Örtze () is a river of Lower Saxony, Germany. The Örtze rises north of Munster in the Große Heide (in the Raubkammer federal forest) and, after , joins the Aller southeast of Winsen.

Source and course
The Örtze valley is an old glacial valley. It was formed during the Saale glaciation about 230,000 to 130,000 years ago by the drainage of meltwater from the ice sheet which cut  deep into the plateaus of the southern Lüneburg Heath. The upper Örtze has incised its own, much smaller valley into the sandur beds and the roughly  wide, flat glacial valley floor.

The source region of the Örtze and its several source bogs lie on the terrain of the Munster North Training Area. In order to remove suspended solids and sediments which are washed away during heavy rains from the tank training areas with their sparse covering of vegetation, four successive lakes – the so-called Munoseen – have been created on the Örtze, and, on the Ilster, the main headstream of the river, there is a further dam pond. The Örtze is the largest river on the Southern Heath or Südheide and drains its central area, between the rather longer Böhme to the west and the Ise to the east. It has a relatively steep incline. In the middle of the river in its lower course the stream flow is about  per second and the water depth varies from . It is classed as a so-called summer-cold heath stream (sommerkalter Heidebach).

The Örtze passes the towns and villages of Munster (an important military base in North Germany), Kreutzen, Poitzen, Müden, Hermannsburg (renowned because of the Hermannsburg Mission), Oldendorf, Eversen and Wolthausen.

The tributaries of the Örtze are the:
Ilster, Kleine Örtze, Wietze, Schmarbeck and Sothrieth (which discharge together as the Landwehrbach into the Örtze), Brunau, Weesener Bach, Brandenbach, Hasselbach, Angelbach and Mühlenbach.

The main headstream of the Örtze is the Ilster. Its name recalls the largest village, which the Munster-North Training Area has to circumvent. Its largest tributary is the Wietze, which rises between Soltau and Munster and which, together with its tributary the Aue, is longer than the Örtze by a good 5 kilometres. It joins the Örtze near Müden and gave the heath village its name.
The Kleine Örtze rises north of Oerrel (parish of Munster) and discharges into the Örtze near Kreutzen (parish of Faßberg). Before it was renaturalised its upper course acted as a drainage ditch for the former raised bog, now afforrested, in the narrow valley (nature reserve).
On the headstreams of the Landwehrbach lies the Faßberg Air Base (north of Schmarbeck) and numerous old kieselgur pits (either side of the Sothrieth).

Fauna and flora
Because Örtze has largely been spared from development, a near-natural habitat has been preserved. Its water quality is classed throughout as Class II: moderately polluted (saprobic system). Alders, pines and spruce along the river bank provide shade, keeping the water cool even in summer and the oxygen content high. The Örtze is relatively low in nutrients. Its course is meandering and structurally varied (strukturreich) in places and offers many places for fish to hide and spawn with its steep banks, hollows, gravel and sand banks.

The fish and animal species found in the river include:
freshwater eels (Anguilla anguilla) and burbots (Lota lota), grayling (Thymallus thymallus), brown trout (Salmo trutta forma fario), bream (Abramis brama), minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus), perch (Perca fluviatilis), Gudgeon (Gobio gobio), pike (Esox lucius), bullhead (Cottus gobio), roach (Leuciscus rutilus), rudd (Scardinius erytrophthalmus) and brook lamprey (Lampreta planeri). Even the endangered otter and kingfisher live here.
Salmon fishing in the Örtze had been recorded since 1766, but the last salmon was caught in 1935. Since 1982 attempts have been made to re-introduce salmon by stocking the river. The weir at Wolthausen is, however, an obstacle to fish swimming upstream. From the 16th century until 1960 the Örtze drove the water wheel of a corn mill here. Today by contrast it powers a turbine next to the water wheel to generate electricity. A fish pass (a fish ladder with eight steps and suitable for invertebrates) is being planned.

Boating on the Örtze

Boating is permitted on the Örtze during the summer months, from 16 May to 14 October, between 9 am and 6 pm, provided it does not harm the natural environment. The only types of craft allowed are rowing boats (e.g. kayaks or canoes). The Örtze may be used downstream of the mill in Müden. There are launching places in Müden, Baven, Hermannsburg, Oldendorf, Eversen, Wolthausen and Winsen.

In literature
The regional writer Hermann Löns devoted a chapter to the Örtze with several pages. He wrote inter alia:

Meadow irrigation
Until the 1950s the meadows in the floodplain of the Örtze were irrigated, and fertilised by the minerals and organic substances in the river water, using a principle known as Lüneburger Rückenbau or Suderburger Rückenbau.

To irrigate the Baven meadows (Rieselwiesen) a canal was laid between 1831 and 1850 and opened in 1854. It began near Müden with a weir at the start of the diversion. Other weirs distributed the water from the canal into the meadows. Today the canal acts as a floodway.

Timber rafting

History
Timber rafting on the Örtze probably began in the 17th century. On 28 February 1677 the prince's master rafter (Floßmeister), Johann Bastian Erhardt, looked into the possibility of using the river to float timber downstream from forest in the areas of Hassel, Lüß and Kalbsloh. He gave the following report to the senior forester of Wahrenholz:
 This expert opinion led to timber rafting being established on the Örtze.

In the 19th century, timber rafting on the Örtze assumed great importance for the region. The number of rafts increased from around 600 per year in 1868 to 1,946 in 1874, which reflected the economic boom of the so-called Gründerzeit years. Demand was generated by the construction of buildings and ships at Bremen, Bremerhaven and in the district of Wesermarsch. Its supply, by contrast, was from private landowners and local communities (Realgemeinden) to whom large areas of old forest had been transferred following the division of common land in the mid-19th century. From 1877 the number of rafts on the Örtze fell rapidly, especially when its lower reaches silted up and became too shallow. From 1912 timber rafting came to a standstill. Competition came from the Celle-Soltau, Celle-Munster Light Railway built in 1910 and the metalled roads and new sawmills in the immediate vicinity.

Number of rafts from 1869 to 1910
(from the files of the district committee for rafting on the Oertze)

Technology

The Örtze was navigable by timber rafts all year round from its confluence with the Wietze near Müden to the Aller thanks to its water-retentive, sandy river bed. A timber raft could travel these  in a day. In the second half of the 19th century there were also 11 raft-building points from Müden to Oldendorf where the logs hauled to the river by horse and cart were tied together to form a raft. On the Aller the logs were bound together to form even larger rafts and floated down to their offloading point in Bremen. From there the wood was shipped to England, the Netherlands, France or Spain.

The rafts were  long and  wide. One feature were the rounded willow hoops at the front, the so-called hand rails (Handregels), which the rafter could grab in an emergency. The rafter carried a pole (Schufstaken or Schufboom) for manoeuvering the raft which he pressed against the left shoulder with a T handle. It was fitted with an iron spike and hook at the end.

See also
List of rivers of Lower Saxony

References

Sources
 Jürgen Delfs: Die Flößerei auf Ise, Aller und Örtze, Gifhorn 1995,

External links
 River-forest nature trail by the Örtze

Rivers of Lower Saxony
Lüneburg Heath
Rivers of Germany


Lakeview Cemetery Company is a cemetery located at Colborne Road and Michigan Avenue in Sarnia, Ontario. Opened in 1879 by the Town of Sarnia to replace smaller and church-based cemeteries, it is most notable for being the burial place of Canadian Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie. The cemetery, which is still an active burial site and now has a crematorium, contains the war graves of 11 Canadian service personnel of World War I and 13 of World War II.

Other notables buried here include:
 Alexander Vidal – Ontario Senator and MLA for the United Provinces of Canada
 Frederick Forsyth Pardee – Ontario MPP and MP; Senator
 William Thomas Goodison – MP for Sarnia

References

Further reading
 Jennifer McKendry (2003). Into the silent land : historic cemeteries & graveyards in Ontario, Kingston, Ont.,

External links
 Lakeview Cemetery burial search

Sarnia
Cemeteries in Ontario
Buildings and structures in Lambton County
1879 establishments in Ontario


Some of the new features included in Windows 7 are advancements in touch, speech and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, support for additional file formats, improved performance on multi-core processors, improved boot performance, and kernel improvements.

Shell and user interface
Windows 7 retains the Windows Aero graphical user interface and visual style introduced in its predecessor, Windows Vista, but many areas have seen enhancements. Unlike Windows Vista, window borders and the taskbar do not turn opaque when a window is maximized while Windows Aero is active; instead, they remain translucent.

Desktop

Themes
Support for themes has been extended in Windows 7. In addition to providing options to customize colors of window chrome and other aspects of the interface including the desktop background, icons, mouse cursors, and sound schemes, the operating system also includes a native desktop slideshow feature. A new theme pack extension has been introduced, .themepack, which is essentially a collection of cabinet files that consist of theme resources including background images, color preferences, desktop icons, mouse cursors, and sound schemes. The new theme extension simplifies sharing of themes and can also display desktop wallpapers via RSS feeds provided by the Windows RSS Platform. Microsoft provides additional themes for free through its website.

The default theme in Windows 7 consists of a single desktop wallpaper named "Harmony" and the default desktop icons, mouse cursors, and sound scheme introduced in Windows Vista; however, none of the desktop backgrounds included with Windows Vista are present in Windows 7. New themes include Architecture, Characters, Landscapes, Nature, and Scenes, and an additional country-specific theme that is determined based on the defined locale when the operating system is installed; although only the theme for a user's home country is displayed within the user interface, the files for all of these other country-specific themes are included in the operating system. All themes included in Windows 7—excluding the default theme—include six wallpaper images. A number of new sound schemes (each associated with an included theme) have also been introduced: Afternoon, Calligraphy, Characters, Cityscape, Delta, Festival, Garden, Heritage, Landscape, Quirky, Raga, Savana, and Sonata. Themes may introduce their own custom sounds, which can be used with others themes as well.

Desktop Slideshow
Windows 7 introduces a desktop slideshow feature that periodically changes the desktop wallpaper based on a user-defined interval; the change is accompanied by a smooth fade transition with a duration that can be customized via the Windows Registry. The desktop slideshow feature supports local images and images obtained via RSS.

