title: Beltane

text: Bonfires continued to be a key part of the festival in the modern era. All hearth fires and candles would be doused before the bonfire was lit, generally on a mountain or hill. Ronald Hutton writes that "To increase the potency of the holy flames, in Britain at least they were often kindled by the most primitive of all means, of friction between wood." This is known as a need-fire or force-fire. In the 19th century, John Ramsay described Scottish Highlanders kindling such a fire at Beltane, which was deemed sacred. In the 19th century, the ritual of driving cattle between two fires—as described in "Sanas Cormaic" almost 1000 years before—was still practised across most of Ireland and in parts of Scotland. Sometimes the cattle would be driven around a bonfire or be made to leap over flames or embers. The people themselves would do likewise. On the Isle of Man, people ensured that the smoke blew over them and their cattle. When the bonfire had died down, people would daub themselves with its ashes and sprinkle it over their crops and livestock. Burning torches from the bonfire would be taken home, carried around the house or boundary of the farmstead, and used to re-light the hearth. From these rituals, it is clear that the fire was seen as having protective powers. Similar rituals were part of May Day or Midsummer customs in other parts of the British Isles and mainland Europe. Frazer believed the fire rituals are a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic. He suggests they were meant to mimic the Sun and "ensure a needful supply of sunshine for men, animals, and plants", as well as to symbolically "burn up and destroy all harmful influences".


title: Beltane

text: Food was also cooked at the bonfire and there were rituals involving it. In the Scottish Highlands, Alexander Carmichael recorded that there was a feast featuring lamb, and that formerly this lamb was sacrificed. In 1769, Thomas Pennant wrote of bonfires in Perthshire, where a caudle made from eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk was cooked. Some of the mixture was poured on the ground as a libation. Everyone present would then take an oatmeal cake, called the "bannoch Bealltainn" or "Beltane bannock". A bit was offered to the spirits to protect their livestock (one to protect the horses, one to protect the sheep, and so forth) and a bit offered to each of the predators that might harm their livestock (one to the fox, one to the eagle, and so forth). Afterwards, they would drink the caudle.


title: Beltane

text: According to 18th century writers, in parts of Scotland there was another ritual involving the oatmeal cake. The cake would be cut and one of the slices marked with charcoal. The slices would then be put in a bonnet and everyone would take one out while blindfolded. According to one writer, whoever got the marked piece had to leap through the fire three times. According to another, those present pretended to throw the person into the fire and, for some time afterwards, would speak of them as if they were dead. This "may embody a memory of actual human sacrifice", or it may have always been symbolic. A similar ritual (i.e. of pretending to burn someone in the fire) was part of spring and summer bonfire festivals in other parts of Europe.


title: Beltane

text: Yellow and white flowers such as primrose, rowan, hawthorn, gorse, hazel, and marsh marigold were traditionally placed at doorways and windows; this is documented in 19th century Ireland, Scotland and Mann. Sometimes loose flowers were strewn at doors and windows and sometimes they were made into bouquets, garlands or crosses and fastened to them. They would also be fastened to cows and equipment for milking and butter making. It is likely that such flowers were used because they evoked fire. Similar May Day customs are found across Europe.


title: Beltane

text: The May Bush or May Bough was popular in parts of Ireland until the late 19th century. This was a small tree or branch—typically hawthorn, rowan, holly or sycamore—decorated with bright flowers, ribbons, painted shells or eggshells from Easter Sunday, and so forth. The tree would either be decorated where it stood, or branches would be decorated and placed inside or outside the house (particularly above windows and doors, on the roof, and on barns). It was generally the responsibility of the oldest person of the house to decorate the May Bush, and the tree would remain up until May 31st. The tree would also be decorated with candles or rushlights. Sometimes a May Bush would be paraded through the town. In parts of southern Ireland, gold and silver hurling balls known as May Balls would be hung on these May Bushes and handed out to children or given to the winners of a hurling match. In Dublin and Belfast, May Bushes were brought into town from the countryside and decorated by the whole neighbourhood. Each neighbourhood vied for the most handsome tree and, sometimes, residents of one would try to steal the May Bush of another. This led to the May Bush being outlawed in Victorian times. In some places, it was customary to sing and dance around the May Bush, and at the end of the festivities it may be burnt in the bonfire. In some areas the May Bush or Bough has also been called the "May Pole", but it is the bush or tree described above, and not the more commonly-known European maypole.


title: Beltane

text: Thorn trees are traditionally seen as special trees, associated with the "aos sí". Frazer believed the customs of decorating trees or poles in springtime are a relic of tree worship and wrote: "The intention of these customs is to bring home to the village, and to each house, the blessings which the tree-spirit has in its power to bestow." Emyr Estyn Evans suggests that the May Bush custom may have come to Ireland from England, because it seemed to be found in areas with strong English influence and because the Irish saw it as unlucky to damage certain thorn trees. However, "lucky" and "unlucky" trees varied by region, and it has been suggested that Beltane was the only time when cutting thorn trees was allowed. The practice of bedecking a May Bush with flowers, ribbons, garlands and bright shells is found among the Gaelic diaspora, most notably in Newfoundland, and in some Easter traditions on the East Coast of the United States.


title: Beltane

text: Many Beltane practices were designed to ward off or appease the fairies and prevent them from stealing dairy products. For example, three black coals were placed under a butter churn to ensure the fairies did not steal the butter, and May Boughs were tied to milk pails, the tails of cattle or hung in the barns to ensure the cattle's milk was not stolen. Flowers were also used to decorate the horns of cattle, which was believed to bring good fortune. Food was left or milk poured at the doorstep or places associated with the , such as 'fairy trees', as an offering. However, milk was never given to a neighbor on May Day because it was feared that the milk would be transferred to the neighbor's cow. In Ireland, cattle would be brought to 'fairy forts', where a small amount of their blood would be collected. The owners would then pour it into the earth with prayers for the herd's safety. Sometimes the blood would be left to dry and then be burnt. It was thought that dairy products were especially at risk from harmful spirits. To protect farm produce and encourage fertility, farmers would lead a procession around the boundaries of their farm. They would "carry with them seeds of grain, implements of husbandry, the first well water, and the herb vervain (or rowan as a substitute). The procession generally stopped at the four cardinal points of the compass, beginning in the east, and rituals were performed in each of the four directions". People made the sign of the cross with milk for good luck on Beltane, and the sign of the cross was also made on the backsides of cattle.


title: Beltane

text: Holy wells were often visited at Beltane, and at the other Gaelic festivals of Imbolc and Lughnasadh. Visitors to holy wells would pray for health while walking sunwise (moving from east to west) around the well. They would then leave offerings; typically coins or clooties (see clootie well). The first water drawn from a well on Beltane was thought to be especially potent, and would bring good luck to the person who drew it. Beltane morning dew was also thought to bring good luck and health. At dawn or before sunrise on Beltane, maidens would roll in the dew or wash their faces with it. The dew was collected in a jar, left in sunlight, then filtered. The dew was thought to increase sexual attractiveness, maintain youthfulness, protect from sun damage (particularly freckles and sunburn) and help with skin ailments for the ensuing year. It was also thought that a man who washed his face with soap and water on Beltane will grow long whiskers on his face.


title: Beltane

text: It was widely believed that no one should light a fire on May Day morning until they saw smoke rising from a neighbor's house. It was also believed to be bad luck to put out ashes or clothes on May Day, and to give away coal or ashes would cause the giver difficulty in lighting fires for the next year. Also, if the family owned a white horse, it should remain in the barn all day, and if any other horse was owned, a red rag should be tied to its tail. Any foal born on May Day was fated to kill a man, and any cow that calved on May Day would die. Any birth or marriage on May Day was generally believed to be ill-fated. On May Night a cake and a jug were left on the table, because it was believed that the Irish who had died abroad would return on May Day to their ancestral homes, and it was also believed that the dead returned on May Day to visit their friends. A robin that flew into the house on Beltane was believed to portend the death of a household member.


title: Beltane

text: The festival persisted widely up until the 1950s, and in some places the celebration of Beltane continues today.


title: Beltane

text: As a festival, Beltane had largely died out by the mid-20th century, although some of its customs continued and in some places it has been revived as a cultural event. In Ireland, Beltane fires were common until the mid-20th century, but the custom seems to have lasted to the present day only in County Limerick (especially in Limerick itself) and in Arklow, County Wicklow. The lighting of a community Beltane fire from which each hearth fire is then relit is observed today in some parts of the Gaelic diaspora, though in most of these cases it is a cultural revival rather than an unbroken survival of the ancient tradition. In parts of Newfoundland, the custom of decorating the May Bush also survives. The town of Peebles in the Scottish Borders holds a traditional week-long Beltane Fair every year in June, when a local girl is crowned Beltane Queen on the steps of the parish church. Like other Borders festivals, it incorporates a Common Riding.


title: Beltane

text: Since 1988, a Beltane Fire Festival has been held every year on the night of 30 April on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland. While inspired by traditional Beltane, it is a modern celebration of summer's beginning which draws on many influences. The performance art event involves fire dances and a procession by costumed performers, led by the May Queen and the Green Man, culminating in the lighting of a bonfire.


title: Beltane

text: Butser Ancient Farm, an open-air archaeology museum in Hampshire, UK, has also held a Beltane festival since the 1980s. The festival mixes historical reenactment with folk influences, and features a May Queen and Green Man, living history displays, reenactor battles, demonstrations of traditional crafts, performances of folk music, and Celtic storytelling. The festival ends with the burning of a 30-40ft wickerman, with a new historical or folk-inspired design each year.


title: Beltane

text: A similar Bealtaine Festival has been held each year since 2009 at Uisneach in Ireland. It culminates in a torchlit procession by participants in costume, some on horseback, and the lighting of a large bonfire at dusk. In 2017, the ceremonial fire was lit by the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins.


