Alcantara is the brand name of a common synthetic textile material. It is noted for its durability. Alcantara is seen in automotive applications, as a substitute for leather and vinyl in vehicle interior trim, it is used in the design, consumer electronics and marine industries. Alcantara is produced by combining an advanced spinning process and chemical and textile production processes which interact with each other. Alcantara is composed of about 68% polyester and 32% polyurethane, giving increased durability and stain resistance; the appearance and tactile feel of the material is similar to that of suede, it may be erroneously identified as such. The material was developed in the early 1970s by Miyoshi Okamoto, a scientist working for the Japanese chemical company Toray Industries, it was based on the same technology as another product from the same company named Ultrasuede. Around 1972, a joint venture between Italian chemical company ENI and Toray formed Alcantara SpA in order to manufacture and distribute the material.

The company is now owned by Mitsui. Some versions are designated as flame retardant in order to meet certain fire standards for both furnishings and automobile applications. Alcantara applications include furniture, jewelry, safety helmets and automobiles. In the latter it is used in seating, dashboard trim and headliners by many high-end OEM automotive suppliers, it is used as steering wheel covering in many performance oriented vehicles. Louis Vuitton uses Alcantara linings in many of its bags, it appears in the collaboration with Takashi Murakami under the creative direction of fashion designer Marc Jacobs, wherein the white Multicolor Monogram bags have a bright fuchsia Alcantara lining. Alcantara is used as a flame-retardant driver seat covering material for Formula One race cars, including the Williams Formula One 2011 FW33 car, it is used as a covering material for high-end headphones, including the Sennheiser HD800, the Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear, Bose QuietComfort 35 as well as for other consumer products, such as Microsoft's Alcantara keyboard cover for Surface Pro and Surface Go, Microsoft's Surface Laptop keyboard and Samsung's Galaxy S8, S8+, S9, S9+ and Note 8smartphone covers.

Alcantara is used in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Alcantara cleaning tips Official website

The common American grass spider is a species of grass spider native to southeastern Canada and the New England states. It is sometimes encountered in such states as Michigan and New York; the species are rather similar to those of the genus Agelena, instead of Agelenopsis because of their paler coloring and the meeting of the two lines on the cephalothorax, which are parallel in other species. Females possess a larger swollen abdomen after their sixth molt, it grows up to 2.5 cm including legspan with males 1/4 smaller. It can detect movements in the wind and run for retreat before a larger threat approaches. One way to lure the spider out is to tickle the inner end of the funnel with a grass bud. Preston-Mafham, Ken. Spiders: Compact Study Guide and Identifier. Angus Books. ISBN 978-1-904594-93-2

Country radio refers to radio stations that play country music. Most country radio stations are commercial radio stations. Most country radio stations play only music, released to country radio by record labels; the largest owners of country music stations in the United States include iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media, CBS Radio, Townsquare Media. There are more radio stations in the United States specializing in country music than any other format, out of a total of about 15,000 radio stations in the US. Country radio stations are influential in the country music industry, compared to other genres of music; until 2012, only country radio stations were counted in the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart's airplay component, from 1990 to 2012, country radio was the sole arbiter of a song's position on that chart. Country radio stations come in a wide variety of formats; the most common is mainstream country, which follows the basic format of contemporary hit radio in that the current top 40 hits on the country record charts serve as the core playlist, with select recurrents from the past 15 years rounding out the format.

Hot country stations focus exclusively on top 40 country hits, with occasional acoustic pop hits from outside the country genre. Adult country formats follow a pattern similar to the adult contemporary music format: a few hits, while focused on songs in recurrent rotation from the past 30 years and maintaining a sound similar to that of mainstream country outlets. Classic country stations rare in their original form, play only older music. Traditional country uses classic country as its base while maintaining some current or recurrent hits that fit the classic country sound. Americana is a loosely defined country radio format, less focused on hits and thus more willing to play bluegrass, alt-country and regional acts whose commercial performance would not warrant being played on a mainstream country station. In terms of driving the mainstream popularity of hit country songs within the music industry, "country radio" encompasses only mainstream country and hot country stations. There have been a number of attempts to provide country radio in the UK marketplace, though not all have been successful.

In contrast to other English-speaking nations such as Canada and the United States, country has been less popular as a genre in the UK and attempts at all-country radio there have been more sporadic. Country 1035 went on air in September 1994 as London's first full-time country music station; the AM station was never hugely successful financially, passed through several owners, becoming RTL Country, Ritz Country and Mean Country ending up with Avtar Lit, who relaunched the station as easy listening/country hybrid Easy Radio London in 2002. The following year, the AM frequency became Asian talk station Kismat Radio, with the Easy service continuing on DAB only until ceasing altogether in 2008. Radio Clyde launched digital country music service 3C on DAB in various areas in the early 00s, with national carriage on the Freeview digital TV service subsequently added. Following the acquisition of Clyde parent SRH by the Emap group in 2005, 3C was shut down in March 2007, Clyde 1 taking its place on Freeview to see out the final year of the contract.

Chris Country, playing US and UK country music, launched online in 2013, since 2016 has been gathering carriage on DAB on small-scale multiplexes though on some full local muxes including in London. In some areas Chris Country uses, or has switched to, the DAB+ broadcast standard. In spring 2015, Bauer returned to country for the first time since the closure of 3C when their Northern Ireland station Downtown Radio, off the back of their successful weekly country strand, launched a digital service, Downtown Country, via DAB across NI. In March 2019, Global launched an online country music stream under the Smooth Radio brand, with the commencement of Smooth Country on the Smooth website and Global Player app; the service was not carried on terrestrial radio platforms until being relaunched as a DAB radio service in a number of locations on 3 September 2019. On 5 April 2019, Bauer Radio launched Country Hits Radio, a new digital country music station, on DAB radio in several areas and nationally online.

The Saturdays' Una Healy is among the presenters, with Baylen Leonard - who joined from Chris County - launching the new station at 10am on 5 April. It appears that the station will coexist with the existing Northern Ireland-focused Downtown Country operation, with Greatest Hits Radio replacing KissFresh on DAB in NI