Gadgets
With Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced the Windows Sidebar to host Microsoft Gadgets that displayed details such as feeds and sports scores; the gadgets could optionally be placed on the Windows desktop. With Windows 7, gadgets can still be placed on the Windows desktop, but the Windows Sidebar itself has been removed, and the platform has been renamed as Windows Desktop Gadgets. Gadgets are more closely integrated with Windows Explorer, but the gadgets themselves continue to operate in a single sidebar.exe process (unlike in Windows Vista where gadgets could operate in multiple sidebar.exe processes). New features for gadgets include:

 A context menu option on the desktop to access the Gadgets Gallery to add, display, or uninstall gadgets is now available
 Gadgets that display details from online sources can now also display content that has been cached
 High DPI support
 Larger controls designed for touch-based interaction
 Rearrangement capabilities automatically arrange gadgets based on their proximity with other gadgets
 When gadgets are displayed on the desktop, there is a context menu option to display or hide them; hiding gadgets can result in power savings

Windows 7 also introduces a single new gadget, one for Windows Media Center that displays links to the various sections (e.g., Pictures + Videos) of its interface.

Branding and customization
For original equipment manufacturers and enterprises, Windows 7 natively supports the ability to customize the wallpaper that is displayed during user login. Because the settings to change the wallpaper are available via the Windows Registry, users can also customize this wallpaper. Options to customize the appearance of interface lighting and shadows are also available.

Windows Explorer

Libraries
Windows Explorer in Windows 7 supports file libraries that aggregate content from various locations – including shared folders on networked systems if the shared folder has been indexed by the host system – and present them in a unified view. The libraries hide the actual location the file is stored in. Searching in a library automatically federates the query to the remote systems, in addition to searching on the local system, so that files on the remote systems are also searched. Unlike search folders, Libraries are backed by a physical location which allows files to be saved in the Libraries. Such files are transparently saved in the backing physical folder. The default save location for a library may be configured by the user, as can the default view layout for each library. Libraries are generally stored in the Libraries special folder, which allows them to be displayed on the Navigation Pane.

By default, a new user account in Windows 7 contains four libraries for different file types: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. They are configured to include the user's profile folders for these respective file types, as well as the computer's corresponding Public folders. The Public folder also contains a hidden Recorded TV library that appears in the Windows Explorer sidepane when TV is set up in Media Center for the first time.

In addition to aggregating multiple storage locations, Libraries enable Arrangement Views and Search Filter Suggestions. Arrangement Views allow you to pivot your view of the library's contents based on metadata. For example, selecting the "By Month" view in the Pictures library will display photos in stacks, where each stack represents a month of photos based on the date they were taken. In the Music library, the "By Artist" view will display stacks of albums from the artists in your collection, and browsing into an artist stack will then display the relevant albums.

Search Filter Suggestions are a new feature of the Windows 7 Explorer's search box. When the user clicks in the search box, a menu shows up below it showing recent searches as well as suggested Advanced Query Syntax filters that the user can type. When one is selected (or typed in manually), the menu will update to show the possible values to filter by for that property, and this list is based on the current location and other parts of the query already typed. For example, selecting the "tags" filter or typing "tags:" into the search box will display the list of possible tag values which will return search results.

Arrangement Views and Search Filter Suggestions are database-backed features which require that all locations in the Library be indexed by the Windows Search service. Local disk locations must be indexed by the local indexer, and Windows Explorer will automatically add locations to the indexing scope when they are included in a library. Remote locations can be indexed by the indexer on another Windows 7 machine, on a Windows machine running Windows Search 4 (such as Windows Vista or Windows Home Server), or on another device that implements the MS-WSP remote query protocol.

Federated search
Windows Explorer also supports federating search to external data sources, such as custom databases or web services, that are exposed over the web and described via an OpenSearch definition. The federated location description (called a Search Connector) is provided as an .osdx file. Once installed, the data source becomes queryable directly from Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer features, such as previews and thumbnails, work with the results of a federated search as well.

Miscellaneous Shell enhancements
Windows Explorer has received numerous minor enhancements that improve its overall functionality. The address bar and search box can be resized. The Command Bar features the New Folder command and a visible interface option to enable the Preview Pane (both were previously in the Organize option in Windows Vista). There is also a new Share With button on the Command Bar that allows users to share the currently viewed folder or currently selected item with people in a homegroup with either read permissions or with both read and write permissions, or with specific people, which opens the Sharing Wizard introduced in Windows Vista; a new Nobody sharing option prevents the selected folder or item from being shared, and all items that are excluded in this manner feature a new padlock overlay icon.

A new Content icon view mode is added, which shows metadata and thumbnails. The List icon view mode provides more space between items than in Windows Vista. Item groups have larger text. Storage capacity indicators for hard disks introduced in Windows Vista are now also shown for removable storage devices. File types for which new iFilters or Property Handlers are installed are reindexed by Windows Search by default. When copying or moving items, selecting more details will show the filename of the current item being copied. The Navigation Pane includes a new Favorites location, which serves as the replacement for the Favorite Links functionality of the interface in Windows Vista, and newly created Saved Searches are automatically pinned to this location.

Previously, adding submenus to Shell context menus or customizing the context menu's behavior for a certain folder was only possible by installing a form of plug-in known as Shell extensions. In Windows 7, however, users can edit the Windows Registry or configuration files. Additionally, a new Shell API was introduced designed to simplify the writing of context menu shell extensions by software developers.

When importing pictures and videos, the Import Pictures and Videos wizard now displays the currently searched directory. After importing, an in-memory Saved Search titled Imported Pictures and Videos scopes the directory of the imported items and displays them to the user.

Windows 7 includes native support for burning ISO files. The functionality is available when a user selects the Burn disc image option within the context menu of an ISO file (support for disc image verification is also included). In previous versions of Windows, users were required to install third-party software to burn ISO images.

Start menu
The start button now has a fade-in highlight effect when the user hovers over it with the mouse cursor. The right column of the Start menu is now prominently the Aero Glass color; in Windows Vista, it was predominantly black regardless of the color in use.

Windows 7's Start menu retains the two-column layout of its predecessors, with several functional changes:
 Documents, Music, and Pictures now link to their respective Libraries
 Jump Lists are presented in the Start Menu via a guillemet; when the user moves the mouse cursor over the guillemet or presses the  arrow key, the right-hand side of the Start menu is widened and replaced with the application's Jump List.
 New links include Devices and Printers (a new Device Manager), Downloads, HomeGroup, Recorded TV, and Videos
 Search has been updated to display results for Control Panel category keywords, federated searches, HomeGroup locations, Libraries (including network share locations when included in Libraries), and Sticky Notes
 Search results now group items in groups of three, and users can click a group to open Windows Explorer to see additional items that match the criteria
 The iconographic Shut Down button of Windows Vista has been replaced with a text link to indicate the action that will be taken when the button is clicked; the default action is now configurable through Taskbar and Start Menu Properties.

Group Policy settings for Windows Explorer provide the ability for administrators of an Active Directory domain to add up to five Internet Web sites and five additional "search connectors" to the Search Results view in the Start menu. The links, which appear at the bottom of the pane, allow the search to be executed again on the selected web site or search connector. Microsoft suggests that network administrators could use this feature to enable searching of corporate Intranets or an internal SharePoint server.

Taskbar
The Windows Taskbar has seen its most significant revision since its introduction in Windows 95 and combines the previous Quick Launch functionality with open application window icons. The taskbar is now rendered as an Aero Glass element whose color can be changed via the Personalization Control Panel. It is 10 pixels taller than in Windows Vista to accommodate touch screen input and a new larger default icon size (although a smaller taskbar size is available), as well as maintain proportion to newer high resolution monitor modes. Running applications are denoted by a border frame around the icon. Within this border, a color effect (dependent on the predominant color of the icon) that follows the mouse cursor also indicates the opened status of the application.  The glass taskbar is more translucent than in Windows Vista. Taskbar buttons show icons by default, not application titles, unless they are set to 'not combine', or 'combine when taskbar is full.' In this case, only icons are shown when the application is not running. Programs running or pinned on the taskbar can be rearranged. Items in the notification area can also be rearranged.

Pinned applications
The Quick Launch toolbar has been removed from the default configuration, but may be easily added. The Windows 7 taskbar is more application-oriented than window-oriented, and therefore doesn't show window titles (these are shown when an application icon is clicked or hovered over). Applications can now be pinned to the taskbar allowing the user instant access to the applications they commonly use. There are a few ways to pin applications to the taskbar. Icons can be dragged and dropped onto the taskbar, or the application's icon can be right-clicked to pin it to the taskbar.

Thumbnail previews
Thumbnail previews which were introduced in Windows Vista have been expanded to not only preview the windows opened by the application in a small-sized thumbnail view, but to also interact with them. The user can close any window opened by clicking the X on the corresponding thumbnail preview. The name of the window is also shown in the thumbnail preview. A "peek" at the window is obtained by hovering over the thumbnail preview. Peeking brings up only the window of the thumbnail preview over which the mouse cursor hovers, and turns any other windows on the desktop transparent. This also works for tabs in Internet Explorer: individual tabs may be peeked at in the thumbnail previews. Thumbnail previews integrate Thumbnail Toolbars which can control the application from the thumbnail previews themselves. For example, if Windows Media Player is opened and the mouse cursor is hovering on the application icon, the thumbnail preview will allow the user the ability to Play, Stop, and Play Next/Previous track without having to switch to the Windows Media Player window.

Jump lists
Jump lists are menu options available by right-clicking a taskbar icon or holding the left mouse button and sliding towards the center of the desktop on an icon. Each application has a jump list corresponding to its features, Microsoft Word's displaying recently opened documents; Windows Media Player's recent tracks and playlists; frequently opened directories in Windows Explorer; Internet Explorer's recent browsing history and options for opening new tabs or starting InPrivate Browsing; Windows Live Messenger's common tasks such as instant messaging, signing off, and changing online status. Third-party software can add custom actions through a dedicated API. Up to 10 menu items may appear on a list, partially customizable by user. Frequently used files and folders can be pinned by the user as to not get usurped from the list if others are opened more frequently.

