3 Week Body Make Over
3-Week Body Makeover

All you need are walking shoes, a set of dumbbells, and 21 days

by Michele Stanten

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You can get a new body in less than a month--one with more energy, a revved up metabolism to burn extra calories, and a firmer, shapelier figure that will turn heads whether you're wearing jeans or a little black dress.

The secret to dropping pounds and inches quickly is high-intensity workouts. But don't panic--you don't have to run for miles or lift 50-pound dumbbells. What's high intensity for someone who's less fit may be low for you, or vice versa.

The point is to push out of your comfort zone so you boost your calorie burn an extra 25 to 50 percent in the same amount of time--and incinerate another 75 calories over the course of the day to boot.

This firm-up plan consists of three parts: a walking workout to burn fat, body shaping with weights, and tummy-toning calisthenics. The walking workout includes four walks (easy, interval, speed, and long), and the weight workout includes three routines (basic, light, and heavy). Mixing and matching them will keep you speeding along toward fabulous results.

Firm Up Plan At-a-Glance
Here is an overview of what you'll be doing. Most days you'll combine two of the three workouts.

Monday
Easy walk
Body shaping (basic)

Tuesday
Interval walk
Tummy toning

Wednesday
Easy walk
Body shaping (light weights)

Thursday
Interval walk
Tummy toning

Friday
Easy walk
Body shaping (heavy weights)

Saturday
Speed walk
Tummy toning

Sunday
Long walk

** Adapted from Prevention's Firm Up in 3 Weeks by Michele Stanten (Rodale Inc., 2004). To order, call (800) 848-4735 or visit www.rodalestore.com.

Fat-Burning Walking Workout
Crank up your calorie burn by starting with a variety of walking routines--from moderately paced jaunts to high-speed intervals--each week. Start and finish each of your workouts with 5 minutes of slow walking to warm up and cool down. Afterwards, move on to either the Body-Shaping Workout or Tummy-Toning Workout, depending on the day of the week. On Sunday, simply enjoy the walk--you've earned it!

Easy walk (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
It's "easy" because you don't have to really push yourself. Just get out and walk at a good pace, as if you were 5 minutes late for an appointment.

Week 1: 30 minutes
Week 2: 35 minutes
Week 3: 40 minutes

Interval walk (Tuesday and Thursday)
Here you'll pick up the pace--and your calorie burn--for about 30 to 90 seconds before slowing down to catch your breath. During the speed interval, you should be walking so that you're breathing hard and talking in full sentences is difficult.

Week 1: 4-minute moderate pace, 30-second speed interval; do 4 times = 18 minutes total
Week 2: 4-minute moderate pace, 60-second speed interval; do 4 times = 20 minutes total
Week 3: 3-minute moderate pace, 90-second speed interval; do 4 times = 18 minutes total

Speed Walk (Saturday)
Pick an easy-to-remember route that will take about 20 minutes to complete at a fast pace. Each week, try to cover the same distance in less time.

Long Walk (Sunday)
This is your endurance workout. Walk at a pace you can comfortably sustain for the recommended time. Focus on enjoying your jaunt, not on getting out and back fast.

Week 1: 40 minutes
Week 2: 50 minutes
Week 3: 60 minutes


Body-Shaping Workout
After your walk, do the Body-Shaping moves on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Lunge*

Bent-Over Row

Overhead Press

Push-Up

Reps
Basic (Monday)
Complete three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions for each exercise. Use weights heavy enough to make your last few reps challenging.

Light Weights (Wednesday)
Use lighter weights and do 3 full-rep, then 3 pulse-rep sequences three times for a total of 18 reps. For example, for the pulse reps of the overhead press, instead of bringing the weights down to shoulder height, stop at about the top of your head, then press them up three times from that position.

Heavy Weights (Friday)
Grab heavier weights and do three sets of 6 to 8 reps for each exercise.

Tummy-Toning Workout
After your walk, do the Tummy-Toning moves on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Balance

Plank

Bridge

Twisting Crunch

For each workout, you'll do the same moves on the appropriate days, with weekly variations to make them more challenging.

Chart Your Progress
Make tracking your 21-day fitness plan easier by hanging this Fitness Log in plain sight--and using it. After every workout, simply check off the appropriate box (no, the walk times don't include warm-ups and cool-downs, but you have to do them anyway).

Prevention Articles and Diagrams

Genealogy In The Future With mtDNA
All we will have to do is look at a persons mtDNA to see how we are related.

See: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neanderthals/mtdna.html for an intoduction in to mtDNA.

NOVA: Eve the Earliest Neanderthals
Tracing Ancestry with MtDNA
By Rick Groleau

In 1987, three scientists announced in the journal Nature that they had found a common ancestor to us all, a woman who lived in Africa 200,000 years ago. She was given the name "Eve," which was great for capturing attention, though somewhat misleading, as the name at once brought to mind the biblical Eve, and with it the mistaken notion that the ancestor was the first of our species -- the woman from whom all humankind descended.

The "Eve" in question was actually the most recent common ancestor through matrilineal descent of all humans living today. That is, all people alive today can trace some of their genetic heritage through their mothers back to this one woman. The scientists hypothesized this ancient woman's existence by looking within the cells of living people and analyzing short loops of genetic code known as mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA for short. In recent years, scientists have used mtDNA to trace the evolution and migration of human species, including when the common ancestor to modern humans and Neanderthals lived -- though there has been considerable debate over the validity and value of the findings.


In reproduction, the nuclear DNA of one parent mixes with the nuclear DNA of the other. MtDNA, on the other hand, passes on from mother to offspring unaltered.
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Nuclear DNA vs mitochondrial DNA
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When someone mentions human DNA, what do you think of? If you know a little about the topic, perhaps you think of the 46 chromosomes that inhabit the nucleus of almost every cell that comprises your body. These chromosomes hold the vast bulk of genetic information that you've inherited from your parents.

Outside the nucleus, but still within the cell, lie mitochondria. Mitochondria are tiny structures that help cells in a number of ways, including producing the energy that cells need. Each mitochondrion -- there are about 1,700 in every human cell -- includes an identical loop of DNA about 16,000 base pairs long containing 37 genes. In contrast, nuclear DNA consists of three billion base pairs and an estimated 70,000 genes. (This estimate has been revised upward several times since the announcement that the human genome had been decoded, and likely will be again.)


Inheriting mtDNA
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Whenever an egg cell is fertilized, nuclear chromosomes from a sperm cell enter the egg and combine with the egg's nuclear DNA, producing a mixture of both parents' genetic code. The mtDNA from the sperm cell, however, is left behind, outside of the egg cell.

So the fertilized egg contains a mixture of the father and mother's nuclear DNA and an exact copy of the mother's mtDNA, but none of the father's mtDNA. The result is that mtDNA is passed on only along the maternal line. This means that all of the mtDNA in the cells of a person's body are copies of his or her mother's mtDNA, and all of the mother's mtDNA is a copy of her mother's, and so on. No matter how far back you go, mtDNA is always inherited only from the mother.

If you went back six generations in your own family tree, you'd see that your nuclear DNA is inherited from 32 men and 32 women[1]. Your mtDNA, on the other hand, would have come from only one of those 32 women.



See the difference between mtDNA and nuclear DNA ancestry with this interactive family tree.

Go to "Tracing Ancestry with MtDNA"

(Requires Flash plugin)

Go to non-Flash version of "Tracing Ancestry with MtDNA"
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Defining mitochondrial ancestors
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Let's get back to "Eve." The ancestor referred to in the 1987 Nature article can be more precisely stated as "the most recent common ancestor through matrilineal descent of all humans living today." In other words, she is the most recent person from whom everyone now living on Earth has inherited his or her mtDNA. This certainly does not mean that she is the ancestral mother of all who came after her; during her time and even before her time there were many women and men who contributed to the nuclear genes we now carry. (To see how this can be, check out Tracing Ancestry.) It also does not mean that the mtDNA originated with this "Eve"; she and her contemporaries also had their own "most recent common ancestor though matrilineal descent," a woman who lived even further into the past who passed on her mtDNA to everyone living during "Eve's" time. (We get our mtDNA from that same, older ancestor. She's just not, to us, the most recent common ancestor.)

So what about all of the mtDNA of the other women who lived during "Eve's" time? What happened to it? Simply this: Somewhere between now and then, they had female descendants who had only sons (or no children). When this happened, the passing on of their mtDNA halted.


Finding mitochondrial ancestors
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Even though everyone on Earth living today has inherited his or her mtDNA from one person who lived long ago, our mtDNA is not exactly alike. Random mutations have altered the genetic code over the millennia. But these mutations are organized, in a way. For example, let's say that 10,000 years after the most recent common ancestor, one of the mtDNA branches experienced a mutation. From that point on, that line of mtDNA would include that alteration. Another branch might experience a mutation in a different location. This alteration would also be passed on. What we would eventually end up with are some descendants who have mtDNA that is exactly or very much like that of some people's, somewhat like that of others, and less like that of yet others. By looking at the similarities and differences of the mtDNA of all of these individuals, researchers could try to reconstruct where the branching took place.

This is what some researchers have done. For the original 1987 Nature article, the three authors (Rebecca Cann, Mark Stoneking, and Allan Wilson) looked at the mtDNA of 147 people from continents around the world (though for Africans, they relied on African Americans[2]). Later, with the help of a computer program, they put together a sort of family tree, grouping those with the most similar DNA together, then grouping the groups, and then grouping the groups of groups. The tree they ended up with showed that one of the two primary branches consisted only of African mtDNA and that the other branch consisted of mtDNA from all over the world, including Africa. From this, they inferred that the most recent common mtDNA ancestor was an African woman.[3]


Dating mitochondrial ancestors
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The three researchers went even further -- they estimated the age of the ancestor. To get the estimate, they made the assumption that the random mutations occurred at a steady rate. And since they now had an idea of how much the mtDNA had changed from the ancestor's, all they needed was the mutation rate to determine the age of the ancestor. For instance, if they took the mutation rate to be one in every 1,000 years and knew that there was a difference of 10 mutations between the mtDNA of people living today and the mtDNA of an ancestor who lived long ago, then they could infer that the ancestor lived 10,000 years ago.

Cann, Stoneking, and Wilson estimated the mutation rate by looking at the mtDNA of groups of people whose ancestors migrated to areas at known times. One group was Australian aborigines, whose ancestors moved to the island-continent a then-calculated 30,000 years ago.[4] Since the three then knew how long it took for that group's mtDNA to diverge as well as how much it diverged, they determined the mutation rate. Using this rate, they determined that the most recent common ancestor lived 140,000 to 290,000 years ago (which they roughly averaged to 200,000 years ago). That was back in 1987. Since then, researchers have updated the estimate to 120,000 to 150,000 years ago. However, the margin for error for this estimate and the previous one are significant -- when all of the variables are taken into account, the current range is more like 50,000 to 500,000.


Mitochondrial DNA is extracted from the bones of Neanderthals and compared to the mtDNA of living Homo sapiens.
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Neanderthals and mtDNA
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Finding out about our most recent common ancestor relies solely on inferences from the mtDNA of people living today. What if we could actually compare our mtDNA with mtDNA of a distant ancestor? This, in fact, has been done, with mtDNA from the bones of Neanderthals. Comparing mtDNA of these Neanderthals to mtDNA of living people from various continents, researchers have found that the Neanderthals' mtDNA is not more closely related to that of people from any one continent over another. This was an unwelcome finding for anthropologists who believe that there was some interbreeding between Neanderthals and early modern humans living in Europe (which might have helped to explain why modern Europeans possess some Neanderthal-like features); these particular anthropologists instead would have expected the Neanderthals' mtDNA to be more similar to that of modern Europeans than to that of other peoples. Moreover, the researchers determined that the common ancestor to Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens lived as long as 500,000 years ago, well before the most recent common mtDNA ancestor of modern humans. This suggests (though it does not prove) that Neanderthals went extinct without contributing to the gene pool of any modern humans.


Final note
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There are many variables that can affect the mutation rate of mtDNA, including even the possibility that mtDNA is not always inherited strictly through maternal lines. In fact, recent studies show that paternal mtDNA can on rare occasions enter an egg during fertilization and alter the maternal mtDNA through recombination. Such recombination would drastically affect the mutation rate and throw off date estimates.

Not surprisingly, there is currently a heated debate over the value of "mitochondrial Eve" -- especially between history-hunting geneticists and some fossil-finding paleoanthropologists. According to these anthropologists, even if we could accurately gauge the age of the ancestor, that knowledge is meaningless because all she really is is the woman whose mtDNA did not die out due to random lineage extinctions. Furthermore, her status as the most recent common ancestor doesn't mean that she and her contemporaries were any different from their ancestors. (Remember, she and all of her contemporaries had their own mitochondrial Eve.)

Perhaps the most valuable finding regarding the "most recent common ancestor" is that she probably lived in Africa -- a finding that supports the most popular theories about the worldwide spread of hominids.


Rick Groleau is managing editor of NOVA Online.


Notes
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1. Unless two or more of those 64 married each other and bore children from which you are descended. For example, your great-great-grandfather on your mother's side might have married and had children with your great-great-grandmother on your father's side. In that case, the number of your ancestors in this example would drop to 63.

2. Although the original study was criticized for using African Americans instead of native Africans, a subsequent study in which the researchers used mtDNA from native Africans came up with similar results.

3. Other researchers later showed that the computer program could come up with other variations of the tree, some of which did not place an African at the root of the tree. This study, then, cannot be viewed as definitive proof that the ancestor lived in Africa. However, it does still suggest that humans originated in Africa, a hypothesis that other, more recent studies support.

4. The date for the migration to Australia is now estimated to be 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.



Sources
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"Human Evolution." Svante Paabo. Trends in Genetics. 15(12): M13-M16, 1999.

"Neanderthal DNA Sequences and the Origin of Modern Humans." Matthias Krings, et al. Cell, July 11, 1997.

"Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution." Rebecca L. Cann, Mark Stoneking, Allan C. Wilson. Nature, January 1, 1987.

"The Case of Mitochondrial Eve." Frank R. Zindler. American Atheist, February 1988.

Shreeve, James. The Neanderthal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins. New York: Avon Books, 1995.

Stringer, Christopher; Clive Gamble. In Search of the Neanderthals: Solving the Puzzle of Human Origins. New York: Thames and Hudson, Inc., 1993.


