text stringlengths 0 473k |
|---|
[SOURCE: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/אייפון] | [TOKENS: 24411] |
תוכן עניינים אייפון ערכות השבבים - אייפון 4: Apple A4 אייפון 4 אס: Apple A5 אייפון 5: Apple A6 אייפון 5 אס: Apple A7 אייפון 6 ו-6 פלוס: Apple A8 אייפון 6 אס, אייפון 6 אס פלוס ואייפון SE: Apple A9 אייפון 7 ו-7 פלוס: Apple A10 Fusion אייפון 8, אייפון 8 פלוס ואייפון 10: Apple A11 Bionic אייפון 10 אס, אייפון 10 אס מקס ואייפון 10 אר: Apple A12 Bionic אייפון 11,אייפון 11 פרו, אייפון 11 פרו מקס ואייפון 2020 Apple A13 Bionic :SE אייפון 12, אייפון 12 מיני, 12 פרו ו-12 פרו מקס: Apple a14 bionic אייפון 13, 13 מיני, 13 פרו ,13 פרו מקס, אייפון 14, 14 פלוס ואייפון SE 2022: Apple a15 bionic 2 מגה פיקסל במקורי וב-3G, מצלמה 3.2 מגה פיקסל ב-3GS, מצלמה 5 מגה פיקסל ב-4 ומצלמה 8 מגה פיקסל ב-4S/5/5c/5s/6. מצלמה 12 מגה פיקסל ב-7/8/x/xr/xs/xs max/11/11 pro/11 pro max/12/12 mini/12 pro/12pro max/13/13 mini/13 pro/13 pro max/14/14 plus. אייפון (באנגלית: iPhone) היא סדרת טלפונים חכמים מתוצרת חברת אפל. המכשיר הראשון בסדרה הוצג לראשונה ב-9 בינואר 2007 כשילוב של טלפון סלולרי, נגן מדיה נייד, ומחשב כף יד המסוגל להתחבר לאינטרנט. המכשיר הראשון זכה לתגובות נלהבות בזכות עיצובו וסגנונו, ונחשב למכשיר שהחדיר את צג המגע לתודעת הציבור. בשנים שלאחר מכן נוצרו מספר דורות חדשים. נכון ליולי 2025 נמכרו למעלה מ-3 מיליארד מכשירי אייפון ברחבי העולם מאז השקתו. בישראל, על-פי הנתונים של חברת IDC, נכון ל-2023, כ-1.6 מיליון ישראלים מחזיקים ברשותם מכשיר אייפון. המכשיר מופעל באמצעות מערכת הפעלה ייחודית של אפל בשם iOS וסימני ההיכר שלו היו מסך המגע המחליף את מקלדת הכפתורים בטלפונים הרגילים, כמו גם עיצוב פיזי בעל פינות מעוגלות וכפתור הפעלה פיזי יחיד בקצה התחתון של חזית המכשיר. היסטוריה הדור הראשון של האייפון הוצג לראשונה ב-9 בינואר על ידי סטיב ג'ובס, במסגרת נאומו המסורתי בתערוכת השנתית של אפל, מקוורלד (MacWorld). עם השקתו יצרניות ציוד התקשורת סיסקו מערכות, הגישה תביעה נגד אפל בגין השימוש בשם "אייפון", שהיה סימן מסחרי בבעלותה מאז 2000, ושימש למכשיר טלפון-אינטרנט שפיתחה (אנ'). בפברואר 2007 שתי החברות הגיעו לפשרה ואפל קיבלה היתר להשתמש בשם. לטענת היזם הישראלי יובל שחר הוא המציא את השם "אייפון" בשנות ה-90 בעת שעבד בחברת "נשיונל סמיקונדקטור", שם עבד על פיתוח מכשיר טלפון המתחבר לרשתות מחשבים ובאמצעותם לשירותים מקוונים כמו בנקאות וקניות. אז נרשם השם כסימן מסחר. לצורך פיתוח המכשיר הוקמה ב-1996 חברה חדשה בשם "אינפוגיר" (Infogear), אותה רכשה חברת "סיסקו" במרץ 2000, כך קיבלה את הבעלות על השם "אייפון". המכשיר הושק לראשונה בארצות הברית ב־29 ביוני 2007. 74 ימים לאחר תחילת הפצתו מכרה אפל מיליון מכשירים ועד סוף 2007 מכרה החברה שבעה מיליון מכשירים בארצות הברית בלבד. בתחילה נמכר האייפון באירלנד, ארצות הברית, צרפת, גרמניה ואוסטריה בלבד, ובאופן פיראטי במדינות נוספות. לאחר שנה בשוק, דיווחה אפל שמתוך המשתמשים במכשיר: 90% שבעי רצון ממנו, 98% גלשו באמצעותו, 94% השתמשו בדוא"ל באמצעותו, 90% שלחו הודעות טקסט באמצעותו, ו־80% השתמשו ביותר מ־10 יכולות שונות של המכשיר. ב־11 ביולי 2008 השיקה אפל את הדור השני של האייפון (אייפון 3G) ב־22 מדינות. שנה לאחר מכן, ב־11 ביוני 2009, הושק הדור השלישי של האייפון (אייפון 3GS), ממנו נמכרו מיליון מכשירים בשלושת הימים הראשונים לאחר ההשקה. ב־24 ביוני 2010 הושק הדור הרביעי של האייפון (אייפון 4). ב־11 בינואר 2011 השיקו אפל וחברת ורייזון מכשיר אייפון 4 מחודש, שהותאם לראשונה לרשתות סלולריות מסוג CDMA. ב־4 באוקטובר 2011 הושק האייפון 4S המהווה שדרוג לאייפון 4. עיצובו של המכשיר זהה לקודמו, אך חלו בו שינויים בחומרה. ב־12 בספטמבר 2012 הושק אייפון 5 (שישי במספרו) הכולל קישוריות דור רביעי מסוג LTE, מסך רטינה 4 אינץ' ושיפורים ובעיצוב. בסוף השבוע הראשון של המכירות (שלושת הימים הראשונים של המכירות), מכרה אפל חמישה מיליון אייפונים. ב־10 בספטמבר 2013 הושקו האייפון 5S שמהווה שדרוג לאייפון 5, והאייפון 5C שהוא בעצם גרסה מוזלת של האייפון 5 אך בעל שיפורים אחרים במעטפת הפלסטיק. נכון ליוני 2012, יש כ־250 מיליון יחידות אייפון ברחבי העולם. ב־9 בספטמבר 2014 הכריזה אפל על אייפון 6 בעל מסך 4.7 אינץ׳ ועל אייפון 6 פלוס בעל מסך 5.5 אינץ׳ כאשר לשניהם יש אותה חומרה ושיפורים זהים מהאייפונים הקודמים. ב־9 בספטמבר 2015 הכריזה אפל על אייפון 6S ואייפון 6S פלוס, בעלי עיצוב זהה כמעט לזה של האייפון 6, אך בעלי שיפורים רבים אחרים. ב-21 במרץ 2016 הכריזה אפל על אייפון SE שהוא גרסה מוזלת לאייפון 6S. האייפון SE כולל מסך 4 אינץ' ועם מפרט דומה מאוד לזה של האייפון 6S. ב-7 בספטמבר 2016 השיקה אפל את אייפון 7 ואייפון 7 פלוס, כאשר השדרוג העיקרי של האייפון נמצא בתכונה החדשה- חסינות למים. בנוסף המצלמות האחורית והקדמית שודרגו, כאשר באייפון 7 פלוס ניתן למצוא 2 מצלמות אחוריות. מבחינת מראה האייפון 7 וה-7 פלוס הם באותו גודל ומראה של ה-6S וה-6S פלוס חוץ מכמה הבדלים קטנים ביניהם חיבור האוזניות שירד. ב-12 בספטמבר 2017 השיקה אפל את אייפון 8, אייפון 8 פלוס ואייפון X ובהמשכים שונים, חברת אפל החליטה לדלג על אייפון 7S, לראשונה מאז ה-3GS. באייפון X אין כפתור בתחתית המסך לעומת כל האייפונים הקיימים האחרים. האיכות של המצלמה גבוהה ביותר והוא חסין ממים וגם כך אייפון 8 והמשכיו. ב-3 בנובמבר 2017 אפל הוציאה את סדרת האייפונים iPhone X, שהיה אייפון העשור של החברה. החידושים העיקריים שלו הם: הסרת כפתור הבית, נעילת טלפון חדשה בשם Face ID, אימוג'ים חדשים ועיצוב חדש. כמו כן נוספו אליו מצלמות שנחשבות לאחת המצלמות הטובות המסוגלות לצלם במצב דיוקן. כמו כן יצאו לו מספר גרסאות, כגון אייפון Xr, אייפון XS ואייפון XS Max. ב-20 בספטמבר 2019 אפל הוציאה שני טלפונים נוספים, אייפון 11 ובסדרה החדשה גם אייפון 11 פרו. לאייפון 11 נוספו מספר שדרוגים, ביניהם שינוי המצלמה. האייפון החדש 11 פרו כלל שדרוגים משמעותיים לעומת הסדרה הקודמת, כגון מעבד עוצמתי והוספת מצלמה רחבה למערך הצילום. ב-24 באפריל 2020 אפל הוציאה גרסה חדשה של אייפון SE. הוא הגיע עם המעבד החדש של אפל, ונשארו התכונות מגרסאות של אייפונים ישנים, כמו Touch ID. כמו כן הוא הגיע עם מצלמה משופרת ומערכת הפעלה iOS 13. ב-13 באוקטובר 2020 אפל השיקה 4 טלפונים חדשים: אייפון 12, אייפון 12 מיני, אייפון 12 פרו ואייפון 12 פרו מקס. כל האייפונים החדשים קיבלו עיצוב חדש בדומה לעיצוב של אייפון 4. כמו כן הם קיבלו את המעבד החדש של אפל, A14 ומערך צילום משופר ואת מערכת ההפעלה החדשה iOS 14. האייפון 12 מיני קיבל עיצוב שונה מהשאר, עם מסך קטנטן בגודל 5.4 אינץ'. האייפונים 12 פרו ו-12 פרו מקס קיבלו עוד אפשרויות חדישות, כגון מצלמת ה-LiDar שמסוגלת לסרוק חללים בתלת מימד, מצלמה אולטרה רחבה חדשה וייצוב וידאו. ב-14 בספטמבר 2021 אפל השיקה את סדרת אייפון 13 החדשה: אייפון 13, אייפון 13 מיני, אייפון 13 פרו ואייפון 13 פרו מקס. האייפונים החדשים נשארו עם אותו עיצוב של האייפון 12, לרבות אייפון 13 פרו ופרו מקס. האייפונים 13 ו-13 מיני קיבלו עדכון עיצובי קל, כשהמצלמות בגב מסודרות באלכסון במקום בצורה אנכית. כמו כן כל הסדרה קיבלה עדכון עיצובי מלפנים, כשהמצח (נוטץ') המפורסם של אפל הוקטן ב-20%. האייפונים החדשים קיבלו את המעבד החדש A15, וגרסה משופרת שלו עבור סדרת הפרו. לאייפונים 13 ו-13 מיני שופר מערך הצילום, בעוד שהאייפונים 13 פרו ופרו מקס קיבלו מערך צילום חדש ומשופר, לרבות מצלמת טלפוטו חדשה. הסדרה תקבל את מערכת ההפעלה החדשה של אפל, iOS 15. עדכון נוסף באייפונים 13 פרו ו-13 פרו מקס הוא המסך, שכעת תומך ב-ProMotion, כלומר תמיכה בקצב רענון של 120 הרץ. ב-7 בספטמבר 2022 אפל השיקה את סדרת אייפון 14: אייפון 14, אייפון 14 פלוס, אייפון 14 פרו ואייפון 14 פרו מקס. הדגמים הרגילים שמרו על עיצוב הדומה לאייפון 13, בעוד שדגמי הפרו הציגו שינוי משמעותי בחזית – עם מעבר מה"נוטץ'" ל-Dynamic Island, אזור אינטראקטיבי חדש סביב המצלמה הקדמית. דגמי אייפון 14 ו-14 פלוס ממשיכים להשתמש במעבד A15, עם שיפור קל בביצועים, בעוד שדגמי הפרו קיבלו את המעבד החדש A16 Bionic. מערך הצילום שודרג בכל הדגמים, עם חיישנים גדולים יותר ויכולות צילום בתאורה נמוכה, כאשר דגמי הפרו כוללים מצלמה ראשית של 48 מגה-פיקסל לראשונה באייפון. כל הסדרה כוללת תמיכה בקישוריות לוויינית לשליחת הודעות חירום וזיהוי תאונות דרכים באמצעות חיישנים מתקדמים. בארצות הברית, המכשירים תומכים ב-eSIM בלבד ללא חריץ פיזי לכרטיס SIM. כל הדגמים מגיעים עם מערכת ההפעלה iOS 16, הכוללת שיפורים במסך הנעילה, התאמות אישיות ויכולות חדשות באפליקציות מובנות. ב-12 בספטמבר 2023 אפל השיקה את סדרת אייפון 15: אייפון 15, אייפון 15 פלוס, אייפון 15 פרו ואייפון 15 פרו מקס. דגמי הבסיס שמרו על עיצוב דומה לדור הקודם, אך קיבלו לראשונה את ממשק ה-Dynamic Island שהופיע לראשונה באייפון 14 פרו. דגמי הפרו עברו שינוי עיצובי משמעותי עם מסגרת מטיטניום קלה ועמידה יותר, מה שהפך אותם לקלים יותר מקודמיהם. כל הדגמים כוללים כעת חיבור טעינה מסוג USB-C, במקום חיבור Lightning הוותיק. דגמי הפרו קיבלו את המעבד החדש A17 Pro, בעוד שדגמי הבסיס ממשיכים עם A16 Bionic. מערך הצילום שודרג, כאשר אייפון 15 כולל מצלמה ראשית של 48 מגה-פיקסל עם אפשרות לזום אופטי כפול. דגם הפרו מקס כולל לראשונה עדשת טלפוטו עם זום אופטי של פי 5. כל הסדרה מגיעה עם מערכת ההפעלה iOS 17, הכוללת שיפורים בממשק המשתמש, תכונות תקשורת חדשות, והתאמות אישיות מתקדמות. ב-10 בספטמבר 2024 אפל השיקה את סדרת אייפון 16: אייפון 16, אייפון 16 פלוס, אייפון 16 פרו ואייפון 16 פרו מקס. דגמי הבסיס שמרו על עיצוב דומה לדור הקודם, אך כוללים שיפורים פנימיים כמו מעבד A17 Bionic ומצלמה ראשית של 48 מגה-פיקסל. דגמי הפרו עברו שינוי עיצובי עם מסגרת טיטניום קלה יותר, כפתור פעולה חדש במקום כפתור ההשתקה, ושדרוג במערך הצילום – כולל עדשת טלפוטו עם זום אופטי של פי 5 בדגם הפרו מקס. כל הדגמים כוללים מסך בהיר יותר, שיפור בביצועים הגרפיים, ותמיכה ביכולות AI מתקדמות. הסדרה כולה מגיעה עם מערכת ההפעלה iOS 18, הכוללת שיפורים בהתאמה אישית, פרטיות, ויכולות חדשות באפליקציות המובנות. ב-9 בספטמבר 2025 אפל השיקה את סדרת אייפון 17: אייפון 17, אייפון 17 אייר, אייפון 17 פרו ואייפון 17 פרו מקס. דגם הבסיס שמר על עיצוב הדומה לדור הקודם, אך קיבל מסך משופר, נפח אחסון גדול יותר ושבב A19 חדש. דגם האייפון אייר החדש בלט בעיצוב דק במיוחד – בעובי של 5.6 מ"מ בלבד – עשוי מ-80% טיטניום ממוחזר, עם מסך Always-On בגודל 6.5 אינץ' ושתי מצלמות. דגמי הפרו עברו שינוי בגב המכשיר עם מודול מצלמות גדול יותר, מה שמדגיש את המיקוד בצילום. כל הסדרה כוללת שיפורים בביצועים, צילום, ויכולות AI מתקדמות. מערכת ההפעלה iOS 19 מגיעה עם תכונות חדשות כמו תרגום קולי בזמן אמת, התאמות אישיות מתקדמות, ושיפורים באפליקציות המובנות. נתוני המכירות הראשוניים הצביעו על עלייה של 14% לעומת סדרת אייפון 16, עם ביקוש גבוה במיוחד לדגם הבסיס ולפרו מקס בשווקים המרכזיים כמו ארצות הברית וסין. אייפון 6 פלוס 16/64/128GB 5.5" אייפון 6S פלוס 5.5" אייפון 7 פלוס 5.5" אייפון 8 פלוס 5.5" $799/$949 אייפון XS מקס 6.5" אייפון 11 פרו מקס 6.5" $1099/$1249/$1449 אייפון 12 מיני 6.1" אייפון 12 פרו מקס 6.7" אייפון 13 מיני בספטמבר 2021 האחרונה תמיכה) 6.1" אייפון 13 פרו מקס בספטמבר 2021 האחרונה 1TB(1000GB) 6.7" האחרונה אייפון 14 פלוס 7 באוקטובר 2022 (14 פלוס) האחרונה אייפון 14 פרו מקס האחרונה אייפון 15 פלוס האחרונה אייפון 15 פרו מקס האחרונה שיווק בישראל עם השקתו ביוני 2007 האייפון לא שווק תחילה בישראל, מאחר שאפל הגבילה את מכירתו למספר מדינות מצומצם. המכשיר נמכר לראשונה בישראל במאי 2008 על ידי רשת "דינמיקה סלולר", באופן לא רשמי ביבוא מקביל ללא תמיכה רשמית בעברית. לאחר משא ומתן נוקשה בין אפל לשלוש החברות הסלולריות הגדולות בישראל (פלאפון, סלקום, פרטנר), בהן נאלצו להסכים לתנאים וכללים מגבלים רבים, החל שיווקו באופן רשמי ב-10 בדצמבר 2009. באפריל 2010 החלה יבואנית אפל בישראל "iDigital" במכירה של מכשירי אייפון פתוחים ללא התחייבות מראש לאף מפעילה סלולרית. מאפיינים ממשק המשתמש של המכשיר מבוסס על מסך מגע בטכנולוגיית מגע מרובה (Multi-Touch), ומרבית הפעילויות והשליטה שלו מבוצעות בעזרת המסך. נוסף על המסך קיימים כפתור כיבוי, וכפתור Home (כפתור הבית) אשר מעביר את האייפון אל המסך הראשי. בצד המכשיר ישנם כפתורים נוספים לשליטה על עוצמת הקול של המכשיר, והחלפה בין מצב שקט לרגיל. לאייפון מד תאוצה אשר מזהה הטיה של המכשיר בשני צירים, ומשנה את כיוון המסך בהתאם לזווית בה האייפון נמצא. לממשק בתצוגה הראשית של האייפון אחראית תוכנה (נקראת גם Springboard) המאפשרת גלישה בין כל האפליקציות המותקנות על המכשיר. לכל אפליקציה יש צלמית ולחיצה עליה תגרום להפעלת האפליקציה. מסך המגע מאפשר שליטה מלאה על המכשיר באמצעות מגע בלבד, כאשר ניתן לבצע מגוון פעולות בהתאם לצורת הלחיצה על המכשיר, וכמות האצבעות הלוחצות. המקלדת של האייפון תומכת במספר מגעים בו זמנית (Multi-Touch) ויישומים למכשיר יכולים להשתמש בעד חמש אצבעות בו זמנית על המסך על מנת לתפעל את היישומים. הקלדת מלל מתבצעת על ידי לחיצה על האותיות המופיעות על גבי המסך כמקלדת וירטואלית (ראו תמונה). מערכת ההפעלה של האייפון נקראת "iOS" (או "iPhone OS" עד לגרסתה הרביעית). בעת הכרזת האייפון המקורי, אפל אישרה שמערכת הפעלה זו היא גרסה מיוחדת של מערכת ההפעלה macOS אשר מיועדת לריצה על האייפון. ההבדל בין השתיים הוא בממשק המשתמש: האייפון משתמש בשכבה הנקראת Cocoa Touch, בניגוד למערכת המקורית המשתמשת ב-Cocoa. פרט לכך, מערכת האייפון, בדומה למק, מבוססת על אותם יישומים, פרויקטים וקובצי מקור. תוכנת ה-iOS כוללת בתוכה רכיב תוכנה שנקרא "Core Animation" הנמצא גם ב-macOS 10.5, רכיב התוכנה האחראי על הרצת האנימציות של ממשק המשתמש באופן מהיר. מערכת ההפעלה משתמשת בפחות מחצי גיגה של זיכרון. ב-6 במרץ 2008 הוציאה אפל, את ה-SDK למכשיר האייפון, חבילת התוכנה מאפשרת ליצור תוכנות עבור האייפון באמצעות ה-Xcode ולבדוק אותן על מכשיר וירטואלי הנקרא Aspen או על מכשיר אייפון (או אייפוד טאץ') המחובר למחשב באמצעות כבל Universal Serial B. המכשיר כולל מספר יישומי מערכת: מסרונים, לוח שנה, תמונות, גישה ל-YouTube (עד IOS 5), צפייה במניות, שירות מפות, נתוני מזג אוויר, שעון, פייסבוק, מחשבון, פתקים, הגדרות, Appstore ו-iTunes. זאת בנוסף לארבעת היישומים המהותיים במכשיר - הטלפון, הדוא"ל, הדפדפן ספארי ויישום המוזיקה. ניתן לרכוש ולהתקין יישומים ומשחקים נוספים במכשיר דרך AppStore. תוכני מוזיקה ניתן לרכוש דרך iTunes. כל מתכנת המתמצא במערכת יכול לפתח יישום המתאים לאייפון, להעבירו לבחינה לאנשי אפל, ואם עבר את אישורם, היישום עולה לחנות וכל משתמש יכול להוריד אותו על פי התנאים שסוכמו. חלק מהיישומים ניתן להוריד בחינם וחלק מהיישומים עולים כסף (בסכומים שונים ליישום). עבור כל הורדה מקבל המתכנת סכום כסף כפי שסוכם עם אנשי אפל. אפשרות זו הביאה לכך, שנכון לינואר 2011, עומדים מאות אלפי יישומים לרשות בעל האייפון. בין היישומים הפופולריים ניתן למנות סינכרון עם חשבונות דואר רשת ועם תוכנת ה-Outlook, השתלטות מרחוק על המחשב האישי של בעל האייפון ויכולות (מוגבלות) של משיכת קבצים. בחלק מהיישומים ניתנת גרסה פשוטה בחינם (לעיתים משולבות בה פרסומות) ורק עבור הגרסה המורחבת ונטולת הפרסומת יש לשלם. חלק מהבנקים פיתחו יישום שמאפשר ללקוחותיהם גישה לחשבון שלהם וביצוע פעולות בחשבון (כולל מסחר בניירות ערך בבורסה) באמצעות האייפון. קיימות אפליקציות חינמיות, כמו סטנזה ו-iBooks, המאפשרות קריאת ספרים אלקטרוניים על המכשיר ובכך הופכות אותו גם לקורא ספרים אלקטרוני. הכתיבה של אפליקציות למכשיר נעשית באמצעות שפת התכנות Objective c ובסביבת הפיתוח Xcode, שבמערכות ההפעלה של מחשבי אפל. באופן הזה מחייבת אפל את המתכנתים לקנות את מחשביה ואת מערכת ההפעלה שלה. אפל חוסמת כל דרך ליצור אפליקציות למכשיר באמצעות סביבות פיתוח שמתרגמות את הקוד לשפת התכנות Objective c. מהלך זה חוסם ניסיונות של חברות לפתח כלי פיתוח חלופיים לאייפון כדוגמת monotouch של חברת נובל, שנועד לאפשר למתכנתי דוט נט ליצור אפליקציות למכשיר, או Flash CS5 iPhone שנועד לפתח אפליקציות לאייפון באמצעות פיתוח אדובי פלאש. אפליקציה שבה קישור לאתר המוזיקה "Grooveshark" הוסרה מספר ימים לאחר השקתה, באוגוסט 2010, מחשש להפרת זכויות יוצרים על ידי האתר. מכשירי אייפון מיועדים על ידי אפל להסתנכרן ולהעביר נתונים דרך תוכנת iTunes בלבד. באמצעותה ניתן להעביר לאייפון אפליקציות, מוזיקה, סרטונים, רינגטונים ותמונות. הצורך לעבוד מול iTunes בלבד הובילה את חלק מהניסיונות לפריצת iOS. מכשירי האייפון תוכננו על ידי אפל כך שיריצו רק תוכנות שאושרו בחתימה מוצפנת על ידי אפל. גורמים שונים יצרו תוכנות המאפשרות לערוך שינוי קל בקושחה (firmware) של המכשיר, כך שיעקוף את בדיקת החתימה. פריצת המכשיר מאפשרת, בגרסאות שונות, שליטה מלאה על מראה המכשיר באמצעות ערכות נושא, והתקנה של תוספים וכלים שימושיים למערכת ההפעלה; תוספים שחלקם אומצו על ידי אפל במהלך השנים. בנוסף בעזרת הפריצה ניתן להתקין כלים לא חוקיים המאפשרים התקנה של תוכנות הזמינות בחנות ה-App Store של אפל בלי לשלם עליהן (דבר שהפך את הפריצה לפופולרית מאוד בשוק הישראלי). סוג אחר של פריצה מאפשר הסרת נעילת ה-SIM (אנלוק). זהו שינוי תוכנה שמבצעות רשתות סלולריות לכל מכשיר שנמכר אצלן כדי לגרום לכך שהמכשיר לא יעבוד ברשת סלולרית מתחרה. הסרת הנעילה מאפשרת שימוש במכשיר בכל רשת סלולרית. אפל טוענת כי פריצת המכשיר אינה חוקית ותביא לביטול האחריות עליו: אולם ספריית הקונגרס בארצות־הברית קבעה ביולי 2010 כי הליך הפריצה אינו מהפרות זכויות היוצרים המכוסות ב"חוק המילניום הדיגיטלי" (DCMA). כלל זה אינו חל על הורדת תוכנות בלי תשלום. בין מפתחי פורצי התוכנה לאפל מתנהל מאבק מתמשך בו עדכוני תוכנה או קושחה של אפל מחוללים במערכת ההפעלה של המכשיר שינוי המבטל את הפריצה ומסיר תוכנות שהורדו בחסותו, כשמפתחי תוכנות הפריצה עמלים על דרכים לעקוף שינויים אלו. האייפון הוא כלי נגיש ביותר הכולל יכולת תצוגה גרפית טובה, תצוגת מקלדת שמשתנה בקלות ומאגר תוכנות גדול המאפשרות לבעלי לקויות שונות להשתמש במכשיר. חברת אפל מפרסמת הרבה מידע הדרכתי לנגישותו של האייפון. קיימות, למשל, תוכנות הגדלה עבור האייפון שמועילות ללקויי ראייה ותנועה (בעלי קואורדינציות אצבעות לקויה), תוכנות שמשנות את הצבעים של התצוגה בהתאם ליכולת הראיה של המשתמש וקורא מסך ללקויי ראייה ודיסלקטים כמו גם לבעלי לקות דיבור המשתמשים במכשיר לצורך תקשורת חלופית ותומכת. חלק מתוכנות הנגישות האלה נמכרות עם המכשיר. קיימת חומרה שמאפשרת חיבור קבוע לטעינת הסוללה של האייפון מסוללות של כיסאות גלגלים ממונעים כמו גם חומרה לקיבוע האייפון ליד קצה ידית הכיסא עבור נכים שמתקשים בהזזת ידיהם ומתקשים לשלוף במהירות את האייפון מכיס בגדם או מהתיק. קיימת גם תוכנה שמשפרת את השליטה של המשתמש בכיסא הגלגלים הממונע ומספקת לו מידע עדכני על המצב המכני-חשמלי של הכיסא. תוכנה זו מסייעת גם לכוונן את הפרמטרים של מנוע הכיסא על פי יכולותיו של המשתמש, כמו הגבלת מהירות מקסימלית עבור משתמש שמתקשה לבלום ביעילות בשל נכותו. ללקויי תנועה קשים האייפון יכול לשמש כשלט רחוק המפעיל מכשירים רבים הנמצאים מחוץ להישג ידם, כגון מתגים לאור או מנועים לפתיחת תריסים, חלונות ודלתות. יש לצייד מכשירים אלה בחיישן ל-WiFi, חיישן לבלוטות' או חיישן לאותות של מכשיר כלשהו המשמש כתחנת ממסר, כך שהמכשיר יופעל בשלט רחוק על ידי האייפון. מכלול חלקי רכיבי האייפון תוכנן תוך מחשבה אסטרטגית למיקום כל חלק ורכיב ליצירת מכשיר שעוביו דק מאוד. מדגם לדגם חלקי מכשיר האייפון השתנו בצורתם, אך בכללותם נשארו באותו מבנה מאז דגם 4. מבנה האייפון מתחלק לארבע קטגוריות: מכשיר האייפון נחשב למכשיר היציב ביותר מבחינת איכות הרכיבים המרכיבים את לוח האם והחלקים הסובבים אותו מיוצרים תוך התחשבות בבלאי שימוש ויכולת עמידה במבחני בקרת איכות קפדניים. למרות זו אין מן הנמנע שלא יתרחשו תקלות במכשיר האייפון. חברות הסלולר נותנות מענה חלקי לתיקון מכשיר האייפון ובמקרים בהם נדרש תיקון חומרה ברמת דרג ד' אינן מסוגלת לתת מענה ראוי לתיקון המכשיר. מכאן קמו לתחייה מעבדות שונות לתיקון אייפון. חשוב להבהיר שמעבדות אלו אינן מורשות לתיקון מוצרי אפל אך מפאת החופש שברשותן יכולות התיקון שלהן גבוהות בהרבה מחברות הסלולר המוגבלות באישורי יצרניות הסמארטפונים להקמת מעבדות. גרסאות ודגמים הגרסה הראשונה של מכשיר האייפון נקראת "אייפון" (מכונה היום גם אייפון 2G). הגרסה השנייה של המכשיר נקראת "אייפון 3G" (השם בא מהיכולת החדשה העיקרית - אינטרנט סלולרי 3G), והשינויים העיקריים בה הם: הגרסה השלישית של המכשיר נקראת "אייפון 3GS" (השם בא מהמהירות הגבוהה יותר של המכשיר - s=speed), והשינויים העיקריים בה הם: הגרסה הרביעית של המכשיר נקראת "אייפון 4", והשינויים העיקריים בה הם: ב-11 בינואר 2011 השיקו אפל וחברת ורייזון מכשיר אייפון 4 מחודש בצבע לבן, שהותאם לרשת CDMA. במכשיר נעשו גם שינויי עיצוב קלים לאנטנה החיצונית שבה נפתרו בעיות הקליטה, וגרסת הקושחה עודכנה בו ל-iOS 4.2.5. הגרסה החמישית של המכשיר נקראת "אייפון 4S", והשינויים העיקריים בה הם: הגרסה השישית של המכשיר נקראת "אייפון 5", והשינויים העיקריים בה הם: הגרסה השביעית של המכשיר נקראת "אייפון 5S", והשינויים העיקריים בה הם: אייפון 5C הוא בעצם גרסה מוזלת ומפלסטיק יותר לאייפון 5, ולכן השיפורים מזעריים: הגרסה השמינית של המכשיר נקראת "אייפון 6", והשינויים העיקריים בה הם: הגרסה השמינית הנוספת שהוכרזה יחד עם האייפון 6 הוא הפאבלט הראשון מבית אפל ה"אייפון 6 פלוס" שבתכונותיו כולל את אותו המפרט, עיצוב והחידושים של האייפון 6 והשינויים העיקריים בו מהאייפון 6 הם: הגרסה התשיעית של המכשיר נקראת "אייפון 6S", והשינויים העיקריים בה הם: הגרסה התשיעית הנוספת שהוכרזה יחד עם האייפון 6S הוא פאבלט ה"אייפון 6S פלוס" שבתכונותיו כולל כמעט את אותו המפרט של האייפון 6S והשינויים העיקריים בו (מהאייפון 6 פלוס) הם: אייפון SE הוא גרסה מוזלת של אייפון 6S עם מסך 4 אינץ' בדומה למכשירים קודמים בסדרה, אך המפרט של המכשיר דומה מאוד לשל האייפון 6S. הגרסה העשירית של המכשיר נקראת "אייפון 7", והשינויים העיקריים בה הם: הגרסה העשירית הנוספת שהוכרזה יחד עם האייפון 7 הוא פאבלט ה"אייפון 7 פלוס" שבתכונותיו כולל כמעט את אותו המפרט של האייפון 7 והשינויים העיקריים בו (מהאייפון 6S פלוס) הם: מכשיר הדגל ה-11 בסדרת הטלפונים החכמים של אפל הוכרז ב-12 בספטמבר 2017 לצד אייפון 8 פלוס ואייפון X. באופן חריג ממסורת ההכרזות של אפל, לפיה בכל שנתיים מוכרז מכשיר דגל, ובכל שנה מכשיר ביניים הנושא את השם "S", דילגה הפעם החברה על הכינוי "אייפון 7S" ובחרה להעניק למכשיר את השם "אייפון 8". מבנה ועיצוב המכשיר כמעט ולא השתנה מהדגם הקודם, אייפון 7, מלבד חיפוי הזכוכית בגבו. חומרת המכשיר כוללת מסך בגודל 4.7 אינץ' בטכנולוגיית Retina HD Display מבית אפל, ומעבד ה-A11 Bionic, בעל 6 ליבות 64 ביט ונפח זיכרון RAM של 2GB. המכשיר כולל אפשרות לטעינה אלחוטית בתקן Qi, תמיכה בקישוריות בלוטות’ 5.0, ומערך צילום בעל עדשת 12 מגה-פיקסל, בעל חיישן גדול יותר. האייפון 8 פלוס הוא גרסה מוגדלת של האייפון 8, הכולל מסך בגודל 5.5 אינץ׳ והוכרז ב-12 בספטמבר 2017 לצד אייפון 8 ואייפון X. לאייפון 8 פלוס יש שתי עדשות כמו ל-7 פלוס כאשר שתי המצלמות זהות בדיוק לאייפון X למעט זה שבאייפון X יש לשתי העדשות מייצבים אופטיים ולאייפון 8 רק אחד. האייפון 8 מצופה זכוכית בשביל שהיה אפשר לטעון אותו בצורה אלחוטית. האייפון הגיע עם iOS 11. לפלאפון יש את אותו המעבד של האייפון 8 הרגיל והאייפון X. מכשיר העשור בסדרת הטלפונים החכמים של אפל, אייפון X (אייפון 10), הוכרז ב-12 בספטמבר 2017 לצד אייפון 8 ואייפון 8 פלוס. לראשונה מאז השקת דגם האייפון הראשון, עבר האייפון X מתיחת פנים, ומגיע ללא כפתור בית כלל, תוך שתצוגת המסך שלו מתפרסת על רוב חזית המכשיר. מלבד המסך בחזית, ומערך המצלמה בגב שכעת עומד באופן מאונך, מבנה ועיצוב המכשיר כמעט ולא שונה מאייפון 7. מסך המכשיר מגיע בגודל 5.8 אינץ' עם טכנולוגיית 3D Touch. את המסך מחפה זכוכית מוקשחת, ובמקום חיישן טביעות האצבע, כולל המכשיר טכנולוגיה חדשה בשם Face ID לפתיחת ולאבטחת המכשיר באמצעות זיהוי הפנים. המכשיר כולל את מעבד ה-A11 Bionic וזיכרון RAM של 3GB, מערך צילום כפול הכולל שתי עדשות עם חיישני צילום של 12 מגה-פיקסל, ומספר חידושים אשר לא קיימים בדגמי האייפון הקודמים, כדוגמת טעינה אלחוטית על גבי משטח ייעודי. דגם ההמשך לאייפון X שהושק שנה אחרי כן, הכולל בעיקר שיפורי ביצועים, צבע חדש (זהב) ומהווה את מכשיר הדגל הנוכחי של החברה. המכשיר כולל הגנה ממים ומאבק, לראשונה בתקן IP68. המכשיר כולל מסך OLED בגודל 5.8 אינץ' בשם "סופר רטינה", וברזולוציה של 2688X1242 בצפיפות 458ppi. הוא מגיע גם עם תמיכה ב-HDR, שמשפרת את ביצועיו ב-60 אחוזים מקודמו. מערכת השמע החדשה שלו כוללת אופציית האזנה בסטריאו משופרת יותר. מערכת הזיהוי Face ID שופרה ומהירה יותר. האייפון XS מריץ את מערכת השבבים A12 Bionic שנבנה בארכיטקטורת 7 ננומטר, וסוללתו מספקת חצי שעת עבודה יותר מאשר קודמו. המכשיר מגיע עם תמיכה ב-Dual Sim וב-eSIM, בצבעים כסוף, אפור כהה וזהב, ובנפחים של 64, 256 ו-512GB. לצד האייפון XS הוצגה גרסה מוגדלת של המכשיר, בעלת מסך OLED בגודל 6.5 אינץ', בשם אייפון XS MAX. מכשיר זה הוא גם בעצם גרסה משודרגת המחליפה את סדרת ה"אייפון פלוס" שהושקה לראשונה עם האייפון 6. רוב החומרה והתכונות זהות לאלו שבאייפון XS, מלבד אורך חיי סוללה של שעה וחצי יותר מאשר באייפון X. אייפון מוזל, בעל מסך LCD ובעל עדשת צילום בודדת בגבו, המגיע במספר צבעים וללא כפתור בית. זהו דגם המשך לאייפון 5C ולאייפון SE המוזלים, המגיע עם מערך זיהוי הפנים Face ID. אייפון בעל מסך LCD, בעל שני מצלמות בגבו יש לו את המעבד החדש A13 Bionic (מצלה רחבה ומצלמה אולטרה רחבה). האייפון מגיע במספר צבעים וללא כפתור בית מגיע עם מערך זיהוי הפנים Face ID. הדור השני של SE דומה לממדים ולצורה של אייפון 8 (כולל הלוח הקדמי וכפתור הבית הפיזי עם Touch ID ומכיל מצלמה בודדת בגבו), וכן חולק רכיבי חומרה מאייפון 11, כולל מעבד A13 (במקום ה-A11, אשר נמצא באייפון 8). וממשיך את הדפוס שנקבע על ידי האייפון SE מהדור הראשון (שחלק את הממדים ואת הצורה עם מכשירי האייפון 5 ואייפון 5S הישנים יותר, אך את מרבית החומרה הפנימית שלו הוא חלק עם האייפון 6S הגבוה והגדול יותר). אייפון בעל מסך OLCD. לטלפון יש שתי מצלמות בגבו: מצלמה רחבה ומצלמה אולטרה רחבה. הוא משתמש במעבד A14 Bionic. האייפון מגיע במספר צבעים בניהם לראשונה בצבע הסגול. וללא כפתור בית מגיע עם מערך זיהוי הפנים Face ID. באיפון זה אפל הפסיקה לספק מטען ואוזניות באריזת המכשיר. לטענתם בשל כך שלצרכנים יש מספיק מטענים ואוזניות, בנוסף שכך יוכלו להגדיל את מספר המכשירים שהם שולחים בכל ארגז (משום שאריזת המכשיר קטנה יותר) ועל ידי כך יקטינו את הזיהום הסביבתי הנובע מהמשלוח. הדבר גרר זעם רב ובמדינות כמו ברזיל, אפל חויבה לספק מטען חדש לכל רוכש. לאחר שהנהיגה זאת באייפון 12 גם שאר המכשירים אותם אפל מייצרת חדלו להישלח עם מטען ואוזניות. יצרניות מכשירים נוספות החלו לפעול כדוגמת אפל. כמו סמסונג שראשית לעגה על המהלך של אפל עם סדרת קמפיינים שאמרה "הגלאקסי נותן כל מה שצריך מהדברים הבסיסים כמו ממטען ועד המצלמה הכי טובה.." ולאחר פחות משלושה חודשים גם סמסונג עצמה חדלה לשלוח מטענים באריזה של מכשירים חדשים. סדרת ה-13 למשפחת מכשירי האייפון כוללת את אייפון 13, אייפון 13 מיני, אייפון 13 פרו ואייפון 13 פרו מקס. המכשירים מבוססים על מעבד מסוג מערכת על שבב דגם A15 ביוניק, בעל ארכיטקטורת ARM של 64 ביט, ומצלמה ברזולוציה של 12 מגה פיקסל. בעוד שדגמי המיני וה-13 הרגיל מצוידים ב-2 עדשות בגב המכשיר, דגמי הפרו והפרו מקס מצוידים ב-3 עדשות. הסמארטפון הוכרז ב־7 בספטמבר 2022 לצד האייפון 14 פרו ואייפון 14 פרו מקס באירוע מיוחד של אפל שנערך באפל פארק שבקופרטינו, קליפורניה. מכשירי האייפון 14 וה־14 פלוס זמינים לרכישה בארצות הברית החל מ־9 בספטמבר 2022. אייפון 14 זמין לרכישה מלאה החל מ־16 בספטמבר 2022, בעוד דגם הפלוס יהיה זמין לרכישה מלאה החל מ־7 באוקטובר. בישראל, דגם הבסיס זמין לרכישה מלאה החל מ־22 בספטמבר 2022, ודגם הפלוס יהיה זמין החל מ־7 באוקטובר. אייפון 14 היה דגם הסמארטפון הנמכר ביותר בעולם בשנת 2023, על פי מחקר של חברת קאונטרפוינט. סדרת האייפון 15, שהוכרזה ב--12 בספטמבר 2023 והושקה ב-22 בספטמבר 2023, סימנה מספר שינויים משמעותיים. כל דגמי הסדרה (אייפון 15, אייפון 15 פלוס, אייפון 15 פרו ואייפון 15 פרו מקס) עברו לשימוש בשקע USB-C, מה שהביא להתאמה רבה יותר בין מכשירי אפל השונים. דגמי האייפון 15 וה-15 פלוס שודרגו למצלמה ראשית ברזולוציית 48 מגה פיקסל, המאפשרת צילום תמונות עם יותר פרטים ואיכות גבוהה יותר. דגמי הפרו קיבלו את שבב ה-A17 ביוניק, המציע שיפורים משמעותיים בביצועים וביעילות אנרגטית, וכן תכונות בלעדיות נוספות. סדרת האייפון 16, שהוכרזה ב-9 בספטמבר 2024 והושקה ב-20 בספטמבר 2024, ממשיכה את מגמת השיפורים בתחומים מרכזיים. המכשירים מצוידים בשבב A18 מתקדם, המותאם במיוחד לפעולת מודלים של בינה מלאכותית יוצרת (AI גנרטיבי) ישירות על המכשיר. השבב כולל מנוע עצבי משופר, ומאפשר יכולות עיבוד ייעודיות ליישומי בינה מלאכותית. מערך הצילום שודרג גם הוא, כאשר כל דגמי האייפון 16 כוללים מצלמה ראשית ברזולוציית 48 מגה פיקסל, עם שיפור משמעותי ביכולת קליטת אור, במיוחד בתנאי תאורה חלשה. בנוסף, המצלמה הרחבה מציעה פוקוס אוטומטי. שיפור נוסף נרשם בחיי הסוללה, כאשר דגם האייפון 16 פרו מקס מציג קיבולת של 4,676 מיליאמפר/שעה, המגדילה את זמן השימוש במכשיר. אייפון 17 iPhone 17 היא סדרת סמארטפונים מתוצרת אפל, הצפויה לצאת בספטמבר 2025. הסדרה צפויה לכלול ארבעה דגמים: אייפון 17 (באנגלית: iPhone 17) - דגם בסיסי אייפון 17 פרו (באנגלית: iPhone 17 Pro) אייפון 17 פרו מקס(באנגלית: iPhone 17 Pro Max) אייפון 17 אייר (באנגלית:iPhone 17 Air) . האירוע הרשמי של אפל היה ל-9 בספטמבר 2025, והמכירה החלה ב-19 בספטמבר. לפי דיווחים, דגם ה-Air יחליף את דגם ה-Plus ויהיה הדק ביותר שיצא עד כה, ודגמי ה-Pro צפויים לכלול עיצוב חדש, שיפורי מצלמה וזיכרון RAM מוגדל. סוגיות משפטיות קישורים חיצוניים הערות שוליים שירותי ענן: MobileMe • iCloud |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviance_(sociology)] | [TOKENS: 4441] |
Contents Deviance (sociology) 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Deviance or the sociology of deviance explores the actions or behaviors that violate social norms across formally enacted rules (e.g., crime) as well as informal violations of social norms (e.g., rejecting folkways and mores). Although deviance may have a negative connotation, the violation of social norms is not always a negative action; positive deviation exists in some situations. Although a norm is violated, a behavior can still be classified as positive or acceptable. Social norms differ throughout society and between cultures. A certain act or behaviour may be viewed as deviant and receive sanctions or punishments within one society and be seen as a normal behaviour in another society. Additionally, as a society's understanding of social norms changes over time, so too does the collective perception of deviance. Deviance is relative to the place where it was committed or to the time the act took place. Killing another human is generally considered wrong for example, except when governments permit it during warfare or for self-defense. There are two types of major deviant actions: mala in se and mala prohibita. Types of deviance The violation of norms can be categorized as two forms, formal deviance and informal deviance. Formal deviance can be described as a crime which violates the laws of a society. Informal deviance are minor violations that break unwritten rules of social life. Norms that have great moral significance are mores. Under informal deviance, a more opposes societal taboos. Taboo is a strong social form of behavior considered deviant by a majority. To speak of it publicly is condemned, and therefore, almost entirely avoided. The term "taboo" comes from the Tongan word "tapu" meaning "under prohibition", "not allowed", or "forbidden". Some forms of taboo are prohibited under law and transgressions may lead to severe penalties. Other forms of taboo result in shame, disrespect and humiliation. Taboo is not universal but does occur in the majority of societies. Some of the examples include murder, rape, incest, or child molestation. Howard Becker, a labeling theorist, identified four different types of deviant behavior labels which are given as: Malicious compliance may furthermore pose a special case. Theories of deviance Deviant acts can be assertions of individuality and identity, and thus as rebellion against group norms of the dominant culture and in favor of a sub-culture. In a society, the behavior of an individual or a group determines how a deviant creates norms. Three broad sociological classes exist that describe deviant behavior, namely, structural functionalism, symbolic interaction and conflict theory. Structural functionalists are concerned with how various factors in a society come together and interact to form the whole. Most notable, the work of Émile Durkheim and Robert Merton have contributed to the Functionalist ideals. Émile Durkheim would claim that deviance was in fact a normal and necessary part of social organization. He would state four important functions of deviance: When social deviance is committed, the collective conscience is offended. Durkheim (1897) describes the collective conscience as a set of social norms by which members of a society follow. Without the collective conscience, there would be no absolute morals followed in institutions or groups. Social integration is the attachment to groups and institutions, while social regulation is the adherence to the norms and values of society. Durkheim's theory attributes social deviance to extremes of social integration and social regulation. He stated four different types of suicide from the relationship between social integration and social regulation:. Robert K. Merton discussed deviance in terms of goals and means as part of his strain/anomie theory. Where Durkheim states that anomie is the confounding of social norms, Merton goes further and states that anomie is the state in which social goals and the legitimate means to achieve them do not correspond. He postulated that an individual's response to societal expectations and the means by which the individual pursued those goals were useful in understanding deviance. Specifically, he viewed collective action as motivated by strain, stress, or frustration in a body of individuals that arises from a disconnection between the society's goals and the popularly used means to achieve those goals. Often, non-routine collective behavior (rioting, rebellion, etc.) is said to map onto economic explanations and causes by way of strain. These two dimensions determine the adaptation to society according to the cultural goals, which are the society's perceptions about the ideal life, and to the institutionalized means, which are the legitimate means through which an individual may aspire to the cultural goals. Merton described 5 types of deviance in terms of the acceptance or rejection of social goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them: Symbolic interaction refers to the patterns of communication, interpretation, and adjustment between individuals. Both the verbal and nonverbal responses that a listener then delivers are similarly constructed in expectation of how the original speaker will react. The ongoing process is like the game of charades, only it is a full-fledged conversation. The term "symbolic interactionism" has come into use as a label for a relatively distinctive approach to the study of human life and human conduct. With symbolic interactionism, reality is seen as social, developed interaction with others. Most symbolic interactionists believe a physical reality does indeed exist by an individual's social definitions, and that social definitions do develop in part or relation to something "real." People thus do not respond to this reality directly, but rather to the social understanding of reality. Humans therefore exist in three realities: a physical objective reality, a social reality, and a unique. A unique is described as a third reality created out of the social reality, a private interpretation of the reality that is shown to the person by others. Both individuals and society cannot be separated far from each other for two reasons. One, being that both are created through social interaction, and two, one cannot be understood in terms without the other. Behavior is not defined by forces from the environment such as drives, or instincts, but rather by a reflective, socially understood meaning of both the internal and external incentives that are currently presented. Herbert Blumer (1969) set out three basic premises of the perspective: In his differential association theory, Edwin Sutherland posited that criminals learn criminal and deviant behaviors and that deviance is not inherently a part of a particular individual's nature. When an individual's significant others engage in deviant and/or criminal behavior, criminal behavior will be learned as a result to this exposure. He argues that criminal behavior is learned in the same way that all other behaviors are learned, meaning that the acquisition of criminal knowledge is not unique compared to the learning of other behaviors. Sutherland outlined some very basic points in his theory, including the idea that the learning comes from the interactions between individuals and groups, using communication of symbols and ideas. When the symbols and ideas about deviation are much more favorable than unfavorable, the individual tends to take a favorable view upon deviance and will resort to more of these behaviors. Criminal behavior (motivations and technical knowledge), as with any other sort of behavior, is learned. One example of this would be gang activity in inner city communities. Sutherland would feel that because a certain individual's primary influential peers are in a gang environment, it is through interaction with them that one may become involved in crime. Gresham Sykes and David Matza's neutralization theory explains how deviants justify their deviant behaviors by providing alternative definitions of their actions and by providing explanations, to themselves and others, for the lack of guilt for actions in particular situations. There are five types of neutralization: Frank Tannenbaum and Howard S. Becker created and developed the labeling theory, which is a core facet of symbolic interactionism, and often referred to as Tannenbaum's "dramatization of evil." Becker believed that "social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance". Labeling is a process of social reaction by the "social audience," wherein people stereotype others, judging and accordingly defining (labeling) someone's behavior as deviant or otherwise. It has been characterized as the "invention, selection, manipulation of beliefs which define conduct in a negative way and the selection of people into these categories." As such, labeling theory suggests that deviance is caused by the deviant's being labeled as morally inferior, the deviant's internalizing the label and finally the deviant's acting according to that specific label (i.e., an individual labelled as "deviant" will act accordingly). As time goes by, the "deviant" takes on traits that constitute deviance by committing such deviations as conform to the label (so the audience has the power to not label them and have the power to stop the deviance before it ever occurs by not labeling them). Individual and societal preoccupation with the label, in other words, leads the deviant individual to follow a self-fulfilling prophecy of abidance to the ascribed label. This theory, while very much a symbolic interactionist theory, also has elements of conflict theory, as the dominant group has the power to decide what is deviant and acceptable and enjoys the power behind the labeling process. An example of this is a prison system that labels people convicted of theft, and because of this they start to view themselves as by definition thieves, incapable of changing. "From this point of view," Howard S. Becker writes: Deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an "offender". The deviant is one to whom the label has successfully been applied; deviant behavior is behavior that people so label. In other words, "behavior only becomes deviant or criminal if defined and interfered as such by specific people in [a] specific situation." It is important to note the salient fact that society is not always correct in its labeling, often falsely identifying and misrepresenting people as deviants, or attributing to them characteristics which they do not have. In legal terms, people are often wrongly accused, yet many of them must live with the ensuant stigma (or conviction) for the rest of their lives. On a similar note, society often employs double standards, with some sectors of society enjoying favoritism. Certain behaviors in one group are seen to be perfectly acceptable, or can be easily overlooked, but in another are seen, by the same audiences, as abominable. The medicalization of deviance, the transformation of moral and legal deviance into a medical condition, is an important shift that has transformed the way society views deviance.: 204 The labelling theory helps to explain this shift, as behavior that used to be judged morally are now being transformed into an objective clinical diagnosis. For example, people with drug addictions are considered "sick" instead of "bad.": 204 Edwin Lemert developed the idea of primary and secondary deviation as a way to explain the process of labeling. Primary deviance is any general deviance before the deviant is labeled as such in a particular way. Secondary deviance is any action that takes place after primary deviance as a reaction to the institutional identification of the person as a deviant. When an actor commits a crime (primary deviance), however mild, the institution will bring social penalties down on the actor. However, punishment does not necessarily stop crime, so the actor might commit the same primary deviance again, bringing even harsher reactions from the institutions. At this point, the actor will start to resent the institution, while the institution brings harsher and harsher repression. Eventually, the whole community will stigmatize the actor as a deviant and the actor will not be able to tolerate this, but will ultimately accept his or her role as a criminal, and will commit criminal acts that fit the role of a criminal. Primary and secondary deviation is what causes people to become harder criminals. Primary deviance is the time when the person is labeled deviant through confession or reporting. Secondary deviance is deviance before and after the primary deviance. Retrospective labeling happens when the deviant recognizes his acts as deviant after the primary deviance, while prospective labeling is when the deviant recognizes future acts as deviant. The steps to becoming a criminal are: Broken windows theory states that an increase in minor crimes such as graffiti, would eventually lead to and encourage an increase in larger transgressions. This suggests that greater policing on minor forms of deviance would lead to a decrease in major crimes. The theory has been tested in a variety of settings including New York City in the 1990s. Compared to the country's average at the time, violent crime rates fell 28 percent as a result of the campaign. Critics of the theory question the direct causality of the policing and statistical changes that occurred. Control theory advances the proposition that weak bonds between the individual and society free people to deviate. By contrast, strong bonds make deviance costly. This theory asks why people refrain from deviant or criminal behavior, instead of why people commit deviant or criminal behavior, according to Travis Hirschi. The control theory developed when norms emerge to deter deviant behavior. Without this "control", deviant behavior would happen more often. This leads to conformity and groups. People will conform to a group when they believe they have more to gain from conformity than by deviance. If a strong bond is achieved there will be less chance of deviance than if a weak bond has occurred. Hirschi argued a person follows the norms because they have a bond to society. The bond consists of four positively correlated factors: opportunity, attachment, belief, and involvement.: 204 When any of these bonds are weakened or broken one is more likely to act in defiance. Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi in 1990 founded their Self-Control Theory. It stated that acts of force and fraud are undertaken in the pursuit of self-interest and self-control. A deviant act is based on a criminals own self-control of themselves. Containment theory is considered by researchers such as Walter C. Reckless to be part of the control theory because it also revolves around the thoughts that stop individuals from engaging in crime. Reckless studied the unfinished approaches meant to explain the reasoning behind delinquency and crime. He recognized that societal disorganization is included in the study of delinquency and crime under social deviance, leading him to claim that the majority of those who live in unstable areas tend not to have criminal tendencies in comparison those who live in middle-class areas. This claim opens up more possible approaches to social disorganization, and proves that the already implemented theories are in need or a deeper connection to further explore ideas of crime and delinquency. These observations brought Reckless to ask questions such as, "Why do some persons break through the tottering (social) controls and others do not? Why do rare cases in well-integrated society break through the lines of strong controls?" Reckless asserted that the intercommunication between self-control and social controls are partly responsible for the development of delinquent thoughts. Social disorganization was not related to a particular environment, but instead was involved in the deterioration of an individual's social controls. The containment theory is the idea that everyone possesses mental and social safeguards which protect the individual from committing acts of deviancy. Containment depends on the individuals ability to separate inner and outer controls for normative behavior. More contemporary control theorists such as Robert Crutchfield take the theory into a new light, suggesting labor market experiences not only affect the attitudes and the "stakes" of individual workers, but can also affect the development of their children's views toward conformity and cause involvement in delinquency. This is an ongoing study as he has found a significant relationship between parental labor market involvement and children's delinquency, but has not empirically demonstrated the mediating role of parents' or children's attitude.[citation needed] In a study conducted by Tim Wadsworth, the relationship between parent's employment and children's delinquency, which was previously suggested by Crutchfield (1993), was shown empirically for the first time. The findings from this study supported the idea that the relationship between socioeconomic status and delinquency might be better understood if the quality of employment and its role as an informal social control is closely examined. In sociology, conflict theory states that society or an organization functions so that each individual participant and its groups struggle to maximize their benefits, which inevitably contributes to social change such as political changes and revolutions. Deviant behaviors are actions that do not go along with the social institutions as what cause deviance. The institution's ability to change norms, wealth or status comes into conflict with the individual. The legal rights of poor folks might be ignored, middle class are also accept; they side with the elites rather than the poor, thinking they might rise to the top by supporting the status quo. Conflict theory is based upon the view that the fundamental causes of crime are the social and economic forces operating within society. However, it explains white-collar crime less well. This theory also states that the powerful define crime. This raises the question: for whom is this theory functional? In this theory, laws are instruments of oppression: tough on the powerless and less tough on the powerful. Marx did not write about deviant behavior but he wrote about alienation amongst the proletariat—as well as between the proletariat and the finished product—which causes conflict, and thus deviant behavior. Many Marxist theorists have employed the theory of the capitalist state in their arguments. For example, Steven Spitzer utilized the theory of bourgeois control over social junk and social dynamite; and George Rusche was known to present analysis of different punishments correlated to the social capacity and infrastructure for labor. He theorized that throughout history, when more labor is needed, the severity of punishments decreases and the tolerance for deviant behavior increases. Jock Young, another Marxist writer, presented the idea that the modern world did not approve of diversity, but was not afraid of social conflict. The late modern world, however, is very tolerant of diversity. However, it is extremely afraid of social conflicts, which is an explanation given for the political correctness movement. The late modern society easily accepts difference, but it labels those that it does not want as deviant and relentlessly punishes and persecutes. Michel Foucault believed that torture had been phased out from modern society due to the dispersion of power. He also theorized that institutions control people through the use of discipline. For example, the modern prison (more specifically the panopticon) is a template for these institutions because it controls its inmates by the perfect use of discipline. Foucault theorizes that, in a sense, the postmodern society is characterized by the lack of free will on the part of individuals. Institutions of knowledge, norms, and values, are simply in place to categorize and control humans. The Italian school of criminology contends that biological factors may contribute to crime and deviance. Cesare Lombroso was among the first to research and develop the Theory of Biological Deviance which states that some people are genetically predisposed to criminal behavior. He believed that criminals were a product of earlier genetic forms. The main influence of his research was Charles Darwin and his Theory of Evolution. Lombroso theorized that people were born criminals or in other words, less evolved humans who were biologically more related to our more primitive and animalistic urges. From his research, Lombroso took Darwin's Theory and looked at primitive times himself in regards to deviant behaviors. He found that the skeletons that he studied mostly had low foreheads and protruding jaws. These characteristics resembled primitive beings such as Homo Neanderthalensis. He stated that little could be done to cure born criminals because their characteristics were biologically inherited. Over time, most of his research was disproved. His research was refuted by Pearson and Charles Goring. They discovered that Lombroso had not researched enough skeletons to make his research thorough enough. When Pearson and Goring researched skeletons on their own they tested many more and found that the bone structure had no relevance in deviant behavior. The statistical study that Charles Goring published on this research is called "The English Convict". The classical school of criminology comes from the works of Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham and John Howard. Beccaria assumed a utilitarian view of society along with a social contract theory of the state. He argued that the role of the state was to maximize the greatest possible utility to the maximum number of people and to minimize those actions that harm the society. He argued that deviants commit deviant acts (which are harmful to the society) because of the utility it gives to the private individual. If the state were to match the pain of punishments with the utility of various deviant behaviors, the deviant would no longer have any incentive to commit deviant acts. (Note that Beccaria argued for just punishment; as raising the severity of punishments without regard to logical measurement of utility would cause increasing degrees of social harm once it reached a certain point.) The criminal justice system There are three sections of the criminal justice system that function to enforce formal deviance: There are four jurisdictions for punishment (retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, societal protection), which fall under one of two forms of justice that an offender will face: See also References Further reading External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/גרפיקת_תלת-ממד] | [TOKENS: 7182] |
