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When it comes to divorce in Salt Lake City, each party has a lot to lose–especially if you have children or significant assets. One of the most complex issues is the division of assets and property. Utah law requires the distribution to be equitable. In many divorce cases, both parties are unable to agree how to divide property and assets. It can often create an acrimonious situation. An experienced and knowledgeable Salt Lake City divorce lawyer can often make the difference between getting the settlement you deserve to losing everything you have rightfully earned. In most Utah divorces, there are three major assets that are usually involved–the home, personal property and retirement plans/investments. Here is a brief rundown on how Utah courts determine equitable asset and property division. Home & Property: Many of the most heated divorce cases in Salt Lake City involve which party is entitled to receive the home. The court can use several different methods of determination. Here are the most common depending on the circumstances of each case. First, the court may order the house to be sold and equity divided among the two parties. The court may also allow one party to buy out the other person’s interest in the real property. Another common ruling is to have the property awarded to one party and the remaining assets of equal value given to the other. Personal Property: Personal property is classified as the ownership of any material possessions that can be moved. It includes cars, furniture, and clothing. While most people do not share clothes, the determination of vehicles and furniture can sometimes become complex–especially if they are co-owned by each party. Utah courts place a priority on dividing personal property equitably. Retirement Plans & Investments: The division of retirement and investment accounts can sometimes get complicated under Utah family law. If only one party has a pension or retirement plan, in most cases the other party is entitled to half of the amount earned during the time of the marriage. Any money earned before the marriage will not be divided. If both parties have their names on investment or retirement plans, the court can rule either two ways. Both individuals can retain the full value of their own plans or the court will order an equitable distribution of all accounts. In a perfect world, divorcing couples can agree to divide assets and property on their own. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. But there are some solutions to come up with a reasonable agreement. One viable option is mediation. Many Salt Lake City divorce attorneys offer mediation services to help couples find common ground on some of the most difficult family law issues. Under Utah family law, both parties are required to undergo at least one mediation session to attempt to resolve their differences. A mediator is an independent arbitrator who can listen to both sides explain their issues and concerns. It is often a less stressful alternative to court is also far less expensive than going through the conventional divorce process. To learn more about your options concerning the division of assets and property, contact Salt Lake City divorce attorney Emy A. Cordano for a consultation today.

How to choose an interesting and creative wedding cake topper? Nowadays, there is such a vast range of beautiful miniaturized figurines and replicas of romancing couples available in the market that you would be mesmerized. These collectibles also include wedding cake toppers for bride and groom. These cake toppers are so beautiful and cute that you would love to make it a part of your guestbook table, or keep it in your drawing room. You can also gift these to your loved ones. These silent figurines, which showcase romancing couples, interlocking hearts, birds, wedding rings, girls in bridal dresses, dancing couples, and couples performing love on the hood of a car, are simply amazing. These cake toppers not only have a great aesthetic appeal, but also provide a perfect finish to the wedding cakes. They come in all sizes, colors and varieties, so as to fit on all types of wedding cakes. If you want to buy cake toppers, make sure that these are of top quality. These porcelain wonders should have a lead free paint to begin with. They should be perfectly crafted to give it a real-life look. Furthermore, make sure attention to details is provided, as these are collectibles and people love to keep it. Some of the wedding accessory suppliers do not pay attention to details. Refer to the website of the store, and choose from a wide variety of cake toppers. A high priority return policy is also an indication that the supplier is committed towards customer service and quality. For those, who think that most of the wedding toppers are similar, here are a few tips to anniversary cake toppers that are sure to excite you. Don't go for the traditional "arm in arm" or "bride and groom exchanging kisses" positions. Imagine a real-life situation, which would excite you. It might be related to your past events, a memorable journey, your ambition, your favorite outfit, or your favorite activity. You can also get the bride and groom dressed like Indians or Australian aborigines. Adding the element of fun to your cake topper would make it more interesting and original. A professional cake designer can create an endless variety of wedding cake toppers. You can use different materials such as glass, crystal or porcelain to make them. Most of the people love to keep them as wedding day souvenirs in their drawing rooms.

How long does it take the flu to evade a vaccine? With all the recent Presidential attention to the threat from the H5N1 Avian Flu, and the many billions now earmarked for stockpiling vaccines and drugs, it seems like a good idea to ask on what time scale the virus might be able to evade these countermeasures. Vaccination is of particular interest, as it is regarded as by far the best tool to combat viral infection at the population level. Genomic analyses of H5N1 isolates from birds and humans showed 2 distinct clades with a nonoverlapping geographic distribution. All the viral genes were of avian influenza origin, which indicates absence of reassortment with human influenza viruses. Genetic and antigenic analyses have shown that, compared to previous H5N1 isolates, 2004-2005 isolates share several amino acid changes that modulate antigenicity and perhaps other biological function. Furthermore, our molecular analysis of the HA from isolates collected in 2005 suggests that several amino acids located near the receptor-binding site are undergoing change, some of which may affect antigenicity or transmisibility. Despite the recent "Isolation of drug-resistant H5N1 virus," (Nature, 20 October 2005), the WHO Global Influenza team determined that recent isolates are "sensitive to 2 neuraminidase inhibitors that are recommended for prophylactic or therapeutic intervention against human infections." So obviously the specific details of which viral isolate one is working with determine its sensitivity to drugs. In the case of the drug-resistant strain, it was isolated in February 2005 from a Vietnamese girl who may have contracted the virus while she cared for her brother. Human-to-human transmission is supported by the girl's lack of contact with poultry and the fact that the neuraminidase gene from virus isolated from the girl was virtually identical to that isolated from her brother. Thus there are evidently drug resistant strains running around in the wild. As far as I can tell, it just isn't yet clear how fast drug-resistance traits can spread. There is now at least a little data about how long it takes a particular viral strain to find work-arounds for vaccines. A recent initial effort to sequence many flu strains in parallel indicates that mutations that provide ways around vaccines can rapidly dominate a population of flu viruses. Perhaps the most dramatic finding in our data is the discovery of an epidemiologically significant reassortment that explains the appearance, during the 2003-2004 season, of the 'Fujian/411/2002'-like strain, for which the existing vaccine had limited effectiveness. ...Phylogenetic analysis of 156 H3N2 genomes from our project revealed the clear presence of multiple, distinct clades circulating in the population. Through a reassortment event, a minor clade provided the haemagglutinin gene that later became part of the dominant strain after the 2002-2003 season. This finding illustrates not only that the influenza virus population contains multiple lineages at any given time, but also that alternate, minor lineages can contribute genetic variation to the dominant lineage, resulting in epidemiologically significant, antigenically novel strains. It is worth emphasizing that our sequence-based sampling approach--in contrast to traditional serologically based sampling--will reveal co-circulating strains even before they become antigenically novel. In other words, the authors assert that amongst viruses that we give the same name there is considerable variation that may be hard to distinguish using traditional techniques. Sequencing the genomes of many isolates can provide a map of how a population of viruses is changing in response to vaccines. Ghedin, et al., note that their work demonstrates significant change of the dominant flu strain even within the 2003-2004 flu season. That variation appeared to originate and then dominate the population of viruses within 12 months. Which brings me to the core of this post, namely that we now have real-world data demonstrating that flu viruses can escape vaccines in less than a year, far shorter than the time it takes to produce significant quantities of effective vaccines. It is important to note that this is a different problem than producing a new vaccine for new annual flu strains every year. If a pandemic strain emerges, our problem is not planning ahead just far enough to deploy a vaccine for next year's strain, but rather to combat a strain already killing people worldwide. It took most of a year for the CDC and Sanofi to come up with a hypothetical H5N1 vaccine, and the new National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza contains the expectation of years to accumulate enough vaccine to be useful for large populations. Never mind that the existing whole virus vaccine may not be effective against a pandemic strain. The fact that the minor Fujian-like clade has donated its HA to the previously dominant strain rather than itself becoming the dominant circulating virus indicates that there may be important amino acid co-substitutions in the other proteins essential for viral fitness. ...Even within a geographically constrained set of isolates, we have found surprising genetic diversity, indicating that the reservoir of influenza A strains in the human population -- and the concomitant potential for segment exchange between strains -- may be greater than was previously suspected. We cannot think of the H5N1, or any other strain, as either a clonal population experiencing selection or as a bunch of individuals producing descendants that may accumulate mutations leading to a pandemic strain. Rather, flu viruses exists as elements of a population that appear to be constantly innovating and trading parts. This is a critical distinction, particularly in light of rapid human and avian intercontinental travel. Not only have we now learned that there is greater variation in any given set of geographically linked isolates, but because of human travel we can expect all kinds of novel parts to show up in populations that were otherwise isolated and appeared to be of no immediate threat. The Ghedin paper doesn't necessarily teach us directly about the evolution of pandemic flu strains, but it does suggest our current plan for pandemic vaccination is not well suited for the problem at hand. After studying synthetic vaccines for Bio-ERA, amongst other clients, I think DNA vaccines are the best bet for rapid response on a time scale shorter than flu strains seem to evolve. I've a draft paper on synthetic vaccines in for consideration at Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, and will shortly embark on another paper specifically about distributed manufacture of DNA vaccines. PowderMed is waiting for publication of their (already accepted) first paper on their plasmid vaccine for the annual flu and will be starting trials of an H5N1 DNA vaccine early next year. Unfortunately, it seems the folks in DC aren't taking this technology seriously, and instead blowing billions on developing cell culture production of whole virus vaccines. Even the folks who manufacture vaccines in cell culture acknowledge this will only cut a month or two off the response time.

What does it mean if my variable rate loan is tied to LIBOR? LIBOR, the London Interbank Offered Rate, is one benchmark, or index, to which the interest rate on an adjustable (variable) rate loan may be tied. (The "prime rate" is another frequently used benchmark.) Any adjustable rate loan or other financial product tied to a benchmark will follow that benchmark’s movements up and down. For example, if the margin (the percentage added to the benchmark rate) on your adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) is 1.25% and the LIBOR is 2.5%, your interest rate would be 3.75% (1.25% + 2.50% = 3.75%). In this scenario, if the LIBOR increased a quarter percent, to 2.75%, your new rate would be 4.00% (1.25% + 2.75% = 4.00%). That could be a significant increase on a larger loan, resulting in many thousands of dollars extra interest paid over the life of the loan. Likewise, a lower LIBOR would save you money on interest payments. If you have a fixed rate loan, the LIBOR does not affect you. If you have an adjustable rate loan, your loan documents, and possibly even your monthly loan statement, will tell you if your rate is tied to the LIBOR. If you can’t find the information there, you can call your loan servicer and ask. In the "LIBOR scandal" of mid-2012, accusations were made that LIBOR had been manipulated by the banks that determine the benchmark's rate, allegedly since the early '90s, to either make money or to make their bank and the banking system as a whole appear stronger. Because in that particular instance the interest rates had been manipulated downward, average borrowers with LIBOR mortgages, student loans and other forms of credit most likely benefited from the manipulation. However, some consumer and institutional investors may have experienced lower returns on their money.

Here are a few major points that make SQLC a sound long-term investment. A rapidly growing market: SQLC serves one of America’s fastest growing housing segments: retirement communities for upscale residents. Many seniors have substantial investment portfolios and little overall debt; they can transform this wealth into a new living environment. This growth trend should increase markedly as the baby boomers mature over the next 10 years. A proven business model: The Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) model has been a proven success for more than 30 years. It has experienced substantial growth, irrespective of setbacks in certain niches of the senior-living sector. Due to the large scale of these projects, there are significant barriers to entry from market to market; consequently, the CCRC model has not generally been overbuilt, and existing projects tend to enjoy strong occupancy rates. SQLC’s winning proposition for seniors: We offer an extraordinarily active retirement lifestyle, with unique Life Care services. Therefore, we can provide for our residents’ needs—from independent living to assisted living to skilled nursing—for the rest of their lives. Our business structure—as a not-for-profit and as a lean, locally focused organization---give us powerful competitive advantages. The energy behind that strength comes from a select group of strategic partners who have helped build our track record of success.

In Scandinavia they don't call it Christmas (Christ-Mass), instead they still retain the old pagan name for the Yuletide celebrations which they call Jul (pronounced Yule). Yule was a pagan festival that followed the midwinter solstice (usually around 21st December) and celebrated the return of the sun as the days slowly started to get longer again. The festivities, which involved lots of drinking and consuming of slaughtered animals, lasted up to 12 days, hence the 12 days of Christmas. In Scandinavia it is still traditional to leave food out (usually porridge with butter) for the little red-capped tomte or nisse (household spirits or house elves) and thus we have the tradition of leaving food (usually cookies) out for Father Christmas, who in Sweden is called the Jul Tomte (the Yule Elf). Another tradition in Scandinavia is that of the Christmas goat, whose origins are lost in the mists of time. The Jul Bok (Yule goat) is nowadays usually made from straw, which indicates that it was probably once an offering from the last harvest (like the British corn dollies), but other traditions have a man dressing up as goat at Yuletide, which could be distant memory of a pagan fertility ritual, or even be connected to the two goats who pulled Thor's chariot in Norse mythology. Yule is the turning of the year when, as the days slowly start to get longer, the Nordic peoples celebrated the end of the year and the return of the sun, the completion of the another yearly cycle of life, death and rebirth. The winter solstice was a particularly inauspicious the night when Odin was said to ride through the skies with the Wild Hunt collecting the souls of the dead. So everyone stayed indoors feasting, afraid to go outside lest they be caught out alone and abducted by the Wild Hunt. The Modern English word Yule comes down to us via the Middle English yol from the Anglo-Saxon Geol, though nowadays it is more commonly known as Christmastide or the 12 Days of Christmas. However in Scandinavia they still call it jul (pronounced yule) or jol. One of the many names of Odin recorded in the Icelandic sources is Jolnir, which means The Yule One. Though this name probably refers to his role as leader of the Wild Hunt at Yule, rather than to a jolly giver of gifts! (I can find no evidence for the claim on Wikipedia that Odin was known as Jolfaðr, the Yule Father). So how did Yule become Christmas? King Hakon of Norway, who was a Christian, passed a law that the Christian Christmas Day and the Pagan Yuletide celebrations were to be henceforth celebrated at the same time. While this only impacted the Norwegian territories it illustrates how these festivals were intentionally combined into one celebration. We do know that the celebration of Yule wasn’t always twelve days long. The Norse text 'Heimskringla: The Saga of Hakon the Good' talks about it lasting for three days, or as long as the ale continued. The night it began was known as slaughter night, where animals would be ritually slain and their blood collected in bowls to be splattered over the wooden idols of the gods and over the participants using a bunch of twigs. The animals' meat was then consumed in a feast which was known at the julblot. Other sources tell of the burning of a Yule log, the ashen remains of which were used to ward off evil spirits and other misfortunes, before being ignited again the following year to start the subsequent Yule fire. Also there was the eating of a Yule boar in honour of Freyr, a god associated with the harvest and fertility, who in Christian times became associated with St Stephen and his feast day of 26th December. More variations can be found in 'Gulathingslog 7', where Yule was celebrated ‘for a fertile and peaceful season,’ we also see in the 'Saga of Hakon the Good' that Odin was hailed at this time as the bringer of victory, while Njord and Freyr were hailed for peace and fertility. Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology speaks of how Frau Holle’s annual wagon toured the countryside during the Yuletide season for blessings of a fruitful year ahead. Deities associated with winters, like the winter hunters Ullr and Skadhi, were also sometimes hailed. Since this is the day of darkest night, Nott (Goddess of Night), as well as silver-gleaming Mani (God of the Moon), may be honored. Some will also honor Dagr (God of Day) and Sunna (Goddess of the Sun) as she will only grow in prominence in the months ahead. Odin, in his aspect as the God of Death and Transition, is almost always honored at this time. The Wild Hunt rages over the whole world seeking out and sweeping up the dead, ushering out the dead old year itself. It's also common to honor Freyr and an envisioned new year of growth and promise. Also, Thor is honored for driving back the Frost Giants. It was customary that no work was to be done during Yuletide. From Germanic sources we see stories of the Goddess Berchta visiting peoples houses and punishing those who had been spinning during Yule. In the Icelandic 'Svarfdæla Saga', we see a warrior who postpones a fight until after the Yuletide, and 'The Saga of Hakon the Good' also says that Yule was to be kept holy. Modern Heathens opt to celebrate this time as the Twelve Days of Yule, with the last day culminating on 12th Night. Ancient calendars followed a different method of time, the solstice celebrations, as well as later Christmas observances, can vary from place to place as to when they occur. Today, most Pagans and Heathens celebrate the Yuletide as running from approximately December 20 – December 31. Some Heathen groups opt to conduct no business matters during the time of Yule. Some practitioners of the Northern Tradition will even choose to completely withdraw and go secluded from online mailing lists, bulletin boards, and social media outlets like Facebook so they can stay focused on spending the Yuletide with friends and family. While it’s not always an option for everyone, there are those who choose to use vacation time from work so they can have the entire Yuletide off as well. Yuletide was perhaps the greatest of all Heathen holidays. It was a time of celebration and close family contact that lasted twelve days and nights; each of which can be viewed as a month of the preceding year in miniature. Many of the customs associated with Christmas may have begun from Heathen Yule rites and customs. Many Gods and Goddesses are honored during Yuletide, and most followers of Asatru believe that the gods, as well as the spirits of the earth and the ancestors, join us for the celebrations at this time of year. Many traditions and practices are traditional to the month of Yule the most well known is, of course, the 12 Days of Yule. Some Heathens may bookend Yule with Mother’s Night and Twelfth Night and not have specific observances in-between those days, and some other Heathens have taken things a step further. Pulling inspiration from the Nine Noble Virtues, and combining it with candle-lighting celebrations like Chanukah or Kwanzaa, they have come up with a reason to light a candle every night during the Yuletide. The alter on Yule should face north, the area is decorated with holly and mistletoe and dried leaves and fruit such as hips and haw. A chalice of appropriate wine, mead or cider. The oak or pine log with up to 13 green, white and red candles decorated with carvings, runes or symbols is placed centrally on the altar. The appropriate fragranced incense burning and scenting the air, e.g., bay, juniper, cedar, pine or rosemary is pretty good for this. There are several versions and variations to the 12 days of Yule. I like to call it the Twelve Nights of Yule since I usually hold the honor at night and it is the darkest time of the year. The version below is a combination with the most common points. Each night starts with the main focus followed by a reading and closed with a virtue meditation. Alternatively, a month is offered each night as a reflection. Glad Yuletide to Everyone. Hail!

People often think that they need to buy it to use the car, but today, despite the car rental industry or rent car Whether renting a car without a driver or renting a car with a driver no longer needs to buy a car. Those who work well with their capital and make optimal returns, use car rentals and spend their money on earning And your business and your business‌In this way, they will provide the car they are looking for, and they will not withdraw their capital for this use of their turnover and benefit from it more capital.. On the other hand, this is a bonus for car riders 1- For current car costs such as damages; 2- Insurance costs and other annual drop in car prices Are. For customers and hire car makers, the health of the car is important in every respect, including the body engine and the cleanliness of the car. This makes it‌In order to ensure that car limousines do their best to provide a car with a precision engine and body, etc., the performance of a rented car may be the most important factor in assessing the health of the car so that if The car has a high working life. It is generally considered to be poorly worn due to wear and tear, and also from the direction of the body and from the direction of the motor.

Write about your strongest memory of a heart-pounding, belly-twisting nervousness: what caused the adrenaline? Was it justified? How did you respond? Jeb Collier, was a 17 years old, standing 6’7″, 140 pounds, with beautiful strawberry colored hair and the face of a twelve-year-old. He enlisted in the US Army as a Military Policeman before he graduated high school and was scheduled to leave two weeks after his high school graduation. Suzy Lovell, a pixie at 5’1, ” began dating Jeb in the seventh grade and were high school sweethearts after Jeb gave Suzy a promise ring during their sophomore year and were expected to marry before Jeb left for the Army’s basic training at Fort McClellan Alabama. When Jeb was in the fifth grade, he stood 5’11 and weighed 95 pounds, so he was always taller than most of his elementary school classmates, and during the summer before he went to the sixth grade, he grew an astonishing 8 inches. Three weeks before his high school graduation Jeb signed a contract agreement to enter the US Army a week after his high school graduation. This was during the Korean Conflict. Jeb walked out of the recruitment office feeling proud and manly. He rode his bicycle into town and seeking out everyone who called him anything other than Jeb and starting physical fights. He fought his two older twin sisters who showed him some mercy and three younger brothers, along with several close friends and enemies, who ridiculed and tormented him over the years. These fights excited and impressed Suzy, who was overwhelmingly proud to be Jeb’s girlfriend. You see, over the years, they talked about how Jeb should stand up to the people who called him names. For years Suzy repeatedly told him, he needed to demand the respect, he deserved. After all of the fights, Jeb suffered some bruises but gained a sense of respect from all who lived in the small coal-mining town of 300, in Putney Kentucky. Two days after their graduation, Jeb and Suzy, hiked along a familiar trail to view the sunset from a nearby mountaintop. For years, they have taken the hike, to see the beauty of nature, talk and most importantly to find privacy to take part in a little heavy petting. As the sunset on the horizon silhouetting the Kentucky Mountains in colors of reds and pinks against the clouds. The two walked hand and hand along the trail towards their homes in the valley. After several yards, they heard noises of rustling trees and the crunch of leaves coming from the wood line. They thought it might be their friends attempting to scare them. So they yelled the names of friends they assumed were trying to frighten them. No one acknowledged as the noises continued. Fear began swelling within them both on the darkening trail, so they held one another’s hands tighter while walking faster. Their fear grew dreadful, as the rustling in the woods continued with Jeb’s long strides outpacing Suzy who was trying to keep up while holding his hand. Suzy could hear and feel her heart pounding, as tears streamed down her cheeks while being dragged by Jeb. Suzy’s sweat-soaked blouse, and tears in her reddened eyes, she looked up to Jeb whispering. Before Jeb could answer, a giant black bear, appeared fifteen yards behind them standing erect near the edge of the wood line standing two or three feet taller than Jeb. “You better keep up.” He turned and ran, screaming “Help!” “Help!” “Help!,” towards his home. Jeb screams were heard at his home, and soon his mother, father, brothers and twin sisters ran towards the sound of his voice. Jeb’s brothers had their shotguns, and one of the twins carried their father’s rifle. They all ran towards the trail with their flashlights furiously moving along the path ahead of them. When the family ran upon Jeb on the trail, he was breathing so heavy, with sweat dripping from his reddened face and fear in his eyes. He was slow to explain in between breaths, that he saw a bear on the trail. His siblings pointed their flashlights up the trail, when Jeb’s mother yelled, where is Suzy? For several seconds, there was an awkward moment of silence, and Jeb stopped breathing when the silence was broken with Suzy’s footsteps on the trail. The flashlights were turned towards her when she appeared, and with her pixie southern voice, she yelled. I’m right here, Mama, Collier. Suzy’s face was red as a summer beet. When she walked past, Jeb, her anger was seething like a thousand suns moving Jeb from where he stood. She stopped in front of his mother and said that she was ok. The bear ran back into the woods after Jeb ran away screaming. She turned towards Jeb and said. I do not want to speak to you until you return from your Army training with some courage, gumption, and respect for me. She turned back around and walked away with Jeb mother, father and his siblings in tow, snickering. When Jeb returned seven months later from his Army basic training, he begged for forgiveness and Suzy’s hand in marriage. On the fourth day Suzy relented saying yes, and today we gather to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of my mother and father. Thank goodness for, fright, flight, courage, and gumption, or else I would not stand here to tell this tale. Great story! I loved it! It was true love and courage building during military training. LOL!!! I’d be afraid till my bones!!!!!!

I'm a lover of nature, specially I love mountain landscapes. Would France been good to live and work in? I would travel alone and my stay would be indefinite. Hi, It's pretty difficult to get a working visa for France but if you can get one, it's a good place to live and work. Beautiful landscapes, and historical monument to visit, everything is full of history, more than 2000 years of history to endurstand, Paris was created 58BC. Some country services will be picked up directly from your salary, like health insurance, retirement allocations, unemployed allocation, familly allocation etc. If you negociate a salary of 40k€/year (called brut salary) you will really have in your pocket 30k€/year (called net salary). You have to know that every salary is negociate as "brut" salary. You will have to had on the previous taxes salary taxes wich correspond to one salary per year so it's gonna be 30k€ / 12. Then you will have a job in France congrat. If you want moutain and live cheap, you can try to get a job in Pau You have to know that if you want to get a working visa, it can be easier to get it in a company based in Paris. After almost two years living in US, I feel like France is a way better because of health insurance and you do not need a car to go everywhere but that's my personal opinion. I hope all those infos helped you. I lived in Dijon for a while and loved it. Because Paris is such a monster city in size, we tend to not realize that the other cities in France are quite large too. Lyon, Dijon, Orleans (Centre), Lille, Nantes are all truly lovely cities-full of culture, wonderful people and great food...and surrounded by beautiful landscapes. I would be happy to live in any of them! Getting a work permit will prove difficult, as well as getting a job. The social taxes are astronomic, so most employers are not hiring right now. France is a great place to work, IF you can secure a job. And for this, you will need a work permit. Unless you have a EU passport, or come from North Africa, this is not easy.

N.B. If any minutes were taken of the meeting in 1985 then they have long since been lost. These two articles, authored by Katherine, cover all of the content of her talk, and more. As anthropologists, most of us would agree with Bruner that "our first responsibility is to respect people's accounts of their experiences as they choose to present them" (1983:9). However, those of us interested in historical anthropology face a special challenge since we are rarely able to draw upon indigenous accounts of everyday life. Even when we are able to use such texts, the problem of ethnographic authority remains (Clifford 1988:8; Clifford and Marcus 1986). Considerable work is being done in historical anthropology in reconstructing indigenous histories by using the early narratives of Western observers. However, such efforts have obvious problems of observer bias (see Cohn 1987:136-171; Said 1978; Savage 1984). Furthermore, as in the descriptions discussed in this article, the outside observers have sometimes recorded opposing opinions. How are we, as anthropologists writing today, to assess such conflicting appraisals? Using the case of textiles in 19th-century northern Thailand, I should like to suggest that by reconstructing the political economy of a society, we can evaluate contradictory historical descriptions. From Veblen (1912) and Simmel (1957) to Weiner and Schneider (1989), an appreciation of the varied manner in which textiles symbolize social distinctions has been longstanding. As Bourdieu has written of symbolic goods in general, textiles can be an integral part of the "infinitely varied art of marking distances" (1984:66; see also Barthes 1984; Sahlins 1976). Often the distinctions are extremely subtle. Writing of the use of fashion, Barthes notes the importance of details as "concentrated meaning" (1984:185). For Barthes, just a detail can change an object's meaning: "a little nothing that changes everything; those little nothings that can do everything" (1984:243). However, more than just symbolizing distinctions, textiles have also been shown to constitute and consolidate social differences through their often vital role in a society's political economy. In his pioneering article on tributary textiles in the Inca kingdom, Murra notes not only that "no political, military, social, or religious event was complete without textiles being volunteered or bestowed, burned, exchanged, or sacrificed," but also that cloth served as "a primary source of state revenues" (1962:722). insights into the semiotics of consumption and an important methodology for historical anthropology. Others have made a similar point (see Schneider 1987 for an excellent review of the cultural, economic, and political significance of cloth). As Weiner and Schneider summarize, architects of centralizing polities have awed spectators with sartorial splendor, strategically distributed beautiful fabrics amongst clients, and exported the textile output of royal and peasant workshops to earn foreign exchange" (1989:2). Contradictory assessments of dress also occur in 19th-century descriptions of northern Thai dress. The anonymous author of one of the earliest surviving accounts remarked on the lack of class distinction in women's clothing: "It is curious to notice the uniformity and universality of the female dress. The higher classes vary the style a little by inserting a very showy strip of wrought silk next above the bottom piece" (Bangkok Recorder 1866). Twenty years later, an American missionary working in northern Thailand wrote in almost identical wording: "Rich and poor all dress alike, except that the higher classes vary the universal style a little by inserting a very showy strip of wrought silk into the skirt near the bottom" (Cort 1886:348). Thus, depending upon the archival source, contemporary scholars can reach opposing assessments of the character of these earlier societies. Research on textiles in mainland Southeast Asia is just beginning (see Brown 1980; Cheesman 1988; Fraser-Lu 1988; Lefferts 1988, 1990; Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman 1987). Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman's Lanna Textiles: Yuan, Lue, Lao (1987) is the only full-length work on textiles in northern Thailand; as such it is an important preliminary study, especially useful for describing some of the items woven and the techniques used. In this article, I examine the broader social context of textile consumption and production, drawing upon two major kinds of sources, archival and oral. The archival sources include consular reports (primarily British), 19th century newspaper accounts, travelogues, and works by American missionaries. In addition I have interviewed hundreds of villagers over the age of 80 living throughout the Chiang Mai Valley of northern Thailand.5 I use archival sources primarily for insight into the consumption, production, and acquisition of textiles by the elite; I rely more heavily on oral histories for insights into the everyday life of villagers. Based upon an understanding of the social processes of textile production and consumption, I argue that the controversy generated by the contradictory opinions of certain 19th century observers of northern Thai society can be resolved in favor of those who asserted that there were dramatic differences of dress and class in the northern Thai semiotics of consumption. The Chiang Mai Valley was the site of the largest and most important of the northern Thai kingdoms. These kingdoms were located in the region today called northern Thailand but called "Western Laos" by 19th century missionaries and other foreign observers. The courts of the various principalities were located in the mountain valleys of Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Lampang, Phrae, Nan, and Chiang Rai, each today serving as a provincial capital. Although these kingdoms were independent, they had been tributary to the neighboring kingdom of Burma for several hundred years. During the 19th century, they were tributary to the central Thai court at Bangkok; thereafter they were incorporated into Thailand. This article is divided into two parts. In the first, I examine the cultural significance of textile consumption in 19th century northern Thailand. I present some of the surviving descriptions of dress, ranging from the daily wear of commoners to the state robes of the ruling lords, and subsequently expand the discussion from dress to other applications of textiles, arguing that there were dramatic differences between peasants and lords in this broader sphere as well. In the second part of the article, I describe how this differentiation between elites and commoners was revealed in the social process of textile production. Focusing on the two most important textiles used; cotton and silk, I consider the overall importance of textiles in the political economy of these northern Thai kingdoms, noting the role of tribute and slave labor in the acquisition of textiles by the elite. Previous studies have shown that 19th-century northern Thai society was divided into three major social statuses: the aristocrats (jao), the freeholders (phrai), and the slaves (khiikhaa). The aristocracy was internally differentiated by economic and political power. The greatest power and prestige were concentrated in those lords who occupied the five top positions in each of the kingdoms, while lesser members of the aristocracy whose inheritances had dwindled were barely separable from the peasantry at large. Free villagers were all liable to perform corvée labor and pay tribute to the ruling lords, but they were internally differentiated according to economic class. The wealthiest villagers rivaled many members of the aristocracy; in fact, many had royal titles and intermarried with the lower levels of the aristocracy. Villagers spanned the economic continuum, from those with land and numerous animals down to those who were destitute or landless beggars. The difference between slaves and free villagers was also often a gray area. Elite slaves sometimes worked very closely with their lords and received more benefits than ordinary commoners. On the other hand, the conditions for ordinary slaves were generally worse than those for commoners since the former were at the mercy of the lords. (For more on 19th century northern Thai social structure, see Bowie 1988; Calavan 1974; Ganjanapan 1984.) Nonetheless, although portions of this social spectrum overlapped, there were significant differences in lifestyle from one end of the spectrum to the other. To give an idea of the purchasing power of a rupee at this time, some indications of wage rates are suggestive. Although very few statistics on northern Thai wage labor rates survive, I was able to find three references in the archival sources.16 According to the British trade report of 1894, porters were paid 12 to 15 rupees per month, assuming they carried an average load of 15 to 20 viss; about 54 to 73 pounds (Archer 1895). Some figures on the wages paid to laborers in the teak industry also survive. According to W. J. Archer, the British vice consul, Khamu workers who could once be hired for 40 to 60 rupees a year (and their food) could in 1894 no longer "be had under Rs. 70 to Rs. 90 a year" (1895). Writing five years later, Acting Consul J. Stewart Black gave somewhat lower wage figures, while also lamenting the increasing costs. He noted that Khamu workers were paid 30 to 50 rupees per annum, in addition to their food, which cost about 5 rupees per month, or an additional 60 rupees per year. Black wrote that in 1899 some teak laborers were being paid as much as 120 rupees (food included) and went on to castigate the native villagers for their indolence, commenting that "not even the attraction of what is to him [sic] a small fortune will induce them to undergo for any length of time the hard labour and isolation of forest work" (1 900).17 Thus, forest workers in the teak industry were earning anywhere from 90 to 120 rupees per year (including the value of their food), or about 7 to 10 rupees per month. Such wages paid to forest workers were considered a "small fortune." Although the wages paid to porters were higher, it should be noted that portering such heavy loads required tremendous stamina and could be done by only the strongest villagers. Furthermore, such employment was seasonal. According to oral histories, the wages paid to agricultural workers were less. Many villagers cited rates of one win (approximately one-seventh of a rupee) per day for agricultural labor at the turn of the 20th century.18 Archival sources suggest that wages for teak workers averaged one-quarter to one-third of a rupee per day and those for porters averaged half a rupee per day. Villagers also recalled that in the early 20th century one rupee could buy a full set of clothing, including a homespun shirt and pair of pants or skirt. Clearly, the aristocracy's most luxurious clothes were not likely to serve as daily casual wear. Nonetheless they marked a significant distinction in purchasing power and social status between the elite and ordinary villagers. A tin jok skirt border that cost 60 rupees represented at least four months' wages for the best-paid porter and over a year's wages for agricultural workers. Everyday peasant dress already represented anywhere from two to seven days' wages and thus constituted a considerable expense for the ordinary wage laborer. The ruling lords of the northern Thai kingdom also had distinctive regalia, including umbrellas and spittoons. Whether a formal sumptuary code existed is, as I mentioned earlier, unclear. However, even without the evidence of sumptuary laws, I believe that there is considerable indication of significant class differentiation through dress.19 With the exception of state robes and regalia of rank, differences in dress may well have formed a continuum of wealth rather than a clear-cut differentiation based on status. Poorer members of the aristocracy, less able to afford the most elaborate of clothes, would have blended with those below them. Conversely, wealthier members of the rural elite, especially those who had intermarried with the lower ranks of the aristocracy, would have dressed more ornately. Nonetheless, overall, when one considers the cost of elite dress in light of the economic situation of poor villagers who were begging, stealing, or patching their simple clothing, a dramatic distinction emerges. Textiles were used not only for dress but also for a variety of household items and on various ritual occasions. Such uses of textiles also revealed considerable differences according to wealth. Although the poorest villagers often did without, ordinary villagers used textiles for making mattress and pillow covers, blankets, bed sheets, and mosquito nets. In general the mattress and pillow covers were plain indigo or black with red stripes or trim. Bed sheets were plain white or white with a red stripe or checked pattern; fancier sheets had embroidery and in some cases more complex weaves. Mosquito nets were woven on special large looms, and many informants complained about how heavy homespun cotton mosquito nets were to wash. Cloth also figured importantly in the lives and rites of the elite. In addition to owning more and fancier clothes, the elite had more and better household items. Instead of just having enough mattresses, pillows, and other bedding items for the family, wealthier families had additional bedding sets for guests. Furthermore, the guest bedding was considered an object of display and so was more likely to have embroidered ends and complex, time-consuming weaves. Even today wealthy village families usually have wood cabinets with glass doors along the wall of the main room of their home to showcase guest bedding sets. The possession of ornate pillows was another particularly significant attribute of elite households. Although Thais had a variety of pillows, the prestige pillows were usually triangular and were used for daytime reclining. Their importance was highlighted in a British official's passing remark that such pillows were "to be seen in every house of any pretensions" (Lowndes 1871).25 Furnishing their palaces, the northern Thai princes displayed numerous luxury items such as foreign-made weapons, chandeliers, mirrors, lanterns, curtains, reclining pillows, and even imported carpets (Taylor 1888-1930:73; Younghusband 1888:63-64). In 1830 Richardson noted the presence of Indian and Chinese carpets (1829-36:63), and in 1885 Ernest Satow recorded that the ruling lord of Chiang Mai had European furniture and "a number of gaudy Brussels carpets" (1885-86:51). The full extent of the differences between commoners and aristocracy was most visible when members of the ruling elite traveled in state or participated in public ceremonies. Royal barges had large cloth canopies: the royal barge of the central Thai king, according to one observer, featured "a canopy of cloth of gold where the King sits on a golden throne wearing a gold embroidered coat and golden shoes" (Dodd 1923:289). The royal entourage often consisted of scores of boats, the rowers all clad in matching uniforms. The elite also traveled by horse or elephant, the animals gaily festooned with decorative textiles. On state occasions, the highest ranks of the nobility used gold and silver decorative caparisons. Mary Cort noted that the gold elephant trappings were "worth thousands," whereas the silver trappings were "worth hundreds" of rupees (Cort 1886:349). In addition to making public prestations such as those at the Kathin ceremonies, the elite would have given considerable amounts of textile goods away during any other life-cycle or calendrical ceremonies they might hold. Thai ceremonials usually included a merit-making component in which gifts, including monastic robes and embroidered pillows, were given as offerings to the monks (see Davis 1984). Archival sources also note the use of textiles as gifts to visiting dignitaries: the gifts given to Satow, a British official, by the ruling chief of Lampang included velvet mattresses, pillows adorned with Chinese brocade, and silk skirts (Satow 1885- 86:206). Thus, not only did the peasants and the lords differ considerably in terms of dress and household possessions, but they also differed in the extent to which they donated textiles on ritual occasions. In this article thus far I have depicted significant differences between the elite's and the peasants' uses of textiles. I have described a range of dress: from the stolen and the hand-me-down, from the threadbare and the patched, from the simple cottons of commoners to the state robes of the ruling lords. I have also outlined some of the different uses of textiles in village households as opposed to the court. Here, I should like to show how the differentiation was manifested not simply in the consumption of textiles but also in their production. As will become clear, both accounts are true; the differences lie in the type of fabric being woven. Most clothing was made from cotton. However, contrary to what is commonly assumed, weaving was not a universal household industry; only certain villagers in certain villages wove (see Bowie 1988, 1992). The weaving of simple cotton cloth was spread quite widely throughout the Chiang Mai Valley, and certain districts were especially known for their concentrations of weavers. Those districts that had a reputation for cotton weaving in the past, especially the San Kamphaeng and Bo sang districts, have maintained their reputations down to the present. Furthermore, oral histories reveal weaving to have been a highly specialized activity, with different villagers involved in the different phases of production. By far the most commonly produced cloth was a plain white cotton, often later dyed with indigo. The villagers most likely to produce such cloth were the poorer ones, who wove both for their own household needs and for sale or hire. Such village weavers were more likely to find weaving an onerous obligation from which others were freed. From the simplest and plainest of homespun white cloth to the most elaborate designs using imported fibers, the value of the fabric gradually increased. Striped or plaid cloth involved more work and skill, in both weaving and dyeing, than plain cloth and was consequently valued more highly. Cloth woven with imported threads, most often used for women's phaa sins, was more expensive than the domestic handspun cotton. The wealthier the village weaver, the more likely she was to weave the more time-consuming decorative items such as colored skirts or striped sheets. The more elaborate the design, the more likely the weaver was weaving for pleasure with a "cool heart." The more complex the weave, the more likely that the weaver was affiliated in some manner with the aristocracy, as war captive, slave, or member of the court. Virtually each of the areas known for weaving is associated with an ethnic minority brought into the Chiang Mai Valley as war captives sometime during the 19th century. Baan Ton Hen is a Khyyn village; San Kamphaeng (particularly around the original district town of Baan Oon) is also known as a Khyyn area. The Khyyn are a population who originally lived in the Chiang Tung area: Chiang Mai led attacks on Chiang Tung in 1849, 1852-53, and 1854, and it seems people were brought back on these occasions (Wilson and Hanks 1985:29). Over half of the people living in the Lamphun region are said to have descended from war captives (Freeman 1910:100). Chom Thong town has a Lawa population, many of whom served as temple slaves. Unfortunately, I was unable to acquire any information about the ethnic background of villagers in Baan Aen since the entire village was forced to relocate when a hydroelectric dam was built. Unlike villagers, who had to weave, trade for, or buy their clothing, the ruling lords were able to extract raw cotton, woven cloth, and dyestuffs as tribute. Their ability to levy tribute on broad sectors of the population provided the aristocracy with a quantity of cotton cloth no single producer could hope to match. Interestingly, the majority of villagers who sent cotton or cloth as tribute appear to have been hilltribe populations, such as the Karen and the Mussur (today more commonly called the Lahu). One of the Karen villages that Captain Thomas Lowndes visited in 1871 had just taken its year's taxes to Chiang Mai: "it consisted of Rupees 2, 2 blankets, and 40 viss of cotton" (1871). Richardson also noted tribute of cloth paid by the Karen during his travels in 1830 (1829-36:37, 45). Captain McLeod found that the KaKuis had to make presents of mats and cloths to the lords (1836:57). McGilvary commented that much of the raw cotton being purchased by the Yunnanese traders came from the Mussur; although he did not specifically mention tribute, it is likely that the Mussur too would have been expected to offer tribute to the ruling lords in the form of raw cotton or finished cloth. While the aristocracy were able to make apparently generous donations on ritual occasions, much of what they gave was in fact the contribution of others. Thus, the aristocracy appear to have been able to extract raw cotton, simple cotton cloth, and complex cotton weaves through political means. Tribute afforded them both raw cotton and cotton cloth, and the labor of war captives seems to have provided them with complex weaves such as tin jok skirt borders. Although silk was considered a more valuable fabric, cotton cloth nonetheless had a variety of uses in royal households. The tin jok borders, even those made of cotton, would have marked their wearers as wealthier than ordinary villagers, who only wore plain skirt borders. Possession of textiles ranging from mattresses to elephant headpieces made from complex woven cotton would have similarly served to add to the prestige of their owners. Such cloth could be used as rewards for favored underlings or as gifts for visitors. In addition, cotton cloth made possible the public display of largess involved in merit-making ceremonies, since monks' robes were typically made from cotton. It is also possible that royalty were involved in the cotton trade. There was considerable demand for raw cotton by Yunnanese traders and some demand for cotton cloth in Burma (Bowie 1992; Hill 1982; Reid 1988:91). British vice consul Archer mentioned in his trade report of 1894 that "women's cloths of coarse cotton, woven by the Laos [were] sought after in Burma as being very durable," although he added that the export was not very considerable (1895). Such cloth, together with silk goods, could also have been offered as tribute to other kingdoms. However they used it, lords - because they could exact tribute and slave labor - found it much easier to acquire cloth than did commoners, who had to weave fabric themselves or find some other means of acquiring it. Archival sources also indicate that royal slaves were involved in silk weaving. The British official A. H. Hildebrand noted, "There is a good deal of trade capable of being done also in silk garments and silk fancy work, at which the slaves and others are great adepts" (1875). It is not clear whether these slaves lived solely at the court or also in slave settlements established to produce cloth for the court. Silk weaving is known to have been done in only two areas outside the court itself: the towns of San Kamphaeng and Hot (and their immediate environs). While silk weaving continues to this day in San Kamphaeng, in Hot only traces survive in archival sources and in the memories of the town's oldest residents. No information survives to explain why Hot, a town some 70 kilometers from Chiang Mai, would have been a center of silk production and weaving, or why the industry died out. (Villagers said it was because the cocoons scared easily and so had died.) However, in San Kamphaeng a senior member of one of the prestigious silk-weaving families recounted the local version of the history of silk weaving in his area. According to his account, lords victorious in war would capture various kinds of artisans and resettle them in their own kingdoms. Thus, silversmiths were settled near the south end of Chiang Mai town, lacquer ware artists in another location, and weavers in San Kamphaeng. This account indeed suggests that the silk weavers in San Kamphaeng may have been royal slaves weaving at the behest of the court. Some idea of the potential scale of royal weaving was given by D. J. Edwardes, who wrote that the ruling lord of Chiang Mai had 300 slaves weaving cloth for him (1875). It appears that these Chiang Mai silks were marketed in Burma. In his summary of the Chiang Mai kingdom, Lowndes commented: "Weaving and embroidery are the principal handicrafts, the silk putsoes [phaa nung] are much sought after by the Burmans, as they wear three times as long as those of Burmese manufacture" (1871). He made a similar point about the silk woven in Hot, noting that it was "said to be very strong and durable" and adding, "A thitgoung [headman] showed me a putso that he had had in wear for 7 years, and it was by no means worn out" (1871). In San Kamphaeng, where silk production has continued to the present day, raw silk was imported from Luang Prabang, Laos, and later from Mandalay, Burma. Raw silk was also routinely imported by the Haw traders coming from Yunnan, China (Hill 1982; see also Bowie 1992). The geographical distribution of raw materials had social implications. Since sufficient quantities of cotton grew in upland regions of northern Thailand to be readily exported, cotton was more accessible to ordinary villagers and could, in turn, be extracted by the ruling lords through tribute. Since silkworms were not abundant in northern Thailand, raw silk had to be imported. Silk's scarcity heightened its price and its prestige value, serving to concentrate silk weaving in the hands of the court. Aristocratic control of silk production was further aided by the fact that the silk fiber is very fine and hence is far more difficult and time-consuming to weave than cotton. A comparison of cotton and silk production, then, reveals important contrasts. While cotton was exported, silk was imported into northern Thailand. While cotton was generally woven by freeholding villagers, silk seems to have been woven by slaves and members of the aristocracy. While villagers, except those who begged or stole their clothing, had to obtain textiles through direct economic means, aristocrats were able to augment their own production through the political means of tribute and slave labor. Furthermore, because poverty was widespread and not all villagers grew or wove cotton themselves, many villagers faced hardships in acquiring clothing of any kind for their families. Understanding the process of textile production helps contemporary readers gain insight into the cultural meaning of cloth to 19th century northern Thai. Once we understand the chronic poverty of most villagers and the difficulty with which villagers obtained even the simplest of cotton cloth, the significance of cloth in daily life and in village rituals becomes clearer. Simultaneously, we can begin to enter the cultural world of 19th century villagers to learn the social meaning of the difference between clothes made of cotton and those made of silk. Understanding the productive process also helps us appreciate the manner in which textiles were interwoven with royal authority. Because of their coercive power, the lords were able to exact cloth as tribute from freeholders and labor from slaves. Their political position reinforced their economic position, since the textiles - and other goods - they acquired through tribute and slave labor were apparently marketed for revenue. The revenue and surplus textiles they acquired through the labor of others, in turn, reinforced their political position. By sponsoring large, conspicuous merit-making ceremonies in which they gave robes and pillows to monks, the lords enhanced their prestige and, ironically, created an image of generosity. The fine silks in which the lords dressed themselves symbolized not only their distinction from the poor but also their own relationship to the political economy of the kingdom. Combining oral histories with archival sources, this article has examined textile consumption and production in 19th century northern Thailand. If we have an understanding of the social process of textile production, the "concentrated meaning" (Barthes 1984:185) of northern Thailand textiles becomes more apprehensible. Such apparently minor details of fashion as the use of a silk skirt border - or, as one early observer phrases it, "a showy strip of wrought silk" - can no longer be interpreted as meaning that "rich and poor all dress[ed] alike" (Cort 1886:346). Important differences in dress, household possessions, and ritual prestations separated the aristocracy from the peasantry. These differences signified profound differences in the relationship of each to the political economy. Thus, the semiotics of consumption in northern Thai society is illuminated by an understanding of its political economy. This article on the consumption and production of textiles in 19th century northern Thailand has been at once a description of the social context of textiles and an exercise in historical anthropology. The evaluation and appropriate application of archival sources present a challenge to every historical anthropologist, since these sources are replete with omissions and distortions. However, by interweaving oral histories with archival sources, we can recapture much of the fabric of the past. Oral histories enhance the archival sources by contributing some sense of the lived experiences of the unrecorded majority. This article has shown how developing a better understanding of a society's political economy can provide an independent means to assess the opinions of outside observers of indigenous societies. Acknowledgments. This article emerges from my dissertation fieldwork on 19th century political economy, conducted from 1984 to 1986 under the auspices of the National Research Council of Thailand with a grant from the Social Science Research Council. Subsequent fieldwork specifically on textile production was conducted during the summer of 1989 with a grant from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I would like to thank Cornelia Kammerer, Jean De Bernardi, Nicola Tannenbaum, Patricia Cheesman, Songsak Prangwatthanakun, Kristine Hastreiter, Kate Bjork, Hugh Wilson, and the American Ethnologist reviewers for their various contributions toward the research and writing of this article. 1 Edwardes' summary raises questions about Anthony Reid's conclusion that in Southeast Asia, "the difference in dress between rich and poor, servant and master, king and commoner, was less marked than in pre-industrial Europe, where each man's station and even vocation could be read in the prescribed style of dress" (1988:85). 2 The distinctions of dress appear to have been quite subtle at times. Crawfurd wrote, "The better classes permit the ends of the dress to hang loosely in front, but the lower orders tuck them under the body, securing them behind" (1987:313). Although the older men in northern Thai villages sport tattoos, the practice has fallen out of vogue among the current generation of northerners. For more on the symbolism of tattoos, see Nicola Tannenbaum (1987). 4 In the course of my interviewing I also encountered villagers who made mention of sumptuary rules with regard to housing and clothing, but they were unable to recall any of the specifics. The quotation cited suggests not only that sumptuary laws existed but also that they varied by ruler and kingdom. 5 During dissertation fieldwork in 1984-86, I interviewed more than 500 villagers over the age of 80 living in about 400 villages throughout the Chiang Mai Valley. I repeatedly asked villagers for their recollections of life when they were young as well as for their memories of what their parents and grandparents had said about life in their days (see Bowie 1988). This article emerges from accidental observations made during my dissertation research. During the summer of 1989 I interviewed another 100 villagers, specifically asking about textiles. 6 Considerable confusion is caused by the various linguistic borrowings of the 19th century English language sources, which alternately use Indian, Burmese, and central Thai words to describe northern Thai clothing. Thus, terms such as phaa nung, lungi, and putso are used in ambiguous ways. In general, these terms refer to the lengths of cloth worn by both men and women on the lower half of the body. The lengths may be sewn into a tube (as in the phaa sin) or twisted into a thick cord worn between the legs (as in the phaa toi). To add to the confusion, the usage of these terms has changed over time. During the 19th century, phaa nung referred to the length of cloth worn on the lower part of the body by central Thai men and women alike, corresponding most closely to the phaa toi worn by northern Thai men. Over time the meaning has changed to refer to the tubular cloth, or phaa sin, worn during the 19th century by northern Thai women and now worn by women throughout the country. 8 Bock, writing in 1884, observed, "A few Lao women are beginning to wear tight-fitting jackets, cut to the shape of the figure, with equally tight sleeves, something after the style of the 'ladies' jerseys' recently so fashionable in Paris and London, and involving no small amount of labour to get on and off" (1986 :327). Writing at about the same time, Cort made a similar observation: "Some are beginning to wear jackets or waists, but the usual style is for the women to have a brightly colored cotton or silk scarf tied around their chests just under the arms" (1886:348). 9 The indigo-dyed cotton daew chador and indigo shirts now identified as stereotypical of the Thai peasantry appear to have been of recent vintage, dating from about the turn of the century. Ironically, the blue farmer shirts (sya moh hoom) now worn by university students and Thai officials to demonstrate Thai nationalist pride seem to have been popularized by Chinese merchants. The daew chador has more in common with Chinese-style loose-fitting pants than with the traditional phaa toi. Additional support for the view that jackets became more common as the century progressed are provided in a few passing comments. In 1868 Henry Alabaster detailed his recollections of people's dress ten years earlier, noting: "I remember that ten years ago at any of the great festivals which attracted there 40 or 50,000 spectators, almost all wore but one garment - or a sarong and scarf. Now almost every one adds thereto a cotton or silk jacket" (1868). Stringer, writing in his trade report of 1890 specifically about northern Thailand, commented, "The wearing of singlets and coats of European pattern by the men and cotton jackets by the women is becoming more common" (1891). 10 That cloth was highly valued elsewhere in Southeast Asia is also reflected in the following Burmese proverb: "If you are on the way to an ahlu [merit-making ceremony], do not wear your jacket; carry it and put it on when you arrive; it lasts longer that way" (Nash 1965:232). 11 "A comment on the poverty of temple slaves in Burma supplies further evidence that the sheer amount of cloth in one's clothing was an indication of economic status: "They are poor these slaves, the men wear no brilliant putsoes and the women wear no vest beneath their jacket" (Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget 1899b). 12 The value of cloth is also suggested in a northern Thai rhyme describing the payment that three women received in return for sexual favors: "Miss Kum asked for silver, Miss Huan asked for cloth, Miss Noja asked for an elephant. Hurry up and finish Doctor" (Bristowe 1976:127, cited in Patel 1990:127). Cotton's value as a commodity is seen too in the fact that there were traveling minstrels who literally "sang for their cotton." A favorite form of village entertainment in the past was soh, witty and often bawdy repartee between a male and a female singer, with musical accompaniment. One especially popular form of soh was the soh kep nok, or "singing repartee to collect birds." In villages with surplus raw cotton, this soh would be performed as soh laek fai (singing in exchange for cotton). Each village household wishing a performance would build a tree as a stage prop, with cotton representing the birds in the tree. At a certain point in the plot, the male singer would then "shoot down" all the cotton birds and put them in his bag. Having collected all the cotton balls, the performers would then move to the next house where they had been invited to perform, again receiving cotton as payment. (For more on the soh kep nok performance itself, see Shim- bhanao 1982-84). 13 Nineteenth-century paintings have been preserved at Wat Phumin in Nan and Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai. 14 Because during times of peace Chiang Tung and Chiang Mai were closely linked by trade as well as by cultural and linguistic similarities, I include these descriptions of Chiang Tung in the discussion of northern Thailand. Kun or Khynn is the name of the ethnic group living in the region around Chiang Tung (Keng Tung), many of whom were brought to Chiang Mai as war captives and resettled there. 15 Stringer wrote that Manchester chowls, "of which four different sizes are sold, fetch from Rs. 20 to Rs. 24 per corge of 20 pieces, and the Bombay goods, also sold in four sizes, fetch from Rs. 17 to Rs. 20 per corge" (1891). Chowl is another word for phaa nung. According to T. Carlisle's 1899 trade report, chowl was "the Indian name for the Siamese 'phalai' or 'paley,' that is the 'phaanung' or lower portion of the Siamese costume printed and furnished with a glaze" (1900). In other words, it was a length of printed cloth some three to four meters long. A possibly higher figure for the price per length was given by Alabaster, who suggested that if the British could manufacture sarongs to sell retail at about 4 to 6 shillings apiece, they might find a market in Thailand (1868). Since the rupee was valued at 13 pence in 1895, this would suggest a cost of 3.7 to 5.6 rupees per length. However, I have no figures with which to calculate the shilling/rupee exchange rate for 1868. 16 James Ingram has done a remarkable job of gathering wage labor rates for central Thailand (1964). 17 1t is interesting that while remarking on the indolence of the natives, Black commented that it was "not uncommon to find Khamoos working for foresters who had failed to pay their wages for 5-6 years" (1900). 18 Until the early part of the 20th century, the Burmese rupee (called the taep in northern Thai) was the dominant currency in northern Thailand. The Siamese (central Thai) baht only became the standard currency thereafter. The baht equaled 100 satang. The exchange rate between the Siamese baht and the Burmese rupee fluctuated but was about 80 to 90 satang per rupee (according to interviews and Archer 1895). Since a win equaled 12 satang, it was approximately equivalent to one-seventh of a rupee. 19 The significance of sumptuary laws is ambiguous. On the one hand, the presence of such laws suggests an elite strong enough to have them passed; on the other hand, it also suggests an elite whose status is being undermined. It has been argued that in England, where a variety of such laws were passed, they represented not the strength of the aristocracy but its weakness vis-à-vis the growing fiscal strength of the bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws have even been interpreted as the protectionist tactics of a local bourgeoisie protecting domestic production against foreign imports (see Hooper 1915). They have also been interpreted as paternalistic efforts by concerned governments to protect their citizens from profligacy (Phillips and Staley 1961). 21 Far more remains to be said about the raw materials needed for dyeing. For more on this and other dyes, see Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman (1987) and Fraser-Lu (1988). See Schneider (1976) for a fascinating discussion of the importance of dyes in the political economy of Europe. 22 A few of the traditional ordination pillows have survived. I saw one that was among a villager's last remaining unsold treasures; it had been made by his mother for his initiation. A triangular pillow made of black satin cloth, it had gold thread embroidered into a flower design at the points of the triangle. 23 Cloth that has been worn as a woman's phaa sin can be very powerful symbolically. Soldiers often wore pieces from their mothers' phaa sins to protect them in battle, with the idea that their mothers had done the most to give them life and would do the most to protect them. This symbolism becomes even more intriguing when considered in light of the famous myth of Queen Chamathevi. She wove pieces of a phaa sin into a hat for a suitor to ensure that his arrows would fall short of their mark and he would thus fail in his quest for her hand in marriage. The stratagem worked. 24 Textile production seems to have been a more important and more widespread part of the village household economy in northeastern than in northern Thailand. Consequently, I believe, cloth goods figured more prominently in wedding celebrations in the northeast. 26 The Pali word kathina means a piece of cloth that in former times was donated to a temple for making robes; alternatively, it means the wooden frame on which the cloth was traditionally sewn into robes (Davis 1984:200). 27 Even today kathin ceremonies are "most often sponsored by government agencies, private companies, and wealthy families" (Davis 1984:200). 28 The central Thai king, King Mongkut, wore robes of yellow silk while he was a monk (Feltus 1924:53). Rich people didn't know how to spin or weave. They bought their clothes ready-made or hired other people to weave their cloth for them. Rich people were too lazy to weave for themselves. But some rich people were stingy; they wove their own clothes instead of hiring poor people. 30 lronically, Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman suggest that in the past "every woman owned at least one tin chok for special occasions" (1987:12). Because these borders required so much skill to weave and were so expensive to buy, I am quite skeptical of this claim. I think that only the wealthiest of villagers, or villagers who were themselves expert weavers, would have owned a tin jok. 31 Hildebrand did not specify how the slaves of the second chief were employed; however, we know from Bock's account that one of the second chief's wives had her slaves spin silk. Hildebrand wrote, "The second chief's source of income is not so calculable; he derives a good deal from the labor of his slaves, of whom, with his wives and children, he never has less than 600 under his roof, and the number outside would probably double this amount" (1875). 1868 Trade Report of Siam of 1867. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 46, 18 January. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1895 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1894). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 28 June. 1866 The Manners and Customs of the Cheang Mai Laos. Bangkok Recorder, 30 August. 1984 The Fashion System. M. Ward and R. Howard, trans. Berkeley: University of California Press. Benda, Harry J., and John A. Larkin, eds. 1967 The World of Southeast Asia: Selected Historical Readings. New York: Harper and Row. 1900 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1899). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 22 October. 1986 Temples and Elephants: Travels in Siam in 1881-1882. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1984 A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. R. Nice, trans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1988 Peasant Perspectives on the Political Economy of the Northern Thai Kingdom of Chiang Mai in the Nineteenth Century: Implications for the Understanding of Peasant Political Expression. Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, University of Chicago. 1992 Unraveling the Myth of the Subsistence Economy: The Case of Textile Production in Nineteenth Century Northern Thailand. Journal of Asian Studies 15(4):797-823. 1976 Louis and the King of Siam. London: Chatto and Windus. 1980 Government Initiative and Peasant Response in the Siamese Silk Industry, 1901-1913. Journal of the Siam Society 68(2):34-47. 1983 Text, Play, and Story: The Construction and Reconstruction of Self and Society. Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society. Washington, DC: American Ethnological Society. 1974 Aristocrats and Commoners in Rural Northern Thailand. Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, University of Illinois. 1900 Trade Report of Siam (1899). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 16 October. Cheesman, Patricia 1988 Lao Textiles: Ancient Symbols - Living Art. Bangkok: White Lotus Company. 1988 The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Clifford, James, and George E. Marcus, eds. 1986 Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1987 An Anthropologist among the Historians and Other Essays. Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1886 Siam: The Heart of Farther India. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph. 1987 Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China. D. K. Wyatt, introd. Singapore: Oxford University Press. 1984 Muang Metaphysics: A Study of Northern Thai Myth and Ritual. Bangkok: Pandora. 1966 Village Life in Modern Thailand. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1923 The Tai Race: Elder Brother of the Chinese. Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch Press. 1875 [Journey to Chiang Mai]. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 62, 17 June. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1972 Ralph Fitch, Elizabethan in the Indies. New York: Barnes and Noble. 1924 Samuel Reynolds House of Siam: Pioneer Medical Missionary 1847-1876. New York: Fleming H. Revell. 1899 Laos Folklore of Farther India. New York: Fleming H. Revell. 1988 Handwoven Textiles of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press. 1910 An Oriental Land of the Free. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. 1984 The Partial Commercialization of Rice Production in Northern Thailand (1900-1981). Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, Cornell University. 1875 Report on Special Mission to Chiengmai. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 65, 15 February. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1982 Familiar Strangers: The Yunnanese Chinese in Northern Thailand. Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 1915 The Tudor Sumptuary Laws. English Historical Review 30:433-449. 1964 Thailand's Rice Trade and the Allocation of Resources. In The Economic Development of Southeast Asia: Studies in Economic History and Political Economy. C. D. Cowan, ed. pp. 102-126. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. 1971 Economic Change in Thailand, 1850-1970. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1890 Trade Report of Siam. Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 18 October: 16. 1866 [Report of Expedition into Southern Laos and Camboja]. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 40, 31 May. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1860 Trade Report of Siam. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 21, 21 January. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1988 The Kings as Gods: Textiles in the Thai State. In Textiles as Primary Sources. Proceedings of the First Symposium of the Textile Society of America, Minneapolis Institute of Art, September 16-18. J. E. Vollmer, comp. pp. 78-85. St. Paul: Textile Society of America. 1990 Textile Exchange in T'ai Societies. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Thai Studies. Vol. 1. pp. 363-371. Kunming, China: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. 1871 Journal kept by Captain Lowndes, Superintendent of Police, British Burma, whilst on a Mission to the Zimme Court, 27 March to 30 May 1871. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 55, 20 June. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1900 Surveying and Exploring in Siam. London: John Murray. 1836 [Journal of Captain McLeod]. MS, Manuscript Division, British Museum, London. 1962 Cloth and Its Function in the Inca State. American Anthropologist 64:710-728. 1965 The Golden Road to Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1990 Silver Challenge Cups and a Bronze Frog Drum: Colonialism and the Development of Teak Capitalism in Northern Thailand. M.A. thesis. Anthropology Department, Macquarie University. 1961 Sumptuary Legislation in Four Centuries. Journal of Home Economics 53 (8 October):673-677. 1987 Lanna Textiles: Yuan, Lue, Lao. Bangkok: Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, Chiang Mai University. 1899a From Northern Siam. Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 11 September: 11. 1899b Pagoda Slaves. Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 30 October. 1988 Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1829-36 [Journal of Dr. Richardson]. MS, Manuscript Division, British Museum, London. 1976 Culture and Practical Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1978 Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books. 1885-86 [Journal of Sir Ernest Satow]. Public Record Office Series No. PR030/33 (21/1). MS, Public Records Office, London. Savage, Victor R. 1984 Western Impressions of Nature and Landscape in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Singapore University Press. 1976 Peacocks and Penguins: The Political Economy of European Cloth and Colors. American Ethnologist 5:413-447. 1987 The Anthropology of Cloth. Annual Review of Anthropology 16:409-448. 1982-84 Lokhathat chaw laanaa syksaa cak soh kep nok (The Worldview of Lanna People Based upon Soh Kep Nok Songs). Sangkhomsaat 6(2):11-36. 1963 The Burman: His Life and Notions. New York: W. W. Norton. 1957 Fashion. American Journal of Sociology 62(6):541-558. 1891 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1890). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 16 May. 1892 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1891). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 24 June. 1987 Tattoos: Invulnerability and Power in Shan Cosmology. American Ethnologist 14:693-711. 1888-1930 Autobiography of Hugh Taylor. MS, Phayab College Library, Chiang Mai, Thailand. 1912 The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. New York: B. W. Huebsch. Weiner, Annette B., and Jane Schneider, eds. 1989 Cloth and Human Experience. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 1985 The Burma-Thailand Frontier over Sixteen Decades: Three Descriptive Documents. Monographs in International Studies Southeast Asia Series, No. 70. Athens, OH: Ohio University Center for International Studies. 1888 Eighteen Hundred Miles on a Burmese Tat. London: W. H. Allen.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the United States Army was sorely pressed to meet its overseas commitments in Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. As a result, in 1901 Congress authorized 5 additional Regular Army Infantry regiments; the 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th Infantry. All 5 regiments subsequently served the Army well. The 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry traces its lineage back to when it was first organized on 25 December 1900 in the Regular Army at the Presidio of San Francisco, California, as Company A, 1st Provisional Battalion of Infantry. It was consolidated on 7 February 1901 with Company A, 26th Infantry (which was first constituted on 2 February 1901 in the Regular Army), and consolidated unit designated as Company A, 26th Infantry. The 26th Infantry began its life overseas in the Philippines and spent its first 20 years of service on deployments to the Southwest Pacific, the Mexican and Indian frontier and in Europe. It earned its first battle streamer during the Philippine Insurrection within 2 years of its forming as a unit. After returning to the same location for another tour of duty (a habit the 26th Infantry Regiment would keep for the entire century), the 26th Infantry Regiment fought off Mexican bandits and settled disputes in the Indian Territory until it was selected as one of only 4 Regular Army Infantry Regiments deemed fit for immediate combat to form the 1st American Expeditionary Division in June of 1917. This expeditionary division would later be redesignated the 1st Division (and subsequently the 1st Infantry Division) and thus began ths 26th Infantry Regiment's long association with the Big Red One. As part of the first American soldiers to arrive in France, the 26th Infantry Regiment immediately left for the front. Along with its sister regiments of the 1st Division, it earned more campaign streamers than any other regiments during the First World War, but at a terrible cost. Over 900 members of the Regiment their lives in a 6-month period. At Soisson alone, the regimental commander, executive officer, 2 of 3 battalion commanders and regimental sergeant major were killed in action. Sixty-two officers were killed or wounded and out of 3100 men that started the attack, over 1500 had been killed or wounded. The battle was won and this turned the tide for the Allies at a crucial period during the summer of 1918. By war's end, the soldiers earned 7 battle streamers and 2 foreign awards. It was also during this conflict that the Regiment's name, the "Blue Spaders" came into usage. The name referred to the Regimental shield, which consisted of the Mohawk arrowhead. Colonel Hamilton A. Smith selected this to represent the regimental spirit of courage, resourceful daring and relentless pursuit of an enemy. Following a brief occupation duty in Germany, the regiment returned to the United States and served as a part of a smaller peacetime Army until 1941. In the 1920s and 30s, the unit's permanent home station became Plattsburg Barracks, New York. These years would involve training exercises and maneuvers along with the normal routines of garrison duty. In 1941, the regiment once again stood with its sister regiments and prepared for war in Europe. In World War II, the 26th Infantry led America's first-ever amphibious assault in North Africa, fought at the Kasserine Pass, assaulted Sicily, invaded Normandy, conquered the first German city of the war at Aachen, vaulted the Rhine and attacked all the way to Czechoslovakia by war's end. The 26th Infantry Regiment conducted 3 amphibious assaults, and earned 7 battle streamers, a Presidential Unit Citation, and 5 foreign awards. Beginning another occupation of Germany, the "Blue Spaders" were given the honor of bearing the United States National Colors at the Allied Victory in Europe parade, and were selected to serve as America's guard of honor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Thus began a lengthy stay in Germany, first as conquerors and later as friends and Allies. The unit was reorganized and redesignated on 15 February 1957 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battle Group, 26th Infantry, and remained assigned to the 1st Infantry Division with its organic elements concurrently constituted and activated. It was relieved on 14 April 1959 from assignment to the 1st Infantry Division and assigned to the 8th Infantry Division. Serving as a battle group in Europe in the early 1960s, the unit was attached to various Divisions. It was relieved on 24 October 1962 from assignment to the 8th Infantry Division and assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division. It was relieved on 15 February 1963 from assignment to the 2nd Infantry Division and assigned to the 1st Infantry Division. It was then reorganized and redesignated on 13 January 1964 as the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry. The Battalion rejoined the 1st Infantry Division shortly before receiving orders to deploy as a part of the Army's first divisional-sized unit in Vietnam in 1965. The "Blue Spaders" served longer in Vietnam with their "Big Red One" units than any other division. After 5 continuous years of combat the "Blue Spaders" received orders to return home in 1970 with 11 battle streamers, a Valorous Unit Award and 2 foreign awards for its colors. At the conclusion of Vietnam, the Battalion returned to Germany as part of a forward-deployed brigade of the 1st Infantry Division. The unit was inactivated on 24 February 1983 in Germany and relieved from assignment to the 1st Infantry Division, when that Brigade returned to the United States. The 26th Infantry was transfered to TRADOC on 3 April 1987, where the 26th Infantry's Regiments spent several years training recruits. The 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry was inactivated on 15 January 1996 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and withdrawn from the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. On 16 February 1996, the Battalion rejoined the "Big Red One" in Germany only to send its soldiers to Bosnia as part of the first American forces to enter the Balkans from February to September 1996. The entire Battalion followed its initial deployment from October 1996 to April 1997. In March 1998, the "Blue Spaders" deployed again to the Balkans, this time to the Republic of Macedonia. Returning briefly in September 1998, the Battalion was the first unit alerted for deployment to Kosovo in June 1999. It returned in December 1999. During this period, the unit earned the Superior Unit Award streamer and the Defense of Kosovo streamer for the colors. Three of Task Force 1-26 Infantry's soldiers lost their lives in Kosovo. In 2004 the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry deployed with other elements of the 1st Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following that deployment the unit was redesignated on 1 October 2005 as the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment. After serving another tour of duty in Iraq in 2007, the unit was relieved on 16 March 2008 from assignment to the 1st Infantry Division and assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. This was part of the transformation of the 2nd Brigade to the US Army's modular force structure. 3rd Brigade Combat Team had perviously converted in 2006 and the 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry was concurrently inactivated and reflagged as the 1st battalion, 26th Infantry. In June 2008 the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, including the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The unit remained deployed in that country into 2009.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter and plays a role in the regulation of muscle tone. As its name suggests, it is technically an amino acid. However, it is unique to what most people know as amino acids because the amino acids that we are familiar with are in an alpha configuration, whereas GABA is in a gamma configuration. Consequently, it is not incorporated into proteins. Where Does GABA Come from? GABA is synthesised naturally within our body and low concentrations can be found in animal and plant products (cherry tomatoes are a good source). However, generally speaking, the amount we eat in our diet is very low. The potentially beneficial property of GABA is the theory that it may increase levels of hGH (human growth hormone) within the body. Human growth hormone is produced in the pituitary gland and aids in lean tissue gain, reduction of fat mass, and increases bone density. There have been a few studies that have suggested that GABA supplementation has resulted in elevated levels of hGH. An earlier study found that a single 5 g dose of GABA significantly increased plasma hGH levels in three hours (Cavagnini et al, 1980). A more recent study has supported these findings, reporting that 3 g GABA supplementation increased hGH levels in men at rest and during exercise compared to a placebo (Powers et al, 2008). No doubt, if GABA is effective in increasing hGH, this may be beneficial for bodybuilders. Powers et al (2008) stated that, "augmenting the postexercise irGH/ifGH response may improve resistance training-induced muscular adaptations", which simply means "increasing hGH may increase muscle gains". Another effect of increased hGH is the benefit it has on reducing fat mass. Therefore, if GABA is effective in increasing hGH, it may be helpful for those wishing to lose fat. The efficiency of fat loss may be a result of the ability of hGH to stimulate muscle growth, and hence elevate resting metabolic rate to burn more fat. One of the other reported effects of GABA is that is has a calming and relaxing effect. Consequently, it has also been used as a sleeping aid. One criticism behind the rationale of GABA supplementation is that for GABA to work, it needs to find its way into the brain. However, GABA does not readily cross the blood brain barrier, so it may not be able to exert its effect on the pituitary gland. It seems that although GABA may be able to increase hGH, taking too much may actually have the opposite effect. A study has shown that a dose of 18 g/day for four days actually reduced hgH levels (Driskell & Wolinsky, 2009). The use of GABA appears to be safe. However it is not as well studied as some other supplements. Therefore, if you are pregnant, are on medications, or have any serious illnesses, consult your healthcare professional before commencing supplementation. Due to the negative effect of high levels of GABA intake on hGH production, you should be wary of dosage, and make sure that you are not actually doing the opposite of what is intended. Studies have suggested that a 3 g dosage is adequate for promoting hGH production (Powers, 2008), and therefore is the recommended dosage. Because GABA may have a calming effect, it would be better to take the supplement an hour before bed, so it does not reduce your focus during the day. GABA can be found as a pure stand-alone supplement. Since GABA is a hGH promotant, it can be stacked with other hGH supplements. Here, they may work synergistically to provide different mechanisms to potentially boost your natural hGH levels. Additionally, since GABA is best taken at night, it could also be taken with a slow release night time protein, such as casein. However, if you are taking GABA purely as a sleep supplement, it may be better to do so on an empty stomach to promote rapid absorption.

When the world says "Just Do It", I say "Just Don't Do It". Yes, there are several things that you should not just do it. The list of such things is never ending but here I will highlight some of them that are essential for your overall growth and success. Most of them are based on my personal experiences.

Anyone has a recommended list of all equipment that require inspection prior to shipment? I'm sure there are many other miscellaneous items that need inspection prior to shipment as well. Instrumentations - Analyzers, Flowmeters, Gauges, Thermowells, Transmitters, etc. Linings, Refractory Materials, Fireproofing,. Cladding and Weld Overlays, Protective Coatings, etc. Special materials themselves also need multiple inspections by authorized inspectors before they can be shipped to the fabricators. The Positive Material Identification (PMI) tests also need audit and review prior to be certified.

Ronny Deila blamed a rutted, ploughed Hampden pitch for his side's failure to inflict League Cup embarrassment upon Rangers. Denying they removed their feet from the pedal after the break Deila warned the SPFL the awful pitch wasn't good enough - and wrecked his team's efforts to play passing football. Asked if he urged his players to consolidate their lead at half-time the Norwegian insisted: 'I didn't say that – I said to go for three. 'But we wanted to really go and just kill the game. 'But we killed it another way – we were solid at the back and kept them away from the goal. 'We wanted to attack more, but I have to make the excuse as well that we are a passing team and we had no chance to pass the ball on that pitch. Relaid in the aftermath of the Commonwealth Games the surface at the National Stadium cut up badly during Dundee United;s victory over Aberdeen in the other semi on Saturday. Urging Hampden plc and the SPFL to make sure the surface if repaired adequately before the first showpiece final of the season on March 15 Deila added: 'If you are going to develop Scottish football you need pitches you can play football on. 'If you are going to go four or five months with poor pitches all over the country then every game will be in the air. 'If you are talking about Champions League it's not even near. 'This is the national team's stadium – it has to be much better. Delighted with his side's first half display – less so with the second – Deila savoured his first experience of an Old Firm derby. 'It can't be better. It was a very good day. 'There was an unbelievable atmosphere in the stadium. The Celtic boss will now turn his attentions to transfer reinforcements today with an increased bid for Dundee United Stuart Armstrong expected. A £1.5million offer was rejected on Friday and the midfielder would miss the League Cup Final, cup tied if he made the move. Declining to expand Deila added: 'We want to add people tomorrow and keep everybody. We are now in the critical period. On Tuesday we will know the answer, which will be good for you and for me. Celtic have also secured Tannadice winger Gary Mackay-Steven on a pre-contract agreement in the summer and must decide whether to pay £250,000 to secure him now. Bolton Wanderers could also launch a formal bid to sign Celtic goalscorer Kris Commons today, despite Deila insisting the 31-year-old is staying. Celtic are also considering a move for South Korean free agent Kim Bo-Kyung.

The 1932 NFL season was the 13th regular season of the National Football League. The Boston Braves (the current Washington Redskins) joined the NFL before the season, whereas the loss of the Providence Steam Roller, Cleveland Indians and Frankford Yellow Jackets dropped league membership to eight teams, the lowest in NFL history; the league also had eight teams in 1943 due to World War II. Although the Green Bay Packers finished the season with 10 wins, the league title was determined at the time by winning percentage with ties excluded, so the Portsmouth Spartans and the Chicago Bears finished the season tied for first place (6–1). Since both games between the teams ended in ties, the NFL arranged for the first ever playoff game to determine the NFL champion. Extremely cold weather forced the game to be moved from Wrigley Field to the indoor Chicago Stadium. The makeshift football field in the stadium was only 80 yards long with undersized endzones, forcing officials to move the goal posts to the goal line due to a lack of space to put them at the back of the end zone, as was standard in college and professional football. This change was favored by players and fans, and the goal posts were moved to the goal line as one of several rule changes the league made in 1933, with the rule lasting until 1973. The Bears won the playoff game 9–0, which was scoreless until the fourth quarter, and as the game counted in the final standings, the Spartans finished in third place. The Spartans became the Detroit Lions in 1934. Because the Portsmouth Spartans and the Chicago Bears finished the season tied for first place, a playoff game was held to determine the NFL champion. The league decreased to eight teams in 1932. Following the 1932 season, the NFL would be split into two divisions (later two conferences), with the champions of each meeting in a championship game. This was the result of the end of the 1932 season, where there was a tie for first in the standings at the end of the regular season: as tied games did not count until 1972, the Spartans record of 6–1–4 and the Bears record of 6–1–6 were taken to be six wins, one loss, giving both an .857 win percentage. Had pure win-loss differential or the current (post-1972) system of counting ties as half a win, half a loss been in place in 1932, the Packers' record of 10–3–1 (.750, +7) would have won them a fourth consecutive championship, ahead of the Spartans' 6–1–4 (.727, +5) and the Bears' 6–1–6 (.692, +5). The Green Bay Packers were unbeaten (8–0–1) after nine games, and after the Thanksgiving weekend, their 10–1–1 record (.909) was still well ahead of Portsmouth at 5–1–4 (.833) and Chicago at 4–1–6 (.800). In Week Twelve (December 4), the Spartans handed the Packers a 19–0 defeat, while the Bears beat the Giants 6–0. Portsmouth, at 6–1–4 (.857), took the lead, while the Packers (10–2–1) and the Bears (5–1–6) were tied for second (.833). In Week Thirteen, the Bears hosted the Packers; a Green Bay win would have the Packers finish second with an 11–2–1 record (.846) and hand Portsmouth their first ever title. The Bears beat the Packers 9–0, meaning they finished 6–1–6, and tied for first in the standings with Portsmouth. Though it was described as a "playoff", the Bears 9–0 win over Portsmouth on December 18 counted in the regular season standings. As such, the Bears finished at 7–1–6 (.875) and won the 1932 title, with the Packers runners-up, and the Spartans, at 6–2–4 (.750), finished third. Kenneth "Ken" R. Wendt (January 29, 1910 – January 19, 1982) was an American football player, jurist, and politician. Wendt was a guard for the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League in 1932. He then served in the Illinois General Assembly and as a judge in Cook County, Illinois. The National Football League champions, prior to the merger between the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) in 1970, were determined by two different systems. The National Football League was established on September 17, 1920, as the American Professional Football Association (APFA). The APFA changed its name in 1922 to the National Football League, which it has retained ever since.From 1921 to 1931, the APFA/NFL determined its champion by overall win–loss record, with no playoff games; ties were not counted in the winning percentage total. The APFA did not keep records of the 1920 season; they declared the Akron Pros, who finished the season with an 8–0–3 (8 wins, 0 losses, 3 ties) record, as the league's first champions, by a vote of the owners, with the Buffalo-All Americans and Decatur Staleys also claiming the title. According to modern-tie breaking rules, the Buffalo All-Americans tied Akron for the championship. The Canton Bulldogs won two straight championships from 1922 to 1923, and the Green Bay Packers won three in a row from 1929 to 1931.There also has been controversy over the championshipships of the 1921 APFA season and the 1925 NFL season, with the Buffalo All-Americans laying claim to another championship in an incident known as the "Staley Swindle" and the Pottsville Maroons being stripped of their championship in 1925 for playing an exhibition game against college football powerhouse Notre Dame's famed Four Horsemen, leading to a last minute field goal victory for the Maroons, stunning the crowd and nation, and also put the NFL ahead of college football for the first time ever. These three disputed championships contributed to the beginning of the NFL's rich history. The 1932 NFL season resulted in a tie for first place between the Chicago Bears and Portsmouth Spartans, and could not be resolved by the typical win–loss system. To settle the tie, a playoff game was played; Chicago won the game and the championship. The following year, the NFL split into two divisions, and the winner of each division would play in the NFL Championship Game. In 1967, the NFL and the rival AFL agreed to merge, effective following the 1969 season; as part of this deal, the NFL champion from 1966 to 1969 would play the AFL champion in an AFL–NFL World Championship Game in each of the four seasons before the completed merger. The NFL Championship Game was ended after the 1969 season, succeeded by the NFC Championship Game. The champions of that game play the champions of the AFC Championship Game in the Super Bowl to determine the NFL champion.The Green Bay Packers won the most NFL championships before the merger, winning eleven of the fifty championships. The Packers were also the only team to win three straight championships, an achievement they accomplished twice: from 1929–31 and from 1965–67. The Chicago Bears won a total of eight titles, and the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and New York Giants each won four. The Bears recorded the largest victory in a championship game, defeating the Washington Redskins 73–0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game; six other title games ended in a shutout as well. The Philadelphia Eagles recorded two consecutive shutouts in 1948 and 1949. New York City hosted the most championship games (eight), while the highest-attended title game was the 1955 NFL Championship Game, where 85,693 fans showed up in Los Angeles to watch the Browns beat the Rams 38–14. Staten Island () is one of the five boroughs of New York City, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the southwest portion of the city, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With an estimated population of 479,458 in 2017, Staten Island is the least populated of the boroughs but is the third-largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km2). The borough also contains the southern-most point in the state, South Point. The borough is coextensive with Richmond County and until 1975 was referred to as the Borough of Richmond. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government.The North Shore—especially the neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, Clifton and Stapleton—is the most urban part of the island; it contains the designated St. George Historic District and the St. Paul's Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, which feature large Victorian houses. The East Shore is home to the 2.5-mile (4 km) F.D.R. Boardwalk, the fourth-longest boardwalk in the world. The South Shore, site of the 17th-century Dutch and French Huguenot settlement, developed rapidly beginning in the 1960s and 1970s and is now mostly suburban in character. The West Shore is the least populated and most industrial part of the island.

Garrapata macho en comparación con una cabeza de fósforo. Garrapata ingurgitada pegada a la parte trasera de la cabeza de un niño. Se muestra el pulgar de un adulto como escala. Las garrapatas pueden encontrarse en la mayoría de las zonas boscosas alrededor del mundo. Son muy comunes en áreas donde habitan cérvidos (ciervos) o en asentamientos humanos. Son especialmente abundantes en zonas aledañas a fuentes de agua, donde animales bajan a beber, y en praderas donde los arbustos proveen protección. El parasitoide Ixodiphagus hookeri, una avispa de la familia Ichneumonidae ha sido ampliamente investigado por su potencial en el control de poblaciones de garrapatas. El modo en el que actúa es común a todas las avispas Ichneumonidas, y consiste en poner los huevos en el interior del huésped, para que, cuando los huevos eclosionen, se alimenten del huésped, matándolo. Otra forma de control biológico es por medio de las aves de la familia Numididae, las cuales consumen cuantiosas cantidades de garrapatas.​ Tan solo dos aves pueden llegar a limpiar 8090 m2 en un año. Argasidae, que son las llamadas garrapatas blandas. ↑ «Q fever». Centers for Disease Control. Consultado el 7 de noviembre de 2010. ↑ Los Angeles County - Department of Health Services Vector Management Program. «Managing Common Tick Pests in Los Angeles County» (PDF). Consultado el 20 de mayo de 2009. ↑ Bernard E. Matthews (1998, reprinted 2001). «At home with the host». An introduction to parasitology. Cambridge University Press. pp. 96-120. ISBN 0-521-57691-1. ↑ Samuel, Bill: «White as a ghost: winter ticks and moose audio», artículo en Innovatio Alberta, n.º 145. Faculty of Science, University of Alberta, 23 de noviembre de 2004. ↑ Kirby C. Stafford III. «Tick Management Handbook» (PDF). Centers for Disease Control. Consultado el 7 de noviembre de 2010. ↑ Zahid Iqbal Rajput, Song-hua Hu, Wan-jun Chen,Abdullah G. Arijo & Chen-wen Xiao (2006). «Importance of ticks and their chemical and immunological control in livestock». Journal of Zhejiang University Science B 7 (11): 912-921. PMC 1635821. PMID 17048307. doi:10.1631/jzus.2006.B0912. ↑ Campbell, John B. (extension entomologist); Thomas, Gustave D. (entomology research leader): «Controllng ticks» (‘el control de las garrapatas’). University of Nebraska Lincoln, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, mayo de 2006. ↑ a b c Stafford K. C.: Tick management handbook: an integrated guide for homeowners, pest control operators, and public health officials for the prevention of tick-associated disease. New Haven (Connecticut): The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 2004. ↑ [http://www.caes.state.ct.us «Deer reduction», pág. 46. ↑ Rand, Peter W.; Lubelczyk, Charles; Holman, Mary S.; Lacombe, Eleanor H.; y Smith Jr., Robert P. (2004). «Abundance of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) after complete removal of deer from an isolated offshore island, endemic for Lyme disease». Journal of Medical Entomology 41 (4): 779-784. PMID 15311475. doi:10.1603/0022-2585-41.4.779. ↑ Mark L. Wilson, Anne M. Ducey, Thomas S. Litwin, Thomas A. Gavin & Andrew Spielman (1990). «Microgeographic distribution of immature Ixodes dammini ticks correlated with deer». Medical and Veterinary Entomology 4 (2): 151-159. PMID 2132979. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2915.1990.tb00273.x. ↑ «Deer-free areas may be haven for ticks, disease». Science Daily. 4 de septiembre de 2006. ↑ David Cameron Duffy, Randall Downer & Christie Brinkley (1992). «The effectiveness of Helmeted Guineafowl in the control of the deer tick, the vector of Lyme disease» (PDF). Wilson Bulletin 104 (2): 342-345. Archivado desde el original el 7 de octubre de 2009. ↑ «Hartz flea and tick drops for cats and kittens to be phased out», artículo en inglés en el sitio web de la EPA. ↑ Alberto A. Guglielmone, Richard G. Robbing, Dmitry A. Apanaskevich, Trevor N. Petney, Agustín Estrada-Peña, Ivan G. Horak, Renfu Shao & Stephen C. Barker (2010). «The Argasidae, Ixodidae and Nuttalliellidae (Acari: Ixodida) of the world: a list of valid species names» (PDF). Zootaxa 2528: 1-28. ↑ José de la Fuente (2003). «The fossil record and the origin of ticks (Acari: Parasitiformes: Ixodida)». Experimental and Applied Acarology 29 (3–4): 331-334. PMID 14635818. doi:10.1023/A:1025824702816. Wikimedia Commons alberga una galería multimedia sobre Ixodida.

When Apple unveiled the iPad in 2010, I immediately fell in love with its impressive battery life, and couldn't wait until they day when the same longevity would come to my Mac. With the upcoming release of OS X Mavericks and the latest round of revisions to the company's laptop hardware, it looks like I (alongside, I suspect, many other Mac users) could finally get my wish, thanks to a few clever software tricks that have found their way into the latest incarnation of Apple's desktop operating system. The obvious way to improve battery life in a laptop is to increase battery capacity and decrease the electrical consumption of the machine's hardware components, both goals that Apple has been pursuing zealously for some time by changing the way that its computers are manufactured. For example, the introduction of the unibody design allowed the company to fit its computers with custom-molded batteries that provide superior capacity in a relatively compact space. The company also continues to adopt the latest technologies, like solid-state drives and Intel's newest CPUs, to make its hardware less power-hungry. Hardware improvements, however, usually require sweeping technological changes, and are often at odds with users who demand computers that are ever more compact, lightweight, and powerful at the same time. Apple could easily double the longevity of the MacBook Air by tacking a couple extra pounds of batteries at the back--but such a move would be unlikely to go over well with either the design-conscious company or its consumers. In addition to continuously tweaking its hardware, therefore, the company has also been investing in the software side of its products. Mavericks, due out later this fall, promises to introduce a few interesting technologies aimed at increasing the battery life of our computers. The first, called App Nap, simply causes apps you're not actively using to receive less of the system's attention, reducing their power demands in the process. When an app's windows are invisible and the app is not playing back audio, it enters "nap mode," at which point three things happen: First, its priority is reduced, decreasing the amount of active execution time that the CPU dedicates to it; second, its ability to access devices, such as the hard disk or the network, is throttled, limiting the power drain caused by input/output operations; and third, the app's timers are fired less frequently, causing it to become active only after longer intervals. Together, these three techniques greatly reduce the demands that an inactive app makes on the system, which significantly reduces its power consumption. A collateral benefit is that more of the computer's capacity is reserved for the the currently active app, which becomes more responsive as a result. Obviously, not all apps can work under these conditions. It would be absurd to be forced to, say, keep QuickTime Player in the foreground while it's encoding a video just to prevent it from being put into power-saving mode. For this reason, Mavericks allows individual programs to opt out of App Nap as needed. RAM is always a precious resource. Because every app needs it, and because it needs to be very fast, having plenty of memory available is often crucial to ensuring optimum system performance. In fact, RAM is so important that most operating systems extend a computer's hardwired memory by storing it on the hard drive as needed. This virtual memory, as it's called, ensures a nearly unlimited supply of memory, but at the cost of increased hard-disk activity and reduced performance. Mavericks extends the concept of virtual memory by introducing a new technique called Compressed Memory. As its name implies, this system works by transparently compressing the portions of RAM that, though nominally in use, are not actively employed by any app. Doing this increases the free memory available to the system without requiring disk swapping. Because the algorithm used to compress the memory is very efficient, this process is much faster than traditional disk swapping--and, because it requires fewer trips to the hard disk, it also ends up saving more power by preventing the physical disk from spinning up and down continuously. As an added bonus, computers that use SSDs will also incur less wear and tear, which will increase the longevity of their hardware components. Apple's third power-saving technique relies on the fact that almost all apps schedule tasks to occur at specific intervals in the background by using a software construct called a timer. Because apps have no way of coordinating with each other, these timers fire in an often chaotic way, continually forcing the CPU to exit power-saving mode, execute a few lines of code, and then go back to sleep. With Mavericks's Timer Coalescing feature, when a computer is running on battery power, the operating system will automatically aggregate timers that are scheduled to fire within a short time of each other and execute them concurrently, thus reducing the number of times the system is forced to enter and exit power-saving mode and increasing the time it spends idling (during which power consumption is at a minimum). Apple has long told developers that they shouldn't count on the absolute accuracy of a timer, noting that many external conditions, such as system load, could delay (or even accelerate) their firing in unpredictable ways. Therefore, Timer Coalescing should work right out of the box, without requiring programmers to tweak their code. In addition to these sweeping under-the-hood changes to the upcoming version of OS X, Safari 7 features a new Power Saver feature that keeps plug-ins disabled until the user needs them. Thus, for example, if you open a webpage that contains one or more Flash movies, the browser will show a static preview instead of launching a movie automatically. Clicking the preview activates the plug-in, but if you don't click it, the plug-in won't consume any additional power. Media playback is also getting a few tweaks. According to Apple, iTunes will take greater advantage of the hardware acceleration provided by a Mac's GPU, reducing the amount of power needed to watch movies and play music by as much as 35 percent. Finally, the upcoming version of OS X will also be able to take better advantage of the Haswell processor's support for firing up and boosting the clock speed of individual cores, ensuring that each core is fully utilized before a new one is brought online and allowed to eat up more power. Altogether, the power-management features in Mavericks paint a picture of an operating system in which great care as been taken to squeeze every last drop of battery performance out of both hardware and software. The nature of the changes, however, is as interesting as their effects. Many of the power-saving techniques in Mavericks are borrowed from other vendors--for example, Windows has long supported timer coalescing (although as an opt-in technology), and Safari extensions like ClickToFlash can already be used to prevent plug-ins from draining CPU resources and battery life unless called upon by the user. Their systematic inclusion in the operating system, however, highlights Apple's knack for thinking laterally and making iterative improvements; as a result, almost every user will experience a dramatic improvement in battery life and system responsiveness without ever having to worry about what goes on under the hood--exactly the kind of experience we've come to expect (and love) from our Macs. Even better, we can expect Apple's enthusiasm for power saving to trickle down to third-party developers, who will be encouraged to discover new ways to tweak their software's power consumption. This could produce a virtuous circle that would finally make disappointing battery life a thing of the past, and allow for even thinner and more-efficient computers--without requiring us all to wait for the next technological breakthrough.

Not to be confused with Subsidiary or subsidy. This article is about the general principle of subsidiarity, with particular reference to European Union law. For the Catholic social teaching, see Subsidiarity (Catholicism). Subsidiarity is perhaps presently best known as a general principle of European Union law. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as "the principle that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level". The concept is applicable in the fields of government, political science, neuropsychology, cybernetics, management and in military command (mission command). Subsidiarity is a general principle of European Union law. In the United States of America, the principle of States' Rights is enshrined in the constitution. Although the principle is older, its expression in the term "subsidiarity" was first coined in 1891 by the Roman Catholic Church for its social teaching. The OED adds that the term "subsidiarity" in English follows the early German usage of "Subsidiarität". More distantly, it is derived from the Latin verb subsidio (to aid or help), and the related noun subsidium (aid or assistance). The concept as discussed here was first described formally in Catholic social teaching. Coupled with another Christian democratic principle, sphere sovereignty, subsidiarity is said to have led to the creation of corporatist welfare states throughout the world. Alexis de Tocqueville's classic study, Democracy in America, may be viewed as an examination of the operation of the principle of subsidiarity in early 19th century America. De Tocqueville noted that the French Revolution began with "a push towards decentralization ... in the end, an extension of centralization". He wrote that "Decentralization has, not only an administrative value, but also a civic dimension, since it increases the opportunities for citizens to take interest in public affairs; it makes them get accustomed to using freedom. And from the accumulation of these local, active, persnickety freedoms, is born the most efficient counterweight against the claims of the central government, even if it were supported by an impersonal, collective will." As Christian Democratic political parties were formed, they adopted the Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity, as well as the neo-Calvinist theological teaching of sphere sovereignty, with both Protestants and Roman Catholics agreeing "that the principles of sphere sovereignty and subsidiarity boiled down to the same thing". Will the American people never learn that, as a principle, to expect swift response and efficiency from government is fatuous? Will we never heed the principle of subsidiarity (in which our fathers were bred), namely that no public agency should do what a private agency can do better, and that no higher-level public agency should attempt to do what a lower-level agency can do better – that to the degree the principle of subsidiarity is violated, first local government, the state government, and then federal government wax in inefficiency? Moreover, the more powers that are invested in government, and the more powers that are wielded by government, the less well does government discharge its primary responsibilities, which are (1) defence of the commonwealth, (2) protection of the rights of citizens, and (3) support of just order. Decentralization, or decentralising governance, refers to the restructuring or reorganisation of authority so that there is a system of co-responsibility between institutions of governance at the central, regional and local levels according to the principle of subsidiarity, thus increasing the overall quality and effectiveness of the system of governance, while increasing the authority and capacities of sub-national levels. Systemic failures of the type seen in the crash of 2007/08 can largely be avoided, since diverse solutions to common problems avoid common mode failure. Individual and group initiative is given maximum scope to solve problems. The systemic problem of moral hazard is largely avoided. In particular, the vexing problem of atrophied local initiative/responsibility is avoided. When a genuine principle of liberty is recognised by a higher political entity but not all subsidiary entities, implementation of that principle can be delayed at the more local level. When a genuinely efficacious economic principle is recognised by a higher political entity, but not all subsidiary entities, implementation of that principle can be delayed at the more local level. In areas where the local use of common resources has a broad regional, or even global, impact (such as in the generation of pollutants), higher levels of authority may have a natural mandate to supersede local authority. Subsidiarity is perhaps presently best known as a general principle of European Union law. According to this principle, the EU may only act (i.e. make laws) where action of individual countries is insufficient. The principle was established in the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht. However, at the local level it was already a key element of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, an instrument of the Council of Europe promulgated in 1985 (see Article 4, Paragraph 3 of the Charter) (which states that the exercise of public responsibilities should be decentralised). Subsidiarity is related in essence to, but should not be confused with, the concept of a margin of appreciation. A more descriptive analysis of the principle can be found in Protocol 2 to the European Treaties. The Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg is the authority that has to decide whether a regulation falls within the exclusive competence[a] of the Union, as defined by the Treaty of European Union and its predecessors. As the concept of subsidiarity has a political as well as a legal dimension, the Court of Justice has a reserved attitude toward judging whether EU legislation is consistent with the concept. The Court will examine only marginally whether the principle is fulfilled. A detailed explanation of the legislation is not required; it is enough that the EU institutions explain why national legislation seems inadequate and that Union law has an added value. Furthermore, in the fifth recital the Parliament and the Council stated that the action taken by the Member States in response to the Commission's Recommendation has not fully achieved the desired result. The Community legislature therefore found that the objective of its action could not be achieved sufficiently by the Member States. Consequently, it is apparent that, on any view, the Parliament and the Council did explain why they considered that their action was in conformity with the principle of subsidiarity and, accordingly, that they complied with the obligation to give reasons as required under Article 190 of the Treaty. An express reference to that principle cannot be required. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/subsidiarity Definition: "[mass noun] (in politics) the principle that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level:" ^ Early German usage: Subsidiarität(1809 or earlier in legal use; 1931 in the context of Catholic social doctrine, in §80 of Rundschreiben über die gesellschaftliche Ordnung ("Encyclical concerning the societal order"), the German version of Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo anno (1931))". ^ "Das Subsidiaritätsprinzip als wirtschaftliches Ordnungsprinzip", Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und soziale Ordnung. Degenfeld-Festschrift, Vienna: von Lagler and J. Messner, 1952, pp. 81–92 , cited in Helmut Zenz, DE . ^ Bak, Hans; Holthoon, F. L. van; Krabbendam, Hans; Edward L. Ayers (1 January 1996). Social and Secure?: Politics and Culture of the Welfare State: a Comparative Inquiry. VU University Press. ISBN 9789053834589. The Christian democrats promoted a corporatist welfare state, based on the principles of the so-called "sphere sovereignty" and "subsidiarity" in social policy. ^ Schmidt, Vivien A, Democratizing France: The Political and Administrative History of Decentralization, p. 10 . ^ Segell, Glen (2000). Is There a Third Way?. Glen Segell Publishers. p. 80. ISBN 9781901414189. When the Dutch Protestant and Catholic parties combined, to form the Christian Democrats, the two parties agreed that the principles of sphere sovereignty and subsidiarity boiled down to the same thing. ^ Reid Buckley, An American Family – The Buckleys, Simon & Schuster, 2008, p. 177. ^ Decentralization: A Sampling of Definitions, Joint UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)-Government of Germany evaluation of the UNDP role in decentralization and local governance, at the United Nations Development Programme website, October 1999, pp. 2, 16, 26. ^ a b Macrory, Richard, 2008, Regulation, Enforcement and Governance in Environmental Law, Cameron May, London, p. 657. ^ Shelton, Dinah (2003). "The Boundaries of Human Rights Jurisdiction in Europe". Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law. Duke University School of Law. 13 (1): 95–154. Retrieved 17 April 2017. ^ Protocol 2 to the European Treaties. ^ Exclusive competencies are those matters that the member states have agreed with each other by treaty are those that they should achieve jointly (typically through the European Commission). All other matters remain as "national competences" (each member decides its own policy independently). International trade agreements are an example of the former, taxation is an example of the latter. Look up subsidiarity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. This page was last edited on 7 September 2018, at 21:45 (UTC).

Why is the Coptic Pope based in Cairo and not Alexandria? Shouldn't the Coptic Pope be based in Alexandria, seeing as we call the His Holiness the Pope of "Alexandria"? And the Coptic Church is called the Church of "Alexandria"? I know there exists the Historical Cathedral of St. Mark in Alexandria but why is the Pope based in the Cathedral in Cairo? Why and when did this change occur? The change as made when Cairo became the capital of Egypt. As for when was it done, i'll leave that to someone else to find. Cairo was built in second half of the 10th century, by the Fatimite Khalif El-Muez LeDin Allah (later baptized in the monastery of Abu Seifen after the Mukatam miracle). It was built in place of existing "cities" like El-Fustat and El-Kata'3, which were more of camping sites of the islamic armies and the residence place of the arab rulers, and had been the center of political power since the arab invasion. Cairo became the capital of the Fatimite State in North Africa and the Levant and as such of increasing political importance, which led the 70th Pope Gabriel II (known as Ibn Turek) to officially annex Cairo to Alexandria under his jurisdiction in his papacy (1131 -1145 a.d.). Pope Gabriel II annexed Cairo after the death of her Bishop, Youaness Ibn Senhout. There are indications that Pope Gabriel II was not the first Pope to try to move to Cairo, but he was the first successful Pope in his attempt. The residence of all subsequent Popes has been a church in Cairo. Interestingly enough, the famous theologian and Bishop Boulous El-Boushy in the 13th century, is sometimes referred to as Bishop of Cairo (Egypt) or Babylon (the ancient fortress near Cairo). It is not known whether Babylon was considered outside the geographic limits of diocese of Cairo, but is not likely. It is equally unlikely that Pope Kyrillos III would give up any territory to another bishop, even if it his close friend. The same is with patriarch of Serbia. In middle ages his see was town of Pec but when the Turks invaded Serbia after several centuries the see was moved. And that happend two times. Now Serbian patriarch in his title has that he is archbishop of Pec, but he resides 500km north, in Belgrade. Several dioceses of Serbian church also in their name has one see, but bishop resides in another. I believe the Pope is stretched too thin. Covering Cairo, Alexandria, all the areas in the States without a diocesan Bishop seems to be too much. It would seem very difficult if not impossible to provide effective oversight with such a wide span of control. But the pope is not alone. In the US, he has a patriarchal exarch for North America through Bishop David, a patriarchal exarch for the Eritreans in the US through Bishop Macarius, a suffragan diocese of Virgina through Bishop Michael, and 2 diocese with their respective bishops. He also has general bishops doing work in the US. In Cairo, there are 12 general bishops who are either suffragan bishops or assistants to the patriarchal throne in Cairo. He also has a patriarchal vicar in Cairo through Hegumen Sergios Sergios. "Stretched too thin" is a very subjective quality. What exactly is too thin? Are 5 bishops in the US not enough that Pope Tawadros is doing the work himself? Praise God who sent us a shepherd with such vigor and enthusiasm and heart. May God give our pope the strength to do His will always, regardless of where the pope resides. Complex issues and decisions have still required the involvement of the Pope in some of the areas that you mention that are technically in the Pope's diocese but overseen by bishops. Sometimes the bishops may even defer the issue entirely to the Pope and ask the church in question to take the issue up with the Pope directly. In the meantime the bishops may avoid visiting or contacting the church in question to avoid getting involved in a situation they feel should only be addressed by the Pope. Here is where situations can deteriorate. By the time a church is able to actually contact and communicate with the Pope, months if not years usually pass and situations can spiral out of control. A simple issue that could have been resolved with early intervention can be disastrous if left to fester. And this has happened more than once. HG Bishop Youssef and I believe HG Bishop Serapion visit each church in their diocese at least twice a year if not more and are in constant contact with priests and congregation. They are able to keep tabs on the churches in their diocese. They also have the authority to address issues and make decisions complex or otherwise. I am not so sure the churches in the areas you mention benefit from the same type of regular oversight and ability to sucessfully resolve problems swiftly. HH Pope Tawadros has shown wisdom in his managerial style and I am confident he will structure church leadership in a way that is most effective - not necessarily the way it was in the past. Just as HH Pope Shenouda showed wisdom in assigning diocesan bishops such as Bishop Serapion and Bishop Youssef, I am sure HH Pope Tawadros will continue to structure leadership effectively. I think people's issue is that these bishops are all general bishops, and so the Pope is the ultimate diocesan bishop. Since these general bishops cannot ordain their own priests and thus have their authority derived from the Pope, this effectively gives the Pope control over them, giving him control of the Holy Synod (he can count on the votes of the general bishops under his control), and thus moving towards a Roman Catholic monarchal model of the papacy. In ancient times, the bishop of Alexandria was first among equals in Egypt, and still only had one vote in the Synod. Now he effectively has the votes of 30 general bishops plus himself. Note: this is not personal, I am not saying that Pope Tawadros, or any other previous popes were wrong, I'm just saying that the principle is wrong. You are right, but it is clear that this will be the hierarchy model for the foreseen future of the Coptic Church. i have to ask...what would those 'votes' of the general bishops count towards?! ya3ny isn't each of them STILL have their own voice and authority as a bishop in the holy synod. if each diocese only have one bishop vote int he Holy Synod....what about the dioceses that are being broken up more and more through the years as the congregation increases.....is that 'vote' broken up into little parts to?! Theoretically the general bishops have their own vote of course, but realistically and practically they are not going to go against the Pope, as he is their boss (you do what your boss tells you). It is unheard of until now for a bishop to have a boss. I don't get the second part of your statement. If dioceses are being broken up, it means that more diocesan bishops are being ordained, and I can see no reason why a full diocesan bishop shouldn't have a vote. so it's not that a bishop has a vote, it's a diocese bishop.....kool!!! Actually, in regards to the magisterial model of the Catholic church, I actually heard Metropolitan Pachomious actually say that our church legislation was governed by the magesterium! I was extremely upset that because of the model of leadership which we have experienced, even the teaching of the church fathers has changed to a western ideology. I see exactly what you are saying but I think it will be different with HH Pope Tawadros. You see, Pope Shenouda ordained myriads of bishops, in some cases general bishops and in some cases he split up other dioceses. He typically ordained people who he knew that their line of thinking was more similar to the "Sunday School movement." This is the first thing. Secondly, most Bishops whom he ordained were his children, or became his children, and felt a deep sense of duty/fidelity to him, not wanting to upset/diagree with him. So yes, Pope Shenouda's synod was clearly a magesterium, and as the head of the magesterium, he had control over the synod. And I also agree that general bishops should not be given a vote in the synod. Who are they representing? Themselves? Scripture and tradition in the Orthodox church have always grown out of community. But where is the community in Anba Labomba who takes care of the Pope's limousine having a vote in the synod? He represents no-one. If he does represent a group of people, why not just give him the diocese? This is of course, my opinion. Qawe, I think your statement is your opinion. But if you think it is fact then the burden of proof is on you to verify its veracity. Do you have any actual evidence that no general bishop would ever or has ever disagreed and voted against the Pope? Do you have any actual evidence that no diocese bishops has ever consistently voted with the pope simply because they did not want to disagree with the pope? You might be correct about general bishops. But we should avoid generalization without actual evidence. I agree with you that realistically, no one will publicly disagree and fight against the Pope. However, the Synod is neither setup as a pure democracy, nor a a tyrannical monarchal aristocracy. In a democracy, theoretically each person has equal weight in a vote and they are always free to express their views. A monarchal aristocracy, on the other hand, cares nothing for individual freedom. There is no voting in a monarchy. If it was, what's the point of voting at all? The same is true for the Synod. What is the point of voting, if all the bishops were not encouraged to express their views and opinions in ecclesiastical matters through their vote? (you do what your boss tells you). I own a business. I am the boss in my office. I can tell you for sure, I would fire an employee who is just a "yes man" and hire someone who has the confidence and courage to keep me inline for the wellness of the business. Any boss will tell you, unless you work in a crappy job that requires no thinking, no good business just wants to mindless employees. They want people who can increase production. They want a person who takes initiative, thinks for themselves and finds solutions (even if it is not what the boss normally expects). It is unheard of until now for a bishop to have a boss. Is it unheard of that a bishop is part of a hierarchal system where he is equal among brothers yet all are servants to Christ? Has not Christ been the boss (called Master in liturgical and scriptural language) of all the bishops all along? Effective leadership brings many moving parts inline to one direction. The moving parts choose not to challenge their leader in every decision if there is positive results. The only ones who question a leader or a leader's system, are (1) those outside the system and (2) those who see negative results or failure. Are we outside the Synod's system or jurisdiction? Is the Synod failing in their job to shepherd Christ's people? Then why do we really care how general bishops vote? Thank you Remnkemi for your non-polemical reply (not that I expected a polemical reply from you. However, the Synod is neither setup as a pure democracy, nor a a tyrannical monarchal aristocracy. In a democracy, theoretically each person has equal weight in a vote and they are always free to express their views. Why should every bishop not have equal weight in a vote? Are they not equal? What is the point of voting, if all the bishops were not encouraged to express their views and opinions in ecclesiastical matters through their vote? As a vestige of the past, when bishops were encouraged to express their views and opinions. There is no point in voting if there is a monarchal papacy. Of course Christ is the head of the church including the bishops. That is what I am arguing for, against what has happened in that we have moved towards the Roman Catholic model where the Pope is the Head of the Church, being Christ's representative on Earth. You mention 'equal among brothers'. How are they equal if a general bishop cannot ordain priests? While the Pope is the leader, insofar as he is the chair of the Synod, he is not the decision maker, as is suggested in the bolded part of your post. As first among equals, his position is analogous to that of the See of Rome in the early Church. Thus, he is not their leader in the context of making decisions, such that an opposing opinion should be deemed a 'challenge'. You are a lot more thoughtful and philosophical than me, so it is possible that I may have misunderstood some of your points. If so, please forgive me. Qawe, sorry for the late response. Let's discuss this more. Theoretically, every bishop or every citizen of a governing body should have an equal vote. But no actual democratic system is setup this way. Why? Problems arise. Look at the US presidential process. Every American citizen over 18 is allowed to vote. But the President is not elected by popular votes. He is elected by the electoral college - who legally can vote against their respective popular vote. It has happened about 150 times in the past for many reasons. If the President was elected by popular vote only, a large state with many territories but few people will be counted as a small state with many people. So the founding fathers choose to construct a system whereby each state is represented by an electoral college, regardless of territory. This system makes some states more influential than others. Are not all states equal to the federal government? Yes, in honor but not in particular situations where blind equality would cause problems. I think the Synod has established a similar hierarchical system. All bishops are equal in honor but not in duties. The general bishop system was assumingly setup to avoid certain problems. Regardless of how fair or untraditional this general bishop system is, it is the system in place. It is still a "democratic" theocratic system (better than a lot of other systems out there). I understand many feel the system will inevitably transform into a theocratic electoral college like the Roman Catholic Church. Probably not. But even if it were to become reality, what is the harm if the system works? What is the harm if changing our system brings better results? If the Synod allows these changes, it must be for a good reason. I would go so far and say unless these changes result in heresy (which by definition is a failed system) it is the Holy Spirit who wants the changes. This is assuming there is a monarchical system in place. During the nomination process, Bishop Paula interviewed then Bishop Tawadros and specifically wanted him to comment on this misconception. Pope Tawadros' response was along the lines of "There is no competition. There is no 'my way or the highway.' The Pope is servant before he is master." (I'm paraphrasing a few interviews). Sometimes bishops who discuss their dissatisfaction on certain matters will address it privately with the patriarch. If an amicable solution is not achieved in private, I think any bishop would vote against the majority if this said bishop had valid concerns (ie, pertaining to the specific issue of the vote). I think any bishop is encouraged to express his concerns. I think the majority of issues are resolved privately and when a vote is required in the synod, there is usually no disagreement. I may be naive, but I think this is what has routinely happened in the past. When Christ chose His disciples, he gave them all equal authority to loose and bind people's sin. There's the equality. However, Christ didn't let all 12 disciples lean on His chest. He gave all His disciples the power to see signs and wonders along with all the people, yet He chose three to see Him transfigured into light. There are so many examples of "preceived favoritism" which isn't favoritism at all. It's a foreshadowing of a hierarchical system of duties and glories. In 1 Corinthians 15, St Paul further stresses this "unity with distinction" in glory and duties. "All flesh is not the same flesh [distinction], but there is one kind of flesh of men [unity], another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies [unity]; but the glory of the celestial is one [distinction], and the glory of the terrestrial is another [distinction]." There is unity and distinction. Both celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies are both created bodies. But there is distinct glory for each. There is distinction because the role of each is needed in God's divine providence. This is what St Paul meant when he said, "However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual." Again, a hierarchical system (in this case, a chronological hierarchy) is setup with a purpose. What is that purpose in this case? "As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man." The prior duty of earthly life is to lead to death which leads to spiritual eternal life. There is a distinction in duties. Does this mean we are moving to a system where the Pope is the head of the Church? No. It will never happen in the Orthodox Church. But we should not discourage a system of solidarity with distinction because it is biblical and traditional. I didn't use the proper words to express my thoughts. My comments were not meant to imply the leader has exclusive decision making authority. Actually, the opposite is implied. Let me put it this way. Leadership by definition is a process where decisions are catalyzed into positive change and improvements. The leader brings about change. His authority as a leader, depending on the hierarchical system again, may or may not involve exclusive or absolute decision making. Most leaders, at least for corporations, simply propose an idea and the board of directors has the final authority for the decision. This leader may not even be part of the board but he is the catalyst that brings about the change. What I meant to focus on was effective leadership. If that leader is really, really effective the board will choose not to challenge the requested change. That doesn't mean the board relinquished decision making authority. It doesn't mean that a challenge to the proposed plan is seen as a challenge to authority. It doesn't mean that any opposing opinion is a challenge to the leader. It simply means the board of directors is so attuned with the leader that they always agree. The bolded section excluded the first part of the sentence that confirms this line of thought: "The moving parts choose not to challenge". It doesn't mean the moving parts have lost their authority or that any opposition challenges the validity of the leader. The leader will always be the leader if he is effective in bringing positive improvements. I am the least of all of you. I come here to learn from all of you. There is no need to apologize for constructive criticism and open discussion. My prayers are for our church and leadership that it continues in peace delivering us to Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Google-owned Waymo has operated its public pilot in Phoenix, Arizona, dubbed the Early Rider Program, for just over a year. In that time, the service has picked up about 400 regular riders in the area, and it's brought the total real-world miles driven by Waymo's entire fleet to about 24,000 per day. Most of these riders are very young, very elderly, disabled, or otherwise unable to drive on their own. In order to get a better understanding of what people think of self-driving cars and how the technology could fit into everyday life once it goes mainstream, Waymo gathered data from its Early Rider Program participants and put out the graph seen below and an accompanying report that breaks down the data. According to Waymo's data, there have been over 20,000 applicants for a ride in the program in total, up from about 6,000 on the first day. Most of the Early Rider Program's accepted riders used the service as transportation to work. Restaurants were the next most popular destination, followed by schools. Bars and spas were also common, and many used the service to get to the shop where their disabled car was waiting for them, which often meant exiting the program after the car was fixed up. Using the service to get to the supermarket and do your shopping was surprisingly low on the list of most popular destinations, with only electronics stores and gyms falling behind it within the confines of the top ten destinations. Waymo's data indicates that applicants cited two main reasons, on the whole, for applying; they wanted to see the new technology firsthand, and they wanted to help foster a safer future on the roads. The Early Rider Program has made it quite clear that people have a diverse range of reasons for trusting and desiring the advancement of self-driving car technology. One rider witnessed a fatal car accident and didn't want to drive anymore, while another rider wants to take in her local neighborhood without focusing on driving, to name just a couple of cases that Waymo outed. Thanks to the data found in the program thus far, Waymo is working on a few key goals to make the service easier to use, including making it easier for riders to contact Waymo, and getting cars as close as possible to the places where riders want to be picked up, helping them avoid a long walk to a pickup spot.

In this world I'm working on, magic is extremely bound by the laws of physics. Magic is explicable through science, and many people study it. The study of magic itself is like studying physics; the study of applied magic is like engineering. I like to think of magic as behaving similar to electromagnetism. Humans emit electromagnetic radiation naturally, but it would be very unnatural if a human suddenly could shoot out a bolt of lightning, or if they could use their bare hands to power a circuit. In a world like that, where magic is akin to electromagnetism, how would a civilized society react to individuals capable of magical feats? Note that these mages would be incredibly rare--perhaps 1 for every 750,000. Society would view this as a threat and eliminate it entirely. Society, already advanced in studying magic, wishes to learn more and wants to determine if the condition can be induced onto others. Society finds a means of using their abilities to conduct war and trains them as soldiers. I can see a lot of possibilities. I want to know: which possibility, of the ones above or otherwise, is the most realistic one to occur, and why? 1: Does magic run in families or is it totally random? Let's say that it is beyond the scope of genetics. It is not inherited. No single race or ethnicity is more likely than another to have mages appear. Mages may also appear in animals, but the scope of ability is limited based on physical constraints. A cow's magic is different than a human's. 2: Is it a recent thing? Did mages start appearing like X-Men or have they always been? It is not a recent thing, but it gets more noticeable as time goes on due to ease of communication amongst people. Additionally, since the probably of being born a mage remains the same throughout time, having an increased population means the likelihood of mages appearing also increases over time. 3: Do mages have any historical organization/guild/power base? I doubt this largely because of how rare it is, though I can see these emerging as time goes on, for reasons stated in 2. 4: Just how powerful are they? World shattering, city shattering or small country village shattering? This I believe varies greatly depending on the individual. While some mages may only be able to, say, cause light to emerge from their hands, others may very well be capable of devastating offensive tactics. That said, since I do want magic to be at least partially tied down to a scientific study, I wouldn't imagine an individual capable of destroying the world. For cities, it'd likely have to be a small one. Humans have limits, and as such human mages also have limits. All three. Here in the US you would likely get all three in one country. The average person would probably fear them, some would find them fascinating, elevating them to the level of super-stars, 'scientists' would want to study them, and governments would want to control them and use them as a threat or worse. Re the answers: since they've existed historically I'd say that puts them in a different light. Mages aren't going to be in competition with governments: historically they've been governments or a major part of the power base of governments. But no dynasties since it doesn't run in families. If it did then mages would be the dominant group with almost all royal families being very magical. In fact I can imagine that history would look very different. Before the invention of guns/sniper rifles mages would have been the dominant force in any war. Since it's totally random and 99% of the population would have been dirt poor every generation almost all of the most powerful people in the world would would have risen from poverty to the heights of power. Any nobility that abused the poor would be facing a new ruler who had been born in poverty within a few decades. Social mobility is going to look quite different and there's unlikely to have been a history of long-term royal lines. Indeed such a world is likely to have been far more egalitarian out of practical and justified fear, any big country is going to produce a few mages and most will be born the children of peasants. For stability it's likely that mages will seek out others like themselves to form some kind of guild in order to get some kind of continuity of power and to make sure their grandkids aren't slaughtered by the next generation of mages. 2 and 3 are certain though whether mages are the ones controlling it is uncertain. Finding mages at a young age when they can still be indoctrinated will have become part of the culture but they'll have been scooped out of the regular population so predictably that social views towards them would probably be highly negative. A countries mages are likely to be viewed as a major military asset but if they've been part of the system for many centuries they're likely to have status as well. Also there will be a lot of chicken mages. Worldwide over 50 billion chickens bred every year so that well over 50,000 chicken-mages. If their power can be tapped it will be. A civilised society would probably become a mix of scared, angered, confused, curious, interested and intrigued. Here are the reasons for each of these: Scared/angered because this magic could easily be misused (depending on how destructive this feat of magic was). Confused/curious/interested because of what just happened (depending on what exactly happened though). Intrigued because of the abnormality of what just happened (depending on how dramatic this magic was). Another thing that would probably happen is if the police equivalent in your society (assuming there is a police equivalent) are there during the feat there will probably be actions taken to restrict the person who did the magic (again depending on how dramatic and how destructive this magic was) to ensure safety of the public. What exactly would happen to the person after that would mostly depend on what sort of police exists in your society (are the police more aggressive and brutal or are they more calm), how dramatic and destructive this magical feat was and what the witnesses say as well as the "magic guy"'s attitude/reaction towards the police. If the police weren't there at the time but were notified about it by a decent amount of people then an investigation would probably take place. If the police are ultra brutal and aggressive then they might take a much more direct approach like searching for this person house by house. I can't be too specific because a lot of this depends on the type of society it is and specifics but hopefully this narrows it down a bit. EDIT: I replied before you editted the question to include the three different thoughts. First of all, 1:750k isn't super-rare. Europe has almost 750 million people currently. So there would be around a thousand of your mages in Europe alone, and ten times as many globally. That is more than enough to form their own society, organisations, maybe even small country. The answers to your question depend a lot on whether or not this happens. You evade the question with your answer 2, but it is absolutely vital to the entire concept. If they don't form a guild, the governments of the world have more than enough means to control them. Some would use positive reinforcement (honours, loyalty, etc.) some would use soft pressure (prejudices in society, cultural taboos), some hard pressure (laws, regulations, punishments) and some suppression (jail, execution). Society would react much like it does to anything else. Drugs, climate change, disasters, new technology - with a variety of responses. If the mages cooperate and form an organisation, they can free themselves from outside influence. They would become a player in global politics instead of pawns - with all the opportunities and risks associated. If they have a physical location, they need to be ready for war. Someone will want to fight them, for religious or other reasons. If they don't have a physical location, they will be in the place of other international organisations, and can potentially be restrained by laws or sanctions. Many possibilities are discussed in the TV Tropes page for "Super Registration Act": http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuperRegistrationAct . One particular one which seems likely to me is that mages would not be explicitly forbidden to use their magic, but would be so tightly regulated that magic use became next to impossible in practice. You'd have to submit an application in triplicate three months in advance before you cured a wart. A good effect of this from the government's point of view would be that mages would be willing to join the government research programme or the army simply to get a chance to use their powers - without the government having to introduce conscription, or fend off civil rights lawyers. How would magic affect the subjects taught in school?

She deserves an award just for surviving bad theatre; Mark Blankenship is rooting for her. Every November and December, as I get sucked into the blackhole of watching cheesy holiday tv movies on Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel, I'm reminded of just how far Chlumsky has grown in these last few years on "Veep". She stars or costars in at least 4 of these cheeseball Xmas movies that they replay annually on a loop. The early 00s were not good years career-wise, but she's now one of my favorite parts about "Veep". And on a shallow note, Anna Chlumsky looked damn hot on the 2014 Emmy red carpet! I don't watch Veep, but she was so good on Hannibal as Miriam Lass. I knew exactly who she was (who could forget, "Put on his glasses!!!"), and was surprised at how composed and great she did in the role. Anna has been absolutely incredible, as Amy Brookheimer. So, so funny, but also being able to convey depth and even some sympathy, despite her character's general heartlessness. It's not just the cutting dialogue, but the physical comedy, the facial expressions, the tiptoeing around Selina's sharp edges and coddling of her boss, the fact that she's always 'on', even when the scene is about someone else. She's really great. I'd only seen her in a couple of small roles, as an adult, before I saw In The Loop, and thought she was very solid in that, not at all out of place with Armando Ianucci's style of humour. But on Veep, she's been the second MVP behind JLD, in my view. I have no interest in awards, or the mixture of politicking and thoughtless 'I know that name best, that's the winner' voting, but I think she deserves a lot more recognition than she's received, for the work she's done. @kat Your point about the Christmas movies is well taken. Another sign Chlumsky worked to grow from a naturally charismatic child actor into an adult performed with real chops. Like I said, I really respect that. She is amazing and I have loved witnessing this career rebirth. The Emmy should have been hers, dammit! As the Veep cast has grown, some of the original cast are getting less screen time. Anna Chlumsky seemed a little squeezed out this past season. No longer chief of staff or campaign manager (after the election), she was around monstly to put out fires for Selena. I wonder if Selena goes back to the VP position if Amy will again be her Chief of Staff. I'd like to see Anna's screentime increase next season. I love her interactions between Dan and Gary. I've been complaining about the lack of screen time for Amy, Dan, Gary & Sue especially. All the core cast save Selena and Jonah were squeezed of screen time quite a bit this season. And my least favorite character got a big bump of focus - Catherine. I was wondering which episode would Anna Chlumsky even use for her Emmy submission because she hasn't had much to do. Hopefully the finale will have something great of Amy but realistically based on how the season has gone I doubt it. I think her problems is that she is too good. A lot of people probably think she is just playing an exaggerated version of herself. It also probably means Emmy voters are idiots. She is definitely underrated, and doesn't get enough credit for her great work on this show. Maybe Anna's "someday" winning an Emmy will be tonight! I would love to see her win, she would be so adorably emotional. I kind of doubt it will happen but the category doesn't seem to have a favorite so the odds are fairly equal for all nominees. As a non-fan of Season 5 I am rooting for another show to win for Best Comedy. I don't even care which one. I am being petty and vindictive towards my once favorite comedy show. I won't forgive David H. Mandel for turning some of the best characters ever into one-note caricatures of themselves. But I am rooting for all the cast nominees to win. Except maybe Julia although she deserves to win it is nice to spread these prizes around a little.

Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that helps heal damaged tissues and resolve infections. Neutrophil blood levels increase naturally in response to infections, injuries, and other types of stress. They may decrease in response to severe or chronic infections, drug treatments, and genetic conditions. Neutrophils help prevent infections by blocking, disabling, digesting, or warding off invading particles and microorganisms. They also communicate with other cells to help them repair cells and mount a proper immune response. The body produces neutrophils in the bone marrow, and they account for 55–70 percent of all white blood cells in the bloodstream. A normal overall white blood cell level in the bloodstream for an adult is somewhere between 4,500 and 11,000 per millimeters cubed (mm3). When there is an infection or another source of inflammation in the body, special chemicals alert mature neutrophils, which then leave the bone marrow and travel through the bloodstream to the site in need. Unlike some other cells or blood components, neutrophils can travel through junctions in the cells that line blood vessel walls and enter into tissues directly. In this article, we look at the reasons for high or low neutrophil levels, how doctors can test these levels, and what normal neutrophil levels are for different groups. There are many different reasons why a person may have higher or lower than normal levels of neutrophils in their blood. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell. Having an abnormally high level of neutrophils in the blood is known as neutrophilic leukocytosis, also known as neutrophilia. Some inflammatory conditions can increase neutrophil levels, including rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, hepatitis, and vasculitis. An abnormally low blood level of neutrophils is a condition called neutropenia. A drop in neutrophil blood levels typically occurs when the body uses immune cells faster than it produces them or the bone marrow is not producing them correctly. An enlarged spleen may also cause a decrease in neutrophil levels because the spleen traps and destroys neutrophils and other blood cells. A laboratory specialist can evaluate a blood sample for white blood cell levels. Doctors can identify changes in neutrophil levels from a blood test called a complete blood count (CBC) with differential, which identifies specific groups of white blood cells. A doctor may order a CBC test when someone is experiencing a range of symptoms related to infection, chronic illness, and injury, such as fever, pain, and exhaustion. A nurse or technician will draw a small amount of blood from the arm and send it off for evaluation. If the initial test shows a higher or lower number of white blood cells than normal, the doctor will likely repeat the test to confirm the results. If the initial results are confirmed, a doctor will perform a physical exam, ask questions about the person's lifestyle, and review their medical history. If there is no apparent reason for changes in white blood cell levels, the doctor will order a more specific test. Laboratory specialists will look for specific white blood cells, such as immature neutrophils called myeloblasts. During an infection or chronic illness, these cells emerge from the bone marrow and mature in the blood instead of the bone marrow. If myeloblasts or other white blood cells appear in significant levels in the blood, the doctor will request a bone marrow sample. Bone marrow collection involves inserting a long needle into part of the pelvis near the back of your hip. The procedure can be very painful, and a doctor will typically take the sample in a hospital setting with at least a local anesthetic. Experts will examine the bone marrow sample to see if neutrophils and other blood cells are developing correctly and are in regular supply. Leukopenia is a condition where a person has a reduced white blood cell levels in their bloodstream. Learn about the causes, symptoms, and treatments here. Changes in neutrophil levels are often a sign of more significant changes in white blood cell levels. In non-pregnant adults, a white blood cell blood count over 11,000 per mm3 is known as leukocytosis, which is an elevated white blood cell count. Neutrophilic leukocytosis occurs when a person has over 7,000 per mm3 mature neutrophils in their bloodstream. Minor changes in neutrophil or white blood cell levels are typically nothing to worry about as long as they are temporary. A raised white blood cell count often means the body is responding to infection, injury, or stress. Some people have naturally lower levels of white blood cells and neutrophils than other people due to a range of factors, including congenital conditions. If neutrophil or white blood cell levels are significantly altered for no apparent reason or remain raised or lowered, a doctor will order more tests to determine the cause. Severely high or low levels of white blood cells often require emergency care and monitoring. People with severe neutropenia will have an inadequate defense against infection. People with severe neutrophilia typically have a life-threatening type of infection or other inflammatory illness that requires treatment, such as cancer. Nutritional yeast is a plant-based source of vitamin B-12. The best way to correct abnormal neutrophil levels is to address and treat the underlying cause. Antibiotics can treat bacterial infections, while antifungal medicine treats fungal infections. People can treat certain viral infections with medications that slow viral activity. Otherwise, supportive therapies, such as fluids and rest, may be part of the treatment plan. People with altered neutrophil levels caused by medications or procedures may need to stop or adjust treatments. People with severely low levels of neutrophils often require monitoring, antibiotic therapy, and hospitalization to reduce the risk of severe infection. This period of intensive care helps keep people with weakened immune systems away from potentially harmful microorganisms. It also supports the body, giving it time to produce more white blood cells. Try not to over-exercise or exercise beyond comfort levels. Reduce stress levels and treat chronic or severe stress. Seek medical attention for signs of infection, such as fever, weakness, fatigue, or pain, and treat infections exactly as prescribed. Follow a healthful, balanced diet. Treat chronic conditions, such as genetic or inflammatory conditions, exactly as prescribed. However, people with only minor or mild changes in their neutrophil blood levels often show no symptoms and do not require any treatment. Having a healthy number of neutrophils in the blood and bone marrow is crucial to the correct working of the immune system. When neutrophil levels are higher or lower than usual for more than a short period, a doctor will order several tests to work out the underlying cause. People with significantly altered neutrophil levels may also require hospitalization to prevent infection and treat life-threatening conditions. It is a good idea to have regular wellness checks at a doctor's office to stay on top of health. Anyone with concerns about their neutrophil count or any medical condition should talk to their doctor who will be able to answer questions they may have. Huizen, Jennifer. "What are neutrophils and what do they do?." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 13 Dec. 2018. Web.

Explained by a speaker, for potential speakers. Skills that are necessary for any professional and business person. A Job to Love: A practical guide to finding fulfilling work by better understanding yourself. Calm: Educate yourself in the art of remaining calm, and learn how to defend yourself from panic and fury.

Stretch before playing golf starting with trunk rotations. For golfers, it is important to stretch before playing a round. Stretching provides maximum muscle flexibility, which can lead to full extension and a more powerful swing. Loose muscles are also important to prevent of injury. Before stretching, you should first warm up by walking briskly for about five minutes. Begin this exercise by resting a golf club on top of your shoulders behind your neck. Place your hands at each end of the club. Twist your torso to the left so that the end of the club is pointing straight ahead, or as close as you can come to that position. Perform the same motion while twisting to the right. Perform up to 20 repetitions. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold the golf club upright with your hands placed at the end of the shaft near the head, and with the grip end touching the ground. Move your feet back and bend at the waist until you feel a stretch in your back. Hold this position for 10 seconds, then repeat two more times. Holding the club in your right hand and leaning on it for support, raise your left leg and swing it back and forth 10 times. Switch the club to the left hand and repeat 10 more times with the right leg. This helps loosen the muscles of the hips. Extend your right arm directly out in front of you with your palm facing away from your body. With your left hand, lightly grasp the fingers of the right hand and bend them slightly backward toward your body. Hold this position for 10 seconds, then repeat with the other hand.

Answer true or false to the following italicized statements to see how much you know about B.A.A.'s most recent press trip. The TV show host with whom B.A.A. planned, coordinated and schmoozed for four months lost his passport en route, thus couldn't get into the country. One of the trip attendees aggressively hit on B.A.A. for a solid six hours at a cocktail party, with such lines as, "Your organized emails betray your hotness," and "I already drank everything in my mini-bar." B.A.A. broke her toe unceremoniously and is now sporting another boot. Despite being incredibly excited about bonefishing and deep sea fishing, B.A.A. didn't really do either. B.A.A. spent the first three days of her trip undoing all the plans she'd made for two of her media attendees: cancelling rooms, flights, charter boats, meals, etc. B.A.A. jumped from a 40-ft. cliff into a 600-ft. deep inland blue hole. B.A.A. flew on a teeny tiny plane but found it surprisingly comfortable. B.A.A. lounged on John Travolta's couch. B.A.A. went to a pirate cave in the middle of the night with a lantern and a bottle of rum. If you answered false to any of these questions, you're wrong! Each of these statements is true, and without getting too far into all the gory details, they adequately sum up a sometimes great and sometimes ho-hum press trip. Truthfully, other than the TV show host passport debacle, the aggressive macking that went down Wednesday night and the immensely painful and equally embarrasing toe-breaking incident, the trip was quite lovely. My journalists were some of the best yet - so laid back, smart and fun to be with. I can't praise them enough! The weather was quite nice and the scenery was as beautiful as ever. I can't wait to get back…in August!

As Pharrel Williams' song goes.... we're happy! Local folk appear to be quite positive, if this survey is anything to go by. A SURVEY has revealed that people living in the East Midlands have reported very high levels of happiness in 2015 compared to the rest of the UK. In a survey released from the Office of National Statistics, it was revealed that personal well-being has improved every year since financial year ending 2012 when data was first collected, suggesting that more people in the UK are feeling better about their lives. The four measures of well-being that were investigated in the report were life satisfaction, feeling that what one does in life is worthwhile, happiness, and anxiety levels. The report also revealed that in the financial year ending 2015, the East Midlands had higher proportions of people reporting low anxiety. The North East and Yorkshire and the Humber were the only two English regions with no significant improvement in low levels of well-being across all four measures.