Related features on NOVA Online
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How Cells Divide: Mitosis vs Meiosis
Journey into DNA
Sequence for Yourself


Photos: (1,2) WGBH/NOVA.

More About Credit Cards
A look at the marketing and advertising of credit cards in an increasingly saturated market and the techniques being used to recruitf new customers.


Andrew Becker is a student at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. His articles have appeared in The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento Bee.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/more/battle.html

It seems to show up in the mailbox nearly every day: a credit card offer promising zero percent interest rates, free airline travel rewards or scratch-and-win promotions like Capital One's latest -- an offer to win a private tropical island.

Credit card marketers are on track in 2004 to break the industry record for credit card mail solicitations. According to Andrew Davidson, vice president of competitive tracking for Synovate, a Chicago-based research company, U.S. households will likely receive more than 5 billion credit card offers this year.

But despite this flood -- an average of six credit card offers sent to American households each month -- the response rate is only about one-third of 1 percent, says Davidson. The rest land in the garbage.

"That's right on the borderline of losing money," says author and marketing expert Seth Godin. Typically, a successful direct marketing campaign gets about a 1 percent response.

To counter the dismal response rate problem, marketers keep ratcheting up aggressive and expensive marketing, advertising and promotion campaigns. CardWeb CEO Robert McKinley, who has tracked the credit card industry for 18 years, expects that 2004 will mark the first time the major credit card networks (Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express) will top the $1 billion currently spent on advertising. Add to this the $4 billion spent on direct mail marketing costs and the result is at least $5 billion of marketing for this year alone, says McKinley.


? Zeroing In on the New Customer

So who's sending all of these offers?

Ninety percent of the direct mail marketing comes from the top 10 credit card issuers. And a lot of these issuers are monolines, like MBNA, which don't have physical branch offices. Lacking this, says Davidson, direct mail is their "major channel."

In those direct mail campaigns, the companies spend on average about $80 to market and process each new customer, according to R.K. Hammer, a privately-held bank card advisory firm. More than half of these offers involve a reward or a rebate incentive. And, in recent years, banks are copying what monolines like MBNA did so successfully in the 1990s: They offer products with built-in "stickiness" -- affinity cards -- to entice consumers. While banks compete on price with zero percent and teaser offers, they know that to keep those customers, they have to rely on more.

"It's the competitive nature of the mailbox," Davidson says. "We're seeing more and more of these. And they're more and more creative in reward and rebate schemes." He ascribes the current marketing increase to a modest improvement in the U.S. economy and the fear of a potential jump in the prime rate, which has spurred issuers to hype the opportunity to take advantage of current low rates before it's too late.


? Getting to Know You

But the marketers aren't just stuffing everyone's mailboxes with the same offer. As they increasingly hone in on an individual's gender and spending habits, different people in the same household get different, "customized" solicitations.

It's all due to the information technology revolution and the data that now can be mined from networked computer databases. (And it's certainly a long way from when Bank of America, back in 1958, first issued its credit card -- later to become the VISA card -- by simply mailing out unsolicited cards to roughly 60,000 residents of Fresno, Calif.)

Before the arrival of networked computer databases, credit cards marketing was based out of individual bank branches. When risk-based pricing came into play -- the practice of charging different interest rates to different people based on their credit risk -- the monolines seized the opportunity to offer lower annual percentage rates (APRs) through direct marketing, thus offering their cards to a far larger population.

What propelled this wider marketing was the use of "attributes" to identify and target consumers. Identifying particular attributes of a potential customer had started in the late '70s and early '80s -- the days before national credit bureaus -- with direct mailings from banks to their existent customer base. Back then, in order to target potential customers outside of their base, banks and credit cards companies turned to public records like marriage licenses, new home mortgages and data from gas card usage to identify people who might be predisposed to obtain credit.

With the boom of information technology during the 1990s, the marketers were able to start drawing on data culled from the national credit bureaus -- Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Marketers created mini-profiles of existing and potential consumers based on people's spending habits, credit history, address and tendency to pay bills on time (or not). This information was crucial in creating ever more sophisticated marketing techniques.


? The Early Pioneers

The credit issuer Providian was one of the first companies involved in experimental marketing based on attributes. The company developed mathematical models that helped Providian "find" the right customers. By blending marketing response and credit history in its testing, Providian used gender and geography to select the precise advertisements and mail offers.

To see whether testing worked, Providian marketed to non-traditional populations who do not use credit cards or banking services (known in the industry as the "unbanked" population). Testing allowed Providian to look at two different individuals with the same credit history -- and who maintained the same revolving balance -- to see which person would most likely maintain his revolving balance. By analyzing when and how customers paid over a select time period, Providian could track how consumers who once paid their entire balance would start to pay less and less each month, then the minimum payment, and then fall behind. That's how they determined who'd be more likely to default.

Capital One was another pioneer in marketing cards to consumers through the intensive use of raw data and complex computer-based modeling, according to Chris Meyer, CEO of Monitor Networks in Cambridge, Mass. and the co-author of It's Alive, which features a case study of Capital One based on extensive interviews with the company.

By identifying lower-risk individuals in high-risk groups, Capital One was able to market to reliable consumers other companies wouldn't touch, says Meyer. In just six years, Capital One became the sixth-largest credit card issuer in the country. "When others were attacking the market with blunt instruments, Capital One used a scalpel," says Meyer.

Capital One was able to predict consumer response through models of targeted markets; then it would test these predictions with tens of thousands of product offers. In 2001, the company tried more than 60,000 separate tests to identify what the market wanted by watching which offers customers were responding to. This told the company which of the offers to roll out more widely. It also provided insight into what would not work, allowing updates for the next cycle.

Credit issuers also monitor whether a consumer's purchases go down over a certain time period -- a process known as "diminishment," that could lead to defection to another credit card company. If the signs are there, marketers might then send the customer new offers. They know the consumers must be using different cards because they aren't using theirs.


? The "Golden" Road to the Wallet

Over the last 40 years, the advertising of credit cards has evolved along with the marketing and the ads have mirrored credit cards' growing availability.

Back in the 1960s, American Express ads targeted the traveling business class with lines such as "Away-on-business-miss-your-wife-blues?" and "Another lonely business trip?" The message was, an American Express card cured the loneliness that "comes with the territory."

About the same time, in another magazine ad dating from 1965, American Express answered the question "Are credit cards for show-offs and status seekers? Not this one." But just three years later American Express began advertising its gold card with ad copy that read, "at a time when everyone seems to be giving away credit cards..."

According to CardWeb CEO Robert McKinley, 20 years ago, a gold VISA or MasterCard did mean prestige. With an annual fee of two to two-and-a-half times a standard card's fee, they offered a minimum credit line of $5,000 and various perks. And they were not available to just anyone. "Gold was perceived as 'affluence' at that time, given the marketing of the American Express gold card," says McKinley. "There was very little color choice in the market."

But then, starting with the deregulation of the banking industry in 1978, the advertising focus turned away from prestige to "merchant acceptance," says McKinley. And in the 1990s, as competition intensified, it shifted to pricing and perks.

During the past five years the marketers' focus has been on fraud protection and responsible card use. In recent years, for example, Citibank has aggressively marketed itself as a kinder, gentler credit card issuer. Its latest ad campaign, dubbed "Live Richly," features little bits of wisdom on television, billboards, bus shelters and phone kiosks. "You are not silver, gold, or platinum," Citibank tells potential customers. "You are you."

Mercedes Cardona, financial editor for the weekly trade magazine Advertising Age, says warm fuzzy campaigns like Citibank's are a response to consumers' frustration with bank giants like Citibank's parent company Citigroup, and the perception that such corporations care little about cardholders.

Most recently, with the economic downturn over the past few years, banks have come to realize that every customer counts, Cardona says. And this has spurred the personal touch, particularly with credit cards.

American Express designed its Blue Card for a younger, hip market. Clear or translucent cards are aimed at Generation X. Some cards issued in black -- be it the innovative American Express Centurion or the VISA Infinite or Signature -- are what Robert McKinley of CardWeb calls the "snob" cards. Cards like MBNA's Quantum can carry credit lines up to $250,000, with some going as high as $1 million -- "so, even if the private seller of a rare collectible doesn't accept credit cards, the Quantum Customer can simply write an access check," as one press release states. These cards come with a panoply of benefits, like concierge services, access to private jets and seven-figure travel insurance.

Today, consumers can even customize their own credit cards. "Have it your own way," is how Cardona describes the options, comparing the process to "getting a fast-food burger."

At Bank One's Web site, for instance, customers can choose from an affinity credit card menu, offering everything from The American Kennel Club and the Massachusetts Teachers Association to Yahoo and Disney. If none of the affinity cards grabs the customer's attention or purse strings, there are more than three dozen "unique card designs" to choose from, including cute kittens, all smiles and serenity.

First National Bank of Omaha is among those that have taken personalized card design to another level. Cardholders can choose their card's background from a personal photo, be it of a child, pet or nearly anything that comes to mind, and they can design the card online. Part of the personalization is allowing customers choice, Cardona said. But a lot of it has to do with getting customers online and lowering the cost of banking.


? The New Growth Sectors

During the 1990s, with much of the market saturated or nearing saturation, credit card companies began to look at two demographic groups on either end of the financial scale they previously had avoided: "subprime" consumers who weren't perceived as creditworthy, such as students, young people, and others with poor or no credit history; and affluent customers who didn't need credit (and who now are being targeted with the aforementioned customized cards). These two groups have become the biggest growth areas for the companies, says CardWeb's McKinley.

According to CardWeb, there are some 25 million American households who do not have a banking relationship. Credit card issuers went after this market vigorously in the 1990s, charging high interest rates and fees, and extending credit to millions of people. However, it was a bust for issuers and it still haunts the industry, says McKinley.

Credit card issuers also began pursuing college students, a previously unattractive market because students don't have a credit history and many don't have a steady income. But by the mid-1990s, Congress was holding committee hearings on the impact that "kiddie credit cards" had on young people. And following a lot of bad press on the growing number of students in debt, some universities have started regulating or banning credit card marketers from making campus visits with offers of free t-shirts in exchange for setting up a new account.

But the companies have returned to the subprime market lately, targeting them with increasingly popular prepaid cards. The recently introduced "Hello Kitty" card and another card featuring the mug of pop music star Usher are evidence that pre-teens and other subprime consumers are no longer off limits.


? The Perk Wars

Since the mid-1980s, when Discover introduced the first cash-back product, credit card marketers have been racking their collective brains for perks to entice consumers. AT&T launched its no-annual-fee-for-life Universal Card in 1990, which eventually drove annual fees out of the market, according to McKinley. Although industry experts thought the perk wars would be over by now, they rage on, he says.

The hot things now are prepaid cards and around the corner, the "super" smart cards, which can carry information far beyond just listing your account balance. Such cards can track and manage rewards points; store a cardholder's medical information; provide access to subways, buses and even buildings; or be used as either a credit, debit or prepaid card, so you can pay now or later.

Part of the reason these haven't as yet caught on in the United States is privacy concerns. But if Americans are worried about who knows what about them, they're a little behind. Credit card companies know where you live, who you are and what you want. And as competition intensifies, they're willing and able to spend the money to find out more.

The Battle For Your Wallet

8 CREDIT CARD COMPANY TRICKS AND TIPS
1> Even if you make your credit card payments on time, the credit card bank can raise your interest rate automatically if you're late on payments elsewhere -- such as on another credit card or on a phone, car, or house payment -- or simply because the bank feels you have taken on too much debt.

This practice is called the "universal default" clause and increasingly is becoming a standard clause in credit card agreements. According to credit card executives, the logic behind universal default is that the bank is not being unreasonable in raising rates when it has reason to believe that the risk of being repaid by the customer has increased. [Note: Credit card banks can now easily track your everyday financial activities and monitor your credit score -- see below.]


2> Your credit score -- known as a FICO score -- has become a vital statistic for many Americans and can be widely shared. It is used to determine how much you can borrow, how much you pay for life insurance, if you can rent a home, and, as already noted, it can be a factor in determining the interest rate you pay on a credit card.

Most Americans don't know what their credit score is, nor how it's computed and with whom it's shared. Your credit score is usually determined by five factors, with the most important being the amount you currently owe and your payment history on large debts. (Find out much more about your credit score and how it's tracked, by reading: Credit Scores - What Your Should Know About Your Own.)


3> There is no limit on the amount a credit card company can charge a cardholder for being even an hour late with a payment.

In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court in Smiley vs. Citibank lifted the existing restrictions on late penalty fees. Back then, fees ran to $5 or $10, and usually did not exceed $15. After the Court's decision, fees soared, reaching upwards of $30. Since then, the amount of revenue the companies generate from fees (including late charges, over-the-limit fees, and charges for returned checks) has doubled. Duncan MacDonald, one of the lawyers who worked on the Smiley case, predicts penalty fees could rise to $50 in another year.


4> It's important to read the fine print on your credit card agreement.

Not many people do, however. Even credit card executives and consumer advocates admitted to FRONTLINE that the last time they read their own contracts was years ago and the credit card agreement is difficult to understand. Tucked into the fine print that people so often ignore is a clause that allows the company to change your interest rate (APR) at any time, for any reason, as long as they give you 15 days' notice. (So, Read the Fine Print.)


5> Many Americans are inattentive about their credit card accounts.

Approximately 35 million Americans pay only the required minimum -- as low as 2 percent -- of their balance each month. Sticking to that rate, it could take years to clear their debt and they'll end up paying far more than the cost of the items or services they bought.

However, many of these 35 million cardholders could pay more than the minimum, and could possibly even pay off in full their balance some months. But they don't -- even though the interest rate they are paying on their credit card balance is considerably higher than what they pay on other things and compared to what they're getting in interest income from their savings account. Is this "financial illiteracy," or just human beings' "irrational behavior?" (Read our report, Credit Cards and Personal Responsibility. Or, try our "Payment Calculator" to see how long it would take you to pay off a balance if you paid just the 2 percent minimum each month.)


6> There is no federal limit on the interest rate a credit card company can charge.

If you've ever looked at the return address on your statement, you may notice your credit card issuer is located in a state such as South Dakota or Delaware. That's because these are the states that have either weak or no "usury laws" meaning there is no cap on the interest rate that is charged. The federal government once had national usury laws that set a cap on the amount of interest that could be charged on a loan. But after the Great Depression, it repealed them and some states put no new ursury laws in place. That's why Citibank, the issuer of Mastercard, moved to South Dakota, which has no cap on interest rates. (For more on the South Dakota story and how the credit card industry took off in the 1980s, read The Ascendancy of the Credit Card Industry.)
Related Links

7> Credit Scores
What you should understand about your own.