תוכן עניינים גרפיקת תלת-ממד גרפיקת תלת־ממד הוא תחום של גרפיקה ממוחשבת, שבו משתמשים במחשבים ותוכנות מיוחדות כדי ליצור תמונות ואנימציה ממוחשבת בעלות פרספקטיבה המחקה מראה תלת־ממדי. במונח משתמשים גם לתיאור התהליך שבעזרתו יוצרים תמונות כאלה וגם לתחום שבו מפתחים כלי תוכנה וחומרה המיועדים לכך. גרפיקה תלת־ממדית משמשת בין היתר לעיצוב משחקי מחשב וסרטי קולנוע ולהדמיה ממוחשבת כגון הדמיה רפואית, הדמיה הנדסית ועוד. תהליך יצירת תמונה עבודה בגרפיקה תלת־ממדית היא תהליך ארוך הדורש מספר תהליכי עבודה הדרגתיים טרם מגיעים לתוצאה סופית. עבודה תלת־ממדית יכולה לכלול סביבות, דמויות, חפצים, הדמיות ועוד. תהליך העבודה תלוי בסוג העבודה והמטרה לשמה נעשה. תמונה בגרפיקת תלת־ממד נוצרת בתהליך ארוך ומורכב שעשוי לדרוש זמן רב הן מהאמן והן זמן מחשב: ראשית, על האומן להגדיר אובייקטים תלת־ממדים ולמקם אותם במערכת צירים; שנית, יש להגדיר את החומרים מהם עשויים האובייקטים; שלישית, יש להגדיר את מקורות האור; לסיום, יש להגדיר את מקום המצלמה. באופן אופקי ניתן להגיד שתהליך העבודה מתחיל מעבודת קונספט בו מעוצבת הסצנה בדו־ממד (בציור רגיל או ציור דיגיטלי בפוטושופ יחד עם תוכנות דו־ממד נוספות). מעצבי קונספט אינם עוסקים באומנות תלת־ממד בהכרח, אבל תפקידם בין השאר הוא עיצוב סצנות אותם יעצבו אומני התלת־ממד (למשל לסרט אנימציה, משחק מחשב, אובייקט תלת־ממדי). עבודת הקונספט משמשת כרפרנס, ואומן התלת "מעתיק" את עבודת הקונספט תוך התחשבות בהיגיון הפנימי של האובייקט – התחשבות באנטומיה במקרה של גוף חי או בתהליך ההרכבה של החפץ כדי ליצור אובייקט משכנע כמה שיותר. תהליך בניית המודל בתלת־ממד נקראת מידול. המידול משתמש בצורות ראשוניות פשוטות שאלה מעוצבת לצורה הכללית והבסיסית של האובייקט. המידול הראשוני נקרא פרוקסי. האובייקט מעוצב במלאו ולא חלק ממנו אבל רק באופן כללי בלי פירוט, אחרי שתהליך הפרוקסי מסתיים יש למקבלי ההחלטות יכולת להעריך כיצד הדברים נראים, והם ויכולים להעיר הערות לשיפור המודל, שבשל רמת הפירוט הנמוכה קל מאוד לשנותה. בשלבים מאוחרים יתר תהליך שנוי כזה מסובך בהרבה ופוגע בנראות האובייקט. לאחר סיום הפרוקסי נעשה תהליך שבו נעשה מידול מדוקדק יותר של ירדה לפרטים ובנראות של כל אחד ואחד מהפרטים שמרכבים אותו, כשהמידול מסתיים האובייקט עובר תהליך של פרישת UV, תהליך שבו האובייקט נחתך ונפרש לתמונה דו־ממדית כדי להלביש עליו מרקמים. להדמיות, ובעיצוב סביבה במיוחד, יש חשיבות רבה מאוד לתאורה ולקומפוזיציית הצילום של הסצנה. אחרי עיצוב הסביבה ברמת התאורה והצילום ופרישת UV מתחיל תהליך החומרים. בתוכנות התלת־ממד השונות יש מערכת של בחירות והגדרות בהם נעשים חישובים פיזיקליים שונים של צפיפות, החזר אור ועוד, שנותן מרקמים ומראה לחומרים שונים כמו פלסטיק, ברזל, מתכת, זכוכית. בעיצוב הסביבות או חפצים כמו עיצוב חדר או הדמיה אדריכלית נעשית עבודה של הגדרת חומרים בסביבה בהתאם לחזון העיצובי. הגדרות החומרים משתנים בהתאם לתכונות של הסביבה. בעיצוב דמות התהליך מעט שונה, התאורה והחומרים משתנים בהתאם לרמת הפירוט או הריאליזם של הדמות, לאחר השלמת מידול הדמות היא לרוב מועברת לתהליך הנפשה. כדי להניע את הדמות באופן אמין מבוצע תהליך של החדרת עצמות לדמות שנקרא ריגינג. הריגר מלביש ומחבר בתוך הדמות עצמות אותם האנימטור יניע בתהליך ההנפשה ככל שהפרויקט מושקע ומופרט יותר ככה תהליך הריג יהיה מפורט ואיכותי יותר וניתן יהיה להניע כמה שיותר חלקים מגופה של הדמות. המידול מתחיל בצורה פשוטה כמו צלינדר, ספרה או קופסה, הצורה הפשוטה מחלוקת לאג'ים, קווים החוצים באופן אופקי ורוחבי את האובייקט, האג'ים פרושים כשתי וערב ויוצרים ריבועים, בכל פינה של מפגש הקווים יש קודקוד. האובייקט מחלוק לריבועים כשכל ריבוע נקרא פוליגון. בתוכנת תלת־ממד האובייקט נמצא על מערכת צירים (העולם) וניתן להזיז כל קודקוד, ישר או מצולע וכך לעצב את האובייקט לפי הצורה המתבקשת. ניתן להזיז להרחיב ולכווץ או לסובב לפי הצורך. לכל תוכנה יש מבחר של כלי מידול שונים. אחרי עיצוב הנפחים הראשוניים נעשה תהליך שנקרא טופולוגיה. טופולוגיה הוא הדרך שבה הפוליגונים נפרשים על גבי המודל. הטופולוגיה חיונית לעיצוב הצורה של האובייקט וחיונית לתהליך הריג וההנפשה. תהליך הגדרת האובייקטים מכונה מידול. האובייקטים מוגדרים במערכת צירים קרטזית תלת־ממדית. נקודה בודדה מוגדרת על ידי וקטור בן שלושה מספרים המציין את מיקום הנקודה יחסית לשלושת הצירים. פאון (כגון קובייה או פירמידה) מיוצג על ידי רשימת הקודקודים שלו כנקודות במרחב, ולכל פאה שלו רשימת הקודקודים שמשתתפים בפאה. גופים חלקים כגון כדור או פנים של אדם אפשר לייצג בצורה מקורבת על ידי פאון עם אלפי פאות. קיימות גם שיטות מתקדמות יותר. פאה היא למעשה חלק ממישור שאותו מייצגים בגאומטריה אנליטית בעזרת משוואות ממעלה ראשונה. אפשר לייצג משטחים עקומים על ידי משוואות ממעלה גבוהה יותר וקיימות טכניקות מידול המתבססות על כך. בגרפיקת תלת־ממד "חומר" הוא מונח המתאר אוסף גדול של הגדרות הקובעות כיצד אובייקט מגיב לאור. הגדרות אלה קובעות מהו צבע האובייקט, האם החומר מבריק, האם משתקפות בו בבואות של האובייקטים מסביבו, האם הוא שקוף, האם האור שעובר בו נשבר ועוד. גם עין אנושית וגם מצלמה קולטות קרני אור. קרני האור הללו חייבות להגיע ממקור כלשהו. בהיעדר מקור אור מתקבלת תמונה שחורה לחלוטין. בגרפיקת תלת־ממד האומן יכול להגדיר מקורות אור ממספר סוגים ולמקם אותם במרחב. מקור אור נקודתי הוא נקודה במרחב ממנה יוצאות קרני אור לכל הכיוונים או לכיוונים מוגדרים. מקור אור כזה מחקה בקירוב נורות קטנות. סוג אחר הוא מקור אור מקבילי, המדמה את אור השמש. במקור אור זה המרחב כולו מכוסה בקרני אור מקבילות המגיעות ממרחק אינסופי. בנוסף לקביעת מיקום מקור האור והסוג שלו אפשר לקבוע כמובן את עוצמתו ואת צבעו. מקור אור לבן יוצר מראה רגיל, מכיוון שהצבע הלבן מכיל בתוכו את כל שאר הצבעים. כל צבע אור אחר יגרום להטיית צבעי האובייקטים המוצגים בתמונה. המונח מצלמה בגרפיקת תלת־ממד מציין עבור המחשב את הנקודה במרחב ממנה אנו רוצים לצפות בסצנה. בנוסף למיקום יש להגדיר גם את כיוון ההסתכלות ותכונות נוספות המחקות מצלמה אמיתית: אורך מוקד העדשה, עומק השדה, מפתח העדשה ועוד. לאחר שכל ההגדרות נקבעו המחשב מבצע "רינדור" – חישוב התמונה, הדמות או הסצנה כולה, על סמך ההגדרות. הרינדור אורך בין שבריר שנייה לשעות רבות, כתלות במורכבות ההגדרות, בשיטת הרינדור שנבחרה וביכולות המחשב. בקולנוע ובטלוויזיה שימוש בגרפיקה תלת-ממדית באנימציה מכונה אנימציה ממוחשבת. החל משנות התשעים של המאה ה-20, האנימציה הממוחשבת הפכה לנפוצה ביותר בתעשיית הקולנוע והטלוויזיה. עד אז, בסרטי פנטזיה ומדע בדיוני מצולמים היה נהוג להשתמש בבובות כדי להציג דמויות או מבנים דמיוניים. כך למשל בטרילוגיית סרטי מלחמת הכוכבים שסרטה הראשון יצא בשנת 1977, אחת מדמויות המשנה היא יודה שהוצגה על ידי בובה ולכן בכל הסצנות היא מקובעת למשטח מאחוריו הסתתר המפעיל. בטרילוגיית ההמשך שהחלה בשנת 1999 אותה דמות נעשתה כולה באנימציה ממוחשבת, שאפשרה להציג אותה בצורה חיה וחופשית יותר. סרט האנימציה הממוחשבת המלא הראשון היה צעצוע של סיפור שיצא בשנת 1995. במשחקי מחשב הגרפיקה התלת-ממדית הייתה אחת ההתפתחויות החשובות ביותר בתעשיית משחקי המחשב ומשחקי הקונסולה. במשחקים הדו-ממדיים יכולת השחקן הייתה מוגבלת ולכן התנועה במשחק התאפשרה בשמונה כיוונים עיקריים: למעלה, למטה, ימינה, שמאלה והאלכסונים שביניהם. מאחר שהתנועה הייתה במישור, קשה מאוד היה ליצור במשחק תחושה מציאותית של עומק. כאשר פותחו מנועי התלת-ממד הפכו המשחקים למציאותיים יותר ולכן התנועה הפכה אפשרית בכל 26 הכיוונים האפשריים (כגון משחק המחשב דיסנט). כדי להמחיש את גודל השינוי ניתן להשוות בין השינויים שחלו בכותרים של הסדרה Super Mario Bros בקונסולות השונות של Nintendo. ניתן להבחין בהבדלים גרפיים ומשחקיים מינוריים בלבד בין Super Mario Bros. 3 של הקונסולה Nintendo Entertainment System, לבין Super Mario World מהקונסולה של הדור שבא אחריו, Super Nintendo Entertainment System. לעומת זאת, בין Super Mario World לבין הכותר Mario 64 שיצא עבור הקונסולה Nintendo 64 (של הדור הבא), ניכרים הבדלים מהותיים. גרפיקה תלת-ממדית דורשת משאבי מעבד וזיכרון רבים, ולכן משחקי התלת-ממד הראשונים היוו חיקוי של הסביבה התלת-ממדית. לדוגמה, משחק בו לשחקן הייתה יכולת תנועה מישורית בחיקוי של סביבה תלת-ממדית, ואת היכולת לעלות למישורים גבוהים או נמוכים יותר באמצעות מעליות או מדרגות. באמצע שנות ה-90 הפכו יישומי התלת-ממד לנפוצים ותובעניים יותר ככל שסימולציית המציאות שלהם השתפרה, דבר שהביא חברות חומרה (כגון nVidia) לפתח כרטיסי מסך למחשבים ביתיים במטרה להוריד את עומס החישוב והזיכרון מהמעבד הראשי אל כרטיס המסך. ראו גם קישורים חיצוניים |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepfake] | [TOKENS: 10455] |
Contents Deepfake Deepfakes (a portmanteau of 'deep learning' and 'fake') are images, videos, or audio that have been edited or generated using artificial intelligence, AI-based tools or audio-video editing software. They may depict real or fictional people and are considered a form of synthetic media, that is media that is usually created by artificial intelligence systems by combining various media elements into a new media artifact. While the act of creating fake content is not new, deepfakes uniquely leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques, including facial recognition algorithms and artificial neural networks such as variational autoencoders and generative adversarial networks (GANs). In turn, the field of image forensics has worked to develop techniques to detect manipulated images. Deepfakes have garnered widespread attention for their potential use in creating child sexual abuse material, celebrity pornographic videos, revenge porn, fake news, hoaxes, bullying, and financial fraud. Academics have raised concerns about the potential for deepfakes to promote disinformation and hate speech, as well as interfere with elections. In response, the information technology industry and governments have proposed recommendations and methods to detect and mitigate their use. Academic research has also delved deeper into the factors driving deepfake engagement online as well as potential countermeasures to malicious application of deepfakes. From traditional entertainment to gaming, deepfake technology has evolved to be increasingly convincing and available to the public, allowing for the disruption of the entertainment and media industries. History Photo manipulation was developed in the 19th century and soon applied to motion pictures. Technology steadily improved during the 20th century, and more quickly with the advent of digital video. Deepfake technology has been developed by researchers at academic institutions beginning in the 1990s, and later by amateurs in online communities. More recently, the methods have been adopted by industry. The development of generative adversarial networks (GANs) in the mid-2010s represented a key technical turning point in the evolution of deepfakes. GANs allowed for the creation of highly realistic fake images and videos by training competing neural networks, achieving a much improved visual fidelity over previous methods of creating the content using rules or by using autoencoders, and formed the basis for modern deepfake methods. Academic research related to deepfakes is split between the field of computer vision, a sub-field of computer science, which develops techniques for creating and identifying deepfakes, and humanities and social science approaches that study the social, ethical, aesthetic implications as well as journalistic and informational implications of deepfakes. As deepfakes have risen in prominence in popularity with innovations provided by AI tools, significant research has gone into detection methods and defining the factors driving engagement with deepfakes on the internet. Deepfakes have been shown to appear on social media platforms and other parts of the internet for purposes ranging from entertainment and education related to deepfakes to misinformation to elicit strong reactions. There are gaps in research related to the propagation of deepfakes on social media. Negativity and emotional response are the primary driving factors for users sharing deepfakes. Age and lack of literacy related to deepfakes are another factor that drives engagement. Older users who may be technologically-illiterate might not recognize deepfakes as falsified content and share this content because they believe it to be true. Alternatively, younger users accustomed to the entertainment value of deepfakes are more likely to share them with an awareness of their falsified content. Despite cognitive ability being a factor in successfully detecting deepfakes, individuals who are aware of a deepfake may be just as likely to share it on social media as one who does not know it is a deepfake. Within scholarship focused on detecting deepfakes, deep-learning methods using techniques to identify software-induced artifacts have been found to be the most effective in separating a deepfake from an authentic product. Due to the capabilities of deepfakes, concerns have developed related to regulations and literacy toward the technology. The potential malicious applications of deepfakes and their capability to impact public figures, reputations, or promote misleading narratives are the primary drivers of these concerns. Amongst some experts, potential malicious applications of deepfakes have encouraged them into labeling deepfakes as a potential danger to democratic societies that would benefit from a regulatory framework to mitigate potential risks. In cinema studies, deepfakes illustrate how how "the human face is emerging as a central object of ambivalence in the digital age". Video artists have used deepfakes to "playfully rewrite film history by retrofitting canonical cinema with new star performers". Film scholar Christopher Holliday analyses how altering the gender and race of performers in familiar movie scenes destabilizes gender classifications and categories. The concept of "queering" deepfakes is also discussed in Oliver M. Gingrich's discussion of media artworks that use deepfakes to reframe gender, including British artist Jake Elwes' Zizi: Queering the Dataset, an artwork that uses deepfakes of drag queens to intentionally play with gender. The aesthetic potentials of deepfakes are also beginning to be explored. Theatre historian John Fletcher notes that early demonstrations of deepfakes are presented as performances, and situates these in the context of theater, discussing "some of the more troubling paradigm shifts" that deepfakes represent as a performance genre. Philosophers and media scholars have discussed the ethical implications of deepfakes in the dissemination of disinformation. Amina Vatreš from the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Sarajevo identifies three factors contributing to the widespread acceptance of deepfakes, and where its greatest danger lies: 1) convincing visualization and auditory support, 2) widespread accessibility, and 3) the inability to draw a clear line between truth and falsehood. Another area of discussion on deepfakes is in relation to pornography made with deepfakes. Beyond pornography, deepfakes have been framed by philosophers as an "epistemic threat" to knowledge and thus to society. There are several other suggestions for how to deal with the risks deepfakes give rise beyond pornography, but also to corporations, politicians and others, of "exploitation, intimidation, and personal sabotage", and there are several scholarly discussions of potential legal and regulatory responses both in legal studies and media studies. In addition, foresight researchers have explored the future of deepfake technology using Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) to examine its myths, metaphors, and societal implications for digital trust, governance, and ethical foresight. In psychology and media studies, scholars discuss the effects of disinformation that uses deepfakes, and the social impact of deepfakes. While most English-language academic studies of deepfakes focus on the Western anxieties about disinformation and pornography, digital anthropologist Gabriele de Seta has analyzed the Chinese reception of deepfakes, which are known as huanlian, which translates to "changing faces". The Chinese term does not contain the "fake" of the English deepfake, and de Seta argues that this cultural context may explain why the Chinese response has centered on practical regulatory measures to "fraud risks, image rights, economic profit, and ethical imbalances". A landmark early project was the "Video Rewrite" program, published in 1997. The program modified existing video footage of a person speaking to depict that person mouthing the words from a different audio track. It was the first system to fully automate this kind of facial reanimation, and it did so using machine learning techniques to make connections between the sounds produced by a video's subject and the shape of the subject's face. Contemporary academic projects have focused on creating more realistic videos and improving deepfake techniques. The "Synthesizing Obama" program, published in 2017, modifies video footage of former president Barack Obama to depict him mouthing the words contained in a separate audio track. The project lists as a main research contribution to its photorealistic technique for synthesizing mouth shapes from audio. The "Face2Face" program, published in 2016, modifies video footage of a person's face to depict them mimicking another person's facial expressions. The project highlights its primary research contribution as the development of the first method for re-enacting facial expressions in real time using a camera that does not capture depth, enabling the technique to work with common consumer cameras. In August 2018, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley published a paper introducing a deepfake dancing app that can create the impression of masterful dancing ability using AI. This project expands the application of deepfakes to the entire body; previous works focused on the head or parts of the face. Researchers have also shown that deepfakes are expanding into other domains such as medical imagery. In this work, it was shown how an attacker can automatically inject or remove lung cancer in a patient's 3D CT scan. The result was so convincing that it fooled three radiologists and a state-of-the-art lung cancer detection AI. To demonstrate the threat, the authors successfully performed the attack on a hospital in a White hat penetration test. A survey of deepfakes, published in May 2020, provides a timeline of how the creation and detection of deepfakes have advanced over the last few years. The survey identifies that researchers have been focusing on resolving the following challenges of deepfake creation: Overall, deepfakes are expected to have several implications in media and society, media production, media representations, media audiences, gender, law, and regulation, and politics. The term deepfake originated in late 2017 from a Reddit user named "deepfakes". He, along with other members of Reddit's "r/deepfakes", shared deepfakes they created; many videos involved celebrities' faces swapped onto the bodies of actors in pornographic videos, while non-pornographic content included many videos with actor Nicolas Cage's face swapped into various movies. After this first introduction, amateur development grew at a quick rate because of the presence of open-source software and tutorials on the Internet. The freely available tools like FakeApp, FaceSwap, and DeepFaceLab allowed users who did not have any formal education in computer science to assemble deepfake videos with consumer hardware. Online forums such as Reddit, GitHub and YouTube were important to the distribution of software, instructions, and sample content, and helped to spread and perfect amateur creation of deepfakes quicker. Other online communities continue to share pornography on platforms that have not banned deepfake pornography. In January 2018, a proprietary desktop application called "FakeApp" was launched. This app allows users to easily create and share videos with their faces swapped with each other. As of 2019, "FakeApp" had been largely replaced by open-source alternatives such as "Faceswap", command line-based "DeepFaceLab", and web-based apps such as DeepfakesWeb. Larger companies started to use deepfakes. Corporate training videos can be created using deepfaked avatars and their voices, for example Synthesia, which uses deepfake technology with avatars to create personalized videos. The mobile app Momo created the application Zao which allows users to superimpose their face on television and movie clips with a single picture. As of 2019 the Japanese AI company DataGrid made a full body deepfake that could create a person from scratch. As of 2020 audio deepfakes, and AI software capable of detecting deepfakes and cloning human voices after 5 seconds of listening time also exist.[excessive citations] A mobile deepfake app, Impressions, was launched in March 2020. It was the first app for the creation of celebrity deepfake videos from mobile phones. Deepfake technology's ability to fabricate messages and actions of others can extend to the deceased, such as in grief therapy that allows seeming communication with a deceased loved one. In October 2020, Kim Kardashian posted a video featuring a hologram of her late father, Robert Kardashian, created by the company Kaleida, which used a combination of performance, motion tracking, SFX, VFX and DeepFake technologies to create the illusion. In 2020, a deepfake video of Joaquin Oliver, a victim of the Parkland shooting, was created as part of a gun safety campaign. Oliver's parents partnered with nonprofit Change the Ref and McCann Health to produce a video in which Oliver to encourage people to support gun safety legislation and politicians who back do so as well. In 2022, a deepfake video of Elvis Presley was used on the program America's Got Talent 17. Techniques Deepfakes rely on a type of neural network called an autoencoder. These consist of an encoder, which reduces an image to a lower dimensional latent space, and a decoder, which reconstructs the image from the latent representation. Deepfakes utilize this architecture by having a universal encoder which encodes a person in to the latent space.[citation needed] The latent representation contains key features about their facial features and body posture. This can then be decoded with a model trained specifically for the target. This means the target's detailed information will be superimposed on the underlying facial and body features of the original video, represented in the latent space.[citation needed] A popular upgrade to this architecture attaches a generative adversarial network to the decoder. A GAN trains a generator, in this case the decoder, and a discriminator in an adversarial relationship. The first network, known as the generator, attempts to craft fabricated images, while the second network, the discriminator, distinguishes between real and fake images using a legitimate data set to guide its judgment. This causes the generator to create images that mimic reality extremely well as any defects would be caught by the discriminator. Both algorithms improve constantly in a zero sum game. This makes deepfakes difficult to combat as they are constantly evolving; any time a defect is determined, it can be corrected. Applications Digital clones of professional actors have appeared in films before, and progress in deepfake technology is expected to further the accessibility and effectiveness of such clones. The use of AI technology was a major issue in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, as new techniques enabled the capability of generating and storing a digital likeness to use in place of actors. Disney has improved their visual effects using high-resolution deepfake face swapping technology. Disney improved their technology through progressive training programmed to identify facial expressions, implementing a face-swapping feature, and iterating in order to stabilize and refine the output. This high-resolution deepfake technology saves significant operational and production costs. Disney's deepfake generation model can produce AI-generated media at a 1024 x 1024 resolution, as opposed to common models that produce media at a 256 x 256 resolution. The technology allows Disney to de-age characters or revive deceased actors. Similar technology was initially used by fans to unofficially insert faces into existing media, such as overlaying Harrison Ford's young face onto Han Solo's face in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Disney used deepfakes for the characters of Princess Leia in Rogue One and Luke Skywalker in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. The 2020 documentary Welcome to Chechnya used deepfake technology to obscure the identity of the people interviewed, so as to protect them from retaliation. Creative Artists Agency has developed a facility to capture the likeness of an actor "in a single day", to develop a digital clone of the actor, which would be controlled by the actor or their estate alongside other personality rights. Companies which have used digital clones of professional actors in advertisements include Puma, Nike and Procter & Gamble. Deepfakes allowed for the use of David Beckham in a campaign using nearly nine languages to raise awareness the fight against Malaria. In the 2024 Indian Tamil science fiction action thriller The Greatest of All Time, the teenage version of Vijay's character Jeevan is portrayed by Ayaz Khan. Vijay's teenage face was then attained by AI deepfake. In May 2025, an AI-generated actress called Tilly Norwood was developed by the Dutch company Xicoia, a division of the existing production company Particle6 that was founded by actor and comedian Eline Van der Velden. Deepfakes are also being used in education and media to create realistic videos and interactive content, which offer new ways to engage audiences. In March 2018 the multidisciplinary artist Joseph Ayerle published the video artwork Un'emozione per sempre 2.0 (English title: The Italian Game). The artist worked with Deepfake technology to create an AI actor, a synthetic version of 80s movie star Ornella Muti, traveling in time from 1978 to 2018. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology referred this artwork in the study "Collective Wisdom". The artist used Ornella Muti's time travel to explore generational reflections, while also investigating questions about the role of provocation in the world of art. For the technical realization Ayerle used scenes of photo model Kendall Jenner. The program replaced Jenner's face by an AI calculated face of Ornella Muti. As a result, the AI actor has the face of the Italian actor Ornella Muti and the body of Kendall Jenner. Deepfakes have been widely used in satire or to parody celebrities and politicians. The 2020 webseries Sassy Justice, created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, heavily features the use of deepfaked public figures to satirize current events and raise awareness of deepfake technology. Deepfakes can be used to generate blackmail materials that falsely incriminate a victim. A report by the American Congressional Research Service warned that deepfakes could be used to blackmail elected officials or those with access to classified information for espionage or influence purposes. When or if fakes cannot reliably be distinguished from genuine evidence, victims who are blackmailed over digital evidence might claim that true artifacts are fakes, thereby seeking plausible deniability by relying on an argument of indistinguishability between fake and genuine evidence. The hoped-for effect is to void credibility of certain existing blackmail materials, which, if they were the sole evidence retained by a blackmailer and could not be distinguished by a jury from fake evidence under this argument, could in theory erode loyalty to blackmailers and limit their control over the blackmailed. This phenomenon has been termed "blackmail inflation", since in theory it "devalues" authentic blackmail material. It is possible to utilize commodity GPU hardware with a small software program to generate fake content intended to blackmail anyone for whom an adversary has ample training data. However, even carefully manipulated fakes may still be detected. The inflation argument could only work in theory if blackmailers have no other incriminating evidence that is not easily faked, and if the jury were persuaded that the evidences of guilt were not sufficient to convict beyond reasonable doubt. In reality this theory risks double hazards, namely, that those who are guilty might deploy arguments of plausible deniability, arguing that the footage has been faked, possibly resulting in acquittal of a guilty person on the basis of such doubt, and second, that fake evidence might be used to prosecute those who are not aware of the deepfake argument, to secure a conviction in cases where a jury is not adequately aware of the risk of false positives due to fake evidence, or to extort a plea deal where the prosecution claims to have damning evidence. The effect of this double hazard will depend on the level of discernment of the parties in the criminal justice system and their empowerment to act on that discernment. The inflation argument could be abused in either direction as illustrated, and the notion that blackmailers would not retain further evidence or leverage is unlikely and undependable, limiting the effectiveness of the theory. The existence of efficient techniques for fabricating false evidence certainly suggests that any combination of video, audio, photographic or other generable evidence alone as the basis for conviction of a crime is by now a perilous and tenuous standard owing to the possibility of maliciously fabricated evidence, raising the importance of multiple firsthand witnesses to a crime, especially for more serious allegations. On 8 June 2022, Daniel Emmet, a former AGT contestant, teamed up with the AI startup Metaphysic AI, to create a hyperrealistic deepfake to make it appear as Simon Cowell. Cowell, notoriously known for severely critiquing contestants, was on stage interpreting "You're The Inspiration" by Chicago. Emmet sang on stage as an image of Simon Cowell emerged on the screen behind him in flawless synchronicity. On 30 August 2022, Metaphysic AI had 'deep-fake' Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel and Terry Crews singing opera on stage. On 13 September 2022, Metaphysic AI performed with a synthetic version of Elvis Presley for the finals of America's Got Talent. The MIT artificial intelligence project 15.ai has been used for content creation for multiple Internet fandoms, particularly on social media. In 2023 the bands ABBA and Kiss partnered with Industrial Light & Magic and Pophouse Entertainment to develop deepfake avatars capable of performing virtual concerts. Fraudsters and scammers make use of deepfakes to trick people into fake investment schemes, financial fraud, cryptocurrencies, sending money, and following endorsements. The likenesses of celebrities and politicians have been used for large-scale scams, as well as those of private individuals, which are used in spearphishing attacks. According to the Better Business Bureau, deepfake scams are becoming more prevalent. These scams are responsible for an estimated $12 billion in fraud losses globally. According to a recent report these numbers are expected to reach $40 Billion over the next three years. Fake endorsements have misused the identities of celebrities like Taylor Swift, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey, and Elon Musk; news anchors like Gayle King and Sally Bundock; and politicians like Lee Hsien Loong and Jim Chalmers. Videos of them have appeared in online advertisements on YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok, who have policies against synthetic and manipulated media. Ads running these videos are seen by millions of people. A single Medicare fraud campaign had been viewed more than 195 million times across thousands of videos. Deepfakes have been used for: a fake giveaway of Le Creuset cookware for a "shipping fee" without receiving the products, except for hidden monthly charges; weight-loss gummies that charge significantly more than what was said; a fake iPhone giveaway; and fraudulent get-rich-quick, investment, and cryptocurrency schemes. Many ads pair AI voice cloning with "decontextualized video of the celebrity" to mimic authenticity. Others use a whole clip from a celebrity before moving to a different actor or voice. Some scams may involve real-time deepfakes. Celebrities have been warning people of these fake endorsements, and to be more vigilant against them. Celebrities are unlikely to file lawsuits against every person operating deepfake scams, as "finding and suing anonymous social media users is resource intensive," though cease and desist letters to social media companies work in getting videos and ads taken down. Audio deepfakes have been used as part of social engineering scams, fooling people into thinking they are receiving instructions from a trusted individual. In 2019, a U.K.-based energy firm's CEO was scammed over the phone when he was ordered to transfer €220,000 into a Hungarian bank account by an individual who reportedly used audio deepfake technology to impersonate the voice of the firm's parent company's chief executive. As of 2023, the combination advances in deepfake technology, which could clone an individual's voice from a recording of a few seconds to a minute, and new text generation tools, enabled automated impersonation scams, targeting victims using a convincing digital clone of a friend or relative. Audio deepfakes can be used to mask a user's real identity. In online gaming, for example, a player may want to choose a voice that sounds like their in-game character when speaking to other players. Those who are subject to harassment, such as women, children, and transgender people, can use these "voice skins" to hide their gender or age. In 2020, an internet meme emerged utilizing deepfakes to generate videos of people singing the chorus of "Baka Mitai" (ばかみたい), a song from the game Yakuza 0 in the video game series Like a Dragon. In the series, the melancholic song is sung by the player in a karaoke minigame. Most iterations of this meme use a 2017 video uploaded by user Dobbsyrules, who lip syncs the song, as a template. Deepfakes have been used to misrepresent well-known politicians in videos. In 2017, Deepfake pornography prominently surfaced on the Internet, particularly on Reddit. As of 2019, many deepfakes on the internet feature pornography of female celebrities whose likeness is typically used without their consent. A report published in October 2019 by Dutch cybersecurity startup Deeptrace estimated that 96% of all deepfakes online were pornographic. As of 2018, a Daisy Ridley deepfake first captured attention, among others. As of October 2019, most of the deepfake subjects on the internet were British and American actors. However, around a quarter of the subjects are South Korean, the majority of which are K-pop stars. In June 2019, a downloadable Windows and Linux application called DeepNude was released that used neural networks, specifically generative adversarial networks, to remove clothing from images of women. The app had both a paid and unpaid version, the paid version costing $50. On 27 June the creators removed the application and refunded consumers. Female celebrities are often a main target when it comes to deepfake pornography. In 2023, deepfake porn videos appeared online of Emma Watson and Scarlett Johansson in a face swapping app. In 2024, deepfake porn images circulated online of Taylor Swift. Academic studies have reported that women, LGBT people and people of color (particularly activists, politicians and those questioning power) are at higher risk of being targets of promulgation of deepfake pornography. Deepfakes have begun to see use in popular social media platforms, notably through Zao, a Chinese deepfake app that allows users to substitute their own faces onto those of characters in scenes from films and television shows such as Romeo + Juliet and Game of Thrones. The app originally faced scrutiny over its invasive user data and privacy policy, after which the company put out a statement claiming it would revise the policy. In January 2020 Facebook announced that it was introducing new measures to counter this on its platforms. The Congressional Research Service cited unspecified evidence as showing that foreign intelligence operatives used deepfakes to create social media accounts with the purposes of recruiting individuals with access to classified information. In 2021, realistic deepfake videos of actor Tom Cruise were released on TikTok, which went viral and garnered more than tens of millions of views. The deepfake videos featured an "artificial intelligence-generated doppelganger" of Cruise doing various activities such as teeing off at the golf course, showing off a coin trick, and biting into a lollipop. The creator of the clips, Belgian VFX Artist Chris Umé, said he first got interested in deepfakes in 2018 and saw the "creative potential" of them. Deepfake photographs can be used to create sockpuppets, non-existent people, who are active both online and in traditional media. A deepfake photograph appears to have been generated together with a legend for an apparently non-existent person named Oliver Taylor, whose identity was described as a university student in the United Kingdom. The Oliver Taylor persona submitted opinion pieces in several newspapers and was active in online media attacking a British legal academic and his wife, as "terrorist sympathizers." The academic had drawn international attention in 2018 when he commenced a lawsuit in Israel against NSO, a surveillance company, on behalf of people in Mexico who alleged they were victims of NSO's phone hacking technology. Reuters could find only scant records for Oliver Taylor and "his" university had no records for him. Many experts agreed that the profile photo is a deepfake. Several newspapers have not retracted articles attributed to him or removed them from their websites. It is feared that such techniques are a new battleground in disinformation. Collections of deepfake photographs of non-existent people on social networks have also been deployed as part of Israeli partisan propaganda. The Facebook page "Zionist Spring" featured photos of non-existent persons along with their "testimonies" purporting to explain why they have abandoned their left-leaning politics to embrace right-wing politics, and the page also contained large numbers of posts from Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and his son and from other Israeli right wing sources. The photographs appear to have been generated by "human image synthesis" technology, computer software that takes data from photos of real people to produce a realistic composite image of a non-existent person. In much of the "testimonies," the reason given for embracing the political right was the shock of learning of alleged incitement to violence against the prime minister. Right wing Israeli television broadcasters then broadcast the "testimonies" of these non-existent people based on the fact that they were being "shared" online. The broadcasters aired these "testimonies" despite being unable to find such people, explaining "Why does the origin matter?" Other Facebook profiles of fictitious individuals posted material that allegedly contained material critical of the prime minister which the prime minister claimed was a plot to murder him. Concerns and countermeasures Though fake photos have long been plentiful, faking motion pictures has been more difficult, and the presence of deepfakes increases the difficulty of classifying videos as genuine or not. AI researcher Alex Champandard has said people should know how fast things can be corrupted with deepfake technology, and that the problem is not a technical one, but rather one to be solved by trust in information and journalism. Computer science associate professor Hao Li of the University of Southern California states that deepfakes created for malicious use, such as fake news, will be even more harmful if nothing is done to spread awareness of deepfake technology. Li predicted that genuine videos and deepfakes would become indistinguishable in as soon as six months, as of October 2019, due to rapid advancement in artificial intelligence and computer graphics. Former Google fraud czar Shuman Ghosemajumder has called deepfakes an area of "societal concern" and said that they will inevitably evolve to a point at which they can be generated automatically, and an individual could use that technology to produce millions of deepfake videos. A primary pitfall is that humanity could fall into an age in which it can no longer be determined whether a medium's content corresponds to the truth. Deepfakes are one of a number of tools for disinformation attack, creating doubt, and undermining trust. They have a potential to interfere with democratic functions in societies, such as identifying collective agendas, debating issues, informing decisions, and solving problems through the exercise of political will. People may also start to dismiss real events as fake. Deepfakes possess the ability to damage individual entities tremendously. This is because deepfakes are often targeted at one individual, and/or their relations to others in hopes to create a narrative powerful enough to influence public opinion or beliefs. This can be done through deepfake voice phishing, which manipulates audio to create fake phone calls or conversations. Another method of deepfake use is fabricated private remarks, which manipulate media to convey individuals voicing damaging comments. The quality of a negative video or audio does not need to be that high. As long as someone's likeness and actions are recognizable, a deepfake can hurt their reputation. In September 2020, Microsoft made public that they were developing a Deepfake detection software tool. Detecting fake audio is a highly complex task that requires careful attention to the audio signal in order to achieve good performance. Using deep learning, preprocessing of feature design and masking augmentation have been proven effective in improving performance. Most of the academic research surrounding deepfakes focuses on the detection of deepfake videos. One approach to deepfake detection is to use algorithms to recognize patterns and pick up subtle inconsistencies that arise in deepfake videos. For example, researchers have developed automatic systems that examine videos for errors such as irregular blinking patterns of lighting. This approach has been criticized because deepfake detection is characterized by a "moving goal post" where the production of deepfakes continues to change and improve as algorithms to detect deepfakes improve. In order to assess the most effective algorithms for detecting deepfakes, a coalition of leading technology companies hosted the Deepfake Detection Challenge to accelerate the technology for identifying manipulated content. The winning model of the Deepfake Detection Challenge was 65% accurate on the holdout set of 4,000 videos. A team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a paper in December 2021 demonstrating that ordinary humans are 69–72% accurate at identifying a random sample of 50 of these videos. A team at the University of Buffalo published a paper in October 2020 outlining their technique of using reflections of light in the eyes of those depicted to spot deepfakes with a high rate of success, even without the use of an AI detection tool, at least for the time being. In the case of well-documented individuals such as political leaders, algorithms have been developed to distinguish identity-based features such as patterns of facial, gestural, and vocal mannerisms and detect deep-fake impersonators. Another team led by Wael AbdAlmageed with Visual Intelligence and Multimedia Analytics Laboratory (VIMAL) of the Information Sciences Institute at the University Of Southern California developed two generations of deepfake detectors based on convolutional neural networks. The first generation used recurrent neural networks to spot spatio-temporal inconsistencies to identify visual artifacts left by the deepfake generation process. The algorithm achieved 96% accuracy on FaceForensics++, the only large-scale deepfake benchmark available at that time. The second generation used end-to-end deep networks to differentiate between artifacts and high-level semantic facial information using two-branch networks. The first branch propagates color information while the other branch suppresses facial content and amplifies low-level frequencies using Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG). Further, they included a new loss function that learns a compact representation of bona fide faces, while dispersing the representations (i.e. features) of deepfakes. VIMAL's approach showed state-of-the-art performance on FaceForensics++ and Celeb-DF benchmarks, and on 16 March 2022 (the same day of the release), was used to identify the deepfake of Volodymyr Zelensky out-of-the-box without any retraining or knowledge of the algorithm with which the deepfake was created. [citation needed] Other techniques suggest that blockchain could be used to verify the source of the media. For instance, a video might have to be verified through the ledger before it is shown on social media platforms. With this technology, only videos from trusted sources would be approved, decreasing the spread of possibly harmful deepfake media. Digitally signing of all video and imagery by cameras and video cameras, including smartphone cameras, was suggested to fight deepfakes. That allows tracing every photograph or video back to its original owner that can be used to pursue dissidents. One easy way to uncover deepfake video calls consists in asking the caller to turn sideways. Legal experts are actively questioning whether current and emerging regulatory frameworks adequately balance the advancements in deepfake detection with the protection of individual rights. Relevant legislation being scrutinized includes the EU AI Act, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Services Act in the European Union, as well as the fragmented state and federal laws in the United States, the Online Safety Act 2023 in the United Kingdom, and China's Administrative Provisions on Deep Synthesis in Internet-Based Information Services (commonly known as the Deep Synthesis Provisions). Scholars are evaluating if these frameworks effectively address the complex interplay between technology, rights, and responsibilities in the context of deepfakes. Henry Ajder who works for Deeptrace, a company that detects deepfakes, says there are several ways to protect against deepfakes in the workplace. Semantic passwords or secret questions can be used when holding important conversations. Voice authentication and other biometric security features should be up to date. Educate employees about deepfakes. Due to the capability of deepfakes to fool viewers and believably mimic a person, research has indicated that the concept of truth through observation cannot be fully relied on. Additionally, literacy of the technology among populations could be called into question due to the relatively new success of convincing deepfakes. When combined with increasing ease of access to the technology, this has led to the concern amongst some experts that some societies are not prepared to interact with deepfakes organically without potential consequences from sharing misinformation and disinformation. Media literacy has been considered as a potential counter to "prime" a viewer to identify a deepfake when they encounter one organically by engendering critical thinking. While media literacy education can have conflicting results in the overall success in detecting deepfakes, research has indicated that critical thinking and a skeptical outlook toward a presented piece of media are effective at assisting an individual in determining a deepfake. Media literacy frameworks promote critical analysis of media and the motivations behind the presentation of the associated content. Media literacy shows promise as a potential cognitive countermeasure when interacting with malicious deepfakes. In March 2024, a video clip was released by Buckingham Palace announcing that Kate Middleton had cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. The appearance of a ring worn by Middleton in the clip fueled rumors that the clip was a deepfake. Johnathan Perkins, UCLA's Director of Race and Equity, doubted Middleton had cancer, and further speculated that she could be in critical condition or dead. Recently, the use of deepfakes has inspired research on deepfake's capability and effects when used in disinformation campaigns. This capability has raised concerns, partly due to the potential of deepfakes to circumvent a person's skepticism and influence their views on an issue. Unlike crude misinformation, political propaganda via generative AI often co-opts cultural tropes, visual media, and satire to craft emotionally resonant messages that are difficult to fact-check without losing nuance. Due to the continued advancement in technology that improves deceptive capabilities of deepfakes, some scholars believe that deepfakes could pose a significant threat to democratic societies. Studies have investigated the effects of political deepfakes. In two separate studies focusing on Dutch participants, it was found that deepfakes have varying effects on an audience. As a tool of disinformation, deepfakes did not necessarily produce stronger reactions or shifts in viewpoints than traditional textual disinformation. However, deepfakes did produce a reassuring effect on individuals who held preconceived notions that aligned with the viewpoint promoted by the deepfake disinformation in the study. Additionally, deepfakes are effective when designed to target a specific demographic segment related to a particular issue. "Microtargeting" involves understanding nuanced political issues of a specific demographic to create a targeted deepfake. The targeted deepfake is then used to connect with and influence the viewpoint of that demographic. Targeted deepfakes were found to be notably effective by the researchers. Research has also found that the political effects of deepfakes are not necessarily as straightforward or assured. Researchers in the United Kingdom uncovered that deepfake political disinformation does not have a guaranteed effect on populations beyond indications that it may sow distrust or uncertainty in a source that provides the deepfake. The implications of distrust in sources led researchers to conclude that deepfakes may have outsized effect in a "low-trust" information environment where public institutions are not trusted by the public. Across the world, there are key instances where deepfakes have been used to misrepresent well-known politicians and other public figures. The liar's dividend is a political and social phenomenon in which, when faced with incriminating or embarrassing authentic video or audio recordings of themselves, individuals will claim that the recordings are AI in order to dismiss the claims and gain sympathy. Example events Responses Chat site Discord has taken action against deepfakes in the past, and has taken a general stance against deepfakes. Gfycat began removing all deepfakes from its site on 31 January 2018. Reddit banned the r/deepfakes subreddit on 7 February 2018, due to the policy violation of "involuntary pornography".