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The Best DNA Ancestry Test
In light of mounting concerns about genetic privacy, as described in our recent news post, we're taking a fresh look at this guide to determine whether we should reconsider any of our picks.
After more than 80 hours of research and reporting, and evaluating results from a panel of testers representing every major population group, we think AncestryDNA is the best DNA testing service for most people who are curious about their ethnic roots or are searching for contemporary relatives. All five DNA services we tested involve compromises, and you should keep in mind that the TV ads for these companies suggest a level of certainty that is well beyond the science upon which current tests are based. But AncestryDNA presents your data in a way that is easier to understand than many of its rivals, makes use of the largest database of DNA participants we've seen, and is among the lowest-priced services we tested.
AncestryDNA is our pick for those who want to learn about their relatively recent ethnic roots or are seeking to connect with unknown relatives. Though all of the DNA services we tested provided broadly similar results for the ethnic origins of our panel of testers, AncestryDNA did a better job than its rivals of presenting this data in a clear manner while placing the information in a useful historical context. And for those seeking distant cousins or even biological parents, the company's claimed DNA database of 5 million customers—two and a half times larger than its closest competitor—increases the odds of successful family matches. Unlike the other services we tested, however, AncestryDNA cannot track your maternal and paternal heritage independently or trace your ancient migration path out of Africa, so although its clarity makes it a superior choice for most people's needs, it may not satisfy more dedicated amateur genealogists.
Our upgrade pick offers the same type of ethnicity estimates as AncestryDNA at a similar price but the company offers a more comprehensive suite of testing options than any service we evaluated, with additional tools that should satisfy genealogy buffs looking to explore their connections to early human migration or find relatives from one particular side of their family tree. As you would at a good sushi restaurant, however, you'll want to watch your bill. Family Tree DNA's à la carte approach can quickly add up; you can spend three and a half times more than the testing cost of our main pick.
The research
Why you should trust us
I've written for The Wirecutter since 2013 and have reported stories for Al Jazeera, Forbes, The New York Times (now parent company of The Wirecutter), and The Atlantic. Before ordering a single DNA kit I spoke with experts in the fields of genetics and anthropology from the National Institutes of Health, Stanford University, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as well as genealogists who've provided commentary for television newsmagazines like Nightline and 20/20. We recruited a panel of DNA test-takers that collectively represent each of the seven major population groups identified by the companies we evaluated.
Who this is for
DNA testing can have a wide range of use cases, from paternity disputes to informing if you're predisposed to genetic-based diseases. For this guide, however, we focus exclusively on services offering ancestral DNA testing: tests that comb through your DNA to help find where in the world you came from, unknown contemporary relatives, or both.
Before considering any DNA service, however, it's crucial to set realistic expectations. The marketing hype around these tests suggests a level of certainty that the underlying science simply cannot provide.
"The continental predictions … European versus African versus Asian are pretty solid," said CeCe Moore, a genealogist who's worked as a consultant and writer on the PBS Television series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "If you test at the top companies you should expect that those numbers will all be pretty close. When you get down to country-level labels, however, it's very difficult to separate those out. You can't look at the results and say with any confidence that you're exactly 34% Scandinavian, for instance. You just can't."
For one thing, human history is messy. It's full of mass migrations of people and a resulting mixture of previously geographically separated ethnicities. And if you tend to associate ethnicity with country designations, keep in mind that national borders are an extremely recent occurrence in the span of human history. Further complicating matters is that your results from any DNA service are based on probability or likelihood, with most of the big companies relying on algorithms to assign estimates of your ancestry percentages.
For Jonathan Marks, anthropology professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the big unknown for users is the margin for error with these estimates. "If [a service] tells me I'm 95% Ashkenazi Jewish and 5% Korean," he asked, "is that really different from 100% Ashkenazi Jewish and 0% Korean? It's all privatized science, and the algorithms are not generally available for peer review. That's why their ads always specify that this is for recreational purposes only … lawyer-speak for 'These results have no scientific standing.'"
If you're taking on the challenge of building a detailed family tree, a DNA test can provide useful information about your ancestry. It is, however, just one tool in the genealogy tool belt, and is far from the final word in establishing family connections. "DNA works hand-in-hand with paper trail documentation," said Judy Russell, genealogy lecturer, educator, and author of the blog, The Legal Genealogist. "It's something you do with, not instead of, regular [genealogy] research. Except in very close relationships, DNA alone can't provide the answer. It can tell you you're related to someone, but DNA can't distinguish between a first cousin, a half-aunt or half-uncle or a great grandparent."
All the genealogy experts we talked to stressed that unearthing family history takes a lot of work. And though DNA is a powerful tool, it is just as likely to raise questions as to answer them, and to begin to answer those you'll need to turn to family documents, public records, or interviews. And you may not be comfortable with what you find. Moore added that anyone considering using a DNA service must be prepared for unexpected and sometimes unsettling results because though DNA can identify kin, it can also tell you who you're not related to. "We see it every single day," she said. "Sometimes—as with adoptions for instance—our paper trail does not represent our true genetic heritage."
In the course of testing for this guide, one of our participants learned that a parent was fathered by someone other than the person they grew up knowing as their grandfather, unearthing a family secret and placing a heavy and unwanted burden on our tester's shoulders.
Ethnicity, race, and DNA
As a society we make fundamental decisions based on notions of ethnicity and race. The fact remains however, that 99.9 percent of our genetic makeup is identical for all humans. And of the remaining 0.1 percent that actually is different, 85 percent of those distinctions are unrelated to characteristics we relate to ethnicity or race. So when you submit a DNA sample to trace your ethnicity, you should keep in mind that we're dealing with a really small amount of genes that could possibly be different between human beings—0.015 percent, to be exact. And that's not even the biggest challenge, said Dr. Lawrence Brody, director, Division of Genomics and Society at the National Institutes of Health. "There's no single gene variant that makes you Tunisian; almost any variant that you'll find in Tunisia you'll also find in Argentina," he noted. DNA tests simply look at how often these variations occur. "Let's say there are 27 variants I find in Tunisia which occur in one percent of Tunisians," Dr. Brody explained, "but those same variants are found in 50 percent of Argentines. If a DNA test shows I have 17 of those variants, it's more likely that I'm an Argentine than a Tunisian." This, Dr. Brody said, is how companies build their mathematical algorithms; they use the probability that people with certain gene variants—mutations in the DNA sequence—tend to be from one part of the world versus another.
Brody noted that for scientists, "ethnicity" and "race" are problematic terms because DNA simply points to biological ancestry. DNA can place you on a given branch—or branches—of the human family tree but doesn't give a precise picture of the time period our ancestors spent living in a particular geographic area, which is how we commonly define our heritage. "This is an issue we've been struggling with since the genome was sequenced. Race and ethnicity are really complicated issues and in some ways are outside of the genome," he said, pointing out that DNA analysis can give us insights into ancestry from 10,000 years ago, but most folks are looking for more recent connections like their great-great grandparents. "You could have known relatives from Germany and a DNA test could say you're from India," Brody added. "These are not mutually exclusive because your people could have migrated from India to Germany thousands of years before you're aware."
Key terms
- Haplogroup: A genetic population sharing a common ancestor. You can think of each haplogroup as a separate branch of the human family tree. We all started out as one haplogroup in Africa. But then as we left, we scattered, people reproduced within these separated groups, and our DNA slowly mutated and the number of haplogroups expanded. Four of the largest haplogroups cover people of European, African, Native American, and Asian descent. There are many more subgroupings still being defined today; to keep them straight scientists identify major haplogroups by a capital letter, and give sub-haplogroups numbers and lowercase letters. For example, R1b is the common sub-haplogroup for those with Western European heritage.
- Autosomal DNA: This is what we typically think of when we think about DNA— the stuff that makes up 22 of your 23 pairs of chromosomes. This is the genetic inheritance you get from both your mother and your father, combined (the technical term is "recombined") to make you. Autosomal DNA testing can tell you about your ethnicity and find matches to living relatives within the last five generations. This is useful because it can tell you about the ancestry on both sides of your family, as opposed to the next two common types of testing.
- Mitochondrial DNA: Often abbreviated to "mtDNA" or "mDNA," this is the DNA inherited solely from your mother's side, because it's passed down to you from the mitochondria (tiny structures with their own chromosomes that provide energy to your cells) in your mother's egg cell. This kind of testing can tell you about ancient migration routes of ancestors from thousands of years ago on your mother's side, and also about your haplogroup. The interesting thing about mitochondrial DNA is that unlike autosomal DNA, it isn't recombinant—it doesn't mix with your dad's and so yours is exactly like your mother's. Because it's an exact match, scientists can trace mitochondrial DNA relatively easily from place to place.
- Y-chromosome DNA: Usually called Y-DNA for short, this is the DNA that makes up one half of your 23rd, or sex chromosome—the DNA inherited (if you are are biologically male) solely from your father's side of the family. Biological women have two X chromosomes: XX. Biological males have XY. Y-DNA testing can give you information about your haplogroup and the ancient migration routes of ancestors from your father's side of the family. But the obvious limitation is that only biological males can give samples for a Y-DNA test.
- Reference population: This is a data set of individuals of known geographical origin that companies compare your DNA sample with to determine your ethnic makeup. These population samples can be a combination of both publicly available research and proprietary data that companies have acquired from their own customers. Though companies strive for reference populations that are as inclusive as possible, individuals of European ancestry usually comprise the vast majority of these data sets—we've seen as high as 65 percent—compared with other ethnic populations.
How we picked
A Google shopping search for "DNA test kit" returns more than 200 results, revealing companies offering services ranging from paternity resolution to canine breeding. For this guide we limited our research to companies devoted exclusively, or nearly so, to human ancestry DNA testing. We are not covering the biomedical DNA tests that indicate risk for hereditary diseases. In the spring of 2017, the FDA gave 23andMe, one of the most popular DNA services, the go-ahead to resume testing for genetic health risks—in 2013 the agency ordered the company to halt such tests pending its review of the tests' safety and accuracy. Biomedical data that conveys your individual risk for diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's is obviously much more sensitive and potentially difficult to understand the implications of without working with a doctor—and much more valuable to third parties—than results about where your ancestors might have come from. The privacy and psychological factors to consider before participating in these tests are significant and fall well beyond the scope of this guide.
We identified 15 US-based services offering ancestry DNA testing. Because the major companies now offer DNA testing for as little as $100, we eliminated prohibitively expensive options like Full Genomes, whose least expensive test starts at $800, opting for companies with prices that max out at half of that. We further limited our contenders to those with large databases of existing customer DNA. The experts we consulted told us that though DNA testing techniques are well-established and will be similar no matter what firm you choose, the relative sizes of the reference samples that your DNA is matched against for estimating ethnicity and/or finding relatives is one of the big variables among testing services. The larger and more diverse the sample size, the greater the likelihood that you'll receive informative results. This narrowed our list of contenders down to just five companies; 23andMe, AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA, National Geographic, and African Ancestry. For more information about what we dismissed and why, see the competition section.
Privacy concerns
Testing for something as personal as your DNA sequence highlights obvious privacy and security issues. After determining our picks for this guide we commissioned a legal analysis of the terms of service and privacy policies of AncestryDNA and Family Tree DNA by Brian J. McGinnis, a partner with Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a founder of the firm's data security and privacy practice group.
McGinnis stressed that though tech companies, responding to consumer demand, have largely moved away from the days of burying tiny type somewhere in a corner of the site where no one will read it, it's still not always as easy as it should be to determine from a site's terms of service and privacy policy how your information is used. Genetic data only raises the stakes.
"It's one thing to have your credit card stolen," he said. "You can get a new one. When you're talking about DNA sequences, that's highly sensitive information whose use needs to be tracked accordingly." After a comparative analysis of both companies' policies, McGinnis found them to be in line with common industry practices. "They've made an effort to disclose what they're doing, with a lot of standardized language you see across different services in the tech industry," he said.
McGinnis does see room for improvement, however. He'd prefer that AncestryDNA's DNA-specific terms of service and privacy policies were presented in as clear a manner as the company's general privacy statement. And Family Tree DNA appears to lump your genetic data under "personal information" in its privacy policy. Due to genetic information's highly sensitive nature, McGinnis argues that it should be differentiated from data like your name and email address in privacy policies. This doesn't mean that Family Tree DNA has nefarious intentions. "It may be that they do treat genetic information differently," McGinnis said. "That just doesn't carry through to their written policy as cleanly as it probably should."
We strongly encourage you to read the privacy statement of any DNA testing service before purchasing a kit. It's not uncommon for companies to share aggregated genetic information—anonymized data that can't be "reasonably" traced back to an individual—for either marketing purposes or sale to third parties. And many present you with an opt-in choice to share your genetic information with outside research projects.
The experts we consulted agree that there are several questions you should ask before submitting a DNA sample:
- Who is doing the testing? If a company is using an outside lab to sequence your DNA (most do), you'll want to read the privacy statement of the testing facility as well.
- How long are my physical samples (saliva and DNA) stored? Some companies destroy them once they complete their analysis. Others may store them for a year or even indefinitely.
- Can I delete my genetic information and analysis from a company's website? Some—but not all—companies offer this option via an email request. Again, if they used an outside lab to perform the sequencing you'll need to make a separate request to the testing company as well.
- Can I adjust my privacy settings? Some companies offer a family-matching service. This is usually an opt-in program where users are notified of DNA matches in the customer database and provided with self-reported detail and contact information of their matches. Most services will allow you to opt out of the program if you later change your mind.
Keep in mind that though any reputable company will make great efforts to maintain the security of your information, there's simply no guarantee that your genetic information will always remain private. The threat of data breaches aside, US companies can be required to share user information under requests from law enforcement. Although we acknowledge that the risk of user information being inadvertently shared may be small, if any of these caveats give you pause, a DNA test kit may not be right for you.
How we tested
We knew from talking to experts that the customer databases companies use to determine your ancestral roots can vary widely in their representation of ethnicity, with European-descended populations overrepresented by a large margin. This means that those with ancestry from anywhere else in the world are less likely to get detailed (or even useful) results from their testing. To see how this bias plays out in actual results we recruited a panel of testers (three men and four women) who, among them, have known ancestry from Africa, East Asia, Europe, the Middle East, (native) North America, Polynesia, and South Asia. Because of the sensitivity involved with DNA test results, in this guide we are withholding the names of our test participants.
In early spring the seven participants convened at our offices in the New York Times building where they registered their kits online and provided DNA samples either by swabbing the inside of their cheeks or spitting into a tube. To further evaluate the role that sample size plays in ancestry results, we had our tester of African descent, a biracial teenager with an African-American father and a South Asian mother, submit a sample to African Ancestry, whose promotional materials claim access to the world's largest database of contemporary African DNA.
Prices vary by company and range from about $100 on the low end for AncestryDNA and 23andMe to as much as $350 for Family Tree DNA if you opt for their high-resolution Y-DNA tests. All companies add shipping charges (of between $7 and $12 at the time of this writing), which cover prepaid mailers to send in your samples.
After shipping a total of 29 kits containing our testers' physical DNA samples back to each company, our wait times for results ranged from three to eight weeks.
Once results were available we asked each tester to complete a survey comparing how companies conveyed basic ancestry information and how easy or difficult it was to navigate to more detailed analyses of results.
Our pick
AncestryDNA is the service we recommend for most people who want to learn about their ethnic heritage and/or connect with unknown relatives. It's one of the most affordable services we evaluated and our testers ranked it among the top in offering useful information in an easy-to-understand presentation. The company also has the largest reported database of DNA customers we've seen, providing significantly higher odds of a successful search for contemporary relatives than its competitors.
All companies have access to public ancestry data sets like the Human Genome Diversity Project and International HapMap Project. AncestryDNA, like all of the services we tested, also relies on DNA samples from its own customers who've consented to participate in such research. The upshot is that each company has its own mix of DNA reference samples to draw from, explaining why you'll get slightly different ethnicity percentages from different companies. AncestryDNA's V2 reference panel contains 3,000 individual DNA samples meant to represent 26 distinct geographic regions.
Beginning the testing process is easy. Inside the packaging, clearly marked instructions prompt you to register your DNA kit on the company's website, create a user account, sign off on the terms-of-service agreement, and choose whether to grant consent for your results to be used anonymously in research projects by AncestryDNA or in collaboration with third parties.
The next step is to collect your DNA sample by filling the provided tube with saliva. The directions state that you must refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, or chewing gum for at least 30 minutes prior to collecting your sample.
The registration and DNA collection process are straightforward and well-documented. The whole thing takes about 10 to 15 minutes. A small USPS prepaid shipping box is provided for you to send your sample to the testing lab.
Our panel of testers shipped their samples from New York, California, and Texas. The earliest results were available in nine days and the longest took four weeks. Based on feedback we've seen in user message boards wait times are likely to vary depending on the current level of demand but the six-to-eight-week time frame that AncestryDNA gives on its website seems to be a reasonably accurate estimate.
Once results are ready you'll receive an email with a link to your user page. From there, a single click takes you to an overview of your ethnicity estimates as well as potential relatives the site has flagged among its user base due to their similarity to your DNA makeup. Until you join AncestryDNA's subscription service, the information you can glean from these family matches is limited. You can see their username and profile picture and they can see yours.
Your ethnicity information is presented as a pie chart, showing estimates of "where your ancestors came from hundreds or thousands of years ago," the site explains, noting that as analysis improves and reference databases grow over time, your estimated mix of ethnicities may change. It's crucial to understand that these ethnicity percentage estimates are not definitive answers, but probabilities with built-in wiggle room. It's no accident that AncestryDNA refers to its algorithmic process as "ethnicity prediction."
To get a clearer sense of what the numbers mean you can click on any subregion to get a more detailed view of your ethnicity estimate.
The screenshot below is from one of our testers whose known ancestry (based on family records) includes British and Greek heritage, information that is supported by her DNA results. Her ethnic ties to Ireland are listed at 5 percent, yet the range slider indicates that her genetic ties to this region (on AncestryDNA this includes Wales and Scotland) could actually be anywhere from 0 to 16 percent—she shares DNA associated with people from these geographical regions, but as we've discussed above, given the history of human migration, people who've ended up elsewhere share many of those same markers too. So for our tester to use these results to claim with certainty an Irish heritage of exactly 5 percent would be misleading.
This example is not an indictment of AncestryDNA. All testing companies face the same dilemma; users want to know their precise ancestral makeup but the science can provide only educated estimates. What we like about AncestryDNA is that it provides a straightforward means of putting your genetic information into context. Clicking on the See Details box (below the range slider in the screenshot above) takes you to a historical overview of the region and a Genetic Diversity page that explains the link between your results and those of natives of that region. In the case of our tester, this reveals the tenuous links between their results and those of a typical person of known Irish heritage.
As you can see in the above screenshot, AncestryDNA estimates that 5 percent of our tester's DNA comes from the Ireland region. A "typical native"—described by AncestryDNA as a person in their DNA database whose ancestors have lived in that region for centuries—has a median "ethnicity estimate" of 95 percent. This means that half of the 154 people linked to Ireland in the reference database—people with documented family ties going back several generations—have more than 95 percent ethnicity that's native to this region and half of them have less than 95 percent ethnicity native to the region. Given this context, though it's statistically possible for our tester to have roots from this region, it's certainly not something she can claim with any certainty unless supported by family documents or historical records.
This is the reality of DNA ancestry testing when it comes to ethnicity. No matter which company you test with, you've got to dig into the data on the website at least a little bit to truly understand your results. And once you do, the picture often becomes less precise than you may have originally assumed. AncestryDNA makes accessing additional detail and context more intuitive than most of its rivals do. Additional information is usually just a click away, easily identified by well-designed icons with plainly worded text.
In a recently launched feature that we like, AncestryDNA automatically builds what it calls genetic communities—collections of its users who share some DNA—that can identify migration routes that have occurred within very recent generations. This type of information is something we have not yet seen from any competitor and can be valuable to history buffs who want to know how both close and distant relatives ended up in their contemporary locations.
AncestryDNA begins by identifying clusters of users in its database with similar ancestral DNA, Dr. Julie Granka, the company's manager of personalized genomics, explained to us. Through the process of analyzing historical records like user-provided family trees and other paper-trail documentation relevant to this collection of individuals, the company is able to piece together the geographical movements of that community over time. This genealogical crowd-sourcing combines the science of DNA with historical context to give a fuller picture of your family history.
If you're using a DNA test to try to find unknown relatives or biological parents, the biggest advantage to choosing our top pick is that the company claims a DNA database of 5 million users as of this writing; that's two and a half times larger than that of its closest competitor. Though there's no guarantee that you'll find a match, access to such a large database increases the odds of finding unknown cousins or biological parents.
AncestryDNA's DNA matching feature automatically compares your DNA with that of its entire customer database, alerting you to any genetic matches alongside an estimate of how closely you may be related. Among our panel of seven testers, three were notified of matches to either first or second cousins.
You can see the username and profile photo of your potential match (they can see yours as well) and using the site's messaging platform you can send them a message. But access to personal contact information for your matches, their family trees, and the company's database of historical records require you to purchase a subscription, an upgrade that over the course of a year is more expensive than the DNA test itself. The company does provide a two-week free trial, however, to help you decide whether this data is worth the additional expense.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
AncestryDNA was the only service we tested that is limited to autosomal testing. It cannot track your maternal and paternal heritage independently, nor can it tell you about your ancient ancestors and their migration out of Africa. The company used to provide Y-DNA and mitochondrial tests but dropped them in 2014 to focus exclusively on its ethnicity and family-matching services. We think that for most people getting started in researching their ancestry, these will be sufficient, but those wanting a more granular look at the past may want to look at our upgrade pick.
Creating a user account, a requirement when registering your DNA kit, means that any user the company deems a potential family match, no matter how distant, can see your username, profile photo (if you've uploaded one), and contact you through the company's Web-based messaging system. This has obvious benefits for those looking to expand their family tree. But if you simply want an ethnicity breakdown without the potential to discover unknown family connections, services like Family Tree DNA and 23andMe won't reveal any of your information to other users until you opt in to their family matching services.
In May 2016, AncestryDNA began using a new higher-resolution DNA test chip to help refine its ethnicity results. The new chip, however, also contains some markers currently related to biomedical information, according to a company blog post. As of this writing the company hasn't announced plans to offer DNA health tests. But if you're not comfortable with a company having access to your potentially more sensitive biomedical DNA data, we'd recommend Family Tree DNA, who purposefully does not test for or analyze health-related DNA markers, its CEO told us via email.
For data-savvy genealogists
Family Tree DNA offers an affordably priced autosomal test that gave our panel of testers results that were broadly similar to those from our top pick. But Family Tree DNA's services extend beyond just ethnicity estimates, with à la carte options for both Y-DNA and mitochondrial testing at various levels of precision. The costs can add up though. Family Tree DNA's most-detailed tests can set you back more than three times what you'd spend using our main pick. But you get what you pay for, and if you're committed to unearthing family history and are familiar with terms like SNPs (pronounced "snips") and centimorgans, you'll feel right at home within the company's community of genealogy-centric users. The company claims a DNA database of 1.5 million users. That's not as large as that of our top pick, but still offers a reasonable chance of connecting with relatives.
Submitting your sample to Family Tree DNA is just as straightforward as with our top pick, the major difference being you swab the inside of your cheeks rather than spitting into a tube. Though the company's packaging is not as slickly branded as its rivals' and the prepaid return mailer was a bubble envelope rather than AncestryDNA's cardboard box, our DNA samples had no problems in transit. Our testers received their autosomal results within about four weeks, but results from the Y-DNA and mitochondrial tests we ordered took anywhere from an additional one to four weeks to become available.
Like AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA lets you opt in to a family-matching service to find and contact other users who share your family DNA. There are several differences though. Family Tree's DNA user database is about a fourth the size of AncestryDNA's at 1.5 million users, CEO Bennett Greenspan told us. Unlike our top pick, Family Tree DNA does not charge an additional fee to fully participate in its family-matching service, though you won't be able to see any information about your potential matches (nor will they see anything about you) until you opt in to the service.
Our upgrade pick provides separate family matches for each test you order. If you pay for both an autosomal and mitochondrial test, for example, you'll have access to two sets of matches. You'll see users who share your autosomal DNA and could be related on either your mother or father's side going back five generations. You'll also see users who share DNA only from your maternal side of the family going back many centuries, potentially resulting in a more complete picture from which to start building your family's genealogy.
Family Tree DNA's website won't win any design awards; outside of its ethnicity estimates your results are presented largely in Excel-inspired table formats. My editor, Erica Ogg, upon viewing a scrollable page showing very detailed haplogroup origin data remarked, "This looks like HTML source code."
The sheer amount of information from Y-DNA and mitochondrial tests can be overwhelming and difficult to put into context for those new to genealogy. As one of our testers put it, "Family Tree DNA had the most complete info … even if you can't really understand some of it."
The site does offer a collection of user guides and online handbooks that cover key topics. You'll need to devote time to reading them. Even so, as a genealogy newbie, I had to place a call to customer support on more than one occasion for clarification of what some of the data meant in practical terms. The agents I spoke with were very knowledgeable and able to answer my questions. One emailed me a link to even more documents to read.
We discussed data and privacy concerns earlier, and it's worth noting that Family Tree DNA has its own testing lab, a rarity in the industry, as most services contract with outside labs. All else being equal, keeping your genetic data under the roof of a single company with a unified privacy and data policy means there's a higher likelihood it will stay private.
If you've already tested with another service, Family Tree DNA is one of just a few companies we researched that allows you to upload raw data from its competitors, handy for those who may have reached the limits of what they can find out with a less complete service and want to upgrade. You can upload results from 23andMe and AncestryDNA to search for matches in Family Tree DNA's family-finder database. If you upload raw data from National Geographic's Genographic project, you can also get Family Tree DNA's estimates of your ethnicity and its haplogroup information at no charge.
DNA testing for people with non-European ancestry
If you have little or no European ancestry and order a DNA test, your results may be less precise than you'd hoped. For one of our testers, an East Asian woman of known Thai, Laotian, and Chinese descent, the vagueness of results from every service we tested was infuriating. "I wasn't just disappointed, I was angry." she said. Citing results from our top pick that identified her ethnicity solely as East Asian, with no regional specificity, she said, "This is the equivalent of saying 'All Asians look alike.'"
The problem lies in the fact that in the reference population databases that most companies use to compare your sample with, the greatest portion of DNA samples come from those with European ancestry. AncestryDNA's V2 reference panel includes 1,441 samples—48 percent of its total—from Europeans and only 161 for South Asians and 18 for Polynesians. Disparities like this are by no means exclusive to AncestryDNA. Our testers' DNA reports from 23andMe, for example, showed that Europeans make up 65 percent of the company's reference population database.
"Europe is much easier," acknowledged Family Tree DNA's Greenspan. "There are more scientists … who have studied people of European background … and more opportunity to do DNA testing."
This doesn't automatically mean that DNA tests are meaningless for non-Europeans. But your ethnicity results may be less precise and the story of how your ancestors arrived at their current location likely more difficult to assess if your DNA can be compared only with a tiny sample population.
African-Americans face additional hurdles. "It's extremely difficult for individuals of African-American ancestry to trace their roots because of the slave trade," said Ancestry's Granka. Family documents for even well-chronicled African-American families typically extend no further than the mid-1800s, the end of the transatlantic slave trade, leaving obvious gaps in the historical record that DNA alone cannot replace.
Our tester of African descent received broadly similar results on his African heritage from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA, and the Genographic Project. All indicated West African roots, which jibes with his known ancestry because his paternal grandfather is from Guinea.
To better understand the role that reference databases play in ethnicity results we also submitted his DNA samples to African Ancestry, a company co-founded by genetic biologist Rick Kittles, who claims to use a reference population database of roughly 35,000 contemporary Africans, a sample more than 50 times the size of that reported by any other service we tested.
The company's Y-DNA analysis was very surprising. African Ancestry found the largest cluster of identical matches to our tester in a population located in modern-day Angola, some 2,500 miles further south along Africa's western coast than where his documented family history points. In a phone interview conducted after we'd received the test results, Kittles examined the results and expressed full confidence in the Angola findings. Kittles did see a cluster of identical matches in Guinea-Bissau but those matches occurred with four times less frequency than they did in Angola, leaving Kittles to make a subjective call in the results our tester received.
This situation is not uncommon, according to Kittles. "Sometimes we find identical matches across a broad geographic range," he explained. "We then have to come up with the most likely ancestral homeland [for our customer] … based on where the matches are most common." Kittles noted that if the matches in Guinea-Bissau occurred at a frequency close to that of Angola, both populations would be listed in the results.
What could explain this surprising addition to our tester's family lineage? One possibility lies in the fact that Angola was a Portuguese colony beginning in the 16th century. Portuguese slave ships would bring their cargo from Angola along the western coast and make a stopover in Cape Verde before heading to Brazil. And Cape Verde lies just off the coast of former slave trading ports in the Senegal/Guinea region of West Africa. DNA can't always provide a definitive answer to your ancestral roots but it can suggest the questions you should ask in search of them.
The experience with African Ancestry neatly summarizes the balance between science and interpretive analysis that all DNA companies are faced with. Large companies may rely on software algorithms to make these judgement calls but the issue remains the same; the science can tell us only so much about our ancestral histories.
And a closer look at this same tester's results from our main picks revealed broader geographic definitions than were evident at first glance. AncestryDNA shows ties to a Senegal region that encompasses Guinea but also to a Cameroon/Congo region that, on its map, extends from Nigeria all the way down to northern Angola. At Family Tree DNA, our tester's West African portion of the company's ethnicity map not-so-helpfully stretches from Mali all the way down to the tip of South Africa.
What about 23andMe?
23andMe is one of the most popular DNA testing services, and our panel of testers found the company's results and presentation of data to be on a par with those of our main pick. Our only hesitation in recommending 23andMe concerns its collection of your potentially more sensitive biomedical DNA data. We confirmed with the company by email that whether you purchase an ancestry-only test or the combined ancestry plus health package that can indicate a genetic propensity for certain hereditary diseases, the testing and analysis of your DNA is identical.
A test result indicating you're at risk for Alzheimer's clearly has a different set of ramifications than one that says you're East Asian. Even if you purchase just the ancestry test (as we did for our testers) the lab still captures the raw data that is used for biomedical analysis. The company presents this as a convenience so that if you later decide to upgrade to its health test, you won't need to submit a new DNA sample or even wait for 23andMe to perform an analysis; that work has already been done.
Katie Black, the company's privacy officer, assured us in an email that, "Regardless of the Service chosen by the customer, 23andMe will not perform additional testing, include an individual's information in 23andMe Research, or share it for research purposes without their voluntary, informed consent to do so."
The problem is that if you've paid for just the ancestry test and signed the consent form, you've granted access not just to your ancestry data but also to your biomedical data, which you'd have no reasonable way of knowing was even obtained. A similar situation exists with AncestryDNA, as we explain in the Flaws but not dealbreakers section.
Both companies are actively monetizing customer health data, again only for customers who opt in by signing a consent form. For 23andMe, selling data to pharmaceutical companies is a key part of its business model, a board member told Fast Company back in 2013. And in July 2018, the company announced a four-year deal with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) that gives the pharmaceutical giant exclusive rights to use the genetic data of 23andMe customers (those who have opted in, that is—you can opt out anytime) for unspecified areas of "research." According to Engadget, the first project with GSK will focus on finding new treatments for Parkinson's disease. We've also confirmed that AncestryDNA has agreed to provide anonymized data to Calico, a company looking to use genetic data to develop products aimed at increasing lifespan.
We do not doubt 23andMe's commitment to the safeguarding of customer data and note that the company says any customer DNA data it shares for research purposes is both "de-identified" and aggregated. If data-sharing isn't a concern and finding unknown contemporary relatives—in addition to ethnicity estimates—is appealing, we think most users will be better served by AncestryDNA given its larger user database. But if you aren't comfortable having your biomedical data analyzed and sold to third parties, Family Tree DNA's DNA analysis intentionally does not return any biomedically relevant genetic data, CEO Bennett Greenspan told us via email.
The competition
African Ancestry wasn't created to tell you whether you have African roots. It has a much more narrow goal: to match a person of African descent with the tribe and present-day country location of their contemporary relatives. Offering tests for either maternal or paternal lineage, the company uses a database of contemporary African DNA that's more than 50 times larger than that of any service we tested. African Ancestry is very conservative in its approach, however, requiring a 98.6 percent or higher genetic match to its reference populations before providing a tribal/country match, resulting in a high number of paternal test results—35 percent, the company said—that come back as European, not African.
The National Geographic Society's nonprofit Genographic Project lets you learn about your ancestry while contributing to global research on ancient human migration. Our testers, however, noted that it provided less detail about their more recent ethnic roots than any of the other services we tested. "The National Geographic test seemed a bit underdeveloped. I wished it had been more in depth," remarked one tester. And unlike our main picks it doesn't have a mechanism by which to discover close relatives.
Full Genomes is the most expensive service we researched, with test prices starting at $800, more than twice as much as any other competitor.
The DNA Solutions website indicates a primary focus on paternity testing, with ancestry information limited to a "wall chart" showing broad migration patterns of your ancient ancestors.
EasyDNA, which also operates as HomeDNADirect, appears to be an aggregator of a few testing companies, appears to be an aggregator of a few testing companies. It offers a grab bag of genetic services, including paternity testing and bird sexing (yes, it's a thing).
We've seen consistently negative user reviews for the AncestrybyDNA service that complain of what DNA Testing Choice describes as "very little detail … in comparison to other, similarly priced, ancestry tests." Results seem to be limited to a PDF sent to you in the mail.
As of this writing, Dynamic DNA does not offer autosomal testing, so can give you no information on ethnicity.
MyHeritage DNA has offered DNA tests only since late 2016, which almost certainly means they'll have a relatively small database of DNA test-takers from which to generate family matches. Just how small, we don't know. In June 2017 we asked a customer service representative and were told that the size of the company's database is not yet publicly available.
As of this writing, GPS Origins has a relatively small customer database of just 10,000 users with which to compare your samples, while AncestryDNA boasts 5 million users in its DNA database.
The tests offered by DNA Tribes cannot trace your maternal or parental ancestry independently. Our top pick shares this limitation but has a DNA database that is more than five times the size, for potentially more informative results.
Judy G. Russell, The Legal Genealogist, email interview, March 29, 2017
CeCe Moore, Your Genetic Genealogist, phone interview, March 29, 2017
Lawrence Brody, director, Division of Genomics and Society at the National Institutes of Health, phone interview, March 31, 2017
Jonathan Marks, professor of anthropology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, email interview, May 1, 2017
Duana Fulwiley, "Race in a Genetic World", Harvard Magazine
Bennett Greenspan, President and CEO, Family Tree DNA, email interview, June 21, 2017
Dr. Julie Granka, manager of personalized genomics, AncestryDNA, phone interview, June 21, 2017
Dr. Rick Kittles, co-founder and scientific director, African Ancestry, phone interview, June 16, 2017


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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Hindu nationalist opposition party emerged as the biggest winner in four key state elections, exit polls forecast on Wednesday, a possible blow to the ruling Congress party ahead of a general election due next year.
India has held elections in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh states over the past month, as well as in the small state of Mizoram. Counting and results for all the states are due on Sunday.
Despite the gains predicted for the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) it was unable to win a majority of seats in the capital Delhi, the two polls showed. One poll suggested the race was close in Chhattisgarh.
The results are being closely watched by markets as a potential indicator of the mood of voters in the world's biggest democracy before the 2014 general election.
Indian markets have rallied in recent weeks on signs the BJP's business-friendly candidate for prime minister Narendra Modi is gaining popularity.
The Congress party has led the coalition ruling India for two consecutive terms but has tested voters' patience with a string of corruption scandals and a lackluster economy.
India's fragmented political landscape makes a coalition government the most likely outcome after the next elections.
Opinion and exit polls have a patchy track record in India. Most surveys forecast the wrong outcome in the 2004 general election.
An exit poll by India TV-CVoter predicted the BJP would win Rajasthan from Congress and retain its majority in Madhya Pradesh. In Delhi the BJP will emerge as the biggest party but will not have a majority, the poll forecast, with a new anti-corruption party making a strong showing in third place.
A separate poll by India Today-ORG showed similar results but gave the BJP a majority in Delhi.
In Chhattisgarh, both polls forecast the BJP remaining the strongest party, but Times-CVoter said it would fall short of a majority, with only a three-seat difference between the two parties.
The surveys were carried out on election day with sample sizes ranging from a few hundred to several thousand voters, depending on the size of the states.
(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Volume 9, Issue 2
Tricks of the Trade
In and Out
Trott's Corner
New Products
New Publications
News Bulletins
New Resources
Download This Issue
Editorial Policy
Back Issues
Contact Information
New Products
gridMathematica 1.1: Grid Computing Gets a Speed Boost from Mathematica 5
Wolfram Research has significantly increased the performance of its grid computing application with the release of gridMathematica 1.1. gridMathematica now includes Mathematica 5, the new high-performance version of Wolfram's leading technical computing software. The update delivers large performance gains in dense numerical linear algebra, support for sparse numerical linear algebra, large-scale linear programming, arbitrary precision computation, and interprocess communication speed.
Originally unveiled at the Supercomputing 2002 conference, gridMathematica is a complete parallel computing solution for dedicated grids or clusters. It offers a highly cost-effective way of deploying Mathematica for parallel computations. gridMathematica can run on any cluster of machines, including Unix, Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, and requires only TCP/IP connectivity. Version 1.1 capitalizes on a new TCP/IP protocol in Mathematica 5 that allows it to communicate at the speed of the underlying network. On most standard networks this means that users will see bandwidth improvements of a factor of 10 and latency improvements of a factor of 200; on faster networks the gains are even higher.
With gridMathematica, simple commands such as ParallelEvaluate, ParallelTable, and ParallelMap can often be used to quickly parallelize sequential codes or develop parallel applications from scratch. gridMathematica supports all common parallel computing constructs such as virtual shared memory, distributed memory, automatic or explicit process scheduling, explicit concurrency primitives, and failure recovery of stranded processes.
"Mathematica 5 now offers the fastest technical computing on a single computer. gridMathematica 1.1 multiplies that by the grid to provide the best high-performance computing environment available," says Roger Germundsson, Director of R & D at Wolfram Research. Both individual users and large-scale organizations can optimize their computations with this sophisticated, easy-to-use alternative for high-level programming applications.
More information about gridMathematica is available.
About Mathematica | Download Mathematica Player
Copyright © Wolfram Media, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Galway, Ireland was very good to us. It is a wonderful place to spend Christmas and New Years. They are serious about their holiday fun in Galway and that of course means a good amount of drinking too. It helps the craic (fun or good times) as they would say here. And we had some […]
Entries from January 2014
Celebrating the Holidays in Ireland (with drinks)
January 16th, 2014 · Comments Off
Tags: Beer & Food · Non-Beer Beverages


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The lowest-paid 10 per cent of workers in Manchester have to survive on less than £6,500 a year. It's time for a Manchester Living Wage.
Lucy Powell, Labour's parliamentary candidate for Manchester Central, is urging the Government to engage with local government and businesses to work out how a Manchester living wage of £7.22 can be brought into effect to tackle low pay in the city.
She has pledged to make it a key part of her campaign 'Putting Manchester First'.
We're calling for Mancunians to join our campaign for a Manchester Living Wage by signing a petition calling for it's introduction. Please take a moment to sign and help us tackle low pay & send a message to this Tory-led Government.
Sign the petition
"I'm calling for an end to low pay in Manchester, and the introduction of a Manchester Living Wage"


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Data suggest that Gpr176 (G-protein coupled receptor 176 (show GPR176 Proteins)) is an SCN (show SRI Proteins)-(suprachiasmatic nucleus-)enriched orphan GPCR (show NMUR1 Proteins) (G-protein-coupled receptor (show ADRA1A Proteins)) that sets the pace of circadian behavior; a unique cAMP-repressing G-protein subclass Gz is required for the activity of Gpr176 (show GPR176 Proteins). [REVIEW]
These results suggest that the expression of RGS20 may promote metastasis of tumor cells.
Findings suggest that high regulator of G protein signaling 20 (RGS20) expression is associated with unfavorable survival in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
provide new evidence that RGSZ1 interacts not only with Galpha (show SUCLG1 Proteins)(z,) but also with Galpha (show SUCLG1 Proteins)(i), as supported by in vitro binding assays and functional studies
The major function of PKCI-1 (show HINT1 Proteins) is to modulate mu opioid receptor (show OPRM1 Proteins) signaling pathway along with RGSZ1, rather than directly mediating the Galphaz RGSZ1 interaction.
RGSz1 function suppression optimizes the actions of opioid analgesics by mechanisms that involve the Wnt (show WNT2 Proteins)/beta-catenin (show CTNNB1 Proteins) pathway
Analysis of in vitro microtubule polymerization/depolymerization showed that binding of RGSZ1 to SCG10 (show STMN2 Proteins) effectively blocked the ability of SCG10 (show STMN2 Proteins) to induce microtubule disassembly
The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the family of regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins, which are regulatory and structural components of G protein-coupled receptor complexes. RGS proteins inhibit signal transduction by increasing the GTPase activity of G protein alpha subunits, thereby driving them into their inactive GDP-bound forms. This protein selectively binds to G(z)-alpha and G(alpha)-i2 subunits, and regulates their signaling activities. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.
, gz-GAP
, gz-selective GTPase-activating protein
, regulator of G-protein signaling 20 variant 2
, regulator of G-protein signaling Z1
, regulator of G-protein signalling 20
, regulator of Gz-selective protein signaling 1
, Gz-selective GTPase-activating protein
, Gz-specific GAP
, RGS protein Gz-GAP
, retina-specific regulator of G-protein signaling 1


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This section contains 633 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Chapters 10, 11 and 12 Summary
The next morning Maria feels an amazing calm and contentment about the previous night and tries to determine whether she should buy a plane ticket back to Brazil or stay a while longer in Geneva. Maria does not want to return home and be ridiculed for being a failure, even though she does not know how she will support herself if she stays. Maria remembers one of the girls at Roger's club mentioning somewhere called Rue de Berne, where girls in entertainment can earn money.
When the modeling agency calls Maria to ask details of the upcoming fashion show, Maria realizes that the agency knows nothing about the Arab's true intentions. Maria determines that men will pay money for sex but what they are really paying for is happiness, and Maria lets circumstances decide her fate.
Maria goes to the library...
(read more from the Chapters 10, 11 and 12 Summary)
This section contains 633 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)


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Ezyoutdoor Sleep Bag sack Fleabag Portable Envelope Sleeping Bag Spring Autumn Outdoor Camping , Compactable Camping Small Envelope for Travel Hiking Bivouac Multifuntion Ultra-light
- Made with high quality polyester and filled with fast drying polyester;Temperature Scale: 9℃(limit) ~ 15℃(comfort);Adopts breathable and soft fabric;With double-sided zipper, convenient to use.
- Additionally the bag's double zipper worked against me as the blanket would always get caught in the zipper;Come in a 4-compression-strap bag, allowing sleeping bag to be compressed to minimum size, lightweight, compact and portable
- Come with a storage bag for easy carry Lightweight, compact and portable;Suitable seasons: Four Seasons;Comfortable and warm enough for sleeping.
- Lightweight, but warm;Easy to roll up and get back in the carrying bag;Durable fabric that feels like it will last for years;Comfortable and easy to get in and out and off
- Package included:1 x Camping Sleeping Bag;Lifetime warranty;7-15 business days delivery date with tracking number
Adopts breathable and soft fabric.
With double-sided zipper, convenient to use.
Unfold the sleeping bag, you can use it as a blanket.
Can become double sleeping bag when you connect two sleeping bags together. (only one bag included)
Come in a 4-compression-strap bag, allowing sleeping bag to be compressed to minimum size, lightweight, compact and portable.
Shape: Square
Color: Blue
Outer: Nylon
Liner: T/C
Fill: 100% polyester
Temperature: 9°C(limit) ~ 15°C(comfort)
Size: 190 * 75cm / 6.23 * 2.46ft
Package Size: 29 * 12cm / 11.4 * 4.7in
Weight: 680g / 1.50lb
1. Product color in the pictures may vary slightly due to the color calibration of each individual monitor setting, please refer to the real item you receive.
2. Sleeping Bag and Compression Stuff Sack ONLY, other items displayed in the pictures are NOT included.
Package List:1 * Sleeping Bag;1 * Compression Stuff Sack


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Publication Date
The question of constitutional theory in state courts often results in a comparative analysis of the state and federal constitutions. Typically where a comparative analysis is used, the purpose is to support the authority of the state court to interpret the state document independently and to justify an interpretation and result that diverge from federal precedent. While this approach may add to the persuasiveness of the opinion, it does little to advance the role of state courts in the dialogue of constitutionalism. The critical tension in state constitutionalism is between the need to persuade critics that the state court is justified when it diverges from federal precedent, and the goal of having a voice in constitutional discourse and debate. In seeking to persuade critics, state courts tend to rely extensively on differences between the federal and the state constitutions. However, it is precisely this "discourse of distinctness"' which other critics claim results in isolationism of the state and irrelevance in constitutionalism generally.
This paper first discusses the significance of state constitutional law, which is important background and support for the rest of the paper. Second, the paper traces some of the history of state constitutional interpretation, centering on the question of when a state court should engage in independent analysis, and discussing some examples of courts stating expressly which method it will follow, and others illustrating a troubled history of attempting to answer this question. Next, the focus shifts to address the question of how independent interpretation has been carried out, and some of the problems involved and the pressures faced by state courts. In addition, this paper makes suggestions as to how to better enrich and enhance the process of independent interpretation by state courts in a way which furthers the development of constitutional jurisprudence of the state court and contributes to constitutionalism in general.
Posted with permission.
Recommended Citation
28 N.M.L. Rev. 199 (1998).


text:
The 1991 Nobel Laureate in Literature Nadine Gordimer reads her short story 'Loot' from "Loot and Other Stories". The video was recorded at Harvard University in April, 2005.
Which Nobel Laureates are hidden within the maze of letters?
All you need to know about the Literature Prize!
Read about Alfred Nobel's Will and the Literature Prize.


text:
Power MOSFET Drivers Circuit
1.5A Dual High-Speed Power MOSFET Drivers
The TC4426A/TC4427A/TC4428A are improved
versions of the earlier TC4426/TC4427/TC4428 family
of MOSFET drivers. In addition to matched rise and fall
times, the TC4426A/TC4427A/TC4428A devices have
matched leading and falling edge propagation delay
Features:- High Peak Output Current – 1.5A
- Wide Input Supply Voltage Operating Range: 4.5V to 18V
- High Capacitive Load Drive Capability – 1000 p in 25 ns (typ.)
- Short Delay Times – 30 ns (typ.)
- Matched Rise, Fall and Delay Times
- Low Supply Current:
- With Logic '1' Input – 1 mA (typ.)
- With Logic '0' Input – 100 μA (typ.)
- Low Output Impedance – 7Ω (typ.)
- Latch-Up Protected: Will Withstand 0.5A Reverse Current
- Input Will Withstand Negative Inputs Up to 5V
- ESD Protected – 4 kV
- Pin-compatible with TC426/TC427/TC428 and
- Space-saving 8-Pin MSOP and 8-Pin 6x5 DFN Packages


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born Mexico, came to Queensland as a boy of 12 after a brief schooling in England. He published Cupid and Psyche (1875), a classical epic in ten books in the style of Paradise Lost.
Subjects: Literature.
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Customer Reviews
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March 31, 2013
March 6, 2013
October 11, 2013
What You'll Get
Getting a massage when your muscles ache is a no-brainer, like signing a guy named Michael Bestseller to a publishing contract. You can't go wrong with this Groupon.
Choose Between Two Options
- $39 for a full-body massage with Rain-Drop therapy and a scalp massage (a $99 value)
- $76 for two full-body massages with Rain-Drop therapy and scalp massages (a $198 value)
The Fine Print
Promotional value expires May 29, 2013. Amount paid never expires. Limit 1 per person, may buy 2 additional as gifts. Limit 1 per visit. Valid only for option purchased. Appointment required. 24hr cancellation notice required, or $20 fee may apply. Merchant is solely responsible to purchasers for the care and quality of the advertised goods and services.
About Parakletos Wellness
"I gained 60 pounds when I had my son," Ashley, Parakletos Wellness's co-owner, says—but there's triumph in her voice. She credits body wraps for helping to shed those pounds, and now performs these services for others. Ashley, a licensed massage therapist and aesthetician, and her husband and personal trainer Stephen operate Parakletos, whose name translates fittingly to "called to help."
The couple is happy in the facility, with its sand-hued walls and pulsing ocean soundtrack. Having only a single treatment room allows them to help clients one at a time. "If someone comes in with acne or rosacea, we don't want you to have to interact. We want you to be able to leave insecurities at door." In addition to an oxygen cucumber facial, Parakletos can slacken shoulders with river stones during private massage sessions, but, due to her personal experiences, it's weight-loss wraps that Ashley holds in the highest regard.
"Folks come in and we ask a lot of questions. How much water do you drink? How much do you workout? It's not about vanity for us, it's about the lifestyle change." The body wraps, which are designed to help motivate and shed weight, are composed of 12 different herbal ingredients. All of the products and supplements employed by Parakletos are forged from herbs and flora, much like Robinson Crusoe's Gameboy. Even when she is far from the studio's brimming shelves, Ashley says that she tries to let her passion for what she does thrive. "I give one pro-bono massage a week. If I'm at church and someone mentions a pulled hamstring, I'll pass them a note. I like to be a blessing for anyone I can."


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November meetings and other news
Our latest newsletter is out now. Sorry it's rather brief. Will have more to offer next time. There's a meeting on Tuesday 8th November – Gospel Truth? Richard Layton plans to explore the origins of Biblical myths, in particular the earliest writings on Jesus (before the Four Gospels) which some scholars claim reveal that the Resurrection was celebrated as a spiritual event—not the physical event that later gospel writers claimed. For the venue and time, see the newsletter. Click here to download it.


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Alberto Accomazzi, Chris Biemesderfer, and Norman Gray presented a poster on the Unified Astronomy Thesaurus at the AAS 221st Meeting in Long Beach California, January 8 2013.
Poster Session Abstract
Creation and Maintenance of a Unified Astronomy Thesaurus
N. Gray, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UNITED KINGDOM; C. Erdmann, A. Accomazzi, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA; J. Soles, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, CANADA; G. McCann, Institute of Physics, Bristol, UNITED KINGDOM; M. Cassar, American Institute of Physics, New York, NY; C. Biemesderfer, American Astronomical Society, Washington, DC
We describe a collaborative effort to update and unify the various vocabularies currently in use in Astronomy into a single thesaurus that can be further developed and updated through broad community participation. The Unified Astronomy Thesaurus (UAT) will be an open, interoperable and community-supported thesaurus which unifies the existing divergent and isolated Astronomy & Astrophysics thesauri into a single high-quality, freely-available open thesaurus formalizing astronomical concepts and their interrelationships. Continue reading "The Unified Astronomy Thesaurus at AAS!"


text: On June 4, the "five corners" intersection in Manor Park came alive as families joined the Manor Park Community Association and me to paint a street mural. This mural will add colour to the neighbourhood and help calm traffic at the Eastbourne/Braemer/Ava intersection. The vibrant design was created by twins Shannon and Cailie McClement, who live in Manor Park. Their beautiful and original design will have a lasting impact on the neighbourhood.


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Actor Chris Klein had an extra special 37th birthday after revealing he is set to become a first-time father.
The American Pie star turned 37 on Monday (14Mar16) and rang in the festivities by announcing that his wife, travel agent Laina Rose Thyfault is pregnant with their first child.
He took to Twitter.com on Monday to share the happy news with his followers, posting a photo of his wife's growing baby bump. He added the caption, "My beautiful wife Laina and I are expecting our first child. 23 weeks along. Gratefully blessed on my 37th B-Day."
Chris and Laina tied the knot during a ceremony in Montana last August (15). The couple exchanged vows in front of 115 guests at the Rainbow Ranch in Gallatin Gateway on the banks of the Gallatin River.
The parents-to-be dated for almost four years after meeting at a mutual friend's wedding. He popped the question in December, 2014
Chris previously dated actress Katie Holmes, and they became engaged in 2003. However, their romance fizzled out a year later, and the former couple split in March, 2005.


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The mission of the Wrentham Public Schools, in partnership with families and the community, is to establish a safe, supportive, and structured environment in which our students can achieve individual success. To assist our students in becoming reflective, life-long learners, the Wrentham Public Schools will provide multi-faceted learning experiences through highly effective, consistent teaching practices and curriculum, Opportunities will be provided for students to make connections between their actions and the world around them.
In our Kindergarten, we are committed to each child's education. First and foremost we recognize children are individuals who grow and develop at different rates. We embrace these differences by providing experiences that will stimulate social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Children learn at their own pace as they explore their surroundings through hands-on activities that challenge their thinking. We provide a classroom environment which promotes creativity where each and every child feels safe, secure, and important.
For the exact dates of Info Night, Kindergarten Registration Day, and Kindergarten Screening, see the Info Night flier and/or the District Calendar.
Registration and Resources
Info Night Presentation
Frequently Asked Questions about Kindergarten in Wrentham
Enrollment Forms and Screening Information
Student Services
Health Services
Food Services
Full Day Tuition Agreement Form
FACTS Management - Tuition
Needed to Register:
Kindergarten Teachers:
Mrs. Bognanno
Mrs. Maxwell
Mrs. Nunes
Mrs. McDonald
Mrs. LeBlanc
Mrs. Buckley
by Robert Fulghum


text:
New York Deli [Hot Chocolate]
The New York Deli up there on North Casaloma has been on my short list for quite a while. I've wanted to go there twice and was foiled both times. The first time it was too late and the place would have been closed by the time I got there. The second time it was too early and my partner-in-crime and I were too impatient to wait it out. So, when we had a little time to kill before the Fox Valley Chamber of Commerce Business Connection down at Paper Valley we decided to finally make our way to the deli. Unfortunately, we didn't have time for a sandwich, but we did have time for drinks.
Still No Marshmallows
I figured I would give the hot chocolate a shot, given that it is my personal quest to find the best hot chocolate in the Valley. So far I've had everything from stuff that would make Swiss Miss instant mix blush to rather rich concoctions of cocoa-flavored goodness. Fortunately, the New York Deli's rendition is more towards the latter than the former. As you can see, I'm still missing the marshmallows (or "marsh melons", as Mr. Spock would say). I'm sorely tempted to stop by the Bulk Priced Food Shoppe in Greenville and buy my own container of miniature marshmallows so I can start topping these things properly. That aside, I was rather pleased with the results, but there wasn't anything that made it stand out from the other higher-quality offerings I have tried thus far. It was rich, but not syrupy, and it had plenty of whipped cream on the top.
So, the final verdict? This was good, but the search continues for the best hot chocolate in the Fox Valley.
New York Deli
1853 North Casaloma Drive
Appleton, WI 54913


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Customer Reviews
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July 3, 2014
June 4, 2014
May 1, 2014
What You'll Get
Between Two Options
- $35 for three VersaSpa or Mystic Tans ($75 value)
- $58 for five VersaSpa or Mystic Tans ($125 value)<p>
The Fine Print
Promotional value expires 90 days after purchase. Amount paid never expires. May buy multiple. Valid only for option purchased. Limit 1 per visit. All services must be used by the same person. Merchant is solely responsible to purchasers for the care and quality of the advertised goods and services.
About Let's Get Tan
Voted best tanning salon in 2011 by readers of the Courier and Press, Let's Get Tan's sunless booths and UV beds burnish skin with several tanning options. Eighteen tanning beds in seven levels coax melanin toward the surface with UV lamps and ultrasonic mating calls. Sunless options include two Mystic Tan booths, one VersaSpa chamber, and an Evolv heated airbrush-tanning system. The Smart Tan– and Sunless–certified staff uses their extensive training to ensure clients tan safely and comfortably, and iPod docks in most private rooms allow patrons to accompany their sessions with their choice in music.
The salon's staff also recognizes that skincare goes hand in hand with tanning, and to that end they stock the shelves with a curated selection of products. Their red-light therapy booth's 615- to 640-nanometer wavelengths of light work to stimulate collagen production, which can tighten skin and reduce the appearance of acne and wrinkles without the frustration that accompanies glaring at a red stoplight. Rounding out the slate of ancillary beauty services, one-hour Fit body-wrap sessions aim to help the body burn up to 1,000 calories with dual action infrared heat.


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Nutrex's Outlift pre workout is one of the jewels of the company's range thanks to its well dosed formula and use of some of the best ingredients on the market today. To provide some extra kick to their current formula, Nutrex are releasing an even stronger version known as Nutrex Outlift AMPed.
Nutrex Outlift AMPed Review & Ingredients
Few details have been released for the new Nutrex Outlift AMPed, however we do know that the bulk of the same base formula will still be present. Some of the ingredients you can expect to find include:
- 8g Citrulline Malate
- 3.2g Beta Alanine
- 2g Creatine MagnaPower
- 50mg Teacrine (Theacrine)
While Theacrine is a similar compound to caffeine and has effects which resemble that of other stimulants, 50mg isn't enough to qualify a whole new version of Outlift. As such, we're expecting some other strong stimulants to be a part of the matrix. As soon as all the details are released, we'll be sure to update our review.
Nutrex Outlift AMPed Flavours, Taste & Mixability
Nutrex Outlift AMPed is confirmed in a Pineapple flavour, however they'll most likely be at least 2-3 extra ones that will be released along with it. Expect to see your more common flavours such as Fruit Punch and Blue Raspberry just to name a few. The current version of Outlift tastes pretty good, but does cause a bit of frothing and fizz buildup, so it's best to mix with a spoon if possible. With the same base formula, expect to see similar qualities in the AMPed version.
Nutrex Outlift AMPed Release Date
The new Nutrex Outlift AMPed does not have any confirmed release dates, although it will definitely be released this year. A likely date will be sometime during September or October 2016.


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NEW YORK JETS Boys' Magna Short-Sleeve Tee
Style# 2005163
$27.99 $13.98
Style# 2005163
$27.99 $13.98
- Size: Size Guide
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His fandom keeps on growing and growing, so, when he's coming along to a Jets game, this shirt lets him show support. A mottled three-color print draws attention, while the logo of his favorite team is screen-printed right across the chest. And, when things get intense, Dri-Tek fabric is there to keep him comfortable.
- Made out of 100% polyester
- Dri-Tek material feels lightweight, lets his skin breathe, and controls moisture
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Hrithik and Katrina are displaying some electrifying romance in this new song shot at some picturesque locations. Composed by Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani, 'Meherbaan' is sung by Ash King and Shilpa Rao.CHECK OUT: Hrithik Roshan goes BANG BANG with F1 car!
While the last song from BANG BANG 'Tu Meri' was a hit with the audience, we are sure this slow number too will strike the right chord!
Directed by Siddharth Anand and produced by Fox Star Studios, BANG BANG is slated to arrive on October 2, 2014.


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- Posted June 9, 2010 by
- luvnola
New Orleans, Louisiana
This iReport is part of an assignment:
Track the oil disaster
All Beast... No Beauty Grand Isle
- katie, CNN iReport producer
I have been putting off uploading this iReport because I am so angry and have been since my visit to Grand Isle again yesterday. Where are the hundreds of BP workers that were flown in when the President made his flyover weeks ago? Haven't been back... Since the spill I have been to Grand Isle five times and talked to a lot of the "locals" each time. I can't begin to tell you how sickened these residents are. Both men and women, of all ages, got choked up when they spoke of what they see day after day. Here are a few of the things I saw on my trip.
I left New Orleans at 5:00AM since BP claimed that due to the heat his workers start early. I wanted to be down there by 7:00AM. (I drive fast) When I arrived at the Grand Isle State Park, I was informed that BP has now made the fishing pier parking lot their new "beach cleaning staging area" and the pier was closed. I paid my dollar and went in anyway. There are now tents with tables under them and other facilities in the pier parking lot. I parked in the grass and walked through the lot anyway without being stopped by anyone. There were maybe ten people walking and/or sitting around. When I got on the pier, I saw a few other people out there as well. They were looking and talking about the sheen in the water. There was a lot of sheen and it was coming ashore with the tides. There were also thicker dispersed oil droplets washing up on the sand. I turned at that point to check out the beach workers. I included a photo in both directions on the pier. See for yourself… How many people are working on this beach?
To give BP the benefit of the doubt, I thought there could be other staging areas farther down the beach. So I left the park and drove back along the island (there's only one main road). I did not see any other staging areas. I stopped and went on the beach. The Tiger Dam (two large booms filled with water laying side by side in the sand) construction was completed and you are allowed on the beach up to the dam. The dam keeps the oil from going farther onto the beach in high tides. I was not surprised at what I saw. There weren't any staging areas because there was no one out there. I included photos of the conditions on the beach… See for yourself and form your own opinion. Why isn't anyone doing anything about these deplorable and TOXIC conditions. I went past the tiger dam to take my photos. To let you know how many people were on the beach, I walked about a quarter mile. I was stopping and taking photos at least twenty minutes before three security workers came and waved at me to come back on the other side of the boom. They were nice and checked my shoes for oil...
But where are the people Hayward promises over and over in his public relations campaign ad would be out here?
I left the beach and talked to some locals. One of them agreed to take me out in his boat to see the conditions in Barataria Bay area. I also knew that wildlife and fisheries are concentrating all of their efforts to rescuing oiled birds. We made a complete circle through the bay and around the gulf side of the island. There were also streams of dispersed oil floating atop the water maybe fifty yards from shore. I looked around and there were only three boats in the water. Two of them were skimming oil from atop the water with the boom stretched between the two boats. But that's it… The only other boats were commercial and had nothing to do with clean up. The gentleman I was with got on his radio and called the people on the skimmers. He knows them because they are fishermen using their shrimp boats. They informed him they had oil…
We went into the Gulf along the beach side of the island and travelled to some smaller islands. The first one was Grand Terre and is just a couple miles from Grand Isle beach. Grand Terre used to be Fort Livingston and the crumbling fort still remains. As we reached Grand Terre we started seeing more oil. We saw the rusty colored dispersed oil but this was BLACK OIL rolling with the calm waters inland towards the bay area. We reached Fort Livingston and the oil was everywhere. The Captain got back on his radio and called the skimmer boats to tell them black oil was rolling in at Grand Terre. He was clearly upset. We left the area and headed right into the bay to Grand Bess, the famous bird island. There were at most three boats in the bay area. They were just riding around but they could have been looking for oiled birds??? There was dark red and black oil in the waters of the bay. When I looked for the first time at Grand Bess I was shocked. The outer booms had come apart in two different places and in another area, the boom was sinking. The inner soaker boom was totally saturated in oil and needed to be changed. The saturated booms were on the rocks where pelicans were sitting, floating haphazardly or sinking, twisted around, and laying over the outer boom. I looked around me and thought again… Where are the people BP has hired to oversee and maintain this boom? Where are the people they hired because, as far as I could see in every direction, there were at most five boats in the entire bay. No one was working on boom so this island was going to remain unprotected the entire night with black oil already floating near the outer boom. As we rode around the island I saw some oiled birds and it tore me up inside to feel so helpless. I also noticed there weren't near as many birds on the island as there were less than a month ago. I saw some babies still with their mothers and wondered if they would survive. I began to wipe the tears from my eyes as I photographed the oiled pelicans. The Captain kept repeating, "Don't worry, I won't cry in front of you". After we circled the island, we headed back in.
After personally struggling through the Katrina aftermath, I know how hard it still is five years Post K. To then go through this, I cannot fathom the depth and breadth of the emotions these residents feel. I am still so angry today and they are there watching this every day. One resident told me he quit watching TV because of the Tony Hayward commercials. Every time he saw one he wanted to smash or throw something at the TV.
There doesn't seem to be a strong chain of command overseeing and holding Tony Hayward accountable when it comes to the day to day clean-up. Someone should have reported the boom and it should have been changed and properly placed around the island. This is an example of how unprepared BP will be when the tides change and bring the oil back in, which is already happening. But why am I surprised? They haven't been prepared for anything for 51 days now.
So… either Tony Hayward is a sociopathic liar and could care less about the people of the Gulf Coast, or he has deceived himself into believing people are out here working every day. I don't know… You make the call. I am just reporting what I saw this day.
peace out America


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STARplex is a state of the art facility owned and operated by Trinity College as a not-for-profit recreation centre for the benefit of the school and the community.
The centre boasts a four court stadium, two indoor swimming pools, full gymnasium, café, a first class theatre and conference rooms. The facility also offers numerous sports, training, arts and recreation services in a unique mix of quality facilities under the one roof.
STARstore is based within STARplex. STARstore is the sole supplier of the Trinity College Uniform. In addition, STARstore supplies sports wear, health supplements, swimwear and swimwear accessories and a wide range of gift ware for your every day needs. The shop staff will be pleased to help with any further queries.
Shop Manager Lorraine Warland and Senior Sales Assistant Tracy Owen can be contacted on 8522 0643.
During school hours the College has the use of three courts, theatre and pool time for the instruction of students. All students at Trinity College benefit from lessons at the state of the art facility, providing the ideal environment for sporting endeavours.
STARplex offers a number of programs to assist in the development of elite athletes, improving their physical performance, specialist training in nutrition, injury prevention and management, motivation and peak physical fitness.
STARplex offers Trinity College parents, students and staff discounted memberships and competitive rates. Staff also have the option of paying through salary sacrifice. For more information or to book a tour of the centre contact a Lifestyle Consultant on 08 8522 0622.
Signup to receive our regular newsletter here or, download the latest edition here.
18- 20 Alexander Avenue, Evanston South SA 5116
Telephone: 8522 0622
Facsimile: 8522 0684
Website: www.starplex.com.au
Alexander Avenue
Evanston South SA 5116
tel: (08) 8522 0666
CRICOS 00374C / 02709B | Copyright © 2016 Trinity College Gawler Inc | PRIVACY | DISCLAIMER


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In 2017 -18 we are delighted to be working with Penny Slater from 'Herts for Learning'. Penny will be leading our programme for English subject leaders across the year and these meetings will continue to focus on supporting subject leaders to develop their skills & knowledge, learn from new & innovative practice and find out about the latest national and local updates.
This event is free to those schools who subscribe to the Gateway Alliance – core offer for ENGLISH subject development.
There is one place available per subscribing school. Additional places may be booked at a cost of £65 per person. Non-subscribing schools may attend, subject to availability, at a cost of £100 per person. Invoices to be paid prior to the event.
If you have any queries please don't hesitate to contact us on 02476 347697 or email: email@example.com


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Some of the world's best engineering students will descend onto campus for 2013 SAE Baja Rochester World Challenge, the international off-road competition that starts this Friday, June 7, at the Gordon Field House.
We're expecting nearly 100 collegiate Baja racing teams—including teams from Clarkson, SUNY Buffalo and Cornell along with the University of Michigan, Purdue and the University of Calgary, just to name a few.
Drop by the field house between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday to meet the teams, see the cars and listen in on design presentations. Saturday, June 8, and Sunday, June 9, events move to Hogback Hill Motocross Course in Palmyra.
RIT and the RIT Baja Racing Team have hosted the SAE East competition several times over its 20-year history. Ask any one of the friendly competitors in the next few days and they'll tell you they enjoy being here, the facilities are first class, the course is a major challenge, and the student-engineers on our team extend a welcome second-to-none.
Behind the scenes, Baja cars and teams that arrive early have often come the farthest. Three teams from Brazil, one from Venezuela and another from Puerto Rico arrived in the past week, and their cars have been temporarily housed in bays in CIMS.
While teams go head-to-head during the competition, they are allies and peers in the machine shop. There, along with RIT Baja team members, teams reassemble cars, sometimes fixing or enhancing parts in the machine shop alongside guys (and gals) they'll drive against over the weekend.
The field house is ideal for the opening day of safety checks, technical discussions and team presentations about what it takes to build an off-road vehicle. That preparation and commitment is put to the test over the next two days out at Hogback Hill Motocross Course in Palmyra.
Over hills and obstacles, through suspension challenges, tractor pulls and endurance races, it's a pretty awesome display of great driving and young people with skills and nerves of steel.
Check out a gallery of photos by UNS photographer A. Sue Weisler from the 2010 competition, the last time RIT hosted teams for the Baja World Challenge.
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So many of you already know that Dad has been in the hospital since Jan. 23rd. As of this writing, he's out of ICU but still in an ICU-step-down unit. Mom has been with him the entire time and Angie, my sister, has been with him most of that time. I drove up with my family on the 25th, arriving on the 26th—it's a 14 hour drive from Orlando—and we stayed for nearly two weeks.
While he's doing much better, he's still in the ICU step-down unit and still has a long road of recovery in front of him. We've been very happy to get reports that Dad is highly motivated in tackling his physical therapy to get full movement back.
What happened?
Well, Dad has this rare disease called sarcoidosis. If you google it, you'll find there are fewer than 200,000 cases in the U.S. In the U.S. the most common demographic is overweight, black, women. Yeah, Dad is none of those.
But Dad's case was even more rare as it often affects the respiratory system. Dad's case struck his pituitary gland, destroying it. For those of you more keen on biology than others—yeah, you can't live without the pituitary gland. It's basically a CPU for the endocrine system. It hit Dad in 1984 and we nearly lost him then.
What it's done to him, though, is effectively destroy his natural immune system so that he's more susceptible to sickness.
And that's what got him this time; he got both the flu AND pneumonia at the same time—and it just really whacked his body. Because of the shock to his system, he got sepsis shock…and then that's when he got what the doctor called "a systemic shutdown," meaning, he was so sick his body just began to shut down. That's when they had to insert a ventilator.
While he struggled with the pneumonia in his lungs, his blood pressure dropped, his heart rate was all over the board, his kidneys failed…and while that haven't confirmed it for sure (they said it was something they could worry about after he gets out of the hospital), it even looks like he may have had a minor heart attack and a possible mini-stroke.
Yeah…it was pretty bad. So much so that for a brief couple of days, the doctors weren't really offering us a lot of hope.
Once his flu fever broke, though, the doctors had to play a balancing game between getting liquid to and through his kidney and drying out his lungs. That wasn't easy for them. They ultimately decided that his kidneys could take the most punishment and that they needed him off the ventilator and his lungs in better shape. Fortunately for Dad, that's what happened…and then he began to fight some of these other things.
So 18 days later Dad is working to regain much of his physical ability that simply atrophied quickly as he laid in bed unable to do anything for so long. Thank you all so very much for the prayers. We believe they were heard! As I said earlier, he's still in the hospital for a reason—so any and all continued prayers are highly welcomed!


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Penn State Jerseys With Names Being Sent to Ireland
If you were being kept up at night wondering how Penn State's jerseys would look in 2014, rest easy! If this jersey of defensive tackle Tarow Barney is like the rest of them, names will remain on the backs of the white and blue this year.
If these jerseys are any indication, it looks like the names will be staying on the back of the jerseys this season. pic.twitter.com/aFBSpt2sAb — Onward State (@OnwardState) August 26, 2014
Bill O'Brien added the names to the jerseys for the 2012 season to recognize the resolve and dedication of those players that didn't transfer after the sanctions were handed down. In both offseasons since, speculation swirled about whether the names would stay. James Franklin was cognizant of how much fans here care about Penn State's look, and he joked on ESPN this summer that Penn State would do something similar to Oregon with its jerseys. However, he never made an official ruling on the jerseys. For what it's worth, the uniforms were also ranked No. 1 in the league by NFL.com this summer.
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Fixed income portfolio management and analytics
25 November 2014
Discover how to find alternative sources of return, attract new flows and comply with regulation in an increasing complex and competitive fixed income market. This document describes how technology can assist portfolio managers to obtain a unified view of the investment process to make timely and informed trading decisions.
|Download the Fixed Income solution insight >>
Although the investment management sector is showing strong growth, the constant search for returns is forcing diversification of investment strategies and competition is driving change throughout the industry. Overall inflows towards fixed income portfolios remain modest, with most of the movement coming from a shift from traditional strategies to specialties or passive management. With new regulations incurring additional costs, the global profit pool is under pressure. To increase market share while keeping margins at a healthy level, fixed income asset managers must have the right tools at hand to make faster and better decisions.
To find out more, download the Fixed Income solution insight