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In this week's eSkeptic:
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About this week's eSkeptic
Scientists are edging closer to providing logical and even potentially empirically testable hypotheses to account for the universe. In this week's eSkeptic, Michael Shermer discusses 12 possible answers to the question of why there is something rather than nothing.
About the image below
Timeline of the Universe — A representation of the evolution of the universe over 13.7 billion years. The far left depicts the earliest moment we can now probe, when a period of "inflation" produced a burst of exponential growth in the universe. (Size is depicted by the vertical extent of the grid in this graphic.) For the next several billion years, the expansion of the universe gradually slowed down as the matter in the universe pulled on itself via gravity. More recently, the expansion has begun to speed up again as the repulsive effects of dark energy have come to dominate the expansion of the universe. The afterglow light seen by WMAP was emitted about 380,000 years after inflation and has traversed the universe largely unimpeded since then. The conditions of earlier times are imprinted on this light; it also forms a backlight for later developments of the universe. (Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team)
Nothing is Negligible
Why There is Something Rather than Nothing
by Michael Shermer
Why is there something rather than nothing? The question is usually posed by Christian apologists as a rhetorical argument meant to pose as the drop-dead killer case for God that no scientist can possibly answer. Those days are over. Even though scientists are not in agreement on a final answer to the now non-rhetorical question, they are edging closer to providing logical and even potentially empirically testable hypotheses to account for the universe. Here are a dozen possible answers to the question
The Definitive Dozen
1 GOD. The theist's answer to the question is that God existed before the universe and subsequently brought it into existence out of nothing (ex nihilo) in a single creation moment as described in Genesis. But the very conception of a creator existing before the universe and then creating it implies a time sequence. In both the Judeo-Christian tradition (along with the Babylonian pre-Judeo-Christian cosmogony) and the scientific worldview, time began when the universe came into existence, either through divine creation or the Big Bang. God, therefore, would have to exist outside of space and time, which means that as natural beings delimited by living in a finite universe, we cannot possibly know anything about such a supernatural entity. The theist's answer is an untestable hypothesis and thus amounts to nothing more than a god-of-the-gaps argument.
2 WRONG QUESTION. Asking why there is something rather than nothing presumes "nothing" is the natural state of things out of which "something" needs an explanation. Maybe "something" is the natural state of things and "nothing" would be the mystery to be solved. As the physicist Victor Stenger notes in his book, The Fallacy of Fine Tuning: "Current cosmology suggests that no laws of physics were violated in bringing the universe into existence. The laws of physics themselves are shown to correspond to what one would expect if the universe appeared from nothing. There is something rather than nothing because something is more stable."
3 GRAND UNIFIED THEORY. In order to answer the question, we need a comprehensive theory of physics that connects the subatomic world described by quantum mechanics to the cosmic world described by general relativity. As the Caltech cosmologist Sean Carroll notes in his book From Eternity to Here: "Possibly general relativity is not the correct theory of gravity, at least in the context of the extremely early universe. Most physicists suspect that a quantum theory of gravity, reconciling the framework of quantum mechanics with Einstein's ideas about curved spacetime, will ultimately be required to make sense of what happens at the very earliest times. So if someone asks you what really happened at the moment of the purported Big Bang, the only honest answer would be: 'I don't know.'" That grand unified theory of everything will itself need an explanation, but it may be explicable by some other theory we have yet to comprehend out of our sheer ignorance at this moment in history.
4 BOOM-AND-BUST CYCLES. Sean Carroll also suggests that our universe may be just one in a series of boom-and-bust cycles of expansion and contractions of the universe, with our universe just one "episode" of the bubble's eventual collapse and re-expansion in an eternal cycle, and therefore "there is no such thing as an initial state, because time is eternal. In this case, we are imagining that the Big Bang isn't the beginning of the entire universe, although it's obviously an important event in the history of our local region."
5 DARWINIAN MULTIVERSE. According to the cosmologist Lee Smolin, in his book The Life of the Cosmos, our universe is just one of many bubble universes with varying sets of laws of nature. Those universes with laws of nature similar to ours will generate matter, which coalesces into stars, some of which collapse into black holes and a singularity, the same entity out of which our universe may have sprung. Thus, universes like ours give birth to baby universes with those same laws of nature, some of which develop intelligent life smart enough to discover this Darwinian process of cosmic evolution.
6 INFLATIONARY COSMOLOGY. In his 1997 book The Inflationary Universe, the cosmologist Alan Guth proposes that our universe sprang into existence from a bubble nucleation of spacetime. If this process of universe creation is natural, then there may be multiple bubble nucleations that give rise to many universes that expand but remain separate from one another without any causal contact between them.
7 MANY-WORLDS MULTIVERSE. According to the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics, there are an infinite number of universes in which every possible outcome of every possible choice that has ever been available, or will be available, has happened in one of those universes. This many-worlds multiverse is grounded in the bizarre findings of the famous "double-slit" experiment, in which light is passed through two slits and forms an interference pattern of waves on a back surface (like throwing two stones in a pond and watching the concentric wave patterns interact, with crests and troughs adding and subtracting from one another). The spooky part comes when you send single photons of light one at a time through the two slits—they still form an interference wave pattern even though they are not interacting with other photons. How can this be? One answer is that the photons are interacting with photons in other universes! In this type of multiverse you could meet your doppelgänger, and depending on which universe you entered, your parallel self would be fairly similar or dissimilar to you, a theme that has become a staple of science fiction (see, for example, Michael Crichton's Timeline).
8 BRANE UNIVERSES. A multi-dimensional universe may come about when three-dimensional "branes" (a membrane-like structure on which our universe exists) moves through higher-dimensional space and collides with another brane, the result of which is the energized creation of another universe.
9 STRING UNIVERSES. A related multiverse is derived through string theory, which by at least one calculation allows for 10500 possible worlds, all with different self-consistent laws and constants. That's a 1 followed by 500 zeroes possible universes (12 zeroes is a trillion!). In his book The Unconscious Quantum, Victor Stenger published the results of a computer model that analyzes what just 100 different universes would be like under constants different from our own, ranging from five orders of magnitude above to five orders of magnitude below their values in our universe. Stenger found that long-lived stars of at least 1 billion years—necessary for the production of life-giving heavy elements—would emerge within a wide range of parameters in at least half of the universes in his model.
10 QUANTUM FOAM MULTIVERSE. In this model, universes are created out of nothing, but in the scientific version of ex nihilo the nothing of the vacuum of space actually contains the theoretical spacetime mishmash called quantum foam, which may fluctuate to create baby universes. In this configuration, any quantum object in any quantum state may generate a new universe, each one of which represents every possible state of every possible object. This is Stephen Hawking's explanation for the fine-tuning problem that he himself famously presented in his 1996 book (co-authored with Roger Penrose) The Nature of Space and Time: "Quantum fluctuations lead to the spontaneous creation of tiny universes, out of nothing. Most of the universes collapse to nothing, but a few that reach a critical size, will expand in an inflationary manner, and will form galaxies and stars, and maybe beings like us."
11 M-THEORY GRAND DESIGN. Stephen Hawking has continued working on this question, and this month, he and the Caltech mathematician Leonard Mlodinow present their answer in a book entitled The Grand Design. They approach the problem from what they call "model-dependent realism," based on the assumption that our brains form models of the world from sensory input, that we use the model most successful at explaining events, and that when more than one model makes accurate predictions "we are free to use whichever model is most convenient." Employing this method, they write, "it is pointless to ask whether a model is real, only whether it agrees with observation." The dual wave/particle models of light are an example of model-dependent realism, where each one agrees with certain observations but neither one is sufficient to explain all observations. To model the entire universe, Hawking and Mlodinow employ "M-Theory," an extension of string theory that includes 11 dimensions and incorporates all five current string theory models. "M-theory is the most general supersymmetric theory of gravity," Hawking and Mlodinow explain. "For these reasons M-theory is the only candidate for a complete theory of the universe. If it is finite—and this has yet to be proved—it will be a model of a universe that creates itself." Although they admit that the theory has yet to be confirmed by observation, if it is, then no creator explanation is necessary because the universe creates itself. I call this auto-ex-nihilo.
12 NOTHING IS UNSTABLE, SOMETHING IS NATURAL In his 2012 book, A Universe From Nothing, the cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss attempts to link quantum physics to Einstein's gravitational theory of general relativity to explain the origin of something (including a universe) from nothing: "In quantum gravity, universes can, and indeed always will, spontaneously appear from nothing. Such universes need not be empty, but can have matter and [electromagnetic] radiation in them, as long as the total energy, including the negative energy associated with gravity [balancing the positive energy of matter], is zero." And: "In order for the closed universes that might be created through such mechanisms to last for longer than infinitesimal times, something like inflation is necessary." Observations have revealed that, in fact, the universe is flat (there is just enough matter to eventually halt its expansion), its energy is zero, and it underwent rapid inflation, or expansion, shortly after the Big Bang as described by inflationary cosmology. Thus, Krauss concludes, "quantum gravity not only appears to allow universes to be created from nothing—meaning…the absence of space and time—it may require them. 'Nothing'—in this case no space, no time, no anything!—is unstable."
