In the sentence: "I didn't know she had a son,"   Can I say "I didn't know she has a son" instead, because he is a teenager now?  Or are both correct?
I know the past tense carries the past tense in every dependent clause, but referring specifically to places or to things that are eternal, like the Earth, seems a bit weird and therefore we sometimes (I believe incorrectly) say     He didn't know that New Jersey was actually on the East Coast.   Because it still is. Or     He thought the Earth was round.   So is it square now?  Logically speaking, would you consider the use of past tense here a bit confusing in a day-to-day speech in these examples? Would you instinctively opt for using the present tense?
Let's say I'm trying to answer a lot of questions just to up my reputation (even if I generally don't know what I'm talking about).  Then, whenever I get downvoted, I just delete my answer so that nobody sees that I've posted stupid answers, and so I don't lose reputation points.   Is this frowned upon? Do I lose reputation points on downvoted answers if I delete them? maximal ideal not containing some expression Why are so many forces explainable using inverse squares when space is three dimensional? How do you calculate the likelihood of drawing certain cards in your opening hand? In Magic, at the start of the game, you draw 7 cards. How would you calculate the likelihood of drawing a specific card in your opening hand?  For example, let's say I have a 60 card deck, and I'm running 4 . What is the percent chance that I will have at least one Bird in my opening hand? Is there a good Valgrind substitute for Windows? How do I share samba via Open VPN? Is that possible? I have configured open VPN in my home so that it can be accessible from my office easily.  Now I want to share samba via my open VPN. How can I share samba over open VPN between Ubuntu and Windows?  Home public IP: HHH.OOO.MMM.EEE Home desktop IP: 192.168.10.10 Office public IP: OOO:FFF:III:CCC Office Windows desktop IP: 192.168.1.10 Scaling HUD with variable resolution Stack Overflow has successfully borrowed at least one XBox feature (Achievements).  I'd like to see another feature borrowed as well. Let's say I'm playing Halo online and another player is being a bigot.  I have the option to add him to a list of ignored users.  After doing that, all the racist things he says will never be heard through my headphones anymore. Now, on Stack Overflow, I'd like the ability to add a user to a list of ignored users.  This would hide all of that user's comments, and maybe his questions and answers as well (not sure if hiding questions/answers is necessary). This serves multiple purposes:  It would make it easy for users to avoid other users' flamebait. It would give users a more appropriate response to flamebait. The ability to start flame wars would be reduced, since fewer users would see those comments. Users would now have an incentive to be more diplomatic, as there is now a negative consequence to the behavior (the silent treatment). Administrators could review which users are the most often ignored, which would be a strong indication that someone should be  or even locked out of their account. Administrators wouldn't have to spend as much time dealing with complaints about abusive users, since users would have a better way to respond.    makes a good point in a comment to an answer, that I thought should get more visibility:  I had a problem, reported it and got the response &quot;not bad enough to do anything about, sorry&quot;. Which is kind of true, because the only options available to the mods are the nuclear one (penalty box) and the zero-effect one (do nothing). We need a middle ground option where abuse can be handled for you without also being handled for everyone. I read this sentence today:  If I were five years old again, I would sleep in every Saturday while I still had the chance!  I am confused why is had used in the last part. When the first part is referring to a hypothetical present/future then how can the last part be in past tense. The answer I received from a native speaker is that :  in type 2 and type 3 conditional sentences, a subordinate clause within the protasis or apodosis goes in the past (sometimes past perfect) tense.  Is this true? If yes, where can I find this information ? These are very advanced grammar concepts for me and any resource suggestion can be very helpful for me. Pytest is in PATH but not found Alignment issue in 'Your Sites' section in the Android app There is some unwanted extra spaces in between each site in the Your Sites section.  Steps to reproduce:   Touch the Nav Icon in the left top corner Touch the EDIT link in YOUR SITES Scroll the screen; there is unwanted spaces in between the each site   For reference I recorded the same:    Configurations:   App Version: 1.0.85 Device Manufacturer: Motorola Device Model: XT1033 OS Version: 5.1 (2) Choosing Geographical Coordinate System and Projected Coordinate System for India? I want to create spatial data for entire India.  Usually I use WGS84 as GCS and UTM zones for PCS in the places in India, but when I have to create the spatial data for entire India, I get confused which geographical coordinate systems and projected coordinate system will be suitable.  What are suitable ones? I am trying to rotate a dual monitor which is attached to the VGA output of my laptop. My system is Ubuntu 15.10.  However, here is the outcome I get when I use xrandr:  xrandr --output VGA-1-0 --rotate right xrandr: output VGA-1-0 cannot use rotation "right" reflection "none"   I have seen other posts on this subject, which all recommend editing xorg.conf. I have tried that, too. Here's my current xorg.conf file:  Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "layout" Screen 0 "nvidia" Inactive "intel" EndSection  Section "Device" Identifier "intel" Driver "modesetting" BusID "PCI:0@0:2:0" Option "AccelMethod" "None" Option "RandRRotation" "True" EndSection  Section "Screen" Identifier "intel" Device "intel" EndSection  Section "Device" Identifier "nvidia" Driver "nvidia" BusID "PCI:1@0:0:0" Option "ConstrainCursor" "off" Option "RandRRotation" "True" EndSection  Section "Screen" Identifier "nvidia" Device "nvidia" Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "on" Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "CRT" Option "RandRRotation" "True" EndSection   Still, I keep getting the same error when trying to use xrandr to rotate that screen.   Is there another way of doing so? What's the shelf life on crushed specialty grains? arccot limit: $\sum_{r=1}^{\infty}\cot ^{-1}(r^2+\frac{3}{4})$ How to recenter an object's origin? So, I'm working creating a lamp... yes, newbie here.  After modeling for a bit, I noticed that my point of origin was no longer the center of my object:    How to I reset an object origin point to the center of it's geometry? Moving from SQL 2005 [SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS] to 2008 - will I lose any features by using 'backwards compatibility' We're moving from SQL 2005 [Instance and DB have collation of SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS]  to SQL 2008 [which defaults to Latin1_General_CI_AS].  I completed a SQL 2008 R2 installation, and used default Latin1_General_CI_AS collation, with the restoration of the database still on SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. The excepted problems occurred - the #temp tables where in  Latin1_General_CI_AS whilst the db was in  SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS and this is where I am now - I need advice on the pitfalls now please.  On installation of SQL 2008 R2, I have the option on installation to use 'SQL Collation, used for backwards compatibility' where I have the option to select the same collation as the 2005 database : SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.   This will allow me to not have problems with #temp tables, but are there pitfalls? Would I lose any functionality or features of any kind by not using a "current" collation of SQL 2008? What about when we move (e.g. in 2 years ) from 2008 to SQL 2012? Will I have problems then? Would I at some point be forced to go to Latin1_General_CI_AS? I read that some DBA's script complete the rows of complete databases, and then run the insert script into the database with the new collation - I'm very scared and wary of this - would you recommend doing this? Does one wing of fly contain harmful microbes and the other contain only antibodies? There was  study but the conclusion and it's source's relability seemed a bit off. How come a house flies one wing contain all microbe and the other don't. Black screen after installation of Ubuntu 18.04 Should individual letters be preceded with "an"? I was reading a comic book and I noticed that the author used "an A" and "an N" in a particular phrase (screenshot below). While I understand the usage of "An A" here (A being a vowel and what not) and "N" having a pronunciation which has a sound similar to "A".  Since most of English alphabets have pronunciations which start with a syllable similar to one of the vowels or semi-vowels; is it OK to prefix the letters using "An"?  For eg. An X, or An Y.        Zenescope's Grimm Fairy Tales - Werewolves: The Hunger, page #8 (Click to enlarge)