A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design and colours. It is used for decoration; the term flag is used to refer to the graphic design employed, flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification in environments where communication is challenging. The study of flags is known as "vexillology" from the Latin vexillum, meaning "flag" or "banner". National flags are patriotic symbols with varied interpretations that include strong military associations because of their original and ongoing use for that purpose. Flags are used in messaging, advertising, or for decorative purposes; some military units are called "flags" after their use of flags. A flag is equivalent to a brigade in Arab countries. In Spain, a flag is a battalion-equivalent in the Spanish Legion; the origin of the flag is unknown. In antiquity, field signs or standards were used in warfare that can be categorised as vexilloid or'flag-like'; this originated in ancient Assyria. Examples include the Sassanid battle standard Derafsh Kaviani, the standards of the Roman legions such as the eagle of Augustus Caesar's Xth legion, or the dragon standard of the Sarmatians.

Flags as recognized today, made of a piece of cloth representing a particular entity, were invented in the Indian subcontinent or Chinese Zhou dynasty. Chinese flags depicted colorful animals and royal flags were to be treated with a similar level of respect attributed to the ruler. Indian flags were triangular and decorated with attachments such as yak's tail and the state umbrella; these usages spread to Southeast Asia as well, were transmitted to Europe through the Muslim world where plainly colored flags were being used due to Islamic proscriptions. In Europe, during the High Middle Ages, flags came to be used as a heraldic device in battle, allowing more to identify a knight than only from the heraldic device painted on the shield. During the high medieval period, during the Late Middle Ages, city states and communes such as those of the Old Swiss Confederacy began to use flags as field signs. Regimental flags for individual units became commonplace during the Early Modern period. During the peak of the age of sail, beginning in the early 17th century, it was customary for ships to carry flags designating their nationality.

Flags became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals. Use of flags outside of military or naval context begins only with the rise of nationalist sentiment by the end of the 18th century, although some flags date back earlier; the flags of countries such as Austria, Denmark or Turkey emerged from the midst of legend while many others, including those of Poland and Switzerland, grew out of the heraldic emblems of the Middle Ages. The 17th century saw the birth of several national flags through revolutionary struggle. One of these was the flag of the Netherlands, which appeared during the 80-year Dutch rebellion which began in 1568 against Spanish domination. Political change and social reform, allied to a growing sense of nationhood among ordinary people, led to the birth of new nations and flags all over the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the most popular uses of a flag is to symbolise a country; some national flags have been inspirational to other nations, countries, or subnational entities in the design of their own flags.

Some prominent examples include: The flag of Denmark, the Dannebrog, is attested in 1478, is the oldest national flag still in use. It inspired the cross design of the other Nordic countries: Norway, Finland and regional Scandinavian flags for the Faroe Islands, Åland and Bornholm, as well as flags for the non-Scandinavian Shetland and Orkney; the flag of the Netherlands is the oldest tricolour. Its three colours of red and blue go back to Charlemagne's time, the 9th century; the coastal region of what today is the Netherlands was known for its cloth in these colours. Maps from the early 16th century put flags in these colours next to this region, like Texeira's map of 1520. A century before that, during the 15th century, the three colours were mentioned as the coastal signals for this area, with the three bands straight or diagonal, single or doubled; as state flag it first appeared around 1572 as the Prince's Flag in orange–white–blue. Soon the more famous red–white–blue began appearing, becoming the prevalent version from around 1630.

Orange made a comeback during the civil war of the late 18th century, signifying the orangist or pro-stadtholder party. During World War II the pro-Nazi NSB used it. Any symbolism has been added to the three colours, although the orange comes from the House of Orange-Nassau; this use of orange comes from Nassau, which today uses orange-blue, not from Orange, which today uses red-blue. However, the usual way to show the link with the House of Orange-Nassau is the orange pennant above the red-white-blue, it is said that the Dutch Tricolour has inspired many flags but most notably those of Russia, New York City, South Africa. As the probable inspiration for the Russian flag, it is the source too for the Pan-Slavic colours red and blue, adop

Cologix, a network neutral interconnection and data center company, provides data center solutions from 24 interconnection locations across 9 North American markets. The edge markets that Cologix operates in are: Ohio; the company supports five Internet exchanges. Cologix acquired DataCenter. BZ in February 2014, procuring 86,000 square feet across two data center facilities at 555 Scherers Court in Columbus, Ohio; the site is located at the intersection of two trunks of nationwide fiber optic network that carries most Internet transmissions. Cologix is building a 160K SQF, 18+MW data center on its existing 8 acre campus in Columbus; the new $130M+ facility will become Columbus's largest neutral data center and will be directly linked to Cologix's existing data centers, offering connectivity to 45+ network service providers, 20+ cloud service providers and the Ohio-IX Internet Exchange. The data center is built based on a concurrently maintainable design with N +1 cooling. Further attributes include K-rated perimeter fence and 24x7 guards.

The redundancy, scale and connectivity enables Cologix to address growing market demand ranging from individual cabinets to multi-megawatt deployments. Dallas is situated at the major crossroads of network connectivity in the South Central United States. Cologix operates 40,000 square feet across two data centers in the Dallas Infomart, including a meet-me-room; the Dallas INFOMART building, is the region's preeminent carrier hotel located at 1950 North Stemmons Freeway. The INFOMART has the largest number of carriers out of any single building in a 900-mile radius, with more than 8,700 strands of fiber. Cologix operates two data centers in Jacksonville, including one site, JAX 1, at 421 West Church Street and a second data center, JAX 2, at 4800 Spring Park Road which provides enterprise colocation and disaster recovery. Cologix maintains a meet-me-room in the 421 West Church Street building, wired with submarine communications cable to connect to Central and South America. Cologix connects the NAP of the Americas in Miami to Cologix's Jacksonville data center and meet-me-room at 421 West Church Street.