Putting Something to the Test
Many of these dozen explanations are testable. The theory that new universes can emerge from collapsing black holes may be illuminated through additional knowledge about the properties of black holes. Other bubble universes might be detected in the subtle temperature variations of the cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the Big Bang of our own universe. NASA recently launched a spacecraft constructed to study this radiation. Another way to test these theories might be through the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) that is designed to detect exceptionally faint gravitational waves. If there are other universes, perhaps ripples in gravitational waves will signal their presence. Maybe gravity is such a relatively weak force (compared to electromagnetism and the nuclear forces) because some of it "leaks" out to other universes. Maybe.
After a column I wrote in Scientific American on this topic ("Much Ado About Nothing," May, 2012), I received an email from the Columbia University theoretical physicist Peter Woit cautioning me not to put too much emphasis on any one of these hypotheses/answers to the question of why there is something rather than nothing, noting that even these proposed tests probably themselves lack validity, if they could ever be conducted in reality. He explained that his skepticism came not out of religious conviction: "I'm as much of an atheist as anyone, and I'm really disturbed to see arguments being made that are going to end up discrediting skepticism and atheism." He then posted a blog commentary on my Scientific American column, noting that my "authority here is the Hawking/Mlodinow popular book, but he's also convinced that WMAP and LIGO are somehow going to provide evidence for multiverses, something that even the most far-out theorists in this field aren't claiming." Regarding my comment that perhaps gravity "leaks" out to other universes Woit responds: "Nobody seems to have told Shermer that this is not an idea taken seriously by a significant number of theorists, or that LHC data has shot down the hopes of the one or two such theorists." Woit was prescient in that the prominent Intelligent Design creationist William Dembski did highlight Woit's skepticism at his blog Uncommon Descent ("Serving the Intelligent Design Community"), quoting Woit and commenting: "Don't nobody tell Shermer. It's more fun this way."
Given the fact that I appreciated Peter Woit's skeptical book on string theory (Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law), I queried my sources. Physicist Victor Stenger responded: "The multiverse is not nonsense. It is based on good theory, but only theory. It is, in principle, detectable by measuring an anisotropy in the cosmic background radiation. That's why I did not rely on it in The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning. I agree with Woit on M-theory, though." Caltech physicist Leonard Mlodinow said he doubts that either he or Woit knows what "most physicists" think about the multiverse, and then opined that "most cosmologists certainly believe it," recalling that Brian Greene "outlined the general thinking (as opposed to, say, Hawking's particular views) very well in his book on it" (The Hidden Reality). Finally, Caltech physicist and cosmologist Sean Carroll noted: "You are completely correct, the multiverse is an idea that pops out of inflation (and string theory), not one that is put in out of desperation. Here is a column of my own making exactly this point. Carroll then cautioned: "Obviously the entire set of ideas is controversial and speculative, and should be presented as such, but it's taken very seriously by a large number of extremely smart and respectable people." For example: Leonard Susskind, Alex Vilenkin and Alan Guth (on the pro-multiverse side) and David Gross, Paul Steinhardt, and Edward Farhi (skeptical of the multiverse side).
God, Science, and the Great Unknown
In the meantime, while scientists sort out the science to answer the question Why is there something instead of nothing?, in addition to reviewing these dozen answers it is also okay to say "I don't know" and keep searching. There is no need to turn to supernatural answers just to fulfill an emotional need for explanation. Like nature, the mind abhors a vacuum, but sometimes it is better to admit ignorance than feign certainty about which one knows not. If there is one lesson that the history of science has taught us it is that it is arrogant to think that we now know enough to know that we cannot know. Science is young. Let us have the courage to admit our ignorance and to keep searching for answers to these deepest questions.
Skeptical perspectives on the universe…
- The Grand Design
by Leonard Mlodinow
When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the nature of reality? Why are the laws of nature so finely tuned as to allow for the existence of beings like ourselves? And, finally, is the apparent "grand design" of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion—or does science offer another explanation? In this lecture by Leonard Mlodinow, based on his co-authored book with Stephen Hawking, answers to these ultimate questions are answers based on the most recent scientific evidence.
- How Old is the Universe? and
The Shape of Inner Space
(two lectures on one DVD)
by Dr. David Weintraub and Dr. Shing-Tung Yau
It's all very well for astronomers to say that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, but how do they know? Weintraub explains various dating approaches and illustrates the work of astronomers to find the answer to one of the most basic questions about our universe.
Dr. Yau tells the story of the six-dimensional geometric spaces that may be more than a trillion times smaller than an electron (and also one of the defining features of our universe), which physicists have dubbed "Calabi-Yau manifolds." Dr. Yau managed to prove the existence, mathematically, of these spaces, despite the fact that he had originally set out to prove that such spaces could not possibly exist.
- Cosmos (7-DVD set)
by Carl Sagan
The Collector's edition boxed set of 7 DVDs of the 13 hour series narrated in 1980 by Carl Sagan and revamped in 2000 with up-to-date science and images. The definitive tour of our universe. Inspiring!
31 Comments
These are all valid speculations, but there are certainly other ways of looking at the universe, time and matter. There does not appear to be any real substance to matter when you get small enough, and the universe appears relatively empty when you get large enough. What if for any given segment of time the universe is growing but only in relation to where the observer is. If at what we consider the beginning of the universe we were to observe from within the extremities, would everything appear to be as large and expanding at the same rate relative to local time as it appears to us now using our local time?
You raise some interesting questions – and I have heard many similar things posed by my students – so I would strongly suggest that you pick up some of the books Dr Schermer has referenced and read them. They're all pretty accessible to the general public and help convey some concepts which are useful – if you want to think about these things or even understand these popular books.
E.g. the concepts of time and space have (for quite a while now – since special relativity) been seen as two bits of spacetime. In Newtonian physics (which fits most of our day-to-day experience so we tend to think in terms of Newtonian physics) we can imagine that space is a stage for a play, and time is just the … well .. time of it. The actors are limited by space and time but do not *inter*act with it. Under SR, space & time are bit of spacetime and actors (matter) can affect it as well as being affected by it. It also makes thinking about the beginnings of space & time easier – "the beginning of time" is the origin of our 'bubble of spacetime' – did it split off from a 'parent' spacetime realm or did some other process produce it? Well, that's part of what Dr Mike's article is about.
Truly wonderful stuff, Dr Mike, I love it when skeptics discuss principles of science (I get tired of all the debunking stuff like UFO's and Nessie – and don't know how anyone can stand spending an entire career at it. I enjoy popularizing the stuff about Nature we do understand much more than dislodging bogus beliefs – and interestingly studies show that people can be very science literate and still hold onto some bogus beliefs. )
Even more so now than ever, the question MIGHT not make sense.
In an admittedly flawed example, I contend that it is somewhat like asking a dog
to give a Chess response in algebraic notation to " 1. e4 "
the best you will get is "arf", especially if you have chessmen ( pardon sexism) made out of dog candy.
For Hofstadter fans , "MU" might do, especially if you are asking a Cat.
There ARE occasions where "Beats ME" is an OK answer especially if you want to piss someone off whose life work depends on another answer
"Fried shoes" isn't really too bad!!
As an amateur logical positivist , I find that nobody wants to hear that what they say does not or cannot make sense .
I get accused of being too intellectually snobbish or lazy to cut them some slack.
"That's cool, tell me more works much better .
Bob Pease
or it may be that 'nothing' is an illusion: a concept that our brains generate because of the structure of our cognitive algorithms, but that is in fact incoherent, so the question vanishes.
Right. We must be careful with our words and really understand them. E.g. "nothing" is a privative (an absence of _something_) and when we start thinking of it as a thing in it's own right we can think some silly thoughts… like asking "What is the speed of dark?" (it _has_ to be faster than the speed of light because dark always gets there first ;)
None of the explanations given really answer the question as to why there is something instead of nothing. They simply offer possible explanations as to the formation of our universe. I think Bob is right, unfortunately it's possibly very likely that this may be something too large for our limited intellect and senses to ever fully comprehend.
To be fair, Science is not in the business of answering "Why" questions – it is ill equipped to get into intentions and purposes. Science is all about asking "What and How" (IOW: Theories are descriptions and explanations of natural phenomena). So in a very real sense when a religious person and a scientist discuss this topic they are having two different conversations – and may not even realize it.
One thing I learned kinda late in life is all my years of debates with ID'ers suffered from this. Both sides often started suspecting the other side of intellectual dishonesty because of the fact that we were having two different conversations. The IDers are quite satisfied with "God did it" because it explains the _purpose_ of it all. To us scientists/science teachers that's a frustrating answer almost as bad as when a child is told "Because I said so!" … it's a conversation ender. But our explanations of what is the diversity of life (plus astronomy stuff – my thing) and how it all works are frustrating to them because they want to know the _meaning_ of it all and not the nuts and bolts. Science is looking at the nuts and bolts of nature.
