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Bootleg Liquor

Bootleg liquor

Bootlegging is a slang term to describe smuggling. Most commonly, the word refers to the illegal sale of alcoholic beverages on which excise taxes have not been paid. It is said that the term comes from how the alcohol (or "booze" as it is commonly called) was hid in flasks on the legs of sellers, above or under the boot. The term is sometimes mistakenly used to refer exclusively to the production of untaxed alcoholic products; however, that is more accurately called "moonshining." Most bootleg liquor is not "home-made" by a moonshiner but, instead, bottled by professional distillers. The illegal sale of many consumer products other than alcohol is often termed Bootlegging as well. Goods such as compact discs, DVDs and other Intellectual Property are considered to be "bootleg" if they are replicated without permission of the copyright holder. Unofficial audio recordings of live performances in particular are often called bootlegs.

In economics and business administration literature

In economics and business administration literature, K. Knight introduced the notion ‘bootlegging’ in 1967. Bootlegging is defined as research in which motivated individuals secretly organise the innovation process. It usually is a bottom-up, non-programmed activity, without the official authorisation of the responsible management, but for the benefit of the company. It is not in the department’s action plan nor are there any formal resources allocated towards it (Augsdorfer 1996). Quite a few firms have their own specific term for it: Anglo-Saxon firms call it: Friday afternoon work, work behind the fume cupboard, free lance work, moonlighting, under the counter work, under the table work, pet-project, discretionary research, free wheeling, illicit research, scrounging , renegades work, work in the shadow- or underworld. French firms call it: recherche camouflagé, recherche caché, recherche parallel, recherche libre, recherche en perruque, recherche sauvage, or recherche sous-marin. German firms call it: U-Boot Forschung, or graue Projekte. The main reason for the occurrence of bootlegging is the lack of ‘free space’ for creativity. In particular rigid planning ignores the nature of experimental trial and error research. Bootlegging, as a kind of self-regulating element, bridges the mechanistic world of organisation (hierarchy, project proposals, MBO, decisions can only be made after some initial findings) with the chaotic world of creativity and innovation. The theory of path dependency explains why bootleg innovations are (most often) in line with the strategic objectives of the firm: corporate competencies define the search paths for its future. In this respect are the learning processes, beside the tangible output of bootlegging beneficial for the firm. Bootlegging should not be confused with skunk works: skunk work is defined as a sort of elite, working officially on a given project alongside the formal organisation to solve problems more efficiently. In fact the Pacific Tech's Graphing Calculator project at Apple computers was not a skunk works project (as mentioned under the key word 'skunk works' in this encyclopaedia) but a bootleg project. 'Permitted bootlegging' is research time where technical staff are allowed to spend a certain amount of their time working on ‘pet-projects’ in the hope that some day there is some return for the company. Famous examples of companies, which follow such an initiative, are 3M and Hewlett Packard. They allow ten to fifteen per cent of the working time for own product related interests. A well-known example of a permitted bootleg product is the yellow sticky ‘post-it notes’, developed by Art Fry and Spencer Silver at 3M. Also, bootlegging must not be confused with private handicraft also called ‘moonlighting’,which is sometimes carried out in companies. In general, a firm’s management does not tolerate moonlighting as it serves only private purposes such as private car repairs. References: Knight, K., 1967, A Descriptive Model of the Intra-Firm Innovation Process, in The Journal of Business, Vol.40, pp.478-496 Augsdorfer, P., 1996, Forbidden Fruit: an analysis of bootlegging, uncertainty, and learning in corporate R&D, Aldershot

History

During Prohibition of the 1920s in the United States, much of the bootleg whiskey was brought in from Canada and much of the bootleg rum was imported from Mexico or Cuba via "rum roads." Today most bootleg alcohol in the United States is made domestically but sold "under the table" or "off the back of a truck" without the necessary permits and taxes.

Slang

Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. It is a type of neologism. Slang can be described as deviating away from standard language use. Slang functions in two ways; the creation of new language and new usage by a process of creative informal use and adaptation, and the creation of a secret language understood only by those within a group intended to understand it. As such, slang is a type of sociolect aimed at excluding certain people from the conversation. Slang initially functions as encryption, so that the non-initiate cannot understand the conversation, or as a further way to communicate with those who understand it. Slang functions as a way to recognize members of the same group, and to differentiate that group from the society at large. Slang terms are often particular to a certain subculture, such as musicians, skateboarders, and drug users. Slang generally implies playful, informal speech. Slang is distinguished from jargon, the technical vocabulary of a particular profession, as jargon is (in theory) not used to exclude non-group members from the conversation, but rather deals with technical peculiarities of a given field which require a specialized vocabulary.

Functions and origins of slang

One use of slang is a simple way of circumventing social taboos. The mainstream language tends to shy away from explicitly evoking certain realities. Slang, and also the informal forms of language, permit one to talk about these realities in a special language stripped of the usual connotations in the normal register. Slang vocabularies are particularly rich in certain domains, such as sexuality, violence, crime, and drugs. There is not just one slang, but very many varieties—or dialects—of slang. Different social groups in different times have developed their own slang. The importance of encryption and identity vary among the various slangs. Slang must constantly renew its process of expression, and specifically its vocabulary, so that those not part of the group will remain unable to understand the slang. The existence of slang dictionaries, of course, cancels the effectiveness of certain words. Numerous slang terms pass into informal mainstream speech, and thence sometimes into mainstream formal speech. Originally, certain slang designated the speech of people involved in the criminal underworld, hooligans, bandits, criminals, etc. Therefore, their vocabulary carried very vulgar connotations, and was strictly rejected by speakers of "proper" language. Other groups developed their own slangs. In general, groups on the margins of mainstream society who were excluded or rejected by it.

Examples of slang

Historical examples of slang are the thieves' cant used by beggars and the underworld generally in previous centuries: a number of canting dictionaries were published. A famous current example is Cockney rhyming slang in which, in the simplest case, a given word or phrase is replaced by another word or phrase that rhymes with it. Often the rhyming replacement is abbreviated further, making the expressions even more obscure. A new rhyme may then be introduced for the abbreviation and the process continues. Examples of rhyming slang are apples and pears for stairs and trouble (and strife) for wife. An example of truncation and replacement of rhyming slang is bottle and glass for arse (ass). This was reduced to bottle, for which the new rhyme Aristotle was found; Aristotle was then reduced to Aris for which plaster of Paris became the rhyme. This was then reduced to plaster. Backwards slang, or Back slang, is a form of slang where words are reversed. English backward slang tends to reverse words letter by letter while French backward slang tends to reverse words by syllables. Verlan is a French slang, that uses backward words, similar in its methods to the back slang. Louchebem is French butcher's slang, similar to Pig Latin. The usage of slang very often involves the creation of novel meanings for existing words. It is very common for such novel meanings to diverge significantly from the standard meaning. In fact, one common process is for a slang word to take on exactly the opposite meaning of the standard definiton. This process has given rise to the positive meaning of the word 'bad' such as in the Michael Jackson song of the same title. Nadsat is a form of slang used in the book A Clockwork Orange, which borrows words from Russian and from various types of English slang. Polari is an interesting mixture of Italian and Cockney back slang (in other words common words pronounced as if spelled backward, for example ecaf for face, which became eek in Polari). Polari was used in London fish markets and the gay subculture in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, becoming more widely known from its use by two camp characters, Julian and Sandy, in Round the Horne, a popular radio show.