[excessive citations] That same month, representatives from Twitter stated that they would suspend accounts suspected of posting non-consensual deepfake content. In February 2018, Pornhub said that it would ban deepfake videos on its website because it is considered "non consensual content" which violates their terms of service. They also stated previously to Mashable that they will take down content flagged as deepfakes. Writers from Motherboard reported that searching "deepfakes" on Pornhub still returned multiple recent deepfake videos. Google added "involuntary synthetic pornographic imagery" to its ban list in September 2018, allowing anyone to request the block of results showing their fake nudes.[check quotation syntax] In May 2022, Google officially changed the terms of service for their Jupyter Notebook colabs, banning the use of their colab service for the purpose of creating deepfakes. This came a few days after the publication of a VICE article in which its author, Emanuel Maiberg, reported "Most deepfakes are non-consensual porn", and that the main use of popular deepfake software DeepFaceLab (DFL), "the most important technology powering the vast majority of this generation of deepfakes", which often was used in combination with Google colabs, was to create non-consensual pornography. Maiberg pointed to the fact that among many other well-known examples of third-party DFL implementations, such as deepfakes commissioned by The Walt Disney Company, official music videos, and web series Sassy Justice by the creators of South Park, DFL's GitHub page, also linked to deepfake porn website Mr.Deepfakes and participants of the DFL Discord server also participate on Mr.Deepfakes. Facebook has previously stated that they would not remove deepfakes from their platforms. The videos will instead be flagged as fake by third-parties and then have a lessened priority in user's feeds. This response was prompted in June 2019 after a deepfake featuring a 2016 video of Mark Zuckerberg circulated on Facebook and Instagram. Subsequently, Facebook has taken efforts towards encouraging the creation of deepfakes in order to develop state of the art deepfake detection software. Facebook was the prominent partner in hosting the Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC), held December 2019, to 2114 participants who generated more than 35,000 models. The top performing models with the highest detection accuracy were analyzed for similarities and differences; these findings are areas of interest in further research to improve and refine deepfake detection models. Facebook has also detailed that the platform will be taking down media generated with artificial intelligence used to alter an individual's speech. However, media that has been edited to alter the order or context of words in one's message would remain on the site but be labeled as false, since it was not generated by artificial intelligence. Twitter (now known as X) is taking active measures to handle synthetic and manipulated media on their platform. In order to prevent disinformation from spreading, Twitter is placing a notice on tweets that contain manipulated media and/or deepfakes that signal to viewers that the media is manipulated. There will also be a warning that appears to users who plan on retweeting, liking, or engaging with the tweet. Twitter will also work to provide users a link next to the tweet containing manipulated or synthetic media that links to a Twitter Moment or credible news article on the related topic—as a debunking action. Twitter also has the ability to remove any tweets containing deepfakes or manipulated media that may pose a harm to users' safety. In order to better improve Twitter's detection of deepfakes and manipulated media, Twitter asked users who are interested in partnering with them to work on deepfake detection solutions to fill out a form. In August 2024, the secretaries of state of Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan and New Mexico penned an open letter to X owner Elon Musk urging modifications to its AI chatbot Grok's new text-to-video generator, added in August 2024, stating that it had disseminated election misinformation. In the United States, there have been some responses to the problems posed by deepfakes. In 2018, the Malicious Deep Fake Prohibition Act was introduced to the US Senate; in 2019, the Deepfakes Accountability Act was introduced in the 116th United States Congress by U.S. representative for New York's 9th congressional district Yvette Clarke. In 2024, over half of documented identity fraud involved AI-created forgeries, leading several states to introduce legislation regarding deepfakes, including Virginia, Texas, California, and New York; charges as varied as identity theft, cyberstalking, and revenge porn have been pursued, while more comprehensive statutes are urged. Among U.S. legislative efforts, on 3 October 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bills No. 602 and No. 730. Assembly Bill No. 602 provides individuals targeted by sexually explicit deepfake content made without their consent with a cause of action against the content's creator. Assembly Bill No. 730 prohibits the distribution of malicious deepfake audio or visual media targeting a candidate running for public office within 60 days of their election. U.S. representative Yvette Clarke introduced H.R. 5586: Deepfakes Accountability Act into the 118th United States Congress on 20 September 2023 in an effort to protect national security from threats posed by deepfake technology. U.S. representative María Salazar introduced H.R. 6943: No AI Fraud Act into the 118th United States Congress on 10 January 2024, to establish specific property rights of individual physicality, including voice. In November 2019, China announced that deepfakes and other synthetically faked footage should bear a clear notice about their fakeness starting in 2020. Failure to comply could be considered a crime the Cyberspace Administration of China stated on its website. The Chinese government seems to be reserving the right to prosecute both users and online video platforms failing to abide by the rules. The Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the Provision on the Administration of Deep Synthesis Internet Information Service in November 2022. China's updated Deep Synthesis Provisions (Administrative Provisions on Deep Synthesis in Internet-Based Information Services) went into effect in January 2023. In the United Kingdom, producers of deepfake material could be prosecuted for harassment, but deepfake production was not a specific crime until 2023, when the Online Safety Act was passed, which made deepfakes illegal; the UK plans to expand the Act's scope to criminalize deepfakes created with "intention to cause distress" in 2024. In Canada, in 2019, the Communications Security Establishment released a report which said that deepfakes could be used to interfere in Canadian politics, particularly to discredit politicians and influence voters. As a result, there are multiple ways for citizens in Canada to deal with deepfakes if they are targeted by them. In February 2024, bill C-63 was tabled in the 44th Canadian Parliament in order to enact the Online Harms Act, which would amend Criminal Code, and other Acts. An earlier version of the Bill, C-36, was ended by the dissolution of the 43rd Canadian Parliament in September 2021. In India, there are no direct laws or regulation on AI or deepfakes, but there are provisions under the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act 2000/2008, which can be looked at for legal remedies, and the new proposed Digital India Act will have a chapter on AI and deepfakes in particular, as per the MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar. In Europe, the European Union's 2024 Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) takes a risk-based approach to regulating AI systems, including deepfakes. It establishes categories of "unacceptable risk," "high risk," "specific/limited or transparency risk", and "minimal risk" to determine the level of regulatory obligations for AI providers and users. However, the lack of clear definitions for these risk categories in the context of deepfakes creates potential challenges for effective implementation. Legal scholars have raised concerns about the classification of deepfakes intended for political misinformation or the creation of non-consensual intimate imagery. Debate exists over whether such uses should always be considered "high-risk" AI systems, which would lead to stricter regulatory requirements. In August 2024, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) launched court proceedings against X for its unlawful use of the personal data of over 60 million EU/EEA users, in order to train its AI technologies, such as its chatbot Grok. In 2016, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched the Media Forensics (MediFor) program which was funded through 2020. MediFor aimed at automatically spotting digital manipulation in images and videos, including Deepfakes. In the summer of 2018, MediFor held an event where individuals competed to create AI-generated videos, audio, and images as well as automated tools to detect these deepfakes. According to the MediFor program, it established a framework of three tiers of information—digital integrity, physical integrity and semantic integrity—to generate one integrity score in an effort to enable accurate detection of manipulated media. In 2019, DARPA hosted a "proposers day" for the Semantic Forensics (SemaFor) program where researchers were driven to prevent viral spread of AI-manipulated media. DARPA and the Semantic Forensics Program were also working together to detect AI-manipulated media through efforts in training computers to utilize common sense, logical reasoning. Built on the MediFor's technologies, SemaFor's attribution algorithms infer if digital media originates from a particular organization or individual, while characterization algorithms determine whether media was generated or manipulated for malicious purposes. In March 2024, SemaFor published an analytic catalog that offers the public access to open-source resources developed under SemaFor. The International Panel on the Information Environment was launched in 2023 as a consortium of over 250 scientists working to develop effective countermeasures to deepfakes and other problems created by perverse incentives in organizations disseminating information via the Internet. In popular culture See also References Further reading External links Media related to Deepfake at Wikimedia Commons |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox] | [TOKENS: 9034] |
תוכן עניינים Xbox אקסבוקס (באנגלית: Xbox) הוא מותג של משחקי וידאו שכולל ארבע סדרות עיקריות של קונסולות ביתיות, וכן יישומים (משחקים), שירות הזרמת המדיה Xbox Cloud Gaming ושירותים מקוונים נוספים כמו Xbox network ו־Xbox Game Pass. המותג מיוצר על ידי חטיבת Microsoft Gaming של מיקרוסופט. המותג הושק לראשונה בארצות הברית בנובמבר 2001, עם השקת קונסולת ה־Xbox המקורית. בין השנים 2012 ל־2015 שימש "Xbox" גם כשם כולל לשירותי הבידור הדיגיטלי של מיקרוסופט, במקום מותג Zune. בשנת 2022 הרחיבה מיקרוסופט את פעילותה בתחום המשחקים וארגנה מחדש את חטיבת Xbox כחלק מחטיבת Microsoft Gaming החדשה. במסגרת זו, חברות הפיתוח שבבעלות Xbox כוללות את Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax Media (המפעילה את Bethesda Softworks), וכן את אקטיוויז'ן בליזארד הכוללת את Activision, Blizzard Entertainment ו־King. הקונסולה המקורית הייתה הראשונה שמציעה חברת טכנולוגיה אמריקנית מאז הפסקת מכירות Atari Jaguar ב־1996. עד מאי 2006 נמכרו ממנה מעל ל־24 מיליון יחידות. הקונסולה השנייה, Xbox 360, הושקה ב־2005 ומכרה 86 מיליון יחידות נכון לאוקטובר 2015. הקונסולה השלישית, Xbox One, הושקה בנובמבר 2013 ונמכרו ממנה כ־58 מיליון יחידות. הסדרה הרביעית, Xbox Series X ו־Series S, הושקה בנובמבר 2020. ראש חטיבת Xbox מאז מרץ 2014 הוא פיל ספנסר, שהחליף את ראש החטיבה הקודם מארק ויטן. היסטוריה כאשר סוני קומפיוטר אנטרטיינמנט הכריזה על פלייסטיישן 2 בשנת 1999, היא הציגה את הקונסולה לא רק כקונסולת משחקים, אלא כמרכז בידור ביתי, עם יכולות ניגון של תקליטורי שמע ו-DVD. חברת מיקרוסופט, שפעלה בעיקר בתחום המחשבים האישיים (PC) עם מערכת ההפעלה Microsoft Windows, ראתה בפלייסטיישן 2 איום על הדומיננטיות של ה-PC בשוק. ארבעה מהנדסים מצוות DirectX של מיקרוסופט – קווין בקוס, שיימוס בלקלי, טד האסה ואוטו ברקס, החלו לפתח חזון לקונסולה שתתחרה בפלייסטיישן 2. הם תכננו מערכת שתבוסס על רכיבי חומרה דומים לאלו של מחשבים אישיים, ושתריץ גרסה מותאמת של Windows ו-DirectX להפעלת משחקים. גישה זו הקלה על מפתחי משחקים עבור Windows לפתח גם עבור הקונסולה החדשה, בניגוד לפלטפורמות קונסולה מבוססות חומרה ייחודית. בין השמות שהוצעו לקונסולה נמנו "Direct X Box" ו-"Windows Entertainment Project". הצוות השיווקי של מיקרוסופט ערך סקרי משתמשים עם השם "Xbox" כבקרת איכות בלבד, מתוך מחשבה שזה שם לא מוצלח, אך גילה כי דווקא השם הזה זכה להעדפה הגבוהה ביותר – והוא נבחר לבסוף לשם הרשמי של הקונסולה. אף על פי שמכירות ה-Xbox המקורית היו צנועות, מיקרוסופט ספגה הפסדים כספיים משמעותיים כדי לתמוך בה. עם זאת, הצלחתה היחסית עודדה את החברה להמשיך לפתח את הקו. מאז יציאתה לשוק, הושקו ארבעה דורות של Xbox, כשהעדכני ביותר הוא Xbox Series X ו-Xbox Series S. ה-Xbox הפכה למתחרה ישירה של מותג הפלייסטיישן של סוני, כאשר שתי הקונסולות מציעות ביצועים גבוהים ומפרטים דומים. מיקרוסופט פועלת למיתוג "Xbox" לא רק כקונסולה, אלא כמותג כולל למשחקים. הדבר בא לידי ביטוי בשינוי שם החטיבה Microsoft Studios ל-Xbox Game Studios בשנת 2019. פיל ספנסר, ראש חטיבת Xbox, ציין ביוני 2019: "העסק שלנו אינו תלוי בכמה קונסולות נמכרות, אלא בכמה שחקנים משחקים ובאילו שירותים הם משתמשים." עיתונאים פירשו זאת כהזזת המיקוד מהחומרה לשירותים ומנויים. בפברואר 2020 ספנסר הוסיף כי מבחינת החברה, המתחרים האמיתיים הם לא סוני או נינטנדו, אלא חברות מחשוב ענן כמו אמזון ואלפאבית. לדבריו, פלטפורמת Microsoft Azure תשמש בסיס לשירות Xbox Cloud Gaming – פלטפורמת סטרימינג למשחקים. השוואה בין הקונסולות 399.99 דולר ללא קינקט גרסה ללא כונן דיסקים ב-249.99 דולר 14 במרץ 2002 (אירופה) 2 בדצמבר 2005 (אירופה) 7 במאי 2019 (גרסה ללא כונן דיסקים) משחקים לכל אחת מהקונסולות בסדרת Xbox יש היצע רחב של משחקים. מרבית המשחקים שיצאו עבור ה־Xbox המקורית נתמכים לאחור וניתן לשחק בהם גם על קונסולת Xbox 360. תמיכה לאחור במשחקי Xbox 360 נוספה לקונסולת Xbox One כשנה וחצי לאחר השקתה ביוני 2015, אם כי כותרים שדרשו את התקן Kinect או התקנים חיצוניים אחרים לא נתמכו. קונסולות Xbox Series X ו־Xbox Series S תומכות במשחקים שיצאו עבור Xbox One (למעט אלו הדורשים Kinect), וכן במשחקי Xbox 360 ו־Xbox המקורית שתמכו ב־Xbox One. משחקים ממותגי Xbox ו־Xbox Live יצאו גם עבור מערכות הפעלה נוספות כמו Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, אנדרואיד ו־iOS. בנוסף, ניתן לשחק במשחקים דרך שירות הסטרימינג Xbox Cloud Gaming. שירותים מיקרוסופט מפעילה את קונסולות ה-Xbox לפי מודל "הסכין והלהבים", בו נמכרות הקונסולות במחיר הקרוב לעלות הייצור ולעיתים אף מתחתיה, כאשר הרווח מגיע מתשלומי דמי מנוי (רישוי) שמשולמים על ידי מפתחי המשחקים, ומהכנסות משירותים שונים שהיא מציעה לשחקנים. רשת Xbox (לשעבר Xbox Live) היא שירות מקוון עם למעלה מ-65 מיליון משתמשים ברחבי העולם (נכון ליולי 2019). השירות כולל חנות מקוונת בשם Xbox Games Store, המאפשרת רכישה והורדה של משחקים ותכנים נוספים. המשחק המקוון דרך Xbox החל ב-15 בנובמבר 2002, והשירות פעיל עד היום. חנות מיקרוסופט היא שוק דיגיטלי עבור קונסולות Xbox One ו-Xbox Series X/S. עבור Xbox 360 משמשת הגרסה הישנה של Xbox Games Store. אפליקציית Xbox היא אפליקציית ליווי הזמינה ל-Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, iOS, אנדרואיד (גרסה 4.0 ומעלה) ו-Windows Server 2012. הוכרזה ב-E3 בשנת 2012 ויצאה לאור יחד עם Windows 8 ב-26 באוקטובר 2012. האפליקציה מאפשרת חיבור עם הקונסולה ושימושים אינטראקטיביים כגון שלט נוסף או תצוגה שנייה. Xbox Game Pass Cloud Gaming (בשם הקוד: xCloud) הוא שירות גיימינג בענן מבית מיקרוסופט, המאפשר הזרמת משחקים מהענן למכשירים שונים. בשנת 2019 השיקה מיקרוסופט מערכת סינון תכנים שמטרתה להפחית תכנים פוגעניים ברשת. המערכת מאפשרת לדווח על הודעות, שמות משתמש, תמונות או כל תוכן אחר שנחשב לפוגעני או רעיל. Xbox Game Pass הוא שירות מנויים מבית מיקרוסופט עבור קונסולות Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, ומחשבים מבוססים מערכת הפעלה Windows 10 ו-Windows 11. השירות מאפשר גישה למאגר גדול של משחקים ממגוון חברות, במחיר חודשי קבוע. השירות הושק ב-1 ביוני 2017. Xbox Wire הוא בלוג החדשות הרשמי של Xbox, אשר הושק במאי 2013 כהכנה להשקת קונסולת Xbox One. זה היה הבלוג הראשון של מיקרוסופט שהתמקד ב-Xbox מאז סגירת Gamerscore בתחילת 2009. במרץ 2022 הושקה גם גרסה יפנית לבלוג, כחלק ממיקוד החברה בשוק הגיימינג ביפן. תוכנה ממשק המשתמש המרכזי בכל ארבעת הדורות של קונסולות Xbox הוא Xbox Dashboard, אשר מאפשר למשתמשים לנהל את המשחקים המאוחסנים בקונסולה, להפעיל מדיה ולגשת להגדרות המערכת. מאז שנת 2002, שולב לוח המחוונים עם שירות הרשת של Xbox network, המספק יכולות מקוונות ואפשרות לרכישת תכנים דיגיטליים. מערכות ההפעלה של כלל פלטפורמות Xbox מבוססות על גרסאות מותאמות של מערכת ההפעלה Windows NT: קונסולת ה-Xbox המקורית ומערכת ההפעלה של Xbox 360 מבוססות על Windows 2000, ואילו מערכת ההפעלה של Xbox One ושל Xbox Series X/S מבוססת על Windows 11, עם תמיכה באפליקציות בפורמט UWP. במאי 2020 הציגה מיקרוסופט גרסת ניסיון של אפליקציה ייעודית להורים ולאפוטרופוסים, המאפשרת הגבלת זמן משחק יומי לילדים, צפייה בדו"חות פעילות שבועיים, סינון משחקים לפי מגבלת גיל, והגבלת תקשורת מקוונת. מטרת השירות היא לקדם מסר של גיימינג אחראי. בקרי משחק בקר המשחק של ה-Xbox, שהושק לראשונה בשנת 2001, היה הבקר הראשון שפותח במיוחד עבור קונסולת ה-Xbox המקורית. הבקר כלל שני מקלות אנלוגיים, משטח כיוונים (D-pad) רגיש ללחץ, שני הדקים אנלוגיים, כפתורי Back ו-Start, שני חריצים לאביזרים חיצוניים ושישה כפתורי פעולה (A ירוק, B אדום, X כחול, Y צהוב, ולחצני שחור ולבן). הבקר המקורי זכה לכינוי "השמן" (Fatty) ובהמשך גם "הדוכס" (Duke). הבקר סופק תחילה בכל האזורים למעט יפן, שם הושק דגם מוקטן בשם Controller S. דגם זה הפך בהמשך לבקר הסטנדרטי בכל האזורים. בקר ה-Xbox 360, שהושק בשנת 2005 לצד קונסולת ה-Xbox 360, החליף את קודמו. הבקר כולל 11 כפתורים דיגיטליים, שני הדקים אנלוגיים, שני מקלות אנלוגיים ו-D-pad דיגיטלי. בצדו הימני נמצאים ארבעת כפתורי הפעולה (A ירוק, B אדום, X כחול, Y צהוב), מתחתם המקל האנלוגי הימני, ובצדו השמאלי נמצא D-pad והמקל האנלוגי השמאלי. שני המקלות ניתנים ללחיצה כמו כפתור. במרכז הבקר נמצאים כפתורי Start, Back, וכפתור ה-Guide עם סמל ה-Xbox. כפתור זה משמש להפעלת הקונסולה/הבקר ולגישה לתפריטים. סביבו נמצאת "טבעת האור" (Ring of Light) המצביעה על מספר הבקר ומספקת התראות. בנוסף, קיימים לחצני כתף (Bumpers) והדקים אנלוגיים בצדי הבקר. בקר ה-Xbox One הציג כ-40 שיפורים בהשוואה לבקר של ה-Xbox 360. הוא פותח גם כדי לפעול בשילוב עם מצלמת Kinect. כפתורי Start ו-Back הוחלפו בכפתורי Menu ו-View. ההדקים האחוריים שודרגו ל"טריגרים עם רטט" (Impulse Triggers). כפתור ה-Xbox משמש לפתיחת תפריט המיני-מדריך. הדור הרביעי של בקרי Xbox ממשיך את עיצוב בקר ה-Xbox One אך מוסיף כפתור ייעודי לצילום ולשיתוף תוכן, D-pad היברידי, ואחיזה משופרת על ההדקים והטריגרים. הבקר תומך גם במחשבים אישיים ומכשירים ניידים מסוימים בקר ה-Xbox לנגישות (Xbox Adaptive Controller) פותח על מנת לאפשר שליטה נוחה לשחקנים בעלי מוגבלויות. הוא כולל ממשק רחב, לחצנים גדולים וכניסות שונות עבור התקני קלט חיצוניים הניתנים להתאמה אישית. מלבד תאימותו ל-Xbox ול-Windows, הבקר פועל גם עם קונסולות PlayStation ו-Nintendo Switch. אביזרים נוספים קינקט (באנגלית: KINECT) הוא התקן קלט חישת תנועה שפותח על ידי חברת מיקרוסופט עבור קונסולת המשחקים Xbox 360 ולמחשבים אישיים המריצים Windows. המכשיר מבוסס על תוספת חיצונית בסגנון מצלמת רשת לקונסולה, ומאפשר שליטה ותקשורת עם הקונסולה ללא צורך בבקר משחק, באמצעות ממשק משתמש טבעי המבוסס על מחוות גוף ומערכת זיהוי דיבור. הפרויקט נועד להרחיב את קהל היעד של ה־Xbox 360 מעבר לקהל השחקנים המסורתי. הקינקט התחרה בטכנולוגיות דומות כגון Wii Remote Plus ו־PlayStation Move שהותאמו לקונסולות Wii ו־PlayStation 3 בהתאמה. גרסה של המכשיר ל־Windows הושקה ב־1 בפברואר 2012. קינקט הושק בצפון אמריקה ב-4 בנובמבר 2010, באירופה ב-10 בנובמבר 2010, באוסטרליה, ניו זילנד וסינגפור ב-18 בנובמבר 2010, וביפן ב-20 בנובמבר 2010. אפשרויות הרכישה עבור ציוד החיישנים כוללות חבילה עם המשחק Kinect Adventures וחבילות קונסולות עם 4GB או 250GB אחסון לקונסולת Xbox 360. הקינקט זכה בשיא גינס כ"מכשיר האלקטרוניקה הצרכני הנמכר ביותר" לאחר שמכר בסך הכל 8 מיליון יחידות ב-60 הימים הראשונים להשקה. 24 מיליון יחידות של חיישן הקינקט נמכרו נכון לינואר 2012. מיקרוסופט הוציאה את ערכת פיתוח התוכנה Kinect עבור Windows 7 ב-16 ביוני 2011. ערכת פיתוח תוכנה זו נועדה לאפשר למפתחים לכתוב אפליקציות Kinecting ב־C++/CLI, C# או Visual Basic. מידע נוסף על ה-Kinect של Xbox One פורסם ב-6 ביוני 2013, כולל מידע על אופן השבתת התכונה "תמיד פעיל". אף על פי שהציג ביצועים משופרים בהשוואה ל-Kinect המקורי של ה-Xbox 360, יורשו, ה-Xbox One Kinect, זכה לתגובות מעורבות. הוא זכה לשבחים בזכות זווית הצילום הרחבה שלו, זמן התגובה המהיר שלו והמצלמה האיכותית שלו. עם זאת, חוסר היכולת של הקינקט להבין מבטאים מסוימים באנגלית ספג ביקורת. יתר על כן, מחלוקות סובבות סביב הקישור המכוון של החיישן לקונסולת ה-Xbox One על ידי מיקרוסופט, אף על פי שהדרישות הראשוניות לחיבור החיישן בכל עת תוקנו מאז ההכרזה הראשונית. כמו כן, עלו מספר חששות בנוגע לפרטיות. שיווק בשנת 2016, מיקרוסופט הודיעה כי במקום לקיים מסיבת עיתונאים במסגרת כנס Gamescom השנתי, היא תקיים את אירוע ה-Xbox FanFest שלה. מיקרוסופט קיימה את ה-Xbox FanFest הראשון בסידני בספטמבר 2016. ב-15 בנובמבר 2021, מיקרוסופט שידרה אירוע לציון 20 שנה ל-Xbox. במהלך האירוע, הם הודיעו על יציאתה של סדרת דוקומנטרית אודות ההיסטוריה של Xbox, בשם Power On: The Story of Xbox. הסדרה שודרה בשישה פרקים, כשהראשון יצא ב-13 בדצמבר 2021. הסדרה זכתה בפרס אמי עבור עריכה יוצאת דופן בעבודה עם מצלמה אחת. קישורים חיצוניים הערות שוליים |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_literacy] | [TOKENS: 2087] |
Contents Scientific literacy Scientific literacy or science literacy encompasses written, numerical, and digital literacy as they pertain to understanding science, its methodology, observations, and theories. Scientific literacy is chiefly concerned with an understanding of the scientific method, units and methods of measurement, empiricism and understanding of statistics in particular correlations and qualitative versus quantitative observations and aggregate statistics. It is also concerned with a basic understanding of core scientific fields, such as physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, geology and computation. Definition The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Framework (2015) defines scientific literacy as "the ability to engage with science-related issues, and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen." A scientifically literate person, therefore, is willing to engage in reasoned discourse about science and technology which requires the competencies to: According to the United States National Center for Education Statistics, "scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity". A scientifically literate person is defined as one who has the capacity to: Scientific literacy may also be defined in language similar to the definitions of ocean literacy, Earth science literacy and climate literacy. Thus a scientifically literate person can: Finally, scientific literacy may involve particular attitudes toward learning and using science. Scientifically-literate citizens are capable of researching matters of fact for themselves. History Reforms in science education in the United States have often been driven by strategic challenges such as the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 and the Japanese economic boom in the 1980s. The phrase science literacy was popularized by Paul Hurd in 1958, when he charged that the immediate problem in education was "one of closing the gap between the wealth of scientific achievement and the poverty of scientific literacy in America". For Hurd, rapid innovation in science and technology demanded an education "appropriate for meeting the challenges of an emerging scientific revolution." Underlying Hurd's call was the idea "that some mastery of science is essential preparation for modern life." Initial definitions of science literacy included elaborations of the content that people should understand, often following somewhat traditional lines (biology, chemistry, physics). Earth science was somewhat narrowly defined as expanded geological processes. In the decade after those initial documents, ocean scientists and educators revised the notion of science literacy to include more contemporary, systems-oriented views of the natural world, leading to scientific literacy programs for the ocean, climate, earth science, and so on. Since the 1950s, scientific literacy has increasingly emphasized scientific knowledge being as socially situated and heavily influenced by personal experience. Science literacy is seen as a human right and a working knowledge of science and its role in society is seen as a requirement for responsible members of society, one that helps average people to make better decisions and enrich their lives. In the United States, this change in emphasis can be noted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the publication of Science for All Americans and Benchmarks for Science Literacy. The National Science Education Standards (1996) defined scientific literacy as "the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity". In addition, it emphasized that scientific literacy was not simply a matter of remembering specific scientific content. It involved the development of key abilities or skills. "Scientific literacy means that a person can ask, find, or determine answers to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences. It means that a person has the ability to describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena." Some emphasize the importance of an underlying "ethos" that makes it possible to participate in scientific debates and communities. Key norms are that the observations and hypotheses of scientific discovery are part of a communally shared process; that ideas are important, not the status of the person who voices them; that what matters is disinterested evidence, not desired outcomes; and that statements that go beyond observations should be subject to testing. More recently, calls for "scientific literacy" have identified misinformation and disinformation as dangers. They suggest that civic science literacy, digital media science literacy, and cognitive science literacy are all important components of education, if individuals are to be scientifically informed and engage in individual and collective decision-making in a democratic society. Comparisons of the views of citizens and scientists by the Pew Research Center suggest that they hold very different positions on a range of science, engineering and technology-related issues. Both citizens and scientists rate K–12 STEM education in the U.S. poorly. Science, society, and the environment The interdependence of humans and our natural environment is at the heart of scientific literacy in the Earth systems. As defined by nationwide consensus among scientists and educators, this literacy has two key parts. First, a literate person is defined, in language that echoes the above definition of scientific literacy. Second, a set of concepts are listed, organized into six to nine big ideas or essential principles. This defining process was undertaken first for ocean literacy, then for the Great Lakes, estuaries, the atmosphere, and climate. Earth science literacy is one of the types of literacy defined for Earth systems; the qualities of an Earth science literate person are representative of the qualities for all the Earth system literacy definitions. According to the Earth Science Literacy Initiative, an Earth-science-literate person: All types of literacy in Earth systems have a definition like the above. Ocean literacy is further defined as "understanding our impact on the ocean and the ocean's impact on us". Similarly, the climate literacy website includes a guiding principle for decision making; "humans can take action to reduce climate change and its impacts". Each type of Earth systems literacy then defines the concepts students should understand upon graduation from high school. Current educational efforts in Earth systems literacy tend to focus more on the scientific concepts than on the decision-making aspect of literacy, but environmental action remains as a stated goal. The theme of science in a socially-relevant context appears in many discussions of scientific literacy. Ideas that turn up in the life sciences include an allusion to ecological literacy, the "well-being of earth". Robin Wright, a writer for Cell Biology Education, laments "will [undergraduates'] misunderstandings or lack of knowledge about science imperil our democratic way of life and national security?" A discussion of physics literacy includes energy conservation, ozone depletion and global warming. The mission statement of the Chemistry Literacy Project includes environmental and social justice. Technological literacy is defined in a three-dimensional coordinate space; on the knowledge axis, it is noted that technology can be risky, and that it "reflects the values and culture of society". Energy literacy boasts several websites, including one associated with climate literacy. Attitudes about science Attitudes about science can have a significant effect on scientific literacy. In education theory, understanding of content lies in the cognitive domain, while attitudes lie in the affective domain. Thus, negative attitudes, such as fear of science, can act as an affective filter and an impediment to comprehension and future learning goals. In the United States, student attitudes toward science are known to decline beginning in fourth grade and continue to decline through middle and high school. This beginning of negative feelings about science stems from a greater emphasis put on grades. Students begin to feel that they are achieving less which causes them to lose motivation in the classroom and student participation drops. It has been well documented that students who retain high motivation for learning will have a more positive attitude toward the subject. Studies of college students' attitudes about learning physics suggest that these attitudes may be divided into categories of real world connections, personal connections, conceptual connections, student effort and problem-solving. The decision-making aspect of science literacy suggests further attitudes about the state of the world, one's responsibility for its well-being and one's sense of empowerment to make a difference. These attitudes may be important measures of science literacy, as described in the case of ocean literacy. In the K–12 classroom, learning standards do not commonly address the affective domain due to the difficulty in developing teaching strategies and in assessing student attitude. Many modern teaching strategies have been shown to have positive impacts on student attitudes toward science including the use of student-centered instruction, innovative learning strategies and utilizing a variety of teaching techniques. Project-based learning has also been shown to improve student attitudes about a subject and improve their scientific processing skills. Teachers can use Likert scales or differential scales to determine and monitor changes in student attitudes towards science and science learning. Promoting and measuring Proponents of scientific literacy tend to focus on what is learned by the time a student graduates from high school. Science literacy has always been an important element of the standards movement in education. All science literacy documents have been drafted with the explicit intent of influencing educational standards, as a means to drive curriculum, teaching, assessment, and ultimately, learning nationwide. Moreover, scientific literacy provides an important basis for making informed social decisions. Science is a human process carried out in a social context, which makes it relevant as a part of our science education. In order for people to make evidence-informed decision, everyone should seek to improve their scientific literacy. Relevant research has suggested ways to promote scientific literacy to students more efficiently. Programs to promote scientific literacy among students abound, including several programs sponsored by technology companies, as well as quiz bowls and science fairs. A partial list of such programs includes the Global Challenge Award, the National Ocean Sciences Bowl and Action Bioscience. Some organizations have attempted to compare the scientific literacy of adults in different countries. The OECD found that scientific literacy in the United States is not measurably different from the OECD average. Science News reports "The new U.S. rate, based on questionnaires administered in 2008, is seven percentage points behind Sweden, the only European nation to exceed the Americans. The U.S. figure is slightly higher than that for Denmark, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands. And it's double the 2005 rate in the United Kingdom (and the collective rate for the European Union)." University educators are attempting to develop reliable instruments to measure scientific literacy, and the use of concept inventories is increasing in the fields of physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology and earth science. See also Notes References Further reading |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://techcrunch.com/events/techcrunch-founder-summit-2026/] | [TOKENS: 973] |
TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 TechCrunch returns to Boston, MA with TC Founder Summit (formerly TC Early Stage and TC All Stage), a full-day gathering where founders of every stage connect with top VCs and gain tactical, how-to knowledge for building and scaling companies. Elevate your business at TechCrunch Founder Summit Wondering how to nail that pitch meeting and raise VC funding? Or how to build a high-octane sales team? What about recruiting early team members who will fuel future growth? Managing the finances of a new company while also wondering about your own personal finances as a founder? Legal? Marketing? PR? Being a great leader? TechCrunch Founder Summit will answer every one of these questions. Grab your ticket at the lowest rate. What founders and VCs can expect Hear from accomplished startup leaders in panel-led breakout sessions as they reveal the secrets to their success. These main-stage sessions offer unparalleled access to the journeys, insights, and tips that can help take your startup to the next level. Participate in immersive sessions where startup pioneers and peers come together to discuss challenges, share stories, and build connections that drive success. Expand your network, connect with founders, share insights, and form valuable relationships that inspire growth through networking opportunities. Past Speakers Meet the leading voices in scaling who have taken the stage over the years, sharing candid insights with thousands of founders and VCs. Daniel Acheampong General Partner Visible Hands VC View Profile General Partner Visible Hands VC Rob Biederman Founding & Managing Partner Asymmetric Capital Partners View Profile Founding & Managing Partner Asymmetric Capital Partners Ellen Chisa Partner boldstart ventures View Profile Partner boldstart ventures Jeff Chow Chief Product and Technology Officer Miro View Profile Chief Product and Technology Officer Miro Alyssa Co Principal Bain Capital Ventures View Profile Principal Bain Capital Ventures Kristen Craft VP, Partnerships Fidelity Private Shares View Profile VP, Partnerships Fidelity Private Shares Cathy Gao Partner Sapphire Ventures View Profile Partner Sapphire Ventures Chris Gardner Partner Underscore VC View Profile Partner Underscore VC Samara Gordon General Partner Hyperplane View Profile General Partner Hyperplane Rick Grinnell Founder and Managing Partner Glasswing Ventures View Profile Founder and Managing Partner Glasswing Ventures Charles Hudson Managing Partner Precursor Ventures View Profile Managing Partner Precursor Ventures Mo Jomaa Partner CapitalG View Profile Partner CapitalG Kamila Khasanova Founder and CEO On Top Strategy View Profile Founder and CEO On Top Strategy Brandon Krieg Co-CEO and Co-Founder Stash View Profile Co-CEO and Co-Founder Stash Jon McNeill CEO and Co-Founder DVx Ventures View Profile CEO and Co-Founder DVx Ventures Jennifer Neundorfer Co-Founder, Managing Partner January Ventures View Profile Co-Founder, Managing Partner January Ventures Sharon Obuobi Founder and CEO Alt/Finance View Profile Founder and CEO Alt/Finance Nathan Poon Co-founder and CEO Avol View Profile Co-founder and CEO Avol Stephen Ranere Partner Latham & Watkins LLP View Profile Partner Latham & Watkins LLP Jahanvi Sardana Partner Index Ventures View Profile Partner Index Ventures Darrell West Co-Founder & CFO DepositLink Inc. View Profile Co-Founder & CFO DepositLink Inc. Lock in your ticket savings Save up to $300 on your ticket. Save up to 30% for group orders. TC Founder Summit 2026 news Revisit last year’s TC Founder Summit Platinum Partner Partnership Opportunities TechCrunch offers many ways for partners to engage directly with our attendees before, during, and after the event. If you’re interested in learning more about how your company can be part of the event, get in touch with our sales team below. Location 550 Harrison AvenueBoston, Massachusetts 02118 Upcoming TechCrunch Events Be the first to know when StrictlyVC events go live Save up to $680 until February 27 Join 10,000 founders, VCs, and operators on Oct 13-15 for high-signal networking, real deals, and tactical insights you can use immediately. Register now at the lowest ticket rates of the year. REGISTER NOW In 2025, StrictlyVC sparked candid conversations on deep tech, real-world VC insights, startups, and scaling, while bringing together thousands of meaningful connections from the Bay Area to London and Athens. Join the 2026 waitlist to be the first to know when tickets go live at the lowest rate and to receive key event details. Seating is limited. JOIN WAITLIST Get the latest event announcements, special discounts and other event offers. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. Partner with TechCrunch TechCrunch offers many ways for partners to engage directly with our attendees before, during, and after the event. Get in touch with us to learn more. © 2024 Yahoo. |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Parrot_Sketch] | [TOKENS: 3155] |
