
Comment: @Eliyahu I have the sefer and will check, thank you!
Answer: The Rivevos Ephraim chelek 5:584:3 writes that, since if one misses one word of krias megila they are not yotzei (Mishna Brurah 690:5), accordingly it seems that certainly by parshas zachor which is a Torah obligation if one misses one word he is not yotzei: like the Sefer Mikraei Kodesh siman 7 writes, it isn't any lower than megillah. Therefore one should be careful to listen to every single word.
Comment: I'm not sure I follow his logic. By Megillah the Mitzva is to read the whole book. By Zachor the goal is to remember Amalek. If the word missed doesn't affect the remembering it's very possible you still fulfill the Mitzva. At least it's not completely obvious otherwise.
Comment: I remember seeing such an idea,but I posted an answer which is at least a written source,will try to find the other tzad


Why is Sailor Moon (2014) not airing on TV?

Question: The new Sailor Moon seems to be showing on Niconico exclusively. Why would it not air on TV, or both?
Comment: Very interesting question. A quick search of the Japanese internet suggests that nobody knows why. Some have posited that it's because the new anime is going to be a bit more risque - but that certainly hasn't stopped things like Daimidaler from airing on TV this season, so...
Comment: Since the series (being a large well-known brand) is targeted to at least 10 different languages, it makes sense to promote in in a medium that's more accessible. Additionally the deployment and scheduling cost might be substantially lower and/or more flexible (not to mention less regulation).
Answer: Like senshin mentioned, nobody really knows for sure. One possible speculation floating around is if Toei has another series on TV in July (Say, Precure or Dragon Ball Kai) they wouldn't want it to compete with Sailor Moon Crystal...but even that explanation doesn't make much sense.
Most likely, streaming Crystal on an online service such as NicoNico is the easiest way of reaching an international market, since NicoNico will be streaming SMC with 10 different subtitled languages available. Online streaming could be the easiest way for Toei to keep track of how well Crystal does (internationally and in Japan), either before creating more seasons or airing it on Japanese TV.
Comment: Sailor Moon Crystal would not likely compete with PreCure (and certainly not with the shounen Dragon Ball Kai: shoujo competes with shoujo, shounen competes with shounen; there is a strongly-marked bifurcation in Japanese kids merchandising), and it is not likely that Toei is tracking how well it does in Japan in order to decide whether to air it on Japanese TV in the future (see the reasons I explain in my answer below).
Answer: I think this is the main reason for online streaming only: Sailor Moon Crystal is not expected to make money among the Japanese, so its only hope to turn a profit is to make it available to viewers outside of Japan.
The classic anime series aired on Japanese television and garnered many fans inside of Japan, so tons of merchandise was sold to little girls.  The reboot is not airing on Japanese TV; it is streaming on a website called NicoNico Douga.
In Western countries, streaming technology like Hulu and Netflix is hugely popular.  In spite of the rest of the world's image of Japan as technologically-savvy, a large number of Japanese young adults are virtually computer and internet illiterate, only accustomed to using mobile-friendly websites on smartphones.  Among all of my college friends here in Japan, I have only met one who had heard of NicoNico, and none who have heard of Hulu even though it exists in Japan.  If not even the college crowd knows about NicoNico, I can guarantee you that the older generation and the shrinking birthrate's Japanese kids aren't aware that the reboot exists, nor would know how to access it even if they did.  The average Japanese family won't huddle around the TV set on a Saturday morning to watch the next episode of the reboot, like they did for the classic series in the 90s.  This means that the entire Japanese viewership for the reboot will be the middle-aged otaku who've stayed fans for 20 years.  Director Munehisa Sakai specifically said, "We want grown women who watched the original anime to watch this!" Well, I am a grown woman who watched the original anime and who is living in the Japan, but I really don't want to fork out to buy a monthly subscription to NicoNico just to watch 1 show that only airs 1 episode every 2 weeks. If they had wanted to attempt something of a substantial Japanese viewership without airing it on TV, they should have at least put it in the Japanese Hulu (hulu.jp), but they didn't.
The chance that the reboot will draw in new Japanese fans is unlikely.  And the chance that the legions of Japanese young adults who avidly tuned in to BSSM as kindergarteners back in the day will even realize there's a reboot is unlikely.
Consequently, the reboot is not very marketable in Japan.  Some new merchandise is being produced, but the sales numbers will be nothing like the boom in the 90s when thousands of elementary school girls across Japan were buying the costumes, transformation toys, dolls, stationary items, picture books, paper dolls, coloring books, etc.
The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon live-action TV series did air on Japanese TV and did produce a collection of merchandise marketed to little girls.  Even so, it only ran for one season: the Dark Kingdom arc.
When I first heard news of the reboot, I wondered if BSSM might possibly come back out of the woodwork and give the Pretty Cure franchise a run for its money (this would be a considerable challenge, since Japanese kids may have heard of BSSM but haven't watched it at all, whereas they've grown up on Pretty Cure, and PreCure is able to switch in and out the character types in each incarnation of the series, keeping things fresh yet familiar.  In contrast, BSSM is one long tale with the same core characters throughout, less up-to-date, and less child-friendly.  But soundly thrashing PreCure wasn't a total impossibility).  However, I can safely say that Pretty Cure is firmly holding its ground on the airwaves and on the shelves of the toy stores, electronics stores, 100 yen shops, everywhere in town.  I've only come across 20th anniversary BSSM merchandise in a clearance bin in one store.  Not even Animate, the main anime merchandise store, has any Sailor Moon Crystal merchandise in stock.
The reboot anime is 26 episodes long, period.  Those 26 episodes are scheduled to be released over the span of a year, one every other week.  The series would need to be renewed in order to run past the first story arc (Dark Kingdom) in or after 2015.  It's possible that it could get approval to be extended, BUT the situation is very different from the classic anime series' run.
If the reboot gets extended, it will need to be based on the marketability abroad: the international BSSM fan community.  How many of you are planning to import reboot merchandise from Japan within the next few months?  If you aren't, then I'd warn against expecting to see further seasons produced.