External links

- [http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/ British slang]
- [http://www.noslang.com Internet Slang translator and website validator]
- [http://www.talkingcock.com/html/lexec.php?op=LexView&lexicon=lexicon Singaporean slang]
- [http://www.bio.nrc.ca/cockney/process.html Cockney rhyming slang]
- [http://www.shartwell.freeserve.co.uk/humor-site/rhymingslang.htm Disability rhyming slang]
- [http://www.holoweb.net/~liam/dict/ A canting dictionary] - illustrates the tendency for English to adopt and make respectable words that were originally coined by the criminal classes .
- [http://members.aol.com/frij/ More on Polari]
- [http://www.urbandictionary.com/ American slang]
- [http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fashion/slang.htm American slang from the 1950s]
- [http://www.irishslang.net/ Irish slang]
- [http://slangi.net Finnish slang]
- [http://slang.pl Dictionary of Polish slang] Category:Sociolinguistics Category:Figures of speech ja:俗語 simple:Slang

Beverages

The word drink is primarily a verb, meaning to ingest liquids. As a noun, it refers to the liquid thus ingested. It is often used in a narrower sense to refer to alcoholic beverages (as both a verb and a noun). Drink is also slang for a body of water, such as an ocean or a water hazard on a golf course (e.g. "He hit that one into the drink."). To drink in is also used metaphorically, as in to drink in the scenery. A beverage is a drink specifically prepared for human consumption. Beverages almost always largely consist of water. Water is essential for living, significantly more so than food. Death will usually occur after 1 week without any liquids but humans have been known to survive some months without food. Drinks often consumed include:
- Water
- tap water
- bottled water
- Juice
- fruit juices
- vegetable juices
- Soft drinks
- Aguas frescas
- Lemonade
- Orange drink
- Carbonated drinks
- Carbonated water
- Cola, both generic and brand name
- Ginger ale
- Irn Bru
- Root beer, Sarsaparilla
- Cream soda
- Dandelion and burdock
- Squash, a fruit-flavoured syrup diluted with water.
- Sports drinks
- Infusions
- Coffee
- Tea
- Dairy drinks
- Almond milk
- chocolate milk
- egg nog
- milkshake
- milk
- Horchata
- yogurt drink
- Alcoholic beverages
- Cocktails - mixed drinks
- Hot beverages, for example coffee, tea, hot chocolate, hot cider, cappuccino
- Pearl milk tea, a.k.a. Bubble Tea, is a Chinese tea drink popular in many parts of the world. Some substances may either be called food or drink, and accordingly be eaten with a spoon or drunk, depending on solid ingredients in it and on how thick it is, and on preference:
- Soup
- Yogurt Hot beverages like coffee can cause scalding when drunk before cooling, or spilled. See McDonald's coffee case.

External links

- [http://www.drinkswap.com DrinkSwap.com 10,000+Drink Recipes] ko:음료 ja:飲料

Excise tax

An excise is an indirect tax or duty levied on items within a country. It is an ad valorem tax on specific goods or a fixed rate tax on specific goods; in this manner it differs from a general sales tax or value added tax. Excise duties usually have one of two purposes, either to raise revenue or to discourage particular behaviour. Taxes such as those on fuel, alcohol and tobacco are often justified on both grounds. But theoretical economics suggests that the optimal revenue raising taxes should be levied on items with an inelastic demand, while behaviour altering taxes should be levied where demand is elastic. Excise taxes can be imposed at the point of production or importation, or at the point of sale. They are usually waived or refunded on goods being exported, so as to encourage exports, though they are often re-imposed by the importing country. Smugglers will seek to obtain items at a point at which they are not taxed and then sell them at price between the pre-tax and post-tax price. They also look to find loopholes, which may exist through importing to different countries, before then exporting to the destination country. For similar items, excise duties are the same for imported and domestically produced goods; if the tax is different, then there is an explicit or implicit customs duty or tariff. Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language defined excise in 1755 as A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid. While presenting before the Supreme Court, Mr. Edward F. McClennen described the excise tax as follows: :"Excise," in England and in the Colonies, for at least one hundred and forty years before it was used in the Constitution, meant an inland levy on selected tangible property, or upon the owners of it, because of the activity in which the property was moving, as in the manufacture, in intermediate sale, or in the ultimate sale commonly amounting to consumption. The antithesis was the direct tax upon property in general, certainly land, when taxed on a rate fixed by its static appraised capital value, possibly when measured by its annual unwrought return in rent, income, or products, and, debatably, upon personal property so appraised or judged. Both the direct tax and the excise were preeminently property taxes, -- one regardless of its activity or inactivity, and the other taking that activity into consideration. In 1766 Dr. Johnson defined "excise" as "a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property." Dict. (3d ed., 1766). He defined "commodity" as "interest, advantage, profit, convenience of time or place, wares, merchandise." Id. "Commodity" suggests, as the principal thought, merchandise. In 1776 Adam Smith in his "The Wealth of Nations" said, "The duties of excise are imposed chiefly upon goods of home produce destined for home consumption. They are imposed only upon a few sorts of goods of the most general use." In 1780 the Massachusetts constitution indicated direct taxes to be the normal source of revenue, but gave the legislature authority to impose "reasonable duties and excises, upon any produce, goods, wares, merchandise, and commodities, whatsoever." In 1788 the Constitutional Convention of New York urged an amendment to the Constitution "That the Congress do not impose any excise on any article (ardent spirits excepted) of the growth, production, or manufacture of the United States, or any of them." 1 Elliot's Debates 72; Luther Martin said "By the power to lay excises, -- a power very odious in its nature, since it authorizes officers to go into your houses, your kitchens, your cellars, and to examine into your private concerns, -- the Congress may impose duties on every article of use or consumption, on the food that we eat, on the liquors that we drink, on the clothes that we wear, the glass which enlightens our houses, or the hearths necessary for our warmth and comfort." Cf. Chancellor Livingston in the New York Convention, 2 id. 341; Nicholas in the Virginia Convention, 3 id. 243; also 5 id. 40; Hamilton, Federalist, No. 21, p. 182; Ellsworth, Connecticut Convention, 2 Elliot 192; Writings of Gallatin, p. 73.

Alcoholic

Alcoholism is a dependency on alcoholic beverages characterized by craving (a strong need to drink), loss of control (being unable to stop drinking despite a desire to do so), physical dependence, tolerance (increasing difficulty of becoming drunk), and withdrawal symptoms. drunk] The American Psychiatric Association no longer recognizes the existence of "alcoholism" as a diagnostic category. With the publication of the DSM-III in 1980, two separate syndromes of alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse replace the earlier category. Although the word "alcoholism" survives in popular usage and in the literature of certain groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, the medical community recognizes the term through those two syndromes. [http://www.psychologynet.org/alcohol.html] The World Health Organization also dropped the diagnostic category "alcoholism" in 1979, replacing it with the diagnostic categories "alcohol dependence" and "harmful use" (ICD-9, ICD-10). [http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa30.htm] Although acceptance of the disease model is declining, the American Hospital Association, the [http://www.apha.org American Public Health Association], the National Association of Social Workers, and the American College of Physicians classify "alcoholism" as a disease. The American Psychiatric Association recognizes alcohol abuse disorder and alcohol dependence disorder as two separate substance related disorders. The idea that alcoholism is a disease is more in congruence with the beliefs of Alcoholics Anonymous than the consensus of the scientific community. In a 1992 JAMA article, the Joint Committee of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and the American Society of Addiction Medicine published this definition for alcoholism: "Alcoholism is a primary chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, mostly denial. Each of these symptoms may be continuous or periodic." It must be borne in mind that the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence is an organization founded by AA member Marty Mann in order to promote AA's views of alcohol and alcoholism, rather than to further scientific research. American Society of Addiction Medicine The causes for alcohol abuse and dependence cannot be easily explained. However, the unscientific prejudice the roots are from moral or ethical weakness on the part of the sufferer has been largely altered. A recent poll found that 90% of Americans currently believe that "alcoholism" is a disease. Today, alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence are major public health problems in North America, costing the region's inhabitants an estimated US$170 billion annually. Alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence are life-threatening problems that sometimes end in death, particularly through liver, pancreatic, or kidney disease, internal bleeding, brain deterioration, alcohol poisoning, and suicide. Heavy alcohol consumption by a pregnant mother can also lead to fetal alcohol syndrome in the fetus, an uncurable and damaging condition. Additionally, alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence are major contributing factors for head injuries, motor vehicle accidents (MVA), violence and assaults, neurological, and other medical problems ( cirrhosis, etc.). Of the one half of the North American population who consume alcohol, it has been estimated by some that 10% are alcohol abusers and alcohol dependents, and 6% consume more than half of all alcohol. Stereotypes of alcohol abusers and alcohol dependents are often found in fiction and popular culture: for example the "town drunk," or the stereotype of Russians and the Irish as alcoholics. In modern times, the recovery movement has led to more realistic portraits of abusers and dependents and their problems, such as in Charles R. Jackson's The Lost Weekend, or the films Days of Wine and Roses, and My Name is Bill W. Alcohol dependence can be harder to break and significantly more damaging than dependence on most other addictive substances. The physical symptoms when withdrawing from alcohol can be quite severe and dangerous, with death reported in extreme cases.

Screening

Several tools may be used to detect the habitual abuse of alcohol. The CAGE questionnaire, developed by Dr. John Ewing and named for its four questions, is one such example that may be used to screen patients quickly in a doctor's office. Two "yes" responses for a male and one "yes" response for a female indicate that the respondent should be investigated further. The questionnaire asks the following questions: # Have you ever felt you needed to Cut down on your drinking? # Have people Annoyed you by criticising your drinking? # Have you ever felt Guilty about drinking? # Have you ever felt you needed a drink first thing in the morning (Eye-opener) to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover? Another screening questionnaire is the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), developed by the World Health Organization. The Alcohol Dependence Data Questionnaire [http://eib.emcdda.eu.int/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.Content&nNodeID=3556&sLanguageISO=EN] is a more sensitive diagnostic test than the CAGE test. The Alcohol Dependence Data Questionnaire serves to distinguish a diagnosis of alcohol dependence from one of alcohol abuse.

