Sir Nicholas Throckmorton: A Diplomatic Advisor to Queen Elizabeth

This study concentrates on Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, a resident ambassador sent to France in the first years of Elizabeth\u27s reign. He had never held a high level government position before this time, but was remembered for his ability to give advice on matters of foreign policy. Typically historians have approached the subject of the Queen\u27s policy from a top down perspective. This thesis attempts to redress this view by looking at how diplomacy was conducted through the eyes of a diplomat. The culture of diplomacy created statesmen and foreign policy advisors out of the diplomats in Elizabeth\u27s reign. Ambassadors and diplomats like Throckmorton provided incalculable service to their monarch. Throckmorton utilized the opportunities for Elizabeth\u27s success in securing her kingdom from those who sought to exploit the weakness of her position. Among the topics discussed in this work are diplomatic culture, advice, and early Elizabethan foreign policy

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Social contract and beyond:Sociability, reciprocity and tax ethics

Paying taxes is a moral obligation owed by members of a community to their community. This obligation is determined by the legislature. Subsequently the tax authorities collect the amount of taxes citizens are due. Paying taxes might thus seem to become an exclusively legal affair - a legal obligation towards the state replacing a moral obligation towards society. What to think of this? In this chapter we delve into political and legal theory to find an answer to this question. Social contract theorists and their critics searched principles for a viable civil polity. Hobbes, Spinoza and Hume focused on political and legal authority and obedience grounding their theories in various pictures of human motivations and human sociability. These different starting points resulted in diverging conceptualisations of the relationships between ruler and subjects and between subjects and fellow subjects in terms of reciprocity. We will show the consequences thereof for the relationship between tax law and morality. Different conceptions of the reciprocal relationships involved may invite behaviour varying from minimalist compliance to a more liberal compliance with tax law. Taxpayers facing absolute sovereignty may thus adopt a legalistic attitude and be willing to exploit the letter of the law or loopholes rather than stay within the spirit of applicable tax legislation