title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Those at risk of being carriers of "SMN1" deletion, and thus at risk of having offspring affected by SMA, can undergo carrier analysis using a blood or saliva sample. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends all people thinking of becoming pregnant be tested to see if they are a carrier. The carrier frequency of SMA is comparable to other disorders like thalassemia and in a north Indian cohort has been found to be 1 in 38. However, genetic testing will not be able to identify all individuals at risk since about 2% of cases are caused by de novo mutations and 5% of the normal population have two copies of SMN1 on the same chromosome, which makes it possible to be a carrier by having one chromosome with two copies and a second chromosome with zero copies. This situation will lead to a false negative result, as the carrier status will not be correctly detected by a traditional genetic test.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: The management of SMA varies based upon the severity and type. In the most severe forms (types 0/1), individuals have the greatest muscle weakness requiring prompt intervention. Whereas the least severe form (type 4/adult onset), individuals may not seek the certain aspects of care until later (decades) in life. While types of SMA and individuals among each type may differ, therefore specific aspects of an individual's care can differ.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Nusinersen (marketed as Spinraza) is used to treat spinal muscular atrophy. It is an antisense nucleotide that modifies the alternative splicing of the "SMN2" gene. It is given directly to the central nervous system using an intrathecal injection. Nusinersen prolongs survival and improves motor function in infants with SMA. It was approved for use in the US in 2016, and for use in the EU in 2017.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Onasemnogene abeparvovec (marketed as Zolgensma) is a gene therapy treatment which uses self-complementary adeno-associated virus type 9 (scAAV-9) as a vector to deliver the "SMN1" transgene. The therapy was first approved in the US in May 2019 as an intravenous formulation for children below 24 months of age. Approval in the European Union, Japan and other countries followed, albeit often with different approval scopes.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Risdiplam (marketed as Evrysdi) is a medication taken by mouth in liquid form. It is a pyridazine derivative that works by increasing the amount of functional survivor motor neuron protein produced by the "SMN2" gene through modifying its splicing pattern. Risdiplam was first approved for medical use in the United States in August 2020 and has since been approved in over 30 countries.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: The respiratory system is the most common system to be affected and the complications are the leading cause of death in SMA types 0/1 and 2. SMA type 3 can have similar respiratory problems, but it is more rare. Complications arise due to weakened intercostal muscles because of the lack of stimulation from the nerve. The diaphragm is less affected than the intercostal muscles. Once weakened, the muscles never fully recover the same functional capacity to help in breathing and coughing as well as other functions. Therefore, breathing is more difficult and pose a risk of not getting enough oxygen/shallow breathing and insufficient clearance of airway secretions. These issues more commonly occur while asleep, when muscles are more relaxed. Swallowing muscles in the pharynx can be affected, leading to aspiration coupled with a poor coughing mechanism increases the likelihood of infection/pneumonia. Mobilizing and clearing secretions involve manual or mechanical chest physiotherapy with postural drainage, and manual or mechanical cough assistance device. To assist in breathing, Non-invasive ventilation (BiPAP) is frequently used and tracheostomy may be sometimes performed in more severe cases; both methods of ventilation prolong survival to a comparable degree, although tracheostomy prevents speech development.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: The more severe the type of SMA, the more likely to have nutrition related health issues. Health issues can include difficulty in feeding, jaw opening, chewing and swallowing. Individuals with such difficulties can be at increase risk of over or undernutrition, failure to thrive and aspiration. Other nutritional issues, especially in individuals that are non-ambulatory (more severe types of SMA), include food not passing through the stomach quickly enough, gastric reflux, constipation, vomiting and bloating. Therein, it could be necessary in SMA type I and people with more severe type II to have a feeding tube or gastrostomy. Additionally, metabolic abnormalities resulting from SMA impair β-oxidation of fatty acids in muscles and can lead to organic acidemia and consequent muscle damage, especially when fasting. It is suggested that people with SMA, especially those with more severe forms of the disease, reduce intake of fat and avoid prolonged fasting (i.e., eat more frequently than healthy people) as well as choosing softer foods to avoid aspiration. During an acute illness, especially in children, nutritional problems may first present or can exacerbate an existing problem (example: aspiration) as well as cause other health issues such as electrolyte and blood sugar disturbances.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Skeletal problems associated with weak muscles in SMA include tight joints with limited range of movement, hip dislocations, spinal deformity, osteopenia, an increase risk of fractures and pain. Weak muscles that normally stabilize joints such as the vertebral column lead to development of kyphosis and/or scoliosis and joint contracture. Spine fusion is sometimes performed in people with SMA I/II once they reach the age of 8–10 to relieve the pressure of a deformed spine on the lungs. Furthermore, immobile individuals, posture and position on mobility devices as well as range of motion exercises, and bone strengthening can be important to prevent complications. People with SMA might also benefit greatly from various forms of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Orthotic devices can be used to support the body and to aid walking. For example, orthotics such as AFOs (ankle foot orthoses) are used to stabilise the foot and to aid gait, TLSOs (thoracic lumbar sacral orthoses) are used to stabilise the torso. Assistive technologies may help in managing movement and daily activity and greatly increase the quality of life.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Although the heart is not a matter of routine concern, a link between SMA and certain heart conditions has been suggested.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Children with SMA do not differ from the general population in their behaviour; their cognitive development can be slightly faster, and certain aspects of their intelligence are above the average. Despite their disability, SMA-affected people report high degree of satisfaction from life.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Palliative care in SMA has been standardised in the "Consensus Statement for Standard of Care in Spinal Muscular Atrophy" which has been recommended for standard adoption worldwide.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: In the absence of pharmacological treatment, people with SMA tend to deteriorate over time. Recently, survival has increased in severe SMA patients with aggressive and proactive supportive respiratory and nutritional support.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: If left untreated, the majority of children diagnosed with SMA type 0 and 1 do not reach the age of 4, recurrent respiratory problems being the primary cause of death. With proper care, milder SMA type I cases (which account for approx. 10% of all SMA1 cases) live into adulthood. Long-term survival in SMA type I is not sufficiently evidenced; however, as of 2007 advances in respiratory support seem to have brought down mortality.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: In untreated SMA type II, the course of the disease is slower to progress and life expectancy is less than the healthy population. Death before the age of 20 is frequent, although many people with SMA live to become parents and grandparents. SMA type III has normal or near-normal life expectancy if standards of care are followed. Type IV, adult-onset SMA usually means only mobility impairment and does not affect life expectancy.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Since the underlying genetic cause of SMA was identified in 1995, several therapeutic approaches have been proposed and investigated that primarily focus on increasing the availability of SMN protein in motor neurons. The main research directions have been as follows:


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Gene therapy in SMA aims at restoring the "SMN1" gene function through inserting specially crafted nucleotide sequence (a "SMN1" transgene) into the cell nucleus using a viral vector. This approach has been exploited by the first approved gene therapy for SMA, scAAV-9 based treatment onasemnogene abeparvovec.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: This approach aims at modifying the alternative splicing of the "SMN2" gene to force it to code for higher percentage of full-length SMN protein. Sometimes it is also called gene conversion, because it attempts to convert the "SMN2" gene functionally into "SMN1" gene. It is the therapeutic mechanism of the approved medications nusinersen and risdiplam.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Historically, this research direction investigated also other molecules. RG3039, also known as Quinazoline495, was a proprietary quinazoline derivative developed by Repligen and licensed to Pfizer in March 2014 which was discontinued shortly after, having only completed phase I trials. PTK-SMA1 was a proprietary small-molecule splicing modulator of the tetracyclines group developed by Paratek Pharmaceuticals and about to enter clinical development in 2013 which however never happened due to Paratek downsizing at that time. RG7800, developed by Hoffmann-La Roche, was a molecule akin to risdiplam that has undergone phase I testing but was discontinued due to animal toxicity. Early leads also included sodium orthovanadate and aclarubicin.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Morpholino-type antisense oligonucleotides, with the same cellular target as nusinersen, remain a subject of research in treating SMA and other single-gene diseases, including at the University College London and at the University of Oxford.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: This approach aims at increasing expression (activity) of the "SMN2" gene, thus increasing the amount of full-length SMN protein available.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: A few compounds initially showed promise but failed to demonstrate efficacy in clinical trials. Butyrates (sodium butyrate and sodium phenylbutyrate) held some promise in "in vitro" studies but a clinical trial in symptomatic people did not confirm their efficacy. Another clinical trial in pre-symptomatic types 1–2 infants was completed in 2015 but no results have been published.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Compounds which increased "SMN2" activity "in vitro" but did not make it to the clinical stage include growth hormone, various histone deacetylase inhibitors, benzamide M344, hydroxamic acids (CBHA, SBHA, entinostat, panobinostat, trichostatin A, vorinostat), prolactin as well as natural polyphenol compounds like resveratrol and curcumin. Celecoxib, a p38 pathway activator, is sometimes used off-label by people with SMA based on a single animal study but such use is not backed by clinical-stage research.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: SMN stabilisation aims at stabilising the SMNΔ7 protein, the short-lived defective protein coded by the "SMN2" gene, so that it is able to sustain neuronal cells.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: No compounds have been taken forward to the clinical stage. Aminoglycosides showed capability to increase SMN protein availability in two studies. Indoprofen offered some promise "in vitro".


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Neuroprotective drugs aim at enabling the survival of motor neurons even with low levels of SMN protein.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Of clinically studied compounds which did not show efficacy, thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) held some promise in an open-label uncontrolled clinical trial but did not prove effective in a subsequent double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Riluzole, a drug that offers limited clinical benefit in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, was proposed to be similarly tested in SMA; however, a 2008–2010 trial in SMA types 2 and 3 was stopped early due to the lack of satisfactory results. Other compounds that displayed some neuroprotective effect in "in vitro" research but never moved on to "in vivo" studies include β-lactam antibiotics (e.g., ceftriaxone) and follistatin.


