Home » Knowledge Base Articles » What is a Room Integrity Test?
A room integrity test predicts how long fire suppressant agents take to descend to a given level in the room without having to release the agent itself.
Modular adjustable panels for the door frame which adjusts to fit a wide variety of door sizes.
The blower door system is setup in an available doorway which usually needs to have a height of 2.00m and a width of 900m. The protected area (server room) is then pressurised and the fan flow readings are taken, then to check those measurements the room is depressurised to take measurements to compare. The predicted retention time is calculated from the leakage characteristics and the enclosure and extinguishing system data.
A retention time of 10 minutes is the normal minimum period the suppressant agents except Co2 that requires a 20min retention Time. Ten minutes is long enough for most deep-seated fires to be cooled so that re-ignition is unlikely. Gaseous fire suppression systems should provide adequate time for the emergency services to attend and in most cases prevent the fire taking hold.
When do I need an Integrity Test?
When you have a gaseous suppression system installed to your protected area – such as a server rom or data centre, you are required to undertake a room integrity test to ensure that the suppressant is maintained within the area and will work in case of fire. It is a requirement of most insurance policies and British standards that your suppression system is tested at least annually. It is worth noting that if you suffer fire damage and you don't have valid room integrity certification you may invalidate your building insurance.
You are also required to undertake a room integrity retest if any modifications are made to the area within the 12 month period. So if you make any alterations to the building envelope such as move a partition, installing new cables or pipes within the protected enclosure, you will almost certainly affect gaseous fire suppression retention. Any changes to the room (no matter how small) will require you to undertake further room integrity testing.
APT's experienced engineers who are trained to Level 2 to carry out room integrity testing to the required NFPA 2001, BS ISO 14520 and/or BS EN15004 methodologies.
If your enclosure fails the test there is no need to panic, we can undertake low impact smoke testing to identify the main air leakage paths. Thereafter, a detailed air leakage report can be produced to allow your engineers to seal the areas. Alternately we also offer a room sealing service (if required) providing a one stop solution for all your room integrity testing requirements.
If you require any further details on preparing for your room integrity test, please visit download our room integrity checklist. Or if you would like more information on our server room integrity test services please contact us at info@aptsoundtesting.co.uk or call Darren direct on 07775623464.


Get your game on with Nashville Sports Leagues' men's and co-ed basketball leagues. These friendly, fun leagues allow you to sneak in a workout, have a good time, and improve your shot all while making friends and meeting new people.
NSL's basketball leagues are offered year-round! Games are held at Vine Hill Community Center, Glencliff High School, and East Nashville High School. Games are offered on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Teams will rotate playing at different times every week.
Each men's and co-ed basketball team will have about ten players, with two women required to be on the court at all times for the co-ed league.
We provide referees and game schedules, so that you can simply enjoy the game. After the match, head to one of NSL's sponsor restaurants or bars for discounts on food and drinks. Have a question? Contact the NSL team.
Sign up as a team or a free agent (individual or small group), and get ready for seven regular season games, plus an end-of-season playoffs. If you're new to the league and signing up as a free agent or small group, no need to worry about being benched. NSL places hundreds of free agents on teams every season, and will do our best to put you in a group that's both welcoming and fit to your skill level. Have a free agent request to be on the same team as your friend? Add it to the comment section when registering and we will make it happen!


www.internetkeywords.org - Spectrum Internet Phoenix Az. The concept of Internet jurisdiction can be complicated and unclear. What happens when a dispute arises over an item or service purchased from your business through the internet? Learn where your business can potentially be sued! This is certainly related to Spectrum Internet Phoenix Az.
Featuring the best variety of acoustic-based rock. With an emphasis on acoustic guitar-driven songs, Jeff Parets presents the full spectrum of acoustic rock, including rarely heard "unplugged" versions of classic tunes in their purest form.. We all know that there is nothing worse than having slow internet. You may have even on occasion wondered why your internet was particularly slow.
Linked to Spectrum Internet Phoenix Az, The wired world of ours has the Internet becoming an integral part of our life. However, the question if it is a boon or bane lurks as yet.


Where do I begin? I have made a 2014 resolution to get busy and talk about some of the really cool things that happen around Avenue Art & Company. We are now a year and a half in our new location and we are so grateful for the opportunity to do business in this great space. Last year brought in familiar long-time customers and many new faces as well. We continue to be busy with many outside projects that involve selecting the art, framing, and installations for hospitals, clinics, offices and corporations. Highlights from last year included a custom mobile by Matt Richards for the new Foth building in De Pere, airbrushing original wall art at Theda Clark Hospital's 4 South renovated patient rooms, handmade paper Tau crosses for the St. Elizabeth Foundation, and many more residential appointments.
January allowed each of us to get out of the store for a little fresh inspiration. The Atlanta International Gift Show introduced Joe and myself to several new lines of handmade products, and the Midwest Art & Framing Expo in Las Vegas was packed full of new framing materials and lots of new artwork for Karen "H" and Paula to be inspired by. Getting to the shows is always a challenge but this was a great opportunity to get a dose of NEW! Stop in and see what we've brought into the store. New things are coming in every day!
Be the first to hear about our new items, events and special promotions. Sign-up today!
© 2019 Avenue Art & Company. All Rights Reserved.


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A greener life, a greener world
Telling the green news stories that need telling
Tech for Climate
The Energy Disruption Series
Air pollution in Europe has high economic and human cost
December 20, 2014 · by agreenerlifeagreenerworld	· in air pollution, Europe, European Environment Agency, Germany, Green Blog, guest blog, healt, industry, Juncker.	·
The image shows a brown coal open pit in Germany. In the background a coal plant owned by the Swedish giant Vattenfall. Photo credit: gbohne (cc).
By guest contributor Green Blog
Two new reports by the European Environment Agency (EEA) shows that air pollution in Europe has a high economic and human cost. According to the agency, air pollution has caused premature deaths, damaged buildings, and reduced agricultural yields. It's estimated that damages from air pollution between 2008 and 2012 could cost society as much as €1053 billion.
Air pollution in Europe cost society up to €189 billion (about US $235 billion) in 2012 alone, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said in a new assessment report. Over the period 2008-2012 the estimated cost was at least €329 billion and possibly up to €1053 billion.
The greenhouse gases and air pollution from Europe's industry mainly comes from coal-fired power plants located predominately in Germany and Eastern Europe. The majority of the damage costs between 2008 and 2012 were caused by just 1 percent of Europe's industrial facilities.
The EEA research show that 26 of the top 30 industrial facilities that are polluting the worst and causing the highest damage are power-generating facilities which are primarily fuelled by dirty coal and lignite. Eight of the top 30 facilities are located in Germany and six are in Poland – two countries that rely heavily on coal. Germany and Poland are followed by Romania which has four of the dirtiest facilities; three are located in Bulgaria and the United Kingdom, two are in Greece; and the Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy and Slovakia all have one each.
The combined cost for air pollution in Europe is equal to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Finland or half the GDP of Poland – a country which has opposed tougher EU and IPCC climate targets. The EEA calculated the costs of air pollution on health costs, damage to buildings, reduced agricultural yields, lost working days from sickness caused by air pollution, among other things.
"While we all benefit from industry and power generation, this analysis shows that the technologies used by these plants impose hidden costs on our health and the environment," Hans Bruyninckx, EEA Executive Director, said. "Industry is also only part of the picture – it is important to recognise that other sectors, primarily transport and agriculture, also contribute to poor air quality.""
Another EEA report released earlier this month calculates the human costs of air pollution in European cities. The study show that while various policies have indeed improved air quality overall, air pollution continues to be a major environmental health hazard in Europe. EEA calculates that air pollution is responsible for causing workers to go sick, resulting in higher costs for health care systems. According to the environmental agency, air pollution is responsible for an estimated 400 000 premature deaths in Europe in 2011.
"Air pollution is still high in Europe," EEA Executive Director Hans Bruyninckx said. "It leads to high costs: for our natural systems, our economy, the productivity of Europe's workforce, and most seriously, the general health of Europeans."
The two reports from EEA will come in handy for EU policymakers who are currently reconsidering proposals to tighten air pollution laws put forward last year by the former European Commission. According to documents obtained by Reuters, the new conservative European Commission, led by Jean-Claude Juncker, is considering to weaken or even scrap these proposed new air quality laws.
First published on Green Blog.
Finland promises to cut emissions with 80% by 2050
Copenhagen: European Green Capital 2014
The Energy to Fight Injustice
Guest blog: Is Dirty Air Suffocating Your Life?
London hit by dangerous pollution levels
← Analysis: The UN moves closer to a global deal on climate change
Triodos research highlights the monetary value of unwanted Christmas presents →
A greener life, a greener world is a progressive environmental news site with a focus on climate change and all the areas it impacts. We produce news, opinions, analysis, and reflections and have a host of contributors across the world.
Microsoft pledges to remove all the carbon they have ever emitted and become carbon negative January 29, 2020
James Murdoch at odds with his Dad on climate change January 27, 2020
How Keele University is piloting green gas January 24, 2020
The world's largest investor joins climate initiative January 22, 2020
Siemens under fire for supporting Australian mega coal project January 20, 2020
Copyright 2017 by A greener life, a greener world - All Rights Reserved. Republication by permission only.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Flashader () is a small crofting township close to the east coast of the sea loch Loch Greshornish on the Isle of Skye. It is in the Scottish council area of Highland. The broch, Dun Flashader, lies north of the main settlement close to the shore and beyond this is the area of Kildonan, which has a small jetty.