Blood tests

Although there is no blood test specific for alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence, prolonged heavy alcohol consumption may lead to several abnormalities, including:
- Macrocytosis (enlarged MCV)¹
- Elevated GGT²
- Moderate elevation of AST and ALT and an AST:ALT ratio of 2:1.
- High carbohydrate-deficient transferrin²

Medical effects

The long-term effects of alcohol dependency can include:
- pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas (but the acute and chronic form)
- heart disease, including coronary artery disease and dilated cardiomyopathy
- polyneuropathy, or damage to the nerves leading to poor sensation or pain
- cirrhosis of the liver, a chronic disease characterized by destruction of liver cells and loss of liver function, and its numerous complications, including bleeding from esophageal varices
- depression, insomnia, anxiety, and suicide
- hypertension (high blood pressure)
- increased incidence of many types of cancer, including breast cancer, head and neck cancer, esophageal cancer and colorectal cancer
- nutritional deficiency of folic acid, thiamine (vitamin B1) and several others
- Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a neuropsychiatric disorder caused by thiamine deficiency that results from poor nutrition in alcoholics
- Personality changes toward others, especially those who are close
- significant damage to occupational, social, and interpersonal areas, including sexual dysfunction

Treatments

Treatments for alcohol dependence include detoxification programs run by medical institutions. These may involve stays for a number of weeks in specialized hospital wards where drugs may be used to avoid withdrawal symptoms, which in severe cases may lead to death. After detoxification, various forms of group therapy or psychotherapy can be used to deal with underlying psychological issues leading to alcohol dependence. Aversion therapies may be supported by drugs like Disulfiram, which causes a strong and prompt hangover whenever alcohol is consumed. Naltrexone may improve compliance with abstinence planning. The standard pharmocopoeia of antidepressants, anxiolytics, and other psychotropic drugs treat underlying mood disorders, neuroses, and psychoses associated with alcoholic symptoms. Another treatment program is based on nutritional therapy. Many alcohol dependents have insulin resistance syndrome, a metabolic disorder where the body's difficulty in processing sugars causes an unsteady supply to the blood stream. While the disorder can be treated by a hypoglycemic diet, this can affect behaviour and emotions, side-effects often seen among alcohol dependents in treatment. The metabolic aspects of such dependence are often overlooked, resulting in poor treatment outcomes. See: [http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au] In the mid-1930s, the mutual-help group-counselling approach to treatment began and has become very popular. Alcoholics Anonymous is possibly the best-known example of this movement. Some programs attempt to help problem drinkers before they become dependents. These programs focus on harm-reduction and reducing alcohol intake as opposed to cold-turkey approaches. One such program is called Moderation Management.

Social impact

Moderation ManagementThe social problems arising from alcohol abuse can include loss of employment, financial problems, marital conflict and divorce, convictions for crimes such as drunk driving or public disorder, loss of accommodation, and loss of respect from others who may see the problem as self-inflicted and easily avoided. Alcohol dependence affects not only the addicted but can profoundly impact the family members around them. Children of alcohol dependents can be affected even after they are grown; the behaviors commonly exhibited by such children are collectively known as Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome. Al-Anon/Alateen, a group modelled after Alcoholics Anonymous, offers aid to friends and family members of alcohol dependents. Many people incorrectly assume that once an alcohol dependent stops drinking, all is well. However, many people who have stopped drinking still refer to themselves as "alcoholics" or "recovering alcoholics." Thought patterns may also continue to be impaired as in the Dry drunk syndrome.

Social dependence versus physical dependence

Symptoms of a person's dependence on alcohol may include, but are not limited to, a feeling of necessity in regard to consumption of alcohol, or an inability to resist alcohol if offered. Though these symptoms often arise from a physical dependence on the substance, it is not uncommon for individuals, especially teenagers and adolescents between the ages of fifteen and twenty, to rely on alcohol as a means of social interaction. If a person cannot refuse alcohol in the presence of others, insists on drinking alcohol excessively for fear of alienation and neglect, or feels they cannot socially interact with others unless under the influence then this person is considered socially dependent on the substance. These traits can be noticed in individuals who relocate (such as students attending a new university) whereby an individual with no history of alcohol consumption begins to consume alcohol in order to associate and relate to others. Social dependence, though not physically threatening in early stages, can lead to physical dependence if the person cannot control their urges and more so their reasons for drinking. It should be noted that use of the term urges are not merely to express a sense of want for taste but could also be an urge that is stimulated by an individuals satisfaction in what is often referred to as "the buzz." It is a sense of euphoria brought on by at least in most people bearing a low tolerance to alcohol in about 2-3 standard drinks (100 proof or 50% alcohol) in a given hours time. Individuals bearing a higher tolerance to alcohol usually still crave "the buzz". Over time, the amount of alcohol needed to achieve the same affect increases dramatically as tolerance increases. A persons "social dependence" is by the Prevention Research Institute from Kentucky (www.askpri.com), as a condition that a person experiences and re-experiences in a social setting. It reflects the habitual experiences one has as they enjoy "partying" with the same people. This social dependence tends to accept and encourage high risk drinking as individuals trade in the "buying of rounds," "having drinking contests," and may provide an acceptance of drunken behavior that is usually embarrassing for groups of people who do not drink 5 or more drinks in a setting. In other words, people who have a low tolerance to alcohol and drink in a social setting may express to their social group that may have drunk too much and shouldn't have for example, "drove home." However, in socially dependent groups who experience a higher consumption drinks (more than 5 standard drinks)in a setting such experiences are very common (driving home when they shouldn't have) and their experiences are accepted as normal in the drinking group as they often speak of (blackouts, passing out, forgetting where the keys are or where the car was parked)incidents which are potential dangerous and life threatening. Common phrases heard are, "so you got arrested while driving drunk? Welcome to the club!" This does not mean to implicate individuals who have ever passed out, had a horrible hangover, or drove when they shouldn't are socially dependent on alcohol. It would be a matter the repeated behavior of at least 3 times in a year which may indicate substance abuse. Reflect on your own use: Should a person believe they may be socially dependent or rather their fellow drinkers may be part of the problem is speak with your regular drinking friends and tell them that you are planning to cut down on drinking and cannot have more than 4 drinks on a current drinking occasion (3 drinks is safest). Should they respect it and tend not to push anymore than you desire, your group of friends may not be a risk for your consumption. But if you believe it would be hard to leave with just 4 drinks or stop at 4 without encouragement from them to continue drinking; then you may be involved in a socially dependent group of friends. On the other hand, if such a statement of 4 drinks in a setting is unheard of or unrealistic based on your own drinking experiences, drinking amounts and tolerance to alcohol, you would be advised to make conscious choices to cut down. You should know that in a study of young men drinking 5 or more drinks in a setting within in a 9 year period of time over 60% had serious alcohol related problems within that time period. In a continuation of the study to 12 years discoverd that the number of drinking days in a given week had decreased significantly than the first year but amount consumed increased significantly even though the drinking episodes decreased (www.askpri.org)what also increased was the number of days of missed school or work, blackouts, and shaking of hands and fingers the next morning.

Alcohol politics and public health

Because alcohol abuse affects society as a whole, governments and parliaments have formed alcohol policies in order to reduce the harm of alcoholism. The World Health Organization, the European Union and other regional bodies are working on alcohol action plans and programs. Organisations working with alcohol abusers include:
- Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
- IOGT International (IOGT)
- LifeRing Secular Recovery (LifeRing)
- Men For Sobriety (MFS)
- Moderation Management (MM)
- Rational Recovery (RR)
- Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS)
- Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART)
- Women For Sobriety (WFS)

Alcohol withdrawal

There are several distinct but not mutually exclusive clinical alcohol withdrawal syndromes caused by alcohol withdrawal:
- Tremulousness - "the shakes"
- Activation syndrome - characterized by tremulousness, agitation, rapid heart beat and high blood pressure.
- Seizures - acute grand mal seizures can occur in alcohol withdrawal in patients who have no history of seizure or any structural brain disease.
- Hallucinations - usually visual or tactile in alcoholics
- Delirium tremens - can be severe and often fatal. Unlike withdrawal from opioids such as heroin, which can be unpleasant but never fatal, alcohol withdrawal can kill (by uncontrolled convulsions or delirium tremens) if it is not properly managed. The pharmacological management of alcohol withdrawal is based on the fact that alcohol, barbiturates, and benzodiazepines have remarkably similar effects on the brain and can be substituted for each other. Since benzodiazepines are the safest of the three classes of drugs, alcohol consumption is terminated and a long-acting benzodiazepine is substituted to block the alcohol withdrawal syndrome. The benzodiazepine dosage is then tapered slowly over a period of days or weeks.

