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Capcom vs. SNK – Review
By Mike Bracken on August 20, 2002 in Reviews
One of my favorite pastimes as a kid was to get together with a few of my buddies and pontificate on who would win in a fightand no, I don't mean 'my Dad or your Dad'. These muse sessions were a little more esoteric, often involving matches like Spider-Man vs. Batman, Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair, Ash from Evil Dead vs. Reggie from Phantasm, or Darth Vader vs. Boba Fett.
Once videogames became prevalent, our bouts began to adjust to match our newfound hobby. Instead of comic book characters or film villains, the matches became ones like Link vs. Strider, Sonic vs. Mario, or Ryu Hayabusa versus Joe from Shinobi. As much fun as debating who would win was, it was ultimately an exercise in futility. One could argue that Sonic's speed would make him all but impervious to even Mario's most punishing moves, but there wasn't any way to actually prove it.
All of which brings us to Capcom Versus SNK, a fighting game that will allow gamers to determine once and for all which company has the better fightersCapcom's Street Fighter series or SNK's King Of Fighters/Fatal Fury. This match-up is for nothing less than to be crowned the king of the 2D fighters–no small reward for two companies who have kept 2D fighting alive almost single-handedly.
Capcom Versus SNK looks stunning. If anyone out there thinks 2D gaming is dead, they'd be well advised to look at this title, which will almost assuredly make them re-evaluate their stance on the power of sprite-based graphics.
Boasting a huge amount of characters who've all been tweaked and redesigned, and lavishly animated backdrops that should be more than familiar to fans of both series, Capcom Versus SNK is just gorgeous to look at. However, things only get better when the game starts to move. The fighting is fast, furious, and fluid from start to finish with each character featuring a plethora of well-animated moves. The Dreamcast is up to the task of handling the enhanced graphics and effects, and slowdown is never a problem.
However, it takes more than graphics to make a good fighter, and that's where Capcom Versus SNK truly shines. As fans of each series know, both Street Fighter and the SNK fighting games have their own unique approaches to combat. Merging these distinctive styles into a playable format would seem to be the real challenge facing the developers. Luckily, the challenge has been met, thanks to the implementation of a groove system.
The groove system allows the player to choose which style he or she would like to utilize; the Capcom groove will be the groove of choice for Street Fighter fans, while the SNK groove will help those familiar with the Fatal Fury and King Of Fighters series. The primary effect of each groove is that it determines how the super moves are charged. This essentially levels the playing field for the gamerone could fight with a Capcom fighter, but set the groove so that the super move gauge charges in the same way as the SNK one.
Another interesting tweak is the inclusion of a rating system. Each fighter is assigned a number between one and four based on his or her skill. The player can choose a squad with a power rating that adds up to four. This allows for a fair amount of strategizing as the key to victory might involve taking one level four fighter or two level twos, or any other number of combinations.
The combat itself is a refreshing change of pace. While always challenging, the insane combos and juggles of many recent fighting games have been dropped in favor of a much more traditional approach. This is a pleasant surprise, primarily because the game rewards genuine skill and not cheap players who constantly button-mash. If a player wants to unlock everything, he'll have to reach a zen-like state of perfection. Nothing less will suffice.
Speaking of unlockables, there's no shortage of hidden bonuses in Capcom Versus SNK. Unfortunately, in order to unlock everything, the player will have to fight thousands of matches to take advantage of the unforgiving point system. Earning the points to unlock hidden bonuses in the game requires a very high level of dedication and a real understanding of the fighting engine. Sadly, most casual gamers will never unlock the vast majority of hidden goodies in this title.
My only real complaint with the game isn't so much directed toward the title, but more towards the Dreamcast controller. Controlling the fighters is occasionally a little harder than necessary thanks to the Dreamcast pad. To say this controller wasn't designed with 2D fighting games in mind would be an understatement of epic proportions. It's big, it's clunky, and the D-pad is often too stiff for its own good. Trying to pull off a string of special moves can quickly become an exercise in aggravation, as the controller just doesn't want to cooperate on most occasions. If you have access to an arcade stick, that's the best way to play Capcom Versus SNK
Still, even with the control issues, there's no denying that Capcom Versus SNK is one of the best fighting games to come along in recent memory. While it remains to be determined just who, exactly, is the king of the 2D fighters, it's gamers who are the real winners. Rating: 8.0 out of 10
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken is a 43-year-old writer and bohemian living in Florida with a mountain of movies, books, and video games.
A film critic by trade, specializing in Euro-horror, cult exploitation, and Asian action cinema, Mike has written reviews for a diverse group of print and online publications. He covers horror news, movies, books, and games at TheHorrorGeek.com and Horrorsquad.com and spent two seasons as The Horror Geek on Comedy Central's pop-culture game show, Beat the Geeks.
Mike's childhood was spent playing videogames any time he got a chance. His parents had a Pong console and his grandmother had an Atari 2600, where Mike cultivated his skills by playing hour upon hour of games like Space Invaders, Berserk, and Asteroids. From those early experiences Mike learned one thing: he loved games.
In 1999, Mike became a staff reviewer at Cinescape Magazine's website where he spent a year learning the craft of game criticism. After internal changes led to Mike leaving Cinescape in late 2000, he joined up with RPGFan in 2001 and spent several years writing reviews for them. Happy, but looking for an opportunity to expound on a wider variety of titles, Mike joined GameCritics.com and hopes to help Chi, Dale, and the rest of the GC staff bring a higher level of respect to the field of game criticism.
Latest posts by Mike Bracken (see all)
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Review - July 14, 2015
Sunset Overdrive Second Opinion - December 8, 2014
Diablo III: Ulitmate Evil Edition Review - October 8, 2014
Tags: Capcom Dreamcast Fighting Game Reviews Teen (13+)
Written by Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken is a 43-year-old writer and bohemian living in Florida with a mountain of movies, books, and video games. A film critic by trade, specializing in Euro-horror, cult exploitation, and Asian action cinema, Mike has written reviews for a diverse group of print and online publications. He covers horror news, movies, books, and games at TheHorrorGeek.com and Horrorsquad.com and spent two seasons as The Horror Geek on Comedy Central's pop-culture game show, Beat the Geeks. Mike's childhood was spent playing videogames any time he got a chance. His parents had a Pong console and his grandmother had an Atari 2600, where Mike cultivated his skills by playing hour upon hour of games like Space Invaders, Berserk, and Asteroids. From those early experiences Mike learned one thing: he loved games. In 1999, Mike became a staff reviewer at Cinescape Magazine's website where he spent a year learning the craft of game criticism. After internal changes led to Mike leaving Cinescape in late 2000, he joined up with RPGFan in 2001 and spent several years writing reviews for them. Happy, but looking for an opportunity to expound on a wider variety of titles, Mike joined GameCritics.com and hopes to help Chi, Dale, and the rest of the GC staff bring a higher level of respect to the field of game criticism.


