Is altitude tent helpful in preparation for climbing 7000-8000m mountains?

Question: Climbing extremely high mountains requires a long time (weeks together) to acclimatisation to the altitude.
Is it possible to reduce this time by adding sleeping in Altitude tent to the preparation trainings? Is altitude tent something worth buying?
Comment: The are used by climbers, cyclist, and athletes.  It is not snake oil.  If it worth buying is another question?
Comment: @imsodin I mean that if someone started to climb a mountain it takes few weeks to acclimatize to high altitude. Is it possible to reduce this period by sleeping in altitude tent before starting the climb?
Comment: What do you mean by long-term? As far as I am aware the effects of acclimatization decay pretty quickly (matter of days/weeks).
Answer: Disclaimer - The answer is purely based on research. I've personally only been up to 6400m and have never used an altitude tent to acclimatise.
Background of altitude acclimatisation:
With increase in altitude, the barometric pressure decreases. This means, there's less amount of air. However, the percentage of Oxygen in itself remains the same (21%). This implies that there's lesser air to breathe, and in turn, lesser Oxygen to intake.
To mitigate this, the body produces more red blood cells to absorb more Oxygen (also the reason why blood gets thicker at altitude). This is one of the ways body mitigates the thinner air in the atmosphere at altitude.
The science of altitude acclimatisation itself is ill developed. There are hundreds of studies but nothing is set in stone.
Altitude tents (Hypoxic tents)
Hypoxic training is very common among athletes. However, there's a very important difference between hypoxic training as compared to altitude acclimatisation.
When it comes to hypoxic tents, the air thickness remains the same but the percentage of oxygen is reduced. This is a way to simulate the lesser Oxygen that's found at higher altitude. However, this is not the same as high altitude. At altitude, the air itself is thinner.
Theoretically, a hypoxic tent should be simulate the same effect as a high altitude stay. However, there are quite a few studies that suggest otherwise.

When transported to 4300 m (HH), subjects who were preacclimatized in NH had a minimal benefit (e.g., no or <1 mm Hg decrease in PETCO2 or AMS prevalence of 50%–64% instead of 80%–100% in nonacclimatized subjects). In addition, the NH preacclimatization did not induce any reduction in the acute performance decrement observed during the first 24 h after arrival at 4300 m. These results highlight a specificity of the HH condition and an (unresolved) indirect influence of the barometric pressure. Moreover, the findings show that the ventilatory acclimatization can be effective in NH, but not in HH, and that the light ventilatory and AMS benefits retained in HH for the NH preacclimatized groups did not translate to performance benefits.

Source
Here, HH stands for Hypobaric Hypoxia (Altitude based reduction in oxygen) and NH (Normobaric Hypoxic, tent based reduction in oxygen).
There's also a study of if at all the acclimatisation that was gained using altitude would be retained by using tent based acclimatisation (The reverse of what you are asking). And here's an excerpt from the study:

These results demonstrate that HA acclimatization-induced improvements in ventilatory and hematologic responses, AMS, and cognitive function are partially retained during RA after 12 days at SL whether or not NH treatment is utilized.

Source
RA stands for reduced altitude, SL stands for sea level, HA for high altitude
These sources are interesting as these mention that the hypoxic tents might actually not cause any improvement in acclimatisation or retaining of acclimatisation that's gained using actual altitude.
To conclude, it's really hard to say that Hypoxic tents will help you to acclimatise any better than being at a higher altitude. The science and the studies are divided themselves. There's no concrete yes or no as of now on this.
Here are a few links for further reading:

Interesting take on how some react to altitude tents and some don't (read responders section)
Altitude training for athletic improvements.
Comment: Ricketyship, thanks for this interesting, thorough, and well-balanced answer!
Answer: It take a few weeks to fully acclimatize.
Say the tent simulates 5000 ft.  In 3-6 weeks you should be acclimatized to 5000 feet.  You have a stronger starting point.
If you go to 10,000 it would still take your body about 3-6 weeks.  Starting from 5000 it would be a little less than starting at 0 but not 1/2.
It lets have a higher base camp.  Say you want to climb 20,000 you could have a base at 15,000 versus 10,000.
A lot of people climb without altitude training.  Mt Rainier is 14,000 feet and a majority of people in WA live at sea level.
Fully acclimatize is for major peaks - like 20,000+.
I see your title is 8000 m so yes it should help.


Independent Pseudo Random Generators

Question: Is it sufficient to seed a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) with two different values to be able to claim that we now have two independent PRNGs? Or is it that we have to use two functionally different generators for that?
Comment: I guess this will depend on what you mean with "independent". Of course with a secure PRNG and two different seeds they would *run* independently. However, you might still have to take into account that you can reach a cycle. Usually that would be computationally impossible because the size of the cycles are huge due to the size of the state - but that doesn't make it theoretically independent. And when it comes to functional different: how much different do they need to be? Just XOR'ing all the output bits with `1` doesn't seem enough to me.
Answer: If you are using a cryptographicly secure PRNG with a sufficiently large seed. Then it is expected to be infeasible to detect a relationship between the random stream output.
If you find two carefully crafted seeds where the output streams then have some clear relationship it would be considered a (mild) weakness in the PRNG, and much more so with random seeds.
Comment: Is there a criteria for "sufficiently large"  and "carefully crafted"  seeds for a cryptographically secure PRNG to be producing samples that are independent across the two streams?
Comment: Large enough for it to be infeasible to brute force. If the inner state is large enough we can ignore birthday paradox and depending on strength of attacker I would recommend at least 100 bits. Possibly more for a nation-state actor brute-forcing your random seed.
Comment: By carefully crafted, I said it is possible a PRNG could have a weakness where related weak seeds produce related streams but this would be weakness requiring carefull cryptanalysis to find. I don't actually know of such an example.
Answer: The standard crypto engineering approximation of a pseudorandom generator (PRG) $f\colon \{0,1\}^k \to \{0,1\}^n$ for $k \lll n$ is that if you pick two independent uniform random keys $K_0$ and $K_1$, then the outputs $f(K_0)$ and $f(K_1)$ are independent uniform random bit strings too.
This applies to, e.g., the AES-CTR pseudorandom generator $$f(K) = \operatorname{AES256}_K(0) \mathbin\Vert \operatorname{AES256}_K(1) \mathbin\Vert \cdots,$$ provided $n \lll 2^{72}$ to avoid birthday distinguishers.  However, it is not the case that simply picking two distinct keys $K_0$ and $K_1$ gives an approximation to two independent uniform random $n$-bit strings $f(K_0)$ and $f(K_1)$ at the expected security level, first because if the adversary knows the keys $K_0$ and $K_1$ then there's nothing random to the adversary, but also because even if the two keys merely have a relation known to the adversary, then the standard AES-256 related-key attacks of Biryukov and Khovratovich may apply to enable an attacker to distinguish $f(K_0)$ and $f(K_1)$ from two independent uniform random $n$-bit strings faster than generic attacks.
On the other hand, you can often use a pseudorandom function family (PRF) instead of a pseudorandom generator to get multiple independent strings out of a single key.  For example, you can split the input to AES256 in the above construction into a 64-bit string index $i$ and a 64-bit block counter, and define $$F(K, i) = \operatorname{AES256}_K(i \mathbin\Vert 0) \mathbin\Vert \operatorname{AES256}_K(i \mathbin\Vert 1) \mathbin\Vert \cdots.$$  Then, as long as the total volume of data you generate from $F$ with a single key is much less than $2^{72}$ bits, $F(K, 0)$ and $F(K, 1)$ are approximately independent uniform random bit strings, as long as $K$ is a uniform random $k$-bit string not used for anything except an $F$ key.
All this depends on $f$ or $F$ actually being cryptographically secure, of course.  If you use a linear congruential generator, or the Mersenne twister, you're dead in the water.  But standard PRFs like ChaCha or KMAC, or PRPs (pseudorandom permutation families) like AES, are conjectured to be secure for the above 'CTR mode' construction of $f$ and $F$.
Obviously, in a strict probabilistic interpretation, it is not possible to get two independent uniform random strings of $n > k$ bits as a deterministic function of a uniform random string of $k$ bits.  To formalize this (in the concrete setting), we quantify the adversarial advantage of a random algorithm $A\colon \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ that tries to tell whether its input was drawn from the output of $f$ or not, defined as $$\operatorname{Adv}^{\operatorname{PRG}}_f(A) = |\Pr[A(f(K)) = 1] - \Pr[A(U) = 1]|,$$ where $K$ is a uniform random $k$-bit string and $U$ is a uniform random $n$-bit string.  We then try to set a very small upper bound on $\operatorname{Adv}^{\operatorname{PRG}}_f(A)$ for all $A$, either by conjecturing it of $f$ as a primitive and enticing a lot of cryptanalysts to spend effort on it, or by building $f$ out of a primitive that cryptanalysts have already spent effort on and showing how a distinguisher for $f$ as a PRG can be used to construct an efficient algorithm to break the primitive.
(To extend this to the asymptotic setting where complexity theorists like to hang out, we consider a family of functions $f_k\colon \{0,1\}^k \to \{0,1\}^{p(k)}$ for some polynomial $p$, and try to show that $\operatorname{Adv}^{\operatorname{PRG}}_{f_k}(A) < \epsilon(k)$ for some negligible function $\epsilon$.)
Answer: Yes this is done all the time with one generator.  After all there are only a few good /recommended generators out there for cryptographic purposes.
There's a bioinfomatics paper that might be of interest.  Good Practice in (Pseudo) Random Number Generation for Bioinformatics Applications suggests some values to the maximum run length of a PRNG.  Not strictly crypto, but I've not seen anything else.  Again not crypto, but there might be more guidance at CERN regarding their generators.  There's a lot of stuff on that site.
In summary, it says that Knuth recommends a max. output of states /1000. However there is also a much more conservative limit of (states)^(1/3). Some some cryptographers have suggested using half of the bits of state as long as that is still of the order of 128 bits to prevent a brute force recovery of the seed.   Although that seems to be creeping up to 256 bits, or even recommended by NIST these days.
Using the most conservative estimates from above (cube root of state), we get maximum runs of /dev/random's (ChaCha20) output of ~10^51 and CryptGenRandom's (RC4 + SHA1) output of ~10^205.
In conclusion there doesn't seem to be a firm best practice.  This question seems to be a form of how random is random?  That's always going to be difficult to answer.
Comment: The maximum run length shouldn't apply to ChaCha20 since it uses a PRF and not a PRP.

