Pet Rock

Pet Rock was a collectible conceived in 1975, by advertising executive Gary Dahl.

Development

In April 1975, Gary Dahl was in a bar (which is now Beauregard Vineyards Tasting room in Bonny Doon) listening to his friends complain about their pets. This gave him the idea for the perfect "pet": a rock. A rock would not need to be fed, walked, bathed, or groomed; and would not die, become sick, or be disobedient. He said they were to be the perfect pets, and joked about it with his friends. Dahl took the idea seriously, and drafted an "instruction manual" for a pet rock. It was full of puns, gags and plays on words that referred to the rock as an actual pet.

Marketing

Pet Rocks were a smooth stone from Mexico's Rosarito Beach. They were marketed like live pets, in custom cardboard boxes, complete with straw and breathing holes for the "animal." The fad lasted about six months, ending after a short increase in sales during the Christmas season of December 1975. Although by February 1976 they were discounted due to lower sales, Dahl sold 1.5 million Pet Rocks for $4 each, and became a millionaire.

Pet

A pet or companion animal is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or protection, as opposed to working animals, sport animals, livestock, and laboratory animals, which are kept primarily for performance, agricultural value, or research. The most popular pets are noted for their attractive appearances and their loyal or playful personalities.

Pets commonly provide their owners (or guardians) physical and emotional benefits. Walking a dog can supply both the human and pet with exercise, fresh air, and social interaction. Pets can give companionship to elderly adults who do not have adequate social interaction with other people, as well as other people that are living alone. There is a medically approved class of therapy animals, mostly dogs or cats, that are brought to visit confined humans. Pet therapy utilizes trained animals and handlers to achieve specific physical, social, cognitive, and emotional goals with patients.

The most popular pets are likely dogs and cats, but people also keep house rabbits, ferrets; rodents such as gerbils, hamsters, chinchillas, fancy rats, and guinea pigs; avian pets, such as canaries, parakeets, and parrots; reptile pets, such as turtles, lizards and snakes; aquatic pets, such as goldfish, tropical fish and frogs; and arthropod pets, such as tarantulas and hermit crabs.

Thirteenth Step

Thirteenth Step is the second studio album by American rock band A Perfect Circle, released on September 16, 2003. The album sold well, charting at the number 2 position on the Billboard 200 in its premiere week, selling over 231,000 copies and staying on the charts for 78 weeks. The album went on to be certified as gold on November 4, 2003 and as platinum on March 24, 2006 by the RIAA. Three singles were released from the album, "Weak and Powerless", which topped both the Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks, followed by "The Outsider" and "Blue", which also charted on the respective charts.

Background

Writing and recording

The band's writing process was very different from the band's first album, Mer de Noms. With the first album, a majority of the album had been already written and recorded over a long period of time by guitarist Billy Howerdel, before a band had even been assembled. He had recorded it with a female vocalist in mind, but upon Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan hearing it and offering to sing for the material, the content was then quickly finalized upon adding Keenan's vocals and re-recording the drums with band member Josh Freese. With beginning the second album, the band found themselves starting fresh, without any material to start with, with the exception of the track "Vanishing", which originally was intended to be on the band's first album, but Howerdel could not find the song file in the studio, having accidentally named it "test". Upon finally recovering the track in 2001, it was only slightly altered for its final release, to better match the eventual sound of Thirteenth Step.

7-PET

7-PET was discovered by K.W. Bentley and is a potent opioid analgesic drug, 300 times the potency of morphine by weight. It is related to the more well-known oripavine derivative opioid etorphine, which is used as a very potent veterinary painkiller and anesthetic medication, used primarily for the sedation of large animals such as elephants, giraffes and rhinos. 7-PET itself has a 3-O-methyl ether which reduces potency, but the 3-OH derivative is around 2200x morphine, almost the same potency as etorphine as a μ agonist, and unexpectedly the 3-desoxy compound is also around the same potency of 2000x morphine.

Unlike etorphine however, 7-PET is not an illegal drug, and is not controlled under the UN drug conventions, but it might still be considered to be a controlled substance analogue of etorphine on the grounds of its related chemical structure in some jurisdictions such as the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

See also

List of Superman enemies

This is a list of fictional characters from DC Comics who are or have been enemies of Superman. It is notable that several of Superman's enemies are or have been foes of the Justice League of America as well.

Central rogues gallery

In alphabetical order (with issue and date of first appearance):

Foes of lesser renown

In alphabetical order (with issue and date of first appearance):

Group villains

Allies in conflict

Some characters originally conceived as heroes have come into conflict with Superman.

Enemies created for other media

These are Superman villains created in other media, with no appearances in previous comics. Livewire, Mercy Graves, Non and Ursa subsequently made appearances in Superman comic books, and have been integrated into the mainstream continuity of the DC Universe.

Villains from comics in other media

A number of villains from the comic books have made an appearance, or appearances, in Superman related live-action media.

Rock (manga)

Rock (known in some series as Rokuro Makube a.k.a. Rock Macbeth or Rock Holmes (ロック・ホーム, Rokku Hōmu)) is a recurrent major character in most of Osamu Tezuka's manga series, and he is an important part of Osamu Tezuka's Star System. As all of Tezuka's main characters he is seen repeatedly in different works but differs as the character with the most various and changing roles from both hero and antihero.

Appearance and Role

Rock (sometimes spelled Roc) mainly appears as a young man with shiny dark hair and blue eyes. His appearance stays relatively the same, with hair that retains its style across works, but that often changes colour. He first appeared in the manga The Moony Man and later in the series Detective Boy Rock Holmes, as a child detective. (His name and traits where then based on Sherlock Holmes). Developing later into a more villainous character, his name changed into Rock Macbeth (Makube) as both his character and backstory where based on the famous antagonist of the Tragedy of Macbeth. He is later seen wearing dark sunglasses which, together with his ability to be a master of disguise, became one of his main trademarks.

Plymouth Rock chicken

The Plymouth Rock is a breed of domestic chicken from the United States. It originated in New England in the 19th century from cross-breeding of Dominiques and Black Javas.

History

The Plymouth Rock was developed in New England in the early 1800s by crossing Dominiques and Black Javas.. John C. Bennett (1804–1867) has been credited with either creating or popularizing the breed.

Colors

In the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, seven color varieties of the Plymouth Rock are recognized: Barred, Blue, Buff, Columbian, Partridge, Silver-penciled and White. In Australia, the Barred variant is split into two separate colors, Dark Barred and Light Barred. The difference between these colors is highly noticeable, with the bars of white color wider and the grey lighter in the Light Barred than in Dark Barred.

Use

The Plymouth Rock was bred as a dual-purpose fowl, meaning that it was valued both for its meat and the egg-laying ability of the hens. It is a cold-hardy bird. The hens lay brown eggs, and continue laying all through the winter with decreased production.