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Like a Hispanic version of Anakin Skywalker, "Cudahy Chris" Garcia was supposed to bring integrity and balance to the scandal-plagued, corruption tinged city of Cudahy.
He ran on a slate with other reforms, all of whom jumped in to save their city from the Old School corrupted political establishment.
The local press had high regards for Garcia, high hopes that he would bring much needed change.
Check out this article from the Latino California in 2012:
After the disastrous January 11, 2016 Cudahy city council meeting, some of the local activists told me that they had placed so much hope and faith in Garcia. He was one of them, an activist tired of the crime and corruption dominating city hall.
“I want to bring back competency and honesty to City Hall and a just government for local residents,” says Christopher Garcia, a founding member of the activist resident group United4Cudahy. “The current system is old and antiquated and has the wrong mindset. I need and want to remind people that government should be there to work for them.”
If anyone had attended the last city council meeting, disunity and anarchy know defines the government, which is doing nothing for the local residents.
Three council seats will be up for grabs on the March 5th ballot. One councilman’s 4-year term is coming to an end. And this summer two members of City Council left among accusations of accepting bribes and other corruption activities after being arrested by the FBI. The now former Mayor David Silva and former Councilman Osvaldo Conde could face decades in prison.
These arrests followed the explosive revelations then indictments in Bell, California.
In fact, the most recent political activism among residents ignited after the corruption scandal broke out on June 22. First the Cudahy Association Unidos Salimos Adelante was formed and from this group came out United4Cudahy later; both groups have regularly attended City Council meetings as sorts of government watchdogs and advocating for reforms, transparency and services for residents.
Under the vigilance of those residents change has come to City Hall, according to Garcia.
City Council recently approved to change its meeting time from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. starting January. When the appointment to a vacant council seat was brought up, activists successfully pressed for a open and transparent nomination process and a candidate forum. Furthermore, United4Cudahy lobbied hard to have the Los Angeles County run Cudahy’s March elections in light of the fraud that has happened in recent elections—as acknowledged by indicted officials in court documents.
Garcia sees those as accomplishments of CASUA United4Cudahy. “We’ve passed more good reform in the past three months than the previous 15 years,” he says.
Now United4Cudahy has officially adopted a mission to work towards sending one of its leaders to City Hall. The organization’s recently-launched website says that it will “act as a campaign platform for Christopher Garcia in the Cudahy City Council race in March 2013.”
Cudahy Chris boasted a respectable background as well as a promising future:
Garcia, 26, says he was born and raised in Cudahy, attended local schools as a child, went to nearby Bell High School in the City of Bell, and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science on a full-paid scholarship from UCLA. At that university, he was a student activist against fee hikes and later got involved in labor campaigns for the rights of garment industry workers, according to his resume. He also worked as an intern for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the communications department.
He currently works as a independent contractor in patient administration for a doctor at the Back Institute of Beverly Hills.
He's been an active activist, to put in mildly. He's also a labor union lackey. Well.
MORE REFORM PROMISES
If elected, more changes are coming to Cudahy, says the candidate-to-be.
Garcia and his activist group are pushing for term limits and forensic audits to identify wasteful spending and possible misuse of public funds. On these and other issues, United4Cudahy have found an ally in Councilman Jack Guerrero, who was appointed to his position in September to fill a council vacancy.
Term limits and a forensic audit. Have they been put in place yet? Not likely.
So, Cudahy Chris came in like a Jedi Knight, wanted to using the Force of political power for good.
After only two years, he has gone to the Dark Side, doing whatever Emperor Ricardo Lara (and perhaps puppet master Efren Martinez) tell him to.
What is it about political power that corrupts these otherwise naive yet willing young activists?
Let's settle the background a little bit. This student activist was working with labor unions. These collectives have become more communistic and corrupt in the last two decades, especially the public sector variety. Unions rely on force and have no qualms about breaking the law if necessary.
The pictures above show Garcia on the run at the end of the January 11th, 2016 city council meeting.
The Democratic Party infiltrating college campuses and indoctrinating students has slowly erased ethical concerns and moral obligations. Pursuit of power at all costs, and for no other reason, has taken precedence over other goals. Add to this mess the political machinery which has waded into the region -- and is now making a splash, and there we have Cudahy Chris, or "Darth Chris" may be more accurate.
One again, Big Government leads to bigger corruption, waste, and fraud. Democratic pushes for "equality" end up fostering more inequality, until we have a human version of Animal Farm's final scene: "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."
Cudahy Chris now charges higher fees on low-income reasons, resists calls for transparency and accountability. He shuts down and mocks those who call for better fiscal management in the city. He also does whatever the labor unions tell him to.
Cudahy Chris: the Anti-Corruption candidate has become another corrupted councilman.


