function hide_intro(){
		if(!document.getElementById) return false;	
		var intro = document.getElementById('loading');
		var image = document.getElementById('loading_gif');
		image.style.display = 'none';
		if(intro){ fadeIntroOut('loading',100); }
}


//set opacity
function setIntroOutOpacity(obj, opacity) {
		//obj = document.getElementById(objId);
		opacity = (opacity <= 5)?0:opacity;
		
		obj.style.filter = "alpha(opacity:"+opacity+")"; 	// IE/Win
		obj.style.KHTMLOpacity = opacity/100; 				// Safari<1.2, Konqueror
		obj.style.MozOpacity = opacity/100;					// Older Mozilla and Firefox
		obj.style.opacity = opacity/100; 					// Safari 1.2, newer Firefox and Mozilla, CSS3
}

function fadeIntroOut(objId,opacity) {
		if(!document.getElementById) return false;
	    var obj = document.getElementById(objId);
		
		if(obj){
			if (opacity > 0) {
				setIntroOutOpacity(obj, opacity);							
					
					//iterate through the childNodes to resolve childNodes from not inheriting updated opacity in IE
					for (var i=0; i<obj.childNodes.length; i++){
						if(obj.childNodes[i].nodeType == 1){			
							setIntroOutOpacity(obj.childNodes[i], opacity);
						}					
					}			

				opacity -= 5;
				window.setTimeout("fadeIntroOut('loading',"+opacity+")", 50);
			} else {
				obj.style.zIndex = -100;
			}
		}
}

addOnLoadEvent(hide_intro);