Actually, the *real* lesson I learned from all these debates was when it comes to purpose, intent and meaning – often the individual asking the question can impose his/her preconceived notion on it without harm. If you want to assert that everything is here because God created it for His Children – fine. If you assert it's here by accident – great. If it's all a dream in a TV character's head – works just as well. These scenarios are not about the nuts and bolts of reality but about the meaning of it – and whatever gives you meaning go for it.
So as long as they keep it out of the schools, I am happy for the ID'ers that they find comfort from "God did it." (and this attitude gives me powerful leverage to explain to them why their philosophical answer about purpose and meaning doesn't belong in a _science class_… you wouldn't want them teaching the Book of Mormon in a pre-columbian History Class because – true/false/or other – the Book of Mormon isn't a History Book.) I find if I do not attack their beliefs – even gently – I can guide them to see that they are not science.
I really like you pointing out that we need to keep in mind that science is about the "what" and "how" questions, leaving the "why" questions to philosophy and theology. That's a great argument for keeping ID and creationism out of public schools.
i think , since our theories say black whole is like a wormhole..and time is not absolute,then cant it be like the energy from black hole somehow is tending to go at the starting of the time and that point in space time of big bang or something like that.. which is constantly getting energy from all the black holes that are yet present , would be formed and were formed. or their is one somewhere which is never going to die.. and always going to send that energy in the past at that point. was just wondering.
Two concepts that seem unfalsifiable are the propositions that our somethings could not have come from nothing and that all these somethings must move/change in a sequential order.
paraphrase of an "oldie but goodie"
" If we didn't have the concepts of sequence and its companions "before" and "after" then "before" and "after" companions its and sequence of concepts the have didn't we if"
! yuppuy !
"Why is there something rather than nothing." As an agnostic, I've actually found this a useful response to theists. The conversation goes, "Where did the universe come from if not God?", "Beats me. Where did your God come from?", "You can't ask that question, God always existed." "Well, why couldn't the universe have always existed? All these questions boil down to 'why is there anything', which is ultimately unanswerable."
since time is not absolute, if u make anything in circle..its ultimately self answerable. u need not to have any problem in answering any question when you take time as non-absolute term in space. and that'S why we can say one thing is ignited by another thing..and so on..at last u see..the last thing has ignited the first thing , so theirs no ending and starting. its a circle. because time it self is not absolute.
One point:
If something comes from nothing then that nothing has the property of being able to produce something and so is something as it has at least one property, the ability to produce something. I.e., there is no such thing as the ultimate nothing, something existed eternally. (Put philosophically; Existence exists.)
OK, maybe another point:
The question of how something comes from nothing is an invalid question. To posit nothing you first have to have the concept something, i.e., it is a stolen concept. To use a concept of nothing you first have to have the concept of something and then derive nothing. Something existed eternally. (Don't confuse this absolute nothing with saying I have nothing in my draw, that refers to pens, shirts, etc. There is still something in the draw, air, energy, particles; something.)
Peter LePort, MD
No Candidate is better than Obama
Rush Limbaugh is better than no candidate
therefore Rush Limbaugh is better than Obama
Quid Errat Democrandem
If you were serious here is my answer; if not you got me. My statement was not a syllogism. It was an observation and then a conclusion based on the law of identity. You posit, you observe, something coming into existence implies that you posit something that was able to bring that about. You have to start from existence, through observations that something exists and then through a long conceptual chain of reasoning conclude that existence is eternal.
Your syllogism is a false in that the premises are wrong and so it does not demonstrate that my statement is wrong unless you can show my premises are wrong. (And to show that you have to use the axion that existence exists and so would be self defeating.)
It's a paraphrase of a classical bogus syllogism.
it isn't EVEN false.
The problem comes with the misuse of the associative property of equality,
and worse,ambiguities arising about the difference between "nothing" and
" No THING "
this was a launch point into the need for Set theory in analytical logic
As a late-comer to such topics, I find most of the discussions over my head. Well, I guess it takes 'some' (!?) time to get a handle on this. However, 'something' is always better than 'nothing'.
A good theory needs explanatory power, which is essentially the ability to compress information. For example, the simple formula for the speed versus time of a falling body replaces an exhaustive list of times and speeds. (This is another way of stating Occam's Razor.) Some proposed theories fail this test.
The God theory fails spectacularly: It proposes to explain a simple situation (the existence of about 10^80 elementary particles) with a vastly more problematic one: a mysterious immaterial super-powerful creator about whom we can know nothing. And since this deity is not predictable, we get nothing more from this proposed explanation than a list of "God did this" and "God did that"… simple enumeration of what we already know. We are left with the same 10^80 particles *plus* a mysterious creator.
On top of that, as others have pointed out, it leaves us with the bigger mystery of "Where did God come from?". Proponents who claim "eternal" have to rationalize how this is any improvement over just having an eternal 10^80 particles to begin with. Their only other alternative would seem to be "deities all the way up".
But by the same token, we need to be aware that some of the so-called physics theories have a similar problem: "Then where did the multiverse (or whatever) come from?". We need to be sure we are simplifying, not just adding another God-like layer of mystery like "multiverses all the way up".
There's something abhorrent about a "turtle " set !!
but we may Have to use Billie's shiv and get countable sets with
SOME properties and not others,
Gabriel's Horn e.g ???
BTW it is my understanding that the use of
Hock Ham's Cleaver is for rhetorical expediency, and might lead
down the primrose path to scratchy apedung!!
It has lighted fools the way to wasted breath ( Macbath)
Occam's Razor is rhetorical expediency only in that it is verbal shorthand; it's merely a simplified way of stating that an explanation must compress information. If the proposed explanation takes more bandwidth than the observations it is attempting to explain, it's not a viable explanation.
I don't think there is any mathematical proof for this, however… just "common sense". (!) It embodies a human choice to use the most compact format. Still, it's hard to imagine a system that would break this rule, that would use extra information but still be judged better. One general class might be when the thing we set out to explain is only a small part of reality (say, structure of the hydrogen atom), but to do a proper job we use all of quantum mechanics, which explains much more than we asked for.
Best regards
From Wikipedia
"The other things in question are the evidential support for the theory.[60] Therefore, according to the principle, a simpler but less correct theory should not be preferred over a more complex but more correct one. It is this fact which gives the lie to the common misinterpretation of Occam's razor that "the simplest" one is usually the correct one."
"If you're at a STANDSTILL, punt with the wind ."
Doesn't guarantee a better game or guarantee a win
Dr. Phil O'Buster has reign otherwise.
Bob Masta
You say, "Proponents who claim "eternal" have to rationalize how this is any improvement over just having an eternal 10^80 particles to begin with. Their only other alternative would seem to be "deities all the way up"."
Yes, but I don't think it is an alternative. Those that claim an 'uncaused cause', seem not to appreciate that the word 'eternal', is simply another descriptive form of infinite regress. The notion of 'eternal' is synonymous with with 'deities all the way up'.
All of the ideas presented here and responded to have some merit, some more, some less. But all of theses ideas have one thing in common. The religious could care less. If the arguments presented are supposed to discredit religion they are useless. Religion is not about truth and fact. Religion is about psychological need, nothing more, nothing less. This is why the religious are proof against any and all reasoned arguments that do not agree with their religious views. All religious folks are concerned with are:
1. Dealing with death and other personal tragedies.
2. Gaining, and not losing, social acceptance.
Until secular ideas are presented and popularized that deal with these issues better than "god did it", we will be saddled with religion and its destructive effects.
"Religion is not about truth and fact. Religion is about psychological need, nothing more, nothing less."
vis a vis
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said
in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean,
nothing less, and nothing more."
Lewis Carroll
I find the book "The Origin of the Universe – Case Closed" to be the most compelling book. It has math in the Appendix to back up the claims. It is hard to argue with the math! It's easy to understand and a good read.
Has the question of what "nothing" is been adequately answered? That would for me be a very good starting point before attempting to understand if something can come from nothing.
Because God got bored
Because nothing got an upgrade
Because we are in the something phase of the Cosmic cycle
Because otherwise we wouldn't be there asking that question
Who knows?
"God, therefore, would have to exist outside of space and time, which means that as natural beings delimited by living in a finite universe, we cannot possibly know anything about such a supernatural entity." Where do exist numbers, if not out of space and time, nevertheless we do know many things about these entities…
What is common to all theories of origin of universe(s) is the the stress on evolution and no dead-end. Theoretically therefore, there must be energy (dark, to be sure) forming the background so the net entropy does not increase! Energy is 'nothing' or non-existence till it interacts when it becomes 'something'. What can trigger is a fluctuation that again calls for 'information' carried by that 'nothing'. Since information has no material medium to degrade it, entropy does not increase. QED.
I wonder if aliens in a far away galaxy are preoccupied about the origins of existence.? sometimes I think my Dog can provide us ,and any other living form in the universe, with an answer. Love .play. eat . sleep etc etc…..nothing is not here. we are something, we came from a different something and that something came from something else…..no real beginning, no end!! play, eat sleep, love….be here now!! God? What is that? lets not create another problem!