Independent Pseudo Random Generators


JMustache attribution is incorrectly listed as Butterknife

Question: Butterknife appears twice in the OSS attribution list of the Android app (v1.0.85). Based on the links, the second one should be JMustache.
Comment: Noticed this as well, and they still haven't changed it. They need someone to maintain their app, even if they can't add new features
Answer: This has been (finally) fixed as of today, June 30th, 2017 with version 1.0.95 of the Android app.
From Kasra Rahjerdi on Meta Stack Overflow:

Thanks for catching this! Copy pasting so many times led me to totally looking past it.
This is fixed as of version 1.0.2, live now. It'll also be fixed in the Stack Exchange app as of the next update (1.0.95), which isn't live yet.
Comment: So sad such a trivial bug sat idle here for over a year, Kasra never bothered to look in MSE to see bugs. And he still doesn't, only in MSO for the shiny new app. Guess some things never change.


How long does Spike Trap last?

Question: How long does an un-activated Spike Trap remain on the ground ready to be triggered, and does it depand on anything other than just duration?
Answer: There's no maximum length as to how long it remains there, so as long as the game instance is available or maybe when you change acts/zones.  You can only have a maximum of three, however.
Answer: Just checked and an un-activated Spike Trap can last up to 30 seconds. Leaving the dungeon (either transitioning a floor or teleporting out with a town portal / waypoint) will cause the Spike Trap to disappear.
Laying the 4th (or 7th, with Bandolier) trap will immediately make the oldest one disappear.

How long does Spike Trap last?


Do the Roman catacombs confirm the early Church believed in the doctrine of the communion of saints?

Question: Do the Roman catacombs confirm the early church believed in the doctrine of the communion of saints, which includes prayer for the dead, intercession of the saints, invocation of the saints, and the threefold nature of the Church, in particular, the Church triumphant and Church penitent? If so, what are some of the archaeological evidence in the catacombs that confirms the early Church held such beliefs?
Answer: What is the communion of saints?
The ninth article of the Apostles' Creed  is, 'the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints'.
The unity and cooperation of the members of the Church on earth, in Purgatory, in Heaven is also called the Communion of Saints.
And the Church teaches:

Fully conscious of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus
  Christ, the pilgrim Church from the very first ages of the
  Christian religion has cultivated with great piety the memory of the
  dead, and "because it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for
  the dead that they may be loosed from their sins", also offers
  suffrages for them. The Church has always believed that the apostles
  and Christ's martyrs who had given the supreme witness of faith and
  charity by the shedding of their blood, are closely joined with us in
  Christ, and she has always venerated them with special devotion,
  together with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the holy angels. The Church
  has piously implored the aid of their intercession. To these were soon
  added also those who had more closely imitated Christ's virginity and
  poverty, and finally others whom the outstanding practice of the
  Christian virtues and the divine charisms recommended to the pious
  devotion and imitation of the faithful. [...] - Dogmatic Constitution
  on the Church, Lumen gentium, 50.

Answering
To find out whether the Roman catacombs bear out this communion of saints, one would need to examine their inscriptions and paintings. This New advent article Roman Catacombs gives some examples of the inscriptions:

"gave up his soul to God"

and

"Sweet Simplicius, live in eternity"

and in the Catacomb of Domitilla, third century there is:

. . . . SPIRITVS
  TVVS IN REFRIGERIO
The beginning of the inscription, containing the name, has
  disappeared. "May thy spirit be in refreshment". The very ancient
  prayer in the Canon of the Mass entreats for the dead locum
  refrigerii, lucis et pacis (a place of refreshment, light, and
  peace).1

The article then continues to say the paintings of the catacombs conveyed pictorially the same ideas as the inscriptions.
I see these as demonstrating the communion of the saints, with the latter two praying for the departed.

Chapter V of the book Epitaphs of the Catacombs: Or, Christian Inscriptions in Rome During the First Four Centuries by Rev J. Spencer Northcote D.D entitled The Teaching of Christian Epitaph about Death and the Dead has the following introductory summary:
Contrast between Pagan and Christian epitaphs — Christian epigraphy perfected by degrees, but its general character shown from the first ; simple, hopeful, and joyous ; less religious in the fourth and later centuries —
Life and love characteristics of the most ancient epitaphs — Some exceptions, chiefly of later date — An episcopal instruction on death in the third century — Language of epitaphs denotes belief in future resurrection — Acclamations for the dead ; of life in God, peace, refreshment — These phrases and some others explained — The same prayers found in the Liturgies, ancient and modern — Prayers addressed to the dead by surviving friends and relatives — Religious character of these prayers and their orthodoxy.
The chapter then gives examples:

[...]

In eternal sleep. Aurelius Gemellus, who lived ... years and 8  months and 18 days. His mother made this for her dearest well-
  deserving son. In peace. I commend [to thee], Bassilla, the
  innocence  of Gemellus.
Lady Bassilla [= Saint Bassilla], we, Crescentinus and Micina,  commend to thee our daughter Crescen[tina], who lived 10 months  and
  ... days.
Matronata Matrona, who lived a year and 52 days. Pray for thy  parents.

[...]

Amerimnus to his dearest well-deserving wife, Rufina. May God  refresh thy spirit
Sweet Faustina, mayest thou live in God.
Refresh, O God, the soul of
Bolosa, may God refresh thee, who lived 31 years ; died on the 19th  of September. In Christ.

Conclusion
Thus the living were commending the recently dead to a saint already
dead; the dead were being petitioned to pray for the living; and God is petitioned to refresh the souls of the departed, all clearly manifesting the communion of saints.

The Commemoration for the dead.

Meménto étiam, Dómine, famulórum famularúmque tuárum N. et N. qui nos præcessérunt cum signo fídei, et dórmiunt in somno pacis.
Be mindful, O Lord, of thy servants and handmaids N. and N., who are gone before us, with the sign of faith, and sleep in the sleep of peace.
He joins his hands, prays a little while for those dead whom he means to pray for, then with his hands stretched out, continues:
Ipsis, Dómine, et ómnibus in Christo quiescéntibus, locum refrigérii, lucis et pacis, ut indúlgeas, deprecámur.
To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, we beseech thee, grant a place of refreshment, light, and peace.

Information for the Visit to the Catacombs.
Answer: Do the Roman catacombs confirm the early Church believed in the doctrine of the communion of saints?
In the catacombs, sometimes rich or more well to do would leave some sort of memento at the tomb of a saint as a reminder of a particular saint to pray for them. The poor and slaves would simply write on the walls things like "Petri ora pro Victor" (Peter pray for Victor). I can still remember seeing this sort of graffiti along with various other debris in the catacombs when I was in Rome, notably la scavi. It is all too evident, that the catacombs prove that the early Christians believed in the communion of saints. Giovanni Battista de Rossi's work La Roma Sotterranae (1877) contains much information on such subjects found in the Roman catacombs.

The Church has had a long tradition that St. Peter's Basilica, construction of which was funded by the Emperor Constantine, was built in the early fourth century atop the burial site of St. Peter.  But in 1939–less than 100 years ago–a team of workmen digging a grave for Pope Pius XI in the crypt beneath the Basilica uncovered what was plainly the top of a Roman building.  The new pope, Pius XII, ordered further investigation; and archeologists gradually unearthed a well preserved Roman necropolis, or city of the dead, immediately beneath the foundations of St. Peter's.
On one graffiti wall, amid Christian symbols and petitions, the name of Peter is carved at least twenty times, usually accompanied by prayers for the dead person, and in one case expressing joy that the deceased relative lay in the same cemetery that held the body of St. Peter. - How Does the Vatican Know That Those Old Bones Are the Relics of St. Peter?

The Graffiti Wall, on the north side of the Tropaion, showing the repository. (Fabbrica di San Pietro)

Unknown to the archaeologists at the time, there had been a serious blunder early in the excavation. Early in 1942, when the team had first discovered the Graffiti Wall at the north side of the Tropaion, with its curious marble receptacle slightly exposed, they had initially chosen not to disturb it, wishing to fully photograph and document the valuable graffiti before risking damage to the plaster by reaching into the hole. When they finally did examine it, they found nothing inside but a medieval coin, some bone fragments, and other debris. - The Bones of St. Peter

The bones found beneath the Red Wall (briefly replaced there for the photograph). (Fabbrica di San Pietro)

This structure is perpendicular to the red wall, built on the right-hand side (north) of the trophy of Gaius during the second half of the 3rd century. The wall gets its name from the surprising amount of Latin graffiti carved into the plaster by the faithful who visited the tomb of St Peter between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th centuries.
The graffiti includes names, petitions, Christian symbols of complex interpretation and signs superimposed on one another on the reduced surface of the wall.
In abbreviated form, St Peter's name is present on the wall at least twenty times, usually accompanied by prayers for the dead person named - in one case expressing joy that the lost relative lay in the same cemetery that held Peter's own body. On every part of the wall - freestanding between the letters of a name, formed from or engrafted onto existing lines - there occurred the initials PE or PET. - Necropolis (Scavi) Graffiti Wall G The bones of St Peter

Further information may be gleaned from the following articles:

Roman Catacombs
LIFE at the Vatican: Unearthing History Beneath St. Peter's
Historical notes about St. Peter's tomb
Exclusive Rome: Discovering The Vatican Necropolis


playing pcm data on iphone

Question: i need to play linear pcm data live on a iphone.
i get a LIVE datastream via RTSP, and i can currently read it out from iphone, save it into a file, play it on a desktop audioplayer that supports pcm, therefore i think the transport is okay.
now i got stuck, i have completely! no idea what to do with my NSData object containing the data.
i did a bit of research, ending up with AudioUnits, but i just cannot assign my NSdata to the audiobuffer, respectivly i have no clue how.
for my instance, i assigned the callback:
<code>AURenderCallbackStruct input;
input.inputProc = makeSound;
input.inputProcRefCon = self;
</code>
and having the function 'makeSound':
<code>   OSStatus makeSound(
                void *inRefCon,
                AudioUnitRenderActionFlags  *ioActionFlags,
                const AudioTimeStamp        *inTimeStamp,
                UInt32                      inBusNumber,
                UInt32                      inNumberFrames,
                AudioBufferList             *ioData)

      {

            //so what to do here?
            //ioData->mBuffers[0].mdata = [mySound bytes]; does not work, nor does
            //ioData->mBuffers = [mySound byes];

            return noErr;
       }
</code>
is my approeach wrong in gerneral?
of what do i need to know/learn/implement? i am a complete audio-newbie, so my suggestion was, that i dont need several buffers, since when i get the new sound-package from rtsp, the old one is ended, since its a live stream (i base this on my recordings, that just appended the bytes w/o looking up presentation timestamps, since i dont receive some anyways)
Cheers
Answer: I don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for but some of Matt Gallagher's AudioStreamer code might be helpful to you. In particular, check out how he handles the audio buffering.
http://cocoawithlove.com/2010/03/streaming-mp3aac-audio-again.html

playing pcm data on iphone


What is the vector form of Taylor's Theorem?