The village of Edinbane is located south west along the A850 road.

References

Populated places in the Isle of Skye

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Bring your bathroom into the modern ages with a vanity and toilet full of contemporary features. They're the perfect complement for bathrooms large or small, especially finished in a gorgeous charcoal grey.
Our Artis vanity unit is a piece brimming with style and function. It has two doors that open out to a useful cupboard with generous shelves for all of your bathroom items.
On top is a ceramic basin in a rectangular shape. It is well-sized to offer you plenty of cleansing space and there is the fitting for a standard sized mixer tap to be fitted straight to the top. An ideal choice for a minimalistic bathroom.
Matching this is the Artis back to wall toilet with its concealed cistern and pipes inside the unit. The toilet is made from gleaming white ceramic with a streamlined seat. The seat itself has a soft closure mechanism that avoids the seat crashing down, reducing noise and potentially damage to the pan.
The cistern is controlled using an easy to use flush button gives a short or long flush as you need.


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Procurement (1) Apply Procurement filter
Short Selling X Securities Financing Transactions X Risk Analysis & Economics - Markets Infrastructure Investors X Securitisation X Market Abuse X Joint Committee X Annual Report X SMSG Advice X Q&A X Decision X
24/06/2013 BoA 2013-008 Board of Appeal Decision Joint Committee, Board of Appeal Decision PDF
242.72 KB The joint Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA and EIOPA) has published today its decision in an appeal brought by an Estonian company against a decision of the EBA. It concerned the question whether the suitability of the managers of a significant branch of a bank may be a matter within EU law, and not just national law. Allowing the appeal, the Board of Appeal interpreted Directive No. 2006/48/EC consistently with the EBA Guidelines on the assessment of the suitability of members of the management body and key function holders. It came to the conclusion that the "fit and proper" requirement is not restricted to the persons who direct the business of the credit institution. The matter therefore was within the EBA's powers of investigation. Although the appellant criticised the way in which the EBA dealt with its complaint, the Board of Appeal made it clear that it did not accept that criticism. It considered that the EBA dealt with the complaint in an appropriate manner. The ground on which the appeal was allowed was one of interpretation of the applicable legal provisions. The case was remitted to the EBA to adopt the appropriate decision in accordance with the Board of Appeal's findings. This is for information only. The decision consists of the signed Decision only. For any enquiries, please contact EIOPA's Press Office: Anzhelika Mayer Tel.: +49 69 9511 1968
13/01/2014 BoA 2013-014 Board of Appeal Decision Global Private Rating Company v. ESMA Joint Committee, Board of Appeal Decision PDF
361.96 KB Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities dismisses appeal made by a refused CRA-applicant against ESMA On 10 January 2014, the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities handed down its decision on an appeal by the appellant, Global Private Rating Company "Standard Rating" Ltd, against the refusal by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to register it as a credit rating agency. This is the first appeal against a decision by ESMA refusing an applicant registration as a credit rating agency. The Board of Appeal unanimously decided that the appeal should be dismissed, and that ESMA's refusal decision should be confirmed. It stated that it accepted the appellant's point that the registration of a credit rating agency by ESMA is a new process, and recognised that the procedures will to an extent take time fully to work out. Nevertheless, because of the responsibilities placed on credit rating agencies and their importance in the financial system generally, it considered that the onus must be on an applicant to satisfy ESMA that the relevant requirements are met. The application and its contents must be very clear, and it is not ESMA's responsibility as regulator to remedy deficiencies.
30/04/2018 BoA 2018-01 Decision in an appeal by A v ESMA Board of Appeal, Joint Committee Decision PDF
14/08/2015 BOA/2015/001 Decision of the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities given under Article 60 of Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010 and the Board of Appeal's Rules of Procedure (BOA 2012 002) Joint Committee, Board of Appeal Decision PDF
17/12/2020 ESMA70 -155-11608 Decision renewal art. 28 SSR reporting threshold- December 2020 COVID-19, Market Integrity, Short Selling Decision PDF
26/03/2020 ESMA70-155-9546 ESMA Decision Article 28 SSR_reporting threshold Market Integrity, Short Selling Decision PDF
16/03/2020 ESMA70-155-9546 ESMA decision on thresholds for reporting net short positions COVID-19, Market Integrity, Short Selling Decision PDF
15/07/2020 ESMA70-155-10189 ESMA decision renewal of 10 June 2020 to lower the reporting thresholds of net short positions under Art.28 of the SSR Short Selling Decision PDF
11/06/2020 ESMA70-155-10189 ESMA Decision- renewal Article 28 SSR reporting threshold COVID-19, Market Integrity, Short Selling Decision PDF
esma71-99-1342_decision_ss_reporting_renewal_statement.pdf
17/09/2020 ESMA70-155-11072 ESMA Decision- renewal Article 28 SSR reporting threshold- September 2020 COVID-19, Market Integrity, Short Selling Decision PDF
17/12/2021 Joint Committee JC 2017 Q&A on the PRIIPs Key Information Document Joint Committee Q&A PDF


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xo #3 - first time
Brian Hearts Katherine
complaints about humans - part 3
Valentine's Interviews with:
Abiku
The Backsliders
California Oranges
Dramady
Grappling Hook
List of Likes
My Glass Beside Yours
Myotis
Paris Luna
Something About Vampires&Sluts
Shiny Around the Edges
Silk Stocking
The Wades
Windy & Carl
The Winter Sounds
Valentine's Interview with Here Comes Everybody
Here Comes Everybody was conceived by founding members Michael Jarmer & René Ormae-Jarmer in 1986 and has been rocking the greater Portland metro area and the Northwest United States of these Americas ever since. From its new wave progressive rock beginnings, Here Comes Everybody has evolved over the years, moving freely in & out of various configurations and genres, but sticking the entire time to its greatest passion & strength: the memorable and delicious modern pop song. The 21st century finds Michael and René crafting mostly acoustic piano rock & performing as a trio: drums, bass, keyboards and a whole lot of singing.
QRD – How do you turn music mode on & off in your relationship with each other? Or do you find yourself pretty constantly collaborating on music even if it's songs about cooking?
René – I guess we're just used to it after all these years. We've been making music together for mover 25 years (started as high school kids). We talk about music constantly because we write so much. Producing a monthly "day album" for our Veronica Lodge (our song writing group where we have to write 6 songs within a 24-hour period, then present them in mixed CD format at our meeting), keeps us always thinking about the next thing. We are perfect for each other musically: we're both drummers, Michael writes the lyrics, & I write the music. We're two halves of a whole & compliment each other well. There was a dark time in the relationship where music was overshadowing the relationship, (in other words it became so dominant that we weren't taking care of the core relationship), so we had to fix that & find a healthy place to turn off the music & find balance.
QRD – How has your music changed by having someone you're romantically
involved with working with you
René – Here Comes Everybody's music has changed through the years as we have evolved. The changes didn't seem to be linked to any type of romanticism, but just a reflection of us being able to communicate musically & lyrically better through our music as we have grown within the marriage.
QRD – How do you keep things professional rather than getting personal in the band? Like not letting being upset that someone's not doing their house chores spill into band practice?
René – It's like a switch we flip. When we're in rehearsal mode, we both respect each other as musicians. Sometimes when someone is having a bad day & rehearsal isn't going well, or someone can't let something go, we just quit & have a drink or we just goof around & try to make each other laugh. It helps having a third person. We're the "married" couple in the band, but I'd like to think that we keep things professional. We don't have raging arguments in the practice room or name call or anything stupid like that.
QRD – Do you think working musically together increases the strength of your relationship?
René – Definitely.
QRD – Do you think the music ever suffers because of your relationship?
Michael – Sometimes we have creative differences. But it doesn't make the music suffer, per se; it's just a hurdle we have to jump, but it can be frustrating.
QRD – Being in a romantic couple, do you try to curb lyrical content to or away from things in your relationship?
Michael – We have very few tunes that could be said to be romantic, & the ones that are are not very often biographical. There are relationship songs, & I guess, the entire song cycle of the Submarines CD could be said to be about a relationship, but at the forefront is what each character discovers about themselves through a process, & not about the couple. & that's very loosely biographical. There's a song on the new CD, "Ice Cream," that is really the only song I can think of off the top of my head that is clearly & specifically about us, but even that song has some stretchers in it.
QRD – A lot of families kind of look down on musicians as immature, do you find that going out with another musician has eased relationships with your parents or in-laws?
Michael – It's never been an issue with our families. Maybe more so with other musicians & bands, in a kind of negative way, you know, like, because we've been together so long ? that's not very rock & roll.
QRD – Which came first the musical collaboration or the relationship & do you feel that at this point that you could have one without the other?
Michael – It's a good question. Our relationship started, when we were very young, in a musical context, & the two things have worked side by side ever since, going on 21 years. But I think we both believe that the marriage would still be strong without the band, but probably the band would not be so strong without the marriage!
QRD – How do things work with band members besides the two of you to get the same level of connectivity while playing your music?
Michael – Most of the musicians we've played with over the years have become close friends ? so there's another kind of chemistry working, & it's usually pretty positive & interesting. We've always enjoyed that added element, that is, when it's working, when the relationship with that third or fourth member is healthy & positive.
QRD – Do you find music related gifts to be romantic or more like giving someone an appliance?
Michael – I love them. René hates them.
QRD – The musician life style has an inherent lack of financial security & healthcare. Do you find yourself thinking, "How can we start a family & continue our musical careers?"
Michael – Well, we've always had day jobs, & that has been a real blessing, even though, I think, it may cause others to think somehow that we're not as serious about music. We think that's bull. We just never had any interest in living out of a van for 9 months out of a year.
QRD – Do you ever switch off instruments to give each other ideas?
Michael – I am limited by my ability to play the drums & write the words & sing on key. René could play drums if she wanted to, but then I just get to stand around & look pretty. So, we don't often switch around.
QRD – A lot of people say they feel most spiritually connected to another person is when they're on stage & the set is working. Is this what you find & how does this energy flow into your romantic relationship?
Michael – I don't think we feel most connected while we're playing, more so, say, than we do in our day-to-day lives; but there is certainly an excitement & a shared enthusiasm for performing this music we've created together. Not many couples have anything like this.
QRD – Some couples start to get seen as a unit with one member as dominant. Do you ever want to get one of you more recognition?
René – I think that our personalities tend to compliment each other. Michael is the front man, but he tends to be a bit more shy. I'm the social butterfly & love to talk to people. Since he's the "mouthpiece" of the band, he naturally is assumed to be the more dominant one. Sometimes, I get approached as the girl in the band & people think I'm the lead singer. I like to mess with them & tell them I play the tambourine. I do take pride in the fact that I'm a drummer, but since I play keys in the band, it's kind of a strange little secret.
QRD – Do you feel a need to have separate projects where you just work on your own?
Michael – René freelances as a drummer sometimes. I have played drums in other projects, too. But nothing as consistently or as seriously as HCE. & I write fiction -- so that's the creative thing I do on my own. & currently, I'm taking up some acting. I was cast as Nick Bottom the Weaver in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in Milwaukee, Oregon. The play opens on Valentines Day!
QRD – Musicians often run into fans with crushes, is there a secret to recognizing when something is getting inappropriate instead of being band promoting?
Michael – Interestingly enough, it has not been an issue. René acts professionally with people. I just nod & smile.
QRD – Any advice for other musician couples?
Michael – I don't think we really represent the norm for musician couples. We have known so few. The stuff that keeps a relationship or a marriage healthy is the same kind of stuff that will keep a musical partnership healthy. As we've alluded to before, you have to nurture both sides, both aspects of the partnership. It can't be all about the music 100% of the time. If it is, you're probably doomed.
Here Comes Everybody on MySpace