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Only 10 minutes after Marc Methot returned to the lineup from a lacerated finger injury that forced him to miss 10 games, the Senators were down another defenceman.
The Ottawa Senators are lucky they have a lot of defencemen.
They're going to need them.
Only 10 minutes after Marc Methot returned to the lineup from a lacerated finger injury that forced him to miss 10 games, the Senators were down another defenceman. They had to finish Game 2 — a 4-3 overtime win over the Boston Bruins — without defenceman Mark Borowiecki after he crashed into the boards.
Borowiecki went down hard and is listed as day-to-day.
"He was going to come back and we told him just stay put, we don't want to aggravate it," coach Guy Boucher said. "It actually looked better after the game. We'll see. We've got good, quality depth with our defencemen so we'll see if next game he's OK.
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The Festival takes every effort to be open rain or shine. There will be no refunds for any portion of season ticket value should the Festival have a need to close or not open in the event of extreme or unsafe weather or other conditions.
On each date of your planned attendance, you must present your season pass and photo ID at Season Pass window of the Main Gate Ticket Office. One admission ticket will be issued for that appropriate date only. Once a date has passed, you may not receive a ticket for that date. Once a date has passed, you may not receive a ticket for that past date.
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Grandparents' Rights Subject of Upcoming State Senate Hearing
By Paul Lonardo
Grandparents are an integral part of any family. Children who are fortunate enough to have a relationship with their grandparents know how special it is. This bond is a reciprocal one, with grandparents enjoying the precious time spent together every bit as much as the children, if not more so. Few people think about the legal rights grandparents have until it becomes a personal concern. When a grandparent is prevented from seeing his or her grandchild by the child's parent, the consequences are devastating and can have legal consequences, with the courts having to get involved in granting visitation rights.
In Rhode Island, grandparents may petition for visitation in Family Court. In order to grant reasonable visitation rights, the court must find that:
Such visitation is in the child's best interest;
The grandparent is a "fit and proper person' to have such rights;
The grandparent has repeatedly attempted to visit the child during the 30 days immediately before the date the petition was filed and was not allowed to do so as a direct result of the actions of either or both parents;
The court intervention is the only way the grandparent is able to visit the child; and
The grandparent, by clear and convincing evidence, has successfully rebutted the presumption that the parent's decision to refuse the visitation was reasonable.
In addition to this general provision, the law also specifically allows grandparents to petition for visitation if their child is deceased or divorced.
An intact family, commonly meaning a married couple, is usually allocated the right to make decisions about grandparent visitation. Apart from this, grandparents suing for visitation must usually meet one of two standards. The easier standard requires grandparents to provide evidence, usually described as "clear and convincing", that visitation is in the best interests of the child. In states with more stringent statutes, the grandparents may be required to show that the child will suffer actual harm if visitation is not allowed.
Troxel v. Granville, decided in 2000 by the U.S. Supreme Court, is the court case that set the precedent for grandparents' visitation rights. The heart of the decision is a statement that "fit parents" are presumed to act in their children's best interests. This is presumed to be true even when parents cut off contact with grandparents and other family members. This case, however, offers no clearly defined standard for granting or disallowing grandparent visitation. Also, it was far from a unanimous decision, known as a plurality decision, meaning that a majority of the justices did not agree. In this case, six opinions were offered: three majority decisions and three dissenting decisions. In short, it did little to clarify the murky waters of visitation rights, and actually dealt a serious blow to grandparents' rights, significantly reducing grandparents' chances of winning visitation with grandchildren.
While grandparents in most states have no standing for a visitation suit if the parents of the children are still together, Rhode Island is one of the exceptions to the rule. To bring the state into compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court case of Troxel v. Granville, the grandparent may rebut the presumption that fit parents act in their child's best interest. Grandparents must show through "clear and convincing evidence" that the parent's decision to refuse visitation is unreasonable. In other words, the burden of proof is on the grandparents, not the parents.
Legislation regarding this very topic is currently pending in the Rhode Island General Assembly. Senate Bill No. 0383, introduced by Senator Erin Lynch Prata, District 31 Warwick, Cranston, is due to be heard in the Judiciary Committee sometime in April, though no date has been set. In 2016, the Senate passed Resolution No. 2221 that created a Special Legislative Commission to conduct a review and make recommendations regarding grandparents' rights.
Joan LaFauci of Smithfield is a member of the Alienated Grandparents Commission, and has assisted in making suggested amendments to the current legislation. She will testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee again, and requests members of the Senate to reflect on their own grandparents.
"The relationship I had with my grandmother was wonderful," Joan says. "My grandmother taught me Italian. I remember her walking me to the candy store and buying me penny candy. She died when I was seven years-old, and those and other memories of her still remain clear in my mind and in my heart."
In Rhode Island, the parents are given "due process" either to grant permission for the grandchildren to see their grandparents or not. They also have the ability to determine the amount of time, where and when the meeting may take place, and under what circumstances it may occur. This occurs only if the judge grants the petitioner(s) their request.
"The best interest of the child must be taken into serious consideration by the courts," Joan says. "We are requesting that the judge be granted the ability to weigh each petition on a case-by-case basis. This issue is recognized both nationally and internationally."
Joan hopes to bring to light the problem with Rhode Island courts not recognizing the relevance of grandparents in a grandchild's life. Many don't even realize that this bill exists, and her goal is to make people aware of it, and more importantly have them get involved and attend this meeting.
For more information please feel free to contact either Joan at 401-480-5278 or Trish at 401-837-4582. Additional information regarding the legislation can be found at the Rhode Island General Assembly website: www.rilin.state.ri.us.


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\section{Introduction}
For logic applications looking to take advantage of graphene's high mobility charge carriers, much recent work has focused on overcoming two main challenges: incorporation of intrinsic dopants and introduction of a band gap in the electronic structure. Both challenges can be approached by manipulating graphene's crystal structure. Compared to bulk, two-dimensional materials offer a unique advantage since the electronic structure of the entire material can be modified through functionalization of its surface.  This functionalization can proceed from adatom binding, the creation of lattice defects, or the substitution of atoms at C sites.\cite{Boukhvalov2009,Wang2013a}  Hydrogen functionalization of graphene (to create graphane) shows evidence of opening a band gap,\cite{Balog2010, Elias2009} as was predicted by density functional theory calculations.\cite{Sofo2007}   Sparse single vacancies are shown to be effective sites for introducing dopants while maintaining reasonable transport properties.\cite{Wang2012,Pantelides2012,Bangert2015,Vicarelli2015,Peres2006,Lherbier2008}  Di-vacancies are also considered attractive sites for substitutional doping due to the size and band structure effects of certain potential dopants (such as Al, P, As, Ga, In, Pt, and Co), but experimental work is still limited.\cite{Tsetseris2014,Ugeda2012,Wang2012}
Most experimental work so far has involved boron and nitrogen substitutions at single C sites.\cite{Wei2009,Guo2010,Zhao2011a,Zhao2013,Tison2015}  These are either incorporated into the lattice during chemical vapor deposition growth\cite{Wei2009,Zhao2013} or afterward by ion irradiation and annealing\cite{Guo2010} and provide p- and n-type doping, respectively.  A common challenge in functionalizing graphene through defect engineering is in the defects' relatively high formation energy and their tendency to cluster,\cite{Pantelides2012,Kotakoski2011} which further motivates study in defect creation and control.

Defects in graphene are also of fundamental interest. Single vacancies were predicted to have magnetic moments,\cite{Yazyev2007} and there is now strong evidence for such.\cite{Ugeda2010,Nair2012}  Point defect engineering may also enable control of plasmons on sub-wavelength scales.\cite{Zhou2012}  From a structural point of view, graphene and other 2D crystals provide new opportunities to directly correlate defects and macroscopic properties such as transport. For example, Qi and coworkers\cite{Qi2015} used TEM and transport measurements to directly correlate defect healing at the edges of graphene nanoribbons with increased conductivity. Prior TEM studies imaged the formation and mobility of graphene defects in real-time,\cite{Meyer2008} studied the insertion of interstitials,\cite{Lehtinen2015} and probed doping via vacancies created with ion bombardment.\cite{Wang2012}  Because of their relatively high formation energy,\cite{Banhart2011} graphene and graphite defect studies are typically limited to defects that are created by ion bombardment and irradiation.\cite{Ziatdinov2014,Wang2012,Meyer2008,Liu2015}  As a stochastic process, the defect density and clustering produced by ion bombardment provide limited control. Native defects created during growth may allow for better control, but graphene grown in near-equilibrium conditions (such as CVD) is unlikely to exhibit native lattice defects, except at grain boundaries where independently nucleated growth regions meet.  In one study, defective graphene was achieved at intermediate phases during growth in UHV; the vacancy concentration could then be controlled by healing of vacancies during subsequent thermal annealing. \cite{Niu2013}

Here we report a scanning tunneling microscopy study of native graphene defects that form during ultrahigh vacuum graphene growth on Cu(111).  The growth proceeds by ethylene decomposition on a hot Cu(111) crystal in short (5-10 minute) cycles.\cite{Gao2010,Zhao2011,Jeon2011}  The UHV-grown graphene is then studied without exposure to air by {\em in situ} transfer into the STM chamber. We conducted a survey of over 100 point defects on 15 different graphene regions from 3 similar graphene growths.  Atomic resolution imaging helps us identify bright defects as graphene lattice point defects, likely single vacancies. We present evidence showing that dark defects are most likely point defects in the underlying Cu lattice. The imaging contrast and resolution are discussed with respect to bias voltage and the STM tip's atomic-scale termination. We also present dI/dV spectroscopy probing the local density of states (LDOS) over point defects, which reveals a relatively limited contribution to the local electronic landscape.