Contents Dead Parrot sketch The "Dead Parrot sketch", alternatively and originally known as the "Pet Shop sketch" or "Parrot sketch", is a sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus about a non-existent species of parrot, called a "Norwegian Blue". A satire on poor customer service, it was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman and initially performed in the show's first series, in the eighth episode ("Full Frontal Nudity", which first aired 7 December 1969). The sketch portrays a conflict between disgruntled customer Mr Praline (played by Cleese) and a shopkeeper (Michael Palin), who argue whether or not a recently purchased parrot is dead. Over the years, Cleese and Palin have performed many versions of the "Dead Parrot" sketch for television shows, record albums, and live performances. "Dead Parrot" was voted the top alternative comedy sketch in a Radio Times poll. Plot Mr. Praline (Cleese) enters the pet shop to register a complaint about a recently purchased Norwegian Blue parrot (actually Spix's macaw; parrots are not native to Norway) just as the shopkeeper (Palin) is preparing to close the establishment for lunch. Despite being told that the bird is deceased and that it had been nailed to its perch, the proprietor insists that it is "pining for the fjords" or simply "stunned". As the exasperated Praline attempts to wake up the parrot, the shopkeeper tries to make the bird move by hitting the cage, and Praline erupts into a rage after banging "Polly Parrot" on the counter. After listing several euphemisms for death ("is no more", "has ceased to be", "bereft of life, it rests in peace", and "is an ex-parrot") he is told to go to the pet shop run by the shopkeeper's brother in Bolton, Lancashire for a refund. He travels to Bolton only to find himself in the exact same store as before, with his cage on the floor, as the proprietor of that store (who is really the first shopkeeper, save for a false moustache) claims this is Ipswich, prompting Praline to return to the railway station, where the station attendant (Terry Jones) assures him that he is actually in Bolton after all. Confronting the shopkeeper's "brother" for lying, the shopkeeper claims he was playing a prank on Praline by sending him to Ipswich, which he claims was a palindrome for Bolton; Praline points out that the shopkeeper was wrong because a palindrome for Bolton would have been "Notlob" (i.e., it would not be spelled the same backwards). When the shopkeeper demands to know what he wants, Praline refuses to continue this conversation, saying that "this is getting too silly". The no-nonsense Colonel (Graham Chapman) then bursts in to concur and orders the sketch stopped. Background The "Dead Parrot" sketch was inspired by a "Car Salesman" sketch that Palin and Chapman had done in How to Irritate People. In it, Palin played a car salesman who repeatedly refused to admit that there was anything wrong with his customer's (Chapman's) car, even as it fell apart in front of him. That sketch was based on an actual incident between Palin and a car salesman. In Monty Python Live at Aspen, Palin said that this salesman "had an excuse for everything". John Cleese said on the same show that he and Chapman "believed that there was something very funny there, if we could find the right context for it". In early drafts of what would become the Dead Parrot Sketch, the frustrated customer was trying to return a faulty toaster to a shop. Chapman realised that it needed to be "madder", and came up with the parrot idea. Variations of the sketch In the film And Now for Something Completely Different (1971), in which the parrot is a blue and gold macaw, the sketch ends with the shopkeeper explaining that he always wanted to be a lumberjack and, ignoring Mr Praline's protests of that being irrelevant, begins singing "The Lumberjack Song". The Monty Python Live at Drury Lane album features a live version of the sketch, which is slightly different from the TV version. Praline's rant about the deceased parrot includes "He fucking snuffed it!" Also, the sketch ends with the shopkeeper saying that he has a slug that does talk. Cleese, after a brief pause, says, "Right, I'll have that one, then!" According to Michael Palin's published diary, Palin changed his response in order to throw Cleese off. During this performance something occurs on stage that does not translate into audio, but causes the audience to break into hysterics upon Cleese's follow-up line "Now that's what I call a dead parrot".[citation needed] A live performance from the 1976 Amnesty International benefit show, A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick), has Palin bursting into laughter while Cleese declares "Pining for the fjords? What kind of talk is that?" The audience cheers this bit of breaking character, but Palin quickly composes himself and Cleese declares "Now, look! This is nothing to laugh at!" before proceeding with the sketch. This version can be seen in the film Pleasure at Her Majesty's, albeit with the ending removed.[citation needed] The 1976 Monty Python Live at City Center performance ended with the following punchline: In his appearance on The Muppet Show,[when?] Cleese appears as a pirate attempting to take over a spaceship during a "Pigs in Space" sketch. At the end of the sketch, he demands of the smart-mouthed talking parrot on his shoulder, "Do you want to be an ex-parrot?"[citation needed] In 1980, the sketch was performed again during The Pythons' four-night stint at the Hollywood Bowl. However, it was one of the sketches to be cut from the 1982 film version. In the 1989 TV special which saw the final appearance of all six Pythons together, the sketch was mentioned in the title, Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python. True to its title, the "Dead Parrot sketch" is not included. In 1989's Amnesty benefit show, The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball, the sketch opens similarly, but ends very differently: Margaret Thatcher famously used the sketch in a speech at the Conservative Party Conference in 1990, referring to the Liberal Democrats and their symbol being a dove, before ending the speech by commenting, "And now for something completely different." In 1998, The Sun ran the front-page headline "This party is no more...it has ceased to be...this is an EX-party" for an article about a Conservative Party conference. According to her former political secretary John Whittingdale, Thatcher did not understand why the joke was funny and had to be persuaded that it would work. The Conservatives' use of this sketch was derivative of an earlier Spitting Image sketch, itself derivative of the Python Dead Parrot sketch, in which the part of Mr. Praline was played by a puppet representing David Owen and the part of the shopkeeper was played by a puppet representing Roy Jenkins. Mr Praline/Owen complains that the "party" he has recently acquired from the shopkeeper (representing the Social Democratic Party (UK)) has "expired", and the shopkeeper/Jenkins claims it is not dead but "pining for Bill Rodgers" (Rodgers, Jenkins and Owen being original members of the 'Gang of Four (SDP)'.[citation needed] In a 1997 Saturday Night Live performance of the sketch, Cleese added a line to the rant: "Its metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians!" In an interview on NPR's Fresh Air, Palin attributed an almost dead audience to his seeing guests reverently mouthing the words of the sketch, rather than laughing at it. To end the sketch, Palin reused the punchline from City Center and asked Cleese, "Do you want to come back to my place?" to which Cleese said, "I thought you'd never ask!" For the 1999 Python Night – 30 Years of Monty Python TV special, Trey Parker and Matt Stone made a South Park version of the sketch depicting Cartman angrily returning a dead Kenny to Kyle's shop. Using much of the dialogue from the original sketch, it ends with Terry Gilliam's animations playing around with Cartman before everything is crushed by the giant foot. In a 2002 interview with Michael Parkinson, John Cleese said that when he and Palin were performing the sketch on Drury Lane, Palin made him laugh by saying, when asked if his slug could talk, "It mutters a bit" instead of "Not really." When Cleese eventually stopped laughing, he couldn't remember where they were in the sketch. He turned to the audience and asked them what the next line was, and people shouted it at him, causing him to wonder, "What is the point of this?" He also says that when he and Palin were asked to do the sketch for Saturday Night Live they sat down together to try to remember the lines, and when they got stuck they considered just going out and stopping somebody on the street to ask how it went, since everybody seemed to have it memorised. In his published 2006 diary, Michael Palin recalls that during the filming of Monty Python's Life of Brian in Tunisia, Spike Milligan (who happened to be there on holiday) regaled the Pythons with his own version of the Dead Parrot sketch, but changed "Norwegian Blue" to "Arctic Grey". Cleese and Palin acted out the sketch during the Python's reunion in The O2 in July 2014, Monty Python Live (Mostly). The sketch ended with the shopkeeper saying he has a selection of cheeses, transitioning into the Cheese Shop Sketch. The entire sketch ended like the City Center performance, with the shopkeeper offering Mr Praline to come back to his place, and Mr Praline replying "I thought you'd never ask." In their final performance on 20 July (which was broadcast live to many theatres across the world), whilst listing the metaphors for the parrot's death, Cleese added the line "it had expired and gone to meet Dr Chapman" after which both Cleese and Palin did a thumbs-up to the sky.[citation needed] In the episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 13 November 2015, Cleese is a guest on the show. At the end of the big furry hat segment (where Stephen Colbert – and in this specific instance, Cleese – create nonsensical rules), Cleese asks, "Do you want to come back to my place?" and Colbert replies, "I thought you'd never ask." Further uses "Graham Chapman, co-author of the 'Parrot Sketch,' is no more. He has ceased to be, bereft of life, he rests in peace, he has kicked the bucket, hopped the twig, bit the dust, snuffed it, breathed his last, and gone to meet the Great Head of Light Entertainment in the sky." At Graham Chapman's memorial service, John Cleese began his eulogy by reprising euphemisms from the sketch. Part or all of the dead parrot sketch is quoted in several television programmes, among them the "Life of Python" sketch from Not the Nine O'Clock News (a parody of the Friday Night, Saturday Morning debate on Life of Brian) and "The Early Bird", an episode from the third season of Death in Paradise.[citation needed] When paleontologists published a paper announcing the discovery of a fossil parrot in Denmark, lead author Dr David Waterhouse alluded to the Dead Parrot Sketch, saying, "Obviously, we are dealing with a bird that is bereft of life, but the tricky bit is establishing that it was a parrot." However, he declared that this bird could never have been pining for the fjords, explaining, "This parrot shuffled off its mortal coil around 55 million years ago, but the fjords of Norway were formed during the last ice age and are less than a million years old." In the Nostalgia Critic's review of The Room, Critic uses the sketch to illustrate that Johnny (played by Tommy Wiseau) is dead. During the Monty Python Reunion at London's O2 Arena in 2014, UKTV channel Gold commissioned sculptor Iain Prendergast to create a giant fibreglass version of the mythical "Norwegian Blue". The 50-foot long (15m) bird was displayed, appropriately "resting" on its back, inside the O2 during the run of the shows there, as well as at Potters Fields Park in South London, in view of Tower Bridge. The sketch was extensively referenced in a 2021 British Columbia court opinion allowing a class action lawsuit for dietary supplements which did not contain the advertised ingredients. The judge stated "Health Canada cannot establish a protocol that requires that a parrot only still have its feathers in order to be sold as a live parrot, and thereby prevent anyone from suing after being sold a parrot who 'joined the bleedin' choir invisible'". Precedents The Philogelos, the oldest surviving joke book from antiquity written in the fourth century AD, contains a joke widely reported as an "ancestor" to the Dead Parrot sketch. In the joke, a man complains to a slave trader that a slave recently sold to him has died, to which the slave trader replies, "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!" In Mark Twain's humorous short story "A Nevada Funeral", two characters use a series of euphemisms for death including "kicked the bucket" and "departed to that mysterious country from whose bourne no traveller returns". In 1963, Benny Hill performed a sketch entitled "The Taxidermist" (written by Dave Freeman) on The Benny Hill Show in which he attempted to pass off a stuffed duck as a parrot (blaming its different appearance on "the steaming" and "the shrinkage"). John Cleese later admitted that he watched Hill's show during this period, but did not recall that particular piece. In the 1960s, the comedian Freddie "Parrot Face" Davies included an obviously stuffed parrot in his act, berating its seller for having cheated him. Legacy In 2008, the extinct bird genus Mopsitta was discovered in the Fur Formation and initially described as a parrot. The bird was nicknamed the "Danish Blue Parrot" and "Norwegian Blue" in reference to the Monty Python sketch due to being a dead parrot from Scandinavia. There is a painted bronze sculpture, Monument for a Dead Parrot, close to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, created in 2009 by artist John Reardon. It has a purpose-built plinth and is located on the corner of Romney Road and King William Walk. References External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalization] | [TOKENS: 1261] |
Contents Cephalization Cephalization is an evolutionary trend in bilaterian animals in which, over a sufficient number of generations, special sense organs and nerve ganglia concentrate towards the front of the body, often producing an enlarged head. This is associated with the animal's movement direction and bilateral symmetry. Cephalization of the nervous system has led to the formation of a brain with varying degrees of functional centralization in three phyla of bilaterian animals, namely the arthropods, cephalopod molluscs, and vertebrates. Hox genes organise aspects of cephalization in the bilaterians. Bilateria Cephalization is both a characteristic feature of any animal that habitually moves in one direction, thereby gaining a front end, and an evolutionary trend which created the head of these animals. In practice, this means the bilaterians, a large group containing the majority of animal phyla. These have the ability to move, using muscles, and a body plan with a front end that encounters stimuli first as the animal moves forwards, and accordingly has evolved to contain many of the body's sense organs, able to detect light, chemicals, and gravity. There is often a collection of nerve cells able to process the information from these sense organs, forming a brain in several phyla and one or more ganglia (clusters of nerve cells) in others. The philosopher Michael Trestman noted that three bilaterian phyla, namely the arthropods, the molluscs in the shape of the cephalopods, and the chordates, were distinctive in having "complex active bodies", something that the acoels and flatworms did not have. Any such animal, whether predator or prey, has to be aware of its environment—to catch its prey, or to evade its predators. These groups are exactly those that are most highly cephalized. These groups, however, are not closely related: in fact, they represent widely separated branches of the Bilateria, as shown on the phylogenetic tree; their lineages split hundreds of millions of years ago. Other (less cephalized) phyla are omitted for clarity. Cnidaria Acoela etc In arthropods, cephalization progressed with the gradual incorporation of trunk segments into the head region. This was advantageous because it allowed for the evolution of more effective mouth-parts for capturing and processing food. Insects are strongly cephalized, their brain made of three fused ganglia attached to the ventral nerve cord, which in turn has a pair of ganglia in each segment of the thorax and abdomen, the parts of the trunk behind the head. The insect head is an elaborate structure made of several segments fused rigidly together, and equipped with both simple and compound eyes, and multiple appendages including sensory antennae and complex mouthparts (maxillae and mandibles). Cephalopods including the octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus are the most intelligent of molluscs. They are highly cephalized, with well-developed senses, including advanced 'camera' eyes and large brains. Cephalization in vertebrates, the group that includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes, has been studied extensively. The heads of vertebrates are complex structures, with distinct sense organs for sight, olfaction, and hearing, and a large, multi-lobed brain protected by a skull of bone or cartilage. Cephalochordates like the lancelet (Amphioxus), a small fishlike animal with very little cephalization, are closely related to vertebrates but do not have these structures. In the 1980s, the new head hypothesis proposed that the vertebrate head is an evolutionary novelty resulting from the emergence of neural crest and cranial placodes (thickened areas of the embryonic ectoderm layer), which result in the formation of all sense organs outside the brain. However, in 2014, a transient larva tissue of the lancelet was found to be virtually indistinguishable from the neural crest-derived cartilage (which becomes bone in jawed animals) which forms the vertebrate skull, suggesting that persistence of this tissue and expansion into the entire head space could be a viable evolutionary route to forming the vertebrate head. Advanced vertebrates have increasingly elaborate brains. Bilaterians have many more Hox genes controlling embryonic development, including of the front of the body, than do the less cephalized Cnidaria (two Hox clusters) and the Acoelomorpha (three Hox clusters). In the vertebrates, duplication resulted in the four Hox clusters (HoxA to HoxD) of mammals and birds, while another duplication gave teleost fishes eight Hox clusters. Some of these genes, those responsible for the front (anterior) of the body, helped to create the heads of both arthropods and vertebrates. However, the Hox1-5 genes were already present in ancestral arthropods and vertebrates that did not have complex head structures. The Hox genes therefore most likely were co-opted to assist in cephalization of these two bilaterian groups independently, in a case of convergent evolution, resulting in similar gene networks. Partly cephalized phyla The Acoela are basal bilaterians, part of the Xenacoelomorpha. They are small and simple animals with flat bodies. They have slightly more nerve cells at the head end than elsewhere, not forming a distinct and compact brain. This represents an early stage in cephalization. Also among the bilaterians, Platyhelminthes (flatworms) have a more complex nervous system than the Acoela, and are lightly cephalized, for instance having an eyespot above the brain, near the front end. Among animals without bilateral symmetry, the Cnidaria, such as the radially symmetrical (roughly cylindrical) Hydrozoa, show some degree of cephalization. The Anthomedusae have a head end with their mouth, photoreceptor cells, and a concentration of nerve cells. See also References |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatar_language] | [TOKENS: 6052] |
Contents Crimean Tatar language Crimean Tatar (qırımtatar tili, къырымтатар тили, قریم تاتار تلی), also called Crimean (qırım tili, къырым тили, قریم تلی), is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should not be confused with Tatar, spoken in Tatarstan and adjacent regions in Russia; Crimean Tatar has been extensively influenced by nearby Oghuz languages and is mutually intelligible with them to varying degrees. A long-term ban on the study of the Crimean Tatar language[citation needed] following the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet government has led to the fact that at the moment UNESCO ranks the Crimean Tatar language among the languages under serious threat of extinction (severely endangered). However, according to the Institute of Oriental Studies, due to negative situations, the real degree of the threat has elevated to critically endangered in recent years, which are highly likely to face extinction in the coming generations. Crimean language is one of the official languages of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea[a] (Ukraine), along with Ukrainian and Russian. It is also one of the state languages of the Republic of Crimea (Russian occupation, considered "temporarily occupied territories" by the Ukrainian government), the other ones being Ukrainian and Russian.[a] In Romania, the Crimean Tatar language is officially recognised as a minority language. Number of speakers Today, more than 260,000 Crimean Tatars live in Crimea. Approximately 120,000 reside in Central Asia (mainly in Uzbekistan), where their ancestors had been deported in 1944 during World War II by the Soviet Union. However, of all these people, mostly the older generations are the only ones still speaking Crimean Tatar. In 2013, the language was estimated to be on the brink of extinction, being taught in only around 15 schools in Crimea. Turkey has provided support to Ukraine, to aid in bringing the schools teaching in Crimean Tatar to a modern state. An estimated 5 million people of Crimean origin live in Turkey, descendants of those who emigrated in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Smaller Crimean Tatar communities such as (Dobrujan Tatars) are also found in Romania (22,000) and Bulgaria (1,400). Crimean Tatar is one of the most seriously endangered languages in Europe. Almost all Crimean Tatars are bilingual or multilingual, using the dominant languages of their respective home countries, such as Russian, Turkish, Romanian, Uzbek, Bulgarian or Ukrainian. Classification and dialects The Crimean Tatar language consists of three or four dialects. Among them is also the southern dialect, also known as the coastal dialect (yalıboyu, cenübiy), which is in the Oghuz branch of Turkic languages commonly spoken in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. There is also a variety of the Crimean Tatar language spoken in Romania. It includes Crimean Tatar and Nogai dialects, but today there is no longer a sharp distinction between the dialects.[i] This language belongs to the Kipchak Turkic languages, specifically to the Kipchak-Nogai group. Tatar spoken in Romania has two distinct facets existing, interweaving and forming together the literary Tatar language "edebiy Tatarğa". One of these aspects is the authentic Tatar called "ğalpî Tatarğa" or "ğalpak Tatarğa" and the other is the academic Tatar language called "muwallímatça". Naturalization is shifting the spelling of academic speech sounds to authentic sounds following the patterns below, where a greater-than sign indicates that one sound changes to another. f > p v > w v > b ç > ş ç > j h > (skip over) h > k h > y h > w The grammar book by University of Bucharest identifies the following dialects: Some sources define the dialects according to their level of influence by Oghuz languages. History The formation period of the Crimean Tatar spoken dialects began with the first Turkic invasions of Crimea by Cumans and Pechenegs and ended during the period of the Crimean Khanate. However, the official written languages of the Crimean Khanate were Chagatai and Ottoman Turkish. After Islamization, Crimean Tatars wrote with an Arabic script. In 1876, the different Turkic Crimean dialects were made into a uniform written language by Ismail Gasprinski. A preference was given to the Oghuz dialect of the Yalıboylus, in order to not break the link between the Crimeans and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. In 1928, the language was reoriented to the middle dialect spoken by the majority of the people. In 1928, the alphabet was replaced with the Uniform Turkic Alphabet based on the Latin script. The Uniform Turkic Alphabet was replaced in 1938 by a Cyrillic alphabet. During the 1990s and 2000s, the government of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea under Ukraine encouraged replacing the script with a Latin version again, but the Cyrillic has still been widely used (mainly in published literature, newspapers and education). The current Latin-based Crimean Tatar alphabet is the same as the Turkish alphabet, with two additional characters: Ñ ñ and Q q. In the Russian-annexed "Republic of Crimea" all official communications and education in Crimean Tatar are conducted exclusively in the Cyrillic alphabet. Phonology The vowel system of Crimean Tatar is similar to some other Turkic languages. Because high vowels in Crimean Tatar are short and reduced, /i/ and /ɯ/ are realized close to [ɪ], even though they are phonologically distinct. In addition to these phonemes, Crimean also displays marginal phonemes that occur in borrowed words, especially palatalized consonants. The southern (coastal) dialect substitutes /x/ for /q/, e.g. standard qara 'black', southern xara. At the same time the southern and some central dialects preserve glottal /h/ which is pronounced /x/ in the standard language. The northern dialect on the contrary lacks /x/ and /f/, substituting /q/ for /x/ and /p/ for /f/. The northern /v/ is usually [w], often in the place of /ɣ/, compare standard dağ and northern taw 'mountain' (also in other Oghuz and Kipchak languages, such as Azerbaijani: dağ and Kazakh: taw). /k/ and /ɡ/ are usually fronted, close to [c] and [ɟ]. Grammar The grammar of Crimean Tatar, like all Turkic languages, is agglutinating, with the exclusive use of suffixing to express grammatical categories. Generally, suffixes are attached to the ends of word stems, although derivational morphology makes uses of compounding as well. Overall, the grammatical structure of the language is similar to that of other West Kipchak varieties. Crimean Tatar is a pro-drop language with a generally SOV word order. Crimean Tatar, like most Turkic languages, features pervasive vowel harmony, which results in sound changes when suffixes are added to verb or noun stems. Essentially, the vowel in a suffix undergoes assimilation to agree in certain categories with the vowel in the stem. The two main types of assimilation that characterize this agreement in Crimean Tatar morphophonology are backness harmony and rounding harmony. Using the transliteration system in Kavitskaya (2010), non-high vowels undergoing backness harmony vary between [a] and [e], and are represented as A. High vowels that undergo both backness and rounding harmony alternate between [i], [y], [ɪ] and [u] and are represented as I. High vowels in suffixes that are never rounded and alternate between [i] and [ɪ] are represented as Y, whereas high vowels in suffixes that are always round and alternate between [u] and [y] are represented as U. Some consonants undergo similar harmonizing changes depending on whether the preceding segment is voiced or voiceless, or whether the segment demonstrates backness harmony. Consonants that alternate between [k], [q], [g] and [ɣ] are represented as K, alternating [k] and [g] as G, alternating [t] and [d] by D, and alternating [tʃ] and [dʒ] as Ç. Thus, the suffix -şAr could be rendered as "şar" or "şer" depending on the vowel in the morpheme preceding it. Crimean Tatar verbal morphology is fairly complex, inflecting for tense, number, person, aspect, mood and voice. Verbs are conjugated according to the following paradigm: It is possible, albeit rare, for a single verb to contain all of these possible components, as in: Мен Men I ювундырылмадым. yuvundırılmadım. wash-REFL-CAUS-PASS-NEG-PAST-1SG Мен ювундырылмадым. Men yuvundırılmadım. I wash-REFL-CAUS-PASS-NEG-PAST-1SG "I was not forced to wash myself." For the most part, each type of suffix would only appear once in any given word, although it is possible in some circumstances for causative suffixes to double up. Infinitive verbs take the -mAK suffix and can be negated by the addition of the suffix -mA between the verb stem and the infinitive suffix, creating verb constructions that do not easily mirror English. яшамакъ yaşamaq яшамакъ yaşamaq "to live" яшамамакъ yaşamamaq яшамамакъ yaşamamaq "not to live" Verb derivation Novel verb stems are derived chiefly by applying a verbalizing suffix to a noun or adjective, as demonstrated in the following examples: тишле tişle tooth-VB тишле tişle tooth-VB "bite" къарар qarar black-VB къарар qarar black-VB "become black" кечик keçik late-VB кечик keçik late-VB "be late" Bare verb stems can also be compounded with noun stems to create new verbs, as in: чекеле çekele pull-carry-VB чекеле çekele pull-carry-VB "to overhaul" Person markers There are two types of person markers for finite verbs, pronominal and possessive. Depending on tense and mood, verbs will take one or the other set of endings. Grammatical person is not marked in third person singular, and the marker is optional in third person plural. As shown above, these markers come as the last element in the broader verb complex. Tense and aspect markers Grammatical tense and aspect are expressed in combination by the addition of various markers to the verb stem. Some of these markers match with pronominal person markers, while others take possessive person markers. Each tense/aspect has an associated negation marker; most of these are -mA but there is some variation. A separate set of compound tenses are formed by adding the past tense copula edi- to the derived forms listed above. Mood The imperative is formed using a specific set of person markers, and negated using -mA. In second person imperatives, only the bare verb stem is used. A first person imperative expresses an "I/we should do X" sentiment, whereas third person expresses "let him/her do X," as shown below with unut ("to forget"): Унутайым. Unutayım Унутайым. Unutayım "I should have to forget." Унут! Unut! Унут! Unut! "Forget!" Унутсын. Unutsın. Унутсын. Unutsın. "Let him/her forget." Other moods are constructed similarly to tense/aspect forms. Voice Grammatical voice is expressed by the addition of suffixes which come in sequence before negation, tense, aspect, mood and person markers. There are several causative suffixes which vary depending on the ending of the verb stem. Participles Past, future and present participles are formed by the addition of suffixes and are negated in the same way as other verbs. язылгъан yazılğan write-PTCP.PAST мектюп mektüp letter язылгъан мектюп yazılğan mektüp write-PTCP.PAST letter "written letter" сынаджакъ sınacaq break-PTCP.FUT араба araba cart сынаджакъ араба sınacaq araba break-PTCP.FUT cart "cart that will break" янар yanar burn-PTCP.PRES дагъ dağ mountain янар дагъ yanar dağ burn-PTCP.PRES mountain "burning mountain" Copula The copula ol ("to be, become, exist") is generally expressed as a predicate suffix in the present tense, closely resembling the pronominal person endings, as displayed below. The third person endings are frequently deleted in colloquial speech. The copula’s past tense form, edi, is suppletive. Future tense copular forms are constructed by the addition of the categorical future suffix -cAK. VB:Verbalizing Suffix Мен Men I оджам. ocam. teacher-COP.1SG Мен оджам. Men ocam. I teacher-COP.1SG "I am a teacher." Мен Men I оджа oca teacher эдим. edim. COP.PAST.1SG Мен оджа эдим. Men oca edim. I teacher COP.PAST.1SG "I was a teacher." Мен Men I оджа oca teacher oладжагъым. olacağım. COP.FUT.1SG Мен оджа oладжагъым. Men oca olacağım. I teacher COP.FUT.1SG "I will be a teacher." Converbs Converbs, a characteristic of many Turkic languages, express sequential or dependent action. Present tense converbs are formed by the addition of the suffixes -A (used after consonants) and -y (used after vowels). In past tense, converbs take the suffix -Ip. Thus: Acaн Asan Asan эвгe evge house-DAT кeлип kelip come-CVB.PAST эвни evni house-ACC темизледи. temizledi. clean-VB-PAST Acaн эвгe кeлип эвни темизледи. Asan evge kelip evni temizledi. Asan house-DAT come-CVB.PAST house-ACC clean-VB-PAST "Asan came home and cleaned the house." Crimean Tatar noun stems take suffixes which express grammatical number, case and possession. As in all other Turkic languages, there is no grammatical gender in Crimean Tatar. Nouns are declined according to the following paradigm: Noun derivation Noun stems are derived in a number of ways. Most commonly, a bare noun stem can take a denominal suffix which alters its basic meaning. Similarly, a bare verb stem can take a deverbal suffix that converts it into a noun. There are many such denominal and deverbal suffixes in Crimean Tatar; some common suffixes are shown below: Noun stems can also be reduplicated, which lends a more generalized meaning. The last method of noun derivation is through the compounding of two noun stems. Thus: къартоп-мaртоп qartop-martop potato-REDUP къартоп-мaртоп qartop-martop potato-REDUP "potatoes and the like" aнa-бaбa ana-baba mother-father aнa-бaбa ana-baba mother-father "parents" Number Nouns are pluralized by the addition of the suffix -lAr to the noun stem. The vowel in this plural suffix agrees phonetically with the final vowel in the stem. aрaбалар arabalar car-PL aрaбалар arabalar car-PL "cars" Use of the plural can also express respect, as in: Oсмановлар Osmanovlar кельди. keldi. Oсмановлар кельди. Osmanovlar keldi. "Osmanov came." Possession Possession is expressed through person-specific suffixing. As with the plural suffix, possession suffixes harmonize with the preceding vowel in regular ways. балам balam child-1SG.POSS-NOM балам balam child-1SG.POSS-NOM "my child" баланъ balañ child-2SG.POSS-NOM баланъ balañ child-2SG.POSS-NOM "your child" баласы balası child-3SG.POSS-NOM баласы balası child-3SG.POSS-NOM "his/her child" Case Crimean Tatar has six grammatical cases. The nominative case is unmarked, and the remaining cases are expressed through suffixing. These suffixes come last in a fully declined noun. Like nouns, pronouns are inflected for number, person and case but not for gender. The second person plural pronoun can be used to denote formality or respect, even if its referent is a single person. There are two roots, öz- and kendi-, that express reflexivity. Of the two, kendi- is more common in the southern dialect, but both are used throughout the entire area in which Crimean Tatar is spoken. Possessive pronouns are formed by adding the suffix -ki to the genitive form of a personal pronoun, as in: Adjectives in Crimean Tatar precede the nouns they modify. They do not show agreement, and as such do not take any of the case, person or possession suffixes. Adjectives can be derived by the addition of certain suffixes to a noun or verb stem. SUF:adjectival suffix кескин keskin cut-SUF кескин keskin cut-SUF "sharp" куньдеки kündeki day-SUF куньдеки kündeki day-SUF "daily" Къырымлы Qırımlı Crimea-SUF Къырымлы Qırımlı Crimea-SUF "Crimean" The comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are expressed, respectively, by the suffix -ÇA and the particle eñ, as in the following examples: узунджур uzuncur узунджур uzuncur "hotter" энъ eñ балабан balaban энъ балабан eñ balaban "biggest" An idiomatic superlative form using episi ("all") in the ablative case is also possible. О O she эписинден episinden all-POSS-ABL татлы tatlı sweet бакълава baqlava baklava пишире. pişire. boil-CAUS-PRES О эписинден татлы бакълава пишире. O episinden tatlı baqlava pişire. she all-POSS-ABL sweet baklava boil-CAUS-PRES "She cooks the sweetest baklava." Crimean Tatar uses a standard decimal system with individual lexical terms for cardinal numbers 0-10, multiples of 10 up to 100, and large numbers, where Crimean follows the long scale system. Other numerals are formed by combining numerals without inflection, such as 15 ‘on beş’ (lit. ten five) or 287 ‘eki jüz seksen jedi’ (lit. two hundred eighty seven). For inflection of numerals, suffixes are added only to the rightmost member of the complex number. Inflection of numerals does not differ from that of nouns. Inflection within a complex numeral is used to form fractions with cardinal numbers, with the denominator first in ablative case and numerator second in the case required by the sentence, e.g. 2⁄3 ‘üçten eki’. Crimean Tatar uses postpositions. Each postposition governs a specific case, either dative, genitive or ablative. Some common postpositions are shown below: Writing systems Crimean Tatar is written in either the Cyrillic or Latin alphabets, both modified to the specific needs of Crimean Tatar, and either used respective to where the language is used. Historically, the Arabic script was used from the sixteenth century. In the Soviet Union, it was replaced by a Latin alphabet based on Yañalif in 1928, and by a Cyrillic alphabet in 1938. After Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Cyrillic became the sole script allowed in Russian occupied Crimea because according to the Constitutional Court of Russia decision made in 2004, all languages of Russia must use Cyrillic. However there are some contradictions to the decision: virtually all Finnic languages, including distantly-related Skolt Sámi, spoken in Russia, currently use the Latin script as their sister languages Finnish and Estonian do, despite the historical existence of Karelian Cyrillic alphabet. In 1992, a Latin alphabet based on Common Turkic Alphabet was adopted by the decision of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People, which was formally supported by the Supreme Council of Crimea in 1997 but never implemented officially on practical level. However, in 2021, the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine has announced it begins the implementation of the decision, with vice premier Oleksii Reznikov supporting the transition by stating that Latin corresponds better to Turkic phonetics. The ministry revealed it plans to finish the transition to Latin by 2025, which was supported by the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. The alphabet is co-developed by A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies, Potebnia Institute of Linguistics, Institute of Philology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University. The Crimean Tatar language in Romania did get a Latin alphabet in 1956, it was established as a section in University of Bucharest the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures in 1957 and also in 1977 it was disbanded. Most of the teachers who taught at the Tatar language department graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan State University (located in Tatarstan, Russia), specializing in Tatar language and literature. In the communist period, Tatar books were brought from the USSR to teach the Tatar language in Romania, but it failed. Nowadays the Tatar language is taught in some Romanian schools using their own Tatar language books. Crimean Tatars used Arabic script from the 16th[citation needed] century to 1928. Note: Â â is not considered to be a separate letter. Usually it represents the near-open front unrounded vowel, /æ/. In Romania, the Crimean Tatar language uses a different orthography. There is a total of 10 letters used to represent determinant sounds of which 9 mark authentic determinant sounds: a, e, i, î, í, o, ó, u, ú while the letter á is used for an academic vowel. The writing system registers authentic consonants with 17 letters: b, ç, d, g, ğ, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, r, s, ş, t, z and has three signs standing for the academic consonants: f, h, v. There are also two authentic semivowels: y, w. An old authentic Turkic consonant, the sound /ç/ represented by the letter ⟨Ç⟩ is rarely heard because authentic speakers of Tatar spoken in Dobruja spell it /ş/ as letter ⟨Ş⟩. As the written language most often follows the spoken language shifting ⟨Ç⟩ to ⟨Ş⟩, the result is that in Tatar spoken in Romania letter ⟨Ç⟩ and sound /ç/ are often treated as academic. The digraphs гъ, къ, нъ and дж are separate letters. Sample Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1: Bütün insanlar serbestlik, menlik ve uquqlarda musaviy olıp dünyağa keleler. Olar aqıl ve vicdan saibidirler ve biri-birilerinen qardaşçasına munasebette bulunmalıdırlar. Legal status The Crimean peninsula is internationally recognized as territory of Ukraine, but since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea is de facto administered as part of the Russian Federation. According to Russian law, by the April 2014 constitution of the Republic of Crimea and the 2017 Crimean language law, the Crimean Tatar language is a state language in Crimea alongside Russian and Ukrainian, while Russian is the state language of the Russian Federation, the language of interethnic communication, and required in public postings in the conduct of elections and referendums. In Ukrainian law, according to the constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as published in Russian by its Verkhovna Rada, Russian and Crimean Tatar languages enjoy a "protected" (Russian: обеспечивается ... защита) status; every citizen is entitled, at his request (ходатайство), to receive government documents, such as "passport, birth certificate and others" in Crimean Tatar; but Russian is the language of interethnic communication and to be used in public life. According to the constitution of Ukraine, Ukrainian is the state language. Recognition of Russian and Crimean Tatar was a matter of political and legal debate. Before the Sürgünlik, the 18 May 1944 deportation by the Soviet Union of Crimean Tatars to internal exile in Uzbek SSR, Crimean Tatar had an official language status in the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The Government of Romania recognises the Crimean Tatar community and their language. Fifth of May is the official Tatar Language Day in Romania. Media The first Crimean Tatar newspaper was Terciman published in 1883-1918 by Ismail Gasprinsky. Some other Crimean Tatar media include: ATR, Qırım Aqiqat, Qırım, Meydan, Qırım Alemi, Avdet, Yañı Dünya, Yıldız. There are some Tatar magazines in Romania, as well as novels, dictionaries, poetry books, school books and science books. Some of the dictionaries are printed by the help of UDTTMR. Tatar learning rubrics called "Tatarşa üyrenemĭz" (Romanian: Învățăm tătărește; "We learn Tatar") and the TV show "Romanya'dan Tatarlar" (Romanian: Tătarii din România; "Tatars from Romania") were also broadcast on Romanian television. However, this version of the language is not supported in language keyboards or in machine translation. But there is a project trying to collect text data for Crimean Tatar (Romania). The project is titled as Crimean Tatar (Romania) Language Corpus, "this focuses on collecting text sources specifically for the Dobrujan Tatar dialect, adhering to a particular orthography and linguistic norm established by Taner Murat and the Tatar language section of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Bucharest." Notes References Bibliography External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://www.reddit.com/r/MinecraftCommands/comments/1r697ay/is_there_a_way_to_stop_redstone_from_changing_the/] | [TOKENS: 490] |
Is there a way to stop redstone from changing the poses of an armor stand? I have an armor stand being constantly teleported to an entity as part of a larger project that I’m working on but every time the main entity runs over nearly anything redstone related, the pose changes. Is there a way to stop this? Limitations: •Can only be done with vanilla command blocks •No addons, resource, or behavior packs •Bedrock for Nintendo Switch, latest update, no beta or preview features Related Answers Section Survival mode in various games can be challenging, but using commands can significantly enhance your experience. Here are some of the most useful commands for survival mode across different games, as shared by Redditors: Scoreboard Commands: Useful for tracking progress and setting up custom objectives. "My most favourite would be /scoreboard for Multiplayer." Gamerules: Such as reducedDebugInfo or sleepingPercentage for multiplayer. "Also, maybe we could be able to set specific /gamerules (e.g. reducedDebugInfo which doesn't affect gameplay, or sleepingPercentage for Multiplayer, as that feels necessary sometimes)." Give Command: To get items, though some players consider this cheating. "I personally don’t use /give in my survival worlds, but it’s your world, do what you want." Command Blocks: For creating custom mechanics and decorations. "I recently discovered that you can more or less create anything by summoning different things in a command block." Toggle Survival Mode: To switch between survival and other modes. "After switching to Easy and invoking the (several) console commands to fix Emogene, I just had to enter one more console command: cgf \"Game.IncrementStat\" \"Survival Denied\" -1" Build Settlements: To create safe zones and supply lines. "Build up settlements, they'll all end up working as safehouses for you." Stealth and Sniping: For easier combat encounters. "Stealth sniping will be your best friend too." Juggernaut: A powerful item in some survival modes. "Juggernaut is the best thing in the game, it's 10k but is amazing." r/MinecraftCommands r/Fallout r/Minecraft These commands and tips can help you navigate the challenges of survival mode more effectively. Happy gaming! Create your account and connect with a world of communities. Anyone can view, post, and comment to this community |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://techcrunch.com/events/techcrunch-founder-summit-2026/tickets/] | [TOKENS: 901] |
TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 Tickets Invest in your startup’s growth! Grab yours and a business partner for game-changing founder insights and high-quality curated networking. Save up to $300 until March 13. More than just you? Click here to explore our discounted group deals. Choose your ticket For all-stage investors For all-stage founders For student or recent grad founders Group Discounts Save big when you register for a group of 4 to 12.* Save on any ticket type. * Group/Bundle savings cannot be applied with other promotions/offers/discounts. Group/Bundle savings only apply when a group of 4+ of the same pass type are purchased in one transaction. Savings cannot be applied to a bulk order of different pass types. Ticket FAQs You can receive a full refund of the ticket purchase price when you email your cancellation to events@techcrunch.com by April 10, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Amount will be refunded to the method of original purchase. After April 10, tickets are non-refundable for any reason. Please note that it is TechCrunch policy that the name on attendees’ printed badge should match the name on the person’s government-issued photo ID. Nicknames or abbreviations are acceptable. Once a badge is printed, we cannot change the name on the badge beyond fixing spelling errors or changing to a nickname. Select tickets are eligible for transfer. You can only transfer your ticket to another person who is eligible for the same ticket type. All transfer requests must be made through the transfer request form located in your ticket registration email with the subject line “Your Ticket Is Here | TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026.” Not all ticket types are eligible to transfer. All transfer requests must be made through the form by May 29, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Please note that once you transfer a ticket to a new individual, we will cancel your original ticket and issue a brand-new ticket link to your recipient. They will then need to register themselves for the event. Once a badge is printed, we cannot transfer it to a new individual. Yes! You can book a Founder Pass for both of these instances. For your company website, if not ready, please put in your LinkedIn account. For the other company-related questions, try to answer as best you can. Yes, all lost badges will incur a $45 reprint fee on-site at the event. TechCrunch reviews registrations to verify that the person is who they say they are and that they booked an appropriate pass type. You will be notified via email if we need further information to verify your eligibility for a specific badge type. To update the information on your ticket, click the “Manage Your Registration Details” link on your confirmation email with the subject line “Your Ticket Is Here | TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026.” The information provided on your ticket will need to match your government-issued photo identification card, and the information provided will be used on your badge during the event. Please note that you are NOT able to update/change your email address through the “Manage Your Registration Details.” If you need to update your email, please contact us at events@techcrunch.com. You have the option to exchange the ticket type that you purchased only one (1) time. If you elect to exchange your ticket for a more expensive ticket type, then you will be responsible for paying the difference between what you originally paid and the current ticket price of the new ticket type before the change can be processed. However, if you decide to exchange your ticket for a less expensive type, you are not eligible for a refund on the price difference, regardless of the date of purchase. Once an exchange occurs, we can no longer make additional ticket changes or revert to the original ticket. All ticket types have additional access and qualification restrictions; proof of qualification will be required before an exchange can occur. All requests for an exchange must be sent to events@techcrunch.com. No, each badge belongs to one individual. We check IDs at registration and also at the conference doors. If you’re having trouble locating your ticket, search for an email subject line “Your Ticket Is Here | TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026” in your inbox/spam/trash/promotions folder. If you’re still having trouble locating your ticket, please email events@techcrunch.com. © 2024 Yahoo. |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_skepticism] | [TOKENS: 4329] |
