Truss (unit)

A truss is a tight bundle of hay or straw. It would usually be cuboid, for storage or shipping, and would either be harvested into such bundles or cut from a large rick.

Markets and law

Hay and straw were important commodities in the pre-industrial era. Hay was required as fodder for animals, especially horses, and straw was used for a variety of purposes including bedding. In London, there were established markets for hay at Smithfield, Whitechapel and by the village of Charing, which is still now called the Haymarket. The weight of trusses was regulated by law and statutes were passed in the reigns of William and Mary, George II and George III. The latter act of 1796 established the weights as follows:

In summary then, the standard weights of a truss were:

and 36 trusses made up a load.

Trussing

A detailed description was provided in British Husbandry, sponsored by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,

This done, he measures the cut to be made in the stack, which is decided by the usual size of the trusses — each being as nearly as possible three feet by two and a half, and thick in proportion to the fineness and closeness of the hay; those of the best quality being the thinnest. He then mounts the ladder and cuts perpendicularly through the thatch, as far down as will produce the requisite number of trusses. This he does with a very strong and sharp knife, about thirty inches in length by nearly six in breadth of the blade, and formed as in fig. 2. The handle is however often made short and straight from the blade, but the form above represented allows of more power being exerted by the workman in cutting through the stack, and it is an operation which demands considerable strength.

Load (album)

Load is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on June 4, 1996, by Elektra Records. It sold 680,000 units in its first week, making it the biggest opening week for Metallica and the biggest debut of 1996.Load debuted and spent four consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. It was certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping five million copies in the United States. Four singles; "Until It Sleeps", "Hero of the Day", "Mama Said", and "King Nothing", were released as part of the marketing campaign for the album.

The album showed more of a hard rock side of Metallica than the band's typical thrash metal, which upset their fans. It also featured influences from genres such as Southern rock, blues rock, country rock and alternative rock. Drummer Lars Ulrich said about Load's more exploratory nature, "This album and what we're doing with it – that, to me, is what Metallica are all about: exploring different things. The minute you stop exploring, then just sit down and fucking die."

Swift

The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any of the passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes, which they share with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae.

Resemblances between swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight.

The family name, Apodidae, is derived from the Greek ἄπους (ápous), meaning "footless", a reference to the small, weak legs of these most aerial of birds. The tradition of depicting swifts without feet continued into the Middle Ages, as seen in the heraldic martlet.

Some species of swifts are among the fastest animals on the planet, with some of the fastest measured flight speeds of any bird.

Taxonomy

Taxonomists have long classified swifts and treeswifts as relatives of the hummingbirds, a judgement corroborated by the discovery of the Jungornithidae (apparently swift-like hummingbird-relatives) and of primitive hummingbirds such as Eurotrochilus. Traditional taxonomies place the hummingbird family (Trochilidae) in the same order as the swifts and treeswifts (and no other birds); the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy treated this group as a superorder in which the swift order was called Trochiliformes.

Swift (crater)

Swift as a crater may refer to:

D12

D12, an initialism for The Dirty Dozen, is an American hip hop group from Detroit, Michigan. D12 has had chart-topping albums in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. D12 was formed in 1996, and achieved mainstream success after Eminem rose to international fame. D12 released the album Devil's Night in 2001 and D12 World in 2004, spawning numerous hits such as "Fight Music", "Purple Pills", "My Band", "How Come" and "Shit on You" throughout that period. Since 2006, Eminem's hiatus and the death of the member Proof resulted in them being less active in subsequent years.

History

Early career (1996–98)

In order to make up the dozen, it was decided the six members at the time would each create an alter-ego. Proof's was Dirty Harry, Bizarre's was Peter S. Bizarre, Kuniva's was Hannz G. (which later became Rondell Beene), Kon Artis's was Mr. Porter, Bugz' was Robert Beck and Eminem created the famous character Slim Shady.

In 1997, they released their debut album, The Underground EP, which was recorded between 1996 and 1997. In 1997 and through 1998, its members began establishing reputations locally. Bizarre was named Inner City Entertainment's "Flava of the Week" and went on to release an album called Attack of the Weirdos. Along with Eminem, Rah Digga and Young Zee, he became an honorary member of The Outsidaz. Proof won a freestyling competition run by The Source. In 1999, Bugz released an EP called These Streets EP, and made several appearances on other rapper's songs.