The 421 West Church Street site facilitates connections at the intersection of metro, long-haul and subsea fiber routes. Cologix operates 100,000 square feet of data center space in Lakeland, Florida offering disaster recovery and colocation services from their data center. Cologix operates data center space and the meet-me-room at the carrier hotel at the 511 Building in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota providing access to more than 80+ network providers. Cologix provides the Midwest Internet Cooperative Exchange with space and power in the 511 Building. Cologix's Northern New Jersey data centers are located about 30 miles outside of Manhattan and 280+ feet above sea level. Cologix operates four New Jersey data centers and business continuity sites, within more than 230,000 SQF of usable floor space, provide enterprise‐grade colocation and managed services. Cologix operates 11 network neutral data centers in Montreal and Vancouver. Cologix operates more than 100,000 square feet of colocation space across seven data centers in Montreal, including in the carrier hotel at 1250 Rene Levesque West.

A dedicated fiber ring connects the seven Cologix Montreal sites to share connectivity. Additionally, the Montreal Internet Exchange, deployed a core node with Cologix at 1250 René-Lévesque West and 625 René-Lévesque West. Cologix operates two downtown Toronto data centers at 151 Front 905 King West in Toronto; the sites share connectivity through the use of a diverse metro fiber ring. Cologix Toronto offers access to more than 150+ networks and provides a direct on-ramp to the Toronto Internet Exchange. Cologix operates two data centers in Vancouver, British Columbia in the Harbour Centre at 555 West Hastings Street and 1050 West Pender; the Vancouver Internet Exchange, an open and participant-run non-profit Internet exchange, deployed a core node in Cologix's facility at 1050 West Pender Street in Vancouver. Cologix is partnered with VANIX, contributing space and fiber optic network connections

Charles Edward "Chuck" Williams was the American founder of Williams Sonoma and author and editor of more than 100 books on the subject of cooking. Williams is credited for playing a major role in introducing French cookware into American kitchens through his retail and mail-order business, he became a centenarian in October 2015 and died two months on December 5, 2015 in San Francisco, California. Born in 1915 in Jacksonville, Williams learned to cook from his maternal grandmother, who had owned a restaurant in Lima, Ohio; when the Great Depression hit, his father's auto repair business failed, the family moved to southern California. His father fared no better there and soon abandoned his wife and daughter. Williams found work on a date farm near Palm Springs, Sniff's Date Gardens in Indio; the couple who owned it, Dana and Abagail Sniff, took him in and drove him to high school in the mornings while he spent the afternoons working at the date shop and grounds. Williams lived with the Sniffs for seven years until just after his graduation from high school.

His sister died in 1933 after being hit in the head with a baseball. His mother returned to Florida, Williams finished school and moved to Los Angeles. During World War II, he spent four years overseas as an airplane mechanic for Lockheed International, working on aircraft in India and East Africa. After the war, Williams returned to Los Angeles and one weekend, joined friends for golf in Sonoma, he fell in love with the town and moved there in 1947, starting a successful business as a building contractor. Williams bought the Ralph Morse Hardware Store in Sonoma, California, in 1953. Over the next few years, he converted its stock from hardware to French cookware, filling a niche in the market as European cookware was difficult to find for purchase in America at the time; the concept was successful, he moved his operations to San Francisco in 1958. More than a decade in 1971, Williams-Sonoma introduced its first mail-order cookware catalog. Soon after, the business began expanding to more locations and now includes over 600 stores nationwide.

Chuck Williams sold Williams-Sonoma to Howard Lester and Jay McMahan in 1978 for $100,000. He served as chairman of the company until 1986, he remained extensively involved with the company, overseeing merchandise selection, conducting public appearances, writing cookbooks, for the remainder of his life; the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1983. Williams operated a test kitchen at Williams-Sonoma corporate headquarters in San Francisco, where recipes are tested for the company's catalogs and cookbooks, he was an editor or contributor to nearly every cookbook that Williams-Sonoma has thus far released, including the large multi-volume Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library set, co-published by Time-Life Books. The series has sold nearly 10 million copies. Williams was the sole author of another Time-Life/Williams Sonoma series, Simple Cooking, which comprised Simple American Cooking, Simple French Cooking, Simple Italian Cooking, as well as a "best of" collection with selections from all three.

All told, Williams was involved with the production of more than 100 cookbooks that have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. He initiated scholarships for promising students in the field of culinary arts through several organizations, including the Culinary Institute of America. In addition to his involvement with The Culinary Institute of America, Williams served on the board of the American Institute of Food & Wine and had contributed to events offered by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, he was named in the "Who's Who of Food & Beverage" in 1994 by the James Beard Foundation, was given the Foundation's highest recognition, the Lifetime Achievement Award, in 1995. Williams was inducted into the Halls of Fame for the Culinary Institute of America and the Direct Marketing Association. After Williams' death, his estate donated Williams' nearly 4,000-piece collection of cookware to create the Chuck Williams Culinary Arts Museum, operated by the Culinary Institute of America.

Williams-Sonoma corporate site