Embryo (1976 film)

Embryo is a 1976 science fiction horror film directed by Ralph Nelson and starring Rock Hudson alongside Barbara Carrera, with a cameo appearance by Roddy McDowall. It deals with the mental and physical consequences of growing a human embryo in an artificial uterus.

Plot

Dr. Paul Holliston (Hudson) is a geneticist who has been living alone in his rambling clinic, which he operates out of his home, after losing his wife in a car crash. This leads to his feeling constant pangs of guilt from his sister-in-law Martha Douglas (Diane Ladd), who has become his assistant.

One night, Holliston runs over a pregnant doberman dog. The dog is fatally injured, but Holliston manages to save one of her unborn puppies by gestating it in an artificial uterus. Because the device still requires nutrients to be supplied by the mother, he must drastically shorten the gestation period: to this end, he uses an experimental growth hormone made from human placental lactogen, which speeds up the embryo's growth.

Embryo (Pink Floyd song)

"Embryo" (sometimes called "The Embryo") is a song by Pink Floyd. It was a concert staple in 1970–71, but a full band version was never released on a Pink Floyd studio album. A studio version did appear in 1970 on the rare multi-artist album Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air. Its next appearance was in 1983 on Pink Floyd's own compilation called Works. It then appeared in 2007 on A Breath of Fresh Air – A Harvest Records Anthology 1969–1974 (one of only 3 tracks from the original sampler album to be included in the similarly-titled anthology).

History

The studio version of the song, recorded in 1968, was a quiet, almost acoustic piece sung by David Gilmour with a duration of under five minutes. The song ends with an organ solo and high-pitched vocal gibberish (with bassist Roger Waters having sped his voice up, much like he did on "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict"). This studio take has not appeared on any Pink Floyd album except Works, an American compilation. A short version similar to the studio cut was recorded "live" for a 2 December 1968 BBC session.

Free (The Party album)

Free is The Party's second studio album. Teddy Riley wrote three songs for the album, including the new jack swing-tinged title song, "Free," which was also remixed by house-music legends Steve "Silk" Hurley and E-Smoove. Dr. Dre produced the song "Let's Get Right Down to It," and the group itself also got involved in the writing and producing of the album, which would once again land it another concert tour opening spot with Color Me Badd, its last special for the Disney Channel, "All About The Party," and an appearance on Blossom. However, the album was not as successful on the charts as previous ones, which prompted Damon Pampolina to leave the group.

Track listing

Free: The Future of a Radical Price

Free: The Future of a Radical Price is the second book written by Chris Anderson, Editor in chief of Wired magazine. The book was published on July 7, 2009 by Hyperion. He is also the author of The Long Tail, published in 2006.

Overview

Free follows a thread from the previous work. It examines the rise of pricing models which give products and services to customers for free, often as a strategy for attracting users and up-selling some of them to a premium level. That class of model has become widely referred to as "freemium" and has become very popular for a variety of digital products and services.

Release

Free was released in the United States on July 7, 2009, though the night before, on his blog, Chris Anderson posted a browser readable version of the book and the unabridged audiobook version. Anderson generated controversy for plagiarizing content from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia in Free. Anderson responded to the claim on his The Long Tail blog, stating that there were disagreements between him and the publisher over accurate citation of Wikipedia due to the changing nature of its content, leading him to integrate footnotes into the text. Also on his blog, he took full responsibility for the mistakes and noted that the digital editions of Free were corrected. The notes and sources were later provided as a download on his blog.

Gratis

Gratis /ˈɡrɑːtᵻs/ or /ˈɡreɪtᵻs/ is the quality of an action where the action is willingly provided without any requirement by the provider for compensation or monetary remuneration. It is often referred to in English and Dutch as free of charge (FOC), complimentary, or on the house. Companies, producers, and service providers often provide certain things free of charge as part of a larger business model, pricing strategy, or as a donation.

Etymology

The English term gratis has its origins in late Middle English; from Latin. A contraction of gratiis, meaning 'as a kindness' or 'a show of goodwill', which in turn stems from the root gratia meaning 'grace' or 'kindness'. It is widely used in the Afrikaans, Slovakia, Czech, Hungarian, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Indonesian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German and some of the other Germanic languages, with the same meaning.

Marketing

In a standard business model where goods and services are exchanged for a monetary compensation, pricing of the goods is a fundamental element of the marketing process. While it would defeat the business model if companies provide all of their goods and services free of charge, it is common for them to provide limited amount of free goods in their promotional mix. Many companies often provide free samples to the press in order to generate media coverage for their products. Depending on the product, companies may provide free samples to prospective buyers.