Contents Scientific skepticism Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking scientific evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refers to the examination of claims and theories that appear to be unscientific, rather than the routine discussions and challenges among scientists. Scientific skepticism differs from philosophical skepticism, which questions humans' ability to claim any knowledge about the nature of the world and how they perceive it, and the similar but distinct methodological skepticism, which is a systematic process of being skeptical about (or doubting) the truth of one's beliefs. The skeptical movement (British spelling: sceptical movement) is a contemporary social movement based on the idea of scientific skepticism. The movement has the goal of investigating claims made on fringe topics and determining whether they are supported by empirical research and are reproducible, as part of a methodological norm pursuing "the extension of certified knowledge". Roots of the movement date at least from the 19th century, when people started publicly raising questions regarding the unquestioned acceptance of claims about spiritism, of various widely held superstitions, and of pseudoscience. Publications such as those of the Dutch Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (1881) also targeted medical quackery. Using as a template the Belgian organization founded in 1949, Comité Para, Americans Paul Kurtz and Marcello Truzzi founded the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), in Amherst, New York, in 1976. Now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), this organization has inspired others to form similar groups worldwide. Overview Scientific skeptics maintain that empirical investigation of reality leads to the most reliable empirical knowledge, and suggest that the scientific method is best suited to verifying results. Scientific skeptics attempt to evaluate claims based on verifiability and falsifiability; they discourage accepting claims which rely on faith or anecdotal evidence. Paul Kurtz described scientific skepticism in his 1992 book The New Skepticism, calling it an essential part of scientific inquiry. The Skeptics Society describes it as "the application of reason to any and all ideas—no sacred cows allowed." Robert K. Merton introduced Mertonian norms, which assert that all ideas must be tested and are subject to rigorous, structured community scrutiny. Kendrick Frazier said that scientific skeptics have a commitment to science, reason, evidence, and the quest for truth. Carl Sagan emphasized the importance of being able to ask skeptical questions, recognizing fallacious or fraudulent arguments, and considering the validity of an argument rather than simply whether we like the conclusion. Similarly, Steven Novella described skepticism as selecting "beliefs and conclusions that are reliable and valid to ones that are comforting or convenient" and as the study of "pitfalls of human reason and the mechanisms of deception so as to avoid being deceived by others or themselves". Brian Dunning called skepticism "the process of finding a supported conclusion, not the justification of a preconceived conclusion.'' Skeptics often focus their criticism on claims they consider implausible, dubious or clearly contradictory to generally accepted science. Scientific skeptics do not assert that unusual claims should be automatically rejected out of hand on a priori grounds—rather they argue that one should critically examine claims of paranormal or anomalous phenomena and that extraordinary claims would require extraordinary evidence in their favor before they could be accepted as having validity. From a scientific point of view, skeptics judge ideas on many criteria, including falsifiability, Occam's Razor, Morgan's Canon and explanatory power, as well as the degree to which their predictions match experimental results.[need quotation to verify] Skepticism in general may be deemed part of the scientific method; for instance an experimental result is not regarded as established until it can be shown to be repeatable independently. The Sci.Skeptic FAQ characterizes the skeptic spectrum as divided into "wet" and "dry" skeptics,[a] primarily based on the level of engagement with those promoting claims that appear to be pseudoscience; the dry skeptics preferring to debunk and ridicule, in order to avoid giving attention and thus credence to the promoters, and the "wet" skeptics, preferring slower and more considered engagement, in order to avoid appearing sloppy and ill-considered and thus similar to the groups all skeptics opposed.: 389 Ron Lindsay has argued that while some non-scientific claims appear to be harmless or "soft targets", it is important to continue to address them and the underlying habits of thought that lead to them so that we do not "have a lot more people believing that 9/11 was an inside job, that climate change is a hoax, that our government is controlled by aliens, and so forth—and those beliefs are far from harmless". With regard to the skeptical social movement, Daniel Loxton refers to other movements already promoting "humanism, atheism, rationalism, science education and even critical thinking" beforehand. He saw the demand for the new movement—a movement of people called "skeptics"—as based on a lack of interest by the scientific community to address paranormal and fringe-science claims. In line with Kendrick Frazier, he describes the movement as a surrogate in that area for institutional science. The movement set up a distinct field of study, and provided an organizational structure, while "the long-standing genre of individual skeptical writing" lacked such a community and background. Skeptical organizations typically tend to have science education and promotion among their goals. The skeptical movement has had issues with allegations of sexism. Mary Coulman identified a disparity between women and men in the movement in a 1985 skeptic newsletter.: 112 The skeptic movement has generally been made up of men; at a 1987 conference the members there discussed the fact that the attendees were predominantly older white men and a 1991 listing of 50 CSICOP fellows included four women.: 109 Following a 2011 conference, Rebecca Watson, a prominent skeptic,: 57 raised issues of the way female skeptics are targeted with online harassment including threats of sexual violence by opponents of the movement, and also raised issues of sexism within the movement itself. While she received some support in response to her discussion of sexism within the movement, she later became a target of virulent online harassment, even from fellow skeptics, after posting an online video that discussed her discomfort with being propositioned in a confined space. This became known as "Elevatorgate", based on Watson's discussion about being propositioned in a hotel elevator in the early morning after a skeptic event. Debunking and rational inquiry The verb "to debunk" is used to describe efforts by skeptics to expose or discredit claims believed to be false, exaggerated, or pretentious. It is closely associated with skeptical investigation or rational inquiry of controversial topics (compare list of topics characterized as pseudoscience) such as U.F.O.s, claimed paranormal phenomena, cryptids, conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, religion, or exploratory or fringe areas of scientific or pseudoscientific research. Further topics that scientifically skeptical literature questions include health claims surrounding certain foods, procedures, and alternative medicines; the plausibility and existence of supernatural abilities (e.g. tarot reading) or entities (e.g. poltergeists, angels, gods—including Zeus); the monsters of cryptozoology (e.g. the Loch Ness monster); as well as creationism/intelligent design, dowsing, conspiracy theories, and other claims the skeptic sees as unlikely to be true on scientific grounds. Skeptics such as James Randi have become famous for debunking claims related to some of these. Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell cautions, however, that "debunkers" must be careful to engage paranormal claims seriously and without bias. He explains that open minded investigation is more likely to teach and change minds than debunking. A striking characteristic of the skeptical movement is the fact that while most of the phenomena covered, such as astrology and homeopathy, have been debunked again and again, they stay popular. Frazier reemphasized in 2018 that "[w]e need independent, evidence-based, science-based critical investigation and inquiry now more than perhaps at any other time in our history." The scientific skepticism community has traditionally been focused on what people believe rather than why they believe—there might be psychological, cognitive or instinctive reasons for belief when there is little evidence for such beliefs. According to Hammer, the bulk of the skeptical movement's literature works on an implicit model, that belief in the irrational is being based on scientific illiteracy or cognitive illusions. He points to the skeptical discussion about astrology: The skeptical notion of astrology as a "failed hypothesis" fails to address basic anthropological assumptions about astrology as a form of ritualized divination. While the anthropological approach attempts to explain the activities of astrologers and their clients, the skeptical movement's interest in the cultural aspects of such beliefs is muted. According to sociologist David J. Hess, the skeptical discourse tends to set science and the skeptical project apart from the social and the economic. From this perspective, he argues that skepticism takes on some aspects of a sacred discourse, as in Emile Durkheim's Elementary Forms of the Religious Life—Science, seen as pure and sacred (motivated by values of the mind and reason), is set apart from popular dealings with the paranormal, seen as profane (permeated by the economic and the social); obscuring the confrontation between science and religion. Hess states as well a strong tendency in othering: both skeptics and their opponents see the other as being driven by materialistic philosophy and material gain and assume themselves to have purer motives. While not all pseudoscientific beliefs are necessarily dangerous, some can potentially be harmful. Plato believed that to release others from ignorance despite their initial resistance is a great and noble thing. Modern skeptical writers address this question in a variety of ways. Bertrand Russell argued that some individual actions based on beliefs for which there is no evidence of efficacy can result in destructive actions. James Randi often wrote on the issue of fraud by psychics and faith healers. Unqualified medical practice and alternative medicine can result in serious injury and death. Skeptical activist Tim Farley, who aims to create a catalogue of harmful pseudoscientific practices and cases of damage caused by them, estimates the documented number of killed or injured to be more than 600,000. Richard Dawkins points to religion as a source of violence (notably in The God Delusion), and considers creationism a threat to biology. Some skeptics, such as the members of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, oppose certain new religious movements because of their cult-like behaviors. Leo Igwe, Junior Fellow at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies and past Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), wrote A Manifesto for a Skeptical Africa, which received endorsements from multiple public activists in Africa, as well as skeptical endorsers around the world. He is a Nigerian human rights advocate and campaigner against the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. Igwe came into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, leading to attacks on himself and his family. In 2018, Amardeo Sarma provided some perspective on the state of the skeptical movement by addressing "the essence of contemporary skepticism and [highlighting] the vital nonpartisan and science-based role of skeptics in preventing deception and harm." He emphasized the dangers of pseudoscience as a reason for prioritizing skeptical work. Richard Cameron Wilson, in an article in New Statesman, wrote that "the bogus skeptic is, in reality, a disguised dogmatist, made all the more dangerous for his success in appropriating the mantle of the unbiased and open-minded inquirer". Some advocates of discredited intellectual positions (such as AIDS denial, Holocaust denial and climate change denial) engage in pseudoskeptical behavior when they characterize themselves as "skeptics". This is despite their cherry picking of evidence that conforms to a pre-existing belief. According to Wilson, who highlights the phenomenon in his 2008 book Don't Get Fooled Again, the characteristic feature of false skepticism is that it "centres not on an impartial search for the truth, but on the defence of a preconceived ideological position". Scientific skepticism is itself sometimes criticized on this ground. The term pseudoskepticism has found occasional use in controversial fields where opposition from scientific skeptics is strong. For example, in 1994, Susan Blackmore, a parapsychologist who became more skeptical and eventually became a Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) fellow in 1991, described what she termed the "worst kind of pseudoskepticism": There are some members of the skeptics' groups who clearly believe they know the right answer prior to inquiry. They appear not to be interested in weighing alternatives, investigating strange claims, or trying out psychic experiences or altered states for themselves (heaven forbid!), but only in promoting their own particular belief structure and cohesion ... Commenting on the labels "dogmatic" and "pathological" that the "Association for Skeptical Investigation" puts on critics of paranormal investigations, Bob Carroll of the Skeptic's Dictionary argues that that association "is a group of pseudo-skeptical paranormal investigators and supporters who do not appreciate criticism of paranormal studies by truly genuine skeptics and critical thinkers. The only skepticism this group promotes is skepticism of critics and [their] criticisms of paranormal studies." History According to skeptic author Daniel Loxton, "skepticism is a story without a beginning or an end." His 2013 article in Skeptic magazine "Why Is There a Skeptical Movement" claims a history of two millennia of paranormal skepticism. He is of the opinion that the practice, problems, and central concepts extend all the way to antiquity and refers to a debunking tale as told in some versions of the Old Testament, where the Prophet Daniel exposes a tale of a "living" statue as a scam. According to Loxton, throughout history, there are further examples of individuals practicing critical inquiry and writing books or performing publicly against particular frauds and popular superstitions, including people like Lucian of Samosata (2nd century), Michel de Montaigne (16th century), Thomas Ady and Thomas Browne (17th century), Antoine Lavoisier and Benjamin Franklin (18th century), many different philosophers, scientists and magicians throughout the 19th and early 20th century up until and after Harry Houdini. However, skeptics banding together in societies that research the paranormal and fringe science is a modern phenomenon. Two early important works influential to the skeptical movement were Daniel Webster Hering's Foibles and Fallacies of Science (1924) and D. H. Rawcliffe's The Psychology of the Occult. Loxton mentions the Belgian Comité Para (1949) as the oldest "broad mandate" skeptical organization. Although it was preceded by the Dutch Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (VtdK) (1881), which is therefore considered the oldest skeptical organization by others, the VtdK only focuses on fighting quackery, and thus has a 'narrow mandate'. The Comité Para was partly formed as a response to a predatory industry of bogus psychics who were exploiting the grieving relatives of people who had gone missing during the Second World War. In contrast, Michael Shermer traces the origins of the modern scientific skeptical movement to Martin Gardner's 1952 book Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. In 1968, the French Association for Scientific Information (AFIS) was founded. AFIS strives to promote science against those who deny its cultural value, abuse it for criminal purposes or as a cover for quackery. According to AFIS, science itself cannot solve humanity's problems, nor can one solve them without using the scientific method. It maintains that people should be informed about scientific and technical advancements and the problems it helps to solve. Its magazine, Science et pseudo-sciences, attempts to distribute scientific information in a language that everyone can understand. In 1976, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) since November 2006, was founded in the United States. Some see this as the "birth of modern skepticism", however, founder Paul Kurtz actually modeled it after the Comité Para, including its name. Kurtz' motive was being "dismayed ... by the rising tide of belief in the paranormal and the lack of adequate scientific examinations of these claims." Kurtz was an atheist and had also founded the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion. While he saw both aspects as being covered in the skeptical movement, he had recommended CSICOP to focus on paranormal and pseudoscientific claims and to leave religious aspects to others. Despite not being the oldest, CSICOP was "the first successful, broad-mandate North American skeptical organization of the contemporary period", popularized the usage of the terms "skeptic", "skeptical" and "skepticism" by its magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, and directly inspired the foundation of many other skeptical organizations throughout the world, especially in Europe. These included Australian Skeptics (1980), Vetenskap och Folkbildning (Sweden, 1982), New Zealand Skeptics (1986), GWUP (Austria, Germany and Switzerland, 1987), Skepsis r.y. (Finland, 1987), Stichting Skepsis (Netherlands, 1987), CICAP (Italy, 1989) and SKEPP (Dutch-speaking Belgium, 1990). Besides scientists such as astronomers, stage magicians like James Randi were important in investigating charlatans and exposing their trickery. In 1996 Randi formed the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) and created the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, where anyone who could demonstrate paranormal abilities, under mutually agreed-upon controlled circumstances, could claim the prize. After Randi's retirement in 2015, the Paranormal Challenge was officially terminated by the JREF with the prize unclaimed: Effective 9/1/2015 the JREF has made major changes including converting to a grant making foundation and no longer accepting applications for the Million Dollar Prize from the general public. Other influential second-generation American organizations were The Skeptics Society (founded in 1992 by Michael Shermer), the New England Skeptical Society (originating in 1996) and the Independent Investigations Group (formed in 2000 by James Underdown). After the Revolutions of 1989, Eastern Europe saw a surge in quackery and paranormal beliefs that were no longer restrained by the generally secular Communist regimes or the Iron curtain and its information barriers. The foundation of many new skeptical organizations was as well intending to protect consumers. These included the Czech Skeptics' Club Sisyfos (1995), the Hungarian Skeptic Society (2006), the Polish Sceptics Club (2010) and the Russian-speaking Skeptic Society (2013). The Austrian Skeptical Society in Vienna (founded in 2002) deals with issues such as Johann Grander's "vitalized water" and the use of dowsing at the Austrian Parliament. The European Skeptics Congress (ESC) has been held throughout Europe since 1989, from 1994 onwards co-ordinated by the European Council of Skeptical Organizations. In the United States, The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM) hosted by the JREF in Las Vegas had been the most important skeptical conference since 2003, with two spin-off conferences in London, UK (2009 and 2010) and one in Sydney, Australia (2010). Since 2010, the Merseyside Skeptics Society and Greater Manchester Skeptics jointly organized Question, Explore, Discover (QED) in Manchester, UK. World Skeptics Congresses have been held so far, namely in Buffalo, New York (1996), Heidelberg, Germany (1998), Sydney, Australia (2000), Burbank, California (2002), Abano Terme, Italy (2004) and Berlin, Germany (2012). In 1991, the Center for Inquiry, a US think-tank, brought the CSICOP and the Council for Secular Humanism (CSH) under one umbrella. In January 2016, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science announced its merger with the Center for Inquiry. In 2010, as a form of skeptical outreach to the general population, Susan Gerbic launched the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project to improve skeptical content on Wikipedia. Notable skeptical media Books Magazines Television programs Podcasts See also References Notes Further reading External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_plan] | [TOKENS: 1023] |
Contents Body plan A body plan, Bauplan (pl. German: Baupläne), or ground plan is a set of morphological features common to many members of a phylum of animals. The vertebrates share one body plan, while invertebrates have many. This term, usually applied to animals, envisages a "blueprint" encompassing aspects such as symmetry, layers, segmentation, nerve, limb, and gut disposition. Evolutionary developmental biology seeks to explain the origins of diverse body plans. Body plans have historically been considered to have evolved in a flash in the Ediacaran biota; filling the Cambrian explosion with the results, and a more nuanced understanding of animal evolution suggests gradual development of body plans throughout the early Palaeozoic. Recent studies in animals and plants started to investigate whether evolutionary constraints on body plan structures can explain the presence of developmental constraints during embryogenesis such as the phenomenon referred to as phylotypic stage. History Among the pioneering zoologists, Linnaeus identified two body plans outside the vertebrates; Cuvier identified three; and Haeckel had four, as well as the Protista with eight more, for a total of twelve. For comparison, the number of phyla recognised by modern zoologists has risen to 36. In his 1735 book Systema Naturæ, Swedish botanist Linnaeus grouped the animals into quadrupeds, birds, "amphibians" (including tortoises, lizards and snakes), fish, "insects" (Insecta, in which he included arachnids, crustaceans and centipedes) and "worms" (Vermes). Linnaeus's Vermes included effectively all other groups of animals, not only tapeworms, earthworms and leeches but molluscs, sea urchins and starfish, jellyfish, squid and cuttlefish. In his 1817 work, Le Règne Animal, French zoologist Georges Cuvier combined evidence from comparative anatomy and palaeontology to divide the animal kingdom into four body plans. Taking the central nervous system as the main organ system which controlled all the others, such as the circulatory and digestive systems, Cuvier distinguished four body plans or embranchements: Grouping animals with these body plans resulted in four branches: vertebrates, molluscs, articulata (including insects and annelids) and zoophytes or Radiata. Ernst Haeckel, in his 1866 Generelle Morphologie der Organismen, asserted that all living things were monophyletic (had a single evolutionary origin), being divided into plants, protista, and animals. His protista were divided into moneres, protoplasts, flagellates, diatoms, myxomycetes, myxocystodes, rhizopods, and sponges. His animals were divided into groups with distinct body plans: he named these phyla. Haeckel's animal phyla were coelenterates, echinoderms, and (following Cuvier) articulates, molluscs, and vertebrates. Stephen J. Gould explored the idea that the different phyla could be perceived in terms of a Bauplan, illustrating their fixity. However, he later abandoned this idea in favor of punctuated equilibrium. Origin 20 out of the 36 body plans originated in the Cambrian period, in the "Cambrian explosion". However, complete body plans of many phyla emerged much later, in the Palaeozoic or beyond. The current range of body plans is far from exhaustive of the possible patterns for life: the Precambrian Ediacaran biota includes body plans that differ from any found in currently living organisms, even though the overall arrangement of unrelated modern taxa is quite similar. Thus the Cambrian explosion appears to have more or less completely replaced the earlier range of body plans. Genetic basis Genes, embryos and development together determine the form of an adult organism's body, through the complex switching processes involved in morphogenesis. Developmental biologists seek to understand how genes control the development of structural features through a cascade of processes in which key genes produce morphogens, chemicals that diffuse through the body to produce a gradient that acts as a position indicator for cells, turning on other genes, some of which in turn produce other morphogens. A key discovery was the existence of groups of homeobox genes, which function as switches responsible for laying down the basic body plan in animals. The homeobox genes are remarkably conserved between species as diverse as the fruit fly and humans, the basic segmented pattern of the worm or fruit fly being the origin of the segmented spine in humans. The field of animal evolutionary developmental biology, which studies the genetics of morphology in detail, is rapidly expanding with many of the developmental genetic cascades, particularly in the fruit fly Drosophila, catalogued in considerable detail. See also References External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_sociology] | [TOKENS: 1484] |
Contents Economic sociology 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Empirical methods Prescriptive and policy Economic sociology is the study of the social cause and effect of various economic phenomena. The field can be broadly divided into a classical period and a contemporary one, known as "new economic sociology". The classical period was concerned particularly with modernity and its constituent aspects, including rationalisation, secularisation, urbanisation, and social stratification. As sociology arose primarily as a reaction to capitalist modernity, economics played a role in much classic sociological inquiry. The specific term "economic sociology" was first coined by William Stanley Jevons in 1879, later to be used in the works of Émile Durkheim, Max Weber and Georg Simmel between 1890 and 1920. Weber's work regarding the relationship between economics and religion and the cultural "disenchantment" of the modern West is perhaps most representative of the approach set forth in the classic period of economic sociology. Contemporary economic sociology may include studies of all modern social aspects of economic phenomena; economic sociology may thus be considered a field in the intersection of economics and sociology. Frequent areas of inquiry in contemporary economic sociology include the social consequences of economic exchanges, the social meanings they involve and the social interactions they facilitate or obstruct. Classical Economic sociology arose as a new approach to the analysis of economic phenomena; emphasizing particularly the role of economic structures and institutions that play upon society, and the influence a society holds over the nature of economic structures and institutions. The relationship between capitalism and modernity is a salient issue, perhaps best demonstrated in Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) and Simmel's The Philosophy of Money (1900). Economic sociology may be said to have begun with Tocqueville's Democracy in America (1835–40) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). Marx's historical materialism would attempt to demonstrate how economic forces influence the structure of society on a fundamental level. Émile Durkheim's The Division of Labour in Society was published in 1922, whilst Max Weber's Economy and Society was released in the same year. Contemporary Contemporary economic sociology focuses particularly on the social consequences of economic exchanges, the social meanings they involve and the social interactions they facilitate or obstruct. Influential figures in modern economic sociology include Fred L. Block, James S. Coleman, Paula England, Mark Granovetter, Harrison White, Paul DiMaggio, Joel M. Podolny, Lynette Spillman, Richard Swedberg and Viviana Zelizer in the United States, as well as Carlo Trigilia, Donald Angus MacKenzie, Laurent Thévenot and Jens Beckert in Europe. To this may be added Amitai Etzioni, who has developed the idea of socioeconomics, and Chuck Sabel, Wolfgang Streeck and Michael Mousseau who work in the tradition of political economy/sociology. The focus on mathematical analysis and utility maximisation during the 20th century has led some to see economics as a discipline moving away from its roots in the social sciences. Many critiques of economics or economic policy begin from the accusation that abstract modelling is missing some key social phenomenon that needs to be addressed. Economic sociology is an attempt by sociologists to redefine in sociological terms questions traditionally addressed by economists. It is thus also an answer to attempts by economists (such as Gary Becker) to bring economic approaches – in particular utility maximisation and game theory – to the analysis of social situations that are not obviously related to production or trade. Karl Polanyi, in his book The Great Transformation, was the first theorist to propose the idea of "embeddedness", meaning that the economy is "embedded" in social institutions which are vital so that the market does not destroy other aspects of human life. The concept of "embeddedness" serves sociologists who study technological developments. Mark Granovetter and Patrick McGuire mapped the social networks which determined the economics of the electrical industry in the United States. Ronen Shamir analyzed how electrification in Mandatory Palestine facilitated the creation of an ethnic-based dual-economy. Polanyi's form of market skepticism, however, has been criticized for intensifying rather than limiting the economization of society. A contemporary period of economic sociology, often known as new economic sociology, was consolidated by the 1985 work of Mark Granovetter titled "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness". These works elaborated the concept of embeddedness, which states that economic relations between individuals or firms take place within existing social relations (and are thus structured by these relations as well as the greater social structures of which those relations are a part). Social network analysis has been the primary methodology for studying this phenomenon. Granovetter's theory of the strength of weak ties and Ronald Burt's concept of structural holes are two best known theoretical contributions of this field. Marxist sociology Modern Marxist thought has focused on the social implications of capitalism (or "commodity fetishism") and economic development within the system of economic relations that produce them. Important theorists include Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Guy Debord, Louis Althusser, Nicos Poulantzas, Ralph Miliband, Jürgen Habermas, Raymond Williams, Fredric Jameson, Antonio Negri, and Stuart Hall. Socioeconomics Economic sociology is sometimes synonymous with socioeconomics. Socioeconomics deals with the analytical, political and moral questions arising at the intersection between economy and society from a broad interdisciplinary perspective with links beyond sociology to political economy, moral philosophy, institutional economics and history. Academic associations The Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) is an international academic association whose members are involved in social studies of economy and economic processes. The Socio-Economic Review was established as the official journal of SASE in 2003. The journal aims to encourage work on the relationship between society, economy, institutions and markets, moral commitments and the rational pursuit of self-interest. Most articles focus on economic action in its social and historical context, drawing from sociology, political science, economics and the management and policy sciences. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2015 impact factor of 1.926, ranking it 56th out of 344 journals in the category "Economics", 21st out of 163 journals in the category "Political Science" and 19th out of 142 journals in the category "Sociology". The American Sociological Association's Economic Sociology section became a permanent Section in January 2001. According to its website, it has about 800 members. Another group of scholars in this area works as Research Committee in Economy and Society (RC02) within the International Sociological Association. Economic Sociology and Political Economy (ES/PE), founded in 2011, is an online scholarly society that gathers researchers interested in economic sociology and related topics. See also Notes References Further reading External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AngelScript] | [TOKENS: 265] |
Contents AngelScript AngelScript is an open-source game-oriented compiled scripting language developed by Andreas Jönsson at AngelCode. AngelScript features static typing, object handles (similar to C++ pointers but garbage collected via reference counting), object-orientation, single inheritance, multiple inheritance with interfaces. It allows operators to be registered and overloaded. AngelScript can be used with any C++ IDE, such as NetBeans, Geany, and Eclipse. C and C++ functions can be called within an AngelScript environment. AngelScript's class syntax closely follows C++ classes by design: no proxy functions are required to embed AngelScript in C++ applications, easing the two languages' integration. There are several differences of AngelScript and C++: AngelScript is used in video game development, including In addition, it is also supported as a scripting language in Urho3D. Hazelight Studios maintains a plugin that integrates AngelScript into the Unreal Engine; this plugin was used to write their game, It Takes Two, in AngelScript, the plugin is also used by Embark Studios in The Finals and ARC Raiders. It is also used at the University of Ulm in its interactive 3D-Animation program,[failed verification] as well as in robotics; for example, to program behavioral rules of robotic agents. References External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_language] | [TOKENS: 10717] |
Contents Coptic language Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, romanized: Timetremənkʰēmi) is a dormant Afroasiatic language. It is a group of closely related Egyptian dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Egyptians, starting from the third century AD in Roman Egypt. Coptic was supplanted by Arabic as the primary spoken language of Egypt following the Arab conquest of Egypt and was slowly replaced over the centuries. Coptic has no modern-day native speakers, and no fluent speakers apart from a number of priests and min. two families, although it remains in daily use as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church and of the Coptic Catholic Church. It is written with the Coptic alphabet, a modified form of the Greek alphabet with seven additional letters borrowed from the Demotic Egyptian script. The major Coptic dialects are Sahidic, Bohairic, Akhmimic, Fayyumic, Lycopolitan (Asyutic), and Oxyrhynchite. Sahidic Coptic was spoken between the cities of Asyut and Oxyrhynchus and flourished as a literary language across Egypt in the period c. 325 – c. 800 AD. The Gnostic texts in the Nag Hammadi library are primarily written in the Sahidic dialect. However, some texts also contain elements of the Subakhmimic (Lycopolitan) dialect, which was also used in Upper Egypt. Bohairic, the dialect of Lower Egypt, gained prominence in the 9th century and is the dialect used by the Coptic Church liturgically. Name In Coptic the language is called ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ (timetremǹkhēmi) "Egyptian" or ϯⲁⲥⲡⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ (tiaspi ǹremǹkhēmi) "the Egyptian language". Coptic also possessed the term ⲅⲩⲡⲧⲓⲟⲥ (gyptios) "Egyptian", derived from Greek Αἰγύπτιος (Aigúptios). This was borrowed into Arabic as قبْط (qibṭ/qubṭ), and from there into the languages of Europe, giving rise to words like French copte, whence the English Copt. Geographic distribution Coptic is spoken liturgically in the Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholic Church (along with Modern Standard Arabic). The language is spoken only in Egypt and historically has had little influence outside of the territory, except for monasteries located in Nubia (which straddles modern Egypt and Sudan). Coptic's most noticeable linguistic influence has been on the various dialects of Egyptian Arabic, which is characterised by a Coptic substratum in lexical, morphological, syntactical, and phonological features. In addition to influencing the grammar, vocabulary and syntax of Egyptian Arabic, Coptic has lent to both Arabic and Modern Hebrew such words as:[citation needed] A few words of Coptic origin are found in the Greek language; some of the words were later lent to various European languages — such as barge, from Coptic baare (ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ, "small boat").[citation needed] However, most words of Egyptian origin that entered into Greek and subsequently into other European languages came directly from Ancient Egyptian, often Demotic. An example is the Greek oasis (ὄασις), which comes directly from Egyptian wḥꜣt or Demotic wḥj. However, Coptic reborrowed some words of Ancient Egyptian origin into its lexicon, via Greek.[citation needed] Many place names in modern Egypt are Arabic adaptations of their former Coptic names: The Coptic name ⲡⲁⲡⲛⲟⲩⲧⲉ, papnoute (from Egyptian pꜣy-pꜣ-nṯr), means "belonging to God" or "he of God". It was adapted into Arabic as Babnouda, which remains a common name among Egyptian Copts to this day. It was also borrowed into Greek as the name Παφνούτιος (Paphnutius). That, in turn, is the source of the Russian name Пафнутий (Pafnuty), perhaps best known in the name of the mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev. History The Egyptian language may have the longest documented history of any language, from Old Egyptian, which appeared just before 3200 BC, to its final phases as Coptic in the Middle Ages. Coptic belongs to the Later Egyptian phase, which started to be written in the New Kingdom of Egypt. Later Egyptian represented colloquial speech of the later periods. It had analytic features like definite and indefinite articles and periphrastic verb conjugation. Coptic, therefore, is a reference to both the most recent stage of Egyptian after Demotic and the new writing system that was adapted from the Greek alphabet. The earliest attempts to write the Egyptian language using the Greek alphabet are Greek transcriptions of Egyptian proper names, most of which date to the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Scholars frequently refer to this phase as Pre-Coptic. However, it is clear that by the Late Period of ancient Egypt, demotic scribes regularly employed a more phonetic orthography, a testament to the increasing cultural contact between Egyptians and Greeks even before Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt. After Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt and the subsequent Greek administration of the Ptolemaic Kingdom led to the widespread hellenization and Greek-Coptic bilingualism more so in Northern Egypt and especially in the Nile Delta. This led to the entrance of many Greek loanwords into Coptic, particularly in words relating to technical, legal, commercial, and technological topics. Efforts to write Coptic in the Greek alphabet probably began in the 1st century BC. The earliest text known is from the 1st century AD. This first phase of written Coptic is called Old Coptic and lasts into the 4th or 5th century. The earliest stage of experimentation with the Egyptian language in the Greek alphabet is often called Pre-Old Coptic or Graeco-Egyptian. Other authors distinguish between early and late Old Coptic. Old Coptic consists of pagan writings of a magical or divinatory nature. These texts lack the consistent script style and borrowed Greek vocabulary of later Coptic literature, which is entirely Christian or para-Christian (i.e., Gnostic and Manichaean). Some use exclusively Greek letters, with none of the borrowed Demotic letters of standard Coptic, while others use more Demotic letters than became standard. The production of pagan magical texts written in Egyptian in Greek letters continued into the period of Coptic literature proper. One traditional theory links the origin of literary Coptic to the Gnostic community in Alexandria. No surviving Coptic manuscript, however, can be linked to Alexandria. Another links it to Christian monasteries and the need to translate Greek teaching into the vernacular. The high proportion of borrowed Greek vocabulary in early Coptic texts, however, makes their practical utility as translations questionable. More recently, it has been suggested that the revival of Egyptian as a literary language (in the form of Coptic) was part of an "effort to revive a national Egyptian culture." Paola Buzi refers to it as an "identity operation", an assertion of distinctness. Conversely, since the rise of the Coptic writing system paralleled the rise of Christianity, it may have been stimulated by desire to distance itself from the pagan associations of traditional Egyptian writing. Literary Coptic first appears in the 3rd century. The earliest literary texts are translations of Greek texts, either Christian or Gnostic. The five literary texts dated to the 3rd century are all biblical, either marginal annotations to Greek bibles or bilingual Greek–Coptic biblical texts. There is a single documentary text, a private letter on an ostracon, dated to this century. The Muslim conquest of Egypt by Arabs came with the spread of Islam in the seventh century. At the turn of the eighth century, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan decreed that Arabic replace Koine Greek as the sole administrative language. Literary Coptic gradually declined, and within a few hundred years, Egyptian bishop Severus ibn al-Muqaffa found it necessary to write his History of the Patriarchs in Arabic. However, ecclesiastically the language retained an important position, and many hagiographic texts were also composed during this period. Until the 10th century, Coptic remained the spoken language of the native population outside the capital. The Coptic language massively declined under the hands of Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, as part of his campaigns of religious persecution. Emile Maher Ishaq, a noted Coptologist, writes in the Coptic Encyclopedia that Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah issued strict orders completely prohibiting the use of Coptic anywhere whether in schools, public streets, and even within family homes. Those who did not comply were liable to have their tongues removed. Oral traditions of the Coptic Church tell of removed tongues left on the street or in a public square to intimidate and warn against speaking Coptic. As a literary language, the replacement of Coptic by Arabic among the native Egyptians is thought to have begun around the 10th century but it would not fall entirely out of use until sometime later with the last known literary work written in Coptic dating to the late 14th century. As a primary spoken language, Coptic was the majority language in Egypt until sometime between the 10th and 12th centuries, and then survived as a minority primary language until at least the 17th century. The language may have survived in isolated pockets in Upper Egypt as late as the 19th century. In the village of Pi-Solsel (Az-Zayniyyah, El Zenya or Al Zeniya north of Luxor), passive speakers over 50 years old were recorded as late as the 1930s, and traces of traditional vernacular Coptic were reported to exist in other places such as Abydos and Dendera. From the medieval period, there is one known example of tarsh-printed Coptic. The fragmentary amulet A.Ch. 12.145, now in the Austrian National Library, contains a frame of Coptic text around an Arabic main text. In the early 20th century, some Copts tried to revive the Coptic language, but they were unsuccessful. In the second half of the 20th century, Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria started a national Church-sponsored movement to revive Coptic. Several works of grammar were published, including a more comprehensive dictionary than had been formerly available. The scholarly findings of the field of Egyptology and the inauguration of the Institute of Coptic Studies further contributed to the renaissance. Efforts at language revitalisation continue to be undertaken, and have attracted the interest of Copts and linguists in and outside of Egypt.[citation needed] Writing system Coptic uses a writing system almost wholly derived from the Greek alphabet, with the addition of a number of letters that have their origins in Demotic Egyptian. This is comparable to the Latin-based Icelandic alphabet, which includes the runic letter thorn. There is some variation in the number and forms of these signs depending on the dialect. Some of the letters in the Coptic alphabet that are of Greek origin were normally reserved for Greek words. Old Coptic texts used several graphemes that were not retained in the literary Coptic orthography of later centuries. In Sahidic, syllable boundaries may have been marked by a supralinear stroke ⟨◌̄⟩, or the stroke may have tied letters together in one word, since Coptic texts did not otherwise indicate word divisions. Some scribal traditions use a diaeresis over the letters ⲓ and ⲩ at the beginning of a word or to mark a diphthong. Bohairic uses a superposed point or small stroke known as ϫⲓⲛⲕⲓⲙ (jinkim, "movement"). When jinkim is placed over a vowel it is pronounced independently, and when it is placed over a consonant a short ⲉ precedes it. Literature The oldest Coptic writings date to the pre-Christian era (Old Coptic), though Coptic literature consists mostly of texts written by prominent saints of the Coptic Church such as Anthony the Great, Pachomius the Great, and Shenoute. Shenoute helped fully standardise the Coptic language through his many sermons, treatises and homilies, which formed the basis of early Coptic literature. Vocabulary The core lexicon of Coptic is Egyptian, most closely related to the preceding Demotic phase of the language. Up to 40% of the vocabulary of literary Coptic is drawn from Greek, but borrowings are not always fully adapted to the Coptic phonological system and may have semantic differences as well. There are instances of Coptic texts having passages that are almost entirely composed from Greek lexical roots. However, that is likely because the majority of Coptic religious texts are direct translations of Greek works. What invariably attracts the attention of the reader of a Coptic text, especially if it is written in the Sa'idic dialect, is the very liberal use which is made of Greek loan words, of which so few, indeed, are to be found in the Ancient Egyptian language. There Greek loan words occur everywhere in Coptic literature, be it Biblical, liturgical, theological, or non-literary, i.e. legal documents and personal letters. Though nouns and verbs predominate, the Greek loan words may come from any other part of speech except pronouns' The Greek loanwords in Coptic retain their original male or female gender, but Greek neuter nouns are treated as masculine in Coptic. The Greek nouns are usually inflected in the singular and in the nominative case though occasionally. Words or concepts for which no adequate Egyptian translation existed were taken directly from Greek to avoid altering the meaning of the religious message. In addition, other Egyptian words that would have adequately translated the Greek equivalents were not used as they were perceived as having overt pagan associations. Old Coptic texts use many such words, phrases and epithets; for example, the word ⲧⲃⲁⲓⲧⲱⲩ '(Who is) in (His) Mountain', is an epithet of Anubis. There are also traces of some archaic grammatical features, such as residues of the Demotic relative clause, lack of an indefinite article and possessive use of suffixes. Thus, the transition from the old traditions to the new Christian religion also contributed to the adoption of Greek words into the Coptic religious lexicon. It is safe to assume that the everyday speech of the native population retained, to a greater extent, its indigenous Egyptian character, which is sometimes reflected in Coptic nonecclesiastical documents such as letters and contracts. Phonology Coptic provides the clearest indication of Later Egyptian phonology from its writing system, which fully indicates vowel sounds and occasionally stress patterns. The phonological system of Later Egyptian is also better known than that of the Classical phase of the language because of a greater number of sources indicating Egyptian sounds, including cuneiform letters containing transcriptions of Egyptian words and phrases, and Egyptian renderings of Northwest Semitic names. Coptic sounds, in addition, are known from a variety of Coptic-Arabic papyri in which Arabic letters were used to transcribe Coptic and vice versa. They date to the medieval Islamic period, when Coptic was still spoken. There are some differences of opinion among Coptic language scholars on the correct phonetic interpretation of the writing system of Coptic. Differences centre on how to interpret the pairs of letters ⲉ/ⲏ and ⲟ/ⲱ. In the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek in the 5th century BC, the first member of each pair is a short closed vowel /e, o/, and the second member is a long open vowel /ɛː, ɔː/. In some interpretations of Coptic phonology, it is assumed that the length difference is primary, with ⲉ/ⲏ /e, eː/ and ⲟ/ⲱ is /o, oː/. Other scholars argue for a different analysis in which ⲉ/ⲏ and ⲟ/ⲱ are interpreted as /e, ɛ/ and /o, ɔ/. These two charts show the two theories of Coptic vowel phonology: Dialects vary in their realisation. The difference between [o] and [u] seems to be allophonic. Evidence is not sufficient to demonstrate that these are distinct vowels, and if they are, the difference has a very low functional load. For dialects that use orthographic ⟨ⲉⲓ⟩ for a single vowel, there appears to be no phonetic difference from ⟨ⲓ⟩. Double orthographic vowels are presumed here to be long, but there is considerable debate as to whether these double vowels represent long vowels or glottal stops. There is no length distinction in final stressed position, but only those vowels that occur long appear there: ⟨(ⲉ)ⲓ, ⲉ, ⲁ, ⲟ~ⲱ, ⲟⲩ⟩. In Sahidic, the letter ⲉ was used for short /e/ before back fricatives, and also for unstressed schwa /ə/. It's possible there was also a distinction between short /ɛ/ and /a/, but if so the functional load was extremely low. Bohairic did not have long vowels. /i/ was only written ⟨ⲓ⟩. As above, it's possible that /u/ and /o/ were distinct vowels rather than just allophones. In Late Coptic (that is, Late Bohairic), the vowels were reduced to those found in Egyptian Arabic, /a, i, u/.