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The Hegemony of Governmentality: Towards a Research Agenda
Hegemony in Gramsci
Governmentality
Hegemonic Governmentality
Jonathan Joseph
DOI: 10.20991/allazimuth.311383
All Azimuth V6, N2, Jul. 2017, 5-18
This contribution sets out a research agenda that explores the promises of combining theories of hegemony and governmentality in the study of world politics. It is argued that certain forms of governmentality are 'strategically selected' and form part of hegemonic strategies while hegemonic strategies are enhanced by techniques of governmentality. It is also important to look at the underlying context that allows for micro practices to be 'colonised' by macro actors and which drives such actors to use such techniques. The theory of hegemony is seen as better at highlighting the context in which strategic action takes place, while governmentality is better at showing the workings of the technologies and techniques that are deployed by strategies of governing. Hegemony and governmentality therefore form part of the back and forth between macro and micro, structure and agency, institution and practice, highlighting different aspects of this constant interaction.
Keywords : Critical Realism, Foucault, Governmentality, Gramsci, Hegemony, International Relations Theory
The three contributions to the previous issue of this journal address the matter of hegemony in world politics and are united in their belief that IR scholars deserve a richer account of hegemony than the often asocial and ahistorical version that is provided by many realist accounts. Seeing hegemony as a process of domination, realist accounts fail to adequately ground this in human societies and their associated cultures, practices and beliefs. Nicholas Onuf and Simon Reich and Ned Lebow provide worthy alternatives to the realist view that emphasises dominance through force by virtue of a preponderance of material capabilities. In Onuf's case, we have dominance through the use of rules1. In the case of Reich and Lebow, capabilities are only one source of power and the realist account ignores what they call social power as a means of determining influence.[1] Simon Reich and Richard Ned Lebow, "Influence and Hegemony: Shifting Patterns of Material and Social Power in World Politics," All Azimuth 6, no. 1 (2017):17-47.
I could raise concerns about what exactly Reich and Lebow mean by the social by raising the question of whether there are such things as social structures – or perhaps more pertinent for IR, structura[2]My Gramscian-Foucauldian reworking of this would be to say that dominance through rules is accompanied by dominance through techniques and technologies of governance, protected by the armour of coercion. Nicholas Onuf, "Center-Periphery Relations: What Kind of Rule, and Does It Matter?" All Azimuth 6, no. 1 (2017): 5-16 power – out there in the world? And I could raise similar questions for Onuf in wondering if there is more to the social than rules all the way down? But instead I will engage with some of these questions by raising a possible research agenda based around bringing together a social approach to hegemony and a view of contemporary global governance informed by arguments about governmentality. In some senses my approach is more conventional insofar as I follow a number of well-known IR scholars in turning to the work on hegemony by the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Indeed, I, like many Gramscians, would respond to Reich and Lebow with the argument that Gramsci already has a more social understanding of hegemony that takes into consideration the ability of social groups to exercise their influence. However, the purpose of this contribution is not to get into a discussion of who offers the better account of hegemony, or to engage in the more philosophical issue of just what we mean by the 'social', or 'rules', or 'material capabilities'. Instead, I outline a research agenda that starts from an inclination that maybe the best way to explore the current exercise of hegemony in world politics is to see whether it operates as governmentality.
I start by outlining a conception of hegemony that is informed by Gramsci, but which also emphasises the notion of social structure. I then give an account of governmentality before looking at how governmentality and hegemony might combine. I cannot here show in any detail how this works, but in bringing hegemony and governmentality together I challenge Gramscian approaches to account for the development and exercise of contemporary techniques and technologies of governance, while challenging Foucauldians to account for why these techniques and technologies have risen to such prominence.
2.Hegemony in Gramsci
The concept of hegemony, as it is best understood in the work of Antonio Gramsci, is not straightforwardly defined but develops through various arguments about the relationship between force and consent, state and civil society and structure and superstructure. Gramsci talks of the need to balance force and consent through the support of the majority[3]Antonio Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971), 80. and the 'contradictory and discordant ensemble' of the political and cultural superstructures and the social relations of production.[4]Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, 49. Hegemony draws attention to the ways that social conditions of production, coercion, consent and leadership must combine in specific strategies that project themselves across a range of social institutions and practices. This can be understood through what Gramsci terms a historical bloc. This has two components. First, it addresses the way that a dominant group is able to construct a ruling alliance through offering concessions and incentives and through the articulation of certain ideas and interests. Second, it addresses the relationship between the ruling group and the socio-historical conditions within which this bloc can develop.
The combination of these two components allows for hegemony, or hegemonic projects, to be seen as the missing strategic element or mediating position between structures and agents that helps explain why certain things happen in certain times and places, or within certain conditions and contexts. Hegemonic projects refer to the mobilisation of support around a programme of action based on the interests of the leading group while incorporating other groups and fractions and seeking the resolution of conflicts of interest in favour of the leading group. The notion of hegemony links such projects to the longer-term securing of social cohesion and consensus. Historical bloc sets this in the context of socio-historical relations. As Robert Cox notes, the historical bloc is a combination of ideas, institutions and material conditions.[5]Robert Cox and Timothy Sinclair, Approaches to World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). What a Gramscian approach offers is a clear view that different groups act according to particular interests, but that this is set in a wider context of the social relations with which they must engage. This can be ontologically grounded in the debates about structure and agency.[6] For an IR view see; Colin Wight, Agents, Structures and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Drawing on critical realist arguments about this relationship I suggest below that hegemony plays a crucial mediating role in the structure – agency relationship.
Bhaskar[7]Roy Bhaskar, The Possibility of Naturalism (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989), 34-5. argues that while social structures do not exist independently of the activities that they govern, we must still distinguish between the conditions for human action and the activity itself rather than conflate them as might be said to occur in constructivist and structuration approaches.[8]Margaret Archer, Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). Societies pre-exist the agents who live in them as an ever-present condition or material cause. But the structures of society are also the continually reproduced outcome of these agents' activities.[9]Bhaskar, The Possibility of Naturalism, 34-5. This process of social reproduction is largely unconscious because it is inscribed into our routines and activities. Only in particular circumstances (usually crises) do agents act in a more conscious way to change or transform these conditions. Hegemony can usefully be introduced at this point because, seen in relation to both structure and agency, it can be said to play a mediating role between the reproduction of social structures and conscious efforts either to transform or prevent the transformation of these underlying conditions. As Gramsci himself writes, 'incurable structural contradictions have revealed themselves (reached maturity), and that despite this, the political forces which are struggling to conserve and defend the existing structure itself are making every effort to cure them, within certain limits, and to overcome them'.[10]Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, 178. Thus, in its agential sense hegemony relates to conscious, reflective, intentionality as is the case with hegemonic projects. However, our understanding of these must also recognise hegemony's relation to structural properties of pre-existing and relatively enduring social relations that possess powers of enablement and constraint. Hegemony stands in relation to structures and underlying social conditions and the more conscious, intersubjective, political and manifold activities associated with actual hegemonic projects and practices.
While Gramsci's own work does not contain a single, distinct approach, there are nevertheless some clear references to the underlying structural conditions that make hegemony possible. In defining the historical bloc, he talks of the 'complex, contradictory and discordant ensemble of the superstructures' in relation to 'the ensemble of the social relations of production'.[11]Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, 366. The relations between groups as manifested through institutions and practices are set within a structural context. In particular, Gramsci notes that hegemony 'must necessarily be based on the decisive function exercised by the leading group in the decisive nucleus of economic activity'.[12]Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, 161.
Hegemony might also be seen as the problematisation of social structure insofar as it means recognising that deeper structural processes – most notably those concerned with economic production – do not automatically reproduce themselves, but need to be socially secured. Hegemony suggests that the relationship between such processes needs to be institutionally 'fixed'. Capital accumulation can only occur through active state intervention while crisis tendencies can be offset by various forms of economic regulation. Hegemonic strategies, if they are effective, must try to root themselves in this 'decisive sphere' of economic activity, but this must also be related to broader issues of social cohesion. A Gramscian account of the postwar period thus uses the idea of historical bloc to account for the way that the realignment of the ruling bloc took place alongside deep-rooted changes in the economic system, the reorganisation of the labour process, the emergence of new forms of state intervention and new legitimating discourses. Consequently, as Cox notes:
Hegemony at the international level is thus not merely an order among states. It is an order
within a world economy with a dominant mode of production which penetrates into all
countries and links into other subordinate modes of production. It is also a complex of other
international social relationships which connect the social classes of the different countries.
World hegemony can be described as a social structure, an economic structure, and a political
structure.[13]Cox and Sinclair, Approaches to World Order, 137.
At this international level, a new institutional settlement was guaranteed by the economic dominance of the US, backed up by military superiority and the promise of a liberal international order. It should be remembered, however, that Gramsci clearly saw international relations as following social relations, arguing that changes in geopolitics are the result of changes in social structure.[14]Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, 176. The postwar social hegemony was maintained through a combination of social contract and economic growth.[15]Cox and Sinclair, Approaches to World Order, 247. Failure of interventionist policies to sustain economic growth in the 1970s and failure to deal with deeper structural contradictions in the economy led to domestic and international crises and the emergence of new neoliberal strategies of intervention which started to gain the support of those in power.
These failures and subsequent thinking represent social dynamics rather than simply international ones. If we see a crisis of US hegemony at the global level, then we need to look into its social roots. Reich and Lebow's critique of realism suggests this, yet they direct much of their argument towards making the case for US weakness and continuing decline, rather than exploring the social basis of hegemony. The question to ask of them is why, despite the all too evident weaknesses of the US, do we not find in China, the EU or some other emerging power, any sign of an alternative hegemon? The answer is surely that they lack the underlying social or structural power to put themselves forward as leading. The question of US weakness is only part of the picture because hegemony at the international level is not only an order among states. If hegemony really is social, then it is as much about things like changes in the economy, methods of economic production, the role of finance, understandings of the role of government and the state, cultural influence, and much else. The US might be declining as a hegemon, but changes in the global system cannot be understood separately from the social, economic and political changes that are taking place within the US. The neoliberal rethinking that now dominates global governance reflects 'Americanism' in the same way that Gramsci saw Fordism as representing 'Americanism'. There may be a crisis of hegemony, but it remains America's crisis of hegemony. And the rest of the world continues to pick up the tab.
3.Governmentality
In contrast to the Gramscian approach to hegemony, governmentality may not be a theory as such but perhaps what William Walters calls 'a cluster of concepts' that we can use to critically analyse various forms of governance.[16]William Walters, Governmentality: Critical Encounters (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012), 2. Indeed this definition itself reflects a certain way of thinking among many scholars who prefer to see governmentality as helping to make sense of the world through what Mitchell Dean calls an 'analytics of government'.[17]Mitchell Dean, Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society (London: Sage Publications, 1999), 23.
This relates governmentality to various ways of seeing and perceiving, distinctive ways of thinking and questioning, the various rationalities of acting and directing and specific ways in which subjects are formed.
This is in contrast to the more ontological arguments about structure and agency outlined above. While an analytics of government clearly has ontological implications, there is a preferred tendency in Foucauldian scholarship to take this down a genealogical path while emphasising the relationship between the changing shape of the world and different discursive productions.[18]Walters, Governmentality, 3. This leads to an understanding of governmentality in the broad sense, as a framework of analysis for understanding a wide range of power relations, albeit focussed on the idea that governing takes place through the 'conduct of conduct'. Nevertheless, Foucault's historical account of the emergence of governmentality does provide something of an ontological explanation with a focus on historical developments. In distinguishing this more specific focus from a general view of the shaping of conduct we can follow Walters in calling this liberal governmentality.[19]Walters, Governmentality, 30. Liberal governmentality, as Walters goes on to note, is the most frequent, if not the only, understanding in Foucault's own work and clearly underpins Foucault's best known definition of governmentality
By 'governmentality' I understand the ensemble formed by institutions, procedures, analyses
and reflections, calculations, and tactics that allow the exercise of this very specific, albeit
very complex, power that has the population as its target, political economy as its major form
of knowledge, and apparatuses of security as its essential technical instrument.[20]Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2007), 108.
The focus on population distinguishes this form of power from those more narrowly related to sovereignty and territorial control. It also clearly relates to what he calls biopower, as a set of mechanisms for the management of the human species[21]Foucault, Security, 1 and pastoral power as a beneficent power exercised over a multiplicity rather than a territory.[22]Foucault, Security, 126-9 Governmentality can also be distinguished from forms of disciplinary power as outlined in Foucault's earlier works insofar as it operates in a less direct, less overtly coercive and more reflexive way. Like disciplinary power it is most effective when it is able to get us to govern ourselves, but does this through the 'management and organization of the conditions in which one can be free'.[23]Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2008), 63-4. It is not, though, that governmentality replaces these other forms of power, but works alongside them in a triangle of sovereignty-discipline-government, something that is clearly highly relevant for scholars of international politics.
The majority of Foucault's arguments about governmentality are concentrated on a specifically liberal form of rule that works, in particular, through the encouragement of free conduct, self-awareness and more generally, an appeal to the freedom of the governed. As Busse says,[24]Jan Busse, "Theorizing Governance as Globalized Governmentality: The Dynamics of World-Societal Order in Palestine,"
