Alcohol intoxication (also known as drunkenness or inebriation) is a physiological state (that may also include psychological alterations of consciousness) induced by the ingestion of ethanol (alcohol).
Alcohol intoxication is the result of alcohol entering the bloodstream faster than it can be metabolized by the liver, which breaks down the ethanol into non-intoxicating byproducts. Some effects of alcohol intoxication (such as euphoria and lowered social inhibitions) are central to alcohol's desirability as a beverage and its history as one of the world's most widespread recreational drugs. Despite this widespread use and alcohol's legality in most countries, many medical sources tend to describe any level of alcohol intoxication as a form of poisoning due to ethanol's damaging effects on the body in large doses; some religions consider alcohol intoxication to be a sin while others utilize it in sacrament.
Symptoms of alcohol intoxication include euphoria, flushed skin and decreased social inhibition at lower doses, with larger doses producing progressively severe impairments of balance, muscle coordination (ataxia), and decision-making ability (potentially leading to violent or erratic behavior) as well as nausea or vomiting from alcohol's disruptive effect on the semicircular canals of the inner ear and chemical irritation of the gastric mucosa. Sufficiently high levels of blood-borne alcohol will cause coma and death from the depressive effects of alcohol upon the central nervous system.
Lotus is a 1974 live album recording of the San Franciscan latino rock band Santana at the Osaka Koseinenkin Hall, Osaka, Japan on 3-4 July 1973. It was originally released in 1974 as a triple vinyl LP in Japan only. The first U.S. release was in 1991 as a 2-CD set.
Lotus has been re-issued on vinyl in the Netherlands and on CD in Japan in 2006 as a 3-CD set. It was also re-issued as a 3-LP set in the U.S. in 2013.
The original live recordings were mixed in 4-channel quadraphonic sound and released in the CBS SQ matrix system. The SQ encoding permits all 4 channels to be contained in a 2 channel stereo version, which is compatible with conventional stereo playback equipment.
Some releases of this album have been marked as "Quad" or "SQ" and some are not. However, all known releases of this album use the same SQ encoded 2 channel recordings. Therefore the 4 independent channels can still be heard on modern equipment provided that the listener has a proper SQ decoder and 4 channel playback system.
"Lotus" is a song recorded by Japanese boy band Arashi. It was released on February 23, 2011 by their record label J Storm. The single is used as the theme song to the drama Bartender starring Arashi member Masaki Aiba. It was released in two editions: a regular edition containing two bonus tracks and instrumental versions of all the songs released in the single, and an limited edition containing a bonus track along with a DVD with a music video of the single.
According to Oricon, the single was ranked as the sixth best-selling single in Japan for the year 2011.
Lotus Cortina is the commonly used term for the Ford Cortina Lotus, a high-performance sports saloon, which was produced in the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1970 by Ford in collaboration with Lotus Cars. The original version, which was based on the Ford Cortina Mark 1, was promoted by Ford as the "Consul Cortina developed by Lotus", with "Consul" later being dropped from the name. The Mark 2 was based on the Ford Cortina Mark 2 and was marketed by Ford as the "Cortina Lotus".
There were 3,306 Mark I and 4,093 Mark 2 Lotus Cortinas produced.
The history of the Cortina Lotus began in 1961. Colin Chapman had been wishing to build his own engines for Lotus, mainly because the Coventry Climax unit was so expensive. Colin Chapman's chance came when he commissioned Harry Mundy (a close friend and designer of the Coventry Climax engine and technical editor for Autocar) to design a twin-cam version of the Ford Kent engine. Most of the development of the engine was done on the 997cc and 1,340cc bottom end, but in 1962 Ford released the 116E five bearing 1,499 cc engine and work centred on this. Keith Duckworth, from Cosworth, played an important part in tuning of the engine. The engine's first appearance was in 1962 at the Nürburgring in a Lotus 23 driven by Jim Clark. Almost as soon as the engine appeared in production cars (Lotus Elan), it was replaced with a larger capacity unit (82.55 mm bore to give 1,557 cc). This was in order to get the car closer to the 1.6 litre capacity class in motorsport.
Giraffe is the third full-length album by British musician Richard Warren, released under his pseudonym, Echoboy. It was released on February 10, 2003 on Mute Records in the United Kingdom and on February 25 of that year in the United States. It was produced by Flood.
Although Giraffe received generally favorable reviews from critics, not all reviews were favorable. Michael Idov of Pitchfork Media awarded the album a rating of 4.7 out of 10, describing the album as "50 minutes of structured wankery, as performed by a lone Brit with the questionable talent to put a chorus to a verse..."
The Saab (formerly Ericsson Microwave Systems AB) GIRAFFE Radar is a family of land and naval two- or three-dimensional G/H-band (4 to 8 GHz) Passive electronically scanned array radar-based surveillance and air defense command and control systems tailored for operations with medium- and Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) missile or gun systems or for use as gap-fillers in a larger air defense system. The radar gets its name from the distinctive folding mast which when deployed allows the radar to see over nearby terrain features such as trees, extending its effective range against low-level air targets. The first systems were produced in 1977. By 2007, some 450 units of all types are reported as having been delivered.
Saab Electronic Defence Systems (EDS) on May 2014 unveiled two new classes of active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar—three land-based systems (Giraffe 1X, Giraffe 4A and Giraffe 8A) and two naval variants (Sea Giraffe 1X and Sea Giraffe 4A) in X- and S-band frequencies—to complement its existing surface radar portfolio.