Task progress
Progress bar in taskbar's tasks allows users to know the progress of a task without switching to the pending window. Task progress is used in Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer and third-party software.

Notification area
The notification area has been redesigned; the standard Volume, Network, Power and Action Center status icons are present, but no other application icons are shown unless the user has chosen them to be shown. A new "Notification Area Icons" control panel has been added which replaces the "Customize Notification Icons" dialog box in the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" window first introduced in Windows XP. In addition to being able to configure whether the application icons are shown, the ability to hide each application's notification balloons has been added. The user can then view the notifications at a later time.

A triangle to the left of the visible notification icons displays the hidden notification icons. Unlike Windows Vista and Windows XP, the hidden icons are displayed in a window above the taskbar, instead of on the taskbar. Icons can be dragged between this window and the notification area.

Aero Peek
In previous versions of Windows, the taskbar ended with the notification area on the right-hand side. Windows 7, however, introduces a show desktop button on the far right side of the taskbar which can initiate an Aero Peek feature that makes all open windows translucent when hovered over by a mouse cursor. Clicking this button shows the desktop, and clicking it again brings all windows to focus.  The new button replaces the show desktop shortcut located in the Quick Launch toolbar in previous versions of Windows.

On touch-based devices, Aero Peek can be initiated by pressing and holding the show desktop button; touching the button itself shows the desktop. The button also increases in width to accommodate being pressed by a finger.

Window management mouse gestures

Aero Snap
Windows can be dragged to the top of the screen to maximize them and dragged away to restore them. Dragging a window to the left or right of the screen makes it take up half the screen, allowing the user to tile two windows next to each other. Also, resizing the window to the bottom of the screen or its top will extend the window to full height but retain its width. These features can be disabled via the Ease of Access Center if users do not wish the windows to automatically resize.

Aero Shake
Aero Shake allows users to clear up any clutter on their screen by shaking (dragging back and forth) a window of their choice with the mouse. All other windows will minimize, while the window the user shook stays active on the screen. When the window is shaken again, all previously minimized windows are restored, similar to desktop preview.

Keyboard shortcuts
A variety of new keyboard shortcuts have been introduced.

Global keyboard shortcuts:
  operates as a keyboard shortcut for Aero Peek.
  maximizes the current window.
  if current window is maximized, restores it; otherwise minimizes current window.
  makes upper and lower edge of current window nearly touch the upper and lower edge of the Windows desktop environment, respectively.
  restores the original size of the current window.
  snaps the current window to the left edge of the screen.
  snaps the current window to the right half of the screen.
  and  move the current window to the left or right display.
  functions as zoom in command wherever applicable.
  functions as zoom out command wherever applicable.
  turn off zoom once enabled.
  operates as a keyboard shortcut for Aero Shake.
  Opens Connect to a Network Projector, which has been updated from previous versions of Windows, and allows one to dictate where the desktop is displayed: on the main monitor, an external display, both; or allows one to display two independent desktops on two separate monitors.

Taskbar:
 Shift + Click, or Middle click starts a new instance of the application, regardless of whether it's already running.
 Ctrl + Shift + Click starts a new instance with Administrator privileges; by default, a User Account Control prompt will be displayed.
 Shift + Right-click (or right-clicking the program's thumbnail) shows the titlebar's context menu which, by default, contains "Restore", "Move", "Size", "Maximize", "Minimize" and "Close" commands. If the icon being clicked on is a grouped icon, a specialized context menu with "Restore All", "Minimize All", and "Close All" commands is shown.
 Ctrl + Click on a grouped icon cycles between the windows (or tabs) in the group.

Font management
The user interface for font management has been overhauled in Windows 7. As with Windows Vista, the collection of installed fonts is displayed in a Windows Explorer window, but fonts that originate from the same font family appear as icons that are represented as stacks that display font previews within the interface. Windows 7 also introduces the option to hide installed fonts; certain fonts are automatically removed from view based on a user's regional settings. An option to manually hide installed fonts is also available. Hidden fonts remain installed but are not enumerated when an application asks for a list of available fonts, thus reducing the amount of fonts to scroll through within the interface and also reducing memory usage. Windows 7 includes over 40 new fonts, including a new "Gabriola" font. Users can

The dialog box for fonts in Windows 7 has also been updated to display font previews within the interface, which allows users to preview fonts before selecting them. Previous versions of windows only displayed the name of the font.

The ClearType Text Tuner which was previously available as a Microsoft Powertoy for earlier Windows versions has been integrated into, and updated for Windows 7.

Microsoft would later backport Windows 8 Emoji features to Windows 7.

Devices
There are two major new user interface components for device management in Windows 7, "Devices and Printers" and "Device Stage". Both of these are integrated with Windows Explorer, and together provide a simplified view of what devices are connected to the computer, and what capabilities they support.

Devices and Printers

Devices and Printers is a new Control Panel interface that is directly accessible from the Start menu. Unlike the Device Manager Control Panel applet, which is still present, the icons shown on the Devices and Printers screen are limited to components of the system that a non-expert user will recognize as plug-in devices. For example, an external monitor connected to the system will be displayed as a device, but the internal monitor on a laptop will not. Device-specific features are available through the context menu for each device; an external monitor's context menu, for example, provides a link to the "Display Settings" control panel.

This new Control Panel applet also replaces the "Printers" window in prior versions of Windows; common printer operations such as setting the default printer, installing or removing printers, and configuring properties such as paper size are done through this control panel.

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 introduce print driver isolation, which improves the reliability of the print spooler by running printer drivers in a separate process to the spooler service. If a third party print driver fails while isolated, it does not impact other drivers or the print spooler service.

Device Stage

Device Stage provides a centralized location for an externally connected multi-function device to present its functionality to the user. When a device such as a portable music player is connected to the system, the device appears as an icon on the task bar, as well as in Windows Explorer.

Windows 7 ships with high-resolution images of a number of popular devices, and is capable of connecting to the Internet to download images of devices it doesn't recognize. Opening the icon presents a window that displays actions relevant to that device. Screenshots of the technology presented by Microsoft suggest that a mobile phone could offer options for two-way synchronization, configuring ring-tones, copying pictures and videos, managing the device in Windows Media Player, and using Windows Explorer to navigate through the device. Other device status information such as free memory and battery life can also be shown. The actual per-device functionality is defined via XML files that are downloaded when the device is first connected to the computer, or are provided by the manufacturer on an installation disc.

Mobility enhancements

Multi-touch support
Hilton Lock, who worked on the Tablet PC team at Microsoft, reported on December 11, 2007, that Windows 7 will have new touch features on devices supporting multi-touch. An overview and demonstration of the multi-touch capabilities, including a virtual piano program, a mapping and directions program and a touch-aware version of Microsoft Paint, was given at the All Things Digital Conference on May 27, 2008; a video of the multi-touch capabilities was made available on the web later the same day.

Sensors
Windows 7 introduces native support for sensors, including accelerometer sensors, ambient light sensors, and location-based sensors; the operating system also provides a unified driver model for sensor devices. A notable use of this technology in Windows 7 is the operating system's adaptive display brightness feature, which automatically adjusts the brightness of a compatible computer's display based on environmental light conditions and factors. Gadgets developed for Windows 7 can also display location-based information. Applications for certain sensor capabilities can be developed without the requisite hardware.

Because data acquired by some sensors can be considered personally identifiable information, all sensors are disabled by default in Windows 7, and an account in Windows 7 requires administrative permissions to enable a sensor. Sensors also require user consent to share location data.

Power management

Battery notification messages
Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows 7 is able to report when a laptop battery is in need of a replacement. The operating system works with design capabilities present in modern laptop batteries to report this information.

Hibernation improvements
The powercfg command enables the customization of the hibernation file size. By default, Windows 7 automatically sets the size of the hibernation file to 75% of a computer's total physical memory. The operating system also compresses the contents of memory during the hibernate process to minimize the possibility that the contents exceeds the default size of the hibernation file.

Power analysis and reporting
Windows 7 introduces a new /Energy parameter for the powercfg command, which generates an HTML report of a computer's energy efficiency and displays information related to devices or settings.

USB suspension
Windows 7 can individually suspend USB hubs and supports selective suspend for all in-box USB class drivers.

Graphics

DirectX
 Direct3D 11 is included with Windows 7. It is a strict super-set of Direct3D 10.1, which was introduced in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008.
 Direct2D and DirectWrite, new hardware-accelerated vector graphics and font rendering APIs built on top of Direct3D 10 that are intended to replace GDI/GDI+ for screen-oriented native-code graphics and text drawing. They can be used from managed applications with the Windows API Code Pack
 Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP), a software rasterizer component for DirectX that provides all of the capabilities of Direct3D 10.0 and 10.1 in software.
 DirectX Video Acceleration-High Definition (DXVA-HD)

Direct3D 11, Direct2D, DirectWrite, DXGI 1.1, WARP and several other components are currently available for Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 by installing the Platform Update for Windows Vista.

Desktop Window Manager
First introduced in Windows Vista, the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) in Windows 7 has been updated to use version 10.1 of Direct3D API, and its performance has been improved significantly.

The Desktop Window Manager still requires at least a Direct3D 9-capable video card (supported with new  device type introduced with the Direct3D 11 runtime).

With a video driver conforming to Windows Display Driver Model v1.1, DXGI kernel in Windows 7 provides 2D hardware acceleration to APIs such as GDI, Direct2D and DirectWrite (though GDI+ was not updated to use this functionality). This allows DWM to use significantly lower amounts of system memory, which do not grow regardless of how many windows are opened, like it was in Windows Vista. Systems equipped with a WDDM 1.0 video card will operate in the same fashion as in Windows Vista, using software-only rendering.

The Desktop Window Manager in Windows 7 also adds support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors.