\section{Methods}
Reproducible, epitaxial growth of graphene islands on Cu(111) is achieved by thermal decomposition of ethylene in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions. This method produces pristine graphene that can be studied by STM without exposure to air. We first prepare a clean Cu(111) substrate by repeated cycles of Ar$^+$ sputtering and annealing at 600$^\circ$C in 5-minute intervals to remove surface contamination. Graphene is then grown by introducing ethylene gas at a pressure of 2 x 10$^{-5}$ mbar into the preparation chamber while cycling the sample temperature from room temperature to 950$^\circ$C 2-4 times. Each temperature cycle is performed in 5 minutes and we pump the ethylene out of the chamber when the sample temperature is at $\sim$500$^\circ$C during the cooldown of the last cycle. This procedure leverages the enhanced sticking of ethylene on Cu at room temperature, while promoting the the thermal decomposition and self-assembly of graphene at high temperature. The sample is immediately cooled to 100 K and transferred into the STM chamber where it further cools to 5 K in $\sim$6 hours.

The resulting graphene islands on Cu(111) are studied with a CreaTec STM at 5 K. Using STM, we can probe topographic and spectroscopic information at an atomic scale.  Images presented here were obtained by measuring small changes in height of the STM tip to maintain constant current while scanning across the sample surface. A cut PtIr tip was used for all of these measurements. For spectroscopy measurements, the tunneling current was recorded while sweeping the bias voltage at a tip height fixed by the initial tunneling conditions. By adding a small modulation of 5-10 mV$_\mathrm{pp}$ at $\sim$1 kHz to the bias voltage, a lock-in amplifier simultaneously measures the differential conductance, dI/dV, proportional to the convolved tip and sample local density of states (LDOS). Spatial maps of dI/dV at a specific voltage can be collected simultaneously with topographic images by recording the lock-in signal pixel-by-pixel during scanning.

\section{Results}
Five representative examples of graphene islands exhibiting native defects are displayed in Figure 1. Graphene is most often observed near step edges, and can grow continuously over terraces, as shown by the continuous Moire pattern over three terraces of Fig. 1b.  Islands often grow with a regular, hexagonal shape as shown in Fig. 1c. A range of island sizes was observed, with an average area of 940 nm$^2$. The point defects in the graphene regions can be classified as either bright or dark by their contrast in STM images (c.f., yellow and blue arrows in Fig. 1a respectively). We surveyed  93 bright and 29 dark defects on 15 graphene islands from three similar, but independent growth runs. Additional features are sometimes seen, such as dark clusters of defects (Fig 1b, red arrow) and irregular lines (Fig 1e, green arrow), which are found to be grain boundaries between graphene regions when imaged with atomic resolution.

On graphene, we find an average of one dark defect per 450 nm$^2$. A much higher density of dark point defects is seen on the Cu (e.g., Fig. 1b), and are commonly attributed to surface contaminants such as CO\cite{Bartels1999} or O.\cite{Wiame2007} Auger spectroscopy of the sample after growth (not shown) indicates traces of S and O which may segregate from the bulk to the surface under the growth conditions.  We also expect an amount of unreacted carbon from the ethylene decomposition. The dark point defects observed in the graphene regions have similar apparent depths and lateral extent as those observed on the neighboring Cu(111) substrate. They are also consistent with those observed for graphene on Cu(111) by Mart\`{i}nez-Galera et al.,\cite{Martinez-Galera2011} which were attributed to defects in the underlying Cu surface. We will revisit this assignment below when we discuss atomic resolution images.

The more common bright defects are only found on the graphene regions with a density of approximately one defect per 150 nm$^2$, and will be the primary focus of this report. STM does not have elemental specificity a priori, so indirect measurements are needed to gain further insight into the origins of the defect. For example, we carefully compared the apparent heights of the defects in STM images. The apparent heights of the bright defects vary from 8 pm to 21 pm under identical tunneling conditions (1 V, 0.2 nA), though they do not separate into clearly distinct groups. We attribute this range of measured apparent height to slight differences in tip termination, which become more important for small apparent heights like those measured here. To control for tip-dependent variations, we compare apparent heights of defects within the same image and imaged with the same tip termination. Figure 2a shows an example of a small hexagonal graphene island with 11 bright defects and 3 dark defects.  This island is one of the most defective graphene regions we observed. Representative line profiles over a bright and dark defect are shown in Figs. 2b and 2c, respectively. The apparent heights of the 11 bright defects span a range with an average and standard deviation of 17 $\pm$ 3 pm. This is a much smaller range than in our larger survey, and suggests that there is only a single origin for the bright defects we observe.

To gain further insight into the atomic origins of the defects, we compared STM images under varying bias voltages (e.g., 1V, 0.05 V, and -1 V in Figures 2d-f). The bright defects in Figures 2d and 2f are similarly imaged as circularly symmetric protrusions, though the apparent height changes from 21 pm to 26 pm respectively.  At low bias (Fig. 2e), the bright defects only have an apparent height of $\sim$13 pm, and are largely obscured by scattering of Cu(111) surface state electrons. These electrons comprise a nearly free 2D electron gas (2DEG) at the surface.\cite{Crommie1993}  Recently, scattering of these surface state electrons was used to infer the charge state of adatoms on ultrathin films of NaCl grown on Cu(111).\cite{Repp2004} We observe no additional scattering of the surface state electrons due to the bright defects, which suggests that these defects are confined to the graphene layer, and have little or no effective charge. In contrast, the dark defects remain clearly visible in STM images at low bias, and we do observe circularly-symmetric scattering patterns of the surface state electrons.

To probe the graphene lattice in the vicinity of the defects, we first note that atomic resolution depends strongly on the termination species of the STM tip, which is not known under most circumstances. Although the tip is PtIr in the bulk, Cu or other adsorbates can terminate the tip due to the repeated contact with the surface necessary to optimize imaging. The tip termination can be changed intentionally by contacting the sample surface and picking up surface atom(s), or by deliberately approaching e.g., adsorbed molecules such as CO under appropriate conditions.\cite{Hahn2001} Molecule-terminated tips often provide sharper resolution than metal-terminated tips due to introduction of additional chemical contrast. One of our motivations for using only sub-monolayer coverages of graphene, is that we have nearby clean Cu(111) that can be examined at the same time. In particular, we can look for anomalous features in tunneling spectroscopy such as prominent peaks that are often attributed to e.g., molecular orbitals. Furthermore, our experience suggests that atomic resolution on the close-packed Cu(111) surface is not achieved with metal-terminated tips under typical tunneling conditions; thus the appearance of the Cu lattice in STM imaging is a proxy for some kind of molecule-terminated tip. Because the tip termination often changes during the course of the experiments, we carefully look for changes in position or contrast during repeated imaging.

STM images of an area imaged under the same tunneling conditions, but with three different tip terminations are shown in Fig. 3a-c. Tunneling spectroscopy and images on Cu suggest that Tip A was terminated with a metal atom (probably Cu), Tip B with an unknown molecule, and Tip C with a CO molecule. With Tip A, which is most common, the two defects in the image appear as bright, circularly symmetric protrusions. The same defects appear with atomic resolution when imaged with the molecule-terminated Tips B and C. For both tip terminations, the honeycomb lattice of graphene is clearly resolved and the defects are imaged as protrusions with trigonal symmetry.

Additional substructure is shown in Figures 3d-e, which are STM images of the same defects with Tip B, but under different tunneling conditions (lower current). Since the tunneling conditions control both the tip-surface separation (via the current feedback loop) and the energy of tunneling electrons (via the applied bias), the resolution resulting from a molecule-terminated tip can depend strongly on these parameters. With this tip, we were able to tune the tunneling parameters to achieve highly-resolved images showing the surrounding graphene lattice and the internal structure of the bright defect. The graphene honeycomb lattice is clearly resolved around the defects, where the centers of the carbon rings image as protrusions.  By overlaying the graphene lattice on the images, we find that the defect is centered on a single carbon site, and has perfect trigonal symmetry extending from it.  Fig. 3e shows that the two defects, which are oriented in the same direction with respect to the graphene lattice, occur on the same sublattice site (blue dots).  Different orientations of the defects are also observed.  Figure 3f shows an atomic resolution image of a different graphene region imaged with a different tip (Tip D), that appears similar to Tip C.  Three triangular defects appear in Fig. 3f.  Two form upward-pointing triangles and the third forms a downward-pointing triangle.  Here, the honeycomb centers image as depressions, and we again overlay the graphene lattice to determine that the two defect orientations correspond to opposite sublattice sites (lower insets).

Overall, the defect symmetry, orientation, and sublattice assignments agree with theoretical expectations for a single vacancy.\cite{Yazyev2007,Amara2007}  The three-fold scattering pattern from the defects arises because of suppressed intervalley scattering in graphene and reflects the symmetry of the sublattice.  Thus one would expect that defects on different sublattices would be rotated by 60$^\circ$, as observed.  We compare our images of single defects to simulated STM images of defects calculated using density functional theory (DFT)\cite{Yazyev2007} and a combined tight-binding approximation/DFT method\cite{Amara2007} for a freestanding graphene sheet.  Perfect trigonal symmetry is expected for an unreconstructed vacancy.\cite{Amara2007}  However, a reconstructed form of the vacancy, where the C-C interatomic distance across the vacancy shortens to reduce its overall energy, is expected.  Simulated STM images of the reconstructed vacancy show bright triangular features that lack three-fold symmetry,\cite{Amara2007,Yazyev2007} unlike what we observe. This suggests that the underlying Cu substrate stabilizes the symmetric, unreconstructed form of the defect. The alignment of the triangular features with respect to the graphene lattice imaged at low voltage is consistent with simulated images of the reconstructed vacancy reported by Yazyev and coworkers.\cite{Yazyev2007} However, we note that the region of Fig. 3e imaged with the same tip but at 1V (not shown) shows instead an orientation rotated by 60$^\circ$, consistent with the simulations of Amara and coworkers.\cite{Amara2007}  This difference highlights the importance of the bias voltage in interpreting experimental and simulated STM images.

We note that nitrogen is a common residual gas in UHV, and one could assign the defects we observe to substitutional nitrogen instead. In fact, STM images of nitrogen\cite{Zhao2011a} substitutions also show the expected trigonal symmetry.\cite{Brito2012,Zheng2010} However, the experiments and DFT simulations of these substitutions show image contrast with symmetric bright spots at the three nearest-neighbor sites to the N atom.\cite{Zhao2011a} This difference and their larger apparent heights ($\sim$80 pm\cite{Zhao2011a}) makes them clearly distinguishable from single vacancies and our observations.  In our system, the most likely alternative to a single vacancy is a hydrogenated vacancy, which is also predicted to be perfectly three-fold symmetric.\cite{Yazyev2007}  However, in recent STM experiments and DFT simulations of Ar$^+$ created hydrogenated vacancies on graphite, several different configurations of hydrogen are shown with varying image contrast,\cite{Ziatdinov2014} where we see remarkable consistency in the appearance of the bright, triangular defects. These considerations suggest that the bright defects we observe are indeed single vacancies.

Briefly returning to the dark defects, the white arrows in Fig. 3f indicate that these defects do not disturb the graphene lattice, which is continuous over the defects. We also notice that many of these types of defects appear to be swept to the edges of graphene islands during growth (see Ref. \cite{Hollen2015} and Fig. 1a, b, and c). These observations, along with the similarity between these defects and those on the bare Cu areas, and the scattering of the Cu surface state electrons (Fig. 2e, 3f) are strong evidence that these are defects in the underlying Cu lattice.\cite{Martinez-Galera2011} The larger dark area in the center of Fig. 3f appears to be quite different, and may be a defect cluster in the graphene. The upper inset of the figure shows this region with a Laplacian filter applied to emphasize the surrounding graphene lattice, which is clearly deformed at the edges of this feature.

Lastly, we performed tunneling spectroscopy to probe how the defects influence the electronic structure of the graphene (Fig. 4). Point spectra taken on the centers of the dark and bright defects in Fig. 4a are compared to pristine graphene in Fig. 4b. The primary feature in these spectra is the band edge of the Shockley surface state in the underlying Cu(111), which is shifted to -0.31 V for graphene-covered Cu.\cite{Hollen2015} There are slight differences in the sharpness and magnitude of the band edge in dI/dV between the spectra on and off the defects. These differences are emphasized in a spatial map of the dI/dV signal at -0.31 V (Fig. 4c).  The bright defects show a greatly enhanced LDOS that extends symmetrically around the defect with a FWHM of $\sim$3 nm. The dark defects have a smaller enhancement of LDOS at their center, then a diminished LDOS in a ring shape surrounding the defect with a diameter of $\sim$1.2 nm. Ring-like structures in dI/dV maps like these have previously been attributed to ionization rings of charged defects, such as Co on graphene \cite{Brar2011} and Mn dopants in GaAs.\cite{Lee2011}  Additional studies, such as a bias dependence of the ring diameter, are needed to test whether this ring structure is due to ionization, which would be surprising given that the defects appear to be strongly coupled to the metal substrate. Figures 4d-e show color maps of dI/dV spectra, taken point-by-point by moving the tip along the lines indicated in Fig. 4a. These data indicate that the enhanced band edge LDOS extends only $\sim$1nm from both types of defects.There are no other prominent defect-specific electronic states within the range probed here.

Tunneling spectroscopy of defects in small, regularly shaped islands is further complicated by quantum confinement of the Shockley 2DEG. Figure 5 shows one such island, with a step in the underlying Cu running through the center. This island contains three bright defects, clearly resolved in Fig. 5b under imaging at 1V, but almost indiscernible in STM imaging at 0.05 V (Fig. 5c). Tunneling spectra taken in a line over the upper bright defect in Fig. 5b again shows the Shockley band edge at -0.31 V as the primary feature common to all the spectra (Fig. 5d).   In these data, however, sharp peaks in the LDOS exhibiting strong spatial and voltage dependence are also prominent (red features in Fig. 5d). These peaks arise due to quantum confinement of the surface state electrons within the small and regularly shaped island, similar to those of the quantum corral.\cite{Crommie1993}  Again, a clear signature  in the spectroscopy due to the bright defect is notably absent. For reference, the line profile showing the bright defect apparent height at $V_\mathrm{bias}=$1 V is overlaid on the spectra in Fig. 5d. Any modification to the LDOS due to the defect is difficult to distinguish from that of the quantum-confined Shockley electrons.

\section{Conclusion}
We have reported a detailed STM study of natively occurring defects in UHV grown graphene on Cu(111).  We focused on two types of point defects we consistently observe within otherwise pristine graphene islands and classify them as bright and dark, according to how they image at most biases, but specifically at $V_\mathrm{bias}=$1 V.  Atomic resolution images achieved with functionalized tips reveal that bright defects have a trigonal symmetry surrounding a C site in the graphene lattice, which is rotated by 60$^\circ$ depending on the sublattice assignment of the C site. These defects are identified as single vacancies arising in the as-grown graphene.  The graphene lattice is undisturbed by dark defects, suggesting that these are point defects in the underlying Cu lattice.  dI/dV spectroscopy of the defects shows their primary electronic signature is in modifying the Shockley surface state of the Cu(111) substrate.  More subtle effects of the bright lattice defects on graphene's LDOS may not be observable for this experimental system.  On the other hand, experiments on UHV grown graphene have the advantage of eliminating possible environmental effects, where contaminants could easily functionalize C vacancies.  This experiment also provides a study of graphene point defects arising from a growth procedure rather than ion bombardment or irradiation.  We expect this work to provide new perspective on the creation and imaging of point defects in graphene and motivation for pursuing growth as a means to tune defect density for controllable doping and functionalization for graphene devices.

 \begin{acknowledgements}
Funding for this research was provided by the Center for Emergent Materials at the Ohio State University, an NSF MRSEC (Award Numbers DMR-1420451 and DMR-0820414).
\end{acknowledgements}

\input{graphene_defects.bbl}
\clearpage

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.8\columnwidth,keepaspectratio]{Fig1.png}
\caption{STM images of UHV-grown graphene islands on Cu(111). Yellow arrows indicate examples of bright defects and blue arrows indicate examples of dark defects. The red arrow in (b) points to a cluster of dark defects and the green arrow in (e) points to a graphene grain boundary.  Images in (b-e) are topographic images overlaid with images treated with a Laplacian filter to bring out small differences in height.  All scale bars are 10 nm.  Images (a-d) taken at $V_\mathrm{bias}=$1 V and $I=$0.2 nA. Image (e) taken at $V_\mathrm{bias}=$1 V and $I=$1 nA.
\label{cap:fig1}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.8\columnwidth,keepaspectratio]{Fig2.png}
\caption{Graphene point defects. a) STM image at 1 V, 0.2 nA of a graphene island with 11 bright defects and 3 dark defects b) and c) depict example apparent height and apparent depth profiles, respectively, of the defects marked with horizontal white lines in (a) The vertical grey bar in (b) represents the standard deviation around the mean apparent height for bright defects in (a).  d-f) Bias dependence of defect appearance for images taken at 0.2 nA and d) 1V, e) 50 mV, and f) -1V for the region outlined by the yellow box in (a). Color scale varies from 0 (black) to 36 pm (yellow).
\label{cap:fig2}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.5\columnwidth,keepaspectratio]{Fig3.png}
\caption{Atomic resolution imaging of point defects. a-c) STM images of a two bright defects (blue dashed circles) imaged at $V_\mathrm{bias}=$10 mV and $I=$1 nA with a) a metal-terminated tip (Tip A), b) an unknown non-metal terminated tip (Tip B), and c) a CO terminated tip (Tip C). (Scale bar is 2 nm) d-e) Same defects as (a-c) imaged with Tip B using tunneling conditions that produce very high resolution of the defect structure and surrounding lattice. The lattice overlay shows that the defect is centered on a C site. ($V_\mathrm{bias}=$10 mV and $I=$0.2 nA, scale bar is 1 nm) f) Atomic resolution image with a non-metal terminated tip (Tip D) and lattice overlay of a large graphene region with a number of dark defects and three bright defects. Lower insets: Magnified view of the two orientations of triangular bright defects showing their corresponding sublattices (red and blue). Upper inset: Laplace filtered image showing lattice deformations in the central dark defective region. ($V_\mathrm{bias}=$106 mV and $I=$0.4 nA, scale bar is 2 nm)
\label{cap:fig3}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.8\columnwidth,keepaspectratio]{Fig4.png}
\caption{Spectroscopy of point defects. a) Topographic image of a graphene island with 5 bright defects and 3 dark defects (one on upper terrace).  A 1.5 nm Moire pattern is visible.  ($V_\mathrm{bias}=$-0.31 V, $I=$0.5 nA) b) dI/dV point spectroscopy to measure the local density of states on dark (red) and bright (blue) defects compared to bare graphene (black), at locations marked in (a). Dashed black line at -0.31 V marks the Shockley surface state band edge. c) Spatial dependence of dI/dV of region in (a) at $V_\mathrm{bias}=$-0.31 V and $I=$0.5 nA. d-e) Spatial and voltage dependence of dI/dV in dense lines (representing 30 spectra each) over d) a dark defect and e) a bright defect in (a) (yellow dashed arrows).
\label{cap:fig4}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.5\columnwidth,keepaspectratio]{Fig5.png}
\caption{Quantum confinement effects on spectroscopy. a) STM image of a small graphene island with regular hexagonal edges.  A Cu step edge with a 120$^\circ$ bend bisects the island. b-c) STM image showing a magnified view of a section of the upper terrace of the island (yellow dashed rectangle in (a)) with three bright defects imaged at $I=$1 nA and b) $V_\mathrm{bias}=$1 V and c) 50 mV. Standing waves due to quantum confinement of Shockley surface state electrons is visible in (c).  d) dI/dV spectroscopy in a line over a bright defect with topographic line profile at 1 V overlaid (pink dashed arrow in (b)). Quantum confinement peaks show up as spatially varying, bright peaks in dI/dV. Red arrow marks the Shockley surface state band edge, blue and green arrows mark the voltages at which images in (b) and (c) were taken, respectively.
\label{cap:fig5}}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Moscow sends new plane to evacuate Russians from Syria
A Russian plane landed in the Syrian port city of Latakia on Sunday, the government said, as it seeks to evacuate its citizens from the escalating conflict.
(AFP File Photo)
AFP – A Russian plane landed in the Syrian port city of Latakia on Sunday, the government said, as it seeks to evacuate its citizens from the escalating conflict.
The plane would collect citizens of Russia and other ex-Soviet states "who have expressed a desire to leave the zone of conflict," Russian emergencies ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius said in a statement.
It was not clear how many people would be evacuated on the flight but Russian news agencies said those who wanted to leave were already waiting at Latakia airport.
The flights come as expectations grow of Western military action against President Bashar al-Assad's regime over claims it used chemical weapons in an attack outside the Syrian capital in August.
Latakia, a Mediterranean port city, is in a region dominated by the Alawite community, the Muslim sect to which Assad, his family and much of the regime's elite belong.
Russia has evacuated hundreds of citizens on similar flights since the conflict began. It took 116 Russian citizens and nationals of other ex-Soviet states out of Syria on two flights in late August.
Russia has insisted it was not engaged in a full-scale evacuation of the many thousands of Russian passport-holders still believed to be in Syria.
However, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said on Thursday Russian warships currently in the Mediterranean could be used for the evacuation of Russian citizens.
The post Moscow sends new plane to evacuate Russians from Syria appeared first on Daily News Egypt.


text:
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text:
Blood Pressure Home > Diovan and Depression
Side effects can occur during treatment with Diovan, and depression is not one of them. During extensive clinical studies, depression was not reported as either a common or rare side effect of Diovan. However, because depression is extremely common in society today, it can be helpful to know some of its symptoms. Some common symptoms of depression include feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and helplessness; difficulty concentrating, remembering, and making decisions; and loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed.
Is Depression a Diovan Side Effect?
There are several possible side effects for people taking Diovan® (valsartan). Depression, however, does not appear to be one of them. In clinical studies, depression was not reported as either a common or rare side effect of Diovan. Depression has been reported as a side effect with other angiotensin II receptor blockers, the class of medicines that Diovan belongs to.
However, the fact that depression was not observed during clinical studies with Diovan does not mean that the medicine is not causing this problem for you. Clinical trials are designed to factor out as many variables as possible in order to understand whether the medicine works and what its possible side effects are. Once the medicine is approved, a wider range of people begin taking the medicine and for longer periods of time. This can often lead to other side effects being reported. However, once a medicine is approved, it does not usually continue to be studied. This means that certain side effects that occur very rarely may never be reported. The bottom line is that it is difficult to say for sure that a particular complaint is not because of a medicine -- even if the complaint is not a reported side effect.
Diovan [package insert], East Hanover, NJ: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation;2012 October.
Diovan Side Effects
Diovan and Erectile Dysfunction
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Diovan and Depression
Diovan and Hair Loss
Diovan Dosage
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An amazing and irreverent performance by two master entertainers.
Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother and Widow SOLD OUT at Stamford Hurry for tickets to see her at the Guildhall Arts Centre, Grantham Friday 17 May.
Friendly and informal post film chats in The Cellar Bar.
26 to 29 September 2019 - Tickets on sale now!
Stamford Arts Centre Tourist Information Centre is waiting to help make your visit to Stamford the best it can possibly be. Our friendly and professional staff user their expert local knowledge to recommend the best places to visit, to eat and to be entertained. They can even help you find and book your next holiday.
Enjoy a morning coffee, a lunch with friends and an afternoon tea in our popular and friendly foyer Coffee Shop with seating in our historical Ante Room. Later, order your pre-show and interval drinks in the Gallery Bar and look forward to enjoying an evening's post-show drinks with friends and family in the Cellar Bar.
Stamford Arts Centre sells tickets for arts events on behalf of other venues in the surrounding area.


text:
Lamberts Española S.L. Since 1989
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Lamberts Española S.L. Since 1989
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» Articles » The use of Titanium Dioxide for tablet coatings
The use of Titanium Dioxide for tablet coatings
Evaluations of titanium dioxide by JECFA, and EFSA have each concluded that there are no safety concerns associated with the use of titanium dioxide as a food additive …
Titanium dioxide is a naturally occurring element and one of the most produced substances in the world today. Both the JECFA (Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the Food and Agriculture Organization) and EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) evaluations of titanium dioxide have concluded that there is no absorption or tissue storage of titanium dioxide. See EFSA conclusions.
Titanium dioxide is widely used in the food industry and food products such as sour cream, cottage cheese ice cream and other dairy products often contain the pigment to attain that familiar bright-white coloration.
Titanium dioxide as a pigment in food products is classified as a manufacturing (or processing) aid and not as a food ingredient and therefore may be exempt from the requirement of being listed the label of contents.
Evaluations of titanium dioxide by JECFA, and EFSA have each concluded that there are no safety concerns associated with the use of titanium dioxide as a food additive at levels ranging up to 3%. This means that a 100g serving of a dairy product could contain up to 3g (3000mg) of titanium dioxide.
Lamberts Products
The titanium dioxide used in Lamberts products is an approved material for use in food products and in pharmaceuticals. It is regarded as an inert, non-toxic substance by the relevant regulatory bodies as it is not absorbed across the gut wall.
The food approved titanium dioxide we use as a tablet coating is a white opaque material and its particle size is relatively huge (compared to nano-particles, see note below) and is therefore not absorbed from the digestive system in to the body.
We use this titanium dioxide as a tablet coating to protect the delicate nutrients in our tablets from UV light damage, and the amount used is relatively tiny (typically 5-7mg per tablet) compared to the amount that can be added to foods. The titanium dioxide layer also serves as a white base coat on the tablet which allows us to use to give some tablets a distinctive colour, using only natural pigments, such as chlorophyll. These colours are required as part of our quality assurance standards to minimise the remote risk of tablet batches becoming mixed and to help our customers identify which tablets they are taking.
The use of titanium dioxide as a coating adds extra cost to our manufacturing process and we would not choose to incur this extra cost unless we felt that the coating was both beneficial and absolutely safe.
Why are there any safety concerns about titanium dioxide?
There has been some concern over the use of titanium dioxide in cosmetics and as a sunscreen in sun protection creams, but this concern is limited to a new form of this mineral called nano-particles (or ultrafine particles) which are defined as being less than 0.1 microns (or 100 nanometres) in size. When titanium dioxide particles are milled down to this size they become colourless (yet still block the suns rays) and are therefore popular ingredients in modern sunscreens, moisturisers, foundations, make up and many day to day cosmetics products. It is these nano-particles that are believed to be capable of crossing the skin barrier, although there is no definite evidence that this is resulting in any health concerns.
It is important to note that it is the particle size that is the critical factor here and similar concerns have been raised about other mineral compounds, such as zinc oxide, when they are milled down to nano-particle size.
No safety concerns have been raised in the scientific community about the use of normal titanium dioxide in food, pharmaceuticals and supplements. However, certain supplement companies, who don't use titanium dioxide, are deliberately misinforming consumers about the safety status of this safe material by muddling in the preliminary data on nano-particle titanium dioxide.
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While it's not that common, some employers try to cut costs by having teachers live together. Some people opt to live together if they're friends or partners, but even then it's dodgy. An employer should pay housing for each teacher. Just because two teachers come to work together, doesn't mean that the employer shouldn't give both of them their own housing or a housing allowance.
If you're asked to share housing, tell your boss no politely, but firmly. Most owners of English schools are making hand over fist and don't need to cut corners. Shared housing is ok in university or if it's your choice, however, it shouldn't be imposed on you.
What do you think about shared housing? Did your employer put you in shared housing?
we had a nice house in saigon but the large english lady with a masters degree in human rights was reluctant to apply same regarding her housemates. when you have to see someone at work the next day these conflicts detract from the possible enjoyment of work as well as home [i actually would have enjoyed the work had a couple of the ladies not been moaning minnies - pay was ok; students were fine] .. so.. i don't discount sharing [saves ripoff for example if you have never worked in the country] but it ain't for me.


text:
Q: Page load twice when form submit I have this code which retrieve data from the visitor and then sending the data to php code through a hidden inputs. I send all this data on page load so the page load twice(the normal loading then the form submit reload). here is the code:
jQuery(function(){
    if (navigator.geolocation) {
            navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(sendPosition);
        } else {
            alert("Geolocation is not supported by this browser.");
        }

jQuery(function(){
    function sendPosition(position) {
        var lat =  position.coords.latitude;
        var lng =  position.coords.longitude;

        var form = document.createElement("form");
        form.setAttribute("method", "POST");
        form.setAttribute("action", "");
        form.setAttribute("id", "loc");

        var hiddenField1 = document.createElement("input");
        hiddenField1.setAttribute("type", "hidden");
        hiddenField1.setAttribute("name", "lat");
        hiddenField1.setAttribute("value", lat);

        var hiddenField2 = document.createElement("input");
        hiddenField2.setAttribute("type", "hidden");
        hiddenField2.setAttribute("name", "lng");
        hiddenField2.setAttribute("value", lng);

        form.appendChild(hiddenField1);
        form.appendChild(hiddenField2);
        document.body.appendChild(form);
        form.submit();
        }
});

I am sure about the script register and enqueue, i it's right. Is there a way to fix the reload ?

A: What do you mean with "loads twice"?
The code you posted will run after the page is loaded completely and then do a form submit. The submit event will cause the page to reload again. Is this what you mean?
If you want to post the location data without refreshing the page you have 2 options:
(A) Simple: Add an invisible iframe and set a form "target" attribute to that iframe. This will cause the iframe to reload and the rest of the page will not reload.
(B) Better: Submit the data via ajax. This requires you to add an ajax handler that receives and processes the data.
In both cases the page will submit the location data but not refresh.
Btw. you could also create that form in a nicer way via jQuery.
Example:
jQuery(function() {
  if (navigator.geolocation) {
    // Add this to find out if the code is called twice:
    alert("Get the user location...");

    navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(sendPosition);
  } else {
    alert("Geolocation is not supported by this browser.");
  }

  function sendPosition(position) {
    // Add this to find out if the code is called twice:
    alert("sending the position");

    var lat = position.coords.latitude;
    var lng = position.coords.longitude;

    // Solution (A)
    var iframe = jQuery('<iframe name="dummy"></iframe>')
    var form = jQuery('<form method="POST" target="dummy" action="">'); // Note: target=""
    jQuery('<input type="hidden" name="lat" />').val(lat).appendTo(form);
    jQuery('<input type="hidden" name="lng" />').val(lng).appendTo(form);
    iframe.appendTo('body').hide();
    form.appendTo('body').submit();