No knead bread dough looking slimy after a week

Question: I have been baking no knead bread on a regular basis for a few months now and the fresh bread gets devoured still.  I usually mix a double batch and use it throughout the week.  Sometimes, at about a week in the fridge, there is liquid at the bottom of the bucket and the dough looks very wet on the bottom (where it has been sitting in the liquid). The top looks fine.  My question is whether this is normal and fine or if the dough is being overproofed or something else going on.  When I bake the dough at this stage, it does look more dense than the previous loaves but tastes fine.  Is there something I can do to prevent this or that I should do once this happens for optimal bread? Thanks.
Answer: Flour readily absorbs water. You might try adding more flour and mixing it bit longer (yes, I know you said no need to knead bread) when you make your next batch, or you can try reducing the water amount you are using.
If you press on the dough and it doesn't push back it and the indentation remains or if it looks like it wants to collapse it is over proofed. If it is too springy it needs more time to proof.
Other factors:
Temperature can also be a factor (outside, fridge, oven, etc).
Did you change your flour? Mills change their blends seasonally so you may need to adjust or try a different brand/formulation/protein level. I've had better luck with bread flour formulations over all purpose flour.


What do you think this odd layer under wall paper may be?

Question: I'm taking down wall paper in my 1920s house. The walls are plaster/lath. At some point, the room seems to have been skim coated, primed, and then wallpapered. The wall paper has come down fairly easily: pulled down a thin layer, wetted the paper layer underneath, and then pulled down that paper layer easily. Around the radiator, however, an under-layer pulled up as well. It seems to be made out of a sturdy paper like material, with perhaps fiber-glass embedded in it? There seems to have been a skim coat put over some parts of this layer. Any ideas on what I'm looking at and how to proceed? (The vertical line in the picture is a pencil line, not a seam)
Answer: It is likely wall liner. It is a heavy plain paper that is applied prior to the outer wall paper. You could think of it as a thick coat of primer that will hide a multitude of problems. I have seen it applied over dark patterned paper so a lighter pattern can be applied with stripping the walls. I have also seen it used over the scratch coat or when the wall has a lot of repairs to give the wall a smoother appearance.
Comment: Thanks. The adhesive is loose, which allowed me to pull up the bottom part. Could I just mud over the torn edge to hide the edge? I was thinking I should put a skim coat over the exposed part on the lower right.
Comment: You will get the best appearance if you can remove it. In many case this is just too labor intensive. You may get better results using  a tool called a "wallpaper tiger" and a rented steamer.  It won't help much on the spots  covered with plaster. The places  where paper remain can be skim coated to feather the edges. Prime the plaster areas before repapering.
Comment: It might be easier and faster to put 1/4" drywall over the whole mess.


Publishing an article after a book?

Question: If I first publish an article, afterward I may publish a book containing materials from the article.
What's about the reverse: If I first publish a book does it make sense to publish its fragment as an article AFTERWARD?
Comment: Some journals require authors to declare that the article is original reasearch that has not been published elsewhere. This would of course be hard to do in your scenario.
Comment: Most publishers would not allow that.
Comment: Do you mean a fragment that is literally the same as in the book?
Comment: @Siminore: No literally the same but differing only in little details.
Comment: @Graphth I assume the question is the sentence ending with a question mark. And it will be much harder to publish papers with content that has already appeared in book form.
Answer: "If I first publish a book does it make sense to publish its fragment as an article AFTERWARD?"
Sure, why not? You might write a book for one audience, and very usefully re-publish a fragment in the form of a journal article for another audience. I have done this with some stuff buried near the end of a long textbook book aimed at beginning grad students, which colleagues are unlikely to read, but which I thought (and the journal editor thought) was interesting enough for stand-alone publication in one of the journals. And I've done things the other way around too, taken something from a book aimed at a professional audience and reworked it as an article in a publication with a more general readership. [This was techie philosophy rather than straight maths, but I'd have thought the same principles would apply.]
So I guess you'd need to think about whether you would or would not be reaching significantly different audiences. (Of course, re-publication for the sake of padding out a CV is not a good idea!)
Answer: To add to the previous answers, it's very important to realize that unless you self-publish a book or article, it is almost always the case that the publisher will hold the copyright. That will be part of the contract you sign with the publisher. That means that you can't legally extract any part of the first work for publishing elsewhere, even though you wrote it. To avoid being sued for copyright infringement in a case like this you must obtain permission from the publisher (to whom you signed over the copyright).
In my experience, book publishers are generally happy to give you permission to extract part of your book for publishing elsewhere, as long as they don't see any negative impact on the sales of the original. It's not quite as straightforward for journal publishers: they can often be quite difficult when it comes to using your article as part of a compilation.
Answer: I am not an expert on publishing.
It of course makes good sense to publish articles and then later collect all the research and publish a book covering the material. Often articles covering the same topic can change in notation and so collecting the articles and editing them into a book form can make things a lot more readable.
Could you do the reverse? You might. But from what I understand you would probably need something new. I don't think that you will get something published as an article if the main results of the article are already contained in a book. However, you might be able to do so if you add extra research.
As a sidenote: You might be able to write a survey article. But from what I have seen, these tend to be trying to collect material from a lot of articles and try to make things easier to read. They can function as a "gentle" introduction to a topic so that a new researcher doesn't have  to jump in the deep end starting with the original articles. But again, this doesn't (from what I understand) cover taking well presented material from a book and making an article out of it.