Other changes
Support for color depths of 30 and 48 bits is included, along with the wide color gamut scRGB (which for HDMI 1.3 can be converted and output as xvYCC). The video modes supported in Windows 7 are 16-bit sRGB, 24-bit sRGB, 30-bit sRGB, 30-bit with extended color gamut sRGB, and 48-bit scRGB.

Each user of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 has individual DPI settings, rather than the machine having a single setting as in previous versions of Windows. DPI settings can be changed by logging on and off, without needing to restart.

File system

Solid state drives
Over time, several technologies have been incorporated into subsequent versions of Windows to improve the performance of the operating system on traditional hard disk drives (HDD) with rotating platters. Since Solid-state drives (SSD) differ from mechanical HDDs in some key areas (no moving parts, write amplification, limited number of erase cycles allowed for reliable operation), it is beneficial to disable certain optimizations and add others.

Windows 7 incorporates many engineering changes to reduce the frequency of writes and flushes, which benefit SSDs in particular since each write operation wears the flash memory.

Windows 7 also makes use of the TRIM command. If supported by the SSD (not implemented on early devices), this optimizes when erase cycles are performed, reducing the need to erase blocks before each write and increasing write performance.

Several tools and techniques that were implemented in the past to reduce the impact of the rotational latency of traditional HDDs, most notably disk defragmentation, SuperFetch, ReadyBoost, and application launch prefetching, involve reorganizing (rewriting) the data on the platters. Since SSDs have no moving platters, this reorganization has no advantages, and may instead shorten the life of the solid state memory. Therefore, these tools are by default disabled on SSDs in Windows 7, except for some early generation SSDs that might still benefit.

Finally, partitions made with Windows 7's partition-creating tools are created with the SSD's alignment needs in mind, avoiding unwanted systematic write amplification.

Virtual hard disks
The Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 incorporate support for the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file format. VHD files can be mounted as drives, created, and booted from, in the same way as WIM files. Furthermore, an installed version of Windows 7 can be booted and run from a VHD drive, even on non-virtual hardware, thereby providing a new way to multi boot Windows. Some features such as hibernation and BitLocker are not available when booting from VHD.

Disk partitioning
By default, a computer's disk is partitioned into two partitions: one of limited size for booting, BitLocker and running the Windows Recovery Environment and the second with the operating system and user files.

Removable media
Windows 7 has also seen improvements to the Safely Remove Hardware menu, including the ability to eject just one camera card at the same time (from a single hub) and retain the ports for future use without reboot; and the labels of removable media are now also listed, rather than just the drive letter. Windows Explorer now by default only shows memory card reader ports in My Computer if they contain a card.

BitLocker to Go
BitLocker brings encryption support to removable disks such as USB drives. Such devices can be protected by a passphrase, a recovery key, or be automatically unlocked on a computer.

Boot performance
According to data gathered from the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), 35% of Vista SP1 installations boot up in 30 seconds or less. The more lengthy boot times on the remainder of the machines are mainly due to some services or programs that are loaded but are not required when the system is first started. Microsoft's Mike Fortin, a distinguished engineer on the Windows team, noted in August 2008 that Microsoft has set aside a team to work solely on the issue, and that team aims to "significantly increase the number of systems that experience very good boot times". They "focused very hard on increasing parallelism of driver initialization". Also, Microsoft aims to "dramatically reduce" the number of system services, along with their demands on processors, storage, and memory.

Kernel and scheduling improvements

User-mode scheduler
The 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 introduce a user-mode scheduling framework. On Microsoft Windows operating systems, scheduling of threads inside a process is handled by the kernel, ntoskrnl.exe. While for most applications this is sufficient, applications with large concurrent threading requirements, such as a database server, can benefit from having a thread scheduler in-process. This is because the kernel no longer needs to be involved in context switches between threads, and it obviates the need for a thread pool mechanism, as threads can be created and destroyed much more quickly when no kernel context switches are required.

Prior to Windows 7, Windows used a one-to-one user thread to kernel-thread relationship. It was of course always possible to cobble together a rough many-to-one user-scheduler (with user-level timer interrupts) but if a system call was blocked on any one of the user threads, it would block the kernel thread and accordingly block all other user threads on the same scheduler. A many-to-one model could not take full advantage of symmetric multiprocessing.

With Windows 7's user-mode scheduling, a program may configure one or more kernel threads as a scheduler supplied by a programming language library (one per logical processor desired) and then create a user-mode thread pool from which these UMS can draw. The kernel maintains a list of outstanding system calls which allows the UMS to continue running without blocking the kernel thread. This configuration can be used as either many-to-one or many-to-many.

There are several benefits to a user mode scheduler. Context switching in User Mode can be faster. UMS also introduces cooperative multitasking. Having customizable scheduler also gives more control over thread execution.

Memory management and CPU parallelism
 The memory manager is optimized to mitigate the problem of total memory consumption in the event of excessive cached read operations, which occurred on earlier releases of 64-bit Windows.

 Support for up to 256 logical processors
 Fewer hardware locks and greater parallelism
 Timer coalescing: modern processors and chipsets can switch to very low power usage levels while the CPU is idle. In order to reduce the number of times the CPU enters and exits idle states, Windows 7 introduces the concept of "timer coalescing"; multiple applications or device drivers which perform actions on a regular basis can be set to occur at once, instead of each action being performed on their own schedule. This facility is available in both kernel mode, via the KeSetCoalesableTimer  API (which would be used in place of KeSetTimerEx), and in user mode with the SetWaitableTimerEx Windows API call (which replaces SetWaitableTimer).

Multimedia

Windows Media Center

Windows Media Center in Windows 7 has retained much of the design and feel of its predecessor, but with a variety of user interface shortcuts and browsing capabilities. Playback of H.264 video both locally and through a Media Center Extender (including the Xbox 360) is supported.

Some notable enhancements in Windows 7 Media Center include a new mini guide, a new scrub bar, the option to color code the guide by show type, and internet content that is more tightly integrated with regular TV via the guide. All Windows 7 versions now support up to four tuners of each type (QAM, ATSC, CableCARD, NTSC, etc.).

When browsing the media library, items that don't have album art are shown in a range of foreground and background color combinations instead of using white text on a blue background. When the left or right remote control buttons are held down to browse the library quickly, a two-letter prefix of the current album name is prominently shown as a visual aid. The Picture Library includes new slideshow capabilities, and individual pictures can be rated.

Also, while browsing a media library, a new column appears at the top named "Shared." This allows users to access shared media libraries on other Media Center PCs from directly within Media Center.

For television support, the Windows Media Center "TV Pack" released by Microsoft in 2008 is incorporated into Windows Media Center. This includes support for CableCARD and North American (ATSC) clear QAM tuners, as well as creating lists of favorite stations.

A gadget for Windows Media Center is also included.

Format support
Windows 7 includes AVI, WAV, AAC/ADTS file media sinks to read the respective formats, an MPEG-4 file source to read MP4, M4A, M4V, MP4V MOV and 3GP container formats and an MPEG-4 file sink to output to MP4 format. Windows 7 also includes a media source to read MPEG transport stream/BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream (M2TS, MTS, M2T and AVCHD) files.

Transcoding (encoding) support is not exposed through any built-in Windows application but codecs are included as Media Foundation Transforms (MFTs). In addition to Windows Media Audio and Windows Media Video encoders and decoders, and ASF file sink and file source introduced in Windows Vista, Windows 7 includes an H.264 encoder with Baseline profile level 3 and Main profile support and an AAC Low Complexity (AAC-LC) profile encoder.

For playback of various media formats, Windows 7 also introduces an H.264 decoder with Baseline, Main, and High profiles support, up to level 5.1, AAC-LC and HE-AAC v1 (SBR) multichannel, HE-AAC v2 (PS) stereo decoders, MPEG-4 Part 2 Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile decoders which includes decoding popular codec implementations such as DivX, Xvid and Nero Digital as well as MJPEG and DV MFT decoders for AVI. Windows Media Player 12 uses the built-in Media Foundation codecs to play these formats by default.

Windows 7 also updates the DirectShow filters introduced in Windows Vista for playback of MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital to decode H.264, AAC, HE-AAC v1 and v2 and Dolby Digital Plus (including downmixing to Dolby Digital).

Security
Action Center, formerly Windows Security Center, now encompasses both security and maintenance. It was called Windows Health Center and Windows Solution Center in earlier builds.

A new user interface for User Account Control has been introduced, which provides the ability to select four different levels of notifications, one of these notification settings, Default, is new to Windows 7. Geo-tracking capabilities are also available in Windows 7. The feature will be disabled by default. When enabled the user will only have limited control as to which applications can track their location.

The Encrypting File System supports Elliptic-curve cryptographic algorithms (ECC) in Windows 7. For backward compatibility with previous releases of Windows, Windows 7 supports a mixed-mode operation of ECC and RSA algorithms. EFS self-signed certificates, when using ECC, will use 256-bit key by default. EFS can be configured to use 1K/2k/4k/8k/16k-bit keys when using self-signed RSA certificates, or 256/384/512-bit keys when using ECC certificates.

In Windows Vista, the Protected User-Mode Audio (PUMA) content protection facilities are only available to applications that are running in a Protected Media Path environment. Because only the Media Foundation application programming interface could interact with this environment, a media player application had to be designed to use Media Foundation. In Windows 7, this restriction is lifted. PUMA also incorporates stricter enforcement of "Copy Never" bits when using Serial Copy Management System (SCMS) copy protection over an S/PDIF connection, as well as with High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) over HDMI connections.

Biometrics
Windows 7 includes the new Windows Biometric Framework. This framework consists of a set of components that standardizes the use of fingerprint biometric devices. In prior releases of Microsoft Windows, biometric hardware device manufacturers were required to provide a complete stack of software to support their device, including device drivers, software development kits, and support applications. Microsoft noted in a white paper on the Windows Biometric Framework that the proliferation of these proprietary stacks resulted in compatibility issues, compromised the quality and reliability of the system, and made servicing and maintenance more difficult. By incorporating the core biometric functionality into the operating system, Microsoft aims to bring biometric device support on par with other classes of devices.