    // Solution (B)
    var args = {
      "lat": lat,
      "lng": lng,
      "action": "save-coords"
    };
    jQuery.post(ajaxurl, args, function(resp) {
      alert( "Server response: " + resp );
    });
    // Note: In WordPress you have to add these two ajax handlers:
    // add_action( 'wp_ajax_save-coords', 'my_save_coords' );
    // add_action( 'wp_ajax_nopriv_save-coords', 'my_save_coords' );
  }
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Popping the Clutch: an Interview with Neil Fallon (from 2007)
This is my interview with Neil Fallon that I referred to yesterday. Once again, this interview was featured in RVA Magazine, and this chat took place way back in 2007. I loved the format RVA Magazine was using back in those days, and this is one of the best pieces I provided them with during that timeframe.
Popping the Clutch: An Interview with Neil Fallon conducted by James Wayland
Clutch has been one of the most unique bands to grace the heavy scene since their inception nearly twenty years ago. They have continued to evolve as their output has baffled critics and studio execs looking to label their original sound. During that time, they've given us an assortment of terrific albums and songs, including the treasure chest that is Elephant Riders, the iconic stoner jam "Spacegrass," and their most recent offering, From Beale St to Oblivion. This newest recording has received rave reviews, and some publications, such as Metal Hammer, have gone so far as to call it "the best album the group has ever produced."
On March 21, Clutch will bring their rollicking brand of sonic aggression to The National. Those of you who have seen the band live will undoubtedly be on hand if at all possible, but if you haven't seen this unruly juggernaut at work, you should make sure you score a ticket. This show promises to be a vibrant celebration of beloved hits and personal favorites that everyone will be talking about afterward. Recently, I sat down with lead singer Neil Fallon to talk about how the band prepares for such a gig, and we also discussed the band's body of work, their creative process, their relationship with the guys from Jackass, and their future plans.
Read on for a peek inside the inner workings of one of modern rock's most powerful acts, courtesy of one of metal's most versatile vocalists.
JW: First off, Neil, on the behalf of RVA magazine, I'd like to thank you for taking time out of your schedule to talk to me today. Obviously, we'll be talking a lot about Clutch and the music you make, but before we get into that, let's step outside the box for a moment. Maybe you'd like to talk about what you're doing when you're not making music.
NF: Well, that's pretty rare. You know, usually, I kind of sit around at home. Like right now, I'm at home for a few weeks, I got a few weeks left. I'm always working on music in one form or another. Other than that, I kind of enjoy just being a homebody, just kind of studying the domestic sciences as it were.
JW: So I assume it would be fair to say that the work is the play for Neil Fallon.
NF: Yeah, I guess I'm in a lucky place. I mean, I don't mind--actually it's not that I don't mind, it's just that even when I'm not on tour, I look forward to going down to the basement and writing music. Even if it ends up in the garbage the next day—it's not like it's digging ditches, you know?
JW: Right. Aside from the music you're making, what are you listening to these days?
NF: Well, let's see. I've been listening to some John Fahey. A friend of mine turned me on to a band called The Elves Shelves Fair--they're kind of associated with the Deltones and Sugarman Three, kind of instrumental R&B. I've been listening to a hip-hop artist called Mr. Lift, but then there's all the standards, the blues stuff I've always been listening to that I always return to as a fail-safe.
JW: Cool. Are you a fan of the cinema? Are there any movies you've seen lately that you would recommend to someone else?
NF: Well, I went to see No Country for Old Men, which I thought was awesome because it didn't have a very happy ending, and I always appreciate that in a movie. Just for shits and giggles, I would recommend Planet Terror, which, when I saw the previews for it, I thought it looked terribly stupid, but I wish I had gone to see it in theatres because it's an amazing bit of film.
JW: I would completely agree. I think Death Proof may have been a better movie, but Planet Terror was far more entertaining.
NF: Yeah, Planet Terror was entertaining on a lot of different levels.
JW: Well, as far as Clutch is concerned, I think the band is 17 years old now, if I'm correct.
NF: Uh, something like that, yeah.
JW: And I believe you've produced eight full-length studio albums.
NF: Yep, I think so. I don't have the stats on hand, but that sounds about right.
JW: Well, it's definitely difficult to classify your sound—while doing some research online, I came across the following descriptions on various sites: we've got "stoner rock, blues rock, hardcore punk, funk metal, post grunge, alternative general," which I guess is somehow different from standard alternative, and "rock fusion," among others. What do you make of these attempts to label your work?
NF: I like to hear that. It makes me feel like we're doing our job. Everything's subjective, of course, and I would rather it be that way than to say: "They are this and nothing else." I think that's why we've been able to do it as long as we have, because I don't think we ever really had a preconceived notion of what this band is or what this band is not. It's just four guys who like to make music with each other, and whatever that music happens to be or evoke, that's what it is. We just kind of follow our instincts.
JW: Talk to us a little about the inner workings of the band: Are there roles and schedules that have become routine, or is it still a learning process after all this time?
NF: Oh, it's always a learning process. I think the minute you stop learning, that's basically when you're getting ready to die. I mean there's obvious things like learning to play your instrument better, but you're always still learning about new music out there that will influence you. There's always room for improvement. We tour a lot, and touring can become monotonous, but if you look hard enough, there's always something to learn out there.
JW: Do you guys have to place an emphasis on creating new music or is that just something that comes naturally?
NF: I think there are two modes that we work in. There's the mode when we're supporting a record and we are writing new music, but that's maybe not as intense as when we're focusing on a new record. When that happens--and that will happen for us probably within the next six months--by that time, we will have accumulated a dozen or so rough ideas. Maybe only two or three of those ideas are worth a damn, but then we get into the studio--well not the studio, but Jean-Paul's basement, which is a studio of sorts. I kind of like the deadline, I like the intensity of it, because if you have all the time in the world, sometimes you suffer from a lack of proper motivation.
JW: The last few albums have seen a notable addition--here I'm speaking of Mick Schauer on the organ—and I think I've noticed a palpable shift toward the blues. Talk about how this has changed the band and the progress it has allowed you to achieve so far as the music you make is concerned.
NF: Well, I think that as far as the blues element is concerned, that just sort of happened incidentally. Eric Oblander was playing harmonica on the record, which, of course, is kind of bluesy, and there's a couple of songs that were written more in that style. The Hammond B3 is always associated with soul, R&B, and the blues. Once again, we didn't really think about it, it's just what happened. I don't think any of us either then or now said "Okay, we're moving in a blues direction." It's just a foray into a different vibe, I guess, and where we'll go after that remains to be seen.
JW: You mentioned Eric, and I really thought he added a lot to "Electric Worry," and when I took in a show at the 9:30 club in D.C., he was terrific on stage as well. Do you think he may find his way into the mix again?
NF: I believe so, but it's hard to say. This next tour that we're doing, for various reasons, it's just going to be the four of us, meaning Jean-Paul, myself, Tim and Dan. At times it was getting to be a little more than we could handle, and I think we wanted to focus on the nuts and bolts. We wanted to strip it down and then start adding things again, just to give the whole thing an overhaul.
JW: A lot fans—and I'm not necessarily in agreement here--but a lot of fans felt that with some of those additions, the sound had become a little softer. Do you think stripping those things away indicates a return to a harder sound?
NF: Nah. I mean, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. It's not an effort to—I always thought it was hokey when a band said they were going to return to their roots. To me, that's like saying "We're just going to go down the beaten path, because the one we're on isn't very lucrative." For us, it's just a matter of gaining a point of reference. I guess maybe the best analogy I can make is that sometimes if you add too many ingredients to the pot, you can't really taste what the hell is going on. That's not to say those things won't ever happen again, I certainly hope they do, but sometimes there are certain points in time where you just have to stop and check yourself.
JW: I think you make a great point. So much happens to a band when they achieve success that I think it's fair to say that when a band says they're "going back to their roots," that would probably require a time machine.
NF: Yeah, I mean everybody's different. Everybody ages. Musicians are no different. I think the whole "going back to your roots" thing is an admission of grave defeat in some regards. I think if you want to be a healthy artist, you have to keep moving forward and be willing to accept failure as part of moving forward, and out of that failure you can learn. I mean, it can't always be roses. I think it's more important and more honorable to take a risk and fail than to just kind of rehash something you've done in the past that worked. The minute you start saying "The fans want this, we should do that," well then you cease to be a rock band. You're just a commodity. You're a market force.
JW: You mentioned earlier that art is subjective, which is certainly the case, although sometimes artists don't want to acknowledge that. Since that means the artist creates the music and the audience responds to it in their own unique way, what type of a reaction are you striving for?
NF: I think the biggest compliment that anyone can offer is to say that your music or show influenced their music, because in that, you get a sort of creative immortality. You sort of add your creative influence to the pot. As far as shows go, you know, it's been a long time since anyone in the band was really interested in seeing a crowd beat the crap out of each other. That's just old and tired. I think for us, I'd rather people just be satisfied in knowing that they had witnessed something unique that didn't occur in the past and won't occur in the future.
JW: Neil, would you rather have those fans be instantly gratified with something smooth and palatable, or do you prefer to challenge them, forcing them to take a step back and digest what they've heard?
NF: Both. I think, if I'm going to see a band, I don't want the band to be self-indulgent and just play new material because they feel they have to. I mean, I want to hear music that I'm familiar with myself. That's part of the entertainment value. At the same time, I don't want the band to just go through the motions. So I think you have to strike a balance between those two elements.