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10 Best Japan Anime Movies
Japanese animation has long since established itself as an artistic and commercial force throughout the world, and the 10 best Japan anime movies are spectacular artistic achievements. Along with the work done recently by Pixar, these films have brought the art of animation to new heights of imagination. Warning: spoilers.
"Princess Mononoke" – Hayao Miyazaki's ultimate masterpiece tells a mythical and portentous tale of the effect of mankind's greed and malevolence on nature and the spirits of the world. Clearly indebted to Japanese mythology and Shinto beliefs, the film is original in conception and execution. One of the ten best Japan anime movies, "Mononoke" has the wisdom to emphasize balance over victory.
"Ghost in the Shell" – "Ghost in the Shell" is a visually captivating sci-fi anime. A major influence on "The Matrix," "Ghost in the Shell" asks some serious ethical and philosophical questions, and is as intellectually stimulating as it is sensually engrossing. The film is easily one of the ten best Japan anime movies.
"Paprika" – This extremely surreal and enrapturing anime is one of Japan's top ten animated films. The premise is this: A research psychologist develops a device that allows therapists to work on patients by entering their dreams. We don't want to give too much away, but suffice it to say some very strange things happen and some extremely trippy visuals ensue.
"Mind Game" – Underground anime hit "Mind Game" is just that: a protracted bout of "What the hell is happening?" First someone gets murdered, then there's a car chase, then some people are eaten by a whale and end up living on a creaking house with an old man built of scaffolding. Inside the whale. Then it just gets weirder.
"Akira" – "Akira" is commonly cited as the pinnacle of Japanese animation directed by someone other than Hayao Miyazaki. The film is condensed from a comic that is thousands of pages long, yet still manages to convincingly tell the tale of a futuristic military experiment go awry and its terrible consequences.
"Grave of the Fireflies" – If nothing else, "Grave of the Fireflies" takes the cake for saddest film on the list. On of the best anime movies, it delves into the lives of two children stranded in Tokyo during the carpet-bombing that took place at the end of the Second World War. We don't want to give away the ending, but have some tissues on hand.
"Spirited Away" – Another of Miyazaki's many masterpieces, "Spirited Away" deals with a young girl who become lost in the world of the spirits and have to find her way back to humanity. The film tackles issues of identity, belief, myth and childhood in the context of growing up without growing old. It is a charming and magical film, and one of the ten best Japanese anime movies.
"Metropolis" – "Metropolis" is a brilliant adaptation of Fritz Lang's seminal Weimar film of the same name. Without sacrificing any of the potent allegorical value of the original, the animated Japanese version advances the ideas of the first film so that they apply more directly to life in the 21st Century. It's quite an accomplishment.
"Tokyo Godfathers" – "Tokyo Godfathers" is a strange and wonderful movie about a homeless man, a transvestite, and a young girl who find a baby on Christmas Eve while digging through some trash. The baby has a key, and with this key begins the process of tracking down its parents.
"Vampire Hunter D" – Vampires. Hunters. Nudity. What else could you want? Well, this top-ten Japan anime movie also offers a haunting vision of a future ruled by supernatural forces, an enigmatic warrior, evil demons and the threat of eternal damnation.