title: Beltane

text: The 1970 recording 'Ride a White Swan', written and performed by Marc Bolan and his band T.Rex, contains the line "Ride a white Swan like the people of the Beltane".


title: Beltane

text: Beltane and Beltane-based festivals are held by some Neopagans. As there are many kinds of Neopaganism, their Beltane celebrations can be very different despite the shared name. Some try to emulate the historic festival as much as possible. Other Neopagans base their celebrations on many sources, the Gaelic festival being only one of them.


title: Beltane

text: Neopagans usually celebrate Beltane on 30 April – 1 May in the Northern Hemisphere and 31 October – 1 November in the Southern Hemisphere, beginning and ending at sunset. Some Neopagans celebrate it at the astronomical midpoint between the spring equinox and summer solstice (or the full moon nearest this point). In the Northern Hemisphere, this midpoint is when the ecliptic longitude of the Sun reaches 45 degrees. In 2014, this was on 5 May.


title: Beltane

text: Celtic Reconstructionists strive to reconstruct ancient Celtic religion. Their religious practices are based on research and historical accounts, but modified to suit modern life. They avoid syncretism and eclecticism (i.e. combining practises from unrelated cultures).


title: Beltane

text: Celtic Reconstructionists usually celebrate Beltane when the local hawthorn trees are in bloom. Many observe the traditional bonfire rites, to whatever extent this is feasible where they live. This may involve passing themselves and their pets or livestock between two bonfires, and bringing home a candle lit from the bonfire. If they are unable to make a bonfire or attend a bonfire ceremony, candles may be used instead. They may decorate their homes with a May Bush, branches from blooming thorn trees, or equal-armed rowan crosses. Holy wells may be visited and offerings made to the spirits or deities of the wells. Traditional festival foods may also be prepared.


title: Beltane

text: Wiccans use the name "Beltane" or "Beltain" for their May Day celebrations. It is one of the yearly Sabbats of their Wheel of the Year, following Ostara and preceding Midsummer. Unlike Celtic Reconstructionism, Wicca is syncretic and melds practices from many different cultures. In general, the Wiccan Beltane is more akin to the Germanic/English May Day festival, both in its significance (focusing on fertility) and its rituals (such as maypole dancing). Some Wiccans enact a ritual union of the May Lord and May Lady.


title: Beltane

text: In Irish, the festival is usually called ('day of Beltane') while the month of May is ("month of Beltane"). In Scottish Gaelic, the festival is and the month is or . Sometimes the older Scottish Gaelic spelling is used. The word comes from ('first of summer'), an old alternative name for the festival. The term (Scottish) or (Irish), 'the bright or yellow day of Beltane', means the first of May. In Ireland it is referred to in a common folk tale as ; the first day of the week (Monday/) is added to highlight the first day of summer.


title: Beltane

text: Two modern etymologies have been proposed. Beltaine could derive from a Common Celtic , meaning 'bright fire'. The element might be cognate with the English word "bale" (as in ) meaning 'white', 'bright' or 'shining'. Alternatively, Beltaine might stem from a Common Celtic form reconstructed as , which would be cognate with the name of the Lithuanian goddess of death , both from an earlier *"gʷel-tiōn-", formed with the Proto-Indo-European root *"" ('suffering, death'). The absence of syncope (Irish sound laws rather predict a **"Beltne" form) can be explained by the popular belief that Beltaine was a compound of the word for 'fire', "tene".


title: Beltane

text: In Ó Duinnín's Irish dictionary (1904), Beltane is referred to as which it explains is short for meaning 'first (of) summer'. The dictionary also states that is May Day and is the month of May.


title: Beltane

text: There are place names in Ireland containing the word , indicating places where Bealtaine festivities were once held. It is often anglicised as "Beltany". There are three Beltanys in County Donegal, including the Beltany stone circle, and two in County Tyrone. In County Armagh there is a place called Tamnaghvelton/ ('the Beltane field'). Lisbalting/ ('the Beltane ringfort') is in County Tipperary, while Glasheennabaultina/ ('the Beltane stream') is the name of a stream joining the River Galey in County Limerick.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium is a chemical element with the symbol Te and atomic number 52. It is a brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid. Tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur, all three of which are chalcogens. It is occasionally found in native form as elemental crystals. Tellurium is far more common in the Universe as a whole than on Earth. Its extreme rarity in the Earth's crust, comparable to that of platinum, is due partly to its formation of a volatile hydride that caused tellurium to be lost to space as a gas during the hot nebular formation of Earth.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium-bearing compounds were first discovered in 1782 in a gold mine in Kleinschlatten, Transylvania (now Zlatna, Romania) by Austrian mineralogist Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein, although it was Martin Heinrich Klaproth who named the new element in 1798 after the Latin 'earth'. Gold telluride minerals are the most notable natural gold compounds. However, they are not a commercially significant source of tellurium itself, which is normally extracted as a by-product of copper and lead production.


title: Tellurium

text: Commercially, the primary use of tellurium is copper (tellurium copper) and steel alloys, where it improves machinability. Applications in CdTe solar panels and cadmium telluride semiconductors also consume a considerable portion of tellurium production. Tellurium is considered a technology-critical element.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium has no biological function, although fungi can use it in place of sulfur and selenium in amino acids such as tellurocysteine and telluromethionine. In humans, tellurium is partly metabolized into dimethyl telluride, (CH)Te, a gas with a garlic-like odor exhaled in the breath of victims of tellurium exposure or poisoning.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium has two allotropes, crystalline and amorphous. When crystalline, tellurium is silvery-white with a metallic luster. The crystals are trigonal and chiral (space group 152 or 154 depending on the chirality), like the gray form of selenium. It is a brittle and easily pulverized metalloid. Amorphous tellurium is a black-brown powder prepared by precipitating it from a solution of tellurous acid or telluric acid (Te(OH)). Tellurium is a semiconductor that shows a greater electrical conductivity in certain directions depending on atomic alignment; the conductivity increases slightly when exposed to light (photoconductivity). When molten, tellurium is corrosive to copper, iron, and stainless steel. Of the chalcogens (oxygen-family elements), tellurium has the highest melting and boiling points, at and , respectively.


title: Tellurium

text: Crystalline tellurium consists of parallel helical chains of Te atoms, with three atoms per turn. This gray material resists oxidation by air and is not volatile.


title: Tellurium

text: Naturally occurring tellurium has eight isotopes. Six of those isotopes, Te, Te, Te, Te, Te, and Te, are stable. The other two, Te and Te, have been found to be slightly radioactive, with extremely long half-lives, including 2.2 × 10 years for Te. This is the longest known half-life among all radionuclides and is about 160 trillion (10) times the age of the known universe. Stable isotopes comprise only 33.2% of naturally occurring tellurium.


title: Tellurium

text: A further 31 artificial radioisotopes of tellurium are known, with atomic masses ranging from 104 to 142 and with half-lives of 19 days or less. Also, 17 nuclear isomers are known, with half-lives up to 154 days. With the exception of beryllium-8 and beta-delayed alpha emission branches in some lighter nuclides, tellurium (Te to Te) is the lightest element with isotopes known to undergo alpha decay.


title: Tellurium

text: With an abundance in the Earth's crust comparable to that of platinum (about 1 µg/kg), tellurium is one of the rarest stable solid elements. In comparison, even thulium, the rarest of the stable lanthanides have crustal abundances of 500 µg/kg (see Abundance of the chemical elements).


title: Tellurium

text: This rarity of tellurium in the Earth's crust is not a reflection of its cosmic abundance. Tellurium is more abundant than rubidium in the cosmos, though rubidium is 10,000 times more abundant in the Earth's crust. The rarity of tellurium on Earth is thought to be caused by conditions during preaccretional sorting in the solar nebula, when the stable form of certain elements, in the absence of oxygen and water, was controlled by the reductive power of free hydrogen. Under this scenario, certain elements that form volatile hydrides, such as tellurium, were severely depleted through evaporation of these hydrides. Tellurium and selenium are the heavy elements most depleted by this process.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium is sometimes found in its native (i.e., elemental) form, but is more often found as the tellurides of gold such as calaverite and krennerite (two different polymorphs of AuTe), petzite, AgAuTe, and sylvanite, AgAuTe. The town of Telluride, Colorado, was named in hope of a strike of gold telluride (which never materialized, though gold metal ore was found). Gold itself is usually found uncombined, but when found as a chemical compound, it is most often combined with tellurium.


title: Tellurium

text: Although tellurium is found with gold more often than in uncombined form, it is found even more often combined as tellurides of more common metals (e.g. melonite, NiTe). Natural tellurite and tellurate minerals also occur, formed by oxidation of tellurides near the Earth's surface. In contrast to selenium, tellurium does not usually replace sulfur in minerals because of the great difference in ion radii. Thus, many common sulfide minerals contain substantial quantities of selenium and only traces of tellurium.


title: Tellurium

text: In the gold rush of 1893, miners in Kalgoorlie discarded a pyritic material as they searched for pure gold, and it was used to fill in potholes and build sidewalks. In 1896, that tailing was discovered to be calaverite, a telluride of gold, and it sparked a second gold rush that included mining the streets.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium (Latin "tellus" meaning "earth") was discovered in the 18th century in a gold ore from the mines in Kleinschlatten (today Zlatna), near today's city of Alba Iulia, Romania. This ore was known as "Faczebajer weißes blättriges Golderz" (white leafy gold ore from Faczebaja, German name of Facebánya, now Fața Băii in Alba County) or "antimonalischer Goldkies" (antimonic gold pyrite), and according to Anton von Rupprecht, was "Spießglaskönig" ("argent molybdique"), containing native antimony. In 1782 Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein, who was then serving as the Austrian chief inspector of mines in Transylvania, concluded that the ore did not contain antimony but was bismuth sulfide. The following year, he reported that this was erroneous and that the ore contained mostly gold and an unknown metal very similar to antimony. After a thorough investigation that lasted three years and included more than fifty tests, Müller determined the specific gravity of the mineral and noted that when heated, the new metal gives off a white smoke with a radish-like odor; that it imparts a red color to sulfuric acid; and that when this solution is diluted with water, it has a black precipitate. Nevertheless, he was not able to identify this metal and gave it the names "aurum paradoxum" (paradoxical gold) and "metallum problematicum" (problem metal), because it did not exhibit the properties predicted for antimony.


title: Tellurium

text: In 1789, a Hungarian scientist, Pál Kitaibel, discovered the element independently in an ore from Deutsch-Pilsen that had been regarded as argentiferous molybdenite, but later he gave the credit to Müller. In 1798, it was named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, who had earlier isolated it from the mineral calaverite.


title: Tellurium

text: In the early 1920s, Thomas Midgley Jr. found tellurium prevented engine knocking when added to fuel, but ruled it out due to the difficult-to-eradicate smell. Midgley went on to discover and popularize the use of tetraethyl lead.


title: Tellurium

text: The 1960s brought an increase in thermoelectric applications for tellurium (as bismuth telluride), and in free-machining steel alloys, which became the dominant use.


title: Tellurium

text: Most Te (and Se) is obtained from porphyry copper deposits, where it occurs in trace amounts. The element is recovered from anode sludges from the electrolytic refining of blister copper. It is a component of dusts from blast furnace refining of lead. Treatment of 1000 tons of copper ore typically yields of tellurium.


title: Tellurium

text: The anode sludges contain the selenides and tellurides of the noble metals in compounds with the formula MSe or MTe (M = Cu, Ag, Au). At temperatures of 500 °C the anode sludges are roasted with sodium carbonate under air. The metal ions are reduced to the metals, while the telluride is converted to sodium tellurite.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurites can be leached from the mixture with water and are normally present as hydrotellurites HTeO in solution. Selenites are also formed during this process, but they can be separated by adding sulfuric acid. The hydrotellurites are converted into the insoluble tellurium dioxide while the selenites stay in solution.


title: Tellurium

text: The metal is produced from the oxide (reduced) either by electrolysis or by reacting the tellurium dioxide with sulfur dioxide in sulfuric acid.


title: Tellurium

text: Commercial-grade tellurium is usually marketed as 200-mesh powder but is also available as slabs, ingots, sticks, or lumps. The year-end price for tellurium in 2000 was US$14 per pound. In recent years, the tellurium price was driven up by increased demand and limited supply, reaching as high as US$100 per pound in 2006. Despite the expectation that improved production methods will double production, the United States Department of Energy (DoE) anticipates a supply shortfall of tellurium by 2025.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium is produced mainly in the United States, Peru, Japan and Canada. The British Geological Survey gives the following production numbers for 2009: United States 50 t, Peru 7 t, Japan 40 t and Canada 16 t.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium belongs to the chalcogen (group 16) family of elements on the periodic table, which also includes oxygen, sulfur, selenium and polonium: Tellurium and selenium compounds are similar. Tellurium exhibits the oxidation states −2, +2, +4 and +6, with +4 being most common.


title: Tellurium

text: Reduction of Te metal produces the tellurides and polytellurides, Te. The −2 oxidation state is exhibited in binary compounds with many metals, such as zinc telluride, , produced by heating tellurium with zinc. Decomposition of with hydrochloric acid yields hydrogen telluride (), a highly unstable analogue of the other chalcogen hydrides, , and :


title: Tellurium

text: The +2 oxidation state is exhibited by the dihalides, , and . The dihalides have not been obtained in pure form, although they are known decomposition products of the tetrahalides in organic solvents, and the derived tetrahalotellurates are well-characterized:


title: Tellurium

text: where X is Cl, Br, or I. These anions are square planar in geometry. Polynuclear anionic species also exist, such as the dark brown , and the black .


title: Tellurium

text: With fluorine Te forms the mixed-valence and . In the +6 oxidation state, the structural group occurs in a number of compounds such as , , , and . The square antiprismatic anion is also attested. The other halogens do not form halides with tellurium in the +6 oxidation state, but only tetrahalides (, and ) in the +4 state, and other lower halides (, , , and two forms of ). In the +4 oxidation state, halotellurate anions are known, such as and . Halotellurium cations are also attested, including , found in .


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium monoxide was first reported in 1883 as a black amorphous solid formed by the heat decomposition of in vacuum, disproportionating into tellurium dioxide, and elemental tellurium upon heating. Since then, however, existence in the solid phase is doubted and in dispute, although it is known as a vapor fragment; the black solid may be merely an equimolar mixture of elemental tellurium and tellurium dioxide.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium dioxide is formed by heating tellurium in air, where it burns with a blue flame. Tellurium trioxide, β-, is obtained by thermal decomposition of . The other two forms of trioxide reported in the literature, the α- and γ- forms, were found not to be true oxides of tellurium in the +6 oxidation state, but a mixture of , and . Tellurium also exhibits mixed-valence oxides, and .


title: Tellurium

text: The tellurium oxides and hydrated oxides form a series of acids, including tellurous acid (), orthotelluric acid () and metatelluric acid (). The two forms of telluric acid form "tellurate" salts containing the TeO and TeO anions, respectively. Tellurous acid forms "tellurite" salts containing the anion TeO.


title: Tellurium

text: When tellurium is treated with concentrated sulfuric acid, the result is a red solution of the Zintl ion, . The oxidation of tellurium by in liquid produces the same square planar cation, in addition to the trigonal prismatic, yellow-orange :


title: Tellurium

text: Other tellurium Zintl cations include the polymeric and the blue-black , consisting of two fused 5-membered tellurium rings. The latter cation is formed by the reaction of tellurium with tungsten hexachloride:


title: Tellurium

text: Interchalcogen cations also exist, such as (distorted cubic geometry) and . These are formed by oxidizing mixtures of tellurium and selenium with or .


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium does not readily form analogues of alcohols and thiols, with the functional group –TeH, that are called tellurols. The –TeH functional group is also attributed using the prefix "tellanyl-". Like HTe, these species are unstable with respect to loss of hydrogen. Telluraethers (R–Te–R) are more stable, as are telluroxides.


title: Tellurium

text: Recently, physicists and materials scientists have been discovering unusual quantum properties associated with layered compounds composed of tellurium that's combined with certain rare-earth elements, as well as yttrium (Y).


title: Tellurium

text: These novel materials have the general formula of "R" Te, where ""R" " represents a rare-earth lanthanide (or Y), with the full family consisting of "R" = Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er & Tm (not yet observed are compounds containing Pm, Eu, Yb & Lu). These materials have a two-dimensional character within an orthorhombic crystal structure, with slabs of "R" Te separated by sheets of pure Te.


title: Tellurium

text: It's thought that this 2-D layered structure is what leads to a number of interesting quantum features, such as charge-density waves, high carrier mobility, superconductivity under specific conditions, and other peculiar properties whose natures are only now emerging.


title: Tellurium

text: For example, in 2022, a small group of physicists at Boston College in Massachusetts led an international team that used optical methods to demonstrate a novel axial mode of a Higgs-like particle in "R" Te compounds that incorporate either of two rare-earth elements ("R" = La, Gd). This long-hypothesized, axial, Higgs-like particle also shows magnetic properties and may serve as a candidate for dark matter.


title: Tellurium

text: The largest consumer of tellurium is metallurgy in iron, stainless steel, copper, and lead alloys. The addition of steel and copper produces an alloy more machinable. It is alloyed into cast iron for promoting chill for spectroscopy, where the presence of electrically conductive free graphite tends to interfere with spark emission testing results. Tellurium decreases the corrosive action of sulfuric acid and it improves the strength and durability of lead alloys.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium oxides are components of commercial oxidation catalysts. Te-containing catalysts are used for the ammoxidation route to acrylonitrile (CH=CH–C≡N):


title: Tellurium

text: Because of its low electronegativity, tellurium form a variety of materials with small band gaps, which are addressable by relatively long wavelength light. This feature is the basis for potential applications in photoconductive materials, solar cells, infrared detectors. The main concern holding back some application are the modest stability of these materials and concerns about environmental impact.


title: Tellurium

text: Cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar panels exhibit some of the greatest efficiencies for solar cell electric power generators.


title: Tellurium

text: Organotellurium compounds are mainly of interest in the research context. Several have been examined such as precursors for metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy growth of II-VI compound semiconductors. These precursor compounds include dimethyl telluride, diethyl telluride, diisopropyl telluride, diallyl telluride, and methyl allyl telluride. Diisopropyl telluride (DIPTe) is the preferred precursor for low-temperature growth of CdHgTe by MOVPE. The greatest purity metalorganics of both selenium and tellurium are used in these processes. The compounds for semiconductor industry and are prepared by adduct purification.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium suboxide is used in the media layer of rewritable optical discs, including ReWritable Compact Discs (CD-RW), ReWritable Digital Video Discs (DVD-RW), and ReWritable Blu-ray Discs.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium dioxide is used to create acousto-optic modulators (AOTFs and AOBSs) for confocal microscopy.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium is used in the phase change memory chips developed by Intel. Bismuth telluride (BiTe) and lead telluride are working elements of thermoelectric devices. Lead telluride exhibits promise in far-infrared detectors.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium shows up in a number of photocathodes used in solar blind photomultiplier tubes and for high brightness photoinjectors driving modern particle accelerators. The photocathode Cs-Te, which is predominantly CsTe, has a photoemission threshold of 3.5 eV and exhibits the uncommon combination of high quantum efficiency (>10%) and high durability in poor vacuum environments (lasting for months under use in RF electron guns). This has made it the go to choice for photoemission electron guns used in driving free electron lasers. In this application, it is usually driven at the wavelength 267 nm which is the third harmonic of commonly used Ti-sapphire lasers. More Te containing photocathodes have been grown using other alkali metals such as rubidium, Potassium, and Sodium, but they have not found the same popularity that Cs-Te has enjoyed.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium itself can be used as a high-performance elemental thermoelectric material. A trigonal Te with the space group of P321 can transfer into a topological insulator phase, which is suitable for thermoelectric material. Though often not considered as a thermoelectric material alone, polycrystalline tellurium does show great thermoelectric performance with the thermoelectric figure of merit, zT, as high as 1.0, which is even higher than some of other conventional TE materials like SiGe and BiSb.


title: Tellurium

text: Telluride, which is a compound form of tellurium, is a more common TE material. Typical and ongoing research includes BiTe, and LaTe, etc. BiTe is widely used from energy conversion to sensing to cooling due to its great TE properties. The BiTe-based TE material can achieve a conversion efficiency of 8%, an average zT value of 1.05 for p-type and 0.84 for n-type bismuth telluride alloys. Lanthanum telluride can be potentially used in deep space as a thermoelectric generator due to the huge temperature difference in space. The zT value reaches to a maximum of ~1.0 for a LaTe system with x near 0.2. This composition also allows other chemical substitution which may enhance the TE performance. The addition of Yb, for example, may increase the zT value from 1.0 to 1.2 at 1275K, which is greater than the current SiGe power system.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium has no known biological function, although fungi can incorporate it in place of sulfur and selenium into amino acids such as telluro-cysteine and telluro-methionine. Organisms have shown a highly variable tolerance to tellurium compounds. Many bacteria, such as "Pseudomonas aeruginosa", take up tellurite and reduce it to elemental tellurium, which accumulates and causes a characteristic and often dramatic darkening of cells. In yeast, this reduction is mediated by the sulfate assimilation pathway. Tellurium accumulation seems to account for a major part of the toxicity effects. Many organisms also metabolize tellurium partly to form dimethyl telluride, although dimethyl ditelluride is also formed by some species. Dimethyl telluride has been observed in hot springs at very low concentrations.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurite agar is used to identify members of the corynebacterium genus, most typically "Corynebacterium diphtheriae", the pathogen responsible for diphtheria.


title: Tellurium

text: Tellurium and tellurium compounds are considered to be mildly toxic and need to be handled with care, although acute poisoning is rare. Tellurium poisoning is particularly difficult to treat as many chelation agents used in the treatment of metal poisoning will increase the toxicity of tellurium. Tellurium is not reported to be carcinogenic.


title: Tellurium

text: Humans exposed to as little as 0.01 mg/m or less in air exude a foul garlic-like odor known as "tellurium breath".


title: Tellurium

text: This is caused by the body converting tellurium from any oxidation state to dimethyl telluride, (CH)Te. This is a volatile compound with a pungent garlic-like smell. Even though the metabolic pathways of tellurium are not known, it is generally assumed that they resemble those of the more extensively studied selenium because the final methylated metabolic products of the two elements are similar.


title: Tellurium

text: People can be exposed to tellurium in the workplace by inhalation, ingestion, skin contact, and eye contact. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) limits (permissible exposure limit) tellurium exposure in the workplace to 0.1 mg/m over an eight-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set the recommended exposure limit (REL) at 0.1 mg/m over an eight-hour workday. In concentrations of 25 mg/m, tellurium is immediately dangerous to life and health.


title: Monster

text: A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fear. Monsters usually resemble bizarre, deformed, otherworldly and/or mutated animals or entirely unique creatures of varying sizes, but may also take a human form, such as mutants, ghosts and spirits, zombies or cannibals, among other things. They may or may not have supernatural powers, but are usually capable of killing or causing some form of destruction, threatening the social or moral order of the human world in the process.


title: Monster

text: Animal monsters are outside the moral order, but sometimes have their origin in some human violation of the moral law (e.g. in the Greek myth, Minos does not sacrifice to Poseidon the white bull which the god sent him, so as punishment Poseidon makes Minos' wife, Pasiphaë, fall in love with the bull. She copulates with the beast, and gives birth to the man with a bull's head, the Minotaur). Human monsters are those who by birth were never fully human (Medusa and her Gorgon sisters) or who through some supernatural or unnatural act lost their humanity (werewolves, Frankenstein's monster), and so who can no longer, or who never could, follow the moral law of human society.


title: Monster

text: Monsters may also be depicted as misunderstood and friendly creatures who frighten individuals away without wanting to, or may be so large, strong and clumsy that they cause unintentional damage or death. Some monsters in fiction are depicted as mischievous and boisterous but not necessarily threatening (such as a sly goblin), while others may be docile but prone to becoming angry or hungry, thus needing to be tamed and taught to resist savage urges, or killed if they cannot be handled or controlled successfully.


title: Monster

text: Monsters pre-date written history, and the academic study of the particular cultural notions expressed in a society's ideas of monsters is known as "monstrophy". Monsters have appeared in literature and in feature-length films. Well-known monsters in fiction include Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, werewolves, vampires, demons, mummies, and zombies.


title: Monster

text: "Monster" derives from the Latin "monstrum", itself derived ultimately from the verb "moneo" ("to remind, warn, instruct, or foretell"), and denotes anything "strange or singular, contrary to the usual course of nature, by which the gods give notice of evil," "a strange, unnatural, hideous person, animal, or thing," or any "monstrous or unusual thing, circumstance, or adventure."


title: Monster

text: In the words of Tina Marie Boyer, assistant professor of medieval German literature at Wake Forest University, "monsters do not emerge out of a cultural void; they have a literary and cultural heritage".


title: Monster

text: In the religious context of ancient Greeks and Romans, monsters were seen as signs of "divine displeasure", and it was thought that birth defects were especially ominous, being "an unnatural event" or "a malfunctioning of nature".


title: Monster

text: Monsters are not necessarily abominations however. The Roman historian Suetonius, for instance, describes a snake's absence of legs or a bird's ability to fly as monstrous, as both are "against nature". Nonetheless, the negative connotations of the word quickly established themselves, and by the playwright and philosopher Seneca's time, the word had extended into its philosophical meaning, "a visual and horrific revelation of the truth".


title: Monster

text: In spite of this, mythological monsters such as the Hydra and Medusa are not natural beings, but divine entities. This seems to be a holdover from Proto-Indo-European religion and other belief systems, in which the divisions between "spirit," "monster," and "god" were less evident.


title: Monster

text: The history of monsters in fiction is long. For instance, Grendel in the epic poem "Beowulf" is an archetypal monster: deformed, brutal, and with enormous strength, he raids a human settlement nightly to slay and feed on his victims. The modern literary monster has its roots in examples such as the monster in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and the vampire in Bram Stoker's "Dracula".


title: Monster

text: Monsters are a staple of fantasy fiction, horror fiction, and science fiction (where the monsters are often extraterrestrial in nature). There also exists monster erotica, a subgenre of erotic fiction that involves monsters.


title: Monster

text: During the age of silent films, monsters tended to be human-sized, e.g. Frankenstein's monster, the Golem, werewolves and vampires. The film "Siegfried" featured a dragon that consisted of stop-motion animated models, as in RKO's "King Kong", the first giant monster film of the sound era.


title: Monster

text: Universal Studios specialized in monsters, with Bela Lugosi's reprisal of his stage role, Dracula, and Boris Karloff playing Frankenstein's monster. The studio also made several lesser films, such as "Man-Made Monster", starring Lon Chaney, Jr. as a carnival side-show worker who is turned into an electrically charged killer, able to dispatch victims merely by touching them, causing death by electrocution.


title: Monster

text: There was also a variant of Dr. Frankenstein, the mad surgeon Dr. Gogol (played by Peter Lorre), who transplanted hands that were reanimated with malevolent temperaments, in the film "Mad Love".


title: Monster

text: Werewolves were introduced in films during this period, and similar creatures were presented in "Cat People". Mummies were cinematically depicted as fearsome monsters as well. As for giant creatures, the cliffhanger of the first episode of the 1936 "Flash Gordon" serial did not use a costumed actor, instead using real-life lizards to depict a pair of battling dragons via use of camera perspective. However, the cliffhanger of the ninth episode of the same serial had a man in a rubber suit play the Fire Dragon, which picks up a doll representing Flash in its claws. The cinematic monster cycle eventually wore thin, having a comedic turn in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948).


title: Monster

text: In the post–World War II era, however, giant monsters returned to the screen with a vigor that has been causally linked to the development of nuclear weapons. One early example occurred in the American film "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms", which was about a dinosaur that attacked a lighthouse. Subsequently, there were Japanese film depictions, (Godzilla, Gamera), British depictions ("Gorgo"), and even Danish depictions ("Reptilicus"), of giant monsters attacking cities. A recent depiction of a giant monster is depicted in J. J. Abrams's "Cloverfield", which was released in theaters 18 January 2008. The intriguing proximity of other planets brought the notion of extraterrestrial monsters to the big screen, some of which were huge in size (such as King Ghidorah and Gigan), while others were of a more human scale. During this period, the fish-man monster Gill-man was developed in the film series "Creature from the Black Lagoon".


title: Monster

text: Britain's Hammer Film Productions brought color to the monster movies in the late 1950s. Around this time, the earlier Universal films were usually shown on American television by independent stations (rather than network stations) by using announcers with strange personas, who gained legions of young fans. Although they have since changed considerably, movie monsters did not entirely disappear from the big screen as they did in the late 1940s.


title: Monster

text: Occasionally, monsters are depicted as friendly or misunderstood creatures. King Kong and Frankenstein's monster are two examples of misunderstood creatures. Frankenstein's monster is frequently depicted in this manner, in films such as "Monster Squad" and "Van Helsing". The Hulk is an example of the "Monster as Hero" archetype. The theme of the "Friendly Monster" is pervasive in pop-culture. Chewbacca, Elmo, and Shrek are notable examples of friendly "monsters". The monster characters of "Pixar"'s "Monsters, Inc." franchise scare (and later entertain) children in order to create energy for running machinery in their home world, while the furry monsters of "The Muppets" and "Sesame Street" live in harmony with animals and humans alike. Japanese culture also commonly features monsters which are benevolent or likable, with the most famous examples being the "Pokémon" franchise and the pioneering anime "My Neighbor Totoro". The book series/webisodes/toy line of Monster High is another example.


title: Monster

text: Monsters are commonly encountered in fantasy or role-playing games, as well as video games, as enemies for players to fight against. They may include aliens, legendary creatures, extra-dimensional entities or mutated versions of regular animals.


title: Monster

text: Especially in role-playing games, "monster" is a catch-all term for hostile characters that are fought by the player. Sentient fictional races are usually not referred to as monsters. At other times, the term can carry a neutral connotation, such as in the "Pokémon" franchise, where it is used to refer to fictional creatures that resemble real-world animals. Characters in games may refer to all of such creatures as "monsters".


title: Monster

text: In some other games, such as "Undertale" and "Deltarune", "Monsters" (which are usually NPCs) refer to strange beings that are either anthropomorphic animals, undead, robots or mythical creatures that share similarities with human beings.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Tiffany Pollard (born January 6, 1982) is an American television personality. She came to public prominence for her participation on the first two seasons of VH1's "Flavor of Love" (2006–2007). Pollard was given the nickname "New York" by rapper Flavor Flav. She is also known colloquially by her self-proclaimed nickname "HBIC" ("Head Bitch in Charge"), which she exclaimed in the "Flavor of Love" series to taunt her competitors. Her temperamental nature often led to tension with the other women on the show.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Pollard starred in the show's spin-off "I Love New York" (2007–2008). In recent years, Pollard took part in the 17th series of "Celebrity Big Brother" in early 2016, finishing in fourth place. In 2017, Pollard began hosting "Brunch with Tiffany", a talk show series featured on VH1's YouTube channel, which was later picked up debuting on the VH1 television network. In 2022, Pollard began hosting "Hot Haus", a queer sex reality competition on OutTV. She has also previously hosted the Fenty Beauty holiday gift guide twice.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Pollard first achieved public prominence for starring on hit shows with among the largest audiences seen on basic television, VH1's "Flavor of Love" (2006–2007) and "I Love New York" (2007–2008). Over 7.5 million people watched Pollard during the "Flavor of Love" season 2 finale.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Pollard (then age 23) clashed with virtually all the other contestants. Although these feuds were, in general, nothing more than screaming matches, an incident in the penultimate episode of season one led to violence. After her elimination, an outraged Brooke "Pumkin" Thompson spat on Pollard after the two had exchanged words. Of all the women on the show Pollard had the most tension with Thompson all throughout the show. Pollard vowed to "whoop 's ass", and attempted to do so at the season one reunion. The moment was rated number one on various VH1 and MTV reality show specials, including "VH1's 20 Greatest Celebreality Fights". The final two contestants journeyed to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where Flavor Flav chose Nicole "Hoopz" Alexander over Pollard, to be his mate.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: After his relationship did not work out with Alexander, Flavor Flav chose to do a second season of his dating show and invited Pollard (then age 24) to help him eliminate contestants halfway through the season. She agreed and was later added as a participant. In the finale, Flav chose Deelishis over Pollard. Pollard verbally fought with Flav in the season finale, asking why he had brought her back only to be ultimately eliminated.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: "I Love New York" was Pollard's first reality television series on VH1. The series is a spin-off of another relationship competition series, the "Flavor of Love", which featured Pollard as a finalist in two consecutive seasons. In July 2006, VH1 published a casting call for contestants for a new series tentatively titled "The Flavorette". Various blogs speculated that the star of this program could be "Flavor of Love" season 1 contestant Rain, Hoopz (Nicole Alexander) or Pollard. Before the season 2 "Flavor of Love" finale, Pollard denied having her own show but after the finale aired, she confirmed she was the "Flavorette" and that she was already down to the final three contestants. The show premiered on Monday, January 8, 2007, and was the most-watched series debut in VH1 history with 4.426 million viewers.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Its season 1 finale brought in 4.8M million viewers and its reunion show ratings held 5.01 million viewers. Spin-offs from the series include "I Love Money", "New York Goes to Hollywood", "Real Chance of Love", "New York Goes to Work", and "Frank the Entertainer in a Basement Affair".


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: "I Love New York 2" premiered October 8, 2007 on VH1. In the finale of "I Love New York 2", contestant "Tailor Made" (real name George Weisgerber) proposed to Pollard, but was turned down. The finale earned 5.4 million viewers. During the "I Love New York 2" reunion special, Tailor Made proposed a second time and Pollard accepted. The reunion special earned 4.86 million viewers.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: "New York Goes to Hollywood" premiered August 4, 2008 on VH1. The eight-episode season follows Pollard as she tries to establish herself as an actress in Hollywood, California.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: "New York Goes to Work" premiered on May 4, 2009. The reality show followed Pollard as she searches for a regular job. The jobs were selected by fans (via text messaging) from a list of three possible jobs for each episode. Pollard would receive a $10,000 bonus each week if she were able to impress her employer. However, if she quit, failed, or was fired, she would not receive a bonus for the week. Pollard won $45,000 over the series, and earned bonuses in four jobs (in episodes 1, 2, 5, and 6); she lost, failed in, or quit four jobs (in episodes 3, 4, 7, and 8); and come to a draw in the season finale. At the end of the series, a mobile poll was presented giving three choices for New York's next task, and the most votes were cast for "I Love New York 3".


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Production for "I Love New York 3" was set to kick off sometime in the first quarter of 2010; however, prior to that time frame, VH1 requested immediate cancellation of the "celebreality" franchise and shelved plans for "I Love New York 3". In the summer of 2011, Pollard hinted that "I Love New York 3" was cancelled due to the murder-suicide case of Ryan Jenkins, who was a former contestant of "Megan Wants a Millionaire".


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: In 2020, Pollard's VH1 digital series "Brunch with Tiffany", was picked up by VH1. The show was previously in production since 2017. The series "follows Pollard as she gathers around the tables of the hottest restaurants with her famous friends for free-flowing conversations and cocktails." The pilot episode premiered September 7 and featured Cyn Santana and Fizz.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: On April 14, 2015, Pollard appeared on an episode of the E! Network's series, "Botched", where she detailed her botched surgeries that have left her breasts sagging with extra skin. She appeared on the show in hopes of getting them corrected, so she could resume her reality TV career. In 2016, Pollard entered the "Celebrity Big Brother" house in the United Kingdom to participate in the show's 17th season. She was involved in an infamous misunderstanding in which Pollard believed that David Gest had died of cancer inside the house; it subsequently turned out the deceased was David Bowie, the ex-husband of Pollard's fellow housemate Angie Bowie. Throughout her time on the show, Pollard proved popular with the British public and achieved the most votes to save her over her fellow contestants on at least one occasion. On February 5, Pollard made the final and came in fourth place, ranking higher than any other American female who had been on the show. Due to her popularity on the show, Pollard appeared in many UK publications including "New!" magazine. She also became a regular fixture on the "Big Brother" spin off show "Big Brother's Bit on the Side", during "Big Brother 17 (UK)". In 2016, Pollard was a main cast member on TV One's "". Pollard was also a cast member on the first season of "Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn".


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: In 2017, Pollard's VH1 digital series "Brunch with Tiffany" premiered. The series follows Pollard as she informally interviews a celebrity guest over brunch. The pilot featured "The Real Housewives of New York" star Sonja Morgan. That same year Pollard participated in VH1's "Scared Famous". Later that year she was a cast member on "Famously Single".


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: In 2018, she reunited with Flavor Flav on "Braxton Family Values". She also appeared on "Hip Hop Squares".


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: In 2019, Pollard was a guest judge on "RuPaul's Drag Race" season 11. The same year, she returned to "Botched" because of complications from a breast implant surgery. The same year Pollard also appeared on Action Bronson's show "". In 2020, she took part in the eleventh season of "Celebrity Ex on the Beach", as the ex of David McIntosh. In 2021, Pollard was a cast member on The TS Madison Experience. In 2022, Pollard began hosting "Hot Haus", a queer sex reality competition OutTV.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Pollard's first film role was in the comedy "First Sunday" (2008). She appeared in a supporting role, acting alongside Ice Cube, Regina Hall, and C. J. Sanders.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Pollard participated in a 2009 national tour of the "Vagina Monologues" with an all-black cast, most of whom are also former reality show contestants. Pollard also appeared in a play called "The Clean Up Woman" in 2009, and in "The Trial of the Chicago 7" in 2010.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Doreen St. Félix of "The New Yorker" referred to Pollard's "Flavor of Love" season one performance as "one of the most memorable [...] on reality television." In May 2018, a Brooklyn museum called THINK 1994 hosted an exhibit called "David's Dead: A Celebration of Tiffany Pollard" focused on an incident on "Big Brother UK" when Pollard mistakenly told the house that fellow housemate David Gest had died, and the chaos that ensued when she told other housemates the news.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Pollard has been referred to as the "queen of reaction memes" due to the number of gifs used of her on social media. A notable example is of Pollard exclaiming "Beyoncé!?".


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Pollard was born in Utica, New York to Michelle Rothschild-Patterson (also known as "Sister Patterson") and Alex Pollard. Pollard has used the surnames of both her parents, who are unmarried. She attended John F. Kennedy Middle School and graduated from Thomas R. Proctor High School.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Pollard was engaged to the "I Love New York" season 1 winner Patrick "Tango" Hunter for a six-month period until Hunter called off the engagement on the reunion show. She was also engaged to George "Tailor Made" Weisgerber, the winner of "I Love New York 2". She announced on episode 6 of her show, "New York Goes to Hollywood", that she had officially separated from Weisgerber.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: Pollard suffered a miscarriage of her child after she dealt with significant stress from her mother who was strongly chastised by psychologist Jenn Mann on "Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn" for refusing to believe Pollard was pregnant.


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: In 2019, Pollard decided to remove her breast implants. The procedure was documented on the reality television series "Botched".


title: Tiffany Pollard

text: On November 23, 2020, during the "I Love New York: Reunited" special, Pollard announced her third engagement, later revealed to be to a man named Jimmy Stewart.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalisation author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Gandhi of grain" for her activism associated with the anti-GMO movement.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva is one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization (with Jerry Mander, Ralph Nader, and Helena Norberg-Hodge), and a figure of the anti-globalisation movement. She has argued in favour of many traditional practices, as in her interview in the book "Vedic Ecology" (by Ranchor Prime). She is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, Spain's Socialist Party's think tank. She is also a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Vandana Shiva was born in Dehradun. Her father was a conservator of forests, and her mother was a farmer with a love for nature. She was educated at St. Mary's Convent High School in Nainital, and at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Dehradun.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva studied physics at Punjab University in Chandigarh, graduating as a Bachelor of Science in 1972. After a brief stint at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, she moved to Canada to pursue a master's degree in the philosophy of science at the University of Guelph in 1977 where she wrote a thesis entitled "Changes in the concept of periodicity of light". In 1978, she completed and received her PhD in philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, focusing on philosophy of physics. Her dissertation was titled "Hidden variables and locality in quantum theory" in which she discussed the mathematical and philosophical implications of hidden variable theories that fall outside of the purview of Bell's theorem. She later went on to pursue interdisciplinary research in science, technology, and environmental policy at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Vandana Shiva has written and spoken extensively about advances in the fields of agriculture and food. Intellectual property rights, biodiversity, biotechnology, bioethics, and genetic engineering are among the fields where Shiva has fought through activist campaigns. She has assisted grassroots organisations of the Green movement in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Ireland, Switzerland, and Austria with opposition to advances in agricultural development via genetic engineering.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: In 1982, she founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. This led to the creation of Navdanya in 1991, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seed, the promotion of organic farming and fair trade. Navdanya, which translates to "Nine Seeds" or "New Gift", is an initiative of the RFSTE to educate farmers of the benefits of maintaining diverse and individualised crops rather than accepting offers from monoculture food producers. The initiative established over 40 seed banks across India to provide regional opportunity for diverse agriculture. In 2004 Shiva started Bija Vidyapeeth, an international college for sustainable living in Doon Valley, Uttarakhand, in collaboration with Schumacher College, UK.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: In the area of intellectual property rights and biodiversity, Shiva and her team at the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology challenged the biopiracy of neem, basmati and wheat. She has served on expert groups of government on Biodiversity and IPR legislation.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Her first book, "Staying Alive" (1988), helped change perceptions of third world women. In 1990, she wrote a report for the FAO on Women and Agriculture titled "Most Farmers in India are Women". She founded the gender unit at the International Centre for Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu and was a founding board member of the Women's Environment & Development Organisation (WEDO).


title: Vandana Shiva

text: She received the Right Livelihood Award in 1993, an award established by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva's book "Making Peace With the Earth" discusses biodiversity and the relationship between communities and nature. "Accordingly, she aligns the destruction of natural biodiversity with the dismantling of traditional communities—those who 'understand the language of nature'". David Wright wrote in a review of the book that to Shiva, "the Village becomes a symbol, almost a metaphor for 'the local' in all nations".


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva has also served as an advisor to governments in India and abroad as well as non-governmental organisations, including the International Forum on Globalization, the Women's Environment & Development Organisation and the Third World Network. She chairs the Commission on the Future of Food set up by the Region of Tuscany in Italy and is a member of the Scientific Committee that advised former prime minister Zapatero of Spain. Shiva is a member of the Steering Committee of the Indian People's Campaign Against WTO. She is a councilor of the World Future Council. Shiva serves on Government of India Committees on Organic Farming. She participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2007.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: In 2021, she advised the government of Sri Lanka to ban inorganic fertilizers and pesticides stating "This decision will definitely help farmers become more prosperous. Use of organic fertilizer will help provide agri products rich with nutrients while retaining the fertility of the land." The policy applied overnight, with the main purpose to save State foreign exchange bills on imported fertilizers, caused a crisis with a significant reduction of farming output in several sectors, hitting the tea industry in particular and reducing rice yields were by one third. The ban was overturned seven months later.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Her work on agriculture started in 1984 after the violence in Punjab and the Bhopal disaster caused by a gas leak from Union Carbide's pesticide manufacturing plant. Her studies for the UN University led to the publication of her book "The Violence of the Green Revolution".


title: Vandana Shiva

text: In an interview with David Barsamian, Shiva argues that the seed-chemical package promoted by green revolution agriculture has depleted fertile soil and destroyed living ecosystems. In her work Shiva cites data allegedly demonstrating that today there are over 1400 pesticides that may enter the food system across the world.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva is a founding councillor of the World Future Council (WFC). The WFC was formed in 2007 "to speak on behalf of policy solutions that serve the interests of future generations." Their primary focus has been on climate security.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Vandana supports the idea of seed freedom, or the rejection of patents on new plant lines or cultivars. She has campaigned against the implementation of the WTO 1994 Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, which broadens the scope of patents to include life forms. Shiva has criticised the agreement as having close ties with the corporate sector and opening the door to further patents on life. Shiva calls the patenting of life 'biopiracy', and has fought against attempted patents of several indigenous plants, such as basmati. In 2005, Shiva's was one of the three organisations that won a 10-year battle in the European Patent Office against the biopiracy of Neem by the US Department of Agriculture and the corporation WR Grace. In 1998, Shiva's organisation Navdanya began a campaign against the biopiracy of basmati rice by US corporation RiceTec Inc. In 2001, following intensive campaigning, RiceTec lost most of its claims to the patent.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva strongly opposes golden rice, a breed of rice that has been genetically engineered to biosynthesise beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. Shiva contends that Golden Rice is more harmful than beneficial in her explanation of what she calls the "Golden Rice hoax": "Unfortunately, Vitamin A rice is a hoax, and will bring further dispute to plant genetic engineering where public relations exercises seem to have replaced science in promotion of untested, unproven and unnecessary technology... This is a recipe for creating hunger and malnutrition, not solving it." Adrian Dubock says that golden rice is as cheap as other rice and vitamin A deficiency is the greatest reason for blindness and causes 28% of global preschool child mortality. Shiva has claimed that the women of Bengal grow and eat 150 greens which can do the same, while environmental consultant Patrick Moore suggests that most of these 250 million children do not eat much else than a bowl of rice a day. In the 2013 report "The economic power of the Golden Rice opposition", two economists, Wesseler and Zilberman from Munich University and the University of California, Berkeley respectively calculated that the absence of Golden Rice in India had caused the loss of over 1.4 million life man years in the previous ten years.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: According to Shiva, "Soaring seed prices in India have resulted in many farmers being mired in debt and turning to suicide". The creation of seed monopolies, the destruction of alternatives, the collection of superprofits in the form of royalties, and the increasing vulnerability of monocultures has created a context for debt, suicides, and agrarian distress. According to data from the Indian government, nearly 75 per cent rural debt is due to purchased inputs. Shiva claims that farmers' debt grows as GMO corporation's profits grow. According to Shiva, it is in this systemic sense that GM seeds are those of suicide.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) twice analysed academic articles and government data and concluded the decrease and that there was no evidence on "resurgence" of farmer suicide.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva plays a major role in the global ecofeminist movement. According to her 2004 article "Empowering Women," a more sustainable and productive approach to agriculture can be achieved by reinstating the system of farming in India that is more centred on engaging women. She advocates against the prevalent "patriarchal logic of exclusion," claiming that a woman-focused system would be a great improvement. She believes that ecological destruction and industrial catastrophes threaten daily life, and the maintenance of these problems have become women's responsibility.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva co-wrote the book "Ecofeminism" in 1993 with "German anarchist and radical feminist sociologist" Maria Mies. It combined Western and Southern feminism with "environmental, technological and feminist issues, all incorporated under the term ecofeminism". These theories are combined throughout the book in essays by Shiva and Mies.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Stefanie Lay described the book as a collection of thought-provoking essays but also found in it a lack of new ecofeminist theories and contemporary analysis, as well as "overall failure to acknowledge the work of others".


title: Vandana Shiva

text: In June 2014, Indian and international media reported that Navdanya and Vandana Shiva were named in a leaked, classified report by India's Intelligence Bureau (IB), which was prepared for the Indian Prime Minister's Office.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: The leaked report says that campaigning activities of Indian NGOs such as Navdanya are hampering India's growth and development. In its report, the IB said that Indian NGOs, including Navdanya, receive money from foreign donors under the 'charitable garb' of campaigning for human rights or women's equality, but instead use the money for nefarious purposes. "These foreign donors lead local NGOs to provide field reports which are used to build a record against India and serve as tools for the strategic foreign policy interests of the Western governments," the IB report states.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Investigative journalist Michael Specter, in an article in "The New Yorker" on 25 August 2014 called "Seeds of Doubt", raised concerns over a number of Shiva's claims regarding GMOs and some of her campaigning methods. He wrote: "Shiva's absolutism about G.M.O.s can lead her in strange directions. In 1999, ten thousand people were killed and millions were left homeless when a cyclone hit India's eastern coastal state of Orissa. When the U.S. government dispatched grain and soy to help feed the desperate victims, Shiva held a news conference in New Delhi and said that the donation was proof that 'the United States has been using the Orissa victims as guinea pigs' for genetically-engineered products, although she made no mention that those same products are approved and consumed in the United States. She also wrote to the international relief agency Oxfam to say that she hoped it wasn't planning to send genetically modified foods to feed the starving survivors."


