What Does It Mean Exactly When Two Parts of a Signal Are Correlated?

Question: I stumble quite often upon the notion that two or more parts of a signal are correlated to describe semi-formally that they belong together. For example in image processing, two pixels on an edge feature tend to be correlated whereas two adjacent parts of a 3D structure that represents water droplets in a particle simulation are less correlated. My question is what is the exact idea behind this notion.
Comment: Voted your question up.  There was a downvoter who had serious downvoting Tourettes and downvoted all of us.
Comment: Can you explain a bit more. When we talk about correlation we are not interested in a single pixel we are usually interested in a group of adjacent pixels. Can you show us the picture of 3D structure representing water droplets. It will be possible to explain the answer better that way.
Answer: Yeah, it can mess you up pretty badly if you don't get the fundamentals right off the get-go.  This is how I interpret correlation, and it has worked for me for what I do for a living.
Let's start off with a relatively simple example.  Take a look at the following figure (pulled from dspguide... this is actually a great online book for knowing the basics of DSP).

We have an antenna that transmits a short burst of radio wave energy in some direction. If the propagating wave strikes an object.... like a helicopter in this figure, a small fraction of the energy is reflected back toward a radio receiver.  This receiver is close to the transmitting antenna.
This short burst of radio energy, for the sake of this example, is a small triangular shape.  When the signal is reflected off of the helicopter, and then echoed back to the receiver, this signal will consist of two parts:

A shifted and scaled version of the transmitted pulse, and
Random noise, resulting from interfering radio waves, thermal noise in the electronics and other factors.

Loosely speaking, we can actually figure out how far the object is by using this concept.   Since radio signals travel roughly at the speed of light, the shift between the transmitted and received pulse is a rough measure of the distance to the object being detected.
As such, this is our general problem:

Given a signal of some known shape, what is the best way to determine where (or if) the signal occurs in another signal?

The best way to answer this is correlation.
There are two different paradigms for computing correlation.  The first one is called auto-correlation, where you are comparing a signal with shifted time offsets of itself.  This paradigm that we are describing (also seen in the figure) is defined as cross-correlation, where we are comparing with another signal, notably the received signal.  We essentially are comparing the received signal with shifted versions of the original transmitted signal.  Basically, we take a look at what we have received and what was transmitted.  We take what was received, and time shift the original transmitted signal over by different time values.  We then do a comparison with each of these signals and the received result.  Whichever gives us the highest value will denote how far away the helicopter is.
The amplitude of each sample in the cross-correlation signal is a measure of how much the received signal resembles the target signal, at that location. This means that a peak will occur in the cross-correlation signal for every target signal that is present in the received signal. In other words, the value of the cross-correlation is maximized when the target signal is aligned with the same features in the received signal.
If there is noise on the received signal, there will also be noise on the cross-correlation signal. It is an unavoidable fact that random noise looks a certain amount like any target signal you can choose. The noise on the cross-correlation signal is simply measuring this similarity. Except for this noise, the peak generated in the cross-correlation signal is symmetrical between its left and right. This is true even if the target signal isn't symmetrical.
A good thing to remember is that the cross-correlation is trying to detect the target signal, not recreate it. There is no reason to expect that the peak will even look like the target signal.  Correlation is the optimal technique for detecting a known waveform in random noise. To be perfectly correct, it is only optimal for random white noise. Using correlation to detect a known waveform is frequently called matched filtering.

tl;dr - Correlation is a measure of how much one signal resembles another.  The signal can be images, features, edges, etc.  It is simply a measure of resemblance between one signal and another.
Comment: @DilipSarwate - Oops you're right.  I didn't phrase that properly.  I'll update my answer.  BTW, you don't have to be condescending.
Comment: I didn't downvote your answer, but could have. Your explanation `We essentially are comparing the signal we have received with shifted versions of itself. Take a look at what we have received and what was transmitted. We take what was received, and time shift this over by different time values. We then do a comparison with each of these signals and the received result. Whichever gives us the highest value will denote how far away the helicopter is.` is sheer nonsense. If you correlate the incoming signal with delayed versions of **itself**, the peak value will **always** occur at $0$ offset.
Comment: To the downvoter - Is there a reason why you downvoted? I'm not complaining.  I'm just curious as to why.  This question is actually quite suitable as a signal processing question.
Answer: Usually this refers to the autocorrelation coefficient.
Consider any 1D signal with periodicity $\pi$.
Now let's look at the autocorrelation integral:
$$R(\tau)=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\! f(t)f(t-\tau)\,\mathrm{d}t$$
For varying $\tau$, the autocorrelation will have a maximum for $\tau$ equalling $\pi$ and its multiples. Thus autocorrelation can be used to study the periodicity of a signal.
This is often sort of colloquially used to indicate that certain parts of a signal are very similar or even identical.
The analogue for two different signals would be the cross correlation. It can be used to study the similarity of two separate signals.
$$(f \star g)(\tau) = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\! f(t)g(t-\tau)\,\mathrm{d}t$$
In case of the cross correlation $\tau$ has no significance over periodicity of the single signals but if for a given $\tau$ the correlation is high, $\tau$ indicates the phase shift between the signals.
Comment: I guess our answers did not correlate strongly with expectations. :-P
Comment: Same as rayryeng above i'd like to know what specific reason the answer was downvoted for. Was it not helpful?
Comment: You certainly are one cheerful individual, jojek. Thanks for your input, though.
Comment: I thought your answer was perfectly acceptable, especially in a mathematical sense.  I decided to place more emphasis on how it is used practically.  Still a good answer.... and yup, I'd like to know why I was downvoted too.
Comment: I couldn't decide which answer to accept so I tossed a coin. Thanks, both of you sobek and @rayryeng.
Comment: Yep. And your answer is getting closer and closer to be really worth of approval!
Answer: Correlation between 2 signals means you can say something about one of them by observing the other.
If you mean the standard correlation, $ E \left[ x y \right] $, it means you knowledge second moment statistics.
Which implies one can, using only linear functions, estimate one from the other to some level.


Coolant Leak/Bubbling/Whistling

Question: New here! Will say right off the bat car knowledge isn't my strongest suit but i've been trying to tackle my latest problem. I've got a 2004 Ford Fusion.
About a week ago when parking up i noticed a puddle under my car (under the driver foot well it seemed to be coming from). Enough liquid to start trickling down the street. After looking under the hood i noticed my coolant tank was now near empty. So i re-filled it, with a coolant/distilled water mix and made my journey back. On the journey back i noticed a little bit of stream coming from under my bonnet and when i got home i realised my coolant tank was nearly empty again.
I re-filled it and sat on my drive revving my car, trying to heat it up and i noticed that my coolant tank was boiling, whistling, giving off steam and sure enough after a point water/coolant started spluttering out of the cap area. I thought it might be a dud cap so i bought a replacement one.
After replacing that i decided to re-fill it and make the short half mile trip to the petrol station to test it, i noticed some steam again, and this time i felt like i could HEAR bubbling coming from the tank. I also felt like the power steering got heavy turning corners, not sure how/if thats related but has never happened before. Sure enough when i got back the coolant tank was completely EMPTY again.
I've checked my oil, there is no milky white coloration in the oil etc. There is no oil in the coolant tank either. I am wondering if replacing the actual coolant tank is the next step. It holds liquid absolutely fine when the engine is off, level doesn't deplete so wondering if its an expansion issue.
Any suggestions/diagnosis would be greatly appreciated as like i said, relatively clueless when it comes to this stuff.
Thanks guys.
Answer: One thing that comes to mind is that you might have a badly slipping serpentine belt, except you haven't mentioned any of the squeaking noise that I would expect to accompany this issue.  Is there any chance that whistling noise you heard was actually a slipping belt?  The power steering assist reduction you noticed might point in this direction as well.  A slipping belt would certainly reduce the ability of the water pump to circulate water between the engine and radiator and cause overheating.
Answer: As Gary mentioned it could be the serpentine belt.  If that is fine, another possibility is your thermostat is stuck closed.  This would cause the coolant to boil.  Would also likely cause overheating.  And if the coolant is boiling over it can get on your serpentine belt, causing it to slip and degrade your power steering performance.
Does the temp gauge get hotter than before?
I dont know where the thermostat is located on those, but it is usually a cheap and easy diy.

Coolant Leak/Bubbling/Whistling


What is the preferrable name for the Jobs / Careers / 'Work For Us' area of a website?

Question: I am trying to talk a client out of changing the label "Careers" to "Jobs" or "Working with [my clients rather long name]". I have not tested this (yet) but my intuition is that "Careers" is a very standard term that job seekers look for.
Do you agree or disagree with me? If you agree, do you have any evidence/backup I could use?
Comment: This could be a good question for http://english.stackexchange.com
Comment: Possibly more important that what you call it, is whether its going to get hidden away on some submenu on the site.
Answer: No evidence though but a quote from the 1st chapter of Steve Krug's strongly recommended Don't make me think:

For instance, 'Jobs' may sound too undignified for XYZ Corp, or they may be locked into 'Job-o-Rama' because of some complicated internal politics, or because that's what it's called in their company newsletter. My main point is that the tradeoffs should usually be skewed further in the direction of 'Obvious' than we care to think.

I think the country and the audience also matter. In some countries 'Careers' might be the best choice. The only way to find out is to run a proper A/B test. I assume the company wants to drive more traffic and/or attention to their jobs page, so the metric is cristal clear here.
Answer: It's always worth bearing in mind Jakob's Law of the Internet User Experience:

Users spend most of their time on other sites.

This is where your competitor analysis comes in. You should already have a reasonable understanding of the main competitors to your client. What are they using?  If half-a-dozen competitors are all using 'Jobs' and you then recommend to your client to break with this established route and go with 'Careers' instead then you're going to have a harder time convincing the client that you are correct and everyone else is wrong.
However, if the competitors are all currently using 'Careers' then you can use that as supporting evidence to take to the client to show them "Careers is what the target-market is expecting this area to be called based on {these competitors} sites"
Finally, it's also worth remembering that the client is paying you to put this together. There is only so much advice you can part before you just have to suck it up and go along with what they request.
(This is coming from someone who is constantly fighting a losing battle against new clients adding in a 'Our Solutions' menu option to their websites.)
Answer: Lets examine the suggestions...

Jobs - could be available jobs, jobs we have done
Careers - a career isn't one role, it is a chain of roles over time
Work with X - looking for partners?

What may be clearer is...

Career opportunities - a chance to advance a career
Available positions (or open positions) - speaks for itself
Work for us - also speaks for itself (us, not X would be shorter and sound more appealing)
Answer: I can't give you data to back up which one is easier perceived by users, but my gut tells me that your third option 'working-with-client-name' is not the way to go based on what we learn about simplicity in design - as well as the awesome example posted from Steve Krug's book.
Now the tricky part: Careers vs Jobs. Have you asked your client why they want to do that?
There may be an underlying reason why they have chosen to go this route - like a stategy, branding decision or maybe just the way they want communicate through the touch points in which they interact with people on their site.
Maybe it will help to give direction if you look at the meaning of the two words: Career vs Job.

Job
A job is a regular activity performed in exchange for payment. - Wikipedia
Adjective noun: a piece of work, especially a specific task done as part of the routine of one's occupation or for an agreed price: She gave him the job of mowing the lawn. - Dictionary.com
Career
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)". - Wikipedia
Noun: an occupation or profession, especially one requiring special training, followed as one's lifework: He sought a career as a lawyer. - Dictionary.com

Based on this there is a clear distinction in the message the two words that it sends where a career feels like a long term path.
It also depends very much on the context of where this link will be placed where the word jobs can mean 1. Jobs - as in career opportunities or 2. Jobs - availble as in contracts for freelancers or 3. Jobs - as in portfolio of work that has been done by the company. You get the idea of what I am trying to illustrate around the context of the words.
The best way to get to a solution is to conduct a small A/B usability test around the information architecture where you can ask the relevant users to tell you what they expect happens when they would click on a link called 'Careers' and the second group 'Jobs' and then measure the outcome.
You can also during this test ask the user afterwards through a labeling test exercise which word they prefer.
All this of course is not based on actual data, but more on the principals of design and heuristics of simplicity which all point to speaking the user's language so that they understand what you mean. In that itself there is another problem which was mentioned earlier, that this means the user's language is different to their context of where they live (UK, USA, France).
In the end the best data you will get is from testing it with some of the users that will be on the site.
Hope that helps to give you some direction.
Relevant Links:
Wikipedia's Definition of Job: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job
Dictionary.com's Definition of Job: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/job
Wikipedia's Definition of Career: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career
Dictionary.com's Definition of Career: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/career
Ten Usability Heuristics by Jakob Nielsen: http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html
Answer: I actually agree with your clients here, because "Jobs" - at least in my areas and country - is what I am looking for if I want to work with them. However people-focused, career-orientated and mission-driven the company is, at the end of the day, most people have a job and just get on with it. It may turn into a long-term relationship, with career progression, but that is not the focus at the start.
"Career" sounds to me like you are wanting to take on new graduates and help them in starting their career. That is not me, so maybe I am not interested.
"Work for/with us" is OK depending on the size of company. If it is a small, friendly company, then this can work. If it is a large impersonal place, then there is a disconnect, and it puts me off.
As Krug quoted by @User12999 states, make it simple, make it obvious. It may not fit in with the companys image of itself, but that is not who it is designed for. It needs to fit with the visitors expectations.


Making bread dough in the bread maker and baking it in the oven

Question: I am in the process of making bread in the bread maker, but I want to try to bake it in the oven. I am just making white bread. What temp and how long would you recommend baking the bread?
Comment: How big of a loaf (in cups of flour)?
Comment: 2 lb. I'll break it into two 9x6 pans
Comment: Sorry. 4 cups of flour
Comment: Do you by any chance have a stand mixer?  It'll do most of the same work as your bread machine and you can use a standard recipe.
Comment: Yes I do. I ordered "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking" so I can experiment more.
Comment: @Mike - the Artisan Bread book should get you a long way.
Answer: General answer: for bread in a bread pan, 350°F until 195°–205°F in the center. That'll probably be around 40 minutes, I'd guess (and it seems you found) but a thermometer will let you be sure (and then you'll know how long it takes for next time).
Answer: 15 minutes at 230C, then another 15-20 at 200C, until it's risen and sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.
Answer: Allrecipes says:     * Most bread is baked in a moderate oven, 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the bottom of a loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
Me? I just go to Cub Foods ..
Comment: Except that I can't have malt and almost all boughten bread has malted barley.
Answer: For a 2lb loaf (or 2 x 1lb loaves) I'd recommend about 22-25 minutes at 350F.
Comment: I did 350F for 40 minutes and it came out good.
Answer: Baking time depends on a lot of factors:

loaf size
oven temperature
baking with or without tin
dough type (wheat/rye/mix/...)

Safest choice would be to use an oven thermometer.
The loaf is done at 97 or 98°C core temperature.
Another indicator is the sound of your loaf: if you knock on its bottom and it sounds hollow, it's done.
Also important: experience. Bake the same recipe until you're used to it and the result satisfies you. If the result isn't perfect: don't worry. You'll end up with something edible in every case and don't need to starve.
For a nice crust, start with 250°C and turn the oven down to about 220°C when you put the bread in.
For an even nicer crust, you'll need steam. Not only humid air but STEAM. This question covers this topic: How can I create steam in a normal oven to promote bread oven spring?
For the best result you can achieve at home with a simple oven use a pizza stone. Heat it up to 250°C for 1 hour. Then put in the loaf and produce some steam.
Answer: Your bread machine recipe might be different from a regular bread recipe.
When baking, I usually preheat my oven to 250C with a deep pan at the bottom rack with a few cups of water. This is important to keep the dough moist but give a good crust. When it comes time to bake, I pop mu loaf in and drop the temp to 200C. I usually stop when I achieve a golden colour. But you can go darker if you want.
Comment: I'll try the water next time, that sounds like a good idea.
Answer: Put hot water in a square baking pan on the bottom oven rack.
Bake bread at 350 degrees for 25 minutes for a light crust.
The hot water is crucial for keeping the bread moist.


Intonation in the phrase "How are you?"

Question: From native English speakers I often hear the phrase "How are you?" intonated differently. Sometimes the word "are" is stressed, and sometimes the word "you" is. What is the difference between these variants?
Answer: Typically, the first person to ask the question will emphasize the word are.
After responding, the second person will emphasize the word you to indicate that they are changing the focus of the conversation from themselves to the other person.
The exchange is often something like this (though the italics aren't typically written):

A: How are you?
B: I'm fine. How are you?
Answer: You is, as onomatomaniak says, normally only stressed in a reply. However, there are some particularly effusive characters who will stress you even when they are initiating the greeting.
Comment: I don't think one has to be particularly effusive to stress *you* in the sentence. In my experience, it is often used to express special consideration for the person addressed. It may signify that the two speakers haven't met in quite a while, or that some calamity (or even good fortune) has befallen the addressee since the last meeting, or that the addressee is especially dear to the person speaking. It is merely a variation, not something to which negative judgments must be attached.
Comment: @Robusto 初夢: I agree. Such stress is not limited to effusive personalities.
Answer: Hi how are you (going up)
Hi how are you (going down)
Hi how are you
Hi how are you
...are all valid, along with 1001 other variations of the platitude (how are you doing, how's it going, how you doing). It makes no difference to the meaning but does change the emphasis slightly so the speaker is implying a different meaning.
But the main difference is between sounding like you care versus being polite.
Comment: Chris, thanks for pointing out that stressing the "you" word can be done in different ways (up and down), +1. If it's possible, could you, please, give some explanations on what is the difference in shades of meaning between those two ways of stressing the last word. Is it somehow connected to "care" versus "being polite"?
Comment: @Rem Usually the voice going up on the "you" will mean the person asking is sounding surprised, or happy to see the person. The same with the emphasis on "are". I would argue "you" going down sounds as if the person is being polite rather than genuine pleasure in seeing the person, but it's obviously open to interpretation.
Answer: The stress emphasises the questioner's focus.
"How are you" says "I'm not asking about anyone else. I am specifically asking about you."
"How are you" says "Let's take it as understood that I'm asking about you. The important thing is, how you are."
But, these are subtle differences, and the speaker probably isn't thinking about it when they speak.
Answer: Having recorded acres and acres of English languages courses over the past 20 years, and so having heard (and recorded and directed) many people say "!How are you?" (obviously a classic phrase to learn at beginner level) I think I can assert that the classic "How ARE you" as an opener, followed by "How are YOU" as a response (which I also taught for years) is no longer true in all cases. Many if not most younger people say "how are YOU" as an opener these days: the stress on YOU seems to indicate friendship, and is used to show that they are talking to and enquiring after "YOU".  In fact, if you ask some young people to say "How ARE you" some of them giggle - they think it sounds funny and a bit high class. However the old pattern is still true for older people - 40 and over I'd say - although that's changing too. None of which makes life any easier for the teacher of English - or the learner, of course.

Intonation in the phrase "How are you?"


Install Firefox 5 on Ubuntu 11.10

Question: I'm running Ubuntu 11.10, and, for web development, need to install Firefox 5 specifically.  I know I can do it by hand from the Mozilla download.  But I'd like a Ubuntu package.  Is one available? How do I do this?
Answer: You can still get the firefox 5 deb from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security Team PPA for Ubuntu 11.04 (should also work under 11.10).
Beware, it will replace your current firefox package. You would need to find a specific firefox-5 package.
You may also be interested in cross browser testing.

Install Firefox 5 on Ubuntu 11.10


Why didn't Voldemort kill Prof. Slughorn?

Question: Voldemort didn't invent Horcruxing technology. It already existed when he asked Prof. Slughorn about it. So, he knew that Slughorn could be the weakest point of his plan from where his secret could be revealed. Why didn't he clear this weak point? Why did he take the risk of keeping Slughorn alive?
Comment: As a side note, Voldemort did say that he hates to see magical blood spilled.
Comment: @Joe: he did _say_ that, in front of his followers and foes; making such statements is obviously politically a good idea. Whether Voldemort really minds to see anybody's blood spilled (save his own) is doubtful.
Comment: Related: [How did Slughorn's information on horcruxes actually help Voldemort?](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/155853/how-did-slughorns-information-on-horcruxes-actually-help-voldemort) (It turns out it didn't).
Answer: First of all, he learned about Horcruxes from reading books and otherwise researching, NOT from Slughorn. All that Slughorn told him was confirmation that it was indeed possible to create seven Horcruxes (even the #7 was Riddle's own idea).
Second of all, he assumed that nobody knew that he actually created any. If you recall, he didn't even put any magical alarms around any of them.
So Slughorn wasn't really as much of a threat to him.

First of all, the chances of anyone learning that they needed to talk to Slughorn about the Horcruxes and Voldemort were non-existant.
Second, if they already spoke to Slughorn, they would know about Horcruxes so wouldn't learn anything majorly important (aside from #7)
Third, if you recall, Slughorn modified his memories. Being a Legilemens, Riddle quite possibly knew of that.

So why would Voldemort kill someone who was theoretically valuable to him (for his connections if no other reason) and presumably well disposed towards Tom Riddle from past history, if there was no legitimate threat?
Comment: Also, Slughorn, himself, made Riddle promise not to repeat their discussion to anyone. Riddle could count on Slughorn's fear of others finding out that he was conversing with a student about the Darkest of magical arts. If they both wanted this kept a secret, why would Voldemort need to murder him?
Comment: Technically, [he didn't confirm that](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/155853/how-did-slughorns-information-on-horcruxes-actually-help-voldemort). In fact, as discussed on that question, he actually provided no useful information whatsoever.
Answer: To add to the existing answers:
Why kill a prominent member of the community? That would spark investigation into the murder. A risk which Voldemort was probably not willing to make, since he was still in hiding at this point; and was still able to use the element of surprise and drive his machinations from afar, without drawing too much attention to himself.
Voldemort did kill, and almost spontaneously sometimes. But consider this statement from HP7 (Bathilda's Secret) when Voldemort is approaching the Potters':

"Nice costume, mister!"
He saw the small boy's smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath
  the hood of the cloak, saw the fear cloud his painted face: Then
  the child turned and ran away. . . . Beneath the robe he fingered the
  handle of his wand. . . . One simple movement and the child would
  never reach his mother . . . but unnecessary, quite unnecessary. . . .
-Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Chapter Seventeen (Bathilda's Secret).

He did not kill if it was unnecessary, which killing Slughorn would have been [I believe].
Answer: I think in the books Slughorn says that Voldemort has been trying to recruit him.  As a former Head of Slytherin house and a Professor who looked kindly upon him and chose him as one of his 'favourites' then he probably felt that Slughorn could be turned to his side quite easily.  In that instance, Horace would have been a valuable ally.  He was a powerful enough wizard who had ties to other influential people and those contacts could prove invaluable.  Another reason could be that he perhaps knew of Slughorn's slight propensity to cowardice and that he would be no real threat.  If he did underestimate Slughorn's capacity for bravery then he would have been surprised in the final battle at Hogwarts!
A fundamental issue is of course that Voldemort would not have been prepared for Slughorn's fondness of Lily causing him to 'spill the beans' and give Dumbledore the key memory that unlocked the mystery to Voldemort's continued existence and how to finally defeat him.  Again Voldemort's inability to understand love was his undoing.
Answer: Voldemort valued magical talent, and wanted Slughorn to teach the next generation of Pure-blood wizards

Once the school had been taken over by Lord Voldemort, with Severus Snape as Headmaster and the Death Eater Carrows taking key roles in subjugating staff and pupils, Slughorn learned that Voldemort had nothing worse in store for him than to remain in post and teach pure- and half-bloods. This he did, keeping his profile as low as he dared, though never enforcing the violent discipline advocated by the Carrows, and attempting to look after the students in his care as best he could.
Pottermore - Horace Slughorn (behind paywall)
Answer: Slughorn also wanted their discussion of Horcruxes kept secret.
When the Dark Lord asked Slughorn about Horcruxes, Slughorn told him to keep it quiet - Slughorn didn't want anyone finding out that they'd talked about Horcruxes any more than he did.

"Of course,' he muttered, 'this is all hypothetical, what we're discussing, isn't it? All academic …'
'Yes, sir, of course,' said Riddle quickly.
'But all the same, Tom … keep it quiet, what I've told – that's to say, what we've discussed. People wouldn't like to think we've been chatting about Horcruxes. It's a banned subject at Hogwarts, you know … Dumbledore's particularly fierce about it …" - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 23 (Horcruxes)

Knowing this, the Dark Lord would see no reason to kill Slughorn. Slughorn wasn't a danger - he wanted the Horcrux conversation kept a secret just as much. When Harry tried finding out, Slughorn didn't willingly tell him, and very much denied everything to do with the conversation.

"Sir,' said Harry desperately, 'I just thought there might be a bit more to the memory –'
'Did you?' said Slughorn. 'Then you were wrong, weren't you? WRONG!" - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 18 (Birthday Surprises)

The only reason Harry was able to get the information from Slughorn was his use of Felix Felicis, and only Dumbledore knew Slughorn would even have information. From what the Dark Lord knew, there was really no reason to kill Slughorn - it would be unnecessary and not very useful.
Answer: Related: How did Slughorn's information on horcruxes actually help Voldemort?
The conclusion from the linked question is that "it didn't help Voldemort in the least" - Slughorn only confirmed what Voldemort already knew (e.g. the fact that you have to kill people to make them). The main thing that Voldemort wanted to know is how many Horcruxes you could make, and Slughorn was too horrified by the question even consider it (far less answer).
Recall that Slughorn was deeply ashamed of the fact that he gave Voldemort any information at all, and that their "theoretical discussion" wasn't so theoretical after all. That being said, it took considerable effort for Harry and Dumbledore to find out what Slughorn told Voldemort, and that was only after Dumbledore had found out both about the existence of the Horcruxes and about the general idea of the conversation. (If they didn't know those two facts, they probably wouldn't have even thought of interrogating Slughorn, and Slughorn wasn't exactly eager to volunteer the information). Eventually, in a move that was possibly coercive, Harry had to use Liquid Luck to get Slughorn to tell him what he wanted to know.
Perhaps Voldemort was counting on Slughorn's reluctance to share the information, and perhaps he was counting on people just not thinking to interrogate Slughorn. (He was shocked to find out towards the end of the 7th book that Harry knew about the Horcruxes and had already managed to destroy some). It could also reflect Voldemort's basic arrogance.
It's also possible that Voldemort simply wasn't aware that Slughorn knew about the horcruxes. It's not even clear from the books exactly how Slughorn found out that Voldemort had made them. Voldemort's shock at realizing that Harry knew about his Horcruxes in the 7th book would strongly suggest that Voldemort didn't know that anyone but him was aware of it.


Macro problems excel 2010

Question: Well i feel like pulling my hair out!
i have a macro set up which splits my spread sheet into worksheets dependent on the data in column 6. I then have another macro which saves each of these as a seperate workbook and then made another which rund the 2 together.
I have been through my spreadsheet and ensured that all the possible entries into column 6 match (no spelling mistakes etc)
now for some reason when i run the macro's it is outputting all the workbooks i need but also doing a second copy and naming them Error-1, Error-2 etc.
i dont understand why any ideas?
Also my sprreadsheet runs from column a through to column AV but when i run macros they workbooks it is outputting only go to column O
Any help is much appreciated.
ahh here is the macro i am using btw-
Sub Copy_To_Worksheets() 'Note: This macro use the function LastRow
    Dim My_Range As Range
    Dim FieldNum As Long
    Dim CalcMode As Long
    Dim ViewMode As Long
    Dim ws2 As Worksheet
    Dim Lrow As Long
    Dim cell As Range
    Dim CCount As Long
    Dim WSNew As Worksheet
    Dim ErrNum As Long

    'Set filter range on ActiveSheet: A1 is the top left cell of your filter range
    'and the header of the first column, D is the last column in the filter range.
    'You can also add the sheet name to the code like this :
    'Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:D" & LastRow(Worksheets("Sheet1")))
    'No need that the sheet is active then when you run the macro when you use this.
    Set My_Range = Range("A1:O2000") '  & LastRow(ActiveSheet))
    My_Range.Parent.Select

    If ActiveWorkbook.ProtectStructure = True Or _
       My_Range.Parent.ProtectContents = True Then
        MsgBox "Sorry, not working when the workbook or worksheet is protected", _
               vbOKOnly, "Copy to new worksheet"
        Exit Sub
    End If

    'This example filters on the first column in the range(change the field if needed)
    'In this case the range starts in A so Field:=1 is column A, 2 = column B, ......
    FieldNum = 6 ' I changed this to 3 for column C

    'Turn off AutoFilter
    My_Range.Parent.AutoFilterMode = False

    'Change ScreenUpdating, Calculation, EnableEvents, ....
    With Application
        CalcMode = .Calculation
        .Calculation = xlCalculationManual
        .ScreenUpdating = False
        .EnableEvents = False
    End With
    ViewMode = ActiveWindow.View
    ActiveWindow.View = xlNormalView
    ActiveSheet.DisplayPageBreaks = False

    'Add a worksheet to copy the a unique list and add the CriteriaRange
    Set ws2 = worksheets.Add

    With ws2
        'first we copy the Unique data from the filter field to ws2
        My_Range.Columns(FieldNum).AdvancedFilter _
                Action:=xlFilterCopy, _
                CopyToRange:=.Range("A1"), Unique:=True

        'loop through the unique list in ws2 and filter/copy to a new sheet
        Lrow = .Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
        For Each cell In .Range("A2:A" & Lrow)

            'Filter the range
            My_Range.AutoFilter Field:=FieldNum, Criteria1:="=" & _
             Replace(Replace(Replace(cell.Value, "~", "~~"), "*", "~*"), "?", "~?")

            'Check if there are no more then 8192 areas(limit of areas)
            CCount = 0
            On Error Resume Next
            CCount = My_Range.Columns(1).SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible) _
                     .Areas(1).Cells.Count
            On Error GoTo 0
            If CCount = 0 Then
                MsgBox "There are more than 8192 areas for the value : " & cell.Value _
                     & vbNewLine & "It is not possible to copy the visible data." _
                     & vbNewLine & "Tip: Sort your data before you use this macro.", _
                       vbOKOnly, "Split in worksheets"
            Else
                'Add a new worksheet
                Set WSNew = worksheets.Add(After:=Sheets(Sheets.Count))
                On Error Resume Next
                WSNew.Name = cell.Value
                If Err.Number > 0 Then
                    ErrNum = ErrNum + 1
                    WSNew.Name = "Error_" & Format(ErrNum, "0000")
                    Err.Clear
                End If
                On Error GoTo 0

                'Copy the visible data to the new worksheet
                My_Range.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).Copy
                With WSNew.Range("A1")
                    ' Paste:=8 will copy the columnwidth in Excel 2000 and higher
                    ' Remove this line if you use Excel 97
                    .PasteSpecial Paste:=8
                    .PasteSpecial xlPasteValues
                    .PasteSpecial xlPasteFormats
                    Application.CutCopyMode = False
                    .Select
                End With
            End If

            'Show all data in the range
            My_Range.AutoFilter Field:=FieldNum

        Next cell

        'Delete the ws2 sheet
        On Error Resume Next
        Application.DisplayAlerts = False
        .Delete
        Application.DisplayAlerts = True
        On Error GoTo 0

    End With

    'Turn off AutoFilter
    My_Range.Parent.AutoFilterMode = False

    If ErrNum > 0 Then
        MsgBox "Rename every WorkSheet name that start with ""Error_"" manually" _
             & vbNewLine & "There are characters in the name that are not allowed" _
             & vbNewLine & "in a sheet name or the worksheet already exist."
    End If

    'Restore ScreenUpdating, Calculation, EnableEvents, ....
    My_Range.Parent.Select
    ActiveWindow.View = ViewMode
    With Application
        .ScreenUpdating = True
        .EnableEvents = True
        .Calculation = CalcMode
    End With

    MsgBox ("Copy Complete - - Remember to save your work.")

End Sub

Sub CreateWorkbooks() 'Creates an individual workbook for each worksheet in the active workbook. Dim wbDest As Workbook Dim wbSource As Workbook Dim sht As Object 'Could be chart, worksheet, Excel 4.0 macro,etc. Dim strSavePath As String

On Error GoTo ErrorHandler

Application.ScreenUpdating = False 'Don't show any screen movement

strSavePath = "T:\Lead Employer Service\HR Team\!Recruitment Team\!Trackers\Output for hosts\Surgery\" 'Change this to suit your needs

Set wbSource = ActiveWorkbook

For Each sht In wbSource.Sheets sht.Copy Set wbDest = ActiveWorkbook wbDest.SaveAs strSavePath & sht.Name wbDest.Close 'Remove this if you don't want each book closed after saving. Next

Application.ScreenUpdating = True

Exit Sub

ErrorHandler: 'Just in case something hideous happens MsgBox "An error has occurred. Error number=" & Err.Number & ". Error description=" & Err.Description & "." End Sub

Sub runmultiplemacros() Copy_To_Worksheets CreateWorkbooks End Sub

Comment: i'll have to analyze....but somehow, the error_1....sheets are getting created...
analyze the piece of code where you are naming new worksheet : 'WSNew.Name = "Error_" & Format(ErrNum, "0000")'
Answer: To answer the question about it running to column 0, I suspect the culprit will be the following line:
Set My_Range = Range("A1:O2000")

This will be restricting what you're running over.
Comment: instead of defining range like that, find out the last occupied column in sheet and define range from that.....foolproof
Comment: Thats great thanks for your help thats sorted it. unsure about why it was making duplicates and naming them as error though. Since posting this comment i have amended the cell range and re run the macro and it has worked fine :s very confusing!
Comment: For finding the entire used range on a given sheet, the `Sheet.UsedRange` property is my method of choide.

Macro problems excel 2010


How would I make a decal for a 2x2 dome brick or a 2x2 round slope brick?

Question: I am looking to make a decal for a custom droid using either the R5-series head or the regular dome R2/R3/R6/R7/R8 head. However, I do not know the process for creating droids. Does anybody know how?
Answer: The problem of creating a flat sheet that could be fitted onto a (semi)spherical surface (a dome head) is known to be impossible to solve perfectly, but there are viable approximations of varying precision. This matehmatical paper details one such approximation (for spheres, but the process can be modified for domes) using petal shaped pieces. By varying the number (and so the width) of the petals the approximation gets closer to ideal, but even with three petals a reasonable quality can be reached. Of course, much trial-and-error can be expected.
AFAIK The LEGO Group uses pad printing, this can be quite expensive to set up but produces the best quality prints.
For the R5 heads the process is much easier since the surface of this head piece can be flattened into a shape called an Annular Sector. With some measuring and calculation (and maybe some trial-and-error) it should be possible to design a sticker that fits this kind of head.


How to get from Nice to Monaco by public transport?

Question: What's the simplest and cheapest way to get from central Nice, France to Monaco by public transportation?
Comment: Note that [Wikitravel](http://wikitravel.org/en/Monaco) is somewhat outdated: bus 100 does *not* leave from the Gare Routière (in fact [the station closed in January 2011](https://www.google.fi/search?q=nice%20Gare%20Routi%C3%A8re%20closed)!). That's one reason I wanted to post a good answer here.
Answer: Bus 100 (Nice - Monaco - Menton) is a very good option and costs a mere  1.50 € (2015). It runs every 15 minutes mostly, and the trip takes 30-45 minutes. It takes an absolutely scenic route along the coast, passing through seaside towns such as Villefranche and Beaulieu.
(There's also express bus 100X which takes the motorway and costs 4 € (2012); obviously not as good for sightseeing.)
In Nice, the 100 now leaves from Le Port; follow link for exact locations on map. (The departure stop has changed a couple of times in recent years, having previously been Ségurane, next to Place Garibaldi, and Promenades des Arts.)
Arriving in Monaco, there are 6 stops to choose from (do get off at one of these as the bus continues towards Menton):
Cimetière, Place d'Armes, Stade Nautique, Office de Tourisme, Place des Moulins, Les Carabiniers.
Heading from Monaco towards Nice, the route is slightly different; then the Monaco stops are:
Les Carabiniers, Place des Moulins, Casino (Allée Lumière), Sainte Dévote, Place d'Armes, Cimetière.
The buses don't run very late: last one from Nice leaves at 20:00, and from Monaco at 20:22. First departures in the morning are about 6:00. You'll find details and full list of stops in bus 100 timetable.

Alternatively, take the train ("Nice Ville" to "Monaco Monte Carlo"). It is faster (22 mins) and arguably easier, but costs a little more at 3.90 €. There are about 2 regional trains per hour (daytime), according to SNCF. A good thing is that the trains run much later; last one leaves from Nice 22:25 and from Monaco 23:12 (on weekdays).
The above applies to regional trains (TER) which would probably be your primary choice on this route, though you could also catch an intercity/TGV.
Comment: price for train is 3,60 euros (by taking regional train, called TER). And for the bus, the construction work is still in place, so it probably did not change. Also, there are night buses, basically 3 per night between midnight and 4am, starting from Nice airport.
Comment: @AdityaSomani: The starting point in Nice [had changed](http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/11066/how-to-get-from-nice-to-monaco-by-public-transport/26392#26392), which is now updated in the answer. Other than that, it should be valid. Obviously prices and other details may change whenever.
Comment: Update (May 2015) - The starting point changed again - now the bus 100 starts from Le Port. the bus ticket still costs 1,50, the train ticket - 3,90 Euro.
Comment: Update: the stop at Le Port seems to be temporarily moved about half a block south. I took the 100 to Monaco today and got on
near 7 Place de l'Île de Beauté
https://goo.gl/maps/x8aC6YkW8z72
Comment: One month later (Nov) and the 100 line still goes from where @sgryzko pointed. It was a nice ride and we took the train back. Station in Monaco was a nice underground station, but the train itself not. Dirty, burned and smelling like a bathroom. Btw, Monaco is not that special. They tear down all old charming buildings and replace them with 90ties style plastic towers at double the height. Square meter prices 25-35k€ explain why.
Comment: @Vince: Thanks a lot! I edited the answer. (Feel free to update e.g. when bus 100 returns to its normal route.)
Comment: @Jonik Is this answer valid as of today as well? Or are any changes required to reflect current information as of now?
Answer: I have just returned from Nice/Monte. Great trip and good advice given here.
As of Nov 31 2013 the bus costs €1.50 each way and starts just off Garibaldi Square, pay cash.
Also, the Nice day pass has changed.
It is a 24 hour pass that costs €5 and can be used on all trams and buses in Nice except buses 98 and 99.
What does this mean? The only bus that the pass covers that goes to and from the airport is the number 23 (catch it outside the Rail Station), takes 30-40 minutes to Terminal 1.
From there use the free airport shuttle bus to get to T2.
You ask, what about the 98 and 99 buses? Well they now cost €6 each way - the benefit is it is an express bus.
Answer: We returned from the Cannes-Nice-Monaco Trip in May 2014, and the answers given above have helped us.
Although the starting point of Bus 100 has changed as rightly pointed out in answer by Ger:

The 100 bus to Monaco now leaves from the Promenades des Arts stop
  outside the Musée d'Art Moderne/Contemporain near the corner of Av.
  St. Sebastian and Traverse Garabaldi.

Here are some of the Bus timetables that I got as of May 2014.

And here are some timetables if someone willing to do the trip to Cannes.
In Nice, take Bus 200 from "Le Meridian" ,I guess near to McDonalds.Bus 200 To Cannes

And Return

And the Price List
Answer: I have just returned from Nice, Easter 2014.  The 100 bus to Monaco now leaves from the Promenades des Arts stop outside the Musée d'Art Moderne/Contemporain near the corner of Av. St. Sebastian and Traverse Garabaldi.
On arriving in Monaco we got off at Places D'Armes and walked up the pedestrian hill to the Prince Palace, then around to the Cathedral and past the Musée Oceanographique.  To the east of the Oceanographic museum, there are steps down through the gardens leading to the port where you can get a Bateau bus across to the other side to get to Monte Carlo and the Casino.
There's a short walk into the tunnel turning right off the port and you'll find an elevator around the corner to get up to the roadside on the southern end of the Hotel de Paris.
Comment: the bateau bus only costs €2 pp and the return journey is free is you make it back within 30 min !!!
Answer: I just returned from doing this day trip as well, great advice here!
So as of January 2014, nothing has changed.
The new bus stop to get the 100 is at the southeast corner of Garibaldi Square (or Place Garibaldi in French) on Rue Catherine Segurane.
The best stop to get off and back on the 100 in Monaco is Places D'Armes. It's right next to the Place du Palais, and the Prince of Monaco Car Collection, Aka Top Car Collection. They have a dozen F1 race cars on display, and a myriad of cars from classic Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, BMW, to very old rare cars dating back to 1911. They even have some horse drawn buggies!
There are no return tickets, one way only, 1.50 each way.
Great little day trip, highly recommend it!
Answer: A couple of days ago I compiled all the practical transportation options for a Nice to Monaco trip. I though you guys might like to see all the possibilities, costs and advantages of each option. As I grew up in Monaco, I have tested all the possibilities for you, from the bus to the bike trip...

SUMMARY of the information available on the link.

Nice Downtown to Monaco – Bus line 100 (up-to-date-timetable)
Nice airport To Monaco - Bus line 110 (up-to-date-timetable)
Nice To Monaco by train (up-to-date-timetable)
Nice To Monaco by Taxi (with price estimation and rules)
Nice To Monaco by car with 4 options

The Highway : Take the Highway "A8"
The "Basse Corniche" (Low Coast-Road)
The "Moyenne Corniche" (Middle Coast-Road)
The "Grande Corniche" (Great Coast-Road)

Nice to Monaco Ridding a bicycle
Comment: -1. It's a link-only answer = low quality; and it's just an ad for your own commercial blog
Comment: However, it seems that there is valuable information available in the blog. @MonacoAddit: could you please summarize this info in your answer here?
Comment: #Dirty-flow The blog doens't sell anything. All Blog page give free valuable information compiled by people leaving in Monaco...
Comment: @RoflcoptrException thanks.
Here is a summary of all the information you can find on the page:
Nice Downtown to Monaco – Bus line 100 (up-to-date-timetable)
Nice airport To Monaco - Bus line 110 (up-to-date-timetable)
Nice To Monaco by train (up-to-date-timetable)
Nice To Monaco by Taxi (with price estimation and rules)
Nice To Monaco by car with 4 options
  - The Highway : Take the Highway "A8"
  - The "Basse Corniche" (Low Coast-Road)
  - The "Moyenne Corniche" (Middle Coast-Road)
  - The "Grande Corniche" (Great Coast-Road)
Nice to Monaco Ridding a bicycle


Hosting on amazon cloud

Question: I am trying to build a social networking site for my current project. I am using Elgg framework for it. The aim of my project is to develop benchmarks for scalable web applications hosted on cloud like AWS etc. We are beginning with amazon. We are concentrating on the concept of big data and social data to be more precise. But before i proceed i wanted to know if i can host my app ( social networking site!) on the cloud. Guidance is required.
Thank you
Answer: Yes, it can be done. This same question was asked and answered a week ago on the main Elgg forum.

Hosting on amazon cloud


Why does the isoelectric range decrease as an Alanine chain grows longer?

Question: The pK1 and 2 values for alanine are 2.3 and 9.7. In the dipeptide Ala-Ala, they are 3.1 and 8.3 and in tri-peptide Ala-Ala-Ala, they are 3.3 and 8.0. Why does this trend in pKa values exist? Why does the isoelectric range decrease?
The reason I can think of is the extra Alanine dumps electrons towards the C terminal and so makes the O-H bond less polar and thus less acidic while it also pulls more electrons from the N terminus to make that more polar and thus more acidic.
Thanks!
Answer: It is because of the inter- and intramolecular associations that occur.
In Ala, the first loss of a proton forms a two point intermolecular association which is very favourable.
Since the equilibrium tends to the right, more $\ce{H^+}$ are liberated and the p$K_a$ is lower.

For the second step, this stable dimeric association must be destroyed, so now the equilibrium tends to the left and the p$K_a$ is higher then it would be without this association.

In the case of Ala-Ala-Ala, this type of dimeric association can not occur because the distance is too long.
There is intermolecular association but with different molecules, not in pairs.
Here the first p$K_a$ is higher than in the case of Ala and the second lower because the equilibrium is not forced so much to the associated forms.
Finally, in the case of Ala-Ala, besides the intermolecular association between different molecules like in Ala-Ala-Ala,
there is also an intramolecular association.
This one is less stable than the association in pairs of the individual amino acids, but more than the random intermolecular ones.
Therefore, the two p$K_a$  are in between of the ones for Ala and Ala-Ala-Ala.
Answer: I would not say that the extra alanine unit dumps or pulls electrons, rather it "insulates" the inductive effect of charged functional groups that we can see in the monomer.
The postitively charged alanine monomer has the structure
$\ce{NH_3^+}-\ce{C(H)(CH_3)}-\ce{COOH}$
The dimer has this:
$\ce{NH_3^+}-\ce{C(H)(CH_3)}-\ce{C(O)NH}-\ce{C(H)(CH_3)}-\ce{C(H)(CH_3)}-\ce{COOH}$
When the carboxyl group ($\ce{COOH}$) is deprotonated the monomer gets some stabilization of the negative charge from the positively charged, electron withdrawing function $\ce{NH_3^+}$ two positions away on the chain.  But the dimer has a neutral, less electron drawing peptide ($\ce{C(O)NH}$) function at the same position, making the deprotonation less favorable.
After the first deprotonation the molecules, now zwitterionic, are as follows:
$\ce{NH_3^+}-\ce{C(H)(CH_3)}-\ce{COO^-}$
$\ce{NH_3^+}-\ce{C(H)(CH_3)}-\ce{C(O)NH}-\ce{C(H)(CH_3)}-\ce{C(H)(CH_3)}-\ce{COO^-}$
So we move on to the second deprotonation which neutralizes the ammonium function.  The double deprotonated monomer then has an amino group, $\ce{NH_2}$, two places from the carboxylate anion.  The diner has a peptide function, $\ce{C(O)NH}$, at that location and this is more electron withdrawing, thus more stabilizing to the negative charge, than the monomer's amino group.  So in this second stage the dimeric anion is more stable and forms under less strongly basic conditions.
Thus we see inductive effects working in opposite ways in the two amino acid functions.  It's an example of how the two ends have opposing characteristics.


Does peat moss negate the effects of perlite?

Question: I am repurposing a fire pit into a raised garden bed. From my readings, it seems like the popular soil mixes for raised garden beds include peat moss, compost, topsoil, and vermiculite. I have the first three ingredients, but I am lacking the vermiculite. However, I do have a bag of perlite laying around. Since perlite aids in aeration while peat moss aids in moisture retention, would mixing the two together cancel their respective attributes? Or would their attributes coexist to create a moist soil that drains well?
Answer: Perfectly fine to use both.
Everybody and his brother has a soil mix they prefer, even if it is just the bagged "topsoil" or "topsoil/compost blend" bags that one can get at the local big box stores.
I have a few different mixes that I use based on the purpose.  Usually it involves a mixture of something that'll hold onto some moisture (peat, for instance), something to provide some aeration in the soil (typically vermiculite but perlite would be OK too - I buy vermiculite in large bags that hold several cubic feet as it is more economical), something that has actual nutrients in it such as compost (we've got 5 compost bins made from free pallets) or well aged horse/goat/chicken manure (I live on a small farm) and sometimes some topsoil if I happen to have it but often not.  For seed starting I don't put much compost or manure in the mix for the seeds but I do add it later when the plants grow a bit.
Ultimately what you're looking for is a soil that

provides drainage
holds onto moisture
encourages good root growth
is weed-free, or nearly weed-free
has an average pH value that is appropriate for the plants

So with a pH of 7 being "neutral" - neither acidic nor alkaline - and many garden plants (but certainly not all) do quite well in a slightly acidic (pH values around 6.0 - 6.5 work well for many), it is important to watch how much peat ends up in the soil mix.  It'll lower the pH value - the pH of peat varies but is maybe in the low 5's if I remember correctly.  Some plants love a more acidic soil - blueberries, for instance, do much better in the range of maybe 4.0 - 5.0.  Just wanted to add this bit about pH because the soil composition can affect how things grow (or don't) and pH is one of the considerations.
Personally I'd save the perlite for seed starting and use perlite outside.  It looks better and blends better in the mixture.
Comment: Also, you'll likely be "in the ballpark" on this but what I do instead is test the resulting mixture - there are different means of doing this.  I've got both test strips and a meter and they generally agree pretty well.  On the composted manure in bags - might bacteria in it but I think they heat the topsoil to sterilize it.  They might do the same with the manure.  I imagine ours has some bacteria in it but I don't get hung up on that.  Soil is a living thing.
Comment: Initially, I'll be growing strawberries that I've already propagated from the mother plant. I hear strawberries like slightly acidic soil, so the peat moss would be good for it. Do you know how the math works for calculating final pH? If I mix 1/3 peat moss with 2/3 neutral soil, would the final pH be 0.33 * 4.5 + 0.66 * 7.0 = 6.1? ... I also got some cheap bags of composted steer manure from Home Depot for $1.50 each. Is it considered fully composted when it is cool to the touch? I hear if it is still warm, it can still have harmful bacteria.
Comment: Trying to accurately nail the pH based on estimating the pH value of the parts is going to be somewhat inaccurate because all of the parts (the peat, the soil, the manure) are going to vary from bag to bag (assuming bags here).
Answer: Perlite is used in many potting mixes that contain peat moss so I don't see a problem with mixing the two together.
Both perlite and vermiculite serve the same purpose. To help with aeration and moisture retention. Vermiculite holds water better than perlite though. For soils you want to retain moisture vermiculite would be better. In cases where you want the soil to dry out more, like for succulents, perlite would be better. Perlite also has a tendency to float up in the mix after a heavy rain.
This is an interesting video of vermiculite vs perlite. He grew bean plants in perlite and vermiculite together with compost in mixes of 100%, 50% and 0% of either perlite and vermiculite. The ones in vermiculite did better.
For a raised garden I would try to get vermiculite. It's recommended for Square Foot Gardening and the author doesn't like perlite in his soil mixes.
Comment: @jojo the $20 bag at the HD near me is 2 cubic feet if that makes a difference. Only about $3 more than the vermiculite they sell. Peat moss is usually acidic so you may need to adjust for that.
Comment: +1 Pretty much what I've found. I usually use vermiculite, and find that it is also more attractive than perlite.
Comment: I just went to Home Depot and they were selling vermiculite for $20 (it looked like 1 cubic feet). It was too expensive, so I passed. If vermiculite's advantage over perlite is extra water retention, then why don't I just add more peat moss for the same effect? I got 3 cubic feet of peat moss for $12. Then I can add some perlite I already have to reduce the sogginess.
Comment: oops. I meant only $3 more than the perlite they sell in 2 cu ft bags.


How are operating systems debugged?

Question: How are operating systems typically debugged?  They cannot be stepped through with a debugger like simple console programs, and the build times are too large to repeatedly make small changes and recompile the whole thing.
Answer: They aren't debugged as a multi-gigabyte programs! :)
If you mean the individual user-mode components, they can mainly be debugged just like normal programs and libraries (because they are normal programs/libraries!).
For kernel-mode components, though, each OS has its own mechanism; here is some information regarding the way that we do kernel debugging in Windows. It can be done using the help of another machine connected to the machine you're debugging, via a serial port or something. I'm not familiar with the process itself, but that's the gist of how they work. (You need to set some boot loader options so that the system is ready for the debugger to be connected as early as possible.)
Answer: It depends on which part of the operating system you're talking about.  When I worked at MSFT, I worked on the IE team.  We debugged IE and the shell (Windows Explorer) in Visual Studio and stepped through them line by line all day long.  Though, sometimes, it's easier to debug using a command line tool such as NTSD.
If, however, you want to debug anything in Kernel land such as the OS kernel or device drivers, which I suspect is really what you're asking, then you must use the Kernel debugger.  For Windows that is a command line tool called kd, and generally you run the debugger on one machine and remotely debug the target.
Answer: There are a whole set of techniques throughout history from flashing lights on the console, to the use of hardware devices like an ICE, to more modern techniques utilizing fairly standard debuggers.  One technique that is more common among OS developers then application developers is the analysis of a core dump.  Look at something like mdb on solaris for ideas about how Solaris kernel developers do some of their debugging.  Also tracing technologies are used.  Anywhere from fairly straightforward logging packages to more modern techniques like dtrace.
Also note that the techniques used depend on the layer of software.  Initial boot tends to be a fairly hard place to get your fingers into.  But after that the environment of modern operation systems looks more and more like the application setting you are use to.  In the end, it is all code :)

How are operating systems debugged?


Are there examples in the UK in which candidates for MP didn't formally withdraw but said openly something like "don't vote for me"?

Question: Since there is a formal deadline for withdrawal of candidacies from UK Parliament elections, are there historical examples in which some candidates nonetheless informally withdrew after such a deadline had passed, by unequivocally telling their [potential] voters not to vote for them?
Comment: I've found some cases in council elections in Henley, Newport (Shropshire), and Shetland, but none in parliamentary elections https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/sonning-common/138859/dont-vote-for-me-says-council-election-candidate.html http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2017/04/21/tory-council-election-candidate-says-dont-vote/ https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/telford/newport/2019/07/19/newport-by-election-candidate-will-appear-on-ballot-despite-stopping-campaign/
Answer: One example that springs to mind (mainly for its strangeness) is that Willie Rushton (of Private Eye) ran as a protest candidate against Alec Douglas-Home, the PM, in the 1963 Kinross and Western Perthshire by-election - he recommended his supporters vote Liberal. I am fairly sure there are a number of similar examples, though most are probably minor parties or independents rather than a major-party candidate having a massive change of heart.
(An inactive paper candidacy is not really the same thing, as there is still an expectation you will take all the votes you can get. It wouldn't be a paper candidacy if you endorsed someone else)
Answer: Once a person is nominated to stand for election within a constituency there is no way to remove that person from the ballot paper.
Returning Officer Guidance 2015

The details of any candidates who by the close of withdrawals remain validly nominated must be printed on the ballot papers. If a candidate has not withdrawn by the deadline, their name must go forward to the ballot paper.

However, there is no obligation for the candidate to canvas for support or do anything else really in relation to the upcoming vote. A candidate that doesnt look for support is known as a Paper Candidate
This was suggested to be the ploy of the Conservative Party in some current Labour seats in the upcoming UK General Election

The prime minister was said to be willing to put up "paper candidates" in Labour marginals, with the Tories carrying out only minimal campaigning in order to give an advantage to their Brexit Party rivals.

Sky News 14/11/2019


Fitting display math with luatex?

Question: I took a latex file and edited it to be more readable on my phone. Specifically, I used the geometry package to typeset it on pages measuring 3x4.  I set the text to be left justified to keep words from running outside of my margins. Now I would like to be able to get the display math to fit in the small paper size. I was editing the overlong display equations one by one, but that is too tedious. I was hoping there was a fix using luatex. I am open to any idea that fits the equations on to the page. For example, a sufficient solution would be to turn every equation into a picture and shrink the picture to fit.
Answer: Have a look at the breqn package. It does automatic line breaking of display math

Fitting display math with luatex?


Can anybody/anything be an alchemist?

Question: Besides all the talk about the "Philosopher's Stone". Can anybody or anything become an alchemist? Not including homunculus.
Comment: You seem to be asking 2 distinct questions, the second of which is very opinion based. Try to limit your question to 1 per question, and if you have more, ask another. However, opinion based questions are off topic here.
Comment: No.  Edward can't.
Comment: What do you mean kaine? he's already an alchemist....
Answer: TL;DR Yes, every person can be alchemist, with few exceptions.
Now, to answer this question fully, lets look at what alchemy is.
Alchemy relies on concept of world interconnectivity. World consists of numerous elements, most of which have some connections to other elements, forming interconnected systems, and those systems are interconnected as well, etc. Any action towards one object will also impact all objects connected to it; those objects will impact their relative objects etc. This was explained in episode 12 of Brotherhood series, e.g. food chain is example of one of such interconnected subsystems.
This is source of main principle behind transmutations - you can indirectly affect something in this world, if you know how it participates in its subsystem.
This also explains why you need to learn alchemy, and why most alchemists have limited area of powers. To know how to do transmutation, you need to learn about corresponding systems of world.
Now, important thing - human is part of this system as well. And by changing himself, human changes world around him.
"Fullmetal Alchemist" hyperbolizes this idea: alchemy is basically process of relaying some abstract changes inside alchemist into his surroundings, using interconnectivity of world.
So, basically, since people are part of the world, every single of them can be alchemist. But to do so, you need to learn how world works (or at least how certain areas of world structure work). This is kind of same to scientists - everyone can learn quantum physics, but it is hard, and not everyone has knack for it.
But there is also such thing as Gates of Truth. According to all notes above, it makes sense to assume, that Gates are representing connection of person to world. Therefore, if there is no Gate, person is not connected to world, and cannot use alchemy.

Can anybody/anything be an alchemist?


What do you call the short sections at the ends of pieces?

Question:
How would you characterize the short section at the end of a piece of music (climax)?
What do you think is its function?
Comment: Can you come up with an example for us to read or listen to? It could be a YouTube video, SoundCloud link or sheet music excerpt. Or just the name of a piece that is famous.
Comment: Are you talking about a  coda?
Answer: A short final section is often called the 'Coda'.  As you say, its function is to wrap everything up after the main musical argument is completed.
The musical term 'Coda' originated with classical Sonata Form where themes were stated, developed, re-stated - and then you could finish of with a Coda.   As with all such things, its definition has become looser over the years.
Comment: Coda - from Italian, Roman *cauda* - tail. The end.
Comment: Also could be an outro or a vamp.
Comment: I don't think outro or vamp fit the question's definition 'climax'.
Answer: Your use of the word "climax" is confusing, because the climax of a song is not usually a short part at the very end. So I will focus on your main question instead.
In popular music, a piece sometimes ends with what is called a tag. This part is usually only a few measures long and most often repeats a line that was heard previously in the song (e.g., the last line of the chorus, the first line of the first verse, etc.). Songs may repeat the tag indefinitely during a fade-out or extended outro (e.g., "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by the Monkees), or they may use the tag once and end abruptly (e.g., "Love's a Loaded Gun" by Alice Cooper). The tag may, instead, have something of a kicker, an idea that puts the rest of the song in a new light (e.g., "Foolin'" by Def Leppard). I suppose, in this sense, it could be considered something of a climax, though I wouldn't call it that.
In any case, the purpose of a tag is generally to leave the listener with whatever idea (musical and/or lyrical) that the artist want to remain foremost in their mind.


If aspects are facts, are all facts aspects?

Question: Or worded differently: once i establish longer-lasting facts through narrative or 'create an advantage', are they aspects beyond the scene? If PC finds an item, for example, or some character aspect should change in the light of the narrative because it is no longer true. If something about the character is established in the narrative, should it be part of that characters aspects?
Comment: You may also find this question relevant: [Must a situation's obvious characteristics be explicitly made into aspects?](http://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/26946)
Answer: It becomes part of the character when it's more important than the other aspects that they have.  Something as ephemeral as the Create Advantage action probably won't change a character in such a fundamental way, and (probably) neither will getting an item.
Hmm.  Example time:
We've got a character with a couple of aspects:
"Always stand up against bullies"
"Fight smarter, not harder"
"I'd be super if I wasn't a little guy."
Some stuff happens, and you wind up in the army, and you get a cool prize if you get the flag from the top of the pole.  No way your Mediocre (at best!) Athletics is going to Overcome the Great difficulty to get you up there, but you're smart so you use Notice to Create An Advantage to put the Aspect of "The pole is held up by a single pin".  This allows you narrative permission to use Mechanics (or Notice, or something else) to Overcome, or maybe the difficulty goes down (or you just spend the free invoke or whatever).  This aspect doesn't stick around, because it's no longer important to the story.
Later on, you get stuck in a machine, and collect a piece of equipment called "Super Soldier Serum".  In addition to moving some of your skills around (and getting some stunts, and generally going from being a 92 pound skinny guy with bad lungs to a Super Soldier) you drop that "I'd be Super if I wasn't a little guy" for "Dr Erskine's Greatest Invention".
Also, in the Cap vein, things like his .45, or the various guns he picks up? They're stuff that gives him narrative permission to use combat (or just fluff in the description of the combat roll) The shield, on the other hand, could be described with an Aspect ("Shielded Super Soldier")
Answer: The short answer is yes. It is because of the Bronze Rule i.e. the Fate Fractal on Page 270 of the Fate Core rulebook.

In Fate, you can treat anything in the game world like it's a
  character. Anything can have aspects, skills, stunts, stress tracks,
  and consequences if you need it to.

The trick is to describe the elements you are dealing with in natural terms first. Look for logical subgroups or subelements. For example Super Porsche, a car with super tech, can be described as a character in its own right. In addition the Super Porsche's amazing engine can also be its own character.
Now you ask about aspects specifically. I like to think of aspects as packages. A package in a generic system (Fate, GURPS, Hero, Savage World) a bundle of traits (attributes, advantages, flaws, gifts, skills, etc) that describe an element of the setting. A campaign revolving around Navy Seals would have different packages for the different MOSs.
Now aspects in fate are natural language descriptions of some element in the setting. A Navy SEAL demolition specialist would have a demolition specialist aspect with benefits and limitations. A Super Porsche Amazing Engine would have an aspect of requiring Unobtainum as a fuel source with own attendant set of complications. The fact that a characters is from New York's Hell Kitchen can be an aspect with benefits and complications.
Remember per the Fate Core rules on page 56 an aspect is

An aspect is a phrase that describes something unique or noteworthy
  about whatever it's attached to.

Unique or noteworthy is why you don't need to list every attribute or bit of information about a thing or character as an aspect. Only the things that are important to the campaign should be made aspects.
Answer: No, not all facts are aspects.  Aspects are narratively relevant facts.
Making something an aspect is pointing it out, and saying that it's important.  It's like a camera taking a shot to linger on the patch of ice on a rooftop - as soon as you see that, you know someone's slipping on it.
There's a sort of information economy in Fate, and things that are called out as aspects are things that are important.  Making "everything an aspect" blows this information economy out of the water, and makes it useless.
Now, any fact can be an aspect, but only if it's important.  Is it something that will be compelled or invoked?
If your game is a TV show, then the things you'd say that the TV show is "about" should be aspects.  But not every fact needs to be.
Here's an article from one of the authors about "spamming" aspects:
http://ryanmacklin.com/2013/11/fate-misconceptions-and-aspect-spamming/
Now, a lot of the "long-running facts' like you describe are certainly candidates for being aspects!  Something like Hunted By Samaritan is a great aspect, because it allows for a Compel of "and this goes wrong when assassins show up" at any point.
Answer: All aspects are facts but not all facts are aspects. One way to differentiate an aspect from a mundane fact could be that aspects are prominent facts for the context they are attached to. They say a lot about what you want to emphasize in your game.

Character aspects highlight what's important for your character's story
Scene aspects define what that scene is about
Advantage aspects you create hint at what your character will be doing next

There may be other facts that rise from the narrative, and once established, those should be respected. However, unless they are somehow made into aspects, those facts do not affect the game mechanics at all.
That is because the game mechanics in Fate do not model the actual probabilities of various "facts" affecting the outcomes of some actions. Fate does not care if your gun is more accurate or if your car is faster.
The reason that aspects provide game-mechanical results is; aspects are facts that are important for the story, and you as a player get a bonus for weaving them into the narrative in an interesting way. Fate does care if you want to make your prototype sportscar or rusty vintage revolver an important part of the story.


what's the proper way to work with Git Submodules

Question: I have git projects that share a common library as a git submodule.
When I make any changes to a project, I always create a git branch to do my work in. After testing and given another set of eyes, I merge the branch back into master which is always ready to deploy.
Sometimes I need to make changes to the submodule library as well. Would the best practice be to first branch the main project and then go into the submodule and branch it also? I realize then I would need to test the modified submodule branch in the other projects where used. Is there a different way to be doing this?
Answer: To branch or not to branch the submodule, that is the question, but it's totally up to you.
If your submodule is a library, and other projects are using it, then it must remain backward compatible. You may fix things in it, but don't touch its API. But the lib fixes actually belong to the master branch of the lib. So I don't see a reason to branch the submodule automatically when you branch the main project.
Technically, the important thing is: if you modify and commit both the submodule and the main project, push the submodule first and then the main project.
There is no such thing as a recursive push.
Answer: A git submodule is a project by itself. So the policy for branching the submodule is defined by the same considerations as for all branching decisions. Will there be concurrent development of the submodule? Will you want to rewind the changes without polluting the history of master? Yes, testing may also be a consideration, but it should be the goal of a submodule that it can be reused properly in other projects.
I have a couple of projects using a shared submodule, which extends while working on the multi-branched main projects. I rarely see the need to branch the submodule. But sometimes of course there is.


Does one need to have a bitcoin wallet to buy/sell bitcoins?

Question: There appears to be so many exchanges / middle-mans on a bitcoin market (e.g coinjar.com) which can help to buy / sell bitcoin for a cut (usually 2-4%). Do they simply trade bitcoins using their own bitcoin wallet and just keep the client's balance of cash/bitcoins in their system?
Answer: They don't sell nor buy anything they are in the middle of a transaction. Check this out, Active buy orders are people who want to buy, and active sell orders are people who want to sell. The exchange is the place where all that people meet.
If you have Bitcoins and want to sell them for real money you have two options, you can sell it to the first buy order for the specified price and the transaction will be finished in that exact moment (if the buy order is for the exact or more amount of Bitcoins that you are selling) and you will be credited with real money that you can withdraw to your bank. Or you can set your own price and wait to see if someone wants to buy it for that price. Depending on the price you set it may take little time, longer or forever.
For every acount a wallet is created where you transfer your Bitcoins, real money is deposited in real banks and transfered to and from those banks.
Answer: Yes,
But I am more familiar with Coinbase.com, there you can buy/sell/send/request bitcoins.
It is set to the local currency of your country, and you will have a wallet automatically. The wallet address is found in the account settings/bitcoin addresses. The website automatically creates a bitcoin wallet address every 9 days. Don't worry about that, you can use any or the same bitcoin wallet address for forever, so it doesn't matter if the website keeps creating a new address, the address that you use to receive is reusable.
Goodluck. If the site like you mentioned, coinjar.com is a bitcoin exchanger, yes, they do have a wallet system where you keep your bitcoin balance. The good thing about that is that you don't have to backup your wallet offline because the site backups wallet for you. Like in coinbase.com they backup everyone's wallet offline and update the balance everytime you make a transaction.
Hope this helps.
Comment: @Mitten: They don't. A Bitcoin exchange won't let you place an order before you have the needed funds deposited with them. (Perhaps as a usability feature they will allow you to place an inactive order that will activate when you have funds.) Anyway, the exchange doesn't "buy" bitcoins, they let you buy from someone else who wishes to sell. Note that there are services that work differently from exchanges.
Comment: what I am was trying to ask, being a bitcoin exchanger - how do they handle the situations when I ordered to buy 10BTC at 400 via their website, and paid them 4000 + some fee, but they will only forward my order after they receive my money (4000 + fee). If by that time the price of 1BTC is 450 - they simply would not have enough money to buy the amount I ordered. How do bitcoin exchanges deal with such situations?
Answer: You could buy or sell a physical bitcoin like a casacious coin or BitBill (or even a funded gift wallet like aLittleBitOfCoin). That kind of exchange does not even require computer access. You could exchange offline paper wallets but then there is more reason to question the secrecy of the private key.
Answer: No, in a strict sense. The first bitcoin transaction predated the first wallet by several months, and there's no reason that couldn't have been a p2p cash for btc transaction. The first transaction was with Hal Finney in January 2009 (the 10 BTC test), and the first wallet was, I think, with v0.3 of bitcoin, sometime later in 2009.


Is there a correlation between political system and economic growth?

Question: I would like to know whether there are any pieces of scientific research indicating that some political systems are more likely to produce a large economic growth than others. Which systems are they? Where can I read about it?
Comment: This is a good question, but one needs to be VERY careful in answering it. Economic growth may be affected by a great deal of extraneous factors independent of a political system (international economic environment; industrial cycles; geopolitical factors, both permanent and temporal - including natural resources, navigable rivers, etc...). For example, France was able to to relatively well economically since WW2, but how much of that can be attributable to USA taking on the costs of allowing France to be safe from both an invasion by Germany AND by USSR, no matter what French thought of NATO?
Comment: Depends on how you construct a typology of political systems.  So any answer is going to be the result of your coding system.  Also depends on what you consider "scientific."  Given your unqualified use of "scientific" in relation to a social science, any answer, due to coding issues, is going to be incompatible with your conception of science.
Comment: Depends on how you measure economic growth.
Comment: ... Or, for example, growth in China. Their political system change had less to do with the economic growth than both the absolute zero level that the economy started with when Deng Xiaoping started; AND the fact that the western countries were at an economic point of wishing to outsource industrial production. If China was on its own, it would NOT have seen the same growth even remotely.
Comment: @DVK Please note that my question is mostly a reference request. Otherwise, the question could not be answerable. I think it is in this form.
Comment: I agree. The comment pertained to potential answers, not the question :)  E.g. merely doing some simple correllation between political system and a given year's GDP growth across the globe would be "scientific research", but a bad one :)
Comment: See also: http://politics.stackexchange.com/q/195/130
Comment: The video [*"The Rules for Rulers"* by CGP Grey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs&feature=youtu.be&t=628) has an interesting hypothesis that rulers in democracies have more incentive to facilitate economic growth than rulers in autocracies. Unfortunately it all relies on one source I don't have access to.
Comment: One book suggestion would be *Why Nations Fail* by Acemoglu and Robinson
Answer: Not exactly, Democracies such as the United States and Russia are doing better financially than some Authoritarian countries such as North Korea. However some Authoritarian countries such as Libya (Now a Democracy?) and Saudi Arabia have profited well due to natural resources. Since most Non-Democratic Republic countries are in the Middle East/ Africa, they have profited well from oil so we can't really rely on that.
If you consider that Authoritarian leaders can spend all the money they want to, It might make an Authoritarian government less economically secure. Also considering that leadership can't be changed even if they are destroying the country. Mainly though, economic growth depends on location and allies.
Also, if an Authoritarian government is unstable and are at war with another country, or rebels due to their leadership, they might be spending the majority or their money on their army. In a democracy the budget is regulated by a congress, or parliament so that the right choices can be made. Since my answer to this question is no, I don't know if you want any resources, but just comment and I'll add a link.
Edit

Okay, for the most part this supports what I said about Saudi Arabia. I know Saudi Arabia isn't the only authoritarian government, but if there was any correlation, Saudi Arabia would most likely break it. Syria, for example is pretty low on the list.
Democracies/Republics land high and low on this list so there is obviously no correlation there.
Theocracies seem pretty low.
As for constitutional monarchies the U.K is number 24, but Bahrain is 96.
Here's a thread on another site that discusses this too.
Comment: The question is mostly about scientific research, so yes, please add the link. Also, it is obvious that the political system of a country isn't the only factor determining its economic growth. What I'm asking is whether there is any correlation.
Comment: "Democracies/Republics land high and low on this list so there is obviously no correlation there." I don't follow. That they can just rank both high and low doesn't mean that there is no correlation. The most glaring error in this reasoning seems to be that there can be more republics ranking high than those ranking low. Also, that two states are republics doesn't mean that they have the same political system.
Comment: How in the world are "democracies like the US and Russia" even allowed in a sentence.  Russia is not a democracy.  It just plays one on tv.
Comment: I thought you were referring to their type of government?
Comment: Yes, but there are various types of republics. Perhaps more detailed differentiation is needed to find correlation.
Comment: I'm not sure where those resources could be found.
Comment: The question asks for scientific research or something based on science. None of your sources are scientific, and it isn't clear that any of this is based in science.
Answer: Modernization Theory

are any pieces of scientific research indicating that some political systems are more likely to produce a large economic growth than others

Oh boy is there. The dominant theory in political science for most of the 20th century was modernization theory. It is a vast and dense body of research, but the quick summary is that it posits a causal relationship between democratization and economic growth.
For a much deeper discussion, you might see my answer on this question:
The causal relationship between economic development and democracy
If you are interested in reading academic work directly, Harvard is currently making available for free a piece by Przworski and Limongi which discusses modernization theory. Both of the authors are well known in political science, specifically in this field. You can find the work here
Varieties of Capitalism
One (more recent) development that you might be interested in is the varieties of capitalism. Rather than focusing on a singular notion of economic growth, this body of research recognizes at least two distinct branches of capitalism. Each kind of capitalism is best developed in a certain kind of political system. As a spoiler, both kinds are best developed different variations of democracy.
What About Dictatorships?
You might wonder why dictatorships perform poorly in the research. Here are a few reasons:

Dictatorships typically don't have effective judicial systems. An effective judicial system enforces the law, without regard to what rulers (Presidents, legislators, etc.) would like. This is necessary because it allows firms to have confidence in the contracts and deals they create.  Further reading: look up credible commitment or "cheap talk" models.
Dictatorships tend to focus investment in heavy manufacturing and military applications, foregoing consumer goods and civilian infrastructure. This is the classic guns vs butter problem played out.
Dictatorships invest in education, social protections, and consumer or luxury goods for a limited number of people. This more focused approach produces far less value than general development. One example is in education: democracies tend to support increasingly high education for all citizens, which creates a more valuable workforce. Dictatorships will generally provide education for supporters of the regime, which results in a smaller educated workforce - and less growth.

Further Reading
If you have access to an academic journal database, it is trivial to find hundreds of articles on exactly this subject. Search for "modernization" or something similar and limit your search to articles before about 1990. Alternatively, just browsing political science journals between 1950-1980 will probably net you a lot too.
Foreign Affairs published a list of notable books on modernization theory that you might check out. Many of these were books I had to read in graduate school, and even among the books I don't recognize many of the authors' names are familiar. It looks like a reputable list.


CentOS 6 init script doesn't work properly

Question: I'm setting up my ruby production server based on CentOS 6. I need a process called god (which is a process monitoring tool) to start at boot. I'm using an init script that I found here. Just as stated in the guide I ran:
chkconfig --add god

and then
chkconfig --level 345 god on

After this if I run "service god start|restart" everything works. It loads the available configurations and brings up the related processes (if they are not running).
Problem is it doesn't work at boot. If I reboot the system, then I do "ps -aux | grep god". At this point "god" is running but apparently it didn't load the configuration files.
If i run again service god restart, it loads everything without problems.
What am I doing wrong?
Comment: Check all your relevant logs first.
Answer: The most propable reason for this is that there is a path missing during the boot-process.
Also check the shell that is being called in the first line of the init-script.
It should read:
#!/bin/sh


How to sort albums in years and artists

Question: I am a iTunes novice :(
I have various songs and albums on my itunes and would like to get into some kind of order.
My question is:
Can I sort out all the albums from one artist into ascending years and still keep other albums in order?
For example, I have albums by Coldplay and other albums by various artists. If I click on the year column, all the library is mixed. Can I arrange it so only the Coldplay albums are sorted into years and not the whole library is sorted?
Thank you
Comment: Are you on iTunes 11?
Answer: I assume this is ITunes 11 (Earlier iTunes gave better options)
In album view: From the menus choose View->View Options and then choose the sort by as Artist and then as Year. You get all albums. I suspect this is nearest to what you are asking for.
Answer: Here's how: create a new Smart Playlist -- the command is under the File => New menu -- in the the left side panel of iTunes.
In the resulting dialog box, set the playlist to Artist is ColdPlay. The resulting display will show only ColdPlay songs.
You can now sort the display as you wish.

How to sort albums in years and artists


About HTTP Live Streaming

Question: I am really tired of this issue. If any one help me in this then it will be appreciated.
My one app is rejected and reason is

Video streaming content over a cellular network longer than 10 minutes must use HTTP Live and include a baseline 64 kbps audio-only HTTP Live stream.

I tried much for this and finally i have submitted TSI report for this issue.
but i am not clear what they suggested to do.
need some help from you guys.
What i have done is
1. Download and install HTTP Live Streaming Tool.
2. I've Segmented my video by using this command
mediafilesegmenter -a -t 10 Desktop/Sample.mp4
Above command gave us audio segments in .aac format.
(Here i use -a tag because in TSI reply they said that include baseline 64 kbps audio only)
Now they suggested me in TSI report

For the 64 kbits stream, if you're using transport streams, we recommend you create a simple audio elementary stream, perhaps with a poster frame jpg image.

from this sentence only i come to know is I have to create audio stream from my video that i have already created.
But i don't know whether it is 64kbps or not. So how to check this?? or how to apply 64kbps to my audio stream??
The other thing is they said perhaps with a poster frame jpg image. So what should i do for getting poster frame jpg image from my video ?
how to connect this image with my audio stream to get my full video ???
This things are really confusing me.
Please help me out this. If u can give solution by some example commands that i can use, then it would be very helpful to understand me all this confusing things..
Thanks in advance..!!!!
Comment: Can anyone please help me in this..??:(
Answer: To check the average bit-rate of an HLS stream, you need to use the mediastreamvalidator tool.
What often happens with the 64kbps stream is that it may not be under this value throughout its entire length.
Run the following command on your suspect 64kbps stream(s) and check the 'Average segment bitrate' value reported
<code>mediastreamvalidator --verbose validate <StreamUrl>
</code>

About HTTP Live Streaming


What is the identity of this abandoned, wrecked Sudan Airways airliner?

Question: The other day, I was browsing Twitter, when I came across this picture of an airliner posted by a Sudanese local (thought it was a Boeing 737, but a friend of mine pointed out that it was an Airbus A300). I tried Google Image Searching it, but couldn't find any more details about how it got to be wrecked in this condition ...
Could anybody shed a light on this?
Answer: It looks to me more like an abandoned plane (that's fallen apart) rather than a crashed/wrecked one. A Sudanese A310 crashed at Khartoum in 2008 - but it caught fire and was destroyed, which clearly hasn't happened here unless someone came and repainted it afterwards.
This list gives ten A300s which have previously been owned by Sudan Airways; TC-OYC is stored at Istanbul (and this doesn't look like Istanbul), ST-ATA is stored location unknown, and ST-ASS was scrapped while last owned by Sudan. Of their A310s, ST-AST, is stored (location unclear); ST-ATN was destroyed by fire after a crash. So that's three A300/310s which might plausibly be lying derelict at a Sudanese airport.
For an alternative count, this thread lists four A300s "stored" at Khartoum, ST-ATA, ST-ATB, ST-ASS & ST-AST; all put up for sale as parts/scrap a few years back but never sold. No pictures but it's clear they're not in a great state.
Answer: According to this person the photo is of an Airbus A300B4-620, ST-ASS (Ex F-WZLR, F-ODTK) that is being scrapped at Khartoum Airport. In his photo the cut in the fuselage closest to the cockpit has been made, but the one further aft has not yet. You can see by the shape of the first cut that it is the same aircraft.
Answer: This is an Airbus A300. Sudan Airways has not had an accident with this type of aircraft and as such it must be a retired plane.
Comment: This seems unlikely to be the same aircraft - the Flight 109 [investigation report](https://www.bea.aero/docspa/2008/st-n080610.en/pdf/st-n080610.en.pdf) seemed to indicate much more substantial fire damage than is shown in the picture. Is it more likely to be an abandoned/"stored" aircraft than a crashed one?
Comment: @Andrew You are right, should have checked other photos before.