Abalone (i/ˈæbəloʊniː/ or /ˌæbəˈloʊniː/; via Spanish abulón, from the Rumsen language aulón) is a common name for any of a group of small to very large edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae.
Other common names are ear shells, sea ears, and muttonfish or muttonshells in Australia, ormer in Great Britain, and pāua in New Zealand.
Abalone are marine snails. Their taxonomy puts them in the family Haliotidae which contains only one genus, Haliotis, which once contained six subgenera. These subgenera have become alternate representations of Haliotis. The number of species recognized worldwide ranges between 30 and 130 with over 230 species-level taxa described. The most comprehensive treatment of the family considers 56 species valid, with 18 additional subspecies.
The shells of abalones have a low, open spiral structure, and are characterized by several open respiratory pores in a row near the shell's outer edge. The thick inner layer of the shell is composed of nacre (mother-of-pearl), which in many species is highly iridescent, giving rise to a range of strong, changeable colors, which make the shells attractive to humans as decorative objects, jewelry, and as a source of colorful mother-of-pearl.
ORMer is a free, open-source (MIT License) object-relational mapping class written in PHP.
The primary goal is to provide ORM functionality while keeping things easy on the developer. It makes no assumptions about table/field naming conventions and requires minimal configuration (no XML configuration files). For Sqlite2 and MySQL 5.1.x it provides automatic relation discovery through foreign keys.
The class allows additional stipulations when referencing related data (such as the orders associated with a particular customer). See the second line of code in the example below.
A descent into the darkest realm of time
When cruelty was an abstract form of ugliness
Accusations of sacrilege, the terror was real
What fell over the land was hatred forced with steel
The servants of power unleashed tyranny
No one to escape from the shield of hypocrisy
For decades the poor have been the defenseless
Slaughter and mayhem under the wings of the cross
Extremity in ways too savage to realize
In rotten dungeons the screams seemed to vanish
Perversion, monstrosity, undeserved suffering
Horrible ways to "discover" all heretic sinners
When twisted minds fulfill the spiral prophecy
To work hand in hand with death is efficiency
No pity for any form of supplication
Just continuing acts of bestial eliminations