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva responded that Specter was "ill informed" and that "for the record, ever since I sued Monsanto in 1999 for its illegal Bt cotton trials in India, I have received death threats", adding that the "concerted PR assault on me for the last two years from Lynas, Specter and an equally vocal Twitter group is a sign that the global outrage against the control over our seed and food, by Monsanto through GMOs, is making the biotech industry panic." David Remnick, the editor of the "New Yorker", responded by publishing a letter supporting Specter's article.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Cases of plagiarism have been pointed out against Shiva. Birendra Nayak noted that Shiva copied verbatim from a 1996 article in Voice Gopalpur in her 1998 book "Stronger than Steel", and that in 2016, she plagiarised several paragraphs of an article by S Faizi on the Plachimada/Coca-Cola issue published in "The Statesman".


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Journalist Keith Kloor, in an article published in "Discover" on 23 October 2014 titled "The Rich Allure of a Peasant Champion", revealed that Shiva charges $40,000 per lecture, plus a business-class air ticket from New Delhi. Kloor wrote: "She is often heralded as a tireless 'defender of the poor,' someone who has courageously taken her stand among the peasant farmers of India. Let it be noted, however, that this champion of the downtrodden doesn't exactly live a peasant's lifestyle."


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Stewart Brand in Whole Earth Discipline described some of Shiva's statements as pseudo-scientific, calling her warnings about "heritable sterility" ("Stolen Harvest", 2000) a "biological impossibility" but also plagiarism from Geri Guidetti, owner of the seed supplier company Ark Institute, and a "distraction" created by inflating the potential of terminator genes based on a single 1998 patent granted to a US company. Brand also criticised the position of anti-GMO activists, including Shiva, who forced Zambia's government to reject internationally donated corn in 2001-02 because it was "poisoned", as well as during the cyclone disaster in India. On the latter Shiva argued, "emergency cannot be used as market opportunity", to which Brand responded, "anyone who encourages other people to starve on principle should do some of the starving themselves". In 1998 Shiva was also protesting against Bt cotton program in India, calling it "seeds of suicide, seeds of slavery, seeds of despair", claiming she was protecting the farmers. Restrictive laws established in India under anti-GMO lobbying, however, led to widespread grassroots "seed piracy" where Indian farmers illegally planted seeds of Bt cotton and Bt brinjal, obtained either from experimental plantations or from Bangladesh (where they are planted legally) due to increased yield and reduced pesticide usage. As of 2005 over 2.5 million hectares were planted with "unofficial" Bt cotton in India, of which Noel Kingsbury said:


title: Vandana Shiva

text: In India, farmers planting GM crops illegally eventually formed the Shetkari Sanghatana movement, calling for reform of the restrictive laws created under anti-GMO lobbying and as of 2020 an estimated 25% of cotton farmed is GM.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Vandana Shiva has been interviewed for a number of documentary films including "Freedom Ahead", "Roshni;" "Deconstructing Supper: Is Your Food Safe?," "The Corporation," "Thrive," "Dirt! The Movie," Normal is Over, and "This is What Democracy Looks Like" (a documentary about the Seattle WTO protests of 1999). and Michael Moore and Jeff Gibbs "Planet of the Humans".


title: Vandana Shiva

text: Shiva's focus on water has caused her to appear in a number of films on this topic. These films include "Ganga From the Ground Up," a documentary on water issues in the river Ganges; "" by Sam Bozzo; Irena Salina's documentary "" (in competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival), and the PBS NOW documentary "On Thin Ice."


title: Vandana Shiva

text: On the topic of genetically modified crops, she was featured in the documentary "Fed Up!" (2002), on genetic engineering, industrial agriculture and sustainable alternatives; and the documentary "The World According to Monsanto", a film made by the French independent journalist Marie-Monique Robin.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: In 2010, Shiva was interviewed in a documentary about honeybees and colony collapse disorder, entitled "Queen of the Sun".


title: Vandana Shiva

text: In 2016, she appeared in the vegan documentary film "H.O.P.E.: What You Eat Matters", where she was critical of the animal agriculture industry and meat-intensive diets.


title: Vandana Shiva

text: "The Seeds of Vandana Shiva (2021)," Becket Films, feature length documentary telling her life story. www.vandanashivamovie.com


title: 2022 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

text: The 2022 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters was the thirty-sixth season of the premier German touring car championship and also the twenty-third season under the moniker of Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters since the series' resumption in 2000. It was the second season of the DTM to be run under Group GT3 regulations.


title: 2022 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

text: A nine-round 2022 calendar was announced on 3 September 2021. On 23 December 2021, it was announced that an unconfirmed round outside Germany on 4 and 5 June 2022 would not take place, making it an eight-round calendar.


title: 2022 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

text: Only points scored by the top three drivers of a manufacturer in qualifying sessions and races count for the manufacturers' championship.


title: Martin Campbell

text: Martin Campbell (born 24 October 1943) is a New Zealand film and television director based in the United Kingdom. He is known for having directed "The Mask of Zorro" as well as the James Bond films "GoldenEye" and "Casino Royale". He won a BAFTA for his direction of the film adaptation of "Edge of Darkness".


title: Martin Campbell

text: Born in Hastings, New Zealand, Campbell moved to London, where he began his career as a director of softcore sex comedies and action television series in the 1970s. He went on to direct two James Bond films, 1995's "GoldenEye", starring Pierce Brosnan, and 2006's "Casino Royale", starring Daniel Craig. At 62 years old, Campbell was the oldest director in the series' history, beating the previous record set by Lewis Gilbert. Campbell stated that he was offered the opportunity to direct further James Bond films after "GoldenEye"; however, he found the plots to be limiting and only considered directing further films if working with a new Bond actor - as he subsequently did with Daniel Craig on "Casino Royale".


title: Martin Campbell

text: He directed two Zorro films: "The Mask of Zorro" (1998) and "The Legend of Zorro" (2005), both starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Campbell also directed the 2011 film adaptation of the DC Comics superhero "Green Lantern", as well as "The Foreigner" (2017), starring Jackie Chan.


title: Martin Campbell

text: On television, Campbell directed the film "Cast a Deadly Spell" and oversaw some of the more action-oriented episodes from the TV series "The Professionals" (1977–1983). However, his best-known work is the 1985 BBC Television drama serial "Edge of Darkness", for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Director in 1986. Campbell has also directed a 2010 movie remake of "Edge of Darkness", starring Mel Gibson and Ray Winstone. Campbell directed the first episode of the US TV series "Last Resort".


title: Martin Campbell

text: In June 2007, Martin Campbell was in negotiations to replace Robert Schwentke as director of the film, now titled "Unstoppable". Campbell was involved until March 2009, when Tony Scott came on board as director. Martin Campbell was chosen to direct "Hunter Killer," but, on March 3, 2016, it was announced that Donovan Marsh would direct the film.


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a role-playing video game developed by Big Bad Wolf and published by Nacon. It was released in May 2022 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It is based on White Wolf Publishing's tabletop role-playing game "", and is a part of the larger "World of Darkness" series.


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: "Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong" is a narrative-driven, single-player role-playing video game in which the player controls three vampires with different vampiric disciplines (abilities), switching between them over the course of the game. The player can customize the characters by choosing to upgrade their disciplines and character statistics to suit their preferred playstyle; this influences character interaction and skills used while exploring the game world, such as picking locks and hacking computer terminals. Because the player characters often are surrounded by humans, the player needs to be careful about when and where they choose to use supernatural abilities, to avoid revealing their characters' vampiric nature.


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: Throughout the game, the characters are put in difficult situations where the player has to make moral choices, with no obviously correct choice.


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: The story follows three vampires, each about a hundred years old, from different vampire clans with differing views on the Camarilla's rule: Galeb, an intimidating man of clan Ventrue; Emem, a "seductive Amazon" of clan Toreador; and Leysha of clan Malkavian, who relies on supernatural insight and spreading madness. The three investigate conspiracies in Boston following a shootout, starting with who ordered the attack and why.


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: "Swansong" is set in Boston, in the World of Darkness, where vampires exist unbeknownst to humanity. This practice of hiding from humans is called the Masquerade, and is upheld by the vampire sect the Camarilla. The new Camarilla prince of Boston, Hazel Iversen, is trying to strengthen the Camarilla's presence by bringing Boston and Hartford together. Although vampires previously had been occupied with rivalry between factions, they have changed focus to trying to survive, following events like the fall of London as a home to vampires, and so the Boston Camarilla wants to ensure that all vampires in the Northeastern United States are safe.


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: The plot revolves around the aftermath of the violent circumstances of the reunification of Boston and Hartford domains negotiated by Hazel Iversen, the Prince of Boston and Tremere Chantry of Hartford. Various highly influential members of the Camarilla community were expertly destroyed or captured by a group that appear to be highly knowledgeable about their quarry's weaknesses. Investigations reveal that the culprit of the raid was the Society of St Leopold, a sect of vampire hunters funded and supported by the Holy See, and Special Affairs Division, a governmental agency with a similar briefing. Each protagonist has their specific mission to bring the affair to a close. Galeb is tasked with the assassination of Monsignor Stanford, the leader of the Second Inquisition and wielder of True Faith; Emem is required to infiltrate the enemy HQ to corrupt their substantial database of information on vampires, while Leysha pursues her own daughter, who was staked and abducted during one of SI's raids into Camarilla territory. The game features numerous endings, depending which main and/or side characters survive their ordeals, and what actions they took.


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: "Swansong" is developed by Big Bad Wolf, a branch of Cyanide, and is designed by Clément Plantier. It is based on the fifth edition of the tabletop role-playing game "", and uses the portrayal of Boston from the 1990s tabletop game books "Dark Colony" and "Giovanni Chronicles", while updating it for the present-day setting. The developers incorporated some game mechanics from the tabletop game into "Swansong", but chose to focus on designing the game around player choices and consequences. Although referencing both past tabletop game material and another video game adaptation, "", the game is still designed to be approachable for players who are not familiar with the series. In adapting the tabletop game to a video game format, the developers considered a role-playing video game the best option, for allowing them to tell a story and for giving players freedom to role-play.