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Koch A, Melbye M, Sørensen P, Homøe P, Madsen HO, Mølbak K, Hansen CH, Andersen LH, Hahn GW, Garred P. Acute Respiratory Tract Infections and Mannose-Binding Lectin Insufficiency During Early Childhood. JAMA. 2001;285(10):1316–1321. doi:10.1001/jama.285.10.1316
Author Affiliations: Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut (Drs Koch, Melbye, Sørensen, and Mølbak and Messrs Hansen and Andersen, and Ms Hahn); Departments of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery (Dr Homøe) and Clinical Immunology, Rigshospitalet, National University Hospital (Drs Madsen and Garred), Copenhagen, Denmark.
Context Hospital-based studies have found that increased susceptibility to certain
infections is associated with low serum levels of mannose-binding lectin (MBL)
due to MBL variant alleles. However, the contribution of MBL insufficiency
to incidence of common childhood infections at a population level is unknown.
Objective To investigate the effect of MBL insufficiency on risk for acute respiratory
tract infection (ARI) in unselected children younger than 2 years.
Design and Setting Population-based, prospective, cohort study conducted in Sisimiut, Greenland.
Participants Two hundred fifty-two children younger than 2 years who were followed
up weekly between August 1996 and August 1998 for morbidity surveillance.
Main Outcome Measure Risk of ARI, based on medical history and clinical examination, compared
by MBL genotype, determined from blood samples based on presence of structural
and promoter alleles.
Results A 2.08-fold (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.41-3.06) increased relative
risk (RR) of ARI was found in MBL-insufficient children (n = 13) compared
with MBL-sufficient children (n = 239; P<.001).
The risk association was largely restricted to children aged 6 to 17 months
(RR, 2.92; 95% CI, 1.78-4.79) while less effect (RR, 1.47; 95% CI, 0.45-4.82)
and no effect (RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.42-2.37) was shown among children aged
0 to 5 months and 18 to 23 months, respectively.
Conclusion These data suggest that genetic factors such as MBL insufficiency play
an important role in host defense, particularly during the vulnerable period
of childhood from age 6 through 17 months, when the adaptive immune system
Acute respiratory tract infections (ARIs) are among the most prevalent
infections in childhood worldwide, with the highest incidence among children
younger than 2 years.1,2 Risk
factors for these infections include being male, living in crowded conditions,
and being exposed to child care centers and passive smoking.1,3
However, these factors explain only a fraction of the variation in incidence
between children. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is a serum protein believed
to play an important role in the innate immune response.4
A single gene, MBL2, located at chromosome 10, codes
for human MBL.5,6 Mannose-binding
lectin may exert its action through binding to high mannose and N-acetylglucosamine
oligosaccharides present on a variety of microorganisms, thereby activating
the complement system by MBL-associated serine proteases and interacting with
novel receptors on phagocytes.7- 9
As part of the innate immune system, the protein is considered particularly
important in the vulnerable period of infancy before adequate specific immune
protection is established by the adaptive immune system.10
Three variant alleles have been described in exon 1 of the MBL2 gene.11- 13
These variants are due to 3 single-base pair substitutions at codon 54 (allele B), codon 57 (allele C), and codon
52 (allele D), which independently cause low serum
MBL levels.11 The normal wild type allele is
commonly designated A, and the 3 mutant alleles are
designated O. All variant alleles reduce the amount
of functional MBL subunits in heterozygous individuals 5- to 10-fold.14 The variant alleles affecting the structural part
of the MBL gene are relatively common in many ethnic
groups including Eskimos (frequency of sum of all variant alleles: 0.12) and
whites (frequency of sum of all variant alleles: 0.20).14
The serum MBL concentration is further dependent on a number of nucleotide
substitutions in the promoter region of the MBL2
gene.15,16 In particular, a polymorphism
in codon −221 (X/Y type) has a significant
effect on the MBL serum concentration with the Y
promoter having high and the X having low MBL-expressing
Hospital-based studies have shown that an increased susceptibility to
bacterial and viral infections has been associated with low serum levels of
MBL and MBL variant alleles17- 21
and with a worsened prognosis in such chronic diseases as cystic fibrosis,
rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus.22- 24
However, MBL has never been shown to play a role in the incidence of infectious
diseases on a population level.
We performed a population-based cohort study of ARI in children aged
0 to 2 years living in Sisimiut, West Greenland, to investigate whether MBL
insufficiency contributes to the general morbidity in children.
Sisimiut is the second largest town in Greenland, with approximately
5300 inhabitants, of which 88% have been born in Greenland and 12% have been
born outside of Greenland, primarily in Denmark. One health center serves
Sisimiut with up to 5 physicians and a midwife. All health services, including
medication, in Greenland are free. In this town, an open cohort of children
aged 0 to 2 years was formed by April 1, 1996, and monitored for ARI on a
regular basis from August 12, 1996, to August 6, 1998. The cohort comprised
all children living in the town as of April 1, 1996, and included all children
who were either born in Sisimiut or who had moved there before June 1, 1998.
All children irrespective of ethnicity (whether Eskimo, mixed race, or white)
were invited to participate. Specially trained Danish medical students and
local interpreters, supervised by Danish physicians, followed up this cohort.
Children were enrolled as soon as possible after identification, but
not prior to 6 weeks after birth. They were excluded from the cohort when
turning age 2 years. At enrollment written informed consent was obtained from
each child's parent or guardian and a structured background interview was
conducted. In the monitoring period, the children were visited weekly, at
which time parents were asked about their child's ARI symptoms since the last
visit. If symptoms were reported, a clinical examination was performed with
focus on the respiratory system, including otoscopy and tympanometry using
portable tympanometers (MicroTymph2; Welch Allyn, Skaneateles Falls, NY).
If any of the following physical signs were recorded, the episode was characterized
as a respiratory tract infection and defined by the symptoms reported (modified
from parameters set by Selwyn2): purulent nasal
discharge, cough, red and bulging tympanic membrane with loss of normal landmarks
and abnormal tympanometric compliance, purulent ear discharge, pharyngotonsillar
erythema or exudate, respiratory rate higher than 50/min plus cough or difficult
breathing, rales, stridor, wheezing, cyanosis, or subcostal chest indrawing.
When clear nasal secretion was the only symptom, the episode was not characterized
as an ARI.2 If the children had attended the
health center during an episode with respiratory symptoms, the diagnoses made
by the local physicians were also used to characterize an episode. These diagnoses
included rhinitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, acute otitis media, croup, bronchitis,
bronchiolitis, and pneumonia. A child had to be free of symptoms for 7 days
before a new episode was counted. A child was considered at risk on days he
or she was symptom free, including the first day of a new episode, but not
during the 7 days following an episode.
The study was approved by the Scientific Ethics Committee for Greenland.
Venous blood samples were drawn at the end of the study period. Genomic
DNA was isolated from blood cells drawn in EDTA containers and stored at −
80°C in Greenland, transported by − 30°C to Denmark, and stored
again at − 80°C until testing. The MBL
alleles were detected as previously described.14,15
Because all 3 variant alleles have a considerable effect on MBL concentrations,
they were grouped as allele O, while the normal allele
was designated A. Thus, the structural genotypes A/A, A/O and O/O
were obtained. On the basis of these genotypes and the effect of the promoter
variants in position − 221 on the MBL serum concentration, we were able
to define 6 MBL genotypes.22 The A/A group had 2 normal structural alleles
with high expression promoter activity (YA/YA), 1 high and 1 low-expression promoter (YA/XA), or 2 low-expression promoters (XA/XA). The A/O group had 1 variant and 1 normal structural
allele with either high-expression promoter (YA/O) or low-expression promoter (XA/O) activity. Because both the O/O group and the XA/O group have a virtually undetectable amount of MBL in the blood,22 we combined genotypes and defined an MBL-sufficient
group as A/A + YA (YA/YA, YA/XA, XA/XA, and YA/O), and an MBL-insufficient group as XA/O + O/O.
For risk factor analysis, ratios of incidence and 95% confidence intervals
(CIs) were used as measures of relative risk (RR). The number of episodes
and the number of days at risk for each child were calculated on a monthly
basis. Because each child could have respiratory events in different calendar
months, the model had to account for the possible correlation between episodes
from the same child. Therefore, a generalized estimating equation (GEE) method
with a correlation structure between measurements from the same child was
used in a model assuming a Poisson distribution for the number of episodes.
A banded Toeplitz correlation structure with 6 bands was applied. With this
correlation structure, episodes from the same child with a maximal interval
of 7 months were considered correlated, while those with larger intervals
were regarded as independent. Relative risk estimates were obtained from the
GEE model, and CIs were calculated using a robust covariance estimator for
the estimated effects. We used the Wald test to assess the effect of any risk
factor, assuming that estimates based on the GEE method were asymptotically
normally distributed.25 We have previously
found that age was a strong risk factor for ARI (data not shown), and to allow
dependence on age, sex, ethnicity, and calendar period, we adjusted for these
factors in all risk-factor analyses. The GENMOD procedure in SAS version 6.12
was used for the GEE model.26
The population-attributable risk percentage, which is an estimate of
the fraction of the total number of ARIs that would not have happened if the
effect of a specific risk factor had been eliminated, was estimated as described
by Bruzzi et al27 on the basis of adjusted
RRs and the distribution of exposure in the episodes.
Of the 338 children eligible for participation, 294 agreed and 44 refused,
for a participation rate of 87%. Acute respiratory tract infection was not
stated by any of the families as a reason for not participating in the study.
None of the participating children were recognized as having severe chronic
diseases. Of the 294 enrolled children, 288 were at risk for ARI (ie, having
no symptoms for 7 days before having an episode of ARI). Of these, blood could
be sampled and MBL genotypes determined for 252 children. These included 204
Greenlandic Eskimo children, 27 children of mixed race, and 8 white children
according to parents' place of birth (13 children were of unknown descent).
The ethnic distribution of the 252 children with known MBL genotypes did not
differ from that of children with unknown MBL genotypes (Fisher exact test, P = .29). One hundred ninety-one children (75.8%) were
homozygous for the normal allele A (genotype A/A), 6 children (2.4%) were homozygous
for variant alleles (genotype O/O), and 55 (21.8%) were heterozygous (genotype A/O) (Table
1). Prevalence of the normal genotype A/A was higher in Eskimo children than in children of mixed
descent, both of which were higher than in white children, which did not reach
statistical significance (Fisher exact test, P =
.32). All variant alleles were observed in Eskimo children with B as the predominant allele (frequency: 0.08), followed by D and C at lower frequencies (0.04 and 0.01,
respectively). When combining the structural alleles with promoter alleles,
239 children (94.8%) were MBL-sufficient (A/A + YA), while 13 children (5.2%)
were MBL-insufficient (XA + O/O). There was a significant association between ethnicity
and MBL sufficiency or insufficiency (Fisher exact test, P = .03) with Eskimo children having the lowest frequency of MBL insufficiency.
The risk factor analysis showed an increased risk for ARI in children
who were heterozygous or homozygous for variant alleles, with those homozygous
for variant alleles having the highest risk (Table 2). When combining those heterozygous or homozygous for variant
alleles, the risk was still significant compared with children homozygous
for normal structural alleles (A/A). An even more pronounced effect was seen among MBL-insufficient
children compared with MBL-sufficient children. There was no difference in
the risk for ARI among MBL-sufficient children, while both groups of MBL-insufficient
children had significantly higher RRs of ARI than the former. Compared with
all MBL-sufficient children, we found MBL-insufficient children to have a
2.08-fold increased risk for ARI (P<.001). Table 3 presents the full multivariate
model for the analysis of MBL-sufficient children vs MBL-insufficient children.
Table 4 presents an analysis
of interaction between age and MBL genotypes. When only looking at the structural
alleles, the most pronounced effects of MBL were observed for the age groups
6 through 17 months. A clear age-dependent effect of MBL was seen, however,
when comparing the groups defined as being MBL-sufficient and MBL-insufficient
(XA/O + O/O). Thus, the highest risk was seen for MBL-insufficient children aged
6 through 17 months (RR, 2.92; 95% CI, 1.78-4.79). Younger children also had
an increased, although not statistically significant, RR of 1.47, while there
was no effect of MBL insufficiency for older children (RR, 1.00).
There was a population-attributable risk for ARI of 7.2% associated
with the presence of variant alleles (A/O and O/O vs A/A), and of 2.5% associated with
To our knowledge, our study is the first prospective population-based
study of the effect of MBL on the risk for common childhood infections. Overall,
MBL insufficiency (genotypes XA/O + O/O) was associated with a significant 2-fold increased RR of ARI.
Detailed analyses showed, however, that the effect of MBL insufficiency was
restricted to the period 6 through 17 months of age. This age group had nearly
a nearly 3-fold increased risk for ARI. These findings are particularly interesting
because 1 of the 2 theories of the importance of MBL in the immune response
envisages the protein to play a major role in the immune defense in the vulnerable
period between 6 and 18 months of age when children are depleted of passively
acquired maternal antibodies and the adaptive immune system is still immature.28 However, this has not previously been demonstrated.
The other hypothesis proposes a role for MBL at the time of primary contact
with any pathogen at any age and before an IgM antibody response can be mounted—the
so-called anteantibody hypothesis.29
Although not mutually exclusive, overall, our findings lend support to the
first hypothesis, but we cannot exclude that the latter hypothesis is valid
in certain situations.
It has been shown that hospitalized children and immunocompromised patients
with infectious diseases including ARI and meningococcal disease have a higher
frequency of MBL mutations than controls hospitalized for other reasons.17- 19,21 In
contrast to this and to our findings, studies of children with recurrent otitis
media have failed to show an association with MBL mutations.30,31
There may be a number of reasons for this discrepancy. Apart from methodological
differences in prospective vs retrospective studies and in the composition
of study populations, a major difference is the age group involved. We found
the maximal effect of MBL insufficiency in those aged 6 through 17 months,
while no effect could be demonstrated among children aged 18 through 23 months.
It is difficult to extrapolate from our results to children older than 2 years,
but our findings suggest that the effect of MBL insufficiency as an independent
risk factor for ARI in these children is limited. By contrast, in older children
and in adults, the main effect of MBL insufficiency may rather be as a disease-modifying
locus in an already established disease or in situations with a concurrent
immunodeficiency. This is indicated by studies showing that the clinical course
and severity of diseases such as cystic fibrosis, systemic lupus erythematosus,
and rheumatoid arthritis may be worse in patients carrying variant MBL alleles.22- 24
Another difference may be that we determined MBL insufficiency on the basis
of both MBL structural alleles and promoter alleles
while others considered only the structural alleles. We have previously shown
that the former measure may in fact reflect the serum level of MBL better
than the structural alleles by themselves, because heterozygous children (A/O) may be both MBL-sufficient
and insufficient, depending on the promoter alleles.22
Correspondingly, we found a significantly increased risk for ARI in children
heterozygous and homozygous for variant alleles (A/O, O/O;
RR, 1.46), but it was not as high as when promoter alleles were considered
Finally, unlike previous investigations, we addressed ARI as a whole.
The spectrum of infections was wide from rhinitis to pneumonia and bronchiolitis.
The effect of MBL mutations may differ when observing different clinical manifestations
or etiological agents. Because our study population was of limited size and
had a low frequency of MBL variant alleles compared
with populations in other studies, we were not able to further explore specific
clinical manifestations or the role of microbiological agents. Different ARIs
are, however, often associated. Thus, rhinitis may precede other infections
such as otitis media and pneumonia. A large part of ARI is viral in origin,
while acute otitis media is more often a bacterial infection. Thus, even if
MBL insufficiency is found associated with bacterial infections, it may primarily
be associated with decreased protection against viral infections, which in
turn predispose to bacterial infections. Indeed, some of the initial observations
on the role of MBL in the innate immune system were made on such viruses as
the influenza virus.32
The influence of MBL insufficiency on a population basis should theoretically
be more pronounced in other populations with higher incidences since we found
relatively few children to be MBL-insufficient. We have previously reported
that frequencies of heterozygous and homozygous variant alleles are found
in 38% of white and in 48% of black populations compared with 22% and 20%
as found earlier among Greenlandic Eskimos.13,31
The latter figures are comparable to the frequency of 24% found in the present
population, where 81% were ethnic Eskimos. Accordingly, the population-attributable
risks for MBL-structural alleles and promoter alleles in our population are
probably lower than in other populations.
The high frequency of MBL variant alleles in different populations indicates
that MBL polymorphisms represent a balanced genetic system favoring variant
alleles arising from general selection.14 We
have previously suggested that this might be due to the putative disadvantage
MBL confers toward intracellular bacteria and parasites, which use the complement
system to gain access to the intracellular compartment.33
Whether this genetic mechanism plays a role in current populations is unknown.
In conclusion, on a population level, we found that MBL insufficiency
is significantly associated with increased risk for ARI among those aged 6
through 17 months, illustrating the importance of innate immune defense factors
prior to the maturation of the adaptive immune system.