External links

- [http://atoz.iqhealth.com/HealthAnswers/encyclopedia/HTMLfiles/2790.html Alcohol dependence at iqhealth.com]
- [http://www.mental-health-matters.com/disorders/dis_details.php?disID=4 Mental Health Matters: Alcohol Addiction]
- [http://www.psychforums.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=152 Psych Forums: Alcohol Addiction Forum]
- [http://www.alkoholpolitik.ch: Independent private site in German with some English texts]
- [http://health.dailynewscentral.com/content/view/0001478/31//alcohol_tolerance_genetic.html Alcohol Tolerance May Be Genetic] health.dailynewscentral.com
- [http://www.lifewisewa.com/pdfs/012695.pdf CAGE Questionnaire (PDF)]
- [http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/ Alcoholics Anonymous]
- [http://www.nicd.us/ NICD: Alcoholism/addiction resources, treatment locator, family assistance and help]

References

1. Tonnesen H, Hejberg L, Frobenius S, Andersen JR. Erythrocyte mean cell volume--correlation to drinking pattern in heavy alcoholics. Acta Med Scand. 1986;219(5):515-8. ([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3739755&dopt=Abstract Medline abstract]) 2. Schwan R, Albuisson E, Malet L, Loiseaux MN, Reynaud M, Schellenberg F, Brousse G, Llorca PM. The use of biological laboratory markers in the diagnosis of alcohol misuse: an evidence-based approach. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2004 Jun 11;74(3):273-9. ([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15194205 Medline abstract]) 3. Ewing, John A. “Detecting Alcoholism: The CAGE Questionaire” JAMA 252: 1905-1907, 1984 Category:Alcohol_abuse Category:Drinking culture Category:Social stigma ko:술 중독 ja:アルコール依存症

Distilled beverage

:Spirits redirects here. For other uses of the word, see spirit (disambiguation). :Liquor redirects here. For the cartoon character, see George Liquor. George Liquor A distilled beverage, also called spirits or liquor, is a preparation for consumption containing ethyl alcohol purified by distillation from a fermented substance such as wine, malt, or grain. Distilled beverage is usually restricted to alcoholic beverages.

Background

Beer and wine are generally limited to a maximum alcohol content of about 15 percent by volume, beyond which yeast is adversely affected and cannot ferment; although in recent years high alcohol tolerant yeast strains have been used with special brewing techniques to increase this maximum up to about 23%. Alcohol levels higher than 15% have historically been obtained in a number of ways. Wine heated in an animal bladder draws out water and leaves alcohol behind (the bladder has a natural property which removes water), but there is no evidence this method was used before modern times. Another method, called freeze distillation, involves freezing the alcoholic beverage and removing water crystals, a method which has been known to have been in use in central Asia, known as the "Mongolian still", as early as the 7th century (Needham, 1980). In Europe and North America, this method was used to make applejack from cider. However the freezing method had limitations in geography and implementation and thus did not have widespread use. This leaves the method of distillation from which most of the history of potable spirits is drawn.

Distillation history

Ancient

In a basic form the technique of distillation goes back to Babylonia in the fourth millennium BC when specially shaped clay pots, it is thought, were used to extract some small amounts of distilled alcohol through natural cooling, for the manufacture of perfumes. It is unlikely this device ever played a meaningful role in the history of the development of the still. Distillation seems to have been known by alchemists in Alexandria, around the 3rd century AD, who used alcohol only for the coloring of metal and sublimation and was not widely known.

Middle East

The development of the still with cooled collector — necessary for the distillation of spirits — was an invention of Arab and Persian alchemists in the 8th or 9th centuries. In particular, Geber (Jabir Ibn Hayyan, 721–815) invented the alembic still, from which he observed heated wine released a flammable vapor, which he described as "of little use, but of great importance to science". Not much later the Al-Razi (864–930) described the distillation of alcohol and its use in medicine. By that time, distilled spirits were not just chemical products, but fairly popular beverages: the poet Abu Nuwas (d. 813) describes a wine that "has the color of rain-water but is as hot inside the ribs as a burning firebrand". The terms "alembic" and "alcohol", and possibly the metaphors "spirit" and aqua vitæ ("life-water") for the distilled product, can be traced to Middle Eastern alchemy. Names like "life water" have continued to be the inspiration for the names of several types of beverages, like Gaelic whisky, French eaux-de-vie and possibly vodka. Also, the Scandinavian akvavit spirit gets its name from the Latin phrase aqua vitae.

Europe

Alcohol appears first in Europe in the mid 12th century among alchemists, who were more interested in medical "elixirs" than making gold from lead. It first appears under the name aqua ardens (burning water) in the Compendium Salerni from the medical school at Salerno. The recipe was written in code suggesting it was kept a secret. Taddeo Alderotti in his Consilia medicinalis refers to the "serpente" which is believed to have been the coiled tube of a still. Paracelsus gave alcohol its modern name, taking it from the Arabic word which means "finely divided", in reference to what is done to wine. His test was to burn a spoonful without leaving any residue. Other ways of testing were to burn a cloth soaked in it without actually harming the cloth. In both cases to achieve this effect the alcohol had to have been at least 95 percent. Claims on the origins of alcoholic beverages are controversial, often invoking national pride, but they are plausible after the 12th century when Irish whiskey, German Hausbrand and German Brandy can all be safely said to have arrived. These beverages would have had much lower alcohol content, around 40 percent, and had "universal" medicinal elixir application. After the mid 14th century, when distilled liquors were commonly applied as remedies for the Black Death, consumption of liquor rose dramatically in Europe. Around 1400 it was discovered how to distill spirits from beer and grain spirits (corn, barley, rye) and even sawdust was used to make alcohol, a much cheaper option than grapes. Thus began the "national" drinks of Europe: jenever (Belgium and the Netherlands), gin (England), schnapps (Germany), aquavit (Scandinavia), vodka (Russia and Poland), rakia (Balkans). The actual names only emerged in the 16th century but the drinks were well known.

References

- Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, V, pt.4 (1980).
- Robert Forbes, Short History of the Art of Distillation, 1948.
- Robert Multhauf, The Origins of Chemistry, 1966.
- [http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1114796842.html History of Alcohol and Drinking Around the World] Category:Alcohol Category:Distillation ja:蒸留酒

Compact disc

A compact disc (or CD) is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. It is the standard playback format for commercial audio recordings today. A standard compact disc, often known as an "audio CD" to differentiate it from later variants, stores audio data in a format compliant with the red book standard. An audio CD consists of several stereo tracks stored using 16-bit PCM coding at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. Standard compact discs have a diameter of 120 mm, though 80-mm versions exist in circular and "business-card" forms. The 120-mm discs can hold 74 minutes of audio, and versions holding 80 or even 90 minutes have been introduced. The 80-mm discs are used as "CD-singles" or novelty "business-card CDs". They hold about 20 minutes of audio. Compact disc technology was later adapted for use as a data storage device, known as a CD-ROM.

History

In the early 1970s, using video Laserdisc technology, Philips' researchers started experiments with "audio-only" optical discs, initially with wideband frequency modulation FM and later digitized PCM audio signals. At the end of the 70s, Philips, Sony, and other companies presented prototypes of digital audio discs. In 1979 Philips and Sony decided to join forces, setting up a joint taskforce of engineers whose mission was to design the new digital audio disc. Prominent members of the taskforce were Kees Immink and Toshitada Doi. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the taskforce produced the "Red Book", the Compact Disc standard. Philips contributed the general manufacturing process, based on the video Laserdisc technology. Philips also contributed the Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation, EFM, which offers both a large playing time and a high resilience against disc handling damage such as scratches and fingerprints; while Sony contributed the error-correction method, CIRC. The [http://www.exp-math.uni-essen.de/~immink/pdf/cdstory.pdf Compact Disc Story], told by a former member of the taskforce, gives background information on the many technical decisions made, including the choice of the sampling frequency, playing time, and disc diameter. According to Philips, the Compact Disc was thus "invented collectively by a large group of people working as a team."[http://www.research.philips.com/newscenter/dossier/optrec/index.html] The Compact Disc reached the market in late 1982 in Asia and early the following year in other markets. This event is often seen as the "Big Bang" of the digital audio revolution. The new audio disc was enthusiastically received and its handling quality received particular praise. From its origins as a music format, Compact Disc has grown to encompass other applications. Two years later, in 1985, the CD-ROM (read-only memory) was introduced. With this it was now possible to disseminate massive amounts of computer data instead of digital sound. A user-recordable CD for data storage, CD-R, was introduced in the early 1990s, and it became the de facto standard for exchange and archiving of computer data and music. The CD and its later extensions have been extremely successful: in 2004 the annual worldwide sales of CD-Audio, CD-ROM, and CD-R reached about 30 billion discs.

