title: Monocyte

text: Monocytes are a type of leukocyte or white blood cell. They are the largest type of leukocyte in blood and can differentiate into macrophages and conventional dendritic cells. As a part of the vertebrate innate immune system monocytes also influence adaptive immune responses and exert tissue repair functions. There are at least three subclasses of monocytes in human blood based on their phenotypic receptors.


title: Monocyte

text: Monocytes are amoeboid in appearance, and have nongranulated cytoplasm. Thus they are classified as agranulocytes, although they might occasionally display some azurophil granules and/or vacuoles. With a diameter of 15–22 μm, monocytes are the largest cell type in peripheral blood. Monocytes are mononuclear cells and the ellipsoidal nucleus is often lobulated/indented, causing a bean-shaped or kidney-shaped appearance. Monocytes compose 2% to 10% of all leukocytes in the human body.


title: Monocyte

text: Monocytes are produced by the bone marrow from precursors called monoblasts, bipotent cells that differentiated from hematopoietic stem cells. Monocytes circulate in the bloodstream for about one to three days and then typically migrate into tissues throughout the body where they differentiate into macrophages and dendritic cells.


title: Monocyte

text: The first clear description of monocyte subsets by flow cytometry dates back to the late 1980s, when a population of CD16-positive monocytes was described. Today, three types of monocytes are recognized in human blood:


title: Monocyte

text: While in humans the level of CD14 expression can be used to differentiate non-classical and intermediate monocytes, the slan (6-Sulfo LacNAc) cell surface marker was shown to give an unequivocal separation of the two cell types.


title: Monocyte

text: Ghattas et al. state that the "intermediate" monocyte population is likely to be a unique subpopulation of monocytes, as opposed to a developmental step, due to their comparatively high expression of surface receptors involved in reparative processes (including vascular endothelial growth factor receptors type 1 and 2, CXCR4, and Tie-2) as well as evidence that the "intermediate" subset is specifically enriched in the bone marrow.


title: Monocyte

text: In mice, monocytes can be divided in two subpopulations. Inflammatory monocytes (CX3CR1, CCR2, Ly6C, PD-L1), which are equivalent to human classical CD14 CD16 monocytes and resident monocytes (CX3CR1, CCR2, Ly6C, PD-L1), which are equivalent to human non-classical CD14 CD16 monocytes. Resident monocytes have the ability to patrol along the endothelium wall in the steady state and under inflammatory conditions.


title: Monocyte

text: Monocytes are mechanically active cells and migrate from blood to an inflammatory site to perform their functions. As explained before, they can differentiate into macrophages and dendritic cells, but the different monocyte subpopulations can also exert specific functions on their own. In general, monocytes and their macrophage and dendritic cell progeny serve three main functions in the immune system. These are phagocytosis, antigen presentation, and cytokine production. Phagocytosis is the process of uptake of microbes and particles followed by digestion and destruction of this material. Monocytes can perform phagocytosis using intermediary (opsonising) proteins such as antibodies or complement that coat the pathogen, as well as by binding to the microbe directly via pattern recognition receptors that recognize pathogens. Monocytes are also capable of killing infected host cells via antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Vacuolization may be present in a cell that has recently phagocytized foreign matter.


title: Monocyte

text: Monocytes can migrate into tissues and replenish resident macrophage populations. Macrophages have a high antimicrobial and phagocytic activity and thereby protect tissues from foreign substances. They are cells that possess a large smooth nucleus, a large area of cytoplasm, and many internal vesicles for processing foreign material. Although they can be derived from monocytes, a large proportion is already formed prenatally in the yolk sac and foetal liver.


title: Monocyte

text: "In vitro", monocytes can differentiate into dendritic cells by adding the cytokines granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin 4. Such monocyte-derived cells do, however, retain the signature of monocytes in their transcriptome and they cluster with monocytes and not with bona fide dendritic cells.


title: Monocyte

text: Aside from their differentiation capacity, monocytes can also directly regulate immune responses. As explained before, they are able to perform phagocytosis. Cells of the classical subpopulation are the most efficient phagocytes and can additionally secrete inflammation-stimulating factors. The intermediate subpopulation is important for antigen presentation and T lymphocyte stimulation. Briefly, antigen presentation describes a process during which microbial fragments that are present in the monocytes after phagocytosis are incorporated into MHC molecules. They are then trafficked to the cell surface of the monocytes (or macrophages or dendritic cells) and presented as antigens to activate T lymphocytes, which then mount a specific immune response against the antigen. Non-classical monocytes produce high amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines like tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-12 after stimulation with microbial products. Furthermore, a monocyte patrolling behavior has been demonstrated in humans both for the classical and the non-classical monocytes, meaning that they slowly move along the endothelium to examine it for pathogens. Said et al. showed that activated monocytes express high levels of PD-1 which might explain the higher expression of PD-1 in CD14CD16 monocytes as compared to CD14CD16 monocytes. Triggering monocytes-expressed PD-1 by its ligand PD-L1 induces IL-10 production, which activates CD4 Th2 cells and inhibits CD4 Th1 cell function.


title: Monocyte

text: Many factors produced by other cells can regulate the chemotaxis and other functions of monocytes. These factors include most particularly chemokines such as monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (CCL2) and monocyte chemotactic protein-3 (CCL7); certain arachidonic acid metabolites such as leukotriene B4 and members of the 5-hydroxyicosatetraenoic acid and 5-oxo-eicosatetraenoic acid family of OXE1 receptor agonists (e.g., 5-HETE and 5-oxo-ETE); and N-Formylmethionine leucyl-phenylalanine and other N-formylated oligopeptides which are made by bacteria and activate the formyl peptide receptor 1.


title: Monocyte

text: Other microbial products can directly activate monocytes and this leads to production of pro-inflammatory and, with some delay, of anti-inflammatory cytokines. Typical cytokines produced by monocytes are TNF, IL-1, and IL-12.


title: Monocyte

text: A "monocyte count" is part of a complete blood count and is expressed either as a percentage of monocytes among all white blood cells or as absolute numbers. Both may be useful, but these cells became valid diagnostic tools only when monocyte subsets are determined.


title: Monocyte

text: Monocytosis is the state of excess monocytes in the peripheral blood. It may be indicative of various disease states.


title: Monocyte

text: In the field of atherosclerosis, high numbers of the CD14CD16 intermediate monocytes were shown to be predictive of cardiovascular events in populations at risk.


title: Monocyte

text: CMML is characterized by a persistent monocyte count of > 1000/microL of blood. Analysis of monocyte subsets has demonstrated predominance of classical monocytes and absence of CD14lowCD16+ monocytes. The absence of non-classical monocytes can assist in diagnosis of the disease and the use of slan as a marker can improve specificity.


title: Monocyte

text: Also, non-classical slan+ monocytes are strongly reduced in patients with hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids, a neurologic disease associated with mutations in the macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor gene.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites, also known as Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites and Survivor: Micronesia, is the sixteenth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series "Survivor". It is the show's third season to include contestants from past seasons, after the all-returning contestant pool from "", along with "", in which two contestants from "" returned for a second chance.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: The season was filmed in Palau, marking the second time "Survivor" had filmed there (the being 2005). The filming locations for this season were the same as those used in "Survivor: Palau", with Airai living in the former Koror camp and Malakal living in the former Ulong camp. Exile Island returned this season after being absent from "Survivor: China", with a new twist of one castaway from each tribe being sent to Exile Island where they competed to find the hidden immunity idol.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: The full cast of 20 contestants was revealed on January 3, 2008, by "Entertainment Weekly". For the first time since "Survivor: Panama", the final Tribal Council featured two rather than three finalists. This was also the first season to feature an even-numbered jury, with eight jurors rather than the usual seven or nine.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: In the end, Parvati Shallow defeated fellow Favorite Amanda Kimmel by a vote of 5–3 to become the Sole Survivor. The viewers' favorite contestants, as named on the reunion show, were James Clement, Kimmel and Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth. The season has been considered one of the show's best, with the blindside elimination of fifth-place contestant Erik Reichenbach by the four remaining female survivors – Parvati, Amanda, Cirie Fields and Natalie Bolton – as the series' best event.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: The contestants included ten new players, the Fans, and ten former players, the Favorites, from six previous seasons returning for their second chance at the game. The Fans were initially on the Airai tribe, with the Favorites on Malakal; both tribes were named after locations in Palau. The merged tribe was named Dabu by contestant Erik Reichenbach, who falsely claimed it to mean "good" in Micronesian.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: Parvati Shallow, Amanda Kimmel, James Clement and Cirie Fields returned to play "Survivor" for a third time in "". Ozzy Lusth returned to play a third time on "". Both Fields and Lusth also returned for their fourth time each on "". Jonathan Penner returned for his third time on "". Erik Reichenbach is at this time the only Fan returning as he was a Favorite in the second "Fans vs. Favorites" season, "". Shallow later returned to compete on "".


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: Outside of "Survivor", Lusth competed on the second season of "American Ninja Warrior". Eliza Orlins competed in "The Amazing Race 31" alongside two-time "Survivor" contestant Corinne Kaplan. Fields was a contestant on the USA Network reality competition series, "Snake in the Grass".


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: This season pitted a tribe of "Favorites", ten returning "Survivor" contestants, against a tribe of "Fans", ten new players. The Favorites tribe was run by a majority alliance of Amanda, Cirie, Parvati, James, and Ozzy, while the Fans failed to form consistent alliances. After four eliminations, with the tribes still at equal numbers, the tribes were swapped through a schoolyard pick. On both tribes, the Favorites worked to eliminate the Fans, who continued to succumb to infighting.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: After the merge, the remaining Fans attempted to form alliances with the Favorites that held the majority. A core alliance of Amanda, Parvati and Cirie worked with female Fans Natalie and Alexis to blindside several threats, working covertly to avoid suspicion and advancing to the final six with Erik, who had been safeguarded by repeated immunity challenge wins. Amanda was targeted for being a threat after Erik won immunity again; she saved herself with a hidden immunity idol and Alexis was eliminated. Erik won immunity yet again, but the others convinced him he was safe regardless; he gave the necklace to Natalie in an attempt to gain her trust, and the women promptly voted him off.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: Amanda, Cirie and Parvati achieved their goal of becoming the final three, but were surprised by one last immunity challenge and elimination; Amanda won the challenge and eliminated Cirie, who she perceived to be the greater threat to win. The jury intensely questioned both finalists and awarded Parvati the victory in a 5–3 decision.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: This season received universal acclaim from both fans and critics, and is generally considered one of the best seasons of the show. Jeff Probst originally ranked it as his second-favorite season of all time (behind "Borneo"), stating that "The Parvati-led women's alliance produced some of the most memorable moments in the history of the show." Probst also stated that the Tribal Council in which Erik Reichenbach was eliminated was his favorite of all the seasons, and that Palau was his favorite filming location. Survivor columnist Dalton Ross of "Entertainment Weekly" also rated the season as the second-best season, saying that it had "great characters and the perfect mix of solid and stupid gameplay." He later ranked this season and "Borneo" as tied for the best seasons, saying,


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: Ross, in a 2019 "Entertainment Weekly" oral history discussion of Erik's elimination episode, named the resulting blindside as the greatest "Survivor" moment in the show's history.


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: "Slant" magazine gave the season a 3.5-star rating out of 4, saying "Never in "Survivor" history has there been such a string of shocking tribal councils one right after the next." Andy Dehnart of "reality blurred" also gave the season a positive review, stating that the moment where Erik gave individual immunity to Natalie helped make ""Survivor: Micronesia" the best season ever—or at least, the best second half of a season ever." In 2014, Joe Reid of "The Wire" ranked it as the sixth-best season of the series. "Survivor" fan site ""Survivor" Oz" ranked "Micronesia" as the second-best season of the series (behind "Heroes vs. Villains") in its annual polls in 2012 and 2013, while it was ranked fourth in 2014 and fifth in 2015. "The Purple Rock Podcast" ranked it as the fifth-best season. In 2015, in a poll held on the website of former "Survivor" contestant Rob Cesternino, "Micronesia" was ranked as the fourth-greatest season of the series by the website's users, while Cesternino himself personally ranked it as the second-best season, behind "". This was updated in 2021 during Cesternino's podcast, "Survivor All-Time Top 40 Rankings", ranking 4th out of 40. In 2020, "Inside Survivor" ranked this season 7th out of 40, calling it a "strong season from start to finish with a few bumps along the way".


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: In the official "CBS Watch" issue commemorating "Survivor"s 15th anniversary, "Micronesia" was voted by viewers as the third-greatest season of the series, behind "Heroes vs. Villains" and "". Another poll in the same magazine, asking viewers to vote for the most memorable moment in the series, saw Ozzy's elimination in episode ten come in second, behind Sandra Diaz-Twine burning Russell Hantz's hat in "Heroes vs. Villains".


title: Survivor: Micronesia

text: The gameplay of Shallow was very well-received by fans and critics alike. In the official issue of "CBS Watch" commemorating the 15th anniversary of "Survivor", Shallow was voted by viewers as the fourth greatest contestant in the history of the series (only behind Rob Cesternino, Russell Hantz, and Rob Mariano), and was the highest-ranking female contestant. In 2017, "Entertainment Weekly" had fans of the series rank the 34 winners and Shallow came in 1st place. In 2015, host Jeff Probst named Shallow one of his top ten favorite "Survivor" winners, and one of his top four favorite female winners. In 2020, before the premiere of "", Probst named Shallow the best winner ever.


title: Maltodextrin

text: Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that is used as a food ingredient. It is produced from vegetable starch by partial hydrolysis and is usually found as a white hygroscopic spray-dried powder. Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose and may be either moderately sweet or almost flavorless (depending on the degree of polymerisation). It can be found as an ingredient in a variety of processed foods.


title: Maltodextrin

text: Maltodextrin consists of -glucose units connected in chains of variable length. The glucose units are primarily linked with α(1→4) glycosidic bonds, like that seen in the linear derivative of glycogen (after the removal of α1,6- branching). Maltodextrin is typically composed of a mixture of chains that vary from three to 17 glucose units long.


title: Maltodextrin

text: Maltodextrins are classified by DE (dextrose equivalent) and have a DE between 3 and 20. The higher the DE value, the shorter the glucose chains, the higher the sweetness, the higher the solubility, and the lower the heat resistance. Above DE 20, the European Union's CN code calls it glucose syrup; at DE 10 or lower the customs CN code nomenclature classifies maltodextrins as dextrins.


title: Maltodextrin

text: Maltodextrin can be enzymatically derived from any starch. In the US, this starch is usually corn (maize); in Europe, it is common to use wheat. In the European Union, wheat-derived maltodextrin is exempt from wheat allergen labeling, as set out in Annex II of EC Regulation No 1169/2011. In the United States, however, it is not exempt from allergen declaration per the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, and its effect on a voluntary gluten-free claim must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis per the applicable Food and Drug Administration policy.


title: Maltodextrin

text: Maltodextrin is used to improve the texture and mouthfeel of food and beverage products, such as potato chips and "light" peanut butter to reduce the fat content. Maltodextrin may be taken as a dietary supplement in powder form, gel packets, or energy drinks. It is also used as a substitute for lactose.


title: Maltodextrin

text: It is also used as a filler in sugar substitutes and other products. Maltodextrin has a glycemic index ranging from 85 to 105, higher than table sugar.


title: Maltodextrin

text: Maltodextrin is used as a horticultural insecticide both in the field and in greenhouses. It has no biochemical action. Its efficacy is based upon spraying a dilute solution upon the pest insects, whereupon the solution dries, blocks the insects' spiracles and causes death by asphyxiation.


title: Quechua people

text: Quechua people (, ; ) or Quichua people, may refer to any of the aboriginal people of South America who speak the Quechua languages, which originated among the Indigenous people of Peru. Although most Quechua speakers are native to Peru, there are some significant populations in Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina.


title: Quechua people

text: The most common Quechua dialect is Southern Quechua. The Kichwa people of Ecuador speak the Kichwa dialect; in Colombia, the Inga people speak Inga Kichwa.


title: Quechua people

text: The Quechua word for a Quechua speaker is "runa" or "nuna" ("person"); the plural is "runakuna" or "nunakuna" ("people"). "Quechua speakers call themselves Runa -- simply translated, 'the people.'"


title: Quechua people

text: The speakers of Quechua, totaling some 5.1 million people in Peru, 1.8 million in Bolivia, 2.5 million in Ecuador (Hornberger and King, 2001), and according to Ethnologue (2006) 33,800 in Chile, 55,500 in Argentina, and a few hundred in Brazil, have an only slight sense of common identity. The various Quechua dialects are in some cases so different that no mutual understanding is possible. Quechua was not only spoken by the Incas, but also by their long-term enemies of the Inca Empire, like the Huanca (Wanka is a Quechua dialect spoken today in the Huancayo area) and the Chanka (the Chanca dialect of Ayacucho) of Peru, and the Kañari (Cañari) in Ecuador. Quechua was spoken by some of these people, for example, the Wanka, before the Incas of Cusco, while other people, especially in Bolivia but also in Ecuador, adopted Quechua only in Inca times or afterward.


title: Quechua people

text: Quechua became Peru's second official language in 1969 under the military dictatorship of Juan Velasco Alvarado. Recently there have been tendencies toward nation building among Quechua speakers, particularly in Ecuador (Kichwa) but also in Bolivia, where there are only slight linguistic differences from the original Peruvian version. An indication of this effort is the umbrella organization of the Kichwa peoples in Ecuador, ECUARUNARI ("Ecuador Runakunapak Rikcharimuy"). Some Christian organizations also refer to a "Quechua people", such as the Christian shortwave radio station HCJB, "The Voice of the Andes" ("La Voz de los Andes"). The term "Quechua Nation" occurs in such contexts as the name of the Education Council of the Quechua Nation ("Consejo Educativo de la Nación Quechua", CENAQ), which is responsible for Quechua instruction or bilingual intercultural schools in the Quechua-speaking regions of Bolivia. Some Quechua speakers claim that if nation states in Latin America had been built following the European pattern, they should be a single, independent nation.


title: Quechua people

text: Despite their ethnic diversity and linguistic distinctions, the various Quechua ethnic groups have numerous cultural characteristics in common. They also share many of these with the Aymara, or other Indigenous peoples of the central Andes.


title: Quechua people

text: Traditionally, Quechua identity is locally oriented and inseparably linked in each case with the established economic system. It is based on agriculture in the lower altitude regions, and on pastoral farming in the higher regions of the Puna. The typical Andean community extends over several altitude ranges and thus includes the cultivation of a variety of arable crops and/or livestock. The land is usually owned by the local community ("ayllu") and is either cultivated jointly or redistributed annually.


title: Quechua people

text: Beginning with the colonial era and intensifying after the South American states had gained their independence, large landowners appropriated all or most of the land and forced the Native population into bondage (known in Ecuador as "Huasipungo", from Kichwa "wasipunku", "front door"). Harsh conditions of exploitation repeatedly led to revolts by the Indigenous farmers, which were forcibly suppressed. The largest of these revolts occurred 1780–1781 under the leadership of José Gabriel Kunturkanki.


title: Quechua people

text: Some Indigenous farmers re-occupied their ancestors' lands and expelled the landlords during the takeover of governments by dictatorships in the middle of the 20th century, such as in 1952 in Bolivia (Víctor Paz Estenssoro) and 1968 in Peru (Juan Velasco Alvarado). The agrarian reforms included the expropriation of large landowners. In Bolivia there was a redistribution of the land to the Indigenous population as their private property. This disrupted traditional Quechua and Aymara culture based on communal ownership, but "ayllus" have been retained up to the present time in remote regions, such as in the Peruvian Quechua community of Q'ero.


title: Quechua people

text: The struggle for land rights continues up to the present time to be a political focal point of everyday Quechua life. The Kichwa ethnic groups of Ecuador which are part of the ECUARUNARI association were recently able to regain communal land titles or the return of estates—in some cases through militant activity. Especially the case of the community of Sarayaku has become well known among the Kichwa of the lowlands, who after years of struggle were able to successfully resist expropriation and exploitation of the rain forest for petroleum recovery.


title: Quechua people

text: A distinction is made between two primary types of joint work. In the case of "mink'a", people work together for projects of common interest (such as the construction of communal facilities). "Ayni" is, in contrast, reciprocal assistance, whereby members of an "ayllu" help a family to accomplish a large private project, for example house construction, and in turn can expect to be similarly helped later with a project of their own.


title: Quechua people

text: In almost all Quechua ethnic groups, many traditional handicrafts are an important aspect of material culture. This includes a tradition of weaving handed down from Inca times or earlier, using cotton, wool (from llamas, alpacas, guanacos, vicunas) and a multitude of natural dyes, and incorporating numerous woven patterns ("pallay"). Houses are usually constructed using air-dried clay bricks ("tika", or in Spanish "adobe"), or branches and clay mortar (“wattle and daub”), with the roofs being covered with straw, reeds, or puna grass ("ichu").


title: Quechua people

text: The disintegration of the traditional economy, for example, regionally through mining activities and accompanying proletarian social structures, has usually led to a loss of both ethnic identity and the Quechua language. This is also a result of steady migration to large cities (especially to Lima), which has resulted in acculturation by Hispanic society there.


title: Quechua people

text: Quechua peoples cultivate and eat a variety of foods. They domesticated potatoes and cultivate thousands of potato varieties, which are used for food and medicine. Climate change is threatening their potato and other traditional crops but they are undertaking conservation and adaptation efforts. Quinoa is another staple crop grown by Quechua peoples.


title: Quechua people

text: "Ch’arki" (the origin of the English word "jerky") is a Quechua dried (and sometimes salted) meat. It was traditionally made from llama meat that was sun- and freeze-dried in the Andean sun and cold nights, but is now also often made from horse and beef, with variation among countries.


title: Quechua people

text: "Pachamanca", a Quechua word for a pit cooking technique used in Peru, includes several types of meat such as chicken, beef, pork, lamb, and/or mutton; tubers such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, yucca, "uqa"/"ok’a" ("oca" in Spanish), and mashwa; other vegetables such as maize/corn and fava beans; seasonings; and sometimes cheese in a small pot and/or tamales.


title: Quechua people

text: Guinea pigs are also sometimes raised for meat. Other foods and crops include the meat of llamas and alpacas as well as beans, barley, hot peppers, coriander, and peanuts.


title: Quechua people

text: Up to the present time Quechuas continue to be victims of political conflicts and ethnic persecution. In the internal conflict in Peru in the 1980s between the government and "Sendero Luminoso" about three-quarters of the estimated 70,000 death toll were Quechuas, whereas the war parties were without exception whites and "mestizos" (people with mixed descent from both Natives and Spaniards).


title: Quechua people

text: The forced sterilization policy under Alberto Fujimori affected almost exclusively Quechua and Aymara women, a total exceeding 200,000. Sterilization program lasted for over 5 years between 1996 and 2001. During this period, women were coerced into forced sterilization. Sterilizations were often performed under dangerous and unsanitary conditions, as the doctors were pressured to perform operations under unrealistic government quotas, which made it impossible to properly inform women and receive their consent. The Bolivian film director Jorge Sanjinés dealt with the issue of forced sterilization in 1969 in his Quechua-language feature film "Yawar Mallku".


title: Quechua people

text: Quechuas have been left out of their nation's regional economic growth in recent years. The World Bank has identified eight countries on the continent to have some of the highest inequality rates in the world. The Quechuas have been subject to these severe inequalities, as many of them have a much lower life expectancy than the regional average, and many communities lack access to basic health services.


title: Quechua people

text: Perceived ethnic discrimination continues to play a role at the parliamentary level. When the newly elected Peruvian members of parliament Hilaria Supa Huamán and María Sumire swore their oath of office in Quechua—for the first time in the history of Peru in an Indigenous language—the Peruvian parliamentary president Martha Hildebrandt and the parliamentary officer Carlos Torres Caro refused their acceptance.


title: Quechua people

text: Practically all Quechuas in the Andes have been nominally Roman Catholic since colonial times. Nevertheless, traditional religious forms persist in many regions, blended with Christian elements - a fully integrated Syncretism. Quechua ethnic groups also share traditional religions with other Andean peoples, particularly belief in Mother Earth ("Pachamama"), who grants fertility and to whom burnt offerings and libations are regularly made. Also important are the mountain spirits ("apu") as well as lesser local deities ("wak'a"), who are still venerated especially in southern Peru.


title: Quechua people

text: The Quechuas came to terms with their repeated historical experience of tragedy in the form of various myths. These include the figure of "Nak'aq" or "Pishtaco" ("butcher"), the white murderer who sucks out the fat from the bodies of the Indigenous peoples he kills, and a song about a bloody river. In their myth of "Wiraquchapampa", the Q'ero people describe the victory of the "Apus" over the Spaniards. Of the myths still alive today, the "Inkarrí" myth common in southern Peru is especially interesting; it forms a cultural element linking the Quechua groups throughout the region from Ayacucho to Cusco. Some Quechua people consider classic products of the region - such as the Corn beer Chicha, Coca leaves and local potatoes as having a religious significance, but this belief is not uniform across communities.


title: Quechua people

text: Quinine, which is found naturally in bark of cinchona tree, is known to be used by Quechuas people for malaria-like symptoms.


title: Quechua people

text: When chewed, coca acts as a mild stimulant and suppresses hunger, thirst, pain, and fatigue; it is also used to alleviate altitude sickness. Coca leaves are chewed during work in the fields as well as during breaks in construction projects in Quechua provinces. Coca leaves are the raw material from which cocaine, one of Peru's most historically important exports, is chemically extracted.


title: Quechua people

text: Many Indigenous women wear the colorful traditional attire, complete with bowler style hat. The hat has been worn by Quechua and Aymara women since the 1920s, when it was brought to the country by British railway workers. They are still commonly worn today.


title: Quechua people

text: The traditional dress worn by Quechua women today is a mixture of styles from Pre-Spanish days and Spanish Colonial peasant dress. Starting at puberty, Quechua girls begin wearing multiple layers of petticoats and skirts; the more petticoats and skirts worn by a young woman, the more desirable a bride she would be, due to her family's wealth (represented by the number of petticoats and skirts). Married women also wear multiple layers of petticoats and skirts. Younger Quechua men generally wear Western-style clothing, the most popular being synthetic football shirts and tracksuit pants. In certain regions, women also generally wear Western-style clothing. Older men still wear dark wool knee-length handwoven bayeta pants. A woven belt called a "chumpi" is also worn which provides protection to the lower back when working in the fields. Men's fine dress includes a woollen waistcoat, similar to a sleeveless juyuna as worn by the women but referred to as a "chaleco". "Chalecos" can be richly decorated.


title: Quechua people

text: The most distinctive part of men's clothing is the handwoven poncho. Nearly every Quechua man and boy has a poncho, generally red in colour decorated with intricate designs. Each district has a distinctive pattern. In some communities such as Huilloc, Patacancha, and many villages in the Lares Valley ponchos are worn as daily attire. However most men use their ponchos on special occasions such as festivals, village meetings, weddings etc.


title: Quechua people

text: As with the women, ajotas, sandals made from recycled tyres, are the standard footwear. They are cheap and durable.


title: Quechua people

text: A "ch'ullu" is frequently worn. This is a knitted hat with earflaps. The first ch'ullu that a child receives is traditionally knitted by his father. In the Ausangate region chullos are often ornately adorned with white beads and large tassels called t'ikas. Men sometimes wear a felt hat called a sombrero over the top of the ch'ullu decorated with "centillo", finely decorated hat bands.


title: Quechua people

text: Since ancient times men have worn small woven pouches called "ch'uspa" used to carry their coca leaves.


title: Quechua people

text: The following list of Quechua ethnic groups is only a selection and delimitations vary. In some cases these are village communities of just a few hundred people, in other cases ethnic groups of over a million.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings () is a 2011 action role-playing video game developed by CD Projekt Red, based on "The Witcher" series of fantasy novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. It is the sequel to the 2007 game "The Witcher" and the second main installment in "The Witcher"'s video game series. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, OS X, and Linux.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: The player directs the actions of Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter known as a Witcher. The fantasy world in which his adventures take place owes much to Polish history and Slavic mythology.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: The game was both a critical and commercial success, selling over 8 million copies by September 2014. The third installment in the series, "", was released in May 2015.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: The gameplay of "The Witcher 2" is a marked departure from that of its predecessor. Combat, for instance, is much more complex, with additions in the form of abilities to lay traps and aim and throw ranged weapons. The protagonist, Geralt, has an improved offensive and defensive arsenal, with a wide range of melee and ranged weapons, armor, bombs, traps, and secondary weapons such as hatchets and shovels. Upgrades are divided into four distinct paths: an initial training path, which includes generalized upgrades for various core abilities and must be invested in before the other paths can be accessed; swordsmanship, which improves Geralt's sword-fighting abilities; alchemy, which includes perks such as reducing the negative effects of potions; and magic, which improves Witcher Signs.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: "The Witcher 2" includes a stealth mode in certain parts of the game, where players must remain undetected as they make their way to a certain objective. Players have the option of stunning enemies if Geralt manages to get behind them, but the player may choose to take a less subtle approach and engage the guards in combat.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: The player controls Geralt of Rivia, who is one of the few remaining witchers – enhanced and trained humans with special powers who hunt monsters for a living. "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings" contains many different paths and storylines, along with multiple endings.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: At the start of the game, Geralt is in prison under suspicion of assassinating Foltest, the king of Temeria. The head of the Temerian special forces, Vernon Roche, interrogates Geralt and learns the story that led from Geralt being Foltest's right-hand man to a prisoner. Prior to and during the events of The Witcher, Foltest had a secret relationship with a baroness named Maria Louisa La Valette, which led to two children, Anais and Boussy. Some time after Geralt saved Foltest from a witcher assassin (at the end of "The Witcher"), Foltest attempted to claim his children and bring them to live with him in Vizima. Maria was not willing to give up the children, and Foltest waged a war to claim them. Geralt succeeded in escorting Foltest to his children, but an unknown assailant kills Foltest before disappearing, leaving Geralt the only suspect. After the interrogation, Roche decides that Geralt is innocent and aids him in escaping the prison. The two, along with sorceress Triss Merigold, go in search of the kingslayer.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: The trio arrives in the trading town of Flotsam and is ambushed by Iorveth, a rebel elf. It appears to the group that a witcher, believed to have assassinated King Demavend of the neighboring country of Aedirn, is in league with the rebels. Geralt saves his old friends, the bard Dandelion and the dwarf Zoltan Chivay, from being hanged in the city square. With the help of sorceress Síle de Tansarville, Geralt kills a Kayran, a giant monster that is disrupting the town's trade routes. Geralt discovers that Loredo, the ostensibly Temerian commander of the town, is intending to sell the town to King Henselt of Kaedwen. He also discovers that the kingslayer, a witcher known as Letho, means to betray Iorveth and convinces the elf of the truth. As Geralt and Iorveth confront Letho, Roche arrives with an armed force. The player chooses between assisting Iorveth or Roche, thus setting the path of the second chapter. Regardless of the choice, Letho kidnaps Triss and forces her to teleport both of them to Aedirn.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: If Geralt assists Iorveth, the pair sail to upper Aedirn. There, they become embroiled in a rebellion against King Henselt of neighboring Kaedwen, and they assist the rebel forces. Geralt completes three missions: formulating a poison antidote for rebel leader Saskia, determining Triss's whereabouts (captured by spies from the empire of Nilfgaard and taken to Loc Muinne), and lifting a battlefield curse that is preventing the rebels from defending Vergen, the rebel's base of operations. The rebels defeat King Henselt's army, and Henselt is forced to acknowledge Saskia's terms. Geralt discovers Saskia is a dragon taking human form, but she is under mind control by her advisor, the sorceress Philippa Eilhart. When Philippa teleports Saskia and herself to Loc Muinne, Geralt and Iorveth follow.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: If Geralt assists Roche, Roche has Geralt assassinate Loredo for treason. Geralt and Roche sail to upper Aedirn. There, they also become embroiled in the rebellion against King Henselt, but assist the king instead of fighting against him. Geralt discovers an insurgency in the Kaedweni army: loyalists who are convinced Henselt is conspiring with the empire of Nilfgaard. Geralt completes three missions: determining Triss's whereabouts (captured by a diplomatic delegation from Nilfgaard and taken to Loc Muinne), lifting a curse on King Henselt, and lifting a battlefield curse that is preventing the king from marching on the city of Vergen. Geralt defends Henselt from two witcher assassins and assists Dethmold the mage and royal advisor to King Henselt in necromancy ritual to discover they are in league with Síle de Tansarville, who has already fled to Loc Muinne with fellow sorceress Philippa Eilhart and entranced rebel leader Saskia in tow. Roche is revealed to be plotting against Kaedwen, and Henselt executes most of Roche's men in retaliation. As Henselt assaults Vergen, Geralt defeats Henselt's personal guard, and either allows Roche to murder Henselt in revenge (which causes a civil war in Kaedwen) or convinces him to spare the king. Geralt and Roche then go to Loc Muinne, on the trail of Triss and Philippa.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: Geralt arrives at Loc Muinne with either Iorveth or Roche, depending on whom he assisted previously. The mages have called a meeting to establish a new magical ruling body known as the Conclave, and all royal leaders are at Loc Muinne. Philippa Eilhart and Síle de Tansarville intend to use the meeting to establish their own power, with the still-entranced Saskia as leverage.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: If Geralt arrives with Iorveth, he must choose between rescuing Triss or rescuing Philippa, who is the only person capable of lifting the spell from Saskia but who was captured and blinded by the king of Redania. If Geralt arrives with Roche, he must choose between rescuing Triss or rescuing the kidnapped Princess Anais of Temeria. Depending on the choice, the mage-royal meeting is interrupted when Nilfgaardian forces arrive with Letho, who reveals the sorceresses' entire plot, or if Triss is rescued – regardless of whom Geralt assisted – she reveals the sorceresses' plot instead. The meeting is interrupted again by Saskia in dragon form, who is still under mind control by Philippa. Geralt chases down Síle, who attempts to use her megascope (a magical teleporter) to escape. However, Letho had sabotaged the megascope, in which Síle becomes stuck. Geralt can either rescue Síle or do nothing, in which case Síle is torn to bits. Finally, Geralt duels Saskia, after which he can kill her, let her live, or (if he rescued Phillipa earlier) break the spell over Saskia's mind.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: If Triss was rescued, the Conclave is restored and the mages work to seal Loc Muinne. If Triss was not rescued, a bloody pogrom of magic users occurs in Loc Muinne and throughout the Northern Kingdoms. Geralt finally confronts Letho, who reveals a Nilfgaardian plot to destabilize the Northern Kingdoms. After hearing Letho's story, Geralt can either let him go or duel him to the death. Geralt then reunites with Triss and either Iorveth or Roche, and sets off south. A concurrent plot of the game is Geralt's attempts to recover lost memories from his previous life, learning more about his beloved Yennefer, and the mythical Wild Hunt. The post-credit scene reveals a wood gathering peasant witnessing a Nilfgaardian invasion, setting the stage for "".


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings" was announced on 18 September 2009. CD Projekt Red developed a proprietary engine, the REDengine, for the game, unlike the first installment, which ran on a modified version of BioWare's Aurora Engine. The game incorporates the Havok physics engine.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: "The Witcher 2" features a branching dialogue system with full voice acting, which was cast, directed, and recorded in London, England. The developers said that the game would have 16 different endings, although that was later clarified as 16 "states of the world" by the game's end. The game drew from influences such as "Demon's Souls", "Heavy Rain", and "".


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: CD Projekt Red released the first gameplay video on 25 March 2011, showcasing different methods with which a player could complete a level. Another gameplay video was revealed at Gamescom 2011, displaying the game's many characters and settings. An Xbox 360 version was announced on 2 June 2011, with CD Projekt Red confirming that it would be released by the end of the year. However, on 1 August 2011, the Xbox 360 release date was pushed back to the first quarter of 2012 to give the team "more time expanding and polishing certain elements of the gameplay" and to allow the developers time to deal with legal issues surrounding distribution rights for the game.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: During the game's initial announcement, CD Projekt Red that their parent company CD Projekt would self-distribute the game in Poland, in addition to Central Europe. A contract with Agora S.A. was also announced to allow the company to co-produce the game in Poland. Distribution deals with Atari in North America and 1C Company/Snowball Studios in Russia were verified, while a European distribution plan was still under negotiations. On May 25, 2010, it was announced that Namco Bandai Partners would be the game's distributor in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: On 14 April 2011, CD Projekt Red announced during their CDP Days 2011 Spring Conference that retail copies of the game would feature SecuRom digital rights management (DRM). However, the protection would still allow for infinite installations on an infinite number of PCs, with the ability to play on up to five PCs at any one time. It was confirmed that the game would feature no censorship between regions. "The Witcher 2" was also distributed through several digital distribution services such as Steam and CD Projekt Red's own service GOG.com. The version sold on GOG.com was the only version that did not have any DRM at release.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: On 3 May 2011, Namco Bandai Partners Australia confirmed that the Australian release of the game would be modified to meet the MA15+ rating. The edit specifically relates to a side quest in which Geralt is offered sex as a reward for completing the quest. The Australian version sees Geralt decline the offer automatically. Three weeks prior to this announcement, the game was removed from the Australian Steam store, causing outrage amongst the Australian gaming community. Additionally, CD Projekt Red's digital distribution service GOG.com announced that the price of the Australian version would be increased due to licensing issues, but that customers could still pre-order the game for its original price 17 hours before the change.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings" was released for PC on 17 May 2011 at retail stores and digital distribution services such as GOG and Steam.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: On 30 June 2011, it was announced that THQ would be the distributor for the Xbox 360 version of the game for Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East instead of Namco Bandai Partners. On 8 July 2011, Namco Bandai sued CD Projekt, accusing CD Projekt of breaking its contractual obligations with the publisher. On 8 December 2011, Namco Bandai won the suit, and CD Projekt Red's distribution agreement with THQ was canceled.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: On October 21, 2011, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment signed as the North American distributor for the Xbox 360 version.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: UK supermarket chain Tesco released the Xbox 360 version of the game on Friday 13 April 2012 – four days ahead of the scheduled release date – and were asked to pull the game off the shelves until the original release date.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: GOG promoted the game by reducing the price of "The Witcher" a week before the sequel's release. They encouraged players to import their save files from the first game to the second. Steam offered three promotional "The Witcher 2" items for "Team Fortress 2". These were a hat of hair, a sword, and a necklace, which were limited to the game's Scout class. The May 2011 issue of the Polish version of "Playboy" featured the half-naked character Triss on the cover. In Russia, publishers 1C Company released a real-life nude calendar with copies of the game. When American President Barack Obama visited Poland in May 2011, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk gave him several gifts, including the Collector's Edition of "The Witcher 2".


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: On 27 January 2012, CD Projekt Red announced an "Enhanced Edition" of "The Witcher 2" via its sister company GOG.com. It was released on 17 April 2012 on the Xbox 360 and on Microsoft Windows via Steam and GOG.com. All existing owners of "The Witcher 2" received free upgrades to the Enhanced Edition, and could pre-load the update starting 11 April 2012. All new copies on PC and Xbox 360 shipped with the additional content on board. "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings" - Enhanced Edition includes all content from the base game and added over 10GB of new content, including four hours of gameplay, arena mode, new tutorial, 36 minutes of cinematics including a new intro created by Platige Image and an outro, as well as a host of fixes to gameplay and the interface.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings" received generally favorable reviews. It has won over 50 awards for best graphics, best adaptation or use of a license, best story, best PC game, best RPG, and Game of the Year.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: Critics praised combat mechanics, customization, graphics, environments, immersion, and storytelling. "PC Gamer" felt that combat mechanics and the game's ending were the weaker points of the game. 1UP's Tom Chick gave the game a glowing 'A' rating and cited its "rich graphics that don't have to be flashy, complex challenging combat, and superlative low-fantasy writing". The game garnered some perfect scores, with "GamePro" saying that ""The Witcher 2" embodies everything that's good about PC development, and everything that makes it, in my mind, the best platform out there." "Game Informer" gave the game a "platinum score" and mentioned that "the brilliant dark fantasy adventure is just as good on console" as it was on PC.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: A major source of contention about the game is the difficulty of the combat, especially during the game's first few hours. Some sources such as Eurogamer have praised the difficulty of the prologue, explaining "[the game] treats you not as a player ... but as an adult, free to make your own mistakes and suffer a plot in which not everyone gets what they deserve".


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: The game was also criticized for what "Rock, Paper, Shotgun" characterized as gratuitous nudity, especially in the topless scene of the character Maria Louisa La Valette, who is said to show "brazen breasts" while being threatened with torture, her breasts sexualizing a scene that should be gravely serious. Other critics felt the scene was simply being realistic, in that a woman in the real world who is about to be tortured would probably have bare breasts.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: In June 2014, the game garnered mainstream media coverage when United States President Barack Obama mentioned the video game in his speech in Poland. He said:


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: "The Witcher 2" had reportedly sold more than 940,000 copies by August 2011, a sales rate that CD Projekt Red had projected. Of the 940,000 copies sold, 200,000 were online sales (digital sales).


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: Additional statistics for online sales were reported in November 2011. Direct2Drive, Impulse, and Gamersgate's combined sales were a total of 10,000 units. GOG sold 40,000 copies. Within the same time period, 200,000 copies of "The Witcher 2" were sold on Steam.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: By May 2012, the game had sold 1.7 million copies. By February 2013, the combined sales of the game and its predecessor exceeded 5 million. By March 2014, "The Witcher" series had sold 7 million copies of both games. By September 2014, the series reached 8 million copies.


title: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

text: "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" was announced by CD Projekt Red on 5 February 2013, and was released on 19 May 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Amber Augusta Rudd (born 1 August 1963) is a British former politician who served as Home Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2018 to 2019. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hastings and Rye, first elected in 2010, representing the Conservative Party, and stood down from parliament in 2019. She identifies herself as a one-nation conservative, and has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd was born in Marylebone and studied History at the University of Edinburgh School of History, Classics and Archaeology. Rudd worked as an investment banker before being elected to the House of Commons for Hastings and Rye in East Sussex in 2010, defeating incumbent Labour MP Michael Foster. Rudd served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron Government, where she worked on renewable energy resources and climate change mitigation. She previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Energy and Climate Change from 2014 to 2015.


title: Amber Rudd

text: She was appointed Home Secretary in the May government on 13 July 2016, and given the additional role of Minister for Women and Equalities in January 2018. Rudd was the third female Home Secretary, the fifth woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State and the fastest-rising politician to a Great Office of State since the Second World War (before Rishi Sunak was made the chancellor of the Exchequer in 2020). She resigned as Home Secretary in April 2018 in connection with the Windrush deportation scandal.


title: Amber Rudd

text: On 16 November 2018, Rudd was appointed Work and Pensions Secretary by Prime Minister Theresa May, succeeding Esther McVey. She was re-appointed by Boris Johnson on 24 July 2019 and succeeded Penny Mordaunt in her previous portfolio as Minister for Women and Equalities. On 7 September, Rudd resigned from his cabinet and resigned the Conservative whip in Parliament, to protest against Johnson's policy on Brexit and his decision to expel 21 Tory MPs. She announced on 30 October that she would be standing down as an MP at the next general election.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd was born on 1 August 1963 in Marylebone, London, the fourth child of stockbroker Tony Rudd (1924–2017) and magistrate Ethne Fitzgerald (1929–2008), daughter of Maurice Fitzgerald QC (grandson of the judge and Liberal politician John FitzGerald, Baron FitzGerald of Kilmarnock) and Christine (daughter of American "émigré" Augustus Maunsell Bradhurst). Tony Rudd and Ethne Fitzgerald were married for 56 years. Through her mother, Rudd is a direct descendant of King Charles II and his mistress Barbara Palmer. Her elder brother Roland is a public relations executive, and was a prominent Labour supporter.


title: Amber Rudd

text: She was educated at New Hall School, Cheltenham Ladies' College, an independent school in Gloucestershire, and from 1979 to 1981 at Queen's College, London, an independent day school for girls in London, followed by Edinburgh University where she read History. After graduating from university, she joined J.P. Morgan & Co., working in both London and New York.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd became a director of the investment company Lawnstone Limited at the age of 24 in January 1988, taking over from her sister and brother-in-law. Lawnstone became involved with Zinc Corporation, which was taken over by Monticello in 1999, before going into liquidation in 2001.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd was a co-director of Monticello between 1999 and 2000, but the company was liquidated in 2003. Craig Murray has reported that Monticello "attracted many hundreds of investors... despite never appearing actually to do anything except pay its directors. Trawling through its documents at Companies House, I find it difficult to conclude that it was ever anything other than a share ramping scheme. After just over a year of existence it went bankrupt with over £1.2 million of debts and no important assets.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Between 1998 and 2000, she was also a director of two companies based in the Bahamas, Advanced Asset Allocation Fund and Advanced Asset Allocation Management.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd helped to find extras for the film "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994), for which she was credited as the "aristocracy co-ordinator", and appeared briefly in one of the church scenes in the film.


title: Amber Rudd

text: After she had stood at the 2005 general election as the Conservative candidate for the Labour-held seat of Liverpool Garston, Rudd's name was added to the Conservative A-List. Following her selection to contest the Hastings and Rye constituency in 2006, she moved to the Old Town in 2007. In the May 2010 general election, she was elected as the MP for Hastings and Rye with a majority of 1,993 votes. Shortly afterward she was elected to serve as a Conservative member on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd was vice-chair of the Parliamentary committee on female genital mutilation, which campaigned against FGM and called for tougher legal penalties in the area. She championed the cause of sex equality as chairperson of the All-party parliamentary group for Sex Equality, which published a report on women in work. Rudd chaired a cross-party enquiry into unplanned pregnancies, which called for statutory sex-and-relationships education in all secondary schools. She has also called for a higher proportion of women in Cabinet.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In September 2012, she was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to the chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. In October 2013, she became an assistant government whip. In July 2014, Rudd was appointed Minister for the Department for Energy and Climate Change.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Following the 2015 general election, where she held her seat with an increased majority, she was promoted as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. In May 2015, she was appointed as a member of the Privy Council.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In March 2015, she published England's first fuel poverty strategy in more than a decade, pledging to improve the Energy Performance Certificate of all fuel poor homes to Band C by 2030. She also passed legislation requiring energy suppliers to provide a £140 discount to certain vulnerable consumers over the winter and install energy efficiency measures.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In November 2015, she proposed that the UK's remaining coal-fired power stations would be shut by 2025 with their use restricted by 2023. "We need to build a new energy infrastructure, fit for the 21st century."


title: Amber Rudd

text: In July 2015, Craig Bennett of Friends of the Earth accused Rudd of hypocrisy in claiming to want to address climate change while at the same time, in his view, "dismantling an architecture of low-carbon policies carefully put together with cross-party agreement over the course of two parliaments". Rudd replied that "[Government] support must help technologies eventually stand on their own two feet, not encourage a permanent reliance on subsidy."


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd participated in ITV's Brexit referendum debate regarding the European Union. She campaigned for the Remain side alongside Nicola Sturgeon and Angela Eagle. They faced Gisela Stuart, Boris Johnson and Andrea Leadsom.


title: Amber Rudd

text: When Theresa May became Prime Minister in July 2016, Rudd was appointed Home Secretary, thus becoming the fifth woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State, after Margaret Thatcher, Margaret Beckett, Jacqui Smith and May herself.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In October 2016, she negated calls for Australian citizens to obtain easier access to live and work in the United Kingdom following the UK's departure from the European Union, which were supported by British Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary Boris Johnson, and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Rudd also dismissed the idea that a free movement zone between British and Australian citizens – a measure supported by former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott – would be established upon leaving the European Union, stating "there are no plans to increase immigration from Australia...so I wouldn't envisage any change".


title: Amber Rudd

text: She was reappointed as Home Secretary after the 2017 general election, in which she retained her seat at Hastings and Rye by 346 votes.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In August 2017, Rudd replied to an email hoaxer posing as the recently appointed Downing Street director of communications, Robbie Gibb, revealing that "positive announcements" were imminent. The hoaxer used Rudd's public domain parliamentary email address but she replied using her private email, which is not secure.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In September 2017 on "The Andrew Marr Show", Rudd accused Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson of trying to undermine the Prime Minister, Theresa May, calling him a 'back-seat driver'. She said to Andrew Marr: "I don't want him (Boris) managing the Brexit process."


title: Amber Rudd

text: On 3 October 2017, during the Conservative Party Conference, it was reported that Rudd had hired Tory pollster Lynton Crosby to help her increase her majority in Hastings and Rye, amid speculation that she was planning to launch a bid for leadership of the party.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In November 2017, after U.S. President Donald Trump retweeted 3 anti-Muslim videos from the far right group Britain First, Rudd criticised Trump for promoting the content and argued that Britain First is a hateful organisation. Rudd further went on that relations between the U.S. and Britain are vital to the safety of both countries and have saved British lives.


title: Amber Rudd

text: On 29 April 2018, Rudd resigned as Home Secretary after misleading the Home Affairs Select Committee on deportation targets. Later in the same day, Sajid Javid was appointed as Home Secretary.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In September 2018, during an interview on BBC Two's Politics Live, Rudd was asked if she planned a comeback, to which she replied that she was "not without ambition".


title: Amber Rudd

text: In October 2017, Rudd announced a move by the Conservative government to crack down on what British citizens are permitted to view on the internet. Piloted as part of a campaign against "radicalisation", Rudd stated that the government would be tightening the law so that British citizens repeatedly reading certain forbidden internet content could face up to 15 years in jail for looking at the websites. Rudd stated "I want to make sure those who view despicable terrorist content online, including jihadi websites, far-right propaganda and bomb-making instructions, face the full force of the law."


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd denied seeing a Home Office report saying cuts to the police force likely were a factor in rising violent crime. A section of the report states: "Since 2012–13, weighted crime demand on the police has risen, largely due to growth in recorded sex offences. At the same time officers’ numbers have fallen by 5% since 2014. So resources dedicated to serious violence have come under pressure and charge rates have dropped. This may have encouraged offenders. [It is] unlikely to be the factor that triggered the shift in serious violence, but may be an underlying driver that has allowed the rise to continue". Rudd had denied that falling police numbers contributed to increased crime. Yvette Cooper wrote, "This is shocking. Surely Home Office officials sent the document to Home Sec, to junior ministers and to special advisors? Cant imagine a department withholding from decision makers the evidence & analysis it did for a new strategy. Something has gone very wrong in Home Office".


title: Amber Rudd

text: On 16 November 2018, Rudd returned to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following the resignation of Esther McVey over opposition to Theresa May's Draft Withdrawal Agreement and the Brexit negotiations.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Following the resignation of Sarah Newton, Rudd took on Newton's responsibilities as Minister for Disabled People.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Ahead of the 2016 Brexit referendum, Rudd supported the UK remaining in the EU. From late 2018, Rudd said that a second referendum over Brexit might be appropriate. Rudd said, 'Parliament has to reach a majority on how it's going to leave the European Union. If it fails to do so, then I can see the argument for taking it back to the people again, much as it would distress many of my colleagues.'


title: Amber Rudd

text: While in then Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet, Rudd opposed no-deal Brexit commenting in March 2019 that it could cause 'generational damage' to the economy. However she withdrew her opposition to no-deal Brexit to retain her cabinet position in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet in July of that year. In June, Rudd described the prorogation of parliament in order to deliver Brexit as a 'ridiculous suggestion', and that it was 'outrageous to consider proroguing Parliament. We're not Stuart kings'.


title: Amber Rudd

text: On 7 September 2019 Rudd resigned from the cabinet and surrendered the Conservative whip (became an independent MP). She cited her reason for resigning as she felt that the government's main objective was a no-deal Brexit over leaving with a deal.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd has been involved in the campaign for the Hastings fishing fleet. Her maiden speech advocated wholesale reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd campaigned successfully for the construction of the Hastings to Bexhill Link Road. In early 2013, the Government gave the road the go-ahead for construction after ten years of campaigning. Rudd is now spearheading a campaign called Complete The Link to see the final stage of the road get funding for construction. She has supported electrification of the Marshlink Line from Hastings to , organising transport decision-makers for a series of rail summits. The line remains unbuilt as of December 2020, but if constructed would extend High Speed 1 into a high speed rail link from the constituency to Central London.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In April 2013, a profile of Rudd that appeared in the "Financial Times" reported her referring to "people who are on benefits, who prefer to be on benefits by the seaside... moving down here to have easier access to friends and drugs and drink." She responded by stating that "I am incredibly optimistic about Hastings. I described the well-known problems that Hastings has to the "Financial Times" but I also talked about the incredible investment in the town, the fact that unemployment is going down and that there are many positive things to say about it."


title: Amber Rudd

text: On 7 September 2019, Rudd confirmed that she would not be standing in Hastings and Rye because she did not want to divide loyalties in her constituency. However, she openly considered the possibility of standing in a London constituency, with Kensington, Putney and Chelsea and Fulham touted as possible seats. On 30 October 2019, Rudd announced in the "Evening Standard" that she was not going to contest the upcoming general election even though Prime Minister Boris Johnson had asked her to stand again as a Conservative candidate, although Downing Street denied this. However, she added that she was "not finished with politics", opening the door to a possible return to Parliament. In 2019, Rudd endorsed and campaigned for former Justice Secretary David Gauke who was standing as an Independent in South West Hertfordshire against the Conservative candidate. However, she supported the election of Conservative candidates and endorsed the party nationally.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In April 2018, it was reported that the children of immigrants of the "Windrush generation" who arrived before 1973 were being threatened with deportation by the British government if they could not prove their right to remain in the UK. However, the relevant documentation had been destroyed. Rudd apologised for the "appalling" treatment of the Windrush generation, but faced calls to resign from senior figures in the Labour Party. On 23 April 2018, Rudd announced that fees and language tests for citizenship applicants would be waived and compensation given to those affected amidst continued calls for her to resign.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd first denied there were targets for the removal of immigrants. Later, she maintained that she had not known of targets. Later still, "The Guardian" published leaked evidence that Rudd had known about targets: "The six-page memo, passed to the Guardian, says the department has set 'a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017–18' and indicates that 'we have exceeded our target of assisted returns'. It adds that progress has been made on a 'path towards the 10% increased performance on enforced returns, which we promised the Home Secretary earlier this year'". The revelation contradicted Rudd's public pronouncements concerning what she was aware of the targets for enforcing the removal of immigrants. The "New Statesman" said that the leaked memo gave, "in specific detail the targets set by the Home Office for the number of people to be removed from the United Kingdom. It suggests that Rudd misled MPs on at least one occasion. When questioned by Chair Yvette Cooper MP, she told the Home Affairs Select Committee that the Home Office had no targets for removals, then that she was unaware of these targets and that they would be scrapped. Now it emerges that she saw the relevant targets herself." Diane Abbott called for Rudd's resignation. In response, Rudd tweeted that she had not seen the memo "although it was copied to my office as many documents are", and said that she would make a further statement to the House of Commons.


title: Amber Rudd

text: On 29 April 2018, Rudd resigned as Home Secretary, stating in her letter of resignation that she had "inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee [...] on the issue of illegal immigration". In September 2018, during an interview on BBC Two's Politics Live, Rudd said that she had little choice but to resign given the "justifiable outrage" at the Government's handling of the Windrush generation.


title: Amber Rudd

text: During her time as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she was expected to make a final decision on the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, Rudd was criticised for not declaring a conflict of interest arising from her brother Roland's role as chairman and founder of Finsbury; his lobbying firm represented a company that had a £100 million construction contract for the power plant, and the Register of Members' Financial Interests had recently introduced a new category of "family members engaged in lobbying".


title: Amber Rudd

text: In October 2016, Rudd decided not to open an inquiry into the events at Orgreave during the 1984 miners' strike, saying that there was "not a sufficient basis for me to instigate either a statutory inquiry or an independent review". She failed to appear in Parliament to defend her decision, and was accused of having "cruelly misled" campaigners for justice in what they saw as her "bitter betrayal".


title: Amber Rudd

text: At the 2016 Conservative Party Conference, Rudd suggested that companies should be forced to disclose how many foreign workers they employ. The proposal was revealed as a key plank of a government drive to reduce net migration and encourage businesses to hire British staff. However, senior figures in the business world warned the plan would be a "complete anathema" to responsible employers, would be divisive, and would damage the British economy because foreign workers were hired to fill gaps in skills that British staff could not provide.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Labour responded by saying that the plan would "fan the flames of xenophobia and hatred in our communities" and the SNP described it as "the most disgraceful display of reactionary right-wing politics in living memory".


title: Amber Rudd

text: The plan was criticised as racist, leading Rudd to deny that she was racially prejudiced, and the plans were later dropped.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd's speech was recorded by West Midlands Police as a hate incident following a complaint by the physicist Joshua Silver, but was not investigated.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In August 2017, an emergency High Court hearing was held to examine Rudd's four-week delay in releasing an asylum seeker, who had been tortured in a Libyan prison, from a British detention centre. Concern was expressed that the Home Secretary failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the delay in releasing the man from detention. Rudd also failed to provide a barrister for this proceeding and was instead represented by a government solicitor, a move which the presiding judge described as "inconceivable".


title: Amber Rudd

text: In September 2017, "The Guardian" reported that Rudd had authorised the deportation of Samim Bigzad to Kabul, in breach of an earlier ruling banning her from doing so owing to the ongoing threat to his life from the Taliban. A High Court Judge found Rudd to be in contempt of court on three counts, after she ignored orders to return him to the UK. Bigzad was later returned to London.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In a radio interview in March 2019, Amber Rudd attacked racist and misogynistic attacks against then Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott claiming that online abuse "definitely is worse if you're a woman, it's worst of all if you're a coloured woman" and "I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse, that's something we need to call out." Rudd was the target of criticism for her use of the term "coloured" instead of "woman of colour". Responding in a tweet, Abbott said the term was "an outdated, offensive and revealing choice of words". Rudd apologised for the remarks, calling it "clumsy language".


title: Amber Rudd

text: Since leaving Parliament, Rudd was made a senior adviser at Teneo and an adviser to Darktrace. She is also a trustee of The Climate Group.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In July 2020, she began presenting her own show, "Split Opinion", on Times Radio, alongside her daughter, the journalist Flora Gill.


title: Amber Rudd

text: In August 2020 her name was given media coverage over her possible undertaking of the role of Chairman of the BBC.


title: Amber Rudd

text: According to her Twitter page, she now works "in the private sector, primarily in energy and cyber security."


title: Amber Rudd

text: In January 2022, British energy and services multinational company Centrica appointed Rudd as a non-executive director to the board of the company; she also took a seat on the Safety, Environment & Sustainability Committee and the Remuneration Committee of the company. GMB Union National Secretary Andy Prendergast criticised her appointment while British households and companies are facing unprecedented energy bills, saying that "her business background is questionable and her role as Energy Minister is marked by forcefully pushing for the competition system which has spectacularly failed over the last six months".


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd married the writer and critic A. A. Gill in 1990 and they had two children, including the journalist Flora Gill. The couple separated in 1995, after Gill entered into a long-term relationship with journalist Nicola Formby. Gill and Rudd later divorced. Rudd was formerly in a relationship with fellow Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng.


title: Amber Rudd

text: Rudd is a trustee of the Snowdon Trust, an organisation that helps young disabled people access education. Rudd has been a director of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize since 2003, an annual award for a first-time female playwright in the English language. She also served as a governor of The St Leonards Academy in Hastings.


title: Rambha (actress)

text: Rambha (born Vijayalakshmi; 5 June 1976) is an Indian actress. In a career spanning of almost two decades, Rambha had appeared in more than 100 films across eight regional languages, predominantly in Telugu and Tamil, in addition to Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi along with few Bengali, Bhojpuri and English films. She was one of the prominent actresses in India in the 90s and 2000s.


title: Rambha (actress)

text: Rambha was born as Vijayalakshmi in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh on 5 June 1976 into a Telugu family. She did her schooling at Atkinsons Senior Secondary School, Vijayawada. While she was studying in her seventh standard, she acted as "Ammavaru" (Mother Goddess) for her school's Annual Day competition. The event had been attended by director Hariharan who stayed in contact and later introduced her as the female lead in Malayalam film, "Sargam". Her first on-screen name was Amrutha, which she later changed as Rambha after the character name in her Telugu debut movie "Aa Okkati Adakku".


title: Rambha (actress)

text: Rambha gave up her education aged 15 and then started her career with Hariharan's Malayalam film "Sargam" (1992) opposite Vineeth. The film performed well at the box office, and she was spotted by director E. V. V. Satyanarayana who then cast her in the Telugu film "Aa Okkati Adakku" (1992), where she was paired opposite Rajendra Prasad. The film performed well and prompted several films offers for the actress from several different film industries across India. During the height of her career in the late 1990s, Rambha deliberately continued to pick glamorous roles to garner film offers. In successful films such as "Hitler" (1997) starring Chiranjeevi, Rambha appeared in roles which were inconsequential to the plot and purely depicted as the lead actor's love interest.


title: Rambha (actress)

text: She started her career as a producer with help of her brother in "Three Roses" (2003), in which Jyothika, Laila and Rambha played the lead characters. However, the film failed at the box office, and she fell heavily into debt after the film's release. She sold her house at Mount Road, Chennai in order to pay the debt, while she was also booked in a cheque-bounce case filed by the financiers of the movie.


title: Rambha (actress)

text: Rambha has acted in several languages and always maintained a successful balance in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Bhojpuri and Bengali. In 2010, Rambha shot alongside Prakash Raj for a thriller film titled "Vidiyum Varai Kathiru". The film was shot in three languages namely Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, but the film did not have a theatrical release.


title: Rambha (actress)

text: After her marriage she had given up films as she felt her popularity in films has faded away where she notice that she was not getting meaty roles as she used to and has judged a very popular Tamil TV show "Maanada Mayilada", and the Telugu dance show "Dhee". After a long gap she came back from Toronto, she appeared as a judge of Zee Telugu dance show ABCD-Anybody Can Dance and judged Kings of Comedy Juniors on Vijay TV.


title: Rambha (actress)

text: Rambha married Indrakumar Pathmanathan, a Canada-based Sri Lankan Tamil businessman, on 8 April 2010 at Karnataka Kalyana Mandapam in Tirumala. They settled in Toronto. They have two daughters and a son.


title: Divya Gokulnath

text: Divya Gokulnath is an Indian entrepreneur and educator who is the co-founder and director of Byju's, an educational technology company.


title: Divya Gokulnath

text: Divya was born in Bengaluru. Her father is a nephrologist with Apollo Hospitals and her mother was a programming executive with the broadcasting company Doordarshan. She is an only child of her parents. As a child, her father taught her science.


title: Divya Gokulnath

text: Divya completed her schooling at Frank Anthony Public School and pursued a Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology from RV College of Engineering in Bengaluru. After her graduation in 2007, she met Byju Raveendran, who was teaching her GRE exam prep course. Byju encouraged her to become a teacher due to her questions during breaks between the classes.


title: Divya Gokulnath

text: Her career as a teacher began in 2008 at age 21. In 2020, she told "Fortune India", "It was an auditorium style class with 100 students. They were just a couple of years younger than me so to look mature I wore a saree to the class." During her teaching career, she taught mathematics, English, and logical reasoning.


title: Divya Gokulnath

text: In 2011, Divya co-founded the online education platform Byju's with her husband. At first, the company offered in-person education to support school education, and in 2015, launched an online app with video lessons. Divya has appeared in videos as a teacher. During the COVID-19 lockdown in India, Divya managed user experience, content, and brand marketing. She led BYJU's free access to its educational content so students could continue learning from home during the pandemic. Byju's reportedly added 13.5 million users in March and April 2020, for a total of 50 million, and reached 70 million students by September 2020, and 4.5 million subscribers.


title: Divya Gokulnath

text: According to "Forbes", as of 2020, Divya, her husband Byju Raveendran and his brother Riju Raveendran, have a combined net worth of $3.05B.


title: Divya Gokulnath

text: Divya also writes online, including about the future of education, parenting, and women's participation in STEM fields and has been an advocate for mitigating gender pay gap in India. She has also spoken with "Mint Startup Diaries" about challenges for women entrepreneurs, and co-written an opinion article with Byju Raveendran in "Vogue India" about educational technology in India.


title: Divya Gokulnath

text: In March 2022, Gokulnath was appointed as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry's EdTech Taskforce Chair.


title: Divya Gokulnath

text: Divya is married to Byju Raveendran. As of April 2020, Divya lived with eleven other family members, including their young son and then their second child was born near the beginning of 2021. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked long days at the office, but during the lockdown, began working from home. In 2021, she told "The Indian Express" her typical day includes "juggling son's online classes, meetings, recording video lessons and spending time with newborn."


title: ESP8266

text: The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi microchip, with built-in TCP/IP networking software, and microcontroller capability, produced by Espressif Systems in Shanghai, China.


title: ESP8266

text: The chip was popularized in the English-speaking maker community in August 2014 via the ESP-01 module, made by a third-party manufacturer Ai-Thinker. This small module allows microcontrollers to connect to a Wi-Fi network and make simple TCP/IP connections using Hayes-style commands. However, at first, there was almost no English-language documentation on the chip and the commands it accepted. The very low price and the fact that there were very few external components on the module, which suggested that it could eventually be very inexpensive in volume, attracted many hackers to explore the module, the chip, and the software on it, as well as to translate the Chinese documentation.


title: ESP8266

text: The ESP8285 is a similar chip with a built-in 1 MiB flash memory, allowing the design of single-chip devices capable of connecting via Wi-Fi.


title: ESP8266

text: In October 2014, Espressif Systems released a software development kit (SDK) for programming the chip directly, which removed the need for a separate microcontroller. Since then, there have been many official SDK releases from Espressif; Espressif maintains two versions of the SDK — one that is based on FreeRTOS and the other based on callbacks.


title: ESP8266

text: An alternative to Espressif's official SDK is the open-source ESP-Open-SDK that is based on the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) toolchain, maintained by Max Filippov. Another alternative is the "Unofficial Development Kit" by Mikhail Grigorev.


title: ESP8266

text: In the table above (and the two tables which follow), "Active pins" include the GPIO and ADC pins with which external devices can be attached to the ESP8266 MCU. The "Pitch" is the space between pins on the ESP8266 module, which is important to know if the device will be used on a breadboard. The "Form factor" also describes the module packaging as "2 × 9 DIL", meaning two rows of 9 pins arranged "Dual In Line", like the pins of DIP ICs. Many ESP-xx modules include a small onboard LED which can be programmed to blink and thereby indicate activity. There are several antenna options for ESP-xx boards including a trace antenna, an onboard ceramic antenna, and an external connector that allows an external Wi-Fi antenna to be attached. Since Wi-Fi communications generate a lot of RFI (Radio Frequency Interference), governmental bodies like the FCC like shielded electronics to minimize interference with other devices. Some of the ESP-xx modules come housed within a metal box with an FCC seal of approval stamped on it. First and second world markets will likely demand FCC approval and shielded Wi-Fi devices.


title: ESP8266

text: This is the first series of modules made with the ESP8266 by the third-party manufacturer "Ai-Thinker" and remains the most widely available. They are collectively referred to as "ESP-xx modules". To form a workable development system they require additional components, especially a serial TTL-to-USB adapter (sometimes called a USB-to-UART bridge) and an external 3.3 volt power supply. Novice ESP8266 developers are encouraged to consider larger ESP8266 Wi-Fi development boards like the NodeMCU which includes the USB-to-UART bridge and a Micro-USB connector coupled with a 3.3 volt power regulator already built into the board. When project development is complete, those components are not needed and these cheaper ESP-xx modules are a lower power, smaller footprint option for production runs.


title: ESP8266

text: In the Notes column, Flash memory sizes apply to the given module and all those below it in the table. Exceptions which apply to a single module are shown in ().


title: ESP8266

text: The reason for the popularity of many of these boards over the earlier ESP-xx modules is the inclusion of an on-board USB-to-UART bridge (like the Silicon Labs' CP2102 or the WCH CH340G) and a Micro-USB connector, coupled with a 3.3-volt regulator to provide both power to the board and connectivity to the host (software development) computer – commonly referred to as the console, making it an easy development platform. With earlier ESP-xx modules, these two items (the USB-to-serial adapter and the regulator) had to be purchased separately and be wired into the ESP-xx circuit. Modern ESP8266 boards like the NodeMCU are easier to work with and offer more GPIO pins. Most of the boards listed here are based on the ESP-12E module, but new modules are being introduced seemingly every few months.


title: ESP8266

text: In 2020, Espressif announced a new chip ESP32-C3, which is pin-compatible with ESP8266. It is based on a single core RISC-V 32-bit CPU with a clock speed of up to 160 MHz. It includes 400 KiB of SRAM and 384 KiB ROM storage space built in.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: Survivor: Island of the Idols is the 39th season of the American competitive reality television series "Survivor", The season was filmed in Fiji during April and May 2019, and aired on CBS in the United States and Global in Canada from September 25, 2019 until December 18, 2019, when Tommy Sheehan was named the winner by an 8-2-0 vote over Dean Kowalski and Noura Salman.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: This season introduced the eponymous Island of the Idols, as "Survivor" alumni Sandra Diaz-Twine, winner of "" and "", and Rob Mariano, winner of "", returned to the game as mentors living on the Island of the Idols, though they did not compete for the million-dollar prize themselves. Instead, Diaz-Twine and Mariano periodically hosted a contestant each episode and gave them a lesson to assist them in the game. They also gave the contestant a chance to win an advantage, but if they failed, they lost their vote at their next Tribal Council.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: The season received widespread media attention after contestant Dan Spilo was accused of inappropriately touching female contestants. While there was no in-game recourse provided from the production crew, Spilo was later ejected from the game following an off-camera incident involving a crew member. CBS and "Survivor" producers issued an apology for how they handled the situation and announced they would make significant changes to their safety protocols, to be fully in place by the 41st season, filming of which took place two years later following "Island of the Idols" airing.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: This season featured the Island of the Idols, a secluded location inhabited by "Survivor" winners Sandra Diaz-Twine and Rob Mariano, acting as non-competing advisers. Castaways were periodically exiled to the island throughout the season, where Diaz-Twine and Mariano taught them a lesson about a specific skill designed to help them in the game, such as fire-making or active listening, and then offered them an optional challenge to test that skill. Winning the challenge would yield a reward such as a hidden immunity idol or vote blocker, while losing the challenge meant losing the right to vote at the next Tribal Council attended by the losing castaway (though this was not revealed to the other players; a castaway without a vote would still go to the voting area during Tribal Council, but would write "no vote" on the parchment). Diaz-Twine and Mariano were not eligible to compete or win the grand prize, nor could they vote at Tribal Council. Unbeknownst to the castaways, the mentors secretly attended each Tribal Council in a hideaway, allowing them to eavesdrop on the proceedings.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: According to host and executive producer Jeff Probst, the idea to bring back past champions as mentors came from "wondering how to get a player like Boston Rob, who has said he'd never compete again because he doesn't feel he'd ever really have a shot to win, to return to the show." Probst considered the mentors to be equivalent of on-camera producers for this season. Mariano and Diaz-Twine were even involved with the pre-production phase, posing for 3D modeling of their heads for the statues, and providing input on the type of lessons they would be able to teach, as well as how they would present these lessons. The two also had flexibility as to how significant each advantage would be, such as making an advantage be valid for a time ranging from one to three Tribal Councils. According to Diaz-Twine, Probst compared their mentor roles similarly to the single-episode cameo by "" winner John Cochran during "", where he had provided strategic advice to a player as part of a reward. Diaz-Twine and Mariano later returned to compete on the subsequent season, "", which began filming in Fiji weeks after "Island of the Idols" production concluded, though this had not yet been confirmed when they were cast for this season.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: Probst said that production wanted players to try to figure out with as little information that they were told: that the title of the season was "Island of the Idols" and had hoped players would question if the separate island would be filled with immunity idols. They were not sure how players who were taken to the Island would behave on their return whether they would tell the truth or lie about what happened on the island, and were surprised that all players fibbed and did not discuss Rob or Sandra's presence there.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: "Island of the Idols" became the first season to feature a Canadian-born castaway (Tom Laidlaw), as the casting process opened for Canadian residents in mid-2018. Previously, Canadian citizens had been ineligible to compete on the show as, according to Probst, the limitation was due to the rights that Mark Burnett and CBS had on the "Survivor" format, limiting it to contestants with American citizenship. While "Survivor" has had contestants with dual citizenship in the past, such as "" winner Todd Herzog, they were required to give up their non-U.S. citizenship as a prerequisite for claiming their prize money.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: Notable contestants from this season include retired National Hockey League defenseman Tom Laidlaw, Olympic swimmer Elizabeth Beisel, and professional poker player Ronnie Bardah.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: Tommy Sheehan competed on the of the MTV reality competition show "The Challenge". Chelsea Walker competed on the revival of "Legends of the Hidden Temple".


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: The 20 new castaways were randomly divided into two tribes of ten (Lairo and Vokai). Vokai won nearly every challenge, even after a tribe swap. Missy controlled much of the strategy on Lairo, while Vokai was run by Lauren and Tommy. At the swap, Lairo outsider Karishma flipped on her old tribe, while new bonds were formed on both tribes, causing some of the players to forgo their old alliances.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: At the merge, Dan had been accused of inappropriate touching by several women on the tribe. In the midst of this, Lauren and Tommy used their social bonds to ultimately dismantle the Lairo alliance until only Dean remained. After Dan's ejection for an unspecified incident with a crewmember, Dean kept himself in the game by winning immunity challenges while Elaine and Janet were eliminated as they were considered too likeable to take to the end.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: The Final Four were Dean, Lauren, Noura, and Tommy; Noura won the final challenge, and Tommy convinced her to take him to the end. Dean joined them in the Final Three after defeating Lauren in the fire-making challenge. The jury ultimately rewarded Tommy's strong social game by voting him the Sole Survivor.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: From the first episode up until the merge in the eighth episode, Kellee Kim and several other members of the Vokai tribe had expressed concerns to Dan Spilo about him repeatedly touching them without asking. At the merge, Kim had her first opportunity to speak to Missy Byrd, who also stated her concerns on Spilo's behavior. Kim spoke of her concerns to the merged tribe, at which point production became much more involved. One "Survivor" producer explained to Kim that she should let them know if Spilo continued to cross the line, and if she did, then production would immediately take action. Production contacted CBS about the situation, who instructed them to have group and individual meetings with the remaining castaways and formally warned Spilo about his behavior. Title cards were used in-episode to explain the situation to viewers.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: Though not in her best game interests at the time, Kim and her ally Janet Carbin ultimately agreed to vote out Spilo at the first merge Tribal Council, believing to have support from the other women on the tribe, including Byrd and Elizabeth Beisel, who had both expressed discomfort towards his actions. However, Kim saw herself being voted out of the game after a majority of the tribe believed her to be a bigger in-game threat than Spilo was. Issues on Spilo's behavior persisted in the tribe through the next few days, as both Beisel and Byrd admitted that they did not have any issues with him, and had simply decided to play on Kim's concerns in an attempt to gain her trust. At the next Tribal Council, the impact of Spilo's behavior had come up, and Spilo took time to apologize to Kim and the other female tribe members for any wrongdoing, even bringing up the impact of the Me Too movement during his speech. The day after the episode aired, several contestants posted public apologies to Kim and Carbin for their behavior—seeing the problems with it after watching the episode—and for not seeing how much the situation affected the two women.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: Probst claimed that he and production talked to Kim about letting her have a chance to respond to Spilo, but she agreed with production that as a jury member she would remain quiet as per the game's rules. Kim would later contradict this statement, claiming that she did not speak with Probst at all until after that particular Tribal Council. For the remainder of the season, production continued to monitor the situation, with the staff performing individual interviews with players keeping abreast of any concerns or issues related to the situation and reminding contestants to report anything they feel uncomfortable about to production immediately. At the end of Episode 12, on the morning of Day 36, Probst came to camp and announced to the remaining castaways that Spilo had been removed from the game, and would not be allowed to serve on the jury. A title card revealed that Spilo was ejected because of an off-camera incident that "did not involve a player." In an interview, Probst declined to elaborate on what happened, citing "privacy and confidentiality" concerns. This is the first time a contestant had to be ejected from the show by production.


title: Survivor: Island of the Idols

text: Many fans argued that Spilo should have been ejected from the game when Kim's concerns were first raised instead of creating a storyline out of it for the show. CBS and MGM issued a joint statement reiterating that production had been monitoring the situation around the clock, as part of the standard practice for the show, and would have taken action if they felt Kim or any other player was at risk. "On "Survivor", producers provide the castaways a wide berth to play the game. At the same time, all castaways are monitored and supervised at all times. They have full access to producers and doctors, and the production will intervene in situations where warranted." Other fans were upset at Beisel and Byrd for invalidating Spilo's misconduct and using the situation to leverage their games.