domain: medical


text:
These planters really are a sight to behold. One block of wood that has been carved into a cube shaped planter. Sanded down so that they are tactile – you can’t help but touch them.
There will be variation with each one due to it being a natural product.
These wooden planters have a little plastic insert that allows you to keep a waterproof barrier between the plant and the wood. This is big enough to hold a 10cm plant pot – however – feel free to use your own if you want to have a 12cm plant pot inside.
Dimensions: Will vary slightly due to these being a natural product.
Approx: 14cm across x 14cm x x 13cm tall ; internal hole 12cm across.

domain: design


Black Youth’s Potential Electoral Power in the Georgia Senate Runoffs
The January Senate runoffs in Georgia are fast approaching. These consequential races will determine who controls the Senate for the next two years: if both seats go to the Democratic challengers, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the Senate will be 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote. If either Republican candidate prevails, the Senate will remain in Republican control.
Youth of color, and especially Black youth, have extraordinary potential to be a decisive factor in these upcoming Senate races as a result of their population size and their historical support for Democratic candidates. As they were in the 2018 and 2020 general elections in the state, youth of color are a major force in the Georgia electorate. There are over 500,000 Black 18- to 29-year-olds registered to vote as of December 17, constituting one-third of all young registered voters in the state and, currently, the highest number of Black youth registered to vote in any state for which we have data. In 2020, Black youth heavily favored Democratic candidates and were a key constituency in flipping the state for President-elect Biden. But there are also barriers that particularly affect young people of color in Georgia, who will need to be engaged and mobilized in a type of election that traditionally sees lower turnout.
Young Black Voters’ Influence in 2018 and 2020
Early indications of the power of young Black voters appeared in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, in which Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams came within 55,000 votes (less than half a percentage point) of defeating now-Governor Brian Kemp, showed the electoral power of young voters. Our analysis found that, in counties with a high proportion of youth, Abrams performed +7 percentage points better compared to her average support in counties across the state. In counties with high percentages of youth and of people of color, she did +22 points better.
Our analysis of county-level election results in the 2020 presidential election showed a similar trend, as counties with a high proportion of Black youth gave Biden +26 points stronger support compared to his state average. All in all, 90% of Black youth in the state voted for Biden, which means Black youth provided a net margin of about 200,000 votes to the President-elect. This margin vastly exceeds less than 12,000-vote margin of victory in the race, highlighting how Black youth were driving forces behind Biden’s victory.
Young Black Georgians’ support for Democratic candidates in November also extended to the Senate candidates which are going to run-off elections. In the Senate race of incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue versus challenger Jon Ossoff, 88% of Black youth favored Ossoff, compared to 31% of White youth. In the Senate special election between incumbent Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and challenger Raphael Warnock, 83% of Black youth preferred Warnock, compared to 32% of White youth. These overwhelming preferences underscore young Black voters’ ability to shape the runoff results.
The electoral impact of Black youth is, in large part, the result of sustained efforts to engage this key constituency in order to enhance their voice and create a more equitable and representative democracy. Youth voter registration in the state (ages 18-24) has jumped by 35% in the past four years, showing that registration efforts have worked and should continue. However, the focus must be as much—or more—on having these registered voters turn out. Georgia state law facilitates voter registration through pre-registration, automatic voter registration, and online voter registration—though the state also has a strict voter registration deadline of 29 days before the election. But actually casting a ballot can be harder due to voter roll purges, decreased polling places, voter ID laws, and other voter suppression efforts.
Many of these structural barriers affect youth of color more than their white peers, a disparity that needs to be met with strong voter outreach and support. In addition to the closing of polling places, many of which were in Black communities, in a 2016 analysis we found that, nationally, youth of color were more likely to have problems with voter ID, to have trouble locating polling places close to them, or to find transportation to go vote.
The Potential Impact of “Undermobilized” Black Youth
The challenges related to mail-in voting can contribute to a pattern of “undermobilized” Black youth; meaning, young people who register to vote but do not cast a ballot. (We use the term “undermobilization” to describe young people who were registered to vote but did not cast a ballot, often because of a lack of electoral outreach and information). According to data from Catalist and the Georgia Secretary of State’s website, the registration rate for all young Georgians (ages 18-29) before the 2020 elections was one of the highest in the country in part due to the impact of the state’s automatic voter registration laws and the efforts of voter registration groups in this state. According to CIRCLE analysis, 48% of eligible youth in Georgia cast a ballot in the November 2020 election, and the 40% turnout among Black youth was substantially lower than that of white youth (55%), Latino youth (50%), and Asian youth (64%). However, even with the lowest turnout among racial/ethnic groups for which we have data, the sheer size of the Black youth population in Georgia and their overwhelming preference for Democratic candidates makes young Black voters a powerful constituency in the state–both in terms of the mobilization they do before an election and because of their vote choice.
Zooming in at the county level provides a closer look at where Black youth undermobilization may be especially high, and where outreach may be especially critical. Undermobilization rates—the percentage of young people who did not vote among youth who are registered—were especially high in smaller, rural counties in the southern part of the state. But in urban and suburban counties with lower mobilization rates, such as the counties surrounding Atlanta, the prevalence of Black youth translates to opportunities to engage thousands more young people who may not have previously voted.
When we look at the registration and voting rates of Black youth in four of the most populous Georgia counties, we find:
- Fulton and Dekalb counties, which include Atlanta and in which Black youth compose a plurality of all young people, have high numbers of Black youth who are registered to vote (around 94,000 and 71,000, respectively). The undermobilization rates in these counties are 63% and 55% respectively.
- Cobb County, an Atlanta suburb, has almost 40,000 Black youth registered to vote, and just over 20,000 voted in November: an undermobilization rate of 48%.
- In another Atlanta suburb, Gwinnett County, over 45,000 Black youth were registered to vote, and Black youth in the county turned out to the polls at an above-average rate of 55%. However, like in Cobb County, over 40% of Black youth who were registered did not cast a ballot.
Examining the undermobilization of Black youth in these four counties highlights how outreach to Black youth needs to be expanded throughout Georgia, especially within the urban, majority-Black counties that make up Atlanta and its suburbs.
Opportunities for the Runoffs and Beyond
The voter registration deadline for the Georgia Senate runoffs has passed, so the focus of campaigns and advocates in the coming weeks will focus on mobilizing voters through absentee, early in-person, and Election Day voting. Over 91,000 Black youth have requested a ballot for the runoffs as of December 21, and less than 55,000 of those ballots have been returned. By comparison, at the same time (meaning, with the same number of days to go) before the 2020 general election, over 58,000 young Black voters in Georgia had returned their absentee ballots. Further outreach to encourage young people to request and return their ballots will be crucial to ensure that strong youth turnout continues in a traditionally lower-turnout runoff election.
Youth of color in Georgia and elsewhere have long been underrepresented in and marginalized from civic life. Outreach and mobilization efforts should target these young people who have the most to gain from being contacted, since they disproportionately face more structural barriers to voting. By building relationships with youth, sharing accurate and helpful voter information, and by reemphasizing youth of color, campaigns can help write the runoffs’ narrative.
The pandemic has created new challenges to this kind of outreach, but also new opportunities, with social media and online organizing playing an increasing role. Organizations can and must use these tools to build relationships with young potential voters in order to effectively share pertinent information and encourage going out to vote.


NEWTON FALLS — The Newton Falls Civil Service Commission voted 3-0 this week to reinstate Matthew Evans to his position as a lineman in the electric department after he was fired in December by interim Village Manager Pam Priddy.
Priddy claimed Evans violated the village’s bullying and gossip policy by making false statements about her at a council meeting and later badgering her at a meeting.
Evans, who has worked for the village for seven-and-half years, requested a hearing to get his job back.
He raised questions at a village council meeting in December about the health insurance carrier the village was contracting with, and if Priddy had any personal connection to it based on what he said he read on the Better Business Bureau website.
Edward McCoy, chairman of the commission, said the commission voted that Evans, who was fired Dec. 8, be given his job back with back pay.
“We feel what he did was not belligerent. We do not feel it was something he should have been fired over,” McCoy said, adding that Evans needs to be cautious when he presents information and needs to make sure it is accurate.
Evans said after the meeting he was pleased with the decision.