Physical details

Compact discs are made from a 1.2 mm thick disc of polycarbonate plastic coated with a much thinner layer of Super Purity Aluminium (or rarely, gold, used for its data longevity, such as in some limited-edition audiophile CDs) layer which is protected by a film of lacquer. The lacquer can be printed with a label. Common printing methods for compact discs are silkscreening and offset printing. CDs are available in two sizes. By far the most common is 120 mm in diameter, with a 74-minute audio capacity and a 650-MB data (See storage capacity; this form factor has also erroneously been called "CD5" since it is about five inches across). Such a standard disc weighs 15 grams. They are also available as 80-mm discs, a format which is mainly used for audio CD singles in some regions (e.g. Japan), much like the old vinyl single. Each such "miniCD" or "Maxi CD" can hold 21 minutes of music, or 180 MB of data (this form factor has also been called "CD3", since it is about three inches across). Other unique shapes and smaller form factors have also been sold or given away as promotional items. Examples include Business Card CDs in the shape of a rectangular card and CDs shaped like the map of a country etc. There is 15-mm hole in the centre of the disc, usually used by some form of clamp or clip device within the player to hold it in place and allow it to be rotated by a motor. The information on a standard CD is encoded as a spiral track of pits moulded into the top of the polycarbonate layer (The areas between pits are known as lands). Each pit is approximately 125 nm deep by 500 nm wide, and varies from 850 nm to 3.5 μm long. The spacing between the tracks is 1.6 μm. To grasp the scale of the pits and land of a CD, if the disc is enlarged to the size of a stadium, a pit would be approximately the size of a grain of sand. The spiral begins at the center of the disc and proceeds outwards to the edge, which allows the different size formats available. A CD is read by focusing a 780 nm wavelength semiconductor laser through the bottom of the polycarbonate layer. The difference in height between pits and lands is one quarter of the wavelength of the laser light, leading to a half-wavelength phase difference between the light reflected from a pit and from its surrounding land. The destructive interference thus reduces the intensity of the reflected light compared to when the laser is focused on just a land. By measuring this intensity with a photodiode, one is able to read the data from the disc. The pits and lands themselves do not represent the zeroes and ones of binary data. Instead a change from pit to land or land to pit indicates a one, while no change indicates a zero. This in turn is decoded by reversing the Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation used in mastering the disc, finally revealing the raw data stored on the disc. Pits are much closer to the label side of a disc, so that defects and dirt on the clear side can be out of focus during playback. Consequently, discs are much easier to ruin by scratching their label side, whereas clear-side scratches can be repaired by refilling them with plastic of similar index of refraction.

Audio format

The format of the audio disc, known as the "Red Book"/Sony standard, was laid out by Sony and Philips in 1981. Philips is responsible for the licensing program of the intellectual property pertinent to the Compact Disc including the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo that appears on the disc. In broad terms the format is a two-channel (four-channel sound is an allowed option within the Red Book format, but has never been implemented) stereo 16-bit PCM encoding at a 44.1 kHz sampling rate. Reed-Solomon error correction allows the CD to be scratched to a certain degree and still be played back. The sampling rate of 44.1 kHz is inherited from a method of converting digital audio into an analog video signal for storage on video tape, which was the most affordable way to store it at the time the CD specification was being developed. A device that turns an analog audio signal into PCM audio, which in turn is changed into an analog video signal is called a PCM adaptor. This technology could store six samples (three samples per each stereo channel) in a single horizontal line. A standard NTSC video signal has 245 usable lines per field, and 59.94 fields/s, which works out at 44,056 samples/s. Similarly PAL has 294 lines and 50 fields, which gives 44,100 samples/s. This system could either store 14-bit samples with some error correction, or 16-bit samples with almost no error correction. There was a long debate over whether to use 14 or 16 bit samples and/or 44,056 or 44,100 samples/s when the Sony/Philips task force designed the compact disc; 16 bits and 44.1 kilo-samples/s prevailed. The Sony PCM-1610 and PCM-1630 are well known examples of PCM adaptors used in conjunction with the Sony U-matic VCR.

Storage capacity

The main parameters of the CD (taken from the September 1983 issue of the compact disc specification) are as follows:
- Scanning velocity: 1.2–1.4 m/s (constant linear velocity) - Equivalent to about 500 rpm at the inside of the disc, or about 200 rpm at the outside edge.
- Track pitch: 1.6 μm.
- Disc diameter 120 mm.
- Disc thickness: 1.2 mm.
- Inner radius program area: 25 mm.
- Outer radius program area: 58 mm. The program area is 86.05 cm², so that the length of the recordable spiral is 86.05/1.6 = 5.38 km. With a scanning speed of 1.2 m/s, the playing time is 74 minutes, or around 650 MB of data on a CD-ROM. If the disc diameter were 115 mm, the maximum playing time would have been 68 minutes, i.e., six minutes less. A disc with data appearing slightly more densely is allowable. Using a linear velocity of 1.2 m/s and a track pitch of 1.5 micrometre leads to a playing time of 80 minutes, or a capacity of 700 MB. This is the limit for most conventional audio CDs today. Another technique to increase the capacity of a disc is store data in the lead out groove that is normally used to indicate the end of a disk, and an extra minute or two of recording is often possible. However, these discs can cause problems in playback when the end of the disc is reached. The 74-minute playing time of a CD, being more than that of most long-playing vinyl albums, was often used to the format's advantage during the early years when CDs and LPs vied for commerical sales. CDs would often be released with one or more bonus tracks, enticing consumers to buy the CD for the extra material. However, attempts to combine double LPs onto one CD occasionally resulted in an opposing situation in which the CD would actually offer fewer tracks than the LP equivalent.

Data structure

The smallest entity in the CD audio format is called a frame. A frame can accommodate six complete 16-bit stereo samples, i.e. 2×2×6 = 24 bytes. Data in a CD-ROM are organized in both frames and sectors. A CD-ROM sector contains 98 frames, and holds 98×24 = 2352 bytes. The CD-ROM is in essence a data disc, which cannot rely on error concealment, and it requires therefore a higher reliability of the retrieved data. In order to achieve improved error correction and detection, a CD-ROM has a third layer of Reed-Solomon error correction. Note that the CIRC error correction system used in the CD audio format has two interleaved layers. A Mode-1 CD-ROM, which has the full third layer error correction capability, contains a net 2048 bytes of the available 2352 per sector. In a Mode-2 CD-ROM, which is mostly used for video files, there are 2336 user-available bytes per sector. The net byte rate of a Mode-1 CD-ROM is 44.1k×2048/(6×98) = 153.6 kbyte/s. The playing time is 74 minutes, or 4440 seconds, so that the net capacity of a Mode-1 CD-ROM is 682 Mbyte.

Subcode

Besides digital audio, a CD contains digital data called "subcode", which is multiplexed with the digital audio. The data in a CD are arranged in frames. A frame comprises 33 bytes, of which 24 are audio bytes (six full stereo samples), eight error correction, CIRC-generated, bytes plus one subcode byte. The eight bits of a subcode byte are available for control and display. The eight bits are used as eight different subcoding channels, and given letters designating their usage: P, Q, …, W. Thus each channel has a bit rate of 7.35 (=44.1/6) kbit/s. In each sector there are 2352 bytes (24×98) of audio content data and 96 bytes of subchannel data. The 96 bytes of subchannel information in each sector contain four packets of 24 bytes apiece: 1 byte for command, 1 byte for instruction, 2 bytes for parityQ, 16 bytes for data, and 4 bytes parityP. Each of the 96 subchannel data bytes can be thought of as being divided into eight bits. Each of these bits corresponds to a separate stream of information. These streams are called "channels", and are labeled starting with the letter P, like so: Channel P is a simple pause/music flag, which can be used for low-cost search systems. Quite a few players ignore it in favor of the Q Channel. Channel Q is used for control purposes of more sophisticated players. It contains positioning information, the Media Catalog Number (MCN), and International Standard Recording Code (ISRC). The ISRC is used by the media industry, and contains information about the country of origin, the year of publication, owner of the rights, as well as a serial number, and some additional tags: ;Data: This track contains Data (rather than audio). Can be used for muting in audio CD players. ;Copy Flag: Used by the Serial Copy Management System to indicate permission to digitally copy the track. ;Four Channel Audio: The track uses four channel audio. This is very rarely used on Compact Discs. ;Pre-Emphasis: The audio track was recorded with pre-emphasis. Used very rarely on Compact Discs. Channels R…W are unused by Red-Book compliant CDs, and have been used for extensions to the standard.

