FIS could stand for:
In French:
In English:
Fédération Internationale de Ski, the International Ski Federation
Front Islamique du Salut, the Islamic Salvation Front
Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto
Federal Inspection Station
FIS (protein), nucleoid-associated protein in E. Coli
Flight Information Service
Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)
Frankfurt International School
Fidelity National Information Services, an American company listed on the New York Stock Exchange with symbol "FIS".
Free Information Society, an online community (forum) and compendium of articles and media, primarily of an academic nature.
French International School, a school in Hong Kong

The Chichele Professorships are statutory professorships at the University of Oxford named in honour of Henry Chichele (also spelt Chicheley or Checheley, although the spelling of the academic position is consistently "Chichele"), an Archbishop of Canterbury and founder of All Souls College, Oxford. Fellowship of that College has accompanying the award of a Chichele chair since 1870.
Following the work of the 1850 Commission to examine the organization of the University, All Souls College suppressed ten of its fellowships to create the funds to establish the first two Chichele professorships: The Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, established in 1859 and first held by Mountague Bernard, and the Chichele Professor of Modern History, first held by Montagu Burrows.
There are currently Chichele Professorships in five different subjects:
Probably the best known former Chichele Professor is Sir Isaiah Berlin. Perhaps the best known former Professor of the History of War was Cyril Falls.
Chichele Professor of Economic History: Avner Offer appointed 1 August 2000.
Chichele Professor of the History of War: Hew Strachan appointed 1 January 2002.
Chichele Professor of Public International Law: Vaughan Lowe appointed 1 October 1999.
Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory: Gerald Cohen appointed 1985.
Chichele Professor of Medieval History: Christopher Wickham, appointed March 2005.

United States Banking began in 1781 with an act of United States Congress that established the Bank of North America in Philadelphia. During the American Revolutionary War, the Bank of North America was given a monopoly on currency; prior to this time, private banks printed their own bank notes, backed by deposits of gold and/or silver.
Robert Morris, the first Superintendent of Finance appointed under the Articles of Confederation, proposed the Bank of North America as a commercial bank that would act as fiscal agent for the government. The monopoly was seen as necessary because previous attempts to finance the Revolutionary War with paper currency had failed; after the war, a number of banks were chartered by the states under the Articles of Confederation, including the Bank of New York and the Bank of Massachusetts, both of which were chartered in 1784.
The Bank of North America was succeeded by the First Bank of the United States, which the United States Congress chartered in 1791 under Article One, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, after the Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation as the foundation of American government. However, Congress failed to renew the charter for the Bank of the United States, which expired in 1811. Similarly, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816 and shuttered in 1836.

The era of free banking
In 1863, Congress passed the National Bank Act in an attempt to retire the greenbacks that it had issued to finance the North's effort in the American Civil War. This opened up an option for chartering banks nationally. As an additional incentive for banks to submit to Federal supervision, in 1865 Congress began taxing any issue of state bank notes (also called "bills of credit" or "scrip") a standard rate of 10%, which encouraged many state banks to become national ones. This tax also gave rise to another response by state banks -- the invention of the demand deposit account, also known as a checking account. By the 1880s, deposit accounts had changed the primary source of revenue for many banks. The result of these events is what is known as the "dual banking system."
The dual system of banking has survived to this day. New banks may choose either state or national charters (a bank also can convert its charter from one to the other). Until 1989, banks with national charters (national banks) were required to participate in the FDIC, while State Banks either were required to obtain FDIC insurance by state law or they could voluntarily join it (usually in an attempt to bolster their appearance of solvency). After enactment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1989 ("FDICIA"), all commercial banks that accepted deposits were required to obtain FDIC insurance and to have a primary federal regulator (the Fed for state banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System, and the FDIC for "nonmembers").

The dual banking system
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 established the present day Federal Reserve System and brought all banks in the United States under the authority of the federal government, creating the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks which are supervised by the Federal Reserve Board. Notwithstanding the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932 and the Banking Acts of 1933 and 1935, which were attempts to reform various banking abuses, the Federal Reserve System has remained more or less unchanged through to the present day. The Glass-Steagall Act was repealed in 1999, whereas the Banking Act of 1933 simply strengthened the supervisory powers of federal authorities and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The Federal Reserve System
Legislation passed by the federal government during the 1980s, such as the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 and the Garn-St. Germaine Depository Institutions Act of 1982, diminished the distinctions between banks and other financial institutions in the United States. This legislation is frequently referred to as "deregulation," and it is often blamed for the failure of over 500 savings and loan associations between 1980 and 1988, and the subsequent failure of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) whose obligations were assumed by the FDIC in 1989. However, some critics of this viewpoint, particularly libertarians, have pointed out that the federal government's attempts at deregulation granted easy credit to federally insured financial institutions, encouraging them to overextend themselves and (thus) fail.

Deregulation
Some brands in the banking/financial services industry today are the result of a merger where the acquiring bank assumed the brand name of the bank it took over. This happened in the case of these mergers:

The Nations Bank/BankAmerica merger
The Norwest/Wells Fargo merger
The Firststar/US Bank merger
The Travelers/Citibank merger
The Chemical Bank/Chase merger
The Travelers Group/Citicorp merger
First Union/Wachovia merger
J.P. Morgan Chase/Bank One merger Top three changes in banking profitability

Bank size information
Figures as of September 30, 2006, in U.S. dollars.
U.S. Bancorp — 217 billion
Countrywide Financial Corp. — 193 billion Top ten bank holding companies in the U.S. ranked by assets
As of June 30, 2005 in U.S. dollars. These are U.S. deposits only. This is not a ranking of the largest U.S.-based global banks.

Bank of America Corp. — 577 billion
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. — 384 billion
Wachovia Corp. — 284 billion
Wells Fargo & Co. — 256 billion
Washington Mutual Inc. — 186 billion
Citibank — 131 billion
U.S. Bancorp, Inc. — 117 billion
SunTrust Banks — 106 billion
HSBC Bank USA NA — 62 billion
World Savings Bank — 58 billion See also

History of Money and Banking in the United States by Murray N. Rothbard. Full text (510 pages) in pdf format
Rothbard, Murray N. / Richardson & Snyder. 1983. The Mystery of Banking Full 177-page text in pdf format.

Lars Göran Axel Lindblad (born 12 January 1950 Gothenburg) is a Swedish politician and member of the Moderate Party. He has been a member of the Swedish parliament since 1997 and a replacement member of the Swedish parliament in 1993. He is originally a dentist.
Lindblad is an anticommunist and has been noted in Europe as the man behind the proposed resolution Need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes (see Council of Europe resolution 1481).

Sindhī (سنڌي, सिन्धी) is the language of the Sindh region of South Asia, which is now a province of Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 18.5 million people in Pakistan, and 2.8 million in India; it is also a recognised official language in both of these countries. Although the language is predominantly Indo-Aryan, it also shows up signs of Dravidian influence, making it unique in its importance and identity. Most Sindhi speakers in Pakistan are concentrated in the Sindh province. The remaining speakers are found in India and amongst the Sindhi diaspora community which are scattered throughout the world. The Sindhi language has spread as the Hindu Sindhis left Sindh during the partition of British India in 1947. The language was once written in Devnagri; however, with the mediation of the British East India Company, a modified Arabic script was produced. The Government of India recognizes the Devanagari script and the modified Arabic for writing Sindhi.

Geographical distribution
Arab travellers, specifically Al-Beruni in his book 'Kitab-ul-Hind', had declared that even before the advent of Islam into Sindh (711 A.D.), the language was prevalent in the region. It was not only widely spoken but written too in different scripts. Al-Beruni has described many Sindhi words leading to the conclusion, that Sindhi language was widely spoken and rich in vocabulary in his times.
The Qur'an was first translated into Sindhi in rhymatic format. This was the first ever translation of Qur'an in the 12th century or earlier.
Sindhi was a very popular literary language around the 14th-18th centuries. This is when sufis such as Shah Abdul Latif (as well as numerous others) narrated their theosophical poetry depicting the relationship between humans and God.
Sindh came under British rule in 1843 A.D. and until then Sindhi language did not have a uniform script and was written in different scripts. In 1851, Sir Bartle Frere, the then commissioner of Sindh issued a decree making it compulsory to use Sindhi language in place of Persian in Sindh. A committee was constituted under chairmanship of Sir B.H. Ellis, the then Asst. Commissioner & Chief of Education Department, comprising equal number of Hindu as well as Muslim members which unanimously decided to adopt the Persio-Arabic Sindhi script with slight modifications in 1853 A.D. (effectively adding extra letters to accommodate Sindhi language).

History
Sindhi has a large sound inventory. It has 46 distinctive consonant phonemes (more than all the phonemes of English combined) and a further 16 vowels. All plosives, affricates, nasals, the retroflex flap and the lateral approximant /l/ have aspirated or breathy voiced counterparts. The language also features four separate implosives.

Sounds
The phoneme /r/ is usually pronounced as an alveolar tap, [ɾ], though occasionally reminiscent of a trill with two or more contacts. The affricates /c, cʰ, ɟ, ɟʱ/ are pronounced with a relatively short release and corresponding plosives symbols have therefore been used. /ʋ/ can be realized as either [w] or [ʋ] with free variation.

Consonants


Vowels

Sindhi
In Pakistan, Sindhi is written in a variant of the Arabic script, which was adopted under the encouragement of the British when Sindh fell to them in the 19th century. It has a total of 52 letters, accommodating the additional sounds peculiar to Indo-Aryan languages. Some letters that are distinguished in Arabic are pronounced identically in Sindhi.

Devanagari

Languages of Pakistan
Languages of India
List of national languages of India
List of Indian languages by total speakers

Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. This branch also includes the Irish and Manx languages. It is distinct from the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages, which includes Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Scottish, Manx and Irish Gaelic are all descended from Old Irish. The language is often described as Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, or Gàidhlig to avoid confusion with the other two Goidelic languages. Outside Scotland, it is occasionally also called Scottish or Scots, a usage dating back over 1,500 years, for example Old English Scottas. This usage is uncommon in Scotland because since the 16th century the word Scots has by-and-large been used to describe (Lowland) Scots, which developed from the northern form of early Middle English. In Scottish English, Gaelic is pronounced [ˈgaːlɪk]; outside Scotland, it is usually [ˈgeɪlɪk] (for comprehension, see IPA).

History
The 2001 UK Census showed a total of 58,652 Gaelic speakers in Scotland (1.2% of population over three years old). Compared to the 1991 Census, there has been a diminution of approximately 7,300 people (an 11% of the total), meaning that Gaelic decline (language shift) in Scotland is continuing. To date, attempts at language revival or reversing language shift have been met with limited success.
Considering the data related to Civil Parishes (which permit a continuous study of Gaelic status since the 19th century), two new circumstances have taken place, which are related to this decline:
The main stronghold of the language continues to be the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar), where the overall proportion of speakers remains at 61.1% and all parishes return values over 50%. The Parish of Kilmuir in Northern Skye is also over this threshold of 50%.
Proportions over 20% register throughout the isles of Skye, Raasay, Tiree, Islay and Colonsay, and the already mentioned parish of Lochalsh in Highland.
Regardless, the weight of Gaelic in Scotland is now much reduced. From a total of almost 900 Civil Parishes in Scotland:
Outside the main Gaelic-speaking areas a relatively high proportion of Gaelic-speaking people are, in effect, socially isolated from other Gaelic-speakers and as a result they obtain few opportunities to use the language.

No parish in Scotland has a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 75% any more (the highest value corresponds to Barvas, Lewis, with 74.7%).
No parish in mainland Scotland has a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 25% any more (the highest value corresponds to Lochalsh, Highland, with 20.8%).
Only 9 of them have a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 50%.
Only 20 of them have a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 25%.
Only 39 of them have a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 10%. Current distribution in Scotland
Further information: Scottish Gaelic alphabet
Old Irish, the precursor to both Modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic, was written in a carved writing called Ogham. Ogham consisted of marks made above or below a horizontal line. With the advent of Christianity in the 10th century the Latin alphabet was introduced to Ireland. The Goidelic languages have historically been part of a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland, the Isle of Man, to the north of Scotland.
A form of Early Modern Irish, known as "Classical Gaelic", was used as a literary language in Ireland until the 17th century and in Scotland until the 18th century. Later orthographic divergence is the result of more recent orthographic reforms resulting in standardised pluricentric diasystems.
The 1767 New Testament historically set the standard for Scottish Gaelic. Around the time of World War II, Irish spelling was reformed and the Official Standard or Caighdeán Oifigiúil introduced. Further reform in 1957 eliminated some of the silent letters which are still used in Scottish Gaelic. The 1981 Scottish Examinations Board recommendations for Scottish Gaelic, the Gaelic Orthographic Conventions, were adopted by most publishers and agencies, although they remain controversial among some academics, most notably Ronald Black.
The modern Scottish Gaelic alphabet has 18 letters:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U
The letter h, now mostly used to indicate lenition of a consonant, was in general not used in the oldest orthography, as lenition was instead indicated with a dot over the lenited consonant. The letters of the alphabet were traditionally named after trees (see Scottish Gaelic alphabet), but this custom has fallen out of use.
The quality of consonants is indicated in writing by the vowels surrounding them. So-called "slender" consonants are palatalised while "broad" consonants are velarised. The vowels e and i are classified as slender, and a, o, and u as broad. The spelling rule known as caol ri caol agus leathann ri leathann ("slender to slender and broad to broad") requires that a word-medial consonant or consonant group preceded by a written i or e be also followed by an i or e; and similarly if preceded by a, o or u be also followed by an a, o, or u. Consonant quality (palatalised or non-palatalised) is then indicated by the vowels written adjacent to a consonant, and the spelling rule gives the benefit of removing possibly uncertainty about consonant quality at the expense of adding additional purely graphic vowels that may not be pronounced. For example, compare the t in slàinte [slaːntʃə] with the t in bàta [paːtə].
The rule has no effect on the pronunciation of vowels. For example, plurals in Gaelic are often formed with the suffix -an, for example, bròg [proːk] (shoe) / brògan [proːkən] (shoes). But because of the spelling rule, the suffix is spelled -ean (but pronounced the same) after a slender consonant, as in taigh [tʰɤj] (house) / taighean [tʰɤjən] (houses) where the written e is purely a graphic vowel inserted to conform with the spelling rule because an i precedes the gh.
In changes promoted by the Scottish Examination Board from 1976 onwards, certain modifications were made to this rule. For example, the suffix of the past participle is always spelled -te, even after a broad consonant, as in togte "raised" (rather than the traditional togta).
Where pairs of vowels occur in writing, it is sometimes unclear which vowel is to be pronounced and which vowel has been introduced to satisfy this spelling rule.
Unstressed vowels omitted in speech can be omitted in informal writing. For example:
Tha mi an dòchas. ("I hope.") > Tha mi 'n dòchas.
Once Gaelic orthographic rules have been learned, the pronunciation of the written language can be seen to be quite predictable. However learners must be careful not to try to apply English sound-to-letter correspondences to written Gaelic, otherwise mispronunciations will result. Gaelic personal names such as Seònaid [ˈʃɔːnɛdʒ] are especially likely to be mispronounced by English speakers.

Orthography

Pronunciation
Gaelic vowels can have a grave accent, with the letters à, è, ì, ò, ù. Traditional spelling also uses the acute accent on the letters á, é and ó, but texts which follow the spelling reform only use the grave.

A table of vowels with pronunciations in IPA

Spelling	Pronunciation	English equivalent	As in
a, á	[a], [a]	cat	bata, lochán
à	[aː]	father	bàta
e	[ɛ], [e]	get, late	le, teth
è, é	[ɛː], [eː]	marry, lady	sèimh, fhéin
i	[i], [iː]	tin, sweet	sin, ith
ì	[iː]	evil	mìn
o	[ɔ], [o]	top, boat	poca, bog
ò, ó	[ɔː], [oː]	jaw, door	pòcaid, mór
u	[u]	brood	tur
ù	[uː]	brewed	tùr

Vowels

A table of diphthongs with pronunciations in IPA

Spelling	Pronunciation	As in
ai	[a], [ə], [ɛ], [i]	caileag, iuchair, geamair, dùthaich
ài	[aː], [ai]	àite, bara-làimhe
ao(i)	[ɯː], [ᵚi]	caol, gaoil, laoidh
ea	[ʲa], [e], [ɛ]	geal, deas, bean
eà	[ʲaː]	ceàrr
èa	[ɛː]	nèamh
ei	[e], [ɛ]	eile, ainmeil
èi	[ɛː]	cèilidh
éi	[eː]	fhéin
eo	[ʲɔ]	deoch
eò(i)	[ʲɔː]	ceòl, feòil
eu	[eː], [ia]	ceum, feur
ia	[iə], [ia]	biadh, dian
io	[i], [ᴊũ]	fios, fionn
ìo	[iː], [iə]	sgrìobh, mìos
iu	[ᴊu]	piuthar
iù(i)	[ᴊuː]	diùlt, diùid
oi	[ɔ], [ɤ]	boireannach, goirid
òi	[ɔː]	fòill
ói	[oː]	cóig
ua(i)	[uə], [ua]	ruadh, uabhasach, duais
ui	[u], [ɯ], [ui]	muir, uighean, tuinn
ùi	[uː]	dùin

Diphthongs
Most letters are pronounced similarly to other European languages. The broad consonants t and d and often n have a dental articulation (as in Irish and the Romance and Slavic languages) in contrast to the alveolar articulation common in English and other Germanic languages). Non-palatal r is an alveolar trill (like Italian r or Spanish rr.)

	Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Post alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n̪		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	p, b	t̪, d̪			k, g
Affricate			ʧ, ʤ
Fricative	f, v	s	ʃ		x, ɣ
Approximant				j
Lateral		l, ɫ		ʎ
Trill		r
Flap		ɾ

Consonants
The "voiced" stops /b, d, g/ are not phonetically voiced [+voice] in Gaelic, but rather voiceless unaspirated. Thus Gaelic /b, d, g/ are really phonetically [p, t, k] [-voice, -aspirated].
The "voiceless" stops /p, t, k/ are voiceless and strongly aspirated (postaspirated in initial position, preaspirated in medial or final position). That is, in syllable onsets Gaelic /p, t, k/ are phonetically [p], but they are [hp,ht,xk] in syllable-final position. Note that preaspirated stops can also be found in Icelandic. Because of these facts, it can be argued that Gaelic /p, t, k/ are [-voice, +aspirated].
In some Gaelic dialects, stops at the beginning of a stressed syllable become voiced when they follow a nasal consonant, for example: taigh 'a house' is [tʰɤi] but an taigh 'the house' is [ən dʰɤi]; cf. also tombaca 'tobacco' [tʰomˈbaxkə].

Aspiration vs. Voicing in Gaelic Stops
Scottish Gaelic along with Modern Irish, Manx and Old Irish contains what are traditionally referred to as broad and slender (palatalized) consonants. Historically, Primitive Irish consonants preceding the front vowels /e/ and /i/ developed a [j] onglide similar to palatalized consonants found in Russian (Thurneysen 1946, 1980). Celtic linguists traditionally transcribe slender consonants as /C´/.
Modern languages contrast from Gaelic in the assumed meaning of "broad" and "slender". In modern languages, the phonetic difference between "broad" and "slender" consonants are more complex than mere 'palatalization'. For instance, the Gaelic slender s, phonetically transcribed as /s´/, is actually pronounced as the alveolo-palatal fricative [ʃ], not as [sʲ]. See the consonant chart below for details.

Broad vs. Slender
The lenited consonants have special pronunciations: bh and mh are [v]; ch is [x] or [ç]; dh, gh is [ʝ] or [ɣ]; th is [h], [ʔ], or silent; ph is [f]. Lenition of l n r is not shown in writing. The digraph fh is almost always silent, with only the following three exceptions: fhèin, fhathast, and fhuair, where it is pronounced as [h].

A table of consonants with pronunciations in IPA. Based on Gillies (1993).

Radical			Lenited
Orthography	Broad	Slender	Orthography	Broad	Slender
b (initial)	[p]	[pj]	bh	[v]	[vj]
b (final)	[p]	[jp]	bh	[v]	[vj]
c (initial)	[kʰ]	[kʰʲ] or [cʰ]	ch	[x]	[ç]
c (final)	[xk]	[kʰʲ] or [çkʲ]	ch	[x]	[ç]
d	[t̪]	[ʤ]	dh	[ɣ]	[ʝ]
f (initial)	[f]	[fj]	fh	silent	silent
f (final)	[f]	[jf]	fh	silent	silent
g	[k]	[kʲ] or [c]	gh	[ɣ]	[ʝ]
l	[ɫ̪]	[ʎ]	l	no change	[ʎ] or [l]
m	[m]	[mj]	mh	[v]	[vj]
n	[n̪ˠ]	[ɲ]	n	[n]	[ɲ] or [n]
p (initial)	[pʰ]	[pjʰ]	ph	[f]	[fj]
p (final)	[hp]	[jhp]	ph	[f]	[fj]
r'	[rˠ]	same as broad	r	[ɾ]	[ɾ]
s	[s̪]	[ʃ]	sh	[h]	[hʲ]
t (initial)	[t̪ʰ]	[tʃʰ]	th	[h]	[hʲ]
t (final)	[ht̪]	[htʃ]	th	[h] or silent	[hj] or [j]

Lenition and spelling
Stress is usually on the first syllable: for example drochaid 'a bridge' [ˈtroxaʤ]. (Knowledge of this fact alone would help avoid many a mispronunciation of Highland placenames, for example Mallaig is [ˈmaʊɫækʲ].) Note, though, that when a placename consists of more than one word in Gaelic, the Anglicised form is liable to have stress on the last element: Tyndrum [taɪnˈdrʌm] < Taigh an Droma [tʰɤin ˈdromə]. This is because, unlike English, Gaelic word order places the specific element - adjectives, genitives - after the generic.

Stress
A distinctive characteristic of Gaelic pronunciation (which has influenced the Scottish accent – cf. girl [gʌrəl] and film [fɪləm]) is the insertion of epenthetic vowels between certain adjacent consonants, specifically, between sonorants (l or r) and certain following consonants:
tarbh (bull) — [t̪ʰarav]
Alba (Scotland) — [aɫ̪apa].

Epenthesis
Schwa [ə] at the end of a word is dropped when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. For example:
duine (a man) — [ˈt̪ɯɲə]
an duine agad (your man) — [ən ˈt̪ɯɲ akət̪]

Grammar
After centuries of persecution, prejudice and neglect,
Under the provisions of the 2005 Act, it will ultimately fall to BnG to secure the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland.

Establishing the Gaelic development body, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, (BnG), on a statutory basis with a view to securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language and to promote the use and understanding of Gaelic.
Requiring BnG to prepare a National Gaelic Language Plan for approval by Scottish Ministers.
Requiring BnG to produce guidance on Gaelic Education for education authorities.
Requiring public bodies in Scotland, both Scottish public bodies and cross border public bodies insofar as they carry out devolved functions, to develop Gaelic language plans in relation to the services they offer, if requested to do so by BnG. Official recognition
In the Western Isles, the isles of Lewis, Harris and North Uist have a Presbyterian majority (largely Church of Scotland - Eaglais na h-Alba in Gaelic, Free Church of Scotland and Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.) The isles of South Uist and Barra have a Catholic majority. All these churches have Gaelic-speaking congregations throughout the Western Isles.
There are Gaelic-speaking congregations in the Church of Scotland, mainly in the Highlands and Islands, but also in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Notable city congregations with regular services in Gaelic are St Columba's Church, Glasgow and Greyfriars Tolbooth & Highland Kirk, Edinburgh. Leabhar Sheirbheisean - a shorter Gaelic version of the English-language Book of Common Order - was published in 1996 by the Church of Scotland, ISBN 0-907624-12-X.
The relationship between the Church and Gaelic has not always been an easy one. The widespread use of English in worship has often been suggested as one of the historic reasons for Gaelic's decline. Whilst the Church of Scotland is supportive today, there is, however, an increasing difficulty in being able to find Gaelic-speaking ministers.

Church
Gaelic has a number of personal names, such as Ailean, Aonghas, Dòmhnall, Donnchadh, Coinneach, Murchadh, for which there are traditional forms in English (Alan, Angus, Donald, Duncan, Kenneth, Murdo). There are also distinctly Scottish Gaelic forms of names that belong to the common European stock of given names, such as: Iain (John), Alasdair (Alexander), Uilleam (William), Catrìona (Catherine), Cairistìona (Christina), Anna (Ann), Màiri (Mary), Seumas (James) and Pàdraig (Patrick). Some names have come into Gaelic from Old Norse, for example: Somhairle ( < Somarliðr), Tormod (< Þórmóðr), Torcuil (< Þórkell, Þórketill), Ìomhair (Ívarr). These are conventionally rendered in English as Sorley (or, historically, Somerled), Norman, Torquil, and Iver (or Evander). There are other, traditional, Gaelic names which have no direct equivalents in English: Oighrig, which is normally rendered as Euphemia (Effie) or Henrietta (Etta) (formerly also as Henny or even as Harriet), or, Diorbhal, which is "matched" with Dorothy, simply on the basis of a certain similarity in spelling; Gormul, for which there is nothing similar in English, and it is rendered as 'Gormelia' or even 'Dorothy'; Beathag, which is "matched" with Becky (> Rebecca) and even Betsy, or Sophie.
Many of these are now regarded as old-fashioned, and are no longer used (which is, of course, a feature common to many cultures: names go out of fashion). As there is only a relatively small pool of traditional Gaelic names from which to choose, some families within the Gaelic-speaking communities have in recent years made a conscious decision when naming their children to seek out names that are used within the wider English-speaking world. These names do not, of course, have an equivalent in Gaelic. What effect that practice (if it becomes popular) might have on the language remains to be seen. At this stage (2005), it is clear that some native Gaelic-speakers are willing to break with tradition. Opinion on this practice is divided; whilst some would argue that they are thereby weakening their link with their linguistic and cultural heritage, others take the opposing view that Gaelic, as with any other language, must retain a degree of flexibility and adaptability if it is to survive in the modern world at all.
The well-known name Hamish, and the recently established Mhairi (pronounced [va:ri]) come from the Gaelic for, respectively, James, and Mary, but derive from the form of the names as they appear in the vocative case: Seumas (James) (nom.) → Sheumais (voc.), and, Màiri (Mary) (nom.) → Mhàiri (voc.).
The most common class of Gaelic surnames are, of course, those beginning with mac (Gaelic for son), such as MacGillEathain (MacLean). The female form is nic (Gaelic for daughter), so Catherine MacPhee is properly called in Gaelic, Caitrìona Nic a' Phì.
Several colours give rise to common Scottish surnames: bàn (Bain - white), ruadh (Roy - red), dubh (Dow - black), donn (Dunn - brown), buidhe (Bowie - yellow).

Personal names
The majority of Scottish Gaelic's vocabulary is native Celtic. There are a large number of borrowings from Latin, (muinntir, Didòmhnaich), ancient Greek, especially in the religious domain (eaglais, Bìoball from Ekklesia and Biblia), Norse (eilean, sgeir), Hebrew (Sàbaid, Aba) and Lowland Scots (briogais, aidh).
In common with other Indo-European languages, the neologisms which are coined for modern concepts are typically based on Greek or Latin, although written in Gaelic orthography; television, for instance, becomes telebhisean (cian-dhealbh could also be used), and computer becomes coimpiùtar (aireamhadair, bocsa-fiosa or bocsa-sgrìobhaidh could also be used). Although native speakers frequently use an English word for which there is a perfectly good Gaelic equivalent, they will, without thinking, simply adopt the English word and use it, applying the rules of Gaelic grammar, as the situation requires. With verbs, for instance, they will simply add the verbal suffix (-eadh, or, in Lewis, -igeadh, as in, "Tha mi a' watcheadh (Lewis, "watchigeadh") an telly" (I am watching the television), instead of "Tha mi a' coimhead air a' chian-dhealbh". This was remarked upon by the minister who compiled the account covering the parish of Stornoway in the New Statistical Account of Scotland, published over 170 years ago. However, as Gaelic medium education grows in popularity, a newer generation of literate Gaels is becoming more familiar with modern Gaelic vocabulary.
Going in the other direction, Scottish Gaelic has influenced the Scots language (gob) and English, particularly Scottish Standard English. Loanwords include: whisky, slogan, brogue, jilt, clan, strontium (from Strontian), trousers, as well as familiar elements of Scottish geography like ben (beinn), glen (gleann) and loch. Irish Gaelic has also influenced Lowland Scots and English in Scotland, but it is not always easy to distinguish its influence from that of the Scottish variety. See List of English words of Scottish Gaelic origin
Source: An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Alexander MacBain.

Loanwords
Further information: Differences between Scottish Gaelic and Irish

See also

Gillies, H. Cameron (1896) Elements of Gaelic Grammar, Vancouver: Global Language Press (reprint 2006), ISBN 1-897367-02-3 (hardcover), ISBN 1-897367-00-7 (paperback)
Gillies, William (1993) "Scottish Gaelic", in: Ball, Martin J. and Fife, James (eds) The Celtic Languages (Routledge Language Family Descriptions), London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28080-X (paperback), p. 145–227
Lamb, William (2001) Scottish Gaelic, Munich: Lincom Europa, ISBN 3-89586-408-0
McLeod, Wilson (ed.) (2006) Revitalising Gaelic in Scotland: Policy, Planning and Public Discourse, Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, ISBN 1-903765-59-5

A sari / saree is the traditional female garment in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The sari is usually worn over a petticoat (pavada/pavadai in the south, and shaya in eastern India), with a blouse known as a choli or ravika forming the upper garment. The choli has short sleeves and a low neck and is usually cropped, and as such is particularly well-suited for wear in the sultry South Asian summers. Office dress codes, however, prohibit cropped, sleeveless cholis; similarly, women in the armed forces, when wearing a sari uniform, don a half-sleeve shirt tucked in at the waist.

Styles of draping

Outside India
Sri Lankan women wear saris in many styles. However, two ways of draping the sari are popular and tend to dominate; the Indian style (classic nivi drape) and the Kandyan style (or 'osaria' in Sinhalese). The Kandyan style is generally more popular in the hill country region of Kandy from which the style gets its name. Though local preferences play a role, most women decide on style depending on personal preference or what is perceived to be most flattering for their figure.
The traditional Kandyan (Osaria) style consists of a full blouse which covers the midriff completely, and is partially tucked in at the front as is seen in this 19th century portrait. However, modern intermingling of styles has led to most wearers baring the midriff. The final tail of the sari is neatly pleated rather than free-flowing. This is rather similar to the pleated rosette used in the 'Dravidian' style noted earlier in the article.

Pakistan
Saris are woven with one plain end (the end that is concealed inside the wrap), two long decorative borders running the length of the sari, and a one to three foot section at the other end which continues and elaborates the length-wise decoration. This end is called the pallu; it is the part thrown over the shoulder in the Nivi style of draping.
In past times, saris were woven of silk or cotton. The rich could afford finely-woven, diaphanous silk saris that, according to folklore, could be passed through a finger-ring. The poor wore coarsely woven cotton saris. All saris were handwoven and represented a considerable investment of time or money.
Simple hand-woven villagers' saris are often decorated with checks or stripes woven into the cloth. Inexpensive saris were also decorated with block printing using carved wooden blocks and vegetable dyes, or tie-dyeing, known in India as bhandani work.
More expensive saris had elaborate geometric, floral, or figurative ornament created on the loom, as part of the fabric. Sometimes warp and weft threads were tie-dyed and then woven, creating ikat patterns. Sometimes threads of different colors were woven into the base fabric in patterns; an ornamented border, an elaborate pallu, and often, small repeated accents in the cloth itself. These accents are called buttis or bhutties (spellings vary). For fancy saris, these patterns could be woven with gold or silver thread, which is called zari work.
Sometimes the saris were further decorated, after weaving, with various sorts of embroidery. Resham work is embroidery done with colored silk thread. Zardozi embroidery uses gold and silver thread and sometimes pearls and precious stones. Cheap modern versions of zardozi use synthetic metallic thread and imitation stones, such as fake pearls and Swarovski crystals.
In modern times, saris are increasingly woven on mechanical looms and made of artificial fibers, such as polyester, nylon, or rayon, which do not require starching or ironing. They are printed by machine, or woven in simple patterns made with floats across the back of the sari. This can create an elaborate appearance on the front, while looking ugly on the back. The punchra work is imitated with inexpensive machine-made tassel trim.
Hand-woven, hand-decorated saris are naturally much more expensive than the machine imitations. While the over-all market for handweaving has plummeted (leading to much distress among Indian handweavers), hand-woven saris are still popular for weddings and other grand social occasions.

The sari as cloth
While an international image of the 'modern style' sari may have been popularised by airline stewardesses, each region in the Indian subcontinent has developed, over the centuries, its own unique sari style. Following are the well known varieties, distinct on the basis of fabric, weaving style or motif:

Types of saris

Indian saris

Chikan – Lucknow
Banarasi – Benares

• Tant
  Jamdani
  Tanchoi
  Shalu Northern styles
  
  Kantha– West Bengal
  Baluchari West Bengal
  Ikat – Orissa Eastern styles
  
  Paithani – Maharashtra
  Bandhani – Gujarat and Rajasthan
  Kota doria Rajasthan
  Lugade – Maharashtra Western styles
  
  Chanderi – Madhya Pradesh Central styles
  
  Pochampally Andhra Pradesh
  Venkatagiri – Andhra Pradesh
  Gadwal – Andhra Pradesh
  Guntur – Andhra Pradesh
  Narayanpet – Andhra Pradesh
  Mangalagiri – Andhra Pradesh
  Balarampuram – Kerala
  Coimbatore – Tamil Nadu
  Kanchipuram (locally called Kanjivaram) – Tamil Nadu
  Chettinad – Tamil Nadu
  Mysore Silk – Karnataka
  Ilkal saree – Karnataka Southern styles
  
  Jamdani
  Dhakai Benarosi
  Rajshahi Silk
  Tangail Tanter Sari
  Katan Sari Bangladeshi saris
  Nepalese women wear saris of many styles. Various saris are named according to the community and types of saris as well. Haku patasi worn by Jyapu community of Nepal is one of the most representative of Nepalese saris. It consists of a black sari with red margin.
  
  Nepalese saris
  The word 'sari' evolved from the Prakrit 'sattika' as mentioned in earliest buddhist jain literature. including many pictures by Raja Ravi Varma. Even today, women in some rural areas do not wear cholis. In the privacy of homes, even city women sometimes find it convenient to drape the sari as a cover-all, without the choli.
  
  Origins and history
  Saris being laundered and left to dry
  A sari shop in Hyderabad
  A traditional sari fabric
  Group of sari-clad women wearing everyday saris
  A Tamil couple; the wife is wearing a madisaar sari
  
  See also
  
  

A ban is, generally, any decree that prohibits something.
Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some see this as a negative act (equating it to a form of censorship or discrimination) and others see it as maintaining the "status quo". Bans in commerce are referred to as embargos.

Banned persons under Apartheid
In internet forums and MMORPGs, the host sometimes has the power to ban players who do not follow the rules.
Banning (sometimes called 'blocking') is commonplace in internet culture. The banhammer is a metaphorical tool used in many of these games.

Canal Winchester is a village in Fairfield and Franklin counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 4,478 at the 2000 census, and was estimated to be at 5,819 as of July 2006.

Geography
As of the census of 2000, there were 4,478 people, 1,664 households, and 1,264 families residing in the village. The 2004 census estimates that there are now 5,381 people residing in the village, and Canal Winchester may become a city within the next year or two. The population density was 702.9 people per square mile (271.4/km²). There were 1,779 housing units at an average density of 279.2/sq mi (107.8/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 95.60% White, 2.19% African American, 0.38% Native American, 0.67% Asian, 0.04% from other races, and 1.12% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.51% of the population.
There were 1,664 households out of which 37.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.6% were married couples living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.0% were non-families. 20.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.04.
In the village the population was spread out with 27.0% under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 30.2% from 25 to 44, 23.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 87.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.4 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $55,645, and the median income for a family was $67,833. Males had a median income of $39,123 versus $37,399 for females. The per capita income for the village was $24,394. About 1.2% of families and 2.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.0% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

For other uses, see Death (disambiguation), Dead (disambiguation), or Deceased (band).
Death is the permanent end of the life of a biological organism. Death may refer to the end of life as either an event or condition.

Main articles: Euthanasia and animal euthanasia

Russian 3,009,876 Americans 1% of the US population

Russian Americans are Americans of Russian descent or who were born in Russia. Non-ethnic Russians in this group could be Jewish, Ukrainian, Armenian, or any other ethnicity who were born and grew up in Russia (Tsarist, Soviet, or post-Soviet) and speak Russian.
The Russian American or Russophone population is estimated to be around 3 million. Many Russian Americans are Jews. Many Russian Americans do not speak Russian, having immigrated to the United States more than fifty years ago. Many families actively oppose to their children speaking Russian. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000, 706,242 Americans indicated Russian as their spoken language.
Sometimes Carpatho-Rusyns and Ukrainians who emigrated from Galicia in the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century are confused with Russian Americans. More recent emigres would often refer to this group as the 'starozhili', which tranlates to mean "old residents". This group became the pillar of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America. Today, most of this group has become assymilated into the local society, with ethnic traditions continuing to survive primarily around the church.
Apart from such settlements as Brighton Beach, concentrations of Russian Americans occur in Anchorage, Alaska; Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Bronx, New York; Brooklyn, New York; Queens, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Western Connecticut; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; Northern New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; South Florida and Staten Island, New York.