subset: commoncrawl


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This paper was presented at the IFIP Congress 1974 pp 10-14.
Bell-Northern Research
Ottawa, Canada
A store and forward packet switching: system has been introduced at Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada, to facilitate access to host computers from a geographically dispersed community of terminal users. This paper describes the major components of the network and the two network protocols which bind these components together: the Internal Network Protocol (INP) and the Network Access Protocol (NAP). Host computers can be interfaced to the network in two different modes: the combined node-front-end mode, using the IMP protocol only, and the disjoint node-front-end mode using the NAP protocol. These two protocols are outlined and their importance to the network and host sites are discussed.
Bell-Northern Research operates a large time-sharing computer system at its headquarters in Ottawa, Canada. This system serves customers at several locations in Ontario and Quebec, mainly in the Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto areas.
In order to provide a flexible access system to this computer, the development of a packet switching network was undertaken. The general objectives were to:
- provide a flexible basis for allowing customers to access the present host system (and each other)
- allow other hosts to be added to the network (at present many customers must access more than one host system)
-be the basis for a future, dispersed computing system in BNR in which the resources will not be so heavily centralized; that is, provide a network-oriented computer communication system rather than a host-oriented one
-provide practical experience in the development and operation of computer communication networks.
The network design had to provide flexibility for growth of services and the addition of hosts and terminals. In order to minimize interference with the normal operation of a time-sharing system, the facilities provided by the packet switching system are being introduced in three distinct phases or 'cutover' periods:
1) To meet BNR's most immediate requirements, introduction of the packet switching system without changes in the host operating system software. In this initial mode of operation, there is no physical separation between the user front-end and a network node; both functions coexist within a network node. This mode is called the combined node-front-end or simply, the combined mode.
2) Addition of a user-oriented network access protocol in the node software to facilitate the addition of hosts to the network. In this mode of operation, called the disjoint mode, the network functions are isolated from the user's host access functions, and a network node presents a standard interface to all host computers. Program modifications are required in the host operating software or associated front-end to access the network over a synchronous serial link.
3) After experience has been gained with the two previous modes of operation, additional hosts will be allowed to join the network, which may smoothly evolve into a network of computers during the remaining half of 1974.
The BNR network initially addresses itself to the problem of multiple host access from a community of distributed terminal users. An inherent master/slave relationship exists between a host and the terminals connected to it. Once a connection has been established, it is a major network responsibility to preserve this dependency, without intruding upon the normal use of a terminal. However, the nature of a packet switched network introduces delays not only in the transmission of a message but also in the orders sent by a host site to remote terminals.
The first phase provided us with an operational network for controlling the interaction between terminals and a host. The second phase centers around the definition of a formal procedure for controlling this interaction without imposing restrictions on the user's previous node of operation (circuit switching), such that a network can be considered as an extension to the user local facilities.
The basic building block for the network is a node using DEC PDP-11 minicomputers as the control unit which interfaces line adapters designed to handle character terminals of various speeds and character code lengths.
A special adapter interfaces synchronous serial links between nodes.
The node software allows any mix of three basic computer communication functions:
- host access
- switching (routing)
- terminal access.
Combining all of the above functions in a single node yields a front-end, while distributing them over many nodes interconnected with synchronous serial links produces a packet switching network.
In combined and disjoint modes, network software modularity is preserved in both switching and terminal access functions. This is also the case for the Network Interface Control (NIC module, an interpreter which translates host commands into a form suitable for shipment to terminals throughout the network.
The NIC module is considered a network software module as opposed to a host-dependent software module responsible for 'driving' the host channel interface hardware: in our first application, an IBM 370 multiplexer channel interface to the PDP-11 minicomputer and supplied by DEC.
In the combined mode of operation, NIC is interposed between the host-dependent channel interface driver and the network router which accepts packets delivered in a rigid format prescribed by the INP protocol. Communication between NIC and the channel driver is via in-core tables.
In the disjoint mode, NIC is functionally the same: an interpreter, but instead of interfacing directly to a host channel controller of 'brand X', communicates over a serial synchronous link to the user front-end system. The ISO HDLC protocol has been selected for control of this serial synchronous link, and the NAP protocol must be implemented in the user front-end to communicate with the NIC module In the network node.
Two protocols are defined in the BNR network:
-The Internal Network Protocol (INP) ensures delivery of packets to various nodes in the network. Packets are reassembled into messages at the destination node.
-In the disjoint mode, the Network Access Protocol (NAP) exists to facilitate the exchange of messages and control information between a host and the terminals slaved to this host via the network.
Because synchronous serial links interconnect network nodes and also nodes to host computers, a single type of hardware interface (EIA RS232C) is presented to a network node. Therefore both protocols operate on a single type of channel.
The INP and NAP protocols have different formats, but essential terminal control functions are carried over from one protocol to the other. The major reason for the addition of the NAP protocol Is a matter of convenience to the host site. The INP protocol, which need not be known to the user, is complex to implement, its main objective being to optimize network throughput. On the other hand, the NAP protocol is user oriented. Its main objective being ease of implementation in order to facilitate access to the network. The NAP is message oriented while the INP deals with packets.
The NAP uses as an inner layer the proposed ISO HDLC procedure for control of a synchronous serial link. It isolates the network node from the user's front-end and attempts to present a standard interface between terminals connected to a network and a set of heterogeneous computers.
It is interesting to note that the BNR network can operate using only the INP protocol (combined mode) and that this mode of operation can run in parallel with the disjoint mode using both the INP and NAP protocols. This configuration illustrated in fig. 1, provides an experimental network for comparing both modes of operation.
Messages to and from terminals are broken into 40-character segments called packets, with a maximum of 4 packets per message. Both are system parameters which have been initially adjusted to the traffic characteristics of a time-sharing system. Transmission of packets is full-duplex between adjacent nodes, while transmission of messages is half-duplex between source and destination. Only one message per terminal is allowed to reside in the network at a given time, and it is controlled by the ready-for-next-message (RFNM) mechanism in the network. An RFNM received at the terminal indicates that the host has issued a READ command and Is prepared to accept a message from the terminal. The RFNM packet, which is sent at the highest priority, is equivalent to an acknowledgment normally returned by time-sharing systems, indicating successful processing by the host of the previous READ command.
Packets received from a terminal are sent immediately to their destination, where they are reassembled into messages following delivery of the last packet. For messages longer than the packet size, the first packet may arrive at its destination before the user has finished typing, thereby reducing overall transmission delays for long messages.
Various terminal codes are mapped into a virtual terminal, based on the ASCII code, for uniform transmission throughout the network. The network transmits messages only, such that start and end-of-message control characters are not transmitted over communication links. The proper control characters are inserted at the receiving end according to the terminal type.
A close examination of the header shown in fig. 2 reveals the major characteristics of this protocol.
Data characters of a packet are preceded by a six-byte header. The transmission block is preceded and terminated by the ISO framing characters 01111110, while two CRC characters precede the framing character of the next transmission block.
The first two bytes of the header contain acknowledgment information for error detection and correction by retransmission between adjacent nodes. The next two bytes contain end-to-end control information, and the last two contain addressing information for routing the packet to its destination.
The acknowledgment policy uses a strategy called ' multiple ACKs with implied NAK ', giving efficient line utilization in the presence of long transmission and/or propagation delays. Up to 63 packets can be sent to the neighboring node without waiting for an acknowledgment. Each packet is given a new serial number (PXMT) by the sender before transmission. In addition to its own serial number, the sender returns a second byte (ACK) containing a two-bit PPI field ( number of previous packets being acknowledged) to indicate that from one to four packets are being acknowledged. The remaining six bits Indicate the serial number of the highest packet number being acknowledged. The receiver knows how many packets it has transmitted, both the serial number of the packet and the number of contiguous packets being acknowledged, as indicated by the PPI field. Thus the receiver can retransmit any packet excluded from the acknowledgments.
For a given connection, the packet sequence number is incremented by the source and the last flag is set for the last packet of a message. This sequence number is not reset to zero following delivery to the network of the last packet of a message but is incremented for the packet of the next message. Thus messages are numbered indirectly to prevent the late arrival of a duplicate packet of the previous message being considered as the real packet of the current message.
The flag byte contains the RFWM or end-to-end acknowledgment and an attention bit which is reflected to the host after the user has signalled attention to the host ( terminal break key). The DEL bit is necessary to indicate to the destination that all packets of a received message should be purged at the distant end following certain errors. The extension flag indicates that the packet contains signalling information as opposed to text. In this case the text field is interpreted as network control information, such as request for connections, disconnects, host down, and no route available.
For flexibility, the address field is spilt into two subfields: the group number and the member number. The geographic location of a node defines a community of interest which is partitioned into groups. Each specific group is assigned a group number, which is, therefore, the reference number to all the member numbers having common properties.
For example, group 0 and group 1 can be assigned to node 0, the first group referencing all the terminals on node 0 and the second referencing all host port member numbers which are accessed through node 0. At each node, the group number is used as an index into a group-node correspondence table for routing the packet to the node pertaining to this group number. This table also contains a group type, useful for the destination to determine what process is related to this group type. With this open-ended numbering approach involving connection between groups, the network can restrict access between a host and a set of terminals. A group number is portable from node to node simply by changing the definition in the group-node correspondence table.
The combined node-front-end can cause problems at the user's site of software maintainability and, therefore, network reliability, not to mention security. To overcome these problems, the development of a formal network to host (front-end) protocol was started to isolate the front-end from all internal network problems and to make the modifications to existing front-ends as simple as possible. The protocol includes protection features to isolate the network from the front-end and vice versa.
All communications between the network and a front-end are over a full-duplex synchronous line in the range 2.4 to 56 kb/s. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is currently drafting proposals for a new framing structure, [1] and [2]. The current definition of the address and control bytes are used to operate a point-to point communication link between the node and the host site. All transmission blocks are framed by the serial bit stream 01111110. Transparency is implemented by inserting a zero into the data stream after each occurrence of five consecutive 1s. The framing sequence then delimits the start and end of transmission blocks.
The data is partitioned in a transmission block as follows:
|2 bytes
|6 bytes
|0 to 256 bytes
The NAP protocol is supported by the message header and the various fields of this header are described below.
The six bytes following the two ISO line control bytes constitute the message header of a block transferred between the network and the front-end. The message header directs the network in its function as a terminal controller and informs the front-end of all order terminations and unusual events. The bytes of the message header are as follows:
-The ORDER/REPLY byte is used by the network and front-end for terminal control and system control (synchronous line tests and diagnostic messages are classified under system control).
-The PORT byte selects 1 of 256 virtual terminal-port addresses between the network and the front-end. The front-end maps these addresses into its own addressing conventions, while the network maps port addresses into the full internal network address.
-The TEXT LENGTH is the length in bytes (ASCII characters) of the information following the message header. The current range is 0 to 256 (decimal) bytes. The TEXT LENGTH is zero with the returned REPLY from a WRITE order.
-The ANCILLARY control is a byte whose role depends on whether the message is an ORDER or REPLY. Its basic functions are error reporting for REPLYs and for sequencing after asynchronous events. Because of the distributed nature of the terminal control, ORDERs and REPLYs may 'pass' In different directions on the synchronous line, resulting in the network receiving an ORDER which does not reflect the current state of the terminal.
-One byte is reserved.
The majority of the orders are originated by the front-end and transmitted to the network. There are two main types of order: System Control and Terminal Control.
The network terminal always appears as an ASCII terminal to the front-end. Normally only one order is active per port address. The list of orders is given in table 1.
Table 1 ORDERS
1) System Control
1) System Control
|Reset All Ports
|Proceed, All Ports Reset
|Communication Status Report
|Request Control Block
|Returning Control Block
|Host Down Message
2) Terminal Control
|Read with Time-Out
|Write - Read
|Write-Read with Time- Out
|Halt Terminal
|Reset Port
All terminal orders sent by the front-end to the network are terminated by a reply indicating completion of the order. Since only one order per terminal may be active (HT and RSTP excepted), a reply signals the network's readiness to accept another order. The reply flags are listed in table 2.
Table 2 Reply Flags
|Order Terminated
|Attention Signalled
|Halt Terminal Done
|Reset Done
|Reply Unique to Order
|Port Error Condition
A reply message is detected by a '1' in bit 0 of the ORDER/REPLY. The ANCILLARY control byte has additional information which is either unique to the order being terminated, or indicates an error condition involving the protocol sequence on that port.
The usual reply is OT. If the terminal user signals attention to the host (break signal) while an order is still active, OT+ATTN will be signalled. If the order is terminated by a HT, OT+HTD is signalled.
If the break key is hit while no order is active (terminal in wait state), ATTN without OT is presented. As a result of this asynchronous attention, the user expects the next order to reflect its occurrence. After transmitting ATTN to the front-end, the network will discard any order which does not acknowledge its receipt in the ANCILLARY control byte. This prevents an attention from being lost.
The DISC is returned when the user 'hangs up'. It is not returned as a result of the DISBL order. The DISC reply may be presented with OT. If not, the next order accepted by the network must include 'acknowledge asynchronous disconnect'. The DISC is handled like ATTN in this respect.
The reply presented after RSTP is RD and the RD flag is the only one set. The presence of additional information in the ANCILLARY control byte is indicated by RUO. This information is unique to the originating order.
The PEC bit denotes that the network aborted a valid order on the addressed port because of a violation in the terminal protocol or a condition in the network. The type of problem is indicated in the ANCILLARY control byte.
The ANCILLARY control byte is used by both orders and replies to contain supplementary information. This action is necessary to synchronize orders from the front-end with asynchronous events at the terminal. These events are attention (break) and disconnect while the terminal is in a 'wait state', which the terminal enters when no order is active. If a terminal user hits the attention key while in the wait state, the message, indicating attention which is sent to the front-end, could arrive after the front-end has issued a new order. If the network accepted the order, the user's terminal would respond as if no attention had been sent. If the network ignores the order and waits for the next one acknowledging the asynchronous attention, then the desired response at the terminal would occur. For example, suppose the order discarded was a write order. The observed effect is the same as hitting the attention key just as the first character of the write order is printed. The character would not be printed, and the terminal user would not be aware that the write occurred.
With replies, the ANCILLARY control byte has its usage indicated by the RUO and PEC flags. The RUO bit in the REPLY byte indicates that order-dependent terminating conditions are flagged in the ANCILLARY control byte. Time-out (TMO) for READT would be signaled here. Also, if a user message exceeds the maximum network message length, then it must be truncated, and this would be indicated in the ANCILLARY control byte.
A serious condition has occurred if the PEC bit is returned with the REPLY byte. This indicates that the network was unable to complete a valid order. For example, if the front-end cannot accept data causing a storage shortage in the network, the network may discard data from READ orders. If the network detects a protocol violation, the PV bit is set.
The network has two procedures for reporting protocol violations. If no host interface monitoring terminal is logged in, then the ANCILLARY control byte will be used to flag the error. The text field contains system diagnostic information and the connection may be terminated immediately with a RSTP order. If recovery is attempted, any new orders must be preceded by a HT.
A network access protocol has been presented to facilitate access to a packet switching network. This protocol was formulated by observation of various conditions encountered in interposing a network between an interactive time-sharing system and a set of distributed terminals.
The NAP presents a clear boundary between the user process and the network, with minimal intrusion in the host site operating system software. Furthermore, it is simple to implement and provides a protection mechanism between the network and a host computer.
Clearly, there is no substitute for experience in the design of network protocols. In this regard, the BNR network has provided a fertile ground for the difficult task of protocol definition.
The authors wish to express their gratitude for the helpful suggestions and guidance from W.W. Clipsham and the excellent facilities provided by B.R. Smith during the development of this network. T. Gomi and W. Older contributed to the software development effort. J. Proctor and G. Jones designed and developed the hardware line adapters to meet the requirements of this network.
[1] High-Level Data Link Control Procedures (Proposed Draft), International Standard on Frame Structure, ISO/TC 97/SC 6 (Geneva -3) 731, February 1973.
[2] High-Level Data Link Control Procedures (Proposed Draft), International Standard on Commands and Responses, ISO/TC 97/SC 6 (Stockholm - 9) 794, June 1973.


text:
Big Sky Airlines, which flies the route as Delta Connection, will end service Jan. 7, three days after Colgan Air, which flies the route as US Airways Express, ends its own service on the route.
Both have blamed a lack of passengers for the decision.
Travel agents have said the longer wait times for security clearance and the relatively short distance between the two cities — it takes less than three hours to drive the route on the Massachusetts Turnpike — coupled with the fares, which can be $300 or more, made the route less popular with leisure travelers.
The two carriers each flew three weekday round trips using 19-seat turboprop planes, with an abbreviated schedule on weekends.


text:
Hatch Campaign Suffers Another Setback
Mike Hatch, who has flaunted his Duluth upbringing since he first began running for governor in 1990, lost out on a few Duluth-area endorsements this weekend.
Who did the Iron Rangers endorse? None other than Kelly Doran.
I bet Hatch is asking how this happened.
MDE is also reporting that one State Senator who initally backed Hatch is one of those who is backing Doran.


text:
Crews clean out Karen's Café
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — That's a wrap for a "One Tree Hill" set on Front Street in downtown Wilmington. crews packed up the fictional Karen's Café today two weeks after the show finished filming.
There is no word on what the space will be used for next, but it has also served as the "Clothes Over Bros" clothing store on "One Tree Hill" and a radio station on "Dawson's Creek."
Crews seemed to have most of the set broken down by early afternoon.
More: continued here


text:
Mercedes Benz How To mbrace App
The Accurate Source To Find Transcript To Mercedes Benz How To mbrace App."
[Mercedes Benz How To mbrace App]
[Mercedes Benz:] Source: LYBIO.net
With the mbrace Mobile App, you can operate features in your car remotely from your smartphone.
The Mobile App is free when you subscribe to Mercedes-Benz mbrace.
Just download it for your iPhone or Android phone from the Apple, iTunes Store or the Google Play Store. Before using its features, launch the application on your phone and log in using your eight digit mbrace account number and the four digit pin that was established when you set up your account. Be sure to pair your vehicle with the app.
The home screen of the app looks a lot like your car smart key.
Buttons on the virtual key let you unlock and lock the doors and you can flash the lights and sound the horn.
Depending on the model, you can also locate the vehicle on a map or remote start the engine.
On models with remote start, the locate feature is in the lower menu.
The remote start feature available on many newer models lets you start the engine and run the climate control for up to 10 minutes. This lets you pre condition the cabin's temperature on very cold or hot days.
First, tap the remote start icon on the virtual key. A new screen appears with a start button a digital timer and a readout of the cabin temperature. The cabin temperature is shown only after a remote start is initiated.
Once the temperature is received from the car, the temperature is treated as valid for 30 minutes. You can be any distance from the vehicle. So please be mindful of the vehicles location before using the feature. Do not run the engine if you are not sure that the vehicle is in a safe environment or if it's in enclosed area.
To remote start the engine tap the green start button. The app confirms its started. [ignition sound] And the button becomes a red stop button. The timer begins to count down 10 minutes. After which the engine will be switched off automatically. You can also turn it off yourself by taping the red stop button. While the engine is running, the climate control operates at the last settings used when you parked the car. This helps make the cabin more comfortable for your arrival.
Please note that for your safety a number of safety conditions must all be met, or the engine will not remote start. If the engine is started remotely and any of the conditions change, the engine will shut off the doors, windows, trunk and sunroof must be fully closed and locked. The vehicle must be in park. The key cannot be in the ignition and the gas pedal must not be depressed. The fuel tank must be at least a quarter full and neither the panic alarm nor the hazard flashers can be active.
If any unmet conditions exist, the app will show you the reason.
You can remote start the engine a maximum of two times. To reset the counter simply start the engine the regular way from the car.
If you can't remember where you parked, the vehicle finder feature shows you on an onscreen map. Tap the locate button. It's on the virtual key or in the lower menu depending on your model. Your vehicles location is shown as a red pin on a map. You can zoom in and out by pinching. Your phone location is also shown as a blue dot. Your vehicle must be within a mile of you and have access to a GPS satellite signal, which is not always possible inside a structure.
[Mercedes Benz:] Source: LYBIO.net
The surface is available for upto four days after the engine was last switched off. If you are close to your vehicle, but are unable to find it in a row of parked cars, you can flash its exterior lights and sounds its horn. You can also do this to draw attention if needed. The honk flash button is the red triangle on the virtual key, similar to the panic button on your real key. Tap the button, then okay. Your cars lights will flash and its horn will repeatedly honk for five seconds. [horn sounds] The door lock and unlock buttons let you operate the remote locks from any distance. To lock the doors or just to make sure they are locked, in case you forgot, tap the lock button on the virtual key. Then okay to confirm. Within a few seconds the doors will lock. To unlock them remotely, tap unlock and then okay.
If you happen lock to keys and your smartphone in the vehicle, you can also unlock the car from the mbrace website or by calling the Mercedes-Benz customer assistant center.
Send2Benz lets you search for a destination on your phone, then upload it to the command navigation system in your vehicle. Tap the Send2Benz button, then choose one of the option buttons in the next screen. You can search for a point of interest, enter a street address, select an address from your phone book contact or your current location.
The mbrace concierge service is an option that gives you 24/7 access to a life personal assistant. Whether you are hungry right now or want to book a trip, the expert concierges can fulfill almost any request from dining advice and reservations, to airline tickets, to seats at a show or concert.
To initiate a voice call to one of the experts tap concierge in the lower menu. Then press call. Tap the more button in the lower menu for a variety of additional mbrace features. You can speak with a highly trained live representative. Check your account info and view messages. When you valet park, you can set a virtual fence around your vehicle. After you leave your vehicle tap the more button then valet protect. You can configure the radius of the fence and when to be notified. If your vehicle exits the virtual fence area, a text message will be sent to your phone. Two other features on the more screen offer some added piece of mind when other drivers in your household are using the family Mercedes-Benz.
Curfew Minder can send you a message if the vehicle is started after a certain hour. Tap this button to set up the time and alert info. And driving journal can show you where the vehicle was driven for up to 12 hours after logging into the mbrace.mbusa.com website.
If you have questions or need assistance your Mercedes-Benz dealer will be happy to help or just press the mbrace 'i' button in your car and we'll be here for you too.
Join the conversation
Learn more: http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/mbrace
Mercedes Benz How To mbrace App. You can set a virtual fence around your vehicle. Autos & Vehicles Transcript, Dialogue, Remarks, Saying, Quotes, Words And Text.


text:
" The fact that we don't know this man, isn't important really. Cause his experience is our experience, and his fate is our fate. Vani tass, vani tatum, et omni i vani tass, says the preacher. All is vanity I think that's a pretty good epitaph for all of us. When we're stripped of all our worldly possessions and all our fame, family, friends, we all face death alone. But it's that solitude in death that's our common bond in life. I know it's ironic, but that's just the way things are. Vani tass, vani tatum, et omni i vani tass. Only when we understand all is vanity, only then, it isn't.
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@Fernando: Thank you! My BIOS settings for the FSB are all set to 'Auto" 1. My Raid 5 is a cluster of 3 SATA drives. They were originally configured as a raid 5 cluster when I built my M2N-E machine about 3 years ago. 2. At the time I built the machine, I was getting tired of rebuilding disk drives, and thought that raid 5 would give me the easiest recoverability. Now I'm not so sure.... I'm considering purchasing an IDE Drive and copying the data and OS to it.....
hello, perhaps this thread can help me. Situation: I was running win xp3 on a asus m2n-e board for the past several years. I believe the M2N-E has the nvidia series 4 chipset. The xp was installed on a sata raid 5 configured drive that was bootable. About 2 weeks ago, the machine would not boot. The LED power light on the board would not come on. After debugging memory, power supplies, etc, I decided to replace the board. I chose the M2N68-AM PLUS. I now have the BSOD problem. The machine powers up, the windows splash screen displays, the little cylon indicator goes back and forth a few times, then the BSOD happens with a 0x0000007B. Specs: M2N68-AM Plus 2 gig memory Sata Raid 5 disk (same as on original machine), raid bios 9.87 displays healthy raid. 630A nvidia series chipset. ACHI does not appear to be an option in the bios. on-board video, lan, and display I have tried numerous times to re-install (repair) the os on the drives. no joy. Original windows update CD does not recognize any hard drives on the computer (expected behavior) Using nlite, i have slipstreamed new raid drivers onto an active@boot disk. I can access the partition (C:) drive, files are there, chkdsk says it's healthy. After reviewing several hundred discussions of the problem, I discovered this thread. I have tried numerous combinations of slipstreaming drivers onto the windows cd. It will then find the drive, re-install the os, boot to the windows splash screen when complete, then BSOD with the same error. I have booted in safe mode, command line mode, with boot logging, etc. no combination seems to make a difference. Combination of drivers attempted: sp3, fernando_101028_mix, w/ide pnp sp3, fernando_101028_mix, no ide sp3, fernando_99909_custom, no ide sp3, fernando_99909_custom, w/ide pnp sp2, fernando_99909_custom, no ide sp3, fernando_103046, no ide Any suggestions will be appreciated.


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Stitching History From the Holocaust
|Stitching History From the Holocaust uses the narrative of one couple to explore the Holocaust. Through the story of Hedwig and Paul Strnad, visitors will build their understanding of transcontinental connections, Bohemian Jewish history, Theresienstadt concentration camp and the fashion industry in Czechoslovakia. For more information, visit our Stitching History From the Holocaust website.
Upcoming Venues:
September 11 through November 13: Ruth Davis Design Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Madison
December 19, 2016 – March 19, 2017: Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU
Past Venues for Stitching History From the Holocaust:
|Contact Patti Sherman-Cisler to bring this award-winning, critically acclaimed exhibit to your space.
Mildred Fish Harnack: The Story of a
|Born in Milwaukee, Mildred Fish Harnack is the only woman killed on direct orders of Adolf Hitler. This exhibit tells the story of Mildred's life growing up in Milwaukee and attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she met her husband Arvid Harnack. Mildred and Arvid moved to Germany in 1929. After the Nazis came to power, they became involved in the resistance movement that became known as the Red Orchestra. Both were executed. In addition to panels, this exhibit also showcases an installation created by German artist Franz Rudolf Knubel including a rubbing of the floor of Plötzensee Prison, where Mildred was executed.
|Contact Molly Dubin to bring this exhibition to your space.


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Garden Law is for general information only and does not constitute professional advice. You MUST read the disclaimer (below) BEFORE using the forum.
appledore wrote:I've seen small Christmas trees in pots in garden centres, but I haven't tried planting one in the garden.
WILL*REMAIN*STRONG wrote:[We planted a Christmas tree in our garden and it went all weird. First it looked great, but never grew any taller or thicker, then it began to lose its colour and faded to a very pale sage green. For some reason the lights stopped working but the tree is still ok, it isn't green anymore, more like grey/pale brown. Rain doesn't seem to clean it as well as it does other trees in the garden and it kind of looks like there is rust coming out of the branches and tree trunk? I just can't think what is wrong with it at all.
appledore wrote:Will, Is it still plugged into the electric? That could be the problem. It maybe needs some Miracle- of -Christmas -Gro.
The three wise men - Alan Titchmasrsh, Monty Don and Toby Buckland could probably help. I hope you took it out of the value bucket before you planted it. I hope it improves before next Christmas, it would be awful if you had to buy another one.
WILL*REMAIN*STRONG wrote:
So back to the problem with our Christmas tree. We did remove from the KFC value bucket we had wrapped in xmas wrapping paper before planting, although I seem to remember the roots were very few and were extremely hard. It was almost like you could stand the tree on its roots! Anyway we will spray paint it and eat another value bucket meal before it needs to come in to the house for this Christmas, it is just a shame it won't grow. I still haven't worked out why.
appledore wrote: It would be the batter from the KFC making the roots stiff.
appledore wrote:Did it have little red blobs on the end of the branches? That would be the tomato ketchup. At least you'll have a good excuse to buy another KFC value bucket.
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Similar term(s): second-hand tobacco smoke, secondhand smoke, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), passive smoke.
Secondhand tobacco smoke is the smoke inhaled by passive smokers.
It is a mixture of smoke exhaled by smokers (mainstream smoke) and smoke released from their smouldering cigarette, cigar, or other smoking device (sidestream smoke) diluted with ambient air.
Secondhand tobacco smoke contains carcinogens, as well as other toxic components.
Source: GreenFacts
Cancer - Mainstream smoke - Passive smoking
GreenFacts Summary on Tobacco Active and Passive Smoking:
Deutsch: Umwelttabakrauch
Español: Humo ambiental de tabaco
Français: Fumée secondaire du tabac


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Adobe Interview QuestionComputer Scientists
- 0of 0 votes
Given a graph (consider it to be a mxn grid). The nodes are node of a binary tree with left and right pointers. The start point (A) is at the left upper corner and the end point (B) is at right bottom corner. Each node points to its adjacent nodes in the grid (the right pointer points to the node on the right and the left points to the node just below it). The nodes at the lower and right edges will have child as null (right null for the right side edge and left null for the bottom edge). The end node at B is having both as null.
How many paths are possible which can lead you to B, if you start from A?
Country: India
Interview Type: In-Person
(m + n -2) Choose (n-1). You are choosing (n-1) possible positions in the move sequence for the down movements, and the move sequence is (m+n-2) moves long.
This looks like a good solution. nCr could be written as nCn-r.
So (m+n-2)C (n-1) could also be written as (m+n-2)C(m-1).
So it could be vice versa
For example, the array above has 13 paths from top-left corner to bottom-right corner. In each node, i have listed number of paths from that node to the bottom-right corner.
So, it can be seen easily it can be done in O(n^2) time.
Here is the sample code:
int A[m][n];
int i = m-1;
int j = n-1;
for(;i >= 0 && j >= 0; i--, j--)
if ( i == m-1 && j == n-1)
A[i][j] = 0;
A[i][j] = A[i+1][j] + A[i][j+1];
for (int k = i-1; k >= 0; k--)
A[k][j] = A[k+1][j+1];
for (int k = j-1; k >= 0; k--)
A[i][k] = A[i+1][k+1];
Sorry mistakes in code.
Here is corrected:
int A[m][n];
int i = m-1;
int j = n-1;
for(;i >= 0 && j >= 0; i--, j--)
if ( i == m-1 && j == n-1)
A[i][j] = 0;
A[i][j] = A[i+1][j] + A[i][j+1];
for (int k = i-1; k >= 0; k--)
if ( j == n-1)
A[k][j] = A[k+1][j];
A[k][j] = A[k+1][j] + A[k+1][j+1];
for (int k = j-1; k >= 0; k--)
if ( i == m-1)
A[i][k] = A[i][k+1];
A[i][k] = A[i][k+1] + A[i+1][k+1];
The answer is (m+n choose m) = (m+n choose n) since a path is isomorphic to an (m+n)-set consisting of m rightward and n downward moves. You can then calculate the binomial coefficients using Pascal's triangle recurrence in O((m+n)^2) time and O(m+n) space.
A more interesting version of this problem is to count paths between a source and a sink in an arbitrary directed acyclic graph.
This is incorrect. If the DAG is 3 X 3, then there are 5 paths.
| | |
v v v
| | |
v v v
(m+n choose n) would be (6 choose 3) = 20
@garmonbozia - you are right. The number of path for a 3x3 graph is - 5.
I think for a mxn the number of paths is - (m-1)+(n-1) and when the values of m and n are equal - it is (m+n-1). But I am not sure if this is correct answer.
I was presented this question at Amazon, it was like this:
Given a 2D array, in how many ways you can go from cell (0, 0) to cell (m-1, n-1). The constraint is that you can only move below and right from a given cell. I solved it.
The answer:
(m + n - 2) , if m = n
(m + n -1), if m != n
@nihaldps: Your answer in comments is correct. But you original question doesn't mention the constraint.
I was asked the same question. Write a recursive program to compute the number of paths from top left to bottom right.
I couldn't write that time but later I tried at home and did it.
Here is the pseudo code:
int Number_of_Paths (node *head)
if (!head)
return 0;
if (head->right && head->down)
return ( Number_of_Paths(head->right) + Number_of_Paths(head->down));
else if (head->right)
return Number_of_Paths (head->right);
else if (head->down)
return Number_of_Paths (head->down);
return 1;
Exactly 2 paths from diagonal node to other diagonal node.
Name 2 diagonal nodes as d1 and d2. We need to count number of paths from d1 to d2 through the binary tree rooted at d1.'
Think this way:
1) Imagine a binary tree rooted at d1. Its got one left child L and one right child, say R.
2) L again will have 2 children - left and right...(LL and LR) Same for the R => RL and RR.
3) Quickly enough now, note that out of LL and LR, only one path leads to d2. So, half the possibilities get eliminated at every breadth-wise walk down the tree.
4) Continuing this way down the L tree will yield only - and exactly - one path.
5) Continuing this way down the R tree will also ield exactly one more path.
=> 2 paths.
Answer: (m+n-2)P2.
Two movements are possible: down and right. (2)
Total no. of movements required: m+n-2 (regardless of path).
Answer is permutation of "down" and "right" for m+n-2 positions.
i.e. (m+n-2)P2.
For a 4x3 grid, no. of paths would be,


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This is like calling an American bus line from the Mexican border to El Paso a segregated bus because it serves workers from Mexico traveling into El Paso.
Next week, I'm going to be taking a segregated bus to Lakewood, New Jersey. It's segregated because it just goes from New York to New Jersey, while completely shutting out the people of Arizona, Florida and California who might also want to ride the bus, but can't because the segregationist Transit Authority only runs it between New York and New Jersey.
Next month, I'm going to fly on a segregated plane to Toronto. It's segregated because it only goes from JFK to Toronto Pearson International Airport... and does not stop in any part of Mexico, Europe or Asia.
On Sunday, I'll be riding a segregated No. 1 subway train to the Bronx that for various racist reasons refuses to stop in Staten Island.
If you think these examples are stupid... so is the Segregated Palestinian Bus Hoax that has been making the rounds of the lefty media always looking for a fresh Israeli outrage.
What actually happened is that Israel began offering bus service from the Eyal crossing for residents of the Palestinian Authority traveling to work in Israel.
This is like calling an American bus line from the Mexican border to El Paso a segregated bus because it serves workers from Mexico traveling into El Paso.
This is being described as segregation because there is now a direct bus service that doesn't force workers from the Palestinian Authority zones to travel to Israeli towns and villages to board mass transit. And even more horrifyingly, it's being advertised in Arabic.
Information on the new services, which are operated by the company Afikim, have reportedly only been advertised in Arabic and distributed only in Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
Shocking. It's like the bus company is advertising a useful service to the people who will use it.
Anti-Israel bloggers have tried to sell the segregation hoax by claiming that Israel banned PA residents from buses that stop in Israeli areas. There is no such ban. No one has been banned from Israeli buses.
The claim that the buses were introduced because of complaints from Jewish "settlers" holds no water. If Israel were going to do that, it could have done it a while back.
Israel is making life easier for Palestinian Authority residents, despite their status as enemy aliens, which it does on a regular basis.
Khalil, a resident of Hebron, is a construction worker who is helping to build a new housing project in Petah Tikva. He has to sleep in Qalqilyah during the week to get to work, returning to his family only on the weekends. He gets up at 3 A.M. and heads to the Eyal crossing near Qalqilyah, where he pays the driver of a pirate van NIS 15 for transportation.
On Sunday, Khalil heard on the news that there would be a new bus transporting Palestinian laborers to and from the crossing point – and he was pleased.
The bus will cost him NIS 8.80. "That's nothing," he says. It's a savings of NIS 12 in each direction, NIS 250 per month. Since he earns NIS 200 per day, that's a significant amount, he says. At 4:20 Monday morning, he is already waiting for the special bus that will take him to work.
Clearly this is the most racist thing since the time the C train refused to take me to Chicago, even though it has the same letter.
At the same time, the activity on the ground Monday morning highlighted the upside to the reform: Thousands of workers who had been exploited by "pirate" vehicle drivers finally got good-quality, well-organized service from the state.
It took the workers a few minutes to understand where they needed to go and which buses were headed where, but they quickly asked to get on one of the two lines. The first is to Ra'anana and Kfar Sava, and the second is to Petah Tikva, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv. Thousands pushed onto the Tel Aviv line. There weren't enough buses to meet the demand. After a few minutes came the complaints and suggestions for improvement.
One man working on the Meier-on-Rothschild luxury tower asked why the Tel Aviv bus stopped at the northern train station and did not continue on to the Central Bus Station. A group of workers looking to get to Herzliya asked why the Ra'anana–Kfar Sava line wasn't extended to Herzliya. Many wondered about the buses' return times. Several workers asked for buses to run on Fridays as well, since they pay "pirate" drivers even on Fridays. Representatives of the Afikim bus company and Lt. Col. Adel Masalha, the district coordination liaison, noted all the comments and promised changes in the near future.
Based on his name, Lt. Col. Adel Masalha is probably a Druze Muslim, to the extent that Druze can be considered Muslims.
Naturally the whole thing has already ended the way that you would expect all good deeds to in this part of the world.
Unknown assailants have set fire to two buses which Israel began operating as Palestinians-only lines to be used by Palestinian labourers travelling between the West Bank and Israel.
"Two buses were apparently set on fire but we are looking into all possibilities," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP news agency on Tuesday, saying the incident took place in the Arab-Israeli town of Kfar Qassem which lies very close to the Green Line.
It may have been a protest by the "pirate bus" owners who fear losing business to the Israeli buses. Or just the usual vandalism and destruction for the sake of destruction.


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Saturday, June 4, 2016
Jeannie Chan and Moon Lau watched movie together
Actress, Jeannie Chan (陳瀅) and her boyfriend, Arnald Ho (何猷亨) are having a hot romance but she 'dumped' her boyfriend aside and went out with her good friend, Moon Lau (劉佩玥) who was rumoured to separate with Philip Ng (伍允龍) for shopping and watching movie a few days ago.
Jeannie and Moon were at the shopping mall in Kowloon in the evening. They went to a nearby western restaurant to buy takeaway and some snacks before buying tickets at the cinema. They were carrying big bags of food and attracted stares from many passer-by, but it did not bother them and they continued to chat while walking. Both were shocked when discovering the reporters and managed to greet the reporters before going into the cinema.
Source: ON.CC (HK)
Translated by: tvfan @ Asian E-News Portal
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Learn the basics and the secrets from two professional spoken word artists who make their entire living performing spoken word from the stage. Sheila Arnold Jones and Adam Booth will HELP YOU!
Learn proper mic usage, stage comfort, emcee and producers tricks of the trade, voice projection, eye contact with audience and SO much more. This workshop is a MUST for anyone intersted in a spoken word career or serious hobby.
Low fee made possible by a grant from Mr. and Mrs. David Joe Miller. Tickets are 34 at the door or 29.00 online at:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stage-performance-workshop-with-adam-booth-and-sheila-arnold-jones-tickets-36253102004


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* - поля обязательные для заполнения
William Shakespeare Retold by Nancy TimminsHumour & comedy After surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Illyria, Viola disguises herself as a boy to get a position at the court of Duke Orsino, who is in love with beautiful Olivia. Unknown to Viola, her twin brother Sebastian has also survived the shipwreck. When he too arrives in Illyria, confusion and misunderstandings follow. After many cases of mistaken identity, who will be lucky in love? The lovesick Duke, mournful Olivia or practical Viola?
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Jackmaster is the Glaswegian jock responsible for Sub Club club night-turned-label Numbers. The former Rubadub clerk now tours the world on his merits as a selector alone, with no production output to speak of. Yet, the Scott boasts plenty of notables, chief among them being ranked #5 in RA's 2015 Top DJs Poll. His sets are frenetic and far-reaching, with nary a dull moment in sight and no record to be considered off limits. In his own words, Jack's "just trying to tell a story." Simple, then. Let's party.
Advance tickets: ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1194423
Jackmaster ( Numbers | UK )


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Exploring gravitation through the work of Galileo, Newton, and Einstein, the 2009 Margaret and Herman Sokol Science Lecture, "Gravitation: From Galileo to Einstein and Beyond" was presented by internationally renowned physicist, Eugenio Coccia at the Alexander Kasser Theater on October 20.
Choosing his topic in honor of the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning his telescope to the night sky, and the International Year of Astronomy, Coccia used his talk to explore the breakthroughs of Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, and the vision of Albert Einstein, who described gravity as a "curvature of spacetime" making it possible for people to understand cosmic phenomena like gravitational waves, black holes, and "spaghettification."
His talk was preceded by remarks from Constantine Theodosiou, dean of The Graduate School and vice provost for Research, and Consul Andrea Barbaria of the Consulate of Italy in Newark, and followed by an extended question and answer session which resulted in lively exchange on a variety of topics—with an emphasis on life on other worlds and the phenomena of black holes.
Coccia is the director of the INFN National Laboratory of Gran Sasso, Italy, the world's largest underground laboratory for astroparticle physics. He was also a full professor of gravitational physics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
The Sokol Science Lecture was presented by Montclair State University's College of Science and Mathematics and this year, was co-sponsored by the University's Joseph and Elda Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience in America.
Established in 2002 through a gift from benefactors Margaret and Herman Sokol, the annual Sokol Science Lecture Series has explored subjects from the environment and sustainability to human evolution to last year's exploration of the relationship between neuroscience and art. It provides a valuable opportunity for members of the University and surrounding communities to gain a greater appreciation and expanded knowledge of important issues in science.
View more photos from the event.


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Korean brand, Rogatis, has updated their site to promote their new collections for the Spring and Summer seasons. The formal wear for their Rogatis Collection used lightweight fabrics dominated by blue and grey hues. The Rogatis Green Collection targets a more youthful consumer, but does not relegate him to the expected check/flannel or tee-shirt category. More colors including corals and greens are used sparingly in many of the looks. The result is a more elegant chic to men's casual wear. The refinement is reflected in the tailoring of the garments.
I could not make out any U.S. retailers from their website, but I was able to follow the link to their online shopping mall, www.fashionpia.com. I found it impressive that the items listed at the online shop were very reasonable priced (59,000 won = $42 USD for long sleeve polo). View selected images after the jump.