CD-Text

CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book standard for audio CDs. It allows for storage of additional information (e.g. album name, song name, and artist) on a standards-compliant audio CD. The information is stored in the lead-in area of the CD (there is roughly five kilobytes space there), or in the Subchannels R to W on the disc, which are not used on Red-Book compliant CDs. About 31 megabytes of information can be stored there. The text is stored in a format usable by the Interactive Text Transmission System (ITTS). ITTS is also used by Digital Audio Broadcasting or the MiniDisc. Note that other extensions such as CD+G also use those subchannels to store graphics in.

The AAD, ADD, DDD code for audio CDs

Many CDs, especially classical music, but also many popular recordings (especially on early CDs), come with a three letter code printed on the back, where "A" stands for analog and "D" stands for digital. The first letter represents how the album was recorded, the second how it was mixed, and the third how it was transferred (inevitably a D, as the CD is a digital medium). As a result, almost all early CDs are "AAD" (analog recording and mixing, digital transfer to CD). Often this code was accompanied by a short description such as "Full Digital Recording" for DDD and "Digitally Mixed Analog Recording" for ADD. Although experimental recordings exist from the 1960s, digital recording of classical and jazz music began to be made commercially in the early 1970s, pioneered by Japanese companies such as Denon; the first 16-bit PCM recording in the United States was made by Thomas Stockham at the Santa Fe Opera in 1976 on a Soundstream recorder. In most such cases, there was no mixing stage involved; a stereo digital recording was made and used unaltered as the master tape for subsequent commercial release. These, and other subsequent unmixed digital recordings are still described as DDD, as the technology involved is purely digital. (Likewise, unmixed analog recordings are usually described as ADD, to denote a single generation of analog recording). The first digitally recorded (DDD) popular music album was Bop Till You Drop by Ry Cooder, recorded in late 1978; it was unmixed, being recorded straight to a two-track 3M digital recorder in the studio. Many other top recording artists, such as Stevie Wonder, were early adherents of digital recording; Wonder adopted the technology in early 1979 for Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants and all subsequent recordings. Others, such as former Beatles producer George Martin, felt that the multitrack digital recording technology of the early 1980s had not reached the sophistication of analog systems; however, he used digital mixing to eliminate the distortion and noise that an analog master tape would introduce (thus ADD). An early example of an analog recording that was digitally mixed is Tusk by Fleetwood Mac, from 1979. By the time the compact disc was introduced worldwide, digital recording and mixing was becoming commonplace among recording artists and producers known for their interest in fidelity. Two examples from 1982 are Signals by Rush, and The Nightfly by Donald Fagen. A few examples of DAD recordings exist, mostly of works that were originally recorded digitally but later remixed by artists who preferred to work with analog technology. A notable example is Herb Alpert's Rise album from 1979. When it started making LPs and cassettes, the originally CD-only label Ryko extended this system to the other media, so that a digital recording on an LP would be DDA, and so forth.

CD-ROM

For its first few years of existence, the compact disc was purely an audio format. However, in 1985 Yellow Book CD-ROM standard was established by Sony and Philips, which defined a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive.

Recordability

Injection moulding is used to mass produce compact discs. A "stamper" is made from the original media (audio tape, data disc, etc.) by writing to a glass disc (referred to as a glass master) coated with a photosensitive dye with a laser. This dye is then etched, leaving the data track. It is then plated to make a positive version of the CD. Polycarbonate is liquified and injected into the mold cavity where the stamper transfers the pattern of pits and lands to the polycarbonate disc. The disc is then metallized with aluminum and lacquer coated. Recordable compact discs are injection molded with a "blank" data spiral. A photosensitive dye is then applied, and then the discs are metallized and lacquer coated. The write laser of the CD recorder changes the characteristics of the dye to allow the read laser of a standard CD player to see the data as it would an injection molded compact disc. CD-R recordings are permanent. The resulting discs can be read by most CD-ROM drives and played in most audio CD players. CD-RW is a re-recordable medium that uses a metallic alloy instead of a dye. The write laser in this case is used to heat and alter the chemical properties of the alloy and hence change its reflectivity. A CD-RW does not have as great a difference in the reflectivity of lands and bumps as a pressed CD or a CD-R, and so many CD audio players cannot read CD-RW discs, although the majority of standalone DVD players can.

Copy protection

The Red Book audio specification does not include any copy protection mechanism. Ripping is the process by which the contents of an audio disc is copied out verbatim to a duplicate disc or re-encoded into some other format, such as MP3. An error-correcting code is included with Red Book audio to deal with small scratches or defects on the disc media. Where error correction fails on larger defects, audio CD players are expected to apply interpolation algorithms to conceal the loss of audio data. Starting in early 2002, attempts were made by record companies to market "copy-protected" compact discs. Some of these deliberately introduced error patterns into audio tracks severe enough to defeat the error-correcting code (and hence defeat most CD-ROM drives attempting to copy the tracks as data), but not so disruptive as to prevent interpolation from working (hence allowing the same tracks to be played in audio mode without overly affecting fidelity). Another copy protection method places a data track (usually containing bonus software for computer users) at the end of the disc and gives it an invalid size in the disc's table of contents. This is intended to prevent the data track from being ripped, but can be defeated by ignoring the table of contents and reading the disc sector by sector. Philips has stated that such discs are not permitted to bear the trademarked Compact Disc Digital Audio logo because they violate the Red Book specification. It also seems likely that Philips' new models of CD recorders will be designed to be able to record from these "protected" discs. However, there has been great public outcry over copy-protected discs because many see it as a threat to fair use. Other systems developed are Macrovision CDS-200 and Mediamax CD-3. In any case, even if a disc cannot be directly ripped, it can still be played in audio mode, and the audio thence captured. Any loss of sound quality caused by this method is generally considered negligible. This is commonly referred to as the analog hole.

Non-standard CD behaviors

Some commercially released audio discs have a "secret" bonus track. These may be an extension of the last audio track or a separate track hidden from the disc's table of contents. Either way, the hidden portion is heard when the disc is played to the end. Other discs hide the extra material at the beginning of the disc. On most discs, the location of the first track listed in the table of contents immediately follows the table of contents itself. In this case, the hidden track is an unlisted track sandwiched between the two. To hear the hidden track, the listener must usually "rewind" the player past the beginning of the first listed track. Not all players allow this.

Name

Notwithstanding the variability of general usage between "disk" and "disc" [http://www.bartleby.com/61/16/C0521600.html], the customary spelling is "compact disc", rather than "compact disk". This may be in large degree due to its status as a Philips trademark under that spelling.

References

- Kees Immink, The Compact Disc Story, AES Journal, pp. 458-465, May 1998 [http://www.exp-math.uni-essen.de/~immink/pdf/cdstory.pdf].
- Kenneth C. Pohlmann (1992). The Compact Disc Handbook. Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions. ISBN 895793008.

DVD

DVD (sometimes called "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc") is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. DVDs resemble compact discs as their physical dimensions are the same (12cm in diameter) but they are encoded in a different format and at a much higher density, using the Universal Disk Format (UDF) file system. The official DVD specification is maintained by the DVD Forum.