Real Madrid vs Girona live stream: How to watch La Liga online
Real Madrid will be hoping to tighten their grip on top spot in La Liga when they host challengers Girona on Saturday at 5:30pm (UK time).
How can I live stream Real Madrid vs Girona online?
Bet365* stream a selection of La Liga matches live for account holders.
To sign up for and live stream Real Madrid vs Girona, eligible readers can follow the steps below.
- Click on this link.
- ‘Join now’ and enter details.
- Log in and fund your account.
- Navigate to the ‘In-Play’ link at the top of the homepage and select your desired event.
*Geo restrictions apply, 18+ only, must have a funded account or placed a bet in the last 24 hours, BeGambleAware. All odds and offers within this article are accurate at the time of writing.
Major European leagues you can watch on bet365**: La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Eredivisie, Portuguese Primeira Liga, Ligue 1
**For local rights-based reasons, some of these leagues cannot be broadcast in certain locations (e.g. Serie A streams are inaccessible in Italy). Please check whether your country of residence is excluded.
Real Madrid vs Girona odds
*Odds correct as of 15:45 on February 8
A clash at the top of La Liga, the result of this match could go some way to decided who will win the title. Real Madrid go into the with the upper hand, having had to play the chasing game for a while. Partly capitalising on Girona dropping points, but also having a game in hand, it feels as though Real Madrid won’t let go of top spot. Los Blancos go into this game unbeaten in their last 17 La Liga matches since losing to Atletico Madrid in September — their sole league defeat of the season. They have won 13 of those matches, but saw a winning run come to an end last time out, against Atletico Madrid.
Girona are the story of the La Liga season. No one expected them to genuinely be in the title race, and even when they were leading towards the tail end of 2023, many were just waiting for them to fall off. But they are still in with an actual chance of winning the title, even if their hopes have taken a little knock recently. Like Real Madrid, Girona have lost just once this season — to Los Blancos. But where they differ is with Girona having one more draw, sitting two points behind. Three of Girona’s five draws have come in their last six games, meaning they could have been comfortable at the top.
Real Madrid vs Girona predictions
Real Madrid vs Girona: Predictions
|11/8 with Sky Bet
|Real Madrid 2-0 Girona
|8/1 with Midnite
|4/1 with Betfred
Odds correct at the time of writing. 18+ Only. Terms and Conditions Apply.
The stats behind our Real Madrid vs Girona predictions:
- Girona have failed to score in two of their past four games.
- Girona also failed to score in the previous meeting between these two sides.
- Joselu has been directly involved in three goals in three games against Girona in La Liga.
- Real Madrid are unbeaten in their last 17 La Liga matches, winning 13.
- Real Madrid have scored in 22 of their 23 La Liga games this season.
Real Madrid vs Girona match tip
Real Madrid are very much a second-half side this season. Los Blancos have scored 48 goals in La Liga this season, with only Girona netting more. However, two thirds of those 48 goals have come in the second halves of Real Madrid’s matches.
Real Madrid vs Girona Bet-Builder tip
The goals have dried up slightly for Jude Bellingham, but Joselu has shown he hasn’t forgotten how to score. Starting in the 2-0 win over Getafe last week, Joselu scored both goals to take his total tally for the season to seven. One of those goals came against Girona in the previous meeting, also recording an assist. Girona have been weak from corners this season, with six of their 25 goals conceded coming from corners. Real Madrid are averaging 6.09 corners per game in La Liga this season, while Girona’s average is 4.61.
Joselu has been involved in three goals in three games against Girona in La Liga, including a goal and assist last time out.
Real Madrid have averaged 6.09 corners per game in La Liga this season, while Girona average 4.61.
Real Madrid vs Girona team news
Real Madrid team news
|Thibaut Courtois, Eder Militao, David Alaba
|Antonio Rudiger, Vinicius Jr, Nacho Fernandez
The defensive injury list remains high for Real Madrid, with Thibaut Courtois, Eder Militao and David Alaba all out. Real Madrid are also sweating on the fitness of Antonio Rudiger, who missed the draw with Atletico Madrid last weekend through injury. Vinicius Jr pulled out of the XI last weekend with an injury, so is also a doubt, as is Nacho Fernandez. However, Aurelien Tchouameni is back from suspension.
Girona team news
|Daley Blind, Yangel Herrera, David Lopez, Toni Villa
|Artem Dovbyk, Yan Couto, Juan Carlos, Borja Garcia
Yangel Herrera and Daley Blind will both serve suspensions having received their fifth yellow cards of the season. And the problems don’t stop there. David Lopez and Toni Villa are out injured, while Artem Dovbyk, Yan Couto, Juan Carlos and Borja Garcia are all doubts.
Real Madrid vs Girona head-to-head record
- 30 September 2023 – Girona 0-3 Real Madrid – La Liga
- 25 April 2023 – Girona 4-2 Real Madrid – La Liga
- 30 October 2022 – Real Madrid 1-1 Girona – La Liga
- 17 February 2019 – Real Madrid 1-2 Girona – La Liga
- 31 January 2019 – Girona 1-3 Real Madrid – Copa del Rey
These two sides have only met nine times before, with Real Madrid winning five. Having won four of the opening five, Real Madrid have only managed one win from their past four against Girona.


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A 72-year-old male pedestrian is now in critical but stable condition, after he was struck by an automobile in Elmont on Aug. 19.
According to Nassau County police, the victim was attempting to cross Linden Boulevard at 239th Street at around 9 p.m. when he was struck by a 2017 Mercedes Benz that was traveling eastbound on the street. As a result, he suffered multiple traumatic injuries and was transported to a local hospital. The driver remained on the scene.
An investigation into this accident is still ongoing.

domain: news


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11 selections from the Broadway production arranged at an easier level. Includes: Arabian Nights, Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Kassim, Friend like Me, High Adventure, A Million Miles Away, One Jump Ahead, One
Eight intermediate arrangements of Broadway favorites for one piano, four hands, including: And All That Jazz, Anything You Can Do, Do You Hear the People Sing? I Whistle a Happy Tune, In My Own
Eight great piano duets with a play-along CD.
This collection comes with a CD that features separate tracks for the primo and secondo parts - perfect for practice and performance! Ten songs, including: Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?; Happy
This collection comes with a CD that features separate tracks for the primo and secondo parts - perfect for practice and performance! Ten tunes from the legendary composer: Another Op'nin', Another
The book that belongs in every piano bench! Over 60 most-requested songs from all genres arranged for piano solo, including: All of Me ,And All That Jazz, Blue Skies, Body and Soul, Canon in D, Desafinado,
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domain: entertainment


There are many founding documents that are important to the Texico balance of individual liberty and governmental controls. Mainly, these guiding documents are meant to encourage economic success for the citizens of Texico while maintaining the international relationships critical for relative world-wide peace. The most important and enduring document is The Texico Papers. Penned in 2013 by L. Dean Fitzgerald and Elias T. Woods, it's adoption and protection laid the foundation for the rapid rise of Texico's revolutionary economic and social cultures.
The Texico Papers
dated july 4th, 2013
1. Land Ownership. The owner of any real estate has sole desicion-making over what is lawfully produced on or from the land or any structure fixed to the land.
2. Federal Taxes. The Texico federal government is entitled to 1% of all private revenue.
3. Defense. The Texico federal government will maintain a comprehensive elite force to proactively protect country and interests. This is solely the responsibility of the Executive Branch.
4. Private Business. Is actively encouraged.
5. Estados. The Estados of Brazos, Trinity, Galveston, Pecos, Ogallala, Lousiana, Delta, Yucatan, Chihuahua, Baja, Tabasco, Veracruz, and Mexico are the governing entities. The elected Senador of the estado maintains sufficient staff to enforce criminal law. Senadors are elected by popular vote every 6 years for a maximum of one term. In addition, the offices of President, Vice President, and Attorney General of Texico are determined by the popular vote of each Senador, every 3 years, for a maximum of two terms. The Secretarys of Defense, Truth, and State will be appointed by the President. Texico shall always have an odd number of estados to prevent ties.
6. The Truth of the Apostle's Creed. True until proven wrong.
7. Branches of Federal Government. The two established branches of the Federal Government are the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch. Pure democracy in the form of popular vote will determine all legislative decisions including, but not limited to, passing laws, reversing laws, approving budgets, approving judicial nominees, and impeachment. Legislative voting will occur twice a year for a period of 48 hours each season. Early spring, early fall. The Executive Branch includes the offices of President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Secretary of Truth. Primary functions are promoting economic success for Texico and it's citizens, leading an efficient and elite military, appointing judges, budgeting national revenue, national sports teams, and enforcement of laws. Budget is 1% of all private revenue. The are 3 levels of Judges for federal matters, all appointed by the President of Texico and approved by a popular vote of the citizens of Texico. The first level are Arbitrars, the second level are Magistrates, and the final level is a 5-Judge Forum. All judges are eligible to serve for 12 total years and any judge may be impeached by a 2/3 popular vote of the citizens of Texico.
8. Voting. All voting is done in via the internet and the lone shared responsibily of the Executive and Judicial branches is to establish an all-inclusive, secure, voting process.
9. Personal Protection. The right to responsibly own a gun is undeniable and everlasting.
10. Sports. Texico will maintain an active and competitive national sports program aligned with current Olympic sports events.