JW: Clutch has a great relationship with their fans—incidentally, so far as I can tell, you guys sometimes do more than a hundred shows in a year's time. How much of an impact does your relentless schedule have on your ability to maintain that connection with the audience?
NF: I think that is the connection, really. I mean, the internet, you know, MySpace and websites, that's all well and good, but it's really fake. I think it's a good way to spread information, to get information out there, but to actually have some kind of relationship, it's a false forum. The most honest thing is to be in person, face to face, sincerely playing, and the crowd is sincerely enjoying themselves—hopefully. That's really the kind of the marriage between the musician and the audience. I mean, that's as old as the hills, that goes way beyond videos and records and albums. Live performance is the heart and soul of it all.
JW: On your latest album, From Beale St. to Oblivion, you worked with producer Joe Barresi, who has also worked with two of my personal favorites, The Melvins and Tool. What was that like, and do you think he may be on board for the next album?
NF: I certainly hope he is. He just bought his own studio out in California. I think he did an awesome job capturing a kind of real honest rendition of what the band sounds like live. Plus, half the battle with working with a producer for a prolonged period of time is personality, and we got on great with Joe. He's really easygoing and it was actually fun to be in the studio for once. In the past, it's been a drag, we don't really enjoy it, I don't think, but that time around we did.
JW: I'm glad you pointed it out, because I was going to reference how amazed I was at how live the album sounded. I think maybe going back to The Stooges and Funhouse, that's the only other album I can think of that really captured the live sound like From Beale St. to Oblivion.
NF: Thanks, that's good to hear. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that we really wrote the record front to back before we even got to the studio, and we played the album for two weeks on the road. We started on the east coast and toured, basically playing the album every night. The fans weren't really happy about that, but sometimes that's what you have to do. Then, by the time we rolled into California two weeks later, we were really well-rehearsed and we didn't have to worry about remembering the parts. We were able to concentrate solely on the quality of the performance.
JW: Neil, in the early 90s when Transnational Speedway League and the self-titled album launched, the lyrics, to me, seemed exaggerated and maybe even cartoonish at times. Recently, however, there seem to be more references to real world issues pertaining to government, maybe even religion popping up in your songs. Were you veiling these references early on or is this commentary on pop culture a new development?
NF: I don't know. I mean, I'm probably the last person you want to ask about my lyrics. It usually takes me a couple of years to figure out exactly what it is that I was saying truthfully. I mean, I always know what my intentions are, but I always approach it as having free license to lie, to write fiction. Basically, I approach it in the same manner that someone would write a fictional short story, so I don't ever want to have people misconstrue it for setting off opinions too much about religion or politics. It's just that religion and politics play such a large role culturally that I see them as fodder to be characters or subjects for lyrical purposes. If that makes any sense.
JW: It does, and even though you just said you're the last person I should ask about lyrics, I'm going to ask another question in a similar vein. I picked up The Devil & Me tee-shirt at the show I went to because that's probably my favorite track since Wishbone. I like the song a lot, because to me it sort of has a Jim Croce "folk story" feel to it, but I'm really curious as to whose perspective it's written from.
NF: The way I envisioned it, because sometimes I kind of have this movie playing in my mind when I'm trying to write lyrics, it's the devil and God incarnated as two old men on two sides of the street, sitting on stoops just kind of yelling at each other like they've been doing for years, like sometimes you see old guys do. Some of the verses are from God's viewpoint, I think the first verse is, and the second verse is from the devil's viewpoint, so it goes back and forth between the two.
JW: Excellent. I had a feeling and I was hoping you might confirm that for me. Now, obviously, Clutch is a labor of love for you, but the word "labor" is there for a reason. How hard is it to keep the ball rolling, and how much of a toll does all the effort you put in take on you?
NF: In a spectrum of hard work, this is probably at the bottom as far as jobs go. It's like any other self-employed job, there's feast and famine. You have to exercise some sort of self-discipline. No one's sending you checks in the mail, you've got to go out and work for it. The older you get, the deeper your roots go, and it's harder to leave home and go out for weeks sometimes and come back. At the same time, there are a lot of other jobs where you have to leave for months at a time or weeks at a time. Creatively speaking, it's easier to write and work when you're always doing that. If you take a sabbatical and then you go back to work, it's not like a faucet that you just turn back on.
JW: Different bands carry different reputations, and while there are several noteworthy things that could be said of Clutch, I think the superlative I hear associated with your band most frequently is "Terrific Live Act." How do you feel about the reputation you've garnered for delivering a great show?
NF: I'd rather have that than anything else. Speaking for myself, as a young guy, what really got me interested in rock n' roll was seeing bands play live and blow me away. Records are great, but the live show is so much more important. I'd rather have it that way than have people say "Oh, they sounded so much better on the record." I mean, what a drag that would be.
JW: Absolutely. I don't think there's anything that can diminish a band's appeal more than a lousy performance after you've listened to a great album. Now, on stage, you guys seem really relaxed. There's a definite lack of "stage personas," as I guess they're called. Has that always been the case? If you would, talk about why that's the approach Clutch has elected to take.
NF: I guess just being in rock n' roll, I've seen both sides, you know, of the stage. It seems like a lot of work, and it seems like a real hassle to be somebody that you're not. Guys and girls who do that tend to take themselves way too seriously. I think it should be fun and if we had done that, this band would have exhausted and killed itself years and years and years ago. If you're just yourself, then there's really no effort, it just happens naturally.
JW: We're talking about live shows, and considering the body of work you've got to choose from, how difficult is it to narrow that down and come up with a setlist?
NF: The way we deal with that is we go through alphabetical order. The first night of the tour Dan will write a setlist, then the second night Jean-Paul will write a setlist, the third night I'll write the setlist, and the fourth night Tim will write a setlist. Then it goes back to Dan, so we don't have to sit there and talk about it. We know there are certain songs that it goes without saying that we're not going to play, because we haven't played them in years. We know that there are certain songs that we probably will play, because they were on the last album or what have you.
JW: You've got a big tour kicking off on February 21 with Murder by Death, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and Hex Machine. What type of show should fans looking to buy a ticket expect?
NF: You've got four bands, get there early. It's just going to be a night of rock n' roll; we'll do our thing, they'll do their thing, the crowd will do their thing, and when all is said and done, everyone will have had a good time.
JW: We'll definitely see you in Richmond when you hit The National—I believe that will be March 21st.
NF: Yep.
JW: I noticed as I was doing some research that Bam Margera directed the video for "The Mob Goes Wild," featuring Ryan Dunn taking yet another on-screen beatdown—How did that come about?
NF: Well, even before Bam had his TV show, he and his brother Jess were coming to see us play outside of Philly. Then, when his career took off, he was able to make demands of MTV and put bands that he liked on his show. When we had that song, Bam offered to direct it on the cheap, because we don't have a budget for that kind of thing, and it was close and easy for us, so we just did it. That's how it happened.
JW: Are you a fan of Jackass?
NF: I haven't seen the last one. It has its moments. Sometimes it's a bitter pill to swallow, but I know a lot of those dudes and it's nothing I could do, I'll tell you that much.
JW: If you would, Neil, tell us a little about your side project, The Company Band.
NF: Jess, who I was just talking about, called me up last year and said he wanted to put a band together just for shits and giggles. He had me in mind, Jason Diamond from Puny Human on bass, and Jim Rota from Fireball Ministry, and Dave Bone, who I didn't know at the time, but he's friends with Jim. These were all guys that CKY had toured with, so we just sent tracks back and forth to each other on the internet. Then we got together almost a year ago next week to practice some songs, and then last summer we recorded some, pooled our money together, and put out this little EP. It was just kinda something to do.
JW: If your fans want to listen to The Company Band, how do they go about doing that?
NF: At the moment, it's only available on iTunes. It's The Company Band, the EP is called "Sign Here, Here and Here." The physical cds will be ready in a couple of weeks and we'll be selling them on merchdirect.net.
JW: Neil, earlier you said Clutch would probably be back in the studio in the next six months, I believe—any teasers for fans as far as what they should expect?
NF: I couldn't tell you. That's half the fun. Right now, we're just kind of setting our sights on new material, going over some of the stuff we've written over the past year. We don't know where it's going, but that's what makes it fun.
JW: All right, last question is a hypothetical. One venue, three bands--What would your dream show be? If you like, you can play alongside two of your favorites, or you can be a fan for the night and soak up the show. Who's taking the stage and where are we?
NF: Well, I've got to say I'm pretty spoiled. I would have to say the 9:30 Club because it's one of the country's best venues, if not the best, and it's only 7 miles from my house, so I can take a cab back. I guess—are these bands that are realistic or just fantasy?
JW: It's hypothetical, so you can choose any band at all.
NF: The MC5, Bad Brains, and (long pause while Neil ponders carefully) Black Flag.
JW: That sounds like a terrific show, Neil.
NF: Yeah, it should be a good time.
JW: Well, again, I would like to thank you for taking the time to speak with me today, and I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.
NF: Thanks for the opportunity.
Labels: Bam Margera, Black Flag, Clutch, Jackass, music, Neil Fallon, rock, RVA, RVA Magazine, Ryan Dunn, Wishbone