8> The Fine Print
What's tucked into that credit card agreement?


> Where You Can Go
A list of reputable organizations for filing a complaint against a credit card company and getting advice on financial problems.


> Charge It!
Examining the issue of credit cards and personal responsibility.


> Try This Payment Calculator
How long will it take to pay off a balance if you were to pay just the 2 percent monthly minimum?



Poll: What's Your Balance?

The average American household is carrying a credit card balance of $7500 to $8,000. What's yours?

Note: As the producers of this report found out, it's hard to get people to talk about their credit card debt. But this poll is completely anonymous, so we invite you to answer honestly.


$0 - $500


$500 - $1000


$1000 - $2000


$2000 - $5000


$5000 - $10000


$10000 - $15000


$15000+





Which Are You?

Here's the credit card industry's jargon for its customer categories:

"Revolvers" roll credit card balances over month to month, never paying in full.

"Deadbeats" pay their balances off in full every month.

"Rate Surfers" or "Gamers" shift usage between credit cards based upon interest rates.




> Significant credit card debt can put you at a markedly higher risk of bankruptcy.

Going bankrupt usually isn't the result of spending sprees. It's more commonly triggered by job loss, medical problems, or a divorce. Those hit by any of these misfortunes often turn to credit cards to stay float. But if they have trouble finding new sources of income or an illness keeps them off the job, they often cannot pay off their debt quickly, especially if their interest rate is high. "They get their feet tangled up in those high interest rates," says bankruptcy expert Elizabeth Warren, "and they just get sunk."


> You can get help. (I seriously doubt it) ed. My best bet is to have Congress pass a Bill to get the Industry into some sort of order and fairness. See People who may help

Several trustworthy organizations exist that can advise people whose debt has spiraled out of control, or those who feel they've been treated unfairly by their credit card companies. For a list of groups offering free advice and for contact information on how to file a complaint if you feel you have been unfairly treated by your credit card company, read our suggestions on "Where To Go."

Frontline Show 23 Nov 2004

620 AM WKHB Radio


620 AM WKHB Radio Coverage Map (approximate)

Daytime 5,500 Watts Non-directional Signal

Irwin/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

(from www.radio-locator.com)

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620 AM Wednesdays 3:00-4:00 PM and Fridays 12:00-1:00 PM In Phoenix on KFNX ...
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DC1HEALTHWATCH
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MARK ALEXANDER Nutritional Specialist, Roex, Inc. BILL MONIHAN Radio Host, Roex,
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www.rawlife.com/lectures/archive.html?years=2003 - 101k

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www.healthyawareness.com/ _Archives/_can_gen98/000003fd.htm - 3k -

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... in or go to WKHB\'s website below WKHB 620 AM ... will be stored as an archive at the
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LycoRed - Lycopene - Lyc-O-Mato
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JUICE BAR OPEN
The Elixir Series Part III
Wheatgrass and San Francisco's true believers
- By Amy Moon, Features Editor, SF Gate
Tuesday, August 3, 2004


Once upon a time in San Francisco, there was a happy farm with a red barn and trays of grass growing in the sunshine behind it. It sat right across the street from the Valencia Gardens projects, but this gritty locale didn't stop a steady stream of customers from stopping by Eva Moen's Wheatgrass Farm and Depot for their daily dose of "green sunshine."

Today, the little red barn is boarded up and the cheerful fellowship of wheatgrass-juice aficionados has faded away, but the substance itself has come into a new phase of popularity. Although the history of this potent green fluid is -- like that of all true elixirs -- full of supposed miracles and replete with true believers spreading the gospel to seekers of cures, many of today's wheatgrass-juice guzzlers are regular folk who don't know anything about magic and care only about what the brochure at Jamba Juice promises: that it helps cleanse and detoxify your blood, contributes to making your skin look great, assists in digestion, aids in metabolizing energy and fat and helps bolster your immune system.

But, behind its current vogue simply as a healthful drink, there still exists a community of worshippers who believe wheatgrass can save each of us -- and the world, too. Going back before Eva Moen and continuing to the present, wheatgrass believers are alive and well in the Bay Area, and talking to them makes one wonder whether there really is something to this heady stuff that might change one's life forever, or whether it's just the latest in a long string of health fads and snake oil.

One cannot talk about wheatgrass in the freshly squeezed form we know today without referring to the pioneering efforts of Dr. Ann Wigmore. After using wheatgrass juice to cure herself of various ailments, including gangrene and cancer of the colon, Wigmore opened the Hippocrates Health Institute in Boston in 1963. Many among the tens of thousands of people who passed through its portals report being healed of all manner of diseases by her Living Foods Lifestyle, based on drinking wheatgrass juice and eating a raw-food diet.

Wigmore's life mission was to share the Living Food Lifestyle with everyone in the world. She believed that, as she said, "as each person becomes cleaner inside and detoxifies mentally and emotionally, one will be led naturally into wholesome activities that will better nurture oneself, others and the earth."

Out here in San Francisco, though, it was Eva Moen who brought wheatgrass to the people, and she carried Wigmore's legacy forward with the community she gathered around her.

Moen was a charismatic figure, described as a 6-foot-tall Amazon of Norwegian extraction in her late 50s who claimed that wheatgrass cured her of her alcoholism. She was said to have the strength of a man and the energy of a someone less than half her age. In its heyday, during the mid-1990s, her Wheatgrass Farm and Depot -- the main supplier for the entire Bay Area -- produced hundreds of trays of wheatgrass a week.

San Francisco filmmaker Donald Harrison is one of the many people who regularly stopped by Moen's establishment. Initially, Harrison says, he visited the place to research a film about obscure businesses, but he was immediately drawn in by the passion of the people who frequented the farm. "I was struck by how the place was like a church or house of worship," adds Harrison, who is also assistant director of development and marketing for the San Francisco-based Film Arts Foundation. "There was a cultlike fanaticism about the people. Most had been fighting illness and saw wheatgrass as part of their savior."

"Grass People" is now the working title of his film. And, even though he stumbled across the farm after Moen had already gone and the farm was in its decline, Harrison started communicating with the elixir's advocate through letters and heard second hand about her strong presence. "Eva Moen is a wheatgrass evangelist, a true believer," says Harrison. "She is very much into God and believes that wheatgrass is part of what could bring about world peace and could end world hunger."

Harrison adds that the wheatgrass community consists of two distinct groups: people recovering from illness who use it to treat their disease, and others -- like yoga instructors and marathon runners -- who are committed to being extremely healthy. "So, you have this combination of people on both sides of the health spectrum coming together and learning something," he says. The people he met at the wheatgrass farm were genuine and openly friendly, he adds. "I always walked away feeling like I had made a real connection."

Moen influenced many people who were drawn in by her positive energy and her belief in the healing powers of the juice. Lisa Bach, founder of Juicy Lucy's, a pioneering all-organic juice bar and restaurant that opened nine years ago in North Beach, says Moen taught her everything she knows about wheatgrass juice. "She turned me on to it, and she showed me how to juice," adds Bach.

Bach had come back from a three-month yoga hiatus with Ashtanga yoga guru Pattabhi Jois, and his edict continued to ring in her mind: "Do your practice, and all good things will come." She quit her corporate job, even though she was six months pregnant, and opened her cafe, but her connection to Moen pulled her further along her path.

"Just being [at Moen's] and being in the presence of the grass was amazing," Bach says. After a 20-day cleansing diet of 6 ounces of wheatgrass juice per day, she adds, "I never looked better -- I never felt better. It brings up all the toxins in the body. What's stored in your organs are emotions."

The long-haired, exotic-looking Bach, clear eyed and alive, says she runs on vitality. Of wheatgrass juice, she adds, "Only until you have it in your body can you understand what it's like. I can spin circles around any 20-year-old, and I'm 45. I get younger as I get older." Bach believes that drinking wheatgrass changes you. "You let go of a lot of stored things within you," she says. "You become radiant. Your eyes are brighter. It gives you mental clarity. You see clearly and think clearly."

Whenever someone walks into her groovy, purple-walled cafe with a mural of Green Tara, a female Buddha and meditational deity -- she brings in all good women, Bach tells me, "only goddesses" -- Bach approaches them with the greeting, "How about a shot of energy?" and gives them a swallow of wheatgrass juice in a pottery bowl. She turns to me and smiles, saying, "I can steer anybody to drink anything. Who's going to say no to that? Besides, they're just going to turn around and thank me." She laughs happily and adds, "It's a natural high."

Bach's speech is a grab bag of catchy sound bites about wheatgrass: "You bring grass into your surroundings, and you feel the energy." "It takes you up and never lets you down." "Life without grass is no life at all."

Bach's energy is infectious, and one wonders what, exactly, this stuff is that can make a person high on life.

On a basic level, wheatgrass is a young wheat plant -- generally red winter wheat, hard spring wheat or soft spring wheat -- cut down and juiced in the grass stage and generally imbibed in 1-ounce or 2-ounce shots.

It is one of the so-called green superfoods, those comestibles containing an abundance of vitamins and minerals, and, according to various documents, 1 ounce of wheatgrass juice is nutritionally equivalent to 1.5 to 2.2 pounds of fresh vegetables. It is said to contain 70 percent chlorophyll, which is often referred to as the plasma of plants -- similar to hemoglobin, the oxygen- and iron-rich factor in our blood -- which adherents claim makes wheatgrass juice extraordinarily nourishing and healing.

Some hardcore fans drink up to 6 ounces a day. Others use it as a gargle, as a hair rinse, on cuts and bruises and even for enemas. Proponents claim wheatgrass cleanses the lymph system, builds the blood, removes toxins and promotes vitality.

Others claim it can cure cancer and diabetes, abolish high blood pressure and mitigate any number of other diseases and poor health conditions.

Although reports of the myriad benefits abound, there are detractors as well. The most prominent is esteemed natural-healing proponent Dr. Andrew Weil, who says about wheatgrass, "Unfortunately, despite its wide popularity, there's no evidence to back any of these [health] claims. And I don't recommend its use other than as a source of minerals and vitamins. If you like wheatgrass and it appeals to you, fine -- drink it. But I don't think it's a substitute for 2.5 pounds of vegetables. Besides, I don't like the way it tastes."

According to the American Cancer Society, there is no scientific evidence to back claims that a wheatgrass diet will put cancer into remission. Furthermore, in 1982, the Massachusetts attorney general's office sued Ann Wigmore for claiming that her program could reduce or eliminate the need for insulin in diabetics. Afterward, she retracted her claims.

But anecdotal evidence suggests that wheatgrass juice is doing good things for many people. Douglas Farrow, who owns Jucy's, a juice bar in Oakland's upscale Rockridge District that sells (in addition to smoothies and freshly squeezed juices) a lot of wheatgrass juice, says that fully one-third of his customers are in recovery from a major illness such as cancer or AIDS.

But, Farrow adds, his customers run the gamut. Wheatgrass juice can be part of a healthy lifestyle, or it can be a counterbalance for a more "toxic" one. "People who are anything but holistic still come in and get their wheatgrass juice," he says. "It's good for smokers because it mitigates the effect of smoking." If he's noticed any particular trend, he adds, "it's mostly middle-aged people hedging their bets, preventing disease before it happens."

Farrow, a youthful 54-year-old with an 8-year-old child, a 1 1/2-year-old toddler and a baby on the way, says wheatgrass juice gives him the energy to keep up with his family and work 2 1/2 jobs. "Without wheatgrass, I couldn't do it," he says. "What sold me is seeing people in recovery coming back again and again."

Lisa Bach, too, says that now that wheatgrass has become trendy, her customers come from all walks of life. "People use it to move what they eat unconsciously out of their body," she says. "An ounce a day keeps the doctor away."

According to Filmmaker Harrison, the wheatgrass community is multicultural too: "There's a Nigerian guy in Oakland who runs an Eboda juice shop, an Egyptian family in the Sunset who sell it [at Daily Health, next to Le Video on 9th Avenue], and Eva, who's Norwegian. The woman who inherited the farm after Eva was Latina, and I think she had lived in the projects. The crack dealers that would come by from the projects would say, 'I know this is for white people, but let me try some -- maybe it'll help me.'"

Wheatgrass has certainly moved beyond the fringe and made inroads into the mainstream. People line up at Jamba Juice for it. The Safeway store on Solano Avenue in Albany sells organic wheatgrass plants in its produce section, next to the lettuce. Urban Forage, a raw-food cafe, has just opened its third outlet in San Francisco, and other restaurants and juice bars offering wheatgrass juice are proliferating in the Bay Area and beyond.

Scientists such as Dr. Yoshihide Higawara, who owned one of Japan's largest pharmaceutical firms and dedicated 30 years to researching the chemical composition of wheatgrass juice, verify its high vitamin and mineral content. And, so far, in and of itself, it doesn't seem to have done anyone harm. (However, wheatgrass that hasn't been grown properly or has been refrigerated is susceptible to a mold that can cause nausea and allergic reactions in drinkers.) But how does one account for the many amazing cures attributed to it?

"I believe a lot of it has to do with your belief," says Harrison. "If you believe this is helping you, then that is part of it. It's what Dr. Andrew Weil calls an active placebo. It's believing in something that is doing something to you."

If that principle applies, then, is the substance itself so important? "I think, in certain cases, someone could heal themselves with a cheeseburger," Harrison adds. "I think a lot of it is the mind-set."

And that's where the importance of the wheatgrass advocate comes into play. "I do think, with these things, that it's important to have this person who's such a cult figure, or somebody you're going to believe," Harrison says. "I think that's part of why Eva was so important for the wheatgrass community here. She believed in it, she knew everything about it and she would introduce people to it in a way that they would get the full benefit."

Bach, probably Moen's most fervent disciple, says, "Eva and I were soul sisters. Her door was open for everyone. She had the biggest heart.

Moen left San Francisco in 1999 for her native Norway after an altercation with an ex-employee resulted in a lawsuit against her. "After Eva left," says Bach, "the spirit of the grass left." Bach continued to buy wheatgrass from the person who took over Moen's farm until the business went under, and then for awhile she quit altogether.

