An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflective surface, the process can also involve roughening as in satin, matte or beaded finishes.
Abrasives are extremely commonplace and are used very extensively in a wide variety of industrial, domestic, and technological applications. This gives rise to a large variation in the physical and chemical composition of abrasives as well as the shape of the abrasive. Common uses for abrasives include grinding, polishing, buffing, honing, cutting, drilling, sharpening, lapping, and sanding (see abrasive machining). (For simplicity, "mineral" in this article will be used loosely to refer to both minerals and mineral-like substances whether man-made or not.)
Files are not abrasives. They remove material not by scratching or rubbing, but by the cutting action of sharp teeth which have been cut into the surface of the file, very much like those of a saw. However, diamond files are a form of coated abrasive (as they are metal rods coated with diamond powder).
Abrasive is the debut studio album by Puddle of Mudd, released in 1997 on Hardknocks Records. The album is extremely rare as it was an independent release with limited distribution. The band had said that if they ever get the chance, they would like to re-release this album. As of 2014 the album has still not been reissued.
The tracks "Nobody Told Me", "Said", "Piss It All Away", and "Abrasive" were all rerecorded for Puddle Of Mudd's following album, Come Clean, but only the first three made it on most copies of the album. Some limited editions of Come Clean had "Abrasive" as a bonus track. The rerecorded version of "Abrasive" only appeared on a promo, but the Abrasive album version was included on the "Control" single and the special editions of Come Clean. The Abrasive version of "All I Ask For" also appeared as a B Side to "Blurry"
Slavery is a legal or economic system in which principles of property law are applied to humans allowing them to be classified as property, to be owned, bought and sold accordingly, and they cannot withdraw unilaterally from the arrangement. While a person is a slave, the owner is entitled to the productivity of the slave's labour, without any remuneration. The rights and protection of the slave may be regulated by laws and customs in a particular time and place, and a person may become a slave from the time of their capture, purchase or birth.
Today, chattel slavery is unlawful in all countries, but a person may still be described as a slave if he or she is forced to work for another person without an ability on their part to unilaterally terminate the arrangement. Such situations are today commonly referred to as "practices similar to slavery". The present form of the slave trade is commonly referred to as human trafficking.
Slavery existed before written history and in many cultures. It was once institutionally recognized by most societies, but has now been outlawed in all countries, the last being Mauritania in 2007. However, it continues through such practices as debt bondage, serfdom, domestic servants kept in captivity, certain adoptions in which children are forced to work as slaves, child soldiers, human trafficking and forced marriage. Accordingly, there are more slaves today than at any time in history, with an estimated 20 million to 36 million slaves worldwide.
Slave is the first album by the American funk band Slave, released in 1977. The album reached number six on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart and was certified Gold. The single from the album, "Slide", reached number one on the Billboard soul chart and 32 on the Hot 100. Original members at this point included Steve Washington, Mark "Drac" Hicks, Mark Adams, Danny Webster, Floyd Miller, Carter Bradley, Orion Wilhoite, Tim Dozier and Tom Lockett.
Scorpio is a fictional spacecraft featured throughout the fourth season of the British science fiction television series Blake's 7. It is a freighter, noted by Tarrant as an early Mk II "Wanderer-class" planet-hopper.
Scorpio was owned by an alleged salvage operator named Dorian, who had a base on the planet Xenon. Dorian rescues the crew of the recently destroyed Liberator, who are stranded on the planet Terminal. The Liberator crew later kill Dorian in self-defence, occupy the Xenon base and use Scorpio for their own purposes.
When not in use, Scorpio was docked in an underground silo within the Xenon Base. When in flight, only the flight deck part of the ship would normally be pressurised and if the crew needed to go to another part of the ship during flight they had to pressurise that area first. Unlike Liberator, which was superior in speed and weaponry to the Terran Federation's finest warships, Scorpio was initially disadvantaged in comparison. It was slow, ungainly and has little weaponry until the crew modify the ship to increase its capabilities. In the episode "Power", Avon and Orac complete construction of a teleport system for the ship, similar to that seen on Liberator (Dorian had started to create a teleport himself but failed). In the episode "Star Drive", Scorpio is fitted with a new, experimental engine called the 'photonic drive', developed by Doctor Plaxton. This vastly increases the ship's speed to the equivalent of Time Distort 15 but in real time (i.e. without the need for the ship to move into a "time-distorted" dimension) thereby making Scorpio faster than the Liberator had been. The photonic drive is powered by light rather than plasma.