Middle East Critique 24, no. 2 (2015): 172. modern governmentality is unthinkable without the freedom of the individual. This modern governmentality, in contrast to more directly coercive forms of power, works from a distance and seeks to create free and active subjects. It is thus always concerned with its own limits and follows a rationality of governance that aims to respect the freedom of the governed by allowing things to take their natural course. In particular, governing well comes to be understood as respecting the freedom of social and economic processes, that is the spheres of civil society and the market.[25]Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 10. Based on the laissez-faire principles of political economy, liberal governance finds its expression in civil society and is legitimated through a concern not to 'govern too much'.[26]Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 319. However, Foucault recognises freedom as a social construction that operates through a variety of social practices that reinforce rational, normalised conduct. Liberalism works 'not through the imperative of freedom, but through the social production of freedom'.[27]Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 65. Foucault goes on to argue that: 'Liberalism is not acceptance of freedom; it proposes to manufacture it constantly, to arouse it and produce it, with, of course, [the system] of constraints and problems'.[28]Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 65. Liberal governmentality requires political economy as its major form of knowledge and security as an essential technique for the protection of interests in the workings of freedom. Freedom, in other words, operates by means of an economic 'regime of truth' and through accompanying processes of policing and securing.
If we consider dominant forms of governmentality today as assuming a more neoliberal character, this is so in the sense of a reflexive critique of the postwar institutional settlement and the failures of socio-economic regulation – both national and international. Neoliberal governmentality is more reflexive and pragmatic about the socially situated and embedded character of human conduct. It strives to promote the norms and values of the market in ever more areas of social life. This is no mere economic doctrine, but a means of governing based on the dynamics of competition and enterprise. Models of competitive or entrepreneurial conduct must reach not just to institutions and social practices, but right down to the self- understanding and self-governance of individuals. These individuals are appealed to, or even (if a harder poststructuralist line is taken), constructed as, free but responsible for their actions. There are various new contrivances associated with this neoliberal form of rule – Rose's analysis of 'advanced liberalism'[29]Nikolas Rose, "Governing 'Advanced' Liberal Democracies," in Foucault and Political Reason, eds. Osborne, Barry, and Rose (London: UCL Press, 1996),37-64. points to new mechanisms of expertise, a pluralisation of social technologies and governance through quasi-autonomous bodies, and a new specification of the subject as consumer.
The question to be addressed to IR scholars is whether these features, described by Rose as 'advanced liberalism' can be applied to all societies? Do these mechanisms of rule operate on a global scale? Can they spread outwards from the 'advanced liberal' centre? These, I suggest, are crucial questions for applying governmentality to global politics.
4.Hegemonic Governmentality
The term hegemonic in realist parlance suggests full dominance. In a Gramscian sense, this dominance is not necessarily total but goes through a process of construction, reconstruction and contestation. The idea behind a Gramscian approach to governmentality is that it allows that certain forms of governmentality become hegemonic while also drawing attention to its far from stable character. This is to ask about the conditions under which governmentality itself comes into being, to look at its opportunities and limitations and the strategic issues these pose. This argument is premised on the view, articulated by a number of critics[30]Jonathan Joseph, The Social in the Global: Social Theory, Governmentality and Global Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012); Ngai-Ling Sum and Bob Jessop, Towards Cultural Political Economy: Bringing Culture Back into Economics (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2012); Jan Selby, "Engaging Foucault: Discourse, Liberal Governance and the Limits of Foucauldian IR," International Relations 21, no. 3 (2007): 324-34; Jonathan Davies, Challenging Governance Theory: From Networks to Hegemony (Bristol: Policy Press, 2011); Stephen Gill, "Globalisation, Market Civilisation, and Disciplinary Neoliberalism," Millennium - Journal of International Studies 24, no. 3 (1995): 399-423; Richard Marsden, The Nature of Capital : Marx after Foucault (London and New York: Routledge, 1999). that while governmentality might be good at showing how contemporary forms of governance work, it cannot on its own explain why these work in the way that they do. A wider picture and deeper social ontology is needed if we are to understand variations in governmentality and why certain neoliberal forms of governmentality have become prominent within certain societies and within most international organisations. Interestingly, the critics all draw on Marxism and critical realist philosophy to make this point. Their deeper social ontology refers to the underlying social relations or structural context that enables and constrains the actions of various social groups. These social relations also enable and constrain the functioning of governmentality and help explain why it is that governmentality has an uneven and contested influence across the international domain. Underlying social relations also provide the context within which social groups act in a strategic way and it is in order to address this strategic element that the question of hegemony is brought into the picture.
Although the strength of a governmentality approach is its attention to fine detail, this should not lead to the study of such practices being given some sort of ontological primacy, or, to use Laura Zanotti's more nuanced words, favouring, 'modest' relational ontologies over 'substantialist' ones.[31]Laura Zanotti, "Governmentality, Ontology, Methodology: Re-thinking Political Agency in the Global World," Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 38, no. 4 (2013): 289-90. While much of his work is clearly focussed at the micro level, Foucault acknowledges that there is a back and forth between the micro and macro which we might interpret here as a back and forth between governmentality and hegemony. Micro powers, while having their own specificity, may be taken up and used by the state, or by ruling groups seeking to utilise them as part of a macro strategy of governing. He argues that 'we have to analyse the way in which the phenomena, techniques and procedures of power come into play at the lowest levels; we have to show, obviously, how these procedures are displaced, extended, and modified and, above all, how they are invested or annexed by global phenomena'.[32]Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 2004), 30-1. Hence Foucault deliberately focusses on the 'infinitesimal mechanisms of power' while asking how these might be useful to the bourgeoisie. He argues that, in the case of madness, the bourgeoisie found a use for the techniques of exclusion, the surveillance apparatus and the mediacaliastion of sexuality, madness and delinquency.
The 'micromechanics of power', at a certain point in time, came to constitute the interest of the bourgeoisie.[33]Foucault, Society, 32 Because these methods of individualisation and normalisation were consistent with the generation of economic profit and political control they were colonised and supported by the macro mechanisms of the state apparatus. Contrary to what Gill claims,[34]Stephen Gill, Power and Resistance in the New World Order (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 130 Foucault clearly does make macro level claims about how privatised power and new disciplinary techniques can be linked to the development of the capitalist mode of production as a means of exploiting labour power more effectively[35]Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1979), 85-7. and he notes the close links between disciplinary techniques and the apparatus of production.[36]Foucault, Discipline, 221 This can be read as consistent with an understanding of hegemony insofar as, rather than starting with an abstract model of Leviathan, both approaches start with the actual techniques and mechanisms of domination.[37]Foucault, Society, 34
Foucault was obviously concerned to redress the balance regarding the macro and the micro. The micro level is important because power is emergent in a given place and time as an ill developed cluster of relations.[38] Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Writings and Other Interviews 1972-1977 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980), 199. What Foucault calls 'great strategies of power', exercised at the macro level, 'depend for their conditions of exercise on this level of the micro-relations of power'.[39]Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 199 However, this process also moves in the other direction as macro powers seek to 'produce new effects and advance into hitherto unaffected domains'.[40]Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 200 Similarly, Foucault has a two-way understanding of the state as both colonised and coloniser. It is both the terrain through which various micro practices find their rationality and that which spreads this rationality to new areas of the social. This has been picked up and developed in Bob Jessop's work where state power is seen as both the contingent outcome of various practices and also the very means by which existing micro relations of power can be codified, fixed, consolidated and institutionalized.[41]Bob Jessop, State Power (Cambridge: Polity, 2007), 152 A similar point is made in Thomas Lemke's argument for seeing the state as an effect of political strategies and social relations of power. On the one hand the state is to be understood as 'an emergent and complex resultant of conflicting and contradictory governmental practices,[42]Thomas Lemke, "An Indigestible Meal? Foucault, Governmentality and State Theory," Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory 8, no. 2 (2007): 50 on the other, the state occupies a strategic position of some primacy. Lemke points to Foucault's own argument that in contemporary societies
the state is not simply one of the forms of specific situations of the exercise of power - even if
it is the most important - but that, in a certain way, all other forms of power relation must refer
to it. But this is not because they are derived from it; rather, it is because power relations have
become more and more under state control... Using here the restricted meaning of the word
'government', one could say that power relations have been progressively governmentalized,
that is to say, elaborated, rationalized, and centralized in the form of, or under the auspices
of, state institutions.[43]Michel Foucault, "The Subject and Power," in Power, ed. James D. Faubion (New York: New York Press), 345
Rather than distinguish, as Zanotti does, between relational and substantive ontologies, Jessop and Lemke's reading of Foucault shows that it is possible to develop a relational ontology (or at least a relational view of the state as a series of codified and institutionalised power relations, strategic interventions and social conflicts) alongside substantive ontological claims about macro level processes and power relations, not least the development of capitalism and the bourgeoisie, their needs and requirements and the role of the state and other institutions in relation to these.
Macro powers like the state work, therefore, through the codification of a whole number of power relations that make their functioning possible.[44]Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 122 Understanding this as a two way movement helps explain something like the development of neoliberalism as a process by which a variety of micro-practices become 'invested, colonized, used, inflected, transformed, displaced, extended and so on by increasingly general mechanisms and forms of overall domination'.[45]Foucault, Society, 30 Neoliberal governmentality becomes hegemonic governmentality when a specific set of micro practices are adopted by or coalesce into a particular macro strategy of governance. This is compatible with Nikolas Rose's argument that neoliberalism emerged in the 1980s as a 'contingent lash-up' of thought and action.[46]Nikolas Rose, Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 27. Here neoliberalism is regarded as an assemblage of various open-ended micro-practices and techniques, lacking an overall logic, but which could be gradually colonised at the macro level and given the coherence of a neoliberal rationality. Once 'translated', these practices could be redirected to a number of domains like the welfare system where free market logic had previously been considered inappropriate. However, to push this argument further does require a stronger strategic focus that examines the active role of different social agents with particular interests. These act through the state and other leading institutions and international bodies and in response to underlying socio-economic pressures and the ensuing failure of postwar regulation.
It is worth investigating, therefore, how certain forms of governmentality are strategically selected and are encouraged and promoted in particular ways. While Foucault, Rose and others might recognise that the state and social groups can take up existing tactics and techniques and use these strategically, they do not (or refuse to) provide adequate explanation of why they might do this (a strategic question relating to group interests), nor what it is about either the agents or the structures that allows them (or does not allow them) to do this (a structural or ontological question which, according to critical realism, is about how powers and liabilities are conferred). I would suggest that while Foucault's account of power may be concerned with its exercise, there is something of a denial or avoidance – as there is among many of his proponents – of the ontological conditions that make this possible and which enable certain agents to utilise various powers in a strategic way. This is reflected in a weak theorisation of state power and group interests as causes of power. Both of these problems might be redressed through introducing hegemony as helping to orient, steer and conduct these otherwise isolated micro practices.
A successful hegemonic strategy is one that is able to find the right balance between economy, state and civil society (whose relations are sometimes understood through the Gramscian notion of 'integral state',[47]Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, 267 intervening through a mixture of economic and extra- economic means. Although this focus on the economy has more prominence in Gramscian inspired scholarship, such a view is certainly not incompatible with the approach of Foucault's later governmentality lectures and might in fact strike some common ground. Indeed, when Burchell discusses Foucault's work on ordo-liberalism he speaks in similar terms of an approach that sees the market as secured and supervised by the state, requiring certain institutional conditions and active government involvement.[48]Graham Burchell, "Liberal Government and Techniques of the Self," in Foucault and Political Reason, eds. Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose (London: UCL Press: 1996), 23. Jessop argues that these lectures indicate a growing interest in the complex and contingent relationship between problems of political economy and statecraft without reducing the state to either a capital- logic or a class-instrumental one.[49]Jessop, State Power, 153. Bringing Foucault and Gramsci together would mean placing emphasis on the institutionalised nature of the economy as well as the strategic importance of the state which enjoys a privileged role in the codification of power relations through apparatuses of hegemony.[50]Jessop, State Power, 153.
To what extent does the privileged role of the state extend to global politics? For a long time the key role of the state was obvious. But the rise of global governance has been accompanied by the common view that power has been shifting away from the states system in favour of local, regional or transnational actors and institutions. I would suggest instead, that it is worth looking into how dominant states – the states of the 'advanced liberal' centre – are using global governance to promote their own interests. Rather than power slipping away from states, global governmentality works to reinforce the power of the 'core' over the 'periphery' while seeking to disguise this fact. The concepts of hegemony and governmentality help explain this seeming paradox.
If we take current approaches to international interventions – peacebuilding, democratisation, humanitarian support, poverty reduction and development strategy – governmentality certainly helps explain the general trend of responsibilising subjects and governing through a liberal appeal to the freedom of the governed to behave in a responsible way. The mechanisms of global governance work through the use of a range of technologies and techniques that govern through appeals to free conduct while strictly monitoring, benchmarking and measuring such things as performance, capacity and competitiveness. This process can be described as increasingly governmentalized insofar as international interventions appear as less directly coercive and more indirectly supportive – governing at a distance through empowering local actors, incentivising good conduct and enhancing human, social and institutional capacities. The flip side of this intervention is however, the very discipline that it seeks to conceal. While these international interventions might still be seen to be concerned with populations as their main target, this is less as an end goal than the means by which the main governmentality effect is achieved – which is not necessarily to directly govern global populations, but to use such a concern as a means to govern the behaviour of states. The World Bank and other international organisations recognise that the most effective way to promote global governance is to target states and their governments, using the wellbeing of their populations as a means to legitimate this. Following Michael Merlingen, we might call this targeting of state policy by state dominated international organisations an international governmentality of states, or 'the international conduct of the conduct of countries'.[51]Michael Merlingen, "Governmentality: Towards a Foucauldian Framework for the Study of NGOs," Cooperation and Conflict 38, no. 4 (2003): 367