Publishing an article after a book?


Does Sotapanna have the fear of death?

Question: Does Sotapanna have the fear of death?
Recently I spoke to a monk about Sotapanna. He said the best test to understand whether someone is Sotapanna is to see whether he has fear of death.
Comment: Possibly related: [How are 'conceit' and 'identity-view' not the same?](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/9415/254)
Comment: This seems like a valid and straightforward question... I don't see it to be the same as the question linked by @chrisw The question here is simply whether a sotapanna fears death.
Comment: @yuttadhammo I don't think it's the same question (I'm not proposing to close this one), I only thought though that the topics might be related, e.g. distinguishing a deliberate and held view from a residual/habitual tendency, and "lust for existence".
Answer: There is nothing I know of about the qualities arising from sotapanna attainment that preclude the arising of fear of death. A sotapanna has eradicated wrong view of self, attachment to non-essential practices and vows, and doubt about the triple gem. Fear of death as a view would not arise I don't think, e.g. "death is fearsome", but as an emotional reaction to thoughts of death, there is no reason to think it couldn't possibly arise.  Fear, according to the Vism Maha-tika, is based on anger, which a sotapanna can still give rise to. Only an anagami is free from anger entirely.
Answer: Nakula's mother was said to be a stream-enterer, who appeared to not fear passing away (kālakiriyā; the ending of life).

Now it may be that you are thinking, 'Nakula's mother will not reach firm ground in this Doctrine & Discipline, will not attain a firm
  foothold, will not attain consolation, overcome her doubts, dispel her
  perplexity, reach fearlessness or gain independence from others with
  regard to the Teacher's message,' but you shouldn't see things in that
  way. To the extent that the Blessed One has white-clad householder
  female disciples who reach firm ground in this Doctrine & Discipline,
  attain a firm foothold, attain consolation, overcome their doubts,
  dispel their perplexity, reach fearlessness & gain independence from
  others with regard to the Teacher's message, I am one of them. If
  anyone doubts or denies this, let him go ask the Blessed One, the
  worthy one, the rightly self-awakened one who is staying among the
  Bhaggas in the Deer Park at Bhesakala Grove, near Crocodile Haunt. So
  don't be worried as you die, householder. Death is painful for one who
  is worried. The Blessed One has criticized being worried at the time
  of death."

The above said, I trust there are many who do not fear "death" ("marana"), who are not stream-enterers.
Australia's richest man, who was a gambler and who also ran wrong livelihood business of gambling, seemed to die without fear:

AWARE that he was near the end of his life, Kerry Packer, the Australian media tycoon, told doctors not to intervene and asked to be
  left to "die with dignity", it emerged yesterday. Mr Packer refused
  treatment for his failing heart and kidneys, choosing to stay at home
  in his mansion in Sydney rather than be taken to hospital for further
  dialysis and medication. "I think his words were 'This is my time',"
  said Alan Jones, a broadcaster and friend, after visiting his family.