Bach now obtains her wheatgrass from Twin Sisters Farms, in the Sonoma County city of Fairfield, run by her friend, Hollin Zimmerman. At Twin Sisters, which Zimmerman claims has the perfect climate for growing wheatgrass, she plays classical music and uses only purified water on their plants. The resulting grass is lush and green.

True believers say wheatgrass takes on the energy that surrounds it and has a life force of its own. "A lot of people that I met at the farm would talk about that," says Harrison. "Some people would say, 'When I come here and drink the grass -- not anywhere else but here -- I feel like I'm drinking in something spiritual,' or, 'I'm drinking in love' or, 'I'm connecting with some higher power through it.'"

During the process of making his film and interacting with the community, the healthy and clear-eyed Harrison says, "I became a believer. For someone who grew up on junk food and fast food, it was a big change."

Now when he talks about wheatgrass, Harrison voice becomes passionate. "I really do think there is the possibility for wheatgrass and other things to really catch on, because I think there's such a void of spirituality in our media and in our lives these days," he says. "So much food is processed and fake and scientifically experimented with that, for people to start to experience things that are real and natural, I think it's important for our planet. I really do."

Juicy Lucy's all-organic juice bar and restaurant is at 703 Columbus Avenue (at Filbert Street) in San Francisco, 415-786-1285.

Jucy's juice bar is at 5701 College Avenue in the Rockridge district of Oakland, 510-428-2100.

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/08/03/elixgrass.DTL

World History: The Middle East
The Middle East is known as the 'cradle of civilisation' for good reason. The area has been home to some of the most formidable empires the world has ever known and is the birthplace of the world's three biggest monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Pilot team go in search of the major empires, religions and conflicts that have, and continue, to shape the region.

The Ancient Egyptian Empire flourished for over 3000 years and bequeathed us some of the most amazing structures in the world. Estelle Bingham visits the Giza plateau, home to the Pyramid of Khufu, the only remaining wonder of the world where renowned Egyptologist Dr Selima Ikram explains the significance of the Sphinx and the Pyramids.

Jerusalem, Israel - a site of pilgrimage for the three monotheistic religions

Then Megan McCormick travels south down the Nile to the Valley of the Kings and cycles round this working archaeological site. Dr Badir takes her into Tomb No. 34 where he deciphers the scenes and texts depicting the trip through the afterlife. Rameses II built his sun temple at Abu Simbel on the southern border of Egypt to awe travellers from Africa. Megan discovers that the effect hasn't waned even after thousands of years.

Meanwhile, the Persian civilisation was flourishing to the northeast on the site of modern-day Iran. Ian Wright visits the ruined city of Persephelis built by Darius the Great over 2,500 years ago. Then it's north to the Tombs of Naghsh-E-Rostam where the four greatest shahs of the empire are buried.

The Nabatinian empire's capital was Petra, a city carved out of sheer rock in the sixth century BC and now in modern-day Jordan. Ian checks out this premier tourist attraction and puffs his way up the to the 2500-year-old monastery above.

In 100 BC the next great empire appeared on the scene. Justine Shapiro goes in search of the Roman's premier archaeological sites in the Middle East. Ephesus in Turkey was a powerful and influential city in its time; nowadays it's a stunning site with some wonderfully preserved mansions full of frescos and mosaics. Omira was one of many towns left to its own devices by the Romans in return for respect from its leader. Ian discovers that the town was sacked after a rebellion by its 3rd Century ruler, Queen Xenobia. For something a little more light-hearted he turns east to Lebanon where he visits the Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek, dedicated to the god of wine. The Romans used to practise orgies here as a type of worship.

After the ebb and flow of religious doctrines, monotheism took over with the birth of Judaism. Justine visits Mesada, a palace built by Herod the Great and scene of the legendary siege in which its 967 Jewish inhabitants committed suicide rather than suffer defeat at the hands of the Romans. She then journeys to Jerusalem and watches a bar mitzvah, a celebration of a Jewish boy's coming-of-age at 13, at the Wailing Wall.

Christianity gained its ascendancy in the region after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Justine watches the haunting Easter procession through Jerusalem retracing his last steps along the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Megan visits the world's first monastery in Egypt where she meets a monk who relates its history to her.

Islam arose in the seventh century among followers of the Prophet Mohammed. Jerusalem is also a sacred city for this religion, third only to Mecca and Medina. Cairo is known as the 'city of a thousand minarets'. Megan visits Ibn Tulun Mosque, one of the biggest in the world. As Islam took hold as a religion it drove the Christians back to Rome; the Ottoman Empire established itself out of Constantinople, modern day Istanbul. This city has more mosques than anywhere else in the world. Estelle visits the 'Blue Mosque', commissioned by Sultan Ahmed to atone for his sins, and the Aya Sofia, originally the greatest church in Christendom. Now it's a museum and the original Christian mosaics are being uncovered. The Persian Empire also fell under the influence of the Ottomans. Ian visits Esfahan in Iran, site of a beautiful mosque built over 300 years ago.

Topkapi in Istanbul was the Ottoman Sultans' palace for over four centuries. Estelle finds a huge complex of gardens, houses and a whopping 400-room harem. It also houses hairs from the beard of Mohammed, an immensely popular devotional relic.

Middle Eastern history has been shaped by war and upheaval. The Pilot team takes a tour of key sites of conflict, taking in the fairytale Citadel of Arkbar in Turkey, the Oman Desert, the Gallipoli peninsula, El Alamein in Egypt, Beirut and Israel and the Occupied Territories. Justine visits the West bank town of Hebron with a local Palestinian who tells her about what it's like to live in a Palestinian city during the Initfada.

Not all wars are between religions. In 1980 the Shi'ite Iranian government led by Ayatollah Khomenei went to war with its Sunni neighbour Iraq, ruled by Saddam Hussein. Ian attends an Iranian funeral procession for soldiers whose bodies have recently been retrieved from the Iraqi border. Eventually Saddam went a step to far for his Western sponsors in his quest to rebuild the Babylonian Empire and invaded Kuwait in 1990. Megan visits the country's oil fields that were torched by Iraqi troops as they withdrew under fire from the Allies' Desert Storm bombardment.


So what's the modern day Middle East like? It's still war torn, as evidenced by the recent Iraq war, but now oil and 'terrorism' have joined religion as causes of strife. It remains the spiritual centre of the world for many; over two million Muslims gather in Mecca for Haj and process around the rock temple reputedly built by the Prophet Abraham. It is also a region of diversity in religious worship - the Suffis practise an amazingly physical type of devotion while the Shi'ites of Iran flagellate themselves to feel the pain of Maharam, an ancient Muslim leader.

In search of a woman's perspective on the area, Megan travels to the United Arab Emirates. In Dubai she tries on the abayya and in Abu Dhabi she visits a women's-only shopping centre. Meanwhile Justine finds that Tel Aviv is a city split between the expectations of Orthodox Judaism and the desires of young people who party hard on Shabbat.

Megan ends our tour in the graceful surrounds of the Sultan Kabuz Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman. It's a perfect place to reflect on what we've seen during this adventure across the Middle East. Not only is it a richly historical area; it's also a vibrant, richly diverse region, often far removed from the foreboding images of death and destruction that flash across Western TV screens every night.
Globe Trekker

Sicilian Genealogy
THE NOBLE FAMILIES SICIALIAN


The virtue of the Sicily is not only constituted from the imponenza of its landscapes, from the wealth of sacred and profane monuments, tourist patrimony and testimony of the lived historical events from the island, and the typical products like cheeses, the citruses, cakies and the jobs of the handicraft, but also from the social and historical importance of some noble families that a lot have contributed, for better or for worse, to construct to day after day the sicialian history.

Numerous they are the noble families sicialian that deserve the mention.

Part 1

The family Abbadelli or Abbatelli is original of Lucca and it transplants in Sicily nel 1237 thanks to Dulcio.
In the 1431 Giovanni it acquired from the Moncada the County of Cammarata.
He was titular, moreover, of the baronies of Pietra and Cefala.
Its son Federico obtained the title it of Conte di Cammarata in 1451.
A branch of such family is present to Catania where a nobiliare palace belonged to such family (Monastero of the Mercy is found subsequently) and that still of door the coat of arms, a field of black and rampante containing gold a grifo.

The family Abbate or Abbati derives from Papyrus, a roman knight who left its possedimenti the son in order to withdraw themselves in a monastero; to the dead women of the son, than it did not have eredi, Papyrus leaves the dress to talare and takes moglie.
From the use to call its sons "of the abbate ones here".
Between the representatives of such family whom they had contacts with the Sicily are remembered:
? Enrico, treasurer of the emperor Federico II;
? S. Alberto friar, exponent of the order of the Carmelo Mount;
? Ignazio Vincenzo, owner of the title it of marquis of Longarini.

The Abriguano family arrives in Sicily at the beginning of 1300.
Between the greater exponents of such family they are remembered:
? Social loaded important Maurizio, holder to Bottoming drills;
? Francisco, captain xecutioner;
? Enrico I, titular of the barony of Regalmuto;
? Enrico II, general vicario of crews in Val di Mazzara;
? Giuseppe, holder of the barony of You go up some of Bottoming drills.

The family Adam is of Lombardic origin and it transplants in Sicily thanks to the condottiero Childeberto.
Between its greater representatives they can be cited:
? Antonio, conservative of the R. Patrimonio Promastro Xecutioner of the Reign;
? Celestria, fondatrice of the monastero of women of Caltagirone;
? Giacomo, gerosolmitano knight.

The family Agliata or Alliata boasts representatives in Greece, France and in Italy.
The family moves itself in Sicily in 1300 when it leaves Pisa in order to escape to the persecutions of the Visconti.
Between its greater representatives Filippone can be cited from which the principles of Villafranca and the barons Only derive.
Such family titular of was varied and important charges be them as those of president, general, pretore vicario and senator.
Some its representatives were knights of Malta, Calatrava, S. Gennaro.
It finds itself currently to Palermo and it has been subdivided in three distinguished coppers, that one of the principles of Villafranca and duchi of Salaparuta, that one of duchi of Saponara and the that one of the duchi of Pietretagliate.

The family Bitter is original of the trapanese.
Between its greater exponents they are remembered:
? Leonardo, provveditore of real the palace to the time of Federico III;
? Filippo, previous son of and the titular one of the feudo of Gibilvasili re-entering in the territory of Salemi;
? Giacomo, holder of the barony of Marineo and Risalaimi;
? Antonio, holder of the feudi of On, Ficuzza and Casaliccio.
? Emerico, brother of the previous one, illustrious philosopher, statesman and criminal attorney of XIX the numerous century and holder of and illustrious charges, like that one of university professor of criminal law to Palermo and vice president of the house of common of Sicily in 1848.

The Loved family is of Spanish origin and arrives in Sicily to the time of Peter of Aragon, exactly in 1282.
Its first famous representatives are Bernardo and Pagano that for their merits and services they obtained of the feudi and the relationship with the family Peralta di Caltabellotta.
Between its greater representatives they distinguish themselves:
? Giovanni, baron of Zaffuti;
? Tommaso, holder of several feudi to Messina;
? Filippo, in order very three times senator, deputy of the reign and captain of justice, prince of Galati and holder of the barony of We hunt.

The Ansaldi family of Palermo is original of Nicosia.
Such family separates itself in two distinguished coppers:
? the first one is present to Castrogiovanni and Mazzarino and is extinguished in the noble family Grimaldi di Geracello;
? according to branch it remains to Nicosia; between its exponents remember Giovanni, marquis of Spataro, husband of nobildonna the Carolina Ventimiglia of the principles of Grammonte.

The Ansalone family draws origin from Ladislao, knight of the Pannonia and governor of Messina.
It boasts between its numerous exponents senators in Messina and knights of Malta and from they derive the principles of Roccacolomba and the duchi of the Real Mountain.
Between such exponents they remember themselves:
? Been born them, one of the supporters of the War of the Vespro, holder of the charges of main xecutioner and captain of army;
? Peter, economist and holder of the castle of Comiso;
? Bonsignore II, holder of the barony of Fimedinnisi;
? Ascanio, holder of the baronial earth of the Real Mountain and feudo the Market of Rocca, of which it was first duca for concession direction; it covered also other charges as those of master ration them of real the patrimony and was also first marquis of Sorrentino.

The family Arena previews two ramifications.
The messinese branch regards the getlteman of Messina, Caltagirone and Lentini and boasts one tightened tie with the barons of Montechiaro and Roccadore. The family adds according to last name not less illustrious than that one already possessed becoming therefore Arena-Primo.
The palermitano branch boasts illustrious personalities like Federico, holder of numerous judicial charges, First consultore of the King for the transactions of Sicily and Councilman Decano of the Real Council of Chiara Saint of Naples.
Its eredi were Giuseppe, from the diamond career in the magistracy, and Elisabetta, moglie of Carl Mortillaro baron of the Cyanide.

The Ascenso family has one ancient history.
The first exponent of such family that it has of the contacts with the Sicily was Giovanni, the gentiluomo Catalan who in the 1283 oed in Sicily with the assignment of waiter of the infant Federico.
Between the others illustrious exponents of such family can be cited:
? Matteo II, knight and sworne judge of Girgenti;
? Stefano, governor of the peasantry of Modica where it was settled down with its family;
? Peter, holder of the feudo of Rosalia Saint in Val di Noto.

The family Balsam is of Lombardic origin and it transplants itself in Sicily in XII the century, just to Messina, work of Maurizio Balsam.
Between its greater representatives they are had:
? Giacomo, to the service of the king Ferdinand the catholic and several owner of titles them like captain of arms of Milazzo, general vicario, getlteman of the city of Taormina and its country houses;
? Peter, marquis of the Limina, knight of Saint Giacomo of the Sword and straricoto of Messina;
? Francisco Viperino, prince of Resuttana, senator and then mayor of Messina.

The Barrese family is of French origin and arrives in Sicily to work of Abbo (to the continuation of the Conte Ruggero).
Between the others, they are remembered:
? Arcibao, governor of Messina;
? Tommaso, holder of the ducato one of Castrovillari in Calabria and of the peasantry of Terranova;
? Peter, prince of Pietraperzia, first marquis of Barrafranca and general vicario of Catania and Siracusa.

The nobleman and ancient Beccadelli family develop themselves to Palermo at the beginning of 1300 to work of Vannin.
Such family boasts illustrious representatives of the bore of:
? Antonio the Panormita, philosopher, holder of numerous charges and feudi;
? Simone, archbishop of Palermo;
? Giovanni, captain of Palermo and master ration them of the court de r. patrimony;
? Francisco, baron of Altavilla and first marquis of such state;
? Owner and, Peter's son previous of the title it of prince of Camporeale and of the marchesato one of the Sambuca.

The family Benedict boasts illustrious representatives of the bore of:
? Andrea, notary public to Palermo in 1282;
? Andrea II, gentiluomo of Ferdinand II and governor of the cavalry direction.
From a book of memories that regards such family evince that one of pisani coppers of the aforesaid one is moved to Palermo in XIV the century.

The Beneventano family, seems, derives from the noble Orsini family of numerous Rome and has given the NATO them dogi veneziani.
It moves itself in Sicily to work of Matteo Orsileo that was to the continuation of the infant Federico.
Its representatives, possesori of several titles them, were barons of the Court, the noble Forest and Schifano and also of Siracusa, Lentini, Modica and barons of the Court.

The noble Benincasa family is between the most illustrious baronial families than Messina.
It subdivides itself in two coppers: the first one remains and it is developed in Sicily and the second it is moved to Bologna, Perugina, Prato and Siena.
Between its greater representatives they are remembered:
? Pier Lion, secretary of the emperor Federico II;
? Giovan Corrado, secretary of Corrado emperor and councilman of the king Manfredi;
? Eustachio, combatant valoroso.

The Bonaiuto family boasts folta a formation of accounts and its exponents have covered loaded illustrious.
Between these last ones they distinguish themselves:
? Giovanni, holder of lands of Melilli;
? Antonio, previous brother of and the titular one of the castle and the feudo of Dare;
? Fra Francisco, gerosolmitano knight and admiral.

The Bonanno family receives the principles of Linguaglossa, the Barons of Greater and Delia, the Principles of the Catholic, the duchi of Montalbano, the line of the Duchi di Castellana, the line of the principles of Linguaglossa, numerous preTauruses, gerosolmitani senators and knights.
From such family other lines are circulated, like that one of the Barons of Polino di Caltagirone and of the Bonanno barons of Siracusa.
It draws its origins from Pisa but it moves in Sicily to work of Giangiacomo and Cesar that left their city born them in order to go away from the contrasts with one local family.
Between its greater representatives they are remembered:
? Giacomo I, vicario general of Naro;
? Giacomo II, general vicario of the reign;
? Roman Column, baron of first Canicatti and duca of Montalbano;
? Peter, first prince of Roccafiorita and baron of Castellamare of the Gulf;
? Orazio Bonanno and Gioeni, first owner of the title it of principles of Linguaglossa, let alone baron of Ravanusa Carrancino and Belvedere.

The Bonfiglio family boasts titoloni the Barons of Carmito.
From the German origins, the family has innumerevoli contacts with Italy.
First to move itself in Sicily they were Filiberto and Ladislao.
Between its greater representatives they are remembered:
? Ludovico, holder of the Castellania di Lentini and general treasurer;
? Defender and, Nicolo's son previous of Augusta against the Angioini;
? Filippo, first holder of the barony of Condro;
? Gianfilippo, first holder of the barony of Gatteri.

The Bonomo family is original of Trieste and it is circulated in several Italian cities.
It moves itself in Sicily to work of Scipione that made numerous purchases in the territory of Nicosia.
Between the others exponents of such family are remembered:
? Antonino, carried its family to Policies;
? Giuseppe, first marquis of the Country house of Catania.

The Borgia family Clearly boasts between its representatives the principles, the marquises of the Country house and several illustrious personages of the bore of i Papi Callisto III and Alexander IV.
She subdivides herself in several coppers, one of which moves itself in Sicily.
Between the greater representatives of such branch they are distinguished:
? Guglielmo; gentiluomo of the king Martino, it received of feudi present in the territory of Lentini and a present country house in the territory of Famous;
? Fra Giuseppe, gerosolmitano knight.

The Branciforte family arrives in Sicily to work of Guglielmo to the time of the king Federico II.
Between the greater exponents they are remembered:
? Raffaele, holder of the castle and the city of Public square; it obtained the possession of feudo of Grassuliato and the feudi of Condro and Gatto;
? Tommaso, holder of the county of Mazzarrino;
? Storm Fabrizio, prince, marquis of Militello and prince of Pietraperzia;
? Imara, fondatrice of the monastero of the Stimmate to Palermo destroyed on ending of 1800;
? Salvatore, prince of Butera and councilman of state.

The Busacca family has noble French origins and it is moved to Messina.
Between the illustrious names they can be cited:
? Michele, fiscal lawyer;
? Michele II, first marquis of Gallidoro;
? Michele III, illustrious scientist;
? Carl, marquis of Gallidoro.

The Caetano family divides between Naples and the Sicily.
In this last case she boasts illustrious representatives like several gerosolmitani knights and important men of the bore of:
? Peter, president of the titular reign because of the feudi Clearly, Dirillo, Calatabiano and Tripi;
? Peter II, baron of Cassaro in 1619;
? Cesar, first marquis of Sortino and first prince of Cassaro at the beginning of 1600.

The family Field transplants itself in Sicily to work of Federico, holder of the lordship of Caltabellotta and Bivona.
It can boast illustrious possessory important exponents tito them like those of captain xecutioner and senator, let alone it varies possedimenti to you.

The nobleman, Catalan Cannizzaro family transplants itself in Sicily to work of Tommaso that Peter like prize for its obtained castellania of Terranova from king servigi.
Between its representatives they are remembered:
? Bernardo, holder of some lands in Catalabiano;
? Giovanni, juror of Famous;
? Mario, holder of the office of resisting near the king.

The Most expensive family is of from Bologna origin and arrives in Sicily to work of Pascotto in the first half of 1400.
A branch of such family is moved to Bottoming drills where it is interested, between the other, of the edificazione of the Church of S. Caterina.
Its exponents have been titular of numerous lands like the baronies in the islands of Favignana, Levanzo and Marittimo and the feudo of S. Ippolito.

The Carretto family arrives Clearly in Sicily in 1269 thanks to the wedding between Antonio and Costanza that door in dowry the baronies of Calatabiano and Ragalmuto.
They are remembered, between the others:
? Girolamo, first conte of Ragalmuto;
? Alteramo 2, conte of Gagliano;
? Giovanni 2, conte of Ragalmuto.

The family Castles, original of the Franconia, previews 9 scattered coppers very all Italy.
Such family makes three passages succeeded to you in the island interesting the cities of Catania, Messina and Palermo.
Between its greater representatives they are remembered:
? Gregorio, holder of the county of Gagliano, the marchesati ones of Capizzi and Motta, of the barony of Durilli and the lordships of Mistretta and Risitano;
? Lancillotto, first prince of Castelferrato, master rations them of real the patrimony and pretore of Palermo;
? Bartolomeo, bishop of Mazzara and deputy of the reign;
? Gioacchino, bishop of Cefalu.

The nobleman, Spanish Castillo family arrives in Sicily to work of Baldassarre, military living towards the second half of 1500 that was settled down to Palermo.
It divides itself in two coppers, what it regards the marquises of S. Isidoro and what regards the marquises of S. Onofrio.
Between the greater exponents of such family they are remembered:
? Baldassarre II, captain of infanteria;
? Giuseppe, senator to Palermo.

The Celestial family distributes itself on several sicialian cities like Famous, Modica, Catania and Palermo.
She boasts numerous possessory illustrious exponents of tito them important, like that one of marquis, and tito governed them to you, between which:
? Peter, exponent of the branch of Famous, straticoto of Messina in the 1458 and titular one of the inferior castle of Famous;
? Giovanni, exponent of the catanese branch and captain;
? Peter, knight of S. Giacomo of the Sword and pretore to Palermo in 1611;
? Giambattista, marquis and governor of the mount of mercy of Palermo in 1643.

The Cordova family is of Spanish origin and boasts illustrious personalities of the bore of cardinals, bishops, knights of the Toson of gold, of Alcantara, gerosolmitani, let alone ambassadors, vicere and governors.
It moves itself in Sicily, just to Palermo, work of Francisco to the beginning of 1500.
Its descendants have been knights of Saint Giacomo of the Sword, senators, notari, governing masters of the Mount of Mercy.

The family Cottu or Cotta transplants itself in Sicily around to XVI the century.
Between its greater exponents they are remembered:
? Giovanni, holder of the state and barony of Madore, near Sciacca, let alone first marquis of Roccaforte;
? Gianfrancesco, mecenate of the Fine Arts;
? Gerosolmitano knight and, Giovanni son previous;
? Lorenzo, marquis of Roccaforte, baron of the Godrano and the Madore and deputy of the Italian parliament which representative of the city of Palermo.

Part 2
SICIALIAN FAMILIES NOBILIARI

The sicialian, composed aristocracy from illustrious families, has contributed to increase the historical and cultural importance of the island.
Its history has seen is made alternate, beginning from that svevo-angioina that saw the crashs between the feudatari, and that Spanish who saw a new process feudale.
The sicialian nobility begins to decay between the end of the XVII and the beginning of XVIII the century.

The family Tooth, original of the ravennato one, arrives in Sicily to work of Alberto towards the first half of 1200.
Between its greater exponents they are remembered:
? Giacomo, owner of varies to you tito them like baron of Laneri and first minister;
? Vincenzo, first duca of Piraino and judge of the court of Messina, the Concistoro and the Great Court;
? Gregorio, first prince of Castellazzo and deputy of the reign.

The Diblasi family is original of the trapanese.
Between its illustrious names they can be cited:
? Peter I, vicario of the city of Salemi;
? Giuseppe, baron of Salt;
? Gabriel, cassinese Abbot and archbishop of Messina;
? Vincenzo, governor of the mercy mount;
? Giovanni, Abbot, man of letters and author of books.

The nobleman, palermitana family I dredge boasts illustrious representatives of the bore of:
? George, living to the time of Federico II and holder of the castellania of Caccamo;
? Biagio, master rations them of real the patrimony;
? Casimiro, first marquis of this family;
? Bicomfort II, marquis, let alone baron of the Scannatura di Trapani and governor of the mount of mercy of Palermo.

The noble family Emmanuele or Manuel is original of Castile and arrives in Sicily to work of Coraldo Rodolfo to the time of king Peter of Aragon. It was titular of the feudo of the Bugio or Burgetto.
The family distributes itself very soon in numerous cities isolates some like Palermo and Salemi.
Between its illustrious personalities they are remembered:
? Coraldo II, from which it comes down the casato one of Bottoming drills, holder of the barony of the feudo of Culcasi and Mangiadaini near Salemi;
? Francisco, straricoto of Messina;
? Benedict, holder of the castle of Mazzara and the barony of the Merca and marquis of Villabianca;
? Francisco Maria, marquis of Villabianca and conte of Belforte.

The family Falcon arrives in Sicily to work of Ettore around to year 1000.
The messinese stock of such family possessed innumerevoli lands like those to Cerami, Comiso, Camastra and the Barony of Samperi.
Between its greater exponents they can be cited:
? Tommaso, diffuse the family in Sicily;
? Federico, knight and oratore;
? Melchiorre, senator of Messina.

The Fardella family is of trapanese origin and such sicialian stock drift from Corrado.
Between the others its members, can be cited:
? Umfrido, mandate in Sicily from Federico II in order to control the restructure of Augusta; he was also xecutioner in the Val di Noto;
? Alberto, governor of Siracusa;
? Antonio, vice-almirante and regal xecutioner;
? Lanzone, owner of numerous tito them like that one of regal milite and regal credenziere to Bottoming drills;
? Michele, regal gistiziere for the city of Bottoming drills.
The family previews also other coppers, like that one of the principles of Paceco and the marquises of S. Lorenzo, that one of the marquises of Torrearsa, that one of the barons of the Ripa.

The Ferreri family is original of Valence and arrives to Sciacca to work of Ferrerio to the end of 1300.
It left its assets the Mariano grandson whom he obtained, moreover, the barony of Pettineo and the lordship of Calamonaci and Favara.
Serene, the daughter of this last one, distinguished itself for beneficial works like the edificazione of a hospital for the sick incurabili.
Between the others exponents of such family, finally, remember Antonio, holder of the feudo of Ristrella.

The family Iron is original of the Fiandra.
It arrives in Sicily thanks to the siblings Stefano and Giovanni that in the 1060 followed in the island the Conte Ruggero.
Stefano was bishop of Mazzara and Giovanni straticoto of Messina.
Between the others exponents of such family are remembered:
? Silurnio, holder of the castle and lands of Caltanissetta;
? Giovanni, getlteman of Castellamare of the Gulf;
? Bernardo XVII, baron of Fiumegrande.

The Frangipane family arrives in Sicily in 1130 to work of Massenzio.
Between the more illustrious names they are had:
? Nicolo, holder of numerous possedimenti near Castelvetrano;
? Antonino, military in the Val di Mazzara at the beginning of 1600 and subsequently of all the reign;
? Girolamo 2?, baron of Regalbuto;
? Angel, baron of Regalbuto and senator of Licata;
? Giovanbattista, marquis of S. Croce;
? Rosary, master rations them of real the patrimony.

The Galluppi family is between noblest and ancient of the Calabria.
A branch of such family moves from Tropea in Sicily in XVI the century to work of the baron of Joppolo Cesar.
Such branch previews numerous and valid condottieri, to leave give it same Cesar who was captain corazzieri goddesses del king Filippo II of Spain.
Such branch is moved very soon to S. Lucia from where others are circulated two under-coppers:
1) the branch of the barons of Cirella, nearly extinguished;
2) the branch of the barons of Pancaldo, those who brought back the family to Messina.

The Garofalo family is original of the Catalogna and has innumerevoli contacts with the Sicily.
In effects, it is necessary to remember:
? Arnaldo, thought noble citizen of Palermo in 1342;
? Onorio, son of the previous one, senator of the same city for approximately 5 years;
? Michele, resident to Messina and against the rebellious ones of such city;
? Onorio II, senator of Palermo;
? Onorio III, general vicario of Catania;
? Tommaso, first duca of Rebutone in the second half of 1600;
? Vincenzo, previous, governing descendant of of the White men of Palermo and the captain xecutioner of the same city;
? Tommaso II, son of previous and the knight of S. Giacomo of the Sword.

The Giardina family seems draws its origin from Luigi Arias, first holder of the barony and the title it of marquis of S. Ninfa at the beginning of 1600. It was also governor of the Mount of Mercy of Palermo.
Between the others illustrious exponents are remembered:
? Simone I, governing of the Company of the Charity of Palermo;
? Simone II, governor of the company of the Peace, captain xecutioner of Palermo and finally prince of Monteleone;
? Luigi Gerald, heir of the possedimenti of the family and also of the state and the earth of Ficarazzi and governor of the Company of the Peace of Palermo.

The Giarrizzo family is present to Palermo.
Between its greater exponents Francisco Giarrizzo di Pietraperzia remembers itself, citizen and senator of Palermo.
From deirvano it the barons of Rincione from the which drivano those of S. Caterina and Spataro di Mazzarino and those of Casalvecchio di Calascibetta.
Finally it is necessary to remember marquises Giarrizzo di Caltagirone.

The family Giovanni or Of Giovanni is diffused in Greece and Italy. She has had innumerevoli contacts with the Sicily.
A first branch of such family previews like greater representatives:
? Giovanni; he moves himself to Messina in order to follow the king Peter of alagona;
? Andrea, holder of the feudo of Alfano;
? Domenico, first prince of Trecastagne towards the second half of 1600.
According to branch of this family it is represented from the duchi of Saponara between which they are distinguished:
? Vincenzo, knight of Saint Giacomo to the sword;
? Domenico, governor of the Company of the SS. Apostles of Messina;
? Vincenzo II, holder of the principati ones of Castelbianco and Ucria.
A third party and minor branch of such family are found to Palermo.

The noble family Graffeo or Grifeo finds its origins from one family of Greek emperors.
The family has lived mostly to Palermo.
Its main stock previews, between the several illustrious personalities:
? Ugone, straricoto of Messina;
? Giovanni II, first baron of Partanna;
? Guglielmo Giovanni, bishop of Lipari and then of Pacts;
? Guglielmo II, first prince of Partanna;
? Girolamo, deputy of the reign, captain xecutioner and pretore to Palermo;
? Girolamo II, captain xecutioner, pretore, gentiluomo of room;
? Vincenzo, re-united numerous tito them like that one of gentiluomo of room and councilman of state.
The family previews others two smaller coppers:
1) Marquises di Regiovanni and Principi di Gangi, branch inglobato from the Valguarnera house;
2) a Neapolitan branch represented from Benedict Reggio prince of the Chain and from the Conte Benedict Grifeo and Moncada.

The Gravina family comes down from the principles normanni.
Several present E' in Sicily with coppers.
The first branch is that one of the principles of Palagonia and marquises of Frankfurt.
In such branch illustrious personalities of the bore were distinguished of:
? Girolamo, baron of Palagonia and first marquis of Frankfurt, nonche vicario general of the reign;
? Ludovico, first prince of Palagonia;
? Francisco, several owner of titles them like that one of prince of Palagonia, knight of the Toson of gold, first president of the Supreme Council of Sicily;
? Ignazio, captain xecutioner, pretore of Palermo and knight of the S. Gennaro.
According to branch it is represented from the Duchi di S. Michele and the Principles of Montevago between which they are remembered:
? Giovanni I, baron of S. first Michele and duca of such state;
? Giovanni II, prince of Montevago and marquis of S. Elisabetta;
? Peter, cardinal archbishop of Palermo and knight of s. the Gennaro.
The third branch is represented from the Principles of Comitini and Altomonte, between which they can be cited:
? Michele, baron of Scordia Soprana and first prince of Comitini;
? Michele II, baron of Raimone;
? Michele III, captain xecutioner, pretore of Palermo, deputy of the reign;
? Giuseppe, gentiluomo of room, knight of the S. Gennaro and knight of the order of the Iron Crown of Austria.
The fourth branch is that one of the Principles of Ramacca, between which:
? Sancio, first prince of Ramacca;
? Ottavio, deputy of the reign.
The fifth branch of the Gravina family is represented from the Principles of Gravina.
Such branch derives from Girolamo, first marquis of Francofonte.
The sixth branch is composed from the Principles of Val di Savoja and the Barons of Armiggi. Such branch is present to Catania.
The seventh and last branch of such family is represented from the Duchi di Cruyllas.
Such branch is extinguished in Airoldi house.

The family Gregorio or Of Gregorio seems is born to Costantinopoli and it is transplanted to Messina.
Between its greater representatives they are remembered:
? Gregorio, judge of Messina at the beginning of 1300;
? Bordering, castellano of Matagrifone;
? Peter, judge, master notaro, protonotaro of the reign and general vicario of Sicily.
The family subdivides itself in more illustrious coppers:
? Marquises di Poggiogregorio;
? the Marquises of Go them Santoro and of Squillaci in Calabria;
? the Marquises of Gregorio of the S. R. The residents to Palermo.

The Grimaldi family is one of the four celebrates families of the Republic of Genoa.
It is scattered in Italy, France and Spain thanks to the fact that is subdivided in several coppers like that one of the principles of Monaco, of the principles of Gerace and Salerno, of the Grimaldi of Bologna, Carignano, Calabria and Sicily.
The family arrives in Sicily for before the time to work of Enrico Grimaldi, councilman of king Martino who obtained lands of Castrogiovanni, and just the regal Castle of such city of which it was made governor.
According to exponent of such family that arrives in the island in 1554 was Augustin, baron of S. Giovanni who established its family to Modica. It re-united varies tito them, as an example like the baronies of Serravalle and Delia.
To cite, still, Carl Grimaldi who obtained the title it of prince from the king Carl II to the end of 1600.
Between the other illustrious personages of such family they are remembered:
? Peter Andrea I, baron of S. Caterina;
? Peter Andrea II, first prince of S. Caterina;
? Francisco Grimaldi and Colonna, baron of Serravalle.

The Guttadauro family is of Spanish origin and arrives in Sicily to work of Egidio, milite to the service of King Martino.
Between its members they are remembered:
? Gian Vincenzo, to falconiere for king Martino and holder of the Castellania di Mineo;
? Enrico Giacomo, carried the family from Caltagirone to Catania;
? Monsignor Giovanni, bishop of Caltanissetta.

The family Impellizeri or Pellizzeri is born in Castile and Valence and arrives in Sicily to work of Antonio.
She boasts illustrious personalities of the bore of:
? Antonio II, settled down itself to Genoa and its sons moved to Modica with the title it of governors;
? Francisco, master rations them of the Regional Room;
? Tommaso, baron of S. Giacomo Belmineo and the Burgio, castellano of Famous;
? Antonio, marquis of Camporeale.

The family Emperor is of pisana origin and arrives to Palermo to the time of King Federico II to work of Giovanni.
The family collects illustrious personalities like, as an example:
? Senator and, Umbertino's holder feudo of Ficarazzi of Palermo;
? Senator and, Giovanni's son previous anch' he of the city of Palermo;
? Pompilio, captain xecutioner and pretore;
? Giulio Cesar, holder of some baronies like that one of Pellizzaro and more times senator.

The Ioppolo family is of Greek origin and it is transplanted to Catania to work of Antonio at the beginning of 1400.
Between its greater representatives they are remembered:
? Alfonso, holder of the castellania of Saint Filippo d' Aggiro;
? Diego, first duca of S. Antonio;
? Antonino Giuseppe, master rations them of r. the patrimony, captain xecutioner and pretore of Palermo

Part 3
NOBLE FAMILIES SICIALIAN

The nobiliari families that have moved themselves in Sicily and those of properly sicialian origin remarkablly contribute to the history of the island as an example thanks to the military and social enterprises of the own representatives and to their will to build up palaces and monasteri.
The titles nobiliari them have always had their importance and their fascination and often is seen like the acknowledgment, the attestation of particular virtues.

The family the Grua is of Catalan origin and arrives in Sicily thanks to Umbertino, living to the time of King Martino, baron of the castle of Palagonia and vicere in the Val di Mazzara.
Such family boasts innumerevoli illustrious personalities of the bore of:
? Antonio, previous brother of and the castellano one of Caltagirone;
? Giovanni, anch' he brother of Umbertino and great almirante of the reign;
? Vincenzo, first prince of Pretty, deputy of the reign and more times pretore than Palermo;
? Cesar, duca of Villareale and more times pretore than Palermo;
? Vincenzo II, holder of the Marchesato di Regalmiti and governor of the Mount of Mercy.

The Lanza family is between most ancient and boasts one Germanic descendancys.
Through a driven in net of weddings, it expands itself and prospers until XIX the century and boasts numerous tito them nobiliari and be them of the bore of stratigoto, vicere, captain xecutioner, baron, prince, minister state secretary, minister of the ecclesiastical transactions.
Between the numerous possedimenti of such family the baronial lands of Trabia are numbered also, Brolo and Mussomeli.
Between several the exponents of such family they are remembered:
? Corrado Nozzle, first exponent of such family and living in the eleventh century;
? Manfredi, living to the time in which the family Federico di Hohenstaufen is tied to the emperor;
? Corrado nozzle, living in XIII the century and that, with to other knights, it accompanied Peter III of Aragon in the disfida of Bordeaux;
? Galvano Nozzle, living in the 1250 councilman of emperor svevo Manfredi;
? Macalda Ladder Nozzle, living during the domination angiona in able Sicily and to buy back seized present lands to Ficarra; it consolidated its position with its second wedding with Alaimo from Lentini, one of the supporters of the war of vespro and with one the position privileged to the court of the king Peter; the two lost all their fortunes to cause with of the contrasts with the monarch: their lands were confiscated from the state treasury, Alaimo was killed and emprisoned Macalda.

The Landolina family arrives in Sicily to work of Rotlando, consanguineo of normanno the Ruggero that it gave to it loads with straticoto with Messina and the barony of Avola.
Between the illustrious exponents of such family they are remembered:
? George, son of the previous one, military diamond and straricoto of Messina;
? Giovanni, holder of innumerevoli possedimenti and, between the other, baron of Burgio, You go up of it and Cammaratini;
? Francisco, from which comes down the duchi of Verdura;
? Vincenzo, from which comes down the principles of Torrebruna;
? Antonino, marquis of Trezzano and from which marquises of S. Alfano and Baroni of Rigilifi come down.

The family Lofaso or from Milan Faso is of origin and arrives in Sicily to work of Antonio, governor of Caltanissetta to the time of the emperor Federico II.
Between the others its members can be cited:
? Ludovico, castellano of Terms;
? Antonino, Abbot of S. canonical Anastasia and of the cathedral of Catania;
? Leonardo, subsequently first baron and duca of Serradifalco;
? Leonardo II, between the governors of the Company of the Peace of Palermo;
? Domenico, last duca of Serradifalco and prince of S. Peter.

The Lorefice family is of Neapolitan origin and arrives in Sicily to work of the siblings Sigismondo and Berengario.
Very soon the family transplants itself in several sicialian cities like Palermo, Modica, Sciacca and Trapani.
Between the greater representatives of this family she remembers herself, as an example, Geronimo, captain of arms to Modica.

The Lorenzo family or Of Lorenzo is of English origin and arrives in Sicily to the time of the King Ruggiero thanks to Silvestro.
Between its greater representatives who covered important charges in the island they have:
? Corrado, commander of the Famous fortress of and gentiluomo of room of the King Alfonso;
? Francisco, a prode guerriero, captain of arms to Terranova and Marsala;
? Giovanni, canonical of the Famous cathedral of and knight gerosolmitano chaplain.

The families Luna and Perollo have been always in contrast.
The noble family Moon boasts real blood goto and one relationship with the real house of Navarre.
It arrives in Sicily thanks to Artale Di Luna, consanguineo of the king Martino.
He innamoro of Pearly Daisy, promise to Giovanni Perollo, and the taken ones in moglie.
The expecting other if of it revenged and Artale died from li to little years poisoned.
Between the innumerevoli Lanza they are remembered, as an example:
? Antonio Moon, conte of Caltabellotta, been involved in "the Case of Sciacca" in 1450; Piero Perollo di Castellammare of the Gulf and the conte of Caltabellotta came to blows during the processione of the Saint week; the vicissitude is concluded bitterly when the conte of Caltabellotta it decides to be revenged of I face endured killing numerous exponents of the enemy family;
? Gian Vincenzo, conte of Sclafani, straricoto of Messina and vicere in 1516;
? Sigismondo, famous in order to have contributed to being born of the commotion of Sciacca in 1529, sad event famous best with the expression "II case of Sciacca"; Sigismondo De Moon, conte of Caltabellotta, massacred its enemy Giacomo Perollo Di Pandolfina, getlteman of Sciacca, with to its men; Sigismondo was blotted also of the insult of the corpse of its enemy and for the cruelty of its action it never did not obtain the forgiveness of the monarch Carl V;
? Peter, holder of numerous charges like that one of conte of Caltabellotta, straricoto of Messina and duca of Messina in 1554;
? Giovanni, son of the previous and last male representative of the family; after it it family extinguishes itself.
The noble Perollo family is of French origin and has a first contact with the island towards 1100 thanks to Giliberto.
Between the Perrollo more famous they can be cited:
? Guglielmo, master xecutioner of the reign from 1144 to 1151 and straricoto of Messina in 1154;
? Matteo, getlteman of Ciminna;
? Matteo II, holder of the lordship and the castle of Knows it, of the barony of Calomonaci and the Bridge;
? Caspar, baron of the Cassaro and the Bonfiglio;
? Gianbattista, founder of the gesuitico college of Sciacca;
? Domenico and Cosimo, knights gerosolmitani.

The Maltese family is one noble family of Castrogiovanni.
Between its greater representatives they are had:
? Remigio, castellano of Lentini;
? Paolino, holder of the Stafenda country house in the territory of Spaccaforno;
? Adrian, castellano of Castrogiovanni.
A secondary branch of this family through of the weddings was become related with the noble Grimaldi family.

The family Marquis is of Lombardic origin.
She subdivides herself in two coppers:
? the first one arrives in Sicily to the time of the king normanni to work of Riccardo - castellano of Taormina -;
? the second arrives to Naples thanks to Raul, brother of the previous one.
Between those who they had contacts with the Sicily are remembered:
? Saglimbene, getlteman of the Ladder to the end of 1300;
? Giovanni, bishop of Pacts to the end of 1400;
? Francisco, first prince of the Ladder in 1614.

The family Marino or De Marinis is of genovese origin and arrives in Sicily to the time of the emperor Federico II.
It subdivides itself in two coppers:
1) the first branch is transplanted to Palermo; between its greater representatives they are had:
- Guglielmo, holder of the baronial earth of Gualtieri, near Milazzo;
- Filippo, holder of the castle and the feudo of Gibellina, Musciano and Guastanella;
- Elisabetta, spouse of Domenico Grifeo prince of Partanna, city where it transferred the paternal assets;
2) according to branch it is transplanted to Messina; to cite, as an example, Filippo, holder of the feudi of Longarini and Burgillisi.

The Maurigi family is of Germanic origin and arrives in Sicily to the time of Federico II.
From some actions the same emperor derives that nomination Mark Aurelio Maurigi its general vicario for the reign of Sicily.
Between the representatives of such family whom they have contacts with the Sicily are remembered:
? Gian Federico, governor of Marsala to the beginning of 1400;
? Simone II, juror of Sciacca and captain xecutioner; because of its rebellion to the emperor Carl V, endures the seizure of its assets and the sentence to the perpetual imprisonment;
? Simone III, the first one to move itself to Palermo in 1670;
? Giovanni, more times senator than Palermo, conte of the empire and marquis.

The family Migliaccio or Migliazzo seems is of origin fiorentina.
Innumerevoli is its illustrious representatives, beginning from:
? Mariano, first marquis of Montemaggiore, getlteman of knows it of Partinico, pretore of Palermo and straricoto of Messina;
? Mariano II, first prince of Baucina, deputy of the reign and pretore of Palermo;
? Ignazio, captain of Palermo and general vicario of Catania;
? Giuseppe, archbishop of Messina;
? Lucia, pertaining to the branch of the duchi of Floridia, prince of Partanna and moglie of the king Ferdinand IV;
? Ignazio, pertaining to the branch of the Malvagna and prince of Malvagna, knight of the Saint Gennaro and meaning of Palermo.

The Modica family boasts illustrious representatives of the bore of:
? Paul I, first baron of Catalamiti;
? Paul II, first senator of Messina;
? Scipione Litterio, governor of the Companies of the White men and the Peace of Messina;
? between Giovanni, gerosolmitano knight and great priore of Messina.

The Mollica family is of messinese origin and it moves itself in other sicialian cities like Alcamo and Trapani.
He comprises an immense fan of illustrious representatives of the bore of:
? Domenico I, military regal;
? Domenico II, captain of Castroreale and ambassador;
? Gianbattista, captain of Salemi;
? Peter, R-he who transformed in barony one of its goes up some and from which personalities illusttri of the trapanese come down.

The Monaco family or Of the Monaco or Lomonaco is of French origin that is transplanted initially to Naples and from li in Sicily, just to Messina, Palermo and Trapani.
Between its members that had contacts with the Sicily they remember:
? Andrea, senator of Palermo at the beginning of 1400;
? the siblings Federico and Peter who settled down themselves to Bottoming drills.

The Montalto family is original of Naples and had varies contacts to you with the Sicily as an example thanks to:
? Riccardo, the first one to obtain the barony of Buccheri;
? Giordano, anch' he baron of Buccheri;
? Giovannuzzo, valoroso knight to the time of the king Federico III;
? Giovanni, straricoto of Messina.
Such family boasts other illustrious personalities of the gerosolmitani bore of knight, large siniscalchi of the reign and masters ration them of the mint.

The Montaperto family is of French origin and arrives in Sicily to work of Giammateo, commilito some of the king Ruggero.
Some Montaperto famous was:
? Bartolomeo, military engaged in the defense of Mazzara against the French and captain xecutioner of Palermo;
? Nicolo, archbishop of Palermo;
? Giovanni, holder of the state of Raffadali;
? Peter, deputy of the reign and pretore of Palermo;
? Nicolo Giuseppe, first prince of Raffadali, knight of S. Giacomo of the sword and pretore of Palermo.

The Naples family comes down from that one of the duchi of Martina Caracciolo.
The first one to arrive in Sicily was Nicolo that, like ricompensa for its servigi to Federico II, obtained the perpetual dominion of Troina.
Such family boasts illustrious personalities of the bore of deputies of the reign, vicari generates them, gerosolmitani knights and of military valorosi.
Between the others exponents of such family remember Girolamo II (knight of the Alcantara and first prince of Resuttano) and Federico (captain xecutioner, pretore, general vicario of Catania).

The Naselli family draws its origins gives of the barons lomgobardi and arrives in Sicily thanks to Pericone, holder of some isolani possedimenti like of the territories near Butera.
Between the greater exponents of such family they are remembered:
? Pericone II, baron of Comiso;
? Caspar II, first conte of Comiso;
? Baldassare, conte of Comiso and baron of Casalnuovo, pretore of Palermo, captain xecutioner of Catania;
? Baldassare II, general vicario of Girgenti and Licata, pretore of Palermo;
? Luigi III, marquis of Gibellina, conte of Comiso, holder of lands of Castellamare of the Gulf and the baronies of Casalnuovo and Gela.
Such branch is extinguished in the Burgio family, duchi of Villafiorita.
Other coppers of such family are Marquises di Flores who then are connected to the Trigona house, principles of S. Elia.

The family Born them, original of the Provenza, arrives to Messina to work of Giovanni.
The illustrious personalities of such family are remarkable, beginning from:
? Giovan Strong, first prince of Sperlinga;
? Giovanni II, first deputy dells messinese health;
? Francisco II, regal councilman of the committee of messinese commerce;
? Giovanni III, gerosolmitano knight and illustrious man of letters.
The family circulates in the branch of the Marquises Born them of Palermo and that one of Marquises di Camporotondo of Messina.

From Liguria the Oneto family is of origin and it transplants in Sicily thanks to Arnaldo, military to the time of Federico II and holder of some lands near Catania.
The family boasts important personalities of the bore of Raffaele whose descendants were Marquises di S. Nicolo, the Duchi di Sperlinga, the Principles of S. Bartolomeo and the Principles of S. Lorenzo.
Between the other charges covered from the exponents of such family haoon that one of governor of the mount of mercy, governor of the white men of Palermo and captain xecutioner.

The Ortolano family is of pisana origin and it is transplanted in Sicily in XIII the century, when some its exponents obtain numerous feudi and lands.
A branch of such family is represented from the present Barons of Bordonaro Soprano to Cefalu.
They are remembered, moreover:
? Emmanuele Ortolano of the barons of Paschal, lived to Palermo;
? Isabella Ortolano of the barons Paschal that left its assets to religious charities.

The family Palici, Palizzi or Palizzolo is of origin normanna.
Its exponents covered illustrious charges like that one of patrizio, captain xecutioner, member of the companies of the Saint Mount White men Giuliano, of the Peace of Palermo, the White men of Catania, gerosolmitano.
Between they they remember themselves:
? Lorenzo, living near the Saint Mount Giuliano and initiator of the Palizzi branch that in according to moment was called Palizzolo;
? Vinciguerra, getlteman of Cammarata;
? Lands Matteo, holder numerous as an example to Saponara and near Castrogiovanni;
? Antonio, canonical of the cathedral of Messina.

The Pape family is of origin fiamminga and arrives in Sicily, and just to Palermo, work of Ariberto at the beginning of 1100.
Giantommaso obtained privileges regal of the confirmation of the coat of arms gentilizio with the added one of the real Aquila.
The family subdivides itself in two distinguished coppers:
1) the duchi of Protoameneo; between they they were distinguished:
- Cristoforo II, knight of Saint Giacomo and knight of Saint Calogero;
- Luigi, marquis of the Ladder, duca and governor of the White men of Palermo;
- Giacinto, knight of the saint Gennaro and pretore of Palermo;
2) the duchi of Giampilieri, between which:
- Ugone, the first one to obtain such tito it and governing of the White men of Palermo;
- Ugone II, bishop of Mazzara.

The Paterno family arrives in Sicily to work of Roberto, military to the continuation of the Normanno Ruggiero and engaged in the fight against the saraceni.
From such Roberto illustrious personalities come down beginning from that had contacts with the Sicily,:
? Arrigo, pretore of Palermo;
? Giovanni, general vicario of Siracusa;
? Giovanni II, archbishop of Palermo and president of the reign.
The family subdivides itself in several coppers:
? the principles of Biscari, barons of the earth of the Imbaccari Sottani and Mirabella and also of other lands like those of S. Filippo of Ragusa and Ragona;
? duchi of Carcaci and the barons of Hut;
? the marquises of Saint Giuliano;
? the marquises of Raddusa;
? the principles of Manganelli and duchi of the Palace;
? the marquises of the From Tuscany one.

The family Pacts is declared of messinese origin and derives from Anfusio, a Greek knight and owner of the castle of Sterope, R-he who fought against the saraceni and was from they killed.
Between the greater representatives of such family they are remembered:
? Ansaldo, that it contributed to assiciurar to the Conte Ruggero the acquisition of the Sicily;
? Riccardo, straricoto of Messina;
? Luzio, one of the heads of the revolt of the vespro, holder of lands of Naro and Girgenti;
? Ansaldo II, one of the first barons whom the king Ludovico II served;
? Nicolo, previous son of and the titular one of lands of Ladder;
? Bartolomeo, more times senator than Messina.

Part 4
THE NOBLE FAMILIES SICIALIAN

Multiple they are the sicialian illustrious familie that have contributed to determine the development, the culture and the history of the Sicily.

The Ragusa family subdivides itself in two coppers:
1) the branch of Mazzara; numerous its members were swear to you;
2) the branch of Alcamo, in according to moment transplanted to Palermo; numerous its members occupied important charges in the magistracy.

The Raineri family previews several lineages between which it is necessary to remember that one of Conti and Marquises of Perugia from which that one comes down of Drink a toast themselves from which probably that one of Messina comes down.
Of this last stock they were distinguished:
Giovanni, doctor of King Federico who obtained as ricompensa for its servigi some feudi sicialian like that one of Bajona Public square;
Rainero, more times senator;
Giovanni Peter, captain to Messina.
The family moves itself to Castroreale.

The family Reggio or Riggio circulates itself in some Italian regions like the Tuscany, the Campania and the Sicily.
The first one to arrive in Sicily is Antonino.
Its son Peter was titular of the feudo of the Carmito and master rations them of real the patrimony.
Its eredi have distributed themselves between Messina, Randazzo and Palermo.
Between they they distinguished themselves:
Nicolo, holder of the earth and the castle of Francavilla;
Giuliano, captain of Palermo;
Stefano, captain of Palermo, master rations them, marquis of the Ginestra, first prince of Campofiorito and straricoto of Messina;
Luigi, from which two coppers leave:
- the first one begins with Stefano and is represented from illustrious personalities of the bore of knight of S. Calogero, knight of the toson of gold, ambassador and knight
gerosolmitano;
- according to branch it begins with Antonino Reggio and Saladino,
prince of the Chain; in it they are distinguished, between the others,
Andrea, founder of the vassallaggio earth
Catenanuova, Agatino, bishop of Cefalu and Augustin,
canonical of Palermo.

The Curly family, I make bristle, Riccioli arrives in Sicily to the time of Federico II of Aragon.
Between its greater exponents they are remembered:
Sergio, R-he who fortified the castle of Bottoming drills;
Tommaso, resident to Palermo, treasurer of the reign and senator;
Giovanni, resident to Messina and owner of vary assets to you like the barony of Comiso; from he they derive, between the other, the Barons of Ribino and S. Giacomo.

The Rizzari family is one of the most ancient noble families than Caltagirone - Ct -.
The illustrious personalities of such family are remarkable, to partiere give:
Giovanni, castellano of Pulls ahead;
Giovanni II, xecutioner of goes them of Enna;
Odone, castellano of Caltagirone;
Peter, ambassador of Catania;
Peter II from which the barons of Bidamo come down.

The Red family or Red is of origin normanna and blooms in Sicily. E' formed from varies illustrious peronaggi to you like:
Red, Conte di Sperlinga;
Red II, Conte di Aidone and of Sclafani and Barone, between the other, of Cerami, Calataiano, Motta Santanastasio, Militello, Saponara and Sperlinga;
Nicolo, holder of the castles of Naro, Favara, Saladino;
Guglielmo, baron of Militello, Cerami and Sirumi near Catania, from which the Principles of Cerami (present to Catania), the Principles of Militello (extinguished in the Gallego house derive) and the Barons of Sangiovanni (extinguished in Grimaldi house).

The Saccano family is properly sicialian and from the ancient origins.
Its members have covered loaded important like those with baron of Santostefano of the Briga, straricoto, bishop of Catania and gerosolmitani knights as fra Ottavio and fra Vincenzo.

The Sammartino family boasts illustrious personalities of the bore of:
Giovanni, general vicario of the Val di Noto;
Giovan Maria baron of Campobello and owner of varies to you tito them like that one of treasurer and general amminitratore of the S. Crociata for all the Sicily;
Antonio, pretore of Palermo and master ration them of the trib. of r. the patrimony.

The Santostefano family has two contacts distinguished with the Sicily:
1) the first one with Martino, to the service of the king Ludovico and holder of the state of Avola and the feudi of Falconeri, Mazzarone and Ginestra; such line is extinguished in the Reggio house;
2) the second, towards the end of 1500, with Diego, secretary of the court of the Sant' Uffizio of Palermo.

The family Seventh is of ancient pisane origins and arrives in Sicily at the beginning of 1400 to work of Antonio, R-he who acquired the barony of Tavi and the castle of Mazzara.
To such family Marquises di Giarratana and the Barons of Cammaratini belong.
Between its greater representatives they remember themselves:
Giannantonio, holder of the state of Giarratana;
Matteo, captain xecutioner to Palermo;
Ruggero II, prince of Hooks and pretore of Palermo.

The Spadafora family is of Greek origin and it is become related with of the barons normanni.
Some its exponents have had contacts with the Sicily, beginning from:
Corrado, castellano of the Salvatore of Messina; from it two distinguished coppers derive:
1) the first one is represented from the Principles of Maletto and Venetico,
nonche from Marquises di S. Martino, the Barons of Mazzara,
of the Cavalry, Pirago, Persinaci; it extinguishes itself in
Ascenso house;
2) the second is represented from the Principles of Spadafora,
Marquises of Policastrello and Carletto and Duchi di S. Peter;
Enrico, castellano of Castellammare of Palermo;
Federico, castellano and governor of Taormina and master ration them;
Federico II, master rations them of real the patrimony.

The Statella family is of French origin.
The sicialian distribution previews numerous illustrious personalities, like:
Francisco III, conte, large siniscalco of the reign and first marquis of Spaccaforno;
Antonio, holder of varies to you be, governing of the Company of the Peace and pretore of Palermo;
Francisco WAYS, Marquis of Spaccaforno, Prince of Villadorata and Sambuchi and baron of varies feudi like those of Hill Soprana and Sottana and S. Maria to you of the Focallo;
Francisco, Marquis of Spaccaforno and Prince of Cassaro.

The Tagliavia family has of the ancient origins sicialian.
She takes also the last name "of Aragon" from Francisco, baron of Castelvetrano.
Between its greater exponents they are remembered:
Carl, Marquis of Avola and Prince of Castelvetrano, first Duca di Terranova and Conte di Borgetto;
Carl II, knight of the Toson d' Oro and captain of the sicialian cavalry;
Diego, knight of S. Giacomo and straricoto of Messina.
The aforesaid branch is extinguished in the Pignatelli family.
An other branch is present to Sciacca and is rappresentatro from the Marquises of Saint Giacomo and the Duchi di Alagona.

The family Term is of Catalan origin and arrives in Sicily at the beginning of 1200 thanks to the siblings Giovanni and Olivero.
Giovanni possessed the castellania of Terms, the title it of xecutioner of Goes them of Girgenti.
Of such family they are remembered:
Oliverio, castellano of Palermo;
Giovanni, archbishop of Palermo;
Antonio, governor of the Regional Room of Siracusa;
Girolamo, bishop of Mazara and archbishop of Palermo;
Antonino, senator of Palermo and father of Bernardino IV and Girolamo, from which derive two distinguished coppers:
- the first one is represented from Bernardino, first prince of
Casteltermine; this branch collects varies tito them like that one of
conte of Isnello, prince of Baucina;
- the second comes from Girolamo and is composed from the duchi of
Vatticani.

The Tomasi family has origins roman, it is moved at first to Ancona and subsequently in Sicily; in these according to case thanks to Mario de Tomasi.
It was captain of arms to Licata and Barone di Palma.
Between its more famous exponents can be cited:
Giulio, baron of Montechiaro, first duca of Palm and first prince of Lampedusa;
Ferdinand, knight of Alcantara;
Ferdinand II, captain xecutioner and more times pretore than Palermo.

The Trigona family arrives in Sicily thanks to Ermanno, captain of the emperor Federico II, that it obtained castellania and the government of Mistretta as ricompensa for its servigi.
Such family has possessed varies to you feudi and tito them, beginning from that one of duca of Misterbianco and Catania, of Baron of Azzolino and Mandrascate of Public square, of Marquis of Canicarao di Noto, Baron of Cutumio and prince of S. Elia.
It boasts, moreover, the presence of varies illustrious personages to you of the bore of gerosolmitani and porporati knights.

The Valdina family arrives in Sicily thanks to Andrea, illustrious knight and vicario of the Val di Noto.
Its representatives have covered loaded important with the baron bore of Raccuja, marquis of the Rocca, pretore of Palermo and knight of the Alcantara.

The Valguarnera family derives gives of Conti of the Catalogna.
The family has two contacts distinguished with the Sicily:
1) the first passage is had towards the end of 1200 with Simone;
2) according to passage one has thanks to the siblings Simone and Vitale, noble Catalans.
From these last ones some illustrious men come down who distinguished themselves in Sicily:
Giovanni, straricoto of Messina, president of the reign and skillful condottiero;
Giovanni II, straricoto of Messina and conte of Asaro;
Francisco II, prince of Valguarnera and pretore of Palermo;
Francisco III, prince of Valguarnera and Gangi, marquis of Regiovanni and valoroso jail captain.
This branch of the family possessed the principato one of Gangi of Graffeo House, of Gravina and the two baronies of Bozzetta and Pasquasia of Grimaldi House and are extinguished in the family Allaita di Villafranca.
According to branch it is represented from duchi of Arenella and the principles of Niscemi, branch that can boast illustrious exponents of the bore of military, preTauruses and governatorei of the mount of Palermo.

The Vanni family is between the most ancient and noble pisane families and arrives in Sicily, and just to Palermo, work of Alexander at the beginning of 1500.
Here the family circulates itself creating the branch of the marquises of Roccabianca, of the principles of Saint Vincenzo, the marquises of saint Leonardo and the duchi of Archirafi.
Between the more illustrious exponents they are remembered:
Vincenzo Sigismondo, palermitano senator;
Francisco, bishop of Cefalu and knight of the Saint Gennaro.

The Vassallo family makes two different passages in Sicily, one with Baronio to Famous - Sr - to the time of Federico II, and a second with Nicolo to Palermo.
Just from this last one they come down of the illustrious personalities that they had of the contacts with the Sicily, like:
Peter, hereditary castellano of Mazzara;
Stefano, more times senator than Palermo;
Nicolo II, castellano of Capizzi and hereditary baron of some feudi present in the territory of Ragusa.

The Zacco family has of the ancient padovane origins and has a first contact with the Sicily to work of Stefano, councilman of the king Alfonso of Aragon.
The family circulates itself very soon in several cities isolates some like Palermo, Modica, Lentini and Siracusa.
Between its exponents have governors of the room regional, canonical, governing, military and representatives of the magistracy.

see: http://www.sicily-genealogy.com/

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We are made of mostly carbon, nitrogen, calcium, oxygen, iron, and hydrogen. Proteins, and subsequently amino acids, are mostly made up of just four elements: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. In fact, 96.3% of your body is composed of these common elements.

see: http://anthro.palomar.edu/biobasis/bio_4.htm to find out more about proteins and what else we are made of...

There are many other elements, over 100 trillion atoms, and quarks that make us tick. Put them all together add some energy and you get some amino acids; but you are incredibly far away from making life or adding consciousness, even if you cook it all for over 3.5 billion years.

With every breath we take, we renew ourselves. Yet without food, and water; we would all soon die. I am not sure how much air we breath with every breath; but say for example it was a pint of air, and we exhale about the same. Everyone around shares what we exhale after the plants add some things to it, and it mixes with the air that has all the stuff of the earth, and the cosmos in it.

We share the stuff of those closest to us the most. Soon we begin to look, act, and talk like them. In fact, we are part of everyone who ever lived.

It only takes about a year to almost completely exchange our whole body for a new one. Although, our teeth might look the same, they are almost completely renewed every year, just like all the bones, and all the other stuff of our body.

James L. Forberg wrote about the Quantum Consciousness and Immortality of Our Dual Body.

"In order for you to begin to change your attitude about yourself and your place in the scheme of things, your body is really a good place to start. You have to recognize that we (our consciousness) are not native to this space-time dimension.

Your body is composed of quantum points, that take up no space in this universe. All of the leading physicists agree that quantum points are not things. These points collectively do outline or indicate the position of your consciousness, and the area of your control. The fields of the quantumstuff are phased (maximized) so that your form in the space-time dimension repels other material things, because the fields are different.

It might help to picture a thin rubber glove immersed in water. Your hand in the glove is the real you, your spirit or consciousness. The thin membrane of the glove can correspond to the quantum stuff that your body is composed of. The water it is immersed in is the space-time universe.

If you can visualize this you can see that your immortal self is separated from space-time by a thin layer of quantum material. The life force remains in the quantum dimensions, but is the director of your body. In our little visualization you can see that if the finger moves in the water (space-time), it is the hand in the glove (consciousness) that moves it.

I realize that we are thinking in a very simplified way, but it is necessary as a beginning for your change of attitude. Recognize that this membrane (the glove or quantum stuff) is throughout your body, not a simple thing like a sheet of rubber, but between each particle of quantum stuff and the space-time dimension.

When this glove (your body) begins to deteriorate, your consciousness pulls back slowly (in most cases) until the shell is left without any driving force. The deterioration of the physical body is caused by other forces that the consciousness is unable to overcome.

I'm sure you have heard many times when people speak of a dead body that it is only a shell, and that the soul has departed. That is a true statement if we are referring to chemical and electrical tests done on the body. The migration of the soul is a subject that is more difficult to prove. I believe, as do many that the consciousness lives on, perhaps to take on a new body at some time to experience new things in a different world.

The quantum particles we have been speaking of are points of a field of information. Maybe we could compare it to a field of radiation where the photons carry the information. At any rate these quantum points are the access tunnels to all of the intelligence of the cosmos. This includes every dimension outside of our own. Remember that intelligence isn't a physical thing and doesn't follow the rules of time and space.

When our consciousness makes a decision, even a little one, that decision is impressed on all of the quantum ports (our body), and the infinite possibilities of that other dimension are amplified by fazing the waves and are made real.

Physicists are experimentally aware that quantum stuff is moldable by our thought process. Nature is very stingy however, and will allow only one bit of information at a time to become reality. No matter how sophisticated the question (test) is, you will get only one answer of reality and everything else is hazy and indistinct.

The exclusion principal is the basis for the rule that says an electron, or any quantum entity will reveal an infinite range of possibility, but can be persuaded to reveal only one reality.

Since quantum stuff seems to react to consciousness, is it possible that the universe is constructed by consciousness? Are we constructs of a universal consciousness? Do we participate in this construction?

The question is open to you, but from my point of view we really do. Decisions I make effect others. If I decide to play golf on Saturday and the rest of the family wants to go to the mall, there will be a discussion, and then we will all go our own ways. Their reactions to this situation will effect still others. These actions and reactions modify our microcosm. The waves radiate outward shaping our present and influencing the future possibility.

If you believe the teachings of some of our religions, our planet is alone as a home for consciousness. The various religions like to emphasize that point. The idea of course is ridiculous as we become more aware of the probability of many other habitable planets. but that is how it stands right now. Since the planet itself has only been here for approximately 4.6 billion years, what sensate system organized the other ten or eleven billion years of universal expansion? Science has found that there is almost no room for changes in the progression of the universe or we would not be here to observe it. Since many in science have decided that matter does not exist unless it has been consciously produced, who or what did that?

One of the questions prompting this book was, are we immortal or are we not? I indicated that the particles of your physical body are indeed immortal, and have gone through many incarnations as particles. On various pages I have paraphrased many noted physicists. They state that once an electron, or any quantum has been in contact or proximity to another particle, they are forever in communication. This connection can span the universe. The quantum particles that constitute your body originated in the birth of the universe. The heavier particles were given birth at the center of some huge star that spit them out in a super nova explosion.

All of these quantum particles have an enormous history of contact with other particles. Each contact increased the effective range of the particles' communication. If we confine these possibilities to just our planet, we are still an extended part of a great deal of that planet. For instance the water of your body has been the same water in numberless places.

The same is true of all of the atoms of your body. If the science of the quantum is valid, our bodies (physical and non-physical) extend throughout earth and space.

Our self awareness is a consequence of the cohesiveness of the quantum stuff we are composed of. Remember that this quantum stuff appears solid, but is not. Your body is instead a field of waves. These waves of possibility exist not in time or space, but merely influence those dimensions. Your body and all matter seem solid because quantum points are exclusive. These entities tend to push away other points.

Dissolution of the physical body occurs in the presence of strong possibility waves whose phase runs counter to your present manifestation. This is a product of the interference mechanism we have talked about before.

Individuals who practice the art of acupuncture tell me that these points are centers of radiation. Small areas where our life force is at a maximum. The needles, or pressure (of accupressure) stimulate activity of the field and aid in healing by rebalancing the field of radiation.

Some equipment does exist that can analyze the fields of the body. The EEG and the magnetometer are two examples. These physical fields are the result of movement of electrons. Not only are their electrical changes, but a consequence of this is a magnetic flux.

If inspection of the body field were possible (it probably is) it would probably look chaotic. The acupuncture points we mentioned could be those points in the chaos that add together and peak. It is possible that an injury or illness disrupts the normal flow of the field and causes distress.

A conscious entity must have an integrated field of quantum forces in order to manifest as a physical body in space-time. Disruption of this carefully constructed field makes it increasingly difficult for our other dimensional entity to communicate in a physical sense.

Our physical body, and our non-physical body are one and the same. This statement isn't to be taken on faith but to be researched by scientists.

Physical scientists that are current with the investigation into quantum facts, all agree that matter is not what it seems. Its apparent solidity is a function of wave phase and amplitude. The phasings and resulting amplitude seem to be the result of conscious shaping. The process of thought forms a matrix of waves that constitute our physical body.

I am not bypassing the chemical processes of the genes and elements. Keep in mind that these things are all quantum stuff, and are under the influence of long lines of predecessors as well as the pressures of conscious manipulation."

see: Quantum Consciousness and Your Immortality

Stem Cell Research
Cell Image

Stem cells are primitive cells that give rise to other types of cells. Also called progenitor cells, there are several kinds of stem cells. Totipotent cells are considered the "master" cells of the body because they contain all the genetic information needed to create all the cells of the body plus the placenta, which nourishes the human embryo.

Human cells have this capacity only during the first few divisions of a fertilized egg. After 3 - 4 divisions of totipotent cells, there follows a series of stages in which the cells become increasingly specialized. The next stage of division results in pluripotent cells, which are highly versatile and can give rise to any cell type except the cells of the placenta.

At the next stage, cells become multipotent, meaning they can give rise to several other cell types, but those types are limited in number. An example of multipotent cells is hematopoietic cells--blood stem cells that can develop into several types of blood cells, but cannot develop into brain cells. At the end of the long chain of cell divisions that make up the embryo are "terminally differentiated" cells--cells that are considered to be permanently committed to a specific function.

Scientists have long held the opinion that differentiated cells cannot be altered or caused to behave in any way other than the way in which they have been naturally committed. New research, however, has even called that assumption into question. In recent stem cell experiments, scientists have been able to persuade blood stem cells to behave like neurons, or brain cells. Scientists now believe that stem cell research could reveal far more vital information about our bodies than was previously known.

In addition, it was recently discovered that some stem cells also occur in the bodies of adults, rather than exclusively in embryos. Many kinds of multipotent stem cells have been discovered in adults, and scientists believe that many more will be discovered. Research is now being conducted on both adult and embryonic stem cells to determine the characteristics and potential of both to cure disease.

http://www.stemcellresearchfoundation.org/About/FAQ.htm