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: The game was originally announced to be in development in May 2019 to be released in 2021, and was presented in October 2019 at PDXCON. In July 2021, the game was delayed to February 2022. In November 2021, it was delayed to May 2022. Published by Nacon, the full game was released on May 19, 2022, for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, following delays from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down the production. In November 2022, it was reported that the owners of the PlayStation 4 version aren't able to upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version of the game despite it advertised on the game box. Nacon claims the advertisement for the upgrade was a mistake since the game isn't a "cross-gen product".


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: "Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong" received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics praised the game's RPG mechanics, player freedom, and lore, while criticizing the gameplay, narrative, and a perceived lack of polish.


title: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

text: Eric Van Allen of "Destructoid" gave the game a 7 out of 10, writing, "When it’s leaning heavily into logic puzzles, mystery, deduction, and sleuthing, "Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong" sings. It’s the janky issues, rough exploration puzzles, and a few odd choices that prevent "Swansong" from being a showstopper." Michael Goroff of "EGM" appreciated the amount of player choice present, noting that it lent depth to an otherwise standard narrative, but noted that the gameplay balance, facial animations, and emotional beats of the narrative were lacking and underdeveloped. Andrew Reiner of "Game Informer" reviewed the title much more positively and awarded it an 8.5 out of 10, likening its structure to "The Forgotten City" while praising the agency it gave the player. David Wildgoose of "GameSpot", by contrast, gave "Swansong" a 4 out of 10, writing, ""Swansong" ultimately has little to recommend it. Its writing is stilted, its storytelling muddled, and its puzzle design is mostly unimaginative." Rachel Weber of "GamesRadar+" lauded the rich universe and exploration mechanics while taking issue with its inaccessible design, underutilization of vampire powers, and poorly conceived conversation mechanics. Gabriel Moss of "IGN" gave the game a 5 out of 10, criticizing its dull story and gameplay, stating, "["Swansong"]'s premise is interesting, but its heroes and villains are bland, and as a result the lukewarm story takes far too long to rev up to its maximum potential." Rick Lane of "PC Gamer" similarly wrote, ""Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong" offers an impressively flexible story, but that can't save it from its mediocre writing and scattershot game design." Phil Iwaniuk of "PCGamesN" noted that despite its lack of polish and innovation, "Swansong"'s atmosphere, the depth it presented to the player, was its saving grace. John Cal McCormick of "Push Square" praised the game's lore, vampire-focused narrative, and dark tone while taking minor issue with its confusing puzzles and technical issues. PJ O'Reilly of "Pure Xbox" noted that the game gets off with a strong start and an intriguing premise at its core, but that it quickly falls victim to tedious gameplay, undercooked conversational aspects, and a host of bugs.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: Think and Grow Rich is a book written by Napoleon Hill in 1937 and promoted as a personal development and self-improvement book. He claimed to be inspired by a suggestion from business magnate and later-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: It remains the biggest seller of Napoleon Hill's books. "BusinessWeek" magazine's Best-Seller List ranked it the sixth best-selling paperback business book 70 years after it was published. "Think and Grow Rich" is listed in John C. Maxwell's "A Lifetime "Must Read" Books List."


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: While the book's title and much of the writing concerns increasing income, the author proclaims that his philosophy can help people succeed in any line of work, to do and be anything they can imagine.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: "Think and Grow Rich" is based on Hill's earlier work "The Law of Success", and is the result of more than twenty years of study of many individuals who had amassed personal fortunes.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: Hill studied their habits and drew some 16 "laws" to be applied to achieve success. "Think and Grow Rich" condenses them, providing the reader with 14 principles in the form of a "Philosophy of Achievement".


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: The book describes the 13 principles that Hill believes are necessary for success, including the power of thought, the power of the imagination, and the power of persistence.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: The book is considered a classic in the personal development genre and has been widely influential in shaping the way people think about success and wealth.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: The main theme of the book is that anyone can achieve success and wealth by following a certain set of principles. Hill identifies these principles as the "13 Steps to Riches," which include developing a positive mental attitude, setting clear and specific goals, developing a plan to achieve those goals, taking action, and maintaining a strong belief in oneself and one's abilities.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: 9. Power of the Master Mind: Surround yourself with like-minded people who support and encourage you.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: 10. The Mystery of Sex Transmutation: Use the power of your sexual energy to fuel your desire and drive.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: 11. The Subconscious Mind: Tap into the power of your subconscious mind to help you achieve your goals.


title: Think and Grow Rich

text: 13. The Sixth Sense: Trust your intuition and inner guidance to help you make the right decisions and achieve your goals.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: Kaffir (, Afrikaans: "kaffer") is an ethnic slur which is used in reference to black Africans in South Africa. Derived from the Arabic word "Kafir" meaning "nonbeliever", particularly of Islam. In the form of "cafri", it evolved from its religious origins during the pre-colonial period in Eastern and Southern Africa, where the term was adopted by colonists in reference to the monotheistic, non-Islamic Bantu peoples, and it was eventually used in reference to any black person during the Apartheid era. This designation came to be considered a pejorative by the mid-20th century, and today it is considered extremely offensive.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: In 2000, the South African parliament enacted the Promotion of Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, which has among its primary objectives the prevention of hate speech terms such as kaffir. When describing the term, the euphemism "the K-word" is now often used instead of kaffir.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: The term has its etymological roots in the Arabic word (Arabic: "kāfir") that is usually translated into English as "disbeliever" or "non-believer" to describe "one without religion" or by a Muslim to describe an atheist or someone who denies the existence of a God. The word is non-racial and applied to non-Muslims in general, and therefore in the past to non-Muslims who were encountered along the Swahili coast by Arab traders. The trade the Arabs engaged in was partly based on slavery. The Portuguese who arrived on the East African coast in 1498, encountered the usage of the term by the coastal Arabs but less so by the Muslim Swahili who used the term "Washenzi" (meaning "uncivilized") to describe the non-Islamic people of the African interior. The poet Camões used the plural form of the term ("cafres") in the fifth "canto" of his 1572 poem "Os Lusíadas". Variations of the word were used in English, Dutch, and, later, in Afrikaans, from the 17th century to the early 20th century as a general term for several different people groups in Southern Africa. In Portuguese, French and Spanish, the equivalent "cafre" was used.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: From the Portuguese the term was passed onto their Asian possessions and today it exists in several Asian languages which include words such as "Khapri" in Sinhalese and "Kaapiri" in Malayalam. The terms are descriptive of the pagan natives of Cafreria, but they are not considered offensive in either Western India or Sri Lanka.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: The term acquired a distinctly derogatory meaning in the context of South African history, especially during the Apartheid era. In Afrikaans, the term is more commonly spelled "kaffer" and became a common word used by European settlers. Through time "Kaffir" tended, in mid-20th century Southern Africa, to be used as a derogatory term for bantu black people, and in South Africa today, the term is legally regarded as hate speech.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: The 16th century explorer Leo Africanus described the "Cafri" as non-Islamic "negroes", and one of five principal population groups in Africa. According to him, they were "as blacke as pitch, and of a mightie stature, and (as some thinke) descended of the Jews; but now they are idolators." Leo Africanus identified the Cafri's geographical heartland as being located in remote southern Africa, an area which he designated as "Cafraria".


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: Following Leo Africanus, the works of Richard Hakluyt designate this population as "Cafars and Gawars, which is, infidels or misbeleeuers". Hakluyt refers to slaves ("slaues called Cafari") and certain inhabitants of Ethiopia ("and they vse to goe in small shippes, and trade with the Cafars") by two different but similar names. The word is also used in allusion to a portion of the coast of Africa ("land of Cafraria"). On early European maps of the 16th and 17th centuries, southern Africa was likewise called by cartographers "Cafreria".


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: The word was used to describe monotheistic peoples (Nguni ethnic groups in particular) of South Africa, who were not of a Christian or of an Islamic religious background, without derogatory connotations, during the Dutch and British colonial periods until the early twentieth century. It appears in many historical accounts by anthropologists, missionaries and other observers, as well as in academic writings. For example, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford originally labeled many African artifacts as "Kaffir" in origin. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica made frequent use of the term, to the extent of having an article of that title.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: The late nineteenth–early twentieth century novelist, H. Rider Haggard, frequently used the term "kaffir" in his novels of dark Africa, especially those of the great white hunter, Allan Quatermain, as a then inoffensive term for black people in the region.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: During the South African general election in 1948, those who supported the establishment of an apartheid regime campaigned under the openly racist slogan "" ("The kaffir in his place").


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: In the case of Butana Almond Nofomela, while working as an undercover policeman during the early 1980s, Nofomela stabbed to death a Brits farmer, Lourens. Nofomela had only intended to rob the wealthy tiller, but Lourens confronted him with a firearm and called him kaffir. This enraged Nofomela, who then killed the farmer.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: The Afrikaans term ("Kaffir brother") was also often used to describe a white person who fraternised with or sympathized with the cause of the black community.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: Much as in South Africa the term was used as a general derogatory reference to blacks. A 2003 report by the Namibian Labour Resource and Research Institute states:


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: In 2000, the parliament of South Africa enacted the Promotion of Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act. The Act's primary objectives include the prevention of hate speech terms, such as kaffir:


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: Notwithstanding the end of Apartheid and the above-mentioned Act, usage of the word in South Africa continues today.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: In February 2008, there was huge media and public outcry in South Africa after Irvin Khoza, then chairperson of the 2010 FIFA World Cup organizing committee, used the term during a press briefing in reference to a journalist.


title: Kaffir (racial term)

text: A statement made during the 5 March 2008 sitting of the South African Parliament shows how the usage of the word is seen today: