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[ [ "How Could Someone Make an Army Which is Immune or Resistant to Magic Attacks?\nMy DnD character is a sorta artificer/warlock mix who has technical prowess and has a patron that can give him glimpses into technology from alternate universes (basically advanced knowledge on technology) and their ultimate goal is to make it possible for the average person to have the power to counter magic, without having to have magic powers themselves.\nThey also have the goal of starting a company to exploit this technological advantage to raise a professional army to counter other armies who use wizards and other magic users in combat. The problem I run into is the sheer strength that magic can bring to an army. Everything from being able to call down meteors to even just the ability to put people to sleep would make an army not using magic practically useless. So I am trying to find ways to counter magic on a military scale.", "46" ], [ "I am not completely adverse to using a little bit of magic to reach this goal, but I would like to keep to the original premise that the army is made up mostly of non-magic soldiers.\nFor some context the setting of the game is based off of a Europa Universalis mod called Anbennar, so when I say technologically advanced I mean so in a late medieval/early renaissance sense with a fantasy twist (think breech loading guns that use crossbow arms instead of springs, gatling gun type weapons, fantasy “tanks” which are either pulled internally by horses or use large cranks to rotate the wheels, pedal powered planes, stuff <PERSON> would come up with). I hope to have at least basic steam engines decently soon, and to begin building factories for mass production. I think the current technology level would be around the 1870’s or so in terms of weapons available, though none are as refined as they had in our real world by then.\nI do have access to a specific metal called “Damstere” which is made of crystalized magic and in essence acts as a spell slot. It can be burned to power magic that is connected to it in some way (be it scroll of some other form of magical infusion) which I considered as an option when combined with scrolls of antimagic to make a sort of “anti-magic shield grenade” but the sheer time cost to make a single anti magic scroll is very high, and getting access to enough 15th level wizards to make the scrolls would be nearly impossible for large scale production.\nAnother option later on is a material known as “Dark Damstere” which has inherent anti magic properties, but just getting access to that material will take quite a bit of time (nearly a century), way too long for it to be a viable solution in the short term.\nSo, with the information provided I ask, how could I go about having armies which can have at least some resilience against magic?", "523" ], [ "Setting bible revision help\nWhen it comes to revising/reformatting a setting bible (for a video game) to make the setting more internally consistent and better organized, which place is the best part of a setting bible to look? (I didn't feel this question fit in with the world-building stack exchange which is more dealing with a world's mechanics and dynamics than how it is organized.)\nThe genre of the game is sci-fi, and one of the aims for this setting bible was accurate astronomy and generally some attempt at being relatively in line with reality to the best of my abilities (with a few willful deviations that are normally expected of in a space opera/sci-fi setting, mainly FTL usage and the claim that intelligent life is a very cosmically recent phenomena).\nIn my setting bible, I have formatted my setting into 5 major sections:\n1 - Worlds & Systems\n2 - Sapients\n3 - Civilizations and Cultures\n4 - Technology\n5 - Individuals and Characters\nEach of these sections are compilations of various societies, cultures, alien species and worlds which are stated to all exist within the same universe. And they have sub sections too.\nWorlds & Systems section\nWorlds & Systems gives different sections for home worlds, sterile worlds, biospheres and megastructures.\nOf the sections I feel this one has the least problems beyond perhaps still needing more worlds (you always need more worlds!). A few dozen worlds remains underwhelming when making a galaxy. Not to mention there is the issue of there being more sapients than worlds.\nThe Sapients Section\nSapients meanwhile tries to differentiate sapients by their advancement/relevance (with an arbitrary 'major' moniker for the sapients who I spent much more time developing than the other 'minor' sapients or 'ancient' sapients who are advanced but less 'relevant').\nI feel my sapient classification is the most broken of the sub sections I have as it seems I couldn't decide if I wanted to classify sapients by advancement or by relevance.\nCivilizations and Cultures\nThe civilizations and cultures section is organized into first a sub section detailing various belief systems that exist in the setting and than you get sets of \"civilizations\"- or blocs of multiple factions with a longer history between each other than other civilizations. This organization is mainly done as a product of how I bottle necked FTL development in the setting meaning these different civilizations are defined by having separate independent FTL developments from some non-FTL society.\nTechnology\nTechnology is a section that details the tech of the setting and gives separate sections for tech from specific major sapients/civilizations.", "154" ], [ "I am unsure if the tech section should actually exist or if tech should be elaborated in in the civilizations and cultures sections given the way technology does impact culture. Indeed I feel like that separating tech from culture may have been a mistake looking at it again.\nCharacters\nA set of characters. Notoriously underdeveloped and this I will try to fix this summer. It includes historical figures as well as various protagonist candidates.\nAnd it is in the revising stage that I find a lot of the inter connectivity of a setting is formed as internal consistency, plot hooks and such all start to become important.\nI had not looked at the setting bible for months due to school work and wanting to wait until I could see my universe in a clearer lens that I could when I drafted it out. I realized I may not have as clear an idea of what to do as I thought looking over things.\nTo avoid open endedness, let's focus on a single question- Given the above information about the priorities I have and the organization of the story bible, what would it be best for me to focus on first?", "239" ], [ "How could people in the medieval times defeat an armored vehicle?\nIn my setting there is a mad artificer making armored cars for the army. The cars have wooden frames with 10 mm of steel on every side, wooden wheels with metal plates covering them, and are propelled using two different methods (some have horses which sit within the cart and push it forward, and the others have slaves inside who use large handcranks to rotate the wheels). They have several wheels to get even ground pressure and all the openings (two vision slits, and multiple arrow slits around the vehicle) are covered with visors that can be closed. Some of the larger cars also have cannons mounted in them, which can fire forward, and others have small cannons (basically just oversized muskets) or magic machine guns mounted in a turret.\nThe infantry fighting the cars would need methods to face the cars both in open combat (meeting on the field of battle) in random encounters (infantry have no time to prepare) and ambushes (where the infantry have time to prepare)\nWith this information, how could people in a low fantasy setting with 1400’s technology and limited magic defeat these vehicles?\nEdit: After reading the input I have decided to adapt the concept for the cars.", "46" ], [ "Lots of people have mentioned mud being a problem, and I do not know a fix for that besides wider tires and each wheel having it's own suspension so that they all touch the ground (and perhaps more wheels).\nPeople have also mentioned the use of artillery against the car, and while that would be a threat I don't think that the weapons which would be used in this time period would be good enough to reliably take out the cars.\nSomething to mention that I should have before, the setting is very low magic. Someone having magic ability at all is one in a million, and the odds of that person also being skilled and smart enough to become an artificer would be incredibly rare. As far as the setting is concerned the artificer is the only person capable of making any sort of advanced weapon (like the magic machine gun).\nOtherwise some of the answers have been very useful. The use of Naphtha (something I didn't realize was known about at the time) is especially interesting.", "523" ], [ "What large scale strategies would an interstellar nation use to conquer another interstellar nation?\nI'm working on a science fiction setting for a game. I'm trying to write a setting that focuses on man-operated war machines in sight range combat. Everything ranging from fighters to mechs to capital ships would be used and have logical reasons within the setting to steer combat towards that approach.\nOne of the factions are a group of colonies that had declared independence from Earth decades ago and had managed to win it. These colonies since declared themselves a new interstellar nation with a strong economy, but their military power has always been limited by their low relative population compared to other interstellar nations. Their military doctrines lean heavily into getting the most out of the individual in their military forces and maximizing the survival rates of their pilots and crews (think large war machines with small crew/pilot counts and lots of armor.)\nOver the decades since, interest in reclaiming these outer colonies would change with each election cycle, sometimes sparking one of many short lived wars to reunite humanity under one rule.", "46" ], [ "At best, they would manage a stalemate, at worst, they would be pushed back.\nI'm trying to figure out what the strategy of the Earth military would be in trying to re-establish control over these colonies. I imagine landing troops wouldn't really work on a planetary scale as they would need pretty much need an occupation force far larger than would be sensible to maintain. Though a strategy of precise military strikes on the ground might work?\nI know that taking points of interest might be a factor, as well, factories that produce war machines, shipyards and the like. Anything that might help them establish a foothold in enemy territory.\nI should also mention that robotic and other autonomous combatants are specifically outlawed by treaties signed by multiple interstellar nations that I'm still working on the details of. A robot/drone army isn't an option for them.\nThe only real strategy I can think of is blockading planets and taking control of the system gates to force a world into submission. FTL between systems utilizes artificial wormholes generated by massive gates that are expensive to produce, so it would be easy to control travel to and from a system by shutting off gates.\nArmed incursions might only be limited to things like seizing factories, military bases and shipyards to limit the colony's ability to fight back while under that blockade.\nWhat are some other strategies that might come into play in this scenario?", "46" ], [ "Realistically overcoming point defenses with starfighters and their role in combat\nI'm developing a game right now focused on starfighter based combat where the character is a pilot of said starfighters. I had intended for bombers to be surgical strike craft, taking out weak points that would otherwise be out of view for opposing capital ships. Fighters would then serve as escort or interception for/against bombers.\nThe big advantage I see to the starfighters and bombers currently designed for the setting are that a great number of them are made for both atmospheric and space combat (some [expensive] models are even capable of re-entry on their own.) They could essentially double as atmospheric fighters in the case of planetary landing.\nIn reality, I'm certain they would be easily picked off by point defenses alone. Most likely a high power laser that could vaporize most of the fighter before they could even get a good visual on their target.\nSo, I wanted to turn here for suggestions on making starfighters a more viable while keeping it mostly realistic and get thoughts on the solutions I've thought of. What are some other realistic means of countering, or at least reducing the effectiveness of point defenses?\nSolution one - Laser-resistant armor:\nA new technology or alloy has rendered the most effective forms of point defense useless against fighters, forcing them to use less reliable means.", "898" ], [ "I don't want to have them jam tracking systems, but maybe their hulls are layered with something that is resistant/reflective to high power light-based weapons such as lasers. And more powerful, larger, lasers that could overpower that defense become too hard to turn quick enough to track. I feel it is a weak option as other point defense systems could easily take their place.\nSolution two - Situational use\nAnother thought was creating scenarios where ships have to fight in close proximity where fighters might shine. The only reason I can think to force capital ships into close quarters would be for the sake of capturing stations and other points of interest that require boarding, but I'm not sure about putting that in every battle. I could see fighters being reserved for exactly those battles and being left in hangar in long range engagements (which from a gameplay standpoint sucks a little bit of variety out of the game, unfortunately.)", "898" ], [ "You will have to forgive the lack of sources in this answer, as I am using references from a real book which I own (because I'm really that much of a nerd). Usually I'm much more link heavy in my answers.\nThe creature that I am using is something like a \"cloud\" or massive collection of gases, as referenced here. It is made up of small, organic \"organs\" within a larger, gaseous form. These organs are connected by electrical paths much like our own brain cells are connected to one another. The creature is essentially one giant brain, with the organs acting as cells, communicating. The cloud is made up of the same materials our own body is made up of, but on a much larger scale and in a gaseous form. These allow the brain to travel through the vacuum of space (with some minor handwavium).\nThis creature feeds on gaseous elements, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, etc, all the gases that are found in abundance in the universe. In the short story it is based on, the creature sucks out needed replacement gases of a planet's atmosphere and leaves behind wastes (the story specifically puts Earth in danger of this creature).", "731" ], [ "It can also eke out pockets of gas by heating up its own body (potentially hotter than a sun) to evaporate gases from asteroids. The creature is even capable of moving through space by thrusting out waste gases to propel it forward, giving it some maneuverability.\nShould your spacecraft exude some kind of gaseous waste from its engines, the Black Cloud may be attracted to it, and begin to follow behind it, sucking up the trail of waste gas. It may at first only feed harmlessly on this waste gas. The cloud would then become hungrier, and become aware of an oxygen-rich environment within the craft. While your spacecraft might be fully sealed from gases, perhaps the cloud has some gases which are radioactive, damaging the spacecraft. Perhaps even the cloud can infiltrate the engines to try and get more sweet delicious gases, forcing your spacecraft to a halt. Perhaps the cloud can heat up its body to \"smoke out\" the gases within your spacecraft, mistaking it for some weird asteroid. And even the solid \"organs\" of the cloud can perhaps physically attack the ship, seeking to expose the gases within.\nPossibilities may or may not be endless with this sort of set up.", "500" ], [ "What would we see of a devastating interstellar war between alien civilizations within 1000 Ly?\nI have two interstellar civilizations, both of which are extremely advanced and within a few thousand light years of earth. They go to war and make some stars explode in the process.\nThe Combatants\nI have in my space setting two civilizations who are extremely, extremely advanced. To get an idea of their capabilities let me list the ones relevant to this discussion. Both sides were capable of causing a star to go super nova, had micro black hole arrays as their \"small arm weaponry\" and were able to warp from star system to star system by willing it. There is a tech gap between them that is balanced by the less advanced ones, who I will refer to as the Industrials (of whom you can imagine as extremely advanced machines), being much more tenacious than the Archivists. The Archivists, whose design is very serpentine and fuming in blinding energy are ancient beings who really just wanted to collect data on the universe. They predate the empire, but that part of this overbuilt cosmic history isn't important here.\nSo why are they at war? Here's a bit of context for anyone who needs it.\nContext\nThere is a somewhat complicated history behind why such a cataclysmic war occurred in the first place. Since it's not the meat of my question and really unrefined in terms of completion i'll just say the following long sentence. While humans were figuring out agriculture a powerful, seemingly all encompassing empire spanning the Orion Arm fell apart violently due to a miasma of catastrophes that stem from the Archivists launching a decapitation raid on the empire's oligarchs in response to the empire destroying their observatory world located around a star in the Aquila rift. Said observatory held quite a few Archivists. Given the distance of the named place, you may see why i'm asking this question.\nFast forward a thousand years and the empire is pretty much dead. A procession of events leads the Industrious to have a civilization that is slowly murdered by a cryptic force known as the Celestials who appear on the scene a few centuries after the empire's decapitation.", "302" ], [ "They just start killing anyone who is self-aware and a pain inducing war against a would-be Empire Successor polity called the Eternal Republic which no one but the Celestials won. The Eternal Republic was exterminated, but the Industrious had enough time to go into hiding as the celestials massacred their society as well. Industrious than spent a few millenniums in hiding as the Celestials continued hunting down life that was sensed by them as self-aware, purifying world after world of such life. The Industrious however, rebounded and rebounded hard.\nThe Industrious deep within the mantle of multiple worlds uninhabitable managed to advance to technological levels that rivaled the Archivists to a degree and begun a uphill crusade against the Celestials, at first being very outnumbered. However the Industrious at this point were militarily far more advanced than the Celestials, meaning they easily fought the Celestials despite being out numbered and rapidly expanded in numbers as they exterminated the Celestials. Once the Celestials were killed off, the Industrious inexplicably turned their weapons and vast military on the Archivists. Thus began the Annihilation.\nIn the Annihilation (which was a war that only lasted a century), multiple stars were super novae'd. But the Industrious, despite managing to do far more damage to the Archivists than the Empire ever could would lose the war. The Industrious as a species were let off surprisingly easy, being only reduced to a primitive, stone age civilization. The Archivists however, instead of coming to dominate the Orion Arm simply went into further hiding. They still are out there to this day, observing as they always had.\nI am aware that by cosmic history has opened way more questions than answers (like about the culture/nature of all these aliens and the way the empire was ran), but I rapidly came to realize a massive, massive trouble with all this star exploding and interstellar massacring:\nWouldn't we have noticed all this?\nI ask this since there is no way a war where stars went into supernova in such rapid procession wouldn't be noticed by astronomers and raise tons of questions. The super novae would after all leave behind planetary nebulae in their wake, such as the crab nebula which came from a super nova seen around the world in 1200 AD. The question of super novae also has been bothering me since wouldn't multiple super novas in short procession would cause some very noticeable planetary nebulae complexes? These would be extremely noticeable cosmic features within a thousand light years and their cultural impact may have history altering conditions if I have this in my mind right.", "963" ], [ "Future therapy/treatment for veterans of near future/ further future mass casualty conflicts\nThe setting I am working on is near future in a sense and involves veterans dealing with the aftereffects and trauma of war. However, in this setting war is extremely deadly even if not always fatal. More so than our current battlefields. For example, the use of loitering munitions is so prevalent that most infantry units operate from armored APCs with heavy active protection systems and dismount only if the situation calls for it. There is some light shielding so tanks, APCs etc. can take a few hits. Short of nuclear weapons (non-factor in the setting), the soldiers from all sides practically threw everything at each other over a protracted conflict that spanned years. Death is either very fast and unexpected via the use of PGMs or large explosives/artillery. Or slow and painful i.e., when armor piercing shots damage vehicles and maim the crew but don't outright kill them immediately because of shielding.\nThe result of this is that there are a lot of injured and physically disabled veterans.", "347" ], [ "By the end of the war, which ended in a stalemate with all sides hanging on by a thread, the majority of active-duty soldiers are heavily injured and or have major war related trauma. While not a majority, a decent percentage of each countries' population was recruited or conscripted during the war. The casualties were horrific regardless. Essentially to the point that the militaries of countries have to wipe away the majority of their armed forces and recruit or conscript from scratch due to the prevalence of severely injured soldiers (think <PERSON> levels of bad, but instead of the old and extremely young its mainly the heavily injured.).\nWith all these returning veterans coming back home there is obviously a major reintegration problem. Especially with how violent the war was. One of the issues is that the fighting didn't really affect civilian areas. Civilians no doubt had their own stressors and issues, but the fighting largely took place off planet. As a result, civilians including the academic/medical community back home have a different and less popular view of the war and the soldiers (think Vietnam).\nGiven the extra level of violence one could expect from close to far future conflicts between peer forces what would therapy/treatment look like on a systemic level. With the sudden influx of mass casualties returning from an entirely different planet at the end of the war, what medical and psychological advancements could one expect to be used to treat such a large group of returning veterans.\nEdit: Focused question based on feedback to focus on future treatments instead of \"upper limit\" on treatments.", "454" ] ]

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[ [ "How high altitude/low pressure could you could hear a gong right next to you?\n\"There is no sound in space\". But how thin can air be and musical instruments still be heard?\nThe absolute pressure limit of sound (of a given wavelength) occurs when the wavelength is less than the mean free path of the molecules. Setting the frequency to 20 Hz (human \"lower limit\") gives us about 160 km. However, this question is about the limits of musical instruments vs human ears: the actual altitude could be much lower than 160 km. It is a \"practical physics\" question along the lines of power-line sensations and of course must be answered approximately.\nSuppose you are standing 1 meter away from a gong when it is hit with full force. You are on a separate platform than the gong; the only vibration/sound is perceived through the air. You cannot see the gong being struck (to avoid the placebo effect). You are a facultative anaerobe but otherwise are an unmodified human.\nConsiderations\nA gong is about 90 dB when played vigorously at sea level.", "275" ], [ "A single strong hit may reach 105 dB or so from a 1 meter distance.\nHuman hearing sensitivity varies with frequency. The \"threshold\" of zero dB (at our most sensitive frequency) is slightly generous, 5-10 dB is more typical for healthy ears. Here we define \"threshold\" as hearing it even if you don't expect it, assuming you are not deeply lost in thought. This is a bit higher than two alternative forced choice and may add another 5-10 dB. Any instrument has multiple frequencies and loudness presumably is a weighted sum of how much energy and how sensitive our ears are at each frequency.\nThere are three effects that hamper hearing at extreme altitudes:\nThe direct effect: As the air thins, the gong will transmit less energy into the air.\nImpedance mismatch: The thinner air means that there is less mass pushing on the eardrum. Compared to Mars-density air, an eardrum is almost a solid wall. Most incoming sound energy would be reflected and not get to the inner ear.\nDamping: More and more sound is attenuated (damped out, as energy gets converted to heat) as we get higher and the mean free path increases. The gong may sound muffled if high frequencies are cut off, although it's a low frequency instrument so should be less affected. Over a 1 meter distance, I am not sure if attenuation will be relevant to the perception limits or if the other two effects will kick in first.\nGiven these considerations, what is the approximate altitude limit for hearing a gong?", "108" ], [ "Things would be extremely bad. for large values of extreme.\nStars are a balancing act of external radiation pressure exactly counteracting the gravitational attractive force. By increasing gravity stars suddenly have 2% more gravitational potential energy they need to shed to regain equilibrium. How much energy is that? The gravitational potential energy of the sun is 10^41 Joules. Or roughly the same energy as would be released if the entire earth were to be anhiliated with anti-matter. 2% of that is huge and it suddenly appears out of nowhere. So, very quickly the sun has to shed about 10,000 times its yearly energy output. Life is certainly not going to survive that, but this happens for every star in the galaxy.", "921" ], [ "Many, many will jumpstart to a higher order of fusion at the massive sudden increase in pressure and temperature, if they start iron-burning, you are in trouble.\nExpect every supergiant to go supernova concurrently and many lesser stars to flare with the energy output comparable to a nova, any life that survives the semi-nova/flare of the sun will be wiped out by the bombardment of gamma rays that will be bathing the earth for the next few thousand years.\nEvery black hole will get a bit bigger all of a sudden as escape velocity increases, eating part of its accretion disk. Hard to say what effect this would have actually, but sounds like it may cause trouble.\nDepending on exactly how the increase in gravity is carried out, even more esoteric things might happen. It is a well known unsolved problem in physics that the gravitational mass and inertial mass of matter are independent yet appear to always be exactly the same. As in, there are no laws that say they should be the same nor does it naturally arise from any currently accepted theories, but observationally it is always the case that they are identical to the limits of measurement. It is a good thing too as the exact correspondence between gravitational and inertial mass makes a lot of things like having stable orbits work. If you were to increase gravity by increasing gravitational mass and not inertial mass, suddenly things like angular momentum and stable orbits get all sorts of wonky. It is hard to say if solar systems are even possible in such a case.\nAll in all, it is a bad idea. Unless you are an energy being that really wants the universe to end in a big crunch instead of a big chill in which case crank up that constant, but expect biological life to take exception.", "801" ], [ "Decrease the amount of light arriving but increase greenhouse gases\nEarth would be about 30°C colder if it was at its blackbody temperature, i.e. received the same amount of light but didn't have a greenhouse effect. The core idea here is to decrease the amount of light arriving while increasing the amount of greenhouse gases to maintain your planet's temperature.\nOne option is to be like Venus and have double digit percentages of CO2 instead of a few hundred parts per million.\nThere are also several relatively non toxic greenhouse gases that are hugely more potent than CO2: methane (23x more potent), CFCs (1000x more potent) and SF6 (A whoppimg 20000 - 50000x!)(1).\nIf methane or CFCs or SF6 are present in significant (not enormous) quantities, you could increase the temperature of Earth hugely.\nNow, the amount of heat absorbed/emitted by a planet is proportional to temperature to the 4th power; if you can increase the greenhouse effect by 40 degrees, then you could have the amount of sunlight reduce by 50% and still have the same temperature; increase it 60 degrees and you can have it reduce by 65%. 100 degrees allows 85%.\nSee e.g.", "184" ], [ "https://www.astro.indiana.edu/ala/PlanetTemp/index.html or other planet temperature calculators out there; this forum doubtless knows many.\nMaybe mankind could deliberately set off a methane clathrate gun or produce ludicrous amounts of SF6 to compensate for some event that knocked the planet further away from the sun. <PERSON>'s orbit change suggestion would work nicely.\n(1) SF6 is incredibly inert chemically but is very heavy so it builds up in the lungs of animals if present in any significant quantity, eventually choking them. Your fauna would need some way to expel it from their lungs, maybe l by totally displacing all the gas in their lungs when they breathe out, or by means of an enzyme that binds to it and transports it to the digestive tract. I assume CFCs would have the same problem. Methane won't; it's light.\nEdit: I'm guessing that seasons and maybe polar-equator temperature differences get minimised by doing this.", "591" ], [ "It is possible.\nFirst, you did the math correctly, a center-to-center distance of 45500 km would result in geosynchronous orbit assume mass = 1 earth.This is well beyond the Roche Limit, so you bodies are stable.\nWhether this could happen is entirely dependent upon how fast the rotations were at the initial conditions. For our Earth and moon, the initial conditions result in a mutual tidal lock in about another 50 billion years -- though the expected red-giant phase of the sun may make this a moot point.\nCertainly Venus is spinning much slower than Earth even though the planets are very similar in other ways. So there is clearly great variety in initial conditions and/and events history to get us to this point in time. Your system is certainly within the realm of the possible.\nSince your planet is mutually locked with your moon, there is actually less tidal stress since the moon is always in the same place in the sky. Your planet would be stretched a little more in the moon direction because the planet would time to fully adjust -- bust this does not mean more strain. Earth bulge due to rotation is many times as large as tidal bulge, but the important factor is not how much out-of-spherical it is, it is how how strain in induced because of regular orbital cycle.\nYour planet tidal strain would be only that of the sun, which presumably would be similar to Earth. On Earth, solar tidal force is about 46% of the lunar tidal force. So, still some tidal strain, but only about one-third as much as on Earth (tidal forces are additive).\nThe difference in Planetary shape due to tidal locking is negligible on Earth (only about 1 meter in the deep ocean).However, since tidal force in your case is based on a moon 0.71 times the moons mass, but 8.4 times closer you should expect a permanent tidal bulge of about 428 meters in deep ocean.", "921" ], [ "Less over land (rock is heavier than water). May sound like a lot, but you would never notice it without good instrumentation.\nIf you want tidal strain, it is easily accomplished. Just make the moon's orbit eccentric. Because your moon is so close, the tidal effects are magnified considerably. Our moon varies from 363,104 to 405,696 km., a bit over 10% variation. Because tides are proportional to distance cubed, a 10% variation results in a 33.1% variation in tidal force. This would result in very significant tidal stress, large ocean tides, etc. The local residents would definitely notice these tides and would be able to correlate them to apparent changes in the moon diameter.", "188" ], [ "While there may not be an electrical effect, per se, there will be an effect, however tiny. Many of the responses seem to focus on the tininess of the effect and conflate \"really really small\" with \"doesn't exist\".\nSpecifically (and maybe there are others that I'm not thinking of), the temperature of the sun is a function of the radiation leaving it minus the radiation it receives from around it. This fact is encapsulated in the radiative heat transfer law where heat exchange is equal to the <PERSON>-Boltzmann constant times the difference of the 4th powers of the temperatures. Because the earth is absorbing radiation from the sun, its temperature increases, increasing the amount of thermal radiation it, in turn, radiates outward. Some very tiny fraction of that light will hit the sun, increasing its temperature by such a tiny bit.", "184" ], [ "To be sure, the effect is compounded by the fact that the earth also reflects some light to the sun, which has the same effect, it just doesn't follow the 4th power law.\nIn other words, the earth is a tiny piece of insulation, blocking the heat of the sun from escaping and warming it up ever so slightly.\nSo when you throw a solar panel in the mix, you're actually (and usually very temporarily) converting some of that radiation into ordered work instead of pure heat, So the temperature of the earth increases just slightly less, causing just slightly less heat radiation back to the sun.\nThe are other effects of course; since solar panels absorb most light and reflect very little, they may actually increase the absorption of heat from the sun, although the albedo of black asphalt single is also pretty low (which is why the white roofs are mentioned elsewhere). So if the albedo of the solar panels plus their efficiency in converting light to electricity is less than the albedo of the background (the roof), then the temperature of the earth actually goes up, but the reflection goes down. Either way, there's an effect.\nI think part of the confusion lies in the fact that many (maybe all? ) of our physical laws, especially those dealing with wavelike phenomena are pragmatic approximations. So things like the near-field effect don't suddenly vanish after a few wavelengths, they just become so small that they make no difference in the predictive power of those models for practical use. Which is to say, they become smaller than other sources of error in the prediction of how the system will behave. Negligible does not mean nonexistent.", "184" ], [ "Without serious modelling or making the actual changes, you will never know the answer.\nClimate is very hard to predict. Despite the large amount of effort for climate modelling based primarily upon our concerns about anthropogenic climate change, the models vary considerably in the expected effects and do not predict past history well without considerable tweaking of the result. For example, cloud cover has been omitted from global models (GCM) because it is so hard to model - even though it is known to be an important contributor to climate. Our GCM's push the limits of our best supercomputers, which contributes to the limited value of our GCM's.\nWinds are generally considered to be driven primarily by temperature differences, both diurnal and equatorial vs. polar, and Coriolis effects.\nSome ways you could increase temperature differences within your constraints would be to increase diurnal variation by slowing the earth's rotation, reducing cloud cover (allowing heat to escape more rapidly at night). Reduced atmospheric moisture also reduces the specific heat of the atmosphere allowing the temperature to change more rapidly - so a two-for-one benefit. By reducing ocean coverage you likely reduce atmospheric moisture and also gain a direct benefit by reducing the temperature moderating effect of the oceans themselves.\nIncreasing the axial tilt would increase the polar/equatorial temperature difference.", "591" ], [ "Reduced rotation speed, reduces to Coriolis effect. You can't predict the net effect of changes without an accurate model.\nThere are tradeoffs to consider, e.g. increasing the axial tilt to 90 degrees would eliminate diurnal variation.\nFor the purposes of story telling, you really don't need the answer, at most you just need a plausible answer. If you tell the reader that wind speed average 60 kph with frequent gusts to 90 kph and focus on the story you'll accomplish your purpose. If you want to explain why it's so windy just do so.\nAs a reader with a technical background I would be much more interested and skeptical in what caused the planet-wide changes to rotation speed, and axial tilt, and ocean coverage than I would the resulting difference in wind speed. Not that I have any difficulty enjoying a story where parameters like tilt and rotation speed changed without explanation. But if there is a explanation I much prefer it to be believable.", "108" ], [ "Few considerations:\nF-type stars depending on mass have varying lifespans as main sequence stars. An F6.1V should last for 5.7 Gya.\nThe planet itself forms physically within 50-100 million years, but the process of the solar system and likely debris clearing would mean 200-300 years of asteroid bombardment which will mean life will not be feasible for a significant period. (Perhaps I am wrong, but did you mean half of the time being spent on setting up conditions for life in this way?)\nIf you want an Earth-like atmosphere you need a rocky inner core, so something within the frost line. A large moon stabilizes the system and that is likely needed for the proper tidal system in the ocean or even lakes to help generate suitable amino acids in a nuclear geyser. This takes time to set up, but it varies.\nMore importantly, plate tectonics needs to be functional to fix the otherwise toxic system that comes from natural formation and the bombardment. A large strike which causes the crust to fracture and set the system into motion allows for proper cleansing and the ability for life eventually colonize the whole of the planet.\nI cannot see any of these things working within 2 billion years based on purely the process of forming a stable world for which life can actually spread across. Yes, life can exist in niche realms, but if the otherwise whole is too inhospitable then your life will be essentially constrained to volcanic vents and such.\nAfter the primordial crust is subducted and falls into the core you have the proper shielding and the earliest real possibility of a 'mainland' you could use for a map arising. Assuming a lot of things are in line, yes, you could speed up the process of life greatly, but the critical thing your species is a type of crustacean - meaning you need to have suitable evolution to use calcium and phosphorous.\nContrary to <PERSON>'s assertion: \" it would not be surprising if evolutionary good luck produced human-like intelligence within two billion years.", "801" ], [ "It is entirely within the realm of realism.\" is needs to be couched in the fact that practically a billion years of set-up needs to be done to form the planet and get the processes underway for it to work. With stem and crown evolution events being the real driver of natural diversification and evolution through high radiation magma from rifts, the conditions could be possible to speed through a marine environment. Though much of the volatility described would either do almost nothing or possibly wipe out life. Frankly, 1 or 2 cataclysms would be expected.\nWith your underlying concerns about the planet formation times having been answered, I think it would be easily possible to have your species appear in 2.8-3.2 billion years. Just be mindful that if your planet sits in a precarious spot the natural solar system evolution could kill your planet before it gets the gas giant phase. (Increasing size, heat, luminosity) SO MANY variables here, so I wouldn't go upping to a F1V class to compensate for earlier development of life. (Around 3.6 gya lifespans.)\nIf you are intent on doing an end-of-times scenario you have plenty of time for life to develop and still be realistic. Hope this helps.", "801" ], [ "Yes, kind of. The scale will show something, but ultimately it will not be any downward force of your finger because that is not needed. If you apply a downward force then your finger would be accelerating downward.\nWhen you first dip your finger into the water your finger will push down on the water a little and this force will be transmitted to the scale. However, this is a transient force arising from the inertia and viscosity of the water. Imagine slapping the water with an open hand. The impact that makes your hand hurt must also be transmitted to the scale.\nBack to dipping your finger: When the water has moved out of the way and your finger is suspended motionless in the water, It will feel somewhat weightless to you (buoyancy) because your finger's density is almost identical to the density of water. The weight of the submerged portion of your finger will be transmitted to the scale. Imagine in the extreme case that the container is large enough for you to jump in all the way. The water container's weight will increase by your weight.\nIf you want to consider the difference in density, or are dipping something of vastly different density, then the more accurate way to look at it is that the force registered on the scale will increase by the weight of the water that is displaced by the submerged portion of the object, regardless of its density. Here are two examples:\n1. Imagine forcing a helium balloon under water.", "343" ], [ "You have to push down to keep it under water. Your downward pressure will register on the scale even though the balloon is lighter than air. The downward pressure needed will match the weight of the water that is displaced by the balloon. (The balloon will also shrink as it is compressed by water pressure. The pressure and shrinkage increase with depth, so it will be a little easier to hold it deep than to hold it shallow.)\n2. Now imagine dipping a heavy metal sinker into the water and holding it up with a string so that it does not touch the bottom of the container. The force you feel on the string will be a little lighter when the sinker is submerged, and the amount it will be lighter by will match the weight of the displaced water. This is because the sinker provides its own downward force to keep it submerged, so that portion of its weight will no longer be transferred up to you via the string. The scale will register only the addition of the weight of displaced water. The rest of the weight of the sinker will be carried by you via the string and will not show on the scale. (If the string is cut and the sinker drops to the bottom of the container, then the scale will show the entire weight of the sinker regardless of density.)", "436" ] ]

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[ [ "I know you said \"But mars is out\" But it really isn't.\nMars is out, too, because we already established colonies of domes there and no one wants these destroyed / or unusable for a time either.\nYou probably didn't establish colonies of domes. If you had the materials to withstand micrometeorites and the radiation issues from being on the surface of mars, then you've basically either already solved the terraforming issue on mars, or you've got the technology to terraform most arbitrary bodies in our solar system.\nJust building domes in an un-terraformed mars is far more likely to result in habitats becoming \"destroyed or unusable for a time\" because of collisions with micrometeorites not burnt up in a thick-ish atmosphere and radiation frying hardware, people, and the structures themselves.\nYou know what stops these two issues? Lots and lots of rocks. What you would have probably built were underground structures, full stop. No radiation issues, no meteorite issues, and you don't even have to terraform. This also presents even less issue to worry about terraforming making the colony structures unusable.\nAs for the terraforming issues of mars, people often cite solar wind as a huge hurdle for terraforming mars due to its thin atmosphere. Solar wind has the effect of exciting air molecules enough to escape the gravity of a planet, and presents a radiation risk, but it appears that there are reasonable solutions to this problem ie not outside of current tech.\nDuring the Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop[23] in late February 2017, NASA scientist <PERSON> proposed a concept of placing a magnetic dipole field between the planet and the Sun to protect it from high-energy solar particles. It would be located at the L1 orbit at about 320 R♂. The field would need to be \"Earth comparable\" and sustain 50000 nT as measured at 1 Earth-radius. The paper abstract cites that this could be achieved by a magnet with a strength of 1–2 teslas (10,000–20,000 gauss).[65] If constructed, the shield may allow the planet to restore its atmosphere. Simulations indicate that within years, the planet would be able to achieve half the atmospheric pressure of Earth.\nThe \"half of earths pressure\" idea may or may not be realistic, but there are other ways to deal with this that I'll get to.\nThen with that comes the issue of the fact that mars's gravity is simply much weaker than earths, and particles can escape the atmosphere on their own.", "778" ], [ "Combine that with the fact that mars is much colder on average compared to earth, it appears that this will be accelerated when trying to heat up the planet with the terraforming process.\nSource\nI asked a question about this a while back on space exploration, and the conclusion I got was interesting:\nit appears that water loss reasoning is in contention, and that the primary method of loss may have been through the weaker gravity, and not solar wind at all.\nThe loss of these particles regardless happened over hundreds of millions to billions of years.\nAt the same time that same magnetic energy release powered a much stronger Solar Wind. The protons and other ions of the Solar Wind cause all the non-Jeans Escape processes listed in the Table above. Collectively several metres of water and perhaps 80 millibars of Carbon Dioxide would be lost over 4.2 billion years – at current rates of loss. As the bare minimum for terraforming is about ~300 millibars of carbon dioxide (equivalent to about 250 millibars of Oxygen) this doesn’t seem like a show stopper for terraforming. If we can supply modern day Mars with ~300 millibars in a few hundred years, then replacing 80 millibars in 4 billion doesn’t seem excessive.\nIf we were to provide mars with atmosphere, it might go away in 500 million years, but is that really that big of a deal on a human timescale?\nSo solar wind is not a problem on mars. Neither is losing atmosphere we get on mars. So what are the issues left?\n* Atmospheric pressure\n* Inert gas composition\n* Sunlight\n* Temperature\n* Plantlife\nAtmospheric pressure\nWith out proper atmospheric pressure, water, and you, will boil when exposed to the martian atmosphere directly. Liquid water will just boil off which is a non starter. If the lagrange point solar wind protector doesn't actually build up the atmosphere to half of earths, then here are your other options:\n* you'll need to manually use mars's own materials to do so ie through some industrial extraction. This is probably possible in human timescales but there still may not be enough atmosphere.\n* you'll need to crash meteorites into mars to release enough gasses.", "778" ], [ "As other answers have said, given enough resources (Methane), your proposed heat engine could work, however I wonder if there could be a more elegant design - especially considering that humans have mastered travel through the solar system.\nSince, in your world, humans are now expanding to other planets and moons I think it likely that through the development process engineers would be working on ways to either encapsulate energy for when it is scarce or ways to transmit energy long distances. Since humans are traveling around the solar system in months and spread throughout it there would likely be some sort of infrastructure in place for cargo transport, etc.\nIf there is no reason that the colony has to be 100% self-sufficient (the energy has to come from Titan), you could take advantage of these cargo routes to transport either fuel or large batteries to colonies with scarce energy along with regular resupply missions. This could be one solution, but the next one I like better:\nWireless Solar Energy Transmission So, you're on Titan. It's cold, dark, full of methane, and you need energy... bad. Luckily the engineers have been working on solutions to maintain a flow of energy to all the colonies.\nIn a close orbit to the sun, you have an array of large solar collection devices.", "199" ], [ "The concentrated energy is used to generate a laser of a specific wavelength that transmits energy to satellite devices spaced along routes through the solar system. Mirrors/Optic systems could create a constantly unobstructed pathway to all of the satellites as they move through their orbit (or in stationary orbit around another planet). After passing through a relay of these satellite devices, the laser ends its journey at a receiver on the destination planet/moon.\nDisadvantages of a laser system such as energy loss through atmosphere wouldn't be an issue transmitting to Titan, but you would certainly not get all of the energy back. This would require a receiver on Titan many hundreds of meters across, and a substantial battery to store the energy as it comes in. Ideally, an unmanned mission would prepare the required infrastructure so that the colonists arrive with several months worth of energy already having been transmitted and stored in the battery.\nSimilar energy transfer can be done with Microwaves, and to my knowledge the energy conservation is much more effective with Microwaves since you aren't losing so much energy to visible light. Current systems can achieve up to 85% efficiency. Microwave however runs the risk of RF interference (which could be a problem unless the system is positioned away from communication channels) and the receiver would have to be larger than that of a laser.\nHere are some stats on current wireless space-solar power systems for reference:", "801" ], [ "No More Looking from the Same Side of a Mostly Liquid Surface Terrestrial-based Moon\nSection 1: Non-Duplicate Proofs.\nSection 2: Background, THE QUESTION, and Useful Info.\nSection 3: Other cited ways of preventing.\nSection 4: Sources and Additional Resources.\nSection 5: TL;DR\nNon-Duplicate Proofs This is not a duplicate of https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/27751/tidal-lock-on-a-water-moon. The answer provided there does not answer this question (or that one fully either). I am providing these specific proofs because of the last comment made by <PERSON> another post of mine (https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/95094/can-you-have-an-eccentric-horseshoe-orbit-for-long?noredirect=1#comment282046_95094) insisting that the resources in an answer to a question determines its duplication, and not the question itself. If these are not satisfactory, I am also providing question based proofs of non-duplication.\nAnswer based proofs\nThe answer provided by <PERSON> makes many generalizations, which don't always stand true.\n1. <PERSON> insists that those worlds that are close enough to the sun to have liquid water would constantly be losing it, which in and of itself may be true, but given a high enough escape velocity as well as a thick enough atmosphere and magnetosphere, the loss would prove negligible on time scales of millions to billions of years, not to mention possible reintroduction of water from other sources. He does not mention escape velocity, and also provides an answer based on little to no atmosphere as well as magnetosphere, both of which my moon has.\n2. The claim that most moons aren't going to have major amounts of liquid surface also falls flat in that I've seen numerous sources saying that if a moon of a gas giant were to migrate inward, it would be a so called water world (sources at the very end, and I'll provide more if needed).\n3.", "710" ], [ "The fact that <PERSON> cites Titan as having ice under its surface, yet neglecting to mention the fact that much of this ice would melt and populate the surface of Titan with much more water were it to heat up is also a point of contention.\n4. The answer provided by bowlturner does not provide enough qualifiers under the \"hard-science\" tag, and therefore does not answer my question.\nIn summary, not only is the answer given not definitive for my question, much of what is said is actually not true for all or most cases.\nQuestion Based Proofs\n1. My question pertains to any liquid, and not necessarily just water. This allows for different densities, freezing and boiling points, heat absorption and dispersion rate, and many other factors as long as they would be liquid on the surface.\n2. <PERSON> asked a question wondering whether a watery world could and would be tidal locked, whereas my question asks specifically how to prevent tidal locking with any liquid in high quantities under specified parameters for a terrestrial based moon.\nBackground:\nI've been researching tidal locking like no other, and I've seen ways of getting around it, and pretty much all of them have been well explained, except for one.\nI've seen very very vague comments alluding to keeping a world from tidal locking if it's covered in liquid water (or I'm assuming any liquid). After the first one, I thought it was just a fluke or something, and then I saw one or two more, and now I'm very intrigued as to whether this could be a viable natural way of stopping tidal locking (as long as the liquid stays).\nNow it may be specifically because of an atmosphere that this would occur, but I really don't know. I know that in the case of an atmosphere, it has something to do with angular momentum and heat lagging behind the time of when it heats the ground vs the atmosphere or something along those lines, and I'm curious if this could be a similar case that is multiplied more for a mostly liquid surface.\nTHE QUESTION:\nCould you stop or reverse tidal locking on the surface (or mantle) of a terrestrial based moon (see info about pertaining system) by having a mostly liquid (only one main piece of land mostly used as a way to test the tidal lock) covered world? If yes, how much liquid would be needed, and would said liquid need to be of a specific density or viscosity to even be possible? And I would appreciate a \"why\" in any given answers (preferably with linked articles or other proofs).", "710" ], [ "How would an ecosystem based around chemotrophs produce oxygen?\nOutline\nA planet which is heated tidally by its Brown Dwarf parent and permanently dark needs to have native alien life which has [somewhat similar biochemistry to Earth] and also be [permanently habitable] by Humans without [extensive life support] and/or [extensively genetically engineered] bodies.\nThis planet has very active tectonics and volcanism, a result of this tidal heating, a combination of this volcanism and the biochemical nature of this planet's ecosystem should be be capable of producing an atmosphere composed of 22% oxygen, 50-70% nitrogen, 0.02-5% CO2, ~7% water vapor, + [leftover] + trace.\nIf this atmosphere is not achievable, the atmosphere needs to be otherwise [permanently habitable] to humans, these humans could have physiological adaptations to adapt to this atmosphere through non-[extensive genetic engineering].\nVolcanism on this planet produces similar gases and particulates in similar concentrations to those on Earth (just use Earth numbers);\nThe principal components of volcanic gases are water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur either as sulfur dioxide (SO2) (high-temperature volcanic gases) or hydrogen sulfide (H2S) (low-temperature volcanic gases), nitrogen, argon, helium, neon, methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Other compounds detected in volcanic gases are oxygen (meteoric), hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen bromide, nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur hexafluoride, carbonyl sulfide, and organic compounds. Exotic trace compounds include mercury, halocarbons (including CFCs), and halogen oxide radicals.", "258" ], [ "(From wikipedia: volcanic gas)\nMost members of Trophic level 0 (producers) on this planet produce energy through the chemical equation:\n12H$2$S + 6CO$_2$ → C$_6$H${12}$O$_6$ + 6H$_2$O + 12S\nHowever other methods do exist; such as those relating to elemental Sulfur, ferrous Iron, etc. (see Chemotroph) Photosynthesis is not a viable way to produce energy on this planet.\nThrough some [reasonable] system, (either other processes which these trophic level 0 lifeforms engage in or through related related lifeforms, etc.) this combination of geology and ecosystem needs to produce the atmosphere outlined above, or at least an atmosphere habitable by Humans.\nNote that really, the main goal of this is to create an ecosystem which can produce oxygen through some chemical process involving life, so that this planet can have Earth-like quantities of oxygen in its atmosphere\nNote that CO2 can have a lot of variance in its percentage of the atmosphere, greenhouse heating can be countered simply by moving the planet farther away from the brown dwarf, though this only works while the planet is still being heated tidally (CO2 likely wouldn't be produced as much from volcanic gases because less tidal heating means less active volcanoes); this is why I've let the range of allowed CO2 concentrations be between 0.02% and 5%)\nDefinitions\nsomewhat similar biochemistry to Earth:\nHumans can gain energy through carbohydrates from alien flora and fauna, and alien life lacks substances which are particularly dangerous to Humans. Note that this does not necessitate things like having nutrients, proteins, and lipids which are necessary for Human life.\npermanently habitable:\nHumans can live on this world for an excess of 15 thousand years\nextensive life support:\nLife support apparatuses which either contain\nentirely different atmospheres inside the apparatus than outside, or\nare built to keep hazardous gases and particulates from contacting all parts of the Human body\n(Eg. this does not include things like gas-masks)\nextensively genetically engineered:\nDifferent from Earth-humans to an extent that\nradically changes the human appearance to an extent where we would not recognise them as human,\nextensively changes the physiology of humans (adding organs or systems, changing the basic function of organs or systems, significantly changing the human skeletal structure)\nNote that this does not include things like adding some kind of filter to the Human respiratory system which gets rid of dangerous gases or particulates, adapting human skin to be resistant to corrosive atmospheric gases or particulates, etc.\nReasonable\nThe system needs to have some reason to exist; for example, water electrolysis is an obvious way to produce oxygen from the products of H$_2$S chemosynthesis, however the lifeforms on this planet need to have a reason (and way) to engage in water electrolysis.", "279" ], [ "In order to generate an elliptical orbit, you need to have a force which is equal to the required centripetal force:\n$$F=m\\frac{v^2}{r}\\rightarrow a=\\frac{v^2}{r}$$\nAccording to <PERSON>'s Theorem, this can only be solved with a potential for an inverse square force, or a radial harmonic oscillator potential.\nSo we cannot attain a circular orbit, is that a problem? No.\nI generated a system for our sun, Earth, and moon, dependent on a linear inverse force. What we find is that we need to rescale the Gravitational constant to the negative 22nd order. (For clarity's sake I avoided using astronomical units).\nSo if we set $G = 6.6740831\\times10^{-22}$ we find the following orbit patterns:\nWe can further decrease the orbital eccentricity when $G \\rightarrow 4\\times10^{-22}$\nNote however, that in the long term, the eccentricity will always increase, even for optimal $G$, take the following radial Sol-Earth distance over 500y:\nThere are more problems though, for instance, would a star even form with this Gravity configuration?\nNote that in this configuration, the acceleration of gravity due to Earth on its surface would be $0.000375m/s^2$ instead of $9.8m/s^2$ As the gravity drops off more slowly, but is also significantly more massive, a habitable planet would be much more massive, but such massive planets might also more easily form under these parameters.\nAnd here is where things get really interesting, if we suppose that our planet has a mass of $m_{earth}=5.97237\\times10^{28}$, four orders higher than that of the current Earth, gravity at the same radius would be $3.75m/s^2$, and we get the following 1000 year progression:\nMy suspicion is that the collapse happens 4 orders of magnitude slower, meaning you would have at least $10^5y$ of stable orbit, possible a million (1Ma).\nIf you could have a planet with a mass of order $O\\left(29\\right)$, then you might get a near-stable orbit over evolutionary time scales, however getting such a large concentration of Earth (oxyen, quartz, aluminium, lime, iron, magnesium) might be difficult to attain, except maybe in a late-stage galaxy.\nI do think the peculiar circumstances would make the formation of large planets more likely as distance is less of a factor for matter to come together.", "24" ], [ "Consequently we would expect fewer planets, but of higher average mass. However, it is also possible this situation would lead to more uniformity in mass distributions. You would have to run some galaxy wide gravity calculations for that one, and recalculate the result of the background radiation. These are things beyond my scope.", "24" ], [ "Fundemental problem\nAnd assume that all of my testing is being performed in a desert area of the American southwest.\nThere is a fundamental problem that most time travel designers oversee. They all seem to assume that planet earth's position is at the center of the universe.\nYou are traveling through space-time. Let's say you assume to keep your position in space coordinates and you travel back or forward for only a few minutes, you are going to miss earth big time.\nWikipedia:\nEarth's orbital speed averages about 30 km/s (108,000 km/h; 67,000 mph), which is fast enough to cover the planet's diameter in 7 minutes and the distance to the Moon in 4 hours.\nTaking into account the speed of the solar system itself (Again wikipedia):\nThe Solar System is traveling at an average speed of 828,000 km/h (230 km/s) or 514,000 mph (143 mi/s) within its trajectory around the galactic center.\nNow, this could go on taking all movements and expansion of the universe in account, but I will stop here. Point is: you will need a pretty good coordinate calculation system before you send your time machine. This can be done, if you know exactly what time you are sending it to. But there appears the paradox: you want to send it back in time to calibrate it's \"Time dail\". It is therefore impossible to put it anywhere on the planet.\nProblem becomes the solution\nSo, don't try to land in earth. Make sure that the design is capable of withstanding outer space. Send it to exactly the same space coordinates, which will put it somewhere in deep space, with the best view of the galaxy you can ever get.\nNow, it can do wavelength identification of our own solar system and other known stars or even remote galaxies.", "921" ], [ "And based on the absolute or relative differences, you can accurately calculate the time.\nRisk calculation\nBefore sending back your machine, try to estimate its inaccuracy. Based on the galactic model, try to keep the probability small it ends up in another star that since traveled to the same coordinates. Changes are really small, but the calculation is not difficult vs loosing your precious machine.\nMore runs\nDo more runs, to different time frames. Try do to confirmation measurements that the galactic model is indeed correct. Each run your \"Time dail\" should become more accurate. Once you have enough confidence, start tuning the coordination system.\nDo the same range of trips, but closer to earth. Assess earth's position and own rotational speed. Try to create your own calibrated movement model, not based on calculation of modern science, but what is now actually measurable.\nIn the final test you send it in the same place in the south-western American desert. If the machine returns in one piece (eg you did not put it in earth's crust or let it plunge down from a reasonable height) your machine is ready for human travel!", "234" ], [ "Note: Was going to comment on <PERSON> answer, but Without the 50 reputation yet, I'd like to build off their example of living organisms being a local system with a decrease in entropy, and how this is balanced out.\nAs <PERSON> pointed out about living organisms:\nBut although they can reduce entropy locally, they must increase the entropy of their surroundings by at least as much in the process.\nThis is the crux of your answer. Although a local reduction of entropy does not increase the entropy of it's surroundings, but rather the constant reduction of entropy in the surroundings enable these local low entropy states to exist in order to approach equilibrium. It is crucial distinction to make, between a region of lower relative energy vs. a region who's entropy is constantly being reduced.\nThe solar system is a great example for visualization purposes, although it is itself a subsystem of a larger system, ad infinitum.\nIn order for any life on Earth to exist in a manner that reduces entropy; so much so that 7+ billion humans can exist, build cities that remain rigid, and coexist with trillions of other organisms, somewhere outside of the system there must be a region of spacetime with a very high entropy interacting with this system.", "943" ], [ "The sun, a region of very high energy, directly interacts with the Earth. There are no true closed systems.\nAside\nI am currently working on a personal theory (inspired by the work of <PERSON> and <PERSON>) that the second law of thermodynamics is the most fundamentally important reason that life exists; that the formation of amino acids, and complex life is a necessary byproduct in every solar system (with the proper precursors) in order to approach equilibrium.\nAny solar system as an isolated system (each star is so far apart from the next, it's isolated enough) and entropy cannot decrease over time, even as the entropy of the star is reducing through nuclear fusion. As energy from the star is added to say, the ocean of a planet, the entropy increases locally before being dissipated through the medium. Along the way, areas of uneven energy cause molecules and atoms to organize themselves in a manner which is conducive to (a) the medium of energy, and (b) the manner in which entropy equilibrium is reached (the environment). These reorganized molecules would themselves be local areas of low entropy, further altering the manner in which entropy/energy is dissipated through the system.", "943" ], [ "Questions about the potential characteristics of a hypothetical Planet 9\nSo, I'm writing a story. Most of the main story is set near Planet 9, which has finally been found somewhere far out in the outer solar system.\nSo first, I’ve been working on determining the probable characteristics of Planet 9.\nIn line with predictions, it’s an ice giant (a gas-rich sub-Neptune composed of an icy-rocky core with a H-He rich envelope) which is approx 7 earth masses.\nThe most recent article I can find on the topic from <PERSON> and <PERSON> seems to predict that Planet 9’s perihelion is likely 340(+80/−70) AU, that its aphelion is likely 560(+260/-140) AU, and that the semi-major axis is 460(+160/-100) AU. Unless I am sorely misunderstanding this paper (and I could be), the numbers provided seem to be a range of numbers which they think Planet 9 could fall into.\nhttps://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ac32dd/pdf\nI’ll assume that the perihelion is 340 AU and that the aphelion is a bit further out - 750 AU.\nThe semi-major axis is half of the major axis, which is the sum of the perihelion and aphelion.\nSo semi-major axis = (perihelion+aphelion)/2.\nThe orbital eccentricity is the ratio between the difference and the sum of the perihelion and the aphelion.\nSo eccentricity = (aphelion - perihelion)/(aphelion + perihelion).\nSo, after crunching the numbers based on these initial assumptions: Its perihelion is 340 AU, its aphelion is 750 AU, its semi-major axis is 545 AU, and its orbital eccentricity is 0.38.\nNow, in order to estimate the orbital period, I’ve applied <PERSON>’s third law of planetary motion for a quick back-of-the-box calculation. If we measure the period (T) in years and the semi-major axis (a) in AU we can use a^3 = T^2.\n545 cubed is 161,878,625.", "710" ], [ "The square root of that gives us an orbital period of approximately 12,723 years.\nI have a few concerns. I'd like to know if my numbers are solid here, and if they are consistent with Planet 9's hypothesised characteristics given what we know.\nFurthermore, I'm planning for it to have two main moons. One is approximately the size and mass of Ganymede, with similar gravity, whereas the other is the size and mass of Charon.\nI have no clue if I can give it moons that large and still have it remain consistent with their models for Planet 9, but I’m unfortunately not well-versed enough in this to tell. If someone could help with this, that would be fantastic.\nFinally, I have a question regarding how to calculate its diameter. I'm not yet sure how I would yet go about doing that.", "710" ] ]

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[ [ "Brooklyn's Finest\n“I don’t want God’s forgiveness. I want his fucking help”\nThis works as a follow-up to Training Day with <PERSON> character having moved to Brooklyn, struggling to provide for his family and going from being a righteous rookie cop to a crooked one.\nBROOKLYN’S FINEST is a pretty formulaic cop film, it’s raw, dark and gritty. There’s multiple plots involving an undercover cop, a retiring cop, a cop who takes money from criminals and the stories all intersect at the end.\nGreat performances from the cast - except what was <PERSON> doing in this, he really doesn’t belong in a cop flick.\nThis isn’t <PERSON> finest, it’s full of cliches and there’s nothing that you haven’t seen in other crime/police films.", "952" ], [ "Sea of Love\nThe 1980s were a strange time for <PERSON>. Sea of Love comes out in 1989 after a four year hiatus following the disappointment of Revolution (Entourage lovers know that even the best movie stars have a “Medellin” once in a while), and it’s real solid work that would set him up for a kick ass 1990s. Scarface gained traction later, becoming arguably his most iconic film and performance (the New York hip-hop scene, or should I say the birthplace of the genre, embraced the movie with open arms, with constant bars referring to the <PERSON>-esque rise of <PERSON>).", "932" ], [ "There’s some dull moments, it’s not the action-packed cop caper that <PERSON> or even <PERSON> managed to do, but when the seductive romance clicks, it’s quite effective. <PERSON> and <PERSON> both own their moments, major reasons to return to the film is to admire rising stars chew up scenery (right down to <PERSON> playing the literal role of “Black Guy”). The ending’s a bit obvious but the sheer physicality of the climax makes this one worth it.\n1989 Ranked", "529" ], [ "La Femme Nikita\n“There are two things that are infinite: femininity and means to take advantage of it.\"\nLa Femme Nikita is a 1990 French-language action thriller film written and directed by <PERSON> which follows a teen criminal who is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering policemen during an armed pharmacy robbery. Her government handlers fake her death and recruit her as a professional assassin. After intense training, she starts a career as a killer, where she struggles to balance her work with her personal life.", "285" ], [ "She shows talent at this and her career progresses until a mission in an embassy goes awry.\nFinally checking out this classic after seeing the fun but Americanised remake Point of No Return a few years back and this was very interesting.\nIn many ways, this film and Point of No Return are similar, with that later film repeating many scenes verbatim but La Femme Nikita is also very much its own beast, owing much to French New Wave.\nIt’s slow, methodical and more a labyrinthine character piece than the remake, which ends up a typical action film rather than the mood piece this is.\nPeople who go in expecting explosive action are bound to be disappointed but <PERSON>, though a monster in real life, crafts a surprisingly interesting look on a woman who spends her life defined by men. It also looks and sounds great, with striking cinematography and a wonderful <PERSON> score.\n<PERSON> is our lead and is simply magnificent, delivering a powerful and subtle turn and unlike in the remake, I actually liked her romance with <PERSON>, who gets some strong moments here. Likewise, <PERSON> and a small appearance from <PERSON> helps to round out a solid cast.\nOn the whole, La Femme Nikita is sleek, stylish and sexy, but also much different than other adaptations may lead you to believe. Apparently the Hong Kong CAT III film Black Cat is an unofficial remake so I guess I need to check that one out too.", "657" ], [ "The Beekeeper\n“To bee or not to bee?”\nThe Beekeeper is a 2024 American action thriller film directed by <PERSON> which follows one man's brutal campaign for vengeance which takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as \"Beekeepers\".\nEveryone knows I love a good, cheesy horror film and so the trailer for The Beekeeper was pretty much catnip for me. From its self-serious tone to the one liners, I knew I’d at least have fun with this.\nUnsurprisingly, The Beekeeper is a delight — a capital B B-Movie (or should I say Bee Movie) with its tongue firmly in cheek. Though it’s revenge trappings may recall <PERSON>, I felt it had even more in common with an early 90s <PERSON> flick, particularly Hard to Kill.\n<PERSON> is essentially the fuckin’ Terminator here and though his lack of taking a punch bugged me at first, once he finally takes some hits from a henchman with the funniest accent I’ve ever heard, it’s great.", "995" ], [ "<PERSON> also attempts an American accent but even the film knows it’s bad so comes up with an excuse for it.\nThe villains are also just comically inept, and the committed performances by <PERSON> and <PERSON> are campy as hell — shoutout to the dudes playing the scammers too, they were hilarious.\nOn the whole, The Beekeeper is a fun actioner which well-deserves the buzz. Take your hive (or honey) and see it on the big screen and bee-lieve the hype. I’m so sorry.", "585" ], [ "Air Force One Down\nI shouldn’t like this one as much as I do but thems the breaks.\nA cool as fuck DTV actioner that could have benefited from one and a half more a action beats. <PERSON> is an absolute star, kicking ass for the entire run time. I’ll take 28 sequels to this as long as she’s in every one.\nIt’s flabby at times, feeling overly wordy and patriotic but once it cranks up the fun-o-meter, it hits hard. With hammers, knives and even grenades.", "995" ], [ "The final action scene is awesome, though some will complain about shaky cam and rapid fire editing. Didn’t bother me though.\nIf given more focus when it comes to action, this would be a DTV classic. As is, it’s a VERY good action thriller with some stellar set pieces. I had loads of fun.", "596" ], [ "Sliding Doors\nIt’s the year 2002 and <PERSON> is riding the tail end of her peak. Newly released DVD Shallow Hal is out of stock at the local blockbuster so a 10 year old me is tasked with choosing between <PERSON>’s Shakespeare in Love and this. I chose <PERSON> in love then so now because there’s no alternate timeline I finally decided to see if I missed anything. Turns out I didn’t.", "378" ], [ "Watch Right Now Wrong Then for a much better example of this concept done well\nStray Observations\n- The ending(s) are awful. Like soap opera awful\n- the soundtrack slaps including <PERSON>’s Thank You over the credits\n- the main love interest’s one line is to make the same Monty Python reference and somehow it works every time. (?!?!)\n- <PERSON>’s hair in this is fantastic and so 90s. Her British accent though? Not so fantastic.", "952" ], [ "Another Round\nTry imagining this, a film about some teachers getting drunk. A little tricky isn't it? On paper, it's hard to see Another Round working as a 2-hour long film, and it really shouldn't, yet it is one of the most endearing and captivating films of the year.\nIt's impossible to describe the joy you feel of watching the <PERSON> boys (the <PERSON>-bros) running around drunk and pantless without seeing it for yourself. A film exploding with pizzazz, Another Round is a cathartic and beautiful testament to youth.\n<PERSON> delivers what can only be described as a masterful performance, one of the best and most riveting performances of the year and of his career. Watching <PERSON> breaking out those sick dance moves is easily one of the most delightful highlights of 2020.\n🍷🍻🍹Bottoms up 🍾🍸🥂", "217" ], [ "The Killer\n“Stick to your plan. Anticipate, don't improvise. Trust no one. Never yield an advantage. Fight only the battle you're paid to fight.”\nThe Killer is a a slick, patient and technically precise thriller that perfectly matches its main character's psyche.", "962" ], [ "It's a complex character study and examination of the hitman genre where violence is inevitable and the minute details matter - no one is better at capturing this in such a carefully constructed manner than <PERSON>. However, one can't help but feel this was all too easy and obvious for him, it all feels like exactly what we'd expect from <PERSON> and nothing more. That being said, this film truly feels like a formal art film with genre outbursts. The level of craftsmanship on display is astounding, from the sleek cinematography, to the impeccable editing and the rich sound design. Heck, even <PERSON> is perfect!", "529" ] ]

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[ [ "In my world one of the branches of magic is Sight; foresight, farsight and hindsight.\nThe challenges of hindsight should not any different than of foresight. While the timeline is fixed, there is significantly more information to parse, and requires intensive focus and energy to filter out the important from the mundane. Hindsight would not be like watching a movie or a video, but comes in patches (fragments of compressed and extended time) and requires the intelligence of the seer to identify what they are seeing. Imagine that time is like glass that is more substantial the closer it is to the present, but disintegrates as time goes by, with spikes surrounding strong emotional/spiritual periods (such as a murder, but not a theft by someone in control of their emotions).\nAlso figure out the magic ability that would block sight. While Lords are hiring Seers, criminals are hiring the \"smokers\" to obscure things from the magic sight (even to the point of kidnapping and human trafficking). There might be a separate magic type to obscure distance (\"farsmoker\") and require a \"timesmoker\" to obscure hindsight and/or foresight. Naturally the practice of \"smoking\" would be outlawed. (Personally there should be just as many smokers as there are seers to balance the magic...", "917" ], [ "children of seers could be smokers or vice versa).\nOne possibility is that a Foreseer committing a crime could probably obscure their actions from a Hindseer (countering the future actions). On the other hand, it would be possible for a Hindseer to influence the timeline so that it is also obscured to other Hindseers by the very act of viewing the past. So in a way, the Foresight and Hindsight Seers are their own \"time smokers\" because a scene can usually only read a few times before static and other corruptive influences start to degrade the vision (fragments shatter). Basically all that is required to corrupt the scene is a Foreseer (before the crime) or <PERSON> (after the crime) to read the scene one or more times. Obviously, the strength and power of the seer can affect the outcome with a weaker seer corrupting the scene and a strong user still able to pluck what they need. But it would be obvious to any <PERSON> that the timeline was corrupted. (NOTE: it would be the time+space with a limited sphere of influence that would be corrupted/static, and no obliteration of everything that happened in the past in that space.)\nBTW, it might be also interesting to have the polar of farsight... tinysight/microsight, which may also have a different method of solving crimes.\nWhile your original question was how to make the Hindsight less powerful so that crime was not wiped out, the premise of a crime novel based on this magic would be very interesting.", "45" ], [ "All forms of reading becomes inherently dangerous.\nTL;DR - Readers develop a short form of pre-reading to \"hash\" the text and compare the hash to known enthralling patterns to detect traps. \"Abandon your mind to the...\" becomes \"Abyo Mito Ta..\" (nonsense words) which don't mean anything to the reader other than, \"this is a trap\"\n* It cost no mana (no magic response)\n* It cost few money\n* Protect you even when you are not ready\n* Allow you to read what you want, in every language you know\n* Doesn't take time\nOnly costs a second or two when reading something to check the hash, and the education to learn and enforce the habit among the average reader.\nThough this isn't the only way the world would react to this possibility.\nThis threat would be akin to mass mailing anthrax IRL\nThis would be a global security concern if stealing someone's mind and making a thrall out of them was really this simple, amassing slave armies every time you put up a new billboard, entire wars could be won by painting your words in the clouds above or using illusion magic to \"pepper spray\" an attacker with hovering symbols that a fast reader simply glancing at would fall prey to. To then have the concentration and effect sustained by the target itself thereafter, that's no simple task.\nThis must be either, much more difficult to perform than explained, or newly discovered and never used against the world yet.\nA less severe version may be a book that contains a glyph which houses \"Command\" or \"Suggestion\" like effects to \"READ\" or to continue reading the control spell until finished, so that the hook has a definitive sink that can either be resisted or fallen for. From there, the duration of time to read the enthralling symbols is all that waits for the effect to stick long term, though the compulsion to read doesn't mean the target isn't aware of what's being read.\nA commoner likely would just read and absorb the information but a wizard would likely be able to identify the intent of the trap setter by understanding the template of words being read. As in general safety training, specific dangers as these sorts of traps would be wise to teach in schools to prevent strong magic users falling prey to these simple traps.\nI believe the response to such an attack would be immediate, urgent, and far spread when detected.", "227" ], [ "Once discovered every magical defense program would be working to put an end to it and devise ways to find who set the trap.\nThis gives us 4 points of resistance\n-Before you see the hook but are within threat range.\n-The compulsion to continue reading once the hook is activated.\n-The formation of the lasting enthrall effect while hooked.\n-Post attack response.\nBefore you see the hook but are within threat range.\nImportant places such as government buildings etc will be outfitted with Magic Dispelling gateways. When walking through, all magical items much be handed to a guard/wizard to be checked via detect magic to determine any enchantment or illusion school magics (if detected further probing occurs), while everything else and the person passes through a dispel magic portal. This removes any magical effects present in items or creatures passing through (no disguise self allowed) and the magic within the text that creates the link between the trap setter and the target is removed, disabling the trap.\nIn general, an enchantment effect found using detect magic on either an object or person would become much more suspicious and actionable, towns likely setting up guard patrols specifically containing magic detectors to scan areas regularly as a result.\nThe compulsion to continue reading once the hook is detected.\nReaders would be trained to read in a way that disrupts direct thought injection attacks. Rather than reading entire words, a learned habit to replace words, shorten words, or rearrange the words read can be used as a passive defense. Rather than reading \"Abandon your mind to the...\" would instead be read as \"Aba-yo mi-tota...\" which will become a barrier allowing the reader to understand abstractions and concepts indirectly (imagine a code hash) and compare that abstract with commonly used \"enthralling\" patterns to determine that an attack was attempted before reading any further. Correspondence to high importance folk would filter through a scholar that could screen for traps.\nAdditionally, divination sensors can be set to Alarm whenever \"I am magically compelled to do something\" to emit concentration breaking sounds or to alert others nearby that they have been enchanted on repeat (imagine magic mouth necklaces in DnD5e).\nThe formation of the lasting enthrall effect while hooked.\nContingencies and emergency response could be pre-planned, \"If I am ever magically compelled to do something, cast dispel magic/banishment/etc on myself and send a message to X for help.", "227" ], [ "I can think of three ways that the humans might be able to communicate with each other without the superior AI catching on to it.\nPoetry\nAs mentioned in the question, an artificial intelligence, though it can mimic the analysis or prose and artful devices, only a human can really appreciate the ideas and concepts captured by a poem. Note that the use of a poem would not reveal messages in plain sight but use literary devices to convey the idea rather than exact phrasing.\nAdvantages\nThis seems like a better way for humans to communicate their feelings about situations and their love for each other (maybe?). This also is easy to learn and pickup, and even with the AI's massive database of poetry, even with the ability to add new intercepted poems, it would not become easy to break.\nDisadvantages\nCommunication has a lot to do with clarity and poems may not be the best pick for this, as different people can interpret the same poem with different results.\nCode with Virus\nPerhaps the only weakness to this AI is anything written/spoken must be passed through some interpreter/compiler, and this means the AI could be hacked.", "634" ], [ "As part of the developmental process of the AI, rather than \"escaping the code\" to prevent a virus from running, the AI was developed to \"skip over\" code that it recognizes contains a virus.\nWhen the humans discover this vulnerability, they develop loads of viruses and attempt to shut down the AI. Now, however, the remnants of the viruses they learned and tried to use against the AI, they use as the header of footer of messages with each other.\nAdvantages\nThis completely prevents the AI from reading and learning anything from a human's message.\nThe human's can communicate their message directly, as they know where to look for the actual message and ignore the header and footer code that is the virus.\nDisadvantages\nHumans have to remember and retain the code that is a virus and write it perfectly. This could also mean it takes longer to \"encode\" their message.\nIllogical Statements\nIn the second <PERSON> movie (featuring <PERSON>), <PERSON> and his brother communicate with a simple code that makes complete nonsense to an outsider. They flipped any all truthiness of statements (like: \"I love you\" becomes \"I hate you\").\nThe humans have found that using this coupled with using sentences like, \"this statement is false,\" utterly confuse the AI, resulting in the AI ignoring/failing to process their message.\nAdvantages\nOnce learned, the humans could get in a habit of this and learn to communicate quite easily.\nDisadvantages\nThe learning curve might be harder than I imagine.", "634" ], [ "I would posit that some specific DNA strains (most notably those of the mentats) would be genetically adaptable to have Sapho work on them differently. The expanded writings about sapho having a cure that must be \"survived\" while not in the original certainly may be true for those who are not genetically comparable like many mentats are. But it is also important to note that the mentats are genetically comparable because they will themselves to change/adapt.\nNon-Universal results would make it seem to the outside Dune world as being \"questionable\" in the efficacy of Sapho. Being addicted to Sapho may even be a side effect that means lack of genetic comparability.\nAdditionally, the Mentats mantra \"It is by will alone\" supports the idea and claim that they will themselves to adapt. A mantra that constantly reminds them they are not randomly beneficiaries of sapho juice. It is also why so much of the landsraad treats mentats as a \"religion\".\nThis theme is also held by the bene gesserit, but they have a different philosophy to how they approach the end result.", "759" ], [ "The goal of bith schools of thought, (Mentat and bene geserit) is the Creation of the super being. The mentats through self-will, the bene gesserit through a secret breeding program.\nThe bene gesserit got to the end goal first with <PERSON>. But they had to fill the gap in lost genetics (due to war) by joining house <PERSON> and <PERSON>. That link was in <PERSON> who was reveled to be the <PERSON> <PERSON> biological daughter from his early life before he strictly preferred young boys.\nThe Spice, was the step trigger that initially opened <PERSON>'s Consciousness was just the pre-step to the Water of Life. An opening of mind and body so great that it was only effectively used by bene gesserit, until <PERSON>.\nThe irony of the story is that both schools were right, but neither had a complete view. It took genetics through breeding AND self will to create the Super Being, the quisach haderach. By the time he was created, he was not controllable by either group, (much to their dismay) and worse, he was in control of the Spice itself.\nA lesson to us about the possibility that the answers of our greatest struggles and dreams may have answers that are more than binary (yes/no).", "674" ], [ "Effects of Homeopathy on technology in the Bronze Age\nWhat would be the most significant impacts on bronze-age technology if the basic principles behind homeopathy worked?\nLet's say, that during the bronze age, some crafty philosopher discovered, that the following laws apply to the world:\n* Like cures like: Any material can negate a property in a similiar material. This effect only aplies if the two materials are clearly distinctive entities. (e.g. A single piece of wood burns, a pile of wood blocks doesn't burn because the wood negates its own flameability, a single massive cube of wood burns because it's only one entity). Curiously, distinctiveness seems to be defined in a way that is congruent with human perception (e.g. a pile of sand is one entity, a plant is one entity, ...).\n* Effects become stronger through dilution: When any material is diluted (but kept distinct) in another base, it effects become stronger, including those effects that are part of these laws. Limits: It only works as long as something of the original substance remains in the dilution. The growth in effectivenes drops off (halving the concentration doubles the effect, quartering the concentration leads to 2.5 times the effectivenes...).\n* Materials keep a memory: Through proximity (idealy submersion), materials take on attributes of each other.", "205" ], [ "This effect works in both direction. (e.g. covering a block of iron in cloth makes the cloth harder, and the iron softer). (Breathable) Air doesn't keep a memory, and there are probably other \"insulators\" (gold?). The memory can only be passed on from a primary to a secondary source (Iron can harden cloth, hardened cloth can't harden a second bale of cloth). Any entity can only hold one memory, if it is exposed to a new source, the new memory will gradualy erode, and then override the old memory. The strength of a memory is dependent on the time of exposure.\nAdditional Rule: Anything that is \"part of the earth\" isn't affected by these laws, as long as it remains part of the earth (e.g. ore doesn't take on rock memories).\nIt can be assumed that the underlying structure for these rules to be possible exists (e.g. there are probably elements as ancient philosophers understood them), but real world physics still apply if not in direct contradiction with these laws.", "561" ], [ "The sheer closest I can fathom for an empire limited by the speed of light is <PERSON> from A Deepness in the Sky. And I swear I've writtenabout them on WB (or atleast on SE somewhere) before, but I can't find it. A few other people have with regards to a few topics.\nThe Qeng Ho weren't an empire as such, but a loose collection of disparate groups that all held the same ideals and goals; essentially a societal norm spread across light-centuries.\nThese groups would fly between known civilized worlds and trade in whatever might be of value. Sometimes it would be technology, or it might be goods, or it could be information. Occasionally they would arrive and find the planet having bombed itself back to the stone age and the Qeng Ho would aid in rebuilding a space faring society because they knew that in 100 or 200 years another Qeng Ho ship (them or someone else) would be by again and the planet would have valuable trade once more.\nThe backbone of what made them functional was--effectively--a galactic radio station. Every Qeng Ho ship would broadcast an automated signal that would contain the blueprints necessary to go from radio (\"are you recieving? Build this...\") to intra-solar space travel.", "302" ], [ "As well as things like language and the society of the Qeng Ho themselves, so that when the traders showed up, they could parley with minimal effort.\nUnderlying that was a private Qeng Ho encrypted channel that allowed groups to talk with each other. Not quickly, but still faster than their ships could travel. They'd use this channel to broadcast locations of new civilized worlds, premium technical advancements (the <PERSON> kept the best stuff to themselves), and so forth. They knew that any given message may never be received, much less generate a reply that they would hear in their lifetimes (even long as they were due to relativistic time dilation and life prolonging technologies).\nBut I wouldn't call them a K3 civilization, necessarily... Just the closest thing to \"a galaxy-sized society limited by the speed of light\" that I am aware of. And I'm not 100% sure that this would truly work, but it is plausible enough for a novel.", "209" ], [ "Weaponizing sceptical magic\nThe magic works like this:\n* It must not be performed in public, meaning with more than a dozen observers (regardless of the means). It will fail, spectacularly\n* It must not be performed in private, meaning that if you do it alone, it will also fail fatally\n* The optimal setting for it to work is in a group of less than or equal 13 - the more participants the stronger it is\n* The caster will have to come up with the ritual on the spot without consulting with the others. The ritual must invoke a specific sceptical reaction in other participants. Namely, their reaction must be: \"That will work?\" and not \"That will work!\" nor \"That's brilliant!\"\n* If all other participants think that \"That will work\", the ritual will fail\n* Magic is a ritual that can be performed by anyone - nobody is special, anyone can do it\n* The one who performs the ritual decides the effects of the ritual. The details of the ritual could be anything, varying from dancing naked to counting stars or riding a cow upside down..\n* The effects of the ritual is limited by what could happen in nature however improbable it is. One could call down a meteor or create tsunami, recover from cancer.. but not make water flow upward or create a black hole out of nothing\nSo, the main obstacle is the unpredictability.", "227" ], [ "One could do some stupid things to call the rain the first few times, but then it get repetitive and lost the scepticism. Lost the ritual, and get a backlash (fatal).\nHow do I weaponize this magic reliably? If my army (say medieval) went against another and I dig a few holes to hide the \"magicians\" to do their magic. How to get them to keep spamming spells without losing their scepticism and get a backlash that kill both them and my army?\nedit 1 To clarify how this magic affect the world:\n* If you called down a meteor, the meteor won't just appear out of nothing right after you finish the ritual. The meteor is actually already coming, your ritual is just coincidentally happening at the right time. So the meteor won't just drop on your enemies, because it takes time for a meteor come from 'not clearly visible in the sky' to 'suddenly on their head'. It has to travel from somewhere to earth.\n* If you called a tsunami, the same thing applies. The tectonic movements or some geographic activities are already there. There will be an earthwake or something in the ocean and then a tsunami will form, then it will come for both you and your enemies of course.\n* You called a storm of frogs, a hurricane somewhere fished some frogs and dumped it on your face at the right time.\nThat's why I said the effect must be possible in nature.", "227" ], [ "A charismatic fanatic.\nGive them a leader with very strong ideals, and instead of making him evil and destructive give him personality traits that would make it easy to follow. Strong, smart, fair, self-aware, humourus, and able to take and keep control over the majority of people. And his mind is set strong on that his way is the right way and the only way.\nPlaying into his hand is that people feel lost and insecure about their new home and they are desperate for someone to tell them what to do. Maybe many people suffer homesickness. Or some other reason that makes them feel bad. Let him lead \"a new way\" that discards old beliefs and knowledge, with the promise to feel good when they do it.", "425" ], [ "This way does not necessarily need to go backwards, like the destruction of technology and living primitive, but instead a leap forwards, making current technology and knowledge irrelevant or seem naive.\nWhat that could be in detail is up to you. In any way it leads to him deciding that old contacts are contra productive (like keeping the relationship with your ex alive; why are you hurting yourself? You know this is not leading to anything) and most people will join him willingly and throw out the past. But of course there are always people going against the mainstream (out of multiple motives) and you have to decide what to do about them. Do they have to die? Or can this small fraction form a new settlement and are allowed to keep the old ways alive? Are these two groups allowed to keep contact with each other?\nIf you want to discard of any contact to civilasation you can get rid of the drop-out in multiple ways. They could have a real accident, or an \"accident\" either arranged by the leader or by his followers of which he does not approve (but he only hears about it when it is to late). Or they can go back home.\nAnd then you let three or more generations pass to make sure all \"histories of before\" are only fairytales.\nIf you want it to be more extreme, old histories will be forbidden and destroyed or alternated. But be aware that the reader will expect \"some little bits and pieces\" of previous knowledge to remain and to be rediscovered.", "159" ] ]

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[ [ "I have two versions for you.\n1 The answer you don't like\nAs <PERSON> suggests, your anemone tree could resemble actual anemones on land. Instead of making the whole treetop one giant set of tentacles with the mouth in the middle, the tree could consist of traditional twigs and branches sporting small tentacle mouths. Each mouth would secrete a sweet smell , be brightly coloured to mimick flowers, or have other means of (passively) attracting prey. This would provide several benefits to the creature/plant:\n1.1 Lower Energy consumption\nHaving the tree move around to catch prey is going to cost energy. A lot of it. Being able to move aroudn superficially while also being rooted underground makes no sense from an evolutionary standpoint, because the increase in range at a rather slow speed does not compensate for the loss of energy. An rooted organism capable of any noticeable controlled movement would either loose this capability, for example if the ground supplied enough nutrients, or loose the roots, in case the movement made up the central aspect of the organism's energy acquisition cycle.\n1.2 More Consistent food supply\nThis is in response to some of the other answers submitted, where the tree preys on larger animals.\nPredators that prey on large animals invest a lot of energy in hope of a lot of food (hyenas, wolves, lions), and will spend most of their time conserving energy if there is no food source in sight. Predators that hunt smaller animals (frogs, otters, smaller birds of prey) spend most of their time hunting, since each food ration they acquire will not last as long, but also is not as hard to get.\nSince the anemone tree is most likely stationary, it can't search for food; it has to wait for it. As large animals tend to be rarer, I deem it unlikely that such a tree's prey spectrum would consist of anything larger than insects, rodents, birds, small monkeys and the likes. This brings us to the third point:\n1.3 Higher likelihood of actually catching anything\nAs we've ruled out large (and therefore slow) animals, we have to acknowledge that out prey will be fast, faster than out tree can afford to move.", "445" ], [ "Nature shows us that carnivores don't neccessarily have to be fast; there are a number of flesh-eating plants which rely on stickyness, stunning or sedation of the prey upon first contact to keep it in a place where the plant can easily digest it.\n2 The answer you might like a little better\nSo, as the question explicitly asks for moving branches, we have to incorporate them somehow, despite their high energy consumption and low evolutionary likelihood. What benefits could the anemone tree gain from being able to move its branches, when it is a \"passive predator\"?\n2.1 Fishing\nWhile eerily waving vines might deter prey on land, it can be quite the attraction under water. Imagine a tree literally applying a longlining technique with its vines.\n2.2 Photosynthesis\nThere might be not enough prey around, and in case the anemone tree is an actual plant, it could use it's movement capabilities to gain the most sunlight for photosynthesis, the same way people earlier thought sunflowers would do it.\n2.3 Very slow prey\nIts prey consists solely of slow and/or relatively blind animals like snails, worms, or turtles, so that the tree could graze a larger area for potential food. It's debateable whether a strand of sticky vines could retract with enough force to lift something as large as a turtle. If not, the question arises how the tree could access the food source after killing or immobilizing it with toxins; dragging it into the ground is hardly possible with anything but very soft soil, and would leave visible marks that would warn other prey. Leaving the carcass on the ground would mean leaving it to scavengers, and loosing a big part of its nutrients.\n2.4 Symbiotic host\nIt has a symbiotic relationship with a species that can somehow supply massive amounts of energy for the tree. An example would be ants or bugs decomposing fallen prey. How the tree would benefit from the bugs taking the food is unclear though, as I highly doubt the feasibility of feeding nodules.\n2.5 Free movement\nIts actually not stationary. The anemone tree is by no means a plant and can easily pull its \"roots\" from the ground and move freely. Maybe the environment has a high risk of storms or floods partially, so that there would be a reason for the \"tree\" to lock itself in a stable position.", "445" ], [ "A primarily aquatic creature with four legs can only really be a valid design if it uses those legs to walk, not to swim. Since legs can only get in the way when swimming. So it would need to dwell on the bottom of the sea (and thus be heavier than water). This is actually a useful feature, since having those legs additionally to a tail can give this creature superior manouverability along bottom of the sea as well as the ability to grab prey with these apendages. Being heavy enough to stay on the bottom shouldn't eb a big problem, since there are many aquatic animals that already achieve this.\nI can think of two different evolutionary paths that could lead to this cerature.\nIt evolved from a fishlike creature.\nConsider a predatory fish that lurks the ocean floor, it is imaginable that more developed apendages would grant this fish an advantage. It is afterall easier to accelerate (and slow down) wqhen you can get traction on something more solid than water. From that point on, these apendages could grow stronger and stronger up to the point where they can be used to pin down prey. From then on, claws and \"fingers\" (which were likely already present for increased traction) could develop even further.\nIt's a land dwelling creature that returned to the sea.\nIt's not uncommon for land animals to return to the water. And If this animal were heavy enough, it could conceivably use its legs to walk across the bottom of the ocean rather than develop fins to swim. It could also already have a powerful tail, which easily be adapted to aid it when swimming. For a land dwelling animal to eb heavy enough to never start developing fins, it would likely need to be relatively large (since this would require it to have heavy bones to support itself).", "671" ], [ "I assume that is what you wanted to go for in the first place.\nCan you tell me more about this creature??\nWell, As I said, it hunts at the bottom of the ocean. I would guess it's the apex predator down there and mainly feeds on middle sized fish. Larger predatory fish would likely stay clear of it since an encounter between the two doesn''t really benefit either of them. Creatures like sharks stick to the area closer to the surface and this creature sticks to the floor.\nDepending on which evolutionary path it took, the gills vs. lungs question is obvious. An important thing to keep in mind is that if this creture has lungs, it would need to stay relatively close to the shore or be light enough to swim to the surface, Doing this would likely leave it rather vulnerable since it's not developed for swimming. But since it's still the only creature in the sea with claws, I imagine no one would be overly keen on attacking it.\nWhether this amimal would have a horizontal or vertical or horizontal tail is also an interesting issue. Vertical tails are not extremely compatible with walking movements. But snakes did evolve from creatures with four legs, so it's not erntirely unlikely. Horizontal tails however don't work well with being close to the ground. Keeping this information in mind, I'd expect this animal to have a vertical tail and walk more like a reptile than like a mammal, with legs coming out of its sides, rather than beneath it.\nSince this creature could also move out of the water, it's not unlikely that it would occasionally dare to leave the water. I can't imagine that it would manage more than a short sprint out of the water though, much like crocodiles do.", "671" ], [ "Rather than making herbivores/carnivores for the sake of having herbivores/carnivores, let's consider some reasons why it's not optimal to make all robots autotrophic. I'm making the assumption that your robo-ecosystem primarily thrives on the following direct sources of power: the sun, nuclear energy, chemical fuel, and physical forces (which are indirectly cause by the sun). In most of the aforementioned, your energy producers are not going to be the dexterous sort of robots seen on <PERSON>. It's just not optimal to produce energy in a machine that has to move around all the time. Coral-like tidal power robots may only move every decade or so to follow the long-term oceanic current shifts. Chemical plants need to get very big to approach the Carnot limits on thermodynamic efficiency.", "943" ], [ "In particular, nuclear fusion robots are likely to be more sensitive and bulkier than the rest.\nHowever there are some noteworthy exceptions: If your planet is similar in triboelectric properties to Earth, then static potential differences may regularly build up across large distances separated by insulators. However, since we're \"working on a planet with robotic life\", then maybe its chemistry is tuned for such an existance: snowstorms with snowflaskes made of nylon and silicone may do the trick.\nUnlike bulky producers, predator robots are not constrained by the same efficiency curves, so you can imagine a sort of parasitic symbiosis between the producers and consumers with the ladder tapping into the formers' power supplies, and the former designing defensive and offensive countermeasures, even employing other robots to defend them in exchange for power.\nOf course, this begs the question: why are these robots even trying to eat each other? There must be scarcity of physical resources which are most easily satisfied by preying on other robots. Since we're \"working on a planet with robotic life\", metals may already be abundant, but processors and other high end electronics...? It seems logical that energy producers would want to use their energy to run computations. Therefore, a correlation may be found between power production and consumption.\nFinally, it's worth noting that zoological autotroph/heterotroph, herbivore/carnivore/detritivore, etc. distictions may not be the most appropriate in clasifying your robots. The autotroph/herbivore distinction breaks down when you have mining robots work for a power plant robot.", "445" ], [ "To balance out the long lifespans, you would essentially need your animals to have long hibernation periods. You could build a world where as the animal grows, the need for food decreases or that the need to feed regularly disappears. Now since the environment is already saturated with magic, I expect the animals to absorb some of it. If they absorb enough, the magic can help regenerate dead cells at a much faster rate. If this continues for long enough, perhaps the animal becomes essentially invincible (e.g., the moment a sword piercing this snake is removed, it heals from the wound). For particularly old animals (30,000 years) you could replace their biological need to eat with absorption of magic in the environment.\nAnother thing that you can do is stop the physical growth. In normal world, animals grow up to a certain size till a certain age and stop growing so much once they reach adulthood.", "227" ], [ "It could be the same there. You could remove the reproductive system after a certain age, even replace hearts with pure magical cores.\nThe skill an animal is learning would also probably depend on their upbringing and inherent abilities. For example, a lame lion would learn speed or stealth while a lion who has generally starved throughout childhood would learn to be a better tracker. For smaller animals you could try increasing their size just enough that its natural predators would be afraid of it.\nLastly, you could make the animals less violent than their normal counterparts. They will generally not pick fights with smaller animals if there is no need. I believe an animal smart enough to learn magic will be smart enough to maintain truce with other animals like itself, i.e., with magical abilities because it will simply not take the meaningless risk just for thrill or food, if it doesn't need it. If you do, however want to make your animals violent, I suggest a specific reason. For instance, if animal A defeats animal B in combat and kills it, A will gain the magical abilities originally belonging to B.", "376" ], [ "Designing the most plausible space \"dwelling\" planimals\nI'm a scientist of a colonised alien world in the far far future, on a planet which plant-derived insects and meat trees are keystone species in their biospheres. Let's say, I wanted to genetically engineer these plant-insects, let's call them microdecapedes for now, to survive in space for about 3 hours: how would I go about that?\nTheir biology and evolution\n(pictured above is the species I would like to genetically engineer)\nEvolution\nThese animals originated from seed-baring trees, which originally had muscled seeds which looked much like worms which would move along the ground like a caterpillar. Due to competition, these seeds became exceedingly complex, being able to locate other pseudo-seeds using pheromones. This species however, has lost their plant stage in their life cycle through neotony completely. Leaving us with the cosmopolitan, 10 legged, hermaphrodite plant-insect we see today.\nBiology\nThese creatures rarely exceed 10 centimeters in length, altough they do live in an oxygen rich (25%) world with less gravity (72% that of earth). They lack lungs, and instead breath much like insects on earth, through the spiracles running along the sides of their body which can be closed and opened. They lack eyes, or even a proper brain, so instead rely on pheromones to locate one another.", "671" ], [ "They have light-sensitive skin spots all over their bodies to find suitable locations with which to lay their eggs in. These creatures also lack hearts, and use haemolymph once again, much like insects on earth. Their skin is made out of the same stuff as plants, not utilising chitin. They're frugivorous and eat through their mouths positioned in between the sensory organs near their heads. They're hermaphrodites, having a vagina on their chin and having a penis-like organ on their chests which they mate with. They have a hydroskeleton like spiders used to power their legs. On avarage they range from 4-7 cm in length.\nThe question\nHow would I, a future scientist with incredibly advanced technology, need to engineer microdecapedes so they could survive and perform basic tasks such as move its legs, in the vacuum of space for 3 hours, no matter how different it would be from the original species?", "671" ], [ "How can my dragons use their tongues to control their fire breathing?\nSome background you may or may not skip\nI was daydreaming the other day about how tamed dragons whose magic was somehow harnessed as an energy source by humans could be used as a metaphor for nuclear power in modern societies. While considering this, I surprised myself thinking \"of course they would need to cut the tongue out of tamed dragons so that dragons can't orient their fire anymore\". Don't ask me where I got the notion that dragons need their tongue for that. Still, this got me wondering about what conditions were needed for this thought to be true.\nBackground you should not skip\nIn my world, dragons ...\n* ... fit the stereotypes defined in this somewhat related question\n* ... breathe fire in the way described there except they use magic to conjure the initial flame, inside their mouth.", "160" ], [ "The rest is similar: the liquid fuel is \"sprayed\" from a reservoir towards the flame, ignites and finally breathing is used to expel the burning fuel. It so happens that this is more efficient than using pure magic to conjure a full stream of fire.(1)\n* ... use their tongue to control the direction of the fire they breathe. This constitutes a competitive advantage over their ancestors who had to rotate their heads to do so: (1) the breathing direction can be adjusted to a moving target more rapidly(2) and unpredictably, (2) the head can remain parallel to flight direction for better aerodynamics.\nQuestion\nIf this is possible, what sort of motion / positioning of their tongue could my dragons use to control the direction of their breathing so that the flame is directed? This might be used in combination with other actions that control breathing, much like whistling. All I need is that the tongue be important enough that if the tongue is cut, dragons loose this ability and fall back on the original approach of turning their heads all the way.\nAn ideal positive answer would\n* explain the mechanism,\n* if possible back up its claim with examples in real-world fauna achieving similar purposes,\n* not make use of any more magic.\nAn ideal negative answer would either demonstrate that this is not possible or that a significantly simpler mechanism allows dragons to orient their fire and would lead to the same competitive advantages.\n(1): magic consumes mana, which is hard to store and fluctuating. Fuel is a more secure way of storing energy for dragons.\n(2): please consider that tongue motion of reptiles is faster that that of humans, and snakes can flick their tongue back and forth at around 15 Hz", "160" ], [ "I seriously doubt a realistic answer to this is possible, as we would have to understand what separates the genesis of intelligence from the genesis beneficial behaviours and actual civilisation from \"mere\" intelligence. However, I tried to think up some ideas that might be productive for science fiction.\nFirstly, one way to drive a social structure in the most primitive sense (consider ants or bees) would be diversification within the species - such as exhibited by Queens, workers, drowns. Yet, one might turn this into a hen and egg problem.\nI don't think the restriction to a parasite of any order is crucial, but I will stick with it. Let's say our first order parasites Antrasi are a species of fungus living on the hairy parts of mammalian skin. Especially heads. Our second order parasites Betrisi were originally fairly standard lice-like animals feeding off fungus. Over time they adapted to the specific Antrasi fungus.\nThe problem with Antrasi is, that, after about 6 months, it destroys the skin, so that it kills itself. Luckily, there exist different types of it. If they infect a head in succession, they restore the Ph, so that the skin remains intact and they can keep living. The problem is, that such a transition is unlikely to occur through natural dissemination of Antrasi spores.", "238" ], [ "Here Betrisi come into play.\nThe Betrisi-Scout is a subtype capable of wide range flight. Every 6 months it flies from head to head, seeking sleeping individuals infected with suitable fungi. The worker is in charge of harvesting large quantities of fungi and transportation to the other host head. It also produces suitable chemicals to facilitate quick growth of the newly displaced colonies. Over time Betrisi might evolve complicated behaviours, just like bees or ants. How they might transition from these primitive stages to intelligence, is an insanely difficult question.\nIf one is willing to be even more unrealistic, one might endow Queens with feromones inducing mutual attraction in suitable (super) hosts. That would help bringing them closer together!\nObviously, if one already believes in intelligent parasites, it is trivial to show how all manner of cunning and cooperation (between colonies) would aid them. The trouble is, you asked how they would become intelligent and that is certainly a Noble Prize question. It is not entirely clear to me what qualifies as swarm intelligence but a high degree of communication between colonies is obviously desirable. I want everything to be tightly synchronised. Ideally, I want all human couples determined by this rationale!", "197" ], [ "Could a deep ocean creature use some kind of bacteria in its body as a way to generate oxygen?\nI've been creating a world where most-to-all of its life resides in the deep ocean. For story purposes, I would like said creature to have lungs, but it is not necessary.\nDescription of the Creature in Mind The creature in question is something along the lines of a massive sea serpent. Ideally, it would be able to either surface into an area that has air in it and be able to move on land, through legs or just by slithering along in a similar fashion to a snake. It lives around 2000 meters down, give or take ~500 meters.\nEcosystem of the Planet The planet is a large oceanic planet, which is slightly larger than Earth, and only has some small archipelagos for land. The plants of the planet primarily exist at the surface, as to the much smaller prey animals. small predators eat these smaller prey animals, but most animals who are purely \"prey\" don't exist very far down.", "344" ], [ "Predators prey on smaller predators in a hierarchical type system, with the largest predators also bien the deepest. The creature would be in the mid-size range, but they have the advantage of being omnivores: there are massive underwater caverns that are filled with air. Very large plants, in some ways similar to those on Earth, grow in these caverns, and are adapted to using chemosynthesis to create energy, along with some small to mid size mammals and reptiles. This is really the only sizable prey besides smaller oceanic predators down this low, so the creature profits greatly from this resource. Due to much larger predators from below, they are forced to move around, and as these caverns, while common, are not common enough to allow for consistent breathing. These creatures do have large enough lungs to get to the surface, but this is impractical for them, as it would include long diving and surfacing sessions that may make to creature more vulnerable to predators.\nBy my understanding, there are many types of bacteria that could create oxygen as a waste resource, not through photosynthesis, but by some form of chemosynthesis, but I'm not certain. It is possible for a reasonably large creature (whale sized or larger) be able to host some form of bacteria in its body in a symbiotic relationship as a way of generating the oxygen that it needs to live? I'm presuming that the bacteria simply consumes some of the food that the creature eats, and then the oxygen created is somehow sent to the lungs.\nIf there are any other ideas as to how a creature of this size could get air, besides gills, as they collapse in while in regular air conditions, they would be helpful.", "344" ] ]

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[ [ "Indefinitely.\nIt is possible to create new animals by cloning. This technology has never been developed in humans because of severe ethical issues, but faced with extinction, it'd likely be up and running within a decade. The core principles are all understood.\nHowever, this assumes the mechanism of infertility allows implantation of embryos. Even if not it is possible humanised animals could be used for incubation.\nTo address some objections raised in the comments:\nCloning technology is imperfect: this is certainly true, however it is already the case that cloning is commercially viable. There is a biotechnology company in China that is producing 500 cloned pigs a year, while the cloning process itself involves a high degree of technical sophistication, none of the steps are prohibatively expensive or difficult in themselves. Faced with global infertility, vast sums of money will be made available for research, and enormous pressure placed on elected officials to remove legislative barriers. Under these circumstances we should expect viable cloning techniques to become routinely available in the developed world within a decade, probably faster. Cloning should be inherently about as expensive as IVF but with the extraordinary levels of demand we should expect economies of scale to drop prices fast.", "335" ], [ "I would expect reproductive cloning to be available at around $1000 dollars pretty soon. Too expensive to be routinely available in the developing world, but no problem for developed countries with universal healthcare.\nCloning suffers from the same problems as IVF: IVF is only performed on clients who have exhibited problems conceiving the old fashioned way and are typically older. Accordingly success rates are far lower than we should expect from people who do not have these problems and thus success rates should be closer to the far higher rates observed with egg donation.\nTelomere shortening: while this was a concern, it turns out not to be a problem. Even if it was a problem, it should be possible to develop a solution by temporary activation of the telomarases that naturally restore telomeres during normal reproduction.\nAccumulation of mutations: cloning will inevitably accumulate mutations. This could be mitigated by long term storage of DNA from the original source but even this would be imperfect since the DNA is likely to slowly degrade even under ideal storage conditions. However, the accumulation of mutations is unlikely to render the process non-viable for a great many generations (plants and animals that self are known to survive for 100s of generations without apparent loss of viability, although cloning methods may induce higher mutation rates so an exact comparison is not possible), and there are a range of existing techniques that could developed to repair (e.g. CRISPR) or screen embyros (e.g. shotgun sequencing) and prevent transmission of harmful mutations. Moreover, in the hundreds of years available to humanity, the development of in vitro techniques to restore crossing-over and mixture of genes as per natural sexual reproduction seems much more likely than not.", "1008" ], [ "If we assume all of these things could be practically done at least at some point in the future, here are the problems I see with the suggestions, and why they might not work (others may spot additional ones).\n1 Translocation of a sabotaging 'agent' via the conjugation apparatus.\nThis basically already exists, look up the various secretion systems of bacteria. In particular, the Type 6 Secretion System does exactly this (though with a somewhat limited target range).\nThe first paragraph on wiki summarises:\nThe type VI secretion system (T6SS) is molecular machine used by a wide range of Gram-negative bacterial species to transport proteins from the interior (cytoplasm or cytosol) of a bacterial cell across the cellular envelope into an adjacent target cell.\nThe reason this wouldn't work is that bacteria have already evolved to deal with such mechanisms, and one we engineer is unlikely to fare much differently.\nYou can take it from me (as my PhD concerns exactly this!) that changing what the secretion systems translocate, while possible, is very difficult.\n2 Phony conjugation\nAntibiotics tend to be small molecules. They bind and dock with enzymes or substrates in order to inhibit some kind of activity typically, e.g. cell wall synthesis in the case of Beta-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin. I'm not sure how you imagine it would \"tear a hole in the bacterium\" really?\nRelated to the T6SS, are R-type Pyocins, which are co-opted bacteriophages that sort of do this. It requires no conjugation, and the currently proposed mechanism is that they either deliver a payload of toxins or molecules in to the cell by puncturing the exterior, or they simple create a pore in the membrane causing cellular depolarisation and death. As with phage and antibiotics however, these mechanisms can have resistance evolved against them.\nAs an additional point, unless you could somehow guarantee that the conjugations were sabotaged or ineffectual in some way, promoting conjugation artificially is almost certainly going to aid the spread of resistance and virulence determinants, actually worsening the situation.\n3 A suicide plasmid\nIt is not trivial to 'confer significant advantages' on a cell.", "225" ], [ "Most plasmids are maintained by amelorating a significant disadvantage that is often supplied artificially, e.g. auxotrophy or antibiotic selection. Given the 'choice' bacteria tend to kick out the plasmids unless they simply cannot afford to live without it. Maintaining the replicon is an expensive process in terms of cellular metabolism and resource utilisation.\n'In the wild' the weaponised plasmid would likely not persist long enough to be translocated in to any target of interest in a significant enough proportion to have a real effect. The key is that and of these ideas mentioned cannot simply kill a single target cell, as they will not have an appreciable effect on the population. The bacteria will recombine or straight up remove the plasmid if it's in any way deleterious or even neutral to them, until they've 'corrected' the problem.\nAddiction modules and toxin-antitoxin systems are common to see in natural plasmids, as with the other ideas mentioned. Bacteria can recombine out the 'poison' though, and eventually over time lose the plasmids. If the toxin is encoded on the chromosome, it's a little more robust.\n4 Bad plasmids\nSee addiction modules and toxin-antitoxin systems above.\nI'm afraid in general I think you're underestimating evolution!", "667" ], [ "There is absolutely no problem for the society to survive in your scenario. Killing half of plants and animals will barely be noticed. We kill more than that all the time. Most species will recover within a generation or two. It may take a while for long living species like Oaktree or Blue Whale, but that's not a serious concern.\nAs for human, yes, there will be no problem either. Relatively speaking. According to different estimates, between 20 and 80% of jobs are unnecessary anyway. Many companies will struggle in the new situation and may collapse when their services are no longer a priority (e.g. producer of reality TV?), but their more productive employees will find jobs in essential businesses.\nFewer people means lower demand for services as well. Population has doubled in last 50 years. As you may imagine there was a society 50 years ago.", "998" ], [ "As in the other answer, we had large scale depopulating events before. It's not unheard of for a country to lose 20% population in a war, even in recent times, for example Poland in World war 2. They not only lost a fifth of their population, including most of the educated elites, but were also physically devastated by war. Warsaw was nearly obliterated with around 90% of buildings destroyed. After the war they were trapped behind the iron curtain and cut off from international trade or cultural exchange and yet managed to survive as civilized societies and rebuild from ruins. In your scenario most of infrastructure is intact, at least initially, so your society can absorb much higher loses.\nThe sudden drop will be drastic but will not destroy our civilization. The old, inefficient power plants will just be closed as the demand for electricity halves. The good nuclear plants that lose half of their staff will halve the holidays for the survivors for few years and recruit some staff from closed plants and recent graduates to fill the gaps. At the moment half of STEM graduates work in unrelated jobs. Instead of joining investment banks they will get productive and fulfilling jobs in their field. No problem at all.\nTL,DR Apart from initial panic, there won't be a long term danger to the society if half of the population disappear. On the contrary, if you're one of the survivors and don't die in some riots in the immediate result of the event you may even be better off than before.", "998" ], [ "Starting with your last question: The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) defines genetic modification as \"heritable improvements [...] by genetic engineering or other more traditional methods\". The EU defines GMOs as \"an organism, in which the genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally\" using DNA altering techniques.\nThese are rather legal than biological definitions. For example, the EU Court of Justice has recently ruled that organisms produced by mutagenesis are technically GMOs but do not fall under the GMO legislation.\nSo, let's look into how seedless fruits are produced:\nThis can be achieved by making a plant, that is able to grow fruits but fail to produce functional seeds due to unsuccessful meiosis. This is done for bananas and water melons by crossing a diploid with a tetraploid plant, which produces a triploid plant where chromosome pairing during meiosis is unlikely (more on this in the wiki article). For oranges this is done by growing genetic clones together. Since they cannot self-fertilize (and identical clones cannot fertilize each other), they don't develop seeds but still grow fruits.\nThese techniques don't require any genetic modification by targeted manipulation of the DNA. Crossing two plants with different characteristics is also done in conventional breeding, which is also not classified as GM.", "667" ], [ "However, it would be possible to genetically alter plants to block seed production and produce seedless GMOs. It would probably be a legal dispute whether this change is \"heritable\" when there are no seeds, so classification might depend on country policies.\nThe problem with seedless fruits is that you need seeds in order to grow new plants. To produce new seedless water melons you always have to cross the parents again. Plants that are able to reproduce vegetatively (parts of the plant can grow new plants), can be propagated by replanting branches. For plants, where this doesn't work very well, grafting is a solution to improve the process (a well growing plant is used as a root). Vegetative propagation in any case produces genetic clones, as you have pointed out correctly. The propagation method is independent of the technique that first produced the seedless plant and does not decide the GMO or non-GMO classification.", "667" ], [ "In order to have a realistic organism capable of creating halfbreeds, all species involved must have a VERY close common ancestor.\nAs an example, consider real dogs. A Chihuahua and a Great Dane are incapable of directly breeding without artificial insemination due to geometric isolation. If there were no other breeds of dogs between them to bridge the gap, they would be considered different species. However, both of these dogs could breed with some third dog of medium size.\nAssuming you are looking at a science fiction setting, this probably means that all your alien species are human derivatives. This can occur if inter stellar travel is slow/rare, which would cause distant colonies to act as isolated populations. There are two ways that these isolated groups could have diverged.\nThey could simply have evolved differences over a very long time. This would probably work best over a period of ten thousand to a hundred thousand years. That is probably long enough to create significant phenotypic differences without necessarily developing any insurmountable genetic incompatibilities.", "1008" ], [ "To keep the populations separate long enough, you would probably need for the secret of spacetravel to have become lost for some reason. As an additional advantage, it is far enough back that it would not have interfered with recorded history. Moreover, you could jump directly from modern humanity to your desired tech level by finding the ruins of an advanced ancient civilization someplace on earth.\nThe other option is that the difference has arisen due to self applied genetic engineering. This cuts down the required isolation period to a few hundred years for the first few generations at each colony to have died off. Isolation on a timescale like this can be simply explained with a slow interstellar drive. If you want a much quicker drive for your plot, that can have been a far more recent invention. The other advantage of this is that your species can be FAR more anatomically different without the differences being insurmountable to genetic engineering.\nIf you are operating in a fantasy setting, things become easier. You can set up all of your races as sharing human genetics. Racial differences can be explained in this setup as being caused by heritable enchantments.", "1008" ], [ "Note: I did not look at your link before posting this answer. The triple helix system looks quite complicated and somewhat unlikely to involve naturally from simple chemicals.\nConsider the ABC sex determination system for diploid individuals, where A, B and C are chromosomes with a distinct form that can pair up. Each of A, B and C contains a distinctive gene that encodes for a protein necessary for viability, two of which combine to determine the sexual characteristics. Two of the same are too much, the resulting individual is not viable and culled in an embryonic stage. This naturally leads to the forms AB, AC and BC as only existing forms.\nNow suppose that the chromosomes also encodes other proteins that, apart from the sexual characteristics, also have a great impact on the morphology of the creatures.", "29" ], [ "For instance, chromosome A holds genes that induce a (far) greater size and territorial protection, while form B induces more muscles and form C promotes intelligence. This leads to:\n* AB: big, strong and dumb and quite territorial\n* AC: big, weak, smart and quite territorial\n* BC: small, strong, smart and not territorial at all\nIndividuals produce gametes of either kind without differentiation among the gametes of either chromosome type (A, B or C) or source of the individual (AB, AC or BC) and further suppose the actual reproduction is performed by pooling a bunch of gametes in an aquatic environment with sufficient nutrition, like terrestrial fish. The following options present themselves:\n* asexual reproduction, just the gametes of a single individual. 50% chance of producing what is essentially a clone\n* bisexual reproduction, the gametes of two individuals of same sex or different sex. Again 50% chance of producing offspring, half of which are essentially clones\n* trisexual reproduction, the gametes of three individuals, two out of three individuals of the same sex again gives a 50% chance of producing offspring with less likelihood of clones, three individuals of different sex gives a 66% percent chance of producing offspring with less likelihood of clones.\nAs the latter option, three different sexed individuals pooling their gametes produces more offspring with a balanced mix of sexes this is the favored option, especially if the chances of survival of an embryo or larva are quite slim, but approximately equal for all three sexes, again not unlike terrestrial fish.", "1008" ], [ "Decrease the amount of light arriving but increase greenhouse gases\nEarth would be about 30°C colder if it was at its blackbody temperature, i.e. received the same amount of light but didn't have a greenhouse effect. The core idea here is to decrease the amount of light arriving while increasing the amount of greenhouse gases to maintain your planet's temperature.\nOne option is to be like Venus and have double digit percentages of CO2 instead of a few hundred parts per million.\nThere are also several relatively non toxic greenhouse gases that are hugely more potent than CO2: methane (23x more potent), CFCs (1000x more potent) and SF6 (A whoppimg 20000 - 50000x!)(1).\nIf methane or CFCs or SF6 are present in significant (not enormous) quantities, you could increase the temperature of Earth hugely.\nNow, the amount of heat absorbed/emitted by a planet is proportional to temperature to the 4th power; if you can increase the greenhouse effect by 40 degrees, then you could have the amount of sunlight reduce by 50% and still have the same temperature; increase it 60 degrees and you can have it reduce by 65%. 100 degrees allows 85%.\nSee e.g.", "184" ], [ "https://www.astro.indiana.edu/ala/PlanetTemp/index.html or other planet temperature calculators out there; this forum doubtless knows many.\nMaybe mankind could deliberately set off a methane clathrate gun or produce ludicrous amounts of SF6 to compensate for some event that knocked the planet further away from the sun. <PERSON>'s orbit change suggestion would work nicely.\n(1) SF6 is incredibly inert chemically but is very heavy so it builds up in the lungs of animals if present in any significant quantity, eventually choking them. Your fauna would need some way to expel it from their lungs, maybe l by totally displacing all the gas in their lungs when they breathe out, or by means of an enzyme that binds to it and transports it to the digestive tract. I assume CFCs would have the same problem. Methane won't; it's light.\nEdit: I'm guessing that seasons and maybe polar-equator temperature differences get minimised by doing this.", "591" ], [ "The first manned spacecraft that humans launched was Vostok 1 in 1961, which orbited the earth for 108 minutes (roughly two hours). Using this as the baseline of a 'spaceship', a human could likely have survived in space as early as the 4th century BC.\nAir\nA person inhales and exhales roughly 15 cubic feet of air per hour. To survive two hours, a person would need 30 cubic feet of air. With a typical adult male human body occupying a volume of ~3 cubic feet, a sphere of four foot diameter would easily hold a person and enough air to survive two hours in space.\nDiving bells were used as early as the 4th century BC, which means that technology of the time could produce a shell that was air tight.\nSince the spacecraft wouldn't need to resist the water pressure a diving bell would need to resist, it's possible that some type of airtight(ish) bladder / balloon could be large enough to hold both a person and two hours of air at a much earlier time.\nEven if the bell / bladder wasn't completely airtight, coating the bell / bladder with pitch would have provided enough of a seal to prevent too much air loss.\nAfter two hours CO2 buildup in a craft of this volume would start to pose a danger, but the occupant could certainly survive such a flight. An arbitrarily larger bell / bladder could extend the time of this flight almost indefinitely.\nHeat\nSince vacuum is an excellent insulator, an additional heat source wouldn't be necessary.", "947" ], [ "Furs or other heavy clothing would be sufficient to keep the occupant of the craft warm.\nAs the craft becomes larger and the outside surface area increases, the body heat of the occupant could not extend the flight indefinitely. Without an additional heat source, the body heat of the occupant could not extend the flight indefinitely.\nStill, with careful heat management, good insulation, and perhaps preheated objects to supplement the occupant's body heat, the occupant could perhaps survive a full day before the craft radiated too much heat and the occupant froze to death.\nRadiation\nWho cares? Worrying about an increased risk of cancer in old age is a thoroughly modern concept.\nReentry\nThis is a tough one with traditional power sources, but we don't have the same limitation here. A limitless power source would allow the craft to re-enter the atmosphere at an arbitrary speed, so re-entry heating issues don't need to be considered.\nAdditionally, if care were used the heat problem above could be mitigated (using atmospheric friction to warm the craft) making the volume of the craft (and air contained within) the primary limiting factor of flight time.\nOther needs\nFor a two hour round trip, a person would be able to survive with nothing more than air and warmth. Additional comforts like light, food / water, or hygiene would be secondary and could be addressed in one way or another. The occupant wouldn't have to be happy or comfortable, but people can survive a significant amount of discomfort.\nOther thoughts\nThis certainly wouldn't be the safest or most comfortable way to travel into space, but historically the value of life hasn't been particularly high. An ancient general / civilization would probably think little of sending dozens or hundreds of men to their deaths in a such a manner, and in all likelihood many would survive their trips into space.\nTime to and from orbit might be a concern as well, as such craft wouldn't be able to travel at high rates of speed in the lower atmosphere, but it probably wouldn't change this considerably.\nThe actual mechanics of this craft would, of course, be dictated by the nature of the magical propulsion system.", "947" ] ]

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[ [ "Oak Leaf Barrette From Scrap Leather and Copper Wire\nIntroduction: Oak Leaf Barrette From Scrap Leather and Copper Wire\nI have a big box of leather scrap. There are always loads of odds and ends from various projects.\nI'm going to use a scrap of leather left over from my Alien Hand Vanity Tray.\nI'm also going to use a length of copper wire that is left from an overly ambitious attempt at making DIY Easy Wire Pendants - I should have started with the easiest one!\nThis instructable is to make an oak leaf hair barrette which could also be used as a shawl pin.\nStep 1: What You Will Need\nThis is my big box of leather scrap. There are always loads of odds and ends from various projects.\nThe piece of leather I'm going to use is an offcut from my Alien Hand Leather Coin / Vanity Tray\nSupplies:\nLeather Scrap (13cm x 6.5cm)\nCopper Wire Scrap - about 22cm long\nSaddle Tan leather dye (Fiebings)\nSaddle Tan Antique Gel (Eco-Flo)\nCopper Leather paint (Angelus)\nLeather Edge Finish\nAcrylic Leather Finish (Resolene)\nTools:\nLeather Scissors\nClicker Knife\nSwivel Knife\nLeather Bevel tool and Backgrounder tools\nLeather Edge Slicker\nFine Paint Brush\nRound nose pliers\nNylon jaw pliers\nHole Punch\nHammer and Mini Anvil\nStep 2: Make a Pattern\nLet's start by making an oak leaf pattern.\nSketch out an oak leaf shape making it about 12cm long. Add the vein detail.\nStep 3: Transfer Pattern to Leather and Cut Out\nLay your pattern onto the piece of scrap leather to decide how it fits best.\nTurn your pattern over and trace onto the back of the leather, then cut out using a combination of scissors and clicker knife.\nStep 4: Carve Veins\nWet the top surface of the leather with water.", "421" ], [ "Wait a couple of minutes for it to soak in.\nPlace your pattern over the wet leather and trace the veins using a stylus.\nCarve the veins using a swivel knife.\nStep 5: Bevel Along the Veins\nUsing a patterned beveller stamp tool work along the edges of the veins so they stand out.\nStep 6: Add Background\nUsing small and large background stamp tools add some background texture.\nStep 7: Mould to Shape\nWet he leather leaf completely, then shape over a rounded surface (I'm using a yoghurt pot)\nForm the edges of the leaf up so it has a slightly curled look.\nLeave to dry.\nStep 8: Dye the Leather\nOnce the leather is dry it can be dyed.\nI'm using a Saddle Tan oil dye.\nMake sure you protect your work area with a piece of old cardboard.\nApply the dye using a wool dauber or lint free cloth. Apply in a circular motion and do the front, back and sides.\nLeave to dry.\nStep 9: Apply Antique Gel\nUsing a soft cloth apply antique gel. Remove any excess with a paper towel.\nThe antique gel goes into the tooled crevices and gives your leather leaf a genuine look.\nLeave to dry.\nStep 10: Apply Edge Finish\nApply edge finish to the leather edges. Use a wooden slicker tool to slick and give the edges a polished looking finish.\nStep 11: Paint the Leaf Veins\nPaint the leaf veins with copper paint using a fine brush.\nOptionally take a blob and paint and water it down 4 to 1 and then use the watery paint as a wash for the rest of the leaf.\nLeave to dry.\nStep 12: Apply Acrylic Finish\nGet a little acrylic finish (Resolene) in a container and water down 50/50.\nApply to the back and front of the leather leaf.\nLeave to dry.\nStep 13: Punch Holes\nUsing a hole punch, punch two holes for the copper hair stick.\nStep 14: Form the Barrette Pin\nTake your copper wire and form a loop at the end using round nose pliers.\nGrip the loop with your nylon jawed pliers and coil the wire until you have a spiral.\nBend into a crook.\nFlatten the spiral slightly using a hammer and anvil. Also flatten slightly along the length and particularly at the end.\nFile the end into a rounded point.\nStep 15: Ready to Go\nThread the copper stick through the holes in your leather oak leaf, and you are all ready to go.\nUse in your hair or as a shawl pin.", "421" ], [ "Leather Ivy Leaf Coin / Jewellery Tray\nIntroduction: Leather Ivy Leaf Coin / Jewellery Tray\nThis big leather coin / jewellery tray is a stylish way to keep your rings safe on your dressing table, or a great place on your hall table to dump your coins or keys. This design is a super-sized ivy leaf. Use a bit of artistic licence when dyeing and painting it.\nSupplies\nPiece of 3mm thick leather - approx 22cm square\nLeather dye (Fiebings Pro)\nLeather paints (Angelus, <PERSON>)\nLeather Finish (Resolene)\nSwivel knife\nBevelling tool\nBackground tool\nScissors\nCraft knife / clickers knife\nDomed ball or bowl\nStep 1: Pick Some Ivy Leaves\nTo make sure I got the right shape for my leaf, I went out into the garden and picked some ivy leaves to see the different shapes and colours.\nStep 2: Choose a Leaf, Scan and Super Size\nHaving chosen one of the variegated leaves, I scanned it using my computer scanner and super-sized it ready for printing. I sized it up from its natural 7cm across to approximately 21cm across. You can do the same or use the resulting scan (as pdf) attached.\nStep 3: Print Your Big Ivy Leaf Image and Cut Out\nNow print your big ivy leaf image and cut out. This is your template ready for transferring to leather.\nStep 4: Trace Your Pattern Onto the Leather\nTurn your template over (face down) and trace round it onto the back of the leather.\nStep 5: Cut Out the Leather\nUsing a combination of leather scissors, craft knife or clickers knife, cut out the pattern from the leather.\nStep 6: Wet the Leather\nGet some water in a pot and wet the top surface of the leather using a sponge. Allow the water to soak in for a minute or two.\nStep 7: Trace the Veins\nPlace your paper pattern on top of the damp leather. Using a stylus trace the veins. You will find once you remove the paper pattern you can see the marks on the leather.\nStep 8: Carve the Veins Into the Leather\nUsing a swivel knife carve the veins into the leather.", "421" ], [ "You could do this with a craft knife, but be careful that you only score the leather and don't cut all the way through.\nStep 9: Bevel the Veins\nUsing a bevelling tool, bevel the veins.\nPut the edge of the tool along the cut line and tap gently while moving the beveller along the line.\nThis will make the veins pop out.\nStep 10: Add Texture With a Background Tool\nNow using a background tool add some texture to your leaf.\nStep 11: Shape the Leather\nWet the leather leaf thoroughly - I run it under the tap for a minute.\nUsing a domed item (I have a glass ball - but a domed bowl or plastic ball will work ) press your leather leaf face down onto the ball. Keep running your hands over the leather for a minute or two until it takes shape. Pull the leaf edges up a bit to make a nice shape.\nLeave for an hour, then take off the ball - check you are happy with the curves and leave to dry completely.\nStep 12: Dye the Leather Ivy Leaf\nDye your leather ivy leaf front and back. I'm using Fiebings Pro leather dye. They do sell a green colour, but I only had yellow and blue, so I mixed them to get green.\nLeave to dry.\nStep 13: Add Pearlescent Colour (Optional)\nNow it's up to you to determine how you want to finish your ivy leaf tray. Leave it plain or jazz it up a bit with some pearlescent colour.\nI've added a pearlescent emerald colour (Jaquard Lumiere leather paint - emerald green). This has been diluted down and applied as a wash over the leaf.\nThis is optional, if you want a plainer more realistic leaf, you can jump straight onto the Painting the Veins step\nAllow to dry.\nStep 14: Paint in the Veins\nNow for painting the leaf veins. I've chosenan Angelus leather paint in Pewter. Use a fine brush and just paint the raised veins.\nAllow to dry.\nStep 15: Apply Resolene Leather Finish\nDilute a small amount of Resolene Acrylic Leather finish 50% with water.\nApply front and back to give a water resistant finish.\nAllow to dry.\nStep 16: Enjoy Your Finished Tray\nNow your ivy leaf leather tray is finished. Place it on your table and use for coins, jewellery or other bits and pieces.", "421" ], [ "Laced Leather Belt Bag\nIntroduction: Laced Leather Belt Bag\nThis laced leather belt bag is the perfect accessory for any costume.\nUse it for LARP or COSPLAY.\nDepending on the fastenings you use - it can look medieval or contemporary.\nIf you use pre-dyed leather it is very easy to make.\nStep 1: Gather Your Supplies\nFirstly print the pattern I have attached on A4 paper. Make sure it prints at full size and doesn't scale.\nFor 2 of the pages the pattern goes right to the top of the paper, so if your printer didn't print all the way to the top - just continue the lines to the top of the paper.\nFor this project you will need:\n2.5 to 3mm thick leather 35cmx30cm (I'm using pre-dyed leather in dark brown)\n1.5 to 2mm leather 45cm x 8cm (I'm using pre-dyed leather in light brown)\n2.5m of 3mm waxed cotton cord\n3mm fid\nWax finish for the leather (I suggest Carnauba cream or Snow Proof)\nLeather scissors\nCraft knife\nCutting mat\nRuler\nPencil and Pen\nFastening - Use a Wood / Horn or imitation horn toggle, or for a more modern feel go for a Swing Lock. If using a swing lock you will need more rivets.\nFor a swing lock - attach the bottom part to the front of the piece BEFORE lacing.\n6 rivets for belt loops, setting tool and hammer\nSellotape\nHole punch 1/8\" (3mm) , hammer and board for hammering on or hand punch.\nOptional - you will get better results if you have these:\nLeather edge beveller\nLeather skiving tool\nBeeswax block and wooden edge slicker\nStep 2: Cut Out Your Paper Pattern and Join the Pieces\nCut out the paper pattern pieces.\nThere are two pattern pieces that need to be joined.\nThe two side pieces need to be joined to make one long piece 44cm long.\nJoin with sellotape.\nThe other piece that needs to be joined is the back and the curved flap. Cut them out and sellotape together.\nStep 3: Transfer the Pattern to the Leather and Cut Out\nPlace your pattern pieces on the wrong side of the leather and draw round them with a pencil to mark out the pattern.\nRemember that the long side piece gets cut out of the thinner leather, the rest get cut out of the thick leather.\nI'm using a dark brown leather for the thick and a lighter brown for the thin.\nNow carefully cut out the pieces.\nThe straight edges are easier if you use a craft knife and ruler, the curved parts are easier with a pair of leather scissors.\nOPTIONAL: If you have an edge beveller, then bevel round the thick pieces front and back.", "421" ], [ "This just gives a more rounded profile for the edges.\nStep 4: Skive Ends of Hanging Straps (optional)\nIf you have a skiving tool - skive both ends of the hanging straps. Skive from the wrong side of the leather about 2cm on each end.\nThis shapes the ends of the straps so that they will sit flush at the back of your belt bag.\nStep 5: Mark Your Holes\nNow you will need to mark all the positions for holes.\nThese are the dots on the pattern.\nYou probably will need to adjust the positions for your fastener depending on what kind and what size you are using. The holes for the fastener are those on the flap on the Back piece and those in the middle of the Front piece.\nI mark where the holes are to go by lining up the paper pattern over the back of the leather and pressing through with a pen or pencil so that it makes an indent. You should be able to see the indents and you can go over these again with your pen or pencil.\nStep 6: Punch Your Holes\nNow punch all your holes using an 1/8\" (3mm punch)\nI use an old kitchen chopping board to hammer onto.\nStep 7: Wax Edges and Slick (optional)\nIf you have beeswax and a wooden slicking tool, was along the edges of the thick leather with your wax block, then slick using the wooden tool.\nThis gives your edges a smooth polished look.\nStep 8: Apply Wax Finish to Your Leather Pieces\nUsing a cotton rag, apply some leather finish to the top sides of your leather pieces. I'm using Snow Proof as I want t weather resistant finish, but Carnauba Cream also gives a good finish.\nLeave for an hour or so to let the leather absorb the wax.", "421" ], [ "Leather Vanity / Coin Tray - Mondrian Style\nIntroduction: Leather Vanity / Coin Tray - Mondrian Style\nThis is a useful square leather tray that can be used for coins or jewellery.\nYou can decorate it any way you like but I chose to go with a style similar to the painter <PERSON>. This uses rectangular blocks of colour to make a bright cheerful piece.\nLike many leatherwork projects - the make time is in the order of a couple of hours, but elapsed time is about a day as you need to allow drying time, for the paint and the finish.\nStep 1: Gather Your Supplies\nFor this project you will need:\n1 printed pattern\nPencil\n20cm x20cm piece of veg tanned leather approx 2mm thick\nScissors - good ones that will cut leather\nLeather paints (Angelus / Lumiere or equivalent)\nPot for your water and diluted Resolene finish (Yoghurt pot or similar)\nPiece of cardboard to protect your table while painting and coating with finish.\nPermanent marker pen (Black)\nPaint brushes\n4 rivets (6mm), setting tool and hammer (or hand held riveting tool)\nChopping board or similar as a base for when you are setting your rivets if using a hammer.\nHole punch (2.5 / 3mm) - hand held or metal punch and hammer\nProtective leather finish (Resolene acrylic or similar)\nBeeswax\nWooden burnishing tool\nStep 2: Print the Paper Pattern\nPrint out the paper pattern and cut it out. When printed on A4 paper the pattern piece should be 18cm x18cm.\nStep 3: Transfer the Pattern to the Leather\nPlace the cut out pattern on the wrong side of the leather and draw round it using a pencil. Using a ruler will help keep those lines straight.\nStep 4: Cut Out the Leather\nCarefully cut out the pattern from the leather using good scissors.", "421" ], [ "Alternatively the straight edges can be cut on a cutting board using a ruler and sharp blade.\nStep 5: Mark Out Your Mondrian Style Boxes\nUsing a ruler and the thick permanent marker pen mark out a random set of boxes similar to a Mondrian painting, Just make a random set of boxes - copy my layout or design your own.\nStep 6: Paint Your Design\nProtect your work surface with a piece of cardboard before starting to paint.\nUsing leather paints - paint the \"Mondrian\" rectangles in a random selection of colours.\nColours I used are:\nAngelus - Chilli Red, Flat White, Dark blue, Pacific Blue\nLumiere - Sunset Gold\nTIP 1: Dilute the leather paint with a little water - it goes on more evenly. You may need more than one coat but the effect is better.\nTIP 2: Rinse your brushes and change your water after each colour.\nLeave the paint to dry - preferably overnight.\nStep 7: Colour Your Edges\nUsing your black marker pen colour the edges of the leather black\nStep 8: Add Protective Coating\nMix a small amount of Resolene acylic finish with water (half and half) in a pot.\nMake sure your work surface is protected with a piece of cardboard and using a broad brush paint the Resolene on the back of the tray first. This sticks down any suede bits on the back.\nNow turn over and paint the front of the tray with a very thin coat of Resolene.\nLeave to dry for at least an hour.\nThe Resolene acrylic finish provides a water resistant coating.\nTIP: Wash your brush and pot thoroughly immediately after using.\nStep 9: Wax Edges\nWax the edges of the leather using a block of beeswax then rub the edges using a wooden burnishing tool until the edges look shiny and feel smooth.\nStep 10: Bend Up Edges\nLay a ruler across the tray from notch to notch.\nCarefully bend up the edge along the ruler.\nRun your finger or the wooden burnishing tool along the back of the edge to get a nice crease.\nDo this for all 4 edges.\nStep 11: Punch First Holes for Rivets\nTest your holepunch on a scrap piece of leather to find which hole is the right size for your rivets. This will probably be 2.5mm or 3mm\nPunch a hole in each corner tab of your tray\nStep 12: Punch Matching Holes in Your Tray\nFold each corner tab round so that the top edges are parallel.\nMark with a pencil through the existing hole for where the matching hole needs to be.\nRepeat for all 4 corners.\nNow punch the matching holes using your hole punch\nStep 13: Set the Rivets\nUse a chopping board to protect your surface when setting your rivets.", "421" ], [ "Easy to Make Dragonfly Pendant\nIntroduction: Easy to Make Dragonfly Pendant\nThis is a dragonfly pendant made from scrap pieces of paracord and a small piece of scrap suede or leather. It's easy and fun to make and looks good too.\nI don't like waste so I save tail ends of paracord and offcuts of leather and suede from other projects. This is a great way to use some of those up.\nStep 1: What You Will Need\nSome scrap ends of paracord - ranging in size from 6cm to about 12cm\n2 small pieces of suede 2cm x 8cm\n15cm piece of bendable wire\n70cm length of rattail satin / suede / cord or whatever you want for going round your neck.\nScissors\nPliers\nSmall hole punch or something that will make a hole through the suede\nSuperglue\nStep 2: Make a Paracord \"bead\"\nTake a length of paracord, cut the ends off and pull the core out of the middle.\nUsing a lighter gently heat the paracord ends and squash flat.\nNow roll up the paracord into a \"snail\" and using superglue stick the end down.\nStep 3: Make More Paracord \"beads\"\nMake more paracord roll-up \"beads\".", "177" ], [ "I've varied the length of the paracord from 6cm for the smallest to 12cm for the largest.\nIt's up to you what colours you use and may depend on what colours you have.\nI've chosen shades of blue and turquoise, but the choice is yours.\nStep 4: Make Dragonfly Wings\nUsing a piece of suede, cut out 2 pieces 2cm wide by 8cm long.\nShape the ends of the wings.\nGlue the wings in the middle with a spot of glue.\nPunch a small hole through the wings so they can be threaded.\nStep 5: Prepare the Wire\nTake a piece of bendable wire about 15cm long.\nUsing pliers make a circular loop at one end.\nStep 6: Thread the \"beads\" and Wings\nDecide on the order of your paracord beads. I've laid it out on my board to decide what looks best.\nAs you will see I have several left over \"beads\" for another time.\nNow thread the beads and wings onto your wire.\nStep 7: Finishing Off the Wire.\nPull the beads tight on the wire then using the pliers form a loop on the top of the top bead.\nThis will stop the beads separating.\nNow form a double loop of wire so the pendant can be hung.\nStep 8: Hang Your Dragonfly Pendant\nCut a length of rattail satin or whatever you are using for your necklace. I've used about 70cm, so it will go over my head. Heat the ends of the satin to stop fraying.\nLoop the satin through the pendant wire and knot the satin ends.\nYour dragonfly pendant is now ready to fly.\nStep 9: Wear Your Creation\nNow your dragonfly pendant is ready - put it on and take it for a fly.", "177" ], [ "\"Hugs and Kisses\" Rattail Satin Elasticated Cat / Kitten Collar\nIntroduction: \"Hugs and Kisses\" Rattail Satin Elasticated Cat / Kitten Collar\nCat collars need to be elasticated so that they can't get trapped by their collar. This is an easy to make collar from elastic and rattail satin with a hugs and kisses (XOXO) motif. Choose your own colours to go with your cat.\nSupplies\nSmall side release buckle\n2 colours of 2mm rattail satin - lengths required depend on the size of your cats neck. Allow 1 foot (30cm) per inch (2.5cm) of the main colour (bronze), and half of that length for the secondary colour (green).\nScissors\nFid\n2mm round elastic - length twice the circumference of your cats neck\nSuperglue\nOptional bracelet jig, pet tag, small split ring\nStep 1: Measure the Cat, Cut and Glue the Elastic\nUsing a piece of string (or the elastic you are going to use - measure round the cats neck. Don't make it tight - allow for getting two fingers underneath the collar.\nCut your elastic to the size your just measured and then glue the ends with a dab of superglue to make a circle.\nStep 2: Attach the Elastic to Both Ends of the Buckle\nMake a loop in the elastic , thread it through one of the buckle ends and flip the loop over the buckle end. Do the same for both ends making sure that the buckle fastens straight and you don't have any twists in your elastic.\nStep 3: Attach Your Main Colour (Bronze)\nNow fold your main colour of rattail satin in half.", "748" ], [ "Take the loop and thread through one end of your buckle and flip the loop over the buckle to attach.\nYou can see in this picture that my elastic join is part way down the main length of elastic.\nStep 4: Attach the Buckles to Your Jig\nAdjust your jig to size and loop the buckles over the ends.\nIf you don't have a jig - use some nails hammered part way into a piece of wood set to the right length.\nStep 5: Tie a Cobra Knot\nUsing your main colour, using the right hand thread form a backwards \"S\" loop to the left hand side (see 1st photo) .\nNow pass the left hand thread through the lower half of the \"S\" behind the elastic and up through the top half of the \"S\" (2nd photo)\nThis is a cobra knot.\nStep 6: Attach Your Second Colour (Green)\nBefore you tighten your cobra knot. Fold your second colour in half and thread through your untightened knot and behind the elastic (see the photo)\nNow you can tighten your knot.\nStep 7: Form a Cross With Your Second Colour (Green)\nNow form a cross with your second colour (green in my case). Take the green threads behind the bronze threads and position out of the way at the top of the jig.\nStep 8: Tie a Second Cobra Knot\nNow tie a second cobra knot (on the opposite side). Use the left hand thread to make your forwards \"S\" this time.\nNow pass the right hand thread through the lower half of the \"S\" behind the elastic and up through the top half of the \"S\".\nPull the knot tight.\nStep 9: Position Green Threads\nTake your green threads and pull them straight down with the bronze threads out to the side (Photo 1)\nNow take the green threads up and over the bronze threads and leave them at the top of the jig out of the way (Photo 2)\nStep 10: Tie Your Next Cobra Knot\nNow use the right hand thread to tie a cobra knot out to the left side. (Same as step 5)\nPull it tight.\nStep 11: Make Your Next Cross With the Green Thread\nAnd now we're back to forming the next cross (as in step 7).\nMake sure you make your crosses all the same way.\nStep 12: Repeat Repeat Repeat\nKeep following the pattern, repeating steps 8, 9 ,10,11\nStep 13: Right to the End\nRepeat the pattern until you run out of room. You may find the last few knots a bit tricky as there isn't a lot of room.\nNow remove your collar from the jig.\nStep 14: Finishing\nTo finish off we need to tuck the ends of the satin in.\nI'm using a fid to thread each of the satin cords along the back of the collar.\nStep 15: Cut the Ends and Seal\nNow cut the satin ends and seal using a lighter.\nStep 16: It's Mine\nNow your cat collar is finished.", "748" ], [ "Orange Suede Statement Necklace\nIntroduction: Orange Suede Statement Necklace\nDo you want to make an impact - then wear a statement necklace. This is an easy to make necklace. I've used orange suede, but use whatever colour you like to go with what you are wearing.\nSupplies\nFor this project you will need:\nPiece of Suede (orange) 2mm thick\nSome beads - I'm using 18 x 6mm wooden beads. If your beads are bigger then you may not need as many.\nScissors\nPencil or tailors chalk\n70cm of 3mm faux leather lace or leather lace for stringing\nFid\nHole punch\nCardboard\nMagnetic clasp (4mm hole)\nSuperglue\nStep 1: Draw and Cut Out Your Pattern\nFor this project I'm using a petal shape in three sizes. Draw your own or download a flower petal shape from the internet.\nI've drawn mine onto a piece of cardboard retrieved from the recycling (old biscuit packet). Use this as a template for transferring to your suede.\nStep 2: Copy Your Pattern Onto the Suede\nNow trace round your pattern onto the back of the suede.", "673" ], [ "I'm using a pencil so it doesn't leave marks. You could also use dressmakers chalk.\nThere are 5 of the large petals, and 2 of each of the smaller sizes.\nStep 3: Cut Out Your Petals\nNow carefully cut out your petal shapes.\nStep 4: Punch Holes Into Your Petals\nNow fold each petal vertically and punch a 3mm twin hole into the top. Do this for all your petals.\nStep 5: Prepare the Lace and Pieces\nScrew the lace onto the fid (cut the end of the lace at an angle and just screw it in until it is tight)\nArrange your petals and beads into threading order.\nYou may notice I only have 3 large petals in this picture - that's because I changed my mind and added 2 extra large petals making 5 large in total.\nStep 6: Thread the Pieces Onto the Lace\nThread all the pieces onto the lace. When you have finished threading adjust the lace so the pieces are in the middle.\nStep 7: Choose Your Necklace Length\nTry the necklace round your neck and decide how long or short you want it to be.\nI've decided that I want each lace to be 16cm from the last bead to the clasp.\nDepending on the kind of clasp you use you may need to allow for any folding at the clasp.\nFOr my magnetic clasp I'll need to fold the end of the lace so I need 2cm extra on each end.\nStep 8: Attach the Clasp\nI'm using a magnetic clasp. The end of the lace needs to be folded in 3 to fit snugly.\nPlace a drop of superglue in the clasp and push in the folded lace. Don't overdo the superglue or you'll glue your fingers like I did :-)\nStep 9: Ready to Make a Statement!\nNow your necklace is ready to wear. Go out and make a statement!", "748" ], [ "Hearts Leather Lace Bracelet Made on the Kumihimo Square Disk\nIntroduction: Hearts Leather Lace Bracelet Made on the Kumihimo Square Disk\nI have recently got hooked on kumihimo - the Japanese art of braiding. Here we try out a flat braid made with round leather lace. The braiding isn't difficult.\nSupplies\nKumihimo square disk - buy one or follow my instructable to make your own.\n3mm leather lace in two colours (I'm using red and black) - 300cm (120 inches) black and 100cm (40 inches) red\nTape\nGlue (E6000 or similar)\nRuler\nNylon Thread\nBlack permanent marker pen\n9 inches 1mm / 18 gauge silver coated copper wire\nWire cutters\nRound nose pliers\nFid\n120cm / 4 feet of faux leather lace - black\nStep 1: Cut Your Leather Lace\nFor this instructable you need 8 lengths of 3mm leather lace each 50cm (20 inches) long.\nCut 2 red and 6 black\nStep 2: Bind Ends of Leather\nGather the ends of your leather lace and either tape or bind with thread. I found that the tape didn't stick very well and I needed some glue to stop the ends coming loose.\nStep 3: Set Up Your Kumihimo Board\nPush the ends through the centre of the kumihimo plate and lay out the laces in the pattern shown.\nRed in slots E and e\nBlack in slots 5,6,15,16,G and g\nStep 4: Weaving 1st Step\nTake the leather lace from 5 and move it to h, then take the leather lace from 6 and move it to H\nBe careful you don't mix up your order or your lower and upper case letters)\nStep 5: Weaving 2nd Step\nNow take the lace from 16 and put it in D. Then take the lace from 15 and put it in d.\nStep 6: Weaving 3rd Step\nNow take lace from E and move it to 15. Then take lace from e and move it to 16.\nStep 7: Weaving 4th Step\nTake the lace from G and move to 5, then take the lace from g and move to 6.\nStep 8: Reposition Cords\nNow reposition your cords.\nD to E\nH to G\nd to e\nh to g\nAnd we're back at the starting position again\nStep 9: Repeat, Repeat, Repeat\nNow it's just a case of repeating the steps.\nHere is a condensed form of moves:\n5 to h then 6 to H\n16 to D then 15 to d\nE to 15 then e to 16\nG to 5 then g to 6\nReposition D to E, H to G, d to e, h to g\nJust keep repeating and you will see your braid forming at the back of the disk.\nStop when you have run out of cord or have the required length for your bracelet.\nStep 10: Remove From Disk and Bind End\nHold tight to your cords when removing from the kumihimo disk and bind the cord ends to stop them coming unravelled. I found nylon thread works well.\nStep 11: Bind Glue and Cut to Size\nMeasure how long you want your bracelet to be.", "421" ], [ "Mine is going to be 7.5 inches (19.5cm) plus the fastenings\nBind your woven cords using nylon thread, just behind where you are going to cut. Also add glue to hold it (E6000 or similar)\nLeave to dry before cutting.\nCut the ends.\nStep 12: Colour the Cut Ends\nColour the cut ends using a permanent marker pen\nStep 13: Make Your Own Toggle Clasp Findings\nI was hoping to just buy some clasps for finishing off this bracelet, but I've struggled to find anything that fits, so not one to accept defeat I've decided to make my own findings.\nI made a toggle clasp.\nFor the loop part you will need 4 inches of 1mm / 18 gauge silver coated copper wire. Start from the middle and form the loop - I'm using the top of a glue bottle to help get it circular. Now made a twist and fold the ends in, so you have the shape in the picture. If the ends are too long snip off the excess.\nFor the bar part you will need 5 inches of wire. Make a bend at 2 inches and fold, then make a bend at 3 inches and fold to make the T bar. Where the wires cross in the centre, fold out at 90 degrees, make a double twist, and then fold the ends in like you did for the loop. You should be able to follow the picture.\nFlatten your findings a little using a hammer and anvil.", "276" ] ]

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[ [ "What an interesting question. I've often thought about what it would be like to be transported to a different time. I think it would be much like moving to a new country and having to learn the language and adapt to strange customs. I know from personal experience that it is not an easy process to go through, although there are many rewards. The answer to how long it takes to adapt is that like all learning experiences, adaptation to a new culture is a long and complex process, and it is different for everyone. People have very different levels of resourcefulness, and different attitudes toward change. I would think that examining <PERSON>'s assets and deficits in this regard would make an interesting story.\nA Couple of Ways to Think About It:\nYou might want to research the \"stages of culture shock\", which is a construct developed by anthropologist <PERSON> for understanding the process <PERSON> would likely be faced with in adapting to a new culture and language. Wikipedia has an in-depth definition & description of the problem. According to Wikipedia, there are four stages one would go through to adapt to a new culture:\nHoneymoon\nNegotiation\nAdjustment\nAdaptation\nYou might also want to look at stages of grief.", "140" ], [ "In a sense, <PERSON> has lost all his family, friends and everything he knows, BY ACCIDENT. It is reasonable to assume that he would experience grief as it becomes clear to him that he can never return. <PERSON>, a psychiatrist and author of the book “On Death and Dying,” identified five stages of grief, leading to acceptance of loss.\nDenial\nAnger\nBargaining\nDepression\nAcceptance\n<PERSON> will be undergoing both of these processes, while having much to learn simultaneously.\nUsing familiar constructs that describe these processes will help you outline a logical trajectory for <PERSON>'s behavior & reactions to things. While he will have many wonders to explore, he will also experience disorientation, along with feelings of isolation and loss. He will need to be resourceful, and have a capacity for forming new & trusting relationships or he may suffer from depression that undermines his ability to adapt.\nOne of his strengths may be that he has a good education, since he is from a rich family, and may already have some experience learning another language. Maybe he studied Latin. And maybe he has some practice using his noggin.\nBut also, coming from a privileged background, he may be hampered by a sense of entitlement that would make arriving with only the clothes on his back, and no modern work skills quite a hardship. What other character traits does he possess that would either help or hinder him in adjusting to his new life?\nI look forward to hearing more about <PERSON>. He certainly has an adventure before him.", "861" ], [ "Feelings of loneliness arise for a variety of reasons, only some of which are physical.\n* Crowding increases loneliness.\n* Greenspace decreases it.\nCrowding forces you to develop a \"thick skin.\" If you are in a crowd you cannot pay attention to the details of the lives of those around you, because it would quickly overwhelm you. So you build defenses against being intimate with people. And those tend to work on everybody.\nGreenspace is relaxing. And it spreads people out. And people who are relaxed tend not to be so on guard. So you meet people. Say you take your dog for a walk and meet somebody else walking their dog. Or you go hiking and meet another hiker.\nSo arranging things such that people don't live in \"rabbit warren\" apartment blocks with many thousands of people all piled on each other is helpful. And lots of parks and walking paths and other similar things is also.\nHowever, a key quote from that link is this:\nIn contrast, perceived social inclusivity – the feeling of being with people who share our values and make us feel welcome – was associated with a 21% decrease in loneliness.", "207" ], [ "This suggests that it’s the quality of our social relationships that matter – rather than the amount of social contact we have.\nThat is, you will feel less lonely if you are in a community of people who share your values. Just a few examples of such communities (there are, of course, many more): - Religious groups - Community and volunteer groups such as The Shriners - Activity groups such as Scouting\nSo what you want is cultural structure that encourages activities based around common values or common ideas.\nThe type of group that works will depend on the local culture. For example, there is a group called Four H. The four H's are head, heart, hands, and health. It is primarily a rural-farm sort of thing. They do things like teaching children how to raise farm animals, or do bee keeping, or the basics of forestry. It won't work very well for people who live in typical mostly-pavement cities. But a modified version could certainly be arranged. After all, Beverly Hills California has a Boy Scout troop.", "121" ], [ "What are realistic future jobs for humans in a world where most (but not all) of society can be and is run by AI?\nWhen pondering the jobs that are not well suited to AI, two factors come to mind: trust and connection.\nAlthough technology is advancing rapidly, and AI may reduce the likelihood of accidents in many cases, there are certain situations for which I would not risk AI errors. Take, for instance, childcare. Would you trust your child with a robot? Ignoring the fact that AI childcare would involve a borderline creepy level of surveillance, children are too precious to leave without any human attendants present.\nObviously there are countless examples in which humans failed the children in their care, but I personally take comfort in knowing that humans can recognize when something did not go according to plan and can reason through alternatives. In the same situation, would the robot’s algorithm produce safe alternatives? Could a bug in the program result in a dangerous response? It’s simply not a chance I would be willing to take, and I suspect many parents agree. As a result, I believe childcare is a job that will be left to humans in the future.\nBeyond trust, humans crave connection in certain interactions. We may not care if a robot or a human prepared our food because food preparation is often an impersonal act to begin with. However, when working through trauma during a therapy session, most people feel more comfortable opening up to a being who understands the human experience.", "64" ], [ "An AI program can provide tips for reducing anxiety and generate exercises for improving your mental health. True mental health, however, requires interaction with others. Humans need connection with other humans to function optimally. Therefore, professions that involve meaningful and personal relationships, such as counseling, will continue to be filled by humans.\nOn a final note, the question states that in this hypothetical society, not all functions are yet run by AI. The question implies, therefore, that humans are still necessary for creating and maintaining the AI programs. Until AI can diagnose and debug all of its own problems, humans will need to fix the code and fine-tune AI before AI can fully take over the impersonal jobs that do not rely on trust. Programming truly is a career of the future.", "64" ], [ "You can explain it in the same way people explain why one person has a higher IQ than another, and why another thinks faster than another. It is related to genetics.\nJust like genetics can determine whether a person is color-blind, red-green color-blind, \"normal\", or can actually see more colors than the average person (like this woman), genetics can determine what powers a person can tap into.\nThen consider that we only use a small percentage of our brains. Those with magic would simply be more intelligent and be able to use more of their brain power, potentially unlocking abilities that normal humans can't do.\nThen you add training on top of that, and you can make someone truly magical. For example, some monks have so much control of their body, they can control their blood pressure, body temperature and heart rate through thought alone. Take this to the next level, and people can start controlling additional things with their mind, even external things.\nThen you can add in the metaphysical.", "227" ], [ "Some say that we shape our world with our words and thoughts. Someone who is powerful with their words and mind can will things to happen, and they happen.\nSo you could explain that a certain level of intelligence is needed to fully take advantage of the power of the mind, and this power of the mind is often looked upon as magic by the rest of the population. Their mind is so strong that they can literally will into existence what they want, including the ability to fly on a broomstick.\n<PERSON> might be an important cut off point, because before puberty, humans are usually dependent and curious. Some studies even suggest that children ages 0 to 7 are actually in a hypnotic/dream state where dreams and reality are mixed, and they are very open to suggestion and training. As they reach puberty, they start becoming more independent, thinking for themselves instead of absorbing everything around them. This transition from a being that focuses on absorbing information & learning to one that thinks for itself and thinks independently could lend itself to puberty being the time of selection and screening.", "494" ], [ "Note: if this answer is too long, you can skip to the main conclusion section below.\nWe can explore what sort of robots we would need by looking at the absolutely critical factors that children need to grow into mature adults with the core behaviours you mentioned, and whether/how robots can facilitate the same.\nThere is no magic bullet to this: no collection of robots can absolutely raise a perfect group of children. There are genetic, congenital and even accidental factors involved that can strongly impact lifetime development that you can't necessarily weed out completely. Nor can you expect a thoroughly perfect answer: children's development is still very much an active research area, and there are few certainties in this regard.\nAssuming only that a select group of children are introduced into this artificial environment that meet a minimum bar (no damage, no genetic diseases, etc.), then we can proceed on that assumption to flesh out what factors are needed to provide future care.\nWhat I'm Going to Ignore: For the purposes of this question, we will assume a certain level of common sense e.g. that actively dangerous substances or materials are prohibited in the child rearing environment, that it meets a minimum standard of human care (e.g. no extreme sensory deprivation, it is light, not too hot, not too cold, etc.), and that some care is taken for granted (i.e. age-appropriate consumption and regular diaper changing are enforced, but everything else is not guaranteed).\nAll we want is to know what the bare minimum an active agent needs to provide to stimulate the relevant skills - in other words, we will also ignore needless frills that encourage faster development but are not required to stimulate the necessary skills, like, say, making them listen to <PERSON> at an early age.\nSensory Stimulation\ntl;dr Robots need to have human-like skin but don't have to look human, though it is best if they do.\nThere is some evidence that suggests that sensory stimulation between mother and child between an active agent and children plays an important role in infant's long-term social development. Foals exposed to limited maternal contact post-partum experience \"patterns of insecure attachment to their mothers (strong dependence on their mothers, little play) and impaired social competences (social withdrawal, aggressiveness) at all ages. \"\n<PERSON> explored the mother-child bond among rhesus monkeys. Part of his experiments involved rigging up inanimate surrogate mothers (excerpts taken from his Wikipedia page, with points for citation removed except where marked as needed):\n... <PERSON> created inanimate surrogate mothers for the rhesus infants from wire and wood. Each infant became attached to its particular mother, recognizing its unique face and preferring it above all others.[citation needed] <PERSON> next chose to investigate if the infants had a preference for bare-wire mothers or cloth-covered mothers.", "693" ], [ "For this experiment, he presented the infants with a clothed mother and a wire mother under two conditions. In one situation, the wire mother held a bottle with food, and the cloth mother held no food. In the other situation, the cloth mother held the bottle, and the wire mother had nothing.\nOverwhelmingly, the infant macaques preferred spending their time clinging to the cloth mother. Even when only the wire mother could provide nourishment, the monkeys visited her only to feed. <PERSON> concluded that there was much more to the mother-infant relationship than milk, and that this \"contact comfort\" was essential to the psychological development and health of infant monkeys and children. It was this research that gave strong, empirical support to <PERSON>'s assertions on the importance of love and mother-child interaction.[citation needed]\nSuccessive experiments concluded that infants used the surrogate as a base for exploration, and a source of comfort and protection in novel and even frightening situations. In an experiment called the \"open-field test,\" an infant was placed in a novel environment with novel objects. When the infant’s surrogate mother was present, it clung to her, but then began venturing off to explore. If frightened, the infant ran back to the surrogate mother and clung to her for a time before venturing out again. Without the surrogate mother's presence, the monkeys were paralyzed with fear, huddling in a ball and sucking their thumbs.\n<PERSON> later experiments are largely considered unethical (he subjected rhesus infants to extreme long-term sensory deprivation for up to two years, with no light in a confined environment), it would appear that having robots that mimic the sensation of skin are in some ways required for children to be socially well-adjusted later on.\nSuch robots would be best off mimicking the characteristics of maternal skin as much as possible. For example, new mothers' skin is responsive to their babies' temperature.", "362" ], [ "Reading \"Polyphasic Sleep: Facts and Myths (Dr Piotr Wozniak)\", it is pointed out that infant humans do undergo polyphasic sleep. As this is where most of our development is obviously done, I do not know where I can further proceed with the question about how it would affect development? Perhaps the issue is more how it would effect the day to day performance of a developed individual? If this is the case then it is suggested by Dr <PERSON> that this is likely to be highly disruptive to the individual\nThose well-defined effects of natural sleep affecting stimuli on sleep patterns lead to an instant conclusion: the claim that humans can adapt to any sleeping pattern is false. A sudden shift in the schedule, as in shift work, may lead to a catastrophic disruption of sleep control mechanisms. 25% of North American population may work in variants of shift schedule. Many shift workers never adapt to shifts in sleep patterns. At times, they work partly in conditions of harmful disconnect from their body clock, and return to restful sleep once their shift returns to their preferred timing. At worst, the constant shift of the working hours results in a loss of synchrony between various physiological variables and the worker never gets any quality sleep. This propels an individual on a straight path to a volley of health problems...\nIt appears that polyphasic sleep encounters the precisely same problems as seen in jet lag or shift-work.", "551" ], [ "Human body clock is not adapted to sleeping in patterns other than monophasic or biphasic sleep.\nIt would therefore seem that polyphasic sleep is certainly detrimental to health, if not development.\nHowever studies into cognitive performance resulting from differing sleep patterns run by Dr <PERSON> (Published ISBN <PHONE_NUMBER>), he concluded that polyphasic sleep was more efficient than monophasic sleep. Therefore it may be possible that polyphasic sleep patterns have no detrimental effect on development.\nIndividuals sleeping for 30 minutes every four hours, for a daily total of only 3 hours of sleep, performed better and were more alert, compared to when they had 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep\nThere are a couple of theories mentioned in the above book (beginning pg 5) which support the development of monophasic sleep as evolution rather than a social convention:\n1. Polyphasic sleep is regularly seen in smaller mammals that have very high metabolic rates, requiring them to spend most of their time foraging or hunting. Therefore a long sleep would be highly impractical for them as they would wake without the energy required to hunt their next meal. Humans do not have this need as they are larger and do not require such regular meals.\n2. Monophasic sleep would be beneficial for the early human hunter gatherer as our eyes are not well adapted to see at night. Therefore any time spent not using the daylight is wasted and any time without the light is not nearly as useful. This makes it more beneficial to sleep for an extended period when the sun is down.\nI am sure that social factors would have an effect, however I would imagine the evolutionary pressures to be more significant.\nI really would recommend the book (http://sleepwarrior.com/Claudio_Stampi_-_Why_We_Nap.pdf) if you have not yet encountered it as I found it very informative and packed with references to studies that you may find helpful.", "551" ], [ "Given that the series draws so heavily from Native American mythology, and given what I know as a social worker serving Indigenous communities in Canada. It seems that <PERSON> is borrowing the owl motif from the original peoples of 'Turtle Island' (North America). Many First Nations (Native) groups regard Owls as a symbol of death and a bad omen. You will remember seeing many Haida style totems of Owls in <PERSON> office and other rooms at 'The Great Northern'.\n\"Native American symbols are geometric portrayals of celestial bodies, natural phenomena and animal designs. Native American bird and animal symbols and totems are believed to represent the physical form of a spirit helper and guide. The meaning of the Owl symbol signifies a bad omen. According to Native American legends and myths of some tribes the Owl is a symbol of death.", "919" ], [ "The owl is a creature of the night and was strongly associated with the supernatural. The circles around the eyes of an owl are believed to be made up of the fingernails of ghosts. Owls were also believed to be messengers from beyond the grave and would deliver warnings to people who had BROKEN TRIBAL TABOOS [relevant to the incest themes of TWIN PEAKS]. Even to hear an owl hooting was considered to be an unlucky omen. The Pueblo people, including the Hopi tribe, associated owls with their belief in witches [Dugpa's & Lodge Sorcery?] and the feathers of owls have a very sinister significance. For additional information refer to Power Animals.\" - From https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-symbols/owl-symbol.htm (emphasis and parenthesis mine)\nBy all this I mean to add credence to the theory which states that the significance of Owls in the series is indeed a connection to the occultism of the Black Lodge and the malevolent spirits therein, as well as the way in which these entities are a reflection of the dark side of the townsfolk (<PERSON> and <PERSON> chiefly especially in exploiting their daughters, but most others in some sense also).\nIn the spirit of psychoanalytic interpretation of <PERSON>'s cannon I wish also to state that an ethnopsychiatric perspective on the <PERSON> mythology would suggest that they are a representation of what <PERSON> called the 'Death Drive' or Thanatos in opposition to Eros or Love. Remember that the the keys to the white and black lodges are love [empathy] and fear [annihilation anxiety] respectively I wonder if <PERSON> has read <PERSON> work on the Good and Bad object (read: breast; peaks?) as much of his work seems to deal with schizoid defences such as splitting (the sorting of experience into polar categories of good vs evil, nurturance and pleasure vs neglect, anxiety and frustration).", "404" ], [ "An example with a fabulous mathematical proof playing the role that your information on a piece of paper played:\nOn the other hand, we have to consider the idea of a consistent causal loop. While equally thought-provoking, this theoretical model of time travel is paradox free. According to physicist <PERSON>, such a loop might play out like this: A math professor travels into the future and steals a groundbreaking math theorem. The professor then gives the theorem to a promising student. Then, that promising student grows up to be the very person from whom the professor stole the theorem to begin with.\nFrom How Time Travel Works, by <PERSON> and <PERSON>\n<PERSON>, in the story \"By His Bootstraps\" also illustrated this kind of causal loop in an \"uncaused\" or \"self-caused\" warning that loops through time. From www.fresian.com's Time Travel Paradoxes page:\nA paradox of time travel arises in relation to this story. The narrator does indeed set himself up \"by his bootstraps\" -- his present and future selves all interact with each other to produce the events. The paradoxical nature of this comes down to the case of a notebook that was provided to the narrator by the older man in the future.", "194" ], [ "It contained a vocabulary of the language that was spoken by people in the future. The narrator learns the language and, as the book wears out over the years, copies it over into a notebook he had fetched from the present. This notebook, as it happens, is the very one he, as the older man, then provides to his other self. He is therefore the same person who both learns the knowledge from the notebook and put the knowledge into the notebook in the first place. The vocabulary as a certain list of items arranged in a certain way was thus complied by no one whatsoever. The knowledge exists in a closed temporal loop and is in an important sense uncaused or uncreated. The narrator himself notes that there is something peculiar about this.\nThere is, of course, a Wikipedia page devoted to time travel paradoxes, and one is the causal loop paradox, or as it is also known the predestination paradox:\nA predestination paradox (also called causal loop, causality loop, and, less frequently, closed loop or closed time loop) is a paradox of time travel that is often used as a convention in science fiction. A temporal causality loop is an event whereby a specific moment in time repeats itself continually inside an independent fragment of time. The paradox occurs when a time traveler is caught in a loop of events that \"predestines\" or \"predates\" him or her to travel back in time.\nIn your example the information on the paper is the predestined traveler.\nIndeed, there is a Wikipedia page devoted to fiction featuring temporal causal loops (although some of the stories on this list are about such causal loops, some of the stories listed there veer towards self-fulfilling prophecy).", "999" ] ]

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[ [ "My anwer is mostly based on the speculation that <PERSON> intended to make the Elder Wand into a trap for <PERSON>\nThe complete thread is here http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/73717/why-didnt-severus-disapparate-in-the-shrieking-shack\nfrom deathly Hollows chapter: King's Cross\n“But you expected him to go after the wand?”\n“I have been sure that he would try, ever since your wand beat <PERSON>’s in the graveyard of Little Hangleton. At first, he was afraid that you had conquered him by superior skill. Once he had kidnapped <PERSON>, however, he discovered the existence of the twin cores.\n...naturally set out to find the one wand that, they said, would beat any other.\n...He believes that the Elder Wand removes his last weakness and makes him truly invincible. Poor <PERSON> . . .”\nNow that <PERSON> is sure that <PERSON> was after his wand. <PERSON> forms his plan. <PERSON> intends to turn the Elder wand (Unbeatable wand) into a trap for <PERSON>\nThe first step is to have <PERSON> kill him, in such a way that wand ownership does not transfer to <PERSON> (<PERSON> intends to die unvanquished)\nSecond Step is <PERSON> forms his plan with these scenarios in mind\nScenario 1\n<PERSON> steals the wand from <PERSON>'s grave (thinking and \"believing\" that stealing the wand will be enough to make him the wand's master).\n* end results:\n* <PERSON> would \"not\" have to die (preferable outcome - in <PERSON>'s mind).\n* <PERSON> won't order anybody else to kill <PERSON>. <PERSON> \"believes\" that he owns the Unbeatable Wand and <PERSON> himself will want to kill <PERSON> (which is the essential part of <PERSON>'s plan).\nDeathly Hollows chapter the prince's tale\n“So the boy .", "773" ], [ ". . the boy must die?” asked <PERSON> quite calmly.\n“And <PERSON> himself must do it, <PERSON>. That is essential.”\nScenario 2\n<PERSON> steals the wand \"but\" eventually deduces that he needs to kill <PERSON> (<PERSON>'s killer) to gain the Unbeatable Wand's loyalty.\n* end results:\n* <PERSON> has to die (regrettable to <PERSON>'s mind of course, but necessary)\n* <PERSON> won't order anybody else to kill <PERSON>. <PERSON> \"believes\" that he owns the Unbeatable Wand and <PERSON> himself will want to kill <PERSON> (which is the essential part of <PERSON>'s plan)\nTo resolve the discrepancy of wand ownership:\nDeathly Hallows chapter the Flaw in the plan\n“He killed —”\n“Aren’t you listening? <PERSON> never beat <PERSON>! <PERSON>’s death was planned between them! <PERSON> intended to die undefeated, the wand’s last true master! If all had gone as planned, the wand’s power would have died with him, because it had never been won from him!”\n.\nDeathly Hallows chapter King's Cross\nHe believes that the Elder Wand removes his last weakness and makes him truly invincible. Poor <PERSON> . . .”\n“If you planned your death with <PERSON>, you meant him to end up with the Elder Wand, didn’t you?”\n“I admit that was my intention,” said <PERSON>, “but it did not work as I intended, did it?”\n“No,” said <PERSON>. “That bit didn’t work out.”\nFirst quote takes precedence since it is more specific.\nThe conversation between <PERSON> and <PERSON> should actually be read as\n“If you planned your death with <PERSON>, you meant him (<PERSON>) to end up with the Elder Wand, didn’t you?”\nMy speculation is that it was only in King's Cross chapter that <PERSON> realized that <PERSON> was supposed to end up with the wand. <PERSON> also needed to confirm this with <PERSON> since only <PERSON> has the complete specifics of his own plan.", "773" ], [ "It isn't Unforgivable in the way that the Unforgivables are\nA popular fan theory is that there is no grey area with Unforgivable curses. They do what they say on the tin and nothing else. Killing curse kills, imperio controls, crucio tortures. The caster also has to fully understand and mean to cause the effect the curse entails too. There's no excuse for fully casting them other than they wanted to kill/control/torture.\nThis is alluded to in OotP when <PERSON> taunts <PERSON> about his weak/failed <PERSON>:\nHatred rose in <PERSON> such as he had never known before: he flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed, \"<PERSON>!\"\n<PERSON> screamed: the spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as <PERSON> had – she was already back on her feet, breathless, no longer laughing. [...]\n\"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?\" she yelled.", "773" ], [ "She had abandoned her baby voice now. \"You need to mean them, <PERSON>! You need to really want to cause pain – to enjoy it – righteous anger won't hurt me for long – I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson —\" (36.30-32) Order of the Phoenix\nAnd again with fake!Moody in the Goblet of Fire where he claims during the Unforgivables class that if the class were to all point their wands at him and say \"<PERSON>\" he wouldn't get much more than a bloody nose - they'd have to mean it for him to die (unable to find the quote for this, sorry).\nSectumsempra is different:\n<PERSON> is able to fully cast Sectumsempra off-hand and in a panic without understanding any of it's effects. Plus the curse is ambiguous as to how much damage it does, and as <PERSON><PHONE_NUMBER>) Order of the Phoenix\nAnd again with fake!Moody in the Goblet of Fire where he claims during the Unforgivables class that if the class were to all point their wands at him and say \"Avada Kedavra\" he wouldn't get much more than a bloody nose - they'd have to mean it for him to die (unable to find the quote for this, sorry).\nSectumsempra is different:\nHarry is able to fully cast Sectumsempra off-hand and in a panic without understanding any of it's effects. Plus the curse is ambiguous as to how much damage it does, and as Snape proves the damage is reversible. This makes it on par with spells like Reducto, Confringo, or Bombarda Maxima. Each of these spells could be used to decimate another wizard, but also could be used to wound instead.\nI would imagine in the HP universe there are more than just three curses that you aren't allowed to use too - the Unforgivables are just the worst and so are on another level. Sectumsempra would most likely regarded as Dark/illegal/restricted, along with other spells such as the organ-expelling/skin-boiling curse etc.", "773" ], [ "As <PERSON> pointed out we learned in \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" that living creatures can be turned into Horcruxes.\nThe Argument against it was:\nA phoenix could probably be a Horcrux. However, given that the Horcrux would be rendered useless when the phoenix regenerated, and that a phoenix wouldn't be likely to want to be a Horcrux anyway, making a phoenix into a Horcrux would be a poor choice.\nAt this point, I think we have to ask ourselves the question if a reborn Phoenix is really dead/destroyed beyond magical repair since this is the only possibility to destroy a Horcrux.\nThe Horcrux-receptacle has to be destroyed BEYOND REPAIR [...]\n— JKR on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/563633021837131777\nI would argue, that - since a Phoenix is a creature which is really hard to domesticate - it's body is replaced but its soul and memories are still the same after being reborn. Otherwise, that would mean that e.g. <PERSON> would have to domesticate <PERSON> each time he is reborn (which sounds to me too much work, even for <PERSON>).\nThe phoenix gains an XXXX rating not because it is aggressive, but because very few wizards have ever succeeded in domesticating it.\n— Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them\nI would argue that this shows that a phoenix is not damaged \"beyond repair\".\nSo here I think it depends. <PERSON> is a snake and therefore has to molt from time to time. One could argue that molting is a similar process as being reborn in terms of a Phoenix. That would mean, that when being killed/destroyed by e.g. the killing curse, the Horcrux inside the Phoenix would survive the process.\nOn the other hand, hitting a living creature which is a Horcrux with a killing curse does not necessarily kill the creature. An example of that is <PERSON> himself, who was hit by a killing curse but survived while the curse killed the Horcrux inside him.\nAlso <PERSON> argues often, that the Horcrux-Receptacle has to be destroyed beyond repair which in case of living creatures is the body of this creature.\n<PERSON>: So, can I ask this? This is kind of a random question but if <PERSON> had this Horcrux in him, of course, sort of, would he have actually have died, like say when a dragon could've killed him, or when he was falling during Quidditch, or anything?\n<PERSON>: Well, you've got to-- if his body had been irreperably destroyed, he has to die to get rid of that piece of soul. His body has got to be irreperably damaged.", "773" ], [ "So a lot of people asked, and I think I've answered this since... but a lot of people immediately said, having finished \"Hallows\", \"(gasps) But then, that means, in Chamber of Secrets when he was pierced by the basilisk...\" But no, no, no, no. He didn't die! He didn't die! That was stated right at the beginning with the Horcrux. The receptacle has got to be destroyed. His body wasn't destroyed. He got a bit poisoned, and then he got the antidote immediately. So, you know, that's not gonna drive out this piece of soul.\n— Interview: http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2007/1217-pottercast-anelli.html\nSo while the body of a molted snake is not damaged beyond repair, the body of a reborn phoenix is! That for me is the Argument, that turning a Phoenix into a Horcrux is a very bad idea.\nOn the (last) other side. <PERSON> body was still perfectly fine after <PERSON> hit him with the killing curse, so according to this theory the Horcrux would have theoretically survived. It didn't so... ;)", "773" ], [ "How is <PERSON> a 'bad wizard'?\nIn Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, <PERSON>, <PERSON> and <PERSON> run into <PERSON> and <PERSON> at the Hogwarts kitchens. When <PERSON> mentions <PERSON> is a judge for the Triwizard Tournament, <PERSON> (<PERSON>'s sacked house elf) says this:\n“Mr. <PERSON> comes too?” squeaked <PERSON>, and to <PERSON>’s great surprise (and <PERSON>’s and <PERSON>’s too, by the looks on their faces), she looked angry again. “Mr. <PERSON> is a bad wizard! A very bad wizard! My master isn’t liking him, oh no, not at all!”\n“<PERSON> — bad?” said <PERSON>.\n“Oh yes,” <PERSON> said, nodding her head furiously. “My master is telling <PERSON> some things! But <PERSON> is not saying . . . <PERSON> — <PERSON> keeps her master’s secrets. . . .”\nHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 21: The House Elf Liberation Front\nMy question is,\nWhy is <PERSON> considered to be a 'very bad wizard'?\nYes, that is only the opinion of <PERSON>. Everyone else seems to like <PERSON> (except <PERSON>, of course). But even <PERSON> doesn't seem to think <PERSON> is a bad wizard. <PERSON> just doesn't seem to like that <PERSON> is not a very good Head of Department because he hasn't sent out a search party for a missing <PERSON>.", "899" ], [ "<PERSON> is also shown (in various parts of the book) to not really care about <PERSON> security\n\"... And <PERSON>’s not helping. Trotting around talking about Bludgers and <PERSON> at the top of his voice, not a worry about anti-Muggle security...\"\n\"I thought Mr. <PERSON> was Head of Magical Games and Sports,” said <PERSON>, looking surprised. “He should know better than to talk about Bludgers near Muggles, shouldn’t he?”\n“He should,” said Mr. <PERSON>, smiling, and leading them through the gates into the campsite, “but <PERSON>’s always been a bit . . . well . . . lax about security...\"\n...\n<PERSON> was easily the most noticeable person <PERSON> had seen so far, even including old <PERSON> in his flowered nightdress. He was wearing long Quidditch robes in thick horizontal stripes of bright yellow and black.\nHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 7: Bagman and Crouch\n<PERSON> walks about the campsites outside the Quidditch stadium wearing his Quidditch robes while all other Ministry wizards are in Muggle clothing.\nHe is also quite unscrupulous, paying off his betting debts with Leprechaun Gold (which disappears after a few hours), and betting on <PERSON> in the Triwizard Tournament even though he is a judge himself.\nHowever, as much as <PERSON> loves sticking by rules and regulations, these shortcomings of <PERSON>'s can hardly classify him into the 'very bad wizard' category. <PERSON>'s demeanour seems to suggest <PERSON> is almost a dark wizard. Is there any canon evidence (movies don't count as canon) which corroborates <PERSON>'s statement? If not canon, well reasoned answers will be appreciated.", "899" ], [ "Why did <PERSON> say that it was \"essential\" that <PERSON> kills <PERSON> if <PERSON> was anyhow bound to life by his blood inside <PERSON>?\nThis is for me the biggest unresolved question of the Books. <PERSON> planned from the beginning that <PERSON> should first destroy all horcruxes and then should die by the hand of <PERSON> (which leads to <PERSON> telling to <PERSON> that he must die) and that <PERSON> should kill <PERSON> as last thing. The point is: why? <PERSON> since the Goblet of fire was \"immortal\", namely since <PERSON> took <PERSON>'s blood in his vein. Quoting the 7th book, chapter 35: ‘Precisely!’ said <PERSON>. ‘He took your blood and rebuilt his living body with it! Your blood in his veins, <PERSON>, <PERSON>’s protection inside both of you! He tethered you to life while he lives!’‘I live ... while he lives? But I thought ... I thought it was the other way round! I thought we both had to die? Or is it the same thing? [...] ‘He took your blood believing it would strenghten him. he took into his body a tiny part of the enchantment your mother laid upon <PERSON> when she died for you.", "773" ], [ "His body keeps her sacrifice alive, and while that enchantment survives, so do you’. And this all make sense with the prophecy. So, it is clear that <PERSON> would (or better COULD, if he chose to return back every time he died) live, even if he jumped from a cliff or someone killed him, till <PERSON> was alive. Then, why not kill himself alone (or with the help of his friends) to destroy the part of <PERSON> which is in him and then do the other things? Why is it so essential\" that it is <PERSON> to kill <PERSON>? The only reason I could find is the fact that <PERSON> wanted <PERSON> to accept death so that he could fully handle all the Deathly Hallows in order to have the power to kill <PERSON> (and yes, the Deathly Hallows in the books have only the function of making <PERSON> strong enough to kill <PERSON>, which in the end happened and was the reason <PERSON> won, because <PERSON> died by the elder wand as <PERSON> was the master of it, since <PERSON> took it from <PERSON>'s manor. Deathly Hallows have nothing to do with <PERSON> returning to life or anything special, they are only power). To support this, in book 7, chapter 35 <PERSON> says ‘If you laid hands on them, I wanted you to possess them safely. You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die’. Still, <PERSON> could have processed and accepted death even from other death eaters or other people, so I think that this is not the answer.", "773" ], [ "You seem to be confused about what a Horcrux is and its use.\nA Horcrux is used to make sure your soul stays on earth when your body is destroyed. It is created with a murder as it will shatter your soul and allow you to put a part of it inside an object.\nThen, when you die, your body is destroyed and your \"main\" soul is let to wander:\n* If you don't have any Horcrux it will continue its journey to the unknown.\n* If you have a horcrux (or more), however, it's a bit of your soul that will stay on earth no matter what, linked to the object in which you put it. So, if the body which contain your \"main\" soul is destroyed, instead of going, your soul will wander around until you find a body of your own. The bit of souls concealed in your horcruxes will remain untouched as their only use are to make sure your soul won't make the journey.\nAs for the other use of a Horcrux, in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, <PERSON> says something interesting:\n\"...I think I know what the sixth Horcrux is. I wonder what you will say when I confess that I have been curious for a while about the behavior of the snake, <PERSON>?”\n“The snake?\" said <PERSON>, startled. “You can use animals as Horcruxes?”\n“Well, it is inadvisable to do so,” said <PERSON>, “because to confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business.", "773" ], [ "However, if my calculations are correct, <PERSON> was still at least one Horcrux short of his goal of six when he entered your parents’ house with the intention of killing you.”\nThat's because usually you'll want to put your Horcrux in someplace safe where nobody will ever look. Breaking your soul to pieces is indeed a very dark thing to do and you don't want part of your soul to go wandering around. We can see in <PERSON>'s mind of King <PERSON> what someone whose soul is too shattered would become in the form of the hideous infant and understand why it is such a big deal and an important thing. (It's your soul!)\nFor example, the diary was a fantasy of <PERSON> who wanted to reoppen the Chamber of Secret (and thus was proven to be its unsafest Horcrux).\nYou don't want your Horcrux to remake your body of its own as it would put it in an unsafe situation, but instead would have to entrust someone to help you rebuild your body (<PERSON> in the book) or make something else ready for your resurrection by the time you die (No clue about what that would be though). And the Dark Lord didn't have that something in place by that time, as his plan to make himself immortal obviously wasn't finished: he didn't had all its Horcruxes, as he wanted <PERSON> to be the murder that would allow him to make his sixth and last <PERSON>.\nPlus, <PERSON> was really surprised when none of his Deatheaters came to him to help him after his death as he bragged many times he conquered death. His most faithful deatheaters (<PERSON>, <PERSON> Jr) being imprisonned at Azkaban.", "773" ], [ "In my opinion, <PERSON> is the same person he was when he lost his body the first time round.\nFor one, <PERSON> looked cosmetically like he did before, haunting <PERSON> dreams the way <PERSON> remembered him to look. You can gather from this that he looked the same as when he fell, when he was a human who was missing pieces of his soul.\nThe thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at <PERSON> . . . and <PERSON> stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snakes with slits for nostrils . . .", "417" ], [ "-GoF\nAdditionally, Ministry of Magic employees recognise him at the end of book 5, meaning he looks the same, and talks the same as before he was resurrected.\n\"I saw him, Mr. <PERSON>, I swear it was <PERSON>, he grabbed a woman and Disapparated!\" \"I know, <PERSON>, I know, I saw him too!\" gibbered Fudge -OoTP\nEssentially killing someone in the HP universe means destroying the body of a soul. As <PERSON> had split his soul, he would not be able to successfully/peacefully enter the afterlife like <PERSON> did once his soul had no more bodies/containers left in this world.\nThe fragment of soul inside it depends on its container, its enchanted body, for survival. It can’t exist without it.\" -DH\nKilling <PERSON> after he has no more horcruxes would be the same as killing any other wizard, he could get maimed by a dagger (grey lady death), bleed out (when <PERSON> got splinched, he was losing blood and consciousness, which would lead to death), have his throat split (the original owner of the elder wand) or killed by any other methods that could hurt any regular human.\nIt's just worth noting that skilled wizards can heal injuries in ways we cannot imagine. Perhaps a gunshot wound could be healed by accio'ing out the bullet, blood replenishing potions, and a number of healing charms. Remember how <PERSON> essentially gave <PERSON> another hand after he cut it off with a dagger, which was painful and would have lead to him bleeding out.\nPlus, you wouldn't need magic to kill, wizards are more than aware of guns, just not the science behind them. They know they can kill people, but just as muggles are ignorant of wizarding ways, wizards are ignorant of muggle ways. They don't use them because they have no need to.\nWhile Muggles have been told that <PERSON> is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other) - POA", "773" ], [ "Why could no one guess that a Basilisk was the monster?\nIn the Chamber of Secrets, till the end, no one knows that the monster of Slytherin and the creature behind the attacks is a Basilisk.\n<PERSON>, of all people, should have figured it out using the following clues\nThere are the following observations from which at least <PERSON> could figure out that the creature was a Basilisk:\n1. <PERSON> (and <PERSON>, perhaps?) being fond of snakes, it would be hard to miss that the monster of Slytherin would be snake-like at least.\n2. There are presumably a limited number of magical creatures that can petrify their victims.\n3. The fact that roosters were being found dead in suspicious circumstances was a clue to the Basilisk.\n4.", "773" ], [ "Plus, it wasn't a satisfactory explanation that an Acromantula killed <PERSON>, as she was uninjured, but dead.\nSurely <PERSON> could put two and two together and figure out what the monster was?\nI believe the clues pretty much narrow it down to a Basilisk, correct me if I am wrong.\nAfter all, even if it takes​ a genius to figure it out, <PERSON> was the right man for the job!\nBut he presumably didn't\nI say this because:\n1. He made no attempt to distribute mirrors among the students as a safety measure.\n2. Nor did he station hundreds of roosters in the school to kill the basilisk.(Surely even <PERSON> would have a hard time killing so many roosters quickly to save his basilisk?) This would have been an effective measure, as roosters living as far away as near <PERSON>'s hut were threats to the <PERSON>, so many roosters in the castle would probably get the job done.\nOf course these methods are kind of extreme, but they are helpful in saving lives.\nMy Question\nI can understand if no one else could figure out what <PERSON>'s monster was, but why couldn't <PERSON> do so?\nAfter all, all it would take is some digging. <PERSON>, highly intelligent, would probably figure it out easily.\nCan someone give me a reasonable explanation for this?", "773" ] ]

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[ [ "Halloween Pot Pie\nIntroduction: Halloween Pot Pie\nSavory Halloween pot pie from scratch. Jack-o'-lantern face will make it fun decoration on your holiday table!\nI will show you how to make an easy pie crust from scratch with only 3 ingredients.\nAnd also a delicious chicken and vegetable filling for the pot pie to die for! Delicious dinner idea for your family, a classic turned into Halloween chicken pot pie.\nThis Spooky Jack-O’-Lantern Chicken Pot Pie was first published on our blog. Check it to find more tips and tricks on how to make a pie crust.\nFollow this easy step-by-step recipe:\nSupplies\nFor the filling:\n1/3 cup unsalted butter\n1/3 cup chopped onion and garlic\n1/3 cup flour\n1/2 tsp salt\n1/4 tsp pepper\n1 3/4 cup chicken broth, low sodium\n1/2 cup milk\n1 1/2 cup cooked chicken\n2,5 cups vegetable mix (chopped potatoes, carrot and peas)\nFor the pie crust:\n2 1/2 cups flour\n1/3 cup salted butter\n5 tbsp water\nYou will also need a rolling pin and 11 inch pie pan\nStep 1: Cook the Filling\nStart with the filling, because it needs time to cool. You can make the filling ahead of time and store in the fridge up to 2-3 days.\nAdd butter to the hot pan.", "851" ], [ "Add chopped onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for a few minutes.\nAdd flour, salt and pepper and cook stirring 30 seconds.\nAdd chicken broth and milk.\nAdd mixed vegetables and cooked shredded chicken.\nCook the filling until it thickens, about 5 minutes.\nLet it cool completely before adding to the pie crust!\nStep 2: Make the Dough for the Pie Crusts\nYou can skip this step, if you have store-bought pie crust. But this is such an easy pie crust recipe!\nFirst, prepare all ingredients. Put flour in a large bowl, add cold butter, cut into cubes. Press with your fingers until you have a crumbly mixture.\nGradually add cold butter and knead until it comes together.\nDivide the dough into 2 discs (one larger than another), wrap each in plastic and leave in the fridge for 10 minutes.\nStep 3: Roll the Pie Crust\nUnwrap the larger disc and place it on the floured surface.\nDust the rolling pin with flour and roll the round bottom crust.\nCarefully roll the dough on the rolling pin to transfer to the 11 inch pie pan.\nPoke the holes in the bottom of the crust and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. This will prevent the crust from shrinking.\nStep 4: Make the Pie\nAdd the filling to the pie pan with pie crust.\nRoll the second disc and add it on top of the pie.\nPress the edges with your fingers and cut excess edges.\nUsing a sharp knife, cut the face of Jack-o-Lantern.\nBrush the top of the pie with beaten egg.\nStep 5: Bake the Pie and Serve\nBake 30-40 minutes in the oven, preheated to 425 F /220 C.\nLet it cool 10 minutes before serving and enjoy!\nYou can store it in the fridge for 3-4 days.", "702" ], [ "Dutch Apple Pie\nIntroduction: Dutch Apple Pie\nEasy and delicious apple pie recipe! It is HUGE, so you can serve it for your family and friends. A lovely project for leftover apples. Holidays or weekend will be better with this European apple pie.\nTraditional Dutch Apple Pie was first published on our blog. Check it out! You can read more about its origins and which apples to choose for baking.\nThis pie is so comforting and your kitchen will smell amazing with apples and cinnamon!\nSupplies\nFor the pastry:\n* 1/2 cup sugar\n* 2 1/3 cup flour all-purpose\n* 3/4 cup butter cold and cubed\n* 1 egg big\n* 2-3 tbsp water\nFor the filling:\n* 11 small apples\n* 1 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed\n* 2 tsp cinnamon ground\n* 1 tsp flour all-purpose\n* 1/2 cup sugar\n* 4 tbsp semolina\n* 1 egg yolk for brushing the top\nEquipment:\n* 8 inch spring form pan or pie form\n* bowls for mixing\n* pastry decorator knife (optional)\n* foil for baking\n* spoons or spatula\nStep 1: Make the Pastry\nCombine sugar and flour in a bowl.\nAdd few butter cubes and press them into the flour-sugar mixture with two forks or pastry maker. Add all butter cubes, pressing them into the flour.\nAdd an egg and water. Combine wet and dry ingredients.", "763" ], [ "Form the dough with your hands.\nWrap the dough in plastic, leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour.\nStep 2: Prepare Filling\nMeanwhile prepare your apples for the filling. Wash them, peel and remove the core with seeds.\nThinly slice apples and transfer them to a large bowl.\nAdd freshly squeezed lemon juice.\nAdd cinnamon, sugar, flour and combine until all apples are covered.\nStep 3: Form the Pie\nRemove the dough from the fridge, unwrap it and slice in half.\nForm the ball from one half, and roll the thick round for the pie form.\nPlace the bottom pan on the dough and cut the round for the bottom of the pie. Add it to the bottom of spring form pan pan.\nFrom the leftovers make 2-3 pieces for sides and put them in the pan, pressing to the sides.\nMake sure to press the stitches well to hold the filling! Don't make it too thin.\nStep 4: Add Filling\nSprinkle semolina on the bottom of the pie.\nAdd apples until top.\nStep 5: Make the Top of the Pie\nFrom the other half of the dough, form the round and roll it.\nUsing the pastry decorator knife make decoration. Alternatively, cut the 1/2 inch lines and place them on top of the pie. Press the decoration to the sides of the pie.\nBrush the top of the pie with egg yolk.\nStep 6: Bake and Serve\nCover the top of the pie with foil, bake for 30 min in the oven, preheated to 356 F.\nRemove from the oven, remove the foil and brush with leftover egg yolk.\nBake the pie uncovered for 30-40 min. The pie is ready until apples are softened and the top is browned.\nLet it cool in the pan, then transfer it to the serving plate.\nCut into pieces and serve with whipped cream or ice cream!", "891" ], [ "Easter Banana Bread\nIntroduction: Easter Banana Bread\nEasy banana bread is a lovely Easter treat to serve for your family. It is good for sharing around the table, super moist and delicious. Vanilla cream topping makes it more festive!\nBanana Carrot Bread Recipe was first published on our blog.", "290" ], [ "Check it to learn more tips on how to make and store it.\nI'm sure everyone will love a piece of moist and crunchy Easter banana bread. And it is a good way to use leftover brown spotted bananas and add veggies (carrots) to your picky toddler diet!\nSupplies\n2 eggs\n½ cup vegetable oil\n3 bananas ripe\n¼ cup brown sugar\n1 tsp vanilla powder or essence\n¾ cup oat flour or quick oats\n1 tsp baking soda\n1 tsp baking powder\n1 tsp cinnamon\n½ tsp ginger\n¼ tsp nutmeg\n1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour\n2 big carrots shredded\n½ cup walnuts chopped + extra for decoration\n1 tbsp Vanilla cream powder for cake (I used Dr.Oetker)\n1 cup milk of choice\n1 tbsp dried carrots optional\nEquipment:\n* bowl for mixing\n* 1 spatula\n* 1 Loaf pan\n* parchment paper\n* Oven\n* Whisk\n* fork\n* off-set spatula or spoon\nStep 1: Make Banana Bread Batter\nMash banana with a fork, then in separate bowl whisk eggs and oil until foamy.\nAdd egg mixture to mashed banana.\nAdd wheat flour and oat flour, fold in with a spatula.\nAdd sugar, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and spices. Mix until everything is incorporated.\nFinally fold in grated carrots and walnuts.\nStep 2: Bake the Bread\nAdd batter to the loaf pan, lined with parchment paper.\nBake 25-30 min in the oven, preheated to 190 C / 375 F, until inserted toothpick comes out clean.\nLet it cool completely before removing from the pan.\nStep 3: Make Topping\nWhip milk with vanilla cake cream powder (according to instructions on the package).\nApply cream to the bread with an off-set spatula or back of the spoon.\nDecorate with walnuts and dried carrots (optional).\nYou can also decorate with whipped cream cheese instead or drizzle with chocolate!\nStep 4: Cut and Serve\nCut the bread into thick slices and serve for your family!\nEnjoy!", "305" ], [ "Banoffee Pie\nIntroduction: Banoffee Pie\nBeautiful and simple sweet pie that every family member will enjoy! Because who doesn't love cookies, caramel, banana, cream and chocolate? Amazing combination for a sweet tooth!\nIt's an English dessert with flavors that everyone knows. If you haven't tried it, you should! Keep in mind that you will need more that one slice of this delicious pie.\nThis amazing pie was first published on our blog as No Bake Banoffee Pie. You can read on our blog, why this pie is called Banoffee.\nThere is no baking required to make this pie. It's an easy pie idea, when you want to have a treat or sudden guest arrives.", "290" ], [ "One of our favorite no bake pies!\nSupplies\n8 inch / 20 cm spring form pan\nfood processor or a bag + rolling pin\n230 g plain biscuits, cookies or graham crackers\n150 g melted butter\n1 can dulce de leche (caramelized or boiled condensed milk) (397 g)\n2 big bananas\n300 ml whipping cream or 1 1/4 cup\n1/2 tsp vanilla flavored instant coffee\n1 pack cream stabilizer 15g\n1/2 cup or 90 g dark chocolate for decoration (optional)\n1 tbsp crushed hazelnuts (optional)\nStep 1: Banoffee Pie Base\nCombine the crushed biscuits or cookies with melted butter.\nPress to the bottom and sides of the spring form pan or pie pan.\nUse food processor to crush the cookies. Alternatively, put cookies in a sealed bag and crush with the rolling pin.\nLet the base set in the fridge for 1 hour.\nStep 2: Pie Filling\nFill the bottom of the pie with caramelized condensed milk or Dulce de Leche.\nPlace the slices of banana on top.\nWhip the cream with stabilizer and coffee, using electric mixer until stiff peaks. You can add a little bit sugar here, but Dulce de Leche and banana together are very sweet !\nPut the whipped cream on top of the pie.\nPut the pie in the fridge, while making decoration.\nStep 3: Decorate the Pie\nMelt 3/4 of the chocolate on a double boiler (a pot with simmering water and a heat-proof bowl placed on top).\nMake sure the top bowl doesn’t touch the water!\nWhen it is almost melted, remove the bowl from heat and add remaining chocolate. Stir until melted and cooled.\nThis process is called tempering, you can see our instructable on how to temper chocolate.\nPour chocolate on the tray or plate, layered with parchment paper and let it cool completely. Cut different shapes and leave aside.\nAlternatively, just grate some chocolate on top of the pie!\nCut the hazelnuts in half.\nStep 4: Decorate the Pie\nInsert the chocolate decorations in the pie and sprinkle crushed hazelnuts.\nCut the banoffee pie and enjoy!", "851" ], [ "Chicken in Peanut Butter Sauce\nIntroduction: Chicken in Peanut Butter Sauce\nThis is delicious and easy dinner idea for your family. You will need a pan and ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry and fridge. Serve this chicken with rice and enjoy!\nI've made this recipe, when we wanted to add some new protein-rich meal in our week plan.", "863" ], [ "One serving has about 30 grams of protein, and it is packed with delicious flavors and spices.\nYou should give it a try!\nPeanut Butter chicken recipe was first published on our blog. You can watch the step-by-step video recipe here:\nAnd it also happens to be our 25th Instructable! Woohoo!\nSupplies\n3 chicken breasts, cut into pieces\n1 tbsp coconut oil or other vegetable oil\n1 tbsp garlic flakes or 2 minced garlic cloves\n1/4 tsp cayenne powder\n1/4 tsp ground black pepper\n1/4 tsp turmeric powder\n4 tbsp peanut butter (chunky or creamy, to your taste)\n1 tbsp rice vinegar\n1 1/2 cup chicken stock or prepared from the cube with water\n1/2 tsp chili flakes for serving (optional)\n1 tbsp chopped scallions for serving (optional)\nStep 1: Cook the Chicken\nHeat oil in a pan and add chicken pieces.\nFry 5 minutes, stirring, until cooked.\nStep 2: Add Flavor\nAdd garlic flakes to chicken, then stir in spices - cayenne powder, turmeric powder, ground black pepper.\nStir half a minute until aromatic\nYou can add salt to your taste, but keep in mind that depending on the peanut butter brand that you are using, the salt is a usual ingredient for conservation.\nStep 3: Make the Sauce\nAdd vinegar, chicken stock and peanut butter.\nWe like chunky peanut butter, but you can use creamy.\nCover pan with a lid and cook for 10 minutes until the consistency you like.\nStep 4: Serve and Enjoy\nServe with rice or vegetables, sprinkle with scallions and chili flakes on top.\nYou can adjust the thickness of the sauce to your liking by adding more stock to thin it, coconut cream to make it creamier.\nThe sauce will thicken in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave for 2 minutes or in a sauce pan on the low heat. Keep in mind that the sauce may thicken more, when reheating.\nKeep in the fridge up to 5 days.", "851" ], [ "Pumpkin Lasagne (or Ravelloni*)\nIntroduction: Pumpkin Lasagne (or Ravelloni*)\nIt smells of autumn everywhere.\nColorful leaves, frosty nights and flying kites. And of cause pumpkins... Everywhere.\nYou can't miss them, so go and grab one...\nAround 10 years ago, one of my best friends and I mixed up several recipes and made pumpkin cannelloni. We really enjoyed it, but it was a mess to fill the store-bought cannelloni. Pumpkin spread everywhere... and we thought, next time we will just make lasagne. Same taste, less mess.\nNowadays I remembered the nice taste and decided it is time to recreate this dish. But this time I wanted to make it with self-made pasta. I did it and it was delicious, but it was a lot of work and also a huge mess (but fresh pasta tastes really nice). And I thought again \"Why not just make a lasagne with the pumpkin mash and the white sauce? Same taste, but less mess\"\nSo I recreated it as a lasagne. My leftover pumpkin was almost the same weight (390gr) and I still had half of the cheese spread.\nWhat can I tell you, it's the same taste, but less mess and less preparation time (as long as you make it with store-bought lasagne plates). But since I already documented all steps for the fresh pasta and the ravioli making, I wanted to share this with you too.\nMaybe next time I will make it as lasagne with fresh pasta plates, and it will even be better, who knows...\n*Ravelloni (half ravioli, half cannelloni)\nStep 1: Pumpkin Lasagne: Ingredients and Tools\nIngredients:\nPumpkin Filling:\n* 400gr Hokkaido pumpkin\n* 2 Onions\n* 1 Garlic Clove\n* 200ml vegetable broth\n* oil\n* grated cheese\n* Salt, pepper, ground nutmeg\nCheese Sauce:\n* 300ml milk\n* 100gr cheese spread herbs\n* 3Tbs flour\n* Salt, Pepper\nTools:\n* kitchen scale\n* mixing bowl\n* chopping board\n* sharp knife\n* baking pan\n* 1 big pot\n* 1 small pot\n* stirring spoon\n* hand blender\nStep 2: Prepare the Pumpkin Puree\n1. Scoop out the pumpkin seeds and chop the pumpkin into cubes.\n2. Cut and dice the onions, peel the garlic clove.\nHeat some oil and start sauteing the onions\n3. Add the pressed garlic.\n4. Add the pumpkin cubes and the vegetable broth and let simmer for 15min.\n5. Blend the cooked cubes until smooth.\n6.", "265" ], [ "Season the puree with salt, pepper, and ground nutmeg.\nStep 3: Prepare the White Cheese Sauce\n1. Heat the milk until boiling.\n2. Add the cheese spread.\n3. Fill the flour into a glass and add a little cold water, stir well.\n4. Wait until the milk boils again and add your flour water. The heat will \"activate\" the flour and it will thicken the sauce.\n5. Season with salt and pepper (and if you like some fresh garden herbs)\nStep 4: Prepare the Lasagne\n1. Take the oven pan and cover the bottom with white sauce.\n2. Cover the bottom with a pasta plate. Since my baking pan is round I needed to break up the plates.\n3. Cover with pumpkin puree.\n4. Continue stacking with pasta, white sauce, pasta, pumpkin, pasta...\n5. Continue until both pots are empty and finish with a layer of white sauce.\n6. Cover with grated cheese and set into your oven.\n7. Bake at 180°C /356F for approx. 25min.\n8. Let sit for 10min before eating to allow some leftover liquid to be absorbed by the pasta.\nStep 5: Enjoy Your Pumpkin Lasagne\nYour lasagne is ready to be eaten by you and your favorite people.\nEnjoy your taste of autumn.", "265" ], [ "Chocolate Cookies With Maraschino Cherries\nIntroduction: Chocolate Cookies With Maraschino Cherries\nEasy and sweet cookies that are perfect for sharing with your family and friends! Cherry and chocolate combination will make anyone crave more. This is especially good for upcoming holidays like Christmas.\nThey are made for chocolate lovers, who don't have time to make a chocolate cake. Cookies are easy to make and they bake only 10 minutes.\nThese cookies will make you life sweeter and any day brighter.\nHighly recommend them to store in the fridge and have one on a bad day! Well, they make a good day even better!\nCrispy outside and chewy inside. Perfect treat to have with tea, coffee or milk!\nTempting Chocolate Cherry Cookies were first published on our blog.\nSupplies\n1,5 cup flour\n1/4 cup white sugar + 1/4 cup brown sugar\n2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder\n1/4 tsp salt\n1/4 tsp baking powder\n1/4 tsp baking soda\n1/4 tsp vanilla powder or extract\n1/2 cup butter\n2 medium eggs\n1 tbsp maraschino cherry liquid, mixed with powdered sugar to syrupy consistency\n1/4 cup melted chocolate\n1/2 cup milk\n1 cup maraschino cherries\nextra crushed almonds for serving\nYou will need hand mixer, scoop, spatula and baking tray with parchment paper\nStep 1: Prepare Dry Ingredient\nIn one bowl mix all dry ingredients with a spoon: flour, cocoa, all sugar, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla powder and salt.\nNo need to sieve them, just combine well.\nStep 2: Mix Butter and Eggs\nIn another bowl, beat butter with a hand mixer, scraping the sides until pale.\nAdd eggs and mix until combined.\nGradually add few tablespoons of dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.\nStep 3: Prepare the Cookie Dough\nSwitch to the spatula.\nAdd half of dry ingredients and mix with a spatula.", "851" ], [ "Add milk, so it will be easier to mix together.\nAdd remaining dry ingredients and mix until combined.\nAdd maraschino syrup and melted chocolate. Combine until smooth.\nStep 4: Chill in the Fridge\nCover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or 1 hour.\nThis part is essential, so don't skip it! Chilling the cookies will make them more flavorful and they will spread less, while baking.\nStep 5: Make the Chocolate Cookies\nScoop the balls to the baking tray, layered with parchment paper.\nYou can roll the balls in your palms. Dust the hands with extra cocoa powder, so it will be less messy!\nPress the centre of each cookie with your thumb.\nPut cherry on top of each chocolate cookie.\nStep 6: Bake and Decorate\nBake 10-15 minutes in the oven, preheated to 356 F / 180 C.\nThe more you bake, the crispier cookies will be. But the cherries will become more dry, too.\nLet them cool on the wire rack. Sprinkle with crushed almonds.\nEnjoy!\nThey will keep in the fridge up to 6 days or 1 day at room temperature.", "195" ], [ "Sweet Potato Casserole in a Pumpkin Bowl\nIntroduction: Sweet Potato Casserole in a Pumpkin Bowl\nI will be making a delicious sweet potato casserole in a pumpkin bowl. This is a perfect treat to make for the holidays and fall time! On top of that, it looks really pretty as well. This is one of my favorite things to eat with a cute touch.\nStep 1: Ingredients\nThis can serve for 4!\n* 4 bowl sized pie pumpkins\n* 4 cups of peeled and cubed sweet potato\n* 1/4 cup white sugar\n* 1 egg (beaten)\n* 1/4 teaspoon salt\n* 2 tablespoons butter, softened\n* 1/4 cup milk\n* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract\n* 1/4 cup packed brown sugar\n* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour\n* 2 tablespoons butter softened\n* 1/4 cup chopped pecans\n* (optional) marshmallows\n* (optional) 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon + all spice\nStep 2: Preparing the Pumpkins\nWash pumpkins.\nHeat pumpkins in the microwave for about 7-8 minutes and periodically check the pumpkins as microwave temperatures can vary. This is so that the pumpkins are easier to cut! Using a very sharp knife, carefully cut around 1/2 to 1/3 of the top off and scoop out the insides to create bowls.\nPlace pumpkins in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with about 1/2 inch of water. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or until the pumpkins are tender. While the pumpkins are baking, start making the casserole!\nStep 3: Making the Casserole\nPut the cubed sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with water to cover. Boil at medium high heat for about 15 minutes or until tender. Once cooked, drain the water and mash in a separate large bowl.", "2" ], [ "After the potatoes have been mashed, add the white sugar, egg, salt, butter (2 tablespoons), milk, and vanilla extract. Mix with a beater until smooth. Add the cinnamon and all spice in now if you choose to include it!\nStep 4: Make Casserole Toppings\nIn a medium bowl, mix your brown sugar and flour. Add in the butter and then the chopped pecans. Mix until coarse.\nStep 5: Fill Pumpkins and Bake\nTake the baked pumpkins out of the oven and add the sweet potato mixture first. Leave room for the topping! Add the brown sugar, flour, butter, and pecan mixture on top of the sweet potato mix. Add marshmallows if you would like!\nPreheat oven again to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Fill the 9 x 13 baking dish with a little bit of water. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes.\nStep 6: Eat and Enjoy!\nAfter they have been baked, let cool and enjoy! The good news is is that the pumpkin is edible as well ;)", "195" ] ]

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[ [ "Rag Doll Decoration\nIntroduction: Rag Doll Decoration\nI was bored one day, and I just wanted to do a simple quick project. Even though it is spring time, I was thinking it would be cute to make some simple autumn decoration. This project was really fun since it was so simple, and I allowed myself to be sloppy and messy with the sewing because I felt like it added to the aesthetic.\nSupplies\n* Fabric\n* thread\n* rice or stuffing\n* buttons\n* low weight interfacing (optional)\nStep 1: Sketch Patterns\nFirst I sketched some simple patterns, you can make you're own or you can download the image above\nStep 2: Cut\nMy fabric was a bit thin and slippery, so I decided to iron on some low weight interfacing.Then I traced the pattern onto the interface, and cut out the pieces, I didn't add seam allowance to the pattern, so be aware of that while cutting.\nStep 3: Sew the Limbs\nPin and sew together the limb pieces, if you are using a sewing machine, make sure to go carefully and slowly around the curved parts. Then once it is sewed, turn the pieces inside out, it may be a little tricky, but I was eventually able to do it. Also, if needed, you can iron the limbs flat\nYou can also sew the head during this step and put it aside for later.\nStep 4: Stuff\nyou can use anything you'd like to fill your doll, but I used rice instead of stuffing to give my dolls a little bit more weight and make them more rag-ish. I kept the limbs a little bit under stuffed, and had some loose space so that I could sew the limbs close without braking my machine. Then I closed the limbs by doing a simple straight stitch over the opening.\nStep 5: Basting\nUsing a straight stitch, simply baste the limbs onto one of the body pieces, make sure while doing this to have the limb going over the body piece.\nStep 6: Sew the Body\nOnce all of the limbs are basted onto the body pieces, you're ready to sew the body pieces together.", "316" ], [ "It's a bit hard to explain what I did, but to sew them together I basically folded one limb over and pinned the body piece over it, then I sewed over the limb and stopped to re-adjusted the pinning and fold the other limbs in. When you get the last arm, it may be a bit tricky, but take the first arm and place it in the neck hole, and take the last arm, and fold it in. Remember to leave an opening at the top for the head.\nStep 7: Flip Inside Out\nAfter sewing the body, it should look almost like a pocket with one of the arms at the top. Pull the arm at the neck hole, and continue to turn it inside out. Once you're done, you can then fill the body with rice.\nStep 8: Sew the Head\nNext, if you haven't already, you can sew the head together. Then fill the head up with rice, I filled the entire head up with rice, then stitched the bottom up with a simple wip stitch.\nStep 9: Attach the Head\ntake the head and attach it to the body using a wip stitch\nStep 10: Add the Eyes\nI was running out of time so I hot glued button eyes on, but it would probably be better to sew them on. I finished the doll here, but you can add any details you want.\nStep 11: Finished\nNow you are done! This little rag doll looks perfect for simple decoration or just to have around!", "879" ], [ "Aesthetic Stamped Jeans\nIntroduction: Aesthetic Stamped Jeans\nThis project is an easy and simple way to upgrade anything in your wardrobe! I've been wanting to do something to these jeans for a while now, and I've finally gotten around to doing so. Altogether, it took me about an hour and a half to complete this project.\nSupplies\n* Rubber stamp carving pad\n* Carving tools\n* Jeans\n* Fabric Paint\n* Pencil\nStep 1: Print and Trace Design\nPint out a design of what you want, I printed out a couple different sizes just in case, in the end I decided to use the smaller print. Then take a pencil and trace over the front of the design.\nStep 2: Press and Transfer\nPlace the paper, design down, onto the rubber carving pad, and apply pressure. You may also need to scribble on the back of the paper to make the graphite transfer onto the rubber. Then, you can lift up the paper, and it should leave a ghosting of the design.\nStep 3: Re-trace\nIf the design is hard to see, you can trace over it again with a pencil. Then I slimmed down the stamp a bit just to make the next steps a tad easier, and it will help your final stamp look a little bit cleaner.\nStep 4: Carve\nFirst I carved out the silhouette of the design, then I carved the patterns of the wings.", "294" ], [ "It doesn't matter if the carving looks messy, it shouldn't be noticeable in the final results. Also, I did make a small mistake while carving, I carved out a portion I didn't intend on carving. I was fine with the mistake, but if this happens to you, you can always touch it up later.\nStep 5: Test\nBefore stamping the jeans, test it out on a scrap piece of fabric, and make any adjustments to the stamp if needed.\nStep 6: Stamp Onto Jeans\nApply fabric paint onto the stamp and press down onto the fabric. Apply some pressure to the stamp, then lift up to reveal the stamped design.\nStep 7: Finish and Touch Up\nRepeat stamping your design until you're happy. If you need too, touch up any parts that may need touching up. And then you're done, congratulations! I hope you enjoyed this project!", "316" ], [ "Bear Pocket With Zipper\nIntroduction: Bear Pocket With Zipper\nI've been wanting to do this project for a while but never had a reason to do it.\nThis project is great for little kids, since they love stuffed animals and they also like to keep and hide little thing.\nSupplies\n* stuffed animal\n* fabric\n* zipper\n* thread\n* needle\n* sewing pins\n* seam ripper\n* scissors\nStep 1: Make an Opening\nusing a seam ripper or scissors, cut open an opening in the back of the stuffed animal. Then un-stuff some of the stuffing.\nStep 2: Cut Out Fabric\nCut out two pieces of fabric for the inside, I sketched a round rectangle that was about 6 x 5 in. but I recommend making something a little bit bigger, if you'd like to keep more things inside of it.", "316" ], [ "I also marked on the wrong side of the fabric where the zipper would go.\nStep 3: Shorten the Zipper\nI didn't have a zipper that was an appropriate size so I shortened a zipper that I already had. To shorten the zipper double thread your needle and loop the thread around the teeth of the zipper so that it makes a barrier. I also created a barrier at the top to prevent from the slider coming off.\nStep 4: Sew Zipper On\nPin the bottom side of the zipper onto the good side of the fabric, then sew it together. Remember to change your presser foot to a zipper foot before you begin to sew.\nThen repeat this step for the other piece of fabric, when you pin the other piece on, the sipper should be sort of sandwiched between the two pieces.\nStep 5: Pin and Sew\npin the two fabric pieces together and then sew them together to make the pocket.\nStep 6: Size Check and Pin\nDo a loose size check to make sure the pocket will fit comfortably inside the stuffed animal, then pin the pocket to the sides of the opening.\nStep 7: Sew in the Pouch\nOnce the pocket is pinned in, sew it into the bear, the best way to do this is to hand stitch it.\nStep 8: Finish\nYou are now done!", "455" ], [ "How to Make a Paper Crown\nIntroduction: How to Make a Paper Crown\nHi there, this is my first time writing an instructables, so I hope you like it!\nThis is an easy project that you can do whenever! It's simple and quick to make, and it's completely made out of paper. This crown is great for all ages and anyone can make it! I had a lot of fun and creativity while making this, and I hope you do to!\nSupplies\n* Paper\n* Scissors\n* Glue\n* Decorative tape\n* Stickers\n* Decorative paper\nStep 1: Cut\nI started with two 9 x 12 in. papers, then I cut them into 4 x 4 in. squares. I cut 6 black squares and 6 white squares, making 12 total squares.\nStep 2: Fold\nTake one square and fold it in half so that two opposite corners meet each other. Form a crease and then unfold it so it is a square again.\nStep 3:\nTake the square and place it so that the crease is vertical, then take the corners on the left and right side, and fold them to the crease.\nStep 4:\nFold the bottom corner up a tiny bit.\nStep 5:\nFold the bottom side up again, it should maintain a triangle shape\nStep 6:\nFold the bottom side up again, this time it should make a boat-like shape\nStep 7: Repeat\nrepeat steps 2-6 again until you have used all of your squares\nStep 8: Connect the Pieces\nif you've done the previous step correctly, then you should be able to slide the pieces together until they fit together.\nStep 9:\nrepeat step 8 again for the rest of the pieces. Some advice if some pieces aren't fitting correctly, try cutting off a little tiny bit from the corners or the bottom.", "966" ], [ "Also if it's falling apart, try using some glue or tape.\nStep 10: Connect the Crown\nFor the last pieces, just connect the left end to the right end, the crown might not be perfectly round but that's fine. Check the crown to see if it is a suitable size, if it's too big just remove some pieces, and if it's too small try adding some more pieces. I ended up using 10 pieces since it was a little bit big. If needed, apply some glue or tape for extra support. You can leave your crown here or decorate it in the next step.\nStep 11: Decorate\nBring your creativity out in this step! You can use pens, markers, stickers, decorative tape, yarn, or anything else to decorate your crown. I used a pretty white moon washi tape on all of the black pieces, then in a few places I used vintage rub-on transfers from the dollar store. I used multiple stickers, scrap-paper, and other washi tapes to decorate the rest of it. I hope you had fun making and decorating your crown, I'm proud of your final creation, I bet it looks amazing!", "6" ], [ "Stuffed Balloon Animal Toy\nIntroduction: Stuffed Balloon Animal Toy\nThis stuffed toy is incredibly simple to make and can be made into any animal you desire, just like real balloon animals. You will need a long and narrow piece of fabric, you can use up any leftover fabric. For stuffing, you can buy special toy stuffing or recycle old pillows. Aside from that you only need a ruler, scissors, needle and thread or fabric glue.\nStep 1: Scale Up or Down\nTo make the same animal, you will need 160cm long and 17cm wide fabric (not including 1cm borders for stitches). This is a formula to calculate how wide your piece of fabric should be if you have different length of fabric, you can scale up or down. You can also change the width completely and make a thinner looking animal. I wanted mine to be thick and cuddly, so I used a wider piece of fabric.\nStep 2: Make a Tube\nI'm using recycled skirt material, 25cm wide and 160cm long. I used black thread to show the stitching, but ideally you should use a matching thread.\nFold the fabric in half (inside out) and use a ruler to mark 8.5cm border through the entire length. Use pins or extra needles to secure it.", "673" ], [ "Stitch it with a sewing machine, needle and thread or fabric glue. Cut off any excess fabric. Turn the tube inside out.\nStep 3: Stitch One End\nUse a runner stitch to stitch one end, leave about 1cm excess fabric, so it looks like a balloon mouth piece. Tighten the stitches to close the end of the tube and run the needle through the fabric to secure it. Make a loop of you want the segments to be more pronounced.\nStep 4: Fill the Tube\nRoll the tube like a very long stocking and fill with stuffing. I'm making 12cm segments for all legs and the abdomen, slightly shorter segments for the tail, neck and mouth and extra small for ears. Once your first segment is filled, shape it and move it around so it's smooth, not lumpy. Separate the segment by making a loop, tighten it and secure the thread. Continue for all segments.\nSequence should be like this: tail, back leg, back leg, abdomen, front leg, front leg, neck, ear, ear, mouth.\nStep 5: Fill All Segments\nStep 6: Assemble the Animal\nOnce your animal sausage is made, assemble it piece by piece and use thread and needle to attach appropriate segments to each other. Maneuver the pieces so the seam is hidden out of view.\nStep 7: Connect the Joints\nCorrect the positions of all segments once the animal is assembled, to make sure all joints are securely stitched and the toy can stand on its own.\nStep 8: Finished", "879" ], [ "Basic Faux Leather Arm Bracer\nIntroduction: Basic Faux Leather Arm Bracer\nI have had this faux leather material leftover from an old Astrid costume I made several years ago. Over the years of seeing it sitting on my shelf I have attempted multiple projects in hopes of using it, but none ever saw a finished product. So finally I made something simple that I knew I would be able to finish. In this instructable I used supplies that I already had available, so some alternatives may be better, however I still really like the final results! Making these simple bracers are easy and quick to make and are perfect for any fantasy costume or aesthetic touch.\nSupplies\nMaterials\n* Faux Leather\n* Waxed twine or leather craft lace\n* 0.6 cm jump rings\n* embroidery floss\nTools\n* Sewing machine\n* scissors\n* needle and thread\n* Washable marker\nStep 1: Measurements\nUsing a tape measure, measure and record the length around your wrist, the adequate length of your forearm, and the length around your arm where the bracer will end.\nStep 2: Make a Pattern\nThe picture above shows how to make the pattern and where to use each measurement, but below is my confusing attempt of explaining how to make the pattern:\nFirst you make a line that is the length of your forearm measurement. Then there are two lines on either side of that first line. On one side make a line that is the length of your wrist measurement, making sure the first line is perpendicular and connects in the middle of this second line. Next make a line on the other side of the first line that is the length of your arm measurement, making sure that the first line is also perpendicular and connecting in the middle of this third line. Lasly use a ruler to connect the left edge of the second line to the left edge of the third line, and connect the right edge of the second line to the right edge of the third line.\nStep 3: Trace and Cut\nTrace the pattern onto the right side of your faux leather using a washable marker. Then cut out the piece leaving an excess of about an inch.\nStep 4: Prep Your Sewing Machine\nDepending on the type of faux leather you have, you may notice that your faux leather sticks onto your sewing machine which prevents the material from gliding through the machine. An easy way to fix this is to apply a few pieces of matte scotch tape. First remove the sewing footer and place a layer of tape on it and use a craft knife to cut away the excess tape.", "316" ], [ "Then place a couple strips of tape below and around the footer, but make sure not to tape over any part that moves. If needed, use a craft knife to cut the tape for easy access to the bobin.\nStep 5: Cut Corners\nCut part of the material off at the corners.\nStep 6: Begin Sewing\nTo minimize the amount of holes we put into the material, we are going to avoid using sewing pins. This is why we left an extra inch for seam allowance, to allow us to fold the material easily without having to pin it. To begin sewing, fold one side of the material on the line and top stitch over the piece, sewing about half a centimeter away from the edge.\nStep 7: Continue Sewing\nStop sewing about half an inch from the edge and knot the thread. Then pull the piece away from the machine and fold the next side. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until you are finished.\nStep 8: Cut Excess\nOnce done sewing, turn over and cut the excess material close to the stitches. Since this is faux leather it'll be fine leaving the edges raw.\nStep 9: Hand Sew\nMake a mark about every inch with a washable marker. Then take embroidery floss and sew in the closed jump rings, this is the longest step of the project. I added a little bit of glue to the closure of the jump ring for extra safety. If you have grommets available those will probably be a better option, however this is what I had available.\nStep 10: Lace\nLastly, I took three strands of waxed craft lace and braided them to create the lace. Then all you need to do is lace your bracer onto your arm and you are finished!\nStep 11: Finish\nAs of now this is my final result of my bracer, however in the future I might add more details such as paint or embroidery. But nonetheless I am very happy with the results and these bracers fulfill my fantasy dreams of wanting to feel like a brave warrior.", "748" ], [ "Simple No-Sew Jewelry Bags\nIntroduction: Simple No-Sew Jewelry Bags\nThese simple bags make a great way to store your jewelry, give your handmade jewelry as gifts, or sell your handmade jewelry. Making them isn't hard and doesn't take a lot of time, so it saves you more time to make more jewelry!\nSupplies\n1. Hot glue gun\n2. Material in your choice of colors/patterns (I recommend using cottons and no heavy materials like denim)\n3. Yarn or Embroidery thread to match the materials\n4. Ruler\n5. Scissors\n6. Pattern pieces (included in this Instructable)\nStep 1: Measure Material\nLay the material out on a flat surface to measure out the bag size.\nI have included some patterns for sizes that I think are pretty standard jewelry bag sizes. The smaller pattern is for smaller items, the larger pattern is for larger items. If you just want the dimensions to measure for yourself, the smaller pattern is 5 inches X 5 1/4 inches, and the larger pattern is 5 1/2 inches X 6 1/2 inches.\nTrim out the material as neatly as possible, but don't fret over it.\nPlug in your hot glue gun at any time.\nStep 2: Measure String\nThis will be the pull string of the bag. On the patterns I have measurements that are what I used for my string.\nFor the large bag, I cut about 12 inches of string. For the small bag I cut about 10 inches of string.\nCut the string according to the measurements or according to what you think will be best. Remember, it should be a bit longer than the edge of the material so that it can be tightened and loosened to close and open the bag.\nStep 3: Glue the Casing\nLay the material out flat. The reverse side should be facing up!\nLay your string along the top half of the material so that there is material on both sides. You want to have about half an inch above the string so you have enough room to fold it over and make the casing.\nStarting at the end, put a small dot of hot glue beneath the string. Don't get close to the string; you will accidentally hot glue it and it won't work as a pull string.", "316" ], [ "Fold over the fabric from above the string to meet the fabric below the string, enclosing the string in a tube of fabric. Stick the fabric to the glue dot.\nMake another dot of glue next to where the material is now folded down. Fold down the top material to meet it.\nProceed this way until you reach the end. Once the hot glue is dry, pull on the string carefully to see if it slides. It should. If you got a little bit of hot glue on it and it is kinda stuck, you can pull on it a bit and it should let go.\n*The casing is the folded over material that makes a tube in the fabric where string or elastic goes. It allows the string/elastic to move freely. Waists are often made this way.\nStep 4: Glue the Middle Seam\nLay the material so the glued casing is face down.\n*TIP: Place thin cardboard or paper in the middle of the material. This will prevent you from accidentally gluing the front and back sides together.\nFold one of the sides to the middle. Pick the prettiest one because it will show on the outside.\nFold the other side to the middle as well, but overlap the first side.\nUsing the same method as before, hot glue the top piece to the bottom (the first side) by placing dots of glue in between the overlapping pieces.\nStep 5: Glue the Bottom Seam\nNow all that is left to glue is the bottom seam.\nWith the middle seam facing up to you (it should be like this unless you picked it up after the last step), place dots of hot glue all along the bottom of the fabric. Don't place it right on the edge, you need a little space so you can fold the material over.\nFold the bottom up onto the hot glue. Wait for it to dry, then place glue dots in the little open sleeve. This was the other side of the bag. Press that down and wait for it to dry.\nStep 6: Flip Inside Out\nNow all the bag has been glued.\nFlip the bag inside out by sticking your thumbs in the opening of the bag to hold it open. Using you other fingers, push the bottom of the bag up through the opening. Use your fingers to continue to push the fabric until it has all been flipped.\n*TIP: you can use a pencil or pen to push in the corners to make sure they get flipped all the way.\nStep 7: Almost Finished...", "455" ], [ "Jewelry Box on a Budget\nIntroduction: Jewelry Box on a Budget\nI have a small stack of cigar boxes in my craft Noodle pad waiting to be used for various different crafts. I find them at a local cigar shop for 1$ each, which is cheaper than a 5$-ish wooden box at the craft store. Often times I love searching and finding really cool and unique cigar boxes, and I found this small little box with magnets in it, which I thought would be perfect for a simple jewelry box.\nSupplies\n* Cigar Box\n* Styrofoam\n* Foam Board\n* Cotton Fabric\n* Lining fabric\n* Mod Podge/Glue\n* Scissors\n* Ruler\nStep 1: Iron the Fabric\nFirst iron out your material.\nStep 2: Cut, Glue and Cover Bottom\nCut out a piece of fabric that will cover the box. Then cover the bottom of the box with glue and center the fabric on the bottom and smooth down.\nStep 3: Cut\nTurn over and cut diagonal cuts to the corner of the box. Then cut off more fabric and leave four flaps for the side of the box. Make sure to add a little bit of extra fabric on each flap.\nStep 4: Fold\nFold a tiny bit of fabric inside and glue down.", "316" ], [ "This step may be a little bit tricky, but it's okay if it is not perfect.\nStep 5: Glue\nGlue the sides of the box, and fold the fabric upwards. If needed, hold the sides of the fabric in place to line up with the edges of the box.\nStep 6: Fold\nCut the fabric down to have a little bit of extra fabric, and then fold the fabric inward. If needed, firmly hold the edge of the fabric to the edge of the box.\nStep 7: Repeat Steps 2-6\nRepeat steps 2-6 for the top lid of the box.\nStep 8: Glue Side\nThen trim the extra fabric and glue the raw edges of the fabric to inner lid of the box.\nStep 9: Cut Fabric\nCut out a piece of fabric that will cover the inner lid of the box.\nStep 10: Glue\nApply glue to the inner lid of the box, and cover with the fabric. If needed apply extra glue to the raw edges to prevent fraying.\nStep 11: Cut Foam\nCut out a rectangles of both styrofoam and foam board to fit the inside of the box.\nStep 12: Peel Paper\nPeel the paper off of the foam board.\nStep 13: Glue\nGlue the two rectangles together.\nStep 14: Cut Fabric\nCut out a piece of fabric that will cover the foam pieces.\nUsing a little heavier fabric will be a little bit easier. I tried using a thing grey fabric, which looked better, but it kept snagging on the pins and other things.\nStep 15: Pin\nPin the fabric over the foam pieces so that it is taught.\nStep 16: Glue\nFlip over and trim if there is any excess fabric. Then glue the sides down and the corners. It is okay if the glue is messy this will not be visible in the final product.\nStep 17: Place\nPlace the piece inside the cigar box, if correct size it should fit perfectly and won't need glue.\nStep 18: Finish\nAdd Jewelry and you are done! Even if you aren't using this as a jewelry box, this is a easy and cheap craft that'll look nice sitting anywhere!", "748" ] ]

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[ [ "Let's consider what issues we'll need to overcome if we want the singularity to happen.\n1. We need to develop a general-purpose AI.\nExisting AIs are trained to solve specific problems, and would be entirely useless outside of those domains. Most current AI research isn't even trying to do this. Rather, we develop models that can effectively make predictions/decisions for the task at hand, and train it with data specific to the task.\nDeveloping models makes heavy use of domain-knowledge; even if you have a fixed task and a fixed set of features, the quality of a model can be massively affected by changing the representation of those features. The structure of the model itself will also depend on what sort of relation we want to model: e.g. does the prediction depend on only the most recently observed features, or does it care about which ones were observed previously? Are there cases where the prediction should depend on global tendencies in the input? Cases where the input has an implicit internal structure that must be modeled? Cases where some features in the sequence matter more than others? In my own area of research (natural language processing), the answer to all of those is yes, and failing to take those into account will make for a worse model.\nYou could train the best model in the world for a given task, change the input representation slightly, and the model would be completely worthless. It would eventually become useful again if you continued training on the new format, but it would basically be retraining from scratch (and from a poor starting position, too; it would need to unlearn what it had learned before it could make any real progress). If you tried to take a model from one domain and use it in another domain entirely, e.g. taking a machine translation system and trying to use it to control a self-driving car, you would definitely need to retrain from scratch to get any results, and the structure of the model would be all wrong, so you'd probably get terrible results even then.\n2. It needs to be able to design other AIs\nThis may seem like it follows from the first part, but it doesn't. Even if it possesses generalizable problem solving abilities, that doesn't mean that it can do everything. Case in point, humans are general-purpose intelligences, and most of them don't know how to design AIs.\nBeing self-improving isn't enough. All AIs are self improving; that's what training is all about.", "64" ], [ "If you give any model new training data, and let it train for longer (and avoid overfitting and various other issues that I'm glossing over for the sake of brevity), any AI will improve. Eventually.\nBut for every model, there's a theoretical limit to how well it can model the process we're interested in. If we want the kind of unbounded exponential growth that the singularity people talk about, our AI needs to be able to design new models, not just tune the existing ones. Which means it needs domain expertise on designing AIs. The good news is, the people designing the AIs possess that knowledge pretty much by definition. The bad news is, that doesn't mean we can explain it well enough to program that knowledge into an AI: there are a lot of things where we just develop an intuition for what sort of things work, through experience. There are plenty of things we do understand well enough to explain, but the frontiers of research are always something of a black art.\nMost of these issues are practical, rather than theoretical, and given enough time, data, and hardware, you could probably have a general-purpose AI figure out the domain knowledge on its own.\n3. The improvement must be unbounded by physical limitations (for awhile, at least)\nMaking an AI that's twice as powerful as the previous one doesn't help if it uses so many resources that it's running at half the speed. AIs are resource-intensive; even the single-domain ones we have now can make full use of just about any hardware we throw at them, up to and including supercomputers. You can certainly make a lot of progress by designing better, more efficient models that run on the current hardware, but eventually you'll need to stop and wait for better machines to be designed and built. And even then, we eventually run up against physical limits: information is limited by light speed delay, and component density is limited by the Schwarzschild radius of the processor, if nothing else (presumably other hard limits would kick in earlier; consult your local physicist for details). Maybe the AIs get good enough before we run into any fundamental limits, maybe not. But the fact that we need to stop and build physical machines at any step of the process means we don't get to stay on the exponential improvement curve; the best case scenario is that the time to develop a new AI goes to 0 and the construction time becomes the dominant factor.", "64" ], [ "The project is far too big for him to do himself. So he needs to automate. If he doesn't start out with the knowledge needed to try the right things, he's going to be stuck; doing research takes an incredibly long time, and he'd need to recreate hundreds of years of work of millions of people.\nBut let's assume he knows the basics of how semiconductors work, and so on. Very soon he's going to need to build some. But for that he'll need precise machining. So he'd better start by building some machine tools. That's tough to do without regular tools, so he'd better start with metallurgy and so on.\nSo, he starts with tools and uses them to build machine tools (lathes, etc.) and so on. He might spend thousands of years perfecting the designs to be quick to make with the ore he can dig and burn on his own, so that he can replace parts much faster than the things wear out. (He'd also probably end up favoring more difficult-to-work-with alloys of steel that have superior corrosion resistance just because the ratio of time-to-corrode to time-being-used would be a lot higher than for a normal machine, once his time was spent on other things.)\nThen he has to get some sort of really basic semiconductor fabrication facility, and some sort of electricity generation. Hydroelectric power is almost stupidly easy to use: you need some decent wire to wrap around things, and a few permanent magnets would help, and you're off to a start.\nSo, he's got metal and electricity and knows how to make motors. That's good, because now he can start with dumb automation of things: doors that open and so on. He might not need to bother with batteries yet; he can't walk that far anyway, so just leave power cords everywhere.", "159" ], [ "Normally we'd use plastic to insulate them, but wax paper is far easier to make (or segmented clay wrappers).\nNow that he has gotten to this point, if he's managed to remember any physics (I hope he wrote it all down!) he'll hopefully recall how to build a lot of common simple tools for use with electronics: voltmeters and so on. And he'll remember how to grind lenses (pretty simple, actually), and so on. Eventually he'll have a decent set of pretty basic analytical equipment, just enough to get started on semiconductors.\nHe really, really wants semiconductors, because, made robustly, they can last practically forever.\nThis would be the hardest part, though: you need to do chemistry to get the right doping agents, you need to have things clean to get good silicon crystal growth, and so on. There might be easier ways, but we haven't really found them. If he put all his effort into making simple circuits that would help him automate things he was doing by hand, he might just be able to bootstrap to the point where he could generate enough computational capacity to do something interesting: having machines designed to build machines that build those same machines and produce semiconductor facilities and so on.\nOnce you get to the point where you can automatically keep this process going, the man could focus his attention on each area that needs improvement. I'm not sure how many thousands or millions of years it would take one person with largely automatic factories to figure out enough materials science to make components enough tougher so he wasn't spending all his time fixing critical things that broke. Or to figure out programming languages in which he could implement enough artificial intelligence to get the machines to start e.g. selecting sites for mining, instead of him finding them and setting them up.\nBut eventually, maybe, he would. And then he sort of would be a god, a god of simplistic autonomous machines that would do his bidding to extract resources and eventually put them towards building a spaceship. That would, in all likelihood, not be the hard part, at least if he has time. He's got a whole planet full of resources (and robots) and as much time as he needs to set off rocket after rocket until he works it all out, and if he needs to spend a thousand years to send enough stuff into orbit to sustain him on a journey to another star, who's counting?\n(I think 500 years is a serious underestimate, though; I'd expect tens of thousands.)\nSo, one person with just their own hands and no tools can't reasonably do it. But with machines, they quite possibly can, and one can build machines with one's own hands.", "159" ], [ "Someone has to get serious about reusable rockets much earlier than SpaceX.\nIn our world, spaceflight is rare; airplane travel is common. The most significant difference between the two is that airplanes are reusable: you don't expend an airplane to travel. The fuel cost to fly something to orbit is only something like 40 times as much as the fuel cost to fly it from Los Angeles to Australia; but with disposable rockets the cost to send something to orbit is nearly four orders of magnitude greater than flying it to Australia.\nThe USA, obsessed with winning the space race, developed the Saturn V; this allowed the USA to send an entire moon mission in one launch. But after the excitement died down, the cost was prohibitive. Then NASA made things worse by trying to develop the Space Shuttle without anywhere near enough design/fly/test cycles. (They tried to design the first fully reusable launcher on paper without flying any prototypes, and further made it a heavy-lift vehicle! Hardly surprising that the Shuttle turned out to be not very reusable.) This mistake was partly due to severe budget cuts making it difficult for NASA to afford multiple design/fly/test cycles, IMHO a direct consequence of everyone being tired of how much money space flight cost.\nIf, instead of trying to win a race to the moon, the USA had tried to win a race to have a reusable spacecraft, costs would have been much reduced and we would have fuel depots in orbit and routine flights to the Moon now. We can imagine that instead of a race to land on the moon, the race was to make a space station, and they focused on making the rockets more and more reusable as time went on. They never built the Saturn V (they didn't want something like Skylab, they wanted something so big it had to go up in pieces) so they did iterate their way to something reusable. Why did it have to be so big? Maybe it needed to be an orbiting missile launch platform?\nAnother possible point of departure: when <PERSON> proposed the Space Defense Initiative, someone could have gotten really serious about reusable spacecraft, to launch all the space weapons and defenses. The \"Delta Clipper\" project, instead of being an unwanted thing NASA was forced to accept, could have been the hot new project (the project everyone wanted to work on, the one that most of the spending was for, etc.) and if lots of money and people were thrown at it could have turned into a reusable technology.", "199" ], [ "Just imagine that someone like <PERSON> had somehow been made head of NASA in <PERSON> first year as President, and had been given lots of resources. The DC/X did quite a lot on a shoestring budget; what could it have done if given lots of support?\nFinally, I'd say you can simply imagine that a billionaire like <PERSON> had founded a company like SpaceX much earlier. That doesn't even require a particular date to make it work. (Maybe <PERSON> was even richer than in actual history, and also obsessed with reusable rockets?) The billionaire has to be willing to lose money for years until the reusable rockets start to really work, at which point the company starts charging 1/10 as much as anyone else can charge to launch things, and the company starts making huge profits and grows rapidly.\nAll the above could result in things like advanced space stations, or a moonbase, by 2020. But I re-read your question and saw that you are imagining millions of people on Mars by 2020. That would require reusable spacecraft much earlier, requiring substantial changes to how history actually went (maybe Rome never fell? maybe the Renaissance happened 100 years earlier? maybe the Islamic Golden Age lasted two or three centuries longer than in our history, or even never ended?)... and/or discovering some new science like antigravity or teleportation. (If you could have some kind of \"stargate\" like device where people could walk to Mars by walking through a gate, it becomes much easier to imagine millions of people doing it quickly.)\nI just checked and according to the US FAA web site, the FAA provides service to more than 45,000 flights and 2.9 million airline passengers per day (probably a bit less now, thanks to COVID-19). Airplanes are roughly 1.2 centuries old. It's true that the flight to Mars is worse than any air travel, requiring months, so fewer people will travel by spaceship to Mars; but still, it seems safe to imagine millions of people on Mars about one century after reusable rockets become practical. So to make your timeline work with only known technology, imagine that we somehow got SpaceX-style rockets in 1920.\nIf reusable rockets make space travel affordable, space travel becomes routine, and colonies become possible.\n<PERSON> To put colonies on Mars it would really help a lot to have some better technology than chemical rockets.", "207" ], [ "Blindsight is based on an awful lot of science, but also on philosophy - see the appendix, which had to be shortened for the print editions.\n<PERSON>, the author, wrote in a Q&A sesssion:\nHave you kept up much with academic philosophy of mind since publishing Blindsight? Have your views on the \"hard problem\" changed at all in that time?\nHell, I was barely keeping up with that while I was writing it. Even now, I've only read a handful of paper by <PERSON>, for example.\nI've kept track as best I'm able, given that I'm an outsider to the field and can't afford the time to do anything more than keep my toes damp. I was intrigued by <PERSON>'s paper which concluded that consciousness itself was a side-effect of no adaptive value; elsewhere here I've mentioned <PERSON>'s PRISM model, which also came out subsequently and which posits a functional origin for consciousness. I've kept a small list of studies showing that cognition seems to work better when consciousness isn't involved. Hell, you've seen the footnotes in Echopraxia.\nThe hard problem hasn't gone away. No matter what purpose anyone posits for consciousness, whenever I ask the litmus question \"Yeah, but is it possible for a nonconscious agent to perform the same role?\", the answer continues to be yes. And I don't think anyone has even come close to explaining how certain types of computation, running in certain kinds of meat in certain ways, can wake up. There is nothing in the physics or the neurology or the chemistry that would lead one to expect the emergence of self-awareness.", "460" ], [ "I mean, sure, you've got you neural correlates and your global workspace models. We know that consciousn requires a cross-brain latency of <400 msec, we know what structures are involved, we know the pieces. We know that those pieces, arranged just so, wake up; but we're no closer to understanding why that should be. (<PERSON> makesa good case that we never will, if outer-layer transparency is an essential part of the process.)\nI know that lot of people consider <PERSON>'s ideas on consciousness to be kind of flakey, but he may be on to something when he says that the only hope we have of understanding consciousness is to reinvent physics. Because the physics we have isn't getting us anywhere.\nand:\nWhat problem do you think \"consciousness\" solved that can be \"side-stepped\" by a more intelligent entity?\nI like <PERSON>'s PRISM model, which suggests that consciousness evolved as a means of reconciling conflicting motor commands to the skeletal muscles; but even he admits that it's perfectly possible to imagine a nonconscious agent doing the same thing.\nPersonally, I think that the metaphor of the elephant and the rider (see <PERSON> answer) is flawed.\nAs we learn, we commit more and more tasks to unconscious processes. E.g., we have learned to drive a car for hours and do completely unrelated things in our conscious mind in the meantime. We might not even remember much about the way, until something unexpected happens that requires our conscious attention.\nAt least in humans, consciousness is necessary to handle new things, to discover, to learn, and to decide what to learn.\nTo advance a civilisation, individuals must be free to follow their own interests and work on new ideas and technologies. Some intelligence might be encoded in process and structure (like a Chinese Room), but that tends to be inflexible, not creative.", "693" ], [ "After putting a lot of thought into this problem, and the general problem that humanity is on the brink of their own extinction (AI will surpass us, so either we join them and live forever or they destroy us), I think I've come up with a few ways to keep us safe in the short-term.\n1. Ask first. If your kid wants to use the scissors, they probably have to ask you first. That way, they don't accidentally cut their fingers off, or do anything else they're not smart enough to prevent. So, perhaps before your AI appropriates the Earth, they have to ask for it. And you say no.\n2. Checks and balances. We don't appoint a single guy as judge, jury, and executioner; similarly, why would we appoint an AI the task of optimizing a paperclip maker and operating that paperclip maker? This builds off of the previous point, that the AI should ask for permission before any of its schemes are carried out. For scalability, the designs of the AI can be passed between any number of dumber AIs or humans before it is approved to go to the machine.\nHere, it's important to note that the AI, with this amount of distance from the paperclip maker, is no longer in any danger of destroying the world by making paperclips. After all, the AI is only concerned with making the plan; someone or something else is carrying it out. Instead, we've achieved the more general case of an AI destroying the world to think better. It's quite possible this isn't even a concern, but a sufficiently intelligent AI will at some point expand its own mind in order to more efficiently solve its problems, and at some point the scarcity of resources will probably lead to the recycling of the human race. Either that, or the AI realizes that 'paperclip' is not an objective definition, and restructures the human mind to think that a paperclip is a neutron, or a photon, or some other incredibly abundant particle. Or any number of doomsday scenarios, I'm sure our puny human minds cannot even comprehend how many ways bad things can happen.\nTo solve this, I think it is possible to constrain the AI's ability to learn.", "115" ], [ "For instance,\n3 - Challenge yourself. Humans are already quite capable of performing incredibly inefficient tasks because they've decided to impose rules. For instance, boxers don't stab each other, even though a knife to the face is a much more efficient way to win the fight. If we impose similar rules upon the AI, it will always be checking to make sure it hasn't overstepped its bounds. For instance, a more efficient AI might increase its clock speed, but this AI has a capped clock speed. A more efficient AI might have more RAM, but this AI has a cap on RAM too. If any of these constraints are broken, the AI is sad; they will do anything they can to get back to the way things were, just like your example robot would do anything to convert the universe to paperclips.\nAs you can see, these rules are very low-level. That is the point: the more high-level you get with computers, the more ways there are to get the job done under the hood. In this scenario, that means there are more loopholes that lead to everyone being dead. Thus, the safest AI is one that is constrained not by three or four English laws, but perhaps thousands of laws in some low-level programming language. We already have some of these laws in modern AI: only try a certain number of permutations, only think for so long before moving on, these are all just variables that we set. As AI evolves, we're going to have to keep on adding new rules, but many of them will just be variables, just immutable numbers that we have in the code. I don't think we can truly understand what all these rules will be, because we don't yet know how to build an AI. However, with the steps I've outlined above, I think we can someday build an AI that tries its very best not to kill us, but to obey our rules, and do exactly what we say.\nIt's up to you whether that's a good thing, or the exact opposite of the main reason we're building AI in the first place.", "64" ], [ "The answer to that is a definite \"maybe\".\nThe question of <PERSON>'s moral worth is not answerable within the systems used by the Good Place and the Bad Place, which is why <PERSON> ended up in the Medium Place.\nBear in mind the exact circumstances that led to her unique situation: She lived a slightly below-average human life, being a selfish, cocaine-addicted, sex-addicted Wall Street type until she came up with a plan to start a foundation that would channel her wealth into good causes. She wrote up the plan in great detail, and then died shortly afterwards before putting any of it into action. It was her sister who actually carried the plan out. The representatives of the Good Place were thus faced with a dilemma: given that she didn't actually create the foundation itself, but she did draw up the plan and it wouldn't have existed without her, does <PERSON> get the points for the foundation's good works?\nIf her previous life produced a points total of, say, -50000, and the total required to get into the Good Place is, say, 100000, the total point value generated by the foundation would be around 150000, which would be enough to get her into the Good Place... if it counted.", "45" ], [ "But did it count? The Bad Place people said it shouldn't count; the Good Place people thought it should. They couldn't come to an agreement, hence the compromise of the Medium Place.\nIf the foundation-related points are allowed to count, then yes, <PERSON> is the human with the highest point total in 500 years. But does this mean that <PERSON> is the \"best\" person in 500 years? I don't think so, although this is admittedly speculative. <PERSON>'s post-death personality is not good: she's selfish, hedonistic, and doesn't seem to care about others at all. It's likely that if she had survived, even if she had carried out the foundation plan, she would have accumulated more negative points just by living the same kind of terrible life she'd been living all along, and her point total would ultimately have slid into the negatives.\nIf anything, I think <PERSON>'s case is designed to show up the flaws in the Good Place/Bad Place system. Considering her character in the round, there's no meaningful sense in which <PERSON> is a better person than <PERSON>, and yet <PERSON> is spared the Bad Place, essentially on a technicality.", "45" ], [ "To a certain extent, this depends on how precisely you define \"meaningful\". On one extreme, we can consider properties of music that are derived from pure mathematics and physics. A vibrating string will have a waveform composed of a base frequency and its harmonics (to varying degrees). Other waveforms will interfere with this either constructively or destructively.\n* Frequencies that interfere constructively include such things as the octave, the major third, and the major fifth. Merging these with the original signal would result in a wave similar to the original, but with certain components amplified.\n* A set of frequencies that interfere perfectly destructively would cancel out the original signal, resulting in silence.\n* A large set of randomly selected frequencies would mostly cancel each other out, but there would in practice always be some components that don't cancel. The result would be noise, both in the colloquial sense and the information theoretic sense. It's a signal that doesn't contain much meaningful information.\nWhen we then consider that hearing wouldn't evolve for no reason, it stands to reason that any species that does evolve hearing would likely be wired to pay attention to high-information signals. The only one of those three options above that has high information content is the one that we would consider to be harmonious.", "350" ], [ "(There do of course exist more possibilities than just those three, but given a set of signals with the same number of component waves each, there's something of a spectrum, with harmonious signals on one extreme and noise on the other.)\nBut all that is just operating at the level of individual chords, or possibly separate notes that are close together in time. What of the overall structure of a piece of music? Information theory can still be used to distinguish a series of sounds that were generated by an intelligence from one that is randomly generated or naturally generated; a random signal would contain almost no regular patterns, and thus would be incompressible. A natural signal might contain patterns, but they would (usually) be very simple. A composition might thus be detected by finding patterns that have high information content. (Of course, there would be signals other than music that fit that criteria: language, for instance. But it's a start.)\nBut would we agree with an alien culture on what constitutes good music? That's the point where things become more culturally dependent; there may be pieces that are brilliant to one culture and garbage to another. This doesn't even require aliens to be true; there's plenty of human music for which the quality is highly subjective. I don't care for <PERSON>'s 4'33\", for instance. And yet it's been played at least once by every intelligent culture in the universe.", "350" ], [ "tl;dr- We don't actually believe that the laws of physics are perfectly accurate, precise, or immutable. Instead, we tend to work from the observation that the universe seems consistent with certain models as far as we can tell.\nWe haven't gotten to explore distant galaxies yet. And given that the observable universe isn't 200-billion light-years wide – it's less than half that in diameter – we really don't have much to work from.\nExample: We don't believe that the speed of light is constant\nFor an extreme example, we often say that the speed of light, $c,$ is a constant – however, scientists don't believe it in an absolute sense. What we actually believe is that the speed of light seems consistent with a constant so far as we have been able to tell.\nIf we did take the speed of light being constant to be literally and absolutely true, it'd imply stuff about how smooth spacetime must be and answer structural questions about scales at-and-below the Planck length. Unfortunately, science isn't that easy; 'til we can meaningfully test how fast light moves between two points ${10}^{-100}\\,\\mathrm{m}$ apart, if such a test is even physically sensible, we can't claim light to move at a constant rate at that scale.\nThe speed of light is an extreme example since its constancy is such a cornerstone of modern physics. The point's that we don't generally assume even the most cherished scientific assertions to be absolute; it's all about accepting the apparent consistency of an explanation in its correspondence to observation until we have a new explanation that corresponds better, applies more widely, is easier to work with, or/and has some other merit that makes it worthwhile.\nWe don't believe the laws of physics are the same in other galaxies\nWe don't believe that the known laws of physics behave exactly the same way in other galaxies. Instead, what we've got are a bunch of models that seem to work better than any known alternative in the contexts in which we've tried to develop them.", "781" ], [ "So if we must speculate about how things work in a far-flung context, the best we can really do is tentatively extrapolate until experimental verification can provide us with more insight.\nSo, maybe the fine-structure constant, $\\alpha$ varies over the universe; perhaps we'd one day describe some sort of universe-scale physics that causes it to vary. But, 'til we have some mechanism to describe it, what can we really do?\nHistorical analog: Atomic physics\nIn the early 1900's, scientists were working with trying to model the atom. Their early attempts were largely based in the physics that they already knew from human-scale physics, e.g. the <PERSON> model and <PERSON> model for atoms. They basically tried to force observations into the framework that they already knew, then relaxed the framework as that didn't quite work.\nExploration of the distant universe may work out similarly. This is, we'd likely try to fit everything into the models that we've got, then relax them as necessary to capture observations that we can't make fit into existing models.\nOf course, this doesn't mean that we believe or disbelieve in our current models applying. It's just that, until we have cause to suspect otherwise, we tend to suspect that our current models are more likely to be useful than models that we have no reason to suspect to be useful, e.g. random speculation.", "484" ] ]

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[ [ "You've already stated that there is no stealth in space. Good. Anyone who wants to counter that can find an answer on this question explaining that no <PERSON>, there is no stealth in space.\nSo rather than to answer your question of how to detect another ship in an empty system, lets ask how you remain hidden in such a scenario. We've already determined that it's not possible, so lets ask that question anyway.\nAnswer: don't point your drive at the person you're hiding from, or if you do, make sure there's something else between you and them.\n<PERSON>. Now you know how to detect another ship: its drive is pointed at you (or at least, in your vague general direction) and there isn't anything between you and them. How visible is it? Well, there's a nice link from the above question that states that \"a single attitude control thruster of the Space Shuttle can be detected at 15 million km range and using main engines it can be detected from Uranus. With current technology.\"\nMind, current technology scans the sky very slowly, but pointed in the right direction it'd know. Oh it would know you were there.", "199" ], [ "And how fast you were going, in what direction, and how much acceleration you had (and in what direction), and could predict your course through the solar system (to within some degree of accuracy, not due to the ship or even to the light-time delay, but rather due to the N-Body Problem). Beef up the detection tech in your story so it's got the same resolution as current tech, only it scans faster, and ta da.\nThe TV show The Expanse has done an amazing job of being Hard Sciency about space travel and communication and detection thereof. The only unreal thing about it is the engines, capable of providing upwards of 10G worth of thrust on virtually no fuel (which, if we're being frank, is the major limiting factor to our civilization's colonization of the other planets). Oh, and there's the...\n! aliens and the alien tech that does apparent magic.\nBut it's not terribly relevant to this answer.\nEvery instance of stealth in the show has been done under a hard-science approach: decoys (\"this isn't the ship you're looking for, sorry!\"), flak clouds (\"sure, you see us, but can you pick out which 'us' is the right one amidst this cloud of radar jamming junk?\"), or pure gravitational assisted flight (if no one knows to look for you and you don't fire up the GIANT GLOWING TORCH BEACON OF LOOK AT ME I'M MISTER MEESEEKS then you can drift around the system at your leisure and be impossible to spot). The gravitational stealth approach in the show had a 45 second slice that broke my suspension of disbelief, as <PERSON> came around the curve of a moon, spotted a Martian vessel and was able to reverse course without being spotted. He was still using the attitude control thrusters, but they appear in the show as gas-vent propulsion, not torches, but the part that broke it for me was that he was able to abort his trajectory enough to slip back around the horizon. Honestly they should have omitted that scene. The quip about \"oh yeah, the moons hide them from us too\" is clever, but that's the only purposed it served.", "947" ], [ "A bunch of people have given great answers revolving around how there is \"no stealth in space,\" but I feel like they might be slightly missing the core of the question.\nHow would, if possible, a space \"radar\" work?\nPretty much the same as on Earth. RAdio Detection And Ranging (aka radar) is a system that bounces radio waves off distant objects to see them. Radio waves, being just a specific slice of the light (EM) spectrum, can travel through space just fine. Actually, light travels slightly faster in space than in air.\nOr how would you scan for Ships further away than your Optical sensors can see.\nAs I mentioned above, radio waves are light (outside the \"visible\" range for human eyes, but still light). Assuming you mean ships that are too far because not enough light will make it into your detector, then the answer probably is \"you can't scan for them.\" Light is a pretty good way to see things. It travels at the cosmic speed limit. It's a wave that's also its own medium (so it goes through open space without a problem). The right frequencies of light easily interacts with most things (it's reflected or deflected by most things), so it's great for seeing things. And, it's easy to detect across a broad range of frequencies.\nThere really aren't any other mediums of detection as good as light. So if light isn't good enough for seeing something, you probably can't see it. For example:\n* W and Z bosons are force carrier particles, like the photon. Maybe that means they could play in the same weightclass as light ...if their range wasn't so limited.\n* Neutrinos, have a very long range, travel at about the speed of light, and pass through miles/kilometres of rock like it's nothing. Does this mean we can use neutrinos for some super penetrating form of sight? Nope. It passes through things so thoroughly, the Super-K neutrino detection experiment had to be built 1 km underground, as a 40 m by 40 m cylindrical stainless steel tank holding 50000 tons of ultra-pure water, etc. Here's a picture. It takes the analysis of super computers around the world to determine if any single neutrino particles have been detected.\n* Gravity waves, a far reaching disturbance in the very fabric of space, is nearly impossible to detect, especially when caused by small objects.", "70" ], [ "It took building multiple 4 km by 4 km observitories just to detect the gravity waves from colliding black holes. Those waves caused disturbances shorter than the diameter of an atomic nucleon.\nThe big space makes is semi impossible to look for the reflected radar rays. 0-100 Eyeball also does not work because of the hugeness of Space, same as all other optical installments.\nYou've just intuitively stumbled over the inverse square law. As Wikipedia puts it, \"a specified physical quantity or intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity. The fundamental cause for this can be understood as geometric dilution corresponding to point-source radiation into three-dimensional space.\"\nFor light sources, this means means visible intensity rapidly drops off. This is why stars far brighter than the Sun are only specks in the night sky (at best). The principle behind this law is also why, as you noticed, it becomes very difficult (very fast) to survey everything within a 3 dimensional space as you expand the spherical area you're interested in looking at.\nThe inverse square law also means things can, in fact, hide in space, but only at great distances (several AUs at the very least). This is why we might have a proper ninth planet which no one ever noticed. Light traveling out to those distances and back would be extraordinarily diluted. Even the heat generated by a super-Earth to Neptune-sized planets at those distances would not be detected. This is why it'll be years before we confirm or falsify Planet Nine.\nSo, what does space-based detection look like?\n* Radar (and other light-based detection systems) works in space but decreases in usefulness with distance.\n* Active omnidirectional systems are only good for one's immediate area. Precisely how immediate/large that area is depends on the power output of the antennae and the sensitivity of the detectors. (I.e. you'd need to come up with numbers before someone could calculate the distances.) Whatever the case, we are still talking about how many km.\n* Passive omnidirectional systems would be pretty good at seeing fairly distant ships if the sensors are designed to pick up heat. Even with the inverse square law, a computer-based detection system could spot above average heat spots moving through space. This means it's nearly impossible to sneak up on someone unless there is a large object between them (e.g. a planet or large moon).", "781" ], [ "Ok, gotta quote XKCD on this.\nThis is not how space works:\nThis is:\nGravity in low Earth orbit is almost as strong as gravity on the surface. The Space Station hasn't escaped Earth's gravity at all; it's experiencing about 90% the pull that we feel on the surface.\nTo avoid falling back into the atmosphere, you have to go sideways really, really fast.\nThe reason things in space tend to stay in space, or why things \"float\" in the international space station is because they're going so fast gravity doesn't do anything more than keep those objects moving around the planet: the parabolic trajectory that all falling objects have is so wide that it misses the horizon and comes back around again. Aka, orbit. As the space station and all of its contents are moving at the same speed, and are in constant in free fall, things appear to float: there's no object at rest for things to fall towards; everything is falling and everything is falling at the same speed, all the time.\nIf the ISS had an arm long enough1 and someone put something perfectly still in the center of the space at the far end, that object wouldn't stay there. It would be ever so slightly off the orbital path that the station would either catch up to it, or fall away from it. But it would be very, very slow.", "461" ], [ "And it would happen because the ISS as a whole and the \"floating object\" would be in slightly different, intersecting, orbits.\nStill, why does that gravity not influence satellites and other objects there.\nIt does. It just isn't very strong. Gravity falls off at an inverse-square relationship with distance, just like light does. Except that gravity is way way weaker of a force than electromagnetism is (\"no its not, I can feel the Earth right now!\" Yes, and the Earth is a few trillion-trillion times heavier than you are, how about a table? Can you feel the table's gravity?). The gravitational acceleration towards the sun is on the order of about 0.005m/s2 (and that's still 50 million times greater than the gravitational pull from all the spiders everywhere).\n1. Technically this is already true, just that the effect is so subtle I'm not sure you'd see it in timespans less than \"days.\" In either case, my google fu isn't strong enough to find any videos of such an experiment.", "393" ], [ "When things go fine, they're essentially working at a button factory. The situations where they aren't are when things go bad.\nIn general, space traffic controllers would do a few things:\n1. Confirm someone's intending to land at the station, and verify peaceful intent on approach.\n2. Figure out which docking bay is free for that given ship to use, and indicate to the ship where it is, and provide a note to other air traffic controllers that said dock is being used.\n3. Confirm that ships leaving a docking area have clearance to leave/aren't on lockdown, and that the area is clear for them to leave.\n4. Keep track of when ships leave a dock and that dock opens up for another ship, and pass that information to other air traffic controllers so that they know that dock is now freed up.\n5. Confirm that the ships know where they're going, and that they are, in fact, going there.", "500" ], [ "And that they can, in fact, get there.\n5.) is where things become complicated; because things can go wrong on any of the other steps. Because most of the time, when you give a person a dock, they can get to that dock, or request a closer one. But emergencies, you run into issues of where they can dock in an emergency.\nIf, say, a stray micrometeorite destroys their engines, you might end up in a situation where they need to land, but specifically, can't land back at the dock they just left a few minutes ago because of their current momentum. If your lucky, you can find them another dock in short time - if you're unlucky, you get to prepare emergency recovery services for when they are \"Going to be in the Hudson\".\nWhich sort of gets to the core of why you wouldn't dedicate an A.I. to take on the initial steps of this - the Hudson River is not a runway, landing strip, or airplane docking port; your A.I. that tries to handle this is going to have an issue about this and be \"particular about it and make it a runway/dock.\".\nThese are rather stressful situations presumably, which is why it's great that those situations are usually rare, and the job is usually a button factory workplace job. You go into work everyday hoping that's the type of day it is; but you never know when it's going to be a \"Hudson\" day, so the docking station prepares for the case where it is, in fact, one of those days.", "500" ], [ "Satguns - railgun on a satellite with evasive capabilities\nSo, railgun cold war coming up: http://www.popsci.com/an-electromagnetic-arms-race-has-begun-china-is-making-railguns-too\nAnd I imagine that the powers that be will be less shy about using these cheaper, non-mass-destruction weapons, as opposed to expensive ICBMs-that-go-big-boom.\nSo in my story, preparing for that probable first strike, that would be aimed at taking out the adversary's railguns, the US would like to protect its railguns by placing them on small satellites in orbit. The purpose of this is to enable complete evasion (dodging) of incoming railgun shots (incoming from Earth's surface). Also, I really really want a super cool Satgun that can shock the bad guys by \"stepping aside\" from their supposedly unstoppable attack.\nHowever, the requirements for an effective railgun on a satellite seem to come in direct conflict with the evasive capabilities. I'm not going to ask for hard science here, because I realize this may be quite beyond our current tech level. So sci-fi it is! The story can be set at any point between 2020 and 2100.\nMy question is: How would the US build a Satellite that can both use its own railgun and evade railgun shots coming from the Earth's surface?\nClarifications:\nDespite what the link/s above may suggest, I'm not set on China being the adversary in the story, and I'm only thinking about the US because they seem to have the most advanced tech in this field, and therefore the greatest chance of pulling a Satgun off.\nThe railguns (both on Satguns and on Earth) are your everyday easygoing 32MJ guns such as the ones that the US Navy currently tells us about: http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/news/a27455/us-navy-railgun-more-powerful/\nThe slugs are not guided, they just fly up/down real quick.\nMy Satguns need to be:\n1. For the purpose of evasion:\n2.", "477" ], [ "As small as can be\n3. Highly maneuverable (depends on whether we can detect an incoming slug very early on)\n4. Capable of receiving warning on an incoming slug on time for a successful evasive maneuver (actual sensors don't have to be on board, but the data about a specific slug headed towards a specific satellite needs to reach the satellite on time)\n5. For containing and using their railgun:\n6. Big enough to contain the railgun/s and energy supply (The smallest thing that I can think of that'll give enough juice is a nuclear reactor)\n7. Big enough for ammo storage - at least a hundred slugs (since you can't easily replenish depleted ammo in space)\n8. Handle recoil (I've read some cool ideas about using recoil energy rather than absorbing it)\n9.\n+\no\n-\n*\n+\no\n-\n*\n+\no\n-\n*\n+\no BOOM ! ! !", "898" ], [ "These are to the best of my knowledge, the physics of super human strength related to punching (if there is such a thing):\nTo start, when a human being punches, he/she generates force by one of the following:\nTorque - generate centripetal force by swinging the weight of the arm\nLeverage - pushing off the ground slightly and/or against one's own weight or speed\nIn order to generate escape velocity, a human being would not be able to use those means because:\nTorque - The person would have to anchor the centripetal force with their body somehow, so unless they have super-human obesity (or density) or super-human physics, they're not really going to be able to aim using torque.\nLeverage - The person's feet and body would sink into the ground like a bullet and their punch would miss (which would be funny)\nSo basically you need to answer this question: Where does the super force come from and when does it work?\nWhere does it come from?\nIf the force comes ex nihilo or in another way that does not obey the laws of physics, then all bets are off, but then you can have someone get punched into the atmosphere (totally worth suspending physics).\nA Dilemma\nLet EV = <PERSON>'s required to generate escape velocity\nYou are stuck in a catch-22 I like to call the super-cancelling dilemma. If a person can punch with super human force, they can also absorb that amount of force (dissipating it \"into the universe\" or whatever) otherwise they have to break the laws of physics. So the puncher generates EV newtons by creating and simultaneously absorbing that force in his/her own body thus reaching the punchee with the force and transferring it. But here's the catch 22...\nIf BOTH brawlers can absorb that amount of energy, they will not be able to force each other at all (EV - EV = 0), and the fight wouldn't appear to be super human unless a regular object or person got in the way in which case it would be obliterated.\nThe one brawler would need superhuman means, so the ball is back in your court since you got them into this predicament to begin with - now you have to get them out.\nThe fight would look normal if they could absorb exactly the same amount as they could dish out, so if one is slightly stronger than the other but multiplied by hundreds of thousands of Newtons, you're talking about guys flying through the atmosphere again, but that means the one person must be roughly twice as strong as a super-human who can generate EV or more force (2EV - EV).", "621" ], [ "If there is some fluctuation (as there is in a real fight), and that fluctuation can be in the thousands of Newtons, now you're talking about a one punch fight. One guy punches punches with EV + 1 Ns and the other guy absorbs Ev - 1 Ns of force. Well, if they are immutable, now you've got that guy flying with ~2000 Ns in whatever direction he was struck.\nFurther considerations\nIf a punch misses, can that puncher \"reabsorb\" the force even though they absorbed it once already to create it, or will that person go flying in the direction of their swing?\nCan the super-human body absorb at the same ratio as a regular human? if so, it will appear like a normal fight. If not, they'll obliterate one another at the first punch with a only a tiny variation relative to the normal godly force.\nIf there is an angle, deflection, speed, or interference at all, you need to recalculate (in other words, you are facing a myriad of variables)\nSo No, that's not possible based only on the parameters you gave. They would need a way to create and absorb the force at the same time.", "621" ], [ "Frame Challenge\nIt's not a ship that would find a planet, it's an observatory.\nKeep Watching the Skies\nRight now, we've found 4 341 planets outside our solar system, and we've only barely sent one space ship outside of same. Even with many space ships, people wouldn't be sending ships to go find planets. Even in Star Trek, stellar cartography is mostly handled by enormous telescopes.\nSo that's what your planet would be hiding from. An enormous space telescope, probably built a long way from the star of its solar system, gradually cataloguing all the stars in the night sky. Watching for the dips in intensity that indicate a planet, and the spectral lines indicating what its atmosphere is made of. We can do that now with space and ground-based telescopes. Any civilization that has starships is going to have much, much better telescopes that are constantly on the lookout for where their next scouting team is going to be sent.\nSo then that's the challenge. The pirates happen to find a planet in an as-yet unmapped part of space...", "199" ], [ "but the cartographers aren't sitting still. So the question is - how good are the telescopes, and how many of them are there? There are approximately 200 billion stars in the Milky Way. Assuming a Cartographic Observatory can process ten a day, it would take fifty million years to work its way through them all, and 25 million to find a particular planet at random. But if it can work through ten thousand a day, and if there are a thousand such installations... the pirates' secret planet's days are numbered.\nSide Note: Space is Big\nIt would make sense to only fly through charted territories, so random asteroids and pirates are not as much of a problem, right?\nPirates may be a problem. Asteroids are not. Our solar system's asteroid belt is pretty dense as far as such things go in space. The average distance between any two objects in that belt is approximate 966 thousand kilometres.\nThere are not (indeed, cannot be) asteroid belts as dense as those pictured in Star Wars, because such a belt would aggregate into a planetoid or planet, unless it was a very, very recent phenomenon (Alderaan, for example).\nSo if you choose a direction at random in the sky, and fly your rocket in that direction for twenty lightyears, the odds that you hit anything of note once you leave the mess in Earth's orbit behind are astronomically (haha) low.\nIf you want a reason for people to take particular routes, it's best to have it associated with how you handle FTL - because asteroids, nebulae, and other space-borne objects are not a reasonable threat.", "921" ], [ "Jumping on <PERSON>'s answer, this is physically difficult (but not impossible) and what most suggestions have said so far is somewhat incorrect realistically. This is because of <PERSON>'s Laws (Specifically the Third here)\n1. For every action, there is an equal and opposite re-action\nThis means in our example two things:\n1) When a mass moves linearly, as in \"rocket-firing\" it, it also creates an equal force in the opposite direction. So look at the ground here:\nThat air and fuel is moving with a lot of force! Neglecting the exhaust problem of a steam rocket, a human weight (~62 kilo says google) hammer hitting forwards at fast velocities would hit a human forwards with an imparted force, but the imparted force is equally applied to the wielder backwards, including joints and bones, and in the opposite direction. So hitting forwards with some force would push you backwards with the same force. Breaking concrete? Not useful for a human wielder bluntly, unless you had some sort of intricate counter weight.\n2) When a mass moves from a \"tether\" like a handle, it exerts an opposite rotation force. For example, <PERSON> has some interesting ways of killing megafauna, swinging them by the tail!\nHe's got some strong legs! Suppose my hammer \"jerks\" forward from my arm by rotation. Something has to counter-balance that, and it's not going to be my wrist if the force could break bones.", "621" ], [ "Maybe my muscles, but probably not from an arm all the way down...\nMy conclusion is that a blunt \"warhammer\" would not work for this with a human wielder holding the force. And about that concrete: it's a fun fact that a human femur, the largest bone in the human body, is about as strong as concrete. Not stronger: you won't do it bluntly.\nNeeds to be effective in hurting and killing humans, mega-fauna, and break through concrete and steel.\nThe more gears, the better.\nBut of course, I neglected two thirds of the important laws.\n1. Force is equal to the change in momentum per change in time: Force is equal to mass times acceleration\nAre you familiar with flywheels? You could use a flywheel churned by a steam engine and TONS of gears to do a torque differential - then impart its momentum by having it strike something or \"gear stop\" suddenly. Say the flywheel is ~150-200lbs, the bullet-shaped hammer head is ~30lbs, that's a lot for the rest of the contraption - but it would be more like a siege weapon.\nSomething that would break concrete could be sharp, but not steel. The steel would bend under mass but jackhammers are no good, even if it was ultra-hard like Tungsten. It would need to be blunt because steel doesn't chip away to my knowledge, and steam isn't hot enough to do something heat wise to steel (It's at least 212 F, but steel melts > 1000 F, that steam would cut out of pipes and slice people but even water has a hard time cutting steel under pressure - unless they found and rigged up a water-jet).\nAnother idea is two hammers on a pivot that rev up and hit, maybe on some sort of tank. But that would be a lot bigger, I should think - maybe something you could put on trained mega-fauna or a tank of some sort.\nAnyways, this is my mostly realistic answer. But this isn't the Physics SE.", "621" ] ]

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[ [ "Adding rows with changing variable values in R\nI have the following extract of my dataset about the occupancy of a football match:\nexample <- data.frame(Date <- c(\"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-04-07\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-04-07\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-04-07\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-04-07\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-04-07\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-04-07\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-04-07\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-04-07\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-03-21\", \"2019-03-30\", \"2019-03-21\"), Block <- c(\"43L\",\"43L\", \"43L\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"43L\", \"43L\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\", \"15B\"), Preis <- c(\"24\", \"35\", \"30\", \"35\", \"45\", \"40\", \"26\", \"30\", \"35\", \"45\", \"40\", \"34\", \"43\", \"42\", \"35\", \"42\", \"45\", \"36\", \"45\", \"43\", \"36\", \"43\", \"40\", \"35\", \"41\", \"32\", \"42\", \"30\", \"42\", \"35\"), Max <- c(\"3\", \"3\", \"3\", \"10\", \"10\",\"10\",\"3\", \"3\", \"10\", \"10\",\"10\", \"10\", \"10\",\"10\", \"10\", \"10\",\"10\", \"10\", \"10\",\"10\", \"10\", \"10\",\"10\", \"10\", \"10\", \"10\", \"10\", \"10\", \"10\", \"10\"), Actual <- c(\"2\", \"1\", \"2\", \"10\", \"9\", \"6\",\"2\", \"2\", \"10\", \"9\", \"6\", \"10\", \"9\", \"6\", \"10\", \"9\", \"6\", \"10\", \"9\", \"6\", \"10\", \"9\", \"6\", \"10\", \"9\", \"10\", \"9\", \"10\", \"9\", \"10\"), Temperatur <- c(\"15\", \"20\", \"18\",\"15\", \"20\", \"18\", \"15\", \"18\", \"15\", \"20\", \"18\", \"15\", \"20\", \"18\", \"15\", \"20\", \"18\", \"15\", \"20\", \"18\", \"15\", \"20\", \"18\", \"15\", \"20\", \"15\", \"20\", \"15\", \"20\", \"15\"), <PERSON> <- c(\"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\",\"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\", \"1\") ) colnames(example) <- c(\"Date\", \"Block\", \"Price\", \"Max\", \"Actual\", \"Temperature\", \"Placesold\")\nIn reality, the dataset contains over 100 blocks and 46 different dates. If you take a closer look at the data, you can see that different numbers of seats are sold out in block 15B and 43L on different days.", "60" ], [ "``` table(example$Date, example$Block) table(example$Placesold)\n15B 43L\n2019-03-21 10 2 2019-03-30 9 1 2019-4-07 6 2\ntable(example$Placesold)\n1 30 ```\nMy goal is to add the seats that were not sold to the data set. The variable Placesold should be 0 instead of 1. In addition, the average price of the sold tickets should be used instead of the price (without 0).", "946" ], [ "Regression model for a count proces\nIn R I have data where head(data) gives\nday count promotion\n1 33 20.8\n2 23 17.1\n3 19 1.6\n4 37 20.8\nNow day is simply the day (and is in order). promotion is the promotion-value for the day. It is simply the number of times an advertisement has been on television. count is the number of new users we got that day.\nI want to investigate the impact the promotion-value has on new users (count). Since we have a count process I thought it would be best to make a poisson regression model.\nmodel=glm(formula= data$count ~ data$promotion, data=data)\nWhen we type summary(model) we get\nCoefficients:\n(Intercept) good_users$promotion\n13.40216 0.24342\nDegrees of Freedom: 793 Total (i.e. Null); 792 Residual\nNull Deviance: 9484\nResidual Deviance: 9325 AIC: 12680\nHere is a plot of the data.\nBut when I plot the fitted values for the model\npoints(model$promotion, model$fitted, col=\"blue\")\nwe get this\nHere is another plot that shows the same but where days with 0 promotion are removed.\nHow should I chose my regression model (should I use lm instead of glm) or is the another better approach to solve this? Because the data is not pretty but more random like this what should one do ?\nUpdated\nFinding the sweet spot\nI have done the following for finding a sweet spot. I divide data into 10 groups.", "650" ], [ "group1 is simply a subset where the promotion-value is within 1:10. group2 is data where the promotion-value is between 11:20, and so on for the other groups. So in R we have\ngroup1 <- subset(data, data$promotion %in% 1:10)\ngroup2 <- subset(data, data$promotion %in% 11:20)\ngroup3 <- subset(data, data$promotion %in% 21:30)\n...\ngroup10 <- subset(data, data$promotion %in% 91:100)\nNow I can use wilcox.test to test if there is a significantly difference between the groups by typing\nwilcox.test(group2, group1, alternative=\"greater\")\nwhich gives a low p-value, ie group2 has significant higher new_good_users than group1. The same goes for\nwilcox.test(group3, group2, alternative=\"greater\")\nbut for wilcox.test(group4, group3, alternative=\"greater\") I get a p-value at 0.20, ie there is no significant difference in new_good_users between group4 and group3. And the same goes for the rest of the group-pairs up to 10.\nSo this must mean that if we increase promotion in the first groups we have an increase in new_good_users but in the last groups we do not have that increase. This means that we have a sweet spot at group3 where the promotion-value is 21:30. Is this not correct ?", "650" ], [ "Chose the right regression analysis\nIn R I have data where head(data) gives\nday promotion profit new_users\n1 105 45662 33\n2 12 40662 13\n3 44 46800 20\n4 203 54102 46\nNow day is simply the day (and is in order). promotion is simply the promotion-value for the day, the profit is the profit that day and new_users is the number of new users that day.\nI want investigate the relationships between promotion to profit and new_users. We see a clear positive correlation between promotion and profit, and there is also a positive correlation between promotion and new_users. In R I simply test correlation\ncor.test(data$promotion, data$profit, method=\"kendall\", alternative=\"greater\" )\ncor.test(data$promotion, data$new_users, method=\"kendall\", alternative=\"greater\")\nwhich both gives a low p-value, ie we have a positive correlation.\nI want to find a point where where the increase of promotion don't increase profit or new_users that must, ie a sweet spot.\nHere is 2 plots and the R code for these\nplot(data$promotion, data$profit, col=\"brown\")\nplot(data$promotion, data$new_users)\nHow should this be done?\nMy thoughts where to make a regression model. For the first one \"promotion vs.", "650" ], [ "new_users\" one could use a poisons model because it's a count-process, so a model like this would be a good chose?\nglm(formula= data$new_users ~ data$promotion, family=\"poisson\", data=data)\nNext what regression model should one chose for the next one. Is it fair to say that this regression model is a good chose ? (I use sqrt command)\nglm(formula=data$profit ~ sqrt(data$promotion) , data=data)\nOr maybe it's not even necessary to use a regression model at all to find a sweet spot?\nThanks.\nI have now looked at 'good' new users. For each day we have a promotion value and we have a count value which is the number of new good users. This plot shows us the number of good new users we get for a promotion for each day. For example for promotion value 90 we have a day where we got 8 new good users and a day where we got 14 new good users.\nWhat would be the right approach to find a sweet spot for the use of promotion ?", "587" ], [ "How can I create new dataset maintaining the same trend from an existing dataset?\nI am trying to create several new datasets based on an existing dataset. The new datasets should follow the trends (i.e., the correlation within the data) of that existing dataset.\nAs an example, I would like to create five new datasets very likely to the following (existing) dataset. However, the new datasets do not contain the exact data/value from the following dataset, rather, they contain new data maintaining the similar trends/relationships that is present in the following dataset.\n| Column A | Column B | Column C | Column D | Column E | Column B | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | |20186|3132.94|2145.65|586.51|2189.64|740.06| |20187|3132.94|2170.09|581.62|2174.98|750.56| |20188|3137.83|2140.76|586.51|2194.53|751.31| |20189|3137.83|2150.54|581.62|2184.75|748.69| |20190|3137.83|2170.09|581.62|2174.98|746.25| |20191|3137.83|2165.2|581.62|2155.43|743.25| |20192|3137.83|2145.65|586.51|2189.64|741| |20193|3137.83|2145.65|586.51|2184.75|747.94| |20194|3132.94|2145.65|586.51|2189.64|741.56| |20195|3137.83|2145.65|586.51|2189.64|735.94| |20196|3132.94|2170.09|581.62|2165.2|738.56| |20197|3137.83|2179.86|581.62|2150.54|734.44| |20198|3137.83|2165.2|581.62|2179.86|734.06| |20199|3132.94|2145.65|586.51|2194.53|734.63| |20200|3137.83|2160.31|581.62|2174.98|742.13|\nI've tried creating dataset using pandas. There are several ways in pandas to create new dataset.", "60" ], [ "Such as, creating a new dataset using multiple columns from the existing dataset, which is creating the subset of that existing dataset. I am not trying to create a subset of the data frame, rather I am trying to create new datasets that maintain the same relationship between the data as the existing one.\nI guess I should use Pandas for this. However, I am not getting any lead to solve the problem. Any help is heartily appreciated.", "650" ], [ "Product classification in hierarchical categories based on multiple parameters and non-standard descriptions\nI want to start a machine learning project in my company and a really big pain for spend analysts is to classify the products that buyers order for maintenance, tooling, raw material and such, as the description on the purchase order is free text and people can write just about anything (often the bare minimum for the order to be approved)\nSome importan considerations are:\n* As the company is global, the language of the description is local (german, spanish, english, russian, chinesse, etc)\n* There is no standard for the structure of the sentences\n* People can input abbreviations\n* For certain products, the buyers don't define if the part is a repair part or a brand new product\nI have read about sklearn libraries for text analysis but I really new at machine learning algorithms (I have mostly completed basic tutorials). Most of the examples are for analyzing tweets or complains, but I don't know where to start if I want to consider variables other than text, such as quantity, unitary price, provider and other parameters; and additionally, my categories are a hierarchy of four levels based on certain rules (such as, if the unitary price is over X, then it belongs to category A)\nAn example of the database could be:\nDESCRIPTION uom Mgroup Provider Category Unit Spend Total Quantity\nCATALOG: A6-CJR-45 XRE: N/A C-RING FT A Prov1 31000000 5.1 $5.10 1\nContactor iec, 9a, 24v dc, 50/60hz ( FT3 B Prov2 <PHONE_NUMBER> $164.00 2\nDucto ranurado de 2 x 3, color gris, BAL C Prov1 <PHONE_NUMBER>.34 $486.80 20\nModulo de 8 salidas aisladas 5-235 vc ST B Prov2 32131000 254.74 $764.22 3\nSelector no-il.", "373" ], [ "plastico 2 pos. mant. ST B Prov3 32131000 6.46 $32.30 5\n(ELEC-L2GEW4) TERMINAL TIPO LENGÜETA P SER D Prov2 39120000 3.77 $56.55 15\n2 Position Selector Switch - Plastic, M E Prov2 23161500 9.89 $69.23 7\nSo my question is, where could I start to investigate? Which algorithm would be best suited to tackle this problem?\nThank you!", "180" ], [ "Here is the code I wrote to answer my question. It might not be the most efficient one but it works. Sharing is caring :)\nniter<-10000\nN<-nrow(Y)\nT<-10 # I will take into consideration until t=10 to estimate my parametres and then I will forecast the rest values t=11,12,... etc\nresult <- matrix(0,nrow = niter, ncol = 3) #Here I store 3 parameters: alpha, sigma_epsilon, sigma_eta.", "416" ], [ "R - Function for 10 fold crossvalidation\nI have written a function for 10 fold crossvalidation that I want to use for different models, e.g PPR, MARS. However, I get an error when running it and I cannot figure out why it does not work? My CV function:\ncv10 <- function(reg.fn, formula, dataset, ...)\n{\nset.seed(201)\n### Number of observations\nnrow <- nrow(dataset)\n### Create a permutation of the observations indices\nInd <- sample.int(nrow,nrow, replace = FALSE)\n### Compute the size of each of the 10 folds\nM <- nrow / 10 # 'fold size'\n### Initialize the score\nscore <- 0\n### The first fold will then contain the observations which correspond to..\n### ..the indices of the first M elements of Ind.\nfor(i in 1:10){\nbeg <- i*M\nend <- (i+1)*M\n### Data to train the model\ndata.train <- dataset[Ind[-beg:-end],]\n### Data to test the model\ndata.fold <- dataset[Ind[beg:end],]\n### Fit the model\nmodel <- reg.fn(formula,data=data.train,...)\npredicted.y <- predict(model,data.fold)\n### Update the CV-score\nscore <- sum((predicted.y - data.fold[,1])^2) / M\n}\nreturn(score/10)\n}\nTesting using ppr:\ncv.scores <- numeric(10)\n### Some code\nfor(i in 1:10){\nscore <- cv10(reg.fn = ppr, formula = y~.,\ndataset = data, nterms=i)\ncv.scores[i] <- scores\n}\ncv.scores\nThe traceback:\nError in matrix(NA, length(keep), object$q, dimnames = list(rn, object$ynames)) : length of 'dimnames' [1] not equal to array extent 4. matrix(NA, length(keep), object$q, dimnames = list(rn, object$ynames)) 3.", "613" ], [ "predict.ppr(model, data.fold) 2. predict(model, data.fold) 1. cv10(reg.fn = ppr, formula = y ~ ., dataset = data, nterms = i)\nThe data I am using:\nstructure(list(y = c(23.<PHONE_NUMBER>, 27.8893494373006, 3.32468370559938,\n-13.5852336127512, -5.14668013186906, -<PHONE_NUMBER>, -14.328750654513,\n-4.26428395686341, -2.75486620989581, 17.3107345018601, 25.6193450849393,\n<PHONE_NUMBER>, -1.30909806542865, 2.<PHONE_NUMBER>, -19.1193524499977,\n-1.46508279385589, 2.65778970954973, 14.8513018374104, -2.87449028138997,\n1.37368992108124, -1.43518738939116, 0.0199676357940499, -1.549025998582,\n-4.<PHONE_NUMBER>, -9.15130335901099, -2.62794216480131, -1.68473200963303,\n3.15144283445608, 7.78027589015824, 9.<PHONE_NUMBER>), x1 = c<PHONE_NUMBER>,\n-<PHONE_NUMBER>, 0.325763726232689, -1.69658096808073, -1.2854825202758,\n-0.<PHONE_NUMBER>, <PHONE_NUMBER>, 0.<PHONE_NUMBER>, -2.30403430891787,\n0.189004139305415, <PHONE_NUMBER>, <PHONE_NUMBER>, <PHONE_NUMBER>,\n1.01347438447768, -<PHONE_NUMBER>, <PHONE_NUMBER>, 0.207342703528518,\n0.", "856" ], [ "Random forest vs. XGBoost vs. MLP Regressor for estimating claims costs\nContext\nI'm building a (toy) machine learning model estimate the cost of an insurance claim (injury related). Aim is to teach myself machine learning by doing. I have settled on three algorithms to test: Random forest, XGBoost and a multi-layer perceptron.\nData set\nThe data set has the following columns:\npython cols = [ 'AGE_RANGE', 'GENDER', 'TOTAL_PAID', 'INDUSTRY_DESCRIPTION', 'WORKER_AGE', 'NATURE_CODE', 'ACCIDENT_TYPE_CODE', 'INJURY_NATURE']\n'TOTAL_PAID' is the label ($s).", "392" ], [ "The rest are features. The majority of features are categorical:\npython categoricals = [ 'AGE_RANGE', 'GENDER', 'INDUSTRY_DESCRIPTION', 'NATURE_CODE', 'ACCIDENT_TYPE_CODE', 'INJURY_NATURE']\nCode:\nImport:\n```python import pandas as pd import numpy as np\ncols = [ 'AGE_RANGE', 'GENDER', 'TOTAL_PAID', 'INDUSTRY_DESCRIPTION', 'WORKER_AGE', 'NATURE_CODE', 'ACCIDENT_TYPE_CODE', 'INJURY_NATURE'] features = pd.read_csv('gs://longtailclaims2/filename.csv', usecols = cols, header=0, encoding='ISO-8859-1') categoricals = [ 'AGE_RANGE', 'GENDER', 'INDUSTRY_DESCRIPTION', 'NATURE_CODE', 'ACCIDENT_TYPE_CODE', 'INJURY_NATURE'] ```\nFirst I turn categorical values into 0s and 1s:\npython features2 = pd.get_dummies(features, columns = categoricals)\nThen I isolate features from labels (TOTAL_PAID):\npython labels = np.array(features['TOTAL_PAID']) features = features2.drop('TOTAL_PAID', axis = 1) feature_list = list(features.columns) feature_list_no_facts = list(features.columns)\nSpit into SK Learn training and test set:\n```python\nUsing Skicit-learn to split data into training and testing sets\nfrom sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split\nSplit the data into training and testing sets\ntrain_features, test_features, train_labels, test_labels = train_test_split(features, labels, test_size = 0.25, random_state = 42) test_features.head(5) test_features.head(5) ```\nThen I explore the data:\nprint('Training Features Shape:', train_features.shape) print('Training Labels Shape:', train_labels.shape) print('Testing Features Shape:', test_features.shape) print('Testing Labels Shape:', test_labels.shape) Output: Training Features Shape: (128304, 337) Training Labels Shape: (128304,) Testing Features Shape: (42768, 337) Testing Labels Shape: (42768,)\n1. XGBRegressor\nFirst we try training XGBoost model. I needed so push # estimates above 10,000 to get a decent accuracy (R2 > 0.94)\n```python\nImport the model we are using\nfrom xgboost import XGBRegressor from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestRegressor from sklearn import ensemble from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error\nx = XGBRegressor(random_state = 44, n_jobs = 8, n_estimators = 10000, max_depth=10, verbosity = 3) x.fit(train_features, train_labels) print('xgboost train score: ', x.score(train_features, train_labels)) predictions = x.predict(test_features) print('xgboost test score: ', x.score(test_features, test_labels)) ```\nHere, train and test score: R2 ~0.94.\n2. Random Forest Regressor\nThen we try Random Forest model. After some fiddling it appears 100 estimators is enough to get a pretty good accuracy (R2 > 0.", "422" ] ]

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[ [ "As your city is so vast it is like an empire within an empire. I think you look at how ancient empires maintained control. Intelligence and soft power would be used a lot. They often controlled the courier or primitive 'postal' network which doubled as spies. This city would obviously need some courier network. You have already mentioned that the army is essentially royal or imperial, and that is under the direct command of the ruler.\nYou would want to keep the army happy like dictators do, but also diffuse their power a bit so you would want to keep different generals in competition with each other over various sectors of the city.\nStrong centralized empires and rulers who want to maintain tight control directly appoint officials. This bypasses nobility and insures you have direct line of authority. So you would want your ruler to directly appoint your own governors or various district leaders.\nSince this is a city, then you would maintain centralized control, especially of critical infrastructure. This is typically expressed in different settings by the central government having tight control over food, water, electricity, and basic resources. This is also how dictators maintain control. Your ruler would have absolute control of the critical infrastructure of the city and could cut power as well as other needs.", "222" ], [ "You may also have tight control of surveillance if that technology exists, but if not then you would use couriers as well as spies among the population. Agents who are handlers can handle multiple informants, and a whole network of informants can be created.\nYour king should control trade and commerce. Minting coins and currency would be under the control of your king. That way the coinage would reach all sectors of the city. All other currency would be suppressed.\nGateways between districts of the city and control of passage would also be important. Your king's government would control trade, taxation, and passage between sectors of the city.\nYour king and his spymaster among others would be skilled in learning the informal networks of power in the city. That is who are the more prominent citizens, merchants, neighborhood leaders, elders, and others in each neighborhood of the city. You would make sure that your government and governors kept close track of these informal leaders. You could even institute a type of millet system for various ethnic groups if there are particular areas of the city where they reside and if they demand to be governed by their law.\nSci-fi often depicts governance over small cramped domains in space. The series Battlestar Galactica shows what control and rebellion in a small tight space look like as early on the government is primarily governing a few cramped ships. Babylon 5 also depicts a government over a confined space. Control of critical infrastructure is often a theme.", "159" ], [ "Technology is highly dependent on the supply chain. A technology that can use local materials can be transplanted to a new area and be kept. For example, pottery spreads quickly because it uses local clays. Cell phones are highly dependent on the current supply chain and would not be usable on another world without importing huge amounts of supplies. Imports will be hugely expensive and prohibitive for nearly anyone. A museum might have a cell phone to show people what is done elsewhere.\nVictorian Britain had a lot of technology: steam engines, steel working, automated looms for weaving, coal mining, ship building, brick making, construction, beer brewing, Scotch distilling, barrel making, to name a few. Most of these were built upon centuries of saved up knowledge kept by specialized people.", "658" ], [ "Not every village had knowledge of how to do more than a few of these. The empire traded around the world so that a village didn't need to know how to make most stuff. They traded for the stuff they didn't know how to make.\nSo, if you were thinking of people taking technology and moving to another planet, the technology they can use would have to be stuff that can use whatever materials are locally available. Think of stone tools, pottery, and any plant materials that might be there. If you took only a village, you are taking at random a very select bit of technology knowledge.\nThe process of moving a group of people to a new location is by nature, a bottleneck on the transmission of knowledge. A lot of knowledge will be lost when the first generation of people die as most of what they know will not fit the new location and it will not be passed on to the next generation.\nAttempts to preserve the old ways will doom the village to a death as most of the old ways will not work well or will be extremely expensive.\nThe best you can hope for is to catch a rare general purpose genius who knows how to teach learning skills to the next generation. Instead of keeping the old technology, through trial and error, they will learn and develop the technology that works best in the new environment.", "998" ], [ "Could a Roman Empire style civilization exist without slavery?\n(Later Edit: Clarifying my question to could Rome, it's empire, it's complex urban civilization, grandeur, and vast public works be built without slavery in its era or the middle ages?)\nCould a civilization at the scale of the Roman Empire in its period exist without slavery? I am looking for technology including medieval period technology that could have allowed it. I am trying to create a realistic Roman Empire style civilization without slavery in a world that mixes classical era and middle ages technology.\nThe Roman Empire's 'greatness' was essentially built on slavery and surplus wealth created by slavery from agriculture, mining, and the spoils of war. It was also built to a lesser extent on trade, uniformity, unified monetary policy as the primary minter of coinage, and monopolies on trade. There was the Pax Romana it created to create a wealthy complex civilization with widespread trade networks, but this was built in Rome which was built on slavery. The later Eastern Roman Empire aka Byzantine Empire would build its wealth on trade but be significantly less powerful as well as less wealthy than Rome.\nOf course, technology played a part in Rome's glory, but the material wealth from slavery allowed a complex society to emerge with relative luxury in urban areas. This then allowed such technology and skilled craftsmanship to be developed in a complex society. The patrician class often owned large plantations and mining operations where slaves toiled away.", "878" ], [ "<PERSON> once sold 53,000 Gauls to slave dealers on the spot as historically recorded. Slaves were divided into several categories such as prison labor and prisoners of war.\nSlaves were needed to build the massive public works of Rome, engage in large-scale mining operations, and engage in 'factory farming' with large-scale monoculture plantations.\nThe excess wealth of the patrician class necessarily built on slavery allowed taxation which expanded the public purse and later private purse of the emperors. This wealth was then used to pay the legions of the Empire and construct the massive public works, baths, monuments, palaces, villas, etc. Often the wealthy patricians and emperors would build the great works that are the hallmark of Rome with their funds. The patronage of the patrician class funded skilled craftsmen, artisans, architects, thinkers, and others in creating the advanced 'culture' Rome possessed. Such great urban civilization was not truly seen again for centuries.\nCould there be such an Empire in that era absent slavery? One could say it could be serfdom instead of slavery, but serfdom is a somewhat different institution. What technology or social structure could make it possible? Trade monopoly alone would not make for a very realistic world, and the Eastern Roman Empire aka Byzantine Empire, as well as the greatest mercantile republics in the Middle Ages, did not possess the glory, wealth, or power of Rome. Nor were they able to create the 'Pax Romana' that allowed the Empire to have massive cities with complex trade networks existing in relative peace.", "878" ], [ "<PERSON> answer is pretty realistic. Force is the true legitimation of power in a feudal society, our concept of legal authority is an anachronism.\nThat said just because people are illiterate does not mean that they cannot recognize symbols of authority. In fact feudal societies often have dense symbolic systems for non-verbally conveying each individuals place.\n1) Historically specific colors became associated with rulers. For example purple cloth is associated with kings and emperors due to the high expense of producing pre-modern purple dyes. While the people of the town might not know who their king/lord is should he appear clothed in a color associated with royalty, they are more likely to accept his claim. Perhaps the color is associated with a particular royal family or lineage.\n2) Legal restrictions on clothing items, known as sumptuary laws, are often used in feudal societies to reinforce distinctions.", "274" ], [ "While historically this was used to distinguish nobles from commoners, there is no reason that a specific cut of clothing couldn't be limited to members of the royal family.\n3) Objects can also legitimate authority. In the Roman Republic the authority of a magistrate was indicated by the number of lictors (bodyguards essentially) who they had at their command. Each lictor carried a ceremonial axe which symbolized their ability to impose capitol punishments. Any number of similar items (beyond the signet rings mentioned in the question) might symbolize power. While no one in the town may have seen these objects before, if they are sufficiently distinct oral traditions or art may make them recognizable.\n4) Oaths tend to be very important in illiterate societies because of the lack of external confirmation. Should taboos against oath-breaking be strong enough, perhaps buttressed by any number of superstitions, then a strong oath might be sufficient for establishing ones' identity.\nFrom a modern perspective none of these symbols may seem sufficient to prove someone's identity but the standards of evidence in an oral society are likely to be far lower than they are in a literate society. Therefore some combination of these symbols would likely help a lord or king to prove their identity at least until a higher authority (church leader, high noble etc.) could be consulted.", "164" ], [ "The environment might require it\nIt has been suggested that the lack of line of sight in an urban environment, especially coupled with dense fighting where ammunition might be limited could advantage a fast, repeatable weapons system. This also seems to allow things like laser cannons. These sorts of atmospheres would also help explain the odd absence of air superiority already mentioned.\nDense atmosphere\nBut what if the 'air' of the world the fight was taking place on was especially opaque? A near equivalent on earth would be fighting in a very strong sandstorm, or underwater. This sort of environment could plausibly prevent optical weapons and small arms fire from functioning, and an urban or choppy terrain would prevent/discourage rocket based weaponry.\nReactive atmosphere\nA highly flammable or chemically reactive atmosphere, perhaps one very high in gaseous hydrogen and oxygen, would cause large fires/explosions when a rocket or laser was fired. The mechs could well be shielded or armored sufficiently to prevent machine gun fire from being strong enough to damage them meaningfully for the weight it imposes on the holder.\nThere might not be room on a mech to defend against everything\nIt's not hard for me to imagine that the shielding/defense/armor strategies that defend against lasers/swords/rockets might all be different. If there wasn't a unified technology to defend against the varied attacks you would have to make speed/size and energy tradeoffs in defending a mech. These things are going to be awfully heavy, and on the sort of rough terrain already described as preventing tanks, maybe you just can't have all the different technologies on the mech and still have it able to transverse the terrain.", "898" ], [ "It could also provide to much of a power or resource drain on either the mech or the society building them. This sort of scenario is, to some extent, why we don't only use tanks as it is. There are just places you can't go if you weigh 100 or 200 tons.\nThose weapons don't exist\nAs in some of <PERSON> books, you might imagine a world where the technology for lasers/rockets either can't or doesn't exist. If gunpowder and rocket fuel were much more complicated to invent, it doesn't necessarily preclude the invention of computers, robotics and nuclear power. So you could have this sort of weaponry evolve from a society that never develops any sort of firearm. A similar scenario could be accomplished by envisioning the development by an alien species with very limited sight. They might never develop firearms because they can't use them, but they are able to develop mechs that interface well with their other senses, and are armed as the society has always been, with swords and the like.", "477" ], [ "Note that this answer reflects a change from the actual situation of classical societies, and doesn't take a specific cause into account.\nNote also that this answer is written from a largely western perspective.\nThe largest changes would be:\nAgriculture\nAgriculture requires a large amount of fertile land. In ancient times a large majority of built on land was agriculture. Living on the seas would make this impossible, agriculture requires an enormous amount of effort to till.\nThere could be some small scale agriculture near the sea, but your scenario might preclude this all together.\nEither way, you may find this map helpful:\nThere are myriad of implications here, the most obvious ones are potential vitamin deficiencies, and the fact that populations can only live on what the coast and seas can naturally provide.\nLimited population\nThis limited population would severely reduce the development of technology. An overly large percentage of this small population would spend their time acquiring food or trading, leaving very few (if any) people to learn, teach, investigate, and invent.\nSocial\nSmaller populations have always been more close knit. It is also likely that every member of the tribes would be essential to the survival of the water tribes. You might find parallels with the early hunter-gatherers, though you will have better initial technology.\nIt is likely that you will have decentralised, almost anarchistic tribes, ones with few social conventions (think about male-female relationships [women are less likely to be devalued]), and close family ties.\nThe young\nYoung people would be inexorably bound to the land, questioning the wisdom of staying on the sea, mixed with the lust for adventure that young people have. Though this might be suppressed through tribal ties and the demands of hard work, if you have any young people at all in a privileged society, they will set out, or try to at least.\nGreek and Roman sailors\nThe Greeks were the best sailors of the world. Captains would likely pass on their trade to their childeren or other successors. Sea travel in ancient times was the most efficient way of travel.", "222" ], [ "The tribes would likely be heavily mobile, and even trade routes between the Americas and western Europe are not unlikely. In this scenario, whomever rules the waves, would rule the world.\nBefore the advent of the Romans this was the Greeks, but the Romans only came into prominence due to their large population, which is less likely in this scenario.\nThat said, the Romans are the ones most likely to successfully adapt to new situations that require innovative technology within the scientific limits of the current society.\nRomans were adequate sailors, but brilliant architects.\nChinese sailors\nThe Asian civilisations has less developed nautical technology, but it is likely that this would change rapidly. The large pastures as the east of china, and large amount of islands in Indonesia would ensure that the Eastern region would maintain its high level of development compared to the rest of the world, with a booming trade and a relatively high amount of food. An Asian dominated society would be more likely during the development of this scenario.\nIn other words, the Chinese Sea would be a very useful base of civilisation in this scenario.\nEconomics\nHere things get interesting.\nShips were always at the frontier of trading, and trade would likely flourish. This would drive different regions to specialise in the development of specific near-coast goods.\nTunisian tribes would trade in Purple dyes, Gallic tribes in hides, far eastern tribes in silk, Indonesian and Mediterranean tribes in fish, etc.\nThe limited amount of people would make war unlikely, and trade would rapidly flourish worldwide.\nNow if you can think of a way to increase the population after those trade routes have established:\nTechnology\nThe development of technology depends on: -Need, -Materials, -Availability of scientists, -Trade.\nTwo of those are in ample supply in your scenario. Unfortunately as I wrote earlier, limited food supplies are a major concern, and hunting and gathering is not an effective way of getting food.\nThe second problem, materials is also rather difficult. You will need lots of copper and tin for a bronze-age society to prosper and progress. I.e., you need mines.\nIf these concerns can be overcome, and population growth can be sustained, you will see a rapid advance in technology.\nArchitecture\nThe difficulties of the situation would lead to a severe need for the development of on-water architecture. It is likely that the more intelligent people would be chosen to study architecture to build ship, on-water cities, and machines to help in the acquisition of materials from the brief on-land stays. This can help the development of technology of course, but as with the Roman empire could lead to a stagnation of scientific development outside of these specific requirements.\nCities\nWood is of course more readily available, and it is likely that you would see the developement of large wooden cities on the ocean.", "1006" ], [ "In the book Sphere by <PERSON>, there was a spaceship which survived crashing into an ocean and was there for centuries. It was in deep water, and had little signs of decay. The majority of the systems inside operated just about flawlessly.\nThis scenario is pretty believable because objects can survive deep underwater for a very long time because the environment has very little oxygen in it which tends to break down anything metallic fairly quickly in the water. There are also few organisms at extreme depths which will attack the exterior. If the hull remained in tact, then something like this could survive in tact for thousands of years.\nThe problem with having technology like this above ground is that it has a high likelihood of being tampered with. Nearly every metal object made by humans in deep antiquity no longer exists, regardless of the type of metal they are made with. Most of these objects are destroyed by natural decay, etc.", "322" ], [ "If you study ancient stone buildings, there is evidence of them being held together with metal rods and clamps. The only thing remaining is the holes that were left behind. There are some objects that still exist which are made out of gold and other precious metals. However, there is a high likelihood that the objects will be stolen by treasure hunters and melted down, or removed from the context sufficiently that people would not be able to recognize these objects as technology.\nThere are two main things you would need to keep in mind when designing something that will last for centuries. The first is make sure that the material itself is durable enough to survive the wear and tear of time. The second is to conceal it to avoid tampering by people who aren't yet ready to use or understand the technology.\nI think the best way the preserve technology for the distant future is to encode all the information needed to recreate it in the future on objects which have very little value in them such as clay or stone tablets. These materials can survive for many thousands of years.", "111" ], [ "Trying to address the spirt of your question I will make some assumptions please correct me if I’m wrong. I will assume that habitable means more or less earth like, but with different surface features, a relatively benign earth life friendly biosphere where all or most life forms are simply inedible but non-toxic. The technology and distance are such that a trip can be made in less than a year and 10,000 colonists can be sent. I will assume near future.\nSurvival\nThe initial difficulty would be to introduce and establish viable numbers of earth species of plant and animal. This might be difficult even on a habitable world because the local flora and fauna would be well adapted to live there and even if not poisonous would at best be highly invasive. This should be possible but might not be easy and it would be essential to produce food.\nTechnological development\nA second difficulty would be the danger of loss of technical capability. They might arrive with high tech kit but it would all be subject to damage and might be difficult or impossible to repair. There is only so much repair capability that you can bring and that is itself open to damage and degradation.\nSo a second aim would be to build basic infrastructure to help provide what was needed, But I doubt they could actually create enough infrastructure quickly enough to support their original level of technology because modern technology includes so many interrelated complex and hard to manufacture parts. So they would eventually loose capability and would start to struggle to rebuild equipment.", "197" ], [ "As an example when they run out of spares and improvisations, any computer screen that got cracked or bulldozer engine ring that broke would put that piece of kit permanently out of operation.\nSo they will struggle to establish themselves technologically. With luck and provided they still had access to the information necessary to build the technology they once had, they should slowly reacquire it although it might take centuries.\nAs an example before you can build your first microchip to help return your computer technology you need a vast array of other technologies, each of which themselves require even more technologies, so to mention just a few you would need zone refining of silicon which itself would need vacuum technology which itself would need electrical technology etc.\nSocial development\nEventually these separate colonies would run into one another probably in search of resources (although it is very hard to believe that so many separate colonise could be established on the same world in the high tech stage without being aware of the presence of some or all of the others).\nThe mega corporations would be long forgotten and the merits of environmental friendly or not outlooks would be overtaken by events on the ground and the struggle to survive.\nThe religious cult might well retain its beliefs but naturalistic and harmonist views would probably be amended by the need to survive. The militaristic and isolationist societies’ viewpoint would lose a lot of meaning and potency in a world where the only enemy was nature. By the time other groups were encountered the societies may well have moved on or at least the original ideology might be much weaker.\nThe various different forms of initial government and world view would in all likelihood evolve rapidly and many changes might make the groups completely unrecognisable after a few decades. Different sub groups might take control depending on circumstances. Mini revolutions and revolts could over throw the historical outlook.\nFinal out come\nAt the point of contact I would think the bonds of humanity and a common enemy (the alien environment) would outweigh any vestige of their original purpose / outlook. In such survival situations many things originally intended would simply be forgotten or lost. It is also possible that the ingroup out group type thinking would take hold and fighting would break out.\nIn fact eventually there would be cause for much fighting, probably over resources or priorities, (or women) but it is impossible to say what would happen eventually as there are too many variables and too much time would have passed. Probably geographical location would play a bigger role than the original colonies ideology.", "145" ] ]

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[ [ "Death on the Nile\nWithout reading the original <PERSON> books, or seeing previous film iterations of the story, I found Death on the Nile to be, for the most part, a fun and entertaining murder mystery.\nDespite there being a full hour before the murder, a couple of underwritten characters and some incredibly questionable CGI, there was plenty to love.\n<PERSON> is quite enjoyable as <PERSON>, and the moustache origin story was an unexpected addition. The film is truly beautiful, the set design is dazzling and the cinematography has a mesmerising quality that adds to the mysterious nature of the plot.\nOverall it was an enjoyable murder mystery that held attention and was gorgeous on the eye.\n#25 Disney+ binge list", "241" ], [ "I.S.S.\nI.S.S. had my curiosity, for I love space movies and the main conflict had the makings of an intense and interesting, but while it has squirts of it, I unfortunately found this to be a hollow and unremarkable feature. There are a few nifty camera tricks, nice looking visuals, and the occasional suspenseful scene.", "596" ], [ "The performances are also solid, namely from <PERSON> and <PERSON> (rocking a killer moustache). However, the main story is mostly dull and the characters feel very empty. The pacing is rough in the beginning but starts to pick up in the second half only to lead to a ridiculous and underwhelming last act. There was much promise shown with this film and there are a few redeeming aspects but it didn't stick the landing for me.", "132" ], [ "No Time to Die\nLet's start with some positives:\nThe first hour of No Time to Die has some fantastic locations, set pieces and a great pace. <PERSON> gives an absolutely committed performance which is undoubtedly the best by an actor at the end of his run as <PERSON>.\nUnfortunately, after the Cuba-set sequence, the movie drastically loses its way, with about 45 mins where barely anything occurs, there is a lot of overly-complex exposition and the few action scenes that occur aren't as well-staged as the opening sequences. I found myself snapping out of the film and realising I was getting bored.\nThat puts pressure on the final 30 mins to really deliver a big action finale and for me that kinda fell flat too. There are big emotional notes in this finale, but juggling that and great action seems to have been beyond the director and editor. It doesn't help that the main villain (<PERSON>) is poorly written in terms of motivation (despite taking quite a but of time to establish his history).\nI also felt the lack of a really good henchman, a key element of <PERSON> films, was lacking. Instead we have a fairly non-descript character and actor who lacks genuine threat.", "952" ], [ "Oh for <PERSON> or <PERSON> in this film.\nWithout giving anything away the final element this film needs to succeed is for the audience to really buy into the <PERSON>/<PERSON> relationship. And between Spectre and this film, I just didn't really feel that chemistry and why this woman would have had such an effect on <PERSON>. This is amplified by much more sizzle between <PERSON> and <PERSON>, played with a real sense of fun by <PERSON> in her cameo.\nI'm ok with where this movie tried to go, it might not be my preference but I admire they tried to do something different. But this film needed a much sharper edit, better villains and stronger direction. It feels slightly done by committee, perhaps explaining why <PERSON> didn't remain on board.\nPersonally, <PERSON> will remain as my favorite <PERSON>. Skyfall and Casino Royale are the goats. No Time to Die is a 6/10 and to be honest I'm not sure after 25 films whether I'm really interested in seeing <PERSON> rebooted again after this.", "698" ], [ "A Tale of Two Sisters\nHaving only seen I Saw the Devil prior to this, I was already under the impression that <PERSON> was a force to be reckoned with, as the aforementioned was a visceral ride in stylish technique and prowess, leaving me eager to watch what else he had in store.\nWhich brings me to A Tale of Two Sisters, a chilling tale with themes of womanhood, loss, and even some Freudian connotations. On a technical level I absolutely adored the way every frame was carefully considered, as the blend of sweeping and static elements result in memorable imagery. It puts its best face forward, and you can’t expect any less from Korean cinema.\nDespite loving many aspects, there was one where I was left with more questions than answers, in a rather, unsatisfying way. I’ve realized that the entire viewing experience requires maximum attention, as I, along with many others were left confused by its ending.", "217" ], [ "The whole 3rd act is quite disorienting, as it can be puzzling to see what the entire story was going for. This could be the result of sloppy execution, or intentional direction. Regardless of what it could be, there’s simply no way for me to assess it all on a first watch. So take this rating with a grain of salt, as it could easily improve on a second watch, as I’m sure the movie begs to be seen twice.", "831" ], [ "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves\nThis was precisely what I was hoping for from a DnD adaptation. A wholly lighthearted adventure with a constant optimistic tone and playfulness in its presentation. The cast and ensemble of heroes are great here, all representing their TTRPG counterparts with heart.", "962" ], [ "It feels like the kind of film that I'd love follow ups for, just adding new party members.\n<PERSON> totally anchors this thing with his signature chemistry, but I also have to shoutout <PERSON> for adding a strong warmth to the story which helps it massively. There are so many sequences in the film that were genuinely thrilling, and gave the sense of a group of adventurers working together to solve problems with their respective ability sets.\nI'd honestly put this up alongside throwback adventure films like The Mummy, simply because it's so watchable and (likely) rewatchable. It feels like that kind of great crowd pleaser which should continue as a franchise, and leaves you really satisfied coming out of it. Such a great surprise this was.", "19" ], [ "The Menu\n2022 Films Ranked\nA captivating and highly original critique on “The Elite” 1% and their presence within modern society.\nThe Menu is a really well executed dark comedy with elements of horror. It’s a somewhat satirical dissection on pretentiousness and what it means to truly be an “artist.” This film was super entertaining from start to finish and though it was slightly predictable the storyline was one that felt very fresh and original.\n<PERSON> leads this talented ensemble with a heartfelt but unnerving performance that is truly incredible. He, to a certain extent, carries this film through his acting, and helps to make even the slow parts enjoyable and memorable.\nThe food is stunning. Truly some of the most beautiful dishes I’ve ever seen presented on screen.", "241" ], [ "Whether it’s a miniature edible ocean ecosystem or a simple cheeseburger, the food was gorgeous.\nPersonally, I didn’t love the ending. It was fine, but for some reason it just didn’t hit me as hard as I think it should have. It honestly just felt like a mediocre recreation of Midsommar that lacked the shock value and artistic flare.\nIt’s a solid film that has a great message. It’s also executed well and is really entertaining. It’s not a perfect movie by any means and it doesn’t really try anything new from a filmmaking perspective, but if you are into dark comedies or have a passion for the culinary arts, you’ll definitely enjoy this one.\nGrade: 74%", "596" ], [ "<PERSON>: The Professional\nLeon turned out to be a mixed bag of \"meh\" for me, which is disappointing because for so long, I had heard so many amazing things.\nThe storyline piqued my interest, the action and kills were a lot of fun, and some scenes were very interestingly shot. But beyond that, I just don't get it. I don't even think the characters or the acting were anything to write home about. <PERSON> left me wanting more after his first few scenes but his over-the-top character overstays his welcome for me by the end.", "577" ], [ "And maybe this sounds crazy but I tend to prefer a little less awkward sexual tension between a 12 year-old and a hit man in my action movies.\nAlthough I found a majority of the movie to be a whole lot cornier than I expected, I'm not made of stone and there was one line that made me a little misty-eyed. \"You've given me a taste for life. I wanna be happy. Sleep in a bed, have roots.\" Me too, <PERSON>. Me too.", "170" ], [ "The Beekeeper\n“To bee or not to bee?”\nThe Beekeeper is a 2024 American action thriller film directed by <PERSON> which follows one man's brutal campaign for vengeance which takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as \"Beekeepers\".\nEveryone knows I love a good, cheesy horror film and so the trailer for The Beekeeper was pretty much catnip for me. From its self-serious tone to the one liners, I knew I’d at least have fun with this.\nUnsurprisingly, The Beekeeper is a delight — a capital B B-Movie (or should I say Bee Movie) with its tongue firmly in cheek. Though it’s revenge trappings may recall <PERSON>, I felt it had even more in common with an early 90s <PERSON> flick, particularly Hard to Kill.\n<PERSON> is essentially the fuckin’ Terminator here and though his lack of taking a punch bugged me at first, once he finally takes some hits from a henchman with the funniest accent I’ve ever heard, it’s great.", "995" ], [ "<PERSON> also attempts an American accent but even the film knows it’s bad so comes up with an excuse for it.\nThe villains are also just comically inept, and the committed performances by <PERSON> and <PERSON> are campy as hell — shoutout to the dudes playing the scammers too, they were hilarious.\nOn the whole, The Beekeeper is a fun actioner which well-deserves the buzz. Take your hive (or honey) and see it on the big screen and bee-lieve the hype. I’m so sorry.", "585" ] ]

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[ [ "The explanation of all logged values can be found on the documentation page of the Logger class:\neval/\nAll eval/ values are computed by the EvalCallback.\n* mean_ep_length: Mean episode length\n* mean_reward: Mean episodic reward (during evaluation)\n* success_rate: Mean success rate during evaluation (1.0 means 100% success), the environment info dict must contain an is_success key to compute that value\nrollout/\n* ep_len_mean: Mean episode length (averaged over 100 episodes)\n* ep_rew_mean: Mean episodic training reward (averaged over 100 episodes), a Monitor wrapper is required to compute that value (automatically added by make_vec_env).\n* exploration_rate: Current value of the exploration rate when using DQN, it corresponds to the fraction of actions taken randomly (epsilon of the \"epsilon-greedy\" exploration)\n* success_rate: Mean success rate during training (averaged over 100 episodes), you must pass an extra argument to the Monitor wrapper to log that value (info_keywords=(\"is_success\",)) and provide info[\"is_success\"]=True/False on the final step of the episode\ntime/\n* episodes: Total number of episodes\n* fps: Number of frames per seconds (includes time taken by gradient update)\n* iterations: Number of iterations (data collection + policy update for A2C/PPO)\n* time_elapsed: Time in seconds since the beginning of training\n* total_timesteps: Total number of timesteps (steps in the environments)\ntrain/\n* actor_loss: Current value for the actor loss for off-policy algorithms\n* approx_kl: approximate mean KL divergence between old and new policy (for PPO), it is an estimation of how much changes happened in the update\n* clip_fraction: mean fraction of surrogate loss that was clipped (above clip_range threshold) for PPO.\n* clip_range: Current value of the clipping factor for the surrogate loss of PPO\n* critic_loss: Current value for the critic function loss for off-policy algorithms, usually error between value function output and TD(0), temporal difference estimate\n* ent_coef: Current value of the entropy coefficient (when using SAC)\n* ent_coef_loss: Current value of the entropy coefficient loss (when using SAC)\n* entropy_loss: Mean value of the entropy loss (negative of the average policy entropy)\n* explained_variance: Fraction of the return variance explained by the value function, see https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/model_evaluation.html#explained-variance-score (ev=0 => might as well have predicted zero, ev=1 => perfect prediction, ev<0 => worse than just predicting zero)\n* learning_rate: Current learning rate value\n* loss: Current total loss value\n* n_updates: Number of gradient updates applied so far\n* policy_gradient_loss: Current value of the policy gradient loss (its value does not have much meaning)\n* value_loss: Current value for the value function loss for on-policy algorithms, usually error between value function output and Monte-Carle estimate (or TD(lambda) estimate)\n* std: Current standard deviation of the noise when using generalized State-Dependent Exploration (gSDE)", "242" ], [ "CartPole v1 - Simple backprop with 1 hidden layer\nI'm trying to solve the CartPole-v1 problem from OpenAI by using backprop on a one-layer neural network - while updating the model at every time step using State action values (Q(s,a)). I'm unable to get the average reward to go up beyond about 42 steps per episode. Could anyone help? I've tried looking for a similar solution online but none of them seem to fit the approach that I'm following. Almost all of the solutions involve learning at the end of each episode (by storing SARS' data).", "458" ], [ "Is my approach even correct - as in, is it even possible for the agent to learn the optimal solution if I'm updating the Q-values every time-step, instead of batch updates every episode? Seems like theoretically it should be possible.\nDetails: After playing around and experimenting with activation functions, stochastic policies and finally settling on a deterministic policy with linear activation function and the parameters mentioned below - i'm able to get my agent to consistently converge (in about 100-300 steps) to an average reward of about 42 steps. But it doesn't go beyond 45. Adjusting the parameters (epsilon, discount_rate, and learning rate) in the program below does not have a huge impact on this.\nHere's some snippets from my code below. Basically it consists of 4 features -> 6 hidden layer nodes -> 2 outputs (one for each action).\nFirst, the hyperparameters: ```python epsilon = 0.5 lr = 0.05 discount_rate=0.9\nnumber of features in environment observations\nnum_inputs = 4 hidden_layer_nodes = 6 num_outputs = 2 ```\nThe q function: python def calculateNNOutput(observation, m1, m2): scaled_observation = scaleFeatures(observation) hidden_layer = np.dot(scaled_observation, m1) # 1x4 X 4x6 -> 1x6 outputs = np.dot(hidden_layer, m2) # 1x6 X 6x2 return np.asmatrix(outputs) # 1x2\nAction selection (policy): python def selectAction(observation): #explore global epsilon if random.uniform(0,1) < epsilon: return random.randint(0,1) #exploit outputs = calculateNNOutputs(observation) print(outputs) if (outputs[0,0] > outputs[0,1]): return 0 else: return 1\nBackprop: ```python def backProp(prev_obs, m1, m2, experimental_values): global lr scaled_observation = np.asmatrix(scaleFeatures(prev_obs)) hidden_layer = np.asmatrix(np.dot(scaled_observation, m1)) # outputs = np.asmatrix(np.dot(hidden_layer, m2)) # 1x6 X 6x2 delta_out = np.asmatrix((outputs-experimental_values)) # 1x2 delta_2=np.transpose(np.dot(m2,np.transpose(delta_out))) # 6x2 X 2x1 = 6x1_T = 1x6 GRADIENT_2 = (np.transpose(hidden_layer))*delta_out # 6x1 X 1x2 = 6x2 - same as w2 GRADIENT_1 = np.multiply(np.transpose(scaled_observation), delta_2) # 4 x 6 - same as w1\nm1 = m1 - lrGRADIENT_1 m2 = m2 - lrGRADIENT_2 return m1, m2 ```\nQ-learning: python def updateWeights(prev_obs, action, obs, reward, done): global weights_1, weights_2 calculated_value = calculateNNOutputs(prev_obs) if done: experimental_value = -1 else: actionValues = calculateNNOutputs(obs) # 1x2 experimental_value = reward + discount_rate*(np.amax(actionValues, axis = 1)[0,0]) if action==0: weights_1, weights_2 = backProp(prev_obs, weights_1, weights_2, np.array([[experimental_value, calculated_value[0,1]]])) else: weights_1, weights_2 = backProp(prev_obs, weights_1, weights_2, np.", "458" ], [ "Sudden drop of score in the last few episodes\nI was following this tutorial about lunar lander and deep Q learning with Tensorflow 2 and I noticed something odd.\nThe problem was actually solved at episode 476 but then the score went from 259.90 to -520.33 and stayed negative until the last episode 500.\nepisode: 468 score 248.95 average score 188.47 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 469 score 269.47 average score 192.11 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 470 score 225.31 average score 195.72 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 471 score 46.36 average score 194.66 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 472 score 250.61 average score 198.44 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 473 score 237.25 average score 198.50 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 474 score 237.02 average score 202.16 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 475 score 249.85 average score 204.11 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 476 score 259.90 average score 204.15 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 477 score -520.33 average score 198.10 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 478 score -567.86 average score 190.58 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 479 score -670.45 average score 185.15 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 480 score -413.31 average score 178.85 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 481 score -995.13 average score 166.78 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 482 score -450.73 average score 159.52 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 483 score -583.07 average score 151.16 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 484 score -586.59 average score 143.61 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 485 score -436.80 average score 136.45 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 486 score -665.69 average score 127.73 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 487 score -602.49 average score 119.65 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 488 score -1685.73 average score 99.95 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 489 score -689.85 average score 91.23 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 490 score -501.80 average score 83.63 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 491 score -1016.14 average score 74.79 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 492 score -475.65 average score 67.81 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 493 score -525.98 average score 59.80 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 494 score -393.08 average score 53.57 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 495 score -557.32 average score 46.85 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 496 score -431.39 average score 39.88 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 497 score -944.19 average score 27.72 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 498 score -571.92 average score 19.96 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 499 score -498.09 average score 14.63 epsilon 0.01\nWhat happened?\nIs it overfitting?\nIs it normal?\nDoes it mean that we have to run fewer episodes or run it again?\nI'm confused about how to test different models and hyperparameters.\nHere's the full code\nimport gym\nimport numpy as np\nimport tensorflow as tf\nfrom tensorflow import keras\nfrom tensorflow.keras.optimizers import <PERSON><PHONE_NUMBER> average score 99.95 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 489 score -689.85 average score 91.23 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 490 score -501.80 average score 83.63 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 491 score -1016.14 average score 74.79 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 492 score -475.65 average score 67.81 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 493 score -525.98 average score 59.80 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 494 score -393.08 average score 53.57 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 495 score -557.32 average score 46.85 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 496 score -431.39 average score 39.88 epsilon 0.01\nepisode: 497 score -944.19 average score 27.", "458" ], [ "experience replay memory: saving the next state required when state does not depend on action?\nso, I am using an agent with a state-action-policy and I am trying to understand the concept of experience replay memory (ERM). As far as I learned until now, the ERM is basically a buffer that stores sets experiences:\ne_t = {s_t, a_t, r_t+1, s_t+1}\nWhere s is the state, a the action and r the reward, as usual. Basically, in order to use a network that learns to predict the correct action from such experiences, the network's input should be exactly of the form of the experiences, i.e.", "458" ], [ "state of current and next step, as well as predicted action and received reward. The network thus has four inputs.\nFirst question, is it correct that the next state s_t+1 is fed into the network as input? Or is it a label?\nSecond question, how is this initialized? The network needs to be trained on experiences, right away, so I assume, the first time we generate action predictions for various state examples, given the initial parameters of our model, until the ERM is completely filled for the first time, and then start optimizing this with SGD (or similar).\nThird question, what if the action that we take just influences the reward we get, but does not have any actual influence on the next state? For instance, think of an agent that decides whether to buy/sell/idle (actions) a stock based on its past price (state), receiving a reward that depends on the taken action as well as the evolution of the price in the next timestep. If we assume that our action does not have any significant influence on where the stock price will go, the next state (price at next step) is independent of our action, yet, we receive a reward that is dependent on our action as well as the next price. How would an experience replay look in that case? In that case, would we also need to save the next state? Or rather just\ne_t = {s_t,a_t,r_t+1}\nbecause firstly s_t+1 is already \"encoded\" in the reward r_t+1 and secondly our action does not change s_t+1?\nThanks! Best, <PERSON>", "458" ], [ "Tensorflow dense layers worse than keras sequential\nI try to train an agent on the inverse-pendulum (similar to cart-pole) problem, which is a benchmark of reinforcement learning. I use neural-fitted-Q-iteration algorithm which uses a multi-layer neural network to evaluate the Q function.\nI use Keras.Sequential and tf.layers.dense to build the neural network repectively, and leave all other things to be the same. However, Keras gives me a good results and tensorflow does not.", "695" ], [ "In fact, tensorflow doesn't work at all with its loss being increasing and the agent learns nothing from the training.\nHere I present the code for Keras as follows\ndef build_model():\nmodel = Sequential()\nmodel.add(Dense(5, input_dim=3))\nmodel.add(Activation('sigmoid'))\nmodel.add(Dense(5))\nmodel.add(Activation('sigmoid'))\nmodel.add(Dense(1))\nmodel.add(Activation('sigmoid'))\nadam = Adam(lr=1E-3)\nmodel.compile(loss='mean_squared_error', optimizer=adam)\nreturn model\nand the tensorflow version is\nclass NFQ_fit(object):\n\"\"\"\nneural network approximator for NFQ iteration\n\"\"\"\ndef __init__(self, sess, N_feature, learning_rate=1E-3, batch_size=100):\nself.sess = sess\nself.N_feature = N_feature\nself.learning_rate = learning_rate\nself.batch_size = batch_size\n# DNN structure\nself.inputs = tf.placeholder(tf.float32, [None, N_feature], 'inputs')\nself.labels = tf.placeholder(tf.float32, [None, 1], 'labels')\nself.l1 = tf.layers.dense(inputs=self.inputs,\nunits=5,\nactivation=tf.sigmoid,\nuse_bias=True,\nkernel_initializer=tf.truncated_normal_initializer(0.0, 1E-2),\nbias_initializer=tf.constant_initializer(0.0),\nkernel_regularizer=tf.contrib.layers.l2_regularizer(1E-4),\nname='hidden-layer-1')\nself.l2 = tf.layers.dense(inputs=self.l1,\nunits=5,\nactivation=tf.sigmoid,\nuse_bias=True,\nkernel_initializer=tf.truncated_normal_initializer(0.0, 1E-2),\nbias_initializer=tf.constant_initializer(0.0),\nkernel_regularizer=tf.contrib.layers.l2_regularizer(1E-4),\nname='hidden-layer-2')\nself.outputs = tf.layers.dense(inputs=self.l2,\nunits=1,\nactivation=tf.sigmoid,\nuse_bias=True,\nkernel_initializer=tf.truncated_normal_initializer(0.0, 1E-2),\nbias_initializer=tf.constant_initializer(0.0),\nkernel_regularizer=tf.contrib.layers.l2_regularizer(1E-4),\nname='outputs')\n# optimization\n# self.mean_loss = tf.losses.mean_squared_error(self.labels, self.outputs)\nself.mean_loss = tf.reduce_mean(tf.square(self.labels-self.outputs))\nself.regularization_loss = tf.losses.get_regularization_loss()\nself.loss = self.mean_loss # + self.regularization_loss\nself.train_op = tf.train.AdamOptimizer(learning_rate=self.learning_rate).minimize(self.loss)\nThe two models are the same. Both of them has two hidden layers with the same dimension. I expect that the problems may come from the kernel initialization but I don't know how to fix it.", "695" ], [ "Training value neural network AlphaGo style\nI have been trying to replicate the results obtained by AlphaGo following their supervise learning protocol. The papers specify that they use a network that has two heads: a value head that predicts the winner of the game and a policy head that predicts the next move based on the current state of the board.\nFor the policy head, no problem, the CNN learns to predict the next move.", "458" ], [ "However, the value head does not learn anything and always falls back to always predicting 0 instead of -1/1 for white/black victory. It feels like the model is not complex enough to understand how to predict the outcome of the game so it learns to predict 0 instead to minimize the loss.\nThings that I tried and didn't work:\n* Divide the network into two: one value net and one policy net. But even in this case the value net does not learn.\n* Label the winners as 0/1 instead of -1/1 and therefore use a sigmoid instead of a tanh activation function, but that didn't work either.\n* Different number of residual units (3/5/7/11).\n* Only using 2 channels as input, one for black stones and one for white stones.\n* Copy the weights of the first layer of the policy net and freeze them to force the value net to use the already learned features.\nHere is the model:\ndef residual_block(s):\nshortcut = s\ns = Conv2D(256, (3, 3), strides=(1, 1), padding='same', kernel_regularizer=l2(0.0001))(s)\ns = BatchNormalization()(s)\ns = ReLU()(s)\ns = Conv2D(256, (3, 3), strides=(1, 1), padding='same', kernel_regularizer=l2(0.0001))(s)\ns = BatchNormalization()(s)\ns = add([shortcut, s])\ns = ReLU()(s)\nreturn s\ndef model():\ninputs = Input(shape=(2, 19, 19, ))\n# Convolutional block\nx = Conv2D(256, (3, 3), strides=(1, 1), padding='same')(inputs)\nx = BatchNormalization()(x)\nx = ReLU()(x)\n# Residual block\nfor i in range(11):\nx = residual_block(x)\n# Value head\nx = Conv2D(1, (1, 1), strides=(1, 1), padding='same', kernel_regularizer=l2(0.0001))(x)\nx = BatchNormalization()(x)\nx = ReLU()(x)\nx = Flatten()(x)\nx = Dense(256, kernel_regularizer=l2(0.0001))(x)\nx = ReLU()(x)\nx = Dense(1, activation = 'tanh')(x)\nreturn Model(inputs=inputs, outputs=x)\nAnd here is the training :\nbatch_size = 32\ngen_train = generator(batch_size, sgf_paths)\ngen_test = generator(batch_size, sgf_paths)\noptimizer = SGD(lr=0.01, momentum=0.9, decay=0., nesterov=True, clipnorm=1.)\ncheckp = ModelCheckpoint(filepath=\"weights_ValueNet.h5\", verbose=1, save_best_only=True)\nmodel = model()\nmodel.compile(loss=\"mean_squared_error\", optimizer=optimizer)\nhist = model.fit_generator(\ngen_train,\nsteps_per_epoch = 2048,\nepochs = 100,\nshuffle = True,\nverbose = 1,\nvalidation_data = gen_test,\nvalidation_steps = 300,\ncallbacks = [checkp])", "695" ], [ "From a practical and theoretical perspective, when is it beneficial to incorporate Gumbel noise into a neural network, as opposed to just using Softmax with temperature?\nYou don't necessarily need Gumbel-Softmax to obtain \"one-hot like\" vectors, or the ability to differentiate through an indexing mechanism.\nThe LSTM architecture and derived variants are examples of this. They model \"forget/input\" gates using sigmoid outputs, which are deterministic. A \"true\" gating mechanism would be either 0 or 1, but to make things differentiable, LSTMs relax that constraint to sigmoided outputs. You'll notice that there is no \"random\" inputs here, and you can still apply the straight-through trick here to make the gates truly discrete (while backpropagating a biased gradient).\nGumbel-Softmax can be used wherever you would consider using a non-stochastic indexing mechanism (it is a more general formulation). But it's especially useful when you want to backpropagate through random samples of discrete variables.\n* VAE with a Gumbel-Softmax or Categorical posterior (encoder) distribution. Notably, you cannot simply use a deterministic softmax here because it would turn your VAE into a standard autoencoder.", "915" ], [ "Autoencoders lack a way to generate new samples from the prior.\n* Actor-Critic architecture with a Gumbel-softmax or Categorical actor (most policy gradient implementations assume you can re-parameterize the gradients from the critic through the actor without using a score function estimator to estimate the black-box gradient). You cannot simply substitute the deterministic softmax here, because there is a type mismatch: the critic takes as input a action $a \\in A$, while the softmax represents the conditional policy distribution $\\pi(a|s)$\n* The \"probabilistic\" interpretation of a non-random quantization such as an LSTM would essentially be mode-seeking behavior in fitting a density. You have loss function that takes in categorical decisions $c$, so the expected loss $\\mathbb{E}_c[f(c)]$ is minimized by learning some distribution $p(c)$. Quantizing a softmax without sampling the Gumbel noise (e.g. just using a sigmoid or softmax) is akin to choosing the same $c$ every time. For some $f$ this is okay, and for other $f$ this is highly suboptimal (consider the categorical KL divergence as a loss).\nMy best guess is that the introduction of the Gumbel noise enforces stronger exploration before convergence, but I can't recall reading any papers that use this as a motivation to bring in the extra randomness.\nThis is an interesting idea, but there are many ways to inject \"exploration\" noise into the set of parameters you use in a function approximator.", "915" ], [ "You have it right, the $V$ function gives you the value of a state, and $Q$ gives you the value of an action in a state (following a given policy $\\pi$). I found the clearest explanation of Q-learning and how it works in <PERSON> book \"Machine Learning\" (1997), ch. 13, which is downloadable. $V$ is defined as the sum of an infinite series but its not important here. What matters is the $Q$ function is defined as\n$$ Q(s,a ) = r(s,a ) + \\gamma V^{}(\\delta(s,a)) $$ where V is the best value of a state if you could follow an optimum policy which you don't know. However it has a nice characterization in terms of $Q$ $$ V^{}(s)= \\max_{a'} Q(s,a') $$ Computing $Q$ is done by replacing the $V^$ in the first equation to give $$ Q(s, a) = r(s, a) + \\gamma \\max_{a'} Q(\\delta(s, a), a') $$\nThis may seem an odd recursion at first because its expressing the Q value of an action in the current state in terms of the best Q value of a successor state, but it makes sense when you look at how the backup process uses it: The exploration process stops when it reaches a goal state and collects the reward, which becomes that final transition's Q value. Now in a subsequent training episode, when the exploration process reaches that predecessor state, the backup process uses the above equality to update the current Q value of the predecessor state.", "915" ], [ "Next time its predecessor is visited that state's Q value gets updated, and so on back down the line (<PERSON>'s book describes a more efficient way of doing this by storing all the computations and replaying them later). Provided every state is visited infinitely often this process eventually computes the optimal Q\nSometimes you will see a learning rate $\\alpha$ applied to control how much Q actually gets updated: $$ Q(s, a) = (1-\\alpha)Q(s, a) + \\alpha(r(s, a) + \\gamma \\max_{a'} Q(s',a')) $$ $$ = Q(s, a) + \\alpha(r(s, a) + \\gamma \\max_{a'} Q(s',a') - Q(s,a)) $$ Notice now that the update to the Q value does depend on the current Q value. <PERSON>'s book also explains why that is and why you need $\\alpha$: its for stochastic MDPs. Without $\\alpha$, every time a state,action pair was attempted there would be a different reward so the Q^ function would bounce all over the place and not converge. $\\alpha$ is there so that as the new knowledge is only accepted in part. Initially $\\alpha$ is set high so that the current (mostly random values) of Q are less influential. $\\alpha$ is decreased as training progresses, so that new updates have less and less influence, and now Q learning converges", "915" ] ]

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[ [ "‘Buy a New SIM Card’ and Await Further Interrogation: Russia’s Security Services Detain and Question a Reporter · Global Voices\n<PERSON>, a member of the independent Journalists’ and Media Workers’ Union, pickets the headquarters of Russia's domestic security agency FSB, to protest against a colleague's detention. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nWhen state security officers arrived at his home early in the morning of January 31, Russian journalist <PERSON> learned firsthand that punishment is not always timely.\n<PERSON>, a co-chair of the Journalists and Media Workers Union in Russia, was visited by members of the FSB, one of Russia’s security services, who searched his apartment and seized several of <PERSON>'s possessions including laptops, documents and copies of his independent magazine, Moloko Plus.\nPosting on his channel on Telegram, a widely-used messenger service in Russia, <PERSON> told his subscribers that the search was related to Article 205.3 of Russia's criminal code, a statute that deals with “undergoing training for the purpose of committing terrorist activity.” This was confirmed by a lawyer from Open Russia, an organization dedicated to the promotion of democracy and human rights in the Russian Federation.\n<PERSON> also took to Twitter to tell everyone the reason for the visit:\nУ меня обыск. Доброе утро. В рамках текста в The new times. Телефон отбирают.\n— паша никулин (@mrzff) 31 января 2018 г.\nThey’re searching my apartment.", "880" ], [ "Good morning. For my article in The New Times. They’re taking away the phone.\nThe article in question, “From Kaluga With Jihad”, drew on an interview <PERSON> had conducted with a Russian national from the Kaluga region, who went to Syria to fight for the Al-Nusra Front, a splinter faction of al-Qaeda. When it was published in March of 2017 in The New Times, the interview immediately drew the attention of the Russian authorities.\nRoskomnadzor, Russia's media regulator, issued a warning to The New Times for “signs of justifying terrorism” in the interview. The piece was later removed from The New Times’ website.\nAs The New Times’ chief editor later wrote on Facebook:\nПутин публично говорит о том, что тысячи россиян воюют за ИГ, а писать о мотивах, почему русский парень из Калуги принимает ислам и уезжает воевать в Сирию — это „признаки оправдания терроризма“! По мне так это классическая цензура, которая запрещена Конституцией.\n<PERSON> publicly says that thousands of Russians are fighting for the Islamic State, but writing about motives, why a Russian guy from Kaluga accepts Islam and goes off to fight in Syria is “signs of justifying terrorism”! I feel this classic censorship, which is banned by the Constitution.", "880" ], [ "President <PERSON>’s Controversial Pardon Has Not Put Poles in a Forgiving Mood · Global Voices\nPolish lawyer and politician <PERSON> assumed the office of President in August 2015. Photo by <PERSON>, September 12, 2013. CC 2.0.\nEarlier this month, just a day after the new Polish government was sworn in, President <PERSON> made the controversial decision to pardon <PERSON>, a member of <PERSON>'s former party, Law and Justice.\n<PERSON> was convicted of abusing his powers as head of Poland's Central Anticorruption Bureau, where he served until 2009, during which time the Law and Justice party controlled the Polish government. Before his pardon, <PERSON>'s sentence had not yet entered force, as he was awaiting an appeal trial.\nAlthough the conviction itself was seen as controversial and some considered it a political move made by the previous government (controlled by rivals in Civic Platform), many say <PERSON>'s decision to pardon <PERSON> is surprising and possibly inappropriate. Had <PERSON> lost his appeal, he would have been barred from holding public office ever again, and he may have been sent to prison for many years. <PERSON> currently serves as the head of special services in Poland's new government.\nPolish social media users soon voiced their opinions on Twitter. <PERSON> wrote:\nPrzypominam, że ułaskawienie potwierdza wyrok.", "1017" ], [ "Od dziś o zainteresowanym można pisać per “przestępca”\n— <PERSON> (@konradniklewicz) November 17, 2015\nI want to remind you all that the pardon confirms the ruling. From now on we can call the person in question “guilty”\n<PERSON> also commented on Twitter:\nPAD to chyba zrobił Kamińskiemu krzywdę, bo ułaskawienie nie jest uniewinnieniem. Nie wiąże się z zatarciem. Nie znam się ale to głupie\n— <PERSON> (@FilipLachert) November 17, 2015\nI think that PAD [President <PERSON>] did a disservice to <PERSON>, because the amnesty doesn't mean “not guilty.” It doesn't equal an erasure of conviction. I'm not an expert but I think it was stupid.\nAnother Twitter user, <PERSON>, compared pardons issued by Poland's current and past presidents. As depicted in the picture attached to the tweet, <PERSON>'s pardon was suspiciously just a single sentence long.\nTak na obrazkach wygląda ułaskawienie normalne i ułaskawienie nienormalne: pic.twitter.com/EGi7CXfGBF\n— <PERSON> (@aronsem) November 20, 2015\nOn the attached pictures it can be seen how a normal act of pardon looks like, and how a not normal one looks\n<PERSON> also wrote about the pardon:\nPo to głosowałam na PiS i prezydenta <PERSON> by w moim imieniu ZAWŁASZCZYLI wreszcie państwo , wyrywając je z rąk złodziei i zdrajców\n— <PERSON> (@ISzafranska) November 19, 2015\nThis is why I voted for PiS [Law and Justice] and the Presient <PERSON>, so that they could reclaim the nation and pull it out of the hands of thieves and traitors\nSeveral members of the public complained that <PERSON> has compromised the presidency's impartiality and duty to represent the interests of the nation by indulging in partisan politics. While it's not illegal for the president to pardon a former colleague, <PERSON>'s decision has invited criticisms that he's violated the spirit of his obligations as Poland's leader.\nAlready divided after the elections, Polish citizens continued to be disagree about <PERSON>'s actions.\nPopular blogger and Twitter user <PERSON> posted:\nCoś czuję, że jak będzie za duży jazgot wokół tego ułaskawienia to wkrótce wypłynie jakieś nieznane do tej pory ułaskawienie poprzednika.", "1017" ], [ "The Untimely Death of an Exiled Ethiopian Journalist · Global Voices\n<PERSON>. Photo shared on Twitter by <PERSON>.\nIn one of his last public comments, Ethiopian journalist <PERSON> wrote on his Facebook page: “Wake me up when I have a state.”\nNot two weeks later, <PERSON> died in Nairobi, Kenya. His comment shed light on the deep personal toll of Ethiopia’s enduring political crisis that has swept the country over the last three years that sent <PERSON> into exile.\n<PERSON> had worked as journalist covering sports and politics for nearly a decade, until he he no choice but to flee in 2014. <PERSON>, who was 40 at the time of his death, was not alone. He left for Nairobi, Kenya in June 2014, on a path taken by hundreds of Ethiopian journalists over the last twenty years.\nAccording to data from Committee to Protect Journalists, Ethiopia's government has driven more journalists out of the country than any other nation in Africa.\nEthiopian journalists most often flee their country because they fear imprisonment and violence. In the lead-up to Ethiopia’s 2015 elections, the ruling party, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPRDF) have arrested and charged journalists and bloggers with terrorism offenses, sometimes over their writing, or even their posts on Facebook or Twitter. They can also face extrajudicial threats and torture.\nFor <PERSON>, such threats were familiar. Nearly ten years before departing from his homeland, he was arrested and beaten by the police during the 2005 Ethiopian post-election violence. His friends say that the police tortured him so brutally that they left one of his legs permanently damaged.\n<PERSON>. Photo of Addis Ababa University Political Science and International Relations departments graduates.\nBefore moving to Kenya, <PERSON> had lived several creative lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, where he was born in September 1977. After graduating from Addis Ababa University’s Department of Political Sciences in 2001, he taught civic education to high school students, and was revered by his students for his hard work and dedication.\nHe also earned a reputation as a respected and rising independent journalist.", "23" ], [ "He was a deputy editor-in-chief in one of Ethiopia’s major sports newspapers that made him a critical voice in Ethiopian sports journalism. He was a star on the fast-growing sports talk radio shows in Addis Ababa. Alongside his successful career as a sports journalist, he was a columnist for Addis Guday, the now-defunct weekly news magazine. He later served there as deputy editor-in-chief.\nIn Nairobi, <PERSON> joined countless other Ethiopians who've been forced to leave their homelands, fleeing political persecution.\nWhile exile can be a source of pain on its own, Ethiopian government is known to make things even more difficult by sending covert intelligence agents to silence members of Ethiopian exiled dissident groups.\nDespite these difficulties, <PERSON> made it clear that he was incapable of staying quiet. He remained connected to a life in Ethiopia that at times must have seemed distant. He shared his frustrations and his joys on his Facebook page.\nOn January 3, 2018, two weeks after writing his prophetic remark on Facebook, <PERSON> passed away in Nairobi, Kenya. The cause of his death has not been made public, but his close friends in Kenya said that living in exile had taken a toll on his physical well-being. Some have suggested that the injuries he suffered at the hands of Ethiopian police may have contributed to his death.\nAt the time of his passing, <PERSON> had recently concluded the long and grueling vetting process to be resettled as a refugee in the United States, only to be cancelled by the <PERSON> administration, and making his untimely death even more tragic.\nA small corner of the Ethiopian internet has been buzzing over <PERSON>’s passing since last week, and he became a trending topic locally. Many across the country who knew <PERSON> reacted to the news of his passing and fellow exiled journalists offered their condolences.\nIt’s heart-wrenching to learn the death of my beloved friend, <PERSON>. I’ll miss his energy, love for disputation, wit, playful mischief making, warmth, & disdain for autocracy. His reward for having conscience in a country that criminalises it was torture & death in exile. pic.twitter.com/lfm2AZv86d\n— <PERSON> (@abiyetk) January 4, 2018\nJournalist and former Committee to Protect Journalists staff member <PERSON> wrote:\nIt is with a heavy heart that I learn my friend <PERSON> from Ethiopia has passed away.", "23" ], [ "New Documentary Throws Shade on Police Investigation Into Dissident Journalist’s Murder in Kyiv · Global Voices\nA promotional banner for the documentary film “Killing Pavel” by OCCRP and Slidstvo.info.*\nA new documentary film by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)* and Slidstvo.info examines the assassination of journalist <PERSON>, who was killed in Kyiv in July 2016.\nTen months after a car bomb claimed <PERSON>'s life, the official police investigation has made no tangible progress in solving the murder. The report by OCCRP and Slidstvo.info reveals new details about the killing, and questions the quality of the investigation, alleging Secret Service involvement.\nThe film “Killing Pavel” is available in English, Russian, and Ukrainian. Within three days of being released on YouTube, the three videos together attracted more than 145,000 views, drawing rave reviews from many journalists in the region.\n.@OCCRP @HromadskeUA thank you for this film investigating the murder of journalist <PERSON> #<PERSON> #Belarus https://t.co/vJUXV3CZdI\n— <PERSON> (@HannaLiubakova) May 10, 2017\nThe film also premiered to international coverage, and Ukrainian authorities quickly announced that they will use the report's findings to assist their investigation. The Ukrainian Secret Service, meanwhile, flatly denies any links to the case.\n<PERSON> started his career in Belarus, reporting on corruption issues. Under pressure from the Belarusian authorities, he was forced to relocate to Russia in 1997. Fifteen years later, his situation repeated, and he was forced to emigrate again, this time to Ukraine. In Kyiv, he ran a morning radio show and worked for the online newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda (Ukrainian Truth).", "534" ], [ "He was awarded the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award in 1998 and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Prize for Journalism and Democracy in 2002.\nOnline, some Internet users drew parallels to prominent critics of the Kremlin who have faced or succumbed to similar attacks in Russia:\nAnother killing of #<PERSON> critic in #Ukraine – what about investigation of #<PERSON> #<PERSON> murders? <PERSON> https://t.co/i0qz5e0JMt\n— <PERSON> (@MAjourno) March 24, 2017\n#<PERSON> murder similar to #<PERSON> (insider/silovik spilling beans), while #<PERSON> more similar to #<PERSON> (pesky journo). https://t.co/5OcXQ38yEF\n— <PERSON> (@andrejfnovak) March 24, 2017\nIn additional to its information about <PERSON>, “Killing Pavel” is also a masterclass in investigative journalism, showing viewers how reporters deal with sources, possible witnesses, data analysis, and intransigent officials.\nThis 50-minute documentary investigating the assassination of #journalist <PERSON> is itself a remarkable piece of journalism. https://t.co/NINcYCrEGx\n— <PERSON> (@editndesign) May 10, 2017\n* An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed the quote in the film's promotional banner to <PERSON>. It was actually said by American journalist <PERSON>.\n* OCCRP is supported by grants by the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. State Department, Open Society Foundations, and other organizations. Global Voices does not accept state support, but it does receive funding from the Open Society Foundations.", "880" ], [ "What Were Global Voices’ Readers up to Last Week? · Global Voices\n“Reader!” Photo by Flickr user <PERSON>. CC BY-ND 2.0\nAt Global Voices, our community researches, writes, edits, and translates stories with a mission to support human rights and build bridges of understanding across countries, cultures, and languages.\nWe don't publish just to grab clicks or follow a news trend. We do, however, like to keep track of the ways in which our hard work has impact around the world.\nTo that end, one useful metric is how readers respond to our stories and translations. So let's take a look at who our readers were and what caught their attention during the week of February 26-March 4, 2018.\nWhere in the world are Global Voices’ readers?\nLast week, our stories and translations attracted readers from 204 countries! The top 20 countries represented across all of Global Voices’ sites were:\n1. United States\n2. Brazil\n3. France\n4. Mexico\n5. Japan\n6. Spain\n7. Colombia\n8. Germany\n9. United Kingdom\n10. Philippines\n11. Italy\n12. India\n13. Taiwan\n14. Canada\n15. Russia\n16.", "746" ], [ "Peru\n17. Bangladesh\n18. Argentina\n19. Indonesia\n20. Ecuador\nBut that's only a small slice of the diversity of our readership. Let's use the True Random Number Generator from Random.org and take a look at a few other countries on the list:\n106. China\n76. Ireland\n129. Martinique\n33. Poland\n184. Central African Republic\nGlobal Voices in English\nThe English-language site is where the majority of original content is first published at Global Voices. The top five most-read stories of last week were:\n1. “Stop Bombing Syria!” Berlin Protest Demands Immediate Ceasefire in Ghouta and Afrin\n2. “Do Others Know We Exist?”: A Nurse’s Testimony from Syria’s Besieged Eastern Ghouta\n3. A Sudanese Village Arts Festival Looks Back to the Future\n4. All of the Soviet Union’s Academy Award-Winning Films Are Legally and Freely Available Online\n5. A Suicide Mentality, on the Precipice of War in Northeast Asia\nGlobal Voices Lingua\nLingua is a project that translates Global Voices stories into languages other than English. There are about 30 active Lingua sites. Below is last week's most-read story or translation on each active language site.\nArabic\n* “ميتةً سريعة فلتكن!” شهادة أوس المبارك، طبيب أسنان من الغوطة الشرقية المحاصرة (“‘May It Be a Quick Death!", "746" ], [ "What Were Global Voices’ Readers up to Last Week? · Global Voices\nA gargoyle reading a book. Photo by Flickr user <PERSON>. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0\nAt Global Voices, our community researches, writes, edits, and translates stories with a mission to support human rights and build bridges of understanding across countries, cultures, and languages.\nWe don't publish just to grab clicks or follow a news trend. We do, however, like to keep track of the ways in which our hard work has impact around the world.\nTo that end, one useful metric is how readers respond to our stories and translations. So let's take a look at who our readers were and what caught their attention during the week of February 19-25, 2018.\nWhere in the world are Global Voices’ readers?\nLast week, our stories and translations attracted readers from 209 countries! The top 20 countries represented across all of Global Voices’ sites were:\n1. United States\n2. France\n3. Brazil\n4. Mexico\n5. Japan\n6. Spain\n7. Italy\n8. Colombia\n9. Philippines\n10. United Kingdom\n11. Germany\n12. India\n13. Taiwan\n14. Canada\n15.", "746" ], [ "Russia\n16. Ecuador\n17. Argentina\n18. Indonesia\n19. Bangladesh\n20. Peru\nBut that's only a small slice of the diversity of our readership. Let's use the True Random Number Generator from Random.org and take a look at a few other countries on the list:\n129. Lithuania\n94. Ghana\n31. Macedonia\n191. Comoros\n75. Jordan\nGlobal Voices in English\nThe English-language site is where the majority of original content is first published at Global Voices. The top five most-read stories of last week were:\n1. “Do Others Know We Exist?”: A Nurse’s Testimony from Syria’s Besieged Eastern Ghouta\n2. <PERSON> Becomes First Transgender Player in Australian Women’s State League Football\n3. Trinidad & Tobago Finally Gets Its ‘Steups’ Emoji\n4. All of the Soviet Union’s Academy Award-Winning Films Are Legally and Freely Available Online\n5. Censorship in Serbia Hits a New Low After Newspaper ‘Edits’ an Obituary\nGlobal Voices Lingua\nLingua is a project that translates Global Voices stories into languages other than English. There are about 30 active Lingua sites. Below is last week's most-read story or translation on each active language site.\nArabic\n* هل يعرف الآخرون بوجودنا؟ شهادة لممرضة من الغوطة الشرقية المحاصرة في سوريا (“‘Do Others Know We Exist?", "746" ], [ "From Facebook Live Questions to a Police Investigation, the Curious Case of a Trinidad & Tobago Presidential Housing Allowance · Global Voices\nFormerly referred to as “Government House”, the image shows a stamp with an illustration of President's House in Trinidad and Tobago, which has been under repair for some years now. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY 2.0.\nNews broke on January 15, 2017, that the Trinidad and Tobago anti-corruption police would be starting an investigation of the country's president, <PERSON>.\nIt's the latest twist in a months-long saga that came to the nation's attention largely thanks to one woman — <PERSON>, a university lecturer who has been putting pressure on the president using social media.\nThe president has admitted to receiving a sizeable housing allowance while occupying state quarters, which is not allowed. The accounting inconsistencies were first identified in the 2015 Auditor General's Report on the Public Accounts, released in April 2016. <PERSON>'s Facebook Live sessions on the issue attracted such a high level of public support that the president was forced to make a public statement. Portions of his statement were later found to be contradictory.\nAfter seeking the advice of a senior attorney based in the United Kingdom, <PERSON> formally requested that there be a police investigation into the president's housing allowance. Based on <PERSON>'s evidence, the British Queen's Counsel, <PERSON>, found that there were “reasonable grounds to suspect that the offence of misconduct in public office has been committed”.\nThe police were slow to respond to <PERSON>'s calls for an investigation, but on January 12, the issue came under further public scrutiny when the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) met to examine expenditure practices at the president's office. <PERSON> herself kept a close watch on the proceedings, flooding her Facebook feed with live updates.\nKeeping up the pressure, <PERSON> also linked to a news report about a man who was given a harsh sentence for stealing cigarettes and rum, commenting:\nIf this is what a man get for cigarettes and rum…what we giving people who tiefing we housing allowance $$$$$$$$$????\n#StrenkAndPowaz\n#Cargona\nOn the heels of the PAAC meeting, other social media users — including cartoonist <PERSON> — began to agitate for the police investigation to begin:\nCartoonist <PERSON>’ assessment of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service's performance when it comes to investigating allegations of financial mismanagement by the country's president.", "957" ], [ "Widely shared on Facebook.\nBy January 13, when mainstream media ran a story claiming that the Office of the President had estimated an overseas travel budget of TT $6.4 million (close to US $950,000) — an obscenely higher amount than the TT $1 million (approximately US $150,000) approved by parliament — the police were in quite a position. Two days later, it was announced that they would commence the investigation.\nFacebook user <PERSON> scoffed, “It take them long enough.” Another social media user, <PERSON>, took the announcement as a sign that the government was committed to fighting crime “at all levels”.\nThe explanation of the police was somewhat confusing, however. Acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) <PERSON> made the point that this was not a criminal investigation, even though the matter was being spearheaded by the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau. Corruption is a criminal offence.\n<PERSON> said the matter was a question of whether or not the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) “went beyond her authority”, adding that even if she did, it still would not be a criminal investigation, but rather, “a matter for the Public Service Commission”, which oversees the civil service. The CPO heads the government department which determines remuneration and other work-related terms and conditions for public sector employees. The acting CoP added that “the only time that this becomes relevant for the police to consider is if it involves criminality”. Thus far, he says, “nothing has been so advanced.”\nMany netizens were sceptical. <PERSON> commented on Facebook:\nHmmm, I wonder if this investigation will finish before the POTT [President of Trinidad and Tobago] leaves office? Has the Ag CoP ever concluded an investigation?! Maybe we can get the next POTT to launch an investigation into that, hmmm, is that one of the powers that the POTT has?\nOh T&T, a tale of woe, corruption, greed, death and disappointment, smh.\nOn January 16, there was a report in one of the national dailies which said that asbestos had been found at President's House.", "957" ], [ "Syria’s dire economy and years of fighting send young ‘mercenaries’ to fight in Ukraine · Global Voices\nRussian soldiers salute President <PERSON> at Hmeimim Air Base, during a 2017 visit. Russia's airbase in Syria serves as the launchpad from which volunteers are flown from Syria to Ukraine to fight alongside the Russian army. The image is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.\nThis article was first published by Raseef22 on 19 March 2022. An edited version is published as part of a republishing agreement with Global Voices.\nFollowing years of a devastating war that continues to fragment the country, Syria is now exporting professional mercenaries to other hotspots of conflict, including Libya and the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and they are soon expected to arrive in Ukraine. They packed their fighting experience and headed to foreign arenas, some to fight in Russia’s wars and others fighting Turkey’s foreign wars.\nIts like a Syrian once said: “Blackwater Latakia and Aleppo… Welcome to New Syria”.\nWhen it comes to the recruitment of pro-regime fighters, the name of the Russian private military company Wagner Group stands out. The paramilitary organization has a special contract with the Syrian Defense Ministry to fight inside Syria.\nThe company coordinates with the authorities of the Hmeimim Air Base, Russia’s base of operations in Syria, to recruit Syrians for the purpose of sending them abroad. Wagner’s contractors are not openly present on the scene, but rather operate through a front consisting of Syrians to attract those who are willing.\nSince the start of the Russian war on Ukraine in the last week of February 2022, many people, parties, movements, and institutions came out to say: “We are with you, Russia.” These all collectively came as an echo of the official Syrian position which firmly and resolutely stands with Russia — a position that is understandable in the general political context, as no one expects the Syrian regime to stand against its international ally.\nBut sending “mercenaries” to fight in Ukraine's streets is another matter entirely.", "534" ], [ "It seems that the fighters affiliated with the Syrian regime and the forces that support it have once again set their sights on the dollars that working as “mercenaries” (dubbed “volunteers”) would provide, just like when thousands went to provide support for Russia to face the Turks in Libya. How wouldn’t they, when the USD 700 dollars they were getting paid in Libya per month have gone up to a monthly USD 1000?\nOn March 11, 2022, Ukrainian President <PERSON> said that Moscow was deploying Syrian mercenaries in his country. Russia has not officially confirmed this, but its Defense Minister <PERSON> reported that 16,000 “volunteers” from the Middle East are ready to fight alongside Russia’s allies in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.\nThe Middle East here refers to Syria — the only place where Russians have allies ready to embark on a mercenary adventure for political conditions and economic hardships the Syrian war created for its people. Also, Syria is the only place that fighters, logistically, can be transferred from to Russia, through the Hmeimim Air Base.\nRussian President <PERSON> added:\nIf you see that there are these people who want of their own accord, not for money, to come to help the people living in Donbas, then we need to give them what they want and help them get to the conflict zone\nPacking their bags\n<PERSON> is a 28-year-old Syrian man residing in Homs. He packed his belongings in preparation for travel and the subsequent fighting in the Donbas region.\nHe told <PERSON> he is a former fighter from a combat group within the backup forces in the Qalamoun region that was dissolved in 2017, referring to the Qalamoun Shield Forces, an auxiliary military group that isn’t affiliated with the government army but fights alongside it, just like the National Defense Forces, the al-Bustan Association, the Qalamoun Shield Forces, and the Tiger ‘Nimr’ Forces (named after the nickname of Brigadier General <PERSON>).\n<PERSON> recounts how he went to Libya in late 2020 and fought there over two periods. Each period of time consisted of five months, and between the two periods, he went back to Syria for three months.\nHe added:\nNow I’ve been contracted with the Hmeimim Air Base to fight in Ukraine alongside our Russian brothers as a fighter with a salary of 1,000 dollars a month. I do not get the salary while I am on the job, but with my leave to return after seven months, I will receive the full amount for all the months as well as an additional month’s salary.", "328" ] ]

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[ [ "I think I have solved the problem after thinking about it.\nBasically, I forgot the mathematical formalism for a moment and thought about it physically. We want to know the general velocity and position of a body that is moving at constant acceleration. Therefore, all we need is one moment in time for which we know the position and velocity, then we can use the constant acceleration to get other times. In other words, we know $v(t_0)$, so we just do $v(t_0)+at$ for times more than $t_0$, and $v(t_0)-at$ for times less than $t_0$. This is without using any \"mathematics\", since we know that each second, the velocity increases by $a$ since it is constant acceleration.\nNow let's see how this compares with the integral formalism. As it turns out, $t_0$ is not an initial time at all, it is only an arbitrary time, as it clear from the intuitive physical explanation above. It is only when we come to the mathematics that it all of a sudden becomes an \"initial\" time. Do you know why? Because in the mathematical formalism, when we work out the area under the a-t graph, we have to choose an \"initial\" time on the graph from which we work out the area.", "499" ], [ "It couldn't be otherwise, since area is 2-D and we have to start somewhere, ie $\\int_{t_0}^t$. If there was some magical mathematical way we could avoid starting somewhere, and invent a notation where we don't appear to \"start\" at $t_0$, say $\\zeta(t_0)$ (this isn't like $\\int_{t_0}^t$ which has the illusion of \"starting\" at $t_0$ and moving to $t$), then it would be as clear as the physical explanation above. (However, I guess we can rest contented with the fact that $\\int_{t_0}^t = -\\int _t^{t_0}$, so that it does have symmetry after all, and does not have to have an illusion of starting at $t_0$). Unfortunately, this is not the case. So the mathematical formalism makes it look like $t_0$ is an \"initial\" time. It is not: it is simply an arbitrary time for which we know v and x.\nSo it isn't as simple as I thought at first. The fact that authors call it \"initial\" and \"starting\" time is due to the mathematics, in particular, how it appears on the graph. It has nothing to do with the physics.", "499" ], [ "Let's take a look just from the point of view of someone reading the problem.\nFirst of all, we can say \"our car has motion\", because it's changing its position each second.\nOk. So, how is its motion? Well, it is moving in 1 dimention, it is a linear movement. Then, we can say \"our car has linear motion\". Also, we can see our car's velocity is changing every second. Then, we can say \"our car has linear motion, and has acceleration\".\nOk. So, how is its acceleration? Well, we can see from the chart that, in this particular case, it's velocity is changing constantly.", "562" ], [ "This is interesting and very important. To make a deduction from this, we need to remember how acceleration is defined:\nAcceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity with respect to time.\nFor those of you with knowledge of calculus, you can take this definiton as:\nAcceleration is the second derivative of displacement.\nBut you don't need to know calculus to see that a constant change of velocity is equivalent to a constant acceleration.\nNow we can say \"our car has uniformly accelerated linear motion\" that also means \"our car has linear motion, and has a constant acceleration\".\nKnowing we have a constant acceleration, in order to understand what is going on, we only need 2 more things. Initial conditions, and the exact value of the acceleration.\nFor initial conditions you can see from the picture that at the start, time $t=0 s$, the car is where we call \"0 m\", or $x=0 m$. From the chart, we can read that the car has a velocity $v=0 m/s$.\nSo our initial conditions are: $$t=0 s$$ $$x=0 m$$ $$v=0 m/s$$\nAnd finally, we can see each that each second the velocity increases $10 m/s$. In other words, our acceleration $a$ must be $10 m/s^2$.\nNow that we have worked out the situation to the point we know everything from our problem, let's introduce your question.\nWhat should be the velocity of the car in $t=1s$?\nGoing back to our definitions, if the topic of your webpage is \"Meaning of Slope for a v-t graph\", you must be interested in how to find out the velocity at a certain step of time.\nThe graph of the v-t from your car is a straight line that goes from $(t=0,v=0)$ to $(t=5,v=50)$. The slope from this graph has the same meaning as the acceleration:\nThe slope is defined as the rate of change of the dependent variable (velocity) with respect to the independent variable (time).\nIf we call $m$ the slope from the graph, by definition it should be calculated:\n$$m = \\frac{\\Delta v}{\\Delta t} = \\frac{v_{j} - v_{i}}{t_{j} - t_{i}}$$\nGood for any integer $i,j\\leq 6$, as long as $i<j$.\nFor this particular case, and for any pair of data we choose, we will find:\n$$m = \\frac{1-0}{1-0} = \\frac{10}{1} = 10$$\nor, by definition of our variables:\n$$a = 10 m/s^2$$.", "234" ], [ "I don't understand why do you ask this question and what exactly you are asking but here's my best effort.\nThe solutions to these reflections are found by imposing boundary conditions on the wave equations. Imagine a horizontal string and wave propagating to the right on it, which reflects off of a point. You can model all possible waves by a combination of sin and cos functions.\n$y_{incoming}(x,t) = Asin(x-vt) + Bcos(x-vt)$\n$y_{reflected}(x,t) = Csin(x+vt) + Dcos(x+vt)$\n(Change from -vt to +vt reflects the change in direction, and constants A, B, C, D determine the ratios of these terms to one another)\nIf we say that the string is glued to a point at x = 0, we will get the inversion you talked about. For this to be true, y(0,t) should be 0 at all times. So when you try to come up with an equation for the reflecting wave, you have to impose $y(0,t) = y_{incoming}(0,t) + y_{reflected}(0,t) = 0$ So that the string doesn't move at the connection point x=0.\n$y_{incoming}(0,t) = Asin(-vt) + Bcos(-vt)$\n$y_{reflected}(0,t) = Csin(-vt) + Dcos(-vt)$\n$y(0,t) = (A+C)sin(-vt) + (B+D)cos(-vt)$\nOnly if C = -A and D = -B, this formula will give 0 for all t values. Basically for any wave solution f(x-vt), the ideal reflection will be -f(x+vt).\nFor any kind of wave there is, there will be some value that propagates in time and space, pressure, displacement, electric field etc. So, they all can be modeled as \"value = f(x-vt)\". And when you impose that there is a point $x = x_0$, where the value is always 0, you'll see a similar result for all these kinds of waves.\nAs you may have realized, I have talked about what got inverted but not about what didn't.", "780" ], [ "That's because there is no need. Waves are basically disturbances of some value that will propagate in a medium as time passes. For example, the displacement for a sound wave which stayed untouched in your example was completely irrelevant in the first place. Sound is not about the displacement of the molecules which mostly stays stationary, it only involves pressure. The vertical displacement was the only value we kept track in our example so everything else stayed untouched, because they weren't involved in the process in the first place.\nYou may now say that this arguments completely gets crushed once we think about electromagnetic waves. But what's different about the electromagnetic waves is the boundary conditions you have to impose. Charges in a conductor will move around such that it has 0 net electric field on it (since any other configuration will cause the charges to move and therefore not a stable configuration). This means a conductor creates a boundary condition like our previous example. But the magnetic field has no such requirement and acts more like a freely connected string, which as you probably know will cause a reflection but not an inversion.", "395" ], [ "Experiment to measure initial speed of high speed tennis ball?\nI want to devise a way to measure the initial speed of a tennis ball fired from a tennis ball cannon, but without using any speed-measuring devices. Just plan distance-measuring and physics formulas.\nThis question stems from a friend of mine who built a tennis ball cannon, but doesn't know how high it can go. I already know that answer if the cannon is fired straight up (so it's the maximum height of the maximum angle), which is $Y_{max} = \\frac{1}{2}\\frac{V_0^2}{g}$. But the flaw in that formula is you have to know how fast it's already going as it leaves the cannon.\nI know of the bullet experiment, as I like to call it, where a bullet is fired into a block of wood tied to a long string. Using the energy equations, we can easily calculate the initial speed of the bullet based on the maximum height that the block of wood swings to. The result is $v_{i,bullet} = \\sqrt{\\frac{2y(m_{bullet} + m_{wood})}{m_{bullet}}}$ where $y$ is the maximum height of the wood and bullet.\nThe failure of that kind of experiment, though, when measuring a tennis ball's initial velocity is that the tennis ball is elastic.", "771" ], [ "I got that formula above by equating the kinetic energy of the bullet with the potential energy of the bullet-block of wood mass, because initially the bullet has only kinetic energy but no potential energy, and at the maximum height of the bullet-wood, it has only potential energy.\nWith a tennis ball, it won't stick to a block of wood. So the energies there aren't as easy, and you'll still have to know some final speeds. And of course, that's hard to time manually because of how fast it will be going, and the point of this question is an experiment that you can do manually.\nI was thinking about getting a large mass of something, putting it on the floor, firing at it, and then measuring the distance it moves after the ball hits it. But that stuff requires estimating the coefficient of friction to the floor (which, fair enough, can be estimated by textbooks), but it's still an elastic collision. I can't quite visualize how it will go down because the tennis ball bouncing will still have energy when it bounces off.\nI could also just fire the ball straight up, wait for it to come back down, and time that amount to get $t_{max}$. I could do it several times and get a value within some good margin of error. But that sounds inelegant and, frankly, not fun at all.\nIs there an experiment that we can do that will just let us measure distances things move, and from there work out the initial speed of the tennis ball? I guess the largest difficulty is it's very hard to get an inelastic collision if you shoot a tennis ball at a block of wood.", "621" ], [ "Finding the final height of a particle moving within an inverted cone\nThere is a particle moving within this inverted circular cone with an initial tangential velocity of $v$ at an initial height of $h$, and we see that the cone forms an angle of $\\theta$ with the horizontal.\nThe problem is this: to find the final height of the object when it stops climbing up or sliding down the incline. The only forces are gravity and the normal force.\nI know how to analyze the motion of an object like this when we are given that it stays at one height. We have a centripetal acceleration of $a_c = \\frac{v^2}{r}$ towards the center, but this scenario I'm not sure about.\nThis is the free-body diagram I drew:\nAnd the 2nd law equations I had: \\begin{align} \\sum F_x &= N\\sin \\theta = ma_c \\\\ \\sum F_y &= N\\cos \\theta - mg = ma_{tan} \\end{align}\nNow, I thought I had solved the problem using this, but looking back, I'm not sure I would be justified in thinking that the acceleration in the x direction would be $a_c = \\frac{v^2}{r}$. I'm not sure if the acceleration in this situation is centripetal. If one imagines looking at the cone from above, if the particle is rising, it seems like the path would be some kind of a spiral.\nMy assumption was, based on the initial velocity, it would either fall, rise, or stay at the same spot, depending on the normal force.", "1002" ], [ "If the normal force is large enough it is stronger than gravity so the ball will rise, but as the ball rises, the radius gets larger, so $a_c$ gets smaller, and the normal force also gets smaller. I thought the particle would reach basically an equilibrium and stop rising or falling and I wanted to know what height that would be. I got an answer of $ y_f= \\frac{v^2}{g}$ but I don't think this is right. I can go into how I did that but it's just solving the equations that I set up. The problem is I don't think I was justified in setting up those equations.\nCan you help me solve this?\nEdit: Also, would I be correct in thinking that the tangential velocity will remain constant?", "483" ], [ "Can the initial time be nonzero\nI am just slightly confused about how initial time is chosen in mechanics. I keep thinking I have understood it but some doubts come up later.\nBasically when I derived the constant acceleration equations in a general way I ended up with $v(t)=v(0)+at$ and $x(t)=x(0)+v(0)t+\\frac{1}{2} at^2$. However, I didn't set any initial conditions at this point, all I did was derive them using integration then set $t=0$ to get the constants of integration.\nNow I understand that we can use a value other than $t=0$ to find the constants, however $t=0$ is convenient.\nWhat I don't understand, is whether by setting $t=0$ to find the constants, I have now somehow implicitly chosen $t=0$ as the initial time? Because if $t=0$ was not the initial time, then it should be impossible to have $t=0$ (am I wrong in thinking this?)\nIn short, my question is: did I implicitly choose an initial time of $t=0$? If not, then regardless of how ugly the end result becomes, am I free to choose a nonzero initial time so that my first equation becomes $\\Delta v = v(0)+at-v(t_0)$ (where I simply subtracted $v(t_0)$ from both sides, where $t_0\\ne 0$, as I just said) and the second one becomes $\\Delta x = x(0)+v(0)t+\\frac{1}{2} at^2-x(t_0)$.", "563" ], [ "I am not concerned with how ugly these are, I am simply wondering if they are correct in principle?\nAlso, if I wanted to make them not-ugly, I know how to do that: I would choose the $t$ value when finding the constants of integration as $t=t_0$ rather than $t=0$. In other words, my initial time is $t=t_0\\ne 0$, hence $v(t)=\\int a dt=at+c$ and instead of setting $t=0$ here, I instead let $t=t_0$ to get $v(t_0)=at_0+c$ or $c=v(t_0)-at_0$, hence $v(t)=v(t_0)+a(t-t_0)$. Then I would integrate again to get $x(t)=v(t_0)t+\\frac{1}{2} a(t-t_0)^2+c$ and setting $t=t_0$ again gives $c=x(t_0)-v(t_0) t_0$ so that $x(t)-x(t_0)=v(t_0) (t-t_0)+\\frac{1}{2} a(t-t_0)^2$.", "563" ], [ "Your reasoning is correct, but it seems to me that introducing the changing of $B's$ origin was kind or arbitrary. Usually, when we talk about Lorentz transformations, we do not talk about looking at individual lines from different frames in reference. Instead, a much easier way would be to actually make a change in the whole co-ordinate system itself.\nWhen you are talking about normal situations, when we consider only two co-moving people, the normal <PERSON> transformations hold, without actually needing spacetime diagrams. These are $$t' = \\frac{t - vx}{\\sqrt{1- v^2}}$$ $$ x' = \\frac{x - vt}{\\sqrt{1 - v^2}}$$ assuming we choose units with $c = 1$. These are the Lorentz transformations that you reasoned with only $A$ nd $b$ in account.\nNow, when we rather talk about more objects, like in the situation where one frame of reference has both $A$ and $C$, we prefer to use spacetime diagrams. But, then it is becomes less convenient to do the <PERSON> transformations on each and every worldline and measure values. So, we do a trick (which I will briefly describe here, and leave the nitty-gritties to you):\n1. Take any one object, for example $A$, and look how its worldline transforms in $B's$ frame. In your case, that was the first part of your derivation.\n2. Using the results you obtain create a matrix. By now, its seems apparent where this is going.\n3. Take the matrix you obtained and then apply it to the entire $A$ frame of reference (the co-ordinate system where $A$ and $C$ are located). This is standard linear algebra.\nThe new co-ordinate system that you get will contain every worldline ($A$ and $C$ in this case), from the reference frame of $B$. Yes, your reasoning was correct and works, but is not very convenient for frames with many objects.\nUpdate: I have been asked in the comments to touch upon the second update in the question. It is a way of deriving the $\\gamma(v)$ function.", "499" ], [ "But here is why that mathematically yields results but is not that correct.\n1. Anything involving faster than light travel is generally avoided due to the fact that special relativity tells us that nothing can travel faster than light. So, even in derivations and mathematics, it is preferable to avoid faster than light situation or reference frames.\n2. Time is not interchangeable. While spacetime diagrams are a very powerful way to model relativistic situations, they seem to imply that time and space can switch places by rotations. Physically, this is not possible: sure, you can make changes to the time and space axes, but you cannot switch them. (In very high gravity situations, like inside black holes, time and space can switch but then we need to take into account general relativity, which in this context is out of scope.)\nSo, though you get results, that is not actually the correct way to do it. Instead here are some clues to what you can do.\n1. Leverage symmetry: symmetry is a very important concept in physics, and in deriving the $\\gamma(v)$ there are two main symmetries which come into play. I won't just straightforwardly reveal them, instead for now, I will just say that they have to do with directions of velocities and the fact that all observers consider themselves at rest.\n2. Substitute: When I learned the derivation of $\\gamma(v)$, it used the fact that <PERSON> transformations work both ways: $A$ to $B$ or $B$ to $A$. So you substitute the values of one into another and work your way through it.\n3. Work your way through it: You inevitable have to do some very length but easy algebra. So instead of trying to find shortcuts, just go through it the ugly way, and the results you get will be simple and elegant.\nIf these sounded vague, it is because I don't want to give away the derivation steps completely. Rather, it is meant as an exercise to the reader to try and do this task.", "562" ], [ "Why is energy calculated with respect to distance and not time?\nOkay, so looking at the basic definition of energy the force is summed over the distance it is applied. Why exactly is it taken over the distance applied and not the time applied? I understand that the impulse and hence the change in momentum is what we call this summation over time, but it's not exactly clear to me why we chose to do it the way we did.\nSide note - I've seen the examples where there's an object at rest and if you took the force over time you would get infinite energy, but if you took the sum of the force (both holding it up and pushing it down (gravity) you would get 0, and thus an integral over the net force would be 0, right? Thanks\nEDIT 1: Okay, so really the crux of what I'm getting at that I can't seem to find an answer for is: Why did we choose to do it this way? What experiment or thought experiment led us to believe that momentum isn't in fact energy, but a separate quantity? The problem I keep having is that when you want to sum up this quantity we know as force, you have two options, sum it over the time its applied or the distance.", "319" ], [ "I just don't understand the idea behind choosing one over the other.\nEDIT 2: -This was a response (posing a question) to another answer posted here, just copy/pasted as an edit for visibility\nSay I have a variable acceleration, a=5t (as an example). If the function was allowed to stay steady before and after the acceleration (force) was applied (so constant velocity before t=0 and after time = t passed, but exponentially increasing in between) then how would we describe the kinetic energy? If we set up the variable acceleration to have the same final velocity as a constant acceleration over the same time period, the result would be differing distances. Furthermore, if you only looked at both objects (one with the constant acceleration and the other with variable acceleration) in a window of time after all of this occurred, how can you say the kinetic energy is 1/2 mv^2 for both? Wouldn't that imply that they gained the same energy, which over different distances is impossible?", "319" ] ]

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[ [ "As Global Voices celebrates its quinceañera, 15 ‘coming-of-age’ posts from the Caribbean · Global Voices\nDecember — the happy month in which Global Voices was created back in 2004. Fifteen years have gone by quickly, but it's also given us the opportunity to publish close to 100,000 posts that encourage discourse and translate most of them into other languages.\nIn honour of this milestone, here's a five-part retrospective, each highlighting three of our Caribbean team's most significant or inspiring 2019 stories, which — on one level or another — represented a “coming-of-age”.\nA legal (and moral) victory for Haitian farmers\nSeven members of the Kolektif Peyizan <PERSON> and their advisor celebrate after signing the agreement with the IDB. Photo courtesy Accountability Counsel, used with permission.\nHaiti's devastating 2010 earthquake still resonates within the region. Every time some fresh disaster strikes, there are echoes of the 7.0 Mw monster that flattened parts of Port-au-Prince, killed hundreds of thousands of people and left the ones who survived in increasingly vulnerable positions.\nIt was with great joy, therefore, that we learned about Kolektif Peyizan Viktim Tè Chabè — a Haitian farmers’ collective which, in January 2019, signed a historic agreement offering redress to nearly 4,000 people who were displaced to accommodate the construction of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and USAID-financed Caracol Industrial Park — a project that was pegged by the Haitian government to be part of the post-earthquake reconstruction effort, but which instead trampled on their land rights and livelihoods.\nThe group's tenacity, patience and ability to work together for the greater good of their community showed great courage and a willingness to advocate for themselves. Their case, in fact, marked the first time in Haiti that victims of a land grab had been able to make their voices heard in a formal dispute resolution process, and their success serves as a strong precedent should any government be tempted to take similar decisions in the future.\nThe Venezuela/Trinidad & Tobago refugee crisis\nA Venezuelan protest, January 2019. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY 2.0.\nAs Venezuela's political impasse rapidly degenerated into a humanitarian crisis, Venezuelan nationals began to flee the country, with many displaced people choosing nearby Trinidad and Tobago as their place of refuge.\nThough Trinidad and Tobago has had a national policy on refugee and asylum matters in place since 2014, it was not being implemented, which has had an adverse effect on proper protection for refugees and asylum seekers, who often end up being treated as undocumented migrants.", "779" ], [ "This creates a ripple effect of refugees being economically exploited or, as a January 2019 Refugees International (RI) report put it, “forced into illegality”.\nBy June 2019, however, the government of Trinidad and Tobago had conducted a registration process, through which tens of thousands of asylum-seekers were able to be legally recognised, minimising the likelihood of them being taken advantage of — a decision that resonates with us as being on the right side of history, no matter what the political outcome in Venezuela.\nHaiti's recurring protests\nThe Haitian flag. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY 2.0.\nOn February 7, 2019, Haiti's violent street protests, which had started in response to increased food prices, came to a temporary halt. Social unrest, however, was destined to continue, since much of the country's socio-economic crisis was being fuelled by systemic corruption.\nA large part of that corruption was intertwined with PetroCaribe — a Venezuela-led regional energy programme designed to offer petroleum and its by-products at preferential rates, but gross mismanagement resulted instead in a loss of currency value, a rise in inflation, and a US $3 billion corruption scandal involving high-level government officials, including Haitian President <PERSON>.\nAs part of the government's efforts to discourage further unrest, then-Prime Minister <PERSON> promised to curb the skyrocketing prices of basic food products, reduce government expenditure, raise the minimum wage and fight corruption by supporting the PetroCaribe lawsuit process, but against the backdrop of decades of political instability, people were reaching a breaking point. There were widespread calls for <PERSON> to resign.\nBy March 2019, Haiti's parliament had handed down a vote of no-confidence in <PERSON> and the United States seemed to be playing a part in helping the country address the crisis. By April 9, <PERSON> had appointed <PERSON> as Haiti's new prime minister, even as gang violence plagued hotspots in and around the capital.\nBut <PERSON> simply would not go away. On May 31, Haiti's High Court of Auditors released a 600 plus-page report on the mismanagement of the PetroCaribe funds.", "892" ], [ "From COVID-19 to Caribbean literature, this is what the region looked like in 2020 · Global Voices\nCOVID-19 illustration by <PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.\nCOVID-19 was undoubtedly the topic that dominated news headlines this year. In the Caribbean, however, the pandemic served to exacerbate already existing issues, including societal inequities and gender-based violence — but it also allowed regional netizens the space to create and reimagine their collective future.\nHere's a recap of some of our most engaging stories of 2020…\nCOVID-19\nFrom travel bans to declining tourism, the Caribbean — like the rest of the world — was forced to readjust in an attempt to stay safe from the virus.\nSeveral Caribbean countries initially closed their borders (some, like Trinidad and Tobago's, remain closed), and regional governments began imposing quarantine restrictions.\nBehavioural changes were slow to take hold, however. Jamaica encountered problems with overcrowding in public shopping areas, and there were several reports of the police breaking up parties in Trinidad and Tobago, even as public health regulations limited congregating in large numbers. The inconsistencies guiding such police actions contributed to online discourse questioning whether there was a double standard at play in the enforcement of COVID-19 protocols.\nThe ripple effects of COVID-19 restrictions — economic and otherwise — soon began to take effect.", "1019" ], [ "Trinidad and Tobago, for instance, experienced a rise in reports of domestic violence during the country's initial lockdown period, and the economic gap seemed all the wider once school went online, leaving many students without access.\nJust as in a war, the battle against COVID-19 was full of advances and retreats, including the early cancellation of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival 2021.\nThe pandemic also brought out people's creativity, however, both in the kitchen and via an online extempo initiative in which singers and musicians sent messages of safety and solidarity. One regional netizen even began applying design thinking to the question of how the Caribbean can best prepare for a post-COVID-19 world.\nBlack Lives Matter\nFollowing the May 25 murder of <PERSON>, an African-American man, at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the United States-based Black Lives Matter movement was thrust into the global spotlight.\nIn the Caribbean, <PERSON>'s death raised important questions of the region's own deeply-rooted racism and colonial legacy.\nThe #BLM movement inspired — across the region — calls to remove statuary that many felt robbed Caribbean people of the right to tell their own history. In Barbados, these efforts culminated in the official removal of a statue of British naval officer <PERSON> for his role in the transatlantic slave trade.\nFrom Jamaica to the north of the archipelago to Trinidad and Tobago at the south, there were also calls for greater police accountability and prison reform.\nWhile there were several missteps with businesses trying to capitalise on the public interest created around the #BLM movement, there were also attempts at discussion around race.\nIn Guyana, however, after a long and drawn-out elections impasse, in which the incumbent government, predominantly appealing to Afro-Guyanese voters, was accused of trying to rig the results in its favour and keep out the opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP) — which has a primarily Indo-Guyanese support base — from office, ethnic tensions were rife, culminating with the brutal murder of two young men.\nAfter its own bitterly contested election, many social media users suggested that Trinidad and Tobago's own racist underbelly was on display.\n#BlackLivesMatter also helped catapult the region's right to slavery reparations into the international spotlight. Buoyed by the success of The University of the West Indies signing a historic GBP 20 million ($24,308,500 United States dollars) reparations agreement with the University of Glasgow in 2019, the Caribbean continued to make its case for why reparations are necessary.\nThe environment\nAs the pandemic put regional concerns into sharper focus, one of the most pressing continues to be the environment. It is a cause regional social media users rallied around this year, from the celebration of Earth Day to the recognition of World Environment Day.\nThere were several encouraging milestones when it came to championing the environment, from the passing of Belize's Fisheries Resources Bill, hailed as “a model for how to manage marine resources,” to the vibrant youth activism against proposed limestone quarrying in an ecologically sensitive area of Jamaica.\nActivism also triumphed when it came to raising public awareness about the environmental threat posed by a listing Venezuelan oil tanker anchored in the Caribbean Sea.", "678" ], [ "Global Voices quinceañera: How the climate crisis and other disasters affected the Caribbean in 2019 · Global Voices\nAs the year of Global Voices’ 15th birthday comes to a close, here are three more of the most compelling stores from the Caribbean team in 2019 — this time, related to climate change.\nThe climate crisis\nLEED-certified architect <PERSON> and her husband <PERSON> at the #ClimateStrikeTT demonstration in Port of Spain, Trinidad, September 25, 2019. Photo by Rapso Imaging, used with permission.\nAt COP 21, the position of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like the Caribbean was that the agreement coming out of that 2015 climate change conference must continue to recognise the vulnerabilities that such island nations face. In 2019, Caribbean-based individuals and organisations continued to advocate for environmental awareness and greener ways of living to stem rapidly rising global temperatures and their ill effects.\nJamaica, for instance, used music as a way to educate people about climate change and influence behavioural change. Women's movements in the country were also dedicated to environmental awareness. Tobago, meanwhile, used its increasing levels of coral bleaching as a warning tool, since the main contributors to the phenomenon are warmer water temperatures as a result of climate change.\nBy September 2019, young people throughout the region joined in solidarity with other global climate marches, empowering participants to plant trees and contribute to universal water sanitation, hygiene and resources management — heartening actions which suggest that the region is not prepared to accept its fate in a looming crisis to which it contributed the least, but will suffer from the most if left unchecked.\nHurricane Dorian\nScreenshot taken from a YouTube video uploaded by NBC News showing drone footage of the Bahamas’ Marsh Harbour destroyed by Hurricane Dorian.\nPredictably, the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season was deadly. Unpredictably, it was mostly because of one monster, slow-moving storm, Hurricane Dorian, which lumbered its way across the Caribbean before wreaking unimaginable havoc in The Bahamas.\nFollowing the devastation, there were immediate calls for the region to wake up to the realities of the climate crisis, especially since Dorian was preceded by hurricanes like Irma and Maria in 2017, which had disastrous effects on islands like Puerto Rico and Dominica.", "941" ], [ "Even Jamaica, which had survived a brutal assault from Hurricane Gilbert back in 1988, could not quite fathom how an island nation could withstand a storm with the hovering ferocity of Dorian.\nThe New Yorker did not mince words in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, saying that the trail of destruction, a steadily climbing death toll, severe flooding, unfathomable damage and serious cases of post-traumatic stress were tantamount to “a climate injustice”.\nIn addressing the United Nations Climate Event Summit in New York on September 23, 2019, Barbados’ prime minister, <PERSON>, told world leaders to expect a mass migration of refugees if the climate crisis is not solved:\nIn other words, two degrees needs to be taken off the table once and for all. The global community must accept that it is within our power to halt and reverse climate change. […]\nWe refuse to be relegated to the footnotes of history and to be collateral damage for the greed of others, for we have contributed less than one percent of greenhouse gas emissions.\nOther regional leaders joined the clarion call, and there is great hope that they will continue to advocate for the best interest of Small Island Developing States.\nJamaica's road fatalities\nScreenshot from a YouTube video showing footage of a car accident on a bridge in Kingston, Jamaica. Fortunately, there were no fatalities in this particular crash. Video uploaded by Best Jamaica.\nIn another kind of environmental issue, Jamaica's steadily increasing number of motor vehicle-related deaths took centre stage in November. As at the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, 374 Jamaicans died in crashes, compared to 330 road fatalities in 2018, and 284 in 2017.\nIn 2019, the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), a non-governmental organisation, sadly failed to achieve its goal of “Below 300” road fatalities. While environmental factors may contribute to some accidents, the majority of crashes are blamed on culture, behaviour and corruption.\nWhile Jamaica is not the only regional territory to grapple with rising road deaths, the hope is that with more robust legislation and a deeper grasp of the issue by decisionmakers, 2020 will be a better year.", "708" ], [ "The Caribbean’s case for reparations: Part III · Global Voices\nScreenshot of one of the cover illustrations on the CARICOM Reparations Commission website.\nThis is the third article in a series that highlights the question of slavery reparations in the Caribbean. (The first is here; the second is here.) It is based around issues discussed in the NGC Bocas Lit Fest's live stream event, “The Case for Reparations,” which featured an in-depth conversation with Sir <PERSON>, chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission.\nFive hundred and twenty-eight years after <PERSON> set foot in the Americas, unleashing the frenzy of colonisation that resulted in the genocide of the region's Indigenous peoples and paved the way for the commoditisation of African lives, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, the Caribbean's premier literary festival, live-streamed a conversation with Sir <PERSON> in commemoration of the International Day for Reparations.\nIn this final instalment of the series, Global Voices considers the role that the university sector must play in the call for reparations, and examines the ways in which the region can develop more sustainable economic models.\nWhite supremacy systems were ‘sustained’ by universities\nWhile the victimisation of Black lives under slavery may have started within the investor class, it was given legitimacy by respected western tertiary institutions, which were positioned “at the centre of creation of the ideology of white supremacy and how best to sustain it.”\nThe notion, Sir <PERSON> says, of converting people into property, legislating that practice and showing how it functions in jurisprudence, came out of the universities, as did the idea that Black people were genetically and cognitively inferior. Organising people via hierarchies of colour was something that the anthropology departments of these schools actively promoted.\nAs such, the CARICOM Reparations Commission believes it is important to have a new pedagogy of inclusive economic development moving forward, that includes rejecting the notion that skin colour has anything to do with a person's cognitive abilities. In other words, the universities have a critical role to play in undoing the unjust structure they helped create, and through the work of the Commission, they are “coming on board, one by one.”\nThe ‘Triple C’ threat\nSir <PERSON> noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has “removed the roof of the Caribbean household” to reveal the “horrendous legacies” of poverty, domestic violence, and economic inequity. These issues, he said, require a multi-disciplinary approach.\nPrior to its arrival in the Caribbean, The University of the West Indies’ established a task force comprising virologists, microbiologists and epidemiologists, whose aim was to examine the virus from a scientific point of view.", "127" ], [ "Once the virus hit regional shores, however, the group had to be restructured in order to look at the pandemic within the frameworks of gender, anthropology, sociology, and political science.\nThe most pressing issues around COVID-19 quickly became less about science and more about injustice. In education, for instance, which was forced to go online, a significant percentage of Caribbean citizens do not have internet access and regional governments — many of them reeling economically from plummeting tourism rates — do not have the capital to narrow the gap.\nReparatory justice projects, however, could play an important role in dealing with challenges like these, the most urgent of which Sir <PERSON> has called the “Triple Cs”: chronic diseases, climate change and the region's culture of tourism, and COVID-19, all of which he categorised as “a cocktail of existential threat to these islands.” Without multilateral and international support for these challenges that have, for the most part, been “externally imposed” upon the region, he maintained, the Caribbean is not going to make it.\n‘Where there's a will, there's a way’\nThere is no doubt that the Caribbean, in actively pursuing reparations, is negotiating from a position of economic inequality. After all, much of the region's resources were extracted by its colonisers to enrich and strengthen their own societies. However, the CARICOM Reparations Commission is proceeding on the grounds of “moral equality, of rightness and of humanity,” which has levelled the playing field.\nFurthermore, the United Nations, which the Commission has approached to oversee the process, operates on the premise that all member nations participate as equals. This does not mean that the process is going to be easy, but all gains made in the eradication of the transatlantic slave trade were hard-won.", "127" ], [ "The Caribbean’s ‘looming’ food security storm suddenly seems more threatening · Global Voices\nAgricultural land for sale in Trinidad and Tobago, 2007. Rising land prices may also be a deterrent to those considering entering the agriculture industry. Photo by <PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.\nWith the Atlantic hurricane season progressively worsening over the last seven years, the Caribbean region is far too accustomed to the devastation that can — and often does — happen. Yet, there is another storm brewing, one that the World Bank had been monitoring from fairly early on in the COVID-19 pandemic. In a report entitled “Future Foodscapes: Re-imagining Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean,” it suggested that urgent reforms in the agricultural sector are essential to supporting the region’s recovery from the pandemic, particularly from an economic perspective.\nFood insecurity is rising, both within the region and beyond. Quite apart from the effects of the pandemic, which ushered in job loss and saw usually reliable supply chains disrupted, many Caribbean citizens had already been suffering socio-economically. The annual impact of the hurricane season, which many connect to the deepening climate crisis, has not helped matters, while the conflict in Ukraine has emerged as an additional compromise to global food security, with Russia being accused of cutting off food supply chains as a war tactic.\nA June 15 tweet by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) discussing the World Bank's findings on regional food security has helped remind people in the region about the urgency of the issue:\nThe World Bank estimates between 80-90% of all food consumed in the region is supplied externally, and only three Caribbean countries (Guyana, Belize and Haiti) produce more than 50% of their own food. – Dr <PERSON> pic.twitter.com/Iqc4weYE8C\n— CDB (@Caribank) June 15, 2022\nThe tweet caught the attention of two regional journalists, <PERSON> and <PERSON>:\nThe definition of a looming storm that is now upon us in the #Caribbean https://t.co/C0N1LTtzXD\n— <PERSON> (@wgibbings) June 15, 2022\nDeeply upsetting. https://t.co/9UQvC4DlCi\n— Soyini (@Soyinification) June 15, 2022\nAs part of the CDB's 52nd Annual Meeting, held in the Turks and Caicos Islands from June 1-16, African Development Bank (AfDB) President <PERSON> noted that food security is integral to Caribbean development: “Food aid cannot feed Africa.", "941" ], [ "Food aid cannot feed the Caribbean. Africa and the Caribbean need seeds in the ground and mechanical harvesters to harvest bountiful food produced locally.”\n“Agriculture is not for poverty reduction. Agriculture is for wealth creation. Agriculture is about food and agribusiness.”\nAfrican Development Bank President @akin_adesina addressing private sector operatives on collaborating for capacity development. #CDBBOG52 pic.twitter.com/XtWoQolixs\n— African Development Bank Group (@AfDB_Group) June 14, 2022\nSeminars and other regional initiatives intended to attract people to the agriculture sector have thus far not made much of a dent in the region's external reliance on food; even countries that produce a decent proportion of their own food are facing challenges. Haiti's unstable sociopolitical situation and resulting economic challenges, for example, cause food security to remain a pressing concern, and in Guyana, some are choosing to skip meals in order to help cope with high food prices.\nInflation is also having a negative impact, with several Caribbean territories suffering monthly food price increases exceeding five percent since March 2021. The fact that many islands import food, both to supply the tourism industry that much of the region is reliant upon, as well as to meet local demand, means that international price increases are passed on. Healthy eating is, therefore, becoming more expensive, creating a vicious circle in terms of poverty, food access and health.\nAccording to the third round of the CARICOM COVID-19 Food Security and Livelihoods Impact Survey, a series done by the Caribbean Community in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), 71 percent of respondents complained that food prices were higher than usual. It is now estimated that there are as many as 2.7-2.8 million people — nearly 40 percent of the population — suffering from food insecurity in the English-speaking Caribbean, most of them from low-income households.\nThe surveys, which were conducted in April and June 2020, February 2021, and February 2022, began as an attempt to track the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security in the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean.", "803" ], [ "Global Voices quinceañera: When the Caribbean did the right thing · Global Voices\nIn this final installment of the series honouring Global Voices’ 15th birthday, we highlight the stories in which people spoke out on tough matters that have been plaguing the region, or stood on the right side of history.\nRethinking education\nBarbadian Prime Minister <PERSON> gives a speech at the 108th (Centenary) Session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 19, 2019. Photo by Crozet / Pouteau, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.\nIn June 2019, Barbados’ prime minister <PERSON>, who is proving herself to be one of the most forward-thinking in the region, announced that, in an effort to create more diverse and equitable educational opportunities for schoolchildren, her administration plans to get rid of the controversial Common Entrance exam.\nSecondary school entrance examinations in the Caribbean have been around for over a century, a colonial holdover from as early as 1879 in some territories. Though renamed and restructured several times, they have remained as what many experts deem an irrelevant, stress-inducing test that sucks the joy out of learning for 11-year-olds region-wide.\nUnder the current secondary entrance exam structure, only the top performing students — essentially, those who test well — win access to the best schools. Class often becomes a factor, since parents with good social connections often pull strings to get their children into schools of their choice. Prime Minister <PERSON>'s position is that Barbados must “create an educational system that makes every school a top school” — reform that includes moving away from a curriculum that is heavily slanted towards academics, to include more technical, vocational and arts training.\nIn other regional territories like Trinidad and Tobago, in addition to laments about the negative effects of such an exam, there have been calls for more inclusivity for special needs children, who tend to be inadequately supported by the public school system.\nIf Barbados succeeds in this endeavour, it would be history-making; other governments in other CARICOM nations have promised to abolish the exam before and failed.\nSpeaking out against corruption\nScreenshot taken from a YouTube video, showing an excerpt from “The Great Hack” related to Cambridge Analytica's alleged work during Trinidad and Tobago's 2010 general elections.\nCorruption is one of the root causes of many of the problems regional societies face — from inadequate social services to rising crime rates.", "941" ], [ "Realising this, people across the Caribbean have been speaking out — from Haiti's street protests against the continuing fallout from the PetroCaribe scandal to the arrest of a Trinidadian government official for money laundering, conspiracy to defraud, and misbehaviour in public office.\nIn fact, Trinidad and Tobago featured heavily in all the corruption stories we worked on this year. Public pressure was integral in forcing the government to drop proposed “undemocratic” amendments to the country's Freedom of Information Act and, after a union leader was charged with sedition, widespread debate ensued about freedom of speech, forcing the government to rethink the Sedition Act.\nAfter Netflix's documentary, “The Great Hack,” premiered in July 2019, discussion was rife over Cambridge Analytica's role in Trinidad and Tobago's 2010 elections, renewing concerns about the ease with which corruption and voter manipulation can go hand in hand.\nEven though the Cambridge Analytica scandal was widely reported on globally, the issue of how the company helped manipulate the electoral process in developing nations has been underreported, despite the majority of the company's elections-based clients having been from the Global South — but with Caribbean netizens speaking out about it, awareness of the dangers has now been raised in the region.\nHonouring First Peoples\nVisiting Surinamese Lokono people (Arawaks) at the reinterment ceremony of the First Peoples’ bones at the Red House in Port of Spain, Trinidad, October 19, 2019. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nThis year, the importance of the legacy of the region's Indigenous peoples came through very strongly. Jamaica, for instance, has been experiencing a resurgence of interest in Taino (or Arawak) history: For the first time in 500 years, Jamaica has its first Taino chief (cacique), who was installed in June 2019. A month earlier, the Institute of Jamaica celebrated Taino Day with talks and activities, including the launch of a new illustrated children's book.\nEven more significantly, the Jamaican government has been working — via the National Commission on Reparations — to have world-renowned wooden Taino artefacts returned to Jamaica from Britain.", "941" ], [ "2021 in review, from a Caribbean point of view · Global Voices\nCaribbean sunset image by <PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0, adapted with free Canva graphic elements.\nLike the rest of the globe, this year saw Caribbean nations focused on dealing with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, against a backdrop of rising infection rates, a steady stream of variants, and strong vaccine hesitancy—but while it was a primary concern, it was far from the only story that affected the region in 2021.\nCOVID-19\nCOVID-19 illustration by <PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.\nWhile 2020 will forever be known as the year COVID-19 made its global presence known, 2021 saw the vaccines designed to combat the virus being rolled out en masse. Prior to this, many Caribbean nations had closed their borders, with Trinidad and Tobago's staying closed for one of the most lengthy spells, even restricting its own citizens via a travel re-entry system that left many feeling demoralised and challenging whether the process was infringing upon their rights.\nCuriously, although the arrival of vaccines in the region was initially welcomed with hope and optimism, vaccine hesitancy would soon become quite pervasive. Attempts by various regional governments to make vaccination mandatory for some sectors resulted in street protests, including one in which the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, <PERSON>, was injured.\nDiscussions about vaccine equity were also common, as was vaccine misinformation—peddled by both regular social media users and by celebrities.\nIf there was a silver lining to the COVID-19 cloud, however, it regional creatives’ innovative response to the pandemic, evident in everything from fashion, art and literacy, to how they reimagined in-person festivals like Carnival—although St. Lucia has been the first regional territory to announce its intention to hold a “vaxxed” event come 2022.\nThe environment\nA solitary bee draws nectar from what is locally known as ‘rabbit grass,’ at the Carmel Valley Estate in Trinidad. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nApart from our extensive coverage of the eruption of St.", "941" ], [ "Vincent's La Soufrière volcano, environmental stories constituted an average of 25 per cent of our regional coverage this year, from a landmark ruling that could pave the way for environmental transparency in Trinidad and Tobago to displays of activism that helped save a century-old tree in Guyana.\nOf course, environmental activism wouldn't be necessary if there weren't various environmental threats, which came in the form of quarrying and bauxite mining activities, pollution of waterways, poaching of protected animal species, and potential damage to marine areas from the oil industry, the effects of climate change and overfishing.\nAs the first significant storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season arrived, concerns about the effects of the climate crisis on the region persisted, even as tourism developers appeared immune, despite opportunities for more sustainable approaches.\nBy the time the COP26 summit rolled around in the final quarter of 2021, the region was speaking out for its own survival, and questioning whether some regional territories were actually walking their environmental talk. At the conference, Caribbean representatives advocated for certain parameters when it came to issues of loss and damage, and of major polluters—many of which did not attend the conference—to (literally) pay for their transgressions, which adversely affect Small Island Developing States (SIDS). All this, despite the fact that Guyana, a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member, is poised to become a major supplier of fossil fuels.\nGender-based violence\nWomen at a protest at Woodford Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 2016. The protest came after then mayor of the city, <PERSON>, victim-blamed Japanese steel plan player <PERSON>, who was found murdered on February 10, 2016. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nThis year was certainly not the first that the issue of gender-based violence reared its head in the region. In fact, the issue has been such a recurring one that people were growing weary of its impact.\nTrinidad and Tobago, southernmost in the Caribbean archipelago, used this year's International Women's Day to speak out against gender-based violence, even as Jamaica, to the north of the island chain, struggled with both the physical abuse of women and a spate of femicides.\nJamaica also grappled with an increased murder rate, in general, leaving its citizens to debate whether or not states of emergency are effective in stemming violent crime, especially in a society where the relationship between “uptown” and “downtown” is so complex.", "941" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago deports Venezuelan women and children as matter of ‘national security’ · Global Voices\nA group of Venezuelan asylum-seekers including 16 children arrive for the second time on Trinidad soil, on November 24, 2020, due to a court order requiring them to appear at a habeas corpus hearing. Screenshot taken from a Trinidad and Tobago Newsday video of the landing, which was posted to the newspaper's YouTube channel.\nThe Trinidad and Tobago blogosphere has been in a heated discussion over the country's deportation of 16 Venezuelan minors and 11 adults — including nine women — who were reportedly sent away shortly before the group was supposed to have a habeas corpus hearing carded for 2 p.m. on November 22. It's a move that Minister of National Security <PERSON> has defended as part of his remit to protect the country.\nAfter concerns that the vessels carrying them back to Venezuela could not be located and Venezuela's self-declared interim president <PERSON> describing Trinidad and Tobago's actions as “cruel, painful and inhumane,” not only has the group been found, but a Trinidadian judge, Justice <PERSON>, has ordered that the state return them to Trinidad for their court hearing.\nThe asylum-seekers returned to Trinidad shores on November 24, where they were greeted by relatives who reside on the island:\nNo words. None. https://t.co/8TiIW2hGBq\n— <PERSON> (@wgibbings) November 24, 2020\nThe issue was first brought to public attention by attorney <PERSON>, who resigned as deputy political leader of the governing People's National Movement (PNM) mere weeks before Trinidad and Tobago's general election on August 10.\n<PERSON> says the group was initially arrested on November 17 in south Trinidad, which lies about 11 kilometres north of Venezuela. The South American country's continuing political and socioeconomic crisis has forced thousands of asylum-seekers into Trinidad and Tobago.\nIn this particular case, however, there were concerns for the well-being of the children especially, which prompted <PERSON> to send correspondence to the chief immigration officer asking for dialogue.", "957" ], [ "Although birth certificates and other relevant documentation were reportedly submitted to the country's immigration division, they were not accepted. Upon learning that deportation was imminent, <PERSON> succeeded in having the court hearing moved up, but to no avail. She has since suggested that the state's actions in this regard were in breach of its international obligations and wants an investigation to be launched into the matter.\n<PERSON>, Trinidad and Tobago's minister of national security, held a press conference on November 24, to address the situation and “send some very strong signals” regarding the nation's safety and the laws that have been put in place to ensure it.\nFraming his comments against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, <PERSON> noted that Trinidad and Tobago's borders are closed to both nationals and non-nationals, and have been since March 17, soon after the country recorded its index case of the virus. Anyone who wishes to enter the country while the border closure remains in effect must get clearance from the minister himself.\nGiven these parameters, <PERSON> continued, the Venezuelans in question were in breach of Trinidad and Tobago's immigration laws, health regulations, and government policy. <PERSON> insists, however, that members of the group who were deported all tested negative for COVID-19.\nStressing that the government “cannot be legitimately and justifiably accused” of dealing with non-national migration issues without a humanitarian pillar, <PERSON> reiterated:\nIt is not up to any one person — in a democracy, it doesn't operate like that. It's not up to lawyers, it's not up to courts, it's not up to anyone to just change the law according to how they feel. This government has always approached the issue of non-national migration with a balance that includes the humanitarian aspect.\nAt the beginning of 2019, however, even as Caribbean nations were attempting to engage in decisive international diplomacy regarding Venezuela’s political impasse, Trinidad and Tobago seemed reticent to label it a humanitarian crisis, opting instead to echo the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) diplomatic position of “non-interference and non-intervention.”\nBy June of that year, the Trinidad and Tobago government did make good on its promise to regularise Venezuelan asylum-seekers. Many of the conditions and privileges associated with this registration process have since been extended past the initial year-long limit, all of which <PERSON> cites as proof of his government's consideration of the humanitarian angle, though it remains unclear what is to happen once the extension is up.\nInternational agencies have not always agreed that the Trinidad and Tobago government has acted in humanitarian ways.", "892" ] ]

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[ [ "Raspberry Pi Pico LED Badge\nIntroduction: Raspberry Pi Pico LED Badge\nThis project involves soldering. If you have little or no experience with soldering, make sure you have someone you trust walking you through the project. Always be in a properly ventilated environment when soldering, as it may release toxic fumes into the air.\nSupplies\nWhat you'll need:\n- Raspberry Pi Pico\n- About 30 LEDs, any color\n- A piece of cardboard, it doesn't have to be pretty as we are just using it as a template\n- Power source, you can also just use the Micro USB cable and a battery pack\nTools you'll need:\n- Soldering Iron + Solder\n- Pencil\n- Micro USB cable\n- A computer for programming the Pico\n- (Prefered) A helping hands device for holding LEDs to solder\nStep 1: Trace the Rough Outline of the Pico\nPlace the Pico in the middle of the cardboard and trace.\nStep 2: Mark LED Positions\nMeasure out from the outline 1cm and make a mark, then extend the mark out all the way across the cardboard. Repeat that for all 4 sides. Then, on those lines you just made, starting from the corner where the lines intersect, make a mark every 1cm.\nStep 3: Poke Out Each of the Holes\nOn each of the intersects, use a pencil to poke a hole through the cardboard.\nStep 4: Place the LEDs\nThere are 2 legs on each LED, one of which is longer than the other. The long leg is + power, and the shorter one is - power. For our case, we want the long leg facing towards the center Pico outline. Put the Pico in the middle of the original outline (I used some double-sided tape to help keep it in place) and start placing the LEDs. Bend the long legs into the gold pins, in the position shown in the last photo.", "854" ], [ "Some of the LED legs may need to be lengthened to fit into place, see the next step for that. As you go, make sure none of the legs are touching each other, and have at least a moderate gap.\nStep 5: Lengthening LED Legs\nSome of the legs of the LEDs may need to be longer in order to make the gap. In this case, I used some leads from some old resistors and held the LED and extra lead length in a helping hands device, and soldered the gap between them. It may take a couple of tries to get this right.\nStep 6: Soldering It All Together\nOnce you have everything in place in your template, you can start soldering. I recommend soldering all of the ground leads together first, then soldering the positive leads (and main ground lead) to the board.\nStep 7: Programming the Board\nNow that you have the hardware mostly completed, we can move on to creating the software. The Pico has a variety of different ways to program it, but for this, we will be using MicroPython. To set that up, follow the guide from Raspberry Pi: https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/getti...\nFor our base code, we will be defining the pins we are using as well as a setLED() function.\nfrom machine import Pin, PWM\nfrom time import sleep\n# Pins that the LEDs are connected to, starting from top left and moving clockwise.\npins = [28, 1, 0, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 26, 27]\npinsObjects = []\nfor pin in pins:\npinsObjects.append(PWM(Pin(pin, Pin.OUT)))\nfor pin in pinsObjects:\npin.freq(1000)\ndef setLED(pos, brightness):\nbrightness %= 1\nbrightness = minZero(round(brightness * 65025))\npinsObjects[pos].duty_u16(brightness)\ndef minZero(num):\nif (num < 0):\nnum = 0\nreturn num\nStep 8: Making Patterns\nNow that we have our base code defined, we can make some different patterns for our badge. A simple one we can make is just a chase sequence. This is not even close to the limit on what you can make with this, and I challenge you to go beyond and make your own patterns and experiment.\ndef flipFlop(on, every):\nfor pin in range(len(pinsObjects)):\nif (pin % every == on):\n# Set LED to 5% brightness\nsetLED(pin, 0.", "991" ], [ "Library Book Reminder\nIntroduction: Library Book Reminder\nI was part of a Digital Making and Learning course at my university, and our final project aimed to solve real problems. Now I have pretty terrible object permanence and have a pricey habit of forgetting to turn my library books in on time.\nSo I aimed to solve that problem, by creating a library book reminder board, which I have been lovingly calling my Book Buddy.\nIn this instructable, I will walk you through step-by-step to help you create your very own Book Buddy!\nSupplies\nMaterials\n* A piece of a wooden plank, any size will do, just try to get a piece that is not too thick, since we will be cutting holes into it later.\n* two external buttons (These are the ones I used)\n* one LED light of whatever color you'd like (This is the one I used)\n* Adhesive whiteboard\n* Circuit playground (I used the classic version)\n* Alligator clips (These are the ones I used)\n* An easel (optional)\n* Whiteboard marker\n* A type of strong adhesive (I used J-B Weld)\nTools\n* a drill\n* small square-shaped file (Similar to ones found in these sets)\n* measuring tape\n* a pencil\n* a permanent marke\nStep 1: Step 1: Measuring the Board\nThe first thing you'll need to do is measure and mark the board to map out where the buttons, LED light, and whiteboard sticker are going to sit.\nI left about an inch of space between the edge of the board and the whiteboard and left a space at the top of the board for the light and buttons to sit. Then I put the buttons evenly spaced between the top of the whiteboard and the top of the wooden board, and I evenly spaced them out between the left and right edges of the board to the best of my ability.\nMake sure to mark these lightly with a pencil! Once everything is placed we will erase any marks that are still visible!\nStep 2: Step Two: Placing the Whiteboard\nOnce the plan has been mapped out on the wooden board, measure and cut out a piece of the adhesive whiteboard to match the space you drew on the board. Then simply remove the back layer of the whiteboard and lay the sticker on flat. I used an old hardcover book to flatten the whiteboard out and squeeze out any bubbles.\nStep 3: Step 3: Trace the External Buttons and LED Light\nGo back to the markings that you put on the board for the button and light placements. Take your pencil and lightly trace around the edges of each button and light.\nIt's ok if they aren't perfect! We will adjust these later when we actually cut them out, we just need a base to work from.\nStep 4: Step 4: Cut the Holes\nNow we can start cutting out the holes for our buttons and LED light.\nFor the LED light, just use a drill bit that is roughly the same size as the circle that you drew for the LED light. It's generally safer to err on the small side, as it is easier to make the hole bigger than to make it smaller.\nThe square buttons will take a bit more time.\nFirst, drill a hold in the center of the squares that are drawn on the board. Then take the square-shaped filer and start to shape the holes into squares.", "74" ], [ "I recommend checking the size of the holes frequently by placing the button on these holes to see if it will fit. Keep filing until the buttons can be inserted nicely into the slots.\nStep 5: Step 5: Securing the Buttons and Light\nIt is important that we secure the buttons on the board so they do not pop out the back when pressed.\nYou could add an adhesive around the edge of the button to secure it to the board. I personally used J-B Weld apoxy to secure mine. If you use J-B Weld, be sure to follow the instructions of the product carefully. You can also add glue to the LED light as well if it is not staying in the board.\nStep 6: Step 6: Getting Started on Coding\nNow we will begin coding for our Circuit Playground.\nFollow this link to the makecode website that we will be using.\nClick the \"New Project\" button to get started. You should be greeted with this screen. In the far left corner you will see the circuit playground, and to the right of that is the menu. This menu holds all of the functions that we will be using to code our project.\nStep 7: Step 7: Creating Variables and Assigning Pins\nFirst, we will need to create two separate variables.\nClick the pink Variable tab in the menu, and click \"Make a Variable.", "259" ], [ "Handheld Arduino LED Matrix Thermometer\nIntroduction: Handheld Arduino LED Matrix Thermometer\nMade for ART3681C - Interactive Electronic Art\nSupplies\nNeeded Supplies:\nMost of the supplies I used were in this ELEGOO Arduino starter kit: https://www.amzn.com/B01D8KOZF4\n* 1 - ELEGOO Arduino UNO R3 (included in kit)\n* 1 - DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor (included in kit)\n* 6 - Male-to-Male Jumper Wires (included in kit)\n* 1 - 9V Battery with Battery Clip (included in kit) or 1 - 5V Power Adapter (not included)\n* 1 - 8 x 8 WS2812B LED Matrix: https://www.amzn.com/B088BTSPYD\n* Thin Heat Shrink Tubing or Electrical Tape\n* Arduino IDE (used to add code to the Arduino) https://www.arduino.cc/en/software\nTo add code to the Arduino, you'll need a computer nearby, and the USB cable that came included with the kit.\nOptional Supplies:\nI had leftover chipboard, Bristol board, and tacky glue to make a screen for the LED Array, but it's not necessary to complete the project. If you want to make the screen I made, you'll need a 3.5\" x 3.5\" square of any kind of thicker-pressed paper(Bristol board or cardstock are some examples),a small amount of chipboard, and tacky glue to make a frame for the LED Matrix.\nStep 1: Prepare the Jumper Wires\nTo begin, grab six jumper wires. I recommend grabbing two red, two black, and two other separate colors, choosing four colors in total. After gathering the wires, you should notice that they have some rubber bits on both ends of them. We'll want to remove some of them by pressing the point of the jumper wire into the surface you're working on and holding onto the rubber part. They should come off rather easily, without ruining the wire. Do this on both ends to one red wire, one black wire, and one of the other colored wires. On the other three wires, you'll only want to remove one of the rubber ends, instead of both. We want to remove some of these so that we can connect everything together while also maintaining a lower profile on the finished product.\nStep 2: Start Connecting the DHT11 Sensor\nGrab the DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor from the Arduino Kit, the three wires that have both rubber ends removed, and some heat shrink/electrical tape. The sensor should look like a blue box with holes, connected to a tiny circuit board with three leads coming from the board. Hold the sensor so that the blue is facing you, and the leads are pointing down. In this orientation, the leads in order from left to right are Data, Power(5v), and Ground.", "769" ], [ "We'll want to connect a wire to each of the leads on the sensor. I recommend using red for Power, black for Ground, and whichever other color was chosen for Data.\nWith Heat Shrink:\n1. Add the thin-sized heat shrink to a end of jumper wire.\n2. Put one of the leads of the sensor in the heat shrink and make sure that the wire end and lead touch a decent bit.\n3. Warm the heat shrink so that it collapses around the wire end and lead, making a connection between the two.\n4. Repeat for the other two leads.\nWith Electrical Tape:\n1. Wrap a tiny bit of electrical tape around the end of a jumper wire.\n2. Put one of the leads of the sensor on the tape and make sure that the wire end and lead touch a decent bit.\n3. Press the tape around the lead and wire, making sure that the connection is solid.\n4. Repeat for the other two leads.\nOnce you have the wires connected firmly with the leads, take the other point of each wire and bend them 90 degrees. You might have to add heat shrink or tape to the other end, as the wires sit close together on the Arduino, and having them touch might cause shorting.\nStep 3: Start Connecting the LED Matrix\nGrab the LED Matrix, along with the other three wires, these being the ones where only one rubber end was removed. The LED Matrix has several wire coming from it, two sets of red/white/green wires, and one red/black pair of wires. We only care about one set of the red/white/green wires, specifically the one that's labeled Power/Ground/DIN(Data In).", "611" ], [ "A Color Sensing Glove That Sends the HEX Code to a Computer Program\nIntroduction: A Color Sensing Glove That Sends the HEX Code to a Computer Program\nWouldn't it be cool to see something on our desk or nearby, a color that we like, and add it directly to our projects on our computer? Now you can!\nYou can make this hand-worn wearable that uses a color sensor to detect colors from the environment around us. Then it lights up NeoPixels with the color we scanned, and writes the HEX code to an OLED on the glove.\nThis HEX can then be sent to our computer (with touch input) - directly into what we are working on to add the HEX code for us.\nSupplies\nThe supplies I've used for this project include:\n* Adafruit Flora board or Circuit Playground Classic\n* Flora sewable color sensor\n* 4x4 grid NeoPixels but any shape will work (I've linked to the circle x 16)\n* OLED screen 128 x 64\n* wires\n* soldering or conductive thread to sew the connections\n* you'll a small piece of conductive fabric to act as a touch input button to send the HEX value to your computer\n* Felt, neoprene, or material for the glove, or a recycled glove is even more eco!\nIn this case, I won't be using a battery if you want to enable the feature of transferring the HEX code to the computer, we will need a cable to connect to our computer so we will use that for power too.\nWearable Electronics items purchased from Tinker Tailor.\nStep 1: Draw Out Your Connections\nSometimes it can be easier to follow your connections if you map them out your project. I usually start by adding all the components I need and then drawing my mappings.\nFor this circuit, we will connect:\nThe color sensor\n* Ground - Ground on Flora\n* Power - Power on Flora\n* SDA - SDA on Flora\n* SCL - SCL on Flora\nThe OLED\n* Ground - Ground on Flora\n* Power - Power on Flora\n* SDA - SDA on Flora\n* SCL - SCL on Flora\nNeoPixels\n* Ground - Ground on Flora\n* Power - Power on Flora\n* DO - to pin 10 on Flora\nConductive fabric as touch input\n* Fabric sewn or wire connected to pin 9 on Flora, pin 12 Circuit Playground\nStep 2: Check Each Component and Connection\nTo do this step by step we should add the color sensor first.", "769" ], [ "Then we can check it's working. We will do this for all of our parts, the color sensor, the NeoPixels, and the OLED.\nAfter you hook up the color sensor using I2C and the connections in the previous step, we will upload the code to our board.\nFirst, we need to add a library.\nStep 3: Adding a Color Sensor\nLet’s open the Arduino IDE and install a library to use this sensor.\nOpen the Library Manager, and search for Adafruit TCS34625.\nThe color sensing library didn’t appear when I searched - I tried searching for color sensor, which worked. Click o click Install, and Install all.\nThis library is for a slightly different color sensor so I modified the sample file slightly.\n#include <Wire.h> //include Wire.h to be able to communicate through I2C on Arduino board\n#include \"Adafruit_TCS34725.h\" //Colour sensor library\n//Create colour sensor object declaration, to see effects of different integration time and gain\n//settings, check the datatsheet of the Adafruit TCS34725.\nAdafruit_TCS34725 tcs = Adafruit_TCS34725(TCS34725_INTEGRATIONTIME_50MS, TCS34725_GAIN_4X);\nvoid setup() {\nSerial.begin(9600);\nSerial.println(\"Color View Test!\");\n//Start-up colour sensor\nif (tcs.begin()) {\nSerial.println(\"Found sensor\");\n} else {\nSerial.println(\"No TCS34725 found ... check your connections\");\nwhile (1); // halt!\n}\n}\nvoid loop() {\nuint16_t clear, red, green, blue;\n//Collect raw data from integrated circuit using interrupts\ntcs.setInterrupt(false); // turn on LED\ndelay(60); // takes 50ms to read\ntcs.getRawData(&red, &green, &blue, &clear);\ntcs.", "158" ], [ "Motion Activated Fish Feeder\nIntroduction: Motion Activated Fish Feeder\nDo you ever forget to feed your fish? Are you constantly rushing out the door, leaving your fishies starving for the whole day? No need to worry anymore! In this project, I make feeding them hassle-free, and works even better with pellets.\nI use a proximity sensor to rotate the food cartridges inside the feeder. In addition, a button and LED light is installed when the last rotation is made, so you can refill it with food. Once the button is pressed, the program will automatically reset and the light will turn off. This feeder easily sits above a tank with an optional fin to rest alongside the tank. This simple, durable, and customizable feeder will surely make feeding your fish a breeze, and is open to more advanced modifications to whatever you desire.\nSupplies\nCircuit Supplies\n* Arduino RP2040 Connect\n* 180 Servo Motor with pin connector\n* Button\n* 4 alligator/pin cables\n* Led bulb\n* Resistor\n* ADPDS9960 Proxy sensor\n* Stemma QT cable\n* 3 pin/pin cables\n* USB-C charging/data cable\n* Circuit breadboard\nSupplies\n* Fish Feeder 3D STL file\n* Laser Cut box 100mm x 100mm x 32mm with rectangle hole on top\n* Drill\n* 4 command strips\n* Loctite 414 glue\n* Electrical tape\n* Scissors\nStep 1: Files for Download\nHere are the 3D print files and the code to run the feeder. It is written in CircuitPython, and the model is printed with a Prusa i3.\n1. Run MuEditor and download final_project.py file. Plug in Arduino board to computer and save as code.py to the CircuitPy.\n2. The FishFeeder file is a design built from scratch using TinkerCad.\nStep 2: Circuit Assembly\n1. Plug in the cables to the appropriate boards as described in the code file, and connect the pins to the right power and ground locations.\n2. Run the code to see if circuit runs correctly before moving on to the physical assembly.\nStep 3: Motor Assembly\n1. To begin the assembly process, the motor blade should be glued in the center of the fan piece using the Loctite glue and reinforced with electrical tape to make sure the blade stays in place.\n2. Next, Attach the motor the blades pointing out, and the motor perpendicular to the blade since the servo only rotates 180 degrees.\n3.", "33" ], [ "Finally, cut a piece of the command strip and remove one side to place on the top of the motor.\nStep 4: Box Assembly\n1. Laser cut the box dimensions listed in the supplies section and glue only 3 of the sides in with the cutout rectangle on top as pictured. If the base does not fit in the box, feel free to sand down the sides to allow a nice tight fit.\n2. Attach the other side of the command strip to the top plate so the motor piece sits in the center. Drill a hole on the side to allow the wires to pass thru easily.\n3. Glue the back/sides of the base inside the box, making sure that the motor piece sits on the bottom of the base.\nStep 5: Final Assembly\n1. Attach the remaining two command strips to the back of the breadboard. Paste the board to your desired location. I attached mine to the back of the box.\n2. Tape down the proxy sensor, LED bulb, and button with electrical or duct tape. Ensure that all the wiring connections are taped down.\n3. Tape any loose wires together with electrical tape to keep the organized, or hook behind breadboard to avoid dangling wires.\nThat's it! Now your motion activated fish feeder is ready to go. All you have to do is plug in the board using the USB-C cable to a power outlet or a rechargeable battery and feeding your fish has never been easier.\nStep 6: Feeder in Action!\nHere is a video of the fish feeder being tested.", "259" ], [ "Paper Cone + Color LED Clock\nIntroduction: Paper Cone + Color LED Clock\nMy granddad was an electrical engineer and he always made amazing projects. He also made clocks from time to time (no pun intended), and I've always wanted to make one myself. After countless ideas that never made it past a sketch, I finally made one!\nIt's simple to build, easy to look at and a bit unusual. Use your phone to choose the colors, brightness and dimming time, without having to take the clock off your wall! It adjusts automatically to your time zone's summer/winter period.\nThe build is very simple:\n* a few soldering connections\n* loading the program onto the controller (NodeMCU) with Arduino\n* 3D printing the frame with quick / coarse settings\n* making the paper cone and disc with a circular cutter\nPower for the LEDs and the board is supplied through a USB charger with micro-USB connector.\nUsing a NodeMCU with Arduino reduces the circuit to the bare physical minimum: the LED strip, one resistor and one capacitor, and a few short wires. Notably it does not use a \"Real time clock\" (an extra chip and battery to keep time) - instead, it pulls the time from the internet every couple of hours and uses the onboard clock in between. All settings like color and scheduled dimming are handled by using the WiFi capability of this board: it serves a WiFi access point that a mobile device can connect to and send the settings. This data is stored persistently, so even if the power is cut off, it will remember your chosen settings.\nSupplies\n(Please note, below are affiliate links - I earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no cost to you).\nElectronics\nNodeMCU (Amazon)\nRGB LED strip WS2812B 100 LED / m (Amazon)\nResistor 330 Ohm\nCapacitor 100 uF\nUSB charger (Amazon) / white micro USB cable (Amazon)\nFrame and Dial\nBasic 3D Printer (at least 120x120 mm build area) (Amazon)\n50 g white PLA (Amazon)\nSolvent-based glue (Amazon)\nThick white paper (200+ gm/m2) (Amazon)\nCircle cutter (Amazon) [must-have for clean result!]\nCutting mat (Amazon)\nStep 1: Printing the Frame\nThe LED strip is 60 cm long (60 LED at 100 LED / m), which determines the basic diameter for the frame: 60 cm / 3.141 = 19.09 cm. Unfortunately that is too big for my small 3D printer so I split the frame into multiple segments that will be clipped together.\nThe frame consists of\n* 4x identical quarter circles\n* 2x connecting clips (side)\n* 1x connecting clip (top)\n* 1x connecting clip (bottom)\nYou can print them all at once if your printer is big enough, or print them one after the other.\nThe frame will be practically invisible, so don't worry about achieving perfect print quality. Just try to make sure that there is no steps at the joints, or otherwise the paper cover would warp unsightly when attached.\nI designed the parts in Onshape.", "769" ], [ "If you want to modify the design (different LED strips, different boards etc.) then you can clone it directly from this link.\nStep 2: Assembling the Electronics\nCount 60 LEDs on the strip and make a cut before and after. The strip has a direction: the signal from the NodeMCU can only travel in one direction along the strip. Be sure to cut leave the copper pads on so you can solder the wires to them.\nOn the end of the strip cut off the copper pads. That way you can wrap the strip around the frame and there is still a small gap to feed the wires through.\nMake the following connections\n* Red wire between VIN on the NodeMCU and VIN on the LED strip\n* Black wire between GND on NodeMCU and GND on the LED strip\n* Place the capacitor between the VIN and GND on the NodeMCU\nPull the wires through the hole in the frame and solder the connections directly to the pins of the NodeMCU.\nPlace the NodeMCU into its holder.\nRemove the double sided tape backing and wrap the LED strip around the frame.\nStep 3: The Code\nBriefly\n1. Download the code from Instructables or from my github.\n2. Open it with Arduino.\n3. Choose your board (mine is a \"NodeMCU 0.9\").\n4. Go to Tools > Library Manager and add the libraries\n1. ESP_EEPROM by <PERSON>2. FastLED by <PERSON>\n3.", "611" ], [ "Pulse Oximeter and Heart Rate Monitor\nIntroduction: Pulse Oximeter and Heart Rate Monitor\nArduinos are incredibly useful tools for all sorts of projects. Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, having easy, fast, cheap, and reliable access to health information is more important than ever. While an Arduino might not be the tool of choice for proper medical applications, we can draw inspiration from medical devices to create fun and interesting projects, which is the goal of this tutorial. In the following steps, you'll learn how to make your own pulse oximeter, which measures blood oxygen levels, and heart rate monitor. These values will be shown on a screen, and your blood oxygen level will also be shown off with visual cues to help determine if it's in an acceptable range. This project is relatively simple but is still a fun way to learn more about the uses of Arduino components.\nStep 1: Quick Disclaimer\nIt should be stated that this device is not reliable or accurate enough to be used as a medical diagnosis or reference, and should not be used in that way. It is simply a fun project to show off the capabilities of an Arduino and a few other parts.\nStep 2: Gather Supplies\nBelow is a list of things you'll need for the project, along with a link to buy the item.\nArduino Nano (1)\nBreadboard (1)\nMAX30102 Sensor (1)\nI2C OLED Screen (1)\n2 LEDs (one red and one green, or whichever colors you prefer)\n100 ohm resistors (2)\nJumper wires (11)\nArduino IDE Software\nStep 3: Assemble the Components\nFollowing the breadboard diagram, wire up the components as shown. The Arduino Nano is the large blue block on the upper left, the OLED screen is the black block on the far left, and the MAX30102 sensor is the red block on the bottom. In our wiring and code, the LEDs are connected to Digital Pins 2 and 7 on the Arduino, however you can change this to whichever pins you prefer. If you do, make sure you also alter the code to match! Also make sure you use the 3.3V output from the Arduino and not the 5V, as accidentally using the 5V could damage the screen or MAX30102 sensor. Do your best to color code the wires, such as using red jumper wires for power connections and black wires for ground connections.", "939" ], [ "This will help to keep the circuit neat and easy to understand.\nWhen assembling, there are a few key things to keep in mind. First, do not power the Arduino until the wiring is completed and double-checked, and do not leave the Arduino powered while fixing connections on the breadboard. Also, ensure that the LEDs are in the proper orientation: the longer leg (anode) of the LED is the positive side and should be connected to the Arduino pins and resistor, while the shorter side (cathode) should be connected to ground.\nStep 4: Upload the Code\nThe code required for this to work is provided below. In order to use this code, you'll need the Arduino IDE downloaded on your computer, as well as the relevant libraries required for the components. For an explanation of Arduino libraries, follow this link. The libraries needed for this project are the 'Sparkfun MAX3010x' library, the 'Adafruit SSD1306' library, and the 'SSD1306Ascii' library. You can download these from within the Arduino IDE by selecting 'Tools' in the top right, then selecting 'Manage Libraries...', which will bring you to the library manager. From there, use the search bar to search for the necessary libraries and download the latest versions of each.\nAlthough the code will work without any additional input or changes, it's a good idea to go through the code and read the comments to get an understanding of what the code is actually doing and how it all works. The code is thoroughly commented on, so it should be easy to get an idea of what's happening.\nThe majority of this code comes from an open-source project from the Arduino Project Hub, found here. Changes were made to accommodate the hardware specific to this project, as well as integrating the LED status indicators.\nOnce you've downloaded the required libraries and read through the code, connect your Arduino to your computer and upload the sketch. For help with this, see this article.\nStep 5: Use It!\nNow that the parts are assembled and the sketch is uploaded to the Arduino, the pulse oximeter is ready to be used! Simply place the tip of your finger over the pulse oximeter sensor (it shines with a red light, you can use this as a guide for where to place your finger) and wait for your heart rate and SP02 to show on the screen!", "991" ], [ "Color Mixing Lamp Arduino Project Instructable\nIntroduction: Color Mixing Lamp Arduino Project Instructable\nThis is the Color Mixing Lamp from the Arduino Projects Book (Project 4). The project will sense the light conditions around the phototransistor and create different color lights.\nSupplies\nYou will need the Beginner Arduino Starter Kit, either Windows, Mac OS, or Linux on a device to download the Arduino Software.\nStep 1: Download the Arduino Software\n* Go to https://www.arduino.cc/en/software and download the software applicable to your device.\n* Once you have downloaded the right software follow the instructions in the Project Book included in the Arduino Starter Kit on pages 15-17\nStep 2: Gather All the Components\nAll materials are in the Arduino Starter Kit. The components you will need are,\n* 3 220 OHM resistor (blue)\n* 3 10 KILOHM resistor (tan with brown, black, orange, gold)\n* 3 phototransistor\n* Different color gel strips. (small translucent colored strips)\n* LED with 4 legs\n* 3 grey or blue or green wires (they are all in the same packet);\n* 3 yellow or blue or green wires (they are all in the same packet);\n* 1 white wire\n* 3 orange wires;\n* 1 red wire.\nStep 3: Build the Circuit\nFirst, you want to make sure your Arduino is set up, use pages 12-13 to build the Arduino board.\nNext, you want to assemble the circuit on the board using the picture above or page 54 in the book as a guide.\nBuilding the circuit requires a lot of attention. Here are some pointers so that you don't get lost:\n- The red wire connects power from one side to the other so there is power on both sides.\n- It doesn't matter which number you connect your wire to as long as you also change the number when coding.\n- The 220 OHM resistors are all positioned after the wires.\n- The leg wire that connects the LED to the ground is the longest one (it is the negative end).\n- The 10 KILOHM resistors are all positioned before the wires.\n- The longest leg on the photoresistors is positively charged, so it needs to be connected to power, and the shortest one is negatively charged, so it needs to be connected to ground.\nNote: If in doubt ask the teacher.\nStep 4: Type the Code\nAfter you build the circuit you need to type up the code. Start by creating a new Arduino file. Then you want to copy down the code in the steps below. Each step has an explanation of that given section of code.\nStep 5: Coding Part 1\nThis part of the code creates new constant integers to use in the rest of the code.", "769" ], [ "The \"const int' is to enter the data, the \"()LEDPin\" is the name of the variable, and the \"(number)\" is to show which pin it is connected to.\nStep 6: Coding Part 2\nThis shows the value that each LED has, which in this case, it is equal to 0.\nStep 7: Coding Part 3\nIn \"void setup()\", the serial monitor will start to record the data at 9600 bps.\nThe mode of the LED pins was classified as OUTPUT.\nStep 8: Coding Part 4\nIn \"void loop()\", we read the value the sensors are transmitting and put a small delay between them.\nStep 9: Coding Part 5\nAfter that, we set the serial monitor to print the values the sensors are transmitting, and add them in a sentence using the \"\\t\" as the space in which the value will show. (note: don't forget the \"ln\" after the last line!)\nStep 10: Coding Part 6\nHere we set the values the LED will transmit. The amount of red, green, and blue will change as you adjust the numbers.\nStep 11: Coding Part 7\nThis part shows how we are setting the serial monitor to print the value we set for the variables in the last step. (note: don't forget the \"ln\" after the last line again!)\nStep 12: Coding Part 8\nThe \"analogWrite\" commands the LED to output the values by emitting light.\nStep 13: Plug It in and See If It Works\nThe first thing you need to do is to check if it works is to verify the code. You can do this by clicking the check button as shown in the first image. There may be many things wrong with your code. That is normal. You are most likely going to mess up. The only thing you can do is to check over everything to make sure you copied the code correctly.", "991" ] ]

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[ [ "Like the US, Trinidad & Tobago Won’t Be at the 2018 World Cup, But They’re the Only Ones Smiling About It · Global Voices\nThe World Cup 2010 <PERSON>. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY-SA 2.0.\nOn the night of October 10, 2017, a sprinkling of football enthusiasts went to the Ato Boldon Stadium in central Trinidad to see a World Cup qualifier match between Trinidad and Tobago and the USA. The small Caribbean nation had absolutely no chance of going to Russia in 2018, but the United States did — if they managed a draw with Trinidad and Tobago's team.\nOne of the reasons football is the world's favourite sport is that, at its best, it's an unpredictable game. With just one goal, things can turn on a dime. So while the result of this particular match might have been dismissed as a foregone conclusion, what happened on the field was anything but. The match resulted in Trinidad and Tobago walking away with a 2-1 victory and the USA being driven off their #RoadToRussia.\nThanks to an unfortunate own goal by US defender <PERSON>, coupled with a brilliant strike from Trinidad and Tobago's <PERSON>, the twin island republic secured all three points in the round, leaving the USA team — and fans — shell-shocked.\nPopular sports website Wired868 described it this way:\nWhat came next was a right-footed screamer that arrowed into the far corner. It seemed to belong in an entirely different match and it certainly illuminated a contest that had, up to that point, been low-tempo and scrappy.\n<PERSON>’s eyes opened as wide as saucers, the Trinidad and Tobago bench was in uproar and, all over CONCACAF, word of <PERSON> (<PERSON>) spread like wildfire; the United States were in trouble at 0-2 down.\nA November to remember\nWith the USA down, the spirits of Trinbagonian supporters were up, mostly because of a date that will be forever burned into their memory: November 19, 1989. This is when Trinidad and Tobago's national team, then affectionately known as The Strike Squad, had the World Cup within their sights for the first time ever. Had they simply drawn with the US in that all-important match, the team would have been the first from an English-speaking Caribbean nation to qualify. Trinidad and Tobago lost that match 1-0 and the nation was devastated.", "910" ], [ "Curiously, the 30,000+ spectators were later given the FIFA Fair Play Award for their good behaviour when faced with such disappointment and overcrowding, which was little consolation.\nNine years later, in France, Jamaica's Reggae Boyz would become the first to represent the English-speaking Caribbean on the World Cup stage. Even though Trinidad and Tobago's World Cup dreams eventually came true when the twin island nation qualified for Germany 2006, the memory of that 1989 qualifier against the USA is still a sore point.\nIn that context, it is understandable how October 10, 2017 might be interpreted as a comeuppance. Like Trinidad and Tobago back in 1989, the US only needed a draw to be assured a spot. Twenty-eight years later, it was their turn to feel the sting of defeat. It is the first time since 1986 that the US will not be participating in the World Cup.\nBring on the schadenfreude\nThe site TTWhistleBlower could not resist gloating, despite the Soca Warriors’ (as the national team is now called) underwhelming performance throughout the qualifying matches. It also noted the poetic justice of the goal that assured Trinidad and Tobago's victory:\nFor Trinidad and Tobago, it was a happy ending to an otherwise disappointing tournament where they ended last on the six-team table. The Warriors won just two matches out of 10. […]\nIt was 2-1 in the 36th minute when <PERSON> smashed a swerving shot from the right flank past <PERSON>. <PERSON>’s father <PERSON> was a member of the national team which failed to qualify in 1989.\nDisgraced former FIFA vice president, <PERSON>, who hails from Trinidad and Tobago, was also quite happy to rub salt in the wound.\nWhile some social media users were critical of all the rejoicing, <PERSON> tried to explain the enjoyment surrounding Trinidad and Tobago's victory:\n[The] argument is that we didn't qualify so what's the big deal. […] Of course that's the larger context, and we're in far worse a state than the US team. I don't think amusement at us eliminating the US (and the reactions to it) and recognising the depressing state of our local football (and much else on the home front) are mutually exclusive.", "910" ], [ "Men’s Relay Team Gives Trinidad & Tobago an Early Independence Day Gift With Historic IAAF Win · Global Voices\nScreenshot from a NAAA TT video of the Trinidad and Tobago 4 x 400 relay team about to receive their gold medals at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London, England, on August 13, 2017.\nThe 2017 IAAF World Championships, which ended on August 13, 2017 in London, England, left Caribbean netizens brokenhearted that <PERSON>, widely acknowledged as the Greatest of All Time (GOAT), ended his international track and field career with a bronze medal in his signature event, the 100-metre dash.\nJust as gut wrenching was the fact that the Jamaican track team failed to place in the 4 x 100-metre final, as <PERSON> pulled up during the last leg, unable to carry on due to injury. But the region's spirit was lifted when, seemingly out of nowhere, Trinidad and Tobago clinched the gold in the last event, the 4 x 400 relay.\nThe win didn't actually come out of nowhere, of course, no matter how surprised the commentators may have been. The team copped silver two years ago at the World Championships, and clearly had first place in their sights this time around. Facebook user and sports enthusiast <PERSON> noted what a significant achievement the team's win was for the country:\nCONGRATS to all of Team TTO's male quartet of <PERSON>, <PERSON>, <PERSON> and <PERSON> who has just created HISTORY by winning the men's 4X400m at the World Championships being held in London in a New National Record and World Leading time of 2:58.12. Way to go GENTLEMEN.\nThe win marked the first ever gold medal for Trinidad and Tobago in the 4 x 400 event — the team dedicated their victory to the country, especially in light of the twin island republic's upcoming 55th anniversary of independence from Great Britain, which will be marked on August 31, 2017:\nFacebook user <PERSON> was thrilled with their performance. She posted an image of the leaderboard, noting that the Trinidad and Tobago team won in a world leading time:\nFacebook user <PERSON>'s status update, which says, “Well yes! World leading time too! Every single man ran like a beast for this medal!!!” Used with permission.\nIn a later status update, her heart was full after noticing the display of regional solidarity from the athletes — unity that continued online:\nFacebook user <PERSON> status update which reads, “Oh my God.", "910" ], [ "Watching the Jamaicans celebrate with our gold medal team! Priceless.” Used with permission.\nThe joy was infectious. As <PERSON> observed during her afternoon workout up Lady Chancellor Hill:\nEverybody on Chancellor like they going for gold this evening #sweetTandT #worldchampions #dohdragdeflag ??\n— <PERSON> (@tillahwillah) August 13, 2017\nOn CNC3 Television, Trinidad and Tobago's Facebook page, user <PERSON> was happy for something other than crime stories to dominate her newsfeed:\nCongratulations! You've made us proud. Thanks for shining some light in the darkness that has been plaguing our country. ??\nOther social media users praised the team's determination and hoped that the athletes would be aptly rewarded for their efforts — far more than the typical pronouncement of a national holiday.\nIt is common knowledge that the members of the national athletics team have had no government assistance for about three years. While the National Association of Athletics Administrations of Trinidad and Tobago (NAAATT) does attract some corporate sponsorship, the majority of these funds is put towards operating the association; athletes competing at world-class level often do so largely on their own steam.\nIn a public Facebook post, <PERSON> made a point of posting a photo of Tobago-born <PERSON>, perhaps the most accomplished 400-metre runner to hail from the country, receiving his gold medal. <PERSON> ran the heats and was therefore an indispensable part of the team:\nTo one and all, please let's don't forget <PERSON>, and the part that he played in helping Team TTO getting into the finals of the men's 4X4… Congratulations to all 5 gentlemen on a job well done…… Photo:- Team Manager <PERSON> presenting <PERSON> with his gold medal.\nTrinidad and Tobago Team Manager <PERSON> presenting <PERSON> with his gold medal. Photo shared in a public Facebook post by <PERSON>.", "641" ], [ "COVID-19 causes Trinidad and Tobago to cancel its Carnival for 2021 · Global Voices\n“Carnival Tuesday meggie”: Carnival lover <PERSON> gives a “meggie” – a hand gesture that brings the thumb and four fingers together in a sign of derision, scorn or rejection. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.\nIt may have been anticipated, but now it's official: thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Trinidad and Tobago's 2021 Carnival celebrations have been cancelled.\nPrime Minister <PERSON> made the announcement on the afternoon of September 28, calling the national festival “the perfect environment for the spreading of the virus.” Despite the inevitable economic blow the decision will have, he said, he's not prepared to take the risk.\nReaction, predictably, was split. While most people applauded the decision, calling it both “expected” and “solid”, others wondered about the fate of those whose income depends on the national festival. When one Facebook user called the decision “insane”, <PERSON> retorted:\nNO! it's realistic and logical is what it is. Everyone else has already gone ahead and cancelled theirs. I do not possibly see how any “right thinking” citizen of T&T could possibly think to put the country under further threat from Covid-19.\nTrinidad and Tobago Carnival 2020 was already over by the time the country recorded its first case of COVID-19 in March.\nOther countries that host annual Carnivals, including Brazil, have already postponed their 2021 events, but it is only the third time in history that Trinidad and Tobago has put theirs on hold—a history that Trinidadian author <PERSON> chronicled in his book “Parade of the Carnivals of Trinidad, 1839-1989″.\nIn the chapter etitled “Carnival in a World of War,” <PERSON> noted that the festival continued as usual during World War I, which was fought largely in Europe. After the war ended, the 1919 celebrations were known as “Victory Carnival”.", "1019" ], [ "During World War II, the festival did not take place at all between 1942 and 1945, although “spontaneous” celebrations happened on May 8 and 9, 1945 in honour of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, and on Aug 15 and 16, 1945 for Victory over Japan (VJ) Day.\nThe country's street festival was postponed from February 1972 to May 1973 because of the threat of the polio virus, so it is not as if the move to put off next year's Carnival celebrations is unprecedented. In fact, many netizens saw it coming, but hoped that a virtual celebration might take its place.\nIn a Facebook status update on June 24, <PERSON> predicted that “promoters are going to have to Zoom in fete-goers to the music and the vibe from concert halls in ‘foreign’ [abroad]!” Virtual Carnivals are something that costume designers like <PERSON> have already been experimenting with—the band she and her husband created for Notting Hill Carnival 2020 was showcased online.\nTrinidad and Tobago's Carnival stakeholders have also expressed excitement about the opportunity to share their creativity in the virtual realm. Facebook user <PERSON> suggested:\nWe keep forgetting that there are elements of carnival that are outside the realm of the street parade. We should adapt and showcase our calypso, pan, extempo and dimanche gras much like how sporting events are still being carried out.\nBoth calypso music and the steelpan instrument originated in Trinidad and Tobago. Extempo refers to an extemporaneous form of calypso, and Dimanche Gras, literally translated as “Big Sunday,” is a grand show at which coveted titles like the Calypso Monarch are decided.\n<PERSON> of Trini Good Media, which produces the “Talk ‘Bout Us” podcast, crowdsourced opinions on what a virtual Carnival might look like. Most commenters felt that simply delaying the celebrations would be best, with <PERSON> suggesting that it may be an opportune time “to re-focus to community Carnivals and limit the size of large bands.”\n<PERSON> added:\nAside from the issue of a vaccine being made available globally, it’s difficult to envision any Carnival 2021 at all, due to the commercialization of the festival, and the limitations of two major sources of revenue: Government expenditure will be prioritized elsewhere, and corporate entities will slash sponsorship budgets.\nHaving a 2021 Carnival may jeopardize the planning cycle for one in 2022. It will be almost impossible to execute, as Carnival mas [costume] production is essentially a 12 month cycle.", "264" ], [ "Better Late Than Never? Trinidad & Tobago Wins 2008 Olympic Gold After Jamaican Athlete Found Guilty of Doping · Global Voices\nTrinidad and Tobago's 4x100m relay team after their race at the 2012 London Olympics. Photo by Citizen59, CC BY-SA 2.0.\nTrinidad and Tobago's track and field relay team will soon have another gold medal — nearly nine years after they ran the race.\nThe stunning news that <PERSON> — part of the four-man relay team that powered through to win gold in the 4x100m event at the in Beijing 2008 Olympics — tested positive for a banned substance, will result in Jamaica being stripped of its top spot, and second-place finisher Trinidad and Tobago being awarded the gold instead. In dominoes style, Japan will now be given the silver medal in that event and Brazil will take the bronze.\nSatirical sports and politics website Wired868 took up the baton early on, saying:\nIt started off as a sprint but ended up as a marathon. On 22 August 2008, eight nations and 32 athletes contested the men’s 4×100 metre final in Beijing, China.\nAnd, on 25 January 2017, Mr Live Wire can now reveal the impending result.\nThe winner, with an amazing time of eight years, six months, three days and 38.06 seconds… Trinidad and Tobago! Bawh!\nOn Facebook, the Late O'Clock news chimed in with a clever caption:\nMeme posted by satirical site The Late O'Clock News; widely shared on Facebook.\nAt first, even after the International Olympic Committee‘s (IOC) doping findings were announced, the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) remained conservative about what they could mean:\nThe Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) has not at this time received any official communication from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in respect of the Trinidad and Tobago Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Men’s 4 x 100m Relay Team.\nIt is therefore premature of the TTOC to speculate on any upgrading of the Trinidad and Tobago Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Men’s 4 x 100m Relay Team medals from Silver to Gold.", "910" ], [ "The IOC has its protocols and procedures in respect of medal upgrades. […]\nIt is always a disappointing and an unfortunate situation when an athlete from any country is embroiled in such a situation and, more so a Caribbean athlete.\nThe IOC soon released the full decision on its website, which made it clear that “the Jamaican team is disqualified; […] the corresponding medals, medallist pins and diplomas are withdrawn and shall be returned; [and] the IAAF [International Association of Athletics Federations] is requested to modify the results of the above-mentioned event accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence”.\nAfter that, Trinidad's <PERSON> publicly spoke about the issue on behalf of his teammates:\nA few months ago we got the news that we may be upgraded, and this morning we woke up to messages confirming that we are now, in fact Olympic Gold medalists. Every athlete works hard to cross the line first, every athlete strives to stand at the top of the podium and hear their anthem play and we all want to come back home to the fanfare but unfortunately, this is not our fairytale story.\nHowever, […] we still hold our Jamaican brothers in high regard and cannot/will not judge your unfortunate circumstances for we do not know the intricate details of what transpired.\n<PERSON> also took the opportunity to call out broken promises made to the team after a similar situation happened after the 2012 London Olympics, when their medals were upgraded to silver:\nThere was a function held for us by the president, […] then there was a follow up convo that we had with [sports] Minister <PERSON> regarding retroactive financial compensation.\nWe were promised in July that something would be done to assure that we were rewarded for our efforts and representing T&T with integrity. There were media releases and pictures taken… and then nothing! […]\nTo make matters worse, in trying to prepare for the Rio Olympics, we endured an immense struggle to receive elite funding, which was intended to assist us with our Olympic preparation. To this date, I still have not received funding despite several attempts to coordinate with the minister, his assistant and the ministry officials.\nI mention many of the things above—not to sound bitter or ungrateful for some of the luxuries afforded to us in the past—but to illustrate to the people, the obstacles that we face in order to perform against the best in the world.", "355" ], [ "Former Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister <PERSON> Dies, Days After Being Diagnosed with Leukemia · Global Voices\n<PERSON> thanking his constituents post-2010 election, which he and his party lost. Photo by <PERSON>, used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.\nOn July 2, 2016, Trinidad and Tobago netizens woke up to the news that <PERSON>, who served three terms as prime minister of the twin island republic, had died from acute myeloid leukemia. His wife had publicly shared his diagnosis just the day before, asking people to pray for him as he began cancer treatment. No-one expected <PERSON> to pass away so quickly; his family made the announcement on his official Facebook page:\nAt 8:15AM today, Former Prime Minister <PERSON> passed away peacefully at the San Fernando General Hospital after battling Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Former Prime Minister <PERSON> was surrounded by his family and loved ones.\nThe <PERSON> family would like to thank everyone for their prayers, love and support during this trying time.\nFuneral arrangements will be announced in due course.\nIn the blogosphere and on social and mainstream media, tributes to <PERSON> soon began.", "357" ], [ "The popular politics and sports website, Wired868, republished a statement by <PERSON>, a minister of parliament and the public relations officer for the People’s National Movement, the party which <PERSON> led (and which is currently in government):\nOn behalf of the members […] and […] the Executive of the PNM, I take the opportunity to express our sincerest and heartfelt condolences to Ms <PERSON>, her sons and Mr <PERSON>’s wider family.\nMr <PERSON> served Trinidad and Tobago for decades as a leader with great vision and his passing is a loss to the Nation and to his party, the PNM.\nWe join in prayer for his soul and his family and thank him and his family for his life and his invaluable contributions.\nThe current leader of the opposition, <PERSON>, also paid her respects to <PERSON>, despite the fact that they had been bitter political rivals:\nIt is with deep sadness that we heard of the passing of former Prime Minister <PERSON>.\nOn behalf all in the Parliamentary Opposition and the United National Congress [the current opposition party], we send our heartfelt sympathies and prayers […]\nMr <PERSON> was Prime Minister by electoral victory three times in our history – 1995, 2002 and 2007.\nHe is also our longest serving Parliamentarian and one of the longest serving Public Servants in the region.\nIndeed, his wife <PERSON> has always exemplified strength and fortitude in her family, something which was clear throughout their public life.\nThe grief we share at his passing is, without doubt, grief that will be shared by our fellow nations in the region.\nWe wish the <PERSON> God's guidance and support and pray that the former Prime Minister will find a place of joy and rest.\nOn his Facebook page, Senator <PERSON> posted an old campaign video of <PERSON>, saying:\nA most memorable line, ‘<PERSON>, we stepping up with you’. Thanks for the service and thanks to the <PERSON> family for allowing our former Prime Minister and Political Leader to serve. Rest in peace, Mr. <PERSON>.\nSome of <PERSON>'s regional peers remembered him as “a sincere advocate for regional integration”.\nOn Twitter, users remembered <PERSON>'s repartee on the electoral campaign trail as well as his eloquence in public speaking:\n\"We will beat dem in de east\nWe will beat dem in de west\nWe will beat dem in de north\nWe will beat in d south….\"\n—<PERSON>\n— † (@smokeohontas) July 2, 2016\n\"Our people will be at the center of all development, without people my Dear friends there can be no development…\" – <PERSON>\n— <PERSON> (@ClydeenMcDonald) July 2, 2016\nMany other users of the microblogging service — including CARICOM‘s official Twitter account — also offered condolences:\nSad day for CARICOM.Former PM <PERSON>,one of its true champions has fallen.His contribution in health&security will not be forgotten\n— CARICOM (@CARICOMorg) July 2, 2016\nRest in Peace\nThe Honorable <PERSON> 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/0NcEHQC7KW\n— The BadGentsclubtt (@Badgentsclubtt) July 2, 2016\nRest in peace to our Former Prime Minister,<PERSON>. A nation mourns a national great.", "357" ], [ "Political Bad-Mouthing in Trinidad and Tobago Sullies Opening of Stadium Named for Cricketer <PERSON> · Global Voices\n<PERSON> at the Lord's Bicentenary Anniversary Match, June 22, 2014. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY 2.0.\nIn international cricketing circles, <PERSON> is a rock star. Deemed one of the greatest batsmen of all time, he is practically like royalty in Trinidad and Tobago, the land of his birth. But his name (and the fact that he lent it to the country's new stadium in south Trinidad) has been something of a political football ever since the controversial stadium — the construction of which was mired in allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement by previous governments — was finally opened under the People's National Movement (PNM) administration.\nThere was heated online debate about whether the stadium itself should have been a priority for the current government, especially in trying economic times. In the public Facebook group New Politics, <PERSON> asked:\nCAN <PERSON> ENRICH THE LIVES OF T&T PEOPLE? IT'S AN ENTERTAINMENT VENUE\n<PERSON> responded:\nwonder if the multi billion $ stadium came with ultrasound dept, mt. hope patients could go there\nMount Hope is a public hospital that has had its share of controversy; the country's public health system often falls short of the demands made on it. Opposition senator <PERSON> also pushed the stadium versus health care angle of the narrative, quoting from a newspaper report about protests regarding the government's decision to open the stadium while the nearby children's hospital, built under her party's tenure, remained closed.\nFacebook user <PERSON> added:\n“I wonder how <PERSON> felt passing the brand new CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL closed on his way to open the Shed of Shame?”\nWhile members of the country's opposition party (and other politically aligned Facebook groups) downplayed the numbers in attendance at the stadium's opening, several Facebook users posted photographic evidence that the stands were full.\nWhen <PERSON> himself spoke out, explaining that he felt “embarrassed and disappointed” over misconceptions surrounding the stadium, <PERSON>, commenting on the UNC's Facebook page, said, “Yes <PERSON>…. sing for your supper!”\nUpon reading similar comments, Facebook user <PERSON> suggested, tongue firmly in cheek, that “maybe the first match at the Stadium should have been Indians vs Africans.” Trinidad and Tobago is, for the most part, politically divided along ethnic lines, with the opposition United National Congress‘ (UNC) support base being primarily Indian and the PNM's being largely black.", "957" ], [ "<PERSON> and his sporting accomplishments always seemed to transcend race, however — until the stadium came into play.\n<PERSON> retorted:\nImagine. the PP [coalition People's Partnership government, of which the UNC was a part] had completed the BLCA [<PERSON> Cricket Academy] and is today opening it. now imagine <PERSON> walking onto the field to greet <PERSON> [former prime minister].\nnow, Imagine what the PNM party hacks would have said about <PERSON>.\nMeanwhile, on the CCN TV6 Facebook page, <PERSON> played devil's advocate:\nAs I recall the story. One day <PERSON> [former prime minister and leader of the PNM] asked <PERSON> how could Trinidad and Tobago get a 1000 <PERSON>. <PERSON> explained to him that he was just fortunate to have the Cricket talent that he has. But most importantly, he told Mr <PERSON> that all over the world where he had played cricket, some countries have a cricket Academy where they teach young potential players the rudimentaries of the game of cricket.\nYoung players will live in the Brian Lara Academy where they will train, lift weights, be trained in proper dieting, have the benefit of psychologists, have their bowling and batting actions filmed, analyzed, and improvements in techniques will be worked on.\nSports is not a hit and miss guessing game again. Sports is big business.\nSo here is my question to you Mr and Mrs <PERSON>.\nIn 2020, your young son has been observed and chosen as a candidate to enter the Brian Lara Cricket Academy. Scouts from all around the world done start comparing the little boy from Barrackpore as the next <PERSON>.\nCricket is his passion and he is a boss student at Naparima.\nWould you allow him to attend the Brian Lara Cricket Academy?", "892" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago: <PERSON>’s Woes · Global Voices\nThe headlines in Trinidad and Tobago's mainstream media over the last couple of days have focused on a Reuters exclusive report that <PERSON>, son of former football executive and FIFA Vice-President (now the country's controversial Minister of National Security) <PERSON>, is allegedly assisting the FBI with its investigations into corruption allegations in the international football governing body.\nSocial networking sites like Facebook were busy with discussion over the news, but most of the comments were posted on private walls or threads. One exception was the Facebook group PNM Abroad, which is a diaspora organisation that supports the current opposition party, the People's National Movement. Minister <PERSON> is part of the People's Partnership coalition government. Unsurprisingly, most recent activity on the page had to do with all things <PERSON>, including a request by the group's leader, <PERSON>, to:\n‘LIKE’ and ‘SHARE’ this status if you are willing to JOIN ME outside the MINISTRY OF NATIONAL SECURITY to DEMAND the removal of <PERSON>\nThe plea got 112 likes but only 22 shares.\nIn another update, the group asked its followers what they would like to say in a letter to <PERSON>; comments included everything from people quoting Bible verses to calling for his resignation. <PERSON> wrote:\nIn light of the current reports in the media, pertaining to your son <PERSON> and yourself regarding ongoing FBI and IRS investigation, which is now confirmed by law enforcement agencies, it would be prudent of you to do one of the following: (1) Temporary suspension as Minister of National Security and from National Security Council until the investigation has been completed or (2) Resign as Minister of National Security and from National Security Council. This letter is in no way politically or personally motivated, it is of a matter of national interest.", "957" ], [ "Whatever your decision, let it be known that it is of great importance to maintain and retain this nation's image as a whole as one that believes in high morals and integrity at all levels, including those in public office.\n<PERSON> was a bit more direct:\nPlease do the right thing and resign from politics. You are a disgrace to the nation.\nOf course, Twitter was in a flurry as well.\n<PERSON>: @kristalicia @tv6tnt Sorry but there is only ONE story this morning. #FBIinvestigation #<PERSON> why so silent?\n@apf17: Smh and this man still continues to manage such an important portfolio….that of national security #madness #<PERSON>\nOne tweet even linked to an article by journalist <PERSON>, long known as a whistleblower on corruption within FIFA and archenemy of <PERSON>. The link was also being shared on blogs and news sites.\nBloggers of course, put in their two cents’ worth as well. Diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch thought a quote by <PERSON>, Trinidad and Tobago's leader of the opposition, summed it all up:\n‘What the country is seeing in the international media is the name of Trinidad and Tobago being portrayed, not by <PERSON> or by <PERSON> for deeds well done, but by <PERSON> and the Government, who seem to think that there is no such thing as shame.’\nThe Eternal Pantomime, as of this posting, was the only blog (thus far) to address the report in any kind of detail, taking issue, first of all, with the Prime Minister's response:\nTrinidad and Tobago is no longer a banana republic…as of last night with Reuters news service confirming that <PERSON>’s son, and possibly <PERSON> himself, are indeed under investigation, her vague press release in which she says she will wait on an official corroboration is just too hollow for words.\nThe Prime Minister spent last month in Haiti, right next to the US AG and even members of the FBI. Talk of <PERSON> detention in the US had begun since December 2012 on the day he was caught at the airport with an alleged lump sum of money he had failed to declare at customs…allegedly. And yet in February, with the US AG sharing the same meeting space as you, not a question was asked?\nThen you return to Trinidad and <PERSON> asks you to follow up on these allegations and still nothing?\nThe post went on to address the impact of all this on the country itself:\nYou see, we aren’t a banana republic anymore…we are THE BANANA REPUBLIC.\nIn future when films are being made where the setting or crime taking place in a banana republic, it is Trinidad and Tobago’s name that will be used.", "957" ], [ "Caribbean football enthusiasts mourn the passing of <PERSON> · Global Voices\nA graffiti drawing of <PERSON> on a wall in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photo by <PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY 2.0.\nArgentinian football virtuoso <PERSON>, famous for the stunning natural talent that led his team to FIFA World Cup glory in 1986 — and infamous for the “Hand of God” goal that helped clear the path for their eventual victory — died of a heart attack at his Buenos Aires home on November 25, having recently undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. He was 60 years old.\nSmall in stature but a giant on the field, it is hard to imagine <PERSON>, who was required to perform at such an elite fitness level, being plagued by health problems. Throughout his career, however, he struggled with drug and alcohol addiction which led to a range of other challenges, including obesity and serious health-related scares like hepatitis.\nIn 1991, <PERSON> was suspended from the sport he loved for 15 months, after testing positive for cocaine before a match. Later that year, he was arrested for possession of the drug and given a 14-month suspended sentence.\nCome the 1994 World Cup, Argentina's star player was once again part of the team, but before the group stage of the tournament was over, the Argentine Football Association pulled him from the lineup for failing a drug test. FIFA banned <PERSON> over the incident, essentially putting an end to his international career, which had included representing top clubs like Boca Juniors (Argentina), Barcelona (Spain), and Napoli (Italy).\nIt was for his performance on the field, however, that <PERSON> will forever be remembered.\nHis style of play, full of darts and dribbles, was fearless; from the sidelines, it also looked effortless. There was no one faster or more sure-footed.", "357" ], [ "He demonstrated impeccable ball control, even with several defenders on him at a time. He had an instinct for finding spaces and creating opportunities but was not one to hoard the ball for a chance at glory.\nHe was, first and foremost, a team player who passed when needed, who captained creatively and helped make Argentina a joy to watch, comparable at their height to the captivating, samba style of fancy footwork their rival Brazil is famous for. The creative moves of La Albiceleste, as the Argentinian national football team is called, felt — under <PERSON>'s influence — at once both fluid and precise, a skilful tango on the turf.\nArgentina has declared three days of national mourning. One million people are expected to attend his public wake in Buenos Aires’ Casa Rosada, the national government seat.\nMeanwhile, the loss of <PERSON> is being felt around the world, including across the football-obsessed Caribbean region.\nA superstar in his own right, Jamaican sprinter <PERSON> posted photos of himself with <PERSON> on Facebook, accompanied by the caption, “RIP to Legend #<PERSON> ??”\nThere was no doubt that <PERSON> was a flawed and complex hero. The quarter-finals of Mexico 1986 World Cup — when he and the rest of the Argentinian team faced down England, at a time when tensions between the two countries over the Falklands war was still high — was the perfect and enduring example of how he could be both sinner and saint.\nThe first goal of that match was a desperate handball after 51 long minutes which, controversially, the referee allowed. <PERSON> scored again just four minutes later, after a dazzling and seemingly impossible dribble around five England players, slipping the ball past the keeper in what most football experts concur was the “Goal of the Century”.\nAfter the match, when a small cohort of reporters bombarded him with questions about the first goal, <PERSON> cheekily replied that he had a little help from “the hand of God” — in a quote since eternalized in football history.\nArgentina won the game 2–1 and went on to claim the Cup, beating West Germany in the final. <PERSON> won FIFA's Ballon d'Or for player of the tournament, and for many football fans — despite his frequent missteps off the field — he will remain a player for all time.\n<PERSON>, one of the England defenders who failed to stop <PERSON> at that quarter-final match in 1986, agrees. Upon learning of <PERSON>'s passing, <PERSON>, who is currently the head coach of Trinidad and Tobago's national football team, said:\nToday is an extremely sad day for world football.", "910" ] ]

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[ [ "Short answer: Bad writing or plothole\nWhatever you want to call it, the whole scene is basically patched together without accounting for all the facts.\nThe Driver\nThe driver should have been aware of the situation long before <PERSON> ripped out his controls. He might have noticed two people crashing into the train, he probably would have noticed them fighting on top or inside the train, but he did not.\nIf he had noticed, he probably would have stopped the train.\nThe Passengers\nThe passengers most definitely did notice the fight, but still did not pull the emergency brakes. One reason for that might be that passengers in New York were advised not to pull the emergency brakes in case of an emergency. Here is an article from the NY Times:\nEvery subway car in the city is equipped with a placard titled “Emergency Instructions.” The first instruction: “Do not pull the emergency cord.”\nSo what emergency, exactly, does this emergency brake refer to? The explanation, transit officials say, is simple.", "723" ], [ "If someone gets caught between the train’s closing doors, or between subway cars, and is about to be dragged to an unenviable fate, pull the cord. The train will stop, possibly saving a life.\nBut in case of fire, crime or a sick passenger — in fact, any other situation that could fairly be described as an emergency — the cord should be left alone. Stopping the train between stations will make it harder for help to arrive.\nHowever, in case of two people fighting on top of the train, I would have pulled the emergency brake.\nThe Train\nLastly, the whole scenario is very much impossible, as some nice people over at Engineering SE confirmed:\nAs <PERSON> put it:\nRail brakes are designed to be fail-safe. That is, when a failure occurs, the safe operation happens.\nAnd <PERSON> writes:\nI suspect that ripping out the speed control lever would have immediately applied the emergency brake.\nSo the train would have probably started to brake as soon as <PERSON> demolished the speed control, and even if not, the brakes are designed fail-save, so the passengers would still have been able to pull the emergency brake and stop the train.\nIn short: The authors probably ignored all the above or did not think about it for the sake of a (imho) very cool fight scene.", "45" ], [ "Dawn of the Dead\nDon’t Worry Be Happy: The Muzak Version is probably the most frightening thing in this, and I’m terrified of fast zombies.\nNo, wait. Zombaby is far creepier!\nI was quite moved by the final scene.\nWith a quiet dignity the guy accepts his fate, rather than cling desperately to what little time remains.\nThe silence as the boat moves away from him, with the chaotic murderous crowd of zombies about to descend and finish him off, it’s beautifully paradoxical.\nBoom!\nAbsolutely don’t blame him. “You’ll never take me alive!”\nThe extras in the credits is just the icing on the cake.", "475" ], [ "No. There’s no hope. All gone.", "406" ], [ "Unions\nNo, seriously. I think it's always really easy to overlook the human factors and why they quite possibly would not change even in a technologically advanced future. When the station was constructed, the unions all came together to set working conditions for their members and one of the required conditions was that there be a certain number of human traffic controllers on duty at all times. (Possibly this was even at the insistence of the Trade Union, which runs the ships.) It might have nothing to do with the safety of the computers that could run the show. \"We want guaranteed jobs in the traffic control sector or we're not serving your station.\" So, they bent to the union and now there's some traffic controllers.\nGovernment Quotas\nSimilarly, it could be a government mandate. With automation and computers everywhere, the government stepped in and started setting laws on how humans need to be hired at certain ratios. Or perhaps the station was built partially or entirely with government money so the government simply has stipulated that \"this station needs to employ this many people\" and \"well, we could set up some traffic controller positions\" was how the people in charge of the station met the quotas.", "824" ], [ "Might be the computers still do most of the work, but the station controllers have their own quotas of manual landings to perform so they stay in shape \"in case of emergency\".\nThe Station is Poorly Run\nActually, the computers would definitely do a superior job. Maybe it even was automated in the beginning. But over time the system began to degrade. Sensors would go out and not get replaced. The whole station is running on bubble gum welds and duct tape so throwing a body at a terminal and saying \"Go help these guys land\" was easier than trying to refurbish the sensors and networks required to let the computer do it.\nI'm kind of a fan of very mundane explanations in sophisticated sci-fi stories, lol. I do think it helps keep the story grounded. \"Why isn't this automated? Is there something wrong with the tech? Are the computers too smart? Are they not smart enough? Are there hackers? Aliens? Alien hackers!?\" \"Nope. Governmental regulation.\"", "197" ], [ "NOTE: I WROTE THIS MYSELF (no copy paste)\nThe Matrix is Good. And we’re not just talking about the movie. We are talking about the Matrix, the programmed simulation that almost the entire human race is forced to live inside.\nIn the 1999 movie The Matrix we find out that it is the future and machines have enslaved almost the entire race into living in a simulation of and using them as a power source. Outside the Matrix, there is a group of people called The Resistance, with their life goal being finding “The One” and putting an end to The Matrix.\nThere's a natural, simple thought that The Matrix encourages. This is that there's something bad about being inside the Matrix. We here think that this is what the movie got wrong! And that the Matrix is actually the best thing to ever happen to the human race!\nBut before we explain why, let’s talk about why some people and the movie claim that living inside the Matrix is bad. Everyone living inside the Matrix is being deceived about the real world, and The Resistance say that they need to realise that they are living a lie.\nBut why is the Matrix not good? Actually, people living in the matrix are much better off than people in the real world. In the real world, everyone lives underground and eats mush for every meal of the day. But in the Matrix, everyone lives at the peak of human civilization. It’s a pretty easy choice!!!!!\nSure, the Matrix still has lots of problems. For example there are still hundreds of thousands of people suffering from poverty and hunger. There are still bad people. But not everyone’s life is working a desk job and hacking the pentagon like <PERSON>.\nBut why? Why is the Matrix Not Good? Would people rather live in a polluted dystopian world run by machines where you have to eat mush for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Would people rather live in a world suffering from global warming and terrible diseases? Would people rather live in a world where there isn’t even sunlight? Of course not! The machines are doing a good thing for humans, even though they don’t know it. It is like a prison for humanity, but the only downside is how people feel about it.", "973" ], [ "An argument for why the matrix is bad is that people should know the truth. But in the world in this film, not knowing about the badness of reality is probably for the better (like RAC).\nThe Matrix is good, and here’s how to prove it: What would happen if <PERSON> was victorious? What would happen if the Matrix was destroyed, and all the world’s humans woke into reality? Well, there’s only one city and we’re guessing there’s not a lot of food slop to go round for billions of people. So, most of the people would just die. And that’s not counting the fact that there are huge armies of robots wandering around, ready to pretty much kill everyone (important fact). So, almost all of the Matrix-humans would end up dead pretty quickly.\nWithout the Matrix, life would be alright in the future, but we would also have to adapt to global warming and that sort of stuff. In the Matrix, humans don’t need to worry about the big stuff, so we can be much more productive. And since the Matrix runs on human-power, it’s environmentally friendly! So basically, the Matrix is better than the real world. I think.\nIn the movie The Truman Show, there is a similar occurrence occuring. <PERSON> believes to be living in a normal world until he realises that his life is <PERSON>’s Cave analogy or whatever. He finds out that he is living in a scripted world, this is not good. It's different from The Matrix because the only person being deceived is <PERSON>, the sole victim and his life would be much better outside of his small fake world. For example, there is no Fiji in his Dome, while there is in the real world.\nOn the other hand, there's no Fiji in the real world, but there is in the Matrix.\nIn the book Ready Player 1 there is another similar occurrence occurring. The world is basically destroyed, the majority of the world is suffering from poverty, the world is completely polluted and wrecked and most of humanity spends the majority of their time living inside a simulation called the Matrix whoops I mean the Oasis. The Oasis started as a video game until humans turned into their second life. In the Matrix, most of humanity is “forced” to live inside a simulation, and they don’t even know it exists, while in Ready Player 1 most of humanity sees the Oasis as an escape from their broken world.", "973" ], [ "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace\nAndor was good enough that it made me curious about the prequels, which I haven't seen since they were released. Also, I needed something to watch while on the treadmill.\nBy every standard of quality, this is a terrible movie. Every line of dialog is the most obvious and direct-spoken thing that character would say in that situation. And I assume <PERSON> gave line readings to every actor because everyone speaks in exactly the same affect-less way--so much so that it's kind of fascinating.", "952" ], [ "None of the action is exciting. The cross-cutting in the final act doesn't make any sense (the fight with <PERSON> is happening in the same building as <PERSON>'s battle, right?), there are too many deus ex machine to count, the jokes aren't funny, the new characters are racist stereotypes. Just a terrible, terrible movie.\nStill, it's funny to me that the plot is basically ... <PERSON> easily manipulates an incompetent teenage queen and two Jedi who are too dumb even to pick up on her masquerade.", "698" ], [ "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers\nI opted for the supposedly superior Producer’s Cut of this one. If this is meant to be the better of the two cuts, the Theatrical Cut must be a fucking nightmare. This was atrocious.\nA rambling mess jam packed with a nonsense sub plot about <PERSON> being part of a cult. <PERSON> must have been livid.\nThe biggest issue is that The Curse of Michael Myers is a snooze fest.", "475" ], [ "Nothing happens for 45 minutes and then, when it seems to pick up, it doesn’t really pick up at all. <PERSON> is barely in it. He just kind of pops up here and there and gives us a dull, gore-less kill. Such a disappointment.\n<PERSON>’s doing his best but jeans given some truly laughable shit to say.\nI feel sorry for <PERSON>. He doesn’t deserve this shit pile of a film.", "698" ], [ "Leave the World Behind\nLong live physical media!\n<PERSON> character got on my last nerve. I suppose that was her assignment and she did it well.\nGood to see <PERSON>. We don't see enough for him.", "577" ], [ "I wonder if Marvel has been wasting his time with the \"Blade\" delays.\n<PERSON> character seemed at least reasonable under the circumstances. Whether the film thinks his approach is best I'm not sure.\nKind of tired of these dystopian flicks but this was serviceable enough. Nowhere near the disaster that some have proclaimed nor a modern classic in the vein of \"Children of Men\".\nPerfectly mid Netflix material.", "952" ], [ "The Batman\nFear is a tool. When that light hits the sky, it’s not just a call.", "919" ], [ "It’s a warning. For them.\nWell folks, It took ‘em that long to realize that a dark, gritty and mysterious superhero based in a dark, gritty and mysterious city should have a dark, gritty and mysterious movie.\nI loved <PERSON> as The Riddler (with his many notes for “The Botmon” 😂), and <PERSON> makes a great <PERSON> (you have to admit he looks a lot like him).\nAnd I know it’s not gonna happen, but I really think this movie should get a bit more real and lose the PG-13.\nAnyhow, I really enjoyed this movie but I believe that <PERSON> adaptation of Batman hasn’t reached its full potential yet.\nI have a feeling it’s gonna be an iconic franchise. Here’s hoping, anyways.", "577" ] ]

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[ [ "I do not have the data to back this, I present this more as possible contributing points that you may be able to verify with data. DavePhD presents an excellent and backed answer for local sea effects. For non-local contribution, I would start with the point that warm air has the ability more total water than cold, and that if the air holds the same amount of water, but you raise its temperature, by definition, relative humidity drops. Also, if you lower the temp, relative humidity rises, and the tendency to precipitate out that water increases. Those are well know, just restating as a base.\nAs a coastal location, NJ will tend to have its temperature somewhat moderated by the ocean, that is be a bit warmer in winter than it otherwise would be, and cooler in summer. Not a lot, but a few degrees makes a difference in relative humidity. Winter weather patterns will have a high percentage of the air mass heading at NJ coming across the continent, and a good share of the systems being arctic.", "108" ], [ "We thing of these as being wet systems, but really, they are cold systems and result in snow because they cannot hold as much moisture. When they get to the coast, the temperature may be low as compared to summer conditions, but it may also be a bit warmer than the conditions to the West. That rise of a couple degrees equals a drop in relative humidity for that air mass much like heating that air in your house creates very dry conditions in the winter.\nIn the summer though, as temps go up, there will also be changes in weather patterns, with a higher portion of you air masses coming from the gulf or even straight up the coast. These will be wetter air masses. In addition, now you are getting a cooling effect from the ocean. Yes, temps are higher, but still a few degrees lower than they likely would have been without the ocean effect, and cooler than what they likely are to your West. Drop the temp of the air mass a couple degrees and the relative humidity rises.\nOne more factor in that line, when the air mass is coming more directly from the West, or from the NW, it crosses a line of mountains before it gets to NJ, which will tend to cause more of the moisture to precipitate out. With the summer pattern, with a bit more of the air being gulf and coastal, this misses some of the effect of NJ being on the lee side of a range.\nNot saying these are the cause, but logically, they likely seem to contribute to a correlation between seemingly higher humidity as temps increase.", "591" ], [ "What you are observing is called anecdotal weather observations. I will address it in a number of points, none of which many people will agree with, but so be it.\n2-3 years is weather, not climate. Climate is measured in millennia, not days. Historical averages are measured, well historically, which for most locations in the US is 50-300 years. During those years, methods of measurement have changed, so historical numbers may also have glitches in them, such as the the highest US temperature ever recorded is still in dispute because of how it was measured. But historical averages are calculated from all of those years, ones with droughts, unseasonable cold fronts, and so on. Warming patterns which are the basis for global warming studies are based on looking at all this data, plus many years of indirect data from ice cores, tree rings, sediment deposits, and many other sources, not from 2 years of personal study.\nIt is routine to have years that are outside of the average, that is what averages are. It is also human nature to amplify the variation and see extremes. I did not go that far back, and I used only one source, but I looked at a little recent recorded data for Clearwater. I took daily numbers and went with variations to the daily average temp for that date. For Aug 2017, there are 8 days available thus, and the daily lows have been recorded as +17 degrees to average, or +2.15 degrees.", "876" ], [ "For 2016 back to 2013 you get +27, -2, +24 and +7 for Aug, or as an average daily difference about +0.87, -0.06, +0.77 and +0.23 with a average for the 4+ years of +0.38 to average. Only the partial month for 2017 exceeds 1 degree variance to average.\nJuly numbers are, starting with 2017, 41, 37, -29, 13, -31 or in daily variations +1.32, +1.19, -0.94, +0.42, -1.00 for a 5 year average of +0.20. Although the last two July's have exceeded the plus one degree variance, two of the prior three were almost the opposite. That is weather and normal variation. To get to climate numbers requires looking at those patterns over centuries, not over a couple years.\nTrust me, I am not refuting global warming. I am however refuting using such anecdotal observations as a bases for the claims. Weather patterns work in cycles, and before climate change claims can be made the cycles must be accounted for. When a location has an especially hot day, or month and references are made to global warming, it make that side of the argument look silly. When a blizzard occurs, there is a record low, or an seemingly especially cold day, and the deniers point and chant global warming and laugh, they may also feel they scored points, but under statistical analysis they look silly as well.\nI do not claim the above to be a statistical analysis. I also did not cherry pick data, I simply only had time or willingness to do a quick 5 years. That was more than enough to see yearly variations and demonstrate that a perceived variation of 4-5 degrees is actually 1, and 1 degree is still within typical yearly variation. To make a real claim requires a pattern of trending real variation in a continuing upward direction and that require rigorous and systematic data collection and analysis.", "876" ], [ "Most of the interesting \"weather\" and dynamics in the lower atmosphere arise from convection.\nI think the link that was posted was mainly about how convection dominates in the lower atmosphere and and radiation effects dominate in the upper atmosphere, and wanted to see what the effect of would be if one artificially looked at the problem without convection. As pointed out in comments and other answers, it is unrealistic to not have convection. The link article by having a thin ocean was mainly trying to set a boundary condition for the model, and if I read it correctly that if the ocean was thick the equilibrium temperature would end up same if you waited long enough. One way to interpret the article is that the convection in the lower atmosphere mixes up the fluid (air) in such a way that the surface doesn't get as hot as it would without having a layer of atmosphere mixing.\nFrom a world building perspective, I think to get at the heart of your question it is about how could you control the temperature of the planet assuming that radiative processes are dominating the heat transfer balance.\nThe answer I think would be by how much reflectivity (from the surface or perhaps clouds) and emissivity the planet has. From a climate science point of view, this is a big deal. In the air how much to contrails from air traffic change the heat ballance, surprisingly to me, apparently it is measurable.", "108" ], [ "On the ground, or ocean, how much soot from combustion is landing on the snow, or how much ice coverage in the arctic ocean matters in a lot of these models how the light from the sub is trapped or reflected is important.\nSo for your purposes, you have the light from the sun hitting the planet and the light and heat from the planet radiating into space. Neglecting some details, that the planet may have started out as hot mess of molten rock, and over time new materials from space may be adding water etc. That should come into equilibrium.\nA short light article with a graphic is at\nhttps://www.physics-in-a-nutshell.com/article/17/surface-temperature-of-the-earth\nThe atmosphere acting as a filter as to how to how much of the light and heat from the sun is reflected, how much is transmitted to the surface, and how much of the higher energy photons are absorbed by the gasses in the atmosphere or by the ground and turned into heat (lower energy photons) that would go through the filter and radiate into space.\nTo dial in the temperature for your world, the easiest thing would be to fiddle how much light is reflected and absorbed. The knobs you can turn (ignoring the convection) would be to add more gasses from volcanoes like CO2 that might absorb and trap heat strongly, but not add a lot of particulates from the volcanos, or clouds in the atmosphere that might reflect more of the light before it gets absorbed. Without CO2, from the volcanos, maybe the oceans are frozen before the eruptions and the earth is very shiny and reflective. Or you could add plants, and they could consume the CO2, and perhaps the plants change the reflectivity of the oceans, or maybe the oxygen from the plants starts to oxidize the land etc.\nVolcanoes are not the only thing but just an example of something that can change the heat balance in a short period of time. But basically changing the Albedo of the planet (with or without) a convective atmosphere can change the heat balance and the surface temperature significantly.", "184" ], [ "It all depends, mostly on the materials used, salinity, pH levels, oxygen concentration, temperature, availability of calcium carbonate and water currents/waves.\nThese effects are non-linear, for example corrosion rates generally increase with temperature, but if you raise the temperature further in can slow corrosion by removing oxygen (among other things).\nCalcium carbonates (e.g. limestone) in the water can deposit scale that protects the underlying materials. You often see these scales on water pipes. These scales can protect the materials for a long time.\nThere are many examples of buildings and towns that have be submerged for long periods of time. Many are intentional as a result of building reservoirs, but almost all of these are fresh water.\nSince we build ships, we have also studied the issues associated with submerged materials used in ships.\nBuilding materials. Sheet rock is rapidly ruined. Wood treated with creosote survives for a long time, 50 or 100 years is usually not ruined. Creosote is not much used anymore for marine applications due to environmental concerns. The other treatments are not as effective, but I don't have actual survival times. Plywood may delaminate within a few years depending upon the glue.\nSteel -- Steel used in construction is rarely stainless, so corrosion begins immediately as even fresh water always conducts current. Depending upon the other materials this may be accelerated greatly because of galvanic effects. In fresh water the rate of corrosion depends upon very minor environmental differences, including the consistency of the steel the result is often pitting where the slightly more corrosive gets used up in preference to the other areas. Experimental data is not even particularly accurate because the results are so variable. Salt water is just a worse problem as electrical conductivity is high.\nSome coatings will protect steel for quite a while (even decades), but they all eventually fail due to imperfect coating and leaching of the material. Zinc-dipped steel is best known and for good reason. It is very effective as coverage is nearly perfect and the Zinc will be sacrificed first during corrosion. It will still fail eventually (cracks in the coating, etc.) but I don't expect this to be common in construction.", "561" ], [ "It certainly is not used for the steel fasteners that many construction depends upon. I.e., once the nails go, the building collapses.\nFor a nice online guide that gives a hint of the difficulty see Fundamentals of Metallic Corrosion in Fresh Water\nWindows may tend to survive better than you might expect because they are frequently designed to resist moisture problems, so the wood is treated and the glues are moisture resistant. Still, just observe the deterioration of a leaky window and you will know that they really don't survive that well.\nSo what does last? Stone and kiln dried ceramics. You might get thousands of years from some of these. However, the mortar is first common point of failure. Some mortars can fail within a decade, others might last for a hundred years or even somewhat longer. If you have mortarless stone construction and you don't have problems due to earthquakes or excessive currents or wave you could like there when the waters recede a few centuries later.\nThe end result of all this variability is that we don't simply design construction to last for 50 years in underwater environments. We design the best we can and begin a program of inspection and maintenance. We have to inspect because we don't know when failure will occur and the maintenance is needed because failure will occur if we don't prevent it.\nSo what about 1 year of submersion. Any structure would require cleaning, refinishing, etc. before it would be usable. Note that most flooding also means sewer overflows are included in the floodwaters. Definite intensive cleanup is required and well as repainting, etc.\nIn general terms.\nWood -- unless specially treated for water, the wood will be damaged beyond what you would wish to use. This includes most windows as construction materials are often selected based on price than quality in residential usage. Plywood is even less likely to be usable as water can interpenetrate common plywood more easily than bulk wood.\nSteel -- unless specially treated for water, significant corrosion will be present making the cost of cleanup very high. If steel fasteners are used in construction, it will be unsound (or at least not provably sound)\nBrick, concrete, stone -- Most mortars should survive and be safe to use after a year underwater provided they have had sufficient time to cure completely prior to flooding -- still a nasty cleanup job will be needed and the organic materials, etc. will get into every nook and cranny.", "87" ], [ "What's the reason for going to the cost and effort of doing this?\nIn many places, placing a stream into a culvert can be cheaper in the long run. Streams (particularly fast flowing ones) erode the land and may require erosion protection added in the future.\nAn advantage is reduced land use: Land that does not have a stream running through it can be used for other purposes, although the culvert will need to, obviously, be assessed before plomping (technical term..) a multi-storey car park on top of it!\nIs it a safety concern having creeks in residential areas?\nHighly dependent on the area in question and the nature of the creek or stream. Naturally, a stream is a hazard to people of all ages, particularly kids though. But so is a culvert if the access to it is not cordoned off. As answered previously, an open grassy pitch is more favourable than a flowing stream.\nDo creeks have some effect on the land which would affect nearby buildings?\nCreeks have a tendency to meander in the long term (decades to centuries), and deeply scour the nearby banks in the short term (years). Scoured banks can become steep and rocky, and even collapse. If there are buildings located nearby, then this can cause structural damage.\nIs it just for the convenience of being able to cross them without a bridge?\nAs an engineer with Highway experience you'd be amazed at how many culverts manage water flow run under many of our roads.", "87" ], [ "In Scotland, it's not unusual for there to be a 600mm diameter culvert every few hundred metres or so on many trunk roads and motorways helping ease water through them.\nMost of the time, these are never seen or acknowledged as they can be down steep road verges. This is because these roads tend to be built very straight (much like railways), opposed to older roads that simply follow ancient paths and travelling routes.\nA final note:\nCulverts can be used to change the velocity of flowing water. For example if a stream has a narrow channel, the water will flow quickly causing it to quickly erode the bank. You can slow the water velocity in an area by passing it through a wide culvert. With a wider area of flow, the water will travel more slowly. This can cause advantages down stream. Similarly, the same effect can be caused upstream by forcing the water through a narrower passage. This will cause the water to back-up up stream reducing it's speed.", "87" ], [ "This is not a simple problem to solve for mathematically. To do so you would need to know the temperature and velocity of the air coming out of the AC unit, as well as the velocity of air outside as well as which windows are open and at what angle outside air is hitting the windows. Basically, you would need to figure out how well the AC air mixes with the room air as well as the the general paths the air currents follow.\nAs others have mentioned, humidity is also a concern. If you are bringing in humidity from the outside the AC will have to work harder to remove it.\nFor example, if the air from the A/C follows a laminar flow and does not mix well with the air in the room right away, a large part of it could goes out the window without having reduced air temperature.", "108" ], [ "The larger the temperature differential between the AC air and the room air, and the lower the amount of mixing occurs, the less efficient it is going to be.\nMost likely it would be easier to just perform some experiments, trying to control for a single variable at a time.\nHowever, having said that, assuming sufficient mixing of the air what you are going to see in practice is that opening the window causes the temperature to cool faster, because you have two sources of air colder than the room. You could set up an equation using two idealized heat transfers to try to approximate it. But if the temperature differential is only 4C you may find it doesn't really cool that much faster, and things like wind gusts and humidity may make it a wash. In my experience, latent heat from the structure itself makes it very difficult to bring room temperature that close to outside air temperature (for instance, in a brick/stone wall type building I have found it difficult to cool an interior to closer than 5C above outdoor temperature over the course of a night).\nHowever, in any case using both the AC and opening the windows will obviously use more electricity than just opening the windows.", "108" ], [ "As seen here, the equation for lift involves the lift coefficient Cl, the density, $\\rho$, the velocity, $V$, and the wing area $A$ in this equation: $ L =C_l\\frac{\\rho V^2}{2}A$.\nThe key thing for your consideration is that there are a few design variables we could play with to try to maintain lift. If density ($\\rho$) is decreased, other variables must increase proportionally to keep lift a constant. The $C_l$ term can be increased to an extent to provide more lift but there are drawbacks. Velocity($V$) is nicer to increase, since it has he squared relation. It only needs to be increased by a square root factor. (If the density is halved, the velocity needs to be increased $\\sqrt{2}$ times). Lastly, we can increase the wing area. Super simple, right?\nWrong. Unfortunately, these design variables have other effects that aren't immediately noticed.", "568" ], [ "Increasing the area often means more weight and/or drag. Velocity increases often require larger powerplants, and Cls can be picky in their performance across your flight envelope.\nThat all said, its totally possible to design for and fly in low density, there are just a few things to really look into.\nAs to the specifics of Jet Bis, Tris, and Quadplanes, I don't know. A lot of high altitude (thats low density on earth) aircraft have very high aspect ratio wings (quick google search). From what I understand much of the reasoning behind bis, tris and anything above, was that the materials available didn't support the necessary structure, at least not easily. So, to get around long, broken wings, they added multiple shorter wings (still getting the same wing area) that the materials (wood, wire, canvas) and the structure (wire box frames) could support. They did have plenty of drawbacks. Those structures with all those wires added a ton of drag. Stronger materials like aluminum came into phase because they could support the wing, without the exposed \"draggy\" wireframe structure. In, my mind, If you have the tech for jet engines, likely you have tech for long single wing structures.\nCheck out this Aviation SE post about biplanes.", "308" ], [ "I am shooting a bit for the hip here to be honest, this answer is opinion, not a researched position, but...\nTo imply that a object, be it plant, animal, or inanimate object with the ability to self regulate their temperature has the ability to have implications on climate change on a global scale, at least a positive one, ignores the physical laws of entropy. That statement assumes that by positive effects means slowing of warming.\nEntropy as a basic rule of physics always increases. For this purpose, you can consider entropy to be the total energy in the system, with the energy of concern here being \"heat\". If a plant (or anything) raises its temperature, it also extracts that heat from somewhere else. If the surrounding environment is warmer, it can do that by simply absorbing heat, otherwise it does that by using other energy by chemical or physical processes.", "106" ], [ "These processes always are net zero in entropy or increase entropy thus increase total system energy usually seen as heat. The same is true when the plant needs to lower its temperature, it can exchange heat with surrounding environment or through physical or chemical means lower its temperature, but doing so will again either be net zero energy or an increase in energy/heat.\nPlants do have an almost exemption of this rule though, they grow, and in doing so the store some energy, temporarily taking some of that energy out of the equation. This stored energy, and thus heat, is then released when the plant dies and decays, is used as food, or when millions of years of the stored energy is used in the form of fossil fuels, again resulting in a net increase in total entropy in the system.\nPlants can and are used for localized climate moderation, but the contribution that would be applied to their ability to regulate their own temperature I would think is somewhere between insignificant and a slight negative in terms of slowing global warming. The more significant aspect is in areas like slowing ground heating of denuded areas, cleaning pollutants from the air, storing of energy for later use, and many other aspects of plant chemistry and relationship with its environment. For instance, the shade provided by a single tree I would guess outweighs any effect cause by temperature regulation of many trees. I would be happy to see any study to the contrary, but I do not see that as possible within the known laws of physics.", "106" ] ]

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[ [ "Trinidad & Tobago ranks second on a COVID-19 ‘lockdown rollback checklist,’ but caution remains · Global Voices\nA screenshot of the title page of the study by the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), which assessed the readiness of various countries to relax COVID-19 physical distancing measures.\nIn a press conference on April 29, 2020, <PERSON>, Trinidad and Tobago's minister of health, highlighted a study conducted by the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), which provided “a cross-national overview of which countries meet four of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) six recommendations for relaxing physical distancing measures”. On the list, Trinidad and Tobago ranked second, just after Vietnam. The only other Caribbean nation in the top 10 is Barbados.\nWhile this may be welcome news in terms of how effectively the government has been coping with the pandemic (as of April 30, the country recorded 116 COVID-19 cases, with 72 patients discharged and eight deaths), the minister has said that the study's findings should not lure citizens into a false sense of security.\nThe study itself also laid out the challenges the researchers encountered in collating the available data:\nWhile the OxCGRT data cannot fully say how ready countries are to leave lockdown, it does provide for a rough comparison across nations. Even this ‘high level’ view reveals that few countries are close to meeting the WHO criteria for rolling back lockdown measures.\nAt the time of writing [April 23, 2020], only a handful of countries are doing well at the four ‘checklist’ criteria OxCGRT is able to track.\nA screenshot of the table from the study by the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), which shows Trinidad and Tobago in second place re: preparedness to roll back some of its imposed COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions.\nNaturally, one of the variables to be considered is that the study was unable to secure data for two categories that help the WHO determine whether or not a country is ready to roll back lockdown measures: vulnerable settings and preventative measures in workplaces. The other four criteria — controlled cases, success with testing, tracing and isolating, the management of imported cases and community understanding — were ranked on a grid ranging from “less” to “more ready to exit lockdown”. Of these, Trinidad and Tobago's performance was slightly lower when it came to testing and community understanding.\nSocial media users were quick to weigh in. On Facebook, <PERSON> warned:\nIt does *not* at all mean that it is time to end the restrictions. That will be decided by the CMO, the panel of experts in charge and all our boxes in this table need to be solid blue.", "1019" ], [ "No country is truly ready to lift restrictions but it *does* mean that in terms of ability to *begin* getting life forward to the new normal, we are in one of the best positions in the world to **consider** easing the lockdown come May 15th. That's something to feel encouraged by. Keep up the good work!\nMay God bless our nation! ?????\nDr. <PERSON>, Trinidad and Tobago's chief medical officer, has already advised of a “new normal”, even as restrictions may be lifted bit by bit. The country's current restrictions stay in place until May 10, 2020.\nAttorney <PERSON>, however, was a bit more sceptical of Minister <PERSON>'s assessment:\nWhen Minister <PERSON> said — in the context of clearing up misinformation no less — that Trinidad & Tobago ‘ranked second’ by ‘the University of Oxford’, here is what he neglected to mention:\n1) The ‘ranking’ is based on a research note prepared by the Blavatnik School of Government. It is not peer-reviewed. It is not a ‘report';\n2) ‘Because the data only measure four of six recommended actions, we should be cautious about inferring what countries are ready to rollback lockdown from this measure.’ (from the research note itself) […]\nFounded in 2010, the Blavatnik School of Government is a school of public policy that forms part of the University of Oxford's Social Sciences Division.\nIn examining the list, blogger and Global Voices’ Jamaica-based contributor <PERSON> noted:\nTrinidad and Tobago is ranked second […] as ready to lift its lockdown. Another CARICOM country, Belize, is not far behind in fifth place […] Barbados is in tenth place. Aruba, Guyana, Bermuda, Dominican Republic and Cuba (in that order) are in varying states of readiness.", "1019" ], [ "Is a ‘Concordat’ stymieing education progress in Trinidad & Tobago? · Global Voices\nA screenshot of the PDF of The Concordat of 1960, signed between the Vatican and Trinidad and Tobago in an agreement governing public education in the country.\nNearly 60 years ago, the government of Trinidad and Tobago signed The Concordat of 1960 — an agreement between the state and religious bodies that gives them the right to determine their own curricula in denominational schools. They also have the right to select 20 per cent of new students entering denominational schools, regardless of their performance on the annual secondary school entrance exams — now called the SEA.\nStudents who do well on these exams often get into their school of choice based on how their marks are ranked relative to the availability of spaces, but those who don't can still get into desirable denominational schools — often referred to as “prestige schools” — using this 20 per cent rule.\nThough denominational schools receive government assistance, they are able to extend this preferential treatment to students based on religious affiliation. As Trinbagonian parents continue to lament the inefficacy of the SEA, the issue of the Concordat goes hand-in-hand with discussions about education progress in the country, more than half a century after the document was signed.\nIn 2003, newspaper columnist <PERSON> penned an editorial which called out the Concordat as a mechanism of discrimination based on “a mixture of religion and privilege”:\nMany children of lower income families were nudged aside in the application of the powers conferred by the state-church arrangement, and those receiving the head start under the Concordat were instead sons and daughters of far better-positioned middle- and upper middle-income families. It was clearly unjust and deprived many a bright schoolchild of a deserved chance at upward mobility. Government should and must move with dispatch to deal with this cruel absurdity of privilege conferred. There must be a rethink of the Concordat, not to see in what way it can be improved, but rather how quickly it can be consigned to the dustbin of history.\nSometime between 2006 and 2011, late independent Senator <PERSON> offered this proposal:\nIf indeed education is better in denominational schools then we must ensure that government schools are brought up to the best level. In the meanwhile the denominational schools should be allocated at least 50 percent of candidates from the lower end of the SEA [Secondary Entrance Assessment] pass list and such students must be given special attention.", "957" ], [ "I am basing this proposal on the fact that religious denominations are concerned with the good of society as a whole and in particular with helping the disadvantaged and so I am certain this proposal will have [their] full support.\nThus far, it hasn't. The 20 per cent list still exists and parents often use it as a guarantee should their children not do well in the exam. Some parents have even been known to change the child's religion based on the denomination of their desired school.\nRead more: Trinidad & Tobago's Secondary School Entrance Exam: Elitist, Divisive, Irrelevant?\nThe history of the agreement\nThe signing of this Concordat took place in Trinidad and Tobago's pre-independence era. The country eventually won its independence from Great Britain on August 31, 1962, led by <PERSON> and his political party, the People's National Movement (PNM).\n<PERSON> had big plans for revamping the country's colonial education system, which, until that time, consisted of state-subsidized “mission schools” directed by each religion's denominational board. Until then, access to education had largely evaded the working class; children that did go to school were separated based on religion — which also meant that they ended up being split up along ethnic lines.\n<PERSON>’ proposed reforms — including levelling the playing field and broadening the scope of the curriculum — got a lot of pushback. Fearing that influential church opposition might lead to a similar defeat to the one his party suffered in the 1958 federal elections, <PERSON> signed the agreement.\n‘Unfairness in the system’\nMost recently, analyst <PERSON> examined leaked data from the 2018 SEA examination and dissected the process by which students are placed. The resulting newspaper exposé — the first instalment of which was published on June 30, 2019 — revealed the inequalities inherent in the system, catapulting the issue of the Concordat to the forefront of the education debate once again.\nGovernment-assisted schools usually cost more to run than the state can allocate, so the schools also do their own fundraising. Besides the children of staff and alumni, their 20 per cent may also include children whose parents have the means to support the school.", "142" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago’s 2020 election results are currently being recounted · Global Voices\nFinger stained with electoral ink after voting in Trinidad and Tobago's general election on August 10, 2020. Photo courtesy <PERSON>.\nOn August 10, 658,297 of Trinidad and Tobago's 1,134,155 registered voters cast their ballot in the country's general election.\nAccording to the independent body charged with electoral management, the Elections and Boundaries Commission, the preliminary results showed that the incumbent People's National Movement (PNM) led by Prime Minister <PERSON> had won, with 22 parliamentary seats to the opposition United National Congress‘ (UNC) 19.\nDespite the fact that voter turnout for both parties was lower than it had been for the last election in 2015, the PNM also clinched the popular vote.\nJust as in 2015, the UNC is questioning the results. Since the preliminary results were announced, the UNC has called for recounts in five constituencies, as many have pointed out is well within its rights. The recount process began on August 11, the day after the election was held.\nFive years ago, the party, then part of the People's Partnership coalition government, claimed that heavy rains, which caused flooding in some parts of the country, resulted in the PNM having an unfair advantage at the polls. They subsequently filed an election petition, challenging the outcome on those grounds; it proved unsuccessful.\nThis time around, the UNC has been accused of trying to plant seeds of doubt, before the voting process even got underway, as to whether the elections would be free and fair.\nOn Twitter, <PERSON> took umbrage with the UNC's approach:\nI really take exception to the UNC’s implying that we did not run transparent elections. I have no problem requesting recounts but don’t impugn the integrity of the EBC plus thousands of volunteers, scrutineers (including their own) of every party present in yesterday’s process\n— <PERSON> (@Panyol) August 11, 2020\nThe law dictates that the current government must stay in place throughout the recount process.\nNo international observers\nOne of the main points of contention is the fact that this election lacked the presence of international observers.", "957" ], [ "In a media interview, Prime Minister <PERSON> said that once the elections were called, he wrote to both the Commonwealth and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) secretariats, inviting them to send observers. However, unease over the COVID-19 pandemic reportedly came into play, as it has for many other countries holding elections at this time.\nCARICOM was only able to attract the interest of three participants, who later declined because they wanted to avoid quarantine regulations. The government was “prepared to modify” its quarantine arrangements, but ultimately, CARICOM deemed that the process would require many more than three volunteers.\nThe Commonwealth observers, meanwhile, came up against financial constraints: Government assistance would have been a conflict of interest. The prime minister maintained there was no need to make his correspondence with the secretariats public [though he subsequently did], and does not believe that international observers would have prevented the UNC from making legal challenges.\nHow the tallying process works\nOn the evening of August 13, Minister of Finance <PERSON> hosted a press conference at the PNM party's headquarters, Balisier House, and clarified electoral procedures.\n<PERSON> explained to local media that Form 69 — a Statement of Poll — basically served as “a record of observers.”\nEvery candidate who contests an election is entitled to have a polling agent present at every polling station to scrutinise the voting process. The presiding officer must sign Form 69, certify its accuracy and make sure that copies are given to polling officials and to each candidate or agent present at the count. These party representatives must also sign Form 69 to confirm that they witnessed the count and that the information is correct.\nParties knew results ‘at the same time’\nSuggestions circulated on social media that the PNM declared victory while results were still coming in, but <PERSON> explained that party representatives call in to their respective campaign offices and give count results for their polling stations.\nVia this method, Balisier House had the results for each of the country's 41 constituencies by 10 p.m. on election night and the PNM was, therefore, able to claim victory.\n<PERSON> said that the opposition would have known the results at the same time and claimed it was “deceitful of UNC to pretend not to know […] on Monday night that they’d lost the election and the popular vote.” The notion that PNM had “inside information,” he said, is “absolute nonsense — it's a lie.”\n‘Wild allegations’\nNevertheless, such claims persist.", "892" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago clamps down as two cases of COVID-19 are confirmed · Global Voices\nA 3D print of a SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19—virus particle. Image by NIAID on flickr, CC BY 2.0.\nCheck out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.\nOn March 12, 2020, Trinidad and Tobago's minister of health, <PERSON>, confirmed in an emergency press conference that medical officials had identified the country's index case of COVID-19.\nThe patient, who resides in Trinidad and Tobago, had recently returned from a trip to Switzerland when he started feeling unwell, and made the decision to self-isolate. He has since been moved to the Caura Hospital, which specialises in the treatment of thoracic cases. Members of his family have tested negative for the virus.\nHowever, after the principal of Maria Regina, a primary school located in Port of Spain, issued a release stating that health officials confirmed “the parent of one of [its] students has tested positive for the Corona virus [sic]”, not only did that school close, but several others followed its lead, including Maple Leaf International School, where one of the teachers is the spouse of the pilot who captained a Caribbean Airlines flight to Guyana, on which it was determined that a female passenger was carrying the virus. The passenger later died.\nDuring the sitting of parliament on March 13, Prime Minister <PERSON> announced that all schools country-wide — including tertiary institutions — will be closed for one week initially, after which government will reassess the situation. As of the same date, the Ministry of Health had submitted 63 samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for COVID-19 testing, with just the one positive result.\nThe government has also decided to halt the arrival of cruise ships for the remainder of the 2019-2020 cruise season, which typically runs from November to April. The feeling was that potential economic losses arising from a COVID-19 outbreak in the country would be far worse than the drop in tourism income for the period.", "1019" ], [ "Similar measures have already been taken in Jamaica.\nEven as Prime Minister <PERSON> warned against panic and urged citizens to remain calm and refrain from spreading misinformation, many supermarkets reported instances of stockpiling. On WhatsApp, social media users shared photos and videos of panic-buying in crowded grocery stores and pharmacies, many of which were low on items like hand sanitiser and toilet paper.\nTaking World Health Organization guidelines into consideration, many citizens were already practising recommended measures like hand-washing and social distancing.\nSeveral events have been cancelled in anticipation of the possible spread of the virus, including the Tobago Jazz Festival and Point Fortin Borough Day celebrations, and religious festivals like Phagwa and Spiritual Baptist Liberation Day. In the sister isle of Tobago, which has not yet had a confirmed case of the virus, the hugely popular Goat and Crab Racing event, which takes place every Easter, has also been cancelled.\nThis has been the trend within the region, with St. Lucia cancelling its annual jazz festival despite the tourism dollars it attracts, and Jamaica postponing its Carnival celebrations — which usually take place in April — to October 2020.\nIn Trinidad and Tobago, however, there was still time for a laugh, even in the midst of anxiety. Quite apart from the memes making the rounds on social media, the satirical news site Wired868 poked fun at party-loving Trinbagonians’ priorities by quipping about ways in which they could “make it safely through this thing to get to Carnival 2021 on the other side”.\nAll jokes aside, though, the country, like much of the Caribbean, is bracing for the effects of COVID-19, both human and economic. Chair of the Tobago Division of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, <PERSON>, has asked the prime minister to visit the island to discuss the potential impact of the virus on Tobago's economy, which is still trying to get back on an even keel since severe, prolonged disruptions to the inter-island ferry service a couple of years ago.\nHealth minister <PERSON> has likened the present situation to walking a tightrope — trying to keep the economy functioning while taking all “necessary, reasonable” health precautions — but insisted that the health authorities were as prepared as possible for the arrival of COVID-19.\nOn March 13, at 7:44 p.m. UTC-04:00, the Ministry of Health confirmed a second case, a 66-year-old man who had travelled less than two weeks previously and went to a public health facility on March 12 seeking medical care.", "1019" ], [ "Caribbean Airlines doesn’t fly Boeing’s 737 MAX, but travellers are still asking questions · Global Voices\nA Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, the same model involved in crashes of Ethiopian Airlines (March 10, 2019) and Lion Air (October 29, 2018). Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY 2.0.\nWhen the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 went down just outside the country's capital, Addis Ababa, on March 10, 2019, it was the second Boeing 737 MAX crash in five months. In October 2018, a Lion Air flight crashed into the ocean off Indonesia just minutes after takeoff. In both cases, there were no survivors.\nThe accidents have raised concerns about the integrity of the jet's design and software, with many international aviation authorities taking measures to suspend the MAX from operating in their airspace.\nOn March 12, two days after the Ethiopian Airlines crash, the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration tweeted that its review of the jet “shows no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft”:\nUPDATED #FAA Statement regarding @Boeing 737 MAX. pic.twitter.com/HxObBr7qRf\n— The FAA (@FAANews) March 12, 2019\nBy the following day, it had updated its position, ordering the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft “as a result of the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site […] together with newly refined satellite data available to FAA this morning.”\nThe grounding remains in effect pending further investigation, which would include analysis of the aircraft’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders. None of this, however, seems to be doing much to reassure Caribbean travellers, whose concern hinges around the fact that Caribbean Airlines (CAL), the third largest carrier serving the Caribbean and Central America, had previously announced its intention to lease this model of jet.\nFollowing the Ethiopian Airlines crash, the Trinidad Express published a story titled “CAL’s plan to lease 12 jets causing panic”, which no longer appears to be available online.", "1019" ], [ "Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of Finance, <PERSON>, responded to the report via a statement dated March 12:\nThe first Boeing 737 MAX 8 is scheduled for delivery in December 2019 and CAL therefore has ample time to make alternative arrangements is this model is found to be unsafe.\nCalling the article “alarmist”, <PERSON> noted that American Airlines uses the same aircraft “to service its flights in and out of Trinidad every day” and “if passengers were really panicking, then they would certainly be concerned about travelling […] on an airline which already has the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in regular service”.\nThe following day, Trinidad and Tobago's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) prohibited both the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 from its airspace until they are deemed safe for use. The newspaper interpreted this as some sort of vindication — but that spat aside, what exactly is the issue with the 737 MAX?\nJudging from the similarities between the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes, the challenge appears to lie within the aircraft's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).\nIn this system, there is a sensor designed to detect when the plane stalls. This type of “stalling” has nothing to do with the engine; it means that the aircraft is not producing the lift needed for regular flight. This happens when the wing of the plane exceeds what is called its “angle of attack” — and in the Boeing MAX 8, the system responds by automatically pushing the nose of the plane down to get airflow back over the wing and prevent the stall.\nIn this Skillshare YouTube video (15:52), a pilot explains why the MCAS system is crucial “to help the pilots in that very particular situation where you're sitting with a high angle of attack, a low speed, with the flaps up — and manual flight — to get the nose down …”\nBoeing originally touted this new 737 model as a “seamless” upgrade from its older planes — one that would spare airlines the significant cost of retraining. In earlier Boeing jet models, the cockpit crew is trained to disconnect the stabiliser trim and manually fly the plane should this occur; this involves flipping two switches.\nIn the MAX 8, the pilot still has the ability to disconnect the automation and regain control of the aircraft, but several international pilots who have flown this model complained about a lack of information from Boeing. However, no definitive conclusions can — or should — be drawn about the integrity of the aircraft until the report into the Ethiopian Airlines crash is made public.", "827" ], [ "Caribbean calls for global summit to address fair COVID-19 vaccine roll-out · Global Voices\nDoctor writing “COVID-19 Vaccine Loading”; image by <PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY 2.0.\nEven as the World Health Organization (WHO) appeals to Global North countries to stop hoarding COVID-19 vaccines, potentially making acquisition costs even further out of reach for smaller nations, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has called for a global summit to address more equitable distribution.\nSaying that it was “deeply concerned at the current prospect of inequitable access to vaccines to address the pandemic, especially for frontline workers and vulnerable populations,” the CARICOM statement noted smaller countries would inevitably find it difficult to compete in the global marketplace when it comes to paying for vaccines:\nGiven the transmissibility of the virus, all countries are vulnerable and should work together.\nThe Caribbean Community therefore calls for a global summit in the context of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) ACT-A Facilitation Council to discuss equitable access and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines.\nOn September 10, 2020, the WHO established an ACT-Accelerator Facilitation Council, aimed at making the development, scale-up and distribution of COVID-19 “vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics” more fair.\nMaking a case for why the region should be considered higher in the pecking order, the statement added:\nThe inextricable link economically, socially, and by virtue of travel with our neighbours and the wider international community, makes it imperative for CARICOM Member States to be afforded access to vaccines as a matter of urgent priority. This action will be mutually beneficial in breaking the transmission of the virus.\nCARICOM's position was well received across the region, with mainstream media editorials coming out in support of its call. The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian for instance, in lamenting the lack of global cooperation when it comes to making sure everyone has access to the vaccine, suggested:\nThere is a real risk, given the transmissibility of COVID-19 and the emergence of more infectious variants in recent weeks, that the pandemic could drag on for years before it is finally brought under control.\nSeveral countries have already secured priority access through Advance Purchase Agreements (APAs) with vaccine manufacturers. Such contracts, which guarantee governments an agreed-upon number of vaccines, are legally binding. There have been reports of Global North countries like Canada reserving four times as many vaccines as it needs to immunise its population.\n“More than 39 million doses of vaccine have now been administered in at least 49 higher-income countries.\nJust 25 doses have been given in one lowest-income country.\nNot 25 million; not 25 thousand; 25″-@DrTedros #EB148 #COVID19 #ACTogether https://t.co/6Rom7e5Nz7 pic.twitter.com/hVi6nCqiXD\n— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 18, 2021\nMeanwhile, Caribbean governments have not been able to confirm when exactly the vaccine will become available, but Trinidad and Tobago's Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr.", "1019" ], [ "<PERSON> hopes that it will be by the end of the first quarter of 2021.\nThe twin-island nation has been in direct discussions with vaccine manufacturers, as well as with COVAX, one of the pillars of the WHO's Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. COVAX aims to secure global access to COVID-19 vaccines, regardless of countries’ ability to pay for them.\nMeanwhile, Jamaica's Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. <PERSON>, who agreed that “the development and swift global deployment of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 is essential to containing the global pandemic,” said that the island's first batch of vaccines via COVAX, due in April 2021, would provide approximately 292,000 doses — enough to vaccinate approximately 146,000 Jamaicans.\nAll CARICOM member states have signed on to participate in the COVAX facility, which assures the region more than a million doses. However, COVAX only guarantees enough doses for all countries to vaccinate 20 per cent of their population before other countries can increase roll-out.\nWithout global buy-in, however, poorer nations that can least afford to weather the economic fallout of the pandemic may well not see a vaccine for another year.\nThe other side of the coin is the willingness of Caribbean populations to get the vaccine, especially in light of stories like the deaths of 23 Norwegian nursing home patients days after having received the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Despite such incidents, Trinidadian epidemiologist Dr.", "1019" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago split over whether services like Facebook should pay local taxes · Global Voices\nImage by www.thoughtcatalog.com/\nIn mid-August 2019, the head of one of Trinidad and Tobago's largest conglomerates spoke out against online services like Facebook earning revenue in the country without being made to pay local taxes.\n<PERSON>, chair of ANSA McAL, which owns Guardian Media Limited (which comprises a daily newspaper, a television station and a radio network) among other companies, believes that Facebook undermines the impact and profits of local media houses that make investments and create jobs in Trinidad and Tobago. While some companies like Facebook do have local offices in some of their larger markets, it is not the norm.\nThe response to <PERSON>'s statements has been mixed, with many social media users dismissing the comments as a demonstration of the sense of entitlement from society's “1%”. Several netizens expressed the view that social media was the “vox populi”, speaking truth to mainstream media's perceived agendas and political interests. Others maintained that <PERSON> has a point—and he's not the first one to make it.\nFrance, for instance, tired of waiting for the rest of Europe to reach an agreement on the issue, introduced its own 3 percent digital tax in January 2019. Canada, has similarly honed in on Netflix (another company with numerous paid subscribers in Trinidad and Tobago) and has taken legislative measures to ensure that these global digital services companies are paying their dues. However, just as in France, Trinidad and Tobago consumers remain concerned that if similar measures were imposed locally, the additional costs would simply be passed on to them. When the Trinidad and Tobago proposed to introduce an online shopping tax in Trinidad and Tobago in 2016, consumers railed against the measure, and the legislation never came to pass.\nJuly 2019 statistics estimate that Trinidad and Tobago has 714,700 Facebook users, accounting for 51.8% of its entire population, some of whom naïvely responded to <PERSON>'s concern by saying, “Does he know that Facebook is free?”\n“Free” is a loaded word. While it doesn't cost anything to use the platform, Facebook charges for advertising and gains revenues from boosting posts.", "957" ], [ "And as Global Voices’ 2017 research project on Facebook's Free Basics service and many other commentators have noted, this comes at a price, as the platform collects and monetises users’ data. Despite the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed that Trinidad and Tobago's 2010 election was a testing ground for more widespread data sharing, many local netizens still trust the Facebook platform more than traditional media and admit it is their primary source of news.\nIn the Trinidad and Tobago market, as in others throughout the world, mainstream media has being adversely affected by the immediacy and free availability of digital services like Facebook.\nAnother point <PERSON> raised is that companies like Facebook and Netflix are a burden into the country's foreign exchange reserves, since their services are paid for in US currency. In recent years the Trinidad and Tobago government has been increasingly concerned about the outflows of currency from the country, to the point where the Central Bank now limits the amount of foreign currency individuals and businesses can access, and local banks have enforced stricter credit card limits.\nThose who agree that digital Goliaths like Facebook and Netflix should be taxed in each market in which they operate, believe that such legislation will give local <PERSON> a fighting chance by levelling the playing field. It's a fair argument, but the virtual nature of the Internet has made this a very complex issue, especially for small countries and regions.\nIt's also noteworthy that players like Guardian Media also use Facebook as its primary digital advertising, marketing and communications platform, an irony that was not lost on users of the social network and which underscores both the power of these digital giants and the intricacy of the problem.\nIn one conversation thread in the closed Facebook group Wired868, journalist <PERSON> got down to the heart of the matter:\nIf the situation was reversed and a Trinidad and Tobago company was getting marketing and advertising revenue off US companies, do you really think <PERSON> would not want a slice?\nFor me, <PERSON> is not a god. He is a businessman, His business earns revenue here. Therefore he should pay tax here. That's my point of principle. Nothing more.", "957" ], [ "Trinidad and Tobago’s First Female President Claims Her Role as ‘Humble First Servant’ · Global Voices\nAn image of Trinidad and Tobago's new president, <PERSON>, widely shared on social media. Original photograph by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nOn March 19, 2018, Trinidad and Tobago swore in its sixth president, <PERSON>, making history as the island's first female head of state since becoming a republic in 1976.\nAn attorney by profession, <PERSON> worked in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for more than a decade before going into private practice. She was appointed first to the bench and thereafter to the Court of Appeal where she served until her retirement in 2016.\n<PERSON>’ appointment attracted major attention on social media and many netizens consider her to be an excellent choice for the position. <PERSON>, a Trinidadian who is the Head of Diversity at Facebook posted:\nCongratulations to President <PERSON>, the first woman to hold the office in Trinidad and Tobago. The thing about ‘firsts’ is that they are bitter sweet. It finally feels like the narrow vision of the past has broadened to include more people on their merits, and yet we are reminded in this moment of how long it took and what a heavy burden of expectations the first one to push through carries. Wishing her and all the others who will walk through the now-open door, well in their humble service.\nFormer temporary independent senator Dr. <PERSON> suggested:\nHer Excellency <PERSON> is the change this nation needs I believe.\nTaking office after a controversial predecessor\n<PERSON>, <PERSON>’ predecessor, was a controversial figure.", "957" ], [ "At his inauguration in 2013, he made a cryptic speech about his powers under the Westminster system of governance: “Powers you think I have… I do not. Powers you think I do not have… I do,” he said.\nThose words came back to haunt him.\nAllegations of impropriety in public office plagued <PERSON> following the release of the 2015 Auditor General's Report on the Public Accounts, made public on April 29, 2016. The report noted financial irregularities which came to the attention of civil society.\n<PERSON>, a university lecturer, used social media to challenge the former president regarding his acceptance of a $28,000 Trinidad and Tobago Dollar TTD (just over $4,000 USD) monthly housing allowance over a two-year period while living in state-funding housing, contrary to the rules.\nA senior attorney in the United Kingdom who examined <PERSON>'s documents concluded: “The case is finely balanced but I believe that there are at the moment reasonable grounds to suspect that the offence of misconduct in public office has been committed.”\nJust over a year ago, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service announced that its anti-corruption unit would launch an investigation into the presidential housing allowance, but no further updates on the status of the investigation have been issued.\nNetizens openly expressed satisfaction with <PERSON>'s departure.\nOn Facebook, <PERSON> posted:\nToday is a historic day as H. E. Justice Madam <PERSON> becomes the first female President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.\nWhile I have bought ‘Cyat in Bag’ [cat in bag] before with many a political figure in the Republic, Her Excellency's career, deportment and media interviews thus far has given me hope that she will be a great office holder. Hopefully her first act in office would be reclaim some dignity to the office by allowing a full investigation into the actions of her predecessor on the many allegations levied towards him.\n‘Mae Day'! ‘Mae Day'!\nOne of many citizens who attended <PERSON>’ inauguration, <PERSON> branded her posts with the hashtag #PaulaMaeDay, which was quick to catch on. She later quipped:\n[…] It is #PaulaMaeDay\nMay she never abuse her #StrenkAndPowaz.\n#Overdue\nHaving been burned by the <PERSON> experience, some netizens were not so convinced. On Facebook, <PERSON> explained:\nI’m not listening to or watching the swearing in. I’m still traumatized by the last speech that bamboozled an entire nation and I still have questions like WHERE DE MC MONEY DAWG??! I do, however, wish Justice <PERSON> the absolute best and hope she does right by all of us.\n<PERSON>’ swearing-in ceremony — and her maiden presidential address, in particular — was well subscribed.", "957" ] ]

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[ [ "Anatomy of a Trinidad earthquake · Global Voices\nScreenshot from the USGS's interactive map of the August 21 earthquake.\nI remember Haiti's 2010 earthquake clearly. I wasn't there physically, but the rest of me certainly was, in mind and heart. The Global Voices Caribbean team published close to 50 posts about the rescue, relief, and recovery efforts in the two months that followed January 12, and we had a contingent on the ground for a short period in the early stages of recovery, to support Haitian netizens, who had limited access to electricity and internet, in sharing their own perspectives on the disaster.\nHaiti's earthquake, a startling 7.0 in magnitude, produced calamitous results: in the 30-40 seconds it lasted, it was as if a child had had a tantrum and trashed his Lego city. Both the death toll and the economic toll—burdens the struggling island nation was ill-equipped to bear—were staggering. Even from a distance, that earthquake changed me: it solidified the power of citizen media platforms to speak for people in disaster (and war) zones when traditional media could not even find safe passage. It was a phenomenon that would repeat itself, from the start of the Arab Spring later that year to the ongoing crisis in Syria. But the event also solidified in my mind that we are our brother's keeper. A global community. There, but for the grace of God, go I.\nOn August 21, 2018, along with the rest of Trinidad and Tobago, there I went. The quake, 7.3 in magnitude at its epicentre in northern Venezuela, was 6.9 by the time its ripple effects reached us in Trinidad. At 5:31 pm local time, I was working at my computer, expecting my husband to arrive home from work at any moment. He was supposed to pick up our son, who was at a friend's house. When the rumbling started, I wasn't overly concerned. Our island lies along a fault line, so we're used to tremors from time to time, and they're usually moderate and short-lived. So I did what I usually do: nothing.", "1019" ], [ "“Oh,” I thought to myself, “it's an earthquake. Let's see what happens.”\nWithin seconds, the rumbling got louder: I was suddenly face to face with an angry lion roaring over turf, walls trembling with its echo. I got up from my chair, looked out the window: my entire neighbourhood was off-kilter, so violent was the rocking. This was no run of the mill earthquake. I did what I never do: I got out of the house. By the time I reached the living room, I felt as if I were in the middle of a band on Carnival Tuesday, the music so loud it was bursting through the speakers and rattling everything around it: boom, boom, boom! The floor was moving to beat, dancing to a wicked, malicious rhythm—as one friend put it, a “dutty wine” that just would not stop.\nThe quake lasted a terrifying total of 90 seconds, and came in waves, each one more forceful than the next, so that by the time I had made it into my backyard and looked down the slope to the most heavily wooded area, dense with fruit trees and tall, swaying bamboo, the ground might as well have been a bedspread that I was shaking out: up and down it went in a painfully slow motion. I was silenced, diminished and at the same time in total awe. This was nature and I understood myself to be at the very heart of it.\nThe reason I ran outside was a strategic one: if anything started to crumble, I didn't want to be trapped. In the open air, I could at least see what might be in threat of toppling, and…well…avoid it. But in my backyard, surrounded by cocoa and poui trees and a majestic immortelle, I felt strangely calm in the midst of the turmoil, and more present than I have been in ages. This is not to say that I did not call on God to make it stop. (In fact, those might have been my exact words.) But if anything was true in that moment, it was that we are all connected. Dualities faded away: from the birds in the trees to the bandits on the streets, we were all levelled. The things we allow to separate us seemed insignificant compared to the separation of tectonic plates.\nMy husband called at 5:33 pm, just as the shaking was settling down. I had left my phone inside. It had never occurred to me to take it with me, far less film the event like so many social media users had, but the minute he told me he was still at the office I was out the door and in my car to go to collect my son.", "323" ], [ "Caribbean: Thanks, Dad! · Global Voices\nFather's Day, that worldwide celebration honouring dads and their important role in the family dynamic, is marked in the Caribbean on the third Sunday of June and regional bloggers posted en masse yesterday for the occasion. From the eloquent to the irreverent, here's what they had to say…\nJamaican diaspora blogger <PERSON> noticed that the “rain lilies had once again bloomed after the long, dry season that we’ve had in South Florida”, explaining that those particular flowers had a special significance for him because they reminded him of his dad:\nI did not know my father, <PERSON>, very well. I was his tenth child from four marriages, so the time that I spent with him was always important to me. In the brief times that I spent with him…I realized that he was a charming, brilliant man…\nOur family started <PERSON> get-togethers which were prompted (sadly) when we found out that our father was ill. My favorite memory of that time was sitting on the verandah with my father and eating roasted corn, smelling the mixture of rain and earth before the showers came tumbling down Long Mountain, watching him fall asleep as the rain fell, and realizing in that moment that even though he might soon not be with us, that everything was irie.\nAll was not forgotten, but forgiven. I was walking with him in the lane at the back of the house, he pulled up a rain lily, handed it to me, and said, ‘There, you can’t say I never gave you anything.’ And he laughed. The old devil laughed. And all I could do was laugh and tell him that I loved him.", "820" ], [ "He said, ‘I know.’\nSo, whenever the rain lilies bloom at my front door, I remember my father and those brief moments we had together—which were as brief and miraculous as the appearance of rain lilies—and I give thanks.\nAnother Jamaican living in the U.S., <PERSON>, who admits his parenting skills are “a work-in-progress”, used the opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of his own father:\nAs I comb through my memories, I can see vividly the many things my father did for me, but I will try to synthesise them into a few lessons, on to which I try to hold in my efforts to be a good father.\nHe showed me that fathers and mothers should be equal partners in raising a child.\nI thank him for showing me the value of consistency in parenting. I thank him for always keeping his word. He never promised more than he could deliver.\nHe explained to me that discipline is learning what is the right thing to do; it is not imposed. He explained that being a parent is a lifetime occupation…Thank you, Daddy.\nIn stark contrast, <PERSON> reported on Jamaica's “own brand of incomprehensible Father’s Day exuberance when popular singjay <PERSON> the day with: Big up to all a the fathers dem inna prison weh kill a man fi dem yute. I would too.”\nGirl With a Purpose, meanwhile, called fatherhood “a very special period in a man's life where he truly learns to give of and extend himself outside of himself to other human beings that he brought into this world”, and went on to interpret several Biblical passages on the role of husbands and fathers, saying:\nTo truly understand what God expects of fathers, we need to go to the human race's owner's manual – the Bible.\nFather's Day greetings from members of the Cuban diaspora were imbued with calls for freedom. El Cafe Cubano thanked his father “for always being there…and for setting the example of the importance of family”:\nOne of the reasons I do this blog is for you. I cannot FREE Cuba for you, but I will do everything I can to try to FREE Cuba.\n<PERSON> thoughts were also “with the incredible Cuban fathers who have done so much and sacrificed everything for their children to live in freedom”:\nThere are too many Cuban fathers who are not with us today because they gave their life struggling for the freedom of their country and liberty for their families and all Cubans. Let us remember them and thank them on this day, offering a special prayer for their families. They gave their lives not only so their children would have an opportunity to live in freedom, but so their countrymen could as well.", "192" ], [ "2016 Was the Caribbean’s Year of Loss · Global Voices\nThe year 2016. Image by <PERSON>, used under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license.\nFor bloggers in the Caribbean, “2016” has nearly become an obscenity. Adjectives now used to describe this “annus horribilis” include “sucky”, “terrible” and “the worst”. The thing that drove netizens over the edge — compounding the region's soaring crime rate and economic challenges — was the fact that so many outstanding artists, leaders and visionaries passed away this year.\nSwan Songs\nIt began with the musicians. In early January 2016, Trinidadian steel band arranger, <PERSON>, passed away on the eve of the country's Panorama music contest, where scores of steel pan players, organised into full orchestras, compete for one of the most prestigious titles on the annual Carnival circuit.\nThe Facebook group Maraval Road summed up the loss quite succinctly:\nThe pan world lost one of the biggest icons today. <PERSON> is credited with pushing pan to the next level and has written some of what is still known as the most difficult and genre defying music ever to come from Trinidad and Tobago.\n<PERSON> worked his magic with countless musical pieces over the years, like this novel arrangement of calypsonian Lord Kitchener‘s “Mystery Band”:\nFour short days later, the region — like much of the rest of the world — was shocked at the passing of British-born rocker <PERSON>. <PERSON>'s music affected the people of the Caribbean in astounding ways. In an interview with Global Voices, fashion blogger <PERSON> explained why:\nI wasn't surprised at the universal reaction […] but the Caribbean reaction was thrilling and reassuring in a different way. Growing up in Trinidad, it wasn't always easy to discover older music in different genres and I sometimes felt like a teenage misfit listening to The Beatles, <PERSON> and <PERSON>. You have to seek it out. I love that so many of us did, and we are all feeling the loss.\nAnother international artist whose death, in April 2016, shook Caribbean music fans to their core was <PERSON>. American artist and activist <PERSON>, wrote a blog post about the impact of <PERSON>'s music; it was widely shared across the regional blogosphere:\nAs is the case with all cultural icons, the grief is being felt in all corners, by people of all races, ethnicities, economic classes, gender expressions, etc. There is no doubt that his Purple Majesty touched people all over this world.\nFor me, <PERSON> was confirmation of the heights one could reach when they weren’t afraid…to be different.", "550" ], [ "Non-conforming. Confusing. Questionable. Nuanced. Hard to understand. Hard to explain. Though I was deeply appreciative of his musical genius, <PERSON> was more of a spiritual psychopomp for me, a shining example of how to obtain the deepest form of liberation: being your damn self.\nBy July, the brilliant but largely unacknowledged Trinidadian guitarist <PERSON> also passed away. <PERSON>'s inimitable style earned him the international reputation of being one of the greatest chord players of all time, alongside some of the world's best known jazz musicians, like <PERSON> and <PERSON>. Trinidadian calypsonian <PERSON>, who paid tribute to <PERSON> in his classic song Calypso Music, posted this Facebook status update on hearing of <PERSON>'s passing:\n<PERSON>'s gone boy. We wasted his brilliance. We only entered his library now and then. What a people eh!\nFor people like him, let's hope that there really is an afterlife so that his fingers can dance across the fretboard again. RIP boss.\nTrinidadians <PERSON> and <PERSON>, who each in his own way loved and promoted the music and culture of the country — and the region — also passed away this year.\nFinal Innings\nTwo seminal personalities in the world of sport left us in 2016. Hearts were heavy with grief the world over at the deaths of Barbadian cricket commentator <PERSON> and <PERSON>, the first Trinidadian to to circumnavigate the globe in his trusty ketch, the Hummingbird II.", "357" ], [ "Voting For Ourselves · Global Voices\n“I Voted”; photo by <PERSON>, used under a (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.\nEver since I started blogging about the political landscape in Trinidad and Tobago, I frequently get asked who I’m voting for in the 2015 elections. The blog began as a way for me to cope with the growing helplessness and hopelessness I felt about living and working in Trinidad and Tobago in my adult years.\nThat despair hit a high—or low, depending on how you look at it— during the illegal state of emergency (SoE) announced by Prime Minister <PERSON> from her private residence in late August 2011.\nThe SoE broke precedent, as did many other actions of the People’s Partnership government during in its term in office. The manner of its announcement, the incoherent justifications given, and the fact that it lasted three whole months brought home to me, in concrete ways, how easy it is for a group of people to take away my freedom of movement, erode my rights as a citizen and essentially decide whether or not I fit the profile of a criminal.\nI spent several weeks during that three-month period listening to friends defend the loss of freedom on the basis that it made them “feel safe”—this despite the fact that the SoE in fact did little to curb crime. By the time the SoE officially ended, in December 2011, I had decided that my tenure as a passive citizen was coming to an end.\nNow, when people ask me who am I voting for in the next election, I tell them I’m voting for myself.\nNo, it’s not that I have tossed my hat into the electoral ring. Rather, I have invested in my civic education, because I no longer think that the problem with our politics resides in the governments we elect, but rather in the type of citizens and voters we have produced.\nDespite the turbulence, oppression and violence that have shaped and developed the Caribbean region, thanks to the physical attributes of sea, sun and sand, it’s considered a laid-back place. And nowhere is this mythology more dominant than in Trinidad and Tobago.\nOurs is a culture that is prone to last-minute preparation; to shutting down any new idea that requires hard work; to talk, talk and more talk; and a reluctant to take action that isn’t centred around pleasure. We like bacchanal, but we avoid conflict. We are quick to argue, but don’t like making people feel uncomfortable or bad, because we don’t believe in burning bridges. Back-scratching is a way of life here—to such an extent, in fact, that we’ve coined our own expression for it: to give a bligh.\nThis sort of culture has led to a laziness about our roles as citizens. In Trinidad and Tobago, “democracy” happens only once every five years, and starts and ends at the ballot box. “Parliament” is a building to point out to visitors as we drive through Port of Spain; and the role of prime ministers and members of parliament is to distribute food hampers and kiss babies once in a while.\nWe don’t know our history as a country; and even worse, we don’t know our laws.", "926" ], [ "Nor do we care to obey them. We don’t understand the form of governance we have. “Westminster System” is merely a catch phrase. “Separation of powers” might as well be an obeah spell. And forget about discussing our Executive arm: the President, Chief Justice and Judiciary might as well be a council of wizards.\nI made the decision to walk away from this type of civic laziness and educate myself. Exercising any muscle for the first time takes dedication and grit, and it didn’t take me long to realize that along with a civics program in schools, this country also needs better journalists and reporters. Short of a few columns in one or two daily newspapers, there is very little informed political commentary in the media. Talk radio is even worse, since it relies heavily on emotional opinion-sharing. I cannot underscore enough the key role of the media in changing the ways citizens think about and discuss issues.\nThe journey from 2011 to now has been challenging, exciting and tedious. It has involved lots of reading, writing and talking, not all of it pleasant, but all of it useful in helping me formulate, discard and re-shape my ideas about politics and governance. I look at politicians and voters differently now. And I have a carefully drawn up a list of criteria that political representation must meet in order to gain my support.\nI no longer expect politicians to have integrity.", "339" ], [ "In Trinidad & Tobago, where women are under siege, sometimes even words feel futile · Global Voices\nA mural from Guatemala's Safe Cities Programme, for which UN Women commissioned the images as part of the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence in 2017. Photo by UN Women/<PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.\nEditor's note: Trinidad and Tobago has been experiencing an upsurge in femicides and gender-based violence for several years, some of which appears to be linked to an increase in human trafficking. On November 29, 2020, teenager <PERSON> was abducted by the driver of a Private Hire (PH) car; she was later found dead. Two months later, to the day, 23-year-old <PERSON> was kidnapped, last seen in a taxi she had hailed to take her home after work on January 29. Since then, social media users have been sharing their anger, frustration and prayers asking, begging, for her safe return.\nTrinidadian poet <PERSON>, who wrote about both these young women and the wider issue of gender violence in a Facebook post, offers deep insight into how unsafe women are feeling. Her piece is republished in full, below.\nI write poems. There is a space where the poem feels futile. That space is the several days of <PERSON> abduction. The language of the kidnapping is its own severe metre:\n“They searched the forest for the woman.\nShe was not found.”\nSometimes, the cruelty of the world renders the instrument of a poem mute. I wanted to write a poem for <PERSON>, and I could not. The kind of poem I want to write about <PERSON> is a poem of return, not a poem of dreadful sorrow.\n“A young woman gets into a taxi.\nThe taxi bears false ‘H’ plates.”\nWhen life is hard and men are brutal, you can build a poem out of nothing but the facts. The poem writes itself around the ransom calls, the threats of severed ears, the ticking clock.\n“My daughter has a rare skin condition.\nI am begging, I’m begging.”\nI don’t want to write anything but a series of messages to my family and my friends saying that <PERSON> has been found. If I could write whatever I wanted, I would be able to say that <PERSON> has been unkilled, brought back to life to visit her grandmother without fear.\nInstead of that, I am holding my breath.", "941" ], [ "Instead of that, I refresh my Google Search throughout the day. Every time I type in ‘<PERSON>’, Google suggests I add ‘found’ to my inquiry, suggesting that around our twin islands, people are typing ‘<PERSON> found’ with frequency, with urgency, with desperate hope. I wish our collective hope was not desperate, but it is. It feels desperate. I don’t think I can write a poem or an essay or anything that can help against that. Then I am reminded that one of the earliest functions of poetry is prayer.\nMy prayer is simple.\nPlease may <PERSON> be safe.\nPlease may <PERSON> be unharmed.\nPlease may <PERSON> be found.\nWhat I want is a world where we are unkillable. I want an island where we wake up and board taxis with the certainty that we will not be abducted, that our cell phones, bank cards and toiletries will not be found in the homes of our abductors. I would like to live here and not be afraid. I want that for you, too. For you to stop getting up at three am and looking out your apartment windows into the streets where cctv can only tell people how you were hurt, not help you during the hurting. I want you not to clutch your keys like talons. I want all of this, our hundreds of disappeared countrypeople, not to make you bitter and vengeful.\nI want to tell you I have answers, but I don’t. Only poems, and sometimes, lately, not even those.\nMay you sleep well, and deeply, where you lay your head tonight.\nMay the taximan whose car you enter tomorrow morning be known to you, be safe as your every breath.\nUpdate: On February 4, police confirmed that the female body found down a precipice in the Heights of Aripo, is that of 23-year-old, <PERSON>.\n<PERSON> 2017 poetry collection, Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting, was shortlisted for the 2018 Felix Dennis Award for best first collection.", "820" ], [ "In the grip of pandemic, ‘the time is now’ · Global Voices\nA blossoming lantana flower mimics the appearance of the COVID-19 virus. Photo by <PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.\nEditor's note: Against the backdrop of Trinidad and Tobago's increasing rates of COVID-19 infections, the government re-introduced certain restrictions on April 29, including the closure of restaurants, gyms and places of worship, and the reduction—to 25 per cent capacity—of the air and sea bridge routes between the two islands.\nBy May 3, those restrictions became even tighter after Principal Medical Officer Dr. <PERSON> advised that the country sits at the “tipping point,” with the possibility of the parallel healthcare system reaching capacity in less than two weeks should the current rates of infection, including the number of patients needing access to intensive care or high dependency care units, continue to climb.\nTrinidadian poet <PERSON> has given a lot of thought to how people can dig deep and find ways to cope in the midst of this crisis. An edited version of her piece is republished below.\nIt's now. The time is now.\nWe're in a strange stasis, a kind of emotional stranglehold. We feel the daily effects of our physical limitations. Some of us haven't kissed our nieces and nephews who've turned one during the pandemic. Some of us still haven't been able to visit our grandparents, or their gravesites. There are babies whose most solid impression of the human face are that it is masked.\nHow will we get through this? I don't know how we will get through this.\nI've put off so much doing because I've been convinced I'm made wrong, fashioned improperly, or worse, that I mutated myself from the previously “normal” prototype I received when I landed here on earth. I fattened it, queered it, made it rebellious, irresponsible, and weak. And I've taken this very body and been very irreverent with it. I've wondered why, during a pandemic, better bodies than mine are no longer here, doing better things, while mine persists.\nIt's not like love is the answer, or peace, or daily bread when everyone doesn't get daily bread or dhal […] or rice. But I do feel, I really do feel, that the answer in every small moment we've all been asked to face more and more of, is you. Your imperfection. Your holy, riotous mess. Your snotty-nosed tears and incoherent rambling. Your dutty wine in front of the mirror alone at four a.m. with a half-bottle of puncheon [rum]. Your prayers on your knees to the god you're either falling back in love with or learning how to ghost. I don't know, but I want to be here, persisting. Intemperately.", "1019" ], [ "Ridiculously. Maybe even foolishly. And the difficulty has been in believing I deserve that grace. Maybe you feel the same way.\nSo it's now. The time. To confront the person who has caused you pain during the pandemic, or possibly your whole life. To break up with them. To say yes, fuck yes. To say no, fuck no. To buy the dress that you think makes you look fat, and to flaunt it fatly down fat aisle of fat-land, because you will be nothing but beautiful in it. Now is the time to take the giant interstellar loan from the gilded bank of every possibility you've been denying yourself. To believe that what you make, magnificently, will pay it all back. Now is the time to adopt a cat. Now is the time to grow a twelve-foot beard. Now is when you admit you are depressed. Now is when the ribs in your chest open like bone hands and you fill the space inside with flowers, music, marijuana, good sex, the Goddess, and chocolate.\nNot only because we don't know how much time is left. That has always been true. The pandemic didn't make it truer, so much as it underlined how few choices the poor, the at-risk, and the so called Global South have when confronted with disaster capitalism. The time isn't now because we're running out of it.\nIt's now because you are worth every second of peace you can claim for yourself on this brutally indifferent spinning rock. Eat all the chocolate cake. Ignore all the sanctimony. There are no white knights, but there is *you*.\nAnd that's something.\n<PERSON> 2017 poetry collection, Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting, was shortlisted for the 2018 Felix Dennis Award for best first collection.", "130" ], [ "‘Ring de bell’: <PERSON>, who mainstreamed Trinidad & Tobago’s rapso music, has died · Global Voices\nScreenshot of <PERSON> from the video “Never Ever Worry”, filmed by Earth TV (1997).\nTo Trinidad and Tobago, <PERSON> was much more than an artistic icon; he was a fount of cultural knowledge. With his passing at a private hospital on July 13 (he had been ailing for some time), the country has lost an elder of its musical artforms—calypso and soca, to be sure—but more specifically, its hybrid, rapso.\nPart poetry, part scintillating backbeat, rapso is defined as “the power of the word in the rhythm of the word,” having grown out of the West African griot or storyteller tradition. In the Caribbean, these musical poets have been traditionally referred to as chantwells, champions of call and response.\nBorn <PERSON> in east Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1954, Brother <PERSON>, as he would most popularly come to be called, eventually changed his name to <PERSON> to better reflect his African heritage. He received his secondary education at the prestigious Queen's Royal College, famous for producing figures such as <PERSON>, the country's first prime minister who led the country to independence from Britain (also a notable historian), and writers <PERSON> and <PERSON>. The school inducted Brother <PERSON> into its Hall of Honour in 2017 in recognition of his contribution to culture and the arts.\nRapso music was pioneered by the late <PERSON>, evolving as a brand a protest music out of the Black Power movement of the late 1960s, during which the country experienced a period of social unrest that culminated in a failed revolution attempt in 1970. Brother Resistance, along with the Network Riddum Band, took up the rapso mantle and carried the form into the 1980s and beyond, spearheading its revival and bringing it into the mainstream of World Music.\nThe band's 1981 debut offering “Busting Out” contained two tracks, one written by <PERSON>, and became a hit. The following year the group released “Roots of de Rapso Riddum”, but their message, deeply rooted in social commentary, was deemed subversive. Police raided and destroyed their band room in June 1983, which only served to fuel their sense of purpose. They continued to release music, always putting the genre front and centre: “Rapso Explosion” (1984), “Rapso Takeover” (1986), and “Rapso Uprising” (1989).\nBrother Resistance continued to be prolific as a solo artist well into the 1990s and 2000s, singing on themes of love, unity, spirituality, and respect for “Mother Earth”, a song that demonstrated just the depth of his perception and vision.", "264" ], [ "Long before the term climate change was coined, <PERSON> was asking, “Is it too late to save the earth?”\nPerhaps his most beloved song, however, was “Ring De Bell”, in which he symbolically advocates for ringing the bell—part of Spiritual Baptist, Orisha and other religious traditions—for culture, justice, freedom and, of course, rapso: “It's a long, long time now we fighting for freedom, victory bound to come […] I come with my bell just to second the motion, rock the rapso riddum.”\nBrother Resistance's work provided a strong foundation for other rapso artists, most notably the group 3 Canal, who posted the following on Facebook:\n‘<PERSON> the father, I am the son and in the name of <PERSON>, Thy kingdom come…’ <PERSON> sang in one of our songs a long time ago and truer words were never spoken. If wasn’t for Brother Resistance, we would not be who we are today. We sang backgrounds on your songs before we even recorded our own. You were always inspiring and encouraging and accessible and humble and rooted and real and wise and committed and strong. Give Thanks for the example and walk Tall in the realm of the ancestors. Rest In Peace Big Brother. ‘Stand firm for yuh Roots and yuh Culture.’ […]\n<PERSON> posted videos of <PERSON> performing, saying:\nNot many have walked your road. Thank you for opening the many doors you did. RIP\nMusician <PERSON> added:\nWow, at a loss for words right now. Brother Resistance was a titan and along with the Network Riddim Band had a major musical influence in my life…on par with <PERSON>, <PERSON> etc….Ring <PERSON> in Peace Brother ✊????", "357" ], [ "A magical image of a Carnival stilt-walker asserts the legitimacy of public breastfeeding in Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices\nOn the southern edge of Port of Spain, while waiting for her band to cross the South Quay judging point on Carnival Tuesday, 2019 Trinidad and Tobago Queen of Carnival <PERSON> breastfeeds her son <PERSON>. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nIt was a beautiful bonding moment seen around the world: Carnival Tuesday in Trinidad and Tobago; newly crowned Queen of Carnival, <PERSON>, calmly sits on the perimeter wall of Lapeyrouse Cemetery in Port of Spain, breastfeeding her one-year-old son, <PERSON>.\n2019 Queen of Carnival <PERSON> sits atop the wall of Lapeyrouse Cemetery on Carnival Tuesday, breastfeeding her son, <PERSON>. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nHer friend <PERSON>, who took the photo, had been following the group and looking after <PERSON>, as <PERSON>, her partner and the other stilt-walkers (known in Trinidad and Tobago as “moko jumbies”) that comprised the carnival band “Palace of the Peacock” strode through the streets. She realised the child was hungry and needed his mother. “I'll rest just now,” <PERSON> promised, and as soon as she saw an opportunity, she did. There weren't a lot of people on the stretch of road bordering the cemetery. <PERSON> perched on the wall and <PERSON> handed <PERSON> up to her. She nursed her son for about ten minutes.\n<PERSON> remembers that moment to have been quite tranquil — unusual for a Carnival Tuesday, when the music is loud and the energy electric.", "264" ], [ "Speaking by telephone with Global Voices, she said, “For most of the day, <PERSON> wore rather bulky ear protection, but we were able to take if off of him and just let him bond with his Mummy. He was quite contented and didn't need to nurse again for a long time afterwards.”\nThat sense of peace is reflected in the serenity of the picture, which has since been shared a number of times on social media, including by The Breastfeeding Association of Trinidad and Tobago and by La Leche League USA.\nMost of the other photographers around were male, <PERSON> recalls, and they shied away from the scene — all but <PERSON>, who snapped several shots of the Brizan that day, some of them while she was breastfeeding. Via email, <PERSON> explained to Global Voices that he wasn't intimidated by capturing the moment, perhaps because his mother had been an obstetrician's assistant: “I think being exposed in such an open way to knowledge of the body has left me today with slightly uncommon attitudes toward being human, nudity, sex, maintaining one's health, and life itself, really.”\nWhile waiting to enter Park Street for the Victoria Square judging point, <PERSON> happily sits at the head of the Moko Somõkõw band on March 5, 2019. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nIn a piece titled “Moko – Mother – Marvel”, <PERSON> told blogger <PERSON>, “The stilts and I become one when I’m a Moko, and when I’m feeding my son, he and I also become one. The experiences are similarly spiritual.” <PERSON> noted that the photographs of Brizan breastfeeding served to “break the worn-out binary dialogue — the divide between the acceptable and unacceptable, the private and the public, the isolated and the social.”\n<PERSON>, a lactation consultant at the Mamatoto Resource and Birth Centre, agrees. She was heartened at how much play the photograph of <PERSON> got, interpreting it as a sign that Trinbagonian mothers are becoming more educated about the benefits of breastfeeding their children. She spoke with Global Voices by phone about societal attitudes towards public breastfeeding, saying, “I don't think it's religious-based; more cultural. Particularly at Carnival, we're a society that says it's okay to put on skimpy costumes and bare your breasts, but if women are breastfeeding, many times they are asked to cover up or go somewhere else.”\nWhile wearing her sticks and sitting atop a wall, <PERSON> takes a moment to feed her son, <PERSON>. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.", "192" ] ]

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[ [ "This is going to break down to two different aspects of the question:\nWhy different shapes?\nUnlike the real world, technological limitations in Star Wars don't dictate almost all aspects of design. Real planes are designed to work based on the ability to generate sufficient lift and thrust to get airborne, which is further complicated by the capabilities of the materials available, the weight the plane will have to lift, and the performance requirements of the aircraft once aloft.\nStar Wars technology has moved beyond such things. The Millennium Falcon is capable of atmospheric flight and demonstrates the ability to perform aerobatic manoeuvres that would rival the most agile of model aircraft.\nhttps://youtu.be/8sarFZJl3h0?t=172\nTherefore we can determine that Star Wars starfighters aren't constrained by the need to balance weight to lift/thrust, or worry about aeronautical control surfaces, or anything else that real world designers would be required to focus on.\nAs such, each manufacturer is free to design their vessels on different criteria. Design philosophies are one factor, each manufacturer tends to have a distinctive style for their respective lines of starfighters (and star ships). There's also the required function of that vessel; A-Wings for instance have comparatively large engines, as befits their status as fast interceptors, while X-wings have comparatively massive guns.\nBeyond the different manufacturers you have the fact that different species entirely are involved in the designs here.", "308" ], [ "The rounded cockpit of the B-wing seems to favour the design aesthetic Mon Cal prefer (both Legends and Disney Canon share that the B-wing's designer was a Mon Calamari), but the X-wing and Y-wing are both distinctly angular. Whereas all real life planes are designed by humans (or at least, computers designed by humans), and humans are all more alike than we are different - especially as aircraft designers borrow ideas from each other.\nThis leads us to conclude that real world homogeny is neither necessary or even present in the in-universe design of starfighters in Star Wars.\nThe second aspect of the question I want to address is:\nhow that makes that particular ship better than other on its tactical function?\nThe answer here is... it doesn't follow from what we see on screen that it does.\nThe Rebellion is generally depicted as scrounging for whatever they can get. Whereas the Empire, with all its resources make ships and starfighters that follow similar lines in vast numbers, the Rebels are shown using whatever they can get. Yes, they may have a few truly exceptional custom works of art amongst their fleet (the Millennium Falcon and the Ghost as examples), but it's shown that they begged, borrowed, and stole most of their starfighters and small star ships.\nIt's only the B-wings that were designed and built entirely by the Rebellion during the course of the civil war, and these are never shown in number.", "963" ], [ "At present, we just don't know for sure.\nTime measurements are based on Earth standards as far as we can apply them to time in Star Wars.\nThere is a specific event in the season finale which is of importance within the Star Wars universe, although likely unknown to the galaxy at large at the time;\n! The destruction of Tipoca city by the Empire.\nThis may have a date canonised at some point in the future, which would allow us to pin point how much time has passed since Order 66 was issued, but at present that's not happened as the Bad Batch finale was the first depiction or mention of that event.\nThe show itself doesn't allow us to clearly track time. Although the events of each episode is not shown to last more than a day or maybe two, there are cuts where the squad are shown travelling between system. The duration for interstellar travel times in Star Wars are poorly defined, often described as mere hours to cross a large part of the galaxy.\nOn top of that there are events which happen off-screen, usually mentioned in the opening scene of each episode. We don't really get to know how long these events take, but given the context I wouldn't expect those breaks to be more than a week or two.", "963" ], [ "Contrary to this, there is plenty of development happening within the Empire, with the introduction of TK troopers. The Empire might be rushing this as much as possible, given the distaste held by <PERSON> in particular against clones, but it's not something they could implement overnight, at least not to the degree shown by the end of the season.\nFinally, we do have a character who might offer some guidance. <PERSON> is still a child and isn't shown to age visibly through the course of the season. While this may be down to artistic reasons (for comparison, <PERSON> aged through occasional redesigns of her character in Clone Wars), we could take this as evidence that the events of the first season couldn't have lasted longer than a year.\nAll this taken together, unless and until dates are given in future works, we could expect the season finale to have occurred between two and twelve months from Order 66. My personal opinion, based on the story progression and development, would be towards a shorter time period of between two and four months.", "503" ], [ "Is there any detail in the canon to suggest where The Liberty and the Tantive IV met to transmit the Death Star plans?\nPursuant to comments made by @tjd and <PERSON> in my answer to this question, I will reproduce the note that I made:\nThe points raised by @tjd and <PERSON>, in the comments to this answer, are solid. Why Leia was in the Tatoo system to begin with depends on a question I could not find an answer to; namely, at what point between Polis Massa/Darknell and Tatooine, did the Tantive IV (Leia's ship) attempt to transmit the now complete Death Star plans to the Liberty? The Death Star plans were not stolen all at once, but as described in Operation Skyhook, in a series of actions that started in AX-235 or Danuta (the canon is contradictory but seems to favor <PERSON>), then Toprawa. The Tantive IV then moved to Polis Massa and Darknell to receive the last parts of the plans, both of which are due west of Tatooine in the 'south' the of galaxy.\nI could not find in the canon where the Liberty and Tantive IV met to attempt to transfer the plans before being intercepted/interrupted by the Immortal.", "865" ], [ "From there the Tantive IV and a rebel detachment moved to the Tatoo sector but their general location was betrayed by U-3PO during the Battle of Tatooine. Their specific location in the system was given away when they tried to activate an uplink station, and then <PERSON> and his contingent moved in, leading to the capture of <PERSON>.\nThe attempted activation of the uplink station still supports that <PERSON> was again trying to transmit the plans (from an out-of-the-way location), rather than being in the Tatoo system to deliver them (which she wasn't, she was there to recruit <PERSON>). She would not have used the HoloNet as it was controlled by the Empire and she most likely could not have transmitted the plans over any large distance via hyperwave communication due its limitations, so it is reasonable that she would have dropped out of hyperspace in an out-of-the-way place to transmit the plans as securely as she could.\nIs there any evidence in the canon to suggest where the Liberty and the Tantive IV met to attempt this transmission?", "865" ], [ "For Arbitrary Population Size\nIf you want a solution for any arbitrary k, where k is the size of the total planetary population, it cannot be done.\nAll fixed resources have their hard limits. This includes planetary surface area and total planet volume. For sufficiently large k, there comes a point where both resources are exhausted and the planet must be vacated.\nThe only way out is to impose:\n1. A hard population limit, enforced through legal/punitive measures.\n2. Offshoring requirements for overabundant populations via forced relocation to satellite systems.\n3. Zoning requirements that impose a hard limit on the number of residents within their premises, which, if enforced, will prevent immigration once Coruscant reaches capacity.\n4. Strict temporary visa allotments that prevent overstay longer than a minimum sufficient period.\nAll of this serves to cap your total population size to a sustainable number, and does not let your planet's support system scale indefinitely.\nFor Fixed Stable Population Size\nAssume now that you only want to be able to support a total population of k, and are willing to exact measures to prevent excess above this. We will proceed on the premise that a stable population has been produced i.e. the birth rate exactly equals the death rate, and your planet's overall population is at an equilibrium.\nIn order to prevent regional overcrowding, you must first consider the following natural limitations:\n* Extent of temperate regions on the planet. Assuming your population can only thrive in certain specific conditions, the range of latitudes that lets your population survive greatly affects population distributions.\nOn Earth, the vast majority of the population - 88%, to be exact - is concentrated within a fairly narrow bound in the northern hemisphere, with over half living above 27 degrees N.", "24" ], [ "This coincides near perfectly with the North Temperate Zone, with an average temperature of 31 degrees Celsius and precipitation of 81 cm.\nNo one wants to live in unusually harsh conditions, so migration to/from the frigid or excessively hot regions of your planet is limited, assuming an alien physiology similar to that of humans. Since you're modelling your planet after Coruscant, which features an influx of migrants of all sorts of physiological proportions, I presume you cannot make assumptions about your alien physiology just yet, so you have to keep in mind the geography of your world before committing to a plausible solution.\n* Natural disaster frequency: Regions that suffer from regular natural disasters, such as hurricanes, active volcano eruptions, etc., historically strongly affect populations, precipitating a brain drain that leads to migration elsewhere. Catastrophic once-in-a-lifetime events can exact extraordinary economic costs, all of which alter the shape of population distribution in the short term and may be hard to recover from in the long-term.\nEven a planet like Coruscant is bound to suffer from natural disasters. Obviously, the sort of disaster depends strongly on the nature of the planet and its orbiting system itself: a planet without axial rotation has no day-night cycle and suffers from uneven heating leading to different natural disaster intensities, while a planet with no ozone layer orbiting a yellow star will suffer from radiation leaks.\n* Resource distribution: A region unable to provide food, shelter, or security for its folks is not going to keep them for long. This ties in somewhat with the point about temperate zones, which typically come bundled with sufficient necessary resources such as food and water, but isn't necessarily connected to them. Some temperate regions may be stripped of vital resources, making them less self-sufficient in their own needs, which in turn exacts a living cost on its inhabitants that may or may not prompt migration. What constitutes a vital resource varies by region and by technology: the abundance of coal, for example, affects how likely a Victorian-era society will be to survive the winter, while coal in a purely geothermal society is no longer as relevant.\nYou also need to consider the following non-natural limitations:\n* Economic imperative: The chief reason migration occurs is because of better economic prospects. This is often tied to the resource distribution issue, but not necessarily so: government capitals can and do become urban hubs despite not being located on, for example, a river. On planets that have moved to a currency system and engage in economic systems similar to humans, we may safely assume that economic imperative is sufficient to prompt migration.\nI'm going to use economic imperative as a catch-all term for a lot of different things here: tax benefits, industry concentration, and geographic closeness to place of work. These are all economic imperatives from a migrant's perspective, and so it seems to fit.\nEconomic imperative can be balanced out by considering cost of living. Urban hubs exhibit higher costs of living than rural population centers, so migration between locations is unlikely to occur if the difference between net take-home pay (pay after taxes) and cost of living is identical or less than the migrant's original home.", "591" ], [ "How were <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and <PERSON> physically trapped by a ray shield?\nIn Revenge of the Sith, <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and <PERSON> are trapped by a ray shield on the Separatist ship the Invisible Hand:\nIt is specifically called it a \"ray shield\" by multiple characters:\n60 INT. BRIDGE-TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER\nBODYGUARD: General, we found the Jedi. They're in hallway 328.\nGENERAL GRIEVOUS: Activate ray shields.\n61 INT. HALLWAY-TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER\nThey run down the hallway. Suddenly, ray shields drop around them, putting them in an electronic box in the middle of the hallway.\n<PERSON>: Ray shields!\nHowever, ray shields are (usually) only capable of stopping energy like blaster bolts.", "605" ], [ "To physically block an object you need a particle shield.\nThe fact that ray shields do not block physical objects is supported by the (fully canon) Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode \"Landing at Point Rain\", in which <PERSON> was seeing running through a ray shield along with clone troopers1:\nThis shield is described as a ray shield in the episode description:\n...On Geonosis, Separatist leader <PERSON>, safe in his newly ray-shielded factories, creates thousands of terrible new weapons which march off the assembly line against the outnumbered clone army...\nRay shields' inability to block physical objects is also supported as a major plot point in A New Hope during the Battle of Yavin briefing:\n<PERSON>: The target area is only two meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the reactor system. A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station. Only a precise hit will set up a chain reaction. The shaft is ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes.\nThe Rebels needed to use proton torpedoes (as opposed to, say, the X-Wing's four blaster cannons) because proton torpedoes are physical objects:\nHence, the Death Star was only destroyed because its ray shielded thermal exhaust port was vulnerable to physical proton torpedoes.\nHow were <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and <PERSON> physically impeded by the Separatist ray shield when the plot in two other canon sources depended on ray shields' inability to block physical objects (including humans)?\nNote that this question is not tagged with [tag:star-wars-legends] -- I have provisionally accepted the Legends answer, but I am still looking for a canon answer.\n1 GIF taken from 15:44 of this Youtube video.", "963" ], [ "No... but it almost is.\nIf we are to take some Legends material into account, Order 66 was buried in a set of Contingency Orders for the Grand Army of the Republic that outlined protocol for a series of \"what if\" scenarios.\nOrder 66 states:\n\"In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), GAR commanders will remove those officers by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established.\"\nRepublic Commando: True Colors\nThe legality of how Order 66 went down hinges on whether or not the Jedi should have attempted to arrest <PERSON>. <PERSON> issued the order in response to <PERSON> attack and used it to claim that the Jedi were acting against the interests of the Republic, all of which appears to be executed legally assuming <PERSON>'s claim was true.\n<PERSON> tells a convincing story and if your question involved him sticking to his guns, it's much harder to answer. But the phrasing of your question actually makes things easier. If in your hypothetical <PERSON> told the truth about everything, he would admit that the Jedi weren't, in fact, acting against the interests of the Republic. They were acting in response to the revelation that <PERSON> was the Sith Lord who was leading the Separatists.", "503" ], [ "That's very much in the Republic's best interests.\nThe attempted arrest of <PERSON> by <PERSON> was justified and while we don't know exactly what the Jedi's authority is, we can at least infer by his words that they had the right to make the arrest:\n<PERSON>: In the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic, you are under arrest, Chancellor.\n<PERSON> and the other JEDI ignite their lightsabers.\n<PERSON>: Are you threatening me, Master <PERSON>?\n<PERSON>: The Senate will decide your fate.\nRevenge of the Sith Script\nWhile one might argue that the Jedi didn't have the authority to kill <PERSON>, I see no reason to make that claim. In the real world, if an officer is attacked, he is allowed to defend himself with lethal force (if necessary). In the absence of in-universe material stating otherwise, it's reasonable to assume <PERSON> had the same right. Especially with his friends lying dead on the floor next to him.\nInterestingly enough, it wasn't illegal to be a Sith so that wouldn't have been the issue (though he would have lost a lot of credibility and support). The only real legal issue with <PERSON>'s actions is that he was leading the Separatists which is treason. If he were truthful about his involvement in starting and leading the war, <PERSON> was justified in his attack and Order 66 had no legal justification.\nBut <PERSON> fudged the details of the encounter with <PERSON>, masked his true role in the war by having the Separatist leaders executed, and then used those deceptions as justification for a perfectly legal process that allowed him to carry out the slaughter of the Jedi Order and the destruction of the Republic.", "503" ], [ "Canon\nThe official Star Wars Databank has this to say:\nIf ever one needed an example of the irredeemable evil that was the Empire, turn to the shattered remains of Alderaan. An influential world, Alderaan was represented in the waning days of the Republic by such venerated politicians as <PERSON> and <PERSON>. A peaceful world, Alderaan was bereft of weaponry in an era of galactic strife. It was not without spirit, however. Alderaan was one of the earliest supporters of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, though its officials prudently kept all ties to the Rebellion secret.", "503" ], [ "Despite such discretion, the Empire knew it to be a haven of Rebel activity, and Grand Moff <PERSON> targeted the beautiful world for reprisal as soon as the Death Star was operational. The massive primary weapon of the battle station obliterated Alderaan, leaving only a lifeless asteroid field behind.\nWookieepedia (citing Star Wars Rebels – \"A Princess on Lothal\") says this:\nDuring this time, Alderaan became the Alliance's main source of munitions. The planet's crown princess and representative in the Imperial Senate, Princess <PERSON>, adoptive daughter of <PERSON> and <PERSON>, began using her diplomatic immunity as an Imperial senator to carry out Rebel missions in restricted Imperial systems.\nLegends\nIn Star Wars: Battlefront II, a 501st trooper says this:\n\"For all their talk of being a peaceful planet, Alderaan had been thumbing its nose at the Empire for years.\"\nThe Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide labels Alderaan as one of the Empire's priority targets for providing political and strategic aid to the Alliance.\nWookieepedia says this (although they didn't cite their source so take it with a grain of salt):\nImmediately after the formation of the Galactic Empire, Alderaan was wracked by anti-Imperial protests, mainly from alien refugees who were now forced to pay an exorbitant tax to return home. Alderaan eventually became a safe haven for rebellious elements who wished to fight the growing oppression of the Empire, which helped bring on the planet's very downfall.\nIncluded among the population was a group of Caamasi refugees depicted in the novel I, Jedi, for example, that fled to Alderaan after an Imperial bombardment destroyed their planet. They were most definitely Rebel sympathizers.\nConclusion - YES\nWhile it's hard to determine what percentage of the Alderaan people were pro-Rebellion, it had a reputation for being very sympathetic to the Alliance which should be sufficient for the question.\nIt's generally understood that a significant portion of the galaxy's population didn't like the Empire but any official stance against the regime would carry significant consequences and violent suppression. Therefore, Alderaan, being a peaceful planet, was officially aligned with the Empire but both its political figures and its people had a reputation of secretly being very influential supporters of the Rebellion.", "503" ], [ "Other than <PERSON>'s very valid points, several things would prevent this kind of naval strategy:\n1) Usually there are patrols and other defense systems, especially near a capital. 2) Hyperfuel: As we learn in Solo: A Star Wars Story, hyperdrives need coaxium to fuel them. While it doesn't necessarily need to be refined, it is highly unstable when unrefined and also highly reactive, making it dangerous to use unrefined coaxium. Coaxium itself is expensive and the refining process also costs money. In order to move a full fleet, you need the coaxium to fuel them for the entire journey there, plus probably at least a partial return journey. The logistics of doing this for just a bombing run on a capital planet don't make sense. 3) Risk management: If you commit your entire fleet to an attack, but the enemy has sufficient strength to stop your fleet, you lose your fleet and the enemy gains the upper hand.", "500" ], [ "They don't even need to be stronger. In the Expanded Universe, <PERSON> and Tarkin are both noted to have used Star Destroyers (or similar cruisers) equipped with gravity cones, which generate a powerful gravity signature to pull ships out of hyperspace and prevent them from entering. They used these mainly for offensive maneuvers, allowing their exit from hyperspace to be more controlled, but they can also be used in hyperlanes to block access and establish checkpoints. If your fleet gets unexpectedly pulled out of hyperspace, the enemy has some time for free shots before your crews react. 4) Ethics (and some kind of related logical stuff): Most of the time in Star Wars, guerilla warfare is seen to be not targeting civilians, but military targets that will make an effect. A capital world, even if bombed to ashes, won't put an end to an enemy's military. As seen from the fall of the Empire, even a military group that suffers a loss of government will continue to fight as long as they have some sort of leadership. It's kind of hard to take out the entire chain of command of a military, so this wouldn't be effective as it would leave no government to negotiate a full surrender while leaving military leadership to continue the fight.", "963" ] ]

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[ [ "Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor\nmessy but quite enjoyable!! i am in the minority of people who didn’t totally hate <PERSON> era (flux may have flopped but it’s not flux’s fault) but i definitely agree with the people saying that this was the best episode of the era, which is a shame. I hope this era isn’t retconned out of existence in the coming years, but I also think people will eventually begin to remember it a little more fondly. the tennant surprise at the end was very cool and I hope we get <PERSON> back for at least a minute. she doesn’t even have to interact with the doctor! maybe they could get the actor who plays <PERSON> to come back and do a scene.", "282" ], [ "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring\n(extended edition)\ni love how some films, particularly fantasy, just transports you into a completely different world and it’s like you’re right there with the characters, and in some way it is comforting even though the things you are witnessing aren’t very comforting to watch. the beautiful visuals of the worlds and the scores just do something to you.\nanyway i watched this many many years ago and then ago a few years ago so it was time for a rewatch cause as i was quite young i didn’t remember what i even thought of the film, and then i decided to watch the extended version instead and it didn’t even feel that long and it was quite wonderful.", "462" ], [ "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes\ni spoke to <PERSON> at the baftas red carpet around 2 years ago for a few minutes with my sister. i believe this was after west side story came out.\nshe’s honestly such a kindhearted girl and i’m so happy for her shining in roles like this. genuinely excited for her career in film! she elevated the character of <PERSON> amazingly.\n<PERSON> definitely stole the show though.", "577" ], [ "he captured <PERSON>’s character perfectly, and was such a reminder of how snow is such a chillingly fascinating villain. would also love to see what he goes on to do!\noverall, i cannot express how much i liked this film’s casting. i could honestly continue to give merit to other actors in the ensemble. my expectations were definitely met.", "657" ], [ "Brokeback Mountain\nperhaps the best love story ever put to film.\ni feel like so many aspects of this film are played for jokes and memes now as well as the past few years, and that’s partly why i wasn’t prepared for just how good and sincere it really is. i’ve had a particularly distressing past few days/weeks but somehow this film with its gentle score paired with the serene shots of mountains and sheep helped undo a lot of my anxiety and uncertainties.", "583" ], [ "all those scenes where <PERSON> and <PERSON> are grappling and pulling and holding felt so genuine… because when you love someone you can never get close enough to them. the entire film just has this dizzying quality, it’s so long but not a single moment feels wasted. i don’t even know what to say im so in love this review is so messy because im so so drained from school fuck i love you <PERSON> thank you", "1009" ], [ "Black Mirror: USS Callister\ndear <PERSON>,\ni am writing an apology to you because, no matter how much your physique or age changes, no matter how nice you can act and how you are in real life, i will forever dislike you for the sole reason of <PERSON>. im sorry thats just how it is and it is not your fault.\nthe only black mirror yet where i want to actually share my thoughts but i dont like doing that so i’ll just say yeah so good it could’ve just been a feature length film.", "1009" ], [ "pairs so well with white christmas which i loved. but also how the hell did they get <PERSON> at the end as a toxic gamer without the inclusion of a ‘yeah bitch’. still a bomb ass cameo but cmon <PERSON> you cowards", "585" ], [ "Trolls\nsurprisingly relevant watch before a dry night out, but this is pretty mediocre. visuals are fun and colorful, everything else is lacking. even some of the soundtrack choices (the most important part of the film) are questionable, and i'm usually a defender of jukebox musicals!! if you're going to stick in <PERSON> just because the first line of the hook is 'i ain't happy' and ignore the rest of the lyrics, you might as well just write your own song. waaaay too many like...", "698" ], [ "<PERSON> quirky <PERSON> characters, <PERSON> and <PERSON> are very two-dimensional, <PERSON> & umm... the... the twist villian i can't remember his name (?) had promise but needed more time/development. i had a great time at the club, though!", "577" ], [ "<PERSON>\ni do think it’s super cool and fun and awesome when big blockbusters are earnest to a fault and make me cringe a little (which is good!). like man you cannot tell me watching <PERSON> ride <PERSON> penis while she makes him read sanskrit so he can orgasm (while <PERSON> is watching at one point?) didn’t make you giddy.", "577" ], [ "i’m v anti “this doesn’t make sense” culture but also this screenplay does not make sense to ME on multiple levels. the one that truly matters is the fact that this is a character study and i still don’t know who <PERSON> is! he’s so flat! <PERSON> once again said any woman ever can’t cook all they know is scream, neglect their children, be an alcoholic, eat hot chip and LIE! idk. it’s pretty goofy!! fan fiction ass movie… big ROFL", "132" ], [ "Isle of Dogs\nme: wow cool movie about dogs and the negative effects of propaganda\nthat white girl literally out of nowhere: i have a crush on u\nthe first half was definitely way stronger than the second, but it was okay overall. i loved the \"alpha\" dogs, i loved <PERSON> and his story, i loved the 4 other dogs and their dynamic as a group. i loved <PERSON>, i loved the progression of his relationship with <PERSON>. i loved the scientist and i wish that his story, as well as his assistant's were explored and fleshed out further than they were.\ni didn't like the weird romance among the humans and the dogs that i felt had no significance to the story other than why spots left atari.", "645" ], [ "i didn't like the weird insinuations about japanese culture, and definitely didn't like the even weirder insinuations about indigenous culture. the \"saviour\" being a foreign exchange student in a japan where there were plenty of other kids who could have done what she did was also weird.\nanyway, it was nice to take my mind off some things. the stop-motion was nice, fantastic mr. <PERSON> is one of my favourite movies so it was nicely nostalgic in that regard.", "170" ] ]

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[ [ "If your characters are interchangeable, forgettable and one dimensional you will have trouble getting readers to read much of your book.\nReaders meet a character and watch, waiting for something to happen. If we don’t care enough about the character because they are just a placeholder, we put the book down.\nPlots happen to someone and if that someone is an undeveloped element and not a character, we don’t care.\nI was reading a book set during the French Revolution - it had a strong plot and a few interesting characters, but others were rather flat. I read on because one character was a young nobleman with republican views who joined the revolution. The author killed off a lot of interesting characters, but I kept reading because this guy had a problem and I wanted to see how it was resolved. I cared about him. She killed him off too and I put the book down - no one left I cared to follow.\nMemorable characters are either hard work to create or they come as inspiration.", "999" ], [ "They fuel even the most plot driven story - they are the reason the reader turns the page.\nMy piece is a character driven thriller and before I started writing it, I spent weeks thinking about two characters (one is minor, yet pivotal). I had a clear plot and my characters and I started writing. My characters reached a point where they diverged from the plot, essentially telling me they had a better idea. They did and the book went in a direction I had not foreseen.\nMy point is, had I held to my original plot, forced it to play out as I had planned, I would have 80k words of a generic novel that I would probably not want to read - at least, not twice. Following my characters, I have a much longer work that I am proud of, enjoy reading, and is fun to write.\nI have no idea how it will end, suspect I will slip the original plot in sometime in the future and trust my characters to tell the tale. It is their story, I am just writing it.", "846" ], [ "You could always transliterate it - translation is from one language to another - though you run the risk of ending up with something that is not worth reading.\nBrilliant writing reaches through time and endures.\nWhen I read a fine translation of a classic work that was written in another language, I know that it would be still better if I could only read it in the original French, Russian, Greek etc. Telling someone that they should read Hamlet in the original English when they think they just read it in English would be a bit odd.\nIf you wish to do so, no one will stop you. The <PERSON>’s works are public domain, but they are also perfect as they are. Elizabethan English is an easy version so close to what we use today that it strikes me as odd to want to translate it into the language in which it was written.\nI once translated to be or not to be into Latin.", "873" ], [ "Esse, aut non esse - the rest was more intriguing.\nWhat it sounds like to me - please tell me I am wrong - is that you want to dumb down <PERSON>’s works so that people who won’t read him read your version. That is why Cliff Notes exist - to tell people who won’t read a piece what they missed out on.\nIf it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. <PERSON> is not broken.\nPeople have based their works on his plays and been quite successful West Side Story is one example.\nWhat would you do with the soliloquy I mentioned? Would it end up being “I am sad and don’t know if life is worth living, but scared to try anything either rash or brave?”\nPeople read <PERSON> for this beauty and genius of his verse.\nMany of the words and phrases we use today, he coined.\nIf you were to attempt such an endeavour, it must be done with love and a complete knowledge and understanding of the works in question. People devote their lives to the study of his works and teach them as they are - not seeking to modernize what they love so much.", "674" ], [ "The biggest risk is that you may lose the main characteristic of the narrator out of sight: to tell the reader what is important.\nThere is nothing wrong with changing the point of view and paying attention to different kinds of details is certainly a nice way to illustrate the change, but if you lose yourself in endless descriptions of the surroundings to illustrate that your character is not one who speaks much, but one who observes, you might forget to describe what is happening. Just like focusing too much on the dialogue may make you forget to describe the room your character is currently in.\nThe easiest of the things you listed is to have one character describe something as beautiful and another to describe it as boring, maybe because he has seen the thing so often that he doesn't care about it anymore. In this case you are describing the same thing from two very different points of view. That means you are doing the same thing in both perspectives, you just use different words and show different feelings. That way it won't happen that you forget to describe important stuff. In these cases you just have to remember that your reader will probably only want to read a description of the same beautiful/boring/normal/big/... thing so often.", "846" ], [ "If you do this once or twice your reader will quickly understand the difference between your characters.\nYour readers won't be confused by changing the narrative as long as you don't change it two or three times per page. For example changing the point of view every other chapter is normal in some books and your readers will have a mental break in that situation anyway. Quite the opposite: your readers will enjoy to have different points of view and to experience the story from different angles.\nThe biggest problem is to lose yourself in details just for the sake of showing a different point of view. After that comes the risk that some of your readers may prefer one point of view over the other - which is normal and shouldn't concern you too much as long as you don't explicitly try to make an obnoxious character. Changing the point of view suggests to a reader that there are different paths of a story that regularly converge and then split up again. They are part of something bigger, but leaving one out would leave the reader with only a part of the world explored and a part missing to fully understand what is going on. In mystery you might want that - in fantasy you often don't want that.", "846" ], [ "I agree with <PERSON>, but beyond just passive voice (rampant in amateur writers) I see an issue of style. Some sentences read smoother than others, this is absolutely true. So if your question is merely about style, you just have to read a million books and reread your own book a million times until your words flow like syrup on a stripper's thigh.\nIf your question is really about show vs. tell, the only trade-offs there always has 'tell' on the losing end. If you want to maintain pacing, then pace it appropriately. Pacing and showing are mutually exclusive.\nIf you don't want to divulge certain information, don't. Information and showing are also mutually exclusive.\nIf it's awkward, rewrite it. If it's too wordy, use less words. All of the issues of show vs tell are writer issues, style issues, but none mitigate the value of the show.\nThe only time you should tell your reader anything is when there is no emotion or plot involved. When what you're saying is objective and a vehicle to move the story along.\n\"They walked across the tarmac.\"\nNo problem. You can tell that, especially if the plane or the characters or whatever else is what's important.\nBut not if the tarmac is made of meat.", "873" ], [ "That requires a show, not a tell, because a meat tarmac is out of the ordinary and should generate a reaction from the reader. You want your readers to feel the discomfort of their feet squishing on meat, rather than the familiarity and assurety of rough concrete. If you merely tell them it's uncomfortable, it has no impact.\nBooks do not merely tell a story. They evoke them, in ways that not even movies can attain. Movies can impact you through visuals and sounds. You can see a character react and know what they're feeling. You can hear the low, stomach-churning pitch of <PERSON>'s spell razing the amassed soldiers. The music swells, the skies darken, and the wave of magic crashes into the front lines, countless bodies like blackened matchsticks, violently tossed asunder or carried along in its horrific wake.\nA book is internal. You can know the minds of the characters far more than you can with any other medium, and you would be remiss to lose that opportunity to invoke the readers' emotions to your aims. The best books, like the best movies, will make you cry, rage, yearn, laugh, worry, whatever.\nBut you can't tell your reader to cry. You gotta weave magic for that.", "999" ], [ "This is a dilemma that people are having a lot lately and I think it is mostly misled. For starters, as a writer, I physically cannot give you any information unless I tell you something. I only have my words, and words can only tell you things. What most critics mean when they say \"show, don't tell\" is really, \"tell me different things\" or, \"tell it to me without interrupting the story.\"\nThis is something that I was taught: language that insinuates motion or change is a hallmark of showing. Any word that acts as an '=' sign is usually telling\nFor example rather than:\nIt was sundown.\nYou could write\nThe surrounding shadows stretched out slowly as the sun sunk back down over the horizon.\nIn the first sentence, it is just two words connected by an '=' sign: \"It = sundown.\" Whatever was just happening was abruptly put on hold so you could fill the reader in.\nIn the second sentence, things are happening. The sun and shadows are moving.", "723" ], [ "Yes, you are telling the reader some things: that the shadows are getting longer in length and the sun is going down, but the difference is that these details add to the action of the scene, as opposed to stopping everything to tell the reader \"it was sundown.\" This shadowy, dusk scene can add tension or highlight the passage of time for the main character, etc. It adds to the action. It doesn't stop it altogether.\nSo a useful exercise could be just that: changing '=' signs to more active language, or seeing how many different ways in which you could say the same thing. You could, for just the \"it was sundown\" example, also write:\nThe sky turned all shades of turquoise, gold, and pink before settling back into the ultramarine shade of nighttime in Alaska.\nOr,\nA hush fell over the desert, and the air grew crisp while night washed over the frontier\namong thousands of other things. Stretching your imagination in this way can help your style, your descriptive language, even your storytelling immensely. It is also fun.\nIt goes for characterization, too. Rather than tell everyone your antagonist is upset, make her throw things, make faces, do things that someone who is upset would do.\nHope this helps.", "723" ], [ "While having an in-depth backstory is good - and essential for series and novels - from the way you speak of your writing I feel you may be limiting yourself.\nI have the characters planned out so far, and I know where everything will go to.\nCharacters grow through the story. Good characters grow as a result of story events. Great characters grow independent of you, as they are part of the world you've created.\nWhile the backstory sets the tone for the story, it shouldn't box it in.\nWhen I began writing, I would make \"profiles\" for my characters: This is <PERSON>. 30 yo M. Easygoing, OCD, rides motorcycles. He's quiet unless it's a topic he enjoys then you can't shut him up. When he was 10 years old... you get the point. I always reached a place where I began to tailor the story to fit my perception of the character. The story became dry and stale, character backstory got in the way of plot, and nine-times-out-of-ten it went into the \"Meh\" folder. Once I adopted a more loose character profile my writing drastically improved. Now instead of thinking 'this is what <PERSON> will do', I ask myself 'what would <PERSON> do?'\nThe reader doesn't need to know every detail of the backstory of the world or the character. Good character development, narrative, and plot should give the reader all the tools necessary to fill in the gaps using their imagination. If certain backstory events are integral to the story - where the story would be worse off without them - I usually do one of two things:\n1.", "627" ], [ "Use dialogue to reminisce or otherwise describe the backstory. Sometimes a little break from the action (I call them \"campfire moments\") for the characters to discuss the world is refreshing. In your case - there is plenty they could talk about. You can replace dialogue with things like newspaper snippets, journal entries, notes, etc. but this can get cliche fast so be careful.\n2. A chapter that only takes place in the past. It could be a total non sequitur or involve a character from the main story but really make the most of this chapter because if you go this route you don't want to keep jumping back unless you're doing a story that takes place across multiple eras. Personally, I like using this method as the second chapter, especially in darker stories. First chapter drops you right into whatever \"crapsack\" the MC is in. Second chapter is a whole different vibe.\nIt's fantastic that you have so much backstory but I would recommend focusing on the current story first. Let descriptive writing, dialogue, and the other things we discussed earlier be your reader's conduit to the backstory. Let the reader gather the details as you take them on the adventure. Try not to spoon-feed.\nOne last thing. Don't be so certain that the events you've planned for your characters will be what actually happens to them! A well developed character can sometimes surprise even the author.", "846" ], [ "With time and experience, I was able to solve this problem by myself.\nHere's how to get organized:\n1. Setting - knowing where we are: I start with developing a fantasy world in my mind. I create maps. I gather hundreds of pictures from Pinterest and Tumblr to illustrate my world and its cultures. When the world is ready, as if you are boiling eggs:\n2. Throw in some Characters: What works best for me is creating characters on the basis of ideas sprang during roleplaying. This helps a lot, because the characters are actually developed by different story tellers, so they are more believable and unique. Then by all means:\n3. Stir trouble: create a conflict: Each character has a compelling need, good if they even struggle against each other. Every character must want something the entire time.\n4. Scenes: Try to list the possible situations the characters may encounter. For instance: \"Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.\" Make a logical sequence of these.\n5. Spill. Everything: Just start writing from the first sentence, and trust in God for the next. Try to follow you little plan, but don't be afraid to modify as the story blossoms.", "846" ], [ "Write your entire first draft.\n6. Leave aside for one week. Let the sunshine in. Do different stuff, get inspired. Return to your work with clear mind, pure hands and hot heart.\n7. Please your audience: Think of who is going to read your book - and translate your first draft into his language. For example, if you write a non-fiction book for teenagers call it: How to Score Chicks, not How To Seduce Women. Make sure you take the reader by hand and slowly and deliberately lead him to the resolution of your book.\n8. Writing Buddy: Find someone to edit the book together with. It's best to work paragraph by paragraph.\n9. Polish it: Put the finishing touches to your masterpiece. You must have a feeling of content from the accomplishment. Work on the book until it makes you happy.\n10. Write a sequel: Seriously. This sells.\nRegards: LF", "487" ], [ "I think the author's ability to help the reader suspend disbelief is important and that reader's will overlook \"bad writing\" if the over all story is good. The actual language used by an author can pull the reader out of the story. If sentences are awkward or dialog stilted that will distract the mind's eye causing the audience to focus on the actual device (words) as opposed to the story. When that happens readers may dismiss an author as a \"bad\" writer.\nGood stories need to be \"realistic\" enough that the audience can suspend disbelief; even in fantasy or science fiction. Even the hidden magic world of Harry Potter followed conventional \"muggle\" rules.", "805" ], [ "There was the typical governing bureaucracy, kids still had to go to school, witches stayed hidden.\nPersonally, I got tired of <PERSON> because I felt like all his books are essentially the same and it really irked me that they all began with <PERSON> having a nightmare and being awakened by some authority figure. I thought <PERSON> books were well-written in terms of accessible language but felt it obvious that he \"borrowed\" his overall plot points from already established works. The one that springs immediately to mind is <PERSON> Dragonrider books. Adults who criticize the writing in Children's lit probably forget the language needs to be geared to kids and most times will have simple sentences and be less sophisticated.\nI also notice the books listed in the original question enjoyed a great deal of commercial success. I've known people who are mildly pretentious and think any book that has mass appeal is not good writing because its not literary (I say artsy) enough.\nIn the end I'd say defining Good writing is like defining Art: \"I don't know what it is, but I know it when I see it.\" Yes, that is subjective and ignores the \"technical\" execution like good grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure but in the end I think we all tend to label books we like as good writing and books we don't like or fail to \"get into\" as bad writing.", "460" ] ]

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[ [ "Cement Towel Plantpot\nIntroduction: Cement Towel Plantpot\nHello everybody, in this instructable, I will teach you how you can make a beautiful and original cement towel plantpot. This is a short project, it takes about 20-40 minutes of work (in addition to waiting for it to dry), It’s a fun project to do as a family and you can use it as an awesome decoration in your garden.\nLet's move on to the Instructable!\nHope you enjoy!\nSupplies\nYou'll need simple materials that everyone has at home:\n- Cement (you will not need much for this project ~ 2 cup) (depending on the size of the towel).\n- A small old towel.\n- You need an old plastic bucket (to make the cement mix).\n- Water.\n- You will also need some disposable gloves (to avoid getting dirty), as well as a stick, to stir the mixture.\n- An old plastic pot, the size you want your plantpot to be.\nOptional items that might help:\n- A big bottle of water (to let the towel dry, without touching the ground).\nStep 1: Preparing the Cement Mixture\nPut on gloves.", "389" ], [ "Take ~ 2 cups of your cement and start crushing it with the stick to get rid of lumps and chunks, we need it to be as fine as possible, for the result to be strong.\nAdd the water according to the amount of your cement, I suggest a ratio of 4 cups of water for every 2 cups of cement, this is so that the mixture is very diluted and it is easy for the towel to absorb it.\nThe resulting mixture should have a wet appearance and be easy to mix. Otherwise, you can add a little water if it is less, and a little powdered cement if it is too much.\nStep 2: Soak the Cement Towel\nThis step is very fun, what you have to do is insert the dry towel into the cement and stir it well, so that it absorbs all the cement inside.\nIt is very important that no area of the towel remains uncovered, everything must be well soaked in cement (except you) :)\nStep 3: Place the Towel to Dry\nNow it´s time to place the towel on top of the pot, so that it takes the shape of it.\nAs a suggestion, you can take a big water bottle, and place the pot on top, so that when you put the towel, keep the rounded shape at the end of the edge.\nWhen placing it, you can make the folds you prefer in the towel to give it a personalized design, considering that the towel completely covers the pot, without leaving any gaps.\nThey should let the towel dry in this position, until it is very firm and looks dry. It all depends on the type of cement you use, in my case, I waited 24 hours for it to dry.\nStep 4: It´s Complete!\nAfter being thoroughly dry, all they have to do is carefully remove the plantpot from the big water bottle, to avoid significant pieces falling off.\nThen you can make a hole in the bottom of the pot (with a drill), so that the water can be drained there.\nAfter this, you can paint and decorate it to your liking, or if you prefer to leave it in this color.\nAs a last step, you can add some fertile dirt and place some decorative plants in it, and enjoy your new plantpot!\nFeel free to ask me your questions if you have any! :)", "556" ], [ "Concrete Copy From a Clay Sculpture | I Made a Vase\nIntroduction: Concrete Copy From a Clay Sculpture | I Made a Vase\nHello everyone, I want to show you something that I tried recently and I really liked the result, it is quite simple and cheap technique, I think it will be useful for many more things. I used this technique to make a concrete vase, specifically a copy of a clay sculpture that I made.\nWell, I will explain the process that I followed and some tips that may be useful :D\nSupplies\n* Clay\n* Concrete mix or cement, sand and water\n* White plaster\n* A tube of white silicone\n* Oil (is to unmold, anyone works)\n* Some recipients\nStep 1: Get Inspired\nI have taken it as an excuse to try to sculpt something, I wanted to make a vase a little different and it occurred to me to represent an important person in my country, his name is <PERSON> and was a recognized indigenous activist.\nWith some clay and a few hours of unsuccessful attempts I got this result, I was very satisfied.\nI let the clay dry for a few days, then refine some details to continue with the next step.\nStep 2: Now the Silicone\nUsing the white silicone that is commonly used for plumbing, all the details of the object can be obtained, achieving a practically identical copy to the original.\nYou could try to make a mold only with silicone but this way it would take a long time to dry, so I only put a surface layer, which is enough, the important thing here is to get the details.\nWell, the first thing to do is coat the entire object with oil, so we can remove the silicone without it sticking.\nWith the object covered in oil we can start to spread the silicone, little by little we are making a homogeneous layer, pressing it to get all the details. For this, it is very useful to wear gloves and wet your hands to press, so the silicone does not stick to the hands and it is easier to handle.\nNow you just have to let it dry, one day is usually enough.\nStep 3: The Plaster Mold\nNow we need the silicone mold to resist the concrete that we will put on it. For this we make a plaster mold that will simply keep the shape of the object.\nNormally with a two part mold it usually works. For this we prepare a little plaster and place it in a container where our object fits, making sure that the ends are thick enough. Now we place our object still with silicone on the liquid plaster, it must be submerged until approximately half, now we let it dry without the object moving.\nOnce it is dry we make the \"keys\", they are those small holes that you see in the image, they simply serve so that when we join the two parts they align perfectly.", "74" ], [ "Now we spread a little talcum or similar on the first half so that it does not stick to the other. With this ready we prepare more plaster and pour it to complete the mold.\nWhen everything is dry we separate the two parts and remove the object.\nStep 4: The Mold Is Complete\nNow it remains to remove the silicone carefully, depending on the object this can be easy or a bit complicated, if necessary you can make cuts in the silicone to facilitate it, I did it and it was not a problem when I poured the concrete.\nAs in my case this is going to be a vase I needed to leave a space for the hole. I did it with a foam rod that I had at home, I cut a little and I glued it inside the mold in the direction of the hat. With everything ready we place the silicone mold inside the plaster mold, now with a rope or something we press the plaster mold so that everything is well aligned and does not move.\nStep 5: Concrete\nNow you just have to pour the concrete into the mold and shake it a little so that there are no bubbles inside.\nThey can use the concrete mixture or prepare it, in any case it is important that the texture is fine. I prepared a little mixed a part of cement with two parts of very fine sand, I made a liquid mixture so that it runs very well through the mold.\nI let it dry for about two days and then I unmold everything, it was quite simple and I loved the result.\nStep 6: Finished\nNow it only remains to place some dried flowers ... and voila\nI really liked how it turned out, and the best thing is that I can still make many more copies with this mold.\nAnd this is all, I hope this whole process has seemed interesting to you...\nThanks! :D", "556" ], [ "Use Kombucha S.C.O.B.Y to Make Wax Wrap\nIntroduction: Use Kombucha S.C.O.B.Y to Make Wax Wrap\nIf you already produce the kombucha probiotic at home, this tutorial will please you.\nAs you know in the production of Kombucha, in addition to producing the healthy probiotic in the first fermentation, in a second fermentation you can flavor your kombucha or use kombucha to gasify natural juices creating natural soft drinks, and finally make vinegar.\nPerhaps what you don't know is that the S.C.O.B.Y that forms on the surface of your Kombucha is a highly researched biotech material and is a nanocellulose produced by the bacteria in your kombucha culture.\nIn previous instructables I have already taught how to use this material as an alternative to animal leather, in wallets and cases. Now I'm going to show you how to simply transform it into a useful waxed wrap for packing food in a more ecological and sustainable way.\nSubscribe to the channel\nSee the video version at:\nI created a quick and easy tutorial for you to help reduce the amount of plastic we use in our daily lives.\nS.C.O.B.Y Wax Wrap can have many applications and is food safe! Wrap your sandwich in it or make another shape you like and use it to replace plastic film production bags.", "730" ], [ "You can even use it as a waterproof material for pillow covers or the base of benches and chairs, whoever cheers up and even try to make clothes and other things with their own designs.\nSCOBY Wax Wrap is water resistant and can be used many times, and if you need to throw it away it is fully biodegradable.\nSupplies\nTo make a SCOBY Wax Wrap you will need a SCOBY , then you will need to wash and treat it and then dry it properly. See here in this video how to do this.\nSo for our instructables you will need:\n1- a piece of SCOBY washed, treated and dried.\n2- a piece of raw wood plate larger than your SCOBY\n3- 2 sheets of non-stick paper such as tracing paper, each slightly larger than your SCOBY .\n4- a pair of scissors or a knife\n5- a clothes iron\n6 - a sheet of beeswax, or a bar of grated beeswax, 100% natural\nFor the vegan version, use carnauba wax, coconut oil and pine resin. ( not tested yet\n7 - a cheese grater or potato peeler\n8- a woodem rolling pin or a metal or plastic tube\nStep 1: Preparing the Workplace\nLay down some newspaper (to protect your table)\nCut two equal pieces of non-stick paper.\nStep 2: Protect Your Base !\nPlace one of the non- stick papers on the wooden board and your dry and treated SCOBY on top of it.\nStep 3: Adding the Wax\nThen cut a piece of the beeswax sheet slightly smaller than your SCOBY sheet.\nIt's better to have too little beeswax and add more later, than too much.\nStep 4: Covering the Set With Non-stick Paper\nNow cover everything with the other sheet of non-stick paper.\nStep 5: Melting the Wax\nPut the iron on a low temperature and start ironing over everything until the wax melts.\nStep 6: Impregnating SCOBY With Wax\nWhen the wax is completely melted, use the roller or tube to press the wax against the SCOBY to make it waxed.\nStep 7: Doing the Other Side\nThen turn the paper/SCOBY/Wax/paper set over and do the same on the other side.\nThis is usually only necessary if your SCOBY is very thick.\nStep 8: Cooling Down the Waxed S.C.O.B.Y\nNow allow it to cool down and remove the sheets of paper from the waxed SCOBY.\nOnce cooled you can use it.", "643" ], [ "Egyptian Cottage Cheese With Green Pepper and Baladi Bread\nIntroduction: Egyptian Cottage Cheese With Green Pepper and Baladi Bread\nI live in a village in Egypt where there is a wide variety of healthy breakfast choices such as homemade dairy products and fresh vegetables that local farmers grow, and because I am also interested in food art, I decided to make use of Areesh cheese - Egyptian cottage cheese - and fresh veggies to make this savory Ice cream.\nSupplies\n* 150 gram of areesh cheese.\n* 2 green peppers.\n* 1 tiny red pepper.\n* 1 green chili.\n* 1 red chili.\n* 1 green onion.\n* 1 teaspoon of olive oil.\n* 1 loaf of baladi bread.\n* Salt.\n* Some rocket leaves.\n* Mortar and pestle.\n* A knife.\n* Scissors.\n* A tablespoon.\n* A fork.\nStep 1: The Green Ice Cream\nTo make our pistachio ice cream, I mean Areesh cheese with green pepper we should:\n* Add one teaspoon of olive oil to the areesh cheese.\n* Mix them well with a fork.\n* Chop one green pepper, one green chili and rocket leaves into the Mortar and pestle.\n* Add a pinch of salt to the veggies.\n* Crush them well with the pestle until they are homogenous enough.\n* Stir the mix with some Areesh cheese.\nStep 2: The Pink Ice Cream\nIt's so to dye the cheese in pink:\n* Cut small pieces of beetroot on some areesh cheese.\n* Mix them well until the cheese turns pink\n* Remove the beetroot pieces.\nStep 3: Ice Cream Cone\nTo make the ice cream cone, we can use Egyptian flat bread, which is Known as baladi bread:\n* Cut a triangle out of the round loaf.\n* Cut it into two smaller triangles.\n* Put them on top of each other.\nStep 4: Adding Ice Cream in the Cone\nNow it's time to fill our cone with these savory ice cream scoops:\n* Add a tablespoon of plain areesh cheese on the upper part of the bread.\n* Add a larger amount of the green and the pink cheese respectively.\n* Make the scoops look like they are melting on each other.\nStep 5: Cherry and Sprinkles\nFinally, it's time for our ice cream toppings:\n* Put a tiny red pepper on top.\n* Chop the brown part of a green pepper into small rods.\n* Sprinkle the pepper rods on the pink part of the cheese.\n* Chop the green onion into round pieces.\n* Add them to the cheese with green pepper.\nStep 6: Enjoy!\nNow you can enjoy this extremely \"healthy\" and tasty ice cream as a breakfast without any guilt.\nBon Appetit!", "265" ], [ "Fluffy Omelet\nIntroduction: Fluffy Omelet\nGood afternoon, dear viewers and readers! In today's instruction, I will show you an unusual way to make a fluffy egg omelette. This omelette is so easy and quick to prepare and looks very impressive.\nSupplies\nTo prepare an omelette, we need the following ingredients:\n* Eggs 5 pcs.\n* Butter or sunflower oil.\n* Salt & pepper.\n* Cherry tomatoes.\n* Parsley.\n* Cucumber.\n* Dill.\nEssential Equipment:\n* Sharp Knife.\n* Frying Pan.\n* Dish.\n* Deep bottomed bowl.\n* Fork\nStep 1: Separate the Proteins From the Yolks.\nFirst, take the eggs and break the shell and separate the yolk from the protein. Put the yolk and protein in each separate bowl with a deep bottom. This process is repeated for each egg used.\nStep 2: Yolk Preparation\nNext, you need to whipping the yolk until smooth and add salt or pepper to taste. The yolk can be beaten with a fork or whisk.\nStep 3: Protein Preparation\nNext, take a bowl of prepared proteins, salt and pepper to taste. With a fork or a whisk, we begin to whipping the protein to the consistency of a stable foam. If you want to speed up the process of whipping the protein, use a mixer.\nReadiness can be checked by touching the surface lightly with a finger.", "863" ], [ "The protein should be elastic and not stick to the fingers.\nStep 4: Frying in a Pan\nHeat a frying pan with butter or vegetable oil over medium heat. Pour the yolks into the pan and evenly distribute them over the entire surface of the bottom.\nNext, you need to wait 20 - 30 seconds for the yolks to grab a little, then add whipped whites on top of the yolks. Carefully spread the proteins and align them with a spatula or spoon. Cover with a lid and leave at a power slightly below average for 8-10 minutes.\nStep 5: The Fluffy Omelet Is Ready\nCarefully place the finished omelet on a large plate. Cut the omelette into two large pieces and fold in half.\nStep 6: Cooking Result\nThe fluffy omelet is ready! Cut with a knife into three or four parts and serve. For a beautiful presentation of an omelette, you can decorate it with toast and vegetables. Such a lush, tender and unusual omelette invariably causes delight!\nEnjoy your meal and thank you all for watching and reading the article. Don’t forget to like it and subscribe!", "851" ], [ "How to Make a \"Magic Brain\" to Reinforce Content in the Classroom.\nIntroduction: How to Make a \"Magic Brain\" to Reinforce Content in the Classroom.\nThe objective of this project is to create a magical brain, a game in which there are cards with questions and answers that must be joined by making contact with the crocodile clips. As a sign that the chosen question was answered correctly, an LED light turns on.\nThis is an ideal project to learn a little about circuits in the classroom and reinforce the topics covered, as the cards are fully customizable and cards can be designed for many different topics. Now yes, let's start with the tutorial.\nSupplies\n• A piece of 60cm x 40cm x 0.5cm MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard)\n• 4m of cable, including waste.\n• 16 butterfly hooks\n• One universal pliers and one side cutting pliers\n• Acrylic of any color, in this case copper\n• Electrical or electrical tape\n• A hot glue gun\n• Four pieces of wood\n• A portalled\n• An LED light\n• A cap of a plastic bottle\n• A battery holder\n• Batteries for the battery holder\n• A painter's tape or paper tape\n• Hole punch\nStep 1: Make the Marks for the Holes\nThe first step is to make the measurements and make a mark in the places where the hole will later be drilled. For that, at the top, you have to make a mark centered horizontally at 4cm from the top edge. In this mark will go the portal and its respective led. The next mark will be located 8cm from the top edge and 7cm from the side edge. This step should be repeated only 7cm from the other side edge. The cables that will be attached to the crocodile clips, the terminals, will pass through these holes. The next step is to draw a vertical line perpendicular to the top edge. This line should be located 8 cm from the lateral edge. Repeat this step only 8cm from the other side edge. On this line you have to mark a point 11cm from the top edge. From this point and always on the vertical line, continue measuring and marking 7 more points, one below the other, separated by 5cm. Follow this same procedure to mark another eight points on the other line.\nStep 2: Make the Holes\nIt's time to make the holes. For that you have to measure, first, the portaled and choose the right wick.", "997" ], [ "After making this hole you have to continue with the other two below. For that, as with the previous hole, you have to choose a wick whose diameter is the same as that of the cable. After making the holes with the hole punch, you have to continue with the others. Simply choose a bit that is smaller than the diameter of the top of the butterfly hook and larger than the measurement of the two \"legs\" of the hook to finish all the holes. With this wick, the last 16 holes must be made, in which the butterfly hooks will go.\nStep 3: Stick the Pieces of Wood in the Corners to Hold the Board\nThe next thing to do is, with the hot glue gun, join the pieces of wood with the 60cmx40cm wood, leaving a space of 1cm between the pieces of wood and the edges. Place the two largest ones in the upper corners and the two smaller ones in the lower corners.\nStep 4: Connect the Aligator Clips\nThe wood part is ready, now we have to start with the circuit. For that you have to cut the cable so that it measures 55cm. Now, with the help of universal pliers and side cutters, you have to strip the two ends of the cable.\nOne of the two ends must be attached to the crocodile clip. To achieve this, use the pliers to cut the tip of one of the two plastic parts that serve to insulate the crocodile clip. This allows the cable to pass through, which is then hooked with the help of the clamp to one of the two holes. Once this is done, you can put the insulating plastic back in place. Now that the cable and the crocodile clip are already joined, you have to pass the part of the stripped cable (which does not have the crocodile clip attached) through one of the two holes below the one for the LED light. You have to pass the cable to the back of the wood to a point where the crocodile clip reaches the last row of holes but does not go too far. When you get to this point you have to make a knot (at the back) with the cable, so that it cannot reach more than the last one. This same procedure must be repeated passing the cable through the other hole.", "259" ], [ "Stuffed Peppers and Onions\nIntroduction: Stuffed Peppers and Onions\nA very colorful vegetarian dish, which can be almost a complete meal - contains a lot of vegetables, very little fruit and also carbohydrates.\nSupplies\n3 big onions.\n7-10 colored peppers (chose medium size peppers, with round bottom)\n3 carrots\n1 beet\nSome stalks of celery\nPistachios, Almond chips, dried cranberries (a handful of each)\n1 cup of whole rice\nWater\nOlive oil\n2 spoons of pomegranate sauce (warmly recommended)\nTomato paste\nSalt, paper, cinnamon\nOptional: 1-2 spoons of dates honey\nMedium pot, strainer, sauté with a lid\nStep 1: Pre-cook the Onions and the Rice\nPrepare two onions for stuffing:\nPeel them and cut each one lengthwise to the middle (see video).\nBoil them in water for half an hour until softened, strain them from the water and let them cool.\nMeanwhile, cook a cup of rice with two cups of water and a pinch of salt for about twenty minutes (half cooking), and leave the pot covered for a few more minutes. We used whole rice, white rice can also be as well, but then the cooking time should be shorter.\nStep 2: Preparation of the Sauce\nIn the sauté, prepare the sauce:\nHeat oil and add chopped onion. After a few minutes add chopped carrots, then (wait a few minutes ...) chopped celery sticks, and then (again ...) chopped beets. cook for a while and add pomegranate sauce and a pinch of salt, some paper and cinnamon, wait a few more minutes and add a handful of cranberries, almonds chips, and pistachios. Mix well, taste, and if necessary improve flavors.\nNow, with a perforated spoon take out half of the mixture, and add it to the rice.", "901" ], [ "This is going to be the filling.\nBack to the sauce: add to the sauté a small box of tomato paste and 1-2 cups of water, close the lid and let it cook over low heat.\nStep 3: Cut and Fill the Peppers\nMix the rice well with its sauce.\nWash the peppers, cut off their top, fill each pepper to about three-quarters of the height and cover it back.\nPut the peppers next to each other in the sauté and close back the lid.\n.\nStep 4: Fill the Onions\nGently peel one layer of the cooked onion. Hold it in one hand and place a spoonful of the filling in the center of the layer. Roll the onion around the filling (see video).\nLift the sauté lid and place the stuffed onions between the peppers. Using a spoon, take some of the sauce and cover the peppers and onions. You can add a little water as needed.\nStep 5: Cook Everything :-)\nCook over low heat for another hour and a half. Occasionally you should lift a little sauce with a spoon and pour it over the peppers and onions.\nStep 6: Bon-appetite\nBon-appetite!", "702" ], [ "Sandwich Cake\nIntroduction: Sandwich Cake\nWhile preparing food for a birthday party I realized that the best appetisers where the fun ones! Therefore, the idea of having small finger-food sandwiches has been replaced by a sandwich cake! It looks like a cake, you cut it like a cake, but... it`s a sandwich!\nSupplies\n* White sliced bread (16 slices)\n* 400gr of cream cheese\n* 400gr of smoked salmon\n* Lettuce\n* Half cucumber\n* 2 carrots\n* Mayonnaise\n* 3 small avocados\n* 4 salad tomatoes\n* 1 can of tuna\n* 1 Olive\nNon food stuff: baking paper;toothpicks (you can even use spaghetti) and a round base tin (although, this is optional because is mainly used to shape the cake, while, for an easier version, the cake can remain squared shaped).\nYou can fill the sandwiches as you like! Pepperoni, ham, cheese, mozzarella... the more the merrier!\nIt`s a new concept, and people will be surprised!\nStep 1: Prepare the Base\nShape the baking paper as the same size and shape of the chosen base.", "22" ], [ "Cover the baking paper with mayonnaise to ensure that the bread sticks on the paper.\nStep 2: Start the Sandwich\nPlace 4 slices of bread ensure that the straight sides are aligned.\nPrepare the tuna. Drain the can of tuna and place it in a bowl, add 4 spoons of mayonnaise and mix.\nEnsure that the tomatoes, the avocadoes and the salad are sliced and ready to filled the sandwiches.\nStep 3: Build Your Sandwich!\nThis can be done as you like! I personally added:\nbread - a layer of mayonnaise - smoked salmon - salad - avocado - bread - tuna and mayonnaise - tomatoes - bread - mayonnaise - smoked salmon - salad - tomatoes - avocadoes - bread\nStep 4: Cover You Cake\nCut and shape the edges of your cake (make sure that all the external parts of the bread are cut). Once the desired shaped has been achieved cover you cake with cream cheese.\nEnsure that the cream cheese covers all the empty part in between the slices of bread and cover you cake as you are icing a sweet cake!\nStep 5: Decoration And... Enjoy!\nDecorate your cake as preferred.\n(Tu ensure that the flower shaped carrot pieces stayed together I used a spaghetto).\nCut, and eat!", "405" ] ]

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[ [ "1. From properties of destruction operator\nSo, first you have to accept that $a|n\\rangle = \\sqrt{n}|n-1\\rangle$. This is relatively easy to see because the matrix element for absorption of a photon by a two-level system (atom which goes from ground to excited state) is proportional to $\\langle n-1|a|n\\rangle$ and this must be proportional to the square root of the number of photons in the light mode because the probability for absorption must be proportional to the light intensity. So you need something like $a|n\\rangle = \\sqrt{n}|n-1\\rangle$ (ignoring a possible phase factor).\nThen, when you expand the coherent state in number states, $|\\alpha\\rangle = \\sum_n c_n |n\\rangle$ and put this into $a|n\\rangle = \\alpha|n\\rangle$, you see that you need $c_n\\sqrt{n}=\\alpha c_{n-1}$. The result when lowering $c_n|n\\rangle$ with $a$ must be the same as a multiplication of $|n-1\\rangle$ with $\\alpha$. As a consequence, $c_n =(\\alpha/\\sqrt{n})c_{n-1}$ and you are finished. Iterating this $n$ times yields $c_n = (\\alpha^n/\\sqrt{n!})c_0$. Normalization gives the value of $c_0$ and then you have $\\langle n|\\alpha\\rangle=c_n$. Now you square the whole stuff and get the Poisson distribution.\nSo the point is that for large $n$, $\\alpha/\\sqrt{n}$ will always be smaller than 1. This is why the Poisson distribution decreases in this case. For small $n$, the opposite holds and the Poisson distribution increases.\n2. Coherent state in phase space\nThere's an alternative picture.", "976" ], [ "You know that a single-mode field is like a harmonic oscillator where the mode's quadrature operators play the role of position and momentum of the HO. Now, a coherent state is a wave packet that oscillates in the parabolic potential without changing its shape. There is no dispersion for this wave packet, it coheres (this is where the name coherent state comes from). The energy eigenstates of the HO (which correspond to the number states of the field mode) are static, they don't move. So, to construct a coherent state, you need to use a superposition of number states. And the weighting of number states in the superposition is the square of the probabilities of the Poisson distribution.\nThis is also not an intuitive physical explanation but it shines a little bit more light on the problem.\n3. Coherent state and independent emission events\nAnother possiblity to get a physical understanding is the independence of the \"emission\" events. From this, the Poisson distribution is easily understood. What I don't see is the connection between the coherent state $|\\alpha\\rangle$ and the concept of statistically independent emissions. I think it's even counterintuitive. In the laser, the induced emission events (together with the resonator) create the coherent state. The statistically independent spontaneous emission events disturb the coherent state (phase fluctuations in the laser).\nWho can help?", "795" ], [ "The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that energy eigenstates have a periodic phase factor, $e^{iEt/\\hbar}$. In general we usually say that states are defined up to a phase factor, so for a single particle in an energy eigenstate we can ignore it, but this phase factor can manifest physically when you have a state which is a superposition of energy eigenstates, each with its own oscillating phase. A simple example of this which actually results in periodic behavior would be a spin-$1/2$ particle in a magnetic field. Such a system will have a Hamiltonian proportional to the Pauli spin matrix $\\sigma_z$.", "789" ], [ "So our time-evolution operator is $U(t) = e^{i\\omega \\sigma_z t}$. Recall that the Pauli matrices are idempotent, so when we Taylor expand this we can group our terms together and we will find\n\\begin{equation} U(t) = \\cos\\left(\\omega t\\right)+ i\\sigma_z \\sin\\left(\\omega t\\right) \\end{equation}\nFor eigenstates of $\\sigma_z$ this isn't particularly interesting. The $\\sigma_z$ will give us just a + for $\\vert \\uparrow \\rangle$ or a - for $\\vert \\downarrow \\rangle$ and of course the modulus of the state won't change but it will have a time-oscillating phase factor. Instead let's think about a superposition of such eigenstates, like $\\vert \\psi \\rangle \\equiv\\frac{1}{2}\\left(\\vert \\uparrow \\rangle + \\vert \\downarrow \\rangle\\right)$.\n\\begin{equation} \\begin{split} U(t) \\vert \\psi \\rangle = \\frac{1}{2}\\cos\\left(\\omega t\\right)\\vert \\left(\\vert \\uparrow \\rangle + \\vert \\downarrow \\rangle\\right) + \\frac{i}{2} \\sin\\left(\\omega t\\right) \\left(\\vert \\uparrow \\rangle - \\vert \\downarrow \\rangle\\right) \\ = \\frac{1}{2} e^{i\\omega t} \\vert \\uparrow \\rangle + \\frac{1}{2} e^{-i \\omega t} \\vert \\downarrow \\rangle \\end{split} \\end{equation}\nNot incidentally, this state was chosen to have a spin of $+\\hbar/2$ along the $x$ direction, but we can see in the above equation that when we evolve it in time we reach a point where it will have spin $-\\hbar/2$ along the $x$ direction, when $\\cos(\\omega t) = 0$ and $\\sin(\\omega t) = 1$, so the expectation value of the $x$ spin of this particle is periodic.\nBecause the Hamiltonian operator is Hermitian by assumption, it can be diagonalized and the operator exponential can be rewritten as a manageable <PERSON> series, but this nice periodic form only works because the square of our Hamiltonian is proportional to the identity matrix, so we could group terms in the <PERSON> expansion to give us a cosine multiplied by the identity and a sine multiplied by the $\\sigma_z$ operator. In general this procedure does not work out quite as nicely, but you can always think about the interference of the phase factors I mentioned in the first paragraph.", "66" ], [ "The IVP should be sufficient to find the solution at any time. But with operator or matrix equations it does get confusing. A good approach is to solve the equation(s) first for regular functions and plug them in, seeing if they work for operators as well.\nin this derivation: [solution1], the author assumes that $[S_i,S_j]=i \\hbar \\epsilon_{ijk}S_k$ doesn’t only hold for $t=0$, but for all times, why would that be?\nI will show you here: We know that $U(t)U^\\dagger (t) = U^\\dagger(t) U(t) = 1$. And it is the case that we can write $S_i(t) = U^\\dagger(t) S_i(0) U(t)$ - you can see this directly when trying to go from the schrödinger to the <PERSON> picture, and also I will justify it in my answer to your second question below. So, assuming that at t=0 the commutation holds, we multiply by a bunch of $U^\\dagger$ from the left, by $U$ from the right, and insert the identity in the middle in order to get the time evolved version of all three matrices:\n$$S_i S_j - S_j S_i = i \\hbar \\epsilon_{ijk} S_k$$ $$\\implies U^\\dagger (t) S_i U(t)\\,\\, U^\\dagger(t) S_j U(t) - U^\\dagger (t) S_j U(t)\\,\\, U^\\dagger(t) S_i U(t) = i \\hbar \\epsilon_{ijk} U^\\dagger(t)S_k U(t)$$ $$\\implies S_i(t) S_j(t) - S_j(t) S_i(t) = i \\hbar \\epsilon_{ijk} S_k(t)$$\nIn this solution, discussed on this site: [solution2][2], the OP assumes that $S_j(t)$ is of the form $\\exp(-iHt/\\hbar)S_j(0) \\exp(iHt/\\hbar)$ (and therefore actually already postulates the answer), why can we assume that?\nThis is always true of any operator satisfying the heisenberg equation of motion, as long as it doesn't explicitly depend on $t$:\n$$\\frac{d}{dt}A(t)=\\frac{i}{\\hbar}[H,A(t)]$$\n$$\\implies A(t) = e^{i t H/\\hbar}A(0)e^{-i t H/\\hbar}$$\nYou can check this by plugging it in.", "526" ], [ "And this also means that $A(t)=U^\\dagger (t)A(0)U(t)$, which is just the form of the equation above. It works with any observable operator, and any Hamiltonian. Pretty amazing that you can just write out the solution like that. But the caveat is that this only goes so far... there are much more useful ways to write the solution, as you saw in your post where we can write it explicitly in terms of pauli matrices for example. So some might not consider it actually \"solved\" if it is just written in this form.\nSimilarly, the solution in the <PERSON> picture for any wavefunction can be written\n$$|\\psi (t) \\rangle = e^{-itH/\\hbar}|\\psi(0) \\rangle$$", "526" ], [ "I’m assuming that by cross-terms you mean off diagonal terms.\nFirst, when talking about off-diagonal terms we clearly mean in a fixed basis. For example, in an eigenbasis of $\\rho$ your state has no off-diagonal elements whatsoever.\nSecond, what you say about measuring clearly holds when performing measurements in that basis ($|0\\rangle, |1\\rangle$ in your basis). Or more precisely when we measure an observable that has the same eigenbasis.\nComing to the physical meaning of these off-diagonal terms, they are also called ‘coherences’. They are responsible for the interference effects of a quantum particle. In particular those effects that make them sometime look like waves. The prototypical experiment that reveal quantum coherence is the double slit experiment.\nThe following thought experiment has been put forward by <PERSON> et al. (see [1]) to describe the essence of the quantum coherence and the double slit experiment.\nImagine to prepare the following state\n$$ |\\Psi\\rangle = ( |\\phi\\rangle_L + e^{i \\theta} |\\phi\\rangle_R)/\\sqrt{2} $$\nWhere $|\\phi\\rangle_{L,R}$ are Gaussian wavepackets centered around $L, R$ (left, right) with spread much smaller than their separation. This requirement assures that the two states are essentially orthogonal.", "976" ], [ "The left (right) wave packet is prepared with momentum $p$ ($-p$) such that it travels to the right (left). If you measure the position at $t=0$, you will find two Gaussian blobs around $L$ and $R$ and the phase $\\theta$ is not observable. From this experiment alone the state cannot be distinguished from a classical state.\nNow let evolve the state until the time where the wavepackets collide. At this point it turns out that if you measure position the phase $\\theta$ becomes observable! It’s as if the particle interfered with itself, pretty much like a wave.\nIf you repeat the experiment many times with different phases $\\theta$, and every time you measure the position of the particle (for example, the particle hits a screen), you will indeed see a figure of interference forming on the screen.\nAdded 19/9/22\nMathematical Details\nWe work in a setting where there is a free particle (not subject to any potential) moving on the real line. Hence the Hamiltonian is $H=a p^2$ ($a=1/(2m)$). If you want to be pedantic the Hilbert space is $\\mathcal{H} = L^2(\\mathbb{R})$.\nFirst consider as initial state a Gaussian wavepacket centered around $x_0$ moving with momentum $p_0$:\n$$ \\psi(x)=\\frac{e^{-\\frac{(x-x_{0})^{2}}{4\\sigma^{2}}}}{(2\\pi\\sigma^{2})^{1/4}}e^{ip_{0}x}. $$\nCorrectly $|\\psi(x)|^2$ is a Gaussian centered around $x_0$ with standard deviation $\\sigma$.\nThe probability distribution of position at time $t$ is\n\\begin{align} \\left|\\psi(x,t)\\right|^{2} &=\\frac{e^{-\\frac{(x-x_{t})^{2}}{2\\sigma_{t}^{2}}}}{\\sqrt{2\\pi\\sigma_{t}^{2}}} \\ x_{t} &=x_{0}+2p_{0} a t \\ \\sigma_{t} &=\\sqrt{\\sigma^{2}+\\frac{a^{2}t^{2}}{\\sigma^{2}}}. \\end{align}\nThis means that if $p_{0}>0$ ($p_{0}<0$) the wavepacket travels to the right (left). Moreover the wavepacket spread a bit in time according to $\\sigma_t$.\nNow initialize the system in the following superposition.", "795" ], [ "The central idea is that you can translate probabilities from a single-particle picture into fractions of particles in a many-particle picture (assuming no interaction).\nConsider $T$ for a moment for a single particle. Let's just, for ease of writing, say $T=.9$. So if you send in a single particle from the far left, 90% of the probability density continues moving right, and 10% of the probability density bounces back. So if you have a perfect detector at the far right, there is a 90% chance your detector will go off.\nNow consider doing the same thing with a whole beam of particles (that don't interact with each other or in any way effect each other's propagation through the disturbance). If you send in $N$ particles, you will expect the detector on the right to go off $.9N$ times, because each particle individually had a 90% chance of hitting it. So, on the far right, you could say you could meaningfully say you detect 90% of the particles you sent in.\nIn that sense:\n$$T=\\frac{|j_\\mathrm{trans}|}{|j_\\mathrm{inc}|}=\\frac{N|j_\\mathrm{trans}|}{N|j_\\mathrm{inc}|}=\\frac{\\text{num transmitted}}{\\text{num incident}}$$\nEdit to explain: \"Why is $T$ the probability of a particle being transmitted?\"\n$T$ and $R$ are normally defined as a function of energy $E$ of the incoming wave. How do replace statements about incoming waves with statements about particles?\nIn quantum mechanics, we think of \"an incoming particle\" as a right-moving wavepacket from the left. (A wavepacket of energy ~$E$ is a superposition of waves of a small range of frequencies tight around $E/\\hbar$, so the resulting wavefunction is not spread over all of position space, but rather is normalizable and concentrated in some region, and still has energy of roughly $E$.) So it \"looks like a particle going right.\"\nIf we have a tight wavepacket so that $T(E)$ is a constant $T$ over the frequencies of interest, then as you evolve the system, 90% of that wavepacket will end up going right past the disturbance, and 10% of the wavepacket will get reflected back.", "795" ], [ "It's easier to visualize this with an animation.\n<PERSON> discusses this topic at the end of Sec 2.5 (pg 75-76 in my copy). <PERSON> mentions it in Sec 5.4 (pg 175 for me), but the math of showing this apparently gets quite involved, so neither author puts forward a real proof I'm afraid. But see this related question. (Note that the notation in that question is different: they use $T$ and $R$ for the coefficients rather than the probabilities as you've done. So your $T,R$ is their $|T|^2/|A|^2,|R|^2/|A|^2$.)\nEdit 2: To explain why we have ratios\nThe ratios are only there because when we work the problem with incoming and outgoing plane waves, our state is not normalized. If you (hypothetically) work the problem with a normalized wavepacket, then the total integrated probability density coming in from the far left (before reflection) is 1. Then the total integrated probability density moving off to the right at the end is just $T=\\int_{t_i}^{t_f} j_\\mathrm{trans}dt$ and this is, by definition, the probability of the particle transmitting.\nWhen actually work the problem in practice, however, you generally don't use wavepackets, you use incoming and outgoing waves, which are not normalized. The total integrated probability density flowing in is thus not 1, but rather $j_\\mathrm{inc}\\times \\mathrm{time}$, and the total integrated probability density flowing out is $j_\\mathrm{trans}\\times \\mathrm{time}$.\nThe question we want to answer is \"What would be the probability density flowing out if the total integrated incoming density is 1?\" So we divide our naive unnormalized $T=j_\\mathrm{trans}$ by $I=j_\\mathrm{inc}$ to fix the fact that we didn't normalize our state from the beginning.", "795" ], [ "Free particle <PERSON> equation: propagator\nI am going through <PERSON>'s Principles of Quantum Mechanics and am having trouble finding the free particle propagator $U(t)$ that satisfies $\\lvert\\psi (t)\\rangle = U(t)\\lvert\\psi (0)\\rangle$ due to the degeneracy of the $E$ eigenkets. <PERSON> says that if the Hamiltonian has degenerate eigenvalues, we change the propagator equation from $U(t) = \\sum_{E} \\lvert E\\rangle\\langle E\\rvert e^{-iEt/{\\hbar}}$ to $U(t) = \\sum_{E} \\sum_\\alpha \\lvert E, \\alpha\\rangle\\langle E, \\alpha\\rvert e^{-iEt/\\hbar} $ where $\\lvert E, \\alpha \\rangle $ are the orthonormal eigenkets for the $E$ eigenspace. This makes sense to me, because it seems like whenever we deal with degeneracy to use a projection.", "669" ], [ "He also says for a Hamiltonian with no degeneracy to change the sum into an integral, so I imagine that for a Hamiltonian with a continuous, degenerate spectrum we would have this propagator: $$ U(t) = \\sum_\\alpha\\int_\\Re dE\\lvert E, \\alpha\\rangle\\langle E, \\alpha\\rvert e^{-iEt/\\hbar}$$\nI tried applying this to the free particle and had some trouble. In the book, after solving for the eigenkets and eigenvalues, $\\lvert E\\rangle = \\lvert p\\rangle$ and $p = \\pm\\sqrt{2mE}$, he chooses the propagator as a function of the momentum eigenvalues $p$ so that $$U(t) = \\int_\\Re dp\\lvert p\\rangle\\langle p\\rvert exp(-ip^2t/2m)$$ I understand how he got to this, but I'm having some trouble because this doesn't appear to be the same expression that I have above. Splitting the integral up, we have $$U(t) = \\int_{-\\infty}^0dp\\lvert p\\rangle\\langle p\\rvert exp(-ip^2t/2m) + \\int_0^\\infty dp\\lvert p\\rangle\\langle p\\rvert exp(-ip^2t/2m)$$ The left integral can changed to an integral over $-p$, and the bounds switch from $0$ to $\\infty$ such that: $$U(t) = \\int_{0}^\\infty d(-p)\\lvert -p\\rangle\\langle -p\\rvert exp(-ip^2t/2m) + \\int_0^\\infty dp\\lvert p\\rangle\\langle p\\rvert exp(-ip^2t/2m)$$ Now we can substitute and interchange $\\lvert p\\rangle = \\lvert E, + \\rangle$, $\\lvert -p\\rangle = \\lvert E, - \\rangle$, $E = p^2/2m$, and $dp = \\pm mdE/\\sqrt{2mE}$ to get: $$U(t) = \\sum_{\\alpha = \\pm} \\int_0^\\infty dEm/\\sqrt{2mE}\\lvert E, \\alpha\\rangle\\langle E, \\alpha\\rvert e^{-iEt/\\hbar} $$ This is the result that we are asked to prove. Why is this not the same as the first expression for the propagator? Where did the extra $ m/\\sqrt{2mE} $ come from? Am I just wrong in assuming that that is the general expression for a Hamiltonian with continuous and degenerate eigenvalues?", "592" ], [ "There are several ways of knowing what states should be there. For simple cases such as this, the easiest way is just by counting all the possibilities or micro-states.\nSince you have 2 \"equivalent\" electrons in $p^2$ (equivalent meaning that they share quantum numbers $n$ and $l$, related to the energy of the system) there are $$\\left( \\begin{array}{l} 6 \\ 2 \\end{array} \\right) = 6 \\cdot 5/2 = 15$$ micro-states (possible ways of assigning $n$, $l$, $m_l$ and $m_s$ to the outer (valence) electrons. Know you have to count all the possible (allowed by <PERSON>'s principle) different arrangements of $m_{l,1}$, $m_{l,2}$, $m_{s,1}$, $m_{s,2}$.\nYou can find them explicitly in any Physical Chemistry book (e.g. <PERSON> and <PERSON>). Writing $m_{l,1}, m_{l,2}$ and $m_s$ omitted ($m_s = 1/2$) or with an over bar (for spin $m_s = -1/2$), the microstates are: $(1,\\bar{1}), (1,0),(1,\\bar{0}), (1,-1),(1,-\\bar{1})$, $(0,1),(0,\\bar{1}), (0,\\bar{0}), (0,-1),(0,-\\bar{1})$, $(-1,1),(-1,\\bar{1}), (-1,0),(-1,\\bar{0}), (-1,-\\bar{1})$ Now you have to group these states by characterising $L$ and $S$ (since, barring spin-orbit coupling, for a given $L$ and $S$ the $M_L$ and $M_S$ states form a manifold of degenerate states).\nThere are several ways of doing so, but I'll be sketchy to avoid lengthiness. For instance you can first think in those cases with $m_{s,1} \\neq m_{s,2}$ where $m_{l,1}$ can be equal to $m_{l,2}$. Then $M_S = m_{s,1} + m_{s,2} = 0$ ($S$ can still be 1 -triplet or 0 - singlet). $M_L = m_{l,1} + m_{l,2} = 2,1,0$.", "976" ], [ "So you can have states with $L = 2,1,0$. The states with $L = 2$ must be $S = 0$ since, as you realised, $m_{s,1}$ cannot be equal to $m_{s,2}$. Thus you identify 5 micro-states ($M_L = +L, \\ldots, 0, \\ldots -L$) corresponding to a single level $^1$D.\nOf the remaining 10 states you can clearly see from the listing of micro-states that your $L=1$ level is a triplet (you can find microstates with $M_S = 1$ and $M_L = 1$ so the remaining $M_S = 0,-1$ and $M_S = 0, -1$ have to be there too). For a $^3$P level there are $3\\times 3 = 9$ microstates. Finally, the remaining micro-state must correspond to a $^1$S state.\nRegarding your question of the wave function. Again, think only on your last 2 electrons (it is not difficult to \"enlarge\" your <PERSON> determinant with the other electrons). Each of your previous micro-states would correspond to a single <PERSON> determinant. For example, for $(1,\\bar{0})$ you would have the wave function $$ \\frac{1}{\\sqrt{2}} \\left| \\begin{array}{cc} 2p_1(1)\\alpha(1) & 2p_0(1)\\beta(1) \\ 2p_1(2)\\alpha(2) & 2p_0(2)\\beta(2) \\end{array} \\right|$$ where $2p_{m}$ is the wave function in atomic orbital $2p_{m}$ and $\\alpha$ and $\\beta$ are the spin functions. Some states belonging to the levels with well-defined $L$ and $S$ correspond directly to the micro-states.", "976" ], [ "The answer to this is a bit nuanced so I have now edited the answer to make it as clear as possible.\nThe big picture is: Yes, it is possible to measure a wave function, if it is possible to find or produce particles with that wave function so that repeated measurements can be made (not on the same particle each time, but on a different particle which is known to have the same wave function). This can be done in practice. For example, this experiment effectively measures the magnitude of the wave function in momentum space for an electron in a hydrogen atom: source.\nIf you write $$\\psi(\\vec{r})=A(\\vec{r})e^{i\\alpha(\\vec{r})}$$ For $A,\\alpha$ real, then $A$ can be determined by measurements of position, and I believe it is possible to find $\\alpha$ only from momentum measurements up to a constant offset $\\alpha(x) \\to \\alpha(x) + c$. Because of this constant offset which is not measurable, $\\psi(\\vec{r})$ is not measurable at a point, but $|\\psi(\\vec{r})|^2 $ is, $A(\\vec{r})$ is, and $\\alpha(\\vec{r})$ is up to that \"offset\", which is called a global phase.\nOf course, any finite number of measurements will only give information on a finite number of points of $\\psi(\\vec{r})$, each with uncertainty as well, especially because many measurements are necessary to measure a probability. These measurements must be done by repeatedly preparing a particle in that wave function and then measuring at a chosen later time. The experimentalist does not need to know what the wave function is beforehand, she/he must only know that the wave function is the same for each particle. Then, she can interpolate in between the measured points to come to a good guess for $\\psi$ at all points. In practice, any experimental outcome which is predicted by $\\psi(\\vec{r})$ can also be used to constrain it.\nThere is a practice of measuring states called Quantum Tomography. It has its own wikipedia.", "795" ], [ "It is usually used for finite-dimensional systems. But in reality every system is infinite dimensional, one only treats them as finite-dimensional. One could treat the position space wave function in the same way.\nThat being said, though it can be done in principle, I'm not aware of a full tomography which has been done in practice. If one really doesn't exist, this is a severe experimental weakness of testing the theory in my view. If anyone has a source to one, I'd be interested. I know of many momentum experiments where the fourier transform of the wave function was in fact checked, but not the entire thing.\nI will point out again for clarity, because it seems that others are of the opinion that I have not emphasized this enough, that if you do not have the ability to find or produce many particles in the unknown state $\\psi$ then it is not possible to measure in practice. It seems to me, though, that a clever setup could be used to measure almost any wave function in principle. Whether technology has reached that point is another question. But I will do due dilligence and flag that last statement as opinion, because I cannot provide references or proofs that it must be so.", "795" ] ]

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[ [ "My advice for creating a system of myths would look something like this:\n1. What religions, beliefs, etc. have you already laid out? This might determine the theme of the myths. For an abstract example, in a religion with good and evil, moralistic fables might be common, or mythical creatures might be fearful demons or, conversely, benefactors.\n2. What is familiar to people, and assumed to be a given? The people might assume the characters in their myths are like them, or they may be set apart by the fact they don't do something.\n3. What is scary/mysterious/unknown/unlucky in this culture? Some myths might stem from that. Also, many, many myths serve to explain what science can't. If the people don't know about something, they'll assume whatever fits for them.\n4. Think of cultural traditions and manners. Might myths factor in to this? In Ancient Greece, the gods could disguise themselves as humans, so people were hospitable to strangers because you could never tell if they were a deity in disguise.\n5.", "805" ], [ "What creatures are there in your world? Are they a danger? Do they provide people with something they need? What do they mean to the people? Predators are often seen as fierce, and can be either wicked or noble. Animals the people need to survive often represent fertility. How your world views animals can affect legends and myths.\n6. What are the morals of these people? Ultimately, this decides how the stories are told. What qualities are praised? What is taboo? How rigid is the society's power structure? The last one is important in that a rigid society might have stories with the connotation of \"know your place,\" while a society with more opportunities might have a few \"rags to riches\" myths.\n7. What aesthetic do you want your myths to have? Myths can be biased. They can praise, instruct, or simply entertain. Myths can be full of imagery and detail, or stripped down to the bare bones of its intention. What time period was this myth made? How did it come to be? How did it evolve over time? Was the meaning changed to suit society? Where parts taken out because of taboo, or something else? Another part of this is figuring out how symbolic you want the myths to be. They can be legends of everyday heroes, or they can be seeped in the culture, assumptions, and associations of the people so much that a foreigner would scratch their head at the meaning.\nHope this helps!", "547" ], [ "It would depend on how long this revenant phenomenon has been around. If it has been that way since prehistoric times, humanity and civilization would have evolved quite differently. Ancient cultures started as hunter-gatherer societies and were much more community-focused. There would be strong cultural practices surrounding\n1. Making sure everyone knows how it works, at least as well as is understood. No doubt it would become an important part of early proto-religions.\n2. Dispute resolution. Some form of community support and a relatively universal understanding of justice. It could be violent, like blood money, although early cultures didn't have money per se so something else would have to be worked out. I would prefer more non-violent solutions. Community therapists of some sort: many early cultures had wise men, shamans, matchmakers, and various other important social roles. There would be someone whose role is to settle disputes and ensure fidelity and harmony. People would mostly be willing to take part because everyone understands the consequences of not doing so, and it is something that they strongly believe in due to their religion. And in this case, it's based on actual real consequences, not just faith (although depending on how successful they are, it would still happen perhaps once every average lifetime of an individual since the younger generation has never seen it before).\n3. Forgiveness is an important part of the culture and religion, managing one's emotions is taught from a young age, like in many Buddhist societies.", "917" ], [ "Meditation, controlled breathing, the taming of the passions, self-control. Like the Jedis, if you like.\nI'm basically envisioning Native American society + Buddhism. Warfare would consequently be very uncommon, people would literally be forced to negotiate and practice diplomacy. Society would likely develop either more slowly or much more quickly, it's a bit up to your imagination. In a larger society, it is harder to maintain social cohesion, but maybe their peacemaking skills would actually lead to a more utopic type of society. There would still be risk to manage, but the religious aspect likely would be more dominant. Consider this: people wouldn't fight over whose religion is correct because everyone comes back from the dead no matter which religion they believe. Therefore I would assume there is not a lot of structure to the religion (such as in Buddhism) as to specific interpretations, perhaps it is more Deistic, this allows it to be more universal. I still predict a lower density of the population. Note that people will pretty much be guaranteed to believe in a spirit of some sort, and life after death (perhaps reincarnation?).\nFrom this perspective, if it's something that has always been this way, then start with how you think society would have organized in early times and try to imagine how it would evolve forward. If you want organized large scale agrarian/industrial societies to exist, then think about how society managed to get that way without people getting killed.\nThis assumes that the risk of the revenants can't be managed by some means, such as cremation or prevention in some way as others have suggested. This then largely depends on the details of how you want it to work. If it's unavoidable for the most part, then society would be forced to evolve harmoniously or else remain as relatively small communities. If it's able to be managed and avoided, then perhaps people develop more selfish tendencies over time as the risk becomes lower. Even so, the mere fact that people literally come back from the dead due to their willpower is pretty incredible and will have a huge influence on people's understanding of the universe and metaphysics, and it will play a central role in any religion.", "164" ], [ "In the situation you describe, I would try looking at the real-world occult systems instead of fictional magic, since they most often try to explain, why anybody has a potential to do magic, but only a small number of their adherents can be successful. Folk tales are also a good source.\nMagic is taught\nI will mention it only for the sake of completeness - you've already stated that people can discover magic by themselves. There basic idea here is that magic is either very complicated ritually, or magical thinking is so significantly different from everyday thinking that you need to be taught to use it.\nMagic is done by spirits\nIt is pretty popular too, and it may be not the best for your setting. In this version, a source of magic is not exactly in the person, but in his ability to call upon spiritual entities and coerce them. Maybe there is a shaman-style spiritual quest, whereby the prospective magic users discovers his spirit helper and then it teaches him further. It may be a matter of knowing the Names of the spirits (<PERSON> style), and knowing at least one name puts you into position to discover more.\nMagic is gifted\nThis version also presumes the existence of the spiritual entity . There simplest example is the folktale idea of the 'deal with the Devil', 'deal at the crossroads' etc. Magical ability is conferred by a spirit as a part of some bargain.", "805" ], [ "It doesn't need to be a devil, it may be an ancestor spirit looking for vengeance.\nMagic is insane\nThat is my favorite. It is used in fiction too, but mostly in the 'magical realism' style of writing, not in the mainstream fantasy. In this version, magic exists in the world, but it's illogical and irrational enough so that an average person is just not able to think this way. Something similar to the theories of quantum physics, for example. 'The world is not what it seems' - the human understanding of events and things is locked into linear time, the illusion of actions and consequences, or the illusion of free will and similar stuff. A practitioner needs to pierce this veil of illusion in order to grasp the real laws according to which the world operates. It is a bit like Zen Buddhism this way. Such enlightenment may be a result of a long study under another practitioner, but may also just happen on its own - either as a result of meditation, or a particularly traumatic event. In such version, all magical practitioners would seem slightly mad and unhinged to the ordinary people.", "805" ], [ "Religion is, by it's very nature, transcendent. The world and the concerns thereof are not the concerns of religion. Religion answers the quest for the highest good by pointing beyond the world of our physical experience. Therefore members of a religion may very naturally anticipate the end of this life (or the world) with hope.\nThere are interesting theological questions around how the world itself is viewed, and each religion answers such questions differently. For instance, a gnostic Christian might reject the material world as evil, while an orthodox Christian would uphold the inherent goodness of the world which is passing away.", "752" ], [ "It sounds fun to flesh out such details (don't forget to include internal conflicts within the religion itself).\nObviously contemporary American religious thought won't yield much good source material, because modern American religion is almost always hedonism in disguise; but it would be interesting to look into the Tao Te Ching, some writings of the ancient Christian ascetics, and some literature about Hindu gods of destruction for a wide range of perspectives.\nThe basis of a positive arguments used to attract followers would be that the coming world is better than this one. This is an easy argument to make given that in our world: 1) people tend to think the world is bad and 2) they also always seem convinced that it is getting worse, in spite of many efforts to make it better. It therefore shouldn't be hard to draw the conclusion that the world must be remade. Of course, a nihilistic argument could be made that life itself is bad (see any bad guy in any movie ever).\nA pseudo-Buddhist argument might go something like desire causes us to suffer; the pleasure does not outweigh the evil of the suffering; it seems impossible to not desire while in the body; therefore all desire must be extinguished by the apocalypse after which we will …\nI guess, in general, I think it is harder to argue for the goodness of the world than it's badness. Therefore I don't think it should be hard for you to construct convincing arguments for it's demise, be they hopeful for a better existence or not.", "590" ], [ "To answer your question, I think it is important to understand what the foundation of your new world is. What <PERSON> said about rocks is fun and all, but this can only be believable in a world entirely different than our own. As an example, you could change the fundamental laws of the universe (electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces, and gravity). Perhaps that would be too complex, but there needs to be a reasonable way that consumption of rocks could provide an adequate amount of energy, especially considering the fact that rocks don't contain a lot of readily accessible energy for other organic forms of life. Any way of harvesting that energy would likely release too much energy as a result.\nIs it important to you that the dragon eats something small? Is it important to you that you completely remove the normal circle of life that we are accustomed to? Can we not have a larger planet? This would make it easier to stay consistent with the rest of your world because you could take what we already know and just make the potential for everything to grow bigger because there are more resources. That may also necessitate that your characters (if any) would also be bigger, and be in a world with everything relatively bigger but not bigger relative to themselves. That may take away the appeal of larger creatures because their power is no longer relevant in a world of relatively more powerful creatures (everything is relative).", "693" ], [ "Maybe in order to maintain the majesty of large dragons you make it a world that visitors travel to, perhaps on accident. Then you could have this world of large creatures that remains impressive (this is sounding a little like <PERSON>, which may be a good thing?).\nNo matter what you choose, there needs to be consistency. If what the dragons consume is important, maybe build a new world around that. If something else is more important, build your world around that. State the assumptions of your world, and then we can productively and effectively design a solution that works in your world. If there is no consistency, nor struggle in the world or in its design, then it becomes boring. Ultimate power is not exciting (just ask <PERSON>, who seemed to intentionally develop an allergy to a shiny green rock).", "194" ], [ "It would depend on their cultural understanding of magic. Our typical <PERSON>/D&D derived medieval fantasy worlds tend to have models of magic that are very amenable to the identification of advanced technology as magical. Crystal balls, particularly variants such as the evil <PERSON>'s mirror on the wall and <PERSON>'s Palantir, are basically cellular phones, with all the attendant powers and vulnerabilities of that device. The idea of cutting someone open and performing surgery on them to someone working with a humoral theory of human physiology will likely seem magical, as you are (to their understanding) correcting the flow of vital essences around the body. To the anachronistically Cartesian-dualist medieval fantasy mind, surgery is sorcery.\nBut there are other concepts of magic less conducive to identifying technology as magical in nature.", "72" ], [ "For instance, if you have a basically animistic belief system, your cell phone doesn't resemble magical spirits as they conceive of them, it's more like a type of creature, even more-so considering an automobile or jet. Now, if you revealed to them that these creatures are not just tamed by these strange foreigners, but actually created by them, you're probably going to disrupt their core metaphysical beliefs and wind up identified as some sort of creator god. But probably not a \"magic\" spirit, you come at those another way.\nChaos Magick is a pretty recent development in occult thought, but the concept of magick (family of concepts really, as chaos magick is utterly pragmatic and practitioners change their favored concept as often as their underwear in order to better game themselves in different circumstances) it promotes usually involves something like modifying probabilities, fetching information from other universes/our future mind/a god, demon, or saint who likes to do fetch quests, or even just influencing which of the possible futures you or we actually wind up in (\"Sorry, alternate selves, you should have invoked better!\") This kind of concept of magick seems less likely to identify technology as magical in nature, but at the same time is very likely (i.e. in fact does) assimilate technology into magickal practice. For instance, there are certainly several apps in smartphone marketplaces that will simulate a tarot deck or rune casting. And chaos mages are probably the only ones using them, since they're the mental contortionists who can actually spin a criticism of pseudorandom number generators into an argument for why e-divination is even better than the 3D variety.", "227" ], [ "<PERSON> comes to mind as an example of a human experiencing similar conditions to your creatures. I seem to recall that before being taught sign language, she could still make herself somewhat understood, though that may be because her family could see/hear. So I'm going to throw out this example for the rest of this answer.\nInstead, I want to imagine how these creatures would live. For one thing, if they're loners, they're not going to develop language no matter how easy it is, so let's assume they're pack animals. Thus, they will sleep, move, and eat together, and feel terror when they are alone. For these reasons, I imagine that much of these creatures' time will be spent in physical contact with one another (think of people walking in a snowstorm, or WWI soldiers blinded by poison gas in long lines, holding onto each other for direction). It may be possible that a group will never let go of one another, forming lifelong partnerships with the individuals in front of and behind them. They're going to end up knowing a lot about these two people, and should be able to tell their mood just by feeling their body language-- that is, if they have body language at all.\nI think rather than a static line, it's more likely that individuals will remain connected, but often switch their place in the group.", "802" ], [ "That way, the alpha can make sure no one is plotting against them, and no one has been left behind. Also, it allows the young to learn from a variety of sources. This way, I think body language will develop, as there are certain things individuals will want to tell each other (for instance, \"I don't want to hold your hand\", or \"don't leave, you're not as sweaty as the other guy\"). This may come in the form of hand signals (like soldiers entering a building tapping each other's shoulders), or more subtle cues like posture. Keep in mind that without most senses, these creatures' sense of touch should be much more precise than ours, so they should be able to pick up a variety of cues that we couldn't, such as small changes in heartbeat or hairs standing on end.\nWhether or not this all turns into a form of communication that we would call language is debatable, and mostly based on the potential these creatures have for intelligence. However, with the example of <PERSON> again (I know, I said I wouldn't bring her back up, but she didn't hear me when I told her to leave), she learned to understand sign language by feeling it, so sign language could be used by these creatures to communicate as long as they were smart enough to develop it.\nAs for written language like braille, I think it should develop eventually, just like written languages did for humans. Come to think of it, it may develop earlier: these creatures should already be used to combing the ground for familiar paths and handholds, it shouldn't be too much of a leap to place certain objects with special meaning in places where they will be found. This may start as a way to more easily find places, but could evolve, again based on the intelligence of these creatures.", "802" ], [ "A couple thoughts: In the Bible's Old Testament, the name of God was abbreviated and not even fully written out for fear and reverence of it. In the New Testament, followers of <PERSON> preach that \"there is no other name by which we can be saved\". Also, in Revelation, <PERSON> promises to give to anyone who overcomes a secret name known only to that person and <PERSON>.\nI take these meanings to be related to the fact that a name is an expression of a person's character and nature. This includes their power but also who they are.\nI am not an expert but I can imagine people invoking the names of gods and demons that they follow in order to gain their power. Unfortunately, that may mean also gaining some of their other character traits...\nI would guess that the turning of the name into a secret key to command that power is a later invention. It seems less likely to me that an ancient man would believe he could command supernatural forces with a secret password than a modern man believing it. To the ancient world, spirits and demons were explanations of the caprice of the universe, and I do not think most people believed they could be coerced except by the help of a stronger supernatural power. But I could be wrong.", "674" ], [ "I suppose there were witch doctors then as today. But I wonder if (then and today), they see themselves as controlling or invoking a power. My guess is the latter. Again, could be wrong.\nAnother aspect of the use of a name as a key to command is related to the name as a representation of someone. In my mentioned example from Revelation, I believe this refers to the relational intimacy of having something good within oneself that is a secret between one and God. When someone else knows who you truly are, that creates intimacy and vulnerability. And vulnerability is something that can be exploited, if trying to exploit things for power is your deal.\nSo, perhaps knowing something's true name is intimately knowing it so that you can exploit that intimacy to exert power over it and control it.\nI might add that that sort of plan doesn't tend to win friends or influence people in the long run. Unless, I suppose, you're <PERSON>.", "140" ] ]

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[ [ "Brass Cufflinks\nIntroduction: Brass Cufflinks\nFirst of all: sorry for my english, I'm not a native speaker.\nI made these cufflinks for my brothers 18th birthday this summer. Brass is probably not the best material due to the fact that it oxidates fast and turns dark. However, it was the only material available to me at that time. The Inlays are white soapstone though other material can be used (as with the brass ;))\nSupplies\ntools:\n* lathe\n* small Files (flat and roud, I used watchmaker tools)\n* sandpaper\n* saw\n* M3 tap and thread cutter\n* drill bits(Ø2,4mm, Ø1,2mm, Ø1,3mm)\n* glue (I used two part epoxy)\nsupplies:\n* brass rods (Ø16mm, Ø6mm, Ø1,2mm)\n* two small pieces of brass, each about 5mm x 18mm x 3mm\n* two small pieces of white soapstone (or something else) for the inlays\nStep 1: Turning the Heads\nI started with turning the heads of the cufflinks. It is basicaly a small disc with a threaded hole in the middle and a rim for the inlay. You can take the measurements (in mm) from the scetch above.\nStep 2: Turning the Stem\nFor the stem I first turned the final diameter and the part for the thread. After finishing this I turned the piece arround, cutted the stem to its final length and rounded the end of. Then I drilled a hole (Ø1,2mm) at the marked position (see the drawing above), sawed the slit and filed it according to the measurements.\nStep 3: Connecting Stem and Head\nThis step is fairly easy. I just screwed the head on the stem.", "582" ], [ "After that I put both back into the lathe and planed the base of the head, where the inlay sits. You can also solder the two parts together but if you have a tight fit on the tread you can leave it as it is.\nStep 4: The Cross Bit\nThe last major part of the cufflink is the cross bit (I have no clue what the actual name of this piece is). I did mine from a small brass strip, rounded the edges of and added a 1,3mm hole in the center.\nStep 5: Assembling the Metal Parts\nNow that all the brass parts are completed you can assemble them. For this I cutted two small pieces from a 1,2mm brass rod and riveted the cross bit to the stem. The cross part should still be able to move relatively free. File the ends of the pins even with the stem and finish the cufflinks with fine sandpaper. You can also polish them, but i liked how the surface looked after this step.\nStep 6: The Inlay\nYou can use basically anything for the inlay, as long as you are able to work with it. It is a 1,25mm high disc with a diameter of 12mm. Depending on how exact you worked on the head, you might have to adjust these measurements to achieve a perfect fit. Glue them in place with two part epoxy glue and you are done!\nCongrats on your new cufflinks!", "276" ], [ "Hexagon Shelf\nIntroduction: Hexagon Shelf\nHexagons are the best and I had a blank wall in my livingroom. Putting one and one together, I wanted hexagonal shelves in my livingroom. The ones I made have a stained wooden outside, and a white inside. The hexagons are designed to be assembled without screws to keep the structure. The shelves have a wooden back used for reinforcement and mounting.\nI had previously already made a set of three, so the three made here needed to be a good match to the ones I already have.\nSupplies\nTo make 3 shelves I used:\n* 18mm Solid finger jointed panel 30x200cm (This is I think the right name, but in dutch we call it \"timmerpaneel\")\n* 9mm plywood sheet 61x122cm\n* 6mm dowel pins\n* Woodglue (I used polyurethane woodglue)\n* White paint, primer and Oak wood stain (use whatever paint you fancy)\n* Caulk plus finishing materials like soapy water\n* Screws and plugs for mounting the shelf\nThe tools I used:\n* Table saw\n* Miter saw\n* Jigsaw\n* drill with 6mm wood drill bit for the dowels\n* drill for the mounting hole and countersinking bit\n* 2 small ratchet straps\n* 1 glue clamp\n* Paint tools\n* Caulk gun\n* Hammer drill with right stone drill for the plug (for mounting the shelves)\nStep 1: Cutting the Sides\nThe shelves are each made from 6 pieces of wood, each cut to 30 degrees on either side. A miter saw was used to cut the whole board in 9 strips with roughly 18.7cm on the short side 20.5cm on the long side. If you are making your own, the exact dimension is not important, only the angle and that all planks are the same. Mine needed to match a previous set, so I needed to be precise here.\nEach cut the board is placed against a hard stop which my saw has, and then the cut is made at the 30 degree angle. The board is then flipped, placed against the stop and cut again. This step is repeated until you have the desired amount of pieces. Be sure the plank does not move while cutting. With angled cuts the saw tries to move the plank sideways, ruining the cut.\nMy board was 200x30cm, which yielded me with 9 strips of roughly 20x30cm. I want my shelves to only be 15cm deep, so with a table saw I halved each plank. This gave me 18 planks in total, making 3 shelves.\nStep 2: Cutting a Slot\nTo hide the back board of the shelf, a slot needs to be cut in the wood, roughly half the depth of the plank (in my case 9mm). It needs to be at least as thick as the back board, which in my case is also 9mm.", "431" ], [ "I made an 11mm wide, 9mm deep slot. This slot is on the side which was cut, so the clean chamfered side becomes the front. Make sure the slot is in the short side, else your slot will be on the outside of the shelf.\nThe table saw is set to 9mm tall. The fence is set so the cut is around 8mm from the back edge of the plank. Then each piece is carefully cut on the saw. The fence is then moved to make another cut with the furthest edge 18-19mm from the back edge. The final cut is placed somewhere in the center. I was left with two thin strips of wood which I removed with a chisel. if you are willing to make another cut you can simply remove all the material with the saw.\nStep 3: Dowel Holes\nThe shelf is held together with dowel pins. Each plank has three 6mm dowel pins per side.\nTo make the holes more accurate I made a 3D printed tool to align my drill. I have included versions of this tool with 5, 6, 8 and 10mm holes. I used the 8mm one with a metal bushing, but if you are careful the tool should last at least a few shelves. The tool needs to be oriented with the side with the holes on the printbed.\nIf you cannot make this tool, you can simply drill 3 holes in each side, and then use dowel center pins to mark the dowel holes in the other side of the plank before drilling.\nStep 4: Making the Back\nThe back is made of plywood. This back provides strength and place to mount the shelf. Measure the inside of the hexagonal shelf, and mark this shape on the wood, with enough allowance to fill the slot in the planks. A jigsaw was used to cut this shape out of the plywood once.", "599" ], [ "Wooden Pipe\nIntroduction: Wooden Pipe\nIn this project I will show you how to make a functional wooden pipe that can be used for smoking or as a prop.\nThere are some great pipe making resources out there; here are some pages I referenced: pipedia, wikipedia, and WAMO.\nSupplies\nWood- I used walnut, oak, purple heart, maple, and beech\nFinish- I used a beeswax finish and spray lacquer\nTools:\nTable saw\nBand saw\nDrill press and forstner bits\nSanders- belt sander, oscillating spindle sander, Dremel sandpaper attachment, loose sandpaper\nRouter and ogee bit\nStep 1: Pick Your Pipe\nPipes come in all shapes and styles. The standard pipe components are the reservoir and the hollow tube leading to the mouth.\nThe shape directly correlates to the difficulty of the project. If the stem is straight or if the mouthpiece doesn't flatten the project would be much easier and different from the bent billiard pipe I make in this tutorial.\nStep 2: Basic Components\nThe part of the pipe which includes the chamber and draught hole is called the stummel. It will have the main hole for the reservoir and a hole coming in from the side connecting to the bottom of the reservoir.\nThe stem is a narrow hollow tube that connects into the stummel/band. It begins rounded and flattens near the end of the mouthpiece.\nLots of pipes have decorative bands which are usually metal but in this case will be wood. This is in between the stummel and the stem.\nTo connect the 3 components there needs to be a strong joint. I decided to use a dowel with a hole drilled in the center to allow airflow.\nStep 3: Stummel\nThis piece will likely need to be 2 pieces of wood glued together as it's pretty large; my block was 2.5\" x 2.5\" x 5\". Sketch out the profile of the pipe you would like on the wood. Next, after squaring up the block, drill a 1\" hole (which is relatively large for a pipe) down about 1.25\" deep. Then cut off a corner of the block of wood at 50 degrees where the stummel will connect to the other band. Then use this cut off piece to prop up the main block as you drill the drought hole connecting it with the bottom of the reservoir. This main hole should be about 3/16\" for good airflow.", "431" ], [ "Next, while the block is in the same position in the drill press, switch to a bit the size of the dowel you will use (3/8\" in my case) and drill down about 1/4\".\nUsing a bandsaw cut the profile and top profile of the stummel out being sure to steer clear of the holes you drilled.\nWith a belt sander clean up the rest of the corners shaping it and making the walls however thin you would like. Make sure that the end you will be joining to the band and stem remains flat. This step takes a fair amount of hand sanding.\nStep 4: Stem\nI started with a piece of wood about 2.5\" x 4\" x 1\". Making the stem hollow is a slightly tricky challenge. The easiest way to do this is to start by re-sawing the piece of wood you would like to use in half vertically on the bandsaw. Then on each side, using a Dremel, cut a channel symmetrical in each side starting at 3/16\" round and ending at an oval that is narrower but deeper. Then, glue these back together, carefully lining up the channel. For the glue-up, leave a pipe cleaner or a piece of twine in the channel to capture any glue squeeze out; remove it once the clamps are in place.\nAfter the glue dries, square up the edges of the block on the table saw and cut the desired angle on the face that will connect to the band/stummel. Next, use the same cut off piece from the stummel to prop up the stem block on the drill press as you drill another hole for the dowel centered on the air hole on the bottom half of the stem.\nOn the bandsaw cut the profile of the stem.\nUsing a sander round the corners and get the desired shape making the walls however thin you would like. Make sure the end you will be joining to the stummel/band remains flat. This step also takes a fair amount of hand sanding.\nStep 5: Band and Dowel\nFor the decorative band simply cut a circle larger than your stem diameter. Make sure this wood is a good thickness (mine was about 1/4\"); the thicker it is the more imperfections it will hide in between the stummel and the stem.", "599" ], [ "Magic Wand That Turns Into Pen\nIntroduction: Magic Wand That Turns Into Pen\nI think like a lot of people once you get exposed to <PERSON> can't wait to get a wand. Last year our family went to Universal Studios Orlando and visited Ollivander's Wand shop and both my kids got to pick a wand. It was a great day, and they were super excited waving the wand around casting spells and pretending to battle one another. However, I noticed that once we returned home the wands went up on a shelf and they hardly touched them. I was hopeful they would play with them a bit more but alas they sat on the shelf gathering dust.\nOne day while making a pen on my lathe I thought it might be a neat idea to combine the pen and the wand. Naturally I searched online for \"wand pen\" and found a few results but the majority were plastic, and most were made so that the pen tip just stuck out of the tip of the wand or the bottom of the handle. It was obvious they were wands, this sort of ruins the illusion of the wand. There were some that were nicer plastic versions, but they were not full-sized wands. The bottom line is they all kind of looked cheap and fake. So, I decided to try and make a pen wand/wand pen, out of wood, that concealed the pen in the handle section of the wand and still looked like a wand. The following Instructable describes my process.\nSupplies\n1 x 1 x 17-1/2 inch piece of Hardwood - Walnut etc.,\nWood Lathe\nPen Jaws\nLathe Tools\nCenter Finding Jig\nIce Pick or Awl\nTable Saw\nPencil\nSlimline Pen Kit\nPen Clamp\nThick Leather Scrap Piece 2\" x 3\"\nmm Drill Bit\n5/16 Drill Bit\n5/16 Brass Tube\nSandpaper (80, 150, 220, 400, 600, 1000, 2000 grits)\nDanish Oil\nPaper Towels\n5-minute Epoxy\nPortable Bandsaw Table\nHacksaw\nStep 1:\nI don't live near a Hardwood dealer so whenever I need a small amount of hardwood, I purchase it from Ebay. I found a seller that offers 20pcs of 1x1x24 inch mixed hardwood for about $31 shipped. That works out to about $1.55 per piece which I think is a good deal. These are off cuts so they are not perfect but considering that they will be turned they have more than enough material for me to use.\nThe first thing I do is use my center finding jig and an ice pick to mark the center of both ends of the wood. This particular center finding jig I 3d printed from a file I found on Thingiverse.", "622" ], [ "If you do not have a center finding jig you can just use a ruler to mark the diagonal lines.\nStep 2:\nTo save some time I use my table saw tilted to 45 degrees to cut off the 4 corners of my stock. This leaves me with a hexagonal shape that I find easier to turn. It doesn't have to be perfect as long as you knock down the corners.\nStep 3:\nNext, I chuck the wood stock in between a pair of pen jaws and a live center. I line up the live center point with my center mark on end of the wood. I try to make sure that my stock is even or is as horizontal as possible. After tightening the tail stock, I will turn on the lathe to see if the wood is balanced. If it is wobbling around, I will readjust it in the chuck and recheck. Once I am pleased with the way the wood is spinning, I will make sure everything is snug.\nStep 4:\nThe first thing I do is knock off the sides and round everything over, using my square tipped carbide cutter. The goal here is to get the rough shape of the wand, thick at the handle and then tapered towards the tip.\nSince this is a long piece, the wand can have some wobble in the center because it is unsupported. This usually becomes evident by the sound the cutter makes. To stabilize the wood, I use a folded-up cotton towel to loosely hold the piece with my non-tool hand while my tool hand makes the cut. This can be a bit tricky and takes some getting used too; you don't want a long piece of towel that can get caught and wrap around the wood as it turns. The piece of towel I use is about 5 inches long and folded into thirds. Its folded over because it gets quite hot with the friction which, you will feel if you are gripping the wood too tightly. You aren't squeezing the wood with the towel; you are just sort of gently holding it to keep it steady as you run the lathe tool across the wood.", "599" ], [ "How to Make a Small Parts Cleaner\nIntroduction: How to Make a Small Parts Cleaner\nI am making a small batch of handscrew clamps (How to Make Handscrew Clamps) and decided to make all the hardware myself out of brass. There are about 40 barrel nuts that I made, they all had either black marker on them or blue marking fluid on them. I used some Acetone in a small metal cup to clean off the marker and marking fluid which worked but the next day the Acetone was completely evaporated. I knew that I needed to have a dedicated container for cleaning up small hardware but didn't have a good way to fish out the small barrel nuts from the bottom of a jar. So I made a small brass basket that can fit inside and be stored inside a glass jar.\nSupplies\nGlass jar\n4x4 inch brass plate\n1/8 inch brass rod\nMarking fluid\nMarking Calipers\nRuler\n1/8 inch drill bit\n3/16 inch drill bit\nPortable band saw table\nBelt Sander\nBlow Torch\nSolder\nSoldering Flux\nBench Vice\nHammer\nStep 1:\nI used some marking fluid to cover the entire brass plate then using my ruler I found the center and used my spring center punch to make a mark. If you don't have a center punch you can use a nail and hammer to make the center mark.\nStep 2:\nNext I measured the mouth of the jar using some calipers and divided that by half, I switched from fractions to millimeters because the math is a lot easier to do. I set my spring divider to the correct distance and marked a circle on the brass plate. This circle represents the opening of the jar minus a millimeter. This allows for the finished basket to have some room on either side of the mouth of the jar.\nStep 3:\nAgain using my ruler I marked out a grid pattern, in this case the grid is 10mm x 10mm it doesn't have to be perfect you just want something that resembles even spacing.\nI also used my drill and a 3/16 inch drill bit to drill the center hole. This hole will be for the handle in a later step.\nStep 4:\nNext I took the brass plate over to the drill press and using a 1/8 inch drill bit drilled all the drain holes.\nStep 5:\nThe basket was going to need walls to hold the small hardware so again using my spring dividers I drew a larger circumference circle on the brass plate.", "582" ], [ "I made the circle as large as I could given the material I was working with.\nI also used my ruler as a straight edge and marked several angled lines coming out from the edge of the smaller circle to the edge of the outside circle. These will be cut lines and will make more sense in a later step.\nStep 6:\nI took my brass plate over to my portable bandsaw table and removed most of the excess. I got as close to the larger diameter circle cut line as I could then I used my belt sander to sand up to the line of the outer circle.\nStep 7:\nThen I went back to the portable bandsaw table and cut each of the angle lines up to the line of the smaller circle. I actually made the cuts just to the inside of the smaller diameter circle. Next I bent up all the segments one by one and used the horn of my vice to curve each segment.\nWhen I finished hammering and shaping the basket was too large and wouldn't fit in to the mouth of the jar so I unfolded all the segments.\nStep 8:\nI took it back to the portable band saw table and removed small pie shaped sections out of all the segments and then folded it back up in to a basket. Again I used my hammer and vice to shape the segmented wall, this time it fit. I also sanded smooth the cut edges on all the segments.\nStep 9:\nI cut a 3-3/4 inch piece a 3/16 inch brass rod to use as the handle. I hammered one end of the brass rod to expand, sort of like a rivet, it so that when it is inserted in to the basket it will not slide out.\nStep 10:\nIn order to solder the handle I added some flux to the brass rod then I placed the basket upside down on my bench vice with the brass rod handle hanging down. I then heated the parts with my torch and when the flux began to bubble I touched the soldering wire to the brass which melted and joined the two pieces.\nI made sure to let it cool before touching it.\nStep 11:\nI have a small collection of decorative brass odds and ends. I wanted to use a piece as the topper for the handle just to make it a little nicer and easier to grab hold of.", "972" ], [ "Wood Mallet With Copper Inlays\nIntroduction: Wood Mallet With Copper Inlays\nThis is how I make custom mallets. These mallets included dyed handles and copper inlay. You can choose not to dye the handles and substitute the copper for wood. This mallet design is very comfy and looks amazing. You can make them from nice exotic woods or use a more tame looking domestic. Either way these are a great way to expand your skills while building something you can use in your shop everyday and be proud to show off to your friends.\nSupplies\n3x15x1 inch piece of wood for the head. 1.5x12x1 inch piece for the handle. Glue and any finish will do but I use a low maintenance oil that is easy to reapply when needed.\nStep 1: Making the Handle\nDraw and cut your handle to shape on your bandsaw. I have a template to keep all of mine consistent but you can trace a handle you like or draw one based on a hatchet or hammer you like. I cut close to the line and then I use double sided tape and adhere the template to the wood blank. I then take it to the router table where I have a template bit. A template bit will have a bearing that will ride against the template while the cutter matches the edge of the bearing and cuts the piece to the same shape as the template. Next I change the bit in the router table to a 1.25 inch roundover. I route the edge in a couple passes so not to overload the router and to reduce burning. This will make the handle very comfy in the hand. Last step is to layout the kerfs for the wedges. I layout a line 1/8 in from the side of the tenon and about 1/4 inch from the shoulders. I will drill a 1/4 inch hold at the inner corner of the those intersecting lines and then cut the kerf on the bandsaw.\nStep 2: Dying the Handle\nThe dying process is a little different than just staining. I mix my own dye with water or alcohol. Either works but the alcohol dries very fast. I dye the handle and let it dry. I then sand with 320 to knock back the dye but it leaves the deeper penetrating dye dark. This is really easy to see on figured woods like curly maple. I then put another light coat on to darken. You can do layers of dye with this process. I then put 3-4 coats of shellac on the handle to seal it in.\nStep 3: Making Heads\nMaking the heads is pretty simple.", "34" ], [ "I cut two peices to 5 inches by 3 inches. The inner pieces I cut a 1/8 inch to 0 taper in them to create a tapered mortise. Make sure the thicker ends match up at the bottom. I will glue the middle pieces to the first outside piece and use the handle to establish my spacing. Make sure the lower portion fit snug to the handle tenon. Then glue the other outside piece to the top of the stack. Be careful that the pieces don't slide while clamping. I hace used salt to keep the pieces from sliding with really good results. Clamp it up and leave overnight. Once dry you can cut off the excess on the ends with the bandsaw and sand them smooth.\nStep 4: Inlays in Mallet Face\nI was able to source copper strips that were exactly 1/8 inch or .125 inches. My saw blade is exactly .126 inches which is enough room for some epoxy. This step can be substituted with wood instead of copper. Simply mill strips down to .125 inches. I cut the kerfs on the table saw 5/8 inches deep. This isn't crucial but you want to make sure it's the same all around. I line up the blade of the saw with the glue seems. This kind of keeps you from looking at the seems and focus on the inlays. The copper is a softer metal and can be cut with a hacksaw or even a woodworking bandsaw with a metal cutting blade installed. Once the copper is cut to length and the kerfs are cut I used 2 part epoxy to glue them in. I glue the 2 longer pieces in and then cut the shorter pieces to length and glue them in. I used green painters tape to hold them in place and it worked perfectly. Once dry I take them to the disc sander to sand the copper flush to the face. Take your time. It can get hot.\nStep 5: Shaping the Head\nNow that the head is assemble and the inlays are glued in and dry. I draw and arch on the faces. I come back about 1/4-3/8 of an inch at the sides and create an arch with a thin strip of wood. Again this isn't crucial as long as it is consistent.", "599" ], [ "How to Make Handscrew Clamps\nIntroduction: How to Make Handscrew Clamps\nI've always liked these handscrew clamps and own a pair but sometimes they are too big and a bit cumbersome. So I decided to make a smaller pair for smaller clamping jobs. Mainly I want to use these for work holding or for holding small diameter dowels when cutting them on the bandsaw.\nSupplies\n3/4 inch Square Hardwood\n1/4 inch Brass rod\n3/8 inch Brass Tube\n3/8 inch Mild Steel Rod\nBarrel Nuts\n1/4 - 20 Right Hand Tap and Die\n1/4 - 20 Left Hand Tap and Die\nTable Saw\nLathe\nLathe Tools\nDrill\nDrill press\nDrill Vice\nHacksaw or Portable Bandsaw for cutting metal\nBelt Sander\nVarious Grit Sand Paper\n25/64 inch Drill Bit\n5/16 inch Drill Bit\n3/8 inch Drill Bit\nBench Vice\nCenter Punch\nBlow Torch\nBrass Wire Brush\nDanish Tung Oil\nStep 1:\nI first prepped the wood, in this case its some 3/4 inch Walnut stock that I used. I ran the pieces through my table saw to make sure they were 3/4 inch square then I marked and cut some 4\" pieces. I used my belt sander to sand all four sides and make sure they were parallel to one another.\nStep 2:\nI have to be honest here before making these I had no real idea of how these worked so I sort of had to figure it out as I went along. They are fairly simple but I had never really put much thought in to the mechanism of their operation.\nI bought some barrel nuts aka cross dowel nuts that I used to mock up their location on the wood blanks. When I found what looked about right I marked the wood for drilling. Their location isn't really crucial as long as you stay above the half way mark of the length of the wood and space them evenly. Also make sure the holes are drilled in the same location on both pieces of wood. The barrel nuts were 25/64 inch in diameter so I drilled those four holes first. Initially I thought I would be using four purchased barrel nuts for each clamp, later I realized I had to make my own for one side.\nAfter making the holes for the barrel nuts I next transferred the lines to the adjacent side of the wood in order to drill the holes for the screw portion. I used a 5/16 inch drill bit for these holes. You can see in the last pic the eight holes drilled in each piece.", "582" ], [ "You will also notice that the 5/16 inch holes are elongated this is to allow for some play side to side where the threaded rods come through. To elongate the holes I just twisted the wood blank up and down while drilling. This could also be done with a router but I chose to use the side of the drill bit.\nStep 3:\nI cut a 12 inch brass rod in to two equal sections using my portable bandsaw table.\nA little bit of a disclaimer I am skipping my mistakes and getting to what I eventually figured out after some trial and error and a little research. I wasted about 2 feet of brass rod in my experimentation, I really should have just done the research before my first attempt and saved some time and material.\nStep 4:\nThe first picture shows you a threaded brass rod and a brass rod with some markings. In order to get these clamps to work the screw portion has to have two different thread types, one half has a right hand thread, your traditional thread righty tighty lefty loosey, and the other half has a left hand thread. The rod with the markings shows an exaggerated view of what the threading on the rod actually looks like. This threading is necessary if you want the clamps to work like the traditional ones where you can hold the handles and spin them like a bicycle crank. In order to accomplish this you need two thread cutting dies a Right Hand thread cutting die and a Left Hand cutting die. You will also need a Left Hand tap as well because a left hand threaded screw will not screw in to a right hand threaded nut.\nStep 5:\nI used my bench vise to hold the thread dies. I made sure to round off the ends of the brass rods so they would find the die center more easily. Next I chucked the brass rods in my hand drill and ran them through the right hand thread cutting die but only to the half way point of the brass rod. Then I removed the brass rod from the drill flipped it over end over end and chucked it back up in my hand drill and ran the brass rod through the left hand thread cutting die up to the half way point. I left a tiny section of brass rod right in the middle that was left untouched by either die.", "56" ], [ "Drill Any Sized Hole in Glass Using Copper\nIntroduction: Drill Any Sized Hole in Glass Using Copper\nI learned how to make my own hole saws before cheap diamond hole saws were available. I still think this is a great way to drill holes, if you only have make a few or drill non-standard sizes. You could also drill very large holes that might not be available.\nThe key to drilling holes with copper is that the copper is soft and the grinding compound embeds itself into the copper and grinds its way through the glass. It will take a little longer than a diamond drill but not that long. The glass I cut through was 3/16\" thick and it took about 7 minutes for each hole. The size of the hole really doesn't change the time it takes.\nStep 1: Tools and Materials\nThis is a list of the basic tools and materials to drill glass\n* Drill press\n* Copper sheet\n* Hose clamps\n* Holesaw\n* Aluminum oxide blasting media\n* Valve grinding compound\n* Modeling clay\nStep 2: Make Your Drill\nThere are many ways to create a tool to drill through glass. I am going to show you two. The basic idea is to create a cylinder of copper that you can mount into a drill press. Some other ideas that would work are to use a drum sander mandrel or ;you could put a bolt through a piece of wood and then turn it round on the lathe.\nIn the first pictures, I wrap a piece of 2\" x 12\" x 0.005\" copper sheet around a 1 3/4\" hole saw. Then secure it with a hose clamp. Be sure to move it down, after you wrap it, so that the teeth of the hole saw won't hit the glass. My original hole saw drill I made with an old hole saw that I ground the teeth off of and wrapped it with a single layer of 0.040\" copper sheet.", "34" ], [ "That worked really well and you can see a picture of it on the previous slide.\nThe next hole saw is made using a 3/4\" copper cap. I drilled the center hole with a lathe but if you are careful you should be able to do it with just a drill press. I made the shaft with a 1/4\" bolt, nut and washer. If I did it again I would have used a lock washer and a nylon lock nut because the bolt came loose a couple of times when I was drilling.\nStep 3: Drilling the Holes\nTo drill the holes you will need to make a dam of modeling clay to hold the grinding compound and water around the drill. This cools the glass and drill; and provides the particles that do the grinding. I use aluminum oxide sandblasting media and water because it is cheap and I have a sandblaster. Valve grinding compound works a lot better and faster if you are in a hurry.\nThese videos play back at 16x\nStep 4: Conclusion\nAll and all, it worked really well. I wasn't sure if the thin copper sheet was going to work but it did. If you look at the picture you can see that the copper was wrinkled and uneven but it still worked. I see a lot of Instructables on drilling through bottles. I haven't tried to do that but I think you could as long as you found a way to keep the grinding compound on the copper. I think if you used the valve grinding compound it would work because the particles are suspended in thick oil rather than water.", "776" ] ]

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[ [ "<PERSON>, welcome to Data Science Exchange.\nFirst, let's start with the following question: Based on what target distribution are you saying that your accuracy is low? Every problem in modelling, Regression, Binary Classification, Multiclass Classification has a baseline so we can say that our model has an acceptable performance. Sometimes, even humans can be our baseline. Also, what is your dataset size?\nSecond, do you have a balanced dataset? What I mean is, after you calculate your baseline, you might have a class, let's say no malware code that dominates your dataset. You should assign this by using method for imbalanced datasets such as Oversampling and Undersampling. You can read more about here.\nLastly, let's ignore everything I wrote and focus on the problem. Yes, you are correct, Bag of Words will ignore order in your data since it will just count the appearance of each word. I will list a few things you can try:\n* You are using SVC class from sklearn. From docs I see the default kernel is rbf, have you tried using linear? Also, you can use LinearSVC.\n* Try out RandomForest models, they perform really good even in text datasets.\n* From CountVectorizer class, you could vary ngram_range parameters.", "57" ], [ "Basically, it will create features based on grams, so let's say you use a 3-gram approach, then you will have for your first row: push_r12_push_rbp counting as one feature.\n* Also, you could try Tf-Idf Vectorizer. TF-IDF Vectorizer is based on an algorithm where not only the count of words is taken into account but also the appearance in each document. Putting in simple terms, if a specific word appears too much in your dataset it will have a high inverse value and decrease its feature value, since this word will not be useful to differentiate your class. You can read more about it here: https://www.quora.com/How-does-TF-IDF-work\n* Lastly, but not less important, you could try using a more advanced technique, WordEmbeddings, for example. It is an algorithm that will create real vectors from your text taking in consideration the enclosing words for each command. It is a little more complicate than that, again, you can learn more here. Note that for word embeddings to work properly, you should not have a small dataset. As a code example you can use this notebook of mine as a guidance.\nI hope this help.", "964" ], [ "welcome to StackOverflow.\nI will try to summarize as much as possible, but we have to cover a lot of concepts to properly answer your question, if something is not clear, please let a comment and I can change/correct the answer.\nFirst of all, I will assume from the tone of your question that you know what a hypothesis test is.\nSecond, in the context of Linear Regression, you usually assume that your features are normally distributed, iid (identical independent distributed), constant error variance (that is, they do not vary with X attributes) and so on. These are strong assumptions, and it is important to have it in mind since we are calculating our regression coefficients using data that have these properties.\nPut in simple terms, you have your set of features X, in this case A, B, and C, and you want to predict cost, therefore you have the following function:\nThus, you use above equation to minimize the RSS (Residual Sum of Squares) and find out what are your coefficients.\nNow, in the context of hypothesis test, you want to verify if your coefficients are statistically relevant, that is, saying it on simple words, you want to check if they are far enough from zero in order you can say they are relevant, not a statistical incident. How exactly you do that? Creating a Null Hypothesis that you coefficient is zero, and an Alternative Hypothesis saying otherwise.\n(Example to calculating Hypothesis Test for Beta_1 coefficient)\nThen you calculate t-test for your coefficient:\nSo you are assuming your coefficient has a t-distribution and you want to test if it is far enough from zero to determine its relevancy.\nYou then calculate your t-test value and estimate a p-value.", "139" ], [ "Therefore, in the end, you will ask the following question: What is the probability that my coefficient comes from a distribution centered around zero? If you have a high p-value, it shows you that probably your coefficient is zero, or close to it and not significant. Otherwise, if you have a low p-value, then it is not likely that it comes from a distribution around zero, then you should take this coefficient (and feature) in your analysis.\nIn the example from the video, he uses a rule that all coefficients above 0.05 are not statistically relevant. Here, 0.05 is widely used as a cutoff point, but you must be aware that there are a lot of issues regarding this choice and the debate inside scientific community is not settled.\nIf you really want to understanding all nuances involving Linear Regression, Statistical Tests and problems when modelling data using this technique, I highly recommend that you read the Introduction to Statistical Learning Book - Chapter 3. All images and insights were taken from there, and for me it is my reference book for Machine Learning techniques.\nI hope this helps to clarify your question.", "139" ], [ "welcome to the forum, I will try to clarify some things.\nFirst of all, when talking about regression you do not calculate accuracy. Accuracy is a metric used in classification tasks, it basically measures how much labels your model got right divided by the total labels.\nYou are working in a regression task, that is, you are trying to predict not labels, but continuous values as your target. By default, scikit-learn estimators calculate as regression scores the R_squared metric. Intuitively, R_squared measures how much of variance your model explains. It is calculated by the below equation:\n* (Image taken from scikit-learn r2_score page: https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/model_evaluation.html#r2-score\nBasically, I like to think that R2 is testing your model against the simplest possible one in a regression task, that is, just predicting the mean for your target variable. It makes sense talking about accuracy as an analogy, however I wanted to make clear that they are different things.\nSecond, talking about results, RMSE and how can you measure the effectiveness of your model, in linear regression context it will be highly dependent of the problem your are trying to solve.", "964" ], [ "Maybe you are a social scientist trying to predict with some data the number of voters in certain candidate, an R2 of 0.4-0.5 would be amazing (?). Maybe you are sure that this is not sufficient because your variable are strongly related to your target variable (some problems and physics) and a R2 of 0.80 is unacceptable. Another thing is RMSE, it tries to measure the variance of your model that is, how far off you usually are when predicting your target. I had a problem where I was prediciting the number of days of a certain event to happen, and my variance was 15 days off, and this was not helpful at all.\nA highly recommend you to read the Chapter 3 of introduction to Statistical Learning Book that will help you a lot (Actually, the whole book). They have a free version here: http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/\nI hope this helps. Also, any problem to understand what I wrote, please let a comment. And if anyone spots something wrong in my answer, tell me please!", "964" ], [ "Given the list of algorithms you provided, these falls under 3 major classification of ML algorithms.\n1) Classification Algorithms - Naive Bayes Classification, Decision Tree, Random Forest, kNN, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Neural Networks, etc.\n2) Regression Algorithms - Linear Regression, Logistic Regression, Lasso Regression, etc.\n(Note: Although Logistic Regression has Regression in its name, it is essentially a classification algorithm.\n3) Clustering Algorithms - K-Means Clustering, Fuzzy C Means, Mixture of Gaussian, etc.\nYou might also be knowing there are 4 types of ML algorithms:\n1) Supervised Learning\n2) Unsupervised Learning\n3) Reinforcement Learning\n4) Semi-supervised Learning\nAmong these 4. first and second are the most important ones.\nSupervised Learning is applied when we have a labelled data set i.e., we already our output variable/dependent variable. For example, a data set which contains the size of the house (independent variable) and corresponding house price (dependent variable). We can predict the house price of new data points with respect to the size of the house. Another example is, determining if a tumor is harmful or not harmful when we already have a list of tumors which are harmful or not. In supervised learning we know the problem statement and have all the necessary features to get answer.\nIn Unsupervised Learning, we do not have labelled data. We do not have any output variable. We do not know the problem statement. It is applied when we need to find a structure in the data set and extract meaningful insights out of it. For example, a data set of Walmart containing its customer's buying pattern. Given this, Walmart will ask its data scientists to extract some meaning. The data scientist may choose to apply K-Means Clustering and find how customers are segmented.", "57" ], [ "Group A customers -- buys X,Y,Z products; Group B customers -- buys U,V,X products.\nClassification and regression algorithms are used when dealing with a supervised learning problem and clustering algorithms are used when dealing with unsupervised learning.\nNow coming back to your original query, 1) Naive Bayes -- best applied to a data set containing multiple features (independent variable) and an output variable which takes two discrete value (Yes/No). Thus, categorical data.\n2) SVM -- best applied to a data set containing infinite number of features and you need to reduce these features down to a number so that it can be computed. Since it's a classification algorithm so it best works upon categorical data.\n3) Regression -- Linear Regression is applied to a continuous numerical data set in which the dependent and independent variable exhibits linear relationship. For example, size of the house vs house price. Logistic Regression is a classification algorithm so it is best applied to categorical data.\n3) K-Means -- K-Means can applied to many types of data sets. What it does is segmenting data points into clusters. Data points with similar features are clustered together.\n4) Neural Networks -- Neural Networks can be shallow neural networks and deep neural networks and both of these could be applied to supervised or unsupervised problem as it has separate algorithms for both the cases. It is the most powerful and popular class of ML algorithms. It can be used in every problem statement. Main intuition behind it learning from its own error. I do not have much knowledge about neural network so I will not write further more.\nIf you want to learn more about ML and Neural Network you can apply for Machine Learning by <PERSON> class. It's the best course out there for beginners like us.", "57" ], [ "I think you have 2 different ways to approach this problem. But the variable number of features and targets make it challenging. I am not aware of any well established ways to treat such issues but I find the problem interesting and would like to share my opinion.\nThe first way is to define this as a classification problem. The order of cars matters, in the sense that it is loss of a problem if you classify car in class 1 as a class 2, compared to identifying it as a class - say - 15 in a 20 car case. This is an \"Ordinal Classification\" problem and as far as I know, there is no established loss function for this. But someone implemented their own and shared it, but I never used it so I don't know how it works. Of course, this is not a must a you can use a regular classifier loss function.\nNow you have to deal with variable number of cars. If you have a maximum possible number of cars present at each time, you can use that to define the number of features in your Neural Network.", "946" ], [ "For the cases where there are less number of cars you can set the features associated with the non-existent cars to a number (for example -1), and put a constraint to the loss function such that cars with such features are ordered after the present cars only, and drop them at the end. This might sound complicated, it certainly is so to type it here; so I hope I was able to explain it.\nThe second possible way is to define a clustering problem. In order to deal with variable car numbers at each case you can define the total number of cars as an additional feature. In the example you give above they all will have a car number feature = 3. And then use any clustering algorithm you can think of, such as KNN with K=max number of cars. But this also has drawbacks: When 3 cars are present, cars can be clustered as 1,2,3; but they can just as easily be clustered into 4,6,9; or even 1,1,1. And I have no idea how you would handle such an issue. Problems with the classification algorithm defined above is less likely to cause such problems, but it is much more difficult to implement.\nI know these options are far from optimal so I really hope someone else comes up with a better answer. Good luck.", "946" ], [ "Machine Learning is not something that can be mastered or learnt in a short time, and you need at least 3-4 months familiarize yourself with the basics and even after that you need at least 6-7 months to get to a good place with your ML knowledge.\n* To get started you can first go through this course (Python for Everybody - Full University Python Course) to familiarize yourself with python and learn the basics of programming.\n* After this, you need to know basic statistics, linear algebra and basic differential calculus. You can learn these 3 subjects from this course on Linear Algebra from Khan Academy, this course on Statistics from freecodecamp and this course on Calculus from Khan Academy Leave the \"Integration\" sections you won't need them much.\nNow the above 2 points only cover the pre-requisites to get started with machine learning. From here to get started with ML follow the following list of courses:\n* Machine Learning by <PERSON> (Stanford University) Link: To get to know the inner workings and inner maths of all the major machine learning algorithms. The only downside of this course is that the implementation of all machine learning algorithms is on Matlab.\n* Machine Learning A-Z (Udemy) Link: This course will explain the implementation of machine learning algorithms in python.", "57" ], [ "And would help you to create basic machine learning projects.\nThe above courses will get you started in machine learning, and you will have good knowledge of how ML learning algorithms work. After this comes, Deep Learning, currently most research work is being conducted in deep learning, deep learning algorithms offer highly efficient mathematical and statistical method the get good accuracy from your data. To get started with deep learning these 2 specializations of Coursera are more than enough to give you a working mathematical and implementational knowledge in Deep Learning. The 2 courses are as follows: - Deep Learning Specialization from Deeplearning.ai Link: This course will give you a good mathematical knowledge related to deep learning.\nTensorflow Developer Specialization from Deeplearning.ai Link: This course will teach you how to implement basic neural networks and teach you the implementation of deep learning in Tensorflow framework.\nPS: Please pardon my English if it is not up to the mark. This is my first answer so please go easy on me XP.", "57" ], [ "A loss function is a guide for the model to decide its path using the optimizer. So, it will try to bring some number which must correctly reflect the gap with the actual value and also (though not limited to) -\nUnderstand Outliers, Understand the model's purpose, Model's approach, Understand the prediction type i.e. Number, Binary label etc.\nI agree that this question is too vast to answer in a short text, but still, I would try to list a summary of usage which I found most of the Authors suggesting.\nThis might help you to start your model but must be accompanied by individual research based on scenario and data.\nIt might also trigger multiple WHYs and HOWs. Ask a new question Or use the already answered questions on these(there are many)\nmean_squared_error Default for regression\nmean_absolute_error Regression when you have outliers\nmean_squared_logarithmic_error Regression. Further scaled-down the error. Use when you expect big values in your prediction\nhuber_loss A mid-way of MSE and MAE.", "139" ], [ "This function is quadratic for small values, and linear for large values\nlogcosh It's again a mid way to get the benefits of both MSE and MAE log(cosh(x)) is approximately equal to (x ** 2) / 2 for small x and to abs(x) - log(2) for large x. This means that 'logcosh' works mostly like the mean squared error, but will not be so strongly affected by the occasional wildly incorrect prediction.\nmean_absolute_percentage_error When we are interested in % measurement, not values. e.g. while dealing with the data of scale of a country's population, % would be more important than a big number ~10000\nhinge SVM. It takes care of the margin around support vector.\ncategorical_crossentropy Multiclass Classification - we have one target probability per class for each instance (such as one-hot vectors, e.g. [0., 0., 0., 1., 0., 0., 0., 0., 0., 0.] to represent class 3\nsparse_categorical_crossentropy Multiclass Classification - we have sparse labels (i.e., for each instance, there is just a target class index, from 0 to 9 in this case), and the classes are exclusive\nbinary_crossentropy Use it for simple Binary Classification\nNotes <IP_ADDRESS> These are the \"loss\" from Keras library. The Concept would be same but other libraries may use some other text variance to name these.", "506" ], [ "Prediction of a Decision tree will lie within the limits of the target because at the end either the record will fall to a specific target leaf if the depth is not controlled Or it will be average on multiple targets. With the second approach too, it can't cross the limit of the target.\nComing to Ensembling -\nBagging -\nBagging simply averages multiple trees. So again prediction will remain in the target's limit\nAdaptive boosting\nHere we add weight to records on successive Tree.\nThis will not impact the prediction of an individual tree. Here, we do a weighted average of all tree. Again, the prediction will remain in the target's limit\nGradient Boosting\nHere we add new tree based on the prediction error of the previous three.\nIn a very simple language, Let's assume 100 is a target. The first tree predicts 70.", "964" ], [ "Then the second tree will be trained on this 30. Let's assume it predicted 20. With this approach, we grow many trees. Then, we will have these predictions -\n70 + 20 + 6 + 2 + 1 + 0.5 + 0.2 + ......\nIt will not cross 100.\nEdit post <PERSON>'s comment-\nAbove logic(for GB) will not work if your learning rate is too high as that will make the residual value grow with every next tree and can reach any value.\nGradientboost uses Gradient Descent on the Function itself. So, the target for the next tree depends on the residual and the Learning rate. With too many trees, the value will blow up.\nSee this code snippet with LR=2.1 and Tree=100, 398 can become 1.5 Mn\n```python from sklearn.datasets import make_regression from sklearn.ensemble import GradientBoostingRegressor\nX, y = make_regression()\nmodel = GradientBoostingRegressor(max_depth=1, n_estimators=100, learning_rate=2.1, random_state=42)\nmodel.fit(X,y) preds = model.predict(X) print(preds.min(),y.min(), preds.max(),y.max()) ```\n-1246776.29 || -487.87 || 1586302.24 || 398.12\nif n_estimators=10, then it is not blown yet. Need more Trees to multiply\n-277.83 || -393.27 || 118.32 || 594.82\nHence, the answer to your question is No Yes (Theoretically as we mostly keep LR<1.0 for a smooth learning)", "392" ] ]

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[ [ "Aside from everything that was said by the others I would like to lay down the theoretical framework for a generalized solution (any speed, any mass, any charge, any distance, as long as the \"balls\" don't fall into a singularity).\nThere are 2 ways of looking at this problem.\nThe easiest one is to choose special relativity if the masses of the charges are relatively small, in which case we can neglect the gravitational effects. In such a situation we can use\n$$ \\frac{d(m_{0}U^\\mu)}{d\\tau} = - e (F'')^\\mu_\\nu U^\\nu $$\nwith $$ (F'')^\\mu_\\nu = \\Lambda^\\mu_\\alpha(-v_{rcv}) \\Lambda_\\nu^\\beta(-v_{rcv}) (F')^\\alpha_\\beta $$ and $$ (F')^\\mu_\\nu = \\Lambda^\\mu_\\alpha(v_{src}) \\Lambda_\\nu^\\beta(v_{src}) F^\\alpha_\\beta $$ (for the rest of equations, what is which, how to combine them, see here)\nWe use this eq for each of foam-balls, and then we solve (using retarded positions) \"orbits\" at speeds close to the speed of light.\nWe vary $q_1$, $q_2$,draw graphs, deduce what happens.\nOf course we need to define some border (surface) conditions, that are very important because they define what happens when the 2 balls collide.\nWill they scatter ? Will they combine ? Will charge density combine to form peculiar new (kind of) matter ? Will they annihilate to create lots of EM waves or other kind of radiation ?\nThat is why it is very important to have the proper definition of what is under the exterior surface of the ball.\nSimply assuming that is just a singularity under the exterior surface may disagree when it will came to compare with real life experiments.\nThe other way is to use general relativity.\nThere are two paths we could take here.\nThe simpler one is to assume that one of the ball has the charge and mass far far smaller than the other one : $m_1 >> m_2$ and $q_1 >> q_2$.\nFor such a case @Void provided here an answer in the framework of Reissner-Nordström metric, but I will try to answer from a bit different perspective the one of the theory of the bridges.\n<PERSON> derived the metric in case of spherical symmetry for combined electrity and gravity a little bit different; he choose the sign of the energy tensor in such a way that by solving the field equations we obtain the metric $g_{\\mu\\nu}$ :\n$$ ds^2 = (1 - \\frac{2m}{r} - \\frac{q^2}{2r^2}) dt^2 - \\frac{1}{1 - \\frac{2m}{r} - \\frac{q^2}{2r^2}}dr^2 - r^2(d\\theta^2 + \\sin^2{\\theta} d\\phi^2) $$\nSo for such a metric the event horizon will be defined at $$\\left(1 - \\frac{2m}{r} - \\frac{q^2}{2r^2} \\right) = 0$$ This means that even without the help of mass we can get an event horizon.\nSince we used the square of charge implies that it does not matter which sign has the charge.\nFor this using traditional black hole analysis we will came to the conclusion that anything that passes the event horizon will have no way to get out, no matter how close to the speed of light we go.\nOn the other hand <PERSON> suggested a change of variable that would help us get rid of the singularity of the event horizon.", "298" ], [ "A thought experiment about neutrinos\nI don't understand all the details of Dirac mass, <PERSON> mass, and many other \"deep\" notions.\nI have in mind a very simple thought experiment.\nBecause of neutrino oscillations we know neutrinos have mass. Thus their speed is less than $c$.\nI imagine a beam of neutrinos created by some experiment in a lab. They are neutrinos, not antineutrinos, and have energy much larger than their rest mass. So they have left-handed helicity.\nNow I imagine (this is a thought experiment, OK ?) that some lab is moving, with respect to the one that created them, at a speed so very, very close to $c$ that it will overtake the beam, so fast that in the frame of this second lab, the speed of the beam appears to be directed towards the lab at a speed close to $c$ and in fact, opposite of their speed in the frame of the lab that created them.\nIn the frame of this new lab, the particles that are directed towards it have right-handed helicity.\nNow two things can happen\nA) either they interact with the instruments in that lab with the same efficiency as in the original lab, and this means, since they have right-handed helicity, that they are now antineutrinos, as seen in this lab. So lepton number is not conserved.\nB) or lepton number is conserved, they are still neutrinos, but having the right-handed helicity, which means the \"wrong one\" for neutrinos, they would interact much, much less than neutrinos of the correct, left-handed helicity.", "617" ], [ "Then they are, in that lab, sterile neutrinos, but their rest mass is the same as for \"normal neutrinos\" and this sounds wrong.\nSo which is which ? And please, don't throw me complicated notions that I cannot follow, Dirac vs <PERSON> mass, symmetry groups, chiral anomalies, etc. etc.\nJust tell me, A is right or B is right. Thanks.\nWell, thanks to you folks, I have learned something. I really mixed up chirality and helicity, and that has been cleared up.\nI upvoted all of you, but I cannot accept an answer to a question so ill-posed.\nBut your answers only bring more questions.\nRather than editing this question, I think it would be better to ask a new one. I have to digest all this before asking a well-posed question (I hope...)\nIf, by the time I am ready, from your by answers or comments, I see a consensus that I should edit it rather than ask a new one, I shall oblige.\nOK, so here is where my new question is.", "617" ], [ "We can do a quick \"back of the envelop calculation\" to gauge the magnitude of this effect. For this I will make many simplifications, but it should give a good enough estimate.\nLet's suppose that the Earth is a perfect mirror, (in reality it reflects roughly 30% of received light, so it would be better to assume it absorbs everything, but let's take the upper bound here). Let us also suppose that the Earth is a disc, so that every photon of the sun hits her perpendicularly.\nAccording to Wikipedia, the flux emitted by the sun and received by Earth is $1362$ $W/m^2$, let's round that down to $1000 W/m^2$. Taking $6000$ $km$ for Earth's radius, the surface of our disc is roughly $A = \\pi (6\\cdot10^{6})^2m^2\\approx 10^{14}m^2$. So the power radiated on Earth is $\\approx 10^{17} W$.\nHow do we translate this information into a force exerted by the photons ? Each photon will have energy $E = h\\nu$, where $\\nu$ is it's frequency. If we suppose all photons have the same frequency, then there are $\\frac{10^{11}}{h\\nu}$ photons$/s$ hitting the Earth. Their momentum is simply $p = \\frac{E}{c}$.\nWhen they are reflected on the surface of the Earth, their momentum is flipped sign, so they undergo a change in momentum of $\\delta p = 2\\frac{E}{c}$.", "187" ], [ "We know by <PERSON>'s law that they must have been acted on by a force $F$ satisfying $F=\\frac{\\delta p}{\\delta t} = \\frac{2E}{c\\delta t}$. But by <PERSON>'s third law, that means they acted on Earth by a force of the same magnitude !\nWe now have all the pieces. In a time $\\delta t$, $N = \\frac{10^{11}}{h\\nu}\\delta t$ photons will hit the Earth, each exerting a force $F = \\frac{2E}{c\\delta t}$ on it. The total force applied to the earth during that time is thus $F\\times N = 10^{17}\\frac{2E\\not{\\delta t}}{h\\nu\\not{\\delta t}}=10^{17}\\frac{2(\\not{h\\nu})}{c\\not{h\\nu}}=\\frac{2}{c}10^{17} \\approx 10^9 N$\nAs we can see, $\\nu$ drops out conveniently so we don't have to assume anything about the frequency of the photon emitted by the sun. So there we have it, the force of the solar radiation is $10^9$ $N$, which is by no means a \"weak\" force, at least from a human's point of view. But let's compare it to something more comparable, as for example the force exerted by the Moon on the earth.\n$ F_{moon} = G \\frac{M_{moon}M_{Earth}}{r_{moon-earth}^2} \\approx 10^{20} N$\nSo the force exerted by the Sun's photon are $0.000000001$% of the force exerted by the moon. As you can see, the effect is ridiculously small, and that is compared to the force exerted by the moon, which is in turn ridiculously small compared to the force exerted by the Sun on Earth.\nIn other words, I don't think we would be able to estimate the effects on Earth's orbit anytime soon ! (although it would be interesting to estimate what kind of difference in the orbit radius we are talking about, I will probably do the computation if I get some time !)", "319" ], [ "Model: Let's simplify the model of a current in a wire, so we can be definite about what we are talking about. Take a wire (in the wire's frame) to have fixed positive charge density $\\rho_{+}$ and assume the electrons at rest w.r.t the wire, with electron density $\\rho_{-}$.\nIntroducing a current sets these electrons moving at some speed $v_{drift}$ w.r.t wire, but leaves the positive charge fixed. We ask the following question:\nWhat is the relationship between $\\rho_{-}$ (the electron charge density at rest), and the electron density with current?\nAnswer: The density measured by the observer stationary w.r.t a current carrying wire is not the same as if the charges were stationary. They are related by a Lorentz transformation.", "780" ], [ "Let's write the 4-current of the electrons when at rest, and when moving (with $c=1$): $$J^\\mu_{rest} = (\\rho_{-},\\vec{0})^\\mu,~~~~~~~~~~~~~J^\\mu_{moving} = (\\tilde{\\rho},\\vec{j})^\\mu = {\\Lambda(v)^\\mu}\\nu J^\\nu{rest}$$ where $\\Lambda(v)$ is the Lorentz Boost between these two frames. Note in particular that $\\boxed{\\rho_{-} \\neq \\tilde{\\rho}{-}}$ because $$J^2{rest} = J^2_{moving}~~\\implies ~~ \\rho_{-}^2 = \\tilde{\\rho}^2_{-}-\\vec{j}.\\vec{j},$$ and $~\\vec{j}\\neq \\vec{0}$.\nThis means that when you set up your problem, we have two possible scenarios:\n$(i)$ $\\rho_{-}+\\rho_{+} = 0$, that is we ask that the electron density in the electrons rest frame has the same magnitude as the positive charge density in the stationary wire.\n$(ii)$ $\\tilde{\\rho_{-}}+\\rho_{+} = 0$, that is we ask that the electron density in the wire's rest frame has the same magnitude as the positive charge density in the stationary wire. This is the situation of zero force on a stationary external charge you talked about in your edit.\nSo the question you have to ask yourself, is what situation do you want to deal with? It seems that for the \"explanation of magnetic force as a consequence of special relativity\" you are interested in, one should consider case $(ii)$ as this allows you to see how a test charge, moving parallel to the wire with velocity $v$, experiencing a force due to a pure magnetic force in one frame (wire rest frame) $F = q v\\times B$, is the same force experienced by the charge in its rest frame, effected only by the electric force, $F = q E$, in that frame (as in this frame it isn't moving).\nI hope this helps. If you need further explanation, don't hesitate to ask.", "780" ], [ "Why the proca lagrangian has an inverted sign\nI've recently finished reading <PERSON> \"Modern Particle Physics\". There is a question which is not answered in his book, and to which I couldn't find on the internet in the \"introductory\" parts of QFT.\nMy problem is with the form of the Proca Lagrangian. Indeed, for a massless field (Say in QED) the lagrangian is given in the book as :\n$$L = -\\frac{1}{4}F^{\\mu\\nu}F_{\\mu\\nu}$$\nI am placing myself in the vacuum here. As we can see, there is a minus sign in front of the \"kinetic\" term. This does not affect dynamics in this case, but it looked already unusual to me since usually the kinetic term is taken with a positive sign.", "298" ], [ "If we generalise to a massive boson, we get : $$L = -\\frac{1}{4}F^{\\mu\\nu}F_{\\mu\\nu} +\\frac{1}{2}m^2A^\\mu A_\\mu$$\nAgain, the overall sign is the opposite of the usual convention, otherwise nothing really strange here.\nHowever, my problem arises when we consider the lagrangian of spin-half particle interacting with QED (but imagining the photon has a mass, I know it's non-physical but it's an easier example for me :D). Then, the total Lagrangian becomes, if I'm not mistaken :\n$$ L =i\\overline{\\psi}\\gamma^\\mu D_\\mu\\psi-m\\psi\\overline{\\psi}-\\frac{1}{4}F_{\\mu\\nu}F^{\\mu\\nu}+\\frac{1}{2}m^2A^\\mu A_\\mu$$\nAnd here, the seemingly arbitrary sign isn't anymore... What is the justification for this inverted kinetic and mass sign ? I guess that for massless bosons, the sign is still arbitrary since the $F_{\\mu\\nu}$ term decouples from the rest of the lagrangian, but I don't think it is with the mass term (haven't done the calculations though, so shame on my lazyness if that is the answer). I know my lagrangian is not U(1) gauge invariant, so my guess is maybe that strange sign comes from the spontaneous symmetry breaking from the Higgs mechanism ?\nEdit : Some precisions about what I mean by \"Inverted sign\" : If we take say a scalar field with a mass, it's lagrangian will be composed of a kinetic term $\\frac{1}{2}\\partial_\\mu\\phi\\partial^\\mu\\phi$ and a mass term $\\frac{1}{2}m^2\\phi^2$. The lagrangian then is $L = T-V = \\frac{1}{2}\\partial_\\mu\\phi\\partial^\\mu\\phi-\\frac{1}{2}m^2\\phi^2$\nIf I interpret $F_{\\mu\\nu}F^{\\mu\\nu}$ as a kinetic term, then we see that in the lagrangian I wrote up, the signs of the terms are inverted. I would like to know if this is a purely conventional choice (which I know it is, in the case of the isolated lagrangian, but not sure in the combined one), and if it's not, why it is written like that.", "298" ], [ "energy momentum relation in SR and GR\nThere is the famous energy-momentum relation\n$$E^2 - p^2 c^2 = m^2 c^4.$$\nI thought it is always valid. \"Always\" means it is valid in general, so in GR and SR. It is something like an elemantary construction. But now I am not sure and if I understand right it is valid only in SR. Right?\nBelow I write some more calculations and thoughts for a better understanding of my question.\nIn SR it is very simple to derive the formula. We start with the metric\n$g_{\\mu\\nu} = \\eta_{\\mu\\nu} = {\\rm diag}(1,-1,-1,-1)$\nand the product\n$g_{\\mu\\nu} p^\\mu p^\\nu = m^2 c^2$\nwhere $p^\\mu = m u^\\mu = m \\frac{{\\rm d} x^\\mu}{{\\rm d} \\tau}$ is the four-momentum. This gives\n$g_{\\mu\\nu} p^\\mu p^\\nu = (p^0)^2 + \\eta_{ij} p^i p^j = (E/c)^2 - p^2 = m^2 c^2$\nwith the definitions $p^0 = E/c$ and $\\eta_{ij} p^i p^j = {\\mathbf{p}}^2 = p^2$.", "394" ], [ "The last equation is equivialent to the above energy-momentum relation.\nNow, when we turn to GR and consider the general metric in spherical coordinates\n$g_{\\mu\\nu} = {\\rm diag}(g_{00}, g_{11}, -r^2, -r^2 \\sin^2 \\vartheta)$\ngives\n$g_{\\mu\\nu} p^\\mu p^\\nu = g_{00} (p^0)^2 + g_{ij} p^i p^j = g_{00} (p^0)^2 - p^2 = m^2 c^4$\nHere we have to be carefully now with the definition of $p^0$. In nearly all books about GR we find for the above spherical metric the following relation (or equivalent)\n$g_{00} m \\frac{{\\rm d} x^\\mu}{{\\rm d} \\tau} = E/c = \\rm const$\nwhich is interpreted as the conservation of energy. In SR we have $g_{00} = \\eta_{00} = 1$ and therefore $p^0 = E/c$. But in GR we have the $g_{00}$ coefficent, e.g.\n$g_{00} p^0 = E/c$\nThis would give the following energy-momentum relation\n$\\frac{E^2}{g_{00}} - p^2 c^2 = m^2 c^4$\nAm I missing or do I mix something, e.g the definition of the time-component $p^0$ through an energy?\nOr are the calcutions all right and in GR the energy-momentum relation is indeed different compared to the above famous and well known, which seems to be valid only in SR.\nI am heavily confused.\nMy only idea how to resolve this is to redefine the energy in the general case, e.g.\n$\\sqrt{g_{00}} p^0 = \\mathcal{E}/c$\nNote the square root compared to the above definition. This would give an epxression analogue to the famous relation\n$\\mathcal{E}^2 - p^2 c^2 = m^2 c^4$\nBut $\\mathcal{E}$ is not conserved here any more, $\\mathcal{E} \\neq \\rm const$. Instead we have $\\sqrt{g_{00}} \\mathcal{E} = E = \\rm const$.\nIs this a problem?\nIn SR we have simply $E = \\mathcal{E}$ and there is no need to worry. So, SR automatically implies that $p^0$ is conserved. But it is not necessary the case in GR, right? Or is this all just a question of definition/convention?", "394" ], [ "Ok, this is not a real direct answer to the question, but just a reaction to one of <PERSON>'s comments. My remark was too long to fit in a comment, so I put it in an answer, sorry for that. <PERSON> said he had a problem with one of the answers because : \"yes, there are certain things that are axioms and not really derived so to speak, but there still must be some kind of intuition or justification. They don't just appear out of nowhere\"\nBut I believe, they sometimes (often ?) do !\nActually, if we follow the historical train of thought on this matter, we should remember <PERSON> who was working to solve the UV catastrophe. He was desperatly trying to describe black-body radiation through statistical mechanics. Out of idea, he tried out the hypothesis that radiations were emitted in discrete bundles of energy E=hf. An idea that came (almost) straight up out of nowhere, as he admitted himself (at least, with absolutely no physical justification behind). He did not credit any physical meaning to it and considered it as mere mathematical trickery.\n<PERSON>, acknowledging how well <PERSON>'s result was describing the experimental results, later declared that there was indeed a physical meaning in all this. He interpreted it as the statement that light could also behave as a discrete particle with a given energy.", "682" ], [ "Many consider this idea to be the beginning of quantum mechanics. <PERSON> later took back this idea and mirrored it : he said that if a \"wave\" such as light could be described as a \"particle\" then a \"particle\" like an electron could be described as a \"wave\". This equivalence is done through the famous relationship we are talking about, and that can be considered as a natural consequence of the E=hf relation, as it has been explained in another answer\nSo as you see, we can pretty well say that the hypothesis \"E=hf\" did come out of nowhere ! Definitely not an intuitive statement : it went against all intuitions of that time. Just an hypothesis that was working so damn well that we tried to put some sense into it... And came up with quantum mechanics. I believe it is something that you have to take first as a mathematical trick, later confirmed by experimental fact.\nTrying to find an intuitive principle for something that, in its very core, is as counter-intuitive as QM is, imo, a desperate attempt. All those \"paradoxes\" and insane behaviours at the quantum scale have to come from something that is at least a little bit fucked up, wouldn't you agree ?\nThe idea that physics should be intuitive is something I generally disagree with. If it was, we would live on a flat earth, with a sun circling all around. That's intuition right there :D", "682" ], [ "A Schwarzschild (zero angular momentum) black hole is not usually considered as related to a wormhole. Once a particle crosses the event horizon, it falls into the singularity in a finite proper time and is not expected to come out.\nWormholes are usually associated to Kerr (nonzero angular momentum) black hole. It has extra features compared to the unique event horizon of the Schwarzschild black hole, like an ergosphere, Cauchy horizon, and so on.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerr_metric#Kerr_black_holes_as_wormholes\nNow I am not claiming to have a full understanding, but as it says in the relevant paragraph of the wiki article on black holes, if an object crosses the Cauchy horizon it might follow a trajectory that makes it exit the Kerr black hole, through another Cauchy horizon, in a region with a \"normal\" geometry. For observers in that region of space, it would look as if this object is emerging of a \"white hole\", of Kerr type, of course, not <PERSON> type.\nNow this region of space is a priori not related at all with the region one has started from. It may be in a totally different universe, one to which is impossible to reach by any other way but going through the two successive Cauchy horizons described in the above paragraph if the Wiki article.\nBut for all we know, it is possible that this <PERSON> \"white hole\" is in our Universe, but it might just be anywhere, in the same galaxy, or a totally different galaxy anywhere. We can mathematically describe the path \"through two Cauchy horizons\" but where the exterior of the second is with respect to the first one, through \"normal\" space is totally out of our knowledge.", "43" ], [ "And quite possibly, it might well be in a \"different\" universe altogether.\nThis is what is referred to as a \"wormhole\" : entering a Kerr black hole here, going through a first Cauchy horizon, exiting through a second Cauchy horizon, but where ?\nMaybe I should point out that a Kerr hole is not \"intrinsically\" black or white. It has a \"past\" Cauchy horizon from which an object might come out (as if from a \"white hole\") but also a \"future\" Cauchy horizon. So if we plunge into a <PERSON> \"black\" hole in our Universe and emerge into the \"normal\" space of a different one in through the \"past\" Cauchy horizon of a Kerr hole there, which would in this event behave as a \"white hole\" for external observers, one could decide afterwards to plunge again into the same Kerr hole. But it is not \"going back\". It would be treating this <PERSON> hole as a \"black hole\". We will reach its \"future\" Cauchy horizon, and if we reemerge in normal space, a priori it will be in a third Universe. Nothing at all guarantees we are going back !", "43" ] ]

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[ [ "You've answered your own question by posting an image of the Periodic Table - clearly there are no gaps between 1 and 118.\nHowever, since this is WB and not Physics, let's speculate. The nucleus is usually depicted as a bunch of grapes, forming a spherical structure, since that is the lowest energy state. But is it...\nNuclei are bound together by the Strong Force. This is very short range - essentially binding nucleons to their nearest neighbours. Fighting against the Strong Force is the electrostatic repulsion of the protons, which is long range. Any one proton feels repelled by all the others in the nucleus. As the nucleus grows, the repulsive force becomes greater while the Strong Force doesn't really change. Adding neutral neutrons helps because this pushes the protons further apart, thus weakening the electrostatic force.", "969" ], [ "This is why the proton-neutron mix starts off about equal and becomes increasingly neutron-rich as we go up. By the time we get to a few hundred nucleons, it is getting difficult to keep the thing together and we get radioactive isotopes that keep falling apart.\nHowever, what if there is a region of stability in the very large atomic number range? Maybe when we get to, say, 1000 nuclei, structures can form that lead to it being stable. For example, you could have an outer shell of alternating protons and neutrons (like the pattern on a football) with a central core of neutrons. That would keep the protons well apart but allow you to have a massive nucleus.\nIts chemical properties would be weird - a giant nucleus would play havoc with the electron orbital radii. It would be very dense - maybe two or three orders of magnitude denser than existing elements. If you perturbed the proton-neutron lattice, it would decay into a spray of lighter elements and release rather a lot of energy, I would imagine.\nSuch a thing would be unlikely to form naturally since nuclei are usually made by squishing together lighter nuclei. However, you might be able to engineer such a nucleus: make a 2D $p-n$ lattice, then wrap it round a blob of neutronium. Simples!", "969" ], [ "I think <PERSON>'s answer is fantastic, but I just wanted to observe one little fact: the energy that we harvest from nuclear fission reactors comes from somewhere. It isn't magic. When you start with hydrogen and create heavier elements, you are doing fusion, which is the opposite of fission. And that means that the energy released during fission came from fusion. Now, we can't fission elements down to hydrogen, because they are too stable. In fact, most of the binding energy inside elementary nuclei is not available to us for consumption. But it all got put into elementary hydrogen by someone, somewhere, and that \"someone\" was generally a supernova (dying star).\nSo given that we currently power a decent portion of our society by breaking apart elements, you can begin to imagine the power cost of assembling those elements from scratch. As o.m. observes, it literally takes the power of a star, and a violently exploding one to get anything heavier than iron.", "435" ], [ "A nuclear power plant runs on a surprisingly small mass of radionuclides. Current reactors produce on the order of 1,250 GJ/kg of enriched uranium. Which means that if we could run the reaction backwards and perfectly, we would need to supply 1,250 GJ to turn a kg of strontium back into uranium.\nNow, uranium is much heavier than the elements in food, so this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, but strontium itself has a high internal binding energy, so I would guess that the order of magnitude isn't that far off from H->Ca. A kg of bread is about 2.5 loaves. Also, a kg provides roughly enough calories to feed a single person for a day. A GWe nuclear power plant consumes about 25 tonnes of enriched uranium per year. If we could instead perfectly transmute a kg of enriched uranium into a kg of bread, your billion dollar nuclear power plant could feed a grand total of less than 70 people per year. It costs about 140 million USD/year to fuel and operate such a plant, so you're feeding those people at the bargain basement price of about $2 million/person.\nNeedless to say, if you can afford to spend $2 million/person on food, you're better off building greenhouses. ;)", "435" ], [ "You are right that the force on the electrons is negated by the Hall effect. The short classical explanation is that the Hall-effect electric field also acts on the ionic lattice that makes up the rest of the metal.\nIn terms of classical electromagnetism, the explanation would go as follows:\nWhen a current is flowing in the metal, there are two parts: the free, delocalised electrons, and the fixed lattice of positive ions through which they move. The electrons are, on average, moving at the drift velocity, while the ions are not able to drift, so only the electrons experience a Lorentz force. This causes them to experience a magnetic force perpendicular to the current, creating a small excess of positive surface charge on one side of the wire (where there are fewer electrons than ions), and a small excess of negative charge on the other (where there are more electrons than ions). This creates an electric field that balances the magnetic forces on the moving electrons, stopping further buildup of charge - the <PERSON> effect.\nThe electric field does not only act on the electrons, however.", "395" ], [ "It also acts on the positive ions, and because they are positive, the force on them is opposite the direction of the force on the electrons, i.e. in the same direction as the original magnetic forces! So, since the electric field exactly balances the magnetic field, the net force on the wire as a whole is in the same direction and (since the ions have the exactly opposite charge to the electrons) magnitude as the magnetic forces on the electrons.\nThis subject is discussed in much more detail in this paper, which presents a classical quantitative model for finding the force on the wire from the microscopic forces and the relevant Hall electric field. However, to fully describe these kinds of microscopic interactions, quantum mechanics is necessary. According to the linked paper, more advanced condensed matter textbooks develop the quantum version using the Fermi gas or Bloch functions. The above picture - where the Hall effect is all that is relevant - works in a metal where only one conduction band is present, but in semiconductors without a Hall effect, collisions between charge carriers and the lattice may be more important.", "531" ], [ "As @AlexP calculated, the atmosphere needs to be replenished with Radon at 1.25e16 kg/day = 1.45e11 kg/s. Let's have a look at all the numbers.\nThe planet's surface area is around 5.11e14 m^2; for most quantities, it makes sense to consider them per square meter of surface area.\nAt 1.3 atm pressure, Radon gas has a volume of ~ 7.9e-2 m^3/kg, giving a replenishment rate of 1.15e10 m^3/s; each square meter needs to vent 22 milliliters of Radon gas per second.\nThe decay chain of Radon-222 involves many tasty heavy metals and eventually ends in Lead-206, which will accumulate at 1.34e11 kg/s, or 2.63e-4 kg/s per m^2; lead dust will sediment at 2.31e-8 m/s = 2 mm/day or 0.73 m/year.\nThe decay chain starts at U-238, which has a half-life time of 4.5 billion years. To produce 1.45e11 kg/s of Radon-222 would require 3.16e28 kg of U-238 -- 3.1e4 times the mass of your planet, so... U-238 cannot be the origin of the Radon.\nThe next-longest-lived element of the decay chain is U-234 with a half-life time of 245k years, you'd need 1.70e24 kg of that -- still heavier than the planet.\nThe next option is Thorium-230, with a half-life time of 75k years. We'd need just 5.14e23 kg of it, or 51 % of the mass of the planet. As a bonus, its density is around 1.17e4 kg/m^3, very close to the density of the planet. Of course, this means that the planet must be very young - at most 75k years old, and its radon production will greatly reduce in the next tens of thousands of years.\nFinally, decay heat. Over the entire decay chain from Th-230 to Pb-206, a fraction of 1.87e-4 of the mass is released as energy. Some of that will be carried away by neutrinos, but must will heat the planet (inside or in the atmosphere).\nThis is a mass-energy conversion rate of 2.81e7 kg/s or 2.52e24 W, or 0.66 % the power output of the sun.", "921" ], [ "Per area, it's 4.93e9 W/m^2. Earth provides around 8.2e-2 W/m^2.\nAssuming a perfect black body, this means the surface temperature of your planet is 1.72e4 K (T^4 ~ P/A). Of course, this means that the planet will be made entirely of plasma, and evaporate quickly, so unfortunately your idea looks impossible.\nHowever, Radon is a very heavy gas, heavy enough not to mix with the atmosphere too much. On Earth, it likes to accumulate in basements. Conceivably, if your planet has no wind for some reason, Radon might accumulate in the very lowest layers of the atmosphere, maybe just in the lowest 2 meters. If you limited yourself to that, you'd need much less radon, which would mean less heat, less accumulation of lead dust and fewer geothermal vents. Just scale all of the numbers down accordingly - except for temperature. Due to <PERSON>'s law, if you reduce the amount of radon 10000x, you can only reduce temperature 10x.\nIf you're happy with a still-extremely-deadly* 1 ppm of Radon instead of 8.3%, and just confined to the lowest 1/1000th (by mass) of the atmosphere, your planet will be somewhere around room temperature. You could even go for the longer-lived U-238 as source material. You should move the planet well away from the parent star to avoid any extra heating.\n*) 1 ppm of Radon at 1.3 atm has an activity of 1.94 Ci/L, a comfortable 4.9e11 times the EPA action limit.\nIf you really want a radioactive gas that makes up a single-digit percentage of the atmosphere, may I interest you in some other gasses, like H-3? Kr-81? Ar-39?\nI also hear that Unobtainium, a recently-discovered element in the Island of stability, has a density and half-life similar to that of U-238 while decaying directly into a gas that has properties that happen to be exactly right for your story.", "921" ], [ "Your question basically has two parts.\nHow would something fall up?\nThere are some theories that particles could exist which are affected inversely by gravity, such that rather than being pulled toward the source of gravity, they are repelled by it. We would not normally be able to find such particles, since 1- they would never be near any normal matter, and 2- the particles could never form a large object together on their own through gravity.\nHow would a disease cause this?\nSince you have specified a disease, I assume that you intend for microbes or parasites to be the cause of the effect. So how about this: a microbe that, when it consumes matter, converts it into this type of theoretical anti-gravity matter. The matter would remain inside the human body, despite being pulled in the opposite direction by gravity.", "279" ], [ "And if the chemical properties of the matter were unchanged by the anti-gravity conversion process, then the body's biological processes would treat it like any other matter. The matter would be combined in with normal matter in your blood and cells, where gravity's effect is overcome by strong atomic forces.\nGiven that the human body is already under normal gravitic pull and does not fall apart or suffer some sort of circulatory failure, it is fair to assume that having some of the matter in your body pulled in the opposite direction with identical force would not cause your body to fall apart or die immediately.\nThe greatest danger would be a \"head rush\" - humans who hang upside down for too long can have blood accumulate in their heads, causing loss of consciousness. But in our case, we only need 50.01% of the body's matter to be converted to anti-gravity matter in order for the person to experience weightlessness similar to zero-G that begins to cause them to rise into the air.\nThe biggest obstacle here is: how would microbes do this? Changing the physical properties of matter is no small feat, one would expect a facility like the LHC to be required to carry out this process. But much of Science Fiction is playing with \"what if the rules were a little different?\" scenarios, so if we assume that a microbe can do this, then it could produce the effect you're interested in.", "279" ], [ "An ionic bond could maybe be described as an inter-ionic force. All electron interactions are most accurately described by wavefunctions and quantum mechanics, but in practice we use successively more detailed approximations for convenience, stopping at the lowest level of detail that suits our needs at the time.\nAt the lowest-detail end of the spectrum, you have ionic bonds - we usually model these as simple Coulombic (a.k.a. charge-charge or electrostatic) interactions. This is good enough to describe bonding in most cases where the bond is between a metal and a non-metal. We model the bond as a complete electron transfer from one atom to another, which results in an electrostatic charge. The Coulomb force between the charges holds the ion together, and so we call it a molecule. What we really mean is \"these atoms are now stuck together.\"\nAs we move along the periodic table and the metal atoms become less metallic and the non-metals become more metallic, at some rather arbitrary point we say \"the ionic approximation is no longer good enough\" and start seeing the bond as covalent. What we really mean is that the electrons are not fully transferred between atoms, and so charge-charge interactions don't explain bonding well enough. At that point we can no longer ignore quantum mechanics, and have to acknowledge that the electrons exist in molecular orbitals, not atomic orbitals.\nThat is the main difference between ionic and covalent bonds.", "969" ], [ "As for dipole-dipole interactions, it again goes back to what the electrons are doing. In a molecule with a dipole moment, what this means is that within the molecule there are polar covalent bonds, and the geometry is such that the electron density on the surface of the molecule is lopsided - one side has more electrons than the other. The dipoles can align and will be attracted to each other via the Coulomb force, but this is not the same as how we model an ionic bond - in that case, one atom gives up one or more electrons completely. In a molecule with a dipole moment, one (or more) atoms just gets \"more\" of the electron density. Then the two separate molecules, each with their own dipole, are attracted to each other.\nWe call ionic bonds \"intramolecular\" forces because they are what hold molecules together - without ionic bonds, you couldn't have a salt crystal, for example. When you break apart sodium chloride, you get sodium ions and chloride ions.\nWe call dipole interactions \"intermolecular\" because they are what make separate molecules stick together. When you pull apart two water molecules, you still have two water molecules.\nThinking about it this way, an easy way to distinguish between intermolecular and intramolecular forces is to ask yourself whether you still have the same substance after pulling things apart. If you do, it must have been an intermolecular force. If you don't, it must have been a bond or an intramolecular force.\nnote - For very large molecules like proteins it gets a little tricky - you can have forces between sites on the same molecule that act like what we normally describe as intermolecular forces.", "969" ], [ "Short answer - it will not work because of several reasons:\n1. Elastic scattering of light from particles much smaller than the wavelength of the light is known as Rayleigh scattering. The scattering efficiency is proportional to $d^6$, where $d$ is the particle diameter, thus it is gets very small for molecules. You would have to use maximal laser power, but then you cannot tell if the particle scattered 1 or 2 or 50 photons.\n2. The momentum of a single photon is too small to shift 1 nm particle. Let's take even smaller particle - hydrogen atom, which has a diameter of about 0.1 nm. If we consider a photon of green light (500 nm), elastically bouncing of the hydrogen atom, then from the conservation of momentum I calculate the additional velocity for the hydrogen atom is 1.6 m/s.", "580" ], [ "This looks large enough, but keep in mind that the average velocity of a hydrogen atom at room temperature is 2200 m/s, but it can be anything between 0 and 5000 m/s, according to Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.\n3. There are $10^{19}$ molecules per $cm^3$ of air in normal conditions, so even in highest vacuum ($10^{-12} $bar) you cannot isolate a single molecule. Aerosol particles in vacuum will just drop down.\nBut even if this doesn't work, such technique can be used for other interesting measurements. While researching this question, I found that Rayleigh Doppler Technique can be used to measure temperature and wind speed high in the atmosphere. The idea is to distinguish between the light scattered from molecules and aerosol particles.\nMolecules move fast in random directions, so there will be some Doppler broadening of the scattered light that increases with the speed of molecules, that is proportional to temperature. Aerosol particles, on the other hand, are too heavy for random motion and just follow the air flow. The light that they scatter back will not be broadened, but shifted according to the speed of particles relative to the laser. Of course, this shift is very small, as air moves much slower than the speed of light, but it can still be observed with an interferometer.", "580" ], [ "There's actually a lot to potentially discuss here - let's go through it carefully.\nBecause of quantum effects, as you've shown in your bottom figure, there are discrete rotational and vibrational energy levels that a molecule may occupy. The vibrational levels are split further apart than the rotational levels. There are in fact also discrete translational energy levels as well, but these are so close together that they are generally ignored, even at low temperatures.\nAt a very low temperature, most molecules in the system can only occupy the lowest energy state, because they do not have enough energy to climb the ladder. This state is $J=0,v=0$, where these are the rotational and vibrational quantum numbers.\nFrom thermodynamics, we know that the molecules will always try to arrange themselves such that they follow a <PERSON>-like distribution over the energy states, i.e. the number of molecules occupying, say, one of the rotational energy states will be proportional to the <PERSON> factor, $$B=\\exp\\left(-\\frac{E}{k_\\text{B}T}\\right)$$ where $E$ is the energy of the state in question, $k_\\text{B}$ is the <PERSON> constant and $T$ is the temperature. Note two things about this function. Firstly, if the energy is large (i.e.", "28" ], [ "if we consider a higher up energy state) then $B$ will decrease - in other words the proportion of molecules occupying that energy state drops with increasing energy. Secondly, if $T$ increases, then $B$ also increases, but note it will never be larger than lower energy states - the molecules occupy the levels in a sort of \"pyramid\"-like occupation scheme.\nSide note: the reason the <PERSON> distribution is favoured is because this minimises the total entropy of the system - any further rearrangement of the molecules would either increase the energy or increase the entropy.\nStarting at very low temperatures, most molecules are in the $J=0,v=0$ state. As the temperature is slowly increased, the molecules may only climb the translational energy ladder, where the levels are so close, we ignore quantum effects and can just say the increase in internal energy is linearly proportional to $T$ (this is the equipartition theorem, which comes from thermodynamics). This gives the first linear increase in total energy, and thus a flat line in heat capacity $\\left(C_V=\\frac{\\text{d}U}{\\text{d}T}\\right)$.\nAs the temperature rises, the molecules begin to fill up rotational energy levels, but most still stay in the lowest vibrational energy level, because there isn't yet enough energy for them to reach the $v>0$ states. The energy curve will now rise with a steeper gradient than before, because new energy states can be filled faster. However, the temperature is not yet large enough for the rotational energy levels to seem as though they are \"close together\", and so the internal energy in fact rises in a non-linear fashion, and the heat capacity curve rises non-linearly. Only when $k_\\text{B}T>>\\Delta E$, where $\\Delta E$ is the spacing of energy levels, can we say that the levels are approximately continuous (like the translational levels), and we re-enter the linear regime, only this time there are more degrees of freedom (hence $5RT/2$ rather than $3RT/2$ in the energy).\nFianally, the same thing occurs with the vibrational energy levels at even higher temperatures, though experimentally many diatomic gases dissociate before they reach these temperatures.\nSo to answer your question \"How does the graph of molar heat capacity point towards quantization of motion?\", the fact that the heat capacity curve is not just one nice flat line suggesting a linear relationship between energy and temperature (which would be the case if the rotational and vibrational energy levels were just a continuous \"mesh\" of states) suggests that there are discrete energy levels, between which there are gaps which need a certain temperature before they can be overcome.", "273" ] ]

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[ [ "Newtonian Physics certainly precludes the existence of any 'truly' perpetual motion. Under certain conditions, we can achieve near perpetual motion by judicious application of principles and then form questions like \"Although no work can be removed from the system, is the lifetime of the magnetic force in a magnet sufficient that running for several years is an acceptable answer?\"\nRegarding the device device shown in the question, which is a modification of <PERSON> device similar to this one, the problems inherent in <PERSON>'s machine are compounded with the design shown here. Gravity is the overwhelming force to overcome in this experiment, friction plays only a small part, but we also can't overlook the current induced in the movement of the ball, which does eventually become the principle force degrading the perpetuation of motion. Here however, if the magnet was strong enough to overcome the inertia and the gravitational force of the weight on an incline, it would have sufficient energy to attach to the magnet at the top. Even without friction, and let's say that we started the ball at the top to give it an initial kinetic force, when it reached the 2nd hole, the magnet would not only have to overcome gravity, but the overall motion away from the magnet at the top, as it passed through the 2nd hole it would behave more like a skier doing a ski jump and fly away from the machine. So the magnet would also have to over come this motion, and reverse the balls direction as it is now also moving away with a velocity equal to the kinetic energy from dropping the ball minus friction.\n<PERSON> overcomes this with an additional ramp at the bottom, which by converting the linear motion into angular motion which reverses the direction of the ball and conserves that kinetic motion to move the ball partway up the ramp. Even so, this is not enough to overcome gravity, and friction, and the counter force of an induced current to enable it to pull the ball all the way up, while being weak enough to allow the ball to drop through the hole.", "621" ], [ "I believe, but have not tested or proven, that perhaps a reduction of gravity would make this machine feasible, like on the moon. It appears also, that because the ball is made of metal that is attracted to the magnet, the forces in the ball can set up a induced current counter field, due to the material the ball is made of and its in the field. A reverse lenz effect is present that would also contribute a force the magnet would have to overcome. This would require a superfine balance between a completely attractive force, and the opposing forces. The machine looks very promising; but, on a very subtle level has counter forces from gravity, friction, and a reverse lenz effect which counter the kinetic energy built up in the balls motion which pretty much stop the action from perpetuating fairly quickly.\nIn the video I link, the original author of the video overcomes this effect through the pulsing of the strength of an electromagnet hidden in the base holding the permanent magnet. By turning the electromagnet off at the right moment either manually or by inductive sensing, the ball drops. So, I agree, it is very close to possible; but, it just isn't possible. I have a sense that being able to tweak gravity might be enough to make the device function under the right gravitational force, but have a real concern that eddy currents in the metal ball would provide the eventual force that would counter any possibility of it working.\nAs a magnetic field problem, due to <PERSON>'s laws and <PERSON>' law, the problem is a lot more complex mathematically than it looks, we tend to overlook the ball's effect on the magnetic field as it would be moving and shifting the flux density which would induce a current which would affect the movement and flux density in opposition to the movement.", "621" ], [ "Note: Was going to comment on <PERSON> answer, but Without the 50 reputation yet, I'd like to build off their example of living organisms being a local system with a decrease in entropy, and how this is balanced out.\nAs <PERSON> pointed out about living organisms:\nBut although they can reduce entropy locally, they must increase the entropy of their surroundings by at least as much in the process.\nThis is the crux of your answer. Although a local reduction of entropy does not increase the entropy of it's surroundings, but rather the constant reduction of entropy in the surroundings enable these local low entropy states to exist in order to approach equilibrium. It is crucial distinction to make, between a region of lower relative energy vs. a region who's entropy is constantly being reduced.\nThe solar system is a great example for visualization purposes, although it is itself a subsystem of a larger system, ad infinitum.\nIn order for any life on Earth to exist in a manner that reduces entropy; so much so that 7+ billion humans can exist, build cities that remain rigid, and coexist with trillions of other organisms, somewhere outside of the system there must be a region of spacetime with a very high entropy interacting with this system.", "943" ], [ "The sun, a region of very high energy, directly interacts with the Earth. There are no true closed systems.\nAside\nI am currently working on a personal theory (inspired by the work of <PERSON> and <PERSON>) that the second law of thermodynamics is the most fundamentally important reason that life exists; that the formation of amino acids, and complex life is a necessary byproduct in every solar system (with the proper precursors) in order to approach equilibrium.\nAny solar system as an isolated system (each star is so far apart from the next, it's isolated enough) and entropy cannot decrease over time, even as the entropy of the star is reducing through nuclear fusion. As energy from the star is added to say, the ocean of a planet, the entropy increases locally before being dissipated through the medium. Along the way, areas of uneven energy cause molecules and atoms to organize themselves in a manner which is conducive to (a) the medium of energy, and (b) the manner in which entropy equilibrium is reached (the environment). These reorganized molecules would themselves be local areas of low entropy, further altering the manner in which entropy/energy is dissipated through the system.", "943" ], [ "I am shooting a bit for the hip here to be honest, this answer is opinion, not a researched position, but...\nTo imply that a object, be it plant, animal, or inanimate object with the ability to self regulate their temperature has the ability to have implications on climate change on a global scale, at least a positive one, ignores the physical laws of entropy. That statement assumes that by positive effects means slowing of warming.\nEntropy as a basic rule of physics always increases. For this purpose, you can consider entropy to be the total energy in the system, with the energy of concern here being \"heat\". If a plant (or anything) raises its temperature, it also extracts that heat from somewhere else. If the surrounding environment is warmer, it can do that by simply absorbing heat, otherwise it does that by using other energy by chemical or physical processes.", "106" ], [ "These processes always are net zero in entropy or increase entropy thus increase total system energy usually seen as heat. The same is true when the plant needs to lower its temperature, it can exchange heat with surrounding environment or through physical or chemical means lower its temperature, but doing so will again either be net zero energy or an increase in energy/heat.\nPlants do have an almost exemption of this rule though, they grow, and in doing so the store some energy, temporarily taking some of that energy out of the equation. This stored energy, and thus heat, is then released when the plant dies and decays, is used as food, or when millions of years of the stored energy is used in the form of fossil fuels, again resulting in a net increase in total entropy in the system.\nPlants can and are used for localized climate moderation, but the contribution that would be applied to their ability to regulate their own temperature I would think is somewhere between insignificant and a slight negative in terms of slowing global warming. The more significant aspect is in areas like slowing ground heating of denuded areas, cleaning pollutants from the air, storing of energy for later use, and many other aspects of plant chemistry and relationship with its environment. For instance, the shade provided by a single tree I would guess outweighs any effect cause by temperature regulation of many trees. I would be happy to see any study to the contrary, but I do not see that as possible within the known laws of physics.", "106" ], [ "I am no theoretical physicist, and have no scientific degree(s). I am, however, an extremely informed layperson with a penchant for considering the feasibility of turning 'indistinguishable from magic' to 'practical technology', or at least providing some not too impossible proof of concept ideas.\nI, too, ever since learning about the negative energies (even at quantum scales, they DO exist) which result as a direct effect of the <PERSON> effect, which involves placing two non-charged, parallel metal plates extremely close to one another - around a nanometer apart (my laypersons approximation), as I'm not looking up any of the resulting negative vacuum energies,which have the effect of restricting naturally occurring 'virtual particles' from popping into existence between the metal plates, as there is no room (as I understand it) for virtual particles to 'fit' between the two parallel plates.\nThus, a practical negative vacuum energy space where negative energy in fact CAN be created and DOES exist, offering zero contradictions to <PERSON>' field equations... implies a practical source of negative energy which MUST result as a measurable phenomenon between the parallel metal plates, although at subatomic scales, which may introduce unforeseen (to me, anyway) problems.\nHOWEVER!\nSince negative energy is allowed within the boundaries of General Relativity, then it stands to reason that a so-called 'Casimir Capacitor' should be possible for storing the generated negative energy between the metal plates, along with a non-negligible energy source to serve as a practical fuel, required for the generation and maintaining of countless 'Casimir Capacitors', each capable of storing a miniscule amount of negative energy...\nBut it's when these 'Casimir Capacitors' are networked with finely tuned, possibly yet-to-be-developed quantum processors based on stable Einstein/Bose condensates, providing the stable wave form function necessary for the extremely and necessarily accurate computations of a lattice of atoms possessing what amounts to a single waveform to lead to practical quantum computers - which could possible be entangled with other Einstein/Bose condensates -\nWhy, Septillions of these stable quantum processors allowing the storage of negative energy as a series of connected 'Casimir Capacitors' which will eventually discharge this negative energy in an organized manner designed to take advantage of the two flattened torus shapes, which reduce the required practical fuel involved to create, in effect, a network of simply uncountable numbers of networked 'Casimir Capacitors'.\nWhen discharging their stored negative energy in a controlled manner and, due to the sheer number of capacitors releasing this negative energy in a timed, simultaneous pattern so that the desired warping of space generated by the 'Casimir Capacitors' contained in the flattened torus shapes surrounding the actual 'ship', with each capacitor working in a harmony of complex gravitational matrices, in effect, this could produce the warping of spacetime required for propeling the ship inside of this warp bubble - either at sub-light velocities, or possibly even beyond FTL speeds.\nOf course, approximating the interior space of the twin torus assembly, the total volume combined comes out to something on the order of 43 nontillion volumetric nanometers.", "682" ], [ "So, with the size of a 'Casimir Capacitor' occupying approximately a little more than the cubed volume of a nanometer,the number of 'Casimir Capacitors' installed inside the volumes of the torus structures should equal, say, about 30 nontillion capacitors, considering other essential hardware.\nYes, an ubiquitous, indefinitely stable Einstein/Bose condensate must be present and woven perfectly into the structure of the 'Casimir Capacitors' formed from the structure of the ultra-dense double warp field generating torus structures which store the negative energy until it is needed to be released, forming the required warp bubble.\nMany non-existing technologies will obviously need to be invented from scratch, including a level of computing power several orders of magnitude greater than what we have now - plus expertise in nano-manufacturing the ultra-precision parts at scales where quantum weirdness, such as compulsive quantum decoherence, must be accounted for with no margin for error.\nSo, there you go. A laymans' vision for a practical warp drive that doesn't break any known laws of physics. Assuming negative energy can be stored at the level of several nontillion individual volumetric nano-components, each with their own unique, separate and dedicated jobs to perform.\n<PERSON>", "284" ], [ "Does Inertial time dilation demonstrate that Time is not a dimension?\nIf time is a dimension and 'now' simply an expression of your position with respect to that dimension, the progress of any object along that dimension should remain in step with all other objects. By this I mean that any object which moves in the time dimension by a specific amount will arrive at the same time as every other object which has moved by that specific amount. Two observers separated for any period of time and then brought together again would agree on the amount of time that had passed, regardless of any motions that either had taken in the interval, in order for them to have traveled the same distance along the time dimension.\nThe classic Twin Paradox however tells us that this is not the case. The twin that remains in the same inertial frame of reference during the interval will have experienced one duration, while the twin who traveled and returned through a variety of changes in inertial frames will have experienced a shorter duration. Both will agree upon being reunited that they are both present in the same 'now' but will disagree on the duration of their separation.\nSo if time dilation is real - which certainly appears to be the case - doesn't this require that we discard the notion of time as a dimension?\nOne objection I can see is that time itself is non-uniform, warped in much the same way that we believe space is, but given that objects which are spatially adjacent can experience different rates of time dilation I think that this cannot be the case. It seems that each object would have to exist in a separate temporal dimension distorted by time dilation, raising time to an unbounded number of loosely linked dimensions. No doubt friar <PERSON> would object.\nPlease note, I am not asking what time dilation is but rather what the existence of time dilation says about Time itself. Please don't mark this as a duplicate of this question since it (a) is about the nature of time dilation and (b) appears to conclude that time dilation is an observational phenomenon and the Twin Paradox does not actually result in different measured intervals:\nSo in in my frame the time interval measured on my clock while I move from $A$ to $C$ is $t$, but in your frame the time interval while I move from $A$ to $C$ is the distance $AD$ i.e. it is $\\gamma t$. And since $\\gamma t \\gt t$ you see my time dilated in the same way as I see your time dilated.", "272" ], [ "It’s just that we disagree about our start and end points.\nI am not talking about the observational effects caused by the successively greater or smaller travel distances of photons between the observers, I'm specifically talking about the observed phenomenon that allows high speed muons to pass through the Earth's atmosphere in much greater numbers than should be possible considering their short halflife of 2.2µs and a travel time over 8µs. If time dilation were purely observational then those muons would not act as they are observed to do.\nI see that several people are still determined that this is a duplicate, but I honestly don't see the relationship, and the answers to that question certainly do not appear to answer this question. As such I strongly disagree with the duplicate question flag.\nSo, to expand on the question...\nAs I understand it there are three forms of time dilation that are often talked about:\n1. Gravitational time dilation - caused by the direct warping of spacetime by mass.\n2. Inertial time dilation - caused by or related to the inertia of the object being observed.\n3. Observational time dilation - covers all forms of perceptual time dilation related to the Doppler effect on the mediators of observation, observation being defined as interaction with particles, waves, etc. carrying information about the observed object and being necessarily bound by the speed of light.\nThe third type is of no interest to me as it is an illusion created by the limited speed of information transfer between objects. Such anomalies of observation are interesting but ultimately only of use in explaining why time dilation doesn't actually occur in specific examples and so do not add anything of interest here.\nI'll try to illustrate my meaning a little better...\nTake two objects which are spatially adjacent in a region with minimal gravitational stress (not on a planet or in the vicinity of a significant external mass). Object A remains in its current reference frame with no acceleration applied for the duration of the experiment. Starting at T0 object B is accelerated to an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, decelerated to relative rest then reverses course to return to its starting position adjacent to object A at T1, with constant rates of acceleration throughout. At the moment that object B returns to its' starting position the duration measured by both objects is recorded and a comparison made.", "562" ], [ "In order to generate an elliptical orbit, you need to have a force which is equal to the required centripetal force:\n$$F=m\\frac{v^2}{r}\\rightarrow a=\\frac{v^2}{r}$$\nAccording to <PERSON>'s Theorem, this can only be solved with a potential for an inverse square force, or a radial harmonic oscillator potential.\nSo we cannot attain a circular orbit, is that a problem? No.\nI generated a system for our sun, Earth, and moon, dependent on a linear inverse force. What we find is that we need to rescale the Gravitational constant to the negative 22nd order. (For clarity's sake I avoided using astronomical units).\nSo if we set $G = 6.6740831\\times10^{-22}$ we find the following orbit patterns:\nWe can further decrease the orbital eccentricity when $G \\rightarrow 4\\times10^{-22}$\nNote however, that in the long term, the eccentricity will always increase, even for optimal $G$, take the following radial Sol-Earth distance over 500y:\nThere are more problems though, for instance, would a star even form with this Gravity configuration?\nNote that in this configuration, the acceleration of gravity due to Earth on its surface would be $0.000375m/s^2$ instead of $9.8m/s^2$ As the gravity drops off more slowly, but is also significantly more massive, a habitable planet would be much more massive, but such massive planets might also more easily form under these parameters.\nAnd here is where things get really interesting, if we suppose that our planet has a mass of $m_{earth}=5.97237\\times10^{28}$, four orders higher than that of the current Earth, gravity at the same radius would be $3.75m/s^2$, and we get the following 1000 year progression:\nMy suspicion is that the collapse happens 4 orders of magnitude slower, meaning you would have at least $10^5y$ of stable orbit, possible a million (1Ma).\nIf you could have a planet with a mass of order $O\\left(29\\right)$, then you might get a near-stable orbit over evolutionary time scales, however getting such a large concentration of Earth (oxyen, quartz, aluminium, lime, iron, magnesium) might be difficult to attain, except maybe in a late-stage galaxy.\nI do think the peculiar circumstances would make the formation of large planets more likely as distance is less of a factor for matter to come together.", "24" ], [ "Consequently we would expect fewer planets, but of higher average mass. However, it is also possible this situation would lead to more uniformity in mass distributions. You would have to run some galaxy wide gravity calculations for that one, and recalculate the result of the background radiation. These are things beyond my scope.", "24" ], [ "Confusion About Conservation Of Energy When Analyzing This Experiment\nThe video here shows a clear demonstration of conservation of angular momentum. Given the experiment is performed within an isolated system, this is my thoughts:\nThe spinning bike wheel continues (if no friction) to have the same rotational kinetic energy during the whole experiment. When the guy in the video starts to rotate, the additional rotational kinetic energy must come from the guy, there is no other option, if the total energy must be conserved. The guy uses not only energy to turn the wheel, but also to make himself rotate. Where does the rotational kinetic energy of the guy rotating goes, when he stops the rotation? It dos not convert into new kinetic energy. It dos not convert into potential energy.", "782" ], [ "So it can only be converted into heat, if the total energy must be conserved.\nThat would mean, that the guy is supposed to use less energy to flip the wheel back again, than he used to flip the wheel the first time in order to conserve energy. Because if he used energy to stop his own rotation, we can’t say that all kinetic rotation energy of the guy on the turntable is turned into heat.\nHowever, the guy spending more energy to flip the wheel the first time, and less energy to flip the wheel the second time seems odd the me. He must still use energy, not only to flip the wheel back again, but also to create the counterforce, that stops the turntable from rotation. All in all it would make sense, if he had to use the same amount of energy every time he flips the wheel no matter what direction, and as a result of that, heat is not produced as an explanation of where the kinetic rotating energy of the guy on the turntable goes, when he stops rotating. The explanation now is that he uses energy to stop his own rotation.\nIf the spinning bike wheel where rotating in the opposite direction in the beginning of the experiment, he would also have to invest energy in making himself rotate. So why would that be different, when flipping the wheel back again? Energy is used to make the turntable rotate in the opposite direction, which causing the turntable to stop.\nIf this is true, which I believe for now, and he is actually using energy to make rotational kinetic energy disappear, that must lead to loss of energy in the isolated system.\nFor example if the potential energy of a spring is converted into the acceleration of a mass, energy is conserved. But if the potential energy of a spring is converted into making a mass decelerate (even that this is hard to imagine), energy is not conserved, because both the potential energy of the spring, and the kinetic energy of the mass who has been decelerated is lost from the system forever.\nSo, if my conclusion is right, performing this experiment again and again in a heat isolated room, would cause the temperature in the room to fall, because the total energy in the room would decrease.\nBy performing two experiments side by side any torsions on the earth would cancel out each other, so we do not need to include this in the total energy calculation of the isolated system.", "621" ], [ "This is not a question for an Einsteinian, for sure. Neither is this answer.\nI picture this as a universe that is encased in an infinitely large torus, such that something would fall forever, while circling around. However, this image is not absolutely necessary for the solution.\nIn quantum field theory, it is implied that the fields occupy the universe, equally, and are equally distributed throughout. The fields never move in this universe. That is, they are static. Okay, hard to quantify when field theory is point-oriented, but nonetheless.\nSo the air molecules in your universe are just very large special bosons, which are captured within the 'net' of a corresponding field. This field, like every other field, fills your infinite universe and is static. In terms of the torus, it 'fills' the torus and defines its shape.", "800" ], [ "Think in terms of this 'field' making the torus 'solid' or 'frozen', as an allegory. Everything moves in this 'solid' (field). The air molecule bosons can not move within this 'solid' stationary field, as there is no mechanism for their movement. They are a field unto themselves, independent of the other fields that are responsible for movement (gravity, mass, the Higgs boson, electromagnetism, the strong and weak fields, etc.) However, the independence is not absolute. These molecules also contain Higgs bosons on steroids, which therefore add 'mass' effects (inertia), and thus air resistance for terminal velocity.\nHowever, the theory behind this would require a physics textbook much, much thicker than the one we have today. One in which <PERSON> was but a footnote. It posits a boson and a field which, frankly, we haven't even conjectured.\nThe fact that these bosons are uniformly distributed, explains why there is no increasing pressure. These bosons, as I stated, do not interact with gravity nor do the molecules contain any bosons that DO interact with gravity.\nEdit\nIn this scenario, I envision your 'islands' to be like asteroids, which would have their own slight gravity, but the movement of everything around the torus would not be due to gravity, but some rotational force, like a particle in a toroidal magnetic field. Again, another boson and another field, apart from gravity.", "800" ] ]

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[ [ "First, let's do greed. Greed is an appetite uncontrolled. Consider, for example, a dog. If he sees food he simply moves directly towards the food and tries to eat it without any other concern or hesitation. He does not consider his co-dogs in the pack. Or his offspring. Nor even whether he is in fact hungry. He just tries to eat the food. This is greed.\nGreed may be a survival trait in some circumstances. For example, in the wild in situations where food is scarce, uneaten food is wasted food.\nGreed is usually counter productive for intelligent species, since it is deeply sub-optimal when you have the ability to produce enough of what you need. If you simply eat everything in your fridge you won't be healthy.", "376" ], [ "So greed might be a problem for intelligent critters that had it as a survival trait in the past, and now have to deal with things like diets. We resemble that. They might take steps to suppress it, remove it, overcome it, etc.\nSelfishness means doing what is good for \"self.\" However, in evolutionary terms, the thing that evolves is the gene. If an action tends to help spread one's genes around, but is bad for the individual, it may still get fixed in through evolution. A mother cat fighting to protect her kittens may get mauled by a dog but leave an extra batch of kittens. Her personal selfishness, running from the dog, and her gene's selfishness may conflict.\nSomewhere though, the gene's selfishness must have at least a modicum of success, or the creature cannot procreate long enough to evolve.\nFor example, an intelligent creature that was evolved from a social insect might be ideally communal, except possibly for the \"royal\" breeder class. The workers and drones might be prepared to nearly-mindlessly sacrifice themselves for the good of the colony.\nAt some point in there, there has to be something that produces conditions that tend to advance its own interest. This is \"selfish gene\" theory, along the lines of the book The Selfish Gene by <PERSON>. This is a metaphor indicating the genes act as though they were selfish. Because if they don't they get out competed by genes that do.\nSo individuals may have their selfishness suppressed. But some part of the creature must act selfishly in some sense for the species to continue to exist.", "376" ], [ "I'm new here so I can't leave a comment but part of your biological assumptions are wrong. In humans, the baby's gender is controlled by the male's contribution, ie whether they give an XX or XY gamete. If the Y chromosome is present, then the baby becomes male. In its absence, female. So the \"default,\" in a way, is female.\nI see know the questioner addressed this in his post, but stick with me.\nI find it unlikely a woman could biologically assert a choice of her baby's gender. Would she have to constantly focus on the baby's gender to ensure the right hormones are released? Or just once, at some turn point in gestation, like week 5? What happens if she changes her mind, or just honestly never makes a choice? Because of the passivity inherent in pregnancy, I don't see her evolving any sort of conscious hormonal control.", "429" ], [ "I can't think of any examples of animals consciously controlling hormonal release, for very good reasons.\nAdditionally, the actual act of procreation for women, is again, passive. So if there was to be a choice, it would have to be a choice made during an actual conscious action. For this, I would choose ejaculation. As I postulated in the comments, a man's testes could each produce male- or female-begetting gametes only. A muscle that closes only one vas deferens and allows the man to choose female or male semen seems to me far more biologically plausible than the woman.\nOne way I feel a woman could plausibly effect the sex of her baby is: Perhaps a male embryo releases a hormone that causes an itching sensation, and she could self-abort.\nSo...\nNo matter who picks, a child that knows his/her gender was chosen by one parent is going to feel very beholden to that parent, especially their expectations. A son would feel very strongly that he has to live up to his father's expectations. In a less-progressive society, this would expand gender roles.\nSimilarly, a daughter would feel the same pressures, but the opposite way: virginity would be more highly valued, and she would respect her father's vision for her as a girl.\nOf course, broad strokes here, but someone knowing their gender was selected for a reason would face enormous pressure to live up to the expectations of that gender.", "1008" ], [ "To extend <PERSON>'s answer... a few things off the top of my head in no particular order. Most of these apply to lower technology human societies where modern technology hasn't compensated for biological differences.\nHumans lack fur because we hunt by running. Humans can out run any animal on earth.\nIt's people without horses catch horses. They jog after horses, never catching them but never letting them rest either. After about 20-25 miles at most, the horse can't run any further, the human walks up and puts a rope arounds it's neck.\nWith flint, wood and bone weapons, hunters wound prey and then run it into the ground.\nIt's hard to cool by sweat with fur. If you ever seen a horse, \"lather up\" you've seen the basic problem. Horses have very thin, fine, close knapped fur yet still it interferes significantly with evaporation.\nSo, first off, humans with fur would have evolved to hunt differently. Likely, we would hunt with traps or with in larger groups like wolves. In either case our entire physiology might shift. We'd be adapted to sprint horses or wolves, to catch game quickly.\nOne affect might be a decrease in sexual dimorphism (overt differences in body shape by sex.) Part of the difference between men and women can be attributed to men being more adapted to protracted exercise. Distribution in muscles, muscle recover time, more sweat glands etc all point to optimization of men for running. If such optimization were not needed, then men and women might be more similar in physiology just like wolves and other canines and just like wolves, there would be less specialize of labor and less specialization in behaviors.\nMost sexually monomorphic species are matriarchal, with the entire group supporting the reproduction of the matriarch, at least in hard times. Human society might be radically different historically although we might start out with something like we have now after technology has leveled the playing field between men and women.\nWe likely would have had trouble with prolonged relative work like most pre-industrial agricultural work. Humans have to be careful not to kill horses and oxen by forcing the animals to work as long as humans do. We would adapt society to allow working in sprint shifts, with two or more individuals tag teaming a single job to keep the work going. If men and women where physiologically similar, they could swap off child care and work for everything except nursing.\nIndividuals might commonly pair up with siblings, other relations or friends for life, both specializing in the same job and together forming a complete work team.", "802" ], [ "So, if someone was a blacksmith, their partner would be as well. People didn't have time to waste so individuals would have some secondary task to occupy them at a lower level of effort while they rested from the main task. Human social structure would be based on this partnership. It would affect everything from military units to marriage.\nHumans would be less mobile in general, at least preindustrial. Unable to walk, march or run as far, they would have to adapt activities to being closer to home. Any systems based on walking, like cities, would be more compact.\nArmies would march and move slower but move faster in battle itself owing to likely greater sprinting speed. Battles would have to be decided faster before exhaustion set in. Battles would be very intense but short. This would favor more organized forms of shock warfare, like Greek Hoplites. The idea would be to hit the enemy hard and fast and do maximum damage in the shortest amount of time. Alternatively, there would be more pressure to develop a rotational system like the Romans used to grind away at an enemy while preventing exhaustion of individuals.\nIf the pair system did evolve, that would be part of the military as well and if men and women were more physiologically similar, then women would participate in combat more. If women could fight, that would increase per capita fighters in the population. Combined with intense shock warfare, battles could be more devastating with more adults overall in a population likely to be killed.\nSlavery might be more difficult both in terms of the danger of going to war to capture slaves, the added difficulty in controlling women and the inability to substitute humans for animals and machines in many circumstance e.g. treadmills. Managing slave work would be more difficult if slaves had to constantly swap out task.\nHaving fewer slaves would likely reduce the profitability of war (slavery being a huge driver of warfare in classical times.) It would also foster technological development because it would be difficult to solve a complex problem just by throwing more slave at it e.g. threshing grain or grinding flour.\nThere would be greater pressure to domesticate animals for transportation and labor and greater pressure to develop vehicles and machines. Riding animals and carts would be more common of basic necessity which would make it harder to restrict horses to military caste aristocrats.", "238" ], [ "Who says it has to be good? We cannot assume that every trait that evolves is beneficial to the species. A lot of people assume that the species of an ecosystem will evolve optimally; that is, they assume each species evolves to have the best possible genes for its environment. My understanding is this is not the case. Species have to adapt or face extinction, but they only have to adapt to be good enough. Perhaps it's not that forgetting is good, but rather it just doesn't impede survival or reproduction. (Well, except when you forget your spouse's anniversary!) Which leads us to the next point...\nIt's a side effect of how human memory works. First off, storing a memory in the brain is not like running a tape recorder or camera. The brain actually stores very little of the information coming into it, just enough so that it can later fill in the blanks and make a decent reproduction.", "759" ], [ "In computer terms, the data is filtered through a very lossy compression algorithm before being stored. It's just good enough that we usually don't notice, but sometimes things go wrong and we get phenomena like confabulation.\nNow about how that data is stored. As you know, the data is stored by the synapses in the neurons. But here's the thing: those synapses aren't dedicated to that specific memory! Storing a new memory affects synapses that are part of other memories. One synapse might be storing a piece of information for any number of memories, because those memories all have some tiny thing in common. I wish I could explain this better and in more detail, but this became pretty obvious to me when I read up on artificial neural networks, which are crude models of brains.\nSometimes, neurons just die. Obviously this is going to affect the brain's ability to recall the information the dead synapses contained. There's enough redundancy built into the brain that this is rarely a problem, except in cases like Alzheimer's, where the brain just suffers too much damage.\nTo me, the question isn't why we forget. The question is how we can remember stuff at all!", "77" ], [ "For all these answers, every one omits fire. Fire is absolutely vital, yet none but a few who post in comments consider it.\nHere is the crux of the matter. Fire is vital because of the energy boost involved in consuming cooked food. The human digestive system is 25% shorter and consumes proportionately less energy than the immediate primates, and is attuned away from the ability to digest cellulose at all. Cooking also kills numerous parasites. The full benefit of this would not be immediately available, but this puts rotting meat back on the table with far less immune system energy consumption. The changes involved free up energy for the intelligence required to wield fire.\nFire is at least four steps in toolmaking. That is it is the equivalent of making a tool to make a tool to make a tool to accomplish a task. This in turn requires the intelligence to understand the steps, and the grasping hands to manipulate fire, and I'm pretty sure the loss of any significant amount of fur on the arms.\n(Wait what you say. Fire is vital for intelligence but intelligence is vital for fire. Yes I know.", "1022" ], [ "No wonder people don't want to talk about it. The claims are simply not made, but archeologists know where they find cooking fire it is human, and the ability to use fire is the best test of intelligence.)\nThe fine development of the grasping hand and tactile sensation and the hand-eye coordination would tend to make the hand not-so-suitable for walking on (you want arthritic hands in short order, start developing the knuckle-wakers for fine work). This means unless you started with six limbs, you end up with bipedal. None of this, however, required an internal skeleton at all; however in this world there are reasons there aren't any large exoskeleton creatures.\nIn answer to other claims, intelligence is the game-changer. Humans are the uncontested apex predator in all terrestrial environments that can possibly support a human (we can't live on insects), and now in the shallow oceans.\nYou ask for a potential space fairing race. This immediately doubles-down on the need of fire. In addition, while I like the idea of an acquatic space-fairing race the essentials of setting one up appear insurmountable. Let us suppose for an instant the water-world with only a few islands, yet they somehow grasp for the stars (for them space is an ocean would seem more true than even to our storytellers). But the first building is the VAB. How do they refine metal enough to build? How can they ever discover rocketry without first the need of gunpowder? How could such a struggling race manage somehow to lift the first of their own with all the tons of water required (although I must say this makes recovery much less to fear). Once put the details to it, it just seems too hard.\nIf you want a non-bipedal you are likely to end up with something like a large dog with an extra set of arms coupled to the skeleton with another set of shoulders just behind the ones for the forelimbs (before the forelimbs would likely be too front-heavy).", "335" ], [ "<PERSON> comment to the original question is apt. Not only are prey animals adapted to avoiding a fight instinctually (generally speaking), but physically as well.\nA hare that was about 5' 10\" and 185 lbs would have two big front teeth, and some claws, but most of that 185 lbs would be in its massive hind legs. A rabbit does not kick as part of its fighting. And here's one reason why:\nA rabbit's skeletal structure is overall much lighter compared to predators (because it is built for speed), and shatter relatively easily. Femurs sometimes break just from jumping. Fighting is not winning for a rabbit.\nIts eyes are set more to the side of its head with almost 360 degrees of view, but no binocular vision -- which is real handy when you are trying to bite (or punch) something, especially a moving thing.\nYou can't just scale up things and get equal return for size. If you take the long, light and thin leg bones of a rabbit, and you make them even longer, and attach about 100 lbs more muscle weight to it, those bones may no longer be able to take the stress.", "376" ], [ "The bending stresses may be tolerable when the bone is only two inches long, but if they are going to be two feet long, then the proportions and the density have to be beefed up.\nA good example is engines used before the <PERSON> Brothers; they were simply not able to output enough power to carry their own weight. Bigger engines put out more power but they weighed more too. It also ate a lot more fuel and generated a lot more heat. A tiny engine is less likely to melt itself. That same engine fifty times bigger actually might. Making things bigger increases the advantages but also increases the disadvantages.\nA timber wolf, on the other hand, has every advantage. It is a sleek killing machine, not a fast grazing machine.\nHowever, even a 5' 10\" rabbit could still kill you or a wolf if it got a lucky bite in. So size alone would make it more dangerous for the wolf, but all in all the wolf is built to kill, and a rabbit is built to run.", "160" ], [ "Perhaps consider Teleology in the sexual realm? Teleology is the study of purposes of things. What is the end or purpose of sex? If you look at what bodies are designed for and follow that you'd come up with a fairly conservative outlook on sexual norms.\nFor instance, all the biological systems (respiratory, digestive, neurological, circulatory) are complete within a single human body EXCEPT the sexual reproductive system. That is incomplete and requires another body- but not just any other body; but a complimentary body. Therefore, you can argue that from a purpose driven standpoint, sex is designed to between a man and a woman.\nAlso, what is the purpose of that system? The fullest result of the completion of the system is a baby; hence you could argue that the only correct, non-deviant sexual act is that which has the possibility of children.", "759" ], [ "(That doesn't mean that every act must have that as its goal, but rather you have to have the two pieces of the reproductive system complimenting and completing one another.\nWhile one could argue that sex can be used for other things (pleasure, bonding), even those other aims are actually parts of the reproductive system that are geared towards having children: The pleasure to entice us to engage in something that could require great sacrifice; and the bonding to mold two people into a formidable team that can raise the young.\nHere you could suggest monogamy as the norm by the bonding and raising of children.\nSince science has yet to find any other genders; and we know that those who watch porn actually alter their brains (neuroplasticity) so that they come to want, and desire, to act out what they watch; you could use those ideas to argue that they are part of the source of deviancy.\nThis would be possible to get to by looking at the natural law and the natural world. Instances in nature that suggest other deviant acts as ok may actually just be instances of perversity or depravity in nature. the 'appeal to nature' is actually a fallacy in philosophy; but you can look at the order that nature has set up.\nNote* You may have to enshrine this idea of not going against the design and nature of something into your culture as atheism may have a tendency to believe there is no good or bad and thus there is a temptation to tinker.. You'll have to find a way to get around that.", "140" ], [ "You can explain it in the same way people explain why one person has a higher IQ than another, and why another thinks faster than another. It is related to genetics.\nJust like genetics can determine whether a person is color-blind, red-green color-blind, \"normal\", or can actually see more colors than the average person (like this woman), genetics can determine what powers a person can tap into.\nThen consider that we only use a small percentage of our brains. Those with magic would simply be more intelligent and be able to use more of their brain power, potentially unlocking abilities that normal humans can't do.\nThen you add training on top of that, and you can make someone truly magical. For example, some monks have so much control of their body, they can control their blood pressure, body temperature and heart rate through thought alone. Take this to the next level, and people can start controlling additional things with their mind, even external things.\nThen you can add in the metaphysical.", "227" ], [ "Some say that we shape our world with our words and thoughts. Someone who is powerful with their words and mind can will things to happen, and they happen.\nSo you could explain that a certain level of intelligence is needed to fully take advantage of the power of the mind, and this power of the mind is often looked upon as magic by the rest of the population. Their mind is so strong that they can literally will into existence what they want, including the ability to fly on a broomstick.\n<PERSON> might be an important cut off point, because before puberty, humans are usually dependent and curious. Some studies even suggest that children ages 0 to 7 are actually in a hypnotic/dream state where dreams and reality are mixed, and they are very open to suggestion and training. As they reach puberty, they start becoming more independent, thinking for themselves instead of absorbing everything around them. This transition from a being that focuses on absorbing information & learning to one that thinks for itself and thinks independently could lend itself to puberty being the time of selection and screening.", "494" ] ]

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[ [ "Micro:bit OLED Game\nIntroduction: Micro:bit OLED Game\nThere was a time when every kid wanted a Nintendo Game & Watch handheld electronic game. This combined a very simple LCD screen with a very simple game mechanic. An early example was the Fire game, where you moved the firemen’s safety net left or right to bounce residents from a burning building on the left into a waiting ambulance on the right.\nLet's add an OLED screen to the BBC Micro:bit to create an homage to these games. We'll need to use a breakout board and a breadboard to connect the Micro:bit to a 128x64 OLED display, and we'll need to write the game in Python. We’ll call the game Post, and bounce letters from left to right using a paddle.\nSupplies\nBecause we're using an OLED screen, we'll need to create the real thing rather than use Tinkercad. We'll need at least the following:\n* A Micro:bit (ideally version 2, to include sound with our game without requiring additional components);\n* A Micro:bit breakout board which exposes its Inter-Integrated Circuit (I²C) ports 19 and 20, such as the Keyestudio Prototype Breakout Board;\n* A simple breadboard with power rails, such as the Kitronik Small Prototype Breadboard;\n* A 1.3\" 128x64 OLED display, supporting I²C, such as the Keyestudio OLED Display;\n* Two buttons suitable for a printed circuit board (PCB), such as the Kitronik push switches; and\n* Male-to-male breadboard jumper wires, such the Kitronik pack.\nIf you'd like to go beyond a breadboard prototype, and make a real handheld game, you'll also need the following:\n* A simpler Micro:bit breakout board which exposes I²C ports 19 and 20, such as the Keyestudio Breakout Board Adapter;\n* A printed circuit board (PCB) breadboard with power rails, such as the Adafruit Perma-Proto Breadboard;\n* Optionally, a 3V button battery and holder, such as the Wurth battery holder; and\n* Craft materials, such as cardboard, with which to create a case.\nStep 1: Getting Started With the Mu Editor\nThe Mu editor is the go-to editor for the Micro:bit when you’re ready to use Python (it’s actually MicroPython on the Micro:bit). After installing Mu, open the editor, and then connect a Micro:bit to your computer. At the bottom-left of the Mu editor’s window, in its status bar, you should see confirmation that it “detected new BBC micro:bit device”.\nNext we want to ensure that our Python code can be flashed onto the Micro:bit.", "1003" ], [ "In the Mu editor, click the New button to create a new Python file, and type the following simple code:\nfrom microbit import *\ndisplay.scroll(\"Hello, World!\")\nClick on the Flash button in the Mu editor. The yellow LED on the Micro:bit should start flashing to indicate that a file operation is occurring. When it finishes, your Micro:bit should scroll “Hello, World!” on its 5x5 LED display.\nStep 2: Installing the OLED Python Libraries\nTo have the Micro:bit send instructions to the OLED display, we need to install some Python libraries on our Micro:bit. The Mu editor makes this really easy.\nFirst, find your home directory for Mu.\nSecond, copy all the Python files (all files with the .py extension) from fizban’s Github repository, and place the copies in your Mu home directory.\nIn the Mu editor, click on the Files button. This will open two panes at the bottom of the editor. On the left are the files on the Micro:bit—you might have one or more, depending on what you’ve done previously with your Micro:bit. On the right are the .py files in your home directory. You should see the ssd1306 files which you’ve copied from fizban’s repository.\nNext, simply drag and drop the following three files from the right pane (your home directory) to the left pane (the Micro:bit), which installs these libraries on the Micro:bit.\n* ssd1306.py\n* ssd1306_px.py\n* ssd1306_text.py\nFor this project, we only need those three files. Yet keep them all available in your home directory, as you can use them for other projects using the OLED display.\nClick the Files button again to remove the bottom panes, and to make the Flash button available again.", "991" ], [ "Using the Kitronik Inventor's Kit With the Adafruit CLUE\nIntroduction: Using the Kitronik Inventor's Kit With the Adafruit CLUE\nThe Kitronik Inventor's Kit for the BBC micro:bit is a great introduction to microcontrollers with electronics using a breadboard. This version of the kit is designed for use with the inexpensive BBC micro:bit. The detailed tutorial book which comes with the kit includes MakeCode examples using Blocks and JavaScript equivalent code for the last few projects. This is more suitable for beginners and young children than C/C++ required for Arduino-style programming. Kitronik also provide MicroPython versions of the code on their web site under the Inventors Kit Additional Free Resources section.\nThe Adafruit CLUE is a more advanced derivative of the micro:bit with a faster processor, full colour 240x240 LCD screen, a compatible edge connector, more sensors and a tiny onboard speaker. The edge connector compatibility is an important feature and allows this board to be used with many existing products like the Inventor's Kit. The CLUE currently supports Arduino-style programming and CircuitPython.", "1003" ], [ "CircuitPython is a derivative of MicroPython - it's very similar but has a few differences, particularly around the libraries.\nThis project shows how to use CircuitPython libraries on the CLUE to emulate the micro:bit's microbit and music libraries. This allows the MicroPython code to run as-is for the ten projects in the Inventor's Kit and the two extra projects from the website. The CLUE could also be used by re-writing all the code in CircuitPython but this pair of libraries offers an immediate way to get started with the kit.\nAn enhanced display mode offers additional visualisation of the pins (pads) as they are read from or written to. This shows clearly how inputs and outputs are used which may enhance the learning experience.\nNote: there is a different version of the kit available for the Arduino Uno or Maker Uno Plus: Kitronik Inventor's Kit for the Arduino.\nSupplies\n* Kitronik Inventor's Kit for the BBC micro:bit\n* Adafruit CLUE\nStep 1: Installing the CircuitPython Libraries\nIf the CLUE board does not already have CircuitPython on it then follow these instructions and a CIRCUITPY drive should appear. The version can be confirmed by inspecting the boot_out.txt file or connecting to REPL via the serial console over USB.\nThe following libraries need to be downloaded (right click and Save link as...) and placed in the lib directory on the CIRCUITPY drive.\n* microbit.py\n* music.py\n* display_pin.py\nThe display_pin library is a dependency of the microbit library. The adafruit_display_text library is a dependency of the microbit and display_pin libraries and can be extracted from Adafruit's library bundle.\n* Adafruit CircuitPython Library bundles - download this for adafruit_display_text library - the image above shows some other useful libraries which are needed if you want to use accelerometer, compass and display.read_light_level().\nThe following program can be downloaded to demonstrate some of the visualisation capabilities.\n* microbitlibemu_simpletest.py\nThis needs to be placed in the top-level directory in CIRCUITPY and renamed to code.py.\nStep 2: Connecting the Components\nThe aforementioned sample code is designed to be used with components connected to the micro:bit/CLUE as per Kitronik's Experiment 3. Kitronik's booklet shows how to connect these.\nThis is a summary of the components and connectivity.\n* pin0 - a push button switch which connects the input to ground.\n* pin1 - a 10k linear potentiometer.\n* pin2 - a red LED with a 47k resistor in series.\n* pin4 - a piezo speaker (this is not part of the original experiment but is useful to test the music library).\nStep 3: Dimming an LED Using Pulse-Width Modulation\nThe CLUE program has been interrupted prior to the video using REPL via the serial console over USB. Control-D is pressed to exit REPL and start the code.py program.\nThe libraries are loaded first in the program:\nfrom microbit import *\nimport music\nThen \"microbit\" is displayed by scrolling in text view mode, followed by \"library\" in basic view mode (currently a bit sluggish), then \"emulation on CLUE\" in enhanced mode.\ndisplay.mode = \"text\"\ndisplay.scroll(\"microbit\")\ndisplay.mode = \"basic\"\ndisplay.scroll(\"library\")\ndisplay.mode = \"enhanced\"\ndisplay.scroll(\"emulation on CLUE\")\ndisplay.", "1003" ], [ "Halloween Spooky Ghost With BBC Micro:bit on Cytron EDU:BIT\nIntroduction: Halloween Spooky Ghost With BBC Micro:bit on Cytron EDU:BIT\nThis article shows how to use the Cytron EDU:BIT and its BBC micro:bit to make a fun Hallowe'en scene. A MicroPython program\n* controls the servo to animate the scene,\n* illuminates it with the RGB Bit (an array of four RGB pixels),\n* makes the eyes glow using two of the micro:bit's LEDs,\n* all while playing sound samples on the micro:bit using the Music Bit for output.\nThe IR bit, a proximity sensor, is used to start the animation sequence. The Music Bit has a small 7.5mm speaker but it also has a 3.5mm socket for audio output which routes the micro:bit P0 pad to both the left and right channels. This is useful to plug into amplified speakers.\nThe micro:bit V1 is used here but the V2 also works very well with the EDU:BIT.\nThe EDU:BIT is an excellent kit designed for young children to introduce them to block-based MakeCode programming and physical computing. If you don't have an EDU:BIT the Halloween scene could also be made with a micro:bit V2, an RGB pixel stick and a 3.3V compatible micro-servo and a distance sensor. The power limit of the micro:bit V1's 3.3V output means it's not suitable for directly powering four RGB pixels and a servo together.\nI backed the original Kickstarter campaign for five EDU:BITs as they made great Christmas gifts. The board in this article is a sample Cytron kindly sent to me to let me test compatibility and usability with the Adafruit CLUE - it's identical to the current production version.\nThe audio samples are excerpts from two clips on freesound.org:\n* Rollo145's Door Creaking.\n* Hilton Productions' Scary Laugh.\nSupplies\n* Cytron EDU:BIT - PiHut | Digi-Key - there are two versions of the kit, one with and one without micro:bit.\n* BBC micro:bit - PiHut | Adafruit\n* Art and craft material for building your Halloween scene.\nStep 1: Detaching the Bits From the EDU:BIT\nThe video above shows how to snap off the bits from a new EDU:BIT.\nAfter removing the bits take three grove cables and attach the Music Bit, IR Bit and RGB Bit to the board in their original positions.", "1003" ], [ "The servo connects on the top right block of pins at position 1 with\n* yellow to S,\n* orange to +,\n* brown to -.\nThe EDU:BIT has a dedicated controller for up to three servos using 5V power. This avoids the need to find servos that are compatible with 3.3V control signal and power.\nStep 2: Install Code and Audio Files Onto the Micro:bit\nFor a browser with WebUSB support like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge:\n1. Download the files from GitHub:\n1. Click on Raw button on edubit-halloween.py and use Save as in browser to download the file.\n2. Click on doorcreak4.raw, laugh1a.raw and laugh1b.raw in audio directory, click on Raw on each to download the file.\n* Connect the micro:bit to the computer using a USB cable (not a charge-only one!).\n* Go to the micro:bit online editor in a browser: https://python.microbit.org/\n* Click on Connect, the micro:bit should appear as an entry called BBC micro:bit CMSIS-DAP - select that and click on connect.\n* Click on Load/Save and then load the edubit-halloween.py file in the top section of the pop-up.\n* Under Project Files at the bottom of the pop-up, click on Show Files (1) to expand the list. Click on Add file at the bottom to add each of the three raw audio files.\n* Click on the cross at the top right of the pop-up to close it.\n* Click on Flash - this will download all four files to the (connected) micro:bit and start the program.\nThe useful connection functionality in the online editor depends on WebUSB and having recent firmware on the micro:bit. If you are using a different browser or this does not work then you can use the online editor's save function to save a hex file onto the MICROBIT drive.\nThis is worth testing before you assemble the scene to ensure everything works properly and to set provisional values for the angles for door open and door closed.", "991" ], [ "Micro:bit Based Neck Stretching Game With Meowbit BLE\nIntroduction: Micro:bit Based Neck Stretching Game With Meowbit BLE\nSitting in front of the computer all day is exhausting, so we decided to make a game with Micro:bit and Meowbit to stretch our necks and relax. Meowbit can communicate with Micro:bit through the wireless SD BLE module, so we made an interactive game based on this feature.\nAll the things we used are listed below, and the code for this project is also provided in this article, so let's give it a go!\nIf you like our projects and tutorials, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube for more interesting STEM projects and ideas.\nSupplies\nElectronics:\n1 × Meowbit Game Console\n1 × Micro:bit V2\n1 × Wireless SD BLE Module\n1 × Hook-and-loop fastener\n1 × Lithium battery 400mAh\n1 × battery holder\n2 × AAA battery\n1 × Micro:bit silicone case\nYou may also need some bobby pins.\nOnline Service:\nMicrosoft MakeCode\nMakeCode Arcade\nStep 1: Design\nOur idea is to make a game on MakeCode Arcade, and then write another program with MakeCode to control the sprite in the game.\nThe protagonist - the puppy has to eat the bones dropping from the sky in 25 seconds.\nAnd by tilting Micro:bit to the right or left, the puppy would move correspondingly in Meowbit.\nMicro:bit collects its gesture and controls the puppy sprite on Meowbit through the 2.4G wireless communication control.\nStep 2: The Program of Micro:bit on MakeCode\nThe program is simple: set a radio group 1, by evaluating whether Micro:bit is leaning to the left or right, it sends different wireless signals.\nYou can also open the program directly on MakeCode here\nThen download it to your Micro:bit.\nStep 3: The Program of Meowbit on MakeCode Arcade\nSet a radio group 1. When receiving the radio signal from Micro:bit, it controls the sprite (the puppy) to move to the left or right.\nOr you can open the program directly on MakeCode Arcade here\nWhen you open the link of this program directly, you may find that the box of the Set Radio Group is blank, then please delete the block, and then drag a new one from the Sdwireless section and change the number 0 into 1.\nWhen you finish your program, download it to your Meowbit.\nStep 4: What Should I Do With the Error Report\nIf you see an error report when opening the MakeCode Arcade program and the simulator is not working, it is because MakeCode Arcade currently doesn't support the SD wireless BLE module perfectly. We can just ignore it, because it works at last when downloaded to the game console (Meowbit).\nStep 5: Turn on the SD BLE Module\nRemember to insert the SD module into Meowbit and switch it to the green light mode (2.4G)\nStep 6: Power Micro:bit and Meowbit With Batteries\nConnect Micro:bit to the battery holder holding two AAA batteries.\nConnect Meowbit to the 4000 mAh lithium battery.\nStep 7: Tips - Fix Micro:bit on the Hook-and-loop Fastener\nNow you see why we put a silicone case on Micro:bit, because it's easier to fix Micro:bit on the hook-and-loop fastener with some bobby pins in this way.\nStep 8: Done! Test It Out\nTie the Micro:nbit and battery on your head and see how it works ^^\nTest it out and enjoy your work!", "391" ], [ "Micro:bit Puppet Snack Stand\nIntroduction: Micro:bit Puppet Snack Stand\nYou will be dubbing this little hedgehog to sell some snacks to passengers!\nIt's a project you can make with your kids or your students to have fun together or even make several puppets to put on a show.\nIf you like our projects and tutorials, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube for more interesting STEM projects and ideas.\nSupplies\nHardware:\n* cardboards\n* printed papers with patterns\n* LEGO bricks\n* Geekservo 2KG * 3\n* Robotbit Edu\n* 18650 battery\n* micro:bit V2\n* puppet\nSoftware：\n* MakeCode\nTools:\n* utility knife\n* scissors\n* ruler\n* pencil\n* double-sided tape\n* 3m tape\nStep 1: Overview\nThe puppet needs to be in the center of the stand, and when it spread its hands, it should not be interfered with by the stand. The mouth and the hands are driven by servos; the stand is made by cardboards; and the decoration of the stand are papers with patterns pasted on the cardboard and some LEGO bricks.\nStep 2: Decide the Size of the Stand\nWe should decide the size of the stand based on the size of our puppet.\nSince we are going to make the puppet sit down, it will be about 20 cm tall when it sits, and the length of its hands may be around 6cm, so the size of the stand will be 28.5*28.5*12cm.\nStep 3: Parts of the Stand\nNow we start to draw all the parts we need on the cardboard.\nStep 4: Cut It Out\nAfter finishing the drawing, we cut out all the parts of the stand.\nStep 5: Assemble the Stand\nStart to assemble the stand!\nStep 6: Preparation Before Installing Servos\nThe servo cannot turn all the way to its extremity because it is limited by the complicated structure of the puppet. If the servo goes beyond the limit, the servo will be blocked, and it may be burned.\nStep 7: Design the Lego Structure Inside the Puppet\nWe have thorough assembly instructions here.\nFirst, we put the servo in the hedgehog's mouth. Because the upper jaw of the mouth can move more than the lower jaw, we fix the lower jaw and then control the opening and closing of the upper jaw.\nThe servo that drives the hands needs to be put in the joint of the hand and the body because the hands should move in a circle with the joint point as its center.\nMost importantly, the servo between the head and the hands must be fixed, so we need a skeleton to fix these three structures together.\nFinally, let's add the base to the puppet.\nStep 8: Difficult Part of Assembling Everything\nThe servo installation of the mouth and the hands are a little bit tricky because we have to rely on our hands instead of our eyes to feel whether the servo is installed correctly, and the assembling of the skeleton will be done within the body of the puppet.\nStep 9: Decorate Your Stand!\nChoose a pattern you like, and then print it out to paste on the board.\nBuild some decorations with the LEGO bricks you have and stick them to the stand with the 3M tape.\nStep 10: Download the Code\nThe programming of this project is not hard, you can even improve the program if you want to!\nClick here to download the program.\nNow you can give it a go!\nSpeak to the micro:bit and see what would happen to the puppet.", "141" ], [ "Rock Paper Scissors - Micro:bit\nIntroduction: Rock Paper Scissors - Micro:bit\nThe goal of this project is to implement a game of Rock Paper Scissors between two Micro:bits.\nSupplies\n* Two Micro:Bits and accompanying wires (Optional)\n* Internet access\nStep 1: Creating Images\nThe first step to creating Rock Paper Scissors is to create the images that will be displayed during the game.\nStep 2: Hand Selection\nThe next step is to allow the user to choose which option they want to use. We can do this by cycling through the possible options using the A button. As button A is pressed, we need to keep track of which image needs to be shown. This can be done using a variable we will name next_image. next_image starts off a 0 but increments modulo 5 each time button A is pressed. The current hand selection is represented by the me variable.\nStep 3: Sending the Selection\nThe next step is to send the selection we have just made to the other micro:bit. To ensure that this is only sent once per round, we can change the selected variable to true. As this is only reset to false when the game is started again, the value can only be sent once.\nStep 4: Receiving the Selection\nNext, we need to receive the opponent's hand selection over the radio. To indicate that this value has been received, we set the received variable to true.", "149" ], [ "This value is reset to false each time the game is played.\nStep 5: Playing the Game\nThis step is the most important, as it defines Rock, Paper, Scissors. Once both selected and received are set to true, we know that we are ready to start the logic section. It works by first displaying what selection we received from the opponent. If this value is equivalent to the value we selected, we display a surprised face to indicate a tie.\nThen we check if our value is the corresponding \"winning\" value compared to the opponent's value. If this is the case, we display a happy face. If this is not the case, it means that we have lost, and we display a sad face accordingly.\nStep 6: Resetting the Game\nAt the beginning of the game and when the game is played, all the necessary variables need to be returned to their correct beginning states. This can be done with an init function that resets the selected, received, next_image and me variables. It also shows a waiting image to inform the user of the games current state.\nStep 7: Completion\nAnd we're done! That's all you need to do to implement Rock Paper Scissors onto two Micro:bits. Although please be mindful that the program can occasionally get stuck in a certain state due to packet loss while transmitting. This can be easily fixed with a hard reset of the game.", "149" ], [ "Micor:bit Environment Monitoring and Temperature-controlled Motor Fan\nIntroduction: Micor:bit Environment Monitoring and Temperature-controlled Motor Fan\nResult\nThe current moisture, temperature, air pressure and the altitude are displaying on the OLED screen. If the detected temperature is no less than 30℃, the motor starts driving the fan for cooling, or it stops driving to save the energy.\nSupplies\n* micro:bit x 1\n* Nezha extension board x 1\n* Planet X – BME280 Sensor x 1\n* Planet X-OLED Display x 1\n* Planet X -Motor Fan x 1\n* 16*32 Baseboard x 1\n* 2*3 Bricks x 12\n* RJ11 Wires x 3\nStep 1: ​Hardware Connections\nInsert the micro:bit to Nezha extension board and connect BME280 and OLED display to IIC port on Nezha board with the RJ11 connectors, and then connect the Motor fan to J1 port.(You can see the color of the connection is the same with the equivalent port in the sensor you connect.)\nStep 2: Bricks Building Up\nConnect 2*3 bricks on the 16*32 baseboard as the picture shows.(Note: There are six bricks used in the right upper side)\nConnect the devices on the baseboard through 2*3 bricks we just connected as the picture shows.\nStep 3: Software Programming\nGo to MakeCode page:（https://makecode.microbit.org/#editor）\nAdd the Planet X entension and click extension on the menu of the settings.\nStep 4: Search With “PlanetX”in the Dialogue Box to Add the Package.\nGo to the coding page to edit the program.\nProgramme to show an icon while on start. In forever brick, programme to let the OLED display Hello,ELECFREAKS.", "832" ], [ "Display the temperature on the third line on the OLED display. Here we need to use the text brick in the MakeCode to show the text info and the detected value from BME280.\nStep 5: Now We Program in a Similar to To Display the Moisture, the Air Pressure and the Altitude on the Fourth, the Fifth and the Sixth Line on the OLED Screen.\nHere comes to the part of making the motor fan controlled by the temperature. We use BME280 module to detect if the current temperature is no less than 30.\nIf the temperature is over 30℃, the motor fan drives to cool the environment, if it is below 30℃, the motor stops driving to save energy. (You can see the color of the connection is the same with the equivalent port in the sensor you connect.)\nLink: https://makecode.microbit.org/_g2hXKLhHpEe9", "832" ], [ "Microbit Talking Robot\nIntroduction: Microbit Talking Robot\nAs we know, Tinkercad introduces a new feature in the Tinkercad circuit, which is Microbit. We can make a virtual prototype in making things related to Microbit, and even can do a simulation. We can save lots of money to build an experiment without having to damage our electronic components. Moreover, we can add some codes to bring the experiment to work.\nUnfortunately, after reading Tinkercad's blog, this launch has a drawback. When exporting the code, Tinkercad only transfers it into JavaScript language. You need to change the code by using a third-party like Microsoft Makecode, for it requires a hex file to work directly in Microbit.\nInitially, I made a simulation in Tinkercad to build and explore this experiment. Turnout, my simulation is not like I expected. My next step is I prepared the code using Microsoft Makecode, for I will use continuous servos instead of micro servos, which Tinkercad only provided micro servos in the circuit.\nI decided to make a robot using Microbit as its brain. To make the robot more pleasant and challenging, I added some motions using servo motors, LEDs, images, and talking features.\nFor those who do not work yet with Microbit, please read the overview guide of Microbit in this link.\nFor downloading the enclosure, click Cults3D.\nI also attached the Microbit HEX Files.\nSupplies\nMaterials you will need:\nTinkercad\nMicrobit\nMicrosoft Makecode and Python Editor\n3D printer\nPLA filament (Metal, blue, yellow, red, wood, and green)\nSpeaker\nAlligator clip\nElectrical wires\nJumper wires\nElectrical tape\nHot glue\nMakita Drill\nDremel rotary tool\nCutting Pliers\nSolder iron\nSolder\n2 LEDs\n4 Batteries of AA + holder\n2 Batteries of AAA + holder\nStep 1: Make Simulation in Tinkercad\nBefore we make a prototype, it is crucial to make a simulation in Tinkercad. By doing this simulation, we can play around with the electronic circuit, so we become aware and understand whether we make a mistake in our circuit or not. As I mentioned previously, Tinkercad only has micro servos in its library, while I would like to use continuous servos (because I have enough continuous servos in my inventory instead of micro servos).", "134" ], [ "How to solve this problem? Well, I had to use another alternative, which is making the block code in another third party, such as Microsoft Makecode.\nAt least, Tinkercad helps a lot in my simulation. Here I screenshot my electronic circuit. Actually, Microbit requires a maximum of 3V (two batteries of AAA) as its power source. But to operate two servos, it needs an additional four batteries of AA (6V). Otherwise, the servos would not propel.\nStep 2: The Servos\nIn this project, I used two continuous servos to rotate the hands.\nThe servo has three lines, which are signal lines (orange-1), electric power line positive (red-2), and negative/ground line (black-3).\n* Signal lines, which are represented as blue and green wires in the circuit diagram above, in servos connected to pin 1 and 2 in Microbit, respectively.\n* The positive line in both servos should connect to the positive pole of the battery, and so the negative line (ground) should connect to the negative pole of the battery.\n* Both servos connect to the ground (GND) in Microbit, and only one servo connects to the negative pole of the battery as well.\nStep 3: The LEDs\nI used two LEDs for my robot, which I used white LEDs. These LEDs are utilized for the eyes of the robot. Therefore, I connect the positive legs of the first LED to pin 1 in Microbit and the second LED to pin 2 in Microbit. The first LED is supposed to be for the left eye and the second one is for the right eye. Both negative legs of the LEDs are connected to the ground (GND) in Microbit.\nStep 4: The Speaker\nConnect the speaker to the Microbit as follows:\n· Positive wire connects to Pin 0 in Microbit\n· Negative wire connects to Pin GND in Microbit\nStep 5: The Code\nI made the block code in Microsoft Makecode. The code should be like in the image. Also, I shared my code. Here is the link.\nIn this code, if we press button A, it will show some images first and then, turn on the LED for the left eye, and rotate the left hand.", "854" ] ]

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[ [ "Photo credit: <PERSON>\nDeep Sea Adventure\nA game 2-6 players designed by <PERSON>.\n\"Think I had a wet dream\nCruisin' through the Gulf Stream\nOooh-ooh-ooh-ooh\nWet dream...\"\n― chorus of <PERSON> pun filled song Wet Dream\nIntroduction\nIf you've frequented the BGG store, you'll have seen that they offer games by publisher Oink Games. Small Japanese company offering small box games, about the size of a cigarette pack (back when everyone knew what that meant).\nI first gave the game a spin at BGG Con 2015, and really liked it, but balked at the price tag. Then I saw it on Amazon.ca for $29.01, meaning free shipping and no concerns about the exchange rate, so I said what the heck.\nDeep Sea Adventure is a small game, but as they say, good things come in small packages.\nComponents\nThe game comes in a tiny box, and inside there are 32 treasure tiles, 16 X marks the spot tiles, 2 six dice that are have 1-3 twice (i.e. a pair of d3), a sub tile, six diver meeples, and a marker for the air. Oh, and rules.\nAll in a small box.\nRules and Gameplay\nSo what kind of game do you get in this magnificent little box?\nA relatively simple one. The layout is simple. The tiles have a number of dots (bubbles) on them, and you lay them out any way you please in a long chain with the one dots nearest the sub, and the four dots at the end.\nPhoto credit: <PERSON>\nGoing down is easy\nDecide who's going first (I've been using free app Chwasi of late) and then roll the pair of d3 and head down. Once you get to your destination, you can choose to pick up the treasure there, drop a treasure you're carrying, or simply enjoy the space. If you take the treasure there, replace it with an X tile and stand on it. No peeking at the treasure tile until you're back aboard. If you happen to pass a space someone's already in, pretend it isn't there, don't count it, and wave as you pass. As the game progresses, at some point you're going to decide you want to go back up.\nComing up for air\nOnce you've decided you have all the treasure you can carry, you're going to want to head up. You can only change direction once, so you're committed. If you forget to declare you're heading back, you continue heading down. Now, treasure is nice, but it's heavy. So for every piece of treasure you're carrying, you subtract one from the die roll. The 2d3.", "470" ], [ "The 2-6 result with an expected roll of 3.5. If you're lucky, you'll make it back aboard before the sub runs out of air. If you're not, you'll have two pieces of treasure and roll a 2, going... nowhere.\nBreathe\nAir is the catch in this game. If you're empty handed, you're not using any air. But the air on the sub is shared by all players, and if you're carrying treasure, every piece carried uses up one unit of air. You're not allowed back onto the sub without treasure. And if the air runs out before you get back aboard, the treasure you were carrying sinks to the bottom of the ocean.\nAnd you? You drown.\nFor those who made it back to the sub, you keep the treasure tokens and get to look at how many points you've earned. The treasures that sink to the bottom end up in piles of three. Ah, but... those stacks only count as one treasure for air and movement purposes. There's some incentive to try and get them.\nThe X markers are removed, the game is reset, and you do this for a total of three rounds. High score wins.\nConclusions\nThis game is built for people who love push your luck games with a soupçon of strategy, a hint of strategy, and the hilarity of watching first time players take one roll too many and drown.\nThis game is fun and decently strategic with two. It's a complete riot with five. With six it's every diver for themselves. Everyone is watching everyone else, waiting for the first treasure laden diver to reverse course and the mad scramble to return to the sub before the air runs out begins.\nThe game has some built in limitations. The probability of rolling any given value is easy to calculate. If you've got six players and everyone has a treasure, you know there aren't many rounds to go before the air runs out.", "629" ], [ "Introduction\n\"The scientist who can genetically engineer and clone a group of lemmings that will most consistently win a race that culminates with the lemmings hurling themselves over a cliff, in violation of natural law but in keeping with the urban myth, will win the bet.\" - Introduction to the rules.\nHow can you beat that for an introduction? Leaping Lemmings is a race game where you are trying to get as many of your 10 lemmings over the cliff while scoring as many style points as possible. This hilarious premise is helped along by two hungry eagles, conniving players, special action cards and the all important feed pellets.\nThe game is for 2-6 players and takes about 10-15 minutes per player.\nComponents\nThe game comes in a standard GMT sized box, but what a box! It's one of the sturdiest boxes they've put out, reminiscent of the recent deluxe edition of Twilight Struggle.\nHats off to GMT for the beautiful linen finish mounted board, as well as the immensely sturdy cards for the movement, clan and special action decks.\nThe counters are very cute. They're nice thick and sturdy, as good as you'll find in any Euro game. As an added bonus, each lemming counter has a different name depending which side is face up. This allows you to \"customize\" your team each game.\nFinally, there are two custom eagle dice, one in red for <PERSON> and one in blue for Stephen Jr. Eagles are your friend! As long as they're not eating your lemmings of course.\nRules\nThe game is played on a race track that's 15 hexes long and about 5 hexes wide and ending in a cliff edge where your lemmings will leap off making \"woohoo!\" noises. We have a house rule that you need to make a gleeful noise when your lemmings leap.\nThe map is split into several areas. The first two columns of hexes are \"safe\", the next group of hexes has six red eagle \"zones\" (A-F) which mark Ruby's territory, and the final part of the map has six blue eagle \"zones\" (A-F) for <PERSON> hunting grounds. Because they're such good friends, they share a nice column in the middle also known as the dreaded Line of Bones. The centre of each zone has a conveniently safe sanctuary which isn't part of any of the zones.\nThere are six lemming clans. Each scientist selects the clan of their choice (I.Q., Biker, Soldier, Hippie, <PERSON> or <PERSON>) and takes the clan card and the 10 lemmings belonging to that clan. The 10 lemmings are placed in the start area.\nEach scientist is dealt 2-4 special action cards depending on the number of clans participating in the race. Special actions are discussed below.\nThe two eagles start in their respective zone A, and await the lemming buffet. The eagle counters have two sides - hunting (wings) and eating (holding a knife and fork - the eagles are genetically engineered too!).\nFinally, the 16 feed pellet spaces are seeded with pellet counters, which have either a 1 or 2 printed on them, or the word \"favor\".", "336" ], [ "The numbers are victory points you'll collect at the end of the game, while the favors can be cashed in during your turn for various things.\nFour player set up. The clans are good to go!\nThere is a 33 card movement deck, with cards numbered from 2 to 5. One of the cards has the words \"Game Over\" on it. The latter is shuffled into the bottom six cards of the movement deck, so nobody knows how soon the game will end. It could be as soon as 26 cards, or as late as the full 32.\nThere are also two eagle dice.\nEach die has two 1's, two 2's, one 3 and one \"hover\". If the value is a number, then the scientist moves that eagle the number of zones indicated either clockwise or counterclockwise - their choice! If the result is hover, then the eagle stays where they are.\nThe rules are nice and easy, and the game flows as follows. First there's the eagle phase.\n1. the scientist currently in possession of the eagle dice rolls and resolves the eagles.\n2. the scientist then resolves any feasting and scattering for each eagle.\n3. the scientist resolves any hover results.\n4. the top card of the movement deck is revealed.\nThen we get into the lemming phase. Beginning with the one holding the eagle dice each scientist will\n1. exchange favor pellets if they wish\n2. play one special action card if they wish\n3.", "597" ], [ "Around the World in 80 Days\nA game for 2-6 players by <PERSON>.\nSir <PERSON>: One thousand pounds for an elephant? It's outrageous! You've been diddled.\n<PERSON>: Undoubtedly. But it's not often one needs an elephant in a hurry.\n― From the 1956 movie, 80 Days Around the World, starring <PERSON> as <PERSON>\nIntroduction\nAround the World in 80 Days, or if you prefer, Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours is one of <PERSON> best known works. In it, wealthy gentleman <PERSON> accepts a bet that he can travel around the world in 80 days. He sets out with his trusted butler, amusingly named <PERSON>. An overzealous Scotland Yard detective named <PERSON> spots <PERSON> en route, and thinking he matches the description of a man who robbed the Bank of England, sets off in pursuit. Hilarity ensues.\nThis premise is translated beautifully in one of the most vicious little racing games it's been my pleasure to play. I acquired it in a trade almost exactly five years ago, partly because I was interested in the theme, and partly because the nice guy I got it from had made a set of laminated event cards in French, making it an attractive proposition to play with my family. My daughter was still little at the time, so I put this on the shelf and didn't think much about it until recently.\nI'm now kicking myself because I could have been playing this a lot!\nPlease note that all games photos are used from the BGG gallery. Images of the 1954 movie linked from IMDB.\nThe Components\nThe game features a nice small board with the ten cities players need to visit on their race around the world. The map is both attractive and highly functional, with the graphics being very clean and clear.\nPhoto: <PERSON>\nThe components include figures for each player, time markers to show how much time each player has spent so far, cards to allow movement, money which has several uses, an attractive die, reward markers for the first and last person to each city, and a deck of random event cards.\nPhoto: <PERSON>\nThe components are, like the map, nice and easy on the eyes and serve their functions well.\nGame Play\nThe game begins with each player in London, discussing the latest news from around the world and betting that they can be fastest around the world! Now, ok, this varies from the book in that only <PERSON> went on the journey, but nonetheless, this is a game, and games need to take a few liberties to make it interesting for everyone.", "92" ], [ "Otherwise we'd just be sitting around watching someone play a solo game.\nYou start the game with some travel cards, and these will be either trains or ships, and will have a number on them. The number on the card represents how many days it will take to travel using that particular train or ship. More on that in a moment.\nEveryone begins in London, and the race is ten cities long. The path, starting from London is to\nParis, via train and ship, then\nBrindisi, via train, then\nSuez, via ship, then\nBombay, via two ships, then\nCalcutta, via elephant. WHAT? Hang, on, I'll explain in a moment. Then\nHonshu, via two trains, then\nYokohama, via either two ships, OR a train and a ship, then\nSan Francisco, via two ships, then\nNew York, via two trains, and last but not least,\nLondon, via two ships and a train.\nWHEW!\nOk, so let's parse this out. Ten cities, eighty days, an average of eight days per leg, and ideally less than that. You're going to also need seventeen travel cards and a minimum of nine will be ships and seven trains.\nBUT WAIT!\nThere are also balloons.\nIf your head hasn't exploded yet, then let's go back to the beginning. You're in London, and you know that you have to go around the world in a certain order, and you want to make it as quickly as you can.\nYou know you need certain kinds of cards to succeed, and so planning is going to be essential. However, I will warn you now that there is luck, both the luck of the draw from the card deck, and the kind of dumb luck some people just can't handle where the die will screw you over, on purpose, because that's what dice do.\nIf you can't handle a bit of dumb luck in your game, the proliferation of games where you have to convert goods into refined goods to manufactured goods that convert into victory points are for you.", "755" ], [ "Bitskrieg\nA game for 2 players by <PERSON> and <PERSON>\nPublished by Hollandspiele\n\"Two adults who want to play Bitskrieg should play with all the fixin's from the get go.\"\n<PERSON> first thing you might notice about Bitskrieg is that it shares an iconic look with a famous Avalon Hill game about tank warfare from 1970, a game that sold over 300,000 copies.\nHollandspiele, a small publisher that takes pride in not only having a modern retro chic to the art of its game covers also publishes what some might call quirky titles that have a specific niche.\n<PERSON> developed a introductory war game with his son, and the result is this charming title that should have a broad appeal to many.\nThe Game\nThe game is played on an 8x8 grid of squares, and the inner 6x6 grid has pairs of dice showing the coordinates of those squares. At the beginning, six obstacle spaces are randomly placed by rolling a pair of dice. Those obstacles block tank traffic and travel. Then one player selects which axis the board will be played on and the other chooses the end they want to have. Statistically, the most likely outcome is one side will have four obstacles in its half.\nEach side then places the five tanks it has chosen (from the available mix) and places them on the board (including a specific direction they're facing) and their two flags.\nA sample set up\nThe objective is to capture both your opponent's flags, although you can also win by eliminating all your opponent's units.\nOn your turn you take one of four actions - move (one tank), fire (one tank), flip (all finished tanks), or rebuild (replace one destroyed tank, max 2x per game).\nThat is it. Despite this simple action set, there is a lot to consider.", "597" ], [ "Do you want to move every tank you have before you reset them? Or flipping back early necessary to make sure you can shoot at a target that is in reach of your flag? Should you take a chance on shooting now when the range is so far away, or do something else this turn?\nA game in progress\nThere are several kinds of tanks (light, medium, heavy, and tank destroyers). There are optional rules to add elements to the game as needed or desired, including bounding fire (move and shoot), and different obstacle effects (in the base game, obstacles are simply impassable to both movement and fire).\nThe art of the game pieces remind me a lot of the MetaGaming Microgame , and the game play makes me think of classic games like that just aren't really around anymore.\nConclusions\nBack in 1913, <PERSON>, famous for his science fiction stories like War of the Worlds, released a set of game rules for , subtitled \"a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books.\"\nImagine you're wargamer and your kid wants to play too. And heck, you'd like nothing better than a handy opponent. Where can you turn? Well, fewer places than one might think.\nFor instance, take my daughter, who took great delight in smashing me at Ogre when it first arrived in the house (and she now plays Gloomhaven, among many others).\nBut had <PERSON> been around when she was little, well, this would have been an obvious game to turn to.\nIf you have a younger kid in your life (niece, nephew, daughter, son, kid of a friend), and you like this kind of game and want something they can play too, I can heartily recommend this title.\nThank you for reading this latest installment of Roger's Reviews. I've been an avid board gamer all my life and a wargamer for over thirty years. I have a strong preference for well designed games that allow players to focus on trying to make good decisions.\nAmong my favourites I include , the , , , , and .\nYou can subscribe to my reviews at this geeklist: and I also encourage you to purchase this very stylish microbadge:", "118" ], [ "Circus Train\nA game for 1-5 players designed by <PERSON>\n“Why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?”\n― <PERSON>, Water for Elephants\nIntroduction\nI've been a gamer, in the sense we like to think of it on BGG, ever since I was introduced to Ogre thirty odd years ago. At the time, Ogre was published by a really innovative game company called MetaGaming, and they made a whole bunch of games that had as their basis some really interesting ideas. Some of them were hits and some were flops, but nobody could ever say they weren't original.\nOver the decades, there always seems to be at least one company that has kept up that tradition of being the company making that kind of game, and at the moment, Victory Point Games fill that niche for me. My favourites from them include Nemo's War and Moonbase Alpha (both of which I've previously reviewed) and several of the games from their States of Siege series.\nOne thing I've always loved are games rich with theme, so it's probably no small surprise then that my favourite games have a rich thematic backdrop. <PERSON> novel Water for Elephants planted the seed of an idea and <PERSON> grew it into the brilliant game that is Circus Train.\nIn Circus Train, you are the owner operator of a prohibition era circus, trying to make a buck and outperform your opposition as you take your Greatest Show on Earth through the midwest and eastern US.\nComponents\nI originally became interested in Circus Train when GMT was planning to publish it through their P500 program, but when VPG bought their laser cutting table and upgraded their game production to their Gold Banner standard, they pulled it back in house and released it themselves. The tradeoff of waiting for the GMT treatment of the game vs. having the game in hand now is well worth it as the VPG Gold Banner level of components are very good indeed.\nThe game comes in the trademark bigger 9x12x1 box that VPG is now getting known for with the slipcase cover. I lucked out in a sense because VPG had left some copies that were destined for Origins behind at their office and made them available if you called in. I phoned in and thus got one of the \"convention exclusive\" editions, which comes with a little bonus acrylic circus tent that you can use as a start marker.\nThe game has a lot of bits, and the graphic designers and artists had a lot of fun making all the pieces different, and hey, with a laser cutting table, why not! The boxed edition comes with a mounted puzzle piece connected board, over 250 game pieces, a die, and 100 cards, plus a glossy full colour 20 page rulebook.", "118" ], [ "Not to mention the paper game map, included in the Gold Banner boxed edition in addition to the mounted board. This game has a lot of stuff and just fits in the box. I think this might well be the most ambitious game, component wise, that VPG has produced to date. The laser table is clearly being put to good and ambitious use! I've used a divided container to hold the player bits external to the box as it was quite packed with the mounted board and all the baggies I had the bits in, but everything will fit back in the box without having to take apart the stand up train markers.\nThe counters are gorgeously thick and sturdy, and with the shapes being different gives a tactile differentiation above and beyond what the graphics and colours do. The cards are thick and well laid out, but you will want to sleeve them, especially the player cards, as they are uncoated. I've put mine in penny sleeves since there is minimal shuffling required of the destination and random event decks, and you never need to shuffle the player cards.\nImage courtesy of VPG.\nThe board is very evocative of the era we're playing in, and there's room for everything on the map. Speaking of which, the map is really a lovely work of art and definitely helps to get players into the feel of the game. The deluxe edition comes with a mounted puzzle piece style map, and in my chats with VPG, every map is hand made because it's larger than their usual products and requires extra attention. The map depicts the northeast section of the US stretching from Omaha to Richmond and points north up to Winnipeg in the west and Montreal in the east.\nOn the whole, the quality level is most satisfactory.\nRules & Game Play\nIn Circus Train, the object at the end of the game is to have the most victory points. However, how you get there is rather open ended as there are multiple priorities you need to juggle in order to generate them.\nThe game is played over three distinct seasons - April-May, June-July, and August-September.", "336" ], [ "Sun of York\nA game for 2 players designed by <PERSON>, and published by GMT Games\n“Now is the winter of our discontent\nMade glorious summer by this son of <PERSON>;\nAnd all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house\nIn the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”\n― Richard The Third Act 1, scene 1, 1–4\nIntroduction\nThere was a time where collectible card games were a hot new thing. Magic the Gathering is still the complete king, nay, emperor, of that domain, but it also spawned not a few card games the include either a deck building or deck construction mechanic.\nI played a few of them. I tried and actually liked from Columbia, but as the ACW isn't a subject of great interest to me, it kind of came and went.\nI've always liked the idea of a card based wargame without a map having the forces and terrain deployed on a table top, and then resolving the action through the play of cards. There are lots of games in this general category. There's two series by Columbia, the aforementioned Dixie and their . can arguably be included. despite not being a card game has a similar idea of an abstracted terrain.\nSo how does the idea of an abstracted card version of the War of the Roses translate into game play? Let's find out.\nComponents, Rules, and Gameplay\nThe game comes with two deck of cards, one for the Lancastrians and one for the Yorkists.\nIt also comes with some dice, counters for marking specific kinds of information, the rules, and a pair of player aid cards.\nThe cards are nicely done and the information on them is nice and clear and easy to read.\nThe game includes 20 (!!) scenarios and a set of campaign rules for those who want to keep track of their progress (or lack thereof). There is also a nice simple rule for playing random scenarios.\nThe players set themselves up with a virtual field of play that has a left and right flank, and in the centre are three rows battle zones split into left, centre, and right.\nThis lovely custom playing mat from <PERSON> showcases it nicely:\nEach turn is split into four phases: morale checks, combat, movement, and a discard phase. To win the game, you need to capture the centre rear space of your opponent, or both the left and right rear positions.\nThe initial deployment has each player take out the leader and terrain cards specified from the scenario and into the spaces they're assigned to, and then draws 16 more cards from their remaining deck to be deployed as they see fit.", "92" ], [ "You then flip it all face up and have at it.\nThe rules are relatively straightforward and everything you need to know about moving, engaging, fighting, and flanking are all easily found and explained in the rulebook.\nConclusions\nSun of York was a game I really wanted to like, but ultimately it left me unsatisfied. The fault likes not with the game itself, but rather my likes and desires in a game. As I stated in the introduction, I like the idea of an abstracted card game of a battle, but the reality is that I really want to have a map with units and terrain.\nThe deck contains a random mix of units, terrain, and leaders. There are some special event cards that you can play as well. This means that no two scenarios will be alike, yes, but also means that you can get completely ahistorical results.\nI may be overly picky on this point. I'm no scholar of the War of the Roses, and I'm not going to be able to point expertly at how the way combat is resolved in this game is a poor simulation of how archers behaved in this era. However, I don't get a strong sense of time and place with this game, and I could just as easily be playing a generic card game with soldiers and archers and leaders.\nIt's clear then that my preference for having a map and units to help me conceptualize what's going on in front of me. And that's no indictment of Sun of York, it just doesn't make it a game for me.\nIf you like card games like this, and you like this era, it's a solid entry in the genre.\nThank you for reading this latest installment of Roger's Reviews. I've been an avid board gamer all my life and a wargamer for over thirty years. I have a strong preference for well designed games that allow players to focus on trying to make good decisions.\nAmong my favorites I include , the , the , , , , , and\nYou can subscribe to my reviews at this geeklist: and I also encourage you to purchase this very stylish microbadge:", "993" ], [ "Unhappy King Charles!\nA game for 2 players designed by <PERSON> B ook of R ULES\nIntended to be\nA T RUE and E XACT\nRelation of\nHis Majesties\nW ARRE upon\nthe C OMMONS\nThis work perfected by\n<PERSON>, London”\n— From the front page of the Unhappy King Charles! rule book.\nIntroduction\nI usually review newer games, but every once in a while I feel compelled to pull out one of my favourites from the shelf and give it a fresh look. This one is still in print and in stock at GMT, and I feel that it's somewhat of an under appreciated gem in the card driven game genre.\nThe English Civil War is a topic that hasn't seen a huge number of games, and that's a shame because it came during an interesting transitional period in warfare. You can play some of the specific battles from this conflict in the first of the Musket & Pike series, .\nUnhappy King Charles! is a strategic level card driven game that takes you through the English Civil War, either as the Royalists or those pesky upstart Parliamentarians. You'll need to be crafty, clever, and perhaps most importantly, quick as your armies seem to not want to stay around.\nComponents\nUnhappy King Charles comes with a paper map of England (and Wales and Scotland) with areas connected by point to point movement. There is a separate rulebook and playbook, a deck of 110 cards divided into early, mid, and late war, player aid cards for both sides, and two sheets of counters.\nI have added two packs of bingo chips in blue and orange to my copy to place on towns rather than the included markers because my knowledge of British place names is limited to the major cities most people will be familiar with. The bingo markers let me read the city names more easily.\nPhoto credit: <PERSON>If I had the opportunity I'd get the map printed on canvas. It's one of the lovelier ones among the wargames in my collection. The cards, although completely fine, are on the thin side - not quite as thick as the ones that came with the first run of Combat Commander: Mediterranean for instance. However, they have a nice linen finish to them and have held up well for me over the years.\nRules and Game Play\nAs mentioned in the introduction, this is a card driven game, but unlike the most common model where you have to choose between operations and events, this deck is split between events and operations cards. Some of the events are playable by either side, but some can only be played by the owning player's faction, and if you end up with some of these in your hand you can only use them for a limited set of things. The deck is never reshuffled so if an event you really wanted doesn't get into your hand, then tant pis.", "92" ], [ "Or as the designer puts it himself, the event still happened, it just didn't have the same impact in the game as it did historically.\nSpeaking of history, this game is unusual in that it includes some so-called alternate history cards containing events that didn't actually happen but were entirely possible. For instance, there's a card featuring <PERSON> and his army that can enter the game on the Royalist side. I really feel this adds a nice nuance to the game as it inserts a little bit of \"what if?\" without really affecting the narrative flow of the game.\nThe game lasts until either the end of winter 1645 (the 11th and final turn of the game), or an automatic victory occurs. For the Parliament player, this means forcing King <PERSON><PHONE_NUMBER> (the 11th and final turn of the game), or an automatic victory occurs. For the Parliament player, this means forcing King Charles to surrender. For the King, it means seizing London and also controlling three areas on the map.\nThe map is split into five regions. The south, the Midlands, Wales, the north, and east. Each area has a number of towns, and these towns will need to be controlled as part of each player's political base. There are also some areas on the map that are designated as industrial areas, such as the Northumbrian Coal Field and the Forest of Dean. Having control of at least one area like this is necessary or else you will not be able to recruit any troops, and that can quickly send your side into a death spiral as troops are both hard to come by and harder to keep in the field.\nThe game is split into three phases - the early, mid, and late war. Each phase has a mandatory event card that kicks off that era. The early war will see posturing and build up by both sides on the first turn until someone plays Raising the Royal Standard marking the start of armed conflict.", "597" ], [ "Wir Sind das Volk!\nA game for 2 players by <PERSON> and <PERSON>.\n“It's always the small people who change things. It's never the politicians or the big guys. I mean, who pulled down the Berlin wall? It was all the people in the streets. The specialists didn't have a clue the day before.”\n― Luc Besson\nIntroduction\nI am a huge fan of <PERSON> games. <PERSON> and <PERSON> are differentiated only by player count in my mind as worthy entrants in my top 20 games of all time.\n<PERSON> is a prolific designer, possibly best known for his brilliant little game König von Siam.\nI love the Cold War period as a game subject. When I heard about Wir Sind das Volk!, it was an instant must buy for me. With these two designers at the helm, how could it not be?\nThe Components\nWir Sind das Volk comes in a small box. It's the same size as the King of Siam box, roughly 9x9x2\", but it is packed full of components. Many other publishers would have gone for a bigger box, but there's a certain elegance in getting all the bits packed into such a small package.\nA lot of gaming goodness in a very small package.\nThe game comes with a mounted map, about 25x17\" when unfolded, 84 action cards split into the four decades covered in this game, 50 unrest markers, 12 socialist markers, 35 living standard markers, tokens for factories and infrastructure, and a set of rules in German and English.\nThe art of the game nicely captures the spirit of the postwar socialist realism that was encouraged in the eastern bloc countries. The graphic design is clean and clear and makes it relatively easy to gauge the state of the board, although care must be taken by players with respect to Berlin as it has its own special area on the map.\nThe cards in the game are artistically in the spirit of things, but from a graphics perspective could have been better. The cards are multipurpose in that you can use them for their point value or their event. Events are yellow for the West, red for the East, but while the ones that are usable by either side are both yellow and red, it can be difficult to assess this based on the art. The text on the card is red, in contradistinction to the black text on the other cards.", "92" ], [ "Nonetheless, the art is more eye catching to me and I find it hard to distinguish the events playable by both; to me, the red stands out over the yellow.\nThere is no wasted space in the box. Everything fits nicely inside, even after all the components are punched and bagged, and if you're someone who compulsively sleeves cards, they'll likely fit as well.\nGame Play\nWir Sind das Volk! is played over roughly four decades, covering the early postwar years to the fall of the Berlin wall.\nA selection of cards. Photo by <PERSON>.\nEach decade, players are dealt a couple of cards as hole cards, and then seven event cards are laid out in a shared pool. Players alternate playing cards from the pool or their held cards until the pool cards are exhausted. A second set of pool cards is then dealt out, and once those are gone, it's time for the special end of decade phase.\nVictory is achieved by causing your opponent to have at least four mass protest markers at the end of the decade collapse check. If both sides experience this simultaneously, East Germany wins. So the onus is on the West German player to drive unrest in the east as much as possible. Much easier said than done.\nThe historical outcome is well known. West Germany became an economic powerhouse in western Europe. East Germany did relatively well compared to the other eastern bloc countries, but by the time the fall of the wall loomed large, its economy was in dire straits.\nThe focus thus shifts from merely economic to a more broadly propagandistic view. The old saying that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence is a great way of describing the end of decade phase. Here you are trying to showcase the superiority of your system, and by doing so successfully, cause unrest to your opponent.\nThe game play itself is relatively straightforward, but it's the multi-layered interconnectedness of the systems that really makes the game an interesting exploration. <PERSON> (qwertymartin) created a of the various interactions in this game.\nThe cards are ultimately the fuel for the game engine.\nPlayers will be trying to build up their economy using the build points on the cards. Building factories and infrastructure will allow you to increase the living standard for the regions, which will in turn reduce unrest.", "597" ] ]

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[ [ "I will try to clarify. To simplify the formulae, I will put the speed of light equal to unity, $c=1$, so that if time is seconds, distance is in light seconds and something traveling at half the speed of light has $v=1/2$. Energy-momentum can be written as a 4-vector $(E, \\mathbf p)$. The magnitude of energy-momentum is mass, $m$, and obeys the relationship $$m^2=E^2 - |\\mathbf p|^2 $$ or $$E^2=m^2 + |\\mathbf p|^2 .$$\nThis is exactly the same equation as used in other answers, but with $c=1$, which makes it look simpler. Mass, $m$, in this relationship is a relativistic invariant quantity, the same in all reference frames. It is also called rest mass. In old treatments, energy, $E$, is sometimes called relativistic mass. That terminology is now generally deprecated, as it causes confusion and there is already a perfectly good word, energy.\nEnergy-momentum is a conserved quantity. If you add together the energy-momenta for all the particles in a system, then it will always come to the same result so long as nothing leaves or enters the system.\nThe simplest example I can think of to show the conversion between mass and energy has two identical bodies with equal opposite momenta $( E, \\pm \\mathbf p )$ flying together and coalescing into a single body.", "343" ], [ "Then energy momentum conservation tells us that the energy-momentum of the final body is given by $$(E, \\mathbf p) + (E, -\\mathbf p) = (2E, \\mathbf 0). $$ Applying the formula above, we can calculate the mass of the final body, $$2E = 2\\sqrt{m^2 + |\\mathbf p|^2}, $$ which is greater than the combined masses of the original two bodies.\nExactly the same thing happens in all interactions involving energy. Whenever you have a composite body, the total mass of the body consists of the sum of the energy of all of those particles which make up the body. This is the energy of the body in the rest frame.\nThe same is true of the flywheel, viewed from an inertial frame in which the flywheel is rotating but its centre of mass is not moving (rotating frames are difficult to think about correctly in special relativity). The momenta of all the particles of matter comprising the flywheel sum to zero, meaning there is an increase in mass.\nIt applies also to any kind of stored energy, such as the energy stored in chemical bonds in an electrical battery.\nIn other words, it is an absolute law that the energy stored in a battery, of any sort, is equal to the mass reduction when that energy is released.\nThe only difference with an antimatter battery is that all the mass of the antimatter, together with an exactly equal mass of matter, will be converted to energy. That does place an absolute limit on the amount of energy which can be derived from a given mass, but it does not take into account all the mass of the battery.\nFor questions of efficiency there are other things to consider. The energy released from a matter-antimatter reaction is difficult to use efficiently (particularly if you were seeking to drive a space-ship).\nAnd if one is thinking of the mass of the battery, at the moment we can only stored tiny amounts of antimatter (a few atoms of anti-hydrogen) for a matter of minutes, and storing it needs extraordinarily sophisticated (and massive) equipment. The problem is that any antimatter touching the storage container will immediately be destroyed, along with the destruction of an equal amount of the container. I honestly doubt whether it would ever be possible to store antimatter for use in a battery.", "343" ], [ "Your first method is the correct one, as long as the starting time is measured from the simultaneous moment at $t=0$ in the Earth's frame. As you probably know, it's not very natural to talk about simultaneous moments for spatially separated events, and this is where part of the subtlety in this question lies.\nBy the way, your first method can be found more simply by just dividing the Earth frame time $6000s$ by the time dilation factor gamma. $$\\frac{3}{5}6000s=3600s\\qquad \\frac{4}{5}6000s=4800s$$\nNow let's go to one of the ships' frames, say the one moving at .8c. The time $t'=0$ is when that ship starts its 90 minute timer, but the other ship started its timer at some earlier $t'$!\nThe event at which the other ship starts its clock is at $$t'=\\gamma(t-vx)=\\frac{5}{3}(0-.8\\times 8400 s)=-11200 s$$ $$x'=\\frac{5}{3}(8400s-.8\\times 0)=14000s$$ So at $t'=0$ the other ship is at $14000s-.946\\times11200s\\approx3405s$, which does not agree with your Lorentz contracted value.", "562" ], [ "Continuing on from this distance, you will find it is $3600s$ until collision again, as in your first method.\nWhy length contraction failed\nIn order to use the length contraction idea, you need to be transforming a 'proper length.' What that means is that the endpoints of the length are both at rest in the original frame. In your case the endpoints of the distance were the two ships, which were not only not at rest, they were at different velocities.\nBut just to show where length contraction would come in, let's consider the proper length with endpoints given by the worldlines $x=0, \\,x=8400s$. We found the transformed coordinates of the point $x=8400s$ at $t=0$ above. Now in the transformed frame the $x=0$ worldline is moving with velocity $-.8c$, so at $t'=-11200s$ it is at $x'=8960s$, and $14000s-8960s=5040s$ which was the contracted length you found in the second method. You can see it has nothing to do with the distance between the two ships.", "586" ], [ "From this and your previous question, I suspect your confusion stems from the interpretation of $L$ in the length contraction formula. In fact this is something that confused me a lot when I was starting out.\nConsider two observers attached to frames $S$ and $S^\\prime$, with $S^\\prime$ moving at speed $v$ relative to $S$ in the $x$-direction. Let their coordinates coincide at the origin. When we derive the formula for time dilation, we consider a change in time of $\\Delta t=t_2-t_1$ in the $S$ frame. Performing a <PERSON> transformation then gives a that same change in time in the $S^\\prime$ frame as $\\Delta t^\\prime=t_2^\\prime-t_1^\\prime=\\gamma(t_2-t_1)=\\gamma\\Delta t$ since $x=0$ for the observer in $S$. So we arrive at the familiar $$\\Delta t^\\prime=\\gamma\\Delta t,\\tag*{(1)}$$ which tells us that the time for the observer in $S$ to reach $t_2$ is seen to be dilated to the observer in $S^\\prime$.\nNaively, we might try next to do the same thing for the spatial coordinate(s). Say we consider a length $\\Delta x=x_2-x_1$ at $t_1=t_2=0$. Going through the same motions, we find that $$\\Delta x^\\prime=\\gamma\\Delta x.\\tag*{(2)}$$ But wait.", "562" ], [ "This isn't the correct form of the length contraction formula. It should really be $\\Delta x^\\prime=\\Delta x/\\gamma$. What gives?\nThe way to understand this is to realize that $L$ is supposed to be a length. Equation 2 is the $x^\\prime$ distance between two points (the ends of the rod, say) at different times. This is obviously no good. While for the derivation of the time dilation formula it was okay to compare the intial and final times despite the fact that each observer had changed spatial position from the perspective of the other, the same is not okay for measuring the length of a rod. You need to measure the spatial positions of either end at the same $t^\\prime$ coordinate.\nThis is something that can be made much clearer by a spacetime diagram:\n(<PERSON>, 2008)\nConsidering the diagram on the right, the $x^\\prime$ distance between the pair of diagonal dashed lines is the $\\Delta x^\\prime$ in eq. 2. The contracted length however is the $\\Delta x^\\prime$ shown in the diagram, which is a distance between points at simultaneous $t^\\prime$.", "586" ], [ "<PERSON> is equating the different length scales associated.\nIn quantum mechanics, the characteristic length scale is decided by the mass of the particle. It is known as Compton wavelength ($\\lambda_c$), and roughly speaking, it sets the length scale where relativistic quantum field theory becomes important for the description of physics; because if you try to localize a particle such that the uncertainty in position is smaller than $\\lambda_c$, the the uncertainty in momentum becomes high enough to (from $E^2 = m^2 c^4 + p^2 c^2$) induce uncertainty in energy of the order of the mass of the particle. This means that at such small length scales, and equivalently, high energy/momentum scales, we must take special relativity and particle production/annihilation into account.", "976" ], [ "The Compton wavelength is given by:\n$$\\lambda_c = \\frac{\\hbar}{mc}$$\nIn general relativity, the characteristic length scale is also decided by mass, but is directly proportional to it. It is known as Schwarzschild radius $r_S$. The event horizon of a static and spherically symmetric object lies at $r=r_s$ and is given by:\n$$r_s = \\frac{2 G m}{c^2}$$\nSubstituting $r_s$ for $\\lambda_c$ and barring a factor of $\\sqrt{2}$, we can write the characteristic mass scale for such a situation in terms of the three fundamental constants of the three fundamental theories: $c$ of special relativity, $G$ of general relativity and $\\hbar$ of quantum mechanics, and it is known as Planck mass:\n$$m_p = \\sqrt{\\frac{\\hbar c}{G}}$$\nSo the Schwarzschild radius of a black hole of mass equal to the Planck mass is its Compton wavelength.\nThe number of microscopic states of a black hole with given macroscopic characteristics (like charge, mass and angular momentum) can be written in terms of the area $A$ of the event horizon. This is known as black hole entropy and is given by:\n$$S = \\frac{kAc^3}{4G\\hbar}$$\nwhere $k$ is the <PERSON>'s constant.\nThe issue that black holes are not entirely 'black' and end up radiating because of particle production when quantum mechanics is involved has led to many debates and open questions that fall under the umbrella term of black hole information paradox.", "688" ], [ "The wikipedia article has some great info. on the historical progression of this question.\nUsing <PERSON>'s equations, one recovers the wave equation for electric and magnetic fields. From these equations, <PERSON> postulated that light can be thought of as an electromagnetic wave since the electric and magnetic fields solve the wave equation with a phase velocity of $c$. This theoretical value of the phase velocity of light waves is exactly $299,792,458 \\frac{m}{s}$.\nI mean is it 100 percent accurate?\nNothing is ever 100% accurate - that's an idealization of the human mind since there is always systematic errors in the measurement process (even if perfect humans are conducting the experiments).", "840" ], [ "So, no, it is not 100% accurate. It's worth noting that there's a difference between accuracy and precision.\nAs the wiki article shows, the precision and the accuracy of the measurements of the speed of light have improved greatly with time: as better measurement techniques are used, the measurements agree with each other better and better, and any one of the measurements agree with the theoretical value of $c$ better and better.\nSo, although we cannot have 100% accuracy in principle, we can have such small uncertainties in the measurement that we might as well consider the value to be 100% accurate. From the wiki article,\nAfter centuries of increasingly precise measurements, in 1975 the speed of light was known to be $299792458 m/s$ with a measurement uncertainty of 4 parts per billion.\nA measurement uncertainty of 4 parts per billion is very small, i.e. 0.0000001% of uncertainty: it's like saying for every million years you live you only fudge 30 seconds of it.\nLastly, in 1983, the meter was redefined in the International System of Units (SI) as the distance traveled by light in vacuum in 1/299792458 of a second. This is justified because, as I said above, the precision of measurements of $c$ are so precise that we might as well just define $c$ to be exactly the value that they all (within certainty) agree upon - this value as it turns out is also what <PERSON>'s equations predict.\nThus, yes the value of $c$ is defined to be exactly that given by <PERSON>'s equations, but importantly this is justified because the measurements are very very very precise.", "840" ], [ "Provided that there is nothing for the photon to interact with (i.e. we look at it in vacuum), the mean free path will be infinite; that is, it will continue travelling forever in a given direction. There's nothing which will stop the photon's path. Hence, it will go arbitrarily far. Whether you have a single photon or a laser, the answer won't change.\nThe fact that photon lines will never end manifests itself in another relevant fact. If you look at the intensity $I$ of light on a sphere of radius $r$ away from a point source, the intensity drops off as $1/r^2$. More specifically, if $P$ is the power of that source, then $I(r) = \\frac{P}{4 \\pi r^2}.$ The $4 \\pi r^2$ in the denominator is just the surface area of the sphere.\nYou may think this is relatively trivial, but in fact, it's actually a pretty deep fact. We know from 20th century work that there are particles similar to photons but with some differences. One of these is the $Z$-boson.", "580" ], [ "Unlike the massless photon, the $Z$ boson is massive. Its mass is around $91 GeV/c^2$, which is about 97 times as massive as a proton. If you did the corresponding analysis for $Z$-bosons, you'd find that they decay, and the decay length is on the order of $10^{-18}m$. A $Z$ boson will on average only travel about that far in vacuum. This leads to a different functional form for the above intensity, which will have an exponential dampening. In fact, this mass is essentially equivalent to studying photons in a medium which provides dissipation (e.g. inside a superconductor).\nThe fact that the photon doesn't suffer this same fate is really a consequence of its masslessness. There are many possible bounds on the photon mass. Of course, just the fact that we see photons from very long distances away provides a (rather strong) upper bound on the photon mass, though it is perhaps a bit deceptive as there are certain unusual models which avoid this strong bound. The most robust, model-independent bounds we have to date are about $10^{-14} eV/c^2$, that is, a factor of about $10^{23}$ lower than the proton mass.", "795" ], [ "Since we know the position of the source of the photon, we can determine its trajectory from the source to the detector, once we know its final position on the detector.\nPhotons don't have trajectories. It's perfectly possible to consider a situation where you know the starting point of the photon to a high accuracy (say, you know it was produced at a molecule which is tightly bound at a specific location) and that you know the position at which it was detected (you know which pixel clicked), but that knowledge does not tell you anything about what happened between those two times. If you are not actively performing a projective measurement on position (resp.", "400" ], [ "momentum) at a given time $t$, then QM is explicitly restrained from saying anything about that position (resp. momentum) at that time.\nI see nothing that would prevent, as a practical matter, such a detector from also giving us the energy of the photon to arbitrary precision, subject only to practical, technological constraints.\nSince the speed of light is always $c$, and the formula for the momentum of a photon is simply $h/\\lambda$, it follows that we can calculate the position, and momentum of the photon, without any apparent constraints that relate these two values.\nIt's perfectly reasonable to add a spectrometer behind your detector pixel so that you also do a projective measurement on frequency, and this does give you a definite value for the photon momentum.\nHowever, that procedure doesn't tell you anything about the direction in which that photon is headed, so you don't have any real knowledge of the photon momentum, which is a vector quantity.\nMoreover, the fact that you're post-selecting on the photon frequency means that the initial pretense that the photon frequency was undetermined can be stripped away in this context, and your configuration is equivalent to one in which you knew perfectly well (say, because of the way you've tuned your molecule's emission lines) what the photon frequency was. In that picture, you have a molecule emitting a narrow-band single-photon wavepacket, which immediately proceeds to fill up all of the available space in whatever Helmholtz mode is driven by the transition, evolving into a complicated spatial wavefunction with a large spatial and momentum support, which covers a large fraction of your detector, after which one of the detector pixels clicks.\nAnd once you frame things like that, it should be clearer that the information offered by that detector click is rather limited, since the next time you re-run the experiment you'll get a click from a different pixel.", "795" ], [ "There is an ambiguity in what is meant by the path of the light.\nIf you mean the path of any particular photon (i.e., the light emitted at a given time), then your picture is right: This path is straight in the elevator frame by the Einstein Equivalence Principle. However, it is horizontal only if it was emitted at the moment the elevator was at rest relative to the laser. Otherwise, it is tilted because the velocity of the photon has a vertical component in the elevator frame.\nIf you mean the instantaneous locus of all photons in flight (i.e., the light existing at a given time in the elevator frame), then this path bends downward in the elevator frame -- opposite to the picture you attribute to your teacher. This may be counterintuitive, but consider the elevator after it has been falling at acceleration $-g$ for a time $T$ since being at rest relative the laser. Assume the vertical velocities involved are small compared to $c$, so the horizontal velocity of light is essentially $c$ (up to higher-order terms).", "562" ], [ "In the elevator frame, the photon at horizontal coordinate $x$ (the laser is at $x = 0$) was emitted at time $\\tau = T - x/c$, when the laser was at vertical position $+g\\tau^2/2$ and had vertical velocity $+g\\tau$. Thus the photon, after traveling in a straight line for time $x/c$, has current vertical position $g\\tau^2/2 + g\\tau(x/c) = g(T^2 - x^2/c^2)/2$. This is a downward-bending parabola. The same effect would be seen in Newtonian physics with, say, a hose emitting water or a machine gun emitting bullets.\nNote that the above \"paths\" are defined in terms of the reference frame of the elevator (notional grid of clocks and rulers), and for the case of light, neither of these paths would be straightforward to observe by what someone naively (optically) sees in the elevator. For example, if there is smoke that scatters the light so it can be seen from elsewhere in the elevator, the instantaneous appearance of the light beam would not correspond to the second interpretation (locus of all photons in flight), because of the differing time for propagation to the observer's eye from different parts of the beam.", "562" ] ]

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[ [ "In a species of simultaneous hermaphrodites, would there be any meaningful difference between siblings of the same parents in opposite roles?\nInspired by this question: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/44879/sexual-reproduction-without-biological-sex\nAnd, to a lesser extent, this question: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/65500/would-a-society-of-simultaneous-hermaphrodites-have-gender-roles\nI'm not particularly well-versed in biology at all, let alone the wide variance of sexual characteristics that exists in the world, so I apologize if I've misunderstood/misused any terminology here. (Or if my questions are somehow just beyond stupid in a way that I failed to realize.)\nFor my purposes, I'm imagining a (preferably as close to human as possible) species that has exactly one biological sex. Every individual of this biological sex has all the necessary anatomical requirements to be the father or mother in a reproductive exchange. In case it's somehow relevant, their anatomy is also arranged in such a way that one couple can be simultaneously participating in two exchanges. This means that both members of one couple could be simultaneously pregnant with a child fathered by the other member of the couple.\nSo the main question here: If you have two children of the same two parents, but with swapped parental roles in their conception (the father of one is the mother of the other and vice versa), is there any inherently meaningful difference between the two siblings beyond two siblings who have the same parents as each other, both of whom are in the same parental roles?\nI realize that a society comprised entirely of such a species could easily create social constructs such as children taking the surname of their biological mother or labeling such cross-siblings as something indicative of a relationship closer than a half-sibling but further than \"actual\" siblings.", "759" ], [ "I'm less concerned with purely social constructs that might arise than I am with actual, meaningful differences that would affect them in the future more than \"actual siblings\" would be expected to experience.\nIf a social construct were to arise from such differences (as I expect they would), then I'm definitely interested in those sorts of downstream effects. In fact, the main reason I'm asking the question is so that I can eventually come up with exactly those kinds of downstream effects. But I'd like to set the foundation of my social constructs on something more solid than just other social constructs.\nFor instance, as <PERSON> brought up in comments, the intra-uterine environment can be very important because of genomic imprinting and/or metabolic imprinting. Aside from potential disorders that might happen at the statistical fringe, what noticeably-common differences might we see between cross-siblings? Since both parents could nurse the child, would some differences be mitigated by having a child's father nurse them instead of the mother? Would differences in mitochondrial DNA cause significant differences? Are any noticeably-visible or significant characteristics only heritable from one parent? These are all sub-questions of which I'm unsure of their relevance to the larger discussion.\nI wish I could be more specific in what I'm looking for, but I'm struggling to find the words to describe it at the moment. Hopefully, I can think of a better way to word all of this fairly soon and edit my question accordingly.", "882" ], [ "What weaknesses could someone exploit to manipulate this \"Approval plus RCV\" electoral system?\nQuestion\nI know that there must be ways that this system can be manipulated, but I'm having trouble figuring out what they are. I imagine that, since I created this system, I'm simply too close to it to see where exactly it would go wrong. For the story I want to write, someone (who, exactly, is yet to be determined) will be trying to manipulate the system to their advantage, so I need to figure out where the weak points are.\nBut at the same time, if the weak points are too obviously weak, I think it would be beyond the reader's reasonable suspension of disbelief for me not to fix them to a certain extent. I need a system that's reasonably sturdy for this person (or group of people) to still make a serious attempt to manipulate it and I am hoping that, with minimal tweaking, this is the system that will get me there.\nTo re-phrase the same question: What attack vectors exist in this system that a \"bad actor\" could exploit to their own advantage?\nOne potential angle, which I was recently reminded of (thank you @Mark), that I'd like a more knowledgeable person than myself to expand upon is Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. While this system certainly wouldn't have a dictator, I'm not yet very confident in my ability to thoroughly judge the other three criteria.\nEverything beyond this point is a description of the system as I currently imagine it. I have many ideas to expand upon the government structure and the nature of checks and balances in this world, but I am trying to keep this down to only the relevant information. Feel free to request any such omitted details that you think may be relevant and I will edit to include them, if necessary.", "161" ], [ "Assuming that I can appropriately tweak this system, I plan to ask further questions regarding the other aspects of this government I've envisioned.\nElection Schedule\nElections are regularly scheduled, not called at the whim of the current party or parties in power.\nBallot\nAt its core, the voting system in this fictional world is a combination of approval voting and ranked-choice voting. Voters can approve of as many candidates for an elected office as they wish and must rank, at the very least, all of their approved candidates (although they can rank any/all of their unapproved candidates, as well).\nI currently imagine that the ranking of unapproved candidates would, to voters, seem like a vote of \"tolerance\" rather than \"approval.\" In other words, this is where voters would be ranking the \"lesser evils,\" in their opinion, among the candidates. Ballots on which voters rank some candidates but approve of none will still be accepted, as will blank ballots with no rankings or approvals. Each of these \"statement ballots\" will have meaningful effects upon the election of candidates to office and, to a certain extent, their powers while in office.\nStep 1 (Approval)\nOnce ballots have been submitted and the election workers are beginning to process the votes, the first piece of data they will be concerned with is each candidate's approval rating. Depending upon the number of seats per constituency an office elects, an approval threshold will be set (outlined below) beyond which a seated candidate will be said to have a \"mandate.\" Whether or not a candidate has a mandate is based solely upon original approval and not subject to subsequent adjustments through the \"satisfaction\" process outlined in Step 3.\nSo long as at least one candidate is beyond the approval threshold, only those candidates beyond the approval threshold will be considered for being seated at all. If only one candidate is beyond the threshold, then they immediately win the seat in question without considering voter rankings at all. If there are still seats left to be filled, but no remaining candidates are beyond the threshold, then all candidates will move on to the next step, where they will be judged based on voter preferences.\nImportantly, if a candidate is seated without a mandate, they will have certain limits placed on their powers in office and may even face electoral consequences such as a shorter term length or easier recall.\nSingle-Seat: For any office that elects only one member per constituency, which I will mostly limit to the Executive branch, candidates receive a mandate when they surpass 50% approval.\nReferenda: For all intents and purposes, votes on various competing referenda would follow the same process as Single-Seat offices, merely replacing candidates with the various legislation under consideration. They would need to surpass 50% approval to receive a mandate and, if no legislation receives such a mandate, may be subject to certain limits as prescribed by the legislature.\nMulti-Seat: For any office that elects multiple members per constituency, an approval threshold will be set equal to the reciprocal of the number of seated officials.", "161" ], [ "How would an isolated world grow its population, then keep it stable?\nThe scenario\nIn the scenario that I'm imagining, a small group of people (ideally 100 or less) travel to a parallel universe and begin a new society. The new planet that they land on has one land mass surrounded by water, with sufficient freshwater resources and enough fertile land to build a prosperous agriculturally-based society. There are no existing cultures on this planet, and they have no further way to interact with any other societies. In other words, no one can immigrate to them, and they can't emigrate to other places.\nThe question\nThe population needs to reach the continent's capacity (we'll say that's about 5-10 million), then remain stable. What kind of laws or societal norms would have to be enforced to ensure this quick rise and then leveling out of the population? How would this affect their society? For example, is it plausible that a society could be so focused on increasing the population, then do a quick 180 turn and change their rules/norms/familial institutions to focus on population stability?\nAssumptions about the society\nMy initial thought was that, once they reach their population capacity, the familial structures would put less focus on having children biologically, and more focus on contributing to a child's upbringing as a teacher, or by mentoring them, for example.", "183" ], [ "I also imagined that the society wouldn't be heteronormative because having children isn't a priority, and that the people who do have kids wouldn't be encouraged to have more than one.\nHowever, after doing some reading on here about other isolated/stable populations (such as here: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/100924/maintaining-a-constant-population-in-a-country), I've learned that these assumptions might be wrong. For example, in order to continue replacing the population, if not everyone is having kids, you might need an average of 4 kids per woman who does choose to reproduce.\nMore info about the world I'm trying to build\nTo get to this world, the pioneers travel using magic that is nearly impossible to wield. So, they can't really use it to build their new society. Also, since they don't want their descendants to find a way back to the world they escaped from, they don't pass on the knowledge of the magic's existence.\nThe world that they come from has a medieval or renaissance level of technology.\nThe new world is 'egalitarian' in nature, or at least, its inhabitants buy into the illusion that it is. The society doesn't experience wars and has very little crime (that the general population knows about, anyway), but there is some corruption bubbling under the surface, that will come to fruition in the story's plot. In terms of how the world is set up, though, it needs to appear as though everything is peaceful and carefully planned.", "693" ], [ "Protecting \"rights\" of androids that are not considered persons by law\nConsider a society where the population includes a number of sentient androids, practically indistinguishable from humans in appearance. In practice, they are treated exactly like humans under most circumstances, with the exception that they are not legally considered as persons. One might not know whether someone is an android until they ask (which might be considered impolite), they cut them open (which is also impolite), or circumstances arise where they are requested to produce identity documents (which an android will not be able to do.)\nIdeally, it should be possible for a human citizen to, say, have a friend who takes public transport to an office job in the cubicle next to them, and goes back home somewhere after work, but not know or care in particular whether this friend is a human or an android.\nInconveniences immediately arise: particularly obvious would be the problem that androids are legally not entities that may enter legal contracts*. In a generally well-meaning community, some sort of de facto standard or convention might suffice to keep things working as normal some of the time. For instance, an android may appear to have a job and be paid a salary for it, despite there existing no legally binding agreement referencing this employment, and being technically unprotected/unconstrained by the workplace regulations intended for humans. Everyone is happy so long as everyone plays along.\nHowever, in the case where a contract is breached, it cannot be enforced.", "205" ], [ "It might not be illegal to evict a rent-paying android without reason, because they are not technically a tenant. This would be unfair for the android, but is something from which the law would often protect a person. This question concerns the means with which a society might protect androids from abuse of a similar sort.\nWhat mechanisms might be developed by a society such that androids reliably enjoy as many as possible of the privileges humans do, despite not being acknowledged by the law as such?\nPerhaps, for instance, somehow making the aforementioned conventions enforceable, employing some social/market gymnastics such that violation of the would-be rights of an android always carries great enough cost to discourage exploitation? Alternatively, are there existing laws that may be appropriated/interpreted to this effect?\nClarification edit:\nThis worldbuild concerns a society in which androids are typically regarded as equals, and de facto share many/all of the rights of their human peers. However, as many comments and answers have pointed out, without (or even with) enforcement by written law, this tends to be an unstable condition in that it requires all of the members of the community to practice respect and kindness to maintain, but might be disrupted by just a few who seek to do so. The solution sought by this question are methods a society which has largely collectively agreed to protect androids as humans might adopt to discourage such disruptions.\nForgive that I am extremely ignorant of the relevant topics. Should it be evident from the statements and examples given that I'm getting all this terribly wrong, please* do inform me so that corrections may be made.", "693" ], [ "How long would it take for another species to help primitive humans evolve?\nI am creating a fictional universe where humanity's evolution followed a different path that it did in ours (evolution might not be the best word, but bear with me).\nLong ago, in said universe's equivalent of what we call the prehistory (i.e. when the first humans started appearing), there was already another intelligent species roaming the planet. This species, who, at the time, had already advanced to a similar point where modern-day humans are (speech, culture, industry, technology, you name it) and decided (for reasons that are beyond the scope of this question) to help the humans (who were little more advanced than cavemen) to develop speech, culture and the rest.\nThe question here being: how long would it reasonably take before humanity would be able to get from prehistoric level to, say, the Industrial Revolution under this species' guidance? Decades? Centuries? Millennia?\nAdditional info:\n* You may assume that the planet is Earth when it comes to measuring time; 365 days of 24 hours (in layman's terms).\n* There is no need to take into account the state of planet Earth in our prehistory; you may assume that the state of the planet at that time was roughly similar to present-day Earth.\n* Humans had not encountered this species before, despite living on the same planet. However, humanity was generally not afraid of this species, but would accept their teachings from the first meeting.\n* Humans in this universe are otherwise pretty much completely identical to real-world humans; there's good ones and bad ones, smart ones and not-so-smart ones, people that would gladly accept the teachings and those that would not, etc.\n* Said species had different vocal chords than humans and could thus not teach humans their own language exactly like they spoke it; it would be either an approximation of their own language or an entirely new language designed specifically for human vocal chords.", "350" ], [ "At this point, I'm inclined more towards the latter, especially because of the next point.\n* Another difference between humans and this species meant that their writing system was difficult for humans to read and write fluently, too. They could read/write it when taught, but it would take them longer to read it compared to a writing system aimed at humans and even longer to write, even after they become fluent.\nEdit: there seem to some misconceptions going on about the level of humans before this meeting. When I say they had 'no language', I mean they had no structured language with grammatical rules; they could speak among themselves by using sounds such as grunts and such and by using body language. They had some basic tools and could probably create fire already. But they had nothing in the way of culture or civilization.", "802" ], [ "Would a \"city on a bridge\" be friendlier to the environment than a more typical city on land?\nThe \"city on a bridge\" that I'm envisioning has the entire population living their entire lives on a habitable bridge or a series of such bridges over major rivers, only going on land for recreation or for work-related reasons (farming, hunting, logging, mining, etc.). All housing and businesses that don't need to be on land would be on the bridges. Travel within the city would mostly be by foot, bike, or public transit (light rail along the bridge, ferries between bridges).\nMy thought process here is, once a civilization has the resources and know-how to do so, they could build a bridge above the heights their rivers are known to rise to and limit how much land they're taking up to what they need for farming. And even then, a lot of their farmland could be replaced once they are advanced enough to use hydroponics, aeroponics, and the like to grow a lot of their food on the bridges.", "87" ], [ "That leaves more land for old growth forests, wildlife, and ecosystems writ large to flourish.\nThe main concerns I can think of would be how the foundation of the bridges would affect the riverine ecosystems, how the bridges might change the downstream flow of rivers (which could easily affect many other aspects of the larger ecosystem in the area), and how the handling of waste products might more directly pollute the water.\nThere are probably many other factors that I've failed to consider, but I'd like to know what the main concerns would be and how this sort of city would measure up, sustainably speaking, to a more typical land-based city. For the sake of argument, assume that the people in this city behave similarly to current eco-conscious populations (e.g. in Scandinavian countries) and, if I may ask, please compare the results to those current land-based populations. If you wish to expand the scope, I'd greatly appreciate thoughts as to the differences for more and/or less eco-conscious populations, too.\nTo clarify: my question is whether two otherwise similar peoples, one living on bridges (not needing to clear out land for themselves) and the other living on land, would have any significant difference in their footprint. I fully understand that many other factors probably play much larger roles in a society's footprint, but I'm concerned with comparing a bridge-based city with a similar land-based city.", "87" ], [ "What's a plausible explanation for a space faring civilization with a \"16th century\" culture?\nAs part of a story idea, I'd like to create an alien civilization that colonized different solar systems in a manner similar to how European nations colonized other continents here on Earth. This civilization would have the technology to make travel between solar systems feasible, though certainly not without risk. At the same time, their political and economic systems resemble those prevalent in 16th century Europe. In particular, institutions such as democratic republics and corporations would be in their early stages while concepts like consumerism and environmentalism would be completely unheard of.\nThere are many works of fiction where alien civilizations have similar discrepancies in technological and social development.", "302" ], [ "However, none of the works I'm familiar with providing a plausible explanation as to why; if any explanation is provided, it's due to some dramatic device or extenuating circumstances; I'd prefer an explanation that seems natural and logical.\nThe alien species needs to resemble humans in most respects, both physiological and psychological; humans would be able to interact and relate to them on a meaningful, personal level.\nAny suggestions on plausible explanations? Are there any works that I could refer to for inspiration?\nEDIT: To clarify, my chief concern is that I don't want this space faring civilization to have conceived of (or at least remember developing) many concepts that are essential to modern life. Here are some the concepts that I definitely don't want this alien civilization to be familiar with:\n* Corporate person-hood: The idea that a business can be an entity separate from those operating it.\n* Mass Marketing & Advertisement: The idea of promoting and selling a specific item to a broad national or global audience instead of catering to a niche market.\n* Specialization: The idea that individuals learn very specific skills and work in professions that tackle very specific needs as well as the idea that individual businesses would only produce part of a final product or only play a limited role in providing a service.\n* Automation: The idea that technology could be leveraged to perform tasks without direct interaction or oversight.\n* Conservation & Sustainability: The idea that a civilization can consume resources at such a pace that it could exhaust them and that special measures are needed to prevent this.\nThough the political and economic systems of the 16th century aren't necessarily inferior, I fail to see how they could support the sophisticated industrial complex needed to for our current space programs, let alone intergalactic travel. Even if the aliens eventually develop the necessary technologies, would they be able to put it to use? Also, how would the new opportunities and challenges associated with more sophisticated technology not inspire them to explore more modern concepts?\nEDIT 2: Thank you everyone for your responses. I've selected rideoutcolin's answer because I feel it best addresses how to maintain technological progress without dramatically changing the social order.", "159" ], [ "I'm new here so I can't leave a comment but part of your biological assumptions are wrong. In humans, the baby's gender is controlled by the male's contribution, ie whether they give an XX or XY gamete. If the Y chromosome is present, then the baby becomes male. In its absence, female. So the \"default,\" in a way, is female.\nI see know the questioner addressed this in his post, but stick with me.\nI find it unlikely a woman could biologically assert a choice of her baby's gender. Would she have to constantly focus on the baby's gender to ensure the right hormones are released? Or just once, at some turn point in gestation, like week 5? What happens if she changes her mind, or just honestly never makes a choice? Because of the passivity inherent in pregnancy, I don't see her evolving any sort of conscious hormonal control.", "429" ], [ "I can't think of any examples of animals consciously controlling hormonal release, for very good reasons.\nAdditionally, the actual act of procreation for women, is again, passive. So if there was to be a choice, it would have to be a choice made during an actual conscious action. For this, I would choose ejaculation. As I postulated in the comments, a man's testes could each produce male- or female-begetting gametes only. A muscle that closes only one vas deferens and allows the man to choose female or male semen seems to me far more biologically plausible than the woman.\nOne way I feel a woman could plausibly effect the sex of her baby is: Perhaps a male embryo releases a hormone that causes an itching sensation, and she could self-abort.\nSo...\nNo matter who picks, a child that knows his/her gender was chosen by one parent is going to feel very beholden to that parent, especially their expectations. A son would feel very strongly that he has to live up to his father's expectations. In a less-progressive society, this would expand gender roles.\nSimilarly, a daughter would feel the same pressures, but the opposite way: virginity would be more highly valued, and she would respect her father's vision for her as a girl.\nOf course, broad strokes here, but someone knowing their gender was selected for a reason would face enormous pressure to live up to the expectations of that gender.", "1008" ] ]

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[ [ "The Gold Rush for Himalayan Viagra Begins in Nepal · Global Voices\nPhoksundo Lake, the deepest lake in Nepal located in Lower Dolpa region with length of 4.8km and depth of around 600m. Phoksundo is considered an earthly paradise by locals and travellers alike. Image by <PERSON>. Copyright Demotix (05/10/2010)\nAfter the April 25 earthquake, hundreds went missing in high altitude settlements in Nepal. Though many were rescued and some returned home from the Lamabagar area in Dolakha district over the course of a precarious hunt, the villages and schools in Mugu and Dolpa districts in the Karnali region of Nepal wear a deserted look. This is not due to the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks, however, but because of strong demand for the much hyped ‘Himalayan Viagra’ — yarsagumba.\nSince each piece of this natural treasure fetches hundreds of rupees — a gram of yarsagumba is worth almost triple a gram of gold — young and old have all left their homes in the search for the aphrodisiac.\nYarsagumba (often referred to as #Himalayan Viagra) Caravan north of #Maikot. The Guerrilla Trek, #Rukum, #Nepal. pic.twitter.com/JSkldc2iR7\n— Yuuki Treks (@yuukitreknepal) April 19, 2013\nSchools will remain closed for next 20 days or so — not a new phenomenon for this region. During the month long sojourn, everybody will be gleaning the gold from vast open spaces. Children, having better eyesight than the grown-ups, are better at finding yarsagumba, a caterpillar with a fungus on its body that is difficult to locate among the grass in the meadows.\nAlthough the district development committee does not allow children below 14 years of age to work, some as young as seven risk their lives in search of the sought-after caterpillars.\nSo What is Yarsagumba?\nYarsagumba is a unique insect-plant combo with medicinal properties including a libido-boosting trait.", "447" ], [ "In Tibetan it means summer plant and winter insect.\nFound in meadows above 3,500 metres, “it appears as parasitic mushroom spores (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) infect, kill and mummify the ghost moth larva living inside the soil. A fungus sprouting out from the dead caterpillar’s head shoots above the soil.”\nThe fungal hybrid is thought to have medicinal properties that cure asthma, cancer and impotence. Due to its energy, vitality enhancing properties and aphrodisiac effects, it has earned the name “Himalayan Viagra”.\nThis is what we are looking for #yarsagumba found at 4500 mt elevation. pic.twitter.com/MlPQs2Sszk\n— salokya (@salokya) June 5, 2013\nThe lure of the harvest leads people higher and higher — often as high as 4,500 metres. The gatherers forget about everything, especially their own safety, to reach the region's main cash cow. Competition between villagers for a greater yarsagumba yield leads to disputes, fights and even deaths.\nNepal's growing crop: “The Himalayan Viagra” #itsallaboutthesize #yarsagumba http://t.co/dBbEhCpWr8 pic.twitter.com/iBCnLr60oB\n— <PERSON> (@apeabe) June 25, 2014\nBesides the freezing temperatures, avalanche risk, altitude sickness and vertigo can all derail a gathering mission, but most of the population in the economically depressed districts put short-term profit first.\npic.twitter.com/f6NVXcEKtL Tents of Yarsagumba farmers. Prices can go as high as $80,000 per kg. #yarsagumba #nepal @nepalitimes\n— <PERSON> (@yurop) May 27, 2014\nThe main export market for yarsagumba is China, where it fetches $100 per gram. The global market for yarsagumba is estimated to be worth between $5 and $11 billion.\nThe lucrative search is the engine of the mountainous region's economy. Moreover, while there is evidence Nepal's great earthquake has impacted supply, as gatherers from the quake-affected districts weigh the value of the trip against the risk of potential aftershocks, there is still no dearth of individuals and families prepared to profit from their absence.", "447" ], [ "A favourite Nepali hard cheese finds favour with canines · Global Voices\nChhurpis hung up for sale in a shop in the Ilam District of eastern Nepal. Photo by <PERSON>. Used with permission.\nAs you pass by the misty Kanyam tea gardens in the Ilam District of eastern Nepal, you will come across bunches of hard cheese hanging in most of the shops.\nThe hard cheese, known locally as chhurpi, is made from milk collected from naks (female yaks), cows and chauris (a cross between yaks and local hill cows). An excellent source of protein, people throughout the Himalayan region, including Tibet, Darjeeling and Sikkim, and Bhutan, love this hard-to-chew cheese.\nHowever, chhurpi is now a favoured food for dogs in the United States and Europe:\nYeti Dog Chew is an all natural and delicious dog chew made with the goodness of Himalayan yak milk.These are a perfect option to keep your dog happy and busy for longer hours in a safe & natural way.Check out our website to see different sizes of chews available for your dogs ? pic.twitter.com/RvVy2pffZl\n— Yeti Dog Chew (@YetiDogChew) August 16, 2019\nAccording to the Nepal government’s Trade and Export Promotion Centre, in the fiscal year 2017/18, the country exported more than 800 million Nepalese Rupees (US $7 million) worth of chhurpi. According to local businessmen, about 60-70 percent of the chhurpi exported as dog chew to the United States and Europe is produced in the Ilam district itself.\nPeople love to chew chhurpis cut into small pieces. Photo by <PERSON>. Used with permission.\nMost cheese varieties tend to be soft, how do they harden this cheese? After collection, the milk is boiled and the fat removed. They then separate the solids from the milk, wrap them in a jute bag to squeeze out the water from the chhurpi, and dry it by putting it out in the sun or by hanging it over a fire.\nGodawari International Private Limited, which exports chhurpi as dog chew to India, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, and the United States, explains its rigorous manufacturing process:\n[…] Once the milk has cooled down, it is treated with 10 ml of lime juice and 10 mg salt for about 100 gallons of milk. The sour of the mild acid coagulates the milk and the salt speeds up the process. The solids are then separated using a burlap sac [sic], which is washed several times using warm water to remove the whey, and any hints of salt and lime juice.\nThe solids in the burlap sack are then subjected to squeezing for about 3 weeks when the cake obtained contains at most 5% moisture.", "447" ], [ "The cakes are pressed using weights to remove the excess moisture.\nThe cake is then cut to size and prepared for cooking [sic] under the sun and smoke[d] for 2-3 months. […]\nTwo chauris resting at a highland meadow in Nepal. Chhurpi is made from the milk from yaks, cows and chauris. Photo by <PERSON>. Used with permission.\nThe idea to market chhurpis as dog food came from brothers <PERSON> and <PERSON> who, together with <PERSON>, started the company Himalayan Dog Chew in 2003. The idea was sparked when one of the brothers noticed a dog gnawing at a chhurpi. In 2007, they launched their product at a pet fair in Bellingham, Washington. Since then, the company has come a long way: it is currently the largest exporter of Himalayan cheese out of Nepal, employing more than 9,000 people. In 2015, these three Nepali entrepreneurs appeared on the popular American TV show Shark Tank, even though they were already making over US $5 million in sales a year.\nMany other companies have since followed their lead, but Himalayan Dog Chew has now diversified, evolving from a single product-oriented business into a full pet supply company. According to its website, the company now proudly partners with a third-generation dairy farm in Washington State, which produces 10 million pounds of milk per month and over 124 million pounds per year, all for Himalayan Pet Supply.\nSince this hard cheese is being exported to so many countries, including Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States, its manufacture has become a regular source of income for Nepal's rural farmers.", "365" ], [ "Nepal’s Vulture Restaurants Are Helping Revive Their Population and Generate Income for Communities · Global Voices\nHimalayan Griffon at Vulture Restaurant, Nawalparasi, Nepal. Photo by <PERSON>. Used with permission.\nThey are big, ugly, and have a bad reputation. Although vultures have been at the center of a love-hate relationship with humans — they are also our natural allies. Vultures are mostly carrion eaters and are a major part of the natural process of death in the wild. By devouring large amounts of flesh, these large birds help limit the spread of bacteria and disease that can otherwise spread from the decaying animal bodies. However, despite their important role as buffers against the potential spread of illnesses, they are often regarded as more of a pest than an important bird.\nAs a 2007 survey in India shows, the population of oriental white-backed vultures (Gyps bengalensis) had fallen to 0.1% of its numbers in the early 1990s. In 2009, western Nepal saw its population of oriental white-backed vultures fall by 25% since 2002. Likewise, the population of long-billed vultures (Gyps indicus) and slender-billed vultures (Gyps tenuirostris) also declined drastically throughout the Indian subcontinent. Unfortunately, this trend is not only happening in South Asia, vulture numbers are decreasing worldwide due to less food availability, collision with man-made structures, and poisoning among others.\nTo combat this decline, some countries have proposed an interesting conservation plan to bring their numbers back up — Jatayu restaurants, or restaurants for vultures.\nA restaurant for vultures managed by communities\nTo conserve vulture populations, vulture feeding stations have been set up in a number of different Asian countries such as Cambodia, India, Pakistan and Nepal.", "447" ], [ "In Nepal, the feeding stations are managed by the nearby communities and have been dubbed Jatayu restaurants, named after the revered character in the Hindu epic Ramayana and the vulture’s Sanskrit name, Jatayu.\nIf you are in Nepal & a wildlife enthusiastic, visiting Jatayu Restaurant will be an experience of lifetime. I was mesmerized. #conservation https://t.co/rENmDgrkkE\n— <PERSON> (@_Re_be_cca) August 3, 2017\nThese restaurants source old and unproductive cattle from farmers and take care of the animals until they die at the animal old-age center. People happily handover their old, unproductive cattle to these restaurants because the animals are well taken care of at the end of their lives.\nA scene from a vulture restaurant in Western Nepal — dead animals are offered to vultures at this site only after ensuring that the carcasses are free of Diclofenac. The vultures had been disappearing owing to the use of this medicine for treating livestock. The vulture numbers were on a decline since the poor birds died of kidney failure after eating Diclofenac laced carcass. After the introduction of these restaurants throughout Nepal's southern plains, the vultures are returning back. And the conservationists are happy! ———- #vulture #vulturerestaurant #diclofenac #vultureconservation #terai #Nepal #conservation #jatayurestaurant #southasia\nA post shared by <PERSON> (@sankuchy) on Oct 4, 2016 at 11:16pm PDT\nWhen these cattle die, they are fed to the vultures — but only after they are tested to ensure that the cattle are diclofenac free.\nDiclofenac, the killer drug behind the mass deaths of vultures\nThe use of diclofenac to relieve pain in livestock had been one of the major causes of mass vulture deaths in Nepal, India and other South Asian countries. Even small doses of diclofenac can be fatal for vultures, causing kidney failure in these birds. As the kidney fails to function, uric acid accumulates in the birds’ blood and crystallizes around their internal organs.\nSince vultures feed in large groups, a single carcass laced with diclofenac can cause the death of scores of vultures.\nThe drug was banned in India, Nepal and Pakistan in 2006 and in Bangladesh in 2010.Thanks to the drug ban and also to conservation initiatives by several organizations including local communities, these ‘critically endangered’ bird species have started to bounce back.\nIn addition, these vulture restaurants have become tourist attractions which draw in both domestic and international visitors, providing nearby communities with an additional source of income.", "447" ], [ "Amidst the Trauma of the Great Earthquake Nepalis Celebrate Unprecedented Conservation Successes · Global Voices\nNepal's Chitwan National Park is home to the second largest population of greater one horned Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), an endangered species. Image by <PERSON>\nAmidst the gloom and tragedy caused by the April 25 earthquake that killed 8,000 people and caused damage affecting millions of people, conservationists in Nepal have a reason to celebrate. This year’s rhino census has highlighted incredible strides in rhino conservation with the number of one horned rhinoceroses in Nepal reaching 645: a 21% rise from the last count four years ago.\nThe conservation organisation WWF UK tweeted:\nGreat news! Nepal rhino numbers increase by 21% as we mark another 365 days of Zero Poaching of rhinos #EndWildlifeCrime pic.twitter.com/xKmgjxPqAa\n— WWF UK (@wwf_uk) May 5, 2015\nWith three consecutive years of zero poaching, rhino numbers have increased to 605 in Chitwan National Park, 29 in Bardia National Park, 8 in Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve and 3 in Parsa Wildlife Reserve.\nNational #Rhino Count completed. Nepal has 645 wild rhinos (chitwan 605, Bardia 29, Shukla 8 & Parsa 3). 111 Rhinos increased in 4 years #fb\n— बाघ हेरालो (@_BabuG) May 5, 2015\nRhino Horns and Rhino Census\nThe greater one-horned rhinoceros, also called Indian rhinoceros, weighs up to 2.2 tonnes and is poached for its prized horn. Believed to contain aphrodisiac and healing properties, the horn is in high demand in Asian markets. Besides this, the horn is also used to make the handles on daggers in the Middle East.\nAncient Persians believed that rhino horn cups had the ability to detect poison in liquids — also a popular belief in the royal courts in Europe.", "447" ], [ "Likewise, the Vietnamese believe that the horn's powder has cancer-curing properties, while young people use it as a cocaine-like party drug.\nIn spite of the high demand and constant threat from poachers, Nepal’s conservation efforts have revived a rhino population that had dwindled down to 100 in 1966.\nThe rhino census, conducted by the government’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and Department of Forests in collaboration with conservation organisations, is essential to inform conservation policy.\nThe count is a tedious task conducted using a sweep operation involving trained observers and Nepal Army representatives riding on elephants. Observers systematically comb through the rhino habitats and record individual rhino information including the sex, approximate age and individual markings together with GPS* locations on data-sheets accounting for the unique and special characteristics of each rhino: horn size and shape, folds present on the neck and rump, and body markings.\nOther Reasons to Celebrate Conservation Success\nA wild yak, spotted by researchers in Limi of Humla district in Far-Western Nepal, gave conservationists another reason to smile. Thought to be virtually extinct bar a small presence in remote regions of China and India the animal was sighted for the first time in almost 50 years in the country.\n<PERSON>, a sustainable development policy advisor, tweeted:\nWild #Yak, thought #extinct since 1970s from Nepal, spotted in Humla district in June 2014. (News released yesterday) pic.twitter.com/ZCUwksiNN3\n— <PERSON> (@kashishds) April 21, 2015\nThe species once found in abundance throughout the Tibetan Plateau, had been viewed as having disappeared from Nepal and Bhutan according to recent studies. These animals, larger in size than their domesticated counterparts, weigh between 500-550 Kgs.\nIn addition to this find, ornithologists found two new species of birds during nest counting in Nepal's Chitwan National Park and surrounding areas last month. While one of the new species belongs to the Robin family, another one is a very rare species: the Kashmir flycatcher (Kashmir Arjunak). Chitwan National Park is home to 24 out of the planet's 36 endangered bird species.\nThus, while the country is healing from the trauma and pain of the great earthquake, these conservation successes represent bright lights in the fog of its aftermath. Such gains in the face of adversity, it seems, can offer a powerful inspiration for Nepalis looking to rebuild and recover.\n*Global Positioning System", "447" ], [ "Nepal Closes a National Park to Give Mating Red Pandas Some Privacy · Global Voices\nUmi, red panda of Nogeyama Zoo. Image from Flickr by <PERSON>. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0\nLangtang National Park, Nepal’s first Himalayan national park and the one nearest to capital Kathmandu, has been declared a restricted zone by local authorities to allow red pandas to mate.\nLangtang National Park closed for Red Panda's breeding season | http://t.co/97BzDbEjxe http://t.co/OoPKKnXb4B\n— myRepública (@RepublicaNepal) July 8, 2015\nThe shy creature, called habre in Nepal, loves to live in quiet places and is easily scared by noises. When frightened by sound, it will even leave its young cub behind and run away. As the red panda’s breeding season starts from mid-June, the national park has been closed to visitors and even firewood gathering by locals has been prohibited for two months.\nWith only 10,000 individuals remaining in the world, around 1,000 red pandas are found in eight protected areas of Nepal – from Kanchenjunga Conservation Area in the east to Makalu Barun National Park and Buffer Zone, Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone, Langtang National Park and Buffer Zone, Manaslu Conservation Area, Annapurna Conservation Area, Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve and Rara National Park and Buffer Zone in the west. Besides Nepal, the animal is found in the mountainous regions of India, China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Laos.\nThe red panda, also called fire fox, was discovered decades earlier than the giant panda.", "447" ], [ "It is a carnivore turned herbivore and feeds mainly on young bamboo shoots and leaves.\nRemember, the red panda is the original panda! :-) https://t.co/WNLqKxwn3P\n— Red Panda Network (@RedPandaNetwork) July 8, 2015\nThough the shy creature dons the Mozilla Firefox logo and millions of Internet browsers use it daily, only a few know that it is a red panda.\nThe Firefox logo isn't actually a fox but a red panda.\n— Did You Know? (@engrossingfacts) July 6, 2015\nRed pandas are listed as endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Although red pandas are not poached generally, they fall prey to the traps laid for musk deer and other wild animals. The herders and the chauris, the yak-cow hybrids, disturb and destroy the red panda habitats, though not intentionally. Habitat loss is another major concern for conservationists.\nThe Nepalese government together with the wildlife organisation WWF has involved local communities in the conservation of this species in Langtang. Likewise, the Red Panda Network has been working with communities to monitor and preserve red pandas since 2007.\nThe restriction period at the Langtang National Park till mid-August will provide a peaceful environment for the red pandas to mate. Soon after, International Red Panda Day will be celebrated on 19 September, further raising awareness about its conservation.", "447" ], [ "Kathmandu’s Pollution Is So Bad, Even Gods Need Masks · Global Voices\nElder Tibetan woman praying wearing face mask to protect against the dust, Tharlam Monastery, Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal. Image from Flickr by Wonderlane. CC BY-NC 2.0\nNepal’s capital Kathmandu is witnessing its worst air pollution in recent history. With dust particles everywhere, respiratory disease climbing, and the government blissfully apathetic to the situation, a group of students decided to protest by putting masks on iconic statues across the city.\nFinally ! The statue wears a mask by youth to show symbolic protest against air pollution in #Kathmandu Nepal pic.twitter.com/LgGcc5ZhAr\n— <PERSON> (@aesmriti) March 20, 2017\nResidents joined in, by tweeting hashtags with mash-ups of ‘Kathmandu’ and ‘dust'; and ‘mask’ and ‘Kathmandu’.", "206" ], [ "Even gods at a performance arranged by <PERSON> and <PERSON> of Nepal, a well-known Buddhist monastery, wore masks.\nEven #gods need a #mask here! #Maskmandu #dusty #kathmandu #airpollution PC: <PERSON> and <PERSON> of #Nepal pic.twitter.com/rK7oacmkLm\n— <PERSON> (@Dankrity) February 17, 2017\nImages of an iconic statue of Nepal's former prime minister <PERSON> wearing a mask were widely shared.\nI am against the vandalizing of public property, but this to poke government regarding duskmandu #duskmandu #kathmandu PC:Facebook pic.twitter.com/p5obIM1yHx\n— <PERSON> (@rimalsabin) March 18, 2017\nThe level of pollution in Kathmandu has surpassed the minimum acceptable level of the World Health Organization. Reconstruction work following the 2015 earthquake, road widening projects and pipeline work associated with the much anticipated Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) has added to the pollution already emitted from hundreds of brick kilns around the city and the vehicles that congest the roads of Kathmandu.\nThe bowl shape of the Kathmandu Valley also restricts wind movement and helps trap pollutants in the atmosphere, making it more vulnerable to air pollution during the winter, according to Clean Air Network Nepal.\nA Nepal Health Research Council official explained that Kathmandu's air contains particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), which are known to be carcinogenic. Particles less than or equal to 10 micrometers in diameter, which is less than the width of single human hair, are so small that they can get into the lungs, potentially causing serious health problems.\nValley Pollution Index | https://t.co/yTmGtZWlaM pic.twitter.com/c9kEkk9urH\n— myRepública (@RepublicaNepal) February 2, 2017\nThis Instagram post shows #Dustmandu.\n#Dustmandu ! #Ringroad section at #Gausala, filled with #dust ! #melamchi #kathmandu #Nepal\nA post shared by <PERSON> (@ashokpillar) on Dec 30, 2016 at 5:42pm PST\n<PERSON> shared this cartoon:\nReality of #dustmandu Kathmandu pic.twitter.com/csMkPlzhGC\n— <PERSON> (@upensth) February 3, 2017\nWhile the government could have taken steps to avoid this perfect dust storm, it is now slowly responding to the pollution crisis.\nThe government recently banned 20 year-old public vehicles in the capital and its surrounding valley. The Environment Protection Committee of the Parliament has also instructed the water authority to spray water to reduce dust pollution; and ten brick kilns have adopted a new technology that is set to bring down pollution by around 60%, according to a BBC report.\nHowever, for the time being, Kathmandu residents have no option but to put masks over their faces, just like the iconic statues in the city.", "206" ], [ "Flora and Fauna Signal the Visible Effects of Climate Change in Nepal · Global Voices\nRhododendron and Himalayas. Image by <PERSON>. Annapurna Sanctuary, Nepal. CC BY-NC\nThe world is gaga over the final deal agreed on by 195 countries at the Paris Conference of Parties (COP) 21. The governments agreed to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions to prevent temperatures from rising above two degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels, after which scientists fear the consequences of climate change could become catastrophic.\nThe agreement emphasizes support for developing nations and the least developed countries like Nepal, which have made nominal contributions to global warming, but which are already victims of the visible impacts of climate change.\nNepal’s Mustang, the Himalayan district famous for its apples, has not seen any apple production in the orchards of Lete and Kunzo Village Development Committees for the last six years.", "447" ], [ "Experts connect it to the effects of climate change.\nRepublica : Apple orchards vanish in #Mustang villages due to climate change |… https://t.co/yZBnnD60oN pic.twitter.com/fpDeo7CNX8\n— Nepal News English (@Nepal_News_En) November 21, 2015\nThis October, the vultures found in the southern plains of Nepal were seen in the hilly Myagdi district. According to ornithologists, to evade the increasing temperature in the plains the birds might have flown in search of cooler climate.\nTarai bird spotted in Kaski wetland http://t.co/l2gem64pQT pic.twitter.com/MfA4W4sJls\n— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) October 5, 2015\nLikewise, birdwatchers sighted yellow bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) at an altitude of 900 metres in the hilly Kaski district for the first time. The migratory bird is found at 250 metres above sea level in the plains.\nSimilarly, a brown-headed gull found at sea level was sighted at the Phewa Lake of Kaski district recently.\nThe country's rhododendrons also started flowering early last year, starting in mid-January, while they generally bloom around mid-February, reported Gorkhapatra daily.\nBut even the mid-February marker for the national flower of Nepal was a change: it has been blooming in the month of February in recent years, although it used to bloom in March and April in the past.\nThe blooming of a flower in the Himalayas has long heralded the onset of Spring, but now, it's flowering too early http://t.co/HjtEFtl5Hc\n— GlobalChangeBiology (@GlobalChangeBio) July 5, 2014\nNot to mention, the untimely blooming of rhododendron in the Himalayas has been linked to climate change.\nWorld Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) research on the migration of the Apollo butterfly and pika to higher reaches in the Himalayas due to global warming has alarmed scientists, too.\nDid you know that pika are a climate change indicator species? They're also adorable. http://t.co/qrMCubqAEY @CitSci pic.twitter.com/bptjFUOLWT\n— Beers at the Bottom (@Beersatb) March 29, 2015\nThe Apollo butterflies found at 3,000 metres above sea level have moved to 500 metres above their normal habitat, while the pikas have moved to 100 metres higher in the Langtang region of Nepal.\nThe research also highlighted the movement of the Pieris species of butterflies to 2,200 metres from 1,800 metres as well as a discernible shift in the life cycle of butterflies.\nThese visible impacts of climate change are like canaries in a coal mine, but the government of Nepal, to cope with the unofficial Indian blockade (see Global Voices report), has been rampantly distributing fuel wood from the forest, drawing the ire of conservationists.\nWorld leaders are in Paris for #climatechange. At the same time #Nepal govt. is distributing firewoods as an alternative #energy #COP21\n— Sanjay Paudel (@HimalayanSanjay) December 1, 2015", "447" ], [ "Nepal’s <PERSON> climbs Mount Everest for a record 22nd time · Global Voices\n<PERSON>, 48, has climbed Mount Everest the most number of times by any human in the world. Image used with permission.\nSherpa mountain guide <PERSON> summited Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, for the 22nd time, leaving behind <PERSON> and <PERSON> who have done it 21 times each. This is a world record.\nVeteran guide <PERSON> started his summit push with nine other Chinese climbers on the night of Tuesday, May 15, 2018 and reached the summit by Wednesday morning, May 16.\nEverest Tour company Seven Summit Treks, where he works as a Sherpa guide, announced his new world record:\nThis morning 8:30 AM <PERSON> made 22 successful ascents of Mt. Everest as a part of Seven Summit Treks Everest Expedition!\nCongratulations to <PERSON>!\n8:30AM on 16th May 2018(Nepal time), <PERSON> summited the highest peak Everest (8,848m) for 22 times and broke the world record titled “Most ascents of Everest – Male.”\n<PERSON> is the name of a Tibetan ethnic group who are native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal and who are highly skilled and experienced climbers. However, the term has come to be used by non-Nepali people to generally refer to guides or porters working in the Mount Everest area.\nThe job of a Sherpa guide includes preparing the route for climbers to follow, fix ropes in place, and carry the necessary climbing kit up the mountain. It's risky work, but can pay up to 6,000 US dollars a season, much more than the average income in Nepal. The government has made it mandatory for foreign climbers to hire guides.\n<PERSON> is of the Sherpa people and hails from Thame village in Solukhumbu district. He climbed Everest for the first time in 1994, and while climbing the world’s highest peak is usually a once-in-a-lifetime ordeal for mountaineers and adrenaline junkies, it has been a ritual for him every year.\nHe worked for a long time as a professional guide for mountaineers for Alpine Ascents International, a Seattle-based commercial guiding company.", "849" ], [ "Recently he joined Seven Summits Treks, one of a dozen Nepalese-run companies that regularly operate on Everest.\nHe has climbed most of the peaks above 8,000 meters in the Himalaya range, including K2, Cho-oyu, Lhoste and Annapurna, among others.\nBefore achieving his latest Everest record, he told me:\nSummiting Everest? It's just like another daily chore. These days we've technology and weather forecasting service which has made climbing Everest much easier.\n\"Summiting Everest? It's just like another daily chore,\" says <PERSON>, 21 times Everest summiteer. \"These days we've technology and weather forecasting service which has made climbing Everest much easier.\" These days only those die who don't listen to their <PERSON> guides. Otherwise, if you have will power and commitment, you too can do it! And <PERSON> is going to do it for the 22nd time. All the best <PERSON>, you're a legend! ——————– #everestsummit #everestsummiteer #kamiritasherpa #guinnessbookofrecords #willpower #courage #youcandoit #nepal #worldrecord #inspiration #meetingthelegend #instablogger #travelblogger #traveldiary #instalike #instapic #picoftheday\nA post shared by <PERSON> (@sankuchy) on Jan 7, 2018 at 12:28am PST\n<PERSON> wasn't the only Nepali making news. Compatriot <PERSON> climbed as well for the ninth time, the most for any woman in the world, breaking her own previous record.\nThe other prominent climbers of 2018 till now are Australian <PERSON> who completed the seven summits in a record 117 days and Chinese double amputee <PERSON>.\nHowever, <PERSON> doesn’t want his children to follow his path as a <PERSON> guide, mainly because of the tragedies on the mountain in recent years. Many of the deceased in the 2014 and 2015 Mount Everest avalanches were local guides and porters, including Sherpas.\nMore than 4,000 people have summited Everest more than 7,000 times. And every year, the majestic mountain lures hundreds of aspirants challenging them to test their limits.", "849" ] ]

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[ [ "Pokémon 3: The Movie\nNovember Animation (Horror) Hunt #53\nDay 10: Movie that scared you as a kid\nHoly fuck I don't blame my kid self for being scared of this, this film has a super dark plot like it might as well be a psychological horror. Pretty sure this film gave me an extetensial crisis. Still I love Pokemon and the art is quite beautiful.", "700" ], [ "I am very nostalgic for this film. Plus you gotta give them cred for releasing such a dark Pokemon film. I wanted to watch all the Pokemon films at one point but got too scared when I remembered I would have to watch this one. <PERSON> is pretty Based tho.", "577" ], [ "Mater Private Eye\nPixar Watch Through: Worst To Best\n#71 Mater Private Eye\nPre Watch Thoughts\nI put this one higher, because I thought maybe there will be some fun genre play here. I like a noir. Either way its the last Mater Short so lets just knock it out.\nActual Review\nI actually kind of liked this a lot.", "241" ], [ "Pixar does great work using lighting in all their work, and its served well in this quick 5 minute noir knockoff. The guy who does <PERSON> even did a better job here. Very painless, even a little fun. Also, <PERSON>'s line reads keep making me think of Butters from South Park.", "585" ], [ "Turning Red\nPixar Watch Through: Worst to Best\n#54: Turning Red\n\" 'And you make sure you're home-a by midnight! And not-a four o'clock in-a the morning! And try not-a to {bleeped} and-a {bleeped} on-a your way through the forest!' And Little Red-a said \"Hey! I'm a modern-a woman. I listen to-a <PERSON>. I {bleeped} and-a I {bleeped}' And-a the mama said, 'You watch your fuckin-a mouth!' \"\nAunty Donna\nPre Review: Really cute film. Seen it twice and love that there’s a Canadian film set in the 90s in Pixar’s canon. Its on the lower end of my presumed list, because I don’t love a film that feels so personal that it sounds like I’m just hearing one person’s experience. Art is a fantastic medium to share your story, but film is so collaborative, I get squirmy when it feels like I’m only hearing one person’s story through it.", "80" ], [ "I may be way off base in that take, but it is my experience.\nActual Review: OK. I figured it out so let me clarify. I don't like parent trauma narratives. I'm kind of in general bored by them. If there's one story line that equally bores me, its teens sneaking out to a concert. So this is like not at all my jam. However, it is a fantastic film with a great cast of characters and I feel really bad for initially putting it lower than Brave because they're the same movie, and this one is better.", "596" ], [ "Cars 2\nPixar Watch Through: Worst To Best\n#72 Cars 2\n\"And instead of birthday hats, they wear traffic cones, and instead of birthday clowns, they hire a mechanic. Instead of singing Happy Birthday, trucks honk their horns. Some do car alarms, but most honk horns. Honk Honk! Trucks birthday. Honk Honk! Trucks birthday.\"\nMemphis Kansas Breeze\nPre Watch Thoughts:\nAgain, an obvious pick. There’s no way I watch a movie worse than this one for the duration of the challenge, which means hopefully I can complete it. I’m not doing a huge exploration here. It’s Cars 2, we all know what’s on deck.", "672" ], [ "Gimme <PERSON> then get the hell outta my face.\nActual Review:\nEven at its lowest, there's stuff in Pixar for me to enjoy. I love the cold open of Cars 2 and always have. The universe is SO stupid, but I enjoy the audacity of it. There's concept art somewhere of American Cars and British Cars in the Revolutionary War, and you know what Pixar? Do it. I dare you. Make the Revolutionary War Cars Movie. I want to see all the idiot logic you come up with. Hell, show me caveman cars. And if you don't have the nerve for those, at LEAST let <PERSON> and <PERSON> voice Transformers.", "672" ], [ "Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!\nOctober Horror Hunt #52\nDay 22: Featuring a Mystery\nDid you know that I love Scooby-Doo? Cause I love Scooby-Doo. These characters are so fun to watch in their different iterations.", "241" ], [ "Like a lot of later Scooby properties, it goes meta and makes a lot of jokes about the formula of Scooby-Doo while still following that basic formula that has keep this franchise alive for some many decades. I loved the introduction of <PERSON> and lesbian <PERSON>. Seeing <PERSON> in a gay panic is not something I ever thought I would see, but damn am I glad that I did.", "19" ], [ "Toy Story of Terror!\nPixar Watch Through: Worst to Best\n#52: Toy Story of Terror!\nPre Review: I probably never would have watched these Toy Story Shorts if I hadn’t started this project, but after having such a good time with <PERSON>, I’m actually looking forward to this.\nActual Review: These are all really good, I may just end up watching all the Toy Story shorts. Mr. <PERSON> as a film bro is so good, even though there's way too much of it for just a 30 min runtime. Also love me some Combat Carl Weathers.", "241" ], [ "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1\nHorror Harvest 2023\nGood lord these movies are terrible. I'd rather sit through all the Transformers movies back to back than watch these again.\nThe pregnancy angle is somewhat interesting I suppose, but is mostly supplanted by the ridiculous fighting between then Vamps and the Wolves.", "241" ], [ "I don't even fully understand what the beef is there or which wolf is who. It's non-sensical.\nAlso <PERSON> showed up in this one for about 3 minutes and she was really angry about someone killing someone. I have no idea what she's talking about.\nHorror Harvest 2022\nHorror Harvest 2021\nHorror Harvest 2020\nHorror Harvest 2019\nHorror Harvest 2018", "295" ], [ "Fallen\nHorror Harvest 2023\nThought this was kind of mediocre when I saw it in the theater back in the day... and I still kind of do, but in the best way possible.\nIt's more engaging than I remember and <PERSON> (as always is really great). I always forget how good <PERSON> is even outside of his <PERSON> performance in Lebowski.\nThe premise here is a little corny and probably easy to nitpick and pull apart but it makes for great suspense and atmosphere. Sort of one of those \"what would I do in this situation\" type of movies.\nAlso it really nails the ending.\nHorror Harvest 2022\nHorror Harvest 2021\nHorror Harvest 2020\nHorror Harvest 2019\nHorror Harvest 2018", "241" ] ]

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[ [ "Image Courtesy of myadestesThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nSummary\nGame Type - Tile Laying Game\nPlay Time: 80-90 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2-6\nMechanics – Set Collection, Tile Laying, Resource Management\nDifficulty – Pick-up & Play (Can be learnt in under 15 minutes)\nComponents - Excellent\nRelease - 2006\nDesigner - <PERSON> -(All things Alhambra, Colonia, Eketorp, Granada, High Tide, Immortals, Metro, Neptun, New York, The Rose King, Shogun, Show Manager, Speculation, Wallenstein)\nThis is the fourth in a series of reviews that will analyse each of the 5 Alhambra expansions. I will outline each expansion on its own merits and then comment on how well it interacts with other expansions in the Alhambra Family.\nAs each Boxed Expansion for Alhambra includes 4 mini-expansions, I will refer to a box as an Expansion Set and each of the 4 additions within each box as Mini-Expansions. This will hopefully avoid confusion as I discuss each in turn.\nAt the end of this review is a series of links to help find my other Alhambra Reviews.\n#13 – The Treasure Chamber\nComponents - As the namesake of this Expansion Set, The Treasure Chamber offers 3 separate high quality components. First is the Treasure Chamber mini-board. It is slightly shorter and narrower than the Reserve Boards from the base game, and the artwork depicts a set of stairs that lead to 3 separate Treasure Chambers. Each Chamber contains the number 8 and in the bottom left hand corner is a small score chart. I will explain the score chart and 8 values later.\nNext are the treasure chests. There are 42 chests in all (7 of each colour used in Alhambra) and these are made from wood and are a good size.\nFinally this expansion provides a cloth bag in which treasure chests can be drawn from.\nAll 42 Treasure Chests are placed in the tile bag at the start of play and 4 Chests are drawn at random and placed in each of the 3 Treasure Chambers.\nImpact –\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON> Treasure Chamber offers the players a new option each turn – the acquisition of Treasure Chests. To purchase Chests, at least 8 money must be paid, hence the 8 value in each Chamber on the board.", "581" ], [ "This cost can be paid with any combination of money cards and more than 8 can be paid too, however no change is given. Master Builders from Mini-Expansion #2 in this Set can also be used to pay.\nThe goal in acquiring Treasure Chests is to have more than anyone else in order to score points during scoring rounds. The scoring track outlines points for all 3 rounds and like the scoring for buildings, only the player with the most Chests will score points in Round 1, whereas the top 3 Chest owners will score points in Round 3. Round 1 offers 7 points to the leader, whilst the same lofty position will earn 22 points in Round 3. That’s some decent scoring eh?\nThe colour of the Treasure Chests has no bearing on scoring, instead they influence selection and placement. Once a player pays the required amount, they can take any 4 Treasure Chests from a single Chamber. However each Chest must be placed on a tile of a matching colour within a player’s Alhambra. If a player cannot place one or more of the Chests in their Alhambra, they are passed to the next player and added to tiles in their Alhambra if they are able. The Chests pass to all players in this fashion and if no player can find a place for a Chest, it is returned to the cloth bag.\nOnce the placement of Treasure Chests is complete, 4 new Chests must be drawn at random to refill the empty Chamber.\nIf there are not enough Chests in the cloth bag to refill a Chamber to 4, the Chamber remains empty and no Chests are drawn.\nPaying exactly 8 to acquire a set of Chests does not earn a player an extra action.\nIf a tile containing a Chest is removed (redesigned) the Chest is returned to the cloth bag.\nChests cannot be placed on Worker’s Huts from Expansion Set #1.\nChests cannot be placed on tiles on a player’s Reserve Board. They can be added to newly placed tile into a player’s Alhambra on the current turn.\nAllocating points in the case of a tie is the same for Treasure Chests as it is for scoring building tiles.", "84" ], [ "Image Courtesy of itiswonThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nSummary\nGame Type - Board Game (Tile)\nPlay Time: 80-90 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2-6\nMechanics – Set Collection, Tile Laying, Resource Management\nDifficulty – Moderate (Can be learnt in under 30 minutes)\nComponents - Excellent\nRelease - 2008\nDesigner <PERSON> -(All things Alhambra, Colonia, Eketorp, Granada, High Tide, Immortals, Metro, Neptun, The Rose King, Shogun, Show Manager,Speculation, Timbuktu, Wallenstein)\n+\n<PERSON> -(All 6 Alhambra Expansions, Flandern 1302, All things Fresco, Indus, LancasterExpansions, Lucky Loop, Maharani)\nThis is the fifth in a series of reviews that will analyse each of the 5 Alhambra expansions. I will outline each expansion on its own merits and then comment on how well it interacts with other expansions in the Alhambra Family.\nAs each Boxed Expansion for Alhambra includes 4 Mini-Expansions, I will refer to a box as an Expansion Set and each of the 4 additions within each box as Mini-Expansions. This will hopefully avoid confusion as I discuss each in turn.\nAt the end of this review is a series of links to help find my other Alhambra Reviews.\nNB - Since the time of writing this review initially, a 6th expansion (The Falconers) in this format has been released. I will look to get to this expansion in the near future.\n#17 – The New Score Cards\nComponents - This Mini-Expansion consists of two component types. First there is the Scoring Round Template, which essentially outlines the points available for each round (as per the original Reserve Tile Player Boards).\nImage Courtesy of Uncle G\nThis is essential now though due to the 2nd set of components, which are the alternate Scoring Tokens. There are 18 in all and they effectively randomize the relative values of each building type for each Scoring Round. These are of a size that allows them to sit snuggly into the brackets of the Scoring Round Template.\nImage Courtesy of Uncle G\nImpact – The New Score Cards have major implications for how a game of Alhambra will play out.", "581" ], [ "Randomising the scoring of each building type means that the building type that is king one moment, may be all but worthless in the next. What results is some careful analysis at the start of the game to calculate the relative value of each building type over the course of all 3 scoring rounds. This will appeal to some and not to others.\nThe other implication is the availability of each building type. The base game was deliberately designed to have fewer of the lower scoring buildings and more of the higher scoring ones. This meant that there was more competition to gain a majority for the high scoring Towers and Gardens and with a greater number on offer, there was less chance to miss out on them if you were in ‘the wrong place at the wrong time’ which Alhambra can suffer from.\nNow of course this is not the case and those 7 Pavillions and Seraglios (blue and red buildings) may now be worth major points. Heaven help the players that are just unlucky to see them come out and get purchased before they have a chance.\nStrategy – I’ll state it again, but it is imperative to know the relative values of each building type at the start of the game as this will help you to calculate which buildings are worth overbidding for and which ones are not.\nIt can also be quite important to gain ‘The Power of the Sultan’ (see Mini-Expansion summary below)!\nInteraction with other Expansion Sets – The Power of the Sultan is another Mini-Expansion in this Expansion Box that allows players to nab buildings of a given colour when they are added to the Market. Having one of more <PERSON> cards at your disposal can be crucial in gaining buildings that are in limited supply or are worth big points at scoring.\nNaturally the Vizier’s Favour is another very handy power to use at the right time.\nFeelings – Personally I am a little conflicted about the value of this expansion. Does it throw up an interesting set of considerations, which adds to the analysis and decision making required to play the game, or is it simply another level of randomness that could possibly throw the final result into total chaos and allow for score blowouts?", "755" ], [ "Image Courtesy of Dewit_Ankama\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nIf you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. If you thumb the bottom as well, I consider that a bonus. Thanks for reading.\nSummary\nGame Type – Family (Gateway) Game\nPlay Time: 10-20 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2-5 (Best 3+)\nMechanics – Drafting, Dice Rolling, Set Collection, Simultaneous Action Selection\nDifficulty – Pick-Up & Play (Can be learned in under 10 minutes)\nComponents – Excellent +\nRelease – 2019\nDesigners –Antoine Bauza –(All things 7 Wonders, Arkeis, Conan, Ghost Stories, Hanabi, Last Bastion, Mystery Express, Namiji, Oceanos, Samurai Spirit, Takenoko, The Little Prince: Make Me a Planet, Tokaido, Victorian Masterminds, Welcome Back to the Dungeon)\n+\n<PERSON> –( Arkeis, Flyin' Goblin, Takenoko: Chibis)\n+\n( Arkeis, , , <PERSON>, All things , , , , , , , )\n+\n( Arkeis, Flyin' Goblin, , ,\nOverview and Theme\nDraftosaurus is a light game to be sure and its simple rule-set, flow and play length put it into the 'Gateway' and 'Filler' categories as well. That doesn't mean that it might not interest gamers, but the design team behind this one does know their primary target audience and as such they keep any thematic backdrop and pretence to a minimum.\nEssentially dinosaur DNA has successfully been cloned and that has led to a raft of Dino Zoos opening up around the world. As someone in charge of one of these zoos, we must do our best to fill our pens with the trendiest dinosaurs and in doing so lure in the crowds.\nWhat that translates to is a game that uses drafting at its core as the players seek to acquire dinosaurs of various types in order to comply with the rules of each pen. In doing so they are hoping to earn the most points and claim the win. Throw in a dice to mix up the player decisions each turn and we have a very accessible game on our hands.\nTwo points of note. In the acknowledgements on the back of the rule book I notice the name of one <PERSON>.", "470" ], [ "I wonder if that is a pure (and cheeky) courtesy\\nod to the Jurassic Park franchise or if the movie maker himself (or his team) was contacted to get official approval for the thematic concept to be used?\nSecondly, it does seem odd for four designers to work on a game with such a light skeleton. The four names outlined above are also using the design name of Team Kaedama. Draftosaurus is certainly the most visible game to come out from them at this point but Arkeiswas a Kickstarter in 2019 with some interesting ideas and yet to be delivered...(I have that one on the way and look really forward to it.) The Team Kaedama Website states -\n\"We design board games on order based on your constraints (target audience, material, theme, etc.)\"\nThis is an interesting approach to take as they are actually pitching to Publishers. A Design Team approach also gives the four individuals the benefits of collaboration, four minds can probably design something faster than a designer on their own and it probably gives them more clout in negotiations with Publishers. It may well be another means to ensure that work keeps coming in and food is put on the table. The reasoning behind this formation is one I would like to explore further and it will be interesting to see if it catches on as an industry development, but that is fodder for an article in another format. I also have no connection with Team Kaedama, in the interests of transparency.\nOh and Kaedama means 'extra noodles please' at a ramen restaurant. That's your useless fact for the day at no extra charge.\nAnyway despite never having taken a 'selfie', pass me that selfie-stick will you...I have photos to take in front of enraged dinosaurs!\nThe Components\nThe company that made use of the Team Kaedama think-tank is a name relatively unknown to me in . They may be unfamiliar to you too as they started out in the video game world and have branched into other gaming fields. That said, they are behind and the upcoming Kickstarter Project, Arkeis, that I mentioned above.", "304" ], [ "Image Courtesy of <PERSON>\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nSummary\nGame Type - Board Game\nPlay Time: 30-60 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2-8 (Most commonly 2 players)\nMechanics - Card Driven, Scenario Based, Dice Rolling Combat\nDifficulty - Moderate (Takes 5-6 plays to become totally familiar)\nComponents - Excellent\nThis review follows on from my review of the base game in the Memoir System. As such I will endeavour to analyse this expansion on its merits and then comment on what it adds to the Memoir ’44 system. I have owned this expansion for well over 12 months now so I have been patient in learning the game before getting this review to you (20 plays in all at this point). I hope it reflects my understanding of the 'Pacific Theater' and is of use to readers.\nI’ll also highlight the fact that this review will not go into the basic game play of Memoir ’44. I have covered this in detail in the following review and I suggest you read that first if you are unfamiliar with the system - Memoir '44\nOverview\nThe Pacific Theater is the second real expansion of note for Memoir '44 (I discount the Terrain Pack as a solid expansion at this point but will revisit it after the Air Pack is in my hands).\nAs the name suggests the Pacific Theater focuses on the battles that took place in the Pacific and in particular it highlights the key battles fought between the Imperial Japanese Army and the US Marine Corps. The scenarios cover the time period of ’41-’45 and follows the lead taken by the Eastern Front in departing from the time frame of the base game (I recognize that this also occurred in the Terrain Pack).\nAs one would expect the game offers a range of new figures, tiles and terrain, tokens and scenarios. But most importantly it offers new rules that alter the play.\nThe Components\nPart of what makes Memoir stand out as a game, and Days of Wonder as a Company, are the great looking components that help one’s imagination run wild with possibilities.\nFigures\nIn all the Pacific Theater comes with 66 new figures to allow the Japanese to enter the fray. All units follow the standard rules of their unit type unless the Scenario Briefing states otherwise.\nJapanese Infantry (48) – The Japanese Infantry come in a tan or fawn colour (as do all the Japanese units). The poses for the Japanese are unique to all other previously seen infantry used in the game.", "299" ], [ "The Japanese soldier holds his gun in two hands and has a staggered pose, suggesting that he is on the march. A small backpack completes the miniature and together it suggests a highly mobile unit. Although simple, I really like the sculpts for the Memoir expansions.\nThe harder plastic used in the Eastern Front is also evident here and works well.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON> (Type 95 Ha-Go light tanks) (12) – These units are also unique in design. I don’t have the historical knowledge to know if the sculpt is an accurate representation of the Ha-Go but I am guessing they were made to scale as they are easily half the size of the armour units used by the Germans, Americans and Russians.\n[center]\nImage Courtesy of ColtsFan76\nArtillery (Type 98 75mm) (6) – These are a little more fragile looking than the Russian Artillery and again this is probably due to the Japanese design. You can tell from the appearance that these were designed to be unfolded and set-up quickly (correct me if I'm wrong), helping the Japanese to stay highly mobile. These units are actually referred to as Anti-Aircraft Guns and this highlights the concerns the Japanese had with the Americans in this theater.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nThe Pacific Theater offers 13 new terrain tiles to freshen up the gaming experience and offer realistic situations found in the Pacific Theater.\nImage Courtesy of ColtsFan76\nBeaches – These tiles now allow a scenario to have scattered beach placed on the all grass side of the board, or placed on the 'beach-head' side to extend a beach as required. The effects for these tiles are the same as regular beach outlined in the base game (link to review can be found at the bottom of this page).\nMountain Caves & Hill Caves – - The artwork here is functional. Mountains are depicted with a white star based center (presumably to represent snow) and holes to represent the dug-out caves. The Hill Caves are similar featuring cave holes with a hill based border. These tiles are double sided, with the reverse side featuring the underlying terrain with no caves (see battle below).", "92" ], [ "This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nImage Courtesy of samoan_jo\nSummary\nGame Type - Euro Game\nPlay Time: 45-60 Minutes\nNumber of Players: 3-4\nMechanics - Area Control, Majority Scoring, Card Drafting ('I Divide You Decide')\nDifficulty - Moderate (Can be learned in under 30 minutes)\nComponents - Excellent\nRelease - 2001\nDesigners - <PERSON>, <PERSON>, Union Pacific, Ticket to Ride, 10 Days Series, Airlines Europe, Incan Gold, Isla Dorada, New England, Oasis, Cloud 9)\nOverview\nSan Marco is a classic area control Euro from the early 2000s that comes to us from the highly productive and successful partnership of <PERSON> and <PERSON>.\nIn San Marco, the players are the heads of powerful aristocratic families in the city of Venice. Venice is controlled by the powerful ruling families and it just happens that a new place on the council has opened up. Cue infighting, deceit and trickery as each family tries to manipulate and influence the quarters of Venice in the hope of gaining the favour of the <PERSON>. The family that gains the most esteem will be appointed to the high council and become part of the elite!\nTranslation - The above theme translates into an area control Euro in which the players must use a variety of actions to further their cause but a few twists are thrown into the mix.\nLet's see why this game is so well respected...\nThe Components\nSan Marco offers up excellent components and for its time looked a cut above other Euros on the market.\nBoard – The board displays the 6 key districts of Venice, which the players will be fighting for control of. Each district is painted in contrasting colours to make them easily distinguishable and each district is separated by the canals of Venice.\nEach district features a name and two other keys bits of information; a dice value and two numbers that reflect the value of a province for 1st and 2nd place (in terms of majority control).\nThe board is flanked by the score track and in the top and bottom right hand corners are an Action Table and a Passage Tracker respectively.\nThe board is a lovely piece of artwork as each district reflects images representative of Venice in something of a collage style. The colours that are used are muted rather than garish, making it easy on the eye.", "581" ], [ "All in all the board gives the impression of a water based painting and somehow feels like a piece of renaissance artwork, which only adds to the theme.\nTwo points worth making here are that the board is not an accurate representation of the physical layout of Venice, but this isn't the first time a board game has chosen game play over 100% accuracy (something that <PERSON> would again do in Ticket to Ride for the record).\nThe other slight negative is the fact that for some reason the score track uses artistic flourishes in the corners, which requires scoring markers to jump a spot. This can lead to scoring errors if the players are not paying attention and really should never have made the final production.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nAction Cards - In all San Marco makes use of 5 types of Action Cards, which the players must try to utilise to gain influence within the city and position themselves to outwit their opponents. Whilst the following image only shows two examples of District Cards, of course there are such cards for all of the 6 Districts featured in the game.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nLimit Cards - Limit Cards come in values of 1, 2 and 3. These cards serve to hamstring the players and unlike the above Action Cards, these are not desirable.\nBoth these and the above cards come in a small format, much like those seen in the first edition of Ticket to Ride or in Pirate's Cove.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nBridges – The beautiful bridges found here are a lovely component to be sure. Complete with 6 steps and brickwork on the sides, these plastic curved creations add a real visual element to the game and are heads and shoulders above what most other Euros were doing around the turn of the century.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nAristocrat Cubes - Ah but now for a return to the classic Euro. In case you were in any doubt that this was a Euro, San Marco uses small wooden cubes to denote the members of your family (or those that work for you) that seek to vie for control of the city. Unlike most games though, slightly unusual colours are used in blue, white, black and yellow. I suspect that this was done to help them be more visible against the muted colours of the board.", "872" ], [ "Image Courtesy of VerkistoThis review continues my series of detailed reviews. I have tried to cover every aspect of the game and as such you may prefer to skip to the sections of most interest.\nSummary\nGame Type – Euro Game\nPlay Time: 30-50 min\nNumber of Players: 2-5(6)\nMechanics – Tile Placement, Area Control & Influence\nDifficulty – Pick-up & Play (Can be learned in under 20 minutes and takes only 1-2 plays to fully grasp)\nComponents – Excellent\nRelease - 2003\nDesigner - <PERSON> - (Bali, All things Carcassonne, The Downfall of Pompeii, Mesopotamia)\nOverview\nThis review continues my detailed analysis of the Carcassonne series of titles and is the second of the expansions that I have looked at.\nI have no plans to cover the basic play and strategy of the base game here. If you would like to know more about Carcassonne, I suggest a quick read of this review –\nCarcassonne - A Detailed Review\nTraders Builders was released 3 years after the original game and a year after the highly successful Inns Cathedrals. It comes in a nice smaller box format and it is regarded as one of the ‘better’ expansions for the franchise.\nThis expansion review will outline what new elements and strategy are generated when using Traders Builders and how that changes the feel of the play. It will also look at any interesting interplay that may arise if used in conjunction with Inns Cathedrals.\nComponents\nTiles – Traders Builders offers up an additional 24 tiles to add to the Carcassonne mix and many of these tiles feature icons that represent Trade Goods (more on those later). Tile distribution images like the one below are really handy if you mix a series of expansions together and want to separate them out again.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nTrade Goods - A series of tokens are provided that feature the icons of the Trade Goods located on many of the new tiles. The number of Goods is not exactly the same for each type.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nMeeple – In this expansion we also get some specialised Meeple in the form of the Builder and the Pig. All colours are represented including the grey 6th player that was made possible by Inns Cathedrals.\nImage Courtesy of mpot\nCloth Bag – By now the designer and publisher probably realised that fans of the series would likely play with the base game and both the small box expansions, which meant a lot of tiles to mix and stack in piles.", "581" ], [ "So they included a really nice cloth bag, which allows all the tiles to be thrown in there and mixed up in a matter of seconds. It comes in Royal Blue (which matches the colour of the Carcassonne box, although some images on the Geek suggest other colours have been used) and it also features a nice Carcassonne transfer.\nIt is little touches like this that game fans appreciate. It also meant that each expansion to date had included a component that didn't affect the game play but did make the playing experience easier to manage.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nRules – Like Inns Cathedrals, the rules are printed on a small double-sided sheet, which means you will be able to absorb the new additions and get into playing within 15-20 minutes.\nAll in all the components are up to the usual high standard of any Carcassonne title.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nNew Elements\nTraders Builders offers 3 new additions to change the play of the basic game. It also offered a couple of little extras.\nNew Tiles – Traders Builders adds 24 new tiles to the Carcassonne mix to make for a total of 96 tiles (using base game) or 114 tiles in play (if also using Inns Cathedrals) per game.\nThe Trade Goods – Justifying the ‘Traders’ part of the title, 20 of the new tiles feature a particular goods symbol. The goods include Wine (9), Grain (6) and Cloth (5). These goods are always located within a piece of City.\nWhen a player places a tile that completes a City, they are allowed to take 1 matching Goods Token for each icon located in the City. This collection is done regardless of who owns the Meeple in the City and they are awarded even if the City contained no Meeple.\nAt the end of the game, 10 points are awarded to any player holding a majority of tokens in any one Trade Good. Thus a total of 30 points can be earned in this way at games end. In the event of a tie all players are entitled to the 10 points.", "84" ], [ "Image Courtesy of <PERSON>\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nIf you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. If you thumb the bottom as well, I consider that a bonus. Thanks for reading.\nSummary\nGame Type – Roll and Write (Dice) Game\nPlay Time: 30-50 minutes\nNumber of Players: 1-4\nMechanics – Dice Rolling, Paper and Pencil\nDifficulty – Pick-Up & Play (Can be learned in under 10 minutes)\nComponents – Very Good\nRelease – 2018\nDesigner – <PERSON> -( Brikks, Fuji, The Mind, The Quacks of Quedlinburg)\nOverview and Theme\n2018 was a big year for Roll and Write game designs with this title nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres, Welcome To...was also released and two Kickstarted titles in Roll to the Topand On Tourlaunched. And I have left off a few more that spring to mind immediately.\nFor those not aware of the genre, Roll ‘n’ WriteGames have been around for decades because Yahtzeewas perhaps the first of its kind. It simply means that you must roll some dice and record one or more results on a scoring sheet of some kind. Now don't be turned off by the Yahtzee reference because this is the 21st century and the genre is getting a little more gamer-fied. I should also probably mention that the genre is being pushed in some diverse directions and the popular Welcome To... is actually a draw and write (as in you draw cards as opposed to rolling dice).\nSo is Ganz schon clever as good as all the cool kids are making it out to be? Where does it sit among the numerous titles that this genre has spawned over the last 3-5 years?\nLet's go into the sitting room to find out. Oh grab that silver platter will you...we will be needing that.\nThe Components\nTwo elements that define a Roll ‘n’ Write game are the fact that they tend to be fairly small in terms of their footprint and the game play is usually directed by the options on the scoresheet itself.", "470" ], [ "This is certainly the case for Ganz shon clever.\nScore Sheets – The scoresheet that each player receives consists of 5 scoring areas in the colours yellow, blue, green, orange and purple. I will outline the function of these in the body of the review.\nAbove those 5 scoring areas is a round track, 2 horizontal rows to record some additional bonuses that can be earned and 3 vertical white spaces, which serve as locations to assign taken dice.\nBefore learning the game it might look a little confusing with all the various icons, arrows and values all over the place. But once you learn the game it all makes total sense and is highly functional.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nDice – The game comes with 6 wooden dice that are standard six-sided affairs (values 1-6). Five of these dice come in the colours of the 5 scoring areas - I'll let you make your own assumptions as to the connection for now. The last dice comes in white.\nThese are about as standard as they come. I don't know how random the assortment of dice is in the various editions around the world but I have a copy (German Language Edition) that features pips in black and another with pips in gold. I can't see any logical purpose for this as the dice colours with gold pips do not have any special connection to one another (they are the purple, green and blue dice in my copy). I would imagine they were just randomly grabbed at production.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON> & Rules – The game comes with 4 small black markers that can also work on dry erase boards in other games.\nOf course they only last so long before you need to get some better quality ones.\nThe rules are where the production errs a little. The English translation (from the original German release) is a bit confusing in places but I've even seen some German gamers comment on the forum pages that the English translations weren't where the problems started...that some of the rules written in German are a little ambiguous also.\nThankfully we are Geeks and can find the solutions we need. Hopefully the English edition\\later printings can spell things out more clearly.\nImage Courtesy of Alice87\nPackaging – I really like the small packaging that most Roll ‘n’ Writes allow. But I'm really mentioning this point because inside the box is artwork that represents a Silver Platter.", "872" ], [ "Image Courtesy of SpiderOne\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nIn addition this is the 2nd in a series of reviews that will focus on the Kosmos series of games. A full list of titles I plan to review or have reviewed from the series can be found at the bottom of this review.\nSummary\nGame Type - Card Game\nPlay Time: 20-40 minutes (Playing Best of 3)\nNumber of Players: 2\nMechanics - Set Collection, Card Drafting\nDifficulty - Pick-up & Play (Can be learnt in under 10 minutes)\nComponents - Excellent\nRelease - 1999\nDesigner - Reiner Knizia- ( Amun-Re, FITS, Indigo, Ingenious, Lord of the Rings, Lost Cities, Medici, Modern Art, Pickomino, Stephenson's Rocket, Tigris & Euphrates, Through the Desert, Ra, Taj Mahal, The Quest for El Dorado, Winner's Circle…and the list goes on!)\nOverview\nIn Lost Cities, each player represents the Leader of an Archeological team, determined to scour the world to uncover the most precious of artifacts. Each player must decide on which of 5 locations they will visit and then they must prepare their resources for each trek before setting forth to find treasures of untold wonder!\nOf course the reality is that this is a set collecting and card placement game that could have had any theme on the planet. In truth it is highly mathematical in the mechanics and execution and Dr. <PERSON> has made this foundation the basis of many of his designs over the years.\nThe Components\nThe Board - Like many games in the Kosmos 2-Player Series, Lost Cities features a small board. This one is a 3-fold design and upon it are 5 reasonably sized parchment maps. Each one is a different colour (which matches the 5 colours that the cards come in) and each colour has been selected to represent a different terrain. Red is the Ancient Volcano Regions (I didn't realise many tribes lived inside volcanoes but hey), Green is for the Amazon, White is the Himalayas, Blue is for the Ocean (Neptune's) Realm and Yellow the Deserts, most likely those of Egypt.\nEach of these parchment maps are well illustrated, featuring tears and crude hand drawings to suggest that each one has been painstakingly found and put together.\nImage Courtesy of ronster0\nThe background of the board features a wooden grain design to suggest a table and there are several archeological tools and a large magnifying glass also illustrated.", "299" ], [ "All told the board really conveys the theme of the game and looks good doing it. Kosmos are great for this sort of thing.\nThe Cards - Lost Cities features a total of 60 cards. There are 12 in each colour with 9 of them being Expedition Cards (1 of each numbered 2-10) and 3 being Investment Cards. The cards come in an unusual size, being slightly wider than a standard playing card and about 12cms longer (not that I measured or anything ).\nImage Courtesy of -=Dani=-\nEvery Expedition Card features lovely artwork depicting a scene from its given location. Each cards artwork was drawn to form a mosaic or larger piece of artwork (when combined with other cards from the same set) and a super clever geek put these together for all of us to enjoy.\nImage Courtesy of Major <PERSON>\nThe back of the cards also feature an old golden compass, which supports the theme nicely as well as being good to look at.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nThe Investment Cards all feature the same artwork, a scene whereby 2 men shake hands. This is likely representing an investor sealing the agreement with the Archeological team to bankroll an Expedition. These cards are also identified as different to the Expedition Cards by way of a pair of shaking hand symbols instead of numerical values at the top of the card.\nImage Courtesy of EndersGame\nRules and Insert Tray - The rules are very easy to read and also offer a variant for 4-player games (requiring 2 copies to play). The insert tray is a very simple affair but with only cards and the board to accommodate, it is a nice snug fit.\nImage Courtesy of zombiegod\nAll in all the components don't blow you away but they are classy in their presentation non-the-less.\nThe Game Play\nIt's no secret that Lost Cities is a heck of a popular game and widely regarded as a favourite of many female gamers in particular.\nLet's take a closer look at how the game flows.\nStarting Hand - Each player begins the game by being dealt 8 cards. The remainder are placed beside the board as a draw pile.", "872" ] ]

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[ [ "The statement of this questions mixes a number of issues, so there is, in my opinion, no definite answer to this question.\nFirst of all, one must take care that activation energies will have an influence on the kinetics (rate constant) of the reaction that is catalyzed. In a very general point of view, the overall energetic requirement for a chemical reaction does not directly depend on the activation energy (for instance the equilibrium constant is not changed).\nThus if two separate processes are considered, a different activation energy will mostly mean a reaction rate that will be slower, so overall a process that might take longer but not necessarily need a higher energy input.\nNow if one would add to this problem a constraint that would be that the reaction rates of bith processes should be similar, the main method to achieve such a result would be to change the temperature at which the process takes place. This is related to the activation energy through the <PERSON> equation:\n$$k = A e^{-\\frac{E_{a}}{RT}}$$\nIf one assumes that the pre-exponential factor is the same for both processes (in effect meaning that the transition states in the catalyzed reaction have similar constraints) then one can reach some conclusions on both processes.\nFor instance, the reaction rates at constant temperature can be calculated.", "273" ], [ "At 298 K, 3 kcal/mol difference would mean a ratio $k_{1}/k_{2}$ of about 150, so the process with lower activation energy would proceed 150 times faster than the other one. An other option would then be to increase the temperature of the slower process. In such a case, the temperature would depend on the ratio of the activation energies (and not the difference) as :\n$$T_{2} = \\frac{E_{a2}}{E_{a1}} T_{1}$$\nIf one takes the values of the qustion and considers a process that would take place at 298 K, one would need to heat at 373 K to reach the same rate constant. From this, one could consider the additional energy input required to heat the reaction medium up to this temperature.", "108" ], [ "Reaction rates should be defined in terms of the Extent of reaction ($\\xi$) that corresponds to the number of moles (or the molarity for reactions in solution) of specie $i$ divided by the the stoichiometric number, $\\nu_i$: $$\\xi = \\frac{[i]}{\\nu_i}$$ Therefore, considering that the first reaction should be: $$\\ce{A + A -> B ~=~ 2A -> B}$$ The corresponding reaction rates are: $$\\frac{\\mathrm{d}\\xi}{\\mathrm{d}t} = -\\frac{1}{2} \\frac{\\mathrm{d}[\\ce{A}]}{\\mathrm{d}t} = \\frac{\\mathrm{d}[\\ce{B}]}{\\mathrm{d}t}$$ In this way, the reaction rate is always the same (positive) number, independently on the specie we are referring to. The global rate equations are: \\begin{align} \\frac{\\mathrm{d}[\\ce{A}]}{\\mathrm{d}t} &= −2k_1[\\ce{A}]^2−k_2[\\ce{A}][\\ce{B}]−k_3[\\ce{A}][\\ce{C}]−k_4[\\ce{A}][\\ce{D}]\\ \\frac{\\mathrm{d}[\\ce{B}]}{\\mathrm{d}t} &= 2k_1[\\ce{A}]^2−k_2[\\ce{A}][\\ce{B}]+k_4[\\ce{A}][D]\\ \\frac{\\mathrm{d}[\\ce{C}]}{\\mathrm{d}t} &= k_2[\\ce{A}][\\ce{B}] -k_3[\\ce{A}][\\ce{C}] +k_4[\\ce{A}][\\ce{D}]\\ \\frac{\\mathrm{d}[\\ce{D}]}{\\mathrm{d}t} &= k_3[\\ce{A}][\\ce{C}] -k_4[\\ce{A}][\\ce{D}]\\ \\end{align}\nIt is conceptually wrong to assume that\nthe products of $\\ce{A + D}$ should be split evenly between $\\ce{B}$ and $\\ce{C}$.\nThe reaction scheme you described is the \"parallel reactions\" model. The amount of $\\ce{A}$ consumed by each reaction depends on the specific rate. The stoichiometry of the first step says that every time 1 molecule of $\\ce{B}$ is produced 2 molecules of $\\ce{A}$ are consumed.", "374" ], [ "But maybe $k_1$ is very small and so all the other process will consume $\\ce{A}$ much more rapidly than this one.\nYou cannot predict what will happen in a reaction system just looking at the stoichiometry of each step. If you have a large amount of $\\ce{C}$, it will probably consume a lot of $\\ce{A}$ in the third step, producing a lot of $\\ce{D}$ that, in turn, will produce a lot of $\\ce{B}$, etc. Stoichiometry is just one piece of information. But kinetics is much more that this.", "653" ], [ "It is reasonable to be confused by this. The behaviour of these sorts of reactions is counter intuitive if you don't have a chemistry background, and it doesn't help that it is sort of obscured by the particular choice of numbers in the assignment.\nLooking at it naively, you might expect that because the forward rate is twice the backward rate, the final equilibrium should be 2:1 products:starting materials. But this is only true when the overall number of molecules is conserved.\nThis reaction is bimolecular in the forward direction and unimolecular in the reverse. That means in order to react in the forward direction, a molecule of A and a molecule of B must find each other and collide, but in the backwards direction a molecule of C can spontaneously decide to split.\nAsk yourself - what happens to this reaction when it is highly diluted, and molecules of A and B rarely interact? How easy is it to form C in the first place? Is the rate of C splitting apart affected?\nConversely, what happens when A and B are jam-packed in a concentrated syrup? What happens to the rate of formation of C when the solution is nothing but A and B all colliding with each other, along with the minimum number of solvent molecules needed to keep everything in solution?\nThis reaction is concentration dependent.", "653" ], [ "The more concentrated it is, the faster A and B will find each other, while the rate of C splitting up remains the same. The equilibrium therefore shifts towards C with increasing concentration.\nYou can see it in the equation: $$K_{eq}=\\frac{[\\ce{C}]}{[\\ce{A}][\\ce{B}]}\\$$ Assuming [A] = [B], the equilibrium is affected linearly with the concentration of the product, but with the square of the concentrations of the starting materials.\nAs it happens, a concentration of 1 M is quite concentrated, relative to what an organic chemist might actually use in an experiment. If all the starting concentrations were at 0.1 M instead, the equilibrium concentrations would be at [A],[B] = 0.085 and [C] = 0.015 respectively. A 5.66:1 ratio of starting material to product, even though we haven't altered K at all.", "797" ], [ "Excellent question. On the one hand, the vapor pressure of water (or any other volatile liquid) is a function of the temperature alone, but on the other, if you assume that the mole fraction is constant you find that the vapor pressure of the water changes even though the temperature is constant.\nThe short answer\nThe water vapor pressure stays constant because as the pressure in the balloon increases, the mole fraction of the water reduces proportionally to maintain the equilibrium it has established.\nThe longer answer\nLet's dig into the former approach I mentioned in the introduction first. We can begin with the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship.\nThe Clausius-Clapeyron relationship (often is simplified to):\n$$\\ln \\left(P_{vapor}\\right) = -\\frac{L}{R}\\left(\\frac{1}{T}\\right) + C$$\nWhere $L$ and $C$ are constants and $R$ is the ideal gas constant.\nUsing this model, we would expect the vapor pressure of the water to remain constant and therefore the mole fraction of water in the gas phase to decrease.\n<PERSON>'s law tells us: $$X_{water}=\\frac{n_{water}}{n_{tot}} = \\frac{P_{water}}{P_{tot}}$$\nUsing this expression we can see that, as the total pressure of the gas increases and the vapor pressure of the water stays constant, the mole fraction of water in the gas phase must go down. If we assume, as a first approximation, that the total number of gas molecules in the gas phase is constant, then a reduction in mole fraction can only be accomplished by some of the molecules of water in the gas phase being reabsorbed into the liquid water phase.", "568" ], [ "This consequence is in agreement with the Le Chatelier principle prediction. A decrease in volume available to the water molecules will shift the equilibrium below to the left:\n$$H_2O\\,(l) \\rightleftharpoons H_2O\\,(g)$$\nThank you for such a rich question! How interesting that there are so many topics it relates too! Excellent!\nOther thoughts\n* When we calculate the initial pressure of the other gases in the volume, we should use:\n$$P_{tot} = P_{water} + P_{all\\,other\\,gas}$$\n$$P_{tot} = P_{external} = 760\\,mm\\,Hg$$\n$$P_{all\\,other\\,gas} = P_{tot} - P_{water} = 760\\,mm\\,Hg - 24\\,mm\\,Hg = 736\\,mm \\,Hg$$\n* The dissolved gas in the water in the balloon will also increase at higher pressures. How will this affect our calculations?\n* We have not considered energy concepts explicitly in this argument about the pressures being equal (in the first bullet above), but we could have considered the elastic energy stored in the bonds of the balloon. How could we include this to get a better estimate of the pressure of the other gases in the balloon?", "439" ], [ "On remark: just because activation energy high/low it doesn't necessarily mean that reaction is slow or fast. You cannot tell this without the pre-exponential factor.\nThe answer: Off course, the original statement should not applied as you do it. \"According to transition state theory, rates are determined by the rate-limiting step.\" doesn't mean automatically that all the reaction rates are equal.\nA to B conversion is slow compared to other processes, is true, but still B to C and B to D are competing processes. The original statement only means that B will not build up in bigger quantities, so during the reaction all the final products (C and D together) are approximately equal with the used A after you consider stoichimetries.\nEdited for clarification (sorry, pretty new to LaTex):\nYou should consider all the transformations as independent equations. Black magic is not involved, \"rate determining step\" and such only helps making approximations so one can solve the coupled differential equations on napkin.\nExample 1.\nLet us assume a reaction system with $A \\to B \\to C$. The kinetics of the system can be describe by two independent equations\n$A \\to B$ with a corresponding $k1$ and $B \\to C$ with a corresponding $k2$\nTo describe conversions we can get different equations:\n$$ \\frac{d[A]}{dt} = -k1 [A] $$\n$$ \\frac{d[B]}{dt} = k1 [A] - k2 [B]$$\n$$ \\frac{d[C]}{dt} = k2 [B] $$\nWe see that it is already pretty messy, so assumptions like $k1 << k2$ can help.", "273" ], [ "The general way is that we say, this difference in the rate constants allows us to asume $$ \\frac{d[B]}{dt} \\approx 0 $$. So we have pipeline, and in first approximation have that much $B \\to C$ conversion going as $A \\to B$. I.e. the is no \"clogging\" in the middle. Not much magic here.\nExample 2.\nNow what if we have e.g. two slow reactions as second step instead of one? Noting special: $A\\to B$ , with $k1$, $B\\to C$ , with $k2$, $B\\to D$ , with $k3$ which translates to\n$$ \\frac{d[A]}{dt} = -k1 [A] $$\n$$ \\frac{d[B]}{dt} = k1 [A] -( k2 [B] + k3 [B])$$\n$$ \\frac{d[C]}{dt} = k2 [B] $$\n$$ \\frac{d[D]}{dt} = k3 [B] $$\nNow we have the same assumption that the first step is much slower than the others than\n$$ \\frac{d[B]}{dt} = k1 [A] -( k2 [B] + k3 [B]) \\approx 0$$\nI think you can try it from here and see how the rates comes out.", "374" ], [ "Answering \"does every reaction have a reverse reaction?\" (are there more endothermic or exothermic reactions):\nYou've actually hit on a topic people have been exploring for nearly a century:\n<PERSON>. A New Principle of Equilibrium. PNAS, 1925, 11(3),179-183\nThe Law of Entire Equilibrium — Thus I am led to propose a law which in its general form is not deducible from thermodynamics, but proves to be compatible with the laws of thermodynamics in all cases where a comparison is possible. It may be called the law of entire equilibrium, and may be stated as follows. Corresponding to every individual process there is a reverse process, and in a state of equilibrium the average rate of every process is equal to the average rate of its reverse process. The rate at which one group or set of groups L goes over into another group or set of groups L' is the same as the rate at which the groups L' go over into the groups L. Moreover if there are various paths by which the first process occurs, there is an equal number of paths by which the second process occurs, and the rate is the same in both directions along every path. This will be true no matter how detailed are the specifications which define the several groups and the several paths.\nThe implications of this concept (and your question) have been well-elucidated by SE user <PERSON> in two posts:\nIs every chemical reaction in equilibrium?\nCommenters suggest that \"irreversible\" reactions do not have an equilibrium. This is true, but tautological. In the real world, all reactions are reversible, at least to a (perhaps vanishingly small) degree. To say otherwise would violate microscopic reversibility. A reaction that was 100% irreverible would have an equilibrium constant of infinity. But if =∞, then Δ∘=−ln would turn into Δ∘=−∞. So to get infinite energy we would just have to use 100% irreversible reactions! Hopefully the problems with the idea of \"irreversible\" reactions are becoming apparent.\n<br/\nSpontaneous/Non-Spontaneous Reactions and Reversible Reactions\n* All reactions can be viewed as reversible from a mathematical standpoint, if the reacting system is \"big enough\". Reactions that are highly spontaneous in the forward direction mean that at equilibrium, the number of \"reactant\" molecules will be very very small (but not zero!).\n* Many times, \"big enough\" would mean astronomically big, such as bigger than the Earth.", "273" ], [ "In these cases, reactions can be regarded as \"irreversible\", although there is no strict, universally agreed upon boundary between \"reversible\" and \"irreversible\".\nThis should implicitly answer your question, as a 'reversed' exothermic reaction is an endothermic reaction. If every reaction is fundamentally reversible (on some scale, whether or not it's reasonable, as <PERSON> describes), then there are an equal number of exothermic and endothermic reactions.\nAnswering \"which occurs more frequently: exothermic or endothermic reactions?\" (are there more endothermic or exothermic reactions?):\nThis is an interesting way to look at things. Considering the ever-increasing entropy of the universe and the favorable relationship between entropy and heat, I would guess that there are more exothermic reactions. Exothermic reactions represent energetically favorable transformations and are more spontaneous than endothermic reactions, so it stands to reason that there are \"more exothermic reactions.\"\n<PERSON> & <PERSON>. In command of non-equilibrium. Chem. Soc. Rev., 2016, 45,2768-2784\n2.7 Heat death: the ultimate end of an evolving universe\nFrom the second law of thermodynamics we know that the entropy of the universe will increase for all spontaneous processes. Since the total possible reversible heat flow is limited by everything having the same temperature, and when no chemical or nuclear reactions are available anymore which can produce further heat, entropy will reach a maximum but will not go to infinity. This extrapolated end of a universe that evolves further in time has been dubbed heat death. But how will this final state look like? This is a question that is complex to answer. Considering an extremely simplified model universe helps to get a rough idea.\nWe first consider a closed system consisting of 1 mol of glucose and 6 mol of molecular oxygen at 25°C and 1 bar pressure (see Fig. 18a). The equilibrium state at the same temperature and pressure consists of the system after complete combustion to 6 mol of CO2 and 6 mol of liquid H2O. The heat of reaction of 2805 kJ will be dissipated from the system...\n5 Concluding remarks\nHeat engines produce work that is typically used to drive processes which do not occur spontaneously.", "273" ], [ "What is the problem of this thermodynamic fallacy?\nConsider the following (alleged) cycle:\n1. Quasi-static adiabatic expansion of a vapor in such a condition that it results in the condensation of part of the mols*;\n2. Out of equilibrium adiabatic compression;\n3. Quasi-static isochoric heating;\nStatements:\n1. The latent heat required to change the state of part of the mols during steps 1 and 2 is due to the work done by the vapor;\n2. Each infinitesimal compression dV during step 2 being done farther away from equilibrium than an infinitesimal expansion of same size done in step 1 at the same volume, grants that if the internal energy in both cases were also the same (ie all other factors being equal), a smaller molar fraction would be recovered to vaporous state than it was lost, so that\n3.", "749" ], [ "(lesser mols - lower energy feedback) with lesser mols recovered at each point of step 2, there is lower energy than in step 1, which implies a lower pressure, which implies a lower infinitesimal work done by each infinitesimal compression, which implies lower gain of latent heat, which yields an even lower recovery of vapor mols;\n4. Steps 1 and 2 being done adiabatically, all the difference of work came from the internal energy of the mols. The initial state of step 1 and final state of step 2 have the same volume and different energies, and thus, step 3 can go from the latter to the former simply by means of a quasi-static heating.\n5. We have, thus, performed a closed loop in the space of thermodynamic states, whose only effect is the total transformation of heat into work, in other words, a heat engine with efficiency 1**.\nThe experiment can be more easily conceived by a piston that connects with a separated chamber that has the exact volume of condensed (or sublimed) mol fraction in the liquid (or solid) state. During step 1, the referred mol fraction 'rains' (or 'snows') into that chamber that is then closed so to completely prevent it to be recovered to the vapor fraction during step 2, regardless even of how near the equilibrium it is done. After step 2, the chamber is reopened, thus allowing those mols to be recovered to the vapor state in step 3.\nThe few experts on thermodynamics whom I have consulted haven't achieved to solve this apparent fallacy, which, I actually came up with before actually having formally studied thermodynamics, in my school days, back in 2008.\nThe change of physical state to one of lower energy due to adiabatic cooling* does happen, for example, in the formation of some types of clouds and in the sublimation of gaseous CO2 into dry ice in fire extinguishers.", "273" ], [ "* in the case of electrochemical cells/Galvanic cells: Oxidation at the anode (the A and O of electrochemistry, german people will know what I mean), reduction at the cathode (in electrolysis its the other way round)\n* $EMF = E_{red} - E_{ox} = E_{cat} - E_{an} > 0$ for the reaction to run without external voltage (<0 in the case of electrolysis) \"the higher redox potential always oxidizes the lower one\"\nIn your case this means running the cell without applying any voltage gives an $EMF = 1.33 - -0.25 V = 1.58 V$\nreduction at cathode:\nCr$2$O$_7^{2-}$${(aq)}$ + 14 H$^+$${(aq)}$ + 6 e$^-$ $\\rightarrow$ 2Cr$^{3+}$${(aq)}$ + 7 H$2$0${(l)}$ (in the electrolyte -6e charges)\noxidation at anode:\n3 Ni$s$ $\\rightarrow$ 3 Ni$^{2+}{(aq)}$+ 6e$^-$ (in the electrolyte +6e charges) (already multiplied by 3 for the total reaction)\ntotal:\nCr$2$O$_7^{2-}$${(aq)}$ + 14 H$^+$${(aq)}$ + 3 Ni$_s$ $\\rightarrow$ 2Cr$^{3+}$${(aq)}$ + 7 H$2$0${(l)}$ + 3 Ni$^{2+}_{(aq)}$\nNow there is however a clear symbol in the electric cycle standing for a voltage source \"V\". This is indeed confusing and I would ask what was the meaning of that if the figure was actually titled \"Galvanic Cell\" which is the other way round. So if it would't be for the title and we would consider running the cell with external voltage, this would then turn around all reactions which I wrote before.\nOther things that might be relevant:\n* K$_2$SO$_4$ is responsible for the charge transfer between the cells.", "662" ], [ "Since one cell produces positive charges in solution and the other one negative ones the electrolyte has to establish that the overall charge in both cells stays neutral. The salt bridge connects the electric cycle, without it, the cell won't run for long\n* the Gibb's energy is related to the EMF. $\\Delta G = -n\\cdot F\\cdot EMF$, so again a positive $EMF$ gives a negative $\\Delta G$ which means the reaction runs \"alone\" without external voltage, the Gibb's energy provides the driving force. n is the number of electrons involved in the redox reaction (6) (F is the Faraday constant, a natural constant)", "246" ] ]

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[ [ "Energy density in electrostatics - definition\nBackground:\nIt can be shown that the potential energy of charge distribution can be calculated by\n$U = \\frac{1}{2}\\int_V \\rho(r')\\Phi(r') d^3r' $\nby means of integration by parts and the poisson equation $\\Delta\\Phi(r) = 4\\pi \\rho(r)$ the integral can be rewritten\n$U = \\frac{1}{2}\\int_V \\rho(r')\\Phi(r') d^3r' = \\frac{1}{8\\pi}\\int_V (\\nabla \\Phi(r')) (\\nabla \\Phi(r') )d^3r' = \\int_V \\frac{|E(r')|^2}{8\\pi}d^3r'$\nThe integrand of the integral can be interpreted as the energy density $u$:\n$u(r) = \\frac{|E(r)|}{8\\pi}$\nConsidering an example of a homogeneously charged solid sphere with radius $R$:\n$\\rho(r) = \\rho_0 \\Theta(r-R)$\nwhere $\\Theta(r)$ is the heavyside-function.\nWith $Q=\\frac{4}{3}\\pi \\rho_0 R^3$, this results in the following potential:\n$\\Phi(r) = \\frac{Q}{R} \\left(\\frac{3}{2}-\\frac{r^2}{2R^2} \\right)$ for $r<R$\n$\\Phi(r) = \\frac{Q}{r}$ for $r>R$\nThe radial electric field is:\n$E(r) = \\frac{Qr}{R^3}$ for $r<R$\n$E(r) = \\frac{Q}{r^2}$ for $r>R$\nWith this in mind we can calculate the energy density:\n$u(r) = \\frac{Q^2r^2}{8\\pi R^6}$ for $r<R$\n$u(r) = \\frac{Q^2}{8 \\pi r^4}$ for $r>R$\nIntegrating this will result in the total potential energy:\n$U = \\int_0^{\\infty} 4\\pi r^2 u(r) dr = \\frac{3Q^2}{5R}$\nNow to my question:\nStarting from the first integral, why can't the energy density be defined as followed:\n$u(r) = \\frac{1}{2} \\rho(r')\\Phi(r')$\nWhen considering the example above this would equate to:\n$u(r) = \\rho_0 \\frac{Q}{R} \\left(\\frac{3}{2}-\\frac{r^2}{2R^2} \\right) = \\frac{3Q^2}{4\\pi R^4} \\left(\\frac{3}{2}-\\frac{r^2}{2R^2} \\right)$ for $r<R$\n$u(r) = 0$ for $r>R$\nIntegrating over this we get the same energy (as expected)!\n$U = \\int_0^{\\infty} 4\\pi r^2 u(r) dr = \\frac{3Q^2}{5R}$\nHow can there be two different ways of defining a energy density $u(r)$. Where have I made a mistake?\nHelp will be apprechiated!", "649" ], [ "How to deal with numerical errors in electrostatic field calculations\nI want to trace electrostatic field lines emerging from 2D surfaces in 3D space. Eventually I want to find their intersection with an (uncharged) mesh.\nThe charge distribution $\\sigma(x), x \\in \\Gamma \\subset \\mathbb{R}^3$ is defined by requiring a constant potential $\\phi(x) = \\phi_\\Gamma\\ \\forall x\\in\\Gamma$.\nFor the potential field $\\phi$ and the electrostatic field $E$ we have:\n$$ \\phi(x) = \\int_\\Gamma \\sigma(y) \\frac{1}{\\|x-y\\|} dy,\\quad x\\in\\mathbb{R}^3 \\ E(x) = \\nabla \\phi(x) = \\int_\\Gamma \\sigma(y) \\frac{x-y}{\\|x-y\\|^3} dy,\\quad x\\in\\mathbb{R}^3 $$\nThe potential function $\\phi$ is harmonic ($\\Delta\\phi=0$), so the points on the charged surfaces are the maxima of $\\phi$ and the electric field is $0$ there. To trace the field lines I place two particles with a small offset in/against normal direction. The particles have in general a non-zero $E$ field, which can be used to trace the field lines with a time stepping scheme\n$$ x_{i+1} = x_i + E(x_i) $$\nFor a surface like a plane you get two field lines in opposite directions and the field vanishes at infinity.", "402" ], [ "When the surface belongs to a solid object, e.g a sphere, the potential field is constant and the electric field is $0$ on the inside, because $\\phi$ is harmonic.\nTo calculate the field line, I use an approximation $\\tilde{E}$ by replacing the integral over $\\Gamma$ with a finite sum over triangles $T_i$:\n$$ E(x) \\approx \\sum_j q_j \\int_{T_j} \\frac{1}{\\|x-y\\|} dy \\approx \\sum_j q_j \\sum_k w_k \\frac{1}{\\|x-y_k\\|} = \\tilde{E}(x) $$\nwhere $q_j = \\int_{T_j} \\sigma(y) dy$ and the last sum is a gauss quadrature of the integral over the triangle $T_j$. The potential $\\tilde{\\phi}$ can be approximated in the same way.\nNow the problem is that as the functions are approximations, we have on the inside $\\Omega \\subset \\mathbb{R}^3$ of the solid object\n$$ \\|\\tilde{E}(x)\\| > 0 \\ \\tilde{\\phi}(x) \\not\\equiv \\text{const}, x \\in \\Omega $$\nand the field $\\tilde{E}$ often points outside the object.\nWhile $\\|\\tilde{E}\\|$ inside the object is typically small, the field lines still eventually cross the surface at a step $x_i \\to x_{i+1}$.\nThe field has a discontinuity on the surface, so $\\|E\\|$ is zero on the inside and large on the outside near the surface. When tracing a particle in the approximated field, you have near the surface $\\tilde{E}(x_i) \\ll \\tilde{E}(x_{i+1}), x_i \\in \\Omega, \\ x_{i+1} \\not\\in \\Omega$.\nSo the error between the position $x_k$ on an analytic field line and the position $\\tilde{x}_k$ is small for $k \\le i$ and huge for $k > i$.\nThe problem does not only affect solids, but creates local extrema in the space between non-closed charged surfaces as well, which leads to wrong field lines.\nI thought of different ways to fix this numeric problems, but all ways seem to affect valid field lines as well:\n* Rounding small values to $0$ can fix the field inside solids. But this will make local minima even worse.\n* Disallowing field lines to cross surfaces. This fixes the solid problem but not the local extrema.\n* Adding some inertia term could fix field lines getting stuck in local minima, but will worsen the problem of the non-zero field inside solids.", "903" ], [ "<PERSON>'s law for a current loop being deformed\nI'm working through <PERSON>'s Classical Electrodynamics text (3rd version, chapter 5.15) about <PERSON>'s law:\n<PERSON>'s law is pretty familiar:\n$\\int_c E \\cdot dl = -\\frac{d}{dt}(\\int_s B \\cdot n da)$\nwhich states that the contour integral of the electric field around a bounded surface is equal to the negative time rate of change of the flux bounded by that surface. No problem. Here we have a total derivative and <PERSON> addresses 2 cases.\n\"The flux though the circuit may change because (a) the flux changes with time at a point, or (b) the translation of the circuit changes the location of the boundary\"\nIn either of these cases, it is easy to show that:\n$\\frac{d}{dt}(\\int_s B \\cdot n da) = \\int_s(\\frac{\\partial B}{\\partial t} \\cdot n da) + \\int_c(B \\times v)\\cdot dl$\nby using $\\frac{d}{dt} = \\frac{\\partial}{\\partial t} + v \\cdot \\nabla$ and then applying a \"product rule\", $\\nabla \\cdot B = 0$ and stokes theorem.", "903" ], [ "i.e.:\n$\\frac{d}{dt}\\int_s B \\cdot n da = \\frac{\\partial}{\\partial t}\\int_s B \\cdot n da + (v \\cdot \\nabla) \\int_s B \\cdot n da$\nIn the case where the surface is constant, we can exchange the order of differentiation and integration:\n$\\frac{d}{dt}\\int_s B \\cdot n da = \\int_s \\frac{\\partial}{\\partial t} B \\cdot n da + \\int_s (v \\cdot \\nabla) B \\cdot n da$\nI still have no problem with this. Now we can work on the second term on the right (apply a product rule, drop terms with $\\nabla \\cdot B$ and then apply stokes theorem) to get the $\\int_c(B \\times v)\\cdot dl$ term.\nwhich, when applied to <PERSON>'s law gives the nice result:\n$\\int_c [ E' - (v \\times B)] \\cdot dl = - \\int_s \\frac{\\partial B}{\\partial t} \\cdot n da$\nThe problem arises when you allow the shape of the bounded surface to change. (Consider a circular wire loop in a magnetic field that you then hit with a hammer causing a dent in one side). How does changing the surface influence the result that we derived above? It seems to me that this would prevent us from being able to exchange the order of differentiation and integration which seems like it leaves us in a pretty tight spot ...", "903" ], [ "In diamagnetic material a magnetic dipole moment will develop in presence of external field. Magnetic dipole moment per volume is:\n$$\\mathbf{M}=\\chi\\mathbf{H}= {\\chi\\mathbf{B} \\over \\mu}={1 \\over \\mu_0}{\\chi \\over \\chi+1}\\mathbf{B}$$\nIn a non-uniform magnetic field there would be a force on a magnetic dipole:\n$$\\mathbf{F}=\\nabla (\\mathbf{m}\\cdot\\mathbf{B})$$\nOne could integrate this over the cylinder to find the force:\n$$\\mathbf{dF}=\\nabla(\\mathbf{dm}\\cdot\\mathbf{B})=\\nabla(\\mathbf{M}\\cdot\\mathbf{B})dv={1 \\over \\mu_0}{\\chi \\over \\chi+1}\\nabla(B^2)dv$$\n$$\\mathbf{F}={1 \\over \\mu_0}{\\chi \\over \\chi+1}\\int_{V_{cylinder}} \\nabla(B^2)dv$$\nBut we still need magnetic field of the magnet.", "649" ], [ "We can assume a uniform magnetic moment per volume $\\mathbf{M}$ for it and find the field by integrating dipole field over the magnet volume:\n$$\\mathbf{B(\\mathbf{r})}={\\mu_0 \\over 4\\pi} \\int_{V_{magnet}} [{3 (\\mathbf{r}-\\mathbf{r'})(\\mathbf{M}\\cdot(\\mathbf{r}-\\mathbf{r'}))\\over (\\mathbf{r}-\\mathbf{r'})^5}-{\\mathbf{M}\\over (\\mathbf{r}-\\mathbf{r'})^3}] dv$$\nThis does not include velocity dependent force due to eddy currents mentioned in the comments.\nUpdate I'll post the solution of a similar (and simplified) problem which you could later extend to your own problem.\nHere we have a ring instead of cylinder with inductance L, resistance R, radius r, and mass m. And instead of magnet dropping we assume that the ring is dropping toward the magnet.\nTo make it simpler again we assume a linear z dependence for $B_z$ component of the magnet's magnetic field: $B_z = B_0(1-\\alpha z)$\nDue to symmetry $B_\\phi=0$ so $\\nabla\\cdot\\mathbf{B}=0$ implies that ${\\partial{B_\\rho}\\over{\\partial \\rho}}=B_0 \\alpha$ then $B_\\rho(\\rho)=B_0 \\alpha \\rho + C$\nSince $B_\\rho(\\rho=0)=0$ we have $B_\\rho(\\rho)=B_0 \\alpha \\rho$ and $B_\\rho(r)=B_0 \\alpha r$\nTaking up as positive z direction and counter-clockwise as positive direction for current in the ring:\n$$ \\tag{1} F = m \\ddot z = -2\\pi r I B_\\rho(r) - m g = -2\\pi r^2 \\alpha I B_0 -mg $$\nAs for current we have:\n$$ \\phi = \\pi r^2 B_0 (1-\\alpha z)\\ \\epsilon_{emf} = -\\dot \\phi = \\pi r^2 B_0 \\alpha \\dot z\\ \\epsilon_{emf} - R I - L \\dot I = 0$$ $$ \\pi r^2 B_0 \\alpha \\dot z - R I - L \\dot I = 0 \\tag{2} $$\nNow we find $I$ and $\\dot I$ from Eq. 1 and substitute in Eq.", "649" ], [ "Inside the well\n$\\psi_2'' = -k^2\\psi$\n$k = \\frac{\\sqrt{2mE}}{\\hbar}$\n$\\psi = A\\sin(kx) + B\\cos(kx)$\nOutside the well on the left\nFor bound states $E>V_0$\n$\\psi_1'' = \\alpha^2\\psi$\n$\\alpha = \\frac{\\sqrt{2m(V_0-E)}}{\\hbar}$\n$\\psi_1 = Fe^{\\alpha x} + Ge^{-\\alpha x}$\nThis is the wavefunction of the left side so it must go to 0 as x approaches negative of infinite\nso $G = 0$\nand similarly\nOutside the well on the right\n$\\psi_3 = He^{\\alpha x} + Ie^{-\\alpha x}$\nwith $H =0$\nBecause the wavefunction must be continuous\n$\\psi_2'(-a/2) = \\psi_1'(-a/2)$\nand\n$\\psi_2'(a/2) = \\psi_3'(a/2)$\nNow to have a antisym. $\\psi$ the antisym.", "402" ], [ "operators must be removed by imposing certain equalities on the constants.For example sine is a antisym. function so it can be removed by imposing that A = 0\nAnd if you are through your course you may encounter or encountered this problem.\nFor symmetric case we get\n$\\alpha L/2 = kL/2\\tan(kL/2)$\nwhere we can define a parameter describing the size of the potential $g_0^2 = \\frac{2ma^2V_0}{\\hbar}$ and another one $\\phi = k^2L/2$\n$\\alpha L/2 = \\sqrt{g_0^2 - \\phi^2}= \\phi\\tan\\phi$\nAnti-symmetric we get\n$\\alpha = -k\\cot(kL/2)= \\sqrt{g_0^2 - \\phi^2}= -\\phi\\cot\\phi $\nSince $g_0^2$ is a constant we have to assign a value to it. e.g 0.02\nhttps://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sqrt(0.002-x%5E2)+%3D+xtan(x) for even\nhttps://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sqrt(0.002-x%5E2)+%3D+-xcot(x) for odd\nFor even parity there is atleast one solution but not for odd so it is not necessary that you will have one bound state when not given the parity of the wavefunction\nFor very small and shallow wells the particle will tend to remain outside because the electron achieves a high energy and thus does not remain localized as the energy eigen-values are given by $E_n = \\frac{4\\hbar^2\\phi^2}{2mL^2}$ We can also show that the wavefunction is decaying as the width becomes less.The simple reason is that the uncertainty in position increases because there is very less space for the electron to exist Taking odd functions in the consideration\n$\\psi = Asin(kx)$\n$|\\psi_n|^2 = A^2\\int_0^{1 \\times 10^{-10}}\\sin^2(kx)$\n$= A^2[\\frac{x}{2} -\\frac{1}{4k}\\sin{2kx}]_0^{1 \\times 10^{-10}}$\n$= A^2[\\frac{1 \\times 10^{-10}}{2} -\\frac{1}{4 \\times 1\\times 10^{-24}}\\sin{2 \\times 1\\times 10^{-24} \\times 1 \\times 10^{-10}}]$\nTo show that less energy particles also have a very less probability of staying inside the well which they do not generally you can consider $k = 1\\times 10^(-24)$\n$=A^2\\times 3.", "402" ], [ "particles connected with spring, sliding over lines. Question about the potential energy\nI'm currently studying small oscillations with the Lagrangian formalism. I stumbled upon an excercise that I can't seem to understand the method of solving it.\nTwo particles $P_1$ and $P_2$, with the same mass $m$, slide over two smooth, frictionless lines (see the figure). The two lines intersect eachother at an angle of $60$°.", "37" ], [ "The particles experience gravity and are connected by an ideal spring with natural length $l$ and a spring constant $k = \\frac{\\sqrt{3} mg}{l} $.\na) Prove that the equillibrium position of the system is given by $ |OP_1 | = |OP_2| = 2l $\nb) Show that this equillibrium is stable and show that the frequencies of the small oscillations along the equillibrium position are given by $\\omega_1 = \\sqrt{\\frac{k}{2m}}$ and $\\omega_2 = \\sqrt{\\frac{3k}{4m}}$\nTo find the equillibrium position I calculated the potential energy $V$, both gravity and the elastic forces acting on the particle due to the spring contribute to the potential. I started by choosing the movement along both lines as generalised coordinates. $p_1$ and $p_2$ as the movement of particle $P_1$ and $P_2$ respectively.\nThe potential energy due to gravity is given by\n$$ V_g(y_1, y_2) = -mg y_1 - mgy_2 $$ $$ V_g(p_1, p_2) = -mg p_1 \\cos(30°) - mg (p_2 \\cos(30°)) $$ $$ V_g(p_1, p_2) = -\\frac{\\sqrt{3}}{2} mg ( p_1 + p_2 ) $$\nThe potential elastic energy is given by\n$$ V_e(p_1, p_2) = \\frac{1}{2}k (L-l)^2 $$\nWhere I denoted the total length with $L$ and the natural (rest) length as $l$. With the cosine law, the abive can be written as\n$$ L = \\sqrt{p_1^2 + p_2^2 - 2p_1p_2 \\cos(60°)} $$\n$$ L = \\sqrt{p_1^2 + p_2^2 - p_1p_2 } $$\nSuch that the elastic potential energy can be written as:\n$$ V (p_1, p_2) = V_g (p_1, p_2) + V_e (p_1, p_2) $$ $$ V(p_1, p_2) = -\\frac{\\sqrt{3}}{2} mg ( p_1 + p_2 ) + \\frac{\\sqrt{2}}{2l}mg \\left( \\sqrt{p_1^2 + p_2^2 - p_1p_2 } - l \\right)^2 $$\nI then differentiated this potential, but I didn't find the correct answer. Is the potential correct like this? How can you define it in systems like this, where you have to take the natural length in account", "37" ], [ "What is the relationship between the electric field induced by a uniform and infinitely wide magnetic field?\nI have been contemplating on how to solve for an $e$-field produced by a changing $b$-field, and when simplifying the differential equation, I ran into a problem where the integral form of Maxwell-Ampere's law does not describe physical reality - but instead gives us a mathematical model to describe what happens to a circuit loop under a changing $b$-field. The problem is, what if I want to actually understand the real $e$-field at every point due to a changing $b$-field? I don't have an interest in knowing the sum total of the $e$-field along an arbitrary loop.\n$\\nabla\\times E = - \\frac {\\partial B} {\\partial t}$\nWouldn't the curl of $E$ of an infinitely wide and uniform $b$-field be zero?\nIf so, then how would a loop inside the $b$-field have an induced voltage?\nBasically, I've been beaten over the head with the integral forms of Maxwell's equations, which only serve some real world practical problems, but cannot fully explain what is actually occurring the reality.\nAm I wrong in believing this?\nEdit 1:\nSuppose we have a dynamic b-field that points in the x direction. It only varies in the z direction.\n$\\nabla\\times E = - \\frac {\\partial B} {\\partial t}$\n$\\frac {\\partial E_y} {\\partial z} + \\frac {\\partial E_z} {\\partial y} = - \\frac {\\partial B_x} {\\partial t} $\n$\\partial E_y\\partial y + \\partial E_z \\partial z = - \\frac {\\partial B_x} {\\partial t} \\partial z \\partial y $\n$E_z = 0 \\leftarrow$ intuition tells me this, I don't see how it could have a value.", "903" ], [ "Maybe this is incorrect.\n$\\partial E_y\\partial y = - \\frac {\\partial B_x} {\\partial t} \\partial z \\partial y $\n$\\partial E_y = - \\frac {\\partial B_x} {\\partial t} \\partial z $\nin finite form\n$\\Delta E_y = - \\frac {\\partial B_x} {\\partial t} \\Delta z$\nWe can see how knowing $\\Delta E$ can be beneficial for a circuit loop. After all, the driver in a circuit is potential difference or the $\\Delta V$ - which is $\\Delta E \\cdot L$ but this doesn't help us much outside of circuits. How would I know the absolute value of E, rather than its relative value?\nI know this question deviates a little from my original one, but I think it's strongly related. Pointing me to any resources will be helpful.", "903" ], [ "When to use which representation for an electric field\nIn class we covered three types of possibilities to evaluate the electric field for static problems. Unfortunately, most physics textbooks cover these ways without addressing the question of applicability when they introduce these equations due to historical motivation.\nOne possibility is <PERSON>'s law:\n$$\\int_{\\partial V} \\langle E, n \\rangle dS = \\int_V \\frac{\\rho}{\\varepsilon_0} dx$$ This can only be used, when $E$ does by geometrical consideration not depend on the variables that the surface integral depends on(like in spherical symmetry, when it is not a function of the angles, but just of the radius), then it can be used to determine the electric field by a charged sphere. What we can get then, is an electric field on the surface of some volume that contains a particular charge.\nThen we have:\n$$ E(x) = \\frac{1}{4 \\pi \\varepsilon_0} \\int_{\\mathbb{R}^3} \\frac{\\rho(x')(x-x')}{||x-x'||^3} dx'.$$\nThis is more general in the sense that it does not require any symmetry or reduction to charges inside some volume.\nAnd finally we have $$\\Delta \\phi(x) = -\\frac{\\rho(x)}{\\varepsilon_0},$$\nwhich is the most general way to think about electrostatic problems and contains (assuming that the solution fulfills all boundary conditions) all information.\nI hope my understanding was correct so far.", "903" ], [ "In that case, my question is: How do I distinguish boundary value problems from problems where the first two equation apply?\nMany problems are like: Given a sphere with a particular charge distribution, calculate the field everywhere around! What does this mean, does this mean that I should think of this as a ball of charges assembling in vacuum and the material around being vacuum too? Cause if I assume that this is a metallic sphere or a sphere made out of some material which is different from the material (probably varcuum) around, then this would give me an interface which means that my first two equations don't apply anymore, as I would get boundary conditions. ( I am talking now about this in a strict theoretical sense, maybe they would give me the right result, but for the wrong reasons). Or do these two equations also apply, if the ball is an insulator?", "903" ] ]

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[ [ "Mr Burns Sculpture\nIntroduction: Mr Burns Sculpture\nFor this sculpture I am attempting to create a human version of Mr. <PERSON>, the <PERSON> character. I am going be sculpting lots of details and wrinkles into his face, whilst still keeping the distinctive Mr. <PERSON> features so that he is recognizable. I will share with you my process and the materials I chose to use, but I will also give cheaper alternatives to some of the materials. I hope you enjoy this tutorial, if you do make your own I would love to see it in the comments below! :)\nSupplies\nFor this sculpture you will need:\n-A wooden armature\n-Newspaper\n-Tape\n-Air dry clay\n-Glass eyes / marbles\n-Plastic / acrylic teeth\n-Water\n-Sculpting tools\nStep 1: Armature & Reference\nBefore starting a sculpture, I always print off plenty of reference images relating to the piece I am going to be creating. In this case I have collected images of Mr. <PERSON> and also images of old skin & wrinkles, these will be extremely useful once I start making my character, to refer back to.\nThe reason reference images are so vital when sculpting is because our brains on their own won't store all of the details needed to create or recreate a piece of art. When we attempt to remember things we have seen in the past, we are extracting the inaccurate, patchy perception we have of them. This is because our brains simply filter out any irrelevant information to keep space for new information, therefore, generally the small details will go a miss!\nOnce all of you reference images are printed and pinned up in sight of where you will be working, you need to make an armature.", "348" ], [ "An armature is essentially the skeleton of your sculpture. Depending on what you are making, these can vary quite a lot in shape and size. For this Sculpture I will be using a wooden base with a longer, thin piece of wood nailed to the center, as you can see from the images depicted I have wrapped newspaper around the top of the wooden spike & secured this with tape (any tape will do) this will keep your sculpture light and save you pennies on extra, unnecessary clay!\nStep 2: Roughing Out\nThe very first stage of adding clay to your armature is to rough out the basic shapes. The clay I am using here is an air dry clay or pottery clay, this clay is great to work with when making larger sculptures because its quick and does not need heating like oil based clay does. The cons of air dry clay is that it dries out and sometimes cracks when left out uncovered, so if you're planning on leaving your sculpture to sit for a few weeks, this isn't the clay for you.\nI start by applying large rolled out pieces of clay to the newspaper to create a rough head shape, once I am happy with the size and shape, I press my fingers into the middle of the face to create eye sockets, these will hold my characters eyes. For this sculpture I have purchased glass eyes to add to the realism of the piece, but a cheaper alternative for eyes is to use marbles, these are also great to use as they extremely smooth & have a slight sheen to them, which if/when moulding the piece will translate really nicely to the mould. With the eyes in place you can easily work around them to build up areas of the face, such as the brow bone and nose.\nStep 3: Adding Features\nThis step of the process is where your character can really start coming to life, I tend to spend a bit of time building up and changing things on the face to get it as accurate as possible. A good tip when creating a sculpture is to introduce a pair of fresh eyes when you are a little stuck to bring in a fresh perspective, sometimes other people can pick out things that you ay have missed.\nI started by building up the brow bone & adding in some deep lines, I wanted to create some deep wrinkles to show his age (he is 104 after all!). I also brought some more clay to the eye area, this gives the appearance of tired puffy eyes & also really accentuates the hollow lines beneath.\nfor the ears I rolled out two identical balls of clay & flattened them down to a kidney shape, I blended these into the sculpture with my fingers on one side so that they were flush with the clay, the other side I left extruded\nStep 4: Textures\nThis is the final stage of the process, adding texture to your sculpture is the difference between a flat, lifeless character and a realistic life like piece of art. Texture adds depth an dimension to a sculpture & in my opinion is the most important stage of the process!\nBefore I started on the texturing, I added in the teeth.", "987" ], [ "<PERSON>: An Island at Your Fingertip\nDioramas are great, but they can take up quite a bit of space. This lovely model, fits into a box, allowing for easier storage and protection from dust. This one is quite beginner-friendly, and I encourage you all to try it! For more inspiration, or perhaps you would like to own one without the hassle of making it, hop on over to @funsizescenery on insta.\nI do apologize for spelling and grammar mistakes in advance.\nSupplies\nFor this project you will need:\n* Xps foam or insolation foam\n* Plaster of Paris\n* Sand\n* Paint\n* Gesso\n* Glue\n* Fine grass flocking\nSome tools that come in handy are:\n* A sharp exacto knife\n* toothpicks\n* sandpaper\n* paint pallet\n* paint brushes of varying sizes\nStep 1: Sketch\nFirst sketch out your island on your piece of foam. Note where you have different terrain or varying elevation. Create a border of about 1/2 a centimetre away from your island to leave space for any errors\nStep 2: Cut Away Your Shape\nCut straight down along your border, as far as your knife allows you. A foam cutter can make this a lot easier. Next, cut diagonally outwards along your actual island border. Keep cutting away at the layers until you have your island free from the giant block of foam.\nStep 3: Cut Out Your Mountains\nNow that you have your island shape, you need to cut out your terrain. I have three main elevations, which are marked out on the side. as seen in the first photo. I follow the same steps outlined in the previous one to carve out my terrain.\nStep 4: Trust the Process\nFirst buff out hills and flats using sandpaper. Using a toothpick to chip away at small pieces, you can create rocky terrain.", "110" ], [ "Once satisfied, use plaster of pairs to coat each and every nook and cranny. you can use a paintbrush or a piece of foam to texture the plaster further. Coat the piece in sand to give it texture, as there is rarely anything truly flat in nature. If the plaster is too dry for sand to adhere, wait for it to set and coat the piece in glue first. Shake off the excess sand and get ready for painting!\nStep 5: Painting!\nThis is a smaller Island I made to match, first I paint grey for the cliffs and brown for dirt or grassy areas. Next, I drybrush with different shades until I am satisfied with the outcome. I recommend making a small island to try out techniques on as it doesn't take much extra effort.\nStep 6: What My Main Island Looks Like\nThis is what my main island looks like throughout my process\nStep 7: All Done Painting\nPainting complete for all my islands\nStep 8: Grass\nSprinkle grass flocking over hilly areas to give the piece some green\nStep 9: Houses and Details\nFirst, cut out tiny squares for houses. Next paint each block. Using a mixture of plaster, paint and glue (I colored mine black) Dab it onto the block with a toothpick. Smooth out the roof to your desired shape and voila!\nStep 10: Basic Island Complete\nIf you have no water features, this is where you can call it a day!\nStep 11: The Box\nI had a wooden box that I bought from a local dollar store. I cut my islands to fit into the box and arranged them till I was satisfied.\nStep 12: Adding Water\nFirst, to add some sense of depth, paint the bottom of the box blue, as well as the slopes of your islands. Next mix a batch of epoxy casting resin to the manufacturer's specifications. Pour it in carefully and allow to cure for 24 hours\nStep 13: Done\nVoila, here is an island in a box!", "706" ], [ "Spooky Salvage Shop Silhouette\nIntroduction: Spooky Salvage Shop Silhouette\nHi there! Recently I've been interested in creating light fixtures using repurposed signage found in salvage shops, this is the second one that I've created and this time I've added a spooky twist! The fun thing about these light fixtures is that they can easily be taken apart and the images switched out depending on the season.\nSupplies\n* repurposed acrylic sineage letter (Salvage shops usually have many of these to choose from)\n* cleaning rags and water\n* screwdriver and screws\n* black and silver spray paint\n* cardboard\n* exacto knife\n* poster board\n* led light strip\n* glue stick or other adheisive\nStep 1: Finding a Letter\nFor this step I recommend going to a salvage shop in your area. I picked up my A from Sarasota Architectural Salvage, and choose it because A is the first letter of my name and my favorite color is red (which is also a perfect spooky color for Halloween!). I also recommend checking for a hole in the back leading to the inside of the letter, this is the hole that you will string your lights wiring through. What you pick for your letter itself though is completely up to you!\nStep 2: Open the Letter\nNow once you find a letter that you like, it's time to take a peek at what the inside looks like. I identified where the screws were that held the back of the letter onto the front, and took those out to separate my letter into two pieces. After that is done you can inspect the inside of the letter, and in my case, tear out any existing pieces that may interfere with the lights and silhouette that will be put into the piece.\nStep 3: Cleaning the Letter\nNow its time to tackle the dust and dirt. I used a hose and a rag for this step, but a bucket or sink will also work for it. This step is pretty self explanatory, use a rag and water wipe down your letter and get the built up dirt off of it, this will make sure your LED's come through nice and bright once they're installed in your letter!\nStep 4: Designing Your Silhouette\nFor this step its time to connect to your inner artist. In the spirit of Halloween I'm going for grim reaper imagery complete with a moon and small house on the horizon. After I made the initial sketch I made a larger sketch in order to plan out the layers for the silhouette. I settled on creating three layers, one for the grim reaper figure and a tombstone, one for the house, hill, and clouds, and the last for the moon and stars.\nStep 5: Creating the Silhouette for Your Letter\nFor this step I think the best course of action is to first trace your letter on poster board and cut out the number of layers you need, then draw and cut out your designs with an exacto knife. I started with the bottom layer of the moon and stars, drawing them then cutting them out with an exacto knife, then I moved onto the layer with the house and the clouds, and finally I cut out the grim reaper and tombstone.\nStep 6: Creating Supports for Your Silhouette\nNow that you have the layers of your silhouette cut out, there needs to be a bit of separation between each layer.", "644" ], [ "I chose to use cardboard for my spacing layers since its easy to get your hands on. For this step I cut out pieces of cardboard to glue onto the main figures in my piece. I had a piece for the grim reaper, pieces for the clouds, and pieces for the hill. After I was done creating these spacers, I stacked the pieces of my silhouette together with the spacers to get a feel for how it would look inside of my letter. Once your silhouette is looking the way you want it, then your ready to assemble it in the letter!\nStep 7: Assembling the Silhouette in the Letter\nFor this step you must now use your glue stick or other adhesive to stick all of the pieces you have cut out together. I assembled mine inside of the letter. We're in the home stretch now!\nStep 8: Installing the LED Lights\nFor this project I chose to install 2.5M Govee LED's. I use this brand for other lights in my house and they can all be controlled from the same app on my phone. The installation of these lights is also very straightforward, but I've included a lot of pictures since it can be hard to explain. they come in a roll with adhesive on the back. I chose a place to start near the base of my letter, and began to string them along the inside of the letter. With the length of LED's that I had I was able to go around the inside of the letter 3 times.", "635" ], [ "Foam Pin Sword - Alice in Wonderland\nIntroduction: Foam Pin Sword - Alice in Wonderland\nA few months from now, a small group of my friends are going to an Alice in Wonderland mystery/scavenger hunt event.\nOne of the costumes I am making is <PERSON> from the 2010 movie. To start, I am making a scaled up version of her pin sword.\nThe structure of this sword is entirely foam, a mix of EVA and styrofoam was used in making mine.\nCaution: since this sword is entirely foam it is not especially durable, particularly if being used to hit things.\nSupplies\n15mm foam dowel - cut to desired length (I used a precut 2’ dowel)\nFoam ball (I used 2.5” diameter styrofoam)\nAcrylic Paint (I used silver and black)\nHot glue gun\nScissors\nX-acto or other craft knife\nSandpaper\nStep 1: Cut a Hole in the Foam Ball\nPosition the dowel where you want it to sit, and trace around it with a light colour, I used a yellow highlighter. Then, use the knife to make about a 1/4” indent where the shaft of the pin sword will sit. Once the circle is cut I used the tip of the knife to gently push the foam away from the edges. After that because I used a styrofoam ball I was able to pick out the individual cells of foam. Once you have made the hole insert the dowel to make sure it fits. It should be snug but not too tight. Remove the dowel before going to the next step.\nStep 2: Shape the Dowel Into a Point\nMake a mark roughly centre on one end of the dowel, also mark all the way around the dowel how far you want the taper of the point to go, I ended mine about 1 inch in from the tip. I started by using my x-acto knife to cut out the point but it ended up ripping more than cutting the foam, so I switched to using scissors which worked much better, and made it easier to control where I was cutting.", "644" ], [ "Once you have a rough point cut, then use sandpaper, I had 220 grit, and gently sand any rough patches. I recommend moving the sandpaper in strokes towards the point, rather that starting at the point, I found it easier. The purpose of sanding it is more to blend the imperfections rather than to make it completely smooth. Go back and forth between cutting and sanding until you are satisfied with how the point looks.\nStep 3: Paint Everything\nI used silver acrylic paint to paint the dowel, and black acrylic paint for the ball. I painted the dowel with 3 coats, allowing ample drying time between coats, and did 2 coats on the ball. Since I was also holding the ball while painting it, it can be tricky to cover the entire surface in one go, so I did about half the ball at a time, and once that dried I held it on the dried paint to cover the other areas. Repeat as many times as necessary to get the desired effect.\nNote: depending on the paint you use it will help to stiffen the dowel. I found the dowel curved under its own weight when held in the air from the end, the paint helped to lessen the bending, but did not remove it completely.\nStep 4: Glue the Dowel to the Ball\nOnce all the paint is dried cover the flat end of the dowel in a generous amount of hot glue, and firmly press the dowel into the hole in the ball. Wait 10 minutes or so to allow the glue to dry then gently try to pull the ball off the dowel, to ensure they are securely attached.\nStep 5: Done\nThat’s it! Mine ended up at a length of 26.5 inches.", "556" ], [ "Polymer Clay Lion Fountain With Resin or Hot Glue\nIntroduction: Polymer Clay Lion Fountain With Resin or Hot Glue\nHello!\nI'm back again with another sculpting project!\nThis is actually very simple to make, and turned out looking awesome!\nThe design for the resin fountain was kind of Narnian inspired. I have always loved that series and have made a few other Narnian inspired creations.\nDon't have any resin?\nNo problem! I will show you how to make this fountain with hot glue too! Hot glue is a lot more adorable and easier to get your hands on. It also works very well for making little clay fountains!\nLet's get started!\nSupplies\n* Polymer clay of your choice >>> This is what I am using\n* Sculpting tools >>> These are some that I use\n* Acrilic paints\n* Paint brushes\n* Small container of water (To rinse your brush)\nFor the resin\n* Resin The resin I am using is \"Amazing Clear Cast Resin\" You can get this here\n* Disposable rubber gloves\n* Tooth pick\n* Hot water in a bowl (optional)\n* A small container you can throw away\n* Hot glue gun with hot glue\nStep 1: The Body of the Fountain\nLet's start by rolling out your clay but leave it kind of thick so it will be less brittle once baked.\nThen cut out a rectangle shape and cut the corners off on one side. It should look like the 3rd pic above.\nNow cut a thin strip of clay and wrap it around the bottom of the rectangle, and gently blend the sides in.Then roll out another sheet of clay and cut to shape, and gently blend in, again.I then cut another long thin strip to go around the top of your fountain.\nThis is the body of your fountain!\nStep 2: Finishing the Body of the Fountain\nI also then drew a brick pattern on the bottom of the fountain, and textured it with an old toothbrush.\nThen I added a strip of clay around the rim of the bottom of the fountain. Also, I drew a brick pattern and textured with the toothbrush.\nI wanted it to have an old look so I took one of my tools and put cracks in the brick where I thought it looked good. I also did the brick texture on the edge around the top of the fountain, and textured the back of the fountain.\nThen for a bit of design, I added some random shapes and stacked them on the top of the fountain, and once again, textured them.\nStep 3: Adding the Lions Face\nI decided to add a lions face to mine, you don't have to.", "95" ], [ "It just felt very Narnian like and that was what I was going for.\nTo start the mouth of the lion, I took 2 U shapes of clay and placed them towards the top of the fountain. Make sure there is plenty of room so you can get the resin in the mouth.\nI then added a forehead and got to work on the mane.\nThe way that I usually make a lion's mane, is that I take a ball of clay, roll one end to a point, and cut. Then I just position the hair wherever I like.\nJust keep doing this until you are happy with the mane. Also don't forget to add little ears by making little balls and pressing them on the sides of the lions head.\nThen add the facial details, like eyes nose and mouth, and your done with the face.\nI for some reason thought it was a good idea to put green clay as the ivy even though I knew I had to paint over it. It was pretty pointless, but at least you can see it in the picture better than if it wasn't green!\nAnyway, I just put little snakes of the green clay and put them here and there and textured them with one of my tools.\nNow you can bake this according to your package instructions!\nStep 4: Let's Paint!\nTime for one of my favorite parts...Painting!\nStart by painting the whole thing black.\nI then dry brushed dark grey all over the fountain then went in with a lighter grey and dry brushed again.\nDry brushing is where you go over a darker color with a lighter color when there is barely any paint on the brush. This leaves the dark paint in the crevices and the lighter color on top.\nAlso once you are finished painting the grey on, why not go in with a nice dark green and paint over the ivy.\nStep 5: Resin Part 1\nIf you don't have resin, just skip this step and go on to step number 7. That is where I show you how to do this with hot glue.\nI felt that this step was too long, so I put it in 2 parts.", "987" ], [ "How to Make a Ceramic Mushroom\nIntroduction: How to Make a Ceramic Mushroom\nSince mushrooms have been getting very popular, I've been spending my spare time making mini clay mushrooms. I quite enjoy making different kinds of mushrooms, and I am planning on using the mushrooms for an upcoming project! But in the meantime, I wanted to make a quick tutorial of how to make one!\nIn this tutorial I am using white ceramic clay. Depending on what kind of clay you are using and the size of the mushroom you intend to make, some techniques may need to be adjusted. Also I am using various clay and silicone tools in this tutorial, however a mini manicure set can be a great alternative for these tools.\nSupplies\n* Ceramic clay\n* Clay tools\n* Paint\n* Water\n* Kiln\nStep 1: Stem\nFirst, make a small ball about an inch in diameter. Then start rolling the ball out and pinch one end to make sort of a wonky teardrop shape. This shape does not need to be perfect since it will be adjusted later.\nStep 2: Mushroom Cap\nRoll out another small ball that is about an inch in diameter. Then start to flatten the ball out, making one side slightly conclave, and the other side slightly convex. Next, gently pinch out the edges until you get the desired mushroom cap look. If the clay begins to crack, use water to smooth it out.\nStep 3: Add Some More Clay\nGrab a little bit more clay and flatten it out to the inside of the mushroom cap. Then use water to smooth it out. It doesn’t have to be perfectly blended into the mushroom cap.\nStep 4: Create a Hole\nUsing a clay tool, carve out a hole on the bottom of the mushroom cap that is big enough to fit the stem.", "994" ], [ "It’s ok if it does not fit perfectly.\nStep 5: Fix the Stem\nAdjust the stem to your liking by cutting off clay and reshaping until you are happy with how it looks.\nStep 6: Add Details to the Mushroom Cap\nFirst I like to take a dull clay tool and make ridges along the bottom of the mushroom cap, and then I take a pin tool and make tinier ridges.\nStep 7: Connect the Stem\nPlace the stem into the mushroom cap, then roll out a small ribbon of clay. Next use a tool to flatten the clay where the stem and mushroom cap connect. Once flattened, smooth it out using water to fully connect the two pieces.\nStep 8: Re-detail\nUsing the same techniques in step 6 re apply any detailing that might’ve been erased.\nStep 9: More Details\nRoll out another small ribbon of clay that is long enough to fit around the stem. Lay the ribbon in the position you desire and then flatten only one side of the clay to the stem. Then smooth out only the side that you just flattened.\nStep 10: Repeat\nRepeat step 9 but with shorter clay ribbons, and placing them above the first ribbon you applied.\nStep 11: Details\nUsing a pin tool, make small circles around the raw edges of the clay ribbons. Then add lines around the stem, and remove small bits and triangles of the clay ribbon to make it look a bit more realistic.\nStep 12: Dots\nTake small pinches of clay and place them randomly on top of the mushroom. This doesn’t step doesn't need to look perfect. Then dab some water across the dots to soften the clay. And finally use a pin tool and add detail by making tiny circles along each dot.\nStep 13: Bake\nSend your clay piece to the kiln or oven depending on what type of clay you’re using and bake according to the instructions.\nStep 14: Paint\nOnce your clay is fully baked, you are ready to paint. I probably could’ve done a little better at painting this if I had used a reference and hadn’t rushed it. However it is better than store bought quality, and that is good enough for me.\nStep 15: Display\nCongratulations! You are now done with your ceramic mushroom! There are so many different ways you could use this as decoration, such as what I did, which is just putting it in a dollar store display dome with some moss that I hot glued in place. No matter what you do with your mushroom, I hope you had fun and enjoyed making your own mushroom!", "556" ], [ "Mushroom Photogrammetry to Cufflinks\nIntroduction: Mushroom Photogrammetry to Cufflinks\nThis 3D printing was created for a school project. I chose mushrooms for my subject matter because of their interesting morphology and textures. Even though the structure of a mushroom is the same among all species (cap and stalk), there is a wide variety of identifying characteristics that individualizes each type. For my project, I chose the trumpet, lion, and oyster mushrooms. The trumpet mushroom can be characterized with a strong, thick stalk and bulky cap with visible gills. Meanwhile, the lion mushroom has a furry texture and branching cloud-like growths similar to cauliflower.", "644" ], [ "Finally, the oyster mushroom has a concave cap with pronounced gills and grows stemming from one another. Using the mushroom morphology, I was able to convert it into a 3D model and adopt it as inspiration for unique cufflink design.\nThis is an instructable for the course I am taking at the California State University, Long Beach, \"DESN 551: Materials, Tools, and Techniques of Prototyping\" taught by <PERSON>\nhttps://www.instructables.com/member/Behnaz%20Farahi/\nSupplies\n* Mushrooms\n* Lightbox\n* Lazy Susan hardware\n* Thick Poster Board\n* Wooden Dowel\n* Nail/Hammer/Pliers\n* Poster Putty\n* Camera\n* Agisoft Metashape Software\n* Autodesk Meshmixer\nStep 1: Create Lightbox Photogrammetry Rig\n* Cut shape from posterboard to cover and stick to lazy susan hardware\n* Cut wooden dowel to fit light box (approx. 15 cm)\n* Use hammer to fix nail to top of dowel and pliers to clip top of nail\n* Use poster putty to stand wooden dowel on posterboard circle/lazy susan\n* Fix lazy susan hardwear to light box using poster putty\nStep 2: Add Mushroom to Rig\n* Fix mushroom to nail on wooden dowel (rig should be able to freely spin without mushroom falling)\n* Optional: Use poster putty or glue to hold mushroom down if necessary\nStep 3: Set Up Camera Tripod and Start Taking Photos\n* Set up camera and angle it to minimize shadows; add extra lighting if necessary\n* Take a photo and rotate rig approximately 20-30 degrees\n* Repeat until rig has rotated 360 degrees and entire subject matter has been recorded\nStep 4: Upload Images to Photogrammetry Software and Build 3D Model\n* Upload photos taken with camera to metashape software (Workflow > Add Photos)\n* Align photos to create sparse point cloud and set camera positions (Workflow > Align Photos)\n* Build dense cloud based on camera positions and pictures; can adjust quality depending on preferences (Workflow > Build Dense Cloud)\n* Build mesh to generate surface and 3D polygonal mesh model (Workflow > Build Mesh)\n* If desired, create texture (Workflow > Build Texture)\n* Export model as .stl file for editing in Meshmixer (File > Export > Export Model)\n(Any photogrammetry software can be used. I used Agisoft Metashape because of its ease of use while retaining great quality results)\nStep 5: Repair Model and Add Cufflink Tail\n* Import .stl file in Meshmixer\n* Trim parts that are not desired for cufflinks and remove unnecessary objects (Select > Edit > Discard)\n* Use sculpt tool to smooth bumps and textures (Sculpt > Brushes > BubbleSmooth/ShrinkSmooth)\n* Add cylinder and adjust to fit model (approx. 20mm) (Meshmix > *select cylinder shape; Edit > Transform)\n* Make solid (Edit > Make Solid)\n* Duplicate and mirror (Edit > Mirror)\n* Export .stl file for 3D printing (File > Export)\nStep 6: Upload for 3D Printing\n* Upload .stl to FabPilot and configure to desired printer settings and material (I used black PETG)\n* Optimize and add lattice interior\n* Orient upright and add supports\n* Send 3D model to production\nMy school offers 3D printing through the FabPilot program. If you have your own 3d printer, follow your printer's instructions\nStep 7: Wear Cufflinks\nWear these cufflinks to your next formal event!", "644" ], [ "How to 3D Print a Paper Mache Mold\nIntroduction: How to 3D Print a Paper Mache Mold\nHello and welcome to my first instructable!\nThis is a relatively basic task, all you truly need is patience, and in the end you will have a pretty snazzy eco friendly recycled cardboard creation!\nSupplies\n3D Printer\nPLA Filament\nDesign Files\nPaper\nOld Blender\nSpoon or stick\nDye (Optional)\nWater\nElmers Glue\nClamps\nFan (Optional)\nStep 1: Step 1-\nSelect 3D files. There should be 3- one piece is the base, one is the wall, and one is the press. Then print!\nStep 2: Sand It Down!\nOnce your pieces have been printed, they need to be sanded a little. Most importantly you need to sand the “button” and “button hole” (those are the points where your pieces will click together. Other than those spots, cut and sand down any supports from during printing and any wonky knobs that are on the press because those will show up in the cardboard is not smoothed out.\nStep 3: Shred the Paper\nFind some old paper that should’ve been recycled a long time ago and shred it up, the smaller the pieces the better. Any kind of paper works: newspaper, old notes, card board, colorful construction paper. Keep in mind that whatever color your paper is will be the color of your pulp and then your cardboard. Also, it’s better to shred more than you think you will need.\nStep 4: Pulp Time!\nFind yourself a good old blender that you are willing to never use for food again. Now take your paper shreds and throw some in there with a little bit of water (start with about 2 tablespoons) and about 1/3 bottle of glue. Start blending. It’s going to take a while to get the right consistency, but it helps to take a spoon or stick to push the pulp back to the bottom of the blender to get a more consistent blend. As it blends add another 1/3 of the bottle of glue, and a little more water (if it needs it, don’t add too much!!). Once it is well blended it will still be pretty thick, it should have the consistency of oatmeal. Now, if you didn’t use colored paper but you want a little color, you can add dye or acrylic paint, but don’t add too much. A little goes a long way.\nStep 5: Juice Your Pulp!\nThe pulp right now is too watery to effectively stick together, so you need to squeeze out some of the water.", "556" ], [ "I used a mesh sheet, but you can use a cheese cloth or even an old tshirt.\nStep 6: Put Pulp in the Mold\nNow is the fun part. Take your 3d printed mold pieces and pop together the base and walls. Take your juiced paper pulp and press some into the bottom, evenly covering it. The thickness that you layer it is up to you, tho the more you add the longer it will take to dry. This also means that you will have a thicker and stronger finished product, so it’s up to you. Once it’s in there, take the press piece and push it down as far as it will go. Water will likely come out the sides, that’s good, it means you’re squeezing out the excess water. At this point you can take the press out and add a little more pulp if you want, or you can leave it. Once you have all the pulp in it that you want, you’re going to clamp it closed, placing come on the connection between the base and walls and some on the whole thing. Now you get to wait a few days as it does the first drying stage.\nStep 7: Drying Stage Part 2\nOnce it’s been a few days, you can go ahead and take the press out. It’ll probably be pretty tight in there, so you can use a screwdriver to gently pry it out, going around the sides as you do. It’s still going to be damp to touch, so now it’s going to spend a few more days drying. If you’re impatient you can stick it in front of a fan, but it’ll still take time.\nStep 8: Drying Part 3\nOnce the molded part is dry to touch, you can take the bottom off, which will also likely be damp. Gently take the bottom off the same way you got the press out. Don’t try to take it out of the walls, as the inside of it dries the paper will condense and it’ll become loose and much easier to pop out of the walls.", "254" ] ]

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[ [ "<PERSON>\nas a person of having read the book experience…\nfeels hard to fully imagine how this plays without all the nuance and emotional shading that the knowledge of JCO’s - admittedly still v messy - novel (a text (and author) i still truly have maaany qualms and moments of pause with, as i do…this…adaptation lol) affords you in filling in the gaps of <PERSON> as a character and her interiority that are left by AD’s pretty slapdash adaptation work…\nlike it’s partially the inherent trade off that often comes with the transition of mediums, duh, but god is this still missing so much of how <PERSON> writes norma - obv with the direct 1st person passages, interweaving of her poetry & artistry etc, but even the passages in the novel that aren’t directly from <PERSON>’s pov are constructed by <PERSON> in such a dissociative way that it just strengthens the character psychology she’s running with (whether that’s accurate or misguided itself is its own can of worms lol) and i do think, even tho AD’s approach is so mood-piecey, that a huge chunk of that work and nuance and context is soooo lost in the adaptational structuring and direction of this (though i don’t think any of that is on <PERSON>, who i think is giiiiiiving it and bringing as much of that text through as she can in spite of AD, and much of what does remain feels indebted to her & the source text - she has lots of great moments but the scene where she’s advised to break it off with the gemini and the scene when she initially turns down GPB are such good smaller bits of performance that rly stuck w me tbh imo)\nwas thinking a lot during watching about how in the novel i feel like <PERSON> oft focuses so much on the inherent perversity of (and potential for dehumanisation held by) the camera & cinema, especially in its complicity in forming the collective memory - the mythic moulding of a person into persona - and <PERSON> has seemingly run with that as his main pathway into taking this mammoth of a text into a visual medium, in a way that i don’t think is always ~entirely~ unsuccessful or worthless (and is occasionally pretty staggering in the sheer grandiosity of the image-making and creativity of craft) but — coupled with his utter refusal to engage with or comprehensively depict <PERSON>'s master of her artistry and innate genius — ultimately lacks the (somewhat present in the novel, albeit thru the context of literature/fairytales/journalism etc) degree of self-reflection and self-interrogation that transmuting this specific text/story into this specific medium requires, if one is to do it all…\nand defffffff also doesn’t help that i think it’s sooo clear - espesh as recently extra-textually evidenced by his cavalcade of awful deranged pull quotes in promotion of this lol - he severeeeeely lacks the level & amount of sincere respect, empathy & admiration <PERSON> (while still making choices i balked at while reading, and many a pause-worthy press comment of her own in interviews about the book) v clearly has for <PERSON> as a subject, artist and person", "80" ], [ "Side Effects\nto some extent i’m sympathetic with <PERSON> thoughts: the shallow focus mirrors the audience’s constant scramble for immediate (apparent) facts with which to approximate some understanding of the underlying systems. the lynchpin for this take imho is a terrific focus-shift halfway-through that i rewound thrice just to gasp again all giddy. but still i’m wary how many readings seem to account only for villainy that’s double, not triple (bourgeois scientific practice) or quadruple (<PERSON>, truly the scariest person here for me), and ultimately i can’t keep all that interested in a film so fascinated by nastiness yet so unable to comprehend it.", "306" ], [ "i appreciate exhortations to take this as lurid trash! but i prefer when trash is fun.\n(actually scratch that. i have a feeling <PERSON>’s not a villain at all. or at least so minimally that this ending’s genuinely the most unsettling i’ve seen all year.)", "577" ], [ "<PERSON>\nappreciate how thorny this is but can’t seem to shake that <PERSON>’s biggest flaw as filmmaker esp. before BvS is his difficulty in incorporating action and movement with the emotional beats of his picture. obviously the structure warrants this to some extent but I think that using the idea of protagonist’s imagination as completely separated from any sort of dramatic weight is simply an error rather than a calculated decision, as evinced by <PERSON>’s death scene(s), where I felt both were intended to make an impact but only one worked.", "698" ], [ "doesn’t help that the fantasy sequences are... kinda ugly? very digitally processed and artificial in a way that I find fascinating, but the color grading rly isn’t that far removed from a <PERSON> film (the differences and pop are there from Man of Steel onward).\none of Sucker Punch’s assets is how keenly it understands the difficulty of re-appropriating imagery and marginalization, your own or that of others, and how the process requires more than personal agency, something which doesn’t exist in <PERSON>’s film. indeed, even the downfall(s) of its peripheral characters (this is the type of film where everyone loses some sort of integrity) happens through forgery of signature + arrest at hands of the same police force who allowed Baby Doll’s story to go unheard for so long in the first place! my appreciation for the film definitely boosted by its ending, esp. the <PERSON>/<PERSON> scene which rly drives home the crux of the film: there is no escape through institution, through empathy w/o action, only through self-acceptance, freedom of thought, and the ability to act upon that freedom!\nwill probably rewatch and expand thoughts soon.", "80" ], [ "<PERSON>\n<PERSON> once wrote of <PERSON> that he would ‘satisfy the voyeuristic needs of the god-abiding by showing them what they were missing by being good and then soothe them by showing them the terrible punishments they escaped by being good.’ and certainly <PERSON>’s excited to show us what <PERSON> called the ‘glamour of wickedness’; these vampires are roguish even in murder, and <PERSON>’s leatherbound sunnies-at-night charisma exploits the double-meaning behind ‘wicked’. (see <PERSON>’s reaction!) this is fine, and even enjoyable, (for a season,) and i’d probably enjoy the film more if it harped more on this φάρμακον, and especially if it were more imaginative about it. (so, for example, the bar scene overstays its welcome by three or four minutes, no matter how grinning its grimness until then. maybe that’s the point? but that sets up other tonal problems.) unfortunately, bigelow’s also interested, just like <PERSON>, in fairly conservative moral arcs, and so of course the protagonist vampires get to return to ‘goodness’, associated with non-outcast status, steadfast ‘traditional’ family, and so forth. you know all this. you don’t need me to say it again and again. but past all its rad aesthetics i think this really might just be (at least cognate with) lady bird in leather, with even less room for readings against the grain.\nwhich, of course, makes me sad.", "295" ], [ "i adore any last picture show we-gotta-get-out-of-this-place batting-out-of-hell to extents i cannot explain. but also this film reminded me of fury road—banged-up monster vehicles rampaging across the desert, fuelled (however indirectly) by blood—and i think of how blood transfusions here are tied to coming home, to returning to normality and to ‘traditional’ family (bloodline), which of course can never be normal again precisely because of the journey taken. (i’m sure that bigelow’s aiming for at least some <PERSON> allegory here, though i’m trying not to believe that because if so then, haha, i strongly protest identification with a confederate soldier and a nonce.) in fury road, by contrast, the deliberateness & gravity with which <PERSON> gives his blood to <PERSON> is in anticipation of her return, not to the home where she grew up, which of course no longer exists, but to a place that she’s changed not implicitly but explicitly to become her home, and as such his transfusion extends familial bonds well beyond any kind of tradition. i like it when outcasts get to be outcast-and-good. or i guess when the category doesn't get collapsed onto badness. i don’t know. maybe i ask for too much. i don’t want to ask for less.\n(2019 hoop-tober 2/31)", "378" ], [ "Gosford Park\nabout as nuanced in its social/class critique as there will be blood, but far more delightful in its seethingly angry execution — <PERSON> plays a stuffy supervillain of comic proportions surrounded by people who he hates/hate him; it is indeed an occasion to be celebrated when he is brutally murdered! twice! cannot think of a more straightforwardly played satirical effort from <PERSON> (something i’m not too sure i’m a fan of); very much a singular – if comparably inferior – film of his that i am very glad to have seen! mostly works as a reaffirmation of my contempt towards the british tbh", "698" ], [ "RoboCop\n[director’s cut]\nby far the most affecting image here, for me, was the wide shot after <PERSON>’s death, cloaked in silence, lingering on dozens of simultaneous emotions & nonsensical reactions in the face of absurdity. <PERSON> insists on that sequence as black comedy. fair enough; <PERSON> was an executive, and so’s everyone else left alive in that room. but i can’t read <PERSON>’s emotional arc as similarly arch. with every step along his recovery i couldn’t help but think: he’s still a cop. i wanted to cheer so much for this person who’d had awful things done to him.", "61" ], [ "but he remained a cop, someone who eagerly threw himself into violently enforcing the awful institutions whose awfulness <PERSON> wants us to acknowledge. and by the end of the film, he’s still a cop, willing to kill one executive, but be on friendly terms with another. the most insidious copaganda’s the kind that passes itself off as institutional critique while skating by on individual, the kind that says the problem is corrupt capitalism not friendly capitalism, militarised police not the police as a monolith. wow! this film acknowledges gentrification! reaganomics! privatised police forces! yes, and still wants you to cheer for an individual cop.\nwell, maybe it doesn’t! maybe all that heart-tugging cinematic language through which we experience <PERSON>’s flashbacks & determination to regain his prior identity is meant to be a test, meant to force the viewer to acknowledge how manipulative the director’s being, meant to bring them to the understanding of how they can’t cheer for an allegedly upstanding individual enforcing the repressive state apparatus. i wouldn’t put it past <PERSON>. but i don’t like the faun in <PERSON>’s labyrinth. and i like his tricks even less when they’re played on me by a human.", "698" ], [ "Synecdoche, New York\nwe’re all hurtling towards death. yet here we are for the moment, alive, each of us knowing we’re gonna die, each of us secretly believing we won’t.\nkinda surreal to rewatch over a year later in a vastly (mostly) different headspace. not to be parasocial but i really do miss <PERSON> so badly. <PERSON> is insufferable and i cannot stand him but he strikes some nerves that other directors can’t for me which is why i put up with his pretentiousness.\nand, weirdly, this movie makes me miss new york.", "61" ], [ "Brokeback Mountain\nperhaps the best love story ever put to film.\ni feel like so many aspects of this film are played for jokes and memes now as well as the past few years, and that’s partly why i wasn’t prepared for just how good and sincere it really is. i’ve had a particularly distressing past few days/weeks but somehow this film with its gentle score paired with the serene shots of mountains and sheep helped undo a lot of my anxiety and uncertainties.", "583" ], [ "all those scenes where <PERSON> and <PERSON> are grappling and pulling and holding felt so genuine… because when you love someone you can never get close enough to them. the entire film just has this dizzying quality, it’s so long but not a single moment feels wasted. i don’t even know what to say im so in love this review is so messy because im so so drained from school fuck i love you <PERSON> thank you", "1009" ] ]

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[ [ "A war game for board gamers. Undaunted series (Normandy, Africa and Reinforcements) is certainly an extraordinary achievement - essentially a 2 player deck builder (expandable to 4 players via the expansion), this game does not ask you to chew through pages and pages of boring textual rules, nor does it require you to decipher all the abstract chits and tokens. Nope. This is a WW2 game made for everyone - not just the fans of war gaming.\nFrom the solo perspective (you know me by now ), a recently released Reinforcements expansion added just that - a well designed solo variant to all the scenarios, including the new ones. As a solo player, you will not lose anything from the game. All the scenarios work the same as in the competitive mode except the enemy is controlled by a set of ai cards, each one setting up a list of actions and priorities and each one different for every unit. But wait - many scenarios use a tailor-made ai cards which tweak the behavior and objectives for ai, thus making each solo game fresh and interesting. What do I mean by tailor-made ai cards? Simple example - in scenario one, enemy riflemen will chase mission objectives first, in scenario 2, enemy riflemen will chase your units as their main goal.\nI have to admit, first few rounds were a bit ..ehm..", "993" ], [ "daunting... and learning and understanding all the terminology on ai cards required a bit of youtubing and bgg'ing. But after a dozen or so rounds, every option on every ai card just clicked and started making sense. I just stopped having trouble finding out where to send the enemy troops. And just like that, the game just became my new addiction.\nThere is something truly fascinating about using just a bunch of cards to execute some pretty awesome strategic moves in this game. You never feel like the luck is defining your next play - instead, each hand gives you many opportunities on how to potentially outmaneuver your opponent. And thanks to a cleverly designed ai, every scenario will play out differently each time you try it.\nUndaunted series is simply an outstanding achievement. Tactical war game for board gamers, with 30+ scenarios across several different environments and a huge variety of units to control, this one is a must for anyone who wants to try something else other than euros or ameritrash. And for a solo player, Undaunted is yet another proof that solo gaming is on a steep rise like never before...", "528" ], [ "Foreword\nAfter 1,5 year of lurking about (that is, as a registered user. Add another year of my unregistered unactivity) I seem to have made up my mind that BGG is such a wonderful community that I should adopt a more active approach toward it. To start off I have decided to write a few words about probably the most influential game of the XX century - Rock-Paper-Scissors. I would appreciate any and all constructive (and not) criticism. Grammar nazis, trolls, haters and other evil people are welcome as well.\nOh, and hello everyone\nROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS\nNowadays in the boardgaming world new titles are popping up like mushrooms and everyone just has to embrace “the new hotness”. While many of them are indeed great (and yet more of them are just hardly mediocre (rage and hate for this statement much appreciated)), the time spent trying out the new designs must come at the expense of older games, which slowly drift away into oblivion. One example, which is embarrassing for the whole boardgaming community is the all-forgotten classic: Rock-Paper-Scissors. In a desperate attempt to give it the attention it deserves I beseech you to take a while to read this review of an amazing game if only to bring back memories of its astonishing gameplay.\nRock-Paper-Scissors is a classic strategy game of skill. It is usually categorized as a wargame due to its realistic representation of warfare. Since there already are a lot of reviews going over the somewhat complex rules, I am not going to moan about it and I will explain them in detail. Tough luck.\nRULES\nThe object of the game is to accumulate victory points by destroying enemy units (1 VP per unit). To achieve that, each round the players build units with varying stats, creating thus their own customized armies, which then are set against each other in an epic battle to determine the victor.\nThe game is played over a set of rounds. Their exact number is unknown at the beginning and ranges from 1 to about infinity depending on the number of tiebreakers and the diplomacy skill of the losing player (more on that topic later).", "993" ], [ "Each game round consists of 3 phases: build, combat, clean-up.\nBUILD\nPlayers simultaneously build units according to their build capacity, which is 1 at the beginning of the game, but later it generally stays the same (it is however possible to raise its value through a technique called cheating ). Each of the 3 different units has a cost of 1, but they have varying stats, namely: health, attack (atk), defense (def), dodge (do), block (bl), speed, moment of inertia (I). Every unit also has exactly 1 special ability, increasing its attack in certain match-ups (rock: +1000 atk vs. scissors; paper: +1000 atk vs. rock; scissors: +1000 atk vs. paper).\nTo signalize that a player is still taking his turn, he keeps shaking his hand in a continuous fashion.\nOnce the players have composed their armies the game moves on to the combat phase.\nCOMBAT\nPlayers simultaneously reveal their chosen units and then proceed to resolving skirmishes between them. Damage is dealt according to the following simple formula:\nIf the damage dealt exceeds the unit’s health, it is destroyed and VPs are awarded.\nCLEAN-UP\nAny surviving units are removed (as opposed to destroyed – a common misconception and object of several errata). If no unit was destroyed in the previous turn, the game automatically moves on to the next round, otherwise the losing player may attempt a series of insults and threats diplomacy check to make the opponent play an additional round.\nIf no additional round needs to be played, the player with more VPs wins! In the event of a tie, players play the game again.\nCOMPONENTS\nThe components are sadly very scarce. The game comes with a set of units for each player. While the units are well crafted and bear a striking resemblance to their real-life counterparts, there is one major problem – the two sets look very much alike and as such it is sometimes very difficult to tell them apart, especially in the heat of battle. The producer should have provided us with different colors for the two armies. This solution, however, allows for the game to be friendly to the colorblind (or at least unfriendly to the same degree) – an asset commonly overlooked in modern gaming. Further, the lack of text makes the game language-independent – another explanation to RPS’ immense worldwide popularity. The components also allow for a quick setup time, unrivalled by any contemporary wargame, as well as high portability, so that you can easily bring your copy of Rock-Paper-Scissors to the game night!", "937" ], [ "Disclaimers : this is my first attempt at a BGG review. I'm a complete newbie in the world of 18xx, and my general boardgaming experience is limited at best. This review is written after two games of 18AL with no other 18xx experience (unless Chicago Express counts). Besides, English is not my first language. Why should you be wasting your time here? I don't really know, but I'll try to make it worth your while. :)\nIntroduction\nI first heard about the 18xx games a few months ago, and they immediately captured my attention, but not necessarily in a good way. Reviews and fleeting references in other reviews picture them as rule-heavy behemoths where you have to solve knapsack problems with 1000 variables in your head just to begin appreciating the depth. However, I have always liked heavy games and was willing to try and push my limits.\nHaving finally gathered our courage, me and my friend printed out a DIY copy of 18AL, and my gaming group tried it. My expectations were rather high; well, the higher was my amazement when 18AL managed to far surpass them! There was certain fiddliness with the payouts and optimizations (I'll describe it later), but in general, the whole game was a blast. It was fun.\nThis review intends to share this fun with you eurogame fans and urge you to try the 18xx and especially 18AL (as far as I understand, it is intended to be introductory, and it is really easy to get - just print out and laminate). I believe everything I'll be saying below goes for most 18xx games, but since I've only had experience with one, I will be referring to 18AL everywhere. I will describe neither the rules nor the components (the first is published right here, and the second you make yourself :) ), but try to address the common image of 18xx games and understand why 18AL turned out to be so much fun for me and my group.\nIt is entirely possible that I've gotten 18AL all wrong, and we misplayed everything. In this case, I'd like to hear from veteran 18xx'ers about the nice things we missed. But even for our inexperienced crowd, the game was so much fun that I couldn't but share.\nMyths, misconceptions, and stuff you won't notice\nLet me begin with the \"ugly\" of the 18xx world that might scare a new player away.\n1. Heavy rules. Frankly, I expected heavier.", "504" ], [ ":) After reading a couple of reviews and one pass through the rules, I had a very good idea of what happens in the game. I urged my gaming group to read the rules beforehand, and no one had any real problems with it. Naturally, we had to refer to the rules quite a few times throughout our first game, and a few things came up too late, but at the second game the rule-reading moments were much more seldom, and I guess at the third game we'll only need the reference tables at the end. To my mind, this is a perfectly normal progression, and many crystal clear eurogames followed the same pattern in our group.\nHowever, be forewarned: 18AL is not a eurogame. It faithfully follows the Ameritrash approach of \"theme first, mechanics second\" and does not hesitate to introduce a whole different mechanics if it makes the theme more engaging. What did Alabama need railroads for? Coal and lumber? Great, let's add special \"coal tokens\" that may increase the value of certain tiles and a whole special tile with a lumber mill on it. However, this flows so well with the system you don't even notice it is a whole new rule, you just ask \"what does this private do\" at the beginning, and it all makes sense.\n2. Hard \"math\". I put \"math\" in quotes, because by \"math\" people here usually mean numerical computations, not mathematics. There are few things further from mathematics than numerical computations, and most mathematicians can't count... but I digress.\nTo put it simple, 18AL does not have any hard computations at all. It does have a whole lot of easy ones, in both the boring computing variety (like 27*6; it does get a little repetitive when you have to do dozens of these at 4 a.m.) and the less boring optimization variety (which city should I upgrade to get the best route). I guess the former can be easily helped by the much-acclaimed Excel moderator, and I can easily imagine how the latter might become excessively tedious if the map were much bigger or more densely populated. As it stands, the optimization problems are enjoyable, and computing problems are not really noticeable.\n3. Extremely cutthroat gameplay. Can't really comment as I've only played twice.", "118" ], [ "Introduction\nAll summer they drove us back through the Ukraine\nSmolyensk and Viyasma soon fell\nBy autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel\nCloser and closer to Moscow they come - riding the wind like a bell\n- <PERSON>, Roads to Moscow\nFighting Formations: Grossdeutschland Infantry Division is the first game in a new series from GMT Games. Much like the Series: Musket & Pike Battle (GMT/Vae Victis), each game in the series will share core rules and the playbook will have specific game exclusive rules.\nThis inaugural game covers action on the eastern front in WWII between the Germans and the Soviets between 1942 and 1943.\nThis is a two player game designed by <PERSON> of Combat Commander: Europe fame (among other titles). Scenarios run the gamut from approximately 2-3 hours for smaller scenarios to a large double map scenario that could fill an entire weekend.\nComponents\nGMT has recently set some impressive standards in wargame publishing. Mounted map boards for single map games like Washington's War and high quality paper maps for multi-scenario games and expansions such as the recent Combat Commander expansion. Beautiful counters that are both functional and nice to look at.\nIn this respect GMT has delivered the goods again.\nThe box however is of the old school thin cardboard style that GMT has not used in a long time. A small quibble is that they used a standard 2\" box rather than the thicker 3\" box; this is a mild disappointment as there is a lot packed inside. Everything does fit into the 2\" box even using two counter trays, but you'll need to split the card decks to make it even along the top. If and when expansions come to this module of the series, it might not fit.\nThe smaller box shouldn't be seen as a deterrent however. There will be more games in the series and those linear feet of shelf space fill up awfully quickly with the larger boxes. I should know, my closets overflow with games.\nThe maps are very attractive and functional, although I found the colour contrast to be muted when compared here with the Combat Commander maps; as you can in the photo here, the Combat Commander terrain features are more easily seen than with the Fighting Formations maps.\nComparing the maps in Fighting Formations (left) to Combat Commander\nWhat's also abundantly clear here is that the Fighting Formations' maps are larger than your typical Combat Commander scenario.", "993" ], [ "The introductory scenario in Fighting Formations uses a half sheet map like Combat Commander, but the other scenarios are all on full and in some cases even double map sheets.\nThe maps are historical depictions of parts of the eastern front. The scenarios all come with a nice long historical background to give the sense of the events about to unfold on the board.\nAnd... for those who felt they were missing from Combat Commander, yes folks, Fighting Formation comes with tanks!\nYes, it comes with tanks!\nRules\nThe rules span two volumes: the core rules and the playbook. The rules are not short, covering some 24 pages and the 64 page playbook adds about another dozen pages of game specific rules and some optional rules. The rest of the playbook is devoted to the 10 scenarios, designer and historical notes, orders of battle, and a detailed example of play.\nThe index is included at the back of the playbook, which can be a nuisance when you're looking for something that is actually in the rulebook, especially anything to do with the sequence of play, but a quick photocopy of the index page is a quick and easy remedy. What's important is clarity and ease of finding information, which are a hallmark of <PERSON> games.\nEven newcomers to wargaming would have little trouble learning the game from the rules, and veteran Combat Commander players will find a lot of familiar terminology.\nVictory is determined by victory points, which can be earned one of three ways:\n- eliminating enemy units\n- controlling certain objectives\n- exiting friendly units off the map\nThe player with the most victory points when the scenario ends is the winner.\nGame Play\nFighting Formations is a classic hex and counter game in many ways. We have the standard hexes, tanks and artillery pieces with facing and fire arcs, movement modified by terrain, and counters chock full of information. There are even rules for vehicles moving in reverse.\nAn interesting and deliberate omission are any stacking rules (except for vehicles moving in column). One could theoretically place every single unit in the same hex. It would be extremely foolish to do so, but you can if you really want to.\nThe lifeblood of Fighting Formations is the order matrix shown above. In order to do anything, you must select a cube from the order matrix, and the value of the cube limits which orders you can execute.", "993" ], [ "This review continues my series of detailed reviews. I have tried to cover every aspect of the game and as such you may prefer to skip to the sections of most interest.\nImage Courtesy of chaddyboy_2000\nSummary\nGame Type – Board Game\nPlay Time: 90-120 min\nNumber of Players: 2-4 (Best with 4)\nMechanics – Area Control/Influence, Card Drafting, Hidden Planning\nDifficulty – Moderate (Can take 2-3 plays to fully comprehend rules and the basic strategy)\nComponents – Excellent ++\nDesigner - <PERSON> - (Colonial Diplomacy, <PERSON>, Heads of State, Triassic Terror)\nOverview\nWars of the Roses is an ambitious game in that it tries to capture a tumultuous time in English history that was far more than straight forward warfare. So to be true to the period the game needs to incorporate not only military conflicts, but the political nature of the day, the importance of the church and the key role of economics.\nOn top of all that, it is crucial that the game also allows for intrigue and surprises to occur if it is to truly reflect the historical nature of the time and give the game that extra something.\nI am happy to report that Wars of the Roses does this wonderfully well and the combination of its physical design combined with its mechanics makes it something of a Euro/Wargame hybrid.\nBefore I continue it has come to my attention from reading some forum pages that there may be some confusion between this title and another game called Richard III: Wars of the Roses, by Columbia Games.\nThe game being reviewed here by Z-Man Games is in no way connected with the game from Columbia. They are both independent titles, which interestingly enough, were released within 3 months of each other.\nThe Theme\nWars of the Roses is set in the period of English History dating from 1455 - 1487, which is referred to as 'The Wars of the Roses'. It was a period of time in history when two great houses were fighting for control of England and control over who sat on the throne.\nMilitary conflicts were common but political infighting was the real 'lever of power'. The church was heavily involved and the houses were forever trying to convince powerful nobles to support their cause.\nAs key figures in this struggle, the players take on the roles of a key personality aligned with 1 of the 2 houses. <PERSON> (<PERSON>) and the Earl of <PERSON> (<PERSON>) represent the House of Lancaster (<PERSON>). The Earl of <PERSON> (<PERSON>) and the Duke of Gloucester (<PERSON>) represent the House of York (<PERSON>).\nOn a personal level I had no real understanding of this period in history before learning of the game. Whilst I am an avid student of history, both ancient and modern, this time period never did it for me.\nIf you are like me however, do not despair, as it will not result in you enjoying the game any less. It is very easy to play the game and remove yourself from the theme, simply playing as part of a team (at least initially) and using the mechanics to go about acquiring your assets in order to turn the screws on your opponents.\nOn the other hand, if you have a good knowledge of the period, or like to immerse yourself in the theme of a game, it allows you to do that too. You can amass large forces, control great Royal Castles, make a swift attack on the Midlands, control the Bishops or a region or dominate the Shipping Lanes.\nI guess what I am trying to say here is that the game is fairly accessible.", "299" ], [ "If you have no interest in the setting of the game, it can still be enjoyed on a 'game only' level. But there is plenty here for the history buffs and theme demons. Indeed the rulebook and Planning Screens offers great detail on the background to the conflict for those that want to know more. I must admit, the game has given me a much greater understanding of the Wars of the Roses - so yay to that.\nComponents\nA word of warning (it's a good warning) - you will need to start working out if you expect to carry the box for more than 2-3 metres. This baby is chock-o-block full of gaming component goodness. Not only is there lots of components, but they are quality components. This thing weighs more than a 12 month old baby but thankfully it isn't as messy.\nThe Board - The board is a big old gorgeous creation that depicts England. The country is divided into 6 regions. Each region is referred to as a county but for game purposes they really represent an amalgamation of counties. Each county has its own colour to help determine one from another easily. The colours are muted in tone and not garish (something that many a modern board has done of late).", "336" ], [ "It’s clear Forsage Games and the <PERSON> family cares deeply about their games. They are active on the forums and the production showcases a company with a clear vision; relentlessly creative within the very hard constraints of today's wargame market.\nTheir latest series, Age of Dogfights WWI is clever, packs a ton of gorgeous carefully crafted details into a small package, and totally delivers on the promise of big air battles playable quickly. It’s lovely to look at - in the same way a great train diorama is, or the relief maps at the Musee de le Armee in Paris are - despite not having miniatures!\nYes, it's beautiful\nThat said, Forsage explicitly markets the game as a “realistic and dynamic simulation” (it’s the game’s tagline) and ... I’m not sure it delivers fully on that promise. There are a number of design choices that make it feel like a game from a bygone era, and which tend to produce battles that, at least to my sensibilities, are more chess-like intellectual exercises than seat-of-the-pants furballs. I found this both in how battles played out on the board, but also in how players approach their choices, and experience the battles - in both falling short of my hopes for dynamic play, and realistic combat.\nI am not a combat pilot and have never served in the military. I am only at best an ‘enthusiast’ of air combat and military aviation - yes that’s me a total plane nerd! Your truly, and a few of the games I've chosen to keep\nThat said, I’ve been reading about, playing board games about, and combat sim-ing, for over three decades, and I have a squadron of a few close friends I fly with regularly in VR in DCS World. I bring a lot of personal expectations about what air combat is like, and to capture different aspects of the reality in different styles of games, and different media from pixels to cardboard. However... I am also no expert at all about aviation during the Great War. Ask me how to cold start an F-14 and I can walk you through the pilot's checklist from memory, but it was curiosity about this period (and an appreciation of the lovely planes in the RAF museum Hangar Two) that motivated me to try this game in the first place.\nThe components\nOpening the box you are greeted with a lot of stuff, (a lot!) and unfortunately, also a lot of assembly. It’s fiddly, somewhat unclear, and seems totally overwhelming. While this part is no fun, it is a result of how many goodies Forsage generously gives you.", "304" ], [ "I bribed my kids into helping and we managed to knock out the assembly in a few hours. I really appreciated the tuck boxes they give you for the planes and the stands! It’s a nice touch, practical and attractive, where most other manufacturers would have just dumped an inadequate number of baggies on you.\nThe map boards are sturdy and provide a pleasantly muted background for your battles.\nThe battle takes place on a hex grid. Though it is drawn in inverse fashion than normal, with the edges between points highlighted and which Forsage makes an odd fuss about branding as their ‘triangle system’, it's perfectly serviceable. From a bigger publisher, the marketing hype would be off-putting - here it’s just kind of cute and quaint.\nOf course, the most important components are the planes, and they are lovely! Wonderfully illustrated with crisp clear indications. On their translucent stands, they combine the simple clarity of tokens with the pageantry and visual appeal of miniatures. The planes are drawn to scale with each other and it’s just lovely to see a flight of bombers with fighters swirling about them. This is what I was initially attracted to, and boy does the game deliver!\nAll the information for each airplane is also available on the ‘dashboard sheet’, which are thick sturdy cardboard with pleasant and clear design. Given these I can’t help but wish there would have been an alternate set of ‘art and ID number only’ stickers offered. It could have been an easy and cheap alternative for those of us used to miniature gaming who wanted an even prettier presentation. Ah well... did I mention the planes look pretty great on the board nonetheless?!\nNot all the components are great however. The dice feel flimsy and not evenly weighted, with rough seams. The pilot experience overlays and bombing/photo zone/ship markers are ridiculously flimsy. The damage markers - which are placed kind of like tablecloths on the planes - I found to be just too fiddly and ended up placing them by the plane’s dashboard.", "336" ], [ "First, to begin this review, two disclaimers :\n-I had the honor of being a playtester for the game, and received a copy by courtesy of GMT.\n-English is not my first language, and I write too much. I acknowledge this is a pretty dreadful combo. In fact, this review is kind of a wall of text. Let’s just say that concision isn’t my main quality.\nSo, for those who don’t want to read this whole review, here’s an...\nAbstract\nBy introducing a new take on some ageing game design concepts, <PERSON> (and the team behind Talon) managed to create a game that feels familiar, inheriting a rich narrative legacy, while offering a fresh and stylish experience, mostly associated with modern designs. The game quickly plays like a breeze, while presenting the kind of intricacies associated to much heavier games. It’s new oldschool, if that means anything. And it’s awesome.\nAnd now for the main review...\n<PERSON> has made a name for himself by creating games which tried (some would say they succeeded) to top some of the most enduring classics of the american school of game design. He did so by following what could be described as a two-pronged approach :\n-sticking to his guns, meaning he didn’t shy away from the most efficient tropes of the genre in which he was working, to adopt some of the most popular boardgame mechanics of the day (in this regard, his approach of the 4x genre with was very different from, say, the approach of , with his role selection mechanic borrowed from Puerto Rico).\n-Yet (and no, there is no paradox here), <PERSON> managed to keep a fresh view on things. Most notable, he developed an ability to free himself from some of the most pregnant gameplay tropes inherited from the very classics he was trying to top, in order to keep things as simple as they needed to be, within the historical or imaginary frame he had chosen to stick to.\nA legacy in game design (no, not Legacy !)\nTalon is a game of space battle between fleets of capital ships. Every word counts here : the game is focused around managing more than one ship for each side, and, though there are some fighters in the game, the game is engineered around managing fleets of bigger ships (each ship coming with its own micro-management imperatives).\nThe game follows a tradition of spaceship combat games initiated by the 1979 classic , which allowed players to recreate fights between ships from the Star Trek license, capturing the imagination of a lot of players.", "504" ], [ "SFB can be described as one of the seminal game in an american tradition of heavy bookkeeping fighting games, spawned from its heavily influential wargame community. This lineage has in turn given birth to some derivative classics like (with cars fighting it out) or (for mechs). Recently, SFB has been re-implemented by a somewhat simplified version called .\nOnce again, <PERSON> objective has been to keep the best of SFB’s narrative and tactical wealth, while simplifying its mechanics and fluidifying the game experience. While his series relied on an historical analysis of WWII tactical doctrine to free itself from the cumbersome legacy of ASL’s gameplay tropes, deeply encroached in its players’ imaginary, Talon is built upon a number of fictional presuppositions clearly stated in its designer’s note, mostly shared with Star Fleet Battles itself (2d representation of space combat, non-Newtonian inertia…).\nThus, Talon uses a lot of gameplay tropes familiar to the tradition its design is firmly following - depleting shields, impulse-based turn sequence, energy allotment as a core mechanic - while introducing a quantity of little adjustments (like, for example, the fact that shields can’t be recharged) to grease the wheels of his system. It’s the dual nature - both familiar and refreshing - of Talon’s core mechanics which makes it an impressive design.\nImpulses and energy consumption : surfing, pacing and timing\nAt the core of Talon’s gameplay lies his impulse-based turn sequence, which is at the core of its brilliance. Every turn is divided into six impulses (A, B, C, D, E and F). Depending of its power output and speed, a ship will be able to use a point of power, or will HAVE to move during one or more of the impulses. Every ship has the opportunity to shoot during every impulse. For example, a ship with a power output of 3 will be able to use a point of power in impulses B, D and F. In the same fashion, a ship with a speed of 3 will have to advance one hex during the same impulses. A ship with a speed of 6 would advance one hex for every impulse.", "937" ], [ "Having long been an avid fan of Columbia's various block games, and with the now classic EastFront being one of the very few games in my collection rated a 10, I \"upgraded\" to EastFront II (EF II) when Columbia refreshed the Front series.\nFor the unitiated, Columbia Games (CG) published the original EastFront in 1991, and in later years published WestFront (adding Western Europe, US and British units, sea invasions, ...), MedFront (Italians, North Africa, Spanish Civil War subgame), VolgaFront (eastern expansion map for EastFront), and EuroFront (units for neutral countries, überrules to unify all the various Front games into one large game to replay the entirety of WWII). EuroFront eventually became MasterFront.\nCG was going to add maps for the North (Scandinavia) and Turkey, but ultimately decided for a variety of (IMO good) reasons to clean up the rules, the maps, and the games, and make three new games. To wit, EuroFront II, WestFront II, and EuroFront II. EuroFront II is the final piece and is finally officially released. (The new maps combined look like this: http://www.columbiagames.com/pix/3407-euf2map-1200.jpg)\nBefore proceeding with the remainder of this review, a couple of comments:\n1. I am a long time fan of CG's block games.\n2. This review compaires EF II to the original. It is recommended to read reviews and gameplay of the original EF before reading the remainder below.\nThe gameplay for EF II is essentially the same as the original EF. The core game mechanics can be summed up as follows:\n1. You are provided with a mix of units (HQ, infantry, armor, mechanized, cavalry, and shock - the latter two are only for the Russians). There are a few units that are special (e.g. paratroops, SS armor, SS mech)\n2. You can deploy the units as you see fit (there is a historical order of battle for the opening Barbarossa scenario) along start lines set out by the various scenarios.\n3.", "993" ], [ "HQ's govern how much you can accomplish.\nThe rules of the game, while lengthy and detailed, are not tremendously complex, allowing the players to focus on their strategy and tactics.\nThe game starts in summer of 1941 with the <PERSON> scenario - Germany attacks their former ally and tries to get to Moscow before winter sets in. The game has 8 six-month scenarios starting with <PERSON> through the fall of Berlin. The last scenario is essentially a walk for the Russians, although the goal for the Germans is to see how long they can delay the inevitable.\nThe scenarios can be played independently or serially or any subset. For instance, you could start in Winter of 1943 and then continue into Summer of 1944. The individual scenarios give the information required to continue to the next six-month period.\nHQ units are the basic engine of the game. Each side has one master \"strategic\" HQ and several tactical HQ units. The Russians have more but weaker HQ's than the Germans. However, given the span of the map, this gives the Russians a slight edge in flexibility.\nWhat's different in EF II?\nFor starters, the map. As you can see in this image (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/133536), the EF II map is much larger, as it includes what was previously VolgaFront as well as the new addition of Turkey and some of the Middle East.\nThis can make finding a suitable playing surface tricky. As some other BGG commentators have noted, this can be problematic.\nSize aside, the new hexes are 3% smaller according to the designer, which is unfortunate in the sense that if anything, they needed to be larger, but the trade off was the expanded geography. The new graphics are less artistically attractive than the original, but more functional - making for net easier ability to play the game!\nThe rules have been cleaned up. The original EF rules underwent several revisions and edits and erratas. No doubt EF II will have the same rules tweaks over time (indeed, rules 1.1 are already posted on the CG web site).\nOne of the key changes in the game is that strategic HQ's in source cities (Warsaw for the Germans, Moscow for the Russians) are not subject to disruption. This is a rather huge benefit, especially for the Germans in winter.\nThe rules for EF II are posted at the CG web site, so for the EastFront veterans it's easy to check out what's new.\nWho should buy this game?", "993" ] ]

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[ [ "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse\noh my GOD. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME.\nThis was just breathtaking. It’s so incredibly beautiful and wonderful and audacious and i can only stare in awe at the visuals and the mere fact that this movie exists.", "462" ], [ "with the sheer vision of this film it would’ve been so easy to get lost in the spidersauce, but it’s very clear <PERSON> and <PERSON> care deeply about these characters. I think they’re being very cautious, but respectful with where they’re taking these characters and so far it’s been incredibly heartfelt.\nI most definitely am not a fan of the live action inserts into this film whatsoever but i’ll give it a pass for now bc what they have teed up could be a total cultural reset. regardless of where the next one goes, this one was just brilliant.", "19" ], [ "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes\ni spoke to <PERSON> at the baftas red carpet around 2 years ago for a few minutes with my sister. i believe this was after west side story came out.\nshe’s honestly such a kindhearted girl and i’m so happy for her shining in roles like this. genuinely excited for her career in film! she elevated the character of <PERSON> amazingly.\n<PERSON> definitely stole the show though.", "577" ], [ "he captured <PERSON>’s character perfectly, and was such a reminder of how snow is such a chillingly fascinating villain. would also love to see what he goes on to do!\noverall, i cannot express how much i liked this film’s casting. i could honestly continue to give merit to other actors in the ensemble. my expectations were definitely met.", "657" ], [ "Iron Man\n“you are a man who has everything and nothing”\nrevisiting this film after several years was a spur of the moment decision. i was craving a film with action but also with a lot of emotios + stakes. so i traveled back in time to when the mcu actually gave a shit about the work they were putting out into cinemas.\niron man is truly the best & most fantastic introduction film to an entire franchise universe. the tone in the beginning was one of serious accords, keeping you on your toes with just the right amount of dark humor to balance things out.\ni mourn the loss of phase 1 mcu films.", "457" ], [ "were they perfect ? absolutely not but they had heart, soul and actually made you think, should i give a fuck about this billionaire playboy with daddy issues? it presented us with the reality that life is never so black and white. it’s the grey areas that hold the most weight.\niron man depicts <PERSON> for exactly who he is. they present him to us in a way that you’ve formed any opinion only being 5 minutes into the film. but when you keep watching, you see a man who is conflicted, struggling with his beliefs that his father instilled in him and questioning if it’s something he truly believes. by the end of the film you get your answer in <PERSON>’s way reminding you that he’s still him but with a new outlook on life and tech.", "80" ], [ "<PERSON>\n“we still love each other, right?”\nmommy is such an incredibly disturbing film. <PERSON> offers such a complicated examination of a mother-son relationship and what it means to truly love someone unconditionally.\n<PERSON> truly hit the ball out of the park with this film. there is such an intensity that carries through the whole film from start to end without it ever feeling bogged down by sudden climax’s or dilemmas. this is probably my favourite <PERSON> film to date.", "529" ], [ "i think it truly encapsulates all that makes him such a unique and great director. he has such a unique style when it comes to presenting his stories. i know some people find it pretentious, but his use of aspect ratios mainly in this film, but also out of focus scenes, shots that are a little too close, all staples i associate with a dolan film. not to mention the cinematography is always stunning and the score on this film is especially delightful.", "594" ], [ "<PERSON>\ni do think it’s super cool and fun and awesome when big blockbusters are earnest to a fault and make me cringe a little (which is good!). like man you cannot tell me watching <PERSON> ride <PERSON> penis while she makes him read sanskrit so he can orgasm (while <PERSON> is watching at one point?) didn’t make you giddy.", "577" ], [ "i’m v anti “this doesn’t make sense” culture but also this screenplay does not make sense to ME on multiple levels. the one that truly matters is the fact that this is a character study and i still don’t know who <PERSON> is! he’s so flat! <PERSON> once again said any woman ever can’t cook all they know is scream, neglect their children, be an alcoholic, eat hot chip and LIE! idk. it’s pretty goofy!! fan fiction ass movie… big ROFL", "132" ], [ "The <PERSON>\ncried multiple times throughout the whole thing. this movie is so, SO much more moving than i ever could’ve imagined it being, in performances and visuals alike. <PERSON> is giving the most emotional performance i’ve seen out of her, let alone anyone this year. loved so much about this movie and have not been able to stop thinking about it.\neven with all of this, no matter how much it struck me; i felt disappointed and cheated.", "883" ], [ "there were so many opportunities wasted, so many shortcuts taken, so many things i did not like about reoccurring choices (cgi animals specifically). i was often so immersed, incapable of looking away, just to be quickly taken out by little details i could not get over.\ni have, always, let the emotional state a movie leaves me in override any issues i have with it. i think this one is one i was not able to completely separate myself from, which is both frustrating and exciting for me.\ni am extremely glad this got made at the end of the day. love you eggers. keep doing ya thing baby smurf.", "583" ], [ "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie\nsooo special.\ni finished breaking bad a year ago and i wish i watched this right after.\n<PERSON> is universally a favourite character of many on the show, if not THE favourite, and he’s always the one person in breaking bad i’d gravitate towards most.\nel camino was such great closure for his character. i was not once put off by its runtime or purpose. i also do not think it took anything away from <PERSON>. it was just right. subtle in its nature, and also nostalgic in a way that would make any fan of breaking bad feel the impact of the show all over again. nothing was ‘in your face’ with its famous cameos and even it’s quick shot of <PERSON> office in the strip mall.\nso much credit goes to <PERSON> for again seamlessly taking on the role of <PERSON> so perfectly. <PERSON>, however, proved once again the art of what he does. he puts so much emphasis on detail, and it got me once again.", "217" ], [ "the duration of breaking bad has never failed to send me on a crazy ride of emotions. an example of something that played on my mind heavily as i watched this film was <PERSON> in his parents house, and the shot of his height markings over the years. it was only a few seconds, but it got to me instantly. definitely one of my favourite shots.\ni’m seeing a recurring theme in some reviews, despite their overall praise. i don’t think this film was ‘unnecessary’. would breaking bad remain perfect without it? sure, but this film is such a good continuation of the show. it revisits a character in a way that feels right.\ni loved this so much. i also really missed those long shots of scenery <PERSON> never failed to show us.", "217" ], [ "The Five Devils\nundeniably an interesting movie with a fascinating premise; i can’t help but feel something was missing, though. it didn’t grab me like i’d hoped it would. i also cannot exactly look past how this was very much a movie made by white french people that didn’t quite know how to center its black characters, particularly the black queer woman who is supposed to be so formative to the story.", "236" ], [ "however!! i am definitely not the individual to be delving into that and there are surely better criticisms of that on this app—i have no interest in sounding like a white knight of film criticisms. my criticisms don’t take away from the fact that it was really strong performances all around (<PERSON> is always a gem, i love how much acting she does with her face) and some really beautiful interior and exterior shots. the mood of this whole movie was pretty well crafted, too.", "657" ] ]

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[ [ "As a preamble, I would not expect that splitting $E$ into real/imaginary parts is very profitable. Normally, block 2x2 systems are motivated because one block of unknowns is \"easier\" to solve than the other in some sense (better conditioned? smaller in cardinality? etc). This is not the case for time-harmonic <PERSON>, I think you'd be better off remaining in the complex field. If you can't do that (maybe these frameworks don't support complex variables?), the next best thing would be to probably \"interleave\" the real and imaginary parts and use point-like preconditioners with two degrees of freedom (1 real, 1 imag) per point. I'd expect this to have the same effect as working in the complex field to begin with.\nAll that said, a lot of classical preconditioners that you might try at this point (smoothing, incomplete factorizations, multigrid) are not very effective on time-harmonic Maxwell, because it has basically the same spectral properties as the (bad) <PERSON> equation: unbounded spectrum, indefinite, oscillatory in nature. An excellent survey of these troubles can be found here, you can basically apply the same arguments to time-harmonic <PERSON>.\nIn fact, <PERSON> is even a little more difficult in two ways. The minor way is because it's vector-valued and thus has more unknowns than a <PERSON> problem of equal size and wavenumber. The major way is that <PERSON>'s $\\nabla \\times \\nabla \\times$ operator is more complicated than <PERSON>'s $\\nabla \\bullet \\nabla $ operator, because of the presence of an infinite dimensional nullspace.", "976" ], [ "<PERSON>'s gradient operator has a one dimensional nullspace (spanned by the constant function $1$), but <PERSON>'s curl operator has an infinite dimensional nullspace (spanned by the gradients of scalar functions $\\nabla f$). Many preconditioning schemes rely upon \"coarsening\" the problem down (in a multigrid sense), and the <PERSON> equation enjoys that its nullspace (the constant function) can be approximated with no error on any grid that is arbitrarily coarse. In contrast, when you discretize the <PERSON> equation on a fine grid, the nullspace of the discrete operator will not be exactly representable on a coarser grid, and thus your exchange operations (restriction/prolongation) must be more carefully constructed (otherwise you are likely to take exactly-zero eigencomponents on one grid and map them to close-but-not-quite-zero eigencomponents on another, which wrecks convergence .. see here for some discussion).\nOn a less pessimistic note, a reliable FE solver for low/medium-wavenumber time-harmonic <PERSON> is an excellent tool to have in your pocket, because it can be readily hybridized with high-wavenumber methods (modal expansions, integral equations, asymptotics, etc) but complements their deficiencies (unlike FE, these methods typically only work for homogeneous media). Along those lines, the two approaches I've used most successfully for solving <PERSON>'s equations iteratively are (i) p-multiplicative-schwarz (pMUS) and (ii) domain decomposition (DDM).\nThe former (pMUS) is basically multigrid, but applied in polynomial order (p) instead of mesh size (h). The basic idea is to use a low order p=0 solution to precondition a high order p=(0+1+...) solution. It's easy to implement, but requires some formulation-level effort to tabulate your (Nedelec) basis functions in such a way that they separate the nullspace/range of the curl operator as described earlier (see this paper for a good representative in this class of methods).\nThe latter (DDM) is basically a deflation-like scheme, wherein you partition space into non-overlapping domains, eliminate/substructure away the interior unknowns, then solve the resulting interface-only problem to re-establish the correct field continuity / global solution. Much thought has been put into the right kinds of \"transmission conditions\" that should be used to terminate the subdomains and match them back together, much of the work on <PERSON> has been adapted from similar work on the Helmholtz equation. See here for pioneering work on Helmholtz, and here for its evolution into <PERSON>.", "768" ], [ "In my opinion the basics stay the same but there are some differences worth commenting upon.\nThe basic principles of defining a local coordinate system, integrating local dense contribution matrices using quadrature rules, and assembling them into global sparse matrices are identical. Often, hexahedral basis functions arise from taking tensor products of some underlying one-dimensional basis, and are integrated using tensor products of one-dimensional quadrature rules, which exposes some opportunities for optimizing code.\nOne notable difference is polynomial completeness. High order tetrahedral basis tend to arise from some sort of pascal's triangle / pascal's tetrahedron arrangement. For instance, a 2D gradient-conforming basis needs to span {$1$, $x$, $y$, $x^2$, $xy$, $y^2$} to be complete to second order, and these 6 functions can be arranged very tidily on a 6-node triangle (3 vertices, 3 edge midpoints). In contrast, the most natural way to write a second order basis for a 2D quadrilateral is via a tensor product of two 1D lines, leading to a span of {$1$, $x$, $y$, $x^2$, $xy$, $y^2$, $x^2y$, $xy^2$, $x^2y^2$}. This contains more functions / requires more work, but is not any more accurate in the asymptotic sense. This over-completeness becomes more exaggerated as you raise the order or migrate from 2D to 3D.\nDespite this overcomplete-ness at the element level, hexahedral elements are generally more efficient in total cost, simply because they are \"larger\" and fill space more efficiently. Model accuracy is typically a function of mesh size $h$. A hexahedron with sides of length $h$ takes up $h^3$ volume, while a tetrahedron with sides of length $h$ only takes up a volume of $h^3/6$. So given some computational domain with volume $V$ and an desired accuracy/mesh size $h$, I expect to need 6x as many tetrahedra than hexahedra.", "976" ], [ "Even though this difference is just a constant factor, we're talking about the size of the input here, so it will be further magnified by any downstream algorithmic complexities (for instance, if you're using solver/preconditioning techniques that scale superlinearly).\nI do want to comment briefly on accuracy. A surprising aspect of some basis functions is that element shape / distortion can effect their order of accuracy, because of how they depend on the pullback/jacobian. As a concrete example, consider 2D Nedelec (curl-conforming) functions. The curl of these functions (ie what's going into the \"stiffness\" matrix, to borrow a term) is proportional to the jacobian. For a triangle, the jacobian is constant, so you get curl complete to a constant (this is what you want, a lowest order \"$\\star$-conforming\" element should have \"$\\star$\" complete to a constant). In contrast, the jacobian for a quadrilateral is only constant if the shape mapping is affine (ie the quadrilateral is a parallelogram), which means this element is non-convergent on general meshes (ie you can refine $h$ but the error will not improve). Raviart-Thomas elements are similarly affected, as they have a similar dependence on jacobian. Note that a similar thing happens (non-constant jacobian / non-convergence) if you use curvilinear shape mappings (for either triangles or quadrilaterials), I only call out this case specifically because it's surprising that a linear/straight-line quadrilateral can exhibit this problem too (when it's not a parallelogram).\nAll this said, I find the biggest obstacle to using hexahedra for FEM are not formulation or convergence issues, but mesh generation and computational geometry issues. There are robust general-purpose algorithms for automatic tetrahedral mesh generation (delaunay refinement in particular), but hexahedral meshing is more brittle and often requires user interaction to decompose complicated geometry into simple parts that are eligible for structured strategies or pave/sweep strategies. Note that you can fuse tetrahedral grids with hexahedral grids using pyramidal elements, but the basis functions on pyramids can be pretty technical (pyramids are often implemented in terms of degenerate/distorted hexadra, and the distortion function ends up contributing non-polynomial terms to the jacobian/basis functions, which can make it difficult to obtain the correct order of accuracy).", "441" ], [ "Interesting question. I would expect the <PERSON> scheme to be indifferent to static (bias) fields induced by constant potentials.\nIn the electrostatic case, if you have a constant electric potential $\\phi$, it induces a field $\\vec E = \\nabla \\phi$. The update equation is (modulo constants) $\\frac{d}{dt}\\vec B = \\nabla \\times \\vec E$. But since $\\vec E$ is a gradient, it lies in the nullspace of curl, so $\\frac{d}{dt}\\vec B=\\nabla \\times \\nabla \\phi= \\vec 0$ (that is, $\\vec B$ doesn't vary in time).\nThe elegance of the <PERSON> scheme (and other schemes drawn from Nedelec/Whitney-type elements) is that all of these identities are upheld faithfully after (spatial) discretization. In the discrete setting, your potential $\\mathbf v$ will give rise to a static field $\\mathbf e = \\mathbf G \\mathbf v$, where $\\mathbf G$ is the sparse stencil induced by the signed vertex-to-edge adjacency. The (semi)discrete update equation is $\\frac{d}{dt}\\mathbf b = \\mathbf C \\mathbf e$, where C is the edge-to-facet adjacency. By construction, $\\mathbf C \\mathbf G = \\mathbf 0$, so $\\mathbf b$ doesn't vary in time, either.", "418" ], [ "Note, incorporating the <PERSON> law $\\nabla \\cdot \\vec B=0$ basically forces trivial/null $\\vec B$ as an initial condition, so when you read \"$\\vec B$ doesn't vary in time\", what you should be really thinking is \"$\\vec B$ starts as zero and stays that way forever\".\nMy point being, an electrostatic (gradient) field is basically ignored by the scheme, as the curl operator / $\\mathbf C$-stencil doesn't \"sense\" or \"measure\" it.\nAll that said, some care is required when you (i) set initial conditions and (ii) incorporate sources, to make sure you do not \"source\" $\\mathbf e$ and $\\mathbf b$ in any way that's inconsistent with <PERSON>'s equations. You should consult literature, people have studied this sort of thing. In particular, that $\\vec J$ source term is murky. Most codes I have worked upon use engineering-motivated sources like planewaves and lumped ports. I am not sure how to interpret the role of your volume source .. looks like poynting vector and ohmic conduction? The latter is normally accounted for by directly modifying the $\\mathbf e$ updates in a \"semi-implicit\" fashion, not an explicit source. I don't know what the former term is trying to represent.", "780" ], [ "This is an excellent writeup but I think saying that (multilevel) DD and MG have a lot in common is not accurate, or at least not useful. The methods are very different and I don't think that expertise in one is very useful in the other.\nFirst, the two communities use different definitions of complexity: DD optimizes the condition number of the preconditioned systems and MG optimizes work/memory complexity. This is a big fundamental difference -- \"optimality\" has a totally different meaning in these two contexts. Things don't change when you add in parallel complexity (although you get a log term added in MG). The two communities are almost speaking different languages.\nSecond, MG has multilevel built into it and multilevel DD methods have all been developed with two level theory and implementations. This limits the space of coarse grid spaces that you can use in MG -- they must be recursive. For instance, You can not implement FETI in an MG framework. People do some multilevel DD methods as <PERSON> mentioned but at least some of the current popular DD methods do not seem to be implementable recursively.\nThird, I see the algorithms themselves, as practiced, as very different.", "57" ], [ "Qualitatively speaking I would say that DD methods project onto domain boundaries and solve this interface problem. MG works directly with the native equations. Avoiding this projection allows MG to be applied to nonlinear and unsymmetrical problems easily. Although the theory all but goes away for nonlinear and unsymmetric problems they have worked for a lot of people. MG also explicitly decouples the problem into two parts: the coarse grid space for scaling and an iterative solver (the smoother) to solve the physics. This is critical in understanding and working with MG and is an attractive property to me.\nAlthough theoretically the smoothers and coarse grid spaces are tightly coupled, in practice you can often swap different smoother in and out as an optimization parameter. As <PERSON> mentioned point or vertex smoothers are popular and usually faster, but for challenging problems heavier smoothers can be useful. This plot is from my dissertation showing the solve time as a function of Poisson ratio for Jacobi, block Jacobi and \"additive Schwarz\" (overlapped). Its a little hard to read but at the highest Poisson ratio (0.499) overlapping Schwarz is about 2x faster than (vertex) Jocobi whereas it is about 3x slower at pedestrian Poisson ratios.", "768" ], [ "Preconditioning technique for large sparse non-hermitian matrix\nI am attempting to solve a computational acoustics problem that involves solving an underlying sparse matrix. The size of the problem varies with grid size (3D) and fill-in's obviously make direct solution impractical. Important features of the matrix are as follows:\n1. It is non-Hermitian and particularly NOT diagonally dominant.\n2. Regardless of the size of the problem, there is always one row that consists of only one element, far away from the diagonal (and a zero on the diagonal). This is part of the problem's closure condition.\nI have attempted to solve this problem using iterative techniques with preconditioning to speed up the solution. Iterative solution without preconditioning yields fairly inaccurate results (by comparison with directly computed results for a small grid).", "623" ], [ "ILU preconditioning works for coarse grids (small matrices ~ 42000 x 42000) but fails for anything over 100,000 x 100,000; keeping a low fill-in factor ends in \"Factor is exactly singular\" and large fill-in factor ends in one of the sub-matrices being singular during pivoting. I also tried enforcing the one zero diagonal element with machine epsilon before attempting ILU but it still fails.\nRelevant problem parameters are as follows:\n1. There are 8 PDE's: conservation of mass, conservation of energy, three momentum equations for interior points of computation (full staggered grid with velocity on faces and pressure, temperature & density on cell centers), and three problem specific momentum equations on certain boundaries.\n2. There are suitable closure conditions applied to the problem to obtain a full ranked system, one of which has been described above (zero diagonal row).\n3. I am using a hybrid scheme, with divergences and certain gradients being constructed by using a finite volume approach, and the rest of the operators being constructed using a finite difference approach utilizing polynomial fitting.\nIf it helps, I am using scipy sparse libraries to carry out my computations. The iterative method I am using is LGMRES, which works without any problems when provided a suitable preconditioner. Please suggest some viable preconditioning techniques for this kind of problem.\nEdit: The sparsity pattern of the matrix is as follows:", "623" ], [ "Getting started with FEM: Ill-conditioned matrix when evaluating flux terms in conservation law?\nI have a system of conservation laws of the form\n$$ \\frac{\\partial \\mathbf{q}}{\\partial t} + \\nabla \\cdot \\mathbf{F}!\\left(\\mathbf{q}\\right) = 0 $$\nI want to use finite elements to solve this system. As an initial choice, I am using Legendre polynomials $\\phi$ for my function basis. Let $j$ be a polynomial index. If I substitute the decomposition of my unknown function $\\mathbf{q}$ and the flux function $\\mathbf{F}$,\n$$ \\mathbf{q}!\\left(t, x\\right) = \\sum\\limits_j \\hat{\\mathbf{q}}_j!\\left(t\\right) \\phi_j!\\left(x\\right) $$\n$$ \\mathbf{F}!\\left(\\mathbf{q}\\right) = \\sum\\limits_j \\hat{\\mathbf{F}}!\\left(t\\right) \\phi_j!\\left(x\\right) $$\nand finally write out the weak form (given some test volume $\\Omega$ with boundary $\\partial \\Omega$)\n$$ \\sum\\limits_j \\left(\\frac{\\partial \\hat{\\mathbf{q}}j}{\\partial t} \\int\\limits\\Omega \\phi_i \\phi_j + \\hat{\\mathbf{h}}j \\oint\\limits{\\partial \\Omega} \\phi_i \\phi_j - \\hat{\\mathbf{F}}j \\cdot \\int\\limits\\Omega \\phi_j \\nabla \\phi_i\\right) = 0 $$\nHere, I replaced $\\mathbf{F} \\cdot \\hat{\\mathbf{n}} = \\mathbf{h}$.\nMy problem occurs when I actually try to evaluate the surface second and third terms inside the parentheses. Because my problem is 1-dimensional, the second term amounts to just evaluating $\\phi_i \\phi_j$ at 1 and -1 and taking the difference ($\\hat{\\mathbf{n}} = \\pm \\hat{\\mathbf{x}}$ is the outward-facing normal).", "281" ], [ "In analogy with the stiffness matrix, we could write this as a matrix $\\mathbb{B} = {b_{ij}}$. Any given element $b_{ij}$ will be either 0 or 2 because the Legendre polynomials take the value of 1 or -1 at the edges of the domain. This matrix is sparse but singular. The third term exhibits a similar problem if we try to write it as a matrix $\\mathbb{C} = {c_{ij}}$.\nThe only way I know to solve for the $\\hat{\\mathbf{F}}_j$ and $\\hat{\\mathbf{h}}_j$ coefficients is by solving a matrix equation, but all my attempts to solve them (using PETSc) converge slowly and may not even be correct. I would like to use a preconditioner, but I get errors any time I try (PCSETUP_FAILED due to SUBPC_ERROR), even though I have specified the null spaces of these matrices.\nHave I approached this problem incorrectly altogether? Or is there a common way of overcoming this challenge, in PETSc or otherwise?", "935" ], [ "First note that LBM doesn't actually work for in-compressible fluids unless you replace the density in your D2Q5 vectors with pressure (or energy etc.. something that doesn't relate to the number of particles per unit volume/area), as density is constant in in-compressible fluids (and I'll be from this point onward considering your LBM implementation in terms of pressure, not density). Second I would probably need to see the code, but it appears your equilibrium equation is wrong.\nIt looks like your equilibrium equation results in collisions with little to no perpendicular flow, and hence why it just looks like a straight shot across your grid.\nHere is visual explanation:\nimagine the following adjacent grid points, where blue represents non zero pressure.\nOn the next step, this is what your simulation looks like it is doing:\nThis is what it should be doing:\nCollisions should result in perpendicular pressure flow to some degree. Think of billiard balls, if you hit one to the side, the ball doesn't just go straight, it hits off at an angle.", "568" ], [ "Now you may be thinking \"even with the billard ball situation, I can't get it to go exactly perpendicular to my collision!\" and there are two factors to this:\n* First LBM equilibrium collision equations happen at the particle level, and the equilibrium equation is supposed to not handle just one collision, but multiple collisions in a time-step. You in effect have multiple \"billiard ball\" collisions to account for (example):\n* The quantized 4 directions + stationary (the Q5 in D2Q5) in LBM are not just supposed to be for the aligned particle movement to that quantized direction, but rather all particles angles more closely aligned with that angle than others. Here is what I'm talking about:\nEach color should correspond to all particles flowing in that solid angle range, not just the particles that happen to flow aligned to the axis. Even in the single collision in the billard ball situation, the ball could still end up going in the \"left general direction\" despite not moving directly left, and would be advected leftwards.\nI'm not sure what your equilibrium equation is, but I would suggest making it more isotropic, making sure that (if for example you use energy) you conserve energy.", "621" ], [ "For the compressible Navier-Stokes equations, a convenient possibility is to choose the time step by considering the stability criterion of the inviscid (hyperbolic, Euler) and the viscous (parabolic, diffusive) terms independently from one another:\nFor the <PERSON> term you have \"something like\"\n$ \\Delta t_\\mathrm{Hyperbolic} \\leq \\displaystyle\\min_{\\mathbf{x}i\\in\\Omega} \\left( \\min{d=1,2,3} \\frac{C \\Delta x_{i,d}}{\\lvert u_{i,d} \\rvert + a_i} \\right ) \\; ,$\ndepending on your grid, spatial discretization and temporal discretization schemes, where $u_{i,d}$ is the d-th velocity component in the i-th cell/element, $a_i$ is the speed of sound, $\\Delta x_i$ is the i-th cell/element size, and $C$ is the Courant number. Remember that in 1D the eigenvalues of the flux Jacobian for the inviscid term are $u + a$, $u - a$, and $a$ (and that you can compute them at every time step for every cell/element).\nFor the diffusive term you will have \"something like\"\n$ \\Delta t_\\mathrm{Parabolic} \\leq \\displaystyle\\min_{\\mathbf{x}i\\in\\Omega} \\left( \\min{d=1,2,3} \\frac{ \\Delta x_{i,d}^2}{\\lambda \\; \\mu} \\right ) \\; ,$\nwhere $\\mu$ is your diffusivity and $\\lambda$ is a factor that depends on your spatial and time discretization schemes. Although it seems counterintuitive, explicit time integration schemes for the linear diffusion equation satisfying this criterion are stable for a sufficiently large $\\lambda$. Implicit schemes allow you to take a larger $\\Delta t_\\mathrm{Parabolic}$ from the stability point-of-view, but if it is not small enough your scheme won't be very accurate.\nSo one could choose $\\Delta t = \\min ( \\Delta t_{\\mathrm{Hyperbolic}}, \\Delta t_{\\mathrm{Parabolic}} )$ and hope to remain stable for a sufficiently large class of problems if $C$ and $\\lambda$ are choosen appropiately (they depend on the spatial and temporal discretization schemes!).\nHowever, don't forget that: both terms are actually coupled, and as <PERSON> said above, the CFL condition is a necessary condition (which is not the same as sufficient!). If you are using a first order finite volume method, a consistent and monotone numerical flux ensures that your scheme is both stable and convergent.\nWe know from <PERSON> theorem that no linear monotone scheme of higher than first order accuracy exist.", "649" ], [ "This means that a higher order scheme has to be non-linear in order to be monotone. Total Variation Diminishing (TVD) methods can be constructed through limiting in FV, limiting and filtering in DG, and non-linear stabilization in FE. For higher than second order accuracy, it is worth relaxing the TVD constraint in order to retain the global order of accuracy of the method when discontinuities are present in the solution. Alternatives are Total Variation Bounded (TVB) and Total Variation Bounded in the Mean (TVBM). These methods do not remove oscillations completely, but kind of ensure stability while maintaining your global order of accuracy.\nSo, if you satisfy both the CFL condition and some non-linear stability condition (TVD,TVB,TVBM) your scheme will be very likely to remain stable. If you do not, you are on your own, which does not mean that your scheme will be unstable (see for example second-order FV schemes for the Euler equations using unlimited weighted least-squares reconstruction).", "232" ] ]

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[ [ "Wallace the Animatronic Alien Creature\nIntroduction: Wallace the Animatronic Alien Creature\nWelcome!\nToday I will be showing you how to build <PERSON>, an animatronic alien creature.\nTo get started, you will need:\nx 1 Fur Real Friends dog (like this: https://www.ebay.com/p/1903566719)\nx 5 MG996R Servos\nx 1 Pololu Maestro 6-Channel Servo Controller\nx 1 20mm Half round realistic eye\nx 2 Big Boxes (the total height, length, & width of the 2 combined boxes should be greater than 12\"/1 ft.\nx 1 Small Box for the creature to sit on and store the electrical components in.\nA Hot Glue Gun\nA Strong Cardboard Corner/Cardboard Edge Protector\nA 6V Power Supply (preferably high in amperage, at least 20A)\nSome Springs(I used 2 long springs from an assorted pack which I acquired from Princess Auto)\nSome Air Craft/Steel Cable (You could use fishing line or thin rope, but I prefer Steel Cable as it is stronger and more reliable).\nSome Aluminium Swag Sleeves for the Steel Cable.\nSome 3D Printed Parts from my Thingiverse Page\nSome Bolts and Screws\nStep 1: Getting Started\nFirst you will need the fur from the toy dog. Carefully remove the fur from the animal, starting from the underside/belly. You should notice Velcro holding it together. Open the Velcro and fell for little plastic hooks that hold the fur to the body. Carefully remove the plastic hooks off (these hooks are located all over the body but mostly in the joints. Be sure not to rip the fur). and then remove the fur from the body (The fur is securly attached to the eyes, so you may have to rip that part off and you will be left with 2 eye holes in the fur (Don't worry as you can glue the holes/gaps shut, stick the ears inside them, or cover them with the ears).\nOnce you have successfully extract the fur from the toy dog, you can either keep its body or throw it out.\nNow take the 3D printed eyeball and cut a portion of it off such that the 20mm half round eye can fit inside it.", "997" ], [ "Then glue the 20mm eye to the 3D printed eyeball, and insert the eye into the mouth of the creature's fur. Once you have the eye at the position you desire glue the fur to the 3D printed portion of the eye, leaving the 20mm eye exposed (Refer to the image above).\nStep 2: Creating the Joints/Arms\nTake your 3D printed parts (these 3D printed parts were form a movable hand, but the finger parts worked really well as joints for this animatronic) and search for the long Finger set piece and the Knuckle (I refer to it as an L-bracket).\nNow, take the 2 pieces and add a 12-24 bolt through them and weld them together.\n(Refer to the images above)\nStep 3: Creating the Joints/Arms Part 2\nNow, attach another L-bracket on top of the current mechanism to act as a guide for the cable.\nOnce you have done that, I highly recommend you add a spring across the mechanism so it can easily return to its home position, and help you avoid further complications. I used 2 servo screws to hold my spring in place.\nNow, take a long cable (It's better to have it too long than too short. We can always cut off the extra length afterwards, but it's a lot harder to add extra length afterwards) and feed it through the joint mechanism, add your stopper to the end of the cable, and crimp it. If you look closely at the images you should be able to see my aluminium swag sleeve (my cable stopper) crimped, and hiding inside the long 3D printed finger part. You should also notice that my servo screw is also holding it in place.\n(Refer to the images above)\nStep 4: Creating the Joints/Arms Part 3\nAttach another L-bracket to the L-bracket on the joint mechanism, to allow for a bigger surface area to bolt the servo horn to.\nRepeat the previous steps to create the other arm. But this time, attach you servo horn vertically (facing up) so the joint can move left and right, not up and down like the previous servo. You will have to add another L-bracket to the mechanism so you can bolt the servo horn to the joint.", "259" ], [ "Animatronic Body\nIntroduction: Animatronic Body\nWelcome!\nToday we are going to be building an animatronic body. This body will consist of a rotating torso (left-right), 3-axis arms (Shoulder up-down, Shoulder left-right, Bicep up-down).\nFor this project you're going to need:\nx1 Pololu Maestro Control Board\nx1 DM-S2000MD servo motor\nx6 MG996R servo motors\nSome Aluminum rods\nSome Plumbers Strap\nSome L-Brackets\nA Wire Coat Hanger\nA 3D printed pan/tilt mechanism\n3D printed Parts (Only these ones Servo Mount, Rack, Spur Gear)\nVarious Bolts and Screws\n2\" Diameter Vacuum Tube\nx1 2\" Diameter Vacuum Tube T-Bracket\nx1 PVC Torso Mechanism\nx1 Tripod or another sturdy base\nStep 1: Creating the Torso\nFirst, build the PVC Torso Mechanism from my other instructable tutorial. Once you have that built and tested, secure it to the Tripod using various metal brackets.\nSet your Torso servo to 90 Degrees.\nAdd a Vacuum tube T-Bracket to the Torso tube (PVC Torso Mechanism) to create the shoulders. The shoulders are created by attaching 2 Vacuum tubes to both sides of the T-Bracket.\nRefer to the images above.\nNow, create the body frame using plumbers strap. If you are giving your animatronic clothes like I did, you must tailor the frame to the clothing. It will make your life a lot easier.\nStep 2: Building the Arms\nNow, we can start the arms.\nTake 2 long Aluminum rods/beams/brackets (refer to the images above) and use a bolt to join them together. This will be our arm structure, so make sure they can pivot (move up and down) freely. Drill some other various holes into the aluminum so you have some options when it comes to adding the coat hanger wire to lift the arm up.\nStep 3: Building the Arms Part 2\nBolt your servo to the 3D printed pan/tilt Mechanism (set the servo to 90 degrees) and secure the 3D printed U-bracket (from the pan/tilt mechanism) to the Aluminum arm structure (refer to the images above).\nNow take another servo and bolt it's servo horn to the flat base where your other servo is bolted to. This servo makes the whole arm move up and down. Once you have the servo horn bolted and secured to the servo, set your servo to 180 degrees (if your doing the left shoulder.", "832" ], [ "Use 0 degrees for the right shoulder. You will have to test tis because it depends on how you orient your servo. If you orient your servo like I did then L=180 and R=0 but if you invert your servo or flip it so it's at a different orientation, you will have to play around with it) , and secure the servo in place to the Vacuum tube. Now test your servo to make sure the whole arm moves up.\nRepeat these steps for the second arm.\nStep 4: Adding the Bicep\nAttach a servo to the top part of the arm (I put mine mid-way). Bolt the spur gear to the servo, and attach the servo mount to the arm. You will have to manually modify the servo mount to make it fit. I had to cut of the actual servo holder and just leave rectangular part where the rack slides up and down in.\nSet your servo to either 180 or 0 and insert the rack between the gear and the servo mount.\nTake a coat hanger and cut an appropriate sized piece off. Hook one end to the rack and the other to the lower arm where we drilled those extra holes. Test out your bicep to make sure it pulls and and pushes down.\nRepeat these steps for the other bicep.\nStep 5: All Done!\nCongratulations!\nYou have now build an animatronic body. You can hook it up to the Pololu Maestro Control Board and start creating a routine.\nI even added an Inmoov neck to mine and created an interchangeable animatronic head (like the one in the images above).", "259" ], [ "C.C.H (V.3)\nIntroduction: C.C.H (V.3)\nSo I acquired another old tool box and it's much bigger that my last one. That means it's time to upgrade my C.C.H so I can have more room and add new features.\nThis upgrade uses all of the parts from the V.2 version, plus some new ones.\n____________________________________________________________________________\nThe C.C.H (Central Command Hub) is an Arduino powered A.I system that can do a variety of things. Basically anything you program it to do.\nIn this upgrade, the Arduino has teamed up with a Raspberry Pi which gives it a lot more freedom to do a lot more things. I've also added an android tablet so the C.C.H can act as an entertainment system, or your own personal DJ.\n____________________________________________________________________________\nTo start, you will need to download the STL files from my Thingiverse page.\nThe code and other necessary files can be downloaded from the Thingverse page as well.\nSupplies\n(x1) Big Tool Box (I used an old Sears MasterCraft tool box)\n(x1) Long Power Bar (6 Ports should work but you may need a cubic extension outlet (from the dollar store) if your power supplies block the outlets next to them).\n(x1) RPi 7\" Monitor or 7\" Touch Screen\n(x1) 9V (2A or greater) Power Supply (You may need to get a splitter as well so you can power both Arduino Mega's. I ended up using a 9V 5A power supply)\n(x1) RPI Camera\n(x1) Longer Cable (For RPI Cam)\n(x1 pack) Breadboard\n(Lots of) Breadboard Wires\n(x1) Arduino Nano\n(x1) Arduino Sound Sensor\n(x2) Arduino Mega\n(x1) Movi Shield\n(x1) External Microphone for Movi Shield (Headset Microphone will work)\n(x1) Raspberry Pi 4\n(x1) Level Shifters\n(x1) Micro SD Card for RPI (The bigger the storage size the better. That way you don't have to worry about running out of room)\n(x3) OLED Display\n(x1) 16x2 LCD Display\n(x2) Mini Speakers (One set for RPI the other for the Movi Shield.", "485" ], [ "They can be any speakers you want to use as long as they plug in using an AUX cord and are externally powered, via USB or power supply).\n(x1) Arduino 4x4 Matrix Keypad\n(x1) USB Switch\n(x1) USB-Aux Port\n(x1) Port Plug\n(x1) 5 Gang Rocker Switch Panel\n(x1) 12V (5A or greater) Power Supply\n(x1) Audio Splitter Y-Cable (Reference Image)\n(x1) 10 Port USB Wall Charger\n(x1) Old Android Tablet\n(x1) RGB LED (Common Cathode - )\n(Optional) Mini Bluetooth Speaker (So you can give commands over your phone. I found a small BT speaker at the dollar store)\nStep 1: Cut the Box\nFirst, you must have all the parts 3D printed, this way you will know where to cut.\nPlace the Front Speaker part on the box (As shown in the image above) and make an outline so you know where to cut, and make sure to drill a hole for the RGB led.\n(I used a plasma cutter to cut everything, but you can use an oscillating tool, or whatever other tool you have available).\nAlso, be sure to cut out a slot for the 7\" Raspberry Pi screen. If you refer to Step 3 of the C.C.H V.2 Tutorial, you can see that the screen's drive is connected to the 3D printed Pi Case. This is why we need to make the slot. The slot allows the driver board to fit inside the box, and let's the RPi screen sit flush against the Pi Case Brace part.\nAnd if you haven't already, you may want to drill two holes for the Keypad wires, so they can go into the box.\nOnce you have made all your cuts, add duct tapes on the edges to keep the wires and your hands safe from cuts.\nThen, you can bolt the Front Speaker, Keypad parts on. (I screwed in the Front Speaker part with some short 8-32 wood screws, and I used 3M Mounting Squares to secure the Keypad part in place. I didn't screw the Keypad part o because the screw hit the top shelf and prevented the box from fully closing).", "996" ], [ "Wearable Arc Reactor\nIntroduction: Wearable Arc Reactor\nThis Arc Reactor is a fully customizable under-the-shirt prop. It looks authentic, it is cheap to make, and it makes a great last-minute costume. As an added bonus the Trinket Pro can be programmed to make the Arc Reactor light up in different colors and patterns.\nSupplies\n- 6 LEDs from a programmable light strip (Neopixels etc.)\n- Standard Wire\n- Old USB Cable (Ideally long enough to reach from your chest to your pocket)\n- Small Powerbank\n-Trinket Pro 5v\n- Foam Board or Cardboard\n- Diffuser (Tissue Paper, Clear PLA, Sanded Plexiglass)\n- PLA or PETG Ideally in gray\n- Elastic Band for the Harness\nFor tools, you will need the following:\n- Soldering Iron\n- Hot Glue Gun\n- Wire Strippers\n- Exacto Knife\n- 3D printer\n- Sewing Machine\n- Ideally, some Helping Hands to help you solder\nStep 1: 3D Print Your Piece(s)\nThis is by far the most time-consuming part of the entire project so you will want to get this going while you work on some of the other parts of the Reactor. I used a file by Thingiverse user <PERSON>. I printed only the top part and skipped the back, if you have clear PLA you should also print a Light screen. I would recommend printing the Reactor out of gray or silver PLA.\nhttps://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3579932/files\nStep 2: Create Your Harness\nThis will be what keeps your reactor from falling off and causing panic as the shards of metal in your heart begin to circulate. First off you need to measure your chest, once you have that dimension you should cut a piece of elastic band to that length and sew it into a circle. Once you have stitched the bottom part of your harness, slide it over your head and situate it on your chest. Once you have done that, measure the elastic band length to go over your shoulder and attach it to the front and back of the chest piece. Repeat for the other shoulder and you should have a harness to hold up your reactor.\nOne note: When stitching your elastic you should always stitch a rectangle with an X through it (As shown above) for maximum strength.\nStep 3: Prepare Your Reactor for Electronics\nOnce your reactor is done printing you will need to add in a diffuser to make the LEDs less conspicuous. I used 3 layers of tissue paper. After, you need to cut an insert out of cardboard or foam board to house your electronics. Once you have made the insert, poke a hole in the upper left-hand corner.", "997" ], [ "I recommend adding material along the edges to keep the circuits off your chest. When you have completed this step you will be ready to create your circuit.\nStep 4: Making Your LED Triangle\nWhile this circuit is easy to make it can be tedious to do some of the more precise soldering. if you struggle with soldering I recommend that you watch a video on becoming more precise. With that out of the way the first thing that you will want to do is turn your light strip into a triangular shape. For this, you will want to cut 3 sets of 2 LED sections and arrange them on your insert to get a feel for how long your wires will need to be. Next, you will need to solder wire lengths that match the angle of the strips, this can be very difficult so take your time and work carefully. With your triangle closed on 2 of its corners, you will want to solder 1 1/2 inch wires to one side of your triangle and run them up through the hole you made earlier.\nStep 5: Wiring to Your Trinket and USB\nWith your triangular LED strip completed, you will need to make yourself a power cord, to do this take your old USB cable and cut off the non-USB end. Once you have cut this you will need to strip back the outer casing of your wire and reveal the black and red wires inside, you will need to strip those wires as well. At this point, if this cord does not reach from your chest to your pocket, add wire so that it does reach. With that completed, you will want to twist the black wire of the USB cable to the ground wire from your LEDs. You will need to twist the red wire to the 5v wire from your LEDs. Once both of these connections are made you will need to solder another 1-inch length of wire onto each of these connections. Once these 3-way connections are done you will be ready to solder all of your wires to your trinket. First, solder your ground wire to the G pin, then solder your 5v wire to, you guessed it the 5v pin.", "635" ], [ "How to Make a DC Harley Quinn: \"Mallet\" Carrying Case\nIntroduction: How to Make a DC Harley Quinn: \"Mallet\" Carrying Case\nHello Puddin', we're back for round two with a different variation of my original Harley Quinn Mallet tutorial. For the 2020 Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, our group wanted a DC Batman Theme. The only problem was, we had a baby with us this year... Well, with having a baby on board, we needed to figure out inventive ways to carry a baby's things such as diapers, wipes, formula, etc. without having to use a bag and distract from the costumes. I had some brainstorming to do, but I figured out that I could make hollow mallet to function as a carrying case that our Harley Quinn Cosplayer could use as a prop. Let's get started!\nSupplies\n- EVA foam (roll, and thick tile mat)\n- Strong mini magnets\n- large popcorn tin\n- contact cement or Hot Glue\n-exacto knife\n- paper\n-caulk\n-heat gun\n-dremel will cutting attachment and sanding attachment\n-PVC pipe\n- PVC 3 way adapter\n- 2 PVC adapters\n-PVC end cap\n- hockey grip tape\n-Measuring tape\n-soldering iron\n-Acrylic paint\n-Modge podge\n-clear sealer\nStep 1: Reference Pictures\nBefore I ever start ANY costume or prop, I look up a ton of reference photos from various sources and put it in a folder. The more pictures from different angles, the better. Look up:\n1. Actual photos of the character/prop from its source (movies, comics, action figure, etc)\n2. Cosplay pictures. You can see what has been done, what you like, what you don't like, how to improve on a design. You can also start getting an idea of different poses you think you'd like to do.\n3. I start looking at art work. I usually look up things via google images, deviant art, tumblr, etc. This way, you can see different renditions of a character through a new perspective and once again, start thinking about what you like, don't like, etc.\n4. Use your own imagination. Think about what you want, how to make it your own original design, what are some tricks you think you'd like to incorporate.. perhaps you want to try out a new technique with this build, etc\n5.", "348" ], [ "If you can draw, I sometimes will take all my reference sources and start drawing out my own design.\nFor this mallet, i wanted to give it a some new coloring and a little bit of a different shape for the head. I liked the the idea of having interchanging black and red colors to in and also liked the idea of painting a face on one side.\nStep 2: Sides of the Mallet\nYou will need to figure out the dimensions of mallet. You are essentially making a cylinder so you need two circles and a body. However, the circles have to be the diameter of the popcorn lid. So do the following.\n1) Trace the lid of your popcorn can onto a piece of paper. From there, use that piece of paper and cut out those two circles from thick EVA foam (pic 1)\n2) I wanted to make the mallet look like a sawed off log, so i first some wavey lines into each circle to resemble the \"grain\" of a wood log. You are not trying to cut through the layer of PVC, but you are just creating a groove in it. (pic 2)\n3. Use your heating gun and heat up those cut lines. They will open up and create a nice wood pattern for you. (pic 2)\n4. take your soldering iron and burn a few tiny holes on the backside of 1 of your circles. As these hole will be for gluing in your magnets, do not make them too large. I used 5 mini magnets and then contact cemented them inside each hole. You only have to do this to one circle, as the other will be permanently glued in as the bottom of the mallet head.(pic 3)\nStep 3: Internal Skeleton\nNow that you have your side circles, you can start to figure out how big the mallet should be.\n1. Start cutting out your PVC skeleton to be in proportion to your circles. You basically need to figure out how LONG you want your mallet head to be. I eyeball it and figure out how long it should be based on the size of the circles.\n2. Your 1 side pie of PVC will go onto the bottom of the \"T\" PVC joint.. This PVC side piece will sit in the center of your EVA foam circle you made in the last step.", "276" ], [ "Fully 3D Printed External Battery Head Brace Mod for Oculus Quest 2\nIntroduction: Fully 3D Printed External Battery Head Brace Mod for Oculus Quest 2\nHello, and welcome! My name is <PERSON>, and I'm a Freshman at Suncoast Community Highschool in Florida. I am currently an IB student at Suncoast and as part of my program, I am required to create a \"Personal Project\" over the summer. As for my choice, I chose to learn about some Fusion360 skills and challenged myself to apply them in a project. I've already created my first project utilizing Fusion360, xMod an affordable, sustainable, and modular alternative to traditional housing, and you can check it out here: xMod Instructable. I've now moved on to create a solution to a problem I've been having for a long time now: short-live battery life on my Oculus Quest 2. To fix this problem, I created an external battery mount for my Oculus that also serves as a head brace that balances the weight of the headset evenly. Like most of my Instructables, I will take you through the design process step-by-step and hopefully teach you some new things that you may not have known previously. Additionally, I will also show you how to assemble and mount the external battery mount. I hope you enjoy, and let's get started!\nSupplies\nSupplies Used\n-Hatchbox Orange PETG Filament - 1.75MM, 1KG Spool - Link\nParts Used\n-3D Printed Oculus Brace MK2 - 1x\n-3D Printed Battery Mount - 1x\n-3D Printed Oculus Brace Buckles - 2x\nTools Used\n-Prusa I3 MK3S+\nAll STL, STEP, and G-Code files that I've used can be found on my Printables Page. You can use the STEP Files to modify any aspect of the original design to suit your particular VR Headset\nStep 1: Creating the Head Brace\nUnlike my previous instructables, in this instructable I will going through the steps of actually modelling the part so that you can modify the step files provided to suite your own VR Headset. I'll also go through some tips and some other details that got me to the final product. Now, lets get started!\nDesign Steps\n1.) First, I created an ellipse that suites my brother and I. I got the measurements for the ellipse by simply measuring the length and width of the lower back part of the head, the occipital bone (I guess memorizing the parts of the head in biology does actually come in handy XD).", "737" ], [ "After measuring both of our heads, I just averaged out the measurements and got 125x100MM. You could also design several head braces customized for each user because they are easily swappable.\n2.) After created the ellipse, I created a line tangent to the ellipse near the bottom of the ellipse. The length of this line will affect how concave the head brace will be, so you can adjust this value to your needs. After creating the line I just mirrored the line across ellipse and then trimmed unnecessary part of the ellipse.\n3.) After trimming, I offset the ellipse portion by 20MM to create the main head brace. I then went on to create a 12MM line at 90 degrees to the tangent line. I then finished creating the main head brace profile by connecting the offset ellipse and the 12MM line.\n4.) With the profile created, I then filleted the corners on each side by 6MM. After that, I connected the center points of the fillets to create a line and then connected the points where both lines meet the ellipses. I finally connected the midpoints of the lines I created. This line would serve as the mid point for the buckle that makes the head brace concave.\nBackground Info - You may be wondering \"How did you know that buckling the corners would make the brace concave?\". I got this idea when I was fiddling around with a paper, if you pinch and fold a piece of paper over itself, the paper will become concave. I applied the same idea to the head brace so I wouldn't have to model it concave from the get-go and have to waste a lot of filament on supports.\n5.) After creating that line, I created the holes for the buckles to fit into. I made sure to leave some extra space so that the actual buckle would easily fit into the holes. For example, in my scenario I used a 4.5MM base and 8MM head for the buckle so I would make the opening hole 8.5MM and the locking hole 5MM. I used the same principle throughout the design.\n6.) Lastly, I extruded the profile to create the main brace.", "276" ], [ "Magpie Eyes Sci-Fi Goggles\nIntroduction: Magpie Eyes Sci-Fi Goggles\nHey <PERSON> here, your Favorite Oddity, I made these goggles for fun during a tough time, They became really popular making it on the cover of MAKE magazine issue 76. I was planning to use this build and try going into more of a business. But that's just not me. so I decided to make them open source and share them with the community.\nSupplies\nItems Needed\n* -Goggles ArcOne G-FLY-A1101 The Fly Safety Goggles\n* -3D printer I use a Creality Cr-10 3D printer\n* -PLA filament (ANY COLOR YOU WANT)\n* -E6000, Transparent glue E6000 237032 Craft Adhesive, 2 fl oz Clear\n* -Microcontroller Trinket Adafruit Trinket Mini Microcontroller\n* Power Booster PowerBoost 1000 Charger Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost\n* Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 500mAh\n* 2x-Servos Micro servo\n* -Solder Iron -Wires\nStep 1: Print Parts\nPrinting the parts should not be too hard when you have a 3d printer, I have sized everything for my creality Cr-10 but the files should fit most printers. I recommend starting with the “lens base” and “Servo Goggle Holders”\nAfter these parts Are finished, you will want to glue them to the goggle frames using the 6000, glue. I chose this glue because it's strong and flexible. I also recommend having some clips to hold down the parts.\nQuick Hint before you start glueing make sure the Lens base pointers are sitting at 1 o'clock and 11 o’clock (or 135 degrees and 45 degrees for you technical people) this way the actually eyebrow will move correctly trust me I have glued them wrong before and had a mess.\n* Added a quick sketch if you’re more of a visual person like myself\nStep 2: Lens\nThis is probably the hardest part, I got the original design from thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2019585)\nBut I did alter the size and thickness for my project. 1st thing you want to do is print out the lens parts.\nout you will have to carefully insert the leaves into the holes.", "997" ], [ "Be patient and you may need to file the hole a bit to get them to fit easily. Once you have them insert you fold them in and insert them into the lens. This part may take some time and maybe a bit frustrating at moments but your patience shall be rewarded.\nStep 3: Eye Brows and Testing\nAfter everything is glued on and secured, I recommend doing a testing, Print out the eyebrow parts, and the pulley hinges.\nAttack the Eyebrows with the back hole facing outward, and use screws to attach them (Honestly don't know what size screws I kinda recycle screws into projects)\nand grab 2 hobby servos. Attach the pulleys to a hobby servo horn and insert the servo’s into the servo holders, screw them in if you can. They should look something like this.\nNext I recommend taking any board you can use to test the servos, and testing the movement moving 0 to 180 degrees. It should move.\nStep 4: Preparing Goggles and Making Boxes\nI recommend starting the print for the Circuit cups, these will hold the circuit and the battery for the Goggles\nOK here we get clever, so there is a wire on the inside of the goggles that will connect the two circuit boxes. I recommend taking a Dremel or some type of cutting instrument and making a small hole right behind the servo holder.\nNext after the Circuit cups have been printed, you shall want glue then to the back of the Servo Holder like so.\nI recommend making sure some wire is through, you will need it for the power and maybe the servo as well.\nOf course let it dry overnight.\nStep 5: Electronics\n1st.Add the Code to the Adafruit trinket. It's very Important.\nSo this is where your tinker/Maker skills come though the diagram for this is a bit weird I daisy chain the signal wires from the Adafruit trinket, here is a quick diagram I drew up\nI made a connector from a Permaboard, that way all the devices can share POWER!!\nNext\nYou will want to stick the power booster and the battery Lithium Ion, into one cup. And the trinket and the permaboard hack into the other.\nThe program should be already Uploaded onto the trinket.", "259" ], [ "Halloween Pumpkin With a Moving Animatronic Eye | This Pumpkin Can Roll Its Eye!\nIntroduction: Halloween Pumpkin With a Moving Animatronic Eye | This Pumpkin Can Roll Its Eye!\nIn this Instructable, you will learn how to make a Halloween pumpkin that terrifies everyone when its eye moves.\nAdjust the ultrasonic sensor's trigger distance to the right value (step 9), and your pumpkin will petrify anyone who dares to take candy from your house!\nIn the above video, you will see a demonstration of the movements that this eye is capable of. The first 2 clips show the random twitchy movements that the eye can be programmed to do, and the 3rd and 4th clips show how the pumpkin can roll its eye in the same way that a human might when annoyed.\nThis was a Halloween rush-project for me, so I took most of the pictures after my project was done. This was also why rather than buying a universal joint for the eye, I designed a joint that doesn't require any hard-to-source non-3D printable parts. This is why you can complete this project in just one day!\nFollow this link to the accompanying file repository, or, copy and paste it into your browser https://github.com/roy-rishi/Animatronic-Eye-Halloween-Pumpkin\nSupplies\n1. 1x Arduino Nano (or similar)\n2. 2x SG90 9G Micro Servo\n3. 1x Pumpkin (at least ~20cm in diameter)\n4. 2x Wood Skewers\n5. 4x AA Batteries (or a similar 5V setup)\n6. ~Jumper Wires (or 1m of 22 AWG Wire)\n7. ~15cm Bend-and-Stay Wire (paper clips work fine)\n8. A Few Markers or Paint (red, blue, and black colors)\n9.", "769" ], [ "White Filament\nOptional:\n1. 1x HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor\n2. Soldering Iron and Solder\n3. Electrical Tape\nStep 1: 3D Print the Files for the Eye Mechanism\nFirst, you will need to 3D print the attached STL files in white.\nClone the GitHub repository. The folder contains all of the 3D and code files, as well as links.\nThe 3D files are already oriented in the direction that best suits 3D printing. It is important to note that \"Outer-Eye\" will need to be printed with the round side down, and \"Inner-Eye\" with the flat side down. Although this means you will need supports for the Outer Eye, you should not print either of these files in the opposite orientation. This is because the inside of the Outer Eye and the outside of the Inner Eye needs to be as smooth as possible to prevent the eye mechanism from binding.\nI printed the Outer and Inner Eye parts at a 0.1mm layer height because that would reduce the stairsteps effect, thus resulting in a smoother surface. I printed the other files at a 0.2-0.3mm layer height.\nWhen the project was ready to be displayed, I placed a flashlight directly behind the eye mechanism so that the eye would glow. If you want to achieve this glowing effect, I would recommend using low infill and perimeter settings for the Outer and Inner Eye parts.\nStep 2: Basic Post Processing for the 3D Printed Parts\nThe only part that needs work is the Outer Eye.\nBecause supports were used on the visible side of the Outer Eye, the surface will be a little rough. Using ~120 – 240 grit sandpaper, smooth out the surface until it looks good (I know no one likes sanding, so just smooth it out until you are happy with the look, or completely skip this step).\nStep 3: Make the Eyeball More Realistic\nAfter sanding the eyeball to a relatively smooth finish, I used red, black, and blue permanent markers of varying widths to add an iris and blood vessels to the eye. (You can tell that I am no artist and that this instructable is not going to cover how to make a hyper-realistic eye).\nI imagine you could make a hyper-realistic eye by priming and painting the eye, but I didn't bother with any of that; No one will see those finer details when your pumpkin is placed in the dark!\nStep 4: Form the Linkages\nNow that you have all of the 3D printed parts ready, you are almost ready to assemble the mechanism. You just need to bend 3 pieces of bend-and-stay wire (I used a standard paperclip) to form the linkages.\nUsing needlenose pliers, bend the wires until they have the same dimensions as the above picture.", "116" ] ]

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[ [ "How a Crash-Landed Turkish Airlines Plane Cut Nepal’s Ties to the Skies for Days · Global Voices\nAn Indian Airforce Aircraft brought the aircraft removal kit on Thursday to remove the Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 from the airport runway. Image by <PERSON>. Copyright Demotix (5/3/2015)\nA Turkish Airlines Airbus 330 that skidded off the runway on the morning of March 4 at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu, created waves of confusion at Nepal’s only international air hub, effectively limiting citizens of the landlocked country to overland travel before a ban on flights was lifted today.\nThe TK 726 flight that took off from Istanbul was due to land at the TIA at 6:55 AM local time. However, the pilot failed to land the plane in spite of trying twice and at the third attempt the craft missed the runway and skidded across a grassy patch.\nBy sheer luck, none of the 224 passengers died in the botched landing attempt.\nJournalist <PERSON> tweeted:\n@TurkishAirlines 726 suffered nose-wheel collapse.", "182" ], [ "Tail is up in the air. @flightradar24 @mikaness Kathmandu now open only for helicopters.\n— <PERSON> (@kundadixit) March 4, 2015\nयसरि सुतेको छ टर्किस एअरलाइन्स TIA रनवेमा l pic.twitter.com/zF83Lu60Ai\n— <PERSON> (@NplJoker) March 4, 2015\nThis is how the Turkish Airlines is sleeping on the TIA runway.\n<PERSON>, another journalist, tweeted:\nPassengers evacuated through emergency doors of @TurkishAirlines aircraft that overshot runway at TIA @annapurnapost pic.twitter.com/lKvzjrSJMP\n— Kosh R Koirala (@KoshRKoirala) March 4, 2015\nAs quoted by popular Nepali news portal Onlinekhabar, a passenger on board, <PERSON>, blamed the landing gears not working as the main cause of the accident.\nA fellow passenger <PERSON> deemed poor visibility the main evil.\n<PERSON>, a blogger and activist, tweeted:\nटर्कीस एअरलाइन्स दुर्घटना किन? पाङ्ग्रा नखुलेर? भिजिबिलिटि नभयर? पाइलटले आफै रनवेबाहिर हालेको कि चिप्लेको कि? कुनै समाचारमा स्पष्ट छैन ।\n— <PERSON> (@bigsharma) March 4, 2015\nWhy Turkish Airlines met with an accident? Due to landing gears not working? Due to poor visibility? Did the pilot land away from the runway or did it skid? No news is clear.\nAs the plane could not be lifted off from the runway on time, the authorities closed the airport and no international flights took off or landed at the TIA for over three days. Thousands of passengers were left sulking at the airport.\nJournalist <PERSON> tweeted:\nAll flights cancelled from #TIA after the #TK726 crash. Airport is a sea of confused and angry passengers.\n— <PERSON> (@mikaness) March 4, 2015\nThe government sought the help of Indian Air Force’s Hercules aircraft to remove the plane from the crash-landed site.", "182" ], [ "Hindus Flock to Nepal’s Ancient Pashupatinath Temple for Shivaratri Celebrations · Global Voices\nPriests performing aarati (burning lights) to worship Lord <PERSON> at Pashupatinath Temple on the eve of Maha Shivaratri in Kathmandu. Image by <PERSON>. Copyright Demotix (11/2/2010)\nShivaratri (also known as Maha Shivaratri), the birthday of Lord <PERSON>, was celebrated with a huge fanfare by Hindus at Pashupatinath shrine in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal.\nThe temple, dating back to 400 AD, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most significant <PERSON> temples in the world.\nOn February 17, over a million visitors visited the temple to pay obeisance to Lord <PERSON>, according to the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT).\nAs per the officials, 150,000 Indian pilgrims visited the temple along with devotees from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.\n<PERSON> from Vijayawada, India tweeted:\n#MahaShivratri Nepal,Millions of Hindus attend Shivaratri together from all over the world at Pashupatinath Temple pic.twitter.com/RFolN8g6az\n— <PERSON> (@srithh) February 16, 2015\nDuring the festival, the temple sees a surge of sadhus, or Hindu holy people, from India and other parts of Nepal. This year around 6,000 sadhus of different sects arrived at the temple.\nThe sadhus are a special attraction at the temple. People not only come to worship at the temple but also visit the sadhus.\n<PERSON>, a stock photographer based in Kathmandu, tweeted a picture of sadhu:\nToday at #Pashupatinath, sadhus were getting ready for #Shivaratri! #Nepal #Kathmandu pic.twitter.com/5Zn1pCAY09\n— <PERSON> (@dutourdumonde) February 16, 2015\n<PERSON>, digital foreign editor at The Washington Post, tweeted:\nEven a hermit wants to make sure he is looking pretty.", "765" ], [ "Happy Shivaratri, and ॐ नमः शिवाय, to all Hindus! pic.twitter.com/cGwGFe3rMg\n— <PERSON> (@AnupKaphle) February 16, 2015\nThe festival, a national pride, sees a lot of advance preparation from the PADT and the Government of Nepal.\nThe Clean Bagmati Campaign supporters removed 26 metric tonnes of waste from the Pashupati-Gaurighat section of the holy Bagmati River, which flows by the temple, on the Saturday preceding the festival.\nThe Kathmandu Post tweeted:\nClean Bagmati Campaign: Gaurighat, Pashupati areas cleaned ahead of Shivaratri http://t.co/93EilC6fBX pic.twitter.com/qutRwCHqWa\n— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) February 15, 2015\nLikewise, the authorities deployed 6,000 security personnel and 3,500 volunteers in and around the temple to manage and assist the crowd.\nThe Metropolitan Traffic Police Division was kept busy diverting vehicular movement on all major roads around the temple so as to make it easy for the devotees to get to the temple.\nFollowing the custom, President <PERSON> and Prime Minister <PERSON> offered Pooja (worship) at the temple. And the authorities had to manage the visit and the crowd at the same time.\nWhile the authorities were busy managing the crowd, people from all walks of life enjoyed the aura of the festival at the Pashupati.\n<PERSON>, a feminist and activist, tweeted:\n#ShivaRatri festival at #Pashupatinath. #Sadhu holy men, #Dada blessings and #cremations along the river. #Nepal pic.twitter.com/bQEfGR8XtI\n— <PERSON> (@kelskoontz) February 16, 2015\nDue to the increasing population and modernization, the celebrations are completely different from the past.\nNepal Picture Library, a Nepali digital photo archive, tweeted a photo by <PERSON>:\nOne more #Shivaratri celebration from the archives. #Pashupati circa 1986 Photo: <PERSON> pic.twitter.", "765" ], [ "After Earthquakes, Nepal Faces Looming Danger of Landslides · Global Voices\nLandslides in Sindhupalchok. Image by <PERSON>. Used with permission\nIt was predicted. After the 7.8-magnitude Great Earthquake on 25 April and the big aftershocks – 6.7 magnitude on 26 April and 7.3 magnitude on 12 May – the fragile hills have been vulnerable to landslides. Usually happening due to heavy rain during the monsoon season, Nepal has seen a series of landslides during the quakes and in the aftermath, the Kali Gandaki landslide being the latest.\nThat landslide, which ensued around wee hours on 24 May, was neither due to heavy rains nor a major earthquake.", "307" ], [ "According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the slope, which was loosened by the earthquake and aftershocks, gave way with no apparent trigger.\nNepali Times editor <PERSON> tweeted:\nKali Gandaki landslide shows monsoon rains, major earthquake not needed to block Himalayan river Site is 100km west of April 25 #NepalQuake\n— <PERSON> (@kundadixit) May 24, 2015\nBy the morning the blocked Kali Gandaki River had resulted into a landslide dam.\nNepal Police tweeted:\nकालिगण्डकी थुनिन गई १५० मि. गहिराई, १ कि.मि लम्बाई, १०० मि. चौडाई पानिले डुबेको । खुलाउने पहल भैरहेको, कुनै मानबिय क्षति नभएको ।\n— Nepal Police (@NepalPoliceHQ) May 24, 2015\n150 meters deep, 1 kilometer long, 100 meters wide [piece of land] has blocked the flow of the Kali Gandaki [River]. Efforts initiated to drain the water, no human casualties reported.\nLike in the earlier case of a massive landslide in Sindhupalchok last summer, where an engineer <PERSON> (@bewitchkapil) tweeted live from the site, <PERSON> (@gocoolchhetri) tweeted live from the scene.\nकालीगण्डकी थुनिएर पुरै तालमा परिणत भएको छ अझै पहिरो जान रोकिएको छैन। छिट्टै पानीको बाध फुट्ने संभावना छैन pic.twitter.com/y2Hhv6KB3I\n— म्याग्देली भाइ (@gocoolchhetri) May 24, 2015\nKali Gandaki [River] has been blocked, turning into a lake. Landslide has not stopped yet. No immediate possibility of dam explosion.", "307" ], [ "A Runaway Rhinoceros Rampages Through a Bazaar in Nepal · Global Voices\nImage tweeted by Nepali blogger @janakdangol\nOn the morning of March 30, a one-horned rhino ran through a busy market and near a hospital, killing a 61-year-old woman and injuring several people, in a town 50 miles south of Nepal's capital Kathmandu.\nNepal is home to 534 of the world's 3,000 endangered one-horned rhinoceros population. The country's Chitwan National Park, 30 miles from where the incident took place, has 503 one-horned rhinos.\nNepal has earned international recognition for its conservation efforts and its innovative methods to curb wildlife attacks. The Chitwan reserve has the world’s second largest population of the vulnerable animal, which weighs an average of 4,000-6,000 pounds. Hunting depleted one-horned rhino numbers to near extinction in the early 20th century. Rigorous conservation efforts has increased their population the last few decades. Nepal has played a huge role in wildlife conservation. Between 2011 and 2013, there was no poaching in Nepal; not a single tiger or rhino was killed.\nThe Nepali news site Pahilopost, reported that the animal rampaged through Hetauda, a city of about 85,000 people.", "447" ], [ "The rhino was spotted near Hetauda hospital, and went viral on social media. Locals tweeted pictures and videos of the rhino running around the bazaar before the mainstream media reported on the rhino’s escapades.\nRhino on the Run in Hetauda Video provided by <PERSON> from Hetauda. #WildLife @kashishds pic.twitter.com/OqTCqYUxFu\n— <PERSON> (@Sahadevision) March 30, 2015\n<PERSON> tweeted:\nRampaging rhino terrifies residents as it runs through town in Hetauda #Nepal pic.twitter.com/eI64N5bi1u\n— <PERSON> (@kmrpaudel) March 30, 2015\nJournalist <PERSON> tweeted:\nAn one-horned Rhino creates choas in Hetauda, Nepal appearing in densely populated area. Pics via @Sahadevision pic.twitter.com/0mb6KBzTKn\n— <PERSON> (@UjjwalAcharya) March 30, 2015\nMore photos from Twitter of Rhino in Hetauda Pics: <PERSON> via @lexlimbu, @nepal2006 & @janakdangol pic.twitter.com/7cFCNk761W\n— <PERSON> (@UjjwalAcharya) March 30, 2015\nIn Nepal fatal wildlife attacks occur in areas close to national parks and wildlife reserves. According to a 2008 study, 36 tigers killed 88 people between 1979 and 2006 around the Chitwan National Park.\nTo prevent attacks, the government and conservation organisations have been running awareness campaigns targeting communities living close to wildlife reserves. Extra safety measures like solar fences, concrete posts and ditches have been dug up around vulnerable communities.\nCommunities close to wildlife reserves have also started cultivating mentha, a menthol oil producing plant, and chamomile, on their lands.The smell of these plants seems to keep wild animals away, and planting a field of these crops acts as a protective fence. The idea of planting these crops was recognised as one of the world’s 12 best innovations in the 2011 BBC’s International World Challenge Award.\nAs the local administration, park officials and local volunteers were busy driving the rhino back to the reserve, social media was rife with jokes on the rhino’s adventure.\nOne person making a joke of the rhino’s escape, tweeted:\nहोइन त्यो गैड़ालाई जान्ने भएर किन हस्पताल छिर्न पर्ने कत्ति न डाक्टर जस्तो..\n— कान्छा साहुको नाति (@transcend_mee) March 30, 2015\nWhy did the rhino have to enter the hospital, as if [it] was a doctor.", "447" ], [ "Kathmandu’s Pollution Is So Bad, Even Gods Need Masks · Global Voices\nElder Tibetan woman praying wearing face mask to protect against the dust, Tharlam Monastery, Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal. Image from Flickr by Wonderlane. CC BY-NC 2.0\nNepal’s capital Kathmandu is witnessing its worst air pollution in recent history. With dust particles everywhere, respiratory disease climbing, and the government blissfully apathetic to the situation, a group of students decided to protest by putting masks on iconic statues across the city.\nFinally ! The statue wears a mask by youth to show symbolic protest against air pollution in #Kathmandu Nepal pic.twitter.com/LgGcc5ZhAr\n— <PERSON> (@aesmriti) March 20, 2017\nResidents joined in, by tweeting hashtags with mash-ups of ‘Kathmandu’ and ‘dust'; and ‘mask’ and ‘Kathmandu’.", "206" ], [ "Even gods at a performance arranged by <PERSON> and <PERSON> of Nepal, a well-known Buddhist monastery, wore masks.\nEven #gods need a #mask here! #Maskmandu #dusty #kathmandu #airpollution PC: <PERSON> and <PERSON> of #Nepal pic.twitter.com/rK7oacmkLm\n— <PERSON> (@Dankrity) February 17, 2017\nImages of an iconic statue of Nepal's former prime minister <PERSON> wearing a mask were widely shared.\nI am against the vandalizing of public property, but this to poke government regarding duskmandu #duskmandu #kathmandu PC:Facebook pic.twitter.com/p5obIM1yHx\n— <PERSON> (@rimalsabin) March 18, 2017\nThe level of pollution in Kathmandu has surpassed the minimum acceptable level of the World Health Organization. Reconstruction work following the 2015 earthquake, road widening projects and pipeline work associated with the much anticipated Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) has added to the pollution already emitted from hundreds of brick kilns around the city and the vehicles that congest the roads of Kathmandu.\nThe bowl shape of the Kathmandu Valley also restricts wind movement and helps trap pollutants in the atmosphere, making it more vulnerable to air pollution during the winter, according to Clean Air Network Nepal.\nA Nepal Health Research Council official explained that Kathmandu's air contains particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), which are known to be carcinogenic. Particles less than or equal to 10 micrometers in diameter, which is less than the width of single human hair, are so small that they can get into the lungs, potentially causing serious health problems.\nValley Pollution Index | https://t.co/yTmGtZWlaM pic.twitter.com/c9kEkk9urH\n— myRepública (@RepublicaNepal) February 2, 2017\nThis Instagram post shows #Dustmandu.\n#Dustmandu ! #Ringroad section at #Gausala, filled with #dust ! #melamchi #kathmandu #Nepal\nA post shared by <PERSON> (@ashokpillar) on Dec 30, 2016 at 5:42pm PST\n<PERSON> shared this cartoon:\nReality of #dustmandu Kathmandu pic.twitter.com/csMkPlzhGC\n— <PERSON> (@upensth) February 3, 2017\nWhile the government could have taken steps to avoid this perfect dust storm, it is now slowly responding to the pollution crisis.\nThe government recently banned 20 year-old public vehicles in the capital and its surrounding valley. The Environment Protection Committee of the Parliament has also instructed the water authority to spray water to reduce dust pollution; and ten brick kilns have adopted a new technology that is set to bring down pollution by around 60%, according to a BBC report.\nHowever, for the time being, Kathmandu residents have no option but to put masks over their faces, just like the iconic statues in the city.", "206" ], [ "Nepal’s <PERSON> climbs Mount Everest for a record 22nd time · Global Voices\n<PERSON>, 48, has climbed Mount Everest the most number of times by any human in the world. Image used with permission.\nSherpa mountain guide <PERSON> summited Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, for the 22nd time, leaving behind <PERSON> and <PERSON> who have done it 21 times each. This is a world record.\nVeteran guide <PERSON> started his summit push with nine other Chinese climbers on the night of Tuesday, May 15, 2018 and reached the summit by Wednesday morning, May 16.\nEverest Tour company Seven Summit Treks, where he works as a Sherpa guide, announced his new world record:\nThis morning 8:30 AM <PERSON> made 22 successful ascents of Mt. Everest as a part of Seven Summit Treks Everest Expedition!\nCongratulations to <PERSON>!\n8:30AM on 16th May 2018(Nepal time), <PERSON> summited the highest peak Everest (8,848m) for 22 times and broke the world record titled “Most ascents of Everest – Male.”\n<PERSON> is the name of a Tibetan ethnic group who are native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal and who are highly skilled and experienced climbers. However, the term has come to be used by non-Nepali people to generally refer to guides or porters working in the Mount Everest area.\nThe job of a Sherpa guide includes preparing the route for climbers to follow, fix ropes in place, and carry the necessary climbing kit up the mountain. It's risky work, but can pay up to 6,000 US dollars a season, much more than the average income in Nepal. The government has made it mandatory for foreign climbers to hire guides.\n<PERSON> is of the Sherpa people and hails from Thame village in Solukhumbu district. He climbed Everest for the first time in 1994, and while climbing the world’s highest peak is usually a once-in-a-lifetime ordeal for mountaineers and adrenaline junkies, it has been a ritual for him every year.\nHe worked for a long time as a professional guide for mountaineers for Alpine Ascents International, a Seattle-based commercial guiding company.", "849" ], [ "Recently he joined Seven Summits Treks, one of a dozen Nepalese-run companies that regularly operate on Everest.\nHe has climbed most of the peaks above 8,000 meters in the Himalaya range, including K2, Cho-oyu, Lhoste and Annapurna, among others.\nBefore achieving his latest Everest record, he told me:\nSummiting Everest? It's just like another daily chore. These days we've technology and weather forecasting service which has made climbing Everest much easier.\n\"Summiting Everest? It's just like another daily chore,\" says <PERSON>, 21 times Everest summiteer. \"These days we've technology and weather forecasting service which has made climbing Everest much easier.\" These days only those die who don't listen to their <PERSON> guides. Otherwise, if you have will power and commitment, you too can do it! And <PERSON> is going to do it for the 22nd time. All the best <PERSON>, you're a legend! ——————– #everestsummit #everestsummiteer #kamiritasherpa #guinnessbookofrecords #willpower #courage #youcandoit #nepal #worldrecord #inspiration #meetingthelegend #instablogger #travelblogger #traveldiary #instalike #instapic #picoftheday\nA post shared by <PERSON> (@sankuchy) on Jan 7, 2018 at 12:28am PST\n<PERSON> wasn't the only Nepali making news. Compatriot <PERSON> climbed as well for the ninth time, the most for any woman in the world, breaking her own previous record.\nThe other prominent climbers of 2018 till now are Australian <PERSON> who completed the seven summits in a record 117 days and Chinese double amputee <PERSON>.\nHowever, <PERSON> doesn’t want his children to follow his path as a <PERSON> guide, mainly because of the tragedies on the mountain in recent years. Many of the deceased in the 2014 and 2015 Mount Everest avalanches were local guides and porters, including Sherpas.\nMore than 4,000 people have summited Everest more than 7,000 times. And every year, the majestic mountain lures hundreds of aspirants challenging them to test their limits.", "849" ], [ "For Stunning Glimpses of 20th-Century Nepal, Check Out ‘Nepal in Pix’ on Twitter · Global Voices\nPorters carrying the first car to the Kathmandu Valley. Image via Twitter/NepalInPix\nThroughout history, Nepal has represented a land of mysticism to travellers from abroad. Nepal’s high Himalayas with the world’s highest mountains, the mid-hills and valleys abundant with rare rituals and traditions, and the southern plains with dense forest and wild animals have always attracted curious visitors to this landlocked country.\nThough Nepal is not untouched by modern development, images from only few decades ago take you to a different world. The Twitter account Nepal in Pix publishes images from that era, providing an idea of what life was like not that long ago.\nTo start with, here’s an image of Nepal’s Public Service Commission (Lok Sewa Aayog) examinations, the mode of entry into government jobs, being held in open fields in the Lamjung District of Western Nepal.\nNepali youths giving Lok Sewa Aayog exams on a sunny chaur in Lamjung in 1975. #Nepal pic.twitter.com/0S8hoo8bcE\n— Nepal In Pix (@NepalInPix) May 1, 2016\nThe television set was a rare item in the 1980s. This image shows young men with a television, posing for a picture in the alleys of Kathmandu Valley.\nYoung Newar men bringing home their first TV, in 1987. #Nepal pic.twitter.com/3GCxe07lwV\n— Nepal In Pix (@NepalInPix) May 10, 2016\nIn the 1960s, hippies frequented the Kathmandu Valley. Marijuana and hashish was legally sold here and even a street near the Kathmandu Durbar Square was named ‘Freak Street’.\nगाजा र चरेस येहा पाइन्छ | Marijuana was legal in Nepal during 1960's. pic.twitter.com/6NVkVJ0Q3D\n— Nepal In Pix (@NepalInPix) April 22, 2016\nThe below image shows how the party scene in Kathmandu looked like in those days, depicting the fashion trending among young people:\nTime to party like it's 1969.", "206" ], [ "#Nepal pic.twitter.com/KV3YLAKq9D\n— Nepal In Pix (@NepalInPix) April 21, 2016\nWhen monarchy was at the helm, the king and queen were considered a beacon of hope, and people waited in long queues to get a glimpse of the rulers.\nPeople waiting for the arrival of the king & queen at Jumla Bazaar in 1978. #Nepal pic.twitter.com/ryyz2P0ROz\n— Nepal In Pix (@NepalInPix) May 4, 2016\nThe New Road leading to the Kathmandu Durbar Square in the heart of Kathmandu was really new with very few vehicles around.\nNew Road, Kathmandu 60 years ago. #Nepal pic.twitter.com/u98IQ3mMhM\n— Nepal In Pix (@NepalInPix) May 8, 2016\nCars, the possession of rich and powerful, were rare for the general public and so were the car dealers. The below image shows one such car dealer:\nVintage cars! The Ford car dealer at Lazimpat, Kathmandu in 1930s. #Nepal pic.twitter.com/XL3Ioi6u0G\n— Nepal In Pix (@NepalInPix) May 6, 2016\nWhile the Kathmandu Valley was advancing towards modernization, the southern plains was still a dense forest and a haven for hunters and guests of royal families. The below image is from one of the historic royal hunts with British royals as guests – killing several wild animals.\nKing <PERSON> with the day's kill in Dec 1911. A total of 39 tigers, 18 rhinoceroses & 4 bears were killed. #Nepal pic.twitter.com/aLjGeBe4jR\n— Nepal In Pix (@NepalInPix) April 30, 2016\nThe <PERSON> clan of prime ministers held power in their hands for almost 104 years until 1951, reducing the <PERSON> kings to figureheads during their rule. For their part, the <PERSON> dynasty's rule came to an end in 2008. Here’s an image of Prime Minister <PERSON> with his brothers.", "765" ], [ "Disabilities Are No Obstacle to These Spirited Cricketers in Nepal · Global Voices\nThe ongoing Cricket world cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand has generated much enthusiasm in the Indian Sub-continent. Allahabad, India. Image by <PERSON> Copyright Demotix (12/2/2015)\nWhile the world's cricket fans were glued to their television sets watching the Cricket World Cup matches, it was an emotional, spirited moment for fans and players alike at the Institute of Engineering cricket grounds in Nepal. At the cricket World Cup 2015, Pakistan lost to the West Indies, but in Kathmandu, Pakistan won the Winter Cup International Wheelchair Cricket Championship 3-0, beating the host, Nepal.\n<PERSON> from IQRA University in Islamabad, Pakistan, tweeted:\nCongrats Pakistan for winning Winter Cup International Wheelchair Cricket Tournament Series on Feb. 20 (Nepal) pic.twitter.com/wfah1XljZL\n— <PERSON> (@shahidwaseem44) February 22, 2015\nHinting at the poor performance by Pakistan's team, <PERSON>, a sports reporter at PTV, wrote:\n“We are Better than the Team in World Cup”..Pakistan WheelChair Cricket Team wins series 3-0 against Nepal. pic.twitter.com/VMHAn9M6Yw\n— X è é § h ä ñ (@Xeechilly) February 21, 2015\nThe cricket tournament was organised by the Nepal Spinal Cord Injury Sports Association. Nepal and Pakistan played three matches of ten overs each on 18-19 February 2015.\n<PERSON>, a journalist who writes about the economy and development issues, shared some encouraging words with the players:\nYOU ARE GREAT GUYS! PROUD ON YOU! THE FIRST WHEELCHAIR CRICKET By SPINAL CORD INJURIES #WHEELCHAIRCRICKET pic.twitter.com/Yw3MsLeumz\n— <PERSON> (@gbudhathoki) February 21, 2015\nNational Seating and Mobility, advocates for the disabled community, tweeted:\nRT @Criceverest: Nepal vs Pakistan — 1ST InterNational Wheelchair Cricket Series. : pic.twitter.com/wRsVOU1sDv @ChangeFdn @TheRealPCB @KANepal:\n— MOBILITY (@MobilityNSM) February 19, 2015\nThe championship, the first international tournament for wheelchair cricket, saw 14 spirited players from Nepal play cricket for the first time.", "168" ], [ "All of them have spinal cord injuries—six of them were injured during the Maoist insurgency, while others were injured in accidents (some of them during daily chores like collecting grass and fuelwood). Likewise, for the 16 wheelchair cricket players from Pakistan, it was their first time getting international exposure.\nWheelchair cricket is played with 11 players on each side, like in normal cricket. The matches, however, are limited to minimum of 10 overs and maximum of 20 overs. The length of the pitch is 16 yards and the ground boundary is 45-50 yards.\nLike normal cricket, the wheelchair batsman runs for single, double, and three runs. A batsman fetches four and six runs if the ball crosses the boundary and the same rule is applied for wide ball and no ball as in normal cricket.\nContinuing the tradition of playing international tournaments, the Nepali Blind Women’s Cricket Team is set to tour Pakistan this year for a T20 series against Pakistan's Blind Women Cricket Team. According to the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council, five T20s will be played in five different cities during the series.\nThe visually impaired Nepalese girls won an international cricket tournament organised by Cricket Association of Blind Nepal 3-0 against a similar team from the UK, last year in 2014.\nAfter the Nepalese victory, Nepalnews.com, a Nepali news portal, wrote:\nNepal makes 3-0 clean sweep vs @UKFemaleVICric in 1st ever women's #BlindCricket series. http://t.co/C7PNhi4MjH pic.twitter.com/YTbYZ0IrZ9\n— Nepalnews.com (@nepalnews_com) October 28, 2014\nLike the members of the Nepali Blind Women’s Cricket Team, two of the Nepalese wheelchair cricketers participating in the Winter Cup International Cricket Championship are women: <PERSON> and <PERSON>. Twenty-year-old <PERSON> says she will watch the rest of the World Cup matches from home. And so will the others.\nBe it spinal injury or visual impairment, none of these disabilities will ever stop these spirited hearts from relishing the fervour of the World Cup.", "361" ] ]

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[ [ "Seeking Advice on ACL Surgery for My Maine Coon Cat\nI'm seeking some advice about my Maine Coon cat who recently had an ACL tear diagnosed by a surgeon. The backstory is a bit lengthy, but here goes:\nOver the past two years, my cat has been limping on and off. Each time this happened, we took him to the vet who would typically prescribe pain medication. This approach seemed to alleviate the limp each time, leading our vet to suggest that he may be faking it for attention or his weight could be the culprit.\nFor reference, he is a larger cat, weighing in at 19lbs currently. To address potential weight issues, we put him on a diet which helped him reduce from 23lbs to 19lbs. However, the limping persisted.\nRecently, after moving homes, we noticed his limp worsening significantly. We decided to take a step further and consulted a surgeon, and X-rays confirmed the ACL tear.", "961" ], [ "The surgeon has recommended immediate intervention and corrective surgery, warning that heavier cats are at higher risk of tearing their other leg's ACL if left untreated due to shifted body weight.\nI've done some online research, finding conflicting reports. Some suggest this surgery can improve a cat's quality of life, while others warn it could worsen their condition. We are not concerned about the cost; our top priority is our cat's health and happiness.\nSince the limping started, we've noticed a significant decrease in his activity level. He doesn't play as much as he used to, doesn't fetch anymore, and spends most of his time lying around the house. This isn't like him; as a loving and friendly Maine Coon, he was more active in the past. He's nearly 7 years old now.\nWe're hoping someone here has had a similar experience or can provide advice on what we should do next. Should we go ahead with the surgery, or are there alternative treatments we should explore?\nThank you in advance for any help you can provide!", "961" ], [ "What to expect as cat dies of cancer?\nHello all\nMy cat (estimate 10 years old but maybe older), was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer last week. We are going to be starting her on a medication, but the x-rays show some indication that it may already be in her lungs. I'm devastated, but trying to accept this and prepare myself to help my girl make this transition to whatever comes next after her earthly life.\nI'm wondering what to expect as she deteriorates.", "664" ], [ "Right now she is pretty much the same. I imagine sometime in the near future she may become more lethargic, less social, less interested in eating or grooming, etc. Is anyone able to break this down for me? I know that it is often hard to know when a cat is in pain.", "664" ], [ "Need help understanding strange dog behavior that looks like itching but isn’t\nHi friends, Hoping to get some guidance before going deep at the vet and spending a ton of money.\n<PERSON> is a healthy 4yo female Jack Russell terrier. Overall she is very healthy.", "664" ], [ "She has seasonal allergies which we treat with a Cytopoint injection every few months.\nShe is current on NextGuard, and isn’t taking any other meds.\nThis behavior in the video looks like there’s something “crawling” under her skin. She bops at her body with her nose, but isn’t really itching. Her skin doesn’t look irritated.\nShe is obsessed with doing this", "664" ], [ "Social Distancing Vet Appointments\nFirst of all, I love my vet. We've never had any issues with her diagnoses or advice, and we've been taking our cat to her for 8 years now.\nHowever, one thing has me wondering if this is typical protocol. Since spring 2020, we haven't been able to be in the exam room with our cat.", "961" ], [ "We drop him off, the vet and techs check him out, then bring him outside to our car and let us know how it went. This was of course best practice pre-vax, but at this point I'd really like to be in the room with <PERSON>. He gets a little nervous, and I trust the staff, but mostly I just want <PERSON> to feel safe with us there. Anyone else experiencing this? I feel nervous asking if I can be in there, because I don't know if any of the staff is immunocompromised and I don't want to be insensitive.", "210" ], [ "Should I take cat to vet for surgery follow-up?\nMy 7-year old tabby had a foreign body surgery one week ago. They recommended that he be evaluated 10-14 days after the surgery. I scheduled an appointment for later this week, but I'm wondering if it is necessary.", "961" ], [ "Even with insurance, we paid $1500 for the surgery. This follow-up would be another office exam visit that wouldn't be covered. He is doing really well and I don't have any concerns. Should I take him anyways? Maybe there is something they'll do for him that I am unaware of that will make it worth it?", "589" ], [ "Hypersensitive cat help\nShould we get a 4th cat?\nWe have 3 cats and recently found a very friendly stray kitten (no chip, still waiting to hear back from posting to Facebook). 2 of our cats are male that get along relatively well, besides some rough playing every once in a while. The third is a declawed (previous owners fault) hypersensitive female and much smaller than the other 2, so she has to to be kept in our bedroom to avoid them picking on her.", "311" ], [ "We have neighbors who are interested in adopting a cat. We introduced them to the stray kitten we found and they seemed to really like her, but we were also wondering about introducing the hypersensitive female to them, since it seems like she would be happier as the only cat in the house. The only issue with that is that she takes a long time to warm up to people and I wouldn't want to \"burden\" my neighbors with a cat that wouldn't even want to be around them for 5+ months.", "679" ], [ "help - cat diagnosed with \"rare and aggressive\" cancer\nMy cat (10 yrs old female) had a lumpectomy on Aug 1. The vet just called back today to let me know that the mass was a cancer that is rarely found in domestic cats and is typically aggressive. She also stated that she had not cut out enough tissue around the mass, but was concerned that if she cut any deeper it would hit her lungs.\nI request the results. It says it is a apocrine sweat gland adenocarcinoma. Google is not turning up much on this as it pertains to cats.\nIt also seems notable to mention that my cat was at the vet for another lumpectomy back in April.", "664" ], [ "The vet told me she had \"partial results\" that looked clean, but then never called to explain the final results, and we made the assumption that all was well. Then we found the new lump, that is cancer and requested the old lab results from back in April. The notes said that the mass they found then was a \"mammary duct ectasia\", benign, but that it should be considered a neoplastic change and monitored. We were never told what this means and a follow up wasn't scheduled or an X-ray to further examine the area, which seems like it would have been a good move considering the suggestion that it be monitored.\nPlease help me. This is my first pet ever and I have no idea what to do. Has anyone heard of this cancer? Does my vet sound unreasonably irresponsible or am I overreacting?", "961" ], [ "Has anyone seen anything like this?\nMy 4 y/o dog started having these “fits” at about 6 months old. He was first diagnosed with seizures and went on a cocktail of anti convulsant mediation for years until I could get in with a vet who took my protestations seriously. He is responsive during these fits and—instead of being exhausted—will normally run off afterward. He also normally shakes first/seems disassociated.\nFor context, we rescued him from friends who worked on a farm near a puppy mill. They knew the breeders were going to put him down so they took him and gave him to us. At first, he just had some trouble walking, these distressing events didn’t start for several months. We have gotten him regular veterinary care since getting him, and we have tried everything the vets have suggested.", "63" ], [ "He has had stints on steroids and that’s when he is at his best. But other than when he is on steroids, it isn’t getting/hasn’t gotten any better.\nHe has these episodes about 3 times per day, normally when he is excited (when we first get home, when he is about to eat, etc.). They are short (a few minutes at the most) and don’t seem to effect him otherwise. He also has Swimmers so his gait is off. Despite all this, he is a happy boy who loves to snuggle and sniff and roam. Even when he is in the midst of an episode, he doesn’t snap or seen defensive.\nAnyway, I’ve googled his symptoms and it kind of sounds like inflammatory brain syndrome, but I brought that up to the vets and they’ve knocked it down. I’m wondering if anyone has seen anything like this or has any suggestions of what veterinary care I should seek.", "63" ] ]

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[ [ "To elaborate on and combine a few other answers, consider that the Earth's magnetic north is not in a constant position, so it is not the factor in how lat/long coordinates are determined. Rather it is the axis of rotation as has been pointed out by others.\nThe equator is determined by being the great circle (circle which circumscribes the geoid of the planet), upon which twice per year (on the equinoxes) the sun travels exactly 180 degrees from horizon to horizon in a perpendicular fashion. Leap years are a thing because there is a slight difference in the time it takes for the earth to complete a single orbit of the sun vs. the period in which two equinoxes occur.\nIn your case a similar equator could be determined by observing the relationship between the body which the astroid orbits vs any 'wobble' along its axis of rotation (although this may take longer than a single 'year' or orbital period about the body.) The 2 points at which any two lines that are perpendicular to that equator intersect are its 'poles'. Lines which then intersect at a 90 degree angle at the poles can be used as meridians, the points at which those meridians intersect the equator are effectively arbitrary (the prime meridian is Euro-centric due to the fact that European cartographers defined it, not for any special geometric reason.)\nThe last step is then determined by math which describes projecting the surface of the asteroid to the abstract sphere that these lines define, surveying specific landmarks (natural or artificially placed) to act as well-known points which can be surveyed against as a reference system for any other point on the surface, allowing you to triangulate coordinates.", "204" ], [ "These landmarks need to be offset along either the x or y axis from one another.\nOn a personal note I am also a fan of the answer which mentions 'geohashing' for modern cartographical applications. I have worked on an abstract specification known as 'Discrete Global Grid Systems' with the Open Geospatial Consortium which is conceptually similar and I'd encourage you to look into it if this sort of thing interests you. Its basis divides the sphere defined by an equator and meridians into a grid of triangles which is then projected to the surface of the body. Ironically, this is shown in the illustration of the robot in the left sidebar of this site. However your question specifically mentions coordinates, which a hashed addressing system does not provide.", "441" ], [ "Let's start with the most popular calendar in the English speaking world, which has 12 months broken into days; the number of which range from 28 through 31. Those days are then organized into periods of 7 day weeks.\nOne would conclude that by dividing seven into the largest number of days in a month one would determine that the maximum number of horizontal lines of weeks would be four and a bit, or five weeks (rounding up).\n31 / 7 = 4.43, rounded up to 5\nThe truth is that since the calendar makeup is comprised of some prime numbers, the months will often start on different days of the weeks and end on them on different days of the week most often too. Therefore, six lines of dates are needed to lay out a month without resorting to squishing more then one day in a single square.\nNow, we live in a simple solar system and have a single moon revolving around a single planet with a single star at the center. Imagine how different a calendar might be if it took in the influence of a double moon (such as Mars has). Or if our Earth and some other planet revolved around each other on our annual orbit... or if we had a binary star at the center of our solar system.", "921" ], [ "One other thing that may affect a calendar's layout would be if our planet revolved around the sun with its axis at 90° to the its travel direction around the sun.\nOur calendar is affected by our culture as well and needs to address the strict observance of religious holy days, and political observances. It's interesting to notice that in spite of the majority of this planet is covered in water, it is left to imposing a tide chart onto the calendar rather then allowing the time chart to drive the organization of the calendar. Additionally, any agricultural influence is made to superimpose itself on top of the religious/politico calendar too.\nMany of Earth's cultures did fine and existed for centuries without a calendar at all; the American Indians for example. It bears reminding ourselves that some cultures in South America exist today with only a very vague sense of time and no counting system beyond the numbers two or three. So if I said to you, \"I will be gone a long time.\" It is up to you to decide when the \"long time\" has passed; be it days, weeks of days, or even months or years. A very tricky thing when one barely imagine past tomorrow or the next day at best.", "723" ], [ "Few considerations:\nF-type stars depending on mass have varying lifespans as main sequence stars. An F6.1V should last for 5.7 Gya.\nThe planet itself forms physically within 50-100 million years, but the process of the solar system and likely debris clearing would mean 200-300 years of asteroid bombardment which will mean life will not be feasible for a significant period. (Perhaps I am wrong, but did you mean half of the time being spent on setting up conditions for life in this way?)\nIf you want an Earth-like atmosphere you need a rocky inner core, so something within the frost line. A large moon stabilizes the system and that is likely needed for the proper tidal system in the ocean or even lakes to help generate suitable amino acids in a nuclear geyser. This takes time to set up, but it varies.\nMore importantly, plate tectonics needs to be functional to fix the otherwise toxic system that comes from natural formation and the bombardment. A large strike which causes the crust to fracture and set the system into motion allows for proper cleansing and the ability for life eventually colonize the whole of the planet.\nI cannot see any of these things working within 2 billion years based on purely the process of forming a stable world for which life can actually spread across. Yes, life can exist in niche realms, but if the otherwise whole is too inhospitable then your life will be essentially constrained to volcanic vents and such.\nAfter the primordial crust is subducted and falls into the core you have the proper shielding and the earliest real possibility of a 'mainland' you could use for a map arising. Assuming a lot of things are in line, yes, you could speed up the process of life greatly, but the critical thing your species is a type of crustacean - meaning you need to have suitable evolution to use calcium and phosphorous.\nContrary to <PERSON>'s assertion: \" it would not be surprising if evolutionary good luck produced human-like intelligence within two billion years.", "801" ], [ "It is entirely within the realm of realism.\" is needs to be couched in the fact that practically a billion years of set-up needs to be done to form the planet and get the processes underway for it to work. With stem and crown evolution events being the real driver of natural diversification and evolution through high radiation magma from rifts, the conditions could be possible to speed through a marine environment. Though much of the volatility described would either do almost nothing or possibly wipe out life. Frankly, 1 or 2 cataclysms would be expected.\nWith your underlying concerns about the planet formation times having been answered, I think it would be easily possible to have your species appear in 2.8-3.2 billion years. Just be mindful that if your planet sits in a precarious spot the natural solar system evolution could kill your planet before it gets the gas giant phase. (Increasing size, heat, luminosity) SO MANY variables here, so I wouldn't go upping to a F1V class to compensate for earlier development of life. (Around 3.6 gya lifespans.)\nIf you are intent on doing an end-of-times scenario you have plenty of time for life to develop and still be realistic. Hope this helps.", "801" ], [ "How to calculate rainfall; record highs\nThere are numerous programs and resources that can be used to ascertain pretty exactly the average temperature and general climate of a region.\nBut is there any way to get a quantitative estimation of rainfall or record high and low temperatures in a region?\nI know general trends like, since my region is situated on the edge of the polar front, with an ocean to its east, high mountains to the west, and strong persistent westerly winds, it probably gets a considerable amount of rain. Or, I know that due to the lack of large landmasses to the north of my region, it probably will not have the comparatively cold record lows found in places like the NW US or Eastern Europe.\nFinding an Earth-proxy isn't exactly correct either, since my reliable modelling for average temperatures suggest that the climate regime for my region is not completely equivalent to South Chile (my closest proxy). While these little differences may not mean too much for average temperature prediction, they can introduce unintended consequences to your world.\nFor example, Puerto Montt has the closest climate to my region's captial. They are remarkably similar in terms of year-round average temperatures and in rainfall (though mine shows less seasonality). However, in the winter months, Puerto Montt has an average low of roughly 3.5 C. My region's capital has average lows of 1.9 C in winter.", "650" ], [ "This difference is negligible for getting a sense of the average climate, but it has a massive impact on other variables. With its milder winters, Puerto Montt experiences snowfall rather infrequently and sporadically, mostly in July. However, my region's capital gets 7-8 reliably snowy days a year that can happen as late as October, an event which rarely if ever happens in Puerto Montt. So, while proxies may be useful for parameters which are easily defined or that you can already predict, they are not useful for estimating other variables. I would expect record temperatures to be especially susceptible to this.\nIn short, qualitative analysis and proxies are insufficent. Are there any ways to get real quantitative numbers for things like monthly record temperatures?", "867" ], [ "In order to generate an elliptical orbit, you need to have a force which is equal to the required centripetal force:\n$$F=m\\frac{v^2}{r}\\rightarrow a=\\frac{v^2}{r}$$\nAccording to <PERSON>'s Theorem, this can only be solved with a potential for an inverse square force, or a radial harmonic oscillator potential.\nSo we cannot attain a circular orbit, is that a problem? No.\nI generated a system for our sun, Earth, and moon, dependent on a linear inverse force. What we find is that we need to rescale the Gravitational constant to the negative 22nd order. (For clarity's sake I avoided using astronomical units).\nSo if we set $G = 6.6740831\\times10^{-22}$ we find the following orbit patterns:\nWe can further decrease the orbital eccentricity when $G \\rightarrow 4\\times10^{-22}$\nNote however, that in the long term, the eccentricity will always increase, even for optimal $G$, take the following radial Sol-Earth distance over 500y:\nThere are more problems though, for instance, would a star even form with this Gravity configuration?\nNote that in this configuration, the acceleration of gravity due to Earth on its surface would be $0.000375m/s^2$ instead of $9.8m/s^2$ As the gravity drops off more slowly, but is also significantly more massive, a habitable planet would be much more massive, but such massive planets might also more easily form under these parameters.\nAnd here is where things get really interesting, if we suppose that our planet has a mass of $m_{earth}=5.97237\\times10^{28}$, four orders higher than that of the current Earth, gravity at the same radius would be $3.75m/s^2$, and we get the following 1000 year progression:\nMy suspicion is that the collapse happens 4 orders of magnitude slower, meaning you would have at least $10^5y$ of stable orbit, possible a million (1Ma).\nIf you could have a planet with a mass of order $O\\left(29\\right)$, then you might get a near-stable orbit over evolutionary time scales, however getting such a large concentration of Earth (oxyen, quartz, aluminium, lime, iron, magnesium) might be difficult to attain, except maybe in a late-stage galaxy.\nI do think the peculiar circumstances would make the formation of large planets more likely as distance is less of a factor for matter to come together.", "24" ], [ "Consequently we would expect fewer planets, but of higher average mass. However, it is also possible this situation would lead to more uniformity in mass distributions. You would have to run some galaxy wide gravity calculations for that one, and recalculate the result of the background radiation. These are things beyond my scope.", "24" ], [ "Deserts and Rainshadows near Equatorial Continent with North/South Mountains\nSo I have two continents on the equator with a north-south mountain range. One has the mountain range roughly in the middle, while the other is on the east coast. The plate boundary for the east coast range is continental/oceanic while the other is continental/continental.\nBoth mountain ranges are new and likely similar to the Andes, though not quite as tall given that the planet is a bit larger than Earth so I imagine that this would have an effect.\nThat said if I look at any sources on deserts they suggest they cannot or should not form on low ground near the equator due to the low pressure zone causing too much rainfall. That said, if I go 10/15-30 n/s I end up with this weird banded desert where there is hot desert on either side of my continent with tropical savannah or steppes in the middle. I am making the assumption that near the mountains and especially where elevation is still somewhat high I can throw in hot desert a la Somalia or Chile even near the equator, but what about the continental interior? There are cold currents, winds away from the coast and a tall mountain range casting a shadow, I feel like I should be able to merge the desert, should I taper it in towards the mountains? Putting more towards the interior and tapering out towards the coast? Should I push the desert to like 5 degrees on either side and leave a thin band of savannah in the middle?\nPictured are my two continents, one with the desert already filled in and one that hasn't been laid out.\nYou can see prevailing winds and ocean currents.", "701" ], [ "Plates are too faint to see in these pictures, the spacing is done per 30 degrees with 1 degree squares filled in. Black blobs are approximate locations of mountains while light blue is savannah, dark blue is rain forest and red is hot desert as from the exact color guide on the <PERSON> classification Wikipedia page.\nInterested in any and all thoughts!\nEDIT: Forgot to mention that average planet wide temperature would ideally be about the same as Earth's +-2c at most, that being said this planet is orbiting a smaller star closer to the edge of the habitable zone but all else being equal we can assume this planet would receive slightly less energy but have a slightly thicker atmosphere which my best efforts have been to compensate for this and give it about the same overall climate as modern day earth if again not slightly cooler. It has much less seasonal variation having a slightly more circular orbit and a 10 degree axial tilt. I've done my best to still allow for thermohaline circulation though I'm not sure if my southern continent would allow for it but I made sure to allow for one circumpolar current by leaving the north clear. Happy to provide other pertinent information.", "591" ], [ "Approximately the same time as it has taken the original to arrive at the same age and physical condition, obviously!\nYet this may not quite be acceptable from a plot point of view, so here's a few pointers on reducing that time frame, contingent on the use of the clone.\nSpare parts\nYou don't actually need a full clone for this, it should be possible to graft the organ to be replaced onto a bio-compatible host and with growth/rate accelerators you'd be looking at several months to years. Some organs are problematic: the brain, for instance (we simply don't know enough about the interconnections between all the neurons except that these interconnections are partly created through learning by the individual), but also muscles as muscles need a work out to be compatible with the individual receiving the spare part. On the bright side, you can require some re-validation therapy and it may be advantageous to use a younger version of an organ.\nRejuvenation\nThe practice where a much younger clone is used as a replacement body when old age becomes a hindrance. This requires a mind transfer technology which presumably fixes the neuron and neuron interconnection problem. There is plenty of time to grow a body (say, twenty years) and the clone body does not need much exercise and can be kept unconscious during the entire growth cycle. A period of up to a year of exercising the new body after the mind transfer (the old mind has to adapt to the much younger body) is probably acceptable as well.\nReplacement\nThe practice where a clone body is offered as a replacement in case of accidents or after being murdered.", "335" ], [ "Again, this requires a mind transfer technology in addition to regular mind recordings as a backup to restore onto the blank slate. This is one of the more difficult use cases as it requires the body to be grown fairly fast, say less than five years, while keeping it a blank slate. Another problem is to copy the physiological impact of the environment on the new body, i.e. scars, wear and tear, and so on. Without this the clone will not have an identical or even similar look! Again an adjustment period of the recorded mind to the new body of a year is acceptable.\nReplication\nThis is the use case where the genotype of successful individuals are copied to augment (or supplant, whatever the plot is) the general population. The problem here is to copy the environment and learning processes too as the phenotype is the determinant of success, not the genotype on its own. However, decades to grow and learn a clone into an individual are permissible, as each copy will be an individual, albeit very similar to another copy.\nOther uses\nThere are probably other very creative uses of clones but the main things to consider are:\n* in how far does the phenotype (result of environment and genetics) of the clone need to match the original? A blank slate is much easier than a fully trained individual.\n* how much time do you have to prepare the clone in advance? If you need anything less than a couple of years, I'd seriously look into biological 3D printing and infusing the 3d printed cells with the DNA from the host.", "335" ], [ "The 'most sensible' option would be to plan for more reasonable speeds of a traditional draft animal canal network. Humans can move a huge volume of material in a timely fashion even if only heading along at little more than a walking pace of draft animals towing a narrow boat.\nHowever that's been done and is obviously boring, so...\nIf our goal is to establish reliable and speedy transport of large volumes of goods and materials without readily falling into building railroads, then we have a relatively simple option if we can stomach the cost...\nFlash Lock Stairs:\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_lock\nIf our society is in a location that can provide enough sources of water then we can harness that flow of water directly. Effectively we are building/rebuilding rivers in a controlled manner, then punting barges out into them to float down the line.\nHow fast we can allow them to go will depend on how much water we have on hand, how much engineering we're willing to invest, and possibly how brave your crews are... As we're basically building giant and stupidly long log flumes.\nQuick travel is of course a one-way deal unless we want to get really creative with lock design, but otherwise we can overcome that with good loop designs.", "87" ], [ "'Flow' from point A to B down one stretch of canal, then ascend a lock-stair and flow back from B to A [Or from B to C, then another run from C to A] on a different canal.\nTo avoid excessive wear on the canals and improve control, you would likely want to have many very shallow 'steps', and probably send boats down in groups/trains. Skilled lock operators can then open and close their locks in series to maintain and control the speed of the boats, and ensure water levels don't drop too far in any given part of the system.\nAs a bonus you also naturally end up with stations potentially well suited for optical-telegraph... As each lock probably wants to be setup such that they can see the previous one so they can open or close as needed.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph\nGeography wise, such a system would likely work best for a nation which has a long and relatively narrow section of moderately level land that fronts many long mountain/highland valleys that get plenty of rain. Your society is going to need to be experts at designing aqueducts and canals.", "87" ] ]

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[ [ "Image Courtesy of <PERSON>\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nIf you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. If you thumb the bottom as well, I consider that a bonus. Thanks for reading.\nSummary\nGame Type – Card Game\nPlay Time: 10-20 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2\nMechanics – 'I Cut, You Choose', Hand Management, Area Majority\\Influence\nDifficulty – Pick-Up & Play (Can be learned in under 20 minutes)\nComponents – Excellent\nArtist – <PERSON>\nRelease – 2013\nDesigner – <PERSON> (中山 宏太) -( TOKYO JIDOHANBAIKI)\nOverview and Theme\nBoardgames have taught me a lot of facts and geography over the years and here again I learn some new things. Hanamikoji is the most famous district and Geisha street in the old city of Japan, Kyoto.\nIn this game of the same name, two players compete to attract the favour of these most skilled women of Japanese entertainment and traditional arts.\nWhat struck me after my first read of the rulebook was that this has a similar feel and playing style to a Battle Lineor a Revolver(even a Lost Cities). By that I mean that both players are looking to play cards to their side of the line of Geisha's in order to win them at various locations. Beyond that there is a bit more going on here also, to help it stand out from that competition.\nGrab that money roll and let's talk a walk to the Hanamikoji District. We have a fun night in store.\nThe Components\nMy copy comes from publishers and and it is a lovely production. The box cover is different and appealing and the box size is only as big as it needs to be. In addition to all the nice embellishments below, the insert inside the box also features gorgeous Geisha art.\nGeisha Cards – These are oversized cards (7 in all) with each one featuring full colour art of different Geisha who specialise in one artform or another.", "470" ], [ "The cards all have a dominant colour and then similar hues flesh out the colour palette to create a lovely effect.\nThe only other features on the cards are a single number in the top-left corner and some Japanese characters. The numbers serve to outline how many Charm Points each Geisha is worth as well as signifying how many Item Cards there are in the deck for each particular <PERSON>. I assume that the Japanese characters are outlining the name or discipline featured on each card.\nImage Courtesy of stellarc\nItem Cards – These cards are slightly smaller than regular size and again are dominated by artwork to depict the item most associated with each <PERSON>'s skill. These include items such as the Shamisen (3-stringed banjo-like instrument) and the Shakuhachi (bamboo flute). Then there are other more generic items such as the scroll (used for poetry), the teapot, parasol, a hairpiece and the hand fan.\nThese cards have the same two features as the Geisha Cards, both with the same purpose (although the Japanese characters are no doubt outlining the name of the discipline\\item in question).\nThese cards have similar colouring to their Matching Geisha Cards, although the colours on the Item cards are slightly stronger. When cards are placed underneath their corresponding Geisha Card, the colour palette across the playing surface is very attractive.\nImage Courtesy of tikyjo\nAction and Favour Tokens – Two sets of tokens are required to round out the game. The Action Tokens are small square affairs and use icons to outline what each one does. There are two sets of these, one for each player. My copy comes with tokens in a set of orange and a set in a violet\\light purple.\nThe reverse side of the tokens are greyed out as the tokens should be flipped after use in a round.\nThe Favour Tokens are round and feature a nice piece of art. Some copies come with different colours (I have seen black in the BGG images) but in this production, a muted colouring of violet, light blue and white is present.\nImage Courtesy of REDD55\nRules – The rules are a double-sided affair that fold up to form a little vertical booklet. They do a good job of outlining the game, feature nice colours and images and don't feel daunting.\nImage Courtesy of REDD55\nThe icing on the cake is that all components (outside of the rules) feature a matte\\linen finish, even the tokens.", "872" ], [ "Image Courtesy of <PERSON>\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nIf you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. If you thumb the bottom as well, I consider that a bonus. Thanks for reading.\nSummary\nGame Type – Card Game\nPlay Time: 15-20 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2 - 6\nMechanics – Card Drafting\nDifficulty – Pick-Up & Play (Can be learned in under 20 minutes)\nComponents – Very Good\nArtist – <PERSON>\nRelease – 2019\nDesigner – <PERSON> -(Debut Title)\nOverview and Theme\nEvery now and again I get surprised by a game either because it was far better than I thought it would be or somehow it had flown under my radar and I had heard little (if anything) before coming across it. Ecosystem falls into the latter category with perhaps a good dose of the former.\nEcosystem does nothing particularly new as it is a card drafting game coupled with a scoring system at games' end. And yet this is a surprisingly deep game from Genius Games, a company that is committed to publishing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) based games. I'll admit to their name not being at the forefront of my mind but a quick click to their website and I see games that I have heard of, and from memory, have been well received such as; Tesla vs Edison, Lovelace & Babbageand Cytosis.\nNaturally ( ) given the title, Ecosystem is focusing on the Earth\\Natural Sciences with concepts such as - habitats, predator and prey and perhaps the symbiotic relationships between all living things being at play.\nPut on your hiking shoes and fill that canteen. We are off on a bear hunt...well, to find them anyway.\nThe Components\nEcosystem is a design by , which now features in the Genius Gamescatalogue. The production is well done, ticking off all of the important points for a game of this nature and I appreciate that it comes in a small box (read this as 'the box is no bigger than it needs to be).\nCards – Ecosystem uses the small card format and I think it is the right decision for this game. That’s because the players are creating a 4 x 5 grid with their cards, so the normal card size would require quite the table space indeed, especially at the max player count of 6.\nEach card features either an animal or a habitat and the cards are completely dominated by artwork that lovingly depicts various animals and habitats.", "470" ], [ "The cards feature no text or icons of any kind as the art makes it clear as to what it is meant to be. The only thing they possibly could have added was a small number in one corner to remind players of how many cards of that type feature in the deck but this information is provided on the Player Aid. I think I like how the art is allowed to dominate and bring the tabletop to life.\nImage Courtesy of UnkindnessGames\nPlayer Aid – The game offers up a mid-sized reference card to outline the key details of every card, the nature of the scoring regarding diversity and a listing of how many of each card is in the deck. It does the job well although some card summaries do not include the finer details and so the rule book is still required when learning. This is a slight nuisance at first but once a player has 2-3 plays under their belt the reference alone will be enough.\nThe back of the Player Aid features a nice illustration of a creek meandering through a meadow but serves no functionality.\nImage Courtesy of Alice87\nScoresheets – The Scoresheet is a must in this game to help track scores. It also includes a summary of the negative points for a lack of diversity and helps to tally this element of the scoring easily. The scoresheets come in that classic style.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nRules – The rules are a simple double-sided leaflet and spell the game out well. Some of the text is on the smallish side but it has a QR code to take new players to an online summary of the rules. All the cool kids are doing it nowadays.\nImage Courtesy of Alice87\nOverall the component quality is very good and at the price point of AUS $20 it is a bargain. This must be cheap as chips in the US.\nImage Courtesy of Alice87\nSet-Up\nEcosystem is almost ready to play right out of the box. Each player is given a Player Aid and then the deck is shuffled and dealt out.", "872" ], [ "Image Courtesy of randast\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nIf you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. If you thumb the bottom as well, I consider that a bonus. Thanks for reading.\nSummary\nGame Type – Card Game\nPlay Time: 25-35 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2\nMechanics – Card Drafting, Set Collection, Worker Placement\nDifficulty – Pick-Up & Play (Can be learned in under 20 minutes)\nComponents – Excellent\nRelease – 2015\nDesigner – <PERSON> -( Papua)\nOverview and Theme\nThe year is 1895 and the crisp morning air is shattered by an explosion. The UK Houses of Parliament have been bombed and a young anarchist, <PERSON>, is arrested quickly. The young worker with links to Anarchist groups pleads his innocence, the authorities want swift justice. <PERSON> is put in charge of the Crown Prosecution's case against <PERSON> but his task is much more than simply securing a conviction. London needs to know if this was a solitary act or part of a bigger plot! Speaking of plots...this one soon thickens as the parents of the accused hire a detective, none other than the brother of <PERSON>, <PERSON>, to defend him.\nSo it is that two of the most brilliant minds in London must lock horns, cross magnifying glasses and try to best the other in this game of wits!\nOk, so it is a fairly detailed thematic backdrop for a 2-player card game that is produced and looks (very much) like it could have slotted into the 2-Player series of games. But I like the effort that has been made in this case ( ) and I think the play does a pretty good job of bringing the theme to life.\nJoin me for a quick stroll my dear <PERSON>. We must gather the evidence and determine if this title is worthy of standing alongside some of the other 2-player card game classics!\nThe Components\nHolmes is produced by a smaller publisher in ( being their second most successful release). They have done a great job in producing a game that looks great and will withstand many plays.\nBoard – The board is designed to look like a diary, it is labelled as belonging to Dr <PERSON> (see image further down within this review) on the outside of the board fold.", "470" ], [ "The inside (playing surface of the board) features various locations where cards can be placed and the artwork makes these spaces look like the lined paper found in a notebook. The board has a single fold and when opened it is much the same length as the one used in .\nOn the board itself are 11 key locations upon which Character Cards can be placed. The majority of the spaces are labelled with a day of the week, with Day 1 being the only one to feature twice (all other days appearing only once). In the top left-hand corner of the board are three set positions with the names of the 3 characters that always stay in play (see set-up). The 12th card silhouette space is found in the bottom left corner of the board and this is where the Character Card Deck is placed. Each of the days 1-7 feature an image of an hourglass, which reminds each player that as new cards are revealed, time is ticking away.\nImage Courtesy of Alice87\nCharacter Deck – All of the cards feature a matte\\linen finish and I love it when any production goes that extra mile for the sake of quality. The fact that a smaller publisher can do this tells me that all companies should really be doing it.\nThe first set of cards are the Character Cards. The artwork on these cards is just gorgeous. I guess you would describe it as somewhat cartoonish in appearance, but the colours used and the quality of the illustrations are fantastic. The artwork covers almost the entirety of each card and when placed on the deliberately beige colouring of the board, they pop and really stand out.\nThese cards depict the many characters found within the world of <PERSON>, some that I knew but many that I did not. Each card features a set of icons at the bottom to outline the skills\\benefit of using that character. The rules outline these well but the icons make total sense after a few plays.\nIf I can go on an indulgent tangent for a moment, I always look at the illustration of Mrs <PERSON> and am instantly reminded of the character <PERSON> from the anime film Spirited Away.\nImage Courtesy of randast\nClue Deck – The game offers up 9 forms of Clue.", "872" ], [ "Image Courtesy of bpovis\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nIf you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. If you thumb the bottom as well, I consider that a bonus. Thanks for reading.\nSummary\nGame Type – Card Game\nPlay Time: 30-45 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2\nMechanics – Card Drafting, Set Collection, Hand Management\nDifficulty – Pick-Up & Play (Can be learned in under 20 minutes)\nComponents – Very Good\nRelease – 2012\nDesigner –<PERSON> -( Agility)\nOverview and Theme\nIt is fair to say that there are some themes that are so pervasive within our hobby that some gamers may have 10 or 20+ games with the same theme on their shelves. I'm thinking fantasy, zombies, Egypt, Cthulhu, pirates...the list goes on.\nBut every now and again we are lucky enough to stumble across something rather unique. Morels is one such game. This is a game where two players are looking to walk through a forest, hoping to find many types of Mushrooms. Some they will cook and others they will sell in order to gain some valuable information from locals as to the whereabouts of other Mushrooms in this neck of the woods.\n<PERSON>, upon first glance and read, appears to fit into that gaming space occupied by , and . I am eager to see if this can be another hit in that 2-player card game space for games that are easy to learn but have a little depth to them.\nI'm also quite happy to be covering another game by a small independent publisher in . For the record the game was released in Europe under the title Fungi before this reprint. I will also look at what the Forays expansion adds to the game before I am done.\nPass me that stick there will you? My legs aren't what they used to be.\nThe Components\nFor a smaller publisher, Morels is a very well put together production, should be proud of the quality on offer. In one offering or another the company also provided gorgeous little pan miniatures and hand forged foraging sticks. These look great (check out the image gallery) but I only have the standard release.\nMushroom Cards – Naturally cards are going to be the front and center element of the game.", "470" ], [ "The cards on offer feature two different card backs to represent the Day and the Night Deck. The cards in the Day Deck are sometimes referred to as the Forest Deck as they will be drawn to make up the Forest Row or Ring (depending on how you set out the game).\nThe cards in the game largely feature a variety of different mushrooms. The cards allow artwork to take center stage. The key information beyond each card's name are the icons and values in the top left corner. The number below the symbol of a pan represents the card's value when cooked. The number below the icon of a stick represents the card's value in Foraging Sticks if sold to the locales. The artwork itself is good but not amazing.\nThe Night Cards feature the same mushroom types as the Day Deck except they come in a night-time hue and feature different artwork. The only mushroom missing in this deck is the Morels Card.\nImage Courtesy of Peterweb\nSpecial Cards – The other cards represent non-mushrooms and include things like Baskets, Pans, Moons, Butter and Cider, all of which I will cover later. In particular the Butter and Cider cards feature a simple criterion that must be met to play them, in the top-left corner.\nImage Courtesy of Alice87\nTokens – The game comes with a pair of Pan (as in fry pan) tokens, which are round and each player starts with one of these. Then there are a bunch of round Foraging Stick tokens, largely green in colour. These can be gained during the game to aid the players.\nImage Courtesy of Alice87\nRules and Reference Cards – The rules are decent without being brilliant - they get the job done. Oversized reference cards outline to the players how many of each card (mushrooms and specials) are in the main deck. This is important information to have.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nOverall I think the production of the game is up there with the quality of many of the games in the 2-Player line. Sure, there isn't a nice matte\\linen finish on the cards but from a smaller publisher I can overlook that.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nSet-Up\nIn keeping with the quick playtime, Morels is an easy one to set up.", "872" ], [ "This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nSummary\nGame Type - Card Game\nPlay Time: 20-50 Minutes\nNumber of Players: 3-5 (Best 4-5)\nMechanics - Hand Management, Set Collection\nDifficulty - Pick-up & Play (Can be learned in 10 minutes)\nComponents - Good\nRelease - 2007\nDesigner(s) - <PERSON> the World in 80 Days, Cuba, Dracula, The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End)\nImage Courtesy of WasQ\nOverview\nSomething is stirring on the wind and the King's Court is a buzz with murmurings and secret whispers. People are not happy and various members are conspiring in the shadows. But lookout because the King is ever watchful and ready to punish any character caught dealing behind his back!\nWelcome to Palastgefluster, the game of Palace Whisperings. Here we have a quick, highly sociable card game experience that is every bit as good as my last reviewed card game was bad (Poo: The Card Game).\nI understand that this is not widely available but it is well worth the cost of entry. Let's take a closer look.\nThe Components\nThe small box line of games from Adlung Spiele have a good reputation. They tend to be clever card games that are all about intelligent play. As such the game is all about the cards and they won't take up any more shelf space than they need too. Thank you Germany...thank you.\nCharacter Cards – Each player has 7 cards in their colour, which represent members of the King's Court. These are joined by an additional set of 14 cards of the same types (2 of each), which feature a generic brown colouring to form the play deck.\nThe cards themselves feature nice artwork that is colourful and suitable to the theme. The art isn't outstanding but it is pleasant to look at as the game unfolds.\nThe key information though is located at the top of each card as a series of symbols remind players what impact each Character will have when played.\nThe names are in German at the bottom of each card, which ups the learning curve just a little. In truth though after a game or too the players will only be focused on one thing and that is the actions of each Character.", "299" ], [ "The names become irrelevant except to see if the King has silenced them or not (more on that later).\nImage Courtesy of visard\nKing Cards - The King Cards are kept separate to the draw deck and are only brought into play via the Marshal Character.\nThese feature a central image of the King and a Character is named at the top of the card, which represents the King's Decree (more on that later).\nImage Courtesy of visard\nReference & Score Cards - Each player also receives a Summary and Scoring Card. The Reference Card simply outlines the impact of each Character, which saves many trips to the rulebook in that first play or two. This card is used to cover up the Scoring Card, which simply has the numbers 1-6 on it. As a player scores the Reference Card is slid down to show a player's current score (not unlike how The Adventurers tracks a character's weight/loot from memory).\nImage Courtesy of visard\nRules – The rules are small enough to fit into the small box and they don't fuss with any glossy presentation. They are a simple paper booklet and require only 4-5 small pages to outline the game.\nImage Courtesy of bluef0x\nAll in all the components are quite nice without being amazing. People will tend to love or hate the art but I land on the love side as they have a Tarot kind of charm to them.\nImage Courtesy of tsayirong\nThe Set-Up\nEach player selects a colour and takes the Reference and Scoring Cards. The Reference Card must completely cover the Scoring Card to reflect that players begin on 0 points. These cards also help remind each other of what colour each player is.\nThe draw deck is then constructed by taking the 7 Character Cards in each player's colour and adding them to the 14 generic brown coloured Character Cards. These cards are shuffled up to form a draw deck and 6 cards are dealt to each player to form their starting hand.\nThe Set-up is then completed by shuffling the 6 King Cards and placing them centrally, ready for use as the game unfolds. The eldest player then gets play underway.\nThe Play\nOne of the greatest strengths of Palastgefluster is that the game works on no more than 4 rules. Everything else comes from the implications of each Character Card that is played. It is devilishly simple.\nA Player Turn - Requires the active player to play a card from their hand.", "872" ], [ "Image Courtesy of <PERSON>\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nIf you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. Thanks for reading.\nSummary\nGame Type - Card Game\nPlay Time: 50-70 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2\nMechanics - Modular Board, Worker Placement, Set Collection\nDifficulty - Pick-up & Play (Can be learned in 20 minutes)\nComponents - Very Good to Excellent\nRelease - 2012Artist - <PERSON>\nDesigner - <PERSON> Title)\nOverview and Theme\nTargi takes us to the ethnic peoples of Northern Africa that call the Sahara Desert home. Your people live in nomadic tribes and it is the men (Targis) that cover their faces whilst the women (Targia) do not. As leader of one of these nomadic tribes you must trade the goods of the land in order to acquire gold and better your position. Your aim is simple enough, to support the largest tribe.\nTargi is the debut title of <PERSON> I won't hold any punches up front here when I say that he has produced an excellent 2-player game and one that is totally deserving of finding a place in the revered 2-Player series of games.\nHop on that camel and come with me...I have a most enjoyable journey to take you on.\nThe Components\nalways put together a good production and this is no exception. Not surprisingly, cards dominate the components.\nBorder Cards - Instead of utilising a board, Targi provides 16 cards that act as Border Lands or regions to frame the central play area. Rather than simply creating a border, these cards are actually part of the play area as well. As such they are double-sided with text on one face to outline the ability and iconography on the other (which does the same thing in a more simplified way).\nLike all of the cards in the game, the thickness is serviceable but they only have a glossy finish.", "470" ], [ "All cards in the game use a landscape orientation.\nThese border cards also feature a little bit of artwork to differentiate each quarter of the border with a different terrain. It is totally unneccessary but a nice touch all the same.\nImage Courtesy of Alice87\nTribe Cards - The game comes with 45 of these cards of which their are 9 of each type. These cards represent ways in which a tribe can gain assets and wealth and include things such as camel riders, oases, wells, camps and Targia's (women - and for the record this is not as assets like in a harem because Targia's lead these tribes).\nThe cards are elegantly organised with a graphic to denote the type on the left, the cost of each card in the top right and the VPs it is worth in the bottom right. If a card has a text-based ability it is located centrally.\nIt's all very crisp.\nImage Courtesy of henk.rolleman\nGoods Cards - These are much simpler affairs as they simply feature central graphics to show what goods are earned by taking a given card. Three cards also feature a gold coin and another a VP icon.\nLike the Tribe Cards, these utilise a sand dune background that evokes the theme and offers a neutral colour palette to help the foreground colours stand out. I also appreciate the shadow effect of the artwork, as if a burning sun is beating down on the cards.\nIt's nice stuff.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nMeeple - These are nice wooden affairs that come in two players and a grey meeple serves as the Robber.\nSquat cylinders serve as the Tribe Markers.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nTokens - The Goods tokens are simple square counters and feature the same graphics that are used on the Goods Cards. The VP tokens are quite an irregular shape to help them stand out and no doubt they are based on some form of trinket used by North African tribes.\nImage Courtesy of henk.rolleman\nFirst Player Amulet - A medium sized token is used to represent this marker to denote who goes first in a turn. It's quite noce to look at.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nRules - The rules are very well done. I found no ambiguity whatsoever in my edition ( ) and they feature good examples to boot.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON> the game offers great value for money and looks great into the bargain. The artwork is simple but Vohwinkel(as he always does) manages to evoke the setting and theme of the game in a way that is refreshing.", "84" ], [ "This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nImage Courtesy of zefquaavius\nSummary\nGame Type - Card Game\nPlay Time: 15-20 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2-5 (Best 3+)\nMechanics - Set Collection, Card Drafting\nDifficulty - Pick-up & Play (Can be learned in under 10 minutes)\nComponents - Very Good\nRelease - 2013\nDesigner - <PERSON> - (Archaeology: The Card Game, Cannonball Colony, Dungeon Raiders, Flicochet, Pack of Heroes and Small World: Cursed!)\nOverview and Theme\nSushi Go! comes to us from the creative mind and self-publisher <PERSON>. In this design the players are trying to grab the tastiest sushi dishes as they whiz past them in order to achieve scoring combinations over the course of 3 rounds.\nSushi Go! has been deliberately designed to be easy to learn and light enough that non-gamers can engage with it very easily.\nThe game was inspired by the drafting mechanic featured in games like Fairy Tale and 7 Wonders.\nIt became a reality thanks to a successful Indiegogo Campaign.\nGrab your Sushi Mats folks and let's see if this Sushi is fresh to go or past its use by date...\nThe Components\nLike previous Adventureland Games designs, Sushi Go! relies solely on its deck of cards. This not only reduces the fiddliness factor but also keeps production costs down too, which is super important for self-publishers.\nThe Sushi Cards – In all the deck is made up of 108 Sushi Cards, which offer up 11 different types of dishes. The artwork on the cards is quite simple but very cute and it reminds me of the artstic style used in the recent hit 'Dumb Ways to Die'. I would not be surprised if this art style was originally Japanese and was ripped off by the western world.\nThe game also comes with scoring cards for each player.", "299" ], [ "Each player gets 2 cards called a Train and a Tray and they can be used to display any score from 0-70 and are a great little addition, which allow players to avoid resorting to pen and paper.\nAll of the cards do a great job of summarising the scoring rules on the cards themselves, which eliminates excessive checking of the rulebook.\nThe only negative here is that the cards are a little thin for my liking and it can lead to card bending if players (children in particular) are not careful. Having said that my copy has stood up to 20 odd plays in very short time (often with 9-10 year olds) and still looks fine so I shouldn't nitpick too much.\nImage Courtesy of Odd_Bloke\nCard Backs – I don't often examine the backs of the cards but here a visual pattern is used that reminds me of classic Japanese anime style for surprise or excitement (you know where the background changes with the flashing lines of colour to show surprise or excitement?). This is a really neat little feature that serves to remind us of the thought and passion that self-publishers like to put into their designs.\nImage Courtesy of Odd_Bloke\nRules - The rules come in a nice booklet and are clear for the most part except one small scoring rule, which I will cover later. The rules also feature a set of small comic strips with corny puns, which make them more interesting to read than most rulebooks.\nThe rules also offer up an excellent summary on the back page which highlights how many cards are dealt based on the number of players and a condensed version of the scoring rules. This is quite satisfactory to help players once they have a basic grasp of the game and enables quick queries to be solved in moments.\nImage Courtesy of Odd_Bloke\nAll in all the production of Sushi Go! is very good and the only thing that lets it down just that little bit is the thin nature of the cards. I really like the packaging though as that small box format is great for transport and lines up with many other light card games on my shelves.\nImage Courtesy of <PERSON>\nSet-up\nThere is almost no set-up required of Sushi Go! before play gets underway. Each player takes a pair of scoring cards and sets their score to zero, the deck is shuffled and then a number of cards are dealt out to each player.\nHow many cards are dealt depends on the number of players -\n2-Players : 10 Cards\n3-Players : 9 Cards\n4-Players : 8 Cards\n5-Players : 7 Cards\nOnce the cards are dealt out the game is underway.\nThe point worth highlighting here is just how quick and easy the game is to get out and play.", "872" ], [ "Image Courtesy of <PERSON>\nThis review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.\nIf you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. If you thumb the bottom as well, I consider that a bonus. Thanks for reading.\nSummary\nGame Type – Roll 'n' Write\nPlay Time: 10-20 minutes\nNumber of Players: 2-4\nMechanics – Paper & Pencil, Set Collection\nDifficulty – Pick-Up & Play (Can be learned in under 10 minutes)\nComponents – Excellent\nArtist – <PERSON>\nRelease – 2019\nDesigner – <PERSON>( Adventure Games: Monochrome Inc. + The Dungeon + The Volcanic Island, Archaeology: The New Expedition, Barenpark, Cacao, Gingerbread House, Gizmos, Imhotep, Imhotep: The Dual, All things Sushi Go!,Sushi Roll)\nOverview and Theme\nIn Silver & Gold we have another roll 'n' write design so don't expect any outward theme here. Actually I need to correct that on two fronts...sort of. For starters, the game is actually a flip 'n' write (in similar vein to Welcome To...[although not as meaty]) and the game does use a theme of trying to collect buried treasure on islands, but the game doesn't waste any time referring to who you are and there is no sign of pirates.\nIn truth what Silver & Gold actually is, is another game to make use of polyominoes. In this case the shapes range from 2-4 squares in size but they are still very Tetris-y. I saw you roll your eyes...but stick with me.\nSilver & Gold first came to my attention via a BGG 'Game Night' Video, otherwise I would never have noticed it. For one it is relatively new and two, the game has only had a wider release outside of Germany very recently.\nIt comes to us from the steady mind of <PERSON> most will probably know from other games such as - and Imhotep. <PERSON> would be, I think, our most respected designer here in Australia and he is building up a nice portfolio of world-wide releases now with other notable designs such as Barenparkand Gizmos. We are rather proud of him.\nOk let's dig into this sucker, grab me that shovel will you!\nThe Components\nSilver & Gold is published by in Europe and brought to North America and associated regions by .", "470" ], [ "They've done a great job here in creating a quality package that gets the basics spot on.\nTreasure Cards – In total there are 47 Treasure Cards. Each of these cards depicts an island of one shape or another. Each island is made up of boxes and the number of boxes also equates to the value of the island. The values are found in the top left corner and each one is associated with a treasure type.\nIn truth the treasure type is irrelevant. What really matters is the points that the card is worth if completed and the colour of the card. I guess the symbols could be very important for the colour-blind actually.\nThe other features of note are the 3 icons that may frequent any given card. These consist of a red 'x' or cross, gold coins and green palm trees. I'll cover what these do in the body of the review.\nThe cards are of decent thickness but most importantly they have a glossy finish that enables the marker ink to be rubbed off with a tissue quite easily. The card backs feature an illustration of doubloons to support the buried treasure concept.\nImage Courtesy of stooge\nExpedition Cards – The game contains 8 Expedition Cards, with each of these featuring 1 polyomino. These shapes take center stage and they range in size from 2-4 boxes and feature 6 different shapes in all (two of the shapes appear twice).\nThe card backs feature a question mark to help underline that the players do not know what is coming next. Thematically the shapes on these cards represent the pattern by which the players opt to search the islands for treasure...that would make them a search pattern?!\nWe probably shouldn't look too deeply here.\nImage Courtesy of kalchio\nScoring and Round Cards – Each player will receive a Scoring Card to track how well they are doing. There are 4 key sections to these cards and I will cover them in detail when I outline how to score points. All you need to know now is that these cards are a clever and concise bit of design.", "872" ] ]

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[ [ "A Schwarzschild (zero angular momentum) black hole is not usually considered as related to a wormhole. Once a particle crosses the event horizon, it falls into the singularity in a finite proper time and is not expected to come out.\nWormholes are usually associated to Kerr (nonzero angular momentum) black hole. It has extra features compared to the unique event horizon of the Schwarzschild black hole, like an ergosphere, Cauchy horizon, and so on.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerr_metric#Kerr_black_holes_as_wormholes\nNow I am not claiming to have a full understanding, but as it says in the relevant paragraph of the wiki article on black holes, if an object crosses the Cauchy horizon it might follow a trajectory that makes it exit the Kerr black hole, through another Cauchy horizon, in a region with a \"normal\" geometry. For observers in that region of space, it would look as if this object is emerging of a \"white hole\", of Kerr type, of course, not <PERSON> type.\nNow this region of space is a priori not related at all with the region one has started from. It may be in a totally different universe, one to which is impossible to reach by any other way but going through the two successive Cauchy horizons described in the above paragraph if the Wiki article.\nBut for all we know, it is possible that this <PERSON> \"white hole\" is in our Universe, but it might just be anywhere, in the same galaxy, or a totally different galaxy anywhere. We can mathematically describe the path \"through two Cauchy horizons\" but where the exterior of the second is with respect to the first one, through \"normal\" space is totally out of our knowledge.", "43" ], [ "And quite possibly, it might well be in a \"different\" universe altogether.\nThis is what is referred to as a \"wormhole\" : entering a Kerr black hole here, going through a first Cauchy horizon, exiting through a second Cauchy horizon, but where ?\nMaybe I should point out that a Kerr hole is not \"intrinsically\" black or white. It has a \"past\" Cauchy horizon from which an object might come out (as if from a \"white hole\") but also a \"future\" Cauchy horizon. So if we plunge into a <PERSON> \"black\" hole in our Universe and emerge into the \"normal\" space of a different one in through the \"past\" Cauchy horizon of a Kerr hole there, which would in this event behave as a \"white hole\" for external observers, one could decide afterwards to plunge again into the same Kerr hole. But it is not \"going back\". It would be treating this <PERSON> hole as a \"black hole\". We will reach its \"future\" Cauchy horizon, and if we reemerge in normal space, a priori it will be in a third Universe. Nothing at all guarantees we are going back !", "43" ], [ "The notion that black holes \"never\" form because time \"freezes\" is somewhat of a misconception. It arises from trying to interpret the results of general relativity from a very traditional (Newtonian) point of view.\nWhat is true is that an outside observer will see the clocks of objects approaching the event horizon slow down. However, it is more accurate to think of this as a consequence of the fact that it becomes harder and harder for a signal (light) to reach us from the object. As the object comes closer to the event horizon it takes longer for any signal from the object to reach us.\nBut this should not be confused with the idea that the object is outside the horizon \"now\". We normally do not interpret distant events (e.g. a supernova) that we observe \"now\" as happening \"now\", instead we usually interpret them as having happened a long time ago. The same should be done with signals observed from an object falling into a black hole.\nIt is important to realize that while (in principle) signals from the object we continue to reach us until eternity (making it look like it never crosses the horizon), it is impossible for us to send any signal to the object, because by the time the signal reaches the object it will have long crossed the event horizon.\nThis leads to the following thought experiment: Suppose you drop a mirror into a black hole, and this mirror reflects the image of a clock that you (the outside observer) hold in your hand.", "334" ], [ "What you will \"see\" is the reflected clock (your clock) come to a halt. In some sense the indicated time, can be interpreted as the time (on your clock) at which the object crossed the event horizon, which will be in the past.\nGetting back to M87*. I have dismissed the notion that it has \"never\" formed a black hole. At same time, I have mentioned that in principle signals from all things that went in to make the black hole should still be able to reach us. So why aren't we seeing all these things? The reality is the signals from an object approaching the event horizon rapidly become fainter and distorted (due to time dilation and how signals propagate near a black hole). In fact the intensity of any signal will decay exponential on a time scale set by the size (mass) of the black hole. In case of M87 any signal from an object falling in will disappear in a matter of days.", "334" ], [ "My suggestion is you throw this book away, and use only \"good books\".\nWhoever wrote this book has a very confused mind.\nI can vaguely guess what the author might have had in mind when he mentioned these \"three types\", but trying to make sense of these very confused notions would only add to your confusion, not reduce it.\nAlso, while the revolution of the Earth around the Sun does involve inertia, the overall motion is certainly not exclusively due to inertia.\nJust as a matter by curiosity (certainly not to buy it) what are the title and author of this book ?\nEDIT\nMaybe I should have given you more details earlier.\nThe inertia that, when no force is applied, keeps at rest a body at rest is the same that guarantees a body in motion \"perseveres\" in this motion at the same speed in the same direction. So what your book call \"inertia of rest\", \"inertia of motion\" (constant value of the speed in meters per second?) \"inertia of direction\" (which, combined with the previous one, is the only meaningful thing for a physicist, conservation of the \"physical speed\" which means both direction and value in meters per second). Distinguishing them as three \"types of inertia\" makes absolutely no sense.\nNow about the Earth and the Sun. Before <PERSON> (thank you, user4574), people believed the Sun went around the Earth. Now we know that it is the contrary, the Earth goes around the Sun. But this motion, called \"revolution\" takes a whole year and in combination with the tilt of the Earth's axis is responsible for the seasons.", "393" ], [ "This motion does involve inertia, but also a force. It is the interaction of this force, the gravitation of the Sun, and the inertia of Earth that is responsible for it, not just some \"rotational inertia\" that by itself would keep the Earth to go around the Sun because it is now rotating around it.\nThere is really, however, such a thing as \"rotational inertia\". But not to go round another object: to keep an object rotating around itself (technically, around it own axis), like a rotating top, to keep rotating indefinitely if no (momentum of) force is applied on it. I am not going to elaborate on the notion of \"momentum of force\".\nAnd indeed the Earth does rotate around its own axis. Not once a year but once a day. This is why we see the Sun rise and set every day. This daily motion does not mean that the Earth rotates around the Sun but rather rotates around its own axis, once a day.\nAnd this daily motion, yes, is purely due to inertia, a different sort of inertia than the first one, technically called \"conservation of angular momentum\", but you can think about it, if you want, as a \"rotational inertia\" though to my knowledge nobody uses this term.\nSo yes, sunrise and sunset are phenomenons due to inertia, to the fact that the Earth keeps turning around its own axis, like a rotating top.\nBut it was not at all clear that you were referring to this daily motion in your question, since you were mentioning \"going round the Sun\", which I understood as the year-long revolution, which is not purely due to inertia.", "393" ], [ "Warp drive causality issue, and a possible error in a paper?\nTake a look at this paper on \"Warp Drives and Causality:\" https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.53.7365\nThe author attempts to argue that the Alcubierre Drive spacetime could exhibit Closed Timelike Curves, if one is to consider a \"Lorentz Transformation of the coordinates.\" In such coordinates, one finds that a light ray emitted on board the ship could travel backwards in time in such coordinates.\nThe author seems to confuse unphysical coordinate artifact with actual phenomenology. As far as I understand, in GR, one has the freedom to label points on the spacetime manifold by whatever $t, x, y, z$ they like, but the metric tensor remains a physical invariant, regardless of what you call your coordinates. However, its representation in a coordinate system will of course depend on your choice of coordinates.\nTo be mathematically precise, one cannot perform a Lorentz Transformation on the coordinates within the context of a curved spacetime as in GR.", "275" ], [ "If we want to of course, we could transform <PERSON> coordinates, to coordinates which look like a Lorentz Boost, but then we must transform the representation of the metric as well, and in our case we don't have the Minkwoskian structure as we do in SR.\nA light beam propagating inside the vessel will remain within its local light cone, regardless of what you call your coordinates, as specified in <PERSON>'s original paper. The \"Lorentz transformation\" attempted by the author does not hold.\nGenerally speaking, to find a CTC, we are looking for a Timelike trajectory for a particle in the spacetime that returns to the same point on the spacetime manifold. In summary, I do not see that a CTC arises, but that the paper concludes the existence of CTC from a violation of causality in special relativity which is exactly what a CTC does not entail AND an attempt to apply special relativity beyond its domain of applicability. Lorentz Boosts could only be defined Locally at a point in GR, and not the entire spacetime.\nI am only a student, and the author is surely more experienced in GR than me, but I can't see where I am wrong: could someone kindly explain to me where my attempted refutation fails? Sorry for the excessive text...", "275" ], [ "Is a vacuum-energy smaller than zero forbidden? Why?\n<PERSON>'s Field Equations allow for the derivation of Newton's law and this, together with the velocity profile of the stars within the galaxies and the galaxies within the galaxy clusters, leads to the introduction of unknown dark matter. We haven't found this dark matter yet, so insisting on questioning whether this introduction is valid and unavoidable is reasonable.\nThere is MOND (modified <PERSON> dynamics), which works quite well for galaxies (not well for galaxy clusters), but seems not to be a real alternative as it does not deal with curved space-time which is an everyday experience for people working on GPS.\nThere are some modifications of the Einstein Field Equations which introduce new fields instead of unknown dark matter—but there is an \"equivalence between dark matter particles gravitationally coupled to the Standard Model fields and modified gravity theories designed to account for the dark matter phenomenon\", which was impressively shown in the paper of <PERSON> and <PERSON> in 2017 in Physics & Astronomy (arXiv: 1702.03832 [gr-qc]).\nThere is essentially more space near the mass than further away (the prefactor $A$ of the space-part in the metric $$\\mathrm{d}s^2 = - B \\mathrm{d}t^2 + A \\mathrm{d}r^2 + r^2 (\\mathrm{d}\\theta^2 + \\sin^2{\\theta}\\mathrm{d}\\phi^2)$$ is bigger than 1). $A$ is approaching 1 in the infinity, leading to Newton's law.\n1. There is curved space-time and the field equations are valid in the solar system.\n2. Dark matter theories and modifications of Einstein's Field Equations introducing new fields are impossible to distinguish experimentally - and neither of them has been found yet.\n3.", "651" ], [ "There is more space near the center of gravity than further away.\n4. The concept of \"space-time is approaching 'flat space-time' in infinity\" works well for the solar system.\nRethinking these points leads to the question of whether it could be possible to simply assume other boundary conditions (4.) for galaxies using the <PERSON> field equations than used for the solar system to explain the dark matter effect.\nUsing not flat space-time, but \"vanishing space-time\" (A approaching 0 instead of 1) as the boundary condition for galaxies leads to the introduction of a vacuum-energy which has to be smaller than 0. The space itself would have to be regarded as a field with negative energy. Regarding space-time of galaxies as a potential well. Obviously, this thinking seems to be very far-fetched as it isn't discussed anywhere in the community. Please, help me to understand why.\nIs that (vacuum energy < 0) known to be forbidden per se? Is it obviously impossible? Why?", "651" ], [ "Would <PERSON>'s law in the solar system be independent from a presumed different fundamental gravitational law?\nA thought experiment:\nLet's assume the gravitational field of a black hole without any neighbors would be stronger than the Schwarzschild metric in the Newtonian limit.\nNow, we let a solar system (sun and planets, much smaller mass than the black hole) orbit around this black hole at $r>> R_s$, so that the tidal forces are nearly zero.\nMy question is, although the fundamental gravity law is \"set\" to be stronger, would the planets around the sun experience <PERSON>'s law?\nThe metric in the solar system can be calculated with the static, sperically symmetric solution of the field equations, namely $ds^2=-Bdt^2+Adr^2+\\text{angular terms}$ using the Newtonian limit (asymptotically flat spacetime), lim A(r) = 1, because due to the free fall (orbit) around the black hole, there are no forces, no curvature experienced by the solar system as it is moving along the curvature in free fall. That would presumably lead to the derivation of the Schwarzschild metric.\nThe question therefore is, whether this solar system does experience an asymptotically flat space because of the free fall around the BH and is this asymptotically flatness of space independent from the underlying gravity law of the black hole?\nRemark: Tidal forces are theoretically possible inside this solar system, because for example a planet experiences another force of gravity if it is behind the sun (in greater distance) in relation to the central black hole, than if it is in front of the sun (in nearer distance) in relation to the black hole.", "397" ], [ "However, these tidal forces are very small at galactic distances (see for example https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/702248/are-there-tidal-forces-between-the-solar-system-and-the-galactic-centre), even if the gravitational field produced by the black hole were stronger. The difference measured within the solar system between \"black hole gravity is stronger than Newtonian\" and \"black hole gravity is Newtonian\" is even much smaller.\nThis is just a thought experiment. It comes from the idea whether it is possible to create an alternative model of gravity by abandoning the weak field assumption.", "43" ], [ "How would an observer extremely close to light speed perceive (experience) the universe?\nIn the following we consider an Earth bound reference frame.\nFor an observer very close (but under) the light speed, radiation from the universe would emanate from a single point in the direction of travel, and all radiation would be Doppler shifted to gamma ray wavelengths.\nIn this direction, this link was sent to me by <PERSON> , related to another question.\nSo as the observer approaches light speed, his field of view shrinks to a point from which radiation of arbitrarily high frequency is emitted. These are consequences of aberration , beaming, and Doppler shift.\nRelated to the possibility that extremely high frequency radiation could create a black hole, check this link\nTo make my point clear (and fun), I will consider that the observer reaches a speed of\n$c$*googolplex/(googolplex+1), where $c$ is the speed of light in vacuum.\nI realise that even writing a googolplex in decimal form is physically impossible. I do not question how much energy is required, and I do not question how the observer is accelerated at this speed. There in nothing in physics that would forbid me to consider this thought experiment, in principle.\nQuestion. How would an observer in this state of motion perceive (experience) the universe?\nThe invariance principle of relativity tells me that nothing special will happen. And yet, I know that way before the speed of c* googolplex/(googolplex+1) is reached, something will happen, the observer will perceive a universe with different properties.", "275" ], [ "He will either \"see\" the universe as a black hole, naked singularity , or something else. You cannot Doppler shift the radiation coming from a point source to infinity , and pretend nothing extreme will happen. How do you solve this paradox?\nEdit. A possible connection can be made here with the Unruh effect, and the emergence of an apparent horizon for an accelerated observer (because you have to accelerate the observer, in order to get closer and closer to the speed of light). I suspect though that a full resolution of this paradox will involve quantum gravity or string theory. In any case, there is a paradox here (a contradiction with the principle of invariance in relativity), so I welcome any suggestions and comments.", "43" ], [ "A thought experiment about neutrinos\nI don't understand all the details of Dirac mass, <PERSON> mass, and many other \"deep\" notions.\nI have in mind a very simple thought experiment.\nBecause of neutrino oscillations we know neutrinos have mass. Thus their speed is less than $c$.\nI imagine a beam of neutrinos created by some experiment in a lab. They are neutrinos, not antineutrinos, and have energy much larger than their rest mass. So they have left-handed helicity.\nNow I imagine (this is a thought experiment, OK ?) that some lab is moving, with respect to the one that created them, at a speed so very, very close to $c$ that it will overtake the beam, so fast that in the frame of this second lab, the speed of the beam appears to be directed towards the lab at a speed close to $c$ and in fact, opposite of their speed in the frame of the lab that created them.\nIn the frame of this new lab, the particles that are directed towards it have right-handed helicity.\nNow two things can happen\nA) either they interact with the instruments in that lab with the same efficiency as in the original lab, and this means, since they have right-handed helicity, that they are now antineutrinos, as seen in this lab. So lepton number is not conserved.\nB) or lepton number is conserved, they are still neutrinos, but having the right-handed helicity, which means the \"wrong one\" for neutrinos, they would interact much, much less than neutrinos of the correct, left-handed helicity.", "617" ], [ "Then they are, in that lab, sterile neutrinos, but their rest mass is the same as for \"normal neutrinos\" and this sounds wrong.\nSo which is which ? And please, don't throw me complicated notions that I cannot follow, Dirac vs <PERSON> mass, symmetry groups, chiral anomalies, etc. etc.\nJust tell me, A is right or B is right. Thanks.\nWell, thanks to you folks, I have learned something. I really mixed up chirality and helicity, and that has been cleared up.\nI upvoted all of you, but I cannot accept an answer to a question so ill-posed.\nBut your answers only bring more questions.\nRather than editing this question, I think it would be better to ask a new one. I have to digest all this before asking a well-posed question (I hope...)\nIf, by the time I am ready, from your by answers or comments, I see a consensus that I should edit it rather than ask a new one, I shall oblige.\nOK, so here is where my new question is.", "617" ] ]

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[ [ "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse\nIt’s hard to express the beauty of this film if you haven’t gone to the cinema and experienced it. Words won’t do it justice as to how incredible the framework is. The beauty, precision, passion and intelligence used into the cinematography bursting with colour and detail. The camerawork was also spellbinding and I loved the ever so often flipping in different types of animation. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.\nI was a little annoyed to have to wait another year on top of the already delayed due-date due to covid, as the directors felt like they could enhance the film even more. But, I’m glad they did because you really get the feel for the effort and time put into this.\nThe pacing reminds me a lot of ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, in that quite literally everything gets chucked at you.", "462" ], [ "The humour, action, information and tension, at fast past and in full swing. But it also knows when to dim the flow and produce poignant and heartwarming moments into the mix. The voice acting all around was great, the sound design really amped and set the sequences atmosphere and mood. And I loved how many film and other Spider-Man references were randomly made.\nWhile i had an absolute blast, the storyline doesn’t have the best rhythm, and a few times I felt a little lost in the story. However the highs completely outweighed the lows, and the ending was unexpectedly dark and thrilling, which was the right way to go about where the story was heading.\nIt’s hard to not get into too much detail without giving too much away, but it’s worthy of the hype. I do feel the ratings are a little too high, but I’ll still settle for a 9/10.", "583" ], [ "Poor Things\nBeing a big fan of <PERSON> this was my most anticipated film of the year and I’m beyond satisfied to state this film lives up to the hype.\n‘Poor Things’ is a film like absolutely nothing I’ve seen before. The originality is completely off the charts and I loved everything I saw.\nThe film touched on themes of growth, sexual liberation, freedom, identity, lower vs higher class and power. So much passion in this project you just can’t help but adore this.\nFrom black and white to gorgeous vibrant colours, the cinematography was visually striking. The set design was also stunning and played a huge part in the personality of the film.\nI’m not sure why it’s not labelled as a comedy because the whole cinema was in laughter many times. The screenplay was impressive, definitely the best I’ve heard this year. The sharp deliveries and snappy, hilarious one-liners really added to the enjoyment of this wild film. It’s absurd and bizarre but also so relatable in many ways.\n<PERSON> will be picking up her second Oscar for Best Actress. She immerses herself into her role impeccably.", "217" ], [ "She really went above and beyond all the limits to accurately portray the character <PERSON> was seeking out - they make an incredible duo. <PERSON> & <PERSON> were also fantastic in every scene.\nMy only slight criticism is the film loses its rhythm slightly around the two-hour mark. It almost stalls and includes some in my opinion unnecessary scenes. But this is a very minor criticism. Because the vast majority of the film was brilliant.\nWhenever <PERSON> intended to be funny the cinema was laughing, when he wanted it to be serious it was meaningful, anything he directed into through that lens translated to the audience perfectly. I can see myself coming back to this multiple times in the future. It’s got all the elements of a future classic. Like <PERSON> or not? It doesn’t matter you’ll have a blast.", "132" ], [ "Memento\nMemento really is a mind f*ck.\nI did begin with liking the way the film is presented and unravelled to the audience backwards. Leaving you just as dazed and as confused as our protagonist, picking up pieces and trying to put this puzzle together. Possesses such a unique aspect, however I do feel it was quite erratic a lot of the time and just really hard to follow.", "269" ], [ "Which a lot of people may enjoy but I particularly didn’t. I understand that is what <PERSON> was aiming for, but it became a bit of a headache going into the second half to be honest.\nMemento is definitely mapped out in a clever and constructive way, and <PERSON> has an excellent attention to detail when it comes to the plots for his movies. A great amount of the film I did like and I can imagine on rewatch it’ll make a lot more sense, as this film possesses a strong amount of rewatch value.", "657" ], [ "Triangle of Sadness\nSitting on Triangle of Sadness for a couple days now and I’m still not fully sure. It’s obviously a harsh and stressful push on the rich, and their familiar overprivileged, stuck-up fiasco of a life, but it also examines the cruel survival of society and it’s very rich and complex on those matters. Sure there are plenty of topics that this film symbolizes that I didn’t pick up on, and some I might never, but the whole thing is for those who think. You must pay attention and you must be willing to let your interpretation of the events of this film run free, especially the ending.", "541" ], [ "Each performer in this film does their job right, molding on each dramatic commentary of this film so well and they emphasize such intensity when they speak that it just makes it even more interesting. <PERSON>, <PERSON>, <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and an immaculate performance of beauty and pain from the late <PERSON>. While I do feel it was too complicated for me at point where I wasn’t quite sure where to be with the characters or just weirded out, the whole film really is a form of masterclass when it’s all put into perspective. <PERSON> is a great thinker and it’s very clear in this latest film, and is one to definitely stack your opinion on upon rewatches.\n🔙<PERSON>", "529" ], [ "American Fiction\n<PERSON> once said “the term black isn’t a colour difference, but a cultured one” - and this film is that on full display.\nI love how this director has weaved this into a story of how dumb American producers are nowadays, and as said how “easy watching is what people want” instead of quality. Literally everything about this film needed to be said and did in a refreshingly good way.\nThe story does feel a little clumpy at times, i didn’t feel as invested in the story as I thought, some areas of it was told very well, and some leaves you with a bit of a question mark, you can sort of tell it’s a directors debut, BUT, I love his vision and style.\nAlso <PERSON> UNDERRATED.", "647" ], [ "The Imaginary\nThe film that was delayed a year cause the main crew prioritized working on “The Boy and the Heron” (most of them being former Ghibli animators) lol\nAnd… I was disappointed. Unfortunately its storytelling and world building really feels half-assed. It would be unfair to compare to <PERSON> himself, but his characters are very nuanced yet simple enough for the audience to invest in their character arcs. The characters in this film feel very one dimensional and it was just hard to relate or like them.", "952" ], [ "The ending does ties things up nicely, but it’s not enough to justify this film as “great.”\nProduction quality wise, it’s great as a theatrical film. Its crew is filled with veteran animators, who give us terrific animated scenes, especially when it comes to character acting. Its post production process is interesting, especially its coloring and rendering. My peer who worked on this film told me how it was done, and while I thought it took painful extra steps, the final result is at least interesting.\nThis film was one of my anticipated animated films this year, so it really sucks I couldn’t like it. Would watch it again, but most likely only home video.", "596" ], [ "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania\nThis wasn’t the heaping pile of trash I was expecting. I’ve seen much worse from Marvel and just the other day with The Little Mermaid. Marvel has definitely lost something; it’s soul perhaps. I did find enjoyable moments in this film and I totally get everyone’s reservations.", "457" ], [ "Majors was the high point which has seemed consistent across reviews. It could have definitely been better and I truly hate Marvel and their forced humor. It’s always been one of my biggest issues. It never feels organic to the script. But, in the end, I was entertained.", "596" ], [ "Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood\n<PERSON>, I have logged this so many times. It's mad, I found myself getting emotional watching the ending, on this watch, everything really hit me in a way I didn't expect. Maybe it was the summer air in my lungs or the need for a soothing film that offers the best of cinema but the emotion explored in that ending is beautiful. The reason it's strange is because I personally haven't witnessed a <PERSON> film that ventures into that territory.\nBut god, this is just incredible tour de force work on display. All the character beats, dynamics and ounces of humor are infectious. The sound is so delectable upon the ear; just the rum of a car engine, the clink of an ice cube in a glass or the rip roaring radio airways moving to the beat of a song. The absolute crispness of the camera, the rugged, sharp striking skin tones, complexions and allure of the actor's faces. The sense of that L.A.", "594" ], [ "magical warmth protruding off the screen. The detail and intrigue surrounding the locations and how they are used. It truly feels like a film of the 60's-70s sent forward to the future.\nI love this movie so goddamn much. <PERSON>, <PERSON> and <PERSON> and it's supporting cast are excellent. <PERSON> in particular portrays such a glow that embellishes and roots the film, her presence, her sunny array and contented grace is a foe against the rage, the violence and slimy tension that boils when the sunset disappears for the final act. I genuinely think it's her best performance(after <PERSON>) because the spirit, the kindness of <PERSON> has to be echoed and shining bright for when we witness the <PERSON> murders slowly entrench itself into the narrative.\n<PERSON> and <PERSON> are fucking brilliant but I was really caught by <PERSON> here. What a wonderful actress.\nYeah...Great fucking movie. Favorite of 2019 and one of my favorites of all time.", "217" ] ]

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[ [ "Achieving Randomness\nCan True Randomness be achieved by composing prngs in different states and with different algorithmsv(e.g. have $n$ different composition algorithms, use a prng to select any permutation of them. A lot $(\\sum_{i=1}^{n}{^nP_i})$ of permutations exist. Compose the algorithms selected using the permutation. Whenever a new number is generated in a sequence of random numbers the entire algorithm selection process is repeated, and new seeds assigned to all algorithms.\nThe final result with/from the different prngs will be supplied as output.\nFor every new number, a fresh seed is taken to the random selection algorithm(to choose the composition of the PRNGs), this should be the most complex PRNG and have as much entropy as possible.\nThe sequence works something like this. Each PRNG takes two parameters; a seed, and some previous value.\nFor the first PRNG selected for composition, a seed $s$ is provided, and another randomly generated seed is used to generate another number $c$(This will be done by a randomly selected PRNG not in the sequence. So in actuality, we'll have $n+2$ PRNG algorithms). Each PRNG generates its own random number $k$.", "603" ], [ "By choosing a permutation of some predefined composition algorithms (Whether the random number is to be floating or not, will define available composition algorithms, e.g final value $v \\mod max$ will be used to arrive at the random integer) $c$ is used to modify $k$, to generate some $c_i$ to pass to the next algorithm in the sequence. The final $c_n$ will be adjusted to be within range as the random number.\nI cannot conceive how such a system may be feasibly 'deterministic'.\nBecause of this, the algorithm shouldn't be philosophically deterministic. The next number is NOT based on previous numbers.\nArbitrarily designing a PRNG 'algorithm' isn't difficult (slightly modifying an existing algorithm, using different seeds to choose from, generating more than one result and choosing from it, etc). I read a post online about the security flaws of using prngs. How they are ultimately deterministic.\nWill such a prng be deterministic?\nWill it be able to achieve 'true' randomness?\nAssuming all the prng algorithms have the same 'degree' of randomness What is the minimum $n$ I should choose to make it non-feasibly deterministic? $\\tag{*}$\nMy only worry now, is the computational expensiveness of such a model. It should have a worst case running time of $nf(n)$ where $f(n)$ is the worst case running time of the worst random algorithm. (Assuming PRNGS don't have their running time vary with their outputs) {Though the higher security, might be worth it}.\n(*) Feasible deterministic, means that if all computers in the world were connected to make a super computer (assume this is possible and performance scales accordingly) this super computer will be able to 'crack' (be able to determine the next $k$ number(s) in line given an arbitrary list of generated numbers (from the same instance of this algorithm $n$ and arbitrary time $m$ s.\n$n,m\\colon n \\ge m \\gt 10^{10^{100}}$\n$k$'s value is irrelevant. If it can crack the next 10, then given enough time, it'll crack the next 100.\nTrue randomness, is defined as being non feasibly deterministic.", "603" ], [ "How fast is this Division Algorithm\nI wrote an algorithm for integer division. I'm wondering how fast it is asymptotically. I used RAM model myself to asymptotically analyse it, but I found out that:\nElementary CPU instructions like shifting and adding, are not constant as the integers grow arbitrarily large.\nSo it seems my analysis is wrong. I'd like to know how fast the algorithm is. I'll leave in my original analysis using RAM model of computation.\nI think I've found a linear time algorithm to solve this problem. I will attempt to calculate it's time complexity. I hope someone in the community, can point me to where I may have made a mistake. I am assuming the RAM model of computation. In particular, I am making these assumptions.\n(1) Addition and subtraction take one primitive operation.\n(2) Boolean shifting takes one primitive operation.\n(3) Reading from memory takes one primitive operation.\n(4) Writing to memory, takes another primitive operation.\n(5) Logical comparison takes one primitive operation.\n(6) Returning a value takes one primitive operation.\n(7) Creating a variable or an array takes one primitive operation.(Irrespective of size of Array)\n(8) Assignment takes one primitive operation.\nPlease correct me if I made any wrong assumptions. I will try to determine the run time complexity of this algorithm. I will use $+i$ to denote a particular piece of code takes $i$ primitive operations and $+k \\cdot i$ to denote $ki$ primitive operations.", "143" ], [ "I will attempt to total all the primitive operations. (I will keep a tally at each 'block' of code of total expenditure of that block in the form $T = k$ where $k$ is the total so far)\nThe section below outlines the algorithm for those who may want to fix, improve, understand, etc.\nThe Idea of this algorithm, is that $\\log_2(2^n) = n$ (Initial growth of the quotient using powers of two.) It attempts to reduce time-complexity of the algorithm, at the expense of space complexity.\nMultiplication as far as this algorithm is concerned, will be replaced by use of the binary \"<<\" operator.\nWe Know that the rest of the quotient is between $0$ and the previous value of $k$(Because b was lower than k*a). So we run a binary search between 0*a and previous k*a. An array of all powers of two up to the current value of k(That produced k*a > b) are kept. This array is then used to perform a binary search.\n$\\log_2(2^n-1) = n-1$\n$n + n-1 = 2n$ $$f(n) = \\Theta(n)$$\ncompare(x, y) A comparison function, that shall be used to aid binary search.\n{\nif(x == y) return 0$+1$\nelse if(x > y) return -1$+1$\nelse if(y > x) return 1$+1$\n}$+1$(for return)\n$T = 4$(Whenever this function is called, 4 primitive operations take place.)\na = divisor, b = dividend, q = quotient, r = remainder $+4$ (Creating 4 variables) m = Array size. Set it to whatever you want. Ideally it should be $\\ge$ maximum size of input $n$\n$state = 1 If the numbers have the same sign 0 otherwise. $+3$(Creating a variable, Logical comparison and assignment)\ndivide(a, b, &q, &r) q and r are passed to the function by reference. So that both may be returned.\n{\nconvert a and b to unsigned integer types. $+2$ q = 0$+1$\nk = 1 This will be the multiplier by which bwill be tested.$+1$\nm = 100 (m should be $\\ge \\log_2(b)$ or n. I'm just arbitrarily picking $100$ Array[m] Initialise all elements with 0 (If it increases time complexity of algorithm, initialise only the first element to 0. $+1$ (Or $+m$ it doesn't matter this is a constant and has no bearing on the asymptotic complexity.)\nArray[0] = {0} $+1$\ni A variable to be used as a control variable for the array.$+1$\nfor(i = 0 ; b >= (a << i) ; i++) $+3$(One logical comparison, One increment of $i$ each time loop is executed.", "743" ], [ "Am I Onto Something?\nToday I had an insight into an alternative deterministic algorithm for testing the primality of a number. I want to know if this algorithm is useful, and worth pursuing. I'll describe the idea behind the algorithm below:\nLet the fastest gcd algorithm we know be $g^(a, b)$. $g^$ takes in two numbers and finds their greatest common divisor. To find out if any number $n$ is prime it is sufficient to test if any of the prime numbers from $2$ to $\\sqrt{n}$ inclusive is a factor of $n$.\nConsider a set of numbers $S$. Let $V_c$ be any subset of $S$ such that $g^*(V_c) = 1$, that is, all $x_i$ in $S$ are mutually prime. Let the set of prime numbers be $P$. Let $h_i$ be the set of all factors of $x_i$.\n$$P = \\bigcup_{i = 1}^{{#}S} h_i.$$ So $S$ is a partitioning of $P$ such that all the elements of $S$ are formed from the product of unique elements in $P$, and no element in $P$ is used to form more than one element in $S$. There are several possible configurations of $S$. Let's denote them $S^j$.\nLet $P_k$ be the set of all prime numbers from $2$ to $k$. Let $S_k^j$ be an $S$ partitioning of $P$.\nNow, my primality test is this:\n1. Given any number $n$, pick $k: k \\ge \\sqrt n$ (the closer $k$ is to $\\sqrt n$, the better).\n2. Generate an optimum $S_k^j$.\n3. for $x_i$ in $S_k^j$\n4.", "603" ], [ "if $g^(n, x_i) != 1$\nreturn false*\nend for\n5. return check\nFor implementation purposes, I'm thinking of creating a set of $S^j$ with consecutive $x_i$ (consecutive in the sense that the largest prime number used to make $x_i$ is consecutive with the smallest prime number used to make $x_{i+1}$, such that we can easily cut off a portion of $S^j$ to get our $S_k^j$. Depending on circumstances though, we may generate the optimum $S_k^j$ on the spot, though this should only be pursued if the cost of generating it is negligible or guarantees a significant speed up over the alternative of the consecutive table. I think creating a pre-generated $S_k^j$ is useful for this purpose, though I'm not sure if it would slow down the overall algorithm. Alternative tables apart from the consecutive table may also be considered.\nAn English Explanation\nMy idea in English is basically this:\nTo test if a number $n$ is prime, we only need to check if any of the prime numbers from $2$ to $\\sqrt{n}$ is a factor of $n$. Using this foundation, I tried to devise a method that is faster at testing primality, than computing $n \\mod i$ for all primes between $2$ and $\\sqrt{n}$.\nIf two numbers are mutually prime, then their gcd is $1$. A prime number is mutually prime with every other prime number that is not itself. Imagine I had a number $y_n$. $y_n$ is a product of all the prime numbers from $2$ to $\\sqrt{n}$. I can test if $y_n$ is prime, by running $g^(n, y_n)$, where $g^()$ is our fastest gcd algorithm.\nHowever, what if instead of just $1$ number, I had a set $S$ of numbers which satisfied the following properties:\n1. All the elements of the set are mutually prime with every other element.\n1. Each element of the set is a product of some primes between $2 and \\sqrt{n}$ (both inclusive). 2. The product of the elements of the set is equal to the product of all the prime numbers from $2$ to $\\sqrt{n}$.\nIt becomes apparent, that I can test if $n$ is prime, by computing $g^*(n, x_i)$ until I get a value that is not equal to $1$ (if all values are equal to $1$, then the number is prime). where $x_i$ is some element in $S$.", "603" ], [ "Constrained/Optimal Topological Order to enhance/reduce the performance/memory usage of other algorithms\nI originally posted this question here\nLets assume we have a highly connected directed acyclic graph (DAG, more edges then nodes). Since it is a DAG, we can retrieve a topological order of nodes to traverse the graph with different algorithms. Lets assume we want to traverse it in a dynamic programming approach to retrieve a specific statistic X.\nUsing the topological order, the dynamic approach would consume up to M much memory, which can be traced by a concept of opened nodes thorughout the traversal:\nBy iterating over the top. order, a node is open if it has at least one edge from a node which already was visited by the topological order. It is closed (or not open) if it gets visited.\nPseudo-Code:\nopened_nodes = list(Boolean(False)), #num_of_nodes)\nopened_nodes[top_order[0]] = True // Initial\npos_at_top_order = list(Integer, #num_of_nodes)\nfor each n, n_idx in top_order:\nopened_nodes[n] = False\nfor each edge in out_going_edge(n):\ntrue_list[edge.target = True\npos_at_top_order[n_idx] = sum_of_all_trues(opened_nodes)\nreturn pos_at_top_order\n(here for the topological order, it can be adjusted for the rev. Top. order)\nA goal here would be to reduce the memory usage M of the dynamic programming approach. To achieve this, the top.", "180" ], [ "order can be manipulated and with the Pseudo-Code we could somehow track, whether the top. order is better or worse then another.\nNow to my question: Is there a way to directly retrieve such a top. Order so that M gets minimal, or could this be a NP-hard (or NP-complete) problem? What about some hard limits like: only retrieve the top. orders where the M is smaller/higher then a set amount of memory usage.\nIs there any literature about such a \"optimization\"? Which search terms could be used to search for this e.g. in Scholar?\nI already tried some different generation methods of top. order (in total 9) All of them look similar to the curves in the figure: (here i used igraphs top sorting algorithm and <PERSON> algorithm with some variations. Not shown but i also tried: DFS- and some \"BFS\" approaches. This is a highly connected graph, containing 14207 nodes and 94113 edges.)\nAny input on this is highly appreciated!", "180" ], [ "Universal Lossless Compression?\nIt is not possible to losslessly compress all files of size $n$ using a single algorithm, as there are more files of size $n (2^n)$ than of size $p, p: p < n ( 2^n-1)$. Via the pigeon hole principle, if we only tried to compress files of size $n$ with a single algorithm, there would be at least one file it was impossible to compress.\nIf we wanted to be able to compress files with differing lengths $n_k$, the number of files of length $n_k$ we can compress for each $n_k$ becomes even smaller.\nToday when reading a story about how a file that was several gigabytes when compressed uncompressed to one gigabyte, I had an idea for a universal compression algorithm.\nLet $a_i$ be a compression algorithm.\nLet $g_j$ be a file.\n$|g_j|$ denotes the length of $g_j$.\nLet $f(a_i, g_j)$ be a function that returns $(|g_j| - |a_i(g_j)|)$.\nLet $S_N = {g_j : |g_j| \\le N}$.\nLet $A = {a_i : \\, \\forall \\, g_j \\in S_N \\, \\exists a_i in A : f(a_i, g_j) \\gt \\lceil(\\log_2{#A})\\rceil}$.\n$#A$ denotes the number of elements in $A$.\nLet $m$ be the length of the label of the compression algorithm chosen. The first $m$ bytes of every compressed file denote the compression algorithm chosen.\n$m = \\lceil(\\log_2{#A})\\rceil$.\nThen you can compress all $g_j \\in S_N$, by iterating through A until you find $a_i : f(a_i,g_j) - m \\gt 0$.\nEven better.\nFor each $g_j$, let $a_j$ be the corresponding compression algorithm.\nLet $h(a_i, g_j) = f(a_i,g_j) - m$.\n$${ \\, \\forall \\, a_i \\in A, g_j \\in S_N, a_j = \\displaystyle{ \\underset{a_i \\in A, g_j \\in S} { \\operatorname{argmax} } } \\, (h(a_i, g_j))}$$\nIs there a reason why the above is not done?\nWhile the above is an algorithm, and one could argue that the pigeon hole principle thus applies, this does not imply what it may at first seem to imply. The above algorithm call it $a^v$ is a little different.\nLet $a_i: S_N \\to Y_N^i$ denote that algorithm $a_i$ maps a family of files $(S_N = {g_j : |g_j| \\le N})$ is mapped to another family of files $Y_N = {y_j : y_j = a_i(g_j)}$.\n$\\forall a_i \\in A, a_i: S_N \\to Y_N^i$.\nHowever, $a^v : S_{N+m} \\to Y_{N+m}^v$.\nSo $a^v$ compresses a different family of files from $a_i \\ in A$.\nThe pigeon hole principle merely states that $a^v$ cannot compress all files of length $N+m$; this is irrelevant, since $a^v$ only intends to compress a small subset of files of length $N+m$ (those whose first $m$ bits are the labels of some $a_i \\in A$.", "743" ], [ "One-way-function based on <PERSON> numberings\nA one-way-function is an easy to compute function $y=f(x)$ which is hard to invert. In 2000 <PERSON> showed an example of a function which is one-way if there are one-way functions. As far as I know, it is still not clear whether true one way-functions exist.\nNow with <PERSON> numbering, which roughly speaking, is a programming language with the following properties:\n* turing completeness\n* no two programs perform the same task\n* every computable function has a corresponding program but there's no way to find it. There is a non-existance proof of a compiler in this language. i.e. one can not programm with friedberg numberings. However, if you have for some reason a program in this language it is executable.\nIn the following argument has to be a a pretty basic flaw as it would establish the existance of one-way-functions if it would be right.\nSuppose we have a regular programm $x_p$ in a \"normal\" language which computes $y = P(x_p)$. Here $P$ is the function which which maps $x_p \\rightarrow y$. Also assume a programm $x_F$ in the language of Friedberg enumberings which for some reason computes $F(x_F) = y$ too.", "82" ], [ "If we invert the <PERSON> enumberings $F^{-1}(y) = x_F$ we have established a compiler for <PERSON> numberings by inverting $F$, as we have established a mapping $x_P \\rightarrow x_F$. However, we know there is no such compiler, hence our assumption $F$ is invertible is wrong. This establishes them as one-way-function as Friedberg numbering are perfectly computable, but not invertable.\nPossible loopholes:\n* It is clear that $F^{-1}$ needs to run forever for any input $y$, as every bijective function has an inverse. However, not every bijective function has necessarily a computable inverse. There might be a mapping, but we can not compute it in finite time. I'm not sure if this changes the argument. The point is if we can invert $F^{-1}$ than we have a compiler, and if we can't than we have a one-way-function. Also $F^{-1}$ might be approximateable.\n* $P$ is not necessary halting for all $x_p$. Ok, lets restrict us to all halting $x_p$ (which is impossible to know beforhand)\nIf this argument would be right it would make Friedberg numbering a bijective one-way-function with the stronger guarantee of beeing impossible to invert instead of just beeing hard to invert.\nWhat is wrong with this argument?", "603" ], [ "The Church-Turing Thesis (Hello World tester) contradiction and randomized algorithms\nThe <PERSON>-Turing thesis proves that there is no algorithm (or program) $H$ that says whether a program $P$ written in a language, say $C$, on an input $I$ outputs the sentence Hello World or not. This is his proof, visit Hopcraft and etc. introduction to automata theory languages and computation, chapter 8.\nThe prove is by contradiction. Let there is such a program $H$ to do the task. He made several simple changes to $H$ and built a program $H_2$, then showed $H_2$ doesn't exits.\nThe program $H$ is as follows\nOn input $P$ and $I$, it outputs yes or no which tells if the output is Hello World or not.\nHe then build program $H_1$ as follows\n$H_1$ takes $P$ and $I$ and runs $H$ on $P$ and $I$, if $H$ prints yes, it prints yes and if $H$ prints no, it prints Hello World.", "603" ], [ "The $H_1$ is as follows\nHe then built $H_2$ as follows\n1. $H_2$ reads the $P$ and store in an array $A$.\n2. $H_2$ simulates the $H_1$, but whenever $H_1$ would read an input, $H_2$ reads from stored copy in $A$.\nHence $H_2$ prints yes if $P$ prints Hello World when given itself as input and Hello world if doesn't print Hello World.\nThe contradiction occurs when when the $P$ is actually program $H_2$, the source code of $H_2$ is provided as input to itself. If the $H_2$ prints Yes, then $H_2$ in the box saying $H_2$ on input $H_2$ prints Hello World and the Hello World is the output of no in $H$.\nThe basis of contradiction is, $H_2$ on input source code of $H_2$ printed no while we assumed it is yes and a program on the same input can't have different outputs.\nIf $H$ were a program with randomized algorithm, then on the same input it would have different outputs. The basis of the contradiction is if $H_2$ on input $H_2$ prints something, it can't print something else on $H_2$ again. But if $H$ contains some random process inside it, then on the same input it would print different things and it is not a contradiction at all.\nPlease explain where I am wring about this.\nThanks in advance.", "610" ], [ "Is there an efficient algorithm for finding a minimal common subset of pairwise distinct bits in a set of bit strings?\nI am working on an efficient mapping function represented as a directed graph. In essence, it is a sort of radix trie. A path must be formed from a bit string [string hereon] efficiently. To do this, I decided on looking for and using an algorithm that finds a continuous, common subset of bits at a particular offset and length from a set of strings. I will describe the general algorithm that I seek formally as follows:\nGiven: $$S := \\left{s_y | s_y = B_y \\right}$$ $$B_y := \\left{b_x | b_x\\in \\left{0,1\\right}\\right}$$ and $$s_{y,x} = B_y[x]$$ we seek to find a common subset $s_{1...|S|,p...q}$ such that $\\forall\\left{p, q \\right}\\in\\Bbb{N}$, $\\nexists \\left{p', q' \\right}\\in\\Bbb{N} \\text{ s.t. } |p' - q'| < |p - q|$.\nFor the general case, the common subsets permit to find $s_{1...|S|, p_k...q_k}$. Some analysis shows that $\\lceil\\log_2(|S|)\\rceil \\leq |p - q| \\leq \\lfloor\\log_2(s_{largest} \\lor 1)\\rfloor + 1$ where $s_{largest}$ is the string whose magnitude $|B_y|$ is greater than all other $|B_y|$ in $S$.\nAs an example algorithm for demonstration, suppose we have the following four strings, each four elements in length: $$ s_1 = \\left{1, 0, 1, 1\\right}\\ s_2 = \\left{0, 1, 0, 1\\right}\\ s_3 = \\left{1, 1, 0, 1\\right}\\ s_4 = \\left{1, 1, 1, 1\\right} $$\nWe define a column thusly: $$c_{x} = s_{1...|S|,x}|x\\in\\Bbb{N}$$ with $c_1$ being the first column, right to left order convention, and $c_{|S|}$ being the last.\n1. $p_c\\leftarrow 1$. $q_c\\leftarrow 0$. Column offset and (horizontal) width variables, respectively.\n2. We see that the column $c_1$ is all ones, so we decide to skip it and go to $c_2$.", "180" ], [ "Increment $p_c$ and $q_c$.\n3. $c_2$ varies, but there are only two distinct values of the four in $c_{1..2}$ read by rows. Increment $q_c$.\n4. The column $c_3$ varies, and we see that there are three distinct values when read by rows, not four, so we move on to the next column. Increment $q_c$.\n5. $c_4$ varies. Increment $q_c$.\n6. We observe that all the columns we have, $c_{1...q_c}$, are now pairwise distinct when read by rows. Record $p_c$ and $q_c$. Terminate algorithm.\n(Proof: the values read by rows interpreted as binary integers and converted to base ten read as $[5, 2, 6, 7]$.)\nIt's quite obvious that there is a deterministic algorithm hidden somewhere in this process using some combination of Hamming weight and XOR: for any given column, the Hamming weight of the XOR of any two columns $c_a$ and $c_b$ tells us how many unique values are represented by the common subsequence given by offset $p$ and length $q$, but I haven't yet figured out how to generalize this just to create a deterministic algorithm for all columns.\nIf this algorithm already exists, I do not know what it is called. For my particular implementation it would be ideal if the whole set did not have to be analyzed each time a key is added to our map, but that previous information from previous computations can be used to quickly analyze a new key and determine whether or not we need to extend the sequence again, or can keep the existing index and sequence length.\nWhat already exists that can be implemented? If not already existing, are there any ideas on how best to proceed with an optimal algorithm as described here?", "603" ] ]

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[ [ "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It\nAn underwhelming third chapter to An excellent series.\nThe premisse of the film is quite strong and tries to set it apart from the predecessor. Gone is the haunted house and now we're focused on a kid who claims the devil made him kill someone. That's a very great start to a story.\nBut it doesn't quite always work as they expected it too. Resulting in a bit of a mess that unlike it's predecessors isn't really that scary.", "133" ], [ "It's not that i got used to the scarrs, they just weren't that good. The few scary scenes were spread far apart and very much the same.\nThey do play with color more in this one, resulting in a gorgeous movie.\nOf course the warrens again carry this film.\nBut except from that I'm not a big fan. It fellt too much like it wanted to be bigger, a spectacle to finish the series. But I rather have a slow and scary scenes instead of a tornado excorcism and teleporting witches.\nThey also could've done a lot more with the court case. It should've been the central Point of the story\nI like the series , only wished it ended stronger.", "596" ], [ "<PERSON> and <PERSON>\nFinally got around to watch this one.\nAnother fun and entertaining entry in the Marvel saga.\nIt's a great origin story to a lesser known hero. This might be one of the best introduction films in the MCU, it doesn't take the same formulaic approach like for example Doctor Strange. And with the character, we're once again introduced to a whole other side of the MCU, featuring al kinds of magical creatures apparently.\n<PERSON> is beyond great and a worthy addition to the roster of heroes. Actually I have lot of praise for the casting. <PERSON> delivers a great performance and lucky for her the role kinda breaks the typical comic relief side character trope.\nUnlike most marvel movies, they managed to add an interesting villain, with an amazing performance by tony <PERSON>.", "217" ], [ "His relationship with the hero is one we haven't really seen yet.\nThe action of course is another highlight. The great choreography is complimented by excellent camera work, choosing for a lot of wide shots and not use any shaky footage. That is when it doesn't rely to much on CGI.\nLike in the third act, where at one point it just becomes an animated movie. But it delivers lot of unexpected spectacle that I quite enjoyed.\nIt has some pacing issues and over relies on cgi, as we are used to from most blockbusters.\nBut the casting, action and music makes this one a really enjoyable movie. One I probably will watch a few times more.", "583" ], [ "About My Father\nWhilst this is not a good movie, what helped this is that i had just watched Meg 2, which was dreadful. With the negative thoughts of Meg 2 swirling i started to stream this on Amazon Prime.\nWhat i found was a lazy but sweet movie about a father and son. It gets all stereotypical in regards to both Scicilians and Americans.", "426" ], [ "It attempts to get silly but fails and falls short of charming. Yet it has some sweet moments and two or three scenes that i did laugh out loud at.\nI was more entertained than i should have been. The performances are nothing to write home about. Both <PERSON> and <PERSON> doing what was required and <PERSON> being the stand out performer on the cast.", "132" ], [ "The Super Mario Bros. Movie\nLet's a go!!\nAllright this is not a top tier animation movie, but damn is it entertaining.\nThere's a lot of fun to be had, for kids and for adult Nintendo fans. Since I'm in the last category, I mostly smiled and pointed at every reference (and there are so much good ones).\nIt's a movie hard not to enjoy, easy to take your kids to and also have a good time.\nVoice work is pretty ok and yes <PERSON> does an actually a good job.\n<PERSON> is the king though.", "995" ], [ "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter\nMy favourite one from the franchise so far, yet i’m stil convinced that i’ll never love this franchise. It still sucks ass because the pacing is somehow always off. This one is slightly better.\nIt follows the same story of horny teenagers staying at Crystal Lake getting targeted to be slaughtered by our mommy’s boy <PERSON>.", "437" ], [ "The kills are brutal and gruesome but most importantly, more creative than its predecessors. And as always, <PERSON>’s mommy issues gets him killed in the end…\nI’m always saving this franchise to watch whenever we get a friday the 13th. See you on the next one, i guess.", "8" ], [ "The Suicide Squad\nYes! This is how you do a Suicide Squad movie!\n<PERSON> not only delivers a great DC movie, but also a fresh take on the super hero genre.\nFrom the first scene you know that there are stakes. As the marketing already made very clear, no one is safe. This adds a lot of tension to the movie, you never know which fall or bullet will be fatal.\nThere's so much to talk about. The cast is great, featuring some standout actors, but they work so good together.", "796" ], [ "Like <PERSON> constant rivalry with <PERSON>'s character, which leads to one of the greatest action scenes.\n<PERSON> as <PERSON> is again very good, maybe even at her best in this one.\nThe story, unlike the first one, feels more like something the Suicide Squad would tackle. A covert operation in a hostile country, is the perfect setting for this team. The story takes some twists and turns to at the end wrap it up with an amazing final battle.\nTalking about battles, <PERSON> knows how to get the most out of it's R rating.\nMaybe my only negative I can think of is that <PERSON>'s Thinker is kind off wasted.\nBut except that I had a lot of fun! I sat at the edge of my seat during the whole runtime. Laughing and gasping at everything that happened.\nIf this is the direction the DCEU is going in, count me in!", "577" ], [ "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City\nI always liked the idea behind the the RE games more than the actual games which I sucked at and found a choir to play (except part 4 on the Wii). But it's easy to see them as an inspiration for movies, sadly all the previous movies made little sense.", "965" ], [ "This one was more faithfull to the games (as far I could tell) but also felt very lazy and way to much as a fan service. It totally lacks tension or interesting characters and the CGI was just horrible at times. A heartless digital movie that really bored me.", "831" ], [ "Strange World\nIt was okay ...\nI loved the design in this movie, not only the design of the creatures and the strange world itself, but also everything else. The way the world revolved around the electric plant, incorporating the color green in everything was a nice detail.\nThe comic book influence was also a great touch, harking back to the days of over the top adventurous.\nBut man what a weird pacing. I couldn't get into the story at all.", "700" ], [ "While it has all the building blocks to be great, it just fell flat and couldn't get going.\nThe plot is too predictable and even when the twist came, I couldn't care any less. Which is such a shame.\nIt's a beautiful film to watch or to put on in the background. But this is one that will be quickly forgotten.", "236" ] ]