History

In the early 1990s two high density optical storage standards were being developed: one was the MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Density Disc (SD), supported by Toshiba, Time-Warner, Matsushita Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, Thomson, and JVC. IBM's president, Lou Gerstner, acting as a matchmaker, led an effort to unite the two camps behind a single standard, anticipating a repeat of the costly format war between VHS and Betamax in the 1980s. Philips and Sony abandoned their MMCD format and agreed upon Toshiba's SD format with two modifications that are both related to the servo tracking technology. The first one was the adoption of a pit geometry that allows "push-pull" tracking, a proprietary Philips/Sony technology. The second modification was the adoption of Philips' EFMPlus. EFMPlus, created by Kees Immink, who also designed EFM, is 6% less efficient than Toshiba's SD code, which resulted in a capacity of 4.7 Gbyte instead of SD's original 5 Gbyte. The great advantage of EFMPlus is its great resilience against disc damage such as scratches and fingerprints. The result was the DVD specification Version 1.0, announced in 1995 and finalized in September 1996. The first DVD players and discs were available in November 1996 in Japan, March 1997 in the United States, 1998 in Europe and in 1999 in Australia. The first pressed DVD was the movie Twister in 1996. The movie had the first test for 2.1 surround sound. In 1999 Independence Day was the first movie to introduce 5.1 surround sound. By the spring of 1999 the price of a DVD player had dropped below the US$300 mark. At that point Wal-Mart began to offer DVD players for sale in its stores. When Wal-Mart began selling DVDs in their stores, DVDs represented only a small part of their video inventory; VHS tapes of movies made up the remainder. As of 2005 the situation is now completely reversed; DVD sales make up the bulk of gross sales and VHS is a slim minority. The price of a DVD player has dropped to below the level of a typical VCR; a low-end player with reasonable quality can be purchased for under US$50 in many retail stores and many modern computers are sold with DVD-ROM drives stock. Most, but not all, movie "sets" or series have been released in box sets, as have some entire seasons or selected episode volumes of older and newer television programs. DVD rentals first topped those of VHS during the week of June 15, 2003 (27.7M rentals DVD vs. 27.3M rentals VHS). Major U.S. retailers Circuit City and Best Buy stopped selling VHS tapes in 2002 and 2003, respectively. In June 2005, Wal-Mart and several other retailers announced plans to phase out the VHS format entirely, in favor of the more popular DVD format. According to the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), all DVD sales and rentals (films, television series, special interests, etc) totaled $21.2 billion in 2004. The sales portion of that was $15.5 billion. In comparison, the total 2004 US box office for theatrical rentals was $9.53 billion (per the National Association of Theater Owners or NATO). While the growth of theatrical films on DVD has cooled recently, that of television programs and music video has increased dramatically. In 2000, Sony released its PlayStation 2 console in Japan. In addition to playing video games developed for the system it was also able to play DVD movies. This proved to be a huge selling point because the PS2 cost about the same as DVD player but could do a whole lot more. As a result, many electronic stores that normally did not carry video game consoles carried PS2s. In keeping with this tradition, Sony has announced that it will implement one of DVD's possible successors, Blu-ray, into its next PlayStation console currently known as the PlayStation 3. Microsoft's Xbox, released a year after the PlayStation 2, also had the capability to play DVD discs with an add-on kit, cementing the DVD's place in video game consoles. "DVD" was originally an initialism for "Digital Video Disc." Some members of the DVD Forum believe that it should stand for "Digital Versatile Disc" to reflect its widespread use for non-video applications. Toshiba, which maintains the official DVD Forum site [http://www.dvdforum.org/faq-dvdprimer.htm#1], adheres to the interpretation of "Digital Versatile Disc." The DVD Forum never reached a consensus on the matter, however, and so today the official name of the format is simply "DVD"; the letters do not officially stand for anything.[http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html]

Technical information

DVDs are made from a 0.6 mm thick disc of polycarbonate plastic coated with a much thinner (reflective) aluminium layer. Two such discs are glued together to form a 1.2 mm double-sided disc. The substrates are half as thick as a CD to make it possible to use a lens with a higher numerical aperture and therefore use smaller pits and narrower tracks. A single-layer DVD can store 4.7 Gbyte, which is around seven times as much a standard CD-ROM. By employing a red laser at 650 nm (was 780 nm) wavelength and a numerical aperture of 0.6 (was 0.45), the read-out resolution is increased by a factor 1.65. This holds for two dimensions, so that the actual physical data density increases by a factor of 3.5. DVD uses a more efficient coding method in the physical layer. CD's error correction, CIRC, is replaced by a powerful Reed-Solomon product code, RS-PC; Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation (EFM) is replaced by a more efficient version, EFMPlus, which has the same characteristics as classic EFM. The CD subcode is removed. As a result, the DVD format is 47 percent more efficient with respect to CD-ROM, which uses a "third" error correction layer. After separating the DVD by its contents, we can distinguish following types of DVDs :
- DVD-Video (containing movies (video and sound))
- DVD-Audio (containing high-definition sound)
- SACD (containing high-definition sound)
- DVD-Data (containing data) The disc medium can be:
- DVD-ROM (read only, manufactured by a press)
- DVD-R/RW (R = Recordable once, RW = ReWritable)
- DVD-RAM (random access rewritable)
- DVD+R/RW (R = Recordable once, RW = ReWritable)
- DVD-R DL (dual layer)
- DVD+R DL (double layer) DVD+R DL The disc may have one or two sides, and one or two layers of data per side; the number of sides and layers determines the disc capacity.
- DVD-5: single sided, single layer, 4.7 gigabytes (GB), or 4.38 gibibytes (GiB)
- DVD-9: single sided, double layer, 8.5 GB (7.92 GiB)
- DVD-10: double sided, single layer on both sides, 9.4 GB (8.75 GiB)
- DVD-14: double sided, double layer on one side, single layer on other, 13.3 GB (12.3 GiB)
- DVD-18: double sided, double layer on both sides, 17.1 GB (15.9 GiB) The capacity of a DVD-ROM can be visually determined by noting the number of data sides, and looking at the data side(s) of the disc. Double-layered sides are sometimes gold-colored, while single-layered sides are silver-colored, like a CD. One additional way to tell if a DVD contains one or two layers is to look at the center ring on the underside of the disc. If there are two barcodes, it is a dual layer disc. If there is one barcode, there is only one layer. Each medium can contain any of the above content and can be any layer type. Double layer DVD+R discs are already on the market. right The DVD Forum created the official DVD-ROM/R/RW/RAM standards and the DVD+RW Alliance created the DVD+R/RW standards. Since DVD+R/RW discs are not technically DVDs as per the DVD Forum standards, they are not allowed to display the DVD logo; instead, they display an "RW" logo (even if it is not re-writeable, something some consider deceptive advertising). However, they are readable by most DVD drives, so they are referred to as DVD+R and DVD+RW. The "+" (plus) and "-" (dash) are similar technical standards and are partially compatible. As of 2004, both formats are equally popular, with about half of the industry supporting "+", and the other half "-". All DVD readers are supposed to read both formats, though real-world compatibility is around 90% for both formats, with DVD-R having the best overall compatibility in independent tests. Most new DVD writers can write both formats and carry both the RW and DVD logos. Unlike compact discs, where sound (CDDA, Red Book) is stored in a fundamentally different fashion than data (Yellow book et al.), a properly authored DVD will always contain data in the UDF filesystem. UDF The data transfer rate of a DVD drive is given in multiples of 1350 kB/s, which means that a drive with 16x speed designation allows a data transfer rate of 16 × 1350 = 21600 kB/s (21.09 MB/s). As CD drive speeds are given in multiples of 150 kB/s, one DVD "speed" equals nine CD "speeds," so an 8x DVD drive should have a data transfer rate similar to that of a 72x CD drive. In physical rotation terms (spins per second), one DVD "speed" equals three CD "speeds," so an 8x DVD drive has the same rotational speed as 24x CD drive. Early CD and DVD drives read data at a constant rate. The data on the disc is passed under the read head at a constant rate (Constant Linear Velocity, or CLV). As linear (meters per second) track speed grows at outer parts of the disc proportionally to the radius, the rotational speed of the disc was adjusted according to which portion of the disc was being read. Most current CD and DVD drives have a constant rotation speed (Constant Angular Velocity, or CAV). The maximum data rate specified for the drive/disc is achieved only at the end of the disc's track (discs are written from inside). The average speed of the drive therefore equals to only about 50–70% of the maximum nominated speed. While this seems a disadvantage, such drives have a lower seek time as they do not have to change the disc's speed of rotation.

