title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: In the years since the end of the war, a number of organizations have passed resolutions regarding the conflict. On 25 January 2005, for example, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a controversial non-binding resolution, Resolution 1416, which criticized the "large-scale ethnic expulsion and the creation of mono-ethnic areas" and declared that Armenian forces were occupying Azerbaijan lands. The Assembly recalled that the occupation of a foreign country by a Member State was a serious violation of the obligations undertaken by that State as a member of the Council of Europe and once again reaffirmed the right of displaced persons to return to their homes safely. On 14 May 2008 thirty-nine countries from the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 62/243 which called for "the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan". Almost one hundred countries abstained from voting while seven countries, including the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group, Russia, the United States and France, voted against it.


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: During the summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the session of its Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, member states adopted OIC Resolution No. 10/11 and OIC Council of Foreign Ministers Resolution No. 10/37, on 14 March 2008 and 18–20 May 2010, respectively. Both resolutions condemned alleged aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan and called for immediate implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884. As a response, Armenian leaders have stated Azerbaijan was "exploiting Islam to muster greater international support".


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: In 2008, the "Moscow Defense Brief" opined that because of the rapid growth of Azerbaijani defence expenditures – which is driving the strong rearmament of the Azerbaijani armed forces – the military balance appeared to be now shifting in Azerbaijan's favour: "The overall trend is clearly in Azerbaijan's favour, and it seems that Armenia will not be able to sustain an arms race with Azerbaijan's oil-fueled economy. And this could lead to the destabilization of the frozen conflict between these two states", the journal wrote. Other analysts have made more cautious observations, noting that administrative and military deficiencies are obviously found in the Azerbaijani military and that the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army maintains a "constant state of readiness".


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: In early 2008, tensions between Armenia, the NKR Karabakh and Azerbaijan grew. On the diplomatic front, President Ilham Aliyev repeated statements that Azerbaijan would resort to force, if necessary, to take the territories back; concurrently, shooting incidents along the line of contact increased. On 5 March 2008 a significant breach of the ceasefire occurred in Mardakert when up to sixteen soldiers were killed. Both sides accused the other of starting the battle. Moreover, the use of artillery in the skirmishes marked a significant departure from previous clashes, which usually involved only sniper or machine-gun fire. Deadly skirmishes took place during mid-2010 as well.


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: Tensions escalated again in July–August 2014 with ceasefire breaches by Azerbaijan taking place and President Aliyev, threatening Armenia with war.


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: Rather than receding, the tension in the area increased in April 2016 with the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh clashes when the worst clashes since the 1994 ceasefire erupted. The Armenian Defense Ministry alleged that Azerbaijan launched an offensive to seize territory in the region. Azerbaijan reported that 12 of its soldiers were killed in action and that an Mi-24 helicopter and tank were also destroyed. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated that 18 Armenian soldiers were killed and 35 were wounded.


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: The second war began on the morning of 27 September 2020 along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact. In response to initial clashes, Armenia and Artsakh introduced martial law and total mobilization; Azerbaijan also introduced martial law and a curfew, and declared partial mobilization the day after. Engagements were characterised by the use of heavy artillery, armoured warfare, rocket attacks, and drone warfare, as well as by emerging accounts of the use of cluster munitions, banned by most of the international community, but not by Armenia or Azerbaijan.


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: The second war ended with the victory of Azerbaijan, which took control of 4 Armenian-occupied districts, as well as towns of Shusha and Hadrut in Nagorno-Karabakh proper, and signing of a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement, under which Armenia agreed to withdraw from another 3 occupied districts. The agreement also provided for deployment of Russian peacekeeping forces along the line of contact and the Lachin corridor.


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: Emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union as nascent states and due to the near-immediate fighting, it was not until mid-1993 that Armenia and Azerbaijan became signatories of international law agreements, including the Geneva Conventions. Allegations from all three governments (including Nagorno-Karabakh's) regularly accused the other side of committing atrocities which were at times confirmed by third party media sources or human rights organizations. Khojaly Massacre, for example, was confirmed by both Human Rights Watch and Memorial. The Maraga Massacre was testified to by British-based organization Christian Solidarity International and by the Vice-Speaker of the British Parliament's House of Lords, Caroline Cox, in 1992. Azerbaijan was condemned by HRW for its use of aerial bombing in densely populated civilian areas and both sides were criticized for indiscriminate fire, hostage-taking, and the forcible displacement of civilians. The pogrom of Armenians in Baku was one of the acts of ethnic violence in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: As neither side was party to international military conventions, instances of ill-discipline and atrocity were rife. Looting and mutilation of body parts (brought back as war trophies) of dead soldiers were common. Another activity that was by regular civilians and not just soldiers during the war was the bartering of prisoners between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Often, when contact was lost between family members and a soldier or a militiaman serving at the front, they took it upon themselves to organize an exchange by personally capturing a soldier from the battle lines and holding them in the confines of their own homes. "New York Times" journalist Yo'av Karny noted this practice was as "old as the people occupying [the] land".


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: After the war ended, both sides accused their opponents of continuing to hold captives; Azerbaijan claimed Armenia was continuing to hold nearly 5,000 Azerbaijani prisoners while Armenians claimed Azerbaijan was holding 600 prisoners. The non-profit group, Helsinki Initiative 92, investigated two prisons in Shusha and Stepanakert after the war ended, but concluded there were no prisoners-of-war there. A similar investigation arrived at the same conclusion while searching for Armenians allegedly labouring in Azerbaijan's quarries.


title: First Nagorno-Karabakh War

text: The 1992–94 war figures heavily in popular Armenian and Azerbaijani media. It is a subject of many films and popular television shows. In June 2006, the film "Destiny" (Chakatagir) premiered in Yerevan and Stepanakert. The film, written and starring Gor Vardanyan, is a fictional account of the events revolving around Operation Ring. It cost $3.8 million to make, the most expensive film ever made in the country, and was touted as the first film made about the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. In mid-2012, Azerbaijanis in Azerbaijan released a video game entitled "İşğal Altında: Şuşa" (Under Occupation: Shusha), a free first-person shooter that allows the player to assume the role of an Azerbaijani soldier who takes part in the 1992 battle of Shusha. Commentators have noted that the game "is not for the faint of heart: there's lots of killing and computer-generated gore. To a great extent, it's a celebration of violence: to advance, players must handle a variety of tasks, including shooting lots of Armenian enemies, rescuing a wounded Azerbaijani soldier, retrieving a document, and blowing up a building in the town of Shusha." Another opus followed, "İşğal Altında: Ağdam", which was released in 2013. This episode is very similar to the previous one, but this time it takes place in Agdam. In April 2018, a documentary film about an Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh War participant Imran Gurbanov, called Return was premiered in Baku. It was directed by Rufat Asadov and written by Orkhan Fikratoglu.


title: Atharvaa

text: Atharvaa Murali is an Indian actor who works in Tamil cinema. The son of actor Murali and grandson of director S. Siddalingaiah, Atharvaa began his acting career with "Baana Kaathadi" (2010). He then garnered critical acclaim for his performance as a youngster suffering from delusion in the romantic thriller "Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal" (2012), before signing on to feature in Bala's period film "Paradesi" (2013). His role as a rural villager held as a slave in a tea plantation became his breakthrough performance, earning Atharvaa a Filmfare Award for Best Actor in Tamil.


title: Atharvaa

text: Atharva was born as the second child to actor Murali and his wife, Shobha. He also has an elder sister, Kavya, and a younger brother, Akash. He did his schooling in St. Michael's Academy. He attended Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, majoring in engineering.


title: Atharvaa

text: In 2009, his father found him an offer to play the lead role in a film to be produced by Sathya Jyothi Films and directed by Badri Venkatesh. Titled "Baana Kaathadi", the film launched in March 2009 and had Atharvaa pair up with fellow rookie actress Samantha. Portraying a youngster from the Royapuram slum area, he stayed in the locality for forty-five days to learn about the lifestyle, while he also learned to fly a kite for the film, canning scenes at the Gujarat Kite Festival. The film, which also had Murali making a special appearance, released in August 2010 with critics mostly praising his debut performance with Sify.com writing he "makes a promising debut and he dances and emotes well". Similarly a critic from Rediff.com added "romance is a cake-walk" for the actor, drawing comparison with his father's performances in romantic roles, though noted "his dialogue delivery is a little too melodramatic". He subsequently gained recognition at the Edison Awards for Best Debut Actor, while also receiving a nomination from the Vijay Awards in the same category. The success of the film prompted Murali to begin pre-production on a Tamil and Kannada bilingual film which would feature Atharvaa. However, a month after "Baana Kaathadi"'s release, his father Murali died after suffering cardiac arrest. Atharvaa consequently took a break to spend time with his family, before beginning work on a different venture.


title: Atharvaa

text: Gautham Vasudev Menon had previously shown interest in directing Atharvaa for a film. A year later, his next release was "Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal" where he played a youngster suffering from hallucinations, film had an average collection and his performance was stated by Sify.com as “good but has miles to go in the histrionics department and voice modulation”. His biggest movie was "Paradesi" under the direction of Bala, for which he won multiple awards including the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil. His next film was Sargunam's "Chandi Veeran" alongside actress Anandhi, which was a flop the box office.


title: Atharvaa

text: Atharvaa's "Eetti", a sports drama film produced by S. Michael Rayappan, in which he pairs up with Sri Divya and the thriller "Kanithan" in which he features alongside Catherine Tresa, were hits in the box office. In January 2016, he announced that he had set up a production studio called Kickass Entertainment. The first film under his banner would be directed by Badri Venkatesh, who had introduced Atharvaa as an actor. In 2017, "Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum" was released, starring the movie along with Aishwarya Rajesh, Regina Cassandra, Pranitha and Aaditi Pohankar.


title: Atharvaa

text: After many postponements and release issues, Atharvaa's debut production "Semma Botha Aagathey" (2018), directed by Badri Venkatesh released and was an average success. The next was a mystery thriller, "Imaikkaa Nodigal" (2018) in which he acted as Nayanthara's brother (Arjun). He received major recognition for this movie. In March 2019, "Boomerang", featuring alongside Megha Akash, was released to average reviews. In September 2019, Atharvaa made his Telugu debut in the film "Gaddalakonda Ganesh".


title: Atharvaa

text: In 2021, Atharvaa was seen in "Navarasa", an anthology streaming television series on Netflix. He then starred in "Thalli Pogathey", remake of the Telugu film "Ninnu Kori".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Jonathan Stephen Ross (born 17 November 1960) is an English broadcaster, film critic, comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He presented the BBC One chat show "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" during the 2000s, hosted his own radio show on BBC Radio 2 from 1999 to 2010, and served as film critic and presenter of the "Film" programme. After leaving the BBC in 2010, Ross began hosting his comedy chat show "The Jonathan Ross Show" on ITV"." Other regular roles have included being a panellist on the comedy sports quiz "They Think It's All Over" (1999–2005), being a presenter of the British Comedy Awards (1991–2007, 2009–2014), and being a judge on the musical competition show "The Masked Singer" (2020–present) and its spin-off series "The Masked Dancer" (2021–present).


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross began his television career as a TV researcher, before débuting as a presenter for "The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross" on Channel 4 in 1987. Over the next decade, he presented numerous radio and television programmes, many through his own production company, Channel X. In 1995, he sold his stake in Channel X, and embarked on a career with the BBC in 1997. In 1999, Ross took over presenting the "Film" programme from Barry Norman, and also began presenting his own radio show, while two years later he began hosting "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross". For the chat show, Ross won three BAFTA awards for Best Entertainment Performance, in 2004, 2006 and 2007. By 2006, he was believed to be the BBC's highest-paid star.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In 2005, Ross was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to broadcasting. Ross has been involved in controversies throughout his broadcasting career. As a result, in 2008, he wrote a semi-autobiographical work titled "Why Do I Say These Things?", detailing some of his life experiences. He has also written his own comic books, "Turf" and "America's Got Powers".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Jonathan Stephen Ross was born on 17 November 1960 in St Pancras, North London and raised in Leytonstone, East London. The son of John and actress Martha Ross, he has four brothers and one sister. He is the younger brother of journalist, television editor, and media personality Paul Ross.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Their mother put all of her children forward for roles in television advertisements. Ross first appeared in a television advertisement for the breakfast cereal Kellogg's Rice Krispies in 1970, when he was 10 years old. He also appeared in an ad for the laundry detergent Persil.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross was educated at the comprehensive schools Norlington School for Boys and Leyton County High School for Boys. He then studied at the Southampton College of Art and took a degree in Modern European History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) in London, which today forms part of University College London.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross began his adult career as a researcher on the Channel 4 show "Loose Talk". After leaving this, he worked on various other shows before beginning another research job on "Soul Train", which became "Solid Soul". It is believed his first appearance on television was as an extra in the 1981 "It Ain't Half Hot, Mum" episode "The Last Roll Call".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Whilst on "Solid Soul", he met fellow researcher Alan Marke, and the two devised what would prove to be a breakthrough hit for Ross in 1987, "The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: The two men based their concept on the successful American show "Late Night with David Letterman", and formed a new production company called Channel X, to produce a pilot. Ross had not planned to be the show's host, but he presented the show from its debut in January 1987.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: While the series was initially a co-production with Colin Callender, ownership transferred to Marke and Ross, meaning that the latter retained a great deal of control as well as being presenter. The show was successful for both Ross and for Channel 4, making him one of the major personalities on the channel. A year later, his documentary series "The Incredibly Strange Film Show" introduced many to the works of cult filmmakers like Sam Raimi and Jackie Chan. Ross and Raimi appeared together in a British television advertisement for Raimi's 1987 film "Evil Dead II".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In 1990 and 1991, his television documentary series "Jonathan Ross Presents for One Week Only" profiled and interviewed directors including Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, Aki Kaurismäki and in 2014, the Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In 1989, he co-presented the biennial BBC charity telethon "Comic Relief", the same year he launched "One Hour with Jonathan Ross" a short lived chat show on Channel 4. Its game show segment, "Knock down ginger", introduced comedians such as Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson to television. In December 1989, Ross appeared on "Cilla's Goodbye to the 80s" and presented all four members of Queen with the "Top Band of the Eighties" prize in a broadcast for ITV which would turn out to be Freddie Mercury's penultimate public appearance before his death from AIDS in 1991.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross presented the annual "British Comedy Awards" each year from 1991 to 2014 with the exception of 2008 following his suspension from the BBC. In 1992 he presented an interview with Madonna about her "Erotica" album and "Sex Book" promotion.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross has appeared in numerous television entertainment programmes on several channels throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He was a regular panellist on the sports quiz "They Think It's All Over", and hosted the panel game "It's Only TV...But I Like It". Other projects include the BBC joke-quiz "Gagtag", the Channel 4 variety show "Saturday Zoo", new-acts showcase "The Big Big Talent Show", and the ITV programme "Fantastic Facts".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In 1995, he left Channel X, despite its profitable nature. He was quoted in a 1998 article as stating:


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In 1995, he presented "Mondo Rosso", a programme about old cult films. He took over presenting of the Film programme, the BBC's long-running cinema review series, in 1999 after Barry Norman left the show. Ross himself has made a number of cameo appearances in films, playing himself in the Spice Girls' film "Spice World" (1997) and voicing the character of Doris in the UK version of "Shrek 2" (2004). In 2001 he also played himself in "Only Fools and Horses", presenting "Goldrush", a fictional television quiz on which the main character, Del, was a contestant. In 2001 he voiced characters in two episodes of the animated comedy series "Rex the Runt". He also appeared on the first pilot show for "Shooting Stars", acting as a team captain.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: He was the subject of "This Is Your Life" in March 2001 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at the BBC Television Centre.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross' first radio work was on BBC Radio 1 in 1987, when he sat in for Janice Long for two weeks. Ross began presenting a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2 in July 1999. He has also presented radio shows for Virgin Radio (having previously worked on Richard Branson's earlier venture, "Radio Radio"), as well as the now-defunct commercial radio network service "The Superstation", where his producer was Chris Evans. Ross' show on Radio 2 last aired on 17 July 2010 when his contract at the BBC ended.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In August 2014, he returned to Radio 2 as a stand-in presenter on Steve Wright's afternoon show for four days.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In March 2015 Jonathan sat in for Steve Wright again from 16 to 27 March 2015. In February 2016 Ross returned to Radio 2 on a regular basis to present the weekly arts show. From January 11, 2018, Anneka Rice took over the arts show.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 2 November 2001, Ross began presenting his BBC One comedy chat show "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In 2005, Ross anchored the BBC television coverage of the Live 8 concerts. Later that year he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting. He celebrated the news by playing "God Save the Queen" by The Sex Pistols (which was banned by the BBC when released in 1977) on his BBC Radio 2 Saturday morning show. On 21 June 2006, Ross was made a Fellow of University College London, where he studied.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In early 2006, Ross announced that after eight years he was quitting his regular panellist seat on the sport/comedy quiz show "They Think It's All Over" explaining: "I need time now to focus on my other commitments and so regrettably I won't be back for the 20th series." After Ross's departure, only two more episodes of the show were made before it was cancelled.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In January 2006 he presented "Jonathan Ross' Asian Invasion", broadcast on BBC Four. The three-part documentary followed Ross as he explored the film industry in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, interviewing directors and showcasing clips. His interest in East Asian culture and his self-confessed love for Japanese anime and video games led him to making three series of BBC Three show "Japanorama", as well as producing another television series for the same channel called "Adam and Joe Go Tokyo", starring Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish. He produced the latter programme through his own television production company Hot Sauce.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In June 2006, a bidding war was sparked between BBC and other broadcasters for Ross's services. Although other broadcasters were unsuccessful in poaching Ross, it is believed that their bids were higher than the BBC during negotiations. ITV, who bid for Ross, poached chat host Michael Parkinson around the same time. Ross became the highest paid television personality in Britain, when a new BBC contract secured his services until 2010, for a reported £18 million (£6 million per year). That same month, he was named by "Radio Times" as the most powerful person in British radio.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 25 June 2006, he performed at the Children's Party at the Palace for the Queen's 80th birthday. In August 2006, Ross asked the first question in the Yahoo! Answers "Five Million Answers challenge".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 7 July 2007, Ross co-presented (with Graham Norton) BBC television coverage of the Live Earth climate change awareness concerts, which became the subject of controversy due to the foul language used by performers including Phil Collins, Madonna and Johnny Borrell, resulting in one of Ofcom's toughest sanctions to date on the BBC. Ross had been required to apologise on the day for the language used by Collins and Borrell.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Starting on 10 September 2007, he presented the BBC Four series "Comics Britannia", about the history of the British comic. This forms the core of a Comics Britannia season, which includes another documentary, "In Search of Steve Ditko", by Ross. Ross is also greatly interested in Japan, presenting a BBC-TV series on many different aspects of Japanese culture, "Japanorama", for three series between 2002 and 2007.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 3 August 2008, he hosted "Jonathan Ross Salutes Dad's Army", a BBC One tribute to the sitcom set during World War II.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In 2010, Ross took part in "Channel 4's Comedy Gala", a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 7 April 2010, Ross's first comic book was published. "Turf" was written by Jonathan himself and drawn by artist Tommy Lee Edwards. In 2011, Ross wrote an introduction for "The Steve Ditko Omnibus Vol. 1", a collection of work by the American comics artist featured in Ross's 2007 documentary.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 7 January 2010, Ross confirmed that he would leave the BBC in July 2010. This would see him leave all his regular BBC roles, namely his Friday night chat show, Radio 2 show and the film review programme, although he would be continuing with some specials, such as Comic Relief and the BAFTA Awards.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross said that while he "had a wonderful time working for the BBC" he had "decided not to re-negotiate when my current contract comes to an end," a choice which was "not financially motivated". The announcement came a day after it became public knowledge that Graham Norton had signed a two-year deal with the BBC. Torin Douglas, the corporation's media correspondent speculated Norton would be a ready-made replacement for Ross's chat show role, while Mark Kermode of BBC Radio 5 Live was a potential successor in the film review role, but that "replacing Ross on radio will be harder." Ross last appeared on the film programme in Episode 10 of "Film 2010 with Jonathan Ross" aired on 17 March 2010. After Kermode publicly ruled himself out on 26 March, Claudia Winkleman was announced 30 March 2010 as his replacement as host of the "Film" programme.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross's final "Friday Night" chat show episode aired on 16 July 2010, with David Beckham, Jackie Chan, Mickey Rourke, and Roxy Music as guests. Ross ended the show with an affectionate tribute to his guests and to the audience, while mentioning that he had promised Morrissey that he would remain composed and "wouldn't cry." His final Radio 2 show was broadcast the following day. Patrick Kielty initially took over Ross' Radio 2 slot, after which Graham Norton took over permanently from 2 October that year.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 19 December 2010, Ross presented a three-hour Channel 4 list show, "100 Greatest Toys", with the broadcaster describing Ross as a "huge toy enthusiast with a private collection that would rival any museum's."


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In October 2013, Ross was hired by Xbox (Microsoft) to help promote the brand. In 2011, he presented "" on ITV, a collaboration with magicians Penn & Teller, which he would resume hosting when the show moved to The CW in 2014.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross's new chat show "The Jonathan Ross Show" began on 3 September 2011 on ITV1, drawing an audience of 4.3m viewers, compared to the 4.6m for his finale on the BBC show. The first series ran for thirteen weeks. Speaking about the new show, Ross said: "I am thrilled and excited that after a short break I will be rolling up my sleeves and creating a brand new show for ITV1."


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 20 October 2014, it was announced by ITV that Ross had signed a new contract with ITV. The new contract will see him present two more series of his chatshow along with a Christmas Special on ITV in 2015. ITV's Director of Entertainment and Comedy Elaine Bedell added: "Jonathan is the king of talk shows and a valued member of the ITV family. He continues to attract the biggest names in showbiz onto his sofa and I am delighted that he will remain on the channel until at least the end of 2015. "Ross said: "I've been lucky enough to interview some of the biggest stars around on The Jonathan Ross Show and I'm delighted that I'll continue to do so for ITV until at least the end of 2015 with two series booked for the channel for next year."


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In 2015, Ross's 2004 interview with Amy Winehouse was featured in Asif Kapadia's highly praised documentary film about the late singer, entitled as "Amy".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In 2017, Ross was a team captain along with Frank Skinner on the ITV panel show, "Don't Ask Me Ask Britain". In December 2017, Ross presented "Guess the Star", a one-off special for ITV. On 9 September 2019, Ross was announced as a judge for "The Masked Singer UK", the UK version of the international music game show "Masked Singer", which aired on ITV from January 2020.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In August 2020, Ross appeared on Gordon Ramsay's "The F Word" where Ramsay shows Ross how to kill lobster. In September 2020, Ross started hosting his own 30 minute weekly show called Jonathan Ross' Comedy Club.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 4 March 2021, it was announced by ITV that Ross would be on the 'star panel' of a brand new spin off show of "The Masked Singer UK", "The Masked Dancer," which aired in spring 2021.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross made his debut appearance on "Celebrity Gogglebox" on 2 July 2021, and was joined by his son Harvey, daughter Honey and her boyfriend.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross married author/journalist/broadcaster Jane Goldman in 1988 when Goldman was 18. They have since had three children: Betty Kitten, Harvey Kirby (named after Jack Kirby, a comic book creator whom Ross especially admires), and Honey Kinny. In 2005, Ross was made an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting. He celebrated the news by playing "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols on his Radio 2 show.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross resides in Hampstead, London. He owns a second home in Swanage in Dorset and owns property in Florida in the United States.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross and others have used his rhotacism for comic effect, and he is sometimes known as "Wossy", including on his Twitter feed (@wossy).


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross is a big pop and rock music fan and maintains a particular interest in British punk rock, which captivated him when he was young. The first band he saw in concert was punk band X-Ray Spex at Islington's Hope and Anchor pub in North London. He paid tribute to lead singer Poly Styrene following her death. He has described himself as "about as big a fan of David Bowie as you will find on the planet". The glam art rock band Roxy Music are one of his all-time favourite acts and were invited to perform on the final episode of "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross is a fan of science fiction, including "Doctor Who". He contributed his early memories of the series, which included the 1968 serial "The Invasion", to a book which raised funds for Alzheimer's Research UK.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross is also a fan of comic books and co-owned a comic shop in London with Paul Gambaccini. He released "Turf", his first comic book, in 2010, with American artist Tommy Lee Edwards.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ross has attended a fundraiser for the James Randi Educational Foundation called "The Amazing Meeting" in London in 2009 and 2010. Ross has described himself as a big fan of James Randi and the other speakers – who were mainly prominent sceptics – and said that he and his wife had come to have a sceptical view of the world. Ross has been supportive of Simon Singh's efforts to defend an accusation of libel by the British Chiropractic Association and Ross has posed for the "Geek Calendar 2011", a fund raiser for The Libel Reform Campaign.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In April 2006, details of his fees and those of other BBC personalities were leaked to the tabloid press. It was claimed at the time, by a then-unidentified BBC mole, that Ross earned £530,000 per year for hosting his Radio 2 show (equivalent to £10,000 per show). While refusing to comment specifically on the leak in line with BBC policy on the matter, Ross did hint during his radio show that the figure was exaggerated; in addition to this, any pay highlighted as being "his" would actually be split between himself and his producer/co-presenter on the show, Andy Davies.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: In June 2006, when Conservative Party leader David Cameron appeared on "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross", Ross began a line of questioning relating to Conservative ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, culminating in the question "Did you or did you not have a wank thinking of Margaret Thatcher?" Ross was defended by the BBC publicly, but repeat showings of the interview have been banned.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 5 December 2007, Ross joked at the "British Comedy Awards" that his salary meant that he was "apparently worth 1,000 BBC journalists". His quip came shortly after the BBC had announced plans for more than 2,000 job cuts, and was condemned as "obscene" by the general secretary of the National Union of Journalists. Ross has denied this and in a 2011 article is quoted as saying that he was commenting on a piece that was written in a newspaper about his salary being that of 1,000 journalists:


title: Jonathan Ross

text: You know where that came from? The newspapers. After the fee was announced, they said, 'The BBC says he's worth 1,000 journalists', so on the Comedy Awards I made a joke that began, 'Apparently I'm worth 1,000 journalists according to the newspapers.' Every time it's quoted, is the word 'apparently' ever used? Which does change the meaning somewhat.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: The BBC Trust ruled that Ross's interview with American actress Gwyneth Paltrow, broadcast on 2 May 2008, breached editorial guidelines. They ruled that bad language in an episode of Ross's pre-recorded BBC1 chat show, "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross", in which the presenter told Paltrow he "would fuck her", was "gratuitous and unnecessarily offensive". The trust said it disagreed with the judgement made by BBC management that the episode should be broadcast uncensored, adding that the comment was made in an "overly sexual way" and that it had upheld a number of complaints made about the edition of "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross". The trust reminded BBC staff that "the casual gratuitous use of the most offensive language is not acceptable on the BBC in accordance with the BBC's existing guidelines and practices", adding that "this particularly applies in entertainment programmes".


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Following a guest appearance by Ross on "The Russell Brand Show" broadcast on 18 October 2008, Ross was suspended for 12 weeks without pay by the BBC on 29 October, after a series of lewd answerphone messages, including Ross saying, "He fucked your granddaughter", were left for then 78-year-old actor Andrew Sachs regarding Sachs' granddaughter Georgina Baillie, by Russell Brand and Ross, which were broadcast on the pre-recorded show. After little initial interest, a media story about the calls by the "Daily Mail" generated a high number of complaints. Brand resigned from the BBC, while Ross was suspended without pay. BBC director general Mark Thompson stated that Ross should take the disciplinary action as a "final warning". The BBC was later fined £150,000 by Britain's broadcast regulator for airing the calls.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 21 November 2008, the BBC Trust said that the phone calls were a "deplorable intrusion with no editorial justification". The trust gave its backing to Ross's 12-week suspension but recommended that no further action be taken against him. He returned to work in January 2009 with a new series of "Friday Night". From 23 May 2009, Ross' BBC Radio 2 show was recorded 24 hours before broadcast.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 13 May 2009, Ross was accused of homophobia after a comment he made on his radio show, in which he said,


title: Jonathan Ross

text: If your son asks for a "Hannah Montana" MP3 player, then you might want to already think about putting him down for adoption in later life, when they settle down with their partner.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: If your son asks for a "Hannah Montana" MP3 player, you might want to already think about putting him down for adoption before he brings his ... erm ... partner home.


title: Jonathan Ross

text: Ofcom received 61 complaints following the comment. On 7 July 2009, Ofcom ruled that Ross did not breach the broadcasting code. They wrote in their opinion that "the comment was clearly presented as a joke intended to make light of the reactions that some parents may have if their child chooses a toy that is very widely recognised to be designed and marketed for the opposite sex" and that the nature of the joke and tone and manner in which it was presented "made clear that it was not intended to be hostile or pejorative towards the gay community in general." Stonewall criticised the ruling; saying "the fact that a comment is light-hearted does not absolve it from perpetuating the stereotypes that lead to homophobic bullying."


title: Jonathan Ross

text: On 1 March 2014 Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, announced that Ross would be the Master of Ceremonies for the 2014 Hugo Awards ceremony, to be held in August at ExCeL London. This generated angry criticism from members of science fiction fandom who objected to the idea, citing Ross's record of controversial statements and actions. Convention committee member Farah Mendlesohn strongly objected to the choice of Ross as MC, and resigned when the Loncon 3 Co-Chairs would not reconsider the choice, writing (in part), '[Ross] is a man who has made a fortune (6 million a year at one point) from abusing others—particularly women—live on air.' He publicly withdrew as MC not long after the announcement, tweeting 'I have decided to withdraw from hosting the Hugo's @loncon3 in response to some who would rather I weren't there. Have a lovely convention.'


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activist who advocated anarcho-communism.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended a military school and later served as an officer in Siberia, where he participated in several geological expeditions. He was imprisoned for his activism in 1874 and managed to escape two years later. He spent the next 41 years in exile in Switzerland, France (where he was imprisoned for almost four years) and England. While in exile, he gave lectures and published widely on anarchism and geography. Kropotkin returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution in 1917, but he was disappointed by the Bolshevik state.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin was a proponent of a decentralised communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises. He wrote many books, pamphlets and articles, the most prominent being "The Conquest of Bread" and "Fields, Factories and Workshops", but also "", his principal scientific offering. He contributed the article on anarchism to the "Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition" and left unfinished a work on anarchist ethical philosophy.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Pyotr Kropotkin was born in Moscow, into an ancient Russian princely family. His father, Major General Prince Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin, was a descendant of the Smolensk branch, of the Rurik dynasty which had ruled Russia before the rise of the Romanovs. Kropotkin's father owned large tracts of land and nearly 1,200 male serfs in three provinces. His mother was the daughter of a Cossack general. Pyotr had an older brother, Alexander (1841–1890), who later committed suicide. Their mother died of tuberculosis in 1846. The widowed father married Yelizaveta Markovna Korandina in 1848.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin dropped his princely title at age 12 "[u]nder the influence of republican teachings" and "even rebuked his friends, when they so referred to him."


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 1857, at age 14, Kropotkin enrolled in the Corps of Pages at St. Petersburg. Only 150 boys – mostly children of nobility belonging to the court – were educated in this privileged corps, which combined the character of a military school endowed with exclusive rights and of a court institution attached to the Imperial Household. Kropotkin's memoirs detail the hazing and other abuse of pages for which the Corps had become notorious.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In Moscow, Kropotkin developed what would become a lifelong interest in the condition of the peasantry. Although his work as a page for Tsar Alexander II made Kropotkin skeptical about the tsar's "liberal" reputation, Kropotkin was greatly pleased by the tsar's decision to emancipate the serfs in 1861. In St. Petersburg, he read widely on his own account and gave special attention to the works of the French encyclopædists and French history. The years 1857–1861 witnessed a growth in the intellectual forces of Russia, and Kropotkin came under the influence of the new liberal-revolutionary literature, which largely expressed his own aspirations.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 1862, Kropotkin graduated first in his class from the Corps of Pages and entered the Tsarist army. The members of the corps had the prescriptive right to choose the regiment to which they would be attached. Following a desire to "be someone useful", Kropotkin chose the difficult route of serving in a Cossack regiment in eastern Siberia. For some time, he was "aide de camp" to the governor of Transbaikalia at Chita. Later he was appointed attaché for Cossack affairs to the governor-general of East Siberia at Irkutsk.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: The administrator under whom Kropotkin served, General Boleslar Kazimirovich Kukel, was a liberal and a democrat who maintained personal connections to various Russian radical political figures exiled to Siberia. These included the writer Mikhail Larionovitch Mikhailov, whom Kropotkin (on the orders of Kukel) once warned about the Moscow police's investigation into his political activities in confinement. Mikhailov later gave the young Tsarist functionary a copy of a book by the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon — Kropotkin's first introduction to anarchist ideas. Kukel was later dismissed from his administrative position, being transferred, instead, to state-sponsored scientific endeavors.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 1864, Kropotkin accepted a position in a geographical survey expedition, crossing North Manchuria from Transbaikalia to the Amur, and soon was attached to another expedition up the Sungari River into the heart of Manchuria. The expeditions yielded valuable geographic results. The impossibility of obtaining any real administrative reforms in Siberia now induced Kropotkin to devote himself almost entirely to scientific exploration, in which he continued to be highly successful.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin continued his political reading, including works by such prominent liberal thinkers as John Stuart Mill and Alexander Herzen. These readings, along with his experiences among peasants in Siberia, led him to declare himself an anarchist by 1872.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 1867, Kropotkin resigned his commission in the army and returned to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Saint Petersburg Imperial University to study mathematics, becoming at the same time secretary to the geography section of the Russian Geographical Society. His departure from a family tradition of military service prompted his father to disinherit him, "leaving him a 'prince' with no visible means of support".


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 1871, Kropotkin explored the glacial deposits of Finland and Sweden for the Society. In 1873, he published an important contribution to science, a map and paper in which he showed that the existing maps entirely misrepresented the physical features of Asia; the main structural lines were in fact from southwest to northeast, not from north to south or from east to west as had been previously supposed. During this work, he was offered the secretaryship of the Society, but he had decided that it was his duty not to work at fresh discoveries but to aid in diffusing existing knowledge among the people at large. Accordingly, he refused the offer and returned to St. Petersburg, where he joined the revolutionary party.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin visited Switzerland in 1872 and became a member of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) at Geneva. However, he found that he did not like IWA's support of state socialism. Instead, he studied the programme of the more anarchist Jura federation at Neuchâtel and spent time in the company of the leading members, adopting the creed of anarchism.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: On returning to Russia, Kropotkin's friend Dmitri Klements introduced him to the Circle of Tchaikovsky, a socialist/populist group created in 1872. Kropotkin worked to spread revolutionary propaganda among peasants and workers, and acted as a bridge between the Circle and the aristocracy. Throughout this period, Kropotkin maintained his position within the Geographical Society to provide cover for his activities.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In March 1874, Kropotkin was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for subversive political activity, as a result of his work with the Circle of Tchaikovsky. Because of his aristocratic background, he received special privileges in prison, such as permission to continue his geographical work in his cell. He delivered his report on the subject of the Ice Age in 1876, where he argued that it had taken place in not as distant a past as initially thought.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In June 1876, just before his trial, Kropotkin was moved to a low-security prison in St. Petersburg, from which he escaped with help from his friends. On the night of the escape, Kropotkin and his friends celebrated by dining in one of the finest restaurants in St. Petersburg, assuming correctly that the police would not think to look for them there. After this, he boarded a boat and headed to England. After a short stay there, he moved to Switzerland where he joined the Jura Federation. In 1877, he moved to Paris, where he helped start the socialist movement. In 1878, he returned to Switzerland where he edited the Jura Federation's revolutionary newspaper "Le Révolté" and published various revolutionary pamphlets.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 1881, shortly after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, he was expelled from Switzerland. After a short stay at Thonon (Savoy), he stayed in London for nearly a year. He attended the Anarchist Congress in London from 14 July 1881. Other delegates included Marie Le Compte, Errico Malatesta, Saverio Merlino, Louise Michel, Nicholas Tchaikovsky, and Émile Gautier. While respecting "complete autonomy of local groups", the congress defined propaganda actions that all could follow and agreed that propaganda by the deed was the path to social revolution. "The Radical" of 23 July 1881 reported that the congress met on 18 July at the Cleveland Hall, Fitzroy Square, with speeches by Marie Le Compte, "the transatlantic agitator", Louise Michel, and Kropotkin. Later, Le Compte and Kropotkin gave talks to the Homerton Social Democratic Club and the Stratford Radical and Dialectical Club.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin returned to Thonon in late 1882. Soon he was arrested by the French government, tried at Lyon, and sentenced by a police-court magistrate (under a special law passed on the fall of the Paris Commune) to five years' imprisonment, on the ground that he had belonged to the IWA (1883). The French Chamber repeatedly agitated on his behalf, and he was released in 1886. He was invited to Britain by Henry Seymour and Charlotte Wilson and all three worked on Seymour's newspaper "The Anarchist". Soon after, Wilson and Kropotkin split from the individualist anarchist Seymour and found the anarchist newspaper "Freedom Press", which continues to this day. Kropotkin was a regular contributor, while Wilson was integral to the administrative and financial running of the paper until she resigned its editorship in 1895. He settled near London, living at various times in Harrow, then Bromley, where his daughter and only child, Alexandra, was born on 15 April 1887. He also lived for many years in Brighton. While living in London, Kropotkin became friends with a number of prominent English-speaking socialists, including William Morris and George Bernard Shaw.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 1916, Kropotkin and Jean Grave drafted a document called "Manifesto of the Sixteen", which advocated an Allied victory over Germany and the Central Powers during the First World War. Because of the manifesto, Kropotkin found himself isolated by the mainstream of the anarchist movement.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 1917, after the February Revolution, Kropotkin returned to Russia after 40 years of exile. His arrival was greeted by cheering crowds of tens of thousands of people. He was offered the ministry of education in the Provisional Government, which he promptly refused, feeling that working with them would be a violation of his anarchist principles.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: His enthusiasm for the changes occurring in the Russian Empire expanded when Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution. He had this to say about the October Revolution: "During all the activities of the present revolutionary political parties we must never forget that the October movement of the proletariat, which ended in a revolution, has proved to everybody that a social revolution is within the bounds of possibility. And this struggle, which takes place worldwide, has to be supported by all means – all the rest is secondary. The party of the Bolsheviks was right to adopt the old, purely proletarian name of 'Communist Party'. Even if it does not achieve everything that it would like to, it will nevertheless enlighten the path of the civilised countries for at least a century. Its ideas will slowly be adopted by the peoples in the same way as in the nineteenth century the world adopted the ideas of the Great French Revolution. That is the colossal achievement of the October Revolution. [...] I see the October Revolution as an attempt to bring the preceding February Revolution to its logical conclusion with a transition to communism and federalism."


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Although he led a life on the margins of the revolutionary upheaval, Kropotkin became increasingly critical of the methods of the Bolshevik dictatorship and went on to express these feelings in writing. "Unhappily, this effort has been made in Russia under a strongly centralized party dictatorship. This effort was made in the same way as the extremely centralized and Jacobin endeavor of Babeuf. I owe it to you to say frankly that, according to my view, this effort to build a communist republic on the basis of a strongly centralized state communism under the iron law of party dictatorship is bound to end in failure. We are learning to know in Russia how not to introduce communism, even with a people tired of the old regime and opposing no active resistance to the experiments of the new rulers."


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: After a year of living in Moscow, Kropotkin moved to the city of Dmitrov in May 1918, where he died of pneumonia on 8 February 1921, at the age of 78. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Thousands of people marched in his funeral procession, including, with Vladimir Lenin's approval, anarchists carrying banners with anti-Bolshevik slogans. The occasion, the last public demonstration of anarchists in Soviet Russia, saw engaged speeches by Emma Goldman and Aron Baron. In some versions of Kropotkin's "The Conquest of Bread", the mini-biography states that this was the last time that Kropotkin's supporters would be allowed to freely rally in public.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: On April 14th 1921, two months after Kropotkin's death, the "Romanovski rural area" was incorporated into the town of Kropotkin, Krasnodar Krai, in his honor.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 2014, in Dmitrov, was opened. It works in the house where Peter Kropotkin lived in 1918–1921 and died. The museum holds memorial documents and typical interior based on the historical photographs.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin pointed out what he considered to be the fallacies of the economic systems of feudalism and capitalism. He believed they create poverty and artificial scarcity, and promote privilege. Instead, he proposed a more decentralized economic system based on mutual aid, mutual support, and voluntary cooperation. He argued that the tendencies for this kind of organization already exist, both in evolution and in human society.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin disagreed in part with the Marxist critique of capitalism, including the labour theory of value, believing there was no necessary link between work performed and the values of commodities. His attack on the institution of wage labour was based more on the power employers exerted over employees, and not only on the extraction of surplus value from their labour. Kropotkin claimed this power was made possible by the state's protection of private ownership of productive resources. However, Kropotkin believed the possibility of surplus value was itself the problem, holding that a society would still be unjust if the workers of a particular industry kept their surplus to themselves, rather than redistributing it for the common good.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin believed that a communist society could be established only by a social revolution, which he described as, "... the taking possession by the people of all social wealth. It is the abolition of all the forces which have so long hampered the development of Humanity". However, he criticized forms of revolutionary methods (like those proposed by Marxism and Blanquism) that retained the use of state power, arguing that any central authority was incompatible with the dramatic changes needed by a social revolution. Kropotkin believed that the mechanisms of the state were deeply rooted in maintaining the power of one class over another, and thus could not be used to emancipate the working class. Instead, Kropotkin insisted that both private property and the state needed to be abolished together. The economic change which will result from the Social Revolution will be so immense and so profound, it must so change all the relations based today on property and exchange, that it is impossible for one or any individual to elaborate the different social forms, which must spring up in the society of the future. [...] Any authority external to it will only be an obstacle, only a trammel on the organic labor which must be accomplished, and beside that a source of discord and hatred.Kropotkin believed that any post-revolutionary government would lack the local knowledge to organize a diverse population. Their vision of society would be limited by their own vindictive, self-serving, or narrow ideals. To ensure order, preserve authority, and organize production the state would need to use violence and coercion to suppress further revolution, and control workers. The workers would be reliant on the state bureaucracy to organize them, so they would never develop the initiative to self-organize as they needed. This would lead to the re-creation of classes, an oppressed workforce, and eventually another revolution. Thus, Kropotkin wrote that maintaining the state would paralyze any true social revolution, making the idea of a "revolutionary government" a contradiction in terms:We know that Revolution and Government are incompatible; one must destroy the other, no matter what name is given to government, whether dictator, royalty, or parliament. We know that what makes the strength and the truth of our party is contained in this fundamental formula — “Nothing good or durable can be done except by the free initiative of the people, and every government tends to destroy it;” and so the very best among us, if their ideas had not to pass through the crucible of the popular mind, before being put into execution, and if they should become masters of that formidable machine — the government — and could thus act as they chose, would become in a week fit only for the gallows. We know whither every dictator leads, even the best intentioned, — namely to the death of all revolutionary movement.Rather than a centralized approach, Kropotkin stressed the need for decentralized organization. He believed that dissolving the state would cripple counter-revolution without reverting to authoritarian methods of control, writing, "In order to conquer, something more than guillotines are required. It is the revolutionary idea, the truly wide revolutionary conception, which reduces its enemies to impotence by paralyzing all the instruments by which they have governed hitherto." He believed this was possible only through a widespread "Boldness of thought, a distinct and wide conception of all that is desired, constructive force arising from the people in proportion as the negation of authority dawns; and finally -- the initiative of all in the work of reconstruction -- this will give to the revolution the Power required to conquer."


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin's applied this criticism to the Bolsheviks' rule following the October Revolution. Kropotkin summarized his thoughts in a 1919 letter to the workers of Western Europe, promoting the possibility of revolution, but also warning against the centralized control in Russia, which he believed had condemned them to failure. Kropotkin wrote to Lenin in 1920, describing the desperate conditions that he believed to be the result of bureaucratic organization, and urging Lenin to allow for local and decentralized institutions. Following an announcement of executions later that year, Kropotkin sent Lenin another furious letter, admonishing the terror which Kropotkin saw as needlessly destructive.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In 1902, Kropotkin published his book "", which gave an alternative view of animal and human survival. At the time, some "social Darwinists" such as Francis Galton proffered a theory of interpersonal competition and natural hierarchy. Instead, Kropotkin argued that "it was an evolutionary emphasis on cooperation instead of competition in the Darwinian sense that made for the success of species, including the human". In the last chapter, he wrote:


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin did not deny the presence of competitive urges in humans, but did not consider them the driving force of history. He believed that seeking out conflict proved to be socially beneficial only in attempts to destroy unjust, authoritarian institutions such as the State or the Church, which he saw as stifling human creativity and impeding human instinctual drive towards cooperation.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin's observations of cooperative tendencies in indigenous peoples (pre-feudal, feudal, and those remaining in modern societies) led him to conclude that not all human societies were based on competition as were those of industrialized Europe, and that many societies exhibited cooperation among individuals and groups as the norm. He also concluded that most pre-industrial and pre-authoritarian societies (where he claimed that leadership, central government, and class did not exist) actively defend against the accumulation of private property by equally distributing within the community a person's possessions when they died, or by not allowing a gift to be sold, bartered or used to create wealth, in the form of a gift economy.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: In his 1892 book "The Conquest of Bread", Kropotkin proposed a system of economics based on mutual exchanges made in a system of voluntary cooperation. He believed that in a society that is socially, culturally, and industrially developed enough to produce all the goods and services it needs, there would be no obstacle, such as preferential distribution, pricing or monetary exchange, to prevent everyone to take what they need from the social product. He supported the eventual abolition of money or tokens of exchange for goods and services.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin believed that Mikhail Bakunin's collectivist economic model was just a wage system by a different name and that such a system would breed the same type of centralization and inequality as a capitalist wage system. He stated that it is impossible to determine the value of an individual's contributions to the products of social labour, and thought that anyone who was placed in a position of trying to make such determinations would wield authority over those whose wages they determined.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: According to Kirkpatrick Sale, "[w]ith "Mutual Aid" especially, and later with "Fields, Factories, and Workshops", Kropotkin was able to move away from the absurdist limitations of individual anarchism and no-laws anarchism that had flourished during this period and provide instead a vision of communal anarchism, following the models of independent cooperative communities he discovered while developing his theory of mutual aid. It was an anarchism that opposed centralized government and state-level laws as traditional anarchism did, but understood that at a certain small scale, communities and communes and co-ops could flourish and provide humans with a rich material life and wide areas of liberty without centralized control."


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Kropotkin's focus on local production led to his view that a country should strive for self-sufficiencymanufacture its own goods and grow its own food, lessening dependence on imports. To these ends, he advocated irrigation and greenhouses to boost local food production.


title: Peter Kropotkin

text: Bolshevik anarchist and revolutionary Juda Grossman criticized Kropotkin’s militaristic position during the period of imperialist war, he revealed the contradictions of Kropotkin the militarist.Kropotkin's statement, "let’s cast guns and move them into position," sparked an ideological crisis for many. Many saw this as a crushing blow and an irrevocable harm to the importance and longevity of any ideological pretensions he might have had.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the formation of xenon hexafluoroplatinate, the first noble gas compound to be synthesized.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon is used in flash lamps and arc lamps, and as a general anesthetic. The first excimer laser design used a xenon dimer molecule (Xe) as the lasing medium, and the earliest laser designs used xenon flash lamps as pumps. Xenon is also used to search for hypothetical weakly interacting massive particles


title: Xenon

text: Naturally occurring xenon consists of seven stable isotopes and two long-lived radioactive isotopes. More than 40 unstable xenon isotopes undergo radioactive decay, and the isotope ratios of xenon are an important tool for studying the early history of the Solar System. Radioactive xenon-135 is produced by beta decay from iodine-135 (a product of nuclear fission), and is the most significant (and unwanted) neutron absorber in nuclear reactors.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon was discovered in England by the Scottish chemist William Ramsay and English chemist Morris Travers in September 1898, shortly after their discovery of the elements krypton and neon. They found xenon in the residue left over from evaporating components of liquid air. Ramsay suggested the name "xenon" for this gas from the Greek word ξένον "xénon", neuter singular form of ξένος "xénos", meaning 'foreign(er)', 'strange(r)', or 'guest'. In 1902, Ramsay estimated the proportion of xenon in the Earth's atmosphere to be one part in 20 million.


title: Xenon

text: During the 1930s, American engineer Harold Edgerton began exploring strobe light technology for high speed photography. This led him to the invention of the xenon flash lamp in which light is generated by passing brief electric current through a tube filled with xenon gas. In 1934, Edgerton was able to generate flashes as brief as one microsecond with this method.


title: Xenon

text: In 1939, American physician Albert R. Behnke Jr. began exploring the causes of "drunkenness" in deep-sea divers. He tested the effects of varying the breathing mixtures on his subjects, and discovered that this caused the divers to perceive a change in depth. From his results, he deduced that xenon gas could serve as an anesthetic. Although Russian toxicologist Nikolay V. Lazarev apparently studied xenon anesthesia in 1941, the first published report confirming xenon anesthesia was in 1946 by American medical researcher John H. Lawrence, who experimented on mice. Xenon was first used as a surgical anesthetic in 1951 by American anesthesiologist Stuart C. Cullen, who successfully used it with two patients.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon and the other noble gases were for a long time considered to be completely chemically inert and not able to form compounds. However, while teaching at the University of British Columbia, Neil Bartlett discovered that the gas platinum hexafluoride (PtF) was a powerful oxidizing agent that could oxidize oxygen gas (O) to form dioxygenyl hexafluoroplatinate (). Since O(1165 kJ/mol) and xenon (1170 kJ/mol) have almost the same first ionization potential, Bartlett realized that platinum hexafluoride might also be able to oxidize xenon. On March 23, 1962, he mixed the two gases and produced the first known compound of a noble gas, xenon hexafluoroplatinate.


title: Xenon

text: Bartlett thought its composition to be Xe[PtF], but later work revealed that it was probably a mixture of various xenon-containing salts. Since then, many other xenon compounds have been discovered, in addition to some compounds of the noble gases argon, krypton, and radon, including argon fluorohydride (HArF), krypton difluoride (KrF), and radon fluoride. By 1971, more than 80 xenon compounds were known.


title: Xenon

text: In November 1989, IBM scientists demonstrated a technology capable of manipulating individual atoms. The program, called IBM in atoms, used a scanning tunneling microscope to arrange 35 individual xenon atoms on a substrate of chilled crystal of nickel to spell out the three letter company initialism. It was the first time atoms had been precisely positioned on a flat surface.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon has atomic number 54; that is, its nucleus contains 54 protons. At standard temperature and pressure, pure xenon gas has a density of 5.894 kg/m, about 4.5 times the density of the Earth's atmosphere at sea level, 1.217 kg/m. As a liquid, xenon has a density of up to 3.100 g/mL, with the density maximum occurring at the triple point. Liquid xenon has a high polarizability due to its large atomic volume, and thus is an excellent solvent. It can dissolve hydrocarbons, biological molecules, and even water. Under the same conditions, the density of solid xenon, 3.640 g/cm, is greater than the average density of granite, 2.75 g/cm. Under gigapascals of pressure, xenon forms a metallic phase.


title: Xenon

text: Solid xenon changes from face-centered cubic (fcc) to hexagonal close packed (hcp) crystal phase under pressure and begins to turn metallic at about 140 GPa, with no noticeable volume change in the hcp phase. It is completely metallic at 155 GPa. When metallized, xenon appears sky blue because it absorbs red light and transmits other visible frequencies. Such behavior is unusual for a metal and is explained by the relatively small width of the electron bands in that state.


title: Xenon

text: Liquid or solid xenon nanoparticles can be formed at room temperature by implanting Xe ions into a solid matrix. Many solids have lattice constants smaller than solid Xe. This results in compression of the implanted Xe to pressures that may be sufficient for its liquefaction or solidification.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon is a member of the zero-valence elements that are called noble or inert gases. It is inert to most common chemical reactions (such as combustion, for example) because the outer valence shell contains eight electrons. This produces a stable, minimum energy configuration in which the outer electrons are tightly bound.


title: Xenon

text: In a gas-filled tube, xenon emits a blue or lavenderish glow when excited by electrical discharge. Xenon emits a band of emission lines that span the visual spectrum, but the most intense lines occur in the region of blue light, producing the coloration.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon is a trace gas in Earth's atmosphere, occurring at a volume fraction of (parts per billion), or approximately 1 part per 11.5 million. It is also found as a component of gases emitted from some mineral springs. Given a total mass of the atmosphere of , the atmosphere contains on the order of of xenon in total when taking the average molar mass of the atmosphere as 28.96 g/mol which is equivalent to some 394 mass ppb.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon is obtained commercially as a by-product of the separation of air into oxygen and nitrogen. After this separation, generally performed by fractional distillation in a double-column plant, the liquid oxygen produced will contain small quantities of krypton and xenon. By additional fractional distillation, the liquid oxygen may be enriched to contain 0.1–0.2% of a krypton/xenon mixture, which is extracted either by adsorption onto silica gel or by distillation. Finally, the krypton/xenon mixture may be separated into krypton and xenon by further distillation.


title: Xenon

text: Worldwide production of xenon in 1998 was estimated at . At a density of this is equivalent to roughly . Because of its scarcity, xenon is much more expensive than the lighter noble gases—approximate prices for the purchase of small quantities in Europe in 1999 were 10 €/L (=~1.7€/g) for xenon, 1 €/L (=~0.27€/g) for krypton, and 0.20 €/L (=~0.22€/g) for neon, while the much more plentiful argon, which makes up over 1% by volume of earth's atmosphere, costs less than a cent per liter.


title: Xenon

text: Within the Solar System, the nucleon fraction of xenon is , for an abundance of approximately one part in 630 thousand of the total mass. Xenon is relatively rare in the Sun's atmosphere, on Earth, and in asteroids and comets. The abundance of xenon in the atmosphere of planet Jupiter is unusually high, about 2.6 times that of the Sun. This abundance remains unexplained, but may have been caused by an early and rapid buildup of planetesimals—small, subplanetary bodies—before the heating of the presolar disk. (Otherwise, xenon would not have been trapped in the planetesimal ices.) The problem of the low terrestrial xenon may be explained by covalent bonding of xenon to oxygen within quartz, reducing the outgassing of xenon into the atmosphere.


title: Xenon

text: Unlike the lower-mass noble gases, the normal stellar nucleosynthesis process inside a star does not form xenon. Elements more massive than iron-56 consume energy through fusion, and the synthesis of xenon represents no energy gain for a star. Instead, xenon is formed during supernova explosions, in classical nova explosions, by the slow neutron-capture process (s-process) in red giant stars that have exhausted their core hydrogen and entered the asymptotic giant branch, and from radioactive decay, for example by beta decay of extinct iodine-129 and spontaneous fission of thorium, uranium, and plutonium.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon-135 is a notable neutron poison with a high fission product yield. As it is relatively short lived, it decays at the same rate it is produced during "steady" operation of a nuclear reactor. However, if power is reduced or the reactor is scramed, less xenon is destroyed than is produced from the beta decay of its parent nuclides. This phenomenon called xenon poisoning can cause significant problems in restarting a reactor after a scram or increasing power after it had been reduced and it was one of several contributing factors in the Chernobyl nuclear accident.


title: Xenon

text: Stable or extremely long lived isotopes of xenon are also produced in appreciable quantities in nuclear fission. Xenon-136 is produced when xenon-135 undergoes neutron capture before it can decay. The ratio of xenon-136 to xenon-135 (or its decay products) can give hints as to the power history of a given reactor and the absence of xenon-136 is a "fingerprint" for nuclear explosions, as xenon-135 is not produced directly but as a product of successive beta decays and thus it can't absorb any neutrons in a nuclear explosion which occurs in fractions of a second.


title: Xenon

text: The stable isotope xenon-132 has a fission product yield of over 4% in the thermal neutron fission of which means that stable or nearly stable xenon isotopes have a higher mass fraction in spent nuclear fuel (which is about 3% fission products) than it does in air. However, there is as of 2022 no commercial effort to extract xenon from spent fuel during nuclear reprocessing.


title: Xenon

text: Naturally occurring xenon is composed of seven stable isotopes: Xe, Xe, and Xe. The isotopes Xe and Xe are predicted by theory to undergo double beta decay, but this has never been observed so they are considered stable. In addition, more than 40 unstable isotopes have been studied. The longest lived of these isotopes are the primordial Xe, which undergoes double electron capture with a half-life of , and Xe, which undergoes double beta decay with a half-life of . Xe is produced by beta decay of I, which has a half-life of 16 million years. Xe, Xe, Xe, and Xe are some of the fission products of U and Pu, and are used to detect and monitor nuclear explosions.


title: Xenon

text: Nuclei of two of the stable isotopes of xenon, Xe and Xe, have non-zero intrinsic angular momenta (nuclear spins, suitable for nuclear magnetic resonance). The nuclear spins can be aligned beyond ordinary polarization levels by means of circularly polarized light and rubidium vapor. The resulting spin polarization of xenon nuclei can surpass 50% of its maximum possible value, greatly exceeding the thermal equilibrium value dictated by paramagnetic statistics (typically 0.001% of the maximum value at room temperature, even in the strongest magnets). Such non-equilibrium alignment of spins is a temporary condition, and is called "hyperpolarization". The process of hyperpolarizing the xenon is called "optical pumping" (although the process is different from pumping a laser).


title: Xenon

text: Because a Xe nucleus has a spin of 1/2, and therefore a zero electric quadrupole moment, the Xe nucleus does not experience any quadrupolar interactions during collisions with other atoms, and the hyperpolarization persists for long periods even after the engendering light and vapor have been removed. Spin polarization of Xe can persist from several seconds for xenon atoms dissolved in blood to several hours in the gas phase and several days in deeply frozen solid xenon. In contrast, Xe has a nuclear spin value of and a nonzero quadrupole moment, and has t relaxation times in the millisecond and second ranges.


title: Xenon

text: Some radioactive isotopes of xenon (for example, Xe and Xe) are produced by neutron irradiation of fissionable material within nuclear reactors. Xe is of considerable significance in the operation of nuclear fission reactors. Xe has a huge cross section for thermal neutrons, 2.6×10 barns, and operates as a neutron absorber or "poison" that can slow or stop the chain reaction after a period of operation. This was discovered in the earliest nuclear reactors built by the American Manhattan Project for plutonium production. However, the designers had made provisions in the design to increase the reactor's reactivity (the number of neutrons per fission that go on to fission other atoms of nuclear fuel).


title: Xenon

text: Xe reactor poisoning was a major factor in the Chernobyl disaster. A shutdown or decrease of power of a reactor can result in buildup of Xe, with reactor operation going into a condition known as the iodine pit. Under adverse conditions, relatively high concentrations of radioactive xenon isotopes may emanate from cracked fuel rods, or fissioning of uranium in cooling water.


title: Xenon

text: Isotope ratios of xenon produced in natural nuclear fission reactors at Oklo in Gabon reveal the reactor properties during chain reaction that took place about 2 billion years ago.


title: Xenon

text: Because xenon is a tracer for two parent isotopes, xenon isotope ratios in meteorites are a powerful tool for studying the formation of the Solar System. The iodine–xenon method of dating gives the time elapsed between nucleosynthesis and the condensation of a solid object from the solar nebula. In 1960, physicist John H. Reynolds discovered that certain meteorites contained an isotopic anomaly in the form of an overabundance of xenon-129. He inferred that this was a decay product of radioactive iodine-129. This isotope is produced slowly by cosmic ray spallation and nuclear fission, but is produced in quantity only in supernova explosions.


title: Xenon

text: Because the half-life of I is comparatively short on a cosmological time scale (16 million years), this demonstrated that only a short time had passed between the supernova and the time the meteorites had solidified and trapped the I. These two events (supernova and solidification of gas cloud) were inferred to have happened during the early history of the Solar System, because the I isotope was likely generated shortly before the Solar System was formed, seeding the solar gas cloud with isotopes from a second source. This supernova source may also have caused collapse of the solar gas cloud.


title: Xenon

text: In a similar way, xenon isotopic ratios such as Xe/Xe and Xe/Xe are a powerful tool for understanding planetary differentiation and early outgassing. For example, the atmosphere of Mars shows a xenon abundance similar to that of Earth (0.08 parts per million) but Mars shows a greater abundance of Xe than the Earth or the Sun. Since this isotope is generated by radioactive decay, the result may indicate that Mars lost most of its primordial atmosphere, possibly within the first 100 million years after the planet was formed. In another example, excess Xe found in carbon dioxide well gases from New Mexico is believed to be from the decay of mantle-derived gases from soon after Earth's formation.


title: Xenon

text: After Neil Bartlett's discovery in 1962 that xenon can form chemical compounds, a large number of xenon compounds have been discovered and described. Almost all known xenon compounds contain the electronegative atoms fluorine or oxygen. The chemistry of xenon in each oxidation state is analogous to that of the neighboring element iodine in the immediately lower oxidation state.


title: Xenon

text: Three fluorides are known: , , and . XeF is theorized to be unstable. These are the starting points for the synthesis of almost all xenon compounds.


title: Xenon

text: The solid, crystalline difluoride is formed when a mixture of fluorine and xenon gases is exposed to ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet component of ordinary daylight is sufficient. Long-term heating of at high temperatures under an catalyst yields . Pyrolysis of in the presence of NaF yields high-purity .


title: Xenon

text: The xenon fluorides behave as both fluoride acceptors and fluoride donors, forming salts that contain such cations as and , and anions such as , , and . The green, paramagnetic is formed by the reduction of by xenon gas.


title: Xenon

text: Whereas the xenon fluorides are well characterized, the other halides are not known, with the exception of XeCl and XeCl. Xenon dichloride, formed by the high-frequency irradiation of a mixture of xenon, fluorine, and silicon or carbon tetrachloride, is reported to be an endothermic, colorless, crystalline compound that decomposes into the elements at 80 °C. However, may be merely a van der Waals molecule of weakly bound Xe atoms and molecules and not a real compound. Theoretical calculations indicate that the linear molecule is less stable than the van der Waals complex. Xenon tetrachloride is more unstable that it cannot be synthesized by chemical reactions. It was created by radioactive decay.


title: Xenon

text: Three oxides of xenon are known: xenon trioxide () and xenon tetroxide (), both of which are dangerously explosive and powerful oxidizing agents, and xenon dioxide (XeO), which was reported in 2011 with a coordination number of four. XeO forms when xenon tetrafluoride is poured over ice. Its crystal structure may allow it to replace silicon in silicate minerals. The XeOO cation has been identified by infrared spectroscopy in solid argon.


title: Xenon

text: To prevent decomposition, the xenon tetroxide thus formed is quickly cooled into a pale-yellow solid. It explodes above −35.9 °C into xenon and oxygen gas, but is otherwise stable.


title: Xenon

text: A number of xenon oxyfluorides are known, including , , , and . is formed by reacting with xenon gas at low temperatures. It may also be obtained by partial hydrolysis of . It disproportionates at −20 °C into and . is formed by the partial hydrolysis of , or the reaction of with sodium perxenate, . The latter reaction also produces a small amount of . reacts with CsF to form the anion, while XeOF reacts with the alkali metal fluorides KF, RbF and CsF to form the anion.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon can be directly bonded to a less electronegative element than fluorine or oxygen, particularly carbon. Electron-withdrawing groups, such as groups with fluorine substitution, are necessary to stabilize these compounds. Numerous such compounds have been characterized, including:


title: Xenon

text: Other compounds containing xenon bonded to a less electronegative element include and . The latter is synthesized from dioxygenyl tetrafluoroborate, , at −100 °C.


title: Xenon

text: An unusual ion containing xenon is the tetraxenonogold(II) cation, , which contains Xe–Au bonds. This ion occurs in the compound , and is remarkable in having direct chemical bonds between two notoriously unreactive atoms, xenon and gold, with xenon acting as a transition metal ligand.


title: Xenon

text: In 1995, M. Räsänen and co-workers, scientists at the University of Helsinki in Finland, announced the preparation of xenon dihydride (HXeH), and later xenon hydride-hydroxide (HXeOH), hydroxenoacetylene (HXeCCH), and other Xe-containing molecules. In 2008, Khriachtchev "et al." reported the preparation of HXeOXeH by the photolysis of water within a cryogenic xenon matrix. Deuterated molecules, HXeOD and DXeOH, have also been produced.


title: Xenon

text: In addition to compounds where xenon forms a chemical bond, xenon can form clathrates—substances where xenon atoms or pairs are trapped by the crystalline lattice of another compound. One example is xenon hydrate (Xe·HO), where xenon atoms occupy vacancies in a lattice of water molecules. This clathrate has a melting point of 24 °C. The deuterated version of this hydrate has also been produced. Another example is xenon hydride (Xe(H)), in which xenon pairs (dimers) are trapped inside solid hydrogen. Such clathrate hydrates can occur naturally under conditions of high pressure,


title: Xenon

text: such as in Lake Vostok underneath the Antarctic ice sheet. Clathrate formation can be used to fractionally distill xenon, argon and krypton.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon can also form endohedral fullerene compounds, where a xenon atom is trapped inside a fullerene molecule. The xenon atom trapped in the fullerene can be observed by Xe nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Through the sensitive chemical shift of the xenon atom to its environment, chemical reactions on the fullerene molecule can be analyzed. These observations are not without caveat, however, because the xenon atom has an electronic influence on the reactivity of the fullerene.


title: Xenon

text: When xenon atoms are in the ground energy state, they repel each other and will not form a bond. When xenon atoms becomes energized, however, they can form an excimer (excited dimer) until the electrons return to the ground state. This entity is formed because the xenon atom tends to complete the outermost electronic shell by adding an electron from a neighboring xenon atom. The typical lifetime of a xenon excimer is 1–5 nanoseconds, and the decay releases photons with wavelengths of about 150 and 173 nm. Xenon can also form excimers with other elements, such as the halogens bromine, chlorine, and fluorine.


title: Xenon

text: Although xenon is rare and relatively expensive to extract from the Earth's atmosphere, it has a number of applications.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon is used in light-emitting devices called xenon flash lamps, used in photographic flashes and stroboscopic lamps; to excite the active medium in lasers which then generate coherent light; and, occasionally, in bactericidal lamps. The first solid-state laser, invented in 1960, was pumped by a xenon flash lamp, and lasers used to power inertial confinement fusion are also pumped by xenon flash lamps.


title: Xenon

text: Continuous, short-arc, high pressure xenon arc lamps have a color temperature closely approximating noon sunlight and are used in solar simulators. That is, the chromaticity of these lamps closely approximates a heated black body radiator at the temperature of the Sun. First introduced in the 1940s, these lamps replaced the shorter-lived carbon arc lamps in movie projectors. They are also employed in typical 35mm, IMAX, and digital film projection systems. They are an excellent source of short wavelength ultraviolet radiation and have intense emissions in the near infrared used in some night vision systems. Xenon is used as a starter gas in metal halide lamps for automotive HID headlights, and high-end "tactical" flashlights.


title: Xenon

text: The individual cells in a plasma display contain a mixture of xenon and neon ionized with electrodes. The interaction of this plasma with the electrodes generates ultraviolet photons, which then excite the phosphor coating on the front of the display.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon is used as a "starter gas" in high pressure sodium lamps. It has the lowest thermal conductivity and lowest ionization potential of all the non-radioactive noble gases. As a noble gas, it does not interfere with the chemical reactions occurring in the operating lamp. The low thermal conductivity minimizes thermal losses in the lamp while in the operating state, and the low ionization potential causes the breakdown voltage of the gas to be relatively low in the cold state, which allows the lamp to be more easily started.


title: Xenon

text: In 1962, a group of researchers at Bell Laboratories discovered laser action in xenon, and later found that the laser gain was improved by adding helium to the lasing medium. The first excimer laser used a xenon dimer (Xe) energized by a beam of electrons to produce stimulated emission at an ultraviolet wavelength of 176 nm.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon chloride and xenon fluoride have also been used in excimer (or, more accurately, exciplex) lasers.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon interacts with many different receptors and ion channels, and like many theoretically multi-modal inhalation anesthetics, these interactions are likely complementary. Xenon is a high-affinity glycine-site NMDA receptor antagonist. However, xenon is different from certain other NMDA receptor antagonists in that it is not neurotoxic and it inhibits the neurotoxicity of ketamine and nitrous oxide (NO), while actually producing neuroprotective effects. Unlike ketamine and nitrous oxide, xenon does not stimulate a dopamine efflux in the nucleus accumbens.


title: Xenon

text: Like nitrous oxide and cyclopropane, xenon activates the two-pore domain potassium channel TREK-1. A related channel TASK-3 also implicated in the actions of inhalation anesthetics is insensitive to xenon. Xenon inhibits nicotinic acetylcholine α4β2 receptors which contribute to spinally mediated analgesia. Xenon is an effective inhibitor of plasma membrane Ca ATPase. Xenon inhibits Ca ATPase by binding to a hydrophobic pore within the enzyme and preventing the enzyme from assuming active conformations.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon is a competitive inhibitor of the serotonin 5-HT receptor. While neither anesthetic nor antinociceptive, this reduces anesthesia-emergent nausea and vomiting.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon has a minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of 72% at age 40, making it 44% more potent than NO as an anesthetic. Thus, it can be used with oxygen in concentrations that have a lower risk of hypoxia. Unlike nitrous oxide, xenon is not a greenhouse gas and is viewed as environmentally friendly. Though recycled in modern systems, xenon vented to the atmosphere is only returning to its original source, without environmental impact.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon induces robust cardioprotection and neuroprotection through a variety of mechanisms. Through its influence on Ca, K, KATP\HIF, and NMDA antagonism, xenon is neuroprotective when administered before, during and after ischemic insults. Xenon is a high affinity antagonist at the NMDA receptor glycine site. Xenon is cardioprotective in ischemia-reperfusion conditions by inducing pharmacologic non-ischemic preconditioning. Xenon is cardioprotective by activating PKC-epsilon and downstream p38-MAPK. Xenon mimics neuronal ischemic preconditioning by activating ATP sensitive potassium channels. Xenon allosterically reduces ATP mediated channel activation inhibition independently of the sulfonylurea receptor1 subunit, increasing KATP open-channel time and frequency.


title: Xenon

text: Inhaling a xenon/oxygen mixture activates production of the transcription factor HIF-1-alpha, which may lead to increased production of erythropoietin. The latter hormone is known to increase red blood cell production and athletic performance. Reportedly, doping with xenon inhalation has been used in Russia since 2004 and perhaps earlier. On August 31, 2014, the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) added xenon (and argon) to the list of prohibited substances and methods, although no reliable doping tests for these gases have yet been developed. In addition, effects of xenon on erythropoietin production in humans have not been demonstrated, so far.


title: Xenon

text: Gamma emission from the radioisotope Xe of xenon can be used to image the heart, lungs, and brain, for example, by means of single photon emission computed tomography. Xe has also been used to measure blood flow.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon, particularly hyperpolarized Xe, is a useful contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the gas phase, it can image cavities in a porous sample, alveoli in lungs, or the flow of gases within the lungs. Because xenon is soluble both in water and in hydrophobic solvents, it can image various soft living tissues.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon-129 is currently being used as a visualization agent in MRI scans. When a patient inhales hyperpolarized xenon-129 ventilation and gas exchange in the lungs can be imaged and quantified. Unlike xenon-133, xenon-129 is non-ionizing and is safe to be inhaled with no adverse effects.


title: Xenon

text: Because of the xenon atom's large, flexible outer electron shell, the NMR spectrum changes in response to surrounding conditions and can be used to monitor the surrounding chemical circumstances. For instance, xenon dissolved in water, xenon dissolved in hydrophobic solvent, and xenon associated with certain proteins can be distinguished by NMR.


title: Xenon

text: Hyperpolarized xenon can be used by surface chemists. Normally, it is difficult to characterize surfaces with NMR because signals from a surface are overwhelmed by signals from the atomic nuclei in the bulk of the sample, which are much more numerous than surface nuclei. However, nuclear spins on solid surfaces can be selectively polarized by transferring spin polarization to them from hyperpolarized xenon gas. This makes the surface signals strong enough to measure and distinguish from bulk signals.


title: Xenon

text: In nuclear energy studies, xenon is used in bubble chambers, probes, and in other areas where a high molecular weight and inert chemistry is desirable. A by-product of nuclear weapon testing is the release of radioactive xenon-133 and xenon-135. These isotopes are monitored to ensure compliance with nuclear test ban treaties, and to confirm nuclear tests by states such as North Korea.


title: Xenon

text: Liquid xenon is used in calorimeters to measure gamma rays, and as a detector of hypothetical weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs. When a WIMP collides with a xenon nucleus, theory predicts it will impart enough energy to cause ionization and scintillation. Liquid xenon is useful for these experiments because its density makes dark matter interaction more likely and it permits a quiet detector through self-shielding.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon is the preferred propellant for ion propulsion of spacecraft because it has low ionization potential per atomic weight and can be stored as a liquid at near room temperature (under high pressure), yet easily evaporated to feed the engine. Xenon is inert, environmentally friendly, and less corrosive to an ion engine than other fuels such as mercury or caesium. Xenon was first used for satellite ion engines during the 1970s. It was later employed as a propellant for JPL's Deep Space 1 probe, Europe's SMART-1 spacecraft and for the three ion propulsion engines on NASA's Dawn Spacecraft.


title: Xenon

text: Chemically, the perxenate compounds are used as oxidizing agents in analytical chemistry. Xenon difluoride is used as an etchant for silicon, particularly in the production of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil can be produced by reacting xenon difluoride with uracil. Xenon is also used in protein crystallography. Applied at pressures from 0.5 to 5 MPa (5 to 50 atm) to a protein crystal, xenon atoms bind in predominantly hydrophobic cavities, often creating a high-quality, isomorphous, heavy-atom derivative that can be used for solving the phase problem.


title: Xenon

text: Xenon gas can be safely kept in normal sealed glass or metal containers at standard temperature and pressure. However, it readily dissolves in most plastics and rubber, and will gradually escape from a container sealed with such materials. Xenon is non-toxic, although it does dissolve in blood and belongs to a select group of substances that penetrate the blood–brain barrier, causing mild to full surgical anesthesia when inhaled in high concentrations with oxygen.


title: Xenon

text: The speed of sound in xenon gas (169 m/s) is less than that in air because the average velocity of the heavy xenon atoms is less than that of nitrogen and oxygen molecules in air. Hence, xenon vibrates more slowly in the vocal cords when exhaled and produces lowered voice tones (low-frequency-enhanced sounds, but the fundamental frequency or pitch doesn't change), an effect opposite to the high-toned voice produced in helium. Specifically, when the vocal tract is filled with xenon gas, its natural resonant frequency becomes lower than when it's filled with air. Thus, the low frequencies of the sound wave produced by the same direct vibration of the vocal cords would be enhanced, resulting in a change of the timbre of the sound amplified by the vocal tract. Like helium, xenon does not satisfy the body's need for oxygen, and it is both a simple asphyxiant and an anesthetic more powerful than nitrous oxide; consequently, and because xenon is expensive, many universities have prohibited the voice stunt as a general chemistry demonstration. The gas sulfur hexafluoride is similar to xenon in molecular weight (146 versus 131), less expensive, and though an asphyxiant, not toxic or anesthetic; it is often substituted in these demonstrations.


title: Xenon

text: Dense gases such as xenon and sulfur hexafluoride can be breathed safely when mixed with at least 20% oxygen. Xenon at 80% concentration along with 20% oxygen rapidly produces the unconsciousness of general anesthesia (and has been used for this, as discussed above). Breathing mixes gases of different densities very effectively and rapidly so that heavier gases are purged along with the oxygen, and do not accumulate at the bottom of the lungs. There is, however, a danger associated with any heavy gas in large quantities: it may sit invisibly in a container, and a person who enters an area filled with an odorless, colorless gas may be asphyxiated without warning. Xenon is rarely used in large enough quantities for this to be a concern, though the potential for danger exists any time a tank or container of xenon is kept in an unventilated space.


title: Xenon

text: Water-soluble xenon compounds such as monosodium xenate are moderately toxic, but have a very short half-life of the body — intravenously injected xenate is reduced to elemental xenon in about a minute.


title: Croydon

text: Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensive shopping district and night-time economy. The entire town had a population of 192,064 as of 2011, whilst the wider borough had a population of 384,837.