His leads me to suggest that there are two, unequal, processes of governmentalisation going on simultaneously. In the 'advanced liberal' states we find the governmentalisation of the state from within. Here we find, not a weakening of state power, but what Nadine Voelkner calls an evolving process of governmentalisation that redefines the state's competences and domains of operation.[52]Nadine Voelkner, "Governmentalizing the State: The Disciplining Logic of Human Security," in Secuirty and Global Governmentality: Globalization, Governance and the State, ed. Miguel de Larrinaga and Marc Doucet (Abingdon: Routledge: 2010), 142. Then in global politics we find concerted efforts to governmentalize the poorer states and societies from without. Again, it is the state that is the main target, but the techniques of governance operate from a distance by incentivising local actors. How these two processes combine and how it is that in some countries governmentalisation of the state takes place from within, and in others from without requires, in my view, discussion of the nature of power politics and the operation of hegemony. It cannot be done by remaining solely within a governmentality perspective but requires an examination of the conditions of possibility of governmentality itself, or more precisely, from an IR perspective, why it is that in some parts of the world governmentality is occurring within states while in other parts of the world it is being forced upon weaker states, with varying results, by more powerful actors. Of course this is not to pretend that everything can be explained through a crude distinction between governmentality from within and from without. It is perfectly possible that alternative governmentalities and hybrid systems develop within a range of different societies. But what a theory of hegemony offers, that the concept of governmentality does not, is a means for identifying the dominant global dynamics and the socio-historical context that both gives rise to but also constrains the operation of governmentality in its various manifestations.
To summarise, hegemony points to the role of the dominant groups in the dominant states. This finds expression as 'global governance' in and through the leading international institutions. However, the dominant form of global governmentality is fragile, may be contested and there may also be a variety of forms of governmentality across different societies. This leads us to suggest further exploration of the relationship between hegemony and governmentality through two possible (and maybe interconnected) research agendas.
First would be to expand the notion of governmentality beyond a purely liberal understanding in order to try and describe a range of different forms of governance. This article has questioned such an approach but does recognise that it has some validity. Whether it is useful to try and describe different varieties of governance as forms of governmentality or whether the dangers of conceptual stretching outweigh the benefits can be decided on a case by case basis. But insofar as we are primarily concerned here with global governmentality, then we might maintain our focus on dominant neoliberal forms while recognising that these might be forced to adapt to particular circumstances and to different local practices rationalities. Neumann and Sending capture this neatly in suggesting there are a variety of prototypes developing, where the limits of a neoliberal form of intervention may generate a diversity of combinations or even hybrid forms.[53]Iver B. Neumann and Ole Jacob Sending, Governing the Global Polity: Practice, Mentality, Rationality (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010), 44 But here again, to maintain such a position requires us to step aside from governmentality and examine the limits imposed by underlying social and material conditions and other – structural, cultural, institutional and agential – forms of selectivity.
The other research agenda would be to consider the relationship between hegemony and governmentality in the context of a broader understanding of liberalism that rejects the way it has come to be identified with democratic and consensual politics. Indeed as Beate Jahn has demonstrated, liberal principles such as private property, individual freedom and government by consent require non-liberal practices and a conception of a non-liberal 'other', particularly in relation to the international sphere.[54]Beate Jahn, Liberal Internationalism: Theory, History, Practice (Basingstoke: Palgrabe Macmillan, 2013). Because governmentality emphasises governance from a distance, there might be a tendency to neglect the coercive aspect of this. Wanda Vrasti notes that governance through freedom might be combined with more imperial tactics and certainly today includes sanctions, coercion and military intervention.[55]Wanda Vrasti, "Universal but not Truly 'Global': Governmentality, Economic Liberalism, and the International," Review of International Studies 39, no. 1 (2013): 56. A Gramscian approach is clearly more open to this. And to put the matter in Gramscian terms, the issue for governmentality is whether to include this coercive element in our understanding along the lines of governmentality as liberalism plus coercion, or to understand liberalism as governmentality plus coercion. Such formulations might be somewhat schematic, but again they point to the need to step beyond governmentality and look at its wider context of operation.
The concept of governmentality, on its own, superbly highlights the combinations of techniques and technologies of governing but can it – does it even want to – explain why these have come into being or why they work in different ways in certain places? If our concern is with why neoliberal forms of governmentality come to dominate international organisations and various forms of global governance, then we need something like hegemony to explain how governmentality relates to macro strategies within a structured social context. Hegemony explains why certain techniques and technologies become dominant by linking these to strategic actions within a structured social and historical context. This should not, however, mean adopting a reductionist explanation that simply draws on a notion of economic rationality or mode of production to explain how governmentality works.
On the contrary, the adoption of a Gramscian view should mean that the underlying conditions upon which hegemony depends are at the same time thrown into question insofar as their continued reproduction through social activity is not automatically given, but needs to be socially secured and institutionally embedded. This makes the question of strategy much more prominent than it is in Foucauldian approaches. Hegemony is contested, hegemonic projects can be challenged. Hegemony is forced to operate across a complex social terrain. Indeed, by 'bracketing out' this wider social context there is a real danger that governmentality theorists in IR miss out on what is, after all, a fundamental feature of IR, the unevenness of this terrain and all the gaps, limits and failures that this produces. If we ignore the issue of wider social ontology, then there is a real danger that some notion of global governmentality itself becomes a social ontology and may delude us into thinking that governmentality is now universal and irreversible.
Types of hegemony and governmentality are both emergent social features insofar as they are dependent on underlying conditions of possibility like relations of production. However, they are not mechanically determined by such conditions and have their own irreducible properties and characteristics. The concept of hegemony is better at highlighting some of the wider social features – things like historical context, institutional setting, the role of social groups and processes of project construction. The reading offered here also challenges IR approaches to consider hegemonic projects in relation to deeper structural conditions. The concept of governmentality, meanwhile, covers much of the finer detail and can in turn be described as a condition of intelligibility for hegemony in the sense that it completes hegemony and explains the 'how' of governance without reducing it to the conditions from which it emerges. It provides a detailed account of the existing micro practices and other resources which have their own specificity and might pre-exist particular hegemonic projects, but which Foucault shows can be colonised and brought together through macro- level strategies. Indeed, hegemony and governmentality are part of the constant back and forth between macro and micro, between structure and agency and between institution and practice. Each has its merits in explaining different aspects of these. But when it comes to explaining the social whole, it is difficult to conceive of one without the other and equally difficult to understand the puzzle of why IR scholars have not made more use of their combination.
Footnotes [ + ]
1. ↑ Simon Reich and Richard Ned Lebow, "Influence and Hegemony: Shifting Patterns of Material and Social Power in World Politics," All Azimuth 6, no. 1 (2017):17-47.
2. ↑ My Gramscian-Foucauldian reworking of this would be to say that dominance through rules is accompanied by dominance through techniques and technologies of governance, protected by the armour of coercion. Nicholas Onuf, "Center-Periphery Relations: What Kind of Rule, and Does It Matter?" All Azimuth 6, no. 1 (2017): 5-16
3. ↑ Antonio Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971), 80.
4. ↑ Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, 49.
5. ↑ Robert Cox and Timothy Sinclair, Approaches to World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
6. ↑ For an IR view see; Colin Wight, Agents, Structures and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
7. ↑ Roy Bhaskar, The Possibility of Naturalism (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989), 34-5.
8. ↑ Margaret Archer, Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
9. ↑ Bhaskar, The Possibility of Naturalism, 34-5.
10. ↑ Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, 178.
13. ↑ Cox and Sinclair, Approaches to World Order, 137.
16. ↑ William Walters, Governmentality: Critical Encounters (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012), 2.
17. ↑ Mitchell Dean, Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society (London: Sage Publications, 1999), 23.
18. ↑ Walters, Governmentality, 3.
19. ↑ Walters, Governmentality, 30.
20. ↑ Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2007), 108.
21. ↑ Foucault, Security, 1
22. ↑ Foucault, Security, 126-9
23. ↑ Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2008), 63-4.
24. ↑ Jan Busse, "Theorizing Governance as Globalized Governmentality: The Dynamics of World-Societal Order in Palestine,"
Middle East Critique 24, no. 2 (2015): 172.
25. ↑ Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 10.
26. ↑ Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 319.
29. ↑ Nikolas Rose, "Governing 'Advanced' Liberal Democracies," in Foucault and Political Reason, eds. Osborne, Barry, and Rose (London: UCL Press, 1996),37-64.
30. ↑ Jonathan Joseph, The Social in the Global: Social Theory, Governmentality and Global Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012); Ngai-Ling Sum and Bob Jessop, Towards Cultural Political Economy: Bringing Culture Back into Economics (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2012); Jan Selby, "Engaging Foucault: Discourse, Liberal Governance and the Limits of Foucauldian IR," International Relations 21, no. 3 (2007): 324-34; Jonathan Davies, Challenging Governance Theory: From Networks to Hegemony (Bristol: Policy Press, 2011); Stephen Gill, "Globalisation, Market Civilisation, and Disciplinary Neoliberalism," Millennium - Journal of International Studies 24, no. 3 (1995): 399-423; Richard Marsden, The Nature of Capital : Marx after Foucault (London and New York: Routledge, 1999).
31. ↑ Laura Zanotti, "Governmentality, Ontology, Methodology: Re-thinking Political Agency in the Global World," Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 38, no. 4 (2013): 289-90.
32. ↑ Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 2004), 30-1.
33. ↑ Foucault, Society, 32
34. ↑ Stephen Gill, Power and Resistance in the New World Order (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 130
35. ↑ Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1979), 85-7.
36. ↑ Foucault, Discipline, 221
38. ↑ Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Writings and Other Interviews 1972-1977 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980), 199.
39. ↑ Foucault, Power/Knowledge, 199
41. ↑ Bob Jessop, State Power (Cambridge: Polity, 2007), 152
42. ↑ Thomas Lemke, "An Indigestible Meal? Foucault, Governmentality and State Theory," Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory 8, no. 2 (2007): 50
43. ↑ Michel Foucault, "The Subject and Power," in Power, ed. James D. Faubion (New York: New York Press), 345
46. ↑ Nikolas Rose, Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 27.
47. ↑ Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, 267
48. ↑ Graham Burchell, "Liberal Government and Techniques of the Self," in Foucault and Political Reason, eds. Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose (London: UCL Press: 1996), 23.
49. ↑ Jessop, State Power, 153.
51. ↑ Michael Merlingen, "Governmentality: Towards a Foucauldian Framework for the Study of NGOs," Cooperation and Conflict 38, no. 4 (2003): 367
52. ↑ Nadine Voelkner, "Governmentalizing the State: The Disciplining Logic of Human Security," in Secuirty and Global Governmentality: Globalization, Governance and the State, ed. Miguel de Larrinaga and Marc Doucet (Abingdon: Routledge: 2010), 142.
53. ↑ Iver B. Neumann and Ole Jacob Sending, Governing the Global Polity: Practice, Mentality, Rationality (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010), 44
54. ↑ Beate Jahn, Liberal Internationalism: Theory, History, Practice (Basingstoke: Palgrabe Macmillan, 2013).
55. ↑ Wanda Vrasti, "Universal but not Truly 'Global': Governmentality, Economic Liberalism, and the International," Review of International Studies 39, no. 1 (2013): 56.
Archer, Margaret. Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Bhaskar, Roy. The Possibility of Naturalism, 2nd edition. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989.
Burchell, Graham. "Liberal Government and Techniques of the Self." In Foucault and Political Reason, edited by
Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose, 19-36. London: UCL Press: 1996.
Busse, Jan. "Theorizing Governance as Globalized Governmentality: The Dynamics of World-Societal Order in
Palestine." Middle East Critique 24, no. 2 (2015): 161-89.
Cox, Robert, and Timothy Sinclair. Approaches to World Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Davies, Jonathan. Challenging Governance Theory: From Networks to Hegemony. Bristol: Policy Press, 2011.
Dean, Mitchell. Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage Publications, 1999.
Foucault, Michel. The Birth of Biopolitics. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2008.
––––– . Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1979.
––––– . Power/Knowledge: Selected Writings and Other Interviews 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980.
––––– . Security, Territory, Population. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2007.
––––– . Society Must Be Defended. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 2004.
––––– . "The Subject and Power." In Power, edited by James D. Faubion, 326-48. New York: New York Press.
Gill, Stephen. "Globalisation, Market Civilisation, and Disciplinary Neoliberalism." Millennium - Journal of
International Studies 24, no. 3 (1995): 399-423.
––––– . Power and Resistance in the New World Order. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Gramsci, Antonio. The Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971.
Jahn, Beate. Liberal Internationalism: Theory, History, Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrabe Macmillan, 2013.
Jessop, Bob. State Power. Cambridge: Polity, 2007.
Joseph, Jonathan. The Social in the Global: Social Theory, Governmentality and Global Politics. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Lemke, Thomas. "An Indigestible Meal? Foucault, Governmentality and State Theory." Distinktion: Scandinavian
Journal of Social Theory 8, no. 2 (2007): 43-64.
Marsden, Richard. The Nature of Capital: Marx after Foucault. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
Merlingen, Michael. "Governmentality: Towards a Foucauldian Framework for the Study of NGOs." Cooperation
and Conflict 38, no. 4 (2003): 361-84.
Neumann, Iver B., and Ole Jacob Sending. Governing the Global Polity: Practice, Mentality, Rationality. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010.
Onuf, Nicholas. "Center-Periphery Relations: What Kind of Rule, and Does It Matter?" All Azimuth 6, no. 1 (2017):
Reich, Simon, and Richard Ned Lebow. "Influence and Hegemony: Shifting Patterns of Material and Social Power
in World Politics." All Azimuth 6, no. 1 (2017):17-47.
Rose, Nikolas. "Governing 'Advanced' Liberal Democracies." In Foucault and Political Reason, edited by Osborne,
Barry, and Rose, 37-64. London: UCL Press, 1996.
––––– . Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Selby, Jan. "Engaging Foucault: Discourse, Liberal Governance and the Limits of Foucauldian IR." International
Relations 21, no. 3 (2007): 324-34.
Sum, Ngai-Ling, and Bob Jessop. Towards Cultural Political Economy: Bringing Culture Back into Economics.
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2012.
Voelkner, Nadine. "Governmentalizing the State: The Disciplining Logic of Human Security." In Secuirty and
Global Governmentality: Globalization, Governance and the State, edited by Miguel de Larrinaga and Marc
Doucet, 132-49. Abingdon: Routledge: 2010.
Vrasti, Wanda. "Universal but not Truly 'Global': Governmentality, Economic Liberalism, and the International."
Review of International Studies 39, no. 1 (2013): 49-69.
Walters, William. Governmentality: Critical Encounters. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012.
Wight, Colin. Agents, Structures and International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Zanotti, Laura. "Governmentality, Ontology, Methodology: Re-thinking Political Agency in the Global World."
Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 38, no. 4 (2013): 288-304.
Tags: Critical Realism Foucault Governmentality Gramsci Hegemony International Relations Theory
Widening the World of IR: A Typology of Homegrown Theorizing
Influence and Hegemony: Shifting Patterns of Material and Social Power in World Politics
Would 100 Global Workshops on Theory Building Make A Difference?
Center-Periphery Relations: What Kind of Rule and Does it Matter?
Global Peaceful Change and Accommodation of Rising Powers: A Scholarly Perspective