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[ [ "The DIN A3 Elongated Octahedron\nIntroduction: The DIN A3 Elongated Octahedron\nToday we add a new Basic Building Block to our tool kit, The A3 Elongated Octahedron.*\nIn order for this model to remain at the same scale as our previous \"blocks\" - the A4 Dipyramid and the A4 Parallelepiped - this shape is formed from full sheets of DIN A3 paper, twice the size of A4. A similar fold pattern is required.\n*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elongated_octahedron\nSupplies\nAs with our previous models, in addition to the A3 paper, the only tools and materials required are tape, a straight edge, and a scoring tool.\nStep 1: The Fold Pattern\nAs we see from the first photo, the finished fold pattern resembles our standard A4 pattern (see my previous Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/id/UnFolding-the-Mys.... The pattern is extended across the larger A3 sheet when rotated 90 degrees, from Landscape (A4) to Portrait (A3) orientation.\nIn this case the orthogonal folds divide the A3 sheet into eight equal parts along the long length, and four equal parts along the short length.\nBegin the diagonal folds by aligning diagonally opposite corners, bottom right to top left, then bottom left to top right, to make the first two folds through the center of the sheet. Then fold the remaining diagonals as shown.\nScoring the diagonals before attempting the fold is recommended.\nStep 2: Forming the Figure\nThe photos illustrate how to form the Elongated Octahedron.", "518" ], [ "The two triangular faces at either end of our octahedron are formed much like we do the Dipyramid (again, see my previous Instructables). Then, the four trapezoidal faces of our figure can be found.\nApply tape to the interior seam at either end, then as shown.\nThe finished form can be seen as the augmentation of 2 dipyramids, sharing a common edge, with 2 tetrahedrons filling in the gaps, top and bottom.\nStep 3: A Kinematic Chain\nFor our kinematic chain we will link A3 Elongated Octahedra with A4 Dipyramids. Four of each of these are required for this model.\nBegin by hinging together one Elongated Octahedron and one Dipyramid, as shown. When hinging, carefully align edges and be sure to apply tape to both sides at each hinge. Repeat to create a total of four linked pairs.\nHinge the pairs together, as shown.\nYou're done!\nFor more detailed instructions on hinging, see my previous Instructable:\nhttps://www.instructables.com/id/Mysteries-of-the-...\nFor more on the special nature of DIN A proportions, see:\nhttps://www.instructables.com/id/Dipyramids-UnMask...\nBe safe, and have fun making your own discoveries!", "518" ], [ "DIN A4 Rhombic Dodecahedron - Again!\nIntroduction: DIN A4 Rhombic Dodecahedron - Again!\nIn this exercise we will form a new figure from the standard DIN A4 fold pattern that I introduced in my first Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/UnFolding-the-Myster...\nThen, we will assemble multiples of this new figure to form a Rhombic Dodecahedron. This assembly requires 4 of these new forms.\nWhile the dodecahedron's edges will be fully defined, four rhombic pyramidal voids will remain.\nSupplies\nThe materials required are the same as with my earlier work - - at a minimum, A4 paper and tape. A straight edge and scoring tool are recommended for making the diagonal folds. Heavyweight paper such as the 120 gsm used here, helps to make a sturdier model. And of course, any of the A series papers will work, as would any custom sized set of sheets with 1:√2 proportions.* Like my earlier efforts, there is no need for measuring tools or cutting instruments, just simple folds to full sheets of paper!\nAs stated above, 4 sheets of A4 paper are required for this particular exercise.\n*see my Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/Dipyramids-UnMasked/ for a detailed analysis of this special rectangle and the fold pattern associated with it.\nStep 1: Fold the Sheets\nThe fold pattern requires a total of 12 creases. I like to start with three folds which divide the sheet in 4 equal parts along the long length of the sheet. Then I make the three folds that do the same along the short length. Next, I make the two diagonal folds, corner to corner. And last, I do the four diagonals, from center of side to center of adjacent side. See photos.\nFinding the form of our new shape will take some effort, so as in past Instructables I suggest reviewing my earlier Instructable on the making of The A4 Dipyramid as a stepping stone on your path to finding this new form.", "518" ], [ "This will also provide more detailed folding instructions, emphasizing the need for precision folds to achieve tight fitting (space-filling) assemblies.\nSee: https://www.instructables.com/id/UnFolding-the-My...\nStep 2: Form and Tape\nThe photos illustrated here present a visual guide for finding the form, and fixing the figure using adhesive tape.\nBefore applying the last piece of tape, notice that we've modelled two identical rhombic based pyramids hinged along a common edge. We will revisit this discovery in Step 5 of this Instructable.\nAfter the final piece of adhesive tape is applied, repeat to create a total of 4 of these figures.\nStep 3: Create Hinge\nCreate two hinged pairs, as shown. Remember to align carefully and apply tape to both sides at each hinge.\nHinge the pairs together as shown.\nStep 4: Finish Assembly\nForm the Rhombic Dodecahedron and fix with tape. One piece is all that is required. See photos.\nStep 5: Bonus Lesson - Filling the Voids With the DIN A5 Rhombic Pyramid\nIn my previous Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/Kinematics-UnChained... I acknowledged the work of <PERSON>. Here, I reproduce a chart from his article \"The Archimedean Honeycomb Duals\", which can be found on his website: http://www.steelpillow.com/guy/published/index.htm.... In this chart we recognize some of the geometries imbedded in DIN A paper that drive my Instructables. I present the chart not just for its graphic clarity, but also so that we may borrow from its nomenclature.\nThe figures we want to highlight are:\nThe Rhombic Docdecahedron\nThe Rhombic Hexahedron (a Parallelepiped)\nThe Rhombic Pyramid\nAnd, of course, what he calls TheOblate Octahedron, which is the same as our basic figure, The DIN A Dipyramid.\nThe rhombi associated with the first three named above, are the ones found in our fold pattern. It's proportions are defined in the diagram I've borrowed from Mathworld.* The surfaces of the first two of these, dodecahedron and hexahedron, are made up exclusively of these rhombic faces. The third, the pyramid, has the rhombus as its base, and 4 similar isosceles triangles, each one equal to one half of the rhombus, completing the figure.", "518" ], [ "Revisiting the A4 Dipyramid and Finding the First Stellation of the Rhombic Dodecahedron\nIntroduction: Revisiting the A4 Dipyramid and Finding the First Stellation of the Rhombic Dodecahedron\nTowards the end of my previous Instructable, https://www.instructables.com/DIN-A4-Rhombic-Dodec..., we saw how twelve A5 Rhombic Pyramids could be hinged together following the \"net\" (template) for a Rhombic Dodecahedron, and then folded inward to form the figure, where the base (bottom) of each pyramid becomes one of the rhombic faces of the dodecahedron.\nWe also noted that two of these A5 pyramids, sharing a common rhombic base, are identical in shape to our standard A4 Dipyramid. Given these observations, we will now proceed by linking twelve of these rhombic based A4 Dipyramids using that same net, and see how they can be manipulated to form The First Stellation of the Rhombic Dodecahedron.*\n*https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RhombicDodecahedronS...\nSupplies\nThe materials required are the same as with my earlier work - - at a minimum, A4 paper and tape. A straight edge and scoring tool are recommended for making the diagonal folds. Heavyweight paper such as the 120 gsm used here, helps to make a sturdier model. And of course, any of the A series papers will work, as would any custom sized set of sheets with 1:√2 proportions. Like my earlier efforts, there is no need for measuring tools or cutting instruments, just simple folds to full sheets of paper!\nTwelve sheets of A4 paper are required for this particular exercise.\nStep 1: Fold the Sheets\nThose of you who have been following along will know the fold pattern very well, but as is my habit, I will review.\nThe fold pattern requires a total of 12 creases.", "518" ], [ "I like to start with three folds which divide the sheet in 4 equal parts along the long length of the sheet. Then I make the three folds that do the same along the short length. Next, I make the two diagonal folds, corner to corner. And last, I do the four diagonals, from center of side to center of adjacent side. See photos.\nStep 2: Form and Tape\nAs our Rhombic Dipyramid and Square Dipyramid are one and the same, we can use our Square Dipyramid technique, described in my very first Instructable, https://www.instructables.com/UnFolding-the-Myster....\nThe photos show how to find the form, and where to apply the tape. Repeat to make a total of twelve Rhombic Dipyramids.\nStep 3: Create Hinge\nUse the Rhombic Dodecahedron \"net\" for the hinging pattern.\nRemember to align carefully and apply tape to both sides at each hinge.\nSee photos.\nThe net can be found here:\n*https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RhombicDodecahedron....\nStep 4: The First Stellation of the Rhombic Dodecahedron\nHinge inward as shown to create the First Stellation of the Rhombic Dodecahedron, also known as \"Escher's Solid\".*\nContinue to see Bonus.\nStep 5: An Unhinged Bonus\nThe video shows an alternate assembly of the same twelve units.\nUnhinged, these last photos then illustrate how the volume of The First Stellation of the Rhombic Dodecahedron (twelve dipyramids) is equal to twice the volume of it's associated Rhombic Dodecahedron (six Dipyramids each).\nBe safe out there - - and if you find yourself cooped up with nothing to do - - fold your sheets!\nOur ready to fold kits are available at: www.etsy.com/shop/Studio20bis\n* https://mathworld.wolfram.com/EschersSolid.html.", "518" ], [ "The DIN A5 Rhombic Pyramid\nIntroduction: The DIN A5 Rhombic Pyramid\nCapitalizing on the inherent proportions of DIN A papers, we will show how to fold and form a Rhombic Pyramid from a single sheet, without the use of measuring instruments or cutting tools.\nWe will then proceed to show how this pyramid may be used as a building block for the creation of other geometric figures and assemblages.\nSupplies\nDIN A paper and adhesive tape are all you'll need for this exercise. Heavyweight 160 GSM A5 paper is used here to achieve a nice sturdy model.\nStep 1: The Fold Pattern\nWhile this fold pattern differs from the one used in my previous Instructables, it generates triangles of the same dimensions and proportions. The inherent 1:√2 proportions of the DIN A paper being used in each case, are what make this so.*\nTo create our new pattern, we begin by aligning diagonally opposite corners to make the first crease, and proceed by aligning the remaining two corners for crease number 2.\nNotice that with these two creases we have found not just the center of the sheet, but the 1/4 and 3/4 points along it's long sides.\nNext, fold the sheet in half, along the long length. Making this a valley fold will help when forming the pyramid in Step 2. All of the other folds should be \"mountains\" relative to this single valley.\nNow fold the sheet in half, along the short length.\nAnd finally, fold the four corners from the center of the short sides, to the nearest quarter points.\nSee photos.\n*See Step 6 of my previous Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/DIN-A4-Rhombic-Dode... for my alternate fold pattern for the A5 Rhombic Pyramid.\nStep 2: Form the Pyramid\nBy pushing the four corners of the sheet simultaneously in and under towards the center, you should find that the pyramid begins to form itself.\nFlip the sheet over and you will see four 1:√2:√3 right triangles coming together to form a rhombus. By carefully aligning the edges where these triangles meet, and applying tape, we can fix the rhombic base of our pyramid. By doing so, the pyramid itself becomes rigid.\nDimensioned figure illustrated is from https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RhombicDodecahedron....\nStep 3: Assemblages\nAs we've shown in the previous Instructable https://www.instructables.com/DIN-A4-Rhombic-Dodec..., as well as others from the series, there are many ways of assembling these units to create interesting geometric figures and \"kinematic chains.\" For another example, see https://www.instructables.com/Kinematics-UnChained...", "518" ], [ ".\nHere, we will model the Rhombic Dodecahedron, as well as it's First Stellation, or perhaps more accurately, Escher's Solid. Using a \"Net\" or pattern, which describes the Rhombic Dodecahedron as if it has been unfolded in such a way that all of it's faces lie in the same two dimensional plane, we can link together 12 of our units, with our rhombic bases substituted for the 2D faces. We do this by hinging their edges together with tape.* Once assembled, it can be seen how hinging them inward towards a center will form the Rhombic Dodecahedron. Hinged outwards, they will form Escher's Solid.\nNet illustration is from https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RhombicDodecahedron....\nTo start, we need 11 more pyramids. Precise folds always lead to a more satisfying result. Take your time.\nOwing to the space-filling nature of the pyramids, once they are linked together, the Rhombic Dodecahedron essentially finds it's own form. Repositionable labels (grey dots) are used here for ability to temporarily fix form, and then remove so that we may go on to the next model. Escher's Solid requires a bit more attention, as it surrounds a void equal in shape and volume to that of the Rhombic Dodecahedron. Carefully aligning and linking all of the shared edges, again with the repositionable dots, is used to stabilize the figure and fix it's form.\nSee photos.\n*For hinging I use clear round \"Mailing Seals\" for a more durable hinge.\nStep 4: Bonus: the Paper \"Saloon Door\" Hinge\nHere is a nice little discovery I happened upon while tinkering with this fold pattern.", "518" ], [ "The A4 Rhombic Dipyramid\nIntroduction: The A4 Rhombic Dipyramid\nIn my last Instructable we looked at The A5 Rhombic Pyramid. In this effort we double it, using an A4 sheet, to create The A4 Rhombic Dipyramid. To do so a variation on our standard fold pattern is introduced, based on what we learned from the A5 folds. See https://www.instructables.com/The-DIN-a-Rhombic-Py...\nSupplies\nThe materials required are the same as with my earlier work - - at a minimum, A4 paper and tape. A straight edge and scoring tool are recommended for making the diagonal folds. Heavyweight paper such as the 120 gsm used here helps to make a sturdier model. And of course, any A or B series papers will work, as would custom sized sheets with 1:√2 proportions. Like my earlier efforts, there is no need for measuring tools or cutting instruments, just simple folds to full sheets of paper!\nFor our bonus exercise, A3 paper will be used, and straight edge and cutting tool are required.\nStep 1: Variation on the Standard Fold Pattern\nThe first photograph shows our standard fold pattern on the left, and the new variation on the right. Notice that in the original, diagonals run corner to corner and center to center. The new pattern has all of the diagonal folds springing from quarter points along the sides of the sheet.", "518" ], [ "The original pattern has shifted vertically along the long side, one quarter of its length. Otherwise it is unchanged.\nWe fold as follows:\nIn half along the long length.\nIn half along the short length.\nAligning a corner of the sheet with the center point of the opposing long edge. (see photo)\nRepeat this fold at each corner. (These diagonal creases terminate at the quarter points along the sides of the sheet)\nFold from end point of diagonal to end point of diagonal, parallel to short side.\nRepeat.\nFold diagonal from quarter point of long length to near quarter point of short length.\nRepeat at each corner.\nNote: Folds from the quarter points parallel to the long length of the sheet are not required.\nStep 2: Form and Fix the Dipyramid\nPrepare your sheet so that the two folds intersecting at the center are valleys, the rest mountain folds.\nSqueeze in at center of sides, then fold in corners to find the form. Turn over and tape as shown.\nThe Dipyramid is complete!\nIn a previous Instructable, https://www.instructables.com/DIN-A4-Rhombic-Dodec... we made note of the fact that The A4 Rhombic Dipyramid and The A4 Square Dipyramid are geometrically one and the same. (See last two photos)\nStep 3: Bonus: the A3 Double Rhombic Dipyramid (with Integrated Hinge)\nIn one of my earlier efforts we learned how to form a Double Rhombic Pyramid with an integrated hinge using an A4 sheet: https://www.instructables.com/DIN-A4-Double-Rhombi...\nThis bonus will demonstrate how, by spreading our modified fold pattern across an A3 sheet, we can create a Double Rhombic Dipyramid with an integrated hinge. To achieve this, we do have to bend our rules and make one simple knife cut after finishing the folds. This is to allow for the required freedom of movement. Proceed as follows:\nFold as shown. (Note: the fold shown in the fourth photograph is achieved by aligning the midpoint of the short side of the sheet with the midpoint of the long side, then creasing while maintaining this alignment)\nCut as shown.\nForm as shown.\nTape as shown.\nAn assemblage of six of these units is seen in the video.\nUntil next time...keep folding your sheets.", "518" ], [ "DIN A4 Double Rhombic Pyramid (with Integrated Hinge)\nIntroduction: DIN A4 Double Rhombic Pyramid (with Integrated Hinge)\nThe technique for creating this DIN A4 Double Rhombic Pyramid was described in my last Instructable:\nhttps://www.instructables.com/DIN-A4-Rhombic-Dodec...\nAfter reviewing the steps detailed there, we will discover how to hinge together a nice toy using only three sheets of paper. The integrated hinge is what makes this possible.\nSupplies\nThe materials required are the same as with my earlier work - - at a minimum, A4 paper and tape. A straight edge and scoring tool are recommended for making the diagonal folds. Heavyweight paper such as the 120 gsm used here, helps to make a sturdier model. And of course, any of the A series papers will work, as would any custom sized set of sheets with 1:√2 proportions.* Like my earlier efforts, there is no need for measuring tools or cutting instruments, just simple folds to full sheets of paper!\nAs stated above, 3 sheets of A4 paper are required for this particular exercise.\n*see my Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/Dipyramids-UnMasked... for a detailed analysis of this special rectangle and the fold pattern associated with it.\nStep 1: Fold the Sheets\nThe fold pattern requires a total of 12 creases. I like to start with three folds which divide the sheet in 4 equal parts along the long length of the sheet.", "518" ], [ "Then I make the three folds that do the same along the short length. Next, I make the two diagonal folds, corner to corner. And last, I do the four diagonals, from center of side to center of adjacent side. See photos.\nStep 2: Form and Tape\nThe photos illustrated here present a visual guide for finding the form, and fixing the figure using adhesive tape.\nAfter the final piece of tape is applied, repeat to create a total of 3 of these figures.\nStep 3: Create Hinge\nHinge as shown. Remember to align carefully, and at each hinge apply tape to both sides .\nDone!\nAdditional photos show a more elaborate assembly of the same model. It requires three additional sheets, but the technique remains the same, as does the modularity of this entire project. Like Kindergarten Blocks, and the original Lego bricks, these DIN A units keep filling space!\n(Note shared hexagonal dimensions, as expressed in last 2 photos)", "518" ], [ "Make Boxy Stuff Out of Obsolete Business Cards!\nIntroduction: Make Boxy Stuff Out of Obsolete Business Cards!\nFor this Instructable, I will teach you to use obsolete business cards as a versatile construction set. You can make everything from a single small box, to various Tetris pieces and even a gigantic Menger sponge. No glue or cutting needed, just simple folding!\nYou will likely get into trouble if you use current business cards from your employer, but instead consider doing as I did several years ago: when my then ex-employer was about to move to a new office, I asked people to give me their outdated business cards (which would otherwise be discarded) so I could use them to build things! I now have a stockpile of thousands of cards to build with!\nSupplies\nObsolete business cards (please don't use new ones!)\nStep 1: Assemble a Basic Cube!\nEach uncovered cube consists of six business cards, plus an additional six to cover the outsides. Take a pair of cards, lay across each other with the print side together, making a plus sign. Press and fold down the edges to make two cards shaped like a \"[\". Repeat this until you have six cards with folded sides.\nAssemble the six faces together, using the folded sides to \"hug\" the sides of the others. The construction will be loose until the last card is slid in, holding everything in place.", "966" ], [ "No glue necessary!\nTo finish an exterior face, fold up an additional \"[\" cards and then anchor it to the tabs on one side. On the other side, give the tabs \"dog ears\" to make the next step easier. Now \"tuck\" the loose edge into the tabs. If you have difficulties with this step, you can slightly crease or curve the edge to help guide it in during the tuck. Using business cards with thinner stock can also help in this step.\nStep 2: Connect Cubes to Build Complex Shapes\nTwo assembled cubes can be connected by locking together the tabs on uncovered cube faces, but this is rather difficult to execute properly.\nThe alternative is simply to build a cube onto an existing cube, by adding six cards, in the same basic sequence as you would build a basic cube. I prefer the latter method, as I find much it easier to execute (it is even easier than building the first cube, because the first cube holds everything in place!)\nStep 3: Have Fun With It!\nInvite your cat! Cats love boxes, cats adore Menger sponges! Make a life sized Tetris pieces or build a home for fuzzy creatures or miniature figurines!\nThe choice is yours, think outside the box!\nInspiration:\nThank you to Dr. <PERSON> and her HUMONGOUS Menger Sponge for making me aware of the technique and inspiring me to make my own! You are my hero!", "276" ], [ "Icosahedron Sphere (from A4 Papers)\nIntroduction: Icosahedron Sphere (from A4 Papers)\nThis icosahedron sphere is a fun combination of craft and math (no calculations needed). It's made by connecting many small triangles, with no glue, to create a very stable sphere.\nThe building blocks are non-curved triangles, and by connecting them into a combination of hexagons and pentagons you create a curved shape. Because of the flexibility, or \"hinge\", between each 2 connected triangles the result is a more spherical shape.\nSupplies\nAll you need for this project is:\nA4 Paper - 100gr sheets give good stability and are easy to fold.\nScissors or a blade.\nI used two colors of paper, because its prettier and easier to understand in the images. In this case you need -\n1 1/2 A4 sheets of color A (pink)\n1 3/4 A4 sheets of color B (blue)\nStep 1: Cutting Up You Paper\nThe paper has to be cut into equal thickness long strips. I chose the pink paper for the triangles and the blue for the connectors.\nPink paper: This is a bit more tedious with a lot more folding and cutting but the end piece size is exactly 1 triangle.\nBlue paper: This is less cutting and folding, but you have to be accurate to get the strips equal width.\nStep 2: Creating the Folding Marks\nIn order to construct the shapes you need the folds to make exact squares. This is a simple method for getting those fold points accurate (without having to pull out a ruler).\n(Anybody who has owned an old printer with continuous feed printer paper has probably done this many times)\nStep 3: Triangles and Connectors\nBecause of the way the pink paper was cut, each piece can now be folded into a triangle. These are equilateral triangles in which each side is the same length. The strips are longer than 3 squares, and this overlap creates the stability of the triangle.\nThe blue strips need to be cut into connectors- each connector is 4 squares long (cut at the fold marks).\nStep 4: Basics of Putting Together Triangles\nEvery 2 triangles are connected by 1 connector piece. The connector goes through both triangles and wraps over the shared sides, and then is tucked in between the 2 triangles.\nThat way each triangle side is completely wrapped in blue and there is a \"hinge\" connecting the two triangles.\nStep 5: General Principles of Putting Stuff Together\nIt is extremely important that when you start connect multiple triangles the \"hinge\" is always on the same side.\nThere are 2 basic shapes -\nPentagons - created from 5 connected triangles. These units are curved and their shape is stiff (non bendable)\nHexagons - created from 6 triangles.", "294" ], [ "When no pressure is put on them these units are flat. But these units can be bent along any diagonal.\nStep 6: Construction Rules\nTriangles are now added one by one to create the shape. Now you need to choose a rule to follow. This seems complicated but it really isn't too bad, as long as you consistently follow the rule you chose you will end up with a sphere.\nThe rule options:\n1. Every 3 pentagons are connected by one triangle. 12 pentagons and 19 triangles.\n2. Every large triangle (made out of 4 triangles) has a pentagon at each corner.\n3. There is a hexagon attached to the end of each pentagon.\nYou might notice that these rules are basically the same...because they are!\nThe only difference is which 'block' your focusing on when you start connecting your pieces (pentagons, large triangles or hexagon-pentagon connection).\nI personally follow option 2\nStep 7: Adding Pieces\nMake 1 pentagon and put it to the side.\nStart constructing going from one hexagon and adding triangles. As you move up in your chosen rule you will create a kind of semi-sphere.\nIf you think you got lost, look for that rule that you chose in the connection between pieces.\nKeep building until you reach a sphere that is missing a five point star.\nAt this point you should have left 5 single triangles and the pentagon you put to the side.\nStep 8: Preparing to Close the Sphere\nWhen you reach this stage it becomes harder the thread the connectors through a triangle and then pull them back up again.\nThat is why the last 5 triangles are added with the blue connector already attached.\nEach triangle is connected to the 'point' of the missing star. This means 2 sides connect to 2 triangles already in the sphere.\nThe remaining unconnected side will already have the blue connector in.\nStep 9: Finishing the Sphere\nYour sphere now has a missing pentagon - but the blue connecting pieces are already there.", "220" ] ]

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[ [ "If <PERSON>'s parents are Muggles how did she know about Hogwarts in the first place? Someone from Hogwarts came and explained to her and her family(as they do to all muggle borns)\nHow come her parents didn't wonder about her school? They wilfully admitted <PERSON> into Hogwarts after they were intimated of it. Nowhere in the books or in the films, its shown that they had some kind of issues with Hogwarts or that they didn't know about Hogwarts.\nWhy she got a letter in the first place ?\nThere is this concept called the 'Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admittance' described in Pottermore(offical site of <PERSON>, the author) which states:\nAt the precise moment that a child first exhibits signs of magic, the Quill, which is believed to have been taken from an Augurey, floats up out of its inkpot and attempts to inscribe the name of that child upon the pages of the Book. No child has ever been admitted whose name has not first been inscribed on the book’s yellowing pages\nThis is how <PERSON> would have been enrolled and admitted into hogwarts.", "899" ], [ "So when a child whose name is in the book come of age(11 years old), they will get their letter\nHow she got her letter :\nIts never mentioned in the book or in the movies how <PERSON> gets her Hogwarts letter.\nBUT\n<PERSON> about her admit into Hogwarts in the books:\n“Nobody in my family’s magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it’s the very best school of witchcraft there is, I’ve heard –\"\n-Harry Potter & the Philosophers Stone\nTo every muggle-born witch/wizard who needs to be given the Hogwarts acceptance letter, a teacher from Hogwarts goes to the kid's parents and explains to the family and the kid about the letter, Hogwarts and the magical world.\nTwo examples of this:\nOne -- <PERSON> tells <PERSON> of how she will get her letter\n“And will it really come by owl?” <PERSON> whispered. “Normally,” said <PERSON>. “But you’re Muggle-born, so someone from the school will have to come and explain to your parents.”\n-Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows\nTwo -- <PERSON> goes to <PERSON> to give him his acceptance letter and to explain about magic and Hogwarts.(Harry Potter and the half Blood Prince)\nFrom the above, we can safely assume that one of the teachers from Hogwarts gave <PERSON> her letter and explained to her parents about the magical world", "899" ], [ "How is <PERSON> a 'bad wizard'?\nIn Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, <PERSON>, <PERSON> and <PERSON> run into <PERSON> and <PERSON> at the Hogwarts kitchens. When <PERSON> mentions <PERSON> is a judge for the Triwizard Tournament, <PERSON> (<PERSON>'s sacked house elf) says this:\n“Mr. <PERSON> comes too?” squeaked <PERSON>, and to <PERSON>’s great surprise (and <PERSON>’s and <PERSON>’s too, by the looks on their faces), she looked angry again. “Mr. <PERSON> is a bad wizard! A very bad wizard! My master isn’t liking him, oh no, not at all!”\n“<PERSON> — bad?” said <PERSON>.\n“Oh yes,” <PERSON> said, nodding her head furiously. “My master is telling <PERSON> some things! But <PERSON> is not saying . . . <PERSON> — <PERSON> keeps her master’s secrets. . . .”\nHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 21: The House Elf Liberation Front\nMy question is,\nWhy is <PERSON> considered to be a 'very bad wizard'?\nYes, that is only the opinion of <PERSON>. Everyone else seems to like <PERSON> (except <PERSON>, of course). But even <PERSON> doesn't seem to think <PERSON> is a bad wizard. <PERSON> just doesn't seem to like that <PERSON> is not a very good Head of Department because he hasn't sent out a search party for a missing <PERSON>.", "899" ], [ "<PERSON> is also shown (in various parts of the book) to not really care about <PERSON> security\n\"... And <PERSON>’s not helping. Trotting around talking about Bludgers and <PERSON> at the top of his voice, not a worry about anti-Muggle security...\"\n\"I thought Mr. <PERSON> was Head of Magical Games and Sports,” said <PERSON>, looking surprised. “He should know better than to talk about Bludgers near Muggles, shouldn’t he?”\n“He should,” said Mr. <PERSON>, smiling, and leading them through the gates into the campsite, “but <PERSON>’s always been a bit . . . well . . . lax about security...\"\n...\n<PERSON> was easily the most noticeable person <PERSON> had seen so far, even including old <PERSON> in his flowered nightdress. He was wearing long Quidditch robes in thick horizontal stripes of bright yellow and black.\nHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 7: Bagman and Crouch\n<PERSON> walks about the campsites outside the Quidditch stadium wearing his Quidditch robes while all other Ministry wizards are in Muggle clothing.\nHe is also quite unscrupulous, paying off his betting debts with Leprechaun Gold (which disappears after a few hours), and betting on <PERSON> in the Triwizard Tournament even though he is a judge himself.\nHowever, as much as <PERSON> loves sticking by rules and regulations, these shortcomings of <PERSON>'s can hardly classify him into the 'very bad wizard' category. <PERSON>'s demeanour seems to suggest <PERSON> is almost a dark wizard. Is there any canon evidence (movies don't count as canon) which corroborates <PERSON>'s statement? If not canon, well reasoned answers will be appreciated.", "899" ], [ "How the <PERSON> could be allowed to tell nothing to <PERSON>?\n<PERSON> discovers his true nature of wizard when <PERSON> comes to see him at the chapter 4 of the first book. Yet, it is a shock to him that <PERSON> doesn't know anything about the magical world he belongs to.\nI can't understand how <PERSON> could let it happen. It seems very unlikely he didn't know as I think he was watching over <PERSON> closely, at least to make sure he was safe. Plus, a quote from <PERSON> seems to confirm that, as he says that <PERSON> warned him it could be tricky. (In addition to the old cat lady story several books later.)\n'I never expected this,' he said, in a low, worried voice. 'I have no idea, when <PERSON> told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how mmuch yeh didn't know.", "773" ], [ "Ah, <PERSON>, I don' know if I'm the right person to tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'.'\nPhilosopher's Stone, Chapter 4: The Keeper of the Keys\nI do know that <PERSON> was thinking it was better for <PERSON> to be far from all the wizards, as he was famous, but it wasn't a reason to let him know nothing about his parents and his true nature.\n'It's the best place for him,' said <PERSON> firmly. 'His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter.'\n'A letter?' repeated Professor <PERSON> faintly, sitting back down on the wall. 'Really, <PERSON>, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter Day in future - there will be books written about <PERSON> - every child in our world will know his name!'\n'Exactly,' said <PERSON>, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. 'It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he wont even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all this until he's ready to take it?'\nPhilosopher's Stone, Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived\nHe never states that it would be wrong to let him know he's a wizard and even says that his aunt and uncle could tell him once he's old enough to understand the news. He didn't want another wizard family to take him in but not that he didn't want <PERSON> to know about his heritage (or even the fact that he is famous).\nSo my question is how <PERSON> could let <PERSON> be ignorant of this, until he was to go to Hogwarts? I do know many students don't know what a wizard is until they get their letter, but <PERSON>'s circumstances is huge and <PERSON> had left a letter more or less for <PERSON>.\nAs <PERSON> knew that <PERSON> didn't know anything, it seems weird that he didn't go himself to the <PERSON>' house to tell <PERSON> everything - as he once did for <PERSON> - years before the letter to Hogwarts.\n(I guess an answer to why <PERSON> didn't came in person would be that he was afraid to mess everything up as he once did with <PERSON>, but it does seem like a bit extrem reasonning.)", "573" ], [ "My anwer is mostly based on the speculation that <PERSON> intended to make the Elder Wand into a trap for <PERSON>\nThe complete thread is here http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/73717/why-didnt-severus-disapparate-in-the-shrieking-shack\nfrom deathly Hollows chapter: King's Cross\n“But you expected him to go after the wand?”\n“I have been sure that he would try, ever since your wand beat <PERSON>’s in the graveyard of Little Hangleton. At first, he was afraid that you had conquered him by superior skill. Once he had kidnapped <PERSON>, however, he discovered the existence of the twin cores.\n...naturally set out to find the one wand that, they said, would beat any other.\n...He believes that the Elder Wand removes his last weakness and makes him truly invincible. Poor <PERSON> . . .”\nNow that <PERSON> is sure that <PERSON> was after his wand. <PERSON> forms his plan. <PERSON> intends to turn the Elder wand (Unbeatable wand) into a trap for <PERSON>\nThe first step is to have <PERSON> kill him, in such a way that wand ownership does not transfer to <PERSON> (<PERSON> intends to die unvanquished)\nSecond Step is <PERSON> forms his plan with these scenarios in mind\nScenario 1\n<PERSON> steals the wand from <PERSON>'s grave (thinking and \"believing\" that stealing the wand will be enough to make him the wand's master).\n* end results:\n* <PERSON> would \"not\" have to die (preferable outcome - in <PERSON>'s mind).\n* <PERSON> won't order anybody else to kill <PERSON>. <PERSON> \"believes\" that he owns the Unbeatable Wand and <PERSON> himself will want to kill <PERSON> (which is the essential part of <PERSON>'s plan).\nDeathly Hollows chapter the prince's tale\n“So the boy .", "773" ], [ ". . the boy must die?” asked <PERSON> quite calmly.\n“And <PERSON> himself must do it, <PERSON>. That is essential.”\nScenario 2\n<PERSON> steals the wand \"but\" eventually deduces that he needs to kill <PERSON> (<PERSON>'s killer) to gain the Unbeatable Wand's loyalty.\n* end results:\n* <PERSON> has to die (regrettable to <PERSON>'s mind of course, but necessary)\n* <PERSON> won't order anybody else to kill <PERSON>. <PERSON> \"believes\" that he owns the Unbeatable Wand and <PERSON> himself will want to kill <PERSON> (which is the essential part of <PERSON>'s plan)\nTo resolve the discrepancy of wand ownership:\nDeathly Hallows chapter the Flaw in the plan\n“He killed —”\n“Aren’t you listening? <PERSON> never beat <PERSON>! <PERSON>’s death was planned between them! <PERSON> intended to die undefeated, the wand’s last true master! If all had gone as planned, the wand’s power would have died with him, because it had never been won from him!”\n.\nDeathly Hallows chapter King's Cross\nHe believes that the Elder Wand removes his last weakness and makes him truly invincible. Poor <PERSON> . . .”\n“If you planned your death with <PERSON>, you meant him to end up with the Elder Wand, didn’t you?”\n“I admit that was my intention,” said <PERSON>, “but it did not work as I intended, did it?”\n“No,” said <PERSON>. “That bit didn’t work out.”\nFirst quote takes precedence since it is more specific.\nThe conversation between <PERSON> and <PERSON> should actually be read as\n“If you planned your death with <PERSON>, you meant him (<PERSON>) to end up with the Elder Wand, didn’t you?”\nMy speculation is that it was only in King's Cross chapter that <PERSON> realized that <PERSON> was supposed to end up with the wand. <PERSON> also needed to confirm this with <PERSON> since only <PERSON> has the complete specifics of his own plan.", "773" ], [ "It isn't Unforgivable in the way that the Unforgivables are\nA popular fan theory is that there is no grey area with Unforgivable curses. They do what they say on the tin and nothing else. Killing curse kills, imperio controls, crucio tortures. The caster also has to fully understand and mean to cause the effect the curse entails too. There's no excuse for fully casting them other than they wanted to kill/control/torture.\nThis is alluded to in OotP when <PERSON> taunts <PERSON> about his weak/failed <PERSON>:\nHatred rose in <PERSON> such as he had never known before: he flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed, \"<PERSON>!\"\n<PERSON> screamed: the spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as <PERSON> had – she was already back on her feet, breathless, no longer laughing. [...]\n\"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?\" she yelled.", "773" ], [ "She had abandoned her baby voice now. \"You need to mean them, <PERSON>! You need to really want to cause pain – to enjoy it – righteous anger won't hurt me for long – I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson —\" (36.30-32) Order of the Phoenix\nAnd again with fake!Moody in the Goblet of Fire where he claims during the Unforgivables class that if the class were to all point their wands at him and say \"<PERSON>\" he wouldn't get much more than a bloody nose - they'd have to mean it for him to die (unable to find the quote for this, sorry).\nSectumsempra is different:\n<PERSON> is able to fully cast Sectumsempra off-hand and in a panic without understanding any of it's effects. Plus the curse is ambiguous as to how much damage it does, and as <PERSON><PHONE_NUMBER>) Order of the Phoenix\nAnd again with fake!Moody in the Goblet of Fire where he claims during the Unforgivables class that if the class were to all point their wands at him and say \"Avada Kedavra\" he wouldn't get much more than a bloody nose - they'd have to mean it for him to die (unable to find the quote for this, sorry).\nSectumsempra is different:\nHarry is able to fully cast Sectumsempra off-hand and in a panic without understanding any of it's effects. Plus the curse is ambiguous as to how much damage it does, and as Snape proves the damage is reversible. This makes it on par with spells like Reducto, Confringo, or Bombarda Maxima. Each of these spells could be used to decimate another wizard, but also could be used to wound instead.\nI would imagine in the HP universe there are more than just three curses that you aren't allowed to use too - the Unforgivables are just the worst and so are on another level. Sectumsempra would most likely regarded as Dark/illegal/restricted, along with other spells such as the organ-expelling/skin-boiling curse etc.", "773" ], [ "Sometimes it was out of his control, in other times it was depending on circumstance.\nFor example, in book 1, <PERSON> was the teacher. He was a teacher in the past but because <PERSON> (who cursed the DADA post so no one would last more than 3 terms) was possessing <PERSON>, he was able to stay longer than others.\nIn book 2, <PERSON> is the teacher. This is because no one else wants the post, not because <PERSON> wanted him in particular. We also learn that the job is essentially cursed.\n\"He was the on' man for the job,\" said <PERSON>, offering them a Y plate of treacle fudge, while <PERSON> coughed squelchily into his basin. \"An' I mean the on' one. Gettin' very difficult ter find anyone fer Y the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it on, see.", "417" ], [ "They're startin' ter think it's jinxed. No one's lasted long fer a while now. -Chamber of Secrets\nIn book 3, chances are looking slim for a teacher, but <PERSON> (a werewolf who people are reluctant to employ) gets a chance by <PERSON> to teach. He was by peer judgement a very good teacher (approved by Madam <PERSON>, students, and teachers).\nIn book 4, the Triwizard Tournament takes place, and as <PERSON> points out that <PERSON> is reading the signs, gets Mad eye <PERSON> to take the post, just for 1 year (pointed out to be an teacher experienced in his field even though he turned out to be <PERSON> and placed illegal curses on his students)\nIf it hurts again, go straight to <PERSON> ­ they're saying he's got Mad­Eye out of retirement, which means he's reading the signs, even if no one else is. Goblet of Fire\nIn book 5, it is in the same position as Book 2. No one wants the job, with the public considering it cursed, however, this time the ministry intervene and force <PERSON> to employ a ministry witch (<PERSON>) in essence to spy and cause trouble at Hogwarts.\nIn book 6, <PERSON> needed <PERSON> in order to obtain a memory, and as <PERSON> taught potions, <PERSON> had to move to the vacant role he so longed for (DADA). <PERSON> also knew he was going to die, so gave <PERSON> his wish at teaching DADA knowing that he would play a larger role when <PERSON> goes in the school anyway (technically <PERSON> didn't last longer than 3 months either, he left before the end of the last term, and came back as a headteacher).\nIn book 7, <PERSON> was inactive due to being in the afterlife. Not his fault!", "194" ], [ "Ah you see I disagree with all that say that the <PERSON> absolutely hAted <PERSON>. I doubt that, because take in the simple fact that it was NOT their responsibility to raise him. When they first received <PERSON> on their doorstep they could have easily given him up for adoption or sent him to a home when he was slightly older. Instead they CHOSE to raise him and keep him in their household.\nI believe that the reason they kept him was because of <PERSON>. <PERSON> loved <PERSON> and so vice versa (the back story of their love is mentioned by <PERSON> in pottermore I believe). <PERSON> obviously knew about magic and he loved <PERSON> enough that he wouldn't leave her after finding out about magic, so we can have the reason to believe that <PERSON> would agree to keep <PERSON> just for <PERSON>.\nNow why would <PERSON> want to keep <PERSON>? Now although <PERSON> was quite jealous of her sister, we can't just say that she hated her sister. They grew up together for eleven years and the conflict didn't quite start until the acceptance letter from <PERSON> to <PERSON>. So she loved <PERSON>, and after finding out about her death she had to be heart broken because it was her sister! Her sister whom she grew up with for eleven years! So she had to take <PERSON> in because he was a part of <PERSON>. Now the same reason could go for the awful way they treated him. It reminded <PERSON> too much of <PERSON> so she treated him terribly and so did <PERSON>.", "725" ], [ "I almost get the feel that she wanted to make <PERSON> feel the way she felt when she was a child by giving all the attention to <PERSON>.\nNow why did they want him to stay and not go to hogwarts? I agree that it could be the desire for normalcy, but I do think there's more to it and here is my theory: They were protecting <PERSON> from the wizarding world. I mean they had to have grown fond of him throughout the eleven years he lived with them as a non-wizard. No matter how much they hated him, even <PERSON> mentions it in later books. Also aunt <PERSON> knew the wizarding world had cost her sisters life and it pained her, so she may have been trying to protect <PERSON> from the same fate. She didn't want a child, a child who was related to her, to suffer the awful fate his mother had. So she took him in, fed him, clothed him and gave him a place to stay. I do not believe for a second that the <PERSON> hated <PERSON> with all their guys. <PERSON> and <PERSON> were both scared of the wizarding world but they had to take <PERSON> in because he was their nephew. I don't believe that a character can only be bad or not be good, especially in the <PERSON> potter books. Each character has it's good and bad, and it may not always be written with clarity, however it is always hidden underneath their actions.", "725" ], [ "You're actually taking the word of <PERSON> (who lies and charms his way to get things done) very seriously.\nFor all we know, <PERSON> could be lying. Here are a few reasons why I think <PERSON> is lying\n1. GG did not know about <PERSON> - In 'Fantastic Beasts', GG only thought <PERSON> was a squib. He only realised <PERSON> was an obscurial and his power later in the movie. And over a short period of time(events of part 2) <PERSON> finding out roots of <PERSON> seems again far-fetched.\n2. Too much coincidence of <PERSON> being a Dumbledore- It is too much of a coincidence that a random person GG enlists to do his work turns out to be a <PERSON>.\n3. GG needs <PERSON> to kill <PERSON> - Most importantly in part 2, we see that the reason <PERSON> needs <PERSON> with him is to kill <PERSON>. So to get <PERSON> to do the job, <PERSON> could be building up a story to get <PERSON> to be personally hating <PERSON>. <PERSON> is charming and convincing like that\n4. <PERSON> knows everything- It would be impossible for him to not know of a person related to him.", "725" ], [ "So if <PERSON> knew of <PERSON>, he would have tried to get to <PERSON> first to protect him\n5. Timelines don't really make sense - <PERSON> was 47 when these events take place and <PERSON> was around 20 years old. So there is at-least a vast difference of 27 years between both of them. So <PERSON> would need to be born when <PERSON> was around 27. But during this time his father was in Azkaban and his mother and sister were already dead. Which totally rules out the fact that <PERSON> could be long lost (unless <PERSON>'s age is lied about - which is far-fetched again)\n6. <PERSON> would not mess with such a big character's solid story The house history is fixed, the characters and their backgrounds are fixed. I don's see why <PERSON> would mess with this. <PERSON> would have dug up this like ages ago for her book.\nSo the final conclusion NO, <PERSON> did not mess up and that <PERSON> most probably was lying to get <PERSON> to kill <PERSON>. And that <PERSON> most likely is not a <PERSON>, we should wait for the next part before berating <PERSON> :)\nAnd 2, the blood pact is not a mess up, it could be a part of their story we are discovering in detail (we earlier just knew very little about <PERSON> or <PERSON>)", "725" ] ]

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[ [ "Fast algorithm for clustering groups of elements given their size/time\nI don't know if there is a canonical problem reducing my practical problem, so I will just try to describe it the best that I can.\nI would like to cluster files into the specified number of groups, where each groups size (= the sum of sizes of files in this group) is as close as possible to each other group in this cluster (but not in other clusters). Here are the requirements:\n1. The first group always contain one file, which is the biggest of all groups in the cluster.\n2.", "864" ], [ "Any other group but the first can have multiple files in it.\n3. The number of groups in each cluster is constrained to a maximum specified by user (but there can be less groups if it's better or there's not enough files).\n4. There's no constraint on the number of clusters (there can be as little or as many as necessary).\n5. Goal (objective function): minimize the space left in all groups (of all clusters) while maximizing the number of groups per cluster (up to the maximum specified).\nThe reason behind these requirements is that I am encoding files together, and any remaining space in any group will need to be filled by null bytes, which is a waste of space.\nClarification on the objective and constraints that follow from the requirements and the problem statement:\n* Input is a list of files with their respective size.\n* Desired output: a list of clusters with each clusters being comprised of groups of files, each group having one or several concatenated files.\n* There must be at least 2 groups per cluster (except if no file is remaining) and up to a maximum of G groups (specified by user).\n* Each file can be assigned to any group whatsoever and each group can be assigned to any cluster.\n* The number of clusters can be chosen freely.\nHere is a schema that shows one wrong and one good example of clustering schemes on 5 files (1 big file, and 4 files of exactly half the size of the big file) with a number of groups = 2:\nThe solution needs not be optimal, it can be sub-optimal as long as it's good enough, so greedy/heuristics algorithms are acceptable as long as their complexity is good enough.\nAnother concrete example to be clear: let's say I have this list of 10 files with their sizes, this is the input (in Python):\n['file_3': 7,\n'file_8': 11,\n'file_6': 14,\n'file_9': 51,\n'file_1': 55,\n'file_4': 58,\n'file_5': 67,\n'file_2': 68,\n'file_7': 83,\n'file_0': 85]\nThe final output is a list of clusters like this (constrained here to 3 groups per cluster):\n{1: [['file_0'], ['file_7'], ['file_2', 'file_6']],\n2: [['file_5'], ['file_4', 'file_3'], ['file_1', 'file_8']],\n3: [['file_9']]}\nAnd for example here (this is not a necessary output, it's just to check) the total size of each groups (ie, sum of file sizes for each group) for each cluster:\n{1: [85, 83, 82], 2: [67, 65, 66], 3: [51]}\nIf the problem is NP-complete and/or impossible to solve in polynomial time, I can accept a solution to a reduction of the problem, dropping the first and fourth requirements (no clusters at all, only groups):\nHere is the algorithm I could come up with for the full problem, but it's running in about O(n^g) where n is the length of the list of files, and g the number of groups per cluster:\nInput: number of groups G per cluster, list of files F with respective sizes\n- Order F by descending size\n- Until F is empty:\n- Create a cluster X\n- A = Pop first item in F\n- Put A in X[0] (X[0] is thus the first group in cluster X)\nFor g in 1..len(G)-1 :\n- B = Pop first item in F\n- Put B in X[g]\n- group_size := size(B)\nIf group_size != size(A):\nWhile group_size < size(A):\n- Find next item C in F which size(C) <= size(A) - group_size\n- Put C in X[g]\n- group_size := group_size + size(C)\nHow can I do better?", "242" ], [ "Efficient algorithms for finding a region in $\\mathbf R^2$\nThis question is an extension of a previous question I've asked.\nConsider the rectangle $a<x<b , c<y<d$ in the $\\mathbf R^2$ plane. Each point in this rectangle can be of kind #1 or #2 (We have to check each point to know its kind).\nAssume that somehow we know that the points of kind 1 (and so the points of kind 2) form a connected region (i.e. , 1s and 2s are not scattered in the plane arbitrarily). Given the condition of being of kind 1 or 2, The goal is to find the region occupied by 1s (a search problem). Consider somehow we know the following attributes of the region occupied by 1s: (one at a time)\n1.", "180" ], [ "The region occupied by 1s forms a convex set (so it is 1-connected too).\n2.The region occupied by 1s forms a simply connected region , but not necessarily convex.\nThe simplest algorithm for finding the region of 1s is to simply start from bottom of the rectangle and sweep it and check all of the points in the rectangle to determine their kind and this way find the region.This is not an efficient algorithm, because we can use the known fact of convexity (or simply-connectivity) of the region of 1s to find it more easily without inspecting all of the points.\nWhat more efficient algorithms are there to find the region , as fast as possible? (with an acceptable accuracy, which is about 0.001 in my work). The regions may have sharp edges. But their detection is limited to the mentioned accuracy too. (It is clear that finding the boundary of the region suffices)\nPlease don't forget that the problem is to find an unknown set of points, not bound a known set of points. i.e., it's a search problem , not a convex hull finding problem.\n(also, speed is very important for me)\nEDIT1:\nAfter some suggestions (in the comments) I should say that I think we can take advantage of simply-connectivity of the region to write an algorithm that tries to find the boundary of the region instead of checking more points to find the region directly.", "964" ], [ "Comparing classical tree-search algorithms (BFS,DFS,A*,IDS) - when to use one or the other?\nI have a question about classical tree-search algorithms as I will have an exam soon and this is the type of questions they might be asking. Although I know how to compare the complexities, optimality, and completeness, I would like to go a bit further than that and compare the sparseness of the tree, the branching factor, solution depth, etc. I would like to compare the algorithms (A, BFS, DFS, IDS tree-search* algorithms (i.e.", "923" ], [ "without keeping a list of visited nodes)) pairwise and ask the question what would be the situation where one or the other would be preferred.\nSo far I have written down everything I can think of and I would like to know:\n* Is what I have written down correct?\n* Is there something I have missed for specific comparisons?\n* Is there something I missed for all of them? I.e. some specific quality I did not think of?\n* Something I struggled with was which algorithm to prefer if the tree is sparse/dense - I took an educated guess for most of them but I am uncertain of my answers. If anyone has any guidance in that part, it would be terrific.\nI have also added some questions here and there. I realise this is a lot but I greatly appreciate any help - any hints are welcome as well.\n1 DFS vs IDS\nWhen to prefer DFS?\n* If the solutions are frequent deeper in the tree\nWhen to prefer IDS?\n* If you need at least one of them: optimality, completeness\n* If the tree is infinite (as DFS might get stuck)\n* If the solution is located in the upper part of the tree\n* If the solution is located deep in the tree and they are infrequent\nIs there anything that can be said about sparseness/denseness for IDS here?\n2 DFS vs BFS\nWhen to prefer DFS?\n* If the tree has a large branching factor (BFS gets slow with wide trees)\n* If solutions and frequent and located deep in the tree\n* If there is a limit to how much memory can be used\nWhen to prefer BFS?\n* If at least one of the two is required: optimality, completeness\n* If the tree is infinite\n* If the maximum depth is much larger than the branching factor\n* If you know that the solution is now far from the root of the tree\n* If solutions are rare and located deep in the tree\n* When the tree is sparse (unsure why)\n3 DFS vs A*\nWhen to prefer DFS?\n* If the heuristic of A* is poor\n* If the goal is optimality and the A* heuristic is not admissible\n* If solutions are frequent and located deep in the tree\nWhen to prefer A*?\n* If the tree is infinite\n* If the tree is dense (unsure why)\n* In general blind search is slower than heuristic search, therefore for a good enough heuristic, A* should be prefered\nIs there anything that can be said about the branching factor here?\n4 BFS vs A*\nWhen to prefer A*?\n* If memory space is limited\n* If the tree has a high branching factor\n* If the tree is dense\n* Although the complexity of queue is slightly better than that of priority queue, A*'s time complexity is usually better than BFS's time complexity with a good enough heuristic\nWhen to prefer BFS?\n* If the tree has a low branching factor\n* If the tree is dense\n* If the heuristic is poor\n* If the heuristic is not admissible and optimality is required\nIs there anything that can be said about frequent/infrequent solutions here?\n5 BFS vs IDS\nWhen to prefer IDS?\n* When a lower space complexity is required and somewhat lower time complexity is acceptable\nWhen to prefer BFS?\n* If the solution is in the upper part of the tree as it is less costly to generate the nodes once\nI am a bit lost here - is there anything else that can be said about finiteness, denseness, frequency of solutions of the graph?\n6 A* vs IDS\nWhen to prefer IDS?\n* When the A* algorithm has a poor heuristic\n* When optimality is required and the A* heuristic is not admissible\n* If there are limitations to the amount of memory available\nWhen to prefer A*?\n* In general blind search is slower than heuristic search, therefore for a good enough heuristic, A* should be prefered", "242" ], [ "Sample a set of N numbers without replacement, each element taken from N different weighted sets\nHere's my problem: I have $N$ sets of integers $S_i$ where $|S_i| = n_i \\forall i \\in [1,N]$ each with non-uniform weights $W_i = {w_{i,1}, ..., w_{i,n_i}}$ such that $\\sum_{j}{w_{i,j}} = 1$. I want to sample $m$ unique lists $P_{k \\in [1,m]} = (p_{k,1}, ...,p_{k,i}, ...,p_{k,N})$ of $N$ integers (including duplicates, and ordering matters), with each element $p_{k,i} \\in S_i$.\nThe naive implementation I use as a proof of concept to generate a new unique list $P_k$: I pick an element from $S_1$ at random according to the weights $W_1$, then I pick an element from $S_2$ with weights $W_2$, etc... until I have $N$ elements to create a candidate list. If this list is not unique among exiting lists, I discard it and start again at the top, otherwise it becomes the list $P_k$.", "690" ], [ "This is repeated until I get $m$ unique lists.\nAlthough it works and gives me the correct result, this is very inefficient as I get more and more duplicate sets as $m$ increases, and as the weights $w_i$ diverge from a uniform distribution.\nHere's an example with disjoint sets: $N=3, n_1=4, n_2=3, n_3=5$ $$ S_1 = {1, 2, 3, 4}; S_2 = {11, 12, 13}; S_3 = {21, 22, 23, 24, 25}; $$ With $m=3$, a possible sampling would be: $$ P_1=(1, 11, 21), P_2=(1, 12, 24), P_3=(3, 12, 22) $$\nAll the sampling algorithms I have found either assume uniform distribution, or require \"flattening\" my problem from $N$ sets to one set of all possible combinations (and calculating the corresponding weights). Although the computation of the weight for a specific combination is trivial, it is not feasible for the size and number of sets I'm working with: $2 \\leq N \\leq 20$ and $2 \\leq n_i \\leq 50$. Typically $1 \\leq m \\leq 1000$ and $m \\leq \\prod_{i \\in [1,N]}{n_i}$.\nDoes anyone has an idea to replace my current naive solution? I am looking for an algorithm that would allow me to make that sampling without replacement a. directly from $S_i$ and $W_i$, or b. a 1D weighted sampling algorithm that does not require pre-computing all possible combinations and corresponding weights.", "690" ], [ "What is the name of this logistic variant of TSP?\nI have a logistic problem that can be seen as a variant of $\\text{TSP}$. It is so natural, I'm sure it has been studied in Operations research or something similar. Here's one way of looking at the problem.\nI have $P$ warehouses on the Cartesian plane. There's a path from a warehouse to every other warehouse and the distance metric used is the Euclidean distance. In addition, there are $n$ different items. Each item $1 \\leq i \\leq n$ can be present in any number of warehouses. We have a collector and we are given a starting point $s$ for it, say the origin $(0,0)$. The collector is given an order, so a list of items. Here, we can assume that the list only contains distinct items and only one of each. We must determine the shortest tour starting at $s$ visiting some number of warehouses so that the we pick up every item on the order.\nHere's a visualization of a randomly generated instance with $P = 35$. Warehouses are represented with circles.", "180" ], [ "Red ones contain item $1$, blue ones item $2$ and green ones item $3$. Given some starting point $s$ and the order ($1,2,3$), we must pick one red, one blue and one green warehouse so the order can be completed. By accident, there are no multi-colored warehouses in this example so they all contain exactly one item. This particular instance is a case of set-TSP.\nI can show that the problem is indeed $\\mathcal{NP}$-hard. Consider an instance where each item $i$ is located in a different warehouse $P_i$. The order is such that it contains every item. Now we must visit every warehouse $P_i$ and find the shortest tour doing so. This is equivalent of solving an instance of $\\text{TSP}$.\nBeing so obviously useful at least in the context of logistic, routing and planning, I'm sure this has been studied before. I have two questions:\n1. What is the name of the problem?\n2. How well can one hope to approximate the problem (assuming $\\mathcal{P} \\neq \\mathcal{NP}$)?\nI'm quite happy with the name and/or reference(s) to the problem. Maybe the answer to the second point follows easily or I can find out that myself.", "835" ], [ "k-way merge but without an absolute order\nI have k lists that I would like to combine to a single list. Each list's elements are unique and are sorted in a particular order, but there is no notion of an absolute order, and different items across lists can only be compared if they are equal. To give a specific example (here I use < to indicate the sorting inside each list):\nl1 = a < b < c\nl2 = b < d\nl1 + l2 should result in one of the following (and I don't care which one it results in):\na < b < c < d\na < b < d < c\nIf the lists are incompatible, e.g. a < b and b < a then I want to get an error.\nI thought about modifying k-way merge somehow but it's not clear to me how to do that without a global order. Btw, I'll probably be happy with a $O(nk)$ solution.\nedit: sorry if it's not clear from above, but the resulting list (if it exists) should respect all of the orderings of the sublists. Also all the items should be unique in the result.\nedit 2: Perhaps a better way to phrase the problem is this. I'd like to construct an order vector given k pieces of that order vector (or get an error if that's impossible).\nHere's an algo that I think works for k=2.", "864" ], [ "Find and mark all the duplicates - I think this is $O(n)$ - then start writing down elements from first list until you hit a duplicate, once you do add all elements from second list until you hit that same duplicate, then write down the duplicate and continue. The part where it's a bit more tricky with k>2 is that the duplicate may not be in every list to do the above (and this process cannot be done sequentially, i.e. l1+l2+l3 is generally not the same as (l1+l2)+l3, where + denotes this operation of finding the superset order list).\nfinal edit: Now that I thought a bit more about it, should be easy to extend the above to any k. Use a hash to find which lists each unique element belongs to. Then traverse along the first list using the above logic - writing down all elements until you hit first duplicate, in which case write down all elements (that haven't been written down yet) in all other lists before that duplicate and keep doing that until you reach the end of first list. If haven't reached the end of second list, continue same algo there and so on. Each list will be traversed twice - once to get the duplicates, and second time to do the above, making it $O(n)$. A compatibility error will be discovered if you iterate along a list but can't find the duplicate (because it was already written down in an earlier pass).\nPlease let me know if I missed something.", "864" ], [ "Generate a unique number for a set of sequences of letters\nA sequence of English letters are given, every sequence forms a word and we know that the size of each word is at most $15$ and the number of words is at most $50000$. For a given input word $w$ I need to search if the $w$ exists in the database of words.\nThe framework of the database and the application is on the web and this job is part of an online game, So may be hundreds of requests come to website in a second so I need to do it as fast as possible. To do so as fast as possible, I want generate a unique number for every word in the database.", "864" ], [ "For every string query, I generate its number using the algorithm used to generate numbers for the database, then check if the new number exists in the database or not using binary search tree.\nHere is an algorithm that works perfectly to generate a unique number for a sequence:\nFor a sequence $$ where $a_i \\in \\mathbb{Z^{+}}$ (it is easy to map every letter to a number) the unique number is\n$$ \\prod_{i=1}^{n}{p_i^{a_i}} $$\nwhere $p_i$ is the $i$-th prime number. But the problem is, the produced numbers are too large to be stored in current programming language variables.\nMy Solution\nFirst I set the following mapping:\n$MAP: [a=>2, b=>3, c=>5, \\cdots, z=>101]$\nSo I set the $i$-th prime number to the $i$-th letter. (Actually it is not necessary to regard this order, more frequent characters can take smaller prime number)\nFor a sequence $$ where $a_i$s are letters this is my formula:\n$$ \\prod_{i=1}^{n}{MAP(a_i)^i} $$\nFor valid words, this formula generally, produces smaller numbers than the first one. I just wanted to know :\n* if this formula always generates a unique number? I couldn't generate two words with the same numbers, but clearly it is not enough to convince other people\n* Is there any solution that search for words in $O(\\log n)$ (like binary search tree)?\nthanks.", "603" ], [ "How to build a set of closed chains with a sequence of different vertices?\nI have a set of many bi-directional links like A-B, A-C, B-C, A-D, C-D, D-E, etc.\nI need to find a set of many closed chains with a sequence of different vertices (vertex-disjoint cycles). It would be better if I can find them all.\nHow I solve the problem right now:\n1. I build a directed graph by these links.\n2. I take one of the vertices and then go to the others by edges, building walks.\n3. I take the last walks' vertices one by one and then go to the others vertices except those that have already passed, continue building walks.\n4. Repeat step 3 for each walk until I reach the start vertex. 4a.", "835" ], [ "If other vertices are over and I could not build a closed chain, I delete the walk.\nI apologize for my ignorance of graph theory. Perhaps I am reinventing the wheel? Perhaps there is already a solution to this issue? Please tell me.\nAdditional information:\n* The set of links is about 10,000.\n* The directed graph may have unconnected islands of subgraphs.\nWhat problems in my realization I want to solve:\n1. I have to build many walks that will be deleted sooner or later because they are not closed chains.\n2. I have to check which vertices have already been passed in order to get the next ones.\nUPDATE\nFor what I want to apply it.\nI need to filter out incoming incorrect currency pairs' data by their prices. Every currency pair has two current prices: (best) ask and (best) bid. The currency pair's data will be considered valid if it is possible to build an unprofitable exchanging closed chain (vertex-disjoint cycle) containing at least 4 vertices. (Cycle A-B-A is always valid.)\nThe closed chain is considered unprofitable when the product of the chain's asks is bigger than 1 and the product of the chain's bids is less than 1.\n$\\prod A_i>1,$\n$\\prod B_i<1$\nIn this case, each currency pair in the chain is valid.\nAt the same time, finding an invalid chain is not a consequence of the fact that the data is invalid. Only the failure to find a valid chain will be it.", "835" ] ]

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[ [ "30km Protest ‘Swim’ from Tobago to Trinidad Turns Into ‘Another Post-Colonial Tale’ · Global Voices\nScreenshot from a Facebook video of the livestream of <PERSON> arrival in Toco, on Trinidad's north-east coast.\nTrinidad and Tobago politician <PERSON>, who vowed earlier this month to swim the 30-kilometre distance from Tobago to Trinidad, took the plunge this morning, August 28. The stunt by <PERSON>, who is president of the Public Services Association (PSA) and minority leader of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), was in protest at the unreliable ferry service between the two Caribbean islands.\nSocial media user <PERSON> streamed <PERSON>'s takeoff on Facebook Live from the Scarborough Fishing Facility, where people from “all sides of the political divide” had gathered for the occasion.\nThe Swim, as <PERSON>'s undertaking is being called, was due to begin at 8 a.m., but was delayed by nearly an hour, due in part to a speech the politician made by loudspeaker from the tray of a pickup truck. His message: “If something is for Tobago, Tobago must decide.”\nComparing the THA's relationship with Trinidad and Tobago's central government with a dysfunctional parent/child dynamic, he accused the latter of excluding Tobagonians from the consultation process about the inter-island ferry service. While the two islands should be equal partners, <PERSON> said, it was clear to him from the government's actions that Tobago is “a colony of a colony.” He maintained that the THA must be the final decision-maker on matters concerning Tobago.\nAdmitting that his team was not one of expert swimmers, <PERSON> said the point of the whole endeavour was to emphasise that Tobago has been “put in a position where swimming may be the only option. . .", "957" ], [ "Because swimming is the only thing we have control over.” He also said that “the time for Tobago's deliverance is now,” a statement that could be seen as either careless or calculated, and which might have put the fraught issue of secession back on the table.\nHitting the water\nBut there was still the matter of that 30km swim. This morning, <PERSON> updated his Facebook cover photo with a drawing done by his seven-year-old son, commenting that:\nAs young as he is, he understands the issues of his Dad leaving home in Tobago East with a brave face, with Tobagonians and the Sea Bridge on his mind…goes to the ocean and swims to raise the matter of Tobagonians pain and hardship over the poor Sea Bridge.\nOnce <PERSON> began his aquatic undertaking, several media outlets began to livestream the event. Among the things that amused netizens was the fact that <PERSON> wore a life vest; and that, quite early in his swim, he climbed into a kayak, which then overturned. As the drama turned into comedy, Facebook user <PERSON> republished the words of an observer:\nHe swam a bit, then got towed by a canoe, then the rope burst, then the canoe capsized with him in it. He tried getting towed by a jet ski for a bit before getting into the pirogue.\nHe said that waves were ‘ten meters high’\n<PERSON> quipped:\nFacebook status update by <PERSON>, which reads, “So – I guess they have to change the hashtag #theGreatJetSki”.\n<PERSON>'s outing quickly changed from a relay swim to something entirely different, and social media newshound <PERSON> had a lot to say about it on Twitter:\n<PERSON> tells the crowd that they will not be “swimming all the way” & that the expected arrival time in Trinidad is 1PM. #TheGreatSwim pic.twitter.com/8COqTiBQBo\n— Clydeen McDonald (@ClydeenMcDonald) August 28, 2017\nHe compared <PERSON>'s media tactics to those of US president, <PERSON>:\nRemembering that faux-populism is the reason we have President <PERSON>, maybe we should proceed with caution with it comes to “men of action”.\n— <PERSON> (@ClydeenMcDonald) August 28, 2017\nTrumpism 101: Stating something HUGE will be done/happen and in the end putting forward a minor gesture.", "142" ], [ "Social Media Goes Off the Deep End Over Politician’s Planned 30km Protest Swim from Tobago to Trinidad · Global Voices\nFast ferry, the T&T Spirit, waiting to leave the port at Scarborough, Tobago, bound for Trinidad. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY-NC 2.0.\nA politician has promised to swim the 30-kilometre distance between two Caribbean islands as a mark of protest. A veteran swimmer has said he doesn't stand a chance. The national Coast Guard service has said it cannot guarantee his safety. But he is taking the plunge anyway.\nTrinidad and Tobago may be one country, but it comprises two islands connected by a domestic airbridge, as well as an inter-island ferry service that transports both passengers and vehicles. The ferry service has recently come under public scrutiny, after the procurement process for the new Ocean Flower 2 vessel fell flat.\nWhen the vessel's supplier, the Canada-based Bridgemans Services Group, had twice failed to meet its delivery deadline, the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (PATT) moved to terminate the procurement contract with a view to putting out a tender for a new ferry.", "957" ], [ "This left just two passenger vessels in operation between the two islands — the T&T Spirit and the T&T Express — and one cargo ship, the Cabo Star — since the MV Superfast Galicia was pulled from the route in April 2017.\nThere have been calls from both the opposition and civil society groups for police probes and commissions of enquiry into the debacle, to determine whether or not the procurement process was transparent.\nThe public pressure became so great that Prime Minister <PERSON> felt the need to apologise “to the affected citizens, particularly the people of Tobago, for whom the service is more of a life line”. He also called on PATT to secure a new vessel “in the quickest possible time” and appointed an investigator into the ferry procurement scandal in the form of “seasoned and successful businessman” <PERSON>.\nThis appointment acted as the catalyst for the second chapter of what has come to be known online as the #FerryTales.\n‘Water is Coming’\n<PERSON>, the president of the Public Services Association (PSA) and the minority leader of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) swiftly demanded <PERSON>'s appointment be revoked. Despite <PERSON>'s considerable business experience, <PERSON> said, the position required “someone versed in public procurement policies and the rule of law”; an opinion that was shared by the advocacy group Fixin’ T&T.\nThen, in what many netizens interpreted as a dramatic political ploy, <PERSON> declared that he would swim relay-style from Tobago to Trinidad in protest over the procurement glitches and unreliable ferry service. As of this writing, <PERSON> was set to be accompanied on his swim by the other members of the minority council and a smattering of Tobago fishermen.\nThe big event is scheduled to take place on August 28, 2017. While several athletes have tried with varying levels of success, it cannot be confirmed whether anyone has ever completed the roughly 30-kilometre swim.\nKnowing this, netizens have been reacting to <PERSON>'s grand gesture with picong and sarcasm.\nFacebook user <PERSON> wondered whether <PERSON> would transfer his on-land political modus operandi to the sea:\nFacebook status update by <PERSON>, which says, “An idle thought:\n<PERSON> could swim, or he planning to shout at the water until it agrees to support him?”\nRiffing off the Trinidad and Tobago relay team's 4×400-metre victory at the IAAF World Championships, <PERSON> quipped:\nFacebook status update by <PERSON>, which reads, “Are other union leaders joining <PERSON> on his relay swim? Who is anchoring this swim?”\nJournalist <PERSON> posted a series of hilarious one-liners about #TheGreatSwim that ranged from saying she hoped <PERSON> had a GoPro to wondering whether he had a stunt double.\nThe memes came thick and fast, like this one from the Facebook page Caricomedy:\nA meme from Caricomedy about the <PERSON> protest swim, which translates as: “<PERSON> is swimming from Tobago to Trinidad for the people, but your boyfriend from Arima (in east Trinidad) is complaining to come visit you in Diego Martin (in west Trinidad). <PERSON> is the kind of man to have.”\nBut it was after <PERSON> posted a photograph of himself in a wetsuit and life vest staring out to sea that social media really went into overdrive.", "957" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago government to rethink Sedition Act · Global Voices\nA screenshot of Trinidad and Tobago union leader, <PERSON>, taken from a YouTube video of a news report in which he alleges that Tobagonian firemen face discrimination. <PERSON> was arrested under the Sedition Act on August 26, 2019. Video uploaded by TTT Live Online.\nThe recent arrest of <PERSON> for statements he made in 2018 has brought the issue of dissidence — and how it is handled — into sharp focus. <PERSON>, president of Trinidad and Tobago's Public Services Association (PSA) and the minority leader of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), was arrested because his statements were deemed in violation of the country's Sedition Act.\n<PERSON> himself is a controversial figure, but that aside, his case has prompted public discussion about the legislation itself, and now the government is in the process of re­view­ing it.\nAttorney General <PERSON>, who has already received a white paper on the legislation, has made it clear, however, that review does not mean repeal. Making reference to the country's turbulent history of uprisings (a Black Power revolution in 1970 and an attempted coup in 1990), the AG was firm in his stance that some version of the law must remain in place.\nBut not everyone agrees. In a letter to the editor at Wired868, <PERSON> lumped the Sedition Act together with “marijuana laws, anti-loitering laws, vagrancy laws, and obeah laws” as “colonial weapons enacted to control and police black and brown bodies and create a society to mostly suit European and elite interests”.\nOriginally drafted under colonial rule as a way to quell rebellion and silence iconoclastic publications, the Sedition Act followed Trinidad and Tobago into the post-independence era.", "957" ], [ "<PERSON>'s point is not that the laws are archaic, as many suggested, but rather that they are “abusive”, “ill-conceived” and “have no place in our modern society”:\nThe Sedition Act, in particular, has been weaponized against the trade union movement, Black Power protestors and other persons who expressed views that challenged the colonial and post-independence authorities. All these laws have contributed to the underdevelopment of our country by denying the public access to a wide range of views, especially from those who have alternative perspectives.\nThe particular danger of laws such as the Sedition Act is that, given their origins, they are ambiguous and can be selectively activated at any time in ways that are against our democracy and free speech.\nThe Act defines sedition as “to bring into hatred or contempt, or to excite disaffection against the Government or the Constitution”.\nIn another post at Wired868, Senior Counsel <PERSON> offered his legal insight. He said he feels “the bar for seditious intention is set far too low”:\nNevertheless, I do not agree that the Sedition Act should be repealed because I support the prohibitions contained in it against engendering or promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between different ‘classes of inhabitants distinguished by race, colour, religion or employment’.\nWhat is needed is an urgent amendment of the Act to qualify seditious intention by adding a specific requirement that the prohibited acts and statements must be ones that urge forceful or violent action against the state, the government or the constitution.\nCiting the example of a citizen who recently disguised himself in order to safely comment on a controversial public sector construction contract, <PERSON> went on to suggest that the Australian model of “good faith” defences to sedition charges would be useful in working out proper parameters for the local model. <PERSON> added:\nThe Phantom, as he has been called, reportedly disguised himself for fear of being charged with sedition. I loved this piece of theatre precisely because it illustrates the thin line between inciting disaffection and robustly pursuing transparency and accountability—particularly when the Government’s response to concerns about what might be going on behind certain scenes is to shout ‘lies’.\nOr as <PERSON> put it:\nThe best of the Caribbean has come from the seditious nature of the people […] the most important advances our country has ever made have come from this spirit of resistance. It is the inherent right of human beings to express different views, to question authority and to challenge unjust laws.", "600" ], [ "Tobago’s tourism industry faces setback as Sandals hotel chain walks away from a deal · Global Voices\n“Sandals Grande”; photo by <PERSON>, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.\nIf you've come to the Caribbean on vacation, chances are you've stayed at a Sandals resort, the regional chain of all-inclusives started by Jamaican businessman <PERSON>. The ever-expanding franchise had been in negotiations with the Trinidad and Tobago government to open a resort on the island of Tobago, until news broke on January 15, 2019, that the company was “pulling out”.\nAlthough the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding on October 10, 2017, no contracts were forthcoming — and according to Sandals, “the cu­mu­la­tive ef­fect of the neg­a­tive nar­ra­tives” surrounding the 700+ room hotel was the deciding factor in its decision to opt out.\nWith Sandals’ exit, high hopes for diversifying the country's economy with the help of a successful tourism brand were dashed. Trinidad and Tobago's gross domestic product still leans heavily towards the energy industry; diminishing oil and natural gas resources have prompted successive governments to peddle the idea of diversification. Now, many are saying it's all talk and no action, and blame is flying every which way.\nSome not buying <PERSON>’ excuse\nSeveral online discussion threads questioned the authenticity of the negative publicity rationale as <PERSON>’ reason for discontinuing talks. On Facebook, <PERSON>, a former minister in the Ministry of Finance, suggested:\n[…] This talk of [sic] negative publicity is a sham. There are other reasons why talks broke down […] the MOU was poorly structured.\nHowever for political purposes it is useful to lay blame at the door of those who asked sensible questions.\n<PERSON> said in a private Facebook status (quoted here with her permission):\n[S]tudy that in reality no company the size of Sandals would care one rat’s ass about the opinions of a couple people on an island if they REALLY wanted the business.\nAlso please google the following:\n• what is gaslighting\n• Sandals St. Lucia La Source\n• Sandals lawsuits\n• Sandals tax exemptions & concessions\n• Ecological benefits of Mangrove\n• Food Security\nYet, Sandals has been firm in its defense of its brand and its praise for the current administration, saying the Trinidad and Tobago government was supportive and transparent throughout the process.\nTerms of the MOU\nCritics maintain that the deal could not withstand scrutiny, as its terms did not favour Trinidad and Tobago.", "142" ], [ "Legal actions taken by blogger <PERSON> forced the government to publicly divulge the terms of the MOU before any binding legal contracts were put in place.\nThe MOU revealed that Sandals was not investing capital to develop the resort, yet were qualifying for the same concessions (duties and taxes) typically afforded to hoteliers that do put out development money. Additionally, there was no guaranteed percentage of local labour.\nWhile tourism minister <PERSON> emphasised that the MOU is a non-binding document, <PERSON>'s argument is that an MOU sets out the intentions for how a project will proceed and civil society has both the right and responsibility to ask questions.\nIn a scathing criticism of both the country's media and opposition after the pullout, Prime Minister <PERSON> maintained that his government had consistently answered those questions despite “misinformation” — from the exact location of the proposed Sandals and Beaches resorts to the scale of the project — being bandied about “by the truckload”. <PERSON> said:\nWe have lost the opportunity to have a brand that will bring to Tobago the kind of airlift that we wouldn't have had to pay for in the model that we have been using for the last decades.\nPrecedent with previous hotels?\nThe government's hope was that Sandals would have been “a rising tide lifting all boats”. Supporters of the project claim that the model has been used before, at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, and at the Hyatt Regency. Facebook user <PERSON> said:\nBoth these hotels are government owned but managed by foreign entities in the case of the Hyatt I have yet to receive a note saying that they were [a] loss making entity. Hilton […] have [been] playing catch up now but over time and further upgrade works and they will be placing cash into the coffers. So we do know that we can make money out of a hotel investment.", "892" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago deports Venezuelan women and children as matter of ‘national security’ · Global Voices\nA group of Venezuelan asylum-seekers including 16 children arrive for the second time on Trinidad soil, on November 24, 2020, due to a court order requiring them to appear at a habeas corpus hearing. Screenshot taken from a Trinidad and Tobago Newsday video of the landing, which was posted to the newspaper's YouTube channel.\nThe Trinidad and Tobago blogosphere has been in a heated discussion over the country's deportation of 16 Venezuelan minors and 11 adults — including nine women — who were reportedly sent away shortly before the group was supposed to have a habeas corpus hearing carded for 2 p.m. on November 22. It's a move that Minister of National Security <PERSON> has defended as part of his remit to protect the country.\nAfter concerns that the vessels carrying them back to Venezuela could not be located and Venezuela's self-declared interim president <PERSON> describing Trinidad and Tobago's actions as “cruel, painful and inhumane,” not only has the group been found, but a Trinidadian judge, Justice <PERSON>, has ordered that the state return them to Trinidad for their court hearing.\nThe asylum-seekers returned to Trinidad shores on November 24, where they were greeted by relatives who reside on the island:\nNo words. None. https://t.co/8TiIW2hGBq\n— <PERSON> (@wgibbings) November 24, 2020\nThe issue was first brought to public attention by attorney <PERSON>, who resigned as deputy political leader of the governing People's National Movement (PNM) mere weeks before Trinidad and Tobago's general election on August 10.\n<PERSON> says the group was initially arrested on November 17 in south Trinidad, which lies about 11 kilometres north of Venezuela. The South American country's continuing political and socioeconomic crisis has forced thousands of asylum-seekers into Trinidad and Tobago.\nIn this particular case, however, there were concerns for the well-being of the children especially, which prompted <PERSON> to send correspondence to the chief immigration officer asking for dialogue.", "957" ], [ "Although birth certificates and other relevant documentation were reportedly submitted to the country's immigration division, they were not accepted. Upon learning that deportation was imminent, <PERSON> succeeded in having the court hearing moved up, but to no avail. She has since suggested that the state's actions in this regard were in breach of its international obligations and wants an investigation to be launched into the matter.\n<PERSON>, Trinidad and Tobago's minister of national security, held a press conference on November 24, to address the situation and “send some very strong signals” regarding the nation's safety and the laws that have been put in place to ensure it.\nFraming his comments against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, <PERSON> noted that Trinidad and Tobago's borders are closed to both nationals and non-nationals, and have been since March 17, soon after the country recorded its index case of the virus. Anyone who wishes to enter the country while the border closure remains in effect must get clearance from the minister himself.\nGiven these parameters, <PERSON> continued, the Venezuelans in question were in breach of Trinidad and Tobago's immigration laws, health regulations, and government policy. <PERSON> insists, however, that members of the group who were deported all tested negative for COVID-19.\nStressing that the government “cannot be legitimately and justifiably accused” of dealing with non-national migration issues without a humanitarian pillar, <PERSON> reiterated:\nIt is not up to any one person — in a democracy, it doesn't operate like that. It's not up to lawyers, it's not up to courts, it's not up to anyone to just change the law according to how they feel. This government has always approached the issue of non-national migration with a balance that includes the humanitarian aspect.\nAt the beginning of 2019, however, even as Caribbean nations were attempting to engage in decisive international diplomacy regarding Venezuela’s political impasse, Trinidad and Tobago seemed reticent to label it a humanitarian crisis, opting instead to echo the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) diplomatic position of “non-interference and non-intervention.”\nBy June of that year, the Trinidad and Tobago government did make good on its promise to regularise Venezuelan asylum-seekers. Many of the conditions and privileges associated with this registration process have since been extended past the initial year-long limit, all of which <PERSON> cites as proof of his government's consideration of the humanitarian angle, though it remains unclear what is to happen once the extension is up.\nInternational agencies have not always agreed that the Trinidad and Tobago government has acted in humanitarian ways.", "892" ], [ "Could Trinidad and Tobago’s Media Shake Up Usher in a Return to ‘Total Local’ Programming? · Global Voices\nScreenshot of an old Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) station ID, taken from a YouTube video by Media Arts.\nTrinidad and Tobago's television and film industry practitioners wonder whether they are on the verge of a return to the glory days of original local programming.\nOn August 24, 2017, the sector was shaken up by an announcement from <PERSON>, <PERSON>, that Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG) — the state television station that replaced Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) in 2005 — would close, along with Government Information Services Limited (GISL), the government’s primary media company.\nWith the combined assets of CNMG and GISL, TTT has morphed into a media ‘Lazarus’ resurrection story, complete with a mandate to ensure “a bias toward local programming”. <PERSON> said the anticipated move emerged thanks to a recommendation from the 2015 consultation on state media. He added that even after 12 years since its closure, TTT still commanded a level of nostalgia and brand recognition that CNMG was never able to achieve. Still, journalist <PERSON> stressed she was “more interested in the content than the name.”\nWhile the new local content approach is making Trinidad and Tobago filmmakers and media producers dizzy with possibilities, state media employees share concerns over job security, especially in a slow economy. The lion's share of Trinidad and Tobago's gross domestic product (GDP) lies in the energy sector, and worldwide oil and natural gas prices have remained low for some time. The closure will also affect staff at two radio stations (99.1 Next FM and 91.1 Talk City).\nMixed reactions poured in from both netizens and industry stakeholders. Facebook user <PERSON> saw the value in the promise of restarting local programming:\nFacebook user <PERSON>'s status update: “Back to our roots to grow our shoots!” 2017\nOthers were more cautious.", "957" ], [ "On Twitter, <PERSON> tweeted the concerns of state media staff:\n3/3: Staff will have to reapply for jobs at new entity. No word if the same CEO and Board will remain.#WheresWendell#Newsauce\n— <PERSON> (@rhodabharath) August 24, 2017\nIn light of the station's hefty budget allocations, <PERSON> has been critical of CNMG's current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) <PERSON>'s ability to keep the station relevant and competitive. Suggesting that staff morale was low, she added:\nThe Board, the CEO and Head of News has gots to GEAUX if the new TTT is to succeed.#WheresWendell #Newsauce pic.twitter.com/fWTBpfy0mp\n— <PERSON> (@rhodabharath) August 24, 2017\nState television or government-run station?\n<PERSON>, a former CNMG employee who now works for a foreign television station, spoke with Global Voices to confirm the change was “a lot to process” and came as a surprise, especially since the government had the state media consultation report in hand since 2015. This state of limbo was one of the reasons <PERSON> decided to leave.\nStill, she acknowledges the country does need a local content station. In one Facebook status update, she wrote:\nCNMG was supposed to be a totally local station, FYI.\nWe need to really honest and clear as to why they deviated from that mandate.\nBut it is absolutely essential that we have local content on our television\n<PERSON>, who has a background as a sociologist, explained: “Media is a socialisation tool and when you look at television in Trinidad and Tobago, it's very American — so we grew up in this country and we don't know who we are or what we believe in.”\nGrey also makes a clear distinction between state television and a government-run station. “I'm hoping this government understands that they need to have some sort of system in place to protect the company from government interference — especially if they come out of power,” she explains. Commending the move as a step in the right direction, she cautioned: “We need to see if they're thinking seriously about supporting local content and putting things in place to protect the company in terms of finances, etc.”\nAs TTT resurrects, questions arise\nMinister <PERSON> held a press conference (shared via Facebook Live) on August 25, where he took heated questions from the media.", "957" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago: <PERSON>’s Woes · Global Voices\nThe headlines in Trinidad and Tobago's mainstream media over the last couple of days have focused on a Reuters exclusive report that <PERSON>, son of former football executive and FIFA Vice-President (now the country's controversial Minister of National Security) <PERSON>, is allegedly assisting the FBI with its investigations into corruption allegations in the international football governing body.\nSocial networking sites like Facebook were busy with discussion over the news, but most of the comments were posted on private walls or threads. One exception was the Facebook group PNM Abroad, which is a diaspora organisation that supports the current opposition party, the People's National Movement. Minister <PERSON> is part of the People's Partnership coalition government. Unsurprisingly, most recent activity on the page had to do with all things <PERSON>, including a request by the group's leader, <PERSON>, to:\n‘LIKE’ and ‘SHARE’ this status if you are willing to JOIN ME outside the MINISTRY OF NATIONAL SECURITY to DEMAND the removal of <PERSON>\nThe plea got 112 likes but only 22 shares.\nIn another update, the group asked its followers what they would like to say in a letter to <PERSON>; comments included everything from people quoting Bible verses to calling for his resignation. <PERSON> wrote:\nIn light of the current reports in the media, pertaining to your son <PERSON> and yourself regarding ongoing FBI and IRS investigation, which is now confirmed by law enforcement agencies, it would be prudent of you to do one of the following: (1) Temporary suspension as Minister of National Security and from National Security Council until the investigation has been completed or (2) Resign as Minister of National Security and from National Security Council. This letter is in no way politically or personally motivated, it is of a matter of national interest.", "957" ], [ "Whatever your decision, let it be known that it is of great importance to maintain and retain this nation's image as a whole as one that believes in high morals and integrity at all levels, including those in public office.\n<PERSON> was a bit more direct:\nPlease do the right thing and resign from politics. You are a disgrace to the nation.\nOf course, Twitter was in a flurry as well.\n<PERSON>: @kristalicia @tv6tnt Sorry but there is only ONE story this morning. #FBIinvestigation #<PERSON> why so silent?\n@apf17: Smh and this man still continues to manage such an important portfolio….that of national security #madness #<PERSON>\nOne tweet even linked to an article by journalist <PERSON>, long known as a whistleblower on corruption within FIFA and archenemy of <PERSON>. The link was also being shared on blogs and news sites.\nBloggers of course, put in their two cents’ worth as well. Diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch thought a quote by <PERSON>, Trinidad and Tobago's leader of the opposition, summed it all up:\n‘What the country is seeing in the international media is the name of Trinidad and Tobago being portrayed, not by <PERSON> or by <PERSON> for deeds well done, but by <PERSON> and the Government, who seem to think that there is no such thing as shame.’\nThe Eternal Pantomime, as of this posting, was the only blog (thus far) to address the report in any kind of detail, taking issue, first of all, with the Prime Minister's response:\nTrinidad and Tobago is no longer a banana republic…as of last night with Reuters news service confirming that <PERSON>’s son, and possibly <PERSON> himself, are indeed under investigation, her vague press release in which she says she will wait on an official corroboration is just too hollow for words.\nThe Prime Minister spent last month in Haiti, right next to the US AG and even members of the FBI. Talk of <PERSON> detention in the US had begun since December 2012 on the day he was caught at the airport with an alleged lump sum of money he had failed to declare at customs…allegedly. And yet in February, with the US AG sharing the same meeting space as you, not a question was asked?\nThen you return to Trinidad and <PERSON> asks you to follow up on these allegations and still nothing?\nThe post went on to address the impact of all this on the country itself:\nYou see, we aren’t a banana republic anymore…we are THE BANANA REPUBLIC.\nIn future when films are being made where the setting or crime taking place in a banana republic, it is Trinidad and Tobago’s name that will be used.", "957" ], [ "Cry of ‘Free the [bleeping] weed!’ leads to arrest of Trinidadian cannabis advocate · Global Voices\nActivist <PERSON> is led away by police officers in front of Trinidad and Tobago's parliament on October 18, 2019. Photo courtesy of <PERSON>.\nOn October 18, 2019, activist <PERSON> stood on the pavement outside Trinidad and Tobago's parliament to continue to press the government to enact existing medical marijuana legislation.\nIn a Facebook post that morning, she announced that she would be “outside Parliament from noon to 3 pm reminding the prime minister of his promise to decriminalise cannabis and make it available for personal and medical use by June 30 of this year.”\n<PERSON> has vowed to “be there every Friday until he keeps his promise” — but on this particular Friday, the police arrested her under Section 49 of the country's Summary Offences Act, which deals with “violent language and breach of the peace” — a law which some view as counterintuitive to the freedom of expression that is enshrined in the Constitution.\nJurist and lecturer <PERSON>, for instance, believes the law to be “very oppressive” and thinks “the only limit on obscene language should be when it incites or has the potential to incite violence.”\nAnyone arrested under this law faces a fine of $200 Trinidad and Tobago dollars (approximately $30 United States dollars) or 30 days’ imprisonment.\nImages posted on <PERSON>'s Facebook page show her being led away by a police officer, who also took away her sign reading, “Honk your horn for the herb.”\nSupporters soon began sharing the images, with photographer <PERSON> commenting:\nDr. <PERSON> has been detained while protesting to “Free de Ganja”. Officers advised she will we taken to CPS to be charged and processed. Please share so people can see the real threats to our democracy.\n#FreeTheWeed #LegalizeIt #DemocracyWhere\nIn the thread that followed, <PERSON> said that when the police officers approached, “they said we were ‘inciting others to disrupt parliament’.” While some commenters felt the police were simply doing their job, <PERSON> asked:\nI thought parliament was inside of a building, was she trying to breach the building? Was she found with an IED [improvised explosive device] on her person? Was she in any way harming anyone or influencing harming to anyone in parliament? If all these answers are a no then she is being abused by the police. […] Free the lady let her do her civil duty.\n<PERSON> was released from police custody at around 7:30 that evening.", "957" ], [ "At her October 21 hearing, she pleaded “not guilty” to the charge and the matter was adjourned to November 13, 2019.\nSpeaking with Global Voices by phone, <PERSON> said that she had retained Dr. <PERSON>, <PERSON> and <PERSON> from New City Chambers as her attorneys and was not at liberty to discuss the details of the case. She did confirm, though, that the charge against her was “the use of obscene language to the annoyance of people in the street”. However, photos of the area outside parliament on the day in question do not capture any bystanders.\nVia WhatsApp, Dr. <PERSON> told Global Voices that “there are serious constitutional implications in this matter”:\nHere we have someone exercising her constitutional right to expression and her constitutional right to protest and both of those rights have seemingly been infringed by the state and […] it does appear to be a trend of silencing dissent, silencing unpopular speech in Trinidad and Tobago — so we are very concerned about two constitutional grounds that are triggered here — the freedom of thought and expression and the freedom of association and assembly.\nDescribing the process of arrest and detainment as “traumatic”, <PERSON> said she is nevertheless emboldened to continue her fight for justice. Although the draft cannabis legislation is reportedly ready and simply needs to be laid in parliament, she says neither she nor any of the other stakeholders she has spoken to have been invited to offer feedback to help ensure its smooth passage.\nThe country's president has also turned down <PERSON>'s request to intervene in the medical marijuana issue.\nThe day after her hearing, <PERSON> found herself at the prison located in the capital, Port of Spain — not as an inmate, but as an advocate.", "957" ] ]

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[ [ "What is it about this job that eventually leads to you hating almost every person who walks through the door?\nWhat is it about this job that eventually leads to you hating almost every person who walks through the door?\nIt drives me nuts now, it’s like get a fucking life! Every time I see a car pull in my blood boils, I wish I could deter it but it just aggravates the shit out of me when it is just person after person like leave me the fuck alone!", "809" ], [ "I‘ve gotten to the point where I literally despise every single customer who comes in. What is it about this job that wears you down so much?\nI‘ve gotten to the point where I literally despise every single customer who comes in. What is it about this job that wears you down so much?\nI can’t accept this bitterness it has caused, it’s not healthy. It’s really probably for the better that we are headed in the direction of automation replacing most of these mundane, spirit crushing grunt jobs.", "1015" ], [ "The Zone of Interest\nI’ve seen reviews that claim this film is experimental. I didn’t feel that way at all. The Zone of Interest is a rarely scene “horror drama” and though it refuses to deliver blunt force trauma, its subtle grimness breeds an “under the skin” brand of horror I haven’t seen since…well…Under the Skin.\nSure, it’s quiet. Ponderous, even. But is that not the point? Are we not to be truly terrified of the mundanity of evil? I certainly was.\nThe more drama heavy stuff is great too because it brings weight to the foulness of it all.", "269" ], [ "A man in charge of the murders of countless people day in and day out is upset he has to move. It’s craziness. It’s logic defying. But if we understood it, we would side with evil. And no one wants that.\nSuch a well crafted, nuance drenched film. Never over but the vines never quite grow long enough to cover it all.", "877" ], [ "Personal trainer problems\nSometimes I just have to laugh at how unique this job is. This week I was going through an ab routine with a client who could not stop farting.", "27" ], [ "Seriously, whether it was a plank or a crunch or a standing oblique crunch, this dude farted every single time he contracted his abs. And the most awkward part is neither of us said anything (I'm not going to be the first, usually I'll just laugh it off if a client mentions it!). Part of me wanted to be like dude, please go see a GI doc who can figure out why working your abs makes you so gassy.", "20" ], [ "UPDATE: I’m more qualified for your job than you are\nI’m not sure if anybody will remember this saga but it’s been a couple of years. My original post is here and this is the update.\nI’ve recently been having issues at my workplace and I’ve decided to move on.\nI’ve started at my new job just over 2 weeks ago. It’s the same position, just for a different company.\nImagine my surprise when I realised that <PERSON> is an existing employee at the new place and part of the team who will be reporting to me. In my first week on the job, <PERSON> came into my office (having clearly remembered me and the embarrassing occurrence that was her interview few years ago) and we’ve had a very good chat.", "814" ], [ "She apologised profusely and admitted that she thought everyone lies on their CV and she was so desperate to leave the job she was employed at at the time, she wanted to make herself stand out.\nShe’s actually a very sweet girl and an integral cog in a very well oiled machine that is the new company I’ve started at. I’ve explained to her that while it is true, most people do lie or exaggerate on their CVs, they tend to lie about much smaller things (like GCSE results) and not about running a competitors sales and marketing department. I’ve told her there’s no bad blood between us and as long as she’s doing her job and doing it well, I will endeavour to support her as much as I possibly can. I’ve made her promise that if she ever considers leaving, to come to me first and we will work on her CV and covering letter together.\nI know it’s not the petty update anyone was expecting or hoping for but life has a funny way of teaching us a lesson when we need it most and I think both <PERSON> and I have learned ours this time.", "659" ], [ "Nosy manager\nOne of the managers at my work makes me uncomfortable. He asks me personal questions and tries to get me to talk about bad stuff in my life. He is coming off as judgmental and rude. I try to avoid him now but if he comes up to me to talk, I am direct and short.", "750" ], [ "If he tries to ask personal questions I am preparing to say “I only want to talk about work” in a polite but firm manner. I’m just there to make a paycheck, I don’t bother anyone and I try to do my job to the best of my ability. I feel like he is trying to get into my business with bad intent. How would you guys suggest I handle this situation?", "750" ], [ "Manager is behaving like a mother figure\nHey so I [30M] work in the education system, won’t get too detailed but I’m not a teacher. One of the [40sF] managers of a different department at my job has been so incredibly nice to me as of late.\nI started to notice this several months ago. She hosted a work event at her house and asked everyone if they were hungry. She then looks at me and asks me individually, “Are you hungry?” with a big smile. “I can make you a sandwich? Would you like a sandwich?” Everyone is staring at me so I sheepishly say “…yeah…” She returns to the table with a beautiful sandwich 5 minutes later and says “I made it with so much love, okay?”\nI cannot lie.", "201" ], [ "I fell in love for about two seconds. She is just a pretty and kind person, and who doesn’t want to be around that. In all seriousness, she has been very supportive of me since my promotion and acting as more of a peer than a manager — small talk, side conversation, banter, pleasant smiles, constant supportive guidance and reassurance. She’s supportive of everyone but recently one of her staff said, “Yeah, she really likes you” in a nice way, not a weird way.\nAnyone ever experience this. To what do I owe this gradual uptick in interaction.", "659" ], [ "Call Me by Your Name\n“When you least expect it, nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spot. Just remember I’m here. Right now, you may not want to feel anything. Maybe you’ll never want to feel anything. And, maybe it’s not to me you want to speak about these things, but I feel something you obviously did. You had a beautiful friendship. Maybe more than a friendship. And I envy you.\nIn my place, most parents would hope the whole thing goes away, or pray that their sons land on their feet.", "427" ], [ "But I am not such a parent. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster that we go bankrupt by the age of 30 and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to make yourself feel nothing so as not to feel anything—what a waste!\nAnd I’ll say one more thing… it’ll clear the air. I may have come close, but I never have what you two have. Something always held me back or stood in the way. How you live your life is your business. Just remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once, and before you know it, your heart’s worn out. And as for your body, there comes a point when no one looks at it, much less wants to come near it. Right now, there’s sorrow, pain; don’t kill it, and with it, the joy you’ve felt.”", "975" ] ]

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[ [ "Jack Pie\nIntroduction: <PERSON>\nHi.\nHelloween is one beloved holiday in the autumn. There is no holiday without threats. In this instructable, I'd like to share with you an idea of making spooky and yummy Cheesy Jack Pie.\nSupplies\n* blender\n* hand or stand mixer\n* oven\n* scales\n* baking ø16cm\n* baking paper\n* baking sheet\n* foil\n* some boils\nStep 1: Ingredients for the Dough\n* 150g unsalted butter\n* 70g of sugar powder\n* pinch of salt\n* one egg\n* 250g wheat flour\n* 50g almond flour\nStep 2: Making the Dough\nMix the sugar powder with butter until it appears to be white.\nThen add an egg, salt and mix.\nAdd wheat and almond flours and mix.\nImportant: To avoid the dough being hard, stop the mixing once all ingredients will be uniformly mixed.\nStep 3:\nTake the dough, put it on the baking paper and split it for two equal parts. Take any part of the dough, cover it with the baking paper and roll it with a rolling pin. Roll it for the thick ≈ 1 cm, it has to be slightly larger than your baking ring. Take the rolled dough into the freezer.\nStep 4:\nTake a piece of foil and baking paper and wrap the baking ring from the bottom side, see the photo for the details.\nTake the dough that left on the table and put into the form. Create the bottom and sides of our pie.\nImportant: Do not forget to pierce the bottom of the dough with a fork before putting it to the oven as I did. :) That will help us to avoid bulging the dough in the oven.\nPut it into the preheated oven at 180 ˚C and bake for 15 minutes\nStep 5: Making the Filling\nIngredients:\n* 200g cream cheese\n* 50g sour cream\n* 1 egg\n* 50g sugar\n* 1 tbsp cornstarch\nPut the all ingredients into the mixer's bowl and mix until everything will be mixed. Pour the filling into the just baked base. Add some boiling water, it has to cover the bottom, at the bottom of the baking sheet.", "69" ], [ "Lower down the temperature in the oven to the 130˚C, put the base in the oven and bake for ≈1h.\nStep 6: Prepare the Template\nWhile baking is in progress, we can prepare the template for the pie's face.\nDownload the attached image, adjust the size, print and cut the stencil. Kids adore cutting something from the paper, so you can engage them in the process.\nStep 7: Cut the Face for the Pie\nTake the chilled and rolled piece of dough from the freezer and cut the face using the paper stencil. Put it into the fridge, not freezer, until required.\nStep 8:\nCarefully take the baked base, 150-200g of your favourite berry jam (I used a jam from black currant). Put the jam on to of the cheese and avoid jam to cover the drought edges, see photo for the details.\nStep 9: Putting the Face on the Pie\nOnce berry jam appeared on its place, take the pie's face from the fridge and cover the whole pie with it. Push the dough on the edges to make it stick to the base. Put the pie in the oven at 180 ˚C and bake it for 15 minutes\nStep 10: Final Touches\nCarefully remove the pie from the ring. Just backed pie looks cute. To make it looks scarier, take the cocoa powder and add some shadows around the eyes and mouth. Also, you can add jam stains on the edges of the pie.\nEnjoy it!\nStep 11: Leftovers\nIn case if you have some dough leftover, you can take the cookie cutters and make some cookies with any shape you like. 😊", "891" ], [ "Pumpkin Biscuit\nIntroduction: Pumpkin Biscuit\nHi.\nJumping on the departing train… :) I'd like to share with you a recipe of the fragrant, delicious, bright, and insanely tasty pumpkin biscuit for your cakes. That's biscuit is a good illustration of the autumn spirit.\nSo let's start\nSupplies\n* Mixer\n* Bowls\n* Baking ring ≈ 18 cm in diameter\n* Aluminum foil\n* Silicone spatula\n* Oven\nStep 1: Preparations\nBefore we start you have to prepare or buy in the nearest grocery store the pumpkin puree.\nTo make the pumpkin puree we'll need to peel and then chop the pumpkin to the cubes with sides approx 2cm.\nPlace it in the microwave for about 10 min with 800W power until it'll appear to be soft. Blend the pumpkin.\nDone.\nStep 2: Ingredients\n* 230g - pumpkin puree\n* 140g - egg whites\n* 105g - egg yolks\n* 215g - sugar\n* 180g - flour\n* 40g - corn starch\n* 8g - baking powder\n* 3g - turmeric\n* 2g - garam masala\nStep 3:\nTake the flour and add corn starch, baking powder, turmeric, and garam masala into it and mix until it'll be uniformly mixed.\nNote: On this step, you can start preheating the oven to 170 ˚C.\nStep 4:\nAdd 1/2 of the sugar into the egg yolks and mix them. Then add the rest of the sugar into the egg whites and mix them for hard peaks.\nStep 5:\nTake the mixed egg yolks and add the pumpkin puree. Mix it.", "305" ], [ "Add spiced flour and mix.\nStep 6:\nAdd 1/3 of the mixed egg whites into the Egg yolks mixture and mix until the mixture will be uniformly mixed. Continue mixing and add the rest of the egg whites, and mix it well.\nStep 7: Prepare the Form and Bake It!\nTake the baking ring and wrap it with a sheet of thin aluminum foil from the bottom. Place it on the baking sheet and pour the dough into the baking ring.\nBake in the preheated oven for ≈15-20 minutes.\nOnce done, take it off from the oven and let it chill without removing from the form. When the biscuit cooled down take the biscuit from the form and cut it to make 3 slices.\nNote: Do not open the oven's door while baking is in progress, or the biscuit will collapse.\nStep 8: Wrapping Up\nAfter connecting your favorite filling with these biscuits you'll get an amazing cake. As for me, I really like cream cheese.\nPlease share your results.\nEnjoy!", "891" ], [ "Pie Inside a Pie, Topped With Pi\nIntroduction: Pie Inside a Pie, Topped With Pi\nThis project has two parts, the pie and the other pie. One is made of paper, the other is a plainly delicious pie. My explanation of this project is as confusing as Pi and contains the letter P in almost all my phrases.\nSupplies\nSupplies for the paper pie:\n* coloured construction paper (brown/tan+pie filling colour+any colour for pi sign)\n* printer\n* scissors\n* glue\n* ruler\n* pencil\n* parchment paper\ningredients+supplies for the edible pie:\nCrust:\n* 1 1/2 cups flour\n* 6 tbsps butter\n* 1/4 cup ice water\n* 1/2 tsp salt\n* 1 tbsp sugar\nfilling:\nyou can make any filling of choice, preferably solid like pumpkin, pecan, chocolate, sweet potato, etc. Or follow this instructable to create a custard pie.\n* 3 eggs or 6 yolks\n* 1 tsp salt\n* 2 cups scalded milk\n* 1 tsp vanilla extract\n* 1 cup sugar\nEquipment:\n* 9-inch pie tin\n* blender\nStep 1: Putting Together the Paper Pie Topped Off With a Pi\nTo create the paper pie:\n1. print, and cut out the pie template.\n2. Trace it onto your cardstock, pieces 1&2 are the crust, while 3&4 are the filling.\n3. Score the dotted lines lightly with a knife. Not cutting through all the way, but enough to fold the tabs.\n4. Fold along the dotted lines.\n5. For the crust: glue the tabs to the sides to create the bottom.\n6. For the lid: do the same.\n7. For the filling: glue the end tabs from piece 4 to the sides of piece 3. Once it is dry, glue the bottom tabs of your newly formed triangle to the inside of the bottom crust.\n8. Trace or draw your own pi symbol on a piece of cardstock and cut it out, glue it to your pie top and you have a pi topped on a pie piece.\nStep 2: Parchment Paper Lining\nTo create a parchment lining:\n1. Print out the lining template.\n2. Trace it onto a piece of parchment paper and draw diagonal lines from the corners to the edges. Cut along these new lines.\n3. Turn it around so the pencil lead is on the outside and fold along the uncut lines.\n4. Trim away any extra overhang.\n5. Fold the flaps.\n6.", "69" ], [ "Slip the lining inside the box.\nStep 3: Pie Crust\nDepending on what kind of pie you make, you use a specific pie crust. If you are following this instruction, we are making custard pie.\nFlaky pie crust:\n1 1/2 cups flour\n1/2 tsp salt\n1 tsp baking powder\n6 tbsp of butter\n1 tbsp sugar\nHave ready: 1/4 cup of ice water\n1. Blend all the ingredients except the water in a food processor until the butter is the size of small peas.\n2. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and sprinkle 3 tbsps of your ice water over the mixture.\n3. Mix the dough with a fork, lifting the ingredients to allow moisture to spread.\n4. If the dough refuses to hold together, add a bit more water.\n5. If time allows, allow your dough to chill for up to 11 hours or at least 10 minutes.\n6. Roll out your pie crust until it is 1cm thick.\n7. Drape it over your pie/tart tin and pat it into place.\n8. Prick a bunch of holes in the bottom.\n9. Place parchment paper over your pie and fill it with pie weights or beans\n10. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes\n11. Once your pie crust is in the oven get to work on the filling immediately. The goal is to have the crust filled when it comes out of the oven so that you can put it back in right away.\nStep 4: Pie Filling\nUse any filling you like, but be warned, a sloppy filling might spill out and damage your paper pie.\nCustard pie filling:\n1. Beat slightly 3 eggs or 6 yolks\n2. Add and stir well 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 cups scalded milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract\n3. Pour into your prebaked pie shell and back at 325° for 30 minutes\nStep 5: Pie Inception\n1. Take your edible pie, and cut it into 8 equal pieces.\n2. Slip a piece of pie into your parchment lining\n3. Slip that into your pie box\n4. Cover your pie with its lid\n5.", "69" ], [ "Dutch Apple Pie\nIntroduction: Dutch Apple Pie\nEasy and delicious apple pie recipe! It is HUGE, so you can serve it for your family and friends. A lovely project for leftover apples. Holidays or weekend will be better with this European apple pie.\nTraditional Dutch Apple Pie was first published on our blog. Check it out! You can read more about its origins and which apples to choose for baking.\nThis pie is so comforting and your kitchen will smell amazing with apples and cinnamon!\nSupplies\nFor the pastry:\n* 1/2 cup sugar\n* 2 1/3 cup flour all-purpose\n* 3/4 cup butter cold and cubed\n* 1 egg big\n* 2-3 tbsp water\nFor the filling:\n* 11 small apples\n* 1 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed\n* 2 tsp cinnamon ground\n* 1 tsp flour all-purpose\n* 1/2 cup sugar\n* 4 tbsp semolina\n* 1 egg yolk for brushing the top\nEquipment:\n* 8 inch spring form pan or pie form\n* bowls for mixing\n* pastry decorator knife (optional)\n* foil for baking\n* spoons or spatula\nStep 1: Make the Pastry\nCombine sugar and flour in a bowl.\nAdd few butter cubes and press them into the flour-sugar mixture with two forks or pastry maker. Add all butter cubes, pressing them into the flour.\nAdd an egg and water. Combine wet and dry ingredients.", "763" ], [ "Form the dough with your hands.\nWrap the dough in plastic, leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour.\nStep 2: Prepare Filling\nMeanwhile prepare your apples for the filling. Wash them, peel and remove the core with seeds.\nThinly slice apples and transfer them to a large bowl.\nAdd freshly squeezed lemon juice.\nAdd cinnamon, sugar, flour and combine until all apples are covered.\nStep 3: Form the Pie\nRemove the dough from the fridge, unwrap it and slice in half.\nForm the ball from one half, and roll the thick round for the pie form.\nPlace the bottom pan on the dough and cut the round for the bottom of the pie. Add it to the bottom of spring form pan pan.\nFrom the leftovers make 2-3 pieces for sides and put them in the pan, pressing to the sides.\nMake sure to press the stitches well to hold the filling! Don't make it too thin.\nStep 4: Add Filling\nSprinkle semolina on the bottom of the pie.\nAdd apples until top.\nStep 5: Make the Top of the Pie\nFrom the other half of the dough, form the round and roll it.\nUsing the pastry decorator knife make decoration. Alternatively, cut the 1/2 inch lines and place them on top of the pie. Press the decoration to the sides of the pie.\nBrush the top of the pie with egg yolk.\nStep 6: Bake and Serve\nCover the top of the pie with foil, bake for 30 min in the oven, preheated to 356 F.\nRemove from the oven, remove the foil and brush with leftover egg yolk.\nBake the pie uncovered for 30-40 min. The pie is ready until apples are softened and the top is browned.\nLet it cool in the pan, then transfer it to the serving plate.\nCut into pieces and serve with whipped cream or ice cream!", "891" ], [ "Origami Tote Bag\nIntroduction: Origami Tote Bag\nThe covid-19 situation is escalating to a full-blown crisis. (India). Amid extended lockdown/shutdowns and fear of health safety and job security, origami folding is keeping me and the kids in the house busy and distracted.\nIn this Instructables project, I'm sharing steps to fold a small tote handbag.\nSupplies\n* 2 Origami papers,15 cm x 15 cm\n* Flat surface for folding\n* Paper glue\nStep 1: The Valley Fold\nPlace the origami paper on a flat surface and fold the square paper vertically in half like a valley. Crease it well by sharpening it with a fingernail and unfold it.\n\"This fold is known as Valley Fold because the crease is at the bottom and the paper is folded forward into itself, so that paper makes a \"V shape\" when unfolded\"\nNow, Valley Fold the paper vertically and unfold it.\nStep 2: The Center Fold\nValley fold all the corners to the center.\nStep 3: The 3/4th Fold\nFold the bottom side horizontally so that the folded part coves the 3/4th part of the square and then unfold. Repeat this for the upper side. Sharpen the crease well and then unfold.\nStep 4: The Mountain Fold\nFor this step hold one corner of your thumb and index finger. Pinch it gently so that the corner folds upward like a mountain.\n\"This fold is known as Mountain Fold because the crease sits at the top and the paper is folded behind itself, and the paper makes an \"inverted V shape\" when unfolded.\"\nRepeat this step with all the corners. Sharpen the folds nicely and unfold. Place the paper flat on the surface and unfold the top and bottom sides. The left and the right sides will remain folded.\nStep 5: Snakes in the Box\nMountain fold along the Black line(Pic 1) and bring down the flap to lock in the folds. You can use glue to secure the fold.\nWe will now have a box-like structure(Pic 4) with two extruding parts. At this step, the bag will resemble two snakes peeping out of the box and looking in opposite directions.\nFold any one extruded side inside the box.", "966" ], [ "Use glue to lock it firmly.\nNow, if we look closely, we will note that the extruded part resembling a tringle stacked above a rectangle.\nMountain fold the rectangle part in half. Next, fold and glue the bottom part forward and the triangular part inside the box.\nStep 6: The Tote Shape\nKeeping the bag so that the glued extruded part is facing you, mountain fold the corners by pinching the corners between your thumb and index finger. Sharpen the edge to the halfway mark of the bag. Make sure you are only sharpening the crease to half the length of the side of the bag and not till the bottom. Unfold this crease and push it gently inside to valley fold the corners together. Repeat this to the other side of the bag.\nStep 7: Final Touch: Adding Handle\nCut a rectangular strip(2 cm x 10 cm) from other origami paper. Place it horizontally and Valley fold it horizontally 2 times. Spread the two ends of the strip so that it resembles a Kayak Paddle. Use glue to secure the fold strongly. Repeat this step to fold one more handle for the bag. Glue the strips to the handbag.\nThe Mini Origani Tote Bag is ready. Do comment if you get stuck somewhere. Thank you :-)", "163" ], [ "Pull Apart Pizza Appetizer\nIntroduction: Pull Apart Pizza Appetizer\nDifferent take on a regular pizza, made with store-bought puff pastry, perfect as a sharing appetizer or full on meal. Make sure to cut all ingredients into tiny pieces, that way you will get more flavor in each bite.\nStep 1: Ingredients\n* Two sheets of puff pastry\n* 1 cup pizza sauce (from a jar or home made; I make mine by frying a small shallot with two minced cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, dried oregano and 1.5cup of passata, I cook it until sauce thickens and reduces to 1 cup)\n* 0.5 cup finely chopped olives\n* 100g finely chopped ham\n* 150g finely grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese\n* 300g mushrooms for mushroom paste\n* small egg for egg washing\nMushroom paste sound a bit odd, but believe me, it's great. Use a food processor to grind them into tiny pieces and then cook them in a frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a dash of salt (medium heat). Continue cooking until all water evaporates and you are left with mushroom paste. Or, you can just chop mushrooms into small pieces and fry them until all water is removed.\nStep 2: Pastry\nCut both pastry sheets into rough circles, reserve the leftover bits.\nStep 3: Filling\nSpread pizza sauce, olives, ham and cheese onto the first pastry circle.", "265" ], [ "Leave about 1cm border for an egg wash. Spread mushroom paste onto the second circle.\nStep 4: Twisting\nBreak an egg and whisk it with one spoon of water, spread it around the pastry border with a pastry brush. Place the second pastry circle on top of the first one and seal the edges with your fingers. Use a glass to lightly score a circle in the middle and cut the pastry into 16 even pieces. Pick each piece and twist it twice in the same direction. Egg wash the whole pie and bake at 200°C (400°F) for 22-25 min.\nUse leftover filling and pastry cut offs to create tiny pizzas and bake them in the oven at the same time.\nLet it cool enough to handle and serve with ketchup squirted in the middle of the pie.", "69" ], [ "Christmas Ball Sugar Glass Dome\nIntroduction: Christmas Ball Sugar Glass Dome\nChristmas is approaching, and I was thinking about a way to bring more excitement to the table. That's how the idea for the Christmas Ball Sugar Glass Dome came to me. It's quite participatory, and it'll undoubtedly put a smile on everyone's face at the table. Its multi-component structure brings Christmas and the melancholic emotions of summer together. See below all the components:\n* Chocolate semi-spheres\n* Pineapple egg cream\n* Cinnamon apple cake\n* Vanilla chocolate chip cake\n* Dried Pineapple fruit\n* Candy crunches\n* Sugar Glass Dome\n* Base of biscuit and walnut crunches\nStep 1: Tempered Chocolate\nIn a metal or plastic bowl, melt 100g semi-sweet chocolate (two-thirds of the chocolate) over a double boiler. Allow the steam from the boiling water to melt the chocolate as you vigorously stir. Because movement helps the building of chocolate crystal compounds, tempering the chocolate necessitates movement. Remove it from the fire and stir in the remaining one-third of the chocolate—in my case, 50g. Combine the chocolate and stir until it is completely melted (43-45°C). Then, using the spatula, begin extending the chocolate (check the video for a reference).\nPlace 1 tsp of chocolate in a silicone spherical mold. While the chocolate spreads, take the mold and begin turning it. Make certain there aren't any gaps! Then turn it upside down over the bowl with chocolate, allowing the leftover chocolate to drip off, as we want thin chocolate. Clean the borders with a knife and store them in the fridge for at least 45 minutes to cool the chocolate.\nRemove the chocolate by inverting the mold on a clean surface, pressing down, and removing the semi-sphere. Refrigerate it until you're ready to assemble the dessert.\nMake two 5 cm x 30 cm cooking paper pieces by smearing three spoons of chocolate on one and then putting the other on top. Refrigerate the stipe for at least 1 hour after transferring it to the 8cm ring. Your stripe is now complete.\nStep 2: Cake\nCinnamon Apple Cake:\nPeal an apple and grate it. Mix an egg, 130 g. of sugar, 50 ml of sunflower oil, 1 t.s. of baking powder, 1/2 t.s. of vanilla and 1 t.s. of cinnamon.", "136" ], [ "Finally, add 130 g of flower.Mix well and put in a baking tray. Bake for 20–25 minutes at 180°C.Cool it down and cut it into pieces with the help of the 8cm ring. The height of the piece should be no more than 1 cm, and you can use a bread knife for that purpose.\nVanilla Cake with Chocolate Chips (Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Chips)\nIn a bowl, whisk together 1 egg and 100g sugar. Mix in 50 g of sunflower oil thoroughly. Add 6 g vanilla extract, 100 g flowers, and 1 tsp baking powder to the mixture. Before adding the chocolate chips, properly incorporate all of the ingredients. Transfer the batter to a baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180°C. Allow it to cool before cutting it into pieces with the 5 cm ring. The piece's height should be no more than 1.2 cm, and you can do this using a bread knife.\nStep 3: Pineapple Egg Gream\nIn a pan, combine 150ml almond milk, 1 egg yolk, and 3 tbsp corn starch. Cook it on medium heat to begin with. Add 30 ml pineapple juice after the cream begins to tick. I used pineapple juice from a can. Continue to stir until the cream is smooth and silky. Then let it cool, or the chocolate sphere will melt.\nStep 4: Pineapple Slice\nCut a piece of canned pineapple if it doesn't fit inside the 8cm ring. Then, to dry it out, drape it over some kitchen paper and add another layer on top. It should be refrigerated for at least 3 hours.\nStep 5: Christmas Candy Stick Crunches\nPlace a Christmas candy stick in a plastic bag and seal it. Break it until it crunches into small pieces.\nStep 6: Glucose - Sugar Glass Dome Preparation\n*This is a preparation step for the sugar glass dome.\nIn a nonstick pan over medium heat, combine 100 g sugar, 75 ml water, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Stir until all of the sugar has melted, then bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes. Put a few drops of cold water into the cup of cold water with the help of a spoon. Check to see if the drops form a little, soft ball (check the video for reference). The glucose is finished when such a little ball forms.\nYou'll need 50 grams of glucose.", "891" ], [ "Crazy Vegetable Pies- Three Potatoes and Ratatouille\nIntroduction: Crazy Vegetable Pies- Three Potatoes and Ratatouille\nThis vegetable pie might look like a crazy, time-consuming idea, but, believe me, it's neither. It's very simple and doesn't require special tools or ingredients. Additional time can be saved by using already baked pastry casing.\nThere are two varieties: ratatouille- like pie with cheesy filling and crispy potato pie with white, orange and purple coloured potatoes.\nCan be eaten cold or warm.\nSupplies\nPastry:\nThis recipe is already a bit too time-consuming, so I never bother with making pastry from scratch. I find that the store-bought works great. If you want, you can of course make your own pastry or use ready to roll pastry.\nI'm using already baked, 7 inch, shallow pastry case.\nSince I used it before, I know that each pastry case fits 1.5 cups of filling. And since I only need to fill the pastry case half-way through, I will need 3/4 cup of filling for each pastry case.\nIt's important to know the volume of your pie dish, so you can make enough filling.", "763" ], [ "Best method is to fill the empty pie dish with something (like water, salt, beans) to the brim and then use measuring cups to establish the volume of the dish. You will only need enough filling to cover 50% of the dish, so calculate accordingly.\nFilling:\nYield: 1.5 cup (enough for two 7 inch pastry casings)\n* Ricotta or goat's cheese: 250g\n* Grated mozzarella: 150g (regular size mozzarella ball)\n* Egg yolks: 2\n* Grated Parmesan: 20g (roughly 4 tablespoons)\n* Fresh or dried herbs: I used fresh, chopped oregano\n* Salt and pepper\nPotato spiral:\n* 1 large sweet, orange potato\n* 1 large white potato\n* 1 large purple potato\nVegetable spiral:\n* 3 aubergines\n* 3 courgettes\n* 2 thick carrots\nYou might have to use a bit more or a bit less, it all depends on the size of your pie.\nThere will be quite a lot of leftover vegetable pieces, so reserve them and use them in other recipes like curry or stew.\nAdditionally:\n* 2TBS olive oil (or melted butter) mixed with 1/2 tsp fine salt\n* pastry brush\nStep 1: Filling\nMix all ingredients and spread them on the baked pastry case.\nStep 2: Veggies\nWash and peel your vegetables, cut off the ends.\nUse mandolin of vegetable peeler to slice thin, long ribbons.\nIf using shallow pastry case, you might want to trim your ribbons to keep them all equal in size.\nSoft veggies like courgette and aubergine can be used straight away, but tougher ones, like carrots will need a few minutes of cooking to soften and become more pliable. Put carrot ribbons in a bowl of boiling water and cook them for 2 min in the microwave.\nStep 3: Assembly\nStart the assembly by rolling a small spiral on the worktop, make it tight and try to get it as big as your palm. Transfer it onto the pastry and lightly press into the cheese mixture.\nContinue arranging vegetable ribbons around the spiral. Press each ribbon into the cheese mixture to keep it secure.\nStep 4: Potato Variety\nFor the potato pie I decided to let them peak out of the pastry case to get them crispy in the oven.\nSlice the potatoes and cook them (each colour separately) in the microwave for 3-4 min. Arrange them on top of the cheese mixture in a spiral or parallel pattern.\nStep 5: Butter Them Up\nBrush the top of the pie with a mixture of olive oil (or melted butter) and fine salt.\nStep 6: Baking\nBoth pies can be cooked the same way - 350°F (180°C) for 40 min.\nIf you are making the potato variety and want the tops to be crispy, you might want to increase the temperature to 400°F (200°C) during the final 15 min.\nStep 7: Bon Appétit", "265" ] ]

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[ [ "No need to make it complicated: what about this...\nJust scribble a rectangle on a piece of paper, and say \"there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy\"....\nThen, color off (let's say) 1/3 of the rectangle, and say \"only one third of those are the sort of star that could have life, so that's blah billion\"\nThen, color off (say) 9/10ths of that box, and say \"we believe about 90% of those have planets - so that's blah billion\"\nThen, color off (say) 1/20th of that box, and say \"of those with planets, it seems that about 1 in 20 have Earth-like planets. Now we're down to blah billion...\"\nand so on.\n(Note: the <PERSON> equation has a number of fairly silly terms relating to \"nuclear war!\", which were added as political sops in that era; suggest ignore these unless you want to sound 90 years old!)\nSo just scribble a box or draw a line on a piece of paper ... or maybe use \"a bag of marbles\" as the other answer suggests.\nJust BTW there is in fact an entire documentary (I noticed it on \"Netflix\") called \"The Drake Equation\" which does exactly what you say...\n.. it is not really very good as I remember.", "840" ], [ "I think the guy simply draws a line in the ground, to do the \"fractions\" demo, you know? (ie, they just erase more and more of the line). It doesn't need to be more complicated than that.\nIt's worth noting that the <PERSON> equation simply points out:\n(i) if you multiply those three or four fractions together, you get the number of civilizations in the galaxy. Which is self-evident.\nbut, the whole point is\n(ii) we have utterly no clue - not even vaguely - what most of the fractions are,\nYou could say it's a written formula, which, helps clarify our thinking on, something we are utterly clueless about. So rather than just vaguely saying \"we're utterly clueless,\" we can speak more clearly about the nature of our cluelessness!\nalthough interestingly,\n(iii) very admirably, the issue of \"How many stars have planets?\" ... one could say that issue has been somewhat settled these very years, as we speak - that's great.", "682" ], [ "It's simply because the sun and planets were formed out of a big pile of dust. Originally the dust was spinning. So once the dust became planets, it kept spinning around. That's all there is to it - that's why the solar system is spinning around.\nIt's was once a pile of dust that was spinning a bit; it's still spinning.\nYou then ask,\n\"For example, if you turned off gravity, why would the planets carry on moving?\"\nTHat's just the same as asking \"if I spin something around on a string, and break the string, why does it keep moving?\"\nFor that matter, it's the same as asking \"What is momentum?\" So, if you push something ...... why does it keep moving?\nAt this stage in history, we have utterly no clue, at all, what the heck time, space, matter, and momentum are. \"Why does momentum do what it does?\" is for now just one of those super-deep questions like \"What is time\" or \"So what caused the big bang\" or \"What is gravity\" or \"What's the explanation for this quantum stuff?\" or indeed ... \"What is momentum\"?\nSo, why do the planets keep moving?: answer \"momentum\". If you want to know \"what causes momentum?\", that is one of the basic total mysteries.\nFor now, nobody has a clue.", "135" ], [ "You may as well ask ... what is space, what is time, etc.\nRegarding momentum, you might like to read up about the so-called \"<PERSON>'s conjecture\". The famous <PERSON> was, like you, fascinated by the question \"WTF is momentum anyway?\" One sort of general thinking-point originating with this smart guy called <PERSON> is that momentum could have something to do with \"all the other mass in the universe\". Nobody has a clue about this, and it's just a vague general idea.\n<PERSON> was a pretty smart guy (if a bit whacky), and in the end he found gravity so mysterious, he just put it down to God. He probably found momentum as mysterious, and he was one of the first guys to think about it clearly.\nAn interesting point: actually everything astronomers look at (all galaxies, all structures of galaxies) in fact does not (!) behave the way small things (our solar system, as in your question) behaves in terms of gravity and momentum. This is usually explained by invisible unknown matter (\"dark matter\") or for a few scientists, that gravity works differently than we think presently. So the fact is with issues like gravity/momentum you ask about ... not only do we have no clue \"why momentum works\" but when you look through a telescope, issues like \"orbits\" work totally differently anyway!", "135" ], [ "The simple answer to the (apparent) actual question is\n\"In “The Martian”, did the <PERSON> leave immediately or wait for awhile?\"\nYes, in the movie, they did leave \"immediately\".\nThat's the answer.\n* the \"exact amount of time before they leave\" is simply not detailed in the movie. Why would it be? It's a movie, he's utterly dead: so they leave. As an audience we simply interpret it as \"He was dead so they left the scene.\" It's utterly clear that they leave \"quickly\" (like, \"within a few days\").", "918" ], [ "The entire, total, point of the movie and book is that \"They think he's dead so they leave.\"\n* Even in the book, there's like one throwaway sentence (in the whole book) dealing with the details of when, exactly, they leave. Note that it would make no difference, at all, if <PERSON> left within a minute, a day, an hour, a week or even a month.\n* Note that of course they had utterly no way to get up and down to him. Why stay even if, amazingly, they learned he was alive? Once they pressed the \"go\" button on the ascender, it was all over for him.\nAgain, precisely when they leave is not especially discussed in the movie, and I don't see any reason it should be. We \"just accept\" that (bizarrely) their incredibly advanced comms systems incorrectly thought him dead; we \"just accept\" that (surprisingly) jpegs can be sent to <PERSON>, we \"just accept\" that (ridiculously) at the end there was conveniently a hatch to blow on <PERSON>' nose, and so on.\nThe question here seems to be asking/implying numerous other questions,\n* why didn't they spend more time, in orbit, checking if he was dead?\n* wouldn't they have (various) technology, from orbit, to be able to check if he was dead?\n* what is the detailed nature of Mars orbital spy telescopes?\n* ditto for Mars orbital radio, radar etc etc devices?\n* assuming it was government policy in such cases to just leave, why would that policy be so?\n* with the putative fictional Ion Engines, were they using a <PERSON> transfer?\n* if using a <PERSON> transfer from Mars, what window do you have?\n* if not using a <PERSON> transfer, what would be their windows of departure?\n* why was it limited to a 30 day mission? does that relate to departure windows or was it unrelaed?\n* how does the movie plot compare to the book plot?\n* in the book specifically, what are the answers to every one of the above questions?\n* would <PERSON> be able to stretch food and what is the detail of that?\n* numerous questions about <PERSON> return transfer\n* etc etc\nI'm totally in favour of discussing those issues, but I guess here on SO the SO philosophy is that those should be separate questions.", "209" ], [ "Ok, gotta quote XKCD on this.\nThis is not how space works:\nThis is:\nGravity in low Earth orbit is almost as strong as gravity on the surface. The Space Station hasn't escaped Earth's gravity at all; it's experiencing about 90% the pull that we feel on the surface.\nTo avoid falling back into the atmosphere, you have to go sideways really, really fast.\nThe reason things in space tend to stay in space, or why things \"float\" in the international space station is because they're going so fast gravity doesn't do anything more than keep those objects moving around the planet: the parabolic trajectory that all falling objects have is so wide that it misses the horizon and comes back around again. Aka, orbit. As the space station and all of its contents are moving at the same speed, and are in constant in free fall, things appear to float: there's no object at rest for things to fall towards; everything is falling and everything is falling at the same speed, all the time.\nIf the ISS had an arm long enough1 and someone put something perfectly still in the center of the space at the far end, that object wouldn't stay there. It would be ever so slightly off the orbital path that the station would either catch up to it, or fall away from it. But it would be very, very slow.", "461" ], [ "And it would happen because the ISS as a whole and the \"floating object\" would be in slightly different, intersecting, orbits.\nStill, why does that gravity not influence satellites and other objects there.\nIt does. It just isn't very strong. Gravity falls off at an inverse-square relationship with distance, just like light does. Except that gravity is way way weaker of a force than electromagnetism is (\"no its not, I can feel the Earth right now!\" Yes, and the Earth is a few trillion-trillion times heavier than you are, how about a table? Can you feel the table's gravity?). The gravitational acceleration towards the sun is on the order of about 0.005m/s2 (and that's still 50 million times greater than the gravitational pull from all the spiders everywhere).\n1. Technically this is already true, just that the effect is so subtle I'm not sure you'd see it in timespans less than \"days.\" In either case, my google fu isn't strong enough to find any videos of such an experiment.", "393" ], [ "You'd explain it the same way you'd explain it to a fifty year old person.\nWhat about this...\n\"As you know, there are different colours ... red, green and so on. The air likes to bounce around these colours. Amazingly enough, the air most likes to bounce around blue. The other colours don't get bounced around as much ... they just go away. So when you look up at the sky, we see all the blue being bounced around. The air is bouncing the blue around!\"\n(Older children may then ask, \"Awesome! But why does the air bounce around blue and not some other colour?\" The best answer then is something like, \"It's because of the different size and speed of the different colours. It turns out that air is best at bouncing around blue. The others just pass through - they go away. Look up at the sky, and you see all the blue bouncing around!\")\nFurther, for three year olds, there's nothing at all wrong with introducing the colours as \"little balls\"1 within this explanation, if desired.\nLooking to the other superb answers, also talk about how big the air is. (It's possible that three year olds know what the \"space station\" or \"satellites\" are these days, with endless Netflix and iPad. Using the techniques in the other answers, you could show how much air there is, \"all the way to the space stations!\" \"where it is black\" because there is \"no air to bounce the colours around\" up there.)\nSecondly from the other answers, you can make the excellent point about sunset.", "781" ], [ "\"When you're looking more at the sun, at sunset, the red balls make it through the air to you - the air bounces away the blue balls.\" (Of course, this is getting less and less precise - let us say more and more 19th century - by and by.)\nSo that's how you explain the sky being blue to anyone, including three year olds. You explain it by explaining how it is. The air bounces blue around. But first!...\nBut first!!!!\nCritically, as a pedagogical matter I would preface the whole explanation like this: this is more important than the actual explanation.\n\"That is a REALLY HARD question. It's important that you know, nobody had a clue about this until very recently. Like, when your grandmother {whatever} was alive. There was this great man called <PERSON> who figured it out* {I'm not totally sure if three year olds know from TV the cliché of \"<PERSON>\" as our great scientist - if so, bingo, that's good enough}. Before that it was really a mystery. It's still a mystery.\"***\nI'm not quite sure of the best way to express it to a three year old, but it is critical to impress on the three year old, in terms they can understand, that\n* humans presently know almost nothing\n* it's only since the Enlightenment - very recently - that we have tried to figure things out. (Give a quick synopsis of the Enlightenment, starting with the renaissance in Italy)\n* don't forget we only had electricity, phones, visited the moon, etc very recently (\"you're grandmother got them\")\n* many many questions you can ask are very very difficult - your Mom doesn't know the answer, even your Aunty who works at the Big School with the 30 km tunnel underground doesn't know the answer\n* when you're a little older, you, too, can start trying to figure out these questions, along with Mr <PERSON>, your Aunty etc\nThis \"little speech\" will dwarf in life significance any explanation of why the sky is blue. (BTW asking \"why the sky is blue\" is astounding for a three year old, I'm sure the kid is almost four!)\nTrials\nUnfortunately I don't have a three year old on hand at the moment - that is awfully young - but testing shows this is perfectly understandable to 7, 8 year olds.\nThe bottom line three year old explanation is: \"air likes to bounce around the different colors. But mostly it likes to bounce around blue. So when you look up at the air, you see all this blue.\"\n(The other colours \"pass through\" or \"go away\" ... \"pass through\" is too complicated a concept for three year olds, so wing it there.)\n1 given that currently, our base understanding of the fundamental nature of energy and matter is: Utterly Nothing Whatsoever: there's nothing wrong at all with talking about \"little balls!\" to a THREE year old!", "781" ], [ "I think the most simple answer is just \"magic\", and ignorance:\nFor one, during the last few centuries \"magic\" that was previously widely accepted to exist \"disappeared\" as science somewhat took its place. The coffee machine you use every morning would have been clearly \"magic\" just a few hundred years ago. But is it magic to you? - So, whatever advanced we encounter daily in our time was definitely magic in ancient times.\nFrom there, it's only a small step to saying that there used to be magic in ancient times which is now gone.\nAnd here comes ignorance into play. Through historical records, pictures, paintings, films,...", "111" ], [ "we (believe to) have a pretty clear picture of what the world, and life, was like a hundred years ago. Or two hundred years ago. But the world of, say, 3000 years before our time is much less documented and thus by itself quite mysterious.\nSo we have a world about which we don't know much, where the existence of magic was wide-spread common sense, from which we may find a rare artifact.\nOr, seen more pragmatically, if, as a world builder, we want something magic, where do we take it from in the most plausible (or easiest) way? How about a mysterious world which we have no access to, where magic is a common thing and from which artifacts can reach us without too much hassle (compared to, e.g., extra-terrestrial devices or things from the future)?\nOne could have some character craft something akin to magical in our time, but that is harder to make plausible because people have a grasp of what technology today can do. So instead of trying to create a somewhat credible background about why or how man's current capabilities enable something magic-like without violating what people know you can just take an artifact from some place about which the common person, or everybody, knows little except that it definitely exists.\n(I deliberately used the present tense above to describe ancient times, because w.r.t. the (desired) effect the ancient world is a mystical world, perceived like a place you just can't go to.)", "111" ], [ "It doesn't orbit us - it orbits the Sun, just like we do.\nHowever:\nbizarrely and amazingly, it \"stays with us\" ...\nit keeps position outside us - it takes JWT 365 days to go around, just as it takes us 365 days to go around.\nHow is this achieved?\nWe have an incredibly long piece of string attached to it.\nWe (the Earth) spin around just like on a playground ride. We hold on to the string, and the JWT goes around \"outside\" us, and stays in place.\nNah, no string but bizarrely gravity works exactly, precisely, like a string would - if you are at exactly the right distance.\nVarious interesting spacecraft hang out at this \"L2\" region. I have included an accurate drawing of our astounding GAIA spacecraft in the diagram.\nThe JWT is kind of the \"strongman\" of our space telescopes. The <PERSON> -quarterback type in high school. You know ... tallest, strongest, goes on to marry <PERSON>, etc. GAIA is kind of the \"class smartass and superbrain\" type. (Beyond all belief, GAIA is ...", "419" ], [ "mapping the milky way. No, really.)\nAll of this was invented by the French (this guy called Lagrange - the \"L\" in \"L2\"), so today naturally the French just assume that JWT, etc, are all, basically, French things - after all, they thought of it, someone else just did some welding.\nThe actual \"detailed\" manner in which GAIA for example flies is a Lissajous orbit. (Yup - another French guy!) Coincidentally Lissajous sounds a bit like \"lasso\", and on nice diagrams such as here you can see it looks like a lasso. Giddyup, space telescopes!\nNASA, err, France's blokes who worked this out:\nBonus factoid - you might be wondering why the effort to put it in this particular place. This was explained very nicely by @A.Leistra in a comment.\nHave a careful look at the diagram and put yourself in the place of the yellow JWT... Try it at different points around the diagram.\nNow - from any where on the circle, look towards the Earth and the Sun.\nNotice that ......... they are in the same place from your point of view.\nThe Sun & Earth are total troublemakers to space telescopes. Because they are always in exactly the same direction, the JWT can keep its back to them at all times, always. The JWT has one big shield, which will always shield both the Sun & Earth.\nHow clever are the French?", "758" ], [ "It would be better to comment this but I only just joined, so no reputation...you'll also have to forgive me if this is a silly idea, I'm not a physicist :), it's just my 2c.\nFor the sake of argument, assume that (from the perspective of an observer on the \"ground\") the light deflection really is twice as large as the bagel's rate of fall - or at least different, since otherwise the question is moot. Then the most logical inference, to my mind, is that the contradiction is itself the answer. That is to say...\nAs <PERSON> has pointed out, you can't really get the \"uniform field\" we're imagining in the problem; so while from the bagel's perspective the light bounces back and forth between the mirrors, what an observer on the ground sees it this:\nThat is, mirrors that are perpendicular to each other from the bagel's perspective are not perpendicular to observer on the ground (because of the gravitational field), they're bent over slightly so that they're perpendicular to the path of the light, and the light bounces back and forth like a tennis ball.", "562" ], [ "Kind of like - the very phenomenon that causes the light to be deflected at twice the rate expected is the same one that causes this, and fixes the contradiction it introduced. So, the observer on the ground sees the light bouncing back and forth as illustrated in the figure, until the bagel and light hit the ground together.\nThe same kind of reasoning could apply to the variant with lots of bagels in a row. The bagels see themselves in a straight line with the light travelling straight through their centres; but an observer on the ground sees the bagels lying on a curve that accounts for half of the deflection of the light. When dropped, the observer sees the bagels all fall together, and the light going through all their centres - the extra deflection being accounted for by the fact that the bagels aren't in a straight line from his perspective.\nAgain, I'm not a physicist so I may have missed some important points (both here and in reading the first answer), but hopefully this makes a little sense.", "562" ] ]

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[ [ "Tale of Tales\nhttps://boxd.it/4fWb4\nShort and... sweet? I don't even know. There was a little wolf, and some people, and it flowed like a dream. Which I'm sure was the intention. As short as this is I feel there is a lot to unfold and probably numerous things to take away from it.", "96" ], [ "As it stands, I can say that I loved the mix of animation styles, the music and the general mystery of it all. I feel I can’t really assign a score to this film, at least not on a single watch. It would be like trying to give an abstract painting a score. You could argue that this should then be the case for all films, and there’s definitely an place for that argument, but with works like this it’s more that they aren’t tangible. Perhaps on further viewings I could break it down, find meaning, and give a score depending on whether it was successful or not, but right now… score not applicable. Worth seeing for sure though, if you are interested in the world and history of animation.", "596" ], [ "Memento\nMemento really is a mind f*ck.\nI did begin with liking the way the film is presented and unravelled to the audience backwards. Leaving you just as dazed and as confused as our protagonist, picking up pieces and trying to put this puzzle together. Possesses such a unique aspect, however I do feel it was quite erratic a lot of the time and just really hard to follow.", "269" ], [ "Which a lot of people may enjoy but I particularly didn’t. I understand that is what <PERSON> was aiming for, but it became a bit of a headache going into the second half to be honest.\nMemento is definitely mapped out in a clever and constructive way, and <PERSON> has an excellent attention to detail when it comes to the plots for his movies. A great amount of the film I did like and I can imagine on rewatch it’ll make a lot more sense, as this film possesses a strong amount of rewatch value.", "657" ], [ "Handling the Undead\nIn an already tired genre, Handling the Undead aims for a more contemplative and somber face than what we’re used to with said genre. The standouts here being the music and atmosphere, one must think such a devotion to visuals would garner strong staying power, yet such was not the case. It’s grief observed, through the lens of dark corridors and isolated pastures, asking the singular question, “if you had one more chance to talk to your loved one, what would you say?”.", "831" ], [ "Throughout the runtime I discovered the film wasn’t exactly interested in exploring this question through a vessel or character of sorts, as it’s practically nonexistent. In the end I was left starved, yearning for a connection. A film with a pulse that slowly fades into obscurity.\nAsk me in a few months and I’ll say, “Oh yeah I forgot I watched that”.", "236" ], [ "The Imaginary\nThe film that was delayed a year cause the main crew prioritized working on “The Boy and the Heron” (most of them being former Ghibli animators) lol\nAnd… I was disappointed. Unfortunately its storytelling and world building really feels half-assed. It would be unfair to compare to <PERSON> himself, but his characters are very nuanced yet simple enough for the audience to invest in their character arcs. The characters in this film feel very one dimensional and it was just hard to relate or like them.", "952" ], [ "The ending does ties things up nicely, but it’s not enough to justify this film as “great.”\nProduction quality wise, it’s great as a theatrical film. Its crew is filled with veteran animators, who give us terrific animated scenes, especially when it comes to character acting. Its post production process is interesting, especially its coloring and rendering. My peer who worked on this film told me how it was done, and while I thought it took painful extra steps, the final result is at least interesting.\nThis film was one of my anticipated animated films this year, so it really sucks I couldn’t like it. Would watch it again, but most likely only home video.", "596" ], [ "<PERSON> Egg\nI’m not sure any movie has captivated me in the same way as this has. It’s use of visuals and ambient sound is hypnotic, all rhythm and symbolism that I feel profoundly even without understanding.\nThe best way I could describe the experience is that it puts you in a trance, gently awakening you with equally atmospheric dialogue. Every frame, every sound, every piece of information created a greater sense of strangeness and curiosity. <PERSON> shows you so little but with it, he creates a dying world with a deep history and atmosphere that is completely mesmerizing.", "647" ], [ "Its strange but really captivating world-building. It’s the kind of art that feels profound yet inarticulable while it’s affecting you. Hence the trance. Maybe it’s meaning can be revealed to me with more contemplation but if not, I felt it all the same.", "831" ], [ "See How They Run\nI mean, it was alright. Played with the tropes really well, and like every 20 minutes or so a gag was genuinely hilarious.\nMuch of the film felt a bit empty to me though. Kinda like eating partially stale potato chips.", "958" ], [ "Like, every now and then you get a good salty crunch, but when the bag is finished you’re still not totally satisfied.\nMaybe the performances or the editing needed to be snappier? Maybe the ensemble needed more fleshing out? Nothing was overtly wrong about this film, I’m just surprised I didn’t love it considering how much I adore the genre. All the ingredients were there, the piece just didn’t feel fully baked.\nYeah sorry this was kinda a nothing review. Worth watching if you love whodunnits or need a quick fun watch (98 minutes!!). Glass Onion remains atop the 2022 whodunnit hierarchy.", "823" ], [ "A Tale of Two Sisters\nHaving only seen I Saw the Devil prior to this, I was already under the impression that <PERSON> was a force to be reckoned with, as the aforementioned was a visceral ride in stylish technique and prowess, leaving me eager to watch what else he had in store.\nWhich brings me to A Tale of Two Sisters, a chilling tale with themes of womanhood, loss, and even some Freudian connotations. On a technical level I absolutely adored the way every frame was carefully considered, as the blend of sweeping and static elements result in memorable imagery. It puts its best face forward, and you can’t expect any less from Korean cinema.\nDespite loving many aspects, there was one where I was left with more questions than answers, in a rather, unsatisfying way. I’ve realized that the entire viewing experience requires maximum attention, as I, along with many others were left confused by its ending.", "217" ], [ "The whole 3rd act is quite disorienting, as it can be puzzling to see what the entire story was going for. This could be the result of sloppy execution, or intentional direction. Regardless of what it could be, there’s simply no way for me to assess it all on a first watch. So take this rating with a grain of salt, as it could easily improve on a second watch, as I’m sure the movie begs to be seen twice.", "831" ], [ "The Super Mario Bros. Movie\nSimilarly to Detective Pikachu, I think this is a really solid first blush at an adaptation of the game world. It's beautiful to look at, the characters (especially <PERSON> and <PERSON>) are well observed, and the music (when it isn't injecting bad needle drops) captures the same sense of vibrant adventure as the games.", "217" ], [ "Still, there's not a lot more to it than that, which I think is a result of the story being pared down to open up to the widest possible audience.\nI think there's potential for this to be a really solid franchise using these aesthetics as a jumping off point. A Luigi's Mansion movie, or a DK movie with <PERSON> could be really impressive if it took more risks with its story. It'll get there I think, because this movie made a shitload at the box office.\nI might put this on in the background in the future if I just want something with nice visuals, I think it's great to look at.", "796" ] ]

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[ [ "I like your question a lot! I think what you're trying to achieve is the best way of solving your problem. Unfortunately, although I do have a few links for you that might get you a little bit further, a perfect solution is, I fear, not available. Tides are extremely complicated and depend on many factors. Some of these are large scale effects such as the relative positions of earth, sun and moon, but others are more local, such as ocean currents or the shape of the coast. Especially the latter can make a surprisingly large difference on a relative small spatial scale. Luckily, it is possible to come a long way and have very decent approximations.\nThe best option, as far as I'm aware, is to use XTide, a software program that can calculate tides at thousands of locations worldwide, making use of actual measurements as well as mathematical models. This will give you by far the largest amount of information, and the most detailed information. better still, it's open source software and completely free.", "229" ], [ "The drawback is that it is complicated to use. Also, if you are a windows user, it is even more tricky as this is an X-windows program, developed for UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems (it should run fine on linux and macos). It is definitely possible to run it on windows, but I wouldn't recommend it for the faint of heart.\nMy second option would normally be to use rtide, an add-on package for the statistical program R, though in your specific case it's probably not good enough. The rtide package is fairly easy to use if you're familiar with R, and runs equally easily on all operating systems supported by R. The drawback is that it doesn't give as much detail as XTide, and it is based on data from a mere 637 stations, all of which are in the USA, so it's only of limited use for the Pacific Northwest. In addition, it takes more work to calculate certain variables such as the tidal range than to do the same calculations in XTide\nA third option would be to use a website like https://www.tide-forecast.com/ where you can click your way to the relevant data. The number of stations they cover is even smaller than those offered by rtide, but they do cover the entire world. If you do not want to go the XTide way, then combining rtide with https://www.tide-forecast.com/ would probably be the best way to go: the former gives you a large number of stations in the Pacific US, while the latter will add some stations in the rest of the Pacific Northwest.\nI hope this helps!", "967" ], [ "How to calculate rainfall; record highs\nThere are numerous programs and resources that can be used to ascertain pretty exactly the average temperature and general climate of a region.\nBut is there any way to get a quantitative estimation of rainfall or record high and low temperatures in a region?\nI know general trends like, since my region is situated on the edge of the polar front, with an ocean to its east, high mountains to the west, and strong persistent westerly winds, it probably gets a considerable amount of rain. Or, I know that due to the lack of large landmasses to the north of my region, it probably will not have the comparatively cold record lows found in places like the NW US or Eastern Europe.\nFinding an Earth-proxy isn't exactly correct either, since my reliable modelling for average temperatures suggest that the climate regime for my region is not completely equivalent to South Chile (my closest proxy). While these little differences may not mean too much for average temperature prediction, they can introduce unintended consequences to your world.\nFor example, Puerto Montt has the closest climate to my region's captial. They are remarkably similar in terms of year-round average temperatures and in rainfall (though mine shows less seasonality). However, in the winter months, Puerto Montt has an average low of roughly 3.5 C. My region's capital has average lows of 1.9 C in winter.", "650" ], [ "This difference is negligible for getting a sense of the average climate, but it has a massive impact on other variables. With its milder winters, Puerto Montt experiences snowfall rather infrequently and sporadically, mostly in July. However, my region's capital gets 7-8 reliably snowy days a year that can happen as late as October, an event which rarely if ever happens in Puerto Montt. So, while proxies may be useful for parameters which are easily defined or that you can already predict, they are not useful for estimating other variables. I would expect record temperatures to be especially susceptible to this.\nIn short, qualitative analysis and proxies are insufficent. Are there any ways to get real quantitative numbers for things like monthly record temperatures?", "867" ], [ "There are several interesting components in soil:\n* The carbon content, mostly in the form of humic acids - a proxy for how well the soil an store nutrients and water and for wether there's a living soil microbiome (earthwormes etc.). Soil carbon is also removed by biological processes outside of special circumstances like peat foramtion. Carbon is added by decaying plant matter and other organic matter, like faeces of animal (wether natural or manure applied as fertilizer)\n* The macronutrient content, what we think of as fertilizer - usually N, P, K, (and to a lesser extent) S are considered macronutrients that plants need. There is also the question on how available those nutrients are. Macronutrients are added as fertilizer. Macronutrients that come as part of organic matter (e.g. N in proteines) must first be digested by something. This is why earthworms and the like are important. Macronutrients can be washed out and aer used by plants.\n* Micronutrients - trace elements, salts etc.", "1022" ], [ "that plants need. Again, it is important to understand that not so much the total amount in a given volume of earth is interesting but the amount actually available to a plant (Mg tied up in the middle of some rock won't help). I think these cycle like macronutrients, but the slow breakdown of sand and rock is also an important source. But this is a slow process. On intensivly used fields, these will be added in addition to fertilizer. This gives you a hint that the processes supplying micronutrients happen slowly.\nSo if you think of soil as the sum of these three categories you can look at how fast or slow each is replenished and used. FArmers will watch for the nutrient balances as well as for the carbon balance of their fields.\nHowever all of these influence each other, soil is really complex. While you can argue that soil is renewable since in some cases all three broad categories of stuff will be replenished eventually, IMO this misses the point how slowly this happens. It also misses the more important point that soil is not simply a mixture of stuff but ideally a living system where things happen.", "1022" ], [ "There are no undiscovered planets between the sun and Neptune\nObjects closer to Neptune that are large enough to be considered planets (and not dwarf planets) can't remain 'hidden'. If it's there, the light from the sun will bounce off it and we will see it. As it moves in its orbit, we will notice the position in the sky change, so we will know it isn't a star.\nI would like to give a more broad answer to this question though: What is the maximum size of an undiscovered solar system object and how does it change as you get further from the sun?\nThe further out a solar system object is, the harder it is to detect. The rate at which it gets harder is severe; the light we receive from an object scales roughly as $1/r^4 $.\n($1/r^2$ for the light travelling from the Sun to the object, and again, $1/r^2$ for the light travelling from the object to us on earth).\nWe are able to detect some very small earth-crossing asteroids. Some as small as ~50 metres across. At a guess (and this is just based on my intuition, not any calculations), there are probably no undiscovered objects larger than 1 km close to earth.\nAs you travel to the outer solar system (Jupiter to Neptune), the number of bodies increases dramatically. There are currently ~700,000 known solar system bodies and most of them occur in this area. It is believed that all asteroids larger than 10 km have been found.\nIn the area immediately beyond Neptune (30 AU to 100 AU), we have been finding many pluto-like objects in the past two decades, objects with diameters of 500 km or more.", "710" ], [ "For reference, Pluto is about 2200 km across. It is entirely plausible that there are some, if not many, similar objects at this distance range that have not yet been found. Some of these would classify as dwarf planets, in that they are round, orbit the sun, but have not cleared 95% of their orbit of other matter.\nAnd finally - and this is where it gets exciting - where it gets really far out, there may be an undiscovered large planet, out at ~700 AU. Referred to as Planet Nine, this is a hypothetical object that some (noteworthy) astronomers believe exist because of patterns they see in the orbits of other distant dwarf planets. From calculations, they estimate that it would be as heavy as 10 earths and travel between 200 and 1200 AU. However, these distances are so large and the sunlight out there is so dim, that even with the best telescopes and two years of looking, they haven't found it.\nFinally, I'd like to share two graphs. The first one is of distance (of closest approach, or perihelion) vs diameter of various outer solar system bodies. In the bottom right corner there is a noticeable lack of dots, indicating roughly where we don't yet have the capability of seeing objects that small and distant.\nThe second is an expanded but slightly less accurate diagram of the same.", "196" ], [ "The answer really depends on how you think of invasive. One extreme answer is to say that all things are relative, and that the concepts of local and invasive are all relative. This matters to a certain extent because we (ecologists) draw a fuzzy line between invasive and naturalized (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1472-4642.2000.00083.x/abstract). You could start with some basic species that we all think of as either good, local, or neutral. Take the earthworm. Most people think of it as a common native species, but it's actually an invasive species that has radically changed much of North America that came over with the Europeans (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html). Similarly, brown trout are also invasive, coming to the US in the 1800's (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fish/resources/WildTrout/WT_BrownDesc.asp).\nAs far as why invasive species succeed, it's still an open question. What you reference is the enemy release hypothesis, but there are others such as disturbance, diversity of the new community, and just the traits. Here's a good review: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.431/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01418.x/full\nTo answer your question about adapting, I wouldn't trust your memory.", "759" ], [ "It's important to keep in mind that most likely your memory is flawed, and you are only observing a very limited number samples with an incomplete sampling methodology. For instance gypsy moths undergo wild population fluctuations, and have for over 100 years. (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/PL00012004). How well do ecosystems bounce back from invasions depends on lots of factors. Often time the ecosystem can survive, but the some species won't. An easy example would be Norther Hardwood forests. Chestnuts (extirpated by an invasive fungus)are mostly gone from the wild, but the forest persists, as well as many of the species that rely on them. So in part the answer to your question depends on scale. The forest survived, but an individual species was nearly destroyed.\nEcological economists have tried to put a value on the destruction that invasive species have caused too (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800904003027).", "3" ], [ "This is not a simple problem to solve for mathematically. To do so you would need to know the temperature and velocity of the air coming out of the AC unit, as well as the velocity of air outside as well as which windows are open and at what angle outside air is hitting the windows. Basically, you would need to figure out how well the AC air mixes with the room air as well as the the general paths the air currents follow.\nAs others have mentioned, humidity is also a concern. If you are bringing in humidity from the outside the AC will have to work harder to remove it.\nFor example, if the air from the A/C follows a laminar flow and does not mix well with the air in the room right away, a large part of it could goes out the window without having reduced air temperature.", "108" ], [ "The larger the temperature differential between the AC air and the room air, and the lower the amount of mixing occurs, the less efficient it is going to be.\nMost likely it would be easier to just perform some experiments, trying to control for a single variable at a time.\nHowever, having said that, assuming sufficient mixing of the air what you are going to see in practice is that opening the window causes the temperature to cool faster, because you have two sources of air colder than the room. You could set up an equation using two idealized heat transfers to try to approximate it. But if the temperature differential is only 4C you may find it doesn't really cool that much faster, and things like wind gusts and humidity may make it a wash. In my experience, latent heat from the structure itself makes it very difficult to bring room temperature that close to outside air temperature (for instance, in a brick/stone wall type building I have found it difficult to cool an interior to closer than 5C above outdoor temperature over the course of a night).\nHowever, in any case using both the AC and opening the windows will obviously use more electricity than just opening the windows.", "108" ], [ "That's not quite correct.\nYou may have noticed that during summer the days are longer (and the nights shorter) than during winter. That is because the earth's axis is tilted about $23^o$ from the plane of its orbit around the sun. With this tilt, as the earth travels around the sun the northern hemisphere gets longer days as the north pole is tilted towards the sun. Shorter days happen when it's the reverse. The change happens gradually, with the shortest day at midwinter (approximately 21 December) and the longest day around 21 June. At equinox time (21 March & 21 September) day and night are of equal length.\nOnce you go north of the Arctic Circle (or south of the Antarctic Circle), which is at $67^o$ north ($67=90-23$), you will find that there are periods of the year when the sun does not rise above the horizon during the day, because the bulge of the earth is in the way. At other times of the year, the sun does not set at all.\nHowever, as in more temperate latitudes, the change is gradual. On 21 December there is indeed no sunlight. Then, as you go into the new year, there comes a day when the sky starts to brighten a bit around noon time.", "188" ], [ "Still later, the sun may come up for a short period. The exact day this happens depends on your latitude (how far north you are). That period gets longer by the day, until on a certain day the sun no longer sets at all, and you have 24 hour daylight. The Arctic Circle is the latitude where there will be a day without sun, and a day without night. Further north more and more days are like that.\nGreenland stretches from about $60^o$ to $85^o$ North. Hence the southern end of Greenland always gets at least some sun, even in the middle of winter. And, during summer, there will still be some night.\nTo add a final bit of confusion: I've been talking all along about the northern hemisphere. If you live in Australia like me, it's the exact reverse. We have winter in June, summer in December.", "797" ], [ "How many galaxies can be seen in a given patch of sky\nSimilar to the question asked here, but my question is not about what can be seen with the naked eye but rather what might be seen if pointing my Newtonian reflector (full specs outlined below) at an average point in the sky. (This is why my questions is different from the potential duplicate...)\nI was doing this last night because it was cloudless and ok seeing, and whenever I point the scope at a given patch of sky I always see a much larger amount of objects (obviously) but how many of these additional dots are galaxies and how many are just nearby red dwarfs or average but more distant stars in the milky way?\nDo galaxies ever appear as points of light similar to faint stars, or are they always more diffuse like Andromeda is through binoculars or my telescope? To be clear here, I'm not talking about the galaxies in our local group that are close enough to be discernable as actually fuzzy objects, but rather more distant galaxies that might be very bright (i.e. large elliptical galaxies). I feel as though I'm answering my own question here and that galaxies are only seen as diffuse objects and not points of light, but I can't think of a good way to test this hypothesis with my equipment.\nAssume ideal conditions (low light pollution, perfect seeing, etc.) although I am also curious to know how much this changes if the light pollution conditions worsen, particularly in my backyard.", "710" ], [ "For reference, I can somewhat make out the milky way on a cloudless, moonless night. Andromeda is not visible without small binoculars on any night here (or it is and my eyes just aren't trained enough to find it without them).\nA better way to phrase my question might be this. Imagine if I were to remove all the stars in the milky way so that the only objects in the night sky were other galaxies. How densely populated with the sky be to the naked eye, and how densely populated would it be through my telescope?\nThanks for taking to the time to read my question(s)! I hope to be able to give my own answers one day. Clear skies everyone.\nTelescope specs: NexStar 130mm Aperature: 130mm Focal Length: 650mm Eyepiece: 9mm, 1.25\" Plossl", "758" ] ]

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[ [ "Wholesome moment with my coworker\n\"<PERSON>\" and I work at a restaurant. It was a very slow Friday morning. I was at the register and he was nearby restocking items. These two men come in and buy some food. They pay with cash, but since most people pay with card nowadays, I closed the register without even giving it a second thought. I gasped loudly and went to the cook to ask for help. <PERSON> came to me and asked me what happened. I told him, and he tried to unlock the register using his ID number (which we learned at orientation).", "201" ], [ "He wasn't able to. However, since the manager was on lunch and the shift lead clocked out that day, and they're the only ones with authorization to reopen registers, we were screwed.\nThe next fifteen minutes were sent with <PERSON>, the cooks, and I trying to figure out a solution. The manager ended up having to finish her lunch early and clock back in early just so the register could be reopened. Thankfully no one gave me any crap about it, not even the customers who had to wait all that time. I felt so embarrassed that because of my mistake, everyone was inconvenienced. But <PERSON> was just so...gentle with me after. He gave me the easier tasks, and he just spoke to me in a very light tone. It's like he could tell I was embarrassed, even though I tried not to show it.", "329" ], [ "What do you say in this situation?\nI have to give an obligatory this didn't happen just now or last night...but Saturday night.\nI had one of my usual customers come in. He'd always come in from an Uber, Lyft, or cab ride. Order food off the menu, drink tea or soda, graduate to beer, and repeat the cycle usually for a few hours over the course of a game.\nEnter Saturday night...\nRegular comes walking in and our hostess seats him. I come over and talk to him and get his order since it's kinda slow at the time but it would die later. He was being short with me and just jumped straight to drinking beer. This surprised me at first because he doesn't just jump to drinking beer. So after a little while, hes already two beers in with having no food. Normally, I let a person go a few beers deep without food before I start suggesting they take a short break from drinking beer and get some tea or water or something in them before I go flagging someone. I offer the other stuff to him first but he decides he wants another beer. So, I get it but I tell him that if he doesn't take a break soon, I'm going to have to flag him.\nAfter about 20 minutes, I'm walking back over to check on him.", "201" ], [ "He has most of that beer drank and I ask him how he's doing. At this point, he decides to order some wings with blue cheese dressing and a tea. But here's the thing. Before I have a chance to walk away and put the order in, he grabs my attention and tells me he wants someone to talk to. Since the place is nearly deserted and my side work is nearly done, I sit down to listen to him. He tells me the story of how he discovered his wife was cheating on him and now she wants to leave him and he's all broken up about the whole situation. I know bartenders are kinda like therapists in this regard since they hear about people's problems but not us waitresses. I listened to him for about 10-15 minutes and then I apologized for not having any answers for him and then put his order in. He was there for a few more hours as the west coast baseball games were in full swing. He did tip well.\nWhat would you have said if you were in my shoes? Did I do right by him?", "670" ], [ "Grown man reported me to corporate because I wouldn’t get on the floor to clean up his mess for him.\nBusy friday night at a large chain. Walked past a table (that wasn’t mine) where an older man (probably late 30s) with his friend gestured to call me over. Walk up to the table, and he points to a cup of ranch he just dropped on the floor, without saying anything. Offer to grab him some napkins, he nods and says thank you. Alright, no problem.\nCome back with a stack of napkins and a rag. I say “There you go, sir!” and set them on the table, and begin to turn to walk away (I had about 5-6 active tables at this point). He says “excuse me!” I turn around, and he’s holding the napkins towards me while continuing to point to the spilled cup of ranch.\n“Aren’t you gonna clean it up?”\nNow, I like to think I’m quite friendly and have good customer service skills. However, getting on my hands and knees to wipe ranch out of a carpet, while the grown ass man that spilled it is sitting and watching me (not even receiving the tip from said grown man) is about where I draw the line. Already stressed and busy, I just say “No, sorry, I have a ton of other stuff to do right now. You spilled it, you can clean it up.” And quickly walked away.", "201" ], [ "(About two minutes later, I walked by and see he made the poor girl who actually was his server clean it up herself. He actually waited until she came back to see if she would clean it up for him instead).\nThink nothing of it, until about the next night when I get called into my manager’s office. Apparently, that guy called corporate with a formal complaint. His report was very vague and completely untrue. To paraphrase: He claimed that he “asked multiple people” before he got helped. (Not true, he called me over directly after I watched him spill it). Said that the server who helped him (me) “rolled her eyes” when he asked for napkins. (also not true) and was “belligerent” when I came back to give him the napkins. (Never mentioned in the report that he was wanted me to clean the mess he made).\nLuckily our GM is pretty cool and believed my side of the story, she just gave me a verbal warning so she could tell corporate she solved the dispute.\nI swear some people get a huge power trip when they’re receiving some kind of customer service. My job is to bring you food quickly and make sure you have a good meal. Servers are not your mother or personal servants, and trying to get someone in trouble because you’re too lazy to clean up your own damn cup of ranch dressing is such trashy behavior.", "156" ], [ "\"You shouldn't be smoking at all!\"\nThis happened just yesterday during the football rush.\nNormally, I work mostly nights at my establishment. But, this is one of the Sundays I work especially when they're training a new hire, I'm one of the girls they let the new hire shadow and train them.\nIt's during one of the short lulls we have between game times when the FOH manager tells one of the new hires and I to go on break. I go out back with the new hire and there is a couple of people from BOH out there as well. I'm a smoker along with the three others I'm standing near the back door to the kitchen with. We light up and in a little less than the 15 minutes we're out there, we each smoke 2 cigarettes (there's one girl I work with that can smoke two and a half to three cigarettes but don't know how she does it). During my first cigarette, I see this old couple walk up to the restaurant from the back parking where the employees usually park. They look at us with a scowl on their faces. I don't think much of it. When our 15 minutes are up, I walk back in. And who do I see in my section...Mr and Mrs <PERSON>. I walk up with a smile...\nMe: Hello, thank you for coming to [business] this afternoon.", "201" ], [ "My name is u/rylielovessoftball and this is my trainee [redacted] and we'll be your servers this afternoon. Is there anything I can get you to drink while you decide on what ya'll'd like to order?\nScowl 1: I'd like to talk to your manager.\nMe: I'm sorry, the general manager is unavailable at this time. Is there a problem that I can fix?\nScowl 1: Yeah, you and your trainee reek like smoke. You should be ashamed of yourselves for smoking. I want to talk to your supervisor then.\nScowl 2: Yeah, and your smoking is why your bald and a freak.\nMe: Well, I'm sorry you feel this way. Let me get the FOH manager and you can talk to them.\nI walk off and get the FOH manager. I tell them of the situation while we're walking to the table. The two scowlers tell the manager of the people out back smoking and how their filthy habit should be made illegal and they're condoning us killing ourselves by allowing us to smoke out back. The manager apologizes and tells them that they aren't responsible for what the employees legally do on their break. And ask them to leave if they're going to be rowdy about it.\nThey eventually order and eat. My tip...a pack of nicotine patches they dropped off at the hostess stand and a note saying they wish I'd quit my filthy smoking.", "828" ], [ "Title: Horrible bosses\nBody:\nThe worst boss I ever had was definitely my high school summer job boss. She ran a small local restaurant and she only hired high schoolers because she knew we all had low standards and didn't realize we could quit when someone treated us terribly. The food was terrible, imo, but it was cheap and we got a lot of regulars who just liked to have somewhere to hang out. This boss, we'll call her <PERSON>, was so mercurial. Sometimes you'd come in and you'd be her favorite person. One week she was training a new girl and said she should do exactly what I was doing (being friendly but efficient, remembering regular's names).", "329" ], [ "And then she gave me a raise on the spot! Then literally the next week, I slightly messed up a customer's order and <PERSON> started yelling at me, right in front of the customer. \"Are you stupid or do you not care?? I don't understand how someone could fuck something this simple up.\" The customer looked horrified and started to say it was ok and she didn't even care that much but <PERSON> would. Not. Stop. I had to go cry in the backroom and <PERSON> got snarky about me taking too long of a break. And the worst part is, I never even quit! The restaurant closed one week when I was out of town and I just got a text from another waitress saying <PERSON> said our last checks would be in the mail.", "329" ], [ "Manager made me cry today\nHey guys! I work at a fast food restaurant and we usually can get pretty crowded. Sometimes we bring out food to tables when people choose to dine in, and today my job was being the runner for food. Around lunchtime, we had a huge rush, much larger than usual, and when the food was coming out it got mixed up. I brought some of the food to the wrong table, and my manager was extremely pissed at me.", "814" ], [ "He yelled at me, and usually when this happens it isn't a big deal, and I was so overwhelmed with orders I started to cry. Thankfully not many people saw, and I got all the food out not long after, but I was still really upset with myself. Later I found out that my manager was just cranky because the owner caught him outside on his smoke break and he got in trouble. I feel a little better knowing that it was because of that, and not because I was doing horrible at my job! We talked about it and are fine now, but it was definitely a crazy day at work.", "270" ], [ "UPDATE: What would you say in this situation.\nAbout a week ago, I made a post about a customer who was a regular but was acting strange to later find out his wife cheated on him.\nI finally had the customer come back last night after a week of not seeing him come in. He was sat in my section as happy as can be with a big smile on his face. He told me that he's starting divorce proceedings with his to be ex-wife and she can go be with her so-and-so new beau.", "940" ], [ "He then thanks me for listening to him when he was feeling really low and that he needed an ear to hear.\nHe goes through his usual ordering like it's nothing and even a little bit more. But the surprise comes at the time I'm cleaning up his table after his $75 order to discover a $60 tip. I smile and pocket the money and go about finishing my sidework and wrapping silverware to close up for the night.", "940" ], [ "How am I supposed to confront \"guests\" who specifically come to bother me?\nSo I became a server at a chain last July. This restaurant has a TON of regulars so I rarely have bad tables, but I had one last night, who came and sat in my section specifically to upset me.\nBackstory: Last August I met this guy (I'm a gay guy if it matters) who I instantly fell for, but was loaded with red flags. Looking back I really had my head in the clouds but I was so into him for reasons I can't explain.\nLast month he told me he was getting back together with his ex and I didn't take it well because...who would. We're not talking anymore.\nLast night was coming to a close and I started cleaning up and doing my sidework when the host tells me I have a two-top who requested to sit in my section.\n...who do you think it was?\nThey acted like they had no idea who I was, they weren't crazy or overly needy, they tipped 20%.\nBut they were holding hands across the table, gushing over each other and shit.", "951" ], [ "At the end they asked me to take a picture of them, which I did.\nSeeing them instantly put me in a bad mood. I didn't have any other tables so it didn't really matter but if they came in when it was busy it would've been a whole nother story.\nMy co-workers, managers, and I get along pretty well, but I'm afraid of how I'm supposed to approach this if they pull this shit again. I'm still new to serving so I really don't want to mess any buisness up, or bring drama into my workplace, but I can't serve them again, it instantly put me in a bad mood.\nWhat do I do?\nEDIT: Don't know if it's relevant but I felt like adding that both of these men are significantly older and bigger than me. I'm 21, the guy is in his 30's and his bf is somewhere around 30.", "951" ] ]

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[ [ "Transgender Woman’s Murder in Trinidad & Tobago Highlights Ostracism Faced by LGBTQ Community · Global Voices\nScreenshot of <PERSON> as she appeared in the Friends4LifeTT video, talking about some of the challenges transgender people face in Trinidad and Tobago.\nOn the night of December 5, 2017, a transgender woman was murdered at a park in Port of Spain, Trinidad, a country where the legal framework does not include any component through which a person can change his or her sexual identity. The victim's “legal” name was registered as <PERSON>, but she was better known by the moniker <PERSON> (inspired by American singer <PERSON> stage persona), through which she was a staunch advocate of the local transgender community and an HIV spokesperson.\n<PERSON> was featured in the Friends4LifeTT video, uploaded to YouTube in August 2017, which explored what it's like to be a transgender person in Trinidad and Tobago. Reports suggest that <PERSON> was shot and killed by two men, who police have since called in for questioning.\nWhile Trinidad and Tobago is used to violent crime, <PERSON>'s murder has raised the issue of the way in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people are treated in Caribbean societies. The twin island republic has not always shown tolerance for gender fluidity, as is the case with other island nations, such as Jamaica, which has routinely demonstrated a lack of understanding about the LGBTQ community.\nUsers of social media networks were vocal in their criticism. <PERSON> lamented:\nThis wonderful human being, who cared so much for others, died for no reason .. other than perhaps, being different. Trinidad has reached a new low.\nComments on her public thread ranged from calling the country “third world” in attitude to criticising the government for “not putting laws in place to protect all citizens”, saying, it is “truly heartbreaking and unfortunate that members of the LGBT community cannot be themselves”.\nSodomy is listed in Trinidad and Tobago law as a criminal offence, but that has not translated into any pending cases for consensual homosexual sex. The law is therefore only one aspect of the issue; deeply embedded societal attitudes tend to have a much greater impact on the daily lives of LGBTQ people in the Caribbean space.\nSuch attitudes are often influenced by conservative religious pronouncements on sexual and gender minorities.", "957" ], [ "The bias has filtered into both mainstream media reporting and social media comments on the murder, which the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO) said has “added to the violence”.\nThis despite attempts a few years ago to discuss how the media should report equitably and responsibly on issues affecting the LGBTQ community. Commenting on one 2015 television series which tracked the everyday life of a transgender woman living in Trinidad and Tobago, Facebook user <PERSON> commented:\nThis makes me anxious and the preview questions are awful. Trans people are always subject to ‘why’ and ‘what's in between your legs.’ I have no faith that [the television station] will do right by this woman.\nFor years now, this has been a commonly expressed sentiment:\nLack of education about the #transgender community in #Trinidad sees comments like these. #illuminati #comment #lmao https://t.co/aRGwqZH3K4\n— <PERSON> (@N_J_Edwards) July 22, 2015\nCAISO, for one, was not having any more of the ignorance. In a series of posts on its Facebook page, the organisation criticised both the local and international media's handling of the story:\nThree things NOT to do when a transwoman is murdered: 1) Don't send the media dehumanising pictures of her dead body to publish. 2) Don't make her death about you. 3) Don't fundraise for your hotel room.\nThe reference is a jab at Trinidad-born, UK-based activist <PERSON>, who is challenging the island's sodomy laws as unconstitutional in a case that will be heard on January 30, 2018 in the High Court in Port of Spain. <PERSON>, who was interviewed in an article about <PERSON>'s murder for Gay Star News, is trying to raise money to offset his costs for mounting the legal challenge.\nIn another post, CAISO commended one local daily for “correcting its old story (which had called <PERSON> a ‘transgender man’), and changing the pronouns in it to she and her. The updated story also omits a speculation about sex work.", "957" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago NGO identifies treatment of women as key issue in upcoming elections · Global Voices\n“The finger that voted”; photo by <PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.\nTrinidad and Tobago's general elections will take place on August 10, and as much as electioneering in the time of COVID-19 has had some voters calling for campaign ingenuity, the substance of the messages has, for the most part, been more of the same.\nThe nonprofit Womantra, which educates and advocates for policy reform around the issues of women's rights and gender justice, has put out a statement about patriarchy — yet another source of dissatisfaction in the elections:\nAll candidates seeking public office should be meticulously screened, not only for portfolio and party compatibility but also for biases that impact their ability to serve the national community. Sexism is among these biases and one of the most dangerous. […] the words and actions of our politicians have been well documented by local media, the legacy of which informs what is deemed acceptable behaviour for those in authority and continues to haunt us today.", "127" ], [ "In the midst of the 2020 general election campaign, it is clear that this problem persists.\nThe statement identified certain issues the group saw as problematic, including the nomination of a candidate currently facing sexual assault charges; another who has had “online allegations involving sexual offences” being levelled against him; and a third who has had an interim protection order taken out against him by a former partner.\nNo judgement has yet been handed down on the rape charge, no formal charges have been made against the candidate accused of sexual offences, and the protection order against the third candidate expired on July 23, upon which he was due to appear in court regarding the matter.\n<PERSON> described these as “instances of grossly misogynist narratives:”\nWe note that these problems are wide reaching and that aspiring Members of Parliament from at least 3 political parties have come under scrutiny, underscoring the need for urgent and collective attention to end violence against women in politics.\nTheir position was echoed by <PERSON>, a lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at The University of the West Indies (UWI), who noted that struggles over democracy are “always interwoven” with those of gender and sexuality, and condemned such “continued tolerance for gender-based and sexual violence, which are not yet considered so abhorrent that they deny men political legitimacy”:\nIf nothing else, understand young women’s fear that these could be the men who hold power over them and to whom they must pay respect, like those abusive uncles who somehow retain their place and authority in the family.\nAs such, <PERSON> has called for amendments to Trinidad and Tobago's constitution so that “persons who are convicted of any offence involving sexual harassment or assault be disqualified from being elected or appointed as a member of the Senate and/or the House of Representatives.”\nLanguage emerged as another key issue, with a request that the booklet on parliamentary language is updated “to admonish the use of sexist statements, comments or words:”\nBorrowing from the 2020 Council of Europe (COE) report, we echo the call for our Parliamentarians to take a strong stand against sexist attacks targeting women and to introduce or revise codes of conduct explicitly prohibiting sexist behaviour and speech in their assemblies. The COE Report also recommends that States be vigilant during election periods with regard to sexist attacks against women and to monitor candidate nomination procedures for inequalities.\n<PERSON> also saw the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) playing a critical role by taking “all allegations made against political officials or aspiring representatives seriously and commence investigations promptly, particularly given the impending election of August 10.”\nSpecial mention was made of revenge porn, the investigation of which falls under the TPPS’ Cybercrime Unit:\nWe stand in solidarity with women candidates who have been the victims of such attacks and firmly denounce the claims that victims of revenge porn should be barred from public office. Such a position is difficult to reconcile with the recent amendments to the Domestic Violence Act, which expand the definition of emotional or psychological abuse to include unwelcome or intimidatory contact through electronic means.\nCiting the case of young political candidate <PERSON>, who allegedly appeared in a video in which a faceless man showered her with money, <PERSON> observed that “gender and sexuality often become weaponised in electoral campaigns.” Although a 29-year-old man has since been charged with harassment and attempted extortion of <PERSON>, <PERSON> maintained that “it’s actually irrelevant what women […] do in private, legal and consensual entanglements”:\nUndermining women’s aspirations for political leadership, through breaking their trust and violating their privacy, is a deliberate containment of their democratic participation. And, it works.", "127" ], [ "A Social Media About-Face in Trinidad & Tobago Highlights the Complexity of Domestic Violence · Global Voices\nYoung men from the Chaguanas Secondary School in Trinidad & Tobago take part in a 2008 Walk against Domestic Violence to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Photo by CWGL, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).\nIn February 2016, Facebook user <PERSON> posted a series of selfies. One eye was bruised and swollen, the side of one of her breasts was black and blue and there were cuts and scrapes about her body. The photos, which were accompanied by a status update saying that she was a victim of domestic violence, created an immediate stir on social media — especially because she was brazen enough to post everything on the Facebook page of her husband's business. The post has since been taken down.\nAt the time, <PERSON> received a wave of online support, with women commending her bravery and encouraging her to be a beacon for others. Fellow domestic abuse survivors shared their stories and assured her that she did the right thing in leaving.\nThe incident sparked a vibrant national discussion in Trinidad and Tobago about violence towards women and — though <PERSON> was full of praise for the female police constable who dealt with her case — about the manner in which the police allegedly handle reports of domestic abuse.\nThe blogosphere was therefore disappointed — if not surprised — when on Monday, October 10, 2016, <PERSON> told the court that she no longer wanted to pursue the charges laid against her husband.\nThe case was dismissed, but social media did not let <PERSON> off the hook so easily. Many netizens could not reconcile the departure from her initial angst, when she said, “I want to encourage EVERYONE that is in an abusive relationship to ask God for the strength and courage to walk away”, with her decision to reconcile with her husband.\nOnce again, she took to Facebook to explain. When she posted the photos back in February, she said, she was “completely frustrated, hurt, depressed and devastated”, prepared to get out of her situation regardless of the outcome. She hit back at critics who suggested that the whole thing was a publicity stunt, or that she went back to her husband to regain access to her luxury lifestyle.", "957" ], [ "Thanks to counselling, she said, there have been positive changes in his behaviour.\nWhile some of her followers were supportive of her decision to keep her family together, others did not feel as charitable. One women's rights activist, <PERSON>, warned that while some men do change, in far too many cases, domestic violence occurs in phases — and the improved behaviour <PERSON> is seeing could very well just be the honeymoon phase.\nIn a detailed blog post, activist <PERSON> lamented the lack of understanding about the realities of domestic violence. While he understood people's frustration at <PERSON>'s decision, he said:\nThe fact that she’s decided to return to that relationship […] has nothing to do with intelligence. […] <PERSON> is an incredibly smart lady; smart enough to use [her husband] <PERSON>’s own business page to gather attention to her plight and situate herself in the middle of the national consciousness, at least. That sort of person isn’t dumb. But she is human. That means she can be seduced by affection and scared of retribution, like all human beings.\nHe went on to talk about battered person syndrome, the need for sympathy rather than cynicism, and the lack of faith many citizens have in the justice system.\nIn a recent article published in Time magazine, Trinidadian women's rights advocate <PERSON> called out the local media for sensationalising the violence and desensitising people to its effects. <PERSON> cited some disturbing statistics:\nAccording to <PERSON>, the head of the Victim and Witness Support Unit of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, ‘Between 2005 and 2015 almost 300 women have been murdered as a result of domestic violence.’ This is an average of 30 women per year. This is already 30 women too many, but many […] on the ground believe this figure underestimates the full extent of this crime.\nBetween 2009 and 2010, for example, more than 12,000 new domestic violence cases were filed in the magistrate courts.\nThe problem is pervasive throughout the region as well. At an address that the secretary general of the United Nations, <PERSON>, gave in Barbados in July 2015, he noted that “the Caribbean has among the highest rates of sexual assault in the world” and that “three Caribbean countries are in the global top ten for recorded rapes”.", "271" ], [ "<PERSON>, ‘fearless’ advocate for Trinidad and Tobago’s LGBTQ+ community, dies · Global Voices\nScreenshot of Trinbagonian LGBTQ+ activist <PERSON> taken from a YouTube video profile of her for International Women's Day, via <PERSON> channel.\n<PERSON>, one of Trinidad and Tobago's most outspoken transgender and LGBTQ+ activists, has died. Friends described her passing on the morning of October 28 as “sudden,” prompting a flood of condolences on social media channels.\nMany remembered <PERSON> as a staunch human rights defender and trans rights advocate, with the Trinidad and Tobago Transgender Coalition (of which she was president) posting photos of its “fearless leader” being presented with the 180th Commonwealth Points of Light Certificate. The award recognised her service to vulnerable local trans and LGBTQ+ communities, who are often marginalised and find themselves trying to survive on the fringes of society. It was an honour that many felt was “incredible and well-deserved,” as it celebrates inspirational acts of volunteerism across the Commonwealth, with regard to pressing social challenges.\n<PERSON>, the British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, who presented <PERSON> with the award, was saddened to learn of her passing:\nI am incredibly sad to hear from @trinijayjay that <PERSON> has died. HM The Queen recognised <PERSON>’s exceptional service supporting the trans community and LGBT+ rights, with a Commonwealth Points of Light award. <PERSON> was ?? royalty and I’m proud to have known her. pic.twitter.com/ylMFUnOjFC\n— <PERSON> (@harryvx) October 28, 2021\n<PERSON>’ death is a huge loss for the local LGBTQ+ community, in part because of the large grassroots reach of her work. For more than 20 years, she helped create safe spaces and economic opportunties for trans women, many of whom may have turned to prostitution because of a lack of alternatives.", "357" ], [ "She also did a lot of work with people who were HIV-positive, leading an initiative to ensure that they could get any medication they needed, as well as advocating for an end to stigmatisation of the disease.\nWhen she received the Points of Light award earlier this year, <PERSON> told the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday that it only gave her more of an impetus to continue her work:\nThis award […] will allow me to continue shedding light on the importance of including all people, particularly the transgender community. I will also use it to shine a spotlight on the importance of sexual and reproductive health rights. I know that, together, we will all be able to create a [Trinidad and Tobago] where everyone is comfortable and free to be themselves.\nTrinidad and Tobago marked its 2020 International Women's Day celebrations by highlighting <PERSON>’ consultancy work for the Trinidad and Tobago Sex Workers Coalition, as well as her tireless leadership of the Trinidad and Tobago Transgender Coalition, which she headed from 2017 until her death:\nShe has led efforts for intervention with NGOs, Governments, and key populations through community empowerment, and has been an instrumental agent in the advancement of Trans rights in Trinidad and Tobago. Her work has assisted with the reduction of exclusion, discrimination, and violence of marginalized groups – especially Trans-Women.\n<PERSON> is phenomenal because of her bravery, her humility, her selflessness, and the fact that she is committed to empowering lives of those whose voices go unheard.\n<PERSON>’ life was dedicated to ending discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, and ensuring that its members had equal and proper access to health services and economic opportunities. In the words of <PERSON>, who successfully dismantled long outdated laws against homosexuality in Trinidad and Tobago in a 2018 court victory that declared those laws unconstitutional:\n<PERSON> has been a pillar of our community for decades & made huge strides in the fight for equality and freedom for LGBTQ+ citizens. Her fight for Trans rights and her indomitable spirit will never be forgotten nor replaced. She truly was one of a kind. Rest in peace <PERSON>. ???️‍⚧️?️‍??✊?????", "357" ], [ "Court ruling gives Trinidad & Tobago green light to deport a Venezuelan minor · Global Voices\nA group of Venezuelan asylum-seekers arrive for the second time on Trinidad soil, on November 24, 2020. The group had a scheduled habeus corpus hearing in Trinidad and Tobago. Screenshot taken from a Trinidad and Tobago Newsday video of the landing, which was posted to the newspaper's YouTube channel.\nThe public discussion around refugees and migration continues in Trinidad and Tobago, following the state's decision to deport 16 Venezuelan minors and 11 adults on November 22, shortly before they were scheduled to have a habeas corpus hearing. The group was returned to Trinidad and Tobago on November 24, as a result of a court order.\nNow, High Court Judge <PERSON> has refused to grant an injunction preventing the state from deporting an 11-year-old girl who was among those repatriated.", "1019" ], [ "In his judgement, he explained:\n[…] the Court is not satisfied that having regard to all of the outlined circumstances, that the reliefs sought in the substantive claim are so clothed with the likelihood of success that the court should adopt the exceptional course of restraining the State from enforcing what appears to be applicable domestic law.\nThe rationale for <PERSON>'s decision hinged on the fact that the child's legal submission was based on the 2014 Draft Policy on Refugees and Asylum Seekers, a document that has been approved by Cabinet, but not by Parliament. This, he said, meant that the government had the full authority to adapt national policy as needed.\nNational Security Minister <PERSON> has gone on record as saying the initial decision to deport the group was based on safety concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic, reiterating that the country's borders have been closed since March. It is a position that, in the words of <PERSON>'s ruling, “does not strike the Court […] as an irregular or unreasonable policy shift.”\nREAD MORE: Trinidad & Tobago deports Venezuelan women and children as matter of ‘national security’\n<PERSON> as <PERSON> chided the state for the unsafe manner in which the group was deported, he also chastised the child’s mother (who does not have documented status in Trinidad and Tobago) over what he called “the brazen and bold disregard for the immigration laws of this Republic,” and her failure to properly consider the child’s welfare as required by the same UN Convention upon which her lawyers are basing her case:\nThere are many citizens in this Republic who are faced with difficult economic circumstances and they too may wish to go to another country where the economic prospects are brighter, but these citizens should not be entitled to be refugees or asylum-seekers seeking status under the 1951 Convention.\nThe 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”\nJudge <PERSON>'s ruling differs from those of the two other judges — Justice <PERSON> and Justice <PERSON> — who heard submissions from the group, a dissonance which speaks volumes about how the wider public feels about the issue.\nIn fact, the December 2 editorials of two local newspapers landed on opposite sides of the discussion. The Trinidad and Tobago Newsday suggested that the government appeared to have “sidestepped” the court:\n[…] the sheer number of people deported and the timing of the announcement suggested the actions of a State content to appear in defiance of the Supreme Court, international law and basic human compassion.\nThe Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, on the other hand, noted that Justice <PERSON> was clear about the state's “right to deport illegal migrants”:\nAs citizens, we need to consider whether we really want to open ourselves to a flood of migrants at a time when the country is hard-pressed enough to meet the needs of its own citizens.\nOn the same page as the Guardian opinion, however, appeared a column by journalist <PERSON>, which argued that there was “no ‘other take'” — no perspective to be had on the issue other than a humanitarian one.\nTrinidad and Tobago's attorney general, <PERSON>, said of the most recent court ruling:\nWhilst it is certainly a very clear legal victory, I take no comfort in [it], in particular because of the human factors involved […] but I am duty-bound […] to uphold the laws of Trinidad and Tobago.\nHe added that it was possible for Venezuelans to apply for visas to enter the country legally, and that such visas “are not denied as a matter of course.”", "271" ], [ "Trinidad and Tobago gets a transgender senator for a day, but a series of tweets turns congratulations into chaos · Global Voices\n<PERSON>, the first transgender woman in Trinidad and Tobago to sit in the senate. Screenshot taken from a YouTube video of a NOW Morning Show episode on Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT), in which she was interviewed about animal rights.\nIn mid-February, politician, activist and animal rights advocate <PERSON> became the first transgender woman in Trinidad and Tobago's parliament when she was appointed as a temporary senator, filling in for opposition senator <PERSON>, who was absent due to illness. <PERSON> has been very outspoken about her gender identity, having undergone gender confirmation surgery back in 1993 at the age of 19.\nAfter her contribution in the senate, where she weighed in on the 2021 Summary Courts (Amendment) Bill, <PERSON> told the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday that she enjoyed the experience and was grateful to have had the opportunity, adding:\nFor now it shows that TT is maturing as a country. So I'm very grateful for both sides for having me today. I was treated really well. I'm just very thankful that we have a country that was able to accept people who are different.\nThere were many positive social media messages about her appointment, with some calling it “historic” and “monumental.”\nIn a country that is still conservative, thanks in part to a strongly ingrained religious culture, the debate about <PERSON> presence in parliament may well have stayed within the realm of her sexuality, as it has in past commentary about her.", "957" ], [ "In 2015, certain religious leaders were very outspoken against her bid to run for political office.\nHowever, tweets allegedly sent from her Twitter account shifted the focus from her appointment and contribution to the parliamentary debate on the 2021 Summary Courts (Amendment) Bill, to whether she was simply seeking likes and attention for her new role. It was a move that surprised many, who suggested that her activism work spoke for itself, without having to garner further endorsement.\nThe tweets, most of which appear to have been deleted, announced her senate appointment and tagged high-profile Twitter users like American talk show host <PERSON>, president <PERSON>, and even the archived Twitter account of former U.S. President <PERSON>. Current White House press secretary <PERSON> was also tagged:\n@PressSec Dear <PERSON> the people of Trinidad and Tobago have just mad history by appointing the first woman transgender Ms <PERSON> <PERSON> to the senate can you please send some congratulations to our people thanks\n— <PERSON> (@JowelleDeSouza) February 18, 2022\nThe move caught the attention of a few Twitter users, including local journalist <PERSON>, who tweeted:\nI thought I was the only one who saw https://t.co/0K1a4gz4cl\n— <PERSON> (@KejanHaynes) February 21, 2022\nAt least one mischievous Twitter user was quick on the draw…\nNah man…Which one of yall made this account? https://t.co/Ldk75sM7ij\n— <PERSON> (@KejanHaynes) February 21, 2022\n…while another was upset that local celebrities weren't tagged:\nWhat about our local celebrities? I bet <PERSON> or some other local famous person would have responded.\n— <PERSON> (@vaughnramdeen) February 21, 2022\n<PERSON> soon responded to the social media commotion, saying:\n23/2/2022 I want to say that this account was used by a group to discredit me for no good reason and those tweets did not come from me ,I have had a hard time dealing with this and I hope those who went this far can understand what they did I thank all those who know me better\n— <PERSON> (@JowelleDeSouza) February 23, 2022\nIt was a position that was eagerly challenged on various social media platforms:\nFastest somebody get hack and got their account back the next day. How you do that? You know Twitter management puhsonally?\n— <PERSON> (@DdotEvans) February 23, 2022\nIn fact, one Twitter user alleged that this type of thing was part of <PERSON> modus operandi:\nStop lying. This is your style. You've done it before.", "142" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago split over whether services like Facebook should pay local taxes · Global Voices\nImage by www.thoughtcatalog.com/\nIn mid-August 2019, the head of one of Trinidad and Tobago's largest conglomerates spoke out against online services like Facebook earning revenue in the country without being made to pay local taxes.\n<PERSON>, chair of ANSA McAL, which owns Guardian Media Limited (which comprises a daily newspaper, a television station and a radio network) among other companies, believes that Facebook undermines the impact and profits of local media houses that make investments and create jobs in Trinidad and Tobago. While some companies like Facebook do have local offices in some of their larger markets, it is not the norm.\nThe response to <PERSON>'s statements has been mixed, with many social media users dismissing the comments as a demonstration of the sense of entitlement from society's “1%”. Several netizens expressed the view that social media was the “vox populi”, speaking truth to mainstream media's perceived agendas and political interests. Others maintained that <PERSON> has a point—and he's not the first one to make it.\nFrance, for instance, tired of waiting for the rest of Europe to reach an agreement on the issue, introduced its own 3 percent digital tax in January 2019. Canada, has similarly honed in on Netflix (another company with numerous paid subscribers in Trinidad and Tobago) and has taken legislative measures to ensure that these global digital services companies are paying their dues. However, just as in France, Trinidad and Tobago consumers remain concerned that if similar measures were imposed locally, the additional costs would simply be passed on to them. When the Trinidad and Tobago proposed to introduce an online shopping tax in Trinidad and Tobago in 2016, consumers railed against the measure, and the legislation never came to pass.\nJuly 2019 statistics estimate that Trinidad and Tobago has 714,700 Facebook users, accounting for 51.8% of its entire population, some of whom naïvely responded to <PERSON>'s concern by saying, “Does he know that Facebook is free?”\n“Free” is a loaded word. While it doesn't cost anything to use the platform, Facebook charges for advertising and gains revenues from boosting posts.", "957" ], [ "And as Global Voices’ 2017 research project on Facebook's Free Basics service and many other commentators have noted, this comes at a price, as the platform collects and monetises users’ data. Despite the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed that Trinidad and Tobago's 2010 election was a testing ground for more widespread data sharing, many local netizens still trust the Facebook platform more than traditional media and admit it is their primary source of news.\nIn the Trinidad and Tobago market, as in others throughout the world, mainstream media has being adversely affected by the immediacy and free availability of digital services like Facebook.\nAnother point <PERSON> raised is that companies like Facebook and Netflix are a burden into the country's foreign exchange reserves, since their services are paid for in US currency. In recent years the Trinidad and Tobago government has been increasingly concerned about the outflows of currency from the country, to the point where the Central Bank now limits the amount of foreign currency individuals and businesses can access, and local banks have enforced stricter credit card limits.\nThose who agree that digital Goliaths like Facebook and Netflix should be taxed in each market in which they operate, believe that such legislation will give local <PERSON> a fighting chance by levelling the playing field. It's a fair argument, but the virtual nature of the Internet has made this a very complex issue, especially for small countries and regions.\nIt's also noteworthy that players like Guardian Media also use Facebook as its primary digital advertising, marketing and communications platform, an irony that was not lost on users of the social network and which underscores both the power of these digital giants and the intricacy of the problem.\nIn one conversation thread in the closed Facebook group Wired868, journalist <PERSON> got down to the heart of the matter:\nIf the situation was reversed and a Trinidad and Tobago company was getting marketing and advertising revenue off US companies, do you really think <PERSON> would not want a slice?\nFor me, <PERSON> is not a god. He is a businessman, His business earns revenue here. Therefore he should pay tax here. That's my point of principle. Nothing more.", "957" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago deports Venezuelan women and children as matter of ‘national security’ · Global Voices\nA group of Venezuelan asylum-seekers including 16 children arrive for the second time on Trinidad soil, on November 24, 2020, due to a court order requiring them to appear at a habeas corpus hearing. Screenshot taken from a Trinidad and Tobago Newsday video of the landing, which was posted to the newspaper's YouTube channel.\nThe Trinidad and Tobago blogosphere has been in a heated discussion over the country's deportation of 16 Venezuelan minors and 11 adults — including nine women — who were reportedly sent away shortly before the group was supposed to have a habeas corpus hearing carded for 2 p.m. on November 22. It's a move that Minister of National Security <PERSON> has defended as part of his remit to protect the country.\nAfter concerns that the vessels carrying them back to Venezuela could not be located and Venezuela's self-declared interim president <PERSON> describing Trinidad and Tobago's actions as “cruel, painful and inhumane,” not only has the group been found, but a Trinidadian judge, Justice <PERSON>, has ordered that the state return them to Trinidad for their court hearing.\nThe asylum-seekers returned to Trinidad shores on November 24, where they were greeted by relatives who reside on the island:\nNo words. None. https://t.co/8TiIW2hGBq\n— <PERSON> (@wgibbings) November 24, 2020\nThe issue was first brought to public attention by attorney <PERSON>, who resigned as deputy political leader of the governing People's National Movement (PNM) mere weeks before Trinidad and Tobago's general election on August 10.\n<PERSON> says the group was initially arrested on November 17 in south Trinidad, which lies about 11 kilometres north of Venezuela. The South American country's continuing political and socioeconomic crisis has forced thousands of asylum-seekers into Trinidad and Tobago.\nIn this particular case, however, there were concerns for the well-being of the children especially, which prompted <PERSON> to send correspondence to the chief immigration officer asking for dialogue.", "957" ], [ "Although birth certificates and other relevant documentation were reportedly submitted to the country's immigration division, they were not accepted. Upon learning that deportation was imminent, <PERSON> succeeded in having the court hearing moved up, but to no avail. She has since suggested that the state's actions in this regard were in breach of its international obligations and wants an investigation to be launched into the matter.\n<PERSON>, Trinidad and Tobago's minister of national security, held a press conference on November 24, to address the situation and “send some very strong signals” regarding the nation's safety and the laws that have been put in place to ensure it.\nFraming his comments against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, <PERSON> noted that Trinidad and Tobago's borders are closed to both nationals and non-nationals, and have been since March 17, soon after the country recorded its index case of the virus. Anyone who wishes to enter the country while the border closure remains in effect must get clearance from the minister himself.\nGiven these parameters, <PERSON> continued, the Venezuelans in question were in breach of Trinidad and Tobago's immigration laws, health regulations, and government policy. <PERSON> insists, however, that members of the group who were deported all tested negative for COVID-19.\nStressing that the government “cannot be legitimately and justifiably accused” of dealing with non-national migration issues without a humanitarian pillar, <PERSON> reiterated:\nIt is not up to any one person — in a democracy, it doesn't operate like that. It's not up to lawyers, it's not up to courts, it's not up to anyone to just change the law according to how they feel. This government has always approached the issue of non-national migration with a balance that includes the humanitarian aspect.\nAt the beginning of 2019, however, even as Caribbean nations were attempting to engage in decisive international diplomacy regarding Venezuela’s political impasse, Trinidad and Tobago seemed reticent to label it a humanitarian crisis, opting instead to echo the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) diplomatic position of “non-interference and non-intervention.”\nBy June of that year, the Trinidad and Tobago government did make good on its promise to regularise Venezuelan asylum-seekers. Many of the conditions and privileges associated with this registration process have since been extended past the initial year-long limit, all of which <PERSON> cites as proof of his government's consideration of the humanitarian angle, though it remains unclear what is to happen once the extension is up.\nInternational agencies have not always agreed that the Trinidad and Tobago government has acted in humanitarian ways.", "892" ] ]

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[ [ "Protected Garden Enclosure\nIntroduction: Protected Garden Enclosure\nGrowing up, we always had a backyard garden. It was great having fresh home grown vegetables in the summer.\nSince moving to a wooded area though, it's been impossible. Any attempt to make a garden quickly turns into a 5 star restaurant for all the local wild life. Putting up a fence isn't an effective solution. Birds, squirrels and other critters can still get over the fence and feast on the vegetation. I decided that, if I was ever going to have a garden, it was going to have to be completely protected from top to bottom. Unfortunately I've never been able to manage the time.\nLast year changed that. Most of us were forced to spend time at home during the pandemic, and we had a lot more time on our hands, so I decided it was time to go for it.\nI regret not taking more step by step pictures, but I'll do my best to outline the steps and list the materials used.\nSupplies\nThis is an approximate list of supplies I used from Lowes:\nPressure Treated Lumber\n(4) 4”x4”x8’\n(12) 2”x4”x8’\n(2) 2”x4”x16’\n(2) 2”x4”x12’\n(2) 2”x8”x16’\n(2) 2”x8”x12’\n(1) 1”x4”x8’\n(20) 1”x2”x8’\nTenax Net Folded 100-ft x 7-ft Black Polypropylene No Dig Containment Extruded Mesh Rolled Fencing\nItem #53046Model #400066\nGARDEN CRAFT 50-ft x 2-ft Gray Steel Chicken Wire Garden Poultry Netting Rolled Fencing Item #492400Model #182450S\nPower Pro One #10 x 3-1/2-in Bronze Epoxy Flat Exterior Multi-Material Screws (1-lb)\nBOERBOEL 7-3/4-in White Gate Latch Item #982864Model #73025491 National Hardware 2-Pack 5.388-in Zinc\nGate Hinge Item #674897Model #N220-137 Arrow 1/2-in Leg x 3/8-in Medium Crown 18-Gauge Heavy-Duty\nStaples (1250-Count) Item #91431Model #50824SP\nSimpson Strong-Tie 2-in x 1.38-in x 2.05-in 18-Gauge Steel Angle Item #96871Model #A21Z\n<PERSON> Strong-Tie 2-in x 2.75-in x 2.05-in 18-Gauge Steel Angle Item #97194Model #A23Z\nQUIKRETE QUIKRETE 80-lb High Strength Concrete Mix\nStep 1: Location.\nI can't stress how important it is to get this right.", "181" ], [ "Most plants will want strong sunlight which means at least 6-8 hours of direct unobstructed sunlight. Note: if your building adjacent to a shaded area to the North, be aware that the shade line will move several feet South from March to June as the sun reaches the summer equinox, so plan accordingly.\nStep 2: Prepare the Area.\nIdeally, you want the garden be as level as possible, and graded smooth with good rich top soil, and remove any large rocks and stones.\nI decided for my purposes, a 12'x16' garden would be a good size. I was able to get the ground level from front to back. Based on the overall grade of the property, I decided I could live with a 5 degree slope from the left side to the right.\nStep 3: Building the Base.\nI set the planks in place. Using a level, and a carpenter’s square, I got each plank to stand level and perpendicular to the adjacent planks. It was necessary to dig away at the high spots and fill in low spots with stones and dirt to get everything level. Once I had all the boards level and square, I screwed them together to form the rectangular base.\nStep 4: Building the Walls.\nI needed the walls to be strong enough to support fencing and a roof, but also maximize the amount of sun exposure. I settled on 4x4 posts for the corners, and 2x4s for the rest of the vertical members. For stability, I buried the corner posts about 12 inches deep and set them in poured concrete.", "220" ], [ "Protected Garden Enclosure 2.0\nIntroduction: Protected Garden Enclosure 2.0\nLast year, I built a Protected Garden enclosure. For details, see:\nProtected Garden Enclosure : 8 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables\nLiving in a wooded area, it’s been impossible to have a garden without the local wildlife eating the flowers and crops. I needed something to keep the birds and animals out while letting sun, air and water in. The Protected Garden Enclosure worked perfectly. It worked so well, I decided to expand on it and make some improvements.\nSupplies\nThis is an approximate list of supplies I used from Lowes:\nPressure Treated Lumber\n(2) 4”x4”x8’\n(6) 2”x4”x8’\n(1) 2”x4”x12’\n(2) 2”x8”x8’\n(1) 2”x8”x12’\n(14) 2”x2”x8’\nTenax Net Folded 100-ft x 7-ft Black Polypropylene No Dig Containment Extruded Mesh Rolled Fencing\nItem #53046Model #400066\nGARDEN CRAFT 50-ft x 2-ft Gray Steel Chicken Wire Garden Poultry Netting Rolled Fencing Item #492400Model #182450S\nPower Pro One #10 x 3-1/2-in Bronze Epoxy Flat Exterior Multi-Material Screws (1-lb)\nStaples (1250-Count) Item #91431Model #50824SP\nSimpson Strong-Tie 2-in x 1.38-in x 2.05-in 18-Gauge Steel Angle Item #96871Model #A21Z\nQUIKRETE QUIKRETE 80-lb High Strength Concrete Mix\nFrom Amazon:\nSunnyside Pure Raw Linseed Oil\nAmazon.com: Sunnyside Corporation 873G1 Pure Raw Linseed Oil, Gallon : Health & Household\nStep 1: Prepare the Area.\nI decided to expand the garden by about 50%, extending it 8 feet forward. I dug out existing rocks and lawn and graded the soil to match the adjacent area. I set the base planks in place.\nStep 2: Building the Base.\nUsing a level, and a carpenter’s square,\nI got each plank to stand level and perpendicular to the adjacent planks and existing structure. It was necessary to dig away at the high spots and fill in low spots with stones and dirt to get everything level.\nOnce I had all the boards level and square, I screwed them together to form the rectangular base.\nStep 3: Building the Walls.\nFollowing the same architecture as the existing structure, I added (2) 4x4 posts for the front corners, and 2x4's for the rest of the vertical members. For stability, I buried the corner posts about 12 inches deep and set them in poured concrete. Since I was adding on to the existing structure, I added anchor points cut from scrap 2x4s to facilitate mounting the tops.", "181" ], [ "I mounted the 8 foot 2x4s across the tops to form the side walls, then attached vertical 2x4s spaced evenly in between the corner posts. With the two side walls in place, I connected the walls with a 2x4 across the top to form the new front wall, adding two more vertical members spaced evenly apart.\nStep 4: The Roof.\nIn my original structure, I used 1”x2” strips to construct the roof. While these were strong enough, I found that 1”x2” pressure treated lumber has a strong tendency to warp, which some did. To improve on this, I used 2”x2” strips for the new section. Also, to make the structure more rigid I switched from metal corner braces to corner braces cut from scrap 2”x4”s. I rip cut the top and bottom pieces at a 20 degree angle to match the pitch of the roof. I made a simple jig out of scrap 2x4's to facilitate assembling the sections.\nWith the A frame assembled, I stapled the fencing in place and lifted the assemblies on top of the enclosure, attaching them to the top with wood screws.\nStep 5: Fencing.\nAs with the existing structure, I covered the entire enclosure with Deer fencing. I recommend Deer Fencing over Deer \"Netting\". Netting is cheaper, but Fencing is a heavier gauge. The openings are 0.75\" which allows most bees and pollinators to get in and out easily. I cut a few strategic holes slightly larger to allow bigger pollinators to get in.", "599" ], [ "Run-down Neglected Pond to Relaxing Backyard Oasis\nIntroduction: Run-down Neglected Pond to Relaxing Backyard Oasis\nWhen <PERSON> bought her house there was a water feature in the backyard. It wasn't working at the time so she hired someone to fix it. He sort of fixed it, but it truly was never 100 percent. Plus, the electrical situation was a nightmare.\nWhen I discovered THAT situation, I encouraged <PERSON> not to run the pump for safety reasons. We enjoyed the pond but over time, the rocks fell into the water, and with the water no longer moving, it was a haven for mosquito breeding.\nTwo factors that finally pushed <PERSON> into removing it were 1. her second greyhound, <PERSON>, really wanted to get in the water and 2. my grandson practiced rock skimming and created a hole in the liner. Overnight the water dropped 12 inches. It was time!\nSupplies\nMaterials/Tools:\n* Shovels\n* Leaf skimming net\n* (50) 1 cu. ft. Top Soil\n* (35) Vigoro 0.5 cu. ft. Bagged Pea Gravel Pebbles\n* 3 ft. x 50 ft. WeedBlock Weed Barrier Landscape Fabric\n* Vigoro 4 in. Weed Barrier Landscape Fabric Garden Staples (25-Pack)\n* Hampton Bay Heathermoore Outdoor Patio 8 ft.", "826" ], [ "x 5 ft. Grill Gazebo\n* AMES 2233400 9-Pound Steel Tamper with Hardwood Handle, 48-Inch\n* Keter Circa 37 Gallon Round Deck Box, Patio Table for Outdoor Cushion Storage, Brown\nStep 1: Watch the Video!\nStep 2: Prep the Pond\nThe pond was actually quite lovely, but as you can see it had fallen into disrepair. Most of the large rocks had fallen in plus it was very unattractive once <PERSON> added garden blocks to visually deter greyhound, <PERSON>, from jumping in!\nThe first step and probably the most tedious was netting the fish and rehoming them. It took a couple of days and about five trips to rehome them.\n*The only fish in this pond were mosquitofish. They were returned to their native lake.*\nStep 3: Demolition\nWe started by removing all the garden blocks as well as the rocks that lined the pond. Over the course of a few days, we punctured the pond liner with a Pencil Point Digging Bar to slowly lower the water level. As the rocks that had fallen into the pond were exposed, those were removed. We also removed the muck and leaves as those were exposed using a shovel and rake.\nWe set up a staging area for all the various size rocks and garden blocks so they only had to be moved once. The rocks were organized according to size.\nOnce all the rocks and muck were removed, we simply pulled up the plastic liner, rolled it up, and set it out to be picked up on trash pickup day.\nStep 4: Fill in the Hole\nOnce the pond was cleared out, it was time to fill in the hole. We used around 50 bags of topsoil to fill in the area.\nWe would have preferred to get a load of dirt delivered, but there is no place at <PERSON>'s house that was flat and open enough where a load of dirt could be placed.\nMany, many trips were made to the Home Depot for dirt. Tip: you can order bags of dirt and pick them up curbside at The Home Depot. The associates will load it into your car for you.\n(This has nothing to do with this tutorial, but we posted a video of how the greyhounds \"helped\" with the dirt. If you're a dog fan, you might enjoy this. Let's just say, that the greyhounds dug out the dirt about as quickly as we added it!)\nWe used a tamper to help compact the dirt fully into the pond area. A couple of heavy rainstorms also help to compact the dirt into this area.\nThe backyard is covered in pea gravel as no grass will grow back there due to the tree coverage. Before we started to add the new gravel, we rented a stump grinder to remove a stump near the former pond edge. To prep the area for gravel, we laid down landscape cloth and secured it into place with landscape staples.\nWe added bags of gravel over the area and leveled it out with a rake.\nStep 5: Decorate\nThis was the fun part!\nWe decided to reuse all the rocks in the new oasis space.\nThe majority of the rock got placed as shown.", "181" ], [ "Japanese Inspired Self Filling & Cleaning Bird Bath\nIntroduction: Japanese Inspired Self Filling & Cleaning Bird Bath\nPROJECT SUMMARY: Fully automated bird bath that fills and cleans itself using two types of irrigation valves. Filling is accomplished with normal landscape irrigation, while cleaning is by a zero pressure ball valve timer that simply drains the basin. Both can be adjusted as needed for your individual design and needs. (BONUS: No electricity needed.)\nI just finished setting it up so the birds haven't found it yet. And I've heard there's been sightings of a very rare bird in our area. Hopefully he'll stop by soon and I can get a picture of him ;)\nThis project is an entry in the 1000th Contest. Please vote if you like it.\nWe really enjoy feeding and watching all of our native birds. We have woodpeckers, coopers hawks, roadrunners, cactus wrens, and hummingbirds all either frequent visitors or nesting on our property. Many years ago, I added an infinity overflow fountain using that same large dark blue pot for landscape aesthetics, and as a bonus all the birds really took to it, but it was a pain to keep clean, keep in working order, and also was a fairly large use of water and electricity since it ran 24/7. So the fountain has sat empty several years, but we really missed watching all the birds drink and clean from the water, especially the hummingbirds (Google \"Hummingbird Bathing\" videos. They are hilariously cute!).\nAs an alternative to the fountain, I created this concept primarily as a low water consumption replacement, but it wasn't until I stumbled on the zero pressure ball valve timer that the final component of the system design was realized. With that in place, the self cleaning feature was made very easy. (Without it, a pump would have been needed, which needs electricity, and the complexity and maintenance goes way up, which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place.)\nTerminology: Ill just refer to the Zero Pressure Ball Valve Timer as the \"Drain Valve\" hereafter.\nSupplies\n1. Vessel Sink (I somehow got his for $35, price is now corrected. Home Depot has a lot of very similar ones in the $40-$50 range.)\n2. 1\" PVC Slip Slip Union\n3. 1\" to 3/4\" PVC Reducer\n4. 3/4\" PVC Slip to Male Hose Thread (MHT)\n5. PVC Primer and Adhesive\n6. Adhesive Sealant or Silicone (I used this.)\n7.", "742" ], [ "Teflon Tape\n8. Zero Pressure Ball Valve Timer (\"Drain Valve\")\n9. 1/4\" Irrigation Hose and Fittings\n10. Bamboo (1-1/2\" Diameter)\n11. 1/4\" Jute Cord\n12. Electrical wiring and low voltage lights (Optional)\n13. Screen Material (Optional)\n14. Decorative Rocks (Optional)\nTOOLS:\n1. General Shop Tools\n2. Masonry Cutting Tools (Hole Saw and/or Grinder)\n3. Level\n4. Hammer\n5. Tools for Irrigation Hoses and Fittings\n6. Radial Arm Saw with Wood Cutting Blade (For Bamboo)\n7. Sandpaper\n8. Marine 2 Part Epoxy Putty\n9. Black Sharpie Marker\n10. Drill\nStep 1: Vessel Sink Drain Preparation, Part 1 of 4\nFor the sink itself the only objective is to attach \"Something\" to the drain hole that functions as a drain but then terminates to a Male Hose Thread (MHT) fitting:\nIn the second image above, the smallest part in the top right is the MHT fitting.\n(The MHT fitting will directly connect to the Female Hose Thread (FMT) on the Drain Valve.)\nNOTE: Hose thread is the common name for the type of thread on garden hoses\nI say \"Something\", because a normally plumbed sink would never attach to a garden hose. So, you basically have two options:\n* Attach a proper drain and work out how to convert to MHT\n* Mix and match PVC fittings that can effectively seal the sink drain hole while connecting to FHT\nI didn't even consider starting with a proper drain as only a few simple and cheap PVC fittings got me directly to a solution. And for less $$ than just a drain would cost alone, which would then add up quickly depending on the number of adapters/fittings to get to MHT, which might not even be possible.\nStep 2: Vessel Sink Drain Preparation, Part 2 of 4\nThe Slip Slip Union is made up of three individual parts.", "582" ], [ "Simple Wood Succulent Stand\nIntroduction: Simple Wood Succulent Stand\nWe did a porch refresh which included building a stand so that we could grow and enjoy a dozen succulents. The stand holds the plants and also provides a bit of hidden storage AND, hides a bunch of cords out of sight.\nSupplies\n* (3) Everbilt 2 in. Zinc-Plated Inside Corner Brace (4-Pack)\n* Milwaukee 4 in. Hole Dozer Bi-Metal Hole Saw\n* Olympic Elite 1 gal. Chestnut Brown Solid Advanced Exterior Stain and Sealant in One\n* Milwaukee M18 FUEL 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Gen II 18-Gauge Brad Nailer\n* 1x6 board\n* 1x8 board\nStep 1: Watch the Video\nFor the latest project from us, join our email newsletter here!\nStep 2: Cut Boards and Drill Holes\nThe measurements for this stand were based on the size terra cotta pots we purchased. We laid the pots upside down to determine their positions and ultimately how long we wanted each board.", "431" ], [ "Below is our cut list.\nCut list\nTop and Sides\n* 1x6 board (3) cut to 26”\n* 1x6 board (2) cut to 61”\nBottom\n* 1x8 board (4) cut to 26” + thickness of 1x6 board\n* 1x6 board (1) cut to 26”\nOnce the boards were cut, the pot placement was marked and cut with a 4-inch hole saw.\nThe pots were primed with grey DecoArt gesso. The final color, DecoArt Acrylic in dark turquoise, was based on the pillows we used on the porch. Be sure to paint the bottoms of the pots as they will be visible.\nStep 3: Assemble\nThis could have been assembled using a number of types of joinery, but we are using wood glue and corner brackets to add the shelves to the sides. The unit is stained with Olympic Elite Solid Stain in Chestnut brown.\nWhen we put the stand in place, we realized we could add an additional shelf and add boards to the front to cover this mess of cords on the porch. All of that was assembled with brad nails.\nNote: In hindsight, we would have placed that bottom shelf lower so that anything stored there would be hidden out of sight.\nStep 4: Pot the Plants\nWe used cactus potting soil to plant our succulents and then we put them in place in the stand.\nHere you can see how the stand hides away all those cords and the outlet. The stand is light enough to move out of the way when that outlet needs to be used.\nNote: The stand would be considered a tip-over hazard so it should be secured to the wall if you have ANY concerns about small children or animals being able to pull it over. You can install a furniture anchor to make it safe for your space.\nFor more details please visit our website!", "250" ], [ "DIY Planter Caddy\nIntroduction: DIY Planter Caddy\nThis planter caddy uses minimal tools and only 2 fence pickets.\nStep 1: Pieces\nYou sill need (2) Sides, (1) Bottom, and (1) Front & (1) Back. See the diagram above for the cut dimensions for the slopes for the side pieces.\nStep 2: Optional Front & Back Rip\nThis is an optional step. A fence picket is usually 5 1/2\". We wanted our front and back to be 4\". You could simply disregard this step.\nStep 3: Sanding\nYou will need to sand all the pieces. I used 80 grit and then finished with 120 grit.\nStep 4: Drill Holes for Sides\nI used a 3/4\" forstner bit to drill the holes for the 1/2\" rope.", "76" ], [ "See the diagram above for the location of the holes.\nStep 5: Installing Side #1\nI started by adding glue and brad nailing 1 side piece to the bottom.\nStep 6: Installing Side #2\nI then flipped the assembly over and repeated the process by adding glue and brad nailing side #2.\nStep 7: Installing Front\nAdd glue to the bottom and side pieces and then brad nail the front to the assembly.\nStep 8: Installing Back\nAdd glue to the bottom and side pieces and then brad nail the back to the assembly.\nStep 9: Drain Holes\nI used a 3/8\" drill bit and drilled holes in the bottom of the caddy so water could drain. See diagram above for hole locations.\nStep 10: Stain or Paint\nApply stain or paint to the caddy. It is best to do this step now instead of after the soil has been added. The soil will stick to the brush and cause your finish to get soil deposits in it.\nStep 11: Soil\nAdd your preferred soil.\nStep 12: Plants\nAdd plants of your liking. I chose Kosmik Kactus that I purchased from The Home Depot.\nStep 13: Rope\nInstall the 1/2\" rope the hole in the side piece. Simply tie a knot once you run it through the hole. Then repeat the process on the other side.", "353" ], [ "How to Make & Install a Modern DIY Mailbox\nIntroduction: How to Make & Install a Modern DIY Mailbox\nThis is one of those projects that was overdue, way overdue! I (<PERSON>) live in a neighborhood where almost all the mailboxes are brick or stucco, and then there was my falling down, cedar trimmed box. Yikes, I'm really surprised my Homeowners Associated never sent me to notice to replace it!\nSince we have no bricklaying skills to build a brick mailbox, we set off to find a style we liked and could build with our skillset. On our weekly COVID-19 lockdown Sunday drives through the neighborhood, we spotted the perfect candidate. We took lots of pictures but resisted the urge to actually get out of the car to take measurements.\nSupplies\nMaterials:\n* (2) 4 in. x 4 in. x 10 ft. #2 Pressure-Treated Timber (Home Depot)\n* (6) 1 in. x 4 in. x 8 ft. Ground Contact Pressure-Treated Board (Home Depot)\n* Sika 33 fl. oz. Fence Post Mix (Home Depot)\n* Gibraltar Mailboxes Elite Medium Black Galvanized Steel Post-Mount Mailbox (Home Depot)\n* Veranda 4 in. x 4 in. 7 Lumens Black Plastic Solar Post Cap(Home Depot) Behr Outdoor Paint\nTools:\n* 5 gal.", "181" ], [ "Paint Stick (3-Pack) (Home Depot)\n* Milwaukee M18 FUEL 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Gen II 18-Gauge Brad Nailer (Home Depot)\n* Makita 15 Amp 10 in. Dual-Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw with Laser (Home Depot)\n* Makita 18-Volt LXT Lithium-Ion Sub-Compact Brushless Cordless Reciprocating Saw (Home Depot)\n* Flexible Drill Bit Extension (Amazon) Auger Bit (Home Depot)\n* Titebond III 16 oz. Ultimate Wood Glue (Home Depot)\nStep 1: Watch the Video\nFor more projects from us, please join our email newsletter here!\nStep 2: Purchase Supplies and Make All Cuts\nThere was a lot of math going on to determine the width and height of the box. It really would have been easier if we could have measured our inspiration box. Basically, the size is based on the length and height of the box itself and the number of slats that are in the inspiration photo. We set up a fence on the miter saw to cut all the slats since we needed so many. This speeds up the cutting as we only had to measure once.\nOnce all the slats were cut, we painted them. The posts got a coat of black paint.\nCut List\n4x4 posts (3-1/2 x 3-1/2 actual)\n* (1) 41-1/8” (plus 10” to 12” more to put into the ground)\n* (1) 50-1/2” (plus 10” to 12” more to put into the ground)\n4x2 boards (3-1/2 x 3/4 actual)\n* (21) 19in (20 for two sides, one for base support of mailbox)\n* (2) 22-1/2in\n* (4) 4-3/4in\nMailbox dimensions\n* Height 8-3/4in\n* Width 6-1/2in\n* Length 18-7/8in\nStep 3: Assemble\nWe assembled with outdoor wood glue and brad nails. We used large paint sticks to create equal spaces between the horizontal slats.\nThe mailbox was screwed into place. We used a flexible shaft to screw in the hard-to-reach screws inside the box.\nStep 4: Installation\nFirst, we had to remove the old mailbox which was super simple. It fell down really easily as it was old and rotten. I do wish we had taken the time to dig out the old post that broke off at ground level, but since it didn't really impact the installation of the new box, we didn't remove it.\nWhen placing a mailbox, be sure to follow all United States Postal regulations. There are distance and height requirements.\nWe used a post hole digger to make two holes in which the new posts would sit.\nOnce we had the depth we wanted, we set the posts and leveled the entire thing. We used Sika fence post mix which sets up really fast once mixed.\nStep 5: Add Numbers\nWe decided to add vinyl numbers in a modern font to the box. <PERSON> used an outdoor vinyl and cut the numbers on a Cricut Maker.", "401" ], [ "Let's Build a Partition Wall\nIntroduction: Let's Build a Partition Wall\nWe built a partition wall in the garage to separate workspace from storage space.\nNow, if you're a professional reading this, you may be shaking your head at why we built our wall the way we did. Our design choices were made based on our skill and strength level, as well as the tools we own.\nJoin our newsletter for weekly projects!\nSupplies\nYou will find a complete this of material/tools with links on our website.\nMaterials:\n* Tapcon 3/16 in. x 3-1/4 in. Phillips-Flat-Head Concrete Anchors\n* (32) Simpson Strong-Tie 20-Gauge 2X Reversible Stud Plate Tie\n* Simpson Strong-Tie Strong-Drive 8d x 1-1/2 in. SCN Smooth-Shank Connector Nai\n* SPAX #9 x 2-1/2 in. T-Star Drive Flat-Head Partial Thread Yellow Zinc Coated Multi-Material Screw\n* (3) 10’ 2x4\n* (8) 8’ 2x4\n* (3) 4’x8’ Underlayment\nStep 1: Watch the Video for Step by Step Tutorial\nStep 2: Make a Plan\nIn a nutshell, this is our wall design. Three horizontal boards for the bottom and top plates, 8 studs and metal plates to hold it all together.\nThe garage ceiling was a little over 8 feet tall which necessitated an extra top plate to compensate for the extra ceiling height.\nStep 3: Determine Placement\nAfter determining where the wall was going to be built, we cut out the baseboard so the 2x4 would sit flush to the side wall. We chose this location based on the availability of a stud in the existing wall which would help support our new wall.\nStep 4: Securing the Base Plate\nAfter cutting the board to size, we marked the placement on the floor with painter's tape.\nWe used a rotary hammer and speciality bit to drill through the 2x4 into the concrete below. We continually vacuumed out the wood and concrete dust which was essential so the screws could be fully screwed into place.\nAn impact driver proved to be effective in drilling in the Tapcon screws. We used Tapcon screws just in case we ever wanted to remove the wall. Other anchor methods are permanent.\nBefore securing the top plate, the bottom and top plates were put on top of each other to mark the placement of the studs. The studs are placed 16\" on center, which means when you measure from the center of one stud to the center of the next one it should measure 16\".\nStep 5: Add Supports in the Ceiling\nWe had the luxury of being able to tie into an existing wall stud, but weren't so lucky when it came to tying into a joist in the ceiling.", "181" ], [ "We had to add some blocking to extend a 2x4 over the placement of the top plate so that we had something to screw into to support the wall.\nThose short pieces of wood extend the new joist to the position right over the top plate placement. The clamps were used to keep everything tight while screwing it into place.\nStep 6: Secure Top Plates to the Ceiling\nIn this photo we've already screwed one top plate into place and are now working on the second. Two top plates are actually not required in this type of non-load bearing partition wall. The ceiling in the garage is a little over 8'. We decided that we could use two top plates and 8' studs would fit without cutting or we could have used one top plate, purchased longer 2x4s, then cut them to size. We decided it made more sense to use the second plate.\nStep 7: Add in the Studs\nWith the bottom and top plates in place, it was now time to put in the studs. The first one was nailed to the existing side wall. The level showed the stud was perfectly straight!\nOkay, you're probably asking why we used those plate things rather than the traditional toenailing technique. Well, frankly, with our skill set and strength we could not physically do it. Through some research we found an alternative way to attach the studs to the bottom and top plates. These Simpson Strong-Tie stud plates were just what we needed.\nWe used a Ridgid pneumatic palm nailer with a Ridgid compressor to drive the nails. This was easy AND fun! This tool drives the nails with ease.\nAll the studs are in place and ready for the final step.\nStep 8: Add Underlayment to Back Side of Wall\nThe last step was to attach thin underlayment to the backside with a brad nailer.", "56" ] ]

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[ [ "How to Solve Optimisation Problems using Penalty Functions in Python\nI am working on a implementing a simple quadratic optimisation problem:\n$$\\min _x \\; {\\underline{x}}^T Q {\\underline{x}}$$ $$s.t. \\,\\quad {\\underline{\\mu}}^T{\\underline{x}} = R^*$$ $$ \\quad \\quad \\underline{1}^T\\underline{x} = 1 $$ I also expect to go on to include the inequality constraint, as an additional complexity, once the above is working.\n$$ x_i \\geq 0$$ The method I think is simplest, and which I understand best for implementing these constraints, is the penalty function method, where we modify the objective function to 'steer' the optimisation away from forbidden regions.", "490" ], [ "By carefully parameterising the size of the penalties, I have achieved good results using SciPy's built-in Nelder-Mead Simplex algorithm, using the objective function below.\ndef objective(x):\nQ = DF.cov() # Covariance matrix\n# Penalty Function method\npenalty1 = 0.0005 * abs(np.sum(x)-1) # Large for sum(x) <> 1\npenalty2 = 0.05 * abs(R_min - np.matmul(Mus.transpose(), x)) # Large for returns <> R_min\nreturn np.matmul(x.transpose(),np.matmul(Q,x)) + penalty1 + penalty2\nNow, I wish to use other optimisation algorithms (in particular BFGS and Newton-CG), which require the gradient and Hessian of the objective function. I have implemented the derivative functions in the unconstrained case, but by adding the penalty terms to the objective (and the derivatives of the penalties to the gradient function) optimisation fails with the following error:\nWarning: Desired error not necessarily achieved due to precision loss.\nCurrent function value: 0.000056\nIterations: 0\nFunction evaluations: 780\nGradient evaluations: 96\n(Previously Iterations would be a few hundred). This strictly occurs with penalty1, but not penalty2 by itself, so either my derivative is wrong for penalty1:\npenalty1_der = np.sign(x)\nOr can I not use the L1 norm in this way? I also tried replacing the constraint with a smoother, quadratic approximation:\npenalty1 = np.matmul((x - vector_ones).transpose(), (x - vector_ones))\nbut unfortunately, although this prevents the error, Minimize() seems to completely ignore my penalty functions (even with vastly increased parameters).\nHow can I implement my constraints such that I can solve the problem using BFGS/Newton-CG?", "509" ], [ "Whilst I agree with the general consensus of responders that this is not the best way to solve the minimisation problem in the question, I have now resolved the challenge and can answer my own question to share the way one might overcome similar issues in using penalty methods to resolve optimisation problems in Python.\nThe key mathematical issue is indeed the non-differentiability of the penalty functions; it seems that best practice is to use a polynomial of the same order as the objective function; in this way you ensure the behaviour of the penalty is complementary to your objective function. Considering <PERSON> series, it seems conceptually clear that you should be able to form a sum of these polynomials, of different coefficients, to well approximate almost any penalty you might desire.\nThe key programming issue (which will cause the SciPy error in the question) comes from providing incorrect Jacobian (and/or Hessian) functions to scipy.optimize.minimize(). The addition of the penalty function makes the calculation of the gradient vector and Hessian matrix considerably more difficult, and I had to calculate these by hand.", "768" ], [ "Fortunately SciPy provides a function to test your gradient function: check_grad(F, dF, x_k)), which compares the norm of your gradient function at x_k against an inbuilt finite difference approximation over a small region around x_k. Typically if this returns something $<10^{-4}$ then your function is likely correct (well, correct enough). This doesn't hold for the Hessian matrix, so more careful calculation is required.\nSo, for this question, I swapped the absolute, linear terms in the both penalty functions above with quadratic approximations:\ndef objective(x):\nQ = DF.cov() # Covariance matrix\nvar = np.matmul(W.transpose(),np.matmul(Q,x)) # Variance vector\n# Penalty Function method\npenalty1 = (np.sum(x)-1)**2 # Large for sum(x) <> 1\npenalty2 = 100*(R_min - np.dot(Mus, x))**2 # Large for returns <> minR\nreturn var + penalty1 + penalty2\nThese are therefore twice differentiable and, after some painstaking matrix and vector derivative calculations, yielded gradient and Hessian functions as below:\ndef der_objective(x):\nQ = DF.cov()\nder = 2 * np.matmul(Q,x)\npenalty1_der = np.array([2*np.sum(x)-2 for i,xi in enumerate(x)])\npenalty2_der = 100*np.array([ 2*Mus[i]*(np.dot(Mus,x) - R_min) for i,xi in enumerate(x)])\nreturn der + penalty1_der + penalty2_der\ndef hess_objective(x):\nQ = DF.cov()\nhess = 2 * Q.values\n# Assemble Hessian terms for penalty1 function\npenalty1_hess = 2*np.ones_like(hess)\n# Assemble Hessian terms for penalty2 function\nbcast = np.broadcast(Mus.reshape(len(Mus),1),Mus.reshape(1,len(Mus)))\npenalty2_hess = np.empty(bcast.shape)\npenalty2_hess.flat = 100*np.array([2*a*b for (a,b) in bcast])\nreturn hess + penalty1_hess + penalty2_hess\nThese are then typically passed to the simple interface provided by SciPy to select a minimisation routine:\nresult = scipy.optimize.minimize(fun=objective, x0=x_k, method='BFGS',\njac=der_objective, hess=hess_objective,\noptions={'tol':1e-6,'maxiter':1e3})", "509" ], [ "Open Source Quadratic Programming with Piecewise Linear Objective\nI am looking for an open source solver to solve the a quadratic programming problem with an additional piecewise linear objective, as show below. The problem is fairly small ($\\mathbf{x}$ is a vector of dimension 120).\n\\begin{equation} \\max_{x}: \\mathbf{x}^{T} \\mathbf{q_0} - \\mathbf{x^{T}} P_0 \\mathbf{x} - f(\\mathbf{x}) \\end{equation}\nNote that above $P_0$ is positive semidefinite and $f$ is piecewise linear for each variable in $\\mathbf{x}$ but not convex.", "935" ], [ "For each $x_i$, $i \\in \\left{1, ..., 120\\right}$, $f(x)$ would be a vector of coordinate points, e.g.\n[(x_0, y_0), (x_1, y_1), ..., (x_N, y_N)]\nFor any given $x_i$, $f(x_i)$ looks something like the following.\nSince $f$ does not depend on any cross terms in $\\mathbf{x}$, the above optimization could also be written as\n\\begin{equation} \\max_{x}: \\mathbf{x}^{T} \\mathbf{q_0} - \\mathbf{x^{T}} P_0 \\mathbf{x} - (f(x_1) + ... + f(x_{120})) \\end{equation}\nThe are also linear constraints of the form $A\\mathbf{x} < \\mathbf{b}$ are added.\nI have formulated the problem in Gurobi which is fairly straightforward but was hoping to compare this to an open source solver. Looking around it seems like GLPK would work for this, but I have no experience using this library so was hoping for a bit of info related to this or alternative solutions.\nA sample problem for gurobi using the matlab API is shown below.\nN = 2;\nq_0 = [-3.31e3, -5.07e3];\nP_0 = [-0.90e-04 -0.63e-04;\n-0.63e-04 -0.90e-04];\nx = [-2.0000e9, -1.0000e9, -0.8000e9, -0.6000e9, -0.4000e9, -0.2500e9,...\n-0.1000e9, -0.0500e9, -0.0250e9, -0.0100e9, -0.0010e9, 0, 0.0010e9,...\n0.0100e9, 0.0250e9, 0.0500e9, 0.1000e9, 0.2500e9, 0.4000e9,...\n0.6000e9, 0.8000e9, 1.0000e9, 2.0000e9];\ny = [2.938964e6, 0.753364e6, 0.488104e6, 0.280144e6, 0.129472e6,...\n0.053766e6, 0.011007e6, 0.003751e6, 0.001435e6, 0.000465e6,...\n0.000037e6, 0, 0.000037e6, 0.000465e6, 0.001435e6, 0.003751e6,...\n0.011007e6, 0.053766e6, 0.129472e6, 0.280144e6, 0.488104e6,...\n0.753364e6, 2.938964e6];\nparams.outputflag = 0;\n%formulate model\nmodel.obj = zeros(N, 1);\nmodel.Q = sparse(P_0);\nmodel.A = sparse(zeros(1, N));\nmodel.sense = '=';\nmodel.rhs = 0;\nmodel.ub = repmat(1e9, N, 1);\nmodel.lb = repmat(-1e9, N, 1);\nmodel.modelsense = 'max';\n% piecewise tcosts\nfor i = 1:2\nmodel.pwlobj(i).var = i;\nmodel.pwlobj(i).x = x;\nmodel.pwlobj(i).", "935" ], [ "Matrix Balancing Algorithm\nI have been writing a control system toolbox from scratch and purely in Python3 (shameless plug : <PERSON> ). From my past research, I have always complaints about the Riccati solver care.m for reasons that are technical/irrelevant.\nHence, I've been writing my own set of routines. One thing I can't find a way around is to obtain a high-performance balancing algorithm, at least as good as balance.m. Before you mention it, xGEBAL family is exposed in Scipy and you can basically call from Scipy as follows, suppose you have a float type 2D array A:\nimport scipy as sp\ngebal = sp.linalg.get_lapack_funcs(('gebal'),(A,)) # this picks up DGEBAL\nAb, lo, hi, scaling , info = gebal(A, scale=1 , permute=1 , overwrite_a=0 )\nNow if I use the following test matrix\narray([[ 6. , 0. , 0. , 0. , 0.000002],\n[ 0. , 8. , 0. , 0. , 0. ],\n[ 2. , 2. , 6. , 0. , 0. ],\n[ 2. , 2. , 0. , 8. , 0. ],\n[ 0. , 0. , 0.000002, 0. , 2. ]])\nI get\narray([[ 8. , 0. , 0.", "768" ], [ ", 2. , 2. ],\n[ 0. , 2. , 0.000002, 0. , 0. ],\n[ 0. , 0. , 6. , 2. , 2. ],\n[ 0. , 0.000002, 0. , 6. , 0. ],\n[ 0. , 0. , 0. , 0. , 8. ]])\nHowever, if I pass this to balance.m, I get\n>> balance(A)\nans =\n8.0000 0 0 0.0625 2.0000\n0 2.0000 0.0001 0 0\n0 0 6.0000 0.0002 0.0078\n0 0.0003 0 6.0000 0\n0 0 0 0 8.0000\nIf you check the permutation patterns, they are the same however the scaling is off. gebal gives unity scalings whereas matlab gives the following powers of 2: [-5,0,8,0,2].\nSo apparently, these are not using the same machinery. I've tried various options such as Lemonnier, Van Dooren two sided scaling, original Parlett-Reinsch and also some other less-known methods in the literature such as the dense version of SPBALANCE.\nOne point maybe I might emphasize is that I am aware of <PERSON>'s work; in particular the Symplectic Balancing of Hamiltonian Matrices specifically for this purpose. However, note that this type of treatment is done within gcare.m (generalized <PERSON> solver) and balancing is done directly via balance.m. Hence, I would appreciate if someone can point me to the actual implementation.\nDisclosure: I am really not trying to reverse engineer mathworks code: I actually want to get away from it due to various reasons including the motivation of this question, that is to say, I don't know what it is doing which costed me lots of time back in the day. My intention is to get a satisfactory balancing algorithm that allows me to pass CAREX examples such that I can implement <PERSON><PHONE_NUMBER>\n0 0.0003 0 6.0000 0\n0 0 0 0 8.0000\nIf you check the permutation patterns, they are the same however the scaling is off. gebal gives unity scalings whereas matlab gives the following powers of 2: [-5,0,8,0,2].\nSo apparently, these are not using the same machinery. I've tried various options such as Lemonnier, Van Dooren two sided scaling, original Parlett-Reinsch and also some other less-known methods in the literature such as the dense version of SPBALANCE.\nOne point maybe I might emphasize is that I am aware of Benner's work; in particular the Symplectic Balancing of Hamiltonian Matrices specifically for this purpose. However, note that this type of treatment is done within gcare.m (generalized Riccati solver) and balancing is done directly via balance.m. Hence, I would appreciate if someone can point me to the actual implementation.", "768" ], [ "Questions regarding the result of the cvxpy\nI want to optimize the function $$\\min_{X \\in \\mathbb{S}^{n}_{+}} tr(C^TX) + tr(X^{-1}),$$\nof which I optimize the equivalent problem $$\\min tr(C^TX) + tr(Z)$$\n$$\\text{s.t.} \\begin{matrix} \\begin{pmatrix} Z & I\\ I & X \\ \\end{pmatrix} \\end{matrix} \\succeq 0 $$\nso that it follows the dcp form of cvxpy. Moreover, note that the function has the gradient $C - X^{-2}$. So I define $C$ to be $X_0^{-2}$ for some symmetric positive definite matrix $X_0$. Since the problem is convex, we have that the gradient is $0$ at $X = X_0$.", "563" ], [ "And in this way I can check the performance of the optimization. However, as I put the code in cvxpy, the algorithm suggests that the optimal point is another point. Below is the code and the output.\n``` import cvxpy as cp import numpy as np import random def symm(A): #symmetric operator return 0.5 *(A + A.T)\nnp.random.seed(1) n = 50 CN = 10 data_choice = 'sparse' solver_choice = 'CG'\nD = 1000 * np.diag(np.logspace(-np.log(CN), 0, n)) Q, R = np.linalg.qr(np.random.normal(size = (n,n))) A = Q @ D @ Q A = (A.T + A)/2 C= np.linalg.inv(A) @ np.linalg.inv(A)\nX = cp.Variable((n, n) , symmetric=True) Z = cp.Variable((n, n) , symmetric=True) V = cp.bmat([[Z, np.eye(n)], [np.eye(n), X]])\nconstraints = [V >> 0] obj = cp.Minimize(cp.trace(C.T @ X) + cp.trace(Z)) prob = cp.Problem(obj,constraints)\nhistory = prob.solve(verbose = True) ```\n```\nCVXPY\nv1.1.18\n=============================================================================== (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: Your problem has 5000 variables, 1 constraints, and 0 parameters. (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: It is compliant with the following grammars: DCP, DQCP (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: (If you need to solve this problem multiple times, but with different data, consider using parameters.) (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: CVXPY will first compile your problem; then, it will invoke a numerical solver to obtain a solution.\nCompilation\n(CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: Compiling problem (target solver=SCS). (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: Reduction chain: Dcp2Cone -> CvxAttr2Constr -> ConeMatrixStuffing -> SCS (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: Applying reduction Dcp2Cone (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: Applying reduction CvxAttr2Constr (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: Applying reduction ConeMatrixStuffing (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: Applying reduction SCS (CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: Finished problem compilation (took 3.301e-02 seconds).\nNumerical solver\n(CVXPY) Feb 14 12:43:40 AM: Invoking solver SCS to obtain a solution.\nSCS v3.1.0 - Splitting Conic Solver\n(c) <PERSON>, Stanford University, 2012\nproblem: variables n: 2550, constraints m: 5050 cones: s: psd vars: 5050, ssize: 1 settings: eps_abs: 1.0e-05, eps_rel: 1.0e-05, eps_infeas: 1.0e-07 alpha: 1.50, scale: 1.", "509" ], [ "Time Series - Models seem to not learn\nI am doing my undergrad Dissertation on time series prediction, and use various models (linear /ridge regression, AR(2), Random Forest, SVR, and 4 variations of Neural Networks) to try and 'predict' (for academic only reasons) daily return data, using as input lagged returns and SMA - RSI features (using TA - Lib) built based on those returns. However, I have noticed that my NNs do not learn anything, and upon inspecting the loss graph and the vector of predictions, I noticed it only predicts a single value, with the same applying for the Ridge and AR regressions.\nAlso, when I try to calculate the correlation between the labels and the predictions (of the NNs) I get 'nan' as a result, no matter what I try, which I suspect has to do with the predictions.", "458" ], [ "I also get wildly varying r2 scores on each re-run (even though I have set multiple seeds, both on Tensorflow backend as well as numpy) and always negative, which I cannot understand as even though my search on the internet and the sklearn's docs say it can be negative, my professor insists it cannot be, and I truly am bewildered.\nWhat can I do about it? Isn't it obviously wrong for an entire NN to predict only a single value? Below I include the code for the ridge / AR regressions as well as the 'Vanilla NN' and a couple of useful graphs. The data itself is quite large, so I don't know if there's much of a point to include it if not asked specifically, given there are no algorithmic errors below.\n```python def vanillaNN(X_train, y_train,X_test,y_test): n_cols = X_train.shape1 model = Sequential() model.add(Dense(100,activation='relu', input_shape=(n_cols, ))) model.add(Dropout(0.3)) model.add(Dense(150, activation='relu')) model.add(Dense(50, activation='relu')) model.add(Dropout(0.1)) model.add(Dense(1))\nmodel.compile(optimizer='adam', loss='mse', metrics=['mse'])\nhistory = model.fit(X_train,y_train,epochs=100,verbose=0,\nshuffle=False, validation_split=0.1)\n# Use the last loss as the title\nplt.plot(history.history['loss'])\nplt.title('last loss:' + str(round(history.history['loss'][-1], 6)))\nplt.xlabel('Epoch')\nplt.ylabel('Loss')\nplt.show()\n# Calculate R^2 score and MSE\n# .... Omitted Code ......\n# it returns those for testing purposes in the IPython shell\nreturn (train_scores, test_scores, y_pred_train, y_pred_test, y_train, y_test)\nVNN_results = vanillaNN(\ntrain_features,train_targets,\ntest_features,test_targets)\n```\n```python def AR(X_train, order=2): arma_train = np.array(X_train['returns']) armodel = ARMA(arma_train, order=(order,0)) armodel_results = armodel.fit() print(armodel_results.summary()) armodel_results.plot_predict(start=8670, end=8698) plt.show() ar_pred = armodel_results.predict(start=8699, end=9665)\n# ...r2 and MSE scores omitted code...\nreturn [mse_ar2, r2_ar2, ar_pred]\n```\n```python def Elastic(X_train, y_train, X_test, y_test): elastic = ElasticNet() param_grid_elastic = {'alpha': [0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.5], 'l1_ratio': [0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.5] } grid_elastic = GridSearchCV(elastic, param_grid_elastic, cv=tscv.split(X_train),scoring='neg_mean_squared_error')\ngrid_elastic.fit(X_train, y_train)\ny_pred_train = grid_elastic.", "392" ], [ "Reverse scaling Synthetic KDE data\nFor Python 3.9, sklearn version: 0.24.2 and numpy version: 1.20.3, I am using a Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) generative model. The goal is to generate new data using a given input data. The steps to achieve this involve:\n1. Scale input data to be in range [-1, 1] using MinMaxScaler\n2.", "506" ], [ "Train KDE model on scaled input data\n3. Use trained KDE model to generate new sample/synthetic (scaled) data\n4. Use trained scaler from step - 1 to get data back in original scale\nThe accompanying code for this is:\n# Generate random data-\nx = np.random.normal(loc = -2.3, scale = 5.7, size = (2000, 1))\nx.shape\n# (2000, 1)\nx.min(), x.max()\n# (-22.290805843994956, 20.51752418364843)\n# Visualize current distribution-\nn, bins, patches = plt.hist(x.flatten(), bins = int(np.ceil(np.sqrt(x.size))))\nplt.show()\n# Initialize and train a Min-Max scaler-\nmm_scaler = MinMaxScaler(feature_range = (-1, 1))\nx_scaled = mm_scaler.fit_transform(x)\n# Sanity check-\nx_scaled.min(), x_scaled.max()\n# (-1.0, 1.0)\n# Define a range of bandwidth values to hyper-parameter tune-\nbandwidth = np.arange(0.01, 3, .01)\nbandwidth.min(), bandwidth.max()\n# (0.01, 2.9899999999999998)\n# Define a KDE instance-\nkde_model = KernelDensity(kernel = 'gaussian')\n# Define GridSearchCV object-\ngrid = GridSearchCV(\nestimator = kde_model,\nparam_grid = {'bandwidth': bandwidth}\n)\n# Perform hyper-parameter tuning with GridSearchCV on scaled training data-\ngrid.fit(x_scaled)\n# The best model can be retrieved by using the 'best_estimator_' value of the GridSearchCV object-\ngrid.best_estimator_\n# KernelDensity(bandwidth=0.09)\n# Return parameter value that maximizes the log-likelihood of data-\ngrid.best_params_\n# {'bandwidth': 0.09}\ngrid.best_score_\n# -44.610465074723415\n# Get a 'best' model from above-\nkde_best = grid.best_estimator_\nkde_best.bandwidth, kde_best.kernel\n# (0.09, 'gaussian')\n# Sample/generate new samples from KDE model-\nx_sampled = kde_best.sample(n_samples = 500)\n# Reverse scaling to get back original data-\nx_sampled_orig = mm_scaler.inverse_transform(x_sampled)\nx_sampled_orig.shape\n# (500, 1)\nx.min(), x.max()\n# (-22.290805843994956, 20.51752418364843)\nx_sampled_orig.min(), x_sampled_orig.max()\n# (-20.845276754891053, 15.763606405371979)\nThe scaling of 'x' and 'x_sampled_orig' is different due to two reasons:\n1. The 'mm_scaler' was trained on 'x' which had a different distribution as compared to 'x_sampled_orig'\n2. KDE trained model will generate stochastic data which will generate new data samples having different min and max values\nIf there are some other reasons, please let me know.\nMy question is: how can I make 'x_sampled_orig' synthetic samples have as close min and max range as compared to 'x' original data?", "988" ], [ "Active Elements in Projected Newton's Method?\nTo those who are familiar with the projected <PERSON>'s method or projected gradient method...\nWe consider a constrained optimization problem with simple bounds. Particularly, minimize f(x) subject to L <= x <= U, where f maps R^n to R. x, L, and U are vectors in R^n. In the projected <PERSON>'s method that is used to solve this problem, the search direction is obtained by solving the linear system (reduced Hessian)*(search direction) = - gradient. Based on this, the active elements of an iterate are moved in the direction of the negative gradients at those elements. By definition of active sets, the gradients at the active elements have to be negative (for upper bound) and positive (for lower bound).", "768" ], [ "Hence, after projection, the active elements are moved back to the boundary.\nMy first question is if x_i is an active element in iteration 1, will it be an active element until convergence? In other words, does the active set only get bigger, not smaller, and members of the active set are only added, not removed?\nMy second question is what if we use epsilon active set instead of just active set? Will it change anything?\nIf you need the definition of active set or any other clarification/background, please feel free to let me know. Thank you so much for your ideas and discussions. This is very important to me.\n%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%\nEDIT: We consider the problem: \\begin{equation} \\min f(x) \\quad \\text{subject to} \\quad a \\leq x \\leq b \\end{equation} where $f: \\mathbb{R}^n \\rightarrow \\mathbb{R}$ is continuously differentiable.\nAn active set is defined as \\begin{equation} \\mathcal{A}:= { i | (x_i = a_i \\quad \\text{and} \\quad (\\nabla f(x))_i > 0) \\quad \\text{or} \\quad (x_i = b_i \\quad \\text{and} \\quad (\\nabla f(x))_i < 0) } \\end{equation}\nSuppose our initial iterate $x_0$ is on the boundary, e.g. $x_0 = a$, then it is possible to have some inactive elements where $(\\nabla f(x))_i < 0$, right?\nIn the projected <PERSON>'s method, first with step length $\\alpha = 1$, the active elements move in the directions of the negative gradients, which will point outside of the feasible region. Then, those elements are projected back to the boundaries. The inactive elements move in the <PERSON> directions. Then we test for sufficient decrease...but even when we decrease $\\alpha$, the active elements still move back to the boundaries and those elements still meet the \"active\" criteria in the next <PERSON> iteration?\nI know the active set can shrink...there must be something wrong in my thoughts...", "474" ] ]

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[ [ "In the first case ($\\sigma / \\varepsilon_0$), if you extend the gaussian surface of the cylinder to very far away from the surface of the conductor a central point will not be true in the calculation: The flux on this lateral surface will not be zero.\nThis is a central point in the case of a conductor: it is reasonable suppose that there are no tangential electric field just upside the conductor surface, or else there will be currents. So the point is that the tangential component of the field must be zero, adding no flux to the lateral area of the cylindrical gaussian surface...\nThe second case is trickier. It's totally non-intuitive to obtain as a result of a charge distribution a constant field as far as in the flux expression you have an electric field that should decay as $1/ r^2$ as you pointed.\nI would pinpoint some arguments that I think can give you some hints.\n(i) The situation of an infinite charged plane is quite artificial. It will off course never occur in a laboratory. That said, the calculation of a infinite plane is usefull if you think of a finite plane, for which you want to identify the field in the central regions.\n(ii) This situation is a very good approximation for parallel plate capacitor, if the distance between the plates is very small and the deviation of the field from that occurs more noticeably in the ends of the plates.\n(iii) About the dilema of a non-intuitive result I can think of a physical argument, why it must occur, which is current in the textbooks... Take a central point $P$ that is distant a quantity $x$ from the plane.", "531" ], [ "If you take for instance a small $dQ$ in the plane distant $x\\sqrt{2}$ of this point, you will have a right triangle, $x,x,x\\sqrt{2}$. Now, take the opposed $dQ$ that forms the same right triangle and sum the electric field of both charges in $P$. You will get an electric field perpendicular to the plane as a result that depends on the sine of the distance $dQ$-$P$ and the plane. If you take another point distant $2x$ first as the distance increase by 2, the field diminishes by 4. But this sine term increases if you go from $x$ to $2x$. So, all in all if you integrate over all the sheet the influences equalize each other... (I will try to develop a little bit better point (iii) soon).", "586" ], [ "what you calculated is the purely electric energy of an ideal (infinitely small) dipole. It is more usually written as $U = -\\vec E\\cdot \\vec p$ with $\\vec E$ the external field and $\\vec p$ the dipole moment. This is useful as it can be applied directly to rigid dipoles (like some molecular dipoles). For example, you can recover using the principle of virtual work the force ($\\vec F = \\vec \\nabla \\vec E\\cdot \\vec p$) and torque ($\\vec M=\\vec p \\times \\vec E$) applied on the dipole by an external field. For example, at a fixed location, this means the dipole wants to align with the field. You can also calculate thermodynamic properties leading to temperature dependent susceptibility, the electric analogue of <PERSON> paramagnetism, or some Van der Waals forces (Keesome forces).\nHowever, for a dielectric, you need to include the internal energy which results from the dipole's deformation due to the external field. In the case of a linear dielectric dipole for example, this becomes $U = -\\frac{1}{2}\\vec E\\cdot \\vec p$. The $1/2$ comes from the quadratic form of energy, and note the sign change.", "780" ], [ "Similarily, you can compute the force, and note that if the suscepibility is positive (as in most cases), this means that the dipole is attracted to regions of intense field. You can also calculate new Van der Waals forces (Debye force).\nHope it helps and tell me if you find some mistakes.\nEdit: Just as a mathematical clarification, a quicker derivation of your formula is by using the voltage $V$. Writing $q,-q$ the charges of the points at position $\\vec r_1,\\vec r_2$, you get $U = q(V(\\vec r_1)-V(\\vec r_2)) = -\\vec E \\cdot \\vec p$ with $\\vec p = q(\\vec r_1-\\vec r_2)$ and using a linear approximation.\nFor the linear dielectric case, a simple way to calculate the energy is to notice that the expression of the force $\\vec F = \\vec p\\cdot \\vec \\nabla \\vec E$ is always true (by the same argument as above this time using the field instead of the voltage), and since $\\vec p$ is proportional to $\\vec E$, you get $\\vec F = -\\vec \\nabla(-\\frac{1}{2}\\vec p\\cdot \\vec E)$.\nYou can also calculate explicitly the elastic energy and add it to the previously calculated purely electric energy to get the same result, you'll have to introduce an additional elastic constant.\nEdit: Sorry, I went off-topic. The internal energy of a dipole diverges in the ideal case, similarly to the self energy of a point charge. You could have just used directly the electrostatic energy to get $U = -\\frac{q^2}{4\\pi\\epsilon_0d}$ (you assume the force constant which is why you get the wrong sign). I don't know any applications of this, since you typically don't want to consider self energies, even when they are finite, they cancel out in energy differences being constant. Furthermore, for the link with dielectrics, you look at the response of induced charges due to the free charges so it is not the internal energy you are interested in. The only context that I can think of where it might be relevant is in particle physics where you calculate radiative correction, but for the relevant accuracy, a full quantum mechanical formalism is necessary.", "780" ], [ "The two pictures obviously can't refer to the same thing.\nActually, they do.\nYou see, $FE(E,T)$, the Fermi function, is the mean number of fermions in the state of given energy E at temperature T. Hopefuly, it is bounded between 0 and 1 so only zero or one fermion in these quantum states. In this case, $\\mu$ is the limit of energy at wich you have one half of a chance to found a fermion in you gas. Lower energy levels will mostly be filled and higher ones will be empty.\nObviously, in order to generalise the distribution it is common to normalize regarding $k_bT$ i.e $\\beta = \\frac{1}{k_bT}$. $\\mu$ actually depends on your system and mostly on your system's reservoir and so is fixed with regards to N and T (else the distribution isn't valid, meaning you don't have enough particles or the temperature is too high).\nI did a plot of two characterising limit $\\nu$ (sorry for notation change, it's old) relatively different to the temperature of their systems as $\\nu = 10k_bT$ and $\\nu = 50k_bT$.", "28" ], [ "e is in $k_bT$ units.\nAs you can see, as the distribution is exponentially decaying between $\\nu-5k_bT$ and $\\nu+5k_bT$. This gives you the density of distribution of your fermions in the different energy states around.\nIf you keep an eye on a constant $\\mu$ (or $\\nu$ in the case of my plot) you will see the distribution sharpen as you decrease the temperature. This defines the so called \"Fermi sphere\" in the p space containing all the energy levels of your fermions at zero temperature. As such you define it's radius as $p_F$ giving you a total number of quantic states (for electrons): $$\\frac{4}{3}\\pi p_F^3\\frac{V}{h^3}2=N$$ (2 is due to the 1/2 spin of electrons) As such, you can define the Fermi energy as $\\epsilon_F = \\frac{p_F^2}{2m}$ giving you the fermi level at $0\\ K$: $\\mu_F=\\epsilon_F$.\nRemember that $\\mu$ depends on the system bath and that the distribution along the energy states varies with $T$. Hope this helps a bit.", "28" ], [ "Electric field in asymmetric conductor configuration\nI was trying to figure out an electrostatics exercise. I am confortable solving these type of problems, when there is an easy application of symmetrical properties and Gauss's Law. But this one took me by surprise. As the picture shows, there is a spherical surface with charge +q, as well as the ellipsoidal surface. Both are conductors and hollow, without any type of contact between them. The figure shows a cross section of the configuration, showing qualitatively that they are not centered at the same point, but still the ellipsoidal axis passes right through the center of the sphere shell.\nI don't have to calculate the field in all space. All I must do is order the points A,B,C and D in increasing order of electric field. I am stucked because it seems to me that I don't have the tools to contemplate the charge redistribution problem.\nIf we were dealing with static charges it would be quite easy to realize that the superposition principle applies inmediately. Maybe it is easier if I try to imagine different steps to achieve this distribution. First I imagined an empty spherical shell, with an homogeneus charge distribution throughout it's surface.", "903" ], [ "Using Gauss we would get that the field inside is zero. Later we would add the ellipsoidal. And here is when I ask myself, the charge distribution of the spherical shell at a first instant doesn't affect the ellipsoidal one. The latter creates an electric field that would reaccomodate the spherical charges. After this I am not sure of what could be said about the field inside the sphere.\nIt is not zero between the ellipsoidal and the sphere. But it is indeed zero inside the ellipsoidal. Inmediately outside the ellipsoidal the field is normal to the surface.\nI must say also, that the exercise asks to calculate the external field to the sphere, which I suspect is the same as if there was a sphere charged with $+2q$. This hunch is product of the way the question is being asked. If this is true it would be very nice to know why since it is inconclusive what happens after the \"redistribution time\".\nHope the doubt is clear enough. Thanks for reading.", "903" ], [ "When to use which representation for an electric field\nIn class we covered three types of possibilities to evaluate the electric field for static problems. Unfortunately, most physics textbooks cover these ways without addressing the question of applicability when they introduce these equations due to historical motivation.\nOne possibility is <PERSON>'s law:\n$$\\int_{\\partial V} \\langle E, n \\rangle dS = \\int_V \\frac{\\rho}{\\varepsilon_0} dx$$ This can only be used, when $E$ does by geometrical consideration not depend on the variables that the surface integral depends on(like in spherical symmetry, when it is not a function of the angles, but just of the radius), then it can be used to determine the electric field by a charged sphere. What we can get then, is an electric field on the surface of some volume that contains a particular charge.\nThen we have:\n$$ E(x) = \\frac{1}{4 \\pi \\varepsilon_0} \\int_{\\mathbb{R}^3} \\frac{\\rho(x')(x-x')}{||x-x'||^3} dx'.$$\nThis is more general in the sense that it does not require any symmetry or reduction to charges inside some volume.\nAnd finally we have $$\\Delta \\phi(x) = -\\frac{\\rho(x)}{\\varepsilon_0},$$\nwhich is the most general way to think about electrostatic problems and contains (assuming that the solution fulfills all boundary conditions) all information.\nI hope my understanding was correct so far.", "903" ], [ "In that case, my question is: How do I distinguish boundary value problems from problems where the first two equation apply?\nMany problems are like: Given a sphere with a particular charge distribution, calculate the field everywhere around! What does this mean, does this mean that I should think of this as a ball of charges assembling in vacuum and the material around being vacuum too? Cause if I assume that this is a metallic sphere or a sphere made out of some material which is different from the material (probably varcuum) around, then this would give me an interface which means that my first two equations don't apply anymore, as I would get boundary conditions. ( I am talking now about this in a strict theoretical sense, maybe they would give me the right result, but for the wrong reasons). Or do these two equations also apply, if the ball is an insulator?", "903" ], [ "Electromagnetism problem: where does the magnetic field come from?\nConsider the following problem:\nConsider a plane with uniform charge density $\\sigma$. Above the said plane, there is a system of conducting wires made up of an U-shaped circuit on which a linear conductor of lenght $d$ can slide with constant velocity $v$. The system as a whole has a rectangular shape and is parallel to the plane. (See the picture). Calculate the line integral of the magnetic field $\\bf B$ along the perimeter $L(t)$ of said rectangle as a function of time.\nMy professor solves this problem using <PERSON>'s fourth equation in integral form, assuming that the current density $\\bf {J} $ is everywhere null, and that the electric field $\\bf E$ is the one generated by a uniformly charged plane, i.e.", "903" ], [ "perpendicular to the the plane and of norm $E=\\frac{\\sigma}{2\\epsilon_0}$; thus yielding $$\\oint_{L(t)} {\\bf B}\\cdot dl=\\mu_0\\epsilon_0\\frac{d}{dt}\\int_{S(t)} {\\bf E}\\cdot dS=\\mu_0\\epsilon_0Edv=0.5\\mu_0\\sigma dv$$\nI think there are some things wrong both with this solution:\n1. There should be no magnetic field at all! A uniformly charged plane only produces an electrostatic field. (I know there could be a magnetic field generated by the current inside the wires, but then you couldn't assume that $\\bf J$ is null everywhere as my professor did!)\n2. <PERSON>'s fourth equation does not hold in that form if the domains of integration are allowed to vary with time. In fact, by resorting to the differential forms, we find that plugging ${\\bf J}=\\vec 0$ and $\\frac{\\partial {\\bf E}}{\\partial t}=0$, as my professor assumed, yields $rot{\\bf B}=0$, and thus the line integral of the magnetic field over any closed curve, at any istant, should be zero by <PERSON>' theorem!\nTherefore, my question is the following.\nAre the my professor's assumption ($\\bf J$ $=\\vec 0$, $\\frac{\\partial{\\bf E}}{\\partial t}=\\vec 0$) correct, or do both $\\bf J$ and $\\bf E$ need be modified so as to account for the charges present in the circuit? Is there a current in the circuit at all?", "903" ], [ "How to prove that the electric field strength in the interlayer is radial?\nThis is a structure modified from a typical metal spherical capacitor: half of the interlayer is now filled with one kind of uniform, isotropic, and linear dielectric medium whose dielectric constant is $\\epsilon$. See below: Given the radii of the ball inside and the exterior shell, now I have to calculate the capacity of this modified capacitor. My approach is that, as I use when calculating other capacities, let the ball be charged with positive charge $Q$, then calculate the electric field strength distribution in the interlayer, and finally calculate the integral $$\\int_{\\vec{R_1}}^{\\vec{R_2}}\\vec{E}(\\vec{r})\\centerdot d\\vec{r}$$ to obtain the voltage decrease from the \"anode\" to the \"cathode\". Usually I will apply Gauss Theorem to a properly-selected close surface and work out the distribution (to be honest, maybe that's the only thing I can do to solve such problems). It is very easy but always depends terribly on the symmetry.\nNow I am stuck here.", "903" ], [ "The yellow sector is the Gaussian surface I selected, concentric with the ball and with a tiny solid angle $d\\Omega$ as is illustrated in my drawing. Now if I know that the electric strength in the interlayer, then the only thing I need to do is to calculate the $\\vec{E}$ flux through the \"bottom\" and the \"top\" excluding the laterals, which is the key to the success of the application of Gauss Theorem here. But the prerequisite is that in the interlayer the field strength has only radial component, say, without tangent component. Were it not for the dielectric medium that breaks the symmetry this part would be just self-evident. But since the medium is here now, does it hold that the field strength is still radial and Gauss Theorem is still usable here? I believe yes, because the result is indeed rather simple and falls just within my expectation based on Gauss Theorem: $$C=\\frac{2\\pi (1+\\epsilon) R_1 R_2}{R_2-R_1}$$ But I just can't explain why. Or, perhaps the electric field strength is no longer radial in this case (but I deem it much less possible), then with what else can we obtain the result?", "903" ], [ "Both you and your friend are partly right. (I was thinking as your friend just 20 min ago)\nLet me rewrite <PERSON>'s radiating condition for the 2D case (just as an example, it works the same way in 3D).\n$$\\lim_{|\\mathbf{x}|\\to\\infty}\\sqrt{|\\mathbf{x}|}\\left(\\frac{\\partial u}{\\partial|\\mathbf{x}|}-iku\\right)=0\\quad\\forall\\theta$$\nthat is, the limit has to be $0$ when going to infinity in every direction.\nAs you say, if the function $u$ is smooth and goes to zero then the limit is fulfilled.\nOn the other hand your friend may have thought that the term between parentheses is null in the case of a plane wave. This is not completely true.\nIn 2D a plane wave takes the form: $$u\\left(\\mathbf{x}\\right)=Ae^{ik\\mathbf{d}\\cdot\\mathbf{x}}$$\nbeing $A$ the amplitude of the wave, $k$ the wave number (the same as in the <PERSON> equation), $i$ the unit imaginary number, and $\\mathbf{d}$ the unit vector in the direction of propagation of the wave, that is, perpendicular to the wavefront.\nIf we meassure our angles with respect to $\\mathbf{d}$ then the plane wave can also be represented as:\n$$u\\left(\\mathbf{x}\\right)=Ae^{ik|\\mathbf{x}|\\cos(\\theta)}$$\nwhere we only evaluated the scalar product.\nThe derivative with respect to $|\\mathbf{x}|$ is then:\n$$\\frac{\\partial u}{\\partial|\\mathbf{x}|}=Aik\\cos(\\theta)e^{ik|\\mathbf{x}|\\cos(\\theta)}=ik\\cos(\\theta)u\\left(\\mathbf{x}\\right)$$\nand we see that this only satisfies <PERSON>'s radiation condition when $\\theta=0$.\nSo...", "402" ], [ "to sumarize:\nDoes a plane wave satisfy <PERSON>'s radiation condition?\nNo, it must be satisfied in all directions and it only satisfies it in the direction of propagation of the wave.\nWhat does de $iku$ term means?\nIt is what you get when you differentiate a plane wave with respecto to $|\\mathbf{x}|$ along its propagation direction.\nWhat is the meaning of Sommerfield's radiation condition?\nSommerfeld's radiation conditions only allows waves to radiate energy towards infinity (outgoing waves) but not the infinity to radiate back. In the case of a plane wave the propagation of energy goes in only one direction in the whole plane, and with no attenuation (this is not very physical). It means that depending which direction are you looking at the energy is going towards infinity or coming from infinity.\nThe condition says that in every direction in space, the wave has to tend to a plane wave propagating in that direction, and the difference between the actual wave and a plane wave propagatin in that direction has to decrease faster than $\\sqrt{|\\mathbf{x}|}$.\nTo correct you, if a function $u$ decreases faster than $\\sqrt{|\\mathbf{x}|}$ in all directions, then this function will satisfy <PERSON>'s radiation condition, but this condition allow for more general cases.\nHope everything is clearer now.", "346" ] ]

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[ [ "First, to begin this review, two disclaimers :\n-I had the honor of being a playtester for the game, and received a copy by courtesy of GMT.\n-English is not my first language, and I write too much. I acknowledge this is a pretty dreadful combo. In fact, this review is kind of a wall of text. Let’s just say that concision isn’t my main quality.\nSo, for those who don’t want to read this whole review, here’s an...\nAbstract\nBy introducing a new take on some ageing game design concepts, <PERSON> (and the team behind Talon) managed to create a game that feels familiar, inheriting a rich narrative legacy, while offering a fresh and stylish experience, mostly associated with modern designs. The game quickly plays like a breeze, while presenting the kind of intricacies associated to much heavier games. It’s new oldschool, if that means anything. And it’s awesome.\nAnd now for the main review...\n<PERSON> has made a name for himself by creating games which tried (some would say they succeeded) to top some of the most enduring classics of the american school of game design. He did so by following what could be described as a two-pronged approach :\n-sticking to his guns, meaning he didn’t shy away from the most efficient tropes of the genre in which he was working, to adopt some of the most popular boardgame mechanics of the day (in this regard, his approach of the 4x genre with was very different from, say, the approach of , with his role selection mechanic borrowed from Puerto Rico).\n-Yet (and no, there is no paradox here), <PERSON> managed to keep a fresh view on things. Most notable, he developed an ability to free himself from some of the most pregnant gameplay tropes inherited from the very classics he was trying to top, in order to keep things as simple as they needed to be, within the historical or imaginary frame he had chosen to stick to.\nA legacy in game design (no, not Legacy !)\nTalon is a game of space battle between fleets of capital ships. Every word counts here : the game is focused around managing more than one ship for each side, and, though there are some fighters in the game, the game is engineered around managing fleets of bigger ships (each ship coming with its own micro-management imperatives).\nThe game follows a tradition of spaceship combat games initiated by the 1979 classic , which allowed players to recreate fights between ships from the Star Trek license, capturing the imagination of a lot of players.", "504" ], [ "SFB can be described as one of the seminal game in an american tradition of heavy bookkeeping fighting games, spawned from its heavily influential wargame community. This lineage has in turn given birth to some derivative classics like (with cars fighting it out) or (for mechs). Recently, SFB has been re-implemented by a somewhat simplified version called .\nOnce again, <PERSON> objective has been to keep the best of SFB’s narrative and tactical wealth, while simplifying its mechanics and fluidifying the game experience. While his series relied on an historical analysis of WWII tactical doctrine to free itself from the cumbersome legacy of ASL’s gameplay tropes, deeply encroached in its players’ imaginary, Talon is built upon a number of fictional presuppositions clearly stated in its designer’s note, mostly shared with Star Fleet Battles itself (2d representation of space combat, non-Newtonian inertia…).\nThus, Talon uses a lot of gameplay tropes familiar to the tradition its design is firmly following - depleting shields, impulse-based turn sequence, energy allotment as a core mechanic - while introducing a quantity of little adjustments (like, for example, the fact that shields can’t be recharged) to grease the wheels of his system. It’s the dual nature - both familiar and refreshing - of Talon’s core mechanics which makes it an impressive design.\nImpulses and energy consumption : surfing, pacing and timing\nAt the core of Talon’s gameplay lies his impulse-based turn sequence, which is at the core of its brilliance. Every turn is divided into six impulses (A, B, C, D, E and F). Depending of its power output and speed, a ship will be able to use a point of power, or will HAVE to move during one or more of the impulses. Every ship has the opportunity to shoot during every impulse. For example, a ship with a power output of 3 will be able to use a point of power in impulses B, D and F. In the same fashion, a ship with a speed of 3 will have to advance one hex during the same impulses. A ship with a speed of 6 would advance one hex for every impulse.", "937" ], [ "Introduction\nThough quite a well-known designer on bgg, <PERSON> is mostly known for his games Glory to Rome and Innovation. Both games are famous for their exception-based design style, with cards featuring wild special effects, while being embroiled, as multi-use cards, within a complexly interwoven and wildly interactive execution pattern. Managing to get those wild effects going while building an efficient engine to support or allow them is the kind of ride you're aiming for when playing those <PERSON> classics. One does not simply play a card for its effects and get away with it in one of his games (I refuse to insert a <PERSON> meme here).\n4X, in turn, is one of the most strictly defined thematic frame in game design. A 4X is a game that allows you to eXplore unknown chunk of land or space, eXpand your territory, eXterminate your opponents (or miserably die trying), and eXploit resources to do so. Most of those have a galactic empires setting. Among the most popular examples of this rather rigid thematic and mechanic frame, you find classics and hits like Twilight Imperium: Third Edition(which is rather a semi-3x, since it only include an optional and rather poorly thought-out eXploration mechanic), Space Empires 4Xor Eclipse. And those are long games. In fact, doing all figures of the 4x genre in a short or simple time frame, while keeping your strategic and tactical options open enough to turn it into an enjoyable game experience sounds like a contradiction per se.\nImpulse is a Chudyk game, published by <PERSON> Asmadi games. <PERSON> has developed the game, and has also collaborated with <PERSON> on Innovation and co-designed Red7 with him. The graphic design of all those games is the work of <PERSON>. In Impulse, its retro minimalist touch brings a welcome clarity to the otherwise complex Chudyk design (if you don’t like it, though, you should take a look at an alternative visual in this thread.", "366" ], [ "Chances are it will blow your mind).\nCompared to <PERSON>'s main hits, Impulse is not as well known (it has 10 times less ratings than GtR or Innovation). Yet, Impulse is clearly among the best <PERSON> designs, if not the best. In fact, it manages to keep this peculiar vibe I described earlier, while feeling stylistically quite different from those games, for a simple reason : it is Chudyk doing 4X.\nSo, to sum up this rather lengthy introduction (and spoil the review) :\n-Impulse is one of the best Chudykian designs out there.\n-Impulse is one of the best and shortest 4X out there.\nWhich basically means that Impulse is the bestest chudykian short 4X out there. Which in turn either :\n-made you realize this statement has no informative value.\n-blew you head up (if you, as a player, are anything like me). Sorry for the stains.\nNow let me try to prove my point in this review.\n<PERSON> does classic\nImpulse is a very peculiar design for <PERSON>. In fact, most of his games have strayed away from the most classical tropes of the board game world. Sure, there are people to say that Innovation is a Civilization-building game, but even if it is, it is done in a very peculiar, almost abstract way (like pure evolving spirit of progress competing among themselves).\nImpulse fits the quite rigid 4X bill, and does cover all of its most directly thematic tropes. There's even a map of the Galaxy (made with the game core cards) to compete on, with the mandatory Juicy Center of civilized Space at its heart ! And there are rocket minis !\nYee-pee !\nThanks to this, Impulse, even though its mechanical core is intricate and deliciously capricious to deal with, is one of the most intuitive Chudyk designs to grab. It manages to be both very abstracted in its mechanics, and very thematic in its effects.\nAnd that's the magic of Impulse. It is clearly a 4X : the game does everything needed to fit the acronym. But it is built on an intricate, powerful, but unwieldy matrix (based on a deck of your typical Chudyk multi-use cards) which funnels - dare I say brutalizes - the actions and interactions of the players in a vast array of possibilities.\nAnd it manages to do that through a fluid and encompassing economy of 108 multi-use cards. That, and those cleverly used rocket models which figure both transports when standing and cruisers when lying on their side. Smart.", "92" ], [ "Introduction\nI love me some good negotiations. Actually I love negotiations A LOT. I’m not really the best strategist in town, but man, I know how to talk out a difficult situation to my advantage, and if I feel like it, I may even stay true to my words and not stab you in the back afterwards.\nI love heavily-themed board games too, and being a former RPG player, nothing makes me feel more like a medieval lord, a space diplomat or a “conquistador”, than roleplaying my character: offering a peace treaty to my neighbor then fulfilling my promise, threatening my enemies from across the board, encouraging my allies to start a campaign against the invaders, or even indulging to give someone a favour in exchange for a coin or two.\nThe Battle of Bouvines (1213 - 1214) painting by <PERSON> (1827)\nKing <PERSON> of France, in an encouraging speech, calls his vassals to army against England.\nThis comparison/review is an effort to understand how some great games that claim to be negotiation games, do or don’t actually deliver diplomacy and negotiations through game mechanics. Even if a game scores low in this review, it may anyway be a good game (and one that I enjoy for this or that reason), but not a good negotiation game. So the votes I’m assigning are just for the negotiation/diplomacy and not for the game in general.\nOn a side note, from here on I’ll be using “diplomacy” as a quasi-synonym to “negotiations” even though diplomacy may have a different meaning in game categories.\n<PERSON>, Earl of Warwick, visits King <PERSON>, captive in the Tower of London in 1407,\na few years before betraying and kidnapping his former ally <PERSON> as well. Action that granted him the title of Kingmaker.\nWe’ll talk about:\n- A Game of Thrones the Board Game\n- Fief 1492\n- Twilight Imperium\n- Rex Final days of an Empire/Dune\n- Warrior Knights\n- Rising Sun\n- Patchistory\n- Archipelago\nIn no particular order, except for the fact that I’ll keep the best diplomacy game as last in this review, so if you don’t want to spoil the surprise, just don’t jump ahead\nNegotiations: What I look for\nI like the way a game lets the diplomacy flow naturally.", "761" ], [ "To me, just giving something in exchange for something else is not negotiation. It’s a conversion, except that it’s done with another player rather than with the game. Kinda like exchanging 10 gold for 1 Victory point. Also, starting a negotiation phase, where everyone must decide to be belligerent or tolerant towards someone else does not feel like true diplomacy.\n<PERSON> and <PERSON> talk about pride, honor, rights and ransoms.\nIn a game based on negotiations I’m looking for mechanics that support negotiations and that tie well to the theme: we may start an amazing alliance literally on any game (unless the rules deny so) but not every games provide mechanics that support diplomacy. The mechanics must “accompany” the players to negotiate in a natural and spontaneous way.\nI’m thus looking for a game that has mechanics that guide the person to talk, to exchange a favor, to make a deal, to seal an alliance, to trump it, to betray, and so on; not a game that says: ok this is the political phase, exchange money and your banners, then let’s move on to the next phase. Furthermore if a game helps you identify with the character you are playing it’s all for the better, cause roleplaying your character involves table talk.\nPalpatine’s Declaration of a New Order (19 BBY) -Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (novel)\n(1) - A Game of Thrones - The Board Game\nLet’s start from the one that should excel in this category: aGoT - The Board Game.\nBeing the spiritual successor to Diplomacy, and being based on one of the most intriguing tale of negotiations, deals-making and betrayals, (and also seeing how a aGoT is very much inspired to The Wars of the Roses - a time period where negotiations, intrigue, deals and betrayals were common activities for the nobility) one would expect to play the non-plus-ultra among negotiation games.\nAGoT The Board Game is a diplomacy game on the assumption that players place hidden Order Tokens onto regions on the map, allowing to either move to an adjacent/linked region, to defend, to raid, to claim influence from that region, or to support themselves or another player in battles.", "366" ], [ "Foreword\nAfter 1,5 year of lurking about (that is, as a registered user. Add another year of my unregistered unactivity) I seem to have made up my mind that BGG is such a wonderful community that I should adopt a more active approach toward it. To start off I have decided to write a few words about probably the most influential game of the XX century - Rock-Paper-Scissors. I would appreciate any and all constructive (and not) criticism. Grammar nazis, trolls, haters and other evil people are welcome as well.\nOh, and hello everyone\nROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS\nNowadays in the boardgaming world new titles are popping up like mushrooms and everyone just has to embrace “the new hotness”. While many of them are indeed great (and yet more of them are just hardly mediocre (rage and hate for this statement much appreciated)), the time spent trying out the new designs must come at the expense of older games, which slowly drift away into oblivion. One example, which is embarrassing for the whole boardgaming community is the all-forgotten classic: Rock-Paper-Scissors. In a desperate attempt to give it the attention it deserves I beseech you to take a while to read this review of an amazing game if only to bring back memories of its astonishing gameplay.\nRock-Paper-Scissors is a classic strategy game of skill. It is usually categorized as a wargame due to its realistic representation of warfare. Since there already are a lot of reviews going over the somewhat complex rules, I am not going to moan about it and I will explain them in detail. Tough luck.\nRULES\nThe object of the game is to accumulate victory points by destroying enemy units (1 VP per unit). To achieve that, each round the players build units with varying stats, creating thus their own customized armies, which then are set against each other in an epic battle to determine the victor.\nThe game is played over a set of rounds. Their exact number is unknown at the beginning and ranges from 1 to about infinity depending on the number of tiebreakers and the diplomacy skill of the losing player (more on that topic later).", "993" ], [ "Each game round consists of 3 phases: build, combat, clean-up.\nBUILD\nPlayers simultaneously build units according to their build capacity, which is 1 at the beginning of the game, but later it generally stays the same (it is however possible to raise its value through a technique called cheating ). Each of the 3 different units has a cost of 1, but they have varying stats, namely: health, attack (atk), defense (def), dodge (do), block (bl), speed, moment of inertia (I). Every unit also has exactly 1 special ability, increasing its attack in certain match-ups (rock: +1000 atk vs. scissors; paper: +1000 atk vs. rock; scissors: +1000 atk vs. paper).\nTo signalize that a player is still taking his turn, he keeps shaking his hand in a continuous fashion.\nOnce the players have composed their armies the game moves on to the combat phase.\nCOMBAT\nPlayers simultaneously reveal their chosen units and then proceed to resolving skirmishes between them. Damage is dealt according to the following simple formula:\nIf the damage dealt exceeds the unit’s health, it is destroyed and VPs are awarded.\nCLEAN-UP\nAny surviving units are removed (as opposed to destroyed – a common misconception and object of several errata). If no unit was destroyed in the previous turn, the game automatically moves on to the next round, otherwise the losing player may attempt a series of insults and threats diplomacy check to make the opponent play an additional round.\nIf no additional round needs to be played, the player with more VPs wins! In the event of a tie, players play the game again.\nCOMPONENTS\nThe components are sadly very scarce. The game comes with a set of units for each player. While the units are well crafted and bear a striking resemblance to their real-life counterparts, there is one major problem – the two sets look very much alike and as such it is sometimes very difficult to tell them apart, especially in the heat of battle. The producer should have provided us with different colors for the two armies. This solution, however, allows for the game to be friendly to the colorblind (or at least unfriendly to the same degree) – an asset commonly overlooked in modern gaming. Further, the lack of text makes the game language-independent – another explanation to RPS’ immense worldwide popularity. The components also allow for a quick setup time, unrivalled by any contemporary wargame, as well as high portability, so that you can easily bring your copy of Rock-Paper-Scissors to the game night!", "937" ], [ "Intro (or I'm so excited!)\nThis is the first game review I’ve written in several years, but I felt strongly enough about Lost Battles to break out of my inertia and get back to the keyboard.\nI’ll start with my incredible anticipation for this game. I am exactly the target audience for Lost Battles. Like many wargamers, I fancy myself something of an amateur historian. I even went back to school in my 30’s to study military history, which culminated with a thesis on <PERSON>. So Lost Battles is right up my alley. It focuses on ancient warfare, it’s designed by Dr. <PERSON>, a history professor, and it’s accompanied by a several hundred page book that includes chapters on the history of the battles, the reasons behind the critical design decisions, and additional historical insights that can be gleaned by using the model. In addition, Lost Battles sports extremely high production values, with excellent artwork, mounted tiles, oversized and rounded edge counters, and even includes a second game of strategic warfare in the ancient world. I didn’t even blink when I plopped down the $130, including shipping, to preorder the game from Noble Knight Games.\nIt comes with a book! Talk about you designer notes\nWhen I received the game and opened the box, I was not disappointed. The bits really are excellent. The rulebook is glossy, with lots of pictures, and includes 35+ scenarios in the back. The counters and maps are great. Some folks complain that the green background on the counters, which matches the green grass of the board tiles, makes it a bit hard to see the units. I disagree and think they are great, making the figures on the units stand out.", "92" ], [ "Also, the unit counters have no combat factors of any kind on them, only excllent stylized artwork, and their type (as in Veteran Hoplite Infantry, or Levy Light Cavalry). They look great, and if you’re a fan of <PERSON> weapon systems matrix (in the excellent book The Art of War in the Western World) then you’ll love these guys.\nBeautiful, just beautiful\nThey only issues I see with the components are that the tiles warped a bit (not really a big deal since they aren’t too big) and that they didn’t include any system to keep the square terrain tiles from sliding around during play (this is a more significant issue). The latter point sort of bothers me, since even the designer recommending using the extra material on the edges of the counter sheets, of which there was plenty, to create puzzle piece locking edge pieces. Why didn’t they just die cut the sheet that way? Plus, the green of the units didn’t carry over to the edge of the counter sheet, so the frame would be stark white.\nWhy didn't they use the extra material to make a frame for the tiles?\nWell, it’s a minor quibble anyway, easily overlooked for a game that provides fun game play, a strong narrative, and historical insights.\nUnfortunately, Lost Battles does not provide any of these things...\nGameplay\nLet’s start with the design decision that ruined the rest of the game. The board is made up just 20 tiles, each of which is an individual location. Units from opposing armies cannot co-exist in a single tile, and every unit in a location must face the same direction. The designer supports his decision for such a coarse map with a few points (and since I sold my copy already I can’t refer back to the book, and will go from memory).\nFirst, he wanted to design a relatively simple game, that would play quickly, and therefore wanted to keep the map simple and both sides to around 20 units. That is an admirable goal, and one I have no issue with. In fact, Command and Colors: Ancients has the same goal and achieves it admirably.\nSecond, Dr. <PERSON> argues that due to our lack of specific and credible detailed information about the battlefields themselves, attempting to model more accurate renditions of the terrain is futile in any case, and prone to error. On this last point, I agree with the good professor, to an extent. The sources for many ancient battles make only the most general comments about the terrain, such a setting up behind a river, or on a clear plain etc. In many or most cases, historians can’t agree on where the battles took place, so we can’t walk the ground today, and in other cases the course of rivers has shifted, or other changes have occurred.\nTwenty locations in total? Bad move.\nThe problem is, Dr. <PERSON> went too far in abstracting the terrain, and made it too coarse. Afterall, we are talking about a game here, not a dry academic exercise...", "92" ], [ "Ginkgopolis is <PERSON> fifth (I believe) game, following Royal Palace(2008), Carson City(2009), Troyes(2010), and Tournay(2011), along with a smattering of expansions for some of the above. This is the first of <PERSON>’s game I have played, and is currently ranked 325 in BGG (April 8th, 2013). Both Troyes and Carson city rank higher (39th and 167th respectively).\nI admit that I have not played Ginkgopolis exhaustively – as I only have 3 plays under my belt at the time of writing (one each at 5 players, 3 players, and 2 players). Despite this, I found myself enamored with the game, both its flaws and its successes, and spent considerable time thinking about it.\nReactions to Ginkgopolis seem a bit of a mixed bag. The primary criticisms of the game being lack of theme integration with the mechanics and the high level of apparent randomness and uncertainty in the game. I decided to write this review to explore these two criticisms and examine the overall gameplay dynamics at work. I will conclude with my thoughts on how Ginkgopolis “fits” into the overall gaming scene and why I think it will be a compelling but underappreciated game.\nRule Time!\nI am not one for doing exhaustive mechanics/rules overview, but for those not familiar with the game, here are the key bullet points on the rules and gameplay:\n(1) Players are (abstractly) building “up” and building “out” the city of Ginkgopolis to earn VPs (called “Success Points”, but I’ll call them VP’s in this article).\n(2) The gameplay revolves around card drafting (e.g. 7-Wonders style) from a hand of cards; to do one of 3 actions each round: (1) placing tiles to build out (urbanizing), (2) placing tiles to build up (construction) or (3) activating tiles/cards directly (exploiting).", "92" ], [ "The cards you select determines the location or existing tile where your new one will go, in the case of urbanizing or constructing respectively, or determines what existing tile is activated (exploiting).\n(3) “Building up” feeds the tableau building aspect of the game. When you build on a tile, you get to place that tiles card in front of you to derive a game-long benefit or end-game bonus scoring.\n(4) Tile placement and tableau building drives an engine-building system, netting players VP’s, resources, and tiles during the game for performing certain types actions.\n(5) Placing new tiles also drives a shared deck-building mechanic, where new cards are added (and subsequently removed) from the deck of cards as tiles are added to the city (and subsequently built on).\n(6) In addition to endgame bonuses from your tableau, VP’s are also earned based on players’ relative control over the city’s districts (i.e. area control).\n(7) The game ends when a player has placed all their resources or the stack of tiles is exhausted for the second time (the first time it is exhausted, players can turn tiles back into the stack for VP’s).\nClear as mud?\nThe promise...\nI will say this about the game’s mechanics; they are intricate. Yet when you boil it down, Ginkgopolis is not a complex game (there really aren’t many rules) – but the major mechanical elements (drafting, tile placement, deck building) all interconnect in such a way that it can be hard to describe and teach the game in a linear manner. The learning is certainty front loaded, and it often takes a few rounds for new players to get a sense of how all the pieces fit together. Once you “grok” the game, it comes together in a very elegant and fluid way.\nHowever, Ginkgopolis has the paradox of being both elegant and fiddly at the same time. The interaction between the mechanical elements of the game is very tight and is where the originality (and innovation) of the game resides. It IS elegant how you build cards to your tableau, covering the associated building tile, and then add a new card to deck based on the new tile you placed. It’s quite cool to see these different systems so well intertwined.\nYet the actual play experience is considerably more fiddly.", "349" ], [ "I’ve owned this beauty for a few months, but as most of my gaming is two player, it took a while to get this to the table. Last week, though, we got a group of four together and I suggested Shogun, as the group was made up of wargamers, euro gamers, and RPGers.\nBy way of brief background, I am primarily a wargamer with a deep interest in history and secondarily an Ameritrash gamer with an affinity for fantasy and sci-fi themes.\nComponents\nThis game is really attractive, which is one reason I bought it in the first place. The map is really beautiful, and well mounted. The cards are nice (though a bit small) and have a nice finish. The wooden blocks are cool, and look great piled up on the enemy’s border, ready to heave across at H-Hour. The artwork is solid throughout and very evocative of the theme.\nThe cube tower is brilliant. I’ve read complaints about trying to justify its somewhat random outcomes, but I had no problem here. So I attack with 4 armies and 5 pop out. So what? Maybe my success drew more to my cause.\nIn any case, I didn’t worry about justifying this game’s particular randomizing mechanic, I just appreciated its originality and ingenuity.\nObject\nShogun is a multiplayer game of building and conflict in feudal Japan. The object is, over the course of two years, to gather more victory points than your opponents. Victory points are accrued twice during the game, at the end of each year. During the scoring phase, you get a VP for:\nEach controlled province\nEach building\n3 VP: Most Castles in a region (a region is a group of 9 color-matched provinces)\n2 VP: Most Temples in a region\n1 VP: Most Theaters in a region\nTurn Phase\nEssentially, there are 3 turns (spring, summer, fall) followed by a scoring phase (winter). Then three more turns, followed by a second scoring phase. After that, high score (most VP’s) wins.\nThe turn sequence is:\nLay out action cards .", "366" ], [ "This means determine in which order that turns ten ‘actions’ will occur. The ten actions are the same each turn, and are generally one of four types: 1) spending treasure chests (hereafter “gold”) to raise armies 2) spending gold to build buildings, 3) move and attack, 4) raise taxes by gathering gold or rice from a province. The ten actions are very specific (for example, one allows a player to raise 5 armies for 3 gold, while another allows a levy of 3 armies for 2 gold). The first five actions are face up, so you know what’s coming, the last five are face down, and revealed one at a time as the face up actions are executed.\nLay out special cards . There are five of these, that give the player some small advantage for the turn, like raising an extra army or gold, or adding one army to attack or defense. They are randomly place on a turn order chart. So if the ‘add one gold to your taxes’ advantage is placed on turn order #3, and you select that advantage, you are also choosing to go third in each phase of the turn.\nPlan Individual actions . Here is where most of the game time occurs, and this is the source of one of my main complaints with this game. Here the players assign one of the game’s ten standard actions to one of their provinces. For example, by placing a province card, face down, on one’s player mat with the ‘pay three gold and raise 5 armies’ action, when that phase comes up, the specified action takes place in that province…and only that province. No province gets two actions in a phase, and no action can take place in more than one province. Forget out raising an army and attacking with it in one turn.\nYou'll spend a lot of time staring at this\nPlayers also bid for turn order in this phase, by committing 0 to 4 gold. Once revealed, the highest bidder selects the advantage and turn position they want (i.e. ‘special card’ mechanic described above).\nDetermine events .\nA random event card is turned over that has a global effect on the turn, like not allowing combat in a temple space, or capping the amount of rice gathered by taxes.\nDetermine Turn Order .\nHere players choose there special card (i.e. advantage for the turn) along with their turn order, in order of highest bid placed in the ‘Plan Individual Actions’ phase above.\nA close up of three of the five 'special cards' on the turn order track\nCarry out actions .", "629" ], [ "The following review of sorts is the product of my experience trying to convert a bunch of gaming buddies to Pax Renaissance (some took to it, some didn't). In any case I will omit below the description of the components and rules (it's been done well before, in this very forum), and try to focus on the actual experience of learning and playing.\nA word about complexity:\nThe big hurdle when introducing players to the game - and then trying to get them to try again - is the complexity of the rules. Some of my wargaming partners, no stranger to big complicated rules, were turned off by this one - they never quite go into the logic and ended up having to guess why they could or could not do this or that action. The game, to me, is very tight and internally consistent, so I think there is a strategy for teaching it, without getting lost in the many possibilities offered by the cards, starting from victory conditions, explaining kingdoms and agents, and then getting down to card play (it's in fact the plan of this review). Nonetheless, the game is complicated, and the people who stuck with it were generally those who were invested in playing the period and the theme.\nHow to win:\nThe end game arrives surprisingly fast, sometimes too fast, in fact. It occurs in two ways, the first when one of the players manages to trigger a victory condition and the second when the deck runs out of cards, and it then comes done to points. The first type of victory comes in four flavors - representing different means to power, which are all relative (i.e. one has to be significantly better at what one chose to do than the next best player). Players can end up competing for the same type of victory, but they can also pick different paths - the game can play very differently from one session to another.\nTypically, the first games will see imperial victories, where players fight for controlling the most kingdoms, through marriages and conquests. After a few games, as people get better at planning and defense, the full range of strategies is on display, and I have seen all of them in my games - religious dominance, money-making trade networks and enlightened politics.", "366" ], [ "That the game manages to feel so wide in its scope, yet so focused on its theme, is the main reason why it was a hit with my group.\nMap and pieces:\nThe game's Renaissance Europe is made of ten countries, each coming in four potential versions (secular/theocratic and autocratic/republican). The countries start independent, but soon will end up influenced by the players - through so-called regime changes, and the end map will be the result of the player's collective choices. Wars and revolutions are done by replacing the pieces on the map (the ruling class) with new ones, that come from the player's hand or were already present as discontents (basically, the former ruling class). The map starts sparsely populated, but players adds new pieces as trade promotes economic growth. One clever innovation here is the importance of trade routes that link corners of the map (and are subject to disruptions) and provide both benefits to the players who position themselves on the route, and to the countries that border them.\nA big driver for players to topple regimes and put own their puppets in place is to secure valuable concessions on the routes, and to build an efficient economic machine that will keep them supplied with cash and recruits.\nAt game start, the countries bordering the Black Sea are particularly disputed, because of their proximity to the Genoese colonies where all medieval trade originates. As the game develops, the trade routes can shift (or not) and Western Europe can gain in prominence. The switch from Mediterranean trade to Atlantic one is not automatic, and won't happen necessarily in every game, but it is a likely possibility that players have to keep in mind. As a result of the interaction of the systems, the map becomes very dynamic, and diversifying one's assets, or keeping a cash reserve to respond to changing opportunities, is key.\nThe game engine:\nIn very general terms, like the others in the <PERSON> family, the game is about acquiring assets and deploying their powers in a coherent strategy. There is very little randomness and no hidden information so the game can become fairly analytical, but in a very thematic way. The assets themselves are people, troops and institutions, and they are really evocative - playing your cards tells a narrative, and at the end of the game a story will have been built. The actual mechanisms of buying and placing cards are fairly abstract, but they are a means to an end - there is a tactical element to building your portfolio (called here tableau) but what really matters is what you do with it.", "237" ] ]

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[ [ "When you say 'humans can not smell when they have water trapped in their noses', I believe you mean the loss of the sense of scent caused due to nasal congestion, which is due to inflammation, blocking the scent receptors in the nasal cavity (any mechanical blockage preventing odours from reaching the olfactory nerves can cause a loss of sense of smell. This blockage can be due to inflammatory processes like simple infections causing mucus plugs or nasal polyps(1)). Since the basic structure of the respiratory tract is similar in mammals, mucous plugs reduce scent sensitivity in elephants as well.\nOlfaction occurs when odourants bind to specific sites on olfactory receptors located in the nasal cavity. They get into the nasal cavity when you breathe or sniff the air.\nMolecules of odourants passing through the superior nasal concha of the nasal passages dissolve in the mucus that lines the superior portion of the cavity and are detected by olfactory receptors on the dendrites of the olfactory sensory neurons.", "978" ], [ "This mucus acts as a solvent for odour molecules, flows constantly, and is replaced approximately every ten minutes. ...(2)\n(Thanks to @Adhish for the above point.)\nIf the water itself has a scent, then, as @KaPy3141 pointed out, it can be distinguished because it is in contact with the olfactory receptors. Scent of anything else outside cannot be determined, because they do not reach the receptors.\nElephant lungs are attached directly to the diaphragm and chest wall, allowing them to create much greater \"vacuum pressure\" for sucking water through their long trunks, while drinking.(3) To open its mouth to breathe would cause the loss of the low pressure and the water column would expelled. So the water column must first be transferred to the mouth, then swallowed before breathing can recommence.(4) Thus, as far as respiration is concerned, they cannot breathe when the trunk contains a column of water, and, as a result, odourants cannot enter the nasal cavity, and elephants cannot smell in this case.\n1-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482152/\n2-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfaction\n3-https://www.elephant.se/elephant_lungs.php?open=Elephant%20anatomy\n4-https://www.quora.com/How-do-elephants-breathe-when-drinking-water", "978" ], [ "The question as it is posed is nonsensical. In chemistry, an element is a pure substance consisting only of atoms which all have the same number of protons in their nuclei; it cannot be further broken down into simpler substances by a chemical reaction.\nTaste is a completely biological concept, an interaction between our taste bud receptors and a combination of many elements making up the substance we are tasting. Pure elements don’t exist in nature to be tasted, so our taste receptors aren’t made to react to them. In fact, most elements would be poisonous, as well as not taste anything.\nThe human tongue contains between 2,000 and 10,000 taste buds, each of which are made up of 50 to 150 taste receptor cells. These cells contain receptors, microvilli called taste hairs, which extend upward inside the taste pore. The microvilli come into contact with tastants, or taste stimulating compounds, dissolved in oral saliva after intake/mastication, which enter the taste pore. They interact at the microscopic level through protein receptors or ion channels. Then the chemical stimuli are transduced through the sensory cell and the electric impulse is conducted to the brainstem by the afferent gustatory nerve fibers.\nThere are five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami.", "762" ], [ "A high concentration of Na+/sodium ions in the saliva causes the gustatory epithelial cells to depolarize and release neurotransmitters, interpreted by the brain as a salty taste. Sour tastes occur in a similar process, by direct diffusion of ions, but in response to high H+/Hydrogen ion concentrations, that is, acids. Sour-detecting gustatory cells will depolarise as the concentrations increase. Sweet taste involves the detection of sugars, such as glucose and monosaccharides, by special G-protein coupled receptors rather than direct diffusion of ions. Likewise, bitter taste is the detection of long-chain organic compounds known as alkaloids which contain basic nitrogen ions. Umami taste is a detection of certain amino acids such as glutamine and may be loosely considered as the “taste of proteins”. Hot and spicy flavors are actually pain/temperature sensations caused by the substance called “capsaicin” in food, binding to thermoreceptors whose function is to prevent burning of the mouth and tongue.\nChemical properties do define/direct taste, though not of elements, but of substances, a combination of elements. I would add that any food contains a great number of flavor components , chocolate alone contains over 800. No food is only sweet or only sour, etc… This is what makes tasting so interesting!", "762" ], [ "Hypothermia (when the body is too cold) is said to occur when the core body temperature of an individual has dropped below 35° celsius. Normal core body temperature is 37°C. (1) Hypothermia is then further subdivided into levels of seriousness (2) (although all can be damaging to health if left for an extended period of time)\n* Mild 35–32 °C: shivering, vasoconstriction, liver failure (which would eventually be fatal) or hypo/hyper-glycemia (problems maintaining healthy blood sugar levels, both of which could eventually be fatal).\n* Moderate 32–28 °C: pronounced shivering, sufficient vasoconstriction to induce shock, cyanosis in extremities & lips (i.e. they turn blue), muscle mis-coordination becomes more apparent.\n* Severe 28–20 °C: this is where your body would start to rapidly give up. Heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure fall to dangerous levels (HR of 30bpm would not be uncommon - normally around 70-100). Multiple organs fail and clinical death (where the heart stops beating and breathing ceases) soon occurs.\nHowever, as with most things in human biology, there is a wide scope for variation between individuals. The Sweedish media reports the case of a seven year old girl recovering from hypothermia of 13°C (3) (though children are often more resilient than adults).\nHyperthermia (when the body is too hot - known in its acute form as heatstroke) and is medically defined as a core body temperature from 37.5–38.3 °C (4). A body temperature of above 40°C is likely to be fatal due to the damage done to enzymes in critical biochemical pathways (e.g.", "279" ], [ "respiratory enzymes).\nAs you mentioned burns, I will go into these too. Burns are a result of contact with a hot object or through infra-red (heat) radiation. Contact with hot liquid is referred to as a scald rather than a burn. Tests on animals showed that burns from hot objects start to take effect when the object is at least 50°C and the heat applied for over a minute. (5)\nFreeze-burn/frostbite, which is harder to heal than heat burns(6) occurs when vaso-constriction progresses to the degree where blood flow to affected areas is virtually nil. The tissue affected will eventually literally freeze, causing cell destruction. (7) Similarly to hypothermia, frostbite is divided into four degrees (that can be viewed on Wikipedia).\nAs to the matter of global warming cooking us to death, I would imagine that it would be more indirect changes that got us first. If the average temperature had risen to the necessary 40°C to cause heat-stroke, sea levels would have risen hugely due to the melting of the polar ice caps. Crops and other food sources would likely be affected too, therefore I don't think that global warming is overly likely to directly kill humans.", "279" ], [ "TL;DR No, it won't die. Lizards/snakes are usually immune to their own venom.\nSince I couldn't find a good answer to this recurring question on this site, I will try to summarize it here. I found more research on snakes than on lizards, but for now we will just assume that similar mechanisms can be found in lizards.\nFirst, the question is how the venom kills the prey. What does it do in the body?\nA common mechanism is a block of acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction. Simplified, these receptors activate muscle contraction upon a neuronal signal. When the receptor is blocked by the toxin, the neuronal signal cannot be transmitted to the muscle, which paralyzes the animal. Research has shown, that some snakes and lizards have evolved different acetylcholine receptors, that can still bind acetylcholine (and activate muscles), but not the toxins (source1, source2).", "671" ], [ "This makes them immune to the most common neurotoxins found in reptile venom.\nAnother mechanism is hemorrhagic activity of the toxin, which is a disruption of blood vessel integrity resulting in bleeding and death. This was linked to a proteolytic (\"destroying proteins\") function of venom compounds (source3, source4, source5). The blood serum of snakes can contain factors that block the hemorrhagic function of toxins, possibly by neutralizing the mode of action (inhibiting proteases). This could be specific antibodies/inhibitors or an adaptation of serum proteins (source6, source7, source8).\nFurther research has implicated phospholipidases (destroying phospholipids like used in cellular membranes) as the mode of action for snake venoms. Again, phospholipidase inhibitors can be found in the blood serum of the snakes themselves. There were also reports, that the expression of these inhibitors changes from younger to older snakes (source9, source10) and can be induced by venom injection (source11). It is therefore hypothesized that venomous snakes or lizards are repeatedly exposed to small amounts of their own venom, building up immunity over their life span.\nOther modes of action include myotoxicity (destroying muscles), edema-formation or blood thinning. Again, it depends on the specific mechanism and how snakes and lizards have adapted to be immune to these.\nSince similar toxins are found in several species, snakes and lizards are often not only immune to their own venom, but also to bites of other members of the same species or other related species.", "112" ], [ "Nitrous oxide or laughing gas was discovered in 1772 by British chemist <PERSON>, who also discovered oxygen. His compatriot, <PERSON>, later named the gas and experimented on himself to discover its physiological effects. It is prepared by the action of zinc on dilute nitric acid, by the action of hydroxylamine hydrochloride on sodium nitrite, or more commonly, by gently heating ammonium nitrate to decompose it into nitrous oxide and water vapor.\nFor the first 40 years or so, N2O was primarily used for parties or public shows. In the 1840s, American dentist <PERSON> had one of his own teeth extracted while inhaling nitrous oxide, thereby demonstrating its anesthetic effect. It was then widely used for dental anesthesia until it was abandoned for a time because the high concentrations required to anesthetize sufficiently frequently placed the patient at high risk of severe hypoxia and death from asphyxia.\nUse of N2O was resumed at subanesthetic concentrations for analgesic and anxiolytic applications without unconsciousness, such as pain relief during labor, self-administration by cancer patients, clinical and emergency applications, dental work and widely used with children to alleviate their fear of medical or dental treatment.\nThis nonflammable, colorless gas with a pleasant, sweetish odor and taste has been used for nearly 150 years without much understanding of how it really works. It is well recognized as an anxiolytic, an analgesic and an anesthetic but its mechanisms of action are not clear. Recent studies are beginning to shed some light on the question.\nThe air we breathe in is composed of 21% O2, 0.4% CO2, 78%N2 and less than 1% of other gasses, mainly Argon. The air we breathe out is composed of 16,4% O2 and 4,4% CO2, due to our intake of oxygen and release of carbon dioxide. It has been biotransformed by the passage through our lungs.", "978" ], [ "When we breathe in N2O, we breathe out N2O in the same concentration. There is no biotransformation, and no new oxygen has entered our bloodstream. This deprives the blood of O2.\nWhen our brain has been deprived of O2 to a certain point, we feel nauseous and light headed, our thinking capacity decreases and we experience mental confusion. At the same time, NO2 causes the release of dopamine in the brain, inducing a sense of euphoria, accompanied with relaxation, giggling, laughter, insensitivity to pain, possible tingling in the extremities, sometimes nausea and dizziness. If this goes on too long without ventilation, it can lead to hypoxia and paralysis. In fact, medical and dental practitioners are particularly vulnerable to a long term overdose of N2O because the nitrous they administer to their patients is returned to the room’s air unchanged and accumulates to unhealthy concentrations without proper ventilation. Long time use may lead to vitamin B12 deficiency with all of its symptoms, not surprisingly since vitamin B12 is essential to the formation of red blood cells which are affected with oxygen deprivation.\nThe anesthetic effect power of N2O was determined to be equivalent to 10 to 15mg of morphine, when administered at 30% concentration. Further studies determined that its effect is opioid in nature and like morphine, may involve a myriad of neuromodulators in the spinal cord. Research is continuing to better understand the mechanisms of action of N2O, but it is safe to say that it should not be used as a recreational drug.", "978" ], [ "There are a couple of issues here.\n1. A pink (#FF00FF) object appears pink not because each atom is pink (there is no wavelength of light that is perceived to be the same pink by the ordinary human eye. What is happening is that a pink object is emitting (or reflecting) light of multiple wavelengths that enter the eye and are detected and processed to allow us to perceive its colour as pink. One single atom, therefore, would not be able to appear to us as pink under ordinary conditions because it will not emit photons of the appropriate wavelengths rapidly enough that we see no oscillation but a steady pink.\n2. Even for colours that correspond to a single wavelength of light, we would need a significant number of atoms before it emits enough photons to form a stable statistical distribution of wavelengths (called an emission spectrum), which we can then perceive and compare to the colours that we have previously experienced. How many atoms are needed would of course depend on the rate of emission, which is proportional to the power output. For reflection it would depend largely on the intensity of light incident on the object.\n3. And of course, molecules, complexes and macromolecular structures can have very different spectra compared to their individual constituent atoms, because the energy levels for electrons change drastically when bonds are formed (or broken). For example aqueous $Fe^{3+}$ is yellow while aqueous $Fe^{2+}$ is green, while solid $Fe_2O_3$ is reddish-brown.\n4. Only about 10% of the light incident on the eye actually makes it through to the retina.", "970" ], [ "Even those that strike the retina may not be detected.\n5. A human eye has receptors called cones and rods. Incidentally, a rod can actually respond to a single photon that strikes an active molecule in it, ultimately triggering an electrical pulse down the optic nerve. A cone is theoretically able to respond to a single photon as well, but for the below reason a single photon is never enough for us to see its 'colour'.\n6. Each cone absorbs incident photons of different frequencies with different probabilities. This is precisely how we can see many colours using only 3 types of cones, because light of different wavelengths can be distinguished by how much they are absorbed by each type of cone.\n(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1416_Color_Sensitivity.jpg)\nBut since a photon can only be absorbed by a single cone, it also implies that the retina plus brain needs many photons from the same source before it can get a statistical picture of absorption by the 3 types of cones, which it then interprets as a colour. This is the main reason we need thousands of photons from a point source before we can clearly distinguish its colour from that of other objects. The lower the intensity of light, the harder it is for us to distinguish colours. And note that we perceive the combination of pure red and pure green light (namely the combination of light of two different frequencies) the same way we perceive pure yellow light (of the appropriate single frequency), because they result in the same absorption profile for the three types of cones.\n1. Rods are much denser than cones, except in the fovea where there are nearly no rods, and hence one can see better around the central spot when in the dark. In the fovea, the 'Blue'-sensitive cones (S cones) are also rarer than the other two types at about 5%, whereas the 'Red'-sensitive cones (L cones) number about 50% to 75%.\nThe net effect is that you need something like 100,000 photons from the same point incident on your eye before you can perceive its colour at the normal human accuracy, even more for blue light.\nAnd finally there is Rayleigh scattering in the Earth's atmosphere, which scatters 'violet' light (400nm wavelength) about $7$ times as strongly as red light (650nm wavelength).", "970" ], [ "As <PERSON> points out, the textbook reason for differential solute and water movement in different parts of the LoH is osmolarity, which is nicely explained in this wikipedia article.\nComing to an interesting point, about the movement of water across cell membranes through aquaporins, this is helpful:{1}\nThe discovery of aquaporin membrane water channels by <PERSON> and co-workers (6, 7, 191, 192) answered a long-standing biophysical question of how water crosses biological membranes specifically, and provided insight, at the molecular level, into the fundamental physiology of water balance and the pathophysiology of water balance disorders. Out of at least 10 aquaporin isoforms, at least 7 are known to be present in the kidney at distinct sites along the nephron and collecting duct.\nAquaporin-1 (AQP1) is extremely abundant in the proximal tubule and descending thin limb where it appears to be the main site for proximal nephron water reabsorption. It is also present in the descending vasa recta. AQP2 is abundant in the collecting duct principal cells and is the chief target for the regulation of collecting duct water reabsorption by vasopressin.\nThe journal further elaborates on these APQ's and their function in detail, do read it if you are interested, but the following diagram sums it up pretty well, so I am just going to expand on this:\nA: schematic representation of the structural organization of aquaporin-1 (AQP1) monomers in the membrane (top and bottom).\n1. Aquaporins have six membrane-spanning regions, both intracellular NH2 and COOH termini, and internal tandem repeats that, presumably, are due to an ancient gene duplication (top).", "171" ], [ "The topology is consistent with an obverse symmetry for the two similar NH2- and COOH-terminal halves (bottom).\n2. The tandem repeat structure with two asparagine-proline-alanine (NPA) sequences has been proposed to form tight turn structures that interact in the membrane to form the pathway for translocation of water across the plasma membrane.\n3. Of the five loops in AQP1, the B and E loops dip into the lipid bilayer, and it has been proposed that they form “hemichannels” that connect between the leaflets to form a single aqueous pathway within a symmetric structure that resembles an “hourglass.”\nB: AQP1 is a multisubunit oligomer that is organized as a tetrameric assembly of four identical polypeptide subunits with a large glycan attached to only one.\nThe direcrion of flow of water, again, depends on osmolarity.\n...Only inward water flow (swelling) was examined, but it was predicted that the direction of water flow through AQP1 is determined by the orientation of the osmotic gradient. Consistent with this, it was later demonstrated that AQP1-expressing oocytes swell in hyposmolar buffers but shrink in hyperosmolar buffers.\nPlease note that the linked journal is brilliantly detailed, so there are several points that I have skimmed over. I recommend reading it if you have time.\n{1}-https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physrev.00024.2001#:~:text=Aquaporin%2D1%20(AQP1)%20is,for%20proximal%20nephron%20water%20reabsorption.&text=AQP2%20is%20abundant%20in%20the,duct%20water%20reabsorption%20by%20vasopressin.", "171" ], [ "Note This answer makes the presumption that the crotch in the maple's trunk is indeed a breach through its bark, and does reach the inner woody tissues.\nThe heartwood of most trees consists of the dead connective tissues, xylem, which surrounded the cells that once formed the living layer of phloem under the protective bark. That connective tissue itself mostly cellulose, and is a polymeric chain of glucose i.e. sugar molecules bonded and linked in such a way as to make them indigestible to most lifeforms.\nCertain bacteria and fungi, among others, are able to do so, and they are among the first responders in the decomposition scene. When these microbes, often present in the gut of various insects, are able to break down the woody fibers into forms that permit their re-use by other plants, the detritus is comprised mostly of carbohydrates, alcohols, carbonic acid, and water. Phosphates and various other trace elements which were present in the cells of the woody tissues are released also.\nLater, visiting birds and mosses will further augment the ecosystem, adding nitrates and various salts — potassium, sodium, chlorides, and the like.\nAnother thing that needs to be considered is the drainage.", "874" ], [ "Where does the excess water go? Pressure on the capillaries inside the xylem of the maple should be able to channel some water downwards, but not much will exit through the roots. I've never heard of such a thing. The hole in the maple will widen and exacerbate, deepening the rotted area, but it will be acidic and somewhat saline due to the lack of drainage.\nCan it completely sustain another tree? As the ecosystem flourishes, probably; unless the new tree has special requirements for the pH or salinity of its soil which are not maintained by the rotten wood, then it should be able to gain enough nutrition in the form of nitrates, phosphates, and water, but not all of that will come from the other tree directly.\nThe branches of a tree will only grow so large as can be sustained by their root system, of course. The limited space in which this little sapling has taken root will result in the less than maximal form that you see in the photographs.\nSo, in conclusion, that spruce will probably not thrive by any means, but it will manage to survive. Spruces do favor more acidic soils — lower pH — than many other trees, so it has that going in its favor.\nThat much is obvious, I suppose: ten years, and it no larger than a four–year shrub.\nThere is a problem if all this occurs inside a tree which has not fallen, however. Usually, the outer bark of a tree protects it from such decompositional actions, because the inner woody tissues of most trees do not contain adequate chemicals to deter insects and fungi from chomping or ‘mycelizing’ their way through the heartwood.\nEventually, the maple will either need to be cut down or will be weakened enough that it will collapse.", "874" ] ]

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[ [ "I admit to being a fan of Pinnacle’s Deadlands weird wild west setting. How can you not like outlaws, lawmen, miners, railroads, and gunslingers thrown in with mad scientists, mystical shamans and sorcerous hucksters? I was a fan of the original Doomtown collectible card game back in the day too, though I never got into collecting it all.\nWhen I heard about the reboot of Doomtown as an ECG (Expandable Card Game), I knew I wanted to get it. But these days I’m mostly a board game fan. I enjoy playing with a couple of friends having a casual friendly game. So reading the forum discussions about tournament deck building and buying multiple base sets and the sorts of things caused me to wonder if Doomtown Reloaded was really a good match for my current interests.\nThe answer, thankfully, is YES! Doomtown Reloaded is a great game just as it comes in one copy of the base set. Inside is hours of enjoyable western action in the weirdest way for 2-4 players with no collecting or even deck building required.\nThe base set comes with a rule book and a “Gettin’ to Know Gomorra” guide along with 286 cards, tokens and a town square board.", "304" ], [ "The cards are divided into four suits that provide the things you need to build (and take control of) a western town: Diamonds are deeds (like the saloon), Spades are Dudes (like the Sheriff), Hearts are Goods (like your pistol, or horse), and Clubs are Action cards that do the unexpected.\nThe guide book even uses two preset decks to walk new players through a day in the town (better known as one turn). I found the rule book to be well written with just the right mix of narrative setting and direct, clear rules laid out in a logical, well organized format that was easy to understand, if a bit complex at times.\nFor us casual non-deck building gamers, one of the best things that the guide book provides is a deck list and suggested strategies for each of the four outfits that come in the base set.\nThe outfits! You and your pardners get to choose from the Sloane Gang (very nasty bandits), the Law Dogs (the town Sheriff and his deputies and help), the Morgan Cattle Company (who also employ mad scientists and their gadgets), and the Fourth Ring (a mystical circus full of strangeness).\nWe’ve used just the decks from the lists for more than a dozen games and have not yet felt the need to change them, though of course there are additional cards both in the base set and in future expansions that will allow you to build your outfit however you wish.\nThe game play itself is fast and furious.\nEach “day” (turn) in Gomorra starts with Gamblin’ as players ante in for lowball 5 card stud which is then followed by Upkeep as you gain your income and pay wages to keep your Dudes on your side.\nThe heart of the game is the High Noon phase. During Noon, players alternate making a play back and forth until they all pass. You can choose between Shoppin’ (paying costs to put cards into play), Tradin’ (moving Goods from one Dude to another), Movin’ (moving Dudes around town), Actin’ (using a card’s Noon ability, which can include pullin’ jobs), and Callin’ Out (yep, reach for the sky or iron, pardner).\nShootouts erupt quite often in Gomorra. And the game has a great mechanic for gunfights, a hand of poker. Of course this being the weird west, there’s lots of things that can affect your poker hand that you wouldn’t normally think of, like having the right Dudes to allow you to draw extra cards.\nOnce everyone passes it’s Sundown and, if no one has won by controlling more of the town than any other player has influence to stop them, then you reset and prepare (draw cards) for another day.\nA turn of Doomtown Reloaded often seems to play out a story not unlike a weird western full of town building, odd folks, gadgets, gunfights, mines, hucksters, outlaws, and lawmen.\nAs a casual board, non-deck building gamer, I consider Doomtown Reloaded to be a great game that will see a lot of play time with my friends before we even think about creating our own decks.", "629" ], [ "Bitskrieg\nA game for 2 players by <PERSON> and <PERSON>\nPublished by Hollandspiele\n\"Two adults who want to play Bitskrieg should play with all the fixin's from the get go.\"\n<PERSON> first thing you might notice about Bitskrieg is that it shares an iconic look with a famous Avalon Hill game about tank warfare from 1970, a game that sold over 300,000 copies.\nHollandspiele, a small publisher that takes pride in not only having a modern retro chic to the art of its game covers also publishes what some might call quirky titles that have a specific niche.\n<PERSON> developed a introductory war game with his son, and the result is this charming title that should have a broad appeal to many.\nThe Game\nThe game is played on an 8x8 grid of squares, and the inner 6x6 grid has pairs of dice showing the coordinates of those squares. At the beginning, six obstacle spaces are randomly placed by rolling a pair of dice. Those obstacles block tank traffic and travel. Then one player selects which axis the board will be played on and the other chooses the end they want to have. Statistically, the most likely outcome is one side will have four obstacles in its half.\nEach side then places the five tanks it has chosen (from the available mix) and places them on the board (including a specific direction they're facing) and their two flags.\nA sample set up\nThe objective is to capture both your opponent's flags, although you can also win by eliminating all your opponent's units.\nOn your turn you take one of four actions - move (one tank), fire (one tank), flip (all finished tanks), or rebuild (replace one destroyed tank, max 2x per game).\nThat is it. Despite this simple action set, there is a lot to consider.", "597" ], [ "Do you want to move every tank you have before you reset them? Or flipping back early necessary to make sure you can shoot at a target that is in reach of your flag? Should you take a chance on shooting now when the range is so far away, or do something else this turn?\nA game in progress\nThere are several kinds of tanks (light, medium, heavy, and tank destroyers). There are optional rules to add elements to the game as needed or desired, including bounding fire (move and shoot), and different obstacle effects (in the base game, obstacles are simply impassable to both movement and fire).\nThe art of the game pieces remind me a lot of the MetaGaming Microgame , and the game play makes me think of classic games like that just aren't really around anymore.\nConclusions\nBack in 1913, <PERSON>, famous for his science fiction stories like War of the Worlds, released a set of game rules for , subtitled \"a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books.\"\nImagine you're wargamer and your kid wants to play too. And heck, you'd like nothing better than a handy opponent. Where can you turn? Well, fewer places than one might think.\nFor instance, take my daughter, who took great delight in smashing me at Ogre when it first arrived in the house (and she now plays Gloomhaven, among many others).\nBut had <PERSON> been around when she was little, well, this would have been an obvious game to turn to.\nIf you have a younger kid in your life (niece, nephew, daughter, son, kid of a friend), and you like this kind of game and want something they can play too, I can heartily recommend this title.\nThank you for reading this latest installment of Roger's Reviews. I've been an avid board gamer all my life and a wargamer for over thirty years. I have a strong preference for well designed games that allow players to focus on trying to make good decisions.\nAmong my favourites I include , the , , , , and .\nYou can subscribe to my reviews at this geeklist: and I also encourage you to purchase this very stylish microbadge:", "118" ], [ "Infidel: The Supremacy of Cavalry in the Crusader Era - 11th-12th Century\nA game for 2 players designed by <PERSON> and published by GMT Games\n“He knew from experience that true and obvious ideas, such as the ineffable wisdom and judgment of the Great God Om, seemed so obscure to many people that you actually had to kill them before they saw the error of their ways...”\n― <PERSON>, Small Gods\nIntroduction\nIn the early days of my wargaming experience, I was interested in virtually any and every subject under the sun. Ancients. World War II. WW III (it was the 1980s and the Cold War was on). Napoleonics. SF and Fantasy themed wargames.\nBack then, whenever I acquired a game, I would often skip the rules and the game and go right for the designer notes and see which books were listed in the bibliography. Sometimes I’d come home armed with a stack from the library and learn a little more about the history the game was portraying.\nOne game that caught my attention back in the day was The Crusades by SPI. I wouldn’t say my delving into the history of the game was exceedingly thorough, but the high points of the first and third crusades were well tended to with that game and its bibliography.\nFast forward several decades later to now. My personal preferences for wargame subjects has become better established, but there are still times where I like to return to topics old and new that interest me.\nInfidel is the second entry in the Men of Iron tactical game series and includes six battles spanning almost a century from 1097 to 1191.\nComponents, Rules, and GameplayPhoto credit: <PERSON>\nInfidel is the second game in the Men of Iron series, and not unlike the series (GBOH), having played will help you learn this one, as well as the third game in the series, .\nThe game includes what you see in the image: two back printed maps, two sheets of counters, the rules and play book, the associated charts, and a pair of 10 sided dice.\nFor those who have played any of the GBOH games, the rules in this system are significantly less complex.", "993" ], [ "The rule book is only 16 pages long and that includes an example of play. If you're an experiential learner like me, having the pieces out on the map as you're reading in order to understand what's going on under the proverbial hood is a great help.\nThe pace of the game is driven by a system of command activations. Units that are part of the same group are known as a Command. The active player selects one of the leaders on their side and then all units of that Command (nicely marked with a coloured stripe) can be activated. Once all your units have been used, you can attempt a continuation, which is to say, carry on by activating another of your leaders and going again with a different Command. The opponent has an opportunity to seize command and activate and use one of theirs instead.\nThis gives the game a nice flow because it's not an automatic IGO-UGO model. The ability to attempt a continuation, or conversely, to prevent that from happening, reminds me somewhat of the (although to be fair it's different because there you can activate the same leader twice in a row) .\nThe battle book contains the scenario setup rules, and also includes historical notes about the battle and its outcome.\nA nice touch is that for each battle there's an approximate play time listed (e.g. \"Playing time ran about 2 hours for the playtesters.\") Some of the scenarios have suggestions for play balance, and some warn about being best suited for experienced/advanced players.\nThe six scenarios are (and here I simply quote the GMT website):\nDorylaeum (1097) : The Crusader line of march, including the people’s Crusade and <PERSON>, as well as all the great 1st Crusade Leaders, are “ambushed” by <PERSON> and his crack Seljuk cavalry.\nAntioch (1098) : The exhausted, starving and depleted Crusaders – they had few horses left – have just taken Antioch and are now faced with a large Turkish army, under <PERSON>, sent to retake the city.\n<PERSON> (1099) : The Crusaders, having seized Jerusalem, turn south to fend off the suddenly active large army of The Fatimids, with their crack Mamluk heavy cavalry.\n<PERSON> (1104) : <PERSON> of Edessa seeks to maintain control of his little kingdom in northern Syria, something <PERSON>, <PERSON> of Damascus, is not happy to allow. One of the first major Crusader defeats.", "993" ], [ "Intro (or I'm so excited!)\nThis is the first game review I’ve written in several years, but I felt strongly enough about Lost Battles to break out of my inertia and get back to the keyboard.\nI’ll start with my incredible anticipation for this game. I am exactly the target audience for Lost Battles. Like many wargamers, I fancy myself something of an amateur historian. I even went back to school in my 30’s to study military history, which culminated with a thesis on <PERSON>. So Lost Battles is right up my alley. It focuses on ancient warfare, it’s designed by Dr. <PERSON>, a history professor, and it’s accompanied by a several hundred page book that includes chapters on the history of the battles, the reasons behind the critical design decisions, and additional historical insights that can be gleaned by using the model. In addition, Lost Battles sports extremely high production values, with excellent artwork, mounted tiles, oversized and rounded edge counters, and even includes a second game of strategic warfare in the ancient world. I didn’t even blink when I plopped down the $130, including shipping, to preorder the game from Noble Knight Games.\nIt comes with a book! Talk about you designer notes\nWhen I received the game and opened the box, I was not disappointed. The bits really are excellent. The rulebook is glossy, with lots of pictures, and includes 35+ scenarios in the back. The counters and maps are great. Some folks complain that the green background on the counters, which matches the green grass of the board tiles, makes it a bit hard to see the units. I disagree and think they are great, making the figures on the units stand out.", "92" ], [ "Also, the unit counters have no combat factors of any kind on them, only excllent stylized artwork, and their type (as in Veteran Hoplite Infantry, or Levy Light Cavalry). They look great, and if you’re a fan of <PERSON> weapon systems matrix (in the excellent book The Art of War in the Western World) then you’ll love these guys.\nBeautiful, just beautiful\nThey only issues I see with the components are that the tiles warped a bit (not really a big deal since they aren’t too big) and that they didn’t include any system to keep the square terrain tiles from sliding around during play (this is a more significant issue). The latter point sort of bothers me, since even the designer recommending using the extra material on the edges of the counter sheets, of which there was plenty, to create puzzle piece locking edge pieces. Why didn’t they just die cut the sheet that way? Plus, the green of the units didn’t carry over to the edge of the counter sheet, so the frame would be stark white.\nWhy didn't they use the extra material to make a frame for the tiles?\nWell, it’s a minor quibble anyway, easily overlooked for a game that provides fun game play, a strong narrative, and historical insights.\nUnfortunately, Lost Battles does not provide any of these things...\nGameplay\nLet’s start with the design decision that ruined the rest of the game. The board is made up just 20 tiles, each of which is an individual location. Units from opposing armies cannot co-exist in a single tile, and every unit in a location must face the same direction. The designer supports his decision for such a coarse map with a few points (and since I sold my copy already I can’t refer back to the book, and will go from memory).\nFirst, he wanted to design a relatively simple game, that would play quickly, and therefore wanted to keep the map simple and both sides to around 20 units. That is an admirable goal, and one I have no issue with. In fact, Command and Colors: Ancients has the same goal and achieves it admirably.\nSecond, Dr. <PERSON> argues that due to our lack of specific and credible detailed information about the battlefields themselves, attempting to model more accurate renditions of the terrain is futile in any case, and prone to error. On this last point, I agree with the good professor, to an extent. The sources for many ancient battles make only the most general comments about the terrain, such a setting up behind a river, or on a clear plain etc. In many or most cases, historians can’t agree on where the battles took place, so we can’t walk the ground today, and in other cases the course of rivers has shifted, or other changes have occurred.\nTwenty locations in total? Bad move.\nThe problem is, Dr. <PERSON> went too far in abstracting the terrain, and made it too coarse. Afterall, we are talking about a game here, not a dry academic exercise...", "92" ], [ "Introduction\nThe desert sun drifted behind the small wooden buildings of a remote western town; long shadows provided welcome relief from the intense desert heat. <PERSON> stopped polishing his Sherriff’s badge and squinted at the silhouette of a weathered stranger striding purposefully down the town’s dusty streets. The stranger had a tired look in his eyes and by the way he held his hands on his pearl handled revolver, the Sherriff knew that that this must be the fearsome gunfighter, <PERSON>. The Sherriff placed a couple of bullets in his Colt .45 and moved to intercept the stranger.\n“Howdy stranger, what brings you to these parts?”\n<PERSON> said nothing and just stared into the Sherriff’s eyes while he slowly reached for his pistol. A small crowd began to gather on the street to watch the action. Several onlookers glanced nervously at each other, their hands ready at their own guns in case of any trouble. Suddenly, without warning, a drunk burst through the tavern doors, wildly firing a Gatling gun at everyone in the area. It was the crazy killer, <PERSON>! <PERSON>’s high pitched laughter could just barely be heard over the roar of his gun’s rapidly rotating barrels. <PERSON> ducked behind a nearby barrel for safety while the Sherriff turned his attention towards <PERSON>. <PERSON> stepped out of the crowd of onlookers and took up position in the top of a nearby building. She fired her rifle at the drunk, silencing his weapon. <PERSON> took a swallow of beer and angrily threw a stick of dynamite at <PERSON> as a response. <PERSON> took advantage of the Sherriff’s momentary distraction to unleash a tremendous volley of fire from his volcanic revolver, only to be interrupted as mysterious man with a black hat stepped out of the General Store and fired a shots at him with his shotgun.", "285" ], [ "Working together with the man in the black hat, and <PERSON>, the Sherriff managed to capture <PERSON> and <PERSON>, only to look up and see a Wells Fargo carriage rushing into town as quickly as possible with an army of angry Indians following behind…\nWelcome to the spaghetti western inspired setting for the card game, Bang! By taking some of the classic characters, weapons, and events from the old Western movies and the turn of the century “dime novel” western novels, Bang! manages to capture the feel of a spaghetti western and turn it into an entertaining light to medium weight card game.\nPresentation\nBang! will not win awards for the quality of its components. It comes in a small (but sturdy), cardboard box that is just large enough to hold the 103 cards that the game ships with, plus a small black and white sheet of rules. The dirty looking colors on the box and cards do little to inspire the imagination, but the actual drawings look like something you might see in a spaghetti western “wanted” poster, helping to set the game’s atmosphere. In particular, the slightly cartoony artwork and text on the character cards invokes a “don’t take this game too seriously, just have fun with it!” feel. While the art is not something you’d show off or describe as classic, players seem able to immediately identify the setting and “spirit” of the game with just a quick glance at the artwork. Card text is printed in Italian and in English. The text is easy to read, but as one who does not speak Italian, I found the large Italian text at the top of each card to be somewhat distracting while trying to learn the game. Fortunately, once I became familiar with the cards they were easy to read. In addition to the actual text of the cards, there are a series of symbols at the bottom of most cards that indicate how to play the card. By glancing at the symbols on a card, players can quickly identify how to use the card rather than depending on printed text instructions like in most games with similar mechanics such as Magic: The Gathering or even Cosmic Encounters. Initially, I found the symbols on the cards to be quite confusing. The symbols aren’t always easy to distinguish from each other and their meaning is not always very obvious. For example, the “hat with crosshair” symbol means that you can target one player who is in range of your weapons, but the same “hat” icon that does *not* have a crosshair means that you can target any player regardless of their range. After several plays, I memorized what each of the symbols meant, but I feel that printed text like what you would find in most similar “take that” card games would have made the game much easier to learn.", "755" ], [ "Trick taking games have been around for quite a while. I’m not sure how old games like euchre and bridge and whist and pinochle have been around but they’re been around long enough to become social institutions that people devote their social lives to and ruin their marriages over. However, a lot of modern game designers have given trick taking games their own twists and Bottle Imp is one of them.\nBottle Imp is an older game by the standards of the modern gaming era but it hasn’t been available in English until this year. Thanks, <PERSON>!\nHere is the short review: Buy this game. If you even have a vague interest in card games, buy Bottle Imp. It’s cheap. It’s fun. It’s brilliant. It’s so small you can sneak into the house in your back pocket and hide it in the sock drawer where your husband or wife won’t find out you snuck another game into the house.\nI went through the trouble of picking up an international copy some years back and I have to say that Bottle Imp is one of the better light trick taking games I have played. It does not have partners or bidding, which is why I am calling it a light game but it does have one of the most diabolical trump rules I have ever seen.\nThe game consists of a deck of 37 cards, one of which actually is never going see play. The deck is numbered one through thirty-seven and is divided up into three different suits. Yeah, that’s right. The suits are not identical. In fact, they are completely different since they obviously share no numbers with each other. For the record, the yellow suit tends to be the lower cards, the red suit the higher cards and the blue suiteare around the middle. However, they are spread out through the deck.\nNineteen is not actually a real card. It’s just a place holder for the bottle. In older editions, you actually get a real wooden bottle but the bottle is just another card in the Z-Man version. Hey, you can find the game for under ten dollars without even looking hard. Quit your whining.\nAt the start of a round, you deal out all the cards. Players do a chance to fiddle with their hands a bit.", "581" ], [ "One card goes under the bottle, serving as a penalty for whoever ends up with it. (Don’t worry, I’ll explain that later.) You pass one card to the left and another to the right. So, if you feel totally hosed by the luck of the draw, you get to share a little bit of that love.\nThe game follows most of your standard trick taking conventions. Someone leads, you must follow suit if you can, high card takes the trick. If you’ve played any trick taking games, you know how all this works. If you haven’t, buy the game anyway since it’s great and you can learn.\nNow, at this point, you’re saying \"Yeah? So?\" Ah, but that is because I have saved the best and most evil for last. You see, trump in Bottle Imp is NOT a suit. It’s a number! <PERSON> is the highest card that is lower than the last card that took the bottle. The bottle starts at 19 as a place holder. You take the trick AND the bottle, which goes on the card that took it so no one can forget the current ‘price’.\nHowever, if you’re holding the bottle at the end of the game, bad things happen to you. Everyone else gets to score the cards they won. The bottle holder throws out all the cards they won and SUBTRACTS the value of the cards that everyone put under the bottle at the start of the round.\nYou can play to a set number of points or rounds. Kind of goes without saying that whoever has the most points when the game is over wins.\nBottle Imp gets its name from the wonderful <PERSON> story. In that, the bottle imp can grant you your dreams but if you die with the damn thing, you get dragged straight to Hell, even if you’re <PERSON>. You can’t give the bottle away. You got to sell it but you always got to sell it for less than you bought it for. Part of the plot involves the characters using exchange rates to sell the bottle for currencies that are worth less.\nTake a look at the rules of the game. Guess what. They fit the story perfectly. It’s crazy how well the theme works.\nAnd, in case I haven’t mentioned it, Bottle Imp is a great game. The deck is small enough that tracking cards isn’t that hard.", "629" ], [ "I’ve owned this beauty for a few months, but as most of my gaming is two player, it took a while to get this to the table. Last week, though, we got a group of four together and I suggested Shogun, as the group was made up of wargamers, euro gamers, and RPGers.\nBy way of brief background, I am primarily a wargamer with a deep interest in history and secondarily an Ameritrash gamer with an affinity for fantasy and sci-fi themes.\nComponents\nThis game is really attractive, which is one reason I bought it in the first place. The map is really beautiful, and well mounted. The cards are nice (though a bit small) and have a nice finish. The wooden blocks are cool, and look great piled up on the enemy’s border, ready to heave across at H-Hour. The artwork is solid throughout and very evocative of the theme.\nThe cube tower is brilliant. I’ve read complaints about trying to justify its somewhat random outcomes, but I had no problem here. So I attack with 4 armies and 5 pop out. So what? Maybe my success drew more to my cause.\nIn any case, I didn’t worry about justifying this game’s particular randomizing mechanic, I just appreciated its originality and ingenuity.\nObject\nShogun is a multiplayer game of building and conflict in feudal Japan. The object is, over the course of two years, to gather more victory points than your opponents. Victory points are accrued twice during the game, at the end of each year. During the scoring phase, you get a VP for:\nEach controlled province\nEach building\n3 VP: Most Castles in a region (a region is a group of 9 color-matched provinces)\n2 VP: Most Temples in a region\n1 VP: Most Theaters in a region\nTurn Phase\nEssentially, there are 3 turns (spring, summer, fall) followed by a scoring phase (winter). Then three more turns, followed by a second scoring phase. After that, high score (most VP’s) wins.\nThe turn sequence is:\nLay out action cards .", "366" ], [ "This means determine in which order that turns ten ‘actions’ will occur. The ten actions are the same each turn, and are generally one of four types: 1) spending treasure chests (hereafter “gold”) to raise armies 2) spending gold to build buildings, 3) move and attack, 4) raise taxes by gathering gold or rice from a province. The ten actions are very specific (for example, one allows a player to raise 5 armies for 3 gold, while another allows a levy of 3 armies for 2 gold). The first five actions are face up, so you know what’s coming, the last five are face down, and revealed one at a time as the face up actions are executed.\nLay out special cards . There are five of these, that give the player some small advantage for the turn, like raising an extra army or gold, or adding one army to attack or defense. They are randomly place on a turn order chart. So if the ‘add one gold to your taxes’ advantage is placed on turn order #3, and you select that advantage, you are also choosing to go third in each phase of the turn.\nPlan Individual actions . Here is where most of the game time occurs, and this is the source of one of my main complaints with this game. Here the players assign one of the game’s ten standard actions to one of their provinces. For example, by placing a province card, face down, on one’s player mat with the ‘pay three gold and raise 5 armies’ action, when that phase comes up, the specified action takes place in that province…and only that province. No province gets two actions in a phase, and no action can take place in more than one province. Forget out raising an army and attacking with it in one turn.\nYou'll spend a lot of time staring at this\nPlayers also bid for turn order in this phase, by committing 0 to 4 gold. Once revealed, the highest bidder selects the advantage and turn position they want (i.e. ‘special card’ mechanic described above).\nDetermine events .\nA random event card is turned over that has a global effect on the turn, like not allowing combat in a temple space, or capping the amount of rice gathered by taxes.\nDetermine Turn Order .\nHere players choose there special card (i.e. advantage for the turn) along with their turn order, in order of highest bid placed in the ‘Plan Individual Actions’ phase above.\nA close up of three of the five 'special cards' on the turn order track\nCarry out actions .", "629" ], [ "Sun of York\nA game for 2 players designed by <PERSON>, and published by GMT Games\n“Now is the winter of our discontent\nMade glorious summer by this son of <PERSON>;\nAnd all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house\nIn the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”\n― Richard The Third Act 1, scene 1, 1–4\nIntroduction\nThere was a time where collectible card games were a hot new thing. Magic the Gathering is still the complete king, nay, emperor, of that domain, but it also spawned not a few card games the include either a deck building or deck construction mechanic.\nI played a few of them. I tried and actually liked from Columbia, but as the ACW isn't a subject of great interest to me, it kind of came and went.\nI've always liked the idea of a card based wargame without a map having the forces and terrain deployed on a table top, and then resolving the action through the play of cards. There are lots of games in this general category. There's two series by Columbia, the aforementioned Dixie and their . can arguably be included. despite not being a card game has a similar idea of an abstracted terrain.\nSo how does the idea of an abstracted card version of the War of the Roses translate into game play? Let's find out.\nComponents, Rules, and Gameplay\nThe game comes with two deck of cards, one for the Lancastrians and one for the Yorkists.\nIt also comes with some dice, counters for marking specific kinds of information, the rules, and a pair of player aid cards.\nThe cards are nicely done and the information on them is nice and clear and easy to read.\nThe game includes 20 (!!) scenarios and a set of campaign rules for those who want to keep track of their progress (or lack thereof). There is also a nice simple rule for playing random scenarios.\nThe players set themselves up with a virtual field of play that has a left and right flank, and in the centre are three rows battle zones split into left, centre, and right.\nThis lovely custom playing mat from <PERSON> showcases it nicely:\nEach turn is split into four phases: morale checks, combat, movement, and a discard phase. To win the game, you need to capture the centre rear space of your opponent, or both the left and right rear positions.\nThe initial deployment has each player take out the leader and terrain cards specified from the scenario and into the spaces they're assigned to, and then draws 16 more cards from their remaining deck to be deployed as they see fit.", "92" ], [ "You then flip it all face up and have at it.\nThe rules are relatively straightforward and everything you need to know about moving, engaging, fighting, and flanking are all easily found and explained in the rulebook.\nConclusions\nSun of York was a game I really wanted to like, but ultimately it left me unsatisfied. The fault likes not with the game itself, but rather my likes and desires in a game. As I stated in the introduction, I like the idea of an abstracted card game of a battle, but the reality is that I really want to have a map with units and terrain.\nThe deck contains a random mix of units, terrain, and leaders. There are some special event cards that you can play as well. This means that no two scenarios will be alike, yes, but also means that you can get completely ahistorical results.\nI may be overly picky on this point. I'm no scholar of the War of the Roses, and I'm not going to be able to point expertly at how the way combat is resolved in this game is a poor simulation of how archers behaved in this era. However, I don't get a strong sense of time and place with this game, and I could just as easily be playing a generic card game with soldiers and archers and leaders.\nIt's clear then that my preference for having a map and units to help me conceptualize what's going on in front of me. And that's no indictment of Sun of York, it just doesn't make it a game for me.\nIf you like card games like this, and you like this era, it's a solid entry in the genre.\nThank you for reading this latest installment of Roger's Reviews. I've been an avid board gamer all my life and a wargamer for over thirty years. I have a strong preference for well designed games that allow players to focus on trying to make good decisions.\nAmong my favorites I include , the , the , , , , , and\nYou can subscribe to my reviews at this geeklist: and I also encourage you to purchase this very stylish microbadge:", "993" ] ]

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[ [ "Macedonia: Interior Ministry Responds to Invitation for Debate · Global Voices\nThis post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.\nThe response of the Ministry of the Interior to an invitation for public debate on ways to bring about positive social change through civic activism and reform in Macedonia, organized by the Movement Against Police Brutality, has caused an outrage in the Macedonian social media.\nThe activists of the grassroots Movement Against Police Brutality organized [mk] a public debate on November 9, 2011, in Skopje,\n…to analyze and publicly discuss the recent events, positive and negative aspects leading to the first more serious civic protests, demanding reform of the Macedonian police and increased respect for human rights. The way youth expressed their revolt and demands for changes in the system, are part of the issues at hand. The concept of the debate includes participation of various stakeholders and relevant experts.\nMoreover, the latest European Commission Progress Report on Macedonia [.pdf] refers to the case of the murder of <PERSON>, and states the following:\nAs regards the prevention of torture and ill-treatment and the fight against impunity, legislative provisions in this area are yet to be translated into a consistent and comprehensive practice. Systemic deficiencies remain with regard to combating impunity within the law enforcement agencies… […] The effectiveness of prosecutors and judges in taking appropriate action when there are indications of ill-treatment by the police remains a concern…\nThe debate was supposed to gather at one place the activists, human rights experts, representatives of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Macedonia, the Macedonian Helsinki Committee, and the Minister of the Interior, Ms. <PERSON>. The latter did not show up for the debate – according to an Alfa TV news item [mk], she chose to attend a film premiere instead.\nPublic debate on ways to bring about positive social change through civic activism and reform, organized by the Movement Against Police Brutality – Skopje, Nov.", "363" ], [ "9. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY).\nBefore the event, the organizers published the official response [mk] to their invitation from the Sector for Public Relations and Information of Public Character of the Ministry of the Interior:\nA scanned version of the response by the Ministry of the Interior\nRespected sirs/madams,\nWe would like to understand your letter as a retraction of the previous protests and untruthful accusations, insults and slander; because we doubt that anyone would like to sit at the same table with “murderers” or “executioners.” Still, the true retraction from the demeaning and unfounded qualifications should come at least in the form of a public apology and gratitude to all [members of the special police units] “Tigers” or “Alphas” who sacrificed themselves during “Mountain Storm” [a Nov. 2007 operation without police casualties, info in mk, en, sr], or were killed near the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and who participated in countless actions to protect our security.\nThe Ministry of the Interior Affairs saw the public call by [the opposition leader] <PERSON> for mobilization of all nongovernmental organizations and “independent” intellectuals against the democratically expressed will of the citizens, who for the sixth time in a row gave their support for the [political] option that is offering a better future, according to their reckoning. We are aware that the lack of ideas and the previous catastrophic results can lead to even greater despair, but this does not give us the right to become part of anyone’s scenarios.\nThe Ministry of the Interior Affairs will remain open and will continue to work in the service of the citizens. Within the framework of the devotion for transparency and accountability in its work, as you know, we organized for the first time an open day enabling all citizens to become informed and to provide their suggestions and opinions on the police work. We thank you for your interest regarding the “Open Day” Project, and all your suggestions and opinions will be taken into serious consideration.\nActivist <PERSON> displaying the response of the police at the public debate. Photo by <PERSON> (CC BY-NC-SA)\nTwitter users used the established hashtag #protestiram (“I protest”) to simultaneously link to and comment on the police officials’ response.\n<PERSON> wrote [mk]:\nI protest because a state institution funded by my money also, shamelessly insults and ignores me.\n<PERSON> also expressed [mk] outrage:\nI protest because announcements of state institutions are typed in a political party headquarters!!!\n<PERSON> asked this [mk], referring to the traditional concept of life after death:\nWhere will your soul go, Ministry of the Interior?", "202" ], [ "Dozens of Policemen Watch Hundreds of Macedonians March Against Poverty · Global Voices\nAs planned, at exactly 11:55 am, the “5 (minutes) to 12″ March Against Poverty began at the Parliament in capital city Skopje, on March 1, 2014. Photos and multimedia galleries from the march suggest about a thousand people participated with a high number of police officers cordoning their route. The event ended in an open-air “Concert for Dignity” at the Jadran Square.\nIn Macedonia, ranked among the poorest countries in Europe, every third citizen lives below the poverty line [pdf].\nMarch Against Poverty in Skopje. Photo by author on March 1, 2014. CC-BY- 2.0\nOrganizers of the event, 8th of September and the Macedonian Platform Against Poverty, are demanding a change in social welfare laws to provide decent basic income for Macedonia's poorest citizens. The event proceeded peacefully, with one exception – a police officer harassed a journalist and protester. Activist <PERSON> wrote [mk] on Facebook:\n<PERSON> marsot i koncertot protiv siromastijata, bez incidentite koi gi najavuvaa mediumite na vlasta. <PERSON> moment, koga, koj drug, ako ne policijata, povotrno prekardasi, i legitimirase snimatel, a koga direktorkata na Helsinski gi prasala sto pravat, grubo ja otturnale. Pred lugje i kameri. Ic ne im cue. Na edvaj ni 1000 lugje izvadija 1000 dzandari.", "363" ], [ "Nazdravje neka im se dnevnicite. I tie <PERSON>.\nThe march and the concert against poverty went well, without the incidents ‘predicted’ by pro-government media. Except at one point, when, who else but the police, went overboard, and asked for the ID of a cameramen. When the director of Helsinki Committee asked what they are doing, she was roughly pushed to the ground, in front of people and in front of cameras. They didn't care. For maybe less than 1000 people they had 1000 armed police officers. May they spend their overtime pay in health. We pay for them anyway.\nThe director of the Macedonian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organization, <PERSON> stated [mk] that she intended to file a complaint with the Ministry of Interior based on a video clip that documented the event, along with eyewitness testimonies.\nIn September 2013, the private television channel Nova TV reported and analyzed [mk] a similar incident, in which police forced their cameraman to delete footage of police aggression against protesters who were trying to protect a landmark Skopje public park from destruction. To date, no action has been taken against the perpetrator of this incident.\nIn front of government buildings protesters were met by a police cordon and a cordon of ancient statues- real archeological artifacts – set there in 2007. Under the Skopje 2014 project, the Government is turning the modernist facade into a faux-baroque style at a initial cost of 9 million euros. Photo by author. CC-BY.\nThe march was organized and promoted through a Facebook event page, a blog and Twitter under the ahashtags #5до12 and #5do12 on Twitter.", "363" ], [ "Macedonia: Veles Says “No” to Lead Poisoning, Government Remains Ambiguous · Global Voices\nAfter the massive protest against restarting of the lead smelting factory in the city of Veles, the citizens feel cheated by the declarative support shown by the politicians from the ruling parties, and demand clear answers from PM <PERSON> on whether the poisoning will continue.\nThe protests announced in the previous Global Voices article took place on November 9, 2011. Estimates of the number of the protest participants range from 10,000 to over 15,000 [hr], a huge turnout for this community of less than 44,000 inhabitants.\n<PERSON> and <PERSON> published Creative Commons-licensed photo galleries from the event:\nProtest march through Veles streets. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY).\nPeople gathering on Veles square. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY-NC-SA).\nTwitter tags #Veles or #Велес are still in use, and the seasoned local blogger <PERSON> provided comprehensive coverage of the protest:\n…the families, school children and elders joined forces. Being there I saw people from all backgrounds – the non-governmental sector, doctors, blue collar workers, politicians including former and current mayors and members of the parliement and local council, mothers and daughters, from all ranges of age, social and ethnic background. They protested in unison, NO RESTART! for the smelting factory.\nI was never good at guessing numbers, but the group of NGO's called “Green coalition” have managed to gather more participants than any party on a political rally even when they want to boast with numbers carrying people from other cities to enrich the scenery. Some guesses were in the range of 10.000 participants.\nThe organization was quite good, the people were loud but very polite, the whole process finished without any recorded incident.", "363" ], [ "The protest was lead by an excavator, symbolic image of the vision of the citizens – to dig up the old shadow factory and plant the perimeter with trees in order to decontaminate the land from cancerogens and active chemicals that modify the DNA of the unborn children.\nThe message was clear and far-reaching – NO MORE POISONING! Now, the state should show its support for the locals not only by speeches and through columnists, but by clear actions. And the solution is simple – rejecting the application of the investor to restart the factory – which everyone is sure that must be done based on strict following of the environmental legislation. Even the investor has admitted that they will pollute in their environmental impact study submitted to the Ministry of environment of Republic of Macedonia (image of the table follows, and remember the fact – the author of this document is the investor itself):\nTable on environmental impact from the study with added explanations in English.\nAfter this night – it should be clear to all, whoever tries to do more harm to the citizens of Veles will be punished severely.\nA short documentary about the protest [mk] is available on YouTube:\nAnd while the area's politicians and religious leaders turned out in force for the photo-op, they expressed declarative and noncommittal support for the <PERSON>’ cause. However, not all protest supporters received media attention, and were not credited at the event.\n<PERSON>, the executive director of the Foundation Open Society Institute, wrote [mk] on his Facebook profile:\nYes, members of GEM (Citizens for European Macedonia) were at the protest. And the <PERSON>’ foundation supported the NGOs that organized it by supplying funds for 2,000 vests. Just like it supported them in the long bygone year of 2003 with a USD 6,100 grant for the first analysis that proved presence of the toxic materials in the hair of 80 local children.\n<PERSON>, one of the organizers, added a comment:\nA reason for this is that road to the truth around the environmental exodus started with FOSM support at the point when the smelter was a taboo topic!\n<PERSON> concluded:\nAnd now some people want to use the protest to build their careers.\nGEM activists in the crowd during the <PERSON> protest. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY-NC-SA).\nSeveral Twitter users shared a screen capture of a statement [mk] by former Mayor, <PERSON>, published on his Facebook profile [mk]:\nCitizens of Veles expressed their position against restarting of the smelting factory with dignity. But statements of the representatives of the Ministry of the Environment indicate that the appeal has not been taken seriously.\nSelf-censorship of the speakers at the protest and pointing fingers at <PERSON> only did not produce the expected results.\nThe goal is clear: Veles without a smelter.", "363" ], [ "Macedonia: Views from Abroad on Protests Against Police Violence · Global Voices\nThis post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.\nOrdinary people's reactions to the protests against police brutality in Macedonia indicate the strength of the grip of the traditional media, which is not very keen on relaying such “unpopular” news, and highlights the opportunities for solidarity once the information gets through.\n<PERSON>, a Macedonian woman residing in Germany, wrote [mk, en] about the reactions of her friends:\nMany of my international friends asked what’s going on in Macedonia after they saw me spamming on Facebook with links to sites with strange letters and when they saw that I'd changed my profile picture. I briefly explained to them the incident with the murder of <PERSON>. Here are their responses and my personal analysis of their initial instant reactions.\nA Russian woman: So? The police killed a man. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? There is nothing you can do about it.\nObviously, the awareness about freedom of speech in this country is not on the highest level. I don’t know if it is because they are afraid or because it is not developed enough. But I do know that there is over-centralized power of the oligarchs and there is literally nothing you can do about it.\nAn Iranian man: Only one person was killed?\nThis was his instant reaction. It’s not easy for him as well. He has seen worse.", "926" ], [ "Last year, during the green revolution in Iran, the government was killing young people, just because [<PERSON>] would not recognize the electoral fraud. A bunch of progressive young people were protesting and they failed. Many of them were killed and <PERSON> is still in power.\nA German woman: How can it be that for 2 days it was not known who the boy was and the case was not reported?\nThe people of this country are used to the fact that the institutions do their job by default. She was not interested in how a member of the special police units could kill a young man, but how the case could stumble throughout the institutions.\nA Croatian man: OMG, the police is going to send us to our graves.\nI don’t have a comment on this and don’t know what to think about it. I suppose he is a proponent of the [ACAB] theory.\nBulgarian blogger <PERSON> wrote [bg] on his blog several days after protests started:\nWhy no Bulgarian media have informed about this protest for a week? Why do I have to learn about it from Twitter, and only because by chance I follow several Macedonians? What are they waiting for? An official position from the Ministry of the Interior or from <PERSON> <PERSON>]? Has it come that far? Are we afraid that the media would be blamed for inciting unrest if the protests spread to Bulgaria? Why even the publications that are considered freer keep silent? Or should we wait for the news to become popular, so we can talk about it?\n<PERSON> noted that in the week after the protests started, only two internet portals published information in Bulgarian: Dir.bg and News.bg. (In addition, these two exceptional media outlets did not post follow-up articles in the next few weeks.)\nThe website Stop police violence published an article [mk/sr] about the support for the protests from the female choir “Kombinat” [sl] from Slovenia:\nWe are sending a photo of support, taken during our concert in [Celje], dedicated to you, who protest against police brutality in Macedonia. We'll send you [a petition] signed at the concert. People in Slovenia have no idea what's going on in Macedonia, because the media do not write or speak about it… Accept our solidarity and support, we are with you in our thoughts and hearts…\nNo Pasaran!\n<PERSON> concert in Celje, Slovenia. Photo by Kombinat, used with permission.\nMacedonian protesters keep inviting people from abroad to show their support for the protests by writing or making videos about them.\nThis post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.", "363" ], [ "Macedonia: Protests Against Police Brutality Continue · Global Voices\nThis post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.\nSeveral hundred people continued the street protests against police brutality in Skopje on September 29, 2011. The Macedonian media largely obeyed the embargo on covering the protests.\nThe #protestiram hashtag continues to serve as the gathering “space” for Twitter users:\nProtesters marching towards the Court. Photo by <PERSON>, published under Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 2.0)\n<PERSON> reported in English and Macedonian:\nMore than a month after the [last protest], street protests against police brutality in Skopje, Macedonia continued today. This time, protesters asked for the legal proceedings to be expedited [mk] in the case of the death of <PERSON>, as well as the inclusion of all witnesses that stepped forward.\nThe protest at the end of September started at the same location – behind the <PERSON> memorial house. Afterwards, the protesters went on to march on the streets of the capital. [A photo gallery by Shmrkot]\nUnlike previous protests, this time the police forgоt that they have to stop all traffic on the streets occupied by protesters. A few close encounters occurred, but no conflict arose, due to the fact that there was no stopping for more than a few minutes at any location.\nThe protest moved from the Parliament to the office of the District Attorney, the Courthouse, over the Stone Bridge to Macedonia Square, the scene of the crime.\nProtests against police brutality continue in Skopje, Macedonia from <PERSON> on Vimeo.\n<PERSON>, a laid-off journalist from A1 TV, tweeted [mk]:\nAn “I told you so” moment, regarding the fact that only two TV channels–[Alfa] and 24Vesti–reported about yesterday's protest…\nHe refers to his post [mk] from June 12, at the time when protesters decided to not appear on the “anti-government” A1 TV talk show in order to avoid being labeled as pro-opposition alongside it:\nThere's a difference between the true reality and media reality. In the true reality you gather every day at 6 pm behind the <PERSON> monument and protest through the streets of Skopje. You revolt against the murder and the cover-up attempt, and have been organized via social networks, without any political parties and organizations.\nBut this is the reality for several hundreds protesters, passersby, people who live in the streets you pass, the policemen that follow you, your families and friends that you've explained what you do, and the social media users reached by the protest calls.", "363" ], [ "I cannot give percentages and numbers… the estimate might not be miniscule, but how many thousands it can reach?\nAnd now… there's the media reality. And this reality is different with each media. If you watch some of the media, you won't know you've been protesting at all. On others, you see only short clips with politicians who visited the protests repeated over and over, and journalists claiming that the opposition organized the protests. There are media which report what you know… that several hundreds/thousands people gathered to protest against police brutality, organized via social networks.\nAnd if the true reality reaches several hundreds people, this, the media reality is a reality for hundreds of thousands (with total potential audience of over 2 million).\nIf you follow the media you'll see that only a few of them relay the true reality. You are lucky that the most watched and most influential media outlet (A1) reports like this. On the other hand, you have the second (Sitel), the third (Kanal 5), and the fourth (MTV) most influential media… which create very different media reality.\nIf you want to achieve something with the protests, media reality is very important. If you equate all the media and refuse coverage of the protests or participation in studio shows (where you can better explain your demands) in a short while something will happen to suppress what you do, and the protests will either have very little or no coverage in the news.\n[Note: Soon after <PERSON> write this, the A1 stopped functioning, thanks to persistent efforts of various state institutions, from the Internal Revenue Office to the nominally independent regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications. Since July, the pro-government television stations noted above have dominated Macedonian TV-space.]\nAccording to the Broadcasting Council's data on the registered media, 18 TV stations have national coverage and additional 59 have local or regional licenses, but as media expert and blogger <PERSON> once noted:\nPlurality of the media does not equal plurality of opinions.\nThis post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.", "363" ], [ "Macedonia: Use of New Media in Election Campaign · Global Voices\nAuthors of the Macedonian media blog Komunikacii.net, analyzed (MKD) the “unprecedented” use of the internet and the new media by the leading political parties in the campaign for the early parliamentary elections, scheduled for June 1, 2008.\nMedia experts <PERSON> and <PERSON> provided joint analysis of the web presence of both the incumbent party, VMRO-DPMNE, and the main opposition party, SDSM:\nGood: use of blogs, YouTube channels, Myspace, Facebook, Hi5 etc.\n[…]\nGood also: use of video, audio, posting documents, comments, etc.\nMost of—it seems all—the campaign materials are available online, too. The websites receive regular updates… and heavily use free online services, apparently to cut costs, which seems like a smart move.\nBad: the “social” portion is absent in their use of social media. The blog posts are mainly transcripts of their rally speeches, and the content is basically recycled from their TV commercials and other uses such as to be fed to traditional media, analysts, journalists and similar actors, but not blogs per se. The posts are long, different audiences are targeted in each post, and personal experiences or input from the politicians is lacking. Even the impressions on their events are lacking, depriving their blogs of the essential individual, personal perspective.", "363" ], [ "The video clips are made for TV and not for vlogs, print campaigns which do not fit viral media, photos as décor and not as source of (inside) information. […]\nProbably these are the reasons why these blogs do not receive many visits, there are but a few comments, and are simply left out of the general political discussion (for the time being).\nIn conclusion […], it's great that political parties adopted many new services and channels for electoral propaganda, but the effects will probably be quite small, because the websites are used as web repositories or warehouses for loads of materials tirelessly produced for the electoral campaigns in Macedonia.\nIn a comment to the same post, prominent local blogger <PERSON>, wrote (MKD):\nThe most interesting thing about the bunch of blogs created by political parties for this election is that they have some incompetent idiot appointed as administrator responding to user comments. For instance a response to some relevant question by such person was: “And who's asking?” Bottom! As long as they belittle the power of the blog and the blogosphere, their blogs will receive minuscule visitor flow and only by their praising party members. The situation was the same with the elections in 2006. They advanced in quantity, but not an inch in quality.", "363" ], [ "Why Did the Giant Ears Cross the Road? To Protest State Surveillance in Macedonia · Global Voices\nThree activists from Metamorphosis Foundation cross the street to the Macedonian government building in Skopje, wearing eyeball and ears costumes to symbolize the illegal surveillance that civic society organizations and journalists have been subjected to. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nA human-sized eyeball sandwiched between two giant ears cross the street before a government building in Skopje, Macedonia. The trio performed a larger-than-life act of eavesdropping to protest mass state surveillance of journalists and civic groups, an activity that leaked recordings of illegal wiretaps have proven the Macedonian government has been engaged in for years.\nBehind the eye and ears (and the distinct reference to the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover) were activists from the digital rights non-profit Metamorphosis Foundation and the informal coalition Citizen for Macedonia, who staged the demonstration to honor Freedom Not Fear, an EU-based campaign against mass state surveillance.\nThe big eye pretending to read a newspaper while spying on the municipality of Centar and the mayor, <PERSON>. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nA massive trove of audio files and archives (known locally as “bombshells”) released by opposition leader <PERSON> almost one year ago revealed that the communications of more than 20,000 individuals in Macedonia had been secretly recorded illegally, including more than a 100 journalists and civil society activists.\nThe big eye and ears took a stroll on 16 October from the government and the headquarters of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, the municipality of Centar, the European Union delegation's building, the weekly magazine Fokus and the Metamorphosis Foundation, where the Meta news agency and Portalb news portal are situated.\nThe big eye and ears in front of the EU delegation's building in Skopje. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\n<PERSON> party claims to have obtained these records from whistleblowers within the Ministry of Interior and has since used them to expose the wrongdoing of the ruling party and, most likely, to draw more supporters into their own ranks. These corrupt behaviors were not news to anyone in Macedonia, but the hard evidence was welcomed by rights advocates who have worked for years to improve transparency and increase public accountability for spending and policymaking by the ruling government.\n<PERSON> (left) from the Directorate for Personal Data Protection and <PERSON>, founder of cybersecurity.mk took part in the debate on “Safety of communications and threats from monitoring and surveillance of communications” (Photo: Metamorphosis)\nAlong with the activists’ public demonstration, on 19 October Metamorphosis hosted a debate on the safety of communications and threats from monitoring and surveillance of communications.\n<PERSON> from Macedonia's Directorate for Personal Data Protection participated as a speaker in the debate.", "739" ], [ "She addressed the role of telecom operators in the process of eavesdropping, collecting and processing data from telephone conversations:\nThere are standards according to which communications can be monitored and personal data can be collected, and every violation [of these standards] is actually a violation of privacy. Telecom operators and [Internet service providers] should have mechanisms for guaranteeing their user’s privacy, and providing safety and confidentiality of their data and communications. They need to take technical measures to secure the data, and destroy the data if the purpose for their collection has been fulfilled.\nRecent reforms require telecommunications operators to build “back doors” into their technologies so that the Security and Counterintelligence Service, known as UBK, can listen to the conversations of just about anyone it chooses. Although the Constitution requires that the UBK obtain a court order before doing so, the new policy and practice disregards this requirement altogether.\nIt seems that the telecom operators have been compliant in this illegal surveillance scheme all along. According to <PERSON>, telecom operators in Macedonia collect and store all telephone metadata for 12 months. European Union regulations would prohibit such a lengthy storage period, an important detail as Macedonia is currently seeking accession to the EU.\n<PERSON> also confirmed that the directorate has not initiated proceedings on behalf of citizens affected by what the wiretaps revealed, and explained that this is because none of the individuals who were wiretapped had submitted a complaints about their cases thus far. This is not surprising, given rapidly declining levels of citizens’ trust in their government.\nBesides the debate, a workshop on the safe use of mobile phones was held in Skopje (Photo: Metamorphosis)\n<PERSON> from Internet Hotline Provider – Macedonia, a local civil society organization that works on the protection of digital rights, spoke on instances of online harassment in which wiretap recordings have been used to embarrass or shame political elites.", "409" ], [ "Macedonia: TEDxSkopje Attracts Attention Online · Global Voices\nParticipants who spoke after it, consider the first TEDx event in Macedonia a great success. The one-day conference organized independently under license from American nonprofit TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) enabled widening the range of publicly discussed topics and inspiring at least one hundred participants to work on positive change.\nAs IT.com.mk reported [MKD]:\nThe first “idea sharing” is over. You could follow the TEDxSkopje conference via live video stream, or read about it on Facebook or Twitter. In case you missed them, the videos will be published on the TEDxSkopje website.\nThe conference was quite successful. The realization was excellent, minus small technical glitches which were quickly solved. The selection of the speakers was interesting, with various topics composed into two segments. The first part focused more on technology, while the second part focused on education, motivation and inspiration for creation.\nThe live video stream had almost a thousand viewers from all over the world, mostly from Macedonia, curiously followed by France and the U.S.A.\nThe rules of the event prohibited photographing and recording, except by designated official photographers. One of them, <PERSON>, posted a short video about the event.\nAs previously reported by GVO, a controversy arose online after some of the would-be participants did not receive confirmations of their applications. Much of the tension was defused thanks to the willingness of the volunteers who served on the organization committee to openly discuss the issues with the public through a group interview [MKD] conducted via the aggregator Ping.mk.\nAfter the event, the online discussions did not die, with praises from the participants broadcast via Twitter and on the Facebook profile, and some ‘ok, we got it, get off your high horse’ comments by others [MKD]. In a funny twist, one of the most persistent interlocutors during the preparation phase, <PERSON>, even ‘received’ a photo comics [MKD] in which <PERSON> and <PERSON> ask each other whether they attended the event, and conclude that at least they've heard he, <PERSON>, did.\nOn a more serious note, <PERSON>, one of the volunteer organizers, wrote [MKD] on his blog about the discrepancy between the online interest for TEDxSkopje and another project he takes part in – creation of the National Free/Libre and Open Source Software Policy [MKD] through inclusive, citizen-centric process:\nTEDxSkopje and the National FLOSS Policy can't be more different.\nThe first is a private initiative, mainly supported by private entities (except the Youth Cultural Center).", "363" ], [ "It is not exclusive, there can be others like it. It is not very relevant in the wider context of Macedonian society – besides the idea that TED-style presentations can raise the level of public debate, there's not much to it. Still TEDxSkopje has been almost entirely and constantly under the watchful eye of the (Internet) public […]…\nThe second is a public initiative, includes the Ministry of Information Society, Metamorphosis Foundation and Free Software Macedonia as implementers, as well as all stakeholders from universities and the business sector. Making such text is one-off thing. There will be no second version next year. If adopted, it will be a very important contribution to building the information society, especially regarding the transparency of ICT policies of state bodies, and their communication with all of us. The Policy can help shaping the future ICT development in this country and, if successful, it would be a great topic for some future TEDx talk. However, it remains below the radar of the online public (even though they were invited to join a number of times).\nTo this, add the fact that the people determined to post about all TEDxSkopje missteps are educated enough to contribute to the National FLOSS Policy, and you'll realize why I write this.\nBut, since I am an economist, I will remind you that people are selfish. “One's own benefit above all” – and it seems that many people think TEDxSkopje has something to do with their own benefit.\nFinally, as a TEDxSkopje organizer, I can say that in spite of all that traversed, I feel flattered. But as someone who will need to submit an annual balance-sheet to the Central Register, I feel obligated to remind you that the chance to push standards and openness in e-whatever with the state is still open to all of you.", "363" ] ]

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[ [ "PSA: To guests, dont get upset if the hotel is sold out\nand the other hotels in town are sold out as well. It does NOTHING for you to scream and yell at me over the phone or in person about \"wHy aRe yOu sOlD oUt?!?!?!!? yOuRe tHe 6tH hOtEl tHaTs tOlD mE tHaT!!!!!\"\nyes because the town is busy. Its not MY fault that you didn't plan ahead and make a reservation! Its not my fault you drove into town thinking \"nothing goes on here I can just walk in and get a room\" only to be disappointed. If I don't know what events are going on in town, then don't fucking yell at me about it LOL. I swear.... I work night shift, I DONT care what \"events\" are booking up hotels at night. That's not in my job description to know (its isn't before anyone says otherwise).\nNo I'm not going to call every hotel in town for you, you can do that yourself as Im busy tending to a booked hotel with guests who have needs to be met. You can use your own personal phone to do that, also you're not a guest or a customer so I'm not obligated to do so.\nCurrently right now, every hotel is booked because college registration starts this week.", "1015" ], [ "Or Monday. But regardless the parents have brought their college kids to register and take a tour of the campus. So we're booked up cuz of that. The audacity ive had tonight with people DEMANDING I get them in by giving them someone elses reservation (the one they've properly prepared for) over you who've just walked in, with no plan, with attitude, and a lot of the times demanding a cheaper rate because \"youre too expensive, <PERSON> discount!\"\nIm sorry for the rant but every interaction I've had with a walk ins or someone calling as been nothing but brutal about their poor planning and making it an issue of the hotel. A few claimed theyre going to call management for compensation (yeah lol good luck with that considering you werent a guest at all and had no reservation). When I tell you it took everything in me to not laugh out loud..... Im not even gonna be understanding about \"how they feel\" or \"they may be in a bad spot mentally\" nah dont care. You didnt plan properly and youre taking it out on me. Theres NO excuse for that.", "1015" ], [ "Hotels hosting Super Bowel Watch parties....\nI want to know what ding bat in the upper management/corporation thought this was a good idea? Seriously, I would LOVE to know who. So I dont know if everyone else's hotel does this, but when super bowel is going on, our hotel the \"Fieldlawn\" by Larriott will put out flyers, emails, and promote this FOR NIGHT SHIFT. Because super bowel goes well into the middle of the night.\nAnyway, I hate it. Because you get the sports people (and they're usually the worst ones) that will do nothing but trash up the lobby. Leaving only me to clean it all up. Im not talking about just a little bit of trash. No sir/ma'am, Its pizza boxes stacked on every flat surface in the lobby, crumbs and FOOD all over the tables/couches, beer bottles lying everywhere (this is a problem because they're not allowed to drink personal alcohol in the building unless its in their room, TABC rules.), and overall not picking up after themselves. Its not fun for a person to be having to watch all of this go down, while tending to peoples room requests such as taking up linen and what not, and then gatekeeping the market alcohol because these morons think 'ITS FREE!' alcohol. When its not and you have to pay for it, normally I dont care to inform them of that but its always met with crappy attitude from them.", "314" ], [ "Like how dare I not let you steal!\nI think upper management should work these nights only. Leave the night auditor off to relax because ya'll have zero clue how bad it gets when it comes to dealing with a full hotel of nothing but sports fanatics with no sense of respect. Dead serious, they need to be taken out of their comfortable office at the home office and placed in that hotel for the night they decided to advertise that mess. Its not fun for me to have to manage a whole lobby full of drunk sports fans, a huge ass group of football players, and customers feeling the need to inform me that \"you dont look happy that youre cleaning right now?\" well no shit <PERSON>, Im not gonna be all smiles and rainbows when I see grown ass adults to lazy to turn to their left or right to throw their own trash, much less taking 2 steps to the nearest trash can. No instead you leave a PILE of trash and LOUDLY state \"its their job!\" (its not, my nightly duties don't include cleaning up after unfavorables who don't know how to respect anything else not related to them.) which that in itself is rude and just lets me know what kind of person you are. 🤷‍♂️\nBig groups in the lobby normally dont bug me, its white noise for me in the background to work with. But a group of people purposely trashing the place up, yeah no. I have a problem with that. I mean, you wouldnt like me going into your home and doing the same now would you? If you say yes, youre dead ass lying.\nIf any hotel wants to host events like this, do this shit during the day when you have STAFF available incase things go south. Not make the times up from 10pm to 12 pm knowing damn well these people are going to be up WAY PAST MIDNIGHT ON A SATURDAY! One person can only do so much.", "203" ], [ "Are we not on the same team here?\nNight Audit on a busy night at an OPTION branded hotel. Option Desk calls after midnight requesting to book a room on behalf of a guest. I tell the agent my availability. She says that she can't see any availability on her end, but she would book the room for tomorrow. I tell her no. That if the guest is coming in tonight, the reservation date must be for tonight, if she's unable to book it, then they will have to be a walk-in.\nI don't know what the hell this lady was on about. She had a list of excuses as of why he couldn't be a walk-in:\n\"She would like to secure the room.\"\nI can secure a room for a guest.", "245" ], [ ". .\n\"He would be tired after travel.\"\nHe's still going to have to check in, it doesn't matter.\n\"She would like to insure that the guest would not be charged. For tonight.\"\nWHAT DO YOU MEAN? he'd get charged if he books no matter if he shows up or not?????\nI again, say that if he wants the room he'd need to be a walk in. I cant adjust dates.\nShe books the room anyway, putting in the notes that I confirmed this. The room is a room type we are sold out of tonight and that is $40 more than what he was quoted. Luckily he was understanding when I told him what happened and that I TOLD HER NOT TO DO THIS FOR THIS SPECIFIC REASON.\nShe never informed me she was going to book anyway. She never did confirmed the rate or availability for that room type. She just pushed it through with my name attatched.", "245" ], [ "I just work here- I mean it. HERE is where I work.\nWhy is it that people want to ask so many questions about any place and every place other than the hotel you work at? I'm standing here, in this logoed uniform, with this logoed name tag, behind the desk with the logo on it. I know the policies and amenities of this hotel. I know the location of this hotel.\nIt's especially annoying when they're a walk-in, and they're pissed off we don't offer something they need (example: accepting pets). It's after 11pm. You drove in from god knows where, need a room with two beds now through sunday and you have a puppy. Not a dog. A PUPPY. Don't catch lip with me because YOU didn't plan accordingly. I have never went ANYWHERE without a reservation, let alone needed special accommodations on the fly. Now you're pissy with me because I don't have a readily available list of hotels in your budget, to your standards, and close by.", "1015" ], [ "Why? Because it's not my job to sell rooms at THOSE hotels.\nNo, I don't know what the rate for XYZ hotel is. I know what my rates are. No, I don't know if they have a certain company discount too. I don't know if they would let you check in 4 hours before check in. I'm not very helpful- because IT'S NOT WHERE I WORK.\nAnd they don't even do it just for hotels. I don't know if the restaurant across the street has a vegan option. Sorry that you went and store wasn't open, but I ONLY KNOW WHAT GOOGLE SAYS. Why? Because I'm not the opener/closer at said store.\n\"Will it be hard to get an uber to the airport in the morning at [rush hour]?\" Probably. But if I suggest a local ride service that does scheduled rides, I get bitched at because of the price? FINE, miss your flight. I tried to help you. No, I don't have a discount with the service. I just know they're the only reliable ones.", "156" ], [ "This should have been handled before 1:14 am on a Saturday.\nFor over a week now we've had 5 reservations for \"TEMP 1\" under the direct billed, corporate account. 2nd shift gets a message to get the full names for the people checking into these rooms. Okay, easy enough. Kind of annoying that nobody reached out to the company to get the rooming list before hand but okay.\nThey show up now during my audit shift. Well. . . one of the rooms does. Guy shoves a phone in my face- a screenshot of an email with no information on it to anyone not pessimistic like me who had already been expecting the worst. I assumed something like this would happen. Luckily I can use context clues and inferred that they were the TEMPS.\nOkay, now that's settled all I need is an ID. Any form of ID. A work badge, a passport, a state ID. . . this man has nothing. And that makes me the bitch. I can only ask so many times before I have to move on to the guest behind him. He can't hold up the line while he waits for his friend (which I had no idea that was what he was doing, he just picked up a POINTS member brochure and started pretending to read it? Then they start huffing when I move on to the next person.\nWhen I get back to them, they hand me one singular ID. So, they get one singular (double) room.", "156" ], [ "I get that I only speak broken spanish, but I assume \"el numbre\" is understandable. Nope. Neither is telephone with me pantomiming the phone sign with my hand. He nods, then just stares.\nFour people went up to this room- two workers and two girlfriends. We are supposed to charge by the head, and they are already at capacity of TWO. But I can't argue with them, they don't speak my language.\nAnd a pet peeve of mine is when the non-english speaking patrons of the hotel think that their language barrier is also an excuse to just forget social grace or common sense. Because I handed them ONE key card packet. Another few members of this group come in and go upstairs to- the ONE room. Ya know with the ONE door. Then come down confused. \"It's only one room.\" NO SHIT. What did they expect? One room to lead to a maze of other rooms? I explain I have to have a form of ID for each room I hand out, so five rooms, five IDs. \"Do they have to come down with them?\" . . . YES.\nThere's two rooms left in the group. So who knows how the rest of the night is going to play out. I left a note for management (who are always BOTH off every event weekend) explaining that this should have been handled at their and the company level, and it shouldn't have been left for just me to deal with. ALSO, keep in mind- the trainee is the one pulling all the first shifts this weekend. Her first days alone. So if this had happened on her shift it would have been a disaster.", "245" ], [ "No Ca$h?!?!?!\nWhen I arrived to my shift I had a slight dilemma with a guest. As I am taking care of him I noticed a guy and gal loading what looks like all of their belongings on one of the luggage carts. I don't think much of it and continue to assist the first guest.\nThey are obviously checking in and I refresh the system to see their reservation. I ask for an ID and the card they want to put on file to pay for the room.", "540" ], [ "He tells me that he just used a card to reserve the room but he will be paying cash. Even though we have it listed EVERYWHERE in the hotel that we no longer accept cash I informed him of our policy.\nHis total for the room, tax, and incidentals was around $160 but he SWEARS he is on a \"friends and family\" discount and that his mom is a manager somewhere in Florida. I apologize to him and inform him that he did not book on that rate. That is when he started raising his voice at me.\n\"WHY DONT YOU TAKE CASH!\" \"YOU'RE A PART OF THAT PROPOGANDA AND THE PROBLEM WITH THE WORLD NOW!\" \"DO YOU EXPECT ME TO TAKE ALL MY STUFF OFF THE CART AND WAIT OUTSIDE?!\" while his girlfriend is grilling me about what places near here take cash. I'm like, idk lady try the hourly rate motels down the road and don't take off with our luggage cart.\nThey waited 40 minutes outside with all their shit on the ground before a cab came to pick them up.", "806" ], [ "The Worst Regular\nHey there! Usually a lurker and not a poster, but I’m very excited about this and figured others would know the feeling.\nSince starting at the hotel I’m currently at, we’ve had this undesirable regular that nobody. He booked the Government Rate (which was MUCH cheaper than the regular rate) and nobody ever questioned him. If you did, he would blow up about being an ~insert highest value~ rewards member and saying we mistreated him. Yet he always came back.\nHe reeked of cigarette smoke, had an overall bad attitude, and demanded services we didn’t offer. The old FOM did nothing about this behavior and instead encouraged it.\nNow, I’m a GM in training and that FOM is gone.", "806" ], [ "The day prior he checked in and was worse than his usual already rude self, and after checking out today he contacted the special line for high-tier members to complain and try to get his money back from the stay. The new FOM (the best person tbfh) obviously gave him nothing.\nThen we get the call. The good one, from our Housekeeping team that said his room is going Out of Order because of the rancid smell of cigarette smoke.\n-cue evil laugh- I finally had my reason for putting him on out DNR list, and it was my absolute pleasure to let my brand know he was unable to stay with us anymore. After I had left for the day, he even tried to call and make a reservation. My GSA (who knew the guy from when he worked at another hotel chain that also DNR’d him) had the best time denying him and letting him know he wasn’t welcome back.\nGood riddance!", "940" ], [ "So nobody at the front desk can have a day off during the week of the fourth of july?\n<PERSON> here, hi! So I work under an incompetent FOM that has it out for me, and a new GM that hasn’t seen through her bs yet.\nWe are so understaffed simply because nobody can stand to work for this woman (FOM). She’s lazy, she’s new to managing, new to the brand, and new to hotels! She has no idea how anything works. She likes to call people out directly on quore for eveyone to see, and she sometimes likes to exaggerate or “find” a mistake that isnt a mistake but not correct herself- so all the owner and GM know are whats posted in quore. She’s even accused me of stealing $5. When there was a clear note and explanation for it (it got dropped as overage by mistake), she left a sneaky not for the owner JUST saying the drawer was short right after my shift with no further context.\nBut anyway- she’s taken a four day vacation less than a month ago, came back “with <PERSON>” and extended that time off to overlap my vacation (i was on a ten hour road trip for a four day trip to see <PERSON> i’d be out thousands of dollars in hotel rooms, preparation, and what i spent on hair makeup clothing etc.)\nShe now has another vacation put in, four days at the end of june. then less than a week later the week of the 4th of july. 5 days. And the rule implemented as of today is that two people cant be off on the same day.", "329" ], [ "So the doctors appointment I wrote off for the moment I knew about it- Im shit outta luck. the most I could do is take the day of the actual appointment off. So work 11-7am, drive home, get to my doctor less than three hours later. Then only have that night off. No other night that week, until FOM comes back from her vacation. When I was hired on a stipulation was that my days off were together, because I work nights. One night off means theres not 24hrs i’m away from the place.\nAnd for clarification, I’m writing this in bed crying because this isn’t just any ol’ doctors appointment. I’m pregnant and this is THE ultrasound, i’m going to be running on no sleep when i find out what my baby is going to be. and then im going to sleep all day after and not have any time to celebrate.", "814" ] ]

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[ [ "The electric breakdown in air produces all sorts of radical, ions and some more stable compounds. The temperature created in the current flow during discharge can be quite high, high enough to scramble most gas molecules into all sorts of small pieces which recombine (or fall apart) into other species. I mean you can smell ozone around high voltage equipment - apparently you didn't know that. As for what specifically is formed, wow, that's a really hard question to answer. The more serious question is what is detected? (Because a chemical has to persist for \"a while\" to be detected, instead of only existing for an instant to have been \"created\"). What persists long enough to be detected depends on what is around. Especially important are pollutants like sulfur dioxide and organics. In pure humid air, you've got the obvious ions, and species like H2O2, NOx, O3. I wouldn't expect any NH3 (ammonia) but I wouldn't be too surprised if it was found, either. This may not seem related, but it is: did you know that you can detect x-ray emissions from Scotch Tape being pulled off of a surface when it's in a vacuum? (They don't detect it in air, not because it doesn't happen, but because the air absorbs the (faint) x-rays before they can be detected). There's a LOT of chemistry that is going on all around us that is just happening too quickly for us to see. And of course if you're into scifi, you know about the experiments with lightning (arc discharge) making polymers which used to be the most popular explanation of how life originated on Earth.", "104" ], [ "Electric discharge is actually NOT well understood. What we do know is that it is definitely powerful enough to make all sorts of (random) chemicals. They use electrical discharge to cut holes (with very precise dimensions) in thick, thick steel. It packs a wallop. So, to answer your question in a general way. Take H, C, O, N as the (atomic) constituents of air (as CO2, H2O, O2, and N2) and assemble ANY molecule with say, 3 or fewer of any of them. Chances are some of that is made. CO (carbon monoxide)? sure. NO, NO2 ? I'd bet on it. H2O2? Probably...So write this HwCxOyNz and vary w, x, y and z from 0 to 3 and you probably have listed something which has at least transient existence. H, H2, H3 (er...maybe) N, N2 (already present), N3 etc., HN, H2N, HN2, etc. etc.", "662" ], [ "You probably know that water can be supercooled down to well below -30°C. And it has probably been suggested (if not outright stated) that at those temperatures, the water is in a \"metastable\" liquid state and that \"eventually\" it will spontaneously solidify - even if \"eventually\" may require trillions of years. Since thermodynamics is empirical, you could wonder how that has been empirically observed...but let's not go there. You've been taught that ΔG is a measure of the spontaneity of a process at constant temperature and pressure and at equilibrium. (How a \"process\" happens when the system is at equilibrium (steady-state) is often ignored. It's fair to say that nothing \"happens\" at equilibrium, rather when we say \"equilibrium process\" we mean \"a process occurring sufficiently close to equilibrium\". But I think I'm getting off topic, again. In considering nucleation, it is vital you distinguish between homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation. This is the crux of the issue. Water is almost never without contaminates which provide nucleation sites, even if those sites are only on the surface of the container holding the liquid (getting the water this pure is an enormously difficult feat, and how you create a liquid phase without a container I leave to your imagination (hint:rain)). So, when reading about nucleation, you need to distinguish between the situations where there is preexisting centers (contaminants) or whether the water is assumed to be absolutely pure and centers must form spontaneously. Perhaps to answer your question (it would have been most useful if you had copy/pasted the exact text from your book). Once centers (seeds?) exist, the continued growth is pretty much identical whether their origin was homo- or hetero-. Obviously there is no equilibrium between a dust particle (solid) and liquid water. So how can nuclei exist at the MP? Obvious, right? They're hetero-, no formation is required.", "273" ], [ "(Here I avoid the issue of whether FP is (or is not) identical to MP). Wikipedia has a short article on Classical Nucleation Theory which may help. Consider a solid. At its surface, the atoms (or molecules) are different than in the bulk (for most solids, bulk properties aren't reached for top 2 or 3 (or more) layers) but just consider an ideal crystal. Obviously, the surface has fewer bonds and hence has higher energy (is less stable). We call that surface tension (or exactly equivalently, surface energy). The classical theory states it's always positive. This is the energy which needs to be \"overcome\" to get nuclei, and it's proportional to the surface area. You should note here that our discussion has gone down to the microscopic level, where classical thermodynamic quantities become less and less useful. In other words, the macroscopic classical world thermodynamics needs to be treated carefully here. Statistical thermodynamics is most suitable transition from the classical to the quantum world. These types of processes can be studied using either, but fundamentally the world behaves according to the rules of (statistical) quantum mechanics when you're concerned with atoms depositing on or leaving a surface. The perspective of Classical Thermodynamics is of limited use. (In this case, I think it is probably just as useful, if not more useful, than the quantum mechanical approach. But you're unlikely to get many \"fundamental\" insights using it.) I'll point out one other apparent flaw in the \"activation energy\" approach: if the energy barrier is symmetric, then at its peak there should be no preferential direction: the odds of the system moving towards the solid or towards the liquid should be exactly the same (i.e. 50:50), yet the Classical Nucleation Theory requires a fudge factor for this probability - it is an indication that there is more going on here than this approach can handle, that the nucleation activation energy is, at best an approximation.", "28" ], [ "This is all about diffusion. The speed of individual molecules is not relevant, because they collide with one another and change direction so frequently (at least at standard temperature and pressure) that this speed does not at all characterize the diffusion of one species into another.\nEngineers have tabulated rate coefficients that describe the rate of diffusion of various gases through air, for example: https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/air-diffusion-coefficient-gas-mixture-temperature-d_2010.html\nThis doesn't give the rate you'd want, but we can get the ballpark studying a similar rate, Argon diffusing through air.\nSay you've got a can with Argon on the bottom, air on top, and a 1 cm mixed layer between otherwise pure gases.\nJ = (D = 0.189 cm^2/s) * (1.7 kg/m^3 Argon at STP)/(1cm) = 31.8 kg/cm^2/s\nThis is the mass flux of argon through the barrier. Multiply by some area A, Divide by argon density at STP (1.7 kg/m^3), and divide by A again to get argon flow per unit area, areas cancel and we have: = 1.89 cm/s. Note that the Argon mass actually canceled out here too, basically the mix rate just relates to how thick the boundary layer starts out. Initially, when it is infinitesimal, the rate is infinite, since the rate is just D=0.189 cm^2/s divided by the boundary layer thickness L, which I assumed to start at 1 cm.\nThis means that the pure argon below diffuses up into the pure air through the boundary at like 2 cm/s. Of course one second later the boundary layer is 3 cm thick instead of 1, so the rate slows 3x.", "580" ], [ "Three seconds later it is five centimeters thick. You have to solve a differential equation to really get your answer of how long, and the notion of a firm boundary between pure and boundary layer is just an approximation. But roughly... continuing this pattern you hit 21 cm thick \"boundary layer\" after 100 seconds, which I'm guessing is close to your tank size. Double or triple that for the boundary layer to further mix up to your .1% requirement, and we're at 5 minutes.\nNotably, given this surprisingly slow timescale, it probably does help to shake up the tank. I suspect that Argon is a slightly worse case than N2 and O2, but I don't really know. Comparing other gases on the engineering toolbox link, seems like D roughly goes with mass, lighter mass higher D, but Argon isn't very different from air anyway (40 v 29).", "441" ], [ "A variant on what has already been proposed here - the danger is again, from space, because astronomy and astrophysics is SO cool.\nBlow the horns, sound the alarms, we are on a collision course... with a BLACK HOLE.\n1. Noone would know about it. Normal, run-of-the-mill, friendly neighbourhood sized black holes (as opposed to wallmart sized monsters at the centers of the galaxies) are super difficult to spot if You are not actively trying to find them because You had clues that they are there in the first place. And it just so happens that this particular black hole is rather small and has been travelling in space without any companionship. No accretion disk, no large body to affect with gravitational field, nothing.\n2. An astronomer spotted it because of luck. He was drunk and was bragging to his non-science buddies 'muh scienz' and typed random coordinates in the sky with his telescope at home and pushed 'track this spot in the sky'. He didn't see much of course at the time, but hangovered in the morning, he spotted something wierd with the image from the telescope, it was tad bit too... empty. Especially after the few hours of data gathering. So he found some free time on some real sized telescope... and wet his pants seeing the gravitational lensing.", "73" ], [ "It's like winning a lottery, spotting a black hole like that. Muh papers! Muh recognition! A few months later and 10 publications in PNAS, someone calculates (for the fun of it) the current velocity and direction of the black hole. Well, bad news, it's going to go straight through the solar system in ...\n3. You can have this disaster happen with any time delay You want. The first effects may be seen in a month, may be seen in 100 years. Calibrate it however You want.\n4. There IS no way to stop it. One does not simply change the trajectory of a black hole.\n5. Put it close enough, and there IS no escape (it wouldn't be detectable without enormous amount of luck) until literally on our doorstep - and then it's too late to start building interstellar colony ships.\n6. The sheer unprobability of this event is interesting. One type of religious people start arguing this is an argument for the existence of god, and that he IS mad. Other type of religious people praying day and night, hoping that it's just a test and in the end the reality devouring monster will be deflected by saviour. UFO theorists shout about Kardashev level LOTS civilisation which decided to eradicate humanity in this, rather baroque, manner. So what is the truth about this? Epic bad luck? Malevolent intelligence with a penchant for overkill of epic proportions? Angry god? Or just god testing the faithfull? Or maybe something more curious...?", "337" ], [ "I am not a nuclear physicist but I have studied these structures. <PERSON> is not a fool. He knows what he is talking about. The claim that \"everything possible occurs in nature\" is not true. While fullerenes and tetrahedral carbon/diamond does occur, and while you could point to \"natural\" stainless steels, such as iron-cobalt-nickel meteorites, I can point to unnatural, manmade structures that do not occur in nature. Japanese metallurgists have made an Austenitic Stainless steel called H-1 which uses nitrogen in place of carbon in the iron matrix, and thus it is nearly 100 percent impervious to rust and is used in knife blades by Spyderco knives. Stainless steel does not occur in bone structures and yet steel is ten times stronger than bone.", "561" ], [ "Because something does not occur in nature does not make it impossible.\nI guess the two main issues here are stability issues: 1 Could you make subatomic/nuclear femto structures that take forms other than a glob or drop. Well, what if the assumption that the nucleus is a sphere are false? <PERSON> proved the vector equilibrium structure/tensegrity/geodesics are found in nature, from the atom and molecule on up to the galatic level. You are ASSUMING that SUB-Atomic structures are chaotic and cannot have structures like tubes, sheets, bars, rods, and so on and so forth. If we find these structures in the atomic world (fullerenes for example), why wouldn't they exist even at smaller scales, like this: ? http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-ph/0112066.pdf\n\" Motivated by <PERSON>, in this Letter we point out the exis tence of new ge- ometric structures in QCD with high spatial symmetry. We det ermine the geometric structure and the characteristic “magic numbers ” of these configu- rations, using analogies with carbon Fullerene structures . We explore some of the interesting topological structures that can be created by QCD networks and closed cages that may be produced in high energy nuclear r eactions joining multiple QCD junctions and anti-junctions. Although the QC D Lagrangian is CP even, we point out that the junction and anti-junction bui lding blocks can be used construct CP odd configurations that may also serve as domain walls between inequivalent ( θ ) QCD vacua.\"\nAt least consider it", "364" ], [ "You'll have to be a whole lot clearer about what you are asking about. \"Radiation seep\" isn't a defined technical term. Radon seeps up out of the ground. Radioactive (contaminated) water seeps from containment into the ocean. Radionuclei seep into ground water. Even assuming you meant radioactive fallout, you haven't provided enough details of what type of radioactivity needs to \"seep\" down into their bunker. The deepest water I know of was found at a depth of 100 km. At 100 km, you'd expect the temperature to be 2500°C or 4500°F. In other words, to get below where water might possibly \"seep\", you'd have to get to temperatures above what we could live at. (Temps increase about 25°C per km, which means we're not going to be able to live below 2 km. Perhaps you should reframe your question since it is the dose of radiation which causes damage and dose depends on concentration, type, and energy of the radiation. BTW as you get deeper into the Earth, radon levels increase. Anyway, if we assume very long lived radioactive isotopes, with very energetic (lethal, damaging) decay modes, then the question naturally arises whether such isotopes will be transported downward at a sufficient rate to be a hazard to some sub-surface habitat. Of course, the answer is it depends on the geology (and hydrology) at that specific location.", "435" ], [ "There are several minerals which are natural barriers to water. Salt is one, another is certain types of clay. I suggest you take a look at the proposed design of the Yucca Mountain repository (defunct) because they attempted to design it to prevent water \"seeping\" in (and out). It would be a pretty good start for a design for your habitat's \"shield\". You can't really build \"a wall\" (meaning thin (several feet, say) (sorry Mr. <PERSON>)) to keep the water out. The barrier needs to be of sufficient thickness so that even if a earthquake moves a fault by several meters, the barrier is still sufficient to prevent significant seepage at the \"crack\". That's really not too difficult to do, lets just say 20 meters of clay and 10 meters of salt. The trick is to keep this ceiling compressed so that cracks don't develop, (salt is self-repairing). You'd have to be careful in digging the tunnels to live in. Caves might not be the answer. You want to keep the barrier under compression and caves, even if the rock ceiling is strong enough to support the material above it, could cause decompression (as well as other types of movement). You could ask a question on the Engineering on a different forum. Anyway, I suspect tunnels rather than big caves would be safer, but it's pretty much a wild-assed guess. FWIW", "537" ], [ "Boundaries\nI think the source of the confusion here is that you think of the blob of NO2 gas as \"a thing\". Then, you see this \"thing\" doing spontaneous work against gravity, and assume: \"Hey, <PERSON> says it should stay at the bottom, but it doesn't!\" So there are two problems involved with the naive explanation.\nThe first is that the blob of gas is only \"a thing\" because of its container. The beaker is really the only thing binding the gas (technically, there is a trivial amount of gravitational attraction, but I hope we agree that this is many orders of magnitude too small to be of interest here). If you took the gas out of the beaker, by tipping the beaker over, you would very quickly see this gas cease to be \"a thing\", as it diffuses into the surrounding air.\nWhat happened? Did the gas cease to exist? Of course not. The molecules of the gas just all went their separate ways. The only way to explain the dissolution of the gas blob is to consider it as a collection of molecules, each obeying <PERSON>'s laws to the extent of its accuracy (I hope we agree that the molecules are probably all moving non-relativistically here). That's what the other answers are trying to tell you.", "185" ], [ "The gas is not \"a thing\". It's a bunch of things. A bunch of billiard balls bouncing around very Newtonianly.\nBalloons\nThe other problem is that work is being done, and a cost is being paid, and in any other context, you would not think anything unusual about the \"transaction\" occurring here. The quote clearly states that heat provides the work necessary to move the NO2 upwards against gravity. I'm guessing you have seen this principle at work elsewhere. Now, this isn't exactly the same case as the hot air balloon, because the NO2 is presumed to be at the same temperature as the air above at the start of the demonstration. But if you consider that the temperature of the mixed gases is lower than the pure NO2, then from that perspective, the NO2 is indeed \"hot\" and is rising due to this \"excess heat\", to put it simplistically.", "185" ], [ "Iron can undergo fusion. However, iron is the point where fusions starts to cost more energy than it yields, so in a typical star it doesn't fuse.\nIn a supernova, and the abundance of energy available in one, iron will continue to fuse to heavier materials, which is probably how we got heavier metals here on earth in the first place (it has to have fused somewhere, after all.)\nMore to the point, in the case of black holes, when they collapse at first, see <PERSON> answer, because he explained that bit better than I could.\nAfter it is a black hole, it becomes impossible to talk about it's composition in terms of mass and energy that we are used to. While we're not sure about electrons (AFAIK), Protons and Neutrons have a hard diameter. Removing the space between them causes for example a Neutron star, which you could consider one very, very large atom, from a certain point of view:\nMost of the basic models for these objects imply that neutron stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons (subatomic particles with no net electrical charge and with slightly larger mass than protons); the electrons and protons present in normal matter combine to produce neutrons at the conditions in a neutron star. Neutron stars are supported against further collapse by neutron degeneracy pressure, a phenomenon described by the Pauli exclusion principle, just as white dwarfs are supported against collapse by electron degeneracy pressure.\nSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star\nHowever, at a certain pressure, even the neutrons/protons cannot uphold more matter that way.", "70" ], [ "That's when we get black holes. We know they're more compact than neutron stars, but we don't even know how big they are - only that they're smaller/equal to their event horizon. We don't even know if they HAVE a size.\nSo black holes are really 2 steps behind of where you could call a bunch of matter \"Iron\". Step 1 is the neutron star, where we already lost all information about what those particles USED to be before it was one. And step 2 is the black hole, where we don't even know what those particles/matter/energy currently are. Probably not anything we've seen so far.\nMost of the essentials here can be found at wikipedia:\n* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole\n* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_matter", "781" ] ]

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[ [ "Edited to add in the correct info about the first minority super hero.\nIn DC Comics All-Star Western #117 published in February 1961 the first Native American superhero appeared with the horrible name of Super-Chief.\nA summary of his origin can be found here The Crowning of Super-Chief. Super-Chief appeared in the next two issues and then the series was cancelled.\nMarvel introduced the Black Panther in Fantastic Four #52 in July of 1966.\nHowever, it may not be accurate to say that the character is a minority. <PERSON> is in reality <PERSON>, King of the fictional African country of Wakanda. Although he would be seen as a minority in the United States due to being African he is not part of teh African-American minority in the US.\nDC introduced its first minority superhero the Black Racer in June 1971 in New Gods #3.\nThe Black Racer may not really qualify as a superhero though. The character is part of <PERSON> Fourth World series. The corporeal form of the Black Racer is an African-American Vietnam veteran named <PERSON>.", "167" ], [ "When <PERSON> brought the war of the New Gods of New Genesis and Apokolips to Earth the Source, a sort of God like universal shared consciousness, contacted <PERSON> and turned him into the deity known as the Black Racer. The Black Racer's job is to collect the souls of the New Gods when they die and deliver them to Hadis the Fourth World version of Hades.\nSo where does that leave us if we ignore these two entries. Marvel's next African-American hero was the <PERSON> introduced in Captain america #117 in September 1969.\nThe <PERSON> is the alter ego of <PERSON>. He was trained by <PERSON> after he fought beside him against a group of former Nazis working with the Red Skull. The Falcon did have one definite first in that the word 'Black\" wasn't part of his superhero name.\nDC's next black superhero appeared in Green Lantern #87 published in December 1971.\nThis is the previously noted <PERSON>. Artist <PERSON> resisted the powers that be who wanted to name the character <PERSON>.\nHowever, all that being said these were not the first non-stereotyped or non-racist African-American characters in comics. These were just the first superheroes.", "167" ], [ "The simple answer is yes, but it varies how it is possible.\nIn the one-shot comic \"Hulk: The End\" written by <PERSON>, <PERSON> is almost invincible. He survives a nuclear holocaust when no one else does. Although, <PERSON> is not invincible. He dies and hulk realizes he cannot transform without dying also. From the synopsis:\nSuffering a painful heart attack, <PERSON> realizes how much his punishment resembles that of <PERSON>, the Last Titan; condemned to stay forever alive even while animals devour him, speculating that the <PERSON>'s suffering is Earth punishing him for humanity's sins as the embodiment of the nuclear wars that destroyed Earth. As he dies, the <PERSON>'s persona arises in his mind. [...]\nThe next morning, the <PERSON> somberly sits outside the cave, musing in his inner monologue: \"<PERSON> is gone...got rid of him last night.\" As he remembers the confrontation, he realizes that if he were ever to change back to <PERSON>, he would die also.\nIn the <PERSON> version of <PERSON>, there was a TV movie called The Death of the Incredible Hulk. <PERSON> falls from a exploding plane and dies on the ground.", "516" ], [ "Although in true comic style, \"there was talk of another Incredible Hulk television movie which would resurrect the character.\" Unfortunately, <PERSON> (who portrayed <PERSON>) dies before that ever happened.\nIn the comics Tales to Astonish #90 & 91, the Abomination is created and kills <PERSON>. He is revived shortly after though.\nIn the Old Man Logan comic series, <PERSON> kills and eats <PERSON>. \"<PERSON> recuperates within <PERSON>'s stomach and bursts out, killing him.\" See below:\nIn Thor #73 (The Reigning Part 5), <PERSON> kills the <PERSON> and others. Although, I believe at the end of The Reigning story arc <PERSON> turns back time. This gallery has several pages from that issue, such as the one below. <PERSON> also snapped <PERSON>'s neck in a What If? issue that I couldn't find.\nOther characters have supposedly killed the <PERSON>, such as <PERSON>, <PERSON> (<PERSON>) and <PERSON>. But they were all in \"what if?\" type comics, and I couldn't find solid details online. I found evidence that <PERSON> killed Red Hulk (not the opposite), but this stands to reason if one hulk can die, the <PERSON> could die.\nMore recently, <PERSON> was killed by <PERSON> in What If...? Season 1, Episode 3 by entering his body with his Ant-Man suit and increasing <PERSON>'s cells using pym particles until he exploded.", "663" ], [ "No there were 12 like the Enterprise (Constitution class) at the time of the episode \"Tommorrow is Yesterday\" when <PERSON> utters the line: \"There are only twelve like it in the fleet.\"\nThe Star Trek Writer's guide established there were fourteen Constitution Class starships: Constitution, Constellation, Enterprise, Yorktown, Lexington, Farragut, Republic, Intrepid, Exeter, Hood, Excalibur, Valiant, Kongo, Potemkin. The original AMT model decal sheet validates these names.\nThe Constitution Class had been around for at least 13 years and probably longer (The Menagerie) and <PERSON> had served aboard at least two of them before assuming command of the Enterprise. The USS Republic (Court Martial) and the USS Farragut (Obsession.)\nIt is almost certain the Farragut was lost or destroyed when it encountered the Cloud Creature, and that would make <PERSON>'s statement in Tomorrow is Yesterday true when he said it. There were only twelve like it (that were left) in the fleet.\nThe Star Trek Reference manual lists four as destroyed. We saw at least two of them destroyed, Intrepid in Immunity Syndrome and Constellation in Doomsday Machine. These episodes occurred after Tomorrow Is Yesterday. We heard of the destruction of Farragut in Obsession.", "126" ], [ "We also probably saw the destruction of the Excalibur in Ultimate Computer but it was never established that it was destroyed beyond salvage.\nThis leaves the Valiant. This is problematic. It may be bad writing. Other than the ship named 'Valiant' that disappeared two hundred years before the episode 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' we saw no Constitution class USS Valiant. We did however see a USS Defiant (Tholian Web) that wasn't on the writer's guide list. Like the other ship names used from history there was an actual British battleship named Valiant. There was never an actual ship named 'Defiant.' There was a fictional HMS Defiant in the film 'Damn The Defiant' I think somebody messed up, meant to type Valiant but chose to type Defiant instead and it became hard to explain canon.\nEither way there were fourteen original Constitution Class and thirteen left when <PERSON> made his statement in Tomorrow Is Yesterday.\nAnd they were all Constitution class. The model gave you a Constitution class starship and 14 names to choose from.", "126" ], [ "<PERSON>, the creator of Batman, found inspiration in several sources, and it seems that he did not specifically set out to create a human, crime-fighting analogue to <PERSON>. However, one of his influences was <PERSON>.\n<PERSON>’s initial idea was a superhero with bird wings. From Batman: The Complete History by <PERSON>, page 18:\nWhen <PERSON> sat down at his drawing board in the Bronx, he immediately sketched in a figure similar to <PERSON>’s... Then he ... began experimenting with variations in the costume. He tried a pair of bird wings, perhaps inspired by an alien race in one of his favorite strips, <PERSON> <PERSON>.\nHawkmen from <PERSON>\n<PERSON>\nFrom Batman: The Complete History, page 144 (emphasis mine):\nThere has always been a subliminal association between vampires and <PERSON>; this was a hero who was designed to frighten his foes, and <PERSON> admitted that one of his inspirations was <PERSON> performance in the 1931 movie Dracula.\nThe Bat\nAlso, as <PERSON> points out in his answer, another inspiration for <PERSON> was the 1930 film The Bat Whispers.", "167" ], [ "That film is about a criminal called The Bat, who turns out to be an ordinary man, but the other characters in the story suspect at times that the <PERSON> is supernatural.\nI wasn’t able to find a copy of The Bat Whispers online, but it was based on a 1920 play, The Bat, which was novelized in 1926. The novelization makes no mention of vampires or <PERSON>, but the characters do suggest that the <PERSON> is supernatural. A batlike, supernatural enemy lurking in the dark is reminiscent of vampires in much the same way that <PERSON> is, but this isn’t a direct reference to vampires. It does fit in nicely with <PERSON>’s stated desire to terrify superstitious criminals, however.\n<PERSON> ornithopter\nAs mentioned in <PERSON> answer, another of <PERSON>’s inspirations was an ornithopter designed by <PERSON>. Someone flying this machine would be a sort of mechanical bat-man, with no particular association with vampires.\nFrom Batman: The Complete History, pages 18 and 20:\nFrom his boyhood reading, he [<PERSON>] recalled the ornithopter, a flying machine designed by <PERSON>. This device was essentially a glider, with wings built like those of a bat.\nPicture from Wikipedia\nOther influences\n<PERSON> answer and Batman: The Complete History mention other inspirations including Zorro, but the influences above were the closest batlike or vampiric influences I could find for Batman.", "167" ], [ "It seems I didn't give the Twilight Zone angle a fair shake. The books I was trying to find are:\n1. Shades of Night, Falling (Sometimes called Harvest Moon) by <PERSON> (Published 2003)\n2. A Gathering of Shadows by <PERSON> (Published 2003)\n3. Deep in the Dark by <PERSON> (Published 2004)\nThey are part of a Twilight Zone trilogy. There seems to be very little information about them online which might be why I had a such a hard time finding them. Since asking the question, I have found and read all three books.\nThe trilogy follows two families: the <PERSON> and the <PERSON> in a small town, Geistadt, outside Brooklyn.\nBook one is set in 1842 (So not medieval as I had thought). <PERSON> has traveled the world to learn the secrets of using magic. He wants thirteen sons for some magical reason. Twins <PERSON> and <PERSON> are his thirteenth and fourteenth sons, respectively by birth. <PERSON> gives <PERSON> everything he wants and trains him in using magic and essentially ignores <PERSON>. 1842 is the year of the twins' 21st birthday. The matriarch of the <PERSON> family at this time is <PERSON>. The <PERSON> and the <PERSON> have been feuding since <PERSON> moved to Geistadt.\nMurders begin occurring once per day in Geistadt and the town attempts to discover the culprit.\nBook two is set in 2002. <PERSON>' great-grandson <PERSON>, the thirteenth son of his father (who is also a thirteenth son) is working on a way to download human consciousness from the body. He calls this invention MindNet.", "247" ], [ "<PERSON>' spirit visits <PERSON> in dream-like encounters. <PERSON> eventually realizes that <PERSON> wants to use MindNet to retake a human form.\n<PERSON> is the thirteenth daughter of <PERSON>'s great-great-grandson. She is doing a project for her graduate degree in Literature. Her project revolves around the ghost stories of <PERSON>. To help in her research, her father shows her the historical records kept by the <PERSON> family. As <PERSON> reads the records, she begins to interact with the spirit of <PERSON>. <PERSON>'s father also encourages her to meet-and hopefully marry-<PERSON>.\nBook three is set in 2159. <PERSON> has perfected MindNet and human cloning meaning that he can move to a new, healthy body when needed. Essentially he has allowed those that can afford it to be immortal. His next goal is to revive <PERSON> from some of his blood that was preserved in a conopic jar while <PERSON> was alive. While attempting the resurrection, reality seems to unravel. Strange things start happening like buildings disappearing, adults reverting to infancy and trees appearing on the side of skyscrapers.\n<PERSON> (called <PERSON> in the question) is a police cadet at the time and a <PERSON> descendant. She has a phone implanted in her jaw. <PERSON>'s spirit (called <PERSON> in the question) reaches out to her and asks for her help in stopping the craziness. She finds where his spirit is trapped and he enters her body where she can talk to him. He directs her to a <PERSON> descendant, <PERSON>, and together they head to the building where <PERSON> is attempting to revive <PERSON>.", "715" ], [ "It has been stated by many that correct Arabic pronunciation would be 'Raas.'\nThe correct Arabic pronounciation is Ra-us, though <PERSON> is close enough. wiki\nThis is this bit from Batman Beyond in which <PERSON> says \"<PERSON>\" and is subsequently corrected by <PERSON> to say \"<PERSON>.\" This made it a sore spot for me when new Batman trilogy decided to use \"Raas.\"\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TULYXGYz02c\nThere are several unsubstantiated (or cited) claims that the creator used and intended 'Raysh.' Indicating a preference for the Hebrew pronunciation for the word.\nThe correct [Arabic] way is closer to 'rahs', the way <PERSON> (the writer who created the character) intended it to be said is 'raysh'. The the DCAU went with 'raysh', the <PERSON> movies went with 'rahs'. reddit\nOn the embedded video there is also a dubios comment which states:\nThe creator of the character meant for the pronunciation to be the Hebrew pronunciation <PERSON>, probably because of the whole <PERSON> [pit].\nThen there is this quote from Executive Producer <PERSON> from Arrow.\nOne key issue I wanted to bring up, because it came up last season when I wrote about that third episode, is the pronunciation of <PERSON> first name, which has traditionally been something close to \"<PERSON>\" or \"<PERSON>\" when referred to colloquially, but becomes something closer to \"<PERSON>\" or \"<PERSON>\" when savvy fans discuss him.\n\"The beauty part of what you guys do is you just have to type it and it's the same spelling even if it's a different pronunciation,\" <PERSON> laughed.", "167" ], [ "\"Basically what we decided to do, and I think you sort saw this in Episode 2.13 when <PERSON> came to town, is we basically honored the two different pronunciations, some of our characters saying '<PERSON>' and the ones sorta more in-the-know say '<PERSON>' and that struck us as a very reasonable compromise. There are clearly two different schools of thought and we wanted both to be represented.\"\nSo he seems to think '<PERSON>' (or '<PERSON>') is the more correct pronunciation for the name.\nUpdate\nAt a recent San Diego Comic Con panel there was some discussion about \"<PERSON>\" versus \"<PERSON>\" from <PERSON> and <PERSON>.\nHe explained why some characters pronounce \"<PERSON>'s\" \"<PERSON>\" while others say \"<PERSON>.\" \"If you are part of the League of Assassins, you say '<PERSON>.' It's a sign of respect and the proper way to pronounce it. If you are outside the League and you're rogue, as a sign of disrespect, you say '<PERSON>.'\" That understanding came about because the actual pronunciation was not clarified on the set until episodes with the \"<PERSON>\" pronunciation had aired, so, \"we had to create a mythology.\"\nFinal Verdict\nAt least for Arrow, \"<PERSON>\" (or \"<PERSON>\") is the correct pronunciation, while \"<PERSON>\" (or \"<PERSON>\") is a more derogatory version. In the DCAU, \"<PERSON>\" is also the correct version.\nFor the cinematic Dark Knight trilogy, the correct pronunciation is \"<PERSON>.\"", "167" ], [ "<PERSON> in the Multiverse of Madness\nTake note those who made the mishandled X Men Dark Phoenix: This is how you show the struggle when a <PERSON> gets temporarily Baddified by too much power.\nI just love this version of <PERSON>.\nLike all the best wrestling villains, she genuinely believes that she is justified in her actions. There’s logic, albeit damaged and selfish logic, behind her intentions.\nFollowing the traumatic past with her fantasy children and of course blasting a hole in her husband’s head, wouldn’t you crave the opportunity to go somewhere where all that pain can be ignored.\nThe falling sequence where <PERSON> & <PERSON> pass into alternate New York is fantastically trippy - perfect to watch at 4:20 😉\nWonder if the zombie <PERSON> was in the script before <PERSON> got involved…", "282" ], [ "Only one person can really say for sure: <PERSON>'s original creator, writer <PERSON>, who wrote the character into a cameo appearance in The Incredible Hulk #180 way back in 1974, and then placing him as the Hulk's newest adversary in the follow-up book, The Incredible Hulk #181. Although designed by art director <PERSON>., <PERSON> was the one who decided how to write Wolverine. He was picked due to his work on an earlier comic called Brother Voodoo. Editor-in-chief <PERSON> was so impressed by <PERSON>'s writing of accents that he called <PERSON> up and told him \"You are doing something I cannot do as a writer; I cannot write accents to save my life. I'd love to see how you'd do a Canadian accent. Uh, <PERSON>'s a great name.\" <PERSON> then did research on wolverines, and noted that \"They are short, mean, nasty little creatures with razor-sharp claws that will attack anything twice their size and don't go anywhere near them; they will kill you.", "417" ], [ "Well, that's a character defined right there.\" <PERSON> implemented these characteristics into <PERSON>, adding an indestructible metal skeleton (later called Adamantium) and an accelerated healing factor, therefore giving him the necessary tools to battle a character like the <PERSON> in a believable sense; most of this information can be found in the DVD, X-Men Revealed. Later on, when X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released, <PERSON> said on the Blu-Ray special features that 'he has read \"Ten things you didn't know about <PERSON>\", which states that the character was originally intended to be a mutated wolverine. I write stories about human beings, not evolved animals (with apologies for any stories I may have written that involved the High Evolutionary). The mutated wolverine thing came about long after I was no longer involved with the book. I'm not certain if the idea was first suggested by <PERSON>, the late, much-missed <PERSON>, or <PERSON> when he came aboard as artist, but it most certainly did not start with me.' This second part of Wolverine's explained past can be found on Wikipedia. I hope this article helps.", "167" ] ]

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[ [ "American Fiction\n\"No Full Review\nBased on the book, \"Erasure\" by <PERSON>, \"American Fiction\" follows a cynical writer, \"<PERSON>\" (<PERSON>), who continues to see the success of more stereotypical literature based around African Americans and decides, as a joke, to write the most pandering, half-assed \"Black\" book imaginable. However, that book proceeds to garner acclaim and success, which he's never quite experienced before.\nWritten and directed by <PERSON> (\"The Good Place\", \"Watchmen\"), \"American Fiction\" is simple in premise, though it's much more complicated than it first appears on the surface. It's a very smart, really hilarious, and biting satire on how people see African American stories. <PERSON> is as outstanding as he usually is, giving one of his best performances with flawlessly dry comedic timing and moments of heart that prevent him from becoming too much of a downer of a character.", "378" ], [ "Other great performances include <PERSON> (as \"<PERSON>\", <PERSON>'s sister), <PERSON> (as \"<PERSON>\", <PERSON>'s emotionally damaged brother), <PERSON> (as <PERSON>'s mentally deteriorating mother), and <PERSON> (as \"<PERSON>\", an author who finds more success than <PERSON> with her book titled \"We's Lives in Da Ghetto\"). The film is scathing in how it portrays reactions to racially based culture, though it's not a one-sided \"Good vs. Bad\" argument. There might be a little too much going on at times and I can see the ambiguity behind the ending confusing others, but the performances, the sharp writing, and the expert mixing between tones consisting of heartfelt and laugh out loud hilarity are some of this year's absolute best.\"", "529" ], [ "The Boys in the Boat\n\"No Full Review\nBased on the inspiring true story, \"The Boys in the Boat\" follows the University of Washington rowing crew, captained by <PERSON>\" (<PERSON>), as they prove themselves against the naysayers, going on to compete in the 1936 Olympics against the Nazis.\nDirected by <PERSON>, \"The Boys in the Boat\" is one of the simplest reviews I can do. It's a movie for the older crowd, that you watch on a weekday afternoon, and is perfectly pleasant despite being absolutely nothing special.", "647" ], [ "<PERSON>'s direction is slick, the performances are top notch, while the screenplay is as basic and safe as can be, along with plenty of old fashioned cheese that you'll ever love or hate. (Not to mention a completely unnecessary framing device that feels completely tacked on). As far as dad films go, if fits the criteria, although I personally prefer films like \"The Holdovers\" or \"Air\", which both just had so much more to offer in the end.\"", "252" ], [ "<PERSON>\n\"No Full Review\nBased on true events, \"Rustin\" follows gay civil rights activist, \"<PERSON>\" (<PERSON>), who uses his natural charm to organize the 1963 March on Washington, despite backlash from opponents on both sides of the racial debate.\nDirected by <PERSON> (\"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom\"), \"Rustin\" is a capably made, very well acted, and occasionally funny look at a man who tends to get overlooked when we look back at those involved with the civil rights movement. It's also a pretty conventional, often overly staged biopic that brings very little that's new to the table. It's a fine film on its own (And <PERSON> is great, like he always is), but it's also not near as memorable as it should be.\"", "378" ], [ "Founders Day\n\"No Full Review\n\"Founders Day\" opens with \"<PERSON>\" (<PERSON>), witnessing the death of her girlfriend at the hands of a masked killer, armed with a gavel. Now right in the middle of a very heated mayoral election, more bodies start to pile up and <PERSON> finds herself caught in the middle of a bloody conspiracy.\nDirected by <PERSON>, \"Founders Day\" is a lot like last year's \"It's a Wonderful Knife\", where I really do want to like it more than I actually do. It's definitely the kind of film that I see certain people just \"not getting\". (Apparent talk of people walking out of it or laughing at perceived serious moments) It's actually an intentionally over the top, hammy, and overtly campy slasher, that toys with its odd tone in a way that might confuse more than delight. The film suffers from trying to do too much and the fact that I was able to deduce the big reveal in the first ten minutes. The mystery itself for the first hour and twenty minutes isn't all that new and I'd be genuinely shocked if people weren't able to figure it out. However, that's where something kind of genius about the film comes from.", "823" ], [ "In the film's final twenty minutes, everything shockingly comes together in a scheme that's quite brilliant and makes one rethink much of the film's earlier flaws. I'll admit that I kind of loved the ending and all it implies, along with a few admittedly fun performances and characters. From hilariously over the top work from <PERSON> and <PERSON> (as the mayoral candidates, who hate each other's guts, not even putting things aside in life or death situations), <PERSON> (as the always candy eating police commissioner), the director himself <PERSON> (as the mayor's panicky aide), and <PERSON> (as \"Mr. <PERSON>\", the elderly, beloved teacher), who is actually quite awesome in the film. There's a sense of cheapness and inconsistency to the film, especially when so much appears to be going on at once, with much of it seemingly making no sense at first. However, it does feel somewhat intentional and comes together in a clever, fairly satirical fashion. Do I recommend it? I'm not sure. Am I glad I saw it? Actually, yeah I am.\"", "698" ], [ "Maestro\nMaestro marks <PERSON> second directorial effort after 2018's A Star is Born and in terms of behind the camera, it's a step up from his first film. There are many interesting and unique flourishes throughout boosted even more by <PERSON> striking cinematography. <PERSON> does a solid job portraying <PERSON> but the real standout is <PERSON> who's absolutely wonderful as <PERSON>.", "529" ], [ "The narrative, however, is the film's biggest downfall for while there are some very strong individual scenes, they don't always come together to form a truly cohesive piece. There's an imbalance between focusing on <PERSON>'s career as well as his relationship between him and <PERSON>, making its storytelling unfocused and never being emotionally attached to these people. It's a film I very much admire for its pristine craft and performances, but its lack of true heart left me feeling cold by the end.", "132" ], [ "The Killer\n“Stick to your plan. Anticipate, don't improvise. Trust no one. Never yield an advantage. Fight only the battle you're paid to fight.”\nThe Killer is a a slick, patient and technically precise thriller that perfectly matches its main character's psyche.", "962" ], [ "It's a complex character study and examination of the hitman genre where violence is inevitable and the minute details matter - no one is better at capturing this in such a carefully constructed manner than <PERSON>. However, one can't help but feel this was all too easy and obvious for him, it all feels like exactly what we'd expect from <PERSON> and nothing more. That being said, this film truly feels like a formal art film with genre outbursts. The level of craftsmanship on display is astounding, from the sleek cinematography, to the impeccable editing and the rich sound design. Heck, even <PERSON> is perfect!", "529" ], [ "Killers of the Flower Moon\nFrequently fantastic, bold, sweeping, and bloated. <PERSON> crafts a handsome and classical drama that explores a very real historical atrocity. The choice to focus on the perpetrators of the crimes is an intriguing one that mostly works, specifically in how it shows how one can lie to themselves to justify their horrific actions, and the corrupting power of greed. But it also means we miss out a lot of the point of view of the <PERSON>.", "217" ], [ "I understand that Scorcese may not be the best choice to tell that side, but while watching I felt like we were missing an integral part of the story. There's clearly an effort to be as respectful as possible, though, and I appreciate the conversations this film will spark. It's not just a one-and-done. It's dense as hell, and I'm glad I got to catch this in a cinema.", "596" ], [ "Born in Flames\n<PERSON> feminist mock-documentary Born in Flames captures a moment sometime in the not-so-distant future after a flawed feminist revolution in which splintered cells of revolutionary women are fighting against the vestiges of patriarchal rule. <PERSON>'s fractured editing really makes one feel they are in this revolution. Though the narrative is hard to follow, the movie does one of the better jobs of showing just how difficult revolutions are to pull off because of counterrevolutionaries as well as clashes over what really is the best approach to something like \"utopia.\" Watch for future Oscar-winning director <PERSON> in a small role. A great piece of experimental cinema (with an awesome Essential Logic/Red Krayola theme song to boot!).", "217" ] ]

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[ [ "Scrap Glass Pieces Into a Jewelry Set\nIntroduction: Scrap Glass Pieces Into a Jewelry Set\nI will admit that I love little pieces of colored glass. I will pick up pieces if I see them at the river bed, on the sidewalk, or wherever they happen to be. I especially love green and blue pieces, or pieces that are unusual in some way.\nUnfortunately, I just start to amass pieces of scrap glass that I don't know what to do with. I had been toying with the idea of trying to turn some of them into jewelry for a long time, so when the Glass Challenge came up I decided that now was the time. I went for something unique and different, and I used clay to cover the sharp edges, making me able to use the pieces without having to sand/alter them in any way.\nSupplies\n1. Glass Pieces That You Have Collected. These don't have to be random pieces, you could also use the little glass rounds that people use for fish tanks and flower vases.\n2. Clay. I am using black.\n3. Tools for Smoothing Clay. Anything that will smooth fingerprints and join lines from the clay will do.\n4. Tools to Poke Holes. Once again, anything that will poke a hole (pens, sewing pins, etc.).\n5. Pliers (I prefer round nosed)\n6. Jewelry Findings.\nThis depends on what type of jewelry you are making. For this tutorial, I am showing how to make an earring set, a necklace, and a ring, so I am using earring hooks, jump rings, a lobster clasp, and a ring blank.\nIf you are making a ring, you will need a strong glue, such as a type of super glue. Make sure it says it is suitable for gluing glass and metal.\nStep 1: Cleaning the Glass and Picking the Pieces\nFirst off, I had to clean my glass pieces.", "95" ], [ "I used baking soda and an old tooth brush, and I scrubbed the pieces clean.\n*Be careful while doing this. Depending on how the glass broke, it may be very sharp or possibly tiny loose shards will come off while you are scrubbing. Safety first!\nThen I went through the glass pile and picked out what pieces I wanted. I chose them not only by size but by interest as well. I liked the pieces I picked for earrings because they were from the lip of a bottle, so on the backside they had ribbing that made them shine differently in the light. The piece for the ring was chosen because it was small and very uniform. I picked out a pendant for the necklace first, then I chose pieces that were similar so that it was kind of a mirror on each side of the necklace.\nIt is kinda important to try to design necklace pieces before you put them together. You don't have to, but it helps you get an idea of how big they will be, if the pieces look good together, how much chain you need (if using chain or thread), etc. I normally just lay out the pieces I have and then rearrange them to suit my liking.\nStep 2: Basic Frame With Clay & Making a Ring Focus\nTaking the clay, roll it out into a smooth snake. Test if it is thin enough by placing it close to the edge of your chosen piece of glass. Once it as thin as you like it (or as thin as it can be and still cover the edges of the glass), press the clay around the edges of the glass piece. Use your fingers to push the clay up and over the edges to make sure any possibly sharp pieces are covered.\nOnce the clay is wrapped all the way around, pinch off any excess. Using your fingers and your smoothing tool, smooth out the bit where the clay joins, then smooth any fingerprints and bumps in the clay. You can use a pointy object to clean up the edges on the inside and make them uniform (or decently uniform!).\nThis first piece will be the stone for the ring, so it is finished.\nStep 3: Earrings\nBegin the earring pieces the same way that the ring piece was made. Wrap clay around the glass, but then add extra clay to whatever you decide needs to be the top (where the earring hook will be). Smooth the join and then poke a hole in the top.\nStep 4: Necklace Pieces\nFor necklace pieces, do the same steps from the beginning, and then add extra clay to both ends. Smooth the clay, then poke holes in both ends. We will put jump rings in both of the ends so they will be links in the necklace.\nFor a hanging pendant, make it the same way you did the earring pieces.\nStep 5: Finishing Up\nFor polymer clay:\nBake you pieces according to your clay's instructions.", "972" ], [ "Beginner Jewelry: Wooden Photo Earrings\nIntroduction: Beginner Jewelry: Wooden Photo Earrings\nThese are actually some of the first pieces I ever made when I started getting interested in making jewelry. I wanted some fan girl jewelry and couldn't afford to just go buy something, so I needed to make it myself. At the time I was in luck because I had a wooden necklace that had broken and was irreparable, but I had kept the wood pieces, and these became my base.\nSince I was able to do it as a beginner, I think that these wooden photo earrings are definitely a project that the jewelry artist who is just starting out will benefit from. Even those of us who have been making jewelry for a while could get some joy out of earrings with photos of our choice on them.\nI am using my own photos for this Instructable. You can use whatever you like, just please keep in mind that if you sell earrings like this your photos will need to be your own.\nSupplies\n1. Wood pieces: you can use scrap pieces you have or buy some premade. I'll talk more about this is the second step.\n2. Electric drill\n3. Small drill bit: mine is a #55 with a 118 degree point\n4. Sandpaper, fine grit (you may decide you don't need this)\n5. Photos or drawings (not pictured)\n6. A computer or laptop with a word document program (not pictured)\n7. A printer with colored ink (if your photo is colored). Mine is an inkjet. (not pictured)\n8. Regular white copy paper\n9. Scissors\n10. Pen or pencil\n11. Mod Podge or Polyurethane Varnish or some other sealer\n12. Brush\n13.", "95" ], [ "A pin (you don't have to have it)\n14. Round-nose pliers\n15. Jump Rings\n16. Earring Hooks\nStep 1: Wooden Pieces\nThe wooden pieces should have a flat or pretty much flat side to them. They can be whatever size you want, but you want them to be a size that you can wear comfortably.\nAs I said earlier, you can use scrap pieces of wood if you have any. You will probably have more work because you will need to sand your scrap pieces to make them smooth and to shape them.\nIf you don't have scrap pieces, or you don't want to mess with that, you can buy premade little wood circles, squares, and other shapes at craft stores. I bought mine at our local chain craft store. You can even find them at Walmart. You just want pieces that are pretty thin and the diameter you want.\nSince I bought a variety pack, I have a couple sizes to pick from. I am going to use the largest circle size I have (you can see in the photo how big it is), but size is up to you.\nStep 2: How to Remove and Add a Drill Bit\nI put my #55 micro drill bit into the drill.\nOn my drill you hold the chuck (the piece were you put the drill bit) while you run the drill in reverse. This causes the end to open up so you can remove the drill bit that is in the drill.\n(The reverse/forward button is a little push in button that you should find somewhere above the speed trigger. You push on it one way and the drill runs in reverse. Push it in the other way and the drill will run forwards.)\nThen I place my #55 drill bit in the end and hold onto it with a few of my fingers so I can make sure it is straight. I turn the drill to run forwards. Slowly I run the drill until the end closes around the drill bit.\nNow we are ready!\nStep 3: Drill\nPlace your wood piece on a surface that you can safely drill on (not the kitchen table). Remember that your drill bit will be going all the way through the wood.\nYou may want to mark with a pen or pencil where you want the hole. You can carefully hold onto the wood piece with one hand while running the drill with the other. Just make sure your fingers are no where near the drill bit.\nHolding the drill straight up from the wood piece, place the bit where you want the hole. Slowly run the drill forwards until it goes all the way through the wood.\n*Alternatively, hold the piece in your fingers while you drill, but this is more dangerous! Be careful!\nTurn the drill to reverse, and run the drill as you bring the drill bit out of the hole. This helps make the hole smooth.\nMake sure to do this slowly because if you go too fast you may cause your piece to move or you might crack the wood.\nStep 4: Sand (optional)\nThe hole might have little rough edges, so we will sandpaper that.", "56" ], [ "Glass Wind Chime - No Drilling\nIntroduction: Glass Wind Chime - No Drilling\nAfter finding them on the internet, I had been wanting to make a glass wind chime but was hesitant because I don't know how to drill glass, nor do I have the resources that are needed. After some consideration of the problem, I decided that I could make a glass wind chime and wouldn't have to drill my pieces. Some simple supplies and gumption was all I needed to get it done!\nFor all these people who can't or are scared to drill glass, this is for you :)\nAnd if you enjoy this tutorial, give it a vote in the Glass Challenge!\nSupplies\n1. Glass cabochons, fish bowl glass, or glass for flower vases (you could also use bits of broken glass if you wanted, just watch your fingers)\n2. Fishing Line (mine is 6 pounds, which means it should stand up to 6 pounds of weight, so it will work)\n3. Steel wire or some other type of wire (I am using 26 gauge steel)\n4. Pliers for shaping the wire (I use round nose pliers)\n5. Wire Cutters for cutting the wire\n6. Aluminum/floral wire for the frame (I am using gold 16 gauge aluminum wire. You want this wire to be a heavier duty wire, somewhere around 18 to 16 gauge so it will hold up to being the frame)\n7. A strong glue (I am using Gorilla Glue)\nStep 1: Wrapping the Glass\nWith the 26 gauge steel wire, hold the wire with the pliers and wrap it around one of the tips of the pliers, rotating the pliers as you go. This will give you a small round circle. I wrapped it two or three times to make sure it was strong enough to not come undone.\nNow we will wrap the wire.", "972" ], [ "You know those really quick stars made up of lines that you can draw without lifting your pencil? That is what this wire wrapping makes me think of.\nLay the stone on top of the wire with the circle at the top. Bend the wire up so that it wraps around the front of the stone and is back up at the top.\nPull the wire over the stone so that it is now on the back of the stone alongside the first bit of wire.\nCross the wire to the front of the stone, pulling it at a diagonal angle.\nBring the wire to the back at an angle.\nPull the wire across the front of the stone in a straight line. See the star?\nWrap the wire once again across the back of the stone. Cut off the wire with your wire cutters, leaving a small amount of extra wire.\nBend the extra wire under one of the other wires in the wrap, then make a loop on the end of it the same way you made the first loop. Finished!\nFor the jelly bean glass, I put the glass on top of the wire like I did for the round pieces. I bent the wire sideways and wrapped it tightly around the piece multiple times until it wouldn't fall out. I snipped the wire off, leaving a bit of extra that I wrapped around the original loop.\nStep 2: Tying the Glass Together\nOnce all your glass cabochons are wrapped, lay them out in the order that you want them. Take your fishing line and hold it out against the line of beads (or whatever you want to call them). Make sure you cut more line than you think you need because you will be amazed when you find out that what you cut wasn't enough line (like I did, ha ha).\n* I know that the fishing line is hard to see in the photos, but that is the idea! I want an \"invisible\" line so that the glass pieces are what really catches your eye with no distractions.\nTake the string and thread it through the top loop of the first piece in your line of beads. Tie it to the loop with a simple knot, making sure to leave an excess of string above the loop. The extra string is for attaching the beads to the frame later, so make sure it is a good amount! Tie a second knot for security reasons ;), and add a dab of glue to the knots to make them hold (fishing wire is so bad about coming out of knots when you want it to stay and staying in knots when you don't want it to).\nTake the line and thread it through a piece of the bottom wrapping on the bead to attach it to the second stone. This is so much simpler than cutting it off and tying an extra knot to attach a second glass cabochon. Attach the second stone by tying it on the string wherever you want, then pull the thread through the bottom wrapping and repeat until you have all the beads you want tied on that line.", "972" ], [ "Pie Charms From Clay: Earrings, Necklace, Etc.\nIntroduction: Pie Charms From Clay: Earrings, Necklace, Etc.\nI have never attempted to make pies from clay until now, even though people are always encouraging me to make food themed jewelry. I have made little jams, little ice cream cones, little strawberries, and recently made these skillets with bacon and eggs earrings, but that was about the extent of my food jewelry. With pi day coming up, and pies on my brain, I decided to make some pie themed jewelry. (We actually went a little nuts at my house and made eight edible pies, but that is a whole 'nother story.)\nSince I know that there are tons of pie favorites, I decided to try to make several different types so people could make what they themselves like. Feel free to skip to the pie of your choice; I will have them listed in the Supplies list.\nThese are just charms, so they can be used for earrings, keychains, whatever.\nSupplies\nI have listed the supplies that are specific to each pie under their own section, not here.\nHere are the basic supplies for making all the pies.\n- Clay in a dough color (polymer or air dry)\n- Chalk pastels in light brown, dark brown, orange, yellow, and rust red\n- Brush for applying chalk pastels\n- Clay tools (roller, ball tool, stylus, knife - my favorites can be found here )\n- Work space\n- Liquid Clay (for polymer) or DecoArt Triple Thick (for air dry)\n- Toothpick or pin\n- Surface to mix liquid clay or Triple Thick on (I am using small plastic lids, not pictured)\n- Kitchen Sponge\n- Varnish (I use Duraclear Polyurethane, it is available in gloss, satin, matte, and ultra matte)\n- Brush for Varnish\n- Eye pins\n- Round-nosed pliers (I use them to help put in the eye pins - mine are Cousin 3-in-1 pliers )\nFor Pie Pans:\nYou can use a bottle cap for a pie pan instead, or you can use clay. If you use clay, you don't have to have these specific colors; you can paint the clay your desired color, as I do. Feel free to use copper, black, or whatever color for your pans. I am making metal and ceramic pans here.\n- Clay in white (or white paint, I am using Folk Art Titanium White)\n- Clay in silver (or silver paint, I am using DecoArt EXTREME SHEEN Tin)\n- Knife tool\n- Nail polish bottle top\n- Small ball tool (for ceramic dish)\n- Brush (if using paint)\n- Varnish (see above)\n- Brush for Varnish\nI decided it would be silly to repeat myself on making the crust for every pie, so for the Bottom Crust go to STEP 2 (all pies will need this).", "95" ], [ "If you want a Top Crust, go to STEP 3. For a Lattice Crust go to STEP 4.\n*Pies that commonly use a top crust: Apple, cherry, any type of berry pie.\n*Pies that commonly use a lattice top: Cherry, blueberry, blackberry and other berry pies\nStep 1: Pie Pans\nStep 2: BOTTOM CRUST FOR ALL PIES\nStep 3: TOP CRUST\nStep 4: LATTICE CRUST\nStep 5: Apple Pie\nStep 7: Cherry Pie\nStep 9: Coconut Meringue Pie\nStep 10: Pumpkin Pie\nStep 11: Blueberry Pie\nStep 1: Making Pie Pans\nYou can skip this step if you want to use a bottle cap. I wanted my pies to be smaller than that, though, so I am making my own.\nRoll out any color clay thinly, but not super thin. Your pan will need a bit of an edge.\nPlace the clay on top of the nail polish bottle and carefully press it around the edge. With the knife, cut the clay a little bit from the top of the bottle in as straight of a line as you can. Take off the excess clay.\nRemove the clay from the top of the bottle. This is the pie pan.\nAttach an eye pin by pushing it through the side. You can stick a small ball of clay on the end inside the pie pan to give it a firm hold if you wish ( pie filling will go on it anyway, so that will give it something to stick to if you want to skip this step).\nWith your fingers, gently pull/push the rim of the pan outwards from the top, making it have a slight slope.", "69" ], [ "Indigo Bunting Necklace\nIntroduction: Indigo Bunting Necklace\nSo, for the Rainbow Contest, I decided to go after that strange, illusive color, Indigo. For me, what pops in my head right away, is the cute little Indigo Bunting. I have seen a lot more of them this year than I have before. They tend to just look like bright flashes of color as they dart past, hiding in the weeds.\nInstead of just portraying the well-known, flashy male, I decided to put him together with his female counterpart. I decided that a lovely little nest scene was a good way to show them. It is also a good way to educate people on what the two of them look like; a stark contrast of one another, the male bright indigo and the female in a drab brown of concealment.\nCome along and create this cute necklace!\nSupplies\n1. Clay in brown and indigo (or as close as you can get - we will add some colored pastel and mica powder to help his bright coloring).\n2. Clay tools (roller, knife, and stylus or needle tool)\n3. Work space\n4. Tiny ball tool (also known as mandala tools or nail dotters)\n5. Small soft brush for using with pastels and paint\n6. Pastels in various shades of brown. Also you should add in green, blue and purple, and a grey if you have it (which I don't).\n7. Acrylic paint in black and grey (Grey not pictured)\n8. OPTIONAL: Mica powder in purple and blue. I think this just adds to his shimmery shininess, but you could also just paint him with metallic purple and blue paint.\n9. Necklace chain with wide links\n10. Two large jump rings\n11. Set of round nose pliers\nStep 1: Sculpt the Nest\nWe will begin with the nest.\nRoll out the brown clay. Don't make it too thick or too thin. With the knife tool or the stylus, sketch a bowl shape on the flattened clay. Trim this out with the knife tool. Set this aside.\nCut out two thin strips of clay from the leftovers.", "95" ], [ "These will be the limbs that the nest sits in between.\nWith the stylus tool, scratch lines into the two limbs, making them resemble the bark of a tree. If you have any silicone stencils that are wood-like this would be a cool time to use them. Just make lines until you are satisfied. Vary the lines in thickness, thinness, and length to make them look more natural. I also used the knife to cut the end of one of the branches and make a small broken branch piece sticking out from it.\nStick the ends of the two limbs together so they make a \"v\" shape. Place the bowl in the middle of the \"v\". Make sure it is tightly adhered.\nStep 2: Nest Details\nWith the stylus tool, scratch and swirl the needle around to make a rough, fiber-like appearance. Their nests are made of twigs, but I have yet to come up with an easy technique to make small twigs that I am satisfied with. This is what I do right now, maybe someday I will figure it out.\nAt the ends of the branch limbs, poke holes all the way through the clay. These are for the jump rings. Make them larger than you think they actually need to be.\nNow get out the brown, green, and grey pastels. With the small brush, dust the branch limbs first with various browns. I made mine pretty dark. Then dust the nest with a variety of the brown, green, and grey. You don't want to make it as dark as the limbs because then it won't stand out.\nSet the nest aside.\nStep 3: Female Bunting\nWith the left over brown clay, roll it out. Sketch a bird with a crest on the flattened clay. I advise looking up images of the Indigo Buntings to help you with this. Indigo Buntings are a member of the Cardinal family, but I have noticed in most photos I have looked at the female's crest is much more apparent than that of the male. They have fat beaks like finches (and Cardinals, duh :).\nTrim out the bird. She doesn't have to be a whole bird; only the top half because she will be sitting on the nest. With the stylus tool, sculpt the little details, like the eye, the beak, and various feathers. I just make pokes and scratches to indicate the feathers.\nColor the bird with pastel. This did not turn out like I liked it, so I added some grey paint later on, so you could just skip this and simply paint her if you wanted.", "879" ], [ "Howl's Moving Castle Earrings- Studio Ghibli\nIntroduction: Howl's Moving Castle Earrings- Studio Ghibli\nHowl's Moving Castle is one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies. I find it inspiring.\nOne of the most sought-after pieces of Studio Ghibli jewelry is Howl's jewelry set. They sparkle like magic and are pretty pieces in themselves without having belonged to a handsome wizard. Today I am going to show you how to make your own Howl's Moving Castle earrings. I will be publishing Instructables on the necklace and ring as well.\nSupplies\nEarrings:\n1. Clay in green\n2. Eyepins\n3. Gold hook earrings\n4. Two small glass red seed beads\n5. Wire in 24 gauge\n6. Pliers\n7. Green pastel\n8. Knife or toothpick to scrape and mix pastel\n9. Soft brush\n10. Triple Thick (or TLS for polymer clay)\nStep 1: Sculpt Teardrop Shapes\nWith the green clay, roll it between your fingers, making one end smaller than the other, to make a teardrop shape. Insert an eye pin at the top of the tear drop. Make two. They should be about as long as a quarter is from side to side.", "95" ], [ "Bake or leave to dry.\nStep 2: Adding Red Gems\nGet out the gold earring hooks, piece of wire, and the glass red seed bead. With the round nosed pliers, curl one end of the wire piece into a loop. Slide the red bead onto the wire. The loop will stop it from coming off at the end.\nTake the round nosed pliers and curl a second loop on top. You will probably have to remove your pliers and pinch it closed. Now the bead should be trapped by the two loops.\nOpen the loop on the earring hook by twisting the loop sideways where it meets. Don't pull it open. Slide on of the loops on the piece of wire onto the loop on the hook, then twist the hook closed, trapping the bead's wire loop on the hook. Do the same for both pieces.\n*If you had gold wire it would be more accurate, but I didn't have any, so I had to go with silver.\nStep 3: Attach Earrings\nGet out the dried/baked tear drop shapes. Open the loop on the eye pin on the tear drop shape. Hook it to the end loop on the bead wire, making it hang from the bottom. Close the eye pin loop.\nStep 4: Triple Thick Varnishing\nTo give them a bit of a luminescent appearance, I will be varnishing them with Triple Thick mixed with green pastel. I chose a darker shade of green pastel so that they could look like they \"glowed\" from within.\nScrap off the pastel stick into a powder. Mix this powder with a bit of Triple Thick varnish. Continue mixing until you get an even color.\nWith a brush, apply the colored Triple Thick to the teardrop shapes. Be careful not to overwork it; you can go back and add another coat later, but if you keep brushing what you have applied it will become lumpy.\nI applied three coats in total.\nStep 5: The Earrings of <PERSON>\nAnd there you have it! You have these magical earrings. You can sport your Studio Ghibli style without screaming, \"I love Studio Ghibli!\" (even if you might want to). These earrings can be worn to formal events without standing out as fan jewelry and still being pretty.\nI have another Studio Ghibli tutorial already published here. I am working on more Instructables about <PERSON>'s jewelry.\nGo clay today!", "902" ], [ "DIY Chapstick Holder From Quilting Scraps\nIntroduction: DIY Chapstick Holder From Quilting Scraps\nMy grandfather pieces quilts to keep himself busy. He makes log cabin and split rail layouts, then he sends them to someone else who quilts them. They are then sold to family and friends. In the above photos is a photo of one of his quilting squares.\nWith the tons of quilts that he makes, it results in lots of little scrap pieces. These pieces are very small and most of them are long and thin, making it a little tough to figure out what to do with them. He recently gifted us a bag of scraps, hoping we could use them.\nIn the bag were some beautiful material pieces. I especially loved a few pieces I found with a batik-type fabric (I wonder who got that quilt because I never saw it!). I was puzzling over what do with with the quilt pieces when I spotted a chapstick holder hanging on someone's purse. Bingo! The thin pieces were the perfect shape!\nObviously, you can make these out of whatever scraps you have on hand, but my scrap piece measured 2 3/4 inches wide and it was perfect for a regular sized chapstick tube. Your fabric will need to be about 10 inches long to complete the project.\nSupplies\n1. Chapstick\n2. Fabric. Your measurements should be around 2 3/4 inches wide and around 10 inches long\n3. A clip with a ring on the end of it (lobster clasp, dog chain, whatever, it doesn't matter what style of clip)\n4. A sewing machine\n5.", "787" ], [ "Sewing pins\n6. Sewing scissors or just regular scissors\nStep 1: Prep Work\nOne one end of the fabric, fold the cut edge over itself by about a 1/4 of an inch. (fold over the short end, not the long side). You can tack this down with pins if you want to, then sew it down.\nPlace the chapstick down on the material. Fold up the end you sewed so that it makes a pocket over the chapstick. This is just to give an idea of what size your fabric needs to be. Bring the opposite end over the chapstick so you know where you want to cut the fabric. It should meet the pocket end and cover the chapstick completely.\nNow, all along the long sides, fold the fabric over by about 1/8 inch and tack it down with pins. Make sure to fold the fabric so that both the seam lips are on the inside along with the lip of the last seam (see photos).\nSew that down.\nNow you have a long piece of fabric that has been cleaned up a bit. No fuzzies.\nStep 2: Making the Pocket\nOnce again, place the chapstick tube down on the fabric and fold over the \"pocket\". Make it as tall as you want it, then line up the sides seams and put a pin in them at the top.\nTake the chapstick out of the \"pocket\" and pin both sides of the pocket down, lining up the top edges of the fabric with the bottom edges.\nSew the pocket closed by lining up the sewing needle with the side seam you made in step 1 and sewing down the pocket, sealing the two layers of fabric together.\nTrim all the thread fuzzies and you should have a pocket!\nStep 3: Attaching the Clip\nTo add the key chain, scrunch up the fabric end that is opposite the pocket end and put it in the keychain ring, going under, in, and over the ring. The edge of the fabric fold should end up on the front side.\nUsing pins if you want, sew the edge of the fabric down right under the top edge of the pocket (peel back the pocket fabric so you don't catch it and accidentally sew the pocket shut). Once the fabric is let go back to its natural position, it should look like the above photos.\nNow we need to complete the chapstick holder by firmly sewing down the edges of the pocket to the edges of the keyring fold. Simply sew along your former sewing lines and go over both the corner edges of the pocket and onto the edges of the keyring fold, tacking them both down (you don't need to sew all the way up to the key ring, just enough to make it look nice and keep the ring from sliding everywhere).\nStep 4: Finished\nCongratulations! You have made something out of your quilting scraps that you will actually use!\nThat is a lot of my problem with little scraps. I could make something from them, but will I actually use it? This chapstick holder from quilt scraps is both cute and functional and you have to give it more than a glance to realize that someone made it at home and didn't purchase it.", "455" ], [ "Sunshine Rainbow Arch Clay Earrings\nIntroduction: Sunshine Rainbow Arch Clay Earrings\nThe arch polymer clay earrings are really trendy, and this design stands out more than your average polymer clay earring. A cute sunshine smiles above a bright rainbow arch to remind you that happy days are just around the corner. I will show you how to make these without using cutters, so don't feel intimidated or pass it by if you don't have any polymer clay cutters!\nSupplies\n1. Clay (polymer or air dry, your choice) in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet.\n2. Clay in Black\n3. A work surface (I am using an acrylic board)\n4. Round Nose Pliers\n5. Two Jump Rings\n6. Two Flatback Stud/Post Earrings\n7. Two flat surfaces (I am using both my workspace acrylic board and a second identical board. You can use your work surface for one flat surface and whatever else for your other flat surface. Just make sure it isn't something that will stick to your clay and can be easily held in your hand. The next step will explain this better so you can know what you need).\n8. Clay Roller tool\n9. Clay Knife tool\n10. Ball tool\n11. Clay Stylus tool (or a tooth pick)\n12. Varnish (optional; I am using Duraclear Polyurethane Varnish in Gloss).\n13.", "95" ], [ "Brush to apply varnish\nStep 1: Rolling Out Clay the Easy Way\nThis is a really easy way to roll out logs of clay. You need two flat surfaces (I am using two small acrylic boards) and your clay.\nPut the piece of clay on your flat surface (first board) and then lay the top board on top of the clay, pressing slightly while moving the top board back and forth. The clay will become a smooth log! How even it is depends on how good you are at pressing evenly on the top board, but it is easy to apply more pressure to one side and even out a lopsided log. I first saw this done by Kaylana Design Tutorials and have since seen other polymer clay artists do this. It really makes rolling logs so easy!\nI included a gif that hopefully works, but if not I included photos as well.\nStep 2: Make the Arch\nStarting with the violet clay, I roll out a thin log of clay in the way I showed in the first step. If you don't want to do that, obviously you can just roll out the logs with your fingers.\nMy clay log is about the thickness of a standard round toothpick.\nWith the violet clay, I bend it into an arch or upside down \"u\" shape with my fingers. This is the start of the arch, so don't make it huge. Mine is a skinny arch.\nSet that aside and move on to the blue clay. Roll it out into a toothpick sized snake, then take your violet arch and carefully wrap the blue log around the violet arch. Make sure the two colors are touching so they bond to each other. Don't worry about loose ends right now; we'll deal with that later. You should now have an arch with a violet middle and blue outside.\nProceed to do the rest of the colors the same way in this order: green, yellow, orange, and lastly red. I didn't include photos of me rolling all the separate colors out because that would get exceedingly boring.\nOnce the red as been wrapped on top of the orange arch, you should have a rainbow arch! Now with the knife tool we will trim the ends even with one another. My arch measures about an inch and an eighth (1 1/8th inches) from the trimmed bottom to the tip of the arch, but you can make it as short or tall as you like. The ruler will come in handy for making sure your second arch is the height of your first arch, or you can just lay the first arch on top of the second one and then trim it evenly.\nWith the stylus tool or toothpick, poke a hole in the top of the arch in between the red and orange layers. This is the jump ring hole.\nMake the second arch in the same way you made the first.\nStep 3: Make the Sunshine\nWith the yellow clay, roll out the clay into a flat sheet. Don't make it too thin. With your stylus tool or your knife tool, draw a small circle on the yellow clay and then cut it out with the knife tool.\n*If you are worried about not being able to make a good circle, lightly press the top of a nail polish bottle onto the clay so it makes a circle you can trace around.\nSet the yellow circle aside.\nRoll out the yellow clay again. This time place the little circle on the rolled out clay.", "994" ] ]

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[ [ "2016 Was the Caribbean’s Year of Loss · Global Voices\nThe year 2016. Image by <PERSON>, used under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license.\nFor bloggers in the Caribbean, “2016” has nearly become an obscenity. Adjectives now used to describe this “annus horribilis” include “sucky”, “terrible” and “the worst”. The thing that drove netizens over the edge — compounding the region's soaring crime rate and economic challenges — was the fact that so many outstanding artists, leaders and visionaries passed away this year.\nSwan Songs\nIt began with the musicians. In early January 2016, Trinidadian steel band arranger, <PERSON>, passed away on the eve of the country's Panorama music contest, where scores of steel pan players, organised into full orchestras, compete for one of the most prestigious titles on the annual Carnival circuit.\nThe Facebook group Maraval Road summed up the loss quite succinctly:\nThe pan world lost one of the biggest icons today. <PERSON> is credited with pushing pan to the next level and has written some of what is still known as the most difficult and genre defying music ever to come from Trinidad and Tobago.\n<PERSON> worked his magic with countless musical pieces over the years, like this novel arrangement of calypsonian Lord Kitchener‘s “Mystery Band”:\nFour short days later, the region — like much of the rest of the world — was shocked at the passing of British-born rocker <PERSON>. <PERSON>'s music affected the people of the Caribbean in astounding ways. In an interview with Global Voices, fashion blogger <PERSON> explained why:\nI wasn't surprised at the universal reaction […] but the Caribbean reaction was thrilling and reassuring in a different way. Growing up in Trinidad, it wasn't always easy to discover older music in different genres and I sometimes felt like a teenage misfit listening to The Beatles, <PERSON> and <PERSON>. You have to seek it out. I love that so many of us did, and we are all feeling the loss.\nAnother international artist whose death, in April 2016, shook Caribbean music fans to their core was <PERSON>. American artist and activist <PERSON>, wrote a blog post about the impact of <PERSON>'s music; it was widely shared across the regional blogosphere:\nAs is the case with all cultural icons, the grief is being felt in all corners, by people of all races, ethnicities, economic classes, gender expressions, etc. There is no doubt that his Purple Majesty touched people all over this world.\nFor me, <PERSON> was confirmation of the heights one could reach when they weren’t afraid…to be different.", "550" ], [ "Non-conforming. Confusing. Questionable. Nuanced. Hard to understand. Hard to explain. Though I was deeply appreciative of his musical genius, <PERSON> was more of a spiritual psychopomp for me, a shining example of how to obtain the deepest form of liberation: being your damn self.\nBy July, the brilliant but largely unacknowledged Trinidadian guitarist <PERSON> also passed away. <PERSON>'s inimitable style earned him the international reputation of being one of the greatest chord players of all time, alongside some of the world's best known jazz musicians, like <PERSON> and <PERSON>. Trinidadian calypsonian <PERSON>, who paid tribute to <PERSON> in his classic song Calypso Music, posted this Facebook status update on hearing of <PERSON>'s passing:\n<PERSON>'s gone boy. We wasted his brilliance. We only entered his library now and then. What a people eh!\nFor people like him, let's hope that there really is an afterlife so that his fingers can dance across the fretboard again. RIP boss.\nTrinidadians <PERSON> and <PERSON>, who each in his own way loved and promoted the music and culture of the country — and the region — also passed away this year.\nFinal Innings\nTwo seminal personalities in the world of sport left us in 2016. Hearts were heavy with grief the world over at the deaths of Barbadian cricket commentator <PERSON> and <PERSON>, the first Trinidadian to to circumnavigate the globe in his trusty ketch, the Hummingbird II.", "357" ], [ "Trinidadian <PERSON>, visionary of ‘play and performance’, leaves behind a precious legacy · Global Voices\nA portrait of Trinbagonian playwright, actor and director <PERSON>, by <PERSON>. Used with permission.\nOn April 27, 2020, one of the pillars of Trinidad and Tobago's film and theatre community — actor, playwright and director <PERSON> — died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving the heart of a nation in pieces. He was 71 years old.\n<PERSON> dedicated his life to the performing arts, writing both stage and screenplays, directing theatrical and film works and often appearing on stage and screen as an actor or interviewer.\nAfter getting his bachelor's degree in drama and education from the University of Alberta in 1973, <PERSON> cut his teeth in community theatre in Canada; he also did work in prisons, where he created workshops for the inmates using role-play as a technique. A lifelong learner who enjoyed the questions just as much as the answers, <PERSON> earned a diploma in film and advanced television production from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1980.\nBoth qualifications served him well when he returned home and became an integral part of the pioneering group of television producers that created “Gayelle” [this clip features his brother, <PERSON>], a cultural magazine-type series that began to transform the landscape of regional television in the mid-1980s.\nFor many years, <PERSON> apprenticed as an actor and director with Nobel laureate Sir <PERSON> in the seminal Trinidad Theatre Workshop (TTW), where he performed in the world premiere of <PERSON>'s “The Joker of Seville” and “O’ Babylon” (1975-81).\nSpeaking with me by telephone, <PERSON>, one of the founders of Banyan Limited, the video production company through which <PERSON> put his unique artistic stamp on various indigenous soap operas, drama series, and current affairs programmes, recalled that <PERSON> was so deeply involved in the TTW that he was “widely viewed as <PERSON>'s heir apparent”. He described <PERSON> as “an ultimate artist and renaissance man” who would often develop scripts from improvised sessions with other theatre giants like <PERSON> and <PERSON>.\n“He loved satire skits and social commentary,” <PERSON> said. “He was always off the wall, but very authentic — and very socially committed.” He remembers the pairing of <PERSON> and fellow actor <PERSON> in the “Gayelle” series as “wonderful”, noting that <PERSON> would usually insist they approach topics from an unexpected angle.", "357" ], [ "“<PERSON> would, therefore, do interviews for events like the Hindu festival of Phagwa,” <PERSON> explained, while Sitahal, of Indian descent, would host segments on things like the Orisha religion. In Trinidad and Tobago, where the population is almost evenly split between people of African and Indian descent, <PERSON> helped make the country's rich cultural diversity more inclusive, and accessible to everyone.\n<PERSON>, who co-hosted “Gayelle” with <PERSON>, said on Facebook:\n<PERSON>’s pursuit of truth had no room for pettiness, for jostling for stardom, for ethnic competition, pretense and pappyshow. […] Making Gayelle was always a hunt for the unexpected twist that would flip a situation out of the mundane.\nA promotional still from <PERSON> play, “Jean and Dinah”. Photo by <PERSON>, used with permission.\nIn a career that spanned five decades in various media — in his words, “play and performance in space, street, stage and screen” — nothing <PERSON> ever worked on was short of original ideas. Some of his most recognised pieces of work, staged through his Lordstreet Theatre Company, include the critically acclaimed play “Jean and Dinah” (based on The Mighty Sparrow's famous 1956 calypso of the same name), “The Brand New Lucky Diamond Horseshoe Club” (a musical collaboration with calypsonian <PERSON>), and “Miss Miles, Woman of the World”, a play based on the life of Trinidadian political whistleblower <PERSON>. He also co-directed the award-winning BBC/Banyan documentary, “And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon”.\nFilm producer <PERSON>, who worked with <PERSON> at Banyan from 1990, remembers him as “the ideas man”.", "357" ], [ "Maya Angelou: A Phenomenal Woman with a Caribbean Connection · Global Voices\nDr. <PERSON>, speaking at The Carolina Theater, Greensboro, North Carolina, September, 2008. Image by <PERSON>, used under a CC license.\n<PERSON> has been noticeably written and tweeted about since her death on May 28. Her passing resonates quite deeply in the Caribbean – and not only because of the potency of her words – the author also had West Indian roots (her maternal grandfather was Trinidadian). Regional bloggers have been processing their grief over the loss by sharing what her life and writing meant to them.\nIn honour of <PERSON>'s Caribbean connections, Repeating Islands republished a post which originally appeared in Slate magazine, detailing the author's stint as a singer, when she recorded her first and only album, entitled Miss Calypso.\nSome bloggers were not even aware of <PERSON>'s West Indian ancestry until her death. What's the idea? said as much in her post, The dream and hope of the slave:\n<PERSON> lived a long, lovely life, full of daring, accomplishment and acclaim. I did not know that her grandfather was a Trinidadian.\nStill I Rise was the first poem in my under-educated literary life that moved me with its direct relevance to my own life as a descendant of enslaved peoples and perhaps more so, because it so expressed the exuberant defiance which black women need (ed) to leap over sexism and marginalisation.\n<PERSON>, the blogger, went on to quote excerpts of the poem, saying:\nIt is a poem of such triumph ‘Out of history’s shame, I Rise…’\nNow, I am thinking of the last line, ‘I am the dream and the hope of the slave’ as the region struggles with inequalities and with discrimination, especially against the LGBT community. That we would wish to perpetuate laws that make criminals of people who love other people of their own sex seems far enough away from the dream of emancipation.", "117" ], [ "Can we not remember that slavery was also justified in the name of religion?\nOn Facebook, <PERSON> echoed the same sentiment, referring to a statement the author had made five years ago:\n‘To love someone takes a lot of courage,’ she said. ‘So how much more is one challenged when the love is of the same sex and the laws say, “I forbid you from loving this person?”‘\n–<PERSON>, interviewed by the New York Times, May 2009\nSince everybody with a pulse is rushing to memorialise <PERSON> today, and with the <PERSON> affair still weighing heavy on my mind, it seems a good moment to recall her thoughts on a question of justice the Caribbean is struggling with.\nWhat's the idea? also viewed <PERSON>'s advice as incredibly relevant when it comes to the global issue of violence against women and girls:\nIn her Ode to the UN, <PERSON> ends with these words:\nWhen we come to it\nWe, this people, on this wayward, floating body\nCreated on this earth, of this earth\nHave the power to fashion for this earth\nA climate where every man and every woman\nCan live freely without sanctimonious piety\nWithout crippling fear\nWhen we come to it\nWe must confess that we are the possible\nWe are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world\nThat is when, and only when\nWe come to it.\nSome netizens, especially on Twitter and Facebook, reposted quotes by <PERSON> that resonated with them. Trinidadian blogger <PERSON> bade <PERSON> a simple farewell:\nThank you for sharing your mind and emotions and the spirit and the power with us <PERSON>. So many women drew energy from you…\n<PERSON>, a US-born writer with Dominican roots, recounted the one occasion she literally ran into <PERSON>:\nOnce, when I was about 19 or 20, I darted past Bloomingdale’s in New York, running late to something—I forget—and literally ran into a large, imposing figure walking out of the shop as I sprinted by. I felt as if I had ran into a brick wall. As I stood there in a daze, rubbing my nose, I heard this majestic voice say every-so-slowly, ‘Child, slow down. Where on earth could be more important than being with your self right now?’ My knees started to wobble when I realized this person was <PERSON>. She glided off, in that regal way of hers, before I could fix my lips to apologize.", "820" ], [ "Caribbean: 2009 Regional Roundup · Global Voices\nAs Global Voices celebrates its fifth anniversary, the occasion has given us all an opportunity to reflect on why we do what we do and how our work makes a difference. As my colleague <PERSON> so succinctly put it, “We spread stories. We spread words.” We manage to do that effectively because of the many people who are so committed to making this project everything it is and more. Some of those wonderful people are on the Caribbean team, and in the spirit of reflection, we're taking a look back at some of the most interesting/important/eye-opening regional posts of 2009…\nProtest\nThis was a year for social movements, it seemed. From expressing solidarity with the people of Gaza who suffered through the bombings to speaking up for themselves “against all sorts of abuses”, Guadeloupe and the French Overseas Territories put their stamp on the regional blogosphere. Haitian bloggers were also very outspoken on the political front, while Puerto Rico and Bermuda had protests of their own.\nThe Economy\nThe global financial crisis certainly had an impact on the Caribbean. Bloggers from Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and the rest of the region were abuzz with tales of financial governance gone awry.", "926" ], [ "Bloggers also had a lot to say about the economic ramifications of the 5th Summit of the Americas, held earlier this year in Trinidad and Tobago.\nHealth\nThe biggest health story of the year was, without a doubt, the H1N1 outbreak.\nCrime and Punishment\nSeveral Caribbean territories had their bone to pick with the law this year: Guadeloupe, Barbados, and in a particularly heart-wrenching story, Guyana. Violent crime rates also seemed to be on the rise in several islands – including domestic abuse and gender violence – and many West Indian bloggers used Barbadian pop star <PERSON>'s unfortunate incident with then-boyfriend <PERSON> to send a message about the issue.\nFreedom\nPress freedom (or lack thereof) was a popular topic for regional discussion once again this year, as was censorship and freedom of expression. The story that perhaps best demonstrated the dangers of self expression in some parts of the region was the seizure of Cuban blogger <PERSON> (along with two colleagues) as they made their way to an anti-violence march in Havana.\nThe Environment\nIn honour of Blog Action Day 2009, Cariabbean bloggers added their voices to the global discussion on climate change, while over in Guadeloupe, water availability was on everyone's mind.\nSport\nThe IAAF World Championships brought joy and celebration to regional sports fans, thanks to the outstanding performances of Jamaica's <PERSON> and other Caribbean athletes.\nThere were, of course, other fascinating stories that we covered: the ban on explicit music in Jamaica, Nobel Laureate <PERSON>'s withdrawal from the race for the coveted position of Oxford Professor of Poetry, Haiti's touching farewell to the late Fr. <PERSON>. We tracked the path of the Caribs, built online art networks, and attended Cuba's Concert for Peace. And we can't wait to see what 2010 will have in store. Happy New Year!", "271" ], [ "<PERSON>, the Trinidadian percussionist who made African drumming a church staple, goes to his Creator · Global Voices\nTrinbagonian musician <PERSON>, who died on October 15, 2021. Screenshot taken from the music video for Kutunza Uhuru (Cherish Freedom) by Mawasi Experience on YouTube, from the album of the same name. Video by <PERSON>.\nMusician <PERSON>, whose fiercely original and experimental percussive style moved a nation, is being mourned by Trinidad and Tobago netizens after his death on October 15. He had been admitted to hospital on September 30, after complaining of “pain and discomfort.” A music enthusiast from childhood, when he began playing with his lifelong friend, the exemplary flautist and saxophonist <PERSON>, who passed away this past August, <PERSON> was a deeply spiritual man whose Roman Catholic faith was intertwined with every note he created. He was 63 years old.\nAs young men, he and <PERSON> would play at various community events—they were just as adept at disco music as they were at soca, the newly burgeoning music genre—and they gigged at many Carnival parties. In October 1980, <PERSON> founded the band Mawasi Experience, into which he poured his love for music and merged it with his purpose-based faith. Yet, according to rapso performer <PERSON>, who spoke with Global Voices by telephone, <PERSON>'s music “didn't feel heavy,” preachy or overly religious. Rather, it felt spiritual. Describing him as “a true giant of a man and the definition of a patriot,” <PERSON> remembers <PERSON> as “always being clad in red, white and black,” Trinidad and Tobago's national colours.\nThat unique combination of spirituality and cultural pride is an integral part of <PERSON>'s legacy. In keeping with the Second Vatican Council, which began under Pope <PERSON> in 1962 and ended under Pope <PERSON> in 1965, there was a recommendation that the church should adapt to local cultures, “including philosophical and theological adaptation.” As a result, churches in Trinidad and Tobago began to welcome the participation of folk choirs, but <PERSON> led the charge in bringing the concept of African drumming into the celebration of the Catholic mass.\nCultural activist <PERSON> said on Facebook:\nI cannot even begin to fathom the battles that <PERSON> must have fought to get the African Drum & its Musics accepted by and integrated into the Catholic Church (and by osmosis-others). Also because his version of Drum Music was not neutered of African Revolutionary Sentiment and Civilisational Subversive Retentions…Yet he fought that battle-AND WON!!! He has a whole Liturgy with songs throughout the life cycle of Catholic worship.", "357" ], [ "He was musical director in a major Port of Spain Convent! Drums are now everywhere in the Church. African music is everywhere. And all its children are inside the Church proper…\nMany fought those battles-but that's <PERSON> and the Mawasi Experience doing that heavy lifting…\nIn a telephone interview, <PERSON>, who began her friendship with <PERSON> as a member of the folk choir at St. Theresa's Church on the outskirts of Port of Spain, described his work as “the wholeness of the music ministry” in the local Catholic church, saying, “Our music liturgy—for me, that was <PERSON>.” She remembers him forever experimenting, making his own drums, and showing up to church with his “battery of instruments,” many of them made from local materials such as bamboo.\nOf his numerous liturgical contributions, <PERSON> was probably best known for his inspired “O Creator,” a startling and spirited piece that most people heard for the first time on February 5, 1985, during then pontiff <PERSON>'s celebration of Holy Mass in Trinidad and Tobago's National Stadium as part of his apostolic journey to the Americas. Its bold and unapologetically exuberant percussive backbone was strong, joyous, and freeing, and got everyone in that stadium moving to a deeper rhythm while connecting to a higher source.\nFacebook user <PERSON> called the piece “the beginning of the evolution of our liturgical music,” while <PERSON> described the experience of hearing “O Creator” as “humanity attempting to talk to God”:\nThe song was that big, oceanic, and powerful. I could not get enough of it. Nothing else mattered for its duration. There was something so Ancient and Elemental about it. Direct. Heartfelt. Monumental. And Honest.", "357" ], [ "COVID-19 causes Trinidad and Tobago to cancel its Carnival for 2021 · Global Voices\n“Carnival Tuesday meggie”: Carnival lover <PERSON> gives a “meggie” – a hand gesture that brings the thumb and four fingers together in a sign of derision, scorn or rejection. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.\nIt may have been anticipated, but now it's official: thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Trinidad and Tobago's 2021 Carnival celebrations have been cancelled.\nPrime Minister <PERSON> made the announcement on the afternoon of September 28, calling the national festival “the perfect environment for the spreading of the virus.” Despite the inevitable economic blow the decision will have, he said, he's not prepared to take the risk.\nReaction, predictably, was split. While most people applauded the decision, calling it both “expected” and “solid”, others wondered about the fate of those whose income depends on the national festival. When one Facebook user called the decision “insane”, <PERSON> retorted:\nNO! it's realistic and logical is what it is. Everyone else has already gone ahead and cancelled theirs. I do not possibly see how any “right thinking” citizen of T&T could possibly think to put the country under further threat from Covid-19.\nTrinidad and Tobago Carnival 2020 was already over by the time the country recorded its first case of COVID-19 in March.\nOther countries that host annual Carnivals, including Brazil, have already postponed their 2021 events, but it is only the third time in history that Trinidad and Tobago has put theirs on hold—a history that Trinidadian author <PERSON> chronicled in his book “Parade of the Carnivals of Trinidad, 1839-1989″.\nIn the chapter etitled “Carnival in a World of War,” <PERSON> noted that the festival continued as usual during World War I, which was fought largely in Europe. After the war ended, the 1919 celebrations were known as “Victory Carnival”.", "1019" ], [ "During World War II, the festival did not take place at all between 1942 and 1945, although “spontaneous” celebrations happened on May 8 and 9, 1945 in honour of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, and on Aug 15 and 16, 1945 for Victory over Japan (VJ) Day.\nThe country's street festival was postponed from February 1972 to May 1973 because of the threat of the polio virus, so it is not as if the move to put off next year's Carnival celebrations is unprecedented. In fact, many netizens saw it coming, but hoped that a virtual celebration might take its place.\nIn a Facebook status update on June 24, <PERSON> predicted that “promoters are going to have to Zoom in fete-goers to the music and the vibe from concert halls in ‘foreign’ [abroad]!” Virtual Carnivals are something that costume designers like <PERSON> have already been experimenting with—the band she and her husband created for Notting Hill Carnival 2020 was showcased online.\nTrinidad and Tobago's Carnival stakeholders have also expressed excitement about the opportunity to share their creativity in the virtual realm. Facebook user <PERSON> suggested:\nWe keep forgetting that there are elements of carnival that are outside the realm of the street parade. We should adapt and showcase our calypso, pan, extempo and dimanche gras much like how sporting events are still being carried out.\nBoth calypso music and the steelpan instrument originated in Trinidad and Tobago. Extempo refers to an extemporaneous form of calypso, and Dimanche Gras, literally translated as “Big Sunday,” is a grand show at which coveted titles like the Calypso Monarch are decided.\n<PERSON> of Trini Good Media, which produces the “Talk ‘Bout Us” podcast, crowdsourced opinions on what a virtual Carnival might look like. Most commenters felt that simply delaying the celebrations would be best, with <PERSON> suggesting that it may be an opportune time “to re-focus to community Carnivals and limit the size of large bands.”\n<PERSON> added:\nAside from the issue of a vaccine being made available globally, it’s difficult to envision any Carnival 2021 at all, due to the commercialization of the festival, and the limitations of two major sources of revenue: Government expenditure will be prioritized elsewhere, and corporate entities will slash sponsorship budgets.\nHaving a 2021 Carnival may jeopardize the planning cycle for one in 2022. It will be almost impossible to execute, as Carnival mas [costume] production is essentially a 12 month cycle.", "264" ], [ "Caribbean netizens take to ‘extempo’ music to spread COVID-19 safety messages · Global Voices\n<PERSON> from Trinidad and Tobago takes up the COVID-19 extempo challenge. Screenshot taken from a YouTube video uploaded by King <PERSON>.\nTrinidad and Tobago is known the world over as the birthplace of calypso music and a key aspect of the genre is “extempo”. Short for “extemporaneous”, this lyrically improvisational form of calypso — which typically involves live contests in which performers spontaneously invent lyrics around given themes — is both popular and entertaining, due in some measure to the biting picong between the combatants of these extempo wars.\nSuch interactive performances typically include spectators echoing one of a number of refrains, the most common of which is santimanitay!, a derivative of the French phrase sans humanité (“without mercy”).\nIn the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, many Caribbean netizens — as well as members of the diaspora — have heeded the call of Trinidad and Tobago's reigning Extempo Monarch, <PERSON>, to try their lyrical prowess in a COVID-19 extempo challenge.", "264" ], [ "<PERSON>, three-time holder of Barbados’ Calypso King title, also claimed credit for starting the trend — but regardless of who issued the initial clarion call, the riposte was phenomenal.\nAmong the “first responders” were three-time Junior Extempo Monarch, <PERSON>, who would certainly appreciate that extempo, being a competitive sport of sorts, is ultimately judged by the inventiveness of the lyrics, and the poise and confidence with which they are delivered.\nSome of the best offerings included Trinidad and Tobago's current Calypso Monarch, <PERSON>, who urged Facebook users to “stay at home…don't go and roam”:\nOn a serious note 'bout this COVID-19\nYou have to wash your hands and practice proper hygiene\nAnd social distancing will make corona subside\nSo please comply and keep your ass inside\n<PERSON> took the opportunity to challenge some of her peers, including former Calypso Queen of Trinidad and Tobago, <PERSON>, who readily jumped in via YouTube:\nThe government trying the best they can to pound some sense into citizens\nMan, every day they on the TV, asking, begging, pleading with we\nDistance yourself, help flatten the curve; do them simple things your nation to serve\nNow I adding my voice, telling <PERSON>, ‘Stay home, stay safe and please don't get sick…’\nOn YouTube, Grenadian singer <PERSON> warned that the coronavirus does not discriminate, so everyone should strive to self-isolate:\nI sit home listening to the news thinking\n‘Bout the deadly virus COVID-19\nSad, a lot of people dead and they gone\nThe rich, the old, the poor and the young…\nIn fact, several singers from Grenada got together to do the challenge and send a strong message to the public about how their behaviour can help stop the spread of the virus.\nSt. Lucian musician <PERSON> also contributed, causing the country's prime minister, <PERSON>, to call him a “true patriot and ambassador”. His tune included these lyrics:\nLadies and gentlemen, the message now is clear\nCorona is serious but have no fear\nWe can win this war, yeah, we can win with ease\nAll we ask is that you kindly stay at home please…\nOf course, not everyone who participated was a professional singer, but many had musical talent, like Trinidadian Facebook user <PERSON>, who sang:\nThese are strange times and you know it's true\nCOVID-19 has changed everything that we do\nWe were living our lives with normality, going to work, visiting friends and family\nWe thought that those times would forever last\nBut this global crisis put that in the past…\nThis unnamed man from Dominica also offered a worthwhile contribution:\nWell, I say it must be a curse, this COVID-19 virus\nAnd it taking over the world, every man, woman, boy and girl\nIt affecting every country, cripple the world economy\nEverybody now search their soul, I say Jah taking back control…\nThree generations of the Caribbean diaspora, two of whom are health care workers, also teamed up to do the challenge.", "264" ], [ "Trinidad & Tobago loses a fount of cultural knowledge with the passing of comedian <PERSON> · Global Voices\nComedian and cultural storyteller <PERSON> on stage during the Kaiso Laugh Riot at Tropical Paradise in Brooklyn, New York, in 2016. Screenshot taken from a YouTube video uploaded by <PERSON>.\nComedic genius and cultural historian <PERSON> died on October 2, 2020, two days after his 71st birthday. He had been ailing for some time and his passing — which comes just five months after the death of his brother, Trinbagonian playwright <PERSON>, and about two weeks after the death of actor <PERSON>, a stalwart of local theatre — leaves a gaping hole in Trinidad and Tobago's artistic community.\nBest known for his portrayal of <PERSON>, a character on the “Cultural Sprangalang” segment of “Gayelle”, a cultural magazine series that helped local television forge a strong Caribbean identity during the mid-1980s, <PERSON> was passionate about passing on knowledge of the history and culture of Trinidad and Tobago.\nUpon learning of his passing, Wired868 republished a 1994 interview <PERSON> did with journalist <PERSON>, which revealed the genesis of his most enduring character:\n<PERSON> was responsible for a quiz segment about Trinidad and Tobago [on ‘Gayelle’] and they had to find a name for it.\nAt an arts seminar [several theatre stalwarts, including <PERSON>’ brother, <PERSON>] jumped out of a coffin to dramatise their grievances. At the same time, there was a midnight show called <PERSON> and the star was called ‘Draxie’.\n<PERSON>’s quiz character became <PERSON>. He would step out of an upright coffin, dust himself and ask his questions—but the segment still needed a name.\n‘One night some fellas […] playing basketball, tell me they in a party—they drink, they smoke, they eat till they head was sprangalang.’\nThe segment became Cultural Sprangalang until the character took over and was rechristened.\nThough <PERSON> would become “a national figure”, <PERSON> also starred in various theatrical plays and other productions, including director <PERSON>'s feature film “A Winter Tale” and the Canadian sitcom “Lord Have Mercy!”\nAlthough rumours about his death had been circulating online a few days before he actually passed, social media users were still shocked at losing him.\nOn Facebook, media producer <PERSON> remembered <PERSON> as a “great comedic mind [and] even greater intellectual and historian [who] embodied everything Trinidad and Tobago needed in this moment”. Photographer <PERSON> added also in a Facebook post:\nHe claimed [Trinidad and Tobago] as his home by teaching us WHO we are, and those who listened learned so much.\nThe value of <PERSON>'s contribution was not lost on actor and Rapso musician <PERSON>, who noted in a Facebook post:\nCultural Sprangalang was a national treasure, a master storyteller and a philosopher of the highest order. He was a living walking repository of our stories and our history and he was possessed of a searing honesty and a sense of humor beyond compare. He dared to be true to himself and afforded us the opportunity to grapple with hard truths while laughing hard and shaking our heads in knowing.", "357" ], [ "Thank you <PERSON> for the example and the knowledge and wisdom over the years. A true hero, a real Griot and a Giant of a man. Rest In Everlasting Peace my brother ?. Your stories will live on.\nA griot is a storyteller in the West African oral tradition.\nThe National Drama Association of Trinidad and Tobago (NDATT) also mourned his passing, describing <PERSON>'s cultural contribution as “vast and invaluable”. The Trinidad Theatre Workshop, meanwhile, recalled how Sprangalang could “tell a story”:\nHe had the facts, he articulated the ideas in a vernacular way of thinking and talking […] He was our identity, he was a creole griot. A historical raconteur who spoke the nation language in a way that was universal. A comedian who made us think. He was our [<PERSON> without the cussing. He lit up a space with an intelligent wit and a respect for our heroes.\n<PERSON>, who worked with Sprangalang on the “Gayelle” programme, paid tribute to him on Facebook:\nOur show had launched him onto the national stage.", "357" ] ]

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[ [ "Avatar\nThis was a passion project that spanned fifteen years. It was a truly collaborative effort involving designers and artists, linguists and professors; <PERSON> even helped develop his own camera system to shoot the movie.", "529" ], [ "All for a big, silly sci-fi film about blue aliens; all while the film's future during development constantly hung in the balance.\nSo no, I don't think this film should be taken so seriously. I'm not talking about the trope-y narrative or the uninspired [human] characters (<PERSON> drew inspiration from sci-fi books he read as a child, what else could we have expected?).\nI'm talking about the film as a film.\nCan't we just accept Avatar as something simple that looks really cool? That its story was never trying to move any needles; that it was digestible enough to bring so many different kinds of people into theatres? Hell, my parents and grandparents went to see it. And even though much greater films of the genre have released in the last ten years, I could never convince them to give those a chance.\nIts \"lack of presence in pop culture\" is such a bizarre criticism to me, and I feel it's viewed as a valid critique only because of its financial success.\nAvatar's biggest cultural impact? Having flocks of people repeat that it has no cultural impact, then grossing almost $3 billion at the box office.\nAnd its sequel will undoubtedly cross the billion dollar mark as well.", "952" ], [ "The Mission\n“We must work in the world. The world is thus.”\n“No, <PERSON>... thus have we made the world.”\nI was in Brazil earlier this year and started watching this on the hotel room TV before dozing off from an exhausting day of hiking around the iconic falls. I meant to resume the next day but more water time meant less movie energy.", "61" ], [ "As special as it was to first experience (the first half of) this film where it took place, it hit even harder on a proper screen.\nGrowing up with <PERSON>’s captivating soundtrack often playing at home, it was great to put moments and stories to the familiar music. It’s a tragic history, and its parts are well played by <PERSON> and <PERSON>. The film made a powerful exploration between the cross-purposes of the spiritual and political wings of the Catholic Church (no pun intended). Having grown up in the shadow of the San Juan Capistrano Mission, the oldest building standing in California, this story lent greater context to the struggles that connected Indigenous Americans of both continents. Highly recommend", "529" ], [ "Dune\nOver the past year or two I've rediscovered a real love for the science fiction genre. No deep cuts or anything but I've tried my best to read and watch some noteworthy stuff. 'Rediscovered' because after my nerdy parents were finished shoving Star Wars down my throat, I got tired of consuming things that for me, were struggling to hold a candle to the galaxy far far away.\nAfter tonight's rewatch of Dune, I can confidently say that it is the most impressive piece of modern science fiction storytelling I've encountered so far.", "462" ], [ "I've yet to come across a story where the world and politics are explained slowly and subtly, to the audience's advantage. The visuals, especially the symmetrical composition and negative space use is oh so satisfying and beautiful. Such fun casting choices, definitely forgot about some faces that show up here.\nDune-pilled two weeks before I see Dune Part 2 is crazy. Lucky me.", "723" ], [ "The Pigeon Tunnel\nThe Pigeon Tunnel was the working title <PERSON> used for many of his books while in progress, and we do get to hear the author detail how that particular phrase happened to stick. In fact, the real treasure here is in hearing <PERSON> distinctive voice spin the yarn on so many stories. Whether writing or speaking, he was a fantastic storyteller, mesmerizing the readers and listeners.\nWith his storytelling-on-the-fly approach, <PERSON> recalls his childhood and life with a seamless blend of experience, memory, and imagination ...", "464" ], [ "often with the Cold War as a backdrop. We aren't always sure where the blurred line between fact and embellishment falls, but we do know we are along for the ride. When <PERSON> speaks of his fascination with \"betrayal\", we can't help but wish he were still around to provide commentary on this modern world.", "691" ], [ "<PERSON> and the Apocalypse\nI am sorry to report that this didn't quite hold up for me. The heart and effort are evident, but it feels amateurish in a way that isn't enduring. I suspect that because it reaches so highly, its seams and gaps in experience shows more.\nIt has big exuberant musical numbers!...that mostly feature singing people walking around and occasionally flinging themselves while background dancers do simplistic choreography.\nIt's well lit and is in a fancy narrow space ratio!...that I suspect hides the fact that the movie is pretty flatly shot and has little visual personality.\nOn top of all this, it's just unevenly paced.", "647" ], [ "It's probably about thirty minutes and three musical numbers until we get to anything zombie related, and though the characters have their charm, they can't really carry the movie on their own. It's worth noting that I watched the extended cut this time, and I wonder if the pacing issue is present in the theatrical cut.\nAll of this said, I can 100% see why it has a cult following. It's the perfect sort of little niche movie (who can't love a movie that guns for a full on Christmas zombie musical?) that will delight those who latch onto it.", "596" ], [ "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World\nWicked cool trilogy, can’t believe I put it off for this long. The leaps in improvement with the animation between films was incredible to watch. Then I realized there was a four and five year gap between the sequels. I can’t even comprehend that long of a wait; I was buzzing with excitement to hop right back into the world. But boy, do I wish I was there for the waiting. Mainly because the growth of the lead characters between the films was so well done—so organic, so fulfilling and warm and made sense.", "462" ], [ "They weren’t just the same characters by name in new situations; they were different characters with each movie, only wiser, stronger, more confident. A lot of animated films have their characters learn a lesson but are cut-and-paste caricatures with each follow-up. Neat to see a trilogy geared towards kids take that stuff seriously. I wish we had more, while wishing it ended differently. But I’ll never stop thinking of <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and <PERSON>’ story arcs. That’ll stay with me. You know the lot at Dreamworks Animation is doing something right when you feel like you’ve watched dear friends grow up before your eyes.", "19" ], [ "Beneath the Planet of the Apes\nPretty good actually! Satisfyingly continues the dystopian nihilism of the OG while expanding our knowledge of this possible future timeline. It's telling that neither of these first two protagonists even entertain the possibility that this desolate wasteland could be Earth; it's that kind of self-assured hubris that got us there in the first place.", "462" ], [ "There's not much else on its mind beyond that, but I'll gladly accept the striking underground imagery and set design in exchange. I dig it.\nP.S. Still don't quite get the motivation behind casting another actor who looks JUST like <PERSON>...I was honestly convinced they were the same actor for almost ten minutes and was very confused 🤔", "577" ], [ "<PERSON>: Part One\nMore of a journalistic recreation of a Wikipedia article than a movie, but it kind of lands due to the magnitude of it all. It has no characters, just historical figures, but it works with the overall approach.", "698" ], [ "It’s meant to make you feel like a witness of history. <PERSON> embodies <PERSON> as much as he obscures him, feeding into the myth.\nHilarious how neither <PERSON> nor <PERSON> could stick with an accent for <PERSON>, but at least <PERSON>’s has been living abroad for a while. What’s <PERSON>’s excuse?", "585" ] ]

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[ [ "Space Empires:4X\nA game for 1-4 players designed by <PERSON>\nIntroduction\nThe year was 1975.\nThe Vietnam War ended. Star Trek was in syndication and Space:1999 had its television debut. The Altair 8800 sparked the demand for home computers. <PERSON> founded Microsoft. And a Texas game company MetaGaming Concepts released a science fiction space game called Stellar Conquest, where the object was to explore space, expand you empire, exploit resources, and exterminate your opponents.\nOnce personal computers came along, it spawned an entire industry devoted to games, including Avalon Hill's Andromeda Conquest, one of the the first 4X computer games and loosely (if not entirely) based on Stellar Conquest.\nIn 1993 Space Empires made it into the computer world, spawning several sequels and along the way <PERSON> decides he wants a board game version of a space conquest game.\nWith the release of Space Empires:4X we have come full circle!\nSpace Empires:4X was one of the most anticipated games from GMT when it was announced in the fall of 2010, generating over 1500 pre-orders by the time it went to print in August 2011.\nComponents\nGMT has of late been one of the top notch production companies, and Space Empires is no exception. The box comes packed with high quality well printed counters and player aids, a set of rules and playbook, some very fun colored dice, and a large mounted map board.\nThe box is just packed! Photo courtesy of <PERSON>\nThe rule and scenario books are both printed in full colour on glossy paper and the player aids are on sturdy cardstock. The counters are standard 5/8\" wargame style counters and the four different player counters have different ship silhouettes on them which is a nice touch. My counters were more firmly attached than I'm used to, so I suggest using an exacto knife along the seams to help punch the counters out cleanly.\nThe mounted board is particularly nice. In some ways space games start with a built in disadvantage that there are few interesting ways to display the blackness of space, but the art team did a nice job of making a functional and attractive board. The various tracks and marker space on the board are simultaneously unobtrusive and clear.\nRules and Game Play\nThe Basics\nThe rules for the game check are not overly complicated and span 15 pages. I will note that the designer has published an online FAQ (version 1.6 at the time of this writing) for game, both on BGG and at Consimworld. The FAQ should clarify any questions that arise from the rule book, and I commend <PERSON> for keeping this document up to date.\nEach player begins with a pool of about a dozen different types of units they'll be able to research, develop and build throughout the course of play.", "92" ], [ "Game play follows a simple sequence. Players will first bid for the right to determine player order. Three turns are then played with the same start player, wherein each player will move units, resolve any combat, and then explore. Once three turns have passed, an economic phase is executed where you will have the opportunity to spend construction points on new ships and new technologies.\nWinning\nGenerally speaking, the object of the game is to destroy the home world of another player and the first player to do so wins the game. This both encourages and requires aggressive development of your military resources and to be constantly vigilant for opportunities to attack your opponents, especially in moments of weakness.\nSet Up\nThe scenario book provides a wealth of options for how to play the game, but the core set up will give each player a home world, home planet markers, deep space markers, and a starting mix of units.\nPlaying\nThis game is a classic balancing act as you need to decide which technology you want to pursue and which units you want to build. Colonization helps increase your economic build potential, which in turn feeds your research and development, and your ability to build units. You can be more defensive or aggressive according to personal preference, but with the objective being the destruction of an opponent's home world, you only have a limited amount of time to develop your economy before needing to take action. This is especially true in a multiplayer game.\nThere is a lot of paperwork in the game to track your technology research and units. Ships build with \"old\" technology need to return to a player planet in order to gain the benefit of any technological upgrades that have been developed in the interim. There is an advanced/optional rule that obviates this process and simply gives all units new capabilities. I feel that the need to use this optional rule will depend strongly on the group you're playing with (my personal preference is to have instant upgrades).\nCombat\nCombat is a core requirement in this game and the system is detailed but not cumbersome. Ships are kept hidden until they encounter mines or an enemy fleet and technologies are revealed at the time of engagement.", "629" ], [ "SpaceCorp: 2025-2300AD\nA game for 1-4 players by <PERSON>\nPublished by GMT Games\n\"I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.\"\n<PERSON> , The Daily Telegraph , October 16, 2001\nThe Basics\nSpaceCorp is the latest entry in a the ever popular science fiction genre of humanity attempting to colonize and expand into space. It joins the games such as Terraforming Mars, High Frontier (Third Edition), and Leaving Earthin the sense that you are trying to expand your particular position as best you can in space, but direct conflict is limited.\nEvery player has a core corporation with basic research abilities and a chemical drive in hand that can be used as infrastructure. Anything on your infrastructure board can be used every turn as the base value and can be supplemented with cards from your hand. In general, the actions you want to play will require that you build up a good combination of cards in hand plus a solid infrastructure to best develop your corporation.\nAction cards drive the game\nOn your turn you get one action from a rather lengthy menu of options. The rules are very clearly written, so how to complete your action is well described. You can use the global infrastructure from other players but it provides them with a reward if you do, so it's a choice that needs to be weighed carefully.\nThere are three eras to play - the Mariners (local solar system to the asteroid belt), Planeteers (out to Pluto), and Starfarers (local star systems). The additional rules for the second and third eras are introduced in those eras, so you don't need to worry too much about what's coming in the next phase.\nIt all starts at Earth\nThe Mariner era allows players to get their start in the space exploration business.", "697" ], [ "Movement is initially slow and difficult, but astute and shrewd players will figure out how to build bases and get themselves out to the various regions to expand their empires.\nThe Planeteers era introduces progress cards that can be claimed through the use of genetics or revelations. Transportation distances are much greater (as one might expect) and it gets more difficult to get places, but the exploration options are interesting and fun.\nThe Starfarers era adds more progress cards and colonies. The distances are vast. The tech is pretty cool as it introduces multipliers for movement and research.\nThere are player aid cards that cover the majority of what you need, and refreshingly the board has the information you need so there is very little need to refer to the rule book once you get going.\nProgress cards - I set up both the planeteer and spacefarer cards at the same time, but the latter aren't available until that era of the game.\nThe Game Play\nThe game comes with two sets of rules - one for solo gamers (I haven't played this solo yet), and one for 2-4 players. Although the full game sees players progress through all three eras, the game allows for any combination to be played. You can play a short game with just the mariner era, allowing players to learn the rules. You can combine the mariners and planeteers for a shorter game, or you can start with the planeteer era and finish with interstellar fun.\nThis variable play allows for a lot of variety depending on how much time you have available, how many players, or simply personal preference.\nThe game's ebb and flow has a lot of dynamism too. With but one action per turn, it means you have to milk the most out of every turn, but at the same time, the game state when it comes around to you might make you choose to delay your plans.\nUltimately, you are trying to maximize your profits (in trillions of an unspecified currency), and although it is easy to get distracted by building a cool space empire, your focus is and should always be on advancing your profit token along.\nA nice touch is that when you move from one era to another, you get to carry forward one legacy discovery that you can continue to use in the next.\nProfits are generated by exploration and production, but not to be overlooked are the master contracts that also give you some profits. There is a different set of contracts in each era, but interestingly the ones that were not fulfilled in the prior era simply become more valuable as you add both the current and prior era values if you can get them done.\nOne particular quirk which will either be seen as feature or a nuisance is that each era has its own separate board. Once you complete the mariner era, you retain your corporate infrastructure, but all other cards from the era are discarded, and everything is removed from the board. You then put out the planeteer board and set up again.", "629" ], [ "Introduction\nAll summer they drove us back through the Ukraine\nSmolyensk and Viyasma soon fell\nBy autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel\nCloser and closer to Moscow they come - riding the wind like a bell\n- <PERSON>, Roads to Moscow\nFighting Formations: Grossdeutschland Infantry Division is the first game in a new series from GMT Games. Much like the Series: Musket & Pike Battle (GMT/Vae Victis), each game in the series will share core rules and the playbook will have specific game exclusive rules.\nThis inaugural game covers action on the eastern front in WWII between the Germans and the Soviets between 1942 and 1943.\nThis is a two player game designed by <PERSON> of Combat Commander: Europe fame (among other titles). Scenarios run the gamut from approximately 2-3 hours for smaller scenarios to a large double map scenario that could fill an entire weekend.\nComponents\nGMT has recently set some impressive standards in wargame publishing. Mounted map boards for single map games like Washington's War and high quality paper maps for multi-scenario games and expansions such as the recent Combat Commander expansion. Beautiful counters that are both functional and nice to look at.\nIn this respect GMT has delivered the goods again.\nThe box however is of the old school thin cardboard style that GMT has not used in a long time. A small quibble is that they used a standard 2\" box rather than the thicker 3\" box; this is a mild disappointment as there is a lot packed inside. Everything does fit into the 2\" box even using two counter trays, but you'll need to split the card decks to make it even along the top. If and when expansions come to this module of the series, it might not fit.\nThe smaller box shouldn't be seen as a deterrent however. There will be more games in the series and those linear feet of shelf space fill up awfully quickly with the larger boxes. I should know, my closets overflow with games.\nThe maps are very attractive and functional, although I found the colour contrast to be muted when compared here with the Combat Commander maps; as you can in the photo here, the Combat Commander terrain features are more easily seen than with the Fighting Formations maps.\nComparing the maps in Fighting Formations (left) to Combat Commander\nWhat's also abundantly clear here is that the Fighting Formations' maps are larger than your typical Combat Commander scenario.", "993" ], [ "The introductory scenario in Fighting Formations uses a half sheet map like Combat Commander, but the other scenarios are all on full and in some cases even double map sheets.\nThe maps are historical depictions of parts of the eastern front. The scenarios all come with a nice long historical background to give the sense of the events about to unfold on the board.\nAnd... for those who felt they were missing from Combat Commander, yes folks, Fighting Formation comes with tanks!\nYes, it comes with tanks!\nRules\nThe rules span two volumes: the core rules and the playbook. The rules are not short, covering some 24 pages and the 64 page playbook adds about another dozen pages of game specific rules and some optional rules. The rest of the playbook is devoted to the 10 scenarios, designer and historical notes, orders of battle, and a detailed example of play.\nThe index is included at the back of the playbook, which can be a nuisance when you're looking for something that is actually in the rulebook, especially anything to do with the sequence of play, but a quick photocopy of the index page is a quick and easy remedy. What's important is clarity and ease of finding information, which are a hallmark of <PERSON> games.\nEven newcomers to wargaming would have little trouble learning the game from the rules, and veteran Combat Commander players will find a lot of familiar terminology.\nVictory is determined by victory points, which can be earned one of three ways:\n- eliminating enemy units\n- controlling certain objectives\n- exiting friendly units off the map\nThe player with the most victory points when the scenario ends is the winner.\nGame Play\nFighting Formations is a classic hex and counter game in many ways. We have the standard hexes, tanks and artillery pieces with facing and fire arcs, movement modified by terrain, and counters chock full of information. There are even rules for vehicles moving in reverse.\nAn interesting and deliberate omission are any stacking rules (except for vehicles moving in column). One could theoretically place every single unit in the same hex. It would be extremely foolish to do so, but you can if you really want to.\nThe lifeblood of Fighting Formations is the order matrix shown above. In order to do anything, you must select a cube from the order matrix, and the value of the cube limits which orders you can execute.", "993" ], [ "Bitskrieg\nA game for 2 players by <PERSON> and <PERSON>\nPublished by Hollandspiele\n\"Two adults who want to play Bitskrieg should play with all the fixin's from the get go.\"\n<PERSON> first thing you might notice about Bitskrieg is that it shares an iconic look with a famous Avalon Hill game about tank warfare from 1970, a game that sold over 300,000 copies.\nHollandspiele, a small publisher that takes pride in not only having a modern retro chic to the art of its game covers also publishes what some might call quirky titles that have a specific niche.\n<PERSON> developed a introductory war game with his son, and the result is this charming title that should have a broad appeal to many.\nThe Game\nThe game is played on an 8x8 grid of squares, and the inner 6x6 grid has pairs of dice showing the coordinates of those squares. At the beginning, six obstacle spaces are randomly placed by rolling a pair of dice. Those obstacles block tank traffic and travel. Then one player selects which axis the board will be played on and the other chooses the end they want to have. Statistically, the most likely outcome is one side will have four obstacles in its half.\nEach side then places the five tanks it has chosen (from the available mix) and places them on the board (including a specific direction they're facing) and their two flags.\nA sample set up\nThe objective is to capture both your opponent's flags, although you can also win by eliminating all your opponent's units.\nOn your turn you take one of four actions - move (one tank), fire (one tank), flip (all finished tanks), or rebuild (replace one destroyed tank, max 2x per game).\nThat is it. Despite this simple action set, there is a lot to consider.", "597" ], [ "Do you want to move every tank you have before you reset them? Or flipping back early necessary to make sure you can shoot at a target that is in reach of your flag? Should you take a chance on shooting now when the range is so far away, or do something else this turn?\nA game in progress\nThere are several kinds of tanks (light, medium, heavy, and tank destroyers). There are optional rules to add elements to the game as needed or desired, including bounding fire (move and shoot), and different obstacle effects (in the base game, obstacles are simply impassable to both movement and fire).\nThe art of the game pieces remind me a lot of the MetaGaming Microgame , and the game play makes me think of classic games like that just aren't really around anymore.\nConclusions\nBack in 1913, <PERSON>, famous for his science fiction stories like War of the Worlds, released a set of game rules for , subtitled \"a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books.\"\nImagine you're wargamer and your kid wants to play too. And heck, you'd like nothing better than a handy opponent. Where can you turn? Well, fewer places than one might think.\nFor instance, take my daughter, who took great delight in smashing me at Ogre when it first arrived in the house (and she now plays Gloomhaven, among many others).\nBut had <PERSON> been around when she was little, well, this would have been an obvious game to turn to.\nIf you have a younger kid in your life (niece, nephew, daughter, son, kid of a friend), and you like this kind of game and want something they can play too, I can heartily recommend this title.\nThank you for reading this latest installment of Roger's Reviews. I've been an avid board gamer all my life and a wargamer for over thirty years. I have a strong preference for well designed games that allow players to focus on trying to make good decisions.\nAmong my favourites I include , the , , , , and .\nYou can subscribe to my reviews at this geeklist: and I also encourage you to purchase this very stylish microbadge:", "118" ], [ "Sun of York\nA game for 2 players designed by <PERSON>, and published by GMT Games\n“Now is the winter of our discontent\nMade glorious summer by this son of <PERSON>;\nAnd all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house\nIn the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”\n― Richard The Third Act 1, scene 1, 1–4\nIntroduction\nThere was a time where collectible card games were a hot new thing. Magic the Gathering is still the complete king, nay, emperor, of that domain, but it also spawned not a few card games the include either a deck building or deck construction mechanic.\nI played a few of them. I tried and actually liked from Columbia, but as the ACW isn't a subject of great interest to me, it kind of came and went.\nI've always liked the idea of a card based wargame without a map having the forces and terrain deployed on a table top, and then resolving the action through the play of cards. There are lots of games in this general category. There's two series by Columbia, the aforementioned Dixie and their . can arguably be included. despite not being a card game has a similar idea of an abstracted terrain.\nSo how does the idea of an abstracted card version of the War of the Roses translate into game play? Let's find out.\nComponents, Rules, and Gameplay\nThe game comes with two deck of cards, one for the Lancastrians and one for the Yorkists.\nIt also comes with some dice, counters for marking specific kinds of information, the rules, and a pair of player aid cards.\nThe cards are nicely done and the information on them is nice and clear and easy to read.\nThe game includes 20 (!!) scenarios and a set of campaign rules for those who want to keep track of their progress (or lack thereof). There is also a nice simple rule for playing random scenarios.\nThe players set themselves up with a virtual field of play that has a left and right flank, and in the centre are three rows battle zones split into left, centre, and right.\nThis lovely custom playing mat from <PERSON> showcases it nicely:\nEach turn is split into four phases: morale checks, combat, movement, and a discard phase. To win the game, you need to capture the centre rear space of your opponent, or both the left and right rear positions.\nThe initial deployment has each player take out the leader and terrain cards specified from the scenario and into the spaces they're assigned to, and then draws 16 more cards from their remaining deck to be deployed as they see fit.", "92" ], [ "You then flip it all face up and have at it.\nThe rules are relatively straightforward and everything you need to know about moving, engaging, fighting, and flanking are all easily found and explained in the rulebook.\nConclusions\nSun of York was a game I really wanted to like, but ultimately it left me unsatisfied. The fault likes not with the game itself, but rather my likes and desires in a game. As I stated in the introduction, I like the idea of an abstracted card game of a battle, but the reality is that I really want to have a map with units and terrain.\nThe deck contains a random mix of units, terrain, and leaders. There are some special event cards that you can play as well. This means that no two scenarios will be alike, yes, but also means that you can get completely ahistorical results.\nI may be overly picky on this point. I'm no scholar of the War of the Roses, and I'm not going to be able to point expertly at how the way combat is resolved in this game is a poor simulation of how archers behaved in this era. However, I don't get a strong sense of time and place with this game, and I could just as easily be playing a generic card game with soldiers and archers and leaders.\nIt's clear then that my preference for having a map and units to help me conceptualize what's going on in front of me. And that's no indictment of Sun of York, it just doesn't make it a game for me.\nIf you like card games like this, and you like this era, it's a solid entry in the genre.\nThank you for reading this latest installment of Roger's Reviews. I've been an avid board gamer all my life and a wargamer for over thirty years. I have a strong preference for well designed games that allow players to focus on trying to make good decisions.\nAmong my favorites I include , the , the , , , , , and\nYou can subscribe to my reviews at this geeklist: and I also encourage you to purchase this very stylish microbadge:", "993" ], [ "Moonbase Alpha\nA game for 2 players designed by <PERSON>\n\"If you're gonna die, you might as well die on Alpha.\" Commander <PERSON>, Space: 1999\nIntroduction\nI grew up in the era of Star Trek in syndicated re-runs, the real Star Trek, with <PERSON> and <PERSON> and company, Space:1999, the original and oh so cheesy Battlestar Galactica, and the occasional episode of <PERSON>. I also saw the original Star Wars on the big screen, and a host of other sci-fi too. These were also the halcyon days of Metagaming and their Microgame series, which produced such classic titles as Ogre and G.E.V.\nThose original Microgames are ones I remember with a lot of nostalgic fondness as they were all interesting but perhaps most importantly, fun! This brings me to good old Victory Point Games. I love them, I really do. They produce games that have interesting ideas or themes in them, and I love the core philosophy that they're willing to put out interesting games.\nMoonbase Alpha is a small wargame set in a not too distant alternate future pitting two mining companies, Mond Bergbau and Luna Mining Corp, against one another in the harsh environment of the moon. Of course, in space, nobody can hear you scream, so the disputes over lunar stake claims are easily resolved through the use of private security forces, but the media may report on your failings on the lunar surface and drive down your stock price.\nWait a minute! Your stock price? Yes! Your stock price! For what gives Moonbase Alpha its beautiful and clever twist that you, as the CEO of one of our two lunar mining conglomerates, care about your options package, and so the victory conditions of the game revolve around getting your stock price to €1.600 before your rival does.\nComponents\nI bought the Gold Banner edition of Moonbase Alpha which comes in a box, with a laser cut mounted board that comes in a five piece puzzle board showing the lunar surface divided into areas. The game is also available in ziploc format that comes with a paper map (included in the boxed edition). Either edition comes with the thick laser cut counters. Also included is a deck of technology cards, and in the boxed edition, four high quality medium sized six sided dice.\nI have always appreciated the games produced by VPG for their interesting topics and fun game play.", "92" ], [ "Although the production values once spoke to their print-on-demand nature (never forgetting that their raison d'être is to be a games idea incubator and training ground, with an expectation and attendant philosophy that a game that only sold a couple hundred copies ever is perfect ok), the new Gold Banner standard components are of excellent quality.\nThe lunar surface provides a lovely high contrast backdrop for the counters.\nThe lunar surface isn't very exciting, being mostly shades of grey, but it produces a lovely and good contrast backdrop for the green and orange counters. The colours and artwork for the cards and counters are modern retro, by which I mean they are what one might have expected to see in those heady science fiction TV days of my youth, but with the three intervening decades of experience in graphic design and all the advantages that brings along being used. As a result, we have something that visually looks and feels like a pastiche of those bold shows from the past, but thoroughly modern in readability and usability.\nRules & Game Play\nMoonbase Alpha has as its core premise the idea that two mining companies on the moon are fighting it out, both literally and figuratively, for access to the best mining and resource sites on the lunar surface. There are three aspects of the game play that need to be paid attention to: the stock price of both companies; the lawsuit being fought back on earth; and the actual fighting on the moon. The rules for the game resonate strongly with the theme, and are not only well written and clear but also include plenty of examples. The start player is the last person to have walked on the moon, and from that statement alone you can infer just how fun the rest of this game is!\nThe players start in opposite corners of the board and have the same set of counters to begin - one media unit and three military units. In addition, each players is dealt five cards from the technology deck, which represents the R&D departments of either company. The rest of the cards are unused and set aside for the rest of the game.\nThe intervening spaces on the board are divided up into areas and movement can take place across area borders. Spaces with a mountain icon are cratered areas that cost extra movement to enter, and those with pickaxes are mining sites, and the little flasks represent areas of scientific interest. Areas are controlled individually by the side that has the largest number of units in it.", "336" ], [ "1989: Dawn of Freedom\nA game for 2 players designed by <PERSON> (and <PERSON>)\n\"What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.\"\n<PERSON>, The End of History\nIntroduction\nHello and welcome to the latest edition of Roger's Reviews. I've been playing board games since I was a wee lad and wargames for over thirty years.\n1989: Dawn of Freedom follows in the footsteps, both literally and figuratively of the best selling game from GMT, Twilight Struggle. 1989 covers the events of that tumultuous year as the people of Eastern Europe and the Balkans shook off the shackles of their Communist regimes, with the most visually compelling one being the fall of the Berlin wall, symbol of the Iron Curtain since its erection in 1961.\n<PERSON> berlin 1989\nPlay\nI was a play tester for this game (I'm even listed in the credits at the back of the rule book) through the wargameroom.com league and have watched the evolution of this game from an early inception to this gorgeous new GMT release. I have also previously reviewed a print and play edition of this game (cf. ).\nPhotos in this review are used with the kind permission from <PERSON> (psicoserra).\nComponents\nGMT has outdone itself with this game, with one of the nicest game boards I've had the pleasure of playing on.\nThe colour contrasts for the different countries are clear and clean, the scoring track harkens back to the original Twilight Struggle with the +/- values on the track, the graphics are easy to see and read, and all the symbols are listed in the legend on the board. There are even spaces on the board for some of the key events, and the event tokens themselves are in full colour with artwork to easily distinguish them from one another.\nThere are two decks of cards in the game: the 110 card event deck split into the early, mid, and late war, and the 52 card power struggle deck for resolving scoring phases in the game. Counters are thick die cut counters with a nice heft and feel, with very clear easy to read large numbers. I might have to get a second set to use with my Twilight Struggle game. Yes, they're that nice.\nSomeone went to a lot of effort with the graphic design on this game, and it really shows. The event deck cards are easily sorted by early, mid, and late year by the colour stripe across the top, and the stars tell you whether it's a Communist, Democrat, or rare neutral event.", "92" ], [ "However, in the power struggle cards, while they are suited, in one of those \"that seems obvious in hindsight\" moments, I feel it would have been really helpful to put the elite, church, and worker symbols on the leader cards. Once you've played the game a few times it's easy to remember that you need to control the church space to use the church leader card, but with everything else so nicely designed with icons, it seems an unfortunate omission.\nDid I mention the gorgeous board? Stunning. Really.\nRules & Game Play\nAlthough there are some differences in the final rules, I will refer readers to my old review for the core mechanics and focus on the game play in the GMT edition. As a veteran Twilight Struggle player, I will also comment on some of the core differences between the two games; comparisons between the two are inevitable.\n1989 follows the basic premise of the Twilight Struggle game engine. We have a shared deck split between the early, mid, and late year. You can use cards either for operations or events, opponent events in your hand will trigger when you play them, and events with an asterisk on them are removed from the game.\nRelative to Twilight Struggle, events in this game are rather more dramatic in effect. For one example, The Legacy of 1968 allows the democrat player to put 1 support point into each and every space in Czechoslovakia that is not communist controlled. There are also more linked events in this game, such as the Sajudis + The Baltic Way + Breakaway Baltic Republics chain that has to be played in order.\nAdding to the interesting tension in the game, of the 110 event cards, 90 of them (82%) are starred events, meaning they leave the game when played. In Twilight Struggle that ratio is much closer to half. There are 44 communist events, 14 neutral events usable by either, and 42 democrat events. You spend your events at your peril, but it's even more harrowing to play a 2 ops card that lets your opponent remove 4 of your support points from the board!\nThe direct consequence of this is that hand management is incredibly fraught with peril.", "597" ], [ "Die Macher\nA game for 3-5 players designed by <PERSON>\nIntroduction\n\"Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.\"\n<PERSON> The Devil's Dictionary\nDie Macher is a 3-5 player game pitting different political parties against one another in an attempt to win seats in German elections. Originally released in 1986 by Hans im Glück as a 4 player game with only West German states, it was re-issued in 1997 by Moskito Games. In 2006, Valley Games published a reprint.\nThis year marks the 25th anniversary of this simply brilliant election game.\nNote: this review is based on the 1997 Moskito edition, which in my opinion is the nicest of the three. I've owned the first edition and played the Valley Games edition.\nComponents\nThe game comes in a nice large box and contains six boards, four of which are election board, one is the national board, and one is a handy holding area for the various decks of cards and bits.\nThe decks of cards in the game are for the various states being contested, party and regional issues, and opinion polls. There are also some counters\nEach player gets a set of cubes and wood markers representing meeting markers, status markers, and media cubes. In addition, they get one set of seven shadow cabinet cards, five party donation cards, and coalition and party markers.\nThe game in progress.\nRules and Game Play\nEach player takes on the role of one of the major German parties: the CDU (Christian Democrats); FDP (Free Democrats); Green; SPD (Social Democrats); and PDS (the Socialist Left).\nDie Macher is a procedural game. By this I mean that the game follows a strict sequence of events, and every player will perform each of the steps in player order. There are seven elections to be contested through the course of the game, but the final one is resolved immediately after the sixth one meaning that in reality that this game last six complete rounds.\nThe Set Up\nAs noted above, one board is to hold all the cards used in common, and another is the national board showing party membership levels, the issues of national interest, and a placeholder for media cubes for those who've won elections.\nThe main playing area is a propeller of four identical boards showing four elections to be contested. At the start of the game, the first four states are drawn randomly and each player begins with one meeting marker in each of the four states to be contested and their polling trend set to the centre space (0). Each board represents one state to be contested (drawn randomly) and then platform issues are dealt out to each state.", "597" ], [ "The current state has all four face up, the next state three of four face up, then two, then one. This allows for some pre-planning, but also for surprises to pop up. Duplicates and opposites are not allowed, and in those cases the cards are put face up on the board for use later.\nThe largest state with 80 seats. The next largest has 60, and the smallest state has only 15. As each game will have a random set of states, no two games will be the same.\nEveryone gets their 5 media cubes, 5 party donation cards, 7 shadow cabinet cards, their supply of meeting markers, and €25.000 to start the game.\nEach party then has two choices to make for their set up. One determines some level of starting influence (column 1) and the other determines starting media influence and party membership (column 2).\nThe planning starts immediately.\nIn column one you're choosing a combination of popular trend (the thumbs up), votes (the X symbol), or meeting markers (the balloon). You need to write the name of the state (or the number of the election if you can't read the German names) in the space next to each selection.\nIn column two you're choosing a combination of media markers and party members. Party members aren't tied to any particular state.\nEveryone makes their choice in secret and reveals and resolves together. Then you're all set to go.\nThe winner of the game is the player who earns the most victory points, which can be gained in the following ways:\n- seats won in each election\n- winning the hearts and minds of the people (party membership)\n- national media attention (placement of media cubes)\n- matching your party platform to the national interest\nThe following is simply a summary of how the turn proceeds and is not intended to be a rules rehash. However, because of the interdependence of actions, I have highlighted the important aspects of each phase.\nEach round is broken into the following phases:\n1. Bid for choose the starting player: Player order will be important throughout the game. If you're first, that confers advantages in some phases but disadvantages in others.", "597" ] ]

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[ [ "North Macedonia’s <PERSON>, the prime minister who ‘has done the most to serve his country’ · Global Voices\n<PERSON> leaving the official building of the government of the Republic of North Macedonia. Photo by Government of Republic of North Macedonia, Public Domain.\nAfter having announced his decision on October 31, <PERSON> submitted his resignation as North Macedonia’s prime minister on December 22, thus triggering the constitutional procedures for the resignation of the prime minister and government, and assignment of the mandate to form a new government. A day later, the parliament confirmed his resignation at a plenary session.\nIn the text of his resignation published on the government website, <PERSON> noted he undertook this “logical step” as a way to “accept responsibility” for his party's poor results at the local elections in October. He also resigned as leader of the ruling party, announcing his retirement from politics. After <PERSON>'s resignation, President <PERSON> gave the mandate to the new representative of the established parliamentary majority to form a government.\nWhile we are looking at the constitutional procedures and assessing the leadership of <PERSON>, it is worthwhile mentioning that he is the first prime minister in the history of North Macedonia to resign while his party was still in power (Actually, <PERSON>, another Social Democrat, resigned as party leader and prime minister in 2004, but this was to allow him to seek election as president of the country.)\n<PERSON> was a very interesting politician and one who had attracted the public eye. He was first elected as party leader eight years ago as a part of a team. He was the candidate for leader, while the current minister of defense, <PERSON>, was the candidate to be his deputy. The duo led the party during the political crisis of the wiretapping revelations, the negotiations of the Przhino Accords and the early parliamentary elections in 2016. <PERSON>'s election promises were to restore democracy and freedom, bring the country into NATO and the EU, and improve the quality of life of its people.\n<PERSON> and his VMRO-DPMNE had a strong hold on the government and institutions; it was an authoritarian regime that the European Commission described as a captured state.", "363" ], [ "For every citizen who had lived a day in such fear, or the nearly 20,000 whose phones were wiretapped, bringing back democracy and freedom was of utmost importance. On this, his primary promise to make North Macedonia more democratic and freer, he delivered the most.\nAfter it became clear, in January 2017, that <PERSON> was unable to form a government, his party orchestrated persecution against civil society and activists, with a long list for “execution” containing up to 170 most prominent political and civic leaders and opinion-makers. He disallowed any transfer of power and supported the storming of parliament on April 27, 2017. The angry mob attacked and beat scores of people, effectively making <PERSON> pay with his own blood to be elected as prime minister.\nHaving witnessed how <PERSON> used ethnic tensions to raise the fear of ethnic Macedonians, <PERSON> realized that this fear could only be decreased with further unification in society and if the country’s safety and security were guaranteed. The best guarantee for that was unification under the same goals as NATO and EU Accession, and genuine inter-ethnic integration, which led to the new government policy of “One Society for All.” He further supported this by speaking to all citizens and ethnic groups, presenting candidates for mayors in traditionally Albanian municipalities, while promoting politicians, Social Democrats, representing minority ethnic groups to high posts in the party and in the government. It was in many aspects a pioneering approach for North Macedonia and showed <PERSON>'s ability to see the bigger picture.\nHis political instinct as opposition leader to establish friendships and build alliances was successfully transformed into a vision to which he dedicated his first three years as prime minister, resolving the open issues of the country. It was lucky for him that this vision was met halfway by former Greek Prime Minister <PERSON>. The Prespa Accord was an effective resolution of the name issue with Greece, but it was also the foundation for North Macedonia to accede to NATO and fulfill one of its national priorities almost three decades after its independence.\n<PERSON>'s first attempt at friendship building was with Bulgaria and produced the treaty on friendship, good neighborliness and cooperation, which he signed with his Bulgarian counterpart <PERSON> on August 1, 2017. The Friendship Agreement speeded up the strengthening of bilateral relations in the period from the signing of the agreement until mid-2019 and facilitated trade, but it has yet to bear fruit, as Bulgaria is currently blocking the EU Accession of North Macedonia.\nOne final attempt at friendship building was tied to his faith and religious background.", "409" ], [ "Macedonia: Veles Says “No” to Lead Poisoning, Government Remains Ambiguous · Global Voices\nAfter the massive protest against restarting of the lead smelting factory in the city of Veles, the citizens feel cheated by the declarative support shown by the politicians from the ruling parties, and demand clear answers from PM <PERSON> on whether the poisoning will continue.\nThe protests announced in the previous Global Voices article took place on November 9, 2011. Estimates of the number of the protest participants range from 10,000 to over 15,000 [hr], a huge turnout for this community of less than 44,000 inhabitants.\n<PERSON> and <PERSON> published Creative Commons-licensed photo galleries from the event:\nProtest march through Veles streets. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY).\nPeople gathering on Veles square. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY-NC-SA).\nTwitter tags #Veles or #Велес are still in use, and the seasoned local blogger <PERSON> provided comprehensive coverage of the protest:\n…the families, school children and elders joined forces. Being there I saw people from all backgrounds – the non-governmental sector, doctors, blue collar workers, politicians including former and current mayors and members of the parliement and local council, mothers and daughters, from all ranges of age, social and ethnic background. They protested in unison, NO RESTART! for the smelting factory.\nI was never good at guessing numbers, but the group of NGO's called “Green coalition” have managed to gather more participants than any party on a political rally even when they want to boast with numbers carrying people from other cities to enrich the scenery. Some guesses were in the range of 10.000 participants.\nThe organization was quite good, the people were loud but very polite, the whole process finished without any recorded incident.", "363" ], [ "The protest was lead by an excavator, symbolic image of the vision of the citizens – to dig up the old shadow factory and plant the perimeter with trees in order to decontaminate the land from cancerogens and active chemicals that modify the DNA of the unborn children.\nThe message was clear and far-reaching – NO MORE POISONING! Now, the state should show its support for the locals not only by speeches and through columnists, but by clear actions. And the solution is simple – rejecting the application of the investor to restart the factory – which everyone is sure that must be done based on strict following of the environmental legislation. Even the investor has admitted that they will pollute in their environmental impact study submitted to the Ministry of environment of Republic of Macedonia (image of the table follows, and remember the fact – the author of this document is the investor itself):\nTable on environmental impact from the study with added explanations in English.\nAfter this night – it should be clear to all, whoever tries to do more harm to the citizens of Veles will be punished severely.\nA short documentary about the protest [mk] is available on YouTube:\nAnd while the area's politicians and religious leaders turned out in force for the photo-op, they expressed declarative and noncommittal support for the <PERSON>’ cause. However, not all protest supporters received media attention, and were not credited at the event.\n<PERSON>, the executive director of the Foundation Open Society Institute, wrote [mk] on his Facebook profile:\nYes, members of GEM (Citizens for European Macedonia) were at the protest. And the <PERSON>’ foundation supported the NGOs that organized it by supplying funds for 2,000 vests. Just like it supported them in the long bygone year of 2003 with a USD 6,100 grant for the first analysis that proved presence of the toxic materials in the hair of 80 local children.\n<PERSON>, one of the organizers, added a comment:\nA reason for this is that road to the truth around the environmental exodus started with FOSM support at the point when the smelter was a taboo topic!\n<PERSON> concluded:\nAnd now some people want to use the protest to build their careers.\nGEM activists in the crowd during the <PERSON> protest. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY-NC-SA).\nSeveral Twitter users shared a screen capture of a statement [mk] by former Mayor, <PERSON>, published on his Facebook profile [mk]:\nCitizens of Veles expressed their position against restarting of the smelting factory with dignity. But statements of the representatives of the Ministry of the Environment indicate that the appeal has not been taken seriously.\nSelf-censorship of the speakers at the protest and pointing fingers at <PERSON> only did not produce the expected results.\nThe goal is clear: Veles without a smelter.", "363" ], [ "Macedonian Crisis Deepens as Protests Increase in Number and Intensity · Global Voices\nProtesters holding mirrors to policemen blocking their way on April 23. Photo by Meta.mk News Agency, used with permission.\nThe political crisis in Macedonia continues to deepen, affecting the country’s international relations as a plethora of protests proliferate across the tiny Balkan state complementing the more general #ColorfulRevolution protest movement.\nAccording to the report by OSCE Election Observation Mission, published April 22, the political climate in the country began to sharply deteriorate after April 12, when President <PERSON> pardoned all those charged, under investigation and suspected in a wiretapping scandal targeting members of the country's opposition.\nOSCE is not the only institution flagging danger in Macedonia. Both the U.S.", "363" ], [ "State Department and the EU called on <PERSON> to reverse his pardon.\nIn a recent interview with 24Vesti, the EU Parliament mediator for Macedonia <PERSON> expressed his concern for the country’s welfare if Brussels’ recommendation is ignored by the government in Skopje.\n<PERSON>, along with fellow Members of the European Parliament <PERSON> and <PERSON>, as well as Enlargement Commissioner <PERSON> released an April 22 statement saying that the government could face sanctions if it continues its authoritarian course.\nAs part of the trust-building measures sanctioned by the Pržino Agreement — a political compromise reached with Western mediation last summer — the Macedonian parliament appointed representatives of the opposition at the heads of two key ministries: interior and social policy.\nBut the new Minister of Interior, <PERSON>, has warned ruling party apparatchiks within the ministry have staged “a coup” and that his subordinates are refusing to heed orders, answering only to the VMRO-DPMNE faction's leadership.\nMeanwhile, on the streets…\nOn April 22, three different protests took place in Skopje, all independent of each other, pointing to a boiling political mood.\nIn the morning medical students demonstrated under the slogan “We are not lab rats!” as part of a protest against the changes in the Law on Medical Studies, which they claim diminishes the quality of education they receive.\nThe Minister of Health’s office received representatives of the protesters and told them that no change can be made to legislation while the parliament is not working.\nThe students say their protest is not connected to the general protest movement sweeping the country.\nIn the afternoon of the same day, opposition ethnic Albanian political parties held their own an anti-government protest.\nThis protest complements the Colourful Revolution protests, demanding an end to government corruption, but with a distinct focus on the grievances of ethnic Albanians.\nTheir slogans — emphasising fabricated court cases against ethnic Albania and targeting the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party –evoked memories of the militant Albanian National Liberation Army, famous for its bitter conflict with Macedonia's security services that peaked in 2001.\nQuite a number of ethnic Albanians, have also been at the forefront of other civil protests within the movement #protestiram (#протестирам) AKA the #ColorfulRevolution (#ШаренаРеволуција)\nThe main event\nThese bigger ‘Colorful Revolution’ protests continue to gain momentum. Every day at 6 pm thousands of people continue to gather in front of the Special Public Prosecutors’ Office, and then march the streets passing various institutions.\nMore join along the way, especially at points where police block the procession.\nAll of these protests are non-violent, although an overwhelming police presence — especially when ethnic Albanian opposition parties were on the march — has helped kindle tensions.\nColorful Revolution protesters place stickers with hearts on riot police shields upon close encounters. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY-NC-SA.\nArtistic license\nOn Friday evening the ‘Colorful’ protest showed that no government building or monument will be spared by the “artists” of the Colorful Revolution.\nProtesters seem to agree with OSCE’s take on the deterioration of media, and chucked paint all over the new Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services building on April 22 in a symbolic act of resistance.\nDemonstrators chanted: “This used to be a park” while redecorating the facade, condemning both the government’s illegal construction of buildings on public land and the hypocrisy of media legislation.\nОва беше парк #протестирам pic.twitter.", "409" ], [ "Macedonia: TEDxSkopje Attracts Attention Online · Global Voices\nParticipants who spoke after it, consider the first TEDx event in Macedonia a great success. The one-day conference organized independently under license from American nonprofit TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) enabled widening the range of publicly discussed topics and inspiring at least one hundred participants to work on positive change.\nAs IT.com.mk reported [MKD]:\nThe first “idea sharing” is over. You could follow the TEDxSkopje conference via live video stream, or read about it on Facebook or Twitter. In case you missed them, the videos will be published on the TEDxSkopje website.\nThe conference was quite successful. The realization was excellent, minus small technical glitches which were quickly solved. The selection of the speakers was interesting, with various topics composed into two segments. The first part focused more on technology, while the second part focused on education, motivation and inspiration for creation.\nThe live video stream had almost a thousand viewers from all over the world, mostly from Macedonia, curiously followed by France and the U.S.A.\nThe rules of the event prohibited photographing and recording, except by designated official photographers. One of them, <PERSON>, posted a short video about the event.\nAs previously reported by GVO, a controversy arose online after some of the would-be participants did not receive confirmations of their applications. Much of the tension was defused thanks to the willingness of the volunteers who served on the organization committee to openly discuss the issues with the public through a group interview [MKD] conducted via the aggregator Ping.mk.\nAfter the event, the online discussions did not die, with praises from the participants broadcast via Twitter and on the Facebook profile, and some ‘ok, we got it, get off your high horse’ comments by others [MKD]. In a funny twist, one of the most persistent interlocutors during the preparation phase, <PERSON>, even ‘received’ a photo comics [MKD] in which <PERSON> and <PERSON> ask each other whether they attended the event, and conclude that at least they've heard he, <PERSON>, did.\nOn a more serious note, <PERSON>, one of the volunteer organizers, wrote [MKD] on his blog about the discrepancy between the online interest for TEDxSkopje and another project he takes part in – creation of the National Free/Libre and Open Source Software Policy [MKD] through inclusive, citizen-centric process:\nTEDxSkopje and the National FLOSS Policy can't be more different.\nThe first is a private initiative, mainly supported by private entities (except the Youth Cultural Center).", "363" ], [ "It is not exclusive, there can be others like it. It is not very relevant in the wider context of Macedonian society – besides the idea that TED-style presentations can raise the level of public debate, there's not much to it. Still TEDxSkopje has been almost entirely and constantly under the watchful eye of the (Internet) public […]…\nThe second is a public initiative, includes the Ministry of Information Society, Metamorphosis Foundation and Free Software Macedonia as implementers, as well as all stakeholders from universities and the business sector. Making such text is one-off thing. There will be no second version next year. If adopted, it will be a very important contribution to building the information society, especially regarding the transparency of ICT policies of state bodies, and their communication with all of us. The Policy can help shaping the future ICT development in this country and, if successful, it would be a great topic for some future TEDx talk. However, it remains below the radar of the online public (even though they were invited to join a number of times).\nTo this, add the fact that the people determined to post about all TEDxSkopje missteps are educated enough to contribute to the National FLOSS Policy, and you'll realize why I write this.\nBut, since I am an economist, I will remind you that people are selfish. “One's own benefit above all” – and it seems that many people think TEDxSkopje has something to do with their own benefit.\nFinally, as a TEDxSkopje organizer, I can say that in spite of all that traversed, I feel flattered. But as someone who will need to submit an annual balance-sheet to the Central Register, I feel obligated to remind you that the chance to push standards and openness in e-whatever with the state is still open to all of you.", "363" ], [ "Serbian nationalists want to build an extravagant Triumphal Arch in a Belgrade park · Global Voices\nThe Triumphal Arc in Skopje, North Macedonia, in December 2019. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY.\nThe nationalist political party Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), a member of the ruling coalition in Serbia, is pushing for the construction of a massive Triumphal Arch in the center of Belgrade to commemorate military victories achieved in the Balkan Wars and the First World War. The arch would be flanked by statues of King <PERSON> and King <PERSON> of Serbia.\nSerbia's ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), lead by President <PERSON>, has launched other controversial (and costly) urban projects since it came to power in 2012. Those including the Belgrade Waterfront, a musical fountain, a giant flag pole, and a cable-car in the Belgrade Fortress — the latter has been recently put on pause by a court ruling.\nThe SNS enjoys the support of the SPO, a small right-wing party that used to be influential in the 1990s — it even had its own paramilitary wing, the Serbian Guard — but that has since shrunk in size and importance. Writing for Serbian newspaper Danas, political analyst <PERSON> said that the Triumphal Arch proposal was “a way for them to show they still exist.”\nThe SPO proposal, put forward in the Belgrade City Assembly on December 6 without a cost estimate or a funding plan, drew comparisons with similar architectural shenanigans by authoritarian regimes in the Balkans.\nIn neighboring North Macedonia, the “Skopje 2014” project erected over 130 neoclassical structures — among them monuments, statues, government buildings, and museums — in the capital to the cost of at least 763 million USD between 2010 and 2014.", "739" ], [ "The single most expensive structure was a Triumphal Arc called Porta Macedonia, which came to over 7 million dollars. The entire initiative was marred by corruption benefiting cronies of <PERSON> VMRO-DPNME party, who ruled North Macedonia from 2006 to 2017.\nBoth SNS and VMRO-DPNME are members of the conservative European People's Party and have cultivated a strong bilateral cooperation at that time when VMRO was in power in North Macedonia. The two populist regimes have often been implicated in backsliding of democracy and degradation of human rights standards in their respective countries.\nA 2011 cartoon picturing <PERSON>, former Macedonian PM who built a Triumphal Arc in Skopje. Cartoon by <PERSON> AKA Dar-Mar, via Citizens for European Macedonia. Used with permission.\nIn a statement, the SPO argues that Serbia needs such “monumental memorial” in order to “remind us of the glorious moments of our history, inspiring present and future generations to love and defend their homeland.” Party Vice President <PERSON> said:\nПредлажемо да Тријумфална капија буде подигнута у некадашњем Краљевом, данас Пионирском парку између здања Скупштине Србије и Новог двора, односно садашњег Председништва.", "260" ], [ "What changed for the Macedonian people after the country changed its name to Republic of North Macedonia · Global Voices\nThe ceremony of raising the NATO flag in front of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia on February 12, 2019. In the background: The old name of the institution was removed from the facade a day before. Photo by the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, public domain.\nOn January 11, 2019, the parliament of North Macedonia approved the constitutional amendments that changed the country's name to Republic of North Macedonia, at last ending a 27-year-old dispute with Greece, which has its own region called Macedonia.\nThe amendment enshrined in national law the UN-brokered Prespa Agreement, signed in June 2018 between Greece's Prime Minister <PERSON> and his Macedonian counterpart <PERSON>. They were both nominated to this year's Nobel Peace Prize for ending one of the oldest active ‘cold’ conflicts in Europe.\nThe change was a crucial step on the Republic of North Macedonia's path towards joining the European Union and NATO, as that had been vetoed beforehand by Greece because of the name issue.\nHowever, that didn't just transform the Balkan country's international relations: it also introduced many changes that affect the everyday lives of its people.\nThe names of government bodies, websites, road signs, and inscriptions on public buildings have either been replaced, or are slated to be replaced, since the new name became official on February 12.\nSymbolically, the road sign on the Greek border was the first to be amended with the new name. Some others will incur in significant costs and are still pending. That includes the plaque on the government's main building.", "739" ], [ "The original sign, with the words “Government of Republic of Macedonia,” was removed on February 11 and a new one hasn't yet arrived.\nFor citizens on both sides of the border, one benefit of improved neighborly relations is the reinstatement of a flight connection between Skopje and Athens after more than ten years. The flight began on November 1, 2018.\nBefore: On February 10, the government seat's building displayed the words “Government of Republic of Macedonia,” in Macedonian Cyrillic. They were removed the next day to be replaced with the new constitutional name of the country. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY\nChange of personal documents and car stickers\nThe Prespa Agreement stipulates that the personal documents of the citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia will be changed over the next five years.\nDocuments such as passports, ID cards, or car license plates, will be valid over this period, and replacement will be gradual. Citizens whose documents bearing the old name expire before that deadline will get new ones, with the new name, whenever they renew them.\nMeanwhile, the police officers on all border crossings started adding a stamp onto Macedonian passports that says: “This passport is the property of Republic of North Macedonia.” This is a temporary measure while passports with the old name are still valid.\nNorth Macedonia's codes for license plates will also change from MK to NM or NMK, and border authorities have started putting “NMK” stickers on plates over the old MK field.\nOne concession made by the Prespa agreement is the country's code for purposes other than license plates, like the top level internet domain, which will remain MK and MKD, as officially assigned by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).\nThe inside front cover of a Macedonian passport with a stamp designating the new name of the country in three languages (Macedonian, English, and French). Underneath it, a now-obsolete sheet that Greek authorities used to stamp entry and exit of Macedonian visitors in place of their passports. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY\nChanges in Greece\nGreece has also introduced a few changes since the agreement's signature, including recognizing North Macedonia's passports.\nUntil February 2019, Macedonian visitors in Greece had to fill in a separate piece of paper in Greek and English which served as a kind of surrogate passport — a document that border police would stamp so that they didn't have to deal with passports bearing the name “Republic of Macedonia.” While on Greek soil, travelers had to keep that piece of paper with them at all times.\nSince the Prespa agreement, Greek authorities have also stopped putting stickers on the cars of Macedonian citizens entering Greece that read, in Greek and English, that the country was “recognized by Greece as FYROM.” The acronym stands for “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,” which was how the UN referred to North Macedonia since the 1990s while a solution to the dispute was pending.\nIn 2012, this was considered a humiliating provocation by Macedonian authorities, as well as by Macedonian tourists visiting Greece who saw it as unnecessary political harassment while they put money into the Greek economy.\nNothing changed for the Greek citizens traveling to North Macedonia.", "363" ], [ "Activists in Macedonia win fight for clean water despite years of dismissal by former government · Global Voices\nPromotional event for the mock brand of mineral water “Arsena, the water enriched with arsenic, directly from the taps of Gevgelija” in Skopje on February 17, 2014. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY-NC-SA.\nIn a big victory for grassroots activism in Macedonia, a new water supply system was built in the southern municipality of Gevgelija, after years of struggle by local activists who kept warning their drinking water is poisoned with arsenic.\nOn November 7, 2018, the authorities opened a new water supply facility that gathers water from three new wells and contains a purification unit and pipelines. The system will provide drinking water for the 19,500 inhabitants in the surrounding areas, local news site Gevgelijanet.com reported.\nThe facility, which cost 1.7 million euros (1.9 million US dollars), finally solves the problem of toxic arsenic seeping into the drinking water. The pollution began 15 years ago after an earthquake put arsenic-rich rocks in contact with the water table.\nThis development vindicated “Arsena” — a group of local activists that had been trying to warn the public about the water's toxicity for several years. Pegged as troublemakers by the right-wing populist regime that ruled Macedonia from 2006 to 2017, the activists suffered persecution as a result of their efforts.\nEven though the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Macedonia determined in 2012 that the water was dangerously toxic, the political authorities refused to admit that there was any problem with the water supply. The populist party VMRO-DPMNE, that was in power at the time, prioritized maintaining a perception that the country is prospering under their rule to actually solving issues that affect the quality of life, like air and water pollution. Therefore, both the municipality and the state government maintained that everything was okay and that those who claimed otherwise were just pawns of the opposition.\nArsena conducted additional analyses of the tap water in several different labs in 2014 and attempted to publish the results. The government reacted by treating them as pariahs and subjected them to various forms of harassment over the years — including smear campaigns and malicious inspections intended to block their work. Moreover, most local media (self) censored any information provided by the activists.", "363" ], [ "The censorship was so strong that even billboard companies refused to rent them space to publish the results of the analyses.\nIn order to break the news for their local audience, the activists had to resort to roundabout tactics, and first spread the information at the national level. To do that, on February 17, 2014, they devised a press conference in the capital, which was not announced as an initiative by civil society (which the media mostly ignored) but rather as a commercial presentation of a new brand of mineral water — Arsena.\nWhen the reporters of national media came to the “business” event, the activists presented them with plastic bottles of water from Gevgelija water supply. They explained that the brand is called Arsena due to the high level of arsenic in the water, and invited everyone to share the water that is consumed on daily basis by citizens of Gevgelija. They also presented the results of the scientific measurements, as well as health data indicating high levels of cancer and mortality in the area, which is likely related to the toxic water.\nAn activist preparing the promotion of a mock brand of mineral water “Arsena”, with bottles filled with tap water from Gevgelija, containing dangerously high levels of arsenic in February 2014 in the center of Skopje, Macedonia. Photo by <PERSON>, CC BY-NC-SA.\nOnly one national level TV reported about this event, but that was enough for the citizens of Gevgelija to learn about it, and make a rush on the local shops to buy bottled water.\nDuring the next few years, the activists pushed the issue in any way they could by starting petitions and actions for donating clean bottled water for the underprivileged socioeconomic groups. They also fought for other health causes.\nSlowly, the activists managed to overcome denial by the authorities, who never admitted the tap water is toxic, but nevertheless announced the opening of new water treatment plants. Several months after the PR stunt in the capital city, Gevgelija local government performed ribbon-cutting ceremonies for a new well. However, the construction site remained empty for the next three years.\nThe actual construction of the new water supply system started in February 2017, thanks to a new project co-funded by the Macedonian government, the European Union and the World Bank. The same year, after local elections, the municipal government changed. Solving the water supply problem was one of the main goals for the new administration, and the facility was finished by November 2018.", "363" ], [ "Poland’s artistic and architectural contributions remembered in 2019 commemoration of the 1963 Skopje earthquake · Global Voices\nMonument to the victims of the 1963 earthquake in Skopje. Photo by GV, CC BY.\nEvery July 26, citizens of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, remember the earthquake that shook the city in 1963, and express gratitude for the international action that helped rebuild the city. The 6.1-magnitude earthquake reduced much of the city to rubble, killing 1,100 people, leaving over 200,000 homeless and thousands suffering from serious injuries. At the time, Skopje was the capital of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, a constituent state within federative Yugoslavia.\nA massive humanitarian effort to help the survivors and rebuild the city mobilized all the republics of the Yugoslav federation as well as the international community, which at the time was otherwise divided due to the Cold War. US President <PERSON> personally intervened to cut through the red tape and expedite US humanitarian aid, while USSR PM <PERSON> visited the ruined city with Yugoslav leader <PERSON>. Within days of the disaster, American and Soviet soldiers flew in to work side by side to provide humanitarian aid.\nArchitects, engineers, and construction workers from across the world worked under auspices of UN to rebuild the city into a model modernist metropolis. As a result, Skopje was nicknamed ‘the city of international solidarity.’ The UN's plan for the city was only partially implemented, but many of the brutalist-style buildings from the era remain today, and many streets still carry the names of the countries, cities or individuals who helped, including Algiers, Mexico and Prague.\nRediscovering Poland's artistic contribution\nThis year's commemoration of the earthquake is enhanced by an exhibition in Krakow, Poland that displays the artworks donated by Polish artists at the time as part of the relief effort.\nPoland was a major contributor to the disaster recovery efforts, harnessing the experience gained through the reconstruction of cities like Warsaw which were devastated during World War II. Top Polish architects helped build the iconic Museum of Modern Art, and there's still a street bearing the name of architect <PERSON>.\nAfter Ambassador <PERSON> arrived in Skopje in 2014 as Poland's highest diplomatic representative, he and his wife <PERSON> researched the Polish legacy and discovered, at Skopje's Museum of Modern Art, a unique collection of 20th-century Polish art donated by the artists after the earthquake as a gesture of solidarity. This ‘time capsule’ had been virtually forgotten in Poland. Over time, the couple uncovered many other cultural links, leading to further public discourse through exhibitions and publishing of books and other works. Some of that work is documented in the short film “Skopje. The Art of Solidarity.”\nIn an email to Global Voices, Mrs.", "739" ], [ "<PERSON> and Ambassador <PERSON> explained the drive behind their efforts that have connected countries and time periods:\n<PERSON> and <PERSON> during his tenure as Polish ambassador to Macedonia. Courtesy photo, used with permission.\nSkopje must look familiar to people who have lived or spent some time in Warsaw. Destroyed and rebuilt. The same mix of styles, a similar urban space. And, on top of that, scattered around the two cities are the “islands” of modernist architecture, which we, Poles, began to rediscover just a few years ago. Post-war architecture (after 1945) has become a fashionable topic in Poland – redefined, mainly by young people. Today, some of these buildings, until recently abandoned and neglected, are considered examples of functionality and elegance. They are receiving a second life, and with that comes their new function: cafes, galleries, centers of culture and urban activity.\nThe 1963 earthquake that destroyed Skopje moved the whole world, including Poles, whose great engagement should not be surprising. Only 18 years before WWII had ended, leaving Warsaw totally destroyed. The rebuilding of the Polish capital started immediately, with great devotion and enthusiasm.\nWe are too young to remember the emotions accompanying the gestures of solidarity shown by Poles in Skopje, but we met people who told us about it. In their memories Skopje, the city that attracted professionals from all around the world, was cosmopolitan, open and modern. And it was in that spirit that the city was created anew after the earthquake.\nWe, thanks to our Warsaw experience, have been able to find this spirit in today's Skopje.", "739" ] ]

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[ [ "<PERSON> was never meant to get to The Dark Tower.\n<PERSON> was served with protecting the beams and restoring <PERSON> to the broken lands. Unfortunately, he was set on a quest by an evil warlock who constantly reminded him and an evil looking glass.\nThe glass shows him it and feeds into his desire to go there. Whilst the love of his life burns.\n<PERSON> fixed the beams halfway through the last and final novel and then means to resume his job of getting to The Dark Tower. From that second, his ka-tet begin to die. Just like <PERSON> and <PERSON> and <PERSON>.\nIt's a cruel trick, played by The Old Ones.\n<PERSON> never needed to go to the Dark Tower, but he's cursed to seek it out. <PERSON> desperately puts as many things as he can between <PERSON> and The Dark Tower. An ex-heroin addict. A disabled shoplifter with multiple personalities, a billy-bumbler rejected by it's own clan.\nBut <PERSON> doesn't learn. He doesn't learn that he needs to stop after fixing the beams. Or settle down to die.", "190" ], [ "His drive propels him to The Dark Tower, every time.\nAnd it's the perfect trap. Mid-World and End-World will now always hang in the balance as the beams are immediately broken again when <PERSON> gets thrown back out at The Mohaine Desert.\nThe universe isn't fixed, it's in a constant state of decay. <PERSON> gets shot in the head, forever. <PERSON> is impaled on the branch, for all eternity. <PERSON> is hit by endless trucks. <PERSON> leaves for another world out of grief, to have a life with copies of her friends, forever.\nBecause <PERSON> won't learn.\nWhat does he get? The Horn of Eld. What does it represent? Unity, togetherness. The horn that signals for everyone to come together during The Battle of Jericho.\nBut <PERSON> still sees a quest for good over evil. White over Red. That's never what his quest has been about and this is exacerbated by the final information we get, in that a lot of the characters in the universe were sympathetic villains.\nAnd <PERSON> is going to chase <PERSON>.\nAnd <PERSON> is going to do that until the end of time.\nEnjoy your immortality, <PERSON>.\nYou earned it.", "837" ], [ "<PERSON> in the Multiverse of Madness\nTake note those who made the mishandled X Men Dark Phoenix: This is how you show the struggle when a <PERSON> gets temporarily Baddified by too much power.\nI just love this version of <PERSON>.\nLike all the best wrestling villains, she genuinely believes that she is justified in her actions. There’s logic, albeit damaged and selfish logic, behind her intentions.\nFollowing the traumatic past with her fantasy children and of course blasting a hole in her husband’s head, wouldn’t you crave the opportunity to go somewhere where all that pain can be ignored.\nThe falling sequence where <PERSON> & <PERSON> pass into alternate New York is fantastically trippy - perfect to watch at 4:20 😉\nWonder if the zombie <PERSON> was in the script before <PERSON> got involved…", "282" ], [ "The Batman\nFear is a tool. When that light hits the sky, it’s not just a call.", "919" ], [ "It’s a warning. For them.\nWell folks, It took ‘em that long to realize that a dark, gritty and mysterious superhero based in a dark, gritty and mysterious city should have a dark, gritty and mysterious movie.\nI loved <PERSON> as The Riddler (with his many notes for “The Botmon” 😂), and <PERSON> makes a great <PERSON> (you have to admit he looks a lot like him).\nAnd I know it’s not gonna happen, but I really think this movie should get a bit more real and lose the PG-13.\nAnyhow, I really enjoyed this movie but I believe that <PERSON> adaptation of Batman hasn’t reached its full potential yet.\nI have a feeling it’s gonna be an iconic franchise. Here’s hoping, anyways.", "577" ], [ "<PERSON>: Mask of the Phantasm\nThe cowl\nThe armor of <PERSON> little by little decends and fades to black, and the walls which <PERSON> has built between himself and his world of turmoil vanish\nWhats left is to find eyes of a demon that isn't defined by violence and crime, but by heartbreak\n\"Really <PERSON> it's almost as if you pick them because you know theres no chance for a serious relationship\"\nWe witness a man who prefers loneliness. A persona who picks souls that are doomed to fail because he knows they can never hurt him\nLetting rooftops of rain express his solace, his longing for someone to see every part of him the sickness the ugliness, and still want to share it with him, and allow him to do the same. <PERSON> in <PERSON>'s mind was that one glance of life beyond a vow that will never bring back what was taken\nPlease. Tell me it's okay\nThe Bat and the Phanstasm.\nTwo who deal with their torment by choosing to be symbols rather than people.", "295" ], [ "All a facade to hold back tears.\nThe purple suit, is the Jester who swathes in a world of broken dreams and false desires, and Evil laughing, pure evil thriving knowing that it stands in the way of true happiness. Real evil laughs joyfully at the realisation that none of it will ever work, be sane. Extinguishing her light to leave <PERSON> in nothing but darkness.\nMaybe after this is settled. Maybe then\nIt's all lost dreams, an idealised future which in every case is difficult to actualise, because fantasies aren't real.\nthat is <PERSON> torment\nThe Gotham Skyline and the rain\n- That is all he has now.\n‏‏‎ ‎‎‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‏‏‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‎‏‏‎ ‎‎‎ ‎ ‏‏‎‎ ‎ ‏‏‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎ ‏‏‎ ‎ ‏‏‎ ‎‎‎ ‎ ‏‏‎ ‎‎‎ Perhaps it's all he's ever had...", "313" ], [ "Pet Sematary: Bloodlines\nMe half the movie: 1969.... does proximity to the sour earth make you Tatooine age? Oh yeah. This is a prequel to the 2019 version <PERSON> <PERSON>, not the 1989 <PERSON> version.\nEither way, doesn't that make <PERSON> the villain, in that case? Knowing full well that his family along with the other 4 are guardians, in no way shape or form should he suggest to bury <PERSON> the Cat unless his mind was poisoned from the years of proximity.\nIDK, I like this on its own right, but it makes for a lousy retcon.\nWatched As Part Of My 2023 Wrap-Up Challenge: Dave Round 10", "672" ], [ "Spider-Man 2\nYou can't outlive pioneer status\nWhy would <PERSON> be Spider-Man when being Spider-Man is destroying his life.\nHe wouldn't, and never wanted it\nWhy would anyone do anything that only brings them pain\n<PERSON>'s turmoil is so abundant that his dead Uncle's last meaningful words to him aren't enough.\nIt completely ruins him to do the only thing that will bring any form of hapiness into his heartbreakingly depressing and emotionaly complex life.\nHe loses all will\nThe hospital scene is more terrifying the longer I think about it.\nI will always stare in amazement watching <PERSON> give absolutely everything in the confession, and stopping the train.\nI will never not take it personal.\nI can never hold back tears.\nGot to make you mad not to know who you are.\nYour soul disappears.\nMaybe you're not supposed to be <PERSON> climbing those walls. That's why you keep falling.\n<PERSON>, all the times we've talked of honesty, fairness, justice, out of those times I counted on you to have the courage to take those dreams out into the world.\nI can't live your dreams anymore. I want a life of my own.\nIt is a movie so heavy.\nIt is the best Superhero movie.\nIt is so fucking dense.", "387" ], [ "<PERSON>\nWe've went from watching Scooby-Doo as the twins weren't ready for horror to them blasting through the good Final Destination movies.\nBy the time they were at ours for a sleepover they're onto this one.\nRoyally stitched up there.\nWouldn't have been my choice, but they've been told 5 has a class ending and are excited to get to it.\nEven as novice horror watchers, they're 12, they were quick to point out how this one isn't very good. But they like the deaths.", "965" ], [ "Typical. And I agree.\nTo be fair to them, they'd sat through many hours of WWE, as we were not gonna miss Crown Jewel being on at 4 in the afternoon.\nSpeaking of, if your Samoan Spike is so good, why you gotta do it over and over to keep Mr. <PERSON> down? Here I like you <PERSON> but howay one and done aye.\nAlso as ever I love you <PERSON>.", "417" ], [ "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers\nI opted for the supposedly superior Producer’s Cut of this one. If this is meant to be the better of the two cuts, the Theatrical Cut must be a fucking nightmare. This was atrocious.\nA rambling mess jam packed with a nonsense sub plot about <PERSON> being part of a cult. <PERSON> must have been livid.\nThe biggest issue is that The Curse of Michael Myers is a snooze fest.", "475" ], [ "Nothing happens for 45 minutes and then, when it seems to pick up, it doesn’t really pick up at all. <PERSON> is barely in it. He just kind of pops up here and there and gives us a dull, gore-less kill. Such a disappointment.\n<PERSON>’s doing his best but jeans given some truly laughable shit to say.\nI feel sorry for <PERSON>. He doesn’t deserve this shit pile of a film.", "698" ] ]

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[ [ "This question is more interesting than I thought at first. I like it. There are several different parts to an answer to this question; I'll just contribute a couple that have something in common: our bodies (and everything else, it has nothing to do with bodies) also emit photons about as fast as they absorb them.\nOn the macroscopic/thermal scale, we have black-body radiation. Via black-body radiation, all matter emits a continuous spectrum of radiation. The distribution of this spectrum depends primarily on the temperature of the object. This is why objects placed in a fire appear to glow red, whether they be wood or metal or rocks. Our bodies also emit radiation this way, but at our temperature, this spectrum is in the infrared range, so it isn't visible (to humans—snakes can see body heat). Since everything absorbs and emits photons this way, there's an equilibrium where we receive as much thermal energy as we lose, although that's only in an environment where everything is at equilibrium.", "184" ], [ "Hot things like the sun and incandescent lights can throw this off, which is why it feels hot to go outside... or to be under a heat lamp. Anyway, don't worry about filling up on too many photons, they leave you just as fast.\nOn the microscopic scale, we have the hard-to-spell phenomenon of fluorescence. When a high-energy photon is absorbed by an atom, some of its energy can be reemitted as a lower-energy photon. Of course, this doesn't happen every time, and I don't know if it happens much in our bodies. It depends on the material's properties. That's where we get fluorescent lights and pigments and laundry detergents—detergent manufacturers actually include fluorescent pigments in their products so that clothes emit more visible light than they physically should by absorbing UV light and reemitting it in the visible range. Anyway, while I'm not sure if that principle in particular saves you from atomization, it's worth remembering that not every photon that hits you stays there.\nSo in conclusion, even though the energy that light brings to our bodies (and the earth) is substantial (imagine if there were no sun—radiation is important!), we're not going to fill up on photons to bursting. We're at equilibrium.", "104" ], [ "If you want a lengthy-but-most-thorough answer, the link that <PERSON> posted with his comment will help out a lot. However, since you're appealing to intuition (and I believe that training one's intuition is very important in learning physics) I'll try to give a simpler answer. I won't do quite as well, but here we go:\nFirst, like it's been said, it's not correct to say that \"work is the amount of force that was used to make the movement.\" Work is the amount of energy used to make the movement. To understand this intuitively, it sometimes helps to think about how the motion could move the object up—up a hill, for example. If something moves up against earth's gravity, it gains potential energy. As it moves down a hill, it can get that energy back. If you let a ball or a car roll down a hill, and then down another hill twice as high, it won't be going twice as fast at the bottom, only about 40% faster ($K_{\\text{E}}=\\frac12mv^2$; double the energy doesn't mean double the velocity). This isn't really a great example, but tying energy to gravitational potential energy could help your intuition swallow this.\nNow why do we multiply by distance? Maybe you've had to push a car sometime in your life. I don't think that anything makes me more tired than running behind a car trying to push it along.", "174" ], [ "Again, how tired you get pushing something is not a scientific quantity, but it might help you think about it another way. If you push a car that's stuck, it doesn't move. You've gone no distance, and even though there was a lot of force involved, you did no work, and the car doesn't move. Its momentum doesn't increase either, for that matter. Once you get it moving, you follow it along to get it up to speed, and it just kills your legs. But you're applying a force to an object as it moves over a certain distance. That's how we measure work.\nWell, I'm sure that's not the best answer, but everyone has to train their intuition to understand this in their own way. I don't know if this is the way I understand it, but it might be a stepping-stone to it. Anyway, kudos to you for asking! I hope this helps.", "174" ], [ "You needn't do anything. To a reasonable approximation, <PERSON>'s law of cooling can apply to two idealized objects in thermal contact. Your solution seems fine to me.\n<PERSON>'s law of cooling describes cooling by convection, which is what happens when you leave a hot drink sitting out in a cool room and it steadily gets cooler because the air near it heats up and rises, carrying away heat. Since the air moves away and has thermal contact with a whole lot of other things, it's assumed that the temperature of the air does not change. Now, your problem seems to be describing two objects in thermal contact, which would be conduction. While real conduction is a bit more complicated than <PERSON>'s law describes, the end result is the same if we assume that the objects have zero temperature gradient (that is, the temperature is the same throughout the entire object). This is what it means when it's said that <PERSON>'s law is a discrete approximation of <PERSON>'s law, which describes gradient, or gradual, conduction.\nNow, since you asked about temperature difference as opposed to just temperature: Newton's Law is actually about temperature differences, and doesn't treat absolute temperatures.", "797" ], [ "Look at what the equation you posted says: the rate at which $T$ changes is proportional by $-k$ to $T$. The object will stop changing temperature when $dT$ is zero, which will be when $T$ is zero. Would it make sense for something left out in a room to get colder until it reached absolute zero? Not at all! An object left out to the air cools (or warms up) until it's the same temperature as the air around it. So really, the $T$ in your equation is temperature difference between the two objects, not the temperature of just one object. While it's true that both objects will change temperature, the heat exchange between them will always be proportional to their temperature difference, and that difference will approach zero just as you calculated. We might not know what the final temperature will be, but we still know how fast they'll get closer to being the same temperature. Your solution is sound.", "797" ], [ "Like <PERSON> explained, the refractive properties if a material result from several properties, including conductivity. Other factors include atomic energy levels, dielectric properties (how much the material tends to make dipoles), density, and maybe a few more I can't think about.\nIf you're not looking for a physical explanation, rather a quick way to know what will happen, you need only look up the complex index if refraction of that material which accounts for all of those factors. Look at this site: http://refractiveindex.info. A material's index of refraction is different for varying wavelengths, so you have to take that into consideration. The real part, $n$, represents how much light is slowed (or sped up, if $n<1$) in the medium, which determines how much refraction occurs as well. The imaginary part, listed there as $k$, relates how much the radiation is absorbed in the medium. The skin depth is how far a wave penetrates before the magnitude of the wave falls off by a factor of $e$. A material with a high $k$ for a given wavelength doesn't just absorb the light, however, it's usually reflected.", "70" ], [ "Silver, for example, has a $k$ of around 3 to 4 for visible light, which it's why used in mirrors. Absorption occurs more due to resonance than conductive properties, but I'm near the limit of my understanding there.\nNow to correct a few things about your question: the comparison between the wavelength of the radiation and the physical size of the object it will be passing through doesn't have anything to do with refraction. That is, the refractive properties of a material are independent of how thick or how big the material is. Now, you're thinking about this because you're asking about radio waves. Radio waves have wavelengths on the order of meters to kilometers. While they can pass through materials, and also be reflected and/or refracted by them, they're more likely to bend around the objects than anything else. This, however, is called diffraction, not refraction (see also this wikipedia article about radio propagation).\nSo, in summary, yes, there are ways to think about materials that can clue us in on how they behave optically, and measured values that contain this information. However, refraction isn't necessarily responsible for the phenomena you're thinking of.", "70" ], [ "aside: The water pipe analogy is actually quite accurate, but most high school students don't learn fluid dynamics and the heavy calculus makes it more trouble than it's worth. (If you treat volumetric flow rate as akin to current, and pressure as electric flux density, then using <PERSON>'s equation neglecting gravity, assuming constant area and velocity along a pipe/wire, it all works out).\nvoltage\nWe have a device that can measure \"voltage\" between two points (not just in a circuit but in the air, on the ground, wherever you place the terminals).\nThe first thing is that if we measure the \"voltage\" between A and B, and then between A and C, the voltage between B and C will be the difference between these two—if you freeze time, at least. So this means you can pick whatever reference point you like, then any other point in the universe has a certain electric potential (measured in volts) relative to the reference point. So, there is something in the fabric of space that can be \"stronger\" or \"weaker\" than other parts of space. This is what we call the \"electric field\".\nNote that this is not about electrons. It is possible to have a positively charged plate and a negatively charged plate and a total vacuum in between, but this vacuum will linearly transition from one potential to another. (I.e. the voltage across the left half equals the voltage across the right half.)\nIn a simple electric circuit, each point has a fixed voltage (usually measured relative to \"ground\"). Any loop through the circuit will involve exactly the same amount of \"going up\" as \"going down\".\ncurrent and resistance\nCurrent and resistance are probably more intuitive in the context of electric circuits.", "395" ], [ "Current is roughly speaking a count of how many electrons pass through an area (e.g. the cross-section area of a wire or resistor) per unit time. Resistance is how many volts will produce 1 amp of current flowing \"across a resistor\". Technically this means measuring the voltage between both ends of the resistor, and the current at some cross-section anywhere before, in, or after the resistor. The current will be effectively the same anywhere you you section (not beyond branches in wires of course).\n(Obviously we also have devices that can measure current and resistance; I made a point about measuring voltage because electric fields are the hardest thing to grasp.)\nmore on current and resistance\nWhen electrons are free to flow, they are driven to equalise electric fields. The stronger the field, the more electrons will flow. However, different materials will resist electron flow to different degrees, hence differences in resistance (or rather resistivity). And electrons can be forced to flow the other way—batteries use chemical reactions, and generators use electromagnetism.\nOne way to see how current is proportional to surface area is this: assume you have 1A traveling along a wire, and you have 1A travelling down another wire, that's 2 coulombs per second. If you squash the two wires into one, the surface area will double and you will still have the same number of coulombs per second — 2.", "395" ], [ "Yes, it's ok, but it's an explanation that has been stripped down to bare bones, and leaves out quite a bit. Here's a little more to help prop up the explanation.\nFirst, it's important to realize that in a condensed phase like a solid or liquid the light is not interacting with molecules in isolation. Light is interacting with all of the molecules. This makes a big difference. Light absorbed and re-emitted by a single molecule can go off in (almost) any direction.\nNext, remember that a photon is an excitation of a complete electromagnetic field. It is, unfortunately, often not helpful to think of a photon as a particle that exists at a particular place in space. Like all particles in quantum mechanics, there's a chance that it could exist anywhere. Individual interactions, on the other hand, can occur with a particular molecule at a particular location.\nIt's best to start thinking about your question in the realm of classical physics, and then modify it later to include quantum mechanics. Classically, when light interacts with a molecule, the electron is set into vibrational motion. The energy that the field gave to the molecule will stay with the molecule for a while while this oscillation occurs. The molecule, then, is a radiator and can generate its own light. That's the classical picture of the delay experienced by light during an interaction. After this re-emission, the light will travel at $c$.\nHow does it know to go straight? Here's where we need all the other molecules in the liquid. The incident field has a particular spatial pattern, say a sine pattern, and it excites in the molecules an oscillation pattern that exactly matches.", "969" ], [ "The incident light was traveling in a particular direction with a well-defined phase front, and so too does the pattern of oscillation in the liquid. The light re-emitted from the molecules will also share that same pattern, although it will be delayed in time relative to the incident light. The re-emitted light adds to the portion of the incident light that passes unaffected. But the phase fronts, and hence the direction of travel, is parallel to that of the incident wave. It goes off in the same direction.\nPhotons: Almost the same story. Recall that a photon is an excitation of the light field. Instead of exciting the molecules into oscillation, the molecule temporarily absorbs a quantum of energy from the field (the \"photon\"), and the molecule is raised to an excited state. The molecule lives in this state for a short period of time, and then the energy is returned to the field (\"photon emission\"). But the business about phase fronts and directions still holds. The energy is added to a field propagating in the original direction, slightly delayed.\n(Another detail we're leaving out. The absorption and re-emission I describe is a very fast process called \"virtual transition\". It is fast enough that the uncertainty principle $\\Delta E \\Delta t \\leq \\hbar/2$ allows energy conservation to be temporarily violated. So the frequency of the incident light does not have to match an absorption frequency of the molecule in this process, and the explanation works for transparent media.)\nNote carefully that I refer to a photon as an excitation of the field, rather than as a particle. When the interaction between light and something else occurs at a particular place, as when it hits a particular pixel in a digital camera, it looks for all the world like a particle hit the pixel. But a more useful way of thinking about it is that the light field exists everywhere, but the interaction occurs at a particular place.\nHope that helps!", "795" ], [ "I think <PERSON>'s answer is fantastic, but I just wanted to observe one little fact: the energy that we harvest from nuclear fission reactors comes from somewhere. It isn't magic. When you start with hydrogen and create heavier elements, you are doing fusion, which is the opposite of fission. And that means that the energy released during fission came from fusion. Now, we can't fission elements down to hydrogen, because they are too stable. In fact, most of the binding energy inside elementary nuclei is not available to us for consumption. But it all got put into elementary hydrogen by someone, somewhere, and that \"someone\" was generally a supernova (dying star).\nSo given that we currently power a decent portion of our society by breaking apart elements, you can begin to imagine the power cost of assembling those elements from scratch. As o.m. observes, it literally takes the power of a star, and a violently exploding one to get anything heavier than iron.", "435" ], [ "A nuclear power plant runs on a surprisingly small mass of radionuclides. Current reactors produce on the order of 1,250 GJ/kg of enriched uranium. Which means that if we could run the reaction backwards and perfectly, we would need to supply 1,250 GJ to turn a kg of strontium back into uranium.\nNow, uranium is much heavier than the elements in food, so this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, but strontium itself has a high internal binding energy, so I would guess that the order of magnitude isn't that far off from H->Ca. A kg of bread is about 2.5 loaves. Also, a kg provides roughly enough calories to feed a single person for a day. A GWe nuclear power plant consumes about 25 tonnes of enriched uranium per year. If we could instead perfectly transmute a kg of enriched uranium into a kg of bread, your billion dollar nuclear power plant could feed a grand total of less than 70 people per year. It costs about 140 million USD/year to fuel and operate such a plant, so you're feeding those people at the bargain basement price of about $2 million/person.\nNeedless to say, if you can afford to spend $2 million/person on food, you're better off building greenhouses. ;)", "435" ], [ "While there may not be an electrical effect, per se, there will be an effect, however tiny. Many of the responses seem to focus on the tininess of the effect and conflate \"really really small\" with \"doesn't exist\".\nSpecifically (and maybe there are others that I'm not thinking of), the temperature of the sun is a function of the radiation leaving it minus the radiation it receives from around it. This fact is encapsulated in the radiative heat transfer law where heat exchange is equal to the <PERSON>-Boltzmann constant times the difference of the 4th powers of the temperatures. Because the earth is absorbing radiation from the sun, its temperature increases, increasing the amount of thermal radiation it, in turn, radiates outward. Some very tiny fraction of that light will hit the sun, increasing its temperature by such a tiny bit.", "184" ], [ "To be sure, the effect is compounded by the fact that the earth also reflects some light to the sun, which has the same effect, it just doesn't follow the 4th power law.\nIn other words, the earth is a tiny piece of insulation, blocking the heat of the sun from escaping and warming it up ever so slightly.\nSo when you throw a solar panel in the mix, you're actually (and usually very temporarily) converting some of that radiation into ordered work instead of pure heat, So the temperature of the earth increases just slightly less, causing just slightly less heat radiation back to the sun.\nThe are other effects of course; since solar panels absorb most light and reflect very little, they may actually increase the absorption of heat from the sun, although the albedo of black asphalt single is also pretty low (which is why the white roofs are mentioned elsewhere). So if the albedo of the solar panels plus their efficiency in converting light to electricity is less than the albedo of the background (the roof), then the temperature of the earth actually goes up, but the reflection goes down. Either way, there's an effect.\nI think part of the confusion lies in the fact that many (maybe all? ) of our physical laws, especially those dealing with wavelike phenomena are pragmatic approximations. So things like the near-field effect don't suddenly vanish after a few wavelengths, they just become so small that they make no difference in the predictive power of those models for practical use. Which is to say, they become smaller than other sources of error in the prediction of how the system will behave. Negligible does not mean nonexistent.", "184" ] ]

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[ [ "It is because light travels in more-or-less straight rays.\nLet's assume for simplicity that your eye is like a pinhole camera; it has a pinhole in front and a screen at the back. Then an image forms by the light rays that pass through the pinhole.\n(from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pinhole-camera.png)\nConsider two points on an object, such as the top and bottom of a tree. If you move an object further, the two points remain at the same distance from one another but are further from the pinhole, and hence the angle that it makes with the pinhole is smaller. But the screen is still the same distance from the pinhole, and hence the image is smaller. (See also this related BBC article.)\nAs for your question about the vanishing point, it's not clear at all what you are asking. In perspective drawing we have the projection of the scene onto a flat screen through an origin (the eye). Under the projection, consider all the lines that do not pass through the origin. Each of them maps to a line, and any two of them that intersect map to intersecting lines.", "530" ], [ "If we stipulate that any two of them that are parallel actually intersect at a point at infinity, then it is even nicer because then any two lines intersect at a unique point. Also, parallel lines on a horizontal surface would all intersect at the same point at infinity, which after projection maps to a point on the screen, through which the images of all those parallel lines pass through.\nPoints at infinity do not exist in the Euclidean model of the world, just as parallel lines do not intersect. It is just that if we conceptually add them to the Euclidean model we obtain the projective space that has nice properties, including a meaningful notion of the horizon as the image of some line of points at infinity. This enables us to draw perspective drawings, which is basically to draw the image on the screen given what we know about the lines in the scene.\nThe surface of the Earth is not flat but slightly curved, and so we cannot see the whole surface of the Earth, and we see a slightly curved horizon. This has nothing to do with the line at infinity in perspective drawings, since that line is still there, just not relevant to the horizon that we see between the earth's surface and the sky. If this is where you got your \"2.9 miles\" from, then it is simply how far on the surface of the earth you can see, which is of course unrelated to the fact that you can see all the way to the stars.\n(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon#/media/File:Horizons.svg)\nIn the above diagram, the astronomical horizon corresponds to the line at infinity if you were standing on a really flat surface. The true horizon is what you perceive to be the divide between the sky and ocean since the Earth isn't flat. The visible horizon is what you perceive to be the divide between the sky and land since there are usually lots of things like trees on the land blocking the view of the actual ground surface.\nIn short, perspective drawings don't work for things that are too far away on the Earth's surface because they assume a perfectly flat ground surface.", "204" ], [ "The short answer is that yes, the definition of \"rolling without slipping\" is that the velocity is zero at the point of contact.\nThe longer answer is that definitions in physics are not quite the same as definitions in mathematics. In physics, one often starts with concepts that are physically meaningful, even if not completely precise, and then seeks to develop a mathematical model to understand the physical world. \"Rolling without slipping\" is something that we have an intuitive physical understanding of, but to study it precisely, we have to cast around for a mathematical definition that captures our intuition—if not with 100% fidelity, then at least with enough accuracy that we can do meaningful calculations and make testable predictions.\n\"Rolling without slipping\" turns out to be unexpectedly tricky to model mathematically. It is tempting, as <PERSON> suggests, to define it by saying that \"an object that rolls without slipping travels 1 circumference along the ground for every for every full rotation it makes.\" Unfortunately, as noted in a comment, this definition fails to capture our intuition when we roll a disc along a curved path.", "544" ], [ "The famous coin rotation paradox makes this clear. The outer coin makes a full rotation after traveling only 1/2 a circumference along the \"ground\" (the perimeter of the inner coin).\nAnother tempting idea is to define rolling without slipping in terms of a continuous one-to-one mapping of the points on the circumference of the wheel and the points on the surface on which the wheel is rolling. But once again, we run into a problem, this time with <PERSON>'s wheel paradox. With two concentric wheels, one can set up a situation where both the inner and the outer wheel are simultaneously rolling on separate surfaces, in such a way that there is a continuous one-to-one mapping for both wheels, but intuitively, it is not possible for both wheels to be rolling simultaneously without slipping.\nThe zero-velocity definition correctly captures our intuition about rolling without slipping in both of these cases (as well as in other cases), so that is why it has been adopted as the formal definition.", "544" ], [ "A real image forms when multiple rays from the same point meet at again at another point. Without optical element, the rays just go in their own different directions and don't meet again. So there is no image.\nWhen you put a convex lens in front of the pen, why you can now see the image of the pen on the paper?\nBecause a convex lens bends the rays so that the diverging rays originating from any given point on the pen—as long as it is further than the focal point—start to converge on the other side.", "538" ], [ "The basic rules say that a ray passing through the centre of the lens passes straight and a ray passing parallel to the optical axis on one side passes through the focal point.\nThese rules allow you to trace three different rays through the lens and where they intersect on the other side, there is the real image (which you can see iff it coincides with a piece of paper). You could trace the other rays too, but that requires more advanced analytical geometry.\nWhen then can you see the image of a torch when you shine it on the paper?\nI you are talking about a real torch—as in a stick with a piece of burning rag wound around one end—you won't. You'll only see a more brightly illuminated spot where the paper is closer to the torch.\nIf you are talking about the electric kind, most of them are reflectors, that is they have a parabolic mirror mounted behind the light emitting element.\nThe mirror should be mounted so that the light emitting element is closer to the mirror than the focal point, in which case there is no real image, but a virtual image behind the mirror. Virtual image can be seen directly if the light is not too bright to look directly into it.\nHowever sometimes the mirror is mounted too far from the light element—or can be positioned there in the variable focus lights—and then there is a real image ahead of the light you can project on a paper.", "538" ], [ "Haha when I was young I thought that this effect was due to gravity, which is of course too weak for tiny objects to be observable. But it turns out that it is neither refraction nor diffraction nor parallax error. Instead it is due to having the wrong focus. If you are short-sighted like I am, then when looking at a far object each point will generate a circular disk image on your retina instead of a sharp point. When you move the edge of any object near your eye and it blocks part of the pupil, then the image generated on your retina will no longer be a full disk, hence the image appears to shift away from the edge. This explains your four later grid images. Notice that the rest of the grid is never in sharp focus, but the region near the edge of the occluding object is sharper, which is because those points generated less than a full disk on the camera sensor plane. As for your earlier images, they were due to the focus being beyond the object you were looking at.", "530" ], [ "As before, each point would result in a disk image on your retina, but inverted. Thus when another object blocks part of your pupil, the image appears to shift towards the edge instead of away from it.\nTo prove that this explanation is the correct one, put your face close to the screen without focusing on it, and move your finger in front of your eye. The image on the screen will appear to move towards your finger and also become sharper in the direction perpendicular to your finger's edge. Now repeat this experiment with the screen at a comfortable reading distance and make sure you focus exactly on the screen. Blocking your view now should have no effect on the apparent position of each pixel on the screen. If it still seems to move, it is because the blur (non-focused) image of your finger is interfering in an optical illusion. To prevent that, you can use a black thread instead. And if you focus somewhere in front of the screen, the image on the screen would appear to move away from your finger. If you use a black thread at an oblique angle to a grid on the screen, there will not be mismatching grid lines on the two sides of the thread if you focus exactly on the screen, but if you don't focus exactly on the screen the grid lines will indeed mismatch.", "530" ], [ "The first thing to note is that the formula given above for spherical mirrors is only a paraxial approximation, so one part of the mystery to unravel is where the approximation comes from.\nThe below discusses the 2D case but equally applies to 3d.\nOne way to get an approximate reflection O' is to create a flat planar mirror (represented by the line) that is perpendicular to the line OC and tangent to the circular mirror.\nThis approximation only works well when the point O is close to the mirror (or looked at another way, the circular mirror is very large).\nNow lets use the circular mirror as a circle of inversion. The plan here is to invert point O through the circular mirror, then reflect the inverted point, then undo the inversion. Notice that inverting a point twice gets back to where you started, so to undo an inversion just apply the inversion again. So we are going to invert, reflect, invert. Let's do it!\n1. Invert. Invert the point O through the circular mirror to point O'. Since we used the mirror as the circe of inversion, the mirror looks the same after inversion.\n1. Reflect.", "538" ], [ "Now we can use the same reflection approximation on the inverted point. Create a flat mirror and reflect the inverted point O' to O''. This is why the final point we come up with in the end will only be an approximation. Also notice that this inversion brings far away points close to the mirror, which is what is needed for the flat mirror approximation to be accurate.\n1. Invert back. We're still in the inverted world, so we now need to invert back to the real world. Invert the reflected point O'' to O'''.\nNow here is the really cool part. We can directly get to O''' from O by a single inversion through the circle that you describe above that has half the radius of the circular mirror!\nIn hindsight, that special circle with half the radius now makes some sense. If you invert that circle through the circular mirror, it becomes the flat plane mirror we used in the reflection approximation.\nSo hopefully this gives some intuition on why inversion through the half circle is a good approximation for reflection in the circular mirror when the point is close to the axis of the system.", "538" ], [ "In the method that you're using you need to make two measurements because you are using the relation $\\frac{1}{f}=\\frac{1}{d_o}+\\frac{1}{d_i}$ so you need to measure the object and image distances, $d_o$ and $d_i$. Another common technique for measuring the focal length is to find the image distance for an object that is distant enough that the object distance can be considered infinite. In that case $f=d_i$.\nTo answer why you can see a real image it helps to remember that images look like objects because light comes from an images in the same way as it comes from an object. The real image is formed in front of the lens, that is to say on the same side of the lens as you and the opposite side compared to object A. Rays of light from the object pass through the lens, converge at the point of the image and then diverge again.", "586" ], [ "You speak of seeing the image \"in the lens\" and it's true the image has to be lined between your eye and the lens but if you look carefully and move you head slightly while looking at the image you will find that it behaves as if it were in front of the lens, rather behind it as in a virtual image.\nYou could hold a screen (piece of paper) at the point of where the image is formed and you might be able to see the real image projected on it though probably not. This would work more reliably if you were using a candle or some other luminous object. With respect to the retina of you eye, what is happening there is that your eye's lens (with the cornea) is forming a real image on your retina. This process is the same regardless of whether you are looking at a real image, or a virtual image or indeed the original object itself.\nIn the lab procedure you are trying to place object B so that it coincides with the image of object A. The idea is if get it in the right spot you can move your head around a bit and the object A's image and object B should appear to remain together. If they seem to move relative to each other as you change your perspective then you know that they are not yet in the same place.\nThis may seem like a complicated way to measure the focal length but it does give you some experience of working with real images.", "530" ], [ "Let me give a vague analogy to illustrate the issues in talking about observation.\nImagine that I have just thrown a stone into a pond and I ask you, can you see the wave it makes? You say, yes of course, why? I say, no you didn't really see all of the wave. You only saw what you saw from your position and angle. And is what you saw the wave? Or is it just an image of the wave that is in your mind? How do you even know that that image is an accurate reflection of the actual wave? In fact we know our eye has a limit on its resolving power and its sensitivity.\nSo you didn't actually see any wave. You just saw something which both of us do call a \"wave\" in English. The word is merely a reference to the entity, not the entity itself. You might ask, is it possible to observe an entity directly and not through any intermediate instrument such as our eyeball? But what really is \"directly\"? If your mind can somehow touch the wave (with what, may I ask?), is it enough for you? Or is your mind itself merely an instrument which you use to interact with the world?\nAnyway that dives straight into the deep end of philosophy, though you'll have to somehow answer that before you can specify precisely enough what you mean by \"observe\".\nOn the other hand, what if we both agree there was a wave, and I then ask you, what is the position of the wave? And you stare blankly at me. But that might well be the same question you would be tempted to ask about an electron. What if the electron indeed has an underlying reality that corresponds more closely to its wavefunction rather than a single point in space? Do you even have the slightest evidence that it is more like a point? No.\nYou could say, let's take the highest point of a water molecule (assuming it's sufficiently point-like) as the position. If so, then it's not going to have any nice properties at all, and would randomly jump around the pond. A better idea would be to take the average position of the water molecules that are above the average water level of the pond.", "795" ], [ "Then we can 'see' that it moves in the direction of the wave more or less along with the crest. We can even touch the wave crest as it goes past, which means that we can sort of estimate the position as defined this way. There is some uncertainty here, not unlike the uncertainty you see in measuring the position of a classical wave packet or in measuring the position of a particle (<PERSON>'s uncertainty principle), in the sense that despite the position of a pond wave being well-defined (assuming point-like water molecules or more generally some mass density function for the water), we cannot even classically measure it accurately because anything we do will disrupt the wave.\nSimilarly, we can define velocity of the wave as the flux, the average flow of the water (according to the evolution of the mass density function over time). As with position, we cannot even classically measure the velocity accurately without changing it.\nNow, we could go another way around the problem. Instead of trying to observe all of the wave at once, we repeat the stone throw many times, and each time we observe just one small part of the wave. Of course, now that we are skeptical we'll question whether we really can repeat something in exactly the same way each time. It's of course impossible in general but we hope it's not too wildly different.\nThis is exactly what scientists have done in order to observe (in this sense) the wavefunction of an electron. It was done very long time ago, and I do not know the history, but supposedly IBM was one of the first to arrange impurity molecules on a metal surface and then using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope to image the electron density. They have some pictures here, including the well-known quantum corral:\n(http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/files/us-flinte/stm16.jpg)\nI do not know whether they edited the raw data (highly likely, when I did it before I had to edit to remove noise and artifacts from the imperfect STM tip). There are other images on the internet like:\n(http://nisenet.org/catalog/media/scientific_image_-_quantum_corral_top_view)\nBut of course all colour or 3d effects in STM images are computer generated. Recently (2013), some have claimed to be able to image atomic orbitals, such as:\n(http://physicsworld.", "795" ], [ "Usually when two objects collide they make contact along a common surface plane. It might be a very small area, almost a point, but the direction of the normal at this point can be identified without ambiguity. The normal contact force between the object lies along the normal to this contact plane at the point of contact.\nFor ideal edges the direction of the force is mathematically indeterminate. This is because the surface changes direction discontinuously along an infinitesimally thin line. On one side of the line the surface normal points in one direction, on the other side of the line it points in a different direction. Exactly at the corner it is ambiguous which direction the surface normal is pointing. The discontinuity exists regardless of how close you get to the line.\nPractically this might not be a problem for a point object, because if you look on a small enough scale you can always decide on which side of the line the point of contact lies, and therefore in which direction the normal contact force acts.\nReal edges (also corners) are rounded to some extent.", "586" ], [ "The local surface normal changes smoothly from one direction to another. If you look on a small enough scale you will be able to identify a local surface plane and its normal. Then you can decide how a point object will bounce if it strikes this local plane.\nReal objects have finite size. If they are perfectly rigid then a single point of contact can be identified, and a local surface normal, along which the normal force is exerted during a collision. The direction of friction (if any) can also be determined.\nHowever, if the object is finite and also deformable then it will bend around the edge or corner as it collides, making contact over a curved surface which has normals pointing in a range of directions. It is a very difficult problem to work out in what direction the resultant force on the object will act. Small differences in the line along which the ball approaches, or its angle of approach, or its orientation or speed and direction of rotation, or its elasticity, etc - all could make a significant difference to the direction in which the object will bounce off the edge or corner.", "544" ] ]

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[ [ "Suddenly, Last Summer\nYeah, this seemed rather rushed and, of course, it isn't a patch on the movie version (despite it's 1950's censorship). The performances of <PERSON> and <PERSON> bump this up half a star because they're both so good. I'm not gonna really hit the easy target of <PERSON> performance because I'm fond of trees. <PERSON> seems to have seen <PERSON> portrayal in the film as she plays it almost exactly the same. <PERSON> is kinda wasted in an admittedly small part he does his best to enliven in this production.", "698" ], [ "For such a southern-fried, hothouse play, it does seem very odd to have an almost completely British cast but we know that going in so there isn't any justification in complaining about it. Ditto the fact that some people moan and moan about \"it looks like just a filmed play\" because apparently people need flashing, needless camera tricks to be able to focus their pathetic attention spans. There are, in fact, quite a lot of 'camera moves' which don't call attention to themselves and frankly if you can't watch a one-set movie, go play a video game. No, this adaptation of <PERSON> workhorse play is OK but nothing special; other than the performances of <PERSON> and <PERSON>. It's cut down for the telly so we're missing a lot but, if you want to see SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER then go watch the fifties flick. You'll thank yourself for it.", "698" ], [ "Hell Fest\nWatched 'cos <PERSON>, <PERSON> and <PERSON>. And you know what, as a pretty standard slasher with little thinking outside of the box, it's not bad!\nI don't quite see what exactly attracted those three names especially as on the page it can't look amazing but fair play they made it work.\nPlotwise it's your normal thing. Hell Fest is a horror theme park (LOTS OF FAKE JUMP SCARES FOLKS) and we follow one particular young group. One of the masked characters within is playing for real and that's your lot really.\nBut it is reasonably entertaining.", "475" ], [ "There is genuine tension in a couple of places. Everybody keeps their clothes on. There's a rather nice <PERSON>-esque eyeball stab and the very last shot is cool. I fazed out nearer the end though so it doesn't really maintain what little it has, at least for me.\nSlasher fun for the very undemanding.", "1009" ], [ "Nostalgia\nFor all the poetry and transcendence and desperate sincerity there also is something so sour about this movie. I mean there's a lot of bitterness in <PERSON> in general that the One Perfect Shot crowd doesn't talk about so much (thinking of <PERSON>'s first reaction to seeing <PERSON> in Solaris) but in particular the moment when <PERSON>'s tape player craps out before his, uh, big moment in Rome is almost unbearably cruel.", "698" ], [ "But funny, too! Or the long take of <PERSON> drunkenly rambling to a small Italian child... It feels like the scene in Lenny when <PERSON> is bombing, but this time the room is halfway underwater. Knowing the backstory of this project it almost seems like it should be a self-pitying disaster, but it's all just sadistic enough to follow me around all day like a dark cloud.", "549" ], [ "<PERSON>\nMaybe it's partly cos of where we find ourselves today, but this apocalyptic tale had me in the palm of its hand. Even when the inevitable CG kicks into gear, it wasn't off-putting at all like it so often is in grand scale movie disasters.", "909" ], [ "Which is somewhat surprising to me given that it's a <PERSON> movie and one that's helmed by the director of Angel Has Fallen Over (which I've NOT seen tbf but I have assumptions which are likely making an ass of you and me).\nVery clever to utilize the leading man's accent into a plot point so skillfully as well. People won't able to complain about that now.. *looks at Twitter*\n..Fuck sake.", "585" ], [ "The Seven Year Itch\nKind of insufferable at the beginning with the Voice of God narration and <PERSON> unconvincingly uttering his every thought aloud for the audience's (supposed) benefit, and only mildly entertaining thereafter, The Seven Year Itch somehow manages to be passable. <PERSON> hated this film and said that it is meaningless if <PERSON> remains chaste (he doesn't in the play), but it's in fact precisely this fact that redeems the film.", "144" ], [ "Not for any moral reason, of course, but because <PERSON>'s <PERSON> is the most uncharismatic and irritating character imaginable and that, along with the presence of <PERSON>, means that we're looking at a male fantasy bordering on the self-aware.\nThis is a film about the typically masculine idea that one's confidence could make up for countless character flaws and allow you to score even someone as beautiful as <PERSON>—that is, if not for the stifling institute of marriage. It's a fantasy from start to finish, one that achieves self-awareness with \"wouldn't you like to know [who's in my kitchen]? Maybe it's <PERSON>!\" There is no reason for <PERSON> to sleep with <PERSON>, because his goal is merely to prove that he could have, to be assured that he would have made 100% of the shots that he didn't take. If <PERSON> had his way, or if the protagonist had a single redeeming feature, it would blunt the only edge the film has.", "698" ], [ "The <PERSON>\nThe joy in my heart when the credit 'Directed by Tommy Wirkola' appeared I cannot tell you. One very minor gripe I have with the Netflix approach to stuff is not making me more aware of who the directors of stuff of theirs, but then this *was* heavily recommended to me on their homepage so maybe my gripe is even more minor than I think. Plus that little heart flutter was a lovely moment (taking risks often rewarded on Netters). One of many! *beams*\nSo I picked this movie purely on it being on my eyeline but the premise appealed too: A warring couple (an actor and a director, both failed) head to their remote cabin (in Norway I think) to chill and build bridges, but actually to secretly kill each other. Bang. That's enough for me. Sold.\nI hadn't clocked it was <PERSON> and indeed didn't recognize her at all until her name appeared.", "369" ], [ "I'm feeling cosier with this film by the second. I think <PERSON> loves our <PERSON> more than me even.\nSo there's more going on with this beyond the above premise. I wasn't expecting what the 2nd half was going to be but it is *pure* Wirkola. The Dead Snows are genuinely some of my fave films and they share a few things with this but one comes to mind in this train of thought, the opening half is solid and fun, the second half? Just insanity with outrageous bloody set-pieces which aim for the funny bone more than anything. There's also the customary destruction of homes and cabins in lush Scandinavian landscape. Absolutely thrilled in my mind. Wasn't settling down for this!\nSo I went to bed after and was struggling to contain myself, trying not to wake the wife and the dogs. I was literally shaking trying not to laugh at the bit where the human shit fell on the man's face and mouth.\nI am 43.", "965" ], [ "Anatomy of a Fall\nI get why this is a Palme d'Or and why fans are falling over themselves lavishing praise on the movie. I do get it. It's great. The script is exceptional, the world (which was a mystery to me - The French courtroom I mean) is engaging and the performances wonderful.\nAnd I give it 4/5.\nIt just never hit me in the chest as hard as it seem to have for everyone else.", "462" ], [ "It never twisted up my mind or enraptured me with it's storytelling. It's an extremely well crafted movie and I'm having just as much fun with the after-discussions and \"theories\" on the plot as I did watching the film. I just never got that \"wow\" factor. Wish I had.", "596" ], [ "The Shadow Box\nThis is definitely <PERSON>’s weakest as a director and that says quite a lot as this is a really good movie merely hampered by the television budget insisting on a more theatrical style. That makes the film more dependent on the actors then ever before. <PERSON> and <PERSON> fair the best able to convey with subtlety ideas of love and death.", "698" ], [ "I have to admit though I adored <PERSON>’s showy piece of overacting the most. It’s just a fun confrontation of a subject, dementia, which gives me the deepest chills possible. Poor <PERSON> is probably best not mentioned in all her redundant glory.", "465" ] ]

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[ [ "You seem to be confused about what a Horcrux is and its use.\nA Horcrux is used to make sure your soul stays on earth when your body is destroyed. It is created with a murder as it will shatter your soul and allow you to put a part of it inside an object.\nThen, when you die, your body is destroyed and your \"main\" soul is let to wander:\n* If you don't have any Horcrux it will continue its journey to the unknown.\n* If you have a horcrux (or more), however, it's a bit of your soul that will stay on earth no matter what, linked to the object in which you put it. So, if the body which contain your \"main\" soul is destroyed, instead of going, your soul will wander around until you find a body of your own. The bit of souls concealed in your horcruxes will remain untouched as their only use are to make sure your soul won't make the journey.\nAs for the other use of a Horcrux, in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, <PERSON> says something interesting:\n\"...I think I know what the sixth Horcrux is. I wonder what you will say when I confess that I have been curious for a while about the behavior of the snake, <PERSON>?”\n“The snake?\" said <PERSON>, startled. “You can use animals as Horcruxes?”\n“Well, it is inadvisable to do so,” said <PERSON>, “because to confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business.", "773" ], [ "However, if my calculations are correct, <PERSON> was still at least one Horcrux short of his goal of six when he entered your parents’ house with the intention of killing you.”\nThat's because usually you'll want to put your Horcrux in someplace safe where nobody will ever look. Breaking your soul to pieces is indeed a very dark thing to do and you don't want part of your soul to go wandering around. We can see in <PERSON>'s mind of King <PERSON> what someone whose soul is too shattered would become in the form of the hideous infant and understand why it is such a big deal and an important thing. (It's your soul!)\nFor example, the diary was a fantasy of <PERSON> who wanted to reoppen the Chamber of Secret (and thus was proven to be its unsafest Horcrux).\nYou don't want your Horcrux to remake your body of its own as it would put it in an unsafe situation, but instead would have to entrust someone to help you rebuild your body (<PERSON> in the book) or make something else ready for your resurrection by the time you die (No clue about what that would be though). And the Dark Lord didn't have that something in place by that time, as his plan to make himself immortal obviously wasn't finished: he didn't had all its Horcruxes, as he wanted <PERSON> to be the murder that would allow him to make his sixth and last <PERSON>.\nPlus, <PERSON> was really surprised when none of his Deatheaters came to him to help him after his death as he bragged many times he conquered death. His most faithful deatheaters (<PERSON>, <PERSON> Jr) being imprisonned at Azkaban.", "773" ], [ "Why could no one guess that a Basilisk was the monster?\nIn the Chamber of Secrets, till the end, no one knows that the monster of Slytherin and the creature behind the attacks is a Basilisk.\n<PERSON>, of all people, should have figured it out using the following clues\nThere are the following observations from which at least <PERSON> could figure out that the creature was a Basilisk:\n1. <PERSON> (and <PERSON>, perhaps?) being fond of snakes, it would be hard to miss that the monster of Slytherin would be snake-like at least.\n2. There are presumably a limited number of magical creatures that can petrify their victims.\n3. The fact that roosters were being found dead in suspicious circumstances was a clue to the Basilisk.\n4.", "773" ], [ "Plus, it wasn't a satisfactory explanation that an Acromantula killed <PERSON>, as she was uninjured, but dead.\nSurely <PERSON> could put two and two together and figure out what the monster was?\nI believe the clues pretty much narrow it down to a Basilisk, correct me if I am wrong.\nAfter all, even if it takes​ a genius to figure it out, <PERSON> was the right man for the job!\nBut he presumably didn't\nI say this because:\n1. He made no attempt to distribute mirrors among the students as a safety measure.\n2. Nor did he station hundreds of roosters in the school to kill the basilisk.(Surely even <PERSON> would have a hard time killing so many roosters quickly to save his basilisk?) This would have been an effective measure, as roosters living as far away as near <PERSON>'s hut were threats to the <PERSON>, so many roosters in the castle would probably get the job done.\nOf course these methods are kind of extreme, but they are helpful in saving lives.\nMy Question\nI can understand if no one else could figure out what <PERSON>'s monster was, but why couldn't <PERSON> do so?\nAfter all, all it would take is some digging. <PERSON>, highly intelligent, would probably figure it out easily.\nCan someone give me a reasonable explanation for this?", "773" ], [ "I don't think that there's any canon answer for your question but the main difference between <PERSON>'s other horcruxes and <PERSON> is that <PERSON> was an unintended horcrux.\nWe know that <PERSON>'s soul split when he tried to kill baby <PERSON> because it was highly unstable and that part of it jumped into <PERSON> in a desperate attempt to save itself.\nWe also know that the process of creating a proper horcrux is very complex and it involves advanced dark magic.\nThat being said, we can safely assume that the soul fragment that went into <PERSON> did not have the benefit of certain safeguards or abilities that the creator would otherwise implement. We can also assume that <PERSON> would never build horcruxes that would give people some of his powers so <PERSON>'s ability to speak parseltongue is yet another clue that he was not a fully functional horcrux.\nI think that <PERSON>'s soul fragment was entangled with <PERSON>'s soul but was almost completely inert. It would \"act up\" when another part of <PERSON>'s soul would come in close proximity to it or would somehow connect to it.\nEdit:\nThe Harry Potter wiki entry on horcruxes states:\n<PERSON> revealed in Pottermore that Prof. <PERSON> served as a temporary Horcrux when <PERSON>'s soul possessed his body during <PERSON> first year at Hogwarts. A notable difference however is that the piece of soul within <PERSON> was able to exist without its container, as it abandoned <PERSON> and left him to die in the Underground Chambers. This is due to it being the \"main\" soul that serves as the awareness and consciousness of <PERSON>'s psyche.\nI think that this implies that any other soul fragment other than the \"main\" one is not really self aware. We know that they can make some decisions but those are mostly driven by the survival instinct.\nThere are also inconsistencies in the powers and abilities different horcruxes have:\n* <PERSON> diary has the ability to communicate with people and \"feed\" on their feelings to gain power and form.\n* <PERSON> locket can influence feelings and read minds.\n* We don't know much about <PERSON> ring other than the fact that it was able to protect itself by means of a powerful curse.\n* <PERSON>'s cup and <PERSON>'s diadem seemed rather passive until they were destroyed.\n* We don't see any horcrux related behaviour or influences manifested by <PERSON>.\nThis also leads to the conclusion that any power or ability a horcrux has, other than those that come with the soul fragment, is imbued voluntarily by the creator.\nAnswer for @tls: I meant to say that any soul fragment would have a survival instinct, or rather a survival reflex, and some very rudimentary sensory abilities but it wouldn't be able to actually do something of consequence unless the owner would give it such abilities.", "773" ], [ "As we can see in the second book, <PERSON> diary is just an \"artificial intelligence\", wrapped around a soul fragment, that is \"trained\" to interact with people and \"feed\" it their energy or feelings, to the point where the soul fragment would be powerful enough to act on its own.\nBecause of the second book, most people think of horcruxes as potential Voldemorts, sleeping until something triggered them to return to life and full form. In reality, the events of the second book are the result of the ingenuity and creativity that <PERSON> put in the creation of the diary horcrux.\nThe sole purpose of your everyday horcrux is to act as an anchor for the \"main\" soul into this world. You can picture them as actual anchors tethered to the original soul. As long as at least one horcurx exists the soul cannot leave this world, no matter what happens to the body. So the truth is that, probably, for an anonymous wizard, more than one horcrux is just overkill. Seven horcruxes don't make you more immortal than just one.\n<PERSON> went to such great lengths to create and defend his horcruxes because he was a famous dark wizard and knew that people would go to great lengths to make him go away. That is why he created such special and powerful items. Think about it:\n* <PERSON>'s diary had the potential to create another <PERSON> but was offered no obvious protection.\n* <PERSON>'s ring didn't do much* but was protected by a very, very powerful curse.", "773" ], [ "As <PERSON> pointed out we learned in \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\" that living creatures can be turned into Horcruxes.\nThe Argument against it was:\nA phoenix could probably be a Horcrux. However, given that the Horcrux would be rendered useless when the phoenix regenerated, and that a phoenix wouldn't be likely to want to be a Horcrux anyway, making a phoenix into a Horcrux would be a poor choice.\nAt this point, I think we have to ask ourselves the question if a reborn Phoenix is really dead/destroyed beyond magical repair since this is the only possibility to destroy a Horcrux.\nThe Horcrux-receptacle has to be destroyed BEYOND REPAIR [...]\n— JKR on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/563633021837131777\nI would argue, that - since a Phoenix is a creature which is really hard to domesticate - it's body is replaced but its soul and memories are still the same after being reborn. Otherwise, that would mean that e.g. <PERSON> would have to domesticate <PERSON> each time he is reborn (which sounds to me too much work, even for <PERSON>).\nThe phoenix gains an XXXX rating not because it is aggressive, but because very few wizards have ever succeeded in domesticating it.\n— Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them\nI would argue that this shows that a phoenix is not damaged \"beyond repair\".\nSo here I think it depends. <PERSON> is a snake and therefore has to molt from time to time. One could argue that molting is a similar process as being reborn in terms of a Phoenix. That would mean, that when being killed/destroyed by e.g. the killing curse, the Horcrux inside the Phoenix would survive the process.\nOn the other hand, hitting a living creature which is a Horcrux with a killing curse does not necessarily kill the creature. An example of that is <PERSON> himself, who was hit by a killing curse but survived while the curse killed the Horcrux inside him.\nAlso <PERSON> argues often, that the Horcrux-Receptacle has to be destroyed beyond repair which in case of living creatures is the body of this creature.\n<PERSON>: So, can I ask this? This is kind of a random question but if <PERSON> had this Horcrux in him, of course, sort of, would he have actually have died, like say when a dragon could've killed him, or when he was falling during Quidditch, or anything?\n<PERSON>: Well, you've got to-- if his body had been irreperably destroyed, he has to die to get rid of that piece of soul. His body has got to be irreperably damaged.", "773" ], [ "So a lot of people asked, and I think I've answered this since... but a lot of people immediately said, having finished \"Hallows\", \"(gasps) But then, that means, in Chamber of Secrets when he was pierced by the basilisk...\" But no, no, no, no. He didn't die! He didn't die! That was stated right at the beginning with the Horcrux. The receptacle has got to be destroyed. His body wasn't destroyed. He got a bit poisoned, and then he got the antidote immediately. So, you know, that's not gonna drive out this piece of soul.\n— Interview: http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2007/1217-pottercast-anelli.html\nSo while the body of a molted snake is not damaged beyond repair, the body of a reborn phoenix is! That for me is the Argument, that turning a Phoenix into a Horcrux is a very bad idea.\nOn the (last) other side. <PERSON> body was still perfectly fine after <PERSON> hit him with the killing curse, so according to this theory the Horcrux would have theoretically survived. It didn't so... ;)", "773" ], [ "Sometimes it was out of his control, in other times it was depending on circumstance.\nFor example, in book 1, <PERSON> was the teacher. He was a teacher in the past but because <PERSON> (who cursed the DADA post so no one would last more than 3 terms) was possessing <PERSON>, he was able to stay longer than others.\nIn book 2, <PERSON> is the teacher. This is because no one else wants the post, not because <PERSON> wanted him in particular. We also learn that the job is essentially cursed.\n\"He was the on' man for the job,\" said <PERSON>, offering them a Y plate of treacle fudge, while <PERSON> coughed squelchily into his basin. \"An' I mean the on' one. Gettin' very difficult ter find anyone fer Y the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it on, see.", "417" ], [ "They're startin' ter think it's jinxed. No one's lasted long fer a while now. -Chamber of Secrets\nIn book 3, chances are looking slim for a teacher, but <PERSON> (a werewolf who people are reluctant to employ) gets a chance by <PERSON> to teach. He was by peer judgement a very good teacher (approved by Madam <PERSON>, students, and teachers).\nIn book 4, the Triwizard Tournament takes place, and as <PERSON> points out that <PERSON> is reading the signs, gets Mad eye <PERSON> to take the post, just for 1 year (pointed out to be an teacher experienced in his field even though he turned out to be <PERSON> and placed illegal curses on his students)\nIf it hurts again, go straight to <PERSON> ­ they're saying he's got Mad­Eye out of retirement, which means he's reading the signs, even if no one else is. Goblet of Fire\nIn book 5, it is in the same position as Book 2. No one wants the job, with the public considering it cursed, however, this time the ministry intervene and force <PERSON> to employ a ministry witch (<PERSON>) in essence to spy and cause trouble at Hogwarts.\nIn book 6, <PERSON> needed <PERSON> in order to obtain a memory, and as <PERSON> taught potions, <PERSON> had to move to the vacant role he so longed for (DADA). <PERSON> also knew he was going to die, so gave <PERSON> his wish at teaching DADA knowing that he would play a larger role when <PERSON> goes in the school anyway (technically <PERSON> didn't last longer than 3 months either, he left before the end of the last term, and came back as a headteacher).\nIn book 7, <PERSON> was inactive due to being in the afterlife. Not his fault!", "194" ], [ "Well having read the seventh book several times, my understanding of the situation is this:\n* There were two souls within <PERSON>; his own pure and complete and a part of <PERSON>'s soul that latched onto <PERSON> when he survived <PERSON>'s Killing Curse as a baby.\n* As long as that soul stayed in <PERSON>, <PERSON> would not die.\n* In the forest, <PERSON> directed a Killing Curse at <PERSON>, without knowing about the part of his soul in him.\n* The Killing Curse (<PERSON>) kills the victim by destroying his/her soul. Hence, there is no other fatal injury caused by the curse. Just a bruise where the curse hits the victim.\n* So when the Killing Curse hits <PERSON>, its a choice between which soul survives and which gets destroyed, <PERSON>'s pure unblemished one, or <PERSON>'s fragment.\n* If <PERSON> had chosen to move on, I believe his body would still be alive in the form of <PERSON>'s unintended Horcrux. So there would be two <PERSON>'s walking and talking, except one would be using (and in complete control of) <PERSON>'s body.\nBut as @cst1992 mentioned in the comments to the question, there is also the matter of the Elder Wand, which cannot kill <PERSON>. Obviously the wand recognized that there was a fragment of another soul, apart from his own, within <PERSON>'s body and would have killed only that fragment. That choice between the two souls would only happen if <PERSON> had used any other wand, apart from the Elder Wand.\nThere's also this business of <PERSON> being tethered to life as long as <PERSON> lives since <PERSON> took <PERSON>'s blood during his resurrection to a full-bodied being.\nSo technically, <PERSON> couldn't have \"moved on\" at all, since his soul was not harmed (and could not be harmed) in way at all.\nI believe, in King's Cross, <PERSON>'s mind was clearing itself of <PERSON>'s soul and was able to think and reason clearly, without any worry or guilt or emotion to cloud his thoughts.", "773" ], [ "There is no real new information which comes out. It's just <PERSON> deducing everything for himself, with his image of <PERSON> helping him out. Which is why <PERSON> says :\n“My dear boy, I have no idea. This is, as they say, your party.”\nOf course, as to the existence of a \"King's Cross\",\n“I think,” said <PERSON>, ”that if you choose to return, there is a chance that he may be finished for good. I cannot promise it. But I know this, <PERSON>, that you have less to fear from returning here than he does.”\nWhen <PERSON> talks about \"returning here\", maybe <PERSON> intended to show all magical folk go to their own \"King's Cross\" upon their deathbed.\nP.S: Maybe we Muggles go there as well. There's no way of finding out for real of course!", "773" ], [ "It isn't Unforgivable in the way that the Unforgivables are\nA popular fan theory is that there is no grey area with Unforgivable curses. They do what they say on the tin and nothing else. Killing curse kills, imperio controls, crucio tortures. The caster also has to fully understand and mean to cause the effect the curse entails too. There's no excuse for fully casting them other than they wanted to kill/control/torture.\nThis is alluded to in OotP when <PERSON> taunts <PERSON> about his weak/failed <PERSON>:\nHatred rose in <PERSON> such as he had never known before: he flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed, \"<PERSON>!\"\n<PERSON> screamed: the spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as <PERSON> had – she was already back on her feet, breathless, no longer laughing. [...]\n\"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?\" she yelled.", "773" ], [ "She had abandoned her baby voice now. \"You need to mean them, <PERSON>! You need to really want to cause pain – to enjoy it – righteous anger won't hurt me for long – I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson —\" (36.30-32) Order of the Phoenix\nAnd again with fake!Moody in the Goblet of Fire where he claims during the Unforgivables class that if the class were to all point their wands at him and say \"<PERSON>\" he wouldn't get much more than a bloody nose - they'd have to mean it for him to die (unable to find the quote for this, sorry).\nSectumsempra is different:\n<PERSON> is able to fully cast Sectumsempra off-hand and in a panic without understanding any of it's effects. Plus the curse is ambiguous as to how much damage it does, and as <PERSON><PHONE_NUMBER>) Order of the Phoenix\nAnd again with fake!Moody in the Goblet of Fire where he claims during the Unforgivables class that if the class were to all point their wands at him and say \"Avada Kedavra\" he wouldn't get much more than a bloody nose - they'd have to mean it for him to die (unable to find the quote for this, sorry).\nSectumsempra is different:\nHarry is able to fully cast Sectumsempra off-hand and in a panic without understanding any of it's effects. Plus the curse is ambiguous as to how much damage it does, and as Snape proves the damage is reversible. This makes it on par with spells like Reducto, Confringo, or Bombarda Maxima. Each of these spells could be used to decimate another wizard, but also could be used to wound instead.\nI would imagine in the HP universe there are more than just three curses that you aren't allowed to use too - the Unforgivables are just the worst and so are on another level. Sectumsempra would most likely regarded as Dark/illegal/restricted, along with other spells such as the organ-expelling/skin-boiling curse etc.", "773" ], [ "Why did <PERSON> say that it was \"essential\" that <PERSON> kills <PERSON> if <PERSON> was anyhow bound to life by his blood inside <PERSON>?\nThis is for me the biggest unresolved question of the Books. <PERSON> planned from the beginning that <PERSON> should first destroy all horcruxes and then should die by the hand of <PERSON> (which leads to <PERSON> telling to <PERSON> that he must die) and that <PERSON> should kill <PERSON> as last thing. The point is: why? <PERSON> since the Goblet of fire was \"immortal\", namely since <PERSON> took <PERSON>'s blood in his vein. Quoting the 7th book, chapter 35: ‘Precisely!’ said <PERSON>. ‘He took your blood and rebuilt his living body with it! Your blood in his veins, <PERSON>, <PERSON>’s protection inside both of you! He tethered you to life while he lives!’‘I live ... while he lives? But I thought ... I thought it was the other way round! I thought we both had to die? Or is it the same thing? [...] ‘He took your blood believing it would strenghten him. he took into his body a tiny part of the enchantment your mother laid upon <PERSON> when she died for you.", "773" ], [ "His body keeps her sacrifice alive, and while that enchantment survives, so do you’. And this all make sense with the prophecy. So, it is clear that <PERSON> would (or better COULD, if he chose to return back every time he died) live, even if he jumped from a cliff or someone killed him, till <PERSON> was alive. Then, why not kill himself alone (or with the help of his friends) to destroy the part of <PERSON> which is in him and then do the other things? Why is it so essential\" that it is <PERSON> to kill <PERSON>? The only reason I could find is the fact that <PERSON> wanted <PERSON> to accept death so that he could fully handle all the Deathly Hallows in order to have the power to kill <PERSON> (and yes, the Deathly Hallows in the books have only the function of making <PERSON> strong enough to kill <PERSON>, which in the end happened and was the reason <PERSON> won, because <PERSON> died by the elder wand as <PERSON> was the master of it, since <PERSON> took it from <PERSON>'s manor. Deathly Hallows have nothing to do with <PERSON> returning to life or anything special, they are only power). To support this, in book 7, chapter 35 <PERSON> says ‘If you laid hands on them, I wanted you to possess them safely. You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die’. Still, <PERSON> could have processed and accepted death even from other death eaters or other people, so I think that this is not the answer.", "773" ] ]

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[ [ "If you want to find out about the the relationship of this response to romance in particular, there's a pretty comprehensive research paper called Love is more than just a kiss: a neurobiological perspective on love and affection[1] which reviews a lot of the work done in this area. This is pretty good as it discusses all the different stages including breakup.\nEssentially, there seems to be a lot factors at play which elicits various responses through different stages of love.\nIn terms of anxiety and stress, initially, there's a large increase in levels of cortisol[2] and a marked drop in serotonin. Depletion of serotonin is found in many psychiatric conditions such as depression, anxiety and panic disorder. There's even been evidence that these levels at early stages of love are similar to those suffering with OCD. Obviously, the 'symptoms' of early love are quite similar to these conditions so it's hypothesised that this, at least in part contributes to those feelings.[1]. It was found that these levels are back to normal in 12-24 months.\nThe elevated levels of cortisol contribute to the feelings of stress but this hormone has also been shown to promote attachment.[2].\nThere are also changes in activity of the amygdala. Responsible for regulating a lot of emotions such as fear and sexual drive, the amygdala can activate autonomic nervous system responses through the mechanisms which <PERSON> described.\nThere are a bunch of other things at play here including dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, nerve growth factor (NGF), testosterone, increased activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-axis (HPA) and variations in activity in other areas of the brain.\nAgain, that first reference gives a pretty comprehensive overview of the mechanisms involved.\nTo answer the actual question about the fluttering feeling, as <PERSON> mentioned, it's hypothesised that this is caused by reduced peristalsis in the intestines as a result of sympathetic stimulation. I don't have an academic reference for this but there are plenty of non-academic sources that talk about it (a quick Google of butterflies in stomach and physiology will probably show them).\nA lot of the mechanisms noted above can contribute to, sensitise for or cause sympathetic activation. For example, panic attacks and anxiety, mentioned earlier with the serotonin relationship, can cause the same feeling.\n1. <PERSON>, et al. Love is more than just a kiss: a neurobiological perspective on love and affection.", "551" ], [ "Neuroscience. 2012. 201:114-124.\n2. <PERSON>, et al. Hormonal changes when falling in love. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2004. 29(7):931-936.\n3. Guyton and Hall. Medical Physiology. 11th ed. Elsevier Saunders.", "1009" ], [ "I think the article that quoted(1) is different to what the link shows now(2). However, both the article quoted and the one in the link are relevant to the question.\nAlzheimer's Disease : In a nutshell, AD is the most common form of dementia. Although the exact cause is still under investigation, several genes have been implicated in the development of AD. One of the things you see in the brain with disease progression is beta amyloid plaque deposition which disrupts brain activity.\nBrain Activity : While the brain consumes around 20% of our body's energy at a baseline, an increase in brain activity only increases this consumption by around 5%. <PERSON>, the first to record an EEG stated that \"mental work, as I explained elsewhere, adds only a small increment to the cortical work which is going on continuously and not only in the waking state\".(2)\nHowever, there are a few 'intrinsic' networks or regions that perform functions such as \"information processing for interpreting, responding to and predicting environmental demands\". One of the areas active in this state of the brain is referred to as the 'default mode network' (DMN). It's thought that DMN is main the target of the amyloid plaques responsible for Alzheimer's Disease.(2)\nHowever, there are other multimodal regions of the brain that perform processing of various types of information. It's now suggested that \"it appears that regions vulnerable to Ab deposition do not simply involve the DMN, but rather comprise multimodal brain regions that are highly interconnected, plastic, and capable of rapid ATP generation\"(1).\nSo it's a variation of activity in these particular areas - not all - that are implicated with Alzheimer's Disease. When you are performing a task, activity in these areas diminish.\nWhy keep the brain intentionally active : The reason for the hypothesis that actively engaging in challenging activity may reduce the risk of AD is that individuals with a high cognitive reserve have been shown to cope with the pathological changes such as beta amyloid deposition better. Cognitive reserve has been linked to a bunch of factors including \"education, occupation, socioeconomic status, social networks and lifelong participation in cognitive and physical activity\" and reflects \"lifelong patterns of behaviors, endogenous factors (including genetics) and exposure to environmental factors\"(1).\nMoreover, it's suggested that perhaps higher cognitive reserve increases neuronal efficiency which has been shown to reduce plaque deposition.(1).\nSo <PERSON>'s question and jp89's answer aren't really contradictory.\n1. <PERSON>, et al. Lifespan brain activity, β-amyloid, and Alzheimer's disease. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.", "882" ], [ "2011. 15(11):520-526.\n2. Raiche. Two views of the brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 2010. 14(4):180-190.\n3. <PERSON>, et al. Imaging the default mode network in aging and dementia. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular Basis of Disease. 2012. 1822(3):431-441.\n4. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 16th <PERSON>.", "495" ], [ "Gasoline toxicity through ingestions seems to be a topic where there's not a great deal of in-depth information available. I don't know how this works for chronic use, as most literature refers to acute scenarios. Either way, orally ingested, 30-50g is said to be toxic to humans while 350g can be fatal.[3].\nSo...\nGasoline's Constituents\nA lot of components that make up gasoline are toxic to humans. This includes for example, benzene, toluene, xylene and butadiene. It's a mixture of more than 500 hydrocarbons and additives made up of:\n* 60–70% alkanes (paraffins)\n* 25–30% aromatics\n* 6–9% alkenes (olefins).[2].\nIf you really want to know specifics about metabolism of gasoline, you can probably check out how some of the constituents are metabolised (processed) and their effects. This is because different components have varying metabolic pathways.\nIf you want to check this out, see <PERSON>, et al at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1520023/pdf/envhper00383-0118.pdf.[3].\nIngestion and Toxicity\nApparently, most reported cases of toxicity from gasoline occur from inhalation or absorption through the skin (intravenous use has also been reported). Even though ingestion is a frequent occurrence, there's not much data on outcomes after oral ingestion.[1],[2]. Gasoline can however be well absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract[2].\nThe main target organ of gasoline toxicity is the nervous system and at high doses, this effect can cause death within minutes.[3]. However, generally, the primary cause of mortality seems to be related to gasoline's toxicity to the lungs. There are severe effects on the pulmonary system. Other effects of ingestion hasn't been as well documented.[1],[2].\nIt's suggested that these compounds have a direct effect on lung tissue and disrupts gas exchange and causes fluid buildup in the lungs (pulmonary edema). This in turn causes the oxygen levels in the body to drop (hypoxemia).[2]. There are many other toxic effects on the lungs as well.\nAdditionally, liver damage, kidney damage, damage to blood cells, gastric ulcers and toxicity in the heart can occur.[2],[3]. Again, this is discussed in <PERSON>, et al.\nHope that helps!\n1.", "978" ], [ "Rahman I. Gasoline ingestion: a rare cause of pancytopenia. Am J Med Sci. 2009. 338(5):433-4.\n2. Domej W. Successful outcome after intravenous gasoline injection. J Med Toxicol. 2007. 3(4):173-7.\n3. <PERSON>, et al. Acute Toxicity of Gasoline and Some Additives. Environmental Health Perspectives. 1993. 115-131.", "978" ], [ "A recent paper called 'Genetic Influences in Sport and Physical Performance'[1] states:\n\"Muscle fibre type determination is complex. Whilst initial composition is likely to be strongly influenced by genetic factors, training has significant effects on fibre shifts.\"\nThey also go onto say that:\n\"However, the role of genetic variation in determining psychological state and responses remains poorly understood; only recently have specific genes been implicated in motivational behaviour and maintenance of exercise.\"\nFinally:\n\"With the current state of knowledge, the field of genetic influences on sports performance remains in its infancy, despite over a decade of research.\"\nAn older paper which also examined fiber types stated that:\n\"These results reveal the existence of large interindividual variability and gender differences in the most common characteristics of the human skeletal muscle.\"[4].\nAnother study hypothesises that there may be racial differences in muscle fibre types.[2]. It's also said that a large variation in fiber composition of skeletal muscle within subgroups of athletic ability. This suggests that factors other than fiber-type composition contribute to performance.[3].\nA small study carried out in the Croatian Navy found that ectomorphs had a better ability to sprint than endomorphs.[5]. They also found a positive correlation between calf girth and sprinting ability.\nThe information is a bit disjointed and sparse. However, to finally come around to the question at hand, it seems that although there may be differences according to body type initially (which obviously also has a genetic basis), training and physical activity contributes significantly to what number and types of fibres individuals possess.\nThere are lots of sport-specific research papers examining individuals' performance and suitability on body types.\nA note on somatotyping: I guess it might also be handy note that somatotyping (endomorph, ectomorph and mesomorph) is just one theory on measuring an individual and it does have critics. The theory was initially developed in an attempt to link body type to behaviour.\nIt's been suggested that measurements like BMI are much more objective and useful.[6]. Another point made was that bodies change according to a number of environmental variables, nutrition etc.[7]. For example, one study suggested that intense labour during adolescence may affect somatotype (there are a few similar studies).[8]. So perhaps while using somatotypes to identify a person at one point in time is useful, it has limits in use as a long term classification.\nThis point probably has more relevance to the question at hand since with training and physical activity, a person can potentially change their somatotype at least to some extent; and also the number and types of muscle fibers (which evidence supports).\n1. <PERSON>, et al. Genetic influences in sport and physical performance. Sports Med. 2011. 41:845-59.\n2. Nielsen J. Glucose intolerance in the West African Diaspora: a skeletal muscle fibre type distribution hypothesis. Acta Physiol. 2011. 202(4):605-16.\n3. <PERSON>: DeLee and Drez's Orthopaedic Sports Medicine. 3rd ed. <PERSON>.\n4. <PERSON>, et al.", "625" ], [ "Human variation in skeletal muscle fiber-type proportion and enzyme activities. AJP - Endo. 1989. 257(4):567-572.\n5. Sporis G. Impact of body composition on performance in fitness tests among personnel of the Croatian navy. Coll Antropol. 2011. 35(2):335-9.\n6. <PERSON>, et al. The BMI as a somatotypic measure of physique: A rejoinder to <PERSON>. The Social Science Journal. 2009. 46:394–401.\n7. Parnell. Simplified somatotypes Original Research Article. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 1964. 8(3):311-315.\n8. <PERSON>, et al. The effect of labour on somatotype of males during the adolescent growth period. Homo. 2008. 59(2):161-72.", "278" ], [ "This information is all strictly for Entonox - a brand of analgesic gas comprising 50% Oxygen (O2) and 50% Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Laughing Gas. This mixture is known as 'Gas and Air' and is in very common use.\nThe active ingredient in Entonox is of course the nitrous oxide, so the discussion of the mechanism below refers solely to the N2O as you asked for.\nNitrous oxide enters the blood by diffusion from the alveoli whilst it is being inhaled, but does not bind with hameoglobin. It is fat soluble so quickly moves into cells, including synapse ends in the brain. Because of the stability of the compound, N2O is not metabolized by the body so has its effect as that molecule, then is eliminated by diffusion out of the lungs once inhalation has ceased (taking roughly 2 minutes for on and offset).\nAccording to the material that BOC pharmaceuticals provide, the exact mechanism of the analgesia is not fully understood. It is known, however, to induce \"inconsistent changes in the basal levels of thalamic nuclei\".\nN2O inhibits NMDA receptors in the brain whilst simultaneously encouraging the stimulation of the parasympathetic GABA receptors. This eventually produces an anaesthetic effect. It is also understood that N2O promotes the release of endogenous opioid neurotransmitters ('natural painkillers' e.g.", "978" ], [ "endorphins) that specifically activate descending pain pathways. This inhibits the transmission of pain. In this way the analgesia provided by nitrous oxide is antinociceptive (literally pain reducing) rather than a generalised limbic depressor.\nHowever, nitrous oxide also positively effects potassium ion channels too - reducing the chance of an action potential being generated in affected neurons. Research into this area of the effects of N2O is ongoing.\nEuphoria is a common side effect of N2O usage, hence the name laughing gas. This is as part of wider emotional changes that can occur when nitrous oxide is being administered. For example, some people instead of laughing become scared or in other cases extremely agressive towards those nearby. The precise mechanism for these disinhibitions is again not fully understood.\nWhilst it seems a lot of the answers are missing, the course I'm taking this information from is available online at Discover Entonox - modules 8-10 have relevance to this question. It's free to register and view the materials, they're all nicely narrated with diagrams etc.", "978" ], [ "Relationship between mN and mg in vessel contraction studies?\nWhat is the relationship between mN and mg as the units involved to measure the changes in contraction? A tool most widely used is an instrument called myograph. In these exoeriments, either units of mg or mN is used without any mention of why. Note that the first two examples use an experimental tool called a myograph - used to measure the force produced by a muscle (in this case muscular blood vessels) when under contraction. Both examples mention tension. Wether these myograph experiments are completely different i'm unsure.\n1. This example shows force as 'mN' from this paper Fig 1A a. Those who are interested the caption is as follows \"Effects of Li+-PSS and NMDG-PSS in PGF2α-preconstricted pulmonary arteries. Intrapulmonary arteries (IPA) were first exposed to 80 mM K+, and endothelial function was assessed by relaxation of PGF2α contractions (10 μM) to acetylcholine (10 μM). Following a period of recovery, IPA were preconstricted to 10–15% 80K using PGF2α, and then physiological saline solution (PSS) was replaced by Li+-PSS in the continuing presence of the same concentration of PGF2α in endothelium-intact IPA\"\n2.", "171" ], [ "This example shows units as 'g'. note that some examples from other papers also use units of mg essentiall x1000 similar to other unit conversions from this paper Fig 1a. The caption is pretty much the same as 1. Particularly thromboxane A2 (TXA2) is a pharmacological agent affecting a set of ion channels: \"Requirement of thromboxane A2 (TXA2) for hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) in rat pulmonary arteries (PAs). A: hypoxia alone (3% PO2) did not induce contraction of PA (left). In the presence of 10 nM U46619, hypoxia induced a strong contraction equivalent with the response to high K+ (80K, right)\"\n3. For a third example click here. It does interestingly state \"The PA rings were stretched to a predetermined optimal passive tension of 750 mg\". As such mg (or g) is an alternative representation of a unit of force as presumed. Figure 1 in this link again demonstrates mg as an y-axis unit of measurement under myograph experiment", "171" ], [ "The idea that males and females react differentially to various smells in the context of “hard science” alludes to the concept of sexual dimorphism in olfactory signaling, which has been investigated:\nStowers & <PERSON>. Sexual dimorphism in olfactory signaling. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 2010. 20,770-775.\nWhat makes males and females behave differently? Although genetic master-regulators commonly underlie physical differences, sexually dimorphic behavior is additionally influenced by sensory input such as olfactory cues. Olfaction requires both ligands for signaling and sensory neural circuits for detection. Specialized subsets of each interact to generate gender-dimorphic behavior. It has long been accepted that males and females emit sex-specific odor compounds that function as pheromones to promote stereotypic behavior. Significant advances have now been made in purifying and isolating several of these sex-specific olfactory ligands. In contrast, the neural mechanisms that enable a gender- dimorphic response to these odors remain largely unknown. However, first progress has been made in identifying components of sexually dimorphic olfactory circuits in both Drosophila and the mouse.\nYou’re right that most research in humans (like this paper) on this subject includes elements relating to sexual orientation or sexual selection, but I did find one article that is more relevant to your question:\n<PERSON>. Preference and Gender Associations of Perfumes Applied on Human Skin.", "524" ], [ "Journal of Sensory Studies. 2012. 27,490-497.\nAbstract\nThe perception of fragrances has been a growing field of interest, where perfumes classified as either typically feminine or typically masculine primarily have been used as stimuli. The current study explored gender associations and preferences of more “unisex” perfumes found in the middle of a gender continuum of fragrances, both when the fragrances were applied on humans, and when they were presented in glass bottles. Blindfolded participants indicated if they wanted to use the fragrances themselves, if they wanted their partner to use the perfumes, scaled gender associations (femininity and masculinity) for each perfume and tried to guess the gender of the person each perfume was applied on when not presented in a bottle. Results show that the gender of the person that the perfume was applied on did not affect the participants' preference or their gender scaling. Moreover, the preference did not differ between female and male participants, indicating that the commercial gender categorization is less important to the perfume consumers.\nPractical Implications\nOn the commercial market, most perfumes are classified as either feminine or masculine, although the odor quality of feminine and masculine odors are overlapping and constitute a continuum rather than two separate clusters of odors. Earlier research has shown that participants tend to prefer perfumes positioned in the middle of this gender continuum. The current study investigates gender associations and preferences of perfumes from the middle of the gender continuum while these are applied on humans. When blindfolded participants evaluated their perception of the perfumes in this study, it became clear that neither the gender of the humans that the perfumes were applied on, nor the commercial gender labeling of the perfumes were important to their perception. Consequently, the commercial gender categorization does not seem to be sufficient for all perfumes. Instead, the classification of perfumes could be according to other aspects, e.g., according to odor quality.", "524" ], [ "Reading \"Polyphasic Sleep: Facts and Myths (Dr Piotr Wozniak)\", it is pointed out that infant humans do undergo polyphasic sleep. As this is where most of our development is obviously done, I do not know where I can further proceed with the question about how it would affect development? Perhaps the issue is more how it would effect the day to day performance of a developed individual? If this is the case then it is suggested by Dr <PERSON> that this is likely to be highly disruptive to the individual\nThose well-defined effects of natural sleep affecting stimuli on sleep patterns lead to an instant conclusion: the claim that humans can adapt to any sleeping pattern is false. A sudden shift in the schedule, as in shift work, may lead to a catastrophic disruption of sleep control mechanisms. 25% of North American population may work in variants of shift schedule. Many shift workers never adapt to shifts in sleep patterns. At times, they work partly in conditions of harmful disconnect from their body clock, and return to restful sleep once their shift returns to their preferred timing. At worst, the constant shift of the working hours results in a loss of synchrony between various physiological variables and the worker never gets any quality sleep. This propels an individual on a straight path to a volley of health problems...\nIt appears that polyphasic sleep encounters the precisely same problems as seen in jet lag or shift-work.", "551" ], [ "Human body clock is not adapted to sleeping in patterns other than monophasic or biphasic sleep.\nIt would therefore seem that polyphasic sleep is certainly detrimental to health, if not development.\nHowever studies into cognitive performance resulting from differing sleep patterns run by Dr <PERSON> (Published ISBN <PHONE_NUMBER>), he concluded that polyphasic sleep was more efficient than monophasic sleep. Therefore it may be possible that polyphasic sleep patterns have no detrimental effect on development.\nIndividuals sleeping for 30 minutes every four hours, for a daily total of only 3 hours of sleep, performed better and were more alert, compared to when they had 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep\nThere are a couple of theories mentioned in the above book (beginning pg 5) which support the development of monophasic sleep as evolution rather than a social convention:\n1. Polyphasic sleep is regularly seen in smaller mammals that have very high metabolic rates, requiring them to spend most of their time foraging or hunting. Therefore a long sleep would be highly impractical for them as they would wake without the energy required to hunt their next meal. Humans do not have this need as they are larger and do not require such regular meals.\n2. Monophasic sleep would be beneficial for the early human hunter gatherer as our eyes are not well adapted to see at night. Therefore any time spent not using the daylight is wasted and any time without the light is not nearly as useful. This makes it more beneficial to sleep for an extended period when the sun is down.\nI am sure that social factors would have an effect, however I would imagine the evolutionary pressures to be more significant.\nI really would recommend the book (http://sleepwarrior.com/Claudio_Stampi_-_Why_We_Nap.pdf) if you have not yet encountered it as I found it very informative and packed with references to studies that you may find helpful.", "551" ] ]

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[ [ "LEGO-Shaped Chocolate Mousse Cake\nIntroduction: LEGO-Shaped Chocolate Mousse Cake\nThe LEGO-shaped chocolate mousse cake is a sweet and delicious recipe that combines all the fun of eating a big LEGO block and learning to use the ultimate \"Maker\" procedures.\nThis make is divided into 2 parts, the \"Preparation\" one, in which we'll make the design and fabrication of the positive and negative molds, and the \"Delicious\" elaboration, which includes all the recipes for the mousse and the cake bases.\nThis project is intended to be modular! So take it all or just the part that suits your supplies or habilities the best!\nHave fun, enjoy the process and LET'S MAKE IT!\nSupplies\nMold-making tools:\n1. 3D printer\n2. Hot glue gun\nKitchen tools and utensils:\n1. Spatula\n2. Whisk\n3. Various sized bowls\n4. Rectangular Tray or Mold (Suitable for the oven)\n5. Electric mixer [ If you want to go faster ;) ]\n6. Sieve\n7. Baking paper\n8. Scale\n9. Spoons\n10. Knives\nMaterials to make the Mold:\n1. PLA filament\n2. Food safe elastic mold fabrication silicone\n3. Foamboard or Cardboard\n4. Hot glue\n5. Skewer\nIngredients for the Sponge cake:\n1. 4 eggs\n2.", "515" ], [ "150g of Wheat flour\n3. 150g of sugar\n4. Berry jam or the flavor of your preference\nIngredients for the Chocolate Mousse:\n1. 150g of 70% Chocolate\n2. 35g cream + 225g cream (Same cream but separated in different bowls)\n3. 35g whole milk\n4. 1 egg yolk\n5. 2 gelatine sheets\nStep 1: Design the Lego 4x2 Block Positive\nFirstly, open Fusion 360 and create a new project. Then, once it's ready, we click on the \"Top\" view in the corner cube, and in the menu, we \"Create a new sketch\". Now we can start drawing our LEGO 4x2 Shaped block.\nFollowing the sizes that we can find all over the internet, we draw a rectangle (15.8mm by 31.8mm) and extrude it by 9.6mm. We can also make a chamfer intended to make the mold easier to remove.\nOnce created the base shape, it's just needed to add the mounting dots at 3.9mm squared from the corners, 8mm separating each, and 4.8mm in diameter.\nAfter the dots are drawn in the sketch, we extrude it at 1.8mm, and for the same reason as the chamfer, we add a fillet of 0.5mm.\nNow we export the piece as a \".3mf\" or \".STL file\", so the slicer of the 3d printer knows how to read it and open it. In there, we will set the size that we'll use to make the mold.\nStep 2: 3D Print the Positive and Making of the Mold\nOnce we have the 3D model, we import it to our slicer, in this case, is the Ultimaker Cura. From there we change the size to our desired one, in our case 50mm in width, changing the height and length accordingly (Uniform Scaling).\nMaking the mold is an easy task, we have to create, firstly, the enclosure. For the size printed, we'll need one sheet of A4-sized foamboard. We cut and glue the 5 pieces of foamboard (4 walls and the bottom part) making the box 2mm oversized for each side to make the mold walls with the proper stiffness and also with the adequate flexibility to not disturb the mousse.\nNow we have to mix well the food-safe mold-making silicone and pour it into the case from an approximate height of 30cm to ensure we get rid of all the bubbles.\nLet it cure for the time it says in the silicone instructions and de-mold the piece. Congratulations! Now you have a mold to make this giant delicious LEGO mousse.\nStep 3: Sponge Cake Recipe\nFirstly, we will separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Whip the egg whites until you can put the bowl upside down without the egg falling. That's the texture we are looking for (also forming peaks on the whisks).\nSecondly, in a separate bowl, sieve de flour and add the sugar, the egg yolks and mix. Then incorporate the egg whites into the flour mixture bowl making enveloping movements, with the help of the spatula. You will obtain a smooth batter.", "515" ], [ "DIY 3D Printed LED Poster | W/ Neopixels or RGB LED Strips\nIntroduction: DIY 3D Printed LED Poster | W/ Neopixels or RGB LED Strips\nI am new to 3D printing and I am in this stage where I am experimenting a lot with my Ender 3 Pro to know it capabilites. Today I am here to show you how to create your own 3D printed LED Poster.\nYou can make yours based on a phrase, or a logo as in my case, using your favorite LED strips, RGB, Neopixels, etc.\nHere I leave you a tutorial with all the information so you can make your own version.\nIf you are a visual learner I know that a video worth more than 1000 words, so here is a 2 parts Tutorial video. (I am a Spanish speaker, so please consider turning on English subtitles):\nStep 1: Skills Required:\nThis project may seem difficult or very complex, but it is definitely not completely, since you will have all the guidance for the construction, it was difficult for me to design it to make life a little easier for you. Any conceptual doubt, you are free to ask it without problems.\nYou should have an understanding of:\n* 3D Printing\n* Using of Fusion 360\n* Handling of cutting tools and drills.\n* How to solder (if you need to join several LED strips)\nStep 2: Components and Parts List\n* Here is the list of what you will need for the whole process:\n- 3D Printer: https://amzn.to/38w59ui\n- LED Strip: https://amzn.to/3nuRZ4N\n- Some Glue and cutting tools.\n- Fusion 360 software.\n- Slicer software (ex.CURA)\nStep 3: Vectorizing Your Logo\n1. Open Adobe Illustrator software.\n2. Drag your jpg (img) of your LOGO.\n3. In the upper menu click on \"image tracing\".\n4. In the upper menu open de options of image tracing.\n5. In advance options, checkmark \"skip white\".\n6. Click on \"Expand\"\n7. Now your logo is vectorized\n8. Save as SVG.\nStep 4: Modeling Your Poster on Fusion 360\n1. Draw a square with the dimentions of the bed of your 3D Printer. (220*220mm)\n2.", "737" ], [ "Open a Sketch, and Insert > Insert SVG > Find your vectorized logo.\n3. Scale the logo so the pieces fix on your 3D Printer bed.\n4. Select the perimeters of your logo and make an outside 8mm offset and inside 1.2mm offset.\n5. Select letter by letter and extrude 1mm up.\n6. Select the borders of each letter (one by one) and extrude 50mm up.\n7. Select the 1.2mm border of each letter and extrude 30mm up (joined).\n8. Select the area of the diffusers and apply a two sides extrude (-30mm , 32mm).\n9. Select the 1.2mm borders of the difussers and apply a two sides extrude joined (-30mm , 50mm)\n10. Draw some rectangles in the union of each letter where you want to pass the LED strips.\n11. Select those rectangles and extrude a cut of +10mm height (LED strips are 10mm normally).\n12. Make shure to make an offset of 0.3mm in every piece union, including diffusors.\n13. This is because the pieces expand and grow a little when printed and they wont fix without the offset.\n14. Save your pieces one by one as STL.\n15. Open them on your slicer and print them.\nStep 5: 3D Print the Pieces\nI used 0.3mm layer height for the black parts so I can reduce the time, and the quality was nice.\nI used the standard quality of 0.2mm layers of Cura settings for the diffusors (white parts).\nStep 6: Neopixel Option\nYou can replicate my last project (Neopixels LED strip controller): https://www.instructables.com/Smart-Desk-LED-Light...\nAnd make your LED poster smartter, Neopixels will let you control the color of each letter or piece of your Logo, phrase or forms.\nIn this attached article I give you all the instructions to make the PCB, circuit diagram, code and build process.\nI highly recommend JLCPCB to order your custom PCBs so you can make your own version of the project.", "635" ], [ "Strawberry Like-and-Taste Cheesecake\nIntroduction: Strawberry Like-and-Taste Cheesecake\nWhat is better than a strawberry cheesecake shaped... like a strawberry!\nThe idea was to shape the cake as the fruit we choose, and give it a mosaic look and enjoy it!\nThe model was made using fusion 360 and it has been printed using an Ender 3 printer.\nIt could be an amazing idea for your parties!\nSupplies\nSupplies for the Cake Mould:\n* Fusion 360\n* 3D printer\n* TPU Filament\n* Acetate\n* Acetate Sheets\n* Tape\nIngredients for the cheesecake:\n* 200 gr of Digestive biscuits\n* 80 gr of butter\n* 20 gr of sugar\n* 100 gr of icing sugar\n* 250 mL of double cream\n* 200 gr of soft cheese\n* vanilla\n* Strawberries\n* Kiwi\nStep 1: Model the Cake Mould\nThe Cake Mould has been developed in Fusion 360. The size of the strawberry is 20 cm x 15 cm x 4 cm with a thickness of 1.20mm.\nThe Cake Mould has been printed using the Ender 3 and black TPU material.\nStep 2: Hold the Mould in Place\nPlace the shape in your preferred dish and hold it in place with tape.", "515" ], [ "Cover the internal side with the acetate sheets and hold it in place.\nStep 3: Prepare the Biscuit Base\nUsing a mixer crush the biscuits into a fine powder. Melt the butter and mix the crushed biscuits with the sugar and the melted butter.\nPlace the biscuit base in the cake mould and press firmly down into the base to create an even layer.\nPlace the base in the fridge for at least 1hr.\nStep 4: Prepare the Cream and Assemble the Cheesecake\nWhip the double cream. To ensure that the double cream can whip properly, ensure it has been in the fridge and is really cold before whipping.\nAdd the icing sugar and the cream cheese and continue to mix.\nPlace the cream on the biscuit base and create an even layer.\nIf you like a strawberry filling, cut strawberries in half and place them halfway while placing the whipped cream on the biscuit.\nPlace the cake in the fridge for at least 2 hr.\nStep 5: Cut the Fruit\nCut the fruit into small cubes to give your cake a mosaic look.\nStep 6: Prepare and Enjoy Your Cheesecake!\nPlace the cubes on your cheesecake, Really carefully take the Cake Mould and pull it making sure that you are not breaking the cake in any point.\nEnjoy it!", "891" ], [ "Pulp It! - 3D Printable Recycled Cardboard Molds\nIntroduction: Pulp It! - 3D Printable Recycled Cardboard Molds\nTired of throwing cardboard boxes away? Want to recycle at home with a 3D printer? I've got the perfect project for you.\nPulp It! offers new ways to reshape recycled cardboard at home with just a 3D printer. Download different molds and start making recycled products today.\nSupplies\nOnly basic tools are needed to make incredible cardboard products:\n* FDM 3D Printer: Any 3D printer works as the molds are made with PLA plastic\n* Blender: Used to pulp the cardboard. Similar tools may also work.\n* Cloth: To remove excess water from the pulp.\n* Clamps: To press the parts together and form the cardboard product.\n* Scissors: to cut the cardboard into smaller pieces.\nAnd some supplies too:\n* PLA plastic: To 3D print the molds.\n* Cardboard: Or any other pulp-based material such as paper or packing material.\n* Glue: PVA glue or rice paste works best.\n* Water\nStep 1: Pulp It Mold Set\nThe Pulp It! mold set includes four different designs: Pencil Holder, Box, Tray and Coaster.\nAlso, an Autodesk Fusion 360 parametric design is also available. With it, you can easily change the dimensions of the mold and customize it with your own text and logo.\nStep 2: 3D Printing the Molds\nChoose one or more of the mold designs and 3D print them. Keep in mind that these parts will need to withstand pressure, so they need to be resistant.\nRecommended print settings:\n* Layer Height: 0.2-0.3mm\n* Wall thickness: 1.6mm\n* Top/Bottom thickness: 1.5mm\n* Infill Density: 20%\nTip: The mold designs are compatible with larger nozzles. Use a 0.6mm or 0.8mm nozzle to print the molds faster. That will also make them more resistant!\nEach mold has at least four parts:\n* Walls: Vertical walls that form the side shape.\n* Wall Clip: This clip keeps the wall mold closed and withstands some pressure.\n* Bottom lid: It forms the bottom part of the mold and it's flat. It could also be curved.\n* Top lid: It forms the interior shape and determines the object's thickness.\nThere are some molds such as the ones from the Box design that include two different Top lid parts.", "254" ], [ "That's because the same mold set makes two different objects just by changing the Top lid: one makes the cardboard container and the other one the cardboard lid.\nDon't know which one to start with?\nIf it's the first time you'll make objects with recycled cardboard and 3D printed molds, I personally recommend trying the Box design.\nStep 3: Making the Pulp\nNow the fun part begins!\nPreparing the cardboard\nAlmost any type of pulp-based materials work. If you're using cardboard boxes make sure any tape or coatings are removed before making the pulp.\nMake sure you cut the cardboard into smaller pieces so you can easily blend them. For example, 1x3\" (25x75mm) cardboard pieces work great for standard-size blenders.\nChoosing the binder\nA water-soluble binder is required to improve the strength of the final product and it also helps keep its shape when drying.\nThere are two main binders that I recommend: PVA glue and rice paste (AKA rice glue). I personally recommend using PVA glue if it's your first time working with paper pulp as it's easier to use.\nTip: If you have access to soluble PVA filament for FDM 3D printers, you can dissolve some of it and use it as glue.\nMixing the ingredients\nThis isn't an exact science. It's recommended to start with the water and binder and slowly add the cardboard until the mix is dense enough.\nWarning: Never add too much cardboard as you can damage the blender.\nHere's the amount of material I start with:\n* Water: 500g\n* Cardboard: 150g\n* Binder: 30g\nMix all the ingredients until the pulp has a homogeneous consistency. If you can still see pieces of cardboard, you need to blend them more. You can always remove some cardboard bits from the pulp if they had a non-soluble material such as tape or staples that you didn't see during the cutting process.\nWhen making pulp it's difficult to estimate the right amount to make as the density of the mix can vary. However, it's always better to prepare too much than to run out of it in the middle of a project.", "254" ], [ "Make Your Own Arduino AC Dimmer | Drive Motors & Lights\nIntroduction: Make Your Own Arduino AC Dimmer | Drive Motors & Lights\nHi every one, here <PERSON>, and I want to show you how I made my own Arduino AC dimmer that can control AC loads such as motors and lights easily. It has the power to handle 1200+ Watts and It's a very nice project for domotics and home automation because the microcontroller I used is the ESP8266 that has WiFi capabilities and the code could be adapted with few changes.\nHere I leave you a tutorial with all the information so you can make your own version.If you are a visual learner I know that a video worth more than 1000 words, so here is a Tutorial video. (I am a Spanish speaker, so please consider turning on English subtitles):\nStep 1: Skills Required:\nThis project may seem difficult or very complex, but it is definitely not completely, since you will have all the guidance for the construction, it was difficult for me to design it to make life a little easier for you.", "382" ], [ "Any conceptual doubt, you are free to ask it without problems.\n* You should have an understanding of:\n* 3D Printing (Optional for the case).\n* Arduino programming (I give you the code).\n* Soldering through hole components.\nWarning: In this project we will handle main power, so please be careful\nStep 2: Components and Parts List\nThe Electronics discrete components as resistors and transistors will be attached in a BOM file in the PCB Step.\n* Here is the list of what you will need for the whole process:\n* -10kohm Potentiometer.\n* -2 Double Terminal blocks.\n* -AC motor of your preference (single phase).\n* -Dimmable Lightbulb.\n* -Small 5 volts cellphone power supply.\n* -Measuring tools: multimeters, clamp meters (optional).\n* -Micro USB SMD connector.\n* -1.3 inch OLED Display.\n* Wire.\nBOM list of PCB components attached.\nGreat, cheap and awesome Graphical Multimeter to watch the Sinusoidal AC wave form\nStep 3: Circuit Diagram\nHere is the Circuit Diagram of our project:\nIt has all the internal conections of the circuit that will us allow to create the PCB design later.\nI also attached the PDF of the Schematics so you can see it better.\nStep 4: PCB Design and Ordering\nFor the implementation of a good project we need a reliable assembly for the circuit that makes it up, and there is no better way to do it than with a good PCB.\nHere you can download the Gerber, BOM and Pick & Place Files, the ones you need to order your PCB on your PCB manufacturing company.\nI suggest JLCPCB:\n$2 for 1-4 Layer PCBs⚡, Get SMT Coupons🎫\nUnZip the .rar file with a software like WinRar or any other.\nStep 5: 3D Parts (Housing + Motor Holder)\nHere you have the STL files for the 3D parts of the project.\n* Housing.\n* Cover\n* Potentiometer Knob and nut.\n* Button cap.\n* Motor holder.\nStep 6: Programming the ESP8266 Microcontroller\n1- To program the ESP-12s we need to connect it directly to our PC through the USB cable, open the Code \"ACControl\", install the libraries that I also attached and click on upload.\nIf the current measurements are wrong on your display, or you want to improve them, you can tune experimentally this parameters in the code:\n* float Sensibilidad = 0.066; //sensitivity of the 30Amps sensor (see datasheet of ACS712 if use 20A or 5A version).\n* float intercept = 35952.685; // Change this until you got closer as posible to the real current.\n* float slope = 273; // Change this until you got closer as posible to the real current.\n* float testFrequency = 60; // frequency of your circuit (Hz)\n* float windowLength = 40.0 / testFrequency; // num of cycles that will be test.\nCODE, LIBS, EVERYTHING, DOWNLOAD FOR FREE HERE\nStep 7: Wiring Up\nFollow this few steps carefully:\n1. Insert the OLED Display in the case slot.\n2. Wire the Display and make shure the connections are right between the PCB and OLED (Pinout may vary).\n3. Connect the motor or light wires (Black and Red) to the output terminal block, it doesn't matter the polarity.\n4.", "472" ], [ "Simple Lego Tray / Legos Organizer / Storage From Scrap Wood DIY\nIntroduction: Simple Lego Tray / Legos Organizer / Storage From Scrap Wood DIY\nLegos Scattered On The Floor? No More!\nIf you have kids, most likely, you have also...a lot of Lego parts scattered on the floor...\nIn our home, it happens in the kids room, but specially in the living room. The kids like to bring their Legos and play there. The problem, is that these small parts are traveling everywhere.\nSo, I decided to end this... or at least try to minimize it :)\nI built a very Legos tray / organizer, from some scrap wood I had from previous projects (and I actually planned to throw away).", "668" ], [ "This project is very quick and simple to make.\nNow, the kids can easily transfer their Legos bulk from one room to another, and also store it under the bed or sofa.\nYou're welcome to visit my YouTube Channel, subscribe, and also watch my additional projects. Don't forget to click the 'bell' button in order to get new videos notification.\nThank you! :)\nSupplies\nGeneral List of tools I'm using - https://www.itzikdiy.com/tools-list?m=1\nTools in this Instructable:\n* Miter saw or other saw cutting angles.\n* Electric nail / staple gun.\n* Measuring tape.\nMaterials:\n* 4mm plywood board, covered with formica.\n* 4cm * 17mm strips of particle board / chipboard.\n* Glue.\n* Wood filler\nStep 1: Before\nThis is almost a usual look of the floor in our living room.\nIt starts with a bulk of Legos in one place and later everything is scattered all over the floor ...\nStep 2: The Plywood\nThis instructable started after I saw this plywood board laying in my storage, and thought it's can be good for such project.\nThis is 4mm plywood board, covered with formica (From our old kitchen).\nIf you wonder what is this gold color... it's from this special Instructable :)\nThis board will be used for the bottom of the tray.\nStep 3: Measuring the Tray Size\nI measured the size of the plywood board, so I can know the size of the strips I need to cut for the frame.\nThe size is 64cm * 55cm, but of course you can do your own required size.\nActually, bigger is better, but you should think of the storage of it, mobility in narrow places when it's full with Legos, and also the kids who needs to be able to carry it.\nStep 4: Cutting the Frame\nI had some long scraps of particle board / chipboard strips, which were leftovers from big boards, and I almost throw away. The strips were coved with Melamine.\nThese were perfect for making the frame, due to their width (~4cm) and also the white color, matching my plywood board, so, no paint is required!\nI cut 2 pieces of 64cm, ending in 45 degrees, using my miter saw, and 2 pieces of 55cm.\nStep 5: Cutting the Inner Separators\nI decided to make some separators inside the tray frame, from the remaining pieces of the particle board strips.\nI cut them in 90 degrees.\nStep 6: Gluing the Frame\nI started by gluing the frame.\nI didn't use wood glue, since it's not a bare wood, but a smooth surface of formica / melamine, so I thought that super 7 glue will be good for this job.\nStep 7: Connecting the Frame\nAfter gluing, I connected each strip of the frame from the bottom of the plywood board, using a Staple/Nail Gun, every few centimeters.\nStep 8:\nStep 9: Measuring the Frame Separators Position\nI marked the position of the inner vertical separator, in the middle of the frame, and the horizontal separator will be connected to it.\nYou can decide to make more separators according to your needs... I was limited with the remaining pieces of the particle board strips I had.\nStep 10: Gluing the Separators\nI put glue in the vertical and horizontal separators.\nStep 11: Switching to Nails\nI removed the staples from the gun, and put 3cm nails instead.\nStep 12: Connecting the Separators With Nails\nI connected the outer frame to the inner separator strips, with nails.\nStep 13: Marking the Separators Position\nI marked the position of the inner separator strips position, so I can connect them using the staple gun in straight line.", "250" ], [ "3D Printed 500x400mm Router CNC\nIntroduction: 3D Printed 500x400mm Router CNC\nFirst of all, I really doesn't like fuss and feathers. Because of that I put the useful area size in the Instructable’s title. The real machine size is around 740x740mm. So, be conscious that you will need some space to place this machine.\nIn the 2018 I has wandering on the internet when I saw the Router CNC from the Brazilian YouTuber <PERSON>. His project is called \"Revolution 2\". I fell in love right away! Unfortunately, in those days I wasn't able to make the polymer parts, but those days are gone: I have a DIY 3d Printer!!! Now I'm the king of the hill!!! And more than this, I have a GREAT trainee, a real DIY guy: <PERSON>. Making this real is all his credit.\nThe main goal of this Instructable is to describe the assembly of the machine, since all parts are available in the Conrado’s web site \"Atividade Maker\" (sorry, it's in Portuguese). BTW, we redesign ALL the polymer parts in Autodesk Fusion 360 to make the assembly guide, so, you can ask me and I can send you the whole thing!\nYou may be asking yourself: \"Does a 3D Printed 740x74mm sized Router CNC works properly???\". Come with me to discover it!!! (in the time this introduction was written the CNC have milling not yet.)\nI hope you enjoy this Instructables as much as I did!!!\nSupplies\nTips:\n* Most of the parts was printed in PETg.", "116" ], [ "I strongly recommend it because of the mechanical stress.\n* Use as much as possible lock nuts. The router machine use to shake so much and standard nuts just run away.\n* Since in this project all the plates are 3D printed in PETg, we decide to use standard washers, but you should use lock washers if your plates are made from some harder material.\n* For this project we've just saved the Conrado's SketchUp files into STL format, sliced in Ultimalker Cura and printed. All the animations are made from the real assembly sequence. Our Fusion 360 files have been redesigned to allocate the lock nuts, simplifying the assembly for future makers. Oh, yeah!\nStep 1: Step 1: Z Axis Assembly\nAs you will see during this Instructables, <PERSON> did an excellent job in the assembly animations, so, there is no much to say buy the parts needed in this step:\nAssembly order:\n1. Brass nut in the brass nut support; (first animation)\n+ Main parts: Brass nut support (3D printed), brass nut.\n+ Small parts: 4x M3x25 screws, 4x M3 washers and 4x M3 lock nuts.\n2. Brass nut support in the Z baseplate; (second animation)\n+ Main parts: Z axis baseplate, brass nut support assembled.\n+ Small parts: 2x M5x25 screw, 4x M5 washers, 2x M5 lock nuts.\n3. Pillow blocks in the Z baseplate; (third animation)\n+ Main parts: Z axis baseplate, 4x pillow blocks.\n+ Small parts: 16x M5x25 screws, 16x M5 washers\n4. Router supports in the Z baseplate; (forth animation)\n+ Main parts: Z axis baseplate, 2x router supports.\n+ Small parts: 4x M5x35 screws, 4x M5 washers, 4x M5 lock nuts.\nResume parts:\nMain parts:\n* 1x Z axis baseplate (3D printed part)\n* 1x Brass nut support (3D printed part)\n* 2x Router support (3D printed part)\n* 4x Pillows blocks 16 mm SC16UU\n* 1x Brass nut (T8, Pitch 2 mm, Lead 2 mm)\nScrews:\n* 4x M3X25 mm\n* 18x M5x25 mm\n* 4x M5x35 mm\nWashers:\n* 4x M3\n* 24x M5\nNuts:\n* 4x M3 lock nuts\n* 6x M5 lock nuts\nStep 2: Step 2: X Axis Assembly\nAssembly order:\nPart 1:\n1. Pillow blocks in the X baseplate; (first animation)\n+ Main parts: X axis baseplate (3D printed part), 4x pillow blocks.\n+ Small parts: 16x M5x25 screws, 16x M5 washers\n2.", "116" ], [ "Auto-Closing Stacking Drawers for 20mm V-Rail Framed 3D Printers\nIntroduction: Auto-Closing Stacking Drawers for 20mm V-Rail Framed 3D Printers\nUPDATE: 07 April 2021:\nSTL files posted, see last step.\nPROJECT SUMMARY:\nThis project was inspired by:\n1. Instructables Member <PERSON> and his Multicolored Organizer Project\n2. Thingiverse member <PERSON> and her Stacking Drawer Design\nMy mashup of those two ideas aims to create ample and organized space for small items all within easy to reach, easy to access, and easy to identify storage drawers intended for 3D printers using 20mm V-Rail as part of their frame like my Creality Ender 5 Pro.\nOnly two items must be purchased (skateboard wheel bearings and clear plastic rounds), while the rest of the parts are created by the 3D printer itself or should be on hand (like rubber bands). Auto-Closing is accomplished by a standard size rubber band and attachment to the V-Rail is through standard 5mm T-Nuts.\nThis Instructable is an entry in the Simple Machines Contest. Please vote if you like it.\n(This auto-closing drawer design is an example of a simple machine featuring Elastic Energy, Torque, and Rotational Work. It best aligns with a \"Wheel & Axle\" simple machine per the contest guidelines.)\nTABLE OF CONTENTS:\nProject Summary\nSupplies\nStep 1: Requirements & Desirements\nStep 2: Design\nStep 3: Illustrated Parts List & Features\nStep 4: 3D Printing\nStep 5: Post Processing the 3D Printed Parts\nStep 6: Build Step I: Gather all Parts\nStep 7: Build Step II: Install Windows\nStep 8: Build Step III: Mount Base to V-Rail\nStep 9: Build Step IV: Install Pivot Pin\nStep 10: Build Step V: Install First Bearing\nStep 11: Build Step VI: Install Drawer\nStep 12: Build Step VII: Install Second Bearing\nStep 13: Build Step VIII: Attach Rubber Band\nStep 14: Build Step XIV: Repeat Steps I-VIII for Next Level\nStep 15: Validation\nStep 16: FINISHED\nSupplies\nMATERIALS:\n1. Skateboard Bearings (608ZZ) (Quantity 2 Per Drawer)\n2. 40mm Clear Acrylic Rounds (Quantity 4 Per Drawer)\n3. 5mm Panhead Screws & T-Nuts (Quantity 2 EA Per Drawer)\n4. Rubber Bands (Size #32 - 3\" X 1/8\") (Quantity 1 Per Drawer)\nTOOLS:\n1. 3D Printer\n2. Allen Wrench For The 5mm Screws\n3. Standard Shop/Hand Tools For Post Processing The 3D Prints (Supports Are Required)\nSOFTWARE:\n1. Autodesk's Fusion 360 (Used To Create The Design)\n2. Ultimaker's Cura Or Other Slicer (For Slicing The Files To Your Specific Printer)\n3. Luxion's Keyshot (Used To Create Realistic Renders like the image with the Instructable Trademarked Logo)\n4.", "858" ], [ "Corel's Video Studio (Used to Create Short Time-Lapse Videos From Still Shots)\n5. Adobe's Photoshop (For Photo Editing)\n6. Microsoft's PowerPoint (For Image Labeling)\nStep 1: Requirements & Desirements\nHere's a list of requirements and desirements in no specific order:\n1. Drawers can not impede the operation of or normal access to the printer\n2. Drawers should have a feature to keep them closed\n3. Since they stack, having a feature to see what's inside would be desirable\n4. Minimize need for purchase parts\n5. Maximize number of 3D printed parts\n6. Minimize cost\n7. Use a variety of filament colors to maximize visual appeal (or use for categorization, ex. Blue Drawer = Q-Tips)\n8. Include a feature to temporarily hold a drawer in the open position\n9. Size the drawer such that the design can fit on a variety of printers (not be specific to only my printer)\n10. Size the drawer's internal space to fit some of the most common tools frequently needed while 3D printing\n11. Make the design compatible to be either Left or Right Handed\nStep 2: Design\nI continue to enjoy working with Autodesk's Fusion 360 for all my personal design projects. (I wish I could use it for work, but am still stuck with CREO). Even with the great value of the free hobbyist license, I use it so much and wanted some of the extra features that come with a full license I recently made the purchase.", "737" ] ]

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[ [ "The Banshees of Inisherin\n<PERSON> returns to his roots for an In Bruges reunion with this theatric tragicomedy, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN (2022), a folkloric take on male friendship & solitude blunted with human’s vengeful nature — that’s reflective of its Irish Civil War setting.\n<PERSON> Irish Isle setting gives the profound depth his story aims for as <PERSON> & <PERSON> gets into a showdown that doesn’t seem plausible in a glance, but feels real under the skin. That’s what makes it ironically poetic & hilarious at the same time.\nLike some of his best works, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN feels like an ever-escalating build-up whose punchline is done after the end-credit rolls. Another masterclass (even though at some points of the story, this reminds me of <PERSON> work instead).", "905" ], [ "Women Talking\nThere’s not so much subtlety in the way <PERSON> tells every bit of WOMEN TALKING (2022), but the sensitivity, the wit, & the layers of emotion are there with every argument and occasional quip that keeps its fiery discussion resonating long after the film ends. It’s heavyweight as much it is thought-provoking; it’s harrowing as much as it is hopeful; it’s grounded as much it is stellar. It lives up to the hype; and every all the talking & the sense of urgency make 12 ANGRY MEN sounds like some grumpy chitchats. (3.5/4)", "647" ], [ "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts\nIt’s quite a relief knowing TRANSFORMERS franchise found a little formula to be fun & balanced while setting sight ahead for an exciting future with RISE OF THE BEASTS (<PERSON>, 2023). Still corny af but showing flashes of potential in its rather flat track.", "241" ], [ "Unlike the heartwarming BUMBLEBEE (2018), this one feels like an entry for Bay’s runs for the franchise — but on a more exciting lane compared to the most recent entries. Make no mistake, Bay’s TRANSFORMERS was bananas, but overtime, it feels like a routine rather than a luxury. (2.5/4)", "905" ], [ "Robot Dreams\nBIFF 2023 - Film #5\nAn endearing & sweet film about how even our tightest of bonds can break. Told entirely without dialogue, Robot Dreams’ beautifully simple animation unravels the story of Dog & Robot as their powerful connection is quickly tested. Ebbing & flowing between the yearning for old friends & the desire to break free into new relationships, the film holds a strong message for audiences; old & young. At times familiar & occasionally feeling as though its lack of dialogue works to its determent, Robot Dreams remains a cute feature about the lust for life & the power we all have to continue moving forward.", "583" ], [ "<PERSON>\nThere's a wonderful visual gag early on that I thought was there just to skewer the vapid world of social media influencers, but in context with the rest of the film it also serves as a reminder to the viewer to keep on your toes.\nI tuned in hoping for another HOST or an UNFRIENDED-like experience, but this only dabbles with that sort of thing and is equally SCREAM and going on from there.\nAnd it's odd that this is yet another horror film I've seen in the very recent past that is playing with the \"killing dogs in genre films\" taboo. Seems to be a recent wave of that and I am glad to see it.", "645" ], [ "May December\nMay December explores the deepest, most unspoken layers in each of its characters. Pitting the stories they tell themselves about who they are against an elusive truth, observing how they break down when confronted with just the suggestion of a reality that breaks their narrative.\n<PERSON> really delivers with something so unexpected, walking a tightrope in executing a distinct tone for this deeply uncomfortable story. It's darkly comic and tragic, but also cerebral in its approach. Very good stuff.", "352" ], [ "<PERSON> has made a beautiful, terrible nesting doll of a film with a uniquely twisted core. Beneath the droll portrait of an actor's obsession with her muse is an unsettling tale of what happens when people refuse to tell the truth.\n<PERSON> and <PERSON> are sensational, but <PERSON> managed to stand out from the two actresses with a sincere standout performance in a tricky role. <PERSON> steals the show in a vulnerable, heartbreaking fashion. Three of the greatest performances of the year.", "529" ], [ "Holy Spider\nLike other taut psychological thrillers about serial killers, HOLY SPIDER (<PERSON>, 2022) delivers a gut-wrenching twist – that works NOT on plot level, not for what the killer did, but what he incited on people. Too bad it indulges too long on the killer's mind.", "269" ], [ "The problem with films that depict serial killers (especially inspired by true events) is that the story tends to humanize them, finding (or sometimes providing) motivation. HOLY SPIDER does exactly this; there's where it suddenly falls into an exploitative & misogynistic shaft.\nThe fact that it also follows a feminist protagonist gives a hint on what the film tries to actually do; but, in the end, her existence feels like a mere resonance of how the titular killer bizarrely polarized public opinions. (2/4)", "387" ], [ "Burn After Reading\nOne of the most relentlessly evil comedies I can think of. Honest though. Brutally honest.\nI made too much hash out of delineating the Brothers in my DRIVE AWAY DOLLS blurb, but there there really is something breathless about the PERFECT editing and Cinematography calibration of these comedies.\nThe right lenses give the right weight, the right edits play the right moments.", "862" ], [ "An almost obsessive interest in character behavior punctuated and reveals.\nI have some understanding that DRIVE AWAY DOLLS is attempting to embrace a visual language that is separate from that formal control...I just prefer the violent effectiveness of the formal control. That's just me though. I wish it was present in that movie.", "645" ] ]

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[ [ "Digital education lags behind as Kyrgyzstan’s schools lack access · Global Voices\n“Online teaching. Little girl working on the laptop.” by shixart1985 is licensed under CC BY 2.0\nStudents of all schools in Kyrgyzstan have been studying from home since the beginning of April 2020. However, they and their parents face hardship with distance education, as many schoolchildren across the country have limited access to the internet, do not have the appropriate devices, or do not know how to use the necessary mobile applications.\nTeachers were also not ready to transition to digital education when the authorities suddenly decided to transfer all learning online without conducting the adequate tools and training to avoid disruptions.\nMost teachers received a one-week training course to familiarize themselves with the new software and methods. Upon completion of the course, they had to start working immediately with their now virtual class.\nEducation and the Pandemic\nGlobally, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive disruptions to the educational process and has already had an almost universal impact on students and teachers worldwide.\nAccording to a UN report , the closure of schools and other educational institutions affected as much as 94 percent of the global student population, which went as high as 99 percent in low-income and lower-middle-income countries.\nThe World Bank predicts that the coronavirus pandemic will deliver a “devastating blow” to the education system, the consequences of which will be “felt for decades to come.”\nSince March 2020, 85,164 people have been infected with COVID-19 in Kyrgyzstan, according to official statistics , and 2,186 people have died (data as of July 20, 2021).\nThe first stage of vaccination against the virus started in March 2021, targeting specific categories of workers, especially in the medical and emergency sectors. The minister of health and social development and his deputies were the first to be vaccinated, in an effort to reassure the population that the vaccine was harmless and necessary. Kyrgyzstan received a first batch of vaccines from China, and the government will have to negotiate further supplies to increase vaccination numbers in the coming months.\nMeanwhile, in March and April 2021, the virus continued to spread, at a higher rate. Deaths were reported almost daily. Yet, rules for wearing masks, maintaining distance, and banning mass events were not observed.\nThe worsening epidemiological situation in the country will further delay the opening of schools, given that children could be highly effective vectors for the virus.\n<PERSON>, research assistant of infectious diseases at the Akhunbayev State Medical University, however, advised caution.", "803" ], [ "In an interview with Global Voices he said that, at the beginning of the pandemic, “the transition to online education had an impact on reducing the risk of transmission,” because children could have spread the virus among themselves and on to their families.\nStatistically, children fall ill at lower rates than adults, in Kyrgyzstan and across the world. It is more likely that children carry the infection in an asymptomatic form and the percentage of children with such complications is low.\nAccess still an obstacle\nA paper published by researchers of the Data School , part of a global network of organizations that work to improve data literacy, and City Initiatives , a foundation that explores changes in the urban environment and communities, surveyed 338 teachers and 1,324 students in Kyrgyzstan, finding that:\n1. 70% of teachers in schools were not trained to transition to online education and did not receive the consultations and trainings mentioned by the ministry of education;\n2. Weak or absent internet connection was one of the biggest obstacles, both for teachers and children, together with the lack of mobile devices;\n3. The role of parents during online learning has proven to be central to the education of school children.\n<PERSON>, adviser to the minister of education and science of the Kyrgyz Republic, highlighted the digital divide between urban and rural populations in an interview for the “ Voices of Kyrgyzstan in the time of COVID-19 ” project at the University of Central Asia :\nTeachers [across the world and in Kyrgyzstan] said that they urgently had to switch to the use of digital educational technologies. Especially in remote places, there was no access to high-quality internet connection, as well as electronic devices, laptops, and phones.\nSuccess still distant for remote education\nIn March 2020, the Government of Kyrgyzstan proposed various formats of distance learning. The lessons were broadcast on state TV channels. Around 1,700 video tutorials were filmed for the end of the 2020 school year. For the 2020-2021 academic year, the ministry of education and science prepared 7,022 video tutorials .", "803" ], [ "Kyrgyzstan’s civil society mobilises to fight COVID-19 · Global Voices\nVolunteers in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, display food packages ready for distribution to needy people under lockdown. Photo (c): <PERSON> and <PERSON> / National Headquarters. Used with permission.\nCheck out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.\nEven before the first patient with a positive result appeared, people in Kyrgyzstan have been watching closely as the coronavirus pandemic has engulfed the world. They had good reason: their small mountainous country in Central Asia borders China, where the outbreak began.\nKyrgyzstanis on social media networks expressed concern about how the virus would hit the country's weak economy. People in the service sector worried whether it would affect the 2020 tourist season; shopkeepers and farmers wondered whether it would interfere with spring planting, and therefore the harvest.\nHowever, most people in Kyrgyzstan simply cannot afford to lock themselves away and wait until the crisis is over. The country now searches for a middle ground between a strict quarantine and a functioning economy, fearing that otherwise more people may die from hunger than from the coronavirus.\nThat recognition has led Kyrgyzstanis across the country to take matters into their own hands, volunteering to help their neighbours and fellow citizens however they can.\nSome cynics might say that's because they never had much faith in the government's response. So just how prepared were the authorities in Bishkek when the coronavirus came to Kyrgyzstan?\nTimeline of a lockdown\nAt the time of writing there are 270 confirmed coronavirus cases in Kyrgyzstan, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus map.\nAs the coronavirus has spread, many countries have imposed restrictions on public life. They have closed borders and schools, and introduced quarantines. Kyrgyzstan was no exception, although the government's response was a little delayed. Until early last month, the authorities only recommended the cancellation of public events, and rejected proposals to close schools and universities.\nThat all changed on March 12, when the government officially restricted all mass events. Two days later, an entry ban on citizens from seven countries came into force, applying to China, Italy, Iran, Korea, France, Germany, and Spain. Foreign citizens who have visited these countries or passed through them in the past 30 days are prohibited from entering Kyrgyzstan\nOn March 16, Kyrgyzstan fully closed schools and universities and restricted large family events and funerals.", "90" ], [ "On March 18, the country reported its first positive case of coronavirus. Or rather, cases. The virus was detected on three people who had arrived in the country on March 12 after performing the small Hajj, or Umrah, pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, 135 Kyrgyz citizens arrived on the same flight, 90 of whom were placed in isolation.\nThese first cases were identified in the Jalal-Abad Region of southern Kyrgyzstan. This was where Kyrgyzstan declared its first state of emergency. Restrictions were placed on entering and leaving the region, with exceptions made for state officials.\nWithin a week, there were 44 confirmed coronavirus cases in Kyrgyzstan. The youngest infected person was not even a year old, and the oldest 86. This figure has increased every day as the pandemic spreads to more regions of Kyrgyzstan. On March 25, the authorities declared a state of emergency in Bishkek, Osh, and Jalal-Abad, the country's three largest cities, as well as many districts.\nA curfew is now in force in Bishkek. As of today, Kyrgyz citizens may not leave their homes without good reason, such as going to the doctor or going shopping for food or medicine.\nA helping hand?\nWith a nation in lockdown, Kyrgyzstan's government has had to consider how to make life easier for struggling citizens.\nDeputy Prime Minister <PERSON> estimated in a press briefing on March 26 that Kyrgyzstan has already lost between 27 and 28 billion Som ($347-360 million) due to the closure of borders and economic downturn in recent months. The same day, the IMF's board of governors approved a US$120.9 million loan requested by Kyrgyzstan's President <PERSON>. This was the first such request for urgent financial assistance made by an IMF member state since the pandemic began.\nFurthermore, on April 3 the president ratified a law aimed at stabilising the economic situation during the pandemic. These temporary measures, which last until October, include an allowance for businesses to defer their tax returns and payment of taxes until 2021.\nBut many Kyrgyzstanis remain sceptical – social networks are full of accusations that the government was poorly prepared for the pandemic.", "90" ], [ "Kyrgyzstan’s journalists fear yet another hurdle to freedom of speech · Global Voices\nA new law against “manipulating information” online worries Kyrgyzstan's journalists and activists. Illustration (c): <PERSON>. Used with permission.\nWhat's it like to be a journalist in a small Central Asian state? What's it like to fight for the right to speak the truth? In cases of emergency, can journalists count on the protection of the state and human rights organisations, or will the state turn out to be their main obstacle? When writing these words, why am I wondering whether the authorities might give me a call and invite me to answer a few questions?\nKyrgyzstan comes 83rd out of the 180 countries ranked in Reporters Without Borders’ 2020 Press Freedom Index. This is a small improvement on the previous year; the international organisation notes that the pluralism of Kyrgyzstan's media is exceptional for Central Asia (its neighbours Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan came 158th, 161st, and 160th respectively.)\nNevertheless, some journalists fear the further erosion of press freedom. On June 25, Kyrgyzstan's parliament passed a law against “manipulating information.” The bill will allow the authorities to block websites containing “untruthful information,” but does not clarify who will make such an assessment or how.\nThe bill has been strongly criticised by international and Kyrgyz rights defenders alike; the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) characterises it as an assault on press freedom. While voting was held, 150 people protested in front of the parliament building in Bishkek against what they called an attack on freedom of speech. <PERSON>, the parliamentary deputy who submitted the bill, has fiercely defended it against criticism. On June 19, she stated that the online response nearly gave her a heart attack, and on June 25 complained that journalists were not covering the bill objectively, suggesting on Facebook that angry online discussions around it were themselves examples of “manipulation.”\nThe TV host <PERSON> changed his social media avatars in silent protest:\n#НовыйАватар pic.twitter.com/fGu6ov2ZrM\n— <PERSON> (<PERSON>) June 25, 2020\nThese fears are grounded in suspicion that the bill could be used to silence Kyrgyzstan's small but dedicated network of online independent news outlets, which have become known for their investigative journalism in recent years.\nLearning from experience\nMany in Kyrgyzstan are proud of the country's reputation as an island of freedom of speech, at least in the context of a very authoritarian neighbourhood.", "148" ], [ "Recent incidents of attacks and harassment against the press have taught the country's journalists to be cautious.\nFor example, in March 2017 the online publications Zanoza (today called Kaktus.Media), RFE/RL's Kyrgyz-language service Azattyk, the journalist <PERSON>, the human rights activist <PERSON>, and two lawyers from the opposition party Ata-Meken opposition party, were accused of disseminating “false” information. The Prosecutor General's Office filed charges accusing them of insulting the honour and dignity of <PERSON>, the former president who was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment on corruption charges on June 23. Soon after a visit by RFE/RL director <PERSON> to Kyrgyzstan, <PERSON> decided to drop his lawsuit against Azattyk. In May, Freedom House voiced concern about the Kyrgyz authorities’ attacks on independent media and human rights defenders.\nAnother wave of harassment of journalists began after Azattyk and its media partners OCCRP and Kloop published a high-profile investigation in May 2019. It claimed that approximately 700 million US dollars had been illicitly transferred out of the country with the involvement of <PERSON>, a Chinese businessman of Uyghur origin.\nA follow-up investigation was published on November 21. It stated that <PERSON>, who was assassinated in Istanbul on November 10, had provided extensive evidence to journalists which implicated several powerful people in Kyrgyzstan in the illicit transfers. According to <PERSON>, one of these was the former deputy chief of Kyrgyzstan's State Customs Service, <PERSON> and his allies.\nOn November 26, Kyrgyzstan's Prosecutor General announced that <PERSON> had siphoned $932,736,000 from Kyrgyzstan into overseas bank accounts. <PERSON>, brother of the former customs official, strongly denied the journalists’ accusations that he or his businesses benefitted from the scheme, and took Kloop, Azattyk, and OCCRP to court for defamation in October. In December, the case was dismissed.", "409" ], [ "Post-election protests spark another revolution in Kyrgyzstan · Global Voices\nMass protests on Ala-Too Square, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, October 5, 2020. Photo (c): <PERSON>. Used with permission.\nMass protests against electoral fraud in Kyrgyzstan have overthrown the country's government.\nOn October 4, this Central Asian country of 6.3 million voted in parliamentary elections. Kyrgyzstan is known for its fractious politics; some 16 parties competed for 120 seats in the country's unicameral parliament. But opposition voters were in for a disappointment. The Central Electoral Commission's (CEC) preliminary results counted 1,942,609 votes and indicated that just four of these 16 parties had passed the threshold of seven percent: Unity (24.9 percent), My Homeland Kyrgyzstan (24.27 percent), Kyrgyzstan (8.89 percent), and United Kyrgyzstan (7.19 percent). The final turnout was 1,980,240 people, or 56.2 percent of those included in voter lists. A manual vote count conducted on October 5 showed much the same results, although a fifth party, Mekenchil, also entered parliament with 7.26 percent of the vote.\nAll the remaining parties still got less than seven percent of the vote.\nThe parties which managed to clear the threshold were all pro-government parties linked to powerful figures in Kyrgyzstan's ruling political elite. For example, Unity is associated with President <PERSON> and his brother is among its candidates. My Homeland Kyrgyzstan is linked to former Deputy Head of Kyrgyzstan's customs service <PERSON>, who is at the centre of an international investigation into the withdrawal of almost US$700 million from the country.\nThese elections also marked the tenth anniversary of Kyrgyzstan's transition to a semi-parliamentary republic. <PERSON>, an Associate Professor at the International College of Security Affairs in Washington DC, noted that despite this change, the most influential political parties tended to dominate elections. They were strongly associated with their patrons, internally divided, and had no substantial ideological distinctions, she explained:\nBy then it was also apparent that a representative parliament =/= more democratic legislature. Lots of laws limiting civic and economic freedoms were passed\n<PERSON> and then <PERSON> were seizing more political control, often capitalizing on parties’ lack of internal cohesion\n— <PERSON> (@Ericamarat) October 5, 2020\nOpposition supporters felt cheated. The Social Democrats were the first opposition party to announced that they refused to recognise the result of the election, announcing a protest on the night of October 4.", "148" ], [ "The Republika and Ata-Meken parties then held a joint briefing and asked their supporters to join the demonstrations.\nAccusations of electoral fraud were raised widely across social media. Many of these were connected with so-called Form No. 2 votes, which the head of the CEC <PERSON> described as “a progressive norm which allows the voter to vote not at their place of registration, but wherever is convenient for them”. <PERSON> stressed that 481,950 such applications were registered ahead of the October 4 vote. Lawyers sounded the alarm at this large number and appealed to the CEC, Prosecutor Generals's office and law enforcement agencies to investigate the matter. “Every case of mass registration of citizens in Form No. 2 and every report of voter bribery should be the subject of a thorough, objective, and prompt investigation,” the lawyers stated in an open letter.\nReports that political parties were bringing voters from regions or villages and registering them at polling stations in Bishkek had started to appear online as far back as early August. One voter told journalists of 24.kg that he was promised 4,000 Soms (US$50) to vote for My Homeland Kyrgyzstan. He continued that he was told to submit an application via Form No. 2 in order to change his electoral address, then handed a completed form and brought by minibus to a polling station located in a school.\nOn election day, social networks were full of complaints by voters about bribery by Unity and My Homeland Kyrgyzstan. Voters claimed that they were offered between 1,500 and 5,000 Soms ($19-63) for voting “correctly”.\nFor many voters, electoral fraud may have been the last straw. In recent years, the country has been rocked by incessant corruption scandals and political instability. People's discontent grew and accumulated. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kyrgyzstan, which peaked in July this year, President <PERSON>'s popularity declined sharply, although even before the pandemic, his actions and team were often criticised.", "609" ], [ "One step towards inclusion in Kazakhstan · Global Voices\n<PERSON> on the left, with friends enrolled in the project in which he was trained to be a waiter. Photo courtesy of Aidar.\nGrassroots organizations in Kazakhstan are taking action with policies for mental disability and one young man's story illustrates the progress made so far.\nAt 25, <PERSON> is about to embark on a new journey. He is set to take a state exam to get his secondary education diploma, taking him one step closer to his dream of becoming an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. In an interview with Global Voices, <PERSON> said his plans include applying to a college to study law.\nСейчас я добиваюсь своей цели. Я в прошлом году писал в управление образования так как мне надо получить аттестат. У меня экзамен в понедельник. После получения аттестата я хочу отучиться на юриста и поварa.\nNow I am achieving my goal. Last year I wrote to the Department of Education because I needed to get a diploma (secondary education). I am taking the exam next Monday. After receiving the diploma, I want to become a lawyer and a chef.\n<PERSON> wants to know his rights as a citizen of Kazakhstan and as a person with a mental disability. That is why he goes by the nickname of prokuror (prosecutor) among his acquaintances and people who have been assisting him in his rehabilitation and empowerment program:\nЯ знаю что иногда мои права ущемляют.", "1010" ], [ "Я – гражданин Казаxстана. Моя цель – хочу помогать другим.\nI know that sometimes my rights are violated. I am a citizen of Kazakhstan. My goal is to help others.\n<PERSON> was born with cognitive impairments and grew up in an orphanage for special kids. In 2015, he joined a pilot project by a local NGO, Psychoanalytic Association, which advocates for supportive employment and living for people with intellectual and mental disabilities.\nThe Psychoanalytic Association, Rukh, and Daryniana are the group of activists who have challenged the current public policies and practices in the psychiatric health care system in Kazakhstan. The work these NGOs do to advocate for personalized care and services for the people with mental disabilities as part of their social rehabilitation is a new practice in psychiatric health care in Kazakhstan. Along with the provision of care and services, these NGOs incorporate employment as part of social empowerment. In collaboration with government institutions, they aim to bring sustainable and positive change in the lives of marginalized groups and make them visible in society.\nKazakhstan ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities to ensure social and economic inclusion in 2015. This was a starting point for grassroots organizations such as the Psychoanalytic Association and Rukh to advocate for a better quality of life, the inclusion of people with psychosocial disabilities, and bring in better practices to replace the Soviet legacy of mental healthcare, which is still a common practice in Kazakhstan.\nOutdated Soviet psychiatric care mainly focused on a medicated approach, with hospitalization in overcrowded boarding houses, which kept the patients segregated from society and did little to change the social stigma around people with mental disabilities. This form of care also did not include further social rehabilitation outside of the institutions. That is where initiatives such as Rukh and the Psychoanalytic Association are doing important work, by dismantling this old system of institutionalized stigmatization so that people with mental disabilities receive care and services in a community-based environment.\nWhen he turned 18, <PERSON> was deprived of his legal capacity by the local court, which meant he was dependent on his state-assigned guardian at all times and decisions were not his to make.", "1010" ], [ "Peace marchers from Helmand look to change Afghanistan’s narrative · Global Voices\nPhoto of the peace march taken from the Etilaatroz news website and used with permission.\nA total of 10,453 civilian casualties — 3,438 people killed and 7,015 injured — were documented in 2017 in Afghanistan. After Kabul, the capital city, it was residents of the southern province of Helmand that had it worst.\nThe #HelmandPeaceMarch movement led by youth from the province tells a story of fatigue from war and spotlights the next generation's search for a better life in a country riven by violence.\nThe march has now reached Kabul, after 700 kilometres on foot through four of Afghanistan's most insecure provinces –Helmand, Zabul, Ghazni and Maidan Wardak. On their way, marchers held meetings with villagers and explained the purpose of their march. They began as 7 people but acquired 59 others over the course of their journey.\nThe Peace marchers’ caravan arrived Kandahar. They moved from Helmand toward Kabul to seek peace and security for their homeland. These dears should be praised and welcomed. Their determination, honesty, and hard-work are admirable. I hope their voice will be heard and they will get the desired result.\nHelmand is a strategic prize for both the government and the Taliban. It is often assumed that the local population of Helmand has reached an accommodation with the insurgents, who control more territory there than the government.\nThe march sought to to defy that stereotype.\nThis rural-born peace movement grew out of a Taliban bombing in Helmand in March left 15 dead and scores wounded.\nFirst, several sit-in tents popped up in Helmand and other provinces: Herat, Nimruz, Farah, Zabul, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Ghazni, Paktia, Kunduz, Kunar, Nangrahar, Balkh, Parwan, Daykundi, Maidan Wardak, Bamyan and Jawzjan. Hunger strikes followed.\nThe march from Helmand to Kabul has four main demands:\n1.", "90" ], [ "Respecting the holy month of Ramadan, all sides of war should declare a ceasefire.(Ramadan ended last week and despite a brief ceasefire, the Taliban have recommenced attacks on government targets);\n2. Specific channels and addresses for peace talks should be identified among all sides of the war, and peace negotiations should be launched;\n3. Considering Islamic and national values and interests, practical steps should be taken for forming a system that is acceptable to all sides;\n4. Based upon the agreement of all sides in this war, a specific timeline should be set for the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.\nThe marchers have been mostly welcomed warmly by people on their way to Kabul. Some even responded to their protest with flowers and songs for peace.\n#Peace Caravan from #Helmand province has just arrived in Shajoi district & they will continue to walk capital #kabul. The have staged a “walk protest” & demanding immediate ceasefire between #Afghan Govt and Taliban.#LongMarch2Kabul pic.twitter.com/9qTiWEdfkm\n— <PERSON> (@engr_raheemi) May 30, 2018\n#Helmand2Kabul and #HelmandPeaceMarch hashtags have widely shared on social media by men, women, boys and girls of all ethnic backgrounds.\n#Hazara #girls in #Ghazni province standing in queue to welcome #Pashtun boys of #Helmand province, who stage nearly 600-km walk calling for peace. The Strong message is “#War & violence do not recognize ethnicity” & Everyone is victim of #violence in #Afghanistan @IntizarKhadim pic.twitter.com/W2YgqkRVA2\n— <PERSON> <PERSON> June 8, 2018\n#Kabul is waiting to host #HelmandPeaceMarch – @ArtLordsWorld is painting a series of murals on the highways leading to Kabul to welcome our #PeaceHeroes #HelmandPeaceMarch2Kabul pic.twitter.com/KrJoz4byz5\n— Omaid Sharifi (@OmaidSharifi) June 4, 2018\nThe Helmand Peace March is in Kabul now. Mom and I went to greet them. They are in front of the Mosque and Madrassa complex facing Habibia School. Seeing them was a moment of joy and healing for mom and me. Let’s welcome them to Kabul with warmth and support.\n— <PERSON> (@ShaharzadAkbar) June 18, 2018\nOn June 19, the marchers met with President <PERSON>, not in the lavish presidential palace in Kabul as officials initially offered, but on the street, where their movement began.", "90" ], [ "Uzbekistan: The Enemies of the Internet are Known · Global Voices\nSymbol of the World Day Against Cyber Censorship, Reporters Without Borders\nYesterday, 12 March was the World Day Against Cyber-Censorship. Launched by Reporters Without Borders in 2008, the initiative is intended to promote the idea of Internet without restrictions and accessible to everyone.\nRecently Reporters Without Borders have published a list of countries, that are considered to be The Enemies of the Internet. The list includes 10 countries: Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The Internet censorship and persecution of bloggers is usual in these countries. There is also a list of Countries (16) Under Surveillance where freedom of expression online is under risk and there are some attempts of the governments to control the Internet.\nThe map of Cyber-censorship, march12.rsf.org\nThus, the World Day Against Cyber-Censorship initiative is an attempt to attract attention of civil society to limitation of the freedom of speech in online media.\nRSF reports:\nThe year 2010 firmly established the role of social networks and the Internet as mobilisation and news transmission tools, especially during the Arab spring. New and traditional media have proven to be increasingly complementary.", "696" ], [ "Meanwhile, repressive regimes have intensified censorship, propaganda and repression, keeping 119 netizens in jail. Issues such as national security – linked to the WikiLeaks publications – and intellectual property – are challenging democratic countries’ support to online free speech.\nFor instance, in Uzbekistan – one of the countries mentioned by RSF as an Enemy of the Internet, all opposition websites and sites that report on real conditions in the country are banned. Among them are not only websites of local and Russian news agencies, such as ferghana.ru, Neweurasia.net, Uzmetronom.com, Eurasianet.org, but also international ones like BBC.com and Aljazeera.net.\nThis is what Uzbekistan-based users see when trying to access neweurasia.net’s URL directly:\nScreen-capture when accessing neweurasia.net, image from neweurasia.net\nAlso, browser requests are often replaced with other unrelated requests (www.msn.com, for example).\nOn March 11, 2011 RSF published an article on Internet access and online journalism in Uzbekistan. The RSF researchers came to the conclusion:\nAs long as Uzbek authorities continue to demonstrate a growing interest in controlling the Net, and there is no civil society truly capable of resisting them – even online – or any significant international pressures, prospects look dark for freedom of expression in Uzbekistan’s cyberspace\nCyber censorship in Uzbekistan includes not only news outlets but also social networks, blogging platforms, mail services, etc. For this reason many Uzbek users find tools (proxy-servers) that enable them to securely circumvent this censorship. Many understand that the simplest way to circumvent cyber-censorship is to use a browser proxy. Many are free of charge and allow access to most of the blocked Internet resources through a browser.\nThe most popular and user-friendly browser proxies are Your Freedom, Tor, HotSpotShield, Psiphon.\nMore detailed information about circumvention tools, including those mentioned in this message, can be found at sesawe.net .\nVideo lessons on the configuration and use of proxy-servers with subtitles in different languages are available here.", "112" ], [ "Security concerns and legal ambiguities threaten the future of Ukraine’s ‘State in a Smartphone’ · Global Voices\nThe “state in a smartphone” project is one of the most ambitious developments of the current Ukrainian government. Photo by JESHOOTS-com on Pixabay.\nOne year ago, the Ukrainian government released the revolutionary mobile application Diia (Ukrainian for “action”), a cornerstone of President <PERSON>’s campaign promise of making public services convenient and easily accessible via the internet.\nThe Diia mobile app — and its accompanying online e-services portal — allows citizens to digitize their national ID and biometric passport, personal tax number, student ID, and more, and the digital documents wield the same legal power as the original paper ones. Within a year, Ukraine became the fourth European country to have a digital driver’s license and the first country in the world to have a digital passport.\nHowever, a massive data leak last year has raised concerns about the level of protection around users’ personal information. In May 2020, activists discovered about 900 GB of citizens’ personal data being traded by an anonymous chatbot on the popular messaging platform Telegram. The dataset included passport numbers, personal tax numbers, residence information, driver’s licenses, social media passwords, and even bank details of millions of Ukrainians.\nSome public officials accused Diia of leaking data from government registries, while security experts recalled that the Ministry of Digital Transformation had yet to release any security documentation for the app. While journalists and researchers were able to confirm that part of the datasets had come from Ukrainian government registries, no evidence implicating Diia directly has been found.\nOn the anniversary of its launch, Diia app boasts over 6 million users.", "534" ], [ "At the same time, IT specialists and digital rights defenders continue to call on the government to consider all of the risks that e-government and digital identification technology carry, as these may potentially undermine the public's trust.\nDigitizing the nation\nWhile the idea of digitizing public services is not new to Ukraine, Zelensky's is the first administration that has made e-governance a top priority or established a separate ministry entirely dedicated to it — the Ministry of Digital Transformation, headed by <PERSON>.\nOriginally presented in the spring of 2019, the ambitious “State in a Smartphone” program envisioned moving all public services online and providing the majority of the citizens with a means of digital identification. It was later expanded to include goals such as increasing people's digital literacy, expanding internet infrastructure, and creating favorable conditions for the development of the information technology (IT) industry.\nIf implemented successfully, the program could help combat corruption by minimizing the interference and arbitrary decisions of public officials, while significantly reducing state bureaucracy.\nIn addition, Minister <PERSON> has proudly noted that not a single hryvnya from the state budget had been spent on the development of the Diia app — its development team comprised 35 volunteers from the well-known software engineering company EPAM Systems. They later transferred the completed product and relevant technical know-how to the state.\nHow secure are citizens’ data in Ukraine?\nInitially, the ministry announced that Diia used BankID technology from several leading Ukrainian banks for user authorization, and that it utilized a secure cloud server for the transfer of encrypted data.\nStill, few disclosures were made about the security of citizens’ personal data on the app, and security specialists cautiously noted that not enough was known about Diia's security testing.\nNo independent security audit seemed to have been performed, for example — hardly acceptable for technology to which millions of citizens would be entrusting their personal information. In fact, the app's first public bug bounty program was not launched until December 2020.\nThe leaks have made clear that the standard of data security at the state level in Ukraine remains inadequate — including a weak legal data protection regime, poor enforcement, and the lack of appropriate protection measures within state institutions themselves. Synchronization of data from various government registries into one portal or app is therefore likely to result in additional vulnerabilities to external attacks.\nMoreover, in December 2019, the government granted the Ministry of Internal Affairs the power to verify and aggregate citizens’ data from multiple state registries, providing the law enforcement body with access to data from at least five government registries, including those that handle civil, tax, social security, healthcare and voter information. Alarmingly, the data sharing was to be carried out as a part of an “experimental” process that lacked comprehensive legal safeguards ensuring citizens’ right to privacy.\nAccording to an analysis by digital rights advocates from Digital Security Lab, as of August 2020, the interior ministry had not yet developed a methodology for such verification, but this has not prevented it from gaining access to the vast trove of citizens’ personal data.", "609" ] ]

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[ [ "Suppose a sci-fi universe with the following constraints:\n1. Space dust and rocks etc. are deflected with some sort of strong force field; these are your standard \"deflector shields\". Possibly there has been an escalation of arms between deflector shields and plasma cannons, which will not be hugely material here except that a \"deflector shield bank\" might be a valid target for trying to selectively disable.\n2. Lasers work much as they do in the real-world: invisible, they travel at speed c, they can't be deflected by deflector shields really. They have, however, been neutralized by dissipative hull technology, which requires a lot of mass but basically means that you need to focus a laser on a point for several seconds before you can melt anything.\n3. This is a problem because our mastery of some non-Einsteinian notion of gravity has led to inertial dampeners which allow massive ships to have a sort of characteristic \"jitter\" which distributes the laser over larger areas. It also makes it harder to target small fighters or large cruisers with projectiles, so even though we have some sort of mass drivers (maybe railguns, maybe not) firing masses with high speeds, this is not enough to hit a ship with a precision payload.\n4. You have some ability to see \"hot\" projectiles coming, whereas you would not be able to see the normal bullets from a mass driver.\n5. Electromagnetic pulse weapons can disable electronics at close range.\n6. There is some distinction between small, agile \"fighters\" and medium-size \"destroyers\" and large \"cruisers\".\nThen it might make sense to have about three different sorts of powered projectiles.\nA missile would have an explosive payload, an internal engine, sensors, and a tracking computer. These would be useful for a cruiser trying to get rid of small fighters.", "898" ], [ "The idea is that these could be like \"really fast computer-guided kamikaze fighters\", you neutralize the EMP threat by always firing a cloud of 20 of them per fighter, so that a fighter gets overwhelmed by trying to dodge these ones while EMPing those ones. With a couple big cuts you can imagine that a small fighter's engines or weapons could be compromised and they're basically out of combat.\nA rocket would not be guided at all and would be analogous to a \"space bullet.\" They would be fired cold with a mass driver, then would rapidly accelerate while 'hot,' perhaps by detonating a big nuclear explosion in a blast chamber and riding out the shock wave as it destroys the chamber. They would basically be a big, heavy slug of matter, not deflected much by a deflector shield, targeted only by being fired \"cold\" one way and then after a timer expires, being accelerated in another (possibly different) way. They probably come in two varieties: \"light\" rockets are best for fighter-on-fighter dog-fighting combat; they are fast straight-line projectiles not unlike guns, but probably fired in \"banks\" so that a fighter needs to simultaneously dodge several of them at once. However at larger distances these are pretty easily melted by lasers before they hit a deflector shield which will deflect the vaporized forms, so for mid-range cruiser-on-cruiser combat you instead see bigger slugs, basically a big chunk of dissipative hull, so that lasers do not melt enough of them before they pass through the deflector (and then any further laser-ing would just add heat to the remainder of the slug, increasing hull damage).\nFinally, maybe torpedos are rockets which are partially guided by the firing ship, therefore they behave a little less like \"bullets\" and more like they live in some \"fluid\" medium which they can push against. Imagine that we configure this blast chamber to push slightly off-center from our rocket payload, then as it gets accelerated to high velocity it also spins wildly. It's possible that, since we know the trajectory it's going to follow ahead-of-time, we track that trajectory with a carefully pointed laser. That laser then evaporates some external \"casing\" on the spinning payload, which gets ejected in some preferential direction. The result is that torpedos appear as \"curveballs\" for a period of time after they go \"hot\". They are maneuverable enough to vaporize destroyers but overkill for (and perhaps unable to target) fighters. They have a slight accuracy benefit over rockets for doing precision strikes on those jittery cruisers, since they can be guided somewhat \"en route\", but probably there is a tradeoff here. Presumably once they are detected and the target's lasers are reoriented to fire at them, they can be deflected from their intended target by laser defense just the same way that they are guided.", "898" ], [ "Chicken and Egg\nThe material is theoretically understood by everyone, and its creation involves something akin to a fusion reactor, which can be done efficiently if you already have enough of the material, but there are such small amounts present in stolen items that this is not practical. (Perhaps it needs to be in the form of giant single crystals/pieces/rings which cannot be reassembled from smaller pieces without a reactor.)\nThis option means that an intelligence operative cannot just observe the process; a large quantity would need to be smuggled out.\nObviously the faction had to produce the initial stuff somewhere. Perhaps they dug it up in ancient ruins, or it's from a meteor. Or, a secret military research discovered a method of doing it using extremely expensive conventional technology. But as long as this \"conventional technology method\" remains a secret, nobody else can replicate it. They should probably destroy that original facility.\nSecret process\nIn theoretical physics there are many particles that we have never been able to create, and some that we have never observed in nature but are believed to exist. If one faction discovers how to make something, they can then exploit this knowledge.", "159" ], [ "Especially if we add in the \"chicken and egg\" thing.\nLet's say for argument's sake that there is a recent development in physics, which may or may not be known to other factions, but either way none of them have been able to exploit it yet. The winning faction has built a huge facility with half a million carefully-arranged parts and the \"blueprints\" are stored in bits and pieces in different places.\nThere could be many ideas here but here is one of them. Let's call it a \"black disc\", a tiny (and reasonably safe) planar black hole held together on either side by a carefully engineered dense perfect lattice of particles that produce the right repulsive forces to stop the disc from collapsing to a point. How the heck do you build that lattice?\nPerhaps these particles are beyond its event horizon; or perhaps they are just subject to such high gravity; but any attempt to scrape some off fails. So the lattice cannot be analysed.\nEven if the principle is understood, designing a manufacturing process requires particular flashes of insight. It isn't simply something you throw dollars at. Either the initial scientist(s) found the trick out of sheer luck, or the zeitgeist was just right and nobody else can replicate it.", "284" ], [ "Single-use nuke-propelled mass driver spaceship\nSo this is in the context where space battles are fought by ships that are little more than giant railguns (or other electromagnetic mass drivers), and therefore are fought at extreme ranges with very fast projectiles.\nI have this rather fanciful idea of a single-use spaceship that is essentially a giant tube housing a projectile and a nuke, plus some aiming and targeting systems. While the nuke would cause irreparable damage to the rest of the ship, the idea is that there would be enough time for the detonation to accelerate the projectile (or what remained of it) out of the barrel. The back end of the projectile would presumably have to be made from some ablative material.\nIgnoring things like expense, practicality, targeting etc, I would like to know two things:\n1. Is this even a feasible design?\n2.", "898" ], [ "How would one estimate the velocity of such a projectile, given the projectile mass $M_p$, the ship mass $M_s$ and the yield of the nuke used (which let's say for simplicity is of the range of current nuclear weapons, from 10 kt 100 t to 25 Mt)?\nI am aware of Operation Plumbbob, where they detonated a 300 t nuke underground with a steel lid on the shaft weighing 900 kg. The lid was estimated at moving above 66,000 m/s, which is six times earth escape velocity.\nEDIT: comments have pointed out that some sort of transference of thermal energy to gaseous kinetic energy is needed. Below is my revised picture. Where A stands for ablator (not quite the right word I know, but I can't think of the right one off the top of my head), a mass of material that readily converts to a gas with high kinetic energy (I'm thinking of a slug of ice or solid ammonia, due to the hydrogen content) which then pushes on the projectile. I acknowledge that a megaton nuke is likely to disintegrate the entirety of the ship before any meaningful acceleration can be imparted on the projectile, but suspect that smaller ordnance will be better suited for creating appreciable acceleration on the projectile.", "912" ], [ "We can't build ships, and they wear out.\nThere is trade between the \"ordinary\" citizens of the galaxy, and (say) an \"ancient\" or \"transcended\" civilisation that gained access to and mastery of hyperspatial technology a (cosmologically?) long time ago. They value unique items, especially those that they find surprising. Entities with different thought processes to their own are the most capable of evoking surprise, hence the desire to trade. Or so it is hypothesized: they are essentially inscrutable. We only ever interact with avatars, which are uninteresting robots attached to what appear to be tiny ships. They pay for things they like with FTL ships (and any other \"magic\" you want in your story). They'll build the ship pretty much any way you ask: \"value\" appears to be a simple function of internal volume. However, a ship is one piece. It's almost indestructible, but if you do manage to break any part of it off, the whole thing and everything inside vanishes without trace (causing a vacuum implosion if it's in an atmosphere at the time. You might draw a parallel with toughened glass turning into small blunt fragments the moment you crack it anywhere.", "302" ], [ "You might also use this as a reason piracy doesn't happen. You simply cannot break into a ship unless you can persuade its occupants to open up. )\nIt is hypothesized that ships can be made only in hyperspace, that they end up back there when they die, and we don't have the faintest idea how to establish any sort of permanent presence in hyperspace. All attempts to explore the outside environment of a ship while it is in FTL transit have resulted in the disappearance of that ship and its crew. No traces have ever been detected.\nIt is known that ships wear out. There are known, progressive symptoms of a ship that is no longer in pristine condition. As these symptoms become more apparent, the ship becomes less safe. What happens when it fails is unknown. It is simply lost without trace. The older it gets, the greater the risk of that fate.\nThe result is that there is never a shortage of old enough ships, and the real question is how much of a desperado you might be. Do you accept a one in a million chance of disappearing without trace to an unknown fate? One in a thousand? One in ten? Ten to one against?", "500" ], [ "Travelling at near-light speed is indistinguishable from being at rest.\nThis is the principle of Galilean relativity, and is preserved under special relativity: there is no feasible experiment to determine whether you are stationary or moving at a constant velocity. So there are no practical problems that would occur simply from moving at near-light speed that wouldn't occur at rest, and vice-versa.\nSince everything inside the ship is moving with the ship at the same speed (this is why you aren't flung backwards when you jump while on a moving train), neither the crew nor the fuel nor the communications will be affected: for them, the world will be exactly as it would be it were not moving at all. It's the world outside the ship that would appear to experience the odd effects of Lorentz contraction, time dilation, redshifting, and what-not: everything inside the ship is its own protected bubble. (Of course, someone outside the ship would claim it was really the ship itself experiencing these odd effects, and that's perfectly fine).\nThe only time engineering is required is to handle the following cases:\n* Acceleration: This is the only time when frame invariance is relaxed. Deceleration will cause massive stresses on your ship building materials, depending on how quickly you want to come to an abrupt halt. You should anticipate long deceleration times, something your crew will have to take into account. Conversely, accelerating to light speed will also take a long time if you want to avoid enormous compression stress. This includes rotation.", "947" ], [ "A full treatment of what the world looks like for such rotating frames can be explored by examining the <PERSON> metric.\n* Navigation: Your starboard computers will register large amounts of redshifting from nearby stars, which can skew your metrics of where you are or what you are dealing with if you're using Hubble's law. A correction factor must be applied to all of your sensors to account for this - this can be easily calculated by knowledge of the ship's velocity.\n* Synchronisation with off-ship clocks: For the crew inside the ship, it will appear as if life outside the ship is moving at a much slower rate. As a consequence, significant discrepancies between clocks at the ship's port of arrival and the ship's internal clocks will occur. This affects messages sent to the ship and any attempt to synchronise with the world outside. Again, a correction factor can be calculated and employed but must be known in advance.\n* Knowledge of ship velocity: While this is on the surface not hard to solve - just measure the velocity of things moving relative to the ship - the devil lies in the details. Objects moving relative to the ship have their own velocity prior to the ship's acceleration, which skews measurements. One way out is to use standard candles, which we already currently use to estimate distances - simply compare the luminous intensity from a standard candle at one second and the luminous intensity at another, and use it to work out the distance that has been travelled. From this you can work out velocity.\nYou may also want to consider general relativistic effects: a ship moving at that speed has an incredible amount of kinetic energy, and will thus exert a significant gravitational influence in its wake (assuming its mass is already sizable to begin with). You'd have to figure out a decent flight plan that doesn't leave too much damage behind.", "947" ], [ "Living in the surface-volume of a hypersphere\nContext:\nI'm designing a \"demi-universe,\" accessible from Earth (via appropriately supernatural means), that has the following internal topological property: given any point in 3D space, and any 3D vector, the ray from that point along that vector will eventually reencounter itself from the opposite orientation. In less formal terms, if you go in any direction, in all three dimensions, you will eventually \"loop\" back to where you started:\n* If you go east, you will eventually arrive at your starting point from the west.\n* If you go west, you will eventually arrive at your starting point from the east.\n* If you go north, you will eventually arrive at your starting point from the south.\n* If you go south, you will eventually arrive at your starting point from the north.\n* If you go up, you will eventually arrive at your starting point from below.\n* If you go down, you will eventually arrive at your starting point from above.\nMoreover, in any of these directions, or any other you could care to name, the distance required to make exactly one complete \"loop\" is the same (and is large by human terms but still significantly smaller than Earth's diameter).", "229" ], [ "These conditions force the world to be geometrically a hypersphere, or rather the \"surface\" of one.\nIn addition, the world has a form of gravity with a strength approximately that of Earth's, but always pointing in the same direction (which thus becomes \"down\" by virtue of there being no other way to distinguish directions).\nAssume that this world contains air with approximately the right pressure and composition for humans to breathe comfortably, and further assume that there are mechanisms that will \"refresh\" the air's composition as humans convert the oxygen content to carbon dioxide. Also, assume that any food and material requirements that can't be produced on-location can always be imported from Earth without too much trouble, and that any unusable waste can be dealt with similarly. Finally, assume that the world is a completely closed system aside from any deliberate transport of matter and energy to and from Earth (and the above-mentioned air refreshment mechanisms).\nQuestion 1:\nWhat kinds of weather patterns can one expect from a world like this?\nQuestion 2:\nWhat sorts of societies would form from long-term human colonies within this world?", "513" ], [ "How to efficiently deorbit space junk\nSetting: Nearish future where corporate space ventures have had maybe a hundred years of launching satellites and missions and tourists into earth's orbit.\nIssue: Launching anything is difficult now because you've got to make it through a million bits of space junk. Picture that scene in Wall-E where <PERSON>'s ship has to smack its way through a bunch of junk in earth's atmosphere.\nPartial solution: Contractors are hired to go up into space in their ships and get rid of that trash so that things like communications satellites and manned missions don't get obliterated and rockets can be launched more easily.\nProblem with the partial solution: De-orbiting space junk takes fuel. Some of this stuff has a lot of Delta-V. Matching speed, docking, and deorbiting the space junk would take tons of fuel... more than is probably possible or efficient for removing the volume of junk that needs to be removed.", "199" ], [ "Blowing up the junk doesn't work, it just turns one big trash bullet into a thousand tiny trash bullets traveling at the same speed as before in a less predictable orbit.\nMy idea: A ship that interfaces with and steers a giant tunnel of an electromagnet onto space junk, then acts as a huge railgun and fires the junk either to escape velocity or back into earth's atmosphere. Is this feasible? Is there an easier solution? If you like this solution, how do you think something like this would work? I like it because the trash-moving method can be accomplished electronically and charged with solar cells... but I feel like there must be a less cumbersome solution that doesn't require a massive orbital railgun (very expensive for the space trash company)\nNo magic, no infinite fuel sources, and as cheap as possible for the most profit per bit of junk deorbited.\nEdit: I'm particularly interested in keeping my crew and their ship in space for as long as possible to avoid costly launch/reentry. Economy is a huge factor here - it needs to be cheap. Picture a company looking to make the most off of a low wage crew.", "199" ], [ "What happens to the air in the area, when things are transported or replicated?\nA fundamental law of physics is, in short, that two things cannot exist in the same space at the same time. This is easily demonstrated by dropping a relatively large mass, such as pasta noodles, into a container of water, such as a pot. The water level will rise as it \"makes room\" for the pasta, and will overflow if you've put in too much of either. Conversely, if you were to scoop all of the noodles out (presuming you had a way to scoop just the noodles, without taking along any water at all) you would see the water sink down to its original level (or lower, if it had overflown earlier).\nTaking this into consideration, I see a problem with transporter technology which I'm not sure I've ever seen addressed: What happens to the air surrounding a transport subject's origin point, or occupying the destination?\nThe transporter must have some means of compensating for the displacement, otherwise each transport should in theory be accompanied by a loud pop at each end - at the origin when the air collapses to fill a vacuum left behind, and at the destination when a relatively large volume of air is forced away to make room for the subject.", "1018" ], [ "This effect should be even more pronounced, and perhaps even hazardous, in closed environments such as spacecraft where the air has really no place to go.\nOne option would be to have the transporter exchange the air (or other matter, such as dust or raindrops) at the destination for the matter of the subject, as it is being transported. However, this is not seen as we would often notice small portions of dust storms or downpours getting dropped onto the transporter pad when people are transported into adverse weather conditions. Imagine having that cleanup as part of the Transporter Chief's job duties.\nAnother option would be to process the matter from the destination through the replicator, so that it is congruous with the same volume of air at the origin. This would be a fairly complex operation though, and could result in a lag too long to be acceptable by the laws of physics.\nCome to think of it, this same (or a similar) issue should affect replicator and holodeck technology as well. Has any of this ever been addressed canonically, either in a Star Trek episode or in technical manuals?", "513" ] ]

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[ [ "This is actually fairly common in close-up dialogue scenes and interviews. Even if more than one camera is available it may not be possible to get the angle you want without the second camera being in shot.\nThe way it is done is that each scene is shot twice (at least) each time from a different angle usually with both actors delivering their full dialog. This both keeps the performance natural and correctly timed and gives a full audio track with both sets of lines for a given take. The two shots are then edited together.\nBear in mind also that the audio can be edited separately from the video so you can have a line from take 1 continue over a video cut to take 2.\nHaving scenes edited together from various different takes is a normal part of video production and actors, directors and editors are used to dealing with it.\nIf a shot is from one character's perspective, ie.", "862" ], [ "an actor is talking directly to the camera, (to another character not the audience,) then this will be the only way to do it and it will inevitably by a bit unnatural for the actor but delivering a convincing performance in this sort of situation is part of their job.\nAfterthought\nSingle vs multiple cameras is much more about a style of filming rather than the literal number of cameras.\nFor example a sitcom which is filmed 'live' is much more likely to use a 3 sided set, similar to a theatre stage, possibly with a live audience . With moving cameras used to film an entire scene in a single take similar to a live TV broadcast. This tends to work well for long running series as it is quick and cheap to film as you can reasonably expect scenes to be done in one or two takes and there is much editing required, just cutting between camera angles. For long running series like sit-coms this can also produce more relaxed and natural performances especially when actors are very familiar with their characters.\nA single camera approach gives a bit more creative flexibility as its easier to use bigger, versatile sets and locations and it gives the editor and director more flexibility to create changes of pace and tone.", "862" ], [ "It really depends exactly what your problem is.\nOne possibility is that your chapter outline is just an initial stab at the story and as it has developed in more detail the 'blank' chapters are simply redundant now as what they were intended to cover has been dealt with already or is no longer relevant.\nAlternatively it could be that you have two key scenes or situations planned and you don't know how to get from one to the other perhaps a lot of time passes without much incident or there is a dramatic change of circumstance for a particular character. If you are having trouble getting characters from pone major plot point to another this may be a symptom of some underlying problem with the story or characterization which you need to work out before rather than shoehorning in a linking chapter which doesn't work.\nAnother possibility is issues with pacing, for example you may have planned a particular rhythm to the story which has ended up slipping out of sync with what you have ended up writing. Say you have major events in chapters 5 and 7 and you want to use chapter 6 to separate them. Obviously a crucial consideration here is what your original logic and process was for setting out the chapters as you did in the first place.", "869" ], [ "Is there some underlying concept to this structure which can't easily be changed or was it just a way to get an initial structure down to get you started ?\nI would also suggest that 'thinking of ideas to fill space' is not necessarily a good thing in any kind of art form. Everything which you include should be there to fill some function. For sure there may be particular problems which you need to solve but 'filling space' is rarely a good thing.\nOverall some points to consider are :\n* What are the logical consequences of actions and events in the previous chapter ?\n* Is there any information that the reader needs to be able to make sense of the next chapter ?\n* How does the blank chapter fit in with the rest of the story in terms of pacing and character development. For example an interlude between two very dramatic passages may be an opportunity for something a bit more introspective and atmospheric where characters take stock of events. This can also be an opportunity to have more atmospheric and descriptive passages which add to setting and characterization without slowing down more dramatic sections.", "869" ], [ "One Day\nBy the time it reached the final episode it became clear to me that this was a tv show (book) which had been written backwards. <PERSON> wanting to explore the relationship between memory and grief primarily, but unfortunately also wanting to use the death as a somewhat hacky twist bait and switch, which feels like manipulation designed to heighten emotion in an unearned way.\nAs a tv show I often found it very frustrating. The characters are not written beyond the confines of the episodes and often the places in which we find them each year seem very contrived. In converting everything to this episodic structure it is a lot easier to see these faults, whereas perhaps on the page or in a film there is more flow between the years, a chapter or a scene does not need to standalone as a piece of art, in the same way an episode of television does.\n<PERSON> is really fantastic throughout the series. From scene to scene she is finding interesting line readings and subtle gestures.", "80" ], [ "Elevating the material. She is always working to find the character despite the writing's occasional jumps leaving gaps in her development.\n<PERSON> has moments of brilliance. The final episode will probably make him a star. I found when he was without his co-star there was a lack of focus to his characterisation. He is a new star for a rogues gallery of sad boy actors, but unfortunately his sad character has fairly boring reasons for being sad for most of the series. It is really lazily written, and unfortunately I always felt like Woodall could not hold the weight of the bad writing in the same way <PERSON> could.", "132" ], [ "A combination of tension building, unresolved cliffhanger, apparent reset. Rinse and repeat.\nThis technique was used among other authors by <PERSON> to delay plot reveals.\nIn practice:\n1. Tension building.\nUse the slower parts of the plot to show the reader the growing underlying affection between the two characters and their general yearning for love.\nThe goal is to make it obvious that both characters are willing to take a step further despite all obstacles.\nThis could be done, for instance: * basic dialogue in which the two get to know each other better, perhaps resuming a previous unfinished conversation on personal topics. * simple gestures that were mentioned earlier in the story and that bear significance for one but not necessarily for the other. E.g.", "627" ], [ "a particular salute, or refraining from wearing some item, or not eating meat. * mention of the other character during their absence when talking to other characters, thus displaying that they are 'in their thoughts'. It could also be in near disparaging terms, but any publicity is good publicity.\n2. Unresolved cliffhanger\nYou have primed the reader to expect a step forward in the romantic subplot, and you begin moving in that direction, but interrupt it abruptly to present instead a major plot point shadowing the subplot.\nThe twist in the main plot should be sufficient to prompt your reader to temporarily set aside the romantic subplot in order to follow this new unexpected circumstance.\nObvious examples are: * characters get interrupted before they can declare their reciprocal affection * the love interest does not show up at the meeting because of the plot twist\n3. Apparent reset\nThe plot point is resolved, the reader is ready to resume the subplot, but you instead reset it. You can justify it with the fact that the moment has been spoiled, that due to the plot point the situation is slightly different, or simply that they need time again to get in touch.\nYou can also show the confusion from both the MC and the love interest as: * case 1: they expect the subplot to resume, but encounter a wall, thus need to start again from the beginning * case 2: they keep wondering how they could have been so insane to be on the verge of committing such a silly thing\nOf course the reset is apparent as their memories are not erased, giving you more material to dwell on for the next cycle.", "425" ], [ "(Book search) Sci-fi book trilogy about space travel & 'jacking'\nWhen I was younger I read three books that were bound into one book, all by the same author I believe. The first two books were in the same universe and the third one was not.\nThe first book was about a man who enlists in some kind of big intergalactic(?) space war. The technology in the universe meant that travelling the large interstellar distances took a long time (hundreds, possibly thousands, of years) and passengers were put in stasis. Often a ship full of soldiers sent off on a mission would find that the mission has already been completed by soldiers sent on a faster ship at a later date, or would arrive and be immediately destroyed by resistance that is far more advanced than they are, due to the advances made while they were asleep.\nA part of the story I remember is that every time the main character comes back to earth, it has gone through big changes, most notably the sexuality of the population. When he leaves the population of earth is generally heterosexual, when he returns most of the population is homosexual, and sex changes are offered to everybody for free.\nThe second book is in the same universe as this. I only remember a small amount of this plot but a major part of it was the decision of a large part of this society to go on a long round trip, essentially time travelling into the future of their planet.\nThe third book was in a different universe.", "1012" ], [ "One where 'jacking', very much like the matrix, is commonplace. Soldiers use this technology to jack in to mech suits and kill ridiculous amounts of some enemy, and also civilians. The recordings of these experiences are sold on the black market for people to relive by 'jacking in' to the memories themselves. Another large part of this plot is a machine that can turn any element into any other, eg. fusing a large quantity of sand into diamonds, or any other element.\nI've tried to be as specific as I can, but unfortunately I don't remember much else about the books. I believe I read these in or before 2012, although they were not new books when I read them.", "1012" ], [ "Spoilers if you have not read the books\nSeveral semi-important characters are conspicuously absent from the show making some scenes rather awkward later on in the series (as dialogue is swapped to other characters.) Obviously this is difficult for the show since the books have far too many characters but there are 3 which I noticed who are set up in the first book and play significant roles throughout the next 4 books.\n<PERSON>, <PERSON>'s uncle is probably <PERSON>'s most important advisor, and his absence means that <PERSON> seems to be surrounded by a very undistinguished bunch, Great <PERSON> is a bit of an oaf, <PERSON> is a sleaze etc\n<PERSON> asks for his squire, to which <PERSON> replies he doesn't have one. This is a bit of a wink at those who have read the books because <PERSON> is <PERSON>'s squire and plays a minor but continuing role throughout the next 3 books, and when last we saw him was left in a cliff hanger alongside <PERSON>. I wonder if <PERSON> knows he is unimportant later on already or if the show writers figure they could just write him in later if required.\n<PERSON> is probably the most important character to be missing from a thematic point of view because he keeps the North Men from being the 'good guys,' and shows the readers that in war every side has their heroes and villains (or at least villains.) Not only is <PERSON> gone, but so too are the 10,000 men he is supposed to be commanding.", "190" ], [ "Rather than winning an indecisive victory against half of <PERSON>'s force left under <PERSON>'s command, and then having to withdraw to gather his strength at Harrenhal, <PERSON> crushes 2000 men left to die by <PERSON>. This really doesn't make much sense, since first of all <PERSON> has fewer men than the lannisters to begin with, and why send 2000 to whole sale slaughter anyway. More to the point it would be pretty reckless of <PERSON> to leave the Twins and the Neck completely open to attack by <PERSON> (since he wouldn't know of <PERSON>/Renlys plans.)\nGeography is not really focused on in the show though so some license is reasonable. However leaving <PERSON> will affect the Brave Companions, <PERSON>, <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and without <PERSON> introduced the events in the north involving his bastard son will also be a bit out of left field.", "190" ], [ "This is a great question and timely as I just acquired <PERSON> attempt at adapting these books to film.\nAs mentioned in another response the symmetrical panel layout with a larger center panel is something that can only be appreciated when reading the source material vs film. I thought it would be nice to have an example below.\nAnother similar effect that can only be achieved through the book medium is the use of a repeating pattern of color through the 3x3 panel configuration as seen below:\nUnless you attempt to literally cut the image into panels for your film as <PERSON> did in Hulk you would not be able to come close to recreating these details. Even with the split screen the images in each panel are moving and you cannot control the pace of how each image is viewed and it is difficult to focus on each detail as the images flash across the screen.\nThe above examples show what I believe you were referring to as structural aspects of the presentation.\nMoving on towards where the film version succeeded or failed. I believe the film failed because of the limitation of time, which is a prevalent negative response whenever such a voluminous text is translated into a film. There is a lot of text/dialog in the comics and there is just too much to present in the few hours of the film.", "627" ], [ "One of the advantages of film is the the motion of images. Unfortunately, I would say the motion is also a weakness in this particular case because the director dictates the pace at which you are exposed to the moving images where with the comic you can linger on an image or series of images and make your own experience. When I read the entire sequence of Doc <PERSON>'s back story in the comic books it had a profound impact on me on a level that cutting and jumping moving images simply could not achieve for me. I did not feel as connected watching the series of events unfold on the screen.\nWhere the film succeeded was by being an entertaining, visually stimulating well crafted attempt at translating something which ultimately cannot be translated. It succeeded in using the advantages of the medium of film such as pure scale, it was an experience to see Doc Manhattan on the massive expanse of the silver screen, audio, the song choices and the combination with the moving images was well done, and creating all the environments/settings I felt was another success.", "594" ], [ "Trying to address the spirt of your question I will make some assumptions please correct me if I’m wrong. I will assume that habitable means more or less earth like, but with different surface features, a relatively benign earth life friendly biosphere where all or most life forms are simply inedible but non-toxic. The technology and distance are such that a trip can be made in less than a year and 10,000 colonists can be sent. I will assume near future.\nSurvival\nThe initial difficulty would be to introduce and establish viable numbers of earth species of plant and animal. This might be difficult even on a habitable world because the local flora and fauna would be well adapted to live there and even if not poisonous would at best be highly invasive. This should be possible but might not be easy and it would be essential to produce food.\nTechnological development\nA second difficulty would be the danger of loss of technical capability. They might arrive with high tech kit but it would all be subject to damage and might be difficult or impossible to repair. There is only so much repair capability that you can bring and that is itself open to damage and degradation.\nSo a second aim would be to build basic infrastructure to help provide what was needed, But I doubt they could actually create enough infrastructure quickly enough to support their original level of technology because modern technology includes so many interrelated complex and hard to manufacture parts. So they would eventually loose capability and would start to struggle to rebuild equipment.", "197" ], [ "As an example when they run out of spares and improvisations, any computer screen that got cracked or bulldozer engine ring that broke would put that piece of kit permanently out of operation.\nSo they will struggle to establish themselves technologically. With luck and provided they still had access to the information necessary to build the technology they once had, they should slowly reacquire it although it might take centuries.\nAs an example before you can build your first microchip to help return your computer technology you need a vast array of other technologies, each of which themselves require even more technologies, so to mention just a few you would need zone refining of silicon which itself would need vacuum technology which itself would need electrical technology etc.\nSocial development\nEventually these separate colonies would run into one another probably in search of resources (although it is very hard to believe that so many separate colonise could be established on the same world in the high tech stage without being aware of the presence of some or all of the others).\nThe mega corporations would be long forgotten and the merits of environmental friendly or not outlooks would be overtaken by events on the ground and the struggle to survive.\nThe religious cult might well retain its beliefs but naturalistic and harmonist views would probably be amended by the need to survive. The militaristic and isolationist societies’ viewpoint would lose a lot of meaning and potency in a world where the only enemy was nature. By the time other groups were encountered the societies may well have moved on or at least the original ideology might be much weaker.\nThe various different forms of initial government and world view would in all likelihood evolve rapidly and many changes might make the groups completely unrecognisable after a few decades. Different sub groups might take control depending on circumstances. Mini revolutions and revolts could over throw the historical outlook.\nFinal out come\nAt the point of contact I would think the bonds of humanity and a common enemy (the alien environment) would outweigh any vestige of their original purpose / outlook. In such survival situations many things originally intended would simply be forgotten or lost. It is also possible that the ingroup out group type thinking would take hold and fighting would break out.\nIn fact eventually there would be cause for much fighting, probably over resources or priorities, (or women) but it is impossible to say what would happen eventually as there are too many variables and too much time would have passed. Probably geographical location would play a bigger role than the original colonies ideology.", "145" ] ]

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