Science and personal beliefs
Ought we only form beliefs based on sufficient empirical evidence?
Calculating distance of sites to riverways using ArcGIS Desktop? How do you calculate the distance of about 10 sites scattered across a region to bodies of water (rivers and lakes) using ArcGIS 10.1?  I have the lat/lon coordinates of the 10 sites as a point feature class and I have downloaded the Surface Water Area (polygon shapefile) for the study  area from the UK Ordnance Survey webpage.  I want to determine the easiest route-ways that are available in the study area by taking into account slope and proximity to rivers. I understand that I can achieve this by running a cost path analysis if I have a dem raster, slope raster and distance rasters to rivers and valley floors. But I am not sure how to create distance rasters to rivers and valley floors using Spatial analyst tools. I am trying to install Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on a Dell XPS 13 (9350). The laptop came with Windows 10 pre-installed. I am installing from a pendrive but I think the issue would be the same if I used e.g. a USB DVD drive.   Dude, where's my hard drive?  I am blocked because the installation program cannot find 8.6Gb of free space on my hard drive despite the fact that there are hundreds of Gb free according to Windows. Digging a bit into the problem, it seems that Ubuntu cannot see my hard disk at all.    This is the output of GParted:    I am not sure what that drive mounted at /cdrom is, but it seems the only device that exists in the system that is not a RAM disk or a loop device:   Content of /proc/partitions:   ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/partitions   major minor  #blocks  name     1        0      65536 ram0     1        1      65536 ram1     1        2      65536 ram2     1        3      65536 ram3     1        4      65536 ram4     1        5      65536 ram5     1        6      65536 ram6     1        7      65536 ram7     1        8      65536 ram8     1        9      65536 ram9     1       10      65536 ram10     1       11      65536 ram11     1       12      65536 ram12     1       13      65536 ram13     1       14      65536 ram14     1       15      65536 ram15     7        0     130048 loop0     7        1    1104188 loop1     8        0    1970239 sda     8        1    1953439 sda1   Summary of fdisk -l:   ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l |grep Disk Disk /dev/ram0: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram1: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram2: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram3: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram4: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram5: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram6: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram7: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram8: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram9: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram10: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram11: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram12: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram13: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram14: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/ram15: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 131072 sectors Disk /dev/loop0: 127 MiB, 133169152 bytes, 260096 sectors Disk /dev/loop1: 1.1 GiB, 1130688512 bytes, 2208376 sectors Disk /dev/sda: 1.9 GiB, 2017525248 bytes, 3940479 sectors Disklabel type: dos Disk identifier: 0x00000000   Result of fdisk of the only non-loop non-RAM device (not sure this is relevant):   ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l |grep -A 50 sda Disk /dev/sda: 1.9 GiB, 2017525248 bytes, 3940479 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: dos Disk identifier: 0x00000000  Device     Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type /dev/sda1  *      129 3907007 3906879  1.9G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)   I am blocked at this point. Any help will be much appreciated.   Additional information (following comments):   Running dmesg |grep -i sata shows (among others) eight lines that suggest some kind of error:   ata1: SATA link down (SStatus FFFFFFFF SControl FFFFFFFF) ata2: SATA link down (SStatus FFFFFFFF SControl FFFFFFFF) ata3: SATA link down (SStatus FFFFFFFF SControl FFFFFFFF) ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0) ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0) ata6: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0) ata7: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0) ata8: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0)  I have "Restarted" windows instead of only "Shutdown" it to avoid problems with "fast startup", following some recommendations I have read of other users having problems installing Linux on Windows 10 laptops.ago   Regarding SATA, the BIOS says: "SATA Operation: RAID ON". The other two options available are "Disabled" and "AHCI".    I have followed the instructions of these two pages from Dell: , . Proof that a Combination is an integer A lady and a monster A famous problem:  A lady is in the center of the circular lake and a monster is on the boundary of the lake. The speed of the monster is $v_m$, and the speed of the swimming lady is $v_l$. The goal of the lady is to come to the ground without meeting the monster, and the goal of the monster is to meet the lady.  Under some conditions on $v_m,v_l$ the lady can always win. What if these conditions are not satisfied?  