text:
How Buttercups Get Their Yellow Gloss
By Stephanie Pappas published 22 February 17
(Image credit: JetKat/Shutterstock)
If you've ever played the childhood game of holding a buttercup under your chin to see if you like butter, you might have wondered why the cheery little flowers are the only type that provide the requisite reflection on your skin.
A new study reveals the answer: Buttercups are unique among flowers. Their bright-yellow gloss results from a one-of-a-kind combination of pigments and anatomical structures that create an optical thin film. These films reflect light much like a sheen of oil on a parking-lot puddle, said study leader Casper J. van der Kooi, who studies the reproductive biology of plants and animals at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
"Pigmented thin films haven't been found in flowers before," van der Kooi told Live Science. [Optical Illusions: A Gallery of Visual Tricks]
Strange structure
There are about 500 species of buttercup (the genus name is Ranunculus) found all over the world, van der Kooi said. Their gloss has fascinated researchers for more than 100 years, he said; in preparing the new study, van der Kooi found papers dating back to 1900 about how buttercup color works.
"I've been working on flower color for a few years now, and what you see in the majority of plant species is that they have flowers that have a diffuse reflection, so the reflection is pretty angle-independent. You see a blue or yellow flower from whatever angle you look at," van der Kooi said, citing earlier research he and his colleagues conducted. "The buttercup is a clear exception to this rule because it has a mirror-like reflection."
To study this flower anomaly, van der Kooi and his colleagues analyzed buttercups from meadows around Groningen in the Netherlands. They used photography and scanning electron microscopy to examine the petal anatomy.
What they found was a flower with a structure never seen before. The top layer of the buttercup petal, the epidermal layer, is ultrasmooth and contains pigments that absorb blue light (leaving longer-wavelength yellow light to reflect back to the eye). The epidermal layer is a mere single cell thick, and it's anchored lightly to a starch layer below, the researchers said. Between the epidermal layer and the starch are pockets of air, they added.
A glossy sheen
The interference between the smooth, single-cell epidermis and the airy layer below is what creates the thin-film effect, van der Kooi said. Wavelengths moving through the different layers interact in such a way to create a shiny, mirror-like effect. Oil slicks and soap bubbles get their shine from the same mechanism, van der Kooi said.
But buttercups also use pigments to great effect, according to van der Kooi. The light that isn't absorbed by the pigments in the epidermal layer, or the light that is bounced back, ends up passing through and hitting the starch layer below the air pockets. This starch layer has a scattering effect, van der Kooi said. The light is scattered back through the pigmented layer, intensifying the yellow color.
"The pigment is used twice, basically," van der Kooi said. It's used once as the light hits the epidermal layer, and then again when the light is scattered back.
Many animal species, particularly birds and butterflies, use thin films to create iridescent or glossy colors, van der Kooi said. So why might buttercups stand out in the plant kingdom as the only ones to possess these structures?
There are a couple of possibilities, van der Kooi said. On sunny days, when the buttercup petals are spread wide to the sky, their glossiness may create a "flash" effect for passing insects, like a mirror reflecting a beam of sunlight. This might make the flowers stand out to pollinators, he said.
The buttercups also might be acting as their own space heaters. On overcast days, the researchers observed that buttercups close into a cup-like shape but also tilt their blossoms to follow what sunlight they can catch. (This is called heliotrophy.) The effect is to reflect light waves not toward the sky, but internally, toward the plant's reproductive organs. This raises the temperature of the blossom's center, which may promote pollen or seed maturation, van der Kooi said. Warm flowers are also preferred by some pollinators.
Ultimately, this basic research may inform conservation strategies in a world where many pollinators, including some bees, are struggling, van der Kooi said. It's also important to understand how such biodiversity in flowers arose, he said.
"The diversity in flower colors is enormous," van der Kooi said. "We try to link this to pollinator vision to understand how pollinators and their vision shaped color diversity as we see it now."
The researchers report their findings today (Feb. 21) in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.


