Ethnologue: Languages of the World is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It was first issued in 1951, is now published annually by SIL International, a U. S.-based, Christian non-profit organization. SIL's main purpose is to study and document languages to promote literacy and for religious purposes; as of 2020, Ethnologue contains web-based information on 7,117 languages in its 23rd edition, including the number of speakers, dialects, linguistic affiliations, availability of the Bible in each language and dialect described, a cursory description of revitalization efforts where reported, an estimate of language viability using the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale. Ethnologue has been published by SIL International, a Christian linguistic service organization with an international office in Dallas, Texas; the organization studies numerous minority languages to facilitate language development, to work with speakers of such language communities in translating portions of the Bible into their languages.

The determination of what characteristics define a single language depends upon sociolinguistic evaluation by various scholars. Ethnologue follows general linguistic criteria, which are based on mutual intelligibility. Shared language intelligibility features are complex, include etymological and grammatical evidence, agreed upon by experts. In addition to choosing a primary name for a language, Ethnologue provides listings of other name for the language and any dialects that are used by its speakers, government and neighbors. Included are any names that have been referenced regardless of whether a name is considered official, politically correct or offensive; these lists of names are not complete. In 1984, Ethnologue released a three-letter coding system, called an'SIL code', to identify each language that it described; this set of codes exceeded the scope of other standards, e.g. ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2; the 14th edition, published in 2000, included 7,148 language codes. In 2002, Ethnologue was asked to work with the International Organization for Standardization to integrate its codes into a draft international standard.

The 15th edition of Ethnologue was the first edition to use this standard, called ISO 639-3. This standard is now administered separately from Ethnologue. In only one case and the ISO standards treat languages differently. ISO 639-3 considers Akan to be a macrolanguage consisting of two distinct languages and Fante, whereas Ethnologue considers Twi and Fante to be dialects of a single language, since they are mutually intelligible; this anomaly resulted because the ISO 639-2 standard has separate codes for Twi and Fante, which have separate literary traditions, all 639-2 codes for individual languages are automatically part of 639–3 though 639-3 would not assign them separate codes. In 2014, with the 17th edition, Ethnologue introduced a numerical code for language status using a framework called EGIDS, an elaboration of Fishman's GIDS, it ranks a language from 0 for an international language to 10 for an extinct language, i.e. a language with which no-one retains a sense of ethnic identity.

In December 2015, Ethnologue launched a metered paywall. As of 2017, Ethnologue's 20th edition described 237 language families including 86 language isolates and six typological categories, namely sign languages, pidgins, mixed languages, constructed languages, as yet unclassified languages. In 2019, Ethnologue disabled trial introduced a hard paywall. In 1986, William Bright editor of the journal Language, wrote of Ethnologue that it "is indispensable for any reference shelf on the languages of the world". In 2008 in the same journal, Lyle Campbell and Verónica Grondona said: "Ethnologue...has become the standard reference, its usefulness is hard to overestimate."In 2015, Harald Hammarström, an editor of Glottolog, criticized the publication for lacking citations and failing to articulate clear principles of language classification and identification. However, he concluded that, on balance, "Ethnologue is an impressively comprehensive catalogue of world languages, it is far superior to anything else produced prior to 2009."

Starting with the 17th edition, Ethnologue has been published every year. Glottolog Linguasphere Observatory Register Lists of languages List of language families Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. Linguistic Genocide in Education-or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights?. Routledge. ISBN 9781135662356. Retrieved July 13, 2014. Paolillo, John C.. "Evaluating language statistics: the Ethnologue and beyond". UNESCO Institute of Statistics. Pp. 3–5. Retrieved October 8, 2015. Web version of Ethnologue

Dragon Storm is a role-playing game, a collectible common-deck card game, published by Susan Van Camp and Mark Harmon through Black Dragon Press. All required rules are printed on the cards. There are two types of cards: Gamemaster cards for adventure generation and Player cards for character generation. An expansion set, titled Kanchaka Valley, is available in booster form, additional deluxe cards were created and sold on an individual basis; this is collectively known as Classic Dragon Storm. Over past several years, Dragon Storm 2.0 has been developed. DS 2.0 is an updated version of the game having taken into account the first 15 years of play and correcting some errors that crept into the game over time. It utilizes a new modular character creation system which allows players to customize their characters; the Classic system, while viable, is more restrictive. There is a dwindling supply of Classic product available. DS 2.0 is under the purview and production of The Guild for Dragon Storm. Dragon Storm is a role-playing game about shape shifters: human werewolves, dwarven gargoyles, human dragons and elven unicorns.

These characters live in an area known as the Stormlands. They use supernatural powers to battle powerful enemies, to save the world from Dragon Storms. Most Stormlanders live like peasants of the European Middle Ages, they are ruled by nobles. These struggles mean little to most people, who live in isolated villages scattered throughout the land. Magic is more important to stormlanders, they respect Od, the force of pure magic, used by wizards and shamans to heal and protect. They fear corrupt magic used by necromancers to debase and destroy. Warp can tainting the soil, it twists living things into insane monsters who kill for pleasure. Stormlanders are superstitious and resigned to their fate, they take consolation in the worship of goddess of the earth. Few peasants dare hope for better times ahead. Only the elders talk about Valarian Champions, legendary heroes who will save the people from the storms; the stormlands got its name from dragon storms, tempests of wild magic that ruin crops, level homes, cause the tox, a horrible disease which twists body and soul.

It is little wonder. When caught in the open by a dragon storm, young adults sometimes transform into shape shifters. Elves become unicorns, dwarves become a human might turn into a werewolf or a dragon. After the storm passes, these shape shifters return to their mortal form, are able to control their ability to change shape. No one understands why some people change. Shape shifters are magical beings with strange and disturbing powers: Gargoyles can reach through solid stone, unicorns can heal with a touch of their horns, werewolves fight with terrifying fury and dragons can breathe fire; these abilities unsettle most Stormlanders, but they are more frightened of necromancers, evil wizards who hunt shape shifters. Necromancers can drain shape shifters of their natural magics. Feared by their families and hunted by necromancers, these young shape shifters flee their homes before anyone discovers what they have become. In Dragon Storm players role-play an orc, their opponents are necromancers and adventurers.

Long-lasting characters may acquire a mentor. These veteran spell casters and warriors are dedicated to the destruction of Warp. Characters befriended by mentors can become Valarians Champions, join the fight against the evil poisoning the world. Andy Butcher reviewed Dragon Storm for Arcane magazine. Butcher comments that "As an introduction to roleplaying, Dragon Storm has a great deal of potential for both players and referees those with prior experience of one or more CCGs. It's a quick and easy system which requires a minimum of set-up time, could prove to be a lot of fun." The Guild for Dragon Storm

Lead tetrachloride known as lead chloride, has the molecular formula PbCl4. It is a yellow, oily liquid, stable below 0 °C, decomposes at 50 °C, it has a tetrahedral configuration, with lead as the central atom. The Pb–Cl covalent bonds have been measured to be 247 pm and the bond energy is 243 kJ⋅mol−1. Lead tetrachloride can be made by reacting lead chloride PbCl2, hydrochloric acid HCl, in the presence of chlorine gas, leading to the formation of chloroplumbic acid H2PbCl6, it is converted to the ammonium salt 2PbCl6 by adding ammonium chloride. The solution is treated with concentrated sulfuric acid H2SO4, to separate out lead tetrachloride; this series of reactions is conducted at 0 °C. The following equations illustrate the reaction: PbCl2 + 2HCl + Cl2 → H2PbCl6 H2PbCl6 + 2 NH4Cl → 2PbCl6 + 2HCl 2PbCl6 + H2SO4 → PbCl4+ 2HCl + 2SO4 Unlike carbon tetrachloride, another group IV chloride, lead tetrachloride reacts with water; this is because the central atom is bigger so there is less cluttering and water can access it.

Because of the presence of empty d orbitals on the Pb atom, oxygen can bind to it before a Pb–Cl bond has to break, thus requiring less energy. The overall reaction is thus as follow: PbCl4 + 2H2O → PbO2 + 4HCl Lead tetrachloride tends to decompose further into lead dichloride and chlorine gas: PbCl4 → PbCl2 + Cl2There are reports that this reaction can proceed explosively and that the compound is best stored under pure sulfuric acid at -80C in the dark; the stability of the +4 oxidation state decreases as we travel down this group of the periodic table. Thus while carbon tetrachloride is a stable compound, with lead the oxidation state +2 is favored and PbCl4 becomes PbCl2. Indeed, the inert pair effect causes lead to favor its +2 oxidation state: Pb atom loses all its outermost p electrons and ends up with a stable, filled s subshell. Lead is a cumulative poison. Only limited evidence have been shown of lead's carcinogenic effect, but lead tetrachloride, as well as all other lead compounds, is "reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens" according to the Report on Carcinogens, Twelfth Edition.

Lead can be absorbed by the body through several routes inhalation but ingestion and dermal contact. Lead compounds are teratogens