Edited: the monster cannot swim. If the conditions are not satisfied, then monster can always perform a strategy such that the lady will not escape the lake. On the other hand this strategy is not desirable for both of them because they do not reach their goals. As there was mentioned, this deals with undecidability of the problem. On the other hand, if you imagine yourself to be this lady/monster, you can be interested in the strategy which is not optimal. What is it? If there are such strategies in the game theory?  Edited2: My question is more general in fact. If we have a game with one parameter $v$ when two players $P_1, P_2$ are enemies and if $v&gt;0$ then for any strategy of $P_2$ the player $P_1$ wins. If $v\leq 0$ then for any strategy of $P_2$ there is a strategy of $P_1$ such that $P_2$ does not win and vice versa. I am interested in this case. From the mathematical point of view as I have understood the problem is undecidable since there is no an ultimate strategy neither for $P_1$ nor for $P_2$. But we are solving somehow these problem IRL. Imagine that you are a lady in this game - then you would like to win anyway even while knowing that your strategy can be covered by the strategy of the monster. On the other hand, the monster knows that if he will cover all strategies of the lady she will never reach the shore and he will never catch her. I mean they have to develop some non-optimal strategies. I hope now it's more clear. Validate a username and password against Active Directory? How can I validate a username and password against Active Directory? I simply want to check if a username and password are correct. How do I use the different shutter speeds my camera offers? It is common to see things described as the &quot;gold standard&quot;. It means that something is the best and is the ideal against which other things are to be compared; it cannot be superseded. I often , where a certain diagnostic test (e.g., the nasopharyngeal swab PCR test for infection with the Coronavirus causing COVID-19) is considered the most accurate and then other tests (e.g., cheaper or faster tests) are then evaluated against this benchmark. The etymology is covered in . In short, it is derived from the . Thus gold was the thing against which the value of all other currencies was measured. I don't like this term and would like to avoid using it. First, the desired meaning is not predominant; if you  you will mostly get results for the monetary system, not the more general phrase. Second, the etymology is outdated; the original meaning of the term now has the opposite connotation. The monetary gold standard was abandoned in the 1970s. Economists consider the gold standard to be a bad monetary system. Thus, if you are interested in economics and history, the term &quot;gold standard&quot; actually is associated with being outdated and flawed -- which is close to the opposite of the intended meaning. (Of course, many people are unaware of the original meaning of the term. ) (A note in response to comments: Why I want to avoid this term is relevant, but not essential, to the question. If you don't see a problem with the term, the question can be answered regardless.) My question: Is there a better phrase to use in place of &quot;gold standard&quot;? For example, what term could be used in a medical study comparing a new diagnostic test against the gold standard test? I'm not aware of any good substitute that has essentially the same meaning. Here are two example sentences where I would like a replacement:   A nasal swab is the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19.     The  served as the gold standard for all scales from 1889 until 2019.   The best substitute I can think of is &quot;official,&quot; as in &quot;a nasal swab is the official way to diagnose COVID-19&quot;. &quot;Official&quot; implies some form of uniqueness. But &quot;official&quot; implies the existence of some authority that gives it this designation (as opposed to scientific consensus). A  asks for a &quot;perhaps humorous&quot; alternative -- the suggestion there, &quot;mother of all&quot;, is not appropriate here. (There is also .)  In response to the answers and comments doubting the premise of this question: I personally have a negative association with the phrase &quot;gold standard&quot; because I know people who advocate for returning to the gold standard or its modern equivalent, , and have discussed the topic at length. Several  US  continue to advocate for a return to the gold standard. Thus asserting that no one will interpret the phrase in terms of monetary policy is simply not convincing. Convert line voltage heating system to use low voltage thermostats I currently have two line voltage ceiling radiant heating systems in my condo each with their own DPST thermostat. I'd like to use low voltage thermostats such as the nest. I found , but it only has 3 wires. Will this work with a system designed to use DPST thermostats? If not, is there something else out there that will allow me to use low voltage thermostats with line voltage heaters? Why is pressure in a liquid the same in all directions? I'd like answers both in the more intuitive side an on the more precise side.   Thinking of water as "cubes" of water, for example, would allow pressure in the z axis to be independent of the y or x axis. Choosing other "shapes", like a  triangular prism, yield different results. Will this fact, then, be dependent on the format of the molecules of the liquid ?  I've heard of the rotational symmetry of liquids. What is its precise statement ? Why is it true ? When trying to execute a symbolic link which points to an exe file (on Windows 7), the "Open with" windows appears. When renaming it to a ".exe" file, it says "The specified path does not exist. Check the path, and then try again.".  Symlinks to other destinations seem to work fine.  So is there any way to execute a symlink?  EDIT: In the command prompt, I execute the following and the MyProgram.exe runs both times.  However, if I double-click on the symbolic link in Windows Explorer it fails with the above error message.  C:\Temp&gt;mklink SomeProgram.exe MyProgram.exe symbolic link created for Backup.exe &lt;&lt;===&gt;&gt; Backup-1.0.1.exe  C:\Temp&gt;SomeProgram.exe  C:\Temp&gt;del SomeProgram.exe  C:\Temp&gt;mklink SomeProgram.exe C:\Temp\MyProgram.exe symbolic link created for Backup.exe &lt;&lt;===&gt;&gt; C:\Temp\Backup-1.0.1.exe  C:\Temp&gt;SomeProgram.exe How to solve "permission denied" when using sudo with redirection in Bash? When using sudo to allow edits to files, I regularly get 'permission denied'.  For example, my mouse is jittery and sluggish, so I want to disable polling:  sudo echo "options drm_kms_helper poll=N"&gt;/etc/modprobe.d/local.conf   I'm prompted for a password, and then get:  bash: /etc/modprobe.d/local.conf: Permission denied   So I tried to do a temporary change to disable polling by using:  sudo echo N&gt; /sys/module/drm_kms_helper/parameters/poll   Yet again the system responded with:  bash: /sys/module/drm_kms_helper/parameters/poll: Permission denied   Any ideas? Let $R$ be a commutative ring.  The nilradical $\text{nil}(R)$ is the set of all nilpotent elements, and it is the intersection of all the prime ideals of $R$.  Is the following true in the polynomial ring? $$\text{nil}(R[X])=(\text{nil}(R))[X]$$  Any polynomial in the right hand side has all its coefficients nilpotent in $R$, hence also in $R[X]$, and therefore it is nilpotent in $R[X]$ as the sum of nilpotent elements.  The other inclusion is not clear to me.  Is there a counterexample? With 5 images I have to create a video of 60 seconds in ffmpeg, each image has to display for 15 seconds. after  15 seconds, first image has to fade out and 2nd image has to fade in, after that 2nd image has to fade out, 3rd image has to fade in..etc. Please guide me how can I achieve this using ffmpeg commands. How to prove the midpoint of a chord is also the midpoint of the line segment defined by the points of intersection of other two chords with it? Bernhard Elsner, alias MathOMan, posted this exercise in plane Geometry,  on January $29$th, $2010.$  "Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a circle, $A,B$ two distinct points on $\mathcal{C}$ and $M$ be the midpoint of the chord $[AB]$. Take two other chords,$[PQ]$ and $[SR]$, that pass through $M$. Let $C$ (resp. $D$) be the intersection of $[AB]$ with $[PS]$ (resp. $[RQ]$). Prove that $M$ is the midpoint of the chord $[CD]$."    To prove it I've written the following (failed) argument, in the  of this post (translation of mine):    The figure is symmetric with respect to $M$: $\overline{AM}=\overline{MB}$, $\overline{PM}=\overline{MU}$, $\overline{RM}=\overline{MW}$, $\overline{QM}=\overline{MV}$, $\overline{QR}=\overline{VW}$, $\overline{SM}=\overline{MT}$. From $\dfrac{\overline{SC}}{\overline{DT}}=\dfrac{\overline{CM}}{\overline{MD}}=1$ follows that $\overline{CM}=\overline{MD}$.  Here is an extract of the author's reply (translation of mine):   "It is not clear that  $\overline{QM}=\overline{MV}$. Is the point $V$ on the line $(QM)$ defined by this equality or is $V$ defined as the intersection point of the lines $(QM)$ and $(WC)$? Why are both definitions to give the same point?  Let $C^{\prime }$ be the intersection of $(SP)$ and $(VW)$, and $D^{\prime }$ the intersection of $(TU)$ and $(QR)$. (...)  One still has to show that $C^{\prime }=C$ and $D^{\prime }=D$."   I have agreed with these objections.  Until now no proof has been posted. The author considers that the "proof is not quite simple".  Q. What is the theorem this exercise refers to? Or how does one prove it? Convergence of $A_nT$ to $AT$ in operator norm for compact $T$ $A_n:Y\rightarrow Z$ are operators that strongly converge to $A$. Also, $\|A_n\|_\text {op}\le c$ for $c&gt;0$. Given a compact operator $T:X\rightarrow Y$, I need to show that $A_nT$ converges to $AT$ in operator norm (all spaces in this question are Banach spaces).     I was unable to prove this and I also do not understand why we need to assume that $T$ is compact. Any ideas? Mathematica Sec and Csc how to *completely* turn off automatic updates in Windows 10 I have disabled the services &quot;Windows Update&quot; and &quot;Windows Update Medic Service&quot; in using services.mcs. Furthermore, I made changes to the registry, creating a key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU with a DWORD (32-bit) Value &quot;AUOptions&quot; with value set to 2. I still see frequent queries to ctldl.windowsupdate.com sent to my DNS server. Which services need to be disables to completely shut this down? What is $\Delta t$ in the time-energy uncertainty principle? How can i find the python triggered by the GUI? Number of ways to pair off $2n$ points such that no chords intersect For $n \geq 0$ evenly distribute $2n$ points on the circumference of a circle, and label these point cyclically with the numbers $1, 2 . . . , 2n$ Let $h_n$ be the number of ways in which these $2n$ points can be paired off as $n$ chords where no two chords intersect  I want to find a recursive formula for $h_n$.  First I find $h_1,h_2,h_3$ to see the recursive nature.    $h_1 = 1$ as their only one way to make one chord  $h_2 = 2$   Now $\require{enclose}      \enclose{horizontalstrike}{h_3=4}h_3=5$ ((1,4), (2,3), (5,6) case is missed in image)  I found a wikipedia link    and it is very close to my problem, But in this link you don't need to pair off $n$ chords.  But I can't get to come up with a recursive formula for my question.  If I would to guess I would say $h_n = 2 \times h_{n-1}$, And would this means that $h_4 = 8$ ??