If you are looking for a healthy dish that doesn't take hours to make you have to try this one. One of my favorite things to eat is this Crispy Salmon Mango Salsa. It is so good!!! I just tried it on top of a bed of coconut rice and it took this dish to the next level! ere is the recipe you all have been asking for.
-Chop all items and place into a bowl, add oil avocado oil, salt and pepper last and mix.
place in a rice cooker and press cook!
using a non-stick pan, coat the pan using about 1 tbsp of avocado oil. cook on medium-low heat until salmon skin is crispy about 8-10min.


text:
We judged winners for each round. See if you agree.
Round 1: Fees: Granted, big banks generally offer ways to dodge common fees, such as maintaining a minimum balance in an account or having your paycheck directly deposited into an account.
But, overall, you're far less likely to pay monthly fees at smaller banks, online banks and credit unions, experts say. Financial information site Bankrate.com found that about three-quarters of large credit unions offered free checking accounts, with no strings attached. Just 45 percent of banks did, McBride said.
Winner: Smaller institutions.
Round 2: ATM access: This is where big banks traditionally have had a big advantage. But smaller competitors today are able to join ATM networks that allow customers to use a variety of teller machines without charge.
And some, notably online banks that usually have no ATMs of their own, reimburse customers for fees incurred at any bank machine. But these reimbursements are often capped at a certain dollar amount, maybe $12 a month. So it's not a good choice for frequent visitors to ATMs.
Overall, however, most people will find that large banks still have an advantage here, with ATMs not only at their many branches but also in a variety of retail stores.
Winner: Big banks.
Round 3: Branch networks: This round will look much like the last. For some consumers, it might put small banks on the ropes. Small banks might have a plethora of branches in a limited area, but it's no match for a big branch network nationwide.
Some credit unions have sharing agreements, where customers of one credit union can walk into the branches of other credit unions and use their services.
Of course, most online banks have no branches at all. If you need face-to-face service in a variety of geographies, big banks take the round for most consumers.
Round 4: Customer service: Big banks can boast round-the-clock customer service centers, reachable by phone and online chat. But if you define service as a financial institution being more personable and accommodating to individuals, credit unions are especially known for that.
Small banks are known for down-home service. This is a huge comeback round for the little guys.
Round 5: Ownership: Big banks are obligated to make as much money as they can for shareholders, which often is on the backs of customers. Non-profit credit unions, specifically, win this round because they are beholden only to their customers, because customers are the owners.
Round 6: Financial products: Credit unions, in particular, once had sparse offerings for savings, checking, borrowing and online banking. Nowadays, it's a closer call, as smaller institutions of all flavors expand their lines of financial products. Still, a large bank is likely to offer more account and loan options.
Round 7: Technology: Small banks and credit unions probably offer online account access and perhaps electronic bill paying. And, of course, online banks are likely to have decent technology options. But having advanced offerings, such as mobile banking and person-to-person payments, are largely the domain of large banks, McBride said.
Round 8: Rates: Credit unions, small banks and, especially, online banks typically pay higher rates on savings and offer lower-rate loans.
So, that's four rounds to each side. No single type of financial institution is right for everybody.
Although it might add complexity, you can get the best of both: checking at a big bank and loan and savings at a smaller one, for example, Giorgianni said.
"There's really no single answer," he said. "You have to do your homework."
Judge limits Hammond Ranches cattle grazing as case proceeds
New Mexico regulators weigh nuclear power investments


Marionette Collective framework acquired by Puppet Labs.
Puppet Labs have announced they are acquiring the intellectual property of open source framework the Marionette Collective.
The Marionette Collective framework is intended to build server orchestration and parallel job execution systems, and to enable the discovery of network resources. With Marionette Collective, users can also select which resources to affect using configuration data from systems management platforms. According to the announcement, the acquisition will accelerate the delivery of multi-server and multi-datacenter orchestration for Puppet Labs' customers. The discovery capabilities will be used in Puppet Dashboard.
The Marionette Collective founder, R.I. Pienaar, will join the development team at Puppet Labs.


I fished with Marlin and his wife Michelle as well as their Pastor Norman and his wife Gladys.(I hope that is right!)The ladies definitely outfished the men this day!
The wind steadily picked up throughout the morning and we still were able to put 60 keeper Sandies in the boat by 11am. We caught more than 100 and they had a lot of fun.
Started at Rock Ledge and fousd a nice school there, but there were few takers, nice sized fish but just not that active. Moved onto Murrell and did not locate much there. I took us back accross to the island in the wind and found some fish but it was just too rough to stay for long.
Finally found a good school near the mouth of Twin Coves and out of the wind . We caught fish steadily for the next 2 hours after that and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly!
The water was in the low 80's and varied in clarity from clear near the dam to slightly murky near Twin Coves. The City OF Grapevine has repaired the ramp at Katies Woods and both lanes are now open. The fish were caught from between 15 feet and 35 feet with the deeper fish being suspended around 25-28 feet. The fish were caught on a variety of 1-ounce slabs and all worked very well. The RSR chartreuse shad slab, Burgess 2-tone and Lead Babies small shad in glow in the dark yellow glitter.
Don has lots of dates open and so does Bobby so give us a call. I still have October 2nd available if anyone is interested.
Hang your sign and lets go fishing!!!


The feeling you get when wearing exquisite jewelry is second to none for most women and men. After all a great piece of fine jewelry does not have the same time scale on it as a fashionable piece of clothing or those new trendy pair of shoes. But choosing the right jewelry can be a very time consuming process, especially if you're trying to find a special necklace or ring for that special someone you care about. Buying jewelry doesn't have to be a difficult process though; If you focus on some key guidelines when making a choice you'll be able to find that perfect item of jewelry in no time at all.
Whether you're looking for earrings, bangles, rings, or a gorgeous necklace it is crucial that you choose the right metal. When buying jewelry the first thing to establish is what kind of budget you are dealing with. For instance, platinum is possibly the most expensive type of precious metal you can buy and 9 carat gold will be much more affordable than 18 carat gold if you're looking to purchase a nice piece of gold jewelry.
Additionally, you will always need to take into consideration the personal taste and skin type of that special person you are buying the jewelry for. Not everyone likes the common yellow gold, while for some yellow gold is all they consider when picking out gold jewelry for themselves and others. Always make sure you know what type of metal you're buying, and if you are not sure about properties of a specific precious metal, ask a jeweler who knows all the details.
Conversely, if that special someone you are buying jewelry for prefers to stay away from gold altogether, you can go with an alternative precious metal like silver, platinum or even tungsten, which is now widely used in many types of jewelry including earrings and necklaces. Platinum is a precious metal that is becoming increasingly popular as a metal used for jewelry, with Hollywood starlets like Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Hudson sporting platinum jewelry at this year's Academy Awards.
Tungsten is also a rising star among the top jewelry designers of the world, especially when it comes to men's jewelry. Tungsten rings are a fast gaining currency with fashion-conscious men who are eager to set this new trend, so if you're looking for jewelry for that special man in your life, then tungsten is likely one of the best ways to go. In fact, tungsten jewelry has received the support of actors Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Sinise, while watch manufacturers like TAG Heuer and Baume et Mercier have been using tungsten in their designer watches for many years.
Another lesson that is essential to remember during any jewelry buying spree is to check the hallmark of the jewelry you have decided to purchase. Specifically when you are purchasing gold jewelry, ensure that you check and fully understand the hallmark of the piece in question. The hallmark of jewelry is a quality control mark that is placed on gold, silver and platinum which guarantees that the metal a consumer is about to buy is up to the legal standards.
Moreover the hallmark symbols on jewelry allow you to identify quickly the carat of the jewelry you are about to buy, as well as its purity levels. Once you have approved the standards of the precious metal you have chosen, and the style of the piece of jewelry, there is only one thing left for you to do and that is make your purchase!