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According to a study conducted at the University of Freiburg (Germany), it is no coincidence that painters of all ages have represented sadness through dim colors. In fact, a close relationship exists between depression and the color gray.
Last update: April 08, 2021
The relationship between gray and depression is intuitive. When we feel sad, in fact, we say that we see everything gray or that the world has lost its colors. Science has now shown that this is not just a saying, but a visual effect that actually happens.
The World Health Organization estimates that around 300 million people suffer from depression worldwide. We talk about estimation, since in many cases this condition will never be diagnosed as it is not considered a disease to be treated with the help of a specialist.
The afternoon was gray like the season, like the city, like me. Gray inside and out.
At the same time, it is not easy to diagnose this disorder, since not all states of sadness are due to depression. It follows that taking into account the relationship between gray color and depression could be a new way to formulate a more precise diagnosis.
It `s important to note that psychiatry and psychoanalysis define and deal with depression differently.
In psychiatry and in most currents in psychology, depression is a disorder in itself. Psychoanalysis, on the other hand, considers it a symptom.
In psychiatry, depression is treated as a serious illness, capable of causing physical and mental symptoms. Neuroscientific currents emphasize the relationship between brain chemistry and depressive states. Therefore they treat the problem mainly through drugs.
In psychoanalysis there is no condition called depression which is rather understood as the symptom of a psychotic neurotic structure. A feeling of hatred towards oneself and not recognized by others that emerges when failure is perceived and hope is lost. It is treated through the word.
In reality both approaches complement each other although in practice they are divergent. Every life experience generates a chemical reaction in the brain. And viceversa. The brain is a plastic organ, which responds to both chemicals and experiences, including speech.
Depression and gray color
Numerous researches are currently underway on the brain, from an organic and physiological point of view. One such investigation was conducted at the University of Freiburg in Germany and concluded that there is a real relationship between depression and the color gray.
Specifically, the scientists found that depressed people have difficulty perceiving the contrast between black and white, according to the results of the electroretinography to which a group of volunteers was subjected.
The research was conducted by Dr Ludger Tebartz van Elst. According to his measurements, depressed people see the world in a similar way to how it looks on the TV when we lower the color contrast. The greater the depression, the less the ability to perceive color contrast.
The relationship between gray and depression could serve as a reliable criterion in diagnosing this disease and the severity of symptoms. According to the scientific journal Biological Psychiatry, it could even represent a more objective diagnostic method than the one currently in use.
Depression is currently diagnosed through specific parameters. The psychologist or psychiatrist asks the patient a series of questions about the lifestyle and symptoms experienced.
The answers allow us to conclude whether the malaise stems from depression or other conditions. However, reality shows us that diagnoses are not always accurate.
The relationship between gray color and depression is instead a physically measurable factor, therefore it could offer a notable advance in diagnosis. Not only would it confirm the presence of depression, but it could also calculate its intensity.
In any case, this technique must also be evaluated objectively. It is never too much to reiterate that not all states of sadness are to be considered depression as such. Context, duration of symptoms, health status, and other variables must be taken into account.


At the risk of setting off the usual debates about iOS vs. Android, this slide from Apple is quite compelling.
A grid of icons, a text box with a keyboard underneath, a calendar with upcoming appointments underneath. Apple invented those? I really despair of the "It's on the iPhone therefore Apple invented it" mindset that permeates much of the web.
Apple copied a lot of the iOS UI from others. Yes they refined it and marketed it to the masses but their actual innovation was pretty small. They didn't invent the grid of icons, they didn't invent what a calendar looks like, they didn't invent what a clock looks like, they didn't invent the Qwerty keyboard.
About the only innovation those images bring to mind is showing the letter above the key as you're typing. I don't know if Apple invented that but it's something others copied, until Swype made it unnecessary.
But copying is normal; everyone does it, Apple more than most. It's impossible to create a modern smartphone without impinging upon literally thousands of patents.
In the tech sector you can't expect to keep selling new product based on old innovations; you need to keep producing new innovations to stay ahead. Apple didn't and they fell behind. They're trying to sue their way back to the top; they've lost their way.
For me it's the 2010 PowerPoint presentation when Tim Cook and Steve Jobs went to Samsung with an offer to sell them their patents for approx £250m despite Samsung ripping off the iPhone.
Apple's design came from insipration from Xerox. Samsung's from Apple. But some of the software actions came from Apple, that Samsung copied too.
Apple didn't and they fell behind. They're trying to sue their way back to the top; they've lost their way.
I agree with what you say about copying, and about the harm of patents to innovation, but I'm not convinced that Apple has fallen behind or lost its way — if anything, I'd see it still being on the up.
Why does one image show samsung displaying a grid of icons? That's not what Android devices look like. One of the great things about Android and the widget is that you don't have to have a simple grid of icons.
Apart from that it looks like Samsung have been ripping off a paper notepad, a paper calendar and a bank of clocks you get behind the reception of large hotels. Go Apple!
This sort of crap from all the main players is holding back the industry.
While I like Apple products, I'm getting tired of these suits. If Apple wants to go after someone for copying a true innovation that they patented, that's fine. If swipe to unlock is a true innovation, then fine. But to go after another company because one product looks like another gets ridiculous. One could argue that one car looks like another in that they all have 4 wheels that are actually round. And one box of tissues looks exactly like another box of tissues. I wish they'd focus on products.
@Neil I'm not talking about sales. Rather than creating new innovations to stay on top they're trying to sue on the basis of what they've done to date (not that the majority of those patents hold any water).
They should be innovating and letting the competition copy their last generation; that's how to stay ahead. Their image has changed from innovator to litigator.
Who here is excited about iPhone 5 and iOS 6? How does that compare to the excitement may of us had for the S3? Yes there'll still be mega-hype, but I think there'll be far less substance than for, say, the iPhone 4.
What is crazy is when you look at earlier Samsung phones (which were excluded) plenty show similar designs to what they currently have. This whole case is really a big waste of everyones time and the US Patent office seriously needs to get their act together and to stop patenting everything and anything. I swear that I could probably patent paper at this stage and get a patent for it......


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Dozens of games are added to the Steam store on any given day, and a lot of them are from small developers you've never heard of, selling low-priced games you'll probably ignore.
Often, scattered among those many new titles are a few gems worth the asking price, and sometimes they're even free. But even if you've heard of some of these games, they can still get lost in the shuffle. To help you out, we looked through the freshly updated Steam store for promising indie games of various sizes and genres, and came up with the following 21 indie games you shouldn't ignore.
This is a card-dueling game with higher-than-average production value for a free-to-play title. It features a single-player campaign that lets you earn new cards, and boasts surprisingly solid voice acting throughout a serviceable storyline.
The battle system offers quick turns with cards that level up ("evolve") and a limit on card ability text to keep things from getting bogged down. With a challenging solo campaign and a full online multiplayer mode with custom decks, this game provides a fine alternative to other digital collectible-card games.
As one of the few worthwhile spaceship exploration games on Steam, Rebel Galaxy gives players a lengthy single-player campaign as a space trucker/bounty hunter.
Gameplay feels like a ship on water as you fire broadsides and turrets at enemies darting around your ship. It's less like dogfighting and more like a naval ship battle. It will take you a long time to go from the dinky starting ship to a truly massive battle cruiser capable of hauling tons of space goodies, so expect the game to have some staying power.
A rare indie treat from Japan, Downwell became an instant hit thanks to its very simple (but addictive) mechanics and combo system. Using a very limited color palette, this game does an amazing job of communicating how to play without using any text.
The object is to simply descend the well and rack up a score by either jumping on enemies or shooting at them from above with your neat gun boots. With several different gun types to pick up — as well as health upgrades, character types and different palette schemes to unlock — this run-based game should keep your attention for a while.
If stealth gameplay is your thing, then Aragami will scratch that itch like few games can these days. It focuses mainly on ambush kills, because you lack any combat ability as the titular Aragami character, who has been summoned using a mysterious ritual to get revenge for a kidnapped woman.
The plot takes a few interesting turns, but it's window dressing for playing around with your cool shadow powers that let you warp from shadow to shadow, avoiding light sources that drain your power, while studying enemy routines for the perfect kill. Whether you prefer to go deadly or completely non-lethal, Aragami has more than a few ways to play.
Straight from the SNES days of side-scrolling beat 'em ups like Final Fight, Mother Russia Bleeds will give you a new reason to hone your old-school skills again. Movement is stiff, and chaining combos requires good timing, just as in the games that inspired it.
Mother Russia Bleeds has a semblance of a story, but the main attraction is the brutal beat 'em up experience paired with a cool healing/buffing mechanic that lets you inject yourself with a drug to either regain health or go into a "berserk" mode. Local multiplayer is a nice addition to this fun and challenging game.
Butcher sums itself up pretty well in the opening screen with the line "The easiest mode is 'hard.'" That's literally true in the menus, and generally true, as this game tests your reactions and aiming skills.
Enemies will fire on you at the first opportunity in this very pixely 2D side-scroller, and it's up to you to keep a keen eye out for line of sight and maintain a steady hand on the mouse for returning fire. Limited health and ammo pools mean you also need to make every shot count as you run around, avoiding incoming enemies.
Besiege is a physics game that challenges you to destroy or eliminate obstacles using certain building tools at your disposal. You're essentially building a siege machine of some sort, but don't let rational design get in your way.
Besiege shines when you slap together a totally insane and semi-effective killing machine that halfway flies and halfway propels itself forward with cannon fire. The building system is easy to understand and gives you a wide array of connectors, joints and wheels to snap onto your catapult that hurls buzz saws.