Question: I checked most of the posts about Taylor expansion with scalar functions. Could anyone tell me what is the multivariate version of Taylor's Theorem, and how I can use it?
Answer: It is not entirely clear which of the following you are asking for: (a) Taylor expansion for a vector-valued function or (b) Taylor expansion for a function defined on $\mathbb{R}^N$ with $N > 1$. In the former case, you just use the usual Taylor's theorem component by component. In the latter, look at this for the statement and proof.
Comment: Ah, you may want to note that the multivariate Taylor's theorem given in the wikipedia link uses [multiindex notation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-index_notation).
Answer: For a scalar-valued function $f$ of $n$ variables $x_k$ the multivariate form of Taylor's theorem can be brought into the following form:
$$f(p+X)=\sum_{r=0}^n {1\over r!} d^r f(p)(X)+ R_n.$$
Here $d^r f(p)(X)$ is a homogeneous polynomial of degree $r$ in the coordinates $X_1$, $\ldots$, $X_n$ of the increment vector $X$, namely
$$d^r f(p)(X)=\sum_{k_1,\ldots,k_r}f_{.k_1\ldots k_r}(p)X_{k_1}\ldots X_{k_r},$$
where the indices $k_i$ run from $1$ to $n$; so formally there are $n^r$ summands in total. The remainder term $R_n$ can assume various forms, e.g. $R_n(X)= o(|X|^n) \ (X\to 0)$.
Among the $n^r$ terms of $d^r f(p)(X)$ many are equal. If we have just two variables $x$,$y\ $ then the $2^r$ terms of $d^r f(p)(X,Y)$ (now the increment vector is $(X,Y)$ with scalar $X$, $Y$) can be arranged into
$$d^r f(p)(X,Y) =\sum_{k=0}^r {r \choose k}\ {\partial^r f\over \partial x^k\partial y^{r-k}}(p)\  X^k Y^{r-k}.$$
In the last formula the expressions ${\partial^r f\over \partial x^k\partial y^{r-k}}(p)$ are ${\it constants}$. In particular one has $$df(p)(X,Y)=f_x(p)X+f_y(p)Y, \qquad d^2f(p)(X,Y)=f_{xx}(p)X^2+2 f_{xy}(p) XY +f_{yy}(p)Y^2 .$$


Can I create a character that's above the PHB-given height and weight restrictions?

Question: Me and a friend are creating barbarian brother characters. I know Goliaths are no longer an option, but are we able to make our characters a bit taller and heavier than the restrictions set in the player's handbook?
Like, could we make 8ft tall, 300lb barbarian brothers?
Comment: Why are Goliaths no longer an option? Are you playing in Adventurer's League?
Comment: Welcome to RPG.SE.  Please take the [tour] and visit the [help] to get an idea of how this Q&A site works.  We are glad you have dropped by; Happy Gaming!  If you all try to make your own race, please play test it and then come back and answer our own question with the results of the play test.
Comment: @daze413 Even if they were playing AL, Goliaths are okay there.
Comment: @T.J.L. not if they already used up the 1 allowed optional book rule and can't pick goliath
Answer: Goliaths are Normal
The free Elemental Evil Player's Companion has Goliath race specifications (pages 10-11), as does the book "Volo's Guide to Monsters."
If you want to make Goliaths, you can do so for free.  See the first link.
If you want more, see the second link.  It costs money, so if you don't want to have to buy a supplement, that's understandable.  This race seems to fit what you are looking for:

Size. Goliaths are between 7 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 280 and
  340 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Natural Athlete. You have proficiency in the Athletics skill.

If you are interested in home brew, all you need is the DMG and your imagination.  If your desire is to build big barbarians, nothing is stopping you.  The key thing to recall when trying out your own creations is that all of the character races are "medium" in size (save gnomes and halflings).  Making a PC size "large" moves some of the balance points around, for example damage dice may change.
DMG pages 285-288 covers making new player races.

Note on Adventurer's League character creation: the general rule is "PHB +1" (one other supplement, be it Sword Coast Adventures Guide, Volo's Guide, or one of the other supplements like the Elemental Evil Supplement at the link).  You need to work with the GM to ensure that the +1 fits within Adventure League guidelines.  (Link is to the AL Player's Guide for the Storm King's Thunder season).

(AL P. G. pages 2-3) You may use all options presented in the Player's Handbook with regard
  to race and class, in order to build and advance your character. For
  example, if you are playing a human, you are allowed to use the
  Variant Human Traits, as presented on page 31 of the Player's
  Handbook. In addition to the Player's Handbook however, you may also
  choose to use one other resource from those listed below to build your
  character.
  • Elemental Evil Player's Companion
  • Sword Coast
  Adventurer's Guide
  • Volo's Guide to Monsters
Answer: There are no explicit height and weight restrictions for humans (or other races)
While the text on humans lists typical sizes, and the rulebook offers a method of determining size randomly within certain limits, those are listed as guidelines or tools, not explicit restrictions. As such, you can - as long as your GM approves - set your height and weight freely.
The rules on size category are similarly abstract - a human is size category medium, regardless of its actual height and weight. While the size category "medium" is described as "roughly between 4 and 8 feet tall", that is again stated as a rough guideline (and your barbarian would still fit within that range).
As always, your GM might put limitations on your character if he feels that it is sufficiently outside the norm that it doesn't fit in his campaign, which the physical size of races would certainly fall under. As your character would be unrealistically large, it would be a good idea to bring this up in advance.
All the above applies to your listed height and weight, which have no effects on the game rules (apart from how difficult you would be to carry). Your character should likely to have above average strength and constitution, but those are determined as normally by the rules.
If you wish to also gain the mechanical effects of being larger, you would have to either adopt a house rule or use the Goliath (or another) race, as described in other answers.
Comment: Related: [how large is Large?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/84011/23970)
Comment: My human is 5 beeelionn feet tall and weighs 2 oz.  Size: medium.
Answer: I agree with Korvin, you can use the Goliath supplemental material. If you make a "human" who is 8ft tall, you would need your DM's permission, and then homebrew rules similar to the following:
Apply the size "large" modifiers, which include occupying 4 squares or 3 hexes, use of large weapons, increase in price of equipment (especially clothing), and your 6 stat points for "human" would probably either be rewritten and reduce to Str +2, Con +1, or more likely, Str +1, Con +1, and you have a special feat: Large.
Your DM may also say you have a base speed of 35 instead of 30, in addition to applying several "large" penalties, like being easier to hit, being surrounded by more targets, etc.
As a standard ruling, no, you cannot play 8ft tall humans and get the size modifiers.
As a home brew, you can do the above.
As a legalistic approach, you can either create a Goliath, or take a human with a high strength and constitution, a lower dexterity, and then take equipment and feats approximating some aspect of being large, such as use of large heavy weapons, and any of the following feats:

Durable (+1 Con, min hp/hd)
Grappler (creatures one size larger don't automatically win)
Great Weapon Master (very good with enormous weapons)
Mobile (flavor text it so instead of being agile, you are just so
tall your speed increases and difficult terrain is just too small to
bother you)
Tavern Brawler (your huge fists do 1d4 lethal, +! str or con, and you
are good at grappling puny men)
Tough (a man of your size has 2 more hp/level than smaller folk)

Then all you have to do is stick with Barbarian to 20th level, try to get a 20 strength before then, and your +4 to con and Str will give you a 24 strength, which is better than a frost giant and much better than a hill giant. Additionally, if a Wizard casts Enlarge Person on you, your grappling feat allows you to grapple Huge creatures (i.e., things like Hill Giants)
Comment: related reading on applying large modifers: [Are there any rules or guidelines for large character races?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/69967/23064)


Efficient computation of AX=B where B has special structure (block-diagonal)

Question: In case B(size ~ 2k, complex double) is block-diagonal, where block size is small(e.g. 2), is there any more efficient way to compute this other than Lapack gesv?
Comment: Assuming you already have an LU factorization, during the forward substitution step some elements of $B$ will be guaranteed zeros, so you can carefully invoke trsm to pass it only the relevant portion of the matrices for each block. This would save $\frac12$ of the first substitution step.
Comment: @Kirill  thanks, can you leave with an more explicit answer below(perhaps with psudo lapack flow)? suppose A is general and B is tridiagonal or 2x2block-diagonal.
Answer: Supposing you already have an LU factorization, you can save a half of a forward substitution step. In the system $Lx=b$, you would have
$$ \begin{pmatrix}
l_{11}&0&&&&\cdots&0\\
\vdots&&&&&&0\\ l_{k-1,1}&\cdots&l_{k-1,k-1}&0&\cdots&\cdots&0\\
l_{k,1}&\cdots&l_{k,k-1}&l_{k,k}&0&\cdots&0\\
\vdots&&&&&&\vdots\\
l_{n1}&\cdots&&&&&l_{nn}
\end{pmatrix}
\begin{pmatrix} x_1\\\vdots\\x_{k-1}\\x_k\\\vdots\\x_n\end{pmatrix}
=
\begin{pmatrix} 0\\\vdots\\0\\b_k\\\vdots\\b_n \end{pmatrix}
$$
and the observation is that only the submatrix $L[k:n,k:n]$ matters whenever the rhs vector $b$ has $b[1:k-1]=0$. (It makes no difference if only $b_k$ is nonzero, or if $b_{k:n}$ are nonzero.) The elements of $x$ corresponding to the first $k-1$ zero elements of $b$ all vanish.
So instead of invoking the usual procedure (in blas, this is trsm—you shouldn't have to write this yourself, and if you do it may well be slower) on the whole matrix, you invoke it only on the bottom-right submatrix of the right size, because you know that $x_1=\cdots=x_{k-1}=0$.
For a $2\times2$ block-diagonal matrix, you can solve for two rhs $b$ vectors at a time with the same position of the first nonzero. This saves on average $\frac12$ of the work, averaged over all the $b$'s, and I believe this is the best you can do.
Comment: thanks so much! so does this also imply, in the case of diagonal right hand side, standard gesv is inefficient?
Comment: One generally doesn't compute the matrix inverse explicitly, which is what one gets with a diagonal r.h.s., instead keeping the LU factorization itself, so it's basically never an issue. Life Stefano M points out, unless you've checked, and solving $A\backslash B$ is a major bottleneck, there's no real point in doing any of this in the first place.
Answer: When solving $AX = B$ with dense $A$, the fact that $B$ is sparse does not imply that $X$ is sparse: this means that when computing $X$ little can be gained from the structure/sparsity of $B$.
It is true (as noted by Kirill) that with a custom implementation of the back solve step in the forward substitution step some floating point operations can be saved (since you know that some entries in the intermediate result are zero) but this implies introducing a for loop and multiple calls to trsm. I'm still convinced that a single call to trsm on the whole $L$ and $B$ compares favourably to multiple calls to trsm on sub-blocks of $L$ and $B$, unless you carefully optimise the block size of the custom implementation. (And of course, you have to take into account pivoting...)
Bottom line: you can save some operations, but to gain efficiency the implementation is still (in my opinion) non-trivial.
Comment: Back/forward substitution is a standard function in BLAS, you definitely don't really need to write your own: [dtrsm](http://www.netlib.org/lapack/explore-html/de/da7/dtrsm_8f_source.html). And you can invoke it so that it needs to work only on a portion of the matrices (using lda, ldb, the usual way).
Comment: @Kirill I edited my answer for clarifying my point of view. Maybe my answer is not very informative, but I think that implementing your *correct* solution strategy is not so straightforward, on modern multi-core architectures.
Comment: Perhaps? I'm not sure how straightforward it is, my sense is that saving half the work is worth it, but, now that you mention it, I guess I wouldn't want to be too sure about it without measuring it first. (I haven't measured this.)
Comment: @Kirill yes benchmarking is paramount: as this [example](http://stackoverflow.com/a/14573065) shows, sometimes `for` loops can be  even faster than equivalent vectorised code. Taking into account that you have LU factorisation, forward solve, and back solve, and that you save just half of the work on a single step, the maximum speedup you can expect is about 20% (or 6/5), if $A$ and $B$ have the same size. But again results depend on memory layout, processor architecture, compiler-level optimisations, so unless `X=A\B` is a major bottleneck I would not embark in your solution strategy.
Comment: I understand what you mean, but I don't know OP's situation, and there isn't enough information in the question itself to know if it's really worth doing, so I just answered the question as posted. Still, a saving of 20%, especially *orthogonal* to compiler optimizations and the like, is substantial enough that one might legitimately want to know about it: it doesn't strike me as totally unreasonable, like some microoptimization might.


Unnecessary parameters in query string in /me/questions when only "total" is requested

Question: To get all the questions that I have asked, I am using Stack Exchange API, I am using /me/questions. When only total is requested, order and sort are also given as parameters in the query string. It is unnecessary. Should there be some modifications in the API, to not have these unnecessary parameters when total is requested? Also, in the doc page?
Answer: No unnecessary parameters are required. order and sort are always optional.
You can see this with these direct API calls:

/2.2/users/5035500/questions?site=stackoverflow
/2.2/users/331508/questions?site=stackoverflow

It's hard to demonstrate a live link for /me/questions, since it requires an access token, but if you call that route from an app or script, you'll see that order and sort are not required.
As for the doc pages, they automatically add those parameters as a convenience, not because they are required by the actual API.
Comment: When requesting only `total`, the unnecessary parameters don't come under 'convenience' category. Also, the doc page should be modified appropriately, i.e, the two parameters should be disabled.
Comment: Was the previous comment acceptance of the poor documentation? Also, correct documentation would help future programmers. Is incomplete, erroneous documentation of any use? I am from India, where we are expected to be flexible in every position.
Comment: The documentation is fine. The convenient demo tool is not the documentation; nor is it erroneous in any way (in this instance).  In fact, by providing those optional values explicitly: (1) it illustrates the default behavior/sort and (2) it encourages the developer to consider and specify the sort.  This is always a best practice and can help prevent "time bomb code".


Delete custom EAV attributes from the database

Question: I want to remove unused EAV attributes directly from the database before I move my store live. Attributes can be found in eav_attribute table, can I delete attributes from this table? Is it safe? Or do I also need to edit other EAV tables?
Answer: See Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Setup::removeAttribute(). It takes two arguments - the first is the entity code, and the second is the attribute code.
Edit - to run from a non-installation scope:
<?php
include 'app/Mage.php';
Mage::app();
$setup = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/setup','catalog_setup');
$setup->removeAttribute('catalog_product','attr_code');

Comment: Thnk you. I understand how to use it in a setup script of a module:

`$installer->removeAttribute('catalog_product', 'my_attribute1');` or `$installer->removeAttribute('catalog_category', 'my_attribute2');`

But is there a way to use this code in a separate file? I'd like to place the file in the root folder (where Magento's `index.php`), so that it would be possible to call the script in web browser: `example.com/delete_attributes.php/`. Can you point me in the right direction?
Comment: @shasikanth - it's really a separate question, but swap `catalog/setup` with `customer/setup`, `catalog_setup` with `customer_setup`, and `catalog_product` with `customer`.
Comment: Updated my response.
Comment: What code changes i need to do, to delete a custom customer attribute?
Answer: The first rule of Magento is: Never edit the database directly.
I admit that I broke this rule on numerous occasions, so...
you can delete the attributes from eav_attribute, the constraints with ON DELETE CASCADE should cleanup the rest of the tables.
But I still think you should take the clean way:
$attributeId = 55;
Mage::getModel('catalog/resource_eav_attribute')->load($attributeId)->delete();

It shouldn't take long and you will feel at peace with yourself because you didn't break the rules.
It's not important what method you choose, but backing up your DB is, in both cases.
Comment: I always try to avoid editing database, but it is much faster to do it this way :) and this time it is only for testing (not for production site). So is this query enough to get rid of the attribute, or do I need to do something more:
`DELETE FROM eav_attribute WHERE eav_attribute.attribute_code = "my_attribute";`
Comment: This should be eoungh. Just make sure there aren't 2 attributes with the same code, for different entities.
Answer: DELETE FROM eav_attribute WHERE eav_attribute.attribute_code = "some_attr_code";
is a working solution, I used it many times.
Especially if you remove extension and Magento still want to call unexisting attribute model


Is making apps haram?

Question: I was wondering if making apps is haram. For example, ones that can help with productivity or communication between groups.
Comment: Short answer: **No**
Comment: I second that, No.
Comment: You can specify a specific app that would be helpful, in general its ok to make apps, but of-course if any app supports anyone in sins, will not be ok of-course.
Comment: Maybe you could add why you think it is could be haram and what makes you ask the question? You a certainly writing this question in an "app" (or web which also is an app). Wouldn't that too be haram then?
Comment: if your niya is for Halal that its ok, else its Haram wallaho aalam
Comment: Not haram, but some apps which attract user to haram act to make such app is haram, i am also app developer by the way & would not involve on making of app/software which get user attention to haram act
Answer: It's not the app, it's what it's used for.
This is analogous to asking is English haram?  There are things one can say in English which are haram to say, but the English language is not the problem.  Likewise, an app is not a problem in itself.
Many Muslims routinely use non-Islamic apps like clocks, email apps, and document readers, along with Islamic apps for e.g. prayer times and mosque locations.  Many can be found by Googling Islam apps, Quran apps etc.  Indeed, many scholars of Islam use Facebook and various social media, and presumably many of them use apps.  But, of course, there will be apps, such as gambling apps, which would be haram to make.
In the context of an FM radio app proposal, we have the following fatwa:

In principle, it is permissible to develop radio applications for smartphones, etc. as long as it serves an educational or religious purpose and does not entail of any sin or evil. However, it is prevalent that its usage is predominately for the wrong purposes... it would be reprehensible for one to develop a FM radio app. -- Fahad Abdul Wahab, checked and approved by Mufti Ebrahim Desai, sourced from IslamQA.org (another example is from AskImam.org in the context of games)

In the context of developing an Islam "brownie point" system:

In principle, there is nothing wrong with setting up an electronic application... However, the program must be regulated by the Sharee'ah and free from innovations.  -- IslamWeb.net

In the context of making a phone app to sell Islamic information:

Making these Islamic apps... aimed at spreading the religion of Allah, and teaching Qur'an and hadeeth, is a great and blessed good deed... -- Islam Q&A
Answer: Lets see this in this way that you can keep a knife or a gun in your home for safety but you cannot use it for killing someone. Just like that you can develop mobile apps but for positive use.

for example app for selling mobile-phones is OK but app for selling pig is
  haram.Because pig is haram.

Is making apps haram?


Where to save the event JSON files for openFDA locally?

Question: I just downloaded the openFDA source code from the github, as well as all the event endpoint JSON files, and I wanted to know which directory to save the JSON endpoints. Some also seemed to have the same file name, e.g. when both 2004Q1 part1 and 2004Q2 part1 are extracted, they result in drug-event-0001-of-0002.json. How should I distinguish them within openFDA?
Comment: I am not sure I understand your question. What do you mean by "How should I distinguish them within openFDA?"
Comment: Sorry about that. I just read the README inside /api/faers in the source code and it says "Get an ES instance running locally with data in the FAERS mapping format." How do I do this after downloading the endpoints from openFDA?
Comment: The downloads are meant to be used instead of the API. If you want to have the API up and running locally, you will need to run the pipelines locally, which will take a lot of resources. If you want to post a question "How do I run the openFDA API locally?" I can try to answer that.
Comment: Alright, just posted another question!
Answer: Just to be clear, the downloads cannot be shoehorned into the API code. They are meant to be used in place of the API. From what I understand, they will be perfect for you. Once you have downloaded in this fashion, you can glob over all the zips and process each one for your pairs.
If I understand you question (that the file names are the same) then you will have to do something like the following:
<code>import os
import requests

URL = 'https://api.fda.gov/download.json'
BASE_DIR = './downloads'
os.system('mkdir -p %s' % BASE_DIR)

downloads = requests.get(URL).json()
drug_events = downloads.get('results', {}).get('drug', {}).get('event', {}).get('partitions', [])
for event in drug_events:
  zip_url = event.get('file', None)
  if zip_url:
    parsed_url = requests.utils.urlparse(zip_url)
    target_file = os.path.basename(parsed_url.path)
    target_base = parsed_url.path.replace(target_file, '')[1:]
    target_dir = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, target_base)
    os.system('mkdir -p %s' % target_dir)
    os.system('curl --progress-bar %s > %s' % (zip_url, os.path.join(target_dir, target_file)))
</code>


How to analyze auditory steady state responses?

Question: How does one usually go about analyzing the auditory steady state response (ASSR)? I have data where speech was amplitude modulated to a 40 Hz sine tone. There's 3.5 minutes of data; should I just take the FFT or do some averaging first? What is the usual process? The data has been already preprocessed.
Answer: ASSR analysis is based on the fact that the electrophysiological responses are time locked with the stimulus repetition rate.
There is not one possible method of analysis. Generally spoken, ASSR analysis occurs in the spectral domain, and specifically the frequency of the stimulus repetition rate is analyzed, as well as its harmonics. For example, if the stimulus repetition rate is 100 Hz, the ASSR will occur at 100 Hz, 200 Hz, 300 Hz etc (Fig. 1). The base frequency (in this case, 100 Hz) will have the largest amplitude, and the harmonics decrease in amplitude. Detecting the presence of ASSR in the spectral domain means relying on amplitude and/or phase values (sometimes combined into a vector).

Fig. 1. ASSR base frequency and harmonics. Stimulus rate was 90 Hz. source: The Hearing Review
Sources
- The Hearing Review, November 2007
- Audiology Book (in Dutch)


Using THE before some countries

Question: I have been taught that it's grammatically proper to use the before countries like "Sudan and Yemen" but I was never given a reason (if there exists any, of course) when I asked why, except for "it is one of those ambiguous parts of English language that we – as non-native speakers – should just accept without trying to look for a reason". Now, I'd like to know if there is any answer to this "why" or I should keep on believing that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to questions like these.
Comment: This might be useful: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/15484/using-the-definite-article-before-a-country-state-name.
Answer: The naming of countries is a matter of politics and convention rather than grammar. It is no longer appropriate to say the Ukraine, for example, as the government of that country deprecates it, and some may even be insulted by it.

Ultimately, each country can declare whatever its official and short names will be in English, although it may not always stick in common usage. Holland referring to the Netherlands persisted well into the second half of the 20th century, and Burma remains Burma, perhaps in part to spite the generals who insist on Myanmar.
The article is used where

the name of the country includes a common noun, usually indicating the type of state; thus Russia but the Russian Federation, Britain but the UK and the United Kingdom, and the UAE and the United Arab Emirates. Naturally, the formal name of a country almost always entails the article: China but the People's Republic of China (or for stalwarts, the Republic of China), Jordan but the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Gabon but the Gabonese Republic.
There are exceptions, as always: in Ivory Coast has more than half as many examples as in the Ivory Coast, and it is Vatican City, not the Vatican City— although the latter is also known as the Holy See.

the name refers to a geographic or cultural region, a group of islands, or another feature or landmark: The Bahamas, The Gambia, the Comoros, the Netherlands, etc. As far as I can tell, The Gambia and The Bahamas seem to be the only countries which prefer the article always be used and always capitalized. (Among cities, we have The Hague and The Bronx, and a few others.)

The second case is where the has been dropped from many country names; the reference to the country as a region within something larger is taken by some to have colonialist overtones. Thus, what were the Lebanon [mountain], the Argentine [river], the Ukraine [=border region], and the Sudan [desert] a few decades ago are today Lebanon, Argentina, Ukraine, and Sudan properly.
Where a name is imported wholesale from another language, any article in the original language is ignored. Thus, El Salvador, not the Salvador, and likewise subnational entities like Le Havre or Los Angeles.
I have some additional questions on articles and proper nouns linked in the other thread.
Comment: +1 for a highly informative answer and the link, of course.
Comment: @JeremyDouglass Nicknames don't obey rules— we have *Motor City* and *Derby City*; but it's strictly *the Windy City* and *the Mile-High City*. *[The Crescent City](http://www.neworleansonline.com/)* is a long way from *[Crescent City](http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/cf/1.0/en/place/Crescent%20City%20village,%20Illinois/POPULATION/DECENNIAL_CNT)* after all. If *City* (*county*, etc.) leads, however, the article is always employed: *New York City* but *the City of New York*, and in the Department of Redundancy Department, *Kansas City* is formally *the City of Kansas City*.
Comment: Small point, but are you sure _Argentine_ is etymologically related to _river_? I think it's actually _silver_.
Comment: I wonder if Vatican City counts as an exception or is even worth mentioning given that it is named as a city, and that name perfectly fits the pattern of cities named as such: Atlantic City, Park City, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, or even Sin City or Paradise City for that matter have no "the."
Comment: Good point on nicknames -- and fun trivia about Kansas City. Strike "Sin City" and "Paradise City" from my examples. Still: for an official city name (not a nickname), Vatican City (not the Vatican City) is not an exception. It is following the same pattern as most (if not all?) other "_ City" cities [1](https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100713003553AAq0eKH) [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_named_after_their_state) -- at least the ones I am familiar with in the USA.
Comment: @TypeIA - it's kind of both. You're right, it's not etymologically related to river, but the name comes from the Rio de la Plata, the "river of silver" (named for the silver found upstream).
Answer: Looking at the names of countries as listed by the British Foreign Office, the article 'The' is never used.
In the past, certain countries were officially named with an article.  This practice seems to have died out entirely.  The most recent country I can think of to lose the article in common usage is Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia.
There has been discussion of "The Ukraine" on ELU where it is said to be insulting.
The best rule to apply is, if the country calls itself The xxx, then use The.
Comment: "'The' is never used". Interesting find, although it's not a general principle elsewhere than on the list. For example, click "United Arab Emirates" in the list and you get to a page including the text, "We work closely with the UAE in many areas..." Also, it's "St Vincent and The Grenadines" even on the list, so apparently you can use "the" but not at the start of a list item. So, weird as it may seem, I wonder if it's more to do with alphabetization for the list than the FCO-approved way to refer to countries in general contexts.
Answer: I know two rules about using of "the" before country names:
1.Use the article the with countries that have a common noun within its name,
e.g the USA = United States
2.Countries whose name is plural,
e.g the Philippines
Comment: Many thanks but those rules do not answer my question.
Answer:
No article is used with the names of most countries. "The" is used with country names with "of", or the names of island countries.

http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/article4c.html

Use no article with a single-name country.  Use "the" before countries with "of" in the name:  The Repuplic of…, The United__of…, The Democratic __ of… , etc.  And use "the" before island countries: the Philippines, the Maldives,

http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/art-nationality.html
Comment: There is [The Gambia](http://www.visitthegambia.gm/), however.
Comment: So, er, "The Japan", "The Jamaica", "The Cuba", "The Greenland", "The Cyprus", "The Iceland"? This is plain wrong. It's not islands but plurals (the Comoros, the Netherlands, the Philippines) and it's not "of" but common nouns describing the kind of country (state, republic, kingdom, commonwealth, principality, Grand Duchy, etc.)
Comment: It's the *plural* that gives some islands the "the".  *The* Maldive***s*** (plural) vs, say, Cuba (singular).

Using THE before some countries


Who peer-reviews suggested edits?

Question: Do peer reviews go to just anyone, or do you need a certain amount of reputation to review suggested edits?
Comment: Big thanks to Eric Carvalho who reviews tons of our edits. Eric, thank you very much for your work!!
Answer: You need at least 2000 reputation to review suggested edits.
Answer: As edwinksl already pointed out, all users above 2000 reputation (sorry for stealing that I don't see the numbers anymore) can review edits.
So reviews are done by the community, or to better quote whats on the reviews page written:

Ask Ubuntu is moderated by
  you.
Help your fellow members learn to use the site and raise the quality
  of Q&A by:

Evaluating new posts
Voting to close or reopen questions
Reviewing suggested edits

Who peer-reviews suggested edits?


How to fix watch wristband made out of plastic

Question: I have a watch and the wristband is breaking apart. It seems there is no easy way to attach a new wristband to the watch. What are some alternatives to fix the wristband of the watch?
Comment: Can you include a photo for us? That will help us come up with ideas.
Comment: "It seems there is no easy way to attach a new wristband" - Maybe so. However, this would be unusual in my experience. Even the cheapest watches often have spring pins (so they fit the cheapest, mass produced straps) - even if it's not immediately obvious.
Answer: The plastic that flexible things like wristwatch bands are made from is essentially impossible to glue together, because the oils that are milled into the plastic to render it pliable prevent glue from sticking to it.
Per MrWhite, check the wristband-to-watch joint for springpins, which allow the broken band pieces to be removed for replacement.
Comment: Even if the band is repaired, if it's cracking/splitting in one spot, it's only a short matter of time before other cracks start showing up.
Comment: @computercarguy is right. Time for a new band!
Answer: If your watch is such that the strap can not be replaced, you can cut the damaged bits off and replace the now missing bits with a fabric, leather or knotted replacement.
To attach a replacement bit of strap you likely want to 'drill' holes in the end of the strap, far enough from the actual edge that the holes do not tear out.
You can now sew the replacement to the holes, likely easiest with holes in the replacement leather, or just into the fabric.
The most 'need to know how to do it' but best looking if done right might be to tie string to the holes and macrame the strap replacement.
But if at all possible, I would replace the strap, either with a factory made or a home made replacement.
As said in the early answer, most watches have a spring pin. Others work with holes in the watch case and a strap attached in some way to those holes.
Either one can be used to attach home made straps or 'a home made strap' but if you have a watch case with holes to attach the strap rather than the standard spring pin, you may have to use the same brand as the watch or make your own.
This is not the Stack Exchange site to detail how to make the straps.


What's the best online payment processing solution?

Question: Should be available to non-U.S. companies, easy to setup, reliable, cheap, customizable, etc. What are your experiences?
Answer: You can't really answer this kind of question with a "I like 'insert provide name here'" type answer because like so many things it is a balance and the reasons for choosing a payment processing solution tend to be complex.
Volume / Value
The most important factor in choosing a secure payment clearance service (the people who will connect to the banking networks and clear the money for you - will refer to them as SPCS) is how many widgets will you be selling at what cost. The pricing models of all the SCPS providers is based around this equation. This dictates the economics of using the service, which is nearly always the most important factor.
For example, in the UK securetrading.net have a large annual fee and high minimum transaction values (been a while since I've seen the exact numbers and they don't make it immediately obvious on the site, but this is for illustration only anyway) making it one of the most expensive solutions to use if you are selling high value low volume. Most smaller clients will fall into this model. High value is really anything over a couple of dollars. Low volume is typically anything less than tens of thousands of units per month. However, if you are running a donations service in the aftermath of an international environmental disaster (relatively low value very high volume) then they become one of the cheapest.
Factor in to this the setup costs (relatively high), and the cost to tie the service into the site (in SecureTrading's case it's very easy to do, but still a lot harder than adding a PayPal button) and you start to build up a true picture.
On the flip side, a service such as PayPal has very low setup costs (no fee to pay, and trivially easy to integrate), but relatively high transaction costs. It is great for high value / low volume transactions.
The Bank
There are two main categories of payment clearance service - Bureau and Bank Acquired.
In the UK at least NetBanx, SecureTrading and WorldPay offer both bank acquired and bureau services. ProtX and SecPay offer only bank acquired services. PayPal and its ilk operates slightly outside both definitions (see Protection below).
A Bank Acquired service plumbs into your normal banking merchant account and clears the funds straight into it. As well as charging you for this service, your bank will also take a slice, typically this is more than the SPCS provider will charge and so it actually is the bank that becomes the deciding factor.
Some banks will only work with their preferred provider. In the UK, most banks want you to have a separate Internet Merchant Account even if you already have a Merchant Account with them.
I always tell clients to shop around, as this will make a huge difference to how much their e-commerce venture can bring in. All banks are not created equal.
Bureau services effectively act as your bank at the same time as providing the clearance service. They were popular in a time when banks hadn't grasped the concept of the Internet and would prefer transactions be chiseled into stone tablets if they got their way. Often the choice between a bureau service and a bank acquired service is made for you based on circumstances.
Trading History
In many countries (including the UK), most banks won't give you a merchant account until you have been trading for a particular period of time (2 years in the UK). Your only option is then a bureau service.
Cash flow
Most bureau services will hold onto your cash as security against "charge backs".
If you sell me a Ferrari and I am horrified to learn that you've sold me a small metal toy rather than the 1.5 tonnes of Italian automotive passion I was expecting, I will complain to my credit card company who will refund me and then chase your merchant services provider for a refund. They will have to give them the refund and then chase you for the money.
It's therefore in their interests to hold on to your money for a period of 4-6 weeks to protect against this. If you sell services or goods with no capital outlay (software for instance), then you can afford this. If on the other hand, you really are having to pay your luxury car importer to provide you with stock, then cash flow becomes very important and you're going to need a bank acquired service where you can be paid immediately.
Protection
One major downside to PayPal and similar services is that it is not covered under the same regulations that govern credit cards.
Simply put, if you buy something on a credit card your card provider is liable for ensure you get what you paid for (broadly speaking, in most countries, does not constitute legal advice etc.) and if you have a problem with your purchase they will refund you very quickly and then will go and chase the person that you paid.
This is the kind of protection you hear about when Leo Laporte advertises American Express on his podcasts. It is a "Good Thing"TM. You don't have that protection with PayPal because when you use your credit card on PayPal, you are actually buying PayPal's service. So, even if you are mis-sold a product, the person you paid for the service (PayPal) didn't mis-sell, they provided the service you paid for. This breaks the chain.
PayPal don't have a legal obligation to protect you in the same way, and their record on refunding ripped off customers is less than spangly. I'm guessing they have "Caveat Emptor" writ large on the walls of their head office. :)
I'm not dissing PayPal, they are way ahead of the curve on many other security features, but just another factor to bear in mind.
End to end integration
Different services differ in their ease of integration. Oh boy do they differ. I'm sitting on some work right now to do an HSBC integration. I'd rather have a root canal. Some of the systems make big assumptions about the way you have to work with them, and are poorly designed or inflexible. Retro-fitting them to an active site can be very painful. Some of them are beautiful and easy to work with (and not necessarily less secure). The biggest difference is how you choose to integrate though.
Most services integrate by allowing you to redirect to a secure site where your customer fills in his / her details. They are finally redirected back to a page on your own site with the results of the transaction. This works well in most cases and is easiest to integrate.
When you buy something on Amazon, you don't get redirected to WorldPay, or PayPal however. If you want end-to-end integration, most services now will let the communication happen behind the scenes. Your own site has to have a decent secure server certificate of course, and the integration is necessarily more complex.
Reputation
It used to be that PayPal was used on dinky sites. You wouldn't catch Amazon using it. That perception has changed a lot, and in fact in some senses PayPal does security better than most. If your audience expects to see PayPal and you give them some other service then you may lose custom, or vice versa. These days many merchants offer a choice to customers.
UK Providers

WorldPay. Well established. Bureau and bank acquired. Relatively high transaction costs and annual costs. Fairly easy to integrate. Owned ultimately by Royal Bank of Scotland.
SecPay. Bank Acquired. Low per transaction cost and low annual cost and flexible payment models.
ProtX. Bank Acquired. Low per transaction cost and low annual cost, flexible payment models. Can be quite demanding to integrate.
HSBC. Bank Acquired. Low per transaction cost. High set up and annual costs. Very inflexible to integrate.
SecureTrading. Bureau and Bank Acquired. Low per transaction cost but high setup and annual costs. Was a doddle to integrate last time I used it (9 years ago!)
NetBanx. Bureau and Bank Acquired. Haven't used since 1996 so can't comment!

And of course PayPal, Google Checkout and Amazon FPS are well worth looking at and worth a whole answer on their own!
Summary
Told you it wasn't that simple! Usually, as developers, we're not in the position to choose for ourselves, and these decisions should be driven by the business needs of our employer / client.
Most e-commerce projects would start with PayPal or similar. When the business gets enough orders that they could save money by switching to another service, then they've got enough money to pay for the switch.
Disclaimer: I am UK based, and have performed many integrations with a whole slew of these services over the years, however the market changes all the time and things may have changed and your mileage may vary! I am not a lawyer or accountant, and if you take my advice it's not my fault :)
Comment: The Amazon FPS URL is now - http://aws.amazon.com/fps/
Answer: I'd say paypal or GoogleCheckout.
Google Checkout is either 2% + .20USD or free depending on how much you spend on adwords. If you spend a dollar on adWords, your next $10 on Google checkout is free.
Paypal is 1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD (2.9% for up to $30,000/month, 1.9% for more than $100,000/month)
Without factoring in the 20/30 cents, Paypal is just barely cheaper if you sell more than $100,000 per month, and spend nothing on adwords.
Comment: The issue that I've seen with Google Checkout is that they want to control everything – i.e. as an online merchant, you send them your shopping cart, they show it to the customer and ask for payment, and then they send the cart back to you with payment info. This can make it a huge pain in the ass to integrate.
Answer: http://www.authorize.net/ works well. This type of solution would allow your customer to enter his/her credit card directly.
Answer: I've been researching Google Checkout. If you require subscriptions (recurring payments) like I do - Google Checkout has it but it is still in beta. So depending on when you want to go live and your needs - you may want to use something else.
Answer: esellerate
if it is Digital stuff that you are selling, I recommend http://www.esellerate.net/ .
they have nice support for website payment, delivery of serial numbers upon sell and even have API so you can integrate the buying process into your application in case it is a desktop application.
Answer: Well by cheap do you mean processing fees or month fees?  Also is this for micro or normal transactions?  PayPal in my experience is an all around good choice because it offers both starter to professional level payment processing services that fit most needs.
Answer: I've used CyberSource in the past, and had a good experience.
They support several interfaces including SOAP, work internationally and have a pretty good web interface.
I'm not sure whether it's cheap though.
http://www.cybersource.com/products_and_services/global_payment_services/credit_card_processing/
Answer: I've looked at WorldPay and SecPay in the past; you need to know your onions to use them competently, I think - if you want really nice integration, at any rate.
Answer: Google Check-out isn't available to non-US companies. I didn't realize this until the last stages of my research, so I found it quite annoying (considering it was very easy to work with and very well documented).
Unfortunately in order to make things as convenient as possible for your end users, you're pretty much stuck with having to support Paypal. No one else comes close in terms of registered users.
Comment: or you could use any of the proper credit card payment clearance gateways. These will typically work with Visa and Mastercard and can usually be setup to work with American Express, Diners Club, JBC etc.
Answer: Epoch is pretty large and available in US and EU:
http://www.epoch.com/en/index.html
I have no idea about their conditions though.
Answer: I'd have to go with paypal. I've used it in the past, and its really quite painless. All you need to do is create an account, and it's automatically available to you.
Comment: Paypal is a great way to get started on a small business, but I think it's dangerous to build a business around it, especially with recurring billing etc.  They are famous for freezing people's accounts to do fraud reviews which are lengthy and require lots of paperwork.  I've had several bad experiences with a frozen account where all incoming payments to your business will cease, and you can't even get access to your own money.  You have much less control so I don't think it's ideal for "real" business.  Good to get something up quickly though.
Comment: We've used their recurring payments API for several years and are not at all happy.  Once, they changed the reference numbering scheme without even telling us, which meant that when we got messages regarding payments, they were referencing a different ID than the one they gave us when we created the original subscription.  Who would do that?  Also, their technical support is worse than useless.  And it takes tens of seconds to login to their website, another minute or so to do any kind of search.  They're really a disaster.
Comment: I don't know why this would be downvoted.  I use it and compared to amazon or google integration with URL/notification it is a snap.  google requires SSL on your website and US only and amazon is a convoluted complicated process as well.  PayPal works fine.
Answer: Try AlertPay, they have very competetive fees.
Answer: alertpay looks great low fees (compared with paypal), supports more countries , developers center
Comment: 5% + 0.25c for a transaction? Plus withdraw fees?  I don't call this 'low fees'


Why does a system try to minimize its total energy?

Question: Why does a system like to minimize its total energy? For example, the total energy of a $H_2$ molecule is smaller than the that of two two isolated hydrogen atoms and that is why two $H$ atoms try to form a covalent bond. According to the classical mechanics, it is the potential energy of a conservative system that is minimum in equilibrium, not the total energy.
Comment: Actually it's the *free energy* that's minimised :)
Comment: Entropy of a system always increases. If there is energy available to do work, that availabe energy will tend to be "used up" and lead to a highr disordered state.
Comment: This is your most popular question and there are a number of highly rated answers. Why have you not accepted any of them?
Answer: The anthropomorphic formulation "tries to" is misleading. Under the effect of ambient noise, matter explores the possible configurations around its current state: e.g., two single hydrogen atoms wiggle around and meet. If they happen to bind, this releases energy which goes away, and we say that the energetic state of this new $H_2$ molecule is lower than what we had. Unless the ambient noise or some experimentalist gives back this energy to the $H_2$ molecule, it will stay so, so there is a net bias toward these states that we describe as having a lower (free) energy.
Let's add that the traditional way to explain this bias (meaning that you need more energy, and thus have less chances, to move from a lower energy state to a higher one than the other way around), is with this schematic of a potential energy analogy:
Comment: I like how you warn that anthropomorphic "tries to" is misleading and then talk about how matter "explores" possible states. Nice answer anyway :)
Comment: @Joce I don't think it made your question misleading, just that it was funny how hard is it to actually avoid anthropomorphism.
Comment: I believe the " If they happen to bind, this releases energy which goes away" is also at the heart of the matter and can only be explained with the 2nd law of thermodynamics, as is done below by @valerio92 .
Comment: Very enlightening answer - thank you. Alway sort of wondered at this in the back of my head.
Comment: @hyportnex: as I understood the question, it was rather about why the process ends up finding the energy minimun, rather than how energy varies upon specific events. That's why I've stayed at this level of detail.
Comment: @TomášZato: thanks for your appreciation. I think though "explore" does not involve as much of active behaviour as "try to", especially as I make it explicit that it is driven by noise that the system does so.
Answer: This is a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics, which states that

In a closed system with fixed internal energy (i.e. an isolated system), entropy is maximized at equilibrium.

It can be shown that this statement is equivalent to the following:

In a closed system with fixed entropy, the energy is minimized at equilibrium.

Callen in his book gives the following argument (chapter 5):

Assume that the system is in equilibrium but that the energy does
  not have its smallest possible value consistent with given entropy. We could then withdraw energy from the system (in the form of work)
  maintaining entropy constant, and we could thereafter return this
  energy to the system in the form of heat. The entropy of the system
  would increase ($\delta Q = T dS$), and the system would be restored
  to its original energy but with an increased entropy. This is
  inconsistent with the principle that the initial equilibrium state is
  the state of maximum entropy! Hence we are force to conclude that the
  original equilibrium state must have had minimum energy consisted with
  the prescribed entropy.
Answer: This is really a statistical effect, as pretty much all of thermodynamics.
You have two free hydrogen atoms. They tend to move around the space they have, and when conditions are favourable (there's enough energy, the atoms come "close enough" together), they might interact - chemically or otherwise.
Now, "enough energy" is the important bit here. When a hydrogen atom meets another hydrogen atom, they have a lower energy state available. That is, without adding any external energy (e.g. from the relative motion of the two atoms), there is another state they can occupy (the hydrogen molecule) while releasing energy to the environment (usually as EM radiation).
This escaping energy is the thing that prevents the reaction from running "backwards". And since there's a non-zero chance of the reaction occuring, and a much lower (zero in our simplified case) chance of the reverse reaction occurring, we can observe that the system "minimized its energy".
In reality, most reactions run in both directions simultaneously and many different reactions occur in the same mix of chemicals. For example, carbonated water will tend to have ongoing reactions that convert water and carbon dioxide to carboxylic acid and vice versa - the concentration of the acid will tend toward an equillibrium where the forward reaction and the reverse reaction happen at the same rate. But they're still happening. However, note that this happens because the system not only loses energy, but gains it as well - the equillibrium happens when the amount of outgoing energy is equal to the amount of incoming energy. If that's not the case, the reaction becomes non-reversible over time as total energy is lost to the environment.
This applies to all thermodynamic systems. Imagine a ball bouncing off the ground. If the bounce is perfect, no energy is dissipated to the environment, and the ball will keep bouncing forever - it will just keep changing kinetic energy to gravitational potential energy and vice versa. There's no "minimization of total energy" - the energy of the system is simply conserved. But as thermodynamics teaches us, you can't make a system that's perfectly closed. And as soon as energy starts to "escape" the system, you'll find the ball starts bouncing lower and lower until it comes to rest. The energy was lost to heat, sound etc., and is no longer available to push the ball back up.
Answer: I'm going to take a slightly different approach and say it's because we defined energy to make it so. In other words, systems "try" to find the lowest energy state because energy is a concept humans invented in order to describe what we observe.
This is the reason that for any given set of constraints, you might need a different "energy" to describe the behavior of the system. In quantum mechanics, it works out that what we call energy (as given by the energy operator) is minimized. In classical mechanics, we refer to potential energies to distinguish between the myriad other types of energies that can be defined for a system, and choose definitions for them so that the potential energy (gravitational, thermodynamic, etc) is minimized.
In the end, what it means is that for a given state of the system, you can define a function that gives you a value relative to a lowest energy (ground) state. We define this function in such a way that it tells us which state is more likely to occur, and we do this by observing physical laws.
In that sense, it is a little bit backwards to say that a system "tries" to reach a minimum in energy (ignoring the problems inherent to anthropomorphism), since the system is just doing what it does, and we are using energy as a way of understanding that.
Answer: Energy is a secondary concept, at least in Newtownian mechanics, so let's start with the fundamentals.
There exists a force field. A gravitational one, say. An object in this field feels a force. This force "wants" to make the object accelerate.
From forces, define work as $force \times distance$ and now we can give precise mathematical meaning to the intuitive concept that "it takes work to lift this ball from the floor to the table".
From work, define energy. Energy is how we keep track of all the work that we did. When we say "the ball has $x$ Joules of kinetic energy" that's a way of saying "some force acted upon the ball, doing $x$ much work, and now because of that force the ball has accelerated to the given velocity".
So let's answer the question: "why does a system like to minimize its total energy?" First we have to clarify the question, we have to nitpick about what "the system" is because when lifting a ball from the floor to the table I have apparently increased its energy, contradicting the premise. I think you mean "why does a system like to minimise its potential energy?" Potential energy exists because the force exists -- the ball potentially will fall back to the floor, if it is allowed to; gravity will do work on the ball as it falls and this will manifest as kinetic energy. So saying "the ball wants to minimise its potential energy" is basically saying "the force of gravity exists".
But if the ball actually is allowed to fall, we're trading potential energy for kinetic energy, and the total energy of the system is constant. If it bounces with perfect elasticity and there is no air resistance etc, it will return to its initial configuration: no energy change. In practice, the bounce will be slightly elastic, work will be done agitating the molecules into motion (heat, sound, etc) and so not all the energy will be returned to the ball in the bounce, so the energy of the (no longer closed) system will tend to decrease.


Do plants have atman?

Question: Animals and humans have atman. killing animals is a sin because it has a soul.
Do plants have Souls? Is the killing of Plants Sin or not?
Comment: yes, they have jivas, like all living things. As a living organism your body needs to feed on something to live. Whatever sin there is in eating a plant is very minor. As Swami Vivekananda points out, we breath in bacteria all the time and our very act of breathing kills multitudes of living organisms. I think there are some verses in the Brahma Sutras and in the Chandogya Upanishad that speaks to this. Will take a look.
Comment: My question is more focused on whether plants have souls or not. No about vegetarianism
Comment: I edited the question to use the word atman for soul. Soul is a Christian concept and is technically present only in humans. Atman/jivas on the other hand is a part of Brahman and is present in everything animate and inanimate.
Comment: i think they have souls. But they feel less pain when compared to animals.
Comment: Oh.  can you give me references.
Comment: Plants have Soul & life. There is tradition to worship them. Since they have life, it is practice to worship & seek its permission before we cut it leaves or stems. To my understanding, like carnivorous animals doesn't get since by killing its prey, we may depend on plants for us to live.
Comment: @KeerthiS Opened your question but I would love to read some decent details instead of one line question.
Comment: Swami Vishwananda ji, could you cite something from  the Vedic Brahma Sutras and the Chandogya Upanishad to support your view?
Answer: Going to the question: Do plants have souls?
Yes, many scriptures discuss the birth of Jiva as a tree. Example:
Chhandogya Upanishad 5-10-6:

अभ्रं भूत्वा मेघो भवति मेघो भूत्वा प्रवर्षति
  त इह व्रीहियवा ओषधिवनस्पतयस्तिलमाषा इति
  जायन्तेऽतो वै खलु दुर्निष्प्रपतरं यो यो ह्यन्नमत्ति
  यो रेतः सिञ्चति तद्भूय एव भवति ॥ ५.१०.६॥
Having become mist, he becomes a cloud, having become a cloud, he rains down. Then he is born as rice and corn, herbs and trees, sesamum. and beans...

Note: Quoted Sanskrit verse from sanskritdocuments and English translation from sacred-texts.com
Chhandogya Upanishad 6-11-1 & 6-11-2:

प्राचीनशाल औपमन्यवः सत्ययज्ञः
  पौलुषिरिन्द्रद्युम्नो भाल्लवेयो जनः शार्कराक्ष्यो
  बुडिल आश्वतराश्विस्ते हैते महाशाला महाश्रोत्रियाः
  समेत्य मीमाꣳसां चक्रुः को न आत्मा किं ब्रह्मेति ॥ ५.११.१॥
ते ह सम्पादयाञ्चक्रुरुद्दालको वै भगवन्तोऽयमारुणिः
  सम्प्रतीममात्मानं वैश्वानरमध्येति तꣳ
  हन्ताभ्यागच्छामेति तꣳ हाभ्याजग्मुः ॥ ५.११.२॥
1.If some one were to strike at the root of this large tree here, it would bleed, but live. If he were to strike at its stem, it would bleed, but live. If he were to strike at its top, it would bleed, but live. Pervaded by the living Self that tree stands firm, drinking in its nourishment and rejoicing;
2.But if the life (the living Self) leaves one of its branches, that branch withers; if it leaves a second, that branch withers; if it leaves a third, that branch withers. If it leaves the whole tree, the whole tree withers . In exactly the same manner, my son, know this.

The commentary of Adi Shankaracharya on second verse ends with saying that :

...That the tree is ensouled by the' Living Self' has been indicated by the phenomena of the flowing of juices and withering of-as shown by the illustration also vouched for the Vedic text; which means that immovable (apparently inanimate) objects (like the tree) are endowed with sentience; and this also shows that there is no truth in the Bauddha and Vaisheika view that' immovable objects are insentient.' -(2)

quoted from archive.org

Kath-Upanishad 2-2-7:

योनिमन्ये प्रपद्यन्ते शरीरत्वाय देहिनः ।
  स्थाणुमन्येऽनुसंयन्ति यथाकर्म यथाश्रुतम् ॥ ७॥
Some of those who have born with bodies (the human beings), requiring other bodies reach the entry point again (the womb). Some others reach the state of plants (or other stationary objects). All these happen according to their actions, thoughts and knowledge.

