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July 7, 2015
Westport provides liquid propane systems for F-150 trucks
Westport (WPRT) announced the company will offer dedicated, liquid propane systems for 2016 Ford (F) 5.0L F-150 trucks. This new liquid propane system will be offered in addition to Westport's compressed natural gas package for 2016 Ford F-150 trucks. Both fuel options are part of the Westport WiNG Power System and are expected to be certified to EPA and CARB standards.
July 6, 2015
Options Update; July 6, 2015
iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures up 50c to 20.47 Option volume leaders: AAPL MU BAC FB CHK PBR ODP BABA INTC F TSLA DHR CVX AAL FCX ABX.
July 2, 2015
Stocks end holiday shortened week lower after Greece defaults
Stocks on Wall Street began with a slide on Monday, but not as precipitous a drop as may have been feared, after Greece shut down its banks and announced it will put the concession deal offered by its creditors, and essentially its continued inclusion in the eurozone, up for a popular vote. The major averages regained a bit of their losses in the next two sessions as news regarding the Greek situation continued to dominate the headlines. U.S. markets are closed on Friday in observance of Independence Day, but investors will be returning to big news, for better or worse, following the referendum that is scheduled to occur on July 5. MACRO NEWS: In the U.S., the monthly nonfarm payrolls report showed the addition of 223,000 jobs, versus expectations for 233,000 jobs to have been added last month. The unemployment rate fell to 5.3% from the prior month's 5.5% rate. Factory orders fell 1.0% in May, which was larger than the expected 0.5% decline. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 101.4 in June from a revised 94.6 reading for May, beating expectations for a reading of 97.4. Markit's manufacturing purchasing managers' index for June came in at 53.6, narrowly above the 53.4 forecast. ISM's manufacturing index rose to 53.5 in June, topping May's 52.8 reading and the 53.2 consensus forecast. Construction spending rose 0.8% in May, versus the expected growth of 0.5%. Additionally, Puerto Rico's Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, in an interview published by the New York Times, warned that the commonwealth's "debt is not payable" and a report warned that the territory's crisis was even worse than previously thought... In Europe, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a surprise referendum on the terms put forth by the country's creditors in exchange for additional rescue funds and the country shut down its banks until after this Sunday's vote. Standard & Poor's Ratings lowered its sovereign credit ratings on Greece, stating that the probability of the country exiting the eurozone is now about 50%, in its view. Greece officially missed its $1.7B payment to the International Monetary Fund, as expected. Greece's government requested a third bailout from the eurozone, but the request was dismissed by European officials. Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Wednesday that he saw no need for further talks on Greece at that point as he awaits the result of its referendum... In China, the People's Bank cut the one-year lending rate by 25 basis points to 4.85% and lowered the amount of reserves certain banks are required to hold by 50 basis points, but the same day the Shanghai Composite entered bear market territory, meaning the index was down more than 20% from its peak in mid-June. Chinese manufacturing PMIs came in short of expectations, as the HSBC/Markit PMI slipped to a final 49.4 in June from the flash reading of 49.6, while the government's official manufacturing PMI fell to 50.1 in June from 50.9 in May. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of BP (BP) advanced after the oil major announced it has reached agreements in principle to settle all U.S. federal and state claims arising from the Deepwater Horizon accident and spill in 2010. BP said it will pay up to $18.7B to settle the claims and that the expected impact of its agreements would be to increase the cumulative pre-tax charge associated with the accident and spill by around $10B from $43.8B at the end of the first quarter... In a blockbuster deal in the insurance industry, ACE Limited (ACE) agreed to acquire Chubb (CB) in a cash and stock transaction valued at over $28B. The combination will create the number one global Property and Casualty insurance company by P&C underwriting income and the number two U.S. public P&C insurer by market cap. Elsewhere on the M&A front, managed healthcare company Centene (CNC) announced a definitive agreement to acquire managed health care services rival Health Net (HNT) in a cash and stock deal valued at approximately $6.8B, including the assumption of approximately $500M of debt. Additionally, Willis Group (WSH) agreed to combine in an all-stock merger of equals with Towers Watson (TW) and Chambers Street Properties (CSG) announced a merger agreement with Gramercy Property Trust (GPT)... U.S. airline stocks dropped after the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department is investigating potential "unlawful coordination" between companies attempting to artificially limit growth to keep fares high... Juno Therapeutics (JUNO) advanced after the company announced a ten-year global collaboration for the development and commercialization of immunotherapies with Celgene (CELG). As part of the deal, Celgene will make an initial payment of approximately $1B, which includes the purchase of approximately 9.1M shares of Juno stock at $93 per share... Pentair (PNR) gained after Nelson Peltz's Trian Group confirmed it has taken a 7.24% stake. Trian urged the company to consider acquisitions and other industrial parts makers, including SPX Corp. (SPW), Flowserve (FLS), Xylem (XYL) and Colfax (CFX), also advanced following the activist's disclosure of its position... In a ruling with implications for coal miners and electric utilities, the Supreme Court overturned the EPA's Mercury Admissions and Toxic Standard, or MATS, rule, stating that the regulator did not properly take into account the costs to utilities and others in the sector in implementing a national standard for the reduction of power plant emissions of mercury and other air toxins... General Motors (GM) reported its U.S. sales fell 3% in June compared to the same month of last year, while Ford (F) said its sales grew 1.6% last month compared to last year. FCA US, the parent of the Chrysler and Jeep brands, reported U.S. sales increased 8% compared with sales in June 2014... Bond insurers MBIA (MBI) and Assured Guaranty (AGO) declined amid the worries about the debt situation in Puerto Rico. INDEXES: The Dow fell about 1.25% to close at 17,730.11, the Nasdaq declined about 1.43% to close at 5,009.21, and the S&P 500 dropped about 1.22% to close at 2,076.78.
Ford recalls 433,000 vehicles in North America for body control module issue
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July 1, 2015
On The Fly: Top stock stories at midday
Stocks on Wall Street remain higher at midday but off their best levels, which were achieved shortly after the open. The strength is being largely attributed to hopes for a resolution to the Greek crisis, but the move was also supported by better than expected domestic data on employment, construction and manufacturing. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., ADP reported the addition of 237,000 private sector jobs in June, versus expectations for 218,000 job additions. Markit's manufacturing purchasing managers' index for June came in at 53.6, narrowly topping the 53.4 forecast. ISM's manufacturing index rose to 53.5 in June, topping May's 52.8 reading and the 53.2 consensus forecast. Construction spending rose 0.8% in May, versus the expected growth of 0.5%. In China, manufacturing PMI's came in short of expectations. The HSBC/Markit PMI slipped to a final 49.4 in June from the flash reading of 49.6 reading, while the official manufacturing PMI fell to 50.1 in June from 50.9 in May. In Europe, Greece officially missed its $1.7B payment to the International Monetary Fund, becoming the first developed country to do so. The Financial Times then reported the Greek government was indicating it was willing to make concessions that get it much closer to creditor demands. The new proposal for budget cuts and policy overhauls from Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was dismissed by European officials, however, and uncertainty remains high surrounding the next steps in Europe. COMPANY NEWS: In a blockbuster deal in the insurance industry, ACE Limited (ACE) agreed to acquire Chubb (CB) in a transaction valued in excess of $28B in cash and stock. ACE said it expects that the deal will be immediately accretive to EPS and book value, and by year three, the transaction will be accretive to EPS on a double-digit basis and will be accretive to ROE. The combined company is expected to be the number one global Property and Casualty insurance company by P&C underwriting income and the number two U.S. public P&C insurer by market cap. ACE shares advance 2% following the deal announcement, while Chubb surged 29%... General Motors (GM) reported its U.S. sales fell 3% in June compared to the same month of last year, while Ford (F) said its sales grew 1.6% last month compared to last year. FCA US, the parent of the Chrysler and Jeep brands, reported U.S. sales increased 8% compared with sales in June 2014. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Schnitzer Steel (SCHN), which rose 14% after BofA Merrill Lynch upgraded the shares two notches to Buy from Underperform and raised its price target to $21, saying it believes scrap pricing should be nearing a trough with stability expected ahead. Also higher were shares of Dycom (DY), which gained 7% after the company raised its fourth quarter guidance for both earnings and revenue and announced a $40M stock repurchase program. Among the noteworthy losers was Chambers Street Properties (CSG), which fell 8% after announcing a merger agreement with Gramercy Property Trust (GPT), whose shares also slipped 3% following the announcement of the stock-for-stock transaction. Also lower were shares of Peabody Energy (BTU), which dropped 24% after cutting its second quarter guidance on Tuesday night. The company sees its adjusted EPS below its original target due to multiple factors, including flash flood events in June and price drops in Australian metallurgical coal. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 88.42, or 0.5%, to 17,707.93, the Nasdaq was up 13.01, or 0.26%, to 4,999.88, and the S&P 500 was up 8.62, or 0.42%, to 2,071.73.
Ford reaches full production at both F-150 plants
Reports 35% of sales went to fleet buyers and 18% of sales went to rental car companies in June.
Ford expects shift towards small SUV segment to continue
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Ford reports June U.S. sales up 1.6% to 225,647 units
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Ford to host sales conference call
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June 25, 2015
TrueCar Tprjects retail auto sales to consumers up 7.9% in June
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South Korea orders recall of 24,808 vehicles with Takata air bags, Reuters says
South Korea's transport ministry stated that it ordered Honda (HMC), Fiat Chrysler (FCAU), Ford (F), and Renault to recall 24,808 vehicles that could contain faulty airbags manufactured by Takata (TKTDY), reports Reuters.
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June 24, 2015
Actionable Options for Wednesday, June, 24
iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures up 30c to 17.32 Option volume leaders: AAPL FB NFLX BAC VALE MU BABA WMB T F EBAY FCX TWTR BBRY
On The Fly: Analyst Upgrade Summary
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On The Fly: Pre-market Movers
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Ford upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman
Goldman upgraded Ford to Buy and increased its price target to $19 from $18. The firm expects earnings momentum to accelerate in 2H and into 2016 driven by full production of the new F-150 and further market share gains following the launch of the Super Duty. Goldman expects positive pricing and low levels of relative incentives with its refreshed products. Further, Goldman expects Ford's position in China to continue to improve given strong product launch tempo.
Ford launches car-share business in six U.S. cities, London, CNBC says
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June 23, 2015
Goldman ups Ford to Buy, cuts GM to Neutral
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Ford upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman
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Ford seeks to migrate driver-assist technologies over product lineup over 5 yrs
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In honor of next year being the 20 year anniversary of RAW, I was wondering if they make a 20 year DVD what would be the countdown moments so here they are. IT STARTS AT #1 and ends at the bottom. So start reading from the bottom up.
Austin vs McMahon feud
Mankind wins WWF Title on January 4th 1999
Jim Ross Classic Calls
CM Punk shoot on Raw
The Rock returns in
© 2011 eWrestlingNews, All Rights Reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles), who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their opponents' half of the court. A rally ends once the shuttlecock has struck the ground, and the shuttlecock may only be struck once by each side before it passes over the net.
The shuttlecock (or shuttle) is a feathered projectile whose unique aerodynamic properties cause it to fly differently from the balls used in most racquet sports; in particular, the feathers create much higher drag, causing the shuttlecock to decelerate more rapidly than a ball. Shuttlecocks have a much higher top speed, when compared to other racquet sports. Because shuttlecock flight is stubbornly affected by wind, competitive badminton is always played indoors. Badminton is also played outdoors as a casual recreational activity, often as a garden or beach game.
Since 1992, badminton has been an Olympic sport with five events: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, in which each pair is a man and a woman. At high levels of play, the sport demands excellent fitness: players require aerobic stamina, agility, strength, speed, and precision. It is also a technical sport, requiring good motor coordination and the development of sophisticated racquet movements.
Badminton was known in ancient times; an early form of the sport was played in ancient Greece. In Japan, the related game Hanetsuki was played as early as the 16th century. In the west, badminton came from a game called battledore and shuttlecock, in which two or more players keep a feathered shuttlecock in the air with small racquets. The game was called "Poona" in India during the 18th century, and British Army officers stationed there took a competitive Indian version back to England in the 1860s, where it was played at country houses as an upper class amusement. Isaac Spratt, a London toy dealer, published a booklet, "Badminton Battledore - a new game" in 1860, but unfortunately no copy has survived.
The new sport was definitively launched in 1873 at the Badminton House, Gloucestershire, owned by the Duke of Beaufort. During that time, the game was referred to as "The Game of Badminton," and the game's official name became Badminton.
Until 1887 the sport was played in England under the rules that prevailed in India. The Bath Badminton Club standardized the rules and made the game applicable to English ideas. The basic regulations were drawn up in 1887. In 1893, the Badminton Association of England published the first set of rules according to these regulations, similar to today's rules, and officially launched badminton in a house called "Dunbar" at 6 Waverley Grove, Portsmouth, England on September 13 of that year. They also started the All England Open Badminton Championships, the first badminton competition in the world, in 1899.
The International Badminton Federation (IBF) (now known as Badminton World Federation) was established in 1934 with Canada, Denmark, England, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales as its founding members. India joined as an affiliate in 1936. The BWF now governs international badminton and develops the sport globally.
While originated in England, international badminton has traditionally been dominated by a few Asian countries, plus Denmark from Europe. China, Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia are among the nations that have consistently produced world-class players in the past few decades and dominated competitions on the international level, with China being the most dominant in recent years.
The court is rectangular and divided into halves by a net. Courts are almost always marked for both singles and doubles play, although the laws permit a court to be marked for singles only. The doubles court is wider than the singles court, but both are the same length. The exception, which often causes confusion to newer players is that the doubles court has a shorter serve-length dimension.
The full width of the court is 6.1 metres (20 ft), and in singles this width is reduced to 5.18 metres (17 ft). The full length of the court is 13.4 metres (44 ft). The service courts are marked by a centre line dividing the width of the court, by a short service line at a distance of 1.98 metres (6.5 ft) from the net, and by the outer side and back boundaries. In doubles, the service court is also marked by a long service line, which is 0.78 metres (2 ft 6 inch) from the back boundary.
The net is 1.55 metres (5 ft 1 inch) high at the edges and 1.524 metres (5 ft) high in the centre. The net posts are placed over the doubles side lines, even when singles is played.
There is no mention in the Laws of badminton, of a minimum height for the ceiling above the court. Nonetheless, a badminton court will not be suitable if the ceiling is likely to be hit on a high serve.
3.1 : To test a shuttlecock, use a full underhand stroke which makes contact with the shuttlecock over the back boundary line. The shuttlecock shall be hit at an upward angle and in a direction parallel to the side lines. 3.2 : A shuttlecock of the correct speed will land not less than 530 mm and not more than 990 mm short of the other back boundary line.
At the start of the rally, the server and receiver stand in diagonally opposite service courts (see court dimensions). The server hits the shuttlecock so that it would land in the receiver's service court. This is similar to tennis, except that a badminton serve must be hit from below the waist in underhand form (upwards), the shuttlecock is not allowed to bounce, and in tennis the players stand outside their service courts.
When the serving side loses a rally, the serve passes to their opponent(s) (unlike the old system, there is no "second serve").
In singles, the server stands in his right service court when his score is even, and in his left service court when his score is odd.
In doubles, if the serving side wins a rally, the same player continues to serve, but he changes service courts so that he serves to each opponent in turn. If the opponents win the rally and their new score is even, the player in the right service court serves; if odd, the player in the left service court serves. The players' service courts are determined by their positions at the start of the previous rally, not by where they were standing at the end of the rally. A consequence of this system is that, each time a side regains the service, the server will be the player who did not serve last time.
If the score reaches 20-all, then the game continues until one side gains a two point lead (such as 24-22), up to a maximum of 30 points (30-29 is a winning score).
At the start of a match a coin is tossed. The winners of the coin toss may choose whether to serve or receive first, or they may choose which end of the court they wish to occupy. Their opponents make the remaining choice. In less formal settings, the coin toss is often replaced by hitting a shuttlecock into the air: whichever side the corked end points will be the side that serves first.
In subsequent games, the winners of the previous game serve first. This can also be called rubbers. If one team wins a game they play once more and if they win again they win that match but if they lose they play one more match to find the winning team. For the first rally of any doubles game, the serving pair may decide who serves and the receiving pair may decide who receives. The players change ends at the start of the second game; if the match reaches a third game, they change ends both at the start of the game and when the leading pair's score reaches 11 points.
The server and receiver must remain within their service courts, without touching the boundary lines, until the server strikes the shuttlecock. The other two players may stand wherever they wish, so long as they do not unsight the opposing server or receiver.
Several faults pertain specifically to service. A serving player shall be faulted if the shuttlecock is above his waist (defined as his lowest rib) at point of contact, or if his racket's head is not pointing downwards at the moment of impact. This particular law was modified in 2006: previously, the server's racket had to be pointing downwards to the extent that the racket head was below the hand holding the racket; and now, any angle below the horizontal is acceptable.
Neither the server nor the receiver may lift a foot until the shuttlecock has been struck by the server. The server must also initially hit the base (cork) of the shuttlecock, although he may afterwards also hit the feathers as part of the same stroke. This law was introduced to ban an extremely effective service style known as the S-serve or Sidek serve, which allowed the server to make the shuttlecock spin chaotically in flight.
Each side may only strike the shuttlecock once before it passes back over the net; but during a single stroke movement, a player may contact a shuttlecock twice (this happens in some sliced shots). A player may not, however, hit the shuttlecock once and then hit it with a new movement, nor may he carry and sling the shuttlecock on his racket.
It is a fault if the shuttlecock hits the ceiling.
If the receiver is not ready when the service is delivered, a let shall be called; yet if the receiver makes any attempt to return the shuttlecock, he shall be judged to have been ready.
There is no let if the shuttlecock hits the tape (even on service).
There is a wide variety of racquet designs, although the racquet size and shape are limited by the Laws. Different racquets have playing characteristics that appeal to different players. The traditional oval head shape is still available, but an isometric head shape is increasingly common in new racquets.
It is often argued that high string tensions improve control, whereas low string tensions increase power. The arguments for this generally rely on crude mechanical reasoning, such as claiming that a lower tension string bed is more bouncy and therefore provides more power. This is in fact incorrect, for a higher string tension can cause the shuttle to slide off the racquet and hence make it harder to hit a shot accurately. An alternative view suggests that the optimum tension for power depends on the player: the faster and more accurately a player can swing their racquet, the higher the tension for maximum power. Neither view has been subjected to a rigorous mechanical analysis, nor is there clear evidence in favour of one or the other. The most effective way for a player to find a good string tension is to experiment.
Players may choose between a variety of grip materials. The most common choices are PU synthetic grips or toweling grips. Grip choice is a matter of personal preference. Players often find that sweat becomes a problem; in this case, a drying agent may be applied to the grip or hands, or sweatbands may be used, or the player may choose another grip material or change his grip more frequently.
There are two main types of grip: replacement grips and overgrips. Replacement grips are thicker, and are often used to increase the size of the handle. Overgrips are thinner (less than 1 mm), and are often used as the final layer. Many players, however, prefer to use replacement grips as the final layer. Toweling grips are always replacement grips. Replacement grips have an adhesive backing, whereas overgrips have only a small patch of adhesive at the start of the tape and must be applied under tension; overgrips are more convenient for players who change grips frequently, because they may be removed more rapidly without damaging the underlying material.
Shuttles with a plastic or nylon skirt are often used by recreational players to reduce their costs as feathered shuttles break easily. These nylon shuttles may be produced with a cork made of a hard sponge instead of natural cork.
Additionally, nylon shuttlecocks come in three varieties, each variety for a different range of temperatures. These three varieties are known as green (slow speed), blue (middle speed), and red (fast speed). The colors, and therefore speeds, are indicated by colored strips fastened around the cork. In colder temperatures, a faster shuttle is used, and in hotter climates, a slower one is chosen.
Compared to running shoes, badminton shoes have little lateral support. High levels of lateral support are useful for activities where lateral motion is undesirable and unexpected. Badminton, however, requires powerful lateral movements. A highly built-up lateral support will not be able to protect the foot in badminton; instead, it will encourage catastrophic collapse at the point where the shoe's support fails, and the player's ankles are not ready for the sudden loading, which can cause sprains. For this reason, players should choose badminton shoes rather than general trainers or running shoes, because proper badminton shoes will have a very thin sole, lower a person's centre of gravity, and therefore result in fewer injuries. Players should also ensure that they learn safe and proper footwork, with the knee and foot in alignment on all lunges. This is not only a safety concern, as proper footwork is critical in order to effectively move around the court.
Badminton offers a wide variety of basic strokes, and players require a high level of skill to perform all of them effectively. All strokes can be played either forehand or backhand. A player's forehand side is the same side as his playing hand: for a right-handed player, the forehand side is his right side and the backhand side is his left side. Forehand strokes are hit with the front of the hand leading (like hitting with the palm), whereas backhand strokes are hit with the back of the hand leading (like hitting with the knuckles). Players frequently play certain strokes on the forehand side with a backhand hitting action, and vice-versa.
In the forecourt and midcourt, most strokes can be played equally effectively on either the forehand or backhand side; but in the rearcourt, players will attempt to play as many strokes as possible on their forehands, often preferring to play a round-the-head forehand overhead (a forehand "on the backhand side") rather than attempt a backhand overhead. Playing a backhand overhead has two main disadvantages. First, the player must turn his back to his opponents, restricting his view of them and the court. Second, backhand overheads cannot be hit with as much power as forehands: the hitting action is limited by the shoulder joint, which permits a much greater range of movement for a forehand overhead than for a backhand. The backhand clear is considered by most players and coaches to be the most difficult basic stroke in the game, since precise technique is needed in order to muster enough power for the shuttlecock to travel the full length of the court. For the same reason, backhand smashes tend to be weak.
The choice of stroke depends on how near the shuttlecock is to the net, whether it is above net height, and where an opponent is currently positioned: players have much better attacking options if they can reach the shuttlecock well above net height, especially if it is also close to the net. In the forecourt, a high shuttlecock will be met with a net kill, hitting it steeply downwards and attempting to win the rally immediately. This is why it is best to drop the shuttlecock just over the net in this situation. In the midcourt, a high shuttlecock will usually be met with a powerful smash, also hitting downwards and hoping for an outright winner or a weak reply. Athletic jump smashes, where players jump upwards for a steeper smash angle, are a common and spectacular element of elite men's doubles play. In the rearcourt, players strive to hit the shuttlecock while it is still above them, rather than allowing it to drop lower. This overhead hitting allows them to play smashes, clears (hitting the shuttlecock high and to the back of the opponents' court), and dropshots (hitting the shuttlecock so that it falls softly downwards into the opponents' forecourt). If the shuttlecock has dropped lower, then a smash is impossible and a full-length, high clear is difficult.
When the shuttlecock is well below net height, players have no choice but to hit upwards. Lifts, where the shuttlecock is hit upwards to the back of the opponents' court, can be played from all parts of the court. If a player does not lift, his only remaining option is to push the shuttlecock softly back to the net: in the forecourt this is called a netshot; in the midcourt or rearcourt, it is often called a push or block.
When the shuttlecock is near to net height, players can hit drives, which travel flat and rapidly over the net into the opponents' rear midcourt and rearcourt. Pushes may also be hit flatter, placing the shuttlecock into the front midcourt. Drives and pushes may be played from the midcourt or forecourt, and are most often used in doubles: they are an attempt to regain the attack, rather than choosing to lift the shuttlecock and defend against smashes. After a successful drive or push, the opponents will often be forced to lift the shuttlecock.
When defending against a smash, players have three basic options: lift, block, or drive. In singles, a block to the net is the most common reply. In doubles, a lift is the safest option but it usually allows the opponents to continue smashing; blocks and drives are counter-attacking strokes, but may be intercepted by the smasher's partner. Many players use a backhand hitting action for returning smashes on both the forehand and backhand sides, because backhands are more effective than forehands at covering smashes directed to the body.
The service presents its own array of stroke choices. Unlike in tennis, the serve is restricted by the Laws so that it must be hit upwards. The server can choose a low serve into the forecourt (like a push), or a lift to the back of the service court, or a flat drive serve. Lifted serves may be either high serves, where the shuttlecock is lifted so high that it falls almost vertically at the back of the court, or flick serves, where the shuttlecock is lifted to a lesser height but falls sooner.
Once players have mastered these basic strokes, they can hit the shuttlecock from and to any part of the court, powerfully and softly as required. Beyond the basics, however, badminton offers rich potential for advanced stroke skills that provide a competitive advantage. Because badminton players have to cover a short distance as quickly as possible, the purpose of many advanced strokes is to deceive the opponent, so that either he is tricked into believing that a different stroke is being played, or he is forced to delay his movement until he actually sees the shuttle's direction. "Deception" in badminton is often used in both of these senses. When a player is genuinely deceived, he will often lose the point immediately because he cannot change his direction quickly enough to reach the shuttlecock. Experienced players will be aware of the trick and cautious not to move too early, but the attempted deception is still useful because it forces the opponent to delay his movement slightly. Against weaker players whose intended strokes are obvious, an experienced player will move before the shuttlecock has been hit, anticipating the stroke to gain an advantage.
Slicing and using a shortened hitting action are the two main technical devices that facilitate deception. Slicing involves hitting the shuttlecock with an angled racquet face, causing it to travel in a different direction than suggested by the body or arm movement. Slicing also causes the shuttlecock to travel much slower than the arm movement suggests. For example, a good crosscourt sliced dropshot will use a hitting action that suggests a straight clear or smash, deceiving the opponent about both the power and direction of the shuttlecock. A more sophisticated slicing action involves brushing the strings around the shuttlecock during the hit, in order to make the shuttlecock spin. This can be used to improve the shuttle's trajectory, by making it dip more rapidly as it passes the net; for example, a sliced low serve can travel slightly faster than a normal low serve, yet land on the same spot. Spinning the shuttlecock is also used to create spinning netshots (also called tumbling netshots), in which the shuttlecock turns over itself several times (tumbles) before stabilizing; sometimes the shuttlecock remains inverted instead of tumbling. The main advantage of a spinning netshot is that the opponent will be unwilling to address the shuttlecock until it has stopped tumbling, since hitting the feathers will result in an unpredictable stroke. Spinning netshots are especially important for high level singles players.
The lightness of modern racquets allows players to use a very short hitting action for many strokes, thereby maintaining the option to hit a powerful or a soft stroke until the last possible moment. For example, a singles player may hold his racquet ready for a netshot, but then flick the shuttlecock to the back instead with a shallow lift. This makes the opponent's task of covering the whole court much more difficult than if the lift was hit with a bigger, obvious swing. A short hitting action is not only useful for deception: it also allows the player to hit powerful strokes when he has no time for a big arm swing. The use of grip tightening is crucial to these techniques, and is often described as finger power. Elite players develop finger power to the extent that they can hit some power strokes, such as net kills, with less than a 10 cm racquet swing.
It is also possible to reverse this style of deception, by suggesting a powerful stroke before slowing down the hitting action to play a soft stroke. In general, this latter style of deception is more common in the rearcourt (for example, dropshots disguised as smashes), whereas the former style is more common in the forecourt and midcourt (for example, lifts disguised as netshots).
Deception is not limited to slicing and short hitting actions. Players may also use double motion, where they make an initial racquet movement in one direction before withdrawing the racquet to hit in another direction. This is typically used to suggest a crosscourt angle but then play the stroke straight, or vice-versa. Triple motion is also possible, but this is very rare in actual play. An alternative to double motion is to use a racquet head fake, where the initial motion is continued but the racquet is turned during the hit. This produces a smaller change in direction, but does not require as much time.
Deception is also important. Expert players make the preparation for many different strokes look identical, and use slicing to deceive their opponents about the speed or direction of the stroke. If an opponent tries to anticipate the stroke, he may move in the wrong direction and may be unable to change his body momentum in time to reach the shuttlecock.
At high levels of play, the backhand serve has become popular to the extent that forehand serves almost never appear in professional games. The straight low serve is used most frequently, in an attempt to prevent the opponents gaining the attack immediately. Flick serves are used to prevent the opponent from anticipating the low serve and attacking it decisively.
At high levels of play, doubles rallies are extremely fast. Men's doubles is the most aggressive form of badminton, with a high proportion of powerful jump smashes.
In singles, players will often start the rally with a forehand high serve. Low serves are also used frequently, either forehand or backhand. Flick serves are less common, and drive serves are rare.
At high levels of play, singles demands extraordinary fitness. Singles is a game of patient positional maneuvering, unlike the all-out aggression of doubles.
At high levels of play, the formations will generally be more flexible: the top women players are capable of playing powerfully from the rearcourt, and will happily do so if required. When the opportunity arises, however, the pair will switch back to the standard mixed attacking position, with the woman in front.
The BWF organizes several international competitions, including the Thomas Cup, the premier men's event, and the Uber Cup, the women's equivalent. The competitions take place once every two years. More than 50 national teams compete in qualifying tournaments within continental confederations for a place in the finals. The final tournament involves 12 teams, following an increase from eight teams in 2004.
The Sudirman Cup, a mixed team event held once every two years, began in 1989. It is divided into seven groups based on the performance of each country. To win the tournament, a country must perform well across all five disciplines (men's doubles and singles, women's doubles and singles, and mixed doubles). Like soccer, it features a promotion and relegation system in every group.
Individual competition in badminton was a demonstration event in the 1972 and 1988 Summer Olympics. It became a Summer Olympics sport at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. The 32 highest ranked badminton players in the world participate in the competition, and each country submitting three players to take part. In the BWF World Championships, only the highest ranked 64 players in the world, and a maximum of three from each country, can participate in any category.
All these tournaments, along with the BWF World Junior Championships, are level one tournaments.
At the start of 2007, the BWF also introduce a new tournament structure: the BWF Super Series. This level two tournament will stage twelve open tournaments around the world with 32 players (half the previous limit). The players collect points that determine whether they can play in Super Series Final held at the year end.
Level three tournaments will consist of Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix event. Top players can collect the world ranking points and enable them to play in the BWF Super Series open tournaments. These include the regional competitions in Asia (Badminton Asia Championships) and Europe (European Badminton Championships), which produce the world's best players as well as the Pan America Badminton Championships.
The level four tournaments, known as International Challenge, International Series and Future Series, encourages participation by junior players.
Men's doubles player Fu Haifeng of China set the official world smash record of 332 km/h (206 mph) on June 3, 2005 in the Sudirman Cup. The fastest smash recorded in the singles competition is 305 km/h (189 mph) by Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.
There is a strong case for arguing that badminton is more physically demanding than tennis, but such comparisons are difficult to make objectively due to the differing demands of the games. Some informal studies suggest that badminton players require much greater aerobic stamina than tennis players, but this has not been the subject of rigorous research.
A more balanced approach suggests the following comparisons, although these also are subject to dispute:
It is often asserted that power in badminton strokes comes mainly from the wrist. This is a misconception and may be criticised for two reasons. First, it is strictly speaking a category error: the wrist is a joint, not a muscle; its movement is controlled by the forearm muscles. Second, wrist movements are weak when compared to forearm or upper arm movements. Badminton biomechanics have not been the subject of extensive scientific study, but some studies confirm the minor role of the wrist in power generation, and indicate that the major contributions to power come from internal and external rotations of the upper and lower arm. Modern coaching resources such as the Badminton England Technique DVD reflect these ideas by emphasising forearm rotation rather than wrist movements.
One consequence of the shuttlecock's drag is that it requires considerable skill to hit it the full length of the court, which is not the case for most racket sports. The drag also influences the flight path of a lifted (lobbed) shuttlecock: the parabola of its flight is heavily skewed so that it falls at a steeper angle than it rises. With very high serves, the shuttlecock may even fall vertically.
Slicing the shuttlecock so that it spins, however, does have applications, and some are peculiar to badminton. (See Basic strokes for an explanation of technical terms.)
Due to the way that its feathers overlap, a shuttlecock also has a slight natural spin about its axis of rotational symmetry. The spin is in a counter-clockwise direction as seen from above when dropping a shuttlecock. This natural spin affects certain strokes: a tumbling netshot is more effective if the slicing action is from right to left, rather than from left to right.


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Columbus, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed center Brandon Dubinsky to a six-year contract extension through the 2020-21 season.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Columbus Dispatch on Friday reported the deal to be worth $35.1 million.
Dubinsky notched 16 goals and a career-high 34 assists for 50 points in 76 games last season, his second with Columbus. The Blue Jackets acquired him in July 2012 from the Rangers as part of the deal that sent Rick Nash to New York.
"Brandon brings tenacity and determination to our team every time he takes the ice and he's been an integral part of our growth and success over the past two years," said Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen in a statement Friday. "Thanks to the commitment and support of our ownership group, we are excited that Brandon will continue to be an important part of the Blue Jackets family for many years to come."
Dubinsky has 18 goals and 52 assists for 70 points in 105 games for the Blue Jackets. He has compiled 99 goals and 184 assists for 283 points with a plus-31 rating in 498 games with the Jackets and Rangers.
The 28-year-old Alaska native was selected by the Rangers with the 60th overall pick of the 2004 NHL Draft.


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Ozmageddon 2012
We've been in Australia for 24 hours now so it's time to get this thing started! We'll be covering the Quiksilver Pro and all the surrounding mayhem—which leads to why it took 24 hours to get the daily blog started. Basically I fell into the Coolangatta vortex. Once again we're staying at the Komune, which is kind of the epicenter of nightlife action in these parts. I brought two bottles of Peligroso tequila down and despite the best intentions, they're both gone. We gave one to Jason Stevenson from JS Industries in hopes of securing one of his shred sleds and one was guzzled down by a variety of characters including Steve Sherman (getting the enemy publications photographer drunk is a magazine war tactic), Luke Egan, local legend Brent Dorrington, and some dude we met at a Byron Bay carpark last year.
Had a little surf last night in the rain and was witness to Ace Buchan, Carissa Moore, Koa Smith, and Kolohe Andino ripping through the pack as the swell picked up. I brought out my iPhone in its LifeProof case and did a few Twitter and Instagram posts from the channel. People were tripping. Follow us on Instagram at transworld_surf and on Twitter at twitter.com/transworldsurf. With the sun starting to peek out and the surf picking up, it's time to go fan out on Dane Reynolds down at the contest site…
CATEGORIZED: Photos
TAGS: ASP World Tour, australia, gold coast, JS Industries, Komune, Quiksilver Pro, Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast
TAGS: ASP World Tour, australia, gold coast, JS Industries, Komune, Quiksilver Pro, Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast


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See You on the Other Side/Untouchables
Would somebody be able to explain why most KoRn 'fans' didn't like See You on the Other Side or Untouchables? I have listened to every KoRn album so many times and love them all (yes, even the Path of Totality which I thought was fucking brilliant), and I am still confused as to why people don't like them. Those are two of my favourite albums, well all 10 are my favourite albums.
Thank You for any answers etc.
Replies to This Posting
Re: See You on the Other Side/Untouchables
I like SYOTOS, but no Head and Fieldy is buried and he's pretty much essential to Korn, so I can see why people don't like it. I dislike TPOT, but it's still listenable. I just don't hear much guitar or bass. Most of it's electronic synths and whatnot.
Re: See You on the Other Side/Untouchables
I'm with you, OP. People that only like the "original" group/sound and blam everything else aren't fans. I like all of their albums, some more than others. They're just ignorant twats.
Although I will say that Untouchables is really hard to get into. It's the darkest sound they put out. I like it now, but it took me a while.
Re: See You on the Other Side/Untouchables
To me, it's a really fustrated album, things are miss matched but it still flows pretty fuckin good.
Hmm. I don't think I hear any frustration or mixed up-edness in there. All I hear is confidence like they know exactly what they're doing.
Re: See You on the Other Side/Untouchables
I love untouchables and syotos! I don't understand either why ppl don't like it
Re: See You on the Other Side/Untouchables
i thought it was more SYOTOS and Untitled that get the most hatred, and its mainly to do with them having half the songs/lyrics wrote for them, untouchables is a great album, it got abit of stick when it first got released because it was the first album they brought out with some very experimental songs on, but listening back on that album now I really love it, espesh if you compare it to SOTOS/Untitled/KoRnIII
in the sea of life, your just a minnow,
you live your life, insecure,
i feel the pain, of your needles,
as they shit, into my brain..
Re: See You on the Other Side/Untouchables
I've also heard most of the hate for SYOTOS and Untitled as well. I love Untouchables and SYONTOS, and Untitled is not a bad album by any means.
Re: See You on the Other Side/Untouchables
because .... it was different
Re: See You on the Other Side/Untouchables
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Olympic Judo Silver Medalist Claudia Heill Falls To Her Death - Bloody Elbow
A tragedy inside and outside the Judo community. Most news outlets are running with the Associated Press release stating suicide such as USA Today, though BBC News have treated it more delicately:
Austrian Olympic judo silver medallist Claudia Heill has died after falling from a sixth-floor window in Vienna.
Her body was found in the early hours of Thursday. Police said no suicide note had been found but there were no signs of suspicious circumstances.
Ms Heill, 29, retired from judo in 2009, five years after winning silver in the women's under-63kg category at the Athens Olympics.
She finished fifth in the Beijing games and had been working as a junior coach.
'Irrational action'
Austrian Judo Federation president Hans Paul Kutschera said that everyone who knew her was in shock.
"Claudia was successful in her studies, she was a very active person," he told Austrian TV.
She had been involved in marketing for the European Judo Championships in Vienna in 2010 and had recently been studying at the University of Applied Sciences at Wiener Neustadt, reports said.
Ms Heill's former trainer Hubert Rohrauer was quoted as saying that he could find no explanation for what happened.
"We met up only the evening before," he said. "Nobody could have predicted such an irrational action. She was a perfectionist and strong-willed."


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A VERY small Beatrix Potter drawing has sold for nearly £50,000 at an auction in America.
The three-and-three-quarter inches by six inches ink and watercolour had been expected to sell for up to 37,500 at the Sotheby's auction, in New York, but reached £47,438
The miniature, called 'Guinea pigs going to their garden...' was among 193 original illustrations sold by wealthy American couple, Kendra and Allan Daniel. The painting depicts four guinea pigs following a fifth along a path carrying garden tools.
A spokesman for Sotheby's said: "Early in 1893, when she was in her twenties, Beatrix Potter borrowed a number of guinea pigs from her friend, Miss Paget. One, named Mr Chopps, proved to be no problem but another, named Queen Elizabeth, apparently 'took to eating blotting paper, pasteboard, string and other curious substances and expired during the night. A pair of gardening illustrations date from this time: four guinea pigs following a blue-coated guinea pig and four guinea pigs working under the guidance of the blue-coated guinea pig.
"These were later redrawn in 1922 and used in Potter's book Cecil Parsley's Nursery Rhymes."
A SNOW leopard which featured in a movie starring Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman is the latest addition to a South Lakeland zoo.
Young male Pavan, one of two leopards who played the part of Stelamaria in The Golden Compass, will be housed in a walk-through enclosure at Lakeland Wildlife Oasis at Hale, near Milnthorpe.
Staff have created a homely feel for their new feline friend with the enclosure designed to look like a Himalayan village with plenty of rocks for him to climb and snooze on.
An acrylic tunnel running through the enclosure will allow visitors to see Pavan in his own habitat in what is thought to be the UK's first walk-through big cat exhibit.
Assistant manager of Lakeland Wildlife Oasis, Caroline Howard, said: "We're really excited about Pavan's arrival - he's a real celebrity cat! His new home is amazing. You can walk right through his territory while he ranges around you - even above your head!"
Pavan has arrived from UK charity the Cat Survival Trust which helps conserve endangered cats.
Once he has settled in his new environment, zoo staff hope to form a breeding pair by adding a female snow leopard to Pavan's enclosure.It is not known how many snow leopards are left in the wild but they are now classed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Lakeland Wildlife Oasis is joining the captive breeding programme which is run by the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums.


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The first thermonuclear bomb was exploded in 1952 at Enewetak by the United States, the second in 1953 by Russia (then the USSR). Great Britain, France, and China have also exploded thermonuclear bombs, and these five nations comprise the so-called nuclear club—nations that have the capability to produce nuclear weapons and admit to maintaining an inventory of them. The three smaller Soviet successor states that inherited nuclear arsenals (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus) relinquished all nuclear warheads, which have been removed to Russia. Several other nations either have tested thermonuclear devices or claim to have the capability to produce them, but officially state that they do not maintain a stockpile of such weapons; among these are India, Israel, and Pakistan. South Africa's apartheid regime built six nuclear bombs but dismantled them later.
The presumable structure of a thermonuclear bomb is as follows: at its center is an atomic bomb; surrounding it is a layer of lithium deuteride (a compound of lithium and deuterium, the isotope of hydrogen with mass number 2); around it is a tamper, a thick outer layer, frequently of fissionable material, that holds the contents together in order to obtain a larger explosion. Neutrons from the atomic explosion cause the lithium to fission into helium, tritium (the isotope of hydrogen with mass number 3), and energy. The atomic explosion also supplies the temperatures needed for the subsequent fusion of deuterium with tritium, and of tritium with tritium (50,000,000°C; and 400,000,000°C;, respectively). Enough neutrons are produced in the fusion reactions to produce further fission in the core and to initiate fission in the tamper.
Since the fusion reaction produces mostly neutrons and very little that is radioactive, the concept of a "clean" bomb has resulted: one having a small atomic trigger, a less fissionable tamper, and therefore less radioactive fallout. Carrying this progression further would result in the suggested neutron bomb, which would have a minimum trigger and a nonfissionable tamper; there would be blast effects and a hail of lethal neutrons but almost no radioactive fallout; this theoretically would cause minimal physical damage to buildings and equipment but kill most living things. The theorized cobalt bomb is, on the contrary, a radioactively "dirty" bomb having a cobalt tamper. Instead of generating additional explosive force from fission of the uranium, the cobalt is transmuted into cobalt-60, which has a half-life of 5.26 years and produces energetic (and thus penetrating) gamma rays. The half-life of Co-60 is just long enough so that airborne particles will settle and coat the earth's surface before significant decay has occurred, thus making it impractical to hide in shelters. This prompted physicist Leo Szilard to call it a "doomsday device" since it was capable of wiping out life on earth.
Like other types of nuclear explosion, the explosion of a hydrogen bomb creates an extremely hot zone near its center. In this zone, because of the high temperature, nearly all of the matter present is vaporized to form a gas at extremely high pressure. A sudden overpressure, i.e., a pressure far in excess of atmospheric pressure, propagates away from the center of the explosion as a shock wave, decreasing in strength as it travels. It is this wave, containing most of the energy released, that is responsible for the major part of the destructive mechanical effects of a nuclear explosion. The details of shock wave propagation and its effects vary depending on whether the burst is in the air, underwater, or underground.
See disarmament, nuclear and nuclear weapons; see also nuclear energy.
See R. Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (1995).
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas with the molecular formula H2. With an atomic weight of 1.00794, hydrogen is the lightest element.
Hydrogen is the most abundant of the chemical elements, constituting roughly 75% of the universe's elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly composed of hydrogen in its plasma state. Elemental hydrogen is relatively rare on Earth, and is industrially produced from hydrocarbons such as methane, after which most elemental hydrogen is used "captively" (meaning locally at the production site), with the largest markets about equally divided between fossil fuel upgrading (e.g., hydrocracking) and ammonia production (mostly for the fertilizer market). Hydrogen may be produced from water using the process of electrolysis, but this process is presently significantly more expensive commercially than hydrogen production from natural gas.
The most common naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen, known as protium, has a single proton and no neutrons. In ionic compounds it can take on either a positive charge (becoming a cation composed of a bare proton) or a negative charge (becoming an anion known as a hydride). Hydrogen can form compounds with most elements and is present in water and most organic compounds. It plays a particularly important role in acid-base chemistry, in which many reactions involve the exchange of protons between soluble molecules. As the only neutral atom for which the Schrödinger equation can be solved analytically, study of the energetics and bonding of the hydrogen atom has played a key role in the development of quantum mechanics.
The solubility and characteristics of hydrogen with various metals are very important in metallurgy (as many metals can suffer hydrogen embrittlement) and in developing safe ways to store it for use as a fuel. Hydrogen is highly soluble in many compounds composed of rare earth metals and transition metals and can be dissolved in both crystalline and amorphous metals. Hydrogen solubility in metals is influenced by local distortions or impurities in the metal crystal lattice.
Hydrogen gas is highly flammable and will burn at concentrations of 4% or more H2 in air. The enthalpy of combustion for hydrogen is −286 kJ/mol; it burns according to the following balanced equation.
When mixed with oxygen across a wide range of proportions, hydrogen explodes upon ignition. Hydrogen burns violently in air. It ignites automatically at a temperature of 560 °C. Pure hydrogen-oxygen flames burn in the ultraviolet color range and are nearly invisible to the naked eye, as illustrated by the faintness of flame from the main Space Shuttle engines (as opposed to the easily visible flames from the SRBs). Thus it requires a flame detector to detect if a hydrogen leak is burning. The explosion of the Hindenburg airship was an infamous case of hydrogen combustion; the cause is debated, but combustible materials in the ship's skin were responsible for the coloring of the flames. Another characteristic of hydrogen fires is that the flames tend to ascend rapidly with the gas in air, as illustrated by the Hindenburg flames, causing less damage than hydrocarbon fires. Two-thirds of the Hindenburg passengers survived the fire, and many of the deaths which occurred were from falling or from diesel fuel burns.
H2 reacts directly with other oxidizing elements. A violent and spontaneous reaction can occur at room temperature with chlorine and fluorine, forming the corresponding hydrogen halides: hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride.
The ground state energy level of the electron in a hydrogen atom is −13.6 eV, which is equivalent to an ultraviolet photon of roughly 92 nm.
The energy levels of hydrogen can be calculated fairly accurately using the Bohr model of the atom, which conceptualizes the electron as "orbiting" the proton in analogy to the Earth's orbit of the sun. However, the electromagnetic force attracts electrons and protons to one another, while planets and celestial objects are attracted to each other by gravity. Because of the discretization of angular momentum postulated in early quantum mechanics by Bohr, the electron in the Bohr model can only occupy certain allowed distances from the proton, and therefore only certain allowed energies.
A more accurate description of the hydrogen atom comes from a purely quantum mechanical treatment that uses the Schrödinger equation or the equivalent Feynman path integral formulation to calculate the probability density of the electron around the proton.
There are two different types of diatomic hydrogen molecules that differ by the relative spin of their nuclei. In the orthohydrogen form, the spins of the two protons are parallel and form a triplet state; in the parahydrogen form the spins are antiparallel and form a singlet. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen gas contains about 25% of the para form and 75% of the ortho form, also known as the "normal form". The equilibrium ratio of orthohydrogen to parahydrogen depends on temperature, but since the ortho form is an excited state and has a higher energy than the para form, it is unstable and cannot be purified. At very low temperatures, the equilibrium state is composed almost exclusively of the para form. The physical properties of pure parahydrogen differ slightly from those of the normal form. The ortho/para distinction also occurs in other hydrogen-containing molecules or functional groups, such as water and methylene.
The uncatalyzed interconversion between para and ortho H2 increases with increasing temperature; thus rapidly condensed H2 contains large quantities of the high-energy ortho form that convert to the para form very slowly. The ortho/para ratio in condensed H2 is an important consideration in the preparation and storage of liquid hydrogen: the conversion from ortho to para is exothermic and produces enough heat to evaporate the hydrogen liquid, leading to loss of the liquefied material. Catalysts for the ortho-para interconversion, such as ferric oxide, activated carbon, platinized asbestos, rare earth metals, uranium compounds, chromic oxide, or some nickel compounds, are used during hydrogen cooling.
A molecular form called protonated molecular hydrogen, or H3+, is found in the interstellar medium (ISM), where it is generated by ionization of molecular hydrogen from cosmic rays. It has also been observed in the upper atmosphere of the planet Jupiter. This molecule is relatively stable in the environment of outer space due to the low temperature and density. H3+ is one of the most abundant ions in the Universe, and it plays a notable role in the chemistry of the interstellar medium.
Hydrogen forms a vast array of compounds with carbon. Because of their general association with living things, these compounds came to be called organic compounds; the study of their properties is known as organic chemistry and their study in the context of living organisms is known as biochemistry. By some definitions, "organic" compounds are only required to contain carbon. However, most of them also contain hydrogen, and since it is the carbon-hydrogen bond which gives this class of compounds most of its particular chemical characteristics, carbon-hydrogen bonds are required in some definitions of the word "organic" in chemistry.
In inorganic chemistry, hydrides can also serve as bridging ligands that link two metal centers in a coordination complex. This function is particularly common in group 13 elements, especially in boranes (boron hydrides) and aluminium complexes, as well as in clustered carboranes.
A bare proton H+ cannot exist in solution because of its strong tendency to attach itself to atoms or molecules with electrons. However, the term 'proton' is used loosely to refer to positively charged or cationic hydrogen, denoted H+.
To avoid the convenient fiction of the naked "solvated proton" in solution, acidic aqueous solutions are sometimes considered to contain the hydronium ion (H3O+), which is organized into clusters to form H9O4+. Other oxonium ions are found when water is in solution with other solvents.
Although exotic on earth, one of the most common ions in the universe is the H3+ ion, known as protonated molecular hydrogen or the triatomic hydrogen cation.
Hydrogen has three naturally occurring isotopes, denoted 1H, 2H, and 3H. Other, highly unstable nuclei (4H to 7H) have been synthesized in the laboratory but not observed in nature.
Hydrogen is the only element that has different names for its isotopes in common use today. (During the early study of radioactivity, various heavy radioactive isotopes were given names, but such names are no longer used). The symbols D and T (instead of 2H and 3H) are sometimes used for deuterium and tritium, but the corresponding symbol P is already in use for phosphorus and thus is not available for protium. In its nomenclatural guidelines, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry allows any of D, T, 2H, and 3H to be used, although 2H and 3H are preferred.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, making up 75% of normal matter by mass and over 90% by number of atoms. This element is found in great abundance in stars and gas giant planets. Molecular clouds of H2 are associated with star formation. Hydrogen plays a vital role in powering stars through proton-proton reaction and CNO cycle nuclear fusion.
Throughout the universe, hydrogen is mostly found in the atomic and plasma states whose properties are quite different from molecular hydrogen. As a plasma, hydrogen's electron and proton are not bound together, resulting in very high electrical conductivity and high emissivity (producing the light from the sun and other stars). The charged particles are highly influenced by magnetic and electric fields. For example, in the solar wind they interact with the Earth's magnetosphere giving rise to Birkeland currents and the aurora. Hydrogen is found in the neutral atomic state in the Interstellar medium. The large amount of neutral hydrogen found in the damped Lyman-alpha systems is thought to dominate the cosmological baryonic density of the Universe up to redshift z=4.
Under ordinary conditions on Earth, elemental hydrogen exists as the diatomic gas, H2 (for data see table). However, hydrogen gas is very rare in the Earth's atmosphere (1 ppm by volume) because of its light weight, which enables it to escape from Earth's gravity more easily than heavier gases. Still, hydrogen is the third most abundant element on the Earth's surface. Most of the Earth's hydrogen is in the form of chemical compounds such as hydrocarbons and water. Hydrogen gas is produced by some bacteria and algae and is a natural component of flatus. Methane is a hydrogen source of increasing importance.
Hydrogen was liquefied for the first time by James Dewar in 1898 by using regenerative cooling and his invention, the vacuum flask. He produced solid hydrogen the next year. Deuterium was discovered in December 1931 by Harold Urey, and tritium was prepared in 1934 by Ernest Rutherford, Mark Oliphant, and Paul Harteck. Heavy water, which consists of deuterium in the place of regular hydrogen, was discovered by Urey's group in 1932. François Isaac de Rivaz built the first internal combustion engine powered by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen in 1806. Edward Daniel Clarke invented the hydrogen gas blowpipe in 1819. The Döbereiner's lamp and limelight were invented in 1823.
The first hydrogen-filled balloon was invented by Jacques Charles in 1783. Hydrogen provided the lift for the first reliable form of air-travel following the 1852 invention of the first hydrogen-lifted airship by Henri Giffard. German count Ferdinand von Zeppelin promoted the idea of rigid airships lifted by hydrogen that later were called Zeppelins; the first of which had its maiden flight in 1900. Regularly-scheduled flights started in 1910 and by the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 they had carried 35,000 passengers without a serious incident. Hydrogen-lifted airships were used as observation platforms and bombers during the war.
The first non-stop transatlantic crossing was made by the British airship R34 in 1919. Regular passenger service resumed in the 1920s and the discovery of helium reserves in the United States promised increased safety, but the U.S. government refused to sell the gas for this purpose. Therefore, H2 was used in the Hindenburg airship, which was destroyed in a midair fire over New Jersey on May 6, 1937. The incident was broadcast live on radio and filmed. Ignition of leaking hydrogen as widely assumed to be the cause but later investigations pointed to ignition of the aluminized fabric coating by static electricity. But the damage to hydrogen's reputation as a lifting gas was already done.
One of the first quantum effects to be explicitly noticed (but not understood at the time) was a Maxwell observation involving hydrogen, half a century before full quantum mechanical theory arrived. Maxwell observed that the specific heat capacity of H2 unaccountably departs from that of a diatomic gas below room temperature and begins to increasingly resemble that of a monatomic gas at cryogenic temperatures. According to quantum theory, this behavior arises from the spacing of the (quantized) rotational energy levels, which are particularly wide-spaced in H2 because of its low mass. These widely spaced levels inhibit equal partition of heat energy into rotational motion in hydrogen at low temperatures. Diatomic gases composed of heavier atoms do not have such widely spaced levels and do not exhibit the same effect.
Aluminium produces H2 upon treatment with acids but also with base:
The electrolysis of water is a simple method of producing hydrogen. A low voltage current is run through the water, and gaseous oxygen forms at the anode while gaseous hydrogen forms at the cathode. Typically the cathode is made from platinum or another inert metal when producing hydrogen for storage. If, however, the gas is to be burnt on site, oxygen is desirable to assist the combustion, and so both electrodes would be made from inert metals. (Iron, for instance, would oxidize, and thus decrease the amount of oxygen given off.) The theoretical maximum efficiency (electricity used vs. energetic value of hydrogen produced) is between 80–94%.
In 2007, it was discovered that an alloy of aluminium and gallium in pellet form added to water could be used to generate hydrogen. The process also creates alumina, but the expensive gallium, which prevents the formation of an oxide skin on the pellets, can be re-used. This has important potential implications for a hydrogen economy, since hydrogen can be produced on-site and does not need to be transported.
This reaction is favored at low pressures but is nonetheless conducted at high pressures (20 atm; 600 inHg) since high pressure H2 is the most marketable product. The product mixture is known as "synthesis gas" because it is often used directly for the production of methanol and related compounds. Hydrocarbons other than methane can be used to produce synthesis gas with varying product ratios. One of the many complications to this highly optimized technology is the formation of coke or carbon:
Consequently, steam reforming typically employs an excess of H2O. Additional hydrogen can be recovered from the steam by use of carbon monoxide through the water gas shift reaction, especially with an iron oxide catalyst. This reaction is also a common industrial source of carbon dioxide:
Other important methods for H2 production include partial oxidation of hydrocarbons:
and the coal reaction, which can serve as a prelude to the shift reaction above:
Hydrogen is sometimes produced and consumed in the same industrial process, without being separated. In the Haber process for the production of ammonia, hydrogen is generated from natural gas. Electrolysis of brine to yield chlorine also produces hydrogen as a co-product.
Apart from its use as a reactant, H2 has wide applications in physics and engineering. It is used as a shielding gas in welding methods such as atomic hydrogen welding. H2 is used as the rotor coolant in electrical generators at power stations, because it has the highest thermal conductivity of any gas. Liquid H2 is used in cryogenic research, including superconductivity studies. Since H2 is lighter than air, having a little more than 1/15th of the density of air, it was once widely used as a lifting gas in balloons and airships.
In more recent applications, hydrogen is used pure or mixed with nitrogen (sometimes called forming gas) as a tracer gas for minute leak detection. Applications can be found in the automotive, chemical, power generation, aerospace, and telecommunications industries. Hydrogen is an authorized food additive (E 949) that allows food package leak testing among other anti-oxidizing properties.
Hydrogen's rarer isotopes also each have specific applications. Deuterium (hydrogen-2) is used in nuclear fission applications as a moderator to slow neutrons, and in nuclear fusion reactions. Deuterium compounds have applications in chemistry and biology in studies of reaction isotope effects. Tritium (hydrogen-3), produced in nuclear reactors, is used in the production of hydrogen bombs, as an isotopic label in the biosciences, and as a radiation source in luminous paints.
The triple point temperature of equilibrium hydrogen is a defining fixed point on the ITS-90 temperature scale at 13.8033 kelvins.
The energy density per unit volume of both liquid hydrogen and compressed hydrogen gas at any practicable pressure is significantly less than that of traditional fuel sources, although the energy density per unit fuel mass is higher. Nevertheless, elemental hydrogen has been widely discussed in the context of energy, as a possible future carrier of energy on an economy-wide scale. For example, CO2 sequestration followed by carbon capture and storage could be conducted at the point of H2 production from fossil fuels. Hydrogen used in transportation would burn relatively cleanly, with some NOx emissions, but without carbon emissions. However, the infrastructure costs associated with full conversion to a hydrogen economy would be substantial.
Water splitting, in which water is decomposed into its component protons, electrons, and oxygen, occurs in the light reactions in all photosynthetic organisms. Some such organisms—including the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and cyanobacteria—have evolved a second step in the dark reactions in which protons and electrons are reduced to form H2 gas by specialized hydrogenases in the chloroplast. Efforts have been undertaken to genetically modify cyanobacterial hydrogenases to efficiently synthesize H2 gas even in the presence of oxygen. Efforts have also been undertaken with genetically modified alga in a bioreactor.
Hydrogen poses a number of hazards to human safety, from potential detonations and fires when mixed with air to being an asphyxant in its pure, oxygen-free form. In addition, liquid hydrogen is a cryogen and presents dangers (such as frostbite) associated with very cold liquids. Hydrogen dissolves in some metals, and, in addition to leaking out, may have adverse effects on them, such as hydrogen embrittlement. Hydrogen gas leaking into external air may spontaneously ignite. Moreover, hydrogen fire, while being extremely hot, is almost invisible, and thus can lead to accidental burns.
Even interpreting the hydrogen data (including safety data) is confounded by a number of phenomena. Many physical and chemical properties of hydrogen depend on the parahydrogen/orthohydrogen ratio (it often takes days or weeks at a given temperature to reach the equilibrium ratio, for which the data is usually given). Hydrogen detonation parameters, such as critical detonation pressure and temperature, strongly depend on the container geometry.


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Chapel Hill is very beautiful city. Plenty of green space and very easy to walk around. The Spring and Fall months are the best times to visit. I love the spring flowers the best.


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Growing up in South Mountain, Pa., not far from the Wilson campus, Rebecca Heston was very attracted to the College. "I loved the idea that the curriculum was kind of intensive and I could just jump into it," said Rebecca. "I was also interested in the women's college aspect because I just felt that I needed to develop my personality a little bit more and Wilson provided me with the ability to do that."
While at Wilson, Rebecca was a member of the Society for Leadership and Success, American Red Cross Club and drama club. She also went to Mississippi for Alternative Spring Break in 2006 to help rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina.
Rebecca is currently working toward a Master of Arts degree in Education in Natural Science and Environmental Education at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is also working on a master's thesis on winter shoreline bird habitat in Alaska.
For her thesis, Rebecca is working with two assistants at Lake Clark National Park in Anchorage, Alaska, where she is examining biodiversity to see what species inhabit the area in the winter months. "We don't have a lot of data on winter species and that is really important to know because it allows the park to do more wildlife management," said Rebecca.
In order to study the biodiversity of the area, Rebecca conducted flyovers of the area. She chartered a small plane and flew over the shoreline to locate birds and record their positions.
Rebecca wants to study the birds because there are a lot of competing interests that pose threats to their habitat.
"There is a mining industry, which the environmentalists think is bad but on the other hand, it is helping out the local Alaskans, economically," Rebecca said. "A part of my research includes management research on how to benefit a variety of social groups such as the local Alaskans, Alaskan natives, environmentalist Alaskans and the mining industries."
In the meantime, Rebecca is writing a novel, which she has been working on for several years now. "It's kind of a dystopian novel and it really addresses different earth systems and how human systems relate to them," Rebecca said. "But it's really hard to finish a novel while I'm working on my master's."
Once she receives her master's degree, Rebecca would like to study at the University of California at Berkeley for a doctorate in geography, with a concentration in biogeochemistry. In the doctoral program, she will study trace gases such as methyl halides and how they affect global warming.


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Police: N.Y. man had gun in cellBy Brent Curtis
STAFF WRITER | February 23,2013A New York man who police say smuggled a gun into a Vermont State Police holding cell was ordered held on $500,000 bail Friday on a number of drug and weapon offenses.
Cuwan I. Merritt was frisked by police twice Thursday once on the side of Route 7 where the car he was riding in was stopped and again at the Vermont State Police barracks in Shaftsbury, according to an affidavit filed by Trooper Lewis Hatch.
But the pat downs failed to reveal a .380-caliber handgun with four rounds in the magazine that Hatch said police found Merritt trying to hide in a holding cell where he was being detained while police applied for a warrant to search him.
Also on the 24-year-olds person, police said, was 37.96 grams of heroin divided into 1,190 bindles or individual doses. That amount of heroin has a street value of roughly $3,800, according to police in Rutland County, and was more than 10 times the 3.5 grams of the drug required for prosecutors to bring a charge of trafficking the highest drug offense in the state, which carries a potential 30-year jail sentence.
Merritt, of Kings County, N.Y., pleaded innocent Friday in Rutland criminal court to one count of heroin trafficking along with a felony charge of possessing the drug and another felony charge of carrying a deadly weapon while committing a felony.
A fourth felony charge was brought against him for allegedly stealing the identify of another New York man who Merritt allegedly posed as while using a fake identification.
Merritt also entered a denial for a parole violation filed against him in New York where he was recently convicted on a robbery charge, according to court records.
Merritts court-appointed public defender didnt argue against the $500,000 sought by a Bennington County prosecutor.
Police say Merritt was riding in the back seat of a car stopped traveling north on Route 7 on Thursday afternoon in Dorset near the Rutland County line.
After stopping the car for allegedly speeding in the 45-mph zone, Hatch said he began to suspect illegal activity based on the actions and statements made by the driver, Stephanie L. Socia, 23, Merritt and another passenger.
After Socia granted the trooper permission to search the vehicle, a drug-sniffing police canine was brought to the scene and gave positive responses for the presence of narcotics, Hatch said.
Hatch said he also came across a phone in the back seat that contained a text message exchange that read They arent searching or anything are they followed by Theyre trying to, mad (expletive) in the car too.
After Suboxone pills, prescribed for the treatment of opiate addictions, were found in Socias purse she was arrested and later released on a citation to appear in court.
Merritt, who refused to grant consent for a search of his person, was taken to the Shaftsbury barracks where police were preparing to apply for a warrant to search him when Merritt was allegedly caught trying to hide the gun and heroin in a blanket.
firstname.lastname@example.com IN Southern VermontBENNINGTON — Ask author and Bennington College graduate Charlotte Silver if the title of... Full StoryPresident Calvin Coolidge was remembered in all sorts of ways Saturday on the 143rd anniversary... Full StoryPresident Calvin Coolidge was remembered in all sorts of ways Saturday on the 143rd anniversary... Full Story
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