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Dzama (pronounced “zama”) Rhum was started in 1980 by Mr. Lucien Fohine, half-Chinese – half Malagasy) and his Malagasy wife, on the island of nosy be off the northern shore of Madagascar they had built a scotch whiskey bottling business, and decided that the resulting empty barrels would be perfect for the aging of rum.
Production was transferred to Antananarivo (the capital) when the success of the rums and the cost of transportation made it imperative by 1984. the company started out with two station wagons and two light trucks, now have 60 vehicles that cover the whole island of Madagascar.
Dzama dominates 60% of the spirits market on the island. the population is 20 million.
Source: Official website
List of fine Dzama rums:
Rum brands from Madagascar

domain: geography


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Debra Spinks, Artist
To seek, to see, to interpret, to communicate
Friday, November 30, 2012
Looking for that special holiday gift?
A sweet little painting hits the spot for all art lovers. Come visit me at the Handmade Holiday!
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Next up - LARK Handmade Holiday!
Working hard to bring a variety of work to the best show in Randolph County! Come ready to solve all your gift dilemmas in one fantastic location with lots of friends, great food, and fabulous handmade arts and crafts.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Working on a new series - getting ready for three shows coming up!

domain: hobby


Gov. Milton J. Shapp yesterday signed a bill authorizing the appropriation of $450,000 to enable Pennsylvania to purchase the drawings, models and papers of the architect Louis IL Kahn.
The Kahn materials, which make up what is considered one of the more valuable archives of the work of any major architect of modern times, will be housed at the University of Pennsylvania. Kahn, considered at his death in 1974 to be the nation's foremost architect, had been a student and teacher at Penn and a lifelong resident of Philadelphia.
The unusual step of state purchase was made necessary by the fact that the architect died with debts estimated as high as $50,000. There was likelihood that the drawings and artifacts from his office would have to be auctioned to pay the debt of his estate, thus scattering the collection.
Tanzania Greets Train
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Oct. 24 (Agence France‐Presse) —The first passenger train from Zambia to Dar es Salaam on the new Tanzania‐Zambia railway arrived at the station today to a rousing welcome from crowds.
Kidnappers’ Car Found
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) — Policemen have found the car used by two men yesterday in the kidnapping of the honorary British consul in the northern Ethiopian city of Asmara, a British Embassy spokesman said today.


Remember when the fixture list came out last June. The first thing you looked for was to see who we would be playing in our opening game. The second thing you looked for was to see when we were due to play Hull City.
The attraction wasn't the thought of renewing old rivalries, as with Cheltenham and Rushden, but the prospect of a new rival. The rival who had lured our manager, snaffled our assistant manager and hijacked out star midfielder. Hull City.
Since the day the fixtures were announced the mood of the Harriers fans has grown to where it is now. Anger and almost pure hatred.
It's understandable that we should be upset about the way Jan Molby
left us but it was to be expected that, one day, he would want to progress his career and move to a big club. We just couldn't understand why he thought that a club in the same league as us was a big club!
The hatred is less understandable. We should have been glad to see the back of him now that under the auspices of Ian Britton we have turned out to be having a better season than our Big Club friends from the North.
With all the large amounts of money being given him to spend by Hull's chairman Adam Pearson, the potential in the players he has purchased with that money and the prospect of a new stadium to parade them in come the New Year then they should be near the top of the tree by now. No, they're struggling near the bottom unable to put a consistent run together and with most of the team either struggling with injury or walking out on him.
The fact that one of his goalkeepers, Matt Glennon, has walked out on the club this week reminds you that man management wasn't Jans' best asset.
How many more will fall out or be stonewalled by Molby if things don't start to improve on Humberside by Christmas. Will Molby still be there at Christmas?
I don't think we shall be having those kind of problems down here. Ian Britton, although being forced into pulling his purse strings tighter, seems to be running a tight, but happy, ship.
So, what kind of welcome will Jan be getting tomorrrow. He'll get a hostile one that's for sure, with chanting from the North Stand and old codger type mutterings from the Cowshed. Some fans will be wearing anti Jan T-shirts and waving anti Jan banners. (Well they would have been until this afternoon when I was told to remove any mention of T-shirts) The drummer is expected to bang his drum for 10 seconds somewhere around halftime.
Is it warranted? Yes and no. The way he left us was despicable but I have heard rumours that once Lionel Newton resigned, due to the apathy from residents of Wyre Forest, then Jan had lost his only allie in the boardroom so it would only be a matter of time before he left. Remember that throughout his time here Jan was forever being linked with other clubs. Wigan, Tranmere, Preston, Wolves and many others. He only stayed with us because he wanted to finish the job he came to do, get us into the Football League and keep us there.
When the Hull job came along it didn't take much to convince him that his future was not to be at Aggborough.
The fact that Jan Molby got us into the 3rd Division in the first place is why such a hostile welcome would be undeserved. Some say that Graham Allner did all the hard work and Jan just finished it off but thats like saying that the reason Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal are where they are today was because of Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Herbert Chapman. It's all history.
Football is an amorphous blob that is forever changing and Jan was part of that 'blob'.
Brock, Danby, Joy, Stamps, Clyde, Melligan, Ayres, Smith, Hinton, Williams, Flynn, Bennett, Parrish, Shilton, Ducros, Doyle, Foster, Broughton, Henriksen, Lower, Khela, Lewis.
Hull City from:
Musselwhite, Anderson, Edwards, Ashbee, Keates, Philpott, Whittle, Green, Williams, Petty, Wicks, Jevons, Sheeran, Branch, Fenton, Alexander, Bradshaw, Elliot, Dudfield, Regan, Kerr, Peat, Johnson, Price, Smith, Burton.
We are expected to have Adie Smith and Sean Parrish back in the team for the game along with Mark Clyde, who missed last weeks victory at Bristol due to a viral infection. Still no sign of Abdou Sall returning from injury yet.
Jan Molby has now swooped into the loan scene and snapped up Michael Branch from Wolves for the next month. Never set the world on fire at Molineux did he!
City will be without defender Greg Strong who has a dislocated elbow and Neil Mann, out with an achilles injury. Stuart Elliott made his comeback in a reserve game in midweek and will be expected to start.
The biggest surprise absentee will be Richie Appleby. Who would have thought that he'd be out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury. You could have knocked me down with a feather!


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- Telltale's Next Episodic Game is Based Upon Minecraft
- REVIEW: Halo: The Master Chief Collection
- CoD: Advanced Warfare Customization Items Trailer
- Bloodborne - Brand New Screenshots
- Mornin '14
- ET Cartridge from Landfill Ends up in Smithsonian Exhibit
- Activision Announces Two New Skylanders for Trap Team
- Interactive Dying Light Trailer
- Assassin's Creed Unity Patch is a Whopping 40GB on Xbox One
- Dragon Age Inquisition Free And Not Free DLC
- EA Confirms Anita Sarkeesian Not Working on Mirror's Edge 2
- Shadow of Mordor Story DLC Now Out
- Life is Strange Trailer
- Gabe Newell Brings Back Hatred, Apologizes
MySims Party Cheats
|ESRB rating: E
release date: Mar 10, 09
|» All About MySims Party on ActionTrip|
NOTE: As their name suggests hints are not exactly MySims Party cheats, and are usually just simple (but very useful) tips on how you can unlock secret level, features, find hidden areas and such. Hopefully these will make playing MySims Party even more entertaining.
New inhabitants: Get at least 60 points in the minigame they're hosting.
New playable characters: Get at least 80 points in the minigame they're hosting.
RATE THESE CHEATS
71 or 135
71 or 135
BACK TO TOP
Game of the Year 2014 - People's Choice
Vote for us to see more hot babes!

domain: game


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How to crochet an embroidery hoop
Hand Stitched Embroidery. Picture Hoop. Bright Bold Colours . London Underground Design. The Tube. Fun and Unusual 5 x 5 inch by mirrymirry
Personalise - Windy Day - Hand Embroidery Hoop Art ready for display - 8 x 8 Inch Hoop by mirrymirry
Contemporary embroidery art via Mr X Stitch. Stacey Page is a mixed media artist from Georgia, USA.
Floral Design by Poppies & Posies
This would be so funny to do to old pictures!!!!
'Down My Street' textile canvas using free hand machine embroidery
Pug by Javier Garcia
Needle Painting or Thread Painting Hand Embroidery Kits of Animals (Silk Shading, Silk Embroidery), Animals, Flowers, Birds, Hand Embroidery Technique as an Alternative to Cross-stitch.

domain: artistic


text:
Listen to a newly unearthed Slayer concert recording from 1986
With no live shows happening, live concert recordings have taken on a greater importance than ever, especially when those recordings are from a long-gone era of one of the greatest bands to ever exist. The Sacramento Music Archive (who posts lots of cool archival audio, videos, and photos, like the recently-unearthed classic 924 Gilman footage) have just put up a newly-unearthed, newly-remixed recording of Slayer's full set from Sacramento's El Dorado Saloon on November 5, 1986, a month after Reign In Blood had come out.
The recording is credited to "Ricky (RIP)," and the transfer to digital from the original tapes and remixing was done by Sacramento Music Archive's Shayne Stacy, who writes:
As I have talked about before, my friend Matt Polish was friends with the band. He toured with them in 1985 and by this time, he had gone to L.A. to hang with Jeff multiple times. So we got there early and went right back onto the NEW tour bus supplied by Def American. We step in there, and here are the guys in Slayer partying hard, and listening to… rap music? We were totally dumbfounded- what the fuck is this? It turned out that they had an advance tape of Beastie Boys’ License to Ill and they were BLASTING it as they partied on the bus. They were reciting every lyric. This was months before the Beasties were well known, and before Anthrax’ rap collaborations. Rap and metal at the time did NOT mix. It was one of the most hilariously jarring moments I have ever experienced. After an hour or so of goofing off, they got dressed and played this show. So funny.
No encores were recorded. I don’t know why.
The original show flyer (above) came courtesy of Ken Doose. (As you can see, Overkill opened.) Listen to the full set and check out the setlist below.
Sacramento Music Archive also has a lot of other cool Slayer recordings, including video from The Stone in SF in '88, Jeff Hanneman home demos from 1985/86, a Pap Smear demo (members of Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies) demo from 1986, and more.
For more live '80s thrash (including Overkill), we recently posted 10 great '80s thrash metal live concert videos.
Shop for Slayer vinyl, including colored variants of classic albums, cassettes, books, Funko Pops, ReAction Figures, and more, HERE.
Angel of Death
Die by the Sword
Praise of Death
Captor of Sin
At Dawn They Sleep
Altar of Sacrifice