Note:Above English translation quoted from vedarahasya.
Adi Shankaracharya's commentries on this verse also interprets as वृक्षादीस्थावरभावम् means trees/plants etc. stationary aspects/objects.

Therefore, as it is mentioned that Jivas take birth as trees/plants, they have souls.
Answer: <code>अहमात्मा गुडाकेश सर्वभूताशयस्थितः।

अहमादिश्च मध्यं च भूतानामन्त एव च ॥१०- २०॥
</code>
I am seated in the heart of all living entities. ... The ātmā or eternal soul is enthroned in the etheric heart of all living beings. ... Hence, Shree Krishna declares that he is situated in the heart of all living beings.
In Hinduism trees and plants have been adored not only with devotion but
have been affectionately fondled and almost treated as members of a family.
Kalidasa
 mentions kindly spirits like Vanadevatas  who had been
companions of Sakuntala in the forest, almost shedding tears when she left
her sylvan home for her residence in the palace of her husband, the king, and
hastened to give her presents of silken garments and jewels worthy of a
princess.
When Sita was abandoned by Lakshmana in the forest at the
command of Rama, Sita's sorrow stirred the trees and plants, and along with
animals and birds, they too expressed their grief by shedding flowers like
large drops of tears.

Vishnusahasranama, Vishnu is mentioned as the very embodiment of  imposing trees like Udumbara, Asvattha, Asoka and Nyagrodha.
Siva is himself conceived as a yupa, post fashioned in Khadira or Sami
  wood. Sami has fire inside it;  Rudra is also the embodiment of fire.
Poets  love to use the word Sthanu for Siva and Aparna (lit. leafless)
  for Parvati to  suggest that even the dry tree trunk (sathanu) bears
  shoots in  association with Aparna (saparna). Oshadhis or medicinal
  plants   respond to the light of the moon as effectively as the humans
  in their joy for  moonlight.

In the Vedic hymns the oshndhis have been conceived as
sentient and in the puraana the Vanadevatas are described as lovable, sylvan
deities.
Name of sages who received enlightenment under them,
thus making the trees sacred. For instance Aswattha (Ficus religiosa) is the
Bodhi tree of Sakya Muni or Buddha;
 Nyagrodha (Ficus bengalensis) of Kasyapa;
Udumbara (Ficus glomerata) of Kanaka muni; Sirisa (Albizzia
labbek) of Krakuchhanda; Asoka (Saraca indica) of Vipaswi;
Pundarika (Nelumbium speciosum) of Sikhi.
The simple faith of the Cheta in MIC Mrihchhakatika assumes that
the (watchful) eye of the vanadevata is as effective as that of the sun and
moon that are witnesses of the good and bad deeds of people on earth.
So Hinduism strongly believes in concept of "The soul" in plants .
Source -: PDF paper by arvind gupte. www.arvindguptatoys.com › shaktigupta
Answer: Plants possess consciousness and experience pleasure and pain according to Manu Smriti.

These (plants) which are surrounded by multiform Darkness, the result
  of their acts (in former existences),possess internal consciousness
  and experience pleasure and pain.

Manu Smriti 1.49
The above shloka suggests that plants have Atman.
Answer: To experience pain, you must have the feeling of 'I', 'Me', 'My body' and then 'I experience pain'. Plants have life, but they do not have the differentiated identity of consciousness.
http://www.voy.com/180579/2/2021.html

There is no real consciousness in plants and trees, although there is
  life in them. There is life in plants, sensation in animals, mentality
  in human beings and spirituality in sages. There is no Visesha
  Ahankara (ego) and reflection of Chaitanya ( pure consciousness) in
  plants and trees. Hence they cannot experience pain. The tree will not
  say, "I am experiencing pain". The mind in plants and trees is not
  developed. It is quite rudimentary. It is Jada (inert) and insentient.

They sure response to stimuli. Jagdish Chandra Bose, an Indian Scientist, did research in biophysics and found that the responses of the plants to stimuli can be electrical in nature, previously thought of as only chemical.
However, the key differentiating element of human existence is identity and consciousness about one's identity as can be seen even by latest questions explored by neuroscience. We even describe humans who have reached a certain medical condition as have reached as "vegetative" state.
Plants lack this consciousness. It's like touching a wire through which current is not flowing, and one through which current is flowing. Sans the current, the wire does not any more have it's core functionality of trasmitting current and is akin to any other piece of metal. Atma, or soul, is like the consciousness. The Chaitanya Shakthi that passes through Jada vasthus (objects) makes them become aware and alive.
The level of consciousness is different from animals from that of plants although their biological construct (tissues etc) may have the same structure. Just like the level of civilization, bonding,  community, intellignence etc is different in humans from that of animals, although we share a great similarity in biological construct with them.
Animals can understand pain and pine for relief from it because of their awareness and identity. Plants do not. J.C.Bose did perform experiments that hypothesized that they may respond to stimuli as if they respond with feeling, affection etc but even then, there is no identity or awareness.
As to sin, in Hinduism, whether something is a sin or not, is dependent on the Dharma of the doer, the injunctions of the scriptures and the context/motive/attitude of the doer, rather than the bare act itself. The story of Dharma Vyadha is the greatest example of this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyadha_Gita
In the normal parlance ( such as for gathering of food ), plucking from a plant is not a sin.
You must also note that Hinduism holds trees in great regard, and also regards respect and preservation of nature (pancha bhootas) as one of the essential duties of man. This has become all the more relevant in the modern context of environ preservation, a case where karmic consequences of one's wrongdoings (or sins) is seen in the short term itself. Therefore, that that context, that that interpretation of sin.

Do plants have atman?


Is it rude to forward an email message to the original recipient if they did not respond?

Question: If an email message sent to one's professor is not answered promptly, is it rude to forward it without comment to the original recipient as a reminder?  If so, how long should one wait before doing so?  Assume the professor is teaching a class the sender is taking.
Comment: This question appears to be off-topic because it is about workplace etiquette. The fact that this takes place between a student and a professor is rather unimportant. The exact same question could come up between an employee and a manager. This is far more on-topic at [Workplace.SE](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions).
Comment: It depends on your relationship with the person you're writing to.  But why don't you just include a few lines explaining that you're re-sending as a reminder, or making sure he got the original mail?  It only takes a minute and it's clearly more polite.  I would certainly think higher of someone who does that than someone who just re-sends.
Comment: I just checked your profile.  If you are the recipient (not the sender) or such mails, it would be good to mention it in the question.
Comment: @Szabolcs, yes, I'm the recipient.  I find it annoying but don't know if it's just me.
Comment: @StephanKolassa I disagree: the expectations for interaction with students are in many cases very different than in the workplace, because a professor's relationship to a student is very different than a manager to an employee.
Answer: On the whole, I'd say "yes, this is a rude way to send a reminder to a non-peer."
The premises are tricky: what is "prompt" to one person is not to another, and not everyone checks (work-related) email at every available opportunity. E.g., some seem to only go through email once a day, on weekdays, or even less often.
There is the other issue about acknowledgement of receipt, even if one's response will be delayed.
But/and if one is teaching a course with 30 or 100 or 250 students, individual responses to daily can be a time-consuming occupation... so that "acknowledgement of receipt" becomes unappealing and an arguable waste of time... if a proper understanding can be reached.
I've tried to cultivate in my students a sense that emails should have a "greeting", a "body", and a "closing", much as old-timey paper letters did... if only so that one can tell whether a thing was mis-sent and/or truncated, not to mention some overt acknowledgement of the identity and dignity of the recipient.
So, if I were to receive a fowarded copy of an email that had already been sent to me, I would consider it quite rude, yes. I do attempt to respond within a few hours of receipt of all email, even if only to acknowledge receipt. Whether or not I had done so, I'd view a merely-forwarded email as uncivil, apart from issues about peer-or-not.
Comment: @Szabolcs: I advise my own students, when they are wondering whether some other faculty person has received an email or not, to resend _BUT_ with some quasi-apologetic words, such as "I'm worried that my earlier email fell into your spam folder, so I'm re-sending it. Sorry if there is duplication..." Whether or not a person is a native X-language speaker, one ought to be aware of the simple niceties of communication and acknowledgement of the existence of "the other". True, many people near age 20 or so "don't get it", but that might be what's being addressed here.
Comment: Ah, indeed, even if I observe rudeness on the part of a student, I certainly don't react childishly! :) In fact, on many occasions I've "given advice" to people who've sent me clumsy emails, about how to make a better impression, etc.
Comment: From the point of view of the professor, it would be good to give the benefit of the doubt for the student.   Some students may not be native English speakers, may have a lot of difficulty figuring out the correct and polite sounding additional words when re-sending the email.  They might agonize over it for a while then in a moment of weakness just re-send the email without comment, for fear that their comment might be perceived as less polite than not saying anything.  While by no means the right thing to do, it's not nearly as bad as intentional negligence. I have seen this before.
Comment: Perhaps they would think that if the first email wasn't received, or got lost, then the re-sent one might appear as the original and only copy anyway.  Of course in these cases the second email wouldn't be forwarded with `Fwd` in the subject line and headers included.  Since the OP is a professor herself, it would have been better if she indicates whether the question is meant to be read as "should I be annoyed if I get such an email?".
Comment: I completely agree with you, I would give the same advice to students.  What I'm trying to say is that if a student does this, it does not necessarily mean that they are being rude.  It might mean that they tried and failed.  I'm hoping most professors wouldn't get angry over this and wouldn't punish the student for it in some way.  I wanted to point this out because it seemed that the OP wasn't asking whether one as a student should do this.  She may have been asking whether a professor should feel offended over it.  Please don't get offended over this as a professor.
Answer: I would be at a minimum annoyed and further less receptive in such a situation where someone would send a plain forward of an already sent email.
On the other hand, when I need to take such action, I do not send a plain forward but instead I assume the recipient took knowledge of the original email, and add some recent relevant developments (eg: since our last exchange, two new students joined our team efforts and work is really being done. Regarding the original email, everything still stand, please give us an update whenever you can...) or something to that effect