[dubious – discuss] ⟨ⲱ, ⲟ⟩ became /u/, ⟨ⲉ⟩ became /æ/, and ⟨ⲏ⟩ became either /ɪ/ or /æ/. It is difficult to explain ⟨ⲏ⟩. However, it generally became /æ/ in stressed monosyllables, /ɪ/ in unstressed monosyllables, and in polysyllables, /æ/ when followed by /i/, and /ɪ/ when not. There were no doubled orthographic vowels in Mesokemic. Some representative correspondences with Sahidic are: It is not clear if these correspondences reflect distinct pronunciations in Mesokemic, or if they are an imitation of the long Greek vowels ⟨η, ω⟩. As with the vowels, there are differences of opinion over the correct interpretation of the Coptic consonant letters, particularly with regard to the letters ϫ and ϭ. ϫ is transcribed as ⟨j⟩ in many older Coptic sources and ϭ as ⟨ɡ⟩ or ⟨č⟩. Lambdin (1983) notes that the current conventional pronunciations are different from the probable ancient pronunciations: Sahidic ϫ was probably pronounced [tʲ] and ϭ was probably pronounced [kʲ]. Reintges (2004, p. 22) suggests that ϫ was pronounced [tʃ]. Beside being found in Greek loanwords, the letters ⟨φ, θ, χ⟩ were used in native words for a sequence of /p, t, k/ plus /h/, as in ⲑⲉ = ⲧ-ϩⲉ "the-way" (f.sg.) and ⲫⲟϥ = ⲡ-ϩⲟϥ "the-snake" (m.sg). The letters did not have this use in Bohairic, which used them for single sounds. It is possible that Coptic has a glottal stop, [ʔ], though there is no definitive evidence. Supporters of this theory have posited that the glottal stop was represented with ⲁ word-initially, with ⲓ word-finally in monosyllabic words in northern dialects, and ⲉ in monosyllabic words in Akhmimic and Assiutic. In Sahidic, it has been postulated that it represented the second of a doubled vowel. In Late Coptic (ca. 14th century), Bohairic sounds that did not occur in Egyptian Arabic were lost. A possible shift from a tenuis-aspirate distinction to voiced-tenuis is only attested from the alveolars, the only place that Arabic has such a contrast. Earlier phases of Egyptian may have contrasted voiceless and voiced bilabial plosives, but the distinction seems to have been lost. Late Egyptian, Demotic and Coptic all interchangeably use their respective graphemes to indicate either sound; for example, Coptic for 'iron' appears alternately as ⲡⲉⲛⲓⲡⲉ, ⲃⲉⲛⲓⲡⲉ and ⲃⲓⲛⲓⲃⲉ. That probably reflects dialect variation. Both letters were interchanged with ⲫ and ϥ to indicate /f/, and ⲃ was also used in many texts to indicate the bilabial approximant /w/. Coptologists believe that Coptic ⲃ was articulated as a voiced bilabial fricative [β]. In the present-day Coptic Church services, this letter is realised as /v/, but it is almost certainly a result of the pronunciation reforms instituted in the 19th century. Whereas Old Egyptian contrasts /s/ and /z/, the two sounds appear to be in free variation in Coptic, as they were since the Middle Egyptian period. However, they are contrasted only in Greek loans; for example, native Coptic ⲁⲛⲍⲏⲃ (anzēb) and ⲁⲛⲥⲏⲃⲉ (ansēbə) 'school' are homophonous. Other consonants that sometimes appear to be either in free variation or to have different distributions across dialects are [t] and [d], [ɾ] and [l] (especially in the Fayyumic dialect, a feature of earlier Egyptian) and [k] and [ɡ], with the voiceless stop consonants being more common in Coptic words and the voiced ones in Greek borrowings. Apart from the liquid consonants, this pattern may indicate a sound change in Later Egyptian, leading to a neutralisation of voiced alveolar and velar plosives. When the voiced plosives are realised, it is usually the result of consonant voicing in proximity to /n/. A few early manuscripts have a letter ⳋ or ⳃ ç where Sahidic and Bohairic have ϣ š. and Akhmimic has ⳉ x. This sound seems to have been lost early on. Grammar Coptic is primarily a fusional (inflectional) language, though some scholars, such as Loprieno (1995), have suggested it has agglutinative or even polysynthetic tendencies. Its morphology relies heavily on prefixation and clitics, but these forms frequently encode multiple grammatical functions. Its standard word order is subject–verb–object, though it can shift to verb–subject–object with the appropriate preposition before the subject. Number, gender, tense, and mood are marked by prefixes and clitics, which evolved from Late Egyptian. While earlier stages of Egyptian used suffixation for verb conjugation, Coptic largely replaced these with periphrastic constructions and prefix-based inflection, though vestiges of suffix inflection survive in certain verbs and possessive structures. For example, the Middle Egyptian form *satāpafa ('he chooses', written stp.f in hieroglyphs) corresponds to the Coptic (Sahidic) f.sotp (ϥⲥⲱⲧⲡ̅, 'he chooses'), where the prefix "f-" encodes multiple grammatical functions simultaneously, characteristic of fusional morphology rather than agglutination. All Coptic nouns carry grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine, usually marked through a definite article as in the Romance languages, though Coptic articles are prefixes rather than separate words. Masculine nouns are marked with the article /pə, peː/ and feminine nouns with the article /tə, teː/ in the Sahidic dialect and /pi, əp/ and /ti, ət/ in the Bohairic dialect. The definite and indefinite articles also indicate number; however, only definite articles mark gender. Coptic has a number of broken plurals, a vestige of Older Egyptian, but in the majority of cases, the article marks number. Generally, nouns inflected for plurality end in /wə/, but there are some irregularities. The dual was another feature of earlier Egyptian that survives in Coptic in only few words, such as ⲥⲛⲁⲩ (snau) 'two'. Words of Greek origin keep their original grammatical gender, except for neuter nouns, which become masculine in Coptic. Possession of definite nouns is expressed with a series of possessive articles which are prefixed to the noun. These articles agree with the person, number, and gender of the possessor and the number and gender of the possessed noun. The forms of the possessive article vary according to dialect. Coptic pronouns are of two kinds, dependent and independent. Independent pronouns are used when the pronoun is acting as the subject of a sentence, as the object of a verb, or with a preposition. Dependent pronouns are a series of prefixes and suffixes that can attach to verbs and other nouns. Coptic verbs can therefore be said to inflect for the person, number and gender of the subject and the object: a pronominal prefix marks the subject, and a pronominal suffix marks the object, e.g. "I I'have'it the ball." When (as in this case) the subject is a pronoun, it normally is not also expressed independently, unless for emphasis. As in other Afroasiatic languages, gender of pronouns differ only in the second and third person singular. Most Coptic adjectives are actually nouns that have the attributive particle n to make them adjectival. In all stages of Egyptian, this morpheme is also used to express the genitive; for example, the Bohairic word for 'Egyptian', ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ /remənkʰeːmə/, is a combination of the nominal prefix ⲣⲉⲙ- rem- (the reduced form of ⲣⲱⲙⲓ rōmi 'man'), followed by the genitive morpheme ⲛ̀ ən ('of') and finally the word for Egypt, ⲭⲏⲙⲓ kʰēmi. Coptic, like Ancient Egyptian and Semitic languages, has root-and-pattern or templatic morphology, and the basic meaning of a verb is contained in a root and various derived forms of root are obtained by varying the vowel pattern. For example, the root for 'build' is kt. It has four derived forms: (The nominal state grade is also called the construct state in some grammars of Coptic.) The absolute, nominal, and pronominal state grades are used in different syntactic contexts. The absolute state grade of a transitive verb is used before a direct object with the accusative preposition /ən, əm/, and the nominal state grade is used before a direct object with no case-marking. The pronominal state grade is used before a pronominal direct object enclitic. In addition, many verbs also have a neutral state grade, used to express a state resulting from the action of the verb. Compare the following forms: ABS:absolute state grade NOM:nominal state grade PRONOM:pronominal state grade ⲁⲓϫⲓⲙⲓ Aijimi a-i-jimi PFV-1SG-find.ABS ⲙ̀ⲡⲁⲓⲱⲧ əmpaiōt əm-p-a-iōt PREP-DEF:MASC:SG-1SG-father ⲁⲓϫⲓⲙⲓ ⲙ̀ⲡⲁⲓⲱⲧ Aijimi əmpaiōt a-i-jimi əm-p-a-iōt PFV-1SG-find.ABS PREP-DEF:MASC:SG-1SG-father 'I found my father.' ⲁⲓϫⲉⲙ Aijem a-i-jem PFV-1SG-find.NOM ⲡⲁⲓⲱⲧ paiōt p-a-iōt DEF:MASC:SG-1SG-father ⲁⲓϫⲉⲙ ⲡⲁⲓⲱⲧ Aijem paiōt a-i-jem p-a-iōt PFV-1SG-find.NOM DEF:MASC:SG-1SG-father 'I found my father.' ⲁⲓϭⲉⲛⲧϥ Aijəntf a-i-jənt=f PFV-1SG-find.PRONOM=3MSG ⲁⲓϭⲉⲛⲧϥ Aijəntf a-i-jənt=f PFV-1SG-find.PRONOM=3MSG 'I found him.' For most transitive verbs, both absolute and nominal state grade verbs are available for non-pronominal objects. However, there is one important restriction, known as Jernstedt's rule (or the Stern-Jernstedt rule) (Jernstedt 1927): present-tense sentences cannot be used in the nominal state grade. Thus sentences in the present tense always show a pattern like the first example above (absolute state), never the second pattern (nominal state). In general, the four grades of Coptic verb are not predictable from the root, and are listed in the lexicon for each verb. The following chart shows some typical patterns of correspondence: It is hazardous to make firm generalisations about the relationships between these grade forms, but the nominal state is usually shorter than the corresponding absolute and neutral forms. Absolute and neutral state forms are usually bisyllabic or contain a long vowel; the corresponding nominal state forms are monosyllabic or have short vowels. Coptic has a very large number of distinct tense-aspect-mood categories, expressed by particles which are either before the verb or before the subject. The future /na/ is a preverbal particle and follows the subject: Ⲡⲉϫⲟⲉⲓⲥ Pecoeis pe-joeis DEF:MASC:SG-lord ⲛⲁⲕⲣⲓⲛⲉ nakrine na-krine FUT-judge ⲛ̀ⲛⲉⲗⲁⲟⲥ ənnelaos ən-ne-laos PREP-DEF:PL-people Ⲡⲉϫⲟⲉⲓⲥ ⲛⲁⲕⲣⲓⲛⲉ ⲛ̀ⲛⲉⲗⲁⲟⲥ Pecoeis nakrine ənnelaos pe-joeis na-krine ən-ne-laos DEF:MASC:SG-lord FUT-judge PREP-DEF:PL-people 'The lord will judge the nations.' In contrast, the perfective /a/ is a pre-subject particle: Ⲁ A a PFV ⲧⲉϥⲥⲱⲛⲉ tefsōne te-f-sōne DEF:F:SG-3MSG-sister ⲇⲉ de de PART ⲟⲗ ol ol carry.ABS ⲛ̀ⲛⲉϥⲕⲏⲥ ənnefkēs ən-ne-f-kēs PREP-DEF:PL-3MSG-bone Ⲁ ⲧⲉϥⲥⲱⲛⲉ ⲇⲉ ⲟⲗ ⲛ̀ⲛⲉϥⲕⲏⲥ A tefsōne de ol ənnefkēs a te-f-sōne de ol ən-ne-f-kēs PFV DEF:F:SG-3MSG-sister PART carry.ABS PREP-DEF:PL-3MSG-bone 'His sister carried his bones.' There is some variation in the labels for the tense/aspect/mood categories. The chart below shows the labels from Reintges (2004), Lambdin (1983), Plumley (1948). (Where they agree, only one label is shown.) Each form lists the morphology found with a nonpronominal subject (Marked with an underscore in Coptic) and a third person singular masculine pronominal subject ('he'): An approximate range of use for most of the tense/aspect/mood categories is shown in the following table: An unusual feature of Coptic is the extensive use of a set of "second tenses", which are required in certain syntactic contexts. "Second tenses" are also called "relative tenses" in some work. Coptic has prepositions, rather than postpositions: ϩⲓ hi hi on ⲡ̀ϫⲟⲓ pjoi p-joi DEF:M:SG-ship ϩⲓ ⲡ̀ϫⲟⲓ hi pjoi hi p-joi on DEF:M:SG-ship 'on the ship' Pronominal objects of prepositions are indicated with enclitic pronouns: ⲉⲣⲟⲕ erok on-2MSG ⲉⲣⲟⲕ erok on-2MSG 'to you' ⲛⲁⲛ nan for-1PL ⲛⲁⲛ nan for-1PL 'for us' Many prepositions have different forms before the enclitic pronouns. Compare: ⲉ̀ⲡ̀ϫⲟⲓ e-p-joi to-DEF:SG:M-ship ⲉ̀ⲡ̀ϫⲟⲓ e-p-joi to-DEF:SG:M-ship 'to the ship' ⲉⲣⲟϥ erof on-3MSG ⲉⲣⲟϥ erof on-3MSG 'to him' Syntax Coptic typically shows subject–verb–object (SVO) word order, as in the following examples: ⲁ A a PFV ⲧⲉϭⲁⲙⲁⲩⲗⲉ tecamaule te-camaule DEF:F:SG-camel ⲙⲓⲥⲉ mise mise deliver.ABS ⲛ̀ⲟⲩϣⲏⲣⲉ ənoušēre ən-ou-šēre PREP-INDEF:SG-girl ⲛ̀ϣⲓⲙⲉ ənšime ən-šime link-woman ⲁ ⲧⲉϭⲁⲙⲁⲩⲗⲉ ⲙⲓⲥⲉ ⲛ̀ⲟⲩϣⲏⲣⲉ ⲛ̀ϣⲓⲙⲉ A tecamaule mise ənoušēre ənšime a te-camaule mise ən-ou-šēre ən-šime PFV DEF:F:SG-camel deliver.ABS PREP-INDEF:SG-girl link-woman 'The she-camel delivered a daughter.' ⲡⲉϫⲟⲉⲓⲥ Pejoeis pe-joeis DEF:M:SG-lord ⲛⲁⲕⲣⲓⲛⲉ nakrine na-krine FUT-judge ⲛ̀ⲛⲉⲗⲁⲟⲥ ənnelaos ən-ne-laos PREP-DEF:PL-people ⲡⲉϫⲟⲉⲓⲥ ⲛⲁⲕⲣⲓⲛⲉ ⲛ̀ⲛⲉⲗⲁⲟⲥ Pejoeis nakrine ənnelaos pe-joeis na-krine ən-ne-laos DEF:M:SG-lord FUT-judge PREP-DEF:PL-people 'The Lord will judge the people.' ⲁⲓϭⲓⲛⲉ Aicine a-i-cine PFV-1sg-find.ABS ⲙ̀ⲡⲁⲉⲓⲱⲧ əmpaeiōt əm-p-a-eiōt PREP-DEF:MASC:SG-1SG-father ⲁⲓϭⲓⲛⲉ ⲙ̀ⲡⲁⲉⲓⲱⲧ Aicine əmpaeiōt a-i-cine əm-p-a-eiōt PFV-1sg-find.ABS PREP-DEF:MASC:SG-1SG-father 'I found my father.' The verbs in these sentences are in the absolute state grade, which requires that its direct object be introduced with the preposition /ən, əm/. This preposition functions like accusative case. There is also an alternative nominal state grade of the verb in which the direct object of the verb follows with no preposition: Ⲁⲓϭⲉⲛ Aicen a-i-cen PFV-1SG-find.NOM ⲡⲁⲉⲓⲱⲧ paeiōt p-a-eiōt DEF:M:SG-1SG-father Ⲁⲓϭⲉⲛ ⲡⲁⲉⲓⲱⲧ Aicen paeiōt a-i-cen p-a-eiōt PFV-1SG-find.NOM DEF:M:SG-1SG-father 'I found my father.' Dialects There is little written evidence of dialectal differences in the pre-Coptic phases of the Egyptian language due to the centralised nature of the political and cultural institutions of ancient Egyptian society. However, literary Old and Middle (Classical) Egyptian represent the spoken dialect of Lower Egypt around the city of Memphis, the capital of Egypt in the Old Kingdom. Later Egyptian is more representative of the dialects spoken in Upper Egypt, especially around the area of Thebes as it became the cultural and religious center of the New Kingdom. Coptic more obviously displays a number of regional dialects that were in use from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt, south into Nubia, and in the western oases. However, while many of these dialects reflect actual regional linguistic (namely phonological and some lexical) variation, they mostly reflect localized orthographic traditions with very little grammatical differences. The Bohairic (also known as Memphitic)[citation needed] dialect originated in the western Nile Delta. The earliest Bohairic manuscripts date to the 4th century, but most texts come from the 9th century and later; this may be due to poor preservation conditions for texts in the humid regions of northern Egypt. It shows several conservative features in lexicon and phonology not found in other dialects. Bohairic is the dialect used as the liturgical language of the modern Coptic Orthodox Church, replacing Sahidic some time in the eleventh century. In contemporary liturgical use, there are two traditions of pronunciation, arising from successive reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries (see Coptic pronunciation reform). Modern revitalisation efforts are based on this dialect. Bashmuric (also known as Mansurian, Dialect G, and Bashmurian) was a sub-dialect of Bohairic most likely spoken in Eastern Delta. Its main characteristic is using solely Greek letters to represent Coptic phonemes. Sahidic (also known as Thebaic or Theban) is the dialect in which most known Coptic texts are written, and was the leading dialect in the pre-Islamic period. Where it was spoken is a matter of debate; it name which comes from an Arabic term Aṣ-ṣa'id meaning Upper [Southern] Egypt would imply it was spoken there, but Sahidic's features seem to suggest it was spoken in the north. It is also possible that Sahidic was the urban dialect spoken in the major urban centers of Thebes and Memphis differentiating it from the other rural dialects. Around 300 it began to be written in literary form, including translations of major portions of the Bible (see Coptic versions of the Bible). By the 6th century, a standardised spelling had been attained throughout Egypt. Almost all native authors wrote in this dialect of Coptic. Sahidic was, beginning in the 9th century, challenged by Bohairic, but is attested as late as the 14th. While texts in other Coptic dialects are primarily translations of Greek literary and religious texts, Sahidic is the only dialect with a considerable body of original literature and non-literary texts. Because Sahidic shares most of its features with other dialects of Coptic with few peculiarities specific to itself, and has an extensive corpus of known texts, it is generally the dialect studied by learners of Coptic, particularly by scholars outside of the Coptic Church. Proto-Theban is a dialect of Coptic only attested in a single source, as such information on it is limited but; Proto-Theban closely resembles what reconstructed Proto-Sahidic dialect would have looked like. The variant of the Coptic script used in its singular attestation is also distinct as it contains 10 letters from the Demotic Script which is significantly higher than other dialects. Fayyumic (also known as Crocodilopolic; in older works it is often called Bashmuric) was spoken primarily in the Faiyum west of the Nile Valley. It is attested from the 3rd to the 10th centuries. It is most notable for writing ⲗ (which corresponds to /l/), where other dialects generally use ⲣ /r/ (probably corresponding to a flap [ɾ]). In earlier stages of Egyptian, the liquids were not distinguished in writing until the New Kingdom, when Late Egyptian became the administrative language. Late Egyptian orthography utilised a grapheme that combined the graphemes for /r/ and /n/ in order to express /l/. Demotic for its part indicated /l/ using a diacritic variety of /r/. South Fayyumic (also called Dialect V) was spoken around modern towns of Beni Suef and Bush and is distinguished from central Fayyumic by not having lambdacism. Ashmuninic (also known as Hermopolic or Dialect H) was spoken around the city of Shmun and shares South Fayyumic features like vowel gemination and absence of lambdacism.[citation needed] Oxyrhynchite (also known as Mesokemic or, confusingly, Middle Egyptian) is the dialect of Oxyrhynchus and surrounding areas. It shows similarities with Fayyumic and is attested in manuscripts from the fourth and fifth centuries. Lycopolitan (also known as Subakhmimic and Assiutic) is a dialect closely related to Akhmimic in terms of when and where it was attested, but manuscripts written in Lycopolitan tend to be from the area of Asyut. The main differences between the two dialects seem to be graphic in nature. The Lycopolitan variety was used extensively for translations of Gnostic and Manichaean works, including the texts of the Nag Hammadi library. Akhmimic (also called Chemmic or Panopolic) was the dialect of the area around the town of Akhmim (Ancient Greek: Πανὸς πόλις, romanized: Panopolis). It flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries, after which no writings are attested. Akhmimic is phonologically the most archaic of the Coptic dialects. One characteristic feature is the retention of the phoneme /x/, which is realised as /ʃ/ in most other dialects. Aswanic (also known as Syenic) was the dialect of the area around the town of Aswan. It is very close to Akhmimic, and sometimes considered a sub-dialect, although, what makes it different is that "ϩ" is written before pronouns, for example in standard Coptic it is said Afso, which means drank, but in the Aswanic dialect it is said Hafso. It also has a distinctive way of writing; so the letter "ⲃ" is written instead of the letter "ϥ". Sample text Coptic: ⲥⲟⲩⲙⲟⲥⲉ ⲣⲱⲙⲉ ⲛⲓⲙ ⲉⲩϣⲏϣ ⲉ ⲛⲉⲩⲉⲣⲏⲩ ϩⲛ ⲟⲩⲇⲓⲕⲁⲓⲟⲥⲩⲛⲏ. ⲟⲩⲛ ϭⲟⲙ ⲙⲙⲟⲩ ⲉⲧⲣⲉⲩⲙⲉⲉⲩⲉ ⲁⲩⲱ ϣϣⲉ ⲉⲧⲣⲉⲩⲣ-ⲙⲛⲧⲙⲁⲓⲥⲟⲛ.[self-published source] Bohairic Coptic: Ⲉ̀ⲫ̀ⲟⲩⲁⲓ ⲥⲉⲙⲓⲥⲓ ⲣⲉⲙϩⲉⲩ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲉⲧϣⲱϣ ⲉ̀ ⲁⲝⲓⲁ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲇⲓⲕⲁⲓⲟⲥⲩⲛⲏ. Ⲛ̀ⲑⲱⲟⲩ ⲥⲉⲉⲣϩ̀ⲙⲟⲧ ⲅⲛⲱⲙⲏ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲥⲩⲛⲏⲇⲏⲥⲓⲥ ⲟⲩⲟϩ ⲙ̀ⲡⲉⲛⲑⲣⲉⲩⲁⲣϣⲏⲧ ⲙ̀ⲙⲉⲧⲣⲱⲙⲓ ϩⲓⲛⲁ ⲛ̀ⲑⲱⲟⲩ ⲙ̀ⲫ̀ⲣⲏϯ ⲛ̀ⲥ̀ⲛⲏⲟⲩ. Bohairic Coptic Transliteration: Ephouai semisi remheu nem etshōsh e axia nem dikaiosunē. Enthōou se’erehmot gnōmē nem sunēdēsis ouoh empenthreuarshēt em’metrōmi hina enthōou emephrēti enesnēou. English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. See also Notes References Further reading External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft#cite_ref-PCGAMERinterview2_164-1] | [TOKENS: 12858] |
Contents Minecraft Minecraft is a sandbox game developed and published by Mojang Studios. Following its initial public alpha release in 2009, it was formally released in 2011 for personal computers. The game has since been ported to numerous platforms, including mobile devices and various video game consoles. In Minecraft, players explore a procedurally generated world with virtually infinite terrain made up of voxels (cubes). They can discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, build structures, fight hostile mobs, and cooperate with or compete against other players in multiplayer. The game's large community offers a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, player skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten was handed control over the game's development following its full release. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion; Xbox Game Studios hold the publishing rights for the Bedrock Edition, the unified cross-platform version which evolved from the Pocket Edition codebase[i] and replaced the legacy console versions. Bedrock is updated concurrently with Mojang's original Java Edition, although with numerous, generally small, differences. Minecraft is the best-selling video game in history with over 350 million copies sold. It has received critical acclaim, winning several awards and being cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual Minecon conventions have played prominent roles in popularizing it. The wider Minecraft franchise includes several spin-off games, such as Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. A film adaptation, titled A Minecraft Movie, was released in 2025 and became the second highest-grossing video game film of all time. Gameplay Minecraft is a 3D sandbox video game that has no required goals to accomplish, giving players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. The game features an optional achievement system. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of third-person perspectives. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes, referred to as blocks—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a voxel grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can break, or mine, blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things. Very few blocks are affected by gravity, instead maintaining their voxel position in the air. Players can also craft a wide variety of items, such as armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or bows and arrows), which allow monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or shovels), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. They may also freely craft helpful blocks—such as furnaces which can cook food and smelt ores, and torches that produce light—or exchange items with villagers (NPC) through trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa. The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting for 20 real-time minutes. The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems. New players are given a randomly selected default character skin out of nine possibilities, including Steve or Alex, but are able to create and upload their own skins. Players encounter various mobs (short for mobile entities) including animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, spawn during the daytime and can be hunted for food and crafting materials, while hostile mobs—including large spiders, witches, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as zombies and skeletons, burn under the sun if they have no headgear and are not standing in water. Other creatures unique to Minecraft include the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport as well as pick up and place blocks). There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively. The Minecraft environment is procedurally generated as players explore it using a map seed that is randomly chosen at the time of world creation (or manually specified by the player). Divided into biomes representing different environments with unique resources and structures, worlds are designed to be effectively infinite in traditional gameplay, though technical limits on the player have existed throughout development, both intentionally and not. Implementation of horizontally infinite generation initially resulted in a glitch termed the "Far Lands" at over 12 million blocks away from the world center, where terrain generated as wall-like, fissured patterns. The Far Lands and associated glitches were considered the effective edge of the world until they were resolved, with the current horizontal limit instead being a special impassable barrier called the world border, located 30 million blocks away. Vertical space is comparatively limited, with an unbreakable bedrock layer at the bottom and a building limit several hundred blocks into the sky. Minecraft features three independent dimensions accessible through portals and providing alternate game environments. The Overworld is the starting dimension and represents the real world, with a terrestrial surface setting including plains, mountains, forests, oceans, caves, and small sources of lava. The Nether is a hell-like underworld dimension accessed via an obsidian portal and composed mainly of lava. Mobs that populate the Nether include shrieking, fireball-shooting ghasts, alongside anthropomorphic pigs called piglins and their zombified counterparts. Piglins in particular have a bartering system, where players can give them gold ingots and receive items in return. Structures known as Nether Fortresses generate in the Nether, containing mobs such as wither skeletons and blazes, which can drop blaze rods needed to access the End dimension. The player can also choose to build an optional boss mob known as the Wither, using skulls obtained from wither skeletons and soul sand. The End can be reached through an end portal, consisting of twelve end portal frames. End portals are found in underground structures in the Overworld known as strongholds. To find strongholds, players must craft eyes of ender using an ender pearl and blaze powder. Eyes of ender can then be thrown, traveling in the direction of the stronghold. Once the player reaches the stronghold, they can place eyes of ender into each portal frame to activate the end portal. The dimension consists of islands floating in a dark, bottomless void. A boss enemy called the Ender Dragon guards the largest, central island. Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which, when entered, cues the game's ending credits and the End Poem, a roughly 1,500-word work written by Irish novelist Julian Gough, which takes about nine minutes to scroll past, is the game's only narrative text, and the only text of significant length directed at the player.: 10–12 At the conclusion of the credits, the player is teleported back to their respawn point and may continue the game indefinitely. In Survival mode, players have to gather natural resources such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items. Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter in order to survive at night. The mode also has a health bar which is depleted by attacks from mobs, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events. Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game unless the player is playing on peaceful difficulty. If the hunger bar is empty, the player starves. Health replenishes when players have a full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful. Upon losing all health, players die. The items in the players' inventories are dropped unless the game is reconfigured not to do so. Players then re-spawn at their spawn point, which by default is where players first spawn in the game and can be changed by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they despawn after 5 minutes. Players may acquire experience points (commonly referred to as "xp" or "exp") by killing mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores, animal breeding, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on enchanting tools, armor and weapons. Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects. The game features two more game modes based on Survival, known as Hardcore mode and Adventure mode. Hardcore mode plays identically to Survival mode, but with the game's difficulty setting locked to "Hard" and with permadeath, forcing them to delete the world or explore it as a spectator after dying. Adventure mode was added to the game in a post-launch update, and prevents the player from directly modifying the game's world. It was designed primarily for use in custom maps, allowing map designers to let players experience it as intended. In Creative mode, players have access to an infinite number of all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu and can place or mine them instantly. Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters usually do not take any damage nor are affected by hunger. The game mode helps players focus on building and creating projects of any size without disturbance. Multiplayer in Minecraft enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world. It is available through direct game-to-game multiplayer, local area network (LAN) play, local split screen (console-only), and servers (player-hosted and business-hosted). Players can run their own server by making a realm, using a host provider, hosting one themselves or connect directly to another player's game via Xbox Live, PlayStation Network or Nintendo Switch Online. Single-player worlds have LAN support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators, who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or IP addresses are allowed or disallowed to enter the server. Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs. The largest and most popular server is Hypixel, which has been visited by over 14 million unique players. Player versus player combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players. In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms, a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own. Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use server addresses. Minecraft: Java Edition Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. Minecraft Realms server owners can invite up to 3,000 people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at one time. The Minecraft: Java Edition Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps. Minecraft Bedrock Realms servers support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom Minecraft maps. At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016, support for cross-platform play between Windows 10, iOS, and Android platforms was added through Realms starting in June 2016, with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017, and support for virtual reality devices. On 31 July 2017, Mojang released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play. Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018. The modding community consists of fans, users and third-party programmers. Using a variety of application program interfaces that have arisen over time, they have produced a wide variety of downloadable content for Minecraft, such as modifications, texture packs and custom maps. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, items, and mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms. The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as mini-maps, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from other video games and media. While a variety of mod frameworks were independently developed by reverse engineering the code, Mojang has also enhanced vanilla Minecraft with official frameworks for modification, allowing the production of community-created resource packs, which alter certain game elements including textures and sounds. Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world save files) that often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play. Mojang added an adventure mode in August 2012 and "command blocks" in October 2012, which were created specially for custom maps in Java Edition. Data packs, introduced in version 1.13 of the Java Edition, allow further customization, including the ability to add new achievements, dimensions, functions, loot tables, predicates, recipes, structures, tags, and world generation. The Xbox 360 Edition supported downloadable content, which was available to purchase via the Xbox Games Store; these content packs usually contained additional character skins. It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing "mash-up packs", which combined texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface. The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the Xbox 360 Edition was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the Mass Effect franchise. Unlike Java Edition, however, the Xbox 360 Edition did not support player-made mods or custom maps. A cross-promotional resource pack based on the Super Mario franchise by Nintendo was released exclusively for the Wii U Edition worldwide on 17 May 2016, and later bundled free with the Nintendo Switch Edition at launch. Another based on Fallout was released on consoles that December, and for Windows and Mobile in April 2017. In April 2018, malware was discovered in several downloadable user-made Minecraft skins for use with the Java Edition of the game. Avast stated that nearly 50,000 accounts were infected, and when activated, the malware would attempt to reformat the user's hard drive. Mojang promptly patched the issue, and released a statement stating that "the code would not be run or read by the game itself", and would run only when the image containing the skin itself was opened. In June 2017, Mojang released the "1.1 Discovery Update" to the Pocket Edition of the game, which later became the Bedrock Edition. The update introduced the "Marketplace", a catalogue of purchasable user-generated content intended to give Minecraft creators "another way to make a living from the game". Various skins, maps, texture packs and add-ons from different creators can be bought with "Minecoins", a digital currency that is purchased with real money. Additionally, users can access specific content with a subscription service titled "Marketplace Pass". Alongside content from independent creators, the Marketplace also houses items published by Mojang and Microsoft themselves, as well as official collaborations between Minecraft and other intellectual properties. By 2022, the Marketplace had over 1.7 billion content downloads, generating over $500 million in revenue. Development Before creating Minecraft, Markus "Notch" Persson was a game developer at King, where he worked until March 2009. At King, he primarily developed browser games and learned several programming languages. During his free time, he prototyped his own games, often drawing inspiration from other titles, and was an active participant on the TIGSource forums for independent developers. One such project was "RubyDung", a base-building game inspired by Dwarf Fortress, but with an isometric, three-dimensional perspective similar to RollerCoaster Tycoon. Among the features in RubyDung that he explored was a first-person view similar to Dungeon Keeper, though he ultimately discarded this idea, feeling the graphics were too pixelated at the time. Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum, while continuing to work on his prototypes. Infiniminer, a block-based open-ended mining game first released in April 2009, inspired Persson's vision for RubyDung's future direction. Infiniminer heavily influenced the visual style of gameplay, including bringing back the first-person mode, the "blocky" visual style and the block-building fundamentals. However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements. The first public alpha build of Minecraft was released on 17 May 2009 on TIGSource. Over the years, Persson regularly released test builds that added new features, including tools, mobs, and entire new dimensions. In 2011, partly due to the game's rising popularity, Persson decided to release a full 1.0 version—a second part of the "Adventure Update"—on 18 November 2011. Shortly after, Persson stepped down from development, handing the project's lead to Jens "Jeb" Bergensten. On 15 September 2014, Microsoft, the developer behind the Microsoft Windows operating system and Xbox video game console, announced a $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang, which included the Minecraft intellectual property. Persson had suggested the deal on Twitter, asking a corporation to buy his stake in the game after receiving criticism for enforcing terms in the game's end-user license agreement (EULA), which had been in place for the past three years. According to Persson, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh received a call from a Microsoft executive shortly after the tweet, asking if Persson was serious about a deal. Mojang was also approached by other companies including Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. The deal with Microsoft was arbitrated on 6 November 2014 and led to Persson becoming one of Forbes' "World's Billionaires". After 2014, Minecraft's primary versions received usually annual major updates—free to players who have purchased the game— each primarily centered around a specific theme. For instance, version 1.13, the Update Aquatic, focused on ocean-related features, while version 1.16, the Nether Update, introduced significant changes to the Nether dimension. However, in late 2024, Mojang announced a shift in their update strategy; rather than releasing large updates annually, they opted for a more frequent release schedule with smaller, incremental updates, stating, "We know that you want new Minecraft content more often." The Bedrock Edition has also received regular updates, now matching the themes of the Java Edition updates. Other versions of the game, such as various console editions and the Pocket Edition, were either merged into Bedrock or discontinued and have not received further updates. On 7 May 2019, coinciding with Minecraft's 10th anniversary, a JavaScript recreation of an old 2009 Java Edition build named Minecraft Classic was made available to play online for free. On 16 April 2020, a Bedrock Edition-exclusive beta version of Minecraft, called Minecraft RTX, was released by Nvidia. It introduced physically-based rendering, real-time path tracing, and DLSS for RTX-enabled GPUs. The public release was made available on 8 December 2020. Path tracing can only be enabled in supported worlds, which can be downloaded for free via the in-game Minecraft Marketplace, with a texture pack from Nvidia's website, or with compatible third-party texture packs. It cannot be enabled by default with any texture pack on any world. Initially, Minecraft RTX was affected by many bugs, display errors, and instability issues. On 22 March 2025, a new visual mode called Vibrant Visuals, an optional graphical overhaul similar to Minecraft RTX, was announced. It promises modern rendering features—such as dynamic shadows, screen space reflections, volumetric fog, and bloom—without the need of RTX-capable hardware. Vibrant Visuals was released as a part of the Chase the Skies update on 17 June 2025 for Bedrock Edition and is planned to release on Java Edition at a later date. Development began for the original edition of Minecraft—then known as Cave Game, and now known as the Java Edition—in May 2009,[k] and ended on 13 May, when Persson released a test video on YouTube of an early version of the game, dubbed the "Cave game tech test" or the "Cave game tech demo". The game was named Minecraft: Order of the Stone the next day, after a suggestion made by a player. "Order of the Stone" came from the webcomic The Order of the Stick, and "Minecraft" was chosen "because it's a good name". The title was later shortened to just Minecraft, omitting the subtitle. Persson completed the game's base programming over a weekend in May 2009, and private testing began on TigIRC on 16 May. The first public release followed on 17 May 2009 as a developmental version shared on the TIGSource forums. Based on feedback from forum users, Persson continued updating the game. This initial public build later became known as Classic. Further developmental phases—dubbed Survival Test, Indev, and Infdev—were released throughout 2009 and 2010. The first major update, known as Alpha, was released on 30 June 2010. At the time, Persson was still working a day job at jAlbum but later resigned to focus on Minecraft full-time as sales of the alpha version surged. Updates were distributed automatically, introducing new blocks, items, mobs, and changes to game mechanics such as water flow. With revenue generated from the game, Persson founded Mojang, a video game studio, alongside former colleagues Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh. On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft would enter its beta phase on 20 December. He assured players that bug fixes and all pre-release updates would remain free. As development progressed, Mojang expanded, hiring additional employees to work on the project. The game officially exited beta and launched in full on 18 November 2011. On 1 December 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead designer. On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced the hiring of the developers behind Bukkit, a popular developer API for Minecraft servers, to improve Minecraft's support of server modifications. This move included Mojang taking apparent ownership of the CraftBukkit server mod, though this apparent acquisition later became controversial, and its legitimacy was questioned due to CraftBukkit's open-source nature and licensing under the GNU General Public License and Lesser General Public License. In August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released as an early alpha for the Xperia Play via the Android Market, later expanding to other Android devices on 8 October 2011. The iOS version followed on 17 November 2011. A port was made available for Windows Phones shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang. Unlike Java Edition, Pocket Edition initially focused on Minecraft's creative building and basic survival elements but lacked many features of the PC version. Bergensten confirmed on Twitter that the Pocket Edition was written in C++ rather than Java, as iOS does not support Java. On 10 December 2014, a port of Pocket Edition was released for Windows Phone 8.1. In July 2015, a port of the Pocket Edition to Windows 10 was released as the Windows 10 Edition, with full crossplay to other Pocket versions. In January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition. On 20 September 2017, with the "Better Together Update", the Pocket Edition was ported to the Xbox One, and was renamed to the Bedrock Edition. The console versions of Minecraft debuted with the Xbox 360 edition, developed by 4J Studios and released on 9 May 2012. Announced as part of the Xbox Live Arcade NEXT promotion, this version introduced a redesigned crafting system, a new control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and online play via Xbox Live. Unlike the PC version, its worlds were finite, bordered by invisible walls. Initially, the Xbox 360 version resembled outdated PC versions but received updates to bring it closer to Java Edition before eventually being discontinued. The Xbox One version launched on 5 September 2014, featuring larger worlds and support for more players. Minecraft expanded to PlayStation platforms with PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 editions released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014, respectively. Originally planned as a PS4 launch title, it was delayed before its eventual release. A PlayStation Vita version followed in October 2014. Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation editions were developed by 4J Studios. Nintendo platforms received Minecraft: Wii U Edition on 17 December 2015, with a physical release in North America on 17 June 2016 and in Europe on 30 June. The Nintendo Switch version launched via the eShop on 11 May 2017. During a Nintendo Direct presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition, based on the Pocket Edition, would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is compatible only with the New Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 2DS XL systems and does not work with the original 3DS or 2DS systems. On 20 September 2017, the Better Together Update introduced Bedrock Edition across Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile platforms, enabling cross-play between these versions. Bedrock Edition later expanded to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, with the latter receiving the update in December 2019, allowing cross-platform play for users with a free Xbox Live account. The Bedrock Edition released a native version for PlayStation 5 on 22 October 2024, while the Xbox Series X/S version launched on 17 June 2025. On 18 December 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of Minecraft received their final update and would later become known as "Legacy Console Editions". On 15 January 2019, the New Nintendo 3DS version of Minecraft received its final update, effectively becoming discontinued as well. An educational version of Minecraft, designed for use in schools, launched on 1 November 2016. It is available on Android, ChromeOS, iPadOS, iOS, MacOS, and Windows. On 20 August 2018, Mojang announced that it would bring Education Edition to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released to the App Store on 6 September 2018. On 27 March 2019, it was announced that it would be operated by JD.com in China. On 26 June 2020, a public beta for the Education Edition was made available to Google Play Store compatible Chromebooks. The full game was released to the Google Play Store for Chromebooks on 7 August 2020. On 20 May 2016, China Edition (also known as My World) was announced as a localized edition for China, where it was released under a licensing agreement between NetEase and Mojang. The PC edition was released for public testing on 8 August 2017. The iOS version was released on 15 September 2017, and the Android version was released on 12 October 2017. The PC edition is based on the original Java Edition, while the iOS and Android mobile versions are based on the Bedrock Edition. The edition is free-to-play and had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. This version of Bedrock Edition is exclusive to Microsoft's Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. The beta release for Windows 10 launched on the Windows Store on 29 July 2015. After nearly a year and a half in beta, Microsoft fully released the version on 19 December 2016. Called the "Ender Update", this release implemented new features to this version of Minecraft like world templates and add-on packs. On 7 June 2022, the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft were merged into a single bundle for purchase on Windows; those who owned one version would automatically gain access to the other version. Both game versions would otherwise remain separate. Around 2011, prior to Minecraft's full release, Mojang collaborated with The Lego Group to create a Lego brick-based Minecraft game called Brickcraft. This would have modified the base Minecraft game to use Lego bricks, which meant adapting the basic 1×1 block to account for larger pieces typically used in Lego sets. Persson worked on an early version called "Project Rex Kwon Do", named after the character of the same name from the film Napoleon Dynamite. Although Lego approved the project and Mojang assigned two developers for six months, it was canceled due to the Lego Group's demands, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. Lego considered buying Mojang to complete the game, but when Microsoft offered over $2 billion for the company, Lego stepped back, unsure of Minecraft's potential. On 26 June 2025, a build of Brickcraft dated 28 June 2012 was published on a community archive website Omniarchive. Initially, Markus Persson planned to support the Oculus Rift with a Minecraft port. However, after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013, he abruptly canceled the plans, stating, "Facebook creeps me out." In 2016, a community-made mod, Minecraft VR, added VR support for Java Edition, followed by Vivecraft for HTC Vive. Later that year, Microsoft introduced official Oculus Rift support for Windows 10 Edition, leading to the discontinuation of the Minecraft VR mod due to trademark complaints. Vivecraft was endorsed by Minecraft VR contributors for its Rift support. Also available is a Gear VR version, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. On 7 September 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 Bedrock version would receive PlayStation VR support later that month. In September 2024, the Minecraft team announced they would no longer support PlayStation VR, which received its final update in March 2025. Music and sound design Minecraft's music and sound effects were produced by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418. To create the sound effects for the game, Rosenfeld made extensive use of Foley techniques. On learning the processes for the game, he remarked, "Foley's an interesting thing, and I had to learn its subtleties. Early on, I wasn't that knowledgeable about it. It's a whole trial-and-error process. You just make a sound and eventually you go, 'Oh my God, that's it! Get the microphone!' There's no set way of doing anything at all." He reminisced on creating the in-game sound for grass blocks, stating "It turns out that to make grass sounds you don't actually walk on grass and record it, because grass sounds like nothing. What you want to do is get a VHS, break it apart, and just lightly touch the tape." According to Rosenfeld, his favorite sound to design for the game was the hisses of spiders. He elaborates, "I like the spiders. Recording that was a whole day of me researching what a spider sounds like. Turns out, there are spiders that make little screeching sounds, so I think I got this recording of a fire hose, put it in a sampler, and just pitched it around until it sounded like a weird spider was talking to you." Many of the sound design decisions by Rosenfeld were done accidentally or spontaneously. The creeper notably lacks any specific noises apart from a loud fuse-like sound when about to explode; Rosenfeld later recalled "That was just a complete accident by Markus and me [sic]. We just put in a placeholder sound of burning a matchstick. It seemed to work hilariously well, so we kept it." On other sounds, such as those of the zombie, Rosenfeld remarked, "I actually never wanted the zombies so scary. I intentionally made them sound comical. It's nice to hear that they work so well [...]." Rosenfeld remarked that the sound engine was "terrible" to work with, remembering "If you had two song files at once, it [the game engine] would actually crash. There were so many more weird glitches like that the guys never really fixed because they were too busy with the actual game and not the sound engine." The background music in Minecraft consists of instrumental ambient music. To compose the music of Minecraft, Rosenfeld used the package from Ableton Live, along with several additional plug-ins. Speaking on them, Rosenfeld said "They can be pretty much everything from an effect to an entire orchestra. Additionally, I've got some synthesizers that are attached to the computer. Like a Moog Voyager, Dave Smith Prophet 08 and a Virus TI." On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which included the music that was added in a 2013 "Music Update" for the game. A physical release of Volume Alpha, consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by indie electronic label Ghostly International on 21 August 2015. On 14 August 2020, Ghostly released Volume Beta on CD and vinyl, with alternate color LPs and lenticular cover pressings released in limited quantities. The final update Rosenfeld worked on was 2018's 1.13 Update Aquatic. His music remained the only music in the game until 2020's "Nether Update", introducing pieces from Lena Raine. Since then, other composers have made contributions, including Kumi Tanioka, Samuel Åberg, Aaron Cherof, and Amos Roddy, with Raine remaining as the new primary composer. Ownership of all music besides Rosenfeld's independently released albums has been retained by Microsoft, with their label publishing all of the other artists' releases. Gareth Coker also composed some of the music for the game's mini games from the Legacy Console editions. Rosenfeld had stated his intent to create a third album of music for the game in a 2015 interview with Fact, and confirmed its existence in a 2017 tweet, stating that his work on the record as of then had tallied up to be longer than the previous two albums combined, which in total clocks in at over 3 hours and 18 minutes. However, due to licensing issues with Microsoft, the third volume has since not seen release. On 8 January 2021, Rosenfeld was asked in an interview with Anthony Fantano whether or not there was still a third volume of his music intended for release. Rosenfeld responded, saying, "I have something—I consider it finished—but things have become complicated, especially as Minecraft is now a big property, so I don't know." Reception Minecraft has received critical acclaim, with praise for the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay. Critics have expressed enjoyment in Minecraft's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favorably, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends". Jaz McDougall of PC Gamer said Minecraft is "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences". It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic game mechanics are logically analogous to computer commands. IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle". Critics also said that visual glitches occur periodically. Despite its release out of beta in 2011, GameSpot said the game had an "unfinished feel", adding that some game elements seem "incomplete or thrown together in haste". A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it. Jim Rossignol of Rock Paper Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker". On 17 September 2010, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game. The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise as the PC version. Although reviewers were disappointed by the lack of features such as mod support and content from the PC version, they acclaimed the port's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. The Xbox One Edition was one of the best received ports, being praised for its relatively large worlds. The PlayStation 3 Edition also received generally favorable reviews, being compared to the Xbox 360 Edition and praised for its well-adapted controls. The PlayStation 4 edition was the best received port to date, being praised for having 36 times larger worlds than the PlayStation 3 edition and described as nearly identical to the Xbox One edition. The PlayStation Vita Edition received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for its technical limitations. The Wii U version received generally positive reviews from critics but was noted for a lack of GamePad integration. The 3DS version received mixed reviews, being criticized for its high price, technical issues, and lack of cross-platform play. The Nintendo Switch Edition received fairly positive reviews from critics, being praised, like other modern ports, for its relatively larger worlds. Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially received mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they were disappointed by the lack of content. The inability to collect resources and craft items, as well as the limited types of blocks and lack of hostile mobs, were especially criticized. After updates added more content, Pocket Edition started receiving more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the graphics, but still noted a lack of content. Minecraft surpassed over a million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase in early 2011. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the Penny Arcade webcomic. By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011, prior to the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014[update], the game had sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. By May 2019, 180 million copies had been sold across all platforms, making it the single best-selling video game of all time. The free-to-play Minecraft China version had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023. By 2023, the game had sold over 300 million copies. As of April 2025, Minecraft has sold over 350 million copies. The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first day of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold a million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on Xbox Live Arcade in May 2012. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average unique users per day. As of 4 April 2014[update], the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies. In addition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales. The PlayStation 3 Edition sold one million copies in five weeks. The release of the game's PlayStation Vita version boosted Minecraft sales by 79%, outselling both PS3 and PS4 debut releases and becoming the largest Minecraft launch on a PlayStation console. The PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies in Japan within the first two months of release, according to an announcement by SCE Japan Asia. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies of Minecraft were sold in Japan across all PlayStation platforms, with a surge in primary school children purchasing the PS Vita version. As of 2022, the Vita version has sold over 1.65 million physical copies in Japan, making it the best-selling Vita game in the country. Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter. The game, including all of its versions, had over 112 million monthly active players by September 2019. On its 11th anniversary in May 2020, the company announced that Minecraft had reached over 200 million copies sold across platforms with over 126 million monthly active players. By April 2021, the number of active monthly users had climbed to 140 million. In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December of that year, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010, Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year". Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie. It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC Gamer UK. The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award. At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated. It also won GameCity's video game arts award. On 5 May 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of The Art of Video Games exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012. At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category. In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category. In 2013, it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards. During the 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft for "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year". Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list. Minecraft was nominated for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite App, but lost to Temple Run. It was nominated for the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Video Game, but lost to Just Dance 2014. The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. In addition, the Java Edition was nominated for "Favorite Video Game" at the 2018 Kids' Choice Awards, while the game itself won the "Still Playing" award at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, as well as the "Favorite Video Game" award at the 2020 Kids' Choice Awards. Minecraft also won "Stream Game of the Year" at inaugural Streamer Awards in 2021. The game later garnered a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award nomination for Favorite Video Game in 2021, and won the same category in 2022 and 2023. At the Golden Joystick Awards 2025, it won the Still Playing Award - PC and Console. Minecraft has been subject to several notable controversies. In June 2014, Mojang announced that it would begin enforcing the portion of Minecraft's end-user license agreement (EULA) which prohibits servers from giving in-game advantages to players in exchange for donations or payments. Spokesperson Owen Hill stated that servers could still require players to pay a fee to access the server and could sell in-game cosmetic items. The change was supported by Persson, citing emails he received from parents of children who had spent hundreds of dollars on servers. The Minecraft community and server owners protested, arguing that the EULA's terms were more broad than Mojang was claiming, that the crackdown would force smaller servers to shut down for financial reasons, and that Mojang was suppressing competition for its own Minecraft Realms subscription service. The controversy contributed to Notch's decision to sell Mojang. In 2020, Mojang announced an eventual change to the Java Edition to require a login from a Microsoft account rather than a Mojang account, the latter of which would be sunsetted. This also required Java Edition players to create Xbox network Gamertags. Mojang defended the move to Microsoft accounts by saying that improved security could be offered, including two-factor authentication, blocking cyberbullies in chat, and improved parental controls. The community responded with intense backlash, citing various technical difficulties encountered in the process and how account migration would be mandatory, even for those who do not play on servers. As of 10 March 2022, Microsoft required that all players migrate in order to maintain access the Java Edition of Minecraft. Mojang announced a deadline of 19 September 2023 for account migration, after which all legacy Mojang accounts became inaccessible and unable to be migrated. In June 2022, Mojang added a player-reporting feature in Java Edition. Players could report other players on multiplayer servers for sending messages prohibited by the Xbox Live Code of Conduct; report categories included profane language,[l] substance abuse, hate speech, threats of violence, and nudity. If a player was found to be in violation of Xbox Community Standards, they would be banned from all servers for a specific period of time or permanently. The update containing the report feature (1.19.1) was released on 27 July 2022. Mojang received substantial backlash and protest from community members, one of the most common complaints being that banned players would be forbidden from joining any server, even private ones. Others took issue to what they saw as Microsoft increasing control over its player base and exercising censorship, leading some to start a hashtag #saveminecraft and dub the version "1.19.84", a reference to the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The "Mob Vote" was an online event organized by Mojang in which the Minecraft community voted between three original mob concepts; initially, the winning mob was to be implemented in a future update, while the losing mobs were scrapped, though after the first mob vote this was changed, and losing mobs would now have a chance to come to the game in the future. The first Mob Vote was held during Minecon Earth 2017 and became an annual event starting with Minecraft Live 2020. The Mob Vote was often criticized for forcing players to choose one mob instead of implementing all three, causing divisions and flaming within the community, and potentially allowing internet bots and Minecraft content creators with large fanbases to conduct vote brigading. The Mob Vote was also blamed for a perceived lack of new content added to Minecraft since Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang in 2014. The 2023 Mob Vote featured three passive mobs—the crab, the penguin, and the armadillo—with voting scheduled to start on 13 October. In response, a Change.org petition was created on 6 October, demanding that Mojang eliminate the Mob Vote and instead implement all three mobs going forward. The petition received approximately 445,000 signatures by 13 October and was joined by calls to boycott the Mob Vote, as well as a partially tongue-in-cheek "revolutionary" propaganda campaign in which sympathizers created anti-Mojang and pro-boycott posters in the vein of real 20th century propaganda posters. Mojang did not release an official response to the boycott, and the Mob Vote otherwise proceeded normally, with the armadillo winning the vote. In September 2024, as part of a blog post detailing their future plans for Minecraft's development, Mojang announced the Mob Vote would be retired. Cultural impact In September 2019, The Guardian classified Minecraft as the best video game of the 21st century to date, and in November 2019, Polygon called it the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review". In June 2020, Minecraft was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Minecraft is recognized as one of the first successful games to use an early access model to draw in sales prior to its full release version to help fund development. As Minecraft helped to bolster indie game development in the early 2010s, it also helped to popularize the use of the early access model in indie game development. Social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit have played a significant role in popularizing Minecraft. Research conducted by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs. Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded. The game would go on to be a prominent fixture within YouTube's gaming scene during the entire 2010s; in 2014, it was the second-most searched term on the entire platform. By 2018, it was still YouTube's biggest game globally. Some popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a now-defunct gaming video company that owned a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube. The Yogscast is a British company that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at Minecon 2011 had the highest attendance. Another well-known YouTube personality is Jordan Maron, known online as CaptainSparklez, who has also created many Minecraft music parodies, including "Revenge", a parody of Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love". Minecraft's popularity on YouTube was described by Polygon as quietly dominant, although in 2019, thanks in part to PewDiePie's playthroughs of the game, Minecraft experienced a visible uptick in popularity on the platform. Longer-running series include Far Lands or Bust, dedicated to reaching the obsolete "Far Lands" glitch by foot on an older version of the game. YouTube announced that on 14 December 2021 that the total amount of Minecraft-related views on the website had exceeded one trillion. Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Torchlight II, Team Fortress 2, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, and FTL: Faster Than Light. Minecraft is officially represented in downloadable content for the crossover fighter Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Steve as a playable character with a moveset including references to building, crafting, and redstone, alongside an Overworld-themed stage. It was also referenced by electronic music artist Deadmau5 in his performances. The game is also referenced heavily in "Informative Murder Porn", the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park. In 2025, A Minecraft Movie was released. It made $313 million in the box office in the first week, a record-breaking opening for a video game adaptation. Minecraft has been noted as a cultural touchstone for Generation Z, as many of the generation's members played the game at a young age. The possible applications of Minecraft have been discussed extensively, especially in the fields of computer-aided design (CAD) and education. In a panel at Minecon 2011, a Swedish developer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks, stating that rendering using Minecraft was much more user-friendly for the community, making it easier to envision the functionality of new buildings and parks. In 2012, a member of the Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab, Cody Sumter, said: "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a CAD program." Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional 3D printers or personal printers such as MakerBot and RepRap. In September 2012, Mojang began the Block by Block project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create real-world environments in Minecraft. The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using Minecraft, the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the Minecraft servers and modify their own neighborhood. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to facilitate this process", adding "The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016." Mojang signed Minecraft building community, FyreUK, to help render the environments into Minecraft. The first pilot project began in Kibera, one of Nairobi's informal settlements and is in the planning phase. The Block by Block project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, Mina Kvarter (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions. In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in Minecraft based on their own geodata. This is possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries with the highest point at 171 meters (ranking as the country with the 30th smallest elevation span), where the limit in default Minecraft was around 192 meters above in-game sea level when the project was completed. Taking advantage of the game's accessibility where other websites are censored, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders has used an open Minecraft server to create the Uncensored Library, a repository within the game of journalism by authors from countries (including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam) who have been censored and arrested, such as Jamal Khashoggi. The neoclassical virtual building was created over about 250 hours by an international team of 24 people. Despite its unpredictable nature, Minecraft speedrunning, where players time themselves from spawning into a new world to reaching The End and defeating the Ender Dragon boss, is popular. Some speedrunners use a combination of mods, external programs, and debug menus, while other runners play the game in a more vanilla or more consistency-oriented way. Minecraft has been used in educational settings through initiatives such as MinecraftEdu, founded in 2011 to make the game affordable and accessible for schools in collaboration with Mojang. MinecraftEdu provided features allowing teachers to monitor student progress, including screenshot submissions as evidence of lesson completion, and by 2012 reported that approximately 250,000 students worldwide had access to the platform. Mojang also developed Minecraft: Education Edition with pre-built lesson plans for up to 30 students in a closed environment. Educators have used Minecraft to teach subjects such as history, language arts, and science through custom-built environments, including reconstructions of historical landmarks and large-scale models of biological structures such as animal cells. The introduction of redstone blocks enabled the construction of functional virtual machines such as a hard drive and an 8-bit computer. Mods have been created to use these mechanics for teaching programming. In 2014, the British Museum announced a project to reproduce its building and exhibits in Minecraft in collaboration with the public. Microsoft and Code.org have offered Minecraft-based tutorials and activities designed to teach programming, reporting by 2018 that more than 85 million children had used their resources. In 2025, the Musée de Minéralogie in Paris held a temporary exhibition titled "Minerals in Minecraft." Following the initial surge in popularity of Minecraft in 2010, other video games were criticised for having various similarities to Minecraft, and some were described as being "clones", often due to a direct inspiration from Minecraft, or a superficial similarity. Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, Terraria, BlockWorld 3D, Total Miner, and Luanti (formerly Minetest). David Frampton, designer of The Blockheads, reported that one failure of his 2D game was the "low resolution pixel art" that too closely resembled the art in Minecraft, which resulted in "some resistance" from fans. A homebrew adaptation of the alpha version of Minecraft for the Nintendo DS, titled DScraft, has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system. In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their Minecraft IP, various developers announced further clone titles developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms not to officially receive Minecraft at the time. These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games), Cube Life: Island Survival (Cypronia), Discovery (Noowanda), Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games), Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games), and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games). Despite this, the fears of fans were unfounded, with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming. Markus Persson made another similar game, Minicraft, for a Ludum Dare competition in 2011. In 2025, Persson announced through a poll on his X account that he was considering developing a spiritual successor to Minecraft. He later clarified that he was "100% serious", and that he had "basically announced Minecraft 2". Within days, however, Persson cancelled the plans after speaking to his team. In November 2024, artificial intelligence companies Decart and Etched released Oasis, an artificially generated version of Minecraft, as a proof of concept. Every in-game element is completely AI-generated in real time and the model does not store world data, leading to "hallucinations" such as items and blocks appearing that were not there before. In January 2026, indie game developer Unomelon announced that their voxel sandbox game Allumeria would be playable in Steam Next Fest that year. On 10 February, Mojang issued a DMCA takedown of Allumeria on Steam through Valve, alleging the game was infringing on Minecraft's copyright. Some reports suggested that the takedown may have used an automatic AI copyright claiming service. The DMCA was later withdrawn. Minecon was an annual official fan convention dedicated to Minecraft. The first full Minecon was held in November 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event included the official launch of Minecraft; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; Minecraft-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the Minecraft community. In 2016, Minecon was held in-person for the last time, with the following years featuring annual "Minecon Earth" livestreams on minecraft.net and YouTube instead. These livestreams, later rebranded to "Minecraft Live", included the mob/biome votes, and announcements of new game updates. In 2025, "Minecraft Live" became a biannual event as part of Minecraft's changing update schedule.[citation needed] Notes References External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN] | [TOKENS: 6027] |
Contents ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN /ˈaɪkæn/ EYE-kan) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet while also ensuring the Internet's smooth, secure and stable operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance (work) of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community. Much of its work has concerned the Internet's global Domain Name System (DNS), including policy development for internationalization of the DNS, introduction of new generic top-level domains (TLDs), and the operation of root name servers; the numbering facilities ICANN manages include the Internet Protocol (IP) address spaces for IPv4 and v6 in addition to the assignment of address blocks to regional Internet registries (RIRs). ICANN's primary principles of operation have been described as helping preserve the operational stability of the Internet; promoting competition; achieving broad representation of the global Internet community, and developing policies appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes. The organization has often included a motto of "One World. One Internet." on annual reports beginning in 2010, on less formal publications, as well as their official website. ICANN was officially incorporated in the state of California on September 30, 1998, with entrepreneur and philanthropist Esther Dyson as founding chairwoman. Originally headquartered in Marina del Rey in the same building as the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (ISI), its offices are now in the Playa Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles. History Before the establishment of ICANN, the IANA function of administering RIRs (including the distributing top-level domains and IP addresses) was performed by Jon Postel, a computer science researcher who had been involved in the creation of ARPANET, first at UCLA and then at USC-ISI. In 1997 Postel testified before Congress that this had come about as a "side task" to this research work. The Information Sciences Institute was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, as was SRI International's Network Information Center, which also performed some assigned name functions. As the Internet grew and expanded globally, the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated a process to establish a new organization to perform the IANA functions. On January 30, 1998, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, issued for comment, "A Proposal to Improve the Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses." The proposed rule making, or "Green Paper", was published in the Federal Register on February 20, 1998, providing opportunity for public comment. NTIA received more than 650 comments as of March 23, 1998, when the comment period closed. The Green Paper proposed certain actions designed to privatize the management of Internet names and addresses in a manner that allows for the development of competition and facilitates global participation in Internet management. The Green Paper proposed for discussion a variety of issues relating to DNS management including private sector creation of a new not-for-profit corporation (the "new corporation") managed by a globally and functionally representative board of directors. ICANN was formed in response to this policy. ICANN managed the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) under contract to the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) and pursuant to an agreement with the IETF. ICANN is a public-benefit nonprofit corporation "organized under the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for charitable and public purposes." ICANN was established in California due to the presence of Postel, who was a founder of ICANN and was set to be its first Chief Technology Officer prior to his unexpected death. ICANN formerly operated from the same Marina del Rey building where Postel formerly worked, which is home to an office of the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California. However, ICANN's headquarters is now located in the nearby Playa Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles. Per its original by-laws, primary responsibility for policy formation in ICANN was to be delegated to three supporting organizations (Address Supporting Organization, Domain Name Supporting Organization, and Protocol Supporting Organization), each of which was to develop and recommend substantive policies and procedures for the management of the addresses within their respective scope. They were also required to be financially independent from ICANN. As expected, the RIRs and IETF agreed to serve as the Address Supporting Organization and Protocol Supporting Organization respectively, and ICANN issued a call for interested parties to propose the structure and composition of the Domain Name Supporting Organization. In March 1999, the ICANN Board, based in part on the DNSO proposals received, decided instead on an alternate construction for the DNSO which delineated specific constituencies bodies within ICANN itself, thus adding primary responsibility for DNS policy development to ICANN's existing duties of oversight and coordination. On July 26, 2006, the United States government renewed the contract with ICANN for performance of the IANA function for an additional one to five years. The context of ICANN's relationship with the U.S. government was clarified on September 29, 2006, when ICANN signed a new memorandum of understanding with the United States Department of Commerce (DOC). This document gave the DOC oversight over some of the ICANN operations. In July 2008, the DOC reiterated an earlier statement that it has "no plans to transition management of the authoritative root zone file to ICANN". The letter also stresses the separate roles of the IANA and VeriSign. On September 30, 2009, ICANN signed an agreement with the DOC (known as the "Affirmation of Commitments") that confirmed ICANN's commitment to a multistakeholder governance model, but did not remove it from DOC oversight and control. The Affirmation of Commitments, which aimed to create international oversight, ran into criticism. On March 10, 2016, ICANN and the DOC signed a historic, culminating agreement to finally remove ICANN and IANA from the control and oversight of the DOC. On October 1, 2016, ICANN was freed from U.S. government oversight. Since its creation, ICANN has been the subject of criticism and controversy. In 2000, professor Michael Froomkin of the University of Miami School of Law argued that ICANN's relationship with the U.S. Department of Commerce is illegal, in violation of either the Constitution or federal statutes. On June 10, 2024, it was announced that Kurt Erik Lindqvist, who has been CEO of the London Internet Exchange since 2019, was to become the new president and CEO of ICANN on December 5, 2024. Notable events On March 18, 2002, publicly elected At-Large Representative for North America board member Karl Auerbach sued ICANN in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, California, to gain access to ICANN's accounting records without restriction. Judge Dzintra Janavs ruled in Auerbach's favor on July 29, 2002. During September and October 2003, ICANN played a crucial role in the conflict over VeriSign's "wild card" DNS service Site Finder. After an open letter from ICANN issuing an ultimatum to VeriSign, later endorsed by the Internet Architecture Board, the company voluntarily ended the service on October 4, 2003. After this action, VeriSign filed a lawsuit against ICANN on February 27, 2004, claiming that ICANN had exceeded its authority. By this lawsuit, VeriSign sought to reduce ambiguity about ICANN's authority. The antitrust component of VeriSign's claim was dismissed during August 2004. VeriSign's challenge that ICANN overstepped its contractual rights is currently outstanding. A proposed settlement already approved by ICANN's board would resolve VeriSign's challenge to ICANN in exchange for the right to increase pricing on .com domains. At the meeting of ICANN in Rome, which took place from March 2 to 6, 2004, ICANN agreed to ask approval of the U.S. Department of Commerce for the Waiting List Service of VeriSign.[citation needed] On May 17, 2004, ICANN published a proposed budget for the year 2004–05. It included proposals to increase the openness and professionalism of its operations, and increased its proposed spending from US$8.27 million to $15.83 million. The increase was to be funded by the introduction of new top-level domains, charges to domain registries, and a fee for some domain name registrations, renewals and transfers (initially US$0.20 for all domains within a country-code top-level domain, and US$0.25 for all others).[citation needed] The Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries (CENTR), which represents the RIRs of 39 countries, rejected the increase, accusing ICANN of a lack of financial prudence and criticizing what it describes as ICANN's "unrealistic political and operational targets". Despite the criticism, the registry agreement for the top-level domains jobs and travel includes a US$2 fee on every domain the licensed companies sell or renew. After a second round of negotiations during 2004, the TLDs eu, asia, travel, jobs, mobi, and cat were introduced during 2005. On February 28, 2006, ICANN's board approved a settlement with VeriSign in the lawsuit resulting from SiteFinder that involved allowing VeriSign (the registry) to raise its registration fees by up to 7% a year. This was criticised by a few members of the U.S. House of Representatives' Small Business Committee. During February 2007, ICANN began procedures to end accreditation of one of their registrars, RegisterFly amid charges and lawsuits involving fraud, and criticism of ICANN's management of the situation. ICANN has been the subject of criticism as a result of its handling of RegisterFly, and the harm caused to thousands of clients as a result of what has been termed ICANN's "laissez faire attitude toward customer allegations of fraud". On May 23, 2008, ICANN issued enforcement notices against ten accredited registrars and announced this through a press release entitled "'Worst Spam Offenders' Notified by ICANN, Compliance system working to correct Whois and other issues." This was largely in response to a report issued by KnujOn, called "The 10 Worst Registrars" in terms of spam advertised junk product sites and compliance failure. The mention of the word "spam" in the title of the ICANN memo is somewhat misleading since ICANN does not address issues of spam or email abuse. Website content and usage are not within ICANN's mandate. However, the KnujOn report details how various registrars have not complied with their contractual obligations under the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). The main point of the KnujOn research was to demonstrate the relationships between compliance failure, illicit product traffic, and spam. The report demonstrated that out of 900 ICANN accredited registrars, fewer than 20 held 90% of the web domains advertised in spam. These same registrars were also most frequently cited by KnujOn as failing to resolve complaints made through the Whois Data Problem Reporting System (WDPRS). On June 26, 2008, the ICANN Board started a new process of TLD naming policy to take a "significant step forward on the introduction of new generic top-level domains." This program envisioned the availability of many new or already proposed domains, as well a new application and implementation process. On October 1, 2008, ICANN issued breach notices against Joker and Beijing Innovative Linkage Technology Ltd. after further researching reports and complaints issued by KnujOn. These notices gave the registrars 15 days to fix their Whois investigation efforts. In 2010, ICANN approved a major review of its policies with respect to accountability, transparency, and public participation by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. This external review was an assistance of the work of ICANN's Accountability and Transparency Review team. On February 3, 2011, ICANN announced that it had distributed the last batch of its remaining IPv4 addresses to the world's five RIRs (the organizations that manage IP addresses in different regions); these registries began assigning the final IPv4 addresses within their regions until they completely ran out. On June 20, 2011, the ICANN board voted to end most restrictions on the names of generic top-level domains (gTLD). Companies and organizations became able to choose essentially arbitrary top-level Internet domain names. The use of non-Latin characters (such as Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, etc.) is also allowed in gTLDs. ICANN began accepting applications for new gTLDS on January 12, 2012. The initial price to apply for a new gTLD was set at $185,000 and the annual renewal fee is $25,000. During December 2011, the Federal Trade Commission stated ICANN had long failed to provide safeguards that protect consumers from online swindlers. Following the 2013 NSA spying scandal, ICANN endorsed the Montevideo Statement, although no direct connection between these could be proven. On October 1, 2016, ICANN ended its contract with the United States Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and entered the private sector. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (active since May 25, 2018) has had an impact on ICANN's operations, which had to be fixed via some last minute changes.[clarification needed] Structure From its founding to the present, ICANN has been formally organized as a nonprofit corporation "for charitable and public purposes" under the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law. It is managed by a 16-member board of directors composed of eight members selected by a nominating committee on which all the constituencies of ICANN are represented; six representatives of its Supporting Organizations, sub-groups that deal with specific sections of the policies under ICANN's purview; an at-large seat filled by an at-large organization; and the president / CEO, appointed by the board. There are currently three supporting organizations: the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) which deals with policy making on generic top-level domains (gTLDs); the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) deals with policy making on country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs); the Address Supporting Organization (ASO) deals with policy making on IP addresses. ICANN also relies on some advisory committees and other advisory mechanisms to receive advice on the interests and needs of stakeholders that do not directly participate in the Supporting Organizations. These include the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which is composed of representatives of a large number of national governments from all over the world; the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), which is composed of individual Internet users from around the world selected by each of the Regional At-Large Organizations (RALO) and Nominating Committee; the Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC), which provides advice on the operation of the DNS root server system; the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC), which is composed of Internet experts who study security issues pertaining to ICANN's mandate; and the Technical Liaison Group (TLG), which is composed of representatives of other international technical organizations that focus, at least in part, on the Internet. The Governmental Advisory Committee has representatives from 179 states and 38 Observer organizations, including the Holy See, Cook Islands, Niue, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Montserrat, the European Commission and the African Union Commission. In addition the following organizations are GAC Observers: As the operator of the IANA domain name functions, ICANN is responsible for the DNSSEC management of the root zone. While day-to-day operations are managed by ICANN and Verisign, the trust is rooted in a group of Trusted Community Representatives. The members of this group must not be affiliated with ICANN, but are instead members of the broader DNS community, volunteering to become a Trusted Community Representative. The role of the representatives are primarily to take part in regular key ceremonies at a physical location, organized by ICANN, and to safeguard the key materials in between. In the memorandum of understanding that set up the relationship between ICANN and the U.S. government, ICANN was given a mandate requiring that it operate "in a bottom-up, consensus-driven, democratic manner." However, the attempts that ICANN has made to establish an organizational structure that would allow wide input from the global Internet community did not produce results amenable to the current Board. As a result, the At-Large constituency and direct election of board members by the global Internet community were soon abandoned. ICANN holds periodic public meetings rotated between continents for the purpose of encouraging global participation in its processes. Resolutions of the ICANN Board, preliminary reports, and minutes of the meetings are published on the ICANN website, sometimes in real-time. However, there are criticisms from ICANN constituencies including the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) and the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) that there is not enough public disclosure and that too many discussions and decisions take place out of sight of the public. During the early 2000s, there had been speculation that the United Nations might assume control of ICANN, followed by a negative reaction from the U.S. government and worries about a division of the Internet. At UN's World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia in November 2005, the world's governments agreed not to get involved in the day-to-day and technical operations of ICANN. However they also agreed to establish an international Internet Governance Forum, with a consultative role on the future governance of the Internet. ICANN's Government Advisory Committee is currently established to provide advice to ICANN regarding public policy issues and has participation by many of the world's governments. Some have attempted to argue that ICANN was never given the authority to decide policy, e.g., choose new TLDs or exclude other interested parties who refuse to pay ICANN's US$185,000 fee but was to be a technical caretaker. Critics[who?] suggest that ICANN should not be allowed to impose business rules on market participants and that all TLDs should be added on a first-come, first-served basis and the market should be the arbiter of who succeeds and who does not. Activities One task that ICANN was asked to do was to address the issue of domain name ownership resolution for generic top-level domains (gTLDs). ICANN's attempt at such a policy was drafted in close cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the result has now become known as the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). This policy essentially attempts to provide a mechanism for rapid, cheap and reasonable resolution of domain name conflicts, avoiding the traditional court system for disputes by allowing cases to be brought to one of a set of bodies that arbitrate domain name disputes. According to ICANN policy, domain registrants must agree to be bound by the UDRP—they cannot get a domain name without agreeing to this. Examination of the UDRP decision patterns has caused some to conclude that compulsory domain name arbitration is less likely to give a fair hearing to domain name owners asserting defenses under the First Amendment and other laws, compared to the federal courts of appeal in particular. In 2013, the initial report of ICANN's Expert Working Group has recommended that the present form of Whois, a utility that allows anyone to know who has registered a domain name on the Internet, should be "abandoned". It recommends it be replaced with a system that keeps most registration information secret (or "gated") from most Internet users, and only discloses information for "permissible purposes". ICANN's list of permissible purposes includes domain name research, domain name sale and purchase, regulatory enforcement, personal data protection, legal actions, and abuse mitigation. Whois has been a key tool of investigative journalists interested in determining who was disseminating information on the Internet. The use of whois by journalists is not included in the list of permissible purposes in the initial report. Proposals for reform Proposals have been made to internationalize ICANN's monitoring responsibilities (currently the responsibility of the US), to transform it into an international organization (under international law), and to "establish an intergovernmental mechanism enabling governments, on an equal footing, to carry out their roles and responsibilities in international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet".[citation needed] One controversial proposal, resulting from a September 2011 summit between India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA), sought to move Internet governance into a "UN Committee on Internet-Related Policy" (UN-CIRP). The action was a reaction to a perception that the principles of the 2005 Tunis Agenda for the Information Society had not been met; the statement proposed the creation of a new political organization operating as a component of the United Nations to provide policy recommendations for the consideration of technical organizations such as ICANN and international bodies such as the ITU. Subsequent to public criticism, India backed away from the proposal. On October 7, 2013, the Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet Cooperation was released by the managers of a number of organizations involved in coordinating the Internet's global technical infrastructure, loosely known as the "I*" (or "I-star") group. Among other things, the statement "expressed strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations of pervasive monitoring and surveillance" and "called for accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing". This desire to reduce United States association with the internet is considered a reaction to the ongoing NSA surveillance scandal. The statement was signed by the managers of the ICANN, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Society, and the five regional Internet address registries (African Network Information Center, American Registry for Internet Numbers, Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre, Latin America and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry, and Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre). During October 2013, Fadi Chehadé, former president and CEO of ICANN, met with Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia. Upon Chehadé's invitation, the two announced that Brazil would host an international summit on Internet governance during April 2014. The announcement came after the 2013 disclosures of mass surveillance by the U.S. government, and Rousseff's speech at the opening session of the 2013 United Nations General Assembly, where she strongly criticized the American surveillance program as a "breach of international law". The "Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance (NET mundial)" will include representatives of government, industry, civil society, and academia.[citation needed] At the IGF VIII meeting in Bali in October 2013 a commenter noted that Brazil intends the meeting to be a "summit" in the sense that it will be high level with decision-making authority. The organizers of the "NET mundial" meeting decided that an online forum called "/1net", set up by the I* group, will be a major conduit of non-governmental input into the three committees preparing for the meeting in April. The Obama administration, which had joined critics of ICANN in 2011, announced in March 2014 that they intended to transition away from oversight of the IANA functions contract. The current contract that the United States Department of Commerce has with ICANN expired in 2015, in its place the NTIA will transition oversight of the IANA functions to the 'global multistakeholder community'. The NetMundial Initiative is a plan for international governance of the Internet that was first proposed at the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance (GMMFIG) conference (April 23–24, 2014) and later developed into the NetMundial Initiative by ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé along with representatives of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil), commonly referred to as "CGI.br". The meeting produced a nonbinding statement in favor of consensus-based decision-making. It represented a compromise and did not harshly condemn mass surveillance or support net neutrality, despite initial endorsement for the latter from Brazil; the final resolution states that ICANN should be controlled internationally by September 2015. A minority of governments, including Russia, China, Iran, and India, were unhappy with the final resolution and wanted multilateral management for the Internet (such as a UN-based model), rather than broader multistakeholder management. A month later, the Panel on Global Internet Cooperation and Governance Mechanisms (convened by the ICANN and WEF with assistance from The Annenberg Foundation), endorsed and included the NetMundial statement in its own report. During June 2014, France vehemently lambasted ICANN, saying they are an unfit venue for Internet governance, and that alternatives should be sought. TLD expansion and concerns about specific top-level domains During 2011, seventy-nine companies, including The Coca-Cola Company, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung and others, signed a petition against ICANN's new TLD program (sometimes referred to as a "commercial landgrab"), in a group organized by the Association of National Advertisers. As of September 2014, this group, the Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight, that opposes the rollout of ICANN's TLD expansion program, has been joined by 102 associations and 79 major companies. Partly as a response to this criticism, ICANN initiated an effort to protect trademarks in domain name registrations, which eventually culminated in the establishment of the Trademark Clearinghouse. ICANN has received more than $60 million from gTLD auctions, and has accepted the controversial domain name ".sucks" (referring to the primarily US slang for being inferior or objectionable). sucks domains are owned and controlled by the Vox Populi Registry which won the rights for .sucks gTLD in November 2014. The .sucks domain registrar has been described as "predatory, exploitive and coercive" by the Intellectual Property Constituency that advises the ICANN board. When the .sucks registry announced their pricing model, "most brand owners were upset and felt like they were being penalized by having to pay more to protect their brands." Because of the low utility of the ".sucks" domain, most fees come from "Brand Protection" customers registering their trademarks to prevent domains being registered. Canadian brands had complained that they were being charged "exorbitant" prices to register their trademarks as premium names. FTC chair Edith Ramirez has written to ICANN to say the agency will take action against the .sucks owner if "we have reason to believe an entity has engaged in deceptive or unfair practices in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act". The Register reported that intellectual property lawyers are infuriated that "the dot-sucks registry was charging trademark holders $2,500 for .sucks domains and everyone else $10." U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte has said that trademark holders are "being shaken down" by the registry's fees. Jay Rockefeller says that .sucks is "a predatory shakedown scheme" and "Approving '.sucks', a gTLD with little or no public interest value, will have the effect of undermining the credibility ICANN has slowly been building with skeptical stakeholders." In a long-running dispute, ICANN has so far declined to allow a Turkish company to purchase the .islam and .halal gTLDs, after the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation objected that the gTLDs should be administered by an organization that represents all the world's 1.6 billion Muslims. After a number of attempts to resolve the issue the domains are still held "on hold" as of 2019. In April 2019, ICANN proposed an end to the price cap of org domains and effectively removed it in July in spite of having received 3,252 opposing comments and only six in favor. A few months later, the owner of the domain, the Public Interest Registry, proposed to sell the domain to investment firm Ethos Capital. In May 2019, ICANN decided in favor of granting exclusive administration rights to amazon.com for the .amazon gTLD after a 7 year long dispute with the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). See also References Further reading External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://www.reddit.com/user/voided_memory] | [TOKENS: 2226] |
voided_memory u/voided_memory r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions r/MinecraftCommands r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions • Is there a way to stop redstone from changing the poses of an armor stand? voided_memory replied to PlasmaTurtle21 It didn’t show me your comment for some reason. Would you happen to the command for it? The specific pose that I’m going for is the one where the armor stand stands straight with its arms at its sides. Although… if the armor stand could be made to use the player walk animation that would also be very cool. Reply reply A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Is there a way to stop redstone from changing the poses of an armor stand? It didn’t show me your comment for some reason. Would you happen to the command for it? The specific pose that I’m going for is the one where the armor stand stands straight with its arms at its sides. Although… if the armor stand could be made to use the player walk animation that would also be very cool. r/Minecraft Minecraft community on Reddit Weekly visitors Weekly contributions r/Minecraft r/Minecraft Minecraft community on Reddit Weekly visitors Weekly contributions • Swiss Alps at 1 block/meter accuracy! voided_memory commented It’s actually insane how far you have to zoom in on the wide shots to actually see the blocks, my god. Reply reply Minecraft community on Reddit Minecraft community on Reddit Swiss Alps at 1 block/meter accuracy! It’s actually insane how far you have to zoom in on the wide shots to actually see the blocks, my god. r/Blockbench Official subreddit for Blockbench, a low-poly 3D model editor! Weekly visitors Weekly contributions r/Blockbench r/Blockbench Official subreddit for Blockbench, a low-poly 3D model editor! Weekly visitors Weekly contributions • baby warden voided_memory commented I want it as a pet. You made this, right? I love it! Great work. Reply reply Official subreddit for Blockbench, a low-poly 3D model editor! Official subreddit for Blockbench, a low-poly 3D model editor! baby warden I want it as a pet. You made this, right? I love it! Great work. r/Minecraft Minecraft community on Reddit Weekly visitors Weekly contributions r/Minecraft r/Minecraft Minecraft community on Reddit Weekly visitors Weekly contributions • [ Removed by moderator ] voided_memory commented No idea. Tears is actually one of my favorite disks out of all of them. Reply reply Minecraft community on Reddit Minecraft community on Reddit [ Removed by moderator ] No idea. Tears is actually one of my favorite disks out of all of them. r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions r/MinecraftCommands r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions • Can you remove collision from the NPC entity and make it invisible? voided_memory commented It turns out the “creeper swelling” animation does work to make the npc invisible and isn’t actually that complicated. Repeating always active: /playanimation @e[type=npc] animation.creeper.swelling i 180 This does not remove collision at all though so I’m still digging. Video here: https://youtu.be/8jRRSg_hgC4?si=tu_FhLnUNvgJtsLX Reply reply A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Can you remove collision from the NPC entity and make it invisible? It turns out the “creeper swelling” animation does work to make the npc invisible and isn’t actually that complicated. Repeating always active: /playanimation @e[type=npc] animation.creeper.swelling i 180 This does not remove collision at all though so I’m still digging. Video here: https://youtu.be/8jRRSg_hgC4?si=tu_FhLnUNvgJtsLX r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions r/MinecraftCommands r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions • Is there a way to make entities check for copper chests in a specific radius? voided_memory replied to Ericristian_bros I love the idea and I very much appreciate it but my particular use case wouldn’t allow for this unless I periodically spawn the golem and then killed it after a certain time or radius. I’m sorry for being so difficult with this…. I also just realized that this post has been up for hours and I accidentally told everyone that my solution doesn’t work. That’s now edited but it still annoys me that I made a typo like that. I am curious of maybe combining the two ideas though. Something like periodically summoning the golem, having it run around a bit, summoning the armor stand at the chest if it finds one, killing the golem either way, and letting the main entity still search for the armor stand from there. Reply reply A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Is there a way to make entities check for copper chests in a specific radius? I love the idea and I very much appreciate it but my particular use case wouldn’t allow for this unless I periodically spawn the golem and then killed it after a certain time or radius. I’m sorry for being so difficult with this…. I also just realized that this post has been up for hours and I accidentally told everyone that my solution doesn’t work. That’s now edited but it still annoys me that I made a typo like that. I am curious of maybe combining the two ideas though. Something like periodically summoning the golem, having it run around a bit, summoning the armor stand at the chest if it finds one, killing the golem either way, and letting the main entity still search for the armor stand from there. r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions r/MinecraftCommands r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions • Is there a way to reliably make an entity, including the player, check what biome it’s in? voided_memory replied to SicarioiOS Oh my god! You make command stuff, that makes a lot of sense now. You’ve gained a follower now btw. Reply reply A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Is there a way to reliably make an entity, including the player, check what biome it’s in? Oh my god! You make command stuff, that makes a lot of sense now. You’ve gained a follower now btw. r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions r/MinecraftCommands r/MinecraftCommands A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Weekly visitors Weekly contributions • Is there a way to reliably make an entity, including the player, check what biome it’s in? voided_memory replied to SicarioiOS That’s probably for the best actually. Thank you, this all has been amazingly helpful and given me ideas that I myself would have probably never stumbled to. Reply reply A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. A place for all things about commands, command blocks and data-packs in vanilla Minecraft; to share, to question, to discuss, and more! Please read the pinned post before posting. Is there a way to reliably make an entity, including the player, check what biome it’s in? That’s probably for the best actually. Thank you, this all has been amazingly helpful and given me ideas that I myself would have probably never stumbled to. voided_memory October 2, 2021: Today marked one year on this account so I finally decided to fully start personalizing it. 2,327 22 post karma, 2305 comment karma Karma 886 Contributions 5 y Cake day: Oct 2, 2020 Reddit Age 31 Active in > Trophy Case |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://techcrunch.com/events/techcrunch-founder-summit-2026/exhibit/] | [TOKENS: 306] |
Exhibit at TechCrunch Founder Summit Maximize your brand impact at TC Founder Summit with limited quantity, first come, first-served 6′ exhibit tables Make your mark at TC Founder Summit! Reserve your own exhibit table and put your company in front of 1,100 startup decision-makers and VCs. Get premium exhibit space, increase brand visibility, and network with founders and investors at all stages at an affordable price. A very limited number of 6′ exhibit tables at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Join the waitlist to be the first to know when tables become available. Exhibitor benefits FAQ’s Any startup at any stage can apply for this program. With your package, you will receive: Your exhibit table includes a pass for you, and you’ll receive a promo code to register up to 5 team members or guests for their tickets. You and your team can still enjoy the TC Founder Summit experience, such as participating in breakouts, roundtables, and curated networking. No, this Exhibit package is non-refundable. No, all packages are non-transferable. No, it is one package per startup. No, all payments must be made by credit card and through our tickets page. Email exhibitors@techcrunch.com. Tables are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Join the waitlist below to be notified when tables are available to reserve. © 2024 Yahoo. |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimos_(moon)] | [TOKENS: 2164] |
Contents Deimos (moon) Deimos (/ˈdaɪməs/) is the smaller and outer of the two natural satellites of Mars, the other being Phobos. Deimos has a mean radius of 6.2 km (3.9 mi) and takes 30.3 hours to orbit Mars. Deimos is 23,460 km (14,580 mi) from Mars, much farther than Mars's other moon, Phobos. It is named after Deimos, the Ancient Greek god and personification of dread and terror. Discovery and etymology Deimos was discovered by Asaph Hall at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., on 12 August 1877, at about 07:48 UTC.[a] Hall, who also discovered Phobos shortly afterwards, had been specifically searching for Martian moons at the time. The moon is named after Deimos, a figure representing dread in Greek mythology. The name was suggested by academic Henry Madan, who drew from Book XV of the Iliad, where Ares (Greek counterpart of the Roman god Mars) summons Dread (Deimos) and Fear (Phobos). Planetary moons other than Earth's were never given symbols in the astronomical literature. Denis Moskowitz, a software engineer who designed most of the dwarf planet symbols, proposed a Greek delta (the initial of Deimos) combined with Mars's spear as the symbol of Deimos (). This symbol is not widely used. Origin The origin of Mars's moons is unknown and the hypotheses are controversial. The main hypotheses are that they formed either by capture or by accretion. Because of the postulated similarity to the composition of C- or D-type asteroids, one hypothesis is that the moons may be objects captured into Martian orbit from the asteroid belt, with orbits that have been circularized either by atmospheric drag or tidal forces, as capture requires dissipation of energy. The current Martian atmosphere is too thin to capture a Phobos-sized object by atmospheric braking. Geoffrey Landis has pointed out that the capture could have occurred if the original body was a binary asteroid that separated due to tidal forces. The main alternative hypothesis is that the moons accreted in the present position. Another hypothesis is that Mars was once surrounded by many Phobos- and Deimos-sized bodies, perhaps ejected into orbit around it by a collision with a planetesimal. In 2021, Amirhossein Bagheri (ETH Zurich), Amir Khan (ETH Zurich), Michael Efroimsky (US Naval Observatory) and their colleagues proposed a new hypothesis on the origin of the moons. By analyzing the seismic and orbital data from the Mars InSight Mission and other missions, they proposed that the moons were born from the disruption of a common parent body around 1 to 2.7 billion years ago. The common progenitor of Phobos and Deimos was most probably hit by another object and shattered to form Phobos and Deimos. Physical characteristics Deimos is a gray-colored body. Like most bodies of its size, Deimos is highly non-spherical with triaxial dimensions of 16.1 km × 11.8 km × 10.2 km (10.0 mi × 7.3 mi × 6.3 mi), corresponding to a mean diameter of 12.5 km (7.8 mi) which makes it about 57% the size of Phobos. Deimos is composed of rock rich in carbonaceous material, much like C-type asteroids and carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. It is cratered, but the surface is noticeably smoother than that of Phobos, caused by the partial filling of craters with regolith.[citation needed] The regolith is highly porous and has a radar-estimated density of only 1.471 g/cm3. Escape velocity from Deimos is 5.6 m/s. This velocity could theoretically be achieved by a human performing a vertical jump. The apparent magnitude of Deimos is 12.45. Only two geological features on Deimos have been given names. The craters Swift and Voltaire are named after writers who speculated on the existence of two Martian moons before Phobos and Deimos were discovered. Orbital characteristics Deimos's orbit is nearly circular and is close to Mars's equatorial plane. Deimos is possibly an asteroid that was perturbed by Jupiter into an orbit that allowed it to be captured by Mars, though this hypothesis is still controversial and disputed. Both Deimos and Phobos have very circular orbits which lie almost exactly in Mars's equatorial plane, and hence a capture origin requires a mechanism for circularizing the initially highly eccentric orbit, and adjusting its inclination into the equatorial plane, most likely by a combination of atmospheric drag and tidal forces; it is not clear that sufficient time was available for this to have occurred for Deimos. As seen from Mars, Deimos would have an angular diameter of no more than 2.5 minutes (sixty minutes make one degree), one twelfth of the width of the Moon as seen from Earth, and would therefore appear almost star-like to the naked eye. At its brightest ("full moon") it would be about as bright as Venus is from Earth; at the first- or third-quarter phase it would be about as bright as Vega. With a small telescope, a Martian observer could see Deimos's phases, which take 1.2648 days (Deimos's synodic period) to run their course. Unlike Phobos, which orbits so fast that it rises in the west and sets in the east, Deimos rises in the east and sets in the west, slower than Mars's rotation speed. The Sun-synodic orbital period of Deimos of about 30.4 hours exceeds the Martian solar day ("sol") of about 24.7 hours by such a small amount that 2.48 days (2.41 sols) elapse between its rising and setting for an equatorial observer. From Deimos-rise to Deimos-rise (or setting to setting), 5.466 days (5.320 sols) elapse.[citation needed] Because Deimos's orbit is relatively close to Mars and has only a very small inclination to Mars's equator, it cannot be seen from Martian latitudes greater than 82.7°. Deimos's orbit is slowly getting larger, because it is far enough away from Mars and because of tidal acceleration. It is expected to eventually escape Mars's gravity. Deimos regularly passes in front of the Sun as seen from Mars. It is too small to cause a total eclipse, appearing only as a small black dot moving across the Sun. Its angular diameter is only about 2.5 times the angular diameter of Venus during a transit of Venus from Earth. On 4 March 2004 a transit of Deimos was photographed by Mars rover Opportunity, and on 13 March 2004 a transit was photographed by Mars rover Spirit.[citation needed] Exploration Overall, its exploration history is similar to those of Mars and of Phobos. Deimos has been photographed close-up by several spacecraft whose primary mission has been to photograph Mars, including in March 2023 during a rare close encounter by the Emirates Mars Mission. No landings on Deimos have been made. In 1997 and 1998, the proposed Aladdin mission was selected as a finalist in the NASA Discovery Program. The plan was to visit both Phobos and Deimos, and launch projectiles at the satellites. The probe would collect the ejecta as it performed a slow flyby (~1 km/s). These samples would be returned to Earth for study three years later. The principal investigator was Carle M. Pieters of Brown University. The total mission cost, including launch vehicle and operations was $247.7 million. Ultimately, the mission chosen to fly was MESSENGER, a probe to the planet Mercury. In 2008, NASA Glenn Research Center began studying a Phobos and Deimos sample-return mission that would use solar electric propulsion. The study gave rise to the "Hall" mission concept, a New Frontiers-class mission currently under further study. Also, the sample-return mission called Gulliver has been conceptualized and dedicated to Deimos, in which 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of material from Deimos would be returned to Earth. Another concept of sample-return mission from Phobos and Deimos is OSIRIS-REx 2, which would use heritage from the first OSIRIS-REx. In March 2014, a Discovery class mission was proposed to place an orbiter in Mars orbit by 2021 and study Phobos and Deimos. It was called Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment (PADME). Human exploration of Deimos could serve as a catalyst for the human exploration of Mars. Recently, it was proposed that the sands of Deimos or Phobos could serve as a valuable material for aerobraking in the colonization of Mars. See Phobos for more detail. ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission captured pictures of the far side on Deimos. The far side was rarely pictured because most mars missions orbit Mars closer than Deimos, so that they only see the Mars-facing side of the moon. But the highly elliptical orbit of MOM allowed it to capture the far side. In April 2023, astronomers released close-up global images, for the first time, of Deimos that were taken by the Mars Hope orbiter. Observations reported by this mission contravene the captured asteroid hypothesis and indicate basaltic planetary origin of Deimos. During its gravity assist from Mars en route to 65803 Didymos, the ESA's Hera took observations of Deimos in March 2025, approaching at a distance of 300 km (190 mi). The JAXA MMX Mission to Phobos and Deimos is planned for launch in October 2026. It will make flybys of Deimos to investigate its composition and structure, as well as performing a sample return on Phobos and placing a rover on its surface. See also Notes References External links Solar System → Local Interstellar Cloud → Local Bubble → Gould Belt → Orion Arm → Milky Way → Milky Way subgroup → Local Group → Local Sheet → Local Volume → Virgo Supercluster → Laniakea Supercluster → Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex → Local Hole → Observable universe → UniverseEach arrow (→) may be read as "within" or "part of". |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force] | [TOKENS: 2714] |
Contents Internet Engineering Task Force The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster or requirements and all its participants are volunteers. Their work is usually funded by employers or other sponsors. The IETF was initially supported by the federal government of the United States but since 1993 has operated under the auspices of the Internet Society, a non-profit organization with local chapters around the world. Organization There is no membership in the IETF. Anyone can participate by signing up to a working group mailing list, or registering for an IETF meeting. The process for developing IETF standards is open and all-inclusive. Anyone can participate by joining a working group and attending meetings. Each working group normally has appointed two co-chairs (occasionally three); a charter that describes its focus; and what it is expected to produce, and when. It is open to all who want to participate and holds discussions on an open mailing list. Working groups hold open sessions at IETF meetings, where the onsite registration fee in 2024 was between US$875 (early registration) and $1200 per person for the week. Significant discounts are available for students and remote participants. As working groups do not make decisions at IETF meetings, with all decisions taken later on the working group mailing list, meeting attendance is not required for contributors.[citation needed] Rough consensus is the primary basis for decision making. There are no formal voting procedures. Each working group is intended to complete work on its topic and then disband. In some cases, the working group will instead have its charter updated to take on new tasks as appropriate. The working groups are grouped into areas by subject matter. Each area is overseen by an area director (AD), with most areas having two ADs. The ADs are responsible for appointing working group chairs. The area directors, together with the IETF Chair, form the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), which is responsible for the overall operation of the IETF.[citation needed] The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) oversees the IETF's external relationships. The IAB provides long-range technical direction for Internet development. The IAB also manages the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), with which the IETF has a number of cross-group relations. A nominating committee (NomCom) of ten randomly chosen volunteers who participate regularly at meetings, a non-voting chair and 4-5 liaisons, is vested with the power to appoint, reappoint, and remove members of the IESG, IAB, IETF Trust and the IETF LLC. To date, no one has been removed by a NomCom, although several people have resigned their positions, requiring replacements. In 1993, the IETF changed from an activity supported by the US federal government to an independent, international activity associated with the Internet Society, a US-based 501(c)(3) organization. In 2018, the Internet Society created a subsidiary, the IETF Administration LLC, to be the corporate, legal and financial home for the IETF. IETF activities are funded by meeting fees, meeting sponsors and by the Internet Society via its organizational membership and the proceeds of the Public Interest Registry. In December 2005, the IETF Trust was established to manage the copyrighted materials produced by the IETF. The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) is a body composed of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) chair and area directors. It provides the final technical review of Internet standards and is responsible for day-to-day management of the IETF. It receives appeals of the decisions of the working groups, and the IESG makes the decision to progress documents in the standards track. The chair of the IESG is the area director of the general area, who also serves as the overall IETF chair. Members of the IESG include the two directors, sometimes three, of each of the following areas: Liaison and ex officio members include:[citation needed] Early leadership and administrative history The Gateway Algorithms and Data Structures (GADS) Task Force was the precursor to the IETF. Its chairman was David L. Mills of the University of Delaware. In January 1986, the Internet Activities Board (IAB; now called the Internet Architecture Board) decided to divide GADS into two entities: an Internet Architecture (INARC) Task Force chaired by Mills to pursue research goals, and the IETF to handle nearer-term engineering and technology transfer issues. The first IETF chair was Mike Corrigan, who was then the technical program manager for the Defense Data Network (DDN). Also in 1986, after leaving DARPA, Robert E. Kahn founded the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), which began providing administrative support to the IETF.[citation needed] In 1987, Corrigan was succeeded as IETF chair by Phill Gross. Effective March 1, 1989, but providing support dating back to late 1988, CNRI and NSF entered into a cooperative agreement, No. NCR-8820945, wherein CNRI agreed to create and provide a "secretariat" for the "overall coordination, management and support of the work of the IAB, its various task forces and, particularly, the IETF". In 1992, CNRI supported the formation and early funding of the Internet Society, which took on the IETF as a fiscally sponsored project, along with the IAB, the IRTF, and the organization of annual INET meetings. Gross continued to serve as IETF chair throughout this transition. Cerf, Kahn, and Lyman Chapin announced the formation of ISOC as "a professional society to facilitate, support, and promote the evolution and growth of the Internet as a global research communications infrastructure". At the first board meeting of the Internet Society, Cerf, representing CNRI, offered, "In the event a deficit occurs, CNRI has agreed to contribute up to USD$102,000 to offset it." In 1993, Cerf continued to support the formation of ISOC while working for CNRI, and the role of ISOC in "the official procedures for creating and documenting Internet Standards" was codified in the IETF's RFC 1602. In 1995, IETF's RFC 2031 describes ISOC's role in the IETF as being purely administrative, and ISOC as having "no influence whatsoever on the Internet Standards process, the Internet Standards or their technical content". In 1998, CNRI established Foretec Seminars, Inc. (Foretec), a for-profit subsidiary to take over providing secretariat services to the IETF. Foretec provided these services until at least 2004. By 2013, Foretec was dissolved. In 2003, IETF's RFC 3677 described IETFs role in appointing three board members to the ISOC's board of directors. In 2018, ISOC established The IETF Administration LLC, a separate LLC to handle the administration of the IETF. In 2019, the LLC issued a call for proposals to provide secretariat services to the IETF. Meetings The first IETF meeting was attended by 21 US federal government-funded researchers on 16 January 1986. It was a continuation of the work of the earlier GADS Task Force. Representatives from non-governmental entities (such as gateway vendors) were invited to attend starting with the fourth IETF meeting in October 1986. Since that time, all IETF meetings have been open to the public. Initially, the IETF met quarterly, but from 1991, it has been meeting three times a year. The initial meetings were very small, with fewer than 35 people in attendance at each of the first five meetings. The maximum attendance during the first 13 meetings was only 120 attendees. This occurred at the twelfth meeting, held during January 1989. These meetings have grown in both participation and scope a great deal since the early 1990s; it had a maximum attendance of 2810 at the December 2000 IETF held in San Diego, California. Attendance declined with industry restructuring during the early 2000s, and is currently around 1200. The locations for IETF meetings vary greatly. A list of past and future meeting locations is on the IETF meetings page. The IETF strives to hold its meetings near where most of the IETF volunteers are located. IETF meetings are held three times a year, with one meeting each in Asia, Europe and North America. An occasional exploratory meeting is held outside of those regions in place of one of the other regions.[promotion?] The IETF also organizes hackathons during the IETF meetings. The focus is on implementing code that will improve standards in terms of quality and interoperability. In an IETF context, BoF (birds of a feather) can refer to: The first use of this term among computer specialists is uncertain, but it was employed during DECUS conferences and may have been used at SHARE user group meetings in the 1960s. BoFs can facilitate networking and partnership formation among subgroups, including functionally oriented groups such as CEOs or geographically oriented groups. BoFs generally allow for more audience interaction than the panel discussions typically seen at conventions; the discussions are not completely unguided, though, as there is still a discussion leader. The term is derived from the proverb "birds of a feather flock together". The (idiomatic) phrase "birds of a feather" meaning "people having similar characters, backgrounds, interests, or beliefs". In old poetic English, "birds of a feather" means birds that have the same kind of feathers, so the proverb refers to the fact that birds congregate with birds of their own species. Operations The details of IETF operations have changed considerably as the organization has grown, but the basic mechanism remains publication of proposed specifications, development based on the proposals, review and independent testing by participants, and republication as a revised proposal, a draft proposal, or eventually as an Internet Standard. IETF standards are developed in an open, all-inclusive process in which any interested individual can participate. All IETF documents are freely available over the Internet and can be reproduced at will. Multiple, working, useful, interoperable implementations are the chief requirement before an IETF proposed specification can become a standard. Most specifications are focused on single protocols rather than tightly interlocked systems. This has allowed the protocols to be used in many different systems, and its standards are routinely reused by bodies which create full-fledged architectures (e.g. 3GPP IMS).[citation needed] Because it relies on volunteers and uses "rough consensus and running code" as its touchstone, results can be slow whenever the number of volunteers is either too small to make progress or so large as to make consensus difficult, or when volunteers lack the necessary expertise. For protocols like SMTP, which is used to transport e-mail for a user community in the many hundreds of millions, there is also considerable resistance to any change that is not fully backward compatible, except for IPv6. Work within the IETF on ways to improve the speed of the standards-making process is ongoing but, because the number of volunteers with opinions on it is very great, consensus on improvements has been slow to develop.[citation needed] The IETF cooperates with the W3C, ISO/IEC, ITU, and other standards bodies. Statistics are available that show who the top contributors by RFC publication are. While the IETF only allows for participation by individuals, and not by corporations or governments, sponsorship information is available from these statistics.[citation needed] In 2025, criticism intensified within the IETF that intelligence agencies were exerting undue influence, sparking concerns on a lack of transparency in the decision-making process. Chairs The IETF chairperson is selected by the NomCom process for a two-year renewable term. Before 1993, the IETF Chair was selected by the IAB. A list of the past and current chairs of the IETF: Topics of interest The IETF works on a broad range of networking technologies that provide the foundation for the Internet's growth and evolution. It aims to improve the efficiency in management of networks as they grow in size and complexity. The IETF is also standardizing protocols for autonomic networking that enable networks to be self managing. It is a network of physical objects or things that are embedded with electronics, sensors, software and also enables objects to exchange data with operator, manufacturer and other connected devices. Several IETF working groups are developing protocols that are directly relevant to IoT. Its development provides the ability of internet applications to send data over the Internet. There are some well-established transport protocols such as TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol), which are continuously getting extended and refined to meet the needs of the global Internet. The IETF defines a "Generic Security Services Application Programming Interface" (GSSAPI) which provides security services to callers in a generic fashion. Among these are various implementations. Java provides these features in its standard library package org.ietf.jgss.*. See also References External links |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/480i] | [TOKENS: 961] |
Contents 480i 480i is the video mode used for standard-definition digital video in most of the Americas (with the exception of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay), Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Myanmar. The other common standard definition digital standard, used in the rest of the world, is 576i. It originated from the need for a standard to digitize analog 525 line TV (defined in BT.601) and is now used for digital TV broadcasts and home appliances such as game consoles and DVD disc players. The 480 identifies a vertical resolution of 480 lines, and the i identifies it as an interlaced resolution. The field rate, which is 60 Hz (or 59.94 Hz when used with NTSC color), is sometimes included when identifying the video mode, i.e. 480i60; another notation, endorsed by both the International Telecommunication Union in BT.601 and SMPTE in SMPTE 259M, includes the frame rate, as in 480i/30. Although related, it should not be confused with the analog "525 lines" resolution, mandated by CCIR Systems M and J and usually paired with NTSC color. This association explains why 480i is sometimes inaccurately called "NTSC", even though NTSC only exists in the analog domain. Technical details For analog NTSC, there are a total of 525 scanning lines per frame of which originally 483 lines were visible (241.5 visible lines per field + 21 lines of vertical blanking per field = 483 + 42 = 525 lines per frame) and later 480 (240 complete lines per field). [For quad video recording systems, the math suggests 15 transverse head passes, each consisting of 16 lines of video, are required to complete one field.] A full frame consists of two fields. One field contains the odd-numbered lines and the other contains the even ones. By convention an NTSC video frame is considered to start with an even field followed by an odd field. The disparity of the line numbering compared to other systems is solved by defining the line numbering to start five equalizing pulses (or 2 and a half lines) earlier than on all other systems, including Systems A (405-line) and E (819-line) even though they had no equalizing pulses, on the first equalizing pulse following an active line or half line. This has the effect of placing a half line of video at the end of the even (first) field and the beginning of the odd (second field). Thus the line numbers correspond to the real lines of the video frame. On all other systems, the field was considered to start with the falling edge of the first field pulse which gave the confusing position that the odd field (first) had a half a line of video occupying the latter half of a whole line and ended with a whole line of video but half a scanning line (and vice versa for the even field). The NTSC convention solved this confusion. For DV-NTSC only 480 lines are used. The digitally transmitted horizontal resolution is usually 720 samples (which includes 16 samples for the horizontal sync and horizontal blanking) or 704 visible pixels with an aspect ratio of 4:3 (with vertically rectangular pixels) and therefore a display resolution of 640 × 480 (VGA); that is standard-definition television (SDTV) with a 4:3 aspect ratio (with square pixels). The field rate (not the frame rate) is usually (60/1.001) = 59.94 hertz for color TV and is often incorrectly rounded up to 60 Hz. There are several conventions for written shorthands for the combination of resolution and rate: 480i60, 480i/30 (EBU/SMPTE always use frame rate to specify interlaced formats) and 480/60i. 480i is usually used in countries that conventionally use NTSC (most of the Americas and Japan), because the 525 transmitted lines at 60 hertz of analogue NTSC contain 480 visible ones. In each case of the use of the ‘60’ terminology, it is merely shorthand for 59.94, to differentiate it from 30 (29.97) or 24 (23.976). Color information is stored using the YCbCr color space (different from NTSC that used YIQ) with 4:2:2 sampling (also different from NTSC) and following Rec. 601 colorimetry. 480i can be transported by all major digital television formats (ATSC, DVB and ISDB) and on DVD. See also References |
======================================== |
[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protostome] | [TOKENS: 709] |
Contents Protostome Protostomia (/ˌproʊtəˈstoʊmi.ə/) is the clade of animals once thought to be characterized by the formation of the organism's mouth before its anus during embryonic development. This nature has since been discovered to be extremely variable among Protostomia's members, although the reverse is typically true of its sister clade, Deuterostomia. Well-known examples of protostomes are arthropods, molluscs, annelids, flatworms and nematodes. They are also called schizocoelomates since schizocoely typically occurs in them. Together with the Deuterostomia and Xenacoelomorpha, these form the clade Bilateria, animals with bilateral symmetry, anteroposterior axis and three germ layers. Protostomy In animals at least as complex as earthworms, the first phase in gut development involves the embryo forming a dent on one side (the blastopore) which deepens to become its digestive tube (the archenteron). In the sister-clade, the deuterostomes (lit. 'second-mouth'), the original dent becomes the anus while the gut eventually tunnels through to make another opening, which forms the mouth. The protostomes (from Greek πρωτο- prōto- 'first' + στόμα stóma 'mouth') were so named because it was once believed that in all cases the embryological dent formed the mouth while the anus was formed later, at the opening made by the other end of the gut. It is now known that the fate of the blastopore among protostomes is extremely variable; while the evolutionary distinction between deuterostomes and protostomes remains valid, the descriptive accuracy of the name protostome is disputable. Protostome and deuterostome embryos differ in several other ways. Secondary body cavities (coeloms) generally form by schizocoely, where the coelom forms out of a solid mass of embryonic tissue splitting away from the rest, instead of by enterocoelic pouching, where the coelom would otherwise form out of in-folded gut walls. Evolution The common ancestor of protostomes and deuterostomes was evidently a worm-like aquatic animal of the Ediacaran. The two clades diverged over 600 million years ago. Protostomes evolved into over a million species alive today, compared to ca. 73,000 deuterostome species. Protostomes are divided into the Ecdysozoa (e.g. arthropods, nematodes) and the Spiralia (e.g. molluscs, annelids, platyhelminths, and rotifers). A modern consensus phylogenetic tree for the protostomes is shown below.[excessive citations] The timing of clades radiating into newer clades is given in mya (millions of years ago); less certain placements are indicated with dashed lines. Xenacoelomorpha Ambulacraria Chordata Priapulida Kinorhyncha Nematoda Nematomorpha Loricifera Onychophora Tardigrada Arthropoda Rotifera and allies Chaetognatha Platyhelminthes and allies Mollusca Annelida and allies †Kimberella See also References External links |
======================================== |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.