A new Control Panel called Biometric Device Control Panel is included which provides an interface for deleting stored biometrics information, troubleshooting, and enabling or disabling the types of logins that are allowed using biometrics. Biometrics configuration can also be configured using Group Policy settings.

Networking
 DirectAccess, a VPN tunnel technology based on IPv6 and IPsec. DirectAccess requires domain-joined machines, Windows Server 2008 R2 on the DirectAccess server, at least Windows Server 2008 domain controllers and a PKI to issue authentication certificates.
 BranchCache, a WAN optimization technology.
 The Bluetooth stack includes improvements introduced in the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, namely, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR support and remote wake from S3 or S4 support for self-powered Bluetooth modules.
 NDIS 6.20 (Network Driver Interface Specification)
 WWAN (Mobile broadband) support (driver model based on NDIS miniport driver for CDMA and GSM device interfaces, Connection Manager support and Mobile Broadband COM and COM Interop API).
 Wireless Hosted Network capabilities: The Windows 7 wireless LAN service supports two new functions – Virtual Wi-Fi, that allows a single wireless network adapter to act like two client devices, or a software-based wireless access point (SoftAP) to act as both a wireless hotspot in infrastructure mode and a wireless client at the same time. This feature is not exposed through the GUI; however the Virtual WiFi Miniport adapter can be installed and enabled for wireless adapters with drivers that support a hosted network by using the command netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow "ssid=<network SSID>" "key=<wlan security key>" keyusage=persistent|temporary at an elevated command prompt. The wireless SoftAP can afterwards be started using the command netsh wlan start hostednetwork. Windows 7 also supports WPA2-PSK/AES security for the hosted network, but DNS resolution for clients requires it to be used with Internet Connection Sharing or a similar feature.
 SMB 2.1, which includes minor performance enhancements over SMB2, such as a new opportunistic locking mechanism.
 RDP 7.0
 Background Intelligent Transfer Service 4.0

HomeGroup
Alongside the workgroup system used by previous versions, Windows 7 adds a new ad hoc home networking system known as HomeGroup. The system uses a password to join computers into the group, and allows users' libraries, along with individual files and folders, to be shared between multiple computers. Only computers running Windows 7 to Windows 10 version 1709 can create or join a HomeGroup; however, users can make files and printers shared in a HomeGroup accessible to Windows XP and Windows Vista through a separate account, dedicated to sharing HomeGroup content, that uses traditional Windows sharing. HomeGroup support was deprecated in Windows 10 and has been removed from Windows 10 version 1803 and later.

HomeGroup as a concept is very similar to a feature slated for Windows Vista, known as Castle, which would have made it possible to have an identification service for all members on the network, without a centralized server.

HomeGroup is created in response to the need for a simple sharing model for inexperienced users who need to share files without wrestling with user accounts, Security descriptors and share permissions. To that end, Microsoft previously created Simple File Sharing mode in Windows XP that, once enabled, caused all connected computers to be authenticated as Guest. Under this model, either a certain file or folder was shared with anyone who connects to the network (even unauthorized parties who are in range of the wireless network) or was not shared at all. In a HomeGroup, however:
Communication between HomeGroup computers is encrypted with a pre-shared password.
A certain file or folder can be shared with the entire HomeGroup (anyone who joins) or a certain person only.
HomeGroup computers can also be a member of a Windows domain or Windows workgroup at the same time and take advantage of those file sharing mechanisms.
Only computers that support HomeGroup (Windows 7 to Windows 10 version 1709) can join the network.

Windows Firewall
Windows 7 adds support for multiple firewall profiles. The Windows Firewall in Windows Vista dynamically changes which network traffic is allowed or blocked based on the location of the computer (based on which network it is connected to). This approach falls short if the computer is connected to more than one network at the same time (as for a computer with both an Ethernet and a wireless interface). In this case, Vista applies the profile that is more secure to all network connections. This is often not desirable; Windows 7 resolves this by being able to apply a separate firewall profile to each network connection.

DNSSEC
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 introduce support for Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), a set of specifications for securing certain kinds of information provided by the Domain Name System (DNS) as used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks. DNSSEC employs digital signatures to ensure the authenticity of DNS data received from a DNS server, which protect against DNS cache poisoning attacks.

Management features

Windows 7 contains Windows PowerShell 2.0 out-of-the-box, which is also available as a download to install on older platforms:
 Windows Troubleshooting Platform
 Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment
 PowerShell Remoting

Other new management features include:
 AppLocker (a set of Group Policy settings that evolved from Software Restriction Policies, to restrict which applications can run on a corporate network, including the ability to restrict based on the application's version number or publisher)
 Group Policy Preferences (also available as a download for Windows XP and Windows Vista).
 The Windows Automation API (also available as a download for Windows XP and Windows Vista).

Upgraded components

Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer 8, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5, Windows Installer 5.0 and a standalone XPS Viewer. Paint, Calculator, Resource Monitor, on-screen keyboard, and WordPad have also been updated.

Paint and WordPad feature a Ribbon interface similar to the one introduced in Office 2007, with both sporting several new features.  WordPad supports Office Open XML and ODF file formats.

Calculator has been rewritten, with multiline capabilities including Programmer and Statistics modes, unit conversion, and date calculations. Calculator was also given a graphical facelift, the first since Windows 95 in 1995 and Windows NT 4.0 in 1996.

Sticky Notes of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2002 and the similar Sticky Notes Gadget introduced in Windows Vista have been replaced with a new Sticky Notes application that supports new Windows 7 taskbar features — a thumbnail preview of a stack representing all minimized notes, and Jump Lists on the taskbar and Start menu to create a New Note — and full-text-based search in the Windows Shell through an IFilter and protocol handler for all notes. Real-time stylus (both pen and touch input) is also supported.

Resource Monitor includes an improved RAM usage display and supports display of TCP/IP ports being listened to, filtering processes using networking, filtering processes with disk activity and listing and searching process handles (e.g. files used by a process) and loaded modules (files required by an executable file, e.g. DLL files).

Microsoft Magnifier, an accessibility utility for low vision users has been dramatically improved. Magnifier now supports the full screen zoom feature, whereas previous Windows versions had the Magnifier attached to the top of the screen in a dock layout. The new full screen feature is enabled by default, however, it requires Windows Aero for the advantage of the full screen zoom feature. If Windows is set to the Windows 7 Basic, Windows Classic, or High Contrast themes, Magnifier will still function like it did in Windows Vista and earlier.

Windows Installer 5.0 supports installing and configuring Windows Services, and provides developers with more control over setting permissions during software installation. Neither of these features will be available for prior versions of Windows; custom actions to support these features will continue to be required for Windows Installer packages that need to implement these features.

Other features
 Windows 7 improves the Tablet PC Input Panel to make faster corrections using new gestures, supports text prediction in the soft keyboard and introduces a new Math Input Panel for inputting math into programs that support MathML. It recognizes handwritten math expressions and formulas. Additional language support for handwriting recognition can be gained by installing the respective MUI pack for that language (also called language pack).
 Windows 7 introduces a new Problem Steps Recorder tool that enables users to record their interaction with software for analysis and support. The feature can be used to replicate a problem to show support when and where a problem occurred.
 As opposed to the blank start-up screen in Windows Vista, Windows 7's start-up screen consists of an animation featuring four colored light balls (one red, one yellow, one green, and one blue). They twirl around for a few seconds and then merge to form a glowing Windows logo. This only occurs on displays with a vertical resolution of 768 pixels or higher, as the animation is 1024x768. Any screen with a resolution below this displays the same startup screen that Vista used.
 The Starter Edition of Windows 7 can run an unlimited number of applications, compared to only 3 in Windows Vista Starter. Microsoft had initially intended to ship Windows 7 Starter Edition with this limitation, but announced after the release of the Release Candidate that this restriction would not be imposed in the final release.

 For developers, Windows 7 includes a new networking API with support for building SOAP-based web services in native code (as opposed to .NET-based WCF web services), new features to shorten application install times, reduced UAC prompts, simplified development of installation packages, and improved globalization support through a new Extended Linguistic Services API.
 If an application crashes twice in a row, Windows 7 will automatically attempt to apply a shim. If an application fails to install a similar self-correcting fix, a tool that asks some questions about the application launches.
 Windows 7 includes an optional TIFF IFilter that enables indexing of TIFF documents by reading them with optical character recognition (OCR), thus making their text content searchable. TIFF iFilter supports Adobe TIFF Revision 6.0 specifications and four compression schemes: LZW, JPEG, CCITT v4, CCITT v6
 The Windows Console now adheres to the current Windows theme, instead of showing controls from the Windows Classic theme.
 Games Internet Spades, Internet Backgammon and Internet Checkers, which were removed from Windows Vista, were restored in Windows 7.
 Users can disable many more Windows components than was possible in Windows Vista. The new components which can now be disabled include: Handwriting Recognition, Internet Explorer, Windows DVD Maker, Windows Fax and Scan, Windows Gadget Platform Windows Media Center, Windows Media Player, Windows Search, and the XPS Viewer (with its services).
 Windows XP Mode is a fully functioning copy of 32-bit Windows XP Professional SP3 running in a virtual machine in Windows Virtual PC (as opposed to Hyper-V) running on top of Windows 7. Through the use of the RDP protocol, it allows applications incompatible with Windows 7 to be run on the underlying Windows XP virtual machine, but still to appear to be part of the Windows 7 desktop, thereby sharing the native Start Menu of Windows 7 as well as participating in file type associations. It is not distributed with Windows 7 media, but is offered as a free download to users of the Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions from Microsoft's web site. Users of Home Premium who want Windows XP functionality on their systems can download Windows Virtual PC free of charge, but must provide their own licensed copy of Windows XP. XP Mode is intended for consumers rather than enterprises, as it offers no central management capabilities. Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (Med-V) is available for the enterprise market.
 Native support for Hyper-V virtual machines through the inclusion of VMBus integration drivers.
 AVCHD camera support and Universal Video Class 1.1
 Protected Broadcast Driver Architecture (PBDA) for TV tuner cards, first implemented in Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 for Windows Vista.
 Multi-function devices and Device Containers: Prior to Windows 7, every device attached to the system was treated as a single functional end-point, known as a devnode, that has a set of capabilities and a "status". While this is appropriate for single-function devices (such as a keyboard or scanner), it does not accurately represent multi-function devices such as a combined printer, fax machine, and scanner, or web-cams with a built-in microphone. In Windows 7, the drivers and status information for multi-function device can be grouped together as a single "Device Container", which is presented to the user in the new "Devices and Printers" Control Panel as a single unit. This capability is provided by a new Plug and Play property, ContainerID, which is a [[Universally unique identifier
|Globally Unique Identifier]] that is different for every instance of a physical device. The Container ID can be embedded within the device by the manufacturer, or created by Windows and associated with each devnode when it is first connected to the computer. In order to ensure the uniqueness of the generated Container ID, Windows will attempt to use information unique to the device, such as a MAC address or USB serial number. Devices connected to the computer via USB, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), eSATA, PCI Express, Bluetooth, and Windows Rally's PnP-X support can make use of Device Containers.

 Windows 7 will also contain a new FireWire (IEEE 1394) stack that fully supports IEEE 1394b with S800, S1600 and S3200 data rates.

 The ability to join a domain offline.
 Service Control Manager in conjunction with the Windows Task Scheduler supports trigger-start services.

See also

References

External links
 What's New in Windows 7 for IT Pros (RC)
 Windows 7 Support

Windows 7
Windows 7


Jajce II Hydroelectric Power Station is a diversion type of hydroelectric power plant on the Vrbas river, whose and powerhouse (generation hall, generating station or generating plant) is situated underground  17 km downstream from town of Jajce, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It use 3x10 MW generators, with total installed capacity of 30 MW.

See also

Vrbas
 Jajce I Hydroelectric Power Station

References

Hydroelectric power stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Underground hydroelectric power stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina


Niamh Marie Redmond (born  ) is an Irish former model who found fame by winning Miss Ireland in 1996.

Born to parents Ronald and Orla, Redmond grew up the only female child with three brothers in Drimnagh. At the age of nineteen she represented Dublin at Miss Ireland and was crowned the winner.

Although her win qualified her to represent the country at Miss Universe 1997, Redmond – who had deferred a place at Maynooth College to prepare for the pageant – was controversially replaced by Miss Ireland second runner-up Fiona Mullaly. When queried, pageant boss Kieran Murray stated that Mullaly was best suited to represent Ireland, and his decision to remove Redmond was a bid to raise the standard and profile of Miss Ireland. Redmond had previously been a contestant at Miss World 1996 where she was a favourite, but did not place, and former Miss Ireland boss Krish Naidoo, who defended Murray, claimed that Redmond had failed to impress the judges because she had given up completely.

As a model, Redmond was lined to promote a range of summer clothing for Lee Jeans alongside Fair City actor Peter Warnock, but came under fire when she appeared in a contraceptives commercial shortly after being crowned.
Redmond graduated with a degree in Finance, and worked in IT after her reign.

She is married to former Ireland rugby player and businessman Aidan McCullen. She has two sons.

References

Miss World 1996 delegates
Alumni of Maynooth University
Living people
Miss Ireland winners
Year of birth missing (living people)
Beauty pageant contestants from Ireland


Conserving Carolina is a non-profit conservation organization working to preserve water and land resources in Western North Carolina.  Conserving Carolina was created in July 2017, from a merger of two previously separate organizations, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy and Pacolet Area Conservancy.  The combined organization maintains a primary office in Hendersonville, NC and a regional office in Columbus, NC.

History

What was to become the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, now Conserving Carolina, began with a 1991 natural areas inventory of Henderson County, NC, which identified numerous places in the county with intact and important natural resources worthy of conservation.  In 1994, the Natural Heritage Trust of Henderson County was formed to seek protection of these important sites.  A year later, it was renamed the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy and expanded its area of focus to include Transylvania and parts of Buncombe, Rutherford, Polk and Jackson Counties. The organization began working with local landowners to protect farm, forest, park, and natural lands with the support of local community members. Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy grew to be one of the premier land conservancies in the Southeast, protecting some  of land, and became a fully accredited land trust under the Land Trust Accreditation Commission.

The Pacolet Area Conservancy was formed in 1989 to conserve land and water resources in Polk County, North Carolina and parts of the Pacolet River watershed across the state line in the Landrum area of South Carolina. Prior to the merger in 2017, Pacolet Area Conservancy helped protect more than 10,000 acres of forests, farms, greenspace, mountains, and waterways, including 1,500 acres at the Walnut Creek Preserve in northern Polk County.

After over a year of discussions focused on greater collaboration between the organizations, the two conservancies decide to join in order to more effectively advance their common mission to conserve natural resources in their burgeoning region within the Carolinas for generations to come. With an expanded geographic region, the merged organization combines expertise, talents, resources and a strengthened ability to protect land and water resources, and foster appreciation of the region's unique natural heritage.

Approach

Conserving Carolina works with various sectors of society including businesses, individuals, communities, partner organizations, and government agencies to achieve its goals. Conserving Carolina uses a mix of financial incentives along with the goodwill of conservation-minded landowners to preserve land from development.

Conserving Carolina has pioneered the use of conservation easements in Henderson and Transylvania Counties.  A conservation easement is a way for landowners to ensure that their land remains in its natural state while capitalizing on some of the land's potential development value.  Conserving Carolina also works with the North Carolina Division of State Parks and other government partners to acquire land for sites such as Chimney Rock State Park.

Significant Conservation

Chimney Rock State Park

The Worlds Edge Property was a 2005, $16 million joint effort between the Conserving Carolina, along with The Nature Conservancy to save some  of a non-contiguous property spanning across Henderson, Polk, and Rutherford counties. The Worlds Edge Property, formerly owned by The Robert Haywood Morrison Foundation, contains over  of streams and waterfalls, in addition to numerous endangered salamander, bird, and bat species.  In December 2009, Conserving Carolina acquired the  Weed Patch Mountain tract north of Lake Lure, which adds to the corridor of conserved land including the State Park.

Green River Preserve

The Green River Preserve encompasses some  of the upper Green River Watershed, the largest conservation project in terms of acreage by Conserving Carolina.  The Green River area is listed under the North Carolina Natural Heritage identified natural area, significant for a diversity of habitat types including granite dome outcrops, steep cliffs, rich cove forests, Carolina hemlock bluffs, and pine-oak forests. The conservation of this area was made possible by donations from the Schenck and Ball families, with help from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund.

Florence Nature Preserve

The Florence Nature Preserve is a 600-acre (2.4 km2) tract located in the upper Hickory Nut Gorge area near Gerton, North Carolina.  Donated by Dr. Tom and Glenna Florence in two phases (1996 and 2001) the preserve is open to the general public for hiking.

Lewis Creek Nature Preserve
Lewis Creek Nature Preserve is located in Edneyville, North Carolina.  The preserve is home to a  mixed Appalachian Bog.  This ecosystem is listed as critically endangered with only  of this variety of bogs and fens still in existence, an 83 percent loss from the estimated  that once existed.

Conserving Carolina purchased the property that forms Lewis Creek Nature Park in 2004 to be maintained for the use of homeowners in the adjacent neighborhood. The North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program has been contracted to conduct stream restoration on the portion of Lewis Creek running through the nature park.  The finish date of this project has been delayed from the original estimation of August 2008.  Due to the fragile and unique nature of the park, it is not open to the general public, but Conserving Carolina does hold tree planting and exotic invasive species removal workdays there.

Headwaters State Forest

In June 2010, CMLC, in partnership with The Conservation Fund, announced that  in the upper French Broad River watershed in Transylvania County, North Carolina was under contract for purchase with Champion Cattle and Tree Farms, a company owned by the family of former western North Carolina Congressman Charles H. Taylor.  The tract lies on the South Carolina state line across from the City of Greenville's  Table Rock Watershed property.  It includes an eight-mile (13 km) section of the Foothills Trail and is home to over  of headwaters trout streams.

Volunteerism

Like many non-profits, Conserving Carolina relies on the contribution of volunteers who constitute the board of directors, and participate in the day-to-day operations of the organization.  In 2007, volunteers contributed over 3,600 hours, saving the organization an estimated $70,236.00 (U.S) worth of staff time. Volunteer positions include office administrators, wildlife monitors, committee members, and tech support consultants.

See also
Conservation in the United States
Land trust
Conservation easement

References

External links
Protected Preserve - NC Mountain Property
Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy
Carolina Mountain Club
Land Trust Alliance

Land trusts in North Carolina
Environmental organizations established in 1994
1994 establishments in North Carolina


The 1999–2000 Ukrainian Second League is the ninth season of 3rd level professional football in Ukraine. The competitions are divided into three groups – A, B, and C.

The groups were won respectively by FC Bukovyna Chernivtsi, FC Borysfen Boryspil and FC Dnipro-2 Dnipropetrovsk.

Team changes

Promoted
The following team were promoted from the 1998–99 Ukrainian Football Amateur League:
 FC Dynamo Lviv – (debut)
 FC Arsenal Kharkiv – (debut)
 FC Obolon-Zmina-2 Kyiv – (debut)

Also, four more clubs were admitted additionally:
 FC Nyva Vinnytsia – (debut)
 FC Prykarpattia-2 Ivano-Frankivsk – (debut)
 FC ADOMS Kremenchuk– (debut)
 FC Mashynobudivnyk Druzhkivka – (debut)

Relegated
The following team were relegated from the 1998–99 Ukrainian First League:
 FC Podillya Khmelnytskyi – (returning after an absence of a season)
 FC Kremin Kremenchuk – (returning after an absence of 8 seasons, previously in the 1991 Soviet tier–3 competitions)
 FC Bukovyna Chernivtsi – (returning after an absence of 9 seasons, previously in the 1990 Soviet tier–3 competitions)
 FC Desna Chernihiv – (returning after an absence of 2 seasons)

Group A
New clubs: Bukovyna Chernivtsi, Podillya Khmelnytskyi, Dynamo Lviv, Nyva Vinnytsia (the farm team of FC Vinnytsia), Prykarpattia-2 Ivano-Frankivsk.