|Liunan Village Liushi Town Yueqing Cityemail@example.com|
Lontmeter Electric Co., Ltd.was founded in 2002. We are professional manufacturer of
Electric Meter and terminals.
In 2013, we passed the IS9001:2008 certification, Also with many patents.
We have our quality control practices and procedures which embodied in the strict product quality control management, to ensure that each product delivered to customer have the same high quality


text:
Bladder cancer represents 3% of all new cancer diagnoses per year. We propose intravesical radionuclide therapy using the β-emitter 90Y linked to DOTA-biotin-avidin ([90Y]DBA) to deliver short-range radiation against non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).
Image-guided biodistribution of intravesical DBA was investigated in an animal model by radiolabeling DBA with the 68Ga and dynamic microPET imaging following intravesical infusion of [68Ga]DBA for up to 4 h and post-necropsy γ-counting of organs. The antitumor activity of [90Y]DBA was investigated using an orthotopic MB49 murine bladder cancer model. Mice were injected with luciferase-expressing MB49 cells and treated via intravesical administration with 9.2 MBq of [90Y]DBA or unlabeled DBA 3 days after the tumor implantation. Bioluminescence imaging was conducted after tumor implantation to monitor the bladder tumor growth. In addition, we investigated the effects of [90Y]DBA radiation on urothelial histology with immunohistochemistry analysis of bladder morphology.
Our results demonstrated that DBA is contained in the bladder for up to 4 h after intravesical infusion. A single dose of [90Y]DBA radiation treatment significantly reduced growth of MB49 bladder carcinoma. Attaching 90Y-DOTA-biotin to avidin prevents its re-absorption into the blood and distribution throughout the rest of the body. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry demonstrated that [90Y]DBA radiation treatment did not cause short-term damage to urothelium at day 10, which appeared similar to the normal urothelium of healthy mice.
Our data demonstrates the potential of intravesical [90Y]DBA as a treatment for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.
European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. 2022 Nov 09 [Epub ahead of print]
Alessandra Alì, Dev Leibowitz, Nikunj Bhatt, Mikhail Doubrovin, Catherine S Spina, Gleneara E Bates-Pappas, Robert N Taub, James M McKiernan, Akiva Mintz, Andrei Molotkov
Department of Radiology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, 10032, USA., Department of Radiation Oncology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, 10032, USA., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, 10021, USA., Department of Medicine (Retired), Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, 10032, USA., Department of Urology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, 10032, USA., Department of Radiology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, 10032, USA. .

domain: biology


text:
The shouts for making universal health coverage a top priority for health systems have grown louder in recent years and more organizations have joined the chorus. In December of last year, the United Nations adopted a resolution on the promotion of universal health coverage throughout the world. The resolution called for national governments to urgently and significantly scale up efforts to accelerate the transition towards universal access to affordable and quality health-care services. The Management Sciences for Health (MSH), an international non-profit organization that works to improve health systems around the globe, has also made universal health coverage one of their major initiatives. MSH notes that 15 global civil society organizations have signed a statement urging the United Nations to include universal health coverage as part of the Post-2015 Millennium Development Goals agenda. This begs the question; why the sudden interest in universal health coverage?
For a while now, the primary focus of health care in developing countries has been on communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB. According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), funding through Global Health Initiatives (GHI), has accounted for 23% of external financing for HIV, 57% for tuberculosis, and 60% for malaria. Funding tied to disease-specific goals have often had incredibly successful outcomes in curbing those targeted diseases. However, in developing countries, primary care, maternal care, and vaccines have often fallen to the wayside because so much of the funding has been earmarked for those specific diseases.
It should come as no surprise that health outcomes are tied to income. As income inequality grows, so do the health disparities. A study published by the British Medical Journal researched the links between income inequality and health outcomes and found that upwards of 1.5 million deaths could be averted in 30 OECD countries” by reducing the gap in income disparities. With income inequality rising across the developed world, the push for equitable access to health care has also grown. These new priorities for universal health coverage must not be ignored. Fair and equal access to health services should always be the ultimate goal of every health system.


Tune in to the I Spy Radio Show Saturday, 4/21/2012 11a.m.-noon (West Coast time).
Listen live on KYKN (1430-AM) or, if you’re outside of the Salem (Oregon) listening area, go to www.kykn.com and hit the listen live button.
Guest: Trevor Loudon, Investigative Journalist and author of Barack Obama and the Enemies Within. NewZeal Blog
This week: Trevor Loudon, investigative journalist from New Zealand, has been touring the US to warn people about the very real threat of socialists and communists and how they’ve managed to quietly influence and infiltrate society and politics right here in America. It’s been a short 23 years since the Berlin Wall, but it feels as if we’ve become complacent about communism and socialism almost as if they don’t seem to be the threat they once did. But socialist have been steadily and increasingly growing in power right here in America. If you’re over the age of 30 but that somehow sounds like conspiracy theory or fiction—it shouldn’t. Tomorrow, we’ll ask Trevor about socialism, why it’s a threat, and how it spreads. We go in depth with him about issues he doesn’t usually bring up in his presentations. You’ll hear why socialists target healthcare and the environment—and firsthand stories about living in New Zealand under fully socialized medicine. We talk about Russia and even some predictions of what Obama may do in order to try and win his second term presidency. Have you heard our very popular “I Spy Minute,” aired weekdays at 10:00 a.m. during KYKN’s peak listenership?
This show will be aired on KYKN(1430-AM), this Saturday at 11:00 a.m., West Coast time. If you’re outside of the Salem listening area, just go to www.kykn.com and hit the listen live button. Busy on Saturday? Not a problem. After the show airs, you can go to our webpage www.ispyonsalem.com and download it from our “past shows” page.


text:
The Sound of Your Own Voice- Kim Rosen
The sound of your voice is the sound of the life you have led, which brought you to this moment. All your accrued experience—the losses, the joys, the successes, the agonies—are inscribed in your voice. When who you are merges with a communication you feel passionate about, a new creation occurs. You don’t need to work to make it happen. You don’t need to practice. It cannot be otherwise.
There is an old saying, “She loves to listen to the sound of her own voice.” Usually it is meant derogatorily. Yet most people never really listen, intimately and meticulously, to the sound of their own voices. You may listen avidly to the words you are saying and the ideas you are trying to convey, but have you really heard the flood of sound you utter? Try reading a poem or other material you love aloud, as if you were sending your voice directly into your own ears. Imagine that the sound of your voice is like a viscous liquid, a vibrational medicine pouring back into you. Perhaps it is exactly the sound that can best heal and nourish you out of all the sounds of creation. Notice the texture, timbre, tone, and music of your voice. Feel how the sound coming out of and back into you is quenching some thirst you may not have noticed before. Let yourself develop a love of listening to this sound. It is a well you can drink from endlessly.
When you speak, the resonance of your being meets the resonance of the material you want to communicate. The words “resonance” and “being” can seem like disincarnate ideas, but I mean them graphically: Your voice, which emerges from the interaction of breath with the shapes, tensions, and textures inside your body, has a particular tone and timbre. Your body, as actors often say, is an instrument. Just as a note vibrating within the particular hollow shape of a cello sounds different from the same note emerging from the contours of a violin, so too the voice that emerges from your interior sounds different from the one that emerges from mine. The metal body of a flute sings one song, the olivewood recorder another, and the Aborigine’s termite-bored eucalyptus didgeridoo sings in yet a different voice.
Sometimes your real voice is cloaked by defenses or tensions that you’ve unconsciously built into your body. Listen to the voices of people around you. You’ll hear some that only resonate in the head while the rest of the body seems to be “off limits.” You’ll hear some that have resonant chambers from the waist up, but the pelvis is locked out of sounding range. You’ll hear voices that come from the gut but will not permit the vulnerable flutter of a breast full of feelings. Perhaps you’ll hear a voice that is dressed in happy tones and hides all traces of sorrow. Just today I heard a newscaster reporting on a heartbreaking surge of tribal violence in Kenya using a bouncy voice that sounded like she was announcing the winner of Pin the Tail on the Donkey at a children’s party. Or perhaps you’ll notice a voice that wears a cloak of gentleness and will not reveal the power that comes with rage or conflict. Leonard Cohen sings, “I smile when I’m angry / I cheat and I lie / I do what I have to do to get by.”
A child often subtly and unconsciously costumes her voice to do exactly that: “get by.” Whether you have the most caring of parents or grow up in circumstances of negligence and abuse, you mold yourself in whatever form seems necessary to survive. You learn to adjust the tone of your voice (“Talk like a big girl!”), hide your feelings (“Boys don’t cry!”), force your impulses into submission (“Keep your voice down!”), and sublimate your needs (“Children should be seen and not heard!”). The very neurological firings that underlie the movements of your vocal cords, inhales, and exhales are patterned in ways that seem necessary to your survival. Over time, the possibilities of expression available to the infant turn into the narrower repertoire of the adult.
The first time I fell in love, I remember making the disturbing discovery that everything I said to my lover sounded like a lawyer dictating a corporate contract. I had modeled my tone on the intellectual distance of my father, an attorney. My vocabulary was restricted to the language of reason. This was not only because of the proclivity for imitation that I share with all primates. I could have imitated the voice of my mother, who gave passionate expression to her feelings. But I didn’t. A voice shrouded in the muted tones of intelligence and devoid of the wild colors of emotion seemed to me like the key to survival in my childhood. For many years, my voice felt dressed in a suit and tie. I found the only way I could be true to my heart’s language was to give up on words and communicate through silence and touch. I began working as a masseuse and a healer. For a while, I lived largely in a world of physical contact, breath, and music. It wasn’t until years later that I was able to open myself to the feelings that I’d fled as a child. As I did, my voice shed its tight business suit and began to recover an earthy vulnerability.
The inflections and textures learned in childhood are reinforced over and over by repetition. Your voice moves through your growing body like a river carving its path through earth. All of your musculature grows around these habits of sound. The 40 or so muscles of your face are meticulously trained to work with the muscles inside your mouth and throat. Together they mold the breath that emanates from your lungs into sound. Your body falls into habitual patterns of speaking, leaving behind many possibilities of sound and feeling.
I like to think of my voice as a hanging chime and whatever I’m communicating as the wind, which plays the notes it needs in order to sound itself into being. So I want all my notes available—the many tones of my body, my feelings, and any thoughts that may be needed for the communication to take place, with all of me fully engaged. If I fear or prohibit certain feelings, thoughts, or parts of my body, the range of my notes will be narrowed. For instance, if areas of my anatomy have been “out of bounds” since childhood—that is, if I was told directly or indirectly that it was forbidden or dangerous to experience them—these notes will be muffled or unavailable. How can a sound, carried on my breath, resonate within my pelvis if the musculature inside it is clenched against allowing some forbidden pleasure or sorrow?
The same is true of feelings. If the free flow of certain feelings has been inhibited, this can affect my voice. Perhaps you welcome the movement of your tears easily but you never let yourself express anger. Even if your communication is not an angry diatribe, certain moments may call for a powerful voice. In the process of retrieving that power, you may encounter your banished rage.
If I have been taught to avoid certain thoughts, this too can curtail the range of expression in my voice. Perhaps I revel in pure insight and clarity, but I won’t touch the messy corners where doubts and contradictions gather. Or the opposite may be true: I may identify myself as a person who is constantly confused and needy, so statements of wisdom and authority are a stretch for me.
The lost notes of your voice usually come knocking at your door as soon as you invite them back. When I acknowledged that I had never allowed myself to feel grief, suddenly the delicate edge of tears started creeping into my conversations at the most unexpected moments. Remembering to welcome them counteracted my autonomic habit of pushing them back down under my voice.
Rumi’s poem “The Guest House” has been a great friend to me in this practice of opening myself to feelings and thoughts that I have unconsciously pushed away. Its guidance on the subject has become known far and wide—an Internet search yields over 28,000 websites quoting its lines! The poem’s injunction is to open the door to every feeling or thought that knocks—whether it’s “a joy, a depression, a meanness” or “the dark thought, the shame, the malice.” Rumi goes on to enjoin the reader:
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture.
This practice can feel counterintuitive for many of us when our internal systems, both physical and psychological, have been calibrated to avoid certain emotions, sensations, and thoughts. Waltzing to the door and letting them all in when they knock can set off the internal fire alarm. Yet Rumi gives two really good reasons to reroute those systems and welcome the whole spectrum of feelings that comes with being human. First, there is the reminder that you are the Guest House, not the feelings that come and go, no matter how violently they sweep through you. Second, the promise that each “guest,” from the most troubling to the happiest, “has been sent / as a guide from beyond.”
I suggest that you take some time to reflect on the range of your own voice. You can simply begin by reading these words out loud and listening to the sound. From where in your body does your voice seem to emanate? Are there areas where your breath cannot penetrate? What are the primary feelings you hear in your voice? Is there any particular feeling that your voice wears most of the time, like a costume? Do you notice that there are tones and textures of feeling that you don’t allow into your expression? For instance, do you confine your voice within a boundary of “niceness” or “intelligence” or “toughness” or “softness”? Sometimes it can be helpful to ask a trusted friend to reflect on these questions with you.
Excerpted from Kim Rosen’s Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words (Hay House, 2009) and originally published in this form on Feminist.com
Kim Rosen, M.F.A., has awakened listeners around the world to the power of poetry to heal and transform individuals and communities. She is the author of Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words. Her work has been published in O Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Spirituality and Health Magazine, The Huffington Post, Feminist.com, HealYourLife.com and The Texas Review among others, and she was a recipient of the 2001 Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize for Poetry. In 2010 she founded the Safe House Education (S.H.E.) Fund to give Maasai girls who have fled Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Early Childhood Marriage an opportunity to go to college and transform the oppression of women in their families, their tribe and the world.

domain: psychology


text:
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Pierce County Herald
St. Joseph students recite nursery rhymes
Ellsworth police: Fight breaks glasses; Sticky fingers
Bay City man facing child abuse charges
Deer Park man faces federal charges after mountain lion hunt
Prescott names Eric Michaels new chief of police
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Gallery: Pierce County Herald Hunters Showcase 2018
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TOWN OF ISABELLE: 12/17/18 Town Board Meeting
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NAME CHANGE HEARING: 1/10/19, Case No. 18-CV-238
Prescott's Freedom Park turns 90 with celebration this weekend
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November 9, 2018
Trick-or-treating for canned good gets over 1,000 pounds of food
Spring Valley Middle/High School National Honors and Student Council members joined forces on Halloween to trick-or-treat for non-perishable...
November 9, 2018 - 4:00pm
November 7, 2018
Ellsworth Public Library hosts its first-ever trick-or-treat event
On Halloween, the Ellsworth Public Library hosted its first community trick-or-treat event, featuring numerous local businesses offering candy...
November 7, 2018 - 8:00pm
October 31, 2018
'Creepy girl' finds her family
The old photo of a young girl that entranced the Kinney family of Badlands Sno-Park has found its way home to her family. Hudson resident Wayne...
October 31, 2018 - 12:00pm
October 28, 2018
Hudson Hospital Foundation fundraiser set for Nov. 2
Spirit Seller Liquors will be the presenting sponsor of Hudson Hospital Foundation's Wine Tasting Fundraising Event 6-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, at the Hudson House Grand Hotel. "We are grateful to partner with John Kromer of Spirit Seller on this important fundraising Event," said Kari...
October 28, 2018 - 11:00am
October 26, 2018
A family mystery searching for an answer: Who is 'Creepy Girl?'
Staring up from her worn and torn canvas, perhaps a photograph or maybe a drawing, the young girl bears a serious, lonesome expression above...
October 26, 2018 - 8:00am
October 25, 2017
Merri Heirs get ready for 'Trunk R Treat'
The Merri Heirs 4-H Club in Plum City enjoyed a beautiful day at the Me Pa Ni Tro Dairy Farm Sunday, Sept. 24, where they were hosted by Joel...
October 25, 2017 - 2:45pm
October 28, 2016
The Halloween house on the hill
TOWN OF CLIFTON -- This year, River Falls residents will be able to witness a little bit of Halloween magic. At 12060 742nd Ave., in the Gateway...
October 28, 2016 - 3:00pm
WATCH: Harvest and Halloween
Fall is one of the most scenic times of year in Wisconsin, especially in Pierce County. Enjoy this video of scenes shot around the eastern part...
October 28, 2016 - 11:40am
October 26, 2016
Happening Halloween: Where are the tricks and treats?
The Herald has rounded up a guide of area Halloween and harvest-themed events for your family, starting tonight. Check them out below.
October 26, 2016 - 9:19am
October 28, 2015
What are the hours for tricks or treats?
Pierce County communities are gearing up for trick-or-treaters Saturday, Oct. 31. Some communities have recommended hours for those hitting...
October 28, 2015 - 11:53am
October 21, 2015
A spooky spectacle: Ellsworth family decks out yard as fun tradition
With Halloween less than two weeks away, spooky decorations adorn yards across the county. One in particular stands out in Ellsworth: the Streich...
October 21, 2015 - 11:53am
October 28, 2009
Editorial: Keep trick-or-treaters safe
Because Halloween is a rather sinister holiday, associated with ghosts and witches and pranks, the safety of young trick-or-treat participants comes to mind. Recommendations for making the event a safe one are available from numerous sources, including Scott Cirillo, aka "Mr. No-No,"...
October 28, 2009 - 8:31am
June 10, 2009
Costume company hires 200 more workers than last year
Wisconsin costume company known for Halloween masks of president is hiring 1,500 people, 200 more than a year ago. A Wisconsin costume company best known for its Halloween masks of the president is hiring 1,500 people. BuySeasons, Inc., of New Berlin is looking for seasonal employees...
June 10, 2009 - 9:15am


text:
|Born||April 5, 1978|
Los Angeles, CA, US
|Artists||The Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan, Spirits in the Sky, W/Child|
|Instruments||Vocals, bass, keyboards|
Sierra Swan (born April 5, 1978) is an American musician. She first joined Billy Corgan on stage at the final Spirits in the Sky show on October 31, 2009, when she sang vocals on "Willingly". On February 25, 2014, Swan's released her album Good Soldier, which was produced by Corgan. In 2016, she sang and provided keyboards for The Smashing Pumpkins during the 2016 leg of the In Plainsong tour. Most recently, she has provided backing vocals to 19 of the 20 songs on The Smashing Pumpkins' CYR album.
Background[edit | edit source]
Swan is the daughter of of 1970s country and pop musician Billy Swan. Her career started with her band Dollshead, and later she was a member of Black Eyed Peas. She has also toured and collaborated with Dave Stewart, Ringo Starr, and Frank Black.
Swan met Corgan not long after she released her debut solo album, Ladyland in 2006. She was doing live work at Linda Perry's studio (producer of LadyLand), who was at the time working with Courtney Love, when Corgan came over to listen to her sing. Swan and Corgan became good friends and briefly dated each other.
Solo discography[edit | edit source]
- 2005: Selections From 'Ladyland'
- 2006: Ladyland
- 2007: Coward EP [EP]
- 2008: Queen of the Valley
- 2009: Girl Who Cried Wolf
- 2011: The Sun Sessions [EP]
- 2014: Good Soldier
- 2015: "You Don't Own Me" [single]
- 2021: Tangerines [EP]
W/Child[edit | edit source]
Other studio appearances[edit | edit source]
- 2015: Tigermixes (Carina Round feat. Billy Corgan) – performer, remixer
- 2020: CYR (The Smashing Pumpkins) – backing vocals
- 2022: ATUM (The Smashing Pumpkins) – backing vocals
- Total shows:
- First performance: Spirits in the Sky 2009-08-31 at The Hotel Cafe, Los Angeles, CA, US
- Last performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 2022-07-27 at Madame ZuZu's, Highland Park, IL, US