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: Whilst stem cells never form a part of any recognised therapy for SMA, a number of private companies, usually located in countries with lax regulatory oversight, take advantage of media hype and market stem cell injections as a "cure" for a vast range of disorders, including SMA. The medical consensus is that such procedures offer no clinical benefit whilst carrying significant risk, therefore people with SMA are advised against them. In 2013–2014, a small number of SMA1 children in Italy received court-mandated stem cell injections following the Stamina scam, but the treatment was reported having no effect


title: Spinal muscular atrophy

text: People with SMA in the European Union can participate in clinical research by entering their details into registries managed by TREAT-NMD.


title: Abdelhak Nouri

text: Abdelhak "Appie" Nouri (born 2 April 1997) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He operated primarily as an attacking midfielder, but could also be deployed as a winger.


title: Abdelhak Nouri

text: A youth product of Eredivisie club Ajax, Nouri played two years of senior football with its reserve team and the first team. He also represented the Netherlands at various youth levels.


title: Abdelhak Nouri

text: In July 2017, at age 20, during a pre-season friendly match, Nouri collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrhythmia attack, which left him with severe and permanent brain damage and unable to continue his career as a footballer.


title: Abdelhak Nouri

text: Nouri was born in Amsterdam and is of Moroccan descent. He made his name as a footballer largely in his youth, attracting attention from multiple publications as a future star. He was named as one of the best 40 youth players in the world by "The Guardian" in 2014, before he made his professional debut.


title: Abdelhak Nouri

text: Nouri was a youth exponent from the academy at Ajax, and made his professional debut for the reserve side, Jong Ajax, on 13 March 2015, in an Eerste Divisie game against VVV Venlo, replacing Danny Bakker after 78 minutes in a 1–0 loss.


title: Abdelhak Nouri

text: On 21 September 2016, Nouri made his official first-team debut in a KNVB Cup match against Willem II, and scored a goal. His exploits throughout the season for Jong Ajax saw him being gifted the Player of the Season award for the 2016–17 season, as well as promotion to the first team for the 2017–18 season.


title: Abdelhak Nouri

text: On 8 July 2017, Nouri collapsed during a friendly match against Werder Bremen, due to cardiac arrhythmia. He was taken to the hospital by a trauma helicopter, and his condition was announced as stable. Five days later, however, Ajax reported that Nouri had suffered severe and permanent brain damage as a direct result of the incident, and was in intensive care. Nouri eventually left intensive care on 25 July 2017, being able to breathe unaided, but will not be able to play football again. In June 2018, Ajax announced an investigation had found that the medical treatment Nouri received on the field was "inadequate", which prompted a lawsuit from Nouri's family against Ajax through the Royal Dutch Football Association's arbitration panel, who stated a failure to resuscitate him with due haste was responsible for causing his brain damage.


title: Abdelhak Nouri

text: By August 2018, Nouri was no longer in a coma and was able to recognise and communicate with members of his family by moving his mouth and eyebrows. By September 2019, Nouri was confirmed to still be in hospital. On 27 March 2020, Nouri's family confirmed he had awoken from his coma and returned home to his family, where he will continue to receive treatment. Shortly afterwards, Ajax announced they cancelled Nouri's contract, which was due to automatically renew on 1 July, and that they were in talks with his family about a "future solution" for Nouri. In February 2022, Ajax announced the agreement with Nouri's family included a payment of €7.85 million, that the club would cover all his medical bills, and would retire his number 34 jersey.


title: Abdelhak Nouri

text: Following Nouri's retirement, several tributes were conducted in his honour in and outside football. In December 2018, Ajax renamed their "Talent of the Future" award after Nouri, while a number of Nouri's former club and international teammates, including Justin Kluivert, Philippe Sandler, Amin Younes, Donny van de Beek, Kevin Diks, Joël Veltman, Anwar El Ghazi, and Sofyan Amrabat adopted Nouri's shirt number (34) at their new clubs. Ajax's 34th league championship was dedicated to Nouri by the players, who celebrated with his father during the trophy presentation in May 2019. On 12 June 2022, a square in Amsterdam Nieuw-West was renamed the "A. Nouri Plein".


title: Reshma Pasupuleti

text: Reshma Pasupuleti (born 23 July 1983) is an Indian actress who primarily appears in Tamil language films and TV series. She started her career as an anchor and news reporter for a Telugu TV channel. She began her TV career in Tamil through Vamsam. In 2016, She acted in Vishnu Vishal's "Velainu Vandhutta Vellaikaaran" in a supporting role.


title: Reshma Pasupuleti

text: Reshma Pasupuleti was born into a Telugu-speaking family to Prasad Pasupuleti, a Telugu film producer. Pasupuleti pursued her education abroad, first in Arkansas, and then completed her engineering degree in the computer science department from the Texas A&M University. She joined Amitysoft Software Institution for a course on software testing and later also briefly worked as an air hostess with Delta Airlines.


title: Reshma Pasupuleti

text: Pasupuleti began working as a news anchor English news for TV5. She was then cast on the Tamil series "Vamsam".


title: Reshma Pasupuleti

text: Pasupuleti appeared in "Masala Padam" (2015), playing the heroine. She subsequently appeared in several more films, notably playing a news reader in "Ko 2" (2016) and a comedy role in "Velainu Vandhutta Vellaikaaran" (2016) alongside Soori. She then appeared in "Girls" (2016), a Tamil and Malayalam bilingual, about illicit relationships. In 2019, Pasupuleti appeared on the reality television show, "Bigg Boss Tamil 3".


title: Flag of Colombia

text: The national flag of Colombia symbolises Colombian independence from Spain, gained on 20 July 1810. It is a horizontal tricolor of yellow, blue and red. The yellow stripe takes up a half of the flag and the blue and red take up a quarter of the space each.


title: Flag of Colombia

text: The horizontal stripes (from top to bottom) of yellow, blue and red tricolor have a ratio of 2:1:1. It—together with that of Ecuador, also derived from the flag of Gran Colombia—is different from most other tricolor flags, either vertical or horizontal, in having stripes which are not equal in size. (Venezuela, whose flag is also derived from the same source, opted for a more conventional tricolor with equal stripes).


title: Flag of Colombia

text: The official colors have not yet been established by law. The Colombian Olympic Committee approved the following colors for the London 2012 Summer Olympics:


title: Flag of Colombia

text: The flag's colors have other representations, such as blue for loyalty and vigilance, red for the victory of battles for Colombian independence, and yellow for sovereignty and justice.


title: Flag of Colombia

text: Francisco de Miranda originally created the common yellow, blue, and red flag of Gran Colombia that Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, with slight variations, share today. Miranda gave at least two sources of inspiration for his flag. In a letter written to Count Simon Romanovich Woronzoff and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Miranda described a late-night conversation he had had with Goethe at a party in Weimar during the winter of 1785. Fascinated by Miranda's account of his exploits in the United States Revolutionary War and his travels throughout the Americas and Europe, Goethe told him that, "Your destiny is to create in your land a place where primary colors are not distorted.” He proceeded to clarify what he meant:


title: Flag of Colombia

text: After Miranda designed his flag based on this conversation, he recalled seeing a fresco by Lazzaro Tavarone in the Palazzo Belimbau in Genoa that depicted Christopher Columbus unfurling a similar-colored flag in Veragua during his fourth voyage.


title: Flag of Colombia

text: In his military diary, Miranda gave another possible source of inspiration: the yellow, blue and red standard of the Burger Guard ("Bürgerwache") of Hamburg, which he also saw during his travels in Germany.


title: Flag of Colombia

text: In the 1801 plan for an army to liberate Spanish America, which he submitted unsuccessfully to the British cabinet, Miranda requested the materials for "ten flags, whose colors shall be red, yellow, and blue, in three zones." However, the first flag was not raised until 12 March 1806, in Jacmel, Haiti, during his ill-fated expedition to Venezuela.


title: Jaina Lee Ortiz

text: Jaina Lee Ortiz (born Jessica Ortiz; November 20, 1986) is an American actress and dancer. She is known for her starring role as Detective Annalise Villa on the Fox police drama "Rosewood" from 2015 to 2017. In 2018, she began starring as lead in the ABC drama series "Station 19".


title: Jaina Lee Ortiz

text: Ortiz was born November 20, 1986 in California and raised in The Bronx, New York. Ortiz's father, Joe Ortiz, is Puerto Rican and a retired NYPD first grade detective. She began her dance training at the age of nine by taking salsa/mambo classes; and, at the age of 15, she began teaching. By the next year, Ortiz was traveling internationally as a professional instructor and performer.


title: Jaina Lee Ortiz

text: Ortiz got her start in acting by appearing in student films. She then studied for two years at Maggie Flanigan Studios, where she learned the Meisner technique. In 2009, Ortiz auditioned and was cast on the second season of VH1’s reality show "Scream Queens", where she and nine other aspiring actresses competed in challenges based on acting for the opportunity to win the prize of a role in Saw 3D. The show premiered on August 2, 2010 and on the season finale, Ortiz was named first runner-up.


title: Jaina Lee Ortiz

text: In 2012, Ortiz was in a photo used in the "Modern Family" episode "Yard Sale" where she was beauty pageant contestant Miss Galapa.


title: Jaina Lee Ortiz

text: In 2013, Ortiz landed the role as a series regular in "The After", produced by "The X-Files" creator, Chris Carter. The pilot, which began airing via Amazon Video in February 2014, received positive feedback and was ordered to series. However, on January 5, 2015, Amazon Studios announced they would no longer move forward with the show. Two months later, Ortiz was cast as the female lead in a pilot tentatively titled "Rosewood", playing opposite Morris Chestnut. The pilot was greenlit to series in May 2015. "Rosewood" premiered on September 23, 2015 on Fox. The series was canceled after two seasons in May 2017. Later that year, she had a recurring role during the second season of USA Network drama series, "Shooter". Ortiz also has appeared in the comedy film "Girls Trip", playing herself.


title: Jaina Lee Ortiz

text: In 2017, Ortiz was cast in a leading role on the spin-off to ABC longest-running drama series "Grey's Anatomy", titled "Station 19".


title: Voivod (band)

text: The original line-up consisted of vocalist Denis "Snake" Bélanger, guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour, drummer Michel "Away" Langevin and bassist Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault. The band has had numerous members changes throughout its -year career, with Langevin as the only remaining original member. Their current line-up consists of Langevin, Bélanger, Daniel "Chewy" Mongrain (guitar) and Dominic "Rocky" Laroche (bass). Voivod's musical style has changed several times since the band's origin in the early 1980s. Starting out as a speed metal band, Voivod have added a mix of progressive metal and thrash metal to create their own unique metal style. Voivod is also credited as one of the "big four" Canadian thrash metal bands, along with Sacrifice, Razor, and Annihilator.


title: Voivod (band)

text: Since 1982, when it was co-founded by guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour, Voivod have released fifteen studio albums, as well as one EP, one live album, two compilations, seven demos and one DVD featuring a live concert. The band found mainstream success in the late 1980s with their fifth studio album "Nothingface" (1989), which is Voivod's only album to enter the "Billboard" 200 charts, peaking at number 114. The band won the "Visionary" award at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards. In 2019, Voivod's fourteenth studio album, "The Wake", won the Juno Award for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year. Voivod's most recent studio album, "Synchro Anarchy", was released in February 2022.


title: Voivod (band)

text: Voivod was formed in 1982 in Jonquière, Quebec. Influenced equally by the new wave of British heavy metal, the burgeoning hardcore punk scene and 1970s progressive rock, Voivod forged a distinctive brand of heavy music that often relied on lyrical themes such as Reagan-era Cold War politics, post-apocalyptic literature and science fiction. "Killing Technology" (1987) began the band's evolution in earnest, with the character from Voivod's album covers (drawn by drummer Away and named "Korgull" on 1986's "Rrröööaaarrr") significantly being depicted in a spaceship. Drawing more heavily on hardcore punk than metal influences by this point, Voivod began evolving without the aid of increasing speed and storytelling on the following "Dimension Hatross". Voivod was one of the first thrash bands from Canada to gain popularity outside of their country's borders, reaching the peak of their global popularity with the 1989 album "Nothingface" which featured a cover version of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine". Other covers include Pink Floyd's "The Nile Song" on their 1993 album "The Outer Limits" and "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson on "Phobos". Much of the band's sound comes from guitarist Piggy's use of dissonant chords, usually played in the high register of the guitar, used extensively on "Nothingface". Albums like "Dimension Hatröss" are dominated by unexpected time signatures and guitarist Piggy's liberal use of dissonant, unconventional minor chords.


title: Voivod (band)

text: Two of the four founding members (bassist Jean-Yves Thériault and vocalist Denis Bélanger) left Voivod in the early 1990s. Jean-Yves co-founded The Holy Body Tattoo an avant-garde modern dance company based in Vancouver BC and also wrote extensively all the music for it, as well as other electronic music projects, while Denis Belanger isolated himself and eventually started a new project, Union Made. Meanwhile, the band recorded four albums as a trio in the mid-to-late 1990s with new member Eric Forrest, nicknamed "E-Force", handling both vocals and bass guitar. Forrest was seriously injured in a car accident in Germany in 1998, and that incarnation of Voivod never regained the momentum they lost during his rehabilitation. After Eric Forrest left the band, his insurance company attempted to sue the band for the injuries he sustained in the crash, as he was in the care of the band at the time.


title: Voivod (band)

text: Voivod briefly disbanded in 2001 before Bélanger returned to the band. The next incarnation of Voivod featured three of the four founding members: Denis Bélanger (a.k.a. "Snake"; vocals), Denis D'Amour ("Piggy"; guitars), and Michel Langevin ("Away"; drums) along with Jason Newsted ("Jasonic", of Metallica) on bass guitar. The album "Voivod" was released in 2003. Guitarist Denis D'Amour died at the age of 45 on August 26, 2005 due to complications from colon cancer. In July 2006 they released "Katorz", based around riffs found on the laptop of D'Amour. Just prior to his death, he left instructions for his bandmates on how to use them. In November 2006, the song "X-Stream" was featured on "Guitar Hero II".


title: Voivod (band)

text: Voivod were planning to work on what was to be their final studio album in late 2007, which contained tracks recorded with D'Amour before his death. Voivod was part of the Heavy MTL show that was held in Montreal on June 22, 2008. Voivod also performed at the Monsters of Rock Festival in Calgary, Alberta, on July 26, 2008, and supported Judas Priest at the Bell Centre in Montreal, on August 12, 2008. Voivod also played a full set at Thrash Domination in Kawasaki, Japan, September 20–21, 2008, along with the bands Testament and Forbidden. The band consisted of Bélanger, Langevin, a returning 'Blacky' Thériault, and Dan Mongrain on guitar.


title: Voivod (band)

text: In early January 2009, Voivod announced that they were putting the finishing touches on their new album and expected to release it in the spring of that year. The album, now known as "Infini", was released on June 23, 2009.


title: Voivod (band)

text: By July 2010, Voivod had been writing and recording new music (including Dan Mongrain on guitar). On July 4, 2012, Voivod announced the title of their thirteenth studio album, "Target Earth", which was released on January 22, 2013. "Target Earth" has a more progressive sound than some of their last few albums, and is a return to a more "classic" Voivod sound that can be heard on "Dimension Hatross" and "Nothingface". All the music was written by Blacky and Chewy, while Snake focused on lyrics, and Away took care of the artwork.


title: Voivod (band)

text: On July 10, 2014, it was reported that Blacky had left Voivod again. It was announced that he was forced out of the band. In late January 2015 the band released the new single "We Are Connected" which is the lead track from the 7-inch split vinyl disc with the band At the Gates. It is the first music to feature new bassist Dominic "Rocky" Laroche. They also released a new, five-track EP, entitled "Post Society", featuring two new tracks and a cover of Hawkwind's "Silver Machine", on February 26, 2016.


title: Voivod (band)

text: As early as February 2015, Voivod began work on their fourteenth studio album, which was to be released in 2016 but later pushed back to 2017. The band was expected to begin recording the album in August 2017. In June 2017, Langevin told Rock Sverige that the songwriting was almost completed with an estimated release for early 2018. He also said that the album would probably be a double-album on vinyl due to the songs being "really long and progressive", describing them as "seven or eight minutes long songs" and with it being a concept album as well. In November 2017, the members of Voivod began recording their next studio album, titled "The Wake", which was released in September 2018.


title: Voivod (band)

text: The master tapes for Voivod's MCA-era albums were long thought to have been destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire; this was later disputed by Blacky, who revealed in late 2019 that the master tapes for "Nothingface", "Angel Rat" and "The Outer Limits" were located in a facility in Pennsylvania, after persistently questioning Universal staff, and claimed that they are now in his possession.


title: Voivod (band)

text: Voivod's style is classified as progressive metal, thrash metal, alternative metal, speed metal and avant-garde metal. Their 1991 album "Angel Rat" has been labeled alternative metal. Voivod's influences include Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Dimitri Shostakovich, Yes, Einstürzende Neubauten, GBH, Genesis, Hawkwind, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Killing Joke, King Crimson, Motörhead, Sodom, Nektar, Pink Floyd, Ramones, Rush, Van der Graaf Generator, Venom and UFO. The band has been praised for their unique approach by other bands and artists such as Meshuggah, Fear Factory, Jason Newsted (Voivod's bassist for their 2000s albums), and Dave Grohl.


title: Hari Singh

text: Maharaja Sir Hari Singh (September 1895 – 26 April 1961) was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.


title: Hari Singh

text: Hari Singh was the son of Amar Singh and Bhotiali Chib. In 1923, following his uncle's death, Singh became the new Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. After Indian Independence in 1947, Singh wanted Jammu and Kashmir to remain as an independent kingdom. He was required to accede to the Dominion of India to get the support of Indian troops against an invasion by tribal armed men and the Pakistan Army into his state.


title: Hari Singh

text: Singh remained the titular Maharaja of the state until 1952, when the monarchy was abolished by the Indian government. After spending his final days in Bombay, he died on 26 April 1961.


title: Hari Singh

text: Singh was also a controversial figure due to his involvement in a blackmail scandal by a prostitute in Paris in 1921, the agitation in Kashmir against his government in 1931, and the rebellion against him in Poonch in 1947.


title: Hari Singh

text: Hari Singh was born on September 1895 at the palace of Amar Mahal, Jammu. He was the only surviving son of Raja Amar Singh, the brother of Maharaja Pratap Singh, then the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. Since the Maharaja had no issue, Hari Singh was heir to the throne of Jammu and Kashmir.


title: Hari Singh

text: In 1903, Hari Singh served as a page of honor to Lord Curzon at the grand Delhi Durbar. At the age of 13, he was sent to Mayo College in Ajmer. A year later, in 1909, his father died and the British took a keen interest in his education, appointing Major H. K. Brar as his guardian. After Mayo College, Hari Singh went to the British-run Imperial Cadet Corps at Dehradun for military training.


title: Hari Singh

text: Following the death of his uncle Pratap Singh on 23 September 1925, Hari Singh served as the second Prime Minister (1925-1926) of Jammu and Kashmir. Hari Singh ascended the throne of Jammu and Kashmir in February 1926 only after the British interfered and disputed the nominated king Jagat Dev Singh, a member of Poonch ruling family and a descendant of Gulab Singh’s brother Dhian Singh. Hari Singh's coronation from February 22 to February 28, 1926 was divided into two separate ceremonies - the first few days for the religious ceremonies and official programme in the latter part was set aside for hosting the European attendees.


title: Hari Singh

text: After becoming the ruler, Hari Singh conducted free elections and formed the Praja Sabha Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly to rule with laws implemented under Ranbir Penal Code (R.P.C) which Praja Sabha decreed. In April 1932, as per recommendations of the Glancy Commission, the Praja Sabha was established, made up of 75 members – 12 government officials, 16 state councillors, 14 nominated, and 33 elected (21 Muslims, 10 Hindus and 2 Sikhs). By September 1934 the elected members started making laws under the Praja Sabha which made Jammu and Kashmir a forerunner state for other Princely Indian States.In September 7, 1939 Maharaja Hari Singh and his law and Revenue Minister, Justice Sir Lal Gopal Mukherjee, a former judge of the Allahabad high court (1926-1934) who had served the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1935 to 1940, produced a written constitution for Jammu and Kashmir which was the "pioneer" in the annals of Asia's constitutional history; despite the fact that it was anything but a people-friendly "Magna Carta" for the state.


title: Hari Singh

text: He made primary education compulsory in the state, introduced laws prohibiting child marriage, and opened places of worship to low caste subjects.


title: Hari Singh

text: In 1930, Hari Singh attended the First Round Table Conference in London. He suggested that the Indian Princely states should join an “All India Federation” and pleaded for equal status for Indians in the British Commonwealth of Nations. While replying to the inaugural address by King-Emperor George V, Hari Singh said:


title: Hari Singh

text: In 1947, after India gained independence from British rule, Jammu and Kashmir could have joined India, joined Pakistan, or remained independent. Singh originally maneuvered to maintain his independence by playing off India and Pakistan. Him being an unpopular ruler led to mass anxiety among his Muslim that the Maharaja would accede to India. This led to an armed uprising in Poonch against the Maharaja in the spring of 1947. In retaliation, extremist Hindus and Sikhs in the background of the Partition of India entered the kingdom from Punjab, and along with the state forces, massacred and expelled the Muslims of Jammu in what later came to be known as the 1947 Jammu massacres. Pashtun tribe members from Pakistan then invaded Kashmir and defeated Singh's forces. Hari Singh appealed to India for help. Although the Indian Prime Minister Nehru was ready to send troops, the Governor-General of India, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, advised the Maharaja to accede to India before India could send its troops. Hence, considering the emergency, the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, joining the whole of his princely state (including Jammu, Kashmir, Northern Areas, Ladakh, Trans-Karakoram Tract, and Aksai Chin) to the Dominion of India. These events triggered the first Indo-Pakistan War.


title: Hari Singh

text: Pressure from Nehru and Sardar Patel eventually compelled Singh to appoint his son and heir, Yuvraj (Crown Prince) Karan Singh, as Prince Regent of Jammu and Kashmir in 1949, although he remained the titular Maharaja of the state until 1952 when the monarchy was abolished by Nehru's government. He was also forced to appoint the popular Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdullah as the prime minister of Kashmir. He had a contentious relationship with both Nehru and Abdullah. Karan Singh was appointed 'Sadr-e-Riyasat' ('Head of State') in 1952 and Governor of the State in 1964. Abdullah would later be dismissed from his position as prime minister of Kashmir and jailed by Karan Singh.


title: Hari Singh

text: After signing the instrument of accession with India Hari Singh was banished from Jammu and Kashmir which made him spend his last years in Bombay. Singh spent his final days in Bombay. He died on 26 April 1961, after fourteen years of banishment. As per his will, his ashes were brought to Jammu and spread all over Jammu and Kashmir, and immersed in the Tawi River at Jammu.


title: Hari Singh

text: In 1921, Singh paid £300,000 (approximately £ in today's value) to a prostitute who blackmailed him. The issue resulted in a court case in London in 1924 during which the India Office tried to keep his name out of proceedings by arranging for him to be referred to as Mr. A. India Office in Britain decided to close the files for a hundred years rather than the usual thirty years as the case involved espionage.


title: Hari Singh

text: Hari Singh was known as a lavish spender of money. In the funeral of his uncle and former ruler, Pratap Singh, he is believed to have spent excessive gold and jewelry in the funeral pyre.


title: Hari Singh

text: Singh married four times as his first three wives failed to give birth to his heirs. Each of them died within a few years of childlessness, allowing Singh to immediately take a new bride. With his last wife, Tara Devi Sahiba of Kangra, he had a son, Karan Singh.


title: Christian Identity

text: Christian Identity (also known as Identity Christianity) is an interpretation of Christianity which advocates the belief that only Celtic and Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic nations, or Aryan people and people of kindred blood, are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and are therefore the descendants of the ancient Israelites.


title: Christian Identity

text: Independently practiced by individuals, independent congregations, and some prison gangs, it is not an organized religion, nor is it affiliated with specific Christian denominations. Its theology is a racial interpretation of Christianity. Christian Identity beliefs began to develop in the early 1900s among adherents of British Israelism by authors who regarded Europeans as the "chosen people" and regarded Jews and non-whites as the cursed offspring of Cain, who they believe was a "serpent hybrid". This aspect of Christian Identity theology is commonly called the serpent seed or the two-seedline doctrine. White supremacist sects and gangs later adopted many of these teachings.


title: Christian Identity

text: Christian Identity promotes the idea that all non-whites (people who are not of wholly European descent) will either be exterminated or enslaved in order to serve the white race in the new Heavenly Kingdom on Earth under the reign of Jesus Christ. Its doctrine states that only "Adamic" (white) people can achieve salvation and enter paradise. Many of its adherents are Millennialist.


title: Christian Identity

text: It is considered racist, anti-Semitic, and white supremacist by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.


title: Christian Identity

text: The Christian Identity movement emerged in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s as an offshoot of British Israelism. While early British Israelites such as Edward Hine and John Wilson were philo-Semites, Christian Identity emerged in sharp contrast to British Israelism as a strongly antisemitic theology. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as an 'ugly turn':


title: Christian Identity

text: In his book "Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion," Chester Quarles describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as a "remarkable transition," because traditional British Israelites were advocates of philo-Semitism which paradoxically changed to anti-Semitism and racism under Christian Identity. In fact, British Israelism had several Jewish adherents, and it also received support from rabbis throughout the 19th century. Within British politics it supported Benjamin Disraeli, who was descended from Sephardi Jews. However, Christian Identity, which emerged in the 1920s, began to turn antisemitic by teaching the belief that the Jews are the descendants of Satan or Edomite-Khazars (see Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry) rather than the descendants of the tribe of Judah (as British Israelites maintain). The typical form of the British Israelite belief held no antisemitic views. Rather, its adherents believed that modern-day Jews were only descended from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, while the British and other related Northern European peoples were descended from the other ten tribes.


title: Christian Identity

text: An early book which advanced the ideas of British Israelism was "Lost Israel Found in the Anglo-Saxon Race" by E.P. Ingersoll, published in 1886. This was followed in the 1920s by the writings of Howard Rand (1889–1991).


title: Christian Identity

text: Rand was a Massachusetts lawyer who obtained a law degree at the University of Maine. He was raised as a British Israelite, and his father introduced him to J. H. Allen's work "Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright" (1902) at an early age. Around 1924, Rand began to claim that the Jews are descended from Esau or the Canaanites rather than the tribe of Judah. He never went so far as to advocate the "serpent seed" doctrine that modern-day Jews are descendants of Satan; he only claimed that they are not the lineal descendants of Judah. Rand is considered a 'transitional' figure from British Israelism to Christian Identity, rather than its actual founder.


title: Christian Identity

text: Rand is known for coining the term "Christian Identity". In 1933, Rand founded the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, an organization which promoted his view that the Jews are not descended from Judah, marking the first key transition from British Israelism to Christian Identity. Beginning in May 1937, there were key meetings of British Israelites in the United States who were attracted to Rand's theory that the Jews are not descended from Judah. These meetings provided the catalyst for the eventual emergence of Christian Identity. By the late 1930s, the group's members considered Jews to be the offspring of Satan and demonized them, and they also demonized non-Caucasian races. William Dudley Pelley, the founder of the clerical fascist Silver Shirts movement, was influenced by British Israelism in the early 1930s. Links between Christian Identity and the Ku Klux Klan were also forged in the late 1930s, but by then, the KKK was past the peak of its early twentieth-century revival.


title: Christian Identity

text: While many key aspects of Christian Identity, like the serpent seed doctrine, existed within British Israelism as early as the 1880s, Christian Identity began to emerge as a separate movement in the 1940s, primarily over issues of racism and anti-semitism rather than over issues of Christian theology. Wesley Swift (1913–1970) is considered the father of the movement; so much so that every Anti-Defamation League publication which addresses Christian Identity mentions him. Swift was born in New Jersey, and he eventually moved to Los Angeles in order to attend Bible college. It is claimed that he may have been a "Ku Klux Klan organizer and a Klan rifle-team instructor." In 1946, he founded his own church in Lancaster, California and named it the Anglo-Saxon Christian Congregation, reflecting the influence of Howard Rand. In the 1950s, he was Gerald L. K. Smith's West Coast representative of the Christian Nationalist Crusade. In addition, he hosted a daily radio broadcast in California during the 1950s and 1960s, through which he was able to proclaim his ideology to a large audience. Due to Swift's efforts, the message of his church spread, leading to the founding of similar churches throughout the country.


title: Christian Identity

text: Eventually, the name of his church was changed to the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, today this name is used by Aryan Nations. One of Swift's associates was retired Col. William Potter Gale (1917–1988). Gale became a leading figure in the anti-tax and paramilitary movements of the 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the California Rangers and the Posse Comitatus, and he also helped found the American militia movement.


title: Christian Identity

text: The future Aryan Nations founder Richard Girnt Butler, who was an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, was introduced to Wesley Swift by William Potter Gale in 1962. Swift quickly converted Butler to Christian Identity. When Swift died in 1971, Butler fought against Gale, James Warner, and Swift's widow for control of the church. Butler eventually gained control of the organization and moved it from California to Hayden Lake, Idaho in 1973.


title: Christian Identity

text: Lesser figures participated as Christian Identity theology took shape in the 1940s and 1950s, such as San Jacinto Capt, a Baptist minister and California Klansman (who claimed that he had introduced Wesley Swift to Christian Identity); and Bertrand Comparet (1901–1983), a one-time San Diego Deputy City Attorney (and a lawyer for Gerald L. K. Smith).


title: Christian Identity

text: The Christian Identity movement first received widespread attention from the mainstream media in 1984, when The Order, a neo-Nazi terrorist group, embarked on a murderous crime spree before it was suppressed by the FBI. Tax resister and militia movement organizer Gordon Kahl, whose death in a 1983 shootout with federal authorities helped inspire The Order, also had connections to the Christian Identity movement. The movement returned to public attention in 1992 and 1993, in the wake of the deadly Ruby Ridge confrontation, when newspapers discovered that former Green Beret and right-wing separatist Randy Weaver had a loose association with Christian Identity believers.


title: Christian Identity

text: These groups are estimated to have two thousand members in the United States and an unknown number of members in Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth. Due to the promotion of Christian Identity doctrines through radio and later through the Internet, an additional fifty thousand unaffiliated individuals are thought to hold Christian Identity beliefs.


title: Christian Identity

text: Rather than being an organized religion, Christian Identity ("CI") is adhered to by individuals, independent congregations and some prison gangs. It is a white supremacist theology that promotes a racial interpretation of Christianity. Some Christian Identity churches preach with more violent rhetoric than others, but all of them believe that Aryans are God's chosen race rather than Jews.


title: Christian Identity

text: Christian Identity beliefs were primarily developed and promoted by two authors who considered Europeans to be the chosen people and considered Jews to be the cursed offspring of Cain, the "serpent hybrid" (or the Serpent seed) (a belief which is known as the dual-seedline or two-seedline doctrine). Wesley Swift formulated the doctrine which states that non-Caucasian peoples have no souls and therefore they can never earn God's favor or be saved.


title: Christian Identity

text: No single document expresses the Christian Identity belief system; there is much disagreement over the doctrines which are taught by those who ascribe to CI beliefs, since there is no central organization or headquarters for the CI sect. However, all CI adherents believe that Adam and his offspring were exclusively White and they also believe that all non-white races are pre-Adamite races because they belong to separate species, a doctrinal position which implies that they cannot be equated with or derived from the Adamites. CI adherents cite passages from the Old Testament, including , , and , which they claim contain Yahweh's injunctions against interracial marriages.


title: Christian Identity

text: Christian Identity adherents assert that the white people of Europe in particular or Caucasians in general are God's servant people, according to the promises that were given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It further asserts that the early European tribes were really the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and therefore the rightful heirs to God's promises, and God's chosen people. Colin Kidd wrote that in the United States, Christian Identity exploited "the puzzle of the Ten Lost Tribes to justify an openly anti-Semitic and virulently racist agenda." According to Michael McFarland and Glenn Gottfried, they developed their racist interpretation of Christianity because of its status as a traditional religion of the United States, which allowed them to advocate the belief that white Americans have a common identity, and because of the variety of possible interpretations of the Bible in the field of hermeneutics.


title: Christian Identity

text: While they seek to introduce a state of racial purity in the US, Christian Identitarians do not trust the Congress or the government, allegedly controlled by Jews, to support their agenda. In their view, this means that political changes can only be made through the use of force. However, the failed experience of the terrorist group The Order has forced them to acknowledge the fact that they are currently unable to overthrow the government by staging an armed insurrection against it. Thus, the Christian Identity movement seeks an alternative to violence and government change with the creation of a "White Aryan Bastion" or a White ethnostate, such as the Northwest Territorial Imperative.


title: Christian Identity

text: Like British Israelites, Christian Identity (CI) adherents believe in Two House theology, which makes a distinction between the Tribe of Judah and the Ten Lost Tribes. The primary distinction between British Israelism and CI is that unlike Christian Identitarians, British Israelites believe that the Jews are descended from the tribe of Judah. In contrast, while also maintaining a Two House distinction, Christian Identity proponents believe that the true lineal descendants of Judah are "not" contemporary Jews, instead, they are White Europeans whose ancestors mainly settled in Scotland, Germany, and other European nations alongside the House of Israel. In short, Christian Identity adherents believe that instead of modern-day Jews, the true descendants of the Houses of Israel and Judah are the modern-day Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and kindred peoples.


title: Christian Identity

text: Identity teaches that "Israel" was the name given to Jacob after he wrestled with the angel at Penuel as described in Genesis 32:26–32. "Israel" then had twelve sons, which began the Twelve Tribes of Israel. In 975 BC the ten northern tribes revolted, seceded from the south, and became the Kingdom of Israel. After they were subsequently conquered by Assyria at approximately 721 BC, the ten tribes disappeared from the Biblical record and became known as the Lost Tribes of Israel.


title: Christian Identity

text: According to Identity doctrine, 2 Esdras 13:39–46 then records the history of the nation of Israel journeying over the Caucasus mountains, along the Black Sea, to the Ar Sereth tributary of the Danube in Romania ("But they formed this plan for themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the nations and go to a more distant region, where no human beings had ever lived. … Through that region there was a long way to go, a journey of a year and a half; and that country is called Arzareth"). The tribes prospered, and eventually colonised other European countries. Israel's leading tribe, the Tribe of Dan, is attributed with settling and naming many areas which are today distinguished by place names derived from its name – written ancient Hebrew contains no vowels, and hence "Dan" would be written as DN, but would be pronounced with an intermediate vowel dependent on the local dialect, meaning that "Dan", "Den", "Din", "Don", and "Dun" all have the same meaning. Various modern place names are said to derive from the name of this tribe:


title: Christian Identity

text: Some followers claim that the Identity genealogy of the Davidic line can be traced to the royal rulers of Britain and Queen Elizabeth II herself. Thus, Anglo-Saxons are the true Israelites, God's chosen people who were given the divine right to rule the world until the Second Coming of Christ.


title: Christian Identity

text: Identity adherents reject the label "antisemitic" by stating that they cannot be antisemitic because the true Semites "today are the great White Christian nations of the western world," with modern Jews being considered the descendants of the Canaanites.


title: Christian Identity

text: A major tenet of Christian Identity is the pre-Adamite hypothesis. Christian Identity adherents believe that Adam and Eve were only the ancestors of white people, because according to Christian Identity, Adam and Eve were preceded by lesser, non-Caucasian races which are often (although not always) identified as "beasts of the field" in . For example, the "beasts" which wore sackcloth and cried unto God in are identified as black races by Christian Identity adherents. To support their theory on the racial identity of Adam, Christian Identity proponents point out that the Hebrew etymology of the word 'Adam' translates as 'be ruddy, red, to show blood (in the face)' often quoting from James Strong's "Hebrew Dictionary" and from this they conclude that only Caucasians or people with light white skin can blush or turn rosy in the face (because hemoglobin is only visible under pale skin).


title: Christian Identity

text: A seminal influence on the Christian Identity movement's views on pre-Adamism was Charles Carroll's 1900 book "The Negro a Beast or In the Image of God?" In his book, Carroll sought to revive the ideas which were previously presented by Buckner H. Payne, he described the Negro as a literal ape rather than a human being. He claimed the pre-Adamite races such as blacks did not have souls and that race mixing was an insult to God because it spoiled His racial plan of creation. According to Carroll, the mixing of races had also led to the errors of atheism and evolutionism.


title: Christian Identity

text: The idea that "lower races" are mentioned in the Bible (in contrast to Aryans) was posited in the 1905 book "Theozoology; or The Science of the Sodomite Apelings and the Divine Electron" by Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels, an Ariosophist and a volkisch writer who influenced Nazism.


title: Christian Identity

text: Dual Seedline Christian Identity proponents –those who believe that Eve bore children with Satan as well as with Adam – believe that Eve was seduced by the Serpent (Satan), shared her fallen state with Adam by having sex with him, and gave birth to twins with different fathers: Satan's son Cain and Adam's son Abel. This belief is referred to as the serpent seed doctrine. According to the "dual seedline" form of Christian Identity, Cain then became the progenitor of the Jews in his subsequent matings with members of the non-Adamic races.


title: Christian Identity

text: The serpent seed idea, which ascribes the ancestry of legendary monsters such as Grendel to Cain, was widespread in the Middle Ages. It also appears in early Gnostic Christian texts as well as in some Jewish texts, for example, it appears in a 9th-century book titled "Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer". In "Cain: Son of the Serpent" (1985), David Max Eichhorn traces the idea back to early Jewish Midrashic texts and he also names many rabbis who taught the belief that Cain was the son of a union between the Serpent and Eve.


title: Christian Identity

text: Some Kabbalist rabbis also believe that Cain and Abel were of a different genetic background than Seth. This teaching is based on the theory that God created two "Adams" ("adam" means "man" in Hebrew). To one Adam he gave a soul and to the other Adam he did not give a soul. The Adam who is without a soul is the creature who Christians call the Serpent. The Kabbalists call the serpent the "Nahash" (Nahash is the Hebrew word for "serpent").


title: Christian Identity

text: Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism or racialism, the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism, is the core tenet of Christian Identity, and most CI adherents are white nationalists who advocate racial segregation and the imposition of anti-miscegenation laws. Some CI adherents also believe that Jews are genetically compelled to carry on a conspiracy against the Adamic seedline by their Satanic or Edomite ancestry and they also believe that the Jews of today have achieved almost complete control of the Earth through their claim to hold the white race's status as God's chosen people.


title: Christian Identity

text: Identity adherents also assert that disease, addiction, cancer, and sexually transmitted infections (herpes and HIV/AIDS) are spread by human "rodents" via contact with "unclean" persons, such as "race-mixers". The apocrypha, particularly the first book of Enoch, is used to justify these social theories; the fallen angels of Heaven sexually desired Earth maidens and took them as wives, resulting in the birth of abominations, which God ordered Michael the Archangel to destroy, thus beginning a cosmic war between Light and Darkness. The mixing of separate things (e.g., people of different races) is seen as defiling all of them, and it is also considered a violation of God's law.


title: Christian Identity

text: Identity preachers proclaim that, according to the Bible, "the penalties for race-mixing, homo-sexuality, and usury are death."


title: Christian Identity

text: The first documents which advocated Christian Identity's views on racial politics and economics were written by Howard Rand and William J. Cameron after the Great Depression. In 1943, Rand published the article "Digest of the Divine Law" which discussed the political and economic challenges which existed at that time. An excerpt from the article states: "We shall not be able to continue in accord with the old order. Certain groups are already planning an economy of regimentation for our nation; but it will only intensify the suffering and want of the past and bring to our peoples all the evils that will result from such planning by a group of men who are failing to take into consideration the fundamental principles underlying the law of the Lord."


title: Christian Identity

text: While Rand never formally named the groups which he was specifically referring to, his hatred of Jews, racial integration, and the country's economic state at that time made the direction of his comments obvious. Identifying specific economic problems was not the only goal which Rand had in mind. He began to analyze how these changes could be made to happen through legal changes; thus, making strategic plans to integrate the Bible into American law and economics. The first goal was to denounce all man-made laws and replace them with laws from the Bible. The second goal was to create an economic state which would reflect the teachings of the Bible.


title: Christian Identity

text: While William Cameron agreed with Rand's initial argument, he specifically focused his writings on changing American economics. One of Cameron's articles, "Divine System of Taxation," spoke of the Bible supporting individualism and social justice with regard to economics. He also believed that the government had no right to tax land or other forms of property. In accordance with this doctrine, tax refunds should be applied to family vacation trips or they should be applied to national festivals which are observed by adherents of Christian Identity. Also, for the betterment of the United States' economic future, no interest should be charged on debts which are paid with credit, and no taxes should be collected during the traveling time of goods from a manufacturer to a consumer.


title: Christian Identity

text: The mutual point which Rand and Cameron both agreed upon, was that while they may have disagreed with how the government was operating, neither of them resisted the government's current tax policies. Gordon Kahl was the first CI believer to study the founding principles of Rand and Cameron, and apply them in order to take action against the government. Kahl believed that they were on the right track with regard to what needed to be accomplished in order to change public policies. However, he felt that if no actions were taken against violators, no real changes would be made. In 1967, he stopped paying taxes because he felt he was paying "tithes to the Synagogue of Satan." Kahl killed two federal marshals in 1983. Before he was caught for the murders, Kahl wrote a note in which he said "our nation has fallen into the hands of alien people. … These enemies of Christ have taken their Jewish Communist Manifesto and incorporated it into the Statutory Laws of our country and thrown our Constitution and our Christian Common Law into the garbage can."


title: Christian Identity

text: Identity doctrine asserts that the "root of all evil" is paper money (particularly Federal Reserve Notes), and that both usury and banking systems are controlled by Jews. Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:35–37 and Deuteronomy explicitly condemn usury. Ezekiel 18:13 states "He who hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? He shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him" and it is quoted as a justification for killing Jews.


title: Christian Identity

text: Christian Identity advocates the belief that the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 shifted the control of money from Congress to private institutions and violated the Constitution and the monetary system encourages the Federal Reserve to take out loans, creating trillions of dollars in government debt, and allowing international bankers to control the United States. Credit/debit cards and computerised bills are seen as the fulfillment of the Biblical scripture which warns against "the beast" (i.e., banking) as quoted in Revelation 13:15–18. Identity preacher Sheldon Emry stated that "Most of the owners of the largest banks in America are of Eastern European (Jewish) ancestry and connected with the (Jewish) Rothschild European banks", thus, according to Identity doctrine, the global banking conspiracy is led and controlled by Jewish interests.


title: Christian Identity

text: Christian Identity adherents believe in the Second Coming and Armageddon. Their predictions vary, and they include a race war or a Jewish-backed United Nations takeover of the US, and they also believe that they should wage a physical struggle against individuals and groups which serve the forces of evil. While the Soviet Union has disappeared as a vital threat in their rhetoric, many Christian Identity adherents believe that Communists are secretly involved in international organizations like the United Nations, or the so-called "New World Order", in order to destroy the United States. Unlike many Protestant Fundamentalists, Christian Identity adherents reject the notion of a Rapture, based on their belief that it is a Judaized doctrine which the Bible does not teach.


title: Christian Identity

text: South African branches of Christian Identity have been accused of involvement in terrorist activities, including the 2002 Soweto bombings.


title: Erika Harlacher

text: Erika Lynn Harlacher-Stone (; born August 29, 1990) is an American voice actress based in the Los Angeles area who has provided voices for English dubbed Japanese anime shows and video games. Some of her major roles in anime include: Yugo in Wakfu Ami Kawashima in "Toradora!", Mimori Togo in "Yuki Yuna is a Hero", Asseylum Vers Allusia in "Aldnoah.Zero", Elizabeth Liones in "The Seven Deadly Sins", Kurapika in "Hunter × Hunter", Violet in "Violet Evergarden", and Yumeko in "Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler". In video games, she provides the voice of Kyoko Kirigiri and Kaede Akamatsu in the "Danganronpa" video game series, Venti in "Genshin Impact", Juna Crawford in "" and "", Ayesha in "Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk", Ann Takamaki in "Persona 5", and Raging Bull in "."


title: Erika Harlacher

text: Harlacher grew up in Camarillo, California, and started acting in school plays. When she was around 9–10 years old, she was inspired by an interview by Christy Carlson Romano, who voiced the title character from "Kim Possible", in which Romano said that with voice acting, you could go to work in your pajamas. Erika's mother responded that it was not a real job, and suggested Erika pursue acting only as a hobby. Her first exposure to anime was through "Dragon Ball Z" and "Pokémon", which she considered more like cartoons, and that she really got into manga and anime in school when "Fruits Basket" was being published in English. At La Reina High School, she was active in the Speech and Mock Trial team, which was noted statewide and even attended a national event. She also competed on the school's diving team.


title: Erika Harlacher

text: After graduating high school in 2008, she attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona where she intended to major in graphic design. During her freshman year, she looked up some online forums regarding voice-over and attended Anime Expo, where she learned about and attended an Adventures in Voice Acting workshop conducted by Tony Oliver. On Oliver's suggestion that she was pretty good at it, she changed her major to theatre, and continued to take voice acting lessons and workshops while studying at school. She also did a production internship at Bang Zoom! Entertainment where she got to sit in on some of the recording sessions. Her first voice acting project was on "K-On!," where she voiced Keiko Ida, among some other incidental characters. Her first big voice-over role was for the "Battleship" video game, based on the 2012 movie of the same name, where she got to voice the main character, Grace Harland, among many veteran voice actors. However, video game reviewers panned the game because none of the movie's actors reprised their roles in the game, and faulted the game's limited acting, which was relegated to mostly radio chatter and mission updates. At one point in college, she had some health issues that led her to take an absence from school and acting, so she pursued production work, which her parents thought would make for a more practical career. She later dropped it as she was encouraged by Oliver to pursue acting and to finish school, eventually landing the lead role as Ayesha in the video game "". She described Ayesha as a bit airheaded and ditsy but relatable and resembles her personality at times. Video game reviewer Sean Madson of Diehardgamefan found the dub to be of decent quality, but said Ayesha "sounded a bit too obnoxious with her airheadedness." Matt Sainsbury of Digitally Downloaded thought the dub was reasonable but disliked their American accents as not suiting the Japanese personality of the game. Vince Ingenito of IGN wrote that "both the writing and voice acting fail to lend any weight to her plight. Ayesha seems about as upset over her missing sister as I might be over a glass of spilled milk, making it really hard to care about the outcome of her quest." She also voiced Sadira, a spider-themed woman and new character to the "Killer Instinct" series.


title: Erika Harlacher

text: In 2014, Harlacher voiced Kyoko Kirigiri in "". She described Kyoko as the most calm among the wacky characters and always on top of things. Video game reviewers thought the voice acting was okay. In the same year, she voiced Blood Leopard in "Accel World", who was similar to Kyoko's stoic disposition. In "Sword Art Online," she voiced Sasha, whom she describes as being like a teacher/nun lady who is in charge of the kids who are lost in the game. In the second season of "Sword Art Online", she voiced Siune. She also began attending anime conventions as a guest panelist. In voicing in the "" series, she found her character to be not your average princess, and that she was fun because she was unpredictable. Her biggest role that year was Ami Kawashima in the romantic comedy "Toradora!", a classmate who harbors a mean and bratty personality behind a cheerful perfect-looking facade of a model. As it was one of NIS America's first dub productions for anime, She said they took a long time to call back from the audition, and that it also took more time than other studios in producing the dub for the show. She describes Ami's character as trying to act like she knows what she's doing but does not really have it together, and also her lack of culinary talent. LB Bryant of Japanator said that the "Toradora" dub release is a "must obtain" item and that "Ami Kawashima equals best girl." Travis Bruno of Capsule Computers said the English dub cast did impressively well and those who only listen to the Japanese tracks would be missing out. She also voiced Mako's mother, Sukuyo Mankanshoku in "Kill la Kill", which later ran on Adult Swim's Toonami block in 2015. She described the series as crazy, the Mankanshoku family as ridiculous, and that Sukuyo is very sweet by constantly providing everyone food.


title: Erika Harlacher

text: In 2015, Harlacher voiced Mimori Togo in "Yuki Yuna is a Hero", one of the main heroines who are called to save their world by interacting in an alternate dimension where they have super powers. She described Togo as going through a lot of emotional stuff, which helped her expand her acting range. Anime News Network reviewer Theron Martin said that the cast was "appropriately chosen for their roles in a vocal quality sense and handled the acting capably." In the same year, she voiced main character Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia in "Aldnoah.Zero" as well as Elizabeth in "The Seven Deadly Sins", both of which had English dub premieres on Netflix. She attended Sac-Anime in Sacramento, California; the panel she was on was regarded as one of the highlights of the convention. Manga Entertainment listed Harlacher among their top 5 English voice actresses. In 2016, she landed the voice role of main character Kurapika in the Viz Media English dub of the 2011 anime adaptation of "Hunter x Hunter", which premiered on the Toonami block in April. In 2017, she voiced Ann Takamaki, one of the core player characters in the video game "Persona 5".


title: Erika Harlacher

text: In 2018, Harlacher voiced main characters in two Netflix-streamed anime series: Violet in "Violet Evergarden" and Yumeko Jabami in "Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler". In the same year, she landed the role of main character Yugo in the third season of "". She also voiced Ondine in season 2 of "." In 2019, Harlacher starred as Sakura Yamauchi in the English dub of the feature anime film "I Want to Eat Your Pancreas".


title: Erika Harlacher

text: Harlacher lives in North Hollywood in the Los Angeles area. In 2014, she started a Let's Play video channel on YouTube, where she plays through various games, some of which she has starred in, and others just for fun. She has a younger sister Natalie. She also owns two dogs. On October 14, 2020, she married long-time partner Luke Stone. Her paternal grandfather, Ervin Harlacher, was the first president of Brookdale Community College.


title: Hannah Hoekstra

text: In 2010, Hoekstra graduated from the Amsterdam Theatre Academy, where she studied from 2006. During training she participated in the play "Underground" by director Johan Simons. The following year, she made her debut on TV, playing a small role in the TV series "Flikken Maastricht".


title: Hannah Hoekstra

text: Her breakthrough came in 2012 when she was cast in Sacha Polak's film "Hemel", in which Hoekstra plays sensual beauty with signs of hypersexuality. The film was shown at the Berlin film festival and received a special prize FIPRESCI. She was also awarded a Golden Calf Award at the Netherlands Film Festival and was nominated for a Rembrandt Award. She was named a recipient of the Shooting Stars Award which was presented by the European Film Promotion board at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.


Visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Ukraine. As of 22 September 2022 Ukrainian citizens could travel to 144 countries and territories without a travel visa or with a visa on arrival, ranking the Ukrainian passport 35th in terms of travel freedom, according to the Henley Passport Index 2022.


title: Visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens

text: For traveling to certain countries, Ukrainians do not need to use a passport, as they may use their Ukrainian identity card.


text: Documents which give the right to leave Ukraine and to enter Ukraine and certify the identity of a citizen of Ukraine while staying abroad are:


text: It's important to know, that the special rules of arriving in a particular country should be studied carefully. Thus, in most countries that do not require visas or issue visas, upon arrival you must have a passport, which is valid for at least 3 months from arrival in that country.


text: Regardless of the entry regime, foreign border services may require documents confirming the purpose of the visit and the availability of sufficient financial resources for travel.


text: The visa-free regime with other countries does not give the right to work in them. Failure to comply with this rule may result in a fine with subsequent deportation.


text: In cases where a visa is issued upon arrival, it may be necessary to have 1-2 color passport photographs of the person crossing the border.


text: For visa-free travel to the countries of the Schengen zone, you need only a biometric passport. Owners of passports of the old model need a visa or residence permit in one of the countries of the Schengen zone.


text: From June 11, 2017 Ukrainians with biometric passports can travel to Schengen Area countries visa-free for up to 90 days.


text: Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have a visa-free regime with Ukraine (entry is possible for up to 30 days upon presentation of a passport (to Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia - up to 90 days). Other EU countries, that are not part of the Schengen area, also allow Ukrainians to enter with biometric passports (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Romania).


text: In response to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ireland decided to lift visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens.


text: Crimea and parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions due to the Russia's war against Ukraine are presently illegally occupied by Russian Federation. All previous laws and regulations of crossing the borders and moving within this regions are temporarily disabled.


text: Recently visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens were lifted by Paraguay (May 2009), Montenegro (October 2010), Hong Kong (November 2010), Israel (February 2011), Argentina (October 2011), Brunei (2 November 2011), Bosnia and Herzegovina (November 2011), Serbia (December 2011), Brazil (December 2011), Panama (August 2013), Turkey (August 2012), Chile (October 2015), Indonesia (March 2016), Costa Rica (December 2016), Saint Kitts and Nevis (January 2017), Albania (April 2017), the Schengen Area countries (11 June 2017), Qatar (August 2017), United Arab Emirates (31 December 2017), Kuwait (18 April 2018), New Caledonia (20 May 2018), Uruguay (15 February 2019), Thailand (14 April 2019), Marshall Islands (12 February 2020), Colombia (17 April 2020), Grenada (1 March 2021), Tunisia and Ireland (25 February 2022).


text: Pre-approved visas can be picked up on arrival in the following countries instead in embassy or consulate.


text: Visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens for visits to various territories, disputed areas, partially recognized countries and restricted zones:


text: Visitors with passport stamp of Israel are not allowed to enter a number of countries because of the Arab League boycott of Israel.


text: As a result of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Azerbaijan refuses entry to passport-holders of Ukraine and any other country if they are of Armenian descent. It also strictly refuses entry to foreigners in general whose passport shows evidence of entry into the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, immediately declaring them permanent personae non gratae.


text: Many African countries, including Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia require all incoming passengers to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination. Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area.


title: Abracadabra

text: Abracadabra is a magic word, historically used as an incantation on amulets and common today in stage magic.


title: Abracadabra

text: "Abracadabra" is of unknown origin, but according to the "Oxford English Dictionary", its first known occurrence is in the second-century works of Serenus Sammonicus.


title: Abracadabra

text: Several folk etymologies are associated with the word: from phrases in Hebrew that mean "I will create as I speak", or Aramaic "I create like the word" (אברא כדברא), to folk etymologies that point to similar words in Latin and Greek such as abraxas or to its similarity to the first four letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha-beta-gamma-delta or ΑΒΓΔ). According to the "OED Online", "no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures."


title: Abracadabra

text: The first known mention of the word was in the second century AD in a book called "Liber Medicinalis" (sometimes known as "De Medicina Praecepta Saluberrima") by Serenus Sammonicus, physician to the Roman emperor Caracalla, who in chapter 52 prescribed that malaria sufferers wear an amulet containing the word written in the form of a triangle.


title: Abracadabra

text: The power of the amulet, he claimed, makes lethal diseases go away. Other Roman emperors, including Geta and Severus Alexander, were followers of the medical teachings of Serenus Sammonicus and may have used the incantation as well.


title: Abracadabra

text: It was used as a magical formula by the Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune. It is found on Abraxas stones, which were worn as amulets. Subsequently, its use spread beyond the Gnostics.


title: Abracadabra

text: The Puritan minister Increase Mather dismissed the word as bereft of power. Daniel Defoe also wrote dismissively about Londoners who posted the word on their doorways to ward off sickness during the Great Plague of London.


title: Abracadabra

text: The religion of Thelema spells the word 'Abrahadabra', and considers it the magical formula of the current Aeon. The religion's founder, Aleister Crowley, explains in his essay "Gematria" that he discovered the word (and his spelling) by qabalistic methods. The word 'Abrahadabra' also appears repeatedly in the 1904 invocation of Horus that led to the founding of Thelema. ("The Equinox" I, no. 7. 1912)


title: Abracadabra

text: Abracadabra is now more commonly used as a magic word in the performance of stage magic. The word is one of a limited set of words that can be typed in its entirety using the left-handed side of a QWERTY keyboard.


title: President of Nigeria

text: The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the head of state and head of government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.


title: President of Nigeria

text: The offices, powers, and titles of the head of state and the head of government were officially merged into the office of the presidency under the 1979 Constitution of Nigeria.


title: President of Nigeria

text: Executive power is vested in the president. The power includes the execution and enforcement of federal law and the responsibility to appoint federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory, and judicial officers. Based on constitutional provisions empowering the president to appoint and receive ambassadors and conclude treaties with foreign powers, and on subsequent laws enacted by the House, the presidency has primary responsibility for conducting foreign policy.


title: President of Nigeria

text: The president also plays a leading role in federal legislation and domestic policymaking. As part of the system of checks and balances, the Constitution gives the president the power to sign or veto federal legislation.


title: President of Nigeria

text: The president is directly elected in national elections to a four-year term, along with the vice president.


title: President of Nigeria

text: On 1 October 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain. An all-Nigerian Executive Council was headed by a Prime minister, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. On 16 November 1960, Nnamdi Azikiwe became the first governor-general of a federation of three regions of the north, east and west, with Lagos as the Federal Capital. Each of the regions was headed by a premier with a governor as ceremonial head. The governors and governor-general represented the Queen of Nigeria, Elizabeth II. On 1 October 1963, Nigeria became a Federal Republic thereby abolishing its monarchy, but remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. An amendment to the 1960 Independence Constitution replaced the office of the governor-general with that of the president. Nnamdi Azikwe was sworn into that office on 1 October 1963. The office at that time was primarily ceremonial, and the main duties of the president were on such things as receiving foreign dignitaries and opening Parliament.


title: President of Nigeria

text: In a January 1966 failed coup d'état, a group of army officers, led by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, overthrew the central and regional governments, killed the prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and tried to take control of the government. Nzeogwu was countered, captured, and imprisoned by General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. General Aguiyi-Ironsi was named Military Head of State.


title: President of Nigeria

text: In July 1966, a group of northern army officers revolted against the government, killed General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, and appointed the army chief of staff, General Yakubu Gowon as the head of the new military government.


title: President of Nigeria

text: In 1975, General Yakubu Gowon was deposed and General Murtala Mohammed was the head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria until his assassination in 1976. On his death, the chief-of-staff, Supreme Headquarters (equivalent to a vice-president) general Olusegun Obasanjo assumed office of head of state in a meeting of the Supreme Military Council, keeping the chain of command established by Murtala Muhammed in place. Gen. Obasanjo was responsible for completing the democratic transition begun by his predecessor, which culminated in an election in August 1979.


title: President of Nigeria

text: In 1979, Nigeria adopted a federal presidential constitution. The presidency became an executive post, with powers similar to those of its American counterpart. The legislature was a bicameral National Assembly, comprising a Senate and House of Representatives.


title: President of Nigeria

text: In October 1979, after more than 13 years of military rule, Nigeria returned to democratic rule. The National Party of Nigeria emerged victorious in the presidential election and Alhaji Shehu Shagari became the first democratically elected president.


title: President of Nigeria

text: On 31 December 1983, the military overthrew the Second Republic. Major General Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the chairman of the Supreme Military Council (SMC), the new head of state.


title: President of Nigeria

text: In August 1985, General Buhari's government was peacefully overthrown by the Army chief of staff, Major General Ibrahim Babangida. Babangida became the president and chairman of the Armed Forces Ruling Council.


title: President of Nigeria

text: In August 1993, General Babangida stepped down and chose an interim government to replace him. Ernest Shonekan was named as interim president. General Sani Abacha seized power from Shonekan in November 1993 and became the president and chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council.


title: President of Nigeria

text: On 8 June 1998, General Abacha died at the presidential villa in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Major General Abdulsalami Abubakar became the new president and chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council.


title: President of Nigeria

text: On 29 May 1999 Major General Abdulsalami Abubakar stepped down, and the former military head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo, became the civilian president. Obasanjo served two terms in office.


title: President of Nigeria

text: In May 2007, Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua was sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the 13th head of state of Nigeria. Yar'Adua died on 5 May, 2010 in the presidential villa, in Abuja, Nigeria.


title: President of Nigeria

text: On 6 May 2010 Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the 14th head of state.


title: President of Nigeria

text: On 29 May 2015 Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the 15th head of state after winning the general election.


title: President of Nigeria

text: Chapter VI, Part I, Section 131 of the constitution states that a person may be qualified for election of the office of the president if:


title: President of Nigeria

text: A person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of the president if:


title: President of Nigeria

text: The Constitution of Nigeria specifies an oath of office for the president of the federation. The oath is administered by the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria or the person for the time being appointed to exercise the functions of that office:


title: President of Nigeria

text: , there are five living former presidents: Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Goodluck Jonathan.


title: President of Nigeria

text: The most recent death of a former president was Ernest Shonekan (served from August to November 1993), on 11 January 2022 aged 85.


title: President of Nigeria

text: This is a list of each president in order of term length. This is based on the difference between dates; if counted by number of calendar days, all the figures would be one greater except for Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari who would have two more days, as they served on two non-consecutive periods.


title: 9GAG

text: 9GAG is an online platform and social media website based in Hong Kong, which allows its users to upload and share user-generated content or other content from external social media websites. Since the platform for collections of Internet memes was launched on April 11, 2008, it has grown in popularity across social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.


title: 9GAG

text: The website was co-founded in 2008 by a group of Hong Kongers including University of Hong Kong student Ray Chan, with the intention of creating an alternative online platform to email on which users could easily share humorous photos or videos. In a 2012 interview, its CEO Ray Chan declined to explain the origins of the name "9GAG".


title: 9GAG

text: Starting the company under a "Just for Fun" mentality, 9GAG's co-founders began using 9GAG as a résumé-builder for the 500 Startups accelerator program. During the summer program, the 9GAG team worked on other startup ideas, including StartupQuote and Songboard.


title: 9GAG

text: In July 2012, 9GAG raised an additional US$2.8 million in funding from Silicon Valley-based venture capital, including True Ventures and Greycroft Partners. In August 2012, 9GAG received another US$2.8 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalists, including True Ventures and Greycroft Partners, as well as individual investors like Christopher Sacca, Kevin Rose, and Naval Ravikant. This funding was able to support 9GAG's engineering team growth both in Hong Kong and in Silicon Valley. 9GAG is headquartered in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong with offices in Mountain View, California.


title: 9GAG

text: In July 2012, 9GAG launched an app for iOS and Android. The mobile application serves as a streamlined version of the web-based content. In summer 2014 9GAG launched 9CHAT. 9GAG users are able to log into their account and write to others by sending them a message. 9CHAT also added support for the creation of groups in different sections.


title: 9GAG

text: 9GAG users and admins may also re-post content (usually without any consent from its respective authors) from other websites (e.g. 4chan, Newgrounds, Reddit, SomethingAwful, FunnyJunk, YTMND, Instagram, etc.), replacing the source site's watermark with their own. In 2011, 9GAG and 4chan disputed authorship of internet memes published on both websites, whereby each company claimed the memes originated from their own website. Ray Chan argued that "9GAG does not create memes or rage comics, but helps spread them." In a 2015 "Slate" article, writer Amanda Hess described 9GAG's reposting of content from Instagram as part of an "online ecosystem of joke stealing".


title: 9GAG

text: In his 2014 article "Building Identity and Building Bridges Between Cultures: The Case of 9gag", linguist Albin Wagener examined 446 posts found on 9GAG's main page; of these, 40 (8.97%) were clearly discriminatory. Most of the discriminatory posts were misogynist (57.5%), followed by cultural discrimination (25%) and homophobia (12.5%). According to Wagener, 9GAG brings people together in an international context, but through masculine and heterosexual symbolism and the devaluation of other groups.


title: Fauna

text: Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is "flora", and for fungi, it is "funga". Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as "biota". Zoologists and paleontologists use "fauna" to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess Shale fauna". Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils. The study of animals of a particular region is called faunistics.


title: Fauna

text: "Fauna" comes from the name Fauna, a Roman goddess of earth and fertility, the Roman god Faunus, and the related forest spirits called Fauns. All three words are cognates of the name of the Greek god Pan, and "panis" is the Greek equivalent of fauna. "Fauna" is also the word for a book that catalogues the animals in such a manner. The term was first used by Carl Linnaeus from Sweden in the title of his 1745 work "Fauna Suecica".


title: Fauna

text: Epifauna, also called "epibenthos", are aquatic animals that live on the bottom substratum as opposed to within it, that is, the benthic fauna that live on top of the sediment surface at the seafloor.


title: Fauna

text: "Infauna" are benthic organisms that live within the bottom substratum of a water body, especially within the bottom-most oceanic sediments, the layer of small particles at the bottom of a body of water, rather than on its surface. Bacteria and microalgae may also live in the interstices of bottom sediments. In general, infaunal animals become progressively smaller and less abundant with increasing water depth and distance from shore, whereas bacteria show more constancy in abundance, tending toward one million cells per milliliter of interstitial seawater.


title: Fauna

text: Such creatures are found in the fossil record and include lingulata, trilobites and worms. They made burrows in the sediment as protection and may also have fed upon detritus or the mat of microbes which tended to grow on the surface of the sediment. Today, a variety of organisms live in and disturb the sediment. The deepest burrowers are the ghost shrimps ("Thalassinidea"), which go as deep as into the sediment at the bottom of the ocean.


title: Fauna

text: "Macrofauna" are benthic or soil organisms which are retained on a 0.5 mm sieve. Studies in the deep sea define macrofauna as animals retained on a 0.3 mm sieve to account for the small size of many of the taxa.


title: Fauna

text: "Meiofauna" are small benthic invertebrates that live in both marine and freshwater environments. The term "meiofauna" loosely defines a group of organisms by their


title: Fauna

text: size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofauna, rather than a taxonomic grouping. One environment for meiofauna is between grains of damp sand (see Mystacocarida).


title: Fauna

text: In practice these are metazoan animals that can pass unharmed through a 0.5 1 mm mesh but will be retained by a 30–45 μm mesh, but the exact dimensions will vary from researcher to researcher. Whether an organism passes through a 1 mm mesh also depends upon whether it is alive or dead at the time of sorting.


title: Fauna

text: "Mesofauna" are macroscopic soil animals such as arthropods or nematodes. Mesofauna are extremely diverse; considering just the springtails (Collembola), as of 1998, approximately 6,500 species had been identified.


title: Fauna

text: Microfauna are microscopic or very small animals (usually including protozoans and very small animals such as rotifers). To qualify as microfauna, an organism must exhibit animal-like characteristics, as opposed to microflora, which are more plant-like.


title: Fauna

text: Stygofauna are any fauna that live in groundwater systems or aquifers, such as caves, fissures and vugs. Stygofauna and troglofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna (based on life-history). Both are associated with subterranean environments – stygofauna are associated with water, and troglofauna with caves and spaces above the water table. Stygofauna can live within freshwater aquifers and within the pore spaces of limestone, calcrete or laterite, whilst larger animals can be found in cave waters and wells. Stygofaunal animals, like troglofauna, are divided into three groups based on their life history - stygophiles, stygoxenes, and stygobites.


title: Fauna

text: Troglofauna are small cave-dwelling animals that have adapted to their dark surroundings. Troglofauna and stygofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna (based on life-history). Both are associated with subterranean environments – troglofauna are associated with caves and spaces above the water table and stygofauna with water. Troglofaunal species include spiders, insects, myriapods and others. Some troglofauna live permanently underground and cannot survive outside the cave environment. Troglofauna adaptations and characteristics include a heightened sense of hearing, touch and smell. Loss of under-used senses is apparent in the lack of pigmentation as well as eyesight in most troglofauna. Troglofauna insects may exhibit a lack of wings and longer appendages.


title: Fauna

text: "Xenofauna", theoretically, are alien organisms that can be described as animal analogues. While no alien life forms, animal-like or otherwise, are known definitively, the concept of alien life remains a subject of great interest in fields like astronomy, astrobiology, biochemistry, evolutionary biology, science fiction, and philosophy.


title: Fauna

text: Other terms include "avifauna", which means "bird fauna" and "piscifauna" (or "ichthyofauna"), which means "fish fauna".