Location map

Standings

Results

Group B
New club: Obolon-Zmina-2 Kyiv

Location map

Standings

Results

Group C
New clubs: Desna Chernihiv, Kremin Kremenchuk, ADOMS Kremenchuk, Mashynobudivnyk Druzhkivka, Arsenal Kharkiv.

Location map

Standings

Results

See also
 1999–2000 Ukrainian Premier League
 1999–2000 Ukrainian First League
 1999 Ukrainian Football Amateur League
 2000 Ukrainian Football Amateur League

External links
 1999/2000 Ukrainian Second League. RSSSF

Ukrainian Second League seasons
3
Ukra


Guinness World Records: The Videogame is a party video game based on the Guinness World Records series of books of world records. Developed by TT Fusion and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the game was released on November 7, 2008, in Europe and Australia, and on November 11, 2008, in North America. The game involves attempting to beat real-life world records through minigames. The game saw mixed to positive reviews upon release, and was considered better than most minigame compilations that were on Nintendo consoles at the time.

Gameplay
Guinness World Records: The Videogame contains 36 mini-games based on real-world record attempts. The player can select 12 avatars and can travel around a globe-like map that allows them to select minigames. Beating minigames allows the player to unlock more minigames and outfits for their avatars. Minigames involve attempting to beat a world record as fast as possible, such as building the highest skyscraper in a Tetris style minigame or attempting the world's highest BMX stunt jump. The player's score is placed on a scoreboard at the end of the round and is then compared over the internet to other players' scores. The game shows trivia about real-life world records on the menu and during loading screens.

Reception

Guinness World Records: The Videogame received mixed reviews from critics upon release. On Metacritic, the game holds scores of 70/100 for the Nintendo DS version based on 4 reviews, and 67/100 for the Wii version based on 12 reviews. On GameRankings, the game holds scores of 70.00% for the DS version based on 4 reviews, and 67.50% for the Wii version based on 16 reviews.

Reviewing the DS and Wii version for IGN, Mark Thomas praised the game's strange minigames, comparing it positively to Warioware, before ending the review with, "[...] But even then there are a couple of more fully-fledged gems in this pack that are addictive enough to warrant keeping the game handy long after you've been declared the best, the tallest, the strongest and the smartest with every record there is." Writing for Nintendo World Report and reviewing both versions, Francesca DiMola found the games lack of similarity to actual World Records disappointing and the games boring, saying, "The lack of identity and direction is unfulfilling, and while a select group of mini-games are entertaining and original, many of them feel generic and bland.". Writing for Eurogamer and reviewing the Wii version, Simon Parkin found the idea to be interesting, ending the review with "[...] Guinness World Records is the best mini-game collection we've played on the Wii, in part because of the content but principally because of its context."

References

External links
Guinness World Records: The Videogame at Mobygames

2008 video games
Guinness World Records
IOS games
Nintendo DS games
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection games
Party video games
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
Warner Bros. video games
Wii Wi-Fi games


Wonderland is a 1971 novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the fourth in the so-called Wonderland Quartet. It was a finalist for the annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and it has been called one of the author's best books.

Wonderland follows the character Jesse Vogel from his childhood in the Great Depression to his marriage and career in the late 1960s.  Oates later wrote that Jesse is a protagonist who does not have an identity unless he is "deeply involved in meaningful experience", a theme that allowed her to address both what she calls "the phantasmagoria of personality" and the faceless nature of the novelist.

Oates wrote in a 1992 Afterword that Wonderland among her early novels was "the most bizarre and obsessive" and "the most painful to write". Oates continued to think about the novel after its completion, and rewrote the ending for the 1972 paperback edition. She also continued to write about the Vogels: the play Ontological Proof of My Existence is an expansion of Jesse's visit to Toronto in the novel, and she considers the story 'How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction, and Began My Life Over Again' "an analogue of Shelley [Vogel]'s experience as a runaway to Toledo."

Summary

Book 1: Variations on an American Hymn
Jesse Harte is fourteen years old in Yewville, NY, in 1939, when his despairing father Willard murders Jesse's mother, two sisters, and brother, and then tries to shoot Jesse before the father commits suicide. Jesse moves in with his maternal grandfather, Grandpa Vogel, but runs away and lives with his cousin Fritz for a while. Then he goes to the Niagara County home for Boys, outside Lockport, until a doctor named Pederson from Lockport adopts him.

Jesse lives with the Pedersons: Karl Pederson, M.D., his wife Mary (née Shirer), and their children Frederich and Hilda. Frederich is a pianist and Hilda is a math prodigy. Jesse excels in school and Dr. Pederson drills him constantly in different subjects, particularly biology, encouraging Jesse to become a doctor like himself. When he is sixteen, Jesse travels to New York and watches Hilda perform in a math competition. Mrs. Pederson becomes increasingly nervous and dependent upon Jesse. Jesse skips a grade and is accepted at the University of Michigan. One day Mrs. Pederson begs Jesse to take her to a hotel in Buffalo, because she is terrified of Dr. Pederson and claims he is controlling her entire life. Jesse acquiesces, but Dr. Pederson eventually forces Mrs. Pederson to come home, and he disowns Jesse.

Book 2: The Finite Passing of an Infinite Passion
Jesse enrolls at the University of Michigan, though the money Dr. Pederson gave him soon runs out. He legally changes his name to Jesse Vogel, studies hard, and works to pay off his debts to the University, sleeping little. He greatly admires Dr. Benjamin Cady, who teaches a neuroscience course. Jesse becomes sick with mononucleosis and, while recovering in the hospital, falls in love with a nurse named Anne-Marie Seton. One day Jesse returns to his apartment and finds a man named Talbot "Trick" Waller Monk in it, an assistant to Dr. Cady. "Trick" introduces himself and says that he would like to be a poet rather than a doctor. Jesse becomes increasingly suspicious of Anne-Marie and eventually breaks up with her.

While on an errand with his landlady's daughter, Jesse sees Dr. Cady in a parking lot with a young woman and learns that she is Cady's daughter, Helene. Jesse soon becomes engaged to Helene, as well as close friends with Trick. The three spend a lot of time together but one day at a restaurant Trick begins spontaneously reciting his own strange poetry, and Jesse and Helene try to leave. Trick tries to attack Jesse, and when Jesse defends himself, Trick collapses and must go to a hospital because of a rheumatic heart condition.

Jesse works as an intern at LaSalle Hospital in Chicago, the head of which is Dr. Roderick Perrault. Jesse marries Helene Cady and she becomes pregnant, but she feels isolated because Jesse works so much. She gives birth to a girl, Jeanne. One day when Jesse is walking with Jeanne he sees an attractive woman who seems familiar to him, and when he introduces himself she says that her name is Reva Denk. Jesse becomes Chief Resident at LaSalle and Helene becomes pregnant again, but Jesse obsesses over Reva Denk and eventually contacts her again, telling her that he would leave Helene for Reva. Reva implies that she is pregnant and needs him (a doctor) to perform an abortion for her, which he refuses. William H. Shirer, the father of Mary Pederson, dies and leaves Jesse a small fortune, but when he shows the paperwork to Helene, she accuses him of being in love with someone else. Jesse drives off and finds Reva Denk again, proposing to her that he stay with her and raise Denk's child as his own, but Jesse finds that he cannot follow through on this and he returns to Helene.

Book 3: Dreaming America
Jesse Vogel uses his inheritance from William Shirer to start his own clinic. He attends a doctors' conference with his family - Helene, Jeanne, and their younger daughter Michele (Shelley) - in New York City on November 22, 1963. Jesse works harder than ever, at his clinic and on editing the book that Dr. Perrault failed to complete before dying. As he neglects his family, his daughter Shelley becomes very rebellious, though Jeanne progresses and plans to study biology in college. Shelley travels with some friends to Toledo, and after they get arrested Jesse drives there and takes her home. Shelley eventually runs away again, this time for good, and she sends postcards to her father with no return address. These postcards come from all over the map - Homestead, the Gulf of Mexico, New York City, San Angelo, Best, Venice Beach - and Shelley says that she is with a young man named Noel. One postcard mentions the poet T. W. Monk, and Jesse journeys to New York to find Trick. Trick is now a published poet but also in poor health and a drug addict, and Trick has no useful information as to Shelley's whereabouts. Finally a postcard says that she is on Yonge Street, in Toronto, and it implies that she is very sick from drug abuse. Jesse drives to Toronto and finds her emaciated in a disgusting apartment. She resists her father, saying that Noel told her that Jesse is the devil.

Interpretation
G. F. Waller characterizes "Wonderland" as "a society of schizoids: its inhabitants define their goals in the rhetoric of idealism - the integrity of the  individual, the promise of the future, the freedom and uniqueness of the personality - but it acts as if these great goals...are graspable only in the most immediate material forms." Mary Ann Wilson observes, "the elements of the past from which Jesse thinks he is escaping reappear again as he is in the end a frustrated, ineffectual father like his own...as Jesse had fled his insane, murderous father at the beginning of the novel, his own runaway daughter, Shelley, flees her father accusing him of wanting to kill her." Jeoffrey Steven Bull argues that Jesse refuses to accept his own past, and instead "looks for relief in the nihilism of isolated sovereignty," denying his own personality so that he can dominate everything. Bull also states that "homeostasis is the goal towards which Jesse works...the term can help readers understand the simultaneous dread of contingency and longing for freedom evident in Jesse and other characters."

References

Novels by Joyce Carol Oates
1971 American novels
Vanguard Press books


Ronald Lee Nischwitz (born July 1, 1937 in Dayton, Ohio) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher who played from 1961 to 1963, and again in 1965, for the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians. A switch-hitter, he threw left-handed, was  tall and weighed .

Before playing professional baseball, he attended Fairview High School and then Ohio State University. Signed by the Tigers as an amateur free agent in 1958, Nischwitz made his big league debut on September 4, 1961 against the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched two perfect innings, striking out three batters. He played in a total of six games in his rookie year, going 0–1 with a 5.56 ERA.