When I was 14 years old, I was very close to dying by drowning, but my mind had no fear, but i was not a stream-enterer. When I was about to die & lose consciousness, the only & last thought of my brain was my mother would get angry at me. I think this shows I feared my mother more than I feared death.
Answer: I am answering this with most respect to the Monk you had conversation with.  Hey might have spoken from personal experience which may not be entirely correct (as we all).  Only Buddha has that quality.  I think some Sotapanna may or may not fear death.  Buddha was the only one who could say things with absolute certainty because he was mindful of every word he said.  As far as I know, Buddha did not use fear of death as a measuring tool to evaluate your own accomplishment.
Example: Mahanama sutta, when Mahanama Sakaya was contemplating death and was uncertain of his destination after death. He later shared his weariness with Buddha, which Buddha responded with "Have no fear, Mahanama! Have no fear! Your death will not be a bad one.."
and if you look at upadanaparitassananca sutta, only those without Upadana have no fear of anything.
my understanding:
upadanaparitassananca = upadana (clinging) + paritassana (worry, excitement, fear)
anupadanaaparitassananca = anupadana (non-clinging) + aritassananca (no worries, no excitement, no fear)
Upadanaparitassananca sutta
only those without clinging (to 5 skandas) have no fear of anything.
Mahanama Sutta
Answer: Only an arihath will have no fear of death. A sothapanna can intalectualize the fact that he/she is never going to hell after death and as a result not worry about it. But he/she will be attached to many things and will fear loosing them at death.
Answer: For those who fear growing old and death, what would be a well thought out response be? This is a question that cries out for a mature, seasoned response as scared of growing old is a nagging kind of a fear. It is not like the fear for one's future, one's financial situation, one's separation from a loved one, of having a terrible accident. These are false fears that never will happen. But death is inevitable and the fear of it is very real when people are possessive of their bodies.
There's this old gospel song, "When I'm growing old and feeble, When the storms of life are raging, Stand by me". Also, the key anthem of the Civil Rights Movement - the song "We Will Overcome" comes to mind. Unlike praying for this, or hoping for such, we can look to the scriptures for some advice as to what concrete steps that we can take to get rid of this nagging fear. The Buddha says there are four reasons why death scares us, as us in fear. First is attachment to the body. Second is attachment to sensual pleasures. Third is the knowledge that we've done cruel and horrible things to other people, to other beings, and fear that after death we're going to be punished for it. And the fourth reason is not having seen the true Dhamma, having doubts about the true Dhamma. If we are to learn to overcome these four causes of fear, death won't bring suffering. If we are to learn to deal with our fear of death so that it won't freak us out, we must see these four points in ourselves. A Sotapanna is one such.
Even death is not to be feared by a Sotapanna. A Sotapanna (Stream Entrant) is not capable of doing any acts that could destine oneself to the apayas (the four lowest realms). The Sotapanna stage is attained purely via attaining Samma Ditthi.
In Angutthara Nikaya - AN.4.116 Buddha says that there is no fear of death when immorality is abandoned, and morality is developed. "When a bhikkhu has abandoned bodily misconduct and developed bodily good conduct, when he has abandoned verbal misconduct and developed verbal good conduct, when he has abandoned mental misconduct and developed mental good conduct, when he has abandoned wrong view and developed right view, then he doesn't fear death in his next life."
Again in Angutthara Nikaya AN4.184 (Abhaya Sutta: Fearless) Buddha teaches us that we will have no fear if we attain "certainty with regard to the True Dhamma" and teaches us four types of people who do not feel fear — and how we can be like them. ("These, brahman, are four people who, subject to death, are not afraid or in terror of death.")
Comment: Sotapanna still has the attachment to sensual pleasures. so he may have fear of death.
Comment: The Nakhasikha Sutta (S.N.), describes the unimaginably large amount of defilements (and thus future suffering and stress) that a Sotapanna has removed compared to a normal human being. It is compared to the bit of dust on his fingernail compared to the soil in the whole Earth. Thus even if s/he has attachment to sensual pleasures, and will never be reborn in the four lowest realms, s/he will have only seven future bhava left, and those in the human realm or the realms above it.
Answer: Nyom SarathW, and interested,
To answer short: No. One having been arrived at the Dhamma does not fear death, as for what actually dies?
As Yuttadhamma Bhikkhu possible desired to state in his answer is that there might be short confused moments where one might experiences certain "emotions" (with can be not ecxlusively traced back to "anger", but are all rooted in "thist") arising.
Having one freed of macchariya (stinginess/"holding firm on occupied") there is less till no ground for what one usually calles "fear of death", jet certain pain might be feared, unpromted.
In any case a Dhammika would/does not have such thought arrising when in the moments of letting the current body behind. He/she might leave the realm confused but open and destinated to be reminded in the following existence.
[Note: this is a gift of Dhamma, not thought to be used for any usually trade, exchange, stackes and possible needs to be deleted if the place is not given therefore here]
Answer: Sotapanna is in the transition period and he/she is not free from the effects of negative mind states except impermanent good mind states. Only when the transition from Sotapanna to Sakadagami happens, their continous awareness  makes the weak negative mind states harmless for them.

Does Sotapanna have the fear of death?


Stop Limit Order to Sell with Limit price higher than stop

Question: Say ABC Inc. is trading at 10. I put in a stop limit order at 9.50 with a limit price of 10.50. This doesn't make sense does it, as no one would be buying at 10.50 when trading at 9.50? I would just put in a limit sell at 10.50 correct?
Answer: You can create such an order. When ABC falls to 9.50, it will be converted into a sell order with limit of 10.50 and the order will not be filled until the bid reaches 10.50. If your intention is to sell at 10.50, just place a limit order to sell at 10.50. There is no reason to wait until the price falls more to place the sell order.
Answer: A one-cancels-the-other order (OCO) is a pair of orders stipulating that if one order executes, then the other order is automatically canceled.
An OCO order combines a stop order with a limit order on an automated trading platform. When either the stop or limit price is reached and the order executed, the other order automatically gets canceled.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/oco.asp
Answer: Answers of TainToTain and Bob Baerker address your question enough.
And yes, that might be normally correct! However, imagine a high volatility and low float stock such as $BPTH just in the recent few days. $BPTH went up from ~$4.40 to $73.52 and back to $21.00.

In such situations, you may set a sell limit order to take your profit. Because, stock has so much volatility and can in any minute break out to any price, especially when it attracts many traders and gets millions of volumes.
I was watching $TLRY once it was about $120-$150 in a very trendy day. I went out for a coffee and came back $TLRY hit $300, and guess what, the fair share price was maybe around $20-$60.

There are such very rare situations, yet possible, which you mentioned in your question, happens, and make a perfect sense.


Does "live one more year" make any sense?

Question: "Congratulations for living one more year."
Does this sound weird?
Comment: It does sound a bit odd -- either sarcastic or morbid. The sort of thing that Prince Charles might say to his mum.
Comment: I'm pretty sure I've used that exact sentence.  But I'm also sure I'm weird! In general, for someone learning the language, I'd avoid this in favor of a "Happy Birthday!" or some other similar statement, which is inoffensive and appropriate for any situation (as long as it actually is their birthday).
Answer: There are several nuances of expression one might infer from a statement like

Congratulations for living one more year

Sincere congratulations of a trivial kind (from someone who has no great investment in the social graces)
Sincere congratulations of a serious kind (to a person who has been gravely ill, from a person who is not skillful with words)
Sarcasm (from someone who is being deliberately boorish, and wants to express that the target has achieved the bare minimum out of life)
Good-natured humor (from someone who uses sarcasm in a friendly, joking way)
Well-meaning language blunder (from a non-native speaker of English)

In short, this phrase sounds rather odd. You would do better to find a more adroit expression of congratulation, if in fact sincere congratulation is your goal.
Answer: If you tell someone

Congratulations for living one more year.

the implication is that you may not have expected them to do so.
Under certain circumstances it may be appropriate e.g. if the person was very ill or had a major accident, but usually it's not said.
I did once say to a friend on their 21st birthday

Congratulations on surviving your parents for 21 years!

it was a good friend and said as a joke.
Answer: Yes, it makes pretty sense. For example, one of my roommates wanted to abandon us last year, but my friends and I insisted on not letting him go. We would probably tell him, "Congratulations for living one more year with us". For this has to be said that it does depend on the cotext in which a speaker/writer is endeavoring to convey the intended meaning.
Answer: Only if you literally are congratulating them on not dying. (Example: They had aggressive cancer and their chances of surviving it were low.) It would make sense to say it then, but it would probably not be socially appropriate (since you'd sound as if you were joking around about them nearly dying). I would say this only if the person was okay with you joking about that.


Import and Export LaTeX presentations in graphical presentation editor

Question: I want to find (or create) a graphical presentation editor (or say Winedt macros) that allows text, graphics images and latex formulas to be inserted and formatted interactively.
It should also allow to import/export latex beamer presentations.
I use WinEdt with MikTeX under Windows 7. Few months ago I tried to use Powerpoint 2010 with MathType 6.8, but it works very slow and often freezes.
Answer: As far as I know there is no such an tool available you are searching for.
Perhaps LyX could help you but I do not know it so it is only a wild guess.


What microphone setup is best for recording 1-4 people?

Question: I'm starting a video business that is shot inside a 10X10 tent. I will have ample time to set up sound and lights. Because the clientele will be rotating rather quickly, I have ruled lavs out. The people will all be facing the same direction on a bench. The question is : Should I use a couple of shotgun mics in an X pattern, or perhaps a condenser mic or two?
Comment: A matched pair of decent condenser mics in an XY stereo recording configuration should do the trick.
Answer: I would use two cardioid condenser mics in a ORTF constellation. For recording speech is for me the best compromise between ILD and ITD
Comment: +1 for the idea. It could be improved by copying the definitions of ORTF, ILD AND ITD into the answer. Links alone are generally discouraged on the exchange.
Answer: I would use one mic per seating position in order to have better control over levels. People's voices tend to vary quite a bit in level and this arrangement would give you maximum flexibility on the level of each speaker. If you can place them on the table it will allow you to be close to the source and pick up minimal surrounding noise and crosstalk.
This should give you an overall clean sound with less amplification and you pan them to a however wide a stereo image you want, either in post processing, or live on a mixer.
A compressor on each channel would make a great addition, a digital mixer would include this.


From point to Grid of polygones or polylines

Question: Is it possible to reconstruct a grid of polygones or polylines from the centroids?
I am looking for a arcGIS tool or script that will allow me to reconstruct a grid of polygons  or polylines from their centroids.
Answer: You can create Voronoids with ArcGIS with a ArcInfo license:
Voronoi diagram and Delaunay triangulation

To create a grid I'm not sure however. In theory any grid-creation tool should be able to do it because you don't actually need the points as they're uniform. If you know the distances between the points it should be easy to just enter the correct settings into a grid-creator tool and have it generate a grid that will be fit for purpose. ET GeoWizards has such a tool (Vector Grid) but there are probably free ones out there too.
Answer: Voronoi polygons might work but you definitely don't want Delaunay triangulation for this task.  However, if you know the grid to be regular, you can just use the Create Fishnet tool from the Data Management Tool box (under Feature Class tools).  The Fishnet tool has a lot of options that with a little understanding of your point dataset, will enable you to recreate the grid easily.


Why would you Parboil Some Vegetables Before Stir-Frying them?

Question: An example would be green beans - some recipes call for parboiling green beans before stir-frying while others do not?  Is there a reason behind this?
Comment: Edited to add "vegetables" tag
Answer: Really, this is just to even out cooking times for vegetables that don't have a surface area to volume ratio consistent with the other things you're stir-frying.  If you were to shred those green beans, as is sometimes done, you could put them in at the same time as raw, julienned carrots, and they would finish at the same time.
If you put them in whole, you'll end up with beans that are burned on the outside and raw on the inside, as there's not enough time for the heat to penetrate to the center of the bean before the outside burns.  Or, if you fry at a lower heat, you could get the beans cooked, but would have to add the carrots later (which means a lower temperature, too, since the beans are dragging heat out of your pan) in order to have them not turn to mush.
Answer: I'm a convenience stir-fryer and won't bother with parboiling.  Instead, just use the staggered ingredient method.  Green beans do take longer than ingredients like, say, shrimp.  So line up all of your ingredients in order of cooking time and stir-fry accordingly. It takes some experience, but onions/garlic then dense starches (potato) then fibrous vegetables (broccoli) then proteins (chicken) then delicates (fresh herbs, lighter greens) is a good framework.  I use this method all the time and don't have to bother with multiple preparations.
note:  A variation/alternative to this method is to start with your protein, brown it nicely, and then take it out of the heat to be returned later.  Especially good with proteins that can easily overcook, like shrimp.
Comment: +1 - I have a whole slew of one skillet recipes that use staggering.  As a slight difference, my recipes often do the protein first (at least mostly) and rest it while the other items cook, then return it to the pan to heat at the end.
Comment: +1 from me - when you're in a rush, understanding the staggering method is extremely important.
Comment: @justkt Yup, I do that too, especially if I find that a protein is getting too done, like with Shrimp.  It makes a lot of sense if you're trying to get some browning going on.  I think I'll add a note to the answer.
Comment: Green beans, depending on variety, can take long enough to cook (even when stir fried) that you'll be annihilating your aromatics before they are done. Adding aromatics later (maybe removing the par-fried beans first) can be very advisable there...
Answer: Whilst sometimes you need to do this to cook vegetables which are 'thick' or require a fair bit of cooking to make them edible (beans if they are whole, broccoli unless it is broken up very small), what I prefer to do is to stir fry these bits together (along with some garlic/ginger/chili if i'm using it) at the start and when they have taken on a little colour (a minute or so) I add a few tables spoons of water, turn the heat down and put a lid on the wok.
This allows the veggies to steam and so be sufficiently cooked.  Then I take them out and keep separate, cook the rest of my stir fry and add them back in before I add the sauce.
Comment: +1 for steaming in the wok. We do this all the time. I would recommend thinking about some things other than water. We often use our sauce at this step, which steams the veg and thickens the sauce. Or you could boil off a stock / soy / rice wine mixture for a bit more flavor through your veg.
Answer: I always blanch before stir frying, which is slightly different than parboiling.  Parboiling is boiling for a set amount of time, generally (for green beans) 5-7 minutes.  Blanching is faster, 1-2 minutes max at my house, and then dumping into an ice bath to stop the cooking process temporarily.
The benefits I've found are:
1) More even cooking.  By starting the beans in boiling water, as Rich said, it allows the centers to start to get cooked whereas with just stir frying I've had raw centers before.  When I sauté raw green beans, the result is generally beans that taste very "earthy" and a lot more raw - depending what you're going for, this can be good or bad.  My wife doesn't like the taste of raw vegetables, but does like the crisp texture, so by blanching I'm able to begin cooking while still maintain their crispness, and also make them much more palatable to her.  When I parboil, I tend to end up with slightly softer/mushier beans.
2) Maintains the bright color, sometimes even enhancing it, very important to me when serving guests as you eat with your eyes first.
3) Enhanced/locks in fresh flavor.  I don't understand the science behind this yet, but experience and trial and error have shown me a significant difference between when I do blanch, and when I don't.
I know that 1) will apply to parboiling, and is the main reason you would parboil before stir frying, but I'm not sure if 2) and 3) would as well.


Efficient tridiagonal matrix algorithm implementation

Question: I am solving a physical problem using implicit numerical scheme. This leads me to solving a linear equation with tridiagonal matrix. I've coded this algorithm from Wikipedia. I wonder if there is an efficient library which allows to solve this type of equation in optimised way. An important note is that matrix itself changes only when system parameters are changing, so I had an opportunity to precalculate some algorithm steps for a nice peformance bonus. I am using C++.
Comment: Size depends on required accuracy (from hundred to tens of thousands values). Now I am coding on one-core computer, but it's possible to get access to university supercomputer with many cpus available, so parallelism support would be nice.
Comment: How big of a system is it, does it need to be parallel?
Answer: You should probably start with the LAPACK implementation, ?gtsv, e.g., dgtsv. If you want a distributed-memory version, then you might want to start with ScaLAPACK's p?gtsv.
EDIT: Since your matrix does not change very often, you can avoid redundantly factoring the tridiagonal matrix by breaking up the LAPACK routine ?gtsv into the factorization step, ?gttrf, and the solve stage, ?gttrs. Similarly named routines exist in ScaLAPACK that serve the same purpose.
Comment: Since you are calling it from C++, make sure to declare the prototype inside of an extern "C" { } block. Depending on your system, you may need to append an underscore to the routine name.
Comment: Thank you, it looks like what I need. I'll try now to run this routines from my code.
Answer: For distributed parallel systems: I have not tried ScaLAPACK, which has a parallel tridiagonal solver, for which there are examples available online. I have tried with some success a method proposed by David Moulton in a LANL publication. Coding this up might be more than you want to do, but by using LAPACK, it is strait forward.
Answer: I found an interesting recursive algorithm here at page 975.
It looks promising, I wonder what more experienced people say about it.
Comment: *Numerical Recipes* has some errors in it. In terms of a source of codes to use, it isn't the best, although some consider it a classic. I'd be surprised if ScaLAPACK didn't implement an algorithm at least as efficient as recursive cyclic reduction.


Why does fruit juice, when mixed with flour, not count as chametz, since it contains water?

Question: How can mixing flour with fruit juice be permitted on Passover, since all fruit juice, even pure juice directly squeezed from fruit always contains water?. Water, H2O, is simply a chemical component of fruit juice, as it is also of wine, milk and honey. Only oil could possibly be water-free. In substances like milk and wine there is always a large amount of water. This water is not added in any way, but part of the very definition of these substances. So to my knowledge such a mixture would be chametz.
Comment: Hello Bar-Timai, welcome to Mi Yodeya, and thanks very much for the interesting question! I hope you'll look around and find other Q&A of interest and stay learning with us.
Comment: related http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/56987/759
Comment: semi-related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/30867/is-beer-bread-hamotzi
Answer: There has become a shift in how people view chametz. In the times of the Talmud people talked about the physical signs of chametz, the dough getting cracks, turning white, or making a sound if you slapped it (it it didn't make a sound it was referred to as deaf dough). So it used to be that people would look at dough to tell if it was chametz, rather than rely on other things (like time) to determine whether or not something was chametz. The only scenarios where Chazal would use time to determine chametz would be in the instances where dough had been left unattended for a while. Which is why Rambam ruled that as long as you work the dough, it will never become chametz, no matter how long ago you added water to the dough.
Rambam's Mishneh Torah - Chametz U'Matzah - Chapter Five, Halacha 13

As long as a person is busy with the dough, even for the entire day,
  it will not become chametz. If he lifts up his hand and allows the
  dough to rest so that [it rises to the extent that] a noise will
  resound when a person claps it with his hand, it has already become
  chametz and must be burned immediately. If a noise does not resound
  and the dough has lain at rest for the time it takes a man to walk a
  mil, it has become chametz and must be burned immediately.

Then perception of chametz started to shift in a different direction. Rather than look for signs of chimutz, we started to worry about chametz before any visible signs appeared. And so by the time the Shulchan Arukh gets written, one could have invalid matzah even if no visible signs were present. According to Karo, if one worked the dough (and thereby warmed it with his hands), and let it sit for a few moments rather than rolling it out and putting it in the oven, it was chametz even if it had no visible signs.
Shulchan Arukh Siman 459:2

The dough should not be left idle for even a moment. As long as it is being used, even the whole day, it will not rise. If it is left idle for the time that it takes to walk a mil, it is hametz. A mil is a quarter of an hour plus a twentieth of an hour. After dealing with the dough and warming it with your hands, if it is left idle, it will rise immediately.

And now we get to the modern time where people think that any contact with water automatically makes something chametz, causing people to erroneously think that water is what causes something to become chametz, but this is not true. In fact this idea is so foreign that Rambam wouldn't even understand what you are talking about, as this ruling of his will illustrate.
Rambam's Mishneh Torah: Chametz U'Matzah Chapter 4 Halacha 10

Grain upon which [water] leaking [from the roof] has fallen: As long
  as [the leak] continues, drop after drop, it will not become chametz
  even if [the leak continues] the entire day. However, if [the leak]
  stops, if it remains [untouched] for the standard measure [of time] -
  behold, it becomes chametz.

So the reason that juice doesn't ferment probably has nothing to do with water content, as water doesn't automatically make something chametz. For even continuous dripping of water is enough to prevent grain from becoming chametz.
So what is chametz? Chametz is the process in which the yeast that is floating in the air around us, lands in dough we are making, and if the dough is wet and is not worked (because yeast needs a calm environment in order to thrive), the yeast is able to reproduce and eat, producing gasses which make the dough rise. Therefore what makes something chametz is whether the mixture of liquid to grain/flour is hospitable for yeast to grow and propagate. i am not aware of any reasons the Rabbis give for why fruit juice (or milk for that matter) stops bread from becoming chametz, i can only turn to science to find answers. So while there may be water in fruit juice, maybe there isn't enough water in the juice for the yeast to ferment, or maybe there is too much sugar from the juice and the yeast can't handle it, thereby preventing any chametz. Water isn't the issue, it's the yeast that floats in the air all around us that lands in your dough while you are kneading that is the issue.
So what likely happened was that the Rabbis of the Talmud, and thereby the Rambam, and even Karo had probably noticed that when you mix fruit juice with flour, the dough never takes any signs of chametz. And since it never shows any visible signs of become chametz, then clearly it's not chametz, despite the fact that water exists in fruit juices. If you have any doubts of this, mix fruit juice and dough and see if it ever rises, and you will have the answer to your question.
Comment: This whole post is simply ranty bad history followed by your own speculation about the Talmud's reasoning.
Comment: Why the downvote?
Comment: @Aaron Maybe stop pretending water is unrelated to Chametz? Sure plain water is not the only factor involved, but it's an important one. You build this false dichotomy how "this idea is so foreign that Rambam wouldn't even understand what you are talking about". That claim is inane. He would know exactly what you were talking about and see exactly in what ways you were simplifying the rules for practical implementation.
Comment: I dont see that by adding water one become a chametz as far as i know from our heritage it stated that a flour(any of the five species) become cametz only after 18 minutes (mixing with any liquid form)
Comment: @Yamin Not true, flour becomes chametz after 18 minutes of the dough resting. You could add water and work the dough all day long and it will never become chametz. Because when the dough is worked yeast cannot make the dough chametz
Comment: And one must also add that this only applies if the dough is cold. If it is not cold it is מחמיץ מיד!
Comment: you mean  a flour cant become chametz the whole day even after 18 minutes if we worked with the dough i dont get that or may be i have to look for more and to fully understand that it will be grateful if you could elaborate more toda
Comment: @Yamin that's exactly what i mean. You can check the sources here: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/67418/where-did-the-idea-that-the-entire-matza-process-must-be-done-in-under-18-minu
Comment: @DoubleAA In order to first answer the question i have to point out that no one in Talmudic times thinks that water causes chametz, which is what the majority of people happen to think at the moment.
Comment: @DoubleAA So how could my post be improved?
Comment: @DoubleAA Water is only related to chametz in that it allows yeast to grow. if you created a vacuum in which there was no yeast in the air, grain and flour would never become chametz.
Answer: The laws of mixing fruit juices with flour derive from two seemingly irreconcilable Talmudic teachings:

אמר רבה בר בר חנה אמר ריש לקיש: עיסה שנילושה ביין ושמן ודבש - אין חייבין על חימוצה כרת
Rabba bar bar Hanna said in the name of Reish Lakish: Dough kneaded with wine, oil or honey that rises is not forbidden as chametz (Pesachim 35a)

vs.

והתניא: אין לשין עיסה בפסח ביין ושמן ודבש. ואם לש, רבן גמליאל אומר: תשרף מיד, וחכמים אומרים: יאכל
It was taught: It is forbidden to knead dough on Pesach with wine, oil
  or honey. If someone did knead such a dough — Rabban Gamaliel says it must be destroyed immediatey. But the sages say it may be eaten. (Pesachim 36a)

Although the initial statement implies that only water causes the kind of leavening the Torah deems as chametz, various interpretations on this teaching have led to various traditions. The Ashkenazic custom to generally refrain from dough kneaded with fruit juice during Passover is derived from Rashi's understanding (Pesachim 36a) that such a mixture, while not full-fledged chametz, was nonetheless forbidden by the sages for being chametz nukshe - a lower category of almost-chametz.
However, many authorities, starting with Tosafot, have contested this interpretation of the Talmud, insisting that pure fruit juices alone cannot make chametz; the second Talmudic passage here means that it is forbidden for someone to add such liquids into a dough already containing flour and water.
Sephardim follow the ruling of the Shulchan Arukh (462:1), which allows fruit-based dough, based on Tosafot's understanding of chametz.
Even though H2O exists in fruit juice, the lenient opinions understand pure water as what causes the Torah's definition of chametz. If you're looking for a finer distinction, see R. Ovadia Yosef's responsum (Yabia Omer 9:42), in which he asserts that rising agents added to Pesach cookies made with fruit juice help makes the dough puff up, but do not technically leaven the dough. In his understanding, even when other ingredients make a dough appear to be chametz, it is only when grain is moistened by pure water that a product can be considered chametz.
Comment: Thank you for helpful exposition. One follow-up question: Does R. Ovadia Yosef's position which, as you report it ("rising agents added to Pesach cookies made with fruit juice help make the dough puff up, but not technically leaven the dough") mean that this recipe is KforP? Pure squeezed kosher grape juice, yeast, wheat flour, and more than 18 min. resting time.