DVD-Video

seek time seek time DVD-Video discs require a DVD-drive with a MPEG-2 decoder (e.g. a DVD-player or a DVD computer drive with a software DVD player). Commercial DVD movies are encoded using a combination of MPEG-2 compressed video and audio of varying formats (often multi-channel formats as described below). Typical data rates for DVD movies range from 3–10 Mbit/s, and the bit rate is usually adaptive. The video resolution on NTSC discs is 720 × 480 and on PAL discs is 720 × 576. A high number of audio tracks and/or lots of extra material on the disc will often result in a lower bit rate (and image quality) for the main feature. The audio data on a DVD movie can be of the format PCM, DTS, MP2, or Dolby Digital (AC-3). In countries using the NTSC standard any movie should contain a sound track in (at least) either PCM or Dolby AC-3 formats, and any NTSC player must support these two; all the others are optional. This ensures any standard compatible disc can be played on any standard compatible player. The vast majority of commercial NTSC releases today employ AC-3 audio. Initially, in countries using the PAL standard (e.g. most of Europe) the sound of DVD was supposed to be standardized on PCM and MP2, but apparently against the wishes of Philips, under public pressure on December 5, 1997, the DVD Forum accepted the addition of Dolby AC-3 to the optional formats on discs and mandatory formats in players. The vast majority of commercial PAL releases employ AC-3 audio by now. DVDs can contain more than one channel of audio to go together with the video content. In many cases, sound tracks in more than one language track are present (for example the film's original language as well as a dubbed track in the language of the country where the disc is being sold). With several channels of audio from the DVD, the cabling needed to carry the signal to an amplifier or TV can occasionally be somewhat frustrating. Most systems include an optional digital connector for this task, which is then paired with a similar input on the amplifier. The selected audio signal is sent over the connection, typically over RCA connectors or TOSLINK, in its original format to be decoded by the audio equipment. When playing compact discs, the signal is sent in S/PDIF format instead. Video is another issue which continues to present problems. Current players typically output analog video only, both composite video on an RCA jack, as well as S-Video in the standard connector. However neither of these connectors were intended to be used for progressive video, so yet another set of connectors has started to appear, to carry a form of component video, which keeps the three components of the video, one luminance signal and two color difference signal, as stored on the DVD itself, on fully separate wires (whereas S-Video uses two wires, uniting and degrading the two color signals, and composite only one, uniting and degrading all three signals). The connectors are further confused by using a number of different physical connectors on different player models, RCA or BNC, as well as using VGA cables in a non-standard way (VGA is normally analog RGB—a different, incompatible form of component video). Even worse, there are often two sets of component outputs, one carrying interlaced video, and the other progressive. In Europe and other PAL areas, SCART connectors are typically used, which carry both composite and analog RGB interlaced video signals, as well as analog two-channel sound on a single multiwire cable, and which offer a reasonable compromise between video quality—which is superior to S-Video though inferior to progressive component video —and cost. HDMI is a new connection similar to SCART, but it carries High Definition, Enhanced Definition and Standard Definition video. Along with video HDMI also supports up to eight-channel digital audio. Some HDMI-equipped DVD players can upconvert the video to higher definition formats such as 720p and, more rarely, 1080p. DVD Video may also include one or more subtitle tracks in various languages, including those made especially for the hearing impaired. They are stored as images with transparent background which are overlaid over the video during playback. Subtitles are restricted to four colors (including transparency) and thus tend to look cruder than permanent subtitles on film. DVD Video may contain Chapters for easy navigation (and continuation of a partially watched film). If space permits, it is also possible to include several versions (called "angles") of certain scenes, though today this feature is mostly used—if at all—not to show different angles of the action, but as part of internationalization to e.g. show different language versions of images containing written text, if subtitles will not do. A major selling point of DVD Video is that its storage capacity allows for a wide variety of extra features in addition to the feature film itself. This can include audio commentary that is timed to the film sequence, documentary features, unused footage, trivia text commentary, simple games and film shorts.

Restrictions

DVD-Video has four complementary systems designed to restrict the DVD user in various ways: Macrovision, Content Scrambling System (CSS), region codes, and disabled user operations (UOPs).

Content-scrambling system

Many DVD-Video titles use content-scrambling system (CSS) encryption, which is intended to discourage people from bypassing the region control mechanism (see below). Usually, users need to install software provided on the DVD or downloaded from the Internet such as WinDVD, PowerDVD, or VLC to be able to view the disc in a computer system. The CSS has caused major problems for the inclusion of DVD players in any open source operating systems, since open source player implementations are not officially given access to the decryption keys or license the patents involved in the CSS. Proprietary software players were also difficult to find on some platforms. However, a successful effort has been made to write a decoder by reverse engineering, resulting in DeCSS. This has led to long-running legal battles and the arrest of some of those involved in creating or distributing the DeCSS code, through the use of the controversial U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, on the grounds that such software could also be used to facilitate unauthorized copying of the data on the discs. But as U.S. law stops at the border of the United States, the rest of the world can enjoy de-scrambling software to bypass the DVD restrictions. A number of software programs have since appeared on the Web to view DVDs on a number of platforms. The restrictions also prevent people from copying DVDs. In the past few years a large amount of software has been created to make copies such as DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter and [http://www.shrinkto5.com/ ShrinkTo5].

Region codes

Each DVD-Video disc contains one or more region codes, denoting the area(s) of the world in which distribution and playback are intended. The commercial DVD-Video player specification dictates that a player must only play discs that contain its region code. In theory, this allows the motion picture studios to control the various aspects of a release (including content, date and price) on a region-by-region basis. In practice, many DVD players allow playback of any disc, or can be modified to do so. Entirely independent of encryption, region coding pertains to regional lockout, which originated in the video game industry. video game See a [http://www.robertsdvd.com/world.gif world map showing region codes] European Region 2 DVDs may be sub-coded "D1" through "D4." "D1" identifies a UK-only release. "D2" and "D3" identify European DVDs that are not sold in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. "D4" identifies DVDs that are distributed throughout Europe. Any combination of regions can be applied to a single disc. For example, a DVD designated Region 2/4 is suitable for playback in Western Europe, Oceania and any other Region 2 or Region 4 area. Often labeled "all" or "all regions," a so-called "Region 0" disc (actually coded Region 1/2/3/4/5/6) is meant to be playable worldwide. The term "Region 0" also describes DVD players that were designed or modified to incorporate Regions 1–6 simultaneously, thereby providing compatibility with virtually any disc, irrespective of region[s]. This apparent solution was popular in the early days of the DVD format, but studios quickly responded by adjusting discs to refuse to play in such machines. This system is known as "Regional Coding Enhancement" or RCE. Nowadays, many "multi-region" DVD players defeat regional lockout and RCE by automatically identifying and matching a disc's region code and/or allowing the user to manually select a particular region. Others simply bypass the region code check entirely. Some manufacturers of DVD players now freely supply information on how to disable regional lockout, and on some recent models, it appears to be disabled by default. Many view region code enforcement as a violation of WTO free trade agreements; however, no legal rulings have yet been made in this area.

User operations

DVD-Video allows the disc to specify whether or not the user may perform any operation, such as selecting a menu, skipping chapters, forwarding or rewinding—essentially any function on the remote control. This is known as User Operation Prohibitions, or UOPs for short. Most DVD players respect these commands (e.g. by preventing fast-forwarding through a copyright message at the beginning of a disc), although some can be configured to ignore them. Many grey-market players ignore UOPs.

DVD-Audio

DVD-Audio is a format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. It offers many channels (from mono to 5.1 surround sound) at various sampling frequencies and sample rates. Compared to the CD format, the much higher capacity DVD format enables the inclusion of either considerably more music (with respect to total running time and quantity of songs) or far higher audio quality (reflected by higher linear sampling rates and higher vertical bit-rates, and/or additional channels for spatial sound reproduction). Despite DVD-Audio's superior technical specifications, there is debate as to whether or not the resulting audio enhancements are distinguishable to typical human ears. DVD-Audio currently forms a niche market, probably due to its dependency upon new and relatively expensive equipment.

Security

DVD-Audio discs employ a robust copy prevention mechanism, called Content Protection for Prerecorded Media (CPRM / CPPM) supported by the DVD+RW Alliance (IBM, Intel, Matsushita, and Toshiba). Unlike DVD-Video's CSS, as of 2005, CPPM has not yet been cracked. All above formats are also available as 8 cm (3 inch) sized DVD mini discs (not mini-DVD, which describes DVD data on a CD) with a disc capacity of 1.5 GB.

Players and recorders

Modern recorders often support additional formats, including DVD+/-R/RW, CD-R/RW, MP3, WMA, SVCD, JPEG, PNG, SVG, KAR and MPEG-4 (DivX/XviD). Some also include USB ports or flash memory readers. Many players are priced from under $/€ 50 and recorders from $/€ 200. DVD drives for computers usually come with one of two kinds of Regional Playback Control (RPC), either RPC-1 or RPC-2; This is used to enforce the publisher's restrictions on what regions of the world the DVD can be played. See Regional lockout.

Competitors and successors

There are several possible successors to DVD being developed by different consortiums: Sony's Blu-ray Disc, Hitachi/Toshiba's HD DVD, the Holographic Versatile Disc, and Maxell's holographic disc. The first generation of holographic media with 300 GB of storage capacity and a 160 Mbit/s transfer rate is scheduled for release in late 2006 by Maxell and its partner, InPhase. On November 18, 2003, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported the final standard of the Chinese government-sponsored Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD), and several patents for it. On November 19,

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