In 1962, Nischwitz was the Tigers' most used reliever, appearing in 48 games. He went 4–5 with a 3.90 ERA. In 64 innings, he struck out only 28 batters but proved to be a solid hitter, collecting five hits — including a triple — in 12 at-bats, for a .417 batting average. After the season, he was traded by the Tigers with Gordon Seyfried to the Indians for Bubba Phillips.

Nischwitz played in only 14 big league games in 1963, going 0–2 with a 6.48 ERA. He did not play in the majors in 1964.

1965 was Nischwitz's final big league season. Before the season began, he was purchased by the Tigers from the Indians. He appeared in 20 games for the Tigers, going 1–0 with a 2.78 ERA — one of the best ERAs on the team. He played his final game on September 19.

Overall, Nischwitz 5–8 with a 4.21 ERA in 88 games. In 115 innings, he walked 48 batters and struck out 68. He hit .278 in 18 career at-bats.

Following his playing career, he served as the head coach of Dayton's Wright State University baseball team from 1975 to 2004. In 2007 he was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

References

External links

Living people
1937 births
Baseball players from Dayton, Ohio
Birmingham Barons players
Cleveland Indians players
Denver Bears players
Detroit Tigers players
Jacksonville Suns players
Knoxville Smokies players
Lancaster Red Roses players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Ohio State Buckeyes baseball players
Portland Beavers players
Syracuse Chiefs players
Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players
Wright State Raiders baseball coaches


The Rama Dam is a concrete-face rock-fill dam on the Rama river, a tributary of the Neretva river, about  southwest of the town of Prozor in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dam and its hydropower plant are operated by Elektroprivreda HZ HB, public power utility company in Bosnia and Herzegovina owned by Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity government.

Characteristics
The dam was constructed between 1964 and 1968 with the primary purpose of hydroelectric power production. It is  tall and creates Rama Lake. The dam's power station is located underground about  to the southeast and discharges back into the Rama River. It contains two 80 MW Francis turbine-generators for an installed capacity of 160 MW. The difference in elevation between the reservoir and power station afford a hydraulic head (water drop) of .

History
The power station ceased operations between 1993 and 1996 due to the Bosnian War.

References

External links
Hydroelectric power plant Rama construction, documentary film by Hajrudin Krvavac (YouTube)
Rama valley before flooding, documentary film TVSA (YouTube)
Rama valley before and after flooding, reportage by Hayat TV (YouTube)

Dams in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Concrete-face rock-fill dams
Dams completed in 1968
Prozor-Rama
Hydroelectric power stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Energy infrastructure completed in 1968
1968 establishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Underground hydroelectric power stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Hydroelectric power stations in the Neretva basin


Sleep Station is an American indie rock band on Eyeball Records from Bergen County, New Jersey that revolves around frontman David Debiak. While some Sleep Station albums have been recorded with a full band (After the War, The Pride of Chester James), others have essentially been David Debiak solo albums (Von Cosel, The Blood of Our Our Fathers), featuring very little, if any, instrumentation other than David Debiak's own guitar playing. Sleep Station is known for its concept albums; to date, all Sleep Station releases have been concept albums, and have been called "rock operas" by some critics. David Debiak himself, however, has stated that he is not trying to tell a story in his songs, stating in a MySpace bulletin "Every record I have done as Sleep Station has been thematic in its nature, not trying to tell a story but just create a mood."  Unconventional love affairs and war are common lyrical themes in Sleep Station's music.

History

Sleep Station began in 2001, with David Debiak having the intention of producing a movie. Unable to obtain funds to do so, he opted to write a soundtrack to the nonexistent movie instead. The result was the concept album Anhedonia, released on Spot The Genius Productions in 2001, which chronicles the life, death and subsequent trip to hell, of a serial killer and rapist.

Following Anhedonia, Sleep Station signed to New Jersey-based Eyeball Records. In 2002, Sleep Station released its first album on Eyeball Records, Runaway Elba-1. The album tells the story of a cybernetics engineer who builds a female robot, Elba-1. Elba-1 and the engineer fall wildly in love, but must flee when the engineer's employers are determined to steal Elba-1.

The following year, Sleep Station released the Von Cosel EP as a free download on the band's website. Although previous Sleep Station albums had featured several David Debiak acoustic solo songs, Von Cosel was the first release to slightly abandon the "band" format. There were, however, substantial contributions by Brad Paxton (Guitar), and Ryan Ball (Guitar, Bass, Lap Steel, Drums, Piano, Organ, Recording, Mixing, and Mastering engineer).

For their next album, Hang in There Charlie, Sleep Station once again adopted a "band" format. Hang in There Charlie tells the story of two astronauts who arrive at a space station to discover it has been hugely neglected. When the astronauts protest, they are punished by NASA by being abandoned and left in the space station to die.

In 2004, Sleep Station released its arguably most successful album to date, After The War. Recorded using mostly instruments and equipment from the 1940s, After The War tells the story of a soldier fighting in World War II, while occasionally interspersing stories from other characters. The album features interludes of 1940s audio recordings of soldiers reciting poetry for their wives and girlfriends.

Following After the War, Sleep Station went on hiatus, with David Debiak starting a side project, New London Fire, with his brother Jason.

In 2008, Sleep Station returned from hiatus with the album The Pride of Chester James, an album about a fictional circus drifter who shows up in a small town.

Later in the year, Sleep Station released The Blood of Our Fathers as a free download on the Air and Sea Battle website, an album whose lyrics loosely revolve around two brothers fighting in an unnamed war.

Discography

Albums
 Anhedonia (2000)
 Runaway Elba-1 (2002) (re-released in 2003)
 Hang in There Charlie (2003)
 After The War (2004)
 The Pride of Chester James (2008)
 The Blood of Our Fathers (2008)

EPs
 Von Cosel (2003)
 Songs trom the Highway Volume 1 EP (2010)
 American Rust / Dream of Mary (2020)
 Leads Back Home (2020)

Cinematography
 Sleep Station's song "Goodnight to the Moon" from the discography After the War has been used in SKINS (TV series), season 1, episode 7.
Their song "Land and Come for Us" has been used in SKINS (TV series), season 2, episode 10

References

External links
 Sleep Station MySpace

American folk rock groups
Indie rock musical groups from New Jersey


; (born April 28, 1936) is a Japanese manga artist from Izumiōtsu, Osaka. Nishimura's best-known work is the 4-koma comedy , which earned Nishimura the 1985 Bungeishunjū Manga Award and the Japanese Cartoonists' Association's Excellence Prize for 2000.

References

1936 births
Manga artists
Living people
People from Izumiōtsu, Osaka
20th-century Japanese artists


The Salakovac Hydro Power Plant is one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's largest hydro power plants having an installed electric capacity of 210 MW.

References

Hydroelectric power stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Hydroelectric power stations in the Neretva basin


Vaudreuil-Soulanges may refer to:
 Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality, Quebec
 Vaudreuil—Soulanges, a federal electoral district coterminal with the aforementioned Regional County Municipality
 Vaudreuil-Soulanges (provincial electoral district), a former provincial electoral district in Quebec


Won't Be Denied is the debut album by the rapper Fiend. It was released on November 14, 1995 for Big Boy Records and was produced by Leroy "Precise" Edwards. The album did not make it to any charts, but Fiend would find greater success two years later when he signed with No Limit Records.

Track listing
"Get It On" - 3:15
"I Won't Be Denied" - 4:01
"No Love" - 4:11 (featuring J-Dawg)
"Can't Lose" - 3:27
"Vib'n" - 3:32 (featuring Wild Wayne)
"Who's the Man" - 3:57
"Fiend" - 0:08
"Up Shit Creek" - 3:32
"Free Like the Wind" - 0:55
"The Baddest M.F. Alive" - 3:39
"All I See" - 2:05
"I Won't Be Denied" [Radio Edit]- 4:04
"The Baddest" [Radio Edit]- 3:35

References

1995 debut albums
Fiend (rapper) albums


This is a list of notable Trinidadian British people.

 John Alcindor – physician and activist
Nina Baden-Semper – actress
Mona Baptiste – actress and singer
 Danielle Belgrave – computer scientist
Floella Benjamin – actress, author, television presenter, businesswoman and politician (Baroness Benjamin)
Chris Birchall – footballer, recipient of a CM Medal and currently with Coventry City
Chris Bisson – actor, East Is East, Coronation Street and Shameless; father and grandfather from Trinidad, great-grandfather was Indian
Danny Cipriani – rugby union footballer; father was from Trinidad
 Frank Crichlow – activist
 Lenora Crichlow – actress
MF DOOM – rapper and record producer
Nubya Garcia – jazz musician; grandfather and grandmother from Trinidad
 Amber Gill – television personality and author
 Darren Henry – politician
Darcus Howe – journalist, broadcaster, activist
 Lennie James – actor
 Stefan Kalipha – actor
Trevor McDonald – newsreader and journalist
Althea McNish – artist and designer
 Steve McQueen – film director
V. S. Naipaul – award winning author and Nobel laureates
Billy Ocean – singer, born in Trinidad
Michael Page – professional boxer and mixed martial artist; father was from Trinidad
Jadon Sancho – footballer for Borussia Dortmund and England; parents are from Trinidad
Corinne Skinner-Carter – actor
AJ Tracey – rapper
Noel Clarke – actor and producer
 Cathy Tyson – actress
 Eamonn Walker – actor
Don Warrington – actor
Wiley – rapper and Grime founder
Jodie Williams – sprinter; mother was from Trinidad

See also
 Trinidadian British
 List of Trinidadians

References

Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidadian Britons
List
Britons


The Višegrad Hydroelectric Power Plant is a hydroelectric power plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It began electrical energy generation in 1989. The installed capacity of 3×105 MW is achieved with Kaplan turbines, with an average annual electricity generation of 1 TWh. The main contractor (for the construction works) was Hidrogradnja of Sarajevo.

References

Hydroelectric power stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina