title: Future Games

text: Early UK and American releases of this album, along with some other country's issues, have a yellow background to the picture of the two children and cover text. All subsequent releases have a green background. The 2013 vinyl reissue by Warner/Rhino available in the "Fleetwood Mac: 1969 to 1972" 4-LP box set restores the original yellow background to the album artwork, and it was released as a standalone LP two years later.


title: Future Games

text: "Future Games" debuted at number 186 on the US "Billboard 200" chart dated 30 October 1971. The album reached its peak at number 91 on the chart dated 18 December 1971, after being on the chart for eight weeks. The album ultimately spent a total of 12 weeks on the chart. On 4 October 2000, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States.


title: Future Games

text: Note: The song timings listed here are not as indicated on all CDs, since some of the timings on some releases are inaccurate. On some versions of the album (depending on the country of issue), the notes state that the track "Woman of 1000 Years" runs for 8:20, when in fact it runs for 5:28. Similarly, "Morning Rain" is listed as 6:22 and runs for 5:38, while the track "Sometimes" is listed to run for 6:25 and only runs for 5:26.


title: Sausage casing

text: Sausage casing, also known as sausage skin or simply casing, is the material that encloses the filling of a sausage. Natural casings are made from animal intestines or skin; artificial casings, introduced in the early 20th century, are made of collagen and cellulose. The material is then shaped via a continuous extrusion process – producing a single sausage casing of indefinite length – which is then cut into desired lengths, usually while the extrusion process continues.


title: Sausage casing

text: Natural sausage casings are made from the sub-mucosa of the small intestine of meat animals, a layer of the intestine that consists mainly of naturally occurring collagen. In Western European cuisine and Chinese cuisine, most casings come from pigs, but elsewhere the intestines of sheep, goats, cattle and sometimes horses are also used. To prepare the intestines as casings, they are flushed, scraped and cleaned with water and salt by hand or with machinery; today they are primarily machine cleaned. The outer fat and the inner mucosa lining are removed during processing. They are salted to lower the water activity (which inhibits microbial growth) and preserve the casing. Natural casings have been used in the production of meat specialties for centuries and have remained virtually unchanged in function, appearance, and composition. US and EU organic food regulations only allow natural casings, which can be derived from non-organically raised animals as there are no large scale slaughter plants which handle and process only organic animals and sell their casings as certified organic casings. As a result all large scale natural casing companies buy casings from around the world and send them to their selection facilities to be graded and packaged. There are four primary animal genera which are used to manufacture natural casings (although all mammals raised for meat could potentially be used to produce natural casing): cows, pigs, and lambs and sheep.


title: Sausage casing

text: Natural casing sausages are distinguishable from collagen or cellulose casings because of their irregularity, although high quality sheep and lamb casings can be almost indistinguishable from a collagen casing as they have no noticeable imperfections. The main difference is in the way they are twisted and linked which impacts the appearance of the final product and makes it easy to differentiate a hot dog using natural sheep or lamb casing vs collagen casing. The size and usage of natural casings are impacted by the animal they are derived from, the narrowest being lamb followed by sheep followed by hog followed by beef. The size range for lamb is 14 mm to 28 mm in diameter (which is how casings are graded), the size range for sheep is 16 mm to 32 mm in diameter, the size range for hog is 28 mm to 58 mm in diameter, the size range for beef is 43 mm to 65 mm, although beef bung caps (which are not derived from the small intestine) have a size range of 115 mm to 130 mm.


title: Sausage casing

text: The process begins at the slaughter plant where "green" (uncleaned) runners (ungraded casings) are removed from the animal during the slaughter process. They are subsequently cleaned, which involves breaking the inner mucosa, usually with a machine that the runners go through and rollers to break the inner mucosa so it can be flushed out and removed. The cleaning process can also be done by hand but primarily casings are machine cleaned. This is a very water intensive process as the casings are vigorously flushed with cold water to remove blood from the mucosa which if not properly flushed during the initial processing can lead to "staining" of the casing where it becomes pink. The cleaned runners are then tied in bundles and packed in plastic drums and filled with a saturated salt brine for preservation. The runners are then sold to a company which processes natural casings by grading and packaging them to create finished units called hanks.


title: Sausage casing

text: Natural casings are produced and sold almost exclusively by the hank which is a unit of measure that is 91 meters long. A hank can consist of a varying number of strands (individual pieces of casing) which vary in length from 2 meters (which is the shortest length sold for commercial use) to as long as 28 meters. Each casing manufacturer has various "put ups" which dictate the maximum number of strands and the minimum length of each strand allowed in the put up. Casings are selected for size which is measured in millimeters and refers to the diameter of the casing; this is done exclusively by hand and is primarily done in China due to the availability of low cost labor. Commercially casings are available in various forms of packaging which are suited to different applications. Sheep/lamb and hog are available in all packaging types due to the high demand and long length of pieces; due to the shorter length and much lower demand for beef casings they are primarily only available loose or in net packs either salted or in brine.


title: Sausage casing

text: Sheep and lamb and hog casings are available "tubed" where each strand is put on a plastic tube which allows the sausage maker to easily place the casing on the stuffing horn; in recent years these tubes have been modified so they break open along a seam and the operator can pull them out at the back of the horn allowing greater efficiency; these are referred to in the industry as "zip tubes", due to the zipper like nature of the seam. These tubed casings are then packed in plastic nets usually 2 per net and packed in plastic drums which are then filled with a saturated salt brine, usually 200 per drum. These are available in all diameters and in lengths greater than 3 meters (as 2 meter or shorter pieces are cost prohibitive to tube).


title: Sausage casing

text: Sheep and lamb and hog are also available loose in brine in a vacuum sealed plastic pack; commonly referred to as "vacuum packs", these are primarily used by small to medium sized sausage makers who use less than 100 hanks per month of casing. The appeal of vacuum packs is the ease of use, their shorter strand length for hand stuffing (all sausage makers who don't use automatic sausage stuffing and linking machines) and their shelf life; they only need to be opened as needed so the sausage maker doesn't need to worry that they won't use their opened casings prior to a decrease in quality. These are available in all diameters and in put ups from short up to medium length, about 6 meter minimum, with a maximum length of about 14 meters.


title: Sausage casing

text: Sheep and lamb and hog are also available in a net, commonly referred to as net pack. These are available salted or in brine and they are primarily used by medium to large sausage makers who do not want to pay the additional cost for the tubed casing and don't have automatic sausage stuffing and linking machines (which require tubed casings to operate efficiently). These are available in all diameters and in lengths greater than 2 meters (as that is the shortest length sold for commercial use).


title: Sausage casing

text: Beef casings are primarily available only salted or in brine. They are measured in sets, not hanks, and the length is 32 meters; this is for beef "rounds" and "middles" only, as beef bung caps are only about 1 meter in length.


title: Sausage casing

text: Artificial casings are made of collagen (often derived from cattle skin), cellulose, or plastic. Artificial casings from animal collagen are generally edible, though some are not.


title: Sausage casing

text: Collagen casings are mainly produced from the collagen in beef or pig hides, and the bones and tendons. It can also be derived from poultry and fish. They have been made for more than 50 years and their share of the market has been increasing. Usually the cost to produce sausages in collagen is significantly lower than making sausages in gut because of higher production speeds and lower labor requirements.


title: Sausage casing

text: The collagen for artificial casings is processed extensively. It is formed by extrusion through a die to the desired diameter, dried and shirred into short sticks up to long that contain as much as of casing. In a newer process, a form of dough is coextruded with the meat blend, and a coating is formed by treating the outside with a calcium solution to set the coating.


title: Sausage casing

text: The latest generation of collagen casings are usually more tender than natural casings and do not exhibit the "snap" or "bite" of natural casing sausages. Most collagen casings are edible, but a special form of thicker collagen casings is used for salamis and large caliber sausages where the casing is usually peeled off the sausage by the consumer. Collagen casings are less expensive to use, give better weight and size control, and are easier to run when compared to natural casings.


title: Sausage casing

text: Some innovative coextrusion processes have been developed in recent years, allowing 100% plant-based vegetarian casings to be created. Some special alginate coextrusion equipment is required to make casings that can be used in halal or kosher food making.


title: Sausage casing

text: Cellulose, usually from cotton linters or wood pulp, is processed to make viscose, which is then extruded into clear, tough casings for making wieners and franks. They also are shirred for easier use and can be treated with dye to make "red hots". The casing is peeled off after cooking, resulting in "skinless" franks. Cellulosic viscose solutions are combined with wood or for example abaca pulp to make large diameter fibrous casings for bologna, cotto salami, smoked ham and other products sliced for sandwiches. This type is also permeable to smoke and water vapor. They can be flat or shirred, depending on application, and can be pretreated with smoke, caramel color, or other surface treatments.


title: Sausage casing

text: Plastic casings are not eaten. They also can be flat or shirred. Generally, smoke and water can not pass through the casing, so plastic is used for non-smoked products where high yields are expected. The inner surface can be laminated or co-extruded with a polymer with an affinity for meat protein causing the meat to stick to the film, resulting in some loss when the casing is peeled, but higher overall yield due to better moisture control.


title: Sausage casing

text: Plastic casings are generally made from polymers such as polyamide, polypropylene, or polyethylene. Polyamide (Nylon) plastic casings are the most commonly used in production of cooked sausages and hams such as luncheon meat and bologna. Polyamide casings come in two main varieties: Oriented and non-oriented. The oriented polyamide are shrinkable casings and will shrink during the cooking process thereby reducing the water loss. Non-oriented polyamide casings remain the same diameter during the cooking process and thereby allow for expansion of the meat during cooking. The use of polyamide casings has expanded recently with the advent of various varieties and structures of casings such as multilayer casings.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: Richard Lee McNair (born December 19, 1958) is a convicted murderer known for his ability to escape and elude capture. In 1987, McNair murdered one man and shot a second man four times during a botched robbery. He is currently serving two terms of life imprisonment for these crimes including escaping from prison.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: After McNair's arrest, he escaped three times from three different institutions using various creative methods. On his first attempt, he used lip balm to squeeze out of a pair of handcuffs. He escaped a second time by crawling through a ventilation duct. In his last escape from a federal prison in April 2006, he escaped by concealing himself in a pallet of used postal mailbags and successfully convinced a police officer he was not the prison escapee but actually a jogger. This resulted in his mugshot being featured a dozen times on the TV show "America's Most Wanted", and made him one of the top fifteen fugitives wanted by US Marshals. McNair traveled to Canada twice in order to evade capture, traveling across the country for over a year before being apprehended in a random police check. Much of what the public knows about McNair's escape and his time as a fugitive is through McNair's prison correspondence with a Canadian journalist, Byron Christopher.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: In November 1987, while attempting a burglary in Minot, North Dakota, McNair was surprised by two men and murdered one of them. McNair's murder of Jerry Thies occurred at a grain elevator operated by the Farmers Union Elevator Co. while McNair was a sergeant posted at the nearby Minot Air Force Base. A second man was shot four times, but survived. When the police called McNair in for questioning, McNair surrendered a concealed handgun. He was later sentenced to two life sentences for murder and attempted murder, and a thirty-year prison sentence for burglary.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: McNair's first escape attempt occurred at the Minot municipal police station in 1988, shortly after he had been arrested. McNair's first period as a fugitive lasted only a few hours, after which McNair was quickly recaptured. After his initial arrest, McNair was handcuffed to a chair and left in a room with three detectives. McNair used lip balm, which he had in his pocket, as a lubricant to squeeze his hands free from the handcuffs. McNair then led police on a chase on foot through the town, eventually being chased up a three-flight stairway in an effort to evade capture. After becoming surrounded by police on the roof of a three-story building downtown, McNair attempted to jump to a tree branch to escape arrest, but the branch broke. McNair landed on the ground and hurt his back, after which he was easily apprehended. After McNair was released from the hospital, he was moved to the Ward County Jail in Minot. In February 1988, sheriff's deputies discovered another escape attempt when, after moving McNair to another cell, they found two cinder blocks partially chiseled out from the cell in which he was being held.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: On October 9, 1992, McNair escaped with two other prisoners from the North Dakota State Penitentiary in Bismarck, North Dakota, by crawling through a ventilation duct. One of the prisoners who escaped with McNair was apprehended within hours, and the other within days. After his escape, McNair grew out his hair and dyed it blonde in an attempt to disguise himself. Much of his time on the run was spent roaming the United States in stolen cars. McNair remained free for ten months, until he was eventually arrested in Grand Island, Nebraska, on July 5, 1993. After his second recapture, the North Dakota Department of Corrections deemed McNair a problem inmate, and arranged his transfer through the Interstate Compact to Minnesota Correctional Facility – Oak Park Heights. After a number of years at this facility, and realizing he would not be able to escape, McNair participated in a sit-down strike that caused his return to North Dakota, and his later transfer to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He was assigned to the maximum security United States Penitentiary, Florence High which is next to – but distinct from – ADX Florence. Again realizing that escape would be unlikely, he arranged a transfer to United States Penitentiary, Pollock on the grounds that this was marginally closer to his parents' home in Oklahoma.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: On April 5, 2006, McNair escaped from a United States Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana. McNair's duties in prison included work in a manufacturing area, where he would repair old, torn mailbags. He held this position for several months, throughout which McNair plotted his escape. McNair escaped by hiding himself in a specially-constructed "escape pod" (which included a breathing tube), which was buried under a pile of mailbags. The pallet was shrink-wrapped and forklifted to a nearby warehouse outside of the prison fence. After prison staff delivered McNair's pallet and went for lunch, McNair cut himself out of his "escape pod" and walked through the unsecured area to freedom. Federal investigators believed that McNair must have received help from other inmates to escape, but McNair has always maintained that he acted alone.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: McNair's pallet was shipped out of the prison around 9:45am, and he was able to exit the pallet around 11:00am. McNair was aware that it would not be until 4:00pm that the prison would find him missing. McNair's plan was to go to the nearby town of Alexandria, Louisiana, where he would then steal supplies and transportation.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: Hours after his escape from Pollock, McNair was stopped while running away on a railroad track near Ball, Louisiana, by police officer Carl Bordelon. This incident was captured on a video camera mounted in Bordelon's patrol car. McNair had no identification and proceeded to give Officer Bordelon the alias of Robert Jones. When asked again five minutes later, he gave a different alias, Jimmy Jones, though the officer did not notice the different answer. McNair laughed and joked with the officer, and even as the officer got a matching description of the inmate, McNair appeared collected and calm. He successfully convinced Bordelon that he was jogging and in town to help on a post-Katrina roofing project, allowing him to go back to "jogging" within 10 minutes.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: One factor that made it easier for McNair to escape arrest was that the photo provided to police was very low-quality and six months old. Another was that the prison had told police that they were not completely sure that McNair had escaped. Bordelon himself claimed that he let McNair go because the physical description of McNair given to police was completely different from how McNair actually appeared. Over the ten minutes that Bordelon questioned McNair, McNair remained calm and provided completely plausible explanations, eventually convincing Bordelon that his alibi was true.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: McNair later wrote that he did not see the cruiser because it was blocked from view by trees, and that he planned to run if he was not able to convince Bordelon of his "innocence." McNair later denied the suggestion that he would have assaulted the police officer if confronted, claiming that he had renounced violence after his initial arrest. McNair described his escape as a "get out of jail free card", and described his feelings after the confrontation with Bordelon as "relief, disbelief, bewilderment." McNair agreed that he did not resemble his prison picture.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: Bordelon remained with the Ball Police department for the rest of his life, eventually becoming assistant police chief before his death in 2015 at the age of 51.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: On April 13, 2006, US Marshals added McNair to their 15 Most Wanted list. They noted that McNair was the first prisoner to escape from a federal prison since 1991.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: Later that April, about two weeks after his escape, McNair successfully crossed into British Columbia from Blaine, Washington. On April 28, 2006, RCMP in Penticton, British Columbia, confronted McNair while investigating a stolen car that he was driving, which was parked at a local beach. The officers asked McNair to step out of the car to be questioned, which he did, but he ran across a nearby field and outran the officers soon after being confronted. The police impounded the car, but did not realize the identity of McNair until two days later, when one of the officers recognized him from an episode of "America's Most Wanted". Subsequent investigation found a digital camera full of self-portraits, which police determined were probably for the purpose of producing a fake ID. When authorities examined the car, they found McNair's fingerprints, confirming that he was in Canada.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: After escaping arrest in Penticton, McNair rode a bike to Kelowna. Because it took several days for the police to confirm his identity, it was relatively easy for McNair to escape the area. In May 2006, McNair traveled back to the United States, when he drove a Subaru Outback from Vernon, British Columbia, to Blaine, Washington. McNair then traveled across the United States and eventually crossed back into Canada from Minnesota. After arriving back in Canada, McNair traveled through southern Ontario, then traveled west, to Vancouver.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: Early on, McNair developed a plan to buy land in central British Columbia, around Williston Lake, after seeing ads for the property. He changed his mind after visiting the area and finding that a drought and pine beetle infestation had devastated the area. The fact that there was only one road in and out of the property also made McNair uncomfortable.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: In 2007, McNair travelled to eastern Canada. He drove through the Laurentian Highlands in Quebec, where he enjoyed mountain biking. He spent a lot of time around Lac Saint-Jean. McNair nearly attempted to cross back into the United States again at Derby Line, Vermont, but the high security on the American side convinced him that attempting to cross back would be too risky. He eventually travelled through Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Saint John, New Brunswick. McNair spent about two months in Fredericton, New Brunswick, before he was again confronted by police.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: On April 8, 2006, three days after McNair's escape, "America's Most Wanted" ran its first profile of McNair. The program would go on to detail McNair a total of twelve times on television, and nine times on radio. The last time McNair was featured was on November 24, 2007, a month after his recapture. Over the period of McNair's time in Canada, Canadian viewers made over 50 reports to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), confirming that the fugitive had been seen north of the border.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: McNair watched "America's Most Wanted" intently, describing the show as a "thorn". McNair confirmed after his capture that whenever a new episode of "America's Most Wanted" aired, he would buy food and fuel his vehicle, "then if featured would keep it low for a couple of days."


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: Throughout his time as a fugitive, McNair tracked his own story on the internet. After his recapture, McNair commented that the ongoing coverage of him was "for the most part true". Louisiana Marshal Glenn Belgard attempted to capture McNair online with the help of a criminal profiler. McNair suspected that the Louisiana police had attempted to contact him by posing as a woman online, who said that "she would like to hide [McNair] in her basement." McNair was surprised by how much the media coverage focused on him, especially the eleven-page article that appeared in "The New Yorker", written by Mark Singer, on October 9, 2006.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: McNair owned several laptops while living as a fugitive. After having his laptop seized in Penticton, he began to store most of his information on USB sticks. With the help of a scanner, digital camera, Photoshop, and a pet ID website, McNair was able to produce a passable fake Alaska driver's license. He learned how to rig his video camera to his laptop so that he could cut his own hair. One of McNair's laptops was dedicated solely to monitoring a Louisiana-based website which closely followed all media coverage of McNair.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: In order to support himself, McNair stole vehicles and cash from car dealerships. Because he had once worked as a car salesman himself, McNair knew where to find cash and keys at such dealerships, and how to avoid security. McNair stole only new vehicles since they had window stickers indicating whether a vehicle was equipped with a GPS-style tracking system (if it was, he wouldn't touch it). McNair avoided driving conspicuous-looking vehicles, preferring white vehicles that "everybody has". He once considered stealing a 3/4 ton truck/camper, "but one of the supposed sightings of [McNair] was in North Dakota (of all places) in a truck with camper", so he eventually settled on a van instead.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: In one incident, while McNair was staying in a motel near Chilliwack, British Columbia, he left to buy something and returned to find the motel surrounded by a police SWAT team. McNair began to flee in his car, but later found on a local AM radio station that the police were responding to a hostage situation at the motel. McNair then returned to the scene and filmed the standoff with a Sony HD video camera which he had recently purchased. The episode lasted for another twenty minutes.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: On October 24, 2007, near Nash Creek, New Brunswick, off-duty RCMP constable Dan Melanson spotted an expensive-looking white cube van with "crappy looking" tinted rear windows and an Ontario license plate. Suspecting that the van was stolen, and/or being used to smuggle alcohol or cigarettes, Melanson noted the plate number and that the van was headed to Campbellton, a nearby city. Melanson did not attempt to apprehend McNair, but his report alerted other RCMP in Campbellton of the presence of McNair's vehicle. (McNair had in fact tinted the windows himself in a London, Ontario park.)


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: The next day, Constable Stephane Gagnon, a six-week rookie, spotted McNair's van by chance in downtown Campbellton, and pursued it. Following a low-speed car chase and a subsequent foot chase, McNair was successfully arrested by Gagnon with the help of his field coach, Constable Nelson Lévesque. In October 2008, the US-based International Association of Chiefs of Police awarded Melanson the "Looking Beyond the Licence Plate" Grand Prize for his role in apprehending McNair. McNair himself described his capture as simply the product of bad luck: as he put it, it was "just one of those days." McNair was transferred to the Atlantic Institution, a Canadian federal maximum security penitentiary in Renous, New Brunswick, while awaiting extradition to the United States.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: Mounties later told the media that McNair was cooperative after his capture, and even joked with them. When one officer asked McNair what the reward was for his capture, McNair replied "$25,000." "That's not much," said the officer. McNair replied that was because "all of the government money is tied up in Osama Bin Laden's reward." McNair later described the Campbellton RCMP as "good men doing their job."


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: McNair (Federal Bureau of Prisons ID # 13829-045) was incarcerated at ADX Florence, a supermax prison near Florence, Colorado. ADX Florence has a reputation as "the Alcatraz of the Rockies". It houses some of the United States' most dangerous prisoners, who have been deemed too great a security risk for even a maximum-security prison. When McNair was captured, several law-enforcement sources told "AMW" that he would almost certainly spend the rest of his life at ADX.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: McNair now spends most of every day in a concrete cell. He lives in a pod with five other prisoners. McNair has no access to the Internet. Prison staff screen and reject McNair's incoming mail if it deals with topics prohibited by federal regulations, such as escape plans.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: In his media correspondence, McNair described his location as the "most secure section of the most secure prison in the world", but expressed reservations about discussing specific details of his incarceration. "Thank God for prisons," McNair wrote. "There are some very sick people in here... Animals you would never want living near your family or the public in general. I don't know how corrections staff deal with it. They get spit on, shit on, abused and I have seen them risk their own lives and save a prisoner many times."


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: In 2008, Byron Christopher, a crime reporter from the same New Brunswick town where McNair was captured, initiated a correspondence with McNair via mail. In his first letter, Christopher included a picture that he had taken of the town, taken near the place that McNair was arrested. He told McNair that he hoped the Campbellton Chamber of Commerce would write a check to McNair for all the publicity he had brought to the town, and wrote to McNair about the recent World Series and federal election. Christopher included three American dollars in order to cover the cost of paper and postage. The prison returned his money.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: When McNair wrote back to Christopher, it was his first response to the media. The letter revealed many personal details about McNair's most recent escape which had previously been unknown. Revealing that he had spent time hiding in Fredericton, New Brunswick, McNair described Fredericton's residents as "very friendly and well educated." He revealed that his favorite serial was the "Christian Science Monitor". Campbellton's local newspaper, "The Tribune", covered the correspondence in detail.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: In subsequent letters to Christopher, McNair revealed details about his escape and travels through Canada, providing most of what the public knows about McNair's time as a fugitive. McNair had an interest in discussing his story with a British TV reporter, but suspects that the correspondence may have been terminated by prison censors.


title: Richard Lee McNair

text: Christopher later compiled his correspondence, conducted additional research on the story, and eventually produced a book on McNair, "The Man Who Mailed Himself Out of Jail". It was released via Amazon.com on June 20, 2013. The book is a follow-up to "The Running Man" series, published by "The Tribune" newspaper of Campbellton, New Brunswick, in 2009.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: Carrie Kelley is a superheroine from Frank Miller's graphic novels "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" (1986) and its sequels "Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again" (2001-2002) and "" (2015-2017). She becomes the new Robin in "The Dark Knight Returns" when she saves Batman's life. Later in "The Dark Knight Strikes Again", she adopts the identity Catgirl, and in "The Dark Knight III: The Master Race", she adopts the identity Batwoman. She was the first full-time female Robin in the history of the Batman franchise, though Julie Madison had passed off as Robin for a brief time in a Bob Kane story published in "Detective Comics" #49 in March 1941.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: According to Frank Miller, the idea to create Carrie Kelley was sparked by a conversation with superhero comics veteran John Byrne while they were flying to an Ohio comic convention. When Miller told Byrne he was writing a Batman story featuring an old and crankier Batman, Byrne recommended him to make Robin a girl and drew him a sketch. Miller liked the concept so much that he ultimately included it in "The Dark Knight Returns".


title: Carrie Kelley

text: Carrie Kelley is a 13-year-old schoolgirl and scout whom Batman saves from a sadistic group of Mutant gang members on the night of his return from retirement. Idolizing the Dark Knight, she then spends her lunch money on a Robin outfit, sets out to attack petty con-men and to find Batman in the hope of becoming his partner. Kelley uses a slingshot and firecrackers as weapons. She also wears green-tinted sunglasses instead of a black domino mask. Prior to her beginning her training from Batman, she is already trained in gymnastics. Like most of the young characters in the book, she speaks in a futuristic slang that Miller credited colorist (and Miller's wife) Lynn Varley with helping to create.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: Unlike the first and second Robins mentioned in the story, Kelley is not an orphan, but she appears to have rather ignorant and neglectful parents who are never actually seen—one of them mutters "Didn't we have a kid?" while their daughter is witnessing the fierce battle between Batman and the street gangs known as the Mutants. It is hinted through their dialogue that they were once activists and possibly hippies during the 1960s, but have since become apathetic stoners.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: In the series, the government's banning of superhero activities and Jason Todd's death had led to the Dark Knight's retirement, but Batman accepts her as Robin when she saves his life just as he is on the verge of being killed by the Mutant Leader by jumping on him from behind and tearing at his eyes. She practically drags him back to the Batmobile and makes a sling for his arm out of part of her cape and a piece of pipe. He often threatens to fire her but she shows considerable ability and improvisation which impresses him enough to give her a stay of dismissal even when she disobeys his orders. The police, now led by newly appointed Commissioner Ellen Yindel, takes a very poor attitude to Batman and his methods and issues a warrant for his arrest. When she sees Batman with Kelley leaping in mid-air and barely catching a passing hang-glider, Yindel adds child endangerment to the growing list of charges against Batman.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: As Robin, Carrie plays a crucial part in tracking down and confronting the Joker who (at a fairground) has poisoned several children and planted a bomb on a roller coaster. While Batman goes after his age-old nemesis, Carrie manages to dispose of the bomb but gets into a tangle with Fat Abner, Joker's accomplice. As they grapple together, Abner is decapitated by an overhanging section of the track, driving Carrie momentarily into shock and tears, but recovering enough to rescue a seriously injured Batman from capture by the police and help heal his wounds with Alfred Pennyworth. Unnerved by Batman's activities, the United States government sends Superman to bring the Dark Knight down. As the big battle is about to start, Carrie delays Superman's arrival using the tank-like Bat-mobile and a slingshot, to which the Man of Steel simply replies "Isn't tonight a school night?" Using a variety of powerful weapons, including synthesised kryptonite, Batman manages to defeat Superman but "dies" in the process. It later emerges that he had faked his own death and Carrie unearthed Batman from his grave soon after he revived. They then go underground to the Batcave where, with Green Arrow, they set about training various teenage street gangs into an army in preparation to deal with people "worse than thieves and murderers."


title: Carrie Kelley

text: Three years later, Kelley has begun calling herself "Catgirl". She still remains Batman's able second-in-command. She wears a skin-tight cat costume with a leopard pattern, and is now trained extensively in combat. Her equipment includes motorised rollerskates and an arm cannon that fires batarangs. Catgirl's main duty is to oversee an army of Batboys to help save the world from a police-state dictatorship, led by Lex Luthor and Brainiac. She leads them into battle, liberating imprisoned heroes such as the Atom and Flash. However, she also causes serious injury to a Batboy who exceeded her orders by maiming and killing a couple of police officers. She beats him up and tells the others to treat him but not bother with anesthetic. Once alone, however, she breaks down in tears but is offered a comforting hand by Batman. She has been referred to as "The daughter [Batman] never had" but also as "jailbait".


title: Carrie Kelley

text: Carrie eventually comes into conflict with a supernatural man resembling Joker and attempts to kill the man with arrows, thermite, acid and C4. However, the man still returns to make an attempt on her life in the Batcave, turning out to be a genetically modified and now-homicidal Dick Grayson having resented her because he had been shoddily treated and dumped by Batman. Her lips are badly lacerated and several of her bones are broken in the fight. Thinking that she is about to die, she tells Batman that she loves him, with Batman later reflecting that he feels the same (Frank Miller clarified in an interview in the book "Batman through the Ages" that Batman saw Carrie as a daughter, meaning Carrie most likely saw Batman as a father figure). Batman, however, arrives and stalls Grayson long enough for Ralph Dibny to get Carrie to safety. It was noted that Carrie was developing feelings for Atom.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: Three years after being missing, Batman makes some appearances in Gotham for the first time. After a confrontation with the GCPD and Commissioner Yindel, Batman is apprehended and unmasked revealing it is Carrie Kelley under the cowl. She claims Bruce Wayne is dead. Later, Kelley tells Yindel the story about Batman passing on his bed after being beaten by a villain. While being transferred to Blackgate prison, Kelley remotely activates a tank that attacks the convoy and helps her escape, then she reunites with Wayne at the Batcave.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: Kelley and Wayne see the news on the Kandorians, led by Quar, giving mankind three days to surrender to their demands and accept them as gods. Bruce and Carrie go to the Fortress of Solitude and wakes Superman, who has been sitting and covered by ice for three years. Carrie reunites with the Bat Boys Army while Batman and Superman defy Quar. After being defeated by Lara, Superman is encased in black matter by Quar, who turns to Gotham and demands they hand over Batman to them or face obliteration. Bruce presents Carrie, as a "graduation present", a green and purple Batgirl outfit and sends her on a mission to engage Aquaman’s help to find and free Superman.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: After the Kryptonians are defeated, Carrie is attacked by Baal. She defends herself and using a slingshot and a small kryptonite rock she disfigures Baal's face. Lara confronts Carrie and it's about to kill her when Diana stops her. Carrie witness the fight between Diana and Lara, impressed by the power both of them show. Later, Batgirl finds out that Batman was killed by Quar before escaping. She talks to Yindel at the destroyed batsignal and tells her to get a new one to stay in touch. While discussing with The Flash in the Batcave, a younger Bruce comes back after being immersed by Superman in the Lazarus Pit.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: While following a lead on a crime, Commissioner Yindel is captured by Bruno and the Jokers but is saved by Batman and Batgirl. They then head to the desert where the Kryptonians are joining forces again and use a band of bats to confuse them, causing to disparately attack themselves, the rest are eliminated by the four remaining Quar's children. Superman, Batman and Batgirl then attack them but they go nuclear and are about to explode when The Atom appears and reduces them in size so the explosions are insignificant.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: Two months later Superman is nowhere to be found and Bruce wonders where he could be. Carrie shows up with a new black suit and formally becomes Batwoman.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Carrie Kelley makes her first appearance in "Batman and Robin" #19 (titled "Batman and Red Robin"). She is a college student and Damian Wayne's acting instructor. As a homage to "The Dark Knight Returns", she wears a Robin costume as a Halloween costume on her first appearance.


title: Carrie Kelley

text: In "Batman Annual #2", in a world where Batman and Catwoman have grown old together, Carrie is among those of the Bat family standing by Bruce's bedside as he dies.


title: Kathleen Kinmont

text: Kathleen Kinmont (born Kathleen Kinmont Smith) is an American actress who starred in film and on television. Kinmont is best known for starring in horror films.


title: Kathleen Kinmont

text: Her first feature film role was in the comedy "Hardbodies" (1984). Her best-known roles include the horror film "" (1988) as Kelly Meeker and in "Bride of Re-Animator" as the title character. She played the title role in "", which she reprised in the sequel "". She later appeared in "Lime Salted Love" (2005).


title: Kathleen Kinmont

text: She starred on television series such as "Santa Barbara" as Marilyn Cassidy in 1992. Her big role was in the syndicated television series "Renegade" as Cheyenne Phillips (1992 - 1996). She was reportedly dropped from the series in 1996 when she made derogatory comments in the press about Lorenzo Lamas' future wife Shauna Sand, who had been making appearances on the show. She has made guest appearances on such television series as "Dallas", "Baywatch", "Silk Stalkings", "V.I.P." and "Days of Our Lives".


title: Kathleen Kinmont

text: Kinmont became involved in a variety of projects as a writer, director and director of photography. She also has a flourishing photography business in the Los Angeles area, and has just released a yoga video called "Kathleen Kinmont's Restorative Core Yoga". In 2012, she contributed several articles on the topic of divorce through "The Huffington Post".


title: Kathleen Kinmont

text: In 1989, Kinmont married Lorenzo Lamas, with whom she had been friends for 11 years. They divorced in 1993. She is also divorced from actors Jere Burns and Doug Swander.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: In sports or activities in the United States, a letterman is a high school or college student who has met a specified level of participation or performance on a varsity team.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: The term comes from the practice of awarding each such participant a cloth "letter", which is usually the school's initial or initials, for placement on a "letter sweater" or "letter jacket" intended for the display of such an award. In some instances, the sweater or jacket itself may also be awarded, especially for the initial award to a given individual. Today, in order to distinguish "lettermen" from other team participants, schools often establish a minimum level of participation in a team's events or a minimum level of performance in order for a letter to be awarded. A common threshold in American football and basketball is participation in a set level, often half, of all quarters in a season. In individual sports such as tennis and golf, the threshold for lettering is generally participation in one half or sometimes two-thirds of all matches contested. Frequently, other members of the team who fail to meet requirements for a letter are awarded a certificate of participation or other award considered to be of lesser value than a letter.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: Some schools continue to base the awarding of letters according to performance, in team sports requiring a certain number of touchdowns, catches, scores, steals, baskets or tackles, according to position and sport. In individual sports letters are often determined according to qualification for state meets or tournaments. Other schools award letters on a more subjective basis, with the head coach, usually with the input of other coaches and sometimes student team leaders who have already lettered, awarding letters for substantial improvement as well as significant performance on or off the field. This places much more emphasis on character, commitment and teamwork as well as, and often in place of, simply playing enough or meeting some other time or performance requirement. Sometimes in high schools academic performance in classes can also be an element. This philosophy gives more focus to developing and rewarding a well-rounded and balanced player, where other methods focus strictly on athletic performance and on the field victories. This term is not gender-specific; a qualifying participant in women's basketball or other women's sports is properly referred to as a letterman, as would be a qualifying female participant on a co-educational sports team. An athlete who is awarded a letter (or letters in multiple sports) is said to have "lettered" when they receive their letter.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: In recent years, some schools have expanded the concept of letterman beyond sports, providing letters for performance in performing arts, academics, or other school activities.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: A letter jacket is a baseball-styled jacket traditionally worn by high school and college students in the United States to represent school and team pride as well as to display personal awards earned in athletics, academics or activities. Letter jackets are also known as "letterman jackets", "varsity jackets" and "baseball jackets" in reference to their American origins.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: The body (i.e., torso) is usually of boiled wool and the sleeves of leather with banded wrists and waistband. Letter jackets are usually produced in the school colors, with the body of the jacket in the school's primary color and sleeves in the secondary color, although sometimes, the colors of the jacket may be customized to a certain extent by the student. There could be cases where a student could change the color so much that it doesn't differentiate too much from school colors.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: They usually feature a banded collar for men or a top-buttoned hood (that unbuttons into an expanded collar) for women.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: The letter jacket derives its name from the varsity letter chenille patch on its left breast, which is almost always the first letter or initials of the high school or college the jacket came from. The letter itself can also be custom fitted to the particular sport or activity (e.g. cross country—a symbol or sign in the middle of the letter).


title: Letterman (sports)

text: The name of the owner usually appears either in chenille (matching the letter) or embroidered on the jacket itself. The owner's graduation year typically appears in matching chenille. Placement of the name and year of graduation depends on school traditions. The year is most often sewn on the right sleeve or just above the right pocket. The school logo and symbols representing the student's activities may also be ironed onto the jacket.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: Lettermen who play on a championship team often receive a large patch commemorating their championship that is worn on the back of the jacket.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: Lettermen who participate in a sport in which medals are awarded often sew the medals onto their jackets to display their accomplishments.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: Varsity jackets trace their origins to letter sweaters, first introduced by the Harvard University baseball team in 1865. The letter was usually quite large and centered (if the sweater was a pullover); stripes on one sleeve designated the number of letters won, with a star indicating a team captain.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: Letter jackets are almost never purchased before a student has earned a letter. In schools where only varsity letters are awarded this is usually the practice in a student's junior or senior year. Recently, many student-athletes have been awarded letters during their sophomore and sometimes freshman year, leading to the need for a jacket much sooner. Still, the actual jacket is not usually purchased until the sophomore year. In schools where junior varsity letters are awarded, the jacket may be purchased by junior varsity letter recipients, though the letter is placed just above the left pocket, leaving space for a future varsity letter.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: Some schools may award letter jackets to letter winners at an award ceremony, but more often, the school only provides the letter. Some schools will have fundraising activities or other programs to provide jackets to students who cannot afford them.


title: Letterman (sports)

text: While it is commonly done, removing one's letter from the letter jacket upon graduation is not firmly held as protocol. Many graduates keep the letter on the jacket after graduation as a symbol of accomplishment and school pride and commitment, especially with college lettermen.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Extremely low frequency (ELF) is the ITU designation for electromagnetic radiation (radio waves) with frequencies from 3 to 30 Hz, and corresponding wavelengths of 100,000 to 10,000 kilometers, respectively. In atmospheric science, an alternative definition is usually given, from 3 Hz to 3 kHz. In the related magnetosphere science, the lower frequency electromagnetic oscillations (pulsations occurring below ~3 Hz) are considered to lie in the ULF range, which is thus also defined differently from the ITU radio bands.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: ELF radio waves are generated by lightning and natural disturbances in Earth's magnetic field, so they are a subject of research by atmospheric scientists. Because of the difficulty of building antennas that can radiate such long waves, ELF frequencies have been used in only a very few human-made communication systems. ELF waves can penetrate seawater, which makes them useful in communication with submarines, and a few nations have built military ELF transmitters to transmit signals to their submerged submarines, consisting of huge grounded wire antennas (ground dipoles) long driven by transmitters producing megawatts of power. The United States, Russia, India, and China are the only countries known to have constructed these ELF communication facilities.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: ELF is a "subradio frequency". Some medical peer reviewed journal articles refer to ELF in the context of "extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF)" with frequencies of 50 Hz and 50–80 Hz. United States


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Government agencies, such as NASA, describe ELF as non-ionizing radiation with frequencies between 0 and 300 Hz. The World Health Organization (WHO) have used ELF to refer to the concept of "extremely low frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields (EMF)" The WHO also stated that at frequencies between 0 and 300 Hz, "the wavelengths in air are very long ( at 50 Hz and at 60 Hz), and, in practical situations, the electric and magnetic fields act independently of one another and are measured separately."


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Due to their extremely long wavelength, ELF waves can diffract around large obstacles, are not blocked by mountain ranges or the horizon, and can travel around the curvature of the Earth. ELF and VLF waves propagate long distances by an Earth-ionosphere waveguide mechanism.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: The Earth is surrounded by a layer of charged particles (ions and electrons) in the atmosphere at an altitude of about at the bottom of the ionosphere, called the D layer which reflects ELF waves. The space between the conductive Earth's surface and the conductive D layer acts as a parallel-plate waveguide which confines ELF waves, allowing them to propagate long distances without escaping into space. In contrast to VLF waves, the height of the layer is much less than one wavelength at ELF frequencies, so the only mode that can propagate at ELF frequencies is the TEM mode in vertical polarization, with the electric field vertical and the magnetic field horizontal. ELF waves have extremely low attenuation of 1–2 dB per , giving a single transmitter the potential to communicate worldwide.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: ELF waves can also travel considerable distances through "lossy" media like earth and seawater, which would absorb or reflect higher frequency radio waves.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: The attenuation of ELF waves is so low that they can travel completely around the Earth several times before decaying to negligible amplitude, and thus waves radiated from a source in opposite directions circumnavigating the Earth on a great circle path interfere with each other. At certain frequencies these oppositely directed waves are in phase and add (reinforce), causing standing waves. In other words, the closed spherical Earth-ionosphere cavity acts as a huge cavity resonator, enhancing ELF radiation at its resonant frequencies. These are called Schumann resonances after German physicist Winfried Otto Schumann who predicted them in 1952, and were detected in the 1950s. Modeling the Earth-ionosphere cavity with perfectly conducting walls, Schumann calculated the resonances should occur at frequencies of


title: Extremely low frequency

text: The actual frequencies differ slightly from this due to the conduction properties of the ionosphere. The fundamental Schumann resonance is at approximately 7.83 Hz, the frequency at which the wavelength equals the circumference of the Earth, and higher harmonics occur at 14.1, 20.3, 26.4, and 32.4 Hz, etc. Lightning strikes excite these resonances, causing the Earth-ionosphere cavity to "ring" like a bell, resulting in a peak in the noise spectrum at these frequencies, so the Schumann resonances can be used to monitor global thunderstorm activity.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Interest in Schumann resonances was renewed in 1993 when E. R. Williams showed a correlation between the resonance frequency and tropical air temperatures, suggesting the resonance could be used to monitor global warming.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Since ELF radio waves can penetrate seawater deeply, to the operating depths of submarines, a few nations have built naval ELF transmitters to communicate with their submarines while submerged. China has recently constructed the world's largest ELF facility roughly the size of New York City in order to communicate with its submarine forces without requiring them to surface. The United States Navy in 1982 built the first ELF submarine communications facility, two coupled ELF transmitters at Clam Lake, Wisconsin and Republic, Michigan. They were shut down in 2004. The Russian Navy operates an ELF transmitter called ZEVS (Zeus) at Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula. The Indian Navy has an ELF communication facility at the INS Kattabomman naval base to communicate with its Arihant class and Akula class submarines.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Because of its electrical conductivity, seawater shields submarines from most higher frequency radio waves, making radio communication with submerged submarines at ordinary frequencies impossible. Signals in the ELF frequency range, however, can penetrate much deeper. Two factors limit the usefulness of ELF communications channels: the low data transmission rate of a few characters per minute and, to a lesser extent, the one-way nature due to the impracticality of installing an antenna of the required size on a submarine (the antenna needs to be of an exceptional size in order to achieve successful communication). Generally, ELF signals have been used to order a submarine to rise to a shallow depth where it could receive some other form of communication.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: One of the difficulties posed when broadcasting in the ELF frequency range is antenna size, because the length of the antenna must be at least a substantial fraction of the length of the waves. Simply put, a 3 Hz (cycle per second) signal would have a wavelength equal to the distance EM waves travel through a given medium in one third of a second. When the refractive index of the medium is greater than one, ELF waves propagate slower than the speed of light in a vacuum. As used in military applications, the wavelength is per second divided by 50–85 Hz, which equals around long. This is comparable to the Earth's diameter of around . Because of this huge size requirement, to transmit internationally using ELF frequencies, the Earth itself forms a significant part of the antenna, and extremely long leads into the ground are necessary. Various means, such as electrical lengthening, are used to construct practical radio stations with smaller sizes.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: The United States maintained two sites, in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Wisconsin and in the Escanaba River State Forest, Michigan (originally named Project Sanguine, then downsized and rechristened Project ELF prior to construction), until they were dismantled, beginning in late September 2004. Both sites used long power lines, so-called ground dipoles, as leads. These leads were in multiple strands ranging from long. Because of the inefficiency of this method, considerable amounts of electrical power were required to operate the system.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: There have been some concerns over the possible ecological impact of ELF signals. In 1984 a federal judge halted construction requiring more environmental and health studies. This judgment was overruled by a federal appeals court on the basis that the US Navy claimed to have spent over $25 million studying the effects of the electromagnetic fields, with results indicating that they were similar to the effect produced by standard power distribution lines. The judgment was not accepted by everyone and, during the time that ELF was in use, some Wisconsin politicians such as Democratic Senators Herb Kohl, Russ Feingold and Congressman Dave Obey called for its closure.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Transmitters in the 22 Hz range are also used in pipeline maintenance or pigging. The signal is generated as an alternating magnetic field, and the transmitter is mounted to, or to part of, the "pig", the cleaning device inserted into the pipe. The pig is pushed through a pipeline mostly made of metal. The ELF signal can be detected through the metal allowing its location to be detected by receivers located outside of the pipe. It is needed to check if a pig has passed a certain location and to locate a pig which has become stuck.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Some radio monitoring hobbyists record ELF signals using antennas ranging in size from eighteen inch active antennas up to several thousand feet in length taking advantage of fences, highway guard rails, and even decommissioned railroad tracks, and play them back at higher speeds to more easily observe natural low frequency fluctuations in the Earth's electromagnetic field. Increasing the playback speed increases the pitch, so that it can be brought into the audio frequency range for audibility.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Naturally occurring ELF waves are present on Earth, resonating in the region between ionosphere and surface seen in lightning strikes that make electrons in the atmosphere oscillate. Though VLF signals were predominantly generated from lightning discharges, it was found that an observable ELF component—slow tail—followed the VLF component in almost all cases. Also, the fundamental mode of the Earth-ionosphere cavity has the wavelength equal to the circumference of the Earth, which gives a resonance frequency of 7.8 Hz. This frequency, and higher resonance modes of 14, 20, 26, and 32 Hz appear as peaks in the ELF spectrum and are called Schumann resonance.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: ELF waves have also been tentatively identified on Saturn's moon Titan. Titan's surface is thought to be a poor reflector of ELF waves, so the waves may instead be reflecting off the liquid-ice boundary of a subsurface ocean of water and ammonia, the existence of which is predicted by some theoretical models. Titan's ionosphere is also more complex than Earth's, with the main ionosphere at an altitude of but with an additional layer of charged particles at . This splits Titan's atmosphere into two separate resonating chambers. The source of natural ELF waves on Titan is unclear as there does not appear to be extensive lightning activity.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Huge ELF radiation power outputs of 100,000 times the Sun's output in visible light may be radiated by magnetars. The pulsar in the Crab nebula radiates powers of this order at 30 Hz. Radiation of this frequency is below the plasma frequency of the interstellar medium, thus this medium is opaque to it, and it cannot be observed from Earth.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: In electromagnetic therapy and electromagnetic radiation and health research, electromagnetic spectrum frequencies between 0 and 100 hertz are considered extremely low-frequency fields. A common source of exposure of the public to ELF fields is 50 Hz / 60 Hz electric and magnetic fields from high-voltage electric power transmission lines and secondary distribution lines, such as those supplying electricity to residential neighborhoods.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: Since the late 1970s, questions have been raised whether exposure to ELF electric and magnetic fields (EMF) within this range of frequencies produces adverse health consequences. External ELF magnetic fields induce electric fields and currents in the body which, at very high field strengths, cause nerve and muscle stimulation and changes in nerve cell excitability in the central nervous system. Health effects related to short-term, high-level exposure have been established and form the basis of two international exposure limit guidelines (ICNIRP, 1998; IEEE, 2002) such as 0.2-0.4 mA at 50~60 Hz.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: A study by Reilly in 1999 showed that the threshold for direct perception of exposure to ELF RF by human volunteer subjects started at around 2~5 kV/m at 60 Hz, with 10% of volunteers detecting the ELF exposure at this level. The percentage of detection increased to 50% of volunteers when the ELF level was raised from 7 up to 20 kV/m. Of all test subjects, 5% considered the perception of ELF at these thresholds annoying.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: ELF at human perceivable kV/m levels was said to create an annoying tingling sensation in the areas of the body in contact with clothing, particularly the arms, due to the induction of a surface charge by the ELF. Of the volunteers, 7% described the spark discharges as painful when the subject was well-insulated and touched a grounded object within a 5 kV/m field, whereas 50% described a similar spark discharge as painful in a 10 kV/m field.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: There is high uncertainty regarding correlations between long-term, low-level exposure to ELF fields and a number of health effects, including leukemia in children. In October 2005, WHO convened a task group of scientific experts to assess any risks to health that might exist from "exposure to ELF electric and magnetic fields in the frequency range >0 to 100,000 Hz (100 kHz) in regards to childhood leukemia." The long-term, low-level exposure is evaluated as average exposure to residential power-frequency magnetic field above 0.3~0.4 µT, and it is estimated that only between 1% and 4% of children live in such conditions. Subsequently, in 2010, a pooled analysis of epidemiological evidence supported the hypothesis that exposure to power frequency magnetic fields is related to childhood leukemia.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: No other study has found any evidence to support the hypothesis that ELF exposure is a contributing factor to leukemia in children.


title: Extremely low frequency

text: A 2014 study estimated the cases of childhood leukemia attributable to exposure to ELF magnetic fields in the European Union (EU27), assuming that correlations seen in epidemiological studies were causal. It reported that around 50~60 cases of childhood leukemia might be attributable to ELF magnetic fields annually, corresponding to between ~1.5% and ~2.0% of all incident cases of childhood leukemia occurring in the EU27 each year. At present, however, ICNIRP and IEEE consider the scientific evidence related to possible health effects from long-term, low-level exposure to ELF fields insufficient to justify lowering these quantitative exposure limits. In summary, when all of the studies are evaluated together, the evidence suggesting that EMFs may contribute to an increased risk of cancer is non-existent. Epidemiological studies suggest a possible association between long-term occupational exposure to ELF and Alzheimer's disease.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (commonly referred to as The Purple Tape) is the debut studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon, released on August 1, 1995, by Loud Records and RCA Records. The album was loosely composed to play like a film with Raekwon as the "star", fellow Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah as the "guest-star", and producer RZA as the "director", It features appearances from every member of the Wu-Tang Clan. The album also features debut appearances for affiliates Cappadonna and Blue Raspberry. It also features an acclaimed guest appearance from rapper Nas, which marked the first collaboration with a non-affiliated artist on a Wu-Tang related album.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Upon its release, "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." debuted at number four on the "Billboard" 200 chart, and number two on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, while selling 130,000 copies in its opening week. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on October 2, 1995, and later platinum on February 24, 2020. According to Nielsen Soundscan, it has sold 1.1 million copies in the United States alone as of 2009. Although it failed to acquire the same initial sales success as previous Wu-Tang solo albums, "Cuban Linx" achieved greater critical praise, with many complimenting its cinematic lyricism and production.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." has received acclaim from music critics and writers over the years, with many lauding it as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. With its emphasis on American Mafia insinuations and organized crime, the album is widely regarded as a pioneer of the mafioso rap subgenre. It is considered to have been highly influential on hip hop music over the next decade, being heavily referenced and influential on acclaimed albums such as Jay-Z's "Reasonable Doubt" (1996) and The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Life After Death" (1997). Along with GZA's "Liquid Swords", "Cuban Linx" is the most acclaimed solo Wu-Tang work. "Rolling Stone" magazine placed it at number 480 on their The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2012, and at number 219 in the 2020 reboot of the list.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Raekwon released "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." as his first solo album, and the third seen from the Wu after the release of their debut album "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)", with Method Man's "Tical" and Ol' Dirty Bastard's "" released prior. The song "Can It Be All So Simple", from "36 Chambers", marked the first recorded exhibition of Raekwon and Ghostface Killah as a duo, as the two would further establish this alliance on "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...". Much of the content on the album deals with real life topics and situations that both Raekwon and Ghostface Killah commonly encountered and experienced while growing up in Staten Island, New York. In an interview with "Wax Poetics", Raekwon explained "I grew up in the street, so I talked about the shit I knew and saw. We did the hustlin' thing, we did the crime thing; we did all the things that made us feel like mobsters or Mafiosos in some way." In a different article, Ghostface Killah recollected "Back then I was punchin' a lot of rap niggas in their face, and niggas was getting beat up in the clubs. We were banned from everything. They wouldn't even let me in the Tunnel. Niggas was scared to death when I was out there wilding. I was fucking niggas up, robbing niggas, fucking a lot of bitches, just doing dumb shit."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: In regard to his and Ghostface's partnership, Raekwon later commented "Ghost and me, especially at the time, had this identical-twin effect on each other. We would joke about the same things and laugh at the same shit. We were into the same clothes and shit. We were like the EPMD of the crew." Producer RZA also commented on the duo's congruency:


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." features a wide array of Wu-Tang members, as well as Wu-Tang affiliates Cappadonna, and Blue Raspberry. It also features a guest appearance from rapper Nas, making this the first collaboration with a non-affiliated artist on a Wu-Tang related album. Regarding this event, Nas later recalled "Rae would come out to Queensbridge, I would go to Staten Island. We'd just ride and hang out all night. We didn't call each other to work. We called each other to hang out. Somehow we wound up in the studio. RZA had a couple of beats. He played them for me. I got on both of them. The other one never came out. I was honored to be asked to be on the album. Raekwon was ahead of his time. I knew Rae was a classic artist and the album was going to be a music classic."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: The album's title serves as "a warning of its musical potency to those not prepared for the uncut raw contained within." Although the original intended title was ""Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Niggaz"", this idea was eventually dismissed in favor of a more market-friendly one. Ghostface Killah later specified "We already had the title. The chain we used to rock back in the days was Cuban links. So Rae came up with the theory, like a Cuban link is one of the roughest chains to break. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Real niggas, strong niggas."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: The album is also commonly referred to as ""The Purple Tape"" because the original cassette's plastic was entirely purple; Raekwon marked the tape distinctively as a reference to drug dealers' method of tagging their product, to distinguish it from that of others. "I wanted to portray an image that if I was selling crack or dimes in the street, you would recognize these dimes from other niggas' dimes."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Recording sessions began in late 1994, and proceeded midway through 1995 in RZA's basement studio in Staten Island, the same studio that many of the group's earlier albums were recorded in. In regard to Raekwon and Ghostface Killah's original recording intentions, RZA recounted "They had wanted to go to Barbados. But when they got to Barbados, the racism was so crazy. It was on some slave mentality. The Blacks was being treated like shit. They stopped back, and everything was recorded in my basement. No engineer, no assistant engineer. I did everything on that shit. The only two albums I did with nobody fucking with me was "Linx" and "Liquid Swords". I was on a mission. To make all those early albums took three and a half years of my life. I didn't come outside, didn't have too many girl relations, didn't even enjoy the shit. I just stayed in the basement. Hours and hours and days and days. Turkey burgers and blunts. I didn't know if it was working. But nobody could hear or say nothing, no comments, no touching the board when I leave. Everything was just how I wanted it." Regarding the recording atmosphere, Raekwon stated "The way RZA had it poppin' back then, we would come into his spot. It was like dudes would come in on their own time and create stuff. I remember I just came in, and the beats was just pumpin'."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Seeking to musically express Raekwon's blend of Five Percenter creed and inner-city experience, producer RZA worked intensively on a polished sound, slower and more layered than that of Wu-Tang's previous efforts, using strings, piano loops and vocal samples from Kung Fu movies, and Mafia films. Due to Raekwon's storytelling, mobster-minded approach, the producer set up "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." to play like scenes in a crime movie. RZA has cited soul musician Isaac Hayes as an influence on his orchestral approach to several of the album's tracks. He also later revealed that several of the album's beats, such as "Incarcerated Scarfaces", were originally intended for Wu-Tang member GZA's "Liquid Swords" album, but because of Raekwon's timely writing approach, were used last minute for "Cuban Linx". In regard to this, Raekwon clarified "RZA's house was more or less like a candy store. You come in and have all kinds of shit to choose from. I would take stuff that I felt would suit my album correctly; others would take their own beats too. The beats were like a grab bag. If I came in and heard a beat that someone already claimed, then I just had to fall back. We almost never fought over beats or nothing. I'd tell RZA if I liked a certain beat, and he'd see if it would fit me or not."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Throughout the album, producer RZA sampled dialogue from various scenes in the John Woo film "The Killer". RZA later recollected "I met John Woo that same year. He sent me a letter. He was honored that we did it. I felt confident we could settle anything that came up. You can usually settle that shit. It's part of the budget, man. But John Woo didn't want nothing, never no money for that. We actually became friends. He took me and Ghost to lunch and dinner many times. He gave me a lot of mentoring in film."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: The song "Wu-Gambinos" was one of the first songs recorded for the album, and marked the beginning of the Gambino aliases used for the members who appeared on the album, and would eventually become highly influential on hip hop. Raekwon later explained "The Wu-Gambinos aliases come from how I used to like that movie "Once Upon a Time in America", with Robert De Niro and James Woods. I liked how these young little niggas grew up, from the ground up, not having nothing to start. And the names came. You know, "Tony Starks" came from Iron Man. "Lou Diamond" came from Louis Roederer who made Cristal, and from me being infatuated with the diamond world. Back then I was wearing a lot of ice, was calling shit ice. But then I started giving some of my niggas in the crew names. Being that it's my album, I wanted niggas to know, you gotta have a certain a.k.a. when you're on this track. This is a Gambino track. Wu-Gambinos. I would call Masta Killa "Noodles," call GZA "Maximillian." Inside the movie ("Once Upon a Time in America"), Noodles and Max was partners. I felt like GZA was like Maximillian because he was like the brains of the crew. He would say something real intellectual and smart. I called Deck "Rollie Fingers" cause of the way he roll blunts. So names just started fitting niggas."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." is often commemorated for its introduction to a distinctive slang individual to Raekwon and Ghostface; heavy use of the Supreme Alphabet and Supreme Mathematics, as often used by the Wu-Tang Clan, blended with terms picked up on the inner-city streets of New York, as well as several songs based around detailed, loosely-connected stories. In an article for "XXL", RZA later illustrated "The theme of the album is two guys that had enough of the negative life and was ready to move on, but had one more sting to pull off. They're tired of doing what they doing, but they're trying to make this last quarter million. That's a lot of money in the streets. We gonna retire and see our grandbabies and get our lives together."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: In keeping with this loose storyline, the album opens with the introduction track "Striving for Perfection", in which Raekwon and "co-star" Ghostface converse about visions and goals. On the proceeding track "Knuckleheadz", Raekwon and Ghostface divide money in the song's intro, and then engage in a heist, with U-God's character being killed off at the end of his verse. The reason for this elimination is because U-God was sentenced to serve several months in prison, which prevented subsequent participation on "Cuban Linx". U-God, however, recruited his lyric mentor and childhood friend Cappadonna to take his place later in the album.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." features dialogue-driven interludes in the beginning of several tracks with Raekwon and Ghostface Killah conversing about money, life, crime, and hip hop, among other things. The introduction to "Glaciers of Ice", for instance, involves Ghostface addressing his plans and methods of dyeing Wallabee-styled Clarks. In a 2005 interview, Ghostface Killah explained "We was in the car one day, driving around with the DAT machine with a microphone and we just started talking shit about how we're gonna do it this summer with the Clarks. The dyeing was something I was doing already. I'm an inventor. Niggas can't fuck with me when it comes to style. Only nigga that is right there with me is probably Slick Rick. Other than that, I'm boss."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: The album ends with the song "North Star", which serves as a "closing credits" type of song. In regard to this track and Popa Wu's inclusion, RZA later remarked "The idea is Rae did everything he had to do. Everything is over now. The job is over. Mission is over, it's a perfect closing to the album. Popa Wu was a very smart mentor in the younger days to me and ODB. Everybody had dibs and dabs of knowledge of self, I brought him in to be a mentor to these men like, 'I love them and you the only person I know that have the intelligence to keep them in sync with knowledge.' It's very poisonous unless they got proper guidance. He was the smartest man I'd ever met at a certain time in my life." Raekwon further commented "'North Star' was a track I really, really wanted on my album. It was a track that I felt a vibe of it was motion picture-like."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Though several songs, such as "Glaciers of Ice" and "Incarcerated Scarfaces", received radio play and music video treatment, only four official singles were released for "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...". The first of which was "Heaven & Hell", released October 24, 1994. Aside from being the album's first single, it was also the first song recorded for the album, serving as an installment to the soundtrack for the movie "Fresh". The song features the second recorded appearance of Wu-Tang affiliate Blue Raspberry, who provides backing vocals. In 1994, "Heaven & Hell" reached number 32 on the Hot Rap Singles chart, and number 34 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart. One year later, it re-entered the Hot Rap Singles chart, peaking at number 21.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: With "Glaciers of Ice" as its B-Side, the album's second single "Criminology" was released June 26, 1995, almost one year after "Heaven and Hell." It had notable chart success, as it peaked at number 43 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and number 5 on the Hot Rap Singles chart. Producer RZA later illustrated "That was me trying to produce like a DJ, produce a breakbeat. Ghost actually asked me to make one of those beats. You listen to old DJ tapes. That's how I made that song, and he wanted this shit to sound like a breakbeat. He had a rhyme that he knew was going to change the game - that was the verse that got him recognized. Cypress Hill's DJ Muggs called up and was like "Yo, he killed that shit. He ripped that shit."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Serving as the album's most radio-friendly track, "Ice Cream" was released September 25, 1995, with "Incarcerated Scarfaces" as its B-side. This proved to be the most successful single off the album, as it reached the 37th spot on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and the fifth spot on the Hot Rap Singles chart. The song uses different flavor variants of ice cream as a metaphor for different races of women. Raekwon later commented "we wanted to reach out and let the women know that we respected them as queens. And queens, much like ice cream, come in all different flavors." The song marks the second appearance of Cappadonna on the album, and serves as his break-through performance, as it would give him commercial exposure. In regard to his guest spot, Cappadonna later recalled "I had heard Rae's and Ghost's verses on there. And I had made a joke about me getting on the track, and RZA took it seriously and was like "Yo, go ahead. Lace that."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: as a Promotional recording on vinyl in early 1996. In regard to the song's lyrics, Raekwon summarized "this is for the struggling girl who can't understand her man and he a thorough nigga. We wanted to put a girl from the movie "The Killer" in the skit, at the start of the song, when she said 'I sing for him and he isn't here.' He ain't here, cause he makin' money! He trying to put some food on the table." Producer RZA has stated that "Rainy Dayz" is one of his all-time favorite songs on the album.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…" was well received by contemporary critics. "The Source" magazine's Nicholas Poluhoff said "Raekwon has always brought his own special flavor to the Wu cipher: he sprays out lyrics like gunfire, forming vivid tales. What truly sets "Cuban Linx" apart is the sheer abundance of well-written, complex lyrics." Poluhoff also praised RZA's production, viewing it as his best yet: "The tracks are suited to the distinct flow of the Chef, who weaves in and out between beats." Cheo H. Coker from "Spin" magazine found Raekwon to be as vivid a lyricist as Kool G Rap, "so vivid you smell the gunpowder and wipe the blood on your shirt", while crediting RZA for "taking the art form of production to new heights". "Los Angeles Times" said the songs with other Wu-Tang Clan members are as good as anything on "Enter the 36 Chambers" and wrote of the music: "RZA's production sensibilities, sometimes minimal, other times symphonic, pull the listener in despite the chaos. In a genre characterized by singles, "Cuban Linx" is a full-blown album where the big picture is just as moving as the compositional stylistic elements." In "Vibe" magazine, Dream Hampton was impressed by Raekwon and Ghostface Killah's use of cultural appropriation (as a type of "sweet vindication") in their lyrics and said they "bring the best in each other."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." has since been ranked by critics and publications as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. "The Rolling Stone Album Guide" (2004) called it essential listening for anyone interested in the Wu-Tang Clan, while Steve Huey from AllMusic said Raekwon is "arguably the Wu's best storyteller", crediting him for "translating epic themes and narratives of a mafia movie into a startlingly accomplished hip-hop album". Huey argued the record was possibly the "best Wu-Tang solo album", along with GZA's "Liquid Swords", and wrote that like that album, ""Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" takes a few listens to reveal the full scope of its lyrical complexities, but it's immensely rewarding in the end."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: In 2012, "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked the album number 480 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, saying that "the best Wu-Tang solo joint is a study in understated cool and densely woven verses" and that "Raekwon crafts breathtaking drug-rap narratives; it's a rap album that rivals the mob movies hip-hop celebrates. In the 2020 reboot of the list, the album's rank shot up to number 219.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: "OB4CL" popularized street-related, Mafioso rap on the east coast. While this style was originated by Kool G Rap in the late 1980s, it didn't completely permeate the hip hop world until the release of "OB4CL" in 1995. References to "Cuban Linx" could be heard heavily in following years with several notable changes in hip hop culture. For instance, the album refers to "Wu-Gambinos" in various occurrences; the term being a name for the 'alter-egos' of the rappers involved in "Cuban Linx", and used on various later projects. These alter-egos inspired an already dissociative hip-hop world to adopt new names and personae, from Nas' Escobar moniker to Notorious B.I.G.'s Frank White counterpart, which he would go on to further utilize upon the release of "OB4CL". A known fan of the Wu, Tupac Shakur began to refer to himself as Makaveli and gave his Outlawz crew new names, albeit with a militaristic, dictatorial theme. In regard to Raekwon's innovation of the gambinos, Method Man later affirmed "Raekwon started that. Rae always had that mobster mentality, always liked to watch gangster movies and read mob books and stuff like that, you know? So he pretty much knew the names of the cats and what they was about. He polished his whole style like that." Ghostface Killah also touched base on the gambino influence stating "We done took that to the highest peak. We bonded as a tight family, so niggas is starting to try and do that right now. Everybody thinking they have a strong family. We opened up the door for a lot of niggas. The shit was just crazy on how it came together."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Another exemplification of "Cuban Linx"'s influence is in the spike in popularity of Cristal, an expensive champagne, which was mentioned on the album and touted by Rae and Ghost. It has now become a staple in hip hop, with name-drops that continue to this day. The brand even made its way into popular culture when director Quentin Tarantino, a known affiliate of RZA and the Wu-Tang Clan, goes on a rant about the champagne's quality in his segment of "Four Rooms", a film released in the months after Raekwon's album.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: In regard to this trend, Raekwon later clarified "We was the first to be talking that Cristal shit. I know that for a fact. Back then we would go do dinners and sit with Loud Records president Steve Rifkind and them up at the label. And our mission would be like, when we sit at the table, we want the best fuckin' wine they got in the building. We might have asked for some Mo or something and they didn't have it. So we was like "What the fuck is the next best thing, Steve?" And Steve's like 'Give 'em the next best thing.' They came out with Cristal. Me and Ghost liked the bottle, and the name on the bottle was Louie Roederer. I was like, I'm Lou Diamond, Louie Roederer. Me and Ghost is loving how the bottle looked. It cost more than the muthafuckin' other, so we was like, Cristal, nigga! That's our new shit!"


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Ironically enough, despite Raekwon and Ghost's warning on "Shark Niggas (Biters)" to "be original", "OB4CL's" influence spawned a countless number of albums with many of the adopted principles that it set in place. The year following its release, in 1996, Jay-Z released his debut album "Reasonable Doubt", which describes a lavish, Cristal-drinking mobster persona and deals with the subjects of street crime and getting out of drug-dealing and into the rap game, much like the topics covered on "OB4CL". Jay-Z would later reference "Cuban Linx" in his 2009 song "A Star Is Born" by stating "Wu-Tang gangbanged it, Meth ate / Rae took on a date with the "Purple Tape" / passed it on to Ason, then Ghostface / they had a hell of a run, stand and ovate." Raekwon later commented in an interview "Jay was a student of our shit and what we accomplished in those days. He'll tell you that himself."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: The same year, highly acclaimed rapper Nas released "It Was Written", revising his image to incorporate the Mafia posturing of Raekwon; adopting the Mafioso moniker "Nas Escobar" bestowed upon him by his guest appearance on "Cuban Linx". 1996 also saw the releases of Ghostface Killah's debut album "Ironman", which loosely covers some of the topics on "Cuban Linx", and also Mobb Deep's second major-label album, "Hell on Earth", which showcased the duo's interpretation of the "Cuban Linx" demeanor, and featured contributions from Raekwon, Method Man, and Nas. In 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. revamped his image into that of a gun-toting, big-money making, mob-commanding kingpin, most notably on the songs "Niggas Bleed", "What's Beef", "My Downfall", and "I Love the Dough" featuring Jay-Z (previously mentioned); Nas, then with The Firm, put out a similarly minded album that year in "The Firm: The Album".


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: The influence of "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." continued through into the 2000s with other albums, such as Rick Ross' "Deeper Than Rap" and Jay-Z's "American Gangster", continuing to find success following the album's overall structure and premise. Though "Cuban Linx" would prove to be highly influential, Raekwon later revealed that he had no intentions for this impact, stating "Really, I was just trying to make something worth purchasing and worth respecting."


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: After two solo projects that were both critically and commercially unsuccessful, Raekwon announced a sequel to "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." in late 2005. The sequel was highly anticipated for nearly four years since its original announcement and fourteen years after the release of the original, appearing in "XXL"s top 10 list of most anticipated albums in 2007. "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II" was released in 2009 to critical acclaim.


title: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

text: Track listing and credits adapted from Tidal. All tracks produced by RZA, and written by Corey Woods and Robert Diggs; except where noted.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition NaAlSiO. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4. It is found in a wide range of colors, but is most often found in shades of green or white. Jadeite is formed only in subduction zones on continental margins, where rock undergoes metamorphism at high pressure but relatively low temperature.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite is the principal mineral making up the most valuable form of jade, a precious stone particularly prized in China. Most gem-quality jadeite jade comes from northern Myanmar. Jade tools and implements have been found at Stone Age sites, showing that the mineral has been prized by humans since before the beginning of written history.


title: Jadeite

text: The name "jadeite" is derived (via and ) from the Spanish phrase "piedra de ijada" which means "stone of the side". The Latin version of the name, "lapis nephriticus", is the origin of the term nephrite, which is a different mineral that also shares the common name jade.


title: Jadeite

text: Though highly variable in color, it is typically apple-green to emerald-green, or less commonly white or white with spots of green. Occurrences are typically granular or massive; individual crystals are very rare, occurring only as small prismatic crystals in vugs in massive jadeite. Crystals are four-sided or eight-sided in cross section and show perfect cleavage on [110] at angles of 87 and 93 degrees. There is also a rare parting on [100]. The interlocking crystals of massive jadeite help give it its extreme toughness.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite has a Mohs hardness of 6.5 to 7, slightly less than that of common quartz. Fracture surfaces are sugary in texture, and sparkle from the exposed perfect cleavage on [110]. Jade is relatively dense, with a specific gravity of 3.3 to 3.5 in natural specimens. The specific gravity increases with the iron content, and very pure jadeite has a specific gravity of 3.25. The luster is vitreous, or pearly on exposed cleavage surfaces, and the streak is colorless. Jadeite is translucent to transparent.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite is characterized by its green color and tough aggregates of compact fibrous crystals. It can be distinguished from nephrite by its vitreous luster on polished surfaces (polished nephrite has an oily luster) and by its higher density and refractive index. Serpentine also has a lower density and refractive index than jadeite. Massive jadeite also characteristically shows a more granular texture than nephrite or serpentinite.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite has a fusibility of 2.5 (making it moderately easy to fuse with a propane flame) and gives a yellow flame color.


title: Jadeite

text: Pure jadeite has the composition and has the typical clinopyroxene structure. This consists of long chains of silica tetrahedra in which each silicon ion is surrounded by four oxygen ions, with two of the oxygen ions shared with neighboring silica tetraheda. The chains are bonded together by aluminium and sodium ions to form the full three-dimensional structure of a jadeite crystal. The aluminium joins pairs of chains (occuping the so-called M1 site) while sodium joins the paired chains to neighboring paired chains (occupying the so-called M2 site). The resulting crystal structure belongs to the monoclinic system, with space group "C2/c".


title: Jadeite

text: Pure jadeite has the composition . There is no significant replacement of silicon by aluminium in natural jadeite, and only very limited substitution of ferric iron for aluminium. However, calcium substitutes for up to 20% of the sodium, balanced by substitution of magnesium or ferrous iron for aluminium.


title: Jadeite

text: Omphacite is intermediate in composition between jadeite and diopside. However, there is not a true solid solution series, as omphacite has its own structure that is slightly different from either pure jadeite or pure diopside, so that it is separated from either end member by a miscibility gap. "Chromomelanite" is a dark green variety of jadeite in which some aluminium is replaced by iron, while "imperial jade", the most valuable variety of jade, is colored an intense emerald green by traces of chromium.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite occurs with albite in metamorphic rock of the low-temperature, high-pressure blueschist facies at destructive plate margins. Although it is intermediate in silica content between albite and nepheline, it is not stable under the conditions in which these two minerals are present. Formation of jadeite requires a pressure of 10 to 25 kbar and a temperature of via the reaction:


title: Jadeite

text: At still higher pressure, corresponding to the highest blueschist facies, jadeite reacts with lawsonite to form zoisite and paragonite:


title: Jadeite

text: Minerals associated with jadeite include: glaucophane, lawsonite, muscovite, aragonite, serpentine and quartz.


title: Jadeite

text: Rocks that consist almost entirely of jadeite are called jadeitite. In all well-documented occurrences, jadeitite appears to have formed from subduction zone fluids in association with serpentinite.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeitite is resistant to weathering, and alluvial boulders of jadeitite released from the serpentine-rich environments in which they formed can have weights of up to tons. Raw specimens having Burmese tax stamps or polished slots for evaluating quality are prized by some collectors.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite's color commonly ranges from white through pale apple green to deep "jade" green but can also be blue-green (like the recently rediscovered "Olmec Blue" jade), pink, lavender and a multitude of other rare colors. "Chloromelanite" is a very dark green to black variety. Color is largely affected by the presence of trace elements such as chromium and iron. Its translucence varies from opaque to almost clear. Variations in color and translucence are often found even within a single specimen.


title: Jadeite

text: Significant occurrences of jadeite are isolated and rare. It is found exclusively in high-pressure, low-temperature metamorphic rock of continental margins. Here it may be found as pods or veins or as disseminated grains. Deposits are found in Myanmar, the Alps, Russia, California, Japan, and Guatemala. In the Franciscan Complex of California, jadeite is associated with glaucophane, aragonite, muscovite, lawsonite, and quartz. However, occurrences of lapidary quality are almost exclusive to Myanmar. Stream boulders of the Uyu River remain an important source of jadeite.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite is the dominant mineral of the most desirable variety of jade. This was prized in traditional Chinese culture, where it was worked into a great variety of beautiful ornaments and utensils.


title: Jadeite

text: Jade received its name, "piedra de ijada" ("stone of the side"), because it was once thought to cure kidney ailments when applied to the side of the body.


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite is one of two minerals recognized as the gemstone jade. The other is nephrite. Occasionally, other minerals such as serpentine or quartz are sold as jade, but the difference can be determined by cleavage and hardness. Jadeite jade is the most valuable form, with the highest-quality material commanding prices well in excess of $200 per carat . Jadeite jade first came into significant use in China only towards the end of the 18th century, as "fei tsui".


title: Jadeite

text: Jadeite from the Motagua Valley, Guatemala, was used by the Olmec and Maya peoples, as well as the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica.


title: Jadeite

text: Unusual colors, like "Olmec blue" jade, which is characterized by its deep blue-green, translucent hue with white flecking, are becoming more highly valued because of its unique beauty and historical use by the Mesoamerican Olmec and also in Costa Rica.