Pet

A pet or companion animal is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or protection, as opposed to working animals, sport animals, livestock, and laboratory animals, which are kept primarily for performance, agricultural value, or research. The most popular pets are noted for their attractive appearances and their loyal or playful personalities.

Pets commonly provide their owners (or guardians) physical and emotional benefits. Walking a dog can supply both the human and pet with exercise, fresh air, and social interaction. Pets can give companionship to elderly adults who do not have adequate social interaction with other people, as well as other people that are living alone. There is a medically approved class of therapy animals, mostly dogs or cats, that are brought to visit confined humans. Pet therapy utilizes trained animals and handlers to achieve specific physical, social, cognitive, and emotional goals with patients.

The most popular pets are likely dogs and cats, but people also keep house rabbits, ferrets; rodents such as gerbils, hamsters, chinchillas, fancy rats, and guinea pigs; avian pets, such as canaries, parakeets, and parrots; reptile pets, such as turtles, lizards and snakes; aquatic pets, such as goldfish, tropical fish and frogs; and arthropod pets, such as tarantulas and hermit crabs.

Thirteenth Step

Thirteenth Step is the second studio album by American rock band A Perfect Circle, released on September 16, 2003. The album sold well, charting at the number 2 position on the Billboard 200 in its premiere week, selling over 231,000 copies and staying on the charts for 78 weeks. The album went on to be certified as gold on November 4, 2003 and as platinum on March 24, 2006 by the RIAA. Three singles were released from the album, "Weak and Powerless", which topped both the Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks, followed by "The Outsider" and "Blue", which also charted on the respective charts.

Background

Writing and recording

The band's writing process was very different from the band's first album, Mer de Noms. With the first album, a majority of the album had been already written and recorded over a long period of time by guitarist Billy Howerdel, before a band had even been assembled. He had recorded it with a female vocalist in mind, but upon Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan hearing it and offering to sing for the material, the content was then quickly finalized upon adding Keenan's vocals and re-recording the drums with band member Josh Freese. With beginning the second album, the band found themselves starting fresh, without any material to start with, with the exception of the track "Vanishing", which originally was intended to be on the band's first album, but Howerdel could not find the song file in the studio, having accidentally named it "test". Upon finally recovering the track in 2001, it was only slightly altered for its final release, to better match the eventual sound of Thirteenth Step.

7-PET

7-PET was discovered by K.W. Bentley and is a potent opioid analgesic drug, 300 times the potency of morphine by weight. It is related to the more well-known oripavine derivative opioid etorphine, which is used as a very potent veterinary painkiller and anesthetic medication, used primarily for the sedation of large animals such as elephants, giraffes and rhinos. 7-PET itself has a 3-O-methyl ether which reduces potency, but the 3-OH derivative is around 2200x morphine, almost the same potency as etorphine as a μ agonist, and unexpectedly the 3-desoxy compound is also around the same potency of 2000x morphine.

Unlike etorphine however, 7-PET is not an illegal drug, and is not controlled under the UN drug conventions, but it might still be considered to be a controlled substance analogue of etorphine on the grounds of its related chemical structure in some jurisdictions such as the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

See also

Gravel

Gravel /ˈɡrævəl/ is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel is categorized by the Udden-Wentworth scale into granular gravel (2 to 4 mm or 0.079 to 0.157 in) and pebble gravel (4 to 64 mm or 0.2 to 2.5 in). One cubic yard of gravel typically weighs about 3000 pounds (or a cubic metre is about 1,800 kilograms).

Gravel is an important commercial product, with a number of applications. Many roadways are surfaced with gravel, especially in rural areas where there is little traffic. Globally, far more roads are surfaced with gravel than with concrete or tarmac; Russia alone has over 400,000 km (250,000 mi) of gravel roads. Both sand and small gravel are also important for the manufacture of concrete.

Geological formation

Large gravel deposits are a common geological feature, being formed as a result of the weathering and erosion of rocks. The action of rivers and waves tends to pile up gravel in large accumulations. This can sometimes result in gravel becoming compacted and concreted into the sedimentary rock called conglomerate. Where natural gravel deposits are insufficient for human purposes, gravel is often produced by quarrying and crushing hard-wearing rocks, such as sandstone, limestone, or basalt. Quarries where gravel is extracted are known as gravel pits. Southern England possesses particularly large concentrations of them due to the widespread deposition of gravel in the region during the Ice Ages.

Gravel (disambiguation)

Gravel is a type of rock.

Gravel or Gravell may also refer to:

Places

Music and entertainment

Gravel (comics)

Gravel is the name given to a series of limited and ongoing series by Warren Ellis, illustrated by Mike Wolfer and published by Avatar Press.

A number of different limited series have been published under the Strange Killings banner, all of which centred on British 'combat magician' William Gravel. Most recently these series were republished under the Gravel name, followed by the launch of a new series, Gravel.

Publication history

Gravel initially appeared in the Strange Kiss limited series, which was followed by a sequel, Stranger Kisses. The third series was titled Strange Killings, which remained the name for the subsequent limited series, until the latest ongoing series called Gravel. With Gravel, Wolfer became the co-author with Raulo Cáceres joining as the first of what has been described as a "revolving team" of artists.

Collected editions

The series have been collected into their own trade paperbacks but there is also a signed limited edition hardcover which collects the older series in one volume:

Neopets

Neopets (originally NeoPets) is a virtual pet website. Visitors can create accounts, own virtual pets ("Neopets"), and buy virtual items for them using one of two virtual currencies, one of which can be earned within the site and the other of which can purchased with real-world money.

The website was launched by Adam Powell and Donna Williams in late 1999. Two years later, a consortium of investors led by Doug Dohring bought a controlling interest in the company and in June 2005, Viacom bought Neopets Inc. for US$160 million. On March 17, 2014, Neopets was sold to Knowledge Adventure for an unannounced amount.

Gameplay

Neopets allows users to create and care for virtual pets called Neopets and explore the virtual world of Neopia. There is no set objective for the users, but they are expected to feed and care for their Neopets when they grow hungry or ill. Neopets will not die if neglected, but their health can limit their gameplay. Neopets come in a variety of species and colors and users can create or adopt their own. Users can obtain items to interact with their Neopet, such as books to read and toys to play with them. Neopets can be customised with certain clothing items, paint brushes, transformation potions, and accessories. Users can build a customisable Neohome for their Neopets and furnish it with furniture, wallpaper, and flooring. Neopets can battle